Today' Hotness: Eros And The Eschaton, Ghost Orchard, Landing

>> Inspired dream-pop concern Eros And The Eschaton's second LP, due later this summer, is heralded by the surprisingly brash and altogether thrilling preview rocker "Rxx." After a bright, uptempo introduction, the song deftly shifts into a spiky, punky verse featuring an arresting vocal by co-founder Kate Perdoni, whose delivery ranges from delightfully bratty to pensive as she mythologizes a restless life on the road and the band's conception (at the climax she erupts "I started this band from a traffic jam when I was trying to find my way back to Canada!"). Formerly based in North Carolina but now operating out of Colorado Springs, Colo., Ms. Perdoni and partner Adam Hawkins now count among their number drummer Alex Koshak, bassist Ryan Spradlin and keyboard player Mitch Macura. The quintet's forthcoming album Weight Of Matter is said to be strongly influenced by Neil Young & Crazy Horse, but if "Rxx" takes a cue from Mr. Young's wide-ranging career, it would have to be Young's weird, new wave and experimental pop phase (he was a proponent of and sometime collaborator with DEVO, our older readers might recall). Even that feels a stretch, though, and it really makes no difference, as "Rxx" is so potent a single that it needs no RIYLs to prop it up. While the subdued dream-pop of songs like "You Know I Do" and "Don't Look So Sad" from Eros And The Eschaton's early day feels remote here, the big dynamic drumming, anthemic synth lines, spindly guitars and rich feedback in "Rxx" make for a very potent sound that presents exciting opportunities for the band. Bar/None releases Weight Of Matter Aug. 19 on vinyl and CD and pre-orders are being taken for the set right here. The band celebrates the record with two shows at the end of August in Colorado Springs and Denver and also performs in Denver this Saturday; all dates available at press time are listed below. Stream "Rxx" via the Soundcloud embed below. In related news, Weehawken, NJ-based Bar/None this past March celebrated its 30th anniversary, a very notable achievement indeed, and there are retrospective blog posts and a link to a label comp that are definitely worth checking out right here.

06.25 -- Denver, CO -- Westword Music Festival
07.30 -- Denver, CO -- Underground Music Fest
08.05 -- Colorado Springs, CO -- Fine Arts Center
08.26 -- Colorado Springs, CO -- Flux Capacitor (Record Release Show)
08.27 -- Denver, CO -- Larimer Lounge (Record Release Show)



>> Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Ghost Orchard's latest set, Bliss, is a veiled and smothered bedroom dream-pop wonder that has already soundtracked many a late night to devastating and lonely effect. Led by Sam Hall, the project enlarges the scope of similarly bleary solo work of artists like Astrobrite, Atlas Sound and the recently reviewed Flout for an adventure in woozy, driving sound design, not to mention yearning and youthful lo-fi contemplation. Short and sweet songs like "Seperate" and "Sorry" pair distant percussion to textured and tasteful guitar chords for a contemporary take on the "hypnagogic pop" genre which came to the fore with rise of Ariel Pink and other deconstructed songsmiths. Mr. Hall's mid-range vocals serve as another yawning instrument more than a direct lead, but his pleasant tones nonetheless complement the auditory universe he contrives. Loveless-styled instrumental segues bookend "I Saw You Floating," "Sleepover" and "Wisher," and these run into other pieces, adding to the intimate, toy-instrument song-cycle vibe conjured here effectively. While this style of music has been tackled by many, Hall's inoffensive and rounded mid-heavy production and original instrumentation prestidigitate a boyish wonder that circulates through much of Bliss' 13 songs, making the collection an ideal choice for lazy, searching summer evenings. Take this moment to act decisively, however, as Orchid Tapes' recent second pressing of 100 cassettes is likely to disappear as quickly as this piece can be read. Do it: grab Bliss now on tape or as a digital download right here, lest you have to wait for round three. -- Edward Charlton



>> While the name of Connecticut-based drone-rock four Landing has registered on this reviewer's radar in years past -- perhaps due to its prior association with labels as esteemed as K and Geographic North -- its music had eluded our ears until the recent lead-up to its latest album, Third Sight. That collection hit racks earlier this month on CD and green vinyl LP via El Paraiso Records, but indeed the band's legacy stretches back almost two full decades to 1998. Third Sight is a four-song platter of head music characterized by a psychedelic and ambient narcotic lull, one akin to those conjured by legendary hitmakers Spacemen 3, Stars of the Lid and The Warlocks. Landing achieves this through the use of pristine and full production, as well as a distinct, major-key howl. The collection, recorded as part of El Paraiso's Impetus series, aims for the tranquil yet hallucinogenic side of Landing's sound with protracted, ruminative songs and serious pedal work. The lead preview track "Delusion Sound/Third Site" (split into two tunes on Spotify) presents soft, delayed vocals that intertwine within a drift of synthesizer patches and slow-burning feedback. "Facing South" highlights spewing, long-timed drone pedals and bongo-esque percussion to establish a meditative, instrumental trance, while closer "Morning Sun" aims for middle ground between the two, before female vocals pour a little bit of light into the composition. Much of Third Sight comes across as tempered experimentation and improvisational, but the focus with which Landing tackles its craft makes for a compelling album that, we'll speculate, likely sounds massive on vinyl, the manner of consumption this music seems clearly intended for. Order Third Sight here or check out Landing’s impressive and substantial body of work at their Bandcamp page. -- Edward Charlton

Clicky Clicky Music's Top Songs of 2015: Jay Edition

2015 was surely an incredible year for music, with each week delivering exciting new sounds from all corners. Clicky Clicky devoted most of its electronic column inches to acts hailing from the U.S. (and particularly our hometown of Boston) and the U.K., but also featured acts from Australia, France and Portugal, and probably other places we're forgetting. This year, favorite songs were a little more difficult to select than over the past decade that we've been doing this, in part because of the vast amount of great things to choose from (how is there not a Beach Slang or Stove song on this list? Shit is competitive, yo...), and also because we spent a lot of time seeking out records that don't necessarily reveal themselves all at once, records that establish and maintain their own peculiar universe of meaning. Even so, it is most often the case that our favorites immediately rise to the top, and that's true of more than half of the songs below. Some of our favorite records were sleepers, and some songs they contained were more insidious in their efforts to dominate our consciousness and subconscious.

So while the Infinity Girl track below was immediately addicting and we've listened to it scores of times, the Colleen track and others like it snuck up on us, suddenly and surprisingly dropping into our brain out of our mouth during a quiet dog walk or long commutes in the car. No matter how they got there, all 10 songs listed below are a part of us now, and we'll always associate them with 2015. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Keep an eye open for our year-end albums list, which will be along sometime in the run-up to Christmas, but in the meantime we invite you to rock out to Clicky Clicky Music Blog's Top Songs of 2015: Jay Edition, either a la carte via the individual embeds below, or via this both handy and dandy Sporkify playlist (which sadly but necessarily omits the cracking Hard Left track, which is presently unavailable via the service). We salute the bands below, and we thank you, dear reader, for passing the year with us. There's a lot coming up from Clicky Clicky in 2016, so remain vigilant.

1. Infinity Girl -- "Dirty Sun" -- Harm [buy]

"Dirty Sun" emerges from noise and feedback and then swells into shape on the back of Mitch Stewart's driving bass melody, which is truly the secret sauce of this, Infinity Girl's most potent pop moment since the towering "Please Forget" that featured on the band's 2012 debut Stop Being On My Side. "Dirty Sun" is even more vibrant, its crackling pace providing an irresistible pull that never betrays the listener. The Brooklyn foursome's characteristically colossal guitars and fronter Nolan Eley's cool vocal acquit themselves wonderfully, and it is the latter that supplies the strongest, if most understated, hook. Mr. Eley's narrative of a love going off the rails effectively captures the teetering feeling where romance goes from intoxicating to irreparable. That the band can make it all sound so arresting is a testament to the pop smarts that help make Infinity Girl one of today's most exciting indie acts.

"...you said you were OK, but I don't buy it, you used to get excited..."



2. Funeral Advantage -- "Gardensong" -- Body Is Dead [buy]

It's soothing and fantastic, and appointed with glistening guitars. It's dense but light, basks in airy reverbs and touts curiously affecting robot-voiced verses. It's "Gardensong," and it stands out like a crown jewel even on one of the year's standout records, the Boston dream-pop heroes' debut long-player. Fronter Tyler Kershaw's vocals are heavily veiled within the song's dreamy, trance-like state, but enough of them bob above the steady waves of crystalline, delayed guitars and the surprisingly crispy beat to indicate affairs of the heart are at issue. A glance at the lyrics reveals lovers at an impasse, a place where the thing that they both want is not the right thing. The still sweetness of that resignation is nearly as fetching as the song's melody, which is gently arrayed along layered guitars and bass whose sounds seem to stretch to a sunny horizon, despite Mr. Kershaw's downcast lyrics.

"...so if you’re not there then I'm not there / so just close your eyes..."



3. Dogs On Acid -- "Let The Bombs Fall Off" -- Dogs On Acid [buy]

Love can bring you down, but "Let The Bombs Off" feels like a celebration, despite the desperate times conveyed in its lyrics. Perhaps we can attribute that to the singular imaginary Philadelphia that exists in our head and heart; collectively, the city's indie rockers seem to have historically colored their lovelorn sentiments with a certain determination to live on -- it's just part and parcel of the city's DNA. Indeed, on "Let The Bombs Fall Off" Dogs On Acid fronter Peter Helmis (ex-Algernon Cadwalader) sings of wishing he was a widow ("'cause then I'd know that you're not coming back") and crashing his dream car ("just to see you shake"), but with a delivery that is more determined that dour. The song's chugging rhythm, deliciously chunky bass and bright guitar work don't take a backseat to the vocals, however. The splashes of bending guitar in the chorus recall the heyday of the absolutely brilliant Meneguar, but truly every second of the tune is paved gutter-to-gutter with hooks.

"...blowing up my whole vicinity / I'm learning to stop worrying..."



4. Fog Lake -- "Dog Years" -- Victoria Park [buy]

This song is absolutely devastating, and in our estimation is the most devastating song of 2015. "Dog Years" is a bottomlessly poignant chamber-pop ballad from Canadian outfit Fog Lake; its whispered vocals carry a patina of menace limned by droning strings that unspool across a bed of watery piano chords. The narrator sings from a place of desolation, but the song's understated but haunting melody hints at the possibility of salvation, especially as a curtain of angelic keys swallows the song. Whether or not deliverance is ever achieved is as much as mystery as how it could have been achieved, but the understated melodrama of "Dog Years" is nonetheless perfect, and makes for a terrifically affecting piece of work.

"...haven't you heard / I know everything / I've heard angels calling me..."



5. Swings -- "Tiles" -- Sugarwater [buy]

At its best the curious music of Swings presents terrifically appealing shards of forgotten dreams, and "Tiles" is certainly the D.C. trio at its best. The song feels extracted from fleeting waking moments, when your subconscious rapidly falls away just as it reveals some deeper truth with its fading mirror. At least, that's as good an explanation as any for what is going on here, as fronter Jamie Finucane's elastic vocals are notoriously unparsible, much in the way Elizabeth Fraser's were in the front end of the Cocteau Twins catalogue. The skeletal pulse of "Tiles"'s arrangement and its cycling, ascending, straightforward melody erected from bass and guitar quarter notes set a sturdy table for Mr. Finucane's lyrics, which almost wink as they don apparent (if not actual) vocoder, change shape as vampire does to bat, and flitter off into a mysterious firmament that is distinctly the band's own.

"...one hundred percentaaaaaa WHAT THE FUCK IS HE SINGING I DON'T EVEN KNOW..."



6. Hard Left -- "Kicking It Off" -- We Are Hard Left [buy]

As social challenges have mounted during this century, it has been persistently disappointing that indie rock has not responded in kind with calls to arms, with ideas, with possible leadership toward meaningful joint solutions. You might be asking, well, why should they? To which Clicky Clicky says, why shouldn't they? Instead, macro political issues were largely ignored -- and we are not the better for it. It's an idea we discussed with comrades Mike and Tim from Hard Left here last spring, around the time of the release of the Oakland-based quartet's cracking full-length debut. Album highlight "Kicking It Off" is both exhortation and affirmation, a vow to act, and we're hopeful that it can be a model to the wider independent music community, that eventually the song will be perceived as the tip of the spear. Hard Left here delivers an uplifting, energizing banger descended straight from the day of Joe Strummer and The Clash, big fuzzy guitars, vocals that testify, beats that bang. Heed the call. Start today.

"...making do with what we didn't choose..."



7. All Dogs -- "Flowers" -- Kicking Every Day [buy]

There is magic in big guitars and steady harmonies and yearning sentiments: it's an age-old recipe, to be sure, but one that still can yield spine-tingling results when applied by skilled songwriters and performers. Columbus, Ohio four All Dogs certainly capture the lightning in the bottle here with "Flowers," although it is difficult to pick just one track from the band's terrific long-playing debut Kicking Every Day. Here the band seems to strongly channel classic Superchunk, but it is fronter Maryn Jones' charming, poignant vocal that is impossible to ignore. At fewer than 140 seconds in length, this song perhaps more than any other on our list likely keeps fans' fingers poised just above the play button and ready for another go, as 5, 10 and 20 listens just isn't enough. Gold.

"...our bodies are longing for things you don't know..."



8. Colleen -- "This Hammer Breaks" -- Captain Of None [buy]

Hand percussion like heavy steady rain (perhaps struck off her favored instrument, the viola de gamba), and quietly chanted vocals that layer and diffract, render Colleen's "This Hammer Breaks" eery and enchanting, much like the rest of her excellent 2015 set Captain Of None. The record explored mastermind Cécile Schott's love of dub reggae music, which is reflected her in the delays and reverbs that push and pull on the percussion and vocals here. The second half of the composition dives deeply into a polyrhythm and cleverly leverages production elements to render something mysterious and maximal from relatively minimal instrumentation. Squeaky, spacey tones overtake the songs and pulse through the final minute of "This Hammer Breaks," and it seems as if the entire composition is sucked down a drain at its close, adding to and not detracting from a truly mesmerizing listen.

"...you never know what's in the heart..."



9. Krill -- "Phantom" -- A Distant Fist Unclenching [buy]

It turns out Krill in one very real sense is not forever. And we had a hard time choosing just which tune from its 2015 swan song represented the whole of the band for Clicky Clicky. A strong argument could be made that "It Ends" hosts a multiplicity of meanings that make it a strong proxy for the set. But Krill has always been about the investigation, and so ultimately we chose the song that opens, rather than closes, A Distant Fist Unclenching as one of our favorite songs of the year. The song's rocking middle third, with bashing percussion and fronter Jonah Furman's exercised vocal, is especially engaging, but it is the song's understated coda -- and Mr. Furman's incisive questions that plumb the parameters of one's internal and external lives -- that is startlingly thrilling in its bare truth.

"...what is the proper orientation of the world to me? and does it have to be to me..."



10. Spectres -- "Blood In The Cups" -- Dying [buy]

Albums this purposefully dark can feel campy, but there is no wink and nod to be found on Spectres' stunning full-length Dying (winks and nods seem reserved for the band's videos and social media posts, which are regularly deliciously funny and irreverent). While still boasting the Bristol, England-based foursome's characteristic, Sonic Youth-indebted aural assault, "Blood In The Cups" is among the set's most melodic compositions, and its balance of beauty and firepower is terrifically compelling. Spectres' greatest skill is conjuring visceral moodscapes with its music, and "Blood In The Cups" exemplifies this, stretching anxiously but languorously across almost eight minutes with a psych-blues derived sound that recalls LA's The Warlocks. With its pulsing bass, spectral vocals, and maelstroms of guitar, "Blood In The Cups" presents a perfect storm, while highlighting Spectres' terrific vision and control.

"...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."

Review: Fleeting Joys | Occult Radiance [MP3]

We've been talking about it for more than a year, but the sophomore record from Fleeting Joys is finally here. The elephant in the room when discussing the superlative Northern California-based shoegaze duo is the similarity between its music and the most well-known and inflential portion of My Bloody Valentine's body of work. It bears mentioning and is a useful shorthand, but we expect Fleeting Joys' John Loring and Rorika grow weary of the obvious comparison (they list MBV first among their influences at MySpace) even as they are gratified by it. The aural similarity has led to some pretty silly behavior by seemingly well-intentioned fans. Those who take the time to scrutinize will find Fleeting Joys are more forthcoming with a melodic hook than Kevin Shields' legendary quartet, and while Fleeting Joys don't rush albums out, the duo has released two in the last few years, which is two more than Mr. Shields has released in about two decades. If you are a fan of painstakingly architected and beautifully realized guitar music that bends, pounds and pulses, Fleeting Joys have a lot to offer, particurly on this latest collection.

And of course, listeners who refuse to accept the easy comparison will find there's quite a few bands to which one can point. It's hard to say in which direction the influences may flow, but the crushing opener "The Angels Cannot See You Now" recalls fellow California-based psych-rockers The Warlocks. "Into Sun + Dark" hints at the beginning of Crooked Fingers' cover of Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure," but instead of shifting into a traditional rock/pop form "Into Sun + Dark" persists in glimmering, sparkling, drifting in on itself and burrowing under layers and layers of processed guitars. "Dearly Sedated" modulates the main riff of The Swirlies' "Park The Car By The Side of The Road" and adds menacing intensity with pounding, black sheets of sound.

We haven't heard anything about a single being released, but Fleeting Joys has a perfect a-side/b-side pairing in tracks two and three on the new set, the uptempo, pop-leaning strummer "You Are The Darkness" and "Cloudlike Mercury." Both are album highlights, particularly the former. Fleeting Joys released Occult Radiance domestically through its own Only Forever Recordings Aug. 27. Occult Radiance was released in Japan in January on Thomason Sounds with a different track listing and mix. The U.S. release has two additional songs, the aforementioned "The Angels Cannot See You Now" and "Dearly Sedated." The Japanese release is still something of a collector's item, however, as it contains "Closer To My World Without Pain," which is not on the domestic issue. Fleeting Joys debut Despondent Transponder was issued in 2006 and is now out of print. There's no proper freebie promo MP3 from Occult Radiance, but the band has graciously offered up the outtake "Golden Now." Check it out.

Fleeting Joys -- "Golden Now" -- Occult Radiance outtake
[right click and save as]
[buy Occult Radiance from the band here]

Fleeting Joys: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

The Warlocks: Through The Looking Glass The Hard Way

We didn't know anything about The Warlocks -- except wasn't that name the original name for the Grateful Dead? -- until hearing the L.A.-based quintet's absolutely sublime tune "Dreamless Days" on WMBR a couple years back. Since then -- and since buying Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, from which "Dreamless Days" was taken -- our affinity for the band has grown steadily. The Mirror Explodes, The Warlocks' sixth record, is available in the UK today and will be released in the U.S. on Tee Pee Records tomorrow. The opening track "Red Camera" begins like a dangerously overdriven version of the title track to Mazzy Star's So Tonight That I Might See, but then floats into dark electric curtains of white noise and feedback. The record is not uniformly weighty: the ballad "There Is a Formula To Your Despair" is distinctly more gentle, although perhaps only a little less narcotic. The Warlocks launch a two-week UK tour July 14, after hitting Paris July 10; U.S. dates have not been revealed. Download "Red Camera" below.

The Warlocks -- "Red Camera" -- The Mirror Explodes
[right click and save as]
[video]
[buy Warlocks records from Newbury Comics right here]

I Only Talk About You: Muxtape Numero Cuatro

We're a little late with the weekly Muxtape, but we hope you'll agree the extra time resulted in an incremental increase in quality. We've unearthed rarities, elevated the under-known or under-appreciated, and celebrated the obviously worthy. Click this link to listen in, and read below for the play-by-play.

1. Mclusky -- She Will Only Bring You Happiness -- Mcluskyism
(at first it is a bit hard to believe that this is from the same band that brought us the undeniable and apocalyptic screamer "Light Saber C*ck Sucking Blues." But the band reveals its true colors with a snicker at the end of this relatively breezy pop gem when it confesses its old singer is a sex criminal. Everybody always asks us whose track this is whenever it comes on. It's that good.)

2. Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A B A Start -- Janet Bateman -- Girls Names EP
(not the track we intended to upload -- all those girls' names get mixed up in our head. That said, every track is a winner on this Jersey band's EP, and on most of their EPs and records for that matter.)

3. Superchunk -- Unbelievable Things -- Indoor Living
(Is it a coda? Whatever it is, when Mac gets to the part where he sings "I'm starting to believe," it is transformative. We're still not sure when exactly indoor living was all the rage, but we expect it is popular with different people at different times. No Superchunk album as a whole thrills us the way On The Mouth did, but Indoor Living certainly has its share of high points, although we have to confess weathering some dissatisfaction as the pop tendencies began to creep into Mac's music around this time.)

4. Seaweed -- Bill (Live) -- Internation Pop Underground comp
(this song immediately inspired in us a desire to like Seaweed a lot. But besides this track and the cover of Beat Happening's "Foggy Eyes" on the Fortune Cookie Prize comp, we've never been able to get on board with the band. But the fact that the band has recorded what we consider to be two monumental tracks is no small feat.)

5. The Replacements -- Left Of The Dial (Live) -- More Sh*t For The Fans
(a very nice recording and performance of one of the most important rock songs ever. We hate when people cordon off the so-called "post-punk era" when making such claims. This song doesn't need to be handicapped, it doesn't need you to lace your fingers and give it a boost: it's Beatles good, it's Stones good, it's Zep good, it's Pistols good...)

6. The Joey Sweeney -- Pull The Lever Down -- Girl's High
(oh how we wish this record was released. We finally got nice digital files a couple years ago so we could rock out like it was 1995 every day. Mr. Sweeney had many great performers at his side over the years and a number of notable lineups, but he never rocked before or after like he did when he had a Radnor High School-bred rhythm section.)

7. Vehicle Flips -- Steelers' Fight Song -- In Action
(this song is heavily associated with autumn for us, but it is so good we can't ignore it the other nine months of the year. Perhaps the cold, wet weather this weekend has brought it prematurely to the fore of our mind. In Action is out of print and we had to beg the wider BCO population for a copy several years ago and thankfully someone obliged us. Sturdy indie pop, a bit more grown up than twee. Incidentally, we like to believe there is some nexus between the Vehicle Flips track "Potomac" and Eggs' "Evanston, Ill.")

8. Varsity Drag -- Summertime -- For Crying Out Loud
(we've covered Ben and Lisa Deily's Varsity Drag in recent months, and this song is strong evidence why. The funniest comment about the Drag's 2006 set For Crying Out Loud is "Wow, you can really tell the record was recorded in a...er...metal shipping container." Even the blunt recording can't dull the hooks in this tune, and as the weather warms up, we can't help but sing along even when it isn't on.)

9. Superman Revenge Squad -- Angriest Dog In The World -- God Is In The TV digital single
(unbridled emotion. Remarkably, this song about the angriest dog is among the saddest of the many sad songs written by England's Ben Parker, whose work is regularly stunning and whose musical accomplishments should certainly be more widely celebrated).

10. Hypo -- Nice Day
(this very pleasant electronic track came off a compilation whose title and derivation has long since escaped us. But Google reminds us Hypo, which we think was Japanese or at least included a Japanese singer, recorded for the small Parisian label Active Suspension, which also has released recordings by Domotic. Google also reveals to us that the Active Suspension web site now features a delightful animated Bigfoot. Check it out.)

11. The Warlocks -- Dreamless Days -- Heavy Deavy Skull Lover
(we wish this song was an hour long. So sleepy and reverby and yet riveting.)

12. Shannon Worrell -- Deep Sea Swimmer -- The Moviegoer outtake
(we've never understood what Shannon Worrell is talking about here, but the track itself seems like a lullabye. This track didn't make it on her 2000 release The Moviegoer, and we wouldn't have even known about it if it hadn't been for Mr. Mystical Beast having encountered some CDs out for the trash one day in Brooklyn and deciding to pick them up. Time was we were whiling away our early 20s in Virginia and Ms. Worrell was our boss' wife. Certain folks may recall she formerly was the songwriting and guitar-playing half of the duo September 67. We just learned that she is finally recording a new record; we'll have more about that later in the week.)