Playlist: Great Scott, Boston, Jan. 27 | Giveaway

Tuesday night was the big Stranded In Stereo event over at Great Scott in Boston, at which yours truly feigned being a club DJ (we prefer the term selector, since we don't beat match or possess a shiny shirt with zippers all over it). Below we recount for those of you not in attendance what exactly was blasted in your general direction via the sound system. But before we get to that we'd like to try to express how awesome we thought This Car Up was that night. We're relatively new to the Boston-based quintet, who are quirky, entertaining and write the most anthemic indie rock we've heard coming out of this city in years. We loved how the one singer and guitarist -- who lost his eyeglasses and guitar strap within moments of the set opening -- undulates kind of like, well, crap, we can't show you because NBC Universal is suing YouTube, or something. We wanted to point to that awesome video of DEVO playing "Satisfaction" on "Saturday Night Live." You know, the one where they're playing under a strobe light. If you don't know it, it is bonkers.

Anyway, the one guy wriggled like he was in DEVO and was dressed like Fonzie in that one episode where The Fonz pretends to be a nerd that collects snails, and then the other singer looked like that dude from Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start. And the bass player and keyboard player made with the funny stage banter. But mostly it was the songs. They played "Tarzan vs. Graham Chapman," they played "Shiny Objects" and they played "Dislocate," and it was huge. All of those tracks are from This Car Up's debut full-length Smile When You're Alone, which was released early last year and which very likely would have made our Best Of 2008 list had we known about it. The band plays in Worcester Feb. 20 and then it is back in Boston at O'Brien's on Sun. Feb. 22 for an early show which we very much want to see. Below is what we played at the Great Scott Tuesday. We prepared three mix CDs to make trebly certain that we'd have enough material to play, and we didn't even get to the end of the first disc. But that means we have three mix CDs that we have no need for, so the first person to email us (address in the sidebar at right) with the words "MIX ME" in the subject line will receive the discs in the mail. Good luck.

Playlist:

1. Weezer -- "Tired Of Sex" -- Pinkerton
2. Johnny Foreigner -- "The Houseparty Scene Is Killing You" -- B-side
3. Telekinesis -- "Coast Of Carolina" -- Telekinesis! [right click/save as]
4. The Small Screen Light Show -- "I'm Too In Love" -- Demo
5. The Hush Now -- "Sadie Hawkins Dance" -- The Hush Now [right click/save as]
6. The Pernice Brothers -- "One Foot In The Grave" -- Yours, Mine And Ours
7. Hot Club De Paris -- "I Wasn't Being Heartless When I Said Your Favorite Song Lacked Heart" -- Live At Dead Lake
8. Crooked Fingers -- "Your Control" -- Forfeit/Fortune

[Spectator performs]

9. Frightened Rabbit -- "Go-Go Girls" -- Sing The Greys
10. Vampire Weekend -- "Campus" -- Vampire Weekend
11. The Manhattan Love Suicides -- "Burning Wire" -- Burn Out Landscapes
12. Varsity Drag -- "Summertime" -- For Crying Out Loud
13. Lemonheads -- "The Year Of The Cat" -- Lovey
14. Eddyfink -- "Will I Get Through Today Without Being Kicked In The Knickers?" -- AQA 63336 Greatest Questions [right click/save as]
15. Johnny Foreigner -- "Rhapsidy/This Trapeze Ball Thought Out" -- Demo

[This Car Up performs]

16. Dinosaur Pile-Up -- "Let's Get Up" -- Demo
17. Dirty On Purpose -- "Audience In The Room" -- Like Bees EP
18. Ringo Deathstarr -- "Sweet Girl" -- Ringo Deathstarr EP [right click/save as]
19. Charlene -- "Ripoff" -- Charlene [right click/save as -- this is the radio edit, we played the longy]

[Black Diamond Bay performs]

Review: Exploration Team | We Are Birds, We Are Trees [MP3]

Not long after embarking on our investigation of A Weather scene-mates Point Juncture, WA, we received an email from a bona fide A Weather side project, Exploration Team. The Portland, Ore.-based quintet is led by A Weather guitarist Aaron Krenkel (not to be confused with fronter Aaron Gerber -- apparently every third indie rocker in Portland is named Aaron). Mr. Krenkel's wife Alynn (we assume Alynn Nelson, also of the A Weather cohort) sings and plays keys on some if not all of the tracks on the act's recently self-released We Are Birds, We Are Trees, a fine collection that twinkles and rocks and whispers. The quintet trades in low-key and patient indie rock that carries a veneer of '70s AM pop: it's something in the easy, optimistic delivery of the lyrics and the pastoral sounds of acoustic guitar and chimes. Exploration Team may not rock as much as The Partridge Family, and it isn't as creepy as The Carpenters, but it is hard not to conjure thoughts of those combos when bopping along to "Basin And Range."

Elsewhere, Krenkel occasionally sounds like Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. In fact, the throbbing album highlight "The Ocean Will Rise" begins with some rising guitar that echoes the opening of the Scottish act's "If You're Feeling Sinister." Krenkel reports that "The Ocean Will Rise" had been considered as an album opener, but ultimately it was deemed too long -- it's more than six minutes -- for an opening salvo. "Safe And Sound" soars to its conclusion before folding itself up into a quietly shuddering delay and guitar figure; the track is perhaps the most obvious single from the set, were one to be selected. The slightly darker "Just Beneath" more closely follows the A Weather template, but that doesn't diminish it in the least. There is a particularly remarkable degree of tension as the song passes the three-minute mark and leverages a quiet snare tattoo to mount a crescendo. The album ends particularly strongly, as the romantic thriller "Something To Lose" is perhaps the most dynamic track of the collection, but is tucked away in the penultimate slot. There is some discussion concerning Team Love digitally distributing We Are Birds, We Are Trees; we'll keep you posted. In the mean time you buy the collection by messaging the band at its MySpace domicile.

Exploration Team -- "The Ocean Will Rise" -- We Are Birds, We Are Trees
[right click and save as]
[buy We Are Birds, We Are Trees from Exploration Team right here]

Exploration Team: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Show Us Yours #10: Calories

One of our resolutions for 2009 was to revive our old Show Us Yours feature, via which we pay virtual visits to the practice spaces of some of our favorite indie rock acts. You probably haven't even heard of the feature, because the last one we did was in July 2007. But now it's back, and we're excited to relaunch with a tenth episode featuring Birmingham, England-based indie trio Calories. Close readers of the blog will recall how we bemoaned here discovering the band Distophia after it had already folded. Well, fortunately some of the guys stayed together and forged the new act Calories. The trio plays aggressive but melodic indie rock, and they play it well. So well in fact that they have been picked up by the London-based label Small Town America, which will issue Calories' debut long-player Adventuring March 2. So we decided it was high time to check in with the act. We pitched our battery of questions to Calories guitarist John Biggs, and what we got back is posted below.

We're especially grateful to Calories because they have allowed us to offer a taste of the new record via the embedded Imeem player below. Attentive photo viewers may notice a clue or two as to which prominent indie act Calories shares its space with. The band plays in Oxford, England tomorrow night with Instruments, and you can inspect details regarding additional pending Calories live engagements here. Anyway, take it away Mr. Biggs.

Why do you use this space?

It was cheap, secure, damp-proof and made me think of Hell. Euronymous from Mayhem would have loved it here. We also needed a place store all of our equipment and write.

Explain why everyone stands where they stand, or why one spot in the space is the suckiest spot.

I like to stand so that I can see the lads and make sure they are safe from harm. If they start to slack off a bit I give them an evil eye.

You walk into your space. What's the first thing you smell? Why?

The smell of dark and the smell of fear. There are no lights on the first floor to the building so we use a torch to light the way. Once we are through the first gate we enter zone one which is next to the toilet. Surprisingly there are both a ladies and a gents toilet; I always use the ladies as it feels cleaner. A few strip lights illuminate zone one but they flicker like they might in an old horror film. The smell on this floor is the smell of dust and cold. We then enter door one to the 'Corridor of Shadows.' There is absolute silence in this corridor; sometimes the alarm might sound but not always. There is something not quite right about this place... something elusive... something slightly queer... ARRRH!!! Tom jumps out on us!! We laugh nervously and fumble for the key. We lock ourselves in away from the dark and away from the demons... for now...

There are suddenly four people in your photo at MySpace. Was one of you cloned?

The guy in the photo is Steven Ingram. He was in our 'lost' band Antlers. We wrote a collection of songs with dear old Steve. We recorded four together in a day at a London studio. We are releasing these on a bonus CD you can purchase from our label STA. Steve is also our art director.

I know you finished recording the forthcoming full-length Adventuring last year, which comes out in March. What else will the next six months bring for Calories?

We are planning to release the album Adventuring on STA which has a release date of 2nd March 2009. We are also going back into the studio sometime this year to record our next full length record and also our first in a collection of EPs called Installations. We want these to be exclusively limited on vinyl with some sexy artwork.

Calories: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Previous Show Us Yours episodes:
Shapes And Sizes | Dirty On Purpose | Relay
Mobius Band | Frightened Rabbit | Assembly Now
Meneguar | Okay Paddy | Charmparticles

REMINDER: We're DJing The Rumble Tuesday @ Great Scott

Dany Sloan from ExitFare has asked us to DJ ahead of and between sets on Tuesday the 27th at his debut monthly The Rumble event at Great Scott, Boston, which we're pleased to do. You can expect to hear new sounds from Boston, Philly and the U.K., as well as a few classics, because we're the kind of blog that will force you to confront the greatness of things like Lemonheads' "Year Of The Cat" or The Trouble With Sweeney's "The Snitch." We don't plan on spinning actual vinyl, so we'll have plenty of time to sit and drink beer with you if you show up. The live bill looks very good, and includes Spectator, This Car Up and Black Diamond Bay (ex-The Dears). We're especially excited to see This Car Up, as we've just discovered their 2008 set and are becoming big fans. Doors at 9. Five American dollars. 1222 Commonwealth Ave, Allston Rock City. Be there. Wear pants.

YouTube Rodeo: Built To Spill's "You Were Right"

[Uploader: CoolLikeMiles] Shaky camera work, annihilatingly great track. We logged a lot of hours in a cubicle in early '99 listening to Built To Spill's fourth set Keep It Like A Secret. And while the kids all swooned then for "Carry The Zero" and "Time Trap," it was this immensely bitter anthem -- which appropriates memorable lyrics from Dylan, Hendrix, The Stones and others -- that fueled our actually-pretty-contented-in-retrospect general discontent for many months that year prior to our move to Boston. In late September of 2008 we benefitted from KoomDogg's misfortune and were able to avail ourselves of his second-row, center seat for Built To Spill, Dinosaur Jr. and Meat Puppets [review here]. "You Were Right," sadly, was not performed. The video above was shot at Lancaster, PA's Chameleon Club on July 3, 2007, and is well worth looking at.

Review: Point Juncture, WA | Heart To Elk [MP3]

It's no surprise to anybody minding indie rock in recent years that things are happening in Portland, Ore. What's notable is that for the second year running our first big surprise of the year has sprung from that city. In 2008 it was slow-core dreamers A Weather, and in 2009 it is A Weather scene peers and sometime tourmates Point Juncture, WA. The five-year-old, self-described quartet (which curiously boasts five players in the splash photo at its web site) self-released its third record, Heart To Elk, last fall, but Seattle-based indie label Mt. Fuji will give the set wider release next month.

Point Juncture, WA's music uses many of the same tools as A Weather's, but generally these are more forcefully and energetically applied. The sum total calls to mind Stereolab or My Brightest Diamond -- or, more accurately, a hybrid of same. "Melon Bird" boasts the former act's motorik beat, while the chamber pop opener "Rocks And Sand" channels the latter with appointments of horn, some droning, woodwind-ish low-end, synth and tasteful, coctail set drumming. "The Easy Winners" proffers something like a quiet bossa nova re-imagining of Joy Division's "Transmission" (which we suppose makes it more like Low's stirring rendering of the track). Co-fronter Victor Nash's vocals on "New Machine" are as detached and serene as those of The Notwist's Micha Acher, and the song's noisy, feedback-filled dénouement suggests certain older work by that Bavarian foursome. The Amanda Spring-sung "Biathalon" is an almost-fierce rocker, but it is the uplifting, uptempo head-nodder "Sick On Sugar" -- also sung by Ms. Spring, posted for download below, great video here -- that may be the biggest song on the record. Heart To Elk will be released on CD and vinyl Feb. 19; Point Juncture, WA previously issued the Juxtapony EP in 2004 and the full-length Mama Auto Boss in 2005.

Point Juncture, WA -- "Sick On Sugar" -- Return To Elk
[right click and save as]
[pre-order Return To Elk from Mt. Fuji right here]

Point Juncture, WA: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

02/13 2009 -- Aladdin Theater -- Portland, Oregon

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, The Answering Machine

>> And so here's your big Johnny Foreigner second album recording news. The band has wedged about three weeks of free-ish time between two tours in March, during which the Birmingham, England-based trio will begin recording its sophomore full-length with former Fudge Tunnel dude and British ex-pat Alex Newport, presumably in Brooklyn. Mr. Newport is known for producing or mixing music by Death Cab For Cutie, Rival Schools, Knapsack (hey, remember Knapsack?), At The Drive-In, Piebald, The Melvins and Coco B's (his whole C.V. is right here). Newport opened the Brooklyn-based studio Future Shock in 2007 after apparently being based on the West Coast of the U.S. Prior to the recording sessions, Johnny Foreigner embark on a 10-day strand of European tour dates with the hotly tipped Sky Larkin. After the recording stint the trio does another 10 days on the road in the U.K. with A Hundred Reasons. As we ran out the Twitter feed last week, certain web sites keeping track of such things have recently posted that Johnny Foreigner are confirmed to appear at the annual U.S. music confab SXSW, which is right in the middle of the band's stint in the States. So it would seem March will be a big month for the band. In the meantime, why not relive the greatness that is Knapsack's 1998 set This Conversation Is Ending Starting Right Now courtesy of Lala.com.



>> Manchester, England-based indie rockers The Answering Machine will issue a single "Cliffer" March 9; the quartet embarks on a brief U.K. tour the same day. The Answering Machine are plotting a music video to promote the track, for which there has been no official b-side disclosed. Devoted readers will recall we offered here in early December a brief overview of certain newly mastered and very impressive Answering Machine tracks that were posted to the band's MySpace wigwam. The Answering Machine will release in May its debut full-length Another City, Another Sorry on Heist Or Hit in the U.K.

>> Simon Says No!'s Ahoi De Angst EP finally has a release date, which is Feb. 2. The collecton will come out on Spoon Train Audio in Norway; Ahoi De Angst will also be available globally through various digital music storefronts including that Apple one what just announced it is going DRM free. Simon Says No! are confirmed for SXSW; you may recall that we surveyed the promising young Norwegian nu-gaze combo here in November.