Review: Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start | Worst...

New Jersey's finest angular pop band returns with a full-length tour de force long on brains and hooks and as lean as anything that notably tight-riffed rock act Spoon has issued. And here again we find, as always, small anthems -- songs that wave their flag vigorously but refuse to show off with extraneous verses and choruses when one of each, at most two, will do. Earlier Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start tunes such as the 86-second masterpiece"Please Come To Me" [video] from Perris, CA have crescendoes that explode like a tray of wine glasses striking the floor; the fist-pumping 2001 cover of Straight To The Point's "Straight To The Point" borders on screamo. In contrast, the exquisitely produced and hilariously titled collection Worst Band Name Ever features ten tracks that further the band's trend toward a gentler sound. Acoustic guitars play primary roles in the characteristically wistful "Gas Station Hair" and the lighter-than-air "I Am The Island." Piano steps to the fore in the nostalgia-drenched (again, characteristically) "Christmas Eve 1993."

Even so, the record -- UUDDLRLRBAS's second full-length and eighth release, depending on what and how you count -- is not an entirely softer affair. The denouement of "Am I A Cricket?" desperately slams as songwriter and singer Steve Poponi professes "I swore there'd be no complications / but part of my plan was to not have a plan." The song's slithering electric guitars plunge into silence at the far side of its 3:25 seconds, a track length that is several lifetimes in the microscopic world of Mr. Poponi's amazing songcraft, which continues to be perpetually, but not unpleasantly, trapped in a bygone suburban life fraught with relationship trials. "Boise" has a hollered chorus with chugging distorted guitars. Also locked in high gear is "128 Cayuga," a series of melodic spasms pilled-up on snare drums and guitars that chime, pulse and then inexorably chime again. Worst band name ever? Does it matter if your band is among the best American indie rock bands currently working?

We're posting a couple MP3s below (the same we posted right before we went on vacation last month -- consider this your second chance). In addition, the band has several increasingly rare live performances slated for later this month. Sadly, none are in Boston, but we hold out hope they will book more dates; the current dates are below.

UUDDLRLRBAS -- "I'll Thank You Later" -- Worst Band Name Ever [video]
UUDDLRLRBAS -- "The Red Loop" -- Worst Band Name Ever
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[buy Worst Band Name Ever directly from the band right here]

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

07.14 -- Studio Luloo -- Oaklyn, NJ
07.15 -- Siren Records -- Doylestown, PA
07.21 -- Absinthe -- Hamilton, ON
07.22 -- S.C.E.N.E. Fest -- St. Catharines, Ontario

Today's Hotness: Mobius Band, 65DaysOfStatic, J. Church

>> Cyborg rockers Mobius Band disclosed today its sophomore set will be titled Heaven and it will be released this fall (and it will hopefully include a cover of the Bryan Adams power ballad of the same name we used to slow dance to at boy-girl parties in junior high). After releasing several EPs, Mobius Band issued its debut full-length The Loving Sounds Of Static on Ghostly International in 2005. The band made no mention of who will be releasing the forthcoming record, but we've heard some things... Anyway, the trio produced Heaven themselves over the course of 18 months. Mobius Band will play new material at two upcoming gigs, the first at Northampton, Mass.'s The Elevens club Sunday night, and then the second a free show at Hiro Ballroom in New York next Thursday. A fall tour is in the works, during which time the lads will also play a festival in Colorado with a bunch of famous people. We saw Mobius Band for the umpteenth time last September and reviewed the show here.

>> The news that glitched-out post-rockers 65DaysOfStatic will be opening for fellow Brits and alt.rock legends The Cure on a fall tour prompted us to revisit the stream of The Destruction Of Small Ideas, 65DaysOfStatic's third record which was released earlier this year. The band's churning mix of instrumental epics and aggressive electronic textures makes for a very exciting listen, but the overarching thought we are left with each time we stream the set is this: are these guys going to completely upstage The Cure? We guess we'll just have to see. Lest you think Robert Smith is just now, dare we say, jumping on post-rock's train, the Cure band leader noted his love of Scottish dynamos Mogwai more than once in the excellent Cure biography "Never Enough: The Story of The Cure" which we read last year mostly during a day of jury duty. Anyway, here is a stream of the entire 65DaysOfStatic record, and here are some MP3s for you to carry around in your digital player of choice. Finally, 65DaysOfStatic kick off a co-headlining tour of the U.S. that precedes the tour opening for The Cure next week right here in Ye Olde Boston. You can see the full tour dates at the band's MySpace dojo right here.

65DaysOfStatic -- "When We Were Younger & Better" -- The Destruction Of Small Ideas
65DaysOfStatic -- "Don't Go Down To Sorrow" -- The Destruction Of Small Ideas
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[buy The Destruction Of Small Ideas from Monotreme right here]

>> Brooklyn-based nu-gaze quartet Dirty On Purpose have a series of live dates coming up that we've been looking at in our inbox for quite a while. Here they are. No Boston date, but we're sure we'll see them around these parts again sooner or later.

7/15 -- Maxwell's -- Hoboken, NJ
7/16 -- Johnny Brenda's -- Philadelphia, PA
7/17 -- Black Cat -- Washington, DC
7/18 -- Blend -- Chapel Hill, NC
7/20 -- Wexner Center for the Arts -- Columbus, OH
7/21 -- Uncle Fester's -- Bloomington, IN

>> This was news to us when we got the email from No Idea mail order: a compilation benefitting J. Church mastermind Lance Hahn, who is besieged by extensive and life-threatening health issues and has no health insurance, has been put together by five labels. The set, called Let's Do It For Lance, features about 30 bands covering J. Church (and Cringer) pop-punk classics including "Tide Of Fate" and "My Favorite Place." More information here. J. Church's most recent set The Horror Of Life was released by No Idea last year.

>> Word from people who know is that Philadelphia power-poppers Trolleyvox's next set will be a double album. So there. The band released The Trolleyvox Present The Karaoke Meltdowns last year, and we reviewed it here.

Today's Hotness: Spoon, Fugazi, Christie Front Drive

>> Have you been saving your shekels (or Koomzles) for the big new release day tomorrow? We'll likely step out for the new Interpol set, hoping that Newbury Comics is offering it at a good discount. In our estimation, however, the biggest release is the new Spoon set, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which we've been listening to daily since the promo arrived. A truly superlative effort, wall-to-wall, song for song, with typically tight, deconstructed pop songs and really engaging production. Our pre-order arrived Saturday. It was packaged with the bonus disc Get Nice, which we can report is almost as forgettable as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is unforgettable (sorry guys). It's certainly an interesting listen, but the only track we imagine we'll be returning to is the demo version of "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb." Anyway, as far as other new releases, we imagine we'll grab the new Buffalo Tom after reading a lot of good things, and maybe the new They Might Be Giants because it was produced by Jon Brion and is supposedly a bit of a rock record. And that'll be that.

Spoon -- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga [album stream]

>> Pre-orders are now being taken for Glen Friedman's very promising book of Fugazi photos titled "Keep Your Eyes Open." The hardcover streets Sept. 3, costs $30 and includes about 200 images spread across 112 pages. Perhaps equally as exciting is noted raconteur and former Nation Of Ulysses and Make Up fronter Ian Svenonious has penned a 6,000-word essay included in the book. There's more info here.

>> Although the news broke last week, we feel it is worth noting that superlative second-wave emo giants Christie Front Drive will reunite for a single, all-ages performance Sept. 1 at DenverFest III. Needless to say, kids on the message boards are going nuts, and prepping for long drives. The Denver-based quartet broke up in 1998. Its split 10" with Boys Life, released on Crank! in April 1996, is among the best 10" records ever released. The record is out of print -- not sure if that goes for the CD version we picked up several years ago, too. But in the event you've never heard Christie Front Drive, this is our favorite jam of theirs, as we'll throw in Boys Life's obliterating "Two Wheeled Train" from the flipside to boot:

Christie Front Drive -- "Valentine" -- Christie Front Drive/Boys Life split 10"
Boys Life -- "Two Wheeled Train" -- Christie Front Drive/Boys Life split 10"
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>> A local note for Bostonians. After an interminable renovation, one-time dive live venue O'Brien's in Allston Rock City is set to re-open. The only venue we've ever played at twice. More details at The Phoenix here.

Johnny Foreigner's 13 Point Plan To Destroy Etc. And So On

[Another week, another update about Johnny Foreigner... it's getting to the point where we are half-considering setting up a separate blog just to cover them, with a wacky name like "A+ No. 1 Super Fun Time Johnny Foreigner Fan Club USA Blog." But on to the news... -- Ed.]

There's almost imperceptible buzz around the Internets that superhuman Birmingham, UK-based noise pop trio Johnny Foreigner is considering at least one record deal. Not much of a surprise, really. We'll let you know how that shakes out. In the meantime, you should really click this link and wade through some hipster ranting on the part of a well-meaning host to get at a mind-bending live clip of Johnny Foreigner performing for the Road To V competition we've written about previously here. The band blitzes through a version of "SofaCore," dangles it a bit in the middle for some skull-mopping, and then brings the tune to its merry conclusion. We wish there was more high-quality live video such as this of the band to be had, but if this label deal thing happens we expect there will be plenty. Anyway, the funniest part of the pre-show interview bit is when the host asks the band why they should win the contest and bass player Kelly blurts out "we shouldn't." Brilliant.

We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that scads of Johnny Foreigner demos (many of which the band has been giving away at its web site for some time) have been packaged up as a 15-song, digital collection of sorts entitled I Like You Mostly Later At Never. You can download it here. For those of you keeping score at home: missing from the collection, based on our thorough record-keeping, is the great (if a little sketchily recorded) track "KickKickKick," but included are two tunes of which we were not previously familiar, "Champagne Girls We Used To Know" and "This End. As A Beginning." Also, the versions of "Yes! You Talk Too Fast," "Balance Comma Girl" and "Ninky vs. Dingle" sound like different mixes (in the case of the first two) or a different edit (in the case of the last one, a Sunset Cinema Club cover). Finally, because we are in a giving mood, here is our current JoFo fave, "All Mosely Gardens," as well as the aforementioned "KickKickKick."

Johnny Foreigner -- "All Mosely Gardens" -- I Like You Mostly Late At Never (Demos)
Johnny Foreigner -- "KickKickKick" -- Demo
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Johnny Foreigner: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

YouTube Rodeo: Assembly Now's "Graphs, Maps & Trees"

We've been saddled with a Tuesday deadline for a week's worth of work at the day job, so things are going to quiet here for a while, with the exception of some action over the weekend perhaps. In the meantime, check out this new video for London quartet Assembly Now's forthcoming single, "Graphs, Maps & Trees," which is released in the UK on Kids Aug. 6. The video seems to be a sort of trippy homage to the weirder MTV videos of the early '80s. Think Duran Duran's earlier clips, or maybe Greg Kihn's. Or The Cars' video with the cartoon fly, "You Might Think." "Graphs, Maps & Trees" is Ass Now's third single. You can download MP3s of the first two, which are barn burners, at the band's web site here. Well, it appears the band has revamped its web site, so those singles aren't there anymore. How about this XFM session we recently posted? Oh, and we just found the links to the MP3s of the first two singles -- they are at the band's MySpace shack right here and at the bottom of the left column. Among other things, we previously featured Assembly Now in Show Us Yours #6 in March.

Today's Hotness: Zookeeper, Film School, Slumberland Records

>> Longtime readers may recall this post from November expressing surprise at encountering YouTube footage of excellent second-wave emo juggernaut Mineral. The band's 1996 release The Power Of Failing received much play in our old silver Volvo in our final year of undergraduate study. We were equally surprised to get an email reporting that former Mineral (and Gloria Record) fronter Chris Simpson has returned to the world of music after a bit of a hiatus with a new and surprisingly rootsier project called Zookeeper. We've got links to two MP3s below, but make certain you to hit this album stream and listen to the track "Delivery Room," which is our favorite cut on the album. Simspon's ear for a big melodies clearly weathered the hiatus well, and we have to say that the one thing about Mineral's recordings that didn't work for us was all the treble: Zookeeper's broader instrumentation softens the over-all assault. It is a bit jarring to hear Simpson's voice paired with shuffling acoustic guitars and juke-joint organ, but the music is fantastic. Zookeeper's self-titled EP was released last year; a full-length platter Becoming All Things is expected to be released this fall. In a MySpace post last year Simpson stated that he had written and recorded about 40 tracks, so we can likely expect a lot more to come. For those of you itching for some of that old Mineral video footage, here is the band doing the awesome cut "Parking Lot," and Crank! has Mineral music posted here.

Zookeeper -- "I Live In The Mess You Are" -- Zookeeper EP
Zookeeper -- "Tax Collector" -- Zookeeper EP
[right click and save as / buy the Zookeeper EP here]

>> We just got wind of the news that San Francisco-based nu-gaze quintet Film School, which made a big splash a year or two back for being on of the first bands to have the theft of their gear widely written about in the blogosphere (that was weird), have completed a new record. The set is titled Hideout and it is to be released on Beggars Banquet Sept. 11. Hideout was mixed by Phil Ek, who you may recall worked on all the good Built To Spill records. Film School recently added a different rhythm section and a new guitarist, and it will be interesting to hear whether that makes much of a difference. Film School's eponymous full-length debut was released by Beggars last year; it has several standout tracks including "Breet" and "Garrison" that we enjoy listening to with our ears.

>> Speaking of excellent dreampop type stuff, digital music service Rhapsody recently added some of our favorite recordings to its catalog by licensing a bunch of Slumberland Records releases. Chief among these are Rocketship's flawless and crucial 1996 set A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness, which we can and have listened to on repeat for heroic lengths of time. It's that good. Another one of our favorites is Lorelei's stirring Asleep EP and Black Tambourine's discography. All of the Rocketship record is classic, and make a point to listen to "The Sky Is Falling" from the Asleep EP. And don't forget that Slumberland offers a generous amount of MP3s through its recently revamped web site. Below are a few of our all-time favorites. We remember the chills we got when we heard this first one, in Brookhouser's van. And we clearly remember hearing the second one on WPRB on the way to a gig at Princeton's Terrace Club, and thinking it was so good we may as well just stop making music. And eventually, about 10 years later, we did.

Velocity Girl -- "My Forgotten Favorite" -- DRYL 10 7" (out of print)
Lilys -- "Claire Hates Me" -- In The Presence Of Nothing (out of print, stop at nothing to acquire)
Boyracer -- "The Useless Romantic" -- More Songs About Frustration And Self Hate (out of print)
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Today's Hotness: New Pornographers, A-Sides, Dirty On Purpose

>> We're back. The Zappa bio we said we'd be reading? Superlative. Chock full of interesting information, and doesn't go out of its way to make Frank Zappa appear any greater or lesser of a man than he was. The Lydon bio? Pretty good. We think our primary qualm with it is the presentation -- the prose seems to be solely comprised of transcribed recordings, which results in very choppy sentences. It helps to imagine Lydon, who fronted both Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd., speaking the words, and you do get used to it after a while. Still, would it have killed Lydon to have succumbed to great editorial oversight? Actually, given what we read, perhaps it would. Anyhow. Both books are well worth reading.

>> That relative silence you'll hear this week belies the preparation going into what will be a torrent of amazing releases this fall: Interpol, New Pornographers, Spoon, A-Sides, Meneguar, and on and on and on. Right now it seems like we don't have a lot on our plate (the vacation helped), but we expect things are going to be crazy and full of excellent music between now and the end of October. We can't wait.

>> Let's just come out and say it: if you like the peppy new New Pornographers promo track "My Rights Versus Yours," then you will like '70s pop sensations E.L.O.'s "Turn To Stone." The New Pornographers' new set Challengers will be released Aug. 21; Electric Light Orchestra released "Turn To Stone" on Out Of The Blue in 1977. And -- because one of our favorite Philadelphia-based bands just did a WOXY Lounge Act session and will release their sophomore album soon -- let's talk about The A-Sides for a minute. First of all, hit the link supra and grab the band's WOXY session, which includes new tracks from the band's long awaited sophomore set Silver Storms [Vagrant] including "Diamonds." Speaking of "Diamonds," Spinner recently published here a link to an MP3 of the album version of the track (we detest the term "leak" when the track hasn't actually "leaked" in the traditional sense of the term, sorry AOL Music Indi... errrr... Spinner). The song is awesome -- stop at nothing to acquire it. Anyway, if you like British shoegaze dynamo Ride's "Nowhere" (the albumer ender, not the album itself), then you will like The A-Sides' "Here Or There," the album ender from the latter band's debut Hello, Hello. Here's an MP3 and a few streams to illustrate our assertions above.

New Pornographers -- "My Rights Versus Yours" -- Challengers
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[pre-order one of the various versions of Challengers right here]

[Imeem player removed.]

>> Shoegazy Brooklyn foursome Dirty On Purpose report it is recording an EP with a duo whose production credits include drone rockers Dead Meadow, noise merchants Liars and The National, a band everyone likes but us. An email from Dirty On Purpose states the new recordings sound "like when you're in a room and a loud rock band is playing and it's awesome." Sounds pretty great to us. No word on a release date. Dirty On Purpose's Sleep Late For A Better Tomorrow EP and full-length Hallelujah Sirens were released on North Street in 2004 and 2006, respectively; the label will also release the planned EP.

>> Stars are aligning. It would seem, according to a MySpace missive, that Birmingham, UK noise pop trio Johnny Foreigner have gotten on one of Meneguar's fall tour dates in the UK (posted here, lest you forget). That will be one hot show in Cambridge, England Oct. 4. Now if only we could figure out a reason for our day job to send us to England that week... Meneguar releases its long-anticipated sophomore set Strangers In Our House on Troubleman Unlimited in August. Remember before vacation when we said we didn't know how "limited" the pressing of the European release of the set on Release The Bats would be? Well, our old friend Google reveals only 500 copies were pressed. You can see the track listing and cover art right here.