Review: Los Campesinos! | No Blues

Attentive readers will notice that, for all the plaudits we've bestowed upon what we'll call the modern Los Campesinos! catalog, we've not actually reviewed said records. That lack of critical attention is inversely related to the great esteem in which we hold the records in question. Part of our absence of engagement with the long players Hello Sadness and Romance Is Boring -- each among our favorite records of 2011 and 2010, respectively -- is certainly related to lack of time, to be sure. But there is a larger reason: the aforementioned albums, as well as the we-refuse-to-call-it-an-album album We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, represent a sort of critical absolute; to a certain extent, if not flat-out perfection, they are certainly a benchmark against which all other records released in those years are measured. The Cardiff-based indie rock act's clever orchestration, terrifically sophisticated lyrics, impassioned performances, sweeping dynamics and powerful and palpable emotional impact, well, very few do it as well, and it would be hard to convince us that anyone does it better.

Even so, while it is a remarkable and bracing collection worthy of similar consideration and accolades, none of the above is the first thing we think of when we listen to Los Campesinos!' latest collection No Blues. What we think about most often is that we can't believe the record almost didn't get made. Indeed, tucked into the band bio distributed to the press is the startling revelation that Los Campesinos! nearly called it a day prior to the making of No Blues. To whit, here's a quote attributed to guitarist Tom Campesinos!: "We'd spent a lot of time in the months leading up to recording deciding if we should continue with the band at all." This is a bottomless bummer, as it underscores that a day will come when there is no band called Los Campesinos! Not a surprise, sure, bands come and go, but the realization provides an additional slant to the lyrics "we all know we're gonna die, we're a speck of dust..." from the chanted chorus of the No Blues album cut "A Portrait Of The Trequartista As A Young Man." Of course, that lyric is probably about some English footballer, which is another reason we've historically been reluctant to analyze Gareth Campesinos!' lyrics in the "modern" era, as interviews repeatedly indicate -- and the aforementioned band bio emphasizes -- that his lyrics are just as likely to be about sport (OMG did MTV really use the phrase "bro down" in relation to Los Camp... ugh -- Ed.) than affairs of the heart. Indeed, the swaying ballad "Glue Me" includes the line "I'm diving into headers, put this pretty face where the boots are flying in," and, of course, "we connected like a Yeboah volley."

But -- quite obviously, yes -- what makes Los Campesinos!' music succeed is what makes all music succeed: how it is perceived and received by the listener (whether or not that listener knows who Tony Yeboah is). They just happen to succeed more readily, as they stand head and shoulders above the majority of their contemporaries. Despite operating at that elevated level and making "serious albums" -- whatever that means -- for the last five years, the sextet remains remarkably deft at crafting singles as potent as the fizzing, lighter fare with which it made its mark. No Blues' singles are the undeniable anthem "Avocado, Baby" and the bubbling, mid-tempo gem "What Death Leaves Behind." Many songs could claim highlight status on No Blues, as strong as it is, but perhaps the most obvious single would have been "Cemetery Gaits," which both puns on a Smiths classic and builds a droning, synth-spangled verse from a guitar part that recalls The Cure's absolutely crushing "To Wish Impossible Things." The album closes with the fittingly final-sounding "Selling Rope (Swan Dive To Estuary)," an uptempo confessional that is remarkably bright and cheery given the events described and the troubling, irksome possibility: might this be the last recorded song we hear from Los Campesinos? In terms of theme, it reminds of Frightened Rabbit's devastating "Floating In The Forth," with its imagery of flinging one's self into a body of water to end things. "Selling Rope" seems to describe a suicide ignored: "there's no ticker-tape, no golden gate, no carnival and no parade, just one, one for sorrow." We're hopeful that the excellence of No Blues gains whatever recognition and success is necessary to ensure that Los Campesinos! doesn't slip from our figurative grasp, and into a sea whose bottom is already littered with the wrecks of countless rock bands. Because losing Los Campesinos! would hurt to a degree not inverse to the deep joy its music has brought us.





Los Campesinos!: Tumblr | Facebook | Soundcloud

U.S. Tour Dates:
01.21 -- Boston, MA -- Paradise Rock Club (w/SPEEDY ORTIZ for fuck's sake)
01.22 -- New York, NY -- Irving Plaza (w/ SPEEDY AGAIN, egads)
01.23 -- Washington, D.C. -- 9:30 Club
01.25 -- Chicago, IL -- Metro

Selected Prior Los Campesinos! Coverage:
Los Campesinos! Fifth Album No Blues Due Oct. 29
Be Prepared: Los Campesinos! | Hello Sadness | 14 Nov.
Los Campesinos!/Johnny Foreigner 2010 US Tour Announcement
YouTube Rodeo: Johnny Foreigner, Gareth "In The Bullring"
Today's Hotness: Los Campesinos!

Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Golden Gurls/Bored Spies

Back in the early days of the blog we'd tell you about tours, you know, the important ones from bands that mattered, like Dirty On Purpose or Relay or Frightened Rabbit-back-when-it-was-a-three-piece or Ringo Deathstarr. We're not sure why we stopped doing the Coming To Your Local Bandstand feature, but there's no better reason to resuscitate it than the pending tour from Baltimore-based guitar-pop heroes Golden Gurls. The trio launch an eight-date circuit of live appearances Thursday night at the Cake Shop in New York, the first night of a tour that travels as far north as Portland, Maine, and as far south and west as Asheville, North Carolina. The Maryland miscreants are touring with the latest project of former Seam fronter Sooyoung Park, Bored Spies. Faithful readers will certainly recall our regular reporting on the goings-on of the double G, but we were also pretty early to the party when it came to reporting on Bored Spies, which issued in January the debut single "Summer 720" b/w "沙鼠E." Bored Spies -- labelmates with Golden Gurls on Damnably in the U.K., incidentally -- were supposed to make their U.S. debut Tuesday in San Francisco, but their appearance has been scuttled by visa issues. We're hopeful that Mr. Park and his cohort get that sorted out at least in time for the band's scheduled Boston date Friday at TT The Bear's Place, when Bored Spies is scheduled to perform with Golden Gurls as well as Boston shoegaze phenoms Soccer Mom and noise-pop stalwarts Reports. That, friends, is what we call a shit-hot rock and roll bill. The tour flyer above lists off all the confirmed dates as of press time, and to get yourself pumped we suggest a refresher on Golden Gurls' best of 2012 set Typo Magic and the aforementioned Bored Spies single, both of which are embedded below. Golden Gurls will almost certainly be previewing material from its planned sophomore collection, and Bored Spies mentioned somewhere months ago doing pre-production on a full-length, so we're hoping to hear lots of new music from them, as well. We'll see you at TT's, nerditos.

Today's Hotness: Silkworm, Frightened Rabbit, Rodan

>> Although we first wrote about the news here in February, Comedy Minus One today finally revealed the details about its pending reissue of Silkworm's towering 1994 full-length Libertine, and it is going to be a whopper. Longtime Comedy Minus One fans will recall the label actually first reissued Libertine as a digital download in 2008, something we wrote about right here. But the definitive reissue formally announced today that will arrive in stores this fall presents a lovingly curated and exhaustively sourced version of the last record that Silkworm recorded in its original four-piece incarnation, prior to the departure of Joel R.L. Phelps. Comedy Minus One will issue Libertine, Silkworm's third record, as a double LP packaged with a CD containing a brilliant acoustic set recorded for Marco Collins that was released as a single in the mid-'90s. The records are pressed to 150 gram vinyl at 45RPM. The reissue touts all-new artwork plus liner notes from Silkworm's Tim Midyett; it was remastered by Bob Weston and pre-orders for three different permutations of the collection are being taken from now until June 11. The baseline offering is the double LP and CD for $20; for an additional $20 fans will get an exclusive t-shirt along with the double LP/CD package, and for $75 big American dollars fans get all of that plus rare bootleg audio as an additional digital download, a white label 12" of the material offered on the CD in the other packagings, and an exclusive photo print. All of the details and a link to pre-order are laid out at Comedy Minus One's web site right here. Libertine is considered by some as the greatest record of the 1990s, so choose wisely and allow us to remind you that, as always, Comedy Minus One ships pre-orders usually well before the records arrive in stores. To whet your appetite, below are streams of "Couldn't You Wait?" from the LP as well as a live version of "Grotto Of Miracles," recorded May 15, 1994, that is part of the "bootleg" audio included in the premium tiers.





>> Fat Cat Records last week announced it would make available on vinyl for the very first time Frighten Rabbit's titanic 2006 debut long player Sing The Greys. The 12" vinyl will be released in May as part of Fat Cat's reissue campaign for the Selkirk-spawned indie rock act's first few records. Prior to the May re-release of Sing The Greys, that album's 2008 follow-up The Midnight Organ Fight [review] will be reissued April 20 on vinyl for Record Store Day in the U.S. in a limited edition of 500 double albums packaged with exclusive art prints; the second 12" record of the two-record set will be Quietly Now!, the 2008 Frightened Rabbit live album that we've always called Liver! Lung! FR! [review], 'cause, you know, that is what the cover says. The Midnight Organ Fight/Quietly Now! package will also be available in the UK for Record Store Day in an edition of 1,000 pieces. According to the Fat Cat web site, the double LP will then be made available again from May 7 in a limited edition of 1,500 copies that will be sold without the exclusive 12" x 12" art prints. Frightened Rabbit, of course, now records for a major label; its most recent album Pedestrian Verse was issued earlier this year on Atlantic Records. The band is currently touring the U.S. and by all (social media) accounts FR delivered thrilling shows in both Boston and Philadelphia; the U.S. tour wraps Saturday with a sold-out show in Dallas, and then FR has two weeks off ahead of two weeks of shows in Australia. Wanna hear some new FR? Stream "Backyard Skulls" from Pedestrian Verse via the Soundcloud embed below.



>> Fans of top-shelf early '90s post-punk got a strong jolt across the bolts last week when Quarterstick/Touch And Go announced it will release in June Fifteen Quiet Years, a collection of singles, compilation tracks and a previously unreleased Peel Session by the legendary Louisville juggernaut Rodan. The band existed only briefly, from 1992 to 1994, and sadly two of its principle members have already shuffled off this mortal coil at altogether much-too-young ages. The music collected on Fifteen Quiet Years was never easy to acquire in the first instance, so the fact that this compilation now exists will be exciting for the Rodan fans out there whose sole copies were crappy rips sourced from Napster or Audiogalaxy at the turn of the century. All of the music on the comp was remastered in 2009 by Bob Weston along with Rodan guitarists and singers Jeff Mueller and Jason Noble; Mr Noble succumbed to synovial sarcoma last August, and original Rodan drummer John Cook died in February 2013. Fifteen Quiet Years will be sold as a vinyl LP or CD, and each comes packaged with codes for a digital download of 10 bonus live recordings hand-selected by the band. We were fortunate enough to see the band perform at an intimate house show in the very hot summer of 1994, a happenstance that was just a case of being in the right place (Princeton) at the right time. Not too long after the band splintered and its members went on to perform in equally notable successor acts including June Of 44, The Shipping News, Rachel's, The Sonora Pine and Retsin. Quarterstick/Touch And Go will release Fifteen Quiet Years June 11. We have to believe a reissue of Rodan's sole full-length, Rusty, must also be in the offing, as the album's tracks are conspicuously absent from this campaign. The record will be 20 years old next year, so the safe money is on a reissue of Rusty in 2014. Pre-order Fifteen Quiet Years right here, a hyperlink at which you will find a stream of Rodan's powerful instrumental "Darjeeling," which first appeared on Simple Machines Records Inclined Plane 7".

Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Winter Of Mixed Drinks [MP3]

Selkirk, Scotland-based indie goliaths Frightened Rabbit's third full-length ("moving-on record") gracefully extends the themes of the band's widely lauded [including here] sophomore opus The Midnight Organ Fight ("break-up record"). But the broader context of the band's recordings and live appearances underscores that the Frightened Rabbit of today is a vastly different varmint than the one we first encountered more than three years ago. The Winter Of Mixed Drinks completes the band's incremental evolution from indie rock band -- with the emphasis on "indie" -- to a pop band. How you feel about the quintet discarding most of the darkness and aggression of its earlier work and lushly orchestrating the new, arena-scaled anthems on the recently released third full-length may slant your feelings about how the beloved act has changed during the last seven years. But by any measure, even long-time fans will find The Winter Of Mixed Drinks to be a remarkable collection.

We readily admit that we miss the old days, when Frightened Rabbit was so tightly wrapped in the sweaty sheets shrouding the dead romance plaguing fronter Scott Hutchison that the band visibly throbbed with angst. The Hutchison brothers' impassioned performances during the first few Boston shows we saw appeared existentially cathartic, to the extent that second guitarist Billy Kennedy's even-keeled strumming and leads were almost comically stoic by comparison. Still, we begrudge neither the band's trajectory, nor the warm embrace it enjoys from burgeoning legions of fans. It is an unenviable task navigating the narrow stripe among the split camps of fickle fans who will just as readily damn a band for changing as they would damn them for stylistically sitting still. Frightened Rabbit succeeds by continually tinkering and experimenting, by expanding the soft boundaries of its sonic realm.

You don't have to listen hard to Mixed Drinks to hear that fronter Scott Hutchison's facility with songcraft remains impressively deft, that the songs themselves continue to be colored by a confessional tone and emotional urgency. The pop, of course, is obvious -- you've surely already heard the uptempo strummer "Nothing Like You." But from the shimmering tremelo curtain that reveals the opening, spine-tingling anthem "Things" to the handclaps and saxophone that ushers out the stirring album closer "Yes I Would," Hutchison's increasingly ambitious arrangements are more crisply realized, more densely rendered on The Winter Of Mixed Drinks. The aforementioned "Things" is so layered with vocal harmonies one hears more voices the harder one listens. "The Wrestle" features orchestration and production so skillfully arranged that a listener feels like he could dive into it, swim straight down, and never reach the bottom. "Skip The Youth" doesn't end so much as it dramatically decomposes like some kind of Victorian-era mechanical man. FR's prior full-lengths both touted notable interstitial song bits, and the new record is no different: "Man/Bag Of Sand" repackages pieces of "Swim Until You Can't See Land" into an ethereal, droning wonder.

Fat Cat Records issued The Winter Of Mixed Drinks March 9. The band will be in America for the annual South By Southwest confab next week, but then heads to Europe for a series of dates. Frightened Rabbit returns to the U.S. for Coachella April 17, and from there embarks on a five-week North American tour. All tour dates are listed at the band's MySpace domicile right here. Frightened Rabbit performs at Paradise Rock Club in Boston April 29.

Frightened Rabbit -- "Swim Until You Can't See Land" -- The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
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[buy The Winter Of Mixed Drinks from Newbury Comics right here]

Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Selected Prior Frightened Rabbit coverage:
FR Live at Great Scott, January 2009
FR Live at the Middle East, October 2008
FR Live at TT The Bear's, July 2008
FR Live at the Middle East, March 2008
Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight
FR Live at Great Scott, November 2007

That Was The Show That Was: We Were Promised Jetpacks | Middle East Rock Club | 14 Feb.

Last night in America there was only one rock band that mattered: We Were Promised Jetpacks. The fiery Glaswegian quartet played to a thronged subterranean nightclub, desperately and as if their souls were on the line. You only get one chance to see a band turn in a performance like what we witnessed. Despite it being eight months after the release of its debut full-length These Four Walls (FatCat Records), We Were Promised Jetpacks played like they had a lot to prove.

The four seeped onto the stage and conjured an incredibly riveting, completely annihilating "Keeping Warm," and from there launched the act's first, incendiary single "Quiet Little Voices." The latter completely unhinged the demonstrably ecstatic crowd. Band fronter Adam Thompson shook with sentiment as he belted lyrics, usually shouting and almost always repeating for emphasis. Mr. Thompson's intensity was unrelenting: he frequently stepped away from the microphone to shout directly over the audience members' heads, and occasionally clutched the microphone under white knuckles and shouted over top of the microphone as he repeatedly stabbed himself in the throat with it. For its part the assembled masses rewarded We Were Promised Jetpacks' shattering, cataclysmic performance with long, loud ovations. Last night's nearly sold-out (by the looks of it, although we were able to score tickets at the door), hour-long show was wedged between a sold-out evening in Washington, D.C. Saturday night and another in New York tonight. This is a band that is at the peak of its powers, and we urge you to get out to one of the remaining dates on the tour; we list the dates below.

We Were Promised Jetpacks made the track "Ships With Holes Will Sink" available for free download via a link at its MySpace; we're saving you the trip and posting the track below. The track was released by FatCat in November along with "It's Thunder And It's Lightning" as a double-A-sided single. There are two prior singles: "Roll Up Your Sleeves" b/w "Back To The Bare Bones" released in June 2009, and "Quiet Little Voices" b/w "Let's Call This A Map" released in May 2009.

We Were Promised Jetpacks -- "Ships With Holes Will Sink" -- These Four Walls
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[buy We Were Promised Jetpacks records from Fat Cat right here]

We Were Promised Jetpacks: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

02.15 -- The Knitting Factory -- Brooklyn, NY
02.17 -- Casbah at Tremont Music Hall -- Charlotte, NC
02.18 -- The Masquerade -- Atlanta, GA
02.19 -- The End -- Nashville, TN
02.20 -- Maxine’s Pub -- Hot Springs, AR
02.21 -- Hailey’s -- Denton, TX
02.23 -- Rhythm Room -- Phoenix, AZ
02.24 -- The Loft -- San Diego, CA
02.26 -- Troubadour -- Los Angeles, CA
02.27 -- Slim’s -- San Francisco, CA
03.01 -- Biltmore Cabaret -- Vancouver, BC
03.02 -- Neumo’s -- Seattle, WA
03.03 -- Doug Fir Lounge -- Portland, OR
03.05 -- Kilby Court -- Salt Lake City, UT
03.06 -- Hi Dive -- Denver, CO
03.07 -- Jackpot Saloon -- Lawrence, KS
03.08 -- The Waiting Room -- Omaha, NE
03.09 -- Varsity Theatre -- Minneapolis, MN
03.11 -- Lincoln Hall -- Chicago, IL
03.12 -- Grog Shop -- Cleveland, OH
03.13 -- The Summit -- Columbus, OH
03.14 -- Radio Radio -- Indianapolis, IN
03.15 -- The Old Rock House -- St. Louis, MO
04.15 -- Hoxton Bar and Grill -- London
04.16 -- Fleche d’Or -- Paris
04.18 -- Knust -- Hamburg
04.20 -- Gleis 22 -- Muenster
04.21 -- Werkstatt -- Cologne
04.22 -- Schlacthof -- Wiesbaden
04.23 -- Beatpol -- Dresden
04.24 -- Lido -- Berlin
04.26 -- Melkweg -- Amsterdam

Pants Yell! | Cafe 939, Boston | Sept. 26

Fresh from the disclosure that their next long-playing record will be released by the un-eff-with-ably awesome Slumberland Records, Cambridge, Mass.'s own twee pop superstars Pants Yell! make their first live appearance of the fall in Boston at Berklee's Cafe 939. Full details here. We finally saw the trio for the first time just this past January, when it supported Glaswegian indie rock goliaths Frightened Rabbit, and we've been looking out for another chance to catch them in action ever since. Slumberland Records, celebrating its 20th year of greatness in 2009, release Pants Yell!'s fourth album Received Pronunciation Nov. 10 on CD and LP (one or both formats apparently are packaged with Japanese obi strips -- um... awesome?). Pants Yell!'s most recent set, Alison Statton, was issued by Soft Abuse in late 2007. Here are a couple tracks freely available from various label sites.

Pants Yell! -- "Magenta And Green" -- Alison Statton
Pants Yell! -- "Your Feelings Don't Show" -- Recent Drama
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[buy Pants Yell! records right here and right here]

Pants Yell!: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

That Was The Show That Was: Frightened Rabbit, Pants Yell!!

They sold out the nightclub days in advance. They played "Floating In The Forth" for the first time in Boston. They covered Neutral Milk Hotel's "Song Against Sex." They enthralled the collegiate co-eds: lovers embraced each other and swung to the rhythm, tousle-haired outcasts opened their throats to the low ceiling in time with their words, and it appeared that the band's stealth campaign -- delivered largely over the television airwaves in the background of prime time programming in recent months -- was reaping big dividends. They are Frightened Rabbit, and they are the biggest thing since commercialized bottled water. You probably won't see them in a club the size of Great Scott, Boston again until they reunite for a club tour in the year 2029.

After somewhat under-performing during its last gig in Boston, the Selkirk, Scotland-based foursome last night professionally delivered a characteristically heart-felt set of striking tunes. And although its live performances have become increasingly measured over the years, resulting in slightly less fire but a greater connection with fans, Frightened Rabbit played like returning heroes to the packed house on a snowy Saturday night. We had been hoping to be treated to a new song or at least a rarity (we were thinking "Last Tango In Brooklyn"), but even so it is hard to complain about a show that opens with one of the best songs of the decade ("The Modern Leper") from one of the best records of 2008 [review], and closes with the familiar assault of the medley of "The Greys" -- last night with a new, introverted arrangement -- and the incendiary "Square 9" (which never fails to thrill with its final moments of unhinged thrash courtesy of drummer Grant Hutchison).

Fronter Scott Hutchison dazzled the crowd with his unamplified acoustic ballad "Poke," and very graciously thanked the crowd, saying it was a rare occasion for the band to sell out a club. Frightened Rabbit delivered the hits, which in addition to the cuts mentioned supra included "Be Less Rude," "Good Arms vs. Bad Arms," "Head Rolls Off," "I Feel Better." The set marked picked up in intensity after a rousing rendition of the piano-led stomper "The Twist," and another big highlight was the latest arrangement of the ballad "My Backwards Walk."

While we've seen Frightened Rabbit so many times that there are few things that surprise us, we were very taken with openers Pants Yell!! If our memory serves we were first alerted to the band by BrighAAAAm about five years ago, and although it took a while for us to fully embrace the charms of the band (some live performance clips from New York's Cake Shop finally sealed the deal), we've become very big proponents of the cardiganed three. So we were very pleased to see the scritchy indie pop trio from right here in Cambridge deliver a charming set that led with one of our favorite tracks, "Reject, Reject." We were equally jazzed to hear "Tried To Be Good" late in the set, which was strong despite the missing backing horn tracks. We look forward to seeing Pants Yell!! many more times in the future.

Frightened Rabbit -- "My Backwards Walk" -- Daytrotter Session
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[buy Frightened Rabbit records from Newbury Comics right here]

Pants Yell!! -- "Tried To Be Good" -- Alison Statton
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[buy Pants Yell!! records from Soft Abuse right here]

Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Selected Prior Frightened Rabbit coverage:
FR Live at the Middle East, October 2008
FR Live at TT The Bear's, July 2008
FR Live at the Middle East, March 2008
Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight
FR Live at Great Scott, November 2007

Clicky Clicky's Top Albums Of 2008

It was a lot more work than we anticipated getting this list together, but fortunately we've been hammering away at it for about a month. Even so we didn't finalize our picks until Friday, which led to some extra writing, but so it goes. Along the way we deepened our relationship with and appreciation for these 10 records, which in our humble opinion represent the best that 2008 had to offer. We hope you'll find some things here that had escaped your attention heretofore, and that you derive as much enjoyment from listening to them as we do. For those who are curious, here are links to some of our prior annual lists [2007, 2006, 2005, 2002]. Thanks for reading Clicky Clicky in 2008.

1. Johnny Foreigner -- Waited Up Til It Was Light -- Best Before/Nettwerk

If you thought we were going to rave about Waited Up Til It Was Light all year and then not name it our favorite album, well, you were wrong. But if it makes you feel better, we were wrong, too. A year ago we declared that Johnny Foreigner's Arcs Across The City EP was the new gold standard in indie rock, and that choice now smacks of being obviously premature, as the band's monstrous full-length debut eclipses it on every level. It shudders with adolescent confusion and crackles with stumbling euphoria, one bottle of gin too many and guitars potted way, way up. There's feedback and in-jokes and sweat and disappointment. As we quipped in June, Waited Up Til It Was Light "is thronged with careening guitar anthems, its 13 tracks shot through with typewriter ribbon-lengths of lyrics that collectively present a contemporary mythology of the band's beloved city." The set will have spawned four singles by the time the double a-sided "DJs Get Doubts" b/w "Lea Room" streets Jan. 12 in the UK. Johnny Foreigner reportedly begin recording a follow-up, and we hope that at this time next year Alexei, Kelly and Junior Foreigner have us once again amending our assessment of what the gold standard is in indie rock. [review] [listen]

2. A Weather -- Cove -- Team Love

In a perfect world, A Weather's understated yet confident debut would launch a thousand indie rock vessels, each one charting a course to illuminate new, obscure and quiet frontiers of a slowcore revival. But as this record seems to have been the most slept-on of all our 2008 picks, this is quite unlikely. One of the revelations of Cove -- which we named the first big surprise of 2008 back in February -- is that the set is filled with love songs, but not necessarily heartache. Yet there is still remarkable tension and mystery that courses through the nine tracks. Quoting again from our review, "[t]he band's beautiful full-length debut has a persistent but slippery allure. Populated almost entirely with murmured bedroom ballads driven by brushed drums, guitar and electric piano, the set somehow succeeds in not repeating the same tricks over and over again." [review] [listen]

3. Frightened Rabbit -- The Midnight Organ Fight -- Fat Cat

Last spring we spoke briefly -- albeit loudly, above the rock club din -- with Frightened Rabbit fronter Scott Hutchison about the growing distance between the songs on this collection and the events they reflect. Certain of the songs on The Midnight Organ Fight were about five years old at the time and reflected events growing increasingly smaller in Frightened Rabbit's rearview. Which makes the tunes' emotional impact -- particularly when performed during one of the quartet's usually incendiary live sets -- all the more impressive. But the live spectacle aside, The Midnight Organ Fight is still a remarkable collection of songs, as lush and atmospheric as Sing The Greys was stark and in-your-face. We pegged the band's "Extrasupervery" as indicative of the potential for Disintegration-esque genius, so we are eager to hear what comes next from the lads. [review] [listen]

4. The Notwist -- The Devil, You + Me -- Domino

Germany's The Notwist had been absent so long prior to the release of The Devil, You + Me -- as we remarked here in our review of the wonderful DVD "The Notwist On|Off The Record" two years ago -- that we were afraid the indie rock world might not take them back, and even more afraid that the band might not want to come back. Finally The Notwist broke its (near) silence with the promo track "Good Lies." The song raised hopes for a stellar album and the band delivered with a set as subtle and beautifully orchestrated as Neon Golden. And while the material is exceptional, it is hard to ignore that The Notwist also gave a wholly stunning performance when it appeared at The Roxy in Boston in October. "The band was alternately mesmerizing and astonishing, depending on whether it was locking into a heavy, digitally augmented groove or blasting through a crescendo of guitars," to quote our review. Compared to Neon Golden, The Devil, You + Me is a more reserved affair, reflecting perhaps the changes of life (fatherhood and the like) that the members of The Notwist have experienced in recent years. Even so, their songwriting chops and imaginations have not subsided in the least, and we're hopeful that it won't be another five years before its next record. [live review] [listen]

5. Destroyer -- Trouble In Dreams -- Merge

We recall reading comments from Destroyer mastermind Dan Bejar sometime during the year in which he states that Trouble In Dreams was a difficult, meaning we think inscrutable, record for fans, particularly compared to the prior set, Destroyer's Rubies. For the record, we think both collections are stellar, and we question just how "difficult" the music is. Musically, things are fairly straightforward on every Destroyer record we've heard (which is damn near all of them -- Damon Che Mr. Bejar is not), so we have to presume Bejar is referring to his lyrics. These are often impressionistic, deeply layered, and, of course, when coming out of Bejar's mouth are often the true highlight of Destroyer's recordings. Trouble In Dreams is no exception, and with some of the year's most winning melodies, the record easily made our list. [listen]

6. Julie Ocean -- Long Gone And Nearly There -- Transit Of Venus

Long Gone And Nearly There now seems a prescient album title for this upbeat collection of irresistable indie pop confections from an already broken-up quartet fronted by the cable newser best known for having himself tasered on television. How could it not be among our favorite records of the year? The collection captures 10 tunes touting broad, bright melodies delivered with an irresistible guitar-jangle and fizz. From a historical standpoint, Long Gone And Nearly There is a distillation of several strands of the D.C. underground, the apparent mean value of Velocity Girl, Glo-Worm and Swiz. And while the band's demise seems to neatly underscore the ephemeral nature of perfect pop, the band's borrowing from '60s AM sounds limns Long Gone And Nearly There with a classic pop sense that makes it stand out among contemporary indie releases. [review] [listen]

Julie Ocean -- "Here Comes Danny" -- Long Gone And Nearly There
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[buy Long Gone And Nearly There from Transit Of Venus here]

7. The War On Drugs -- Wagonwheel Blues -- Secretly Canadian

A beguiling set that offers jaunty singles candidates ("Arms Like Boulders," "Taking The Farm"), lo-fi balladry ("Barrel Of Batteries") and kaleidoscopic drone ("Show Me The Coast") is a special record indeed. The more we listen to it, the more we are convinced that band fronter Adam Granduciel is at the cusp of the sort of acclaim that follows Destroyer's Dan Bejar. There is a frank poeticism in his nasal proclamations buried within stoned repetitions that accumulate like sediment into enticing songs that succeed wonderfully at going nowhere. Wagonwheel Blues will make converts of us all; this video of a live set drives home the greatness of the band. [listen]

8. Love Is All -- A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night -- What's Your Rupture?

This was a late-year surprise. Our old housemate Tony B championed the Gothenburg, Sweden-based quintet and its boxy recordings early on, which got us turned on to the single for "Make Out Fall Out Make Up." And while we've listened to the band's 2005 set 9 Times That Same Song maybe a dozen times, we were taken by surprise by how much more A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night resonated with us. The set -- shrouded like its precursor in almost obfuscating amounts of slap-back reverb -- contains a perfect, grooving blend of dancey rock that sounds like a bizarre marriage of The Cramps and Haircut 100 fronted by a roughly rendered facsimile of Cyndi Lauper. "Give It Back" is a relentless torrent of hooks and energy, and the rest of the set follows suit. [listen]

9. Superman Revenge Squad -- This Is My Own Personal Way Of Dealing With It All -- My Best Unbeaten Brother

Ben Parker, sole proprietor of the acoustic enterprise Superman Revenge Squad, was the subject of the only feature interview we did in 2008, a reflection of the esteem in which we hold this very gifted songwriter based in Croydon, England. From a lyrical standpoint no one can touch him, not only in terms of sheer volume (the man is loquacious in song) but also in his ability to express discontent in colorful ways (we love the line "the sun's too hot and there's nothing on the telly" from the digital single "Idiot Food"). His music -- whether it is harrowingly urgent, morose and emotional or tongue-in-cheek and geeky -- transmits as deeply personal, despite the fact that often when Parker sounds like he is baring his soul he is actually making an obscure pop culture reference. This Is My Own Way Of Dealing With It All is filled with escape fantasies, dark resignation and still darker humor. And it is brilliant. We're posting the lead track below. [interview] [listen]

Superman Revenge Squad -- "Idiot Food" -- This Is My Own Personal Way Of Dealing With It All
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[buy the record from Superman Revenge Squad right here]

10. The Swimmers -- Fighting Trees -- Mad Dragon

We suppose it is a toss-up as to whether this was more slept-on than the A Weather record, although the label Team Love has more brand recognition than the Drexel University-backed Mad Dragon imprint. Philadelphia's Swimmers had been treading water for quite a while as we waited for its debut to finally see release, but it finally delivered in a big way. Echoing first-wave Wilco and scene precursors The Bigger Lovers, Fighting Trees' rootsy, upbeat attack and hooks aplenty made this a constant go-to record for us this year. While "Pocket Full Of Gold" made our list of top songs of the year last week, the entire record is filled with eager winners, not the least of which is the piano-driven homage to Lancaster, PA "Heaven." Daytrotter recently posted a session featuring a few tracks from Fighting Trees from which we are posting a fantastic take on "St. Cecilia" below. [review] [listen]

The Swimmers -- "St. Cecilia" -- Daytrotter Session
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[download the whole session right here]
[buy Fighting Trees from Amazon here]

Clicky Clicky's Top Songs Of 2008

We humbly submit our list of 10 favorite tracks of the year. The typical caveats apply, mainly that an individual band could only chart once, no matter how awesome it may be. Meaning, for example, that despite three Johnny Foreigner songs being among our 10 most-listened-to tracks of 2008, only one is able to make the cut below. Of course, the tracks in question had to be released this year. And there's really not much else to it. We think these songs are the bee's knees, and we look forward to hearing much more from the bands who recorded them in the future. Our list of top albums of the year largely echoes this list of songs, but there are some notable differences, so be certain check in next Monday to read that one. Thanks for the rock.

1. Johnny Foreigner -- "Absolute Balance" -- Waited Up Til It Was Light
Stream it at Last.FM right here.

Bifurcated from the demo "Balance Comma Girl," expanded, stuffed with skyrocketing dynamics and draped with vapor trails of guitar feedback and delay, "Absolute Balance" puts the final (well, almost) exclamation point on Johnny Foreigner's stunning debut Waited Up 'Til It Was Light. The tail end reintroduces a familiar canned beat (it also drives the single "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella") and makes a miraculous ascent into a crescendo in which fronter Alexei Berrow unhinges his soul and lets fly a spine-tingling, entirely inscrutable 20-second rant. Watch the band perform "Absolute Balance" at the tail end of "Yr All Just Jealous Of My Von Dutch Hat" from T In The Park this past July right here at the YouTubes. The band will begin recording its second full length later this month, and intends to tour North America in 2009. We reviewed Waited Up Til It Was Light here in June.

2. A Weather -- "Shirley Road Shirley" -- Cove
Download "Shirley Road Shirley"
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The most intimate record of the year was released by the somewhat shadowy -- or at least reserved, perhaps press-shy -- group A Weather out of Portland, who somehow took the narcotic and stoney vibe of slowcore and imbued it with hopeful romance and mystery. Spurred by careful, boxy (and apparently no-footed) drumming and spare guitar, "Shirley Road Shirley" soars into its almost-chorus, the questionable vow "I won't try anything, I swear you won't even know I'm there." We reviewed A Weather's Cove right here in February. Thanks to the band for the permission to post this track.

3. Los Campesinos! -- "Death To Los Campesinos!" -- Hold On Now, Youngster...
Stream it at Last.FM right here.

Pepped up and ragged, shouted and layered, the lead track from the Cardiff, Wales septet's first release of 2008 is rife with sly lyrics and enthusiasm to spare. We actually think this song's mix flattens the dynamics a little too much, perhaps in order to make all the instruments audible. The following track, "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats," is much more explosive -- although it hurts our head to figure out why. But it is the dueling vocals and gang cheers that make "Death To Los Campesinos!" the gang's best track of the year. The fact that its video features a homicidal unicorn is just so much delicious icing on the technicolor cake.

4. The Notwist -- "Gloomy Planets" -- The Devil, You + Me
Watch the amazing video with Andromeda Express Orchestra at YouTube right here.

Fuzzier vocals and acoustic guitar would seem to herald a new, ever more reserved direction for the laconic German quartet The Notwist, best known for its 2002 electropop milestone Neon Golden. But halfway through "Gloomy Planets," as the song scales its sole chorus, looping tones overtake the mix, overlay the piano and guitars and build a crescendo that waxes on for almost two full, thrilling minutes. And suddenly, it is like the band's recent history has caught up with it. The Notwist's Oct. show at Boston's Roxy nightclub was among our favorites of the year. Hopefully it will not be another six years before The Notwist releases a new record.

5. Frightened Rabbit -- "Floating In The Forth" -- The Midnight Organ Fight
Stream it at Last.FM right here.

We had already considered Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchison a master of crafting the devastating lyric prior to the release of The Midnight Organ Fight, but when we reached the tail-end of the record and heard this track buzz up into its bottomlessly sorrowful first line our estimation was affirmed all over again. "So you just stepped out of the front of my house and I'll never see you again." A lot of bloggers have expended a lot of keystrokes talking about the emotional rawness of Frightened Rabbit's overdriven folk-rock, but this track is the only one for us that is almost unlistenable. While The Midnight Organ Fight's relatively glossy production is somewhat at odds with Frightened Rabbit's music -- particularly its high-octane live sets -- every song on the set is dynamite. "Floating In The Forth," with its lush sonic palette, harmonies and dreadful sense of finality, was the biggest surprise of the collection. The band returns to Boston's Great Scott next month. We reviewed The Midnight Organ Fight here in March.

6. The Raveonettes -- "Dead Sound" -- Lust, Lust, Lust
Stream it at Last.FM right here.

A wonderfully realized track that amalgamates spectral (and obviously Spector-al) harmonies, simple urgent programmed rhythm tracks, aggressive white-out guitar fuzz and reverby leads into an aural candy treat.

7. Destroyer -- "Foam Hands" -- Trouble In Dreams
Download "Foam Hands"
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When you stop to think about it, the chorus to this track is ridiculous. But elsewhere band leader Dan Bejar's relatively simple yet typically impressionist lyrics are as evocative as ever. Mr. Bejar's singing is perhaps the most singular of this decade, as it is as convincing when coyly elongating and wearily over-enunciating syllables as it is when the narrator turns against his narrative, and occasionally the listener. Miraculously, "Foam Hands" does a whole lot with fairly little, including boring itself hopelessly deep into your brain, all the while providing Bejar ample opportunity to bend expectations just slightly into a gothic tale of estrangement.

8. The War On Drugs -- "Show Me The Coast" -- Wagonwheel Blues
This track isn't available to hear on the Internet for free.
Stream a short sample at EMusic here.

Ten minutes of kaleidoscopic, blissful drone could have easily felt like five minutes too many, but something about the arpeggiated swells and Petty-esque declamations spiraling out over an F# seemingly into forever is entrancing. It also inspires the cartoonish feeling that somehow, somewhere this song is always being performed, like the black-and-white footage of an oncoming steam train hidden behind the door in a Bugs Bunny short. The War On Drugs were the best of the many great things that broke out of Philadelphia this year.

9. The Hold Steady -- "Constructive Summer" -- Stay Positive
Stream it at Last.FM right here.

The most rocking track from the Brooklyn quintet's 2008 release, which was the only CD we kept in the car in late July. Big guitars. Harmonics. So much possibility. Nothing can go wrong. We have to believe that the lyric concerning water towers references the same found in the alternate versions of The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" packaged with the reissues of Tim and Pleased To Meet Me this year.

10. The Swimmers -- "Pocket Full Of Gold" -- Fighting Trees
Download "Pocket Full Of Gold"
Recorded live at Chicago's Hideout, March 22, 2008
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While "Heaven" continues to be the "hit" of the long-awaited debut from this Philadelphia act, at least in terms of the attention bestowed by the Internets (the band recently released this video for the track, as well), "Pocket Full Of Gold" is the most irresistable of the ten tunes on the band's Fighting Trees. Tweedy-esque vocal, the track would have been a good fit on the first Wilco record, before the Chicago act entered its baroque period. We reviewed Fighting Trees here in March.

Today's Hotness: Dirty On Purpose, Frightened Rabbit

>> We join the chorus of outlets expressing disappointment at the breakup of Brooklyn-based nu-gaze superlatives Dirty On Purpose, who disclosed their demise via presser this afternoon. The quartet, which formed in 2002, will play a final show on New Years Eve at Manhattan's Mercury Lounge, where it will open for the purportedly "loudest band in New York," noiseniks-in-arms A Place To Bury Strangers. According to the statement, the band returned from tour a month ago, discussed making another record, and ultimately decided that was something it didn't want to do. Dirty On Purpose is survived by its members' various extra-band endeavors, which include Neckbeard Telecaster, Coin Under Tongue, Joe And The Flying Spoons, Purse Snatchers and Black Acid. All of the members will continue to live in New York, and the band quipped that it reserves its right to reform. Which would make a bunch of us pretty happy. We reviewed Dirty On Purpose's Oct. 2007 Middle East show right here. We also reviewed its two full-lengths Sleep Late For A Better Tomorrow and Hallelujah Sirens here and here respectively. We leave you with the song that we think first turned us on to the band, the early track "Practice For Having Sex." Thanks for all the indie rock, guys.

Dirty On Purpose -- "Practice For Having Sex" -- Show-Only EP
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[buy Dirty On Purpose records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> Selkirk, Scotland-based indie rockers Frightened Rabbit will issue an updated version of its 2007 holiday single "It's Christmas So We'll Stop" Dec. 16, exactly 364 days after releasing the original version. The track has apparently been "reconstructed" by Oregon-based label mate David Karsten Daniels, who has adorned the spare ballad with a choir, horns, Fender Rhodes piano and strings. We wrote about version 1.0 of the single last November here. The new version has been dressed up with better cover art, which you can ogle here, and the b-side this go-round is not music but an etching by none other than band fronter Scott Hutchison. And there is even more FR news -- there is a brand new video for "I Feel Better," right here. Frightened Rabbit recently completed a European jaunt opening for Death Cab For Cutie (if you have read the band's recent tour diary for DIS regarding same here, you are missing out on some comedy gold). As we've alluded to previously, Frightened Rabbit return to the U.S. for a short stack of dates next month, which you can inspect below.

01/16 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Johnny Brenda's
01/17 -- New York, NY -- Bowery Ballroom
01/18 -- Allston, MA -- Great Scott
01/19 -- Washington, D.C. -- Rock and Roll Hotel
01/22 -- Urbana, IL -- Courtyard Café
01/23 -- Ames, IA -- Maintenance Shop
01/24 -- Chicago, IL -- Empty Bottle

That Was The Show That Was: Frightened Rabbit | Middle East

For the first time out of several that we've seen the band perform, Frightened Rabbit Sunday night appeared, well, a little frightened. And band fronter Scott Hutchison seemed almost willing to concede the performance a failure from the onset. What the Selkirk, Scotland-based quartet didn't count on was the fact that the young crowd was ready to love anything it did, even the occasionally tentative or forced. All was forgiven by the grateful crowd even before Mr. Hutchison began offering apologies. Which brings us to an adage of ours that we'll explain later: they can't all be flaming gong nights.

At issue Sunday night was the fact that the foursome, according to Mr. Hutchison, had too much to drink in New York the prior evening and accidentally left a substantial amount of its stage gear there, including guitar pedals, MIDI pedals, cables and we think the organ the band has been using recently to perform our favorite FR song, "The Twist." Much of the equipment apparently belonged to newest member Andy Monaghan, who (incidentally or coincidentally) was very hard to hear in the house mix from our perch several bodies back from the opposite side of the stage.

So, yeah, "flaming gong nights." That's a reference to what in our opinion is the greatest live performance clip ever filmed, namely Van Halen's 1981 Oakland show that climaxed with this amazing version of "Unchained." During the finale, drummer Alex Van Halen figuratively takes the show to 11 by standing up, grabbing a torch and lighting a giant gong on fire. We'll say that again: he stands up, grabs a torch, and lights a giant gong on fire. Then he smashes the hell out of the gong, sits down and smashes his crash cymbals, and it's complete mayhem. That, in our opinion, is the apex of live musical performance. Of course not every show can be bananas like that, and that is OK.

So while Frightened Rabbit did exhibit last night signs of being off their game -- despite having cobbled together a sufficient amount of stage gear from touring mates Spinto Band and The Swims -- it is hard to flop with such exceptional material. And so fans called out praise between songs as the lads tuned; young co-eds dreamily gazed at Mr. Hutchison and sang along to his solo ballad "Poke;" tousle-haired young men gesticulated their teenage angst toward the low ceiling while chanting out "you're the shit and I'm knee-deep in it" along with their hero. Truly the Frightened Rabbit phenomenon continues to propagate unchecked, and last night's stymied performance did nothing to derail it. Drummer Grant Hutchison put an exclamation point on the evening -- and the band's apparent frustrations -- as he bashed out the exultant, obliterating tattoo that ends the sublime shouter "Square 9" and closed out the show. Grant did so with such ferocity that we half-worried as he lurched up from his kit that he was heading to the fans in the front row to continue administering beatings. Which, in a way, is pretty damn close to a flaming gong.

We posted the remainder of Frightened Rabbit's tour dates here in the foot of the review of the band's new live record Liver! Lung! FR!, which is being released by Fat Cat today; the band returns to Boston in January. Below we've posted our admittedly fuzzy memory of last night's set list, and under that are a couple live MP3s being offered here by the web site of Glaswegian nightclub The Mill, where Frightened Rabbit played Sept. 25.

The Modern Leper
Fast Blood
Old, Old Fashioned
I Feel Better
Good Arms Versus Bad Arms
Poke
My Backwards Walk
The Greys
Square 9

Frightened Rabbit -- "The Modern Leper" -- Live At The Mill, Glasgow, Scotland
Frightened Rabbit -- "I Feel Better" -- Live At The Mill, Glasgow, Scotland
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[buy Frightened Rabbit music from Newbury Comics here, EMusic here]

Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Selected Prior Frightened Rabbit coverage:
FR Live At TT The Bear's, July 2008
FR Live at the Middle East, March 2008
Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight
FR Live at Great Scott, November 2007

Review: Frightened Rabbit | Liver! Lung! FR! [MP3s]

"Good afternoon shoppers, and music fans, passers-by... We're Frightened Rabbit from Glasgow."

This is how band fronter Scott Hutchison opened last year's desperate, fire-and-brimstone-filled live release EMusic Sessions: Live At Urban Outfitters -- SXSW 2007. That short collection captured Frightened Rabbit performing when it was still a trio, but the differences between it and the largely acoustic Liver! Lung! FR!, to be released by Fat Cat next week, are more pronounced than the simple expansion in personnel. The band's The Midnight Organ Fight will likely begin appearing on blogger's year-end lists of favorite records any day now [we reviewed it here], but the new live collection may actually say more about the artistic development of the quartet and where it is in its career.

Studio albums -- at least the good ones -- beckon for scrutiny and decoding, but live records serve as even more conspicuous markers in the life of a band: "this is what we sounded like this night." Liver! Lung! FR! was recorded July 30 of this year at Glasgow's Captain's Rest in front of a hometown audience, and during the performance the quartet was joined by friends including labelmates The Twilight Sad's James Graham and fellow Glaswegian scene-maker Ross Clark. It is a warm, well-arranged and gentle performance among friends, a far cry from the gritty set the band delivered -- along with some hysterically bawdy banter -- the prior year in Texas amid the stream of faux-hipster commerce.

The contrast between the two live collections is perhaps no more apparent than when considering the versions of "The Modern Leper" performed during each set. On Liver! Lung! FR! the pounding arrangement and nihilistic lyrics are toned down and adorned with chimes, vocal harmonies, a keyboard part and additional guitar work. Mr. Hutchison practically coos the words. The proceedings do not begin to approach the levels of chaos and unhinged-ness of the EMusic version. The latter rendition is driven by Hutchison's gritty rhythm guitar and Billy Kennedy's piercing six-stringed accents, and then over-driven by Grant Hutchison's weapons-grade drumming. And while the obvious stylistic refinements and softer tone set the very nice new record apart from its live predecessor, the more nuanced sounds of Liver! Lung! FR! and The Midnight Organ Fight likely have helped pave the way for perhaps the most curious recent development in the band's career. Frightened Rabbit has been visiting us in our living room via the soundtracks of nearly every television program Mrs. Clicky Clicky watches (we just noticed our favorite track "The Twist" in a recent episode of "Chuck").

All that career progress hasn't just fallen in Frightened Rabbits' collective furry lap; instead, the band, which was just in Cambridge in early July, has been touring relentlessly. It returns yet again Sunday when it performs at The Middle East Rock Club. And a return engagement to the Boston market is already on the books . According to Bradley's Almanac -- and now, the venue's web site -- Frightened Rabbit will return to Boston's Great Scott in January. This probably says as much about the band's relentless courtship of the United States as it does us, but currently we see Frightened Rabbit more times in a year than we see our own dear mother. Frightened Rabbit began several more weeks of U.S. dates last night in Ohio, and we've posted the rest of the tour dates at the bottom of this item. Directly below we're posting an MP3 from each of the band's live records to underscore the contrast we've been talking about.

Frightened Rabbit -- "Old, Old Fashioned" -- Liver! Lung! FR!
Frightened Rabbit -- "Square 9" -- EMusic Sessions, Live At Urban Outfitters -- SXSW 2007
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[buy Frightened Rabbit music from Newbury Comics here, EMusic here]

Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

10/15 -- Music Saves -- Cleveland,OH
10/17 -- First Unitarian Church -- Philadelphia, PA
10/18 -- Music Hall Of Williamsburg -- Brooklyn, NY
10/19 -- Middle East -- Cambridge, MA
10/21 -- Lees Palace -- Toronto, ON
10/20 -- Petit Campus -- Montreal, QC
10/22 -- Skully's Music Diner -- Columbus, OH
10/23 -- Metro, Chicago -- IL
10/24 -- High Noon Saloon -- Madison, WI
10/25 -- 7th Street Entry -- Minneapolis, MN
10/28 -- Chop Suey -- Seattle, WA
10/29 -- Media Club -- Vancouver, BC
10/30 -- Holocene -- Portland, OR
11/01 -- Bottom Of The Hill -- San Francisco, CA
11/02 -- Bottom Of The Hill -- San Francisco, CA
11/03 -- Echoplex -- Los Angeles, CA
11/05 -- U31 -- San Diego, CA
11/06 -- Rhythm Room -- Phoenix, AZ
11/08 -- Haileys -- Denton, TX
11/09 -- Fun Fun Fun Fest -- Austin, TX

Selected Prior Frightened Rabbit coverage:
FR Live At TT The Bear's, July 2008
FR Live at the Middle East, March 2008
Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight
FR Live at Great Scott, November 2007

Today's Hotness: Lilys, Johnny Foreigner, Frightened Rabbit

>> Holy crap! All of our favorite bands popped up on the radar today. Like this video above of The Heez, a/k/a Lilys main man Kurt Heasley, performing "Ginger" recently at some sort of 'zine storefront. And whoah, we think we just heard through the haze of our noise-canceling headphones a Lilys song being used in the episode of "90210" Ms. Clicky Clicky is watching as we type this -- that can't have happened. The video clip posted supra was unearthed by and first posted here by Philebrity yesterday. It features a slightly slowed-down and surprisingly hypnotic acoustic (and truncated -- the first verse is not part of the clip) take on the song made famous by an apparel and scent brand in the '90s. "Ginger" is the opening track to A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns, which is one of the best EPs ever released. Of course, it is now out of print, and the bankruptcy of Spin Art Records seems to have doomed any hopes of ever getting the record reissued. You know what would be awesome? If Mr. Heasley pulled together all the old personnel (over the last 17 years there have been something like 70 different members of Lilys) and re-recorded the albums, like Camper Van Beethoven just did with certain tracks from its Virgin releases. Heasley is giving away several at the Lilys MySpace, but we'll save you the trip and post some below. Lilys are scheduled to perform at the forthcoming All Tomorrow's Parties event in New York being curated by My Bloody Valentine.

Lilys -- "Ginger" -- A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns
Lilys -- "Dandy" -- A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns
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[buy Lilys records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> Thanks to our anonymous tipster who early yesterday hipped us to the fact that Johnny Foreigner had just updated its MySpace yert to show that the Birmingham, England-based indie rock trio will perform at CMJ in Manhattan next month. The trio will perform at something called the Levi's Fader Fort on Oct. 23. A quick trip to the Googles shows that a similar fort was erected during South By Southwest this past spring. Brass tacks: will folks need a CMJ wristband for this? Seems unlikely. It may not matter, as we're not sure if we've got the work vacation days to make it down to Manhattan for the show anyway, but crazier things have happened. Johnny Foreigner's spastically good Waited Up Til It Was Light is released domestically by Nettwerk Sept. 23.

>> It would seem to be the era of the surprise album. Although today's news that superlative Scottish indie rockers Frightened Rabbit will release a live record Oct. 21 was presaged by a new MySpace profile graphic, which gave us pause when we saw it earlier this week. So, yes, Frightened Rabbit's Liver! Lung! FR! live set -- technically its second, if you count this piping hot live release issued through EMusic last year -- will be on shelves in a scant six weeks thanks to its label Fat Cat. When we wrote about the band just last week we had noted the fact that the only new product Frightened Rabbit would have to shill when it arrived in the U.S. for a tour next month was a new single featuring "I Feel Better" b/w "The Twist." Those are hot numbers, but having a whole live album to sell at a kick-ass live show seems like a much better idea. We're hoping that the band is traveling with copies of Liver! Lung! FR! prior to its release, because the quartet performs here in Cambridge Oct. 19, two days before the official release day.

>> Today we heard for the first time (in recent memory anyway -- we have a sneaking suspicion the CD lurks somewhere in the collection) Chappaquiddick Skyline's cover of New Order's amazing tune "Leave Me Alone." Not long after hearing the song we came across this scant item at AngryApe that states Rhino will reissue Sept. 28 (in the U.K. only?) the first five New Order records (from Movement to Technique) in expanded versions including a second disc of b-sides and demos and all that jazz. All that jazz that makes us crazy wondering whether we'll need to buy these, should they come to rest in American racks. It's bad enough The Replacements and The Cure have bled us dry in the last couple years (although we can't wait until Sept. 23 to get the next slate of 'Mats stuff), but now the Mancunian quartet -- which has already released a countless number of hits collections and box sets over the years -- feels the need to go into our wallets again. And we'll probably let them.

>> Speaking of The Cure, Geffen claims that the veteran English alt-rockers currently have four singles in the Billboard Top 20. This astounds us. Especially because we recall only really liking one of said singles. All four tracks will appear on The Cure's forthcoming 13th album 4:13 Dream, which will be released by the aforementioned label Oct. 28. Bradley's Almanac's recent recording of The Cure's live performance in Boston was so good it made us wish we had made the jaunt over the river to see it ourselves, and we very much like the currently lineup of the band, which includes stored sidemen Simon Gallup and Porl Thompson back on bass and guitar respectively. So we're hoping we'll like the new record. The Cure release next week an EP titled Hypnogogic States containing remixes of the first four singles; the list of remixers is frankly sad, save for post-rock act 65DaysOfStatic. On the bright side, all artist royalties from the sale of the EP go to support the International Red Cross.

Fear Of A Rabbit Planet: FR Returns To North America

The ascent of Frightened Rabbit, Selkirk, Scotland's finest indie rock foursome, continues unabated. The band's folksy ballad "Poke" soundtracked several minutes of the American teen-targeted soap opera "One Tree Hill" earlier this week -- one can inspect the evidence at YouTube right here. While you're in the video-watching mood, treat yourself to this endearingly earnest fan vid for "The Modern Leper." And for a good laugh, this clip of band fronter Scott Hutchison debating his brother Grant about whether porn can be art is not to be missed. Just when you thought things couldn't get any better for FR, the band announced Wednesday it will support indie veterans Death Cab For Cutie on forthcoming November tour dates in the U.K. Could an invitation to Christmas dinner at Chris Walla's and a record deal with Atlantic be too far behind?

But wait -- we've mistakenly skipped passed more pressing information. Assuming we've counted correctly, in October Frightened Rabbit makes its fifth trip to North America in fewer than 12 months. As we reported here in July, Frightened Rabbit will be touting -- at least in the U.K. -- a newly minted third single from its stellar sophomore set The Midnight Organ Fight, which was released in April. The aforementioned third single will contain the cuts "I Feel Better" b/w "The Twist" [YouTube video preview]. The latter track may be our favorite from the set, so you singles junkies in the U.K. had better start saving your pocket change. The North American tour dates commence Oct. 17 in Philadelphia and wrap in Los Angeles two weeks later. Night three of the tour brings Frightened Rabbit back to The Middle East Rock Club in Cambridge, Mass. To whet your whistle, here's a nice acoustic version of "Head Rolls Off" from an Italian radio session earlier this year.

Frightened Rabbit -- "Head Rolls Off (Live)" -- Live at Maps RCDC
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[buy Frightened Rabbit records from Newbury Comics right here]

Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

10/17 -- First Unitarian Church -- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
10/18 -- Music Hall Of Williamsburg -- New York, New York
10/19 -- Middle East -- Cambridge, Massachusetts
10/20 -- Petit Campus -- Montreal, Quebec
10/22 -- Skully’s Music Diner -- Columbus, Ohio
10/23 -- Metro -- Chicago, Illinois
10/24 -- High Noon Saloon -- Madison, Wisconsin
10/25 -- 7th Street Entry -- Minneapolis, Minnesota
10/28 -- Chop Suey -- Seattle, Washington
10/29 -- Media Club -- Vancouver, British Columbia
11/01 -- Bottom Of The Hill -- San Francisco, California
11/02 -- Bottom Of The Hill -- San Francisco, California
11/03 -- Echoplex -- Los Angeles, California

Selected Prior Frightened Rabbit coverage:

FR Live at TT The Bear's, July 2008
FR Live at the Middle East, March 2008
Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight
FR Live at Great Scott, November 2007

Today's Hotness: Futureheads, Frightened Rabbit, Johnny Foreigner

>> Up until about a month ago the name Dolby Anol would have simply been part '80s new wave icon, part gibberish to us. But then the name became attached to one of the remixes on the forthcoming Johnny Foreigner single "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella." And somewhere thereafter we learned that Dolby Anol was the nom de remix of a duo that includes at least one member of Glaswegian fight pop septet Dananananaykroyd, whose angular, intense indie rock references some of our favorite D.C. post hardcore sounds. We were very interested, then, to receive this afternoon another Dolby Anol creation, a remix of jittery indie rockers The Futureheads' recent single "Radio Heart." The remix is a fairly in-your-face deconstruction of the dynamic, syncopated jam, the video of which you can watch right here. The remix of "Radio Heart" is successfully transformed by big beat production and electrobass; its release into the wilds of the Internerds is intended to promote the Aug. 4 release of The Futureheads' next UK single, the anthemic "Walking Backwards" [stream it at Youtube here].

More remixes are expected, and a quick trip to the Dolby Anol MySpace wigwam turns up evidence that the duo has also remixed the Sunderland quartet's track "Crash." The Futureheads' third record This Is Not The World was released on its own Nul Recordings label in May. For Dananananaykroyd's part, as we reported over the weekend the band will record with Hoboken-based The Machine beginning in mid-August. Upon returning to the U.K. the band is slated for two tours, one with Johnny Foreigner and another whose headliner is still the subject of rumor. The rumor that appeared in our comments (more on those below) was that the headliner will be Foals, but like we said, that's just a rumor.

The Futureheads -- "Radio Heart (Dolby Anol Remix)"
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[buy Futureheads records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> Online video site Switchburn has posted three very compelling clips of Selkirk, Scotland's Frightened Rabbit performing last month at The Mohawk in Austin. "The Modern Leper," "Fast Blood" and "I Feel Better" are all given the customary deluxe three-camera treatment. We watched "The Modern Leper" and found it to be a somewhat more reserved rendition than we've seen from the chaps on a few occasions here in Boston. Even so, superlative drummer Grant Hutchison occasionally seems one capricious impulse away from laying waste to his kit, even as he eases back somewhat. Watch all three clips at the links above, you won't be disappointed.

>> Since we already broke our promise to ourselves not to mention Johnny Foreigner for a week a couple paragraphs above, we may as well report some interesting tidbits that popped up into our comments the other day. If Mr. Anonymous is to be believed, then the forthcoming 10" "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella" single that will be issued in September is being released on "Pac Man-yellow" vinyl and in a limited edition of 500. Of those 500, only 400 will be going up for sale. Which kind of makes you wonder what they are doing with the rest of them. Hopefully sending at least one to us, and perhaps the remaining 99 go to other members of the press. Doesn't seem like the best way of covering your costs, giving away 20% of your inventory. But as the single potentially serves a dual purpose of promoting the U.K. and North American releases of the Birmingham, England-based trio's fantastic debut Waited Up Til It Was Light, perhaps there is a method to the madness.

Speaking of madness, we were minding our own business today perusing EBay when we noticed that some one is selling here an unplayed copy of Johnny Foreigner's debut single "Sometimes, In The Bullring" b/w "Camp Kelly Calm" for the equivalent of $99.38 plus another $20 or so for shipping, which makes us feel all the more fortunate that we have a copy. The band has recorded "Bullring" an almost incalculable number of times, and it appears on Waited Up Til It Was Light. "Camp Kelly Calm" is a little more of a rarity, so here is a nice rip sent to us by the chap who put the single out.

Johnny Foreigner -- "Camp Kelly Calm" -- "Sometimes, In The Bullring" b/w "Camp Kelly Calm"
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[buy Johnny Foreigner recordings from EMusic right here]