Today's Hotness: Mike Quinn, Arc In Round, Young Adults

>> Mike Quinn was smoking with the boys upstairs when he heard about the whole affair. And then he recorded a warped version of Steely Dan's "My Old School," which seems like a nice way to kick off 2012 here at Ye Olde Blogge. Mr. Quinn's version shuffles slowly, drunkenly, a bit like the title track to Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, slack-key guitar briefly trading spaces with Richardsian licks. It's highly enjoyable. We last heard from Quinn in July, when he issued the charming solo set Magico, which we wrote about right here. Earlier in the current century Quinn captained erstwhile Scranton, PA-based indie rock champions Okay Paddy. That band's 2006 set The Cactus Has A Point [review here] was one of our favorite records of 2006. Around the time Okay Paddy hung up its gloves for the last time, Quinn moved on to the more trad-leaning folk/vaudeville/bluegrass concern ...And The Moneynotes, which put out a couple nifty, sometimes wacky, releases including New Cornucopia!, which we reviewed here in late 2008. Will 2012 bring yet more Steely Dan covers? We shall see.

My Old School [Steely Dan] by Magico

>> Delaware Water Gap, PA-based label La Société Expéditionnaire has signed Philadelphia-based progressive pop quartet Arc In Round; the label (which last year put out the excellent self-titled set by SOARS) expects to issue the band's eponymously titled debut full-length this year. Those anxiously rifling through their records right now are likely grasping for this piece of information: while Arc In Round will technically be the foursome's full-length debut, its precursor entity Relay did in fact issue a long-player of its own, Still Point Of Turning, on Bubble Core in early 2006. Arc In Round self-released two EPs in 2011, Diagonal Fields and II. The new record features guest turns from Kurt Vile and Pattern Is Movement's Chris Ward and will be packaged with oodles of remixes concocted by the likes of A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Ape School, Benoit Pioulard and Lymbyc Systym. That is the dictionary definition of not too shabby, and we eagerly await this one. While you wait, why not chew on this video of Arc In Round covering Can's "Oh Yeah." Yeah?

>> Boston-based ambient punk dynamos Young Adults are promising a new EP sometime in 2012, according to this tweet. The short set would be the trio's first new material since its break-out full-length Black Hole, which was issued in late 2010 on Prague-based Amdiscs (buy! buy! buy!). In the interim the band has changed bass players and played some of the most electrifying live sets to hit Boston stages. Young Adults' next move is hotly anticipated, and, if history can be any guide, the contemplated EP will be a scorchah, dood. Catch the band this Saturday at Gay Gardens with Bambara, Ovlov and Guilty Party. Facebook Event page here. For now, burn your face off one more time with this one, "Wasting Time."

Today's Hotness: Mike Quinn, Projekt A-ko

>> We were excited to hear from Mike Quinn, who in the prior decade fronted erstwhile Scranton, PA-based indie rock champions Okay Paddy. That band's 2006 set The Cactus Has A Point [review here] was one of our favorite records of 2006. Around the time Okay Paddy hung up its gloves for the last time, Quinn moved on to the more trad-leaning folk/vaudeville/bluegrass concern ...And The Moneynotes, which put out a couple nifty, sometimes wacky, releases including New Cornucopia!, which we reviewed here in late 2008. Well, all that set-up is just to contextualize the news that Mr. Quinn is back with an enjoyable solo set called Magico, which was released June 7.

The collection is proof positive that Quinn continues to both embrace traditional, roots-leaning styles and possesses a charming sense of humor. The uptempo, harmonica-appointed, acoustic strummer that opens the record is titled "Big Shit." We have no idea what the shambling rocker "What It Wud" is about, but Quinn's diction delivering lines like "then maybe we oughta go out to Fairmount Park, see if they got any chocolate sauce like they did before" is either aping Adam Sandler's portrayal of the undersmart or sorta satirizing a Pennsylvania accent, to brilliant effect. The highlight of Magico has to be "The Devil Has A Heart," which commences with shuddering slide guitar and buries a pretty piano melody before setting a wickedly jaunty groove. As with much of Quinn's recent work, the chorus sounds best when hollered with thick glass beer mug in hand. We've embedded the curious video for the tune above, in which Quinn appears to imagine a series of lonely accidental deaths out in the beautiful Pennsylvania wilderness. Buy Magico from Bandcamp right here.

>> It can't all always be good news, dear readers. Word came down Monday from amazing Glaswegian indie rock underdogs Projekt A-ko that a planned second album has been, ahem, scotched for now. Fronter Fergus Lowrie, he formerly of '90s luminaries Urusei Yatsura, contacted folks who had paid for a pre-order of the album last year, stating with admirable frankness that "[w]ork, births and deaths have all played a part in the delay, but the main cause has been a continuing evolution in my understanding of tone and texture. Multiple recording sessions have been ditched and each time I seem to be moving further away from any destination. Until I can work out where I’m at I can’t guarantee when (or even if) the next Projekt A-ko album will be completed." Mr. Lowrie continues working with his experimental noise outfit Obscure Desire of the Bourgeoisie and has devoted a lot of time recently to co-producing a documentary about the abstract noise scene in Scotland. "This exposure to experimental music has made me think long and hard about my own musical assumptions and experiences," Lowrie wrote. All of that said, he has left open the door to perhaps one day getting a second Projekt A-ko record completed, and we are quite hopeful this happens. The trio's debut Yoyodyne was our second favorite album of 2009.

Today's Hotness: And The Moneynotes, Wet Paint

>> Eagle-eyed surveyors of our Clicky Clicky Club Picks column may have raised an eyebrow late last week when we updated our list of recommended shows to include a date for Scranton, PA-based, rootsy indie rockers And The Moneynotes to the line-up. The septet, which includes two former members of the fabulously gifted but sadly defunct indie geniuses Okay Paddy and whose music recalls the bluegrass-ier Camper Van Beethoven stuff, released last year its debut full-length New Cornucopia!, which we reviewed here. And The Moneynotes will not rest on its laurels in 2009, however. Instead, it will release later this spring a 7" EP called On The Town, On The Vine, and a chap from the label dropped an MP3 from the mini-set in our inbox late last week that has gotten us excited about the band once again. The new jam, "On The Town," is an upbeat tub-thumper that is, at the same time, compositionally impressive. There are none of the big guitars that typically get a lot of play here at Clicky Clicky, but if you've got a jug of liquor and aim to do some hootin' and hollerin,' this is the track for you. We're also throwing in "My Kid Smokin'" from New Cornucopia!, because that is a hot number. Full And The Moneynotes spring tour dates are below.

And The Moneynotes -- "On The Town" -- On The Town, On The Vine EP
And The Moneynotes -- "My Kid Smokin'" -- New Cornucopia!
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[buy And The Moneynotes music from Prairie Queen Records right here]

03/13 -- Northern Light -- Scranton, PA
03/14 -- The Bog -- Scranton, PA
03/22 -- The Headhunters Club [SXSW] -- Austin, TX
03/25 -- Star Bar -- Atlanta, GA
03/26 -- JJ’s Bohemia -- Chattanooga, TN
03/27 -- Green Street Club -- Greensboro, NC
03/28 -- Machiavelli’s -- Bristol, TN
04/02 -- The Space -- Hamden, CT
04/03 -- Pianos -- New York, NY
04/04 -- All Asia -- Cambridge, MA
04/05 -- The Bell House -- Brooklyn, NY
04/23 -- Velvet Lounge -- Washington, DC
04/25 -- The M Room -- Philadelphia, PA
05/06 -- Bar Bleu -- State College, PA
05/09 -- Brass Rail -- Ft. Wayne, IN
05/14 -- JJ’s Bohemia -- Chattanooga, TN
05/15 -- Snug Harbor -- Charlotte, NC

>> We read with interest this recent gig review at Drowned In Sound for a Manhattan Love Suicides show. While we are big fans of the aforementioned, noisy Leeds four-piece, DIS's description of billmates Wet Paint as wielding "Dinosaur Jr.-meets-Urusei Yatsura fuzz racket" -- because that sounds awesome, no? -- inspired in us great interest. We spent some time over the weekend at Wet Paint's MySpace outpost and enjoyed what we heard. Wet Paint features members (former members? we don't know) of Absentee and Economy Wolf. The rising, London-based quartet's full-length debut, It Rots, was released by Trial & Error Recordings Jan. 26; Wet Paint has also released two singles, "Hug It Out" backed with a remix of same crafted by Bloc Party's Matt Tong was issued last June, and "Save The Whale" backed with a cover of same by Lightspeed Champion. Wet Paint is currently touring the U.K. in support of Rumble Strips, and next month it has three live dates in London, two of which are in support of the aforementioned Bloc Party. For a very good primer on Wet Paint, which seems to have fairly rocketed out of obscurity in the last year, click here and watch the three video clips at the ConverseMusic site.

Review: And The Moneynotes | New Cornucopia! [MP3s]

We were huge fans of erstwhile Scranton, PA-based quintet Okay Paddy, and when the band's excellent EP Where You Went? [review here] was chased with news the group had disbanded, we were commensurately bummed. The EP presented some headscratch-worthy moments during which Okay Paddy broached surprisingly trad-leaning folk-rock sounds. But for the most part the music still fit within the framework of the Pavement-meets-Weezer brilliance contained on Okay Paddy's ferociously slept-on 2006 full-length The Cactus Has A Point [review here, stream the entire thing at Last.FM here]. The one exception was Where You Went? closer "Open It Up," during which the singer -- not sure who's on vocals there -- affects a drunken Phil Lynott style while the band spreads out and jams on a gritty dirge. With that as the band's final word, it was anybody's guess where Okay Paddy would go next.

While the breakup was surprising, it is not quite as surprising as And The Moneynotes, formerly know as Dr. Horsemachine And The Moneynotes, a project that galvanized in 2006 and released an EP, This Year We Hunt, in 2007. After the release of This Year We Hunt, a founding member of Dr. Horsemachine And The Moneynotes departed; eventually, Okay Paddy fronter Mike Quinn as well as guitarist Pat Finnerty and drummer Brian Craig were brought into the fold and the band name was truncated. The newer band's mish-mash of bluegrass, vaudeville and folk rock can come across as mannered, like an aural costume play (indeed, the band dresses in period garb like early American barkeeps or reporters in its press photos). Fortunately a sense of play -- and some strong melodies -- imbue New Cornucopia! with just the right amount of pep and pop hooks to keep the cheekiness from overwhelming the proceedings. If that doesn't sell you on the band, then this hysterical documentary trailer (real? we don't know) definitely will.

And The Moneynotes' music is even more rootsy and traditional than the most straightforward moments of Where You Went?, although there is an overt sophistication to the compositions that, incidentally, seems to echo the new direction that Delaware septet the Spinto Band has charted (more about them later). Certain vestigial elements of Okay Paddy survive, including wonderful vocal harmonies and melodic moments that soar. But in some cases, as in And The Moneynotes' proggy, Decemberists-esque "The Pirates Confession Part III," so much is going on at once between the key and tempo changes that it is hard to keep up. It may be too much for certain, more pop-devoted Okay Paddy fans, but listeners with broader tastes will find the cleverness bracing. New Cornucopia!, which was produced by Spinto Band's Nick Krill (who also worked on Where You Went?), was issued by Scranton's Prairie Queen Records July 29 [hit the YouTube link below to see videos from the CD release show]. The band will promote the set with a series of live appearances this fall, and we list those below. Also below are MP3s for two tracks from New Cornucopia!, including the delight "My Kid Smokin'," as well as some Okay Paddy classics.

And The Moneynotes -- "Bolinda" -- New Cornucopia! [live video]
And The Moneynotes -- "My Kid Smokin'" -- New Cornucopia!
Okay Paddy -- "Dumbwaiter" -- Where You Went?
Okay Paddy -- "Your Bar's On Fire" -- The Cactus Has A Point
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[buy New Cornucopia! from Prairie Queen Records right here]
[buy Okay Paddy records from Prison Jazz Records here]

And The Moneynotes: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

09/13 -- Cafe Metropolis -- Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
09/17 -- The Bog -- Scranton, Pennsylvania
09/25 -- Zeno’s -- State College, Pennsylvania
10/17 -- Music Hall Of Williamsburg -- Brooklyn, New York
10/18 -- The Chameleon Club -- Lancaster, Pennsylvania
10/25 -- River St. Jazz Cafe -- Plains, Pennsylvania
10/28 -- The Bog -- Scranton, Pennsylvania
10/29 -- Bar Bleu -- State College, Pennsylvania
10/30 -- Casa Cantina -- Athens, Ohio
10/31 -- Mid City Grill -- Ft. Wayne, Indiana
11/03 -- The Frequency -- Madison, Wisconsin
11/06 -- Al’s Bar -- Lexington, Kentucky
11/07 -- The Green Bean -- Greensboro, North Carolina

Today's Hotness: All The Same Acts We're Always On About

>> Seriously, we feel a bit like a broken record about these bands. But they're great. And work is consuming almost all of our blogging time, and likely will continue to do so through the end of the first week of October. So we've been devoting most of our writing to things we know we like recently. Please bear with us.

>> We're sorry to be able to confirm what our blog hit logs have been suggesting to us for a few days. Word from the Okay Paddy camp is that the quartet has called it quits. Scranton, Penn.-based Okay Paddy's The Cactus Has A Point [review] was one of our favorite records of 2006. The band had previously issued The Hunk EP, featuring the awesome track "The Waive," and this past summer Okay Paddy released via Prison Jazz the stirring EP Where You Went? [review], whose title was perhaps a harbinger of the band hanging up its proverbial cleats. Okay Paddy was also featured in our Show Us Yours series, specifically in Show Us Yours #8. You should seek out all of these records, and here are a couple reasons why:

Okay Paddy -- "The Waive" -- The Hunk EP
Okay Paddy -- "Dumbwaiter" -- Where You Went?
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[buy Okay Paddy records from Prison Jazz here if you know what's good for you]

>> Have you bought your digital copy of Ringo Deathstarr's new Ringo Deathstarr EP? It's well worth the low, low price. Spoilt Victorian Child Records is offering a teaser track, the demo of which we think we offered recently. Here's the polished, shoegazetastic gem, also known as track two on the EP:

Ringo Deathstarr -- "Sweet Girl" -- Ringo Deathstarr EP
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[buy the EP from SVC Records here]

>> When you look up "ducks in a row" in the Idiomatic Dictionary you may just find :: clicky clicky faves :: Mobius Band. Not only is their forthcoming record being issued by TWO record labels, but their forthcoming tour is being sponsored by Internet radio service WOXY (which refers to Matthew Dear as Mobius Band's former label mate, as does former tour sponsors M.F-R here -- clearly the Mobius Band label situation is confusing a lot of people, including us for a while). The trio played the Monolith Festival earlier this month and officially hits the road Oct. 1, the day before the new long player Heaven is in stores. Check out all the tour dates here, in case you didn't see them when we posted them here in August.

>> The official deets on the forthcoming third single from Manchester, England's The Answering Machine. As we reported here, the single will be for the track "Lightbulbs." What we didn't know until was that the record will be released in limited quantities on Regal Records Nov. 5, and the flipside will be a new recording of the song "Decadent." The quartet has posted "Lightbulbs" to its MySpace dojo so you can try before you buy -- check it out here. It's not too different from "It's Over! It's Over! It's over!" from the "Silent Hotels" single, but it is still a darn good song. Love that guitar tone, love the sound of real drums from the band's new drummer (or at least a better sounding drum machine, anyway), and we love the little glitches in the intro. Another great single. Thanks Answering Machine!

>> Plans for lunch Friday? Or breakfast if you are on the West Coast, supper if you are in Europe or the UK? Philadelphia's The A-Sides, who are former label mates with the late, lamented Okay Paddy and whose long-awaited Silver Storms was released yesterday, are playing a live set for Philly radio station WXPN at 12PM, and we expect that you can catch a live stream or an archived performance without too much hunting around the WXPN web presence.

Today's Hotness: The A-Sides, Prefuse 73, The Answering Machine

>> Philadelphia's The A-Sides said here a family emergency precipitated the cancellation of its set Thursday night at Cambridge, Mass.'s Middle East Rock Club. So obviously we won't be covering it as we said we would here. The quintet had been slated to support Calla. The A-Sides promised to make up the date during a planned U.S. tour in October. The band will release its sophomore set Silver Storms on Vagrant next month. In a more recent blog post here A-Sides posted a live clip of themselves performing the new cut "We're The Trees." Check it out.

>> Electronic music phenom Prefuse 73 will release the new set Preparations in late October on Warp. The label reports that the first single "The Class of 73 Bells" will be released Sept. 17. It features Prefuse principal Scott Herren collaborating with New York psych band School Of Seven Bells and Battles drummer John Stanier. Mr. Herren will tour the UK and Europe with a band in October, and U.S. dates are planned.

>> Christian Fennesz's solo debut Hotel Paral.lel will be reissued by Editions Mego Sept. 24. Mego released the initial version of the set ten years earlier. Hotel Paral.lel is apparently "an investigation into the sonic possibilities residing in guitar-based digital music, recorded just before mobile computing devices became the norm." The reissue appends two items to the original twelve: the song "5" was originally released as a 7" in 1996 on Syntactic; a video for the album track "Aus" is the other addition. More information including the details on a a pre-order discount are located here.

>> The release of Okay Paddy's new EP Where You Went?, which we recently reviewed here, has been moved to Sept. 4. As planned, label Prison Jazz today released a pretty solid EP from another act, New Motels, entitled Domestic Life.

>> According to a blog post here, scruffy English pop luminaries The Answering Machine are breaking in a new drummer, which sets our mind slightly at ease, because there is something spooky about a guitar band that has no drummer, yeh? Anyway, the new drummer is not named, so maybe he or she still has to prove him or herself or survive some odd hazing or something. The Answering Machine has scads of tour dates booked between now and early November, so the new drummer will certainly have plenty of chances to settle in with the band between now and then. Check all the tour dates at the band's MySpace yert here.

>> It's been far too long since we've mentioned Birmingham, UK-based noise pop trio Johnny Foreigner. So the latest and greatest is that the band will be recording some tracks in London early next week. Can't wait to hear them. Also, in case we didn't already say so, Johnny Foreigner is now booked to support not one, but two Meneguar UK tour dates: Sept. 26 in Leeds and Oct. 4 in Cambridge. Those will be amazing shows. Someone shoot video.

>> With music bloggers all up in the news nowadays, we were wondering when our next star turn will be, which made us wonder what the deal was with Boston's NEMO fest this year (we sat on a panel last year moderated by DoneWaiting.com's Rob Duffy). Anyway, according to the NEMO Internet Home Page, the conference will not be held this year. Here's part of the message: "We have decided to take a year off from the NEMO Music Festival while we focus on the 20th Anniversary of the Boston Music Awards, the [Popular Coffee Retailer] Music Makers Competition, the Verge College Music Conference and other entertainment related projects. We plan to revamp NEMO and do something bigger and better in 2008." You can read more here.

Review: Okay Paddy | Where You Went? [MP3]

American television's popular adaptation of the British situation comedy "The Office" has improbably brought Scranton, Penn. to the attention of the couch-potato nation, but folks attuned to the indie rock zeitgeist have had a more pressing reason to take notice. Scranton's Prison Jazz label has released great records from acts including The A-Sides (now signed to Vagrant; set to release a sophomore set next month Sept. 18) and the brilliant quartet Okay Paddy. Okay Paddy's debut full-length The Cactus Has A Point was one of our eight favorites of 2006, and this follow-up is equally as satisfying. An EP is typically a way station between albums, but Where You Went? is more of an explanation point. There are some stylistic tweaks and the production of Spinto Band fellow Nick Krill adds more sonic depth and perhaps even a touch of the wacky (are those trombones at the close of "Dumbwaiter"?). But the revelatory tone of the EP renders irrelevant stuffy analysis of artistic development. The band continues to craft songs that tout the melodic strengths of Pavement and Weezer, and Where You Went? is a five-song, feel-good party record for the musically well-appointed.

It opens with "Dumbwaiter," a composition that giddily swings alongside twelve-string exhortation and arresting vocal harmonies. The mug-hoisting track seems destined to be the drinking song of the coming semester, and perhaps intentionally so -- it has been crafted by a band that practices in a bar owned by one of the principals [read our Show Us Yours #8 for details]. The lackadaisical second number "Trounce Him" is a solid strummer with its own bits of glory, including the protracted delivery of the words "Walla Walla" and the unexpected violin and sort-of-expected mandolin. The almost absurdly slack closing track "Open It Up" rocks harder than the rest, riding an "All Along The Watch Tower" vamp in the verse and just hollering through the choruses. That said, it lacks some of the color and intricacy found elsewhere. Still, Where You Went? is more than 80% indispensable, and we believe it can't be too long before Okay Paddy follows former label mates The A-Sides to wider acclaim. Prison Jazz issued Where You Went? last month on no specific date. Folks just turning on to Okay Paddy should head over to the band's Internet Home Page linked below, where you can stream the aforementioned The Cactus Has A Point [review here]. Here's an MP3 of "Open It Up."

Okay Paddy -- "Open It Up" -- Where You Went?
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[buy Where You Went? from Prison Jazz right here]

Okay Paddy: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Show Us Yours #8: Okay Paddy

When we finally pulled Okay Paddy's first full-length The Cactus Has A Point out of our pile of submissions 14 months ago, it knocked our socks off. We reviewed it here. You can imagine our surprise when we learned that the quartet was based in Northeast Pennsylvania, Scranton to be exact, a town we used to wave to from the highway a couple times a year when traveling for holidays. We didn't consider the city any sort of hotbed of rock until we became more familiar with the other releases on Prison Jazz, which put out Cactus. Anyway, when we heard that Okay Paddy was about to release a new EP produced by Nick Krill of Spinto Band, we thought we'd check in with the band to see where they do what they do and what else they have in the works. Guitarist John Parise humored our questions, and our exchange is printed below, along with some forthcoming tour dates and some MP3S to download.

1. Why do you use this space?

We practice at the bar Brian [Craig, Okay Paddy's drummer] owns called The Bog, located in beautiful downtown Scranton. The Bar features a stage and a good p.a. We're able to set up during the day and practice before the neons are turned on. 3/4ths of us work there.

2. Explain how an idiosyncracy or quirk of this space has affected a song.

An idiosyncrasy would be the pole located in the middle of the stage -- really annoying but as a load bearing beam we respect the work that it does.

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

Stale beer. [Shoulda seen that one coming. -- Ed.]

4. We hear a fair amount of Pavement and Weezer in your records. Say Rivers Cuomo and Stephen Malkmus are the two finalists on a reality show of your devising. What would the task be to determine the winner between the two, and who do you expect would prevail?

Something like a T-ball game in which everybody wins. We won't be watching the game.

5. What do the next six months look like for the band?

A new EP in the spring [Where You Went, to be released on Prison Jazz], possibly a split 7" with The Sw!ms and shows, shows, shows.

04.13 -- Blues Street -- Scranton, PA
04.18 -- Roustabout! -- State College, PA
04.20 -- Johnny Brenda's -- Philadelphia, PA
05.26 -- Test Pattern -- Scranton, PA

Okay Paddy -- "Oo-Man, La-world" -- The Cactus Has A Point
Okay Paddy -- "Furrier" -- The Cactus Has A Point
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[buy The Cactus Has A Point from Prison Jazz here]

Okay Paddy: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Read earlier Show Us Yours features:

#1: Shapes And Sizes | #2: Dirty On Purpose
#3: Relay | #4: Mobius Band
#5: Frightened Rabbit | #6: Assembly Now
#7: Meneguar