Something To Write Home About

A little while ago I wrote about the new Jeremy Enigk solo album. Well, now he's on tour with Cursive for the last leg of their Happy Hollow tour.

Check out the tour dates:

November
03 Colorado Springs, CO - The Black Sheep
09 Omaha, NE - Sokol Auditorium
11 Columbia, MO - The Blue Note
12 Memphis, TN - Young Avenue Deli
13 Birmingham, AL - Bottle Tree
14 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
16 Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom
17 Charlotte, NC - Tremont Music Hall
18 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
20 Tallahassee, FL - The Moon
21 Gainesville, FL - Reitz Union Ballroom
22 Orlando, FL - The Club at Firestone
24 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
25 Austin, TX - Emo's
26 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom

Jeremy Enigk's site
Enigk on MySpace

Don't Make Me Wait

Click that picture up there. Listen to the song "Why Not Me." Do it. Right now. What are you thinking? Supergrass? The Kinks? The Sights, maybe?

I doubt you're thinking that this is the sound of four guys from Wisconsin who moved to Brooklyn, NY to get more attention for their band. But if you did, you'd be right. Funny, six years ago Detroit would've been the place for a band like this to move to for attention.

Simpler in influence than the Arctic Monkeys, younger than Supergrass, and more British Invasion than the Sights are these days, Locksley has a chance. This is one of those bands who critics find it so easy to discuss and throw around comments like 'pop-infused hooks' and 'punk enthusiasm'. Neither of those would be wrong, but it would be unjust to bestow such tired cliches on a band that does what they do so well.

It is poppy and hooky and they most certainly have a punk energy running through their songs. In fact, I'm quickly reminded of The Exploding Hearts who had a very similar sound, but theirs was more rooted in '70s power-pop. The boys in Locksley seem almost too good to be true with their hooks and all four of 'em taking turns singing. I swear I'm listening to The Raspberries or The Move or Badfinger or The Kinks. And just like the Exploding Hearts, these guys took a sound that they liked and made it their own.

The album doesn't sound forced, nor does it sound completely derivative. Original and fun and upbeat with good lyrics. They don't fuck around.

Go here to check out their MySpace page, and here for their site.

In the Morning of the Day

I think it was sometime before the movie Goodwill Hunting made Elliott Smith an indie-folk god when a million and one of my female friends were pushing him on me. He was good at what he did, he was a great songwriter, very talented, but I'm not so into it. I don't know why. Sometimes, I just can't get down with the sad bastard music.

But sometimes I can. When I first put in this new CD from Goldenboy, I immediately thought of the new-ish songs that Kevin Shields did for the Lost In Translation soundtrack. So I started listening to the rest of the album, and it is sad bastard-y, but I still like it. I hear some Johnny Marr in the music, and some Kevin Shields as well as Elliott Smith in the vocals and lyrics. It's textured and poppy.

Goldenboy consists of Shon Sullivan and Bryan Bos. Apparently Shon toured with Smith years ago and he referred to Sullivan as 'Goldenboy'. It's taken a couple weeks, but these two are growing on me. Their new album "underneath the radio" comes out on October 3rd. I have a track you can check out, it's called "Summer of the Evening." You can check out more songs on their MySpace page, and if you click on the picture above, you can check out their regular site.

Jack the Ripper

There's something new coming out of Southend, UK. Something menacing, the likes of which hasn't been seen since The Meteors terrorized us with their psychobilly stomp in the '80s. The Cramps were doing the same thing at the same time, but The Meteors had this evil, dark thing going on, much like The Horrors do now.

The Horrors aren't even old enough to legally drink in this country, but somehow have been on the cover of NME twice, and have a video directed by Chris Cunningham featuring Samantha Morton. You gotta see this to get an idea of where these guys are coming from: Sheena Is a Parasite.

There's this darkness that makes me think of Nick Cave, but then there's the trash/camp/Elvis worship of The Cramps. I should explain that the 'billy' in psychobilly here is really more like surf guitar with Elvis-style vocals. Mean, skeery Elvis vocals. Oh, and I almost forgot the organ, there's lots of that. Addams Family style. Even better, sometimes the vocals and guitar style are like The Fall! They dress in suits, kind of like The Strokes, but these kids would kick the latter's fashionable asses. Their first EP comes out on October 24th, but you can check them out right now MySpace right here.

Turn the Beat Around

Glasgow's El Presidente have something for you. It's a slice of T Rex glam tempered with some Scissor Sisters disco style. Check out the video for Without You. Go here to check out the band's site, and as usual, their MySpace page. I'm really liking this band. So far I've only heard a handful of tracks, but I'd watch out for them. Bet on hearing this on the radio in the near future.

Eveningland

This is what I love about the alt-country genre, you can be folk and country and poppily atmospheric and it all fits. I guess I really don't like genres and classification, but it's a necessary evil if one is to explain what a band sounds like.

The Brooklyn band Hem has a new album out this week titled "Funnel Cloud." If you haven't heard this stuff yet, I recommend it. There's a bit of Neko Case (with and without the New Pornographers), but then there's also some Nick Drake, Belle & Sebastien, Beth Orton, and Patty Griffith in there, too.

I probably shouldn't bring up the alt-country thing because that may skew your opinion before you hear Hem. A better way of putting it would be traditional American music. And the band's principal members Dan Messe, Sally Ellyson, Steve Curtis, and Gary Maurer completely and totally bring it on this record. Guest players include Amy Helm (of Olabelle), the 21-piece Gowanus Radio Orchestra, and James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins). The instrumentation alone is staggering: piano, celeste, glockenspiel, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and harmonica.

You can check out Hem's site here, and you can click on that pic below to check out their MySpace page.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, breakdown!

So many different things come to mind when I hear this four-piece from Leeds (UK). Note that there should be an upside down exclamation point before the band's name and a regular one after it. That's how Forward Russia prefers to do things. They also prefer to name all of their songs after numbers.

Their stuff is prog-rock, but not like Yes, and it's staccato, but not quite like Nation of Ulysses. I hear Gang of Four, The Plot To Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, some recent acts like Franz Ferndinand and the Editors, maybe some Libertines, too. Oh, and you can't forget the Public Image Ltd influence. It took me a minute to figure out why the vocals sounded so familiar, but then it struck me. This guy sounds an awful lot like John Lydon (PiL era only).

Their album "Give Me a Wall" comes out on 9/19 on Mute Records. You can go here to check out the song "Thirteen" from Forward Russia. Then click on that picture of the band to check out their site. Of course, they're on MySpace, too.

Good Mourning

Through a totally chance occurance, a friend of mine posted a bulletin on MySpace a few days ago about something I can't believe I didn't know. Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio has a new project. It's called Heavens. His roommate Josiah Steinbrick (also of Thieves Like Us) has recorded some solo music and they were listening to it one day and decided to make something out of it. The result is the album "Patent Pending," which is due out next Tuesday (9/12).

After following Alkaline Trio for so long now, through six albums, I think it's become clear that Skiba has more than a passing interest in the darker side of life. It's in his lyrics and his music and the graphic design chosen for all of the band's merchandise. With Heavens, he has chance to truly explore that dark side. In a blurb Heavens' MySpace page, he actually says he drew on Sisters of Mercy as an influence. And that's what I'm talking about. That dark goth sound of the '80s like Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Echo & the Bunnymen (on occasion), and Joy Division.

Right now you can go to the band's MySpace page and stream the whole album. If you're an Alkaline Trio fan, or have an interest in those other bands I just mentioned, I highly recommend you go here and check it out.