Down the Tiny Steps

Jonnie, songwriter for Down the Tiny Steps, recently put out a demo track titled Catapult, and there is a video of the performance at The Boat Tavern located in Cellardyke. He informed me, "It's one of my older tracks to be honest, but that is a new recording/version of it. Closer to the way we play it live." The new version has been tagged "demo", representing a step toward the next recording of Catapult, which will be "a bit more snappy."

I asked Jonnie for the meaning of the album title Death by Telegraph Stop. He informed me that the title "means a few things but its certainly open to interpretation." In a newsletter sent to record company subscribers last month, he described how the title was inspired - in a sense - by "coming across an old, rusty telegraph pole in the middle of the woods."


Since Glasgow - the dear green place - was established a long time ago, it is safe to assume that the city has had a band scene since the 6th century. There, you will find the folk-rock experiment Down the Tiny Steps, postulated by their latest album Death by Telegraph Stop. This may be the first band to ever use a digital staccato scottish brogue rhythm in Summer is for Going Places. How they finessed this gum bumping experimentation is an example of the group's inventive intelligence.

summer's for going places
winter's for watching film
in this state of constant travel
there's no time for standing still

Perhaps Summer  was inspired by the constant motion of a touring band - country hopping from stage to brightly-lit stage. To revel in the warmth of can lights and applause.

player @ myspace
video @ youtube (summer is for going places)
video @ youtube (dial tone)
profile @ myspace
home page @ downthetinysteps
label @ fence records

The Lovely Sparrows

In the first verse of Chemicals Change  the singer considers father's recurring cliche:

if love's the truth, your heart's the consequence

After the familial quote, no more worn out statements follow, and none of the lines repeat - only the title's phrase. With an anti-hero's attitude, a self-absorbed singer-songwriter reflects on a relationship that has dissolved, and how the chemistry - the formula that initially drew it together - had changed. Shawn Jones' inviting intuitive introspection is absent in much folk material.

five days ago, chemicals changed
rearranged themselves in sad stubborn ways

Modern-flamenco stained fingers and maraca staccato oppose the desolate theme and Jones' somber vocal track(the liquor that keeps these separating fluids solute).

From two questions, the title of Sparrows'  2006 release can be extracted, followed by a few more lines that enhance its meaning.

can I pull up floors? can I pour on new paint?
can I lay down tonight and just forget your face?

profile @ myspace
mp3 @ abandonedloverecords (chemicals change - the lovely sparrows)
mp3 @ thelovelysparrows (i have a need you see - the lovely sparrows)
feed @ hypem
video @ youtube (backstage)
home page @ thelovelysparrows
label @ abandonedloverecords

Update:

In the lead number, Chemicals Change, singer-songwriter Shawn Jones ponders over a breezy flamenco guitar pattern...

- Austin Sound

Contacted Shawn Jones, to ask him about the "flamenco" reference, having detected something Spanish-sounding myself. He suggested, "what most reviewers are getting at is a loose latin feel that begins in the second verse [of Chemicals Change ]."

Jones added how he tends to avoid the "straightforward approach" when writing new compositions, and arranging instrumental harmonies, in particular. He likes "the idea of basic folk songs that are enhanced by an interesting arrangement." An example of such can be found in War Has Seen the Best of Me.

Shapes and Sizes

Shapes and Sizes has been compared to bands like The Fiery Furnaces, for their shape-shifting style(not to claim that Furnaces  and Shapes  have a similar sound). Since Shapes  is difficult to genre-tag, the listener might find it easier to discover comparable styles tucked away in particular tracks. This freak-folk fringe chameleon continues to snatch new sounds out of mid-air with its projectile tongue. But this is not a one songwriter band.

...there's three people writing songs for the band. I think that it makes the band's sound a little harder to pin down than some. I guess the challenges for the band might be different. When some bands are trying hard to make the songs sound varied from each other, we're often trying to make the songs sound more cohesive.

- Nathan Gage, 5/25/07

The first track of their first, self-titled LP, Island's Gone Bad, is a two-act example of the group's genre-jumping potential. In the middle of the track, a new drum rhythm starts, which could be taken as the beginning of a new song. Lyrically, in a sense, the whole song seems to be an analogy, with modern society lapsing into Lord of the Flies-style cannibalism. Also, there is a character in the novel - nicknamed Piggy, which happens to be the title of a track on their new LP.

mp3 @ sxsw (island's gone bad - shapes and sizes)

Shape's  sophomore Split Lips, Winning Hips, a Shiner continues to establish their reputation for convention cracking compositions.

The two tracks - Alone/Alive  and Teller/Seller - each have a forward slash in their title. Coincidentally, one of Nathan Gage's favorite bands is the avant-garde Akron/Family.

profile @ myspace
mp3 @ recidivism (head movin' - shapes and sizes)
mp3 @ asthmatickitty (alone/alive - shapes and sizes)
mp3 @ teamclermont (teller/seller - shapes and sizes)
mp3 @ greenclothesmusic (piggy - shapes and sizes)
feed @ hypem
video @ youtube (piggy - shapes and sizes)
video @ youtube (teller/seller - shapes and sizes)
review @ pitchforkmedia
interview @ stagehymns
home page @ shapesandsizes
label @ asthmatickitty

Papercuts

Including a compilation of home-recorded demo tracks, Can't Go Back is the third release by northern California-toned Papercuts - sonically suspended in late-60s amber by singer-songwriter Jason Quever.

Quever teases mid-60s Dylan with a one-two beat in Take the 227th Exit. A more market-friendly track, John Brown  continues through the psych-folk scented coastal fog - a consistently articulated dream scape. Where peripheral glimpses of the silhouettes of Spector and Dylan can be detected.

His recordings remain lyrically developed and compositionally complete - unlike so many primitive indie-folk recordings. Which themselves stagnate, more than they enhance the genre. Quever demonstrates how far beyond open-mic folk he really is.

mp3 @ gnomonsong (john brown - papercuts)
profile @ myspace
review @ pitchfork
label @ gnomonsong
feed @ hypem

Pale Young Gentlemen

Madison-based Pale Young Gentlemen can be tossed into the baroque pop genre. But their classical compositions featuring piano-cello arrangements are much more baroque than pop. From a group that gives riffs to cello - rather than some distorted electric guitar - the typical indie-head may not expect to find anything buzzworthy. True that - in an MTV sense - but not every ear insists exclusively upon stereotypical pop formulas that spark in the upper slots of the independent Billboard chart. Where you can find emo, rap and death-metal jockeying for position in the top 20.

There may be indications that PYG will not repeat the same theme and style saturation next time. The indie-rock-pop genre tag in their MySpace profile does not seem tongue-in-cheek. A band of this sort would need to lean toward a more popular sound in order to increase their fan base. They clearly have the talent to accomplish that.

PYG's self-titled debut LP is an example of a dark horse avant-garde band disguised as a group of musicians crammed into a tiny orchestra pit in a little theater. The work of a innovative band showing off its classical chops to the world.

mp3 @ obscuresound (fraulein - pale young gentlemen)
mp3 @ obscuresound (saturday night - pale young gentlemen)
profile @ myspace
review @ adequacy
review @ tinymixtapes

Cat Power

Cat Power's latest album The Greatest peaked at #1 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart - which is "based solely on sales". When considering Chan Marshall's story, missing from such an assessment are the factors of cult status and critical reviews. Perhaps a chunk of her wholeheartedly enthusiastic long-term fans have considered the stylistic detour - which the album took - a bum rap. But, based on comments coming out of the cluttered offices of critical acclaim, Greatest blows a hole through the graffiti etched brick wall of her cult stratum. Which opens the door to a wider fan base.

The album's title track takes Chan back to home turf, and includes guitar work by Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, "lead guitarist and songwriter on many of Al Green's popular soul hits of the 1970s." Add to that a group of musicians who took part in the shaping of Memphis soul in the late 60s. Most of the tracks were laid down in one take. Such a influential lineup may be part of the reason why The Greatest costed 7 times more to make than any of her previous albums.

player @ myspace
interview @ harp
mp3 @ matador (the greatest)
real player @ matador (he war)
real player @ matador (cross bones style)
label @ matador

Update:

Against their will, a Cat Stevens cover song has become a hit for Matador Records, sort of. Chan Marshall, sung on a 30 second long recorded section of the song How Can I Tell You, that was used in a generic diamond commercial(probably DeBeers). Marshall's performance proved to be very marketable. During the approaching 2006 holiday season: "For the past several weeks, our esteemed General Manager has been besieged with daily email from persons desperate to purchase some version of this recording," wrote Matador Records Co-President Gerard Cosloy.

Check out the cross-fire between hungry fans and frustrated record company execs on the Matador Records Blog.

video @ youtube (how can i tell you - cat stevens)

As the Cat Power breakout buzz gets a little louder, fans search for information about Chan(pronounced "shawn") Marshall, the law of supply and demand has resulted in more video interviews popping up in YouTube. Below is a partial link listing of various interviews at different stages of her career.

video @ youtube
video @ youtube
video @ youtube
video @ youtube
video @ youtube
video @ youtube

Spoon

This Austin-based band has a solid long-term following—above ground and below. The tinny band name Spoon was inspired by the title of a 1972 avant-garde krautrock hit of the same title. These days, we use the tag experimental  to reference sound sketching bands that enhance the underground music scenery—and occasionally spike up on popular music charts.

Pitchfork contributing writer Eric Harvey gave Underdog  the if-any-track-was designation of quintessential Spoon pop single. Coincidentally, Spoon has a band member by the name of Eric Harvey who contributes keyboard, guitar, percussion, backing vocals.

Consumers use a spoon to scoop up every drop, as you should. Spoon's latest entrée Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, is a track listing of savory rock creations, and has nothing to do with the Heimlich manoeuvre. Also, any valley girl-ian gag me with a spoon reference is antithetic. Their latest sonic menu is a g-g-g-g-grower, according to the highfalutin critical crowd.

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• merch @ merge records (don't you evah [spoon])
• vid @ youtube (don't you evah [spoon])
• mp3 @ mp3glu
• home page @ spoontheband
• profile @ myspace
• reviews @ pitchfork
• radio @ google play
• interview @ a.v. club

Art in Manila

After receiving differing opinions from legal consultants, "the band formerly known as Art Bell" is now labeled Art in Manila. The former, a more direct reference to the well-known radio host for paranormal research programming. Who in recent years, relocated his show from Nevada to the Philippines - then back to Nevada again.

Band leader, Orenda Fink, is singeing Smokey Bear with the group's August debut of Set the Woods on Fire. Lyrically, her material can tend to be introspective - with explicit details camouflaged, as opposed to a stereotypical "emo tell-all."

Fink's sensuous somber vocal habit carries the upbeat Our Addictions  through haunted string stretches and twangs of country-rock.

stream @ pitchfork (the sweat descends - art in manila)
mp3 @ pitchfork (set the woods on fire - art in manila)
mp3 @ lostinyourinbox (our addictions - art in manila)
mp3 @ saddle creek (the abomination - art in manila)
interview @ miami new times (orenda fink)

The Acorn

This month, the fruit of the oak falls to make a sweet sound in the forest with Glory Hope Mountain. A word play title and lyrical silhouette of Gloria Esperanza Montoya, mother of Rolf Klausener - main songwriter for The Acorn.

Last December, this Ottawa, Ontario-based folk-rock band released the six-pack EP Tin Fist, after a year-long tour.

The Acorn is now slated to perform at the second venue of their 21 stop Canadian tour that will hit Montreal on October 11th. The home town of keyboard player Keiko Devaux, who joined Acorn in 2006.

Klausener informed Exclaim! that Lullaby (Mountain) captured the essence of the relationship between he and his mother. Also, after learning that Honduran lullabies were traditionally sung by one or two women, the feminine touch of Casey Mecija from Toronto-based Ohbijou was used for the six-pence sweetened vocal melody on Glory's final track.

mp3 @ gvsbchris (lullaby mountain - the acorn)
mp3 @ ipickmynose (dents - the acorn)
mp3 @ quickbeforeitmelts (blankets - the acorn)
interview @ exclaim!
label @ paper bag records

Broken Social Scene

In 2006, Toronto-based Broken Social Scene performed 7⁄4 (Shoreline) on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. 7⁄4 indicates the complex time signature of the composition. By listening closely to the drums, one can count out the seven beats. In addition to that, there is a half-beat pause before the accented cymbal, on the seventh beat. The musicians are counting: | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 | - which is also revealed by the drum pattern.

Feist fans will be able to recognize the vocals of band member Leslie Feist, who is currently signed with a major label.

profile @ myspace
mp3 @ jonmwang.com (7⁄4 shoreline)
label @ arts&crafts

Gary Jules

The cover version of the Tears for Fears song Mad World is singer Gary Jules' claim to fame. With a Stipe-style vocal melody, Jules  helped pull the tune out of its synth-heavy early-80s package into the realm of mellow keyboard ballads. Movie score composer Michael Andrews - who played piano on the recording - tailored Mad World  for his instrumental-dominated Donnie Darko soundtrack.

Mad World continues to be featured in television soundtracks and commercials. Jules also wrote and recorded the song Falling Awake, which could be heard during an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Below is the third verse:

You never get to choose
You live on what they sent you
And you know they’re gonna use
The things you love against you

This singer-songwriter proves his chops with clean vocal and acoustic tracks. Not only does he share his words - he shares his heart.

profile @ myspace
mp3 @ saper.infra (mad world - donnie darko soundtrack - 2002)
mp3 @ butterteam (mad world - tears for fears - 1982)
mp3 @ obscuresound (mad world - tears for fears - 1982)
lyrics @ garyjules (falling awake)

Earlimart

L.A.-based indie-rock band Earlimart has returned from a two-year hiatus with Mentor Tormentor, including the Aimee Mann-ish track Happy Alone, which seems to capture the essence of a musical relationship in peril, with bassist Ariana Murray singing about a tormentor. Evident is the angst of the member of a rock band that has been in a continuous state of flux for years. The sorrowfully sweet vocal melody begins with:

call in the air strike, tell them to make the drop
initiate a cycle no one but you can stop

She may be speaking directly to Aaron, through this beautiful gem she wrote.

Frontman Aaron Espinoza listed the complications affecting the band since the 2004 release, Tremble & Tremble. "We had been dropped from our record label, we had money problems, and we had different band members leaving," he informed Seattle Weekly.

Perhaps one could also take Happy Alone as a stylistic reprise to their previous Elliot Smith tribute - for the somber shadow it casts.

Based on hard facts, Aaron and Ariana are survivors.

aaron espinoza interview @ prefixmag
player @ myspace
mp3 @ pitchfork
image @ spin

Golden Bear

Golden Bear is a hero of the universe, and the personification of a indie-rock group based in Austin, Texas—the band you will find in the galactic-forest rock genre—characterized by themes of triumph, hope and excitement, along with rocking anthemic riffs and bombastic beats to create a melodious roar, according to their label, C-side Records.

Galactic Forest also happens to be the name of a die-hard intergalactic task force mentioned in a novel titled, Reclusive Authority by Bruce Kost, in which a host of various races of lifeforms throughout the universe join forces against a metagalactically sinister force that threatens to destroy them.

It is likely that, frontman Chris "Grizzle" Gregory based the band's name on the legendary Golden Bear, a large golden member of the Ursus arctos species, which includes the brown bear and the Kodiak bear.

To make a long story short, if a multitude of orchestras—from all over the universe—got together for a cosmic jam, Ten Thousand Orchestras would make a good encore.

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myspace: golden bear

Amy Millan

Image: Kirstie Shanley | Amy Millan at Vic Theater (2008)

Singer-songwriter, Amy Millan, informed her publicist, I wanted to make a record that had a thru line between pop music and old, country music. Former roommates—who were bluegrass musicians—may have had something to do with her country music influence. She struggled to bring about an indie-country mind-meld, until someone told her that her voice was the key. I suppose, she also needs to realise: if she actually began to write perfectly blended—50/50—pop-country songs, she may not be able to turn such an ability off. Some gifts are like that.

Her latest CD, Honey from the Tombs, contains some pop, much country, a bluegrass tune, and then there is one track that departs from all that—the dark horse of the album, Wayward and Parliament. Amy worked at a coffeeshop on Parliament street in Toronto, Canada that housed a collection of about 3000 CDs. There, she got hooked on music by Brian Eno. Pitchfork deemed the track an experimental anomaly. Such manifestations of creativity are part of what help keep the indie genre alive.

Arts & Crafts: Amy Millan

1990s

This Glasgow-based indie rock band has been described as fun, vibrant music without requiring originality, variety, or strong lyrics, according to Critical Culture. But don't let a review like that drizzle on the parade, because the critical consensus rates the latest album, Cookies, "good". The track, You're Supposed to be My Friend represents rock in all its distorted glory. Another alehouse anthem for young blood that will rub rockers raw-red. And spiked with songwriter Jackie McKeown's painfully honest clowning. The lyrics remind me of the ironic dilemma of being friends with someone who is also too busy with other things and other people to ever be around. Jackie may have been a reclusive studio-dweller while the 1990s were laying down tracks.

You're never home!
You're never at my place neither
Well that makes two of us!

Along with indie rock, Cookies typifies power pop with it's catchy hooks and spunky guitar riffs. But that category title does nothing for the connotation of the partier-driven jams of the 1990s. Your music collection needs another splash - two shots of Rock straight-up.

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• YouTube: 1990s: Cookies: You're Supposed to Be My Friend
• YouTube: 1990s: Cookies: See You at the Lights
• YouTube: 1990s: Cookies: Weed
• YouTube: 1990s: Cookies: Cult Status
• YouTube: 1990s: Cookies: Weed
• YouTube: 1990s: Cookies: Situation
• Pitchfork: 1990s
• Rough Trade
• Wikipedia: 1990s

El Perro Del Mar

One day, on the edge of some Spanish island, a dog appears by the sea to take Sarah Assbring out of her long-term creative slump. From that moment in 2003, her career took a different direction. In 2006, her self-titled release, El Perro Del Mar, received good reviews.

Pitchfork considers You Gotta Give To Get the album's "strongest tune" - I agree in a sense, and it is clearly the fullest track - but at least one of her other songs will delve deeper into your soul. Perhaps Dogs will, or maybe Party. There is something about Sarah's sugar-sweet melancholic melodies that pulls the deepest blues out of the sea.

mp3 @ headphones-on
player @ myspace
stream @ lickingfingers (Hello Goodbye)
video @ youtube (Party)
bio @ tag team media
blog @ elpd.blogspot
interview @ linapark6
home @ el perro del mar
I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello

Busdriver

Busdriver, aka Regan J Farquhar, is firmly rooted in the hip-hop family tree. His father, Ralph Farquhar, wrote the screenplay for the 1985 movie Krush Groove—one of the earliest films focusing on the hip-hop culture.

Have you heard of Ghettotech? Me neither. Not until after listening to the hot wired hip-hop programmed into a jam titled Sunshowers (edIT redo)—a reconstruction of an existing recording. Bus Driver has integrated plenty of urban information technology into this track. From the sliced-and-diced vocal chorus salad, to the quirky rap lyrics delivered by a ghetto nerd—your brain will be break dancing in a hip-hop euphoria.

Imaginary Places, on the other hand, is a concoction of classical music and rap staccato that presents evidence of the idiosyncrasies of Bus Driver's personality and zany sense of humor.

Eons ago, some predicted the demise of jazz, just as some today may continue to insist upon a short life expectancy for hip-hop. But Bus Driver seems to prove how hip-hop is a die-hard genre that will echo through alleys for many years to come.

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• YouTube: Busdriver: Sunshowers (edIT redo)
• YouTube: Busdriver: Imaginary Places

José González

The Swedish-born Argentine acoustic folk singer-songwriter, José González, released his debut album, Veneer, in 2003 in Sweden.

Mute Records has slated September 25th for the release of In Our Nature. González—who is not just a folk sylist—has mingled acoustic guitar with experimental electronica, teaming up with Zero 7—in Futures.

A direful downward chord progression reverberates with heavy-handed guitar strumming along with the vocal echoing "don't let the darkness eat you up" in the foreboding track Down the Line. Which has been accompanied by a video inspired by a early 90s comic book Manhog Beyond the Face—the odyssey of a half-man half-pig.

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• YouTube: José González: Crosses
• YouTube: José González: Crosses (Live)
• YouTube: José González: Heartbeats
• Prefix Magazine: José González
• Peacefrog Records
• MySpace: José González: Songs
• Home: José González
• YouTube: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert: José González
• YouTube: Zero 7 featuring José González: Futures
• YouTube: José González: Cycling Trivialities
• YouTube: José González
• Facebook: José González
• Spotify: José González

Basquiat Strings

Under the leadership of cellist Ben Davis, this London-based jazz quintet made the 2007 shortlist for the Mercury Prize, which is considered Europe's number one arts prize. Simply to make that list tends to fling nominees into a dramatic increase in sales and media attention in Europe and the UK. Davis was a bit shocked by the nomination, telling the Guardian, I'm still trying to make sense out of it. Each week I've had to order another thousand copies of the CD to be printed up. It's a bit mad.

Imagine neo-beatniks hanging out at a smoky basement club, snapping their fingers to rhythmically cool jazz grooves. Basquiat Strings self-titled debut album, composed by Davis, contains soundtracks of the Beat Generation—which followed the advent of Sputnik(with its own steady beep).

At Basquiant Strings' site, the musically astute can click the listen link for textual notes on the musical framework for three of their pieces. For example, Double-Dares is underlayed with a 7/4 Macedonian tapan rhythm I doubt even the grooviest jazz fans picked up on that.

Jazz may not be your first love, but every once in a while the Irish whiskey drinker might be seen taking a swig from a French cognac bottle.

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MySpace: Basquiat Strings: Songs

Iron and Wine

Sam Beam—mountain man of the indie renaissance and front man of Iron and Wine—raised the bar a couple of times in the last few years. Previously, with the 6-pack of sounds packaged in Woman King, then again with the highly polished collection of beautiful guitar work and Americana spell cast by The Shepard's Dog. Not even Sam's deadpan expression could keep us from smiling about the latest tracks.

Shepard's upbeat primary and primo track—Boy with a Coin—deserves applause, or at least inspirits us to clap along. Its lyrical density with strong imagery details a scene as well as any novel could, but with fewer words.

A boy with a coin he found in the weeds
With bullets and pages of trade magazines
Close to a car that flipped on the turn
When God left the ground to circle the world

Layers of guitar rhythms, vocal harmonies and a fluid bass line enchant while hand claps mark time. In the background, choppy drum beats spice the rhythmic recipe while slide guitar drifts through the room like wood smoke.

As the creative talent of Iron and Wine quickly gels, we look forward to another growth spurt, and another road trip through Americana.

Listen to Iron and Wine MP3s at the Sub Pop site:

Sub Pop: Videography: Iron and Wine