STEVE MASON

"After the announcement that the former Beta Band frontman is playing Electric Picnic, it has been revealed that Steve Mason recently signed to an imprint of Domino Records called Double Six.

The first single ‘Lost & Found’ is a Beta Band-esque number after his diversions into previous solo albums as King Biscuit Time and Black Affair and troubles in-between. An acoustic-based album Boys Outside produced by Richard X is out in the first week in May."

http://www.nialler9.com/2010/03/29/beta-band-steve-mason/

SXSW 2010

BOWERBIRDS



CATE LE BON



SURFER BLOOD

HOT RATS

"The Hot Rats consist entirely of Supergrass singer/guitarist/frontman Gaz Coombes and Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey (the bass player must have been busy that week). Their material consists entirely of other bands’ songs. The results are split between genuine fun and ho-hum predictability, with a fortunate emphasis on the former. This dichotomy applies both to material and arrangements. No one will be surprised to learn, for example, that the guys from Supergrass like the Sex Pistols enough to cover one of their songs. Similarly, their version of David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” is more or less exactly like the original, only stripped down to a leaner guitar/bass/drums format. All it really does is remind you that “Queen Bitch” is really cool—then you pull out Hunky Dory and the Hot Rats are all but forgotten.

The Hot Rats’ version of “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)”, however, is the kind of reinvention that justifies the existence of covers albums in the first place. By writing an entirely new melody and replacing the signature riff with an airy two-chord acoustic vamp, the Hot Rats have transformed the song into a completely different animal, while retaining the original’s anthemic qualities. The only awkward moment is the substitution of “Hot Rats boys” for “Beastie Boys” in the third verse. (Hey, it still rhymes, right?)

Along the same lines, their version of “Love Is the Drug”, while maintaining Roxy Music’s disco sensibilities, changes the drug from glassy cocaine splendor to beer-and-weed rambunctiousness. The Hot Rats improve on the Cure’s “The Lovecats” by playing up the rhythmic aspect and propelling the song along with “Lust for Life”-style drums. Presenting Gang of Four’s “Damaged Goods” in an acoustic format teases out nuances that are much harder to discern in the abrasive original.

Other covers are less successful. The Doors’ “The Crystal Ship” would remain perfervid hogwash regardless of its presentation, but exaggerating the dynamic shifts and bombast doesn’t really help. (Full disclosure: I just plain don’t like the Doors. Someone else might dig this track.) Despite slight changes in instrumentation, new versions of “Pump It Up” and the Sex Pistols’ “E.M.I.” suffer from the “Queen Bitch” problem, and while they add a few new riffs to the Velvet Underground’s “I Can’t Stand It”, the finished product just kind of sits there. As for Pink Floyd’s “Bike”, well, no one can out-weird Syd Barrett. Any attempt to do so is bound to come up short, and actually releasing the results only draws attention to the divide. Of course, deranged psychedelia provides such a flawless counterpoint to the disquietingly childlike lyrics, so a stripped-down garage-rock version wouldn’t have worked either… maybe they just shouldn’t do that one.

Outside of the phenomenal misstep of “Bike”, though, Turn Ons remains high-spirited and fun throughout. Even if new versions of “Queen Bitch” or “Pump It Up” don’t do a whole lot to justify their existence, they don’t represent a net loss to humanity; they’re good songs, performed with love and conviction. The lasting impression is of a rock band—experienced but still energetic—screwing around in the studio or garage and playing some of their favorite tunes. Presumably, that’s the whole point; if so, they’ve succeeded admirably. Whether you want to stick around for the whole session is up to you. It’s worth at least dropping by. "

By David Gassmann

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/119385-the-hot-rats-turn-ons/

WE HAVE BAND!!!

Scanners.... O regresso.

Yeasayer

"Like their Brooklyn neighbors Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective, Yeasayer are pioneers of a scene that refuses to choose between a sense of experimental adventure and pure pop pleasure. It's a balance they're perfecting as they grow older: On their 2007 debut, they were freak-folkies with a knack for creating hot Eastern-flavored grooves (check out the hallucinatory video for "Wait for the Summer"). On their follow-up, they dive deeper into electronics and big Eighties beats (literally: They hired Peter Gabriel's old drummer). The result is simultaneously stranger and poppier, more celebratory and more serious.

"The Children" opens with clattering beats, synth heaves and processed vocals that crossbreed T-Pain with the Residents — yet at the core it's a gentle ballad about vigilant, and potentially vengeful, kids. "Ambling Alp" is a hugely catchy anthem framed as a father-to-son pep talk, dated by references to foes of prizefighter Joe Louis; its scrumptious reggae-pop chorus and falsetto bridge unspool amid splashing water and ricocheting ray guns. The most killing jam is "O.N.E.," a dubby blast of samba-spiked funk that finds singer Anand Wilder wrestling with a love jones like a schizo Daryl Hall; it cries out for a dozen remixes. It's all held together with thundering, radio-ready drums and choruses that wouldn't sound out of place in a Depeche Mode song. These kids want it all, and with Odd Blood, Yeasayer get it."

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/31959726/review/31962027/odd_blood

Soap & Skin

" Kids these days listen to the darndest things. So it follows that they're in a position to make the darndest music, which is one way, perhaps, to describe what Anja Plaschg is doing with Soap&Skin, a project that's already turned a few heads in the young singer's native Austria. Plaschg recorded Lovetune for Vacuum, her debut album, while still a teenager, and the record is in many ways a document of what an ugly, awkward, erratic-- and, occasionally, glorious and transcendent-- process growing up can be. Tracks teeming with tension and lyrics detailing obsession and strife rub right up against moments of clarity and respite, just as Plaschg's chosen instrument, the piano, is sometimes usurped by more gnarled sounds of electronic origin. For all its connotations of purity, a vacuum, after all, is also a place where you can't breathe.

Plaschg is part of a generation of music-lovers not bound by the strictures of geography and commerce, free to gorge on sounds in limitless abundance. So is it any wonder that Lovetune sounds like some unholy union of Nico and Regina Spektor and Aphex Twin and a sizable chunk of the Fonal and Monika rosters? And, sure, some You Are Free-era Cat Power too, and Autechre, and maybe Stina Nordenstam, and certainly Björk, and a good deal of the classical/art song vanguard as well. The Nico namedrop has the most currency, particularly given Plaschg's native tongue and the fact that she has already portrayed the iconic musician/model in a play back home. Indeed, it's tempting to posit Lovetune as the sort of record Nico might be making today had she not taken off on her bicycle that fateful day in 1988.

— Matthew Solarski, July 28, 2009 "

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13285-lovetune-for-vacuum/

Banda revelação 2010

Doll is Mine recomenda...

Twin Tigers

"Straight out of the Athens, Georgia indie rock scene, Twin Tigers mix pop, rock and shoegaze overtones to create a signature sound that is some of the best new music to come out of the southeast in years.

And, there's an interesting back story; Twin Tigers was formed by co-workers at Athens' Grit restaurant, which is owned by REM founder, and local celebrity, Michael Stipe. Guitarist and vocalist Matthew Rain and bassist Aimee Morris founded Twin Tigers in the ashes of their previously dissolved bands. In February of 2008, the band released their debut EP, Curious Faces/Violet Future, to rave reviews. Soon the Twin Tigers were building a loyal fan base and opening shows for artists like Deerhunter, Dead Confederate, Jay Reatard (RIP), Black Lips, Woods, Snowden and A Place to Bury Strangers."

http://www.indierockcafe.com/