Brand Spankin'

It’s been too long.

Four years after the release of Around the Sun (a slow paced record the band almost disowns) the trio from Athens have put out a record not of this time. Fans and critics alike had been wondering if REM had a best before date that expired at the end of the century; but I am here to tell you that this is their most important offering since 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi. That disc had its share of rockers, but it was their previous disc, 1994’s Monster that is their definitive and classic sounding rock record.

The romantically linked duo that is Wye Oak – Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack – take what some may call shoegaze and push it in a vast swath of directions. If Children constantly flirts with folk, without being able to commit. It ranges from the jangly, distorted, feedback-laden single, “Warning”, to the laid back, sleepy-eyed, “Archaic Smile”. Surprisingly, both Jenn and Andy lend their voices to the album without anything lost when trading off songs. For a twosome, the Baltimore couple makes a considerable amount of noise on the album.

What’s the big deal?

It’s surprising, but this is only the fourth official full length from the band and the man that share the name Danko Jones. In the past decade they’ve released consistent, in your face records and toured endlessly around the world (they’re huge in Europe). This disc shows some diversity though; on tracks such as “Take Me Home” Danko (the man) sings instead of his usual “talk/sing/growl” combination. He actually can sing as well. Guests on the record include John Garcia (Kyuss) and Pete Stahl (Goatsnake) on the standout track “Forest of the Trees”.

Who’s behind it?

A favorite producer of Jones’, Nick Raskulinecz has worked on albums by Rush, Foo Fighters and Velvet Revolver. He’s even a Grammy winner.

The sophomore slump is a difficult thing to ignore. Sometimes bands take too long between albums, or sometimes people realize that maybe there wasn't anything especially interesting about the band in between discs. Sometimes the times and trends change. In cases like this, there is always much hype, much internet chatter and a publicity machine that can build for months.

Another week of new release's has come and thanks to a collaborative effort by Curt and Nick, they have managed to review what they consider to be five of the finest.

(Note: This EP was released in early 2007, but with an album on the way, the influence that one of the songs on Sho had on Sara’s latest, and the relative lack of exposure that Miss Ibrahim has had thus far, we thought it was a disc worth talking about.)

The first live artist I watched after moving to Toronto was Zaki Ibrahim, however I was there to watch a friend, and had no idea that Zaki was the main act, or who Zaki was at all for that matter. Nothing really sank in that day other than the fact that her smile was infectious and her live performance earned my respect; but when I got the opportunity to delve into her album, there were some bells ringing in the distance telling me to take it.

If there’s one thing in this world that I can consistently count on, it is fantastic music from Chicago’s The Hush Sound. How that music will be presented, well that is where the mystery lies. Their debut album, So Sudden, was a playful mix of back and forth bantering between lead vocalists Greta Salpeter and Bob Morris. They followed that up with the decidedly circus-esque Like Vines, which, while still playing on the 50/50 ratio between Greta and Bob, added a bit more continuity between tracks. And now we have Goodbye Blues, their most coherent, complete, album to date, but that coherence is not without its casualties.

Though I’ve seen the pre-release banners for The Secret Theatre’s Follow Me EP on this very site over the past couple of weeks, and immediately sensed that it was something I would like, I have to admit that I didn’t sink my teeth into it until I was looking at the list of new releases and found only a handful that piqued my interest. As a result, (and I say this in the most optimistic way possible), I took a chance on this EP. Luckily for me, this quarter hour paid off more than I could have ever expected.

If you’ve ever bought a CD by a Sub City Records artist, then you have indirectly donated to charity. Sub City, an imprint of Hopeless Records, donates 5% of the proceeds from their CD sales to an organization of the artist’s choice. It’s pretty cool that a label encourages giving back to the communities their artists tour in, but that’s not the only way Hopeless/Sub City Records betters the world.

Kate Nash is not Lily Allen, and as much as both girls like to exercise the “explicit” sticker on their CD cases and rip at past relationships, the comparisons should end there. Everyone and their dog is comparing the two, which is really a bit of a disservice to Nash, because even though Allen is a fantastic musician, Nash’s charming solo debut, Made Of Bricks, should be commended for the solid record that it is, not what other Brit pop star it reminds us of.

Made Of Bricks starts off with what is currently on pace to becoming my favorite intro of 2008, “Play”. This short track is just begging to be sampled by DJs worldwide, and its heavy beat mixed with soulful organ and backing vocals set the tone for the remaining tunes on the album. If I didn’t beat the horse to death already, this one-minute-and-eleven-seconds-long song is a great way to display the diversity and decidedly un-Allen-esque music behind Nash’s voice.