popwreckoning

Englishman Findlay Brown’s U.S. debut Love Will Find You, produced by Verve Forecast, is a fun merger of Brown’s musical influences compiled into a ‘60s sound that comes off recorded for present day. Roy Orbison, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Diamond and the Beatles all had a hand in molding Brown’s musical style and this collection of ten songs gives off a familiar doo-wop, Motown, ‘60s music feel.

Brown’s 2007 United Kingdom debut, Separated by the Sea, was met with high praise and critical acclaim by London’s top music reviewers. After breaking his leg due to being struck by a taxi cab, Brown began his recuperation by taking the next few months to revisit his favorite artists, strip down their lyrics, study songs and rest on his sister’s sofa. With a busted leg and no distractions, Brown went to work on his latest release, Love Will Find You, and after a few listens it has found me.

During my initial once-over of this album, I thought, “Oh man, what is this? Will anybody want to listen to ‘60s music made for today?” But, once I really put my ear toward the music I started to gain an appreciation for Brown’s musical style, his nod to the sounds of yesteryear and his effort-filled attempt to create a classic throwback for the Baby Boomer in all of us.

Welcome to the time warp; a place where drive-in movies, “Leave it to Beaver,” and Elvis reign supreme.

The album kicks off with the title track “Love Will Find You,” which gives off the aforementioned Elvis Presley vibe giving hope to lonely girls, lonely guys and the love struck everywhere. Brown’s lyrics are akin to a hopeless romantic and he delivers them in a slow paced, but innately beautiful manner created by guitar play, drums and the “tings” of bells. Brown nails the ‘60s pop music feel and the overall charm of this record is how songs sound so simple, yet poppy.

The classic sound resonates through every track delivering fast, slow, uplifting, heart throbbing love songs. Personal stand outs include “All That I Have,” “That’s Right,” and “Holding Back The Night,” because of their fast paced rock-and-roll presence in an otherwise slowed down love letter to the 1960s.

Love Will Find You, will be released in the US on Tuesday, January 12. For more information on Findlay Brown, the album’s release and to give his songs a listen for yourself, head to his MySpace page. You can take a listen to an acoustic rendition Love Will Find You‘s closing track, “I Had a Dream,” below.

Findlay Brown – “I Had A Dream” (acoustic)

Tracklisting:
01. Love Will Find You
02. Nobody Cared
03. All That I Have
04. Everybody Needs Love
05. That’s Right
06. Teardrops Lost In The Rain
07. Holding Back the Night
08. If I Could Do It Again
09. I Still Want You
10. I Had A Dream

Findlay Brown: myspace

The Bravery fans have until this Friday, January. 15 to win Epiphone guitars and deluxe Stir the Blood packs from the group.

To try and win, simply click here and fill out the form.
Watch the video for “Slow Poison”:

Stream a song from the new album:

.“Spectator”

I showed up at  Visualite just as the doors to the venue were being opened, knowing that I would need some time to tweak my camera settings. As the time grew near for the opening band to begin, I started to get worried; the crowd was sparse at best. Did the unusually cold weather keep everyone in their homes? Hoping for the best, I made my way stage-front to start snapping photos and to enjoy the musical stylings of Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes. I had never seen or heard the primary instrument being wielded by the front man. Thanks to my friend Stephanie, I now know that it’s called an autoharp, and Mr. Robinson played the instrument both skillfully and beautifully. Accompanying him were two ladies on solemn violins playing mostly separate parts (acting almost as a rhythm and lead guitar) with a drummer who combined a regular drum kit with an electronic drum pad. After one of their dirges and some modest applause, Justin quipped, “Thank you…all seven of you.” Oh no, I thought. Is it still that empty? I turned around for the first time in several minutes and saw that the venue had in fact filled in quite a bit. Justin, thou doth exaggerate too much. Alternately mournful and toe-tapping, their set was pleasing and a good start to the evening.

Next up was Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside (very catchy band name, I must say). I had just seen them open for The Avett Brothers on New Year’s Eve, and I preferred the small theatre experience at Visualite to the arena experience in Asheville. I really don’t want to compare Sallie Ford to Regina Spektor because it’s too easy, but it’s an unavoidable comparison. Quirky, well-crafted pop songs? Check. Strong, nasal, but ultimately beautiful voice? Check. Cuteness factor? Check. Not to be forgotten, the Sound Outside join Ms. Ford at all the right times in her songs, adding whimsical electric guitar riffs and a steady rhythm section in the form of simple drums and a stand-up bass. The songs I heard were folk/roots music on the surface, but pure pop songs at heart. Expect bigger and better things from this quartet in the future.

By the time Sam Quinn + Japan Ten were ready to take the stage, the crowd had finally become a true crowd. The roots music scene in North Carolina is a thriving one, and the gathering on this evening was a virtual who’s who of local musicians and industry folk (pun intended). Sam Quinn introduced himself and the band as P.M. Dawn, which naturally elicited chuckles from all seven people who got the joke; thus began the headlining act. The set list was comprised of numerous The Everybodyfields tunes (Sam Quinn’s previous project with songstress Jill Andrews) mixed nicely with new songs. Their performance was wonderfully intimate. In fact, this show could have been set around a big campfire in the Great Smoky Mountains, and I got the sense that I was a new member in a close-knit group of musical friends. Authenticity is written all over this act; it’s clear that they’ve been writing country/folk songs long before snap-button cowboy shirts were being sold en masse at Urban Outfitters, and they’ll continue to do so long after the fad has passed like so many others. For an encore, the band played an Elton John mash-up of “Crocodile Rock” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” followed by “Aeroplane,” the first track from The Everybodyfields’ record Nothing is OK. Evocative like the gate of your old house (as my wife so poetically put it), this song should have a place of honor in the annals of pop music. The show then came to a close, and much too soon, as I could listen to Sam’s music well into the night. Sam Quinn + Japan Ten are in the process of completing an album, so hopefully it won’t be too long before I’m able to share more thoughts on these guys.

I had never heard of the Brian Jonestown Massacre until I watched the classic rock-rivalry documentary Dig!, which featured The Dandy Warhols and BJM.

I presume both bands were whacked out of their minds while making the film, but the movie was still quite entertaining. After seeing the movie, I stayed tuned to the Warhols, and have checked up on BJM every so often to see what kind of hi-jinks they were pulling.

So, imagine my surprise when a copy of BJM’s new album came a’floating into my inbox.

Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? was released on January 1, 2010, and I’m relatively certain that each song on the album is about a different stage in a drug trip.

The album is chock-full of jam-tastic tracks. I admit, this style isn’t my thing, but, if you are into deep bass, squealing guitars, faint, chanting vocals, and hypno-dance beats, this album is for you.

Although many of the album’s songs meld together into a psychedelic jumble, a few stand out. “White Music,” is filled with iridescent electronic tones. Picked strings play atop ambient noise.

In “Someplace Else Unknown,” the band creates a driving march inspired beat. The song’s lyrics, which tell of drug hounding and violence, are a bit ridiculous and weaken the song, though. The band’s point is driven home, however; they seriously don’t give a fuck about fuck, unless you’re fucking talking about fucking drugs, man.

“Felt Tipped-Pen Pictures of UFO’s,” is a mishmash voices. John Lennon‘s “The Beatles are Bigger than Jesus” interview is mixed and played over other people talking about Lennon and The Beatles. Hmm … wait, hmm?

Track Listing:

1. Tempo 116.7 (Reaching Dangerous Levels of Sobriety)
2. Pungur Hnifur
3. Let’s Go Fucking Mental
4. White Music
5. This Is the First of Your Last Warning
6. This is the One Thing We Did Not Want to Have Happen
7. The One
8. Someplace Else Unknown
9. Dekta! Dekta! Dekta!
10. Super Fucked
11. Our Time
12. Feel It (Of Course We Fucking Do!)
13. Felt-Tipped Pen Pictures of UFOs

While busy filming a music video in D.C. for “Touch and Go,” Stacy*Clark announced a delay in the release of her sophomore album.

Connect the Dots is now expected for a spring release.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more details.

Popular Cambridge, Massachusetts electronic act Passion Pit have announced a 18-date concert tour of North America for this spring. The band will travel to Australia, Japan, the UK, and Ireland before returning to American soil to play in Buffalo on March 28.

This month, the band sold out Boston’s House of Blues and three dates at New York’s Terminal 5. So expect tickets to be snapped up quickly for this outing.

Tour Dates:
Mar 28 – Town Ballroom / Buffalo
Mar 29 – Pullo Center / York, PA
Mar 30 – House of Blues / Cleveland
Mar 31 – Music Hall / Columbus
Apr 02 – Congress Theatre / Chicago
Apr 03 – Turner Hall / Milwaukee
Apr 04 – First Avenue / Minneapolis
Apr 05 – Beaumont Club / Kansas City
Apr 07 – Ogden Theatre / Denver
Apr 08 – In the Venue / Salt Lake City
Apr 10 – McDonald Theatre / Eugene, OR
Apr 11 – Commodore Ballroom / Vancouver
Apr 12 – Roseland Theater / Portland
Apr 14 – Freeborn Hall / Davis, CA
Apr 15 – Warfield Theatre / San Francisco
Apr 24 – Vanderbilt University / Nashville
Apr 30 – World’s Fair Park / Knoxville
May 01 – Bowdoin College / Brunswick, ME

There are several reasons why 2010 is looking like it will be better than 2009. I won’t go into too much detail, only to say that Spoon’s new album Transference is one of them. And I can assure you, for as long as we’ve waited for this one, it’s worth it.

Oh, it’s so worth it.

I saw Britt Daniel play a solo show in Portland back in October, and there I got but a taste of what was to come on Transference, and it peaked my excitement even more than when I originally heard about the 2010 return of Spoon.

If you’re reading this, you probably already heard “Got Nuffin,” “Written in Reverse” and “Mystery Zone,” the last of which leaked somehow in late 2009, but Transference has so much more to offer solid Spoon fans as well as new ones. The album opens on “Before Destruction,” with gritty acoustics and eerie harmonies, carried by lead singer/songwriter Britt Daniel’s effortless crooning. It proves to be a theme throughout the record – a mixture of the dirty, under-produced with the in-studio mixing that create the sound that we all know and love from this band.

One of my favorites on the album is perhaps the sexiest song I’ve heard Spoon put out – “Who Makes Your Money.” It features echoing vocals and an ever-present bass line, as well as Daniel’s perfect repetition of “oh oh… ooh.”  That part really got me. And another of my standouts, “Trouble Come Running,” was one I heard at that solo show in Portland. Driven by the infectious hook, “here it come running again, trouble come running,” it’s hard to keep this one off repeat. And the boys are so tight on this track and have so much live synergy, you’d half-expect to turn around to see Britt Daniel singing right there.

Transference also includes something unexpected from Spoon – a ballad, the short and easy piano-laden track “Goodnight Laura.” I quite liked it, because it was a quick, but pleasant departure from the otherwise…Spooniness of the album? I don’t know what adjective to use to be honest, because there are so many that I could use to describe Transference. But they all would amalgamate into “Spooniness.” So yes, I invented a new word, just for this review.

Looking into Spoon’s back catalogue, Transference is closer to earlier records like Kill The Moonlight and A Series of Sneaks and less polished than Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. But Spoon is so talented that they don’t need to spend forever in the studio trying to get it perfect. It’s nice that Spoon has stayed independent with Merge Records for all these years, because none of their records ever strayed away from who they are, but developed beautifully.

There are so many buzz bands out there that I admit getting a little ga ga over in recent years, but if there’s one band that never disappoints – it’s Spoon. Sure, there are bands that have phenomenal, life-changing debuts, but fail miserably on the second. And again fail to redeem themselves on the third. Spoon doesn’t have just one great record to bank on; they have all their albums.  When picking which albums to include on my personal best of the decade list, I had a hard time not including more than two Spoon records. That wouldn’t have been very fair for the other artists, but surely deserved.

And based on Transference, 15 years into their career, it looks like Spoon isn’t going anywhere soon.

Track Listing:

1. Before Destruction
2. Is Love Forever?
3. The Mystery Zone
4. Who Makes Your Money
5. Written in Reverse
6. I Saw the Light
7. Trouble Comes Running
8. Goodnight Laura
9. Out Go the Lights
10. Got Nuffin

11 Nobody Gets Me But You

Animal Collective has released yet another video that will take several views to take it all in. “Brother Sport” off Merriweather Post Pavilion is directed by Jack Kubizne.

Odd Blood by Yeasayer is the follow-up to the band’s 2007 debut release, All Hour Cymbals, for which the band garnered much-deserved acclaim. All Hour Cymbals is filled with urgent and complex songs driven by thick electronic ambiance and shouted/sung vocals which often lay low in the mix, requiring you to listen more forcefully (and rewarding you for your efforts). Odd Blood is scheduled for release on February 9, 2010.

The album begins promisingly enough; the first track (entitled “The Children”) lets the listener know that they are in for, if nothing else, a strange but fun and interesting journey. The last 45 seconds of this track are especially stellar, with a thudding bass backing a hauntingly catchy synthesizer riff and relentless percussion. Track two, named “Ambling Alp,” is a song that some may be familiar with due to its early online release. This is an engaging and easily accessible song with a sing-along chorus and affirmative and positive lyrics: “You must stick up for yourself, son; never mind what anybody else done.” “Madder Red” follows and is easily the stand out on this album. This track is energetic and highly danceable, yet multi-layered and intriguing enough for a “headphones in your room” listen. The bass rattles and rolls its way through piercing guitar licks and barely audible backing synthesizers. The vocals suit the song perfectly, and the “ooh ooh” refrain is catchy beyond belief. “Madder Red” is dance party ready and well-equipped for longevity.

After this highlight, however, Odd Blood seems to lose its way. “I Remember” ambles through four minutes of electronic noise, building and promising a crescendo that never really comes. “Grizelda” offers more of the same, burying earlier driving percussion in the mix and leaving the listener wanting. Patience with the album will occasionally be rewarded; “Love Me Girl” delivers a giant pay-off in the closing minute in the form of a start-stop bass line and soaring vocals, and “Mondegreen” is a caffeine-fueled romp that dares you to sit still. However, these moments can be easily lost amidst weaker and ultimately forgettable offerings.

Overall, Odd Blood is often charming and exciting–and often frustrating, and it ultimately shows more potential than it delivers. With every effort to put the band’s previous album aside and gauge this album on its own merits without comparison, it’s still difficult to be more than mildly enthusiastic about this release. Is this disc worth a listen? Definitely. The strong parts of the album are well worth the price of admission. Just remember: patience is a virtue.

Track Listing:

1. The Children
2. Ambling Alp
3. Madder Red
4. I Remember
5. O.N.E.
6. Love Me Girl
7. Rome
8. Strange Reunions
9. Mondegreen
10. Grizelda

Written by Marc Gray

Twenty-two-year-old Tamar Kaprelian is working hard in Denver with One Republic‘s Ryan Tedder and Brent Kutzle after a MySpace cover of the band brought her to their attention. Tamar’s debut will be out on Interscope later this year, but her first single, “New Day,” is available now.