popwreckoning

As PopWreckoning’s Music Editor, I strive to post things that may or may not have been heard by the world. Most of the time, the posts on this site reflect the musical taste of each writer, I love that. We are a creative site that works toward bringing music to your ears and we hope that you enjoy it. With that said, here is a list, including silly notes, of some of my favorite bands right now (that you may not have heard of, yet).

Millions of Boys (Omaha, NE) – a three-piece with an attitude. quick, poppy, and so much fun. It’s like lo-fi punk and catchy imperfection, all while being perfect.
Noteworthy lyrics, “that girl is the bomb/that girl is the bomb/but that bomb was a DUD” – from “Dudcats”
Download their Demos for free:
millionsofboys.bandcamp.com

Night Beds (Colorado Springs/Nashville) – slow, ambient harmonic vocals meet pedals with soothing tunes. perfect driving music through mountains and amazing scenery.
Download both of their EP’s for free:
nightbedsmusic.bandcamp.com
www.nightbeds.org 

Sleeping Bag (Bloomington, IN) – upbeat rock that includes claps and deep vocals. think a bit like Cake without all of the horns. the entire album keeps heads bopping and feet tapping along.
Buy their self-titled album!
sleepingbag.bandcamp.com
sleepsleepingbag.com

Last Year’s Men (Chapel Hill, NC) – garage rock with traces of blues and soul. see these guys live if you have the chance, the energy and emotion will blow you away.
Sidenote: super nice guys all around. talk to them at shows and buy them sandwiches.
lastyearsmen.bandcamp.com

Dowsing (Chicago, IL) – soooo emo. soooo awesome. songs about friends, and girls, and life. on Count Your Lucky Stars (who also has great emo bands).
Digital download for whatever you want to pay, vinyl for $5:
dowsing.bandcamp.com

More than Skies (Long Island, NY) – side project of Adam Tomlinson from other LI band, Sleep Bellum Sonno. acoustic with his heart poured into the lyrics. there’s happy lyrics, and sad. something for any mood.
Noteworthy lyrics, “if not for you, I would have given up by now/I wouldn’t have made it to the door./If it was for me, I’m sure I’d mess things up.”
Get the EP with a tape:
morethanskies.bandcamp.com 

I also know it says new music but these aren’t necessarily new releases, these are bands that I hope are new to you as a listener and reader of our site. Enjoy!

Organ Music, Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped is a strange and mysterious thing. The latest project from Moonface, or Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade/Sunset rubdown) follows up last year’s Dreamland EP with a collection of avant-garde pop songs. They might not appear to be pop songs on the surface, but once they get under your skin, they won’t let go.

To describe the sound of the album – let’s use Krug’s words, from the press release: “It’s music played with an organ, organ beats, organ beeps and bloops, and some digital drums. Music based on layers and loops, the hypnotizing sound of a Leslie speaker, and the onslaught of melody.”

OK, so where the fuck does that leave us? Well, it’s lyrically dense and completely strange. It’s the least commercial thing Krug has done, but it’s also the best. Once you get past the unexpected sounds of the thing, it’s an album you’ll find yourself humming and singing along to. Oh yes.

Organ Music has five tracks, and it’s just under forty minutes long. With that in mind it’s probably best to examine it from a lyrical perspective, and track by track. So we go.

Track one is “Return To the Violence of the Ocean Floor.” Remember, we’re ignoring the music because it mostly serves as a backdrop, and a melody for Krug’s strangely enchanting obscure mumblings. This song has a great (almost) chorus, and approximately a million great lines, but the song culminates in a list. As Krug sings: “One, we got the spirit, two, we got the music, three, we got the past and four, we got the future.” This brings back to chorus: “And five, we got some kind of lust to return to the violence of the ocean floor.” It might look inane on paper, but against the organ beats, and with repeated listens ,it comes across as a litany, and one not to be ignored.

The next track, “Whale Song,” bellows with a subtle noise.  It aches, as Krug sings: “’’this is a song instead of a kiss.’” and is that the saddest thing to know? No, it’s not the saddest thing to know. “He continues on,  he talks of a pond where a whale will stay, he talks of how there will be a garden, and he seems to urge a lover on. It’s odd and plaintive, but also brimming with hope.

“Fast Peter” is a quicker number, in which Krug seems to be relating the stories told by another friend: “he told me all about it on the balcony when we were high on drugs.” It’s the story of Peter, a girl, and why “he held her up to the heart’s perfect’s light.” Krug questions Peter’s motives, but secretly hopes he succeeds. It’s a tender moment in an album full of tender moments you have to dig for.

After that, “Shit-hawk in the Snow” is probably the densest thing here. It’s almost impossible to discern what Krug is talking about here, but it contains at least one great WTF line “smoking cigarettes like it’s two thousand and three.” It seems to be at it the most basic about a girl, and the reminders of a girl. Krug repeats the mantra “and it will hypnotize you,” and somehow, we’re there. It’s a gradual song, probably the most gradual of the five.

The last song “Loose Heart = Loose Plan” might be the most pop orientated thing here, but it’s just as hard to grasp as the rest. The song is a shout out to and against nostalgia, and the fleeting nature of things. The song’s final verse seems to be a sarcastic coda for the record as a whole. Krug sings “lets  leave the revolution to the revolutionaries” and then “come on, let’s kill individual will.” The song ends with Krug pledging that he will over and over. Is this album revolutionary? God, no. It’s new and exciting, but it’s also the sound of a man doing whatever weird shit comes to his brain.

Even with that, it’s hard not to smirk as Krug endorses the death of the individual self. That might lead one to believe the whole thing is a joke, but that would be a false presumption. This is not Metal Machine Metal. It encourages the listener to come in closer, to put their head against the speaker. Organ Music is full of myths, honesty, lies, and humor. It’s something brand new. It’s not the sound of the future, but something better. It’s the sound of something we’ve never heard before, and might not hear again.

Apparently 2011 is the year the Muppets will rise again.

Smurfs? Meh. Alvin and the Chipmunks? Oh please. But the Muppets – whether or not you were born in their heyday, will always be cool.

And this year will be the year they make their comeback. Remember when Tim Curry was a swashbuckling pirate in “Muppet Treasure Island?” Well I do, and what I remember the most is the soundtrack, even if it was sung by a bunch of puppets and Dr. Frank-N-Furter himself.

But with a new film out in November written by the hilarious Jason Segel and songs by Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, and a new compilation of classic circa-1970s Muppets songs covered by some darn good artists, Fozzie Bear better dust off his bow tie.

The Muppets: The Green Album features the likes of My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, OK Go playing a groovy extended rendition of the Muppet Show theme song, and Weezer, who we all know has a history with the Muppets (see “Keep Fishin’” music video), along with Paramore’s Hayley Williams performing a charming version of “The Rainbow Connection.”

The Green Album, out August 23, doesn’t stray from any of the classic songs performed by the Muppets themselves, and manages to bring them all into 2011.

To listen to each song individually or to stream the whole album right now, head on over to NPR.org before you buy the album (because you really should).

Handsome Furs consistently manage to top themselves. Their last album, Face Control, was fantastic, but Sound Kapital improves upon it in nearly every way.  Face Control often felt lyrically dense, whereas Sound Kapital is a much more streamlined effort. It probably helps that the husband and wife duo of Dan Boeckner and Alexi Perry wrote the album entirely on keyboards.

The other problem Face Control had was that it occasionally seemed too obvious. It was full of massive choruses, and thumping bass, but after twenty or thirty listens the songwriting reveals itself to be relatively by the numbers. Sound Kapital doesn’t have this problem.

The album continues the Eastern European themes, but is more influenced by ‘80’s German Techno. It looks strange on paper, but the sounds work very well. The album opens with “When I Get Back,” a slightly claustrophobic fist pumper. The beats are fierce, and the lyrics let loose a sense of uncomfortable tension that runs through the rest of the album.

A few tracks later, “Memories of the Future” continues the themes of the past colliding with the present. The phrase “nostalgia never meant that much to me” is yelped almost like a battle cry. The song plays like a massive club hit in an alternate universe.

Track five, “Serve the People” begins slowly, with a discordant piano. The song gets thick about forty-five seconds in, with slow bleeps, before the chorus comes in, and turns the whole into an epic anthem. “’Til the cops said move along,” sings Boeckner, increasingly alienated by law enforcement.  He continues: “but they don’t serve the people.” It’s a tense, weighty song that improves with every listen. It feels like there’s a story behind the thing, but leaving it open this way, it builds a sense of intrigue, and makes it feel more human.

After three more songs (including first single “What About Us”), the album ends with the seven minute “No Feelings.” It’s a joyously nihilistic jam full of hand-claps, and sing-along lyrics.  It’s the perfect way to end a fantastic set of songs that is recommended unreservedly to anyone who enjoys indie rock. It’s also probably one of the best new albums that will come out this year.

Tracklisting:

1. When I Get Back
2. Damage
3. Bury Me Standing
4. Memories of the Future
5. Serve the People
6. What About Us
7. Repatriated
8. Cheap Music
9. No Feelings

You know those Target commercials? The summery ones that feature flowing floral skirts, sprinklers and lemonade stands? I know you know which ones I’m talking about. The Sleepy Rebels’ new album Yellow Tree is basically the soundtrack to those commercials. I’m not kidding. When I turned it on, I feel like the sun became brighter outside and the sky became bluer.

Not that it’s a bad thing. It is almost summer, after all, so it’s the perfect soundtrack to a day at the beach or a long car ride through the woods, with sunlight peaking through the trees. Okay, I’ll stop using sunlight analogies.

But seriously, once I got to the second track, “Let’s Take the Day Off,” I got a lot of Simon and Garfunkel vibes, only in this instance, Garfunkel is female.  Sleepy Rebels’ harmonies are pleasant and easy to listen to without being cliché or overly cheesy (think Colbie Caillat, that’s some cheese right there).

The first single “Unbelievable” is so delightful, heavy on the hand claps and trumpets, and highlights Erica Driscoll’s comforting soft voice along with her brother Bruce and bandmate Jeremy Adelman’s multi-instrumental talents. Later on the in the album, particularly on the last track “Something,” not only do we get some Simon and Garfunkel hints, but that song reminds me of early Belle and Sebastian, and that’s never a bad thing.

Not only do we get some lovely acoustic guitar throughout the album, but plenty more strings – including mandolin, banjo, violin, viola, cello, and possibly some ukulele – and I caught a bit of French horn and ocarina on “Day Off” and a flute on “Elegy.”

A flute. Really.

Let me elaborate a bit on “Elegy” – it’s such a beautiful ballad that’s reminiscent of Shakespearean tragedies. I can just picture a man sauntering around on a stage in tights and puffy sleeves swooning over a princess or something. It’s definitely something we haven’t heard much of since….well…Shakespearean times.

“Beautiful” and “We’ll Wake the World Up” are also easy flowing ballads, “Crystal Ball” is a slightly bluesy track with slide guitar, “Shoot the Breeze” is another one of the Target commercial songs, or maybe one for fabric softener. Either way, it’s bright and sunny. I’m repeating myself, aren’t I?

Well I think you get my point, but I’ll just end on this – the New York trio Sleepy Rebels leaves no room for pessimism on their latest album Yellow Tree. It’s the perfect soundtrack to summer, so I suggest you get it now while the weather is still lovely. Simple as that.

Track listing:

1. To the Hollow
2. Let’s Take the Day off
3. Unbelievable
4. You Can Make the Sunrise
5. You’re the One Thing
6. Better Day
7. The Language of You
8. Elegy
9. Beautiful
10. We’ll Wake the World Up
11. Take it Easy
12. Only One
13. Crystal Ball
14. Shoot the Breeze
15. Castles Out of Sand
16. Something

http://www.sleepyrebels.com/

Four years after her acclaimed major label debut with Neptune City, Nicole Atkins has come back with sexy bluesy vigor on Mondo Amore.

To be perfectly honest, I’d never heard Atkins’ music before sitting down to take a listen to this new album, but now I’ve found myself wanted to listen to the rest of it. And checking to see when she’s touring in Seattle (turns out in less than a week!). Normally I’m not one to love female vocalists so easily. I’m pretty sure abut 80 percent of my music library is male vocalists. However, Atkins has such an traditional blues rock style on this album that I want to pick up a harmonica and slide guitar all of a sudden.

Opening with the strings-heavy dark and beautiful “Vultures,” Atkins’ soulful voice has both a sweet and haunting tone to it that hits a perfect spot between Alison Mosshart and Jenny Lewis. You never thought you’d see those two names in the same sentence, did you?

One stand out on the album is “My Baby Don’t Lie,” an up-tempo knee-slapping sing-along that conjures up thoughts of cowboy boots, tumble weeds, and plenty of pints of beer, but not campy in the slightest. I could say that this was country rock, but there’s so much attitude that to even call it country would downplay how dark and beautiful this album is.

“War is Hell,” another fabulous tune, is the one crooning ballad near the end of the album. It almost reminds me of Brandi Carlile‘s first album, with the low notes slowly crescendoing to the passionate high notes.

To finish out the album, we get the more contemporary “Heavy Boots,” tinged with psychedelic folk, and “The Tower,” a song that could have easily come right out of Woodstock ’69. I’m not kidding. This is going to sound cliche, but I can easily say that I haven’t heard anyone else Nicole Atkins lately. The mixture of the old-school vocals and vintage blues guitar on Mondo Amore is so ironically refreshing that I almost wonder what decade it is.

Wait, it’s 1970, right?

Go to http://mondoamore.nicoleatkins.com/ to stream “Vultures” and get tickets to her upcoming tour.

Tour Dates:

02/09 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
02/11 Vancouver, BC Media Club
02/12 Seattle, WA Tractor Tavern
02/13 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
02/15 San Francisco, CA Cafe Du Nord
02/16 West Hollywood, CA Troubadour
02/18 La Jolla, CA The Loft at UCSD
02/23 Boston,MA Brighton Music Hall
02/25 Montreal, QU La Sala Rossa
02/26 Toronto, ONT The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
02/27 Detroit, MI Magic Stick
03/01 St. Paul, MN Turf Club
03/02 Madison, WI The Frequency
03/04 Chicago, IL Subterranean
03/05 St. Louis, MO The Firebird
03/07 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge
03/09 Washington, DC The Rock and Roll Hotel
03/10 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda’s

I want to take a long drive through the mountains listening to the new the Decemberists‘ album The King is Dead: in the springtime, when the glaciers are just starting to melt and it’s not so hot so we can drive with the windows down instead of using the air conditioning, with our hands making waves outside the car windows along to the breeze.

It hit me today as I was walking my dog with my earbuds in listening to “June Hymn,” one of the latter songs on The King is Dead, how much I loved it. I’d heard the song live back when I saw the Decemberists at MusicFest Northwest in Portland September, but I’d forgotten how beautiful it was.

Beautiful. If I had to come up with one word to describe The King is Dead, it would be that. A stark difference from the epic folk opera The Hazards of Love, and closer to the feeling of The Crane Wife, but far simpler. The King is Dead is a collection of truly lovely ballads, heartbreaking laments, and down-home ditties. Even though the band consists of seven regular members, many of the best songs on the album, “January Hymn,” “June Hymn,” and “Dear Avery” feature for the most part front man Colin Meloy’s acoustic guitar and his wonderful harmonies with guest Gillian Welch.

The album starts off with the upbeat “Don’t Carry It All,” which aptly begins with the harmonica, giving us a glaring hint of what’s to come. We continue on with “Calamity Song,” a song that at first listen is catchy and delightful, but with Meloy’s clever song-crafting, you come to realize that it’s about the end of civilization. With phrases like “queen of supply-side bonhomie bone-drab” and “in the year of the chewable Ambien tab,” no wonder Meloy can trick us into singing along gleefully to a song about the end of days. Nearing the end of the album come a couple of sure-hits, “This Is Why We Fight” and “Down By The Water,” the latter of which was released back in November 2010.

There are a few songs on the album that almost remind me of “yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum,” but not a campy pirate shanty. Probably due to the accordion and fiddle, “Rox in the Box” makes you want to grab a pint and hike up your skirt and do a little jig, figuratively speaking. But the Decemberists’ sound is so very much their own, none of it seems out of place.

Now I don’t like country, but based on everything that the Decemberists employ on this album, you could call it country. Country…folk…rock…whatever it is, I like it. If all country sounded like this, with the subtle mandolin, banjo, not-so-subtle harmonica, and accordion, I’d be a country fan.

Earlier I said I’d like to listen to this album whilst driving through the mountains. I lied. I’d like to listen to it everywhere. It’s a throwback to when music, when life, when everything was simpler. Even to when recording was simpler, seeing that The King Is Dead was actually recorded in a barn outside Portland.

I’d be all for a barn tour. Now that would be the perfect place to listen to it, in a barn laying in a pile of old straw with the sun creeping in through the cracks in the decaying wood walls.

Track Listing:

1. Don’t Carry It All
2. Calamity Song
3. Rise To Me
4. Rox In The Box
5. January Hymn
6. Down By The Water
7. All Arise!
8. June Hymn
9. This Is Why We Fight
10. Dear Avery

Right in the middle of a worldwide tour, We Are Scientists released the third single off their latest album Barbara this week, “I Don’t Bite.” Currently it’s available on iTunes on the UK and on 7Digital.com

Seeing that the guys have been touring mainly with Rewards (ex-Chairlift Aaron Pfenning), they seemed to find the time to have Pfenning record a b-side for the single – a low-key, ethereal version of “Nice Guys.” As well as the cameo from pal Pfenning, Dev Hynes, a.k.a. Lightspeed Champion also did a oddly spectacular digitized cover version of “Rules Don’t Stop” as another b-side. The three tracks are certainly different from each other, but the single did employ some of Brooklyn’s finest, I must say.

And if that wasn’t enough, Alexa Chung actually drew the album art.

All of it is a bit inexplicable, but does anything We Are Scientists ever does make complete sense? Not really, but that’s part of their charm.

There’s no official US release date yet on an iTunes single (let alone a physical single), but once it’s announced, we’ll be sure to update this post.

Or for all the latest news on We Are Scientists, head over to What’s the Word, as the webmaster Renee is way more punctual than Keith or Chris is ever.

We Are Scientists official website

Fans of the dancefloor, rejoice: Kele‘s The Boxer is officially in stores. This is the debut solo ablum from Kele Okereke, whom you may already be familiar with for his work as the frontman for Bloc Party. Kele took some time to speak with PopWreckoning about the new release and upcoming tour. See the full interview below.

Bethany, PopWreckoning: Your solo album, The Boxer, drops June 21/22, what can people expect from it?
Kele Okereke: What to expect? Well, it’s a bit more joyful than other things I’ve done.

PW: Is there an overall album theme or inspiration? I know in the past there have been overarching inspirations.
KO: Yeah, I kind of wanted to avoid that on this record. I kind of just made the record. I just did this for myself and didn’t think of a theme so much. I was just trying something new.

PW: Is there any significance with the title, The Boxer?
KO: It’s an image that I’ve always found inspiring; the idea that the boxer doesn’t rely on anyone but himself. There’s also that walkout that the boxer does and then when he gets knocked down, he gets back up. I like that image.

PW: You’ve already release the first singe, “Tenderoni,” and first off, what is a tenderoni?
KO: It’s just an affectionate term of endearment for a young love.

PW: I love the video that goes with the song. There is some great play on lights and it remains me a lot of still frame photography with the angles and shots. I know you’re somewhat into photography, how involved were you with the video concept?
KO: With Bloc Party, I never really got into it, so I abstained from having any influence, but with this, I did want input. I’m not a filmmaker, but I did have some influence in how I would look. The director listened to my ideas and came back with some really great things. I was more involved and I was happy.

PW: In addition to “Tenderoni,” there are a few other tunes you’ve already release off the album. Is there a song in particular that you’re excited to get out there and have people hear?
KO: I’m excited about people hearing the whole record, but I’m excited about people hearing “Yesterday’s Gone.”

PW: Let’s talk about guest vocals, I know on “Rise,” I heard some female vocals. Are there others that you worked with on this?
KO: Yeah, there are two girls, Bobbie Gordon and Jodie Berry, and they’re really amazing girls with great voices that helped me out.
PW: And they sing on more than just “Rise”?
KO: Yeah, they sing on a few like “All the Things I Could Never Say” and more.

PW: Do you find that your writing process for a solo album is different than with a full band?
KO: Yeah, well the difficult part is that half the songs for a solo record take what a full band takes. The other half, I did where a me and a producer worked on them together. It wasn’t exactly hard or too different.

PW: And fans of your previous work, will still be into this or this completely directed at a new audience?
KO: I hope so, but I am hoping it reaches new people. That’s part of making a new record or a working a new genre, you do hope it reaches new people as well.

PW: Ok. Coming up in July, you’re coming over to North America to do a tour. What can people expect from your live show? I know you mentioned the guest singers, but will you be joined by them or is it just you?
KO: There will be a band. A couple of other people are coming over with me so we can be sure to do the songs live.

PW: Great, and talking about tours, if you could do a dream tour and bring anybody out with you, who would you bring out?
KO: I’d love to tour with the Talking Heads. I think they’re probably the best band in the world.

PW: For a final question, is there anything else that you want people to know about this record or just something to get out there about this release?
KO: You’ll enjoy it. It’s fun and joyful, and I hope people see that and enjoy it.

Aceyalone Aceyalone & the Lonely Ones :: “The Way It Was” feat. Bionik

Angel Taylor Love Travels

Bow Wow New Jack City Pt. II

John Scofield Piety Street :: stream “I’ll Fly Away”

Gomez A New Tide

Great Lake Swimmers Lost Channels

Illinois The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe

Leonard Cohen Live In London

Rosemary’s Garden La Musique Du Jardin

thenewno2 you are here (physical re-release)