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THE LINEUP
Our second compilation of local music picks up some strange vibrations from the ether. There’s a guy in a mask, at least two foreign languages (not counting the metal dialect) and repeated use of the words “night” and “riot.” - Amy Biegelsen
Here's what to expect:
1) Prabir and the Substitutes, “Who’s Going to Love You?”
Lead singer Prabir Mehta sticks his Substitutes to “big vocal harmonies, Beach Boys vocal layering and an American guitar jangle,” he says. “We’re all pretty much best friends and brothers in arms in these things.” Feel the fun.
2) Mermaid Skeletons, “Happy Bell”
The treacley Mermaid Skeletons furnish their sugar-cube castle with up to like eight strummy guitars and unpredictable melodies. It’s good-old, hand-holding stuff. Expect them someday to crank out this generation’s “Kumbaya.”
3) The Hotdamns, “That Which Doesn’t Make Us Stronger”
New York’s SoHo gave a warm reception to the Hotdamns’ whiskey-stained patchwork quilt of Americana music, but it’s the tiny towns down in the Carolinas where you can play the band on the jukebox. Its members’ punk upbringing gives an edge to the countrified melodies.
4) Dead Goats, “Yer Ma and Pa”
This rock-along outfit offers up a slanky sound with fat guitar licks drawing heavy black outlines around its full-throated, sing-along vocals. Messy electric blues and a single-minded dedication to rock your garage-sized stadium.
5) Bungalo6, “Talkin’ Dirty”
Isaac Hayes and Prince, in his own ticklish way, would be proud of the band’s bold funk navigation of the highs and lows of desire with chunky brass lines and a wide range of vocal styles. Leader Mark Ingraham’s latest project has been to craft an entire album of radio-ready tunes, giving the people what they want, on his terms.
6) Cinemasophia, “Detailed Night”
The first day Cinemasophia was to begin recording the new album, “Fits & Cycles,” a fire started next to Sound of Music studio, giving the group more time to wrangle the static below and build up more twinkly layers of Chicago-school indie-pop. And “Detailed Night” has one of the year’s best lead-ins.
7) The Great White Jenkins, “Look Out World”
This weirdly hushed track of backwoods surfer-gospel with laid-back horn solos and trail-off vocals adds up to a deceptively easy-listening sound. Watch out, though, the wily Matt White’s superb musicality helps make the magic here, as in other city faves such as big band act Fight the Big Bull, which also stars fellow Jenkins man Pinson Chanselle. Andrew Jenkins himself rounds out the trio with white-man soul.
8) Gull, “Bedouin Lover”
To create his minimalist rock sound, Nathaniel Rappole straps on a mask outfitted with a microphone from an old telephone, plays his guitar with one hand and the drums with another. It’s the rock version of juggling two puppies and a chain saw, though over time, he says it’s started to feel more like playing piano. No loops, no bandmates: No wonder it sounds so disciplined.
9) Willie Survive, “Raindance”
Marty Sunderland grew up in Long Island and witnessed the birth of Public Enemy, so he just can’t see why he’s picking up dry cleaning instead of sipping mai tais in Maui. To pass the time until he gets his due, alter-ego Willie Survive breaks down the matrix of his entrapment -- his wits his sword, his home production software his shield. With “Raindance” we get close to that Maui beach, at least in spirit.
10) Hex Machine, “Hook and Eyes”
Around minute two of the track, you’ll be warned that it’s “hard to skin a cat on the slippery side of the knife.” Fair warning from a band whose controlled dissonance makes it what Hex’s guitarist and lead vocalist, Trevor Thomas, calls “metal for people who don’t necessarily like metal.” Having toured with the ever-changing Clutch, it’s clear that Hex keeps company with those who won’t stick with one kind of sound.
11) Bio Ritmo, “Shoe Shine”
Since 1991, the eight-piece salsa outfit has performed on television in Puerto Rico, on NPR in New York and was lauded in the San Francisco press. The group’s new album, “Bionico,” has put off the salsa orthodoxy with the occasional synthesized sound, but that can’t stop the fans from moving their feet.
12) Horsehead, “Walk It Off”
A new offering in the Tom Petty and Jimmy Buffett tradition of “take me as I am” rock. In this case the upbeat, harmonica-laced riffs redeem a ballad about trying to get home loaded -- “there’s no place I’d rather stumble home/than a bed that’s made for me and you” -- with enough rolling determination in the drums that she just might not kick him out.
13) ILAD, “Blackgold”
Ilad’s drony vocals, the get-along pace from the high-hat and twangy guitars make it seem like country songs lost on the range. … until halfway through when the band gets soaked in a jar of moonjuice and unspools its true psychedelic intent. This one sticks to you, like something dark and sticky and worth a lot of money.
14) A Good Natured Riot, “Late at Night”
The band’s name aptly describes the collective effect of the sprawling but nimble-fingered carpet of washboard-banjo-mandolin-and-guitar bluegrass under its mostly minor-key crooning. We have it on good authority that lead singer Jeslyn Vaughan was trained for the opera.
15) Hot Lava, “Y.S.F.W.”
Hot Lava preserves a melodic and catchy pop candy shell while taking on the distinctly art-school music challenge of writing a soundtrack to an Atari game about Grease. Odd, yes. But man, can you drive better when it’s playing.
16) No BS Brass Band, “Ain’t Even Gonna Call Ya”
The musically promiscuous trombonist Reginald Pace and drummer Lance Koehler have rounded up a pack of horns to pour lush New York-and-New Orleans figures over; in this case, a hysterically funny admonishment to a misbehaving girlfriend -- formed but flowing, like bullshit and brass.
17) The Riot Before, “Words Written Over Coffee”
The superliterate lyrics recall breathless emo outpourings of yore, but built here on punk-rock architecture softened by a fuller Southern rock sound. It builds and builds and builds.
18) Quatro Na Bossa, “Jardim”
Laura Ann Singh focused on international studies at the University of Richmond, but her piano-playing friend asked her to sing a jazz standard in Portuguese for his senior recital. She fell in love with the language and has been singing breezy, clear-pitched samba and bossa nova ever since. Rio by way of Richmond. |
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