Half-handed Cloud
Thy Is A Word + Feet Need Lamps
( Asthmatic Kitty) 2005

".. . we'll eat so much meat that it comes out our nostrils"

Our father, who art somewhere - bake me some hallowed cookies. If you didn't get your fill of sidewinder fate with the last verse of Brother Danielson or HhC's 2002 release We Haven't Just Been Told, We've Been Loved, Brother Ringhofer - posing as Half-handed Cloud - has again arrived with 16 passages covering current events from the impending Rapture ("Disaster will come upon you + you will not know how to conjure-it away") to the Penis ("Grandfather Foreskin").

Thy Is A Word + Feet Need Lamps sees Mister Ringhofer (a constant on the road with one Deacon [Sufjan] Stevens) joined by Stevens on the trap-kit and John confusing us, the listener, ever-so gently with a champion blend of instruments (acoustic, banjo, kazoo, sonic swirls [mostly all featured on "Quail"] - it's all here), spoken-word samples and enough borderline "spit in the face of the Lord" poetry to drop the jaw of your little Morman town. A verse like the "Jael Pig Caper", the telling of women with hoofed footings (possibly) pays as much homage to Wild Honey-era Brothers Wilson (in harmony) as it does to the wounded-wing folklore of the Brothers Grimm (in context).

I'm with Master Ringhofer and his tales - it's all in fun. But as this creep in my village named Roland Barthes always told me when I wore my Salman Rushdie shirt and made rubbish of all those damned churches with my newfound powers: "What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth". Well, Roland's dead - so harp on somewhere else and send me some cookies. Roland was a "witness", Mom said - he went to Hell for wearing fake glasses. I'm so lost, religion scares me. Do we really have more ribs than women?

To your light bulb I am the Thomas Edison of your sex. Withought my light you would be lost in a sea of darkness.

Popelette K 02.28.05

The Happy Birthdays
The Happy Birthdays
( popkonst® ) 2005

I just got The Happy Birthdays self-titled cd ep a few days ago and have listened to nothing else except for this [and basically nonstop] since receiving it. I can't find anything about the band except that they are from Sweden and that they have enough material for another album and are maybe going into the studio to record a seven inch soon.

The ep consists of five songs and they were recorded over a period of three years. They have the perfect mix of guitars, drums, bass, and such great vocals. I love singing along but don't know the words so I just kind of make them up while singing. The singer's voice is really great and I wish I could sing like him. The songs are just perfectly crafted upbeat songs. This is the perfect album to listen to when it's Autumn, on a nice boring, rainy Saturday. My favorite song is "This Time".

They are now one of my top five bands and I will have to start stalking them. I've never really stalked a band before so hopefully they are just amused that they have such a big fan and not think that I'm like really creepy or something. But then they are all the way over in Sweden, so it won't be too annoying.

Helio Flybright 08.30.05

harpswell sound
port
www.harpswellsound.com

I'm going to give it to you straight. If I keep receiving hand-delivered, unsigned artists on the same level as harpswell sound (though not every day or week, I have heard a small handful of standouts), I'm dragging myself and someone with stable credit to the local finiancial institution and we're gonna start us a damn fine little label.

It's officially the first day of spring, every window is open in my home & this sparkling 5-song EP, port, is doing a damn fine job of matching today's unblemished atmoshpere (you can even hear the front-porch rocking chair on 'settle down'). Lead vocalist Trey Hughes has a vocal approach that bridges a gap somewhere between a less-glum Simon Joyner and Joesph Arthur, had the latter chose an Americana route. Each of the five songs on port showcase a band that has far more than one or two craftful sounds in their collectiveness. Opener 'too many times', with it's driving drums & layered vocals, and instrumental closer 'the birds & the fish' (that absolutely must be heard to grasp this comparison) truly reveal a band that belongs together.

If there were bumps on the 5 road, 19 minute trip to Harpswell Sound, I must have lucked out and missed each one - I even drove 'em 3 times, and plan on going back.

Some bands just have 'it', harpswell sound got more than most.

+ k [March | 2004]__________.... . . . . .  .   .

havergal
Elettricita
( Secretly Canadian ) 2004

" I can hear the critters crawl, but I can't be lost at all / until my last breath leaves me "

In 2001, I stumble across a review of an album entitled Lungs for the Race. This review was in a magazine I have quite a bit of faith in - The Big Takeover. This particular piece was describing to me a band that mixed the vocals of Modest Mouse, the loneliness of Arab Strap and the guitar work of Nick Drake.

This sounded like a winner on 3 counts of music I adored.

That weekend I ordered Lungs for the Race. Let me jump to the goodness and say I have played that particular volume of songs and included tracks to more mixtapes, it makes the remainder of my collection quite jealous. Friends & lovers have heard it and completely fallen for it.

Sample lyric from the title track: "If I stop writing my fingers are broken" .. ..

It has been over 3 years. I feared the worst. That moment of fear when you realize that most good things will come to an end, or worst, you discover a band that could be your new favorite - but they broke up 2 months prior to your discovery. Maybe it was just a case of broken fingers. I hear it was a minor relocation. What you need to know is Havergal is back - and Ryan Murphy & friends have delivered another stimulating album of digital textures, clicks and audible frequencies. Also aboard is a haunting piano (most notably 'the last wayfarer', the closing track that is mostly ivory-led ) that cleverly weaves through nearly each of Elettricita's ten spectacular compositions.

Sneaking somewhere in between the soundscapes of her space holiday & pinback (see: 'new innocent tyro allegory') with the vocal deliveries of, again, Isaac Brock (less the forced Modest Mouse but a more lethargic Ugly Casanova) and Nick Quagliara (of Panoply Academy) - this is an album to lose yourself with. Either by hitching, stealing or running your way out to a land of unknowns - Elettricita should be your navigational force. By a large margin - one of the best releases of 2004. Thanks.

" some-where on the moon, comforts gonna come with age "

+ k 04.20.04

Headphones
Headphones
( Suicide Squeeze ) 2005

Pedro the Lion goes all 'Sega-Pop' on our ass .. . or do they?

Headphones is the debut (self titled) side project LP from Pedro the Lion's Dave Bazan, Tim Walsh (T.W. Walsh) and drummer Frank Lenz (Starflyer 59). It sees Bazan and T.W.Walsh down their guitars in favour of Synthesizers.. . yep that's right, no guitars. Think Achilles Heel-era Pedro the Lion.. . but being released in 1987 (and that music released in 1987 was actually good) then you have some kind of idea of the sound of this record.

Headphones never strays far from Pedro territory and unlike The Postal Service's Give Up, this record retains the same character and warmth of the original band(s). This is principally down to the synths sincerity (if they can have such a thing) and the live drums (that sound amazing) that make this an extremely natural album. Not an easy task for such an electronic album.

Like Pedro the Lion, the songs feature dark and often surreal subject matter. "Hello Operator" has Bazan being patched through to his ex-lovers phone (without it ringing) - waiting for her to pick up - then strangling her through the telephone line telling her that she shouldn't have ever fucked with him. This is also Bazan at his most political with songs such as 'Major Citys' and the catchy 'Natural Disaster' with talk of "planes flying into buildings, putting the fear of god in you". This is by no means a perfect album; I personally would have left off two of the songs. Having said that, songs like 'Shit Talker' with it's sweet drum's and 'Pink and Brown' more than make up for the songs that didn't appeal so much, making this a great addition to anyone's album collection.

8/10

the MAT 06.25.05

Heavy Trash
Heavy Trash
( YepRoc ) 2005

When many post-modern history-minded musical maniacs dip into history to renew / refurbish / revitalize / re-do bygone idioms (i.e., idioms most major labels won't bother with) like klezmer, jug-band, and rockabilly - there's usually two approaches taken. One is to treat the idiom like a museum piece, with SO much reverence and respect that the FUN is sucked-out into an airless void. The other is to treat it like a quaint, archaic object of / basis for over-the-top "humor," completely lacking in heart & soul – Heavy Trash thankfully avoid both annoying extremes, instead aiming right down the middle as an ace bowler would. HT are Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion) and Matt Verta-Ray (Speedball Baby) performing most of the instruments & vocals, along with several helpers. First off, it's not "pure" rockabilly (whatever that is) – there's elements of R&B, doo-wop, country, and straight-no-chaser rock & roll, even a smidge of hip-hop mixed in with their ruff + tumble rock-ability. Imagine Jerry Lee Lewis in his 1960's prime collaborating with the Black Keys, or sometime-Blasters-member James Intveld (find his s/t'd album!!!) singing with one of John Lee Hooker's better bands. It's boisterous, but there's instrumental deftness; it's fun, it's funny, but never ham-fistedly silly or inane. Hey, the less-enlightened among us might simply tag this "earthy, roots-y rock and roll" – imagine! Heavy Trash is a back-porch keg-party in handy CD form.

Mark Keresman 09.14.05

Maximilian Hecker
ROSE
( Kitty-Yo ); 2003

"He sang: West Virginia, Mountain Mama - Take me higher, take me home".

Love hurts. Max Hecker loves love. He's even got his tux on inside this disc, just waiting for his Kate Moss to appear in her white gown. Opening cut 'Kate Moss' is a damn sad affair: pianos & synth, with lyrics that tug hard at the heart - "Seven days are a thousand years". Kate, call Max. Oh - too late, he's got that dead look in his eyes & a ghastly flesh wound on his forehead. This young model knows exactly what he is doing, and he's got my ears perked. My first encounter with Max was through an enchanting little 2-song EP entitled 'Polyester' that has one of the finest songs I've heard to date by the man on it ("the days are long and filled with pain"). And so, on this "file under pop" release, the finese continues to where you will soon be converting endless amounts of cash to Berlin funds that you have yet to make in your life to obtain all this guy has put to tape. A magnificent and equally fragile little album this is. Max peformed nearly all this stuff, so, he's like a prodigy y'know.

Life is bettered by albums like these.

Blood is red.

kaleb. 02.22.04

L i n k s : H S H

Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy
Doug Hilsinger with Caroleen Beatty
(DBK) 2004

Coincidental with the 30th-anniversary re-release of Brian Eno's unhinged 1974 experimental album, TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN, comes this enticing act of mimesis: a reverential, hard-rocking cover of the master's idiosyncratic early masterpiece, masterminded and performed entirely by largely unknown San Francisco producer/multi-instrumentalist Doug Hilsinger (ex-Bomb, the Hall Flowers) and crooned to perfection by largely unsung diva, Caroleen Beatty (Bedlam Rovers, Jon Langford). Released recently to much effusion from Eno himself (who was "deeply touched" by a rough mix of the tribute album when Hilsinger presented it to him last Fall) and the inevitable, well-deserved gush from the music press, it is unlikely Hilsinger and Beatty - indie-rock vets and both members of my favorite West Coast band, the ultra-wondrous Waycross - will be allowed to remain in obscurity for long.

Inspired by a postcard for a Maoist opera, Eno's TIGER MOUNTAIN is a loosely conceptual album about dreams, espionage and the Communist revolution that allowed the British glam-rocker/producer/tech-geek and self-described 'anti-musician' to explore his esoteric theories of artistic subversion and the element of chance within the context of his own multi-hued pop songs. Since its release in 1974, the densely layered album has influenced artists as varied as Bowie and emo heartthrobs Burning Airlines - one of several bands who've named themselves or songs via the album's streaming, surreal lyrics. Hilsinger's impeccably performed and recorded version of Eno's watershed album faithfully reproduces its intricate arrangements, but ups the ante with swarms of treated pedal steel and other guitars, sinuous sitars and twinkly glocks, plus his own great walloping drums. Combined with Beatty's sexy, androgy vocals,Hilsinger's charge up TIGER MOUNTAIN is more thrilling than Pop Art prankster Robert Rauschenberg's famous erased de Kooning drawing - and potentially just as historic. Buy it now and feel free to feel all smug and superior to your poor friends...

- LD Beghtol :: (06.29.04)

History Invades
The Structure of A Precise Fashion
( LUJO ) 2005

I'm going to write this review on a premise I will probably disregard after writing it: a band that hasn't reached its potential is more exciting than one that has. A band about to "break through" is watched more closely than a band that has made it to the top of their field. Who doesn't love an underdog, really? The love of the underdog is basically the reason the Clippers still play basketball. Kidding. But not really.

This is what makes History Invades' new album so fun to listen to - on "The Structure Of A Precise Fashion," something teems under the surface. The hooks often may be tepid, but the band stumbles on at least one great riff or melody in every song. Every song teems with ideas, sonic or lyrical - there is more than enough material here to be stretched out over 20 songs. However, these musical ideas are introduced, often only to be cut off in lieu of a new bass riff, a new shouty vocal hook, or a new lyrical theme.

For example, the leading track, "We Ran Out of Bridges So We Burned Down Our Houses," [MP3] runs through two great melodies and bass riffs, but unfortunately cannot settle down with one of them before moving to a less attractive part that closes the song. Due to this cramming-in of ideas, these songs have an unsettled sound, as if the songs cannot find a key element, a key essence to latch onto. This album highlights the strength of musicians like Beck or DJ Shadow, who infuse a song with an abundance of ideas, but understand that a song needs an emotional core to hold together. Songs like "Here Comes The Smart Patrol" shift uncomfortably for around three minutes, never settling into its own skin.
But the point is this: there is something there. Hearing a young band (almost) discover a great album is an exciting find, and this album does make for an interesting, if aggravating, listen. "Call Me Mint Jelly Cause I'm On The Lamb" runs through math-rock, Dischord dance-punk and a guitar riff breakdown worthy of a glam album. These parts beg for a cohesion, they ask to be re-arranged, and hint at a talent that only glimmers every so often during the album's ten tracks.

Listening to the confident strut of the opening track, and a select few other songs, History Invades make a bid for the (next) next big thing. The Structure of A Precise Fashion, as a whole, can be difficult and slightly uninspired every now and then, but the band's risks will pay off in the near future, and if you stick with this album, you'll be there to see this band when they achieve the heights this disc hints at.

Tyler McC 07.19.05

Holopaw
Quit +/or Fight
( Subpop ) 2005

Holopaw have gone back in time. Or perhaps forward in time; it's kind of hard to tell. Their self-titled debut was such a curious mix of hushed acoustic folk and glitchy electronic noises, it's difficult to say what era (except its own, the unpronounceable '00s) to place it in. They definitely have not stood still, however. Their new album has let go of most of the sounds of the first in favor of a slightly more straight-ahead, 70s-inspired rock band sound, while somehow maintaining the band's unique Holopaw-ness. They've (mostly) abandoned the acoustic guitar, synths and drum machine, and instead what we hear are songs built around electric (but not electronic) instruments: guitar, bass, lap steel, fender rhodes, and yes, a real drum kit. The difference is apparent right from the start: The first two songs on Quit +/or Fight positively groove. They will actually have you nodding your head and snapping your fingers. As lovely as Holopaw was, none of the songs on it was about to get any booties out on the dance floor. There are one or two songs that are more reminiscent of the first album's acoustic bent (the 3rd song, "Curious," comes to mind, with its falsetto vocals and finger-picked acoustic guitar, as does the last song, "Shiver Me," perhaps the most poignant, lovely song ever written about pirates), but overall this is a much more live, plugged-in sounding album. Part of the difference could be the different recording style: Rather than going into the studio and filtering their songs through the brain of renowned knob-tweaker Brian Deck, the Holopaw boys elected to record this album themselves, over a fairly long period of time. Overall the recording quality is fine, and I don't believe the album suffers as a result of this decision, but I wish I could hear the alternate-universe version, where they went up to Engine Studios and recorded these songs with Mr. Deck at the helm.

So now we've covered how it sounds: how is this album? With all the above-mentioned differences, it's still a Holopaw album, long on strange, meandering songs, barely-sensical words and phrases that you want to roll around in your mouth all day, and John Orth's hushed, warbling voice; and short on big choruses and catchy hooks. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much sick of big choruses and catchy hooks, and I enjoy meandering songs and delicious words, so this album is a winner for me. If you're really not into Mr. Orth's vocal stylings (and they are perhaps an acquired taste: I recall listening to the first album in the car with a couple friends, and one of them saying "Is this Tracy Chapman?" Ouch.), and you really like hooks and choruses, then this probably isn't the album for you: go buy another Shins or Long Winters album or something. But if you're willing to be challenged a bit by your music, if you like songs that don't take the obvious turn, or always build into climactic payoffs, yet still leave you warm, humming and happy, then you should already be a Holopaw fan. If you're not, go get both of their albums right now.

-Lee Klein :: (08.09.05)

Holy Sons
I Want To Live A Peaceful Happy Life
( FILMguerrero ) 2004

"I know I feel my best when I'm alone"

Emil Amos has a voice that will make you stop whatever you are doing. Serious-like - I envision the busiest hustle of your favorite diner at lunchtime on the hungriest day coming to a complete stand-still should a glorious emotion like the 2 and a half minute 'Trivialized' pass through the overhead speakers.

'Trivialized' opens up I Want To Live A Peaceful Life - the latest release (of which I own 3 - there may be many) by Emil in character as Holy Sons, a sparse metronome-driven anthem of opression and anger. Well, partially, as those things are voiced in Amos' lyrics. Chilling is nearly each of the thirteen compositions gathered here (see: 'Ready to Die', 'Amen'), akin to that of early Hayden or Oregon native Dolorean (Al James) - the latter of whom has also credited Jeff Saltzman on record, who mastered I Want To Live A Peaceful Life. 'Family Man' [ "I'm not much of a family man / I turn a corner wherever I can" ] also begins with Emil and a lone guitar, but soons part ways to a casual snare rim-tap that by song's center has evolved into a full band sound including a distinct organ / bass fuzz. Liner notes reveal Amos is the sole musician, save for an extra player ( J-O Mf's Timothy Horner) on strings - and if you appreciate this type of lone recording as you should, Holy Sons has everything you desire.

Albums rarely get within earshot of this good, and for that Holy Sons is a secret I feel I need to share - don't miss it.

+ kaleb :: (07.24.04)

Home 13
Netherregions
( Jetset ) 1998

It's been raining here quite a bit. It is April - but this much heavy moisture is like a cruel joke from the broken hand of the gods. What this weather has to do with a band called Home is their thirteenth album (!) Netherregions is all I have been listening to in my auto - driving back and forth from my job that is slowly killing me. Netherregions has this power, seriously, to make the events that surround you [kind of] mean very little. Like this fucking rain - while it is falling all around & even under me, this disc makes it all seem better. Not that rain is all that 'bad' - it's just a visual nuisance when you drive as much as I do. Something about the sounds of what seems to be polaroids developing (on 'Work') make the downpour just.. . well, go away.

The creation as a whole that is Netherregions reminds me of the younger brother 'Clouds Taste Metallic' never knew it had - or vice versa (note: Dave Fridman did produce this album's follow-up, XIV.. .) An album that is unequal parts early Joan of Arc ('The Boogeyman', 'Pearls Hang Loosely') - Dark Side of The Moon ('Turn Away') and a band who has, by some freak accident, awoken one morning in Japan with no concept of how terrible most American music is.

What? Heed these words - this is / was ceratinly a band who is / was ahead of their time - a time in which most of us will likely never see. Where is the band Home?

+ kaleb 04.16.04

Home: Volume V
Benjamin Gibbard & Andrew Kenny
( Post-Parlo ); 2003

Ben Gibbard & Andrew Kenny - two damn fine guys from two of your favorite bands: Death Cab for Cutie & American Analog Set. Not only that, but they are two of the best songwriters & voices of our times. The ongoing incredibleness that is the HOME Split CD series from Austin, Texas record label Post -Parlo (past contributors include, but are not limited to: Kind of Like Spitting, Super XX Man & the $50 eBay special Conor Oberst / Britt Daniel blend) finds these two indie giants each recording 3 new songs as well as covering 1 song from the others band. You following me - it's good to own a cd like this. I am really beginning to think Ben G. cannot write a bad tune, nor record a bum cover - his 3 originals here are classic ATQ-style acoustic numbers, with the third track, 'Farmer Chords' incorporating a bit of background drumming. His first song, 'You Remind me of Home', is one you may have heard from the KEXP radio sessions earlier this year, and again it doesn't dissappoint. His gorgeous acoustic reinterpretation of 'Choir Vandals', one of my top AAS tracks from their "punk as fuck" 2001 release Know By Heart, will surely leave you with the desire to hear more. What an excellent choice. Smart guys... ..

Andrew Kenny of AAS has a wonderful soft voice, and his vocals sounds better than ever when you strip it down to just him & a finely tuned instrument. His 4 songs are instant keepers - 'Secrets of the Heart', his second track, is a quick (a little over 2 minutes), dark tune that doesn't take long before you find yourself humming right along. On 'Church Mouse in the Church House', at times he comes about as close as anyone I've heard in a while to the vocal similarity of Elliott Smith - it's terriffic & my favorite track on his side. He chooses to cover a very early one - DCFC's Line of Best Fit from Something About Airplanes. Kenny puts a paced, nearly unrecognizable twist on one of Death Cab's finest songs, what a strange yet smart choice. These two guys certainly complement each other vocally & in the songwritting category, and it's wonderful to have the 2 side-by-side on one collection. Another chersihed release from the HOME series.

kaleb
L i n k s : HOME PPR Split Page

Homesick for Space
Unison
( Lakeshore ); 2003

"mirrors show just what we are, we'll cloud the rest with steam."
This is exactly what I'm talking about folks. Bands that are this fucking good - yet for some damned reason all New York (and most of the other socially posh culture scenes) wants to talk about is all the other pre-21st century remakes that keep crawling out of Williamsburg and Manhattan. It's such a shame, but bands like Long Island's Homesick For Space are the kind of band that most people who do know just how good they are want to keep them all for themselves anyhow - our little bright star for the future. After two religiously gorgeous releases (one 5-song ep on Brooklyn's Immigrant Sun, the other a self-released 3-song cd-r that has early versions of this releases songs 'in rapture' and 'skeletons on the sill' ) they eventually landed in the hands (and lucky hands they are) of California's Lakeshore Records. Damn - that's a long way from home I must say, but whatever get's these guys into the hands of needy listeners around the states - please do it. Combining equally beautiful parts percussion, guitars and piano - it's vocalist Peter Bisso and his angelic harmonies that ties the knot on one of 2003's most genuinly heartfelt releases. That's not to say that HFS can't turn up the volume, as they do, alot - especially nearing the end of 'Skeletons on the Sill', when the drums, guitars & piano take over in a battle for the finish, and all of a sudden drop off the ledge, leaving the final moments to a few spare piano notes. Eleven songs of timeless beauty, well worth adding to the collection.

kaleb
L i n k s : H F S

The Honorary Title
anything else but the truth
( Doghouse ) 2004

"The seamstress weaves shut the stitches"

By the time you reach "Everything I Once Had", the third track on 'anything else but the truth' - the Honorary Title's debut full-length, you should have a common sense on A) whether or not this is your cup, and B) what the duo is attempting to pull-off. You should, says I, but as the album gets deeper - the songs get quite memorable.

Sometimes liner notes can tell you all you need to know. Here, the honorary title give thanks to Chris Carrabba (a guy they will likely be linked to forever), Homesick for Space and Ben Kweller. Two of these references make valid discussion points, as anyone who takes the songs of Dashboard to heart has likely seen these fellas live or heard about them in advance. As for the Ben Kweller point, Jarrod Gorbel has written some extremely catchy tunes that, like Kweller, when stripped down to him and his acoustic I'm betting could awe a crowd.

Jarrod Gorbel has a voice that could cause quite a stir in a packed coffee house. Howie Day fans take notice, this guys got a range that could pass for Howie's clone - and that's a wealthy feature. "Everything I Once Had" sounds like a perfect fit placed in between any of the tracks that catapulted Day's career on his debut Australia - an album that still owns hours of my life. There are the occasional moments of juvenile romance, such as "Cut Short" with it's line of "We could be like onions and peppers / In a sleeping bag fajita". Like Kweller or (Howie) Day, Gorbel can get away with the honest crime because it sounds so genuine, and is surrounded by many stronger songs. The lullaby twinklings of "Revealing too Much" take back any notion I had of writing these guys off. "Arching your frame with your stomach pushed outward / Your head tilting back with your mouth partially open" Gorbel croons as a steady beat and pedal steel draw an equally emotional soundscape. Here's betting the lot that this song makes nearly all the 2004 mix-tapes.

All-American Rejects comparisons are inevitable, as the honorary title are pictured as a duo of Gorbel (Vocals / Guitar) and Aaron Kamstra (Bass / Keys) - least we forget Doghouse is putting this party on. Again, if AAR aren't your idea of the best band on the planet, and we're neutral on that discussion, the honorary title have forged an album of perfect summer night love. Be safe kids.

**An A+ to Paul Paddock for one of the more memorable album covers this year - bad panda, equally bad snake.
+ kaleb :: (07.09.04)

the Hotel Alexis
The Shining Example Is Lying On The Floor
( Broken Sparrow ) 2004

".. . buy a piano. If you get sad, play just the black keys."

It doesn't take long for The Shining Example is Lying On The Floor to sink comfortably into the soul, at least by "Broken Sparrow" - the album's fourth track, should you be stubbornly thick-skinned. 'The Shining Example..' is actually the audible equivalent of the suns warmth on a far too frozen face - the thaw that soon turns to hope, then to total revival.

I was introduced to the Hotel Alexis through a trade of mix-tapes (blessed be those who still trade), one of which contained the omnipotent track "Comeback Kid". I was immediately floored by a combination of sounds I adore - as if the mind of Mark Linkous and the songbook of Calexico had somehow stumbled into an abandoned instrument museum and begun a truly memorable collaboration. Normally being the last person you would find trying to cross-reference artists to listeners, I must tell you this: Should you, like myself, find yourself completely awed by the backyard-studio sounds of Good Morning Spider-era Sparklehorse (see: "ok"), Oregon's crucially important Pseudosix (see: "it's obvious now") or all things powered by organic beauty (such as dying in your sleep, a subject touched upon on "Dapper Dan") - you will find a way to hear this album.

Brooding opener "The Season for Working" may just find itself comfortably at home in the heart of any Neil Halstead fan, and that's damn good company. Should you be unfamiliar with any of the aforementioned wonder, as well as Hotel Alexis, your life has just been introduced to a new plateau. I myself have laid down in the grass and let the insect's do their thing, and we as a family are much more in tune with the dominant heavenliness this album possesses. Heartached anthems of devil's (see: 'the quite life') and the blackest of bloods (on the closer "Queens and the Soft King") are all contained within the walls of Hotel Alexis.

'The Shining Example is Lying On The Floor' is like magic, only this album is real.

+ kaleb :: (08.14.04)

Hotel Lights
Hotel Lights
( self-released )2004

"I'm running my mouth again on things I cannot explain, on things that can't be changed"

Darren Jessee is the man behind Magic, one of - if not the - finest tune to have been part of what was Ben Folds Five. As one of the Ben Folds three, Darren was also the man behind the drumset, and a very integral part of the songwriting for BF5's existence and glowing remembrance.

Well, the Five split back then, and Hotel Lights is now. This album has risen virtually out of nowhere, being that it was self-released / co-produced (with Alan Weatherhead) by leader Darren Jessee and has only (as of now) seen a strictly word-of-mouth reception. I purchased the record after hearing it in a faithful record store in Chapel Hill, NC - the town that Hotel Lights calls home. At first listen I was thinking a mix between Josh Rouse (see: "you come and i go") and Will Johnson (see: "a.m. slow golden hit") - and this was before I took the time to check the liner notes to see who this band actually was.

Honestly, and I do like you, "a.m. slow golden hit" and "you come and i go" are two of the catchiest, purest & most honest sounding songs you've yet to hear. Not to dismiss everything you knew / know about the Five, Hotel Lights did not neglect the time on the keys on this stunning debut (see: "love to try", "small town shit"), but it's the sparseness and subtlety of this albums instrumentation that truly showcases the albums most valuable possession - Darren Jessee's songwriting and spectacular voice.

Please hear this album - it hurts me like the distance between lovers that you might not.

+ kaleb :: (09.22.04)