Bryan Scary made our top ten last year and already he’s got a follow up on the way. “Flight of the Knife” is due for release April 1, 2008. It was recorded with producer Brian McTear (Apollo Sunshine, Matt Pond PA) between tours last fall. Featuring a harder rocking sound and heavy emphasis on ensemble dynamics, Flight of the Knife captures the band’s acclaimed live sound while expanding upon the studio wizardry and lush eccentricities of Scary’s self-recorded debut, The Shredding Tears. As a special treat to their fans, the band is offering a FREE track to download every week leading up to the release, starting January 8th at FlightoftheKnife.com
Beachfield is a new project for Go-Betweens drummer, vocalist Glenn Thompson, and it will appeal to fans of The Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera and Crowded House. It’s got a casual breezy feel and tempo. The catchy “One Way Ticket” is a great hummable song and most of the album follows that template. Glenn Thompson’s stories range from the weather (“Wintertime Again”) to his Aussie neighbors (“Suburbian Life”). Most enjoyable track for me is the summery “Birds Eye View” complete with a wonderful silent break before the chorus. A lot of the album takes awhile to grow on you, as the tempos are all similar and this can lead to an auditory monotony. The ballads here like, “Demons” and “Danish Kronor” are okay, but nothing to get too excited about. This album is not so easily available in the states, except through Tower Records Online.
The Hope Trust is the project of Kelly Upshaw, a singer-songwriter from Denton, Texas. Along with Andy Odom (bass), Winston Chapman (drums), Jeremy Butler (guitar) and Michael Upshaw (guitars, vocals) they have a sweet Americana sound similar to The Pernice Brothers earlier efforts and Wilco. After the rollicking “Break You Down” and very Pernice-like “Run It Through” it settles into an indie folk groove, with “Ok Alright” complete with wistful choruses similar to Neil Finn. The musicanship is superb and the production is clean here as well. If you like your alt-country with a bit of melodic melancholy, this is the perfect poison for you. On the other side of the coin, there may be too much gloom here with tracks like “Repent”, “World Without End” and “Mountain I Can’t Climb” – it’s enough to drive a man to drink. The lack of any upbeat songs after the opening tracks is a real downer here. Good job, Hope Trust. After hearing this I have an “incurable want” for some Jack Daniels with Gary Louris. Depressed Alt country lovers unite!
I got several e-mails mentioning this as a year-end contender, and to be fair, it passed me by last month. So I will open the new year with this review. Most respected powerpopaholics knows who Mitch Easter is, but for the others, here is the skinny: Mitch is best known for producing R.E.M. during their rise to fame and as front man for the 80’s new wave pop band Let’s Active as well as a member of the Chris Stamey proto-Db’s band, Sneakers. In addition, he’s produced albums for The Velvet Crush, Ken Stringfellow (The Posies) and others. But I recognize him as one of the originators of the “jangle pop” movement. After almost twenty years later, the urge to release a solo record emerges.
“Dynamico” is a hell of debut. The same energy that typified the best of Let’s Active is here in spades. It mixes the classic jangle pop with heavy prog rock influences throughout. “Time Warping” opens things well with subtle hooks and hard driving rhythms. “You/Me” shows a bit of the heavier prog guitars with head banging drum work. Considering his hiatus from performing, he sounds great and carries all the tunes here. Another gem here is “Ton of Bricks” that starts off soft and roars to a cool guitar bridge. Every song is good, if not great and fans of Camper Van Beethoven will love the lyrical twists with the melodic assault. “Why is it so Hard?” has that familiar R.E.M. jangle and multi-tracked hooky goodness. “Glazed” adds a Beatlesque touch as well, and you begin to notice this isn’t some “mid-life crisis” for an active producer in the music business, but a true work of pop craftsmanship. A brilliant album without a doubt. This would have made my top ten, had I heard it earlier in 2007.
Tony Low, a founding member of New York’s renowned garage-psychedelic pop band The Cheepskates, has been writing and recording his songs since the early 1980’s. Like the Kinks Ray Davies, Tony has a good story along with a killer riff that makes listening a pure pop pleasure. Starting with the excellent “Winter of Black Ice” – it’s a real treat for Kinks fans. The next track “This Old House” has a clean pop approach similar to Chris Stamey and the DBs. Needless to say fans of The early REM or The Cheepskates will love all of Tony’s stuff. The music is rich in melody and the jangle in “Spirals” is a catchy example. The autobiographical “In This Life” is a bit depressing, but still not off putting. The ballads here like, “All is Coming” have a pop softness that is not unlike Andrew Gold. Low dosen’t come across too tough, even on the fuzzy “Not the Lucky Ones” – it still approaches music that is best described as “easy listening,” but that label is really maligned and I use the term in the best sense. The album ends with “Brave Michael” a fitting Brian Wilson-styled ballad. This album is most worthy of a jangle pop fans attention.
