Brian Vogan - Little Songs (2008)
purchase this album (CD Baby)

I didn’t mean for it to be this way — and every time I review one of these, I grow more afraid that Mrs. Davis is going to kneecap me for horning in on her territory — but I seem to have become the kids’ music guy at Popdose. It’s hard to complain about this too much, though, because I keep ending up with free copies of CDs that my daughter loves — and the latest, Brian Vogan’s Little Songs, is the best yet.

Seriously, you guys. Seriously. Even if you don’t have kids, don’t want kids, hate kids, you might want to pick yourself up a copy of Little Songs — it’s smart, funny, well-produced, and charming as all get-out. Vogan, a former pre-K teacher, used his job as an early childhood music educator to craft the songs on the album, introducing them to his classes as projects that they all worked on together, week by week. You wouldn’t think that songwriting with a committee of toddlers would result in songs as immediately appealing as “Racecar” or “Animal ABCs” (download), but the evidence suggests otherwise.

The album isn’t without its low points — “Chess” aims for TMBG-style whimsy, but will leave you aiming for the “skip” button, and “Spring” lacks the irresistible energy of the rest of the record — but trust me when I tell you that the young ones in your life will be won over immediately by Brian Vogan’s Little Songs, and listening to it repeatedly (as I’ve done for the last week and a half or so) won’t drive you crazy either. What else could you ask for?

Popularity: 2% [?]

It was either Soren Kierkegaard or Wayne Campbell from Wayne’s World who said: “Once you label me, you negate me.” And so it goes with Sia – whose latest release, Some People Have Real Problems, was filed in the electronica section of my local record store. Sia’s career veered into the electronica territory when she did some vocals for Zero 7, and her musical contribution to Six Feet Under’s series finale (“Breathe Me”) demonstrated she can be a rather intense singer.

Flash forward to 2008, and Sia sounds like she’s ditched electronica to dabble in jazz, show tunes stylings, and straight-ahead pop. The most radio-friendly tunes on Some People Have Real Problems being “The Girl You Lost to Cocaine” (download) and the hidden track at the end of “Lullaby.” Sia even does a cover of the Pretenders’ “I Go to Sleep” that is quite lovely — and almost surpasses the original.

Perhaps it’s my penchant for odd songs that made me warm up to “Academia” (download), but I found that the semi-robotic style of Sia’s vocals (with additional vocals by Beck) helped make it one of the strongest cuts on the CD. I don’t quite know how to classify this CD other than to say, that at times it has “Featured at Starbucks” written all over it. The first five songs are pleasant and thoughtful pop tunes for the furrowed-brow crowd who enjoy sipping coffee combinations at a certain famed coffeehouse behemoth. After “Academia,” however, the songs sound a little less conventional and a little more interesting, with some compositions inviting comparisons to Fiona Apple.

If you still buy CDs, you may find Sia’s Some People Have Real Problems in the electronica section. But get ready for a collection of songs that defy labeling.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Various Artists - Ten Out of Tenn, Volume 2 (2008)

Way back in the Paleolithic, when I still fancied myself a recording artist/label owner, I spent some time in Nashville writing songs for one of my albums. It wasn’t my first visit to the city, but it was the first time I’d spent more than a few hours hanging around there — and the first time I’d been there as a “songwriter.” Out for dinner with a writing partner one night, I had my first defining Nashville experience — being waited on by a guy who, when he found out why I was in town, tried to get me to take his demo tape with the check.

A few years later, I had my second defining Nashville experience during a night that started at dinner alongside an early ’90s one-hit wonder and the publishing magnate ex-husband of a country megastar, and culminated with a concert featuring David Mead, Joe Pisapia, and Daniel Tashian. My point is that you can’t break wind in Nashville without reaching the nostrils of a songwriter, and even if releasing a 10-track compilation of songs from the city’s unsigned artists is a bit like using a butterfly net to try and catch your favorite raindrops in a hurricane, that compilation is still bound to contain a fair bit of worthwhile music.

Such is the case with Ten Out of Tenn, Volume 2, which follows up on 2005’s Volume 1 — and is actually more than a CD; it’s a tour, one that kicked off in (duh) Nashville over the weekend. It’s a great idea, and one that should be particularly appealing to fans of the Awarestore-flavored singer/songwriter fare that the city has become known for over the last decade or so. This is another way of saying that yes, there is no pedal steel anywhere on this record — but there are plenty of artists whose work has been featured on shows such as One Tree Hill, October Road, The Hills, and Grey’s Anatomy. If you’re into Josh Rouse and/or Colbie Caillat, in other words, these songs should float your boat nicely.

A number of them are previously released — Griffin House’s “The Guy That Says Goodbye” has been around for at least a year — but unless you’re a hardcore fan of the genre, odds are you haven’t heard most of it. And the new material, such as Erin McCarley’s “Pony (Go On)” (download), is pretty great.

I’m unable to find purchase information for this CD, but that shouldn’t stop you from heading over to the Ten Out of Tenn MySpace page, or catching them on tour if you’re lucky enough to live between Indianapolis and New York.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Andrew Ripp - Fifty Miles to Chicago (2008)
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Name an album Fifty Miles to Chicago — or pose for a cover shot while you’re walking in the desert in a porkpie hat — and you’re pretty much begging people to assume it’s chock full of bluesy vocals, ripping guitar solos, and maybe some brass and/or harmonica. In this respect, Andrew Ripp’s debut is a total disappointment — far from bluesy, he sounds a lot like Rob Thomas’ not-annoying cousin — but leaving misplaced expectations aside, this is an exceedingly well-crafted little pop/rock record.

Ripp actually does have a little of the Chicago sound in his music, but most of it’s been bleached out of these performances, which is about what you’d expect from an album that was produced by a former member of Tonic. Not that there’s anything wrong with Tonic, or these recordings — it’s just that, like most everything else that’s being released these days, Fifty Miles is all crisp lines and sharp edges, from Ripp’s way-out-in-front vocals to the bright-as-sunshine instrumental tracks behind him. Ripp’s a soulful vocalist, and at least a moderately charming songwriter; these qualities beg for warmth in their interpretation, and they don’t get it here. You get the impression that Ripp — or whoever was calling the shots here — was angling for some kind of commercial “in” instead of putting together a truly timeless album.

The end result is a fine debut, but that’s all — and to listen to tracks like “Get Your Smile On” (download) is to wonder what it might be like if someone set up Ripp in a warehouse with a drummer, a bassist, an organist, and some tube amps, and let ‘em rip. (No pun intended.) On future outings, he’d do well to strip back the gloss and leave a few hairs out of place; in the meantime, he’s delivered a strong shot against the bow of the Starbucks set. Something tells me he’s much more entertaining live.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Brandon Schott - Golden State (2007)
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Brandon Schott is a patient man. As those of you who read Jefitoblog might recall, I assembled a “staff” of writers at one point, in an effort to expand the site’s coverage of independent artists. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a very good job of cracking down on those writers if they dragged their asses getting their posts in — something Schott discovered when he sent his second CD, Golden State, in for review. The writer who requested it never submitted his review, and then the site disappeared, and here we are, a year later, and poor Golden State still hasn’t been given the coverage it deserves.

That all ends today, because I’ve been spending the weekend listening to nothing but this album, and I’m ready to tell you that fans of wistful, laid-back California pop need look no further for their next fix. Schott describes the record as “Neil Finn meets Neil Young meets Michael Penn meets Gram Parsons, with a shade of Brian Wilson,” and that pretty much hits the nail right on the head — the entire album is shot through with gossamer guitars, gentle vocals, stacks of harmonies, and the occasional tasteful extra production touch. Those prone to napping should probably avoid listening to Golden State while operating heavy machinery, but anyone with a deep appreciation for ’70s West Coast pop will instantly fall into deep and abiding love for these songs the first time they hear them.

Records this beautifully ethereal tend to work better as a whole than parsed out into single tracks, but start yourself off with the title track (download) and Schott’s slowed-down cover of David Mead’s “Everyone Knows It But You” (download) to get an idea of what Golden State has to offer.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Stylistically, Love as Laughter have jumped around a fair amount over 14 years of existence. Holy, the sixth release from frontman and founding member Sam Jayne (who seems to be the only consistent name attached, though drummer Zeke Howard has been around for the last three albums or so), finds his style no more grounded than in the past.

Holy centers around three genres influencing Jayne’s sound: a simple, singer-songwriter style folk, some sort of island calypso, and a heavy hitting garage rock revival. Instead of gently flowing from one into the next, which could actually be possible, ludicrous as it sounds in theory, the track listing jumps around, leaving the listener a little unsure of where they’re being lead.

It starts off rather basic with the title track, which begins with a strummed acoustic guitar, and Jayne’s affinity for absurd lyrics: “Holy’s never out of reach / I heard that demons don’t hit the beach.” One minute in, a ton of instruments and singers jump in, and it sounds like chaos. Beautiful chaos, but still chaos.

Most of the exotic island feel comes from the percussion, which incorporates conga drums or bongos. Occasionally they stand out almost too much, but at their most effective, they add an unusual pick-me-up to an otherwise relatively standard formula, like in “Crosseyed Beautiful Youngunz.” They also fit in well with the album’s most psychedelic moment, “All Parts of Me.” (more…)

Popularity: 5% [?]

Looking at the six years between The Devil, You + Me, the newest release from the Notwist, and Neon Golden, the release that threw them into American ears, leaves a deceiving impression. Markus Acher and Michael Acher have been working. Not for the Notwist, exactly, but for projects that are deceptively similar to their ambient electronic pop. There was 2004’s Faking the Books from Lali Puna, Markus’ side project, 2005’s 13 & God, a Notwist collaboration with Anticon rappers Themselves, and 2006’s Notes and the Like from Ms. John Soda, Michael’s side project. But these releases increased the appetite for a new Notwist album more often than they satisfied it.

It’s with much delight, then, that The Devil, You + Me easily picks up where Neon Golden left off. Some of the melodies even sound pieced together from remainders of the album that came before it; not in a lazy, “we’ve heard this all before” fashion, but like a fragmented memory nagging you to complete it.

The Notwist don’t really break from what worked so well last time. The Devil, You + Me features the same sort of smudged, smushed, scraping electronics, at times soft and warm, at others industrial and cold. The lyrical themes are somewhat similar, as well, bouncing back and forth between isolation (”I’m alone at last / with every other me”) and endearment (”the sun was up all night / and I put my arms around you / to hold you tight / on and on and on and on”). (more…)

Popularity: 5% [?]

We’ve been hearing the “rock is dead” pronouncements for so many years now that we don’t even listen anymore. “It is what it is,” we blithely proclaim, pretending not to care. But if you’re like me, in private moments you sometimes find yourself in despair thinking that it might really be true this time. These moments usually come after hearing the new Paris Hilton single, or the latest hip-hop sensation, or some hot emo band with bad haircuts and too much eye makeup.

Fear not: as long as Alejandro Escovedo draws breath, there is rock ‘n’ roll. It should be mentioned, however, that in 2003, Escovedo nearly stopped drawing said breath. He collapsed on a stage in Tempe during a performance of his theater piece By the Hand of the Father. He had been living in denial about the Hepatitis C that had been dogging him for seven years. At St. Luke’s Hospital he was diagnosed with varices of the esophagus, cirrhosis of the liver and tumors in his abdomen. When he was admitted a nurse told him that he didn’t have long to live.

A long hospital stay was followed by a month of recuperation in Arizona before Escovedo was strong enough to return to his home in Wimberley, Tx., near Austin. But even then he was so heavily medicated that he could barely walk around and certainly couldn’t play music. All that was left for him was songwriting, and so he began to craft some new material. The first song he wrote, reflecting his newfound but hard-won sobriety, was called “Arizona.”

“Have another drink on me
I’ve been empty since Arizona” (more…)

Popularity: 5% [?]

Here’s the deal: Every once in a while one stumbles upon a group or whatever that just knocks you on your butt and you gotta broadcast your discovery to the world. Last night I accidentally clicked on some hairdresser’s site on MySpace — friend of a friend thing — and this groove emanated out of my speakers and enveloped the room in electro-retro-funky stuff that made me think “Prince, James Brown, and Fatboy Slim all at once! Oh my gosh! Who is this?” It’s not just beats and noise, this is stuff crafted by someone who has an appreciation for what made funk tick!

Aside: I really dig dance music. Well, actually, not much of it. In fact it’s gotta be big beat or otherwise derivative of 1970s funk for me to appreciate it. The ambients leave me cold most of the time, and one more repetitive washing-machine techno beat might indeed split my skull right open or possibly send me on a monitor-smashing binge through the house. But show me a good Norman Cook, Paul Oakenfold, or Adam Freeland production—especially if it features or samples Bootsy or one of his pals—and you’ll get me in the mood.

A few emails later — and they responded immediately — I learned that the group who kicked my ears was Artist of the Year, a Montreal outfit, and the song was Big Night, which they graciously gave us permission to upload for your listening enjoyment. To go with their golden ear for ultimate funk beats distilled to 8-bit digital using vintage instrumental sounds like a pastry chef expertly uses marzipan, they have a sometimes, uh, sophomoric sense of humor. (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

Success is problematic for a band. When you’re flying under the radar, no one expects much from you. But then, when you deliver a breakthrough, as The Hold Steady did with Boys and Girls In America, the stakes rise exponentially. It seems that nearly everyone I’ve spoken to has pointed to Stay Positive as the most anticipated album of the year. Uh oh. As Jerry Seinfeld would say, that’s a big matzoh ball hanging out there.

To their credit, Craig Finn and company have not used the occasion to try to make a grand statement (are you listening, Brandon Flowers?), although the harpsichord in “One For the Cutters” is a little bit disconcerting at first. What The Hold Steady have done here is to consolidate the gains they made with Boys and Girls In America, while managing to plow some new ground to demonstrate that the band is not standing still. There will be the usual Springsteen comparisons (and they are justified based on tracks like “Yeah Sapphire”). but this time the band is also letting their Led Zeppelin influence show on the funky “Navy Sheets” and the more acoustic setting of “Both Crosses.”

(more…)

Popularity: 7% [?]