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02 March 2006

Midstates, Boxing Twilight (Mental Monkey/Reincarnate) Rating: 7
Just as another great buzz-rock-and-electronics band, Grandaddy, announces they'll be calling it quits after their upcoming release, here's a potential successor. Sharing that other band's unassuming approach and ability to naturally fuse keyboards into satisfyingly noisy guitar work, Chicago five-piece Midstates puts together intricate, pop songs with warm vocals wrapped in a gauzy shoegaze sheen. The album opens strong with their catchiest and fastest, insistent live drums racing beneath, but even when they later slow down and afford the vocals more space and an intimate closeness to the listener, the songs hold up beautifully. There may still be some rough edges to work out here, but for the moment this only adds to the charm. A great album from an exciting new band poised (I would hope) on the edge of breaking out to a wider audience. — Nate Dorr [Insound]
"Till Dead": [M4A]
"Under There": [MP3]

Future Tips, Girls on Wheels (Extra-Curricular) Rating: 7
This Philadelphia band has seen its members in several bands previously, but this new ensemble breathes new life into well-crafted but not too slick or overly produced radio pop. Part Beach Boys and part Gin Blossoms, the group seems to hit a song like "Flavors" out of the park. There's certain sweetness in the music that isn't found that often, particularly on tight nuggets like "Cold Bliss" as drummer Mike Kennedy tends to propel things along. Toning the record down with "Chins Up", the group never quite gets a grasp of this track despite a light, lullaby feel. But "Hideout" turns the album around again with a punchy electro-sprinkled pop rocker resembling like Tom Petty with the Attractions subbing for the Heartbreakers. Other efforts resemble The Click Five, which might not be a bad thing to some people. "No Sympathy" is such an example as they move from bubble gum pop into some quasi-ska rock groove. Unfortunately "Hairclub" loses something the more it goes along, and it's not any follicles. "I Know..." is a strong rocker with a bigger, fuller '60s style melody and chorus. The highlight is the winding "True Plans" that gives itself enough time to flesh things out. Ditto for the military drumbeat during some portions of "Downside"! — Jason MacNeil [Insound]

Mynah, Preface E.P. (self-released) Rating: 4
Preface bills itself as "An informal brunch served as a preface to a three day conference". Pretentious or tongue-in-cheek? You'll know when you hear the songs. Any time a rock band describes its sound as "lush" and praises its "organic instrumentation" in its press kit, something is up. Plus, Mynah keep calling themselves pop and there's frankly not an ounce of that here. Apparently it's trendy for dark, brooding indie rock bands to don the pop label nowadays. But Mynah's bio does get one thing right: they "never [hide] behind over-production". On this debut EP, Mynah's histrionics may be overwrought, and their rock may contain far too much art, but at least the production is restrained. The five tracks almost sound as if they were recorded live -- Holland Kemp's piercing vocals; Erik Guldbech's straight-outta-the-garage-amp guitar, Steve Formel's muffled drum kit. But if the best thing about Preface is its lack of major-label sheen, that's because it's the work of a very young group of five NYC kids self-releasing their first songs. Mynah's songwriting shows some promise, but still needs to develop. Most importantly, Mynah must shun their Radiohead tendencies. That's a black hole no young band should get caught up in. — Nate Seltenrich [Insound]
"Richness": [MP3]

Chamillionaire, "Turn It Up" f/ Lil' Flip [12-inch single] (Universal) Rating: 6
When I hear this song, I think of ping pong, R. Kelly and video games. Which is weird because I like all three, but don't really like this song. An odd amalgam of styles -- notably the cheap with the slick -- "Turn It Up" comes off as a misfired attempt to bridge the Houston rapper's past with his present-day stab at mainstream fame. Back when he rhymed with Paul Wall over cheap Casio beats, Chamillionaire used to sound hot and bothered -- although in the literal, completely unsexy ways. Perhaps producer Scott Storch approached the Koopa with the idea of revisiting that territory. Instead, they land in an awkward middle ground of overproduced cheese. Coupled with Killa Cham's excessive mean muggin', "Turn It Up" sputters pretty quickly. But that's if you've heard Cham's earlier work. And, quite frankly, most people who hear this on the radio haven't heard it. So, I present to you another club hit, radio-friendly conceiver of fiyah. Press rewind. At least twice. — Dan Nishimoto [Insound]
Chamillionaire: [multiple videos]

Airport Cathedral, Jetlag (Burning Building) Rating: 4
Slow need not mean boring; Codeine, Low, and an entire small movement adopted it as a guiding principle in the early 1990s, and later in the decade Mineral achieved a languid splendor without often accelerating past 60 beats per minute. In the hands of Airport Cathedral, however, the two terms too often blur together, as softly murmured vocals and incessantly midtempo rhythmic blandness lead one track into the next without much variation. Lyrical repetition doesn't help; the over-iterated pleas of "I only wanted to hear your voice" on one song give way to a mantra of "we were never so young" on the next, both striving for an emotional resonance neither achieves. Things pick up briefly at the halfway point, with Rentals-worthy keyboards bringing a cheesy charm to "Righteous". Closer "Another Day Another Week" rides out an effective chord progression about a minute too long, and then it's too little, too late: if the point of this album is to convey the feeling of jetlag it succeeds, but something tells me that was not the intent. — Whitney Strub [Insound]

.: posted by Editor 8:15 AM