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24 May 2006
The Solvents, I Hear the Desert Is a Lonely, Hot Place to Die (Sanitary)
Any band can milk a cello for its pathos, but the Solvents earn their melancholy on this lovely, understated album. With a seven-minute opening track that explodes from quiet folk into spazzedelic jam, the Solvents clearly aren't pandering for approval. But armed with wistful melodies bathed in violin, organ, and, yes, cello, they win it in spades. "John Lennon" pulls off the nifty trick of sounding like a typical early-Pavement knockoff for a few minutes before suddenly resolving into a surprisingly affecting childhood memory, while "The Ballad of Jack" wisely recognizes that the best tribute to a dead-and-missed friend isn't a funeral dirge but a gently uplifting tune. Lead Solvent Jarrod Bramson runs the show here, but partner Emily Madden steps up to the mic for a delightful warble on "It Doesn't Feel Like Home." The whole album has the effortless intimacy and misleadingly tossed-off feel of the best bedroom recordings, and extra kudos go to Bramson for his scrawled liner notes rejecting the pretentious fetishization of vintage recording gear.
[Insound]
— Whitney Strub
"Past Lives of a Broken Cello": [MP3]
"Your Sparrow": [MP3]
Indie / Folk / Experimental 
Nathan Asher & The Infantry, Sex Without Love (self-released)
"No you don't know you don't know you don't know you don't". Thus spoke Nathan Asher as behind him played the Infantry. What did it mean? Not necessarily anything, but not likely nothing at all. The song was called "Leave the South", if that helps. It doesn't, so perhaps the next track may hold a clue. "Drift Away" does just that, before surrendering any meaning. The band plays on -- languishing rock, Ian McCulloch perhaps if he was from the '90s, or Billy Bragg without a care in the world beyond an unfulfilled love life. "Sex Without Love" is not easily done; it takes gallons of wine. I like this music, but not enough; it's good, but not great. The lead guitar throughout "Storms" is great, I'll give it that, and the rest of it ain't bad. Appreciating Sex Without Love requires a tolerance for mediocrity and an ability to recognize talent. Both exist across this collection of 10 songs -- so evenly that you don' know which prevails, you don't know you don't know you don't.
[Insound]
— Nate Seltenrich
"Leave the South": [M3U]
"Sex Without Love / a war": [M3U]
multiple songs: [MySpace]
Rock / Folk Rock 
Kid 606 / Kid Commando, "Good Times" b/w "Black Death Split" [7-inch single] (Ache)
Welcome to the split personality split seven-inch! While Kid 606 passes the dutchie with a pulsating slice of two-tone electro dancehall dub reggae, the now defunct Sweedish group Kid Commando offers up a black slab of big, noisy Monolithic punk rock on their last ever recorded song. (Heck, Commando even comes off like Sun 0))) or Boris playing speed metal.) Which band or song is better? Put it this way: Kid A, if not Sonic Youth, can quite handily beat on these brats on the playground no problem. Still, this is competent, mid-fi "experimental" drone rock for those who like their music big, loud, noisy and a touch on the predictable side.
[Insound]
— Zachary Houle
multiple songs: [MySpace]
Electronic / Experimental Techno 
Dead Man, Dead Man (Crusher)
This Swedish four piece have taken all that was unholy about bands from the 1970s such as early Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Jethro Tull and simply copied it wholesale. Even the artwork on this album looks nearly 40 years old. And after one listen to this album I felt considerably older. There are seven tracks on this 42-minute album. None of them are particularly memorable; in fact I would rather forget all 42 minutes. Especially the 14 minutes that I spent listening to "Deep Forest Green". I'm never going to get those minutes back guys; I may sue.
[Insound]
— Marc A. Price
"Ship Ahoy!": [MP3]
Rock / Prog 
.: posted by Editor 7:57 AM
