Your Listening Pleasure
The Magnetic Fields, Times New Viking and Love in October in Your Listening Pleasure
The Magnetic Fields – California Girls - Long-time fans of Stephen Merritt usually know what to expect from his musical ventures - clever, but morose lyrics served on a platter of catchy, yet well-written indie pop, often with unconventional instrumentation and an overriding theme. The twist this time around is the combination of Merritt's trademark style with a heavy layer of distortion, a la Jesus and Mary Chain - hence the album's title, Distortion. “California Girls”, driven by the fuzzed-out guitar, synth, bass, drums (yes, even the drums) and reverbed female vocals, offers Merritt’s (not so) loving tribute to the fine females of America's most overrated state. While he's not breaking any new stylistic ground this time around, “California Girls” proves the man still knows a thing or two about pop music.
Distortion is out now on Nonesuch Records.
Times New Viking - Another Day - Columbus, Ohio-based three piece Times New Viking likes loud distortion. I mean, really likes loud distortion. In fact, “Another Day” takes their Guided By Voices-meets-Pavement-meets-volume knob approach to its logical extent, with lo-fi, trebly and hissy guitars twinkling, sloppy drums and dual male/female vocals, along with high-pitched keyboard melodies occasionally emerging from the chaos. It's hard to say whether or not the song really has a coherent structure, but somehow it manages to sound way better than it should.
Rip It Off will be out January 22nd on Matador Records.
Love In October – Circa 1989 - This Minneapolis-based group, led by Swedish-born brothers Kent and Erik Widman, takes a little bit of everything to create some fine melodic pop rock. Taking cues from artists like Motion City Soundtrack, Mewithoutyou and The Get Up Kids, the group manages to transcend a certain three-letter genre and create vibrant yet familiar sounding music with multiple keyboards along with guitars and drums to round out the sound. The lyrics are a nostalgic trip back to the Widman brother’s homeland, repeating the refrain “those were the best days we had” over and over again. You can call them whatever you want, but it's hard to deny Love In October's overall catchiness.
Pointus, The Devil, And Me is out now on The Musik Group.
STREAM: The Magnetic Fields - California Girls
STREAM: Times New Viking - Another Day
STREAM: Love In October - Circa 1989
Posted by Jason Prechtel on Jan 18, 2008 @ 12:00 am