Author: nicole.baumann

Seeker Lover Keeper – s/t

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Rating: ★★★½☆

Consisting of three ladies each established in their own field of the music industry, Seeker Lover Keeper fundamentally sounds like a good idea. Sarah Blasko, Holly Throsby and Sally Seltmann are currently some of the biggest Australian songwriters, previously writing songs for artists like Fiest, and touring with Lykke Li, The Tallest Man on Earth, Broken Social Scene and more. However, it takes more than apt songwriting and knowing a lot of great musicians to be great yourself, which poses the biggest question: do these credentials add up to a good album.

The self-titled album begins on a soft note; gentle strumming of guitar pieced together with ghastly “oohs,” before the sweet vocals jump into the song. First up, “Bring Me Back,” lets the audience find their way to this band and their elegant charms before they pick things up, serving as the getting your toes wet experience for the listener so they can jump in. On the next number “Light All My Lights,” some synthesizer gives the tune a little bit more of a life than the first song, but the real first standout isn’t apparent until the third track “Even Though I’m a Woman.” The piano that sounds at the beginning of the track carries it along, but the vocals, a touch raspy and whispery, yet dangerously sugared are, of course, the main focus and I’m reminded a bit of Regina Spektor in this piano/vocals combo. Some great harmonies can be found here, and the main chorus will have you singing along, or trying to, as it’s not very easy to keep up.

Throughout the whole album, the ladies change places as lead singer, writing songs for each other. Along with this passing of lead, there is also a transition from the overall sound of the band, which keeps the group from falling into a pattern, but also prevents one solid identity to be formed for these ladies and if you are a person who isn’t okay with change, then this may not be an album for you. However, I find most of the variety to be enjoyable and interesting, keeping me guessing as to what these power females will do next to change things up a bit. My favorite transition is the one from the edgy and rhythmic “Everytime” to the soft and wispy “We Will Know What It Is,” that follows immediately. Here, you can see the combined talent of this group.

Seeker Lover Keeper do not disappoint their credentials; you have some brilliant writing on this album, and delicate tracks that will catch your ear. As far as a first album, you get essentially what you would expect—a good start.

The Beets – Let the Poison Out

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Rating: ★★★½☆

Three years ago, back in 2008, The Beets began their garage-y, sporadic, and minimalist percussion rock up in New York. After a few years of scraping under the radar and keeping to punk scene of up north, The Beets have made their way into the eye of those previously unfamiliar with their lo-fi stylings. Although still lo-fi in nature, this band has come a long way from their original sound, which was muddied to the extent that it consumed the entirety of the music. After cleaning up their sound and holding on to the best bits, they are able to emerge as skilled crafters of the garage sound.

First up is “You Don’t Want The Kids To Be Dead,” which gently eases you into the fuzzy, campy sound that the Beets are doling out. Juan Wauters’ mousy voice wavers with the jangle of the guitar and the soft drum beats barely making themselves apparent. It establishes the lighthearted attitude that is the backbone of the sound on this album, and allows you get familiar with this breezy style of jam, if you hadn’t already waded into the waters of The Beets. Up next is “Now I Live,” relying on the vocals to carry it through the minute and a half in which it lasts, until the third track “Preso Voy,” is up. Third up, this song is entirely in Spanish, which if anything increases the interest level, latching onto syllables belted out with heightened emotion.

As far as this style of records go, The Beets follow the pattern that has become synonymous with punk-garage rock: more than ten songs of which only one reaches above the three minute mark. However, whereas most bands tend to fall victim to this structure, The Beets manage to use it to their advantage, avoiding that dreaded repetitive monotony that can sometimes accompany such choppy albums. You have songs coupled together such as “As The World,” which relies on feminine ooh’s to keep it chugging along, and “I Don’t Know,” which comes across as one of, if not the most, old-timey songs on this album. Together, they balance each other out, to make for a meet in the middle groove, keeping The Beets above banal sound and makes for a standout among other releases of this genre.

Let the Poison Out is sure to live in your CD player for a while; its brevity ensuring that you’ll be singing right along in no time.

Gringo Star – Count Yer Lucky Stars

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Rating: ★★★½☆

For around five years now, Gringo Star has been bringing you buzzing, guitar driven rock music. If you have yet to discover this band’s jamming style, then Count Yer Lucky Stars is an excellent place to dive right in. If you’ve already relished in this band’s ability to make you air guitar and sing right alongside the gravelly vocals, then Count Yer Lucky Stars will be a lovely edition to your listening catalog.

The first song on this album is, “Shadow,” which kicks in with some choral yells in the background and some cutting guitars riding on top. The vocals step in, distorted at some points, yet still the familiar grit and sting that makes the overall sound so buzzy. Meanwhile, the steady force behind this song comes from the drums, ever knocking away. Upon first listen, you may be a bit underwhelmed, as this band doesn’t have a super unique and distinctive sound, but after a few repeats, it’s a solid start to the album. Next up is a simple jam band anthem on “You Want It,” complete with gang oohs and aahs, along with some drum builds into the chorus. This songs simplicity contrasts with the first song and lightens things up a little for the listener.

Sixth up on Count Yer Lucky Stars is “Come Alive,” whose chorus makes you smitten with this group. The stark guitar part aches for air guitar mimics and the simple vocals are easy to join in, and soon you’re with Gringo Star in their jamming. On the very next song, “Esmarelda,” the band takes a sultry, and borderline sinister flair with the song; you still have the same buzzing guitars and the raw tones that are the cruxes of this bands sound, but they show that they are not afraid to step beyond the norm. This band does a grand job at delving into all aspects of their genre and this allows for the songs to avoid redundancy.

However much merit this album has to offer to you depends most heavily on the amount of time you spend with it. If you are one of those people that is a firm believer in judging an album based on the first track, then stop being one of those people and give this album a few listens all the way through. You will find that there are some morsels of goodness that Gringo Star has waiting for you inside this fall release.

Surfer Blood – Tarot Classics

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Rating: ★★★★☆

If you haven’t heard of the riffy surf rock of Surfer Blood, where the hell have you been? No really, these guys have been to at least two SXSW’s and put out a killer first album. Well, if you haven’t heard of them before, they are a four part, all male band hailing from West Palm Beach Florida, who pack all the balmy weather of Florida into a neat sound package to be sent all over the world. I guess if you’re still a stranger to this band, Tarot Classics is an excellent place to start.

The first song, “I’m Not Ready,” comes out kicking and rocking, with hooking guitar parts and the gravelly vocals of John Paul Pitts’s familiar yells. Instantly, you’re bobbing your head along with that bubbling bass underneath and grooving along to the playful matching of vocals with guitar. At 4:24, this first song does go other places than what makes up the first minute of the song, which is excellent. Surfer Blood refuses to fall into that realm of already-done-before, and somehow manages to keep things fresh. Towards the very end of the song, they drop into this old-time swoony, beat, complete with backing ‘oohh,’ that brings the track out of, and then back into, its hazy garage rock zone that this group are the kings of.

 “Miranda,” is up second on this EP, and it comes across as Surfer Blood’s stab at a track devoted to a lady, and the chorus consists of just her name repeated over and over. While not as interesting as the first track, it does provide for a change in tempo. This second song explores more of a classic rock jam, one that you could hear echoes of from other bands. Yet, while it does go places other bands go, Surfer Blood manages to put their own flair on it, with the backing vocals giving it that extra dimension.

 The third and fourth songs are also excellent jams that add to Surfer Blood’s listening catalog. Both of them, well all of these songs, serve exactly as an EP should: as a lovely appetizer. These tastes of new material from this band make me hungry for their next full-length release album and if this is any testament to the merit of the next album, we should not be in for a disappointment.

Future Islands – On the Water

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Rating: ★★★½☆

Although established in 2006, Future Islands seem to be a band that haven’t really been able to get their footing—be it in what kind of sound they are going for, or in the number of full length albums they have put out. Regardless, after a listen or two, On the Water is the album that changes things for this band; it’s a solid synth-pop album with some jams that will have you either bobbing your head to the beat or basking in the glow of their dramatically emotional musings.

Future Islands is composed of three men with synthesizers, vocals and guitars, the combination of which makes for an interesting sound combo. You have these groovy synthesizers that fuse with the passionately gruff vocals of Samuel Herring, which makes up the crux of their sound. Herring belts the words to his songs in his mesmerizing style, pushing every ounce of emotion into every syllable he sings, which drives the sonic interest behind this band and makes the sound more than just some synthesized beats.

On the first song, which is also the title track, you can hear such passion emoted in Herrings vocals. Some atmospheric noise starts things out softly, but then the drum beats and synths roll in and it feels like a beast is crawling over your ears. This image is completed with the entrance of Herring, whose vocals feel strained with raw feeling, even turning into a growl-like state at some points. I’m reminded of a cross between David Bowie and Patrick Wolf in that the throat emotion is the main focus of his style, which may feel melodramatic to some, but proves to be my favorite part of Future Islands’ sound. If you detest it after the first song, I don’t think it would be wise to attempt to pursue this band any further—it is the driving force behind the synth.

There are some standouts on this album that seem to propel it past their last release. One of these comes third and features Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak for some male/female duality in the vocals, and the result is a lovely combination of power. Another highlight comes later on “Give Us The Wind,” in which you can jam to the deep bass of the song and feel the cathartic weight of the lyrics; “We don’t want your blessings/ Give us the Wind.”

While not all songs are exactly the most explosive of numbers, there are enough high points to outweigh the mediocre ones. On the Water serves as a good synth-pop record that will surely warrant further listening.

Dum Dum Girls – Only in Dreams

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Rating: ★★★★☆

Last year, Dum Dum Girls released I Will Be, an album filled with noise pop riffs and all the girl power you could possibly pack into a single album. This album launched these girls into the fame of the indie-sphere, forever allowing them to be of buzz worthy status. On this sophomore album, they look to branch off a little from their power pop to a more dimensional sound, as to show their diversity.

With so many of the members of this band in various other acts, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that their sound has matured in nature since their last release. It seems as if each lady gained some experience from their individual projects that allowed their collective dreamy pop to feel tighter knit. The first song is “Always Looking,” which kicks things off on a jamming note from the instant it begins. At two minutes and twenty-one seconds, Dum Dum Girls waste no time ad jump straight into the wailing guitars, the sassy powerful vocals of lead singer Dee-Dee and the luscious waves of sound. Already, it is apparent that the sound quality is already triumphant over previous releases.

Even though not much seems to have changed stylistically for these ladies, there is a definitive confident sound that emanates in these jam. Most of the songs hover around the traditional three-minute mark, save for “Coming Down,” but that is a different beast entirely. At six and a half minutes, this song is a crawling delight that ebbs and flows with the angular guitars and that slow resonating drum beats that juxtapose with the honeyed vocals. For me, it is one of the more intriguing numbers that this band has crafted. It is not as though the youthful spirit has been lost, but instead, it is channeled into emotion rather than just fast drumbeats and surface level lyrics. Don’t get me wrong, you can still find this fast and furious pop on Only in Dreams. The next song, in fact, is the epitome of this classic poppy sound with ample jam for you to shake your hair to.

This album is definitely a step in the best direction for Dum Dum Girls. They have taken what was best from their previous releases, perfected them, and then added new elements to spice up their sound and keep old listeners from getting bored. It’s an entertaining album that plays around with what you would expect from these ladies. Have a listen.

Quiet Company – We Are All Where We Belong

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Rating: ★★★½☆

If you’ve lived in Austin for any amount of time and paid any attention at all, I think it is safe to say you ought have heard of Quiet Company. You may not have listened to their entire discography, but I’m sure the name rings some sort of bell. If you don’t live in Austin, and haven’t heard of this band before…get on it! Time is-a-wastin’. You already have three full-length studio albums to catch up on, and now you have another: We Are All Where We Belong makes four full indie-rock albums to divulge your senses upon.

In comparison to those other albums, this most recent one seems to be the most hook laden. On the first track, “The Confessor,” you get the mellow vocals of Taylor Muse meandering in until the song is more than halfway over, in which some piano bounces up the rhythm and kicks it out of the intro-phase and straight into the jamming. For first song, it is a good indicator of what this album is going to be as well as a good cleansing start for the band. On the next song, “You Me & The Boatman,” keeps things kicking and I’m reminded vocally and musically of early Motion City Soundtrack, but perhaps that’s just me. There is a steady interest maintained.

Five songs in, you get to one of the tastiest jams on here, which also just happens to be the band’s single from this album, “Fear & Fallacy, Sitting in a Tree.” The beginning of the four-minute track is quiet, but some pounding drums help build up the song to the explosive, gang vocal finish, complete with crashing cymbals and even some horn work. “Are You a Mirror,” the song directly following, reminds me a lot of The Decemberists.’ You have the ever-present acoustic guitar and those musical breakdowns with more horns; it’s the kind of music that makes you smile because of the lushness of its sound. Before this song ends, you get the repeated words of the chorus layered over a beat that allows the song to fade to the next flawlessly.

All in all, these fifteen tracks, for the most part, are pretty darn good. You may need to give it a few listens before you’re able to navigate through the jungle of indie-rock to find your favorites, but this is not grueling task, as all of the songs are listenable as well as a testament to local pride. Keep on Keepin’ on Quiet Company.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/fear-_-fallacy_-stitting-in-a-tree.mp3]

Download: Quiet Company – Fear & Fallacy, Sitting in a Tree [MP3]

Twin Sister – In Heaven

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Rating: ★★★½☆

Hailing from Long Island, New York, Twin Sister is a primarily chillwave, but also pop band who, according to their website, recorded this album in a rented house during the off season in the Hamptons. Filled with shadows of longing for summer days, In Heaven is solid electro-pop album that serves as a transition from summer into those crisp fall days, or rather, if you live here in Austin, from uncomfortably hot to just hot.

In Heaven packs a punch in the beginning portion of their album. The first song is “Daniel,” which starts with some eerily calm xylophonic sounds that are joined by mechanical sounding drums, which gives the song it’s pick up into dream pop from simple electronic noises. Andrea Estella chimes in with her angelic falsetto vocals that coat the song in a buttery warmth that juxtaposes with the electronic hard that the instruments bring. “Stop,” follows, which jumps right into its groove with the male voice of Eric Cardona leading the way. For a track that doesn’t go very far in four minutes, you would think the sound would get overbearing quickly, but it simmers reasonably groovy for its duration; the dual vocals serving as some kind of cooling agent to counteract the spice of the jam.

Highlights later on come in the form of short little songs like, “Gene Ciampi,” whose prevalent guitar parts move the sound closer to the plain pop as opposed to the computer generated sounds. This track is propelled by the natural guitar, which shows the musical variety that this band is able to pull off. It isn’t an album of all one note. Rather, each song fits with another, but takes liberties from the track before it. Another example of this is apparent on the last track, “Eastern Green,” which builds slowly over the course of four minutes. It breaks from this climax at about three minutes, and gives the album a delightfully soft close, devoid of those harsher elements that were at the beginning.

As far as electro-pop/chillwave goes, In Heaven is a good balance of atmosphere and presence. Due to the production on this album, the vocals are the central focus, allowing listeners to grasp onto something memorable. For this reasons, Twin Sister has got something really going for them. You are sure to find one or two, or maybe even more songs that strike your fancy here.

Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing

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Rating: ★★½☆☆

It’s strange; sometimes, bands that have been around for a while often don’t change their sound, be it for fear that they will lose those who became enraptured by their original sound, or that they just don’t see themselves as anything else than what they were before. This seems to be the case with Blitzen Trapper on this album, as their only shift seems to be to a bit more of a bluesy spin on their Americana craft.

American Goldwing is one of those albums that just don’t have enough chutzpah to keep me focused and interested in for more than five songs. It starts out fairly strong, even though nothing novel, but progressively ceases to retain my interest as the songs drag on and on to its close. The first song, “Might Find It Cheap,” sums up this phenomenon in a single swoop. Yea, it’s a good song and I can get down with those fuzzy guitars and the traditionally tangy vocals, I just feel like I’ve heard it from Blitzen Trapper before. Their distinct crookedly country Americana rock sound works against them in that the sound from previous albums resonates deeper and makes it hard to listen to these tracks when I know there are astoundingly better renditions on Furr or other prior albums.

My favorite track on this record comes third, at a time where I’m looking for something to spice up this album. “Love the Way You Walk Away,” takes a new stance that I’ve been longing for this band to take. Even though it is of a country note, which I don’t often find myself enjoying, there is new territory to be covered at last. Bluesy undertones patter in the background while harmonies swoon in the foreground. If you listen carefully, you can hear deep bass drums at some points and of course there is that steel pedal guitar that pushes the song around in dominance. Late in the track, this band slows things down with a little harmonica and it’s easy to find yourself singing right alongside Eric Earley and the rest of the gang. It’s simply the song with the most redeeming and interesting qualities to be found on American Goldwing.

By all means, if you are a Blitzen Trapper addict, you’ll love this album. It has everything that you’ve already been shown, perhaps with one or two tracks that take a new direction. As for me, and I’m sure others, I’m in need of something a little bit fresher to keep me intrigued in this band’s sound. Perhaps it is coming on their next release, or perhaps I just need to revisit those old gems in the catalog of this band.

St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

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Rating: ★★★★☆

Annie Clark has definitely been around the musical world a fair number of times for the short amount of time that her music has been in circulation. Granted, she was in several other bands before her debut as front-woman in St. Vincent, such as The Polyphonic Spree and backing for Mr. Sufjan Stevens. So it wasn’t a surprise when this lady took things by storm and it isn’t a surprise that this third release is just as savory as the previous two.

A clear standout track that you can pick up on first listen, or even before, is “Cruel,” a single from this album.  From the beginning, you have this creepy sweeping, lullaby-gone wrong trance-like sound, which then switches quickly to a down-right dance able tune, with psychedelic beat in tow. Clark’s vocals resound solidly through the whole song, switching between power and wispy, but nevertheless, pushing the song forward. The end result is a song that lends itself to almost the dance-pop genre, which is a bit of a surprising, darker twist for St. Vincent that is sure to have you bobbing your head and shaking yourself all over the place along to the buzzing guitar and the steady dance beat.

Something different on Strange Mercy that wasn’t so apparent on the last releases is the shift from innocence and the transition to darker, deeper tracks that aren’t afraid to pack a punch. “Cheerleader,” the third track, holds such intensity, as Clark asserts that she “don’t wanna be a cheerleader no more,” over and over again while resolute drum beats drill her vocals in like a hammer driving in nails. Clark is assertive and adopts a woman-in-charge flair whose presence can be felt all the way until the end of the album, especially on the very last song “Year of the Tiger,” in which the band builds to it’s explosively powerful ending. Meanwhile, Clark’s voice remains impeccable, holding you to listen like a super charged magnet until the gritty musical elements kick in towards the end, and the song switches from sweet to the prowl of a tigress.

Overall, it’s a pretty complete album; there is a range of various types of songs, all of which seem like different aspects of Clark’s soul, as her voice is the delightful motif that makes its way through all the tracks. While the elements that surround her vocals may change, what remains is a strong front woman who isn’t afraid to experiment with varying kinds of sound and you are bound to enjoy at least a few of these lovely songs.

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