Music Spectrum

I Was A King’s Old Friends opens with the cacophonic, horn-infected rush like something from the punk-country Brakes sent through the storm of Sufjan & the Sounds Familyre Gang orchestrations. But then “The Wylde Boys” calms down into a pop song that still glitters with that cacophony. And so the stage is set the Norwegian group’s foray into art-folk-pop that rings with plenty of indie vibe, garage sweetness, and orchestrated turns, assisted by Daniel C. Smith’s (Danielson) production and horn arrangements by Joshua Stamper and John Ringhofer (Half-handed Cloud).

“Echoes” resonates with psychedelic charm even as it pushes its way into your hip-shaking tendencies. A wavering saw blade accompanies the acoustic, folk psychedelics leading into “Learning to Fly.” “Nightwalking” feels as if culled from the Soft Boys/Robyn Hitchcock with an added horn section until the song pulls back for the choral-like sections as if the Polyphonic Spree stepped in.

Then again you might also hear Emmit Rhodes’ influence on IWAK. I first heard about Emmit Rhodes through the music of Ringhofer; Rhodes is a spot-on extension of the Beatles and Paul McCartney. IWAK shows some Beatlesque/Rhodesian turns on the upbeat “Someone is Waiting,” almost an echo of Rhodes’ “Somebody Made for Me.”

The piano/guitar play against horns on “Daybreak,” making the sun’s appearance a start-and-stop affair as one emerges from the dream world to face the day’s rush and push. Old Friends closes with the title track, an acoustic-laden, Teenage Fanclub-type feel, as the Byrdsian 70’s harmonize in the air. It’s a gentle closeout of an album that started with such cacophony, like finding a hammock to lie in after a very good dance around the yard.

Old Friends will be released on January 25.

I Was A King
Sounds Familyre

You can hear Metric in the sound, but Now, Now (a.k.a. Now, Now Every Children) measures out their own space. On their EP, Neighbors, bouncy keys meet garage-y guitars (especially “Giants”) and pop, indie, introspective vocals. Overall, the EP, which is five songs plus two acoustic versions, feels as if it was culled from a 90’s indie compilation. The songs transport you to new places which is exactly what you want from rock music—as if music made by the blurring images flashing past your window as watch from your seat on the commuter train.

Now, Now
No Sleep Records

X-Ray Press’ UVB-76 is Math-rock played out through progressive rock’s storylines, hardcore’s shouts and screams (instrumentally and vocally), and similar to White Denim’s jazz-like approach to art rock. Broken up into movements labeled like a complex outline, the album hits peaks and valleys in quick succession, leaving the listener grasping for hooks even as they slip off the slopes. The movements are separated by interludes which beautifully take apart the previous set while putting the next display into motion. The slam down sections bring out comparisons to other College/Art Rock obscurities like Heros Severum (review) and the Vaz (review). It’s also Adrian Belew played through 80’s and 90’s hardcore, so that the jazz fusion, doodling progressions, and guitar-led mechanizations come full tilt.

I also love this album for the fact that it’s named after the Russian transmitter that since 1982 has been broadcasting mainly an indecipherable buzz on a shortwave signal. A mysterious buzz definitely helps describe the experience of listening to X-Ray Press.

X-Ray Press

Have a quirky, quirky Christmas,
It’s the indie time of year,
I don’t know if there’ll be a show,
But have a song of cheer,
Have An Indiecater Christmas,
And when you hear this new treat,
Say ‘Hello’ to the bands you don’t know,
And every song you meet.

Natalie Prass’ “No Better Time” is a nod to easy listening with a jazz feel in this “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” type of song. Paisley and Charlie send up some bouncing, chiming pop on “Snow Blitz.” “Christmas in July Comes Earlier Every Year” by the Very Most features 80’s synths and beats with a Tears for Fears-like vocal.

Kate and After’s “Snow Angel” ably brings together 50’s reverb pop and 90’s indie rock. Boca Chica brings us to Texas with their train track rhythm-and-twang of “Not on Christmas Eve,” a plea-to-not-break-up song. Alli Millstein offers a doo-wop “White White Christmas.”

The Gorgeous Colours twang it up with sleigh bells for “Hurry Up Children, Santa’s Coming,” while the vocal is almost dub-like as they warn of a quite scary, vindictive image of St. Nick. Finally, reality strikes with the Royal Forest and their “Sweat Shoppe Hands.”

Indiecater Records (with links to each artist)

The truth is I am disappointed about Sufjan Stevens. I am disappointed that he didn’t continue with his albums for all 50 states project. And I am confounded by the time it is taking me to get used to the electronic mash-ups on his new album, The Age of Adz. It’s not that I’m opposed to Sufjan growing as an artist; it’s just that honestly it’s a lot to take in.

The Age of Adz challenges the listener on many fronts. Sure, the signature Sufjan sounds are here like orchestrated anthems and trilling flutes. Yet, the whole thing is drenched in ambient, electronic blips and beeps uncharacteristic for the folky indie rock wunderkind. Perhaps it is best to think of the album as a remix of an album that never was released. Because certainly that’s how it often sounds—Sufjan songs with a whole other layer of sounds and beats added.

So as 2010 comes to a close and I’m still trying to get my head around a different Sufjan sound, I’m actually reminded of Decomposure (Caleb Mueller), the electronic artist that creates songs out of found sounds. Most notably Mueller developed his album, Vertical Lines A, from the recording of his surroundings on one day.

The blips, beeps, and beats that Sufjan uses on The Age of Adz have a lot in common with what you can find on a Decomposure album. It’s as if Mueller was at the remix board—which is a good thing.

These are organic beats—if you can call electronic noise “organic”. These are ambient noises that find their way into the framework of the orchestrations. Sufjan has employed these electronic means as another set of instruments in his already full set of tools, but he hasn’t merely pasted them on. They are fully integrated into the whole folky, indie vibe.

Those beats, though, really shouldn’t be thought of as a mere addition in the final mix. It seems as if the electronic explorations ended up influencing Sufjan’s vocalizations, landing sometimes somewhere between Rufus Wainwright vaudeville and Prince’s soul-funk balladry. Sufjan lets his voice range and ride along electronic musings in a way that probably would not have happened if the electronic noise had not come to influence the shape of these songs.

What I am confident about is that repeat listening to The Age of Adz will yield great joy. The more I submit myself to Sufjan’s project, and the more I let it work on me via headphones, the more I find myself lost deep in its melancholic charms.

Asthmatic Kitty Records
Decomposure