Check out the stirring new track from Strand of Oaks (a.k.a. Timothy Showalter) called “Maureen’s,” which is the lead single off his forthcoming album Dark Shores! Oaks will be performing next in Philly on July 30 at Union Transfer when he opens for The Tallest Man on Earth. (Photo by Aaron Delani)
NYC
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Found in our digital submissions: Isle of Rhodes
Like My Morning Jacket and affiliated supergroup Monsters of Folk, Isle of Rhodes succeeds in combining the musicianship of groove-based jam bands with a folk core that reminds you these guys don’t just know how to play, they’ve got something to say too. For the band’s just-released debut full-length ‘All Rivers and Oceans,’ singer/Rhodes obsessive Rob Farren digs these dreamy statements into some seriously washy reverb treatment, drawing on topographical references to illuminate the thrill of new love in ‘Young Love.’
But his heart really seems to lie in the freedom of life off-shore. From opener ‘Oceans’ (streaming) to the stomping ‘Eyes Like The Sun,’ Farren paints a world of surf and sand where one experience melts into the next, and innocent pleas against change get washed away with the next tide. Wherever Isle of Rhodes take you, it’s usually an elevated place to match the screeching alto Farren has mastered.
Check out their new full-length here and see the band when they play at Don Pedro on June 23rd. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets) – Isle of Rhodes submitted their music for review here.
NYC
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Daryl Shawn plays all NYC Boroughs in one day for Make Music NY
Daryl Shawn is one of those acoustic guitar gems that can seize you and drag you along with him in an erratic dance in the pick of a string. Blending African, Andalusian and European classical influences acquired in his early years of musical exploration, San Francisco born Daryl Shawn’s vocal compositions bring an unsettling touch to the soothing sounds of his guitar solos. It is clumsy in a Syd Barret kind of way, delightfully disharmonious, and only gets better as the stories unfold in angst and precipitation. The tempos clash as the voice nonchalantly tells the colorful tales of a West Coast white boy, while the instrumentals get carried away in an exotic adventure of their own. Currently based in Brooklyn, Shawn is working on a range of new material which he will be presenting during a tour of the US West Coast this fall. But for now he’s training for a personal musical marathon which will take him to play 5 shows in NYC – one per borough – during Make Music NY on June 21. He picked a hot day for a marathon! Watch out for updates, and in the meantimes, treat yourself to some of his work, both vocal and instrumental, on the website. – Tracy Mamoun
Philadelphia
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Album Review: Valley Tangents – Blues Control
Valley Tangents is an album of tiny experiences – watching a bird fluttering aimlessly through a park, hearing a neighbor struggle at his piano on a summer afternoon, the secret absurdity of minor league baseball. It’s a few frames of film from everyday life taken out of context, simple moments given their due thought, words turned into images through the improv chops of a couple of smart, talented musicians. Simply put, it’s a jazz record, and a great one too, six tracks hip as a smoky nightclub, each driven by tasty piano and colored with rich textures.
Coopersburg duo Lea Cho and Russ Waterhouse have worked as an instrumental outfit for the better half of a decade, forming a bond whose tightness is evident in the craftsmanship of Valley Tangents. Fitting of the moniker Blues Control, the group simultaneously has the ability to take its mood pieces wherever it wants them to go, but the restraint to keep various gears working smoothly together. Despite the apparent free-form nature of the album, at no point does it feel as if Blues Control are goofing off or “noodling.” On “Iron Pigs,” the most immediately noteworthy track on the record, the duo mixes video game synths with a brash, synthetic horn hook. Held together by a simple groove and steady bass, the juxtaposition is intriguing – two broken ideas fused together to form something compelling. This is Valley Tangents all over. It’s not afraid of dissonance (as it thrillingly announces in the wonky introduction of “Love’s a Rondo”), but it’s also never obtuse. In orchestrating everyday images like “Walking Robin,” “Opium Den,” and “Open Air,” Blues Control allow for asymmetry and hiccups, yet manage to make these imperfections part of a more cohesive whole. In “Walking Robin,” the tempo never settles, suggesting a bird hopping about without direction, but the solidity of the melodic instruments gives the track order.
Valley Tangents is about these little contradictions of life. It’s about organization in randomness, finding meaning in that which doesn’t have to make sense. It makes us pay attention to that which we’d normally ignore, and it does all of this without uttering a single word. A sincerely impressive meditation on the world we live in, Valley Tangents is a humble reminder that there is much to appreciate in a world we take for granted.
Blues Control’s album is available today via Drag City. – Adam Downer
Philadelphia
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The Pretty Greens Debut Performance at North Star Bar June 19
It’s an evening of firsts when Minneapolis’s Now, Now play North Star Bar tonight in support of their release Threads. When Sugartown ended its run at the storied music venue Tritone, it also marked the end of Go-Gos tribute band Lust2Love. But instead of packing up their bags, the members of the band set out to prove that they still got the beat by creating their own music for a new project called The Pretty Greens. And after a few months of production and recording, the band is all set to make their debut performance. And since they’re working harder and harder on releasing their debut full length over the fall, effervescent indie trio Break It Up will likely be showcasing some new material as well when they take the stage. North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar St., 8pm, $10, 21+ – Bill McThrill
Chicago
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Warsaw Vices
Whether it is actually a new genre or just something the boys made up, "Beer Pop" is the label that Warsaw Vices have put on their bandcamp page for their four-track demo. The band released the ep early this month, and I supose beer pop would be some combination of power pop and party rock.
Portland
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Sloths’ Snapshots of a Nightmare.
Warning : it is probably too oppressive an atmosphere for the faint-hearted, but you sonic masochists may well appreciate this. Abusive juxtaposition of slow ominous guitar solos, shredding bass sequences and rabid spurts of slaughterhouse vocals come together into successive impressions of dramatic landscapes and mental turmoil. As they juggle between the heavy and the melodic, Portland’s eclectic trio Sloths explore a broad spectrum of unsettling sounds, ranging in influences from alt-rock to metal and hardcore. Only the darkest that is.
Whether you’re a fan of musical violence or simply one of those who fancy venturing out of their comfort zone, and loathe up to the very idea of “easy-listening”, you’ll be served with these sounds of doom. Game? Get down to the Kenton Club next Monday, or to Troubadour Studios the following Tuesday to check them out. – Tracy Mamoun
Portland
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More Vegetables and Less Coffee : DNA’s New Tales of a 21st Century Life.
Destroy Nate Allen, Portland’s colourful folk-punk couple, released earlier this month an eleventh hyperactive package, "With Our Forces Combined".
Restless trip through fifteen tales of contemporary love and other most trivial matters, it playfully approaches those thematics dear to the young, broke and free : the Internet, sex, awkward accomodations, healthy living, ambiguous relationships and so on and so forth… hard not to identify with, you see. She can’t sing too well, neither can he, but who cares? They don’t, it only makes them go louder; and surely we don’t, for it just sounds all the more authentic, and the pair converses beautifully with that ever so touching Jack&Meg chemistry. Their music is at the same time pleasantly punk for not trying too hard and delightfully pop (believe me, I’d generally call that an oxymoron) with its catchy singalong lines and uptempo rhythms. Now stir in a few ska beats, a pinch of synth, simple guitar riffs and the odd sample and you’ve got yourself an effective sound bubbling with youthful spirit.
Never at rest, DNA are about to bounce back onto the roads for an umpteenth US tour under the summer sun, so get bopping out there, fall’s only ’round the corner! – Tracy Mamoun
NYC
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The Deli Kansas City is born!
Deli Readers,
In our plans of constant expansion of our coverage towards new music scenes, admittedly Missouri wasn’t the top priority, but since we found some seriously committed partners over there (the awesome people at the Midwest Music Foundation) we decided to launch a Deli Kansas City web page! While working on the site we have actually discovered a very lively scene with some really cool bands. Go ahead and explore it!
The Deli’s Staff
NYC
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Talk Normal signs record deal + announces album + plays Glasslands on 06.22
When a band that graced the cover of one of our NYC print issues signs with a record label, it’s always cause for celebration here at The Deli. Brooklyn based female duo Talk Normal inserts itself in the NYC tradition of noise worshippers started in the early 80s by the Brian Eno blessed No Wave movement, and maybe even earlier by Lou Reed’s most uncompromising experiments both solo and with the Velvet Underground. With their previous debut full length released in 2009, a new album by these rad ladies is now overdue, and scheduled for release in October – it’s title "Sunshine". If you can’t wait to get your ears abused and your brain melt by Talk Normal’s dissonant and uncompromising tunes, you can go see them at Glasslands on June 22. Streaming below, the single "In A Strangeland" from their debut album "Sugarland".
NYC
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Troubled Sleep – indie guitar rock like in the good old days
Boasting the perfect name for a (rather) dissonant indie rock band, Troubled Sleep is a young Brooklyn based trio whose songs take us on a trip back to the days when guitars still ruled the rock realm. These fellas – who judging from the pictures available seem too young to even enter a bar – already have 1 demo and two EPs under their belt. The trio forges the kind of "underdeveloped" songs we learned to appreciate listening to artists like early Pavement and (also early) Modest Mouse, replacing those bands’ pop element with a preference for droney, borderline depressed and "closed" melodies. The contrasting voices of the lead singer’s alto and the backing vocalist’s tenor add an intriguing element to the band’s sound. There’s definitely a noteworthy amount of talent at work here, and the quality of the material is consistently good, which is always an important sign.
NYC
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Jeff Litman releases video with show at Bitter End on 06.26
Jeff Litman is having some trouble getting older… he’s spying on his beautiful (and married) ex-girlfriend in his new record ‘Outside,’ taking reckless chances, and rolling in the dirt ’til Someone Got Hurt’. The album finds Litman attempting to move on from the relationship that was the focus of his last record. But like he says in the album closer: ‘Time Heals Nothing.’ Time does however, seem to produce some solid tunes…
Sounding sometimes like Bright Eyes, and sometimes like a mix of Elvis Costello and Tom Petty, Litman borrows liberally from the ghosts of confessional singer-songwriters past, while still retaining a deeply personal reality channeled by his own experiences in and around NYC. Or at least I assume that’s what he’s referring to when discussing chance encounters with the ‘Girl Down I95.’
Check out his new record ‘Outside’ here and see him when he plays at The Bitter End with Mark Radcliffe on June 26, in occasion of the release of his new video for single "Over and Over" (streaming below). – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets) – This record was submitted digitally to The Deli here.