There are two ways to listen to Alec Gross’ latest take on Americana. On first listen, Strip The Lanterns: The Night Terrors of Mr. Ron Avery might be torch music best experienced with your lover close by. On closer inspection, one finds a meticulously detailed concept on par with Dylan’s "Bringing It All Back Home". Listening to the record this way, Gross re-conceptualizes a lost America told through the eyes of its dark protagonist, Ron Avery. Like a lot of folk singer-songwriters, Alec paints a specific time and place for the experiences that his character makes his way through. Most of these aren’t happy times, and this comes through loud and clear on songs like the haunting ‘Burning Grounds,’ inspired by Alec’s trip to the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem and a poem he saw there by Anatoly Kuznetsov. Most tracks are quiet and moody impressions of an imagined idyllic existence, from the Irish ballad ‘Be Not Jealous of the Sea,’ to the tormented ‘Looking Glass Lies.’ It isn’t until barnburner ‘Strip the Lanterns’ that we hear Gross really cut loose, but it’s well worth the wait through the record’s more even-tempered and traditional sections. With such a buttery voice, one might wonder why he felt the need to go through all this trouble to showcase his enormous talents in the first place. ‘If You Don’t Mind (Baby Go Ahead)’ could be wedding song of the year, and there’s plenty more on this record to make you think of Alec simply as a romantic, like Don Williams with a high tenor. But it’s stuff like this that reminds me of how different an artist’s vision for their music can be to your own, and makes the trip of discovering Alec’s voice all the more fun. – Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)

De Novo, the second LP from San Francisco based production duo Ill Mondo, dropped August 30th. De Novo is a more authentic representation of Johnny Igaz and Jeff Smothers raw musical talents, with a more organic feel, using recorded jam sessions, original horn sections, and overdubbed instrumental parts. Ill Mondo collaborated with over 25 artists for the album, offering a different vocalist on every track. Songs like Viscera Capere, with catchy horns and break beats are reminiscent of a 1970s soul and funk sensibility, personified by synth-xylophone parts and fuzzy minor chord jams. “De Novo is an innovative throwback to old soul records,” and they still maintain that down-home familiar feel to their music that hooks you in and keeps you listening for more. You can check out the new album on their website. – Ed Guardaro

Guitarist / MC David E. Beats is the Commander in Chief of the White House Band. Claiming rock, rap, and blues as genre convergence, fans shouldn’t be surprised to see a guitar smashed during one of his sets—in fact they are coming to expect it. Political though not didactic, fresh but not pompous, the arsenal of tunes generated by WHB are devastatingly addictive and certain to please a bipartisan audience. If good rap is something you wish to hear more of, place your vote by coming to the Knitting Factory Thursday September 9th. Free entry with RSVP on the band’s site. – BrokeMC

Lovely and slightly weird, North Highlands’ pop is the perfect soundtrack for the music connoisseurs in need of a break from the aural challenges of more experimental or lo-fi bands. Our writer Nancy Chow fell in love with these guys while covering CMJ 2009, and since then The Deli always kept an ear on them. So it’s great to hear they’ll finally release their debut LP "Wild One" in October. You may want to see them live at your earliest convenience – i.e. 09.29 at Cameo – because this is a band that has the potential to make waves. Check out the single "Benefits" from the upcoming album streaming below, and if you want more head here and here.

Featuring members of MGMT, Amazing Baby, Historics, and a fronted by solo artist Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Brooklyn Ill Fits, after forming earlier this year, could only hit the ground landing. From what we can tell from their only track released so far (streaming below) the group plays a pleasant pop-rock with psych elements, slightly reminiscent of David Bowie’s output from somewhere around the "Let’s Dance" period. Ill Fits is playing Glasslands on September 10.

Loop B recently relocated from Brazil. For some weird reason, for 3 weeks in June I ran into him everywhere; The Super Coda, Ze Couch, various functions presented by PAS.  If you’ve had the pleasure of meeting Loop you’ll understand what I mean when I say that his presence marked those weeks with the discrete sensation of stumbling into one of Pynchon’s novels.
So I book him.  Here’s the skinny.  Proceed with caution.
A cache of objects transforms the stage; a broken PC keyboard, mixing bowl, plastic sword.  Loop announces he’s “using small things.  No washing machine tonight.”
Loop embarks to accompany, on things, various recordings of slightly damaged Brazilian dance tunes, rapidly sheathing/unsheathing his sword, bouncing a marble (that proves uncooperative) in his bowl, consistently dancing in place.  And all throughout the tension builds to outgrow itself, palpable in a way that’s abominably rare in this life, the realization of pure, unadulterated disbelief, extended all the way down to the bottom of the abyss, wherein lies a –
Strangely shaped hub cap?
Part of a kiln?
A Bundt pan?
Whatever it is, Loop places it on his head and bangs away on both sides with chopsticks, a stereophonic grin peeling off his face and flapping through the audience (which has tripled over the course of his performance).  And that’s how it is, until the backing track sambas it’s final samba, absurdly departing this world as one might imagine a drunk nun.
QED.  WTF.  That’s all, folks. – Valerie Kuehne

The Oh Sees come out swinging with their second LP, Carrion Crawler/The Dream due out November 15th off In The Red Records. John Dwyer’s esoteric use of the guitar provide unforeseen melodies, atop nostalgic 1960s drum grooves. The title track “Carrion Crawler” sucks you into a daze thanks to drummer Mike Shoun’s classy ride cymbal usage and the album is a great adventure through and through. The band has come a long way, emanating from John Dwyer’s solo break, to a now solid-gold five piece. Check out their website for some far-out artwork and tunes and catch them at The Treasure Island Music Festival on October 16th. – Ed Guardaro

Dead End Social Club Records has announced the release of the debut LP by Olympia, WA indie infused punk band Happy Noose. Happy Noose is a trio of friends that came together after having played in many other bands spanning several decades in Olympia, WA.  "Their music is straightforward enough: good-time, plangent, dirty pop… music aches with desire… Morose, yet joyful. Fumbling, unsure but with a real swaggering gait."

-Everett True-

Seven Seas by happynoose

Rin Tin Tiger brought down the house at this years Noise Pop fest opening for Max Bemis of Say Anything at the Bottom of the Hill, and from Seattle Washington to Dallas Texas they continue to captivate audiences with their unforgettably energetic and upbeat folk-pop. Check them out live at The Depot (Cesar Chavez Student Center, SFSU) on Thursday September 1st – it’s a free show! – (as posted in The Deli’s SF Open Blog – post your band’s blogs, videos, and Mp3s here).

After one album, one EP, hundreds of show and one of those period most bands experience at one point or another when some "pieces" are lost and then some new one found, Big Tree is back with a new album, entitled "This New Year" and scheduled to be released in early October. Driven by Kaila McIntyre’s malleable vocals, the band plays electric alt-folk with frequent psych-rock-of-the-hippie-kind influences, and an occasional jazzy twist. Their music often conjures up images of free love, high nights at the beach, and – at times – those famously ineffective but nonetheless enthusiastic street demonstrations of the 60s. At least that’s what we hear in the advance single "This Fall", streaming here. Check out also the album title-track here, released as a single in March.

Download Mp3: Big Tree – "This Fall"
 

Think of slightly less composed vocal harmonies, yet more endearing lyrics, and the general girl group panache of The Vivian Girls but with a more punchy, punky edge, and you get TacocaT.  The band has been together for several years now without garnering the recognition they deserve to separate themselves from the milieu of their contemporaries, but they’re a very solid band who put on an up-beat, fun show.  Definitely my strongest recommendation for a live event in the next couple of weeks.  Anybody notice how the Rendezvous has been selecting some great bands to play their venue recently?  8:00 pm, Wednesday, September 7th- be there!