Indie and Lo-Fi music reviews

Hey! This is one awesome f*$%ing album. Basically, if you like Tower Recordings, you'll dig this too. It's very similar sounding : people with lo-fi equipment and possibly a lot of strong drugs creating spontaneous mystical racket, and some beautifully sleepy, hazy sounding songs as well. Two things I noticed on this album that set them apart from TR are the fantastic analog keyboard space sounds and the sometimes deft and impressive clean guitar work (ever heard "Harlequin" or "For Absent Friends" from Genesis's "Nursery Cryme"? Some of this is similar.) It also features soft, sensually stoned female vocals. Mmm-hmm. I got this based on it being included in someone's "Mystical Folk" list, and I have seen the light! I pledge allegiance to the Altered State(s) of Consciousness, my fellow aural travelers. This is a much needed window into a utopian world better and more peaceful than ours.....

Sitting on the floor in Keith Harrelson's office one Monday afternoon, I discovered Soltero. We were going through submissions for booking and though my boss was not won over by Tim Howard's searching vocals and swaggering, playful melodies, I was in love. I took the EP home with me and played it over and over. Soon after I received two of his albums, "Tongues You Have Tied" and "Defrocked and Kicking the Habit".

I found that within his songs, Tim wrote his listener letters full of vibrant description and conversation. He simply relayed his hopes, intentions, and fears within the context of a crunchy, headwagging, cursive song. He told crazy stories or sad reminders with a deep, complex arrangement. Sure, you expect a song, the music, to embody the message...but with his songwriting, especially on his latest album, Hell Train, so much thought is put into everything. His mood is interwoven with every seperate sound and instrument, from the tiptoeing, austere organ slowly descending in the background of "Step Through the Door" to the faint dinking of a slightly offkey piano behind the sixties swagger of "Hand's Up".

This is an extraordinary album, one that I often find myself singing and dancing and scaring other drivers with as I make my trip home from work, and it also leaves me with a fresh familiarity..It has a strange ability give me dreams of slow, sad memory. It grabs every side, every emotion and leads them all together to a beautiful solemn end.

This is "Hell Train," by Soltero, and I have to say, quite honestly, that it's some of the best music I have ever heard. Period.
Soltero has always been good, from his early releases under the names The Taco Cat and Tim Howard, to Soltero's early Mobius Band-Backed "Science Will Figure You Out," to the sad, dynamic, horn-filled "Defrocked and Kicking the Habit," to the wispy and quiet Mamas and the Papas-influenced "Tongues You Have Tied."
But now.... Now....
This is something different. Different, and even better. And not just different for Soltero either--different for music. This is an album that makes me want to write a manifesto, to rant, to copy the album a thousand times and force the copies onto everyone I know.
These songs are the work of a musical genius who will one day be esteemed and revered along with the very best of modern music. The sound of Hell Train could be compared to a lot of bands--East River Pipe, Pavement, Neil Young, Yo La Tengo, The Beach Boys, The Magnetic Fields, Elliott Smith--and yet, it can be compared to no one.
No one sounds like this. No one sounds this good.
This a cohesive album that ties itself together in a thousand ways, that flows and rocks, challenges and excites. It will make you feel good, it will make you feel sad, it will make you think, it will make you press "Repeat All" and never want to leave the room. The structures of the songs are always original--often like nothing you've ever heard before--the instrumentation is inspired and unique, Tim Howard's voice is always dead on and sardonic and genuine, and the songs' lyrics couldn't be more clever or more original.
The album kicks off with the quiet "If I Had a Chance," and the lyrics: "If I had a chance to make things right, I'd only waste it on my life," and right from there you know the album has GOT IT.
"Bleeding Hearts" confesses a sad fact about Soltero's and my generation--we get together to have a great time around a campfire, "And never talk about how we've given up on life. And never talk about how far we've got left to fall. And never talk about all these things that we can't control." The song is great, but it's the end of it that's the most mind-blowing. The song, which up until this point had been shambling along sadly, suddenly reaches a steep hill, and starts hurtling down it, instruments flying, bike horns honking, and you're dragged along with it, out of control. This is no jam though, this is a focused--although recklessly dangerous--descent into who knows where.
"Michael," which previously appeared on the excellent compilation "These Are Center St. Tracks" under the title "Wedding Day," is a beautiful and creepy song to a young New Mexican guy about to get married and most likely pulled back into the church he grew up in, a young man who finds consolation in driving dirt roads and clambering among adobe ruins. I can relate to this song, and I love it. Its instrumentation is unique and hard to figure out, but it sounds great. It also makes reference to a "heaven track" that fits the "Hell Train" of the album's title just perfectly.
Then, there's "Hands Up." This song has got a build. What a build! The "Stairway to Heaven" of indie-rock...except actually cool. It's the track I play for people to introduce them to this album, or to introduce them to Soltero in general, and it's the track that always keeps them coming back for more. The song starts quiet, bursts and flowers into guitar, explodes with female vocals, never stops moving forward with wild mercury drumsticks-in-a-clothes dryer rhythm, various guitar lines and (I think) keyboard notes cascading and tearing through everything.
"Acadian Coast" is a very dark song about a relationship gone bad that seems far too convincing to be fictional, or if it is, this guy's a genius at fiction. It begins with almost a minute of total silence that serves to set it (and the songs to follow) slightly apart from the first tracks of the album. Strange effects slide into the music, effects like the sounds of a thousand seagulls, as the vocals sing about a relationship so much like a sinking ship of the coast of Maine. The song's lyrics are some of the best on the album, and conclude with this: "We kept that sinking ship afloat / Though the hole was bigger than the boat / And the sights that we admired the most
Were the sights that we would never see.... / We kept that sinking ship afloat / But only long enough to know / That you and me / were not made for the sea."
And "Songs of the Season" is a jaunty little track that seems like a happy little pop song, like a deleted number from a happy play about settling Oklahoma. It's got an amazing chorus, great and stretching vocals, great backing vocals, and even, even...whistling! The funny thing about this song, is that it gets sadder with every listen. At first it seems almost like a Christmas song-"with the songs of the season in the air tonight like buzzards(!)"-but the lyrics are not happy ones. They're barely even hopeful. "Could it be oh could all your dreams just up and disappear? Could it be you won't get what you wanted this year? Could it be oh could all your dreams just up and disappear? Could be exactly like you feared / With a cigarette there on your lips / Canadian penny in your pocket / And your dreams and your hopes / Your family and friends / And the love you had planned to keep till the end / ...I hope you get them all back for Christmas...." This song has made my wife cry.
All of the other songs are great as well. Soltero is one of the greatest musicians out there today, and is undoubtedly better than whatever you're listening to right now. Listen to "Hell Train," and I guarantee you, if you have even the slightest bit of coolness in you, you will love it, you will check out his website, and you will want more. To know the music of Soltero is to love--and be obsessed by--the music of Soltero. You need this album. Your friends need this album. Everyone needs music this good, this innovative, this fun, and this deep-though few of us deserve it.
I know I don't.

Greatest. Palace. Song. Ever. For the Mekons et al makes this necessary, even if the rest of the disc was blank. But it's not. Your Face may be my favorite Smog offering as well.

I bought this CD when it came out over a year ago, and I still enjoy listening to it. If you like Blur at all, then this CD is a must have. Nice guitar licks, nice tunes. Listen to "Freakin' Out" if you are unsure about whether to get this one. Many songs like "Hopeless Friend" have a classic rock style combined with a more indie sound.

I got this CD because I just happened to be flipping channels one night and came upon Graham Coxon performing "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery." That led me to buying the CD. I think "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery" is one of the most fun, catchiest songs ever. It's smart and sarcastic and insightful and irresistible! I haven't even gotten to listen to the rest of the CD because every time I put it on I want to keep listening to that song over and over. So while I can't really rate the whole CD yet, I give that song 5 stars. I'd give it more if I could!

Released way back last year, despite reading some faveourable reviews I never got round to picking up a copy of Graham Coxon's 5th album. After all, I've never been a huge fan of Blur (I like their "13" album alot though) and Coxon's solo albums to date haven't set the world alight so the prospect of a new one didn't set the pulses racing. How surprised was I then when I discovered it earlier this year. Of the 80+ albums I listened to released last year I(some more than others) I didn't give a single one 5 stars, making this the best album released.

Coxon has always been an odd talent. Blur's britpop sound wasn't right for him, but he showed what he could towards the late ninetees. Check out the awesome riff that powers "Beetlebum" and the Nirvana-esqe "Song 2". Here Coxon attempts to tackle just about every guitar genre ever and succeeds on all fronts, considering there isn't a single throwaway track. The opener "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery" is a sharp pop song which recalls his finest moment in Blur "Coffee & TV". "Spectacular" and "People of Earth" see him in full on punk mode. "Girl Done Gone" is a blues number that is reminiscent of The Beatles "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", while "All Over You" is an acoustic masterpiece that sounds a bit like Beck's "Sea Change" album, which in this case is a very good thing. While "Bottom Bunk" is a standout and probably the most 'Blur-like' song here.

This whole album is just waiting to be discovered and if there is any justice, it won't be long until Coxon receives a ton of awards and a hefty fan base.

John Ringhofer is pretty lovable. He's a psychedelic popster who makes offbeat pop music, and he's got the guts to infuse it with his own religious beliefs. And not in a preachy way that makes you want to turn on some Black Sabbath.

It's worked in his previous three albums, and it works in the most part in "Halos and Lassos." It's a bit more confrontational than his previous works, but still has those short songs, wacky Christian lyrics, and cheery music that makes you tap your feet every now and then.

It opens with a cash register ringing and rattling, before Ringhofer starts off with "I'm still your dad, my son/I'm still your mom, my daughter/But a fire guards the garden/and it led the way back home..." Yup, the Biblical references are firmly in place, and they continue through the cheery pop melodies that follow.

Ringhofer verges on pushiness at the beginning of the album, which includes some lines like, "The unbelievers seem to have it easy," but only until he admits his own doubts and worries. It's a fine line between bravery and pushiness, but Ringhofer manages to stay on the brave side.

Then it's off into a long string of pretty little pop melodies: the rippling prettiness of "A Suit of Clouds to Ride the Skies," thoughtful acoustic pop, and some bouncy piano-pop. Ringhofer even seems to be flirting with rock'n'roll in "You Wouldn't Embarrass Me, Would You?" but he yanks himself back to psychpop after a few seconds.

I'll admit it: I don't like Christian music, unless we're talking about medieval hymns. Actually, I don't like most religious music at all. But there's something so upbeat and endearing about Ringhofer's music -- Half-Handed Cloud sounds like the religious cousin of the Flaming Lips.

The vocals don't hurt that impression; Ringhofer has that Wayne Coyne/Jeff Mangum voice, which is off-key in a pleasant way. And his cheery way of singing works well for the songs he writes. They're occasionally a little syrupy, but they're also wonky in their descriptions of styrofoam peanuts, cowboys, royalty, sheep, dead people, prophets, cars, and bad weather (lots of clouds!).

The main instrument here is the Omnichord, a sort of synthesizer/drum machine that does a pretty good job setting up many of these pop tunes. There's some acoustic guitar in some of the songs, but the rippling sound effects and bubbling noises are more prominent.

The main flaw is that the album could have used fewer bells and whistles. Okay, it could have used more bells and whistles, not to mention the horns, because those are delightful, and the album is at its best when Ringhofer throws in tambourines and bells. Just use a bit less Omnichord in the middle of those songs.

Half-Handed Cloud sticks to what it does best in "Halos and Lassos," and fans of the previous three albums won't be disappointed.