Murder By Death - Good Morning, Magpie

If you're familiar with Bloomington's Murder By Death, then you already know what sounds to expect coming out your speakers/headphones. Great American folk rock storytelling with lots of bass, cello and baritone vocals. It is as if they bought some Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan's "Desire" and Tom Waits' "Rain Dogs" (or maybe "Franks Wild Years") and just went from there. They also remind me in some kind of bizarro world to DeVotchKa; except of course DeVotchKa doesn't sound American at all.

The themes don't stray from past performance either, ranging from the bourbon, the trials of the man who travels, lonliness, the women who've wronged us, the women we've wronged. It paints a picture of saloons and cowboy trails without limiting itself to anything like that. "...she makes a kind of music of the buttons poppin' off her dress..." Great line.

And with a general lack of surprise, there are still several fantastic songs in this collection. The song from that line above, "On The Dark Streets Below" breaks out the mariachi horns ala "Ring Of Fire". And with its Irish jig chorus, "As Long As There Is Whiskey In The World" should be covered by Flogging Molly tomorrow.

The highlight though, is "Foxglove". It opens with a shuffle that sounds like MBD is going to cover Barry White's "You're the First, the Last, My Everything". The disco permeates through the entire song, mellowing out during the chorus, but still anticipating a dance explosion. That explosion never comes, but the heart race is still a sexy ride.

Starts on big highs and ends just as well. I can bet that this will show up on my year end list. (4 of 5 stars)

Foxglove - Murder By Death

Black Francis - Nonstoperotik

I'm so confused. What's the difference between Frank Black and Black Francis? How many licks does it take to get a fat, bald indie legend to make you feel sexy? The world may have just found out.

An album of sexually inspired music might seem out of place from the guy who once said that his biggest fear was "losing my penis to a whore with disease". But songs like "O My Tidy Sum" and "Wild One" have a sloppy texas-jazz kind of vibe that is probably as sexy as he'll be able to get.

Don't be misled, these may be different fare from the songs of the Pixes or even the Catholics, but it's not R. Kelly slow jams either. The Gram Parsons cover "Wheels" for example, has a expected Son Volt country dive swagger, with lyrics that I'm attributing to an inexperienced kid praying for better performance.

"Six Legged Man" will be a treat for the all-Pixies-all-the-time crowd (I'm looking at YOU, Dave Dugan), but he also rehashes the previously released "Dead Man's Curve" for reasons unknown.

The awesomely titled- "When I Go Down On You" will leave listeners very disappointed. Too literal, simple and un-ironic to have much value on a Frank record. The title track, though, should probably make it onto a handful of sexy-time college kids' mixtapes. It's mellow minor key piano riff can set a candle lit mood. Even if you really have to know someone well to tell them that you want to be inside them... all the way... everyday.

Nonstoperotik may do it for you if you're attracted to Frank's music in general. But I suspect that there won't be too many seduced by Frank's je ne sais quoi.

Nonstoperotik - Black Francis

Love Is All - Two Thousand And Ten Injuries

I hesitated to make this my weekly review, but nothing else stood out. My hesitations come from my prejudice. Love Is All have a chick singer and they're Swedish. A couple good reviews on allmusic and Pitchfork later and I shrug my shoulders and move forward. What they say is true... there's a punk sensibility, an electronic sensibility and a pop one too.

The album kicks off punky. "Bigger Bolder" is fun enough, but it also happens to contain a real bad ass bass riff after each verse. Go Johan, it's your birfday!

Bigger Bolder - Love Is All

The 2nd track brings out some pop. Electronic-Abba type pop. Like something that might come off an Elvis soundtrack album, should he still be around doing shitty movies.

A couple of times, I'm reminded of another Swedish group, The Cardigans. (Are they Swedish? ...okay, just looked, they are. One more point for Nik's excellence.) "False Pretense" sounds like some New York hipster band was trying to ironically cover, "Lovefool".

At it's heart, Love Is All is a pop dance band. They build the core of their songs with disco beats and hooky bass thumps. Then, as if they're trying to throw Pitchfork off the trail of pop, they distort the same guitar riff that Nile Rodgers would have played clean and they add some kitchen sink things like bagpipes. And then to top it off, the singer moves her voice away from Donna Summer and closer to either Björk or a late Marianne Faithfull.

It's fun. Indie chicks will love it for a while. But I'm still weighed down by my prejudice. (2 of 5 stars)

Happy Birthday

Early reviews for this Sub Pop album are praising it's retro-vibe. And it's first track, the single, "Girls FM" certainly has a hook that feels like it came from Tommy James' playbook, with some sunshiney '70s pop melodies in the chorus; which then seamlessly modernizes itself with some studio rhythms and alt-rock riffage.

On the other hand, without really changing their sound too much, Happy switches to modern lo-fi punk with "Cracked". But slong the album, I'm finding that the guitar has less of the cool indie garageness that makes Guided By Voices sound like The Who's little brother, and more like a deliberate pop songwriter, who's looking at the guitar as little more than a vocal harmonizer.

An allmusic review has already accused the band of stealing the "Subliminal Message" drum riff from Tom Petty' s "Don't Come Around Here No More". But I would go a step further back and say that they're really channelling Paul Young's "Everytime You Go Away". Regardless of the comparison, it's the dreamiest track on the record and one of my standouts.

After this style gets establish, as is often the case with the confines of garage rock, it becomes less interesting. So you head-bob along the beginning and then through the middle you forget that you're even listening to anything. So, you get songs like, "I wanna suck your straw. Pink Strawberry Shake, I love you".

Also often the case, the band throws some strong songs in at the end so you remember who they were. "Zit" is the highest energy punk track of the album. And even if it's lyrics are simple, it will make the rounds of mix tapes just from its awesome snottiness alone. The whole effort though, is not awesome snottiness. It's lazi garage rock for guys who don't want to work any harder at the music than they want to put into a job. (2 of 5 stars)

Frightened Rabbit - The Winter Of Mixed Drinks

A couple of years ago, A British band called Elbow released an album called "The Seldom Seen Kid" and I found myself in the unenviable position of trying to give a great review to an album, while relating it to a bunch of shit that I totally hate. I am confronted with the same issue here.

A Scottish band this time, although I do hate their name just as much. At its core, I had said that Elbow could have been any band from Manchester. Coldplay for example, but produced themselves to greatness. The Rabbit is similar in that vain. They could have strummed some acoustic guitars to the same songs and found some audience to help them sing along. And I would have rated them two stars lower.

Peter Katis produced, who has also laid down Interpol and the National. So I would not have expected greatness from this guy. But maybe the band just want to pull their own weight. While Katis does employ some orchestration and horn arrangements outside of the rock band, it sounds like he recorded them all after some drunken row at a Scottish pub. There's teeth and swagger to the arragements that's outside of his other artists otherwise "clean" output.

The Rabbit, I would compare something closer to early U2. Leader Scott Hutchinson is one Bono-like optimistic dude. He describes his hardships, his loves lost. But he always describes them at his back.

"Let's call me a baptist, call this a drowning of the past
She is there on the shoreline throwing stones at my back"
- Swim Until You Can't See Land

So this writer found the album quite lyrically sound. They're never lazy or trite. And it probably lends some authenticity that he sings with a native Scottish accent. And while Muse may easily declare their victorious intentions, Scott; who works just as hard to achieve the victory- works even harder to describe the journey.

So the hymns that I sung
Prayers for the fucked, from a bitter, forked tongue
Sing of history now
Though the corners are lit
The dark can return with the flick of a switch
It hasn't turned on me yet, yet
- Not Miserable

Exciting, inspiring, let's get drinking. (4 of 5 stars)

Rogue Wave - Permalight

RW release their first album since the premiere of their documentary following drummer Pat Spurgeon's battle with his kidneys. Not only that, but leader Zach also laid in bed rest with a neck injury for the past year, and don't forget the death of their bass player, Evan.

Well, Zach must have found Jesus or something, because he is as bright and cheery as Annie after her sugar daddy let her "girlfriends" join in the fun. Granted, seeing the positivity in Pat's struggle from his documentary, it would be hard not to be inspired and believe that all adversity can be overcome.

So these songs live between something that Ben Gibbard might collaborate on with Paul McCartney-- to the other extreme of sounding like a simple Owl City auto-tuned basement-made rip-off.

"Sleepwalker" employs a tremendous chorus harmony. And songs like "Solitary Gun" and "Right With You" benefit from having an upbeat live drummer behind him. "We Will Make A Song Destroy" could have been only slightly retuned and become the most commercial record that Radiohead ever made. So there's potential there, but it's evened out by the icky-childishness of the title track, for example.

And why does "You Have Boarded" abandon its power-beat and trade it for a lilting chorus instead a crossover high-harmony indie rock tune? Maybe it's me, but why does Rogue Wave keep bottling up the potential they have to set themselves apart with the components that they already have? (2.5 of 5 stars)

Sleepwalker - Rogue Wave

Quasi - American Gong

Not having a history myself with this decade-plus old band I was expecting more of some electronic indie cutsie duo. I was pleasantly surprised when the album starts out with a pair of fuzzed-out rockers. Generally we're looking at a skilled art-house mess of punk riffs, walking bass and head-bopping drums. Songs are structured in such a way that allows for a few bars of guitar solo, but that's where Quasi employ the synthesizer they put on that credit card.

With that, they move down to the first of what could be a pair of Sloan demos. "Everything & Nothing At All" is a jarring contradiction from the opening tracks. It's another simple, plodding piano-based indie-rock version of "Dream On". It hurts because it follows the two choice cut rockers, and would have fit better after the next epic "Bye Bye Blackbird", which spends its own time rocking part of its 6:35 length, but is bookended by sweet Beck-ish rhymes about, you guessed it, a bird.

The 2nd half gets back to some righteous goodness. "Death Is Not The End" is a morbid piano-ballad, heavy on the bass. The lyrics are cliché, but in a classic way, not a cheap lazy way. "Rockabilly Party" is exactly what it sounds like. Coulda been an Uncle Tupelo encore.

A good record. I feel like Quasi shines when they record in the red levels, and that's mostly the case here. I may suggest in the end to either fill the vocal gaps with someone who can play leads, or really punk it out and lose the gaps altogether. (3.5 of 5 stars)