Monthly Archives: May 2016

A whole lot of singing and string picking transpired in the midst of the 2000s, but few of the those leading last decade’s indie folk pack have flourished like Marissa Nadler. Continuing the progression away from the guitar and vocal-based template the Massachusetts-based artist utilized roughly a dozen years ago, her latest LP finds her in typically strong form and with an abundance of inspired ideas; Strangers is out May 20 on Sacred Bones in the USA and Bella Union in Europe.

The above shouldn’t suggest Marissa Nadler’s early work was an example of generic strumming and vocalizing; 2004’s Ballads of Living and Dying was unusually mature for a debut, dominated by original songs that frequently registered as traditional material and delivered in a voice reminiscent of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval minus the chanteuse allure.

If decidedly more folk oriented, Nadler inhabited the discerning regions of the stylistic spectrum, adapting words by Edgar Allen Poe and Pablo Neruda on her first album and tapping into relationship breakup territory for inspiration as she produced her sophomore effort, ’05’s The Saga of Mayflower May. While her development was part of the indie folk surge, she didn’t connect as Freaky or Weird, her mezzo-soprano revealing affinities with Kate Bush but without mimicking her ethereal qualities. Nadler has been classified as “dream-folk,” however.

The aftermath of said breakup persisted in shaping the Espers-assisted Songs III: Bird on the Water, the first of two for the Kermado label (her prior records were issued on the Eclipse imprint). But if derived from rocky subject matter, Nadler wasn’t a wrung-out dishcloth of emotion and she consistently sidestepped overly fragile modes right out of the gate. Furthermore, ’09’s Little Hells significantly broadened the music’s instrumental scope, though she had been subtly distinguishing herself from the standard folky thing all the way back to the beginning.

Read More »

Just because everybody and his twitchy New Wave brother likes to go on about how Magazine’s 1978 LP Real Life is, like, one of thee finest examples of early post-punk, end of discussion, doesn’t mean I have to like it. Sure, the melodies are fetching and the musicianship is stellar, but I intend to argue, in this here review, that Real Life ain’t all that, for the simple reason that it’s slick as black ice. And I have a confederate who has my back in the personage of legendary muz-crit Robert Christgau, who swam against the currents of acclaim being garnered upon Real Life way back when by saying, and I quote, “Back in the old days we had a word for this kind of thing—pretentious.” He also labeled band leader Howard Devoto “the ultimate art twit” before tweaking Devoto’s English nose with the mean-spirited brush-off, “We hate you you little smarty.”

I should add that I like several of the songs on Real Life, which made England’s Top 30, bunches. Pretentious, sure, slick, for damn sure, but Real Life, which was released by Magazine (the band formed by Devoto after leaving the Buzzcocks in early 1977) featured some notable exceptions, including the raucous “Recoil” and the “so-glam-it positively-glitters” anthem “Burst.” The first could pass for punk because that’s what it is, while the latter is a pink monkey bird of a throwback to the days of Ziggy Stardust, et al.

Unfortunately Real Life also includes the insufferable “The Great Beautician in the Sky,” a carnival-like atrocity which I can find nothing positive to say about, except that I find Devoto’s imitation of a shit-faced git who just got off the merry-go-round and is about to hurl his fish and chips amusing indeed. And “Parade,” with its music school piano opening by Dave Formula and Devoto’s vocal affectations, irks. It’s not helped any by the limp saxophone solo by John McGeoch either.

Read More »

Press Play is our Monday recap of the new and FREE tracks received last week to inform the next trip to your local indie record store.

wrtch – Take Life
VIRGO – Dissolve
Stefan Weich – Holy Nights
Brett – Touch Of Grey
Frances Luke Accord – Nowhere To Be Found
Amy Blaschke – Under My Skin
Nat Jenkins and the HeartCaves – Quarter to Three (Acoustic version)
We Are Ghosts – Way Out Of Your Mind
Boudoir Noir – Wild Valentine
In Letter Form – Face In The Crowd

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Starling Electric – No Clear Winner

Bugeye – Disco Dancer
Fialta – Do The Best We Can
déCollage – Better Things Pt 2
Skinny Blonde – King
Falqo – Someday (feat. Wild & Free)
Wuh Oh – Wolverines
The Hood Internet – Me And Mine (The Hood Internet x Wolkoff)
PLS&TY & Autolaser – Used To This (feat. MOONZz)
M3RC – Squad (Original Mix)
felicita – heads will roll / I will devour you

“Lyrically, ‘Imposter’ is about a pop star that used to annoy me. The music and melody are a combination of ‘Song 2’ by Blur and a standard song by The Hives. If we could pick one song off of this album to share with people, it would be ‘Imposter.’”
—Joey Dornbos

Michigan may not be the birthplace of killer two person rock bands, but its White Stripes certainly were a standard-bearer for the configuration.

Add to the list of rockin’ duos from the Wolverine State the Bangups, who are poised to break out of greater Grand Rapids with the back-to-basics drive and power of their new single “Imposter” which we’re happy to premiere today.

Guitarist Joey Dombos and drummer Brent French kick it out on the track about a suspicious individual. With its thick riffs and a catchy melody, it’s the kind of track you want to put on repeat as soon as its 3 minutes 13 seconds are over (jukebox operators take note).

Read More »

“My first record was Purple Rain. I loved Prince. When my parents divorced, I moved with my mom (and my conveniently-new stepdad). They were very religious and didn’t want me listening to ‘secular’ music. I remember them making me throw my one and only album away. I was devastated. Luckily I moved in with my dad shortly after that.”

“I remember the record player my dad had. It was from his hippie days, and he’d saved all his old 12”s. I would flip through them and try to figure out what was going on with each cover… It was like my very own art exhibit. I remember seeing The Beatles ‘White Album’ and wondering if they forgot to make the art for it.

I also remember giggling at Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, thinking, ‘Those kids should really put their pants on, I can see their butts.’ It was an awesome time for me, discovering new music, or, I guess, music in general. Luckily my dad had great taste so I wasn’t steered in the wrong direction.

Read More »

The Vinyl District is pleased to premiere the first episode of The Broken Dreams Project, a monthly video series featuring musicians smashing instruments—all for the sake of fostering art. The first video features Chris Smith of Carolinabound discussing the importance of art in his life, performing several songs, and then breaking a guitar that was painted specifically for him by project creator, Jenni O’Shea.

The Broken Dreams project came about when O’Shea was working in education and witnessed arts funding get cut from schools. She saw children simply forget how to be creative and she knew she had to do something. This project serves as a reminder to support the arts in all forms—visual and musical—before they are destroyed literally in front of our eyes.

O’Shea works with her husband, Michael O’Shea who does the video and music production for the series. Michael has a background in music and has worked with many nonprofits in the past. He also had the key idea for the project—smashing instruments.

For Smith’s episode O’Shea painted the Blue Ridge Mountains which hold significance to both artists. O’Shea plans to keep each painting uniquely personal for the featured musician, depicting where their creativity is drawn. She also hopes to paint on many different instruments, not just guitars.

Read More »

My favorite Siouxsie and the Banshees fact; the early band, primitivists to the core, ditched axe player Peter Fenton because he was a “real rock guitarist.” Can’t have one of those gussying up one’s primal punk rawk sound, not if one wants to create something truly unique and new. Which is what Siouxsie and the Banshees created with their celebrated 1978 debut, The Scream. So revolutionary was their music that critic Clinton Heylin held that the post-Fenton iteration of Siouxsie and the Banshees, along with the formation of PiL and Magazine, marked the “true starting point for English post-punk.”

On The Scream, Siouxsie Sioux (aka Susan Janet Ballion), guitarist and saxophonist John McKay, bassist Steven Severin, and drummer Kenny Morris created a sound that perfectly melded discord and harmony—a twitchy, spiky, and seemingly chaotic ruckus that was actually filled with beguiling melodies. Siouxsie’s vocals were by no means “pretty”—on The Scream she’s more attack dog than traditional female vocalist, and that’s a large part of the LP’s charm. But the real beauty of her vocals is the way they perfectly mesh with the band’s jagged yet catchy melodies; she’s in total synch with McKay’s remarkable guitar lines, and the pounding and throbbing of Morris and Severin on drums and bass, respectively.

McKay in particular is brilliant; I listen to his surprisingly ornate guitar work on, say, “Jigsaw Feeling,” and I marvel. The same goes for his magnificent guitar riff on “Carcass,” which is undoubtedly the catchiest song on The Scream. Between his guitar and Siouxsie’s alternately choppy and flowing vocals, this baby is a keeper, especially when you throw in the glam handclaps. His guitar work on the band’s cover of “Helter Skelter” is also a marvel; he meets Siouxsie’s stridently harsh vocals with a guitar that is more battering ram than six-stringed instrument, while Morris and Severin contribute to what is less a song than a wonderfully extended car crash. I love the song’s slow and clunky opening, and I can’t conceive of any finer moment than the one where Siouxsie sings, “You may be a lover but you ain’t no fucking dansa!”

Read More »