Download Awesome Troggs Cover From Popstrangers

New Zealand's Popstrangers have done a fantastic job with this cover of "With A Girl Like You" by The Troggs and you can play and download it below.

For more details on Popstrangers, check out their Facebook page. They are on Carpark Records.

I should confess that I can't hear any version of this song without thinking of the dance scene in the 1991 film Flirting where it was used to such memorable effect. The movie is really something special and it deserves to be sought out and not just because it's got Nicole Kidman, Noah Taylor, Naomi Watts, and Thandie Newton in it early in their careers.

Stream Wicked New Tune From Hunck Here!

In 1992, Nirvana and Teenage Fanclub were booming out of the hip kids' stereos on both sides of the Atlantic. Nirvana, a bunch of Americans, were drawing inspiration from U.K. bands like The Raincoats and The Vaselines. Teenage Fanclub, a bunch of Scots, were drawing inspiration from American legends Big Star and Neil Young.

If somehow those two acts had pooled their resources and influences, the glorious result would be this cut by Hunck.

Not to confused with the fantastic band from the 1990s (HUNK), this Hunck is a sort of side project. Frederik Tyson-Brown is in MT. Thomas Wykes is in Parakeet (a side project of guys from Yuck and The History of Apple Pie).

This is "Toy Trucks" and it's alternately lovely and noisy. I like it quite a bit, especially on my headphones.

Follow Hunck on their official Facebook page.

Download Awesome New La Sera Song Here!

Following on from her fantastic last album, 2012's Sees The Light, Katy Goodman, AKA La Sera, is back and readying a new record. Hour Of The Dawn will drop in May from Hardly Art but you can enjoy this new cut today.

"Losing To The Dark" is like the unholy-but-catchy tune-spawn of The Pixies and The Primitives. Two cool kids pull up to a stoplight in 1988 and one's car stereo is blaring Surfer Rosa and the other's is rocking Lovely. Yep. It's like that.

Follow La Sera on her official website or on her Facebook page.

Play And Download Black Checker Remix Here!

Those boys in D.C.'s Black Checker have gone and got themselves remixed!!!

Their thoroughly excellent cut "Bagel Girl", from their thoroughly excellent EP Fast, has been put through the wringer by Bad Domes and you can get the fruits of that effort at your own price via that Bandcamp link below.

For more details on the D.C.-area trio, check out the official Facebook page for Black Checker.

Rock!

Quick Review Of Present Tense From Wild Beasts

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly 3 years since the excellent Smother but Wild Beasts are back with the equally wonderful and wondrous Present Tense.

I should admit that I've had a review copy of this for almost a month and somehow I didn't get around to it until the NME spread on the band. I feel ashamed of myself now because Present Tense is a lovely and affecting record full of warm textures. Wild Beasts have expanded their sound and those reviews that compare them to Talk Talk now seem right on the money. "Wanderlust" and "Mecca" recall not only Talk Talk but other bands of an earlier era who used synths to create human music.

Tunes like "Sweet Spot" bring to mind The Blue Nile and even Japan. The record, centered around lead singer Hayden Thorpe's croon -- is there any other word for his voice? -- is holistically a thing of beauty. If there is not a huge variety of styles here at least Wild Beasts are the master of the ones they have tried their hands at. Of a piece, Present Tense coos and throbs and fills the ears with lushness.

For that, it's to be cherished and praised.

Follow Wild Beasts on their official website:
http://wild-beasts.co.uk/

Happy 103rd Birthday Jean Harlow!

Jean Harlow was born on March 3, 1911. So here's my customary "birthday post" to my favorite actress ever and the lady who graces my blog header.

I haven't watched any of her films lately. I've watched a few clips from her films on YouTube but that's about it. I didn't bring any of her films on DVD with me.

Still, her work as an actress is stuff I go back to over and over again. She was tough, and funny, and vulnerable, and brass, and cynical, and sweet.

As I sit here and push the curtain back and look out the window of my apartment here on Lamma Island, I can almost see the South China Sea so it only seems fitting that I post a clip from her wonderful 1935 film China Seas.

New Playboy Spaceman (Bridget Cross) Album Is Out Now

I'm sure that on some level it's unfair to label this post with her maiden name since Bridget Kuhar is now making music with her husband George Kuhar in the band Playboy Spaceman. But, then again, I can't fight Google. It seems I get at least a handful of hits a month from people looking up the new musical exploits of D.C. area legend Bridget Cross. And those Googlers are, like me, people who loved her work in Unrest, Air Miami, and Maybe It's Reno.

Playboy Spaceman is a project from Bridget and George Kuhar and now, on their first full-length album, they've turned into a full band with the addition of Simon Taylor on bass and Jason Messing and Nickolas Wagner on drums. One Heart Army is a strong release and the tunes have hooks and heft.

"Teach Me How To Love" roars like Arcade Fire doing a cover of The Long Ryders while "Right In Front Of You" adds in the warm, layered, and lush keyboards from Bridget to create something pitched between Eno-produced U2 and Beulah.

These songs are all uniformly strong and direct. Stuff like "Everything I Was (Or Ever Will Be)" deserves to reach wider audiences.

The addition of those other players has made the music of Playboy Spaceman more robust and weightier. I'm sure that those of you in Alaska will count yourselves lucky to see the band play these songs live.

Follow Playboy Spaceman on their Facebook page.

Buy One Heart Army on CDBaby.com.

Play Cover Of Depeche Mode By The Family Rain Here

Dipping my toes into the tunes of Bath, England's The Family Rain. This is nearly histrionic stuff but there are some moments here that are grabbing me by the short hairs. The sound, both heavy and desperate in spots, is like some weird beast that's the child of both My Life Story -- remember them? -- and Oasis mixed with a hint of early Manics in spots.

The tune that got me interested is this slightly over-the-top cover of the classic "Enjoy The Silence" by Depeche Mode.

Follow The Family Rain on their Facebook page Facebook page for more details.

Play Wrestle Yu To Husker Du By The Dirty Nil Here!

Winning enormous points for the song title alone, The Dirty Nil are here to bludgeon you into submission with "Wrestle Yu To Husker Du". Bass riffs heavier than Derek Smalls on "Big Bottom" and guitar skronk like something out of an Albini-produced bad dream, Ontario's The Dirty Nil are making music of heavy riffs and bad attitude.

And I dig that about them.

Follow them on their Bandcamp page where you can buy the tunes and check out their Facebook page for more details.

Stream A Fine Tune From Nat Lyon Here

It's fitting that Pulco's Ash Cooke is on this record as Nat Lyon is sort of doing a Pulco from the other side of the Atlantic.

Operating out of Connecticut, Nat Lyon is making tunes full of noise, melody, and bits-and-pieces of interesting stuff. Small Victory On A Fallow Field will be available to buy as of Friday but you can stream a few tunes here to start.

More details are to be found via those Bandcamp links or the Pethau Garw page.

"CH" recalls the work of Pulco (Ash Cooke is on a track on this record but not this one)...

Jukebox Memoir Is Out Today: A Review Of The New Jet Age Record

It's been more than 2 years since their last record, the excellent Domestic Disturbances, and The Jet Age are now back with Jukebox Memoir.

The Jet Age -- Eric Tischler, Greg Bennett, and Pete Nuwayser -- have delivered something at once familiar and new. Listening to this one, I kept thinking of The Wedding Present, a band that The Jet Age have toured with, and the leap from stuff like Bizarro to Saturnalia in the space of a few years. Like Gedge and his mates, The Jet Age have a very easily identifiable sound -- that thing that makes them sound like The Jet Age and no one else, despite those numerous worthy influences peeking through -- but they have changed that sound much like David Gedge managed to radically change the Wedding Present sound...without losing any of the Wedding Present sound.

Tischler has done something similar here. He's managed to expand the rock-solid and solidly rocking Jet Age sound -- think "I Want To Touch You Again" from Domestic Disturbances or the earlier "I Said 'Alright'" from What Did You Do During The War, Daddy? -- into some new variation of the indie-rock template that encompasses...classic Stevie Wonder, for example.

I'm talking of the wonderful "Music" from Jukebox Memoir. From its "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" guitar riff opening, to its quotes from "Isn't She Lovely" in the coda, the tune is a marvel. Quite possibly one of the best tracks these guys have produced and I say that as someone who said that about the entirely harder and punkier "Left For Dead" from the last album.

As Eric Tischler explained to me:

I thought just embracing these styles would help us assimilate them, so I wasn't feeling like I was tiptoeing around these influences I want to reference. You can quote me on this.

And what The Jet Age are doing in that tune gets at the whole point of Jukebox Memoir as an album: acknowledge the influences, try a few on for size, and then kick things off into power trio overdrive. Less a loose concept album than some of their earlier releases, Jukebox Memoir works best as a collection of cuts from diverse genres. Here, on this record, The Jet Age travel in new directions -- jazzy funk on "Chocolate Cake" and "Booty" or full-on shoegaze on "Come Lie Down" with backing vocals from Swervedriver's Adam Franklin and Ride's Mark Gardener -- while still holding onto the familiar -- opener "I Can't Turn Around" which sounds like the best tunes on every Jet Age album.

Thoughtfully on the lyric sheet, the 3 guys in The Jet Age have provided what their influences were on each track -- opener "I Can't Turn Around" lists no influence as if to modestly highlight their own sound -- and some of these are helpful in adjusting to the new colors in the Jet Age palette.

To list The Who on "Free Ride" is sort of a no-brainer; these guys are huge fans of The Who and not for nothing is Tischler shown reading a Townshend book in that pic up there. But, in this case, it's a specific nod to what inspired another standout cut on this record. The Jet Age are filtering the pieces of a classic Who cut like "Naked Eye" into something new. "Free Ride" is a fantastic song and it enters another stratosphere entirely when Pete Nuwayser goes reliably apeshit on the kit. When Mike Myers inevitably makes a silly Keith Moon bio-pic, maybe Nuwayser can be the guy on the soundtrack actually playing the drums while Wayne Campbell mimes like Moonie?

A few pics from the last concert I saw in D.C. before my move to Hong Kong: The Jet Age in December 2011 (with Deathfix opening up -- their second ever gig!)...

"Dissolve To The Bedroom" lists Zep and Bowie as influences but what about that opening riff which sounds like the opening guitar figure from "First Of The Gang To Die" by Morrissey? Would Tischler be loathe to list Moz as influence? Not sure. But that hook works just as well here as it did for the God from Manchester. For "You Want To Dance", the lyric sheet cites Duran Duran as an influence -- there's a tiny bit of those guys here circa "Union Of The Snake" -- but I heard late period Gang of Four or maybe even XTC pre-"Mayor of Simpleton" -- maybe something like "Funk Pop A Roll"? As always, bassist Greg Bennett is the unsung hero of the band like Entwistle was for The Who. Bennett adds jazzy hues in spots and strong-and-solid bass muscle in others. Some of his very best work for the band is on Jukebox Memoir. Expanding The Jet Age sound has pushed the bass to a more important position on this album.

"Like A Bell" has a hint of The Faces, yes, but it also softens the hard edges of earlier Jet Age tunes. At once familiar and somehow different, as an album closer it points in yet another new direction for the band.

But next to "Music", I keep going back to "Horizon Burns". Referring back to the lyric sheet, I don't quite hear The Verlaines on this one, but maybe there is a bit of Tischler's earlier The Hurricane Lamps here. Sounds more to me like Grant Hart making New Day Rising-era Husker Du do a cover of an early Talking Heads tune. Whatever the influences, it's a scorcher of a cut. I can't wait to hear them do this live when they tour.

Back in my review of the last Dot Dash record -- a band whose debut was produced by The Jet Age's Eric Tischler -- I tried to stress how I preferred a solid collection of individual cuts over most concept albums. By that standard, Jukebox Memoir is a masterpiece in the Jet Age catalog. That's not to slight the earlier concept album structure of their previous records but to stress the ease of mastering diverse styles that The Jet Age have shown here.

Jukebox Memoir is more Odds And Sods than Quadrophenia, to refer back to a clear fave of Tischler and his crew. And that's not necessarily a bad thing when you think about it. If this set of songs doesn't tell a story of suburban angst like Domestic Disturbances did, it instead catalogs the wide range of influences that shaped these guys who grew up -- like me -- in an era of great music.

And for even attempting to pay tribute to D.C.'s go-go scene, these guys get enormous props.

The ultimate mix-tape as played by a D.C. area indie band, this new record from The Jet Age is sure to have something to engage old fans and new followers.

Jukebox Memoir is out now -- today! -- and you can get more details on the band's official website here and, in the U.S., you can order it on iTunes here.

Download Dog Bite Joy Division Cover Here (New Record Is Out Now)

I realize that I have not reviewed the new Dog Bite record yet. After raving like a madman about Velvet Changes more than a year ago, it feels like I've neglected the new album.

It's a wonderful, trippy, collection of dream-pop which, if not quite as shockingly perfect as Velvet Changes, is somehow just as consistently reassuring in its effects.

Or something like that.

Tranquilizers is out now on Carpark Records and there are more details on the official Dog Bite Facebook page here. But, for now, dig this!

Flirting on the edges of 4AD worship, and having expertly covered a Bauhaus classic already, Dog Bite now turns towards another goth/neogoth/postpunk totem: the venerated Joy Division. Without trying to out Ian Curtis Ian Curtis, Dog Bite finds the surging heart of this tune and spins it in a new direction. Fans of Joy Division and Dog Bite should be pleased in equal measure.

Temples Drop Full-Length Debut And It's A Masterpiece: Stream Sun Structures Here!

Well you sort of know what to expect don't you? Every single release from Temples so far has been a thing of sublime beauty and awesome riffage. So why should the rest of the debut be anything but that sort of wonderful?

Sun Structures is out now on Fat Possum Records in the U.S. and Heavenly elsewhere. It's a great record and I'm glad to report that the band have lived up to their hype.

Familiar hook-filled tunes like "Mesermise" are here, along with early single "Shelter Song", but new pleasures can be found in "Move With the Season" -- all Moody Blues with better hooks -- and "A Question Isn't Answered" with its Spiritualized-meets-The Coral mood. By album's end, we've got the supremely catchy "Test of Time" which sounds like most of what Ian Brown and John Squire have separately been trying to recreate from the ashes of the mighty Stone Roses. It's Chemical Brothers dressing up as the Hollies. What a beautiful and magnificent chorus this tune has! And there are more just like that one here.

Temples have accomplished something great here. If they have not entirely reinvented the rock wheel they've at least put the pieces together in an interesting fashion. Fans of Britpop and its finest moments should be well pleased by Sun Strcutures. Or maybe you're just a fan of tuneful 1960s rock like The Left Banke, Moody Blues, and early Traffic? Fine. Temples have got that covered as well. No long jams, no extraneous bits of rock wankery. It's all solid stuff here.

Sun Structures is quite possibly one of the best records of 2014 and it's only February.

Warm your cold mid-winter heart with the rainbow-hued rockers on this record.

Follow Temples here on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/templesofficial