Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: emusic.com, high places, lucky dragons, reviews, thrill jockey
Please excuse my terrible pun. I still haven’t gotten the hang of witty post titles. Anyway, this post will be infinitely more relevant come September, when Brooklyn’s High Places release their first, self-titled LP on Thrill Jockey. The band has an compilation of EP’s released in 2007 fittingly titled 3/07-7/07. It had previously been released on a new independent artist service on emusic.com, but Thrill Jockey is pressing and re-releasing the album for the iTunes crowd and beyond.
I’ve had 3/07-7/07 for a few months now and it’s the type of album that I enjoy in cycles. At first, it was a pretty fresh sound, certainly being unique and interesting to listen to. But then I thought to myself, who actually listens to this stuff? Songs literally bubble up, noises fade in and then everything immediately fades out. Most of the time, it sounds like children’s music. This fact certainly is not helped by Mary Pearson’s feint, girly vocals.
Now I’ve come to realize that this is precisely what makes High Places appealing. Songs grow into one another allowing for the entire album to have an organic feel. Listening to it seems like you are experiencing a living, breathing organism. I can best compare the music to a group like Lucky Dragons, who share the notion that music should be organic, not something mathematically constructed. Bells, woodwinds, chimes and wooden percussion are all fair game, and the amount of melody that can be generated from these instruments by two people is impressive. While many of the instruments are actually electrical or computer generated, High Places definitely extracts the living spirit from them.
I wish I had more information to give you about Ida Maria (pronounced Eee-duh Mah-ree-yah, not that this information is terribly important). But for some reason, US audiences have been extremely slow picking up on this awesome new singer from Norway. She blends the best of PJ Harvey’s vocal style with the countless number of poppy, upbeat indie-rock bands. Her versatile voice can float up with the catchiest of melodies or it can growl with the best of cigarettes-and-whiskey-fueled troubadours. If you can imagine a female, less frightening Tom Waits, you are heading down the right path.
Ida Maria’s latest album was released in May in the UK, however I’m not sure if and when Fortress Round My Heart will be coming out on our side of the pond. But don’t let that stop you from using your own methods for obtaining the album. The music is widely available on the internet and it is well worth checking out. Every song is undeniably catchy, and while this isn’t groundbreaking stuff, you have 10 worthy songs for your summer road trip play list. Highlights for me include the first single, “Oh My God,” which I heard once on Sirius radio, never to hear it there again. But it was memorable enough to spur me to find out more about the artist. Also listen to “Stella” and “Louie.” Well worth a 2 minute search on hypem.com, everyone’s favorite music blog aggregator.
I forget exactly how I found out about Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls, but what I can tell you is that I’ve been playing their debut self-titled LP non stop since I first heard them. On first listen, it can be tough to get past the seemingly crappy nature of the recordings. But just like numerous other lo-fi bands that are popular at the moment, Times New Viking and No Age immediately come to mind, you eventually get past anything that initially seems to be a drawback and come to enjoy the amazing pop melodies. The album rushes by in about 30 minutes, but the gorgeous choruses keep you pressing repeat. Comparisons will be made to Mika Miko simply because they are a lo-fi all-girls group, but their sound can be best described as a less edgy Times New Viking, keeping the distortion, but replacing their endearing, but out of tune, vocals with voices that not only can hit the correct notes, but harmonize.
These girls, who formed the band in late 2007, have been rising in popularity in both hometown NYC and around the country. After a great showing at SXSW this year, their self-titled and self released LP was immediately pressed and sold out within a week at various NYC independent music shops, including Other Music and Kim’s Underground. I went into Other Music two weeks ago to buy their first 7″ single Wild Eyes, out on Plays With Dolls. I had a great conversation with the cute girl behind the counter who was raving about Vivian Girls and how excited she was that the record sold out so quickly. At first I was afraid she was actually in the band, and somehow I found it embarrassing to be buying the record from her, but when she started talking about how I need to see them live in order to fully “get” it, I relaxed. Anyhow, I was back the next week to buy their next single, both of which have now sold out.
Again, with the explosion of lo-fi bands the past few months, I have a really good feeling that Vivian Girls should be next on tastemaker’s lists. Their debut LP is being repressed this fall by In The Red Records, which has put out awesome early records from bands like Black Lips and King Khan & BBQ Show. Simply put, Vivian Girls need to be on everyone’s radars right now.
