Three Imaginary Girls - Yep Roc

Dave Alvin is headlining a benefit for the amazing Susie Tennant at the Tractor {tonight!}

Chris Estey — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:27:05 +0000

{Dave Alvin, Christy McWilson, Kasey Anderson, and Andrew McKeag are playing a benefit for Susie Tennant on Tuesday, October 11, at the Tractor Tavern.}

Susie Tennant is an incredible lady, having helped the Seattle music community in a gazillion different ways: from promoting Sub Pop artists with the verve and creativity of the artists and the owners of the label, and more recently running amazing literary and related events at one of Seattle's best night-life venues, Town Hall. She had recently been struggling with cancer therapy, and while things are looking great there's still a ton of medical bills. So giving back to Susie continues after the big Nirvana Live bash at the EMP (where dozens of local musicians helped out covering songs from the DGC album she publicized), with the next leg being tonight's must-see benefit show at the Tractor.

This will be a benefit I personally won't miss, as it is headlined by one of my favorite musicians of all time, Dave Alvin. You have to understand, and I can only quote Danny Bland {one-time Sub Pop co-worker of Susie's and guitar player for Catt Butt, Best Kissers in the World, and Dwarves guitarist} on this -- that Dave Alvin was in (and the primary songwriter for) the greatest band in the world: The Blasters. This was a rockabilly group signed to Slash back in the day of X in the early 80s, and their self-titled album and protest-driven Non-Fiction on that label are in my all time top twenty LPs. I was living in Hollywood in those days and the well-played sweaty revelry they inspired has never been quite matched at any other shows I've attended. Traditional musicians set loose in the cultural labyrinth of punk, they gave the scene rocking authenticity and more musical strength in their downtrodden upbeat anthems than any new wave dance band could muster.

Sky Full of Holes

Imaginary Steve — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:13:09 +0000

7.7

http://store.easystreetonline.com/rel/v2_viewupc.php?storenr=375&upc=63445722472

20110722_fountains_of_wayne_sky_full_of_holes_47.jpg

More than a great percentage of people I’ve met, I’m someone who likes things I can count on. This might explain everything from why I’ve worked only two jobs over the past decade to why I always pack my cigarettes exactly eight times. OK, “I’m nuts” might be a better explanation for the latter but I digress.

With all this in mind, Fountains of Wayne are, in many ways, the perfect band for someone like me. They figured out early on what they were good at and stuck to the script. When a new FoW record drops, you’re guaranteed to be treated to flawlessly constructed pop songs with tight yet exceedingly simple arrangements. They’re the most reliable three and a half minutes in rock n roll. Suffice to say, Sky Full of Holes continues in this vein.

That said, FoW’s fifth full length is hardly a carbon copy of their previous catalog. Most notably, they’ve dialed back the punchy electric guitar approach that has been something of a staple. Sky Full of Holes relies much more on mid-tempo, largely acoustic backdrops. About half way through, I found myself thinking a lot about The Get Up Kids. In particular, how Kansas City’s finest followed a half decade of fast paced power pop with the Scott Litt-produced On a Wire, which seemed to boast nary a distorted guitar. And after hearing SFoH a few times through, this comparison seemed even more apt. In both cases, while the arrangements were a departure, the songwriting aptitude remained essentially the same.

Lead track “The Summer Place” shines with Beatles circa Help! swagger and features a protagonst who feels nostalgia for a time in her life that most would surmise actually kind of sucked. Among their many virtues as storytellers is FoW’s ability to create a sympathetic identity for a character within the space of just a moment or two.

“Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart” earns a spot among the very best Fountains of Wayne singles. It’s the latest in a parade of Chris Collingwood-penned gems fully deserving of a Top 40 status it’s unlikely to attain. This is also the moment where the band come closest to their vintage sound.

Fountains of Wayne have always emphasized emotion and melodic content over, say, cerebral lyrics. “Hate to See You Like This” is a good example. It boasts a lovely, aching melody that nullifies the fact that the lyrics could have been written by a less folksy, more compassionate Dr. Phil. Besides, Dr. Phil’s songs are shit.

While Sky Full of Holes isn’t quite as consistent on a song-by-song basis as FoW’s first two LPs, it stands up well against their output over the past decade. As this disc illustrates once more, heartfelt simplicity almost always trumps unnecessary complexity. If you disagree, I’ve got a milk crate full of Rush records you might enjoy. Otherwise, I invite you to bask in the glory of Sky Full of Holes. It’s proof positive that Schlesinger and Co. remain craftsmen of top-shelf pop songs.

Beauty Parlor: hey, all you pretty things! {new record review column}

Chris Estey — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:23:14 +0000

I'm going to start this new "album round up" for Three Imaginary Girls with the above recent You Tube video for Sean Rowe's "Jonathan": (1.) Because I think it's the best song off of his recent Magic album (recently given full treatment here) and though it's been out a while the video is new. More-so, it's starting my summer off all rum and cola-sweetly, buzzy and bubbly at dusk-time, and I want to share it with you because the tune still grabs my attention. (2.) That's to help set the tone for a regular column that will primarily focus on the best songs on the albums I'm playing, while taking care of full length business as economically as possible. This doesn't mean I won't be doing more full length album reviews; but they might get the test-run here before they get the full heat treatment. Or, as in Rowe's case, I might remind you dear reader of previously scribed-about music that I think needs further attention, probably due to a bright jelly ear-worm melting in the candy jar of my brain.

Now to a hit and run consumer guide starting in my iTunes, and running into my headphones and down through my fingers briskly with the assistance of a jar of cold, strong coffee and soy milk:

Get delightful with Darren Hanlon this Saturday {4/16 - early show!}

imaginary liz — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:35:26 +0000

Our favorite Australian balladeer is coming to Seattle for an early Saturday show on Saturday 16th! Touring in support of 2010's brilliant I Will Love You At All (which was one of my top 10 records of 2010) and the recent Butterfly Bones EP (which features two songs from the album), Darren Hanlon will take to the High Dive stage at a very reasonable 5.30pm time slot to charm us with his unmatchable disarming banter and cozy melodic tales of schoolboy crushes, punk roommates, true love, and squash.

More than just a fella with good taste in friends (he's opened up for the Magnetic Fields and Billy Bragg, just to name drop a little), most folks leave his shows feeling like you have a new BFF... and one that can play the ukulele at that. Let's start off our Saturday night in High Dive style!

And if your friends still aren't convinced that they should join you at the DH show...

Labour Of Lust (Reissue)

Chris Estey — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:43:06 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/Labour-Lust-Nick-Lowe/dp/B004K9HIXO/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

Nlowe.jpg

THIS LP POPPED MY NEW WAVE CHERRY. It was 1979, my parents had taken me to Peaches on 45th (R.I.P.), a great big old record store, and my mom made me choose between this, Nick Lowe's second solo album (after playing with pub rockers Brinsley Schwarz, which I still don't think I've heard to this day, and while he produced Elvis Costello's first few amazing records), and The Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope. A hard choice, but Labour Of Lust became my 13th birthday present.

Up until that purchase, it had mostly been all Queen and Heart and such for me. One day in 1978, I heard "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" on the radio when some rednecks from Walla Walla were making fun of it for an April Fool's Joke as they did their radio shift. I expected to hear Dr. Demento that Sunday evening, but discovered The Rezillos instead. And I started to think of myself as "punk," but that meant listening to the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody" over and over, you know, the part where it gets really aggressive.

Though I had my older brothers' Runaways and Lou Reed and David Bowie albums, I didn't have my own thing yet. Labour Of Lust sounded like it was the start of something I really wanted to be. It sounded like cool guys in flannel shirts and tight jeans making music for themselves, not concerned with the bands full of congo players and back up singers on Midnight Special.

I remembered in the store that a really British guy (as British as Monty Python! But sounding as American as The Byrds!) named Nick Lowe was all over the radio with a new, really creepy hit called "Cruel To Be Kind." It was really self-deprecative, a bit offensive, and catchy as hell, and somehow had more musically to do with the Buddy Holly and John Lennon I'd overheard than the Doobie Brothers and Robbie Dupree played around it on Top 40. Being a twisted little kid, I knew exactly what the double entendres in the song meant, but after my mom bought me the album, I got introduced to a whole new world of adolescent skeeve-out: getting strung out and going crazy ("Cracking Up," which kind of reminded me of that somewhat cool Tom Petty guy also hanging around the airwaves at the time); oblique references to drugs (the never-heard-anything-like-it-before Krautpop-minimalist-funk of "Big Kick, Plain Scrap"); screwing foreign -- my country's! -- groupies with sadistic glee ("American Squirm"); boner jokes ("Switchboard Susan"); STDs ("Dose of You"); et al. Somehow, you don't remember these hastily offensive scenarios; what stays in the mind are the great hooks, riffs, and perfect rhythms of the band Rockpile, which backs Lowe throughout.

But really, even though I played this album CONSTANTLY as a 13 year old, I knew the somewhat weird and realistically wasted lyrics were a small part of it. It was about the sumptuous palette of wide power pop-cum-C&W-rockabilly treats spread throughout, even showing off a vocals-and-acoustic only ballad ("You Make Me") which horrified my punk-expectant ears. That was good for me.

At times, I wished I'd gone with Give 'Em Enough Rope instead; but that was soon to happen anyways, and Lowe offered up a joy in timeless songcraft that connected me from my first love, The Monkees (the covers even looked a little like their Headquarters LP, all white and sloppy-hippy mod) to what was happening now (then). I think I needed that bridge, though I would later go on to find that Lowe's first album, Jesus Of Cool (Pure Pop For Now People in the States) was superior in terms of satirical songwriting and punk-era musical bite.

Still, Labour Of Love was my first, and I don't regret that. Soon, it would be the more philosophically extrapolative and subversively ironic Armed Forces (also produced expertly by Lowe), Blondie, and then very soon London Calling (but that's a whole other story there I guess). As for Lowe, this was his last great album; sadly, it was only his second. It seems shallow to say, but the haggard, extremely casual, shambolic photos of him on the cover and inner sleeves of Labour Of Love, sort of foretold he didn't give a shit about fashion or what was happening outside the recording studios he labored in so passionately.

Lowe's lyrics are about the fucked up and the far from fabulous, but his recording style with Costello, himself, and others was a sort of lo-fi Roy Thomas Baker, which seems very 70s but also eternally kind of sweetly sleazy. (I wish he could have done a Cheap Trick LP.) Lots of flange, deep bass, tricks of all sorts, but hilariously at odds with the sods in his stories.

I never bought another Lowe full length. It may seem cruel, but there was Psychedelic Furs and the Dead Kennedys and so many other new bands to keep up with as the decade turned. I got a couple for review early on as I started to do a zine, and they were good. But I was glad then I didn't pay for them. But I would pay for Labour Of Lust in a heartbeat: It's hard to imagine a Three Imaginary Girls without its smorgasbord of full-on proto-indie ("Love So Fine"), genre-breaking underground hard rock ("Born Fighter"), etc.

One thing (young) Americans should know though that other reviews of this aren't mentioning, is that "Endless Grey Ribbon," which is on this brilliant Yep Roc reissue, was UK only. (The reissue is worth buying instead of a vintage copy too for the amazing liner notes as well.) It's great that that song is here, but it's also a little more mature in tone and content than what we in the States got when we originally bought Labour; also is the bonus B-side included, "Basing Street."

These are quiet, sincere protest songs about anxious lives coming apart that wouldn't be really appropriate for even the alternative market until the coming of songwriters like John Vanderslice or John Roderick. They're all adult narrative, and obviously kept from immature listeners in the States for a reason (probably). Here they both are though. But me, I was satisfied enough with the sweeping, disingenuous, grand meanness of "American Squirm" or "Skin Deep" than anything else I'd heard since the late 60s. (GOD I'M OLD.) It still sounds like pure gold scuffed up by neglected spirits, working hard to make tunes maybe no one will ever hear outside of pubs and venues that come and go. Respect your elder (reissues): Don't miss this indie pop soul music.

Getting crafty with Menomena and Darren Hanlon

imaginary liz — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:10:03 +0000

{Menomena photo by Ben Moon. The Darren Hanlon photo is by someone equally as talented, but unknown to me}

It's time to get out your basket of needles and thread and join us for some quality crafty times! This month we'll be gather at Neptune Coffee (in Greenwood) on Sunday, August 8 from 1pm-3pm and hear brand new albums by Menomena (7/27 release on Barsuk) and Darren Hanlon (9/21 release on Yep Roc). We'll have a raffle with Menomena and Darren Hanlon -themed prizes, a Neptune beverage special, and a stitching tutorial!

Stitch n B!tch class:
Bring your own craft or join in our first imaginary craft tutorial led by Shrie of Lo and Behold (see flickr / website for crafty portfolio). Shrie is going to show those of us interested how to embroider. If you want to join in, we'll have imaginary-themed stitching kits available so you don't even have to guess what supplies you'll need to get started (but make sure to bring your own scissors - those things are expensive!). Shrie will bring everything we need to learn to stitch and leave the Imaginary Crafty Listening Party with a finished and beautifully stitched craft.

Little Moon

Chris Estey — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:37:26 +0000

7.8

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Moon-Grant-Lee-Phillips/dp/B002L132XS/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

littlemoon.jpg

Uneven albums by your favorite artists are like spending a uneventful, sort of boring evening with your very best friend. You could criticize the night, but you're still really glad she was there anyways, and it's not like you would take those hours back.

In the wake of roots-soulful indie rock band Grant Lee Buffalo, singer/songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips recorded his most recent solo album Little Moon in just four days with a small tribe of veterans, including Jay Bellerose (the drummer from the Allison Krauss/Robert Plant Raising Sand album). Jamie Edwards puts a cozy wash of keyboards and sweet fills between Phillips' coy and wizened vocals and Bellerose's drums, with Sebastian Aymans adding more clickety-clank style percussion as well. Bass player Paul Bryan is hardly there in a good way.

Perhaps owing to where Phillips lives, Little Moon is pretty damned slick for a Yep Roc roots record. Its Los Angeles-based charms brings back a time when mainstream pop artists like Nilsson, John Phillips, and Randy Newman seemed to touch on the rosetta stone of deep and wide traditional American songcraft, pre-rock as well as dazzling immigrant cabaret, SW sound-mosaics and city bar fugues. Its best song, "Strangest Thing," is an epiphany of listening to Johnny Cash, and giving a damn why the man wore black. It's transcendent, contemplative, and an adult sugar rush of appreciation that will be on every adult music fan's mixtape of the year.

As I write this, the title track of Little Moon burbles through my head, completely irresistible, and the timeless "The Sun Shines On Jupiter" or "Blind Tom" among the record's dozen makes this the album you can buy for the Tom Waits fan that has everything Tom Waits but doesn't need anything fake Tom Waits, or people who remember Loudon Wainwright lll in his prime, or young fans of any of the 70s marginal-rock icons listed above. I would have loved to have at least a couple more numbers as melodically resplendent as the uptempo "Strangest Thing," and though the second half of Little Moon seems a little too relaxed, Phillips' warm, steady instrument of a voice is hardly one I regret spending any amount of time with.

I Think This Is

Chris Estey — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:03:03 +0000

8.3

http://www.amazon.com/Think-This-Young-Fresh-Fellows/dp/B002BEXGFO/?=wwwthreeimagi-20

yffalbum.jpg

It would be enough for an artist to release a great album from his own group while helping out a huge, still vital band like REM create new, meaningful music since the mid-90s. But Seattle-in-Portland-exile (well, that's how I see it) indie rock originator Scott McCaughey simultaneously released a mighty fine Minus 5 full length just as his reunited OG band the Young Fresh Fellows put one out too. And it turns out that if I Think This Is was released by itself in any year, it would have been considered a come-back coup for the caustic troubadour. On top of that, McCaughey, Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Linda Pitman, and REM's Peter Buck (!) have just released The Baseball Project, a spritely whole album dedicated to their baseball fandom. That's sort of like McCaughey's version of Sandinista! separated into three different releases with three different bands and no Mikey Dread or kid's choruses. Wow. (Key tracks on The Baseball Project: "Ted Fucking Williams," "Sometimes I Dream Of Willie Mays," and "The Death of Big Ed Delahanty.")

The Young Fresh Fellows themselves, which according to their My Space has been "Tad, Jim, Kurt, and Scott since 1989," helped continue the evolution of The Sounds of the Pacific NW (name of their first release, BTW), connecting The Sonics and The Wailers to The Posies and Death Cab with that sweaty, fun, beer-soaked, Puget Sound-smelling, back-yard stomping garage band life. But not without topics that occasionally bluntly hinted at the dark streak of mold in the damp basement nearby. Though early light hearted romps like the hilariously flippant love letter to "Amy Grant" just as the CCM artist was getting Rolling Stone coverage, and songs like "Shake Your Magazines" and "YOUR Mexican Restaurant" filling out the second half of I Think This Is, hubris has always been the main target of the guitar-grinding, hand-clapping power pop anthems. McCaughey doesn't spare himself when going for the plump jugulars of inflated egos and moronic business as usual types. This venom may keep the sunny indie fans from following, but in spite of the sarcastic cheer in the YFF sound, it never stops rocking.

The surprise this time is, even with the self-referential black humor and inclusive odes to their own tenaciousness ("After Suicide," "Ballad of the Bootleg," respectively), on I Think There Is there are also realistic glimpses into goodly-humored survival and art-making with friends, as in excellent album opener "The Guilty Ones." Musically, the YFF probably wouldn't have existed without the Beatles, but the band they remind me of most is an Ecotopian Kinks; little details like McCaughey having ice cubes in his freezer ("not everybody does") for pals who come over to play his "thousands of tambourines" recall Ray Davies at his descriptive best. "Lamp Industries" and "Such Machine Crater," the vitriol against the assholes in the music business in the top half of this CD, are actually melodically more compelling than the more ballad-based simultaneous Minus 5 release (so that I recommend this one more). But my favorite track may be the giddy-sounding duplicitous cheer for "Go, Blue Angels, Go," which wishes the Air Force stuntmen would fly, fly, fly into the hydroplanes racing in the Emerald City waters nearby, killing them all and the touristy noise we have to endure every summer. Yeah.

Killingsworth

Chris Estey — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:55:27 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BEXGDQ/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

killingsworth.jpg

The Minus 5 are releasing Killingsworth at the same time leader Scott McCaughey is putting out Young Fresh Fellows' I Think This Is, both on Yep Roc. McCaughey's OG band was the YFF, one of the most high profile "college rock" bands of the 80s, their sinuous chicane garnering acclaim from Rolling Stone to scores of local zines at the time. That band included, among others, Kurt Bloch (later Fastbacks), whose guitar is the inspiration for a lot of playing that has come out of this region since then.

But there have been few songwriters Seattle-spawned as misery-guzzling and diarizing as McCaughey, whose drunk village savant rants and rave-ups against relationships, religion, the rent, and himself are close to the hearts of his purlieus peers. Upon moving to Portland, he began amassing collaborators there who have helped his newer band put out some out much of his best music ever, such as The Gun Album from a couple of years back, pulling in Wilco's Jeff Tweedy as well. This album has on board for much of it John Moen of the Decemberists (and "a Maroon and a Dharma Bum and a Jick"), and the vocals of Colin Meloy, but also REM's Peter Buck as usual. Special note should be made of Little Sue and the Shee Bee Gees who do a lot of backing vocals and dueting ("I Would Rather Sacrifice You" in particular for that) here in the way that female accompaniment has made later period Leonard Cohen albums less caustic on the ears.

Actually, musically, there's not much that's too raw or rough about The Minus 5 this time out -- no clenched-balls rockers like "Aw Shit, Man" -- and the fourteen acoustic-based tall tales aren't as accusatory or grim (especially when compared with The Gun Album). Killingsworth is an area of just-about NE Portland where Scott and his motley-cum-celebrated crew created these strummy yummies out of the deep well of wit and woe, and the first four -- "Dark Hand of Contagion", "The Long Hall", "The Disembowelers", "The Lurking Barrister" -- are "up there" (where is that?) with many of M5's greatest songs. "Dark Hand" balances lines like "Your wedding day was so well planned, like a German occupation" with more compassionate images such as "It wasn't the wrath of God, guess he was busy elsewhere."

It's this prevailing sense of mindful doom, and sober radical acceptance that makes Scott McCaughey's work such unusually adult fun.

proVISIONS

Chris Estey — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:52:29 +0000

7.6

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BSH152/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

giantsand08oct.jpg

A Giant Sand album is like a backyard BBQ with an old friend of yours who can be a little crazy, but is always ready to refill your glass and has a few meandering but entertaining stories to tell.

Howe Gelb may not be be Joe Ely, but he has influenced a literal ton or two of bands you have grown up on, simply by singing his sloppy best and covering tracks like "Is That All There Is?" with punk-authenticity (if not austerity). Like any Giant Sand record, proVISIONS will not beat the masses into realizing that the polished pillars of alt-country art-pop like Wilco or even the ferocious creativity and performance skills of an Old 97s are merely contenders. But this new album will make old fans happy and give a little jolt of the real to those who thought they knew the kerosine-twang.

Speaking of like-minded fanbases, Neko Case and M. Ward and Isobel Campbell guest here, among others, and on the album's strongest tracks ("Can Do (Girl)," "Desperate Kingdom of Love," and "Muck Machine") they can be heard chiming in with respect for their messed-up medicine man garage-western music guru along with steady and effortless-sounding bandmates T. T. Lund on bass, Anders Pedersen on slide guitar, and Peter Dombernowsky (drums). All of whom are from Denmark, and are all proud to be doing these 13 tracks "on the fly," as Gelb likes it that way too.

The gasoline-soaked, whiskey-filled Rat-King of Tumbleweed Town.

Jesus Of Cool / Pure Pop For Now People

Chris Estey — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:11:25 +0000

9.3

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YNFY1S/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

NickLowe08ct.jpg

This is Nick Lowe's first solo album, released in 1978 after an excitement-filled misery ride with his boundaries-bouncing pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz, and around the time he started helping artists like Elvis Costello and The Damned create timeless sides for the majestically eclectic indie label Stiff. By that point, Lowe had suffered a huge amount of humiliation in the music industry, as anyone playing music for a living who wasn't a stadium-stuffing bonehead was likely to receive.

In spite of his incredible shrewdness in creating fun, genre-jumping pop songs that tickled the mind as they begged to be played over again, Lowe had a hard time getting a break. This album was originally called Jesus Of Cool in the UK, but the American label were wary of the faithful picketing shows and such, so some tracks were shuffled about a bit and became Pure Pop For Now People.

You probably have already heard that story, but it bears repeating, as it reflects how, when put to the test, Lowe can create tasty material out of the crap people dump on him. Pure Pop may not be as funny as Jesus Of Cool as a title, but it underscored the satirical portraits of the various musician types Lowe parodied on the album sleeve. There were different clothing styles for both countries of the record's release -- all of which have been rounded up for the superb packaging of this perfect reissue.

Besides the sweet cover art and really good liner notes by Will Birch (who wrote a great book on the history of pub rock and how it evolved into power pop, punk, etc.), the disc collects all the tracks that were floating around at the time that were either used to replace songs on the original UK release, or became B-sides (and a few rarities besides). However, it is the narrative strength of the original album's material that makes this an essential purchase; but be thankful that for example both versions of the same song, "Shake And Pop" and "They Called It Rock," are here, as the redux for the U.S. version better serves the hilarious lyrics.

This isn't really a concept album, but it does consistently show how a gifted and intelligent songwriter, musician, and producer can really shake diamonds out of his stung-clenched heart. Recurrent fantasies of show business failure and degradation weave through each song, from the aforementioned "Shake"/"Rock," in which an unnamed (perhaps his own previous?) band takes lumps for the sophomore slump; mocking vitriol splashed on the low level record company control freak described in "Little Hitler" ("can I guess why you knocked me off the guest list?"); the morbid black humor of "Marie Provost," a real silent movie actress eaten by her little dog ("the cops throwing up everywhere over what they found," sung very excitedly in a moment of sheer wrong pop bliss); and raging venom turned into poisonous cheer on the "Rollers Show," probably the happiest and angry song ever written about musical hacks.

If you're a prairie dog hiding in the publicity department to feel cool, a grinder trying to make money off music you don't understand or even listen to, a mogul whose arrogance has outlived his creativity or vision, or simply a big ego wanna be over the hill rock dude, Lowe has his sites set on you here.

The magical thing is, you won't want to stop hearing this guy complain, as it sounds so joyful and masterful, hitting everything from avant-pop ("I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass," a dig at Bowie as good as anything Bowie ever released) to grinding rock "Heart Of The City," where the doors open to exploitation and redemption). The most complete and stylish version of this super-important release so far.

First classic album of the New Wave and the most complete and stylish version of this super-important release so far.

The Evangelist

Andrew Boe — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:53:46 +0000

8.8

http://www.amazon.com/Evangelist-Robert-Forster/dp/B0014062X4/wwwthreeimagi-20/

robert forster.jpg

When Grant McLennan, co-founder of The Go-Betweens passed away in May of 2006, it was unclear what direction Robert Forster was going to go. He was reticent for several months before he began playing some shows in Australia and then word got out last year that he was recording a solo album, his first in twelve years. The Evangelist was recorded in London with the rhythm section of The Go-Betweens and the ghost of McLennan just a hair away. It even features three songs that were co-written with him before his death. Considering the circumstance, there is a somber tone to the album and it is one of Forster's strongest group of songs in years.

As anyone would guess, The Evangelist is a rather sad record in many places, but it has that element to it that The Go-Betweens were so incredible at creating, which is exquisite melancholy pop. "Did She Overtake You" is one of the best examples of this. There is a briskly strummed acoustic guitar, scaling bass and subtle misty electric guitar in parts. Forster's voice is great especially as he sings the lines "...or did you play dumb pretending you knew that one day she'd make it without you." It is a beautiful song that gets better with each listen.

"Demon Days" was mostly written by Grant McLennan and Forster finished writing the lyrics prior to recording the track. It is one of those classic empty and yet uplifting songs that the two were so talented at writing together. One can't help thinking about the loss of a great songwriter when Forster vulnerably sings the lines "Something's not right/Something's gone wrong." "From a Ghost Town" is a gorgeous piano led track that is the most direct eulogy to Grant. The weight of bereavement is felt in the slow cadence as elegiac passages are softly sung in remembrance: "I hope I get it right as i go on, as I move on... there's much I'll miss as I go on, as I move on."

This set of songs stands up as well as any of Robert Forster's material with The Go-Betweens since their reformation in 2000. There are touches of The Friends of Rachel Worth, Bright Yellow Bright Orange and Ocean's Apart in the ten songs included in The Evangelist. The songs here are consistently powerful and it is easily his best writing since Rachel Worth. Forster is supposed to be touring the states late in the year, so keep an eye out for that and pick up this album because it won't disappoint.

When Grant McLennan, co-founder of The Go-Betweens passed away in May of 2006, it was unclear what direction Robert Forster was going to go.

Going Way Out With Heavy Trash

Bob Ham — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:43:48 +0000

8.9

http://www.amazon.com/Going-Way-Out-Heavy-Trash/dp/B000T2OMTO/wwwthreeimagi-20

heavytrash07oct.jpg

Jon Spencer's musical career has been a model of consistency for the past 20 years, with the key element tying his disparate bands and projects together being a distinct rawness and simplicity. All of the music Spencer has produced, from the Stones-obsessed trash blues band Pussy Galore through to his eponymous trio, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, has had its seams and roots showing, blissfully free of pretension and filled with an undeniable sexiness.

In that sense, Spencer's new rockabilly outfit, Heavy Trash, is the most polished sounding work that he has done to date, as if he had peeled away the last few layers of his musical aesthetic to find a shiny Shure 51 microphone at its core. There is still the playful, self-referential vein running through the album, but it has been shot up with a healthy dose of reverb and the clatter of a standup bass.

The most fascinating aspect of Going Out, and its self-titled predecessor, is how non-nostalgic it feels. Unlike other groups that mine this sound, Heavy Trash's songs don't give the impression that they wish they could have lived during the early days of rock music. Instead, it sounds like he and bandmate Matt Verta-Ray are playing the music for their own ends, almost as if done for a lark, resulting in a sound blissfully free of both pretension and stilted facsimiles of better-known songs.

Heavy Trash almost achieve perfection on this album, from the shimmying rave ups “I Want Oblivion” and “They Were Kings” to the sultry swagger of tracks like “Way Out” and “Crying Tramp”, but Spencer and co. miss the mark with the long (at least by this album’s standards) shuffling mess that closes the album, “You Can’t Win.” That final track is overproduced malarkey, with Spencer’s spoken word ramblings about the early rockers who were “drunk on pomade... cherry wine, and Pepsi-Cola” mixed in with another set of spoken word ramblings being mixed in and played back at various intervals. It is a small misstep, but one that mars what could have been a spotless record.

Save for the overproduced malarkey of the last track, Heavy Trash almost achieve perfection on this album.

New Seasons

Imaginary Kelly — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:45:45 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000VDDB8O/wwwthreeimagi-20

sadies07sep.jpg

Since 1998, Toronto's the Sadies have cranked out five albums, including new release New Seasons. Collaborations with Jon Langford and touring with Neko Case have helped push the Sadies into the subconscious of alt-country fans, and the stellar new release New Seasons may push them even further into the consciousness of music fans cross-genres. 

In an oddly soothing combination of the Byrds guitar and slow country waltz beats, the Sadies are not quite rockabilly or surf, but closer to the definition of alt-country defined by Whiskeytown and Uncle Tupelo. The Good brothers (Dallas and Travis) have both a twang and a croon that helps blend the clash of musical genres masterfully. The lyrics, too, are not too country or too rock n roll; they display a masculine tenderness rarely spoken but achingly traditional.  

"My Heart of Wood" has an amazing texture body of guitar, lilting over the space between singing and speaking. "Never Again" shines with bright steel pedal and honky tonk plucking from Sean Dean, on the upright bass. For once I agree with their ascribed label "Cosmic Cowboy," as the Sadies fly weightlessly between genres without the burden of gravity or hiccups often interrupting the seams of other crossover acts.

Judging by the reviews of live shows, I would say it's a safe bet to check these guys out when they roll up and down the West Coast and Canada in September and October.

In an oddly soothing combination of the Byrds guitar and slow country waltz beats, the Sadies are not quite rockabilly or surf, but closer to the definition of alt-country defined by Whiskeytown and Uncle Tupelo.

The Gun Album

Chris Estey — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 08:00:00 +0000

7.9

http://www.yeproc.com/artist_info.php?artistId=201&page=viewrelease&itemNum=CD-YEP-2065

minusfive05dec.jpg

The Minus Five is a project of Seattle longtime legend* Scott McCaughey, who you can at times see taking Metro to his local gigs, as I did a couple summers back (when he opened for Jon Langford at the Sunset Tavern). I had no idea that the scruffy dude I was sharing the #15 with had accomplished so much, including playing with the iconic Young Fresh Fellows since 1983, forming The Minus Five a decade later, and recording and touring with REM. More importantly, I didn't really know how great a songwriter he was till I saw him open for Langford — and this album is even more convincing of his talents than that wickedly good appearance was.

The Minus Five was originally the resevoir project that McCaughey created to sustain the prolific overflow from his output with the YFF; it has occasionally encompassed projects such as full collaborations with Wilco, as well as appearing on Conan O'Brien and David Letterman. With more back-story than I could ever replay here, let's just note some of the people who play with him as The Minus Five this time around — Peter Buck, Jeff Tweedy, Colin Meloy, John Wesley Harding, Sean Nelson, Ken Stringfellow, to start with — and the album is mostly a jaw-dropping juggernaut of brilliant lyrics, ridiculously good melodies, and sublimely soulful electrified busker rock that never fails to charm.

Starting off with the transcendently tuneful "Rifle Called Goodbye," perhaps a dark story about cause and effect and faith, wrapped up in images about firearms and burning Bibles, The Minus Five moves through guilt and temptation in the knee-and-elbow punk of "Aw Shit" ("Am I going to be an asshole for the rest of my life, aw shit man, and never be forgiven by my daughter and wife, aw shit, man"), drunken regret on "Out There On The Maroon" ("Like a pencil sticking in your neck, this feeling is getting creepy"), and hitting its achingly great peak with fourth track, "My Life As A Creep."

This last song is perhaps torturously self-critical, and is as acerbic and fantastically composed as anything Nick Lowe or Elvis Costello wrote on their first three albums. But from there, this album certainly doesn't drop off in quality, offering the enchanting "With A Gun" (backing by Wilco) before unveiling the gorgeous and depressing conceptual centerpieces "Cemetery Row" and "Twilight Distillery."

{*imaginary ed note: Rumor that Scott McCaughey moved to Portland. And "The Gun Album" is set to release in early February 2006. You can pre-order your copy now.}

AstroPOP! for December 2005

Chris Estey — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 08:00:00 +0000

Your monthly imaginary horoscope told in album reviews!

December 2005 AstroPOP! is brought to you with musical reviews by Chris Estey.

Sagittarius (November 22 - December 21)
"The boss man says there is no work this winter, so go on home now and check back in the spring," Rocky Votolato observes within the bleak "The Night's Disguise," one of many lines he utter-plausibly sings on the twelve songs that make up his way-long-awaited release, Makers. Through masculine, subterranean, absolutely convincing street-level vignettes like the mini-opera "Where We Left Off," the updated Simon and Carbuncle "Uppers Aren't Necessary," and the romantic debris arranged and rearranged for "Portland is Leaving," this album is one a young Bruce Springsteen or Tom Waits would have taken a few years off to let ferment, too. The album combines bitter experiences in the real world elongating into haunted expressions of metaphysical proportion. The acoustic-based rock is pleasantly full and mellow, while paradoxically nail-tough vocals and sagacious lyrics consistently grab you by the black pea-coat lapels with juxtaposed images of aching hope, and hope achingly deferred. Yet this robust Barsuk release reminds the Sagittarius in all of us that challenge can make one great. This is a preliminary plug for an album so important that we had to warn TIG readers (Sadj and otherwise) to be ready to add it to their Top Ten lists as the new year commences (release date is late January 2006).

Capricorn (December 22 - January 19)
Once you have made up your mind, Capricorn, you cannot stop making things your own way. Like Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age, who has never been tempted to make anything less than the most soulful music he can. When Lanegan met Belle & Sebastian's Isobel Campbell in Glasgow, dropped a hint that he'd love to make a record with the divine-sounding chanteuse. Now V2 has released the resulting Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell collaboration, the paradoxically gritty yet pretty Ramblin' Man EP, which is a little taste of Ballad of the Broken Seas, the upcoming full-length they've recorded and plan to release next year. The Hank Williams title track is the sort of dark night of the soul you go through this time of year, Capricorn, despite your upcoming birthday. "Come Walk With Me" is a balm to the bitter soul, their voices interlocking magically. The two B-sides also included feature Campbell, and are necessary jewels for any B&S fans' obscure gem collections (she was born to record "St. James' Infirmary").

Aquarius (January 20 - February 18)
"Even a vampire wouldn't drink my blood," Ron Lewis sadly admits on the opening track to his four-song taster (ha!) for his band Ghost Stories. But Aquarius thirsts, and once this Fruit Bats drumming, Rogue Wave-supporting artist behind Ghost Stories (helped along live by members of Blessed Light and Blue Sky Mile, among others) pours his intelligence and wit into a pop song, you can't help but take a big gulp. "Even a Vampire" starts with squeaking keyboards and chunking drums, and Lewis hauntingly tells a story of romantic desperation that borders on pathological, while "Isn't It Appropriate That Way" chugs with musical joy even if Lewis trembles with fear in its anxious lyrics. While Ghost Stories sound absolutely nothing like XTC, the elements of perfectly creative pop are here in similar ways, willing to be psychedelically abstract but driving at the same time. In other words, Aquarius, keep your head above water — the end is in sight.

Pisces (February 19 - March 20)
Judas was a patriot and a humanitarian, as well as being a Pisces. He hated the corruption of Rome, a nation that exploited the countries surrounding it. For those willing to take an uncomfortable stand in history, say, by moving from Seattle and leaving behind his band Mines and taking up residence in a Brooklyn studio-home, Chad Nelson's songs for Field Notes sound like something that could make pop culture history themselves. Shining most on the intricate and intimate mesmerizing parlor room pop of "Full Circle" and the 80's style post-punk dance rock of "Sister Says," Color of Sunshine is proper solo journeying, inflected with pastels at dusk. Don't know what they make of this sort of thing in Brooklyn, but in backyards here it's a perfect sound track for Pisces to watch leaves fall in the plastic pool.

Aries (March 21 - April 19)
Aries are aggressive. But because they don't show bruises, they look pretty no matter how hard they're playing. For Purple Blaze, Christopher Paul Richards, AKA Ris Paul Ric may not be still making music as angular and avuncular as his original band, Q AND NOT U. In fact, he's crafting early Shins-style acid-afternoon raindrop-pop (the splendid, gently-ranting title track) with light psychedelic-Michael Jackson bedroom folk-funk ("Run Up Wild On Me"). Touring with Dan Caldas of Black Eyes, many have been able to come out and feel his soft Armageddon vibe this fall; and now they can play his sensual miniatures at home, pretending that Syd Barrett is Prince of the Air.

Taurus (April 20 - May 20)
Hot-headed, the builder, the producer: Taurus needs music this month to inspire her through the seasonal paralysis. Theo Prince's punchy, occasionally trashy-sounding gutter-pop band The Weapons has an EP called Formula For A Fight, which, while not blazingly original, is sturdy Saturday afternoon getting drunk punk ("40 oz.," "Jawbreaker"). Reminding me of seeing Love As Laughter at the Velvet Elvis in the late 90s, this Northwest-crawling neo-pub band has already hit the High Dive, The Crocodile, and venues elsewhere. This five-song debut is a good way to see if you care to spend some time out with them some night, Taurus — as we know you're not going to want to stay home no matter how dark it gets...

Gemini (May 21 - June 21)
For Gemini, whose colors of green and red are perfect for the holidays, we present two perfect yuletide season albums, to match your dualistic moods. First, there's Los Straitjackets doing sparkling, driving, Surf and Tex-Mex-inspired Christmas instrumentals for Yep Roc, including a Tarantino-flick sounding "A Marshmallow World," with its big drum opening, and a "Feliz Navidad" in a car crash with "La Bamba." The Mexican wrestler-masked Los Straightjackets unwrap similar surprises throughout, which they'll be showing on the road (and in Seattle on 12/10) with the amazing-dancing' World Famous Pontani Sisters! Meanwhile, for those Geminis who choose spoken word over instrumental rock, V2 has released the soundtrack and DVD for "The Aristocrats," possibly the most offensively-hilarious movie ever made, in which a single vaudeville joke is repeated ad nauseam (for some, literally, particularly when things get scatological to the extremes). "92 Comedians, 1 Joke!" the cover says, and some of the former include George Carlin, Paul Reiser, Richard Jeni, Bob Saget (!), Andy Dick, Rita Rudner, Judy Gold, and many others doing outstanding versions of the same filthy classic set-up over and over. If you have the stomach for it, it will bust it right open. Was it all a hoax by Penn & Teller? Who knows, but Rita Rudner's variation ("The Cocksucking Motherfuckers") is worth admission alone. If you missed the movie in the theater, buy this in both film and album versions (one for the house, one for the car!).

Cancer (June 22 - July 22)
Being a natural leader and organizer, Cancer, it's strange that you're attracted to full-on aggressive past-times, but Boot To Head Records from Portland, OR puts that kind of stuff out for you, so there are at least two Christmas presents you're going to want this year. The first is The Clergy's transcendental gutter-punk, perfectly captured on their All Who Fly album, a strange mixture of remarkable emotional vulnerability and overt spirituality (the latter which may put many off). Christie Simonatti's voice is better than ever, with as much passion as she had on their early 90's indie tapes, but the band is more capable of subtle interludes now, and Kevin Collins' classically shrieking guitar mingles perfectly with Jim Swanson's sonorous bass-lines. The other Boot to Head release, The Stivs' Sweet Heartache and the Satisfaction is fairly pedestrian garage punk, although a near bombastic Stooges feel on a few songs sometimes takes the rudimentary rock into more transgressive territory. While Jack Endino does a fine job producing, they could just get a little scarier, and leave the Squad 5-0 cum Black Halo cliches behind. Mix tape keeper: "The Satisfaction."

Leo (July 23 - August 22)
Leo is an effortless charmer, destined for long relationships, and a happy family life. Hush Records' new shining star is Toothfairy, a sweet and tender collection of hooligan midi journal entries, with character-rich vocals talk-singing slices of life full of delightful humor ("I Was Kicked Out of The Band," which quotes "I Melt With You" and "Stephanie, My First Crush") through layers of exquisite keyboard melodies, blips, and hand-claps. The on-the-one bedroom funk of "Buzz Cut" will be hitting indie play lists from coast to coast, if that isn't happening already. Toothfairy's Chad Crouch (who actually is Toothfairy) used to be in Blanket Music, which was praised by Magnet and Pitchfork, and while admitting a Postal Service influence, I find his observations and experiments less chilly and more inviting — just like you, dear Leo.

Virgo (August 23 - September 22)
You're a practical person, Virgo, and not given to utopian schemes. Thus we recommend thejohnbenders new four song EP, The Single Sided Conversation in which good old emo-core fuses with modern crunch rock, delivered by four men who obviously want to help and change the world (playing Tsunami Benefits, etc.). The worshipful vocals ("sweet forsaken one") and spiraling, spindly guitar-lines of opener "Overpass" make the inevitably ferocious shouted chorus seem appropriate, as if drama is occurring, not just drama queens being shrill from one moment to another. The band recorded this debut with Kane Hodder producer Tony Dallas Reed in Port Orchard's Temple Sound, and the almost rock opera vastness of the results are impressive. Funny, just as this sort of thing seems played out, some bands use it to evolve rock itself.

Libra (September 23 - October 23)
You are sexually attractive, personally magnetic, entertaining, and affluent, Libra, so what if you have to occasionally knock off someone or you get a little depressed in the lonely wee hours? Just like Frank Sinatra, who recorded his rawest, most artful work after his big band years and before his 60's cinematic aspirations, with such elegantly despairing songs as "Angel Eyes" and "It Was Just One Of Those Things." Those two classics are just one of many great black-and-white early television performances captured on Frank Sinatra Show with Bing Crosby and Dean Martin, one of the best DVD reissues from MVD. Dark, grainy, filled with forced humor and strangely avant-garde choreography, the world of Sinatra never seemed more stark or inviting.

Scorpio (October 24 - November 21)
You're a twisted freak, Scorpio, but at least your sociopathic nature makes for fun and games. Life with you is never dull, but try to keep it light and frothy this dark month. Listen to Scissors For Lefty's Bruno, a scraggly collection of homemade disco and singer-songwriter spoken word with tinkles and beats, delivered with truly fantastic and diverse vocals, showing why this band has been able to share stages with everyone from Grandaddy to Black Heart Procession. "Ghetto Ways" is delightful dance floor illegal rave, "Softly The Sea Swallows the Sun" has a great slattern feeling with juicy shuffles, and "More Than The Summer" is for perfect winter heavy rotation with its breathy rap and Donovan style chorus. Put the knife away, Scorpio, and chill with some slacker progressive mini-mall trip-hump.

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See what's in the stars -- and the record stores -- for you for December 2005, including reviews for Toothfairy, Rocky Votolato, Scissors for Lefty, Field Notes, and Ghost Stories.

Georgia Hard

Imaginary Boy Shaun — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 07:00:00 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0008JII2U/wwwthreeimagi-20

fulks05jun.jpg

Robbie Fulks' first album of new material in four years can't help but be something of a disappointment, if not in its songwriting (which is as strong and witty as ever) then in its narrow scope.

2001's Couples In Trouble found Fulks at his most ambitious, experimenting with rock and pop forms on a dozen love songs which, while uniformly bleak, largely eschewed his tongue-in-cheek snark for intricate storytelling. While it was always clear that he would never be part of the country establishment (though his songs are well-crafted enough that several from each album could easily become hits in the hands of a more compliant vocalist), Fulks here announced that he was not merely out to subvert one genre, but to expand his songwriting into several, whichever provided a big enough canvas for his tales.

Georgia Hard marks a return to straight-ahead country, and while these tunes are full of well-defined characters and clever turns of phrase there are times when the punning titles and two-timin' hicks start to feel a little like bitterness towards a country audience that didn't take too kindly to those deviations. That becomes explicit on "Countrier Than Thou," a companion snipe to "Roots Rock Weirdos" which targets the down-home pretensions of both blue state No Depression-ers and a certain red state president. "I'm Gonna Take You Home (And Make You Like Me)" is an unabashed novelty song, a duet between Fulks as a mealy-mouthed drunkard and his wife Donna as the unwilling object of his affections. While there are several memorable numbers, only the atmospheric murder ballad "Coldwater, Tennessee" shows any evidence of Couples In Trouble's expanded palette.

On its own terms, Georgia Hard has much to recommend it. Opener "Where There's A Road" tears out of the gates with an infectious anthem a la "Let's Kill Saturday Night." The strutting "It's Always Raining Somewhere" wouldn't be out of place on a First National Band record; thinking about it after the fact it's easy to mistakenly hear Mike Nesmith's voice on the chorus. Fulks performed the autobiographical title song last October during a stop in Philly, and I could still sing along with the chorus seven months later, if that's any indication of how finely-crafted it is.

Fulks cites the king of the country novelty, Roger Miller, in the liner notes, citing the "gentrifying" brand of songwriting that '70s stars like Miller popularized as the inspiration for his own "country-for-grownups." The string-laden ballad "Leave It To A Loser" and the honky-tonk infidelity ode "All You Can Cheat" are examples of Fulks' gift for recrafting classic country sounds. But "growing up" can sometimes be a euphemism for "compromising ideals," and we can only hope that Fulks is not shrugging his shoulders in resignation and giving his audience what they expect. As youth gives way to middle age, so can smart-ass give way to caustic, and Robbie Fulks is far too talented a songwriter to lose to commercial expectations, even the rather diminished ones of the alt-country crowd.

Luminara

Miss Michael — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 07:00:00 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002MHER8/wwwthreeimagi-20

ianmoore.jpg

Seattle-by-way-of-Austin singer-songwriter Ian Moore has managed to successfully produce and write one of the most quietly beautiful albums of 2004. Moore’s overtly emotional voice channels Jeff Buckley, Townes Van Sandt, and Big Star, while the layers of southern gothic and pure pop bliss he adds assure that he still sounds quite unique. Despite dipping his toes into the waters of 70’s folk, the resulting Luminara is a completely evergreen album, creating an atmosphere where you can sit back, close your eyes and complete forget that it is 2004, or any year for that matter. This album is timeless, which is incredibly rare these days amongst all the newfangled trends that popular music spits out.

Like many independent artists, Ian Moore tours almost constantly. Luminara reflects that, having been recorded over the course of several months — some tracks recorded at friends’ houses, some on the road — yet they all snap together like a well-constructed puzzle or collage. One of my favorite tracks, "Caroline," showcases this puzzle-esque recording process: the song originated at an apartment in San Francisco. Moore began recording while his friends were sleeping (hence the quiet vocals in the beginning); the drum tracks were recorded with Chris Searles in Tucson, Arizona, while Moore was in town for a radio interview. The structure of the song also follows the aforementioned aesthetic, weaving through beautiful, slightly dark melodic folk for most of the song and then breaking out in pure early-Beatles style pop glory. The structure of the album not only showcases Moore's talents, but has a wonderfully schizophrenic quality in that you hear and feel the variety of different musicians' (including Chris Searles and Bukka Allen) influences interwoven with the unique Americana Moore creates.

What is astonishing about Luminara is that Moore is able to capture all aspects of Americana: folk, blues, honky tonk, Appalachian and Southern Gothic. Yet at the same time, because of his versatility as an artist, he transcends genres in a way that reveals his emotional connection to his work. He leaves the listener aware of the feeling of being alone, but not being lonely. From the beginning of the album, Moore creates an atmosphere of bittersweet comfort, combining all aspects of what makes American music stellar.

Seattle-by-way-of-Austin singer-songwriter Ian Moore has managed to successfully produce and write one of the most quietly beautiful albums of 2004.