Three Imaginary Girls - Secretly Canadian

Good One

Chris Estey — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:05:45 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/Good-One-Tig-Notaro/dp/B0055HK75Q/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

Can you believe Tig Notaro has been doing stand up for 14 years? I can believe it. I can totally wrap my head around that (as she says about getting news about a friend's five year old child starting kidnargten and being asked, "Can you believe that?" because yes, she can). Even though her super-casual, silky smooth but somehow adorably a little bit anxious, coffee pal style of comedy smacks you as fresh as a shower to an infant, only a vet can pull that off.

Yet now Secretly Canadian has extended their picky taste in exceptional independent rock to alt-comedy, and Tig has her CD debut out this week, full of warm, generous, empathetic, and sometimes a little creepy (in a cute way) material with titles like "Little Titties," "No Moleste," and "Taylor Dayne." All three of these bits were high points of her dominating the comedy stages at Bumbershoot last year, and they fall into that arguably rare category of recorded stand up you want to hear again and again.

"Little Titties" is catch-phrase humor, the kind of joke you'll share over and over with whoever you hear it with, but has a wonderful message about keeping your mouth to yourself no matter how inspired your social observation may seem in the moment. Along these lines, she also harshly criticizes the ubiquitous crap-conversation mood-killer, "I just threw up a little in my mouth" (and its twin brother, "I just peed a little in my pants"). A review of Good One came out this morning which critcized her for using that phrase too much on the album; which is kind of ridiculous, considering she's only using it to criticize the too-gross imagery meant to match an easily offended response. (Comedy album reviewers, take note: Listen to the punchlines, not just the catch phrases being discusssed.) These are also phrases which annoy the hell out of me, and do something really nasty to Tig, but I'll let you hear what that is.

While much of this material is droll and restrained and about Tig enduring life's wacky humiliations with a sparkling stoic bemusement, "Taylor Dayne" finds our comedian getting into full-on daytime performance art mode, semi-stalking the semi-retired Top 40 diva with a robotic Droste effect of compliments after she's initially waved off. Her persistence in having some effect, any effect on the singer (or actress, or singer, it changes over time) who can't actually perceive the humanness of who she's dismissing is a hilarious way to remind people to actually listen to how they're coming off. It's the funniest riff on warning against taking one's self too seriously I've heard in a while, a message that never goes out of date.

I highly recommend Tig's long-awaited SC debut (which, as a bonus, comes with the Have Tig At Your Party DVD, containing appearances by pals/colleagues Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, and Nick Swardson), and seeing her when she comes back to Seattle (which can't be too soon).

Tonight's recommended show: Damien Jurado at Columbia City Theater

imaginary victoria — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:12:02 +0000

Our friends over at Sound on the Sound are presenting their first show of 2011, and it's sure a doozy: none other than one of our imaginary favorites, Damien Jurado, will be headlining on a bill that includes Widower and Tony Kevin Jr. tonight at Columbia City Theater.

In case you haven't seen all the exclamation points flying around the site over the last few months, let us refresh your memories: we simply just Can't. Get. Enough of Damien Jurado's 2010 release here in the imaginary offices. Saint Bartlett is nothing short of an indie triumph, with a start-to-finish one-take sound that begs to be heard on vinyl. It's at once simple and adventurous, and as many a critic have stated, a gorgeous and well-charted departure from anything he's done over the last few years -- while managing to maintain his signature sound down in the underpinnings, much to our delight.

Here's a little taste, in the event that Saint Bartlett hasn't made it's way into your colection yet:

If that's not enough to get you out to Columbia City in the drizzle tonight, I don't know what is. Tickets are going fast, and we strongly recommend that you pick one (or four) up in advance over at Brown Paper Tickets before you head to the show. We'll see there!

{21+ / $14 / 9p}

Don't miss Damien Jurado tonight at Sonic Boom (Ballard)

imaginary victoria — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:54:52 +0000

Last Friday, Damien Jurado played to a packed house at Easy Street Records in West Seattle, as part of KEXP's Hood-to-Hood challenge winner's day. Not only did the performance round out a day of tremendous live acts and a blast of a broadcast, but it also gave us a sneak peek at the new album (out today), Saint Bartlett. The songs are tremendous, the performance blew the roof off of Easy Street, and the record completely translates into a dozen or so tracks of pure greatness.

If you missed all of this, however, fret not: you (and seventy-five of your closest friends) can go pack the Ballard Sonic Boom tonight for a encore performance at 6:30p. Tonight's set also marks the official release of Saint Bartlett, being new release Tuesday and all, and we'd highly recommend picking it up (on vinyl, if you have the means) while it's there to get your hands on.

Easy enough, right? Let's recap:

Saint Bartlett

Chris Estey — Mon, 24 May 2010 06:33:07 +0000

9.3

http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Bartlett-Damien-Jurado/dp/B003E1QDLC/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

stbartlett.jpg

"I wish I that I could float up from the ground / I will never know what that's like," are the first lines on Damien Jurado's latest record, Saint Bartlett, but it takes repeated listening to hear what he's saying. Not because his voice is muffled, as he and production collaborator Richard Swift have created a gliding, string-swollen tune that is very memorable and Jurado's sing-song voice floats in it like a crystal clear cross-current. It's when an initially annoying, distracting vocal repeats much of what he sings that the meaning of the song goes from someone imagining flying in reverse; it's about someone crashing. "Some day these hospital stays get the best of me / Trying to fix my mind / Trying to work it out, still trying to fix my mind."

Saint Bartlett opening track "Cloudy Shoes" does a rare thing in pop music, creating a dragoon of hooks while getting under the skin; pushing the listener away just as the story pulls them in. It's one of Jurado's boldest mid-tempo pop songs, and the fact that he and Swift would allow the cracked inner life of its character to possibly hinder its potential for popularity by displaying it as a forthright effect is unsettling.

Nothing else on Saint Bartlett is as filmic, but more than half of it is still lyrically evocative, vocally disingenuous and vulnerable at the same time, and chillingly crafted to the casting of each track. Another statement of hiding or escape set to a geographical title of place, the next song "Arkansas" is a gently croony, early 60s big pop song with a Phil Spector back-beat. Like the well-disguised direness of the protagonist of "Cloudy Shoes," it s someone watching their life "fade out, this is where the credits roll / Oh man." Those final two words seem flippant, just a dangling commentary after the main action. But they're hard and heavy with the results of losing control. Of being too tired to pick up all the pieces Jurado's character counts as they fall. It's the contrast with the pleasures that came before that make it so painful: "Taller than trees and brighter than starrlight / I never threw magic unless I was with you."

"Rachel & Cali" is much closer musically to what Jurado's done before, but it's still evolved from the salient Seattle mumblecore Sub Pop veteran Jurado helped invent in the 90s in its use of bubbling bass and jittery guitar jangle and keyboard drops of cold rain. An almost Elmore Leonard-style exchange of terse dialogue between two young people who are tied together, but one of them is doing most of the work in the relationship. Cali fears people, she says, just from what she might do. Rachel is constantly put in the position of protecting Cali, giving her an escape route, keeping her warm with a blanket. Like Squeeze's "Up The Junction" there's no chorus, just a story that can lead no where else but abandonment of one of the players, and things end abruptly.

The intervention comes in the very next track, in possibly the best song on Saint Bartlett, "Throwing Your Voice," which connects back to the disassociation of the singer in "Cloudy Shoes." The title even seems to reference the use of that song's disturbing vocal effect. "Michael" is being protected, by people willing to "throw his voice" for him. Human beings are meat puppets in his tornado lifestyle, in which manipulation is the only useful human value. People still love him, in spite of "blood on your hands, leaving your mark." It could be this is someone singing this to the character in the first song, who perceives himself as a victim, or even a hero, because he foolishly believes it's all about "changing if you want to." The worst hypocrite would be someone decimating personal responsibility by scapegoating someone else for their own moral failure, which is always a case of "throwing voices." The worst thing about the accusation of this song is that it doesn't sound viciously dismissive like "Tear Your Playhouse Down" by Graham Parker or "Positively 4th Street" by Dylan, but that it is understanding and bored shitless by Michael's games. We're just not that into you, Michael, no matter how much you insist on being the center of the universe. You lost the plot, no matter how many battles you crave to win or blood you wish to spill. Jurado's voice makes him sound simply pathetic, a cop who never knew what the law is for, a priest who never felt the spirit, someone in it only for the power and having no love at all.

The rest of these songs are mostly spaces of retreat and exasperation, romantic relationships and families torn and tossed about by the bad weather of living. Thus freedom becomes a curse for most of the inhabitants of "Kansas City," "Wallingford," "Kalama," "Beacon Hill," and the other stark highlight of Saint Bartlett, "Harborview." The latter is as haunting as a classic antediluvian-sounding Fairport Convention dirge, reminiscent of something Sandy Denny would have sang aeons ago. If you've ever spent the usual five hour wait in the ER with a rasping cough or oozing wound to end up not seeing the doctor at the Harborview ("speak for me would you, I have nothing to say"), this doesn't even have to be another chronicle of the descent into mental immobility. "Send Judas before them / With thorns in your side."

Repeated listening to Saint Bartlett reveals just how deft Jurado has become as a songwriter, now able to pull off the vocal and musical of drama of "The Falling Snow," one of his loveliest chamber threnodies, Swift making sure the strings come in perfectly as someone always falling starts to ascend. Realizing how note-perfect all these tone poems of anxiety are just makes the fucked up vocal trick on the opening track all the more audacious. Saint Bartlett may return to the same kind of places Jurado's characters have been spinning their wheels in for years, but the dark points of illustration defining them from the dim, hazy surroundings they struggle against have never been more precisely rendered. "I lost my voice, you lost your mind," Jurado sings in "Beacon Hill," and this polarity would be only friction if the smoke made by the soul-burning on Saint Bartlett wasn't so lovely. But it's very, very lovely.

{Damien Jurado plays at The Triple Door on Saturday, May 29 with Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, $14, 8pm, all ages.}

Damien Jurado "Saint Bartlett Band" tour kicks off at Triple Door 5/29

Chris Estey — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:20:18 +0000

Secretly American record label Secretly Canadian has announced the long list of upcoming tour dates for Damien Jurado's next Big Adventure; the keen-eyed troubadour has assembled a batch of cheap wine-swilling hobos playing spoons and rattling tin cans to join him hopping trains and playing midnight bonfires all over this post-Bush Depression-stricken land. So save them some Mulligan's when they pull into the train-yard nearest you, boys! And watch out for the railroad goons!

Oh wait, I was thinking about Pee Wee Herman. This latest super-tour starts at the Triple Door at the very end of May, on the 29th, and from there it's all over North America, winding up back in Portland on July 3. And singer-songwriter Damien Jurado does have a new band though, called the Saint Bartlett Band, which is totally weird, because (you won't believe this) his new album is named Saint Bartlett. Coincidence? Maybe. (Damien has a new kitten named Pear. I'll let your own mind find its way home now.) Actually, what's weirder is that the Saint Bartlett Band is actually eight fellow Seattle musicians from Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground. That's a lot of members to borrow from one band! And that's a lot of players Damien will have joining him for this very multi-dated tour! (Dates below.)

New Throw Me the Statue video: "Hi-Fi Goon"

ChrisB — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:16:14 +0000

TIG favorites and indie rock band Throw Me the Statue just released a new video to their single "Hi-Fi Goon", from their recently-released album Creaturesque. The timing of its release, I'm sure, is meant to whet the appetites of people who can't wait for their show on Tuesday at the Vera Project with The Brunettes. Enjoy:

Throw Me The Statue- Creaturesque

Chelsea Werner — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:10:35 +0000

8.3

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002CVQ83S/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

tmts09aug.jpg

Throw Me The Statue has had a steep learning curve. Releasing their first LP, Moonbeams, on Scott Reitherman’s local Seattle label, Baskerville Hill Records, they recently signed with the Indiana based independent label, Secretly Canadian, for their sophomore full length release, Creaturesque. Weaving together pop, rock, and a slew of influences, Creaturesque is redolent of an estranged lover’s pheromones lingering on a hand-me-down T-shirt.

In an interview with The Line Of Best Fit, Scott Rietherman commented on recently joining the impressive collection of bands on Secretly Canadian. He sees Jens Lekman’s pop presence on the label encouraging as a niche for Throw Me The Statue to fit into Secretly Canadian’s roster. Opening track, “Waving at the Shore,” hearkens to Lekman’s love of horns and handclaps, setting a light-hearted tone at the outset of the album. However, this incredibly upbeat pop song feels like an outlier to the rest of the album, only hinting at the overwhelming mnemonic mood of Creaturesque, during the more introspective verses.

Initially the subtle schizophrenia between songs felt like the product of a band whose sound is undefined and overly referential especially when listening to the blatantly Built to Spill-inspired “Hi-fi Goon,” followed by “Baby You’re Bored” which strays into Neutral Milk Hotel territory. However, the construction of this album and the songs that comprise it reveals its skilled craft on “Noises,” the bumpy backbone of the 12 tracks. It’s pared down instrumentation and a vocal melody that follows the electric guitar rhythm and the plunks of the sometimes sweet, sometimes electro keyboard, defines the general structure of TMS’s song writing.

The song serves as an index to the idiosyncrasies of Creaturesque whose tunes range from a Mountain Goats lo-fi moog feeling on “Snowshoes” to the heavily produced horns and distorted guitars on “Dizzy From the Fall” that, following each other, manage to combine to create a consistently solid album that is never redundant. The overarching theme can be summarized by the lyric, “to make the trip back home, to think to smell dads clothes, go through his rock and roll. Oh world, it’s you who turns us old,” on “Ancestors.” This manages to sum up the feeling of nostalgia that creates the wistful yearning you’ll have for these songs.

The album is subtle yet catchy, at once hopeful and bittersweet, it’s tightly wound pop songs expanding to fill your head. Start charging Throw Me The Statue rent for the mental space they’ll comprise between your ear-buds as the days get shorter and the leaves start to turn.

I'm headed to Throw Me the Statue and Truckasauras at Neumos this Thursday - who's with me?

imaginary hyme — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:45:01 +0000

DO NOT MISS Throw Me the Statue and Truckasauras this THURSDAY!!!!

Caught In The Trees

Chris Estey — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:26:50 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/Caught-Trees-Damien-Jurado/dp/B001CTUHYW/wwwthreeimagi-20/

damienj08nov.jpg

I have been a fan of Damien Jurado's since his late 90s debut, Water Ave. S. It would have been impossible for me not to be, due to my love for his work in hardcore and then more melodic emo-punk bands in the decade of that release.

But I have often felt overwhelmed by Jurado's prolific nature; the guy has a serious work ethic, like his hero Joe Strummer. Last year's And Now That I'm In Your Shadow had as much lyrical subtext to investigate (the falling apart of a once passionate primary relationship, the falling down of a psyche, two thematic biggies in his work) as it did musical expansiveness to explore.

The new album, Caught In The Trees not only adequately follows up all the dark subplots Jurado has been scripting since the time of the eternally-embittered The Ghost of David (2001), now he's fleshed them out into a movie-sized album. This is possibly the shotgun-zenith of an extraordinary, long burning career.

Opening deceptively with "Gillian Was A Horse," an almost-spritely mid-tempo song with a sweet melody that clearly details the debris of an entertainer's life becoming sacred and the disreality setting in around him, soon "Caught" shuffles off into a dark room, drinks a whole bottle of bourbon, and calls the Crisis Center. The first few times through it's a dimmed scanner, but then the characters of the songs bob to the surface.

Jurado's albums always have some emotional-textural filler, little breaks here and there, but not here at all. The guy in "Dimes" is filled with a dysphoric desperation about losing his connection to another man's wife; "Sheets" may be that husband, as he imagines his woman sleeping with another man hiding behind emotional weakness. "Coats of Ice" is the grimmest portrayal of a singer becoming the damage of his own creative expression since Tom Waits exposed some other artist in "Who Are You This Time?"

These handful of tracks would make Caught one of the best albums of the year anyways, but a return to the grim rock of "Go First" and the brilliant layered vocals of "Trials" push it far past 2008. Much credit should be given to collaborators Eric Fisher and Jenna Conrad as well as the other musicians for an astonishing display of diverse musical coloring throughout. Jurado has picked an incredible team to perform these impeccable songs with.

For those who may have found his work merely pretty before, now will see it is beautiful. It is the kind of beauty that not only comes through deep pain, but is brave enough to show how much it felt getting here as well.

The possible zenith of an extraordinary career.

Danielson at the Vera tonight with some all-ages action

Imaginary Shrie — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:31:34 +0000

Though you can't booze it up, and there will probably be hordes of enthusiastic underagers rockin' their trendy threads, Danielson is sure to NOT disappoint.

Throw Me the Statue in Rhapsody commercial

imaginary dana — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:11:57 +0000

Throw Me the Statue's delectable track "Lolita" is about to be far more ubiquitous than even a superfan like me could have hoped.

Moonbeams

annatastic — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:10:36 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/Moonbeams-Throw-Me-Statue/dp/B00114XRFE/wwwthreeimagi-20/

TMTS.jpg

Seattle's Throw Me the Statue, the brainchild of Scott Reitherman, has received rave reviews from a variety of sources, and their debut album is more proof that this band has got a unique and infectious sound. Full of fuzzy synths, guitar and vocal melodies, and the addition of a couple horn ensembles, Moonbeams delivers it all.

The album waxes and wanes from poppy keyboards to melancholy self-reflection to the point that each song stands alone, independent from the others. The varied slate spotlights the strong lyrical voice, woven throughout each song and possessing imagery and linguistic contradictions that seem radioed in from outer space with timeless themes (girls, love, drinking, loss).

The standout "About to Walk," a nice little number full of the above mentioned fuzzy synths and dreamy melodies, begins with "My favorite space is a palindrome, where I tuck in a cannon ball, and I never have to share, and nobody can see," and "After that the evening goes, they were only there to break my toes." I think this song is about walking away from shame, but in a dreamstate that leaves nothing apparent, where ideas and images float around and can change unexpectedly.

"Lolita," the infectious single, is obviously more transparent but shares the same bouncing beats and reverb-laden blips. Its infectious melody and lyrics will probably make it the best-loved song from the album and it has already gotten a few top reviews around the internet. Another must is "Yucatan Gold" — a twisty tale enhanced by electro beats and simple rhymes. It recalls a sense of the offbeat early Deerhoof, its sound and lyrics woven together through the overall story of lost love and revenge.

I loved the fuzzy synths and spaced out lyrics of Moonbeams and it's definitely worth checking out.

Full of fuzzy synths, guitar and vocal melodies, and the addition of a couple horn ensembles, Moonbeams delivers it all.

Jens is coming back!

imaginary liz — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:14:45 +0000

I knew that Jens just didn't get enough of us last time he was in Seattle. As announced on Pitchfork, he's coming back!

Photos of the moment: Jens Lekman at Easy Street Records

imaginary dana — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:15:11 +0000

Photos by the fantastic Laura Musselman. Was the Easy Street in-store as packed as Nectar was last night?

Night Falls Over Kortedala

Erik Gonzalez — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:20:51 +0000

9.5

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000V6KDL4/wwwthreeimagi-20

jens.jpg

I’d be hard pressed to think of a performer I like better than Jens Lekman in modern rock today. Not only has he produced songs that are wonderful, but also he has a sincere charm that sets him apart from many of the singing and songwriting types that attract fans as Jens does. He understands the nature of music as entertainment, but that doesn’t stop him from putting heartfelt meaning in his songs as well. After a brief bout of righteous indignation with music (and a claim of retirement), Jens has returned to us with the gorgeous Night Falls Over Kortedala, an album that culls the last few years of recordings from the Swedish troubadour and he brought El Perro del Mar with him to help paint the sonic landscapes. You’re not likely to hear a better pop album in 2007 (or any year for that matter).

It has been a bit of challenge for me to think how to tackle a review of Night Falls Over Kortedala. The best I think I can do right now is try to explain the scenes that Jens is painting for every track on the disc. That might be the only way I can get across the sort of magic that occurs when you hear the songs. Really, it is that good.

Track 1: “And I Remember Every Kiss”
If Jens decided to write and star in his own musical, this could be the big opening number. It's packed wall to wall with orchestral flourish like we’ve never heard from Jens before, but one could imagine him walking down the street with his hands in his pocket singing until he’s suddenly transported to the ledge of a tall building, belting the words out over the city. Jens breaks out the lyrical chops early on: "Things get more complicated when you’re older/before you know it you are somebody’s soldier/you get a gun and you name it after a girlfriend."

Track 2: “Sipping on the Sweet Nectar”
It's a little hard to get the image from the proper video for this song out of my head when I hear it, but it might be because Jens chanced upon the perfect combination. The song itself is a tribute to late 70’s disco-pop-rock, sort of like Jens acknowledging the ABBA connection and oddly, Jens voice and lyrics work perfectly with the ridiculous ostentatious production. However, picturing Jens flying a little airplane over the Icelandic landscape meshes perfectly with the light and airy nature of the song.

Track 3: “The Opposite of Hallelujah”
Now, I hear the opening chords of this song and all I can think is putting a pompadour on Jens, giving him a leather jacket and plopping him down in a 50’s diner. It sounds like a song that might have come out of some time-altered jukebox where in this Swedish diner the kids are all dancing with the poodle skirts and wingtips to Jens’ crooning. I think this sensation is caused by the Motown/Phil Specter production to the song, as if Jens was really a white, Scandinavian Otis Redding.

Track 4: “A Postcard to Nina”
This song continues that Jens Lekman-meets-Motown sound, but more on the ballad side. Here, we find Jens lamenting to Nina from his car parked on the side of the road in the desert at night... and that the animals gather around him and start to sing backup for him when he lets the song break out. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Track 5: “Into Eternity”
Here we find Jens venturing into the Graceland vibe that permeates the middle of the album (and if you’ve heard Jens’ “The Death of Summer” compilation track then you know why). The song is a great love song that is dominated by accordion in a clearly African rhythm. Even more so then “A Postcard to Nina,” Jens is begging for a guest spot on The Muppet Show circa 1980 as it is a perfect song for a bunch of anthropomorphic pigs playing tribal instruments.

Track 6: “I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You”
There is a disconnect here between the obviously sad subject matter of the song and the music. The song itself has a bit of a dance beat intertwined with a playful piano line with Jens crooning "I’m sorry I couldn’t love you enough." Sounds like the sort of song that begs for flashbacks as Jens gets on a plane (or train, being Europe and all).

Track 7: “If I Could Cry (It Would Feel Like This)”
For some reason, I really like the idea of Jens leading some sort of ironic parade to this song. Maybe full of a bunch of very manly looking folks with tissues in their hands and a very dour marching band (likely made up of El Perro del Mar). Somebody give Spike Jonze a call.

Track 8: “Your Arms Around Me”
Jens has taken his website freebie and made it all “growed up” now. The original version (or demo version I suppose), one of my favorite Jens songs, is just Jens, his ukulele, and a home-recording unit. I’ve spent enough time imagining this song in my head that I already know that it needs to be a literal retelling of Jens slicing his finger off when his girlfriend sneaking up on him while he’s slicing an avocado. I’m slowly getting used to this fully produced version of the song and while I didn’t like it as much as the demo at first, I’m finding the charm in this almost Smith-like pop song.

Track 9: “Shirin”
This might be the only love song ever written about getting a haircut. Jens is at his most restrained production-wise, almost channeling, well, Chris Isaak on this one. I’m not sure if one can actually sing while getting a haircut without a severe loss of blood, but this one screams for a split-screen while Jens gets his haircut. I’m not sure what Jens means by "you’re a drop of blood in my glass of milk," but to him that is apparently a good thing. Maybe that got lost in translation.

Track 10: “It was a Strange Time in My Life”
During the gentle ballad of Night Falls Over Kortedala, I can imagine Jens frolicking in a woodland glen and hanging from each trees are pictures of his life. It's hard not to love it when Jens describes personal interactions like "her middle finger extended until its simple message could not be denied." Jens has some odd views about shy people (I’ll let you find out for yourself), but Jens wandering through a forest of his teenage years is the perfect match for the song. The trees can even sing along if they want.

Track 11: “Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig”
Jens suddenly finds himself trying to muscle into the Paul Simon/Billy Joel pop scene, with a bit of the Graceland sound with a doo-wop quartet backing his vocals. I suppose to most of you that might sound horrifying, but as with a lot of Jens, he’s able to meld it into something surprisingly refreshing and fun. This is song would work best by following someone through their day, maybe from a camera mounted directly in front of them, maybe like a friendly and nice version of Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up.” Now, imagine that my friends. What sort of twist ending could be added here?

Track 12: “Fright Night at the Drive-In Bingo”
Easily the best song on Night Falls Over Kortedala. All we need here is Jens on a moped, quick edits in a Wes Anderson style, and a guy playing a saxophone showing up everywhere like Jonathan Richman in There’s Something About Mary. Jens is at his musical and lyrical best, combining a rollicking rhythm and melody with perfect sequences. The song picks up its pace in the middle and Jens delivers this wonderful description of his imagined life in the Swedish countryside:

We could fake our deaths to get insurance money/take on hippie names/I’d be Snowfish, you’d be Sunny/we could start a little farm with little white bunnies/just watch them copulate is very funny/there is a cow and an ostrich just waiting for you!/a glass of apple cider just waiting for you!/the smell of 1952 just waiting for you!/and all I’m doing here is just waiting for you!

Just hearing Jens deliver these lines, you realize that he’s in his absolute top form.

I’m not saying that Jens Lekman is the best songwriter in music today... OK, wait, that is exactly what I’m saying. That statement is probably infected with the hyperbolic excitement of getting an album full of new Lekman pop masterpieces, but honestly, the songs he crafts, although maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, are brilliant.

Night Falls Over Kortedala won’t make Jens a superstar, and really, would we want Jens to be a superstar? He’s not really built for that lifestyle. Instead, we can hope that Jens doesn’t get disillusioned again and he just keeps on recording sparkling albums that are the very worthy descendants of Chet Baker and the Modern Lovers.

I’m not saying that Jens Lekman is the best songwriter in music today... OK, wait, that is exactly what I’m saying.

Throw Me the Statue gets love from Stereogum

imaginary dana — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:53:20 +0000

Yet another local Seattle band is getting big-time online love, and this time it's from the amazing and inspiring Stereogum, who are going ga-ga for Throw Me the Statue.

Throw Me the Statue sign to Secretly Canadian

imaginary dana — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:06:09 +0000

It's official: Seattle pop band Throw Me the Statue has signed to fantastic indie label Secretly Canadian, home to Jens Lenkman, Damien Jurado, Antony & the Johnsons, and many more.

Get your Jens Lekman fix in Seattle

imaginary liz — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 22:17:02 +0000

From his website:
Tuesday, November 6th - Seattle, WA - Nectar

No announcements on who the opening bands are (although rumor has it that they've already picked out who the lucky bands are)... but the answer to your question is "Yes, the Nectar."

Oh, You're Less Silent Jens

Erik Gonzalez — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:54:36 +0000

I was too excited to read that Jens Lekman will be returning in the fall (at least stateside) according to his label.

The Enemy Chorus

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:40:29 +0000

6.1

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000LP6KUI/wwwthreeimagi-20

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It is a fine, fine line, my friends, between psychedelic genius and, well, a boring ol' time. This can be especially dangerous when you love the Beatles with all of your heart to the point that you're less influenced by them and more of a cover band. Most songs by the Earlies hover hazardously close to this line and unfortunately, The Enemy Chorus tends to spend too much time across the boring, Beatles-wannabe line.

2005's These Were the Earlies was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year, especially with the magnificent prog-pop-rock gem "Morning Wonder." The Earlies appeared to position them as the heir apparent for the Beta Band or Of Montreal. This time the band seems to hit a bit of sophomore slump that is a little overindulgent and convoluted. This is not to say that The Enemy Chorus is unlistenable; instead, it's just an album that lacks focus.

Just from hearing "No Love in Your Heart," it seems like the band became too impressed with their thick vocal harmonies and interlaced instrumentals to remember to actually make the song interesting. Instead the song plods along and then it's over. The overt Beatles/Who worship is plain on "Burn the Liars" and "Foundation and Earth," as they both end up sounding like a poor attempt to mimic those bands.

The biggest problem with most songs on The Enemy Chorus is a lack of direction. The title track has all the elements that make the Earlies fascinating, but the song just seems to feel stitched together haphazardly without a cohesive melody until the second half of the song. An equally guilty trainwreck is "Bad is as Bad Does," the most Beta Band-like song on the album. It never feels like a song, rather it comes across as a series of cool ideas. The album's closing number, "Breaking Point," comes across as merely an excuse to make a lot of noise.

There are some moments that the band does fire on all cylinders, such as "The Ground We Walk On" and "Little Trooper." The tender ballads don't overindulge in the production and harmonies and share the same gentle 70's pop feel of Badly Drawn Boy's Hour of the Bewilderbeast. Possibly the most satisfying song is "Broken Chain," another slow song that is so ethereal bordering on Sigur Ros territory, but it clearly shows the strengths of the Earlies without overplaying them. Alternately, "When the Wind Blows" is the least psychedelic song on The Enemy Chorus and is also the most cohesive.

This comparison with the Beta Band is very telling. After the success, both commercially (at least in the UK) and critically, of The Three EPs, the Beta Band released Beta Band, which was a prime example of a band suddenly having more money and studio than they knew what to do with. It was rambling and self-indulgent and thusly, it wasn't received with nearly the same enthusiasm of The Three EPs. The Earlies seem to have fallen into the same trap, but hopefully they too can regain their focus as the Beta Band did on Hot Shots II. If you're a stickler to follow your band's full development, The Enemy Chorus might fill your discography, but overall, it's a record of those awkward teens for the Earlies.

It is a fine, fine line, my friends, between psychedelic genius and, well, a boring ol' time.