ALTER.NATION #43
The Raconteurs, Titus Andronicus, Jane Weaver, CUP (Nels Cline & Yuka Honda), Sui Zhen, Divino Niño, Black Midi, Los Straitjackets, Black Pumas, Buddy & Julie Miller, Mannequin Pussy, Bleached, Oh Sees
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The Raconteurs - Somedays (I Don't Feel Like Trying) from Help Us Stranger
Reconvening after a decade's absence, the Raconteurs resemble nothing less than a guild of craftsman united by taste and work ethic on their third album, Help Us Stranger. Ever since their debut, the quartet displayed a shared love for the rock and pop made before the advent of MTV, and while they've never abandoned an aesthetic steeped in FM radio, they've gotten livelier with each passing LP. Which isn't to say Help Us Stranger is a slack, loose affair. One of its considerable pleasures his how Brendan Benson encourages Jack White to stick to a strict outline and color within the lines, trends the latter largely abandoned on his willfully obtuse 2018 album Boarding House Reach. There are jokes and asides peppered throughout Help Us Stranger -- the best of these is an intentional skip at the start of the title track, the kind of thing that will drive vinyl freaks batty upon the initial listen -- but the album is distinguished by its velocity, a momentum delivered as much through writing as it is through performance. Whether they're stitching together individual ideas or writing in tandem, Benson and White are full collaborators, honing their hooks and melodies so they're gleamingly lean, then they dress up these handsome bones with squalls of guitar, vintage synths, campfire acoustics, ghostly piano, gypsy violin, and thundering rhythms...
Titus Andronicus - My Body and Me from An Obelisk
Titus Andronicus have been a great rock & roll band since they debuted in 2008 with The Airing of Grievances, but that never seemed to be enough for the group's leader, Patrick Stickles. Determined to cram as many influences and stylistic twists onto their roaring attack (and as many literary references into their lyrics) as humanly possible, it seemed like Stickles desperately wanted to prove they were more than a bunch of punks from New Jersey. After the larger-than-average concept album of 2010's The Monitor and the stuffed-to-bursting rock opera of 2015's The Most Lamentable Tragedy, Stickles' ambitions seemed bigger than rock itself, and with 2018's A Productive Cough, he turned away from rock into a boozy brand of folk music with none of his previous bandmates on board. In the wake of all that, 2019's An Obelisk is a surprise, and a fun one -- it's a stripped-to-the-frame exercise in fast, loud punk rock, full of straightforward guitar raunch, throbbing bass, furious drumming, and smart but unpretentious howling...
Jane Weaver - Did You See Butterflies (Loops Variation) from Loops in the Secret Society
Over a few years' time, Jane Weaver released two albums and an EP that redefined her as a psychedelic wizard who used electronics, her expressive voice, and burgeoning production skills to cast a dark and entrancing spell. Loops in the Secret Society is a collection that reworks tracks from 2015's The Silver Globe and 2017's Modern Kosmology albums, as well as 2017's Architect EP, along with quite a few ambient interludes made up of synthy squiggles, atmospheric diversions, and moody electronic wanderings that fit in between like tiny, gleaming gems...
Despite his many cross-genre affiliations, Nels Cline is best known as the reality-reordering lead guitarist for Wilco, a role he’s held for the past 15 years. He is married to Yuka C. Honda, a founding member of pioneering New York trip-hop group Cibo Matto, who broke up two years ago to pursue other projects. One of those projects is CUP, a new duo pairing spouses Cline and Honda... The beat-driven banger “Soon Will Be Flood” is a reminder that both of these musicians are restless explorers. It’s brisk and bubbly and psychedelic, and it doesn’t much remind me of anything I’ve heard from these two before, though I guess it could pass for sped-up Cibo Matto in a pinch. In a recent interview Cline elaborates, “The pieces I’m only doing with or for Yuka, I’m thinking about her language, what instruments and sounds that she uses. That’s where I’m coming from.” Honda adds, “I don’t know if I would call what I’m doing ‘singing.’ I’m thinking that I am creating a vocal sound.”
Sui Zhen - Perfect Place
Melbourne artist Becky Sui Zhen has been making experimental pop music for a while now... “Perfect Place,” is disquieting in its pristine production. Sui Zhen sings in robotic intonations: “I got the perfect place/ Quiet, gentle/ You don’t bring a thing, I got it,” turning that comfort into something to be wary of...
Divino Niño - Foam from Foam
After two solid albums that helped establish their lo-fi indie pop bona fides, the Chicago by way of Colombia group Divino Niño take a great stride forward with 2019's Foam. Laid-back and sneakily hooky, the record folds in disco, chillwave, beach pop, classic indie, soft rock, and Latin pop to make an easy to drink, long-lasting musical cocktail. It was recorded in the apartment of the band's guitarist/vocalist Camilo Medina and it sounds like they had to play quietly so the neighbors wouldn't complain...
Black Midi - Of Schlagenheim from Schlagenheim
London quartet Black Midi gained maximum buzz with a minimal presence in the press or online. Shortly after graduating from the BRIT School, the performing arts institute that also served as an incubator for artists like Adele and Ed Sheeran, the members of Black Midi began attracting attention through their untethered live shows and a slow release of new material. Before debut album Schlagenheim arrived, the band existed largely on word-of-mouth buzz and a reputation grown off of three or four songs. Schlagenheim delivers on the hype surrounding the band without seeming to be aware of it whatsoever...
Los Straitjackets - Game of Thrones from Channel Surfing
Instrumental groups of the '50s and '60s used to regularly turn to movie and television themes for material, and Los Straitjackets have taken this great tradition into the year 2019. Channel Surfing is a four-song EP from everyone's favorite masked, reverb-obsessed, vocalist-free combo where they tackle tunes associated with popular TV shows, and the lead-off track, "Game of Thrones," was cut as the finale of the HBO series was the talk of the entertainment media...
Black Pumas - Fire from Black Pumas
Faintly psychedelic, wholeheartedly vintage-sounding Cali-Tex soul duo Black Pumas consist of multi-instrumentalist/producer Adrian Quesada and singer/guitarist Eric Burton. Quesada, an Austin music scene veteran with assorted projects on the boil and in the past -- he won a Grammy with the Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma and was behind Look at My Soul: The Latin Shade of Texas Soul -- laid down the preliminary work in 2017 with some instrumentals. In need of a vocalist, he was put in touch with California transplant Burton, also a guitarist and songwriter. Burton's background in church, musical theater, and busking cuts through these ten studied originals, which are filled out with a supporting group of musicians covering the rhythm section, additional guitar and keyboards, plus horns, strings, and background vocals...
Texas-born singer/songwriter Julie Miller grew up in a music-loving household. As a teen in Austin, Miller made her professional debut as a singer and began collaborating with her future husband, guitarist/singer/songwriter Buddy Miller.
Buddy & Julie Miller - I’m Gonna Make You Love Me from Breakdown On 20th Ave. South
Buddy & Julie Miller are two unique talents who happen to work very well together, which is convenient, since they happen to be married. He's a fine songwriter and an inspired guitarist and producer with a gift for the evocative and atmospheric, while Julie's lyrics are compelling stories of love and human experience that gain greater emotional depth through her voice, which subtly melds vulnerability and strength. While Buddy Miller is one of the busier people in Nashville between his own recordings and his frequent work with others, little has been heard from Julie since she and Buddy released the duet album Written in Chalk in 2009. While health problems kept Julie on the sidelines for most of the 2010s, she was well enough late in the decade to cut a batch of fresh songs with Buddy, and 2019's Breakdown on 20th Ave. South is a welcome reminder of her special talents as a vocalist, songwriter, and collaborator...
Mannequin Pussy - Fear/+/Desire from Patience
Known for both their brevity and intensity, Philadelphia combo Mannequin Pussy have issued two albums of ferocious full-bore punk, each one clocking in around the 18-minute mark. Led by singer/guitarist Marisa Dabice, the quartet's evolution between 2014's Gypsy Pervert and 2016's Romantic was subtle but distinct as they tightened up their musicianship and harnessed some of their raw energy into a more resolute yet still anarchic sound. On Patience, the band's third LP and first for punk stalwarts Epitaph Records, Mannequin Pussy offer a more dramatic transformation, turning in their most intricately layered and sonically muscular set to date...
Bleached - Rebound City
Anyway, the fourth Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough single, “Rebound City,” is out... It’s another winner. In keeping with the album’s theme of sobering up and bouncing back from the brink of destruction, it’s a rolling, ripping, rambunctious pop-rock track about the various missteps we make in the wake of a breakup. As Jennifer Clavin explains, “This song is a brief history of the mistakes I’ve made…except there really are no mistakes, they’re all lessons in the end. No regrets! Listen loud.”
Oh Sees - Henchlock
Welcome to the Oh Sees, bitch. Oh Sees, the prolific California garage-rock institution led by John Dwyer, are following up last year’s Smote Reverser with a new double album. It’s titled Face Stabber, and it’ll be out in August, almost exactly a year after their last one. And today, they’re previewing it by sharing a glorious 21-minute psychedelic freakout called “Henchlock.”
The Raconteurs, Titus Andronicus, Jane Weaver, CUP (Nels Cline & Yuka Honda), Sui Zhen, Divino Niño, Black Midi, Los Straitjackets, Black Pumas, Buddy & Julie Miller, Mannequin Pussy, Bleached, Oh Sees
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