07-09-2021 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [2019-2021] (2h 17m)

07-09-2021 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [2019-2021] # Joan of Arc, Upset, The Heliocentrics, Ani DiFranco, Motorists, Public Memory, Michael Nau, Sharon Van Etten, Field Music, Oceanator, Southern Avenue

M U S I C (2h 17m)

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Indie rock stalwarts led by Tim Kinsella, with a sustained focus on exploring the boundaries of their art.

Joan of Arc 

Destiny Revision 3:44

Land Surveyor 3:36

from Tim Melina Theo Bobby 2020

Sometime following the release of their gorgeous 2018 album 1984, long-running Chicago art rock experimentalists Joan of Arc decided to call it a day. The band formed in 1995 around the impassioned vocals, obtuse thinking, and creatively limitless songwriting of former Cap'n Jazz member Tim Kinsella, and for the next many years, Kinsella and a rotating cast of players stretched the conceptual boundaries of what Joan of Arc was on over a dozen albums. After making the decision to end the group, the most recently active lineup entered the studio, knowing that what they were recording would be the last statement from a band who had spent two-and-a-half decades creating a sound that was both wildly specific and somehow boundless. In true Joan of Arc fashion, final album Tim Melina Theo Bobby (the first names of the players who made the music) sees the group taking their sound in a new direction, even on the way out the door... 

Former Vivian Girls and Best Coast drummer formed Upset with ex-Hole drummer Patty Schemel to play her own punk-pop songs. Sounding like a lost band from the grunge pop '90s, Upset were formed by the duo of Ali Koehler, ex-Vivian Girls and Best Coast drummer, and Patty Schemel, who famously drummed for Hole.

Upset 

Holy Basil 3:10

Over My Head 3:22

from Upset 2019

Upset's take on '90s pop-punk and grunge is more refined and powerful on their second album, 2019's Upset. Since their promising 2013 debut album and follow-up EP in 2015, the band has solidified into a quartet while spreading out the songwriting and singing duties. Original singer/songwriter Ali Koehler shares the mike this time with guitarist Lauren Freeman, who provides an alternate vision that's a little rougher -- both sonically and emotionally -- around the edges. For the most part, Koehler comes at her songs from a poppier, more melodic angle, while Freeman has a more angular and punk-derived style. .. Adding Freeman to the mix was a great idea that made an already good band even better and Upset is a strong step forward from their debut and some of the best retro grunge-punk going in 2019.

This London quintet blends Krautrock, psychedelia, and shoegaze into hypnotic, pulsating music.

TOY 

Sequence One 4:17

Energy 4:07

from Happy in the Hollow 2019

With Clear Shot, TOY transformed their music by bringing it into hi-def focus. On Happy in the Hollow, they continue to change their sound in several ways. For the first time, the band self-produced their music, though their sessions at Dan Carey's Studio B suggest they're still tight with the producer who helped shaped their sound early on. .. Happy in the Hollow doesn't change the feeling that the members of TOY have one foot in another dimension that they're waiting to transport their listeners to.

10-08-2021 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [2019-2021] (2h 39m)

10-08-2021 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [2019-2021] # Mike Krol, Deserta, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Rival Sons, The White Stripes, William Parker, Shame, Joan of Arc, Upset, The Heliocentrics, Ani DiFranco

M U S I C (2h 39m)

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An L.A.-based garage rocker with a large sense of humor plus a day job as a graphic designer.

Mike Krol

Blue and Pink 3:32

Power Chords 3:22

Left for Dead 2:40

from Power Chords 2019

Most of the garage-punk acts that have emerged in the wake of Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees in the 2010s have been bands with no small amount of studied cool lurking behind their sweaty energy. Mike Krol is a vital exception to this rule; Krol is far too concerned with pumping out his fuzzy, no-frills, hook-infused rock and laying his heart out for all to see to have much truck with being cool. And that's a large part of what makes his music work so well. Krol clearly has a sense of humor and isn't trying to reinvent the wheel, but it's clear that rock & roll means a lot to him...

The project of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Matthew Doty finds the sweet spot between synth pop and shoegaze.

Deserta 

Be So Blue 5:30

Black Aura 5:31

from Black Aura My Sun 2020

With Black Aura My Sun, Deserta's Matthew Doty shows off his knowledge of several decades' worth of shoegaze and synth pop as well as his skill at reinterpreting those styles in ways that are familiar, but never boring. Much like Lust for Youth, Deserta excels at creating almost uncannily perfect recombinations of iconic sounds. .. 

Sunny-sounding Australian band specializes in "soft punk/hard pop" with a smart and jangly approach.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever 

The Second of the First 3:40

The Only One 3:46

from Sideways to New Italy 2020

After a couple of EPs where they worked on finding their feet as a band, the Australian quintet Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever nailed it on their first album, 2018's Hope Downs. Their three-guitar attack was honed to a fine point, the songwriting suddenly popped like formerly plugged-up ears in a descending aircraft, and their sound had all the mystery of early R.E.M. paired with the power of the Church at their rockiest. The record would have been top of the class during the golden age of '80s jangle pop, and it shone like a glittering diamond in the murky era of chillgaze and stoned psychedelia it was surrounded by in its own time. The band must have realized they had hit on something extraordinary because on 2020's Sideways to New Italy, they don't change the formula much...

"Summer Madness" #111 ALTER.NATION.MiX - weekly favtraX 06-12-2020

 ALTER.NATION #111

Khruangbin, Joan of Arc, The Smashing Pumpkins, Urlaub in Polen, Kelley Stoltz, The High Water Marks, Son Lux, Lee Ritenour, Jahari Massamba Unit

weekly favtraX 

0 6 - 1 2 - 2 0 2 0

"Summer Madness"

Jet-setting Texas trio whose smooth, mainly instrumental music is heavily influenced by Thai rock and funk, among other styles.

Khruangbin - Late Night Tales: Khruangbin / Summer Madness (Exclusive Cover Version)

Texan trio Khruangbin's singular sound draws from a vast array of far-flung influences, yet it's accessible and familiar enough to captivate a widespread audience. The group are a logical fit for the LateNightTales series, which features notable artists presenting tracks much in the manner of a close group of friends hanging out at home, sharing personal favorites deep into the night... Khruangbin also sneak in a studio recording of their steamy cover of Kool & the Gang's "Summer Madness," a longtime staple of their live shows... After spending the album exploring different corners of the world, the final journey to the cosmos seems quietly astonishing.

Indie rock stalwarts led by Tim Kinsella, with a sustained focus on exploring the boundaries of their art.

Joan of Arc - Tim Melina Theo Bobby / Land Surveyor

...In true Joan of Arc fashion, final album Tim Melina Theo Bobby (the first names of the players who made the music) sees the group taking their sound in a new direction, even on the way out the door... Many songs are led by synth lines, and the curious instrumental track "Land Surveyor" has more in common with the moon-walking electro of early-2000s Mouse on Mars than the organic electronics-tinged rock of the band's last few albums...  It's a perfect ending note for a band whose unique sonic language relied on equal and interconnected shares of joy and confusion.

One of the biggest bands of the alternative era, who deftly mixed roaring rock with dark, insular alternative pop. Although they emerged alongside grunge acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were the group least influenced by traditional underground rock. Headed by principal songwriter and frontman Billy Corgan, their sound was an amalgam of progressive rock, heavy metal, goth, psychedelia, and dream pop, a layered, powerful style driven by swirling, distorted guitars that churned beneath Corgan's angst-ridden lyrics.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Cyr / Wyttch

Cyr, the 11th studio album to bear the Smashing Pumpkins name, is another example of Corgan's knack for creating massive albums, only this time translating layered guitar rock into dark, moody synth pop... Unlike the electronic tinges that added to the cold elegance of that album, however, Cyr puts the synths front and center. Guitars are mostly buried under warm synth pads, buzzing electronic bass, and a mixture of programmed beats and lockstep live drumming... The angry metallic grooving of "Wyttch" is one of the few moments on Cyr where the band lean into the loud guitars and organic drums of their earliest albums...

Cologne, Germany-based post-punk duo known for their driving Krautrock rhythms and experimental synth textures.

Urlaub in Polen - All / The Witcher

Germany's Urlaub in Polen has always been a hard band to pin down. At their core, they are a two-man guitar-and-drums unit, though both members also handle the myriad synthesizers and ambient electronics that shimmer and buzz through their hypnotic songs... Reuniting after a nine-year gap, they return with their sixth album, All. If anything, the ten-song set feels even tighter than the band's earlier releases, paring away some of the harsh and cavernous sounds of Boldstriker and presenting a leaner, cleaner sort of minimalism that plays to their strengths... 

San Francisco singer/songwriter and longtime purveyor of melodic, lo-fi indie pop. Skilled at crafting pop songs under his own name, excellent at producing albums for others, and a good enough guitarist to be in Echo & the Bunnymen's touring band, Kelley Stoltz carved out an interesting career for himself on the fringes of the indie rock scene beginning in the late 1990s.

Kelley Stoltz - Ah! (etc) / She Likes Noise

Since the turn of the 2000s, seeing the name Kelley Stoltz on the cover of an album meant that the contents were sure to be guitar pop music of the highest quality, produced with a sure hand and played with consummate skill. 2020's Ah! (etc) is no different. It is of a piece with Stoltz' previous few albums that combined moody post-punk with jangling power pop and stripped down indie rock to come up with a sound that's immediate and a little melancholy, though also prone to moments of almost giddiness... and even indulges in some straight up New Wave novelty with the goofy "She Likes Noise."...

Dynamic indie pop group fronted by former Apples in Stereo member Hilarie Sidney and Palermo's Per Ole Bratset.

The High Water Marks - Ecstasy Rhymes / Accidentally On Purpose

The High Water Marks first album in over a decade shows that the pairing of Hilarie Sidney and Per Ole Bratset is still as strong as ever and the result is the band's best album to date. By far. In the past their winning mix of lo-fi Elephant 6 pop and fuzzy indie rock sometimes suffered from muddy recordings or songs that weren't as punchy as they could be. No worries about either of those issues here as the sound of Ecstasy Rhymes is clear and crisp with layers of strummed guitars, nimble bass and gleefully bashed drums form a safety net for the rambling lead guitars and the duo's home cooked vocals...

Dynamic, sound-manipulating post-rock project helmed by composer/keyboardist/vocalist Ryan Lott.

Son Lux - Tomorrows II / Bodies

Son Lux released the first installment of their Tomorrows trilogy in August of a turbulent 2020. Fourth months later, and loosely reminiscent of the second movement of a classical symphony, Tomorrows II proves to be a relatively more hushed, introspective volume... In the second half, the funky "Bodies" adds colorful choral voices, prepared piano, and Ian Chang's off-kilter drumming to a central bass line before ..

A prolific session player and musical chameleon, a guitarist whose speed, facility, phrasing, and technique are always flawless.

Lee Ritenour - Dreamcatcher / Abbot Kinney

It's hard to believe that in his over-50-year career, guitarist Lee Ritenour has never released a solo guitar album. He rectifies that fact on 2020's warmly delivered Dreamcatcher. The record follows Ritenour's star-studded 2015 album A Twist of Rit, in which he reworked songs from throughout his career with a bevy of special guests. Dreamcatcher finds him taking a more introspective, stripped-down approach, but one that still showcases his lyricism and adept fretboard skills. Recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ritenour produced the album himself at his home, working remotely with studio assistance by Gary Lee and Brian McShea. There's an intimacy to the recordings that has the feeling of a small private concert, or it's as if you're eavesdropping on Ritenour just jamming for his own pleasure... He even rips into far-eyed electric jazz-rock on "Abbot Kinney."...

Occasional future jazz and hip-hop recording project from Madliband drummer/producer Karriem Riggins.

Jahari Massamba Unit - Pardon My French / Du Morgon Au Moulin-À-Vent (Pour Duke)

Jahari Massamba Unit is the very occasional collaborative recording project between producer/mixologist/multi-instrumentalist Madlib and jazz/hip-hop drummer/producer Karriem Riggins... Pardon My French is an exploration and statement of Afro-futurist jazz refracted through hip-hop, vanguard, Eastern and Latin influences, and funk... The album's centerpiece is "Du Morgon au Moulin-à-Vent (Pour Duke)," a nine-plus-minute jam introduced by the sound of running water, incessantly rolling tom-toms, crystalline vibraphone, and acoustic guitar. Its long intro is anchored by a two-chord piano vamp, and the track eventually weds post-bop, Latin and Brazilian jazz, exotic percussion, and squalling trombone, all before Jackie Earley recites a brief poem...  It's difficult to pin down to be sure, but extremely listenable as a mind-blowing experiment to encounter and absorb. The future is now.

Khruangbin, Joan of Arc, The Smashing Pumpkins, Urlaub in Polen, Kelley Stoltz, The High Water Marks, Son Lux, Lee Ritenour, Jahari Massamba Unit