"Lalita" - the Love Language Crashing, distorted pop that manages the neat trick of being harsh and cute at the same time. There's that rough-edged sound and the lo-fi vocals on the one hand, that cheery tambourine and lovable, horn-like, garage-rock guitar riff on the other. Yup, pretty cute. And the thing even swings, in an effortless, '60s-ish sort of way. A key to its success, to me...
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Free and legal MP3 from the Love Language (distorted, retro-y indie pop at once harsh and cute)
Free and legal MP3 from Sweet Billy Pilgrim (early Genesis meets late Radiohead)
"Truth Only Smiles" - Sweet Billy Pilgrim This London-based trio has a knack for integrating different generations of progressive rock sounds, more than a little because lead singer Tim Elsenburg happens to evoke both Peter Gabriel and Thom Yorke, somehow; to think of this song as early Genesis as reimagined by later Radiohead isn't too far off if you want a quick handhold. In any case,...
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Free and legal MP3 from Sally Shapiro (the latest from Sweden's neo-italo-disco chanteuse)
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"Miracle" - Sally Shapiro Sweden's reclusive neo-italo-disco chanteuse (and/or duo) returns with another glistening wash of beat-driven melodrama, complete with whispery spoken French and electronic thunderstorms. Once again, it's the airy vocals--half golden warm, half icy cold; summer and winter combined--and blasé melodicism that give this song its particular charisma. For all its scrupu..
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Free and legal MP3 from New Ruins (evocative and hypnotic, acoustic and droney)
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"Symptoms" - New Ruins Evocative, echoey, and hypnotic, "Symptoms" unwinds to an irresistible 7/4 beat that manages to move with clock-like precision and yet also with that irregular seven-count glitch. The odd but resolute beat, kept largely by an acoustic guitar lick (and only intermittently by any percussion at all), works as a central focal point, a reliable ground on top of which muddi...
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Free and legal MP3 from Jar-e (unabashed old-fashioned soul with an indie slant)
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"3 Leaf" - Jar-e With a genuine groove, the likes of which we don't often hear in the indie rock world, "3 Leaf" slithers its way into my brain and then kind of just stays there. This song does not have hooks as much as moments: the big-voiced way Jar-e (real name: Jon Reid) sings at the outset of the verse; the sudden--perfect--appearance of horn charts in the chorus; the casual build-up t...
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Free and legal MP3 from the Sweet Serenades (happy/sad indie pop from Sweden)
"Die Young" - the Sweet Serenades Despite the bright guitar line, winsome beat, perky synthesizer, and, even, bongos(!), this melodic toe-tapper is poignant through and through. (Sad lyrics to happy music is a perpetually satisfying pop music trick.) The band's Martin Nordvall here trades vocals with guest Karolina Komstedt from Club 8, and the story is a wistful, disconnected one: smitten,...
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Free and legal MP3 from Deer Tick (gruff but lovable quasi-Americana)
"Easy" - Deer Tick For a band with roots in Rhode Island, this one has something of the big, lonesome prairie about it, provided that you put a garage somewhere in the middle of that prairie and plugged a guitar or two into it. We'll need a drum kit too. And a carton of cigarettes. After the spaghetti western surf rock of the rumbly introduction, the immediate thing that will impress you (
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Free and legal MP3 from God Help the Girl (Stuart Murdoch side project, all lilty and lovely)
"Come Monday Night" - God Help the Girl Me, this is the voice I most feel like hearing after McCauley's. I love that last song but listening to it makes my throat hurt. "Come Monday Night" is a delicious lozenge. God Help the Girl is the name of a side project by Stuart Murdoch, the principal singer and songwriter of Belle & Sebastian. B&S fans will clearly hear the Murdochian touch her...
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Free and legal MP3 from Broken Records (brisk, folk-infused, toe-tapping tragedy)
"If Eilert Loevborg Wrote A Song, It Would Sound Like This" - Broken Records We begin with a mournful folk melody, played on cello and accordion, full of sad old-country wisdom. An added mandolin leads to a tempo shift, and now we're tapping our toes, but we're still sad. Music is like that sometimes. Tragedy is in the air; Eilert Loevborg (or Ejlert Løvborg) is in fact Hedda Gabler's flawe..
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Free and legal MP3 from John Vanderslice (more well-produced, smartly written rock from indie hero JV)
"Fetal Horses" - John Vanderslice Long-time Fingertips hero John Vanderslice returns on a new record label but with more of the wonderfully produced, smartly written music that has characterized his work to date. "Fetal Horses" is not necessarily a grabber but is a grower at once beautiful and unsettling. The first handhold into the piece, for me, is that gorgeous transition from the end
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Free and legal MP3 from Immaculate Machine (both urgent and good-natured, with martial flair and gang vocals)
"Sound the Alarms" - Immaculate Machine With a clipped, martial beat, multifarious percussion, and gang vocals, "Sound the Alarms" has the vibe of something at once urgent and good-natured. It's hard not to feel welcomed in by a song that begins: "Bad luck, my generation/The good ideas have all been taken." Most of the lyrics, except the title phrase, are subsequently swallowed up by the am...
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Music is not like water, part three (Fingertips Commentary)
On Thursday and Friday of last week I posted the first two parts of this essay, which is the latest Fingertips Commentary on the main site (where it comes complete with a few footnotes). Today, I pick up with a discussion of the third "model." You can always read the whole thing, with footnotes, at any time, on the main Fingertips site.* * *As for the model number three: with its ready-made mar...
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Music is not like water, part two (Fingertips Commentary)
Yesterday I posted the first part of this essay, which is the latest Fingertips Commentary on the main site (where it comes complete with a few footnotes). Thanks to those who have already responded; I know this is a lot to read in our blog- and microblog-focused world. And actually, because it's so long, I decided it would be best to split into three. Today, I pick up where I left off, literal...
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Music is not like water (Fingertips Commentary)
There's a new Fingertips Commentary piece on the main site, called "Music is not like water (but it's sure starting to remind me of a flying car)." Subtitle: "Pundits and entrepreneurs push futuristic schemes as if inevitable; damn reality and full speed ahead!"It's on long side (oops) so I'm breaking it into two parts for the blog. I'll post the second part tomorrow. The essay is the same here...
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Win a Jill Sobule CD (contest deadline 4/24)
It's not too late to enter the latest Fingertips Contest. The prize this time is a copy of Jill Sobule's new album, California Years. That's the one you may have heard about, which was funded entirely by fan donations. There will be three winners; deadline for entry is this Friday, April 24.
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Free and legal MP3 from We The They (crisp, harmony-laced indie pop w/ a '60s flair)
"Pastures" - We The They Crisp, well-recorded modern pop with a knowing touch of the '60s about it, "Pastures" does in fact put me in the mind of open fields: this feels like a romp in the fresh air compared to a lot of what our glitchy, mashed-up, over-programmed decade has produced. No laptops were harmed in the creation of this song. From their quick Roy Orbison nod at the beginning ...
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Free and legal MP3 from Super700 (sleek, smoky, melodramatic pop)
"Somebody Tried to Steal My Car" - Super700 This one is sleek, smoky, and melodramatic in a way that it's not possible to be if you don't have a stage full of people in the band. Nothing against trios--because I love trios--but there's something that sheer size brings to musical ambiance. Things simmer into existence in a large-ensemble crucible that otherwise wouldn't materialize. It's al
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Free and legal MP3 from the Monolators (B. Holly meets J. Richman in the 21st century)
"I Must Be Dreaming" - the Monolators Doing their best to find the Venn Diagram intersection between Buddy Holly, Jonathan Richman, and, say, Win Butler is the L.A.-based quintet the Monolators, all the while skating somewhere along that fine line that (sometimes) separates garage rock from indie pop. Backed by speeded up, bottom-heavy Cricket rhythms, vocalist Eli Chartkoff here employs an en
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Free and legal MP3 from Foreign Born (satisfyingly complex indie pop)
"Vacationing People" - Foreign Born At once ambling and deceptively precise, "Vacationing People" has the satisfying pop complexity of a late-era Beatles song, without being otherwise Beatlesque in any obvious way (though come to think of it, singer Matt Popieluch has a buzzy voice that can sometimes bring George Harrison to mind). While the song does have verses and a chorus, it also emplo...
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