Sunday, January 18, 2009

Well, Hello 2009!  Today marks the end of my winter hibernation and it couldn’t come soon enough - things were starting to get a little backed up, as it were.  I listened to a lot of music over the break, and my stack of yet-to-be-reviewed CD’s grew to new heights, so I’m excited to share some of it with you, but more importantly, to finally have some room on my desk again.

Let’s start the Spring cleaning!

Leatherbag - Tomorrow EP

Last year I listed Leatherbag’s album, Love and Harm, as one of my favorites for the year, but if this new EP is any indication of what’s to come, the next few years might see Leatherbag literally blowing my mind with good music.  In his quest to find  "sincerity" in his music, main-man Randy Reynolds looks to Television riffs, Tom Petty allusions and more Lit-Crit worthy lyrics to finance four songs that, short as they may be, both hone in on a defining album and define Reynold’s struggle with "sincerity."

"Just some sensitive boys tryin’ to have some fun," you’ll hear Reynolds sings, shortly followed by "playin’ our guitars, tryin’ to set the world on fire/but nothing’s gonna happen, nothin’s gonna happen tonight."

I might just be a romantic, but truth, sincerity, and the feeling that you’re relating to real people is why I first listened to music, and why it still has a spell over me today.  With that in mind, check out a track from the EP:

:Leatherbag - Tom Petty Summer:

Frantic Clam - Anatomica

Their impressive Celebrity EP drew a lot of attention last year, but as with Built by Snow, the challenge for Frantic Clam was assuring us all that their initial success wasn’t a fluke, that the band could actually deliver.  And just as with Built by Snow, the answer is a resounding "Yes."

Crisper recording engineering allows the band the room to stretch their legs and get comfortable with their sound, which as of yet I still can’t definitively describe, though I’m often reminded of Building Something Out Of Nothing-era Modest Mouse, though not as open-ended and introspective.  There is for certain a sort of inescapable sadness lining the entire record, but it’s the coming to terms with that feeling that seems to be the subject of Anatomica.  In any case, Frantic Clam have the keen ability to make enjoyable music, even if you could care less about trying to figure out "what it all means."  Exhibit A:

:Frantic Clam - We Own The Night:

Built by Snow - Mega

Syncopated beats and catchy synthesizers power the new Built by Snow album, which probably should have been called I Am A Party Robot.  The band have been models of success up to this point, releasing a water-testing EP and playing a number of shows to "build a little hype" (as the Exec’s say) but all the hard work would be for not if this album didn’t deliver the goods (which it does).

My hope was that the album would at least capture the sound that the band has pioneered at shows recently, but alas, my expectations were surpassed: the album sounds more like the album I expected the band to write four years from now, comfortable with their sound and confident enough to show it off.  Like a modern version of The Cars, the songs are built first on solid pop hits, but decorated with synthesizers that somehow sound less cheesy than they should.  I’ve only heard the album a couple times through, so I can’t say that it has entirely set in with me yet, but if nothing else, that the band have developed so quickly certainly bodes well for the future.  Here’s a cut from Mega:

:Built By Snow - All The Weird Kids Know:

- John Michael Cassetta -



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