coldless constable - Anera

Coldless Constable is the solo moniker of a good buddy of mine hailing from Ann Arbor, MI.  We met some years ago in a hostel in Nicaragua and traveled together for a week or so.  That being my first time out of the country, I had a hard time connecting with the westerner/hostel-traveling circuit as my main bread and butter at the time would inevitably fall back to my knowledge of music.  Justin was one of the only people I met on the trip who I could talk shop about Sonic Youth, GBV, Pavement and the like so we naturally got along pretty well.  Having family in Michigan myself, I travel through Ann Arbor at least once a year and have had good drunken times with him there around the holidays ever since.

Coldless songs are born of a truly great respect for the craft of the song.  I've noticed Justin has a finely  tuned ear for what makes a "good" song and it's pretty evident on this here album.  The music has its roots in good folk songwriting (After The Cold One and Tag With A Chair) with maybe a hint of Elliot Smithyness (though he may not approve of that reference, I don't know) but there are also stellar moments of full band instrumentation a la Spiral Stairs that provide a welcomed shift in pace to the album (Almost Like A Ghost, Lansing Lie, Your Fears, Anera).  These moments carry a sparseness that match the stripped down acoustic songs quite well.  The execution of simple yet effective guitar lines and instrumentation on these tracks really showcase Justin's knack for building melodies that go somewhere, with just the right dash of weirdness (especially during the bridge on Anera) to keep things interesting.  The additional segments of lush keyboard and sonic swells lift the album to new heights and gently let the listener back down to the next doorway through the album.

Realizing today how great of a winter album this will turn out to be.  The melancholy is there, but not overwhelming.  I think it's more about the sparseness of the compositions that make this feel like an appropriate soundtrack to the first blizzard this year.  Get cold.

The Oracles - ...Are The Icarus Syndrome Band

The main perk of living with a musician/artist/person that you admire is having the ability to get drunk with said person and really start to understand their thoughts on this crazy ride we call life from a first hand perspective.  The other main perk is catching glimpses of their work or back catalog that never really made it out of the vaults.  This is one of those glimpses.

I've posted about The Oracles before so there's no need to get gushy here.  Prior to the official establishment of the band, they played some sporadic live gigs under the name of The Icarus Syndrome band.  Andy put together a short collection of these live recordings for a supposed Oracles tour tape.  First I had heard of it.  A lot of these songs being performed are from the famed Trempeleau album.  A couple older Icarus Syndrome songs are there with a Kinks cover thrown in for good measure.  Here's the origins...

Willow Field Recordings 2007 - Part 2

I noticed there is a pretty big gap in the number of downloads of the second part of the Willow '07 recordings as opposed to the first part.  So I'm reposting the link the the 2nd Part here.

Daddy Long Legs - Evil Eye

Ya Ho Wa 13 - Because

Because.

The Young and the Naive - II

The Young and the Naive is one of those bands that makes you realize how bad you probably were at writing songs when you were their age.  I don't officially know how old they were when this was recorded but I would imagine the trio was under the age of 20 all around.  Consisting of a compositionally minded pianist with brutally honest and relatable lyrics, an exceptional fingerpicking guitar player with an ear for what made the Velvet Underground so good, and a vocalist with a voice as unique and beautiful as the snow capped Rockies which birthed this nugget of musical genius.  This band was wise beyond their years and it shows immensely from the meticulously arranged vocal harmonies to the intelligently executed baroque-indie sound that oozes through on most tracks.  "Sticks and Stones" is also a standout track for me, sounding much like Dylan picking along to 19 year old singing his heart out about the weight of the realizations of the human condition.  I remember seeing the band play the opening track, "Big Rock," before this came out.  I was accustomed to the band being centered around the piano and acoustic guitar so this heavy drone rock song coming at me was about the coolest leap I could imagine these folks taking.  I talked with Gabe about the song after the set and complimented him on it.  I could be wrong, but I think he said something about how he had recently learned that Lou Reed had tuned all of his guitar strings to D for a song and he wanted to emulate that.  I felt so ashamed that when I was Gabe's age I would have had no idea who Lou Reed was, let alone be influenced by him.

The self fulfilling nature of the band's name kind of sums up the whole experience for me.  They couldn't have been THAT naive to name themselves something so obvious, but the fact that something so powerfully honest and moving was being made by kids still in high school gave me some sort of renewed hope for humanity.  Sure Minor Threat were high schoolers and plenty of great punk rock was born that way, but rarely do people that age have such a well tuned ear for what makes a great composition and the ability to execute those ideas in such a unique way as this.

Lil' Slugger - Super Sweethearts: The Complete Lil' Slugger

Despite my rampant drunkeness at the time, I still recall my first Lil' Slugger show in Greeley, Colorado years ago.  It was at a wonderfully named bar called the Stagger inn.  I knew of Lil' Slugger prior to seeing them because my long time friend Zach was currently recording them in his studio.  I was good and goosed before we even got to the show (which probably enhanced the fun I had during their set) but I also knew that these guys were fucking good.  I was dancing like a fool for most of the time and the band seemed to enjoy it but they must have thought I was some drunk idiot that Zach dragged in.  In any case, my band at the time got to be real good buddies with Lil' SLugger and we played many-a-shows together on the Front Range.  I have said this before and still stand by it that Lil' Slugger is my favorite band from Colorado.  Or at least during the time I lived there.  The fuct-up, angular, drum heavy, riffing rock/pop filtered through a bizarre lens of kaleidoscopic noise made me happy every time I saw them perform.  I really feel like I got to watch them progress as a band, too.  The compositions and riffs got more complex as time went on.  The members were so unique as individual musicians (and people) and when they played together it was pure chemistry.

This a collection of songs from their self-recorded first album, "Sweethearts of the Overthrow" as well as some other great studio takes of songs that were featured on a split with my band at the time.  "Do The Rabid" is their anthem.  That song will forever hold a special place in my heart.  Below is a weird video of the song being performed live by Lil Slugger and members of The Good Old Fashioned Sinners (yours truly on sax).  I absolutely loved how this song culminated in Ben just chucking cymbals at an old metal cone of some sort while Joey wildly fucked with the standard formula for a "doo wop" song.  Lil' Slugger and The Good Old Fashioned Sinners were definitely cut from some similar cloth.  The "band-buddy" relationship we had was an excellent one.

Lil' Slugger went the way of most great bands and is no more, sadly.  You can check out Ben and Joey's new projects here and here, respectively.   There is, indeed, an unreleased Slugger album currently in the mixing process.  I have been lucky enough to hear a couple tracks off of it and I can say that as good as this compilation is, the new album will blow anything on here out of the water.  It showcases the band at the peak of their songwriting and their sound is well dialed in by that point.  The world holds its breath.  For now, here ya go sweethearts.

Pure X - Back Where I Began

I've been there.

Reckless Triumphant - Joe Namath's Knees

Continuing with the recent string of posts from Dekalb All-Stars, here is some newer material from the almighty Reckless Triumphant.  Nat has played in some of the most classic Dekalb outfits known to man, including The Metroids, The Oracles,  and Things Falling Apart.  These batch of songs (submitted just for this blog post) explores Nat's wonderfully unique approach to songwriting with rock-ish guitars.  This collection of tunes has moments where it feels like you could be listening to Stephen Malkmus's homemade demo tapes.  The lucid nature of Nat's lyrics are typically poignant but also contain hilarious elements that are hard to pin down exactly WHY they are so funny or the coordinates of the twisted sense of reality where they were born. It must be the english major in him and his love for wordplay.  I've collaborated with Nat in a number of ways over the years and have always been impressed with his skills on guitar (among other instruments) but also the way he writes songs.  I could never seem to think of interesting progressions and vocal melodies in the way that seems natural to Nat.  It's a neat thing to watch, let alone hear.  Here for the world to hear is Joe Namath's Knees.

Fingers Lift - What Never Kills Me

Fingers Lift is the solo project of one of the main contributors to Things Falling Apart.  The album consists of fairly stripped down applications of acoustic guitar, possible ukelele, trumpet, banjo, strange loops, and organ.  What is most striking to me about this album is how these songs seem like they are built primarily from the vocal melodies as the core foundation.  Some songs are lush with looping harmonies and interweaving melodies that drive the songs more than any of the instruments being plucked out in the background, existing almost as an afterthought (Mystery Tracks and Stop Digging Holes).  Sonically and lyrically, the music invokes images of a deep and lonely winter.  Yet there is a sense of warmth, too.  Kind of like being alone while watching yourself getting snowed in at a remote cabin with a fireplace and a stack of wood.  I find it pretty unbelievable that the majority of this album (if not all) was recorded to a four track cassette recorder.  The sonic quality here is pretty phenomenal.  I guess if Springsteen's Nebraska can sound that good on a four track, there's no reason this can't either.  Get Lifted.