Sometimes I get so caught up reading music blogs that I forget to check up on my favorite bands myself. Hopefully I’m not the only one excited about this record. Venus Hum’s 2003 album “Big Beautiful Sky” is one of my all time favorites [listen to Montana] and I’ve been anxiously awaiting their new record. “Big Beautiful Sky” was released on both MCA for North America and BMG in the UK, but this time around the band opted to reclaim some of their creative freedom and take their time creating the new album without the aid of a major label. “Colors In The Wheel” came out July 25th. It was definitely worth the wait and has quickly become my favorite album of ‘06.

Annette Strean’s vocals are warm and dreamy. When they are layered over the digital instrumentation created by Tony Miracle and Kip Kubin it creates a unique soundscape that is lush, hypnotic and moving. On the new record Kip and Tony challenged themselves to create an electronic album without using synthesizers and the result is a uniquely creative sound consisting of sampled instruments electronically manipulated and taken to new sonic extremes. Annette’s lyrics have matured since three years ago and there are more layers and effects applied to her vocal tracks.

from the Venus Hum website:
The band ultimately decided to reconvene and return to their DIY roots with The Colors in the Wheel meticulously crafting the most interesting and engaging album of their career. The ride begins with the crackling lift-off of “Turn Me Around” which is created solely with guitar sounds! The percussion and strings are all computer manipulated guitar. The Teutonic electro-stomp of “Yes And No” takes us to the dance floor and then the ride continues through the lost superhero theme “Do You Want To Fight Me?” and the moving, daydreamy centerpiece, “Genevieve’s Wheel,” then dances off with the T.Rex-goes-to-the-moon pop of “Pink Champagne” and the affecting lullaby, “Go To Sleep.” Strean’s lyrics have also evolved. She is not afraid to take the listener to an emotionally dark place but always pulls them out at the end.

Click here to listen to tracks from “The Colors In The Wheel”. Venus Hum’s website has been beautifully redesigned and includes a podcast interview (highly recommended!) which contains high quality clips as well as great stories about the creation of the new album and the band’s activity over the past three years. I was tempted to quote most of the interview here. It’s safe to say that Venus Hum embody everything I love about music and the people who choose to spend their life creating it.

Venus Hum’s official website

The album release party is at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville on Friday, August 25th and a fall tour is being planned. Hopefully they will be around for CMJ.

Click here to order the new album directly from the band

My requisite mid-year list will be posted soon, but I’ll give you a sneak preview and let you know that this album will definitely be on there. Never Was There A Town is the sort of record that yields a new favorite song each time you listen to it. Slowlands has been compared to many great bands including Wolf Parade, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Arcade Fire and Death Cab For Cutie. Their sound includes similar elements for sure, but is more varied overall than any of those bands.

The first Slowlands track I heard was One More Fire (mp3) which can probably be considered their most “rocking-out”, radio-friendly (hate that term, but it’s true) song. Eisenstein (mp3) is a beautiful tune that starts with acoustic guitar, glockenspiel and cello and builds to an amazing ending. Lighthouse (mp3) is another song that demonstrates Slowlands uncanny ability build up to a dense climax naturally, without it sounding contrived. If you like any of these songs it’s a safe bet that you’ll like the whole album.

I had the opportunity to see Slowlands play the Mercury Lounge on May 19th. Here are some live clips from the show.

Listener’s Dilemma (live at Mercury Lounge).mp3
Crooked Crown (live at Mercury Lounge).mp3
Last Notes From Home (live at Mercury Lounge).mp3

My only complaint about Slowlands’ live performance is that some songs seem to end abruptly after reaching their climax. The band will spend 4 minutes building up to the part of the song where they really come alive and the whole band is rocking out, but that only lasts for a phrase or two. Though their ability to pack so much emotion into songs that barely ever reach the five minute mark is notable, I would like to hear a song that allows them to explore the full-band sound further.

Slowlands is at Mercury Lounge again this Saturday, June 24th at 8:30. Unlike their last show where we had to sit through a mediocre second band before enjoying Land of Talk, Saturday’s lineup looks solid from start to finish. The Isles, Rahim, The Plastic Constellations are all performing.

buy: Slowlands – Never Was There A Town

Wow. I spoke too soon in my previous post. I’m only four tracks into Return to the Sea as I begin to write this and I’m loving it already. There have a lot of releases in the last year that I felt were “indie for the sake of being indie”. Bands who seemed to think that “indie rock” was a genre which they should aspire to fit into and not a status which was inherently obtained. I came close to writing off bands like Wolf Parade and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah after the initial exposure because I thought, “great, another quirky sounding band for Pitchfork to drool all over”. Then I got over myself and realized how great the albums were aside from the fact that they’d never be played on commercial radio.

Islands have that quirky, indie rock appeal that will draw in anyone who likes to shun the mainstream, but they also have very well written and well arranged songs, none of which sound overly similar. This album reminds me quite a bit of Architecture In Helsinki, both for the upbeat, fun-loving style and vast array of instruments (particularly the bass clarinet and the whistling). I’d also recommend it if you like The Boy Least Likely To, The Brunettes or any other band which genuinely sounds like they are enjoying themselves. It even reminds me of an upbeat, easier-to-digest, not-quite-as-schizophrenic version of the Fiery Furnaces. If you “respected” Blueberry Boat, but couldn’t listen to it more than twice, Islands are for you.

Those Pitchfork guys do seem to hate on a lot of albums I love, but I’m a pretty easy-going critic. While I don’t agree with some of the low ratings they give, the new Islands album is indeed some of the Best New Music out there. You will definitely see this on a lot of year end lists. Now I have to figure out how early I need to get to SoundFix this Saturday. I may be sleeping there Friday night.

Reviews:
PitchforkMedia
CokeMachineGlow

Next time I compose a song I’m happy with it will probably start like this one:
Islands – Rough Gem.mp3
(The last one started like I Know You Are But What Am I by Mogwai)

Buy it: Islands – Return To The Sea at Insound

“Love is no big deal/It’s falling you feel”

Is it just me, or has 2006 been a bit disapointing for new releases so far? Perhaps there are just more albums that need time to grow on me. But listening to an album repeatedly is like actually taking the time to build a relationship. It’s much more fun to fall in love at first sight (or sound). By this time last year I had fallen instantly in love with albums from Bloc Party, LCD Soundsystem, Stars and The Decemberists. Though the new Belle & Sebatian and Destroyer albums have garnered repeat listening, the first album of ‘06 that immediately caught my ear and refused to leave is Maritime’s We, The Vehicles.

Maritime formed in 2003, consisting of Davey von Bohlen and Dan Didier from The Promise Ring and Eric Axelson, the bassist from Dismemberment Plan. Desoto Records released their first album – Glass Floor – in 2004. Guitarist Dan Hinz joined the band shortly thereafter and the new album, recorded last summer, has been out in Japan and Europe since fall 2005. Chicago-based label Flameshovel Records finally enabled the album’s stateside release.

As a big fan of songs with indispensible melodic basslines, I’ve always loved the work of Eric Axelson. Alas, I was introduced to Dismemberment Plan too late to see them live and Eric is no longer touring with Maritime. His replacement Justin Klug began playing with the band shortly before their shows at SXSW.

The CD is available in stores this Tuesday. There also exist 1000 hand-numbered blue vinyl copies, released March 7th, some of which are still sitting in the stockroom at Flameshovel Records. Oh, you want to know what it sounds like? Clean guitars, bouncy bass, judicious use of synths, thoughtful lyrics and restrained but confident vocals combine to form compact, upbeat alternative rock songs. Similar to Nada Surf and Death Cab for Cutie. There is a well-written review of the album by David Greenwald at CokeMachineGlow.

Maritime – Young Alumni.mp3

maritimesongs.com