Kurt Wagner & Cortney Tidwell- Invariable Heartbreak (City Slang)

Kurt Wagner &Courtney Tidwell present KORT team up for Invariable Heartbreak (City Slang)
which presents some beautiful and touching alt-country moments with Wagner's weathered voice mingling with Tidwell traditional country twoon, but beyond the tide of seeing these two artists work together, there is nothing here that hasn't been said or done somewhere else before and I can't imagine an audience craving this if they were not already fans of either artist or heart broken country,which practically proves this to be an exercise best saved for unreleased ideas that look good on paper than in reality. Graceful and sublime sure but not as good as the Chart Records finest originals, nor Tidwell and Wagner's dayjobs. 4/10

Kisses- The Heart of The Nightlife (This is Music)

Kisses- The Heart of The Nightlife (This is Music)

I've been meaning to review this album since I got it a few months ago, but I could never bring myself to sit down and put words to paper,  now on it's official UK Release is the time.

Kisses debut is filled with familiar throwbacks to disco, it's created with a lot of love for the genre and it simply shimmers, and in comparison to the subtext heavy of my previously reviewed Twin Shadow album, Kisses have created a fun 70s/80s revival and The songs are carefully stripped from what could have been a full on disco/pop anthem and present themselves as an alternative exploration of that commonplace sound, somewhere between a friday night post-work disco for fans of The Smiths meets cheesy bossanovva disco and modern day chill wave nostagia from Washed Out, Small Black or Little Girls.

While Kisses certainly are able to create pop tunes, it doesn't stop it from getting rather old, rather quickly, and it all becomes rather repeative after a handful of songs, with very little hooks and very little to sing and dance to. Given the amount of inspiration and love of the genre, "The Heart of Nightlife" never encourages the dancefloor to neon glow nor gets weird enough to engage it's audience, simply sleepwalks through some pleasant if momentarily forgettable electro pop. 6/10

Twin Shadow- Forget (4AD)

TWIN SHADOW- Forget (4AD)

Twin Shadow is probably the most personal album I've heard this year since Perfume Genius' "Learning," but "Forget" isolation is meant to be a shared experience, something warm and to be learned from, instrumentation limited mostly to fractured guitar lines and synths, carefully peaced together in a hotel room production by label mates and producers Grizzly Bear. Like the aforementioned masters, "Forget" pulsates its feelings through a senses of 80's new wave (this could have easily soundtracked Donnie Darko), a melancholy longing that Grizzly Bear have been unable to repeat since their debut. 

Forget"'s opener "Tyrant Destroyed" is as introspective and based around the feeling of teenage isolation with its "I know you spent some time from the town to the city looking for your life to start, I know what you said when you were 15..." opening lines. Each song is filled with a story of teenage confusion and a time of discovery, the production is crisp and each familiar sound adds to drawing out your nostagia but also the regret of your youth and the hidden memories you'd care not to even admit to yourself. "Forget" at times may sound sweet and innocent but dig a little deeper to find the sinister underneath the glossy eighties synths to discover not is all well which cements the quality of Twin Shadow's pop songs. Flirting between secret crushes and forgotten flirtations to suggestions that these stories are not very good at all. Brought upon in "Yellow Balloons" lines "Secret Handshakes, the swimming hole, keep awake, we will not grow old." or the creepy "Tether Beat" and it's message of breakup "Does your heart still beat?"

Twin Shadow in the context of modern music makes a lot of sense, it's not a million miles from the 80s pop revivalists from  Pains of Being Pure at heart, The Drums (at their darkest) or How to dress well on the surface, but "Forget" subject matter from the good to the bad to the ugly draws attention to repeated listening, as every heartbeat signifies something bigger, something more violent, something more tragic with every play, forcing you to recall every fumbling, every heartache and as Twin Shadow points out on the title track "this is all of it this is everyone..." and its also everything we've been trying to forget. 9/10

Marnie Stern- Marnie Stern (Souterrain Transmissions)

Marnie Stern- Marnie Stern (Souterrain Transmissions)

Just before the release of her third album, Stern launched an attack on her west coast counterpart Best Coast, and while I wouldn't usually point out such bitchy gossip, apart from being a big fan of "Crazy for You," it's easy to draw a comparison between Marnie and Bethany. Both records are particularly emotionally driven, Stern's "Transparency is the New Mystery" recalls the line "In order to see it, you've got to believe it, I do..." in relation to a relationship to a difficult boy who she is waiting for, the song a plea to see how good she is in comparison to this other girl, is simply not a million miles from "Girlfriend" or "Crazy for You." Bethany is young and naive, Marnie is older and arguably more experienced.
The difference being is Best Coast is backward thinking, her songs are often in past tense and her music seeks for a nostagic California before many of us were born, in fact it is the gimmick for the whole band.  Stern's arsenal is the complete opposite, Her album ploughs through with Superhuman Zach Hill's distinctive drumming style, Stern's mathcore frenetic guitar lines and an urgency to get to the end as fast as possible. It's a musical exploration which may alienate many of those who were hoping Stern would open up her essentially melody soaked songs to some of kind mainstream listenability, but fuck that, this album is dripping with ideas, heartfelt lyrics (when Stern's voice isn't cleverly used as a part of the awkwardly brilliant and out of nowhere thrusts of noise) and the album contains some essential hits in the making, see "Risky Biz" which could very well soundtrack our current governments plan for cutting the public sector "I tear the desert up, But it's not enough, I got something in my soul, pushing me to hold on to the pain." or the summer pop almost classic rock anthem "Cinco De Mayo" with its soaring vocal harmony.

So enough with the bitchiness between female artists, as Kim Gordon said "What's it like to be a girl in a band, I dont quiet understand, it's so quaint to hear..." and Stern's very own "Female guitar players are the new black" we should stop pointing out sex and  accept that this year has had some amazing records which happen to be written and performed by some exceptable female artists, than continue with the year of the woman tag,exploited last year. All for forward thinking, all for Marnie Stern 8.5/10

FTC Discovery Round-Ups

Midnight Spin




Midnight Spin are a great band that bring back what made college rock important a couple of decades ago, part indie rock, part a battle between old/new school emo, really catchy rock songs stuffed with hooks. Energetically driven (although terribly titled) "Through the Mojo Wire" is a must listen for those who enjoy high energy radio-friendly pop rock.

http://www.myspace.com/midnightspin

SAADI

Saadi can steal your soul after one song, with a voice that can make you stop in the middle of a motorway along the same lines of everyone's favourite canadian princess Emily Haines with a street cred MC Edge (no rap here though folks). Her tunes are electic, one a guitar ballad, another encorporating a lively world beat closer to Imogen Heap's Frou Frou project with piled on harmonies part of the puzzle

http://www.myspace.com/saadinyc

Sean Walsh & The National Reserve

I'm a big Bruce Springsteen fan this is no suprise or secret to anyone who knows me personally, I own every record/live record/rareties/best of/dvd/video and a couple of t-shirts. As a result I like anything that sounds like Bruce, Gaslight Anthem, Hold Steady, Lucero, on the other hand I hate all cover versions of Bruce Springsteen (even the ones done by aforementioned bands), so as an uber fan (and probably amongst the youngest, I'm 23) I am still very critical of people that call the boss a influence. Sean Walsh calls Bruce an influence and while there are a few musical cues to New Jersey's number one son, the real connection is in the honesty and personal storytelling elements to his songs, which do bring him closer to Jesse Malin more so than the boss.
Sean Walsh & The National Reserve have already played with Dr. Dog and Vampire Weekend and self-released an album "Homesick" and his music is already self assured and warm that beyond his inspirations is a young artist with rich songs worthy of your time and attention

www.myspace.com/seanwalshmusic

Kidstreet

Kidstreet are a sibling threesome from Waterloo, Ontario who make dance pop with a striking female vocal, "Grow Up" is the most striking example of their current canon, recalling mid 90s girl fronted electro pop with naive although strikly frank lyrics "I don't want to grow up, but being young ain't that great I'm sure that you can relate to..." is the peter pan role call of 2010. Although still a way to go to humanize their poppy anthems to a wider audience, keep your eyes out for these three. (Great remix of Caribou's standout track Sun on their myspace too)

www.myspace.com/kidstreet

The Travelling Band

The Travelling Band are from Manchester, UK so it puts me to shame that I hear about them whilst in New York. Big English pop with group vocals, great orchestration and some anthemic bridges that could easily out heart a lot of current critic and audience darlings.

www.thetravellingband.com

Street Chant

For Fans of more simplistic scuzzy punk rock, look no further, great rock and roll riffs, some great male/female call and response vocals, fresh from Auckland, New Zealand, and let's face it there are simply not enough bands from New Zealand getting any sort of international exposure. For Fans of The Thermals, Screaming Females and a rocking good time with plenty of sing-a-long indie rock harmonies! I think you'll like this @buyyourself

www.myspace.com/streetchant

Telenovelas

Telenovelas are from Brooklyn, New York (my current holiday spot) and I couldn't tell you anymore about them (as I missed them to see the above) but their music is shoegazey thrashy surf pop, and their three songs on myspace/bandcamp are what is good and pure about hazey guitar screaming lo-fi lazy creep pop in 2010. Supposedly they are great live too!

http://www.myspace.com/telenovelasnyc

Hazard Adams

Hazard Adams is good time rock and roll often drifting into country and americana, based in Boston, MA their solid guitar based pop songs with a raw and unnerving vocal performances and some good feelin' percussion, "Golden Oldies" is the ideal party music for a college dock party with a side of whiskey and a glance at the mainstream.

http://www.myspace.com/hazardadams

FTC Discovery 5: Freedom or Death

Freedom or Death



Freedom or Death come from Toronto, ON and make some of the most earnest/thought provoking indie pop this side of the first Band of Horses record, the duo met through major record label and decided to make an artist record rather than something they knew would sell or be perceived wrongly as a hit and thanks heavens for that because their debut EP, which includes simple drum machines, soaring guitars and some direct vocals is a discovery for all fans of good diy/bedroom indie pop. The duo have various experience throughout their personal and musical scene, writing lyrics which have a mass appeal but also as they describe a truth to them with an ambition to simply make music that they enjoy and that appeals to them, thankfully Freedom or Death is a project which I believe many will hold close to the hearts for years to come.

http://www.myspace.com/freedomordeathmusic

FTC Discovery 4: Bad Books

Bad Books

Bad Books is the side project is Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra's Andy Hull but their debut record is in no way tied down by their musical influence or previous work. Bad Books' self titled debut is filled with fully formed alt-rock songs not a million miles away from their previous work either, but the confident exchange they achieve from each other brings the songs alive. The album is amongst the hyperbole organic and based around pop melodies and more importantly is excellent because it brings together two of the worlds biggest joys; music and best friends.
www.myspace.com/badbooksmusic