Annabel
Now That We’re Alive
Self-Released; 2008
Dear sweet indie-pop,
You are so revered, yet so maligned. While your dulcet tones are constantly duplicated, you are never truly understood by your adherents. Whether it’s your present penchant for creating epic crescendos with quirky instrumentation, or your dedication to craft seemingly innocent songs that seek to break pop music’s reliance upon the verse-chorus-verse structure, you still manage to frustrate yourselves and others with your contrasting “aw-shucks” and “woe is us” personas. It seems that you have spawned yet another child in the form of Annabel and their debut EP Now That We’re Alive, an effort comprised of five sweet songs that glisten and sing with their sweet vocals and chiming guitar lines. This current incarnation of your presence in the music world finds itself nestled safely within the confines of Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, and Death Cab for Cutie, and while it is a bit derivative, the album borrows ably, capably, and courteously from its elder siblings. With never-offending and ever-dreaming songs like “Parade Best” and “If The Accident Will,” Annabel takes its place under your welcoming umbrella, a locale that is packed to the gills with fans and bands who politely crunch themselves together in hopes of hearing another 4-to-5 minute soaring pop ditty that they can excitedly nod their heads to.
Download “Boquet Mines”
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The Cotton Jones Basket Ride
Archery EP
Quite Scientific Records; 2008
Musicians and visual artists have this annoying tendency to gushingly eulogize the past in hopes of latching onto some bygone symbol or recovering a revered relic that might give their present work some sort of false vitality or historical context. Few of these artistic archaeologists can capably unearth these treasures without damaging the actual artifact – sometimes the traits and characteristics of past movements should be left in the past. And from The Doors to The Animals and everything in between, one gravesite that is all too frequently plundered is that of ‘60s psychedelics, yet none do so as reverentially and precociously as Michael Nau. Formerly the principal singer/songwriter of Page France, Mr. Nau has returned under the moniker of The Cotton Jones Basket Ride with a three-EP project, with Archery serving as the second installment. The reason that this six-song pop gem works so well is the reserved tone that he takes with each track, eschewing the preening bombast of Jim Morrison and the over-the-top intensity of Eric Burdon, while maintaining the classic fuzzy guitar tones and warbling organ swells over nouveau indie-folk song structure. What results is a collection of tracks that politely introduces themselves at your door, refusing to barge inside unless granted permission, yet proves to be an utterly unexpected delight as a houseguest. With “Silver Piano Man” and “Midnight Monday and a Telescope” serving as the key cuts, Archery proves to be a charming, if not too terribly original, little EP that will please many fans of ‘60s folk-pop.
Download “Midnight Monday and a Telescope”
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Subrosa
Strega
I Hate Records; 2008
Let’s go ahead and get the obligatory supposedly shocking factoid out of the way. Subrosa is a four-piece doom-and-gloom style metal band that just so happens to be all female in composition. That’s right, folks – in case you weren’t sure, from Aretha, Janis, and Debbie to Liz, Sleater-Kinney, & even Kittie, women have long proven that they are more than able to rock and they can do so early, often, and in copious quantities. But what makes Strega, the group’s debut full-length, so impressive is the display of actual mettle of their metal, the substance in their swagger. Featuring a hauntingly, achingly beautiful lead vocal that straddles the line between the stuff of dreams and nightmares, the band possesses a sound replete with thick, fuzz-soaked guitar lines and perpetually pounding rhythms designed to compel even the most stoic amongst us to bang his/her head along with these songs. While there are instances when the music is little more than average stoner rock (“How to Neglect Your Heart” is a good example), the key tracks on Subrosa’s Strega (“Crucible,” the title track, and “Selt-Rule”) display a group of strong, talented women that should have some of their lesser, eyeliner-adorned male counterparts shaking and quaking in their overly clean, corporately sponsored boots.
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Mark Mathis
We Both Was Young
Freshwater Records; 2008
The beauty behind Southern fiction is how an author can turn a lovely phrase by providing detailed descriptors of the physical scenery and the emotional landscape of the characters, but still somehow manages to leave the plot and its larger ramifications open to interpretation. Writers from the American South seem to possess this innate, almost perverse ability to effectively display the realities of Southern social conventions in stark relief and then swiftly turn those customs on their respective heads. Mark Mathis looks to join the ranks of these masterful storytellers with the release of his debut record We Both Was Young, an 11-song project detailing the intimate, personal conversations the main character has with his wife and family at various times in their shared history. His easygoing, yet quite sincere style easily evokes comparisons to Joe Henry and Iron & Wine, while retaining his own personality, as best displayed in tracks like “Sharecropper Takes a Colored Wife,” “Prenup,” and “I am the Deep Blue Sea.” Mathis is a songwriter whose talents and skills should garner him some increased attention and will prove be more than attractive to those music fans with a proclivity towards deep, resonant stories told over accessible country-folk rhythms.
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