Catfight! is one of those garage pop bands that infuse elements of punk with that of Brit pop.  Following this pattern, their songs tend to be short and to the point.  Their recent album In Stereo blurs the pop/rock genres by maintaining rock percussion (and a few rock-filled guitar riffs) and including pop traits like handclaps and bouncy melodies.

Woah.  I’m not generally one to pop a country or bluegrass album into my daily shuffle, but instrumental opener “Redemption” to The Molenes’ recent release, Songs Of Sin And Redemption immediately caught my attention.  In fact, many of the songs off Sin And Redemption stand out as intriguing enough to mention: “Bring The Bottle” and “Pain Express” both warranted a few extra repeat listens.

“Un Americaine A Paris” can be found on Rupa’s Extraordinary Rendition, out now on world music label Cumbancha.  Like its counterparts, if you only speak English, you won’t understand the lyrics, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy the song, or the video.

A Google search for The Boy Bathing will likely turn up some undesirable links about young boys taking showers or baths.  A YouTube search displays titles like “Skinny Boy Bathing” and “Arin Z in ‘Candy Boy Bath’”.  But it also yeilds a video for “The Beaches Meet The Sea” by the band called The Boy Bathing.

 

I always forget that The Helio Sequence is just two guys, one on drums and one on guitar/vocals.  Like many duos, their sound appears, on record, much louder.  Of course, on record, it’s usually more than simply the two—one member may add in some keys, or maybe some harmony vocals—and this showed in The Helio Sequence’s performance through samples on a laptop hidden from view.

Astralwerks [CD, 2008]

From the opening seconds of Strawberry Weed, Caesars make it clear that they're not afraid to make noise. Committed to the mod tradition of the Who, they are loud, abrasive and willing to run wild, yet they never lose their raw pop sense. They tap into that point in rock history when bands realized they should play really loud before the equipment was ready for it. The music here is loud, but in anything other than a hard rock way.

Leave it to Greg Vandy of KEXP’s Roadhouse to hold a contest for a makeshift jug band and leave it to Levi Fuller, known for his slap-stick DIY groups through the quarterly Ball Of Wax series, to win it.  Levi and five others took the contest and thus earned a spot opening the sixth annual KEXP Barbeque.

[CD, 2008]

Opening track “Used To Be Good” sets Key Party up to be a drawn-out, dramatic album packed with fuzzy guitars, moody synths and consistently programmed drum beats.  And that’s exactly what to expect as Key Party continues with a few experimental exceptions.

Live at The McLeod Residence

Jon Rooney, mastermind of Virgin Of The Birds and main force behind Abandoned Love Records, has become a good friend of mine over the past two years since our SXSW 2007 meeting.  But this was the first time I’ve been able to experience Virgin Of The Birds since he released the Mixed Choir EP in mid-2007.