I’m finding it hard to get over how trippy this video is, and I’m not entirely convinced that’s a good thing. Case in point, I felt the same way about “Casual” by Here We Go Magic. That video was so raw and shocking, it made me look at the song… differently… for a while. And maybe that’s the problem. I’ve only listened to “Tiny Head” by The Luyas while watching the video.

So, about the video. It features main woman Jessie Stein using various artifacts to create very interesting visuals. The Luyas create dream pop and it sides on the experimental, so the video works quite well; it’s just odd. But good. In fact, perhaps that’s what makes a video truly excellent — when it’s put together in a way that it alters your perception of the song. Not bad for a video with a budget of $40!

Tiny Head by The Luyas from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

So I’m really digging this band Suuns. Somewhere between shoegaze and electronica to noise and dub, their music is subtle and dreamy, but filled with an abundance of great hooks and hip beats. Zeroes hits all the right notes for a band that meshes very distinct, separate genres that occasionally overlap. Zeroes begins with a dub-influenced drone and the lyrics I killed a man when I was 11 years old, but I’m innocent. It begins a whirlwind of an EP that jumps between genres with frequency and fluency.

Opening with “The Disappearance of the Skyscraper”, Zeroes quickly enters “PVC (EP Version)”, a song that meshes that same dub-drone of the opener with bouts of shoegaze and epic post-rock drone. “Arena (EP Version)” starts with electronic synth-like beats and eventually enters into wispy, dreamy lyrics and enormous guitar noise both alarming and brilliant. Suuns, like I noted before, hits all the right notes. Zeroes is the perfect portrayal taking that which has been done before and making it fresh and exciting.

This is borderline obsession, people. Seriously.

Secretly Canadian is currently offering Zeroes as a free download.

Download: “Disappearance Of The Skyscraper” by Suuns

Download: “Optimist” by Suuns

Secretly Canadian [Digital EP, 2010]

1. Disappearance of the Skyscraper
2. PVC (EP Version)
3. Mudslinger
4. Arena (EP Version)
5. Nnnnnnn
6. Optimist

Dead Oceans announced yesterday the sophomore release by Portland’s Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, titled Where The Messengers Meet. The album, out August 3, hits about a year and a half after the band’s self-titled debut. That album came in just outside our top 10 album of 2009 thanks to angular, erratic, and often hauntingly frantic musicianship fronted by expert, harmonic vocals.

This new offering comes with a tune from the forthcoming album. The song is called “Leaving Trails” and it highlights vocalist Benjamin Verdoes in a slightly different light. Remaining are his oft distorted vocals, but here they’re deep and not nearly as urgent as those off the debut. In fact, the entire song is like this — it’s borderline dreamy, focusing on harmony rather than dissonance, melody over discord.

The harmonies were once obscure, but that has been replaced with that which is slightly more peaceful. Those elements seemed to create a haunting effect on the debut yet here MSHVB demonstrates they can be just as haunting on the flip-side. With the power behind Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band’s debut and the progression seen in “Leaving Trails”, Where The Messengers Meet is easily one of the year’s most anticipated new releases.

Download: “Leaving Trails” by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

Citay‘s new LP, Dream Get Together, just found its way into my inbox. There are several descriptors you could apply to the album, from Cosmic to Anthemic. But when it really comes down to it, Dream Get Together finds a unique place in music simply due to its wide breadth of influences — so wide that the music they create has become unlike any of the bands whose influence they draw. This is apparent from the get-go with “Careful With That Hat”, a song that channels the likes of Led Zeppelin, Styx, Electric Light Orchestra and Eno on one end, yet throws in a few 80s hair guitar riffs while the band dons an indie-pop Essex Green or other E6 band male/female collective vocal style. You’ll hear this style of vocals throughout the album, from the light, folk-pop “Mirror Kisses” to the intense pop of “Fortunate Son”. And these songs are split by the harder, more epic wailing instrumental, “Hunter”. Throughout Dream Get Together, Citay takes a sound familiar to the late 70s and early 80s, with wildly epic, dreamy guitar solos, and make it modern. Dream Get Together closes with a cover of Galaxy 500′s “Tugboat”, a seemingly perfect close to an album so diverse in influences it has become entirely original, and brilliantly awesome.

Download: “Careful With That Hat” by Citay

Download: “Mirror Kisses” by Citay

Dead Oceans [CD, 2010]

1. Careful With That Hat
2. Return From Silence
3. Dream Get Together
4. Secret Breakfast
5. Mirror Kisses
6. Hunter
7. Fortunate Son
8. Tugboat

Bowerbirds create the type of folk music you could easily equate to being one with nature. It is above all the noise and shuffle of city life, just beyond the outskirts of small town life, and is that of the sustainable life. It seems to have a minimal footprint on this earth not because it isn’t popular or un-noteworthy, but because it is conscious and earthly. It is aware of something greater than the individual, something as great as a planet. Or the concept of pure love. “Northern Lights” demonstrates the culture this music radiates quite well.

I saw Bowerbirds perform at CMJ in 2007. The stage that evening was packed with excellence; I caught breathtaking performances by Le Loup and Papercuts as well. And I met Sean Moeller, the wordsmith behind Daytrotter. He had raved to me about the band, and would go on to write the following just over a month later:

Will Oldham’s character in this year’s Old Joy talks about how hard it is to find real quiet these days. It’s a thought that’s absolutely occurred to Phil Moore, Beth Tacular and Mark Paulson of the North Carolina band The Bowerbirds. It’s a thought that’s been rung through their soft ears like a hard rain for years now and they’ve slinked away from the noise, the stupid cacophony that the rest of us – like it or not – consider to be something of a modern miracle.

Escapism comes in many forms. I am just as likely to toss Arrested Development into my DVD player as I am to stow away in my spare bedroom that acts as a dark music archive. Creating and performing music, too, is a form of escapism. Bowerbirds know this, but they also know that sometimes, to get away from it all, you really need to disappear.

Download: “Northern Lights” by Bowerbirds

“Northern Lights” by Bowerbirds from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

On Friday, Skagit County saw it’s first true day of winter for the ’09/’10 season, which is a bit strange as it’s now April. It hailed in between bursts of clear, sunny skies. It was also the first day of the summer barbecue at Red Apple; and it was the day I saw “Winter” by Nurses over at Sound On The Sound. Nurses should have been included in my list of 10 bands I should have checked out last year. They made several end-of-year lists, including #3 on SOTS. “Winter” aptly demonstrates what led this band to place so high. Musically it’s excellent, and the video is occasionally reminiscent of something you’d expect to see from Sweden’s The Knife.

“Winter” is off Nurses’ Apple’s Acre from 2009 on Dead Oceans. The label (part of a collective with Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguar) just posted a slew of videos on Vimeo, so you’ll probably see a few more crop up here this week…

Download: “Technicolor” by Nurses

Nurses “Winter” by Hans Lo from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

It hasn’t been all too long since Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band released their first video for a track off this year’s excellent self-titled debut LP, out now on Dead Oceans. In “Albatross, Albatross, Albatross” the band alters tempo and volume for a song both erratic and astounding. Signature to Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is the wild guitars highly infectious riffs and a vocal styling that is par none. The video takes the viewer through a similar mind-altering experience; it’s the makings of a short horror story.

The plot follows a young couple who row out to an island, where a mysterious boy watches. The themes are clear: the silver locket around her neck, the quest for survival, the epic Albatross bird, mystery. It’s rare you find a video with so much depth, rare that you find one you simply must watch over and over in an attempt to glean meaning from the images and words that pour forth from the screen. “Albatross, Albatross, Albatross” is such a music video.

“Albatross, Albatross, Albatross” was directed by Matt Daniels of Thinklab. His prior work includes “Lolita” by Throw Me The Statue and “Caskets” by Damien Jurado.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: Anchors Dropped [mp3]

Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band, “Albatross, Albatross, Albatross” from Matt Daniels on Vimeo.

Any time the words “community” or “family” to a band moniker, one gets the distinct impression that the group is an ever morphing being, consistently and regularly adding people. On one end, a keyword is variation — a live performance could feature a band leader solo or with a few select members. On the other is quantity, noting an expansive collective of individuals. And so it is with Akron/Family; the core of the band is a trio and may, at any time, feature them alone or include a dozen additional guest musicians.

Whatever the case may be, you folks in the West can see Akron/Family on tour late this month and early the next, with select dates in California, Oregon and Washington. I’ve include these shows below the mp3 download/stream, but if you’re elsewhere in the states, you can see their full lineup on the Akron/Family tour page.

Akron/Family’s latest LP, Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, is out now on Dead Oceans.

Akron/Family: River [mp3]

8/24/09 Santa Monica, CA – Morning Becomes Eclectic (89.9FM KCRW)
8/28/09 San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands Music Festival w/ John Vanderslice
8/29/09 Los Angeles, CA – El Ray Theatre
9/07/09 Seattle, WA – Bumbershoot Festival
9/08/09 Portland, OR – Bagdad Theatre

Destruction has never been so catchy, as proven by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band in their video for “Cheer For Fate”. The song, as noted in my review of their self titled Dead Oceans LP, the song originated from the group’s debut, Weepy EP.

I hailed “Cheer For Fate” as perhaps the most unique and catchy tune on the EP and that status carried over onto Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band. The video finds Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band destroying material possessions and destructing the interior of a house.

The result makes it one of the best videos so far this year; from the old film used to their indie-pop attire, this video is quite nontraditional. Yet it fits perfectly with the Seattle band’s song. Summation: Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is one of the hottest bands out there today.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band heads out on a West Coast tour this week with Cursive. Check the Pacific Northwest dates; it all kicks off tonight in Seattle.

6/23 – Seattle, WA – Neumo’s
6/24 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
6/26 – Orangevale, CA – Boardwalk
6/27 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
6/28 – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey
6/29 – Pomona, CA – Glasshouse

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: Cheer For Fate [mp3]

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: Anchors Dropped [mp3]

Four of the eleven tracks on the latest release by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, actually their debut full-length, are not exclusives. These four can also be found on their Weepy EP and include opener “Who’s Asking”, “Cheer For Fate”, “Anchors Dropped” and “Dull Reason”. But, to be honest, I could care less. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is a phenomenal release worthy of as much esteem as the whole world can muster.

Like the tracks off Weepy EP, the seven exclusives are filled with edgy, gritty rock in the vein of Wolf Parade and Tapes ‘N Tapes. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, however, makes the sound their own with, for example, forays into romantic waltz breakdowns as found in “Masquerade”. They include clever plays on time throughout the song and throughout the album. It’s obvious that there is skill here, and that the skill is bristling to burst forth – it is a trait the band possesses that, oddly enough, this band has barely tapped.

Skill. It’s bountiful here; check out the percussion in “Going On A Hunt” and listen how the band transitions and transforms from that song to the ballad-worthy first half to “A Year Or Two”. And the harmonies! You’ll be hard-pressed to find these abilities in either of the aforementioned contemporaries’ debuts. Sure, they may have come close, but… wow. It’s enough to leave you speechless.

If you thought Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band prooved themselves on Weepy EP, you haven’t heard anything yet. The iceberg has been tapped and as it melts, out pours skill that grows more and more impressive as the album commences. Keep an eye on this band, folks – there’s something special here that simply cannot be ignored!

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: Cheer For Fate [mp3]

Dead Oceans [CD, 2009]

1. Who’s Asking
2. Masquerade
3. Cheer For Fate
4. Anchors Dropped
5. Going On A Hunt
6. A Year Or Two
7. Albatross, Albatross, Albatross
8. Dull Reason
9. Little Red Shoes
10. En Fuego
11. On The Collar