Fred Thomas and Ryan Howard, the duo behind City Center, are set to give us their debut full-length, Redeemer. Their slightly reverb-laden dream pop is sometimes electro-infused, sometimes as lo-fi as the band’s K Records brethren. The album is a reflection on youth from one in the throws of growing up, an attempt to understand where they have been and project they are going (but mostly the former).

Redeemer is laid back with upbeat surges. The title track is soft and mellow but it sits comfortably between “Obvious” and “Modern Love”, two songs that counter its very nature. “Thaw” borders on post-grunge before diving into the bedroom-esque, ethereal but just-as-good “After Hours”. The album may vary in styles from time to time, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t astonishingly cohesive. It is.

City Center’s music is intensely good, which is a phrase not often said with dream pop (the intense part, that is). But it’s true. With Redeemer, Fred and Ryan have created an album wispy in its near-psychedelic dream state but with a bit more pop fervor than your standard dream-pop duo.

Download: “Modern Love” by City Center

K Records [CD, 2011]

1. Puppers
2. Obvious
3. Redeemer
4. Modern Love
5. Cookies
6. Thaw
7. After Hours
8. Untitled
9. Soft Marauder
10. Teardrop Children

Olympia band Lake returns this year with a new album called Giving And Receiving. If you like what you heard from their past few releases, including the phenomenal Let’s Build A Roof from 2009, you’ll dig this one. It has a pleasant mix of upbeat pop songs and chill mellow ones. “Within/Without” finds somewhat of a middle ground, with a slightly funky beat and their nice signature male/female harmony vocals.

I have to say, this video is great. It’s awkward pretty much throughout, thanks to strange poses/scenarios in a clash of retro and bizarre outfits. We get a nice taste of Giving And Receiving – the beats are a nice speed but the camera moves slowly and the vocals are quite laid back. It’s a little deceiving; you expect things to move faster, but they don’t. And that adds to the awkward element of the video that, in my opinion, helps make it hysterically brilliant.

Giving And Receiving was released on the 12th via K Records. “Within/Without” was directed by Adam Newport-Berra, who has also done work with Karl Blau and (most awesomely) North Highlands.

LAKE “Within/Without” from Howdy Friend on Vimeo.

Jeremy Jay debuted on the scene in 2007 with singles for Airwalker and We Were There. I snagged both of those at the time, and I really enjoyed them. His debut LP, A Place Where We Could Go, too, was impressive. He then released a few more LPs and a few more singles, and that leads us to his fourth album, Dream Diary. Born and raised in California, Dream Diary has that state’s sound — it’s sunny, but it irks to get away from the cookie cutter nature rampant in suburbia.

And Jay has done just that. He’s broken free from his Southern California upbringing and has transplanted himself in London. But it’s not necessarily blatant in his music.

Jay’s music has always had a lo-fi youthful spirit to it, one that hinted of a vast collection (and a good one at that) of LPs in the parent’s den. Dream Diary is no different. It has the same punchy guitar riffs hinting of decades gone that we found on his previous LPs. He backs them with atmospheric keyboard and synth melodies perfect for a summer cruise to the town’s “couples” hot spot. And Jeremy Jay continues to tease us with exhilarating, breathy vocals that hint of an audible orgasm.

“The Dream Diary Kids” rounds out the album with a memorable synth tribute, but I’d lean toward the combo of synth with guitar as being Jay’s best suit. Songs like “The Days of Casting Clouds Away” and “Caught In A Whirl” are highlights, emphasizing Jeremy’s deep voice but in a soothing, pleasant way. “Secret Sounds” and “In The Times” are also standout tracks, both utilizing Jay’s signature sound with seemingly simple guitar riffs and poetic lyrics have an off-kilter, odd sort of mysticism to them.

There’s plenty of color on this album, as there has always been in his music, but there’s something that elevates Dream Diary above what I’ve heard from him in the past. This is, without a doubt, his finest work yet.

Dream Diary comes out today on K Records. Above photo by Julien Bourgeois.

DREAM DIARY by Jeremy Jay Official

K Records [LP, 2011]

1. Out On The Highway
2. Caught In A Whirl
3. By The River’s Edge
4. Secret Sounds
5. In The Times
6. Shayla
7. The Days Of Casting Clouds Away
8. It’s Just A Walk In The Park
9. Our Only Light’s A Flashlight
10. Whispers Of The Heart
11. The Dream Diary Kids
12. Wild Orchids
13. The Man On The Mountain

I instantly fell in love with Lake upon first hearing them open for Microphones and Karl Blau at the final show of Anacortes’s cherished Department Of Safety. That I hadn’t heard them before was the shocking item, being they share a hometown with K Records and also release their albums on the label. Lake’s dreamy psychedelic pop flirts with subtle breezes and forested hills. The harmonies put on display by Eli Moore and Ashley Eriksson mold perfection beyond its previous benchmark.

“You Are Alone” and “Higher Than Merry” is the band’s first release since they gave us Let’s Build A Roof back in 2009. Opening with “You Are Alone”, we find the back picking up pretty much where they left off — heavy emphasis on keyboards backed by dual male/female vocals. It’s soft and pleasant, nearly quiet in its presence. Flip to the B-side and we hear something quite new — “Higher Than Merry” is upbeat to say the least, bouncy with a jazzy feel and outright joyous.

On one side, the Lake we loved in Let’s Build A Roof and on the other a new side of the band that’s a bit shocking, equally as interesting, and entirely fun. This single has it all, and makes their forthcoming record one to surely anticipate.

Download: “You Are Alone” by Lake

K Records [7" Single, 2011]

1. You Are Alone
2. Higher Than Merry

Throw Calvin Johnson into the mix, and, no matter what situation presents itself, it’ll always be a little awkward. That might come out wrong, but it shouldn’t. He is, in all aspects of the word, cool. When I saw him front The Hive Dwellers at the Anacortes What The Heck? Fest (the above photo was taken there), I was again thoroughly impressed with just how cool Johnson could be. So seemingly uncool that it’s gone full circle; there’s no one cooler.

This theme radiates throughout “Get In” with the signature Johnson bleeps and bloops (made here by piano/keyboard) and at the forefront the immense baritone vocals of Calvin himself. Yes, I’ve been waiting for this since last summer. “Get In” is off The Hive Dwellers’ new single of the same name. This 12-inch single is supplemented by three remixes of the song and (of course) released by K Records.

Download: “Get In” by The Hive Dwellers

You’re nuts if you pass up a chance to see Microphones perform live. After all, they’re typically billed as Mount Eerie these days. Essentially, they’re the same band and the music they make is, for lack of a better term, eerily similar. For the final performance Department of Safety would ever have, Microphones were the obvious choice of performer to conclude it all.

Lo-fi as all hell, perfect for DoS’s garage-site venue, and playing what Phil Elverum dubbed as a set filled with (if my memory serves me well) “songs about death, ghosts and mourning.” I think he slipped in one about morning as well.

The set was primarily acoustic, never quite slipping into that epic electric noise guitar that made Wind’s Poem (Mount Eerie’s 2009 LP) a favorite from last year. Still, it couldn’t have been a better farewell to a long-time Anacortes landmark for the music fan.

LAKE may only have played about 5 or 6 songs, but over that brief period of time they entranced the audience. Blending a lo-fi garage sound with psychedelic pop, the Olympia band was the first to perform at Department of Safety’s farewell show. With various synths and the clash of male/female vocals, LAKE demonstrated versatility in performance with members frequently exchanging instruments.

In all honesty, this was my introduction to LAKE. I had heard of them, but I hadn’t heard them. Live, their sound emphasized the lo-fi nature, a signature Olympia sound; and it fit Anacortes and Department Of Safety perfectly.

Throughout the evening, the band would return to accompany the other musicians. Not only did the band show great ability in their own songs and the genre in which they were most comfortable, they also gave a few phenomenal performances with artists as diverse as the eccentric Karl Blau and the eclectic free-improvising Arrington de Dionyso.

LAKE recently released a new album on K Records called Let’s Build A Roof. “Sing 99 & 90″ is from that album.

Photos by Andrew Fenstermaker.

Lake: Sing 99 & 90 [mp3]

Jeremy Jay is an old soul. His young demeanor, as pictured on the cover of this lovely single, is much more mature than his age. Similarly, the music he makes spans an age much greater than his. The songs, while not necessarily theatrical, have a vivid visual element to them that assists in creating a quite expansive library of aesthetic features. Were Jim Morrison to have instead spent his time with the creatives in the Chelsea Hotel, he may have sounded like this.

What’s striking is that each song Jeremy Jay touches possesses these highly visual and aesthetic qualities. Thus it is so on Breaking The Ice, a brief three-song single. “Breaking The Ice” is a true winner off Jay’s second LP, Slow Dance, while the alternate version of “Winter Wonder” is a more than viable b-side. The single concludes with a rare Buddy Holly cover; Jeremy Jay’s excellent rendition of “Words Of Love”, to which he lends his eccentric lo-fi dark pop mastery.

I’m continually astounded by the enchanting music Jeremy Jay puts out. It’s wise and just the right amount of emotive to evoke intense passion without being mopey and depressing. Instead, these songs come across as intelligent and astute. Jay is a true creative, and it shows in everything he does.

Breaking the Ice – Jeremy Jay

K Records [7" Single, 2009]

1. Breaking The Ice
2. Winter Wonder
3. Words Of Love (Buddy Holly Cover)