Pairing Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton with Cee-lo Green in Gnarls Barkley seemed natural. Setting him up with Beck, the Black Keys, MF Doom and Gorillaz made sense, too. But putting Danger Mouse in a recording studio with Shins frontman James Mercer is a less intuitive choice.

No one’s saying the Shins aren’t soulful in their own way, but Mercer’s quirky indie-pop sensibility seems less mutable than Burton’s omnivorous musical appetite. Still, they make it work as Broken Bells on a self-titled debut of the same name (Columbia).

From the start, there’s no mistaking either of them: first song “The High Road” opens with noodling electronic blorps and settles into a classic Danger Mouse soul vamp: dry purposeful rhythm and deep wandering bass enlivened by flashes of electronic color.

Mercer sings over that foundation in his familiar pinched voice, going high as he leads up to the chorus and sliding into a coda where wistful piano takes over.

The pair dials in a punchier sound on “The Ghost Inside,” a brisk rhythm, bright handclaps and burbling electronics framing Mercer’s falsetto vocals. “October” would have fit on the Shins’ last record, while “Mongrel Heart” has more of a Gnarls Barkley feel with active bass and a buzzing synthesizer.

There’s a little too much of that see-saw effect as “Broken Bells” teeters back and forth between Mousy songs and Shinsy songs. The ones that work best, naturally, are the ones where Burton and Mercer find a middle ground.

(Photo by Josh Cheuse)

March 9, 2010 at 10:42 am | Share | No Comments »

Not only is their second album a delightful leap forward, She & Him is bringing it to you live with a handful of shows at SXSW that come as part of a spring tour.

Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward have outdone themselves on “Volume Two” (due March 23 on Merge): the vintage-style pop songs are catchier and more daring, the production is lusher and Deschanel sings with tons more confidence. It is, in short, a keeper, and though they’re on the road right now, they won’t be forever: Ward has a promising solo career, and Deschanel is an actress or something, so catch them while you can.

She & Him performs March 18 at Cedar Street Courtyard, March 19 at Lustre Pearl and March 20 at Auditorium Shores.

Listen here to their new single, “In the Sun” (as soon as Merge fixes the link.)

(Photo by Taea Thale)

March 9, 2010 at 7:30 am | Share | No Comments »

Danish rock reaching U.S. shores in recent years has ridden a vintage sound, be it the stylish fuzztone songs of the Raveonettes or the garage-rock rave-ups of the Blue Van.

Choir of Young Believers seems to have an eye on the future with its music — essentially folk-pop songs with lush, soaring arrangements and dreamy, almost lofty vocals.

When his previous band broke up, Copenhagen rocker Jannis Noya Makrigiannis got the idea for Choir of Young Believers during a sojourn on the Greek island of Samos.

The group released its debut, “This is for the Whites of Your Eyes,” in 2008, and comes to the United States for performances that include at least 7 shows at SXSW, including an official showcase Wednesday at Galaxy Room Backyard.

Listen here to their song “Action Reaction.”

March 8, 2010 at 8:41 am | Share | No Comments »

The buzz that surrounded the Strange Boys at last year’s SXSW has only grown stronger, and the teenage garage-rockers just released their sophomore album, “Be Brave,” on super-cool indie label In The Red in the U.S. and Rough Trade in Britain.

Listen, Dammit, saw them play last year in a packed tent on a sweltering night when the pounder-sized cans of Lone Star beer couldn’t stay cold enough for comfort, and it was worth every second. If it’s raw, loud and surprisingly virtuosic garage rock you crave, don’t miss them this year — it couldn’t have been any cooler hanging with the Sonics in 1965.

The Strange Boys perform March 17 at Emo’s Jr. Listen here to the title track from “Be Brave.”

March 6, 2010 at 10:03 am | Share | No Comments »

There was a buzz last week when word filtered down that Big Star had added a show at SXSW. It’s going to be mobbed, of course (we’re glad we saw them last year in Brooklyn), but they’re not the only Ardent Studios band hitting Austin: Star & Micey will be there, too, with Big Star drummer Jody Stevens in tow.

The Memphis trio released its self-titled debut last October. In addition to Stevens, the record features Luther Dickinson and Rick Steff (of Lucero and Cat Power’s band). The band makes smart, solid rock with agile pop hooks and a deep undercurrent of soul — it is Memphis, after all.

Star & Micey performs Thursday, March 18, at Barbarella.

LISTEN

March 5, 2010 at 11:48 am | Share | No Comments »

It’s entirely possible that no one has ever struck as perfect a balance between abrasion and accessibility as Jaguar Love does on its new album, “Hologram Jams” (Fat Possum).

The record is a bracing amalgam of pounding dance beats, huge candy-colored hooks and Johnny Whitney’s throat-shredding vocals — it’s like a glass-gargling derelict with a sequencer has broken into the chocolate waterfall room in Willy Wonka’s factory, intent on making the Oompa Loompas dance, goddammit.

Like they could resist: with its buoyant, relentless beat and bright synthesizer line, opener “I Started a Fire” is at once ridiculously catchy and unhinged, while “Up All Night” is hypnotic and somehow tribal in an electro-raver way.

Blaring synthesizers and Cody Votolato’s twitchy guitar frame vivid lyrics on “Cherry Soda” (“Sugar-coated cherry soda/puking on the lawn,” Whitney sings), and “Evaline” dials down the beat somewhat, relying more on a dense wall of synths and guitars on what amounts to a harrowing love song for a troubled girl.

Whitney and Votolato played together in the beloved screamo (or post-hardcore or whatever) band Blood Brothers until that group split in 2007. Over the course of a single, an EP and a previous LP, they have demonstrated most persuasively that they’re doing just fine on their own. “Hologram Jams” merely hammers that point home.

LISTEN
Up All Night (download link)
I Started a Fire (stream)

(Photo by Lindsay Hutchens)

March 5, 2010 at 8:00 am | Share | No Comments »

With this year’s South by Southwest festival less than two weeks away, it’s time to start picking some bands to see in Austin. First up, Kaiser Cartel.

The Brooklyn duo describes itself as “low-fi, song-driven, harmony-heavy,” which sounds about right when you add that the pair is equally at home with a hazy, ’60s California-pop sound and a rootsier, almost vintage-Americana sound. (On their excellent “Rock Island EP,” they cover Lucinda Williams’ song “There’s Something About What Happens When We Talk.”)

Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel formed the group in 2006 and have since released three EPs, a full-length and a coloring book, and toured all over the place. (In fact, they were at SXSW last year, where Listen, Dammit, saw Cartel hanging at a Winterpills showcase, and totally mistook him at first for Jason Hammel from Mates of State.)

They perform Wednesday, March 18, at 10 p.m. at Lamberts. Listen here to their song “Carroll Street Station.”

March 4, 2010 at 10:03 am | Share | 2 Comments »

Talk about a grower: On first listen, we were bored 3 seconds in to “Giant Stairs,” a song from A Weather’s new album, “Everday Balloons.” Ten seconds later, we were riveted.

There’s a slow-burning quality to the tune as it moves from a spare guitar intro to hushed harmony vocals from Aaron Gerber and drummer Sarah Handley Winchester, a powerful low swell of electric guitars rising beneath them as they sing a refrain that’s almost sure to get lodged in your head.

The Portland, Ore., band recorded “Everyday Balloons,” its second album (which is somehow affiliated both with Team Love and Bad Panda Records), with engineer Adam Selzer, who’s worked with M. Ward, the Decemberists and Norfolk & Western. The album came out yesterday, March 2.

LISTEN
Giant Stairs mp3
(At the request of Bad Panda, we note that this song is distributed under a Creative Commons license: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0)

March 3, 2010 at 10:10 am | Share | No Comments »

Imagine, if you will, a parallel universe in which Nirvana’s “Nevermind” was a critical favorite that didn’t sell particularly well outside of the small niche audience interested in the Seattle “grunge” scene.

In this universe, the reaction to the combination of ’80s American punk rock and “Paranoid”-era Black Sabbath popular in the Pacific Northwest was a pale echo of the rapturous response to the blending of ’80s American punk rock and “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”-era Byrds pioneered by Uncle Tupelo on their ground breaking (and, in this scenario, platinum-selling) debut album, “No Depression.”

Listening to the blast of guitars on the opening track “Graveyard Shift,” this alternate time line doesn’t seem so far fetched. The energy doesn’t let up until the title track, a cover of a rootsy Depression-era Carter Family song so spot on you can almost feel the dust in your nose and throat.

It picks right up again with “Factory Belt,” lamenting the drudgery of blue-collar work while working up a fit of noise worthy of Sonic Youth. The remainder of the album shifts effortlessly back and forth between balls-out, Replacements-style sloppy punk and rough-yet-sweet country rock before closing with the traditional folk song “John Hardy.”

In the universe we actually live in, Uncle Tupelo is perhaps best known by the results of its demise: Jay Farrar’s Son Volt, and Jeff Tweedy’s Wilco. The success of their offspring combined with the slow boil of the American alt-country scene has kept Uncle Tupelo from the obscurity of fellow sonic pioneers like Seattle’s Green River or Louisville’s Squirrel Bait. Still, you can only wonder what could have been.

— Nicholas Coleman

March 3, 2010 at 8:00 am | Share | 1 Comment »

What Listen, Dammit, would really like to know is why Joanna Newsom felt it necessary to release so much music all at once.

“Have One On Me” (Drag City), the latest from the California indie-folk singer and harpist, is a two-hour affair (three discs in its physical form), full of the meandering pastoral meditations that dominated her previous release, 2006’s “Ys.”

Although it received a rapturous reception in hipster circles, “Ys” was a difficult record: five songs, ranging in length from 7 to 16 minutes, with orchestral arrangements by Van Dyke Parks and nary a melodic motif or lyric refrain to be found. It was like an album-length version of “The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles,” a vignette from Jethro Tull’s 1973 album “A Passion Play.”

Despite its length, “Have One On Me” feels less monolithic. That stems in part from lighter orchestration (Parks wasn’t involved this time) that emphasizes piano over ponderous strings, and also from more bite-sized songs that don’t require half an afternoon to digest.

In fact, the shorter songs are a lifeline here. Every time Newsom rambles on about daddy long legs or whatever, woodwinds twirling around her filigreed, quavering voice (think of an old lady on a forest walk, ceaselessly nattering to woodland creatures), there’s a song where the end is in sight of the beginning, which forces her to get to the point.

That is, without fail, a good thing. Sharper focus results in lilting songs like “’81,” which comes and goes like a gentle summer breeze, arpeggios rising and falling along with her sighing voice. Newsome summons a hummable melody for “On a Good Day,” a quiet, intimate song; and she sings softly and sweetly on “Jackrabbit.”

After reveling in her brevity, the longer compositions start to seem scattershot and, ultimately, somewhat self-absorbed. Maybe she’s making a larger point that we’re simply missing, but even if that’s true, did she really need two hours to make it?

(Photo by Annabel Mehran)

March 2, 2010 at 1:59 pm | Share | No Comments »