So there it is, the culmination of my tireless efforts late into the night two nights in a row. People have been calling it a dinosaur. I referred to it as ‘Gerald’. So given these two designations, one could infer that it was ‘Gerald the Dinosaur’, or a twelve foot phallus. Depending on what you choose to call it and the implications of that name, just know that it was a conceptual self portrait. Thank goodness for my Zen V, because without it, I wouldn’t have been able to get through all the music I had to review while working on my sculpture. First up is a band from San Francisco that sounds like the morose child of Metric and Ladytron. 
Artist: Anagram
Title: The Lights Went Up
The main theme on most of the songs is post break up bitterness, or grouchiness surrounding various relationship happenings. The only song that is kind of upbeat a little is “Shelter Street” (2), which features a spoken word interlude from a guy telling his chick friend about a hot chick he sees across the room. I’m sensing some jealousy on this one. “Thrill of Separation” (4) has some “Oomph” using some cool bendy synth and boy girl vocals. “The Right Kind of Love” brings out the gloomy-lovey atmosphere but keeps you awake with the beat. “9:05” (8) once again brings up the down tempo gloom, but busts out some powerful bass and pure 80’s synth to carve some hope into this largely morose album.
Video For “Shelter Street”
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Artist: Future Clouds & Radar
Title: Promo (CD 1 & 2)
This album is comprised of mellow dreamy pop. There’s timeless pop instrumentation of the piano, horns, guitar, used here. It’s pleasant but often forgettable. “You will be loved” (6) brings together some violin plucking, guitar licks, and a breezy beat that elevates it to catchy tune status. “Quicksilver” (7) sounds like a forgotten James Bond theme. The second CD is better. That disc has increased focus on more tracks, starting off with the rocking “Get Your Boots on” (2) which makes excellent use of guitar riff-age on an album that’s mostly sparkly retro pop. “Build Havana” (3) is a catchy tune aimed at cheering up a broken up girl, and how could she stay down with the island rhythm and soothing chorus. “Dr. No” (4) is a quirky little retro pop number that’s simple yet effective. “Altitude” (9) works the same way in a dreamier smoother way. While the album does feature some experimentation with samples and synthesizers, it’s greatest strength is it’s pop sensibility, because when they bust out the horns and strings and choruses they really shine. The only thing is this is a really long album. They could definitely have cut out a bunch of tracks. Maybe that’s what a promo is for, but it would be a lot better if they just kept the good stuff.
Future Clouds & Radar Myspace
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Artist: Call Me Lighting
Title: Soft Skeletons
These guys are somewhere in between the Fever, the Datsuns and the Hives. They employ the repetitive cyclical guitar riff trick that works sometimes, but most of the time it gets on my nerves. It’s the songs that they slow down and separate the havoc where they really build up the momentum. Like the Fever-esque “Beaming Streaks” (4) that uses disjointed guitar notes and breaks that build into full on rocking chaos. Album closer “Return as a Child” (11) uses this tension to create a great “training for a fight” montage song. Other notable tracks are bell augmented “Filthy Information” (7), shuffling and dance-able “Little Town”(10) and the crashing “Soft Skeletons”. If you’re in the mood to increase your heart rate and get that blood flowing for a half hour, here’s your treadmill.
Call me Lightning Myspace
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Artist: Softlightes
Title: Say No! to being cool
Say Yes! To being Happy
This album is a nice mix of acoustic piano and electronic beats and keyboards. The electronic touches are never enough to overpower the gentleness of most of the songs and it works out well that way. At times the vocals sound like Ben Gibbard, sometimes they sound like Conor Oberst, and sometimes they sound like Colin Meloy. Strange; I know. All of the songs drip with cute-ness over such subjects as relating ones self to a microwave (8) and solving world issues with cookies (10). There’s also a really fun song involving vocoder and arena rock riffs (4). The songs that are the most fun though are the bouncy songs about moving on from past loves. The best example is “A Town Named Blue” (5). Happy-cutesy, sometimes emotionally relevant bouncy indie pop is what we have here.
The Soflightes Myspace
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Artist: Diet Kong (recommended!)
Title: Diet Kong
This is a rock album made with some click beats, guitar fuzz, and keyboards. I wasn’t surprised to find that it is quite fun to listen to since that is right up my alley. When it’s not blasting forth with unique electro infused rockiness “Very Hot” (2), it’s bashing along with a good amount of old school rocking like in “With Magic” (6). The tracks that stand out for me are the ones where the atmosphere comes to the forefront and the sound becomes smoother and lighter, like in “Still Got Heat” (7) and “Kill the r.at.i.o.” (9). I found out that the Brooklyn artist who is largely responsible for this project, Keith Gladysz, designed all the artwork for the release as well as singing and playing various instruments. It’s that kind of DIY ethic in art and sound that I have a great respect for. I highly suggest you check out this stuff.
Diet Kong Myspace
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