Category Archives: Album of the Week

Brightblack Morning Light (BBML) – Motion to Rejoin

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Artist: Brightblack Morning Light
Album: Motion to Rejoin
File Under: Freak Folk
Recommended if You Like: Devendra Banhardt, Joanna Newsom, Spiritualized
Featured Track: Oppressions Each

Brightblack Morning Light is headphone heaven mood music to me.  It’s trippy, hypnotic and spellbinding. ‘Motion to Rejoin’ is the third album they recorded from a secluded adobe in New Mexico.  And the tempo of the album seems to be indicative of the speed at which BBML’s world moves – slooooooow.

Check out this excerpt from BBML’s artist statement for insight into this eccentric duo:

Previous to this recording, while BBML toured Europe, singer Naybob Shineywater sang each show with an arrowhead in his mouth. Why? To let his own sung words & breathe touch this stone before european ears could hear them. 

“I was not singing for war, but to engage the spirit of the maker of the arrowhead itself, to offer up Peace, that his warrior effort find a new respect, and to help my own warrior spirit sing in Peace,” reveals Naybob.

After returning from the european tour, a chance to move in to an adobe on a secluded enchanted mesa came to Naybob. With only 4 solar panels, it matched his desire to live in a meager way while making the 2nd BBML LP. “Motion To Rejoin” is anti nuclear and coal, but also aligned with the phases of the sun. “With only 4 solar panels you are entirley dependent upon how much the sun is shining,” informs Naybob.

Oh yeah.  Pass the peace pipe, Naybob, and sign me up for your Cafe du Nord shows October 14 and 15.

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Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line

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Artist: Ra Ra Riot
Album: The Rhumb Line
File Under: Indie Pop
Recommended if You Like: Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend
Featured Track: Under Ghost Rocks

The best way I can describe Syracuse-based Ra Ra Riot is Arcade Fire meets Vampire Weekend – upbeat rhythms layered over rich orchestral-based melodies. And their live shows, with their huge ensemble cast, are raucous and infectious – just like Arcade Fire.  If you like either of those bands, it would be worth your while to give Ra Ra Riot a listen.  They were the darlings of SXSW this year and are fast becoming a critics choice for 2008 as well.

‘The Rhumb Line’ is the band’s first LP and a tribute to the recent drowning of band member, drummer John Pike, who co-wrote most of the lyrics for their debut album. The title of the album, ‘The Rhumb Line’, is fitting in both its nautical theme and meaning – a term for the constant course a vessel takes in a give direction.  Which is what the remaining band members have had to do.

See them live tomorrow, September 24, at The Rickshaw Stop or watch the video for, ‘Ghost Under Rocks’:

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Lackthereof – My Haunted

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Artist: Lackthereof
Album: My Haunted
File Under: Lo Fi Indie Pop
Recommended if You Like: The National, Bon Iver, Bonnie Prince Billy
Featured Track: The Columbia

Lackthereof is the solo side project of Portland, Oregon’s Menomena drummer, Danny Seim.  He’s self recorded many albums under this moniker.  I just stumbled upon this release from earlier this year entitled, ‘My Haunted’, and can’t stop listening to it.  It’s such a beautiful, gentle, lo-fi, atmospheric album – in the same sense that Bon Iver evokes.  But his voice is like listening to The National’s, ‘Fake Empire’.  A lovely combination indeed.

He also just released a new album, ‘Your Anchor‘, last month.  Check it out as you won’t be seeing him live anytime soon. He doesn’t have any plans to take this gig outside of Portland at the moment.  

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Sam Champion – Heavenly Bender

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Artist: Sam Champion
Album: Heavenly Bender
File Under: Classic Indie Rock
Recommended if You Like: Pavement, Stephen Malkmus, Built to Spill
Featured Tracks: Jealous Shakes, Be Mine Everyone, Dead Moon

Are you a Pavement fan?  If not, stop reading this RIGHT NOW.  I’m sorry to say we can no longer continue this relationship.  If you are, you’re gonna like the latest release, Heavenly Bender, from the Brooklyn-based quartet, Sam Champion.  Steeped in lo-fi, garage-rock jams, their sound may be a little too Wowee Zowee for the non-Pavement aficionado, but for me it’s the perfect combination as bands like Pavement /Stephen Malkmus represent everything I like in Indie Rock music – crunchy guitar jams sandwiched between sweet harmonies.  My indie rock PB&J.  That and I like the band’s sense of humor.  Check out their promo video below.

Listen to ‘Dead Moon’:

Listen to ‘Jealous Shakes‘:

Listen to ‘Be Mine Everyone’:

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The Acorn – Glory Hope Mountain

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Artist: The Acorn
Album: Glory Hope Mountain
File Under: Canadian Indie Rock
Recommended if You Like: David Byrne, Fiery Furnaces
Featured Track: Flood Pt. 1

Part biographical narrative, part surreal fairy tale, Glory Hope Mountain is the story of Gloria Esperanza Montoya. Based on interviews recorded in early 2006 by her son, Acorn songwriter Rolf Klausener, the album is a sonic retelling of the stories from her early life in Honduras to her eventual immigration to Montreal in 1972.

It’s an incredible concept album whose songs weave a beautiful tale – infusing traditional Honduran folk forms with lovely melodies in a way that’s very reminiscent of David Byrne – and ends with one of the most gorgeous lullabies I’ve ever heard.

Be sure to check them out at The Hemlock on October 21.  Enjoy The Flood Pt. 1:

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Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

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Artist: Cut Copy
Album: In Ghost Colours
File Under: Electropop
Recommended if You Like: New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Ladytron, LCD Soundsystem
Featured Tracks: Lights & Music

I just bought tickets for Cut Copy’s show at the Mezzanine in San Francisco on October 5 and realized that I haven’t featured this in my Album of the Week series yet.  For shame!  This album has been in heavy rotation in our household since it’s release in April this year and has to be one of the most fun albums of 2008.  

While it doesn’t fall into my usual genre, I can’t seem to get enough of their 80’s New Order, Pet Shop Boys sound.  And neither can Judah.  The track Lights & Music has secured top spot on his own personal Rhapsody playlist and inspired robot dance moves that made waves among hipster blogs like Hipster Runoff earlier this summer. Showing everyone it’s hip to dance with your pants off.

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High Places – 03/07-09/07

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Artist: High Places
Album: 03/07-09/07
File Under: Experimental
Recommended if You Like: Panda Bear, Atlas Sound, Ruby Suns, Animal Collective
Featured Tracks: Head Spins

How to describe High Places sound.  It’s difficult.  To quote the band, “Where the ocean meets the forest, this is where we sing our chorus.” The Brooklyn-based duo, consisting of Rob Barber and Mary Pearson, take simple beat structures, layer it with echo and reverb and top it off with the pretty songs of cloud gazing and existential yearning. It’s heady and hypnotic in it’s repetition.  Charming and tranquil in it’s simplicity.

Their debut EP is a compilation of singles collected over a six month period, thus the title 03/07 – 09/07. The album is a pre-cursor to their full length LP scheduled for release September 23 on their newly signed label, Thrill Jockey.  I have high expectations.  Until then, enjoy 03/07-09/07 and make sure to check them out at Bottom of the Hill October 8.

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The Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead

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Artist: The Helio Sequence
Album: Keep Your Eyes Ahead
File Under: Dream Rock
Recommended if You Like: Early U2, Band of Horses
Featured Tracks: Lately

The Portland-based duo, The Helio Sequence, released their third album ‘Keep Your Eyes Ahead’ in January of this year; but it’s one of those records I just keep coming back to again and again. While this post may be long overdue, the relevance of this recommendation is right on.  It’s a great summer album. Perhaps it’s because there are moments on the record that sound so early U2/Joshua Tree I can’t help but feel nostalgic.  

To see them live gives you an even greater appreciation of their range and talent. Drummer Benjamin Weikel is mesmerizing to watch on stage with his visceral drumming technique, as if he’s in some altered state of ecstasy.  Combined with Brandon Summers refined vocals and radiant layers of reverb guitar, the duo produces a lot of good sound.  It’s certainly high on my list for Best of 2008; maybe even claiming title to ‘Sleeper Album of the Year’.  So go get it already.  Hurry, before the summer’s up.

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The Ruby Suns – Sea Lion

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Artist: The Ruby Suns
Album: Sea Lion
File Under: Psychedelic Indie Pop
Recommended if You Like: Panda Bear, The Magnetic Fields, Cocteau Twins
Featured Tracks: These Are Birds, Kenya Dig It?

Listening to The Ruby Suns on the sunny beaches of Santa Cruz this weekend, feeling all bleary eyed and relaxed, reminded me how much I love this album.  The band’s founding member, Ryan McPhun, is a California native whose love for travel took him to far flung destinations like Africa and Thailand before settling in Auckland, New Zealand.  

Knowing that trajectory helps to make sense of the band’s sound, which is like a combination of sunny California psych pop and world music.  Some of the songs on the album are actually sung completely in Maori.  Co-vocalist Amee Robinson adds an etherial, dreamy quality to tracks like ‘These Are Birds,’ and at times her voice gives me flashbacks to the Cocteau Twins.  It a beautiful and atmospheric album, perfect for a sleepy Sunday morning at the beach.

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The Morning Benders – Talking Through Tin Cans

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Artist: The Morning Benders
Album: Talking Through Tin Cans
File Under: Indie Pop
Recommended if You Like: The Shins, The Kooks, Brian Wilson
Featured Track: Boarded Doors

The Bay Area’s very own indie pop rockers have released their debut album, ‘Talking Through Tin Cans’, and…I’m liking it!  I had to sit with it for a while because…nah, I couldn’t like a pop band, could I? But there’s something about the groups’ sunny California sound – catchy hooks and melodies, jangly guitars – along with their collegiate youthfulness that makes this an irresistible summer album.  That and I may be a bit nostalgic to the fact that they happen to be my little boy’s first official concert.

To add to my momentary love affair, they’ve just compiled an album of covers called, ‘The Bedroom Covers’, that they are releasing for free download.  The EP features 11 tracks from artists such as Velvet Underground, The Smiths, Fleetwood Mac and more.  Here’s a good sample from the Talking Heads:

Pull Up The Roots (Talking Heads)

Maybe I’ll look back on this as a summer fling or passing trend.  But until then, I plan on working this album for the summer, like my white jeans.

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