popwreckoning updates

New Metric Single “Help I’m Alive” Video & MP3

Posted: 05 Feb 2009 04:45 PM CST

On April 14th, Metric will release Fantasies, their 4th studio full-length. You can watch the video and download the mp3 for the record’s first single, “Help I’m Alive”. Metric will hit the road in June in support of Fantasies.

Watch “Help I’m Alive”:

Download “Help I’m Alive”:

Tracklisting:
01. Help I’m Alive
02. Sick Muse
03. Satellite Mind
04. Twilight Galaxy
05. Gold Guns Girls
06. Gimme Sympathy
07. Collect Call
08. Front Row
09. Blindness
10. Stadium Love

Metric: website | myspace | Emily Haines @ union pool

January 28, 2009 — New Metric Album to drop April 14th (1)
September 9, 2008 — Emily Haines @ Union Pool, Brooklyn (2)
August 27, 2008 — Emily Haines to Preview New Metric Material (0)
February 4, 2009 — Free Manchester Orchestra, Anni Rossi MP3s (0)
February 3, 2009 — Heartless Bastards, Tour Stop: Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ 2/4 (0)
February 2, 2009 — Offspring Video for “Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?” (0)
February 2, 2009 — Ladyfinger (ne) - Dusk (0)
January 30, 2009 — New Ben Kweller Music Video (1)
January 30, 2009 — Dead to Me - Little Brother (0)
January 29, 2009 — Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach plans solo record/tour (0)

Ray LaMontagne 2009 Tour Dates

Posted: 05 Feb 2009 03:52 PM CST

Ray LaMontagne announced his first North American tour dates of 2009. In April he’ll be starting at the Wellmont in Montclair, NJ and ending out the month in Miami at the Fillmore @ Jackie Gleason. The tour is LaMontagne’s second in support of his latest album Gossip In The Grain which achieved the Maine singer-songwriter’s highest chart number debuting at #3 on Billboard Charts its week of release.

Fans will also be given the opportunity to buy front row seats and support charity through Tickets-for-Charity®. A portion of each package purchased through their website will automatically benefit The National Children’s Cancer Society, while purchasers will be able to donate further proceeds to a wide variety of other charities.

Tour Dates:
Apr 02 - Wellmont Theatre /Montclair, NJ *
Apr 03 - Palace Theater / Pittsburgh *
Apr 04 - Tower Theater / Philadelphia *
Apr 06 - The Egg / Albany *
Apr 07 - Calvin Theatre /Northampton, Ma. *
Apr 08 - Schubert Theater /New Haven *
Apr 11 - Merrill Auditorium / Portland, ME *
Apr 12 - Flynn Center For The Performing Arts / Burlington *
Apr 14 - Metropolis / Montreal *
Apr 15 - Massey Hall / Toronto *
Apr 17 - State Theatre / Cleveland ^
Apr 18 - Taft Theatre / Cincinnati ^
Apr 19 - Michigan Theatre /Ann Arbor ^
Apr 21 - Riverside Theater / Milwaukee ^
Apr 22 - Pageant Theater /St. Louis ^
Apr 24 - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium / Asheville, NC ^
Apr 25 - Brown Theater / Louisville ^
Apr 27 - Alabama Theatre / Birmingham ^
Apr 28 - Florida Theatre / Jacksonville ^
Apr 29 - Tampa Theatre / Tampa ^
Apr 30 - Fillmore @ Jackie Gleason / Miami ^

* w/ The Low Anthem
^ w/ Jessica Lea Mayfield

Ray LaMontagne: website | myspace | @ uptown theatre | Gossip in the Grain review

Gossip In The Grain
Price: USD 14.99
54 used & new available from USD 12.80

Photo: Nick Davis

February 5, 2009 — YACHT March Tour, New Album “See Mystery Lights” (0)
January 30, 2009 — Minature Tigers to Tour with Ben Folds (0)
January 30, 2009 — Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound (1)
January 29, 2009 — Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach plans solo record/tour (0)
January 26, 2009 — The Ting Tings “That’s Not My Name” (0)
January 23, 2009 — Obi Best to Tour with The Bird and The Bee (0)
January 17, 2009 — The Ting Tings US Spring Tour (0)
January 15, 2009 — M83 to Perform on ‘Conan’, Tour with The Killers (0)
January 13, 2009 — Caught In Motion - On The Edge Of A Dream (0)
January 13, 2009 — Cursive Tour Dates (0)

The Odds - Cheerleader

Posted: 05 Feb 2009 02:15 PM CST

The Odds live up to their name on their latest release Cheerleader. With their frat friendly rock sound, The Odds sound like the type of guys that were kicking back with beers and checking out the cheerleaders after football practice rather than the type that would hole up in a studio to write an album called Cheerleader.

Fans of Third Eye Blind and Dave Matthews Band will surely love the cool brassy breakdowns that the Odds use in songs like “Cloud Full of Rocks” and “Come to LA”. With Matt Skiba like vocals and decent harmonies, I feel like these guys would do well in a college circuit and yet, I’m not blown away.

My issue with the Odds is their odd lyrics. While using “marmalade” to describe things may have worked for a group like the Beatles, it just does not fly in modern music. “White homies hang, but they don’t talk much,” fittingly got my attention in “Getting My Attention”, but not in a good way. No, these lyrics were just too silly for me to take seriously.

I almost feel guilty saying the grammatically confusing “River Is Cried” was my favorite song on this album. Despite the disappointing title, it has a very catchy chorus and some interesting instrumental build-up that do not disappoint. The cut-off after singing “stunning quiet” also makes for a good effect.

Cheerleader isn’t bad and you could say that it is generically good. However, I would like just a little more substance behind my lyrics.

Odds - “Write It In Lightning”

Odds - “Leaders of the Undersea World”

Odds - “Jumper”

Cheerleader is available now on Second Motion/Red Eye.

Tracklisting:
01. Cloud Full of Rocks
02. Write It in Lightning
03. My Happy Place
04. Getting My Attention
05. Breakthrough
06. Out of Mind
07. Feel Like This All the Time
08. Leaders of the Undersea World
09. Jumper
10. I Can't Get You Off
11. Always Breaking Heart
12. River Is Cried
13. Good Times Rolled Away
14. Come to L.A.

The Odds: website | myspace

Cheerleader
Price: USD 28.98
7 used & new available from USD 12.58

Written by: Bethany

January 29, 2009 — Testing For Echo - Renaissance EP (0)
February 2, 2009 — Built By Snow - Mega (0)
February 1, 2009 — Readymade Breakup - Alive on the Vine (0)
January 30, 2009 — Dead to Me - Little Brother (0)
January 27, 2009 — I Am The Branch - Drink Tea (1)
January 19, 2009 — East Hundred - Passenger (0)
January 19, 2009 — Sara Lov - The Young Eyes EP (1)
January 17, 2009 — Auburn - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (0)
January 16, 2009 — Sweet Water - Clear the Tarmac (3)
January 15, 2009 — Boxer Rebellion - Union (0)

Interview with: Kevin Devine, pt. I

Posted: 05 Feb 2009 12:15 PM CST

I wish I could say that this man needs no introductions and if you’re a regular of this site, that maybe true for you. Unfortunately, many still seem to have not heard of the passionate music of Kevin Devine. So whether you’re wondering who that guy playing with Brand New is, you’re already a fan or you just want to read a damn good interview check out Joshua’s chat with Devine:

Joshua, Popwreckoning: Let’s start out with a confession, which you might know already. In my first question, I basically put that when I started music journalism, you were the first press pack that I ever received with Make the Clocks Move.
Kevin Devine: Really?
PW: Like years ago, when I was doing the Indie Limelight thing. Before that, you released Circle Gets the Square. When you released that album, did you know or assume that you would come this far as a stint on Capitol Records and still be making solo records six years later?

KD: Definitely not. For better and for worse, and it's definitely for both. I don't — I never– I don't have the same sort of tangible goal set a lot of my peers that play music seem to have: sort of envisioning a career arc or taking pains to actualize a career arc. Maybe that's why things have been sort of scatter shower or maybe it's because I jump back and forth between playing alone with an acoustic guitar or playing along with sets or in the middle. Whatever.

It has been such a strange process, I just thought it was cool anyone wanted to put the record out. I mean at that point I was a student. I was still uncertain whether or not I was going to go to graduate school. Try to get in and continue work in freelance journalism and get work in that field. Take a serious crack and do music or none of the above. Or to just temper a love affair with words and try to go to graduate school for like a lawyer or something like that. I mean Miracle [of 86] was a band, but we had never done a tour. I had never done a tour when I had made Square. So definitely not. It definitely wasn't like this is the beginning of a long and illustrious affair. It was more like, you really want to put these songs out? You know?
It was like a 700 press hardcore record, I mean, it's not a hardcore record, but it was on a hardcore label, distributed in the hardcore scene. So I wouldn't even say that, I would say it's recent that I've even wrapped my head around the fact that I'm even doing professionally, however that's defined. It's so dependent on so many other factors: economically speaking and taste speaking. What people like and what they want to hear and what they're doing. I mean it's weird. I'm like very much fully involved and passionate and it's what I do all the time, but I'm also very aware of the fact that I feel like you're like, it's like standing in the middle of a lake in March that's been frozen all winter and you're standing in the middle of it and you have no idea when it's going to crack and if you're going to fall into it. So I don't know.
I just try to keep present for the entirety of it. I just try to keep in what I'm doing that I've had those thoughts about this is and I have had those thoughts where this record's going to do this. That hasn't worked well for me and those things don't happen the way you think they're going to and when they don't… My career has very much been steady stops on a slow Ferris wheel, not like a rocket ride up anywhere. Now I've finally gotten used to where if some record did blow up and sell hundreds of thousand copies, I probably would be more surprised than anybody else. You know? I don't know if it will happen or not, but it is certainly not the expectation.

PW: That you've had that thought process before, where you've thought that this is the record, I think that Put Your Ghost To Rest definitely had the potential to be that record. Capitol Records dropped the ball by not promoting it like they should have. It was in my opinion as good as any record that was released that year.
KD: Well, that's kind of you. Thank you.

PW: I didn't understand what, what didn't become of it. We pimped it pretty hard and we plan on pimping the next one pretty hard. From what we heard of it, we are in love with it. I want to lead into the next question. Album five, Brother’s Blood is set to be released I heard today in March of 2009?
KD: That was initially, I think, you should never say dates, but I think it's going to be April 28th. We thought it was going to be March 17th, but as is the thing that happens sometimes.

PW: You took a bit of a different approach to songwriting on this cut, allowing those that you are playing with to guide the sound as much as you do. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
KD: Yeah I mean. I think I had a thing in my head because of these people that I love that are geniuses like Brian Wilson or Elliott Smith or whether they're geniuses or not, they're brilliant at what they do. Or whether or not they're more workman like in craft like Matthew Sweet or Dave Bazan. They can play everything and I can't. I've done that on one recording where I've played everything on a song called “Haircut" that was on a 7″ that we then put on Split the Country [Split the Streets]. But I can pass at drums until I have to do a big fill. I certainly can't play them fast or with any kind of…you're not going to be wowed by them.
Same with, I can plunk out melodies on piano but I can't play piano. So instead of faking it or instead of like, I always have ideas of what I want things to be like, but I have other people play the things that I can't, but that's not to suggest that the other records prior to this were my saying that this will go here, this will go here. Probably 80 or 90 percent that and I played almost all the guitars on all the records and some of the records I played a bunch of the bass on them, too.
This record there's a little bit of personnel switching and the songs, I felt really solid in the songs, they felt different to me and the band just felt more confident and more settled to me than they felt before. So I just kind of decided the flip-side of all that is Neil Young or Bob Dylan or any number of any songwriters that I think are incredible that I'm not putting myself with, but I'm just saying as a reference point who never played anything, but what they were doing. And Dylan's stuff is so crazy because as much as a control freak as he is, his band shapes what you're hearing. The band on Bringing It All Back Home is different than Blonde on Blonde. It's different than Blood on the Tracks, you know? You hear that in the music, but the songs are all him and he comes through very strongly in that.
So Mike Strandberg is playing lead guitar. I haven't had a lead guitar player since I was in Miracle of 86 and these songs we took Russell Smith, myself and Mike. We took a three guitar approach to a lot of the heavier ones in particular and softer ones, too. So Brian Bonz is doing a lot of keyboard stuff, percussion stuff, so I was like let me see what it's like if I give them the songs and let them write what they're going to play instead of me writing what they're going to have to learn to play live or change live when we go on tour. We rehearsed for a month like a band. We went in like six, seven hours a day, two or three days a week and played songs over and over and arranged them. Stretched and changed them. They're all really good.
It kind of felt like get over yourself and give it to these people and see what they can do. I don't know what anything means anymore about how music gets received. I just know, I'm ecstatic with what's come out and I know that any other record I've ever made has, when you start getting the feelers out there, there's some people that think it's great, some people that think it's good, some people that are like eh and this is the first time that I think I'm getting all this feedback from people where a lot of people are telling me that this is that record. And I'm like great, but if it doesn't happen, I still have to be happy with it and think it's great.
I don't say that egotistically, but that I really like it when it comes on shuffle on my iPod where I say we made a good record, but you know it's different. We're playing four of the songs tonight and you'll see what I mean. There's a bit more focus on stretching out things and not as much a…Well songs are still how I write, they're still very lyrically focused, they're still those songs, but it's being kind of bound to one idea. I feel like Put Your Ghost to Rest is very centered around a guy and an acoustic guitar. Split the Country was half that which was leftover when Miracle broke up and wanting to make a lot of noise and Make the Clocks was like a basement record that was made in two weeks for very little money, but this record's like everything I like about music that I want to make on a record.

PW: You definitely perfectly led right into the next question, which is incredible, but I'm going to go back a second. What we heard, we heard the single you've released, "I Could Be with Anyone", it comes off like you described where you hear for I think the first time, and you know we've been following you quite awhile, it's the first time that I can hear an entire product instead of “this is Kevin's project.” There are unique parts that I wouldn't normally—the moogs, I don't know if it's a moog—
KD: Yeah, yeah, there's a synth in there.
PW: The synth especially, I wouldn't have ever incorporated with your sound, but it's catchy.
KD: And it doesn't feel, I shouldn't put words in your mouth, but to me it doesn't feel incongruous with what I do. I liked the Cars since I was 16. I like Weezer. I like a lot of stuff that has that kind of stuff in it and I think we've had piano on stuff, we've had some keyboard stuff. Brian is a much more texturally sonic, he's more into the spacier things that I tend to be more of a meat and potatoes song sort of guy and I knew what I wanted.
And on that song, it felt like a Cars song to me or a Superchunk, too. I felt like there should be that bridge. I had that melody the "ooh" in my head and I felt that should be on a synthesizer and then we just sat and fucked with sounds, but it feels like a band cause it is. Russell's detuning his guitar to D and putting a capo on the second fret and writing this weird dum dum dum dum dum that I never would have put in there. Strandberg is playing these leads on that. And then I get to play lead guitar or I get to play electric guitar.
I love electric guitar and it's not how I write. I write on acoustic a lot, so this was a really, I get to make a lot of noise and play with pedals. I love all that shit. I like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Built to Spill and Modest Mouse just as much as I like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Elliott Smith and Bob Dylan and so forth.

PW: I'm definitely excited to see it live because I'm going to, being in Lawrence, I very rarely get to see the electric side of you. I've gotten it once when you brought the Goddamn Band when you opened for KT Tunstall.
KD: That was a fun show. That was at the Liberty Hall?
PW: Yeah. And I've always gotten the acoustic. I'm not, well, not necessarily true, I guess you also played with the Goddamn Orchestra with Brand New.
KD: I had the Goddamn Band at that Brand New show, that wasn't the Manchester [Orchestra] guys. That was like the 4th show that tour. We had driven over night from Milwaukee. We had just added Russell to the tour and I remember that show being like, not playing it that way, but afterward being like, I don't think we nailed that one.
PW: The crowd was really shitty at that show, too.
KD: Well thank God I had the band with me because I could not have gotten up there on that Brand New tour alone, I would have gotten slaughtered if I did that, but it worked out well.
PW: I think it did.
KD: I think so, too.

PW: You've recorded in lo-fi and hi-fi styles cheaply with Chris [Bracco] and Mike [Skinner] producing you as well as with major label dollars in major label styles. In your opinion, which fits you better?
KD: It's so weird to feel so divorced from your own brain. When I think about these questions, they're really great questions, but I don't know how to explain this, but everything always felt like that's what was happening. That's not to say they're weren't elements of stress when we were doing the Capitol thing, but we're recording in studios that like Led Zepplin, the Doors, the Beatles, Neil Young, Prince–I'm not that, what am I doing there?
There's moments when you're like I'm living in California for two months making a record like I'm never fucking– I never conceived that would be something that would ever be a part of my story at all. That's not to say there aren't periods when you step outside that bubble and you get a bird's eye view and you're like whoa what the fuck is happening right now? I think Put Your Ghosts to Rest was a record that was made for the song cycle.
That record, I think, was recorded exactly how it should have been recorded and I think Rob did a beautiful job with that record that it's a more pristine, pretty song cycle on a whole. Those songs just hung together that way. Rob got these beautiful guitar tones and he got these really crystalline and beautiful guitar tones and brought in a pedal steel player. We used really high end guitar and we used old vintage amplifiers and we used a Leslie and Hammond Organ– things that I've never had access to and might never have access to again, but they were perfect to me for those songs.
We had somewhere between Circle Gets the Square and Make the Clocks Move were probably, combined probably, made for 3000 dollars. Split the Country was made with about 10 and you can hear a fidelity upgrade for better or worse depending on what you like from Split the Country to Put Your Ghosts to Rest. I feel like this record sounds awesome. I think that Chris and Mike and Dan Long, our engineer, all got a lot better in those four years from Split the Country to this. I feel like we had 30 grand to make this record, so it was between the first three and Put Your Ghosts. Closer to the first three, but the first three records were probably made for like a combined 15 grand, so we had double that to make one.
We also rehearsed the hell out of this record and knew what we were doing when we went in and had two weeks where we had gear in the studio that we had in Brooklyn and so I felt, I never felt stressed or pressured about the making of this record at any point. Like we're never going to get it done or it doesn't sound right. I love the way it sounds and I feel like—Beep,beep–you can totally get that if you have to.
I feel like each record was made to the specifications how they should have been made at the time. Whether that was the money we had or the capability we had or the level of ability we had that we were working with. There's certain things that I love. Mainly when I hear things back, I think vocal performances have gotten more –I've gotten more confident as a singer and learned how to sing more the first record to now. There's certain things I go back and I hear and I think ahh, I wish I could sing them over again, you know? But you have to leave things where they are because that's how they were made in whatever recording they were in and you have to accept that when you do it and that's what you were ready to do at that point.

Look for part II to be posted soon!

Circle Gets the Square
Price: —
1 used & new available from USD 59.99

Make the Clocks Move
Price: —
13 used & new available from USD 4.90

Split the Country, Split the Street
Price: USD 13.98
33 used & new available from USD 6.89

Put Your Ghost to Rest
Price: —
32 used & new available from USD 1.35

December 31, 2008 — Most Anticipated Albums of 2009 (1)
September 24, 2008 — Monolith Music Festival @ Red Rocks, Denver - Sunday, Sept. 14 (1)
February 2, 2009 — Interview with: Amie Miriello (2)
January 31, 2009 — PT Walkley - Mr. Macy Wakes Alone (0)
January 28, 2009 — Interview with: Gareth Jones of People in Planes (1)
December 29, 2008 — The Delicious - The Delicious The Delicious (0)
December 5, 2008 — Interview With: Chris Freeman of Manchester Orchestra (1)
November 25, 2008 — The Dead Trees - King of Rosa (0)
October 26, 2008 — Interview with Will Noon, Straylight Run, pt. II (1)
October 22, 2008 — Under Cover: Prince - “When You Were Mine” (2)

2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Confirmed Artists

Posted: 05 Feb 2009 10:30 AM CST

This year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival will be held June 11th through 14th in Manchester, Tennessee. All general admission and VIP tickets go on sale this Saturday, February 7th at 12 ET.

LINE UP:
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Phish
Beastie Boys
Nine Inch Nails
David Byrne
Wilco
Al Green
Snoop Dogg
Elvis Costello
Erykah Badu
Paul Oakenfold
Ben Harper and Relentless7
The Mars Volta
TV on the Radio
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Gov’t Mule
Andrew Bird
Band of Horses
Merle Haggard
MGMT
moe.
The Decemberists
Girl Talk
Bon Iver
Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Galactic
The Del McCoury Band
Of Montreal
Allen Toussaint
Coheed and Cambria
Booker T & the DBTs
David Grisman Quintet
Lucinda Williams
Animal Collective
Gomez
Neko Case
Down
Jenny Lewis
Santogold
Robert Earl Keen
Citizen Cope
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force
The Ting Tings
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Kaki King
Grizzly Bear
King Sunny Adé
Okkervil River
St. Vincent
Zac Brown Band
Raphael Saadiq
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Crystal Castles
Tift Merritt
Brett Dennen
Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue
Toubab Krewe
People Under the Stairs
Alejandro Escovedo
Vieux Farka Touré
Elvis Perkins In Dearland
Cherryholmes
Yeasayer
Todd Snider
Chairlift
Portugal, The Man
The SteelDrivers
Midnite
The Knux
The Low Anthem
The Delta Spirit
A.A. Bondy
The Lovell Sisters
Alberta Cross

Bonnaroo: website | tickets

December 30, 2008 — Top ‘Ten’ Albums of 2008 (0)
October 3, 2008 — Austin City Limits, Day 3 (5)
January 20, 2009 — New Music Tuesday! (0)
December 31, 2008 — Most Anticipated Albums of 2009 (1)
August 4, 2008 — Lollapalooza @ Grant Park, Chicago (3)
December 31, 2008 — Top Concerts of 2008 (1)
December 2, 2008 — Bonnaroo 2009 Dates (2)
November 28, 2008 — Fun Fun Fun Fest 2008 (0)
November 7, 2008 — Jack’s Mannequin @ Sokol Underground, Omaha (6)
October 3, 2008 — Austin City Limits, Day 2 (3)

YACHT March Tour, New Album “See Mystery Lights”

Posted: 05 Feb 2009 10:15 AM CST

Electronic avant-pop outfit YACHT, newly a duo, will be hitting the road this March. Formerly the solo project of Jona Bechtolt, YACHT has since expanded to include new full-time member Claire L. Evans. Don't miss the duo's notoriously energetic, lovably quirky live show. For the uninitiated: expect a mix of idiosyncratic dance moves, video art, and of course banging beats.

Joining YACHT on the road will be Brooklyn dream-pop trio Chairlift, whose critically-acclaimed debut album Does You Inspire You is available now on iTunes.

Look out for YACHT's forthcoming full-length See Mystery Lights in the late spring, on DFA Records. This will be their second release with their new label, after last year's Summer Song EP.

Tour Dates:
Mar 13 - Grog Shop / Cleveland
Mar 14 - Schuba's / Chicago
Mar 16 - Gargoyle Club / St. Louis
Mar 17 - The Jackpot Saloon / Lawrence, KS
Mar 18 - Opolis / Norman, OK
Mar 22 - House of Blues Pontiac Garage / Dallas
Mar 23 - Warehouse Live / Houston
Mar 24 - Spanish Moon / Baton Rouge
Mar 25 - House of Blues Parish / New Orleans
Mar 26 - Club Downunder / Tallahassee, FL
Mar 27 - 40 Watt Club / Athens, GA

YACHT: website | myspace
Chairlift: website | myspace | Does You Inspire You review

Summer Song
Price: USD 8.53
3 used & new available from USD 5.53

Does You Inspire You
Price: USD 10.99
7 used & new available from USD 10.79

February 5, 2009 — Ray LaMontagne 2009 Tour Dates (0)
January 30, 2009 — Minature Tigers to Tour with Ben Folds (0)
January 30, 2009 — Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound (1)
January 29, 2009 — Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach plans solo record/tour (0)
January 26, 2009 — The Ting Tings “That’s Not My Name” (0)
January 23, 2009 — Obi Best to Tour with The Bird and The Bee (0)
January 17, 2009 — The Ting Tings US Spring Tour (0)
January 15, 2009 — M83 to Perform on ‘Conan’, Tour with The Killers (0)
January 13, 2009 — Caught In Motion - On The Edge Of A Dream (0)
January 13, 2009 — Cursive Tour Dates (0)

Loney, Dear - Dear John

Posted: 05 Feb 2009 08:45 AM CST

Loney, Dear a.k.a. Emil Svanangen has put out one album every year since 2003…except for in 2008 when he just didn't. That's right. No album that year. What a lazy bum. All he does is sit at his computer creating music by hitting a couple buttons and singing into a little microphone from time to time and he can't even consistently put out one measly album a year. Dear Svanangen: you are not going to make it in this crazy town with such a laid back work ethic.

(Sigh)

Putting aside the fact that Svanangen is just about the laziest person on Earth, Dear John also features its fair share of tracks in which it's not quite so obvious that Svanangen is probably mindlessly programming his drum-beats with his toes while he watches “Scooby-Doo” reruns and eats Cheetos.

The first two tracks, "Airport Surroundings" and "Everything Turns To You" are the album's best examples of this.

Loney, Dear - “Airport Surroundings”

In the former, Svanangen's hushed multi-tracked vocals melodically weave over a busy bass before shimmery-synths come in for the song's chorus of "you / you were all that I want / you were all that I want." Beginning minimally, the song gains stature with the introduction of horns and additional synthesizer layers until its chorus no longer sounds like an intimate confession, but rather an epic declaration of love.

The latter begins with dramatic strings that subtly fade into the backdrop when Svanangen's vocals appear. As Svanangen details another case of painful dependence on an elusive lover, what sounds like a female vocal fills the soundscape with wordless "ahhs." As the song progresses, a synthesizer playing the same melody as the female vocal overtakes it, until in the final chorus it sounds as though the female vocal is barely present anymore. That elusive lover is gone; the melody she sang remains.

Throughout Dear John, Svanangen is at his most compelling when his subject matter is darker, more conflicted, and dramatic, and his production more layered. Softer, more minimalistically-produced songs like "I Was Going Out", "Under A Silent Sea" and "I Got Lost" fall flat when compared to passionate, densely produced numbers like, "Harsh Words", "Summers" and the gorgeous title-track, in which Svanangen's melodic gifts are in full bloom.

It's possible that Svanangen intended the more airy cuts to give the album a variety between catchy, driving pop and a soft kind of laptop-folk, but unfortunately, the more ornate songs far outshine their stripped-down counterparts.

If Svanangen hadn't been so lazy and had written a couple more songs like "Airport Surroundings" and "Summers", Dear John would have been a masterpiece. As it is, it's not bad, but not quite worthy of being something to write home about either.

Dear John is available now from Polyvinyl Records.

Tracklisting:
01. Airport Surroundings
02. Everything Turns To You
03. I Was Only Going Out
04. Harsh Words
05. Under a Silent Sea
06. I Got Lost
07. Summers
08. Distant Lights
09. Harm/Slow
10. Violent
11. Dear John

Loney, Dear: website | myspace