It's memorial day and I'm home sick, what better time to review the late May releases at WMBR.

Lavender Diamond – “Open Your Heart”
A pop gem worthy of Barbara Manning complete with a jubilant pace, repetitive lilting vocals, sweet strings and a rollicking piano. Overall this release is rather thin with an unfocused neu-folk air but one star shines very tightly. Wanted to hate this album based on the rather thin ep that preceded it but must admit this one song is immense. Spun this on 4/17/07.

Trembling Blue Stars – “November Starlings”
If you’re familiar with Robert Wratten’s works this new TBS release will not contain any surprises beyond a welcome sonic step backwards. More recent TBS tunes seemed to stray into Cure-lite territory. While I certainly have no complaints, this new one harkens back to the Field Mice days with more prominent jangle, female backing vox and even a little synth. Played 4/24/07.

The Ladybug Transistor – “Three Days From Now”
Something seems slightly off on this latest release from Ladybug Transistor, the first one in 3-4 years. While it’s not easy to pinpoint the issue, best I can say is the production brings the male vocals forward while pushing some of the sonic delights to the background. Even the solos are barely able to distinguish themselves from the rhythm section at times. Still, the choruses are just as sweetly 60’s retro as ever and I doubt their fans will find much fault with this effort. Played this one on 4/24/07.

Bitter Bitter Weeks – “Terrified”
New one from Philadelphia area retro-poppers, another sonic avenue for Brian McTear’s revisionist tendencies. This is a rather slick affair for him, I usually associate McTear with an energetic lo-fi feel but the result here is just as smooth as the Ladybug Transistor track about without as memorable of a chorus. If I have an issue with the disc as a whole, it’s exactly that … the songs have difficulty distinguishing themselves from each other.

South Ambulance – “Saturdays for Sad Excuses”
For some reason this band’s Labrador debut LP has been ported to the US market through Rollerderby. Not that I’m complaining as pretty much anything with the Labrador imprint is of high quality. But why this release instead of the new Mary Onettes debut, which promises to be one of the best of 2007? Perhaps it’s the Hidden Cameras sonic feel, with ascending piano lines and a everybody-join-in-it’s-easy-to-learn chorus.

Mary Timony Band – “Killed By The Telephone”
Place this release squarely on the rock side of Mary’s ledger, though there’s still some prog leanings on display here (especially if you actually try to figure out the lyrics) for the most part the execution is smooth, urgent and crisp. This track has a signature stop-start pace punctuated with a simple repetitive Polvo-esque guitar lick. You may have heard it on 5/17/07.

Hardware – “Walking”
For some reason I tend to skip over the Hyped2Death comps that end up in the new rack. If you’re not in the know, H2D unearths super-obscure 7”s, categorizes them (geographically in this case, Messthetics #103 is all Midlands UK) and throws the tracks on CD for our perusal. Considering how much I enjoy spelunking in our record library these things should be right in my sweet spot. But there are far more misses than hits (just like our record library, actually) and often my attention wanes. There’s a bit of Television to this one, perhaps providing some perspective on a “what if Television made it into the New Wave era” ponderance.

Mystery Jets – “The Boy Who Ran Away”
Strongly reminiscent of the first Futureheads release, with that trademark jumpy early 80’s UK pop feel. Nice harmonies abound, though I just can’t embrace it as much as I probably should. There are some effective period pop touches in these songs with a bit of mod organ or harmonica popping up here and there. I should probably spin it a bit more to see if the milk will boil. Played on 5/24/07.

Motor – “Night Drive”
The significant other pegged the vocal as Alan Vega and while I can’t dismiss some Suicide influence here for the most part his lines have a deadpan delivery with heavy modification, there’s not even a hint of creeping insanity much less full-on yelling. Not that there needs to be, musically it finds a trenchant synth beat and marches forward in robotic military fashion. I was hoping for more instrumentals like the previous record but it’s not to be I’m afraid.

Rabbit Is A Sphere – “Drag”
This disc arrived in the mail with its case heavily damaged, the promo sticker was basically the only thing holding it together. Turns out that was a perfect analogy for the content, a hard-to-pin-down rock band with occasional experimental forays in the midst of traded male/female vocals. I prefer the female, she has a way of dispassionately talk-singing while still infusing emotion into her drawling style. “I want to sweat you out like a fever / I want to sweat you out of me” while the guitars roll and ebb like the tide of her restrained emotions.

Dungen – “Sa Blev Det Bestamt”
If there’s one element I value most in Dungen, it’s the ability to produce psychedelic influenced jams that are basically indistinguishable from their late 60’s/early 70’s brethren. I really shouldn’t be disappointed here but the authentic fuzziness of the previous records has basically been polished away. It sounds almost professionally recorded, instead of like something unearthed in the back of a long-abandoned home studio. There are some new instruments in the mix as well, furthering the feeling that I really shouldn’t complain even though that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Je Suis France – “Chemical Agents”
Good luck getting a hold on the sound of Je Suis France because beyond a certain haphazard urgency they don’t really have one. The two songs I liked the most sounded alternately like the Pogues and Trans Am if that gives you an idea of their range. This is one of the tighter songs, half of them seem like they never got past the failed rough demo #2 stage. Even this one has some sort of persistent buzz buried in the mix.

Ov – “The Noctilucent Valley”
Concert report music from 5/17/07. Generally quiet and meandering instrumentals with some buried wordless female vocals. There will often be long passages with seemingly little focus beyond something being plucked or struck, which eventually coalesce into a bit more meaningful structure.

Fennesz + Sakamoto – “Haru”
As you might guess from the artist name this is a collaboration between Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto. This particular cut is a lethargic but light just-after-the-rainstorm piano tune. Sitting here in the home office with the windows open I still can’t tell if the birds chirping are from the track or the feeder outside. Reserved it for concert report music but still haven’t made it there yet.

Casual Fog – “Weighted Day”
Pulled this one off a compilation of bands from the Nevada City, CA area called the Grass Roots Record Co. Family Album. Amongst their more famous brothers like Hella and Golden Shoulders was this piano tune with some haunting reverb and backing vocals that practically grow out of the rather flat lead. Doesn’t really go anywhere, perhaps it doesn’t need to.

Joan as Police Woman – “Broken Eyes”
This is Joan Wasser’s new project, she formerly of local band the Dambuilders and super group Those Bastard Souls amongst many other projects (Lotus Eaters!). I really wanted to adore it but couldn’t find much to my liking on the disc. It seems like she’s democratically trying to get her bandmates involved which is kind but leads to at least one “they really forced that solo/backing vocal/etc” moment in each song. Luckily there’s a bonus b-sides disc which gave me the higher Joan-to-other-band-members ratio that I expected. There could be more hopeless desperation in this low-expectations love song than anything on PJ Harvey’s Dry. Played it on 5/17/07.

Spouse – “Boys Vs. Girls”
Easily the best-sounding release from this band with local ties (are they still local? I dunno). Their early singles had a lovely Yo La Tengo lo-fi feel but the subsequent full-lengths had very little immediacy, it was like the whole band set up five feet from the mics and pressed record. That's been corrected here, now-vibrant pop tunes mix with slow soul-tinged ballads like this one ... perfectly constrasting the lead-singer’s grainy voice with the band’s precise play. Spun this on 5/24/07.

The National – “Slow Show”
This is the cut I want to play but can’t due to multiple s-bombs buried in the lyrics. Not a big worry as there are more than enough standouts on this new release to fill out the National quota on the BoC. For those not familiar this NY by-way of the mid-west band has an amazingly authentic British feel complete with a captivating Tindersticks growl and the ability to be both delicate and powerful at the same time.

Dog Day – “End of the World”
This pop tune has a bass-heavy sound with a chattery drumming style and nasal male vocals. I hesitate to say they remind me of the Ropers, as the Ropers are one of my favorite shoegazer pop bands of all time and these guys are not shoegazer pop. Yet certain elements are eerily reminiscent, like the way the vocalist ticks up a register during seemingly random words to inflect them with more meaning. Pretty good for a bunch of Canadians.

Voxtrot – “Easy”
I thought their debut LP would kick-start the indie-pop revival, unfortunately it takes a deliberate step away from the affectionate early 90's sound of their eps for a much slicker commercial shell. Hate to say it but the album as a whole feels a bit forced and lifeless, like a piece of plastic fruit. Played it on 5/24/07, unfortunately not a Commodores cover.

The Pipettes – “Guess Who Ran Off With The Milkman?”
Well, I guess Interscope has finally decided to favour the US with one of the best albums of last year, We Are The Pipettes. I’ll gladly take any opportunity to spin it again as it was very high on my year-end list, plus we received a promotional single with several b-sides not on the UK version of the record. If you missed it the first time around I highly recommend picking up this 00’s topical update of the 60’s girl group sound. They'll be at Great Scott on June 4th, I'll likely be in bed.

Sugar and Gold – “Sometimes”
They just wanna ape electronic soul from the 80’s, a strange ambition for an indie band these days but nevertheless here they are. This particular selection at least has an honest guitar solo, the other tune of theirs I played on 5/17/07 has no such pretentions and went straight for the Ready For The World vibe. Or izzat The Jets I’m thinking of …