Weekend Round-up #23/5 - Arcade Fire, Toro y Moi, Menomena, The Drums

The first taster of Chaz Bundick aka Toro y Moi's new sound drops July 20 (US) and July 19 (UK) via Carpark records, in the form of the Leave Everywhere 7". He's taken an organic and courageous turn and chosen to alter his classically overdubbed lo-fi electro sound for something categorically similar, however this time using entirely standard instruments. Lo-fi electro turns lo-fi guitar pop, with results sure to create a divide in the minds of most fans. New single is out July 20th, his second album drops sometime later this year. He's out on tour this year with Caribou, Phoenix and YACHT as well as having booked festival dates across the US and Europe this Summer. As far as I'm concerned, he's a Bestival definite.

Toro y Moi - Leave Everywhere (MP3) (due July 20) (Causers of This - Amazon)

The idea of Menomena's return is one that fills me with excitement on paper, however on listening to the actual new material (so far limited to one capitalised preview track - FIVE LITTLE ROOMS), i can't say i'm quite so enthralled. The new track, in my view, attempts to play Menomena's Portland quirkiness and lyrical unpredictability to its advantage, with controversial results. The music is not quite so interesting as they've shown in the past (Friend and Foe was stunning), and I can't help but feel the disjointed lyrics are somewhat 'forced'. See for yourself below, but don't expect to be blown away. It appears the new album is shaping up to be better visually than it is musically.

Menomena - FIVE LITTLE ROOMS (MP3) (Friend and Foe - Amazon)

California surf-pop duo The Drums are all set to act as face for the surf-revival movement in the UK this Summer - having already footed the bill of the UK NME Tour in March and built hype off the back of their Summertime EP. The full-length follow-up to that breakthrough record is going to be self-titled and will drop June 15, 2010. There's a few tracks floating around the blogs and 'Forever and Ever Amen' (not to be confused with the Randy Travis song of the same name) is one of them - providing us with Beach Boys-esque surfer-dance of the highest quality, with an added hint of melancholy and come-down for good measure.

The Drums - Forever and Ever Amen (MP3) (from The Drums, due June 15, 2010 - Amazon)

The Arcade Fire also revealed two new previews of two new tracks from their new album via a nice little widget from their website. You can sample the previews by clicking the play button, but if you feel like applying some manual labour to hear the new songs, you can spin the record yourself. Suburbs is a lovely little She & Him piano pop song, contrasted by the manic punk overtones of Month of May. Go on, give it a spin below.

Menomena's Danny Seim announces Lackthereof Greatest Hits

The quite remarkable Danny Seim has for eleven years been recording tapes (and later CDs) for his solo project Lackthereof - who originally began in 1998 - 2 years before his now-main project Menomena. Now, whilst the latter linger on their third album, Seim and Lackthereof have completed full length album number 9, 2008s Your Anchor (review); to be followed by A Lackthereof Retrospective 1998-2008 or A Christian Emo Twentysomething, his 10th full length release via FILMGuerrero.

The album will be available via selected digital retailers and on CD and will contain 20 new illustrations from the prolific part-time Menomena drummer, whose dark yet upbeat mix of post-punk, art rock and dreary indie experimentalism has been confusing Menomena fans for years.

Read early posts of Menomena - Friend & Foe or Lackthereof - Your Anchor, and pick up a sample mp3 from below, check the MYSPACE and watch this Amazon based space for a pre-order of the new album, out on October 13th.

Lackthereof - Safely In Jail (MP3) (taken from Lackthereof Retrospective 1998-2008)
Lackthereof - Locked Upstairs (MP3) (taken from Your Anchor)

Boy Eats Drum Machine. (and several other instruments by the sound of it?)

Boy Eats Drum Machine is a one man electronic music project involving Jon Ragel of Portland USA. He makes chaotic and quirky indie rock songs which crash and sample beneath his concise and unique vocal. Jon Ragel plays drums, synthesizer, organ, guitar and saxophone, as well as being a producer and expert turntablist. All these skills are packed into every track, with the end result ultimately indietronica with an outrageously catchy edge, not wildly different from fellow experimental Portlanders Menomena. He could well be someone to look out for in the next year, with his unashamed musical eccentricity and clear talent as a multi-instrumentalist and producer. Catch Boy Eats Drum Machine at Kush Carpets from The Penny Jam on Vimeo below or pick up the mp3.
Boomboxxx (mp3)
Buy (Amazon)

Covering The National.

Lackthereof is the long-running side project of Menomena's Danny Seim, formed in 1997, who made their 9th release (third with any kind of proper distribution) July 22nd 2008. 'Your Anchor' contains a highly experimental selection of songs, almost a caricature of Seim's main project, with new influences, simpler instrumentation and a definite folk influence. I think the band's attempt to describe themselves in three genres on their myspace (emotronic/folk/healing & easylistening) is about as close as they realistically could have got. While some songs retain the kind of funk/punk Menomena feature, other parts (namely 'every kind word') explore folktronica with the kind of psychedelic vocals more often seen from Devendra Banhart. The vocal itself isn't too far from the National's Matt Berninger, but varies so much across the album, particularly on their cover of 'Fake Empire', that any kind of generalisation is made impossible.

I've always loved how Danny Seim's projects really do explore boundaries of indie rock i could never even imagine existed. 'Fake Empire' is the icing on the cake. The catchy piano line present in the National version has been stripped and replaced with a simpler one and an electro-ambient drone has been placed underneath two tired psychedelic voices. This is an extremely odd but strangely satisying take on a classic song by The National.

Grab the original here.

The Lackthereof cover is available for streaming here.

And also, here's another strange cover of this song, by Scottish folk rock band Frightened Rabbit, who give in to a partial cover during their song 'My Backwards Walk' live in Denver.

Alt Track.

Alt Track are an ambient experimental drum & bass band formed in 2007 from Bradford, UK. The music refrains from conventions set down under the drum & bass tag, instead providing a wider range of tonality and instrumentation ranging from piercing overdriven guitars to crisp piano lines. I call the band experimental due to the complete lack of uniformity on their recent EP. While some songs are reminiscent of the kind of eery indie rock Menomena are known for (notably 'Pedestrianised'), others don't stray far from moog heavy house music with vocals verging on hip-hop. I have a certain fascination with these songs mostly due to the extreme range of influences this album draws on from hip-hop to electronica, indie to post-rock. 'Lazarus' features both a heavy rhythm guitar before descending into a Butterflies & Hurricanes-esque piano solo, whilst 'The End' features the more relaxed parts of the EP and also the clearest vocals. This is definitely drum & bass music with a darkened edge, exciting, unconventional, experimental and unique. The self-recorded, self-released debut EP 'A Nation Is On Fire' is available for free download on Last.fm here.

Menomena - Friend and Foe

Firstly i have to say that this is definitely the most fascinating album artwork i've ever seen. The red and yellow parts of the cover both change and twisting the Cd in its case will change the eyes of the characters to display amusing expressions of shock as they look out at you. The album cover is almost as intruiging as the band itself.
Menomena are an experimental rock band from Portland, USA, who share lead vocals and, through a wide variety of conventional instruments, create indie with elements of jazz, rock, and electronica to name but a few. Comparisons can easily be drawn to Tv On The Radio, however Menomena ooze originality and show off a very distinctive style despite the changes of vocals from track to track. Friend and Foe is the follow up to the independently released first album I Am The Fun Blame Monster! (an anagram of The First Menomena Album) of 2003, and a clear progression in terms of both recording quality and tightness can be seen.
One of the distinguishing and most interesting features of Friend and Foe is its prominent experimental drumming, capable of completely changing the feel of their songs in one strategically placed rhythm change and added bass line. Evil Bee is a perfect example of this. This track begins as a slow, disturbingly unbalanced acoustic build up to be converted by the entry of an alto sax, bass and simple drum line into a driving funk rock song, before combining the two for a beautifully woven outro.
Wet and Rusting is the highlight of the album. Beginning with a synthesizer, and mildly unnerving high pitched lyrics, the song develops into a disturbing combination of off beat, almost wrong-sounding acoustic strums and reverbial, distant sounding piano lines (both Menomena trademarks). The bullet-like drums in the chorus drive the song with such force that rather than simply holding the song together they create a completely new element to the music. Concentrating solely on the drumming in Menomena songs is something quite easy to become accustomed to.
With any distinctive sound there comes the responsibility to keep it both interesting and fresh simultaneously. Menomena partially succeed however the album does trail off nearing the end, and the song Boyscout'n, the second longest album track, is really quite terrible with persistent jabs of the alto sax and a piercing whistle riff the track would do better without. The song is attempting to be too catchy in the wrong context and fails miserably at fulfilling its role as one of the happier, more upbeat songs on the album.
Failings aside, Menomena have released a very strong follow up to their debut, and their music pushes enough boundaries to take experimental music forward without venturing too far into electronic effects or too far away from conventional musical intruments.

8.1/10

Wet and Rusting
Evil Bee

Buy