Young People

The new E.P. by Young People, Five Sunsets In Four Days sets the stage for what may be an excellent third album due out in January on Too Pure Records.

Utilizing only a few instruments, Young People play a slightly experimental rock, unafraid of a little dissonance, slightly odd song structures or hiccuping rhythms. The E.P. opens with "Hot Horse", a simple driving rock number that showcases their loose and reverberant live sound interrupted by silence, noise and dramatic vocals by Katie Eastburn who recalls both Bjork and Shannon Wright.

There are some thrilling sonic moments on this 6-track E.P. "Wild Boys of the Road" starts as a simple rock jam but is interrupted by a rhythmic buzz that sounds like a warning alarm at a nuclear power plant on the verge of meltdown. "Night Nurse", full of erratic staccato guitar hits and a simple bass, perfectly compliments Eastburn’s expert modulation between a whisper and a howl.

None of the new songs are online yet, but these older songs give you a good sense of what they are up to:

"Ne'er Do Well"
"El Paso"
"Ron Jeremy"
"Collection"

Dynamite Ham

My good friend Ethan Stoller recently released his debut album under the name Dynamite Ham. The album, I Believe In You features songs by two of his favorite songwriters: famed Broadway/Hollywood composer Frank Loesser and Dr. Frank from The Mr. T. Experience. But this is no mere collection of cover songs. Ethan has made each song his own, often transforming not only genre, but tone and tempo. The album showcases his versatility, talent and inventiveness with songs that range from boisterous tin-pan-alley to peppy hip hop. Through it all, his sweet soft voice holds it together.

"Lovelier Than Ever", with its gentle mbira in the background, is hauntingly romantic. "Thinking of You" is a sweet county-tinged love song that makes you wish someone wrote the song just for you. And in "Two Martinis From Now" he affirms that even though he's overflowing with ideas, he still has the confidence to allow only his voice and minimal instrumentation carry the song and tell the story.

By turns joyous and contemplative, I Believe In You is a mini-masterpiece. I've been a fan for 20 years. Welcome to the club.

Check out more samples on his website.

Andrew Morgan

Released earlier this year by Sonic Boom Recordings, the debut album by Lawrence, Kansas native Andrew Morgan is a sweet and melancholy pop gem. Mostly recorded at Elliot Smith's New Monkey recording studio in 2002, Misadventures in Radiology invokes Smith as well as Badly Drawn Boy and Ed Harcourt. But some unique touches, including tight harmonies and lush orchestration, bring to mind ELO and Brian Wilson too, especially the stirring strings of "Misadventures..." and the harpsichord on "This Awful Room". No, not all that original, but a sweet treat if you're like me and can't get enough of this sort of thing. Any of these songs would fit perfectly in a Wes Anderson film.

"Aligned on the Steps"
"Misadventures in Radiology"
"This Awful Room"
"Supine On The Covers"

Five For Five

New albums hit the stores every Tuesday, and you’ll find me almost every Tuesday around 6PM at either Other Music or Tower Records on 4th and Broadway. Yesterday, I scored big. All five of the albums I bought are winners:

1) Celebration - S/T
I’ve posted about these guys before and I have a feeling they're gonna be big. They put on a wild live show and the album does a good job of capturing some of that energy. Apparently recorded in a day, the album showcases a young and confident band with a lot of power and ideas, invoking The Clash, Siouxsie, Blonde Redhead and TV On The Radio (who had a hand in producing this album). Hear a song sample on their myspace page. They next play NYC on 11/5, opening for Calla at The Bowery Ballroom.

2) Mouse On Mars - Live 04
No other blip hop group rocks as hard live as Mouse On Mars. For their most recent tour, gearheads Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner brought on drummer and vocalist Dodo Nkishi (I believe for the first time), and the results are thrilling. They've always been the best at making electronic music sound like it's "of this earth", but by adding a human drummer, they heighten the visceral experience. Some song samples buried in their website, but you should just trust me on this one.

3) Matt Pond PA - Several Arrows Later
MPPA play a dense slightly pensive pop similar to The Shins. Thanks to a song featured on The O.C., this small-label indie band has garnered a lot of fans in a short amount of time. I caught their excellent live show this Spring surrounded by screeching college girls with fresh Spring Break hickeys. The new record offers smart lyrics to swoon over too, as well as some catchy tunes, both especially well represented on the title track. Their website has yet to be updated, but you can hear some older songs on their myspace page which give an idea of what they're up to.

4) Deerhoof - The Runners Four
I’ve been a big fan of prog-punk band Deerhoof for quite a few years even though I can only listen to them in small doses. Most of their albums have as many unlistenable songs as gems. But when they rock, they really rock. This album, as a whole, is a much moodier and mellower than usual, and at times, very sweet. On the best songs, like "Twin Killers" and "Rrrrrrright" that balance that sweetness with the screechy punk that they've always done so well. Hear some samples of the new 20-track album on their myspace page.

5) Lpfunk - E.P.
If you can imagine the musical intersection of The Violent Femmes, Van Halen and the folk-rock of Rod Stewart, you get a good idea of what LPfunk is up to. His brand new 4-song EP produced by Don Dilego (who also produced a few tracks on my album) is a rollicking good time, capturing some of his live energy while filling out the songs with some nice and subtle flourishes. No online samples yet, but you can catch him live every Tuesday at Jack's Stir Brew Coffee, 138 West 10th Street, Manhattan.

Cat Power MP3!

You probably all know Cat Power (AKA Chan Marshall) by now. If you don’t, she is one of the most expressive singers of modern times and you most certainly should pick up one of her last three albums, 5-star records all. Her new album is not due out until late January, but in the meantime, to ease the painful longing of so many ardent fans, Matador Records is providing an mp3 of one of the new songs:

"The Greatest"

Featuring an All-Star lineup of Memphis session musicians, the album sounds like another winner. No, Matador, the painful longing has only increased.

Sarianna

Trolling through the back waters of myspace.com, I recently discovered Sarianna Sabbarese, a sultry and melancholy singer based in Boston.

Daughter of a founding member of jazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer (who have been around for ages), Sarianna can apparently play any instrument, but she knows enough to keep her arrangements simple. She sounds a bit like Aimee Mann with a head cold, but her songs are uniquely lovely, catchy and mature.

Check out her myspace page for music samples, especially "Among Friends" which invokes the love songs of The Magnetic Fields and early 60s pop.

She’s also in a band called My Dearest Screwtape with Sean Spada and together they do a great cover of "Wicked Little Town" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

I'll let her describe herself:

"I'm in my early twenties, but I don't feel a day over sixteen. I started playing piano when I was three years old and started recording songs when I was twelve. I am a libertarian. I attended college when I was in high school. I have limited respect for academic success. I have never tweezed my eyebrows. I have the sex drive of a Yohimbine-fueled male rabbit in its prime. I believe in energetic reincarnation. I adore graphic novels and cheesy zombie/gore/stop-motion/troma/outer space movies. I know first-hand that blondes suffer actual, unjust persecution."

Sounds like a neat girl. Write her a note and she'll sell you a CD.