Author results: Wilfred Brandt
In Ear Park, Department of Eagles
If you go out to a band today, you're sure for a big surprise, as the ubiquity of animal band names is getting downright ri-donkey-luss. Formed in 2000, Department of Eagles certainly aren't the latest, but they are remarkably remarkable.
Singer Daniel Rossen is more widely known for his other animal band, Grizzly Bear, who developed a cult following after the 2006 strikingly original, avant-folk stunner Yellow House.
The Chemistry Of Common Life
As musical genres go, the aesthetic guidelines for hardcore are about as tight as a nun's cooter. Not much deviation or cross-breeding here...
So what a weird delight it is, hearing a lone waifish flute meandering before the raucous hardcore assault of Toronto's F*cked Up begins. This is a band with roots in the fast/loud/Cookie-Monster-vocals blueprint of hardcore, roots that don't keep them from crossing over into epic-guitar-work, shoe-gaze-effects, even.
The Moondoggies, Don't Be A Stranger
Despite their reputation as coon huntin', sister marryin', mob lynchin' small-minded pricks - rednecks ain't all bad. Hell, us hipsters and gay urban males stole half our wardrobe from them.
Beyond dressin' well, those rednecks know how to ROCK. And you can hear the twang of every check flannelled, working class band from Creedence Clearwater Revival to The Band to the Doobie Brothers on Don't Be A Stranger, the debut from Seattle's Moondoggies.
Take Me To The Sea, Jaguar Love
Those ‘from the ashes' supergroups are often doomed to forever compare palely to their forefathers. In retrospect, was anyone really ever going to give a shit about the Travelling Wilburys?
Jaguar Love save themselves from this destiny by sounding very little like their old disbanded bands (Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves).
Playtime for John Mountain, The Rectifiers
Playtime For John Mountain is an album caught somewhere in time; between Zombies 'Odessey and Oracle' [sic] pop, '60s film soundtracks, four-part baroque harmonies, and the pastoral soundscapes of contemporaries like Mountains in the Sky, Caribou, or even Wilco.
The third full-length album from this Melbourne four-piece (and their first in five years), is dreamy, lush, and atmospheric - an accomplished equal to Sensory Projects' terrific team of mood masters, The Sand Pebbles, Canon Blue, Mono and Hood.
The Bake Sale, Cool Kids
I'm so white. And gay.
So it will sound pretty ludicrous when I tell you about the dope beats and mad flow this Chicago duo gots. But from their name alone, you know The Cool Kids are that new hip hop act all us discerning listeners have been dreaming about: one you can love without a hint of irony or guilty pleasure.
Devotion
Baltimore girlfriend/boyfriend duo Beach House have achieved an increasingly difficult feat; they've created a sound that is both instantly recognisable yet entirely new. Like a new buddy at a party you feel like you've known for years.
Their second album, Devotion, combines the atmosphere of David Lynch's creepy small town Americana with the fifties girl groups on Quaaludes.
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