The Pennies

10,000 Things
(ear X-tacy Records)

For a band that broke up 4 years ago, The Pennies are releasing one of the freshest, most vibrant records in recent memory.
The purposefully, dreamily, zanily off-kilter pop/rock band flaunted plenty of wicked riffs and killer hooks on their first album, 1999's Come, We Go. Fans of the Flaming Lips, who marveled at their growth, will find themselves in similar territory here.



They could still kick out a Pixies-style rave-up like "Where Crows Attack" (smartly aided by Liberation Prophecy's Jacob Duncan praying at the church of Albert Ayler) and sci-fi Krautrock, but score even more impressively with some percussive ballads structured and textured in the later style of a Grandaddy or Mercury Rev. Strings, horns and keyboards expand the songs out of the nightclub and onto the stage, revealing a composer equally familiar with Sondheim and Sonic Youth. Bandleader Jeremy Podgursky and his then-colleagues did what few
accomplish - his compositions and performances go beyond rock 'n' roll and leap out of the speakers, flying away with wonder and excitement and the question of what is and what could have been...

c. 2006 LEO Weekly

Jamie Barnes

The Recalibrated Heart
(Pink Bullet Recordings)

In this city of hundreds of thousands of people, there are only a handful of troubadours. Like most cities, many of our few are loud, brutish and lacking in skill. Jamie Barnes sticks out for the grace and beauty he is able to draw on to seduce an audience.
In his third album, Barnes sticks to his established practice of recording himself at home, performing most of the instruments himself. Though he shares this practice with Stevie Wonder, the similarity ends there. Musically, he has more in common with Sufjan Stevens, another indie folk singer-songwriter whose angelic voice owes its inspiration to a kind, loving religious grounding.



Barnes performs with confidence, seamlessly melding etheral harmonies and folk guitars with more offbeat percussion instruments. Barnes address religious stories and characters more directly than ever before, a move that should further help set him apart from his peers, hopefully without alienating any of his early fans. His songs of angels and devils, Heaven and Hell, have more in common with Johnny Cash than Jimmy Swaggart. And if you forget where else he came from, there's even a song about R.E.M. (which, itself, is more about love, family and the value of life).

c. 2006 LEO Weekly

reviews

The A-Sides
"Hello, Hello" (Prison Jazz)
60's psychedelia pop for fans of The Shins (or, originally, The Beach
Boys, The Kinks and The Who). The harmonies are rich, the riffs solid
- the songs are there. Recommended.

Barbez
"Insignificance" (Important)
Eastern European Gypsy folk rock. For those of us who are fans of the
Pogues and Faun Fables but who aren't annoying, gross hippies.

Goblin Cock
"Bagged and Boarded" (Absolutely Kosher)
Exactly what you'd expect from a dude from Pinback making a Black
Sabbath record.

Gogol Bordello
"Gyspy Punks: Undetrdog World Strike" (SideOneDummy)
They have a song called "Think Locally, Fuck Globally". They are to
gypsy punks what Sublime was to '60's Jamaican ska. One word:
Chumbawumba. I bet they wear "funny" costumes onstage. Hey dudes,
y'know, it IS possible to go down the pub, raise a pitcher and put
your arm around your best mate without having to make lousy music
about the experience.

Linda Draper
"One Two Three Four" (Planting Seeds)
A very tasteful, pretty record of lovely songs. Draper is more upbeat
than Hope Sandoval but more restrained than Neko Case, more poppy than
Julie Doiron but calmer than Mirah. Produced by, surprisingly, Kramer
(ex-Bongwater, Butthole Surfers). A nice surprise. Highly recommended.

Longwave
"There's a Fire" (RCA)
This music is so earnest, sensitive and joyless, it can, literally,
only be heard by teens writing in their Live Journals. Literally.

The Makers
"Everybody Rise!" (Kill Rock Stars)
With production by Jack Endino, an architect of grunge, I expected
something in the AC/DC-garage rock mode. I didn't expect Sunset Strip
hair metal 1986, especially on the once-unimpeachable Kill Rock Stars.
That's it, I'm retiring.

Moggs
"The White Belt Is Not Enough" (Absolutely Kosher)
The title - and the photo of this duo, dressed mostly in white - would
suggest a too-cool hipster dance party. For better or worse, the music
is actually closer to the post-punk of Joy Division or early Sonic
Youth, an icier Quasi. Recommended.

M.O.T.O.
"Raw Power" (Criminal IQ)
Yes, I know that this is supposed to be a joke - a dumber Ramones -
but it's just not that funny. Songs like "Gonna Get Drunk Tonight" and
"Spend the Night on Me" were done better by Poison or Whitesnake, who
at least were trying to get girls with their bad music.

Sybris
"Sybris" (Flameshovel)
Now this, this one here, this is a headscratcher. This group sounds
100% like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, only with less energy and a lesser
grasp of song structure. I just don't understand why this exists.

Voltage
"Building the Bass Castle, Vol. 1" (Flameshovel)
Decently pleasant instrumental duo - guitar and drums - from Chicago.
Good background music, poorly recorded. I'd bet that they've listened
to some Slint or the Minutemen, and that they missed the points each
time.

c. 2006 Bejeezus

Spin 101 June '06

Thursdays
DJ Sam Sneed
North End Cafe
502-896-8770
Free; www.northendcafe.com
Louisville scenesters put on their dancing shoes for this decadent party, with Sneed playing Britpop, dance punk, and much more. Get your hair did!
***



Mondays
Acoustic Love Series
Red Lounge
502-896-6116
$3; www.theredlounge.com
An intimate night of series (like Tara Jane O'Neil or Freakwater's Catherine Irwin) playing on a couch in this converted gas station.
***

c. 2006 Spin

Spin 101 May '06

May 26
Global Grease with Kim Sorise
North End Cafe
Free; www.northendcafe.com
Expect sexy '60's and '70's French seduction pop, Italian soundtrack sleaze, Brazilian baby-makin', and mas y mas.
****

May 27
Last Saturday
Keswick Democratic Club
$6; www.lastsaturday.net
Auxiliary Records hosts a monthly, all-ages series of hardcore shows with bands such as Young Widows, Paint It Black and Pissed Jeans.
***

c. 2006 Spin

Tortoise & Bonnie "Prince" Billy

Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
"The Brave and the Bold"
(Overcoat)

Why people think that a duet between 2 idiosyncratic musical talents will be great, maybe twice as good as each artist alone, continues to stump me. I wish that I could forget about Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder's "Ebony & Ivory".
The main problem with this collaboration – and most - is that both artists have to mute their finest qualities in order to meet halfway. Tortoise, best when challenging each other to stretch as far as possible while still holding together, here is reduced to a pop studio backing band. Oldham is at his best at his most alone. He is beloved for his most quiet singing, framing lyrics that can be poetic,
perverse, purposefully misleading. His bands twist and turn when they do, when they can, not when they're supposed to.



Oldham can be an interesting interpreter, but some of the songs here (Don Williams' painfully goofy "Pancho", Devo's "That's Pep!") don't deserve serious revitalizing. The post-punk bands that have informed both artists prove that Oldham was never meant to be a loud rock singer, and that Tortoise was never meant to play straightahead. Both are best when they make the music serve them; here, the opposite is forced upon them.

c. 2006 LEO Weekly

Top Five in '05

1. "Twin Cinema," the New Pornographers — The best pop/rock album of the year. Fun, sexy and bold. Adults — Canadians, even — act as playful as 2-year-olds, with melodies worthy of the best Broadway shows, Nashville dives and high school mixers.


2. "Lookaftering," Vashti Bunyan — The fun part of these end-of-the year lists is in realizing trends and patterns. Of my five favorites this year, three are by women at different ages. Bunyan returned to music after 35 years away, with this timeless collection of folk songs.


3. "Ex Hex," Mary Timony — Timony picked up her guitar again, rocking out harder than any other 30-something, despite realizing that she'll probably never sell a million, or even 50,000 records. This is music made by someone, for herself, because she loves it and has to.


4. "Vertically Challenged," Lady Sovereign — Miss Lady is hard to discuss without the obligatory mentions of her being a white, British, 19-year-old girl. She's also Jay-Z's new favorite and the toughest, funniest rapper today, reminiscent at times of Eminem and Missy Elliott but with more futuristic beats.


5. "Buena Vista Social Club Presents," Manuel "El Guajiro" Mirabal — Another old Cuban master, trumpeter Guajiro has so much energy left that you'll have no choice but to shake that healthy butt.