New music roundup #1

The Sounds: Crossing the Rubicon
Lala | Myspace

Catchy and soothing synth/guitar pop rock. This is an album that thrives on cheesy lyrics with flawless execution. It helps a lot if you are the type of person who is amused by horrible pretend English phrases like, "it sent me into a strong fascination." Which I am. Of course, The Sounds can be excused if their song lyrics suffer a bit from language barriers; they're Swedish, after all, which lends to their various misuses of English an innocence that makes it charming. Still, there's not much effort to be poetic here. Thematic choruses often consist of lines like, "I believe in this fire burning inside of me."

It's all in good fun. What's pleasant about The Sounds is you don't really have to think too much about it. Choruses dig their hooks in you easily. There's one genuine dud on the album, the depressingly stupid "Beatbox," which has definitively answered the question, "should little white Swedish women try to rap?" (I am not sure anyone really needed help with that, though.) It's more than made up for by tracks like "Midnight Sun," which would probably find its way in if I had to make a "prettiest songs of all time" list, nonsensical title and all. Dorchester Hotel is my other highlight; it epitomizes the catchy chorus on an album that is practically nothing but catchy choruses.

Teenage Bottlerocket: They Came From the Shadows
Lala | Myspace

The philosophy behind this band is something like the approach to skiing espoused in my favorite comedy from the 80s, Better Off Dead: "Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn." The guys are machine-like.

The Ramones are the primary source of inspiration here, but TBR has definitely updated the sound with modern elements and a lot more vocal harmony. The most common criticism leveled against this band is that they don't seem to grow or change, but that's exactly the point. If you loved this in 2005 you'll probably still love it now, because the songs were all the same then anyway.

The one thing I'll grant to detractors is that TBR isn't as significant now as they were in 2005. At the time, 90s Lookout-style pop punk was almost completely dead in the US, and I don't think anyone could have guessed a band trying to revive a genre that was never all that huge in the first place could have made such waves. Their breakout record, Total, was genuinely shocking, because they did what they were doing so much better than anyone else ever had. That magic will never be repeated, because the element of surprise is gone.

If you've never heard TBR, I'd really check out Total first. It has the benefit of fresh inspiration where the band members are concerned and has the most consistent appeal, and there are no songs about skateboarding.

The xx: xx
Lala | Myspace

I hate agreeing with one of Pitchfork's "best new music" designations, but it happens that they're right occasionally. While I recommend you avoid looking at the people in this band for as long as possible, listening to them is a very good idea.

I'm not going to go into the influence game. I don't know, and nobody else seems to, either. The band lists their influences thus on their myspace page: "Aaliyah to CocoRosie, Rihanna to The Cure, Missy Elliott to Chromatics, The Kills to Ginuwine, Pixies to Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake to Tracy + the plastics." And that's all fair enough, but it also does absolutely nothing to accurately inform your idea of what they sound like. Better to just check it out yourself.

What you get here is highly minimalist but astonishingly exciting indie pop that's never overbearing or pretentious. Male and female vocals respond to each other in every song. It's very low key, but never dull for a moment. That aesthetic seeps into their image as well, from the single white X that makes up their album cover to the bare-bones nature of their web presence. I don't even know the last names of any of their members.

The Sidekicks: Weight of Air
Lala | Myspace

I'm always a little on edge listening to the Ohio pop punk underground. Something about it strikes me as vaguely insular. This is probably unfair on my part.

The Sidekicks are a great band in the vein of Dillinger Four. Or they were in that vein. The comparison doesn't work anymore; they're actually a lot poppier on this record, and much less speed-driven. (This is not a bad thing!) They also seem to have abandoned the D4 song title approach. Their last full length, So Long, Soggy Dog, was inclined towards titles like "Don't Open the Door, You Might Let in the Gusto" and "Panic! San Francisco," but this one is replete with your basic one to three word titles devoid of referential comedy.

Weight of Air really arrives at a pleasant spot and sets up its picnic blanket there. It seems a bit of a synthesis between straight up easy going pop rock and the scruffy punk scene the band originates from--heavy on the pop rock to be sure. I dig this a lot.

Alex Kerns: Demo
Free download | Myspace

Alex is the drummer, semivocalist and major song writer of New York trio Lemuria, which also happens to be my favorite band currently in existence. He's been working on some solo stuff of late and it's pretty awesome. This collection of work varies pretty heavily in quality, showing its colors as a demo, but the songs that sound polished are amazing and would be worthy of an actual release.

Alex's deep voice is put to good use on most of the songs (there are a few where you can tell he did kind of a sloppy job recording the vocals and it suffers a bit), giving them a "mellow but still rock" quality that sometimes reminds me a bit of Pavement. His lyrics are always thoughtful and poetic, usually centering on relationships and the down notes involved in them. I think he's generally a bit less cryptic on these songs than he is on the ones he writes for Lemuria. There's also the awesome "Adventure Rocketship," which picks up Alex's poetic approach and skips town with it for light hearted sci fi fantasy.

I also have to take a moment to admire the line, "I first met you down on lover's lane/the birds were insane." I "lol'd," as the kids say.