InRadio 12: What do you Mean?

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Miranda Sound
Standard Recording
That Columbus, Ohio's, Miranda Sound did not put much thought into their curious name -- "There's no logical reason whatsoever. We had a gig and we needed a name," says singer/guitarist Billy Peake -- is somewhat surprising considering the musical micromanagement so evident on their second full-length, Engaged in Labor. The Miranda Sound cover some territory in those thirteen songs, from brooding emo to Ben Folds-esque piano pop and back again, sometimes in a single song.

But what stays constant throughout is the care the four gents put into each instrumental part, sewing together complex arrangements that rarely fail to surprise. That and, perhaps, the vocal harmonies that co-frontman Peake and Dan Gerken seem to offer up effortlessly in many of the songs. Those Peake and Gerkin harmonies do much to make "Cadence," our featured song, a distinctive pop gem.


Holcombe Waller
Holcombe Waller's Troubled Times is part personal confession and part tirade of the current Bush administration. A highlight from the latter category? Waller actually manages to rhyme Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's name -- sort of. "Condoleezz, baby pleezz...," Waller croons on "No Enemy," "You must reverse your stance and seal your fate/ To mend the broken wing of the state."

But even without the none-to-subtle pleas for a return to political rationality, the languid, almost non-committal quality of Waller's music feels like a challenge to the status quo in itself. The meandering, post-climactic quality of his tunes -- there is rarely a chord strummed all album -- seems to suggest, "lets knock it off with hyper-masculine 'stratergery,' America, and take a deep breath, and stop insisting everything we do be punctuated with a wailing guitar solo." Troubled Times is Waller's third album to date, all released on his own Napoleon Records label.


The Moaners
Yep Rock Records
Singer-guitarist Melissa Swingle and Drummer Laura King met a few years back while touring together with previous bands. "I was blown away by her drumming," Swingle says, noting that, after they decided to pair up as the Moaners, "I started writing songs to fit her drumming." Swingle's reverence is deserved. A listen to the North Carolina-based duo's debut Dark Snack reveals in King a muscled, straightforward rock drummer with a sixth sense for modest elaboration that would have Meg White, of that other duo, the White Stripes, all red in the face.

Swingle and King are right in step on Dark Snack, and the result is 10? bread and butter garage romps, mixed up with a 1/4-cup blues-tinged raunchiness, a 1/4-cup rock n' roll urgency, and a heaping 1/2-cup of "kiss-my-" attitude. Look out for their cover of "House of the Rising Sun," cleverly revised to describe the local Paradise House, "the [strip] joint out on old 87." It's garage rock at its best -- not shooting for the moon, but playing with what's out there, turning up the feedback, pounding the sticks and having some fun.


Tara Angell
Ryko Disc
The din of conversation in the background, the raspy, distant vocals on our featured song by Tara Angell, "Bitch Please," create a mood of indifference that almost dares you not to listen -- after all, she's not betraying any concern. But paying attention might not be too bad an idea. Angell's songs are smart, and while resolutely dark and damp, they don't succumb to solemnity. Angell leads you down the steps into her basement, generously holding up a flashlight to light the way.

Angell was signed to Ryko after a performance at SXSW music festival in 2002. The long-time New Yorker grew up listening to 70s rockers, including lots of Neil Young. His influence is more obvious on her droning rock tracks than on "Bitch Please," where she's more light-hearted, teasing "I guess its hard to be man/ [but] I'll always be 100 miles ahead of you." The songs on Angell's "Come Down" are backed by moody accompaniment, but as a performer, like Young, she's as likely to go solo/acoustic as to have a band in tow.


Pedro the Lion
Jade Tree
Pedro the Lion paws the line between adult alternative and indie rock on their fifth album, Achilles Heel. It's also been lauded as their best. Our featured track, "Start Without Me," pitches camp in the hills just outside Counting Crows country, particularly in the verses. But elsewhere, like on the opening track "Bands with Managers," Pedro drones and falsettos like a Bends-era Thom York.

Pedro the Lion was originally the solo project of Seattle native David Bazan; his stage name comes from a character he created for a possible children's book. But on Achilles Heel Pedro added Bazan's long-time collaborator TW Walsh for the first time. Like their moniker, Pedro the Lion makes music that is more light-hearted than ferocious. Bazan is a born storyteller, and the listener reaps the benefits of his imagination on tracks like "Arizona," where a drunken New Mexico throws fists at California for the love of the landmass between them.


Eluvium
Temporary Residence Limited
Eluvium is the second of two artists from our featured label on InRadio 12, Temporary Residence. "New Animals from the Air," the featured track from Eluvium's third album Talk Amongst the Trees, clocks in at over 10 minutes, by far the longest track on the compilation. But who's counting anyway? Certainly not Portland, Oregon's Matthew Cooper, the one-man force behind Eluvium. His extra-ambient tracks are the aural equivalent of a very watery watercolor, where the separate elements have bled together to leave only shadows of their previous forms. Their enjoyment, it seems, calls for a suspension of suspense, the stifling of the anticipatory impulse that feeds pop music -- the scratch-the-itch quality of rapid chord changes and anthemic choruses -- and relax as the music unfolds at its own pace. Time can carry on with its old 1-2-3-4 without you, if only for a little while.


Hillstomp
According to the band, Hillstomp's boozy country boogie was born in 2001, the "bastard child of [band members] Henry Krammerer and John Johnson's mutual need to make music and drink beer." Not long after their first basement collaboration, the duo played their first show together to good response, the only casualty being Johnson's makeshift drumset (cardboard box, plastic bucket and Weber grill lid). Johnson's mixed bag of percussive elements do much to give Hillstomp its immediate, visceral feel and, not to be outdone, Krammerer eeks out some crazy tones of his own on slide guitar.

Hillstomp is the second bluesy guitar and drum combo included on InRadio 12 -- the other is the female stripped-down rock pair the Moaners. But while the Moaners borrow the simplicity and gritty, low-register raunch from the blues, Hillstomp picks up more on its chord changes and narrative elements. And while they cover a few blues classics, its most obvious that Portland, OR twosome aren't particularly blue. Like our featured track, a cover of the traditional song "John Henry," the whole of one word exudes an upbeat, punkabilly flair that dares you not to tap your feet.


One Star Hotel
Growing up Mennonite in Lancaster, PA, One Star Hotel singer/guitarist Steve Yutzy-Burkey became fascinated by all things antique and, in turn, by the conflict between progress and preservation. "I definitely like the old style of craft, whether it's in building houses or writing songs," Yutzy-Berkey told the Philadelphia Inquirer. His hesitance to let bygones be bygones -- both musically and in his personal life -- defines the output of One Star Hotel on their second full-length, Good Morning, West Gordon. It's rootsy rock, sweetly melodic, and sad as hell; One Star Hotel throws in the towel with the best of the sad-eyed Americana rockers, (Yutzy-Burkey confesses on the album opener: "We see what we were meant to be/ Frustrated and free") the country-tinged ramble of Wilco being their most obvious influence. The four gents from One Star Hotel reside in Philadelphia, releasing both albums on their own Stereo Field Recordings label.


Despistado
Jade Tree
"A Stirsticks Prediction," our featured song from Despistado debut EP Emergency Response, is an anthem to ADD and Pixie Stix, a sound so So-Cal-hyperactive that one wonders if the foursome have yet learned to play and skateboard at the same time. The wellspring of fun-in-the-sun energy suggested by "Stirsticks'" spastic back-up vocals and maniacal rhythms make it particularly surprising that Despistado actually hail from Cali's (extremely) polar opposite, frigid (and landlocked) Regina, Saskatchewan.

Eventually, a pessimist would assume, the under 6.5 hours of sunlight per day that Regina averages would temper Despistado's exuberance. And, in fact, Emergency Response bares that out, as the remaining 5 songs on are actually quite different from "Stirsticks." Despistado still mix it up with rhythmic changes and unconventional arrangements, but the EP quickly moves away from the straightforward "pop-core" to something more angular and pensive. The righteous anger and propulsive rhythm recall Washington D.C.'s Fugazi and, overall, the EP is a suitably colder and more deliberate effort than "A Stirsticks Prediction" would actually predict.


Motion Trio
Asphalt Tango Records
Accordions have a bad rap in popular culture. But the young accordionists of Poland's Motion Trio are working to change that image. Decked out in all black with wrap-around black shades, the guys are contemporary in their outlook, taking their musical inspiration from rock and jazz as much as from chamber music. And, it turns out, the accordion is a genuinely cool instrument: a single accordion covers the range of an entire chamber orchestra and, says Motion Trio founder Janusz Wojtarowicz, "The three of us can create sound which would require about twenty-one people in a string orchestra."

The three men of the Motion Trio have all been accordionists since before the age of ten. They got their start together playing for change in a street market in Krakow near the Music Academy where they all studied. They've since played street corners throughout the Western world. Though it didn't put money in the bank, this wealth of experience fostered such a musical intimacy that the Trio recorded their debut album, Pictures from the Street, in a single day.

Barrett Martin
Fast Horse Recordings
Unlike many of the up-and-coming artists that we feature on InRadio, percussionist Barrett Martin has over 20 years experience as band member, producer and studio musician in the highest echelons of the music industry. He's best known as drummer for the highly successful Seattle band Screaming Trees, who, along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, spearheaded the grunge movement in the early 90s. But Martin has also recorded with R.E.M. and Luna and Air, just to name a few.

Since the late 90s, Martin has developed a keen interest in world music. He's traveled extensively in Africa, South America and the Caribbean to study traditional percussion in context. Those influences are obvious in The Painted Desert, from which our featured track, "Favelas," is culled. Though the music on the album is as diverse as the regions Martin's traveled, the unifying theme and inspiration is deserts, both at home and abroad. Surprisingly, considering his lengthy resume, The Painted Desert represents Martin's first solo effort. He has all percussive, synthesizer, and electric guitar duties on the album.


Cex
Temporary Residence Limited
Its been grumbled among the "Greatest Generation" that Gen Ys are lost in urban ennui, long on cash, but short on motivation or direction. In the case of Rjyan Kidwell, a.k.a. Cex, that caricature is only half right. Motivation Kidwell has: a fixture in the Baltimore hardcore scene as a young teenager, the 22-year-old Kidwell has released nine -- count 'em, nine -- albums since going solo, all but the most recent recorded on his own equipment in his bedroom. Kidwell's direction, on the other hand, is an open question. His musical trysts have taken him from punk to minimal hip-hop, to techno, to synth-pop (2001's tongue-in-cheek "Oops I Did It Again!") and back again. His latest efforts -- more mature, but always eccentric -- are variously mixed cocktails of these previous experiments, unpredictable as the young-uns of today.

Our featured song from Cex, "Get in Yr Squads," is off his 2001 release, Starship Galactica, re-mastered and re-released in 2004. Starship Galactica represents Kidwell's most intimate flirtation with electronica. A hip-hop-tinged intelligent dance music (IDM) record, its got just enough bass bump to get you swinging -- but not nearly enough to get you drunk and rowdy in the club. That balance makes it a perfect chill out, not check out album, reminding us it's a great time to be alive.


The Original Mark Edwards
Princess Records
When the Original Mark Edwards opens his debut album Rewind Tomorrow with the line, "20th Century Boy/Where are you going to?/ 20th Century Boy/ You're out of place in the Occident," it's a fairly safe bet that the 20th Century Boy in question is the same 21st Century songsmith on record. It's true that Edwards flirts with the futuristic with the whirling electronic flourishes and dime-store drum machine lines that dance around his songs. But Edwards classic pop tunes -- rough around the edges with chunks of sugary nostalgia at their core -- leave no doubt in which century Edwards has planted his flag.

Edwards is a Minnesotan who records from the warmth of his in-home studio, inviting a few friends over for help on drums and vibes. Our featured track, "20th Century Boy," is one of the more rocking selections on the album. The majority of Rewind Tomorrow flows at more deliberate speed, punctuated with sweet harmonies like first kisses at a sock hop, right at home in the Occident of old.


Supersystem
Touch and Go Records
Supersystem isn't a new band, and they didn't always have such a grandiose name -- they released two albums under the more humble moniker El Guapo. The band's humorous (if vindictive) take on the sudden change: "For those that don't know, there's another 'El Guapo' based out of Chicago. They are sponsored by Budweiser's and McDonald's. Though we had been using it for over eight years, Chicago El Guapo trademarked it before we could."

Supersystem's smarmy playfulness exudes from our featured track, "Born Into the World," off of a 12" single of the same name. Unfortunately for those infatuated with that spot-on Middle Eastern-y guitar hook there-in, you'll have to wait a few months for another dose; Supersystem's next full-length, Always Never Again, will elaborate on that song's indefinable mish-mash of pop, punk, hip-hop, dance hall, and world music, but it won't be released until mid-April.


Vic Chesnutt
New Records
Vic Chesnutt is elusive. Trying to pin the Athens, GA songwriter to a describable style is like, well, trying to pin a fish to tack board: just when you're ready to stab, it slips through your fingers, making you realize how feeble and unjust the idea was in the first place. The difficulty is not just that Chesnutt romps around in a McDonald's ball pool of instruments and ideas, but that he alters his narrative of self as "swims." Thus on Chesnutt's most recent release, Ghetto Bell, he follows up the wonderment and naivetŽ of our featured track, "What Do You Mean?" with "Got To Me," a reverb-soggy ballad of seen-it-all-and-swore-it-off world-weariness that could have come off David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, were it more grounded and not about a homesick extra-terrestrial.

Through decades performing and over many albums, Chesnutt has earned a coterie of famous fans. Fellow Athens native Michael Stipe is one of his biggest, producing his first two albums in the late 80s. Chesnutt's music was even the subject of a 1996 all-star tribute album, Sweet Relief Two, featuring such artists as Hootie & the Blowfish, Smashing Pumpkins, and, oddly, Madonna. And you thought a "puppy on a trampoline" was a head-scratcher.


Richard Buckner
Merge Records
Reviewing the most recent solo effort by Richard Buckner, Dents and Shells, Sylvie Sullivan of the Guardian writes, "There are three kinds of American folk artist: those who sit, contented, on a back porch contemplating America's landscape and ways; those for whom its landscape and ways are something to stand against or move boldly through; and those whose America is a shadowy, impressionistic place that moves inside of them. This is the area that the sombre-voiced Richard Buckner has been exploring since 1994, after leaving alt. country band the Doubters."

Well said. Dents and Shells is Buckner's sixth solo effort, and comes off the heels of his second divorce. That fact, as well as the slow crawl of the San Francisco-based musician's songs and his husky voice, has lead critics to term his music resolutely melancholy. Though a Friday night party record Dents and Shells is not, true melancholy requires a healthier dose of regret than Buckner is admits to. In the end, he is neither embracing nor rejecting his past, just telling stories about it, however soaked in misfortune they may be.