Minutos Musicales: The Icicles

Estimados,
aquí otro grupo que practican un pop sin contemplaciones, muy pegadizo y de fácil digestión.

Este disco es una banda sonora fantástica para esa sobremesa en casa después de haber comido con los amigos y te apetece estar de charla tomando un café. Canciones mono-rítmicas, que rescatan sonidos efervescentes y con unas voces que destacan ampliamente sobre la instrumentación.

Difícil se hace elegir algún tema porque el disco en conjunto forma un cuadro perfecto para escuchar de un tirón. Al igual que comentaba en el párrafo anterior, la voz es el factor clave de éxito de este grupo que ya tiene en su haber 2 albums. Comentan por ahí que este grupo les gustará a los fans de 'Heavenly'... y ciertamente no se quedan atrás en dicho comentario.

"While there are plenty of "aww...how cute" moments in the back-story of Grand Rapids, Michigan’s The Icicles, it would be a mistake to see them as mere DIY indie-poppers. It's true; The Icicles did sell handmade hats and mittens at craft shows to pay for the recording of their debut EP. Joleen, initially too shy to play with Gretchen in the early days, thought she’d be of use to the fledgling group as a seamstress. But, The Icicles needed a keyboardist, and Gretchen liked how Joleen sweetly played "Blackbird" on the guitar when they first met as students at Grand Valley State University. So, with Joleen in place, the band was born. The group eventually found their way to the stage via the local pop shows brought to Grand Rapids by their future label boss, Drive In/Microindie's Mike Babb, and have stood out (in matching outfits) from day one. They are, at once, a perfect combination of surface and substance.

The Icicles share with their contemporaries The Concretes and Camera Obscura (or with past favorites Heavenly, The Softies and Tiger Trap) the ability to create music that recalls the joyous pop sound of the great Sixties' girl groups, at the same time managing to breathe a certain maturity into this oft-visited genre. The tried and true themes of young love and youthful, naive exuberance are present, but tempered with realism and the wistfulness that comes through a grown-up knowledge of conflict and regret.

The Icicles recorded their debut EP Pure Sugar at Kingsize Studios in Chicago with Dave Trumfio (OK Go, Billy Bragg, Wilco) at the helm. Although Trumfio is now best known to his major label clients, the group tracked him down because of his work for the band Holiday. Six songs were recorded, mixed and mastered over the course of a frenetic weekend in October 2001, and the resulting EP was released in March 2002. Pure Sugar charted with college radio all over the country, and the Icicles toured extensively through the Midwest USA in support of the release.

2003 saw some personnel changes in The Icicles’ line-up. Emily, who, remarkably, had only picked up a bass guitar for the first time three weeks prior to joining, replaced original bassist Daniel. After a short period as an official “girl group,” drummer and founding member Korrie Sue left and Greg, veteran of a half-dozen local bands (and secret Icicles admirer), took over for what he thought would be a temporary gig. The new rhythm section provided such a solid backing for Gretchen and Joleen’s increasingly intricate harmonies and melodies though that a permanent invitation was quickly offered and accepted.

For their debut full length, The Icicles traded a cold Chicago warehouse for the warmth and comfort of Gary Olson's Marlborough Farms. The band had shared bills with Olson's Ladybug Transistor before, but it was his keen ear for layered vocal arrangements that drew them to his Brooklyn home studio in February 2004. Britt Myers, whose talents The Icicles already knew from his work with The Essex Green and Dressy Bessy did mixing and mastering duties.

Released in January 2005, A Hundred Patterns went on to draw praise from blogger boys (You Ain't No Picasso) and established media outlets (All Music Guide, Pop Matters) alike. The album also impressed the folks at Motorola, who eventually made The Icicles' "Sugar Sweet" the theme song of a worldwide ad campaign promoting their new KRZR phone in November 2006.

The Icicles embarked on a full US tour in support of A Hundred Patterns from February through April of 2005 and, after a brief resting period back home in Grand Rapids, got the ball rolling for the next release. Rebecca Rodriguez joined The Icicles in early 2006 in time for the group to make their next record. With her distinct playing style, she adds lead guitar lines reminiscent of The Cure and the classic Sarah Records' era, helping the Icicles achieve a fuller, more distinct sound than ever before.

After a couple of false starts with other producers, the Icicles finally put down the tracks for their new album in the fall of 2006, and also took time for a short East Coast tour. Local live sound recording legend, Al Mc Avoy recorded the group at his quaint studio. The group again turned to Britt Myers for his mixing prowess, and in January 2007, the band had another record ready for release. The resulting album Arrivals & Departures (due April. 9, 2007), in combination with the Motorola deal, finds the Icicles with a new worldwide audience and an optimistic outlook for the future.

The Icicles will be touring in support of Arrivals & Departures on the East Coast in April 2007. "

Grupo: The Icicles
Disco: Arrivals & Departures
Año: 2007
Web oficial: http://www.theicicles.com/
Canciones destacadas: Regret, Crazy, La Ti Da y Gedge´s Song.

Minutos Musicales: Sunset Rubdown

Estimados,
este grupo me gusta mucho aunque creo necesario realizar al menos un par o tres de reproducciones antes de poder valorarlo como se merece.

3 CDs y un EP completan lo que hasta el momento es su carrera discográfica, que se destaca por prestar mucha atención al proceso creativo, a la evolución musical de cada una de las composiciones y a la compresión de ideas en la duración de los temas: mucho se quiere decir en poco tiempo... este grupo apunta muy muy alto.

El lider de este grupo es Spencer Krug, personaje claramente multidisciplinar si echamos una ojeada a su trayectoria paralela: Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake.... Hoy os presento un album en mayúsculas, de esos que dejan una huella palpable porque la frescura y la euforia desatada se transmiten fielmente. Ritmos precisos, abiertos a una creatividad sin parangon, dando pie a altibajos en donde lo que prima es la idea esencial de lo que se quiere mostrar.

Ya no os doy más rollo... espero que lo disfruteis.

"Sunset Rubdown is an indie rock band from Montreal, Canada. The band began as a solo project for Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, who released his debut, Snake's Got a Leg, in July 2005. Eventually the group expanded to include Camilla Wynn Ingr of Pony Up!, Jordan Robson-Cramer of XY Lover and Magic Weapon, and Michael Doerksen. The new lineup released the Sunset Rubdown EP in January 2006, and later the sophomore LP, Shut Up I Am Dreaming, in May 2006. Their third album, Random Spirit Lover, was release on October 9, 2007 on the band's new label, Jagjaguwar."

Grupo: Sunset Rubdown
Disco: Random Spirit Lover
Año: 2007
Web oficial: http://www.sunsetrubdown.net/
Canciones destacadas: The Mending Of the Gown, The Taming of the Hands That Came Back To Life, Magic Vs. Midas y Winged-Wicked Things

Minutos Musicales: Stars

Estimados,
hoy llega hasta vuestros oidos una banda canadiense formada por Torquil Campbell (vocalista) y Chis Seligman (teclados). Actualmente están ubicados en Montreal aunque sus pasos empezaron en Toronto, luego en New York y finalmente recalaron en Montreal.

Su música ha sido catalogada como "beautiful, eloquent indie pop". Su sonido ha evolucionado de un pop-electrónico como el ofrecido en su primer album (Nightsongs) a una instrumentación más rockera en sus dos últimos albums, la cual se refleja en la incorporación del cantante y guitarra Amy Millan y el bajo Evan Cranley así como de Pat McGee en el disco "Set Yourself On Fire" (una auténtica obra maestra y referencia absoluta para un dj que se precie).

"The band's breakthrough single was "Ageless Beauty", from their 2004 album Set Yourself on Fire. Millan, Cranley and Campbell are also members of the indie band Broken Social Scene, with whom they currently share a record label, Arts & Crafts. Campbell is also an actor and has appeared on the television shows Sex and the City and Law & Order. Millan released a solo album in 2006. Several of the band's songs, such as "The Vanishing", "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", and "The Big Fight", have appeared on the Fox Network's The O.C. and CTV's Degrassi: The Next Generation. Their single "Ageless Beauty" was also featured in a promotional trailer for Vh1's So NoTORIous.

On their website, the band has noted that their name was chosen without prior knowledge of the short-lived project by Syd Barrett. They have cited a wide variety of musical likes and influences ranging from Berlioz to Outkast, citing among others Barrett, Paddy McAloon, New Order, The Smiths, Brian Wilson, Momus, and Broken Social Scene. They covered The Smiths' "This Charming Man" on 2001's Nightsongs and The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" in 2005. Other indie artists have been guest collaborators on many of their tracks, especially for an early period including the release of their first LP.

They recently surprised their fans by releasing their latest studio album (In Our Bedroom After the War), on July 10, 2007, a full two months ahead of its expected release date, onto iTunes. When Stars released In Our Bedroom After the War to online retailers weeks before the CD's actual release date to circumvent the album's inevitable leak, part of their reasoning touched on the increasingly blurry line between critics and listeners. The band believed indie-rock fans should be able to review and provide opinions of the band's albums similar in a way to the so-called critics, but soon realized that the outcome could be very far from their ideal expectation. Soon after the music site Pitchfork Media gave the new album a 7.4 out of 10, Torquil Campbell offered up a rant that not only tore into the music site and the reviewer but lamented the death of art and criticism, which as a result prompted much scoffing from some critics and bloggers, as well as approval from others. The band contributed a T-shirt design to the Yellow Bird Project. to raise money for Le Chainon, a women's shelter located in Montreal, Quebec."

Grupo: Stars
Disco: In Our Bedroom After The War
Año: 2007
Web oficial: http://www.arts-crafts.ca/stars/
Canciones destacadas: Midnight Coward, Take Me To The Riot y The Night Starts Here

Minutos Musicales: Peter And The Wolf

Estimados,
con su líder Red Hunter al frente, Peter & the Wolf son una banda que hacen un folk minimalista y espectral, con canciones en las que sólo suena la voz de Red, a veces un coro (de sus amiguitos hippies, claro) y una guitarra acústica o un banjo. Además, Peter & the Wolf tienen una actitud tan extravagante que lo hace aún más atrayente. Sus conciertos (aunque parecen reuniones de amigos) se celebran en sitios tan dispares como cementerios, autobuses abandonados o islas a las que hay que llegar en bote para ver la actuación.

Grupo: Peter And The Golf
Disco: The Ivory Palms
Año: 2007
Web oficial: http://www.whiskeyandapples.com/ y http://www.myspace.com/whiskeyandapples
Canciones destacadas: Where Summer Goes, Ghost Sandals, The Ivory Palms, Better Days y The Traveler and the County Boys

Minutos Musicales: Fink

Estimados,
aquí tenemos a un artista de Bristol (Finian Greenhall) que narra sus propias vivencias en canciones lentas de trazado continuo y que le dan a las composiones un tinte mágico y existencialista que transcurre mientras dura cada tema.

Muchos grupos con similares características llegan a mi memoria como Jose Gonzalez o Coldcult (estos un pelín más enérgicos). La claridad en sus letras permite traslucir sentimientos, esperanzas y abstracciones propias del estado de ánimo del artista en cada momento. Aún así, es un auténtico placer descubrir artistas con personalidad que hacen la música que quieren independientemente de lo que opine el mundo.

“We’ve played some great shows in the last year,” enthuses Fink from his home in Brighton. He’s not kidding, having performed live with his band at the Birmingham and Manchester Academies, Brighton Dome, Colston Hall in Bristol and a string of other venues in support of Zero 7 in the Spring of last year, before hitting the festival circuit with shows at The Big Chill, Bestival, Green Man, and Fruitstock to name but a few. Fink’s debut album for Ninja Tune, “Biscuits for Breakfast,” marked a seismic shift for the label - shelving samples and turntablism in favour of an acoustic guitar and great songs. The record, distinguished by its squeaking fret boards and disarmingly autobiographical lyrics, caught the attention of audiences worldwide. Over a hundred Fink shows across Europe, including dates at the Electron and JazzOnze festivals, were followed by an intense tour of North America, where Fink, together with bassist Guy Whittaker and drummer Tim Thornton, jetted between seven cities in nine days after having received the Single of the Week slot from iTunes US. Since then, Fink has made special appearances with Nitin Sawhney at the 2006 Electric Proms, the 2007 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and throughout a 6-night sold-out run at London’s Jazz Café last December.

While the lyrics on Fink’s follow-up album, “Distance and Time,” retain his trademark tension and honest lines of observation, the record feels more sophisticated and somewhat larger than the last, book-ended by the strung out, softly spoken anger of “Trouble is What You’re In” and the grunting power chords of “Little Blue Mailbox.” Fink feels that was a direct result of this experience on the road. “We did ‘Biscuits for Breakfast’ completely backwards,” he explains. “It was recorded before we’d ever done a gig, while bands normally have to gig for a while before they get a record deal, then get into the studio. This time around we’ve been on the road for a year and the whole experience has given us some insight into what it takes to headline these places.” If you live in the UK, chances are you’ve heard lead single “This is the Thing” as it recently graced a primetime TV ad campaign for MasterCard. “It was weird to hear myself on telly,” Fink admits. “To think that three or four million people have hard your voice during Coronation Street is certainly a bit strange!”

“But for me, it’s really all about performing live. I DJ’d for years, so was totally used to going to a strange town, getting up on the stage, and spinning great records,” Fink explains, “but playing your own material has ten times the intensity, as people are judging not just the songs, but the performance and the vibe of the venue. The Zero 7 tour was really intense as they’d booked us after our fourth ever gig and we were performing in Shepherds Bush Empire on our fifteenth – somewhere all three of us had wanted to play at some point of our lives. That whole period was like being in a movie; a blur of Travel Lodges and sound checks. It fuel injected our ambition in much the same way that touring the US did for us, playing CMJ in a Brooklyn venue, our own sold-out headliner at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan, and SXSW where we followed The Rapture.”

“I’d already recorded a few new track ideas between putting out the last album and touring,” he continues. “Late last year we had a bit of space to think and began to work on some sketches, before Andy Barlow came on board to produce the record. He has a great pair of ears, and working with him really allowed us to concentrate on being musicians. Guy was able to just be amazing on bass, rather than also having to engineer. Tim was able to play rather than recreate a drum loop I’d written in my loft, while I could put everything I could into being the singer and the guitar player rather than fiddling around as a producer trying to make the bass sound deeper or the snare crisper.”

“With the last album, I was very conscious about making my emotions public, and it crossed my mind that I may have had a problem taking that forward. At first, I hoped my writing would become more abstract, in that I would be able to imagine scenarios and write about them, but I think that writing from real experience has to come from the heart, and that’s what people relate to. It’s not that I’m unlucky in love or anything,” he adds, laughing, “I just think that you go through so much when a relationship breaks down that there may be a song for each tiny nuance of emotion that you feel.” There’s a pause, as Fink takes a long drag on his cigarette, “Maybe I just think too hard.”

Grupo: Fink
Disco: Distance And Time
Año: 2007
Web oficial: http://www.myspace.com/finkmusic y http://www.finkworld.co.uk/fink/
Canciones destacadas: Blueberry pancakes, This Is The Thing y If Only

Minutos Musicales: Okkervil River

Estimados,
recojo los comentarios de la web 'Hipersónica', ya que el artículo que publican acerca del grupo que hoy os presento (Okkervil River) es mucho mejor de lo que yo os podría explicar.

"Los tres discos ya publicados de Okkervil River han situado al líder de la banda Will Sheff como uno de los compositores de más talento y menos apego a los convencionalismos musicales que pululan por la escena indie rock del momento. Situados desde hace años como uno de los mejores grupos poco conocidos del panorama internacional, el lanzamiento de su anterior Black Sheep Boy empezó a darlos verdaderamente a conocer, y este The Stage Names puede ser el empujón definitivo que necesitan.

Desde luego, por calidad no será, pues de eso el disco anda más que sobrado, y sin renunciar a esa particular forma de hacer música de que hace gala Will Sheff. Eso sí, como arrepintiéndose de lo deprimente y oscuro que resultaba su anterior trabajo, esta vez parece haber decidido dar algo más de alegría a sus oyentes. La mera portada del disco ya es una declaración de intenciones a ese respecto, dejando paso el negro dominante de la carátula de su anterior trabajo a la viveza del naraja y el amarillo de este diseño de William Schaff.

Tranquilos, que la autocompasión enfermiza sigue ahí, como muestra el tema de arranque Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe o la llorona A Girl In Port, pero intercalándose entre ellas otros temas que no buscan hundir en la miseria al oyente, como You Can’t Hold The Hand Of A Rock And Roll Man o la sencillamente genial Unless It’s Kicks, una canción tan buena que ya merece la pena oír el disco por ella sola.

Pero ya sea rozando el llanto o las ganas de dar palmadas, los temas que conforman este disco son verdaderamente buenos; me encanta esa forma que tienen de ir creciendo, poco a poco, a veces por medio de la voz cuajada de sentimientos de Will, a veces mediante las sencillas escaladas de piano, otras muchas veces a través de una solitaria guitarra acústica, y siempre con el estupendo trabajo de Travis Nelsen con las baquetas.

The Stage Names es un disco hecho para gustar desde la primera escucha, es un disco mediante el que no se ha buscado inventar nada, pero que tampoco se ha visto sujeto a ideas musicales preconcebidas. El cuarto álbum de Okkervil River no estará entre los más vendidos del año, ni lo intenta, pero estos nueve temas son buena música con todas las letras."

Grupo: Okkervil River
Disco: The Stage Names
Año: 2007
Web oficial: http://www.okkervilriver.com/
Canciones destacadas: Unless It's Kicks, A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene, John Allyn Smith Sails, Plus Ones y Savannah Smiles