Another Form of Relief

It’s been all quiet on the Absentee front for quite some time now, to the extent that people seem to think they broken up. Whether or not that would be a good thing when side projects like Wet Paint are kicking the arse of the main band, I don’t know, but still. Bitchstealer is the title track from the band’s new EP, which will arrive in June via those nice folks at Memphis Industries, with a full length (Victory Shorts) following later in the year.

It’s amazing how quickly the tide can turn for a band. When I first started this blog over two years ago, Voxtrot were a band that I was really excited about. Their first two EPs were fantastic, and they were the very definition of the music I wanted to write about. Despite this, tonight is the first time I’ve listened to Voxtrot since last year. Blogging seems to require one to be far more judgemental than a music listener should be. When I first got hold of their full length album, I was excited to hear it. One play later, I was disappointed. There ended my excitement about Voxtrot.

Overly harsh? Perhaps. I’ve tried listening to the album as a whole a couple of times since, but it still leaves me cold. The songs themselves aren’t bad. When my iPod plays me one on shuffle, I tend to enjoy it, but only in such small doses. I’m not sure whether I’m to blame or the band just peaked too early. Either way, Voxtrot do little for me at this point. Yet the song that kickstarted all of those original excited feelings, The Start of Something, is still superb. It’s just tinged with the feeling that it won’t get any better than this.

Today sees the release of the new single from 4 or 5 Magicians, a double a-side made up of Change The Record and Ideal Man. While neither song quite lives up to last years stunning Forever On The Edge, both are excellent slices of guitar pop. Comparing them to Pavement or Guided By Voices or anyone is just lazy at this point, as this is a band that has found it’s own sound and is comfortable with it. All of which is a long-winded way of saying that you should buy their single so they can finally get that album deal and blow us all away.

The song below isn’t one of those new recordings. It’s taken from their first release, and would have fitted in nicely with a very early piece I wrote on here about bands adapting their own songs. It’s a version of the aforementioned Forever On The Edge in the style of Tom Waits. Just what you’d expect from a guitar band from Brighton.

Change The Record / Ideal Man can be purchased from This Is Fake DIY Records. Probably some other places too.

It’s been over three years now since Tom Vek released his first, and thus far only, album. No one seems to have heard much from him since then, and there seems to be no information about any new material forthcoming. Maybe he’s putting together a new album very quietly, maybe he isn’t. If he isn’t, it’s something of a shame. While the first album wasn’t a stunning piece of work, it did feature a hell of a lot of potential. One man with a ton of instruments all brought together to form a kind of electronic garage rock. With a bit of luck, he’ll pop up with something new and exciting soon enough. If not, the words above are going to seem frightfully accurate.

So much for having permission for everything I post, but this is too good to pass up. From what I can tell, it isn’t commercially available anywhere, so no harm should be done. Anyway, Panda Love Unti were band that formed in 2001 and broke up in 2004. From what I can tell, they never reached any real level of success, which is both a curse and a blessing. A curse because songs like the one below are really quite awesome. A blessing because lead singer Alexei went on to form a new band called Johnny Foreigner.

Today sees the release of the first proper full length record by The Indelicates. American Demo is almost exactly what the title implies. Essentially a collection of their main songs (albeit rather spruced up versions) and a handful of new tracks, it’s a handy primer for those who haven’t really taken them in beforehand. While this means the album lacks a certain flow, it’s still a nice little collection of enjoyable songs that might find them a slightly larger audience.

Georgie James are an example of why I try to avoid the “x sounds like y” kind of mentality. The only reason I listed to Georgie James in the first place was because I read something that compared them to Rilo Kiley. When I didn’t hear any of that similarity, I placed them on the backburner and kind of forgot about them. One magical random play on an iPod later though, and Cake Parade is brought right back to the centre of my attention. Without the initial pre-conceptions, a wonderful piece of pop rock can found here.

I suppose it’s kind of sad that the first thing you notice about Pants Yell’s My Boyfriend Writes Plays is that it’s sung by a man about a man. Once you’re past that initial surprise though, you’re welcomed by a rather tender sounding song that is rather more acidic than it sounds. The song ambles along, and the lyrics are gently spoken, which slightly covers the brutal honesty in the words.

The National are parked in a strange place of my music collection. Alligator is one of the best albums (as a whole) that I own, their songs are uniformly excellent and the vocals get me every time. Despite all of this though, I don’t like them as much as a lot of other bands who aren’t really as good. I only own the one album, and despite it’s greatness, have no real desire to hear much more. I know that to a certain degree I’m missing something here, and yet something holds me back. All that said, here’s Murder Me Rachael from their 2003 album, Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers. It’s the only song from it that I know. Maybe I should discover the rest.

Some good ol’ classic style country all the way from, er, Cambridge. The Broken Family Band specialise in music that would sound as home in the American south as any of the country greats. That isn’t to say that they don’t experiment, often introducing the hallmarks of other genres into their work. Walking Back To Jesus Part 2 is pure country though, from twanging guitars to the singer wishing he’d brought a length of rope to hang himself. A nice happy song to end the week with.