Slam Donahue :: "C'mon C'mon"

Rooted in a shambling acoustic guitar progression that feels lifted from a Spoon cut, Slam Donahue's latest, "C'mon C'mon" is their most urgent and needy track yet. Lyrics wax philosophical about loving the chase, an urgent plea to "talk about this," while the undercurrents still secretly hope for something unrequited. It is a divided if not entirely incoherent meditation. "I want to lose you and then pursue you," confides second verse, as a the break-beat arrangement flexes and breathes underneath. The final plea is to "talk about this," a thoughtful aside for a band who primarily has produced carefree, party-first jams. This, in the final analysis, a love song for the kids who have been out too late and loved too little.

NO :: "What's Your Name" and "Eleven Eleven"

"Get ready and I'm on my way," promises the lyrics of NO's newest single, "What's Your Name." It works on two levels, a lyric truth and the current state of affairs for one of the most promising unsigned American rock bands. Somewhere between the National and Pela, NO are product of the people who were left to grow up in this fake empire. The bands growing up in the ashes of this system won't have the luxuries of the ones who rode the horse down. The guitars charge ahead, an undercurrent of real menace in the bass, while the drums on "What's Your Name" are schizophrenic, languid splashing tams in one moment and ratatat snares the next. It all adds up to an undeniable sense of becoming, that this might not be exactly that thing, but it is very nearly there. This is another double-truth, this seven-inch double single for White Iris Records is only a precursor the band's true full length due next year.

The Happy Hollows :: "Endless"

Like Fleetwood Mac roughed up and taken downtown, the Happy Hollows and mercurial lead singer Sarah Negahdari return with lead single, "Endless" from a new EP forthcoming this fall. "Endless" elevates behind Negahdari's effortless vocal control, pitching through octave size tweaks in the song's first lyrics and finally slipping into a dull roar, a moan that serves as the chorus, the melody slipping through steps, modular and like the title, endless. The guitars are of the winsome post-punk variety giving "Endless" this sort edgy Stevie Nicks quality, a buzzing, neon take on "Everywhere" transported to Silverlake and left to fend for itself. While Negahdari, one of the most charming women in indie rock, goes on tour with Silversun Pickups as their replacement bassist, consider "Endless" a very welcome return for her main band and the forecast of great things to come.

Toxie :: "Newgate"

Shambling out of Memphis, Tennessee, Toxie are blowing the doors off the post-punk tropes with their debut single, "Newgate." It is full of confessional lyrics like, "We're all waiting to die," spoken in a hush at the back end of the chorus like a quaalude taken with Le Tigre's "See you later ..." on "Deceptacon." The little, whirring chorus lands on a driving downbeat, soaring synths and grungy guitars, reprising the fatalist lines about waiting for death. It's over in less than two-and-a-half minutes, a slice of tiny life and possibility, no matter how much the lead female vocal yearns for a personal cataclysm.



Toxie plays Cake Shop on August 30.

Ethan Daniel Davidson :: "The Dogs Howl, The Caravan Moves On"

It's rare but not impossible to see crushing punctuation in a song title. It easily could have been a semicolon, upping the ante on the whole project, but here, the comma becomes a terrible arbiter of limits, "The Dogs Howl, The Caravan Moves On" operating like the indifference of the universe itself. A comma has rarely been this alone, holding two independent clauses together with a sort of agonizing disdain. For Ethan Daniel Davidson and his first recording in seven years, the isolation of the title becomes the isolation of the music. Rooted primarily in a downcast organ progression, Davidson adds little flecks to the periphery, prickling little guitars and his hushed baritone. It is the ultimate slow-drive, elements of Leonard Cohen at the edges, appropriate for a song about packing up and turning your eyes against the sentiments of departure. It is austere and lush at once, completely reserved in its lyrical construction while the arrangement is plaintive and pretty in its own morose universe.

Listen :: Ethan Daniel Davidson - "The Dogs Howl, The Caravan Moves On."
Listen :: Ethan Daniel Davidson - "Ain't The Man I Used To Be"

ON AN ON :: "Ghosts"

"There are spirits coming," confesses the first lyrics of ON AN ON's stunning long form single, "Ghosts." Comprised of down stroke guitars, a shabby progression that screams a certain resignment, and a tightly rolling snare, "Ghosts" possesses some of the same end-of-the-world aesthetics that make the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" such a charming apocalypse. This song, however, is not so tidy, evolving into a haunting duet between male and female vocals before a final, distended movement, a nearly two minute outro that ends in a sighing collapse. This is supposed perfection for a song full of promises like, "I'll never forget you," a little test of infinity's boundaries: the five minute pop song.

On The List :: Conveyor @ Glasslands [8.23.12]

Brooklyn's Conveyor was the most verifiable real thing that took the stage at Glasslands this Wednesday evening. Surrounded by cloth flowers of the same vintage as the venue's famous fabric cloud backdrop, the band was further shrouded by a different non-textile obfuscation. The cloud machine below the stage, the one that trades CO2 for fake fog - and not in a metaphorical Cuckoo's Nest sense, this is real fake fog - began belching out its sorry product. It covered Conveyor in a second fake cloud, one around and one behind, fake flowers to stage left and stage right, making the band easily the most intentional object on stage. They had also asked Bill Murray to be their merch guy, a joke that sort of wasn't a joke. This was appropriate for a homecoming show, a very real return for a band who has been out on the road behind their very good, self-titled debut record.

The show was something of a high-wire act: two, three, four and sometimes, five part harmonies hung above sparse and occasionally explosive arrangements. Sounding a bit like Grizzly Bear playing Wolf Parade cuts, and this isn't even entirely fair because Grizzly Bear is about to rapidly redefine their legacy and the better parallel is ARMS, Conveyor opened with "Short Hair," a song about girls with angular hair cuts and bad attitudes. Playing mostly songs from their debut record, the band loaded the back half of the set with, "Mom Talk," "Mukraker," and "Right Sleep" in quick succession, each showcasing a penchant for delicate arrangements and erupting interludes. It was the central lyric of "Mom Talk," the explanatory, "I was away," that soared out over an expectant crowd. It was, after all, a show all about returns.