Scroll down for the latest releases by Pernice Brothers, Frank Black, Art Brut, Maximo Park and Poor Luther's Bones

Pernice Brothers
Discover A Lovelier You

(Ashmont)

ashmontrecords.com

The fourth Pernice Brothers studio album finds the band tweaking their sound a bit more, adding different instrumental approaches and textures. In listening to this album, it's quite apparent that for all of Joe Pernice's talent as a lyricist and creator of sublime melodies, he is somewhat limited as a vocalist. Which is why the band's decision to try some new things musically is the right one. Time and time again on this album, they find fresh approaches to Pernice's timeless songs of broken romances, missed opportunities, and, on occasion, finding love.

Much like 2003's Yours, Mine & Ours, the influence of ‘80s college radio is apparent throughout the disc. Here, however, the band eschews the bigger guitar rock of that era. Instead, this album's mood and tone is closer to the band's debut, with the songs tending to be soft and pretty. The big difference now is that the original ‘60s influences that were on the surface on the first two records are pushed a little bit more into the background, though they clearly still play a role.

In fact, I should be clear. A good portion of this album is typical of Joe Pernice's work since he left The Scud Mountain Boys. Acoustic guitar driven pop gems with poetic lyrics that alternate between being descriptive and suggestive. Long time fans will have no problem getting into quintessential Pernice Brothers material like the superbly sweet "Say Goodnight to the Lady", which has synthesized strings in the background of the hooky chorus to go with the winsome melody, and "Saddest Quo", which, in addition to its great title, is chock full of Pernice's patented smart sad sack lyrics: "Love my neighbor/when I feel like I couldn't even give a shit." This provides another trademark example of the marriage of lovely music to dire thoughts. There is some sort of ‘spoonful of sugar' principle at work here, I think.

As I stated above, however, the most striking songs find a way to reinvigorate the formula. The opening cut, "There Goes the Sun", is striking in how it immediately envelopes in atmosphere, with lead guitarist Peyton Pinkerton strumming an echoed lead guitar very quickly, while the rhythm of the song pulses amiably. The chorus is spearheaded by an ascending keyboard line that is immediately memorable. The interplay between the strumming guitar and chiming keyboard is a great melding of seemingly disparate textures.

"My So-Called Celibate Life" starts off with a variation on a New Order or China Crisis song intro – delayed guitar, followed by keyboards and handclaps. The band expertly weaves the instruments together. And, typical of the superb production by Thom Monahan and Joe Pernice, the mix is spacious to make this miniature sound as large as can be, without being overdone. There is also some creative guitar work on "Snow" that fits with the influences revealed on the last studio set.

The band finds new ways to augment familiar laments. "Red Desert" uses a treated electric piano and, in the chorus, a guitar part that sounds like The Edge on an early U2 record, slowed down to almost half speed. On "Sell Your Hair", the arrangement is quite creative, with a mournful keyboard up front, and Pinkerton finding space in between to play sympathetic notes. The drumming is very minimal, as Pernice's voice is put a bit more up in the mix than usual, as he contemplates getting away...from everything: "Turn up the thermostat/let's live while we're young/ring in my favorite year/we'll smoke until this pack is done." The song also utilizes some interesting backing vocals.
This album doesn't represent a big step forward, or a slight setback. If anything, it's a compelling statement about how Pernice, Monahan, Pinkerton and the others have found a comfort zone that brings with it a confidence to try new things, but a recognition that there's no need to radically reinvent the Pernice Brothers at this point in time. And since Pernice has whipped up another fine batch of songs, the result is another essential pop album for adults.

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Frank Black
Honeycomb

(Back Porch)

backporchrecords.com

I have to hand it to Frank Black. He could have tried to cash in on the success of the recent Pixies reunion tour in some form or fashion. Made an album of his band doing Pixies songs, or writing material that brought everyone back to the good ol' days. But Black dances to a different tune. In this case, a country or R & B tune. Now, I know that Black isn't immune to R & B -- he once recorded a cover of the old rock ‘n' roll standard "Duke of Earl". Still, Americana isn't exactly what comes to mind when I think of Frank Black.

On this effort, Black got together with some session cats (including Steve Cropper and Spooner Oldham) and produced what is a pretty laid back album. One thing that becomes quickly apparent is that Black's voice is extremely limited. He seems to recognize this too, as he muddles his way through a lot of the material here in his characteristic lower range. However, when he tackles the classic "Dark End of the Street" (James Carr's best known hit), he actually gets to near falsetto range. There isn't much power in his voice, but he carries the tune very well. The one thing that really strikes me about this cover is that Black is very engaged with the song. I would guess it is one of his all-time favorites. Yet, this is merely a decent version, tastefully rendered.
Indeed, this is a Star-kist Charlie the Tuna type album -- if you prefer something with taste to something that tastes good, this might be for you. At times, you might think that you've dug up a lost disc by Mark Knopfler's Notting Hillbillies. The pleasures on this record are subtle. For example, the first single off the album, "I Burn Today", is a very low key shuffle, with Black singing in a subdued voice. There's some delicate lead guitar playing and a pleasant ruminating feel. The title cut and "Atom in My Heart" are other songs in a similar vein that are likewise memorable.

Quite a few songs tread in that sleepy territory. "Go Find Your Saint" is conspicuous because it sounds more like a standard Frank Black song, that could have easily turned up on one of his solo records. What makes this song particularly intriguing is you can hear the Frank Black style, but when performed with the reserve demonstrated here, you can also hear R & B roots that wouldn't be obvious in a rocked up version. It's not a great song, yet it's illuminating.

And even if the music isn't quirky, a couple of cover versions show that Black can still offer something out of the ordinary. Black remakes Doug Sahm's "Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day", a simple playful song that is as comfortable as a nap in hammock under shade trees. This song is performed without a shred of irony, and it's a great mellow summer tune, done fairly well here. I can't comment on the comparison of Elvis Presley's original version of "Song of the Shrimp" (from the movie Girls! Girls! Girls!), but I'll hazard a guess that the King didn't perform it with the seriousness that Black does here. Black treats it like a modern Bob Dylan number.

Unfortunately, in the effort to chill, this music, though always competently rendered, is sometimes kind of lifeless. The worst offender is "My Life is in Storage", which seems to have the ingredients to be a good song, but it is so plodding, which is exacerbated by Black's tasteful but too lengthy guitar solo that winds the track down. Overall, the unmemorable tracks equal if not exceed the worthwhile ones. Although I give Black credit for trying something different, this album really doesn't play to his strengths, and highlight the weakness of his voice in its lower register. I'm sure this was a great experience for him, but it doesn't translate to much more than a pleasantly bland LP.

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Art Brut
Bang Bang Rock & Roll

(Banana/Fierce Panda)

bananarecordings.com

Art Brut's debut is ultra-cheeky and probably imminently disposable. Yet the record is plenty of fun, and there are a few terrific songs on here. These guys clearly believe that pop music is stupid and silly – but it's fun and they love it. Their vaguely subversive take on pop comes from a similar place as bands like Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, Half Man Half Biscuit and The Members. Musically, they take a few cues from The Fall.

The Art Brut sound is based on the ‘77 punk style riffing and clattering of guitarists Chris Chinchilla and Ian Catskilkin, with straightforward, and sometimes quite deft, support from the rhythm section of Mikey B. (drums) and Fredy Feedback (bass). Vocalist Eddie Argos narrates and shouts over this slightly cacophonous, slightly crafted sound.

Some of their music sounds like dissonant football chants. The title cut is a prime example. It comes out of the gate with group vocals yelling out the chorus, and Argos listing some beefs he has with the rock and what he wants from drugs and girls. He makes it quite clear that "I don't like the sound of the Velvet Underground/I can't stand that sound/the second time around." He also wants better drugs and a girl who will hold his hand. Yet he declares that there should be "no more songs about sex and drugs and rock ‘n' roll." Hypocritical, but humorous.

"Formed a Band" is in the same mold, and it's essentially a cry for attention. With a guitar riff that could have been lifted from a Members or Vibrators b-side, Art Brut sets out their intentions: "we're gonna be the band that writes the song that makes Israel and Palestine get along." A little bit more ambitious than "we're too busy singing/to put anybody down." While there is a calculated artlessness to Art Brut, even during this roar of a tune, there are some bluesy guitar licks underpinning the verses. Another great track in this mold is the hyper-silly "Modern Art", which Argos declares "makes me, want to rock out." It seems that everything makes him want to rock out.

Contrasting this fury are some great songs about girls. "Emily Kane" has a descending "In the City" (The Jam) chord progression, though it's played in a slower tempo. This song has a really nice melody, carried by the rhythm guitar and bass. Argos's vocal is sincere and touching, if not quite in key, as he reminisces about his first girlfriend. You can even hear some ‘60s Brit pop-rock when the song drops down to just Argos and a lead guitar. Nifty. Then there's the giddy "Good Weekend", with Argos ecstatic about a brand new girlfriend. This cynical band does a great job of capturing the joy of a teenager in finally having a girl. And the lust of a teenager, who wants to finally have sex: "We wanna be/lapsed Catholic/got the contraception/haven't got the knack yet." The music is appropriately bouncy and slinky. Eventually, Argos gets her to the bedroom, exclaiming "I've seen her naked twice/I've seen her naked twice!"

Art Brut also traffics in naked aggression. The album closer "18,000 Lira" is the cut most obviously indebted to The Fall. The band works a pounding modified blues riff, and the ferocity will be familiar to fans of the Mancunian legends. The band careens effectively on "Fight!". The song treads in place in the verses, builds in the bridge and explodes in the chorus. Seething is also on the menu, as on "Stand Down", which has a dramatic flair, as if it were the closing song on the soundtrack to some highly touted foreign film. Argos pays tribute to walking away from conflict: "It's not a lack of determination/it's more heroic resignation."

I'm not sure if Art Brut will last too long, but I'm sure people said that about The Fall almost 30 years ago, and they're still going. This band is full of ingenuity, and may have some things say that aren't just sarcastic and jokey (though they can ride that for a while). In the meantime, this debut album is a refreshing burst of energy, and stands out in the crowded indie rock scene.

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Maximo Park
A Certain Trigger

(Warp)

warprecords.com

Maximo Park are yet another post-punk inspired group from the British Isles. The north of England, to be somewhat precise. Already I'm hearing music fans who were initially excited by the initial wave of Third Wave of New Wave bands complaining that the style has been done to death. I will grant that any time a bunch of bands create some new sub-genre, things can play out pretty quickly. However, I'm giving a lot more leeway to the post-post-punkers. Why? Well, in part because I think that the original stuff from Wire, Gang Of Four, early XTC, etc. is some of the greatest music ever. Moreover, a lot of those bands didn't have long careers, or didn't stick with that style for more than a few years, so there is a lot more left to be mined from this area of pop music. Finally, bands who've followed these influences are aiming high, and have a respect for the song form. Even the lesser bands that I've heard so far have some great songs in them.

Which brings me to Maximo Park. At times, you can hear some of the XTC herky-jerk and other buzzing sounds that are new wave staples. But their influences are even broader, and really put in perspective how the bands of the late ‘70s were, to a certain extent, merely taking cues from the past. I certainly hear some David Bowie and early Roxy Music and Sparks here. Not to the extent that they are carbon copies, and without the glam trappings. But I think it's there. And aided by wonderful croon of Paul Smith and the consistently fine lyrics, there is some kinship with more recent Britpop legends like Pulp and Blur. This is catchy literate music played with a lot energy and made with a lot of intelligence.

Often the new wave bits are just ornamentation or integrated into a more classic song structure. This comes through on "Now I'm All Over the Shop". The skittish rhythms are new wave all over, but the manic piano part, trying to keep up with the rhythm section, is more in line with Brian Eno and Ron Mael. The guitar line is a variation on Andy Partridge during his frantic days. But all of this nervous energy unfurls into a brilliant melodic chorus that is timeless. Maximo Park is not a band of archaeologists, they are students of music who have something to say and have absorbed a lot of great music and find a way to put it across their own way.

How inspired they actually are by some of the greats I mentioned, I have no idea. But they are working with similar ingredients, while crafting new recipes. The tangled noise in the verses opens up into a brilliant chorus melody on their breakthrough single "Apply Some Pressure". The number features propulsive controlled drumming from the always spot on Tom English, and precise guitar work from Duncan Lloyd, who mixes the exciting chords of The Jam with more measured lead work. And the band has smart pop single lyrics: "You know that I would love to see you in that dress/I hope that I will live to see you undress/the everyday is part of what consumes me/the hate I feel is part of what fuels me." The song even features an additional hooky part, an extended middle eight built on the mantra "what happens when you lose everything?/you start all over again." An instant classic.

Maximo Park clearly knows how to create hooks out of rhythms or melodies. Some songs like "The Night I Lost My Head" are driven by the rhythm, while Smith provides most of the melodic thrust. Other songs, like the single "Graffiti", put the melody up front and center, with the rhythm section adding to its already considerable weight. There's a little Motown punch on "Postcard of a Painting"; "Acrobat" is a thoughtful slow piece, with Lukas Wooler's keyboards dominating, and spoken word parts and Smith's singing at its most dramatic in the chorus; "Kiss You Better" has a melody in the verse reminiscent of Idlewild, before hitting a mix of XTC and Adam & the Ants in the refrain; and "Limassol" begins with some Eno style keyboards, and finds a mid-point between Roxy Music and Pulp, to very good effect.

This is simply top notch Brit pop that may be part of a trend, but Maximo Park is not merely jumping on a bandwagon. The quality of the tunes and lyrics here shows a band of a great deal of substance that could take its music in a variety of possible directions.

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Poor Luther's Bones
Next To Nowhere

(Heavy G)

heavygrecords.com

The latest release from this Pennsylvania band finds them moving from the rustic sounds of the superb Inside the Outsider to dark and forceful blues-based rock. This isn't a major departure, as the blues loom large in Poor Luther's Bones' work, whether it touches on Americana or psychedelia. This record is at turns blistering in its anger, and at other points, kind of spooky.
Two obvious reference points are Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart, though generally PLB doesn't get quite that weird. Yet there's an edge here that is similar to those artistsl. Yet neither of those artists rock as hard as Poor Luther's Bones do. This band doesn't quite pound as hard as Led Zeppelin or pour the molten lava like Queens Of The Stone Age, but they come close at times.

A large share of the credit for the large sound must be doled out to the rhythm section. Leo Scott is rock solid on bass, and drummer Dan McGonagle gets some chances to really pound, and he always gets the music going, cut after cut. Meanwhile band leader Guy Forsyth and Justin Vallone star on guitar. Forsyth's rhythm parts are frequently thick and sludgy, in a good way. And Vallone's leads sting and burn – throughout the record, the solos are brief, and often the leads accent, and they always hit their target.

One thing about the hardest rocking songs here is that they have titles that are appropo for hard rocking songs. "Down So Long", "All Skegged Out", "Whiplash" – you can judge these songs by their titles. Forsyth and company wallow in the murk on "Down So Long". Forsyth sounds tortured vocally as the band bashes away, first with a simple riff, moving into flailing axes in the chorus. This song seems to be coming from a sinner who doesn't want salvation: "I've got a little sex kitten/oh...she butters me up/she cry when I'm missin'/she just can't get enough/she ain't so pretty to look/she talk kind of ignorant" and then it gets kind of unintelligible, as Forsyth gets so frenzied. Compressing his strangulated voice adds to the evil feel of this song.

"Whiplash" has a similar structure, the band starting with repetitive, swirling riffing. Eventually, the song gets to pounding mode. This is the perfect companion to "Down So Long". Meanwhile, "All Skegged Out" resurrects a wooly mammoth of a guitar part that may date back to Year 1, B.B.C. (Before Blue Cheer). Again, Forsyth (who produces and writes all the songs) distorts his voice. Here, he sings in a guttural style, a la the aforementioned Waits and Beefheart. The band locks in on the primal part, especially McGonagle. The verse/chorus riff is contrasted by a melodic lead guitar part that is the bridge out of the chorus, and it provides some respite, though it scarcely changes the angry tone of the song.

Even when the album isn't set for stun or kill, it's effectively sinister. On "Devil's Broth", Forsyth sounds like a crazed T-Bone Burnett, who has given up on that born again stuff. The song could probably be played acoustically as a folk song. It's a cautionary tale about winding up in Old Scratch's cauldron: "one squeeze and you'll cough/in the devil's broth." An organ augments the lumbering "Don't Get Your Bugs On Me", and Forsyth's phrasing reminds me a little bit of Roger Waters, though there's not much else that would remind anyone of Pink Floyd on this track. I will say that Guy sounds like a man who really doesn't want someone else's bugs on him. "Get Loose" initially sounds like it might have fit on the last Poor Luther's Bones album, with engineer Dan McKinney adding a jaunty barroom piano. Yet the song is permeated with the same hellish tone that pervades this LP – Forsyth seems to have embraced sin as the way to go. It's fun with a heavy price tag attached.

No Poor Luther's Bones album (based on my limited experience) would be complete without at least one foray into psychedelia, and "Only Possibilities Exist" has a big guitar part that definitely has a paisley pedigree. And even on the heavy songs, there are melodies, and they carry songs like "Here Next to Nowhere" and (especially) on "Patch it Up".

This is now my third journey into the world of Poor Luther's Bones, and the more I listen to them, the bigger fan I become. I'm struck by how the band works from a traditional foundation, and finds ways to sound very different each record. Moreover, each album has a distinct mood and tone to it. This is a dark album, yet it's not depressing. It's just a great collection of rock, played with absolute commitment.

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