We are big fans of the Arctic Monkeys’ guitar-based grit, but especially the vocals and carefully-crafted lyrics of leader/singer Alex Turner (Turner’s songs for Submarines’ soundtrack resonated too if you haven’t heard).  They’ve been turning heads and ears since 2005, and to this day we can still hit repeat on some of their songs (Riot Van is a personal favorite amongst many) and albums (our favorite remains their first–Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not).  As great as they are, we have long-anticipated additional melody and variety from the Monkeys to enthrall all and push them over the top in the U.S.  But they still haven’t found what we’re looking for (entirely).

Fast forward to London band Various Cruelties, their frontman Liam O’Donnell and their eponymous debut album.  There’s no denying that O’Donnell’s vocals sound uncannily like Alex Turner’s.  But Various Cruelties have managed to vary the sound some and sweeten its melodic tendencies by adding R& B allusions.  They’re being dubbed “an alternative indie soul incarnation that fuses classic British guitar pop with Stax grooves to create a form of shabby Motown pop.”  We don’t know about that, but check out below the video for their single, If It Wasn’t For You.  The slow-burn song is as catchy as chlamydia, and so much so that it is being featured in TV commercials (Zales) and continuing to connect.  The song’s video has over a million aggregate Youtube hits,  and the song has been a Top 20 single in the US iTunes alternative charts for a month.  They’ve been taking some heat from critics for being a titch too commercial and lyrically banal, but their burgeoning fan base would beg to differ.  Time will tell if Various Cruelties can build on its current momentum and transcend.  If you want to assess in person, the band will play Webster Hall in New York City on February 19th and the Bootleg Bar in Los Angeles on February 21st.  We’ll check ’em out, assess their album further and keep you apprised.

Well what took ya so long?  With songs as strong as we’ve heard from his first solo album, The Messenger, we can’t help but wonder why former Smiths’ songwriter and guiding-guitarist Johnny Marr has taken decades to put out his own album.  Following The Smiths’ demise, however, Marr became a songwriting, guitar-playing gunslinger of sorts, working with Kristy MacColl, Billy Bragg, Oasis, The Pretenders, The The, Electronic (with some of the New Order orderlies), Modest Mouse (Marr’s guitar playing and sound at the band’s 2007 Santa Barbara Bowl show are still deeply embedded in our minds), and countless other projects.  All of which served, in our ever-so-humble opinion, to mar Johnny’s personal endeavors.  Marr did pull together a couple of bands (The Healers and The Cribs), but is only now getting ’round to recording and releasing a personalized record.  If the new albums’ first two songs (the title track and now Upstarts) are any indication, The Messenger could very well end up on our Best Albums of 2013 list.  Time will tell.  Check it out below.

Talented Montreal band The Besnard Lakes will release their fourth album Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO on April 2nd.  Marrieds Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas produced, recorded and mixed the record, which features lofty, prog-ish sounds amongst their expansive songs.  Check out below the first song, People of the Sticks, released from the album.  After, a just-released video of the band interviewed and (at 2:15) performing their great song Chicago Train from their last album for “The Neighbor’s Dog” series [Warning:  includes gratuitous flute before the fuzz and jangle which kicks in nicely at 6:33].  The new album’s track list follows way at the bottom.

Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO Track List:

1. 46 Satires
2. And Her Eyes Were Painted Gold
3. People Of The Sticks
4. The Specter
5. At Midnight
6. Catalina
7. Colour Yr Lights In
8. Alamogordo

January seems to be a great month for Canadian band The Deep Dark Woods.  Last January we wrote about their great 2011 album The Place I Left Behind.  While the song featured prominently in our post last January, the band’s beautiful song The Banks Of The Leopold Canal bears repeated listens, and Vanguard/Sugarhill Records has just released a video of the band’s performance of the song in an “Americana Session.”

As we said last year, The Deep Dark Woods delivers dark tales with pristine, gorgeous harmonies and precise piano, guitar. banjo and violin embellishments.  On The Banks Of The Leopold Canal depicts a Canadian soldier and his lament as he prepares to leave his home and love for battle in WWII.  [A little history lesson:  the battle for the Leopold Canal was part of a larger battle fought by Canadian soldiers called the Battle of the Scheldt in northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands during World War II in the Fall of 1944.  By September 1944, it had become urgent for the allies to clear both banks of the Scheldt estuary in order to open the port of Antwerp to Allied shipping for their their supply lines from Normandy.   The Canadian forces suffered heavy casualties during the process, including at the Leopold Canal, where thousands died.]  Hence the song’s heavy lyrics and apparent method-acting delivery below.  Check it out.  Stunningly good.

As warned, this morning KCRW broadcast a recent live performance by LA-natives Local Natives of songs from their impending new album Hummingbird.  To get a feel, check out the band playing new song Breakers below.  If you like what you see (and you will), go watch/listen to the entire performance at KCRW HERE.

The Foxygen machine (that would be Jagjaguwar) is revving up in support of the band’s impending new album We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic.  After being completely wowed by their energetic live performances at CMJ and LeGuessWho? Festival, we confess we were comparatively nonplussed by Foxygen’s recently-released official video (watchable at bottom) for their song San Francisco (as much as we love the City).  Not to worry.  Below is a new stream of another San Francisco paean by the band entitled No Destruction that’s completely destroyed us (in a peaceful way).  As much as we love all of our favorite Brooklyn-based musicians, we love the LA-cum-New York band’s retro sound on the song and their diss of Brooklyn (maybe it’s just a Nets thing).  Foxygen’s Kinks/Velvet Underground pastiche is really growing on us (we have to ask though:  grandma lost her arms in the war?).  The band will make its way to San Francisco and LA in mid-February (dates below the videos).  Check ’em out below.

02/13/13 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra & Wampire BUY TICKETS
02/15/13 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra & Wampire

Sharon Van Etten finished up her great 2012 with her album Tramp featuring prominently in the Best Albums of 2012 lists.  To kick off 2013 Van Etten appeared on a Like A Version episode on Australia’s Triple J show.   Check her out below solo and performing Nick Cave’s People Ain’t No Good.  The song selection makes sense since Van Etten will soon join Nick Cave as opener on his tour.  After, check her out playing the outstanding Tramp song Give Out.

Listen below to Shenandoah  as performed by a couple of scallywags, Tom Waits and Keith Richards.  The song is from the collection Son Of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys.  Curated by Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, and producer Hal Willner.  Among the artists featured are Patti Smith, Courtney Love, (allegedly retired) Michael Stipe, Nick Cave, Michael Gira of Swans, Iggy Pop, Broken Social Scene, Antony,and a galleon’s worth of other corsairs and sea rovers.

We were bombarded yesterday by communiques from a few favored fans of The Postal Service letting us know the rumors that the band will reunite to play this year’s Coachella Festival.  We’ll see about that.  Coincidentally, The Postal Service’s Ben Gibbard appeared on The Colbert Report in support of his solo album, Former Lives.   Gibbard’s been making the rounds, having last been seen on Conan before Christmas backed by a mariachi band.  On The Colbert Report last night Gibbard showed up with a cast of his gifted (Twitter) friends:  Aimee Mann, drummer Jon Wurster, Ted Leo and Jamie Edwards.  The ensemble first played Gibbard’s single Bigger Than Love followed by Gibbard stepping out solo for I’m Building a Fire that is exclusively viewable on the interweb.  Check out both songs below, followed by Colbert’s interview with the singer.

Interview:

Musical grifter and common-man poet, Ray Wylie Hubbard, showed up on the Letterman Show and wove his gritty-poet magic last night.  With his son Lucas on Les Paul, Oklahoman Hubbard (heir-apparent to the “Willie” look-and-feel) and band regaled with Mother Blues off of his critically-acclaimed album The Grifter’s Hymnal.  The true-story tale of Mother Blues and the groove of the band captivated all, and especially Letterman.

Mother Blues is a “mostly factual” account of Hubbard’s days paying his dues in a Dallas nightclub filled with “dealers, gamblers, strippers, young white hipsters and grizzled black blues legends.”  Lucas gets a mention in the song, along with his mother and Hubbard’s wife/manager, Judy.  Hubbard has said this about the song and club:  “I saw Lightnin’ Hopkins there, and Freddie King would show up, and we’d play poker upstairs. I’ve got a picture of me playing poker with Freddie King when I was 22. He played a game called ‘Lucy Duecey,’ which was like Seven Stud only whenever a two would come up the next card would be wild. It was really called ‘Freddie King Wins Every Time’ because everybody was drinking and nobody could figure it out! There’s a little fiction in that song, but not a lot. All the important parts are pretty much true.  I heard [my wife Judy] say one time that the days she keeps her gratitude higher than her expectations, she has really good days. I filed that away in my head, and it came back to me when we were playing this song live one time, before I really had an ending for it. I told the crowd, ‘I’m really grateful to you all for showing up, and I’m grateful for being here with Rick and my kid … the days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations are really good days.’ And it seemed like the right way to end the song.”  We couldn’t agree more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r92RkIKm6Wc