We were recently introduced to Montreal band, Adam & the Amethysts, and have since fallen heavily for their musical purple reign.  They recently released their second album, “Flickering Flashlight,” and it has been quickly rising up our favorite 2011 albums list.  The album is a masterful mix of pop styles that limns many influences (from Girls’ Spector-echo-pop, to 60s’ farfisa organ, to R&B, to plucky folk), but adds hale harmonies, handclaps, chamber touches (cello, clarinet), found sounds (spoons, bottles, bells, etc.), and a waltz or two.  Simplicity has never been more complex.  And all as recorded in leader Adam Waito’s apartment no less, and no more.  Lyrically, the songs movingly capture Waito’s lived-in life between his decampment from the tundra of Thunder Bay, Ontario (a motherlode of amethyst gems–hence the band name) to metropolitan Montreal, and the inevitable remigrations.

The band’s label, Kelp Records, adds this to the understanding:  “For Flickering Flashlight, the Amethysts include musicians drawn from across Montreal’s indie, weird-punk, folk and pop scenes, including members of Miracle Fortress, Sunset Rubdown, Mixylodian, Code Pie, Fuji Hakayito and North, My Love. Rebecca Lessard plays cello and sings back-up vocals. Scott Gailey plays bass. But listen for other things, too: campfire samples, beer bottles, analog synths, electric hand mixers.”  We hear that, and then some.

Initially drawn in by the new album’s dreamy anthem, Dreaming, we now can’t get Flickering Flashlight out of our jukebox.  Pliers, WD-40, Radiohead–nothing.  Every song a gem (beg your pardon).

Given the impending holiday and Christmas season (and its added difficulties for some), the song from the album that’s caught us in its grip is the mournful Adam Called Me Over Christmas, which concerns the passing of Waito’s childhood friend. Due to a digital dust-up, we initially thought this song was the opening track of the album and were concerned about the non-Dreaming songs on the rest of the album.  We were initially put off by the song’s simple narrative that eschews any artifice (see the lyrics below).  But now we get that this approach draws the attention-deprived in and adds immeasurably to the emotional wallop of the song.  With a simple phrase (“and now it’s too late”) and cry, we are quickly brought back to our own losses and our lament for our inaction.  And in the spoon-and-bottle (?) percussion at the end, we have at times imagined morse code signals to and from the other side.  Adam to Adam.  There are few songs as affecting.

We’ll end with this in this holiday season: you who are afflicted, please call.  We plead with you, please call.  For there are many who will happily answer.  And life will be better.

Adam & the Amethysts–Adam Called Me Over Christmas

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/08-Adam-Called-Me-Over-Christmas.mp3|titles=08 Adam Called Me Over Christmas]

Lyrics:

“Adam called me over Christmas, in the middle of the night, but I wasn’t there, and he apologized to my sister, didn’t call him back, and now it’s too late for that; Adam and me were in Candor Garden, and the other kids played with toys, we just sat in our corner drawing our stories, and the teacher thought we were nuts.  Adam called me over Christmas, in the middle of the night, but I wasn’t there and he apologized to my sister, didn’t call him back, and now it’s too late for that.  Adam and me were at Adam’s house playing, and his brother accused him of something, and started choking him until Adam threw up, his mom yelled at him, and I went home.  Adam called me over Christmas, in the middle of the night, but I wasn’t there and he apologized to my sister, didn’t call him back, and now it’s too late for that.”

For other songs somewhat on this tangent, check out The Antlers’ Wake and Sharon Van Etten’s Don’t Do It.  There are many more.

And check out Adam & the Amethysts performing their fine song, Prophecy, for Canada’s SouthernSouls below:

Archer of Loaf’s song, Web In Front, was the first and best song off of the band’s seminal 1993 album, “Icky Mettle.”  We played Web in Front literally a thousand times and still haven’t grown tired of its two minutes and seven seconds.  Simply brilliance.

Archers of Loaf reunited for a short tour this year and re-released Icky Mettle and, will soon re-release its second album, “Vee Vee” on Merge Records. The band’s lead singer-guitarist Eric Bachmann, who has been occupied with his subsequent band, Crooked Fingers, showed up on the A.V. Club to play and discuss Web in Front. Check both out below. And listen to the album version after. And the lyrics are at the very bottom. “And there’s a chance that things’ll get weird; yeah, that’s a possibility.” Indeed.

Eric Bachmann of Archers Of Loaf discusses and performs “Web In Front”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14FqfE92yK8

Web in Front:

“Stuck a pin in your backbone.
Spoke it down from there.
All I ever wanted was to be your spine.
Lost your friction and you slid for a mile.
Overdone, overdrive, overlive, override.

You’re not the one who let me down,
But thanks for offering.
It’s not a voice and I’m not around.
But thanks for picking it…

Up, on the radio.
Sampled your rust from a faucet, I know.
I’ve got a magnet in my head,
A magnet in my head.
Extra thick, extra long, the way it was wasted.

And there’s a chance that things’ll get weird.
Yeah, that’s a possibility.
Although I didn’t do anything,
No, I didn’t do anything.

All I ever wanted,
All I ever wanted,
All I ever wanted was to be your spine.

(repeat)

In a mouth kept shut and a tongue twist tie.
You’re the web in front, you’re my favorite lie.
You’re a buck my lip, you’re a lash my lie.
You’re the web in front of a favorite lie.

Stuck a pin in your backbone.
Spoke it down from there.
All I ever wanted was to be your spine.
I’ve got a magnet in my head, a magnet in my head.
Extra thick, extra long, the way it was wasted… wasted.”

We tried but just missed The Belle Brigade at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this year.  They have a big buzz about them.  We’ll leave a more thorough assessment for another day, but for now check out the video for their song, Losers.  If you need some uplift and/or if you’re a dog lover, this is the video for you!  Go beagle go!!

KCRW recently broadcast a solo performance by Ryan Adams that was recorded at Apogee Berkeley Street Studios in front of a live audience.  Check out a few of the songs below and watch/listen to the full set HERE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFCyysF7sfg&feature=uploademail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLrxb1IIRqA&feature=relmfu

Dum Dum Girls made their network television debut last night, showing up on the “Jimmy Fallon Show” to play their song, Bedroom Eyes, off of their #1 College-Radio album, “Only in Dreams” on Sub Pop. Watch the performance below via the Audio Perv. The song truly takes flight at 2:21.  You might assert from this performance that they are merely the Goth Go-Gos.  But we hear more depth in the lyrics to go with the arresting audio amalgam of the Shangri-Las, Ramone(a)s, Cramps, and Mazzy Star.

About the song, Bedroom Eyes, Sub Pop tells that [lead singer] “Dee Dee wrote ‘Bedroom Eyes’ after returning from a European tour, jet-lagged and lonely. ‘I was home alone,’ she says. ‘Insomnia was taking its toll; I felt absolutely crazy. I looked up poetry on the subject and found a Dante Gabriel Rosetti poem and the song was born from that.’” A poetry reader? We’re in.

Iron & Wine showed up on Leno last night to play the recently revealed “Wedding Version” of their song, Flightless Bird, American Mouth.  The track can be found on the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1.  Check out the performance below (courtesy of the Audio Perv).  Sam Beam and band continue to deftly iron their live act and wine and dine us with live musical brilliance.

After you check out last night’s performance, check out the band’s earlier performance of Tree by the River on Leno.  Stunning stuff.

Last year’s Plants And Animals’ album, “La La Land,” was one of our favorite albums of 2010. So anticipation runs high at Chez Lefort for their newly announced third album, “The End Of That.”  Recorded outside of Paris (bien sur!), the new album will be released on February 28th on Secret City. The band has just released the first track, Lightshow, which bodes well for the album as you can hear (or download) below. The new album’s song list follows.

Plants and Animals – Lightshow by SecretCityRecords

The End Of That:

1. Before
2. The End of That
3. Song for Love
4. Lightshow
5. Crisis!
6. 2010
7. HC
8. Why & Why
9. Control Me
10. No Idea
11. Runaways

San Francisco’s Dodos showed up with Neko Case on the Jimmy Fallon Show last night and played Don’t Try And Hide It .

Check it out below courtesy of the Audio Perv. The guitar-attack starts at 3:13, and it’s a given that Neko’s vocals lift the song up.

After, go pick up their recent, John Askew-produced album,”No Color” (to which Neko Case contributed).  Go on over to the Dodos’ site HERE and pick up their album and a free, unreleased song (So Cold).

She & Him performed The Christmas Waltz on Leno last night.

Check it below courtesy of the Audio Perv and pick up their album, “A Very She & Him Christmas” at Amazon for $1.99.