New Music: Sonic Youth, The Octopus Project & Black Moth Super Rainbow, Testbild!, Sparrow House

Sonic Youth - Kim's Chords (mp3) - The Destroyed Room (Geffen 2006)


Sonic Youth – The Destroyed Room / Geffen

As Sonic Youth has aged, their music certainly has not simmered down to the typical predictability or template rut that most ripened artists seem to find themselves in after years of writing music. Sure the NYC indie stalwarts have continually added the adjective ‘refined’ to most of their descriptions as the albums have progressed, but the noise experimentation and otherworldly tones that peaked so many brows in the 80s remains effervescing just below the surface. To further cement their unyielding passion to experiment (as if their foundation needed any more bolstering) comes The Destroyed Room, a collection of B-sides, rarities and other previous non-album releases dating from 1994 to 2004. Ranging from the gorgeous guitar meandering that has garnished their latter-day albums found on Kim’s Chord, a Sonic Nurse B-side, to the avant-garde plinking of Campfire, a 2000 compilation track, to the feedback-rock and tape experiments of Fire Engine Dream, a 2003 outtake, to the absolutely epic 25-minute rendition of The Diamond Sea from 1995, the tracks of The Destroyed Room are the unpredictably enchanting feedback-soaked and technically-skilled rock songs that have made Sonic Youth such an essential weave in the independent rock fabric. If you are a SY newcomer, I’d make my way to their proper releases first, but for long-time fans, this is an essential addition to your collection.





The Octopus Project & Black Moth Super Rainbow - All the Friends You Can Eat (mp3) - The House of Apples and Eyeballs (Graveface 2006)


The Octopus Project & Black Moth Super Rainbow - The House of Apples and Eyeballs / Graveface

The day after I heard The Octopus Project’s 2005 release, One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, the sun shined a little brighter, the sky blued a little bluer and, strangely enough, the squirrels seemed to smile just a bit more than they usually did. Maybe it was The OP’s brand of dismembered pop rubbing off on me, or maybe it was my new addiction to LSD, but either way, my new life outlook had the best soundtrack imaginable. Now nearly two years and a much dissolved high later, the Austin quartet is back and this time teaming with Black Moth Super Rainbow, a like-minded Pittsburgh outfit who lives in a world of cartoonish psychedelia, for a one-of-a-kind collaboration. Over a full year, the bands traded material back and forth with each group listening intently, deciding that they could skew a notch better, completely dismantling the track and rebuilding it with new vibrant sounds in structures so ridiculous that they would make a Doozer blush a reddish-green. Like power drills somehow making sweet love to colorful balloons, each song is constructed from poppy keyboard and theremin melodies, over-modulated blasts of guitar, stumbling, half-drunk rhythms and an assortment of other indiscernible sounds from either broken or mutated instruments. Over the course of the 15 ecstatically wound and wonderfully named songs (Lollipopsichord, Copying Soup onto Sexy Birdy) of The House of Apples & Eyeballs, my aforementioned high has rereached eyeball level and I’m much looking forward to my next walk through the park.





Testbild! - Phanopoeia (mp3) - Imagine a House (Friendly Noise 2006)


Testbild! – Imagine a House / Friendly Noise

After reading Testbild!’s lengthy bio on their website, I have learned a few key facts about the mysterious Swedish quartet: 1. multi-instrumentalist Petter Herbertsson is the core of the group; 2. the band/project/collaboration is named after a book-project written by a jaded Swedish chemist who decided to share his individual (and apparently intriguing) ideas on the world and the nature of reality; 3. the band has been pieced together over the last 10 years in a variety of unconnected circumstances and random occurrences. So, from this information, it makes sense that their music takes on the same mysterious and addled form that their bio does. But this is Sweden we’re talking about, the land of sugary, snowflake-laced indie-pop, so the foundation is cemented in melodic pop and folk. Testbild!’s innate sensibility to experiment is too strong though, and variations range from Reich-influenced loops to fragmented, jazzy song structures to plodding avant-folk to glitch-infused subtleties echoing Hood’s most serene songs. As a whole, Imagine a House is the perfect soundtrack for the hypnotic window-gazing of an urban public bus ride as your eyes trace the sweeping, unpredictable architecture of random passing neighborhoods.





Sparrow House - When I am Gone (mp3) - Falls EP (self-released 2006)


Sparrow House – Falls EP / self-released

In my Sparrow House research session, just about every review started with a statement that included a Voxtrot reference, the band in which Jared Van Fleet aka Sparrow House plays keyboards, the fact that both Voxtrot and Van Fleet play undeniably addictive indie-pop and a smarmy toned remark about Voxtrot being blogger darlings. Well I’ve never actually heard music by Voxtrot though I know the name, so there will be no comparisons from me, but it is pretty funny that I have actually dropped the name Voxtrot four… er… five times now and said nothing of Van Fleet’s sound. Ok then, for his first solo material, Van Fleet issues the Falls EP, the first in a 4-part season-themed series of releases. The obvious comparison for the Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter is Nick Drake, which is certainly appropriate, but there is a light dusting of modern technology bubbling underneath the thick, bedroom atmosphere reminiscent more of n. Lannon. His songwriting, deceptively complex layering and hushed tone are top-notch, think Smith(, Elliott) & Garfunkel, and the vulnerable intimacy verge on uncomfortable. So the bloggers (that are unhappy about the blogger buzz they created) are justified for the hype because Van Fleet has the talent and the Falls EP is worth your time if you are an indie-popper.