The Union Line

Sounds Like: Wiping dust from your mouth to make room for whiskey

Albums to Listen to: The Union Line

Songs to Listen to: "Pearls" and "Dirty Water"

Coming from San Juan Capistrano, this band is not a band that you would naturally associate with Orange County. Rather than singing about babes and sand, The Union Line seem to be working out a new life for the American "work song." For a band that wouldn't typically grow up with the tradition of this style, their use of Americana is thankfully not kitschy. They remind me a lot of the Felice Brothers, but pleasingly less dramatic. The band plays around with classic aspects of the style; simple but driving percussion, harmonicas, vocals unison and harmony, and of course sooty lyrics stained with heartbreak and hard times.

"Pearls" is the type of song that immediately pulls the listener in. The line "Money don't talk, it screams" is crooned over a powerful jungle beat and rambling guitar, starting the song off with a solid and catchy foot. Creating a sound that is perfectly sparse and authentic, the guitar drops in and out, leaving vocals and drums alone at times. The end of the song is joined by a harmonica, without sounding overly cliched.

"Dirty Water" is small in composition but big in honest emotion. "Oh my lover, underneath the bridge I saw her, in the dirty water, wouldn't dare to stand beside her. All my love is wasted" is sung by a single heartsick voice. The line "All my love is wasted" is then repeated in a kind of "call and response" between the single voice and small chorus, creating something like the sound of inner turmoil itself.

The music of The Union Line is industrious and spirited, while at other times beautifully somber. I really look forward to seeing what else this band puts out. Oh yeah, and they have toured with Local Natives and will tour with them in the upcoming months..so expect to hear more about these dudes...

Harlem

What it sounds like: Nirvana meets Pixies
Albums to listen to: Free Drugs and Hippies
Songs to listen to: Cloud Pleaser, Three Legged Dog, and Stripper Sunset
Harlem sound like what you would think a band whose album titles are Free Drugs and Hippies would sound like. Hailing from Austin, TX, Harlem is a throwback to the simple garage rock of earlier years. Michael Coomer and Curtis O'Mara trade off between songwriting, lead vocals, and lead guitar, resulting in a strange duality that benefits what is at times too comfortable and predictable. Harlem is an amalgamation of garage-pop sound, pulling from the early 90's to the 50's. This album is nostalgic yet equally fresh.

Harlem's ironic and rowdy lyrics sound like something that would come from the Black Lips, in lines like "Someday soon you'll be on fire, and you'll ask me for a glass of water, and I'll say noooo, you can just let that shit burn." They also have a song called "Cloud Pleaser," which is pretty awesome on the title tip alone, not to mention that the song is decently singable.  Coomer and O'Mara slow it down for the song "Three Legged Dog," providing a swingy pop song a la Beach Boys; a nice break from the sloppy chaos heard on the majority of the album. Harlem definitely crank out some lazy arrangements. They focus on developing hooks but not much else, however, it works for their boozy image. In the song "Stripper Sunset," the guitar weaves in and out of a classic rock vibe while the lyrics stay consistently crude, successfully creating a good jam for the end of the album. The last two songs, "Pissed" and "Poolside" are way too similar, and although "Pissed" is the better of the two, both could have been forgotten. All in all, this album is fun and is the perfect thing to dance to when you are home alone.

Bowerbirds

Sounds like: Music coming from an Airstream trailer in North Carolina...hippies.
Albums to listen to: Hymns for a Dark Horse and Upper Air
Songs to listen to: Hooves, Teeth, and Crooked Lust

In the woods of the Carolinas, Bowerbirds' Phil Moore and Beth Tacular wrote much of their music from an airstream trailer...where they both live. Their sound is undoubtedly a wonderful product of their environment; sincere, melodic, and organic folk. Joined by friend, Dan Westerlund, their sound remains as loving and tender on Upper Air as it was on Hymns for a Dark Horse. Moore's voice beautifully teeters on the line of jazz-blues and Will Oldham, while Tacular joins in with a clear and controlled tone, sounding like a bolder Vashti Bunyan. The two voices yield a rustic sound that is both natural and romantic. Relying mostly on vocals, guitar and accordion, the songs have the potential to fall flat in their lack of percussion, however, the guitar and dynamic melodies create all the momentum Bowerbirds need.
In the song "Teeth," Tacular's voice appears like a brilliant revelation when she first comes in to join Moore with the lyrics "Oh, through the teeth of life, a brilliant flame in a dark time." At the end of the song, the instruments drop out to leave Moore and Tacular's voices alone together, showing the command they have over harmony but also their intimacy. The delicate melodies in "Hooves," which is the first song on Hymns for a Dark Horse, sing the words "Back to when I was born on a full moon, I nearly split my mama in two, While she held me proud I had the thought: Well, there's no one more beautiful than you." It's lyrics like these, so personal and emotional, that are hard to pull off without sounding overzealous or even creepy. Bowerbirds embrace their sensual relationship to both human and nature, and somehow do it without sounding like dogmatic hippies. In the song "Crooked Lust" Moore and Tacular play around with a more adventurous beat, which becomes quite moving when paired with the almost desperate and pushed vocals that Moore sings with on this track.

Although the similarity of the two albums do not provide progression and songs like "This Day" are too bare, Bowerbirds present some beautiful things to hear. If any band benefits from sleeping with each other, its this one.

Nerve City

What it sounds like: Crystal Stilts with a Black Angels vibe
Albums to listen to: Self-Titeld
Songs to listen to: I am Alive, The Creek, Junkyard

Meh...Im pretty sick of this strung out lo-fi psych-pop stuff...but I guess I'm writing about this because I can see other people being into it? Nerve City sounds a lot like Crystal Stilts, a band whose shows give you the opportunity to drink a bit too much and sway back and forth like a strung out youth. For me, bands like this serve a specific purpose. There are some bands that I listen to because I specifically want to hear their "sound," songs, etc., and then there are the type of bands that I listen to because the genre fits a mood or moment, not mattering whether its lo-fi band A or lo-fi band D. Nerve City is one of these bands. I like it, I really do, but I would never find myself thinking "Oh man I really want to hear that song '"Junkyard'" like I do with songs by genuine favorites. I think this is the case with most lo-fi bands for me. I find that the filtered and monotonous vocals create a uniform sound that bleeds into one band to the next. Compared to other genres, lo-fi bands can sound irritatingly similar. On a positive note there are some interesting things going on in this album, like tambourine, rather than drum lead percussion,  or that the song "I am Alive" makes me think of a paired down Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs."  If any of this sounds appealing to you, then Nerve City might strike your fancy, especially if you are wearing all black and feeling "aloof."

Timber Timbre

Sounds like: Gently being sung to sleep by the grim reaper 
Albums to Listen to: Cedar Shakes and Timber Timbre 
Songs to Listen to: Home:

And everything including this (Demon Host) on self-titled album

Right now Taylor Kirk is saving me from drowning in surf rock.  Kirk, a fellow Canadian, is the singer-songwriter behind the blues-folk-rock sounds of Timber Timbre. Timber Timbre's music is cinematic and it's lyric's astoundingly tactile. Kirk has achieved a sound that is at once swampy and ragged, while remaining soft and beautiful throughout. On Timber Timbre's first album, Cedar Shakes, Kirk had yet to find the voice that makes the latest self-titled album so stirring. However, Cedar Shakes is not only the sound of something great in the making, but stands alone as a dynamic album. Cedar Shakes begins with "So Much," an instrumental piece that effectively establishes the setting for the rest of the album. As "So Much" smoothly gives way to the song "Home," the listener becomes surrounded by the rawboned rural landscape of Kirk's Ontario farmland.
As I mentioned, Kirk's voice definitely went through an amazing transformation in the latest album. In Cedar Shakes, Kirk sings a lot like Jerry Garcia, and the whole album actually has a Greatful Dead vibe, not a bad thing by any means, however, on Timber Timbre, Kirk's voice is nothing but his own. What I find so impressive about the vocals on this album is that they are haunting without being cliche. Kirk doesn't rely filters to achieve his ominous sound, rather, his voice is pure and clear, but there is an innate gloom in his tone.

I saw Timber Timbre play in the Fall at Joe's Pub in Manhattan. The dark candle lit lounge was the perfect setting for this band for obvious (spooky) reasons, however, seated at tables, people were able to really listen and experience the filmic quality of Kirk's music.
 Although the overriding feel of this band is dusky and even phantasmal, there is never a lifeless moment. Timber Timbre is as eerie as it is exquisite.

Avi Buffalo

Sounds like: A mellow Perry Farrell  +  a less dancey MGMT singing about sexy stuff in high school. Good Spring/Summer music.

Album to listen to: Avi Buffalo
Songs to listen to: "What's In It For?," "One Last," "Where's Your Dirty Mind"

I recently saw another band of really young guys at SXSW who I genuinely thought were terrible. In their case, they hid behind being "lo-fi," which really meant that they played boring garbage, are bad at their instruments...but they totally look like a band, so it works. I asked my friend, "What if we hate them because we secretly think that they are 17 and way cooler than us?" He reassured me that "No," although they were quite possibly cooler than us, and absolutely cooler than we were in high school, they were just bad. So, when I first heard about "how young" Avi Buffalo were, I had similar feelings.

Fortunately, age is not a problem for Avi Buffalo, and maybe even an advantage. They write good songs, and their lyrics are perfectly reflective of being just a little bit younger, making for pleasantly nostalgic stuff.  Lyrics like "Jessica, why do you always make it so hard. You know I'm kidding, but sometimes I feel like you're all I've got,"  hits on how big everything used to feel, a feeling, I must admit, that was quite spectacular. In the song "What's In It For" they sing the line; "You are tiny, and your lips are like little pieces of bacon,"  which, hate as much as you want, is kind of amazing. Avi's vocals are layered and thick, his lyrics are simple but the arrangements are complex, making for perfectly inviting music.