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I had high hopes for The Kills new record, No Wow, released in March. I dug their 2003 debut, the gritty Keep on Your Mean Side. Their primal drums and snarly guitar packed a wallop that succeeded in modernizing the sleezy roots of Southern juke-joint blues. Like the Immortal Lee County Killers, except with a talented vocalist (two of 'em actually), The Kills had a knock-your-jaw-outta-socket swagger that was more than just token posturing. I mean, what is there not to like about a band that has the balls to cover Captain Beefheart's "Dropout Boogie" (on their debut EP no less).




When I heard the single, "Love Is a Deserter," from their new album, I was sold on first listen. Here was a song playing to their strengths, beefing up the bombastic guitar and pushing the tempestuous vocals--especially those of the sultry Alison Mosshart--more to the fore. And the coy guitar hook over the chorus is just a playful pat on the ass when no one else is looking. This duo is fucking with you just to show you they can. It's a great song, like P.J. Harvey's 4-Track Demos as remixed by Suicide.

But, the rest of No Wow is such a total letdown. Jamie Hince's Nic Zinner-ish guitar riffage often sounds tired. The not-so-subtle attempt at Velvet Underground simplicity on "I Hate the Way You Love, Part 2" sounds too much like flattery. Ditto that on the Suicide-like rumble of "The Good Ones". I miss the live drums of old; I could do without the drum machine, which sounds like it's actually the complacent percussive tracks of your mother's organ. A lot of the album just sounds like an unconvincing rehash of the sexy blues-rawk of vintage Harvey and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Somehow, the band managed to sound bigger on their sophomore album, yet less raw (and hence less dangerous). Chalk that up to the improved fidelity on this record, which is a double-edged sword.




There's plenty of sinister urban decay and restless emotion captured on No Wow, but unfortunately most of it just sounds like musical snapshots of the same old underpass graffiti that we've all walked past countless times.

For perspective, here's the Beefheart cover, a couple songs from their debut, and four songs from No Wow. (If you can't listen to these tunes with the volume cranked, then don't bother.)

From the Black Rooster EP:

"Dropout Boogie" - Live take of the Safe As Milk standard. I love how the song is distilled down to the meaty guitar riff and the noisy open-mouthed high hat.

From Keep on Your Mean Side:

"Fried My Little Brains" - The sort of a song I imagine pumping out of the 6x9s of a Cadillac convertible barreling through the New Mexico desert with a dead body in the trunk.

"Hitched" - A filthy blues guitar riff that sounds like ZZ Top with slit wrists.

From No Wow:

"Love Is a Deserter" - The single that hooked me on the new record.

"At the Back of the Shell" - No Wow's second attempt at a saving grace. Nice staccato guitar riff and unusual percussive backing track (hand claps coupled with kick drum).

"The Good Ones" - I suppose this would be the marketable single that gets played in the dressing room of every Gap in America.

"I Hate the Way You Love Me, Pt. 2" - Somewhere Lou Reed is yawning. Been there, done that.

Purchase The Kills at any of the following retailers: Insound, Other Music, and Amazon.

Hey kids--there's another new mp3 blog in town: swedesplease, dedicated entirely to Swedish artists and run by one Mr. Craig Bonnell, also of the much-lauded songs:illinois. How this man finds time to post on both sites every single day (!) is far beyond my comprehension, but my world is a better place for it. So kudos, Craig.

After reading his Sunday post, "I Know...I Know...Where's The Bear Quartet songs?!", I was inspired to share the wealth of perhaps Sweden's finest pop act, The Bear Quartet. Thanks largely to the efforts of Parasol Records, quite a few Swedish acts which would have previously been limited to regional Scandinavian acclaim have been making the scene in the States over the last few years. From The Soundtrack of Our Lives to Jens Lekman, these artists have become household names here (at least in my household).


Since their 1992 debut, the Bear Quartet has issued, by my count, some 13 albums and 16 EPs, a brilliant, eclectic body of work, constantly shape-shifting, yet grounded in pop ambition; a prolificacy of Pollard-esque proportions, yet markedly more consistently great. I have managed to pick up seven of their full-lengths and two other EPs along the way, so I have a pretty good feel for their catalog. Basically, it's all well worth owning, but it wasn't until 1997's Moby Dick that the band really came into its own.

Have a sample:

"Before the Trenches" from 1997's Moby Dick

"Lights Out, Sound Off" from 1998's Personality Crisis

"Old Friends" from 2000's My War

"Fuck Your Slow Songs" from 2001's Gay Icon

For more info (and mp3s), check out their main fansite here, or, if you are not privy to the intricacies of the Swedish language, you can read up on the band here. And you can pick up just about their entire catalog at Parasol, of course!

N/P The Modern Lovers - Precise Modern Lovers Order (Live in Berkeley and Boston)

The month of May is bringing a slew of new releases of note: Smog, Spoon, Oneida, Caribou, The Coral, Mercury Rev, Stephen Malkmus, and Sleater-Kinney, to name a few.


Smog, er (Smog)

Smog (aka Bill Callahan) has always been a personal favorite of mine. Say what you will about his weird and wacky ways (folks love to refer to him as the yang to Chan Marshall's ying), but the man can carry a tune. I loved 2003's Supper to death, so I've been awaiting his newest offering, A River Ain't Too Much to Love, with anxious ears. It's due to drop on May 31, and the first of this week's offerings comes from this release. (No word on whether he has dropped the parantheticals from his name or not.)


Spoon

I can't get enough of the new Spoon song, "I Summon You," and luckily the local rock station has been spinning it. Gimme Fiction will be out on May 9; in the meantime, if you're one of the ten people left that hasn't sampled the demo version of the song available on Spoon's site, then here it 'tis. The actual version on the album features drums and bass, and is by far superior--but this'll give you the idea.


Animal Collective

Thanks to blog Cred Central for pointing out that the much-hyped collaboration between Animal Collective and Vashti Bunyan is coming out May 31. The four-track EP will be called Prospect Hummer. "It's You" is simply gorgeous in a way that Animal Collective is not on their own. Check it and others out at FatCat Records' official site.


Oneida

Finally, Oneida has a new album on Jagjaguwar that'll be out on May 3. The Wedding finds Oneida in rare form, as "Did I Die" will attest. Check it out. I'm sure that Jon will share his full thoughts with us once the album drops. By the way, if you've got a harpsichord or a clavinet to spare, Oneida would love to bum one off you forever.

(For MP3s, see the sidebar to the right.)

Los Dug Dug's. Or, Dug Dug's for short. I didn't know anything about them, but thanks to Anopheles Records and their mail order, I do now. I purchased their first record solely for the name and the description provided by Karl Ikola on his inventory e-mail, which in short described the group's self-titled "monster fuzz" debut as "a must". I know, it's not much to go on, but I had a hunch. And I was right.




Los Dug Dug's was originally released in 1971, and served as the full-length debut for these psychedelic garage rockers from Mexico. For a more extensive history of the band, see this. But, long story shorter, the group began making a name for itself as teenagers playing the strip in Tijuana in 1966. They picked up a few gigs across the border in the States, and smuggled the sounds of American and British rock and roll back with them. The influence of outsider music went beyond simply chords and attitude--Los Dug Dug's also adopted the English language, becoming the first of their native brethren to sing in English. After gigging in Mexico City, the band--who was managed at the time by bandleader Armando Nava's father--was spotted and signed by RCA Mexico. Shortly thereafter, an American tourist heard them in Tijuana and offered to finance the band's attempt to break through in America's densely populated rock scene in the late-'60s. They flew to NYC, but ultimately failed to find success.

Back at home in Mexico, the group's music was received well and their fame began to rise as this album was released. Then, just as Dug Dug's had proven to be trendsetters in switching to English vocals, they sparked an interest among Mexican bands to return to their Spanish roots. By the group's second album, recorded in 1972, the band had shrunk from a quintet to a trio and had switched back to singing in Spanish in the process. They went on to record a total of four albums in the '70s. Today, they still retain some presence in Mexico as a "classic rock" band. Yet, in America, they're unknowns, apparently overlooked even by the reissue fools at Rhino.




Lyrically, there's not much to Los Dug Dug's, and I don't think that comes as a result of the translation. However, musically, these guys were on fire. On their debut, they switch between frenetic fretboard burners to airy pop to Latin-inspired funk with a sleight of hand that's rather remarkable. Try these on for size:

"Lost in My World": A sexy, reverb-drenched garage rocker with cheesy effects-laden vocals and some memorable lead guitar.

"Eclipse": This was a Latin-American hit, and it's easy to hear why. Hands down the best song on the album. A funky, fuzz-laden party tune that sounds like a long-lost cousin of Os Mutantes.

"Sometimes": A mellow, trippy affair, with flute taking the lead.

"World of Love": Another hit from the record. Flower Power dudes!

"Let's Make it Now": Oh no! Drum solo! Who knew John Bonham was hiding out in Mexico? The band swipes the percussive guitar attack of the Easybeats ("Sorry") and picks up the pace.

Additional MP3s available here. Purchase Los Dug Dug's self-titled CD by e-mailing Anopheles here. The CD will run you $17, shipping included.

Several weeks ago during a routine scan of the mp3 blogosphere, I came across the following photograph on a French blog and stopped dead in my metaphorical tracks.



Need I elaborate? Is anything in this ol' world creepier than these rosy, flesh-colored half-masks?

The band was called Lawrence Wasser. Never heard of 'em. A quick google offers little to the non-French-speaking, unless you're seeking out Lawrence Wasser, the American polygraph expert.

I decided to use a free, web-based French-to-English translation program, and that was how this:

Je suis d'accord avec marie pierre au sujet de lawrence wasser. Ca tue sa mère. Un peu comme si les 6 finger satellites ou Public Image Ltd s'étaient réincarnés avec les masques des béruriers noirs. Et hop .. ce soir je vais voir The Ex.

became this:

I agree with marries rock on the subject of lawrence wasser. Ca kills his mother. A little as if the 6 finger satellites or Public Picture Ltd had been reincarnated themselves with the masks of the black béruriers. And hop.. tonight I will see The Former one.

Are computer translations the shit, or what? I just love how Public Image Ltd becomes "Public Picture Ltd", even more how The Ex becomes "The Former one". Fantastic...


Amused, I pressed on. This page, google-translated into English, becomes this:

Primitive disco music by Lawrence Wasser

Since nearly one week, I emboucane all my entourage with LAWRENCE WASSER .

I rise Lawrence Wasser.
I fly Lawrence Wasser.
I takes the subway Lawrence Wasser.
I puts on tee-shirts Lawrence Wasser.

It is a trio based in Brussels which inserts with blow of low gross all the faded and hysterical young girls (with the idiot, therefore) of the électroclash.

I have finally make a Web page today with MP3 and all and all. My preferred: "Cream" (meta-boogy disco music with the exploded sound) and "The Cab" (for those which, like me, had evil to recover from the genius of the first EP 6 titles of Sonic Youth).

Blow one makes them play in Liege ( Rock'n'roll and love in Wallonia with the Counter), in Lille (via Steed), and a little everywhere in France for a price kiss.

Programmers of all the nations, hair short or long hair, you link!

Elsewhere, another gem:

It will not be a diesel engine which will begin the evening since MAXIMUM DJ CYCLOPS REVOLUTION will push our ears with end with a Rock'n'roll in evil of love... only Rock. LAWRENCE WASSER will foutra the souk with a gig primitive disco music/apocalyptic No wave. The evening will finish with one mix special of the MACAC SOUND SYSTEM which, when they do not carry masks of gorilla all bonnement alarming, can make dance the boys like the girls. To celebrate the exit of the new number of Minimum Rock' Roll (Disco music-Babel/Le Astral Beaver) devoted to the motors, dragsters and motorways of the hell, these Dj will powder their set with the most famous items of the rock'n'roll and the wheels (of "Fast Cars" of Buzzcocks with "I found the rare gasoline" of Gang of Four).

Just how, exactly, does one "foutra the souk" anyway?



Finally I found what appears to be their official bio page. I love how they give props to both Mark E. Smith and Donna Summer.

Oh yeah, the music. I wouldn't have bothered with this post if the music sucked. It doesn't. At all.

The whole dance-punk/death-disco thing could hardly be more played out, yet somehow these freaky French-speaking fuckers wormed their way into my heart and my mp3 player.

Listen for yerself.

Lawrence Wasser - "Cream"
Lawrence Wasser - "Ah"
Lawrence Wasser - "Piggy on a Rooftop"

More mp3s are available on their bio page. No idea where to buy their stuff, or if they even have releases available for sale.


N/P Fabienne Delsol -- No Time for Sorrows

The problem with singles bands from the '60s is that their sound often changed from single to single, depending on whatever the flavor of the month on the radio happened to be. Bands struggling to establish themselves were pressured by labels or producers to change their sound in a reactionary way. Without a comfort zone that enabled them to define their current sound--fleshing it out over the course of an entire LP--these groups often left behind one great single as their trademark, but little to back it up. Often, the b-sides were filler R&B covers, chosen from their live set list and thrown together at the last moment.


Mouse and the Traps

Mouse and the Traps is the perfect example. They displayed flashes of brilliance, but ultimately their catalog--a collection of singles--is so all-over-the-place that it's a bit befuddling when taken as a whole. We can thank the Nuggets and Pebbles compilations for shedding light on groups like Mouse and the Traps, whose "A Public Execution" and "Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice" both appear on the first Nuggets box. But, unfortunately, such compilations do little to educate the listener on the rest of the group's catalog. In many instances, as the clerk at the record store told me when I picked up my copy of the Nuggets box some six years ago, the bands featured on these comps don't boast a catalog worth looking into. They are, by definition, "one-hit wonders."

However, Mouse and the Traps are the exception to that rule. Their collection, The Fraternity Years, is proof. Yes, technically, they were a one-hit wonder. However, unlike many of their one-hit wonder contemporaries, they should/coulda been more--if only this, that and the other had went their way. Despite the fact that The Fraternity Years finds the band's sound in constant transition, each stop along the way is well worth the visit. It compiles everything the band recorded over their first three years for the Cincinnati label, Fraternity.

The Texas quintet leaped from style to style quicker than listeners could spin the radio dial. They made their name with the 1966 single "A Public Execution," a dead-ringer for mid-'60s Dylan. But, stylistically, they were all over the sonic map, bouncing from dirty R&B to baroque pop to Merseybeat-inspired radio-rock to folk-rock. Amazingly, they were adept at each, which makes one ponder just what Mouse and company might have achieved if given a chance to build on their modest regional success in the South and Midwest. With a bit of breathing room and a few weeks in a recording studio, their popularity might have soared to the point where years later they would have been spared the Nuggets treatment altogether. Sadly, we'll never know.

The Fraternity Years is a fine document of a band living in limbo, complete with informative liner notes and 25 songs. Purchase it here or here.

Songs:

"A Public Execution" -- Their first single from early '66. The organ/piano/guitar sounds are all typical of the times, but the chorus is pure Dylan counterfeit. Mouse does a pretty good facsimile on vocals, too.

"Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice" -- A nice, little garage rock rave-up that rivals 'bout anyone's best effort. Unfortunately, it flopped big-time as a follow-up single to "A Public Execution." Check out that guitar solo!

"Sometimes You Just Can't Win" -- I told you they did baroque pop, too. This was later-period stuff for them, but was recorded just two years after they debuted. The group all thought that this would be their big breakthrough, but it failed, too, despite constant touring and TV performances on regional midwest shows. Sadly, the band's studio mate, a one-hit wonder by the name of John Fred, heard the tune and released his own version just prior to Mouse's take hit the shelves. Cut-throat, indeed.

"Like I Know You Do" -- Getting back to the Byrds influence on this one. Mouse released this as a b-side, which shows in part how strong their material was, but also how poor their label's decision-making was regarding what tunes to push. The a-side was a novelty tune that the band would have preferred not to release.

"Lie, Beg, Borrow & Steal" -- Again, this shows just how capable the Traps were as a backing band, here featuring Buggs Henderson on guitar and psychedelic banjo. Recorded in 1967, it's amazing that this tune hasn't garnered the band a bigger following among garage rock enthusiasts. In the liner notes, Mouse says that the group's recorded output wasn't always representative of their live show: "You would come to see us, and we would pin your ears back to the wall and be gettin' with it..." I gotta feeling that this was one of their favorites to play live.

"Cryin' Inside" -- A completely infectious pop tune from 1967. How this song wasn't a fucking hit is beyond me.

N/P--Esquivel, Music from a Sparkling Planet

We begin our journey with the most obvious of choices, the 13th Floor Elevators' "I've Got Levitation," which is not only the inspiration for the namesake of this here blog, but stands as one of the finest of classic late-sixties psychedelic treasures. This is the peak--it don't get better than this, folks. Scorching, pan-fried acid cut with electric jug, upchucked by Dick Dale's schizo stepson onto the garage floor of a Texas looney bin. From the Elevators' second record, Easter Everywhere, considered by many to be their best.


Next up are two bands which share nearly identical names, separated in time by almost three decades. Also from Texas, the Mirrors took up the mantle of the Elevators and other Lone State psychedelic heroes like Mayo Thompson and Sir Doug Sahm in the early '00s, greased up the aesthetic with the trashier side of punk rock and let loose. For a bunch of suburban kids still in their teens, they knew their shit and they did their best to live up to the lofty standards of the influences ripped into their sleeves. But it would all be mere hero worship if not for the fine songwriting of a young Greg Ashley, later a solo act and now of the Gris Gris--all of his work highly recommended. The Mirrors put out their only record, A Green Dream, in 2001; long out of print, it was resurrected by the Birdman label earlier this year. Download "My Lovely Lover" and "Ecstasy" from the sidebar.


Go back in time some twenty-eight years, take the Greyhound 1200 miles northeast to Cleveland, and you could be one of the lucky few to take in a gig by Mirrors (without the "The"). Having played the Cleveland area at least 14 times between '68 and '71, the Velvet Underground's influence can not be overstated on the scene here, from which would also sprout the Styrenes, the Electric Eels and the great Rocket From the Tombs, and later, the Dead Boys and Pere Ubu. Just as a young Jonathan Richman would funnel his Velvets worship into the (almost) equally influential Modern Lovers, so did Jamie Klimek channel his love into Mirrors, fusing hippie psych with Nuggets garage and avant-punk. Until the release of 2001's Hands in My Pockets, a compilation of their seventies recordings, the average joe punk couldn't even hear this stuff--thank you, Overground Records. Read more of Mirrors' story at AMG and download "Everything Near Me" and "Hands in My Pockets" from the sidebar.

Both The Mirrors' A Green Dream and Mirrors' Hands in My Pockets can be obtained at Midheaven.

N/P: Galaxie 500 -- Uncollected Galaxie 500

Greetings, and welcome to getLevitation, the latest and greatest of mp3 blogs, brought to you by the noiseboy and anti-rove, formerly of The Blank Generation and Unfinished Novellas, respectively. After some consideration, we two old friends decided it would make far more sense and a lot more fun if we were to join forces and combine our efforts. And thus, we give you...The Great Blog Merger of '05.

Our friendship goes way back, back to the days of baseball cards and hair metal. We've somehow managed not only to keep up our friendship, but to grow and expand it, even while living 1,000 miles apart. No small feat, that. Back in February, one post led to another and we each ended up writing odes of sorts to this unique friendship on our respective blogs. Click here for the noiseboy's "Thoughts on Bobby D and Jonny Too", and here for anti-rove's response, "The Ballad of the Noiseboy and Anti-Rove".



In so many ways, we're two of a kind, yet in so many other ways, we're as different as night and day. Perhaps it is this dichotomy that has sustained our friendship all these years. Regardless, we both hope that this chemistry shines through in this blog and that our musical tastes, again so similar yet so different, will complement each other and make the blog-reading experience that much better for our readers.

To give you some insight into just what kind of music we're into, look no further than the list of discarded names that we came up with while brainstorming for a blog title:

20th Century Boys; A Sonic Reduction; A Time of Our Own; Crazy Rhythms; Debris Slide; Dignified and Old; Dirth of Tilth; Dropout Boogie; Drunk at the Pulpit; Dum Dum Boys; Fairies With Booties; Good Moanin'; Hallogallo; Life's a Gas; Lucifer Shake; Maintaining My Cool; Manic Compression; Outside the Dream Syndicate; Perfect Prescription; Psychotic Reaction; Rebellious Jukebox; Red With Purple Flashes; Rock 'n' Roll Toilet; Shapes of Things; Some Weird Sin; Totally Wired; Wall of Sound; Yoo Doo Right.

The Fall. Can. T Rex. The Yardbirds. Phil Spector. Iggy Pop. The Count Five. Spacemen 3. Faust. Captain Beefheart. The Feelies. Pavement. The Modern Lovers. And those were just the bands whose song and album titles we thought about aping. That doesn't include the "original" names we came up with. (In case you're wondering, getLevitation was inspired by the 13th Floor Elevators...but more on that later.) Picking a name became a much more difficult process than either of us had envisioned, and nearly ended in a stalemate. But, if the two of us are anything, it's stubborn. So, we forged ahead until we found a name that we both felt was suitable.

That character trait--stubbornness--is probably one of our better suits. Or, at least, we hope to turn it into an advantage for our readers. Just as we sifted through our record collections in search of some inspiration for a title, we'll also wade through a good deal of shit in order to find some real musical gems. And, we promise to give you a listen once we've found them. We know that good rock'n'roll is hard to come by. Where once it was hanging out on street corners at intersections like 53rd and 3rd or Clark and Hilldale, nowadays it's hiding low in the tenements of the music industry. Oh, the industry and its press corps might send us an invite to a Bloc Party every other week, but that doesn't mean it's a shindig that we wanna be caught dead at.

So, allow us, if you will, to provide you with some guidance on your own musical quest. We'll be looking through rock's storied annals--and occasionally wandering down other paths, including folk, country, and rhythm & blues--in our quest for that ultimate musical drug to cure what ails ya. The elusive, perfect fix.

Thanks for bearing with us, and welcome to getLevitation.

--The Noiseboy & Anti-Rove