New Xiu Xiu, St. Valentinez

XIU XIU

Always

* * * 1/2

Xiu Xiu have built a long and fruitful career off of loading up everything that is sick and twisted about the human psyche into a cannon and firing it at the sane and unspoiled parts of listeners’ brains. Thus, one would expect the average Xiu Xiu fan to be thoroughly desensitized, a theory supported by 2010’s below-average Dear God, I Hate Myself. On their latest album, Always, the band’s solution is almost stupidly simple--to explore even more emotions to project onto the listener. Much of Always finds the San Jose band juxtaposing often literally danceable synth-pop beats with bandleader Jamie Stewart’s unbelievably bleak lyrics. “Joey’s Song” and “Honeysuckle” are so easy to dance to it’s difficult and not even entirely advisable to heed the lyrics. (Hell, the song called “Born to Suffer” actually has a drop.) Yet fans of Xiu Xiu’s gnarlier material need not worry--there’s still traces of the avant-noise hell of earlier albums, most notably the stomach-churning “I Luv Abortion,” which finds Stewart singing things like “I look between my thighs and see death, it’s rad” in a truly disgusting retching voice between even more horrifying screams and wails. True, Always is only intermittently effective at capturing Stewart’s bleak and traumatized vision of the world. But the best songs on Always evoke something completely different, whether or not they’re trying.

THE ST. VALENTINEZ

When The Saints EP

* * *

The thing you’ll probably hear most about the St. Valentinez is that their technical prowess easily outshines that of most musicians twice their age. For the most part, this is a very straightforward but enjoyable tribute to classic funk and soul, one without much to distinguish it from a lot of similar albums by similar bands save the band’s age. But that’s not to say there’s nothing that makes it stand out--“Love Song” is a fine soul song with a haunting, smoky bass solo from Alex Szotak and a killer vocal from Will Randolph. And while their higher-energy songs aren’t quite as funky as they would like to be, one shouldn’t use this as cause to write off the St. Valentinez--they’re one of the best live bands in the Bay Area right now, capable of ripping the roof of any venue graced by their funk.

Latest from Bobby Dorward, Space Among Many, and yes Lil B

BOBBY DORWARD
One Of These Days EP

* * * 1/2

BEST IN THE WEST

Blue Bear-associated musician Bobby Dorward’s debut EP, One Of These Days, is a neat, four-song collection of beautifully simple rock songs. The earnesty with which Dorward executes these tunes contributes immensely to their effectiveness--this is unpretentious rock music that is both full-sounding and stripped-down, neither minimal nor maximal. Though these tunes appear to take much inspiration from the early 1970s (see the Van Morrison-ish “Summer Days” and the Steely Dan swagger of “Looking From The Shadows”), they also occupy a sort of Platonic intersection between classic rock, soul, pop, and country--these songs are so straightforward they defy categorization, and consequently, they are immensely likeable. Though there’s nothing radical and innovative on One Of These Days, nothing that hasn’t been done better by countless other artists, Dorward’s style and songs are so effortlessly timeless it’s beside the point.

LIL B

White Flame

* * * 1/2

Lil B has created so many personas he doesn’t need to care about audience expectations. It’s impossible to be disappointed by a Lil B album these days, but it’s also more difficult to be impressed by one given that his next mixtape could very easily be a bottomless piece of trash or a Public Enemy-level masterpiece depending on the weather. His more recent mixtapes have been serious, apparently political (his rhetoric is so gleefully naive it’s hard to say) works that range from brilliant (I’m Gay) to joyless (The Silent President). White Flame, on the other hand, revels in the sort of stuff Lil B is famous for, from the homoerotic post-machismo to the esoteric samples to the moments of sheer, effortless, ecstatic brilliance (“BasedGod Fucked My Bitches,” a Daft Punk-warping anthem that stands among Lil B’s best). If your first exposure to Lil B was through timeless classics like “Wonton Soup” and “Ellen DeGeneres” or if you're just a diehard BasedGod disciple, this is your album--and as these descriptions apply to roughly 99.9% of Lil B’s fanbase, it’s safe to say White Flame will not disappoint.

SPACE AMONG MANY

“Borders”

* * 1/2

Trendsetting is increasingly difficult in the upper echelons of the pop charts, and many of the best pop acts are competent imitators. San Francisco duo Space Among Many are currently far from busting the Top 40, but they have the airwaves in their ambitions, choosing to follow this pursuit through studiously crafting the sort of music the less musically knowledgeable might refer to as “indie.” (I would call it “indie-gone-alt,” though both appelations are tricky). “Borders,” with its youthful “whoa-ohs,” steamy organs, and feel-goodish lyrics, is an admirably competent shot at a Foster The People/MGMT-style alt-pop song that is grander in scale but not far-removed from the MIDI tinkering of last year’s Images EP. At five and a half minutes, it’s overlong, and the ridiculous simplicity of their lyrics suggests they have not yet learned that their heroes’ work thrives on brains as well as hooks. Yet Space Among Many’s earnesty allows their work to shine as the product of a genuine love of their medium rather than simple imitation or bandwagon-jumping.

Lana Del Rey @ Amoeba Records, 2/9/12

LANA DEL REY

Amoeba, 2/9/2012

I mainly went to see Lana Del Rey's free show at Amoeba Records in San Francisco on February 9, 2012 to settle the controversy concerning her live performances. While her voice reportedly sounds stellar at most live shows, the rising pop singer's Saturday Night Live performance early this year was notoriously and disturbingly bad. I braved a line that stretched almost halfway around the McDonald's a door down from Amoeba to hear her, and by the time I managed to make my way through the door, she had already started. Though it was difficult to make out what she was saying or even what song she was playing over the din of the crowd that had come to see the artist with the number one album in America play a tiny record store, her voice sounded as clear as a jewel.

I waited by the Oldies section with my Comfort Women bandmate Daniel Meyer to catch a glimpse of the woman who has had so much written about her (Meyer and I are both avid readers of Hipster Runoff, and I had actually reviewed her album myself a few days before--read it here). She looked like nothing so much as an affable, smiling pop star, signing autographs for her fans and soaking up the fame with a warm smile suggesting she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

I later joined a throng of about a dozen fans who were frantically attempting to attract Del Rey's attention by waving through the video-annex window, staring at the singer as if she were an exotic creature behind glass at a zoo. Del Rey managed to turn and give the fans a wave before a security guard came along and herded us away from the window.

Rented Heroes, Sarchasm

RENTED HEROES

“Deeper” / “While You Were Away”

* * * 1/2 / * *

On early Rented Heroes recordings, Cindy Labota and Izzy Cordova often sound like they’re sitting together on a soft bed or a bench in some beautiful park, gently whispering to each other. However, on the two tracks they recorded at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, the real-life couple seem comparatively detached from each other, as if they are in different rooms. This disconnect creates a great effect on the frustrated-lover ballad “Deeper,” on which Labota sounds as if she is standing alone in an empty room after her boyfriend walked out. “While You Were Away,” on the other hand, does not benefit from the studio production at all and is considerably inferior to the original version, which is more harmonically interesting and more effective in its gradual build from acoustic to electric (as opposed to the electric guitar being introduced immediately in the studio version).

SARCHASM

“Trains”

* * * 1/2

Berkeley punk trio Sarchasm claims to take a “ridiculous amount of influence” from grunge and ska. A band less “ridiculously” influenced by these genres might have a few vaguely grungy songs and a few ska-ish ones, but on “Trains,” the lead single from their upcoming album We Interrupt This Broadcast, the band gleefully mashes the styles together. “Trains” kicks off with a brooding, grungy intro and explodes into a Descendents-style web of eighth-note bass runs and guitar thrash, fitting in a brief ska-ish section somewhere along the way. It’s an epic, though it doesn’t necessarily need to be--the extra minute or so after the ska segment is hardly necessary. But that crazy bass is irresistible, and Mari Campos’ voice--which sounds more like that of a very frustrated pre-teen boy than that of a teenager--is a powerful tool whose firepower is harnessed well.

New Fever Charm, Frak & Nicky C

FEVER CHARM

Sail Away

* * * *

Fever Charm apparently snuck into a recording studio and used roughly 20,000 dollars worth of equipment to record their new release Sail Away (says the band: it’s a compilation, not an EP). If this is true, this is an impressive show of devotion to the hi-fi sound--Guided by Voices these guys ain’t. As Sail Away is one of the best-produced, best-sounding Bay Area rock records this side of Girls’ Father, Son, Holy Ghost I’ve heard recently, it’s safe to say their chutzpah paid off. Theo Quayle’s power chords roar with as much clarity as aggression; Yianni AP’s bass is as grimy and metallic yet shiny-sounding as a stick against a chain-link fence; and everything sounds raw yet whistle-clean. As such, it would be inaccurate to classify this as a “garage rock” record, but the way Fever Charm flaunts their pop chops without compromising their edge has something in common with not only contemporary garage-rockers like the White Stripes or the Strokes but also vintage ‘60s garage bands (check out that “Wild Thing” riff on “Youth.”) Labels aside, Sail Away is one of the pop-savviest, most energetic, um, compilations of songs I’ve heard in a long time, delivering on the promise Fever Charm displayed on their earlier singles and EPs and demonstrating how studio sparkle can be just as powerful as lo-fi grime.

FRAK & NICKY C

Real Talk

* * * *

Real Talk, the debut by teen rap duo Frak & Nicky C, is a fucking paradox (no it’s not). Frak has one of the worst voices for rapping I’ve ever heard, but his lyrics are consistently inspired and his flow is as joyful as those of the best rappers (remarkably, his voice is extremely easy to get used to). The whole album sounds like two guys fucking around, but Nicky C’s beats are so well-crafted and well-arranged that there is no way this thing couldn’t be serious. And, of course, the duo is unapologetic about being white and middle-class and going to a private school in San Francisco. What I know for sure is that it’s a supremely well-made album, balancing introspective and personal raps with third-person storytelling and a fair share of clever boasts (my favorite is “I got genius bars like an Apple store”). It also dodges stigmas around well-off white rappers without sounding racist or understating that particular elephant in the room, as demonstrated on “White.” Why should Frak rap? Quoth he: “I love words, I love music, so why the hell can’t I combine ‘em?” The answer is, of course, that he can--and by all means should continue to do so.

The latest from the Handshake camp

HANDSHAKE

Sleeping, Snarling

* * * * 1/2

BEST IN THE WEST

Let’s just get it out of the way: Sleeping, Snarling is a fucking awful name for an album, violating the law that no album should have a name that describes what its detractors might do while listening to it. But Handshake have never been about surface. They win battles of the bands without taking their shirts off or making douchey shout-outs; they joke about their awkwardness awkwardly enough that you might believe it; and even their panty-melting vocal harmonies sound a little goofy in the “oh wow, that actually sounded really good” sense. Their most evocative and poetic lyrics still sound like they’re being sung by down-to-earth guys who have girl problems and buy cat food. That is but one of the many traits that make Handshake so likable--their music is the sound of the subconscious poetry in the head of that guy who fell asleep next to you on the N Judah the other day.

Sleeping, Snarling, their full-length debut, embodies this aesthetic, in addition to delivering on every iota of promise the group has shown through three years of gigs and demo singles. Despite these songs’ elaborate arrangements and displays of technical skill, they feel warm and mammalian--nothing is robotic, everything is organic, and the production is soft but does not dull the band’s syncopated, funk-inspired grooves. This is essentially a funk record, in the same way an early James Blake EP might be considered a dance record: it’s not always easy to free your ass to, but it packs a lot of the same thrills of good funk music, from its steady grooves and slow builds to its unforced sexiness. The latter is a key part of Handshake’s appeal, and most of these songs are about love or sex. The vocal interplay between Evan Greenwald’s earthy rasp and Devin Clary’s syllabic cry fuels this, with Greenwald handling the come-ons and leaving Clary to sing the blues after the breakup.

One of the most remarkable things about Sleeping, Snarling is how many good songs it has. The album is completely devoid of filler, and every song, aside from the short instrumental “Solemn,” could be a listener’s favorite with equal probability. Standout “Other Eye,” which the band selected out of seven viable candidates to be the lead single, would probably get the most votes as favorite (including mine, if I absolutely had to choose one)--it has a great riff, a memorable hook, and one the best guitar solos by anyone not named Annie Clark I’ve heard in the last year. It’s also the first track, and it does its duty to set the mood. But then there’s the dusty, blues-flavored “Parched Dry”; the delightfully sleazy “Time” (originally called “Pussy Whip”); the subtle dissonance of “Lemon,” the soaring “Siamese”; and the ending duo of “Phone Company” and “Red Balloon,” which are among the weaker tracks on the album but end the album on a modest note.

Good songs, good riffs, great melodies, awesome guitar solos, tasty grooves, attractive harmonies--Sleeping, Snarling covers all the bases of a great album, and in that, it’s refreshing. This is an album that can only be listened to in its own right, free of any trivia or concept or affiliation with a current trend. But if anything, Sleeping, Snarling is a fine example of how an abundance of great melodic ideas and well-crafted songs can be just as effective as high concepts and dark twisted fantasies in the creation of an outstanding record.

FALSE PRIEST

An Infinity Of Furs EP

* * * 1/2

This collection of lo-fi recordings was made by Handshake member Evan Greenwald in his dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College. Recorded primarily on GarageBand, An Infinity Of Furs consists of noise-pop songs are built for their noise, much like the best Nineties lo-fi rock and unlike many bands that sacrifice noise for pop or vice-versa. Built around grimy MIDI drums and guitars that jump into the red zone but are not earsplitting, the music on An Infinity Of Furs could only be described as modest. Greenwald’s lyrics are the reverse, employing joyfully odd metaphors like “my hands are garbage disposal blades,” and while these surreal poetics and the album’s unpretentious background are both great, they don’t always blend together seamlessly.

Best Bay Area Albums Of 2011

1. tUnE-yArDs - W H O K I L L. Merrill Garbus’s second album as tUnE-yArDs is exciting, vibrant, multicultural, and dangerous as the streets of her hometown of Oakland. Though her debut, 2009’s bIrD-bRaInS, was limited by her low recording and instrumental budget, higher-fi production and more musicians at her disposal allow Garbus to realize her wildest musical fantasies--which are very wild. Afropop horns squawk like tropical birds, Merrill Garbus howls like classic Janis, and booming scrapyard drums drive the whole thing along. W H O K I L L is a fun yet avant-garde record that seems ahead of its time both musically and politically--songs like “My Country” and “Doorstep” practically predict the riotous Occupy Oakland that would come later in the year, as do the chaotic arrangements that accompany them.

2. Jack Frank - A Lesson Learned. As frontman of the Piers, Jack Frank rejected San Francisco musical traditions to immerse himself in New York’s underground rock heritage, from the Velvet Underground to the Strokes. On his new, half-hour A Lesson Learned EP, Frank (now a full-time New Yorker) mixes edgy, punky street-rock with complex lyrics and plenty of memorable hooks. This the sort of rock album that stands up to repeated plays in part because of its complexity and in part because of the sheer catchiness of its hooks and melodies--it is the rare album that manages to be emotionally and lyrically complex without sacrificing any memorability or anything that makes it essentially pop music.

3. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Girls love classic rock and all its implications--massive arrangements, epic guitar solos, lighters-in-the-air power ballads, polished three-minute singles, and above all, great, timeless songs. On their third album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, every song, from the surf-rock rave-up “Honey Bunny” to the soulful “Love Like A River,” could be a listener’s favorite with equal probability (my personal pick is “Alex,” which contains the only drum fill that has ever made me burst into tears). While there are better beginning-to-end listens than this album, perhaps no album this year has as many individual great songs.

4. DaVinci - Feast or Famine EP. Feast Or Famine, the latest EP from San Francisco rapper John “DaVinci” DeVore, is a sentimental album. Not sentimental in the mushy, namby-pamby way, but sentimental in that it is driven by nothing if not feeling, and almost fearlessly emotional without losing any of its edge for a millisecond. DaVinci’s raps are permeated with his sheer love of the art form, and even on tracks with names like “Where My Dough At” and “Beer, Bitches, & Bullshit,” he sounds like he’s rapping primarily out of love for doing so. DaVinci’s style is as gritty as the Fillmore District he represents, but just as the Fillmore claims to be the “Heart and Soul of San Francisco,” DaVinci has more heart and soul than just about any other rapper out there.

5. Local Hero - The Aldgate EP. Despite Local Hero’s globetrotting image, this teenage East Bay group’s influences come directly from the Anglophone indieverse--Fleet Foxes’ reverb-drenched harmony folk, Destroyer’s obtuse, psychedelic lyrics, Girls’ repurposing of classic pop motifs, and the Afro-pop glory of Local Natives and Vampire Weekend. Yet on their Aldgate EP, all these different styles meet in the middle, firmly in pop territory with no pretentious avant-gardism or Pitchfork aspirations. Mackay’s raspy, slurred voice sounds intoxicated from life rather than weed or alcohol, and his idiosyncratic, evocative lyrics glisten atop the major-key background like a sauce drizzled artfully on some fancy dish at a Parisian restaurant. Everything boils down to a summertime pop mélange that is sometimes sexy, often quirky, and always fun.

6. Hunx & His Punx - Too Young To Be In Love. Of course Hunx and his Punx are going to be pegged as a novelty act--a skinny young leatherino who stuffs beer cans in his crotch, backed up by a probably-lesbian all-girl backing band and playing trashy, semi-parody, ‘60s-style bubblegum ditties. The thing is, they’re only part novelty, and the rest of them is pure bad-ass rock n’ roll garage band. This is a fantastic pop album from beginning to end, with agreeable melodies, great two-minute songs, and lyrics anyone can associate with whether gay, straight, or bi. And if the whole queercore thing turns you off, remember Bogart’s only flaunting his gayness as much as Elvis used to flaunt his straightness.

7. The SHE’s - Then It Starts To Feel Like Summer. Unlike the vast majority of promising teenage bands I covered during SF Rebirth’s early years, the SHE’s remained together long enough for their sound to grow. Their debut full-length, Then It Starts To Feel Like Summer, has all the attributes of their early recordings--unabashed poppiness, garagey but fuzz-free guitars, simple lyrics that are at least a third nonsense vowel sounds, and, of course, those harmonies. With their combination of influences from girl-group music, beach pop (both classic and contemporary), and garage punk, Summer should be so trendy as to be irritating. But the SHE’s are not an “indie rock” band but a pop band, and the best kind of pop band as well--one that writes timeless songs to go with timeless hooks.

8. Rin Tin Tiger - Rin Tin Tiger EP. The highly anticipated debut EP from Rin Tin Tiger, the new incarnation of the Sullivan Brothers’ Westwood & Willow project, consists of six reworked versions of Westwood & Willow tunes, mostly from last year’s excellent Doorways, Vehicles, & Markets album. While some of the songs merely sound like re-arrangements of Westwood songs with drums (“Ghost Door”), others are drastically improved, with the thickened guitar textures and high-energy drumbeats increasing the emotional power of Kevin Sullivan’s vocals. “Red Pony” is particularly impressive, taking one of the band’s lesser-known songs and fleshing out its full power. Also notable is the addition of ghostly backing vocals and subtly dissonant harmonies on “Sweetest Fruit,” adding tension to the song and making you feel as if Kevin’s pulse truly is beating out of rhythm.

9. Lil B - I’m Gay. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth once said people go to concerts to watch other people believe in themselves, and nobody has created a greater cult of personality based on unstoppable confidence, or swag, than Lil B. No, the Based God still can’t rap very well, but he’s full of stamina, and he sounds more genuinely happy, or gay, than any musician I’ve heard on record in the past year. This is a man with the freedom not only to say he’s gay but to genuinely be gay and make others feel that way as well (including myself). In addition to how flat-out fierce Lil B sounds, the production is of superior quality, using their esoteric sample sources to create a strange and unique environment. So fierce. So swaggin’.

10. Sonny & the Sunsets - Hit After Hit. Of the countless Bay Area garage-pop bands that have emerged in the last few years, Sonny & the Sunsets are probably the most fun. 38-year-old frontman Sonny Smith (also known for his 100 Records project, in which he created a hundred aliases and made mini-albums for each of them) is not a bitter, cynical philosopher but rather a grown-up stoner with a great sense of humor. If they’re preoccupied with creating high art and pleasing the critics, it doesn’t show--Hit After Hit is nothing but a good time. This a band that delivers lines like “I’m in love with you baby, I’m dumb and so are you” with a chuckle and a grin.