Twilight Singers

Dynamite Steps

Sub Pop Records

The Twilight Singers began as a side project for Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs. It’s now his principal endeavor and recently released fifth album. As with previous TS records, Dynamite Steps features Dulli alongside a number of collaborators. Some, such as singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur and Screaming Trees’ frontman Mark Lanegan, have been part of the Twilight Singers lineup in the past. Others, such as violinist/vocalist Petra Haden and alt-folk songstress Ani DiFranco, make their first guest appearances here.

And while having a number of collaborators in the mix keeps things vibrant and varied, the overall approach of the Twilight Singers to music-making hasn’t changed tremendously much as a result. Clangorous distorted guitars alternately blend with and serve as foils to layers of vocals, both of the sweetly sung and throatily screamed variety. As in the past, the albums’ songs inhabit a number of demeanors: brooding nocturnal visions, rollicking road songs, and bittersweet, often hard won, ballads.

But growth needn’t always mean wholesale departure. Indeed, Dulli, Lanegan, Arthur, and company seem revitalized by the updated casting, creating a record that sounds eminently more fresh and engaged than many a “post-band” project by other alternative rock stars. And at its best, on the hook heavy “She was Stolen,” the ominous yet estimably groove-buoyed “On the Corner,” and “Get Lucky,” a darkly hued mid-tempo power ballad, Dulli crafts music that both recalls some of his most engaging earlier work while simultaneously casting down a gauntlet to contemporaries half his age.

Eleventh Dream Day’s Riot Now!, their first LP in nearly five years, is out on Tuesday via Thrill Jockey. The band’s also playing a handful of upcoming dates, including an appearance at SXSW.

Here’s a teaser track from the LP, the brash neo-alternative anthem “Satellite.”

MP3: Satellite

ELEVENTH DREAM DAY

Mar 4   Chicago, IL     Riviera Theater w/Iron And Wine

Mar 19 Austin, TX Yard Dog Art Gallery (1510 S. Congress @ SXSW) = 2:55 PM

Apr 16 Brooklyn, NY Bell House w/D. Charles Speer & The Helix, Come

Apr 22 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall w/The 1900s

_________

Swans

My Father will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky

Young God Records

Swans disbanded way back in 1997, only to reform in 2010 to record a full length LP of new material entitled My Father will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. In the interim, their members have been involved in various projects. Frontman Michael Gira has performed with some of the other members of Swans, as well as with various other collaborators, in the band Angels of Light and as a solo artist. Despite these and other creative outlets (Gira is also an accomplished writer and label head of Young God Records), one can readily understand why he might want to return to Swans, albeit a version that features core members of the group but also includes some new faces (including a guest appearance by Devendra Banhart). The material on My Father will Guide me… is tailor made for the collective’s sonic approach.

That approach is an unusual combination of strenuous, sometimes assaultive, noise and experimental rock elements coupled with a dystopian, disturbing, yet often poignant delicacy. Here, as on their previous recordings, these two patterns of music-making frequently coexist in the same piece. No-wave signatures and blistering distortion is sculpted into incendiary, powerful climaxes. Dulcimer, vibraphone, trumpet, and strings provide a counterweight to the heavily amplified guitars. When the latters’ torrential waves of sound recede, one is left with faint vocal echoes or the gentle tintinnabulation of chimes: unnerving reverberations that seldom provide a real sense of repose.

With My Father will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, the Swans and Gira demonstrate that they are still fully capable of creating powerful and unnerving music. Is it strange that the renewed presence of this band’s gloomy and portentous sonic world seems reassuring? Maybe it’s because now we no longer have to wax nostalgic over Swans LPs from the distant past. Instead, listeners can revel in a venerable band that’s still creating formidable work.

Serena Maneesh
Abyss in B Minor
4AD CD

On their sophomore release, Serena Maneesh retains the shoegaze feel of their debut, but tweaks the soundworld to encompass both ambient passages and buzz-toned metal-tinged digressions.

Serena Maneesh picked an unusual locale in which to record. The initial cuts were recorded in a cave on the outskirts of Oslo; later, the band fine-tuned things with Nick Terry (Klaxons, Primal Scream), and René Tinner (Can). The result combines oases of delicacy with potent swaths of distortion laden alt-rock. Fans of groups ranging from Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine to Sleepy Sun and Bardo Pond are likely to find much to savor here.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Phoenix

Glassnote

Phoenix has been creating music since the mid-nineties and made their debut recording in 2000; but Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, their fourth LP, displays them at their best to date. The release’s powerful, intricate modern pop may not resemble either of the classical composers it references – Mozart in its title and Liszt on the song “Lisztomania;” the video for the latter was even filmed at Bayreuth! But the audacity and exuberance of these gestures to such luminous predecessors, in their own way, ring true.

Certainly, synth pop signatures remain a fixture of Phoenix’s sound, as is abundantly evident on songs like the aforementioned “Lisztomania” and “1901;” “Rome” is even more New Wave-inflected than is their usual wont. But on “Love Like a Sunset, Pt. 1,” the group strays into solidly art rock territory, creating a memorable, occasionally prog-influenced, instrumental. The piece is a synthetic tone poem that is considerably attractive. When its short coda, “Love Like a Sunset, Pt. 2,” reintroduces Thomas Mars’ vocals, the effect is dislocating; the music seems to have traveled so far away from the single-ready fare one’s already heard him sing.

Range, subtlety, memorable tunes, and name-dropping Franz and Wolfie in Richard’s playground; what’s not to like?

Exciting news just in from Marni at Sneak Attack:

Björk’s DVD/CD/VINYL recording Voltaic, is being released in the U.S. by Nonesuch Records on June 30 (One Little Indian in the UK, and Universal worldwide.)

Bob Mould

Life and Times

Anti CD

It’s hard to believe that Bob Mould is now fully twenty years into his solo career; it’s been thirty years since he founded Hüsker Dü! Some fans may prefer a specific style or period of Mould’s output over others; from his acoustic guitar-playing circa 1989′s Workbook to the electronica elements of 2002′s Modulate, his is indeed a varied corpus of work. But Life and Times doesn’t fit neatly at either stylistic extreme. Instead, it reminds us that Mould can still rock.

Iron & Wine

Around the Well

Sub Pop

Around the Well collects two CDs worth of Sam Beam’s Iron & Wine project, including rarities, B-sides, and previously unreleased songs. Beginning with solo efforts, bedroom recordings simultaneously relaxed and inspired (“Sacred Vision”), the compilation gradually unfolds Iron & Wine’s current state of affairs: a full band capable of intricate, lustrous arrangements (“Kingdom of the Animals”).