Review: Health - Get Color (* * * *)

Los Angeles quartet HEALTH's music is often labeled as a ‘noise-rock,’ but that’s oversimplifying to say the least, especially nowadays as the term continues to be questionably applied to current indie favorites such as Wavves or Japandroids. To be fair, though, it’s probably not laziness that inspires such frequently bland descriptions, but rather an inability to give any reference as to what the group’s sound may be compared. Indeed, HEALTH doesn’t make that easy; their explosive brand of rock n’ roll takes their instrumental attack to ear-assaulting levels with layers of manipulated sound and washed out vocals and can certainly be called noise, but their adventurous compositions and almost formless song structures put the band in a category all their own. With their true sophomore effort, Get Color, HEALTH follow their self-titled 2007 debut and its remixed companion album, 2008’s Health//Disco, with nine aggressively experimental tracks that expand the minimalist style of their earlier work while also achieving a more cohesive listening experience. (Continue Reading...)


MySpace

Introducing...Holiday Shores

The mysteries behind many band names often stay unsolved for years, if they are ever found out at all, but Holiday Shores frontman Nathan Pemberton isn't shy about revealing the inspiration behind the title. The five-piece band's namesake is Holiday Shores Ct., the beachfront street in Florida where Pemberton spent his childhood. The sun and surf must have permeated deep into Nathan's psyche as his band's debut, Columbus'd The Whim, is a charming and summery set of noisy pop tunes that fit well into the current noise explosion taking over the indie scene. The boys combine a youthful energy with a remarkably mature ability to create subtle pop hooks and I, for one, find the group's new album to be refreshing and especially accomplished even among those records by some of their more spotlighted peers.

The magic of Columbus'd The Whim doesn't reveal itself all at once, but rather in layers and after a listen or two. That's not to say the music is unappealing at first glance or difficult to enjoy, but the mix of hazy guitars, sharp percussion and washed out vocals takes a more concrete shape once you've familiarized yourself with the songs bit. When it starts to sink in, the music becomes somewhat addicting as there seems to be more in the group's noisy compositions to love each time around. First single "Phone's Don't Feud" (download via The Fader below) is a great place to start, a brief, psychedelically-tinged tune that borrows some bits and pieces from several indie greats (Grizzly Bear's harmonies, Animal Collective's watery production, etc.) but doesn't really sound like anything else out there. Also available below (through Pitchfork) is the album's second single, "Edge Of Our Lives," a more upbeat track with messy guitars and a driving, almost Afro-pop rhythm. If you like those two, you'll likely enjoy the rest of the album as it follows a fairly similar pattern, though there's enough variety to keep the momentum going and the listener's interest level high throughout.

I've made it known before that I'm still not in love with noise pop, but Holiday Shores is another of those bands wearing down my resistance with music too good to ignore. Give them a listen on MySpace or track down the songs I mentioned earlier with the links provided. One way or another, make sure you get familiar with Columbus'd The Whim.

Phone's Don't Feud (MP3 via The Fader)

Edge Of Our Lives (MP3 via Pitchfork)

From Australia with love: Summer Cats

Australia's Summer Cats may currently be weathering whatever sort of winter they have Down Under, but their sunny full-length debut, Songs for Tuesdays, has arrived with perfect timing here in the States. The band's name is appropriate for their upbeat style, fitting somewhere between the spastic pop attitude of Los Campesinos and the noisy rock of bands like label mates Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The group's boy/girl harmonies and love of melodic hooks makes the 32 minutes of their debut a simple, direct, and - best of all - fun pop record as effortlessly entertaining as anything you're likely to hear this summer.

Songs like "Hey You, It's Me (Oh My)" and "Camel Cords" follow a recipe of raw guitars, driving keys, and pounding drums while main man Scott Stevens sings/shouts his way through the tunes with a sort of infectious exuberance that's quite winning. The 'mid-fi' sound walks the line between retro-pop accessibility and recent noise trends well, channeling the energy of classic garage pop and adding the band's own twist in the process. Most of the songs only last about two and a half minutes, with only the breezy "Wild Rice" crossing the three minute threshold, causing the 13 tracks to fly by quickly. The brevity is welcome given the sheer amount of musical sugar packed into each tune, and Songs for Tuesdays is enjoyably frantic without going overboard. Also, the band mixes up the tempo and song structures enough to keep things light and occasionally unexpected.

Download highlight "Hey You" and watch the quirky video for "Lonely Planet" below, and if that's not enough to convince you, check out Summer Cats on MySpace to hear more.

Hey You (MP3)

Review: Woods - Songs of Shame (* * * 1/2)

I’m still not completely sold on the whole noise-rock movement, but it's apparently something I’ll just have to get used to if not learn to enjoy. The list of bands playing everything from folk to metal drowned in feedback and distortion just keeps getting longer, and while it doesn’t always appeal to me, I have found some compelling acts within the genre. Of course, noise-rock isn’t new to this year or the last, but bands like Woods (and Wavves, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, No Age, etc. – for a complete listing, see Pitchfork’s 'Best New Music' page) have certainly received ample accolades recently. Considering this, it was a nice surprise to find that the duo behind Woods (Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere) take a more rustic approach than most of their peers, combining classic folk-rock with a hazy indie style that I must admit – despite my prejudices – caught my attention on their new record, Songs of Shame.

What allows Woods’ fussy folk tunes to rise above those of the standard noise band is their ability to write great melodies that shine through the haze. Though singer Jeremy Earl’s voice is often clouded and distant, the songs generally maintain a strong sense of melody that connects the listener to the music and anchors the sometimes overtly abstract tunes to recognizable musical elements. Opener “To Clean” features messy guitar lines and somewhat muted percussion to compliment Earl’s unique falsetto, with lyrics that are often difficult to discern, but worth the effort to do so. The song is a good introduction to the band’s style; the record continues in a similar vein, offering mostly brief slices of mid-tempo, low-fi rock ‘n’ roll. There are several highlights here, most notably the inspired cover of Graham Nash's “Military Madness” and the melancholy, beautiful “Rain On,” which demonstrates this band's range.

It’s unfortunate that too much of the rest of this record fails to reach the bar set by the band's best material. Most of the songs hold up alright on their own, but in the context of the album, many simply fade into each other. Over time, and with repeated listens, tunes like the swampy “To Hold,” the sloppy “Gypsy Hand” and the psychedelic and unmemorable “Echo Lake” start to develop some discernible qualities, but there isn’t enough of a return for the effort required. The band also throws in a nearly ten-minute instrumental, “Summer with Pete,” early in the record that seems unnecessarily lengthy and distracting especially given its placement, but, by the same token, it’s refreshing to hear something a little out of the ordinary.

When all is said and done, it’s the unusual properties of Songs of Shame that both draw me in and push me away. Woods are too smart to allow themselves to be pigeonholed into one category or stay still for very long, and it’s very obvious that the two musicians have plenty of talent and myriad ideas. So, while Songs of Shame doesn’t consistently hit the mark, it succeeds in giving a solid introduction to a band that has flown too far below the radar during their career, and one that we should be looking forward to hearing much more from in the future.

Last Word:

Woods’ fourth record, Songs of Shame, is an enjoyable, if inconsistent, collection of noise-folk tunes that hints at better things to come from this boundary-pushing duo.