Ampline

Ampline

The Choir

Sofaburn

This is the first album from the Cincinnati based trio, who at the time of this release were a four piece, all instrumental band. Mike Montgomery, guitarist, would later sing, and the whole band would write lyrics. This album established them as an indie rock force.

Without being pretentious about it, these instrumentals are much like the best jazz, in that there is the structure of incredibly complex songs sounding simple. While there isn’t a lot of jamming or improvising, the interplay between instruments resembles jazz. This is indie rock, but with the same quiet power as jazz. While hard charging, it's also soothing, and in the end, like the best jazz, a delight to hear. The interplay between bassist Kevin Schmidt and drummer Rick McCarty, and the guitars is thrilling. So if you want a different and great type of indie rock, this is for you. It's enjoyable and serious fun, too.

Andrea Weiss

Benchmarks

Benchmarks

Our Undivided Attention

Sofaburn Records

Benchmarks is a Nashville three-piece that makes indie rock so melodic it turns power pop,   it's so catchy and powerful. With lead singer/songwriter Todd Farrell Jr.’s and Jack Whitis' clean, crisp production, and Mike Montgomery’s radio-ready mastering giving the sound just the right amount of grit and polish, it makes me wonder why this band isn’t huge, or at least well known. It is very easy to imagine them having hits.

The lyrics cover many difficult situations that invite confusion, maybe taking place over the course of a year, since the first song is titled “This Year” and the last “Next Year.” While they are never quite resolved, there is hope they will be and that things will be better as a result. But there’s also loneliness, boredom, listlessness, restlessness, and just being unsure of what to do. These songs aren’t dark or depressing, more like bursting with determination to see things through to whatever conclusion there will be, and just to take things as well as they can be taken. All in all, a really good album that flew underneath the radar. Don't let that continue. Pick it up.

Andrea Weiss

R. Ring

See Video

R. Ring (Kelley Deal and Mike Montgomery) return with this clip. The music is the studio version found on their current album, Ignite The Rest, and is a great guitar workout: somewhat folk, somewhat rock, more rock than folk. Mike sings.

What’s cool about the clip is the special effect running all through it, which is images on top of images of the duo playing, all flitting in the background, flowing with the music, in and out of focus, providing an impressionistic counterpoint to the music. The clip is in black and white, too, which adds to the effect. It’s just dazzling, and not a run of the mill video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyYzw7Zw3Vo&list=PLIzbmoX1EuVKK4e4SzliZ-tg9ITXunNNk

Andrea Weiss

Alone At 3AM

Show The Blood

Sofaburn Records

The Cincinnati band’s current album, Show The Blood, evokes lives of quiet desperation, as so many are, all through the Midwest, and it’s rich territory indeed.

Singer/songwriter Max Fender’s lyrical grimness isn’t always grim. Toward the end it’s pretty uplifting. For example, the most sarcastic thing about “Constant Sarcasm” is that they're sincere and serious. And sympathetic. The young woman in “Story On Sixth” survives emotionally any way she can. “Upside,” about a father who dies emotionally after his son is killed in a car crash, is heartbreaking.

The music is gentle indie rock/ Americana. I hear Drive By Truckers, Jason Isbelland the 400 Unit, and a slightly rougher version of Philadelphia band Strand Of Oaks. Producer Mike Montgomery’s clean, crisp sound adds just the right amount of polish.

In the end, it's a good album to think to, for quiet times, late nights, and anytime something serious is required.

Andrea Weiss

Daniel Martin Moore

Archives Vol. 2

Sofaburn Records/OK Recordings

Moore wanted to make an album of traditional folk songs, mostly love songs, and the result is more or less a home recording. A guitar, one mic, sometimes he whistles, and on "Jubilee," other voices and him stomping his feet and clapping. But the effect is never old-fashioned, stark, or purist. Instead, these songs are timeless, exuberant, and the love songs have a sweet innocence to them. I don’t have a favorite here. All of them are great, all of them have something to recommend them, say, for relaxing, winding down the day, a gentle greeting to the day, and for any quiet time.

Andrea Weiss

Drone Butch Blues

Your Heart Breaks

Sofaburn Records

The title comes from Leslie Feinberg’s groundbreaking novel, Stone Butch Blues, and the concept is simple: get a drone going and layer acoustic guitars and other folk instruments on top. Quiet, understated, but still enough in the foreground to be more than accompaniment, this isn’t a typical folk music album or a typical women’s music album. It’s more like Ferron, who was women’s music at its most straightforwardly punky, not quirky like Two Nice Girls, and like Ferron, wonderful to listen to. 

Trans/queer musician/filmmaker Clyde Petersen is Your Heart Breaks, with an all hands on deck cast, including Kimya Dawson, Karl Blau, Lori Goldstein, Dylan Carlson, and on "Our Forbidden Country," Kelley Deal, who sounds terrific. The others are equally terrific. Lyrically, this is angrier, darker, and punkier than Ferron, but punk at its most liberating best. It's also sweet, loving, friendly, sincere, heartfelt, unironic, and on the love songs like "Wanting To Stay," bittersweet. Anthems like "Keep On Living" and "Our Forbidden Country" coexist with love songs like "Stay" and autobiographical songs like "Late Nights In The Lab," and it all sounds great, and better than most women’s music.

The lyrics are inspired by a bibliography of queer writing, all of which I recommend for what the past was like and where the future may lead. The one I recommend the most is the book which helped me come out, Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle, the first lesbian-themed best seller, the first lesbian-themed book to have the attitude “yes I’m a lesbian, and if you have a problem with that, that’s you’re problem, not mine.”

If you’re just coming out, buy this album. If you are out and want something adventurous, buy this. If you’re straight and want to know more, buy this. And just anyone who wants a great album, buy this.

http://www.sofaburn.com/product-page/your-heart-breaks-drone-butch-blues-vinyl

Andrea Weiss

3X4

3X4

The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate, The Three O’ Clock, Rain Parade

Yep Roc

3X4 is the reunion of a scene, the Paisley Underground, the 80s garage psych scene based in L.A. These four bands created some incredible music then, and now with this tribute. Three songs each by four bands, all covers of each other's bands. The overall effect is ultra-trippy adult psych, not old or sedate, but smart, sensible, and really well played. And a note here, if all you’ve ever heard from the Bangles are their hits, check this comp out to hear what they really are--a great garage/psych band with two underrated guitarists in Vicki Peterson and Susanna Hoffs. 

Each track on this album has a lot to recommend it, but here are the highlights for me. 

Bangles: Vicki Peterson seething all over the Dream Syndicate’s "That’s What You Always Say," and their pure pop take on The Three O’ Clock’s "Jet Fighter."  

Dream Syndicate: The guitars on the Rain Parade’s "You Are My Friend" and the Bangles' "Hero Takes A Fall." I like the wryness of Wynn’s singing on "Hero." In  a World Café interview with Vicki Peterson, Steve Wynn, and the Three O’ Clock’s Danny Benair, Wynn and Peterson admitted that "Hero" was partly about Steve. And he was okay with it too, expressing regret for various ways he’d acted when he was young. 

Rain Parade: The Three O’ Clock’s "As Real Is Real," and The Dream Syndicate’s "When You Smile." Nicely super trippy. 

The Three O’ Clock: The Dream Syndicate’s "Tell Me When It’s Over," and The Rain Parade’s "What She’s Done To Your Mind." These are the most punk and garage rock of the covers. 

In the end, this is a trip worth taking, mind expanding, rewarding, and if you like the covers, get their albums. They’re worth it too. 

 Andrea Weiss