Cat Power

Sun

Matador

Where The Greatest and Jukebox found Chan Marshall singing the blues with a touch of Janis Joplin-like feeling and soul, Sun harks back to You Are Free. And while I would like to say that it’s her best album ever, I really can’t because all of Ms. Marshall’s albums find her at her best, no matter what she was going through at the time. So I will say this album is as good as You Are Free.

You Are Free found Cat emerging from extreme isolation, pain, and trauma. The Greatest and Jukebox found her taking stock of her life, an interlude to get ready to embrace life, love, happiness and freedom. Sun shows how she has embraced everything, loves everything, and has put the past in perspective so she can start anew. With the same steely resolve that got her through everything she has faced. Her idealism intact, even when she was isolated, the same warmth and soul carried her along.

A few songs in particular stand out. “Cherokee,” which opens the album has an intro in her trademark guitar style, with a touch of electronica that rings out and sticks in your head. This song, like “Silent Machine,” deals with a person she has formed an instant attraction to, yet knows she cannot have. But unlike years past, where the feeling and emotion of her pain was all she knew, these two songs put this attraction in its place. She’s known all this before, but this time, she deals with it in a healthy frame of mind, and finds that she can handle it much better.

“Nothing But Time,” like “Peace and Love,” sends a message both political and personal. Embrace the future as best you can, and be idealistic, because it really is all you have. While times are hard now, it won’t always be this way. Things will get better. And if you can’t understand how to be idealistic in hard times, then you need to think some more, or just get out of her face.

You Are Free experimented with rock song structure. On Sun electronica is the way she’s doing it this time, just the way You Are Free played with rock song structure. And these songs, like “Ruin,” move in ways that flow. A driving force every bit as fierce as her lyrics. They also give her words breathing room, an interlocking form that ties everything together seamlessly. And these experiments never waste a note. Everything is exactly in place, marching in lockstep with the lyrics. It’s great, superbly played and produced, and Marshall did everything. She’s a one person band, recorder, producer, but mixed the album with the help of Philippe Zadr.

This is one of the best albums I’ve heard all year, and maybe the best. What I also know is that while I’ve always related to Cat Power, I relate to Sun the most. This isn’t meant to be a pun, but these lyrics and music have power with a capital P. It’s rare for me to hear an album with this, even as I can think of albums with just as many powerful emotions behind them. This album is a masterpiece from top to bottom, and may the sun shine on her and keep her warm, alive, free, happy and content for the rest of her life.

http://catpowermusic.com

http://www.facebook.com/CatPowerSun

http://twitter.com/catpower

Andrea Weiss

Zula

Make Contact

Self-Released

Zula is a Brooklyn- based indie/electronica band who‘re influenced by Elliot Smith and Neil Young. But on the basis of this song, they sound like what Animal Collective would sound as a straightforward indie rock band. I like this song much more than Animal Collective, whose songs are so soft-focused that they have no structure to them. Zula has that structure, which comes from their influences, and also add their own touch which makes something of a sound collage. Voices bubbling up in the mix, drum sounds galore, even some guitars, and it all hangs together very nicely.

Also check out “Grind is a Shuttle.” Mellow, atmospheric, with even more rock, and from an EP they put out last year. Both songs sound great on headphones, and with music this good, that means even more than it would usually. Very, very cool music.

http://soundcloud.com/zula-2/make-contact

http://zula.bandcamp.com/track/make-contact

http://soundcloud.com/zula-2/grind-is-a-shuttle

www.zulamusic.net

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zula/2104965389667

Andrea Weiss

R. Ring/Kristian Svitak

Mr. DNA

Phratry Records/Band Camp

R. Ring put out 100 copies of the Devo cover to coincide with a run of dates they’re doing in Ohio this month, accompanied by renowned pro-rider Svitak on some of them. The video linked here originally contained the original version of Mr. DNA, and Warner Brothers got upset, so the clip was pulled. Svitak then enlisted his friends in R. Ring, Kelley Deal and Mike Montgomery, to cover the song, and re-release the clip. That was back in February of 2012. The video is skateboarding moves and tricks galore, very cool to watch, and much fun to see. The song rocks, killer punk, with perfect, and fun guitar shredding and keyboard noises from Deal, Montgomery, and Svitak. Deal and company sound great singing, and like they’re having fierce fun doing so. In short, a good time is had by all. The audio track is available at Band Camp.

http://www.1031skates.com/index.php

http://kelleydeal.bandcamp.com/

http://phratryrecords.com/bands/detail/kelley_deal

Andrea Weiss

Dylan LeBlanc

Cast the Same Old Shadow

Rough Trade

LeBlanc’s second album has him sounding a lot like Ryan Adams, and in many ways better than Adams. While LeBlanc wears his heart on his sleeve, he does it without being cantankerous, a la, Adams, which is a big relief. It’s better to be down about things and trying to work them out without being churlish about it. LeBlanc says that he was an emotional wreck while writing this album, and while that does show, he is also wise enough to know that whining won’t get him anywhere. To be confused is better, because things can be worked out in a more satisfying way.

The music is more old time country, less rock, and that’s good, too. With that kind of music, you can be sad, and have sad lyrics come through better, and with a lot more emotion. And musically and lyrically, this album overflows with quiet emotion. The music also firms up the lyrics, makes them sound tough, and keeps them and him from being a sad sack.

LeBlanc is from the same Alabama scene that the Civil Wars, Alabama Shakes, and the Secret Sisters are from, and while he’s more cult than any of them, there’s also no reason why he can’t be as big. His music and lyrics could be every bit as popular, and should be. Let’s hope that this great musician finds the mass audience he deserves with this album, and that this album puts him on the map with his fellow scenesters. [http://www.dylanleblanc.com/]

Andrea Weiss

Caveman

Vampirer /Old Friend

directed by Phil Di Fiore

The video for this terrific NYC band is a wonderful a Twilight Zone like mini movie, , starring Peter Sarsgaard. The plot is left open to interpretation, but it involves murder, ghosts, and phone calls, all set to one song that is a good, creepy instrumental, and the other bittersweet, and one of the best songs on the band’s great debut, CoCo Beware. A must for horror fans, and those who like Sarsgaard’s and Di Flore’s previous work. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pip2ap5pUr0] [http://www.cavemantheband.com]

Andrea Weiss

Micachu & the Shapes

Never

Rough Trade

Where rap, modern classical music, noise pop, and punk intersect, there is Micacu and the Shapes. What provides the frame work and structure for these delightful, off kilter, bubbly and exuberant songs are melodies that prevent the songs from getting out of control or formless.

Lyrically, these songs examine life from every angle: its strangeness, its pain, its pleasures, and its happiness. They fit into the overall structure of the music well, never becoming more important than the music. The band has a lot to say, and many ways to say it.

This is the follow up to an orchestrated live album where the parts were better than the whole, and was a very good debut, Jewelry. That Never meshes very well, and builds on the debut is a reason to cheer. It’s an album to be treasured.

[http://www.myspace.com/micayomusic]

Andrea Weiss

Purity Ring

Shrines

4 AD

They are a Montréal /Halifax based electronica duo, musically more lightweight than light, but with a lot of charm. Megan James has a very pretty voice, even as some of the lyrics she sings are rather goofy, like “touch not my bosom,” and others about her little belly, her little legs, and trembling thighs. This is not a bad album by any means though. On a debut, which this one is, mistakes are understandable. They have a lot of promise, and with and time, will get ever better than they are now. [http://www.purityringsongs.com/]

Andrea Weiss