On “Memento,” the follow-up to Flyleaf’s platinum 2005 debut, nothing is understated, and each song tends to bleeds into the next. Some don’t seem to have any breathing room, with Mosley’s howling, deafening guitars, pounding drums, or some combination of the three filling any and all available space. Religious or not, Mosley’s warbly vocals (am I the only one who thinks she sounds a bit like Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez?) tend to be a bit melodramatic.

That’s not to say that “Memento Mori” is devoid of catchiness. First single “Again,” in particular, has deservedly made a dent in the Modern Rock chart. Even the strongest songs, however, are that kind of Paramore-esque alternative rock that angsty teenagers flock to, but that anyone past their early 20s might feel a bit embarrassed for even listening to, let alone enjoying.

Per usual, Raditude’s strong points come when Weezer sticks to the winning formula that dates back to their debut album 15 (!)  years ago — anthemic, catchy choruses and simple surf-rock song structure (see: “Put Me Back Together,” “Let It All Hang Out”). The record starts and ends on strong points, with bouncy leadoff track and first single, “(If You’re Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To” and heartfelt album closer “I Don’t Want to Let You Go.” On the eight tracks in between, it’s clear that Weezer is trying to broaden its musical horizons, with mixed results.

On the positive side of the spectrum is the Cuomo-Jermaine Dupri-Lil’ Wayne collaboration “Can’t Stop Partying,” whose lyrics take on an ironic twist with nerd-rock pioneer Cuomo singing lines like, “Monday to Sunday I hit all the clubs / And everybody knows me when I pull up / I’ve got the real big posse with me, yeah I’m deep.” The song, which first appeared as a melancholy acoustic track on Cuomo’s solo demo record that was released a year ago, has been transformed into a synth-heavy earworm, with Dupri’s fingerprints all over it.

Less successful is the sitar-infused “Love is the Answer,” which sounds like it would fit in better over the PA of my Vietnamese-owned laundromat than on a Weezer record.

Even at 39, Cuomo isn’t afraid to let his inner awkward teenager emerge. He falls for a formerly dowdy classmate on the frankly-titled “The Girl Got Hot,” while hard-hitting “I’m Your Daddy” finds him trying to woo a girl on the dance floor. Apparently, even after hanging out with the cool kids, he’s still a nerd at heart.

I’m completely sincere when I say thank you, Tegan and Sara Quin, for writing songs that make me feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest and pounded into a pulp on the pavement.”

The Canadian twins have always had an uncanny knack for making everyday, universal heartaches (”I imagine you, body next to another,” Tegan repeats on “The Ocean”) seem particularly poignant and profound, and that trend continues on “Sainthood,” their sixth full-length album, released today.

Musically, “Sainthood” doesn’t live up to the last Tegan & Sara album, 2007’s exceptional “The Con,” but the sisters continue their unparalleled lyrical examination of personal shortcomings, especially in relation to unrequited love.

The album’s title, culled from the Leonard Cohen lyric “I practiced all my sainthood / I gave to one and all / But the rumors of my virtue / They moved her not at all,” refers, according to the sisters, to their practice of being on their best behavior in the pursuit of relationships.

“All I said to you / All I did for you / Seems so silly to me now,” Tegan sings on “The Cure,” while Sara, on “Alligator,” promises herself, “No hissy fits / Mind my manners / Won’t make a scene / Oh, over you.”

From the jarring opening chords of the Sara-penned “Arrow” to Tegan’s hard-hitting “Northshore,” it’s clear that “Sainthood” is a musical leap for the duo. Sara, the quirkier of the two in terms of songwriting, penned the majority of the songs on “Sainthood,” and it shows. Tegan, meanwhile, seems to have absorbed the style of punk artists like Against Me! and AFI’s Hunter Burgan (who co-wrote three of the songs on “Sainthood”) she’s recently collaborated with.

Glaringly omitted from the record are tender acoustic ballads that were strong points on “The Con” and 2004’s “So Jealous.” Bonus track “Light Up,” Sara’s gorgeous homage to her mother, falls into this category, but though it’s included on the iTunes version of the album, it’s regrettable that it wasn’t included on the regular version (though, in fairness, it likely would have felt out of place).

With most of the 13 songs clocking in under three minutes, some feel unfinished, or even that they never had the chance to truly get off the ground in the first place. Album closer “Someday” seems particularly (and surprisingly) directionless.

At 29, the twins aren’t afraid to mock their own adolescent yearnings (”I know it turns you off when I get talkin’ like a teen,” Sara pines on the stellar “On Directing.”) Tegan & Sara joke that they are “committed to obsessively seek and discuss love until the end of time,” but all kidding aside, it’s a dialogue in which everyone can find solace.

Tegan & Sara play the Calvin Theatre in Northampton on February 12, 2010 and The Orpheum in Boston on February 13.

Kicking off the afternoon was the Brooklyn Vegan showcase at Piano’s, which featured a slew of bands (as well as free Miller and bloody marys until about 3 p.m.). The standout act was Canada’s Still Life Still, who’s hook-laden indie repertoire contains as much distortion as possible to still be called pop. It might be considered shoegaze, but more than likely your feet would be tapping so fast you wouldn’t be able to focus. The tiny performance space completely absorbed their fuzz-rock wall of sound, particularly drummer Aaron Romaniuk’s Animal-like pounding, that surely left plenty of ears ringing at the end of the set.

As evening fell and a monsoon drenched the city, Blast headed over to the Village Underground to catch Lisa Bianco. The local singer/songwriter, unlike many CMJ acts who brought out the bells and whistles, played straightforward Sheryl Crowe-esque rock backed by a full band.

On the opposite end of the musical spectrum, next up was Spleen United, an electro-rock outfit from Denmark who created their own four-person mosh pit on the downstairs stage of Santos Party House. Their pulsating, industrial sound is reminiscent of early Depeche Mode, but they were followed by Lemonade, whose psychedelia-inspired noise rock was a little too avant garde for our tastes.

Not avant garde AT ALL was our final stop of the festival, the Tribute Wars showcase at Le Poisson Rouge, which featured heavy metal tributes to the Bee Gees and Michael Jackson (yes, you read that right) and an all-female Metallica cover band called Misstallica.

The Bee Gees act, known as Tragedy (tagline: “The Number One Heavy Metal Bee Gees Tribute Band in the Tri-State Area”), employs shlock in the best way imaginable, with a stage setup that featured female backup dancers (one donning feathery angel wings) and an abundance of glitter. The band members exploited basically every ’80s hair metal stereotype, down to the ostentatious screens in the background that blared “TRAGEDY” in flaming typeface. Heartfelt interpretations of classics like “How Deep Is Your Love” and “Night Fever” had the crowd in stitches, with singer “Robin Gibbens,” clad only in pink feather boots and white boxer briefs, gyrating around the stage with a not insignificant beer gut unabashedly on display. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, they brought out a cowbell for closing number “Stayin’ Alive.”

After a quick costume change, some of Tragedy’s members teamed with other musicians for “Dangerous,” a heavy metal tribute to Michael Jackson whose members include “Neverland Raunch” and “Blanket Peterson.” Formed before Jackson’s death in June, the band seamlessly incorporated snippets of metal classics like “Whole Lotta Love” and “Sister Christian” into the end of songs like “Smooth Criminal” and “Billie Jean.” They finished with “We Are the World,” which featured what can only be described as the opposite of an all-star cast, including several audience members, up on stage. As crowd members looked on with a mix of amusement, confusion and horror, it’s fair to say that the rendition may have had a unifying effect equal to that of the original’s.

Less comical but equally mind-blowing was the final act of the evening, Philadelphia quartet Misstallica. Recently named one of the top five all-female tribute acts in the country by Gibson.com, they offered note-by-note replications of early Metallica classics like “Seek and Destroy” and “Master of Puppets.” Singer/guitarist Gina Randazzo offered a spot-on imitation of James Hetfield, even mimicking his distinctive hunch over the microphone, and lead guitarist Gigi Gleason made Kirk Hammet’s brain-melting guitar solos look effortless. For anyone who can’t afford a high-priced stadium ticket to see Metallica nowadays, these girls are a worthy substitute.

It’s been an exhausting week, but we loved every minute of it. Finally, here’s a wrap-up of the marathon overall:

Best Acts: Casxio, Still Life Still

Worst Acts: Hunter Valentine, Lemonade (sorry)

Pleasant Surprise: Via Tania

Biggest Disappointment: The Fire and Reason

Best New Discovery: Dangerous: A Heavy Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson, the banh mi at Santos Party House

Best Venues: Le Poisson Rouge, Santos Party House

Photography by Sarah Be for Blast

At the Music Hall of Williamsburg, The xx cemented their reputation as one of the festival’s most anticipated bands, drawing enough of a crowd that the club began turning badge holders away at 10 p.m. Despite having played several sets already this week, with more scheduled, the London quartet showed no sign of weariness. It’s possible they were feeding off the energy of the audience, which turned the group’s dreamy, ethereal songs into feverish singalongs. Co-ed vocalists Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft complemented each other well, with Croft’s voice in particular floating from the speakers like smooth velvet.

Around the corner at Spike Hill, Siri Walberg (a.k.a. Sissy Wish) took the stage clad in skinny jeans, yellow sneakers and a homemade vest laden with cassette tapes. The quirky Norwegian’s herky-jerky dance moves and broken English was awkward yet endearing, and the enthusiastic crowd lapped it up.

The waifish Norwegian, not an outsize presence physically, allowed her music to take up most of the space on stage. Her touring bandmate, Bjare Hundvin, armed with a laptop and keyboards, created a swirling soundscape of synthesizers and floor-rattling drumbeats. Some of the darker, more industrial-sounding tunes, particularly “About a Machine,” resemble what Depeche Mode would probably sound like if Dave Gahan had a sex change.

As the marathon draws to a close tomorrow, check back with Blast for coverage of Saturday’s best performances, including Michael Jackson and Metallica tribute bands, as well as a roundup of the festival as a whole.

Blast correspondent Sarah Be contributed to this report and provided photography.

The band's formation is a classic L.A. story: they met as strangers on a ride at Disneyland two and a half years ago. (Sarah Be for Blast)

NEW YORK — Making their New York debut at the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon, disco/funk quartet Casxio aren’t letting the opportunity go to waste. With sets scheduled for four of the festival’s five nights of the festival, the soul rockers are hoping to broaden their fanbase beyond their native Los Angeles.

Amidst all the running around, frontman Lucas Guerin chatted with Blast while gulping coffee at a TriBeCa diner Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s always interesting when you know you’re playing to people who have never heard you,” he admitted. “The show is a journey, and by the end you want to have the audience.”

Asked to assess the band’s  first performance, at Piano’s on Tuesday night, Guerin said confidently: “By the end of the show, we definitely had ‘em.”

The band’s formation is a classic L.A. story: they met as strangers on a ride at Disneyland two and a half years ago.

“(Keyboardist Andrea “Dre” Choe) was screaming,” Guerin recalled. “‘It’s Disneyland,’ I said. ‘It’s not scary.’ She got offended.”

That led to a conversation and musical bonding session over hot dogs and lemonade that fellow park attendees Eric Saez (guitar) and Zach Schrock (drums) joined in on. With that, Casxio was born.

Fast forward to present day, and the band is gaining buzz with their single “Seventeen,” the video of which features Guerin in full-on drag acting out the role of the song’s narrator.

“I wanted to write a song from the point of view of a 17-year-old girl,” he explained. “Because no matter who you are, as far as love goes, everyone’s got a 17-year-old girl inside of them.”

When it came time to film the video, Guerin said he pondered dressing up as the character, but was reluctant to share that concept with his bandmates. Eventually, a friend brought up the idea, unaware that Guerin had already been considering it.

“As soon as he said it out loud, I was like, I have to do it,” Guerin said.  “If I was really gonna do this right, I’m gonna be the girl. That’s got to happen.”

Utilizing his acting background, Guerin ”researched” the role by watching Madonna videos and trying to imitate her moves.

“It was awkward for the first half hour or so,” he said of the video shoot. “Until I had the third or fourth beer in me. Then it was fine.”

Casxio’s sound is a mishmash of the band members’ individual tastes, which range from 50s motown to jazz and funk, Radiohead to Phillip Glass. Choe is classically trained. Guerin is aware that the band’s aesthetic defies convention and might leave some listeners bewildered.

“The songs are about relationships, but it’s not like, someone broke my heart and I’m gonna cry about it,” he said. “It’s like, someone broke my heart and I’m gonna fuckin’ throw up all over myself, but do it in a crowded room and not even care.”

Casxio plays the Rumble CMJ Showcase at Southpaw Wednesday at 9:30 p.m.; the Official ASCAP Showcase at Canal Room Thursday at 8:30 p.m.; and the High Rise Showcase at Norwood Friday at 9 p.m.

Kicking things off was Via Tania, who channeled Bjork, Feist and PJ Harvey for her set at Le Poisson Rouge. The native Australian began her set armed with a ukulele, and later switched to an electric guitar to showcase heavier material — while simultaneously manning a keyboard and, at one point, a tape recorder around her neck. Her breathy vocals were supplanted by Charles Rumback’s delicate drumming, and together the pair breezed through a quick set of dreamy lo-fi, with just the right amount of shoe gaze thrown in for good measure. Check back with Blast on Friday for an interview with Tania!

We then moved on to the ASCAP Showcase at the Canal Room, where Casxio BLEW OUR MINDS (!!!) with a cover of Q. Lazzarus’ “Goodbye Horses” — a.k.a. the creepy song that acts as the backdrop for Buffalo Bill’s psycho-lipstick-drag hot mess of a dance in “Silence of the Lambs.” That alone would have earned the L.A. quartet high regards, but the rest of their synth-funk set was pure energy, with singer/bassist Lucas Guerin, who bears a passing resemblance to Eddie Vedder, breaking into occasional falsetto yelps. Think MGMT without the pretension.

See also:

• Fire and Reason on Brink of Fame
  
• Blast’s original coverage of the band from 2007.

Less enthralling — and that’s putting it mildly — was the third act of the night, New York’s own The Fire and Reason at Rebel. The buzzworthy electronic rock trio, whose songs have been featured on MTV and Logo, played to a surprisingly sparse crowd and were obviously not too pleased about it. Frontwoman Bella Saona, who donned thigh-high boots and sunglasses worthy of Lady Gaga, clearly envisioned herself on a much bigger stage, playing to a larger and more enthusiastic audience. Making halfhearted attempts to work the crowd, Saona only turned it up a notch when a cameraman emerged to film footage for an upcoming music video, as guitarist Steve Narvaez and bassist Lee Greenman looked bored behind her. It seems possible that The “Fire” may have already burned out.

Saona did say earlier to Blast’s John Guilfoil that technical problems forced the band to cancel its originally planned show on Wednesday.

Check back with Blast through the weekend for updates on the final two days of CMJ, and wish us luck tomorrow on our second attempt to see The xx!

Photos by Sarah Be for Blast. She also contributed reporting to this article.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/cmj-2009-day-three/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/cmj-2009-day-two/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/cmj-2009-day-two/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:49:24 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=31220 NEW YORK — One of the great things about the annual CMJ Music Marathon is that it offers music fans the chance to see bands on the cusp of fame in intimate settings. But that can also act as a drawback — case in point, Wednesday night, when hot ticket The xx played at the 250-person capacity Mercury Lounge on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Needless to say, the lines for both hopeful ticket buyers as well as festival badge-holders stretched around the block an hour before the band was set to go on, and those who were willing to wait didn’t appear to stand much of a chance of getting in.

Fortunately, the band has three more sets scheduled for later in the week.

Blast’s Plan B was a music and comedy showcase headlined by Margaret Cho around the corner at the Living Room. The musical acts included tween trio Supercute! (”Hi, we’re Supercute!” Get it?), whose three-song set featured a ukelele cover of “Happy Together” and two original compositions. Though probably a little too precious for the typical CMJ crowd, it was a relief to hear girls aged 13 to 15 sing about Swedish Fish and hula hoops as opposed to more suggestive fare.

Cho’s act featured her usual Mom shtick, but much was centered around a purportedly recent breakup (via text message, possibly?). Supporting her were Sara Benincasa, who riffed on Meghan McCain and Catholicism among other topics, and Elon James White, whose pontifications on race amused the crowd without straying into uncomfortable territory.

The second stop of the night was a return trip to the Delancey for the Deli Magazine Showcase, which featured New York City acts The Narrative and Hesta Prynn. The former played Death Cab for Cutie-esque indie pop off of their debut EP “Just Say Yes,” but the standout track of the 20-minute set was the unreleased “Fade,” now streaming on the band’s MySpace page. Co-ed singers Suzie Zeldin and Jesse Gabriel provided a nice vocal contrast, with the songs on which Zeldin took the lead sounding reminiscent of Paramore at their finest.

Hesta Prynn’s performance was probably the closest thing to a house party any CMJ-goers will find. Perhaps it was the result of playing in front of a hometown crowd, but the former member of all-girl rap trio Northern State and her four bandmates genuinely seemed thrilled — or at least amused — to be on stage, and their enthusiasm was infectious. It’s not just the hooks of her songs that are so engaging; Hesta knows how to work a crowd, and peppering her set with saucy banter (”Can a ho get a cocktail?”) and sly dance moves practically dares audience members not to have a good time. (Word to the wise: Her Twitter feed is as charming as her stage persona.)

Rounding out Night Two was Middle Distance Runner at Fontana’s. The Washington, D.C.-based quintet offered an occasionally ear-splitting set that incorporated both jangly Americana rock and sultry funk grooves, paying discernible homage to ELO, Tom Petty, and mid-’80s era Prince along the way.

With the marathon nearly halfway over, there’s still much to see and hear. Tomorrow’s highlights include electronic dance-rockers The Fire and Reason and folk singer Via Tania.

Check back with Blast for continuing CMJ coverage all week!

Photos by Sarah Be for Blast

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/cmj-2009-day-two/feed/ 1 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/cmj-2009-day-one/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/cmj-2009-day-one/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:56:42 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=31114 NEW YORK — The 2009 CMJ Music Marathon got off to a predictably hectic start Tuesday, with hundreds of bands and the patrons who came out to see them scrambling around Manhattan’s Lower East Side and parts of Brooklyn in an attempt to take in as much music as possible in a few hours.

Blast started our coverage off at the Bowery Ballroom for hometown alternative act Lights Resolve. Check back here tomorrow for our interview with them!

Next up was The Bloodsugars at Piano’s. The NYC-based quartet pounded through a short, tight set of indie rock, with a dash of funk thrown in courtesy of bassist Brendan O’Grady and keyboardist Matt Katz, who single-handedly manned a trifecta of instruments. Frontman Jason Rabinowitz gamely worked through an amplifier malfunction, and the near-capacity crowd didn’t seem at all fazed by the technical difficulties.

Afterwards, we moseyed down to the CMJ Official Showcase at the Delancey, where local outfit The Cringe had just begun to work the sizable crowd into a frenzy. The band’s exuberance elevated their straightforward, catchy rock tunes, and guitarist James Rotondi’s blistering solos made the tiny space feel like an arena — or at least his bandmates’ Guitar Hero-esque fantasy of one. The act began losing steam after a while though, and we decided to move on midway through a number that sounded like David Bowie trying to appeal to the Heartland.

We ended Day One at Crash Mansion with Margaret Cho’s entourage, who were gearing up for their Wednesday showcase as Denise Barbarita and the Morning Papers played a sassy, blues- and punk-derived set before a thinning crowd.

Check back with Blast daily for all the CMJ happenings, including artist spotlights and photo galleries to come. Tomorrow’s lineup includes British buzz band The XX (if we can elbow our way into the sold-out show) and literary-minded electro/hip-hop artist Hesta Prynn.

Blast correspondent Sarah Be contributed to this report.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/cmj-2009-day-one/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/cmj-2009-ny/2009/10/blast-is-at-cmj-2009/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/cmj-2009-ny/2009/10/blast-is-at-cmj-2009/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:09:02 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=30896 NEW YORK — Blast is at the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon

All this week, we will be reporting from New York City, where hundreds of underground bands will descend on Brooklyn and Manhattan to try and make a name for themselves, and industry professionals will gather to try and hammer out the issues currently facing the music business.

We’ll be running around trying to take in as much music as possible, so check back here for daily coverage!

For more details and the full lineup, visit www.cmj.com/marathon.

Is there a CMJ band or artist you think Blast should be covering? Sound off below!

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/cmj-2009-ny/2009/10/blast-is-at-cmj-2009/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/cmj-2009-ny/2009/10/cmj-2009-spotlight-on-lisa-bianco/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/cmj-2009-ny/2009/10/cmj-2009-spotlight-on-lisa-bianco/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:03:44 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=30839 NEW YORK — Lisa Bianco describes herself as a “pop singer/songwriter with a punk heart.” Bianco, who was raised in Long Island and currently lives in Queens, said the diverse New York music scene she grew up with had a huge impact on her songwriting.

Hometown: New York
Genre: Indie rock/alternative
Influences: Pearl Jam, U2, Blondie, Radiohead, Patti Smith
Craziest Musical Experience: Traveling from New York to Geneva to Venice to see Pearl Jam perform at a festival, only to learn that it had been canceled due to a tornado. “We just got drunk on wine and went out to dinner,” she recalled. “It was really bizarre.”

“You see a lot of extremes of everything,” she noted. “You can always grab something fun from any kind of band or performer, no matter what it is. … I think I kind of incorporate all that stuff.”

Indeed, Bianco’s songs seamlessly fuse aspects of influences that run the gamut from Fugazi to The Bangles.

This will be the second CMJ Week appearance for Bianco, who regularly tours around the tri-state area, alternating between full-band and acoustic solo performances.

“I really learned a lot from the whole thing last year,” she said. “You meet people at other gigs and talk about music and the state of the industry. … New York becomes even smaller at this event.”

Lisa Bianco performs at CMJ on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Village Underground with a full band.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/cmj-2009-ny/2009/10/cmj-2009-spotlight-on-lisa-bianco/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/getting-to-know/2009/10/getting-to-know-sara-lov/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/getting-to-know/2009/10/getting-to-know-sara-lov/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:53:28 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=30230 Sara Lov describes her budding solo career as “a happy accident.” The female half of dream pop duo Devics, whose debut album, “Seasoned Eyes Were Beaming,” was released in August, decided to explore writing songs on her own when her Devics bandmate Dustin O’Halloran became occupied composing film scores.

“If I don’t make music, I’m not happy,” she explained. “I thought it would be a great time for me to try to do a solo thing.”

Lov, who performs at the Paradise Tuesday night, said she fell in love with music at an early age, as a coping mechanism to deal with a harrowing childhood that included being kidnapped at age four by her father, who fled with her to Israel. It was 10 years before a relative was able to intervene and have Lov repatriated to Los Angeles, but her sister stayed behind.

Seeking a mode of escape, Lov turned to records and harbored fantasies of being a rock star.

“I was a huge music fan,” she said. “That was, like, all I cared about.”

A rattled-off list of her favorite artists includes PJ Harvey, Billie Holliday, Tom Waits, The Pixies, Nick Cave and The Smiths (“The first band that I completely fall in love with,” she added. “I would just wallow in their albums.”)

“I always wanted to do music, but I just never knew how I would make that happen,” Lov recalled. “I didn’t know how I was going to be in music, but I really wanted to be a singer and have a band.”

For her current tour supporting Sea Wolf and Port O’Brien, Lov remastered “Seasoned Eyes” and uses a record player on stage, in lieu of a live band, to provide the backing tracks for her songs.

“I feel like when I play guitar and sing, it’s not enough on stage,” she explained. “I feel like it doesn’t quite get there. … (And) a record player’s cooler than an iPod.”

She and O’Halloran formed Devics after meeting in a drawing class when they were both students at Santa Monica College in the mid-‘90s. In Devics, the pair split songwriting duties, and Lov acknowledged that the autonomy she now has as a singer/songwriter does not always make for smooth sailing.

“It’s hard sometimes because I don’t have that other part … to sort of lean on and figure things out with,” she admitted. “It’s all kind of up to me, so it sometimes can be a little more challenging.”

A cinemaphile who also cites old French noir and David Lynch among her inspirations, Lov certainly has enough personal hardship to draw from, but she downplays her background.

“I think everybody’s view of the world is affected by how they were raised and how their childhood was,” she said. “I don’t think it’s just me.”

Maybe so, but few people’s formative years played out like the plot of a Lifetime movie.

“I might have had some more traumas,” she conceded.

Sara Lov plays the Paradise with Sea Wolf and Port O’Brien Tuesday night.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/getting-to-know/2009/10/getting-to-know-sara-lov/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/not-your-typical-coloring-book/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/not-your-typical-coloring-book/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:44:07 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=29157 When Casey Cohen and Matt Stotland had little money and even fewer industry connections when they started their musical charity, The Yellow Bird Project.

The friends, who met as high school students in Montreal, essentially began cold-calling musicians they admired and asking them to participate by creating designs for T-shirts, the proceeds of which would go to a charity of their choice.

“It was really that kind of DIY approach,” Cohen said. “We knew nobody.”

“The key was getting that first band to sign on,” Stotland added.

That initial “yes” came from Devendra Banhart, and many others soon followed.

“I didn’t think we would actually (get the project off the ground), but if he’s willing to do it, there’s no reason why we can’t,” Cohen remembers thinking after getting an enthusiastic note “in all caps” from Banhart in response to their request.

Soon, they found that word of mouth about their project was spreading like wildfire among the insular indie rock world. Some artists they contacted had been working independently on illustrations; others, including The National, already had T-shirt designs prepped and ready to go.

But they heard some “no”s along the way, too.

“Most of them have a reason that’s justifiable,” Cohen explained. “Some said they don’t have artistic inclination.”

Thus far, the Yellow Bird Project has raised money for organizations like Art for Change, AIDS Society of Canada, Safe Space, and Free Arts for Abused Children.

Cohen and Stotland recently expanded their venture from clothing to create a children’s activity book dubbed the “Indie Rock Coloring Book.” Parents looking to up their “cool” quotient will be glad to hear that the finished product includes music-inspired illustrations and activities from indie darlings like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bon Iver and Rilo Kiley. (Cohen and Stotland like to quote The National’s Matt Berninger, who once said “I’ve decided to have kids just so I’ll have somebody to give this book to.”)

While the Yellow Bird Project is currently just a side project for both Cohen and Stotland, they each hope to turn music-related charity work (or is it the other way around?) into a full-time career. Stotland, who has a background in computer science, still lives in Montreal and does freelance computer programming; Cohen studied philosophy in college and now resides in London, where he works for a marketing agency.

The two 25-year-olds are still two unassuming music fans who can’t hide their excitement about working with artists they enjoy and admire.

“We just really like music,” Stotland said. “This project just sort of fell into our laps.”

They celebrated the book’s September release with launch parties in New York City, Montreal and at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco.

“It’s basically our favorite bands (who participate),” Cohen said. “To have people who want to be a part of that … It’s quite cool where this has taken us.”

The Indie Rock Coloring Book is available at various online and retail locations, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and at www.yellowbirdproject.com.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/not-your-typical-coloring-book/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/gossip-music-for-men/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/gossip-music-for-men/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:44:15 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=29147 “Music for Men,” the fourth album (and major label debut) from disco-rock trio Gossip, is being hyped as the album that might garner the group a widespread following. But it’s hard to imagine portly frontwoman Beth Ditto and her bandmates — whom she recently described as coming from a punk scene of “striking vegan radicals” — as ever being part of the mainstream. And that’s not a bad thing.

For “Music for Men,” which has an official release date of October 6 but was made available digitally and overseas earlier this year, Ditto, guitarist Brace Paine and drummer Hannah Blilie enlisted legendary producer Rick Rubin (incidentally, they’ve also dropped the “The” from their name). The polished result is a non-stop dance party, a delirious fusion of blues, punk and disco elements.

Genre: Indie rock
Label: Columbia
3 out of 4 stars

On much of the album, synthesizers and keyboards outnumber guitars. The band shamelessly draws from artists like Blondie and Donna Summer — and makes it work. Fans of (The) Gossip’s breakout album, 2006’s “Standing in the Way of Control,” will salivate over first single “Heavy Cross,” undeniably the album’s catchiest, strongest track, anchored by radiant palm-muted guitar work courtesy of Paine.

Charmingly, Ditto’s self-confidence matches her girth, and the sultry opening track, “Dimestore Diamond,” contains a favorite metaphor of hers, painting a portrait of the titular heroine’s transformation from coal to diamond; she dons low-cut sweaters, short skirts and a “homemade haircut” but still “shines like the real thing.”

But Ditto also adopts a rarely-seen confessional tone on many songs, particularly on songs like “For Keeps” and “Love Long Distance.” It’s a bit disarming to hear Ditto, a native Arkansan who is perhaps most known as an outspoken champion of feminism and LGBT rights, sing lovesick lines like “I call your number twice, but it rang and rang / Against my best friend’s advice, I should be ashamed.”

Some might view the album’s tongue-in-cheek title and gender-bending artwork in the liner notes as a political statement on their own, but Ditto also scratches the surface of gender politics on the punkish “8th Wonder,” referencing a time “before girls knew they weren’t pretty yet … before boys knew they weren’t tough enough.”

The sassy singer also returns to her grassroots activist roots on the punchy “Pop Goes the World,” promising, “We’ll start a demonstration / Or we’ll create a scene / Make noise from our frustration.” It’s a relief to know that Gossip haven’t lost sight of their politics in the pursuit of mass appeal.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/gossip-music-for-men/feed/ 1 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/brandi-carlile-give-up-the-ghost/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/brandi-carlile-give-up-the-ghost/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:56:13 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=28696 Brandi Carlile isn’t reinventing the wheel on her third album, “Give Up the Ghost,” out October 6. The Seattle folk singer, who plays Boston’s House of Blues this evening, treads over familiar female singer/songwriter territory on “Ghost,” with help from contemporaries like the Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray.

3 out of 4 stars
Label: Columbia
Genre: Folk
Release Date: 10/6/09

Carlile, 28, exploded with “The Story,” her 2007 T. Bone Burnett-produced sophomore album whose title track became the basis for a “Grey’s Anatomy” music video. (Several other songs were featured on the show itself.) “Grey’s”-friendly folk songs continue to dominate on “Give Up the Ghost,” particularly the ukulele-infused “Oh Dear” and wistful “That Year.”

Also prevalent on “Ghost” are Carlile’s country influences, namely on the honky-tonk “Caroline,” to which Elton John lends a restrained collaboration. The idea of small town escapism also plays an important role, particularly on the outcast anthem “Looking Out,” on which Carlile muses, “I went out lookin’ for the answers … Some people get religion, some people get the truth.”

While none of the songs showcase the raw vocal chops that Carlile displayed on “The Story” (“Pride and Joy” comes close, as Carlile wonders, “Do I make you proud? Do you get me now?”), her distinctive voice quivers with emotion, fluctuating pitch like a slide guitar as she sings about love, heartache and self-discovery.

Brandi Carlile is in Boston tonight at House of Blues.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/10/brandi-carlile-give-up-the-ghost/feed/ 2 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/09/getting-to-know-the-jaguar-club/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/09/getting-to-know-the-jaguar-club/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:38:11 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=26205 NEW YORK — The members of Brooklyn trio The Jaguar Club claim to have been in some of the most unfortunately-monikered bands in the history of music, including Finer Things and The Huxtable Residence.

They came up with “The Jaguar Club” after drummer Jeremiah Joyce came across the intricate logos of organizations of car devotees one day while doing a Google Image search.

“It’s never been a strong point,” according to Joyce. “We were terrible at coming up with band names.”

Blast chatted with The Jaguar Club at their record release party at Brooklyn’s Union Hall last month. Since forming in 2006, the band has released two EPs. Their first full-length album, “And We Wake Up Slowly,” was released September 1.

Joyce and bassist Yoichiro Fujita met while both were students at Vassar College and eventually moved to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn together.

“In the fall of 2005, we were really getting the itch to start a band,” Joyce said.

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Meanwhile, singer Will Popadic, a former Emerson College student who had recently relocated to New York from Los Angeles, posted an ad on Craigslist saying he was looking to meet like-minded musicians.

“It was just so nice and warm and friendly,” Joyce recalled thinking upon coming across Popadic’s ad. “He was like, ‘I just moved to New York…‘”

And the rest, as they say, is history. The newly-formed group began writing songs in the spring of 2006, released an EP that fall, and toured extensively up and down the East Coast in 2007.

“Basically, we hit the ground running,” Joyce said.

“And We Wake Up Slowly” was recorded earlier this year in an 300-year-old barn in New Paltz, in upstate New York — a stark contrast to the Brooklyn basements in which most of the songs were written. The band members say the experience was a bit like camping, with musical instruments scattered around the converted studio, which had no running water.

“It definitely took us out of our element,” Popadic said. “A lot of the sound and texture is a product of being there.”

“You just feel so liberated from everything back in the city,” Joyce said. “It feels like home, for me.”

In fact, much of the record deals with typical quarter-life crisis themes, one of which is “being a country mouse in the city,” as Popadic puts it.

“I don‘t love cities, but I have to be in them to do this,” said Popadic, who is from rural Massachusetts.

The members cite Oasis, Band of Horses, The National, Idlewild, and Radiohead among their influences. Their sound, at times, resembles what The Smiths might have sounded like if they’d been an arena rock band. Popadic’s vocals bear more than a passing resemblance to David Byrne’s, with occasional theatrical warblings like those of Rush’s Geddy Lee.

Still, feeling that their sound was a bit lacking, the trio recently added a second guitarist for live shows, Gavin Dunaway, who had been living in D.C. and had seen the band perform several times.

“We were always looking for ways to make (our sound) bigger,” Joyce said. “He’s like a new pair of socks. They’re so instantly comfortable, and yet they’re new.”

Dunaway’s proposal for a new band name? “Gavin and the Jerks.”

But for now, perhaps out of necessity, it seems “The Jaguar Club” will stick.

“We had a small window of opportunity (to change the name),” Fujita said, as his bandmates considered their newly-minted LP. “And now it’s too late.”

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/09/getting-to-know-the-jaguar-club/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/09/attention-pearl-jam-fans-heres-the-record-youve-been-waiting-for/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/09/attention-pearl-jam-fans-heres-the-record-youve-been-waiting-for/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:27:42 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=24161 It’s with equal parts anticipation and trepidation that some longtime Pearl Jam fans (myself included) react to the announcement of new material, a symptom of the band’s recent releases ranging from mildly to depressingly disappointing.

It’s pretty much a given that the band will never live up to the high standard they set for themselves with their extraordinary first trio of albums in the early 1990s, but there are moments on “Backspacer,” their ninth studio album, on which they nearly do.

Artist: Pearl Jam
Title: Backspacer
Label: UMG
Release Date: September 20, 2009
3.5 out of 4 stars

“Got Some,” for instance, which the band debuted on Conan O’Brien’s first show back in June, harkens back to the hard-hitting “Vs.” era, while first single “The Fixer” could blend seamlessly with the band’s 15-year-old album “Vitalogy.” Other tracks like “Supersonic” prove that guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard still have what it takes to make their instruments wail like no other.

It’s a rock cliché, but Pearl Jam sounds older and wiser on its latest effort, out Sept. 20. (They’re also apparently no longer concerned with avoiding the “sellout” tag, having partnered with Target as the only big-box retailer that will sell “Backspacer” in the U.S., where it is being released without the help of a record label.)

Nothing conveys bittersweet nostalgia better than singer Eddie Vedder’s immediately identifiable strained baritone. He pours the weight of the band’s nearly 20-year career into the contemplative album closer “The End,” incorporating strings for a heightened effect. And the gorgeous, goosebump-inducing acoustic ballad “Just Breathe” finds the 44-year-old re-treading the musical territory he covered on his solo soundtrack to “Into the Wild,” singing, “I’m a lucky man to count on both hands the ones I love / Some folks just have one, yeah, others they’ve got none.”

“Backspacer” is not without its weak spots. Leadoff track “Gonna See My Friend” reveals the band to be re-energized, but feels a bit lazy as it progresses, and “Amongst the Waves” causes the album to lag a bit in the middle. But overall, it’s the band’s strongest material of this decade. Credit for that might be due in part to one-time go-to producer Brendan O’Brien, who reunited with the band on “Backspacer” for the first time since 1998’s “Yield.”

On “The Fixer,” Vedder croons, “When something’s lost, I wanna fight to get back again.” He might be referring to Pearl Jam’s chutzpah — in which case, mission accomplished.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/09/attention-pearl-jam-fans-heres-the-record-youve-been-waiting-for/feed/ 2 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/comics/literature/2009/09/gossip-girl-kathy-griffin-releases-memoir/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/comics/literature/2009/09/gossip-girl-kathy-griffin-releases-memoir/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:59:38 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=25036 There’s no need to tout Kathy Griffin’s memoir, “Official Book Club Selection,” as a tell-all. Really, could anything else be expected from the fiery, decidedly un-PC comedienne?

Anyone who’s seen Griffin’s stand-up routine or Bravo reality show, “My Life on the D-List,” knows that her act is essentially a collection of anecdotes about her encounters with and opinions of Hollywood A-listers. Her knack for storytelling comes through in “Official Book Club Selection,” a witty, entertaining read about Griffin’s rise to fame and ongoing pursuit of notoriety. She manages to make even the most mundane childhood stories — getting an early start on gossiping by dishing family secrets to the neighbors, for instance — enjoyable rather than tedious.

In her first book, which hits shelves today, Griffin spins memorable (and sometimes less than flattering) yarns about celebs including Jerry Seinfeld, Andy Dick, Steve Martin and her “Suddenly Susan” co-star and maid of honor Brooke Shields, in addition to the expected offhand dismissals of favorite targets like Heidi Montag and the Lohan family. The 20 “discussion questions” included at the end of the book are good for a few chuckles as well (Sample: “When will it be okay to say that the Octomom’s children are in rehab?”)

Unlike with other celebrity memoirs, readers can approach Griffin’s writing with a fair degree of confidence that nothing has been sugarcoated and no one’s ass is being kissed. (Case in point: her mention of NBC head Jeff Zucker in the acknowledgments, “who has done very little for me but thinks he discovered me”)

But what’s most appealing about “Official Book Club Selection” is that Griffin affords herself the same no-holds-barred treatment she employs in her celebrity skewerings, devoting one chapter to a now-deceased brother who had alleged pedophilia tendencies and offering candid details about the collapse of her marriage in another. She frankly describes herself as an “ugly” child, and a binge-eating disorder is mentioned repeatedly. The warts and all approach also carries over to an extensive discussion of her much-discussed plastic surgery and liposuction procedures, complete with explicit post-op pictures.

The sneakily-titled book (hey, her comedy album “For Your Consideration” garnered her a Grammy nomination!), offers insight into Griffin’s fame-whore persona and biting comedy. She discusses first using humor as a way to deal with bullying classmates at the all-girls Catholic elementary school she attended (“If I can keep them laughing, they’ll get off my back,” she remembers thinking), and recounts her struggles to make it in the Los Angeles comedy sector at great length, but without a sense of entitlement or self-pity. But anyone who thinks Griffin is one-note needs only to read her moving account of the suicide of her “Suddenly Susan” co-star David Strickland to prove otherwise.

As a writer, Griffin comes off as refreshingly self-aware. She recognizes her own need to be the center of attention from an early stage, whether through starring in the school play or unexpectedly popping up in yearbook pictures for all the school clubs. “That was my big thing, getting my name out there, a credo I still live by today,” she writes. “You may not like me or embrace me, but I’ll bet you’ve heard of me.”

Though it’s unlikely to win over any detractors (or be on Oprah’s short list for her next Book Club pick, announced September 18), “Official Book Club Selection” is a must-read for any Kathy Griffin fan.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/comics/literature/2009/09/gossip-girl-kathy-griffin-releases-memoir/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/09/the-softer-side-of-amy-millan/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/music/2009/09/the-softer-side-of-amy-millan/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:24:48 +0000 Elizabeth Raftery http://blastmagazine.com/?p=24163 3.5 out of 4 stars

Amy Millan is part of that Canadian indie consortium that features a rotating cast of musicians in various musical acts acts. Best known for her work in Broken Social Scene and Stars, Millan’s latest solo offering, “Masters of the Burial,” allows her to explore her more folksy, country side, but the album features guest spots from several members of her musical family, including Leslie Feist and members of Stars, The Stills and Apostle of Hustle, among others.

“’Solo work’ is a bit of a fib,” Millan writes in the record’s press notes. “Without this community, the record would be a lonely, less interesting listen.”

Millan says she penned the songs on “Masters” while in a state of limbo, when she was no longer touring but lacked a permanent place to stay and was calling friends’ couches home. She sounds world-weary on the album opener “Bruised Ghosts,” and does her best Neko Case folk chanteuse impression on a cover of Sarah Harner’s “Old Perfume.” (The album also contains covers of songs by bluegrass artists Richard Hawley and Jenny Whiteley.)

The wistful “Low Sail” finds Millan promising, “Though we’re losing time / I’ll find my way back to you.”

Though the songs were written in Montreal, “Masters of the Burial” captures the feel of a sleepy Southern town, with mournful violins and twangy fingerpicking. But Millan knows how to play to her indie rock fans as well — her country-tinged rendition of Death Cab for Cutie’s fatalistic lullaby “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” is more upbeat than the original and seamlessly incorporates a slide guitar.

Millan herself characterized the album as “the dark of nigh. It’s the sound of someone climbing into bed, the soundtrack of the time in between when the candle burns out and your dreams begin. … Light the fire, pour up one more, draw the curtains and tuck in.”

Though the place she laid her head was only temporary, “Masters of the Burial” indicates that Millan made the most of the impermanence.

That type of resilience has become routine for the members of Jet, who have seen their share of ups and downs in the past six years.

Blast spoke with the Cester siblings earlier this year (pre-fainting) about the making of “Shaka Rock,” which was released in the U.S. on August 25. Unlike other sibling bandmates, say, for instance, (the now-defunct?) Oasis, the Cesters try to keep whatever tumult exists in their relationship out of the spotlight. They come off as goofy and affable, an at times comic duo who both claim allergies to aluminum and Lady Gaga.

“Shaka Rock” is Jet’s first offering in three years. After they finished touring behind their previous record, 2006’s “Shine On,” the band members took a much-needed hiatus, to regroup individually and collectively from a roller coaster ride that had begun three years earlier.

Jet found near-instant success in the wake their debut album, 2003’s “Get Born,” which spawned the hit singles “Cold Hard Bitch” and “Are You Gonna Be My Girl,” the latter of which was used in an Apple commercial. The Cesters admit their sudden, explosive rise to fame left them feeling dazed.

“I have no memory of 2003,” said Chris, 27. “It really was just one big show and one big canopy and one big whiskey slug. It was pretty nuts.”

While both gushed about being able to share stages with the likes of the Rolling Stones, they said the monotony of touring can be less than inspiring.

“(Musicians) are the kind of people, generally speaking … that want to sort of be excited, and they generally are excitable individuals,” Chris said. “On tour, that usually results in, you drink yourself to sleep every night because you’re going out of your fucking mind. So, touring can really rip you apart.”

The band’s follow-up, “Shine On,” was marred by the death of Chris and Nic’s father, who inspired the title track. Chris describes the time surrounding “Shine On” as “a black hole.”

“Mentally, physically … just, we were fucked up,” he said.

After taking time off and with both tragedy and triumph behind them, the band set out to make “Shaka Rock” with a healthier outlook and nothing to lose.

“I think we definitely felt a lot of pressure the last time (after the success of ‘Get Born’), but this time we didn’t really feel as much pressure at all,” Nic said. “We always put a lot of pressure on ourselves, but this time there was a noticeable lack of. We were in a happier place in our lives, and we’d been through some serious shit and got through it. And, (we’re) stronger and more equipped. So, I think it was a really good, natural sort of energy that these songs were borne from.”

The band channeled the positive vibes into a large-scale comeback concert of sorts, with an appearance at the Sound Relief benefit this past March for victims of the Australian wildfires.Jet played two televised shows in one day, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney, debuting new material in front of tens of thousands of audience members and countless other TV viewers.

“What a way to walk back onto a stage,” said Chris, widening his eyes. “I think everything sort of feels sort of better, including being able to come back on stage for the right reason, having produced your own album, and doing something beneficial to everybody else and playing for such a huge crowd. It’s just like, I haven’t felt this sort of confidence and happiness about doing what we do since our first record.”

Their sense of ownership is not misplaced. The band decided to adopt a new approach on nearly every aspect of the production of “Shaka Rock.

“Sitting down to write a record can be a real fucking drag if you don’t explore different ways of going about it,” Chris said matter-of-factly. “You need to find ways to keep yourself interested.”

“We just thought it was time to do something a little different than what we’d done in the past,” added Nic. “We took every measure to set that up. … We got away from L.A., and we changed record companies and we changed management. We shook things up and we ended up with an album that really sounds like we have.”

First up was a change in scenery. “Shaka Rock” was written and recorded in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as U.S. locales including Miami, Brooklyn, and Austin, Texas.

With the four band members spread out across the globe (in Italy, Australia, Los Angeles and London), the tracks were written, produced and rehearsed in different locales out of necessity.

“It can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but one of the positives that comes with that is that, every time we meet it’s in an interesting part of the world,” Nic said. “And you really get the buzz off the energy that place has to offer for a while. It’s kind of fun, especially because we’re kind of gypsies by nature, and we’re kind of used to traveling a lot.”

The geographical new direction is reflected throughout the record — both overtly, as on the bluesy “Goodbye Hollywood,” and more subtly, on the summer-y disco track “Beat on Repeat,” which was recorded in Miami.

“I think Australians are generally like that,” Chris said. “Often we can’t agree on one spot, because we can’t go to London, (for instance), because then (guitarist Cam Muncey) just gets to go home every night and we have to stay in a fucking hotel room. So we tend to move around.”

Some of the new approaches that resulted in “Shaka Rock,” however, were not so calculated. An accident with a kitchen knife, for instance, forced the multi-instrumentalist Chris to begin composing songs on bass rather than guitar.

“When I returned (from a post-breakup vacation in Morocco) there was literally nothing in the house,” he recalled. “So, for the first time in my life I thought, well, yeah, I like to cook. So, I’ll go down and buy myself some German steel knives, like really good knives so I can cut anything. And then literally about half an hour – “

“They really can cut anything,” Nic interjected.

“Yeah, it can cut human flesh. I can attest to that,” Chris affirmed. “I actually chopped the top of my finger off. … So I had to learn how to play the bass, and that had a huge influence, a really dramatic influence, on the way I write songs. It’s more about rhythm.”

One thing Jet has stuck to is the tried and true swagger rock style a la AC/DC and the Rolling Stones that propelled the band’s popularity in the first place. Though the band members began expanding their musical horizons between records, listening to more electronically-tinged acts like Daft Punk, don’t look for any bells and whistles on “Shaka Rock” aside from the occasional pre-programmed hand clap.

“I don’t really abide by the electronic background track,” explained Chris. “I think it’s cheating, to be honest. So, while we’re inspired by a lot of those sort of newer things, we definitely kept it organic. It was just sort of more from an inspirational standpoint, rather than trying to capture the same sort of sonic ideas.”

Acting as co-producers on the album gave the band more control over which elements they wanted to incorporate and to what extent.

“I was a bit concerned about how that was gonna go down, because obviously we’d never done it before and basically there was five producers in the room at any one time,” Nic recalled. “That immediately resulted in a different sonic sound, and a bit more of an exploratory thing, because we’re just a bunch of guys in a room, having fun, trying shit out.”

But both say the process turned out to be a relatively smooth one, likely due to the fact that they’ve been friends with guitarist Cam Muncey and bassist Mark Wilson since they were all teenagers.

“We all write and we all have completely different outlooks on life, and they often don’t agree with each other,” Chris said. “(But) I think often with one guy or one girl who’s running the show, it can really sort of be monotonous. … I don’t want to hear two songs about one thing. If I want that, I’ll buy a Britney Spears record.”

Of course, some of the tension in the studio inevitably comes from an innate sibling rivalry between the Cesters. But both say that they consider all their bandmates brothers, even if they are the only two who are related by blood.

“Your brother really is the first person you want in a band, and the last person you want in a band,” Chris said. “It’s an interesting dichotomy.”

“Obviously, it’s a big factor,” according to Nic. “It is really difficult sometimes, and sometimes it’s really fun. … The good thing is there’s always one guy in the band that we all agree is an asshole for a while, and it just keeps switching around. We all get a turn.”

Kidding aside, though, one gets the sense that it’s this family dynamic that has allowed Jet to persevere where other groups have faltered, to adapt and grow rather than giving up.

“To be honest, there’s really nothing that we haven’t had to face as a band together,” Chris said. “We’ve had massive success and we’ve had disappointment. You see what it’s like to be loved and to be hated, and you just get to a point in your career and your life … where you just go, fuck ‘em all. Just make your music, basically.”

“The music always brings you back,” he went on. “It’s like a good friend that you always have no matter what happens in your life. That’s what’s so precious about rock ‘n’ roll in particular, I think. There’s a lot of great genres and there’s a lot of things that I enjoy, but nothing really has that personal, close feeling that rock ‘n’ roll has. It really is just like your best friend, because it never lets you down.”

“Irene sits center stage,” according to vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist Ben Davis. “We definitely do not hide her.”

He refers, by the way, to a 1973 reel-to-reel tape machine that provides backing tracks during Bad Veins’ live shows, a gift from Davis’s father as he was preparing to downsize years ago.

“Technically (drummer Sebastian Schultz) was the third member,” explained Davis, who originally conceived Bad Veins as a solo project. “He was well aware that Irene was part of the band upon entrance.”

Although Davis admits he initially accepted the player reluctantly and shoved it in his basement, Irene is now an essential part of their live shows, providing backing tracks that allow the more ambitious Bad Veins songs to expand beyond two-man instrumentation.

Blast spoke with Davis and Schultz as they attempted to steer their tour van through a “complicated mess of highways” outside Albany, with Schultz driving and Davis navigating and doing phone interviews from the passenger seat. They were en route from Toronto to Danbury, Conn., in the midst of a string of tour dates that followed the release of their self-titled debut album on July 21.

The soaring chorus on first single “Gold and Warm” is a major selling point on its own, but other standout tracks include the catchy “Dryout” and sentimental, contemplative album closer “Go Home.”

The pair, who live a block away from each other in their hometown, became friends as participants in the limited local music scene. Between them, they cite influences ranging from Sigur Ros and the Flaming Lips to Bad Religion and Sunny Day Real Estate.

Since Davis and Schultz formed Bad Veins in 2006, bloggers and other members of the indie rock hype machine have been salivating over the band. In 2007, they were named a breakout act at the annual CMJ music festival in New York and were recently featured on ABC News NOW’s weekly series “Amplified.”

Although the buzz came as a surprise, they didn’t feel it was undeserved, Davis said. But along with the publicity has come some unwanted pressure.

“A band can’t control the expectations people have of them,” Davis pointed out. “I almost feel like it has nothing to do with us. People look at us through this filter of blog hype and it’s kind of unfair. Sometimes you feel like people are … judging you based on what other people are saying and not what you’re doing.”

“We’re just two kids from Cincinnati,” he added. “We’re not saying we’re hot shit. You are.”

It’s probably easy for Davis and Schultz to forget the hype for now, while they’re still booking their own shows and selling their own merchandise – not to mention finding themselves lost in greater New York as they drive themselves to gigs.

But two tollbooths and one request for directions later, it sounded like Schultz had gotten them back on track.

“I don’t have a clue where we are or where we’re going, but i think he’s got it under control,” Davis said.

And with that, we said our goodbyes and Bad Veins proceeded on — presumably towards the Connecticut state line.

Bad Veins tour dates:

August 28 – Austin, Texas @ Emo’s Jr.
August 29 – Dallas, Texas @ The Cavern
August 31 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Modified Arts
September 1 – San Diego, Calif. @ Casbah*
September 2 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Spaceland*
September 3 – Costa Mesa, Calif. @ Detroit Bar*
September 4 РSan Francisco, Calif. @ Caf̩ Du Nord*
September 5 – San Jose, Calif. @ Nickel City*
September 6 – Reno, Nev. @ Se7en on West St.*
September 8 – Portland, Ore. @ Doug Fir Lounge*
September 9 – Seattle, Wash. @ Sunset Lounge*
September 10 – Missoula, Mont. @ Palace Billiards*
September 12 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Kilby Court*
September 13 – Morrison, Colo. @ Monolith Festival
September 14 – Lawrence, Kan. @ Replay Lounge*
September 15 – Chicago, Ill. @ Subterranean*
September 16 – Columbus, Ohio @ Skully’s Music Diner*
September 17 – Washington, D.C. @ DC 9*
September 18 – Allston, Mass. @ O’Brien’s Pub*
September 19 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ The Bell House*
September 20 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ North Star Bar*
September 22 – Atlanta, Ga. @ 529*
September 24 – Indianapolis, Ind. @ The Vogue Theater

After splitting with their record label and deciding to self-finance their next album — “Visitation,” out August 18 — the group found themselves with nothing to prove and nothing to lose as they were writing and recording the songs that would become “Visitation.” And it shows, with the result being a collection of uninhibited tracks that fuse the contemplative navel-gaze stylings of Radiohead with foreboding arrangements and frequently sinister vocals.

“Visitation” overall has a much darker tone than the band’s previous offering. The unnerving title track, for instance, describes the invasion of an unwanted, Grim Reaper-like guest whose status as real or imagined is left unclear. But nowhere is the new direction more evident than on “Surrender,” an anxious blend of pre-programmed drums, processed vocals and other computerized effects.

“Planchette” starts as a subdued acoustic number, but eventually morphs into the band’s version of a power ballad, with singer Rohner Segnitz’s voice and a splintering guitar solo floating above the piano and crashing cymbals that keep the song grounded.

Softly bringing the album to a close is the ominously-titled “Black Crow. Segnitz bookends the song by initially singing “How did you find me? … You come with a weapon,” and eventually pleading with the bird by the end, “Don’t go.” It’s as if he’s embraced the dark and disturbing, and “Visitation” will likely inspire listeners to do the same.

But with recent release of her second album, “The Redemption,” Hogan is looking to change all that. In doing so, she faces the unenviable struggle of wanting to detach herself from her personal problems and focus on her music career, despite knowing that those family struggles may be the primary reason people are interested in her songs to begin with.

“I’m working now towards just being able to hold my own and have respect from people,” Hogan said in a recent interview. “It’s not that I want to be swarmed with paparazzi all the time for the attention. … I’m not just, you know, Paris Hilton trying to get out there.”

“The Redemption” is, for the most part, a standard autotune-heavy R&B/pop record whose songs would seamlessly blend into the playlist on any Top 40 station around the country. Single “Hey Yo” is catchy enough, as is “Ruff Me Up,” featuring rapper Flo Rida, but the latter is also a blatant, nearly plagiaristic ripoff of Britney Spears’ “Womanizer.”

In case anyone needed a refresher, the minute-long “Intro” kicks off the album with a jarring mishmash of news clips highlighting the tumultuous past two years in Brooke Hogan’s life — from her brother’s jail time as a result of a car accident that left a family friend nearly brain dead, to her parents’ messy divorce, and more recently, public trash-talking episodes between Brooke and her mother, Linda.

“I’ve been through so much crap these past two years, and life has been really hard,” she said. “I’ve kept my head up, (but) it’s been tough. I feel like now … I’m surrounded by people that love me. Even though it’s a small, select group, I really have true friends and I’m really just happy. I love where I’m at in life, so I feel like God is redeeming me. This is my redemption.” (That religious theme is reinforced both on the album’s much-maligned cover art, which features Brooke as a cartoonish, muscular angel.)

The sex kitten image that Hogan projects on other songs like “BeDDable” and the sizzling, sultry kickoff track “Strip” (“I wanna see you strip for me / Take it off, off honey / Wanna see your body”) seems inconsistent with her portrayal as a slightly naïve, girl next door type on her VH1 reality show, “Brooke Knows Best” — a notion she immediately brushes off.

“I’m not saying that the reality show is fake or real,” she hedges. “It is whatever it is. But, whatever you see on TV is like one percent of my life.”

Of “Strip,” in particular, she remarks: “Everybody wants to, you know, have sex and be sexy and whatever.”

Maybe so, but the dichotomy between her TV and album personas unfortunately makes both seem less than genuine.

More PG-13 is “Falling,” the formulaic collaboration between Hogan and her boyfriend, rapper Stack$. Although the pair try to keep their relationship private, Hogan said the song is one of her proudest moments on the record.

“It’s definitely a turn-on to see your boyfriend or girlfriend … when they put on their business hat,” she said. “It’s fun for us. Instead of going to the movies, we go into the studio.”

In spite of her pointed distancing of herself from Paris Hilton, Hogan recognizes that there are detractors who say she, too, is trying to parlay her family name into a career in showbiz. But she swiftly and confidently dismisses her critics, quickly pointing out that she’s a professionally trained singer and pianist, who counts Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder among her musical influences.

“There’s a lot of kids that just think that they can be famous or whatever because their family’s famous,” she said. “(Performing) was really just something that I loved to do. I love music. And maybe my dad’s entertainment genes are passed down through me, but look at Goldie Hawn and (her daughter) Kate Hudson. Sometimes it runs in the blood. … It’s just the nature of the beast. You can’t really hate on it.”

Growing up in the Tampa suburb of Clearwater, Florida, Brooke and her younger brother Nick were generally kept out of the spotlight by their parents. In fact, ‘Hulk’ and Linda Hogan were quite the opposite of stage parents, shielding Brooke and Nick from the spotlight and resisting the urge to permanently relocate to Hollywood. (Incidentally, I attended the same Catholic elementary school as the siblings, a few grades ahead of them, back when they were known as the Bolleas, their father’s given name, so as not to attract unwanted attention.)

“My parents gave us a really normal childhood,” Hogan confirmed, adding that it was her own decision to pursue a career in music. “We were literally (in a) one-mile radius between our house and school. And anything we did on the weekends was with our friends from school. It was really just very secluded. Of course we traveled and stuff like that, but they didn’t make it, like, a big deal. They didn’t ever really over-explain what red carpets were, paparazzi and stuff like that. We were just kind of clueless. We just kind of went along for the ride.’

Blast recently spoke with three-quarters of the band (minus guitarist James Minor) as they prepared for the July 28 release of their record.

The Blacklist seed was planted in 2004, when singer Josh Strawn and guitarist Ryan Rayhill, both New York transplants, met each other and shortly thereafter formed a band whose sound emulated the likes of Iron Maiden and Motorhead. The eventually addition of drummer Glenn Maryansky prompted their music to evolve to a “more melodic, atmospheric post-punk” aesthetic, according to Strawn.

Music fans who miss the glory days of post-punk and ‘80s alternative need look no further than “Midnight of the Century,” the debut album from New York quartet Blacklist, which offers a quick fix.

Strawn’s soaring, Peter Murphy-esque vocals don’t seem to fit with his softspoken, contemplative offstage persona. A high-minded, politically passionate frontman who says that, if music were not an option, he’d be studying Farsi in pursuit of a journalism career in Iran, Strawn’s resume includes a past stint as a community organizer for ACORN. His list of lyrical inspirations includes figures like George Orwell and astronomer Carl Sagan.

The name Blacklist, originally proposed by Rayhill, is an apt reflection of this mindset.

“It was kind of serendipitous,” said Strawn, pointing to the fact that he often draws on the memoirs of political dissidents to flesh out his songs (sample lyric: “We come together in the street like soldiers … we’re gonna burn their flags”). The album title itself is a throwback to Russian revolutionary Victor Serge, whose novel “Midnight In the Century” offered a detailed account of life in the Gulag.

Sonically, “Midnight of the Century” is crafted from accessible metal that occasionally strays into pop territory and, at times, even borders on danceable. From the moment it gets underway with the thumping opener “Still Changes,” “Midnight” immediately calls to mind ‘80s alternative powerhouses like Joy Division, The Cult and The Church. But the band members identify more obscure bands like The Sound, The Lucy Show and Asylum Party — “a lot of stuff that flew under the radar in the ‘80s that should have made it big,” according to Maryansky — as being more influential.

The fact that Blacklist’s sound doesn’t fit easily into one single category (“A lot of people like to put us in the goth hole,” Rayhill laments), but instead blurs the divisions between New Wave, metal, pop and glam rock, sits well with the members.

“There’s always been an effort to walk interesting lines between what’s a macho sound and what’s a feminine, makeup-wearing sound,” Strawn said. “We’re into all of it. … it’s more about a sonic space than it is about trying to fit into it.”

The band’s musically diverse lineup, which incorporates a banjo and trombone among other more conventional instruments, consists of seven 24-year-old musicians hailing from Milton, Ontario who have been playing together since they were teenagers.

“Universe” certainly incorporates elements of other-worldliness, whether it’s the feeling of floating through space, as evoked by songs like “All of One is the Other,” or the fact that the co-ed vocals courtesy of lead singer/trombonist Adrian Jewett and guitarist Emma Ditchburn often get lost in the swirl of instruments around them.

Many of the songs on the record possess a potent air of melodrama. Leadoff track “Bubble Reputation” is a rock opera in itself, opening “Universe” with theatrical horns and later letting the rest of the instruments build to an operatic crescendo. Classically-trained pianist Ryan Lenssen shows off his chops on the excellent dramatic instrumental “Patternicity,” a song whose layered strings make it reminiscent of a John Williams score.

But “Universe” also provides an outlet for The Most Serene Republic’s pop sensibilities. Perhaps the most accessible tune is the high-energy, synth-infused “Don’t Hold Back, Feel a Little Longer.”

Casual music fans might not appreciate …And the Ever Expanding Universe. It’s music for the fickle-minded. But while The Most Serene Republic never dwells on one style for too long, they still manage to make their sound cohesive.

Blast spoke with keyboardist/vocalist Antonia Freybe-Smith after a recent show in New York, days before the band was slated to perform on the “Café Stage” (“It’s probably gonna be next to some port-a-potties or something,” she downplayed) at Bonnaroo. Freybe-Smith said she’s been in a live music drought lately, and was hoping to “de-nerdify” at the weekend-long music festival, where Jets Overhead would be sharing a bill with acts including Bruce Springsteen, Snoop Dogg and Phish.

Jets Overhead is based in Victoria, British Columbia and fronted by husband-and-wife duo Freybe-Smith and Adam Kittredge. Their lineup is a reflection of “a classic Victoria thing where all the bands know each other,” according to Freybe-Smith. Lead singer/guitarist Kittredge and guitarist Piers Henwood are cousins who first began playing music together informally at family holiday gatherings. Classically-trained bassist Jocelyn Greenwood was Kittredge’s neighbor, and the two attended the same high school. The trio eventually recruited Freybe-Smith to do backup vocals and rounded out the current lineup with drummer Luke Renshaw, who replaced their original drummer.

Individually, the members’ interests range from psychedelic rock to world music and jazz, with Kittredge in particular harboring a soft spot for Radiohead. (“Adam still cries every time we put on ‘Kid A’ or ‘In Rainbows,’” his wife said.)

Previously known as The Special Guests, the band re-named itself after realizing that their moniker was often printed on concert tickets and fliers, but in a different context. “People would call and be like, ‘Dude, I can’t believe you’re playing with AC/DC!’” Freybe-Smith recalled. “It happened all the time.”

Kittredge, she explained, came up with the name Jets Overhead while staying in Europe near an airport and seeing a never-ending stream of plans landing and taking off.

Freybe-Smith had only positive things to say about the impact her relationship with Kittredge (the two were married in February) has had on the band. “It’s awesome,” she said without hesitation. “We get to travel together and share all these really cool experiences.”

“And save money on hotel rooms,” she added.

No Nations was recorded in the midst of a harsh Canadian winter, with the group “squirreled away” nightly in a basement recording space to jam and write songs, Freybe-Smith said. Sonically, the record reflects that “fireside chat” vibe, with slow tempos and laid-back, drowsy melodies.

“It’s a chill, atmospheric record with a good groove,” Freybe-Smith said thoughtfully. “We wanted to make a record that our friends would want to listen to over and over, like on a road trip or after a party.”

No Nations will be released Tuesday on Vapor Records.

This is the first in an occasional series of in-depth band interviews by Elizabeth Raftery.

Vegan Treats was founded by Pennsylvania native Danielle Konya and its cakes and other sweets are distributed in Pennsylvania, Baltimore, New York City, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The desserts have a number of celebrity fans, including actress Alicia Silverstone, former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, and musical acts AFI, The Beastie Boys, and Moby, who features the desserts on the menu of his New York City vegan restaurant Teany. Konya stresses that all of her creations are free of cholesterol and trans fats.

For more information, visit www.vegantreats.com. To hear the Alkaline Trio single, visit www.altpress.com/features/vegantreats.htm.

“Crossing the Rubicon,” the latest offering from Swedish synth-pop quintet The Sounds, borrows its name from a phrase meaning “to pass a point of no return.” Historically, it refers to the act of war Julius Caesar committed by crossing the Rubicon River in Northern Italy in 49 B.C.

So it would be perfectly understandable to wonder if the band is exploring new sonic territory on their latest offering, which hits shelves June 2. What’s ironic, though, given this context, is that the strongest moments on “Crossing the Rubicon” — and there are many — emerge when the band sticks to the winning formula it honed on 2006’s “Dying to Say This to You” — danceable guitar riffs and synthesizers on top of upbeat rhythms.

“Crossing the Rubicon” starts on a high note, with the infectious, guitar-heavy first single “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake,” and continues with a handful of equally catchy tunes, including the New Wave-y “4 Songs and a Fight” and delightfully bizarre Blondie homage “Beatbox.”

Unfortunately though, the 12-song offering loses some of its steam in its final third, with the later songs failing to reach the extremely high bar set by the first ones. The title track, which sounds like gothic monks singing over an excerpt from a dramatic movie score, marks the middle point, and its placement is jarring to say the least — especially since it’s book-ended by the accessible “Midnight Sun” and “Underground.”

The Sounds will spend much of the summer on the road, having landed the opening slot on several dates of No Doubt’s reunion tour. Like the headliner, they are anchored by a powerful frontwoman — sassy singer Maja Ivarsson, whose vocals range from pained to empowered — backed by male supporting musicians who tend to stay in the background.

Their position on the No Doubt tour, combined with the band’s decision to stream “Crossing the Rubicon” in its entirety nearly a week before its official release date, indicate the band is trying to expand its American fanbase. Their radio-friendly pop is likely to win over some early-arriving audience members.

The drowsy ballads on “No Nations,” the sophomore full-length from Canadian quintet Jets Overhead, are an ideal soundtrack for closing time at a bar, or the end of a long night of clubbing.  Musically, the album ranges from folk to pyschedelia. The songs never venture above mid-tempo, and lead vocals are handled primarily by husband-and-wife team Adam Kittredge and Antonia Freybe-Smith. Freybe-Smith, in particular, has a knack for casually tossing off poetic lines like, “He gets mad when I get drunk / Walk around town like a loaded gun,” on the blues-tinged “Fully Shed.”

Notably, Jets Overhead offered a “pay what you want model” for their debut full-length, “Bridges,” in 2006, more than a year before Radiohead made headlines with the same business model.  “No Nations” will be released June 23 on Vapor Records, the label owned by fellow Canuck Neil Young.

It should be said that “No Nations” is an ideal headphone record, as close listens expose several layers on tracks that otherwise might have seemed a bit too simple. The nuanced “Heading for Nowhere,” one of few songs on the record that have a sticks-in-your-head quality, is a great example.

Although the band, which hails from Victoria, British Columbia, would probably grimace at the comparison, Kittredge’s vocals occasionally stray into Chris Martin falsetto territory — but in a good way, as his shoegazer sentiments seem to have more depth than most of his peers’.  On the folksy standout “Weathervanes (In the Way),” he croons, “If we take this something to escape that something / Don’t it just end up there in the way?”

For a band whose name calls to mind obtrusive noise, everything about the record is pleasantly understated.

The answer is, not entirely.

“Remind Me Where the Light Is” is solid from start to finish, bursting with orchestral layers and catchy hooks. Throughout the aptly-named record, Rachel Stolte and Solon Bixler explore darker themes than they did on their previous material. Now three years into their musical endeavor together, it’s no surprise that there have been a fair number of ups and downs to provide lyrical fodder (the two are romantic partners as well as bandmates).

“New Tricks,” a hauntingly lethargic return to form that fans of “Trading Twilight for Daylight” will appreciate, becomes an outlet for this theme, with Stolte musing, “This is us falling / This is us falling down.”

Stolte continues to handle most of the lead vocal duties with the breathy singing style that complements the music nicely, and she sounds more confident doing so. But Bixler also takes center stage on a few tracks, most notably the haunting “Driveway,” which was recently featured on an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Some of the album’s best moments, though, come when the couple harmonizes, as on the excellent “Warning.”

The often cinematic string arrangements bolster songs like “Driveway” and “Fingers”; the latter’s structure incorporates violins coaxing the song along toward a thumping crescendo. Occasionally, however, the orchestration becomes a bit overdone, sounding jarring and misplaced on otherwise strong tracks like “Snakes.”

The title “Remind Me Where the Light Is” suggests that Stolte and Bixler are searching for the winning formula they cultivated on their debut. But it seems likely they never lost it in the first place.

Great Northern Tour Dates (w/ The Dears):

May 1 – Brooklyn, NY @ Bell House
May 2 – Albany, NY @ Valentines
May 4 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
May 5 -  Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
May 7 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
May 8 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Diesel
May 9 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
May 10 – Columbus, OH @ Skully’s
May 11 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
May 13 – Chicago, IL @ Lakeshore Theatre
May 14 – Columbia, MT @ Mojo’s
May 16 – Denton, TX @ Halley’s
May 17 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse
May 18 – Austin, TX @ Parish
May 21 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
May 22 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
May 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
May 24 – San Francisco, CA @ Independent
May 26 – Portland, OR @ Douglas Fir Lounge
May 27 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Cafe

They might not have much to worry about — the album, which hits U.S. shelves March 3, debuted at number one this week on the UK album charts.

While the British music media has been drooling over The Prodigy (Keith Flint, Liam Howlett and Maxim Reality) since they burst onto the rave scene in the early 1990s, American fans got our first introduction with 1997’s “The Fat of the Land,” their third studio album. (Anyone who even glanced at MTV in the late ‘90s probably caught a glimpse of at least one video for the ubiquitous singles “Breathe,” “Firestarter” and the controversial “Smack My Bitch Up.”) Fans of that album will be happy to hear that the manic-eyed, multi-pierced frontman Flint’s snarls and sneers are still intact, especially on the rave-friendly “Take Me to the Hospital” — as are the group’s pyromaniacal tendencies (see: “World’s on Fire”).

Kicking off with the headbang-inducing title track, “Invaders Must Die” is a nonstop assault of spastic drums and frenetic keyboards. True to its name, first single “Omen” is anchored by a portentous high-pitched synthesizer riff. Final track “Stand Up” sounds like a battle between a high school marching band and a deejay on ecstasy. There’s not a sleeper song to be found.

To those who turn up their noses at electronica — the tracks on “Invaders Must Die” can’t be thrown together by just anyone tooling around on GarageBand. Howlett, the songs’ primary engineer, plops down samples ranging from old-school dance and techno recordings to The Breeders. “Thunder” incorporates a sample of Trevor Joe’s “Ethiopian Peace Song,” backed by swirling keyboards. Dave Grohl even puts in an appearance, playing live drums on two tracks, including the metal-tinged “Run With the Wolves.”

As they continue to embrace their roles as instigators, it’s as if The Prodigy are teasing any other performer who might seek to challenge them. “Invaders Must Die” might be their best line of defense.

The band was borne out of a day of studio experimentation, with Clark and Black handling all the vocal and instrumental duties themselves. Their collaboration, which was fraught with “creative tension,” according to Black, sounds less like a creative process than a marriage counseling session and involved “a fair amount of shouting and throwing things.” (”She digs the ’80s. I had spent the latter part of the ’80s doing my part to destroy the ’80s,” he elaborates.) But that first day yielded the dreamy song “Fort Wayne,” and the rest, as they say, is history.

On “Petits Fours,” Clark’s ’80s affinity rears its head through keyboard and vocal effects, and Black pays homage to his musical beginnings on songs like “Break the Angels” and album opener “Come On Over to My House.” Clark’s soft, feminine vocals contrast with her husband’s gravelly growl in much the way his Pixies bandmate Kim Deal’s did. But while Deal’s voice was so wispy that it seemed disembodied at times, Clark’s has significantly more substance, as showcased on the excellent “Lovesick.”

Though it would be a stretch to describe any of the tracks as radio-friendly, Pixies fans might find the album’s overall accessibility disarming. Still, it’s hard not to be seduced by the swirling synthesizers on “Seeing Stars” or the delicate “la la la” refrain on “Fort Wayne.”

According to the album’s press release, the couple plans to use any profits they might earn from Grand Duchy to put a down payment on a house in Luxembourg. Here’s hoping they factor in room for a recording studio.

Before a recent An Horse show in their hometown of Brisbane, Kate Cooper, one-half of the Australian duo, was asked if she had ever been to the particular venue before.

“I had,” she said in an interview with Blast a few days later. “I used to clean the toilets there.”

An Horse’s back story is a classic indie rock fairy tale. Call it “High Fidelity” meets “Slumdog Millionaire.” The band was conceived in a now-defunct record store in downtown Brisbane, and cultivated through a series of happy accidents that allowed Cooper and her band mate, Damon Cox, to go from working minimum-wage jobs and harboring rock star fantasies to landing a record deal and touring the United States.

Their debut full-length album, “Rearrange Beds,” will be released in the States on March 17 and is already available on iTunes.

The pair met in 2005, when Cooper was hired at Skinny’s, a windowless independent record store in downtown Brisbane where Cox worked. (“We didn’t deserve to be called Skinny’s,” Cooper quips. “We seriously went to work every morning and ate doughnuts.”)

When business was slow, they spent time bonding over a shared love of music, blaring mutual favorites like Nirvana and Metallica over the store’s speakers. Both admit they were probably less than stellar employees.

“We’d get a coffee in the morning and talk about a music all day,” said Cooper, 29. “That was basically what we did.”

With both playing in their own bands — Cooper a singer/guitarist with Iron On and Cox a drummer with Intercooler and Mary Trembles — they became fast friends and regulars at each other’s shows.

They recall days spent driving around Brisbane, pretending they were famous musicians on their way to play a show for legions of adoring fans.

“I would ask Kate what city we were in,” Cox said, with an audible trace of embarrassment. “It was kind of weird.”

In late 2007, Cox asked Cooper if she would be willing to perform solo as the opening act for one of his bands’ shows.

“She said, ‘Well, why don’t you get up and play drums on a couple songs?’” he recalled. “And we, being the perfectionists that we are, had to have a few rehearsals before we could get up and play together. And we did, and it just really clicked.”

“We always had this idea in the back of our mind that maybe one day we’d like to try and write music together,” said Cox, 32. “Once it happened, it just felt really good, and it kind of went from there.”

Using Skinny’s as a rehearsal space, the duo started practicing and writing songs together regularly.

“Even though we were busy working in the record store and doing other things we still always made time for An Horse practice, even though we didn’t even have gigs,” said Cooper, who borrowed the band name from a grammatically-deficient sweatshirt she was once given.

By December, they were on a roll. On a whim, they decided to record a handful of songs with a friend in Brisbane and completed a five-song EP, with no plans to ever officially release it. But Cooper slipped a copy of the unfinished demos to Tegan and Sara Quin of indie duo Tegan & Sara, who coincidentally were playing a show in Brisbane the night they finished recording. Cooper had kept in touch with the Canadian twins after meeting them months prior when they gave an in-store performance at Skinny’s.

After hearing the EP, the Quins asked Cooper and Cox to be the opening act on their upcoming tour of the United States. To say the offer took them by surprise would be an understatement. An Horse had only played one show — an in-store performance at Skinny’s a week after they finished the EP to mark the store’s closing, with Cooper’s and Cox’s other bands rounding out the lineup. But they accepted anyway.

“We were at a point where … we still only had like seven songs or something, so we had to write some more so we’d have a full set to play,” Cox recalled.

During the “Out of Hibernation” tour in the spring of 2008, Cox and Cooper found themselves playing mid-size venues across the United States with Tegan & Sara. It paved the way for them to spend much of the second half of the year touring on their own in the U.S. and Australia, including an appearance at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York during which, Cooper said, she was “literally dying” with a bad case of the flu.

Tegan and Sara Quin continue to be An Horse’s biggest cheerleaders. Sara in particular offered feedback during the recording of “Rearrange Beds” last summer and was instrumental in the band signing with Mom & Pop, a fledgling indie label based in New York. She also devoted several weeks to doing A&R work for An Horse at the end of last year.

Despite the help they’ve gotten on the business end of things, though, Cooper and Cox say they’re not looking to expand their core lineup any time soon.

“I don’t think Damon and I ever really made a conscious decision we would start a two-piece,” Cooper said. “It was like, oh, let’s play music together, and we did. And it just fit really well and worked. … We thought it sounded great just the two of us and we didn’t need anyone else.”

The 10-song, 35-minute record moves along at a clip, with songs ranging from the punky, three-chord “Postcards” to the haunting, acoustic echo of “Listen.” Somewhere in between falls “Little Lungs,” a two-note treasure that builds from a sleepy near-whisper to a crashing slew of cymbals, distorted guitars and strained vocals over the course of nearly six minutes.

Cooper, who says she comes from a literary family and briefly pursued journalism at university before quitting to work in a record store, uses clever turns of phrase to expose her inner music junkie (”Like that good Hole album, I can Live Through This”) or breathe new life into tired clichés (”I’ve had a little too much to think”).

Though Cooper provides the basic backbone for most of the songs, she relies on Cox to doctor them up.

“Damon has a much better ear than me,” she said matter-of-factly in a recent interview. “I’m actually kind of tone deaf, so I bring stuff to him and he makes it sound better.”

Perhaps the best part of An Horse being a two-piece is that the minimal instrumentation allows listeners to pay more attention to each member’s individual contribution and realize how much they complement each other.

The urgent, galloping drumbeat courtesy of Damon that propels “Scared as Fuck” (nee “Warm Hands,” on the EP) allows the duo to live up to its name, while his handiwork during the second chorus of “Company” heightens the tense urgency of Cooper’s pleas to an erstwhile lover: “I’m trying to get you in / I’m trying to get you over, and / I’m trying to be brave.”

Cooper, meanwhile, has an appealing way of stretching out her words, which, combined with her nasally delivery, betrays a sense of vulnerability and heartbreak. It’s as if she’s wailing lines like “I can see so well / And you’re nowhere to be seen.”

Most of the songs find Cooper pining over (presumably) a failed relationship. She said she wrote the songs during “a really bad year.”

“It’s pretty much a 12-month period that was just really terrible,” she said, without elaborating. “I spent way too much time laying in my bedroom feeling sorry for myself writing records and writing songs.”

As a whole, “Rearrange Beds” can be interpreted as an ode to lost love – or possibly to one that hasn’t been discovered. It kicks off with Cooper singing, “This is a song for the one that I love / I haven’t met them yet, but I’m quietly confident.”

If her band’s musical abilities are any indication, that confidence isn’t misplaced.

Best Picture:

Will Win: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Should Win: “Frost/Nixon”
Common consensus is that Sunday night will belong to the Little Movie That Could from India, but for my nerdy journalistic sensibilities, the best movie of the year was Ron Howard’s engaging adaptation of “Frost/Nixon.”

Best Director:

Will Win: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Should Win: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
The British director’s crafting of this Indian fairytale into the feel-good movie of the year makes him the favorite, and deservedly so.

Best Actor:

Will Win: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
Should Win: Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
The Academy loves a comeback, and Mickey Rourke certainly seems to have reinvented himself with his utterly sacrificial turn in “The Wrestler.” Keep an eye on Sean Penn though, who might emerge as a dark horse victor for voters who might use their ballot to make a political statement in light of Proposition 8’s passing in November.

Best Actress:

Will Win: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
Should Win: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
Backlash against “The Reader” and, in turn, Winslet’s performance has been building ever since it surged ahead of (presumably) “The Dark Knight” and “Wall-E” to nab a Best Picture nomination. Behind “Frost/Nixon,” it was my second favorite movie of the year. Between this and her un-nominated performance in “Revolutionary Road,” Winslet cemented herself as the best actress working today.

Best Supporting Actor:

Will Win: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Should Win: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Even setting aside the tragedy of his untimely death as a factor in this race, Ledger’s performance is undeniably the standout of the bunch. It’s inconceivable that the Academy would give the award to anyone else. Our condolences, Michael Shannon!

Best Supporting Actress:

Will Win: Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Should Win: ????
Penelope Cruz seems to be the favorite here for her turn in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” which I can’t comment on, not having seen the film. But the Academy always reserves it’s WTF vote for one of the supporting categories (see: Alan Arkin, Tilda Swinton), and since Heath Ledger is the closest thing this year to a lock, you can bet this race will end up being a crap shoot. My reasoning is that if voters thought enough of Davis’s 15 minutes of screentime to reward her with a nomination, there’s no reason she can’t take home the prize.

Even those who fall into the awkward I-don’t-know-if-we’ve-been-dating-long-enough-to-make-a-big-deal-out-of-Valentine’s-Day gray area can fall back on any number of “previous engagement” excuses should the need for nonchalance arise.

But for some, it doesn’t matter on which square of the calendar the dreaded V-Day falls. For those of you unlucky ones still nursing a wounded heart, there’s nothing like a depressing love song to remind you that we’ve all been there.

As our Valentine’s gift to you, we at Blast have selected — in a completely subjective and non-scientific process — a smattering of songs to play alongside that montage of the bliss-heartbreak trajectory that you can’t get out of your head. And we’ve handily broken them down into categories based on the five stages of grief (some are more popular than others)! So, whether you’re pining over the one that got away or cringing over the one that never should have gotten to you in the first place, crank up your iPod and sing it out. Lord knows you’ve got nothing better to do this Saturday!

Denial: The shell-shocked stage of still believing your ex will come waltzing back through the door, begging for your forgiveness on his or her knees. Other symptoms may include keeping framed pictures, clothes, toothbrushes, etc.

“Maybe Someday,” The Cure
“Strange and Beautiful,” Aqualung
“Always,” Blink-182
“You Really Got A Hold On Me,” Smokey Robinson (or Cyndi Lauper’s significantly more melancholy version if you’re looking for the fast track to Depression)
“Against All Odds,” Phil Collins
“Unchained Melody,” The Righteous Brothers
“Cannonball,” Damien Rice
“Still Loving You,” The Scorpions
“Say It Isn’t So,” The Outfield
“With Or Without You,” U2
“Another Perfect Day,” American Hi-Fi

Anger: Hey, you know what all those pictures and clothes are great for? A bonfire! At this point, it doesn’t even matter if that (insert vulgar insult here) comes back, you wouldn’t give them the time of day.

“Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart,” Janis Joplin
“My Happy Ending,” Avril Lavigne
“Long Way to Happy,” Pink
“Before He Cheats,” Carrie Underwood

Bargaining: But maybe if they radically changed their political views and quit talking to their ex you would.

“Sell My Old Clothes, I’m Off To Heaven,” Saves the Day (Ed. Note: Blast does not encourage its readers to gouge their eyes out in order to win back a lover’s affection. If there’s anything that’s worse than being single, it’s being blind, permanently disfigured AND single.)
“Cry,” Faith Hill
“Again,” Janet Jackson
“The Scientist,” Coldplay
“I’m Alright,” Stereophonics
“Sleep Better,” Pete Yorn

Depression: Oh God it hurts. People go through breakups all the time, but no one has ever experienced the searing emotional pain that you are feeling right now. No. One. (Except all the people listed below)

“Nothing Compares 2 U,” Sinead O’Conner (Hey, healing through music sometimes comes at the expense of dignity.)
“Hide and Seek,” Imogen Heap
“I Can’t Be With You,” The Cranberries
“Somebody,” Depeche Mode
“One Year Six Months,” Yellowcard
“Picture,” Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
“Breathe,” Melissa Etheridge
“Sleep,” Azure Ray
“Only Yesterday,” Taken By Trees
“Back to Black,” Amy Winehouse (If you’re stuck in a rut, just think – at least you’re not Amy Winehouse.)
“For No One,” The Beatles
“Dying,” Hole
“Country Feedback,” R.E.M.
“Over and Over Again,” Nelly feat. Tim McGraw
“You Were Meant for Me,” Jewel
“You Were Mine,” Dixie Chicks
“Title and Registration,” Death Cab for Cutie (Let’s face it, 90 percent of the songs in their catalog could fit into one or more of these categories. Take your pick.)
“Everything Reminds Me Of Her,” Elliott Smith

Acceptance:  Basically these are all female empowerment anthems. Maybe guys never get to this stage?

“I Will Survive,” Gloria Gaynor (or Cake’s rendition if there’s still a little lingering anger)
“Survivor,” Destiny’s Child
“Since U Been Gone,” Kelly Clarkson
“Landslide,” Fleetwood Mac
“Call It Off,” Tegan & Sara
“Not Big,” Lily Allen
“Glycerine,” Bush
“No More I Love Yous,” Annie Lennox
“The First Cut is The Deepest,” Sheryl Crow

Now it’s your turn, Blast readers! Which songs do you choose to be the soundtrack for your wallowing? Sound off below!

On their third album, The Camel’s Back, the London duo known as Psapp (Carim Clasmann and Galia Durant) continues its foray into the inventive genre of homemade electronica.

Best known for the xylophone-laden Grey’s Anatomy theme song “Cosy in the Rocket” (back when the show, you know, actually had an opening sequence), the pair often uses toys and other household objects in place of instruments.

Several songs on “The Camel’s Back,” out February 17, lend themselves to a game of “Name That Sound Effect,” with bubbles, broken springs and what sounds like a jack-in-the-box sprinkled throughout. “Cosy in the Rocket”’s counterpart on Psapp’s latest record is “The Monster Song,” a bouncy mishmash of keyboards, percussion and woodwinds. Durant’s airy vocals and the group’s experimental electronic sound call to mind the now-defunct fellow British duo Frou Frou.

But the foundation for all this instrumental weirdness is pop rhythms that are more accessible than one might think. Even the ambient instrumental “Marshrat” manages to remain cohesive through dense layers of sounds that call to mind a toy-making workshop — or at least the background music in one.

Still, some of the album’s best moments come when Clasmann and Durant show some restraint, as evidenced by the “less is more” approach adopted for the straightforward, melancholy, soundtrack-ready piano ballad “Screws” and the subtle orchestration of “Fickle Ghost.”

Durant’s unemotional delivery often borders on indifference, with the exception of the vocal chops she exhibits on the jazzy leadoff track “I Want That.” But more often than not, that listlessness works with the dreamy soundscape that is The Camel’s Back.

1. An Horse – “Not Really Scared” EP

I guess I’m cheating a bit here by allowing a five-song EP to qualify as an album, but these 18 minutes courtesy of a fledgling Australian duo was the best thing I heard in ‘08 by far, and I’ve been obsessed with it since I first heard it back in May. I’ve already reserved a slot on my 2009 Top Ten for their full-length debut, which will be released in the U.S. in March.

Download: “Warm Hands”

2. Frightened Rabbit – “The Midnight Organ Fight”

A solid, no frills rock record from this Scottish band offered a welcome reprieve from the navel-gazing noise rock that seems to have usurped the indie landscape.

Download: “Fast Blood”

3. Ra Ra Riot – “The Rhumb Line”

This record took a while to grow on me, but I find that that’s often the case with my favorite albums. For all those Arcade Fire fans anxiously waiting out the band’s hiatus, here’s something to tide you over.

Download: “Ghost Under Rocks”

4. Uh Huh Her – “Common Reaction”

Harmonized airy vocals, catchy rhythms and loads upon loads of synthesizers kept this album in heavy rotation on my iPod all year long.

Download: “Covered”

5. The Ting Tings – “We Started Nothing”

You may be wondering what set this duo’s album apart from other 2008 releases in the indie-dance-rock genre, and to be honest, I can’t really put my finger on it. I just know that it’s impossible to sit still for the vast majority of this album, and that’s good enough for me.

Download: “Shut Up and Let Me Go”

6. Ladytron – “Velocifero”

Exploring a darker, more industrial sound on their latest effort really paid off for this Liverpool foursome.

Download: “Tomorrow”

7. Gaslight Anthem – “The ‘59 Sound”

Like Bruce Springsteen on speed, this punk band channels The Boss’s blue collar groaning and takes it up a notch.

Download: “Great Expectations”

8. Coldplay – “Viva La Vida (Or Death and All His Friends)”

I realize I’m putting a major chink in my credibility by including this in my top 10, but the juggernaut that is Coldplay can always be relied upon to follow the formula of what makes an anthemic rock song. And, say what you will about Chris Martin, the man knows how to write a ballad that cuts to the core.

Download: “Viva La Vida”

9. Horse Feathers – “House With No Home”

Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago” made a lot of top 10 lists this year, but the underappreciated Horse Feathers elevates his acoustic, folksy shtick to the next level.

Download: “This Is What”

10. Kanye West – “808s & Heartbreak”

West continues to redefine his persona and hip-hop in general by showing his softer side. Armed with beats and a vocoder, West channels his grief after his mother’s death and a split with his fiancee into some of his strongest material to date.

Download: “RoboCop”

Runners-up: The Raveonettes, “Lust Lust Lust”; The Airborne Toxic Event, “The Airborne Toxic Event”; Amanda Palmer, “Who Killed Amanda Palmer?”; Girl Talk, “Feed the Animals”

Best Songs of 2008

1. MGMT – “Kids”

2. Chairlift – “Bruises”

3. Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake – “Four Minutes”

4. Rihanna – “Disturbia”

5. Katy Perry – “I Kissed a Girl”

6. Santogold – “L.E.S. Artistes”

7. T.I. feat. Rihanna – “Live Your Life”

8. Dragonette – “I Get Around”

9. Death Cab for Cutie – “Grapevine Fires”*

10. The Stills – “Being Here”

(*Technically not a single, but the standout track on what was otherwise a bland and disappointing major label debut from Ben Gibbard and company.)

“I would like people to listen to the stories,” she says. “I hope people connect with it in some way.”

“Harder Hit”

Our drummer Christopher was going through a rough patch in his life, precipitated by some pretty awful circumstances. A couple close friends died, his apartment burned down (he was carried out in the middle of the night by a fireman), he lost his job…. After that, it was like he expected and almost invited bad things to happen him. The only way I could think of getting through to him was writing this song about creating a path through all the obstacles. It’s like trying to get through a really dense forest. You have to break some branches to do it.

“Who Can Even Remember?”

Years ago, I lived in this amazing little town in Germany called Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It was like a fairy tale with the mountains and the emerald lake and the cows being herded through the town before sunset. Everything about that time was like a dream. Then I moved back to California, and reality set in. This song is basically about being young and naïve and trusting people too much. As time passes, you gain perspective, and many of the crappy events from your past don’t matter anymore. And hopefully you are a little wiser and don’t make the same mistakes you once did.

“Sit Sideways”

My friend Noel’s dad died a while ago, and it broke my heart because I could see that he was really in pain about it, but I couldn’t do anything to help him. Shortly after, about 30 of us went on a houseboat trip to Shasta Lake, and I wrote this about us distracting Noel and his wife. I’m not suggesting that drugs and alcohol are a solution to any of life’s problems, but in times of intense grief, it’s good to have a little reprieve, and getting drunk with a bunch of your friends on a houseboat can temporarily relieve the pain.

“Big Key, Little Door”

I’ve had a few too many moments where lack of confidence got the best of me, and I’ve had to give myself a lot of pep talks. This is one reason I loved Alice in Wonderland. In this song, I picture myself as Alice when she’s in the long hall trying to figure out which door to take. Every decision she makes is wrong. She shrinks and can’t reach the key on the table; then she grows and can’t fit through the tiny door. Finally, she starts crying, shrinks again and is swept under the door by her own tears and washes up on a beach where she meets a bunch of talking animals arguing about something. It’s all about fearlessly taking a leap into the unknown.

“Comedown’s Worse”

Some people I know, including myself, have short fuses. Driving is one of those things that can make people go crazy and do stupid things. But in general, when people set you off, it doesn’t pay to engage or light the fuse. Most of us will regret letting the volcano blow. We all need to chill out a little, step back and understand that-albeit in a somewhat cheesy way-Bobby McFerrin (”Don’t worry, be happy”) and Richard Carlson (”Don’t sweat the small stuff [and it's all small stuff]“) were right.

“These Kinds of Friends”

When I was about three years old, my mom had a really serious brain disease called Encephalitis, which kept her in the hospital for a long time. My dad was either working or at the hospital, and I was an only child, so I remember being alone a lot. I had a nanny, but she didn’t like me too much, so I would spend my time walking around my neighborhood in South Minneapolis talking to the birds and the squirrels. Even as an adult, I sometimes still prefer those kinds of friends to people, and I love people, but you know…sometimes you need a break. Sometimes your cat is a better friend to you than anyone else.

“Go Hibernate”

A lot of people assume all our songs are about romantic relationships, which is pretty far from the truth. But here’s the relationship song: My husband (and Loquat bass player) Anthony and I both have fire-y personalities, and there are times when he makes me want to light the house on fire and run screaming. The ironic part of this song was that, on New Year’s Day, we were watching March of the Penguins, and Anthony was so moved by it, he decided that day that he would ask me to marry him. And I decided that day to write song about how insane he makes me. But the conflict resolves in the end of the song, with me coming to my senses and calming down.

“Clearly Now…”

Every once in a while, someone will say something or write something about you (especially with the Internet being a forum to air out people’s dirty laundry publicly) that will make you feel like you’ve been stabbed. This is about growing a thicker skin. Maybe if the shy kids in junior high and high school listen to this, it’ll help them to toughen up a little. I pretty much hated 7^th grade to 10^th grade because I was so sensitive, and the other kids were so shitty.

“In My Sleep”

A few years ago, I got a message from my friend Keith. I immediately thought, “I can’t believe it’s been four months, and I haven’t talked to him.” Then I found out that it wasn’t my former bandmate Keith Krate who called me but another friend…to tell me that Keith had died of an overdose. It really broke my heart. I felt guilty for letting too much time pass and not being a part of his life when I should’ve. And I just felt sad that one of the funniest, most talented people I knew was gone. For the next two weeks, I kept seeing something in my kitchen, peripherally. I started to freak out because it felt like he was there. And I started having nightmares about ghosts. This was my way of making peace with him.

“Shaky Like the Flu”

The last two songs are inspired by the movie Big Fish. In this one, I’m speaking to the son of the apparently delusional father who kept embellishing his stories to make his life seem more interesting. When the father dies, the son realizes that not only was there a lot more truth to his dad’s stories than he thought, but his embellishments were part of the reason people loved him. In the bridge, I bring my own life into the mix, talking about how my great-grandfather and grandfather had just passed away, and they were “off the pier and rowing,” on to the next phase (an afterlife, if you will). It’s tough when you realize a whole generation of your family is almost gone.

“Spiral Stairs or Escalators”

This is part two of my ode to Big Fish. I used to hate it when my dad told me to “lighten up” (mainly because he sounded angry when he said it). But being lighthearted is a good thing. Also, it’s hard to figure out your path in life early on. When I was a kid, I always thought I’d have my own house with a backyard, but here I am living in one of the most expensive cities in the world (San Francisco), and I can still only afford to rent. No matter how much you plan, life doesn’t ever turn out exactly how you thought it would. But you gotta run with it and just try to be happy.

The sophomore effort from Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes, released earlier this year, was partially recorded in Berlin and has a distinctly Euro feel, with a dark, Depeche Mode-inspired sound. It’s chock-full of dancefloor anthems like lead single “My People” and the even catchier “This Boy’s In Love,” but also offers a sampling of mood music with the trance-y instrumental “Aeons.”

The duo met at the Sydney Conservatory in the mid-‘90s and formed a band called Prop, a multi-person outfit which tended toward “instrumental, soundcheck-y” material, according to Moyes. Eventually, they abandoned the group, adopted a minimalist approach, and formed The Presets as a pair in 2002, with Hamilton handling lyrical duties, Moyes on drums, and both contributing on keyboards and programming.

“The Presets was almost a complete reaction to what we were doing before, in every way,” Moyes explained in a recent interview. “We wanted to make music that was really immediate and fun and dumb.”

After landing a record deal and releasing a series of EPs in 2003 and 2004, their first full-length album, “Beams,” hit shelves in 2005 and the twosome subsequently spent more than two years touring in support of it.

The Presets achieved superstar status in their native Australia while serving as the opening act for Daft Punk’s farewell arena tour in 2007. “Apocalypso,” debuted at #1 in their homeland and went gold in less than a week, propelled by the pulsing “My People.”

Moyes and Hamilton cite as influences the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, and Daft Punk, but say they’re trying to cultivate a unique identity among a new wave of Aussie acts that are combining pop, dance and electronic influences.

“We don’t really consider ourselves as dance music; we consider ourselves pop,” Moyes said. “(But) we’ve always found that we’ve been able to get the crowd dancing. You can’t come to our show and just sort of sit there and watch.”

This fall, the duo brought their sound to America supporting fellow Aussie electropoppers Cut Copy and found, among other things, tamer audiences than they were accustomed to, Moyes said.

“Australians yell,” he explained. “Americans actually talk to you like you’re a human being.”

Although the songs on “Beams” (which Hamilton describes as “one big hedonistic party”) tended to deal with more frivolous subject matters, Hamilton believes his maturation as a lyricist is evident on “Apocalypso.”

“I’d be bored writing songs about partying and girls,” he said.

While the songs on “Apocalypso” aren’t overtly political, fans stateside might feel drawn to The Presets for reasons other than the music’s danceability, according to Hamilton.

Australia was in the midst of a political transition when many of the tracks on “Apocalypso” were written, he noted, with the left-leaning Labor Party winning the 2007 election and seizing power from the more conservative incumbent leadership.

“I feel like America is in a sort of similar situation,” he said. “There’s always some idiot government somewhere in the world.”