New(ish) Noise :: 09.14.07

Allow me to indulge myself (and, hopefully, you, dear reader) by letting me tell you what's been rocking my world — in the parlance of our times — lately.

Firstly, we have the brilliant Scot-rock quartet The Twilight Sad. Very reminiscent of the early material of Scot-rockers Idlewild (particularly the fantastic 100 Broken Windows record), Fourteen Autmns, Fifteen Winters also owes a great deal to the swirling, effects-laden shoegaze of Ride and Slowdive, the epic loud-quiet dynamic of post-rockers Explosions in the Sky and the swank, suave indie-garage aesthetic of The Walkmen. Tug's jam is "Cold Days from the Birdhouse," but my money's on "And She Would Darken the Memory of Youth," where singer James Graham's Scottish brogue is in full display, veering from a gentle croon to full-on Hamilton Leithause screeching. And goddamn if Andy MacFarlane can't make enough racket by himself to account for twenty fucking axeslayers.

The Twilight Sad — "And She Would Darken the Memory of Youth"

Then we have Plastic Little. A friend of mine introduced me to the hilarious Baltimore rap group a few weeks ago, and I've been rocking that shit ever since. Now, don't get the wrong impression — Plastic Little is funny in the way that Spank Rock is funny or that De La Soul's Three Feet High and Rising is funny. Equally adept at spitting trash-mouth rhymes, utterly un-P.C. obnoxiousness and acute social and hip-hop commentary — often in the same song — Plastic Little is bringing the fun back into hip-hop that all those no-talent hack emcees (yes, I'm talking to you, 50 Cent, Master P, etc.) took out.

Plastic Little — "The Jump Off"
Bonus: YouTube videos? Them's the Jump Off!

Being a complete and utter guitar-gear nerd, I frequent several gearhead-oriented web sites. Occasionally, I'll check out the music of forum members, usually based on how cool I think his/her rig is. And that's how I stumbled across L.A. indie rock quintet Divisadero. (What can I say: Dudeman plays a Jazzmaster through a Deluxe Reverb. Mmm ... tone.) On its MySpace page, Divisadero says it sounds like "Driving through the desert at 4 a.m.," which is a super-astute observation — Divisadero's worn desert-indie-folk sounds like Neil Young (circa Everybody Knows This is Nowhere) filtered Spiritualized, Stereolab and Yo La Tengo. The result: Absolutely perfect gems such as "Black and Blue" and epic, stunning "I Dreamt of the Apocalypse." Gentlemen (and lady), I beseech thee: Come to the Palmetto State.

http://www.myspace.com/soundsofdivisadero