Author: Mike Katzif

Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks: Enigmatic And Elastic As Ever

Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks' album, Wig Out At Jagbags, is out now.
Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks’ album, Wig Out At Jagbags, is out now.

It’s crazy to think that Stephen Malkmus has been fronting his band the Jicks for as long as he was ever in the band he’s best known for: the influential ’90s indie rock pioneers, Pavement. But here we are, six albums into a solo career, and Malkmus and his shape-shifting group remains as relevant and experimental as ever. On their latest, Wig Out At Jagbags, Malkmus and the Jicks churn out another catchy and off-kilter batch of songs crammed with knotty guitar lines, slack, half-sung melodies, and evocative, if elusive lyrics.

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Sharon Van Etten: From Bedroom Balladeer To Fearless Frontwoman On ‘Are We There’

Sharon Van Etten's new album, Are We There, is out now. (Dusdin Condren/Courtesy of the artist)
Sharon Van Etten’s new album, Are We There, is out now. (Dusdin Condren/Courtesy of the artist)

The transformation of Sharon Van Etten has been a joyful thing to witness. When the singer-songwriter first surfaced with her 2009 album, Because I Was In Love, her spare, sorrowful songs exposed a desire to escape from a confining relationship and her own deep-seated vulnerabilities and insecurities. With each record since, Van Etten has built herself up, one harmony, one guitar melody, one gut-wrenching line at a time.

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Jessica Lea Mayfield: Unleashing Gnarled Distortion And Visceral Fury

Jessica Lea Mayfield's album, Make My Head Sing..., is out now. (LeAnn Mueller/Courtesy of the artist)
Jessica Lea Mayfield’s album, Make My Head Sing…, is out now. (LeAnn Mueller/Courtesy of the artist)

Push play on the smoldering opening track “Oblivious,” and that very first gnarled squelch of feedback says it all: this is not the same Jessica Lea Mayfield. For years, the Ohio singer-songwriter trucked in the alt-country circles, crafting intriguing and melancholy songs about complex (i.e. bad) relationships and heartsick regret with an unadorned beauty. Now, Mayfield is still singing about love, restless yearning and jealousy on her latest album, Make My Head Sing…, but with a little less twang and a newfound visceral, blood on the lips fury.

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Admiring The Art Of Broken Bells, Part Two

A couple years ago, I wrote a post about the work of Jacob Escobedo, the visual artist behind so many great album covers and posters. He’s worked with Vampire Weekend, Active Child, and The Shins, but mostly I know him for the various music projects of Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton: Dark Night Of The Soul, Gnarls Barkley, Rome and, of course, Burton’s project with James Mercer, Broken Bells.

Well, this year, Broken Bells are back with a new album, After The Disco, full of a diverse array of influences, from pop and psychedelic rock, to soul and spaghetti Westerns, to disco and funk; all smooshed together to sound like, well, most of what Danger Mouse ever touches.

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Conor Oberst, ‘Upside Down Mountain’

It’s wild to think that Bright Eyes’ last, and eighth album, 2011’s masterful The People’s Key, was released when frontman Conor Oberst was then just 31. While still considerably younger than many of his peers that blossomed at the same time in the mid-2000s, the prodigiously talented songwriter has been cranking out confessional songs riddled with internal angst and self-doubt since his teens. But with The People’s Key, Oberst finally embraced an extroverted rockstar persona (well, for him, anyway), and an outward-looking viewpoint, pondering big metaphysical ideas about compassion in a complicated world, and humanity’s place in the wider universe. A sonically captivating, emotionally moving record, it felt like a culmination, and honestly, a celebratory farewell.

Luckily it was not a true goodbye: Here we are, three years later, and Conor Oberst is back, albeit sans the Bright Eyes moniker, with his latest, Upside Down Mountain.

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Gabriel Kahane: A Timeless Vision Of Los Angeles

Gabriel Kahane's album, The Ambassador, is out now.
Gabriel Kahane’s album, The Ambassador, is out now.

Countless musicians have concocted concept albums built around all sorts of subjects, places and artistic influences. But far fewer concept albums can double as tour guide. Enter Gabriel Kahane, the prolific songwriter and composer whose latest work, The Ambassador, draws inspiration from the architecture and culture of Los Angeles. While Kahane was raised on the East Coast and in Northern California, he was born in L.A., and as such, delivers a detailed sense of place in ten songs — each one representing a different location in the city.

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Sylvan Esso: A Fruitful And Shimmering Collaboration

Sylvan Essos debut self-titled album is out now.
Sylvan Esso's debut self-titled album is out now.

The best collaborations bring a push and pull that forces each member out of their comfort zones, and charts new territory they may not have ventured by themselves. Case in point: Sylvan Esso, the new project from singer Amelia Meath, of the mostly a cappella Vermont folk trio Mountain Man, and Nick Sanborn, of the North Carolina rock band Megafaun. Unlike those more guitar-based, acoustic-leaning groups, Sylvan Esso takes a stylistic leap, veering a hard left toward minimal electronic music and taut synth pop. And with their superb self-titled record, Meath and Sanborn perfectly encapsulate that creative spirit of collaboration, equally showcasing their individual talents, and creating a synthesis of their group’s respective sounds in a new way.

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Judging By The Cover: Nothing Plays Low

Nothing plays at Glasslands in Brooklyn, NY on April 4, 2014. (© Michael Katzif – Do not use or republish without prior consent.)
Nothing plays at Glasslands in Brooklyn, NY on April 4, 2014. (© Michael Katzif – Do not use or republish without prior consent.)

I don’t think anyone would confuse me for being a true metal or hardcore guy. Though, I do dabble: So much of the music I listen to and see live in concert borders into those worlds, and every day I find a new band that takes me further into this realm of music. I’m attracted to the in-your-face assault of droning feedback and screaming guitar distortion. Maybe it’s the immediacy of a band filling a room with noisy bliss, and seeing them thrash around on stage (and sometimes in the crowd) with furious, fist-pumping anthems. Or maybe there’s been a boom lately of new young bands doing this stuff in a new way. Who knows. Column A. Meet Column B.

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Wye Oak, ‘Shriek’: A Bold Reinvention, Sans Guitar

Wye Oak's new album, 'Shriek,' is out on Merge. (Shervin Lainez/Courtesy of the artist)
Wye Oak’s new album, ‘Shriek,’ is out on Merge. (Shervin Lainez/Courtesy of the artist)

Let’s get this out of the way: There’s no guitar on this album. When Wye Oak revealed this tidbit last fall, many of us surely wondered what the Baltimore duo might even sound like without one of its most important elements. After all, the delight in Wye Oak’s music has always come from the interplay between Jenn Wasner’s blustery voice, her glorious cyclone of guitar riffs and screaming feedback, and skillful multi-tasker Andy Stack, who plays drums and keyboards — and on stage, simultaneously. But after the success of 2011’s Civilian, and countless tours performing within that “indie rock” format, it’s understandable that they’d feel restless and creatively blocked, and need to blow it up to start anew.

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Timber Timbre And Fiver: Two Takes On An Unsettling And Alluring Tale

Timber Timbre's latest album, 'Hot Dreams,' is out now. (Jeff Bierk/Courtesy of the artist)
Timber Timbre’s latest album, ‘Hot Dreams,’ is out now. (Jeff Bierk/Courtesy of the artist)

In my head I have this movie that blends spaghetti Western with noir horror and gritty urban antiheroes — full of stark widescreen landscapes, neon-lit clubs, and unseen creepies lurking in the shadows. That film would be set to the languid cinematic songs of Timber Timbre — a band that embodies both the unsettling and the alluring on its third album, Hot Dreams.

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