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DEX ROMWEBER
DUO
Is That You in the Blue?
Bloodshot
Thank God for Is That You in the
Blue?, the new sucker punch of a
record from the Dex Romweber Duo,
After the 2009 release. Ruins of Berlin.
it seemed like Romweber had lost
some of the passion that previously
drove comparisons between his music
and a snake handlers revival His vocal
trick of rumbling like a crazed preacher
was largely replaced by a suspiciously
smooth baritone, and the confident,
raw quality of his guitar work just
wasn't there
But the new record proves he's
still casting out demons, and he and
drummer/sis Sara work as a cohesive
unit His rumbling and rich torching
now meld seamlessly on songs like
Midnight Sun" and Nowhere evok
ing a dark, ghostly, blues-drenched
limbo that's both emotionally arresting
and disturbing The instrumentals,
while less charged, are equally impres
sive The surf rocker “Gurdjielf Girl '
doesn't need vocals to paint a vivid
picture It might just be the best back-
alley spy theme ever written
Romweber really is a master of the
journey Listening to these songs is like
wandering down a lonely road, some
times sad with occasional diversions,
but never boring There's always a new
plane to be explored in his world. He's
like the Rod Serling of American music
Is Thai You in the Blue I * * * * * 7 is another
dimension, indeed
Jennifer Gibson
Dex Romweber Duo play at the
Caledonia Lounge on July 29
I COME TO
SHANGHAI
Eternal Life Vol. 1
Independent Release
I Come to Shanghai came to
Athens in 2010 as a fully formed band,
splitting Oakland for a cheaper and
sleepier town in which to make music.
The: r first release as Georgians. Eternal
Life Vol. /. is a brief but varied mini-
album that, in the style of the day, can
be downloaded for any price from the
band’s website (www icometoshanghai.
com). Six songs merge into three
tracks, resembling the collage work
of Faust or the Olivia Tremor Control
if the more abstract and musique
concrete elements were replaced with
bass beats and vocals that somehow
resemble both TV on the Radio and
They Might Be Giants at their most
nasally It sounds like post-Barrett
Floyd for the Internet generation, with
artfully arranged, serious pop songs
that blend into a single seamless expe
rience. The band flirts sporadically with
electronic minimalism, chopped and
screwed beats, heavy bass drops and
jaunty acoustic guitar, weaving these in
among the Eno-esque synthesizers and
keyboards that make up the heart ol the
record I Come to Shanghai delivers
its impressively outsized ambition and
pro chops about as unassumingly as
possible
Ryan Martin
BOMBS
BOMBSBOMBS
Postcards lor Madeline
Independent Release
BombsBombsBombs' debut
LP features 12 cuts of Garden State
variety indie-pop Ben Gibbard is a
prominent influence, and vocal melo
dies sometimes recall the interplay
between the male and female co-leads
in The New Pornographers The songs
on Postcards are not without their
hooks and charms The lyrics concern
romance and romanticized everyday life
presented with wit and delivered with
a rushed syncopation that energizes
the verses
Postcards nearly reaches the effer
vescent/melancholic beauty of mid-
aughts indie It often seems throughout
their album that BBBs have overlooked
the importance of countermelodies in
the best songs of their predecessors.
Frequently, the piano, guitar and bass
are laying out big fat chords one after
the other and relying on the vocals
and the occasional drum flourish to
add distinction to the song This isn't
always a bad approach, but a little more
variety in Ihe arrangements could result
in a sound with much more impact
Brian Veysey
MADELINE
Black Velvet
This Will Be Our Summer
With 2009s White Flag, Madeline
Adams took a big step forward with her
sound, moving from a spare, bedroomy
DIY sound into something fuller. But
with the new Black Velvet, she and her
band have been touring together for
years, settling into one another with
comfort and confidence.
Black Velvet balances the full-
band thing with plainer arrangements
of just-vocals-and-guitar. at which
Madelines an old pro; smartly, though,
this juxtaposition makes simpler tunes
like "Traveling" stand out more when
nestled between the jaunty. Willie
Nelson-leaning lilt of ' Please Don't Put
Me Down" and the dissonant, searing
electric guitar of "Red Light Bulb."
Perhaps the album's strongest
point, as is always the case with
Madeline's releases, is her iridescent
voice, which she pushes into differ
ent styles and shapes throughout the
record, much in the same way great
singers like PJ Harvey find the right
voice for the right words and music.
And its not just sonically that Madeliiw
continues to push forward; her lyricism
retains its usual clever essence, but
explores areas more abstract as well
as personal, working through relation
ships both crumbled and healthy Black
Velvet is a hell of an album from a hell
of a singer and songwriter, and one of
the best new albums—local or other
wise—to come along in a long time.
Chris Hassiotis
Madeline plays Ihe Georgia Theatre
on Monday, Aug 1.
BIG BAZ
The Blind Side
Dynamik Productions
If anything, Big Baz's latest
mixtape, The Blind Side, is true to
form. With a style and Southern drawl
smacking of Bun B and Rick Ross.
Baz sticks to the tried-and-true topics
of authentic Southern rap—mainly
money, cars and women—over
samples provided by DJ Mr Big
Yet these elements alone do not a
rap star make What's missing from The
Blind Side is substance, a claim that
rway sound slightly ridiculous given the
typical superficiality of lyrics in similar
"trap music." Yet listen to TI. Gucci
Mane, hell, even Waka Flocka, and
you'll notice that even in their mixtapes
there are underlying narratives there,
back stories that give their most absurd
verses of self-adulation some cred
ibility (or. at the very least, make a case
for empathy).
To be lair, developing this narrative
is a process that lakes time, and there
are glimmers of potential greatness
in The Blind Side. For instance, "Basi
Got" is a relatively graphic song about
an encounter with a girl that’s, uh.
sexual in nature, yet Baz is genuinely
having fun with the verses, and it
shows Those moments of sincerity
are so much more appealing than
just rehashing tired old Deep-South-
gangsta cliches, which unfortunately
Baz is wont to do. In “The Cypher,’
Baz even has the audacity to have an
implied crowd cheer like the end of his
"freestyle" verse wasn’t a recycled Lil
Wayne line. Really?
Baz's story is still being written.
and while it could eventually culminate
in hip-hop fame, it won't happen with
this mixtape But he's on Ihe right track
he's got the style down pat, but more
importantly the attitude is there, and
when it comes to establishing yourself
in this genre, that's half the battle
John Granofsky
Most fundamentally, he's gifted with
the kind of clarion and evocative vcce
that's built to reach out across great
distances to grip you.
The album's stature is best ren
dered in the simmering stomp of "The
Fear." the snappy forward motion of
"All the Time." the orchestral twangs of
“Two Lovers" and the high, rural drama
of "Ghost of Old Highways." But the
greatest testament to Lovett's songwrit
ing is that one of Ihe album’s least
adorned songs, “Like a Moving Train,"
is its most moving.
All Ihe years it took Highway
Collection to be born were worth it.
It's a remarkably finished work that
has both immediate, broad appeal and
the substance to last longer than just
a flare.
Bao Le-Huu
WOODFANGS
WoodfangsEP
Independent Release
Like a child learning to speak (or
Damo Suzuki), frontman John Harry
jumps from a delicate, hushed volume
to a phlegm-rattling scream, chops
words into their distinct syllables ("ev-
rey-thang"), yelps and makes tongue
trills and other noises He opens the
album with a psychedelic, Wayne
Coyne-like invitation: “Let's get back
to the days of synergy, I want to feel
your kinetic energy" As a whole, the
2011 Flagpole Athens Music Awards
“Upstart of the Year" seems limber,
curious and energetic, and the group
does know how to move.
Produced by Futurebirds Thomas
Johnson, the EP features many touch
stones—a surf-rock slide down the
guitar, the “oomch-ah" of The Zombies
“Time of the Season" and backwoods
harmonies—that creep in and out of
the mix under a cloak of reverb to cre
ate a big. textured production Most of
the tracks share Elliott Anderson's short
viola strokes, Patrick Atwater's punchy
bass notes and Paul Stevens' sparse
percussion, but the recipe changes
with the addition of a piano, organ,
synth or some horns from additional
performers. The only item that does
not belong in this mostly Americana
EP is the boisterous Eastern European
punk of “Get Away," but Woodlangs EP
covers a lot of territory and represents
more than a promising start
Alex Dimitropoulos
.... L.
LOVETT
Highway Collection
Lovers Label
Aptly named, Highway Collection
is a travelogue for the past decade of
Ben Lovett's vagabond life. Though
the songs were written all across the
country, their accent, like his path,
tend to wind back to his Southern
roots. And besides travel, these years -
have been filled with film score and
studio work for the Georgia wanderer.
Together, these streams form a stout
river of gentlemanly and literate
Southern rock that's sumptuously
appointed with detailed construction
and sweeping vistas. And though it
swims in instrumental richness, the
modern pop concision of Lovett's
melodies keeps his sound agile in step.
PRETTY BIRD
rules
Birdhouse Collection
On its debut, Pretty Bird culls an
enthralling sense of urgency from a
bare-bones approach. Vocals layered
over drums build songs that alternate
from campfire-quiet to boombox-loud.
With no other instrumentation to soften
their assault, the drums have a cacoph
onous quality. This harshness helps
to form a counterpoint between the
drums and the singers—as if the latter
were straining to be heard over all that
noise—and lends added immediacy to-
the disarmingly sincere lyrics.
The band's quirky approach is
reminiscent of early Animal Collective,
but it is ryily a passing resemblance
Animal Collective's early folk work
meanders; with its propulsive, driv
ing rhythms, rules has more focus.
Preserving an earthy sonic texture
while injecting hip-hop influences, the
band recalls early Beck bootlegs.
Fourth track "beeeeeallllyour-
rrrpotenchall" shows just how big the
band can sound d e its economic
.approach. Freak-folk party jam "soon
the moon" has the same intensity,
and with its defiantly carefree refrain,
“we don't stop 'cause the sun s gonna
drop." encapsulates the tension in
many of the album's lyrics—ebullient,
but with a sense of foreboding, carefree
and anxious at once.
Marshall Yarbrough
CASPER & THE
COOKES
Ice Mattress
Independent Release
Casper & the Cookies have always
been tough to pin down, and that's
been both to the local band’s ben
efit and detriment. Bandleader Jason
NeSmith's interest in sounds from
across disciplines keeps the band's
output varied, surprising and unpre
dictable, but also wildly inconsistent
both internally and from album to
album. So, Ice Mattress, an intriguing
and frustrating (but FREE!) collection of
rarities, B-sides and other sundry tunes
which spans seven or eight years,
perfectly fits the band. The whimsical
band name steers expectations towards
the twee end of the pop spectrum,
but the Cookies have always run the
gamut from straightahead guitar-rock
to extended showtune jams and quirk-
ily boundary-free pop—always with a
powerful sense of melody.
Ice Mattresd strongest tracks are
"Jennifer's House" (with bassist Kay
Stanton on lead vocals) and "Huff."
both initially released on a split 7-inch
with Marbles back in 2008. and neither
sounding as much like a trifle as the
rest of Ice Mattress tunes It's a shame
that only one track off the Cookies'
2004 tour-only CD-R, The Band That
Shouted Love at the Heart ol Ihe World.
shows up because that release showed
exactly how a band could cleverly
experiment with pop without losing
sight of identity or tunefulness.
“This is the first in what I hope to
be a series of just-for-fun albums,"
Nesmith writes on the band's website,
that raid some of the good stuff in the
vault." At least the man knows what
he's putting out—good stuff, but just
for fun this time around.
Chris Hassiotis
DANGER MOUSE
AND DANIELE LUPPI
Rome
Parlophone
In theory, Rome sounds like a
revelatory meeting of the minds: a col
laboration between producer extraor
dinaire Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton,
renowned Italian composer Daniele
Luppi, and superstars Jack White
and Norah Jones, in reverent tribute
to the spaghetti Western soundtracks
of the legendary Ennio Morricone.
In practice, while it's impressive that
Burton and Luppi limited themselves
to vintage recording equipment ot the
era and recruited many musicians from
Morricone's original orchestras for the
recording process, Rome is a meander
ing, largely homogenous album of
forgettable background music White's
three tracks provide the only respite
as his dusty blues vocals offer a sun-
parched, world-weary "Man with No
Name’ quality to the proceedings, but
for each of his turns at the mic there
exists a feminine counterpart courtesy
of the laughably miscast Norah Jones,
who apparently stepped into the
Morricone-founded Forum Studios
under the impression that she would be
recording a '90s trip-hop album.
Talking about the individual songs
is pointless; they're all ponderously
strummed acoustic guitar, tense string
arrangements and ominous choruses
of “oohs" and "aahs." The component
parts are all here, but the final product
is only a pale facsimile of Morricone's
sound. What should have been a
gunfight at the O K. Corral feels like a
Mexican standoff that will never end.
David Fitzgerald
JULY 27, 2011-FLAGPOLE.COM 13
