Rewind the clock to the early 1990s, when the Old 97’s were not old in the least and their charismatic, pinup-worthy frontman — a struggling musician sharing an apartment with Clark Vogeler of the Toadies — had yet to reconcile his dueling adoration for pop music and vintage country songs. As the band rose to prominence, first in their native Dallas and then in alt country circles nationwide, they displayed a twangy vigor that fueled their early efforts. That vitality never quite left, but it became tempered over the years — tempered by the band’s hasty exit from Elektra Records in 2001, by Rhett Miller’s subsequent solo career, by the onset of fatherhood, by the steady encroachment of middle age. Cutting back to 2008, however, the Old 97’s sound youthful and newly energized, having returned to Dallas and relocated that beloved crossroads between twangy country rock and tight, economic power pop.

Read the rest of this entry »

After spending the better part of a decade in the musical minor leagues, Death Cab for Cutie went pro with 2005’s Plans, a record whose optimism and Technicolor sound gave the band enough leverage to finally enter the mainstream. “Soul Meets Body” became their biggest rock single to date, but it was Ben Gibbard’s delicate love song, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” that earned the quartet a Grammy nomination and legions of new fans. Some bands might have taken a cue from such success and resigned themselves to a career of acoustic ballads, not unlike the Goo Goo Dolls’ transformation in the mid-’90s. But Narrow Stairs roughs up Plans‘ bright palette with something starker, more harrowing, and altogether darkened by Gibbard’s blues.

Read the rest of this entry »

As AMG’s hometown tried to shrug off the clutches of winter, April became a fertile time for Southwestern rock & roll, reissued emo benchmarks, juvenile rap wars, and harmony-driven folk. It was a good month.

Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers — “Summer 39″ (from Turbo Ocho)
The bulk of Turbo Ocho was written in eight days, with the Peacemakers relocating to seaside Mexico and immersing themselves in a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants songwriting process. Recorded during one of the band’s practice sessions, “Summer 39″ takes a literate look at love, age, and passing time, with Steve Larson’s twangy pedal steel repeating the same riff like a gently ticking clock.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fans of Rufus Wainwright, Tom Waits, and Jeff Buckley may want to add Ed Harcourt to their list of hyper-talented singer/songwriters. The former bassist for Snug (a defunct British power-pop act with a healthy Weezer obsession), Harcourt launched his solo career in 2000, combining his multi-instrumental skills with a fondness for layered arrangements and homemade production. Harcourt has since issued seven albums in seven years, with his songs running the gamut from radio-ready Britpop (“Loneliness,” “Born in the ‘70s”) to orchestrated gothic drama (“Rain on the Pretty Ones”) to piano balladry (“You Put A Spell On Me,” “Whistle of a Distant Train”). And while his music hasn’t always been readily available in the States, Harcourt’s recent dismissal from EMI Records turned out to have some positive side effects: he got to join a new label that wasn’t hemorrhaging 260 million pounds a year (the small ‘n’ cozy Dovecote Records), and America finally got a distribution deal for Harcourt’s magnum opus, The Beautiful Lie.

Read the rest of this entry »

Combining Beatles-influenced songcraft with the sort of wit you might expect from a pack of UC Berkeley grads, the Morning Benders are gearing up for a big year. Their debut album is set for a spring release on +1 Records, and the quartet will bring its sunny, West Coast pop to next week’s SXSW festival. Talking to AllMusic while simultaneously cooking curry and listening to the Trojan Rocksteady box set (how’s that for multi-tasking?), frontman Chris Chu sounds excited to take his music on the road. “We travel by van,” he explains. “Our van is named Daryl. You should put it in italics because you have to whisper it as you say it, and I don’t know how else to convey that. Daryl is beautiful, but sort of dangerous. There aren’t many working mirrors. The visibility is low.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Mat Brooke bowed out of Band of Horses in 2006, bringing his 11-year run with the various members of Carissa’s Wierd to a close. Left to his own devices for the first time since 1995, Brooke replaced the crescendos and ringing guitars of Band of Horses with the sun-baked sounds of his follow-up project, Grand Archives. The new band is still indebted to the West Coast, but while BOH’s Everything All the Time took its cues from Neil Young and Brian Wilson, Grand Archives tips a hat to David Crosby and the Mamas & the Papas. “A Setting Sun” bounces with pedal steel guitar riffs and a breezy chorus, while cameos from violinist Sarah Standord and the soft-voiced Jenn Ghetto (Brooke’s co-founder in Carissa’s Wierd) turn “Swan Matches” into a gauzy rainy-day ballad. The group’s strongest asset is its vocal strength, with four of the five members offering up their voices in thick harmony. Taken alone, Brooke’s singing is perhaps a bit too smooth, his tone straightforward and his passion understated. Adding harmonies from Curtis Hall, Ron Lewis, and Jeff Montano helps to thicken the melody, and Grand Archives revolves around the strong singalong hooks that turn this debut into a soft rock record for the indie crowd. The only misstep is “The Crime Window,” whose heavy-handed melodies are shouted by multiple bandmates in a manner that’s meant to be exuberant, but instead comes across as out of place and somewhat jarring. It’s a song that Arcade Fire or Broken Social Scene could really tear into, but Grand Archives sound much better when they’re belying their name, sacrificing the grand for the warmly intimate.

When she isn’t renting minivans and breaking laptops in American Express commercials, singer/songwriter Nicole Atkins busies herself with a mix of melancholic lyrics and Roy Orbison-styled croons. The Jersey native originally pursued work as a visual artist, having relocated to North Carolina in the late ’90s to study illustration at UNC. After befriending the young Avett Brothers and forming her own alt-country act (the short-lived Los Parasols), Atkins began gravitating toward a genre she now describes as “pop-noir.” Equally reminiscent of the sunny sounds of Brill Building songs and the rainy-day atmosphere of old, black and white detective films, the “pop-noir” sound eventually landed Atkins a contract with Columbia Records. Although she’s currently on tour in support of her debut album, Neptune City, Atkins took a few minutes to talk with Allmusic about her addiction to bagels, the decor in Rick Rubin’s office, and her former gig as a singing Teletubby.

Read the rest of this entry »

Although they only cut three little-known singles in the 1960s, the Tammys are still responsible for one of the oddest songs in the Girl Group catalog. “Egyptian Shumba” is a freak of nature, a song co-written by Lou Christie and sung by a trio of teenaged girls whose voices were higher and screechier than his own. Recorded in November 1963, it begins with a clarinet riff that might as well have been lifted from Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs‘ “Sugar Shack” (the highest-charting song of that year) before dissolving into a vocal madhouse. The Tammys sing tight, nasal harmonies that sound like a Brill Building equivalent of the Chipmunks, and they whoop it up in the chorus with grunts and monkey screams. Who cares if the lyrics are silly, focusing on a fabricated dream in which the girls shimmy with their babies while traveling down the Nile? “Eee eee! Ah! Ah!” goes the unforgettable hook, and those three seconds are perhaps some of the wildest, sex-crazed moments in the history of forgotten pop (or, at the very least, the wildest thing ever associated with Lou Christie). Forty five years later, the song still sounds electric; it must’ve sounded positively nuclear back then.

The frenetic bridge, brought to you by AMG.

(For the full version, try your luck at either of these sites)