A FEW MORE PUBLISHED STUDIES The XYZ Affair

After the better part of a decade where nearly every skinny boy with a guitar was pouring out his diary pages on to the air waves with the confessional finesse of a roller-skating mule it's refreshing to hear a band like Brooklyn NY's The XYZ Affair.A sunny pop sound that actually POPS from the speakers recalling the Rentals-by-way-of-a-Broadway show. Singer and principal songwriter Alex Feder's literate lyrics snap to attention and the intricacies of his melodies and vocal performance are very much in the vain of former Shudder  To Think front man Craig Wedren. Like Wedren, Feder's falsetto is nearly as nibble as the guitar play between Feder and band mates Russ Maschmeyer and Chris Bonner, who along with drummer Sam Rockwell keep things nailed down in perfect time. All four sing-shout in unison raising the anthematic bar and creating the sound of a socialist protest march for love. Most impressive is the production of this self release. The mixing and mastering are superb as is the recording. The harmonies sing and float perfectly in the track.  Lead single All My Friends (with its Archers of Loaf style guitar work) is destined for heavy rotation on car trips this spring as is the soaring The Professional

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side note- The XYZ Affair completely upstaged British Sea Power, whom they opened for, at a recent show at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, OR.  

LUST LUST LUST

Tons of accolades have been heaped upon Swedish duo The Raveonettes. They have their detractors too (Jesus and Mary chain knock offs, ect) so I can't totally hate them (as I not so secretly wish I were sometimes living in the long lost 60s film their albums seem to be the soundtracks to. Something subversive, something longing, something very Kitten-with-a-whip. LUST LUST LUST their latest album is no exception. After experimenting with faster popier and somewhat sunnier tunes on their third lp Pretty in Black (for which some of the overly hip critics had a total hissy fit) the duo have decided to bring back a more subdued sound. Lust Lust Lust features shoegazery burst of feedback and their trademark wall of sound style, but something has changed. There's a rot in the air here. This is the soundtrack to a Lynchian tableaux: lovely, serene, and dangerously misleading. There is a menace in the means here. Something read between the lines that hangs from notes and reaches out from the static crackles and distortion fuzz. It's the dreamy summer afternoon turning cold at night. But danger is sexy none the less and I can picture Donna Hayward and her former friend Laura Palmer dancing at One Eyed Jacks to this.

Musical Crush of the Week-Baby Dee

A fifty something, tricycle riding , classically trained harpist,former church organist, transsexual performance artist seems an unlikely icon no? baby Dee's amazing life has led up to an incredible new record for Drag City called SAFE INSIDE THE DAY. An amazing and unlikely mix of sparse piano ballads, tin pan alley blues, vaudevillian ditties, classical folk work Safe Inside The Day take listeners on a journey through the last 500 years of musical evolution all throw the unique perspective of this American original. While her voice is at times challenging, a work this self assured and complex is worth settling into. Stand out track The Early King, a reworking of Germanic folk tale is terrifying and brilliantly entertaining while the Teeth Are The Only Bones That Show builds from a stark arrangement to a rousing barnstormer. This album, like Nick Cave's seminal MURDER BALLADS will of course have its detractors, some without so much as giving the album a careful listen and seeing it for it's merits. It defies genre classification and jumps from style to style at will. It's so singular and brilliant in that it defies the listeners very expectation of what pop music even IS any longer these days.