Meeting of Important People’s 2009 self-titled debut release was a sketchbook of small details and stolen moments, stitched together as lyrically impressionistic vignettes and set against too many perfectly cultivated harmonies to count. The high points (“Mother’s Pay More” and “I Know Every Street”) offered glimpses of  a dreamworld populated by desperate youth and blood thirsty babes, detailing the lost nights and lost loves that never existed.

While that wistful album resembled something like  a book of  poetry, the group’s current effort, the seven song Quit Music EP available for download here, comes closer to a collection of short stories with each song possessing slivers of plot, drama and the fragile soul of small town life.  Lead singer/songwriter Josh Verbanets provides his characters with rousing backgrounds of British Invasion pop, bristling with moments of AM radio melody and world beating power chords.  Slowly, I could not shake the comparison to The Kinks and their small town/countryside opus The Village Green Preservation Society. Tracks after the jump.

Pieces of the story and town are small, but poignant: a father reconciling his skepticism and informing his sons to show hospitality to drifters looking for lodging  (“Training Song”), a man convinced he should shed all of his possessions and embrace Jesus as the messiah (“Jesus Song”), the boastings of status and reputation in a city that seems like a distant and unobtainable dream (“They Love Me in the City”),  a man’s fantasy of a perfect wife that, he claims, can focus his rudderless existence (“Country Wife”). Even the cover selected (Every Mother’s Son – “Come on Down to My Boat”)  tells the tale of a boy determined to impress the fisherman’s daughter by bringing her down to his boat.

The characters in these stories are grasping at fleeting notions of being a better person or doing bigger things, ideas that hit pretty close to home in Pittsburgh (the most small-town-like big city of them all). They may be running in place or only close to attaining the illusion of happiness, but their desire still has mass and weight. Of course, Meeting of Important People wouldn’t be Meeting of Important People unless they underlined all that existential dilemma with jaunty compositions of vintage power pop bliss,  littering these tracks with hooks and harmonies that would put most local acts to shame and slowly turning the sad irony of these meek characters into sincere hopefulness.

Meeting of Important People went back to their roots and assessed their influences with the Quit Music EP, resulting in their most fully realized and focused work to date.  It will be exciting to see the guys try these songs out in a live setting and with two upcoming EP release shows (7/24 21+ @ Thunderbird Cafe, 7/30 all ages @ The Warhol) we will all have chance soon enough.

Meeting of Important People – Jesus Song

Meeting of Important People – Country Wife

With their self-titled debut album released in late March, Fang Island have crafted what is almost certainly the greatest pure guitar record of the year. Combining the pummeling, dueling axe theatrics of vintage Journey and the unabashedly life affirming harmonies of Andrew W.K., the Brooklyn by way of Rhode Island group truly live up to their self-described aesthetic of  “everyone high-fiving everyone.” Tracks after the jump.

They have remained under the radar even amidst rave reviews, but got a major boost from The Flaming Lips, who have an almost uncanny knack  for hand picking opening acts before their relevance among the indie elite is fully realized (Deerhunter in 2006, Black Moth Super Rainbow in 2007, Evangelicals in 2008, and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti coming up later this year ).  And from the looks of it, Fang Island appear to be destined for great things.

“Sideswiper” is the guitar epic of 2010, opening with a 1:30 of virtuoso, interlocking, upbeat Fender pyrotechnics before breaking down into what could passed off as a Mellencamp outtake from Pink Houses, adding another layer to Fang Island’s appeal: while the group does seem partial to flourishes of post-rock grandeur, they aren’t frigidly serious (as most post-rock guitar outfits are). The second half of “Sideswiper” has the warm feeling of five friends jamming in a garage on a sweltering June afternoon, underlining the fact that this music is loose, human, and fucking fun.

“Life Coach” is fun like kindergarten playtime,  relying on a plucky see-saw rhythm that eventually evolves into a healthy gallop, stopping and starting for swells of “Ohh’s” and “Yeaaahh’s” while the guitars excitedly crescendo.

Both tracks, along with the group’s trademark “Daisy” (see: Plan Your Week Accordingly) are three high points of an album that has many, setting the stage for Fang Island’s M.O.:  insanely talented musicians producing the most accomplished guitar rock of the year, and having shitloads of fun while doing it.  So, make sure you venture out to Station Square a little earlier than planned tomorrow and take a listen to what 2010 actually sounds like.

Fang Island – Sideswiper

Fang Island – Life Coach

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are six years from their last release and about 14 years removed from the eye of the storm they created. After the group’s initial three record output in the early 90′s that focused on fusing noise rock, hip-hop drum patterns and delta blues together by any means necessary ending with 1994′s Orange, the boys had varying results sprawling in every goddamn direction. Regardless, their live shows were legendary. Each set came down like a ton of bricks on fire, showering crowds with heaving masses of seething New York City rage and white hot blues swagger. And no one really attempted to challenge The JSBX’s persona as new age, hardcore bluesmen;  the group predated the short lived garage rock revival of  The White Stripes, Mooney Suzuki and The Hives (among others) by a good five years.

Until 1996, however, the pieces had yet to come together in the studio sessions to recreate the incendiary nature of the JSBX’s best performances. But with Now I Got Worry, The Blues Explosion finally coalesced their influences into a sweaty, volatile stick of dynamite, injecting the recklessness of their infamous live act into the raw production techniques that pumped up tracks like “Skunk,” “Wail,” and “Fuck Shit Up” with red levels of hairy distortion. The album is a shotgun blast of the Stooges proto-punk, Muddy Waters slide guitar and rockabilly’s cruising road-ready weirdness, easily sounding as fresh as it did 14 years ago. Tracks after the jump.

Shout Factory! has just released Now I Got Worry (along with seminal live LP Controversial Negro) as an expanded reissue, complete with 12 b-sides and unreleased tracks as well as four radio spots.  For JBSX super fans,  this volume is a must have, documenting almost the entire studio session that brought Now I Got Worry to fruition.  Coupled with the group’s reunion tour, which makes a stop at Diesel later tonight, The Blues Explosion is back on the radar, ready to recapture some of that raw, unmitigated insanity that established them as iconoclasts of independent, American rock way back in the 20th century.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Skunk

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Love All of Me

C-Mon & Kypski don’t really play it straight (or safe for that matter).  These four Dutchman seem intent on jamming every possible dance/hip-hop/soul  influence they have ever come across into four minute bursts of insanely catchy, schizophrenic, beat boy symphonies.  With their latest release We Are Square, no two tracks sound the same, bouncing back and forth between Beck’s kitchen sink production approach of Mellow Gold and Odelay and a sort of DJ Shadow-taste-making, crate-digging dream world.  “More is Less” leans heavily on some fantastically placed soul  samples, but is propelled forward by the goofy Euro-tech beat, solid horn section and Abba-like sense of melody.

Along with Nobody Beats the Drum and Pittsburgh’s own electronic-freak smith  Summer Lungs, C-Mon & Kypski make a stop in their (presumably) first stop in Steel City tonight at the Brillobox. Video for More is Less and tracks after the jump.

C-mon & Kypski – Turn of the Tides

If you really think about it, the chances of any concert in a smaller club (like the Brillobox with its 150-250 capacity)  featuring three bands of consequence on the same bill are undeniably slim.  And while I understand “bands of consequence” is a subjective term, I feel safe in stating my opinion that the show Opus One Productions lined up for the Brillobox this coming Saturday is packed, literally packed, with talent.

Neon Indian (a.k.a. Alan Palomo – primary torchbearer for the whole chillwave movement whether he likes it or not) brings his national tour through Pittsburgh for the first time in his young career supported by the two extremely promising up and coming bands: Wild Nothing and Light Pollution, both of which have released their debut full-lengths in the past two weeks.

It’s an intriguging lineup considering Palomo is inching his way toward the indie mainstream (which included a stint as Jimmy Fallon’s lapdog for a hot minute), Wild Nothing’s debut album Gemini was recently anointed “Best New Music” status by Pitchfork a week ago and Light Pollution’s Apparitions dropped this past Tuesday supported by their fever dream of a video for their track “Drunk Kids” that’s been making the rounds on the interwebs since Monday.  What I’m trying to say is this: the show has a ton of well deserved hype surrounding it, and with the potential to kill from start to finish, I doubt it will disappoint. Tracks after the jump.

Palomo and his pseudonym Neon Indian have been riding waves of adoration since Psychic Chasams made scores of top ten lists for 2009.  ”Deadbeat Summer” along with Washed Out’s “Feel it All Around” basically set the template for the glo-fi genre: layers of analog synthesizers and drum machines, gauzy production and vocals, and so much 80′s nostalgia you had to brush it away from your face. “Deadbeat” in particular encapsulated the summer of 2009 with its opening synth line alone; a distorted, warped organ riff that sounds like a melted Erasure tape that’s been stuck in the dash of your mom’s Volvo since 1986.  His latest single “Sleep Paralysist” cleans up some of the murkier production methods, but still has the new wave/analog disco vibe stamped all over it.  Everything Palomo puts to tape can bump a dance floor, so let’s hope Brillo’s new black and white checkered tile on the second floor can take the punishment.

Neon Indian – Deadbeat Summer

Virginia natives Wild Nothing embrace the 80′s unabashedly as well, churning out stunningly beautiful melancholy new wave richer in atmosphere than contemporaries Pains of Being Pure at Heart but less austere than the dance heavy Cold Cave. Gemini’s heart and soul lies with  ”Chinatown,” a wistful but robust getaway song that is ripe with longing without being urgent, “we’re not happy till we’re running away,” lead singer Jack Tatum croons, “clouds in your eyes.” It’s more of a daydream than an actual escape, and the fleeting nature of that illusion is palpable.  ”Summer Holiday” is the album’s  rocker, propelled by noodling guitar lines and a wordless harmonized chorus. It’s the hardest thing on Gemini, sure, but by the time the last verse arrives with only a baseline, handclaps and gorgeous ”Oooh’s” in the background, you’re once again grasping at ephemeral clouds of vapor.

Wild Nothing – Chinatown

Last but not least, Chicago’s Light Pollution take all that hazy atmosphere of 80′s nostalgia and filter it through The Arcade Fire’s sense of theatrical statement, pushing aside the cloudy puffs of synth to charge forward with anthemic choruses and rousing percussion.  Apparitions’ side one, track one ”Good Feelings” does this exactly, beginning with an ambient interlude of  distant keyboards and spiraling acoustics before splashing down with base drum hits and crescendos of electric guitars.  The grandeur is sincere and earned rather than melodramatic, which is a refreshing change of pace from the current slew of new-new wave’s stifling insouciance.  ”Oh, Ivory” picks apart the mid-tempo new wave of the Cure’s Disintegration, opting again for a larger than life finale that delivers on it grand promise.

Light Pollution – Good Feelings

If you can’t tell already, I’m excited about this show.  And while I’m convinced Wild Nothing and Light Pollution will bring the goods, a headlining Neon Indian’s walloping drum machine smashes are poised to crush the whole damn thing.  Bring your dancing shoes for Saturday night, I swear you will need them.

I need to apologize first.  After featuring Mother Sun‘s self-titled EP on speed of the pittsburgh sound last summer, I stupidly left them off the Steel City’s Top 20 Tracks of 2009.  It was a mistake fueled by negligence and if I had a second chance to do 2009 over again, Mother Sun’s “Phantasmagoria” would land somewhere in the top 10. Regardless, I highly recommend picking up said EP on iTunes now, if only to witness the evolution of Pittsburgh music scene’s best kept secret as they prep themselves for a fairly eventful summer.

With the backing of recently launched Discos Un-herd-uf, a Pittsburgh-based label headed by none other than Andres Ortiz-Ferarri (a.k.a. Discuss, Young Frankenstein), Mother Sun are back with a full-length LP set to be released June 22nd followed by a national tour this fall.  With ”Cold Train” and “Wonderful Feeling,” the first two cuts from the yet-to-be-titled album, Mother Sun have switched gears from the atmospheric, electronically tinted acoustic suites from the debut EP. Present is a new sound that entirely embraces robust waves of electronic noodling while concisely carrying harmonies of gorgeously symphonic pop songs. Tracks after the jump.

I made a big deal about the influence of recreational drug use on Mother Sun’s first EP, comparing the album’s delirious haze-pop (favorably, I might add) to a “day at the beach on ether.”  While the group’s work isn’t completely off the junk, “Wonderful Feeling” is an excellent example of what happens when Cordle and Haynes compress their atmosphere into 5:30 chunks. With a massive hook, complex but not overwhelming electronics and those unabashed drug references still enhancing the mood (“And we got high as a kite for 40 days and 40 nights/ pretending we don’t care what we are here for”) “Wonderful Feeling” achieves pocket symphony status without breaking a sweat.

I’ll leave “Cold Train” untouched for the time being, it’s a little too much to think about and I’ll allow you, dear reader, to do the heavy lifting.  Like their debut EP, these tracks have a lot to process within their five minute running times and beg for multiple listens.  But as we move forward, Mother Sun will be playing a live show at Most Wanted Fine Art on May 20th, with the help of a six-piece, classically infused acoustic backing band fleshing out the electronic compositions live.  In any case, stay tuned this summer for more Mother Sun rumblings, the Pittsburgh synth-pop trailblazers are poised to make some major waves.

Mother Sun – Wonderful Feeling

Mother Sun – Cold Train

Miller, former member of hardcore punk band Posion the Well, was in search of a female vocalist for his unnamed pet project while working as a waiter in New York. He stumbled upon Krauss and her mother while serving their table at his restaurant.  Krauss, former member of all-female pop group Rubyblue, was nominated by her mother in passing conversation to join Miller’s musical endeavors.  The rest, they say, is history.

What has resulted is the project Sleigh Bells, boasting one of the freshest, most unmitigated sounds in all of indie rock: guitar riffs and synth lines defiantly reveling in the red levels of distortion, Krauss’s vocals cutting through the mix with the slick sheen of a hyper-produced pop-goddess, and the club banging potential of Girl Talkian proportions.  

With their live show, the group comes armed with only an iPod, Miller’s guitar and Krauss’ voice, but feels (at least according to their YouTube videos) much much larger.  Ring Ring actually goes in a slightly different direction than what Sleigh Bells if known for, opting instead for a beachy guitar strum-sample and the grooving  jubilant energy of Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” filtered through Washed Out’s hazy 80′s nostalgia. Crown on the Ground has turned into the duo’s calling card.  Miller turns his guitar and accompanying synth line into a walloping wall of barely permissible beats, while Krauss’ seducing croon (not to mention the orgasmic “Ooh’s” that come in the opening moments) proceeds to tear the track limb from limb.

All in all, this is a show that shouldn’t be skipped, even as CMU’s cloak of darkness concerning great concerts remains mystifying (Aesop Rock last fall and Dan Deacon this past weekend was probably news to few outside of Oakland). The electro-rock duo didn’t end up on Pitchfork’s and speed of the pittsburgh sound‘s  top songs of the year for nothing. Come see the buzz band at the height of their powers and remember some new music get’s hyped for a reason.

Sleigh Bells – Ring Ring

Sleigh Bells – Crown On The Ground

Big Hurry, on the other hand, could rock the dance floor regardless of a slick, house techno makeover. What they manage to accomplish with their Silver Screens Remix EP, currently being sold only at the group’s live shows, wouldn’t necessarily be classified as transcendent, but that isn’t the point.  By splicing the DNA of the original EP with just the right amount of techno production flourishes, the simmering sexpot swagger Big Hurry is known for increases in stature while being nudged into an alternative electronic dimension. Tracks after the jump.

Best of show here probably goes to “Paper Trails (South Side Machine Mix)” for enhancing the already ephemeral atmosphere of the original track by allowing Kelly Tobias’ vocals, riddled with echo, to be front and center, backed by spacey drums, synth blips and a muted guitar riff.  “Tell Me (Midnight Movie Mix)” reveals a slower version of the remix that appeared on the group’s MySpace profile last summer, lumbering forward with the syrupy haze of a 3 AM ecstasy crash.

“Radio (Scott Simons Mix)” is the most purely danceable song of the bunch, filtering Tobias’ voice through a shimmering wall of Auto-Tune (maybe?) effects while bumping along with vintage 80′s keyboards and a beat worthy of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”.

All in all, it’s a solid day’s work for Big Hurry. By turning up the club ready vibe of Silver Screens to eleven, indie kids all over Pittsburgh will be dying to get a hold of these tracks on the dance floor.

Big Hurry w/ Satin Gum and Dj Gordy of Title Town @ Brillobox 3.26

Big Hurry – “Paper Trails (South Side Sound Machine Mix)

Washington DC natives Jukebox the Ghost bring their effervescent piano brand of indie power pop to Mr. Small’s on March 7th along with the overstated theatrics of Ann Arbor’s own Tally Hall. The band recently finished recording their 2010 yet to be titled release with the help of producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Mates of State) and plans to make the rounds at SXSW later this month.

While the live show will most likely be a showcase for their unreleased material, 2008′s Let Live and Let Ghosts provides so many moments of slap happy, sugary piano goodness that I can’t imagine a lull in the proceedings. Heirs apparent to Ben Folds’s ironic, limber croon, all three of Jukebox members Tommy Siegel, Ben Thornewill, and Jesse Kristi take on vocal duties without missing a beat.  Their playful side does tend to slip a little too far into whimsy, but harder hitting tracks like “Good Day” and “Where are the Scientists” showcase the band at its unabashed best: operatic, anthemic and catchy as hell. check the tracks after the jump

Jukebox the Ghost – Good Day

Jukebox the Ghost – Where Are All The Scientists Now?

Even in the coddled, closed off loveliness of Pittsburgh’s bustling music scene, things aren’t exactly handed to young musicians looking to make a name for themselves. To self release an album and tour subsequently is, in and of itself, a massive undertaking.  But, in terms of the obstacles facing an up and coming band as they prep their first proper album, a plucky sense of ambition usually isn’t one of them. Getting proper studio time? Sure. Getting the album pressed? What the hell.  Finding a quality venue for the release party? Of course.

Pittsburgh born and bred indie folkers Colonizing the Cosmos triumphantly chose to take the high road with their debut LP The First Frontier, producing a sprawling, fifteen track self-proclaimed concept album about, you guessed it, the cosmos and beyond. The start value for a “concept album,” however loose that concept may be, is high to begin with.  If the music wasn’t so damn expertly crafted, inviting and jubilant, I’d say these fellas were ambitious to a fault.

With that said, the album crackles as a lush orchestra of banjos, guitars, cellos, leg slapping, hand clapping, dulcimers, and a wide array of horns. Make no mistake; The First Frontier is a fully formed document of The Cosmos’ warming charm, played comfortable and loose while betraying the meticulously honed chops of this folkie trio.

“The Phononauts” opens the album with piece of vaudevillian magic before snapping into a giddy strut, coupling nicely with “Moon Shine Moon,” a quiet yet upbeat lullaby humming with cello strums and snare brushes.  “Come on With Your Hands and Join the Band!” splashes down with a banjo and an entire audience of hand claps before segueing into the instrumental jam “A Man and His Culture,” a noodly bluegrass gem that doesn’t over stay its welcome.

The track sequencing, something essentially important to a concept album, is subtle in its change of moods, instruments and influences:  “Wood and Stone” utilizies synth flourishes in between a sparse folk backdrop touching on the less somber portions of Sufjan’s Illinoise, the exuberance of “Stars in Jars” recalls a down to earth Polyphonic Spree, perking up the proceedings just enough to shed a healthy light on the final four tracks.

That down home charm shimmers through out The Final Frontier like the flickering silhouettes of a towering fire, blazing away in the middle of a grass field. I can see Colonizing the Cosmos circled around the flame, lying on their backs and playing their songs to the heavens.  A love letter to the unknowable magic of the endless celestial expanse, The Final Frontier proves The Cosmos are insatiable romantics of the highest order, painting their blissful folk across the night sky with studied abandon.

Album on sale here: http://colonizingthecosmos.bandcamp.com/

Colonizing The Cosmos – The Phononauts

Colonizing The Cosmos – Moon Shine Moon

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