Deerhoof — Friend Opportunity

Recorded by Jay and Ian Pellicci, Eli Crews and Michael Zelner at Tiny Telephone

Mixed by Ian Pellicci

When guitarist Chris Cohen unexpectedly, but amicably decided to leave Deerhoof to focus on his solo project, The Curtains, the band did as it has always done: reinvented itself. To be fair, Cohen’s absence merely left the band as the trio it was when recording its angular monolith, Reveille. With that in mind, saying that Friend Opportunity is anything less than highly anticipated for the band’s fans is an enormous understatement.

Deerhoof has a penchant for adaptation — from loss and change come sonic temperaments, glorious breaking of ground and, most importantly, growth. On this album, drummer Greg Saunier leaps from his sticks and skins to the spotlight behind the microphone as found on the hasty electro-blasted hip shaker, “Cast of Crown” (male vocals were first introduced by Cohen on The Runners Four).

Overall, Friend Opportunity is a logical step ahead, which is to say this album carries a very listenable quality, wincing sexy seductiveness with pulsing electronic rhythms, throbbing beats and furling harmony. Deerhoof noticeably further unhinges itself from the staple indie rock set-up of bass, drums and guitar here, placing varied melodies and instrumentation in front of the listener’s face. The introduction of frightening electronic twists underscores the influence of the group’s stints with The Flaming Lips and Radiohead. The albums’ 10-minute finale, “Look Away,” speaks to the negative space assumptions many critics have been talking about over the last year.

Earlier, with Reveille and even The Runners Four, Deerhoof was tactful in filling every inch of space with something. Now the band shows restraint and cognizance, unafraid of challenging the boundaries between music, sound and the relentless tension found in empty space. But don’t misunderstand this critique; Friend Opportunity also gives veteran fans what they expect: rock ‘n’ roll, punchy crescendos and hook-filled unexpectedness. The growth Deerhoof displays marks a milepost where complexity and smarts are only outweighed by stylistically entrenched beauty and intrigue. (Kill Rock Stars/5RC)

deerhoof.killrockstars.com

-Christopher Petro

The Otherside — Dead Trees

Recorded at SF Soundworks and

The Space

Mastered by Mike Wells Mastering

Produced by The Otherside

The Otherside is a San Francisco-based quartet with a haunting, highly original sound. Dead Trees is the band’s first full-length release, self-produced and self-distributed. Melodic and just slightly melancholic, the pace of the record ranges from slow to mid-tempo, with no barnstormers but rather a quiet intensity that builds and releases from song to song similar to the motion of waves. “Dirty Devil” has the most driving beat, combined with waterfall guitars in a solid sheet of sound. The chiming of the strings also makes a noise like a clock striking, which fits well with the advice of the abstracted lyrics to “take some time.” Processed guitars in the short instrumental track “Winthorp and Valentine” conjure an eerie electronic air. There is always a faint almost-echo going on in the background with The Otherside, without a moment of absolute silence or any kind of abrupt cut-off.

The result is a sort of ripple effect, as the resonances wash back and forth, lapping like water — the individual plucked notes on “My Enemy” even sound like raindrops. The band is seamless, but not sealed too tightly because these watery elements introduce an organic feeling. The vocals are set back into the mix, never right out front but not muddied or lost, making the whole more cohesive somehow, like a star sapphire set flush in silver. The Scots-Irish folk music underpinnings at the roots of both rock and blues come through a little in Dead Trees, strange to say, sometimes more strongly than others and especially on “Nothing To Cheer For.” It’s not that the music doesn’t sound modern — it’s just something subtle in the drum pacing and the chord progression that hearkens back to rock’s more timeless beginnings. The Otherside offers a lot to the careful listener. The first track, “Hey You,” has very real single potential — if it’s not a hit, it’s only because it hasn’t been heard enough yet. (Self-released)

www.theothersideonline.com

-Susan Brooks

The New Centuries — The New Centuries EP

Recorded and mixed by Matt Strickland at H.I.T. Wall Studios

Mastered by Mike Wells at Hyde Street Studios

Effervescent and haunting, The New Centuries’ debut EP is brimming with subtle urgency — an anxiousness that is enveloped by guitarist Jeff Bissell’s Johnny Marr-inspired riffs undulating in syncopated time with Ryan Bogart’s languid, terse vocals. Bogart’s voice seems to have been dragged over an ice-coated gravel bed while at a tender age, combining elements of disaffected cynicism with emotive clarity. Eccentric keyboards and Sabrina Crawford’s percussion reign in the conjoined antics, punctuating any tangential dalliances. The New Centuries at once invoke Velvet Underground (as sung by Ian Curtis) and include a palate of influences ranging from The Magnetic Fields to Destroyer.

The EP opens with an upbeat track that would be difficult for even the most ardent argyle advocate to sit through. Describing yet “Another Midnight Show,” Bogart illuminates how even the jaded spill drinks during their favorite songs. One of the defining moments on the disc comes in “Stockton Street Tunnels” when Bogart painfully tears out “We should be out there gaining ground / We’re respected men about town / America’s newest models on the dance floor,” while Bissell throws out riffs worthy of Tom Morello playing Lynyrd Skynyrd. The last cut on this five-song EP, “The Middle Years,” is a testament to a mix-tape culture struggling for survival.

The New Centuries show that there are still a few bastions of sensible mayhem at large in San Francisco — kids who have gotten past the scattered rush of youth, crooning instead of howling at the moon. Their debut is sure to give even the most disillusioned of scenesters something worthy of a playlist for the centennial nouveau. (Self-released)

www.myspace.com/thenewcenturies

-Stephen Gresch

Andrew Douglas Rothbard — Abandoned Meander

Recorded by Andrew Douglas Rothbard at Edge City Studios

Engineered and mixed by Andrew Douglas Rothbard

Mastered by Robert Ferbrache at Studio Absinthe

When the New York Times ran a story on “freak-folk” last summer, it was the moment that the buzzword climaxed in popular culture; the term so oft used and abused in the independent cosmos had gone mainstream.

Andrew Douglas Rothbard is not one to anguish over the machinations of the marketplace. Toiling in the heavy psyche trade for the past 12 years, first in The VSS and then in Pleasure Forever, he can say that he has dealt in mind-bending compositions since before there was a Wikipedia article attempting to explain them. His new album, Abandoned Meander, is the masterstroke of a long roving musical vagabond.

From the mystic Bron-Y-Aur passages of the title track to the chamber pop moonscapes of “Paraxute,” the album is an amalgam of simmering, chaotic melodies that surges and sways like a trembling cup. Tunes like “Bull in the Dell” seem to slip in an out of consciousness while “Emerald Tendrils” exhibits the deep-space Orientalism of Rothbard’s melodic sense.

With guitar licks worthy of Robbie Basho and breathy lyrics worthy of, well, Basho (the haiku poet), Rothbard is clearly a conductor with great command of his orchestra. His album has an agility that makes it sound at once old and new; fans of Animal Collective will find as much here as patrons of 1970s psyche rocker Edip Akbayram.

Though he wrote and performed all of the music on Abandoned Meander, an even more impressive feat is that Rothbard also recorded it himself. A labor of love that took him all of three years to complete, the album has a sumptuous sonic quality just right for donning big ear-engulfing headphones. (Smooch Records)

www.smoochrecords.com/bands/coastghost.html

-Henry Baker

Bijou — Where The Pavement Ends

Produced, engineered and

mastered by Bijou, Chocolate O’Brien, B.T., Justice, Vic Bhalla and Bentley Beats

For the hip-hop heads who have become tired of the same old lyrics and beats and are looking for something new and exciting, Bijou’s 19-song debut, Where The Pavement Ends, is the album to check out. This native Californian raps poetically without getting lost in unneeded words and his productions are a nice slice of originality that the world of hip-hop just may need.

The album starts off with a well-produced skit that finds Bijou casually scanning through different radio stations in his car and laughing at all of them because he can’t find any real music. This scenario quickly segues into “The Realness” (featuring Gutta), which has such a great bouncy beat that listeners may just find themselves wanting to jump into their cars, crank up the stereo and then go cruising the streets with their windows down. “Light it Up” continues with the laidback feel of the early ‘90s G-Funk style of Dr. Dre while “Bang” is a full-on hyphy club assault with a funk drum beat that brings out a Miami-type feel. “Take you Home” (featuring Aria) has a sexy groove that draws from some very deep Spanish rhythms. The standout track just happens to be the title song, and it is a full-on soulful assault complete with Rhodes organ and a nice, deep drumbeat. It also happens to be the best way to end an already excellent album.

Bijou is able to paint pictures with his soulful lyrics and it is nice to hear an artist in the hip-hop game that is actually talking about something other then going “to da clubs” in every song. But the best part about Where The Pavement Ends is that it’s a hip-hop album made for the right reasons: to have fun, enjoy life, and, of course, not take it too seriously. (Prophit Records)

www.bijou1.com

-Casey O’Neill

Daytime Volume — The Day We Transposed

Produced, recorded and mixed by Matthew Morgan at Camp Ironwood Recording Studio in South Bend, IN, Tiny Telephone in San Francisco, CA and Jackpot! Recording Studio in Portland, OR

Additional engineering by Aaron Prellwitz, Pat Kearns, and Mark Guenther

Mastered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman

Upon first listen, the whiny, nasal vocals kicking off Daytime Volume’s debut, The Day We Transposed, may tempt listeners to reach for the off switch on the stereo. Resist the urge. The vocals — distractingly Decemberists-like on the first track, but ever-evolving throughout the album — will make a believer out of everyone by the end of the first song. What follows is a beautifully melancholy indie-pop outing that only gets catchier and more arresting with every track.

Deceptively simple and poignant lyrics like “We’ve just begun to realize what is good and what is yet to come” are what propel this effort beyond the typical radio-friendly pop album it may appear to be at first. Moody, diverse layers reveal an astonishingly varied array of instrumentation. Musical elements borrowed from such complementing genres as shoegaze, Britpop, and country (think slide guitar) keep things fresh and come together to form a remarkably cohesive whole.

Bringing to mind such cinematic classics as Trembling Blue Stars’ Alive To Every Smile, this album is chock-full of those perfect, solitary musical moments that beg to be shared with absolutely no one — the kind that inspire a listener to put on headphones and enjoy a walk with no destination. Its pretty, melodic, lo-fi feel is an engaging take on what is traditionally considered a pretty well-worn genre, and its similarity to closely-themed bands’ debuts — The Shins’ Oh, Inverted World comes to mind — makes it apparent that Daytime Volume has great things ahead. (Expunged Records)

www.problemsolvingskills.org

-Jessica Watkins-McClain

The Parallelograms — Adult Contemporary

Recorded by The Parallelograms in Hollywood, CA

Produced by The Parallelograms; additional tracks by Bill Boll

Amidst the reemergence of pure rock, the ever growing hip-hop scene, and the oh-so-likeable pop surge lies the parallel electro world of Los Angeles’ The Parallelograms. Their newest album, Adult Contemporary, pulls listeners through neon raves and smoky dance clubs into outer space.

“Bypass To Otherness” unlocks the doors to their synthesized world. Stefanie King’s calming voice gently takes the listener’s hand, becoming the guide around Chris Curtis’ vibrations. When King asks “How high is up?” the listener knows that coming back down is not an option.

King and Curtis trade off on lead and backup vocals along with help from other artists like “part-time Parallelogram” Lily Marlene and Heart String Symphony’s Heather Porcaro, who backs King in “Mood Lagoon.” King has a kind of Kylie Minogue tone that can be sassy in “Washin’ You from My Hands” and slightly eerie in “Unmentionables.” Curtis gives off more of a Tom Waits feel with his scratchy voice, leveling the techno rhythms in songs like “Vicious Cycle” to a mellower plane.

Yet, it is the band’s quirky mix of standard instruments with heavily synthesized ones — like the ring modulator and theremin — that raises Adult Contemporary above its contemporaries. The Parallelograms successfully toy with standard pop ballads in “Hurt Like a Heart Attack,” Devo-style rap in “Cap’n Cork’s Liquor Locker” and frantic dance beats in “Eastside/Westside,” traveling all over the genre map while still staying grounded in their own signature sound. Though at times the synthesized techno can be overwhelming (“Torrid Together”), it more often puts a welcomed Parallelogram stamp on the mainstream pop world. Adult Contemporary leaves listeners flying high and wishing to open more doors in this parallel musical universe. (Great Brain Records)

www.myspace.com/parallelograms

-Megan Clinard

Deletist — Relive

Produced by Bitter Pie

Recorded and engineered by Christ Coode at Motion Studio, Alex Young at Studio88, Colin Studybaker at Engine Music Studio

How much work does it take to remain San Francisco’s “underground enigma” after 13 albums? Deletist’s newest, Relive, her first in three years, sounds like a phoned-in effort, despite a globetrotting recording schedule that included collaborations from around the world with the engineers behind Iron & Wine and Luscious Jackson. Yet Deletist (a.k.a. Bitter Pie) seems to strive to be ignored with drowsy, ambient soundscapes, muffled occasional vocals, and virtually no memorable melodies.

Relive starts out with keyboard-driven instrumentals, including “Layorlie,” which recalls Michael Andrews’ Donnie Darko soundtrack. The quiet vocals on the album’s best song, “Rabbittrap,” have Deletist apparently trying to sound sexy like Shirley Manson. It has a simple and pleasant structure with lyrics that are either not heard or not remembered and the opiate of familiar, minor key progressions — a plateau that would fit in the background of a quiet study date and perhaps a session of making out afterward. However, it’s on the second vocal track, “Reign,” where the spell is disturbingly broken by lyrics out of a high school activist’s note book. “The world is only going more corporate / And it’s making our faces look the same,” Deletist sings, sounding like a stoned Grace Slick.

This is where things really start to go downhill — the instrumentals do nothing to help the pace of the album and the few energetic house-inspired rave-ups can’t rattle it either. State-of-the-art beats and production tricks don’t save these songs from sounding like they want to be that cool song from that cool movie. While they may end up passing for it, no revolution will spring from words or music unable to excite in their originality. (Beats Per Revolution Records)

www.deletist.info

-Jake Rose

Super XX Man — Volume XI: A Better Place

Recorded, mixed, and produced by Scott Garred in Portland, OR

By day, Scott Garred is a music therapist for the Oregon State Hospital maximum-security wing (where One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed), and by night he’s one of the most prolific and enduring songwriters of our generation. With eleven albums to his credit, Garred’s incredible songwriting ability has somehow dodged major label attention.

Critics often cite The Mountain Goats when discussing Super XX Man — both Garred and John Darnielle do share huge recorded catalogues and similar day jobs. However, Garred has taken the understated path; where his early work was refined and simplistic, it has since aged with its audience, taking new considerations and maturities into its scope.

2006 was a huge year for Garred, with the release of his critically praised album X, a best-of album with a re-recording twist, and the birth of his son, Cy, an obvious muse for A Better Place. As giant a leap forward as X was, fatherhood put Garred back in touch with his earlier youthfulness. A Better Place offers ageless lullabies that disarm, comfort and nod familial imagery. Garred’s voice has also matured with his songwriting, as he now sings huskier narratives like an early Leonard Cohen. A Better Place punctuates Garred’s leap from locker room romance to the household, where marital stability and life with children reign.

The centerpiece of the album is Garred’s voice and guitar; the subtle instrumentation lingering in the backdrop consists of Alison Wesley (flute and drums) and wife Michelle Garred (keyboards, accordion, and piano). The album radiates prevailing optimism, which not only acknowledges passage into adulthood, but also welcomes the changes with cradling arms.

In so many ways, A Better Place is a welcome addition to the Super XX Man roster; it’s refreshing to hear an artist optimistically endure progress through life and create an album that mirrors the beguiling passageway. (Hush Records)

www.superxxman.com

-Christopher Petro

Poor Bailey — Pyrite & Gold

Recorded by Willie Samuels at Nu Tone Studios

The best thing the Bay Area’s Poor Bailey could have possibly done with their latest release, Pyrite & Gold, was make it a double album. The discs, aptly named “Part One” and “Part Two”, create a nice emotional dividing line for the listener.

Part One is largely mournful, containing melancholy, yet meaty and beautiful masterpieces, particularly “The Pines (An American Nightmare)“ and “Mary Lee, My One and Lonely.” The latter spices up the typical “missing a lost love” theme as Scott Allbright’s voice actually makes whining vocals pleasant and delivers lyrics that really take the listener directly to the emotion.

“Psycho Bitch” is quite possibly the best breakup song out there. Allbright holds nothing back as he tells the psycho bitch in question how he really feels: “If you want my advice / I’d be glad to give you it / You should go play out on the freeway / Or go jump off a cliff / Just get away from me psycho bitch.” Thankfully, the thematic content comes off as hilarious rather than bitter or unoriginal.

“(I Don’t Believe)“ is correctly placed at the end of the first disc so as to hint at what can be expected on the second disc. It is a lighthearted segue, explaining why Allbright doesn’t believe in dinosaurs, astronauts, and the like. The second disc introduces upbeat and rollicking songs like “Old Scagg Slough,” a very twangy ditty that’s one part Tom Waits and one part Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Also, “Neon Camo” will be the song that will no doubt get radio play if Poor Bailey chooses that direction.

The name of the game here is variety, so indie fans, rock fans, fans of music with down-home flavor — tune in please! (Self-released)

www.poorbailey.com

-Allison Foley

TIMZ — Open For Business

Recorded and mixed by E-Low at Grimmie Rec Studios

Great controversy rises out of the distinction between rap and hip-hop. Many hip-hop militants insist that their music is the political voice of the minority and teaches the opposite of rap’s values on drugs, misogyny and gangsterism. Many in the rap industry counter that their lyrics give light to the underrepresented people who need to be exposed through courageous voices. Therefore, what happens when an artist like TIMZ emerges with a voice that represents street life, but also speaks with political conviction about his firsthand observations of life as a minority Iraqi American?

At first listen, this record contains the sort of overproduced beats and sophomoric lyrics ubiquitous on mainstream radio and in every scraper cruising the ghetto streets. Only through patient exploration might one discover the Middle Eastern melody accompaniments and occassional references to Jews in Iraq or the Chaldean community in TIMZ’s hometown of San Diego. If only it didn’t require so much time to filter out the rap star posings and club lifestylings, listeners might be able to appreciate the fact that TIMZ is talking about a heritage that dates back to the Mesopotamian age where Babylonians lived in prosperity in the Middle East. Listeners may also not realize that the album is dedicated to two members of the San Diego Chaldean community who were murdered while working at a neighborhood liquor store.

It is obvious TIMZ has his heart in the right place, with his communal awareness and hard-working values. However, it is also evident that TIMZ is still brand new in the music business and might benefit from deciding who his listeners are if he hopes to be respected more broadly as an artist with an original and thought-provoking purpose. (V.I.G. Productions)

www.timzonline.com

-Grant Inaba

Trans Am — Sex Change

Recorded by Rob Martyn and Rachel Wakefield at MAINZ in Auckland, New Zealand, and by Barry London at The Ocropolis in Brooklyn, NY

Additional recording took place in London, San Francisco and Los Angeles

Mixed by Aaron Prellwitz at Tiny

Telephone in San Francisco

The thing about sex changes is that no amount of nips, tucks and fleshy additions can translate into a complete metamorphosis. So when the now bi-coastal rockers Trans Am added their own vocals to their eighth release, Sex Change, it was about as exciting as a RuPaul comeback. Fortunately for the band, what is exciting is what isn’t present. The band’s new release on Thrill Jockey Records is less of a tongue-in-cheek nod to the guitar excess of classic rock like past releases and more of an upbeat driving record. Without their trademark gear, including vocoders, drum machines and keyboards, the band has produced a funky and quirky sound that isn’t weighed down by post-rock cuteness.

The Kraut-rock opener “First Words” is well-suited for soundtracks as it updates the legacy of Kraftwerk and Can, both of whom heavily influenced the group’s sophomore outing, Surrender to the Knight. “North East Rising Sun” keeps the momentum going with a chorus that indicates that the band is diverging from the path of American post-punk bands like Tortoise and instead heading down the path tread by the U.K.’s Elbow. The album’s conciseness starts to unravel after the first two songs, as tracks rely on synthesizers to create occasionally funky, but mainly uninspired jams. Only with “Triangular Pyramid” is the listener reminded that some amount of transformation was intended.

Interestingly, the album clearly shows the common state of a band trying something new but ultimately falling back on the comforts of previous efforts. Nothing is poor — but then nothing is outstanding, either. Yet, this is a band with big hopes regardless of the payoff. Consider their previous release, Liberation, which was a noble, but failing instrumental protest record. This time around, old fans will feel challenged and new listeners intrigued by the band’s aging, slightly modified body of work. (Thrill Jockey Records)

www.transband.com

-Mark Szakonyi

Trepan — The Cause Of and Solution To

Recorded, mixed and engineered at Self Adhesive Records by Jon Goff and Danny King

Mastered by Barry Corliss at Masterworks

Produced by Jon Goff and Trepan

When describing the sludge-induced guitar assaults and affected alt-rock that gush from their debut full-length album, The Cause Of and Solution To, Trepan claim that listening to their music is like “all the fun and excitement of fucking without a condom on the first date.” If that’s the case, a first date with this Seattle quartet is like “Oh shit! Why do I keep doing this to myself? I don’t even know where these guys have been!”

From the sounds of the Big Muff-enriched power chords and scuzzy rhythms that lustily open “Too Heavy” on the 10-song album, it’s pretty evident that the boys’ roots reside within the hearts of their Pacific Northwest contemporaries — Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, and all things grunge rock, with a little Queens of the Stone Age riffage peppered modestly in between. From start to finish, the album’s atomic thrust is tuned specifically for modern rock radio. With their incredibly catchy hooks and angst-fueled dynamics, the band — drummer Troy Lund, guitarist Erik Chelstad, bassist Brent Powell, and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Schumacher — aren’t going to win any points for originality. But who really cares anyway? The group does a hell of a job busting out one three-minute balls-to-the-wall rocker after another and deserves the devil-horned salute for their efforts.

One thing that’s for sure is that Trepan sticks to their guns when dishing out the rock; the roaring gusto that seethes on songs such as “Angel or Thieves” and “Golden” aches like a sore tooth. During the chorus of “Precious Young Blood,” Schumacher’s throaty bark sounds as if it needs a packet of cough drops as he screams “Into your home / At night where you sleep / Won’t leave you alone / I’m the king of your dreams” through a wall of crashing drums and tireless guitar ferocity. It’s a safe bet after all: rock ’n’ roll is alive and well, and Trepan is there to deliver its meaty chops. (Self-released)

www.trepan.net

-Chris Sabbath

William Duke — The Ghost That Would Not Be

Recorded at Magic Alex Recording Service

Mixed and Mastered by Steven Duffy at Splendid Studios

Produced by William Duke

Singer/songwriter William Duke has a voice so akin to Elvis Costello that he could be in a Vegas review. His magnetic vocals lend a familiar pitch — at best, Duke’s upbeat tunes about love and loss reach far into the Costello cadence. Duke’s solo debut is an ambitious project that blends traditional drums and bass with relentless electronic sources, spoken lyrics and more guitar strumming than an Indigo Girls concert.

The album is marked by these vast, near-empty periods of electronic sound, often backed with hypnotic keyboard riffs. Initially, the intermissions are quirky and fun, but after so much area is consumed by dragging moments, recurrent acoustic bridges and electronic interruptions, the album becomes a frustrating listen. Cutting out the odd space interludes would reveal the meat of the album that’s buried underneath these sound beds.

Duke is a capable musician with a lot of talent, and the ambitious songwriting found on his debut underlines his freewheeling idealism and points to his potential. Although The Ghost That Would Not Be gets a little pretentious with its noise breaks, the moments where Duke does shine hint that he has what it takes to make a great album. His skills just needs some honing. For instance, “A Part of Me” is a glorious gem that nods to Duke’s pop sensibilities. He knows how to craft a catchy, beautifully tight song — he simply avoids the paradigm on most of the album.

Instead, Duke veers toward meandering melodies and drowsy rhythms, underscored by more beeps and whirls than an Atari videogame soundtrack. Often the result is so mish-mashed that the rhythmic devices and electronic filler overwhelm his vocals. (Self-released)

www.myspace.com/williamdukepresents

-Christopher Petro

AG Cubano — Six50 “California Lifestyle”

Produced and engineered by True School, P the Fool, No Bliss, Gino and Electric Juice

Mastered by D.E.O. at Official Bizzness Studios

The new 22-song album from the Bay Area’s AG Cubano is a perfect example of both what good hyphy should and shouldn’t sound like. With a style ranging from deep, down and dirty club songs all the way to soul-sampled hip-hop, AG Cubano succeeds, in many cases, in making the tracks his own.

Six50: “California Lifestyle” doesn’t completely start off on a strong note, though. Album opener “The Truth” has a beat that is a little bit hard to get into and the groove just seems to play on and on without a hook or melody to keep it grounded. It isn’t until “6 Fif Biz feat. T-Mizz” comes on that listeners get a taste of what an excellent hyphy club track sounds like. With a simple beat placed beneath some of the dark synthesizers, this track is set to make any dance floor just blow up. “Angel Dust” sounds like it could easily have been on Dr. Dre’s early ‘90s classic The Chronic, complete with a funky bass line and a laidback beat. Some of the best samples come from both “I Get High” and “If You Know feat. Gung Ho.” The former features a sample from an old soul number and the latter features a sample from none other than Led Zeppelin — it works out quite well even though guest emcee Gung Ho sounds a bit too much like Atlanta’s Ludacris.

There’s a point on the album, however, when the songs start sounding the same. “Fresh Dipped” and “All On the Line” are great dance tracks, but they just end up sounding like cast-offs of earlier songs. Just because the formulas work once, doesn‘t mean they will again. This effort is definitely an album for the hip-hop heads — others may find it to be a bit too redundant. (Richland Records)

www.myspace.com/agcubano

-Casey O’Neill

James Sasser — The Melcliff

Mixed by Greg Sasser and Erik Dewhurst

Mastered by Erik Dewhurst

The title of this self-released CD is a reference to the apartment building where James Sasser lived and wrote most of the songs on the album. It’s an apt title, as these warm, homespun country and folk tunes have the intimate feel of a small living room performance.

What is immediately striking about this album is its simplicity. The playing and recording style of most of the material on it is free of any fancy fretwork or studio trickery. In fact, the lo-fi production sounds like it was actually put together at The Melcliff. This feature isn’t a limitation, however, as it gives the songs the immediacy of eavesdropping on a conversation in the next room. The accompaniment (brother Greg Sasser on drums, Phoebe Osborn on bass) adheres to a “straight line” policy, as well, adding only the barest essentials to move the songs forward. This tendency is especially true of the percussion — Greg Sasser’s drumming is wisely restrained, bolstered instead by a healthy dose of tambourine and shakers.

It is actually the rare moment of indulgence that drags everything down. The most blatant example is the over-the-top Southern rock song, “Ouija Board With Linda McCartney.” Unlike the rest of the album, this track features a crunchy guitar line reminiscent of Lynyrd Skynyrd and a more punchy vocal attack by Sasser. It seems so out of place alongside the pleasant, unadorned songs that precede it.

Thankfully, it is the only blot on an otherwise spotless piece of work and something that can be easily avoided with the skip button on a CD player. Every other song can and should have the opposite effect, encouraging listeners to skip back and listen again to the inviting, invigorating songs by Sasser and his band. (Self-released)

www.jamessasser.com

-Bob Ham

Fear of Dolls — Lullabies For Aborted Children

Mastered by Greg Brooks at RFI

The band’s press release states “Fear of Dolls is arguably one of the most deliberately strange avant-garde rock bands anywhere.” The key word here is “deliberately,” as in aspiring to be strange. Butthole Surfers are the apparent main influence throughout Lullabies, from the psychedelic vibe to the innocent/disturbing juxtaposition of artwork and sounds. For example, a toy piano and a child’s toy generating an ambulance sound are utilized in intentionally disturbing contrast with a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Sister Mercy.” Strange moments and bands in popular music are referenced in bounds, from The Residents’ dissonant nursery rhymes to The Boredoms’ layered vocal experiments to “Revolution #9”‘s backwards tape loops. While Fear of Dolls’ music can be enjoyable, it’s sad to say it’s just not weird to be strange anymore. It’s an established genre of its own.

As the title suggests, “She Was Laughing” has a Residents-inspired breakdown (literally) where the drums stutter and vocalist Bonnie Suval stops singing and starts giggling like a caricature of a Japanese schoolgirl on acid. It’s hardly apparent that Suval is a talented vocalist until she really starts to sing on “Mercy.” “The Prettiest Song” is a seriously brutal trip, with Suval’s hysterical ranting and screaming and Greg Forschall’s hellish sludge guitar recalling Italy’s Ovo. “Can You Get Through Her Open Sores?” is a climbing, slow-burn of a masterpiece that utilizes a simple, repeating melody and a xylophone to create a haunting mix of childlike innocence and pain that is authentic. It’s the beginning of a band developing its own voice, channeling a “strangeness” that is emotive rather than novel. (Self-released)

www.fearofdolls.com

-Jake Rose

Ed Masuga — Ed Masuga

Recorded at Holly Street by BKP

Ed Masuga is inseparable from his music. He has been caught playing guitar and singing while backpacking — even while actually hiking. A veteran of sorts, he begins his pursuit of music as a career with this 10-song self-titled release. The album blends rock and folk to display a universally sweet sound that comes purely from musical talent and sincerity. Without electronics or fancy studio tricks, the fundamental style is reminiscent of a natural and rugged place.

The album is mostly acoustic, accentuating Masuga’s finger picking and his engaging, strong voice. Garnishing the album is the occasional snare drum keeping the beat, a brief harmonica display, a discreet bass and a high steel guitar. In “Arizona“ and “Language of My Love,” Masuga uses his finger picking and crooning to create a cleverly melodic tune while sending out a message of sadness and satisfaction. “Bad Mouth Bastard” and “Kicked Out” have a Neil Young downbeat with lyrics that paint genuine descriptions of distinct situations and emotions. These driving songs can cause some of the slower songs to appear less consequential at first. As a whole, the album has the ability to carry the listener to a far away place and mood. And although the lyrics and sound construct a feeling of longing, it is a content place.

Recorded in an Arizona ghost town, Masuga’s album proves that age-old simplicity and honesty are both effective and soothing. This Berkeley, California resident plays all the instruments on his album and has started gaining notoriety by playing in small venues and coffee shops around the Bay Area. Here, he has created something that is perfect for road trips, a before-sleep listen, or when a mix of Belle and Sebastian and Bob Dylan is in order. (Self-released)

www.edmasuga.com

-Jessica Martinez

Little Yellow Perfect — Simple Devices

Recorded and engineered by Karl Derfler at Bayview Studios in Richmond, CA

Mixed by Boone Spooner at Flying Kitchen in San Francisco, CA

Mastered by Michael Romanowski at Paul Stubblebine Mastering in San Francisco, CA

Produced by Little Yellow Perfect, with pre-production by Karl Derfler

Noted Bay Area dance-rock band Little Yellow Perfect is set to release its full-length album, Simple Devices, following the 2005 EP This City and All of the Cities. Reminiscent of bands like The Killers, Silversun Pickups and fellow Bay Area residents Every Move a Picture, Little Yellow Perfect’s lyrics are haunting, their beats equally as catchy. Despite such comparisons, though, Little Yellow Perfect is distinct in its own danceable blend, combining simple lyrics with guitar licks and occasional synth elements.

The lyrics “C’mon what you trying to say / C’mon what are you trying to sell,” are not complicated, allowing the listener’s focus to remain on the beat and the smoothness of Cris Logan’s vocals. It’s hard to keep your feet from tapping during “Television” — the use of the guitar, though seemingly scratchy, helps carry the song to the very last beat, making it easy to envision hearing it on heavy rotation at the hipster clubs very soon. “Water Music (For People Who Can’t Swim)“ starts off with Logan’s seductive, smooth vocals and breaks quickly into the most straightforward and contagious chorus on the album (it’s simply the title repeated twice). Logan’s voice is especially haunting and alluring in this song, destined to be a favorite amongst the female sector.

Simple Devices sounds like it is split into two different parts: the first few songs seamlessly transition into one another while the last few tracks carry more of an electro-pop feel. Little Yellow Perfect pulls off this feat by sustaining an infectious nature throughout the album. The only thing that Simple Devices is lacking is more songs. With only nine tracks, Little Yellow Perfect leaves listeners anxious for the next album. (Wax Orchard Records)

www.littleyellowperfect.com

-Allison Bloch