Slipped Discs July 2014

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Sean Watkins

Sean Watkins

Initial Thoughts

July’s musical titles serve summer justice in steamy judgments, delivering sensuous defenses in truthful resolutions. Cross-examine duplicitous hooligans JOYCE MANOR’s overloaded blitzkrieg, “Never Hungover Again,” interrogate psych-folk poets THE SKYGREEN LEOPARDS’ sunshine-primed, “Family Crimes,” then sentence Nickel Creek’s bluegrass-master SEAN WATKINS’ sturdy, trustworthy, “All I Do Is Lie,” while condemning ruminating troubadour MATT KIVEL’s quietly insightful, “Days of Being Wild,” and unassuming neo-psychedelic crooners THE PROPER ORNAMENTS, tranquilizing, “Wooden Head.”


Disc Reviews


White Fence - To the Recently Found Innocent

White Fence - To the Recently Found Innocent

White Fence

Album title: To the Recently Found Innocent
Record Label: Drag City

A preening bohemian swaddled in caterwauling twang, uncurbed reverb and delicate psychedelics, White Fences’ Tim Presley blazes deeply between heady reverie and rabbit-hole reality. Dripping in mythical ripples rinsed in renaissance ruffles, “Innocent,” cements White Fences’ heightened hippie-rock senses; jamming in jagged cosmic jangle while groping dislocated ghosts and deconstructing cock-eyed looking-glass blues through sparkled chakras dressed in electric petticoats.

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Vulkano - Live Wild Die Free

Vulkano - Live Wild Die Free

Vulkano

Album title: Live Wild Die Free
Record Label: Vulkanomusik

Fed in shredded unvetted energy, drenched in effervescent discontent and buoyed by devilish bubblegum crunch, “Wild,” piles tribal-pop trials onto feverish Swedish punk from swishy witches dishing delicious dirt. Gleeful banshees ransacking mad-hatter attics, Vulkano’s tangled pagan bounce pounces and denounces, piloting untamed raves, frantic chants and game-changing bangers for synth-pinched party-time in sugar-shack shin-digs hosted by giddy little anarchists.

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Turn to Crime - Can’t Love

Turn to Crime - Can’t Love

Turn to Crime

Album title: Can’t Love
Record Label: Old Flame

Jack-hammered spooks grooving on chill-punk gotham-rock, the Detroit trio Turn to Crime’s charred barrage slithers in dank midnight sizzle; amniotic zombie soundtracks scrounging for seedy psychosis chasing impatient basement jollies. Flirting in diverting mercies, spastic gymnastics and minimalist kismet; “Can’t,” plants tattered mavericks in subterranean craniums as cage-rattling blasts poach kettle-quivering rhythms moving a mesmerizing hysteria headlong into post-modern purgatory.

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Landlady - Upright Behavior

Landlady - Upright Behavior

Landlady

Album title: Upright Behavior
Record Label: Home Tapes

Bemused truths produce demented descents as precocious notions step lightly within the clever, mega-inventive, “Upright,” poised between grand land-mine melodies and sophisticated parlor-pop mayhem. A wild, beguiling ride micro-managing the manic alongside the meticulous, Brooklyn-based Landlady’s uncanny shenanigans demand articulate conniptions from unquenchable quests; framing the band’s elegant experiments around snazzy free-jazz calamities dipped in conflicted sympathy and delectable intellect.

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Nonono - We Are Only What We Feel

Nonono - We Are Only What We Feel

Nonono

Album title: We Are Only What We Feel
Record Label: Warner Bros.

Frosted in cheeky mystique, NONONO’s arched marches and pouty pomp knit braided parades coiled in daredevil levels of mood-swing flings. Explosive pop-star parties collide beside fitful disco-queen dreams as fancy anthems pour scorching hopscotch bop over steel-edged gusto; the blissful, wistful, “Feel,” dances in Olympian victory laps coloring forthright flights from beat-featured ballads in post-romantic reds and cool neon blues.

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John Hiatt - Terms of My Surrender

John Hiatt - Terms of My Surrender

John Hiatt

Album title: Terms of My Surrender
Record Label: New West

Not going down without a fight, “Surrender,” delivers swinging pulp-fiction prescriptions inside stinging country-blues and Cajun-flavored folk blending broken souls howling in backwater train-yards with scrappy jackals laughing at obsessive confessors. The tender-hearted Haitt assisted by his savvy touring band, slow-cooks his character-driven narratives in vinegar and molasses; each tune brimming with simmering wisdom and affectionate connections to foolish pursuits.

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Final Thoughts

Whether courting support, offering solace or wrestling refuge, July fosters positive musical options from summer’s merciless persecution. Get onboard metaphorical story-teller PETER HIMMELMAN’s rich, folk-rock parables stowed in, “The Boat That Carries,” before considering level-headed indie-rock revisionists BEVERLY’s satin-finished dissidence, “Careers.” Hide in the unstoppable symphonic-pop optimist BRIGHT LIGHTS BRIGHT LIGHTS’ vibrant, rhythm-binged assignments, “Life Is Easy,” then seek much needed relief in cosmopolitan goddesses turned cyber-ghost coddlers WOMAN’S HOUR’s mink-lined, twilight-tinted, “Conversations,” before updating and upgrading possible doppelgangers in lucid dream-soul intruders CLOUD BOATS’ plush, electro-hushed, “Models of You.”