PIGEONHOLED

Decent video, killer song. Psychedelic trio Capsula hail from Buenos Aires, Argentina and come from a long line of South American psych-rock :: most famously Brazil’s Os Mutantes. Capsula adds a touch of glam worship (their name comes from a line in Bowie’s “Space Oddity”) and voila! trippy, haunting, throw-back, fashionable rock grooves that sound like a more produced, less jammy take on Thee Oh Sees. They played SXSW in Austin, TX and San Miguel Primavera Sound in Barcelona last year to follow up their April 2011 release, In The Land of Silver Souls, but seem to have gone into hiding of late…

sunshaking:

Capsula ‘Sun Shaking’ Official Promo Video for Capsula new album ‘Rising Mountains’. Directed by Kenneth Santos. Produced by The Park

For anybody interested in readin bout Roo outside of detached opinions offered by the major blogs, our friends over at Gadfly, a locally owned and operated cultural news outlet, were kind enough to host my ramblings. 

Catcall - “The World Is Ours” 

Australian superbabe Catcall’s debut single from the May 4th album The Warmest Place is a squeaky-clean, gum drop pop anthem. With a great chord progression as the foundation, shiny and yes, warm production, and Catherine Kelleher’s knack for cute, smooth vocal hooks leaves you pushing repeat so you can stay floating in the clouds. During the summer when the world is about driving fast with the windows down and drinking beer in fields, Catcall’s sugar-sweet encouragement is welcome. Just try and not dance to Kitty Cat’s feel-good, 80’s diva pop gem. You ready? 

“Doused”

The dark side of the Real Estate-spearheaded lazy, trippy summer indie sound. DIIV is Zachary Cole Smith of Beach Fossils’ side project and an up-and-comer on Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks label. A killer bass line keeps this groove paddling through a stormy sea of gloomy, nightmarish guitar licks. Tension-filled, driving, and shimmeringly pretty, listen to this one in your bed with your headphones on during a thunderstorm, ideally by the light of an oil lamp powered with whale blubber - there’s something Moby Dick about this track. 

Dustin Wong

The sheer amount of musical space in this kid’s head is impressive. Formerly of the Baltimore art rock group Ponytail, Dustin Wong makes all his music himself now, quite literally. The virtuosic guitarist uses around eight foot pedals (most fundamentally a loop) and his Springsteen-style Telecaster to weave layers of sound, according to him like a textile factory, into gorgeous landscapes that feel like dreams, acid trips, and a little bit of what I imagine dying to be like. You can get lost it in; after a minute or two into each song, it becomes hard to distinguish the piles of different guitar parts, but that’s the point. To let the rich texture and atmosphere envelope you in a gentle cyclone of introspection and build to an emotional catharsis. Falling somewhere between art rock and post-rock, but with a keen ear for pop songwriting, Wong creates music that is unique and compelling. His new album, Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads dropped February 23^rd on Thrill Jockey and is a 16-song vacation to wherever you want to go. Wong leaves artifacts of his influences in his songs, like the nostalgic doo-wop bassline in “Purple Slipped Right” or the fast-paced reggae groove of “On/In The Way” that somehow develops to feel like a melody you’d here in Xi’an during the Zhou Dynasty. Wong has obviously treaded onto some uncharted territory. It’s musically intricate and accelerated – each song like a mini-symphony – but at the same time quite accessible; a collection of lullabies for any age or disposition. Wong attempts to touch the intangible, and does a bang-up job. 

“Born of a bottle, from heaven’s hand, and now you know and here I am.”

It’s comforting that there are musicians out there still confident in the power and virtue of simple, raw, and energetic rock and roll. In an indie scene plagued by the influence of dance-pop, our ADD generation seems to be satisfied by trite, overt hooks swimming in a mire of the most up-to-date synth tones. Vocals are drowned in effects and drummers are replaced by machines. Amongst this cultural shitstorm of live-updating feeds and blogs touting the next-best thing every hour, there is a timelessness to what Japandroids have done here. “The House That Heaven Built” is a visceral, churning, and utterly genuine testament to youth. Guitarist and lead vocalist Brian King’s lyrics are not veiled in the intentionally archaic. Japandroids have nothing to hide about themselves or their message. King’s scream-sing punches you in the gut without apology, “And if they try to slow you down, tell them all to go to hell.” The sheer force generated from this duo is impressive, thanks to patient, thunderous drums and walls of distorted guitar. These two regular-ass guys from Vancouver have somehow captured the desperation, hopelessness, anger, and fear of being a young person in our world right now and found hope and inspiration in wild nights, big cities, and each other. Japandroids are the kids Craig Finn sings about. Instead of storytelling mystique, we get brutal honesty in the moment of its inception, and though there are nods to Hold Steady-style songwriting (choral oh oh oh’s and the major chord drone of an opening riff), it feels more real. It’s a punk mentality with a rock n’ roll heart that builds in intensity the entire song. A perfect soundtrack for the summer, “The House That Heaven Built” makes me believe in myself and the world again. The full LP, Celebration Rock, is out June 5^th.

Donate to Xavii’s Kickstarter by clicking the link embedded in the title of this post!!

noiseseen:

Xavii is an experimental progressive rock band from Macon, Georgia. Xavii has made a name for itself in the past year in Macon forming rhythmically sophisticated rock music and challenging listeners. Having developed enough music of our own—rehearsed at home and refined at gigs around town—we eagerly are in production of next upcoming album.  We are put forward all our resources into production of a home made album to be apart of the Macon Noise Records collection. 

This moment we are spending countless hours in Macon Noise studios recordings and mixing our album. We ask for your help to pay for  the digital “mastering” process that makes the songs ready for CD/Tape, and the physical printing of the disc and tapes.  By participating in this project, you will receive a copy of this new album in either digital, cd, or tape format. Think of your small reward donation as a pre-order with some possible added benefits. Help us also to raise some gas funds for our summer tour up the east coast withTrufflelina

Thank you to you for participating. Thanks to everyone who has come to shows, downloaded our music. Thanks to the venues that have welcomed us.  Thank you for helping this album. BIGGER THANKS to Kenneth Shearer for his continued support to the Macon Noise community with his contributed artwork for shows and album covers. Check out more of his artwork at: http://bemuffriend.wordpress.com/  or http://kennethshearerart.blogspot.com/

Also check out past Xavii tunes at http://xavii.bandcamp.com/..stay tuned for PREVIEWS of a DEMO from the new release.