Sunday, June 11th, 2006

Sunday Cleaning – Volume 37

Levy / Rotten Love (One Little Indian)

Gothamites Levy crafts the soundtrack of beautifully coiffed people breaking each other’s hearts in the dim lights of the after-hours club. With the shimmering guitar work and lightly arch vocals, they owe more than a debt to the romanticism of classic British music, but there’s a certain laissez-faire, hipster cool quality to it all that’s intrinsically New York. At 10 songs and under half an hour in length, it’s just the right length to dry your eyes, down a cocktail and get back on the dance floor. Levy play the Drake Underground this Saturday night with The Two Koreas and killthelights.

MP3: Levy – “Rotten Love”
MP3: Levy – “In The Woods”
Video: Levy – “Rotten Love” (MOV)
Video: Levy – “Wednesday” (MOV)
Video: Levy – “On The Dance Floor” (MOV)
Levy @ MySpace
Levy @ Blogger

Portastatic / Who Loves The Sun (Merge)

Having successfully turned Portastatic into the new Superchunk with a two solid albums of full-on guitar rock, Mac McCaughan once again turns expectations on their head by making the project’s newest offering another film score for director Matt Bissonnette – Portastatic also scored his 2002 debut Looking For Leonard. Heavy on the strings and woodwinds, Who Loves The Sun has a light, breezy feel that is perfectly suited for background music, which is pretty much the point. Can anyone recommend for or against either of the films? They’ve both got Molly Parker in them, which is a plus in my books…

And Mac’s also got a Portaststic blog going, though he’s talking more about the Hurricanes-Oilers Stanley Cup finals than he is about his music.

MP3: Portastatic – “Lively Chase”
MP3: Portastatic – “Just Like A Real Book”
MP3: Portastatic – “Last Kiss Music”
Portastatic @ MySpace
Portastatic @ Blogger

Crystal Skulls / Outgoing Behaviour (Suicide Squeeze)

Make no mistake, Seattle’s Crystal Skulls can play their instruments. They also want very much to play pop music. The two are not mutually exclusive traits, but sometimes the former can get in the way of the latter a bit. Boasting pristine performances and production and a smooth, jazzy yet melodic sound, this record is a bit stuffy and chilly for my tastes but should be manna from heaven for those who would have been Steely Dan fans if they were twenty years older.

MP3: Crystal Skulls – “Baby Boy”
MP3: Crystal Skulls – “The Cosmic Door”
Crystal Skulls @ MySpace

np – The Stills / Without Feathers

By : Frank Yang at 9:31 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. 6/11/06 5:31 pm

     Dave says:

    off topic, but "Return To Sender" is the best song Mojave 3 ever did.

  2. 6/11/06 10:24 pm

     merckeda says:

    listening to The Stills? i’m baffled.

  3. 6/11/06 11:46 pm

     mike says:

    The Stills are better than some give ’em credit for. Really.

  4. 6/11/06 11:59 pm

     Frank says:

    I had a copy and I was trying to cram Canadian music for my Polaris nominees. It’s not a bad record, actually. much better than the first one.

  5. 6/15/06 9:05 pm

     jon says:

    "this record is a bit stuffy and chilly for my tastes but should be manna from heaven for those who would have been Steely Dan fans if they were twenty years older."
    You know, some of us are twenty years older.

  6. 6/18/06 10:27 pm

     andersonenvy says:

    LEVY sounds like coldplay

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