Chicago/NY duo French Horn Rebellion recently did a remix of a band we featured a little while ago, This Is Ivy League (we included the track below). But the band, which features the Brothers Perlick-Molinari, David you you might know as the producer of first MGMT EP, also have a brand new full-length out now, which they’re supporting with a tour this fall.

I don’t know a whole lot about the band, and I was quite honestly a little disappointed when their music didn’t include any (identifiable) french horns, but their music is certainly fun, and made me dance a little bit in my desk chair, which is enough for me. Check out the track “Up All Night” from the new album (which sounds like a seizure-laced acid trip) and their remix of “London Bridges” (which sounds like the end credits to a Sega Genesis game) after the jump.

They won’t be playing in Austin, but they will be through Dallas if anyone up North is interested, at The Door on August 30th. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play more John Madden Football ‘92.

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Through a veil of snare fills and murky feedback, Preteen Weaponry stammers into existence. This umpteenth album from Oneida is meant to be listened to as one song, divided nicely into three distinct parts (or “movements” if you prefer), all recorded in the same day. It’s slow and persistent, a challenging album at best, but one of the most intelligent and primitively enjoyable releases of the year from a band who’s never received even half the credit they deserve.

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My initial thoughts on hearing “Los Dos Bros” concerned the close and unfortunate similarity between their name and “Los Dude-Bros”, which is a) hilarious, and b) my least favorite sub-demographic of white people. As such, I was thoroughly perplexed when I found out their new album Songs For Feeling Strong wasn’t a ode to Forty’s, , and . In fact, it’s one of those albums that a) kind of sounds like classic rock but has enough violins, horns and good lyrics to shy away from the oldies-tribute genre, and b) is really good.

The Los Dos Bros formed in March of this year out of the remnants of HATAPCO (aka Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective) following the abandonment of their drummer while on tour with Louis XIV. Now only half a year later, the duo have two releases out: a full length titled Greek Gods in the West and the shorter Songs For Feeling Strong (from which I pulled “Start All Over Again”).

“Start All Over Again” is a good sampling of the album as a whole. Bearing the inviting warmth of the analog 24-track to which it was recorded, “Start All Over Again” is equal parts pop music, with sweet melodies and strong vocals, and something entirely different, with pseudo-psychedelic guitar tones and torrential buildups. There’s nothing better than a band prepared to keep their listeners entertained while still venturing to cover new ground. Los Dos Bros do just that (and record it all to tape too).

Check out “Start All Over Again” after the jump, as well as another cut from the album, “Time Changes Everything” (originally a Tommy Duncan song), which sounds like it may as well be a lost track from Cake’s Comfort Eagle.

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Bark Hide and Horn sound like the bottom of a bottle of whiskey slowly running out while the night’s not quite done. Solemn trumpet solos and the occasional bell part punctuate the sparse arrangement of drums and guitars, the reserved croon of lead singer Andy Furgeson proudly standing in the forefront. Recovering from the feeling of despair that haunts a first listen (despite the marginally joyful melodies that carry the song), I was able to look further into the story of the band’s debut full length titled National Road, which is as interesting as the song itself, if not more so.

Drawing their songwriting inspiration from Furgeson’s obsession with Melville Bell Grosvenor, editor of National Geographic Magazine from 1957-67, the lyrics of “Treasure of the Everglades”, off National Road, confront their seemingly odd subject with solemnity, leading off with the line “I think the rainy days are over, the season is getting late / if you slime(?) your body over, would you let me be your mate?”, followed shortly after by a chorus of “Do you ever feel like you’re dying darlin’, do you ever feel like you’re dyin’?”. True to its “literary” influences, the entire song is a strange, but all together perfect personally emotional imagining of a subject more apt to be covered by scientific observation than music: snail mating.

Leaving aside the fantastic music the lyrics are set to, the story in the song is both comical, endearing, melodramatic and at times everything in between. “I love the way you wear your shell,” sings Furgeson, commenting on his potential snail-lover’s dashing physical appearance and inviting a chuckle from casual listeners and Snailogists alike. But as I eluded to earlier, the sense of despair in the musical arrangements is equally present in the lyrics; “If we were the last of our kind darlin’,” the speaker eventually asks, “would you let me into your shell?”. A metaphor for life? Perhaps. Another cheesy love song? Equally probable, but either way, Bark Hide and Horn handle it with skill, churning out a small masterpiece.

Have a listen to “Treasure of the Everglades” off the new LP National Road after the jump, and then (if you live in the Portland area) check out their CD release show on August 16th (more info here).

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Having seen Micah P. Hinson and Sarah Jaffe open for Will Johnson only about 20 times, I can highly recommend checking them out as they release new CD’s along with Dove Hunter tonight at Stubb’s.

The new Hinson album, which is called Micah P Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra, is streaming in its entirety on LastFM right now, and I must say it’s entirely fantastic, and that now three LP’s in, Hinson somehow continues to release albums that are everything I could ask for in a pseudo-folk record. The new album is available on Jade Tree Records in the US and Full Time Hobby in the UK, where he’ll be touring all fall (see below for dates).

As excited as I am to see Hinson again, the real excitement tonight is for the long awaited release of the first real EP from Denton folkstress Sarah Jaffe, titled Ever Born Again. Jaffe you may remember from when she opened for Centron-matic/South San Gabriel at their Austin unveiling of Dual Hawks this past summer, or any number of other times she been through Austin recently. I’ll be honest: Jaffe may be my favorite artist coming out of Denton, or even all of Texas, at the moment. If you had to “classify” her, you might tag her as ‘folk’, if only to account for her knack for terribly perfect lyrics and love of a big acoustic guitar. You can hear most of the EP on her myspace right now.

Judging from the few tracks I’ve heard off Dove Hunter’s debut album The Southern Unknown, they sound like an oddly Southern version of Califone, which is of course a very good thing. The album, which was named Most Highly Anticipated Album of 2007 by the Dallas Observer, has been generating enough hype to kill a small child. I haven’t heard the full album yet, but from what I’ve been reading it lives up to the hype quite nicely.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the ATM to stock up on cash for all these great albums tonight.

Show Info:
Micah P. Hinson / Sarah Jaffe / Dove Hunter
At: Stubbs (inside)
August 9th, 2008
Doors: 9pm
Tickets: $8 (via Front Gate Tickets)

Micah P. Hinson UK Tour Dates:

15th august 2008 palais du grande large - la route du rock, st. malo, france
31st august 2008 electric picnic, stradbally
2nd september 2008 club ifor bach, cardiff
3rd september 2008 holy trinity church, leeds, uk
4th september 2008 academy 2, liverpool, uk
6th september 2008 frig & fiddle, cheltenham, uk
7th september 2008 bestival, bbc stage, isle of wight
9th september 2008 junction 2, cambridge, uk
10th september 2008 bodega, nottingham, uk
12th september 2008 end of the road festival uk
2nd november 2008 stereo glasgow uk [0844 847 2487]
3rd november 2008 the cluney newcastle uk [0191 230 4474]
4th november 2008 ruby lounge manchester uk [0161 832 1111]
5th november 2008 glee club birmingham uk [0871 472 0400]
6th november 2008 scala london uk [020 7833 2022]
8th november 2008 thekla bristol uk [08713 100 000]
9th november 2008 wedgewood rooms portsmouth uk [023 9286 3911]
10th november 2008 norwich arts centre norwich uk [01603 660 352]
11th november 2008 the zodiac@academy oxford uk [0844 477 2000]
12th november 2008 hanbury club brighton uk [01273 606312]

I’m crazy for rock music with dance beats. Every band at one point or another has employed the Kick-Hat-Snare-Hat trick, most notably Franz Ferdinand on every song they’ve ever made (give or take a few). The beauty of it is, I never tire of the rhythm; every time I hear it my foot starts tapping, and my hands instinctively grab two pencils to drum along with. Of course it helps when the rest of the music is good, you can’t found a band on a sweet dance beat alone - believe me, I’ve tried.

That’s where bands like San Francisco’s The New Up come in. With the classic dance beat (plus tambourine) to drive the song and psychedelic alt-rock soul to carry the rest, The New Up easily make for a band worth your ear for at least the time it takes to play through their new EP Broken Machine (about 25 minutes).

As much as I emphasize the dance beat, the rest of the EP has more variety, although the entire thing is oddly reminiscent of the good-ol-days of alt-rock, especially bands like The Pixies and The Smashing Pumpkins. Despite the darker leanings of the distorted guitars, like alt-rock heroes of past, The New Up never fail to create catchy pop melodies that are just begging to be sung along with (think “Waves of Mutilation”). Of course, further reflection yields the surprising difference from the obvious alt-rock comparisons, mostly due to the band’s casual psychedelic tendencies. I’ll let you do the further reflection on your own though.

Have a listen to “Top Of The Stairs”, the song that has the dance beat that got me all excited earlier in this post, right after the jump.

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