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The Dead Good: 13 Polaroids

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The Dead Good is Isabella Knight (Vocals) and Sonny Lanegan (White Pulp)(Guitars/Vocals), a German-Italian duo currently based in Los Angeles. Thirteen Polaroids is their first EP.

Despite the name there are only six songs on the EP, but they are six excellent grimy, bluesy punk rock songs that will wake you up and clear the cobwebs away. The following are three tracks that I thought were especially notable.

First, Junk Nation, which is actually the first song on the EP. The first 15 seconds got my attention – fuzzy, echo-y pulses of electronica are almost always a good sign – and the remaining three and half minutes minutes of what I can only describe as a blues-industrial stew lightly spiced with poppy handclaps convinced me to listen to the whole record.
 

 
Second, Room 106, which is the closest they get to anything that might be described as “mellow.” You could put this on while making yourself a snack after a long night out carousing.
 

 
And finally Through Your Bones, because the ominous fuzzy guitars augmented by spare, delicate percussion resonate on my favorite slightly creepy frequency.
 

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Two Songs from: Z Berg

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Photo by Tennessee Thomas

Z Berg (JJAMZ, The Like) has kicked off her solo career with some acoustic tunes. There are four altogether, all quite good. The acoustic format showcases both her voice – sunny with a touch of smoke, delicate, sweet but not cloyingly so – and the glimmering sharpness of the lyrics.

These two are the ones I particularly like.

First up: Charades, which I have a feeling is the one I will be humming while walking barefoot in summer rainstorms from now on:
 

 
And second: I Fall For the Same Face, which is for anyone who has ever, like me, looked at the rogue’s gallery of their objets d’affection and muttered I have a type and a problem with rueful amusement.
 

 
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Echo Bloom: Blue

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Cover art by John Whitlock

 
Echo Bloom is: Kyle Evans (guitar, vocals), Aviva Jaye (piano, vocals), Steve Sasso (banjo, vocals), Josh Grove (guitar, vocals), Jason Mattis (bass) and Shareef Taher (percussion), and they are currently based in Brooklyn. Blue is their first record as a full band, and it is a lush, complex and delicate folk-pop creation.

Some examples of their delightful tunes:

Fireworks is the lead single; I like it for the sweet melody and also for the simple, powerful, evocation/illustration of the experience of watching fireworks:
 

 
And then there is Cedar Beach, which I love because it’s a story about a golem as a sea creature:
 

 
And finally, Seeds, because I always enjoy a good solid love song:
 

 
 

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AF THE NAYSAYER feat. Myka Nyne, Imagerial Denouement

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There are actually two songs here; I’ve embedded them together rather than separately because they flow into each other so neatly and naturally.

The first one is Imagerial Denouement by AF THE NAYSAYER, with Myka Nyne on vocals. The second song has the same name, but is an instrumental track.

They are, collectively, a little bit funky and a little bit bluesy and all excellent.
 

 

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Two Songs From: We Are The West

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Reasons I sometimes wish I lived in Los Angeles, #8781323: We Are The West host and perform in a concert series in the underground parking garage of an office building in Santa Monica the Saturday night before each full moon.

I’m not going to say anything else. I’m just going to let y’all listen to my two favorite songs, and contemplate what it would be like to hear them deep in the earth, amid steel and stone.


 

 

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Tallahassee: Old Ways

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Tallahassee is: Brian Barthelmes (Vocals, Guitar, Banjo, Resonator), Scott Thompson (Guitar, Banjo, Keys), Shawn Carney (Electric Bass, Upright Bass) and Matt Raskopf (Drums, Percussion), and they are from Rhode Island, not Florida.

Despite taking their name from a Native American word meaning “Old Town” and calling their most recent record “Old Ways,” this is not a band that is facing backwards or hewing closely to traditional lines. Or at least not just one traditional line; their tunes are a rich stew of country, blues, and funk lightly spiced with shoegaze, the kind of thing that will warm you up and stick to your ribs at the same time.

These are three of my favorite songs from the record:

Old Brown Shoes: Because Meet me down at the Greyhound station / What have you got left to lose resonates in weird ways right now, mainly because I’ve spent a lot of time on the bus these last couple of months. Sometimes it’s been awful; other times it’s been shared hash browns and shared stories in the chilly light of dawn.
 

 
Riding With the Devil: I don’t ramble as much as I used to, but I’d still sing this song around a campfire, while toasting marshmellows for s’mores.
 

 
Minor Blues IV: It was a tie between this one and I’ll Be Damned; I finally picked this one to share to highlight the way they weave shoegaze shimmer and drone between funk bounce in deft and interesting ways.
 

 
And in conclusion, here are some pictures of them from a recent show at the Bowery Electric, in New York:
 


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Two Songs from: Lance Whalen

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Lance Whalen is singer/songwriter from Nashville via Kentucky. The tracks below are from Sweet Sugar Pie, his latest EP. It is a collection of fan favorites, and, y’all, his fans have excellent taste.

There are four songs on the EP, and it was hard to choose two to share because they are all just delicious.

I picked the first one, the title track, because it one has one of the best song-as-marriage-proposal-lyrics I’ve ever heard: Stay with me / just for one life / you can bring all of your books / and dress all in white.
 

 
And this one because it is a strange beautiful love story:
 

 

He’s headed out on tour next Monday; be sure to check his listings and get out to see him if he’s playing near you!
 

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El Sportivo & the Blooz, Nights & Weekends

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Nights & Weekends, the new record from El Sportivo & the Blooz, is aptly named; this could be music for the after-hours, for unwinding and spinning down. Or it could be company for the dark hours of the third shift. It definitely is high-quality smooth country funk – sippin’ whisky for the soul, if you will.
 

 

The songs have a sneaky hypnotic quality. Sneaky in the sense that days may pass between the time you listen to a song and the time you find yourself singing it to yourself while doing the dishes; hypnotic in the sense that it is easy to become wholly absorbed by the bright ribbon of pedal steel twining through the crashing guitars, and forget all about the dishes.
 

 
That’s okay, though, the dishes can wait, because it’s time to grab your sweetie and slow dance around the kitchen.
 

 
Other notes: El Sportivo (Daron Hollowell, co-founder of Black Iris and White Iris) is actually a man with two bands: The Blooz, on the West Coast, and the Dirty Palms, on the East. They play the same songs, though, and should either name appear in your concert listings this year, get out and see them. I promise it will be refreshing.
 

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Two Songs From: Night Engine

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Night Engine are from London, England. They only have four songs; I’ve picked these two because I listened to them and immediately wanted a) acquire all of their music and b) lace up my boots and go out dancing.

This is I’ll Make It Worth Your While, and, darlings, THEY WILL. Click that button, you won’t regret it:
 

 
This is Seventeen, which takes a minute to get into gear but when it does it takes off like bounce and swagger-fueled rocket:
 

 

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Empires: Live in Chicago

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Empires, scrappy little band of my heart (North American division) have made a live album. Recorded last September at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, it showcases Empires in all of their grimy, bluesy glory.

Check it out:

 

 

 

 

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