J's Indie/Rock Mayhem - 9th November 2011

[Welcome to another edition of J's Indie/Rock Mayhem. I had the 3/4ths of the fantastic Bombadil stop by and play some songs and talk about their new record, All That the Rain Promises. It was a fantastic show and I greatly appreciated them coming by.

Now, onward.]

J's Indie/Rock Podcast: 9th November 2011 show

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
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Surfer Blood - "Miranda" [from tarot classics. got to see these guys open for the pixies this past week here in greensboro. good show, though the big auditorium atmosphere didn't compliment their sound well. catch these guys in a club, i'd say.]
Morphine - "Murder for the Money" [from like swimming. ah, morphine. one of the more truly unique sounding bands of the 90s. we miss you, sandman.]
Fountains of Wayne - "Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart" [from sky full of holes. i had sworn off this song until the end of the year, but i had to as i just found out that the band will be playing at the cat's cradle in carborro on saturday, february 11th. very excited.]
Silver Jews - "Strange Victory, Strange Defeat" [from lookout mountain, lookout sea. a shame that this guy hung it up.]
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M83 - "Reunion" [from the excellent hurry up, we're dreaming. this is what i call great pop music. we'll hear more.]
Elastica - "Car Song" [from their self-titled debut. still, far and away, one of my favorite records of the 90s.]
Tom Waits - "Satisfied" [from bad as me. check out the fantastic video for this song. really one of the best from the new album.]
Paul Chastain - "Halo" [the title track from this 1985 EP. paul chastain is, of course, best known as a member of the velvet crush, another favorite band of this show's.]
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Big Troubles - "She Smiles For Pictures" [from romantic comedy. i should probably hang up this record for awhile. bound for year-end best-of.]
John Prine - "Paradise" [from his self-titled debut. prine has a new collection of early demos from this time period, the singing mailman delivers, that is a nice collection of work from this time period as well.]
P.G. Six - "Palace" [from starry mind. this is a record i've been struggling with a bit. it doesn't quite take off enough, but i'm telling you, the last 2 or 3 minutes of this song are worth the slow pace of the beginning.]
the Flying Burrito Brothers - "Sin City" [from the gilded palace of sin. my parsons kick continues.]
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Beirut - "East Harlem" [from their latest, the rip tide. beirut will be at the cat's cradle on thursday, december 8th, and man, they are seriously one of the best live shows i've ever seen, so get on it.]
the Clean - "Big Soft Punch" [originally from 1990's vehicle it's also from merge records' excellent 2003 anthology. a new zealand band you definitely need to hear if you have not.]
Dum Dum Girls - "Coming Down" [from the excellent only in dreams. get this album.]
X - "Soul Kitchen" [from los angeles, their cover of the doors. helped that ray manzarek was producing the album. i have another doors cover up for next week and it's a doozy.]
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Future Islands - "The Great Fire" [from on the water. really enjoying this record the more i listen to it.]
Midnight Oil - "My Country" [from earth and sun and moon. i miss midnight oil. wish i'd gotten to see them live at some point.]
Male Bonding - "Tame the Sun" [from endless now. probably one of my favorite singles of this year. no doubt.]

[Here's where I was visited by James, Bryan and Daniel of Bombadil. They have a new record out called All That the Rain Promises and we talked about that, their unexpected hiatus the other year, working on Ramseur Records and they played a few great songs for us as well. Check 'em out below and the interview on the podcast.]

Bombadil - "Laundromat" (live) [all of the tracks played tonight were from the new album, all that the rain promises. click here to listen.]
Bombadil - "The Pony Express" (live) [again, a song from the new album. click here to listen.]
Bombadil - "Unicycle" (live) [from the new album. click here to listen.]
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Bombadil - "One Whole Year" [also from the new album.]
Girls - "My Ma" [from father, son and holy ghost. check out this excellent live performance of the song courtesy of pitchfork. really awesome.]
The La's - "There She Goes" [from their one and only self-titled album. ah, pop music.]

That'll do it for this week. I'll be back next week with more great new music. Until then, take care.

Now Departing: Bombadil - A buzz, a buzz

Bombadil
A buzz, a buzz
(Ramseur ; 2008)

The touch of the familiar has always been a selling point in music. But it's also been the cornerstone for bands and artists that have a vision beyond the familiar. Whenever I think of groups that were rooted in the classic while plumbing a broader sense of style, I can't help but think of the Pogues, a band whose foundation in Irish folk traditions allowed it to pivot around the genres of punk and trad-rock with ease, painting a brilliant canvas of where music had been and could go. American indie-rock has seen an upswell of bands like this in the past number of years - the Avett Brothers and, lately, Megafaun have been channeling rustic and classic traditions as a base to create amazingly fresh sounds by mixing them with various American musical styles. Add to the list another North Carolina band - Durham, North Carolina's Bombadil. A buzz, a buzz, the first full-length from Bombadil, has its foundations in folk and country, but it sends its feelers out through the fractured compositions of the indie landscape, grabbing sounds as varied as the minimalism of Spoon and even the woozy-pop of Jon Brion.

The album is a kaleidoscope of moods and sounds, though the record has an unabashedly sunny disposition. The opening track is a spare piano, winsome lyrics, lonely and hopeful before the dynamic true-opener of "Julian of Norwich." If there's a song on this record that reminds me most in style of the Pogues, it's this one - a bounding, traditional English folk ballad down to the horns, pipes and percussive cadence. It's boisterous and rowdy in the way the Pogues were at their best. It's followed by one of three coy and spry songs that dot the album - "Smile When You Kiss" (and the similar "Three Saddest Words") are songs that skip and bubble along with word play and a warm sense of humor. They're purposefully very light and goofy in a way that recalls how Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan could be silly at times. Bombadil aren't the equal of those songwriters by any means, but they have the spirit down nicely.

The title track is the first song to really put to work the notion that Bombadil's folk stance is highly workable as a platform to explore other genres. Driven by rhythmic piano chords, the song is taken up by off-kilter percussion and bass, organic musical noise and bursts of odd harmonics that become more and more infectious upon listening. It recalls the ingenious minimalism of Spoon in its tendency to have parts fall in and out of the song, adding and taking away from the overall picture, leaving ghosts of sounds behind to fill in at times.

The songs "Cavaliers Har Hum" and "Johnny" both mirror the wobbly pop of Jon Brion, with horns, piano and the stray xylophone wandering amidst the song structure. "Johnny" is the best example of this - a somewhat sardonic song about an over-emotional boy, it climaxes among punctuating brass and cymbals. Bombadil remains within the established instrumentation of the record, but bends it to take on the sensibilities of other artists so well in appropriating it for their own. It's a remarkable skill that not a lot of bands always have the talent or patience to do.

Whether North Carolina is beginning to craft a new scene is unclear, but the amazing work of bands like Bombadil is without question. So is the quality of their debut full-length, a record that is as sharp and provoking as it is flat-out enjoyable.

Rating: E(xcellent)

(Rating scale: A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y)

Judge For Yourself:

Bombadil - "Julian of Norwich"

Bombadil - "Three Saddest Words"

Download A buzz, a buzz from eMusic.