Savannah, Georgia rocks a good bit more now that these up-and-coming indie-rockers are taking the region by storm. “Worst Enemy” is a fantastic introduction to a band which features a lead singer as immediately ear-catching as Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O, with a crunching assault of guitars which more than supports the comparison. The song’s a slow builder, just the way I like it. Just a few echoed guitar chords provide the base for Angel Bond’s voice to reach into our heads and latch on. Then fifty seconds in the drums and guitar arrive full-force as Bond’s vocals fully take off.

The band won’t have an album to release until later this year, but with the fuse ably lit, expect Cusses to burn up the summer. I’ll definitely be keeping my ear to the ground for more from this group. They’ll be playing a handful of tour dates still in the coming weeks if you’re in Georgia, Tennessee or North Carolina, though for the rest of us the single, and the anticipation of more on that yet-to-be-issued debut album, will have to suffice.

May 31 – Savannah, GA – The Jinx

June 1 – Charlotte, NC – The Evening Muse

June 2 – Asheville, NC – The Lexington Ave Brewery
June 15 – Chattanooga, TN – JJ’s Bohemia

When all is said and done, I’ve got a great deal of respect for how classy the finale of House was tonight. It’s not every show which gets the opportunity to go out on terms which stay true to the characters, and then actually seizes that opportunity and runs for it. And to cap the show with Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart For A While” was inspired. The show certainly hit its highs and lows over the course of eight seasons … which quality show doesn’t? But in the end David Shore brought the house lights down with a quiet dignity few shows have managed in their swan song.

Leeds-based rockers Frenetics revive the classic muscular rhythms and ear-catching melodies of 70s era garage punk. In turn they’re dragging their influences, everyone from Television to Iggy Pop, kicking and screaming into the modern rock world. “Ella” is a single which sticks to the inner reaches of the skull upon even a cursory listen, and though there’s nothing particularly forward-reaching about the single, the band clearly romanticizes those figures of the British music scene who played a huge role in developing punk music in the first place. So bringing some attention back to the sounds of a genre’s birth seems appropriate if they’re soon to be taking the lead in pushing said music into the future.

The band’s EP Broken Hands will be released on June 11th, and it further showcases their musical direction. “Satellites” is a tight production which owes more to bands like the Hives in the way they craft the ear-catching hook at the chorus. “See You On The Other Side” features blistering guitars and a wall of thundering percussion to back up the immediately singable title line. But it’s the unforgettable “Swing Kids” which will draw you in for good — given the chance to slow things down and illuminate the depth of their musical chops, it’s hard not to think of bands like Oasis, who were as capable of looking to the past for inspiration as they were at pushing modern alternatives to fans ready and willing to rock. This is definitely a band you’ll want to keep on your radar.

Leave it to Leonard Friend to continue to spread the funky mantle of white-boy soul in the absense of Justin Timberlake. “Every Woman” ups the ante* from what we’ve already heard on his Lynyrd Frynd EP, building on an eerily oriental-tinged melody with enough hints of Michael Jackson and Prince-inspired audio fuckery to keep even the most jaded listener pressing repeat long into the night. This is what “Hear! Hear!” was made for, and if it doesn’t convince you of the immediate hook-worthiness of Leonard Friend, nothing I ever say will. “This must be something else,” he sings, and he bloody well means it. Nothing else in today’s musical landscape can properly prep you. Just listen!

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* download the mp3 for free: right click, then “save as”

My Arcadia, particularly on their single “Sail On,” brings to the table a particularly fresh blend of alternative pop which bridges the gap expertly between melodic punk and vocal elements as far-flung as rock and alt-country. In short, this is an EP which will surprise first, then convert instant fans.

Album Review
My Arcadia – “Stay EP” (2012, Independent)

 New York’s My Arcadia hasn’t wasted a lot of time fighting for major-label deals or other outside bullshit. Their latest EP, Stay, establishes the band as one focused fully on the music itself, dedicated to pushing their sound in a direction few of their peers have attempted. Led by the fearless, peerless vocals of Jacqui Sandell, the band merges hard-hitting melodies with vocals of surprising depth and variance. My Arcadia, particularly on their single “Sail On,” brings to the table a particularly fresh blend of alternative pop which bridges the gap expertly between melodic punk and vocal elements as far-flung as rock and alt-country.

In short, this an EP which will surprise first, then convert instant fans. “Sail On” is the immediate highlight, but the title track allows the band, and Sandell in particular, to put an immediate stamp on what their music can be when everything comes together at one place and time. “Dreamer, keep on dreaming,” she sings. “I swear we’ll press on.” This is music for a generation weaned on alternative rock, still looking for bands willing to take a risk and write music they believe in rather than playing to current trends. When the band finally gets the exposure they deserve, it’ll be for this anthem. Here’s hoping Stay is just a glimpse of what My Arcadia still has up its sleeve.

The eye of the pyramid never blinks.

This riveting spoken word masterpiece exposes the bitter truths behind the creation and worldwide reach of Scientology, the religion created by a science fiction writer who knew how you really make money. I’ve never posted any spoken-word here at “Hear! Hear!” but this was too mind-blowing to pass up. Every family has its black sheep, but rarely is the story behind it as intriguing as Jamie DeWolf’s tale of his great great grandfather, L. Ron Hubbard, and the son who spent his life running from “what he saw behind the curtain”:

When your father has created a religion in your lifetime
There’s no sun big enough to ever escape his shadow

Threats and intimidation make for one of the greatest stories never turned into a James McMurtry song. And the ending will have you instantly hitting repeat.

Mumiy Troll, ready to take America by storm.

Mumiy Troll has had one of the most interesting career trajectories of any rock and roll band you’re liable to hear. Formed in the early 1980s in Vladivostok, Russia, the band was deemed socially dangerous by the Soviet government, yet managed to become the most dominant pop-culture phenomenon the nation has seen. Globally recognized as the example of Russian pop music, the band now has set its sites on that holy grail: the American audience. Their latest effort, Vladivostok, picks up where 2009′s all-Russian Comrade Ambassador left off, bringing the band’s classic rockapops sound to bear through English rearrangements of some of their most popular songs.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with lead singer Ilya Lagutenko about the band’s wide-ranging career and how they intend to conquer the American rock audience without losing their original flavor in the translation.

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Many of the songs on Vladivostok have been released before in Russian versions on albums including Comrade Ambassador. Were there any songs on the new album which were written first in English?

There is a track called “Lightning” which was initially written in English, so we don’t have a Russian version of that song. But the challenge for us was how to make a compilation of tracks which would really reflect the current state of the band. I really had a hard time putting together a certain number of tracks in English for the person who doesn’t have the experience of enjoying the songs already in Russian.

We’d thought about how that music would appeal to the listener who wasn’t ready to hear the songs in a foreign language. What has been particularly challenging about this album was that we replayed these songs together, rewriting with changes in tempo and arrangement, because you can’t just translate the meaning of the lyrics. You have to write a whole new story or it doesn’t work, especially with rock and roll.

As for the language variations, though, I’ve dealt with this for the last ten years. In our case, I’m really well prepared for fan criticism: “I remember when you played this song in a demo in 1997, and I really loved that sound.”  When we tour different places I’ll try to play at least some songs in the native language even if they aren’t necessarily our songs, just to feel a different kind of connection with an audience.

I read that you used to hear your music was too Western for Russian audiences. Are you hearing the opposite now, that you’re too Russian for American audiences?

To be honest, I’ve never heard that we sound too Russian for American audiences, because I guess American audiences really don’t know that much about Russian music. There’s really not that much you can learn about Russian pop music in general, let’s be fair about that. You have to understand the way of life in Russia.

Sergei Zhuk, a professor of Russian History at Ball State University, wrote a book, Rock and Roll in the Rocket City, which suggests Rock and Roll helped bring down the Soviet Union. It wasn’t so much that Western music was finding ways to reach Soviet youth, but that the apparatchiks would bring the music home and their kids would spread it through the black market for personal profit.

That’s an interesting idea, because I still remember the first TV reviews of the state of rock music in my hometown, and one phrase became so popular because a famous Russian reporter said: “No one could ever make money off this rock music in Vladivostok.” And we still laugh about that today, because I guess there are ways to make anything self-sufficient.

What was it like being dubbed “socially dangerous” despite your music rarely delving into political subjects?

It was really a good compliment in those times, because being noticed is very important for a teenager who starts playing music. To be noticed in a rebellious way is probably even better! We knew criticism was coming not from really knowing us. It was from people who didn’t know what we were really about. They just heard our name and it sounded so strange, like Black Sabbath or the Sex Pistols.

A few years later we had an interesting situation when we got a request to play a club in Denmark. We said: “Sure, why not? But how do you know of us? We’re not well known over there.” And they said: “Oh, because we’re the best venue in the country for death metal!” They didn’t even know what we were playing, they just liked the name Mumiy Troll and thought it suited their goals.

Now it’s easier, you just Google Mumiy Troll and you’ll know what we sound like. I remember one day I was going through customs in the United States and the guy was looking at his computer. And I was curious, what are they looking at on those computers – an FBI or CIA database? And he asked: “What do you do? You’re a musician?” And he turns the screen to me and asks: “Is that you?” He’d Googled my name, and the band page popped up with YouTube information!

Do you think having all the music available online has helped Mumiy Troll attract a more global audience?

I guess in general it is a way to do that. But at the same time, right now you have zillions of bands online so you need a good guide to be introduced to listeners. Any new band, like us, in the United States has the same challenge – how do you direct fans to your music?

How have fans reacted to the new album?

To be honest, I don’t really know yet. The album hasn’t been available to anyone yet and we can only judge from a few comments online or the audiences coming to our gigs. The people coming to see us live in the United States enjoy the shows, but that could be because of the music or because they’re enjoying mixing with the Russian girls in the audience. Where else can you get this chance?

What would you want audiences to take from the new songs?

I like them to follow us further, so for me it can be hard to understand what people find to be meaningful in my songs. Most of the time I’m not sure when I’m writing that what I write or perform is going to be interesting to a general audience. Then the real people give you their life story, how they connect to the music.

I heard this story that Russian police, when they killed a sniper in Chechnya, a 16 year old girl shooting at them, she’d been listening to Mumiy Troll on her Walkman. That kind of story can make you really think about your audience. I also remember playing a morning radio show in San Francisco. We did a couple of acoustic songs live, and this couple in their seventies came to me: “We’re pleased to meet you, because this was the first time ever in our lives we’ve been able to meet a real Russian.” All this time spent in the Cold War mentality, they’d remembered hiding in bunkers under “red alert,” and now they liked our songs. We were just normal people! I don’t want to sound too political, but it’s musical diplomacy.

One entry point to your music I’ve noticed is the sense of humor. When you watch a Mumiy Troll video, we can tell you enjoy every bit of the process. How do you keep things fresh after so many years as a musician?

The first rule, it never hurts, is that we’ve decided its too boring to practice songs. If you play it too much, you lose the whole enjoyment factor. That’s why I don’t enjoy many live shows these days. What keeps our band together is that I don’t want to let my bandmates sit on their laurels, or their lives become too easy in Russia. That gets us nowhere. We have to feel the excitement as if it’s our first show every time. I remember when we first played in Mexico, it was cool that by the second or third song people were jumping around, enjoying the music when they’d never heard anything like us before.

You once were quoted as saying: “You can’t speak one language to the entire world, you have to learn from each other.” What advice would you have for American bands hoping to open their music up to a global audience?

Someone once asked our guitarist: “Is there any advice you’d give American guitarists they could only get from a Russian?” And he responded: “Yes, they could learn how to drink Vodka.” But I guess to conquer the United States, for bands around the world, is one of those “top five ambitions” everyone has, because Rock and Roll was invented in America, not Siberia.

But at the same time there are no rules. It is a body which grows and we don’t know where it will go tomorrow. We take what touches us as individuals and make it our own. I’ve never liked those guitarists who play really fast; I want to hear the notes, even if it’s just one chord. Yet in a band you’ll have four people with different views on how to make music, and there’s this unexplainable process of delivering your own music to an audience. We make it work the best we can and hope someone out there listens.

“In the cracks there’s beauty,” sings Vance Kotrla, and taken in context with the rest of Sci-Fi Romance‘s latest album that’s quite the apt statement. This band isn’t the most fine-tuned machine you’ll ever hear. But this is honest folk-pop music in its rawest glory, and there’s a lot to be said for being willing to present the music in this version rather than polish away everything interesting in a studio setting.

I’ve been following this band since their last album, And Surrender My Body To The Flames, and their upcoming album The Ghost of John Henry continues to push the envelope creatively. The musicians fight to keep up with the concept, and at times the individual songs, divorced from the remainder of the album, don’t have the same impact as they have when heard as a complete song cycle.

Still, even if Sci-Fi Romance falls short of giving John Henry’s legend a deep emotional core through folk music, at least they’re out there swinging that hammer for all its worth. When John Henry beat the steam-drill it killed him. They’ll be around for another go, and there’s plenty to be glad for about that.

Even this artwork doesn’t rock as much as the D’s new album!

We’re still two weeks away from the official release of Rise of the Fenix, the soon-to-rock-your-fucking-socks-off brand-new album from Tenacious D. But thanks to the awesomeness of Jables and Kage, you can hear the full album via Soundcloud. My early favorite is the brilliant “Roadie,” but “They Fucked Our Asses” also stands out as sixty-eight seconds of riffing which deserved to become a ten minute epic. Enjoy the entire album below and let us know what you think … is this enough to make you forget The Pick of Destiny?

Winter nothing … this is summer sunshine for your musical soul.

Hearing this song for the first time this evening has been the highlight of my day. It’s that kind of song — a testament to the power of love to lift us above even the most trying times.

If it was easier to leave it alone
Why did you come here?
You forgot your lucky day
Remember I would do anything
No one can ever take your place
Nothing is anything without you, babe

Paste featured the song today, dubbing it “… an infectious three minute song that shows that the band is back in full force.” Indeed, this is the kind of sunshine-infused pop alternative which isn’t supposed to exist in 2012. Nova Scotia’s Wintersleep has won a Juno Award, played David Letterman’s show, and produced an album, Hello Hum, which (judging by this initial single) should immediately redefine “singalong pop” in our lives when it is released on May 15.

Seriously though, if it’s alright I’m going to leave you now and hit repeat a few more times, singing along loudly at the chorus. Listen yourself and you’ll soon be doing the same.

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You’ll soon also have a chance to catch the band live as they head out on a limited US tour this spring as headliners, having already shared stages with acts like Pearl Jam, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, The Hold Steady and Paul McCartney.

May 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echo
May 30 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
May 31 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
June 1 – Seattle, WA @ Columbia City Theater
June 2 – Victoria, BC @ Phillips Brewery
June 4 – Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore Caberet
June 5 – Calgary, AB @ Hifi Club
June 6 – Edmonton, AB @ The Pawn Shop
June 7 – Saskatoon, SK @ Amigos
June 8 – Winnipeg, MB @ Pyramid Cabaret
June 9 – Minneapolis, MN @ 400 Bar
June 11 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
June 12 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
June 14 – Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR Pub
June 18 – Allston, MA @ Great Scott
June 19 – Brooklyn. NY @ Knitting Factory
June 20 – Philadelphia, PA @ North Star Bar
August 3 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga
August 25 – Squamish, BC @ Live In Squamish