5/28 - Bachelorette

I'm not one of those people that can't stand to be around smarter people. I actually love being the dumbest one in the room. It means that I can spend my time focusing on stuffing my face with day-glo CheezeBalls, and nodding along to the scintillating conversation pretending not to be getting secretly very drunk, with no expectation that I will ever have any valuable contribution anyway. Especially if that discussion is about politics, religion, automobiles, or science of any kind. Bachelorette's songs kind of give me that same feeling, only wrapped in really pretty music. I can just sit back while Annabel and her IBM (the two studio members of Bachelorette...and yes, that's IBM as in the computer) tell me all kinds of stuff about astronomy, robotics, and computer interfacing, and enjoy the fact that she can make appealing music about these kinds of things while I ponder the rice in my burrito, or watch my cat lick his butt.

In all seriousness, though, Bachelorette does make gorgeous music. The cerebral lyrics and warm and wispy vocals lay over a humming drone and popping plastic beats, with layered ah-ha-ah, ah-ha-ha backing vocals that would make the late Mary Hansen of Stereolab (RIP) smile down upon it happily. Who knew that a girl could have a love affair with a computer and then convince that computer to make dinner party music? I'm pretty impressed by this, because I can't even seem to get my computer to send a convincing email.

This post is timely, because Bachelorette will be making a rare trip over from New Zealand to do a sweeping tour of the US over the next couple of months. In LA, she'll be at The Smell on June 1st, then back again to play the Troubadour July 1st supporting Bill Callahan.





http://www.myspace.com/bachelorettepop

5/27 - Ghostcat

"Put your hands up, put your hands up, put your motherfuckin' hands up!" So Ghostcat commands us in the chorus of their upcoming single "This is a Bust," and it's as catchy as poison ivy, and bouncy as a Mexican jumping bean, with nothing but the profanity keeping it from likely iPod commercial candidacy. Ghostcat's another one of those bands in the long line of cute, charismatic females backed by dudes no one will ever approach with sentences starting with "Hey aren't you...?" unless the end of the sentence is "...Jim's cousin?" or "...the guy from my video store?" But don't let it sway you, because of course there are a lot of great bands that follow that pattern - Blondie (apologies to Chris Stein, et al). Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Culture Club... Whatever.

To my ears, I'd say that Ghostcat seems most likely poised to be the next in line for the hopping-up-and-down dance floor quality hit of, let's say, "That's Not My Name" by the Ting Tings. "This is a Bust" has a lot in common with that tune - a chant worthy chorus, chunky and stiffly halting guitar accompaniment, and a thumping drum track. It's not cerebral dance music, or art-anything, but it's exactly the kind of music that gets a Summer fiesta off the lawnchairs and dancing around the pool, so I approve heartily.

Follow-up songs "Everybody on the Dancefloor" and "Just a Little Bit" are equally commanding. The former orders you all to get your asses, well, on the dancefloor. The latter demands that after you're done dancing you need to meet singer Ali Cat (not her Christian name, I'm willing to bet) in the bathroom for a little sexy action. So demanding, yet so free spirited! Sounds like my kind of girl...as long as I don't have to call her Ali Cat.

Looks like "This is a Bust" will be available as a single sometime next month.

http://www.myspace.com/ghostcatmusic

5/26 - Rainbow Arabia

Oh hell, why not? Let's start the week out with an "Arabia" double feature. This band of bedoins are a male/female duo named Danny and Tiffany Preston out of Echo Park (finally, a score here for the West Coast...take that Brooklyn!), and actually seem to take the Arabia moniker somewhat more literally than our friend Lawrence below. Last year, the duo released an EP called The Basta that introduced the world (or at least the LA Eastside hipsters and electronic music bloggers) to their convincingly unique combination of Middle Eastern beats, stuttering drums, prickly guitars and hypnotically unintelligible chanted lyrics. All of which combines in a way that makes you want to break out the bidi cigarettes, and wonder how a girl named Tiffany ever became qualified to emit such an ethnic-sounding caterwaul. Ah, but it all sounds pretty sublime, actually. Turns out, as well, that the duo has something of a sense of levity as evidenced by their extremely indiosyndratic video for that EP's single, "Omar K." It's a little mindblowing, actually, and certainly something that defies description.

Rainbow Arabia have a new EP on the horizon this summer. If you are in Los Angeles, and the music is to your liking, they will be returning from a tour of Europe in time to play the Echoplex on June 28th.




http://www.myspace.com/rainbowarabia

5/25 - Lawrence Arabia

If you know me, you know I love a good Brian Wilson-style harmony in my music as often as possible. Something about that male falsetto harmonization makes my skin feel all warm and sexy. Luckily for me, the trail blazed by Mr. Wilson is still being trod upon with regularity today, and my latest discovery along that path is a singer from New Zealand who goes by the moniker Lawrence Arabia.

"Lawrence" is actually James Milne, who was also frontman for the under-the-radar group The Reduction Agents, was involved with The Brunettes before they made any kind of splash as one of NZ's sweeter sounding exports of the past few years (no disrespect to the Flight of the Conchords boys, who are pretty sweet themselves), and played with the delightful Ruby Suns for a stint. I guess saying that you are a member of several of New Zealand's most well-received bands isn't too terribly difficult, as I'd suppose that the musician pool in this lightly populated land must be fairly limited until they can teach the sheep how to slap a bass. But nonetheless, Milne has also managed to expand his horizons from Kiwi country to tour with both Okkervil River and Feist. I'd say that it's fair to say that he's got a pretty solid musical pedigree, as well as some great taste in collaborators.

As Lawrence Arabia, Milne's sound focuses on a spare but lush arrangement of tongue-in-cheek vocals and those pretty Wilson harmonies. The music doesn't so much as drive itself home, as it meanders the scenic route to end up at the same sonic destination. Actually purchasing this music in the US is somewhat difficult and mostwhat pricey, but as usual, Myspace and YouTube provide. In the latter's case, Lawrence Arabia's sense of humor is prevalant in the latest video, which is fashioned to look like a political campaign for the "Lawrence Party" where Milne shakes hands to the lyrics, "We love each other, but we hate each other. We're afraid of each other, because we want to screw each other." Brilliant.






http://www.myspace.com/lawrencearabia

5/22 - Little Boots

I'm not really hot on the heels of this one. I'd say Little Boots has already been out there generating a considerable amount of buzz in the world. She was a super hot ticket item at SXSW, and is currently blazing her way across Europe. All accounts state that her live show tops the recorded music - which I actually find really rare with singers of this kind of dance/electro, who more often tend to be standing in front of a couple of guys pressing a button every few minutes and singing what amounts to glorified karaoke. Thankfully, a Little Boots show is purported to be quite the party. Her debut EP, Aricebo is exclusive to iTunes and has two standout tracks "Stuck on Repeat" and "Meddle" that come off as a bit of a rougher-edged Goldfrapp, with swagger to spare. "Stuck on Repeat" starts with quite a lot of house loop noodling, but shapes up to be quite a disco symphony.

Though I find both of those songs appealing, I'm most excited about her forthcoming full length album, at least judging by the newly debuted single, "New in Town." "New in Town" improves on the formula laid down by "Meddle," has a rip-roaring sing-along-able chorus, and will probably be a big Summer hit. It comes complete, also, with a terrific video that sports what I've decided to refer to as "sexy homeless choreography" and dancing gangs straight out of West Side Story by way of Michael Jackson's "Bad."

Doesn't hurt that Little Boots herself is quite easy on the eyes as well.



http://www.myspace.com/littlebootsmusic

5/21 - Mickey Lee Lane

I suppose I owe my debt to the Detroit Cobras circa 2001 for introducing me obliquely to Mickey Lee Lane, though I didn't know it at the time. On their Life, Love and Leaving album (their best, if you ask me), they open with a floorshaker called "Hey Sailor" on the track list, which was a fast favorite of mine. I listened and actually still listen the shit out of that CD, and marvel at whoever in the band has the taste to pick such gems out of the vaults of rock and roll, girl groups, and '60s soul to cover. When I found that "Hey Sailor" is a cover of Mickey Lee Lane's "Hey Sah Lo Ney," I looked the fella up and found a picture of a hepcat looking dude that resembled a bit of a blonde Phil Spector blended with a space alien version of Roy Orbison, sunglasses and all.

Lane worked in the Brill Building as a teenager as an engineer and sometime songwriter, and floated around the late '50s, early '60s New York music scene always somewhat on the fringe of success and recognition. Many of the songs he cut for himself were shelved and only appeared somewhat recently remastered by Mickey and his brother on a compilation CD, but the few sides he cut for Swan records are almost all frantic, danceable soul-a-billy gems. I've noticed a glut of copies of "Shaggy Dog" on eBay lately, and managed to pick up a couple for only a buck or two each. Anytime I put the needle to that song, whoever is in the room wants to know "what the hell is this?" I'm going to assume that they are asking that in a good way, but you can decide for yourself...

5/19 - The Soundcarriers

With all the electronic music making a thumping comeback, it's nice occasionally to sit back and listen to something with it's feet firmly planted in chunky, shimmering analog bliss. The Soundcarriers are happy to provide. The quartet, from Nottingham, seem to draw equal influences from the spooky psych-sounding minor and major7 chord orchestrations of the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack, the jazz-like improv of Krautrock giants CAN, and late '60's European baroque pop acts like the Free Design or the Incredible String Band. Taken together in their debut single, "I Had a Girl," all these influences class them in a modern context with some of Stereolab's earlier more ruminitive efforts, and even moreso with the likes of the sublime Broadcast.

It's almost easier imagining this music in the long lost soundtrack to a 1960s British coming-of-age film, than it is conceiving of it being released this month. But there's no dust on this one, it does in fact become available for the first time on May 25th.



http://www.myspace.com/thesoundcarriers