Paper Route

^{Courtesy of Esther Creative Group}

Paper Route – “American Clouds”

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“There’s heartbreak all over the E., Everday that goes by I just realize that more and more people’s relationships aren’t such a fairy tale and that that discontent and that heartache is universal.”

The above words are a quote from “8 Minutes” a self produced video that this Nashville quartet put together, featuring a medley of their songs, gorgeous visuals, and their narrated thoughts on music and art. The line so perfectly captures my own feelings about the band and their music that any attempt to put it in my own words would deaden the sentiment, ring somewhat hollow. So instead, I’ve let them say it themselves.

In fact, in a lot of ways Paper Route is a band that can tell its own story just as poignantly and movingly as any journalist. Band-founder Chad Howat’s musings on insomnia and its part in the formation of the band are as clever or as funny as anything I’ve ever written, or could hope to write for that matter. And their typical unsigned indie success story (group starts small, plays frequently locally, already gaining buzz before first full length, etc.) is one that almost writes itself these days. But to focus on that purely mechanical, and rather clichéd story ignores what we should really be talking about– their music.

And gorgeous music it is. The heartbreak that fills their self-titled EP is achingly beautiful, a lush mix of piano, synthesizer, soaring oohs and ahs, bright guitars, full strings, and catchy drum loops. There’s a touch of electronica, here, but only just a touch. The songs as a whole are far too cohesive to be a part of that genre, not a schizophrenic collection bloops, beeps, bass, and drum machine, but very organic, carefully crafted pieces.

In fact the track available here, American Clouds, material off their upcoming full length, features more electronica influences than most of their work to date, pushing them towards the field of synthesizer heavy dance-pop occupied by folks like hellogoodbye, or The Postal Service. Here fuzzy synthesizers, distorted vocals, and a looped melody open the song, but as it progresses we begin to heart those drop out, replaced by a guitar, a harmonic, far more organic sounds.

What we don’t hear sadly, is the members of Paper Route showing off their vocals. If their EP is anything to judge by then almost every member of the band has a voice that could make them lead vocalist for any other group. And if that wasn’t enough, they also brought on Nashville artist Kate York to supply her gorgeous soprano to the opening track, “Second Chances.”

The result is beautiful singing that draws attention to Paper Route’s extraordinary lyrics. Lines like “Second Chance’s” chilling “Apparently love runs on one-way courses / away from contentment” wrench at the heart when airily delivered by York during a poignant duet. And the hollow nihilism of “Let You Down’s” “I’m not afraid to give up and give in / we’re going to die anyway / what’s the point in the end,” paints the picture of a man caught in utter brokenness when they’re belted out in a desperate near scream by the vocalist.

In short, Paper Route is a breath of fresh air in an indie world where increasing, to steal the words of fellow Wheel writer and friend David Marek, “randomness/florescent ugliness is valued above songwriting.” These guys put their songs together with unnatural care, crafting something that is worth listening to over and over, year after year.

Note: Paper Route will be playing March 8th at the Masquerade. In case you haven’t noticed, I really like these guys, so I’d highly recommend checking out the show.

–Asst. Entertainment Editor Andrew Swerlick

Ski Club

^{Courtesy Ski Club}

Ski Club – “My Dear Gertrude”

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If you ever have the chance to go see Ski Club live don’t stand to close to the stage. In fact, make sure you’re at least ten feet back. And make sure you’ve got a few people between you and the band. You’ll need to them to absorb the shock when one of the band members comes careening of the stage.

The five piece group from our own Atlanta, GA plays a high energy set, made up of high energy music, and filled with what in poor light could be mistaken for an all out brawl between band members. Even on their recently released EP, Mother Mountain, Father Sky, this energy comes across loud and clear, carried over by the wailing vocals of lead singer John Dance and the three guitars played by Dance and fellow band members Kris Sampson and Kyle Gordon.

Ski Club plays the kind of instantly familiar power pop that feels has you feeling certain you’ve heard this song before and you’d just must have forgotten how good it was. There are simple but catchy guitar riffs, crooning male vocals , and rousing epic choruses. This is the stuff of Teenage Fan Club, or more recently the Killers, but without the emphasis on fuzzy synthesizers.

But if my descriptions make Ski Club sound unoriginal and clichéd, then I’m not doing the band justice. There’s a freshness to them that’s hard to pin down. Maybe its the energy that everyone in the band seems to so clearly display. Or maybe its the southern rock touch that seems to be laced throughout their work. (Interesting side note, many of the members of Ski Club moonlight in a old school style southern rock band named Pasendena). Or maybe it’s just that these guys have figured out how to do what they do so well, that it doesn’t really matter that we’ve heard something like it before.

But of course, the great thing about these guys is since they’re home-grown talent you don’t have to take my word for it, you can go see them yourselves at one of the many shows they play around the Atlanta area. This Friday they’ll be at Smith’s Olde Bar along with a bunch of other local favorites, including the Athens based Modern Skirts. Just remember when you go, don’t get to close to the stage.

- By Asst. Entertainment Editor Andrew Swerlick

 

 

The Weakerthans

^{Brooks Reynolds/Courtsey of Anti Records}

The Weakerthans – “Sun in an Empty Room”

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John K. Samson — lead singer and songwriter for the Weakerthans — should have been a poet, or maybe a novelist even. He should have picked a medium where he could really expect his audience to sit and listen to the words, to pour over them, to dissect them and drink them in fully, to go and do the necessary research to tangle out the clever little allusions, to fully understand the powerful metaphors. He shouldn’t have picked an art form where lyrics often take a back seat to licks, to riffs, and to the steady beat of the drums. But all I can say is thank God he did what he shouldn’t have.

Samson’s song-writing is clearly what makes the Weakerthans such an amazing band. Lyrically he has an astounding ability to put himself into a character’s head and then perfectly capture them emotionally. Take for example track two off of their latest album Reunion Tour, “Hymn of the Medical Oddity” where Samson’s dying character begs not to be forgotten, singing “if they remember me at all/make them remember me/ as more than a queer experiment/ more than a diagram in their quarterly/ make them remember me.” Or track five off the same album, when he takes on the persona of a runaway cat, desperate to return home but unable to remember how. Here he laments the fact that he has forgotten what his owner called him by singing “but I can’t remember the sound that you found for me.”

I could pull similar quotes from every other song off the album and off the album before it Reconstruction Site, and I still wouldn’t do the band justice, since much of the power in these songs comes in their whole effect, where Samson laces in bits of the mundane in such away that the emotions become that much more powerful and real. Nor would I have time to explain the depth and breadth of the references that Samson draws on to craft these songs, pulling from sources diverse as hockey, curling, the story of David Riemer, the Art of Edward Hooper, the dot-com crash, the Bigfoot legend, and more. And even if I could do all this I wouldn’t be able to convey how Samson puts these to music with an incredible subtly and restraint that helps them shine all the more.

So I’ll do the only thing I can do, which is tell you to listen to the track we’ve got here, “Sun in an Empty Room,” based off the painting of the same name by Edward Hooper, and hope that you’re impressed enough to go buy the rest of their music for yourself.

–By Asst. Entertainment Editor Andrew Swerlick

Science for Girls

^{Courtesy of Team Clermont}

Science For Girls, “You’ll Never Know it”

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Electronica is ususally not the place you’ll find good vocalists. Singing tends to take a backseat to heavily synthesized instrumentation and driving bass. But New-York based Science for Girls takes a different approach, putting a series of gorgeous vocalists front and center, letting a down-tempo mix of snare loops, synth solos, and low bass form a lush backdrop.

Science For Girls is the brainchild of bassist, songwriter, and one-time Ray Charles collaborator Darren Soloman. On this self-titled debut album, Soloman brings together a long list of vocal collaborators — people relatively unknown in the popular music world but whose talents are undeniable — like the brother-sister duo Tevor and Bronwen Exter who lend their languid tenor and soprano voices to the tracks “Pattern Recognition” and “14 days.”

Soloman even showcases his own vocals to the project, albiet in a somewhat distored form. The track “You’ll Never Know” features Soloman singing through a vocoder that matches the pitch of his voice to what he plays on the bass guitar. Think Peter Frampton in that new Gieco commercial. The otherworldly thin fuzziness that this distortion adds matches perfectly with the eeire keyboard tones and jittery snare drum that back it. It’s the perfect song to compliment a perfect album for late at nights when all you want to do is stop time and stay up listening to your iPod just a little while longer.

— By Asst. Entertainment Editor Andrew Swerlick

Murder Mystery

^{Courtesy of Team Clermont}

Murder Mystery, “Love Astronaut”

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The way some people talk about “pop music” is more of an insult than a classification — a real pity, since the New-York quartet Murder Myster defines this genre in unaccusably brilliant ways. The band’s debut album, Are You Ready For The Heartache Cause Here it Comes, is filled to the brim with incredibly slick melodies, peppy hand clapping, and sugary sweet harmonies that are nothing but pleasant — and fun — to listen to.

Track three off from the album, “Love Astronaut,” is a picture-perfect example of what Murder Mystery is about. Driven by a simple two-note keyboard phrase moving up and down the scale, and jazzed up by catchy guitar and bass solos, the song can’t help but make you feel good, in spite of the fact that it tells the story of a man who’s “looking for love” and can’t find it. But even the lyricists, brother-sister duo Jerry and Laura Coleman, can’t get caught up in the melancholy of the topic, instead singing smiling lines like, “I’m the captain of a ship or an astronaut in space, traveling around the world looking for pretty face.” In a time when more and more indie music is tended toward pretention and seriousness, the bright pep of Murder Mystery is a more-than-welcomed a breath of fresh air.

— By Asst. Entertainment Editor Andrew Swerlick