The Easy Gramophone - October 2007

1. Plants and Animals - Feedback in the Field
Newest signees to the label that discovered Miracle Fortress and Patrick Watson, Plants and Animals play what they called a "post-classic rock" - a jammy, feel-good electric pop that's mostly swagger and very little mope. Feedback in the Field, from their upcoming debut, starts with a whistle solo and ends with a guitar that wah-wahs all the way to the wedding chapel.
Download at: http://bleatingheartshows.com/friday.html

2. The Luyas - Dumb Blood
One of the year's most exciting albums is by a Montreal three-piece that is one-third french horn. The Luyas' music is like singer-songwriter stuff turned inside out. All the seams are showing, and the stuffing strewn everywhere. Jessie Stein sings wry and heartsick, with a crooked and beautiful voice, while around her there's cymbal crash and a growing, droning fanfare. The sweetest raindance you'll ever hear.
Download at: http://www.myspace.com/theluyas

3. Michael Holt - All the Michaels in the World
My name is Sean Michaels, but I am not mentioned in this song. Many other Michaels are, however. Michael Jackson, Michael Feuerstack, Michael Holt. It's a song about how all the Michaels need to get together to figure out what to do about this one particularly sweet girl. And that's a dilemma I can appreciate.
Download at: http://www.mommyheads.com/holt.html

4. Emily Jane White - Wild Tigers I Have Known
Emily Jane White is from the old, familiar Cat Power school, but there's a naivete here that's refreshing - a lightness to the song that makes it feel a little less intense, a little less crazy. This is a song that's not a burden: serious but ascendant, the kind of promise that is a pleasure to keep. Piano, blended voices, autumn's second wind.
Download at: http://emilyjanewhite.com/music.htm

5. Nico - Little Stone
A breathtaking track by a 17 year-old from Brooklyn, too young perhaps to even know that there's already a musical artist called Nico. His underripe voice is thrown atop thumps, whines, clops and rings - a patchwork of samples that feel tactile, intimate, exciting. In it there's something of Hood, Liars, Animal Colective, even Radiohead's Amnesiac; a melancholy that's puissant, powered, and never apathetic. The sad song that will send you skipping onto the Glasgow subway.
Download at: http://www.nicolasjaar.net/