Review by Noah Mallin

Kim Deal has had a helluva life away from The Pixies, the band in which she first found fame. The Breeders was originally a side project with Tanya Donnely of Throwing Muses (and later Belly). Their 1990 debut Pod is an indie classic, mixing rubbery rhythms and spiky songforms on songs like “Oh” and “Metal Man” and a phenomenal cover of the Beatles “Happiness is a Warm Gun”.

By 1992 the Pixies had died and The Breeders had shed Donnely and added Kim’s twin sister Kelley for the wonderful Safari EP, but it was Last Splash and the hit single “Cannonball” the following year that brought Kim-mania to its full public flowering.

Deal responded to her first platinum-selling album by recording and scrapping a follow-up, then re-recording the songs under the band name The Amps. Ironically she and Kelley played locally in Ohio as teenagers as Tammy and The Amps, but Kelley had been sidelined thanks to a growing drug problem (never Fed-Ex your dope kids). The Amps lone album was quite charming, lo-fi in a way that reflected Deal’s love for fellow Ohioans Guided By Voices.

Finally The Breeders returned scuffed and scruffy for Title TK in 2002 — beloved by some fans but hardly the poppy crowd-pleaser that Last Splash was.

Which brings us to Mountain Battles. Deal has toured with her old band and both sisters have cleaned up the drugs and boozing since last we heard from them but it makes not a whit of difference to their sound. They take a long time to make albums that feel gloriously tossed off, like eavesdropping on a basement rehearsal at times.

Battles has those glorious breathy-woozy-sassy Deal sister harmonies in full force and a generally strong set of songs that touch on most of Deal’s various sounds without sounding like a retread. The songs sung in Spanish (a trick better left to erstwhile Pixies-mate Black Francis) and German don’t go anywhere good but the first five tracks are a welcome beginning.

“Overglazed” is just some rapturous instrument bashing with Kim announcing sunnily “I can feel it..oooo” and yes, so can we. “Bang On” is just as simple, a repetitive beat pounding away with a sweet little guitar filigree and the Deal sisters musing “I want no-one, no-one wants me…” and words to that effect which put me in mind of Ben Gazzara’s bitter character in Todd Solondz’s pitch-black comedy Happiness. His wife is convinced that he’s ending the marriage because he must be in love with someone else. “I love no-one!” he repeatedly shouts.

Then the achingly gorgeous “Night of Joy” floats in, one of several deliciously mellow songs on Mountain Battles that allow the listener to wallow in Deal’s tip-toeing chord changes and the sister’s indelible harmonies. “We’re Gonna Rise” is another such track.

There are a few moments like “Spark” that get bogged down in the willful twistiness that marked Title TK but all is forgiven when “Walk it Off” comes strutting through the speakers with the kind of descending bassline bop that made Last Splash a dorm room must-have.

Overall a welcome return indeed.

Here’s a fan vid of “It’s The Love” with footage from Cinema Paradiso:

Air celebrates the tenth (!) anniversary of their acclaimed Moon Safari with a three-disc CD/DVD re-issue featuring live tracks and remixes. Here’s the Spike Jonze directed video for “Kelly Watch The Stars”:

M83 issues another album of cinematic popcraft with Saturdays = Youth. Here’s the video for “Graveyard Girl”:

Finally a DVD of rare live Clash performances, The Clash Live: Revolution Rock continues Sony’s mission of uncovering every last scrap of Clash related material out there. Here’s a preview of the doc which previously aired on PBS:

Here are some of the interesting new music choices this week. As always, if the vids show up as not available hit refresh in your browser.

R.E.M. mark the box labeled crunchy guitars on their new album Accelerate. Here’s the video for “Supernatural Superserious” and no, that’s not Moby:

The Annuals slide their Wet Zoo EP across the counter at ya. Here’s Annuals doing an oldie –”Brother”, way back in 2006 at The Bowery Ballroom:

Retro garage blues punks The Black Keys get pulled into the current century by producer Danger Mouse on Attack & Release. Here’s the Black Keys doing “I Got Mine” off the new album live. What, no girl drummer?

Wacky tobacky enthusiast Willie Nelson gets the career retrospective treatment with the 4CD boxset One Hell of a Ride. Here’s Willie looking like a scruff with Enrique’s papa together in slim-o-vision:

Ministry cover ZZ Top, Bob Dylan, and Tom Waits on their really really last album (for now) Cover Up. Here’s the sickest version of “Lay Lady Lay” ever:

The soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s concert film Shine a Light on the Rolling Stones — shot in Wrinkle-Vision and featuring guests Jack White, Christina Aguilera and Buddy Guy. Here are the aged rockers doing the title track to Some Girls, somewhat sanitized lyrically:

Kaki King is kind of the Joe Satriani of indie folkie guitarists. Like guitar wankster Satriani she’s at the point in her career where she has to write actual songs and sing and she delivers on the new album Dreaming of Revenge. Here’s the light-trail-happy video for “Pull Me Out”:

Pioneering indie rapper Del Tha Funkee Homosapien returns with new album 11th Hour. Here’s the video for new single “Workin’ It”:

Weirdo genre-defyers Why? hit us up with new one Alopecia which sports the song “Vowels Part 2″, seen here live:

Just like some other sites out there, we are a music curating interweb TV station too. This April Gnarls Barkley will release the follow up to their album St. Elsewhere and its megahit earworm “Crazy.” Though the new one is named after another TV show, The Odd Couple, they’ve pretty much dropped the dressing-like-movie-pairs routine for new video “Run.”

MTV has taken the unusual step of banning the video because the strobing may cause seizures and other medical maladies due to the so-called Harding Effect (future band-name alert!). Of course the network has pretty much banned all videos in favor of witless reality programming so no harm, no foul. Make sure to bite down hard on your belt before watching!

Pavement were the most indie of indie bands — they were None More Indie. Initially low-fi, never on a major-label, often obtuse as much as catchy, even their most widely played video looked like something that cost $25. Yet as they went along, in the wake of the critically reviled Wowie Zowie (which has since seen something of a re-evaluation) they began to take on more attributes of what can only be termed as classic rock. Mellotron flutes swirled on “Transport is Arranged” and “Date With Ikea” was nearly Byrdsian with it’s ringing guitar figure.

It was around this time that Phish began to cover the occasional Pavement song, striking what for many fans was the final death knell of a band that once trafficked in 2 minute bursts of tangled noise like “Baptist Blacktick.” The jazzy expansiveness that jam-band aficionados were responding to has since been given free reign on Stephen Malkmus’ post Pavement work with the Jicks.

Malkmus fans are further split over which SM they want to hear, as each of his albums have subtly changed the dynamics between poppy, quirky, jammy, and noisy while still essentially sounding more like each other than anything else in the music world. His first album was poppy, quirky, and for detractors a bit soulless. Album two, Pig Lib was weird and twistingly jammy, my personal favorite but a dud for some fans. His last album Face The Truth promised a return to eclectic noisy experimentism but to me sounded like a disjointed mess. Which brings us to Real Emotional Trash.

At this point Malkmus’ style is pretty much set and there is nothing here that deviates from what he’s done before. What does set this apart are sharp hooks and memorable melodies. Generally this falls into his jammier work with songs that crest the ten minute mark. It’s the majority of shorter punchier songs that connect though, as much fun as it is to hear The Jicks work.

Drummer Janet Weiss, late of strident girl punks Sleater-Kinney and stripped down rockers Quasi adds a great deal of muscle behind the drumkit and the band is clearly having fun. Malkmus is one of the best guitarists out there, spinning out twisty phrases and solos and generally going all guitar god on everybody’s asses.

This stands with Pig Lib as the strongest display of what Malkmus does as a solo artist. Songs like “Baltimore” combine his expansive instincts with his hooks ably, tremendous opener “Dragonfly Pie” stops around and suggests a pleasing skronkfest like the last albums “Pencil Rot” before finding its way to a sweetheart of a chorus. At this late stage Malkmus is unlikely to win over any converts but for those of us who enjoy the Gospel this comes on as a treat, even if the long stuff is simply too long.

This week features the recording debut of former Pavement honcho Stephen Malkmus’ new Jicks — his backup band now includes former Quasi and Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss. They get all granola-y and jamlike with the new one Real Emotional Trash. Here they are doing “Out of Reaches” at a soundcheck:

Bauhaus feels it necessary to bring us all down again with what they claim is their last album — also their first since reuniting after many years of solo earth-wandering. It’s called Go Away White and it’s not a very nice thing to say to Jack and/or Meg. Here’s the video for oldie “She’s in Parties”:

Mark Lanegan and Afghan Whig-ster Greg Dulli team up their super bachelor powers for the new album under the name The Gutter Twins. Here’s “Idle Hands” live at the Bowery ballroom in New York:

Black Crowes return from the H.O.R.D.E tour circuit with Warpaint — a finalist for Maxim’s album of the year no doubt. I would show you a video from rocking new tune “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution” but the idiots at RED Distribution, the Crowes’ label, have disabled embedding because they have no clue how this business of actually promoting a record works in the 21st century.

Goldfrapp take a chill pill and eschew the dancefloor with their mellow new disc Seventh Tree. Here’s the video for “A & E” which I am assured does not feature Peter Graves:

Edgy R & B diva Erykah Badu comes back from a long lay-off with New AmErykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War which oddly is also the name of a folder on George W. Bush’s desktop. Here’s the video for “Honey” which opens up in what the ancestors used to call a “record store.” Hmmm…

Dreamy shoegazey types Beach House lay some Devotion on us. Here’s the sparkly video for “You Came to Me”:

Cowboy Junkies simulate a cough-syrup flashback with Trinity Revisited, a re-recorded version of their soporific best seller The Trinity Session — this time with special guests such as Vic Chestnutt and Natalie Merchant.here they are with Ms. Merchant doing “Working on a Building”:

Give Dolly parton credit for self knowledge (and parody) — her new one is called Backwoods Barbie. In amongst the Nashville bric-a-brac are covers of Smokey Robinson’s “The Tracks of My Tears” and Fine Young Cannibals “She Drives Me Crazy.” Here’s the “Better Get to Livin’ ” clip featuring the always welcome Amy Sedaris:

Don’t forget: If the vids don’t play, refresh your browser!

British Sea Power returns this week, if not to the waves then to the dwindling number of record stores nationwide with Do You Like Rock Music? Why yes, yes I do! A more appropo question in light of their new bigger sound would be “Do you like stadium rock” to which I say, “Um, Sometimes…” Here’s the creepy puppet-filled video for “No Lucifer”:

Straight from a Vasser girl’s dorm room circa 1995 comes the tracklisting for Neil Young tribute Cinnamon Girl: Women Artists Cover Neil Young For Charity. You get your ex-Throwing Muses (both Donnely and Hersh) , Veruca Salt, Jill Sobule, Britta Phillips and more. Oh and it goes to benefit the breast cancer prevention industry.
Here’s the Fabio-fortified video for Sobule’s hit “I Kissed a Girl”, in retrospect a clear harbinger of our future moral decline:

Robert Pollard oh-so-casually releases one of the 75 albums he is likely to plop out this year with Superman Was a Rocker. Here’s Pollard from 2006 doing one of the best of the 25,000 songs he’s released in the last few years, “I’m a Widow”:


Alert the kids! On second thought…Michael Jackson sees his high-water mark Thriller re-issued in a 25th Anniversary edition. Oh fuck it, ever see a reptile dance? Well now’s your chance. Oh and there’s a bunch of lizards too: