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Chris Chu has a point.  As he explains in the video, a lot of bands get pigeonholed into a certain sound when they become successful, and falter from the pressure to come up something better while boxed into one sound. Big Echo, their last album under The Morning Benders moniker, had brought them to the heights of post-Beach Boys/Beatles indie/pop, elaborate, but not overly orante pocket symphonies, the fleeting emotions following a break-up and working through it.  So it’s daring that they’ve changed their approach, but ultimately it’s honest to the artist and saves their sound from becoming stagnant.  

POP ETC is also very embracing of social media, and probably one of the better bands at reaching out to their fans. When they first announced their change of name, it wasn’t a little press release that gave no reasons, it clearly stated the why and their intentions.  While their album isn’t due out til the 12th of June, they’ve been keeping busy with making mixes, showcasing their influences and eclectic tastes through successive Weekend Mixes.  

As to the song itself, “Keep It For Your Own” is a great single, the hook that a better Coldplay might have made (I’m talking “Don’t Panic” era) and the live production touches of the Yours Truly session meld beautifully, an acoustic guitar here, an upright piano there, organic harmonies with a few electronic pieces. 

Keep It For Your Own (Yours Truly) – POP ETC 

(Sorry for the quality, there isn’t an official release)

POP ETC WEBSITE

GRAB AN EXCLUSIVE BUNDLE FEATURING AN EXCLUSIVE TANK TOP AND AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THEIR UPCOMING ALBUM (YOUR CHOICE OF CD OR VINYL) FOR 25.00 (WHILE SUPPLIES LAST)

Grab “Keep It For Your Own” or pre-order the full POP ETC from iTunes.

Amber Papini’s vocals have a youthful exuberance to them, a half warble-half shout that propels her band Hospitality to energetic heights in their self-titled debut. While “Eighth Avenue” and “Liberal Arts” became fast favorites of indie blogs everywhere, I was drawn to the album closer “All Day Today” which starts with some upbeat syncopated percussion before Papini’s vocals come into play and the arrangement opens into a poppy, swaggering brassy affair. Think of it as a summer distillation of Arcade Fire anthems, with a hook worthy of Springsteen thrown in.  Hospitality isn’t trying to break any indie rock molds, they’re just trying to have some fun and it makes it all the better. 

All Day Today – Hospitality

You can find all versions of their album Hospitality  from their label Merge Records

You can also grab the digital version from iTunes

“We Can’t Be Beat” is the first song off of The Walkmen’s Heaven and fittingly spare and introductory. Hamilton Leithauser begins his half besotted, half morose croon with solitary guitar accompaniment. It’s a song that wouldn’t feel out of place on the credits of a Wes Anderson movie, as little eccentric parts come into the fold, dense layered vocal harmonies, a quirky picked-up rhythm, a constant cinematic sense of an unsure build-up, the potential for something great to happen, but a profound sense of not knowing when.  Fortunately, that works perfectly for the album, as it picks up from there. A must buy in the albums of 2012.

We Can’t Be Beat – The Walkmen

You can grab the physical editions either from The Walkmen’s official store or their label Fat Possum.


Find Heaven on iTunes

Unfortunately, James Carr was his own worst enemy, suffering from bipolar disorder his whole life. Ultimately, its the only refuge we can give ourselves in trying to figure out just why this man wasn’t as equally lauded as Otis Redding. While popular consensus might have slipped from his legacy, he was critically lauded, especially for his 1967 album You Got My Mind Messed Up. Many point to his version of “The Dark End of the Street” as being the definitive version and the best on the album, but my favorite is “Forgetting You” a half midnight oil burner/barnstormer that finds Carr in peak form, putting on a vocal performance that even Otis Redding himself might be hard pressed to match.

Forgetting You – James Carr

The Dark End of the Street- James Carr