The EP will be funded in part by the band’s Kickstarter campaign, which has currently raised $1,200 of its $2,500 goal. The four-piece easily blends blues, roots rock, swing and country twang into its complex sound. As a native Texan, I bow to Verona Red’s love of honky tonk.

If you can’t wait until Verona Red’s record release show at Subterranean, get riled up with the funky blues rock number “Toein’ the Line’” from Pound.” Listen to “Toein’ the Line” below:

Check out Verona Red when the band performs at Subterranean on Friday, February 4, with Bully in the Hallway and The Rails. Tickets are available for $10 at TicketWeb.

Permanent Records first Record Store Day exclusive features a song by two side projects: Chicago’s Bitchin Bajas, a Cave side project, and San Francisco’s Moon Duo, spawned from Wooden Shjips. Both bands specialize in three things: repetition, repetition, and repetition. But On this seven inch split, they take very different approaches.

Moon Duo, for a side project, are quite proficient. In the last year or so they’ve released a number of seven inches as well as their recent full length debut, Escape, on Woodsist Records. “Bopper’s Hat”, their contribution to the split, is dark. It crawls along on a bass line and tambourine with soft spoken vocals until a hazy guitar joins halfway through. Like Wooden Shjips, one can hear a little bit of what the Doors might have sounded like without their buffoonish singer. The bass and drums hold steady throughout while the second half of the song winds it’s way through reverberating guitar lines and swirling synths. It’s the perfect soundtrack to your drugged out haze. At this point, Moon Duo seem every bit as strong as the band from which they came forth.

Bitchin Bajas’ “Fresh Air”, however, is a bit of a let down. Maybe because it’s only one song but feels like the elongated intro to something quite bitching. It’s synths laid on top of synths, and, like Moon Duo, it pulsates and swirls and makes your head swim. The problem is that Cave employs much the same, but follows it up with some heavy shit. Here we get to the payoff only to have the song end abruptly with, after a short bit of silence, an added little half minute outro. It’s like a cliffhanger in the first episode of a new show. Who knows where this will go, but as a stand alone the song leaves one wanting more.

Sometimes a band can take sounding retro too far and venture into straight replication of previously chartered ground.  Unfortunately for Yeasayer, and their sophomore effort, Odd Blood, what they achieve sounds like an 80’s new-wave cover band attempting to write originals of their own.  What results is a collection of stale and regurgitated sounding songs that don’t compel multiple plays.

Gone is the edgy but airy, acoustic tinged, pop from All Hour Cymbals and in its place are a heavy dose of synth sounds, drum machines and distorted vocals.  Many of the songs sound like they came from the soundtrack to a John Hughes film about teenage angst.

The opening track “The Children” with heavily distorted vocals and hammer like percussion sets a cool mood that had me excited for what as to come.  But this was one of the few hints at originality in the entire 10 song collection.

Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, The Cure – they’ve all done this before, years ago, and better.  The drum track on the second song “Ambling Alp” could have come from the preset beats of an old Casio keyboard. The track “One” has such a dated feel to it, it doesn’t even sound similar to the new-new wave bands of today like Franz Ferdinand and Vampire Weekend.

As I listened to the album, after each track I kept hoping and expecting for something new and perhaps bordering on the realm of original.  Yet, from song to song nothing changed except the effect chosen to manipulate the vocal tracks and some slight modulation in tempo every now and again.  I have visions of getting this album on cassette tape and playing it on a ghetto-blaster while waiting in line for tickets to “Return of the Jedi.”

“I Remember” does slightly stand out from the pack with a hint of the character of All Hour Cymbals by establishing a similar lightness and character missing from the rest of Odd Blood.   And “Madder Red” dabbles in originality and Brian Eno-esque production but ultimately falls short of something truly great by falling back into hackneyed and woefully unoriginal ideas.

But then there’s “Rome” a song straight from the English Beat school of synthesizer horn sounds and pulsating rhythms evoking memories of popped collars and ripped jeans.  Again, I belabor the point, but there’s no added twist, no new angle or approach, no new spin, just aping what was being done 25 years ago.

Over and over it’s more of the same, the cheesy saxophone in “Mondegreen” the phony orchestration on “Love Me Girl”  the hand claps on “’Strange Reunions” it all seems so played out.

I feel sometimes like I’m being played a fool, or maybe I am a fool, but this album simply gives little to be impressed with and sounds like a band lost inside its own search for an identity.

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Catch Yeasayer Thursday, April 29, at the Metro. Tickets are SOLD OUT. But if you didn’t grab tickets in time, you can also catch them at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park on August 6 -- 8. Tickets for the festival go on sale this Spring, and we’ll bring you ticket details once the onsale date is announced.

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Yeasayer -- “Ambling Alp”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6VatNuR_Uk

I highlighted Minneapolis’s Fuck Knights awhile back and described their very lo-fi/lo-tech approach to playing and recording their garage rock anthems. All those months ago showed the Knights stripped down sound to be both a product of their influences and their economic reality.

In order to relocate to Minneapolis, drummer GD Mills sold most of his drum kit, leaving him with just a snare, floor tom, and crash cymbal. Guitarist Joe Hasting’s style of playing with a pencil, which might seem like a nerdy reinterpretation of Jimmy Page’s violin bow wielding prowess, is mostly about sparing his thumb for the guitar lessons he gives in order to make ends meet.

Well, it seems ends have been met a bit on their latest 7″. The A-side, “Abrasions,” is chock full of washboard and horns and comes across like Tom Waits channeling The Music Machine. Vocals wash in over a bass heavy riff that just as suddenly breaks down into an acoustic, middle eastern tinged, shamble. There’s a ton of studio trickery going on for a band that was just releasing everything live and it works wonders. “Abrasions” ends with a Rocket From The Crypt horn flourish and then it is gone.

B-side, “Materialize Soon” is a bit more straight forward. Still bass heavy, it is less cluttered but no less rocking. It’s hiccup vocals and in-the-red “yows” would make The Sonics proud. Fuck Knights just might be growing up in front of our eyes. These two songs represent a giant leap forward.

Yes, even in the garage rock world, you can lose a little reckless abandon and still rock out. Fuck Knights’ latest is evidence of that.

Fuck Knights -- “Abrasions”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B9_dbyHo8I

Catch Fuck Kights Monday, April 26, at the Empty Bottle.
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Chapel Hill’s indie rock stalwarts Superchunk have felt more like an institution than a working band for the last, oh, decade or so. The Merge label started by Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance keeps busy releasing records by bigger and bigger names -- Spoon, M Ward, Conor Oberst -- as well as scooping up reuniting icons Dinosaur Jr. and American Music Club. Drummer Jon Wurster seems to be a semi-permanent fixture in the Mountain Goats these days. Of course McCaughan has been progressively more prolific with his once side-project and now main focus, Portastatic.

It felt, increasingly, as if the seeds were sown for Superchunk the band to be put to rest. Then a funny thing happened: Superchunk began playing benefit one off shows such as 2007′s Metro show and a few new songs started popping up in their sets. And, lo and behold, an EP of new (or at least newish) songs, Leaves In The Gutter, was released, and then followed soon after by the Crossed Wires 7″ single. With these new releases, a foundation was perhaps being built for a full fledged Superchunk re-awakening.

Perhaps the signs weren’t as hard to see as first thought. The slow decline of the “Superchunk started with 1999′s overstuffed Jim O’Rourke-produced Come Pick Me Up and followed by 2001′s mildly entertaining Here’s To Shutting Up. All the while McCaughan was releasing more divergent Portastatic albums ranging from the Spanish language Del Mel, De Melao to the soundtrack to the film Looking for Leonard. But more recently the Portastatic releases -- 2003′s Summer of the Shark and 2005′s Bright Ideas featuring Jim Wilbur on bass -- have sounded more like half-baked Superchunk projects. In fact, Bright Ideas suffered from the lack of Ballance and Wurster. The Portastatic show at the Empty Bottle in support of Bright Ideas leaned heavily on McCaughan’s rocking side, and the Superchunk show at the Metro clearly pointed to re-energized McCaughan fronting an equally re-energized “Chunk. The re-convergence was almost complete.

So then comes the new EP and 7″ single. Anytime a band has been away for so long it’s easy to wonder where they’ll pick up. Thankfully it seems McCaughan has purged himself of his boundary, stretching ways and packed Leaves In The Gutter and Crossed Wires 7″ with good old up-tempo tunes reminiscent of, say, Here’s Where The Strings Come In era Superchunk. All things considered, that’s a fine place to be. “Learned to Surf” kicks off the Leaves In The Gutter in thunderous Superchunk glory complete with those beautiful descending dueling guitar lines and driving riffs. McCaughan might not be back to his No Pocky For Kitty shouting, but he has left the soft “singing” behind and regained his Hyper Enough, I don’t know what you’d call it, shelling, maybe?

“Misfits and Mistakes,” also found on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force soundtrack (with a version sung by Meatwad no less) would fit snuggly into On The Mouth, clean and ferocious. There are hints of keyboards, but nothing like the jumble of Come Pick Me Up, instead the keyboards lay low to provide a bit of pop quirk. “Screw It Up” is pure pop bliss all cute and choppy a la “Foolish’s Driveway To Driveway” -- the way indie pop used to be. “Knock Knock Knock” re-ups the tempo and epic chorus ante to nirvana. Who doesn’t want to sing along to the lyrics “here we go…here we go”? That there sums up the whole vibe of Leaves In The Gutter. It’s straight forward, riff heavy, anthemic. Oh, there’s an acoustic version of “Learned To Surf” -- they love their acoustic versions -- to tie things up.

McCaughan says that these songs have been kicking around for awhile, and if there were to be a new album, he felt it was necessary to get them recorded and out of the way. If true, then the Crossed Wires 7″ single might be a better indicator if Superchunk are serious about regaining their long lost legacy. Fortunately the answer is an emphatic yes. Crossed Wires is as fast and lean as classic ‘Chunk, and even nods to Built To Spill with its trippy rubbery guitar breakdown. The B-side, the so-called fast version of “Blinders,” finds McCaughan adopting an almost English accent, so much so it sounds lik a cover. But it’s all Superchunk -- short and fast with a warbled keyboard replacing the usually guitar interplay between McCaughan and Wilbur. Hearing McCaughan full of energy finally backed by Ballance’s rumbling bass, Wurster’s frenetic drumming, and Wilbur’s counter lines is once again a reminder to the power of the Superchunk and where the real joy emerges.

Superchunk were never supposed to be a band that out-clevered you. They were, at their best moments, able to make you play the most animated air drums and sing along at the top of your lungs when at home. And almost involuntarily and against your self-conscience better judgement, jump up and down in lock-step with the band when witnessing their live show. The Leaves In the Gutter EP and Crossed Wires 7″ single provide all of that while not merely just rehashing the past. So, despite all the detours, it seems in 2009 Superchunk are not only a working band once again, but one pointed decidedly in the right direction.

Of all the exclusive Record Store Day 2009 releases, the 7” featuring the Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs covering Madonna and The Black Keys tackling a Captain Beefheart track maybe the most fascinating of the bunch as each band adapts the cover songs to their own brand of rock and roll.

The split offers the two selections from Covered: A Revolution In Sound, which celebrates Warner Bros. Records’ 50th Anniversary of Great Music and Talent. On side A we have The Flaming Lips deconstructing Madonna’s excellent pop track from her debut album, and side B has The Black Keys dirtying up Captain Beefheart’s bluesy number “Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles.”

The Flaming Lips covering Madonna really isn’t as crazy as it sounds. The Lips are known for eclectic cover choices, take their cover of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” from the Fight Test EP for example, and Wayne Coyne is a known Madonna fan, so a cover of “Borderline” from ‘80s-era Madonna isn’t that hard to swallow. With help from their fellow Oklahomans and experimental rockers Stardeath and White Dwarfs, this version seems to use a few classic synth and drum samples that could have easily been in the original. The track begins slowly with Coyne doing his best high-pitched yelp over drawn out piano chords alongside beeps and buzzes. After a lengthy build up with heavy drums and single chord strikes, the original version’s melody line is unleashed with a fury using distorted guitar, thumping bass, and pounding drums. The song winds down again and ends amid more white noise in typical Flaming Lips pop-meets-psychedelic fashion.

While Captain Beefheart’s original version of “Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles” was a funky little number with a mean acoustic guitar groove, The Black Keys strip it down and roll it around in the mud. Patrick Carney’s huge drums are high in the mix creating the backbone and keeping some of the original’s funk. But it’s Dan Auerbach’s trademark sneering vocals and thick, wah-wah laden guitar licks that make this one of The Black Key’s most natural and best efforts to date.

This short split is only a sample of the tracks on Covered: A Revolution In Sound. But if it’s any indication of how the rest of the album might sound, then better get back down to the record store for some economic stimulation.

The Flaming Lips & The Black Keys
“Borderline”/“Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles”
NONESUCH
Release Date: April 18, 2009

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Catch The Flaming Lips this summer at Pitchfork Music Festival 2009 on July 17, 18, & 19 at Chicago’s Union Park! For tickets, click here.
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The Flaming Lips & Stardeath And White Dwarfs – “Borderline” (Madonna Cover)