If you follow the Music Court on Twitter, you probably already know that I attended a concert on Monday night.* It was fun, and the crowd was very much alive and rocking with Alex Clare and his talented band.
Tag Archives: Pop
Lyon to San Francisco, All the Girls, My Casiotone
26 Nov
In today’s society of instant gratification, it can be hard to branch out your musical taste. Instead of giving new music a chance, we tend to just skip to the next track that is better aligned with a genre or style that we have connected with in the past. Lose that mindset right now, because unless you already operate on a hearty diet of chiptune and toy instruments, you won’t recognize the greatness of Odessey & Oracle and the Casiotone Orchestra.
This album is a little weird, but in the absolute best way. The first track,”2016,” is dripping with psychedelia and ambience, held up only be the melody of the vocals. That is only the beginning, though; what follows is a collection of endearing and occasionally somber songs, making good use of drones and casiotones. It can at times sound like Rennaissance fair music, but there is something deeper happening beneath the flutes and tambourines. The lyrics, though cohesive and organized, are sometimes spat out in run-on sentences. There is a strategy here, but it depends on every aspect of the music converging to make this vision come to fruition.
Taking their name from an album by The Zombies, this French trio is intent on emulating ‘60s psychedelia. Odessey & Oracle currently have a five song EP up on their Soundcloud, which is representative of the strongest tracks to be released on their full length effort with the Casiotone Orchestra. Once you buy the record, though, give your attention to the series of Inventions that weave between the other tracks. They are not the most staggering songs among the other gems, but I do feel the Inventions provide some much needed grounding for the album. This is a testament to a well-structured album.
Odessey & Oracle and the Casiotone Orchestra will be out 12/12 on Carton Records. You can pre-order the album here. Find more information on Odessey and Oracle on their website.
P.S. The title of this article is a nod to Crystal Fighters’ “Solar System.”
Just for Kids: Sadako by Fairchild
20 NovIt’s springtime in Australia, so winter’s most energetic music is going to come from that area for the next few months. First, I’ve found Fairchild, who provide power pop that is the appropriate amount of fun and drama to their lyrics. Their first single is “Arcadia,” with a funky accompanying video.
Where the toe-tapping rhythm meets drama in “Arcadia,” the rest of Fairchild’s latest EP, Sadako, follows suit. It builds into anthemic choruses, but something feels so familiar in them; I am reminded of the powerful chords on Coldplay’s Parachutes. “Outside” is nostalgic, but not for the past, for the present. It is full of emotion, as is what I find the strongest track on the EP, “Waiting For It”. The buzzing guitars and horse-trot rhythm; then the anthemic chorus comes in, meant to be whispered rather than shouted.
I also would like to share the story behind the title of their EP:
‘Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes’ was a book written by American author Eleanor Coerr and tells the story of a Japanese girl who was two years old when the devastating Hiroshima atomic bomb was dropped. She became very ill and was told of the legend if you make 1,000 paper cranes it can make you better. Feeling inspired by this story, a friend of vocalist Adam Lyons made him 1,000 paper cranes for good luck while he was at university. They hang above his bedroom, where the band recorded and produced the EP.”
I remember reading this book as a kid. I remember wanting to have those cranes hanging in my room. I picked up origami shortly after, but never with enough enthusiasm to make one thousand of anything. This was definitely a daydream I’ve had, where I would fold day and night until I had completed the task, and I would hang each one carefully from the ceiling, making sure to make them varying heights, as if they were all part of a flock mid-flight. I suppose this EP could be a sonic interpretation of that daydream, this nostalgia.
I have no doubt that Fairchild could be a crossover hit, on both mainstream and independent radio. It’s only a matter of getting people to pay attention.
Fairchild’s Sadako EP is out now. For more information, visit their website.
Badass Banoffee
8 Nov
Australia’s done it again with a ridiculously talented young artist. Banoffee hails from Melbourne, origins of the world’s best coffee, and has released a series of impressive singles these past few months. She’s also gone abroad on tour to the US to play in LA one week, then NYC the next, and she already has plans to come back to the city of angels. I don’t think she sleeps.
Martha Brown, or Banoffee, is an old-school strong woman. She is an avid kickboxer who oozes confidence. She writes songs in a tone of voice completely her own, but she refuses to be romantic or tawdry. You could call her songwriting apathetic, but that makes it seem uncaring- instead it is a relatable mix of colloquialisms and indifference, with a whole lot of empowerment thrown in for good measure.
Take Banoffee’s first single, “Ninja.” The track opens up with a loving image of a girlfriend making breakfast out of adoration for her still-asleep partner, insisting that she’d be there when things got tough. Slowly though, she gains her independence. No longer does she want or need someone always there. “It’s funny how things have changed,” she remarks. Electronic bubbles of synth burst around her delicate falsetto, and she becomes more defensive: “I’m a fucking ninja now, I won’t let you bring me down.”
I had the good fortune to catch her set when she played at Culture Collide in LA, and witnessed her way-too-hip dance moves in the flesh. She introduced “Reign Down” and jumped into the lyrics, with the airy rhythm backing her vocals. Then, during the bridge, she danced with more enthusiasm than she did for the rest of the set. Banoffee’s lyrics always feel personal, but never cryptic; “Reign Down” is the epitome of this, as it’s an anecdote on how she has grown after a severed relationship. Later she admitted this was her favorite song to perform, and it is easy to see why.
I highly recommend listening to the other tracks on Banoffee’s debut EP, as I love those tracks even more than the two I’ve discussed here. Buy the EP here. Find more information on her Facebook.
colourspacecolour releases jovial new eponymous EP
2 NovThey say not to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes I do end up judging bands by their names. I very nearly ignored Clap Your Hands Say Yeah because the name alone was too much for me to handle. You can’t have a comically simple name that is five words long, no one will remember it! But the music was enough to get me past it. “Satan Said Dance” remains one of my all-time favorite songs.
I discovered Sun Comes Out Twice As Bright a little more than a year ago, and fell in love with their sweet synth pop. Their name didn’t exactly roll off of my tongue but I was happy to see a talented female duo enter the scene. (Even the acronym SCOTAB felt uncomfortable to say.) The ladies, Pearl Button and Claudine Michael, had released a couple tracks under that moniker before rebranding- after some tinkering, they now only respond to colourspacecolour. (That name is hard for me to spell because I’m American and want to leave out that useless ‘u’ in ‘color.’) Only one video remains of their old persona, and it proves that these gals have a sense of humor on top of musical talent.
colourspacecolour have now emerged suddenly with a new eponymous EP, leading with “Ocean Floor,” their newest single. It is exactly what I remember loving about Sun Comes Out Twice As Bright, but has a darker feel than their previous sunny and bright demeanor. Not to say colourspacecolour isn’t any fun, quite the opposite, just listen to “Upside Down Inside Out.” I just love that whether they are brooding or gushing over a crush they are still one of the sweetest, most fun pop groups I’ve heard lately.
Check out colourspacecolour’s debut EP, out now. Find colourspacecolour on Facebook and Twitter.
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