SLEEP STATION

Today's post was supposed to be about the New Jersey group New London Fire and their new album (out today) Sing the Body Holographic. First things first, though....

NLF leader David Debiak is also the primary creative force behind Sleep Station - a somewhat... well... "sleepier" sounding outfit than his current side-project. Mr. Debiak has an obvious fondness for concept albums, and this may send some of the less hearty souls amongst you scurrying for the hills. Hell, it would have sent THIS less-than-hearty soul scurrying for the hills but for the happy fact that I heard the man's music before I started reading about his rather esoteric and analytical proclivities.

Now, I fear I'm doing Sleep Station a great injustice by suggesting that their songs are somehow both dull and dense. And the very term "concept album" tends to conjure thoughts of cold, emotionally impenetrable, oft-times tuneless sonic terrains. Thankfully, Sleep Station proves to be the exception to that rule - with songs that are warm, inviting, and gently infectious, much like Debiak's voice.

Up until recently, Sleep Station had been almost impossibly prolific, producing five records in just four years. Lately, though, Debiak (along with his brother Jason) has been focusing on the aforementioned New London Fire. Still, Sleep Station has not been retired entirely, apparently; it's just on a bit of a hiatus.

Finally, Sleep Station is incredibly generous when it comes to sharing their tunes with the masses, so you'll find endless MP3s on their website [here], MySpace page [here], and on their record company's (Eyeball Records) site [here] as well. Dig in.

From the LP After the War, 2004 >>>
[MP3] "Caroline, London 1940"

From the LP Hang in There Charlie, 2003 >>>
[MP3] "Broke Your Trust"
[MP3] "Fading Out"

From the EP Von Cosel, 2003 >>>
[MP3] "My Last Desire"

From the LP Runaway Elba-1 (v. 3.0), 2002 >>>
[MP3] "Goodbye Elba-1, Part 2"
[MP3] "Silver Hills"
[MP3] "Chicago (Reprise)"

From the LP Anhedonia, 2001 >>>
[MP3] "Happy"

FUNKY NASHVILLE

Oh, how misleading a band name can be. Suffice it to say, the Danish band Funky Nashville doesn't sound anything like you'd expect it to based on that particular, misplaced moniker. Imagine Coldplay calling itself Kamikaze Blitzkrieg. Got the picture?

Thankfully, Funky Nashville's music saves the day and restores all faith. No, they are not funky (or, if they are, they're about as funky as Clay Aiken covering a Lionel Ritchie ditty). And no, they do not sound like a band out of Nashville (Memphis, maybe... but even that would be a stretch).

So... what DO they sound like? Well, they've got the American thing down, to be sure - but it's the American Southwest that comes to the fore. Think Calexico. Maybe a dusting of Ennio Morricone. Think pedal steel & surf guitars. Think mariachi bands playing '60s spy themes.

Maybe this all sounds like a great big mess. Well, it's anything but. In fact, it's rather undeniably beguiling. And leave it to three guys from Denmark to do the Americana thing better than just about any American you could name.

Funky Nashville released their second album, Hitch a Ride, in the U.S. in July on 215 Records. Their first effort, A Good Day to Drive, hit the streets in 2003 and features a peyote-cloaked, spaghetti-western spin on Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." It also finds them getting about as funky as they're capable of getting on the bass-driven "Witch Queen of New Orleans."

If anything, though, the new record is the far more assured effort of the two and is certainly worthy of your exploration. For starters, you could visit their Myspace page [here]. Just remember: don't judge a book by its cover; and don't judge a band by its name. Because when you're roadtrippin' south on I-169 and hit Tulsa, you might just find yourself making a right turn instead of a left.

From the LP Hitch a Ride, 2006 >>>
[MP3] "Hitch a Ride"
[MP3] "Mexican Stars"

From the LP A Good Day to Drive, 2003 >>>
[MP3] "Witch Queen of New Orleans"
[MP3] "I Will Survive"

THE FLINTS

Seeing as tomorrow is some sort of holiday in the great northern nation of Canada, I thought I'd finally get around to posting a couple songs by the Flints. Fact is, I had intended to post on the Flints a long, long time ago, but so many better, more popular blogs had already covered them that I thought: What the hell's the point? Well, I recently re-discovered a couple of their songs on one of my old mix CDs, and it occurred to me that not everybody who stops by here has necessarily heard about these guys.

"These guys," by the way, are Stan Flint and Al Huizenga, a couple of friends from Toronto who craft unabashedly sunny, Beatles-esque pop songs. Five of these songs - including the two below - can be found on their EP There Used to Be a Time. Said EP can be purchased at CDBaby [here].

The Flints' MySpace page is [here].

[MP3] "Laugh With Me"

[MP3] "Girl"

BONUS TRACKS:

In keeping with today's '60s pop vibe, I thought I'd offer up a couple more tracks from the Pipettes' debut CD, We Are the Pipettes, which I have been enjoying to an almost ridiculous extent. (And no, they're not from Canada; they're from the UK, which is close enough.)

[MP3] "Judy"

[MP3] "Tell Me What You Want"

20TH CENTURY SONGS (A LITERAL MIX)

As my July was so damn erratic (in so damn many ways), there will be no Best of July mix for 2006. Alas, alas....

However, here's a rather random mix celebrating the last century that I put together for your listening pleasure.

Please left-click [here] for the songs.

TRACKLIST >>>

01) Salim Nourallah/1978
02) Neutral Milk Hotel/Holland, 1945
03) The Connells/'74-'75
04) The 1900s/Bring the Good Boys Home
05) Ed Harcourt/Born in the '70s
06) Tim Wilson/Past Cure 1974
07) Belle and Sebastian/A Century of Fakers
08) The Indelicates/Julia, We Don't Live in the '60s
09) Pelle Carlberg/Summer of '69
10) Smashing Pumpkins/1979
11) Placebo/20th Century Boy
12) Morrissey/Munich Air Disaster 1953
13) Patti Smith/1959
14) The Hives/Inspection Wise 1999
15) Sleep Station/Caroline, London 1940
16) The Golden Dogs/1985
17) Montt Mardie/1969
18) Matt Pond PA/1985
19) Witch's Hat/Glodyany, 1972
20) New Order/1963 ['95]
21) The Alarm/Spirit of '76

HELLOGOODBYE

Well, I think I'm in the mood for a bit of straightforward power-pop to give me a lift after two-going-on-three nights of humidity-induced sleeplessness.

I don't know a whole hell of a lot about Hellogoodbye. Until recently, I'd never heard of them - despite the fact that they apparently put out a self-titled EP in 2004 and appeared in several episodes of The Real World: Austin (now THAT's your ticket to artistic immortality).

I do know that these four guys from Huntington, CA look and sound ridiculously young (and that they look like they could only POSSIBLY come from Huntington, CA). I also know that they sound a hell of a lot like a hell of a lot of other bands. I think you might agree that "Stuck to You" (below) sounds somewhat strikingly similar to any number of Muse tunes.

Hellogoodbye's debut full-length, Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! comes out August 8 on Drive Thru Records. And the fact is: You don't have to be the most original band in the world to produce some catchy-ass songs, and there are moods for this type of music in just about all of us. Obviously, I am in one of those moods right now.

[Also, I am clearly envious of their youth, geographical location, and - one can only assume - their inherent ability at this point to lay or be laid by whoever/whomever they could ever want to lay or be laid by. Bastards.]

[MP3] "Stuck to You"

[MP3] "Baby, It's Fact"

THE YOU

The You is a young, essentially unGoogle-able four-piece from Pittsburgh, PA. I discovered them through the song "I'm Going to Kill Myself," which begins all lo-fi and acoustic-guitar-unassuming but starts to kick in around the 1:10 mark with the simple addition of drums. Then, lo and behold, some piano joins the party, and the singer gets almost giddy on the tough-love-but-too-true closing call-out: "You'll never succeed in this life." Ultimately: a highly charming little ditty.

Charming from a somewhat different angle is "Nothing Goin' On," which has a slightly "spacier," Wilco-ish vibe to it.

Apparently, the You has an album called For the Masses (produced by Brian Deck, who has worked with Iron & Wine and Modest Mouse) coming out sometime in the not-too-distant future. I don't have any specifics to offer on that at the moment, but you can hear more of their stuff on their MySpace page [here]. Also, while there, you'll see that they'll be playing a number of shows in the Pittsburgh area in August.

[MP3] "I'm Going to Kill Myself"

[MP3] "Nothing Goin' On"

CONCRETE BLONDE

I've been battling a broken tooth and 97 degree weather of late, so posting to this blog has taken a bit of a backseat. As a result, maybe we'll keep it brief today with something that might be filed under "nostalgia."

Concrete Blonde is one of those bands that a lot of people were at least somewhat aware of back in the day, but the L.A.-based band never quite managed to break through to the big-time. This, despite the fact that they produced a number of solid songs and probably a couple of pretty solid albums during those years. They also featured the very distinctive pipes of lead singer Johnette Napolitano.

The band officially broke up in 1995 but resurrected themselves - at least temporarily - with 2004's little-heard Mojave. I've heard nothing about any imminent recording projects, but here's a selection of songs I think hold up rather well....

From the LP Bloodletting, 1990 >>>
[MP3] "Joey"
[MP3] "Tomorrow, Wendy"

From the LP Walking in London, 1992 >>>
[MP3] "Someday?"

From the LP Mexican Moon, 1993 >>>
[MP3] "Heal It Up"

From their self-titled LP, 1987 >>>
[MP3] "True"