Viva Voce - Rose City

Viva Voce are from Portland, Oregon although the band's inception was in Muscle Shoals Alabama. Kevin and Anita Robinson initially played shows as a duo under the Viva Voce moniker, recording four records before swelling the VV ranks by adding Corrina Repp and Evan Railton. Octavio is the first I've heard from the band and I'm pretty impressed. When the vocals are in unison, I don't want to shoot myself and the Robinsons avoid deviances into the horrors of Mates Of State domestic reflection, a sure death knell for this asshole.

Viva Voce have self-recorded and released their material whenever possible, but Rose City is the first record to be recorded in the studio they have fabricated behind their Portland home. VV (not the Kills douche-nozzle) have a pretty strong overseas following built by years of touring, but took a year off to build the studio and work with country side project Blue Giant. Anita also toured and sang with compatriots The Shins, leaving Kevin to record local bands in the new workshop. Over three weeks earlier this year, the Robinsons wrote and recorded Rose City as a sort of aesthetic homage to their home city. The time frame was evidently intentional, although I've yet to ascertain why as yet. Safe money is on avoiding impaling oneself with the double-edged sword of owning your own studio. Either way, nothing about Rose City seems rushed. It's a great sounding record, swathed in reverb but not to a fault. The opening Devotion sounds like Thurston Moore sitting in with The Spinanes, without so much SY freakout. I hear a lot of The Spinanes, as well as a little Lush in some of the more processed drums.

Vocals are shared by the Robinsons, often in unison, but sometimes with a single lead. I'm never crazy about unison vocals, but Viva Voce do it pretty well, even if the best song on the record is sung purely by Anita. That song is Good As Gold. That's an Elastica meets Joan Jett little nugget that seems dangerously likely to be the ill-portended 'somewhat unrepresentative hit'. Internal politics aside, Good As Gold and the following title track are two of the best songs you'll hear this year. Listening to Rose City it's obvious why Europe has taken such a shine to Viva Voce. The expanded VV is touring hard behind Rose City and the record isn't even out yet. Keep tabs on their whereabouts here and pick the record up on May 26th when it drops courtesy of the good folk of Barsuk. You get the first single Octavia free from the Viva Voce web presence here to tide you over in the interim. Stay in the loop on the pre-order for Rose City at Barsuk here.

R

Ben Barnett - Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues

Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues is Ben Barnett's first true solo release, although there's a pretty strong argument to be made that all of the material he recorded as Kind Of Like Spitting was solo material. Either way, this is the first material that Barnett has released under his own name. Released may be too strong of  a word. I snagged it off a message board, but there was artwork and stuff that would presuppose this was either a tour-only kind of party or perhaps some sort of romantic overture that has found it's way into the cyberworld.

Whatever it's origins, Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues is pretty decent. Barnett has been saying he's recording for Barsuk, although I'm on pretty good authority that Barsuk doesn't know that. Wherever these songs end up, there are two or three great ones here, and I can see a couple of the others coming together nicely in the studio. 

Ben has been teaching at the School Of Rock in Seattle for a year or so. It seems to have been good for him personally and professionally, plus he's playing his ass off on tracks like Why Can't This Be Canada. School obligations are keeping Barnett on the West Coast, but there were some tour dates with the Andrew Jackson Jihad kids recently, so perhaps there will be an East Coast jaunt in the Summer. In the meantime, check out Ben's Myspace and poke around on his blog posts. Songs About Zombies and Trust Issues is pretty easy to find if you look a bit, along with some pretty great live stuff.

R

Death Cab For Cutie - something about airplanes deluxe edition

I know. I'm as sick of hearing about Death Cab as the next guy. When I saw them with The Jealous Sound at the Knit years ago I never thought they'd be playing the Garden or opening for Neil Young on tours, but fate seems to have smiled on them. It's now been ten years since Barsuk released something about airplanes and they have seen fit to commemorate the occasion with a deluxe reissue that adds a recording of their first Seattle show in February 1998.

It's a good period for them, and the live recording captures them as the fresh-faced Northwestern youth you would expect them to be. It's pretty funny to hear them hawking their tape for $3 over the course of the set. The live recording is evidently from a show at the Crocodile Cafe opening up for Harvey Danger. Their singer Sean Nelson joins the band for a cover of Sweet and Tender Hooligan. I never recalled liking Harvey Danger all that much, but it's a pretty good cover. It looks like maybe I should revisit them, especially since they are back on the scene and all.

Death Cab seem like they were a pretty tight band back then. There's more of an edge than you'll see them display in this day and age, although truth be told, the new record Narrow Stairs is pretty aces. Revisiting the something about airplanes ten years on, it holds up pretty well. Chris Walla really was doing amazing thing at his nascent Hall Of Justice studios back then and Gibbard had a good batch of songs. Nicholas Harmer deserves his due as well, his meaty yet melodic basslines are as integral to Death Cab as Simon Gallup is to the Cure. Barsuk releasing this marked the beginning of an era that was to soon include bands like The Long Winters and The Shins. Death Cab has been the most successful of the crop by far. Say what you will about the crew of ponces that comprises the majority of their new-school fanbase, they have achieved their station the old fashioned way: by releasing quality records and touring the hell out of them. If you are a fan, I hope that you are aware of this record's existence in its original form, but the deluxe version of something about airplanes is well worth picking up, especially for the live set. I assume that Walla probably remastered it, as well, so why not go for the upgrade. Buy it here from the good folk of Barsuk. If you are of a mind, you can keep up with all things Death Cab related here.

R

Bazan: Alone At The Microphone DVD

David Bazan is the enigmatic frontman of Northwest slow-rockers Pedro The Lion. He's also a man of faith, but not in a creepy Cornerstone sort of way. He's been known to play that bastion of God rock, but is considerably more moderate than you'd expect. 

I first heard Bazan through a CMJ sampler that had Big Trucks on it. It's still one of my favorites. At the time I wasn't aware of the scene he came from. Soon after, Pedro came through Brownies (R.I.P) and I caught them one Sunday evening. They were pretty good, but also did that weird Christian thing where they stopped and asked if there were any questions in between songs. I, and most of the assembled scant crowd, were a little confused but it was a decent set refreshingly free of rhetoric. I've been a fan ever since and even a horribly anachronistic run-in with religion hasn't put me off him. 

That said, Bazan's faith is a personal thing that he keeps mostly to himself and out of his songs. Alone At The Microphone has some interview footage, but is mostly Bazan playing selections from his catalog solo in the studio. And sometimes in his car. The songs are wonderful regardless of the venue. Bazan seems to be an earnest man who cares deeply about his faith, his family and his music. He comes off very warm, even if some of the material treads a darker path. If more religious people were like him, there might be a lot more tolerance on both sides.

Check it out for yourself. You can buy Bazan: Alone At The Microphone  here. If you were of a mind, you can find him on the web here and socially interface with him here. It's worth a trip.