Nada Surf - The Moon Is Calling

I always though that the 'Popular' era of Nada Surf was seriously Meh-able, and was pretty shocked when they managed to get a second wind (and companion notoriety) in the early part of the new millenium. Last year's If I Had A Hi-fi was fun for a covers record, but as it's been almost four years since they released Lucky, some new material really is in order.

Barsuk evidently felt the same way, and Nada Surf ponied up a new 7" for this year's Record Store Day. Two new songs, both highly polished demos of songs that are evidently to appear on the new Nada Surf record. Both are decent, with the b-side driving things a tad more than you might expect from the lads. Good stuff regardless. May be 7" only, but well worth getting The Moon Is Calling here from your buds at Barsuk.

R

David Bazan - Strange Negotiations

It's been an interesting couple of years for David Bazan. He's struggled with his faith and a love of drink, shedding the band name Pedro The Lion in the process to release recordings under his own name. Regardless of how Bazan purveys them, his songs have always been top-notch. The Bazan name continues to holds weight, but the inevitable touring that must be undertaken to support the average artist is never not at the expense of domesticity. Recent times have found him reaching out via Kickstarter and playing solo house shows to put together the funds needed to get him off the road for a bid and tend to home matters, while still being able to get some new songs together.

The plan seems to have worked. Bazan has succeeded in getting a new batch of songs together, compiling them into a new Barsuk full-length called Strange Negotiations. Ostensibly about delusion, or perhaps more accurately man's ability to embrace self-delusion, the record is ten of the best Bazan tracks he has released to date. He's playing in a trio format (almost always the best way) to keep things Spartan, and more importantly, to keep costs down.

All of these things seem to be paying off. A recent solo house tour was completely sold out and things seem to be generally better personally and professionally for Bazan. There is a new member in the household and high profile opening slots with the likes of Jimmy Eat World. I would expect that once Strange Negotiations gets some steam, there will be a lot of talk about Bazan on year-end lists. Eating Paper is probably my favorite track, although the opening and closing tracks get especially high marks as well. I hear that this was recorded by Bazan in his rehearsal space and mastered by TW Walsh. If that is the case, it would appear that the Bazan production skills are pretty top notch, to boot. It's always something with Bazan. With skills on both sides of the board and a growing distance from the polarizing world of Christian musics, Bazan mid-life crisis of faith may well be the release that garners him mainstream success. Strange negotiations, indeed.

Get Strange Negotiations from Barsuk here.

R

Live: The Dismemberment Plan @ Webster Hall 1.29.11

Ah, The Dismemberment Plan. It's been a long time since the boys were in active rotation. I saw a lot of the D Plan between here and Chicago in their heyday and had a good time doing it. I was bummed when they broke up, but can't say I've revisited their catalog much since their demise. Most of the gents are holding down day jobs in the DC area and making music. Bassist Eric Axelson played with ex-Promise Ring dudes in Maritime for a bit, before joining ill-fated DC locals Statehood. Singer/guitarist Travis Morrison released a couple solo records and had a couple of post-Plan bands in Brooklyn, but is currently the only one of the quartet formally declaring himself formally retired.

It's been over 10 years since The Dismemberment Plan released fan-favorite Emergency And I on Barsuk and almost 10 years to the day since they had played their first shows for it in NYC. Seems odd that The D-Plan would reunite behind a vinyl reissue, but I've learned not to argue. As such, I ended up getting tickets for one of the reunion shows when they went on sale last Summer. As the date(s) grew closer, the boys played on Jimmy Fallon and weren't so good, which made the proposition of getting my scalp on via Craigslist that much more attractive. If the kids are reuniting behind a vinyl reissue, dollars to donuts a live DVD is in the works and my lazy ass probably would like it better.

The DVD remains to be seen, but I rolled up to Webster Hall and waded into a packed room as the Plan started their first tune. I was surprised to see the room as full as it was, and even more surprised that the crowd seemed so young. The kids I was hooking up with to see the show were ten or twelve years younger and halfway through the proceedings I realized that many of the crowd was actually to young to have seen The Dismemberment Plan live. While I'm normally against a $25 ticket charge, the fact that the show was at Webster meant a hard curfew and that I could be on the couch well before midnight. The prospect was an attractive one and the set was surprisingly solid. I though that we'd see a track by track run-through of the record and an oldie or too, but there was a pretty good cross-section of the catalog in the set. There was the tired stage invasion during Ice Of Boston, but by and large it was a pretty great set and it was a pleasure to find that my nostalgia for the band doesn't seem totally unwarranted. I suspect this will mark a more active Dismemberment Plan in the future. Keep tabs on the gents here and grab the vinyl reissue of Emergency and I here from your friends at Barsuk.

R

Blunt Mechanic - World Record

I was (and still am) a big Kind Of Like Spitting fan. I can't remember how I first came to hear Ben Barnett, but I fell for him pretty hard. He's prolific, as much to a fault as the next guy, but his high points are top fucking notch. Recent times have found Barnett as the musical director of the Seattle arm of the Paul Green School Of Rock, I'm pretty sure around the same time that he formally shuttered the KOLS franchise. I would have never seen that coming, but I've only met the guy a couple times and he seems to be getting high marks.

On the subject of highness, I guess the kids won't be too scarred in the wake of their MD helming a band called Blunt Mechanic. Barnett recorded all the instruments on World Record and went on to assemble a live band. Two of the BP live fold do double duty in Globes, a to the best of my knowledge formed out of said School Of Rock and were two of the larger proponents of Barnett and his mentorism. The recorded tracks will be familiar to the long time Barnett fan, touching equally on his KOLS roots, his past tenure in The Thermals and his continued obsession with Phil Ochs. It's no surprise that it's on Barsuk. You can get World Record as well as the promising looking tour EP over there via this handy link. Keep track of Blunt Mechanic's tour planning here. I don't envy getting pulled over in the middle of the night with that name.

R

David Bazan - Curse Your Branches

Internet browsing tells me that Curse Your Branches is the first David Bazan record to be released under his own name. It comes on the heels of a great DVD and a couple of decent Pedro The Lion EPs. I also hear that it marks Bazan's first record where he actively embraces agnosticism. Not Victim In Pain style, but still an interesting step from a man long-thought to be a man of faith. Of course, he was bounced from Cornerstone ( for the uninitiated, sort of the Lollapalooza for the higher powered set) a couple years ago for being drunk, so he showed signs of a less conformist nature in the past. That said, he did play Cornerstone solo this year after having openly espoused his change in philosophical direction, so maybe there is some middle ground being trodden upon by both parties.

Dogmatic assocations aside, Curse Your Branches is a fine record, whether billed as a Pedro or Bazan record. Most of my quarrels lie in the arrangements. Having harvested a number of recent Bazan solo acoustic shows from the interwebs, I have come to prefer him without a band. The first couple of Pedro records had a nice happy medium, but later stuff seems to find studio embellishment gilding the lily. Shockingly enough, this asshole's opinion hasn't stopped him from selling records (or my attending the shows). I'd pick it up and see what you think. At the very least, you might be able to make out with a hot repressed christian, an act not to be missed, if available. Buy Curse Your Branches from the good folk of Barsuk here and keep track of Bazan's whereabouts (which seem to include a gang of solo house shows) via this handy link.

R