The Sonic Parthenon Playlist: May 2009

Oops we skipped over May! Meaning we missed:

Brakesbrakesbrakes - "Crush on You"
Maybe the 90's are coming back afterall - a grungey sound with those semi-sweet mid-90's pop lyrics. Figures they're English...they just must be now getting into it.

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Right now, Metric's Fantasies is the best record of the year. This is number 2.

Elks - "Collide"
They just could be just another one of the many bands with an animal for their name, but instead Elks choose to copy the anthemic indie rock the likes of Longwave and Parts & Labor. Tis a fine choice. Besides, there has to be someone out there not listening to Grizzly Bear.

Great Northern - "Houses"
Excellent new track from the not-a-fluke dark rockers out of Southern California. Eat it Silversun Pickups!

Ben Harper & Relentless 7- "Shimmer and Shine"
Harper dropped the Innocent Criminals and the pot-head friendliness in exchange for Relentless 7 and just rocking the hell out. Good call. He's still a sap in the lyrics department though. Actually this isn't too different from "Crush on You".

The Hold Steady - A Positive Rage
Yeah I don't know who these guys are or why they have a live record or why I play it almost every day...

I Was A King - "Norman Bleik"
Picking up where "Saints" by Army Navy hasn't really left off yet, this is a strong power pop number from Scandinavia. How do they keep doing that over there?!

King Khan & The Shrines - "Land of the Freak"
All thanks to that gig in early May, I can't stop playing this James Brown meets Greg Cartwright escapade.

St. Vincent - tracks from Actor
I haven't heard much of the new record but "The Strangers" satiated me for a spell.

Honorable Mentions: Jarvis Cocker, Passion Pit

King Khan & The Shrines; Mark Sultan @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

King Khan & The Shrines; Mark Sultan; Georgiana Starlington
@ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY - May 1, 2009

I had always hesitated to see Khan with the Shrines because as much as I loved the pulse-pounding soul I heard on record, I resisted the gimmicky antics I heard about, not to mention the obnoxious sudden hipness of the act and the later scenester embracing of that nice little secret called King Khan & BBQ. But putting aside the snobbery for a night, I finally took in King Khan & The Shrines and Holy Moly what a show. Yes it was a little gimmicky - the fat man in the speedo spitting glitter, who came out of the crowd, appeared to be a plant. But Khan kept his notorious wang in his pants and kept his spit and other bodily fluids to himself (maybe it was because of the swine flu), and instead focused on his amazing music. The thrilling, heart-stopping soul churned out by Khan's seemingly endless number of musicians is up there with the greats. In fact, I officially shun the notion of exclusivity, and declare that King Khan & The Shrines go beyond their crass scenester popularity, and come to be a top-rated popular act among the soul circuit. Don't lose any of that garage grease, and just take it to the polished confines of the soul music world. They won't know what hit 'em (Hopefully it won't be Khan's wang).

"Mark Sultan" was in fact "BBQ" as he was in Toronto at Rancho Relaxo two weeks prior. It was him on guitar and snare drum with 2 pals helping out on either side of him. It was a fine reminder of his stellar voice and songwriting but there was no "Shake Real Low" and again ol' Montreal Mark felt the need to mess around with his songs - speed 'em up, slow 'em down, stop 'em halfway - as if he's either tired already of his old catalog or wants to mess around with his tight little fan base. Also the contrast of seeing this act from a place like Rancho to a place like MHOW was noticeable: despite MHOW's fantastic acoustics, it was a little too large to absorb Sultan's pocket-full-of-energy.

And why was there some apparent of rule of no King Khan & BBQ during the night? Come on boys, you're in the same room.

Georgiana Starlington is a country-punk act. The front gal looks like a 60's/70's Nashville star and is drunk like one too and her band is deliberately sloppy. I suppose I can look up where this is from (and I will) but I'll just go ahead and say Atlanta and lob this shtick in with that crude garage scene down south that was fun for about 10 minutes before every mustache-and-big-sunglasses scenester made it as uncool as the sloppy music. Looking it up...hmm...they appear to be locals. And it appears this is a band name, not the name of the chick. I better go re-edit this paragraph. OK, done. Well I'm glad that's settled.