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Charly Bliss’ Guppy (2017) and early Charlotte Hatherley...

Earlier this year Charly Bliss (Eva Hendricks, Spencer Fox, Sam Hendricks and Dan Shure) put out their debut album Guppy, a sugary slice of power pop that recalls 90’s alt rock like Weezer (a huge influence according to the band) and female-fronted indie like Veruca Salt, Throwing Muses and Belly. In a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of the influence of that era, the band refers to their genre as “bubblegrunge”. However, their music isn’t as filled with empty calories as that label would imply. There’s a sophistication in the arrangements of songs (like “Percolator” above) where the twisty vocal melodies and unexpected key changes almost remind me of latter-day XTC. I don’t think the band has ever cited XTC as an influence, but some fairly close parallels might be drawn between their music and another artist who IS actually a confirmed XTC fan: Charlotte Hatherley…

Charlotte Hatherley is a British songwriter who first came up as a guitarist (and the only female member) in an pop rock band of dudes called Ash. Eventually she left that group to forge a far more interesting solo career that first took her through some very XTC-influenced power pop. For those not familiar with XTC, they were a quirky British band who produced post-punk in 70’s and eventually transitioned into making Beatles-esque pop (without losing much of the angularity and odd arrangements that characterized their earlier post-punk efforts). One of the main songwriters of that band, Andy Partridge, was a bit of a hero to Charlotte Hatherley and you can hear lots of examples where his songwriting style crept into her music. I think the resulting sound on Hatherley’sGrey Will Fade (2004) and The Deep Blue (2007) albums isn’t too far removed from what Charly Bliss is doing now…

However, most artists evolve and mature, and miss Hatherley is no different. Her love of the guitar-centric power pop, indie rock and post-punk genres culminated with 2009’s New Worlds. Since then, she moved further into synth pop and sci-fi imagery, even briefly taking on a Bowie-ish persona/alter-ego of “Sylver Tongue”. After an EP under that name, and some sci-fi film scoring and collaborations with synth-pop artist NZCA lines (among many others), she returned to her real name with her 4th solo full-length, 2017’s True Love (watch “A Sign” from that album here).

Where am I going with all of this this? Well, although I enjoy the new direction Charlotte has taken…I kinda miss her power pop from those early albums. Charlotte may have left all that behind, but Charly Bliss’ Guppy hits that spot for me in a big way in 2017. Obviously both artists have their differences (most notably Eva Hendricks'chipmunk voice compared to Charlotte’s deeper register), but I still think early Hatherley and current Charly Bliss would pair quite nicely on a playlist together. Both bands’ sense of humor really comes across in their lyrics and music videos. On that note, I’ll leave you with another Charly Bliss video, “Westermarck"…

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Thee More Shallows - More Deep Cuts (2004)

Before I spoke in riddles, I was worried someone would hear me.

Now I know that no one really listens so I will just speak clearly.

I don’t have private thoughts, just a lyrical worksheet

for mangling my observations on the meter and the beat.

And in the process of it, on every line,

sooner or later I’ll have to change the meaning to fit the rhyme.

You can find thoughtful gems like the lines above (from the song “Freshman Thesis”) all over Thee More Shallows’ 2004 album, More Deep Cuts. For that album, the band was based in San Franscisco and comprised of main vocalist and songwriter Dee Kesler, Chavo Fraser, Jason Gonzales and Odessa Chen. More Deep Cuts was the album where I discovered them, and Dee Kesler’s been one of my favorite lyricists ever since. Although Kesler’s lyrics are mostly whispered or talk-sung in a fairly deadpan manner, I found that the production and “space” on the album really made the lyrical content stand out.

More Deep Cuts is a very carefully composed and recorded album, right down to the sequencing of the tracks. I’d hesitate to call it a quiet album (especially after listening to the toy piano clanging away on the song “2am”), but there’s a definetely an overall mellow or lullaby-like quality to the album, albeit one that’s frequently offset by unsettling lyrics (the song “Ave Grave”). A bit like Radiohead, they seem to thrive in the cognitive dissonance between beauty and peace, and feelings of claustrophobia, paranoia, tension and unease.

More Deep Cuts is definitely their best album, but it’s also worth seeking out the albums that bookend it: 2002’s History of Sport Fishing and 2007’s Book of Bad Breaks. Aside from the admittedly lazy Radiohead comparison (it’s going to be a recurring theme in a lot of the stuff I post on this blog), listening to the Thee More Shallows across these albums reminds me at various points of Granddaddy, Low, Why?, Hood or The Books. I’ve picked out a few songs below…

Thee More Shallows : Ave Grave : Ethereal Indie-Rock by Odessa Chen as part of the band Thee More Shallows

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Moss

I used to frequent the Dutch site 3voor12 because they used to do full album streams for international releases, as well as stream high quality live concert videos of North American and British bands performing at the famed Paradiso concert hall in Amsterdam. While I don't understand Dutch , the impression I got was that the site is the Dutch equivalent to CBC Music here in Canada…the web presence of a government-sponsored national broadcast company. While a fair amount of their coverage happened to be about international (mostly US and UK) musical acts rolling through their country, as a state-sponsored company, a lot of local bands from the Netherlands were also featured. One Dutch band that stood out for me was Moss. I was pleasantly surprised that not only did they sing in English, but they were actually kind of great.

The core members of Moss are principal songwriter Marien Dorleijn (guitar/vocals), Michiel Stam (guitar) and Finn Kruyning (drums). They’ve been around for a while, and seem to be pretty beloved in the Netherlands. I became a fan around their Ornaments album in 2012. Since then, they've put out We Both Know The Rest Is Noise in 2014, and Strike in 2017. I think you can hear lots of North American indie rock in their sound…specifically the vocal delivery (or even how the vocals are recorded) in bands like the Shins, Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket. The increasing presence of synths, electronics and noise in Moss' music make them a little harder to pin down genre-wise. Radiohead wouldn't be an unfair reference in (on songs like "New Shape")…but then again, neither would Phoenix (on songs like "Almost A Year"). Watch the live vid above, and listen to the songs below to hear for yourself…

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The Jungle Giants - Quiet Ferocity (2017)

Australians seem to excel at making sunny, danceable indie or electronic pop (among other genres), and Brisbane-based band The Jungle Giants are no exception. Their previous releases have seen them working with a bouncy, tropical sound not unlike Vampire Weekend, and their latest work Quiet Ferocity takes a turn towards a more electronic pop style that would fit quite nicely on a playlist with between bands like Metronomy and LCD Soundsystem. Title track “Quiet Ferocity” (as heard in the video vignette above) best encapuslates this style. I also get a “Pumped Up Kicks” vibe from the song “Used to be in Love"…but that’s not a slight on the band. In a just world, "Used to be in Love” could be just as big a hit as that Foster The People’s song. Have a listen…

Quiet Ferocity by The Jungle Giants

Quiet Ferocity by The Jungle Giants

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Omhouse

Omhouse is an art rock group from Toronto led by Steven Foster. It started as Foster’s solo recording project and expanded to a full band with Evan Cartwright, Sam Gleason and Ben Harney. To my ears, they kind of blend the power pop melodicism of the Shins, with a touch of the art rock dissonance, twists and turns found in a band like Dirty Projectors.

“Gutterbird” was the first song I ever heard from them back in 2013 and I’ve been waiting for them to put out a proper full-length ever since. Earlier this year they finally released the single “Nursery” ahead of that upcoming album. Take a listen to those songs and the title track from their 2014 Mooneye single.

Gutterbird + Omhouse EP [Cassette] by Omhouse

MOONEYE single [digital/cassette] by Omhouse

Nursery by Omhouse

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Relay - Still Point of Turning (2006)

A good way to start things off would be with the band whose song provided the name of the blog, Relay. Relay was the full band shoegaze vehicle for Philadelphia-based producer/engineer Jeff Zeigler. Among Zeigler’s more noteworthy production credits are some earlier albums by The War On Drugs. Listening to his own band Relay (and later incarnations Arc In Round and Valley Exit), it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that Zeigler was instrumental in realizing a lot of the dreamier textures and treatments that show up on The War On Drugs releases like Lost in the Dream.

Unlike the most notable band on Zeigler’s resume, Relay wasn’t an update on Springsteen-ish heartland guitar rock. Shoegaze was the usual descriptor I saw thrown around for Relay while they were still active, but I think listening to the following songs you’ll hear a lush sound that hews closer to dream-pop, post-rock and even krautrock. The keys and synthesizers share as much of the space in Relay’s music as the wall-of-sound guitars characteristic of the shoegaze genre. The hypnotic drumming in particular wouldn’t be out of place on a Can album or Unwound’s Leaves Turn Inside You. Interpol wouldn’t be an unfair reference, either.

Anyway, the namesake of the blog is a great Relay song called “Ode to Guesswork” off of their Still Point of Turning album from 2006…although though my favorite song by the band is another track off that album, the majestic “Project for the Palace”. Check out both below…

Still Point of Turning by Relay

Still Point of Turning by Relay

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First post!

Are music blogs still a thing? That’s being a bit facetious...I know they are. I browse dozens of them a day. Still, I feel like I’m about a decade and a half late to the party. Anyway, I felt like I needed this particular outlet to talk about music and practice writing. So I'll mostly be using this site to post about new music discoveries, year-end-lists, as well as kind of a clearinghouse to talk about all the artists I would have posted about all these years it's taken for music blogs to possibly stop being interesting. I'm a newbie to running a blog, so please bear with me through the inevitable onslaught of typos, edits and theme changes...

It’s also worth mentioning that one of the things that really inspired me to finally take a leap into music blogging, was being asked to participate in an episode of the Snobcast Live music podcast earlier this year. It's not really in my personality to put myself out there like that, but it turned out to be a fun experience. These guys are just starting out, but they've already gotten a solid archive of great episodes in the bag. I highly recommend checking them out. If you like what you hear, please share the links and give them a good rating on ITunes or wherever you get your podcasts...

Snobcast Live

Website: http://snobcastlive.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snobcastlive/

Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/Snobcastlive/

ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/snobcast-live/id1257422177?mt=2