Bloodthirsty rainbows

Image: John Murphy

Bloodthirsty Angels & The Terrible Trumpets - John Ralston

"Bloodthirsty Angels & the Terrible Trumpets" borrows the language of Revelations to delineate a fraught relationship. And with its lonely echoed spaciousness, the song sounds like it was recorded in a wooden church -- some 17th century New England meetinghouse in the dead of winter or a rough structure in the hot, arid western desert. But like most pop songs (and whatever I've led you to believe in the previous two sentences, this is a very traditional pop song), it's primarily about the Church of Me and the way misery makes you the most self-centered person in the world.

From White Spiders (Vagrant Records, eMusic), Myspace

What Swallows a Rainbow - Hysterics

Hysterics come at psychedelia sideways, through obliquely day-glo pop hooks and temperate guitar solos: the 60s as remembered from the 80s and 90s -- as neatly harmonized power pop blaring from a car radio in the high school parking lot. My hackles naturally rise whenever "rainbow" appears in a song title, but at worst these guys are smoking a lot of pot, which may be why the chorus keeps asking, "Tell me whaaaat holds me back."

From Hysterics (Amazon, eMusic), Myspace