The real

Image: Shelby Nycole

Let's Talk About It - White Denim

White Denim's (first? new?) album is a package bus tour of 70s rock, breezing through psychedelia, glam, hard rock, prog, soul, post-punk -- even waving at disco. Ya know, if it's Tuesday it must be Bowie. At several points their enthusiasm seems kinda feigned and mocking, and at other stops they're palpably enthused. "Let's Talk About It" is White Denim's spiked, angular Buzzcocks/Wire/Minutemen nod. But instead of attempting some inevitably flawed forgery, they expose the influence/creation process for its fakery. The singer seems to forget when to come in and then sorta slips out, the guitars break down, the drums pursue their own alien muse, the lyrics dryly meta comment: "Let's talk about it/ let's react to it." Then there's the puppet-string pulling post-production slicey/dicey that's as common these days as bands with "white" in their name. Somehow that doesn't screw up the song.

From Workout Holiday (Amazon), Myspace


Disaster - Nerve City

Dogs - Nerve City

I guess it's my unhealthy attachment to the thoroughly delegitimized concept of artistic authenticity and related false consciousnesses, but I never seem to tire of this type of crusty, lower-than lo-fi, "hey, you'll never believe what I found buried in a box in the basement!" material. Allow me to amend: I never tire of it when the songs are actually good, i.e. melodic, hooky, concise, wrapped in mystery, wonder, secret and surprise. These are that, but "Living Wage" an undownloadable on the one-man (the multi-monikered, multi-residenced Brendan Sullivan) garage band's Myspace is even neater. Pretend The Animals secretly recorded an epilogue to "House of the Rising Sun" and tucked it away for a more forgiving age.

Myspace


Oh My God - Ida Maria

Just rocks.

From Fortress Around My Heart (Amazon), Myspace