Million Girl March: From dream pop to couch cozy alt. rock, San Francisco's Minipop delivers a supercharged debut on A New Hope (Take Root Records). Minipop members Tricia Kanne (vocals/guitar), Lauren Grubb (drums), Matthew Swanson (guitar/keyboard) and Nick Forte (bass) look too young to recall the great shoegazer bands of the ‘90s but they certainly revive a similar stained glass, daydream nation spirit.  Recalling the bent tremolo majesty of Swervedriver, Lush, Slowdive and, of course, My Bloody Valentine (whose forthcoming reunion album has been loosely confirmed by http://www.vbs.tv/), Minipop exudes lushly layered, unemotionally seamless vocal harmonies, skyscraping guitars and tightly controlled beats. Dab in drops of echo and refracting reverb and you have music for sun showered drives along a deserted coastal highway.

Tricia Kanne sings like a million girl groups sampled for contemporary living, her vocals in lovely tracks like "Precious," "Fingerprints" and "Ask Me A Question" rising and falling like sugar filled ocean waves. Minipop's muse is so simple yet so spot-on perfect, you wonder why more bands haven't attempted their galvanic guitar and vocal rush confection. The rub lies in Minipop's equally hard nosed take on instrumental power pop riffage. The band soars effortlessly over clouds of shimmering vocal halos, but they can also dropkick your mother into next week when the mood hits them. "Generator" and "Like I Do" drive hard courtesy Grubb's atmospherically pointed drum beats, her fat tom textures and mushroom cloud ride cymbal patterns establishing Minipop's lush, multi-tiered rhythmic carpet.

Minipop occasionally drives off the cliff of perfect pop suicide, such as the cartoonish "Butterflies," or the equally exasperated "My Little Bees." Here, relying on vocal charm over melodic substance Minipop takes two steps back. But their glorious sound continues to rise and change shape, regardless of its sonic architecture. As comforting as a puppy at Christmas, Minipop offers the perfect antidote to a bleary eyed Monday morning. Or any other day (or eyeball quotient) for that matter.

Minipop: " Generator "  (MP3, 3:49)

 

Birds & Batteries: Opening their new album I'll Never Sleep Again with a cavernous, slow motion version of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold," Bay Area naturalists Birds & Batteries makes good on the promise of their continent spanning talent. Former Boston songwriter Mike Sempert joined with San Francisco tub thumper Brian Michelson back in '05, and just listen up what God hath wrought. A country rock electronic combo? That is precisely what Birds & Batteries conjures on their second release. Using yawning synthesizers to mimic the sound of a steel guitar, or subtle dance beats under Talking Heads-styled guitar riffs, the band (expanded to a large ensemble for the album) put a weird, personal bent on an iconic musical style.

Recorded at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone Studios by Ian and Jay Pellicci (Deerhoof, Erase Errata), I'll Never Sleep Again features a cast of Bay Area musicians including Michelson on drums; Julie Thomasson (electric piano, synths) Jill Heinke (bass), Neil Thompson of Low Red Land (pedal steel), Katrina Weeks of The Music Lovers (viola), and Daniela Gesundheit of Snowblink (vocals).

The title track twinkles like Kraftwerk let loose somewhere in the Black Forest--that is, until Thompson's sweeping steel guitar and Thomasson's electric piano transmogrify the initial song beyond recognition, topped off with Sempert's bittersweet vocal (which sometimes recalls Lowell George). "I'll Never Sleep Again" grows weirder and more wonderful, beats a blipping, samples a chirping, steel guitars and sprawling synth bass combining to create a fresh sonic identity. Birds & Batteries is undoubtedly one of the best things come out of a computer since Ralf and Florian. Or is that After the Goldrush?

Birds & Batteries
"I'll Never Sleep Again" (mp3)
from "I'll Never Sleep Again"
(Birds and Batteries)

More On This Album

Birds & Batteries
"Ocarina" (mp3)
from "I'll Never Sleep Again"
(Birds and Batteries)

More On This Album

Birds & Batteries
"After a Flood" (mp3)
from "I'll Never Sleep Again"
(Birds and Batteries)

More On This Album