{"id":12886,"date":"2017-06-24T05:30:03","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T09:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=12886"},"modified":"2017-06-28T08:29:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T12:29:16","slug":"saturday-bonus-post-short-form-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/24\/saturday-bonus-post-short-form-roundup\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Bonus Post: Short-form Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now and then I receive an EP or even a single for potential review. In general those don’t make the cut, as I prefer to write about full-length albums that provide a fuller picture of an artist’s work. But when a short-form release rises to the level of something special, I’m happy to cover it. At the moment I have no less that five such discs on my desk. What follows is a quick look at each.<\/p>\n

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\nAnton Barbeau \u2013 \u201cHeaven is in Your Mind\u201d EP<\/b> (Fruits de Mer)
\nThe prolific Barbeau \u2013 currently based in Kreuzberg, Berlin \u2013 takes a brief busman’s holiday with this EP of three covers and one original. His arrangement of Traffic’s late ’60s hit has a kind of clattering krautrock vibe, but it maintains the swirling, psychedelic ambiance of the original. It’s not at all clear what the darkly dramatic \u201cSecretion of the Wafer\u201d is about, but that doesn’t diminish enjoyment of the track a bit. Barbeau’s demo-y reading of Big Star’s \u201cSeptember Gurls\u201d is fun, and was probably dashed off in a quick session. David Bowie’s \u201cScary Monsters (and Super Creeps)\u201d is just as wonderfully dissonant as the Berlin-recorded original, and highlights just how much the works of Bowie and Barbeau represent the product of kindred musical spirits.<\/p>\n

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\nDate Night With Brian \u2013 self-titled EP<\/b> (self-released)
\nIn these five tunes I hear clear echoes of some of the best early 1980s indie\/college rock. \u201cSummertime\u201d sounds like a cross between very early R.E.M. and Guadalcanal Diary. At a shade over three minutes, \u201cSupervisor\u201d is Date Night With Brian’s version of an epic track; it suggests a moderate-paced Husker Du with a dose of Athens, Georgia sensibility. The noisy \u201cAnywhere\u201d is catchy as well, and its rapid-fire lyrical assault reminds me a bit of \u201cIt’s the End of the World.\u201d More buzzing guitars anchor \u201cOnly an Hour or Two\u201d and \u201cDrink the Koolaid,\u201d both possessed of winsome, clever lyrics. If you bought all those Pylon and Replacements records and want more in that style \u2013 and why wouldn’t you? \u2013 do seek out this EP.<\/p>\n

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\nLannie Flowers \u2013 \u201cKiss a Memory\u201d b\/w \u201cEverything a Man Could Want\u201d<\/b> (Spyder Pop Records)
\nIt’s been some three years since we’ve been graced with a new album from power pop giant Lannie Flowers; and that was a live album. But if one values quality over quantity \u2013 as one must \u2013 then the arrival of a new single from this Texas artist is a welcome event. \u201cKiss a Memory\u201d is as strong a tune as Flowers had done, full of his trademark sharp hooks and creamy vocal harmonies. The b-side is, to coin a phrase, everything a fan<\/i> could want: memorable melody, reliably energetic power pop arrangement and wry, knowing lyrics. More, please!<\/p>\n

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\nTravis Pike and the Brattle Street East \u2013 \u201cWatch Out Woman\u201d b\/w \u201cThe Way That I Need You\u201d<\/b> (State Records)
\nThis single features two previously-unreleased tunes from way back in 1966. The a-side is delightful sloppy garage-pop from back in the days when it was something new. Twangy, trebly and jangling guitars, thudding drums, and loads of \u201cyeah yeah yeah\u201d vocals make it a treat, and it’s the real deal too. The flip is an Elvis-style blues raver complete with screaming female fans.<\/p>\n

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\nLisa Said \u2013 <\/b>Estranged<\/b><\/i> EP<\/b> (Tall Short Records)
\nOf Egyptian heritage, Said grew up in rural Tennessee. Once launching her musical career, she was based here in my hometown of Asheville, NC. Then it was Nashville, and apparently now it’s Washington DC. The EP’s theme centers around Said’s current post-relationship status. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a barbed-wire sharp sensibility to the four songs. Imagine Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville<\/i> with noisy slide guitar. In places, Estranged rocks harder than Said’s other (also fine) releases, but the chiming folk-pop of \u201cPeel the Moon\u201d shows that she hasn’t abandoned her knack for melody in order to rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now and then I receive an EP or even a single for potential review. In general those don’t make the cut, as I prefer to write about full-length albums that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,43,49,51,57,59,62,65],"tags":[211,3076,3077,1276,3078,3079],"class_list":["post-12886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-krautrock","category-new-release","category-pop","category-psych","category-punk","category-rawk","category-review","tag-anton-barbeau","tag-date-night-with-brian","tag-fruits-de-mer","tag-lannie-flowers","tag-lisa-said","tag-travis-pike","cat-33-id","cat-43-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-57-id","cat-59-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12914,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12886\/revisions\/12914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}