Congrats to Photographer Laura Musselman

Guest post by Dakin Snyder

Duck and Cover would like to offer our proudest congratulations to site favorite photog Laura Musselman for some pretty awesome goings on in her career of late. As some of you may recall, we featured Laura's photos of Seattle rock happenings around a year or so ago. Since then she has continued to be one of the top documentarians of all things interesting and musical in the Puget Sound area.

While Seattle area musicians, publications, and other photographers have been cognizant of Laura's epic skills for some time, it would appear that that those outside of the cloud cover are beginning to take notice as well. In the past few days, Laura's photo of Tad Doyle fronting Soundgarden sans Chris Cornell has circulated all over the webernets, having been picked up for the front page of Stereogum, and for use with a feature on MTV.com.

We know that great things are on the horizon for one of our favorite people on the planet, and we couldn't be happier. Visit Laura at her home on the internet, and talk to her about ordering some prints now, while you can still afford them (which is likely not for that much longer; have you tried to get ahold of an Annie Leibovitz lately? Sheesh!).

As a side note, we can safely say that great things are not on the horizon for Chris Cornell if the latest video from his misguided foray into pop line dancing hip hop (ish) fusion with Timbaland is any indication. (What's that? Santana and Rob Thomas are on the phone? They want their song back?) Also, do they really line dance in Puerto Rico? I am somehow dubious.

Duck & Cover co-founder and former D&C blogger, Dakin spends most of his time rearranging is iTunes and watching haunted house videos on YouTube. He lives and writes in Los Angeles.

New Metric Album Appeals to Fantasies [well, some anyway]

Sounds Like: The makings for an electro-pop sing-a-long

RIYL: Tegan and Sara, Stars, Feist, Tilly and the Wall

A Few Words: First albums, I'm told, are easy. Sure, you'll be compared to your peers, but that's natural. Subsequent releases, however, are trickier because you're being judged against yourself. When an artist releases a new album, fans have certain expectations. The problem seems to be that each individual fan holds unique hopes for the release. Where one person may hope for the band to go in a new direction, someone else will look forward to more of what the artist previously produced. You see the predicament: no matter what the band pushes out, there will be discontent among the ranks of its audience. All the group can do is create what music is moved from within.

This, of course, assumes the artist or band is creating music and not just chasing singles. I'm just not sure in which direction Metric is moving on Fantasies. Not that writing killer singles is bad, per se. On their previous albums, Metric's power-pop apprach to songwriting has produced multiple infectious tracks. Fantasies doesn't disappoint on this level, either. "Help, I'm Alive" is one of the best pop tracks I've heard since Stars let loose "Take Me to the Riot." And it doesn't stop there. The entire A-Side is stuffed with major-chord-based, synth-backed songs made ever greater by Emily Haines's siren vocals. Unfortunately, the album is thus lopsided as the B-Side struggles to maintain the high standards set by its flip. This imbalance, a microcosm of a band's aforementioned dilemma, appears to be the result of Fantasies trying to appeal to both audience personnas: those seeking a new sound, and those happy with older releases. Whether the album is a success depends on which camp you're in.

Listen to Fantasies in its entirety here:

Singing in the Car with Neil Young

Young has been an activist his entire career, and over the past few years has become involved in developing different fuel possibilities. Along with Johnathan Goodwin, their LINCVOLT project using alternative energy to power Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental is now finished. From that development and other inspirations, the songs on Fork in the Road are an emotional response to the current social and ecological questions facing the world’s population.

Watch the video for the song "Johnny Magic" that Young recorded in his Lincoln.

Geronimo! :: A Different Kind of Greatness

Guest post by David Schutz

Sounds Like: Somebody’s having a good time

RIYL: Fugazi, Don Caballero, Dredg

A Few Words: I’ve been a sucker lately for bands that sound like they’re having fun (see also Hot Cha Cha). Not that most bands aren’t probably having fun, but I think a lot of it gets lost in the pursuit of self-legitimation. Not so for Geronimo! (exclamation theirs). The Chicago trio’s flair for experimentation in both sound and structure has an off-the-cuff feel that is reminiscent of Fugazi, and while they take a certain amount from that band, sonically, Geronimo! is Chicago through and through. Their self-recorded A Different Kind Of Greatness is thoroughly Albini-esque in production, and the band’s style sits in between the region’s more avant garde groups (Don Caballero, Tortoise) and heavier rockers (Hum, that other band with the bald guy).

Geronimo! does so with a guitar/drums/organ configuration, a setup that puts a band at risk of sounding like either R&B revivalists or something off the circus train. These guys avoid all that, though, and Ben Grigg’s fuzzed-out organ sounds are sufficiently guitar-like that it’s easy to forget that he’s plinking keys and not plucking strings. This adds a degree of versatility that’s tough to achieve with a three-piece band, and Geronimo! makes the most of it. I’m looking forward to hearing more out of these guys.

Download "Approaching the Skyline" off their EP A Different Kind of Greatness

When he isn't writing, David peruses Anthropology texts and plays guitar for The Dicky Jaguar Band. He lives in Colorado.

Berg Sans Nipple Transcends Electronica Genre

Sounds Like: The Tin Man avec brain; the Lion avec heart; Dorothy avec stylin' red pumps

RIYL: Stereolab, James's Wah Wah, Postal Service

A Few Words: The genre term "electronica" is tossed around so much that it's losing its power to define and will soon go the way of other deflated descriptions like "indie" and "alternative". Such is life, I suppose, and the unwavering human need to categorize every bi-labial fricative. Take Berg Sans Nipple, the musical pairing of Frenchman Lori Sean Berg and Cornhusker Shane Aspegren. Their efforts are filed under "electronica", "electronic", "experimental", "dance", and "house mood." I'm not even sure what that last tag is supposed to mean. The more I write about music, the more I'm convinced the boundaries between styles evolve and blur as much as the music.

Berg Sans Nipple is indie by definition, yet they are electronica since laptops and synth are as integral to their sound as are drums and guitar. But are they jazz for the shifts in time signature? If you can groove to it, is it "dance" or "funk"? I struggle to fit the duo neatly into a definite container. However, while categorizing Along the Quai is akin to juggling sand, the album does not altogether escape explanation.

Woven into the tapestry of bleeps and bloops are heavy synthesizers, steel drums, hand-claps, horn, and moody vocals sung in pitched falsetto. Thanfully, BSN spares us the art-rock crap and bee lines straight for accessible harmonies. The result is a melodic, layered, and robust album you can actually listen to. Go the Franco-American alliance!

Download "Mystic Song" from their album Along the Quai.

Buy Along The Quai from Amazon.com

The Pogues + The Dubliners = St. Patrick's Rovers

In celebration of St. Patrick's day, and because I spent a good deal of time living on Ireland's west coast (if you can call Limerick a coast), here's an old video of The Pogues and The Dubliners singing "Irish Rover." I love the fact that Shane MacGowan is puffing away at a rollie on stage--and I'm pretty sure it's not water in that styrofoam cup.

This video reminds me of a musician I palled around with during my stint in stab city. A mesmerizing performer, Damo would often celebrate the fact he scored a gig before the gig itself. When it was time for him to go on, he would be completely trollied; too drunk for his own performance (which, if you knew Damo, you would concede is no small feat). Damn, I miss those guys.

Hungry Villagers :: Cowboys and Indie from the Heart of Texas

Sounds Like: Poets who can play instruments.

RIYL: Okkervil River, Arcade Fire, Clem Snide

A Few Words: When they were emerging in their home town of Houston, TX, the Houston Press warned readers that these guys would be "all over the blogs from here to London." While they haven't yet crossed the vitural ditch, Hungry Villagers are getting a few nods here and there. Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't blown up by now. Maybe it's early. Maybe it's the time of year. Maybe it's because they haven't yet released anything . . . actually, that probably has a lot to do with it. But the wait is over. Tomorrow, Hungry Villagers will let loose their first EP Little Fingers digitally and on vinyl, a track off which you can download here for free (aren't I nice to you?). And if you're lucky enough to be at SXSW, they're playing Thursday at Hilo (301 W. 6th Street).

Download "Tree Full of Ghosts" from Hungry Villagers' new EP Little Fingers.

Claymation + Poltergeist = New Middle Distance Runner Video

I know I just posted a video on Friday, but this one was too good to leave any later. Besides, who DOESN'T love claymation? Or "stop-motion animation using clay" as it's known in these politically correct days. The video's director, Maxwell Sorensen, has this to say:

When I met with MDR to conceive a music video project they had few preconditions, except that they were interested in traditional stop motion animation technique and that they all wanted to die a gruesome death. As a huge fan of Frank Zappa’s animator/collaborator Bruce Bickford (Babysnakes, Amazing Mr. Bickford) I suggested clay. It’s an incredibly flexible medium, especially for portraying carnage and the supernatural. It turned out the guys in the band were already aficionados of clay based stop motion animation, so they loved the idea. In a three hour brainstorming session each member designed his own death, and then I outlined the logistics of photographing and animating each death. Rather than following the traditional rock’n’roll cliché where the band destroys their instruments, we decided to turn the tables and have the instruments destroy them by way of a demonic poltergeist.

Winter Gloves New Video Stunning, Flippy

Winter Gloves - Let Me Drive from Paper Bag Records on Vimeo.

No tricks. No CGI. Just paper and ink. And synthesizers.

The Chap: Mega Breakfast

Sounds Like: Irony.

RIYL: Mekons, Neu!, David Bowie, CSS

A Few Words: At first listen I thought it was a new Flight of the Conchords record: that farcical portrayal of synth pop and Bowie-esque vocals. On further spins, though, I realized that The Chap are, ironically, being sincere in their satire. The Chap's album Mega Breakfast puts pop music on the treadmill and screams, "Sweat, you bitch!" It has a similar effect to watching hordes of homophobic frat brats do the YMCA

Yet The Chap are not a comedy act; they're honest-to-god musicians. The difference between them and, say, Be Your Own Pet, is that The Chap actually read the books at school. Not that literacy makes for good music, mind you; just that it makes for a richer, more enthralling experience. Like the difference between an 86 Ridgefield Cab Sav and grape Kool-Aid. Or maybe it's Kool-Aid in the cab. Whatever. It's cool like tight pants on Francis (Buxton). I haven't heard mock pop this intelligent since Mekons released Me. The ease with which it fits into the genre that it satirizes is testament to its artfulness: it's not just smart, it's goddamn good.

Download "Proper Rock" from The Chap's debut album, Mega Breakfast

New Metric! Free MP3! Loud Noises!

Well, the "free" bit is slightly misleading, only because I'm not actually providing you a free MP3 in this post. But you CAN get a free acoustic version of "Help, I'm Alive", the non-acoustic version of which is on Metric's fourth studio album, Fantasies (available for pre-order from their website).

The single, which has been getting some good radio play, is both classic Metric and a sign of their progression toward the electronic. Except for the acoustic version. It's not so much electronic as it is . . . not. This is the kind of stuff that makes the hipsters swoon, and the rockers moan. Me? I swoan. But what can I say, I'm a sucker for synth major chords, echoing lyrics, and layered guitar riffs. In short, I'm a sucker for Metric.

Get thee to Metric's press page, scroll to the bottom, and get your acoustic version of "Help, I'm Alive."