I should also point out that you can find all this music in its entirely on the RPM Challenge Jukebox.

Artist: Broken Promise Keeper

Album: The Avocado Age of Radio

Rob Stuart, aka Broken Promise Keeper, first caught my attention with his 2007 RPM album, Songs of Hyprocrisy and Hippos. Minimal and tentative in a way that we can totally relate to based on our experience recording our own RPM debut, Hippos‘ combined copious standout riffs and hooks with a restlessness of sorts; if he could do something this catchy with drums, bass, and a couple guitar parts, one got the impression that, RPM tradeoffs notwithstanding, Stuart had a knack for this stuff and could well be about to unleash a more epic work.

His 2008 effort, The Avocado Age of Radio, does not disappoint in this regard. The instrumental opener, Welcome to The Circus hits you with the good right away; as a simple piano riff yields to simple yet thickly-layered guitar melody and dense vocal harmony are pushed along by driving drums and cut of by clattering animal and circus noises. The album whizzes by with one pop gem after another; Avocado is meticulous with its arrangements and performances as Stuart eschews guitar pyrotechnics in favor of serious pop appeal; the rhythm section, occasionally grooving and occasionally driving, offers a solid (surprisingly so for not-real drums) foundation for an array of rocking electric guitars (No Choice), bouncy twelve-string acoustic riffs (the Byrds-esque And Life Goes On), and playful backing keyboards (Innocent). Stuart sticks to what he knows, but the rockabilly-infused Done Everything and and the Bruce Hornsby-esque St. Simons offer listeners the occasional change-up.

Why you might like it: It’s catchy, thought-out, and polished. You will not listen to this and instantly forget all the songs. And I mean that in a good way, not like that stupid I Kissed a Girl song that has infected, like, everyone I know at some point.

Why you might not: It’s power-pop through and through, and even the more psychedelic tracks stick to the tried-and-true formula entrenched in popular culture from the British Invasion through the Weezers and Fountains of Waynes of the world. Not your thing? Sucks to be you.

My (additional) two cents: The BPK Web site has comprehensive notes for all this stuff that made me want to keep this review short, since it itself tells you what you need to know. Stuart has also been quite the media darling of RPM, having gotten press coverage on the PowerPopulist blog, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

FYI, here’s our set list, with MP3 links to the album versions:

Ivan pt. 2
Stars
Buildings
Without A Sound
Airport Song
Hiawatha
Lake Superior
Sulk (in the city)
Six Hours From Milwaukee

Though I’m dreadfully behind on updating this site, it probably would be good to share with all of you that we’re back in business after an almost-year-long hiatus and will be performing at the new Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis on Wednesday, June 18 2008 with some other excellent musicians who we really dig.

There’s a $5 cover, and we’ll have CDs on hand if you want to give us few more Washingtons above and beyond that. In any case, join us to meet Sam, our new percussionist, and hear some of the more off-the-hook tracks from our latest and greatest LP, Buildings, 

The new Acadia, located on the West Bank at 329 Cedar Ave S, has expanded food and beer options and should generally be a good time. They will validate parking in the ImPark lot behind the cafe for two hours; otherwise, there should be adequate street parking available on neighborhood streets east and south of the venue.

 8:00 - Cindy Ivy
 9:00 - the substars
10:00 - Edwin P. Scherr
11:00 - Eddy Burke & The Consequences 

Acadia Cafe
329 Cedar Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Phone: 612-874-8702 

I should also point out that you can find all this music in its entirely on the RPM Challenge Jukebox.

Artist: Mike Kosec

Album: Run Devil Bridge

“Folk” generally brings to mind the image of a dude and a guitar, or perhaps some other formulaic group of instrumentation. But despite describing himself as such, New Jersey’s Mike Kosec isn’t afraid to use his four-track and a variety of sounds, instrumental and otherwise, to explore interesting sonic territory. The album’s opener, 1969, begins by pretty clearly evoking its namesake with acoustic guitar and reminiscing about various idiosyncratic hippie types, but gives us a glimpse of something more as the song ends with eerie backwards guitar. The poppier fare of Baby, You Don’t Love Me Anymore brings things into focus for a bit before we hear the processed and instrumental Ice Under Water, where processed xylophone chatters back and forth with birds as water flows and…is that a typewriter? The Sparklehorse-esque Water Under Ice unexpectedly features a driving Casio keyboard rhythm and haunting double-tracked vocals, and the closer, To Dance, approximates a straight-up pop song until an entirely different song emerges unexpectedly and the album ends much more mysteriously than it began.
Why you might like it: This is a powerful record that combines strong songwriting with adventurous production value and a strong thematic link, the latter being all the more amazing given the time constraint that is the RPM Challenge.

Why you might not: This record comes across as self-sabotaging, as deft instrumental work and powerful lyrical imagery repeatedly come together only to fall apart into odd rhythms and abstract sound manipulations (or another song altogether) that suit the album’s evoking of nature and time, and the loss and renewal that they invariably bring. Pop perfection, this is not.

My (additional) two cents: The two influences that came to mind as I listened were Sparklehorse and Tom Waits, but Kosec’s own RPM profile claims The Beatles as his only explicit influence. I’m not really a huge Beatles fan, but I suppose it does evoke the four-track wizardry of Sgt. Pepper and the what-the-fuck-ness of Revolver at times.

Note: I know I said I was going to do a different album this time, but don’t worry, I’ll get to that one, too.

As you may have guessed based on an attentive listening-to of Buildings, I loves me a chicken sandwich every so often. But fast food chicken sandwiches are a rather unpredictable bunch; while some are pretty much the only way some of us can reasonably satisfy a late night lusting for flesh, others are not really something you associate with being inside a previously-living thing. So when I saw an ad for the Arby’s Southern Style Chicken sandwich, you know I was excited, but also wary.

The Arby’s spin on chicken should serve as a confidence booster to outright fraudsters everywhere; that they have the cojones to denigrate other restaurants for having chicken that is insufficiently “natural” is pretty impressive given the shroud of mystery surrounding what actually comprises their weird-albeit-kind-of-good roast beef. Still, I have something of an affinity for Arby’s and was intrigued by their recent promotion of a Southern-style chicken sandwich. They looked edible, and are current priced at a mere four dollars for two of them. So Meghan and I paid the Lake Street Arby’s a visit to see if this chicken sandwich could possibly merit a tune of its own someday.

Arby’s Southern-Style Chicken

Purchase price: $5.99 (two sandwich combo w/ medium curly fries and drink) or 2/$4.00

Apparently, “Southern-style” chicken presentation involves surrounding a chicken breast filet with a bun, mayonnaise, and pickles. Having favored these condiments on chicken sandwiches of my own creation in the past, I never thought of these as particularly Southern sandwich characteristics, but Meghan observed that this is essentially what Chik-Fil-A does with their sandwiches, and a Google search reveals that some McDonald’s locations offer a similarly-marketed product. I’m not a Southerner, so I’ll have to trust their respective marketing departments on that one.

As shown in its pre-masticated state, the sandwich is somewhat smaller than other Arby’s chicken sandwiches. Perhaps this is another obscure Southern touch, but I thought the size was kind of awkward; they look as if one might not entirely sate your dead bird lust, but two would be a bit more calories than you’d care to consume.

Looking inside, the sandwich features a white meat chicken filet that I would judge better than the spongy not-really-chicken some places serve, but not especially moist or flavorful. I also bit into a piece of cartilage or something in one sandwich. The pickles were serviceable, but decidedly fast-food grade; I was expecting a bit better since Arby’s has deli-style sandwiches on their menu (which apparently do not have pickles on them, as it turns out–heresy!). The bun appears to exist specifically for this sandwich, but was otherwise typical Arby’s fare.

All in all, it was kind of…blah. I plan on doing some subsequent reviews, but a few more sandwiches like this might lead me to review buildings or cities about six hours away from Milwaukee or something, because this one really wasn’t good enough to love, but wasn’t bad enough to swear off permanently. Who knew that such a thing would not come of a trip to Arby’s.

Why you might like it:
You have four dollars and wish to eat two okay sandwiches. You find McDonald’s and Burger King chicken unacceptable and work in a suburban wasteland or mall food court where these are the only quick options. You understand that pickles on a chicken sandwich is a win, and probably live somewhere where there is no Chik-Fil-A. You like curly fries dipped in Jamocha shake.

Why you might not: You like to match calories eaten to calories burned and can’t manage to leave half a sandwich uneaten. You prefer food that tastes like something. You revel in the newfound ubiquity of fried chicken wrapped in a tortilla.

My (additional) two cents: Meghan asked for regular fries with her roast beef sandwich, and the woman taking our order replied that they haven’t had not-curly fries “for about a year or so.” When I got a job at Arby’s in the mid-90s, I went to town on the curly fries for a couple weeks, then got totally sick of them and ate the regular fries with meals instead until I quit a year later. Had I not had this option, it might not have been worth $4.25 an hour to work there. Also, while the raw roasts are neither a liquid nor a paste, they sure don’t look like roast beef.

If you transformed into this sandwich: no one would notice, unless you were moderately interesting prior to said transformation.

I should also point out that you can find all this music in its entirely on the RPM Challenge Jukebox.

Artist: The Triptones

Album: Make Room For The Triptones

The Triptones are a New England-based trio making their first appearance in the RPM Challenge this year with Make Room For The Triptones, a disc that offers straight-up singalong classic rock with the occasional touch of psychadelia. The opener, Lift Me Up, makes no apologies about what is to come as it combines a driving rhythm section with smoking guitar work and a piano that sounds like it’s had its share of beers spilled upon it. Shadows gets a little trippy, mixing dissonant guitars and soaring, screaming synthesizers with distant sounding vocals. M.D.M.A. splits the difference, starting off as a bar rocker and finishing with staticky programmed drums and beatboxing as it accompanies a lyrical account of a descent into drug-induced psychosis.

All three members share singing and songwriting duties, so there’s a fair amount of changing things up from song to song despite the pretty consistent heavy reliance on classic rock influences (read: Stones and Zeppelin). These songs and this band are dedicated to upapologetically rocking and celebrating the themes that have powered music for time immemorial. As singer/guitarist Tom Boudreau wishes in Mountain Song, “I want to get on a bus called Happiness and ride to the very last stop.”
Why you might like it: You like the stuff they like and solid musicianship, and/or get a kick out of unironically drinking cheap beer at dive bars.

Why you might not: You agree with Pitchfork when they call Wilco “dad-rock” and wonder what that makes this. You feel as though the cover art comprises physical abuse of motorcycles.

My (additional) two cents: This disc was recorded at Bonehead Studios in Connecticut, which would appear to be the fanciest recording setup of any of the discs I’ve received thus far. Perhaps this level of fidelity is perfect for the rowdy bunch-of-guys background vocal sound, which is much better here than on The Killers’ Sam’s Town.

Next up: Broken Promise Keeper’s The Avocado Age Of Radio.

First up is Endicott Road’s 2007 RPM entry, Old Fashioned Love Affair.

Artist: Endicott Road

Album: Old Fashioned Love Affair

Recorded for the 2007 RPM Challenge, this record showcases Columbus, Ohio resident Terry Beckett’s range as a songwriter as he navigates a number of genres, giving particular thought to melody and lyrical content. The opener, “We Are All Children“, offers a catchy keyboard riff and chorus melody that brings to mind an 80s mid-tempo radio cut sung by a barbershop quartet. Other notable tracks include “Motorbike Mike“, which brings to mind what Daniel Johnston’s “Speeding Motorcycle” might have sounded like had it been sung for an infant rather than imaginary demons; “Don’t Stay With Me,” a more energetic and modern-sounding rocker than one would expect after the series of 70s- and 80s-inspired ballads that follow that first track, and is followed up with the pop-funk “I’m Gone“, which could easily become a radio-friendly jam in the hands of a Rob Thomas or Maroon 5.

Why you might like it: The songs are well thought-out: simple and catchy, yet lyrically interesting and personal.

Why you might not: The recording fidelity and song arrangements make this record feel more like a solo songwriter demo than a polished product, meaning that the record lives and dies by its songs. If they’re not your bag of chips, there’s not a lot else to keep you interested.

My (additional) two cents: Beckett’s Virb site states that he’s looking for singers to work with, but I think that these songs would benefit more from more rich and live-sounding instrumentation than a different singer. Dude needs to start a band!

So, there you go. I’ll post another one later this week!

“That’s awesome, ” I commented to the Official Girlfriend of the substars. “It’s like they’re making commercials specifically for me now.

Ha. Funny. I liked Spy Hunter. But only a few minutes later, they showed this one. Again, they’ve pretty much characterized my childhood in 30 seconds. But the personalized twist is a little creepy. I had to IM Andy to make sure they hadn’t pulled some sort of psychological trickery.

Anyway, back on topic: are you part of being target marketed-to? Are you still waiting for a product that has been extensively crafted to appeal to your focus-group peers? You should check out Buildings, the new album recorded by the substars in response to the RPM Challenge. It will fulfill you in a way that no car, or snack food, petty misdemeanor, or deodorant ever could.

We’ll have CDs at some shows this spring, so be sure to come on out and check us out. We’re totally into you.

(The announcer just referred to Marquette as “the Warriors”. Freaking awesome.)