Dick Laurentvon 5 Bands davon hab ich noch nie was gehört…
dir kann geholfen werden 
Accidental Gentleman, fleshed out in a mere two weeks with producer Doug Batchelder captures Piebald’s intense urgency and pointed subject matter. Ranging from topics such as nature vs. man („Nature Wins“), street violence („Getting Mugged and Loving It“) and a consumer-driven society („There’s Always Something Better to Do“), the songs were given the final touches by acclaimed mixer/ producer Alex Newport (At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta, Two Gallants) who leant his mixing skills to the wry recordings.
Menomena, the Portland, OR, based experimental rock trio, have signed to Barsuk Records and will release their Barsuk debut in early 2007. For those not yet in the know: Danny Seim, Justin Harris, and Brent Knopf perform, sing, arrange, create, and destroy Menomena songs. They’ve released two previous albums on the excellent Portland indie label Film Guerrero: i am the fun blame monster (which garnered a rare 8.7 rating from Pitchfork and inspired them to say: „Menomena are a hugely creative band, and they’ve managed to make an album that’s extremely accessible yet entirely unconventional“), and under an hour, which consists of three lengthy instrumental compositions and is the soundtrack to a modern dance performance choreographed by a friend. They’re not like other bands.
The upcoming release, friend and foe, (which features riveting cover art by cult artist and Blankets author Craig Thompson) returns to the more pop-influenced stylings of fun blame monster, shining Northwest indie songcraft through a Chicago post-rock lens, illuminating the quiet recesses with an unpredictable, experimental light.
We don’t know much more about Menomena, except that we’re honored to be working with such mysterious and creative individuals, and we can’t wait to hear what they come up with next.
Where ‚Field Music‘ was the sound of a group making the record they knew they were capable of; dryly-produced, ambitiously skewed, multilayered pop which gradually revealed its intricacies over repeated listens; Tones of Town sees Field Music pushing and scratching at all of the boundaries implicit in their debut; the sound of a band moving in several directions at once, searching for ways to surprise themselves, taking risks and trying something new.
Without artifice or the slightest whiff of a scene, Vietnam bravely set up shop in the shadow of some great American artists: Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground. Vocalist Michael William bears Dylan’s influence to the tipping point, borrowing certain line cuts and a half-mumble/half-twang that almost, but not quite, sounds like imitation. Many of the songs — wry, dirty, twisted cross-country tales filled with sentiments thrown like punches — rise to the literary level, like Leonard Cohen’s „Suzanne“ if it had been written with whiskey in the tea. The aural scenery gets tightly clipped around the lyrics; clearly, this is an album that’s not meant to be absorbed only as slick surface rhythm. The hazy maze of blues riffs adds a magical level of disorientation, with dense musical details that make the members of Vietnam more than just lazily crowned poet laureates for having read a few books.
Jenny Lewis, Paz Lenchantin (Zwan, A Perfect Circle), and the Future Pigeon horn section are all featured on the album; Jason Lader and Beachwood Sparks‘ „Farmer Dave“ Scher helped produce it. VietNam also features contributions from not one but two members of that indie-est of bands, Maroon 5: a guest spot from keyboardist Jesse Carmichael and production from bassist Mickey Madden.
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Dirty, dirty feet from the concert in the grass / I wanted to believe that freedom there could last (Willy Mason)