Andrew Cedermark-At Home

There is a rush to "At Home", an intensity that is not unlike a car speeding down a highway with the windows down returning to somewhere it has left, a scene that has been portrayed time and time again in movies. Which is a pretty surreal thing considering Andrew Cedermark's music has never been rooted in this sound, having almost entirely been built on quiet reflection and cathartic emotional release existing within the same songs. However, as "Canis Major" hinted at, and "At Home" suggests further, Home Life is going to be a record built on trying to understand the past and the nostalgia that comes with it. So it makes sense that Cedermark has chosen to explore those emotions further by trying to mimic the music of his past. In this case, its his reflections on being alone and feeling removed from everything coated in a, yes, Bruce Springsteen like anthemic shell, all driving guitar lines and never ending pounding drums. The song never drops, always in a steady charge forward, no matter how bleak Cedermark's lyrics get, nearly incomprehensible under the excellent din of the song, but still emoting the same anguish that they always have. It seems fitting that Cedermark ends "At Home" with a desperate repetition of "I ain't going home"; even he is aware of the falseness of this nostalgic kick, which is exactly what gives "At Home" its power.



Links:

Andrew Cedermark's Facebook
Pre-order Home Life here, from Underwater Peoples Records

Andrew Cedermark-Canis Major

Describing music as "nostalgic", or that it invokes "a deeply nostalgic feeling" can be the type of thing that stops someone from listening to a track instantly. It's understandable to a certain degree; why listen to something that is built around false emotions, a track that causing longing for something that usually was never really there in the first place? But I think the power of Andrew Cedermark's music, and anyone who listened to Moon Deluxe when it came out can contest to this, is his ability to make those notions of nostalgia and longing for almost abstract elements of the past seem like the most powerful things in the world. "Canis Major", from his upcoming second album Home Life, is a perfect representation of all this. Built around a rolling, alt-country lick that would have made the Silver Jews proud, Cedermark recounts love lost that he knew would be lost anyway, and the things we long even when they are there in the first place. "Canis Major" has less of the crashing crescendos that were present on the songs on Moon Deluxe, instead holding a steady jaunt with just the right burst of cymbals crashing and guitars distorting. It also helps to shift the song from the cold winter winds that use to envelop Cedermark's songs to the burnt, humid, and drunk summer nights that now seem to color his world. "Canis Major" is a slow burning slice of indie rock and Americana at the perfect cross hairs, something that perfectly paints the picture of a past that is no longer there, and are not sure you want to return in the first place. But with this as the soundtrack, it's nice knowing it was there at all.



Links:

Andrew Cedermark's Facebook
Pre-order Home Life here, from Underwater Peoples

Guest Year End List: Andrew Cedermark

If there was one artist I wish had gotten more attention in 2010, hands down it should have been Andrew Cedermark. Having released some wonderful songs in 2009, the build up should have been massive for Moon Deluxe. It got great reviews from Pitchfork, bloggers loved him, and he even wound up on Stereogum's Top 20 Most Overlooked LPs of 2010 for Christ's sake! I can only hope that 2011 get's him the explosive attention he deserves. Mr. Cedermark was kind enough to do a guest year end list, and ever the originalist, sent over his top 8 "music related things" of 2010.

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Weezer—Pinkerton (Reissue) This is the single most important album of my youth, and in its day was widely dismissed. Now with a perfect 100 rating on Metacritic it seems that all the fat high school kids who learned from Rivers Cuomo that plastic glasses were cool (I'm talking about me) have finally stormed the establishment—or have at least themselves assumed their rightful roles as poorly-paid music critics.

WTJU 91.1FM—I cover local arts for a newspaper here, and one of the big stories of the year was about how the University of Virginia was trying to increase listenership at our community radio station by basically turning it into any other adult contemporary frequency—of which there are already several here. It just so happens that this local radio station rarest of beasts in that it is free form, like WFMU, and counts among its alumni people like Stephen Malkmus and David Berman. The listening community rose up in glorious disgust, started throwing support (and money) at the station and eventually saved it from being sucked into whatever that thing is that is constantly making everything in the world the same. There are some times of the day when nobody is listening to this station, and times when nearly everyone is—the only constant is that whatever is on the station is really, really great. It's a very special privilege to have access to its airwaves.

Frank: The Voice by James Kaplan—I requested this book from my ma for xmas, and I can't wait to read it. It's more than 700 pages—and only the first part in a two-part project. Apparently a lot of what they say in there isn't strictly true, but plays to our desire to have all of our favorite Frank mythologies tied together. I'm going to eat it up like Nerds Rope.

D.B.B. Plays Cups—Eau de Toilette des Etoile
My friend David is a teacher and makes this music here in Charlottesville. He doesn't distribute it and doesn't play all that often. To my knowledge he has produced three EPs: Cups, Sequel to Cups and this, Eau de Toilette des Etoile. On each he creates a very strange narrative (examples include a teenage boy who finds solace in the bathtub, and another a woman whose life changes after doing an advertisement for expensive champagne) that leave you with a hole in your heart the way a good short story can, wishing you knew more about whatever it is he's talking about. And the melodies are amazing too. I think this guy is a bona fide genius.

David Hajdu's "Famous Door" blog at the New Republic—I learned a lot about music this year on this blog.

Invisible Hand—Invisible Hand (Funny/Not Funny)
This is the best band in Charlottesville, and kudos to the Creative Intersection for covering their music. The Hand has lots of songs, all very good, but the best one for my money is the first on their new record: "Two Chords," a songwriter's fond farewell—or is it a fuck you?—to the I-IV progression. The rest of that album eschews the progression entirely, which kind of stinks (there is a reason it is very popular), but songs like "The Future of Music" show that, if there isn't another road to take, even a low one, they'll pave through a strange wilderness to get wherever it is that they're going. Caution: this album sounds really, really professional, and rocks.

Liquor Store—S/t

Liquor Store is fronted by my good friend Sarim, who was the original drummer for Titus Andronicus and a graduate of Glen Rock High School, like me, and who, unlike me, has a reputation for turning up in strange places. (Jay Reatard's final tweet, which you can still read, says: "I will give anyone a hundred bucks per tire that they pop on the band liquor stores van ! Yes I'm serious.") I don't think Liquor Store's album is out yet, and when it does come out I'm curious to see what will happen. Sarim's lyrical style can be so absurd that it borders on comedy, but in a Weird Al kind of way, more of a hash-hazy biblical kind of way. And like D.B.B., Sarim is a for real intellect, and it shows in his music.

Titus Andronicus—The Monitor
Patrick Stickles takes his music more seriously than anyone I know, it is in applying that selfless conviction to his own vision, which happens to be really good, that makes his music better than that of any other band going. It has been equally sad and nice over the past year and a half to watch this band continue its ascent to hights that are probably higher than any of us dreamed were possible as young idiots with broken equipment. I'm looking forward to seeing this album on many other year end lists.

Album Review: Andrew Cedermark-Moon Deluxe

Quite easily, I think, my most anticipated album of the year. Not only was it coming out on the always stellar Underwater Peoples, but when "Moon Deluxe" was released all those months ago, you just knew the album would be something special. "Moon Deluxe" just hits you in the chest like an emotional sack of bricks, with its mind blowing electric over acoustic guitar riff and removing your breath with just he beauty of it. The fact that he managed to construct a whole album of this, with each song as potent and poetic as the last, is what's so shattering.

The Microphones and Titus Andronicus are, of course unavoidable reference points. Not that it's a bad thing at all. The musical build ups and arrangements are Microphones worthy, especially using feedback as an emotional conveyer, as well as the lyrical openness and loss that comes from playing in Titus Andronicus. But the result of these influences, and everything Cedermark listens to, is something very different and original. It's winter captured in music form, cold and a bit bitter, but for those who love and appreciate that time of year, that's something wonderful about all the emotions that get stirred up around that time of year. Captured in "Gloria '85" and "Anchorite" is particular mange to capture that sound perfectly. "Hard Livin'" though is the clear centerpiece of it all. While an older track, it works perfectly here. The way the reverb and drum work match the confusion of the lyrics will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. "I wanted to go to a party with you/Not because I like parties/I hate them, but I like you", is everything Cedermark is trying to convey in one simple yet perfect verse. And ending the whole album with the jumpy "I Don't Know You" with its spazmatic horn pieces and Cedermark singing coming out like rapid fire, stumbling over another, like the Music Tapes on cocaine or another high octane drug, it strikes you with the disbelief of how unreal Moon Deluxe is. Get this album.

(mp3) Andrew Cedermark-Moon Deluxe

(mp3) Andrew Cedermark-Hard Livin'

Links:

Andrew Cedermark on Myspace

Buy Moon Deluxe here, at Underwater Peoples

Funny/Not Funny Cassettes

Funny/Not Funny Records is a Virginia based label who are a bit odd in the indie world. It's really local based, mostly supporting the bands of the area, thus leading to releases that are not so high profile. On the plus side, this in turn leads to discovery of some good stuff. Like the four cassettes they decided to send this way.

Matt Leech-Sink

What drew me to Matt Leech was his Minks meet Cloud Nothings style of music, like the wonderful "Empty Window". This tape sounds nothing like that. At all. This is the precursor to anything he is doing now. This is a tape full of banjo, and acoustic guitar, bursting of folky goodness. It definitely has a demo/4-track quality to it, something you'd find in an old moldy box of the abandoned house you decided to check out. A mix of slow burners and slightly more uptempo style, it's all very well done with a bit of Granddady to it all. The Microphones are also a bit of a unavoidable point of reference, especially with the drum work on "No Good" or depression of "Mind the Cabin Floor". There are worse things then being compared to such a great band though, and there is nothing by the number's about Leech's work.
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John Hostetter-Red Square

John Hostetter is a song writer and sometimes member of Harlem. Here in song writer form Hostetter is pretty akin to Johnathan Richman, though that's a bit of a coup out. The songs are more fleshed out than anything Richman does and Hostetter tends to scatter from one genre to another. Note the '60s throwback riff of "Frankestin" only to skip to the late '80s collage rock that is "Medusa". However, a love of Spanish guitar does become very evident, especially on the B side. An all around good tape, though it needs to be said that Hostetter could have done without the very long and jammy interludes he placed between songs.
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Andrew Cedermark/Drunk Tigers Split Tape

The cover art is perfect for this release; for the contrast between the the two bands is night and day. I've already spilled a lot of (virtual) ink over Andrew Cedermark as it is, and I am happy to spill more. Here are four more songs of Andrew's signature style of quiet to loud in a really unique way, layered in shoegaze riffs and with post Microphones influence, or maybe just straight Microphones love, thrown in as well. There's an isolation to the music that Cedermark manages to capture so well, even as the music starts to go bombastic around his words. Listen to "Lookin' for a Boswell" or "From Memory " for the best examples of this: it's actually quite beautiful. Drunk Tigers, on the other hand, are nothing like this at all. A bunch of kids from Charlottesvile , they walk the line between pop-punk and just plain punk. 5 punchy, actually quite catchy Replacement loving anthems are contained on their side. And loving the Replacements is always good in my book.

(mp3) Andrew Cedemark-Lookin' for a Boswell
(mp3) Andrew Cedermark-From Memory
(mp3) Drunk Tigers-Matchbook Tricks

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Invisible Hand-Sinister Hand

Without a doubt Sinister Hand was the biggest surprise of the whole batch. I had heard "Top of the Pops" and "The Future of Music" , and while I did like them, there impression on me did not last very long. One pop of this cassette, though, made me a convert. There is a deep post-punk edge that runs through the band, but that is much too one-dimensional. There is the drum machine looopiness of "My Heart Beat is Making My Ears Ring", then they dive into Fugazi style fierceness or they let up to a catchy indie rock mood for something like "Death Bellows CSS" or Black Tie Formal". It's not unfocused, but more the band trying not to make just one certain style of music, which isn't something you hear a lot of these days. A happy accident to stumble on, and a band to keep track of without a doubt.

(mp3) Invisible Hand-Top of the Pops
(mp3) Invisible Hand-The Future of Music

All Cassettes can be obtained here, from Funny/Not Funny Records

Andrew Cedermark Announces Moon Deluxe

Someone must be reading this blog because Andrew Cedermark has announced his first true full length, a 12 inch on Underwater Peoples. The simple yet stark cover art is up top and the record is expected to come out in a few months. The title track "Moon Deluxe" was also released, and it is a scorcher in the vein of The Microphones at their nosiest or an acoustic shoegaze song (if that's possible), with the level of loneliness matched on this track as well.

(mp3) Andrew Cedermark-Moon Deluxe
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In other Andrew Cedermark news, don't forget about his upcoming split tape with Drunk Tigers coming out soon on Funny/Not Funny Records, and an upcoming split 7" with Expensive Looks out on Infinte Best Recordings.

Links:

Andrew Cedermark on Myspace
Underwater Peoples Website

Andrew Cedermark-From Memory

In my eyes, Andrew Cedermark can do no wrong. The former Titus Andronicus guitarist has been crafting some of the best slow burning tracks since... whenever he started writing his solo work. Case in point his newest track “From Memory” off his upcoming split cassette with Drunk Tigers off Funny/Not Funny Records. Fuzzy without being noisy, the track constantly soars with just one instrument at a time as the drone-y intros go into an extremely blissful and catchy chorus. Just jumping from a cool faux organ to a sweet little acoustic guitar, this is a very simple song, but does so much that it doesn’t come off like that at all. Someone please get me this cassette.

(mp3) Andrew Cedermark-From Memory

Links:

Andrew Cedermark on Myspace
Pre-Order the split cassette soon from Funny/Not Funny

Single Review: Andrew Cedermark/Family Portrait Split

These days Underwater Peoples Records seems like the record label that can’t do wrong. Ok that might be say too much with only five release under their belt, but still credit must be given to a label that not only knows to do release for buzz bands, but release thing to build buzz for bands that are really deserving of it. This would be a release in the latter category, a split with two bands that I pretty sure no one (except me, because I am that great) know about, but hopefully from this review (and some press from some other blogs), will get the press they deserve.

The A side goes to Andrew Cedermark, the former Titus Andronicus guitarist that I have been gushing about for the past few months. And guess what, the side is exactly has good as I hoped it would be! The first track is newer track, and is a departure from his regular sound. Instead of a long, lush, reverb coated pop song, we get a quick, lo-fi distorted, acoustic track that is actually quite catchy once it grows on you. The second track is the stellar “Hard Livin’”, which was taken from Cedermark’s self released box set. However the track is such a haunting, shoegaze influenced track that soars in so wonderfully that it truly captures the genius of Cedermark. I mean look at the line “So I wanted to go to a party with you/not because I like parties,/ I hate them, but I like you”, and tell me that is not one of the best lines you have ever heard. The B side is the very unknown Family Portrait. The band pulls a fake out with the first track “Super Cool”, a quick, 2 minute, slightly psychedelic acoustic jam that does represent the band at all. It’s the second track “Mega Secrets” which shows what this band can really do, that being making lo-fi- in-reverb-way pop songs that you will be secretly dancing and singing to when no one is there.

So to reiterate: this is a great, fun single that showcases how great Andrew Cedermark is, how really good Family Portrait is, and Underwater Peoples is really becoming a premier indie label. Plus the cover art is very interesting and the credits are printed on a fake pair of 3-D glasses.

(mp3) Andrew Cedermark-Hard Livin' (via Stereogum)

(mp3) Family Portrait-Super Cool (via Stereogum)

Links:

Andrew Cedermark Myspace

Family Portrait Myspace

Buy the Single Here, at Underwate Peoples Records

New Music from Best Coast, Andrew Cedermark, and Yellow Fever

Bethany Cosentino is one busy lady. Besides blowing up at CMJ, she has released two steller singles which have already sold out. Now, here third and digital only single for Black Iris has come out. Cosentino has yet to write a bad tune and these two are no exception. Plus, it’s dirt cheap so there are no excuses this time for not getting it. Expect another physical single out on PPM very soon.

(mp3) Best Coast-When I'm With You (via Stereogum)

Links:

Best Coast Myspace
Buy the digital single here at Black Iris Music

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Ex-Titus Andronicus member Andrew Cedermarke’s solo career is turning out very nicely. After self releasing his two EP box set, filled with his weird, distorted, shoegaze influenced, yet catchy pop songs, his first official and single is being released on Underwater People records. It even got a shout out on Stereogum. The split with Family Portrait can be pre-ordered now and it comes with a handy CD-R for all your downloading needs. Listen to one of the tracks here:

(mp3) Andrew Cedermark- Hard Livin’ (via Stereogum)

Here is a mp3 for the other band, Family Portrait, as well.

(mp3) Family Portrait- Super Cool (via Stereogum)

Links:

Andrew Cedermark Mysapce
Family Portrait Myspace
Pre-Order the single here at Underwater Peoples Records

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One of the best discoveries of this year was seeing Yellow Fever open for Ponytail. I loved their surf with a little twee and art rock influenced post-punk so much I bought both of their EPs the moment the set ended and asked if they had full album I could get. They responded by saying they were going to recorded it this summer. Well the recording has paid off because their debut self titled LP is coming out December 1st on the Vivian Girl’s own Wild World imprint. It has a few tracks from their two EPs, along with brand new ones that the band has been playing live for a while Expect a lot of Vivian Girls meets Beat Happening comparisons.

Cover Art:

Track List:

1. Ratcatcher
2. Cutest
3. Donovan
4. Psychedelic
5. Donald
6. Alice
7. Cats and Rats
8. Metarie
9. Hellfire
10. Joe Brown
11. Culver City

(mp3) Yellow Fever-Hellfire

Links:

Yellow Fever Myspace
Pre-Order the LP at here at Wild World

Singles Alert: Best Coast, Andrew Cedermark, and Love Of Diagrams

It would be easy to dismiss Best Coast as another lo-fi band from California. Sure, it’s a one-girl band (Bethany Cosentino of Pocahaunted), obsessed with making the most distorted surf/60's influenced music around. Yes, Gorilla vs. Bear (as does almost every blog on the web) loves her, she releases on cassettes, and there is a lot of weed involved. So go a head and ignore here, but you’ll be missing out on a band that does all of those things so right. I don’t think there are any words to describe how great the bedroom-pop of “Sun Was High (So Was I)” is. As every has told you, her cassette on Blackest Rainbow is sold out. What hasn’t been told is two singles are on the way. Her s/t 7" on Art Fag is due by the end of August (which will have “Sun Was High (So Was I)” as well as “So Gone and “That’s the Way Boys Are” on it) and as well as the first release ever for the label Group Tightener and that is due out by the end of summer. Start getting out your dark shades.

(mp3) Best Coast-Sun Was High (So Was I) (via Gorilla Vs. Bear)

Best Coast's Myspace
Art Fag Recordings

All though this wasn’t covered at all by anyone, both Ian O’Neil and Andrew Cedermark left Titus Andronicus. While I don’t know why this happened or how this will affect the band, I do know has lead to one good thing. Andrew Cedermark decision to concentrate on his solo work. While any one expecting a Titus clone will be disappointed, those expecting great shoegaze influenced rockish pop tunes won’t be. Appearing on a few compilations for Underwater Peoples and self releasing a two cassette EPs, he will be getting a proper release shortly...kind of. It will be split 7" on Underwater Peoples with Family Portrit which will have two tracks, has just been mastered, and is due out in a months time.

Andrew Cedermark's Myspace
Underwater Peoples Records

Finally, Love of Diagrams has a brand new single out right now. Who is Love of Diagrams you may ask? The most underrated band on Matador records! Though, if your on Matador, I think that’s an oxymoron. Still their dark, distorted, call and response music is hardly covered and that’s a shame. The single is out on Popfrenzy, is a split with another Australian band called Songs and can be bought on their myspace. Also for anyone who cares (apparently only me and the guy who runs The Unblinking Ear), their third album called Nowhere Forever is due out August 20th in Australia and they hope to bring it the rest of the world soon.

Love Of Diagrams' Website
Love Of Diagrams' Myspace