charlieparr.com

Charlie Parr is a Duluth-based country blues musician, a juxtaposition of location and genre which is only surprising if you haven’t heard of Bob Dylan.

At the deepest core of Dylan’s music, in all its peregrinations, is, quite simply, the blues, especially the country blues, a point Dylan punctuated with his two mid-’90s albums “Good as I Been to You” and “World Gone Wrong.”

Charlie Parr’s career, which goes back to the early 2000s, has always stayed close to the howling, hieratic vernacular of Furry Lewis, Son House, the Mississippi Sheiks, Dock Boggs and Dave Van Ronk. Greg Brown, another Midwestern, contemporary country blues-based musician, has sung Parr’s praises.

Just listen to Parr’s take on “Gospel Plow” and you’ll hear why.

Recorded in a baptist church in St. Paul, Parr’s new album is “Keep Your Hands on the Plow,” and features the talents of fellow Minnesotans Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker (of Low), among others. It’s hard-scrabble, joyous and profound — the way country blues should be.

You can catch Charlie Parr, live in St. Louis, at Off Broadway for a 7:30 p.m. seated show on Thursday, February 2.

“Gospel Plow” – Charlie Parr

facebook.com/GraceWoodroofe / Ben Sullivan

With the not quite over-night success of tUnE-yArDs, it appears that the immediate forecast calls for more chopped and drizzled rhythms, the clink and clatter and whirring whiz bang of more-is-always-never-enough lo-fi sample upon sample. Who needs tunes and songs and singing and stories and stuff when you can just throw a kitchen sink of grime-step at the indie wall and see what sticks?

I would go on but a new song by young Australian songwriter Grace Woodroofe won’t let me. It’s called “Battles,” and it hails from her debut album “Always Want” released today on Modular Recordings. You might guess from the way her smokey, lonely alto breathes over spooky wind chimes that she’s a femme fatale with a generous prescription of benzodiazepines, or at least that she can play one in this dark little movie of a song.

Then in come the skittering jazz rhythms, the bitter guitar figures, the scary ennui of lines like “I tell my daughter I’m method acting.” The singer in the song is trapped in a poisonous, alienated spiral. She never thought she’d turn out to be a middle-aged waitress. And she probably never thought she’d be singing about it so strangely and beautifully.

Battles by modularpeople

Force Field PR

I’m sucker for a good stereo mix of doubled or tripled drums — see every other track on “Soft Bulletin” and “Yoshima” — and also a pushover when it comes to the bass stating the hook — see jazz — but I’m on the fence when it comes to blowing bubbles in music. I suppose there are some days when I just really need to hear “Octopus’ Garden,” but it’s been a while.

Still, I’ve found myself playing “A New Town,” the new single by UK group Field Music, quite a bit of late. It’s got all the aforementioned, plus falsetto, melodica, more statement of melody from a remote acoustic guitar and a persistent sense of dread that juxtaposes nicely with the overall fruitiness of the track. If this is where highly-studio-crafted indie pop is headed in 2012, sign me up. New album “Plumb” is due out February 14 on Memphis Industries.

“A New Town” – Field Music

facebook.com/ofmontreal

The new of Montreal single has everything you’d expect from the Athens, Ga. band — that is if you’ve just returned from a month-long cruise where the imperial ballroom house band plays nothing but ELO, Steely Dan and David Bowie covers — sign me up for the next departure — and the weather was gorgeous with intermittent showers of flutes, Fruit Loops and cherry cola.

If that seems too good or too sugary to be true, make up your own adventure by downloading the track below. Recently, band founder Kevin Barnes described the forthcoming album “Paralytic Stalks” (due out February 7 on Polyvinyl) as “a bit more esoteric, and it’s probably not something everybody’s going to like. The songs are way more intimate and confessional.”

“Dour Percentage” – of Montreal

Bonus: Listen to the band’s recent Live at KDHX session.

facebook.com/realestateband

I consider myself an album guy, but this year it just didn’t work out that way. Actually, it didn’t work out that way last year either. My god, does the MP3 generation have its hooks in me, too?

10. “The Dude” – SimplyEsoteric (from the album “No Choking”)

I’ll admit: David Arthur’s band name put me off at first. And a timid, wistful lead track about the Big Lebowski should not, in any universe, work. But it’s a pleasant surprise, and my introduction to the big-hearted songwriting of a prolific St. Louis artist who, sadly, is moving back to Austin. He leaves behind at least one new fan, and one great cover of Jon Hardy’s “Cassius Clay.” Catch ya on down the trail, David.

9. “Thunder on the Mountain” – Wanda Jackson (from the album “The Party Ain’t Over”)

And DeVotchKa thought it had “Best Horn Hook of 2011″ locked up with “Contrabanda.” The Queen of Rockabilly gets Jack White’s “Loretta Lynn makeover” treatment and gives Bob Dylan’s original track a big kick in the ass at the same time. This track cooks.

8. “Some Children” – Holy Ghost feat. Michael McDonald (from the album “Holy Ghost”)

I’ve moved on, have you? I hated Michael McDonald. Then I loved him ironically. And now? Now I’m proud to call him a St. Louisan. Well, I am when it comes to tracks like this one anyway. Let’s not get crazy. There’s no shortage of blippy ’80s throwback disco music right now from the Indie Flavor of the Week, but this one bumps, baby. First Grizzly Bear and now a guest on a Holy Ghost! track? As trends go, I could stand one of these a year.

7. “Virginia” – David Bazan (from the album “Strange Negotiations”)

David Bazan remains one the most under-appreciated lyricists in music: from his challenging look at faith, to his snarling commentary on American politics, to his dark parables. The songs have always been deeply personal, but since Bazan stepped out of the Pedro the Lion moniker he’s been expressing himself less through invented characters (from cheating politicians to homicidal farmers) and more as simply David Bazan. And never more devastating, wonderful and sad then on “Virginia,” a song about a friend who recently passed. “Was it heaven or hell that you saw when your eyes closed? You smiled at us, floating high above the question. Like you knew something we didn’t know.”

6. “Sometimes at Night” – Jessica Lea Mayfield (from the album “Tell Me”)

Of the many incredible sessions I was lucky enough to witness at KDHX this year, this one stopped time for me. I swear to god when Ms. Mayfield sang, “I did not ask to be born with these eyes,” she looked at me for a flickering half-second, and I turned red and hid behind a wall. That’s how I remember it. This beautiful slow burner is vulnerable, honest and as sexy a song about female philandering as you’ll ever hear. I mean, she sounds ashamed. She is saying the words. But I don’t believe it, do you? She knows what she’s doing. That poor cabana boy!

Jessica Lea Mayfield “Sometimes at Night” Live at KDHX 5/13/11 by KDHX

5. “Post Break Up Sex” – The Vaccines (from the album “What Did You Expect From the Vaccines?”)

I first heard this on Rob Levy’s Juxtaposition my first month at KDHX, and couldn’t have been more excited that Interpol had released such a great track. Correction: The Editors had done it again. Wait, the Vaccines? Who? At any rate, this song is the ear-wormiest track on an album of wonderfully ear-wormy pop rock. And I was crestfallen when their St. Louis show was cancelled. Guys: If you wanna come back, it’s all right. It’s all right. It’s all right if you wanna come back.

4. “Lion’s Share” – Wild Beasts (from the album “Smother”)

Thank god for Wild Beasts and this lusty little number kicking off an overlooked album of songs dripping with pure libido. An indie rock album you can dance and screw to? There’s a fun concept. A pulse throbs steadily alongside a tender piano line, and Hayden Thorpe gets next to your ear and promises everything short of “I’ll be gentle.” If lines like “I take you in my mouth like a lion takes his game” make you blush and recoil uncomfortably, you might want to stop there and go see what Stephen Malkmus is up to instead. ‘Cause there’s plenty where that came from.

3. “Repatriated” – Handsome Furs (from the album “Sound Kapital”)

From Wolf Parade’s ashes, the Handsome Furs threw it down this year. As really sexy, married synth-rock acts go, I look at it this way: Matt and Kim are Playboy Magazine, but Handsome Furs are Hustler. Dan Boeckner sidestepped the fantastical, playfully obtuse approach of ex-mate Spencer Krug and instead — alongside wife Alexei — exploded with the energy, the excitement and the catharsis of traveling the world, opening your eyes and playing dangerous rock in Eastern European basements. Then they brought that gift of Feeling Alive back to their listeners. “I will never be repatriated,” Boeckner barks, defiantly. A reminder that you don’t have to go home, and you don’t have to stay here, either.

(Note: Their Off Broadway performance also takes my greatest live concert of the year vote. If you saw it, you know why.)

2. “No Church in the Wild” – Jay Z/Kanye West feat. Frank Ocean (from album “Watch the Throne”)

I still maintain Yeezy’s “My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy” will be his “Stankonia/The Love Below” moment: a pretty good, over-hyped release that collects dust a year later. On the whole, it can’t hold a candle to “Watch the Throne”: the Galactus of team-ups. On a near-unimpeachable album of Tunnel Bangers, you’ll probably find more crowd-ready tracks than this. But none that pound at your door and control the mood like “No Church in the Wild.” Heavy as a tree trunk, this thing moves confidentially, steadily, like a monster that will not be stopped. With each escalating thump and heavy breath, this track announces, “We’re coming for the non-believers first, and you’re next.”

1. “It’s Real” – Real Estate (from the album “Days”)

The Shins are slapping themselves for not writing this one. “It’s Real” made the pangs of summertime bubble up into my throat on every listen. It’s a soft bullet. This track couldn’t be more pure if you ran it through a Brita filter. The effortlessness of it all: the straight-ahead chorus and lyrics, the by-the-book hooks—caused some sharp pressure behind my eyes in what I can only assume is, whadda ya call them? Emotions? And that’s before I saw the goddamned video with the dogs in it. Something’s in my eye, I gotta go. That’s all for this year.

Real Estate – It’s Real by DominoRecordCo

Honorable Mentions:

• “Surgeon” by St. Vincent
• “Mr. Magpie” by Radiohead
• “Small Towns” by the Transatlantic
• “Video Games” by Lana Del Ray
• “Still Life” by Horrors
• “Perth” by Bon Iver
• “Not in Love” Crystal Castles w/Robert Smith
• “Contrabanda” by DeVotchKa
• “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” by Das Racist
• “Cainthology: Songs in the Key of Cain” by Tim Hidecker of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Because, come on people … it’s an entire album about Herman Cain by Tim Heidecker. That’s just hilariously insane.

facebook.com/thegalleristband

Here’s a song for a grey and windy November day.

Recorded on an island off the coast of Maine, and written and sung by Boston native Mike Collins, aka the Gallerist, it’s a simple, archetypal, folk tune demo — the circuits buzz, the guitar picks and hammers on, brushed snare and bass shuffle forward: nothing extraneous here — phrased with quotidian loneliness but also a sense of sweetness in just hoping for the best — inner and outer weather be damned.

The Gallerist recently released an EP called “A Falling Waltz.” You can hear the whole thing at Bandcamp. Recommended for fans of the Low Anthem or the Bowerbirds, or if you’re just looking for a new songwriter in the Prine/Brown tradition.

Yesterdays News Today (Island Version) by TheGallerist

Centro-matic
Candidate Waltz
Undertow

In the time since Centro-matic’s last record, 2008′s Dual Hawks, lead singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Will Johnson has been as busy as ever. The band itself has kept a relatively low profile while Johnson has diffused his energy across several other projects.

Johnson has been recording and touring as the drummer for the supergroup Monsters of Folk, making a record with close friend Jason Molina of Magnolia Electric Co., embarking on two solo living room tours, and quietly releasing a fine EP of solo material. The seeming result is that he and his bandmates returned to the studio with a more refined and focused energy. The band’s new release, Candidate Waltz, is the best collection of songs that Centro-matic has produced in years.

Over the past 15 years, Centro-matic has remained amazingly consistent at a time when the indie sphere increasingly emphasizes (one might say bastardizes) innovation at the expense of quality content. The band has retained the same lineup over that time and has become known for doing essentially one thing, but doing it incredibly well: producing sprawling and urgent rock tunes saturated with distorted, melancholy guitar and punctuated by melodic drumming.

From the first notes of Candidate Waltz, however, we hear the band embarking on new territory. A percolating synth beat eases us into “Against The Line” and remains there throughout the song, just below the surface. The band’s hallmarks are still there though. A fevered and clanging guitar is the next to enter, followed by the familiar crack of drummer Matt Pence’s snare. The addition of looped synthesizer is a minor change, but it significantly alters the feel of the song and sets the tone for the rest of the album.

These songs see the band stretching its limbs in new directions, while not feeling the need to depart wholesale from its signature sound. The songs display a creative economy: guitar riffs are clean and simple and bass lines syncopate the melodies in tandem with the drums. While Johnsons’s lyrics are characteristically oblique, they have been distilled to the point that the swirl of imagery is always refreshing and never tiring. The words are often less about communication than they are about creating a phonetic fabric to sit amongst the other parts of the composition.

Some songs constitute a more drastic departure than others. On “Only In My Double Mind” a minimalistic arrangement is used to maximum effect as thundering piano and strong but sparse drumming take center stage while still leaving space for Johnson’s layered vocals. The quieter and rhythmically-driven “Estimate x 3″ begins innocently, but the reemergence of synthesizer during the bridge propels it into slow jam territory. Over the refrain “Give me what you want, don’t tell me,” hand claps and falsetto backing vocals produce an R&B-like effect that creates what is possibly the catchiest minute and a half the band has ever recorded.

In contrast to Centro-matic’s past few releases, not a single song here disappoints. The ambling “Solid States” is dominated by buoyant piano which provides a refreshing textural contrast to the ubiquitous guitar fuzz. “All The Talkers” is a bouncy and attitude-infused anthem that contains the most literal lyrics on the album and provides what may be considered its thesis. It paints the scene of a bar full of indifferent and chatty patrons who are eventually won over by the determined energy of the band on stage. As Johnson sings “it was not like the night before,” there is no doubt as to the band’s identity.

Candidate Waltz is a mature record that demonstrates the wisdom of a band that knows its strengths but is also leery of sitting still for too long. If the length of past releases is any indication, by including only 33 minutes of music Centro-matic likely left quite a bit of material on the cutting room floor. What did make the cut has been executed to exacting detail, especially with regard to texture and dynamics. The album is wonderful in its simplicity and inventiveness, to the extent that the first listen is rewarding while subsequent spins only deepen the listener’s affection.

Centro-matic performs at Off Broadway in St. Louis on July 5.

Centro-matic – “Only in My Double Mind”

gilscottheron.net / Mischa Richter

If and when the revolution needs a soundtrack, it need search no further than the music of Gil Scott-Heron. The artist, one of the true American greats, passed away on May 27 at the age of 62.

From “Johannesburg” to “Whitey on the Moon,” from “The Bottle” to “Lady Day and John Coltrane” from “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” to “B-Movie,” Scott-Heron’s songs, raps and improvisational vision had no equals on the American musical landscape of the 1970s and ’80s. He didn’t just speak truth to power. He made the truth sing with a searing honesty.

Scott-Heron was the subject of an 88.1 KDHX Great American Music Series special — narrated by DJ Doug Morgan and written and produced by Michelle McCarthy — and in honor of the artist, we’re posting the complete program on the KDHX SoundCloud for you to stream and share for the next two weeks.

Gil Scott-Heron “Gifts From the Spirits” by KDHX