Podcasts | NBHcasts

IV

By Scott Reid | 13 April 2009

First, thanks as always to the artists and labels involved in this podcast.

Second, holy shit there’s some good stuff here. First up: the Inbreds’ Mike O’Neill and his new band the Lodge, also featuring ex-members of Super Friendz, Thrush Hermit, and Neuseiland. Predictably, it sounds like Halifax. Animal Hospital take up a sizable chunk of this NBHcast with “…And Ever,” the twelve-minute centerpiece of their recent, excellent Memory. But not before a two year old EP-only gem from another Halifax songwriter (Tyler Messick, aka Museum Pieces), indie-pop from Brooklyn pondering how “we’re fucked and not getting unfucked soon,” the first single from Japandroids (or JPNDRDS, as they also now want to go by, no wonder given how awful that name is), and a teaser from Pale Air Singers that sorta sounds like a folkier Akron/Family fronted by Will Oldham. Extremely promising.

The second half is initially noisier, influenced by our (very) British staffers, Alan and George. CMG’s prone-to-liking-shit-like-this contingent jumped on Alan’s Crocodiles recc, and his claim that Summer of Hate makes him want to “pretend [he’s] standing in front of a drum machine, thoughtfully.” I assume while wearing a bowler hat. He also introduced Nothing People to the staff as something fans of Japandroids “might like”; that reserved praise is well-deserved but “It’s Not Your Speakers,” with its distorted and cyclical mid-tempo everything, is a standout. Gooily sandwiched between the two is a recent NBH pick from George, Dead Mellotron’s “Nothing I Ever Imagined”—”a dirty ambient scorch that chugs like runaway diesel,” as only he would put it. Later there’s New Jersey’s Chemtrail, lovingly described by Toph as “post-rock crescendo-mongers,” and boy is he right; “Up for a Downer” is a towering closer, the perfect end to this podcast.

…except then there’s the Organ, which is sort of an odd choice seeing as how the band broke up two years ago; “Don’t Be Angry” is the final song on their final release, last year’s Thieves EP. Though practically the opposite of what we look for in a NBH artist (namely, still existing), NBHcast IV nevertheless comes to an end with this: a gorgeous yet wholly depressing haunt seemingly directed at itself; a meta reminder of how good a band the Organ were becoming but never actually will become; a corpse wistfully mourning itself, nestled cosily at the end of an hour’s worth of sublime new-ish blood. I can’t fully explain why, but it works.

Um, enjoy.

Download mp3 (192kbps)

[61:01]

1. The Lodge: “Thaw Me Out”

2. Japandroids: “Young Hearts Spark Fire”

3. Museum Pieces: “Stay Too Long”

4. Pale Air Singers: “Convict Escapes”

5. The Antlers: “Bear”

6. The Spanish Armada: “Lit By a Whale Oil Lamp”

7. Animal Hospital: “…And Ever”

8. Crocodiles: “Screaming Chrome”/“I Wanna Kill”

9. Dead Mellotron: “Nothing I Ever Imagined”

10. Nothing People: “It’s Not Your Speakers”

11. Time Since Western: “Feathers”

12. Chemtrail: “Up for a Downer”

13. The Organ: “Don’t Be Angry”