The Hippodrome

Rooftops are a math rock trio heavily influenced by recent Chicago visionaries like Pele and Don Caballero. The band is about to hit the road with The Americas, a Santa Rosa duo that are also looking to make their mark on the west coast. Bellingham, Washington, is the band’s home, and it isn’t a scene to scoff at either; beneath the home town heroes of Death Cab for Cutie lie hearty labels like Estrus Records that have churned out more than a few regional legends.

While Rooftops only have a few demos of recent work available, the band’s chops and groove tactics make them stand out from the crowd. “Robuts” is a rough recording from last year, but it still shows them playing solid instrumentals reminiscent of some of David Longstreth’s earlier music.

Audio: Robuts

One of my favorite new blogs is BiBaBiDi. While the site has been around a bit longer than FensePost, I am a newbie in checking it on a daily basis. Simply put, I trust the guy’s opinion. The daily posts cover music I appreciate and the look and feel is very modern and hip. So why all this regarding a separate blog? Well, because a recent post covered an upcoming album I just received. That artist is The Old Believers and their album, out July 10 by their own release, is called Eight Golden Greats.

The Old Believers’ style of old-time folk-pop appears to take hints from the 60s and 70s style folk in the same manner as She And Him did on their recent debut Volume One. There’s an abnormally heavy emphasis on percussion, which sets The Old Believers aside from your traditional folk-pop artist, but where someone like The Lovely Sparrows focuses this effort on cymbals, The Old Believers do so on the bass drum.

Then they switch back and forth between crafty, romantic male- and female-fronted vocals. While I have yet to delve too far into the album, I wanted to begin spreading the word as this release is quite phenomenal. Expect a glowing review of Eight Golden Greats come July.

Audio: Granny’s Song
Audio: The Trouble I’ve Met

(This post was contributed by Andrew Fenstermaker of FensePost)

Passion Pit are from Cambridge, MA, and for an unsigned band, they’ve hit some good circuits. They’ve played with Girl Talk in New Haven, hit up the Great Scott in Allston, and it’s not hard to see why. The band has just released Chunk of Change, which is the creation of Michael Angelakos, the main man with the plan. Passion Pit was nominated last March in the 2008 Best Music Poll in Boston, and lo and behold, they won!

A few months ago, Basstown interviewed these guys about their local buzz. Angelakos, in true local-hero-gone-pro bashful form, said that the buzz made him “horrified,” at least initially. “I didnt expect it,
he said, “I get horrible stage fright too, I think the local scene expects so much but we will warmly embrace it as it has embraced us.”

Sleepyhead, off Pretty Penny, is a sparkling dance track that enlists the most creative aspects of bands like MGMT in creating its synth and sample based structure. To the untrained this will just be well done “electronica,” but under a few layers, the careful textural deconstruction and reconstruction makes these guys a band to watch.

Audio: Sleepyhead

A few months ago, the Hippodrome ran our first exclusive feature on Red Sails, posting two songs heretofore unavailable anywhere else. Ben speculated that “maybe if he played his cards right each release will be up on The Hippodrome.” Well, we’re two for two so far, as the Brooklyn four-piece has offered us their latest singles, Tides/Ten Days of Sunlight.

Red Sails’ first release with their current lineup, River Gods/Weathervane, channelled a spacier and less schizophrenic Man Man, or, as Ben put it, “a three headed version of Tom Waits” (whatever that means). While it’s pretty pointless to look for a career trajectory over the course of a pair of two-song releases, it’s hard to ignore the sense of growth and development in these nine minutes and three seconds of music.

“Tides” exhibits the band’s extroverted side, plodding along with tight, angular drumwork washed over with shimmering guitars. With all the crescendos and time-signature changes, they would almost sound like a different band if not for the anchor of Tom Tierney’s howling vocals, which somehow sound both breathless and restrained.

However, they really hit their stride on “Ten Days of Sunlight,” which shows the band turning inward with a beautifully sparse acoustic number that delves fully into the New Weird America they flirted with on River Gods/Weathervane. A sun-kissed melody and unassumingly psychedelic lyrics (”I can smell the colors / bursting with melodies we learned from the leaves”) rest over a gentle acoustic strum and a bed of ambient electronic textures. This song could be the perfect soundtrack to an afternoon in the park with a loved one and a bag of mushrooms.

Red Sails’ next single, Smithereens/Hair and Teeth, is currently in the oven, and if current trends continue, it will probably be released within the next few months. If they keep sending ‘em, we’ll keep posting ‘em.

Audio: Tides
Audio: Ten Days of Sunlight

Open Choir Fire appears, in the outset, to hold steady with well-known staple 90s indie artists including the Pixies, Fugazi and Juno. Following suit is the hefty power trio of guitar, bass and drums. Vocalist Amo DelBello mixes it up with early Modest Mouse-esque shrieks and the post-punky, pre-emo moodiness of Juno.

In “Big Regret”, there’s a light indie-pop sound familiar to artists like Baby Calendar, but with a heavier 90s appeal. However, songs like “Things You Have To Do” find an edge; here DelBello comes off as a heavier, less awkward Isaac Brock. “Candle” fits the moody Juno mold nicely.

Surprisingly, Open Fire Choir has quite a few recordings under their belt. One includes Volume 3 of Ball Of Wax. If you dig 90s indie rock, you’ll dig Open Fire Choir.

Audio: Big Regret (Live)

(This Post was contributed by Andrew Fenstermaker of FensePost)