The Hippodrome

Double Dragons are a duo from Exeter, New Hampshire, composed of Peter James and Josh Picard, childhood neighbors. Starting as a crude Hella tribute band, DD has evolved into a noisy and technical (but still concise) band that hasn’t had alot of opportunity to play live due to its members being in different states.

But when they do play live, DD is wonderfully true to the recordings. “Four” is the most popular track, managing to still be catchy despite its machine gun flurry of scales and snare rolls. Most DD tracks manage this same feat, making the experience far more than a demonstration of virtuosity.

Tours and future plans are up in the air, but a strong childhood foundation makes a DD breakup unlikely. So write Marnie Stern an email now and tell her you got her next tour opener.

Audio: 4
Audio: 8
Audio: 5c

Lady Lovelace and the Calculator Death Machine, the duo now turned three piece, are about to release their new album Music for Two Musicians. David Kant, singer and multi-instrumentalist, tells me that the new project is “one large piece. So, in that sense, it’s not really an album at all. The album is divided into sections where new ideas emerge and where we thought track breaks would be convenient.”

Performing live, Lady Lovelace is a surprisingly dense experience, showcasing Charysse Redwood’s hard hitting drum beats and percussion behind Kant’s frantic sampling, saxophone playing, and guitar noise. Echoes of free jazz and folk rock are the biggest underlying themes, at least to most ears.

These new recordings are surprisingly similar to the live sound, and they no doubt show a rare attention to detail, which is especially impressive considering the improvisatory nature of the compositions’ formation. The whole album can be streamed on their MySpace, but Parts V and VI can be downloaded here, and only here my friends.

Audio: Part V
Audio: Part VI

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

In hardly four years, The Wailing Wall has made its way through more than thirty musicians, numerous tours, and several carefully constructed records of songs that took years to perfect. Jesse Rifkin, the leader and lifeblood of the group, has graciously permitted The Hippodrome to release not one, not two, not fifteen, but three exclusive tracks for your downloading pleasure. All are from his forthcoming record, Hospital Blossoms, and judging from these prereleases and his past history, I don’t think he’s going to remain unsigned much longer.

As you’ll guess from the quality of the recordings, Rifkin’s musical history is filled with collaborations with contemporary visionaries. He’s played or recorded with the likes of Jason Anderson, Adrian Orange, and The Castanets, to name just a few. On the latest record, he’s joined by six good pals, including engineer and co-producer Chris Roush, who is Rifkin’s upcoming tourmate.

Influentially, The Wailing Wall has always taken careful stock of its predecessors. Leonard Cohen infused lyrics, Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter-era piano chords, and Microphones rhythmic intensity have made the band’s live show a spectacle to behold.

On how the record is different from past work, Rifkin tells me that “it’s the first release of mine that I didn’t record, which was kind of a big deal. In the past everything was just sort of patched together — I would play everything. This was us playing the songs as we played them live. Chris [Roush] and I took more liberties with the production… but the performances are as they were on stage.”

This is an interesting approach considering the stark mood shift from Rifkin’s past work. “It’s a much darker record, all the songs were written during a pretty horrible period of my life. They were definitely a coping mechanism, and they helped me work out what was going on in my head… it was six months, probably actually eight or nine where things were just the worst they’d ever been. I don’t know that it’s more honest, but it’s differently honest than the other stuff because everything that I wrote during that period is on the record. I did my best to cut out the whiny, indulgent parts.”

Rifkin adds “that the record gets sort of increasingly hopeful toward the end because I did come out of that awful period… it’s not just this one big dark miserable Cure record, you know?”

It’s precisely this energy of the live band that carries even the melancholic sections into an energetic and inspiring place. Not surprisingly, the record is much like Rifkin’s live performance. The method The Wailing Wall uses live never gets flaky or lurid, as Rifkin utilizes the Akron/Family “vibrational energies” strategy to tailor each show to the audience. This strategy will undoubtedly help Rifkin, who is touring just with a guitar, a loop pedal, and his incisors across the northeast, beginning on March 14.

While performing Hospital Blossoms without the assuring support of his former live band will be a challenge, time has proven that The Wailing Wall can do it.

Audio: Sister, I
Audio: Hospital Blossom
Audio: Morning

Goddamn I love exclusives. If the Red Sails shindig wasn’t enough to satiate you, then check out a brand new track from the snarkily named Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned. “Seasons of Joshu” is the latest from the Albany, NY, collective. Alex Muro, Tim Koch and Dan Pardee are credited with the foundations, but just like the infamous folks of Elephant 6, members swap in and out all the time.

Muro tells me that although the band isn’t that into psychedelic drugs, they’ve been cited as producing “philosophically minded songs as conjured up by the Salvation Army band on acid.” You can check out their latest album, The Thing About Time, and even download a few tidbits here.

Audio: Seasons According to Joshu