Some globe trotting on Auxdeck – we start this week’s issue with a sweet Greek instrumental TV show theme song. Next up, a folk literary piece from Bath, UK. Then we move back to a Southern California beach, circa 1965. And we end on a high school rock band from here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pardon us as we move you away from your computer. Come (mini-)tour the world!
Main Theme by Empty Frame paints a picture in your head without using any lyrics. You can hear a story being told and a conversation going on. The layers of instrumental goodness melt together into one theme. The song is oriented around the cello, which enters nicely via a solid path paved by a guitar. After the cello has its part, the violin responds and the conversation builds. The rest of the songs on the album differ from each other, but the ideas, the themes, and the construction techniques are nicely consistent.
-Ruby Lanier
Being a bit of a book nerd, I was instantly drawn to this band. I mean, what could be better than a band who references Ernest Hemingway and names songs after Shakespearean characters (namely Oberon)? But the cherry on top is that this band actually plays in bookstores in the UK. I mean, honestly, what could be better? The album And Other Dystopias is the perfect album for a bookshop, with their soft folk sound, making them a great band to put in the background when reading or working. It starts out with someone plucking on a guitar and then the vocalist comes in sounding like a less psychedelic Mazzy Star. Each one of The Bookshop Band’s song tells a story so just sit back and let And Other Dystopias take you head first into all these new adventures.
-Delia Badger
Some things in life are so deep, profound and intense that it takes all your mental energy just to decipher what’s going on. Gladly, surfer rock isn’t one of those things. It is, however, baffling that a group of record junkies working at Amoeba music in LA were able to get their hands on a time machine and travel back to 1965. Every time one of Allah Las’s songs starts playing, I have to check my phone to make sure the band was formed less than 5 years ago (It took a couple dozen tries until I finally came to terms with it), and their classic American sound shows a deep appreciation for the roots of modern rock’n roll. The band’s personality starts and finishes with the muffled sound of an old phonograph first touching a virgin record, embracing all the intoxicating excitement that comes with it, seemlessly ageless and trapped in the timeless allure of the sixties. Ferus Gallery captures the cool ocean breeze that leaves a biting, salty taste on your tongue during a scorching summer day, as much a part of the experience of the coast as the warming sun itself. Why worship the sun when you could worship these guys?
– Andrew Wilcox
If The Strokes and the Black Keys had a lovechild, and that child got really good at the trumpet, you’d probably have something very much like The Blondies. High schoolers out of Berkeley, California, the group combines a classic blues-rock sensibility with jazzy influences and a fresh, vibrant attitude. Technically proficient (they’re the youngest band to ever receive the Gibson Guitar Artists award), their skills are on full display in the track All I Ever Wanted, from Sweet Nothings. Drums, heavy on the snare and the triangle, the earnest vocals of Simon Lunche in a story of unrequited high school romance. But it’s the horns that really make this track. A bright and brassy trumpet starts right at the first verse and takes the song from standard high-school angst to something more lighthearted and engaging, and the saxophone just absolutely wails about halfway in. Their sound is great, their album is well-crafted, and The Blondies have nowhere to go but up. Keep an eye on this band.
– James Sutton
Aux Deck 