Elvis Perkins in Dearland

Artist: Elvis Perkins

Album: Elvis Perkins in Dearland

Review: inyourspeakers!

Rating: 4 out of 5

I LOVE THIS SONG!--Shampoo

When you hear the name Elvis, it's hard to imagine a rustic sound with a melancholy grace that hints at old funeral dirges. It's hard to imagine a man who takes those funeral tunes and turns the music into an act of catharsis. It's hard to imagine a tangle of saxophones, the picking of a banjo, and a pump organ. But, it shouldn't be hard to imagine a musical king. 

Many simply refer to Elvis Perkins as a singer-songwriter. Yet, he "loathe[s] the term singer-songwriter, because it reminds me of open-mic nights and coffee shops and lazy chord structures," he'd much rather be referred to as "a recording artist."  Whatever you choose to call Elvis, one thing is clear, the man IS an artist.

Elvis Perkins put out his first album shortly after the death of his mother in 2001. His mother died in the terrorists attacks on September 11, flying on the fated American Airlines plane that crashed into the twin towers. Almost nine years early, his famous actor father had died from complications from AIDS. Elvis Perkins knows misery. What's more, he took that misery and spun it into the moving music that makes up Ash Wednesday, his first album. The name comes from the Catholic traditional day just before lent. Religiously, Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful. The priest takes the ash from a palm leaf and makes the sign of the cross on the forehead while reciting the words "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." That line is felt in almost all of Perkins' lyrics, he reminds us that life is short, life can be beautiful or hard or sad or soft or happy, but it's life and you have to live it.

Time has passed since his first album, and Elvis Perkins has a proper band behind his lyrics and has produced a solid, yet soft and eloquent eponymous album, Elvis Perkins in Dearland.  The band includes multi-instrumentalists Brigham Brough (bass,vocals, saxophone), Wyndham Boylan-Garnett (organ, harmonium, trombone, guitar, vocals) and Nick Kinsey (drums, clarinet, vocals), Perkins, himself, wrote every track on the album.

Dearland, a magical place with lyrics begging the question "I don't let doomsday bother me; do you let it bother you?" The track begins with a slow trumpet echoing the feeling of slow night in the small latin quarter of New Orleans, but as soon as the drumming begins you are told that doomsday isn't just one event that happens to the world at once, but instead, it's a reoccurring event in the daily lives of those just working at living. Elvis really taps into the ghost of Buddy Holly on this track and you feel at once as if you are in the past and the present and maybe just a hit of the future, but don't let that bother you, he never does.

The record opens with a windy howl and a slowly picked guitar line before an organ joins in. This gives way to a swirl of keyboards and drums and there you have “Shampoo.” With  a conglomeration of loud reggae and quiet poetry. The attention to detail in regards to the instrument selection and usage shows the maturing of Perkins' musical style. He sings so clearly, "Sweep up, little sweeper boy."

“Hey” begins with the feel of gospel music turning into a jaunty folk pop, and Perkins' modern voice turns into an old time croon.  At one point, he sings with “If it was up to me I would leave it all up to you” and while you can't see him, you get the clear impression that he is smiling on this one. 

Elvis Perkins has been compared to Leonard Cohen and on the tracks “Hours Last Stand” and “Send My Regards to Lonelyville” he echos that Cohen-esque ache.  The songs are beautiful and heartbreaking, asking "how's forever been baby?" Is it a bitter question? Is it a forgiving question? Is it a question with or without an answer? Whatever it is, it illustrates the gifted lyrical style that is uniquely Elvis and uniquely gorgeous.  

Ash Wednesday was one of those stark and sharp debut albums that took so much emotion to compose and produce that you were left wondering if this was all the soul that Perkins had, and he had just poured it all out in one shot. It's hard to imagine that he had anything left to offer or give. It was fueled by tragic events, and as the only person working on the album, it was a study in isolation. But then you listen to Elvis Perkins in Dearland and he still has soul, he still has poetry, he still has heart, he still has everything that made you fall in love with him in the first place, but this time, this time he reaches out his hand and invites you along for the ride. I have no doubt that this album will end up on many a critic’s “top ten” list for 2009.

Neko Case is Woman

Album: Middle Cyclone
Artist: Neko Case
Review: In Your Speakers
Rating: Four out of Five Stars


Neko Case is woman. Hear her roar. And lest you doubt, just take a glance at the album cover for her latest artistic endeavor, Middle Cyclone. Case is crouched and ready to pounce, fight, defend, and sing her heart out. In truth, she’s not much different than the animals that she writes and sings about. With the fierce gleam in her eye, you get the sensation all at once that Neko Case is simultaneously a killer whale and a magpie. She has tapped into her animal like characteristics, all the beauty, all the soul, all the chase and put it into one all too human album.


Neko Case is not a novice to her craft, and yet, with Middle Cyclone, she brings the intensity, passion, and heart of a first time recorder. In 2006, Case released Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. It was a funky combination of country rock, soulful gospel (Southern style), and some pop hymns. She sang about lions and sparrows. In Middle Cycle she sings about whales and magpies, all the while reminding us “I’m an animal, and you’re an animal, too.” Combining the talents of several of Case’s longtime friends, including Calexico, M. Ward, Los Lobos, and the New Pornographers, the album embraces a country twang as well as the beauty of a whole new type of tenderness . In Middle Cyclone, you will find Case as tangible as ever, and yet she manages to stay illusive enough to remain just out of reach (just try and decipher the lyrics of “Polar Nettles”).

With so much creative genius joined together, you’d have to seriously hate indie rock if you don’t immediately fall in love with this album. And for all of that collaboration, you get the sense that this is her show, her tour de force, and she doesn’t apologize or wonder…she knows she has created a masterpiece. Middle Cyclone also embraces something that Neko has shunned in most of her previous work: the topic of love. The album begins with “This Tornado Loves You”, in which she compares love to a near natural disaster, saying to the world that when she’s involved in loving, it can get dangerous. Her voice is as wide and strong as you’d expect from the woman on the album cover. And yet, when you listen to the title track, there is something so revealing, personal, tender, and quiet about the loneliness she reveals. She is definitely putting all of herself out on the battlefield.

Two of the albums most lyrical tracks are "I'm an Animal" and "Red Tide" because they do everything that Neko does so well. They are vast, they are poetic, they encourage you to think and sway at once. She takes to minor chords in “Prison Girls” and then goes to an old time slow dance in “Fever”. Her spunk is lilting in “The Next Time You Say Forever” where she threatens violence to the next man who makes false promises to her. Following that up with “People Got A Lot of Nerve” drives her point home.

What stands out above all else is the care, love, craft, and soul that Case put into every detail of Middle Cyclone’s creation. From finding as many pianos on Craigslist that she could cram into a Vermont barn for recording, to the sax solos, the beating drums, and the quick succession of each track to create a work of art that gives the impression that while intense, quick and intelligent, she also has all the time in the world to do what she loves.

Nous Non Plus et Vous

Seriously LOVE this band. One of my all time favorite finds. This video is pretty awesome too!

Band: Nous Non Plus
Album: Menagerie
Rating: Five out of Five Stars

Read Review at In Your Speakers


Elegant, sexy, chic and multi-lingual. No, ladies, I’m not describing the perfect man (well, maybe I am), but rather the perfect band. The challenge of finding the perfect band (and man, but that’s another review) has tormented music lovers such as myself for two decades. You know what I mean. They need that certain savoir-faire, that certain je ne sais quoi, that certain carefully crafted mixing of Moog synthesizers with string sections accompanied by horns with distorted guitars. But when you finally do find it, you propose. You wed. And you have a honeymoon full of sweaty love making a la 60’s French pop (Go-Go boots not included).

Nous Non Plus (pronounced ‘new non ploo’) is an indie rock band straight out of New York City. While they sound very French, the band is actually composed of five Yankees plus one Swiss-German. Many of the band members were actually part of the original collaboration of Les Sans Culottes, another faux-French band. Letting the faux-Frenchness go to their heads, a few of them followed the French tradition of staging a coup d’etat and leaving the band. After a very French battle at court, Nous Non Plus (literally translated to “us no more”) immerged on the scene.

Lead singer, Céline Dijon, bassman/lead singer Jean-Luc Retard, fiddler/vocalist Bonnie Day (which if you say it fast means “good idea” in French), guitarist Cal d’Hommage (which again, if you say if fast means, “what a shame” or “bad idea”), drummer Professeur Harry Covert ( say “Harry Covert” fast and it means “green bean”), along with synth player “Mars” Chevrolet, and François Hardonne (no explanation need for this one, c’est vrai?) fondling those keyboards and pumping his trumpet. So, while their nom de plums may give the impression that the band is less than serious, their faux-French sound will sing you the truth.

Simply put, the entire album is about having fun. The band never limits themselves to one musical style, thus the title of Menagerie holds true, there is something for everyone. It’s like a delectable selection from a never ending French buffet. “Loli” is as rockable in your mouth as a cherry tart, the harmonies of “Catastrophe” are as rich and buttery as warm croissants, French Teacher (my personal favorite because I DO play a French teacher by day) is a swirl of French/English smooth liquor going down just right. Are you hungry yet? You’ll be hungry for more, and this album will feed you and fill you without any guilt of the music calories. In fact, it will induce you into much gluttonous listening behavior.

You want a Broadway musical sound then try “Claque Claque.” What about spooky keyboards in “La Momie” a song about a girl in love with a mummy…pure genius, I know. “Toi et Moi” showcases Dijon’s sultry sound accompanied by a despondent piano, while “Mais Maintenenant, Il Faut Danser” (now, we must dance!) is full of a stomping beat that will have you groovin’ in the reminiscent style of Serge Gainsbourg and Bridget Bardot.

This album will keep you rocking, rolling and just plain ole happy for its entirety. More than that, it will also prove the old adage that, yes, everything really does sound better in French.

Alela Diane and her Slightly Psychedelic Band

Artist: Alela Diane

Album: To Be Still

Release Date: Feb. 17, 2009

Hey music fans! Do you like being put into a trance? A dance trance? A trance where you may or may not end up wearing natural fibers and chewing on a piece of hay as you sit around the fire and smoke something? If so, then Alela Diane's latest album, To Be Still, is the album for you. And yet, don't overlook these melodies as simple campfire songs. If there is one thing that Diane's two albums have shown the world, it's the fact that she is capable of a delicate and haunting compilation of music tracks.

Alela Diane came on the music scene with her simple self-release of The Pirate's Gospel in 2004 (revamped and rereleased in 2006). She caused a rippling effect throughout America, that landed her in Europe where her success and talent have continued to grow. Raised in Nevada City, California, and currently living in Portland, Oregon, Alela Diane is classified in the Psych Folk and New Weird America genres because her meditative lyrics are earthy and natural and her sound combines a trance-like compilation of simple instruments. She is most often compared to Jolie Holland, Josephine Foster, and let's not forget The Be Good Tanyas.

Her follow-up album has been long awaited and much anticipated. But is it worth the wait? Yes. Sort of. No, it really is, but I have some explaining to do. Her first album boasted the amazing title track "The Pirate's Gospel" with a sing-songy "Yo ho yo ho" and a deeper, stronger voice than she shows us in this current album. She just seemed to have more spunk, more energy, more attitude, and more to prove than she does in To Be Still, and maybe this is to her credit. Perhaps the first album was the artistic expression of a girl who had to show the world what she was made of (and we liked it), and her second album is the artistic expression of a woman who is whole and complete. While weighing in at only 25 years old, her voice contains the cadence, pitch, wisdom, and soul of a much older woman, and I just like that. I like that she knows who she is. I like that she wrote every track and every lyric. I like that her voice gives you unexpected sweeps and lurches, almost like sailing on temperamental waves. She has intense diction, and that's rare. I like that her simple symphony sings you to sleep, ahem, in a good way. It's just a calming album. Sit on your porch, relax, and take it in. If your looking for that intensity that the first album made you feel down in your gut, you're just not going to find it here.

"Age Old Blues," with its interwoven harmonies, simple tale of field workers, and quick guitar will be a fan favorite. Also noteworthy is the Celtic feel of "The Alder Trees" as her vocals truly soar and her arrangements are powerful. Yes, those two will be the favorites of the album, but I have to say that I became more awake when I listened to "The Ocean". The powerful drum, the female seeker of truth, "the sunset by the sea is in her mind and she was always hopin' to someday to leave the mountain, domestic chores and children, the darkness of winter. Painting all these mermaids wandering to the seashore. She wanted him to follow, but his heart was with the hillside. In spirit, she drifted to the ocean" just made me feel like I had been sung a good tale.


When asked about the creative journey in producing this album, Alela Diane said, "It began in Portland, OR and was finished in scatters between tours at my dad's home studio in Nevada City, CA. I wanted to record this collection of songs using arrangements which would represent them in their finest form. These songs requested more instrumental filigree than those on The Pirate's Gospel. It was challenging to delicately, yet purposefully incorporate instrumentation into songs that I was so used to singing by myself. I was determined to make it work, because I wanted percussion! I wanted to hear the lonesome bow of the violin! I heard many harmonies in my head, and so I set out to capture them."

Well, Alela, I think you succeeded with what you set out to do.