At the show in question, I picked up their album Loose Jewels; more recently, I wrote about it for Dusted.

(Also: that video’s probably NSFW. If you are going to listen, you might want to have headphones on.)

Siddall’s voice is in the same melancholy vein as Field Mice/Trembling Blue Stars mainstay Robert Wratten, and the Lodger’s music suggests that that influence goes beyond the vocal approach. The Lodger takes a restrained, austere approach to uptempo, jangling rock — though here, the presence of trumpet and saxophone tilts the dynamic away from what might be expected from that particular strain of indiepop.

You can read the whole review here.

If you’ve read any recent think-piece about how the lines between rock bands and classical ensembles are blurring, you could pretty easily swap their name into the list of case studies provided without sacrificing accuracy. Besides recording their own compositions, they’ve also released their take on Arvo Pärt’s taut “Spiegel im Spiegel� and collaborated with the hip-hop group dälek.

You can read the whole thing here.

Samuel: Lives of Insects
““Sideways Lookerâ€� closes out the EP by essentially pushing one mood for two minutes and segueing from there into somewhere much more grim. Essentially, it’s the sound of a band teetering between blissful noise-pop and something distorted and implosive.”

Damon & Naomi: The Sub Pop Years
“At its best, this compilation emphasizes the group’s strengths: the varied but complementary voices of Krukowski and Yang, their attention to details in the songs they write and play, and their ability to move from sentimentality to baroque precision.”

Rex vocalist Curtis Harvey now has a solo album out, called Box of Stones, which I’ve reviewed for Dusted.

Unnatural Helpers: Like Idle Times, with whom they share members, it’s solid, unpretentious garage rock. Dean Whitmore’s vocals sound like a more ragged Craig Finn circa-Lifter Puller, which is a plus; the sole downside was their 7 PM timeslot. I suspect that this band is best appreciated closer to the midnight hour, with whiskey or beers aplenty chalked up and a mood of revelry in the air.

Dum Dum Girls: From what I understand, singer/guitarist Dee Dee is the sole permanent member of this group. And seeing them twice in one day made me curious as to what sort of project this was: a band with a consistent sound and a revolving lineup, or something more nebulous, like Destroyer or Pink Mountaintops, where the songwriter remains the same but the style shifts dramatically depending on who else is in the band. Also worth mentioning is that this particular rhythm section — anchored by drummer Frankie Rose — is spot-on, bringing a Joy Division-like sense of space together with the girl-group melodies coming from the guitars. It’s a much deeper sound than one might initially think, and I’m curious to see what the next step made by this lineup, or this group, or both, happens to be.

Moondoggies: Solid set. “Night & Day” makes for a fine closer.

The Dutchess & The Duke: Here’s the strange thing. The stage banter was wonderfully profane. Jesse Lortz and Kimberly Morrison seemed engaged in a weird game of one-upsmanship through the night, sometimes bleeding into their songs — and yet the songs didn’t sting any less for the fact that their irreverent beginnings left large chunks of the crowd (myself included) laughing. (Example: Morrison naming each chord as she played it, a wicked grin on her face, as Lortz fumed.)

Golden Triangle: Beach-party madness in a rock club in autumn. The most fun live set I’ve seen this side of Les Savy Fav, I’d say.

Pissed Jeans: Yep, dropped the ball in a big way by missing this band since seeing them around the time of Hope For Men. Mr. Weingarten is spot-on, I’d say. In lieu of more pontification, I’ll direct you to Diana Wong’s photos of the set in question.

Obits: A slow-burning set, opened with their cover of “Military Madness.” Fine stuff.

Male Bonding: It’s probably lazy to quote myself, but: “Male Bonding sound like the offspring of aught-six’s Part Chimp/Oxford Collapse tour. Hence: rad.“

This was my first time seeing The Dutchess & The Duke since last year’s CMJ, and it again found them in trio mode. The set was solid — though something about the tone of Jesse Lortz’s guitar seemed a little off — and they did a fine job of evoking the scope of their new Sunset/Sunrise even in a more minimal configuration. (And here’s where I shamelessly link to an interview I conducted with Lortz earlier in the month.)

My first impression of the very buzzed-about Dum Dum Girls hearked back to my impression of Girls At Dawn two nights earlier: that the world of indie-rock seems suddenly abounding with “Girl” bands owing a sonic debt to assorted bands featuring Amy Linton (i.e. Henry’s Dress, The Aislers Set). Abundant reverb, unabashedly retro melodies, and a punk-rooted energy. Admittedly, this is a style I like, so I’m not really complaining. There’s also the matter of their onstage look, which is either the apex of a particular style or a critique of it. It would take until my second time seeing the band for my take on their music to shift — and while I’m tempted to say something like “tune in tomorrow for the senses-shattering conclusion.” Except: no.

Seattle’s Idle Times impressed me in part due to their onstage presence: a normal-looking bunch of guys playing straightforward garage-punk. Much like Unnatural Helpers, who I’d see later in the festival (and who share members with Idle Times), there’s something hard to argue with about heartfelt garage rock played with intensity, and that’s what this group brought. (They also do a mean cover.) There was a similar quality afoot in the late-night set from Smith Westerns, if memory serves.

Diehard are friends, so I can’t be all that impartial about their sound. That said, it’s a sound that heavily recalls early-to-mid-90s alt-rock, and thus triggers fits of nostalgia in me for a time when I drove around central New Jersey in a 1985 Chrysler Laser. It’s catchy stuff (a week later, a few of their songs are still in my head), and I’m tempted to revisit the Madder Rose discography to see if the nascent comparison my mind is trying to make is, in fact, accurate.