Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Culture

Three More Shallows
Book of Bad Breaks
Available Now

San Francisco trio Thee More Shallows has been visible on the low-fi shoe-gaze scene prior to its 2005 breakthrough album, More Deep Cuts. Vocalist Dee Kesler is the locus of the band's latest project. Its music seems to emulate his sullen confessions and admonitions. "Night at the Knight School" embodies percussive responses and gravelly keyboard melodies. Thee More Shallows provides a post-rock narrative landscape that sounds derivative at times. But it maintains a pop sensibility as difficult to resist as it is to categorize. The band establishes a fuller-sounding and harder-rocking aesthetic on "Fly Paper" but still relies on anomalous noise and analog keyboard undertones to fully realize its sound. The Book of Bad Breaks makes good.

If you like this music, you might also enjoy:
All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone - Explosions in the Sky
Boxer - The National
Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters - The Twilight Sad










New Pornographers
Challengers
Available Now

Carl Newman, the New Pornographers' principle songwriter, has been compared to Brian Wilson. On their new album, Challengers, Newman and his fellow pornographers give new meaning to this apt comparison. The New Pornographers' deft attention to melody, instrumentation, harmony and songcraft culminate in an album that is gloriously listenable, subtle in its mastery of form and very confident. Challengers blueprints the path of 21st century power-pop. Every song on this album offers something for the listener to discover. For example, the mid-tempo "All the Old Showstoppers" begins with a bluesy guitar riff that forms the basis for a complex and well-articulated melody, powerful backing harmony vocals, understated orchestration and dynamic drumming.

If you like this music, you might also enjoy:
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case
Trace - Son Volt
West - Lucinda Williams










Imperial Teen
The Hair, the TV, the Baby, and the Band
Available Now

If you're looking to define the term "indie pop," look no further than the long-awaited fourth studio album from Imperial Teen. The quartet of know-it-all multi-instrumentalists continue their quirky, hook-driven and gender-bending rampage through the rock 'n' roll universe with the poetically titled The Hair, the TV, the Baby, and the Band. Led by former Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum, Imperial Teen uses tight ensemble playing, knowledge of traditional pop tropes and luscious vocal harmonizing to elevate themselves above many other bands that share the genre. Sometimes sounding like a cross between Sonic Youth, Stereolab and the Velvet Underground, this music - though as ironically original as the band's name - is as fresh as it gets. Who would have guessed that Bottum just celebrated his 44th birthday?

If you like this music, you might also enjoy:
Cookies - 1990s
Sticking Fingers Into Sockets - Los Campesinos
Structure and Cosmetics - The Brunettes

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