Heartless Bastards, "The Mountain"

Billboard

Between the Black Keys and Heartless Bastards, it's clear that Ohio has the blues. But the former labelmates share key traits beyond geography and genre, including dynamite singers, stampeding drummers and, best, lyrical and musical candor. On their third full-length, Heartless Bastards honor the penetrating howl of leader Erika Wennerstrom, who sounds like Robert Plant's less-shrill American sister, by including several acoustic tunes that underscore her vocal versatility. Her charismatic country drawl is also heightened here—perhaps the result of the album being birthed in Austin—and new elements like pedal steel and banjo slink into the mix. Standouts include the muscular title track, the wry "Be So Happy" ("I could be so happy if I just quit being sad") and the sweet but firm "Witchy Poo," whose dramatic "Hold on to what'cha know" chorus soars.

Deerhoof, "Friend Opportunity"

Billboard

Last year's infectious "Friend Opportunity" presented Deerhoof in Technicolor, the band distorting pop to create a musical Candyland dotted with explosively vivid experimental landmines. "Offend Maggie" takes a more grounded, monochromatic approach. The addition of second guitarist Ed Rodriguez shifts the focus from synth-manufactured atmospheres to stripped-down primal rock, with power chords wrapped in crackling overdrive taking charge. Vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki turns her attention to philosophical matters, with songs tackling birth, God and the afterlife. That's not to say Deerhoof has stripped off all its quirky, futuristic drapery. Rather, there's a certain stark gravitas that permeates the affair, and instead of giddy euphoria, "Offend Maggie" aims for Zen-like deliberation. Turns out along with everything else, Deerhoof can strike deep, too.

Ra Ra Riot

Billboard

"A weight has been lifted." That's how Wes Miles, lead vocalist for Ra Ra Riot, described his band's reaction to the release of its debut full-length, "The Rhumb Line."

It's not an unusual feeling for any young band taking its first stab at a long-player to have, but Ra Ra Riot's weight has been much heavier than most. A little more than a year ago, the band's original drummer, John Pike, drowned at 23.

Aside from his talent behind the kit, Pike was also the band's primary songwriter and lyricist, and even contributed vocals. Although "The Rhumb Line" was recorded after his death, his presence is felt throughout, with more than half of the album's songs having been co-written or co-arranged by him.

The relief Miles expresses, then, is a complex one: relief to have the band's first full-length on the books, relief to have survived as a band after experiencing such a heartbreaking loss, relief to let go of the past and move forward into Ra Ra Riot's future.

"When you've gone through a year of not quite being in the public eye, but where many people have an interest in your band and your songs, inevitably that has an effect on you and on how you make a record," he says. "Now that we've made this album that came from a certain place, we want to find out where the next place is, where we're going to go. It's really exciting to have something on the table, but also to have that freedom."

Miles also insists that, despite its often melancholic lyrics, the album is really about "staying positive" and perseverance.

"If there's a theme, it's the totality of [human] emotion. The album is like a journey. Every song takes you through that range of feelings that every person has in their life, but also specifically through things we experienced in the past year. There's sadness, and there's joy. There's a lot of celebrating, for sure.

"We did desire to make ['The Rhumb Line'] a tribute to John," Miles continues, "but mainly through celebrating good things. In remembering the things that make us happy, we continue to honor John's life and contributions."

"Dying is Fine," a nuanced celebration of life written primarily by Pike, is a suitable centerpiece for "The Rhumb Line." With words taken from an e.e. cummings poem of the same name, the song -- a first-rate example of the band's stormy, string-cushioned indie-pop -- embraces dying as part of living, even while the chorus determinedly declares, "I wouldn't like death / not even if death were good."

Miles says that "the way the band works is kind of like a family -- there's a family dynamic of sticking together." And that's where, he says, Ra Ra Riot "took the strength from -- being in a group, being friends," to weather John's passing.

He also stresses that the band's "main goal" has always been and still is "just to have fun. And that's exactly what we want for people who listen to the album or who come to our shows: we want them to be having fun, we want them to have a good time."

Fans seem to be responding to that message. Earning Ra Ra Riot its first chart ink, "The Rhumb Line" debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart four weeks ago and continues to stand firmly within the chart's top 10.

Miles, speaking to Billboard from the road as the group tours behind the new album, says that he and his band mates "don't know what's next, and that's what's exciting -- the world is our oyster. We're in this together, and that gives us all the purpose we need to keep going."

The Walkmen, "You & Me"

Billboard

If the Walkmen's last proper album, "A Hundred Miles Off," was a desperately rousing affair, "You & Me" is simply a desperate one—and that's no snub. Singer Hamilton Leithauser's chief concerns have always been loss, regret and the way life can unravel so slowly we hardly notice, but a fight-it-at-all-costs grit and thrilling vocals preserved the silver lining. Here, refracted through the lens of a lasting but troubled relationship, these themes become staggeringly heavy; the endless ebb and flow of the tide is a recurring lyrical motif reflected in the music, the band circling around Leithauser until he sounds as if he's drowning. It's muted, but intoxicating stuff, especially "Red Moon" and "On the Water." Though the album is at least three songs too long, Leithauser's words have never been more pointed, and the musicianship dazzles.

Silver Jews, "Lookout Mountain, Loookout Sea"

Billboard

On Silver Jews' "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea" lead Jew David Berman channels his inner Shel Silverstein, serving up a set of shiny, country-fried children's songs for adults. Berman's back from the brink and instead of looking inward, he spends much of these 35 minutes proffering colorful moral fables that confront America's obsession with the superficial. At the center of his tales stand party barges, candy jails and "longtime guzzler[s] of hydrogenated crap." But fanciful settings, odd protagonists and smart-as-a-whip rhymes notwithstanding, there is a wispy, twee quality to many of these songs, and ultimately the most affecting are those that sport the emotional and anthemic heft of the best Jews material, especially the wry yet achingly lonely "Suffering Jukebox" and the darkly dreamy "My Pillow Is the Threshold." A warm, enjoyable effort, but perhaps short on the Jews' best asset: Berman himself.

No Age

Billboard

In many ways, the L.A.-based No Age has a fitting name. The guitar/drums duo creates a practically indeterminate sound on its debut full-length "Nouns," crossing genres and evoking varying eras in rock's history almost from song to song. The end result is music that embodies an alluring sense of timelessness and abandon.

But once you've had the opportunity to chat with the two fine fellows who make No Age go -- Dean Spunt (drums, vocals) and Randy Randall (guitar) -- it becomes clear that the band's name captures not only the spirit of its music, but also its determination to break with mainstream conventions and traditions.

Rather than being fixated on how many records it is going to sell, Randall earnestly tells Billboard.com that No Age's aim is "to inspire future generations, as well as people alive today from previous generations, to change the world, or at least transform the U.S. into a place that is free and safe for artistic expression and social gathering outside of an exclusively monetary exchange."

Whether through a dedication to playing all-ages, low-cost shows in unexpected places; focusing on grassroots community-building; or taking the view that how they conduct themselves on stage and off is tantamount to a political statement, Spunt and Randall carry on the ethos of L.A.-area forebears like Black Flag, who embraced self-reliance, transparency and close interaction with fans.

Says Randall, "I look at the politics of culture as a personal choice and feel like it is my responsibility to say what I feel about issues I care about. However, we are not interested in preaching to the converted or shoving our opinions on other people," he adds. "For me No Age is an opportunity to talk to other people about going out in the world and getting involved in whatever they are interested in."

Randall also says that he'd like No Age to demonstrate that "you don't have to be remarkably special to make art or music; you just have to believe in yourself and express what you are feeling."

No Age's populist, inclusive approach -- as well as its passionate live shows -- quickly gained the duo a steady following and eventually caught the attention of Sub Pop, which signed the band shortly after it began work on "Nouns." The album, which mixes everything from My Bloody Valentine-style shoegaze to straight-up punk and early '90s alt-pop, started at No. 14 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.

The bond between Spunt and Randall seems like a special one, which isn't surprising given the intensity and intimacy of the band's music. Spunt says "it took a little time for us to realize that we really enjoyed each other's company... [but] once we realized we were tight pals, the doors opened up for us to understand and appreciate our individual influences. I sometimes think Randy is the only person I can be in a band with or something since we are so interlocked musically now."

Spunt and Randall met when mutual friend Jeremy Villalobos, a drummer, recruited them to complete a hardcore/punk trio called Wives in which Spunt played bass.

Spunt remarks, "We like to say [Wives] was a punch in the face, and [No Age] is like a warm, salty wave. . . . Musically, [Wives] became very uninteresting for the both of us and [it] didn't have the open style that No Age has, where we agreed the songs would be ‘whatever we like.'" Randall adds that Wives, which split in 2005, "came to an end in order for us to start a new band with a clean slate."

In keeping with No Age's general M.O., Spunt and Randall decided on a duo format "partly out of necessity and partly out of using the restriction as inspiration." As Randall explains, "We had to see what we could come up with only using instruments and elements that the two of us could operate. I feel like when you embrace your restrictions, you make something new and unique happen."

And of their already legendary live performances, Randall comments, "I love to see people who come see us lose their sh*t and just freak out and have fun and not worry about how cool they look or what other people will think."

In fact, for Randall and Spunt, "fearlessness of expression" is the bottom line: "No Age is a way to say to anyone interested in pursuing a creative outlet but are afraid that they might look stupid or fall on their face, that it is OK to look stupid and fall on your face because the benefits of making your art and believing in yourself far outweigh the minor embarrassments that just come with everyday life. I look stupid all the time," Randall concludes, "but I also have a sh*t-ton of fun."

Man Man

Billboard

It's easy to get a good sense of Man Man and the music it makes by taking a look at the stage names of its band members: Honus Honus, Sergei Sogay, Pow Pow, Critter Crat and Chang Wang. This is a band that is eccentric, just a touch loopy and adept at pulling off madcap antics both on stage and on record.

That's not to say Man Man isn't a band to be taken seriously, however. The Philadelphia-based quintet was signed to esteemed indie Anti- for "Rabbit Habits," its third album, and scored a No. 7 debut on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart with the set. Honus Honus, aka Ryan Kattner, tells Billboard.com the band's manic energy and off-kilter approach is integral to what Man Man aims to achieve.

"We want to create some kind of human response: uncontrollable smiling, heart palpitations, projectile vomiting, pulling hair -- something people feel."

When it comes to the band's live shows, renowned as energetic and unpredictable affairs, Kattner says, "We only have an hour or so to justify this self-destructive lifestyle of ours, so why not take advantage of it? I've always hated going to shows where bands replicate their albums exactly. There's nothing to watch, no blood and sweat in the performance."

But the band doesn't play it safe in the studio, either: "We don't shortchange our records; we just make them very different than what we do live. But they are both visceral experiences."

"Rabbit Habits" has a shambled, wild-eyed energy sometimes reminiscent of Tom Waits and Frank Zappa, but feels firmly of its time. The music incorporates everything from squeaky toys and utensils to cap guns, strings and horns, creating a sublime blend of high and low, traditional and modern. Much of it wouldn't sound out of place on a soundtrack to a carnival sideshow.

Man Man has been a touring band for about five years, but Kattner says its existed as a concept for eight. Of the band's slowly rising profile, he says, "One of my favorite quotes is, 'You gotta pay your dues before you pay the rent.' Saint [Stephen] Malkmus said that. We're still simmering under the radar and it's a little frustrating sometimes, but we're earning our fan base by word of mouth and I guess that's really the best way to do it."

The other advantage? Man Man has avoided the hype backlash so many young indie rock groups suffer. "I feel bad for bands who blow up really hard on blogs or whatever on their first record and then cannot live up to that again," says Kattner. "And those fans that latch on to the hottest thing, they don't stick around -- they jump to the next ship as soon as it's sailed."

Currently on the road, Man Man tours incessantly, and Kattner says that's how the band funded the recording of "Rabbit Habits," cut while Man Man was between labels. "We used money we'd saved up from two years of touring to make [the record]. We didn't want to wait around for another label."

But Kattner couldn't be happier about Anti- taking on the band. "You spend years kissing frogs till you find a prince. Or, in a different analogy, you got to have a handful of substantial relationships before you find the one to ride off into the sunset with. We got really lucky with Anti-. It's a great family to be associated with and it doesn't come with the usual label bullsh*t -- they actually care about their bands."

Kattner says Man Man will continue to do things its way: tour, and "keep it interesting. We just want to spread the word, you know? We want to get out there and get kids out of Hot Topic. What could be more important?"

Jammy Awards Reunite Phish, For A Moment

Billboard

The reunion of all four members of Phish on stage at the Jammy Awards, which took place last night (May 7) at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, was a stunning, albeit brief, highlight of the seventh -- and final -- edition of the event.

Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman had not shared a stage since their final show as Phish in August 2004, but came together at the Jammys to accept a lifetime achievement award.

Although the four did not play together -- despite emphatic urging from the crowd -- an emotional acceptance speech, highlighted by heartfelt comments from Gordon and a lengthy thank you from Anastasio, served as a reminder of the band's commitment to its fans and brought the cheering audience to its feet.

Gordon, who was under the weather, said he struggled to make it to the awards ceremony, but realized he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be "on stage with my oldest and deepest brothers. This means so much."

Anastasio said, "For the last five years I've wanted to convey to some degree what this all meant to me and to the other guys. It was so much bigger than the four of us. It was even bigger than our friends and the scene. It was a cultural thing, and we were like servants, there to express what was going on around us. It's a wonderful feeling to do that ... and that's the feeling Phish gave us all those years. It's an honor. Thank you so much for letting us be part of your experience."

The band members made no indication of a possible reunion and exited the stage quickly after Anastasio wrapped his remarks.

The presentation of the lifetime achievement award came toward the end of the evening and capped a night of interesting one-off collaborations, including Anastasio -- who's been keeping a low performance profile since his 2006 arrest for driving while under the influence of drugs -- making a surprise appearance on guitar during a mini-set by Beatles cover band the Fab Faux. The band followed Anastasio's lead as he ripped through lengthy jams on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey."

McConnell took the stage to play keyboards several times throughout the night, most notably with a quartet of jazz musicians that included Christian McBride on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. He led the well-oiled group through meaty interpretations of two of his three recorded Phish originals: "Magilla" and "Cars Trucks Buses."

Other highlights included Sharon Jones joining Galactic with Booker T. Jones on organ for a take on "Born Under a Bad Sign" and then Jurassic 5's Charlie 2na and MC Doug E. Fresh joining Galactic for songs like "Hip Hug-Her" and "Think Back," which inspired the crowd to throw its hands in the air.

Leslie West, backed by Rose Hill Drive, also got the audience worked up, especially during a rowdy take on "Mississippi Queen." And co-host Warren Hayne's collaboration with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze on the latter's classic "Tempted" also earned a strong audience reaction.

The Jammys, which ran more than four hours, was co-hosted by Grace Potter, who, along with her band the Nocturnals, appeared with several different musical lineups throughout the night.

The evening was closed-out by a jam super-group put together for the occasion and dubbed the HeadCount All-Stars, which included Disco Biscuits' Marc Brownstein and Jon Gutwillig, String Cheese Incident's Kyle Hollingsworth, Umphrey's McGee’'s Jake Cinninger and Benevento Russo Duo’s Joe Russo. The group ran through a series of well-played Phish covers including "Wilson," "Run Like An Antelope," "2001" and an excellent, near 20-minute "Maze," which also featured Disco Biscuits' Aron Magner.

Following the show, Jammys executive producer and co-founder Peter Shapiro announced that this would be the final edition of the Jammy Awards. "We accomplished our goals with the Jammys and it's time to take this momentum in a new direction."

The event will evolve into a larger celebration of live music.

Crystal Castles

Billboard

"Go easy on me."

That's how Ethan Kath, one half of electronics-obsessed duo Crystal Castles, begins his interview with Billboard.com -- and for good reason. Just moments earlier, Kath was in a crash with the band's rented tour van, the second vehicle mishap to befall Crystal Castles in just a few short weeks.

The first was far worse, however. Kath's counterpart -- Alice Glass, who handles vocal duties -- had gone out to celebrate with a friend after a Crystal Castles show in Chicago and ended up in a car wreck with two broken ribs to show for it.

As a result, CC was forced to cancel nine shows in the middle of a U.S. tour, and Glass played the remaining dates "in a lot of pain," Kath says. "Some people would notice she was holding her ribs while performing, but she did it, somehow."

Kath manages to squeeze in this previously scheduled interview while awaiting the arrival of the police on the latest accident scene in the band's hometown of Toronto. His weariness is audible.

"I'm not doing so good," he says. "Our album's finally come out and we should be celebrating. Instead, everything's just been a mess."

Indeed, Crystal Castles does have reason to celebrate. The band's self-titled debut, which arrived April 8 on Last Gang Records, recently bowed at No. 14 on Top Heatseekers. The duo has also been the recipient of feverish blog love and has been remixing a variety of buzz acts over the last several months.

So, despite the current circumstances, Kath realizes there's a lot to be excited about right now.

"We're getting ready to leave for Europe to do a headlining tour for NME magazine [the Topman NME New Noise Tour], and it's really nice because only 15 months ago we opened for Klaxons on the same tour. Fast-forward 15 months and we're the headlining band. That feels great."

About four years ago, Kath met Glass at a center for the blind while both were completing a high school community service requirement. They quickly realized they had a shared appreciation for noise rock bands like AIDS Wolf, but also a desire to "put a new spin on what those bands were doing. We were like, 'What if we make noise with electronics?'"

Kath says he gave Glass a CD in the summer of 2004 "with 25 instrumental tracks on it. I told her to choose the songs she wanted to write vocal parts to and she chose five of them."

The duo recorded those five songs as a demo and Crystal Castles was born -- but not without a measure of drama. As Kath tells it, "We were both in other bands at the time, and when we left those bands to do this, we made a lot of enemies. To this day, everyone [from those bands] resents us. Even some of our old fans talk sh*t about us. I still get emails asking me why I left behind a 'real band' for electronics."

But if a certain sampling of Canadians wasn't happy with the new venture, nobody across the pond seemed to mind. In fact, it was the London-based roommate of Klaxons' Jamie Reynolds -- who was just starting up his own label at the time -- who first put out the band's music: a 7-inch of a microphone test that had been unknowingly recorded while CC was cutting that aforementioned five-song demo.

"I sent him a copy of the demo and forgot that the recording engineer had put the mic test on there as the first track," Kath says.

The track came to be known as "Alice Practice," since it's primarily Glass "checking her mic levels," Kath explains. "I'm just playing around with a loop while she does it, but somehow people hear a song in there."

The single, which exemplifies CC's exhilarating mash-up of Sega-evoking low-bitrate samples and processed vocal chants, sold out immediately and was followed by several other limited-edition 7-inches. The band signed in May 2007 to Canada's Last Gang for its full-length debut.

"The new album collects songs from the sold-out singles, as well as some unreleased songs from the early days and some new songs we just recorded in 2007," Kath says.

None of the old songs were re-recorded because the group "didn't want to recreate the past," he adds. "We know they're important songs and we wanted them to be on there, but we're all about moving forward."

The Black Keys, "Attack & Release"

Billboard

Throughout the course of four proper albums, the Black Keys hewed to a no-nonsense formula: guitar, drums, vocals, period. It was so satisfyingly simple and raw it's likely the duo could have successfully deployed it again. But, to paraphrase the old saying, you can't know what you've been missing until you've had it, and on "Attack & Release," we have it. Danger Mouse, the first producer to work with the Keys, takes on a role akin to gardener: He nurtures the duo's innate musicality, allowing its elemental blues-rock to bloom into something far grander. Clever but tasteful arrangements and an impeccable shine make songs like "Same Old Thing" seem anything but. The heavy, dirge-like "Lies" and the playful, faux-spooky "Psychotic Girl," which melds whimsical keyboard with earthy banjo and slide guitar, are but two of many highlights.