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Once more taking stock of a solid batch of local EPs released in the past few months, we present yet another EP Round Up. This set features new material from Loxsly, whose Flashlights is an impressive step forward, Erin Ivey’s Sweet Little EP, and overdue coverage of iKiLLCaRS and Danny Malone.
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Loxsly - Flashlights (SR)
It’s been a few years since Losxly has given us new tunes, but their recent EP, Flashlights, was so worth the wait. They have progressed tremendously since Cody Ground’s baby, Forecast a Brainstorm, and even the 2005 LP Maps and Organs, featuring Loxsly’s current lineup. Still maintaining that synth pop sound we all love, the quintet of Justin Douglas, Cody Ground, Garrett Johnston, John Kelly and Eric Lugo have produced four more tracks for our listening pleasure. Ground’s raspy, whisper of a voice seems stronger and more confident; which is also more representative of how they sound live. Opening track, “Lamprey Eels” has had some radio airplay and the guys are making a video for it, but “Chopper” is a stronger song - very straight forward, showcasing all the things I love about this band. Bold storyteller lyrics are backed up by experimental clicks and retro piano melodies moved by spurts of instrumental crescendo, although I’m almost certain the ending of this song could induce seizures in small children. The following track, “Speckled Eggs,” quickly pulls out of bombarding synth repetitions with the appropriate lyric “don’t be afraid.” Southern style steel guitar mixes with vocal harmonies and solid bass and drum. Past their obvious influences like The Flaming Lips and 1960’s pop, Loxsly’s unique approach to indie pop-rock has given them the ability to rise above in a saturated genre. Not to mention they always have sweet packaging. Gotta’ love that.
- Samm Newton
Websites:
http://loxsly.com
Myspace
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Erin Ivey - Sweet Little EP (SR)
Erin Ivey has followed up The Eleventh Hour album with Sweet Little E.P., and there isn’t a more appropriate way to describe Ivey’s voice and intentions on the four tracks presented. Her voice is just so damned sweet I want to eat it up with a spoon after dinner with coffee. Or maybe before dinner. Yet, the most intriguing and respectable aspect audible is the mature, sensual essence she brings to thoughtful and meaningful lyrics with her voice. Sweet Little E.P. offers a variety of what Ivey is capable of doing. The songs range from pretty singer-songwriter tracks like “Amelia” and “Don’t Fight” to dark tracks like “All, In Time” that verge on profound. Her cover of Radiohead’s “Climbing Up The Walls” is incredibly well done and is the highlight of the E.P. for me because it is strangely familiar but captures the lyrics in a new light and possesses the same dark quality that makes your mind wander onto philosophical planes. All of the songs have beautiful, well placed harmonies atop flowing reflective melodies. The final track is actually an interview with Ivey and co-producer Bradley Calhoun, which is a bit odd, but it allows the listener to see the artist and the production of the CD through a more personal window. At times people compare Ivey to French songstresses, but her voice and sound is much more cohesive and reminiscent of the Dupree sisters from Eisley. They have that same sweetness matched with the projected power in their voices and melody that is as much a conundrum as it is pleasing.
- Samm Newton
Websites:
www.erinivey.com
Myspace
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iKiLLCaRS – At Ease With Your Haste (Why? Records)
The one-two punch of “Johnny Law” and “Lanyo Bourgeois,” the duo that serve as the backbone of iKiLLCaRS, hits like a head-on collision, but with a controlled intensity. Their debut EP, At Ease With Your Haste, is driven by melodically skuzzed out guitar licks and bad-ass bass lines, while Law’s vocals shift between low chanting growls and unrepentant shouts. Despite the group’s decided punk edge and impulse to explode, the songs actually push with a calculated catharsis. “Hartsfield- Jackson” opens the EP with raw riffs and rants that settle into a surprisingly calm chorus, the tight balance between chaos and control seeming to serve as the engine of iKiLLCaRS’ songs. “San Jose, 1972,” lifting lines from Allen Ginsberg, likewise underscores the frustrated fury of the Beat poet with a howling anxiety. The slow pummel of “Butcher’s Block” pushes the opposite direction, ominously unsettling as Law spits scathing over repeated lines and scratches out the EP’s title as the guitars break into an industrial clamor, while closer “Radio Roche” strikes the most straightforward fist-pumping charge. But the centerpiece of the EP sets up the group’s underlying humor, “The Teeners” offering a fantastic ode to their fellow ATX punks, (and Thunderbird wine). The yelping chorus of voices unloading “We Love the Teeners” is the best local tribute we’ve heard this year, making us wish iKiLLCaRS still held their weekly “free fuck for all” shows at the Hole in the Wall.
- Doug Freeman
Website:
Myspace
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Danny Malone – Baby Bleu EP (SR)
Danny Malone looks like a young Will Sheff and sings like a less eccentric Daniel Johnston. To compare an artist to Daniel Johnston on the merit of his singing might sound like backhanded compliment, but Malone carries his nasally off-kilter croon well, matching his exuberant bursts of acoustic pop. The Baby Bleu EP follows 2005’s full-length debut, While We’re Still Here, and presents Malone pushing in even more pop directions, with dense instrumental flourishes that never overpower. Opener “Silence” rolls with smooth lyrical bursts accentuated by handclaps and horns courtesy of the ubiquitous Kullen Fuchs. “Swimming Pools” carries a light summer touch, not far removed from Brothers and Sisters, especially given Heidi Johnson’s chorus harmonies, while “Lucky Break” comes close to even imitating the direct, childlike songwriting of Johnston: “Lucky Bird where did you learn to fly, To and fro as you flow through the night, And it’s never a straight line, but somehow you always land your limb?” Though the song waxes a bit fey, the musical swell and eventual metaphoric drift of the lyrics save the song from complete drollness. The closing title track is undoubtedly the best, however; gentle and quiet after the upbeat ring of the previous songs, Malone is able to invest a more effective emotional pull by working with less. Though none of the songs on Baby Bleu stand out as necessarily remarkable, Malone proves a promising songwriter and ambitious in his arrangements in a way that certainly warrants notice.
- Doug Freeman
Websites:
www.dannymalone.com
Myspace
