Dad Rock Extraordinaires – Studio A Adds 6.20

What is, as they say, crackalacking? Oh, you kids. It’s that time of the year to whip out the dad sandals, thrown on some Dave Matthews Band, and grill up some smiles for the whole family with your wacky and happening dance moves.

 

Look at that craftsmanship.

We got some high quality and affordable CDs for you this week, sure to give you the chills with their gripping and haunting content. We got the eponymous record of Jaakko Eino Kaveli, which contains a lot grooving, trancing dream-pop songs. He also is quite possibly Jared Leto’s most understated performance as a method actor. What a dream boat.

     

We also have albums from the likes of Desaparecidos, Double King, and FFS. Strangely enough, we also got albums from both Son Lux and De Lux in the same week. Just thought that would be a noticeable coincidence. OKAY!

Anyways, have a great Father’s Day and make sure you tuck your dad into bed tonight and make sure you reassure him how good AC/DC was. They grow up so fast.

-Jordan

ARTIST	ALBUM	DESCRIPTION	LABEL
Jaakko Eino Kalevi**	Jaakko Eino Kalevi	Electro synth/dream-pop with some nu-R+B sounds thrown in. Really good at building texture and soundscapes. Some pretty solid grooves on here too. Try: 2,3,4,6 RIYL:Ariel Pink, David Bowie	Weird World Record Co.
Desaparecidos*	Payola	Connor Oberst’s punk band. Typical whiny to shouty vocals but with dirty power-pop going on behind. It’s good, and catchy. Dude definitely hasn’t lost his songwriting touch. Makes me want to stagedive. Try: 2,3 RIYL: Against Me!	Epitaph
Fraser A. Gorman*	Slow Gum	Country-tinged singer-songwriter stuff. Not bad though. The acoustic songs are preferable to the full band stuff. Lot of influence from The Band and even Lou Reed. FCC Clean Try: 1,2,4	Milk!
Double King*	Night Fades	Reverby garage pop w/ a big soul influence. Some weird chord changes make this stand out more than you’d think from the instrumentation. Try: 2,4,5	Swell Records
FFS*	FFS	Suave, slick post-punk meets nerdy theatrical glam-pop. A completely ridiculous, incredibly fun album if you’re the right wavelength. FCC: 12 Try: 1,2,8	Domino
Son Lux*	Bones	Disjunct electro-pop. Kind of erratic and all over the place, but pretty cool. Some great synth textures and some hooks hidden behind the sporadic song structures. Try: 2,3,4 RIYL: Aphex Twin, The Killers	Glassnote
De Lux*	Generation	LCD Soundsystem worship, but not bad. The same strange/vague lyricism as David Bryne or James Murphy. There’s FCC violations on all of the good songs. A bit more dreamier than the acts they draw influence from. FCC: 1,2,6,7 Try: 2,3,4,10,11	Innovative Leisure
J Fernandez*	Many Levels Of Laughter	Noodly, minimal singer-songwriter jams in soft of the same vein as Mac Demarco in the sense that they both are a bit dreamy and hazy. Some strings and nice sounding organs/keys thrown in. Good, but a little repetitive, not always in a bad way. Try: 1,3,4	Joyful Noise
Froth*	Bleak	Dream pop/shoegaze jams with nasally male vocals over it. Songs are jangly and poppy, very bright sounding. Has some darker moments as well though. Some bangers too. FCC Clean Try: 1,2,4 RIYL:King Tuff, Slowdive	Burger Records
Jessica Lee Wilkes*	Lone Wolf	60’s influenced female fronted rock. Sounds like Amy Winehouse but with a little more guitar. Has a certain swagger/attitude to it. Songs are pretty good, if not a bit same sounding. FCC Clean Try: 1,2 RIYL: Du Blonde	Free Dirt
Creepoid*	Cemetary Highrise Slum	Grunge-revival rock done much better than genre-partners Superheaven. Dark, hazy instrumentation with dreamy vocals. Sounds like Nirvana with some shoegaze influence thrown in. It’s good. FCC:10 Try: 1,2,4 RIYL: Unwound	Collect
Nick Diamonds*	City Of Quartz	Guy from Islands/The Unicorns. Sounds like a more electronic Ariel Pink, but not as freaky/weird. Lots of interesting electronic textures, mostly analog. Does a good job setting a tone and creating an atmosphere. Try: 2,3 RIYL: Hot Chip, Panda Bear	Manque
Black Mountain*	Black Mountain	“New Classic Rock” is about as solid a describer for this album that I can think of. Don’t take that as a bad thing though. It’s groovy, hazy, psychedelic w/out all the effect pedals. Draws influence from Krautrock in its repetition, but is certainly never boring. FCC: 8 Try: 2,3,4 RIYL: Neil Young, Neu, Thee Oh Sees	Jagjaguwar
Joe Goodkin	Record of Life	Album art straight up rips off the new Sufjan album. Sounds like a guy who used to play country, but then discovered Sun Kil Moon. First song is about him writing this record, pretty meta. Yawn.	Quell Records
Nate Ruess	Grand Romantic	Dude from Fun doing big anthemic pop-rock. Surprise! He has a good voice, but these songs are so generic. He sounds kinda angry at moments, which is a slight change of pace, but other than that no different from Fun.	Atlantic
Zella Day	Kicker	Definitely riding the hype wave of dark femail pop music. Not bad though. The songs are dark but catchy, and she definitely has a carfeully developed sound. FCC: 2,7 Try: 1,5,6 RIYL: Lana Del Rey	Pinetop Records
Tough Age	I Get The Feeling Central	Pretty boring surf rock/rockabilly tunes. This has been done thousands of times by many other acts. This sounds does not need a revival. Lots of 50s/60s pop influence and reverb.	Mint Records
Halfway	Any Old Love	Alt-country. Pretty boring and same-sounding. Harmonics, slide guitars, songs about small town struggles and failing relationships. Nothing too special.	Plus One
Parlour Tricks	Broken Hearts/ Bones	Some lyrical cliches, but overall pretty enjoyable pop music. Every song sounds kinda different, seems like they haven’t quite settled on a specific sound. Most of it’s kinda boring. Try: 1,2	Bar/None Records
Moose Blood	I’ll Keep You in Mind, From Time to Time	Sounds like an English version of The Hotelier, but with more songs about youth and love. As such, it lacks what made The Hotelier great. 90’s emo blahblahblah. FCC: 1,5 Try: 2 RIYL: Nai Harvest, The Hotelier	No Sleep Records
Oh Mercy	When We Talk About Love	Nasally vocalls backed by instrumentation that sounds very airy and atmospheric. Lots of soaring synths and ambient backing tones. Some strings thrown in there. Sounds like Bob Dylan fronting The War On Drugs with a string quartet. Try: 1,3,4,8	Casadeldisco
Ryan Adams	Live At Carnegie Hall	Great Set, but nothing new. I’m not sure why you’d play live excerpts on air, but if you like Ryan Adams, word to this.	Blue Note
James Davis	James Davis	Wow, someone really wants to be Lorde. This is trash. I guess try track 2.	Motown
Golden Eels	Periscopes In The Air	90s influenced power-pop. Lazy/slacker rock vocals and lyricism. Some cool riffs, but not too innovative or unique sounding. Some weird synth moments. Try: 1,5 RIYL: Pavement, Sebadoh, LVL UP	Self-Released