The Whigs, “In the Dark” (ATO,) — “There’s a hundred million people in my mind,” singer-guitarist Parker Gispert admits in the leadoff track to the Athens, Ga., trio’s third album (out next week). “Which is me, and which is not?” Whoever they are, on this album they’re not all imploring Gispert, drummer Julian Dorio and new bassist Tim Deaux to turn it up to 11. The Whigs might have blared their way onto the scene as likable disciples of Dinosaur Jr., but “In the Dark” isn’t all grit and guitars. The trio worked with three producers on the album — Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective), Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant) and Angelo Petraglia (Kings of Leon) — and while that’s usually a recipe for disaster, all the cooks don’t taint the soup. “Kill Me Carolyne” suggests a punk-rock Kings of Leon before they became uninteresting enough to be radio stars; “Dying” detours into psych-rock territory; “I Don’t Even Care About the One I Love” could be an ’80s anthem; and “Someone’s Daughter” stomps with an almost-metal fury. For two albums, you admired the Whigs’ brawn; here, you love their elasticity. Highly recommended.

||| Download: “In the Dark” and “Kill Me Carolyne” (e-mail required).

||| Live: The Whigs open for Black Rebel Motorcycle Clubs on Thursday and Friday at the Echoplex.

Black Rebel Motorcyle Club, “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” (Abstract Dragon/Vagrant) — Sometimes it seems like BRMC is running in place, but it’s a great place: where British shoegaze, heart-wrenching Americana and snarling punk tangle their roots to sprout some gnarly tree of mysticism. BRMC’s up-and-down trajectory climbs on their fifth album (out this week), with Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been seemingly energized by the arrival of new drummer Leah Shapiro. Their urgent fuzz is at its strongest on “Bad Blood” and “Shadow’s Keeper;” “Sweet Feeling” and “Aya” hark to the folky BRMC of its “Howl” album; and “War Machine” roars with foreboding. For a band that once asked the question “Whatever Happened to My Rock & Roll,” “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” seems like a good enough answer. Recommended.

||| Live: BRMC plays sold-out shows at the Echoplex on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and visits the House of Blues Anaheim on Tuesday.

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A lot can happen in a year. About this time last spring, an unsigned band out of Australia, the Temper Trap [pictured], was one of the big buzzes of the South by Southwest Music Festival. Now the London-based band with the big, anthemic sound is riding a wave of support for its debut album “Conditions.” With a Coachella appearance in the distance, they headline the Fonda Theatre tonight, with local quartet Darker My Love (sure to play some material from its forthcoming third album) supporting. … Long Beach’s Delta Spirit has completed work on its sophomore album for Rounder. No release details yet, but it’s quite a leap from “Ode to Sunshine” (if I hear a better folk-rock album in 2010, I will be surprised), and the quintet has a sold-out show tonight at the Bootleg Theater, with We Barbarians opening. … Also: Cary Brothers and Meiko at the Hotel Cafe; Little Boots, Dragonette and Class Actress at the El Rey Theatre; Olin and the Moon and Correatown at Club NME at Spaceland; Kissing Cousins and Wet & Reckless at the Silverlake Lounge; Abe Vigoda and the Black Apples at the Echo; Free Moral Agents at the Airliner; the new venture from Travis Barker and A-Track, Travis x A-Trak, at the Roxy; the second night of the sold-out  Manchester Orchestra/Features bill at the Troubadour; Brian McKnight at the Key Club; Walk the Rio at the Viper Room; Learning Music at Echo Curio; Great American Taxi at the Mint; and Twin Tigers at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach.

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The title of Holly Miranda’s debut release “The Magician’s Private Library” (out now on XL Recordings) suggests a cornucopia of aural delights, and it does sound very good, with a shimmering sonic palette applied by TV on the Radio’s David Sitek. Miranda, who made noise a couple years back as a member of the Jealous Girlfriends, possesses a  languid voice and mature way with a lyric that ought to be completely captivating, but a little more clarity and idiosyncrasy would be welcome. “Library” isn’t quite on the same shelf with Bat for Lashes, but it’s in the same section.

||| Download: “Waves”

||| Live: Holly Miranda performs Friday at the Bootleg Theater.

— By Keith Shackleton

Photo by Sebastian Mlynarski

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Mark Linkous committed suicide over the weekend, and among the many remembrances of and tributes to the Sparklehorse main man is the following, penned by ex-Grandaddy guitarist Jim Fairchild, who now makes music as All Smiles, and sent today to his e-mail list:

Among many of the great memories I have of my happy times in rock and roll, one of the happiest comes from a festival in the U.K. in the summer of 2001. Grandaddy was playing on the same day as A Camp and Sparklehorse.

Members of all three bands were rehearsing a version of the Sparklehorse song “Homecoming Queen,” to potentially play during the Sparklehorse set. I think that Jason Lytle and Kevin Garcia wound up going up and singing it with Mark Linkous later in the day, along with Nina Persson. I remember how striking it was, observing Mark’s patience and joy in explaining the chords and structure to us. Mark had a beautiful and generous face.

Even better, later that night Kevin and Mark wound up stealing a golf cart from festival security. Because he had worked at a golf course before touring “The Sophtware Slump,” Kevin knew how to disable the fuel governor on the vehicle. Meaning that the cart would go really fast.

Mark got behind the wheel, a dangerously over-capacity number of us jumped on with him, and Mark tore through the grounds, with a smile as big as any I’ve ever seen blanketing his face. After a few close calls and narrowly averted collisions, we finally got booted off by security, hysterical laughter preventing any consequence from being exacted. Mark’s joy was huge.

A couple years later, Mark and Steven Drozd showed up at a particularly pissed-off Grandaddy performance in Chicago at the Riviera, where we were opening for Pete Yorn. We were getting fucked on soundchecks every night, and Jason had had enough. Through frustration, he thought we should open with a tune called “Play Whatever You Want For About Seven Minutes.” Which we did. Made up on the spot. It was awful. Intentionally. When we got done, Mark and Steven came backstage and Mark was so stoked about the new song we played first. He got it. Or was willing to get it.

I hadn’t seen Mark in years. But I will now and forever miss that exuberance, so perfectly and fleetingly captured in the examples that passed before my eyes. I feel fortunate to have experienced any of it and thankful to have those songs he made as a reminder of what a fine and caring person he was.

Whatever peace he wasn’t able to find here, I hope is with him now.

Spoken too late: Bye, Mark.

Tearfully,
Jim

Reposted with permission from All Smiles.

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Join me on Indie1031.com at 11 this morning for a couple of hours of Buzz Bands LA music. It’ll be an all-SoCal show this week as I geek out over my overflowing mailbox, going to SXSW next week, recent shows and the fact that spring training has begun. If I can somehow tie baseball to that new album by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. After the jump, the playlist:

OVIDEO, “Murder Capital”
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, “Bad Blood”
Moonrats, “Sleep Walkers”
Everest, “I’ve Had This Feeling Before”
The Deadly Syndrome, “Deer Trail Place”
The Henry Clay People, “Working Part Time”
We Barbarians, “There This There’s That”
Foster the People, “Pumped Up Kicks”
Spirit Animal, “Ants!”
White Arrows, “Coming or Going”
Fitz & the Tantrums, “Pickin’ Up the Pieces”
Holloys, “Eyes”
Nightmare Air, “18 Days”
Red Sparowes, “Giving Birth to Imagined Saviors”
The Icarus Line, “We Sick”
The Morning Benders, “Wet Cement”
Avi Buffalo, “Can’t I Know?”
Radar Bros., “Rainbow”
Crystal Antlers, “Little Sister”
The Soft Pack, “Flammable”
Glassell Park 3, “Gold Hand Girl”
Wounded Lion, “Silver People”
The Capshuns, “Famous Layers”
Tenlons Fort, “Warmth of the Dark”
Patrick Park, “The Lucky Ones”
Andy Clockwise (featuring Lissie), “The Socialite”
Rie Sinclair, “Victoria”
Helen Stellar, “Telescope Eyes” [sorry for technical problems with the file; will have a do-over on a future show]
The Idyllists, “Empire State”
The Delta Mirror, “And the Radio Played On”
The Frequency, “Statues and Angels”

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[Two acts from Buzz Bands LA's best-of-’09 list, the Features and the Big Pink, hit town on the same night. Not fair ...]

The last time the Features played L.A. (supporting the Whigs at the Troubadour in November), it made for one of the best rock shows I’d seen in quite some time. Tonight they return to the Troub for the first of a two-night stand supporting the ascendant Manchester Orchestra [pictured], the Atlanta quintet that toured with Silversun Pickups last year and is playing sold-out shows behind its sophomore album, “Mean Everything to Nothing.” … Coachella-bound U.K. shoegazers  the Big Pink return to the El Rey Theatre supported by A Place To Bury Strangers and Active Child. … Athens, Ga., quartet Twin Tigers, impressive last week at an engagement at 3 Clubs, headlines the Echo; Australia’s Skybombers and recent Echo residents Useless Keys open. … Also: Laura Veirs at Spaceland; Red Tide and His Orchestra at the Silverlake Lounge;  Planets at the Smell; and Sheila Nicholls at the Hotel Cafe.

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[In the interest of mixing it up this afternoon ...]

Hello, Los Angeles jam band fans. I know you’re out there, cradling your Bonnaroo tickets, reading Jambands.com, waiting for that “Phish 3D” concert film. Here’s something a little closer to home — the Colorado-based quintet Great American Taxi has a new album out, and are en route to L.A. “Reckless Habits” finds frontman Vince Herman (Leftover Salmon) and pals in familiar territory, which is to say covering a lot of ground — country, bluegrass, psych-rock and anything boogie. Here’s a dose of swampy blues:

||| Download: “One of These Days”

||| Live: Great American Taxi performs Wednesday at the Mint.

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There’s a certain naiveté that pervades Wounded Lion’s no-frills garage-pop — if I remembered having my first beer, the L.A. quintet’s three-minute blasts, unrepentantly disheveled but undeniably catchy, could easily have been the soundtrack. Whether visiting “Hunan Province,” immortalizing the “Omar Walk” or bellowing in French on “Black Socks,” the music on Wounded Lion’s self-titled debut album (due April 27 on In the Red Records) is the stuff of backyard parties and underground spaces. Smirk accordingly.

||| Download: “Creatures in the Cave” Stream:

||| Live: Wounded Lion opens for San Francisco quartet the Fresh & Onlys on Saturday night at Spaceland and performs March 26 at the Smell.

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To say that the Morning Benders’ “Big Echo” represents a creative leap is a bit of an understatement. The Bay Area-based quartet’s sophomore album — which comes out Tuesday on Rough Trade — sounds as if someone fast-forwarded Christopher Chu and company from puppy love straight into midlife crisis.

The Benders’ 2008 debut, “Talking Through Tin Cans,” was all prickly guitars and rosy cheeks, the sonic equivalent to lovelorn scribbles (though well-executed ones) on the back of a high school binder. By comparison, “Big Echo” is grad-level literature. Chu and bandmates Julian Harmon, Timothy Or and Jonathan Chu (Christopher’s brother, who replaced Joe Ferrell) ratchet up the arrangements and douse their newfound worldliness in warm atmospherics, some of which come courtesy of co-producer Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear.

• ||| Download: “Promises” (previously posted) and “Excuses” (e-mail required).

• ||| Stream: “Big Echo” here.

Meanwhile, frontman Chu (the Santa Monica native who’s also had a hand in producing new music from Miniature Tigers and So Many Wizards) wrestles with the big stuff now that he’s all of 24. He muses on life’s vagaries in “Promises” and “Excuses;” finds a vivid metaphor in “Wet Cement;” gets almost jazzy in “Mason Jar;” and counterposes his boyish tenor with noisy dramatics to find an epic sweep in “Pleasure Sighs” and “All Day Daylight.”

I recently caught up with Chu via telephone from New York:

People are talking about this album a lot, and it doesn’t seem to be just the Grizzly Bear connection.

Christopher Chu: It’s kind of become a storm already, which is nice. We didn’t really do anything except put some [songs on the Internet], but some kids seem to be really liking it and sharing it with their friends.

I remember back in 2008 when we chatted about “Talking Through Tin Cans,” you couldn’t wait to get your next batch of songs out there …

CC: I’d written another album around the time of the “Tin Cans” stuff, but this isn’t it. We never released that. We wrote a whole new album that is a better reflection of the direction we’re going in. With the first album, we went into the studio with a songs rooted in a certain era — the ’60s and the ’70s and classic rock — and with a small set of instruments. The limitations were self-imposed. With this album, it was a matter of getting rid of all those kinds of limitations, to not impose anything on ourselves. I think the result is an album that sounds a lot freer and fresher.

The new songs are still pop songs, but maybe with a more complex backdrop?

CC: I think that’s a good way to put it. There are still the classic songwriting influences from the ’60s and ’70s — I still try to write songs that work when you just break them down to acoustic guitar and voice.

Did you go into this with any fears that you might repeat yourself on your sophomore record?

CC: I didn’t think of this in terms of it being a sophomore record, but I did want to go someplace new. Toward the end of “Talking Through Tin Cans” and touring, I was ready to move on.

Not just sonically but topically?

CC: Yeah, I think so. I think one of the reasons “Big Echo” sounds the way it does is because there’s a different lyrical feel. The arrangements had to support the songs. I think “Big Echo” sounds a lot bigger — “Tin Cans” was more of a relationship record, but “Big Echo” deals with a lot of the things I was going through during that process — and time, I guess. With the themes of getting older. You always think of yourself as so young; you live in the moment. But this is a matter of me looking back … on the abstract, often illogical timeline of my life.

You made the album with Chris Taylor — did you have to wrestle any Grizzly Bears?

CC: Actually, we recorded the album ourselves in San Francisco, then worked with Chris in the mixing process. We tracked the whole thing in 9 1/2 days, which is really fast. Then I took it to New York, and we found in the mixing process that there was a lot that needed tweaking. It ended up taking three times as long to mix as it did to make. It’s amazing that Chris was able to help us make it sound like it does.

And now your brother is in the band too?

It’s been great. There’s just less you have to say when you work with somebody you grew up with, listening to the same music with.

||| The album: Highly recommended.

||| Live: The Morning Benders perform March 25 at the Troubadour and March 27 at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.

Photo by Matt Jakoby

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The Henry Clay People, whose classic rock-on-a-bender has won a large following in L.A., are signing to TBD Records, a subsidiary of ATO and the home to such bands as Radiohead, White Rabbits and Other Lives. The foursome’s new album, “Somewhere on the Golden Coast,” will be released in June in conjunction with the Ship Records, a new imprint from Earlimart frontman Aaron Espinoza.

“Golden Coast,” which will contain reworked versions of two songs from the Henry Clays’ 2008 release “For Cheap or For Free,” was recorded with Espinoza at the Ship, David Newton at Rollercoaster and Raymond Richards at Red Rockets Glare studios. The new song “Slow Burn,” along with the freshened anthem “Working Part Time,” were posted on the band’s MySpace page today.

||| Live: The Henry Clay People perform March 24 at the Bootleg Theater along with Admiral Radley, the new quartet featuring Earlimart’s Espinoza and Ariana Murray and Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch.

Photo by Jeff Koga

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