Surely the Interpol dick-riding will end soon, yes? In its wake, with any luck, these new krauts and occasional shoegazers will find patient, unpranging ears . . .
Serena Maneesh, "Drive Me Home the Lonely Nights" (Flash video) | This jangly blues-rock track from the Norwegian band’s 2002 Fixxations EP doesn’t have the heavy instep of SM’s new album, but it has twice the hook and thrice the heart. Love the male/female alternation on the verses.
Psychic Ills, "January Rain" (mp3) | On Brooklyn’s right-of-noise label the Social Registry, Psychic Ills have an album’s worth of the same song — it’s something like a future-primitive Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows,” but more streamlined and easier to dance to.
The Cocteau Twins, “Peppermint Pig” (Streaming audio) | 4AD just released the Cocteaus’ Lullabies to Violaine , a two-volume anthology of the Scottish proto-shoegaze dream-pop band’s vinyl rarities. 1983’s Banshee-bitten “Peppermint Pig” shows the band’s post-punk roots; “Pink Orange Red” washes them away in reverb.
Asobi Seksu, “Thursday” (Streaming audio via Myspace) | Apparently Asobi have traded nasally pop vocals for something fuller, thank the Christ. “Thursday” could be this Brooklyn band’s “Maps” — pretty but not sweet, rocks but never wallops, mysterious but by no means obscure.
