The Temper Trap: "Sweet Disposition" and "Rest"

You're driving down the coast. Which coast, you ask? It doesn't matter, really, but for the sake of specificity, let's say the coast of south Australia. The open windows let in the sun and the wind, and you grip the wheel as your BMW coupe careens around the ribbon of road. Your foot never touches the brakes. Your cell phone is turned off. You haven't felt freedom like this in years.

What are you listening to?

The correct answer is The Temper Trap, an Aussie-formed band that tickles your eardrums with a classic rock band set-up and a lead vocalist who can really, really sing.

The Temper Trap -- Dougy Mandagi on vocals, Lorenzo Sillitto on lead guitar, Jonathon Aherne on bass guitar, Joseph Greer on keyboards/guitar, and Toby Dundas on drums -- was formed in Melbourne, Australia. Lead singer Dougy, who landed in Melbourne via a childhood in Indonesia and a stint in Hawaii, began his music career as a busker, singing for spare change and painting portraits for $25 a pop. We can fast-forward a bit -- the bandmates knew each other, worked together in retail, started hacking out covers and original tunes, and began touring Australia. They caught the ear of Jim Abbiss, the (later) Grammy-nominated producer of both Adele and the Arctic Monkeys, who moved them to London in 2008. The Brits loved them -- "Sweet Disposition," the first single off the band's 2009 debut album, peeked into the Top 10 singles charts in the UK -- but we didn't hear much about them across the pond. (Though if the song sounds familiar, you may have heard it on the (500) Days of Summer teaser trailer and soundtrack or in Chrysler and Diet Coke ads.)

But none of that matters. Just listen to this guy's voice. "Sweet Disposition" begins with a happy, major chord revolution of guitar picking. Then Dougy's voice floats in with a bass drum accompaniment, almost hesitant at first -- until you hear the warble at the end of the note. The sustained notes hang over the lively, unceasing guitar riff. At 1:15 the chorus hits, almost grating at first, but then Dougy splits above and harmonizes, and the sound fits together like Legos fresh out of the box. It's just so satisfying; why would you ever take them apart?

But the chorus has apparently given Dougy the liberty to launch into full-throated volume, and his vibrato takes on an artistic beauty as he sighs, croons, grows the sound with not only his lungs but his mouth. "We won't stop 'til it's over, won't stop to surrendeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer."

I'm genuinely sad when this song ends. I've listened to it half a dozen times, and I just can't get over how well-constructed and well-sung it is. These guys have a second album coming out June 5, and after just one song, I'm hooked. The last time I felt this way was with the Alabama Shakes, and we all know how that turned out.

But I wouldn't sell you a band I hadn't researched thoroughly, so here's another video from a full show (as opposed to the Seattle KEXP studio, which is cropping so much on YouTube with fantastic recordings of up-and-coming bands that I'm considering moving to Seattle and camping outside their door until they give me a job, scrubbing floors if necessary):

Oh my god, these guys are a REAL TOTALLY AWESOME ROCK BAND, light show and all! (I can see the Arctic Monkeys reflected here a bit.) After two minutes of rocking out, the band pauses, Dougy steps up the mic, turns it around, and I melt into a slushy puddle of falsetto vibrato. (That sounds like a delicious dessert, doesn't it?)

Even the band's website calls to me -- the first thing you get when you click through is a video of them live in studio. Oh, boys, how did you know? I love it. I just love it.

So, new life goal: See the Temper Trap live on Saturday of Lollapalooza. Then, probably next year, fly to Melbourne, rent a BMW, and drive along the coast, blasting a homemade list of my favorite live recordings.

Do you ever feel like the happiest place on earth is inside your own head?

At the Drive-In: "Quarantined"

Juke Box Hero kicks off the short week with the sixth-listed on the Lolla line-up, At the Drive-In.

Apparently, the Lollapalooza promoters (or webpage/poster designers) think At the Drive-In is the sixth-most popular band performing at this year’s festival. I’m sure Brittany’s linked to the full line-up already, but if not, here ye be. This puts them just ahead of some fairly big names, including The Shins, Passion Pit, Sigur Ros, Franz Ferdinand, etc. But I’ll be honest: Hadn’t heard of ’em til now. Apparently, I’m no expert on post-hardcore of the late ’90s - early ’00s. Please accept my sometimes slower, yet often-more-broadly-expressive-and-creative-than-hardcore apology.

These rockers, who formed just after their apparently emotionally oppressive high school years in El Paso (Spanish for ‘The Paso’), Texas, are kind of a big deal in their sub-sub-genre (punk-hardcorepunk-posthardcore, if you’re keeping score). They’ve influenced plenty of bands with creative, rainy-day names that you’ve never heard of, who also express their waves of inner turmoil through the muse of fast-and-loud rock, stage-writhing, and affected-intellectual crowd banter.

Don’t get me wrong: I like these guys. (I also like Rage Against the Machine; they’re kinda similar. If you’re not in that camp, even just a little, there may be no hope for you.) As do Spin and Rock Sound magazines, and the BBC, mate. Their noise is tight, fun to listen to, really pretty un-joyful. And they’ve paid their indie dues – well, collectively; there’s been a carousel of membership but whatever – having basement-bar-bus-toured for the better part of a decade while developing a solid fan base.

And they’ve been gone long enough to marinate a solid fan-yearning buzz. They split up in 2001, but as of January this year they've pulled a Blues Brothers – clearly they’re broke, assisting a religious institution avoid tax trouble, or both – and announced reunification for the purposes of "nostalgia." Whatever. Can y’all still get loud, angry, and innovatively expressive? Your fans will know the difference. Lolla fans will…probably be dehydrated.

On this track from their third and final LP, the slow-burning rhythm (SO post-hardcore) is actually a pretty sweet jam. I love the loping bass lick, blissed-out guitar notes floating all over the place, and Cedric’s (lead singer) crazy bendy-knee thing he has going on. Oh, and his man-siren gives me the tinglies.

Things get a little too slow and proggy for my tastes during the spacey improv session in the song’s midriff, but when the hardened groove comes back around in the last minute: Pay dirt. Got to get me one of those billowing rock afros… or is it Rock-a-fro? Punk puff? Ro-fro? Afro-rock? Wait, apparently, that is a thing.

Bloc Party: "Like Eating Grass"

We gleefully welcome back Juke Box Hero, our guest blogger extraordinaire, who will henceforth be posting two days a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Good to have you back, sir. Take it away!

Some songs you feel like you’ve heard a million times but can’t really put your finger on the first listen. Some, though not in your iTunes top 25, had a memorable introduction that embedded in your brain, and now you can’t help but think about that experience any time it comes on. Is that a virtue of the song itself or more a combination of the company, the volume, the situation as a whole? Music cognitive scientists, talk amongst yourselves.

Hearing "Like Eating Glass" by London-based indiesters Bloc Party (no real political significance, they claim) takes me back, each time, to my girlfriend’s car. She was picking me up for a drive into Chicago and the moment I buckled in, without any other greeting or exchange, she just said, "You have to listen to this."

She cranked the volume in her little Toyota Corolla as high as it would go and pushed play on the opening cut from Bloc Party’s debut album "Silent Alarm," which had recently been released. The tense buzzing as the track opens had her speakers vibrating immediately. As the spaced-out guitar and the cymbals rattling with hectic, building energy added their angsty thoughts, the dainty sedan filled with sound. Then singer Kele Okereke came wailing in like Morrissey’s angrier, more high-pitched little brother, and things really got going.

Also, we were driving, so that helped.

It’s a sad song, this one. Okereke could be lamenting a broken relationship. Or his might be the lovedrunk snarls of a spurned admirer. Either way, the emotion is raw and visceral, and pretty damn catchy.

And if the drum-tight ensemble you see here on Jools Holland is anything to go by, the recently reunited group (returning from individual projects in September 2011) should be a riot at Lolla. If it’s your first time hearing them there, hopefully the experience is embedding, car or no car.

Spice Girls: "Say You'll Be There"

Alright, so I know this is a sharp veer away from the summer's mission to barrel through all the artists playing at Lollapalooza this summer. But the thing is, I really like the Spice Girls.

They're not very good singers. They sound timid live, probably because they're young and inexperienced. They each answered an ad in a theater trade magazine: "WANTED: R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated? Heart Management Ltd. are a widely successful music industry management consortium currently forming a choreographed, singing/dancing, all-female pop act for a recording deal. Open audition. Danceworks, 16 Balderton Street. Friday 4 March. 11 am-5:30 pm. Please bring sheet music or backing cassette."*

I mean, how creepy is that?

The ad promised fame, and it delivered. Of course, that was after the group had split from Heart Management, taken all the routines and songs they'd learned, and showed them to Simon Fuller, who got them a deal at Virgin Records -- so, you know, it was a winding road. They made millions of dollars and revolutionized pop merchandising and bestowed a British-flag-and-"Girl Power"-emblazoned umbrella over the decade. Then Ginger effectively broke the spell by leaving the group after just two years of international stardom, Posh (the worst singer, in my opinion) married Beckham, and their lives are forever interesting to us because of what they did in their teens and twenties.

For teen pop, it really is good music. I listened to this song with my roommate tonight, at top volume and dancing as we made lunch for tomorrow and got ready for bed, and damn if I don't remember every single word. It's catchy, it's happy, and I realized it was the Spice Girls who first taught me how to appreciate harmony.

Sorry, Beatles. Sorry, Aerosmith. Sorry Crosby, and Stills, and Nash. It was Sporty, Baby, Posh, Scary, and Ginger whose songs I sang, whose harmonies I improvised, whose music video dances I learned. (Did you know the "Wannabe" video was filmed in one, unbroken shot?)

It was probably a good thing I didn't watch them live. They really are sort of awful.

But you have to admit, that was some career to stumble into after answering a classified ad promising a recording deal. In the age of American Idol and the X Factor and the Voice and is there something called Duets now? I can't keep track. But these days, you don't get famous by answering a classified ad -- at least, not in a way you'd write to mom about.

But back in my day, in the mid-nineties, when I was singing Hanson into a hairbrush and wearing out my VHS copy of the girls' awful (but sort of wonderful) (but actually awful) full-length feature film Spice World -- a girl could dream.

The stance of Girl Power. Via The Guardian

* Note: All quoted history taken from Wikipedia, so, you know, I'm fairly sure it's accurate. Why would Wikipedia lie to me, right?

Chairlift: "Bruises"

Readers, meet Chairlift, a Brooklyn-based indie synthpop outfit. The group started with the intention of writing background music for haunted houses, which explains their penchant for minor chords and soft, unintelligible vocals. Vocalist Caroline Polachek has a flawless handle on her delicate soprano, and her breaking over lyrical sighs and elongated words is reminiscent of Imogen Heap, another artist who favors the heavy use of synthesizer to enhance -- instead of hide -- musicality.

Chairlift -- originally a trio (as above on Craig Ferguson in 2009), and now a duo (as below; founding member Aaron Pfenning left to pursue a solo career) -- performs on Saturday of Lollapalooza weekend. What do you think?

Jack White, Blunderbuss Full Concert

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Lollapalooza headliner, Mr. Jack White.

I'm currently goo-goo over White's new solo album -- his debut solo album -- Blunderbuss, released April 23. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, then dropped to #7 in week two, and is sitting at #8 in week three. It's too early to tell whether the initial enthusiasm will hold, or if people are listening to the album and disliking it, but I have no time for any of that. I have a crush.

When I get a new album, I listen to it in its entirety. Then I listen again. It all mashes together, a cacophony of sounds and rhythms and intentions. On the third listen, I begin to differentiate where one song ends and the next begins. On the fourth, I start to decide whether I like the songs. By the sixth or seventh listen, it's all old hat. I could hum the intros, melodies, and choruses. It's like the songs have always been there in my brain, like these new songs filled predestined song-shaped holes. My soul had been waiting for it, and I didn't even realize it.

My crush started with the first listen of the second track, "Sixteen Saltines." It begins with a simple but powerful guitar riff. This is old school, this is garage rock, this is wonderful. White's voice trips and falls over the lyrics, yelling but maintaining the tiniest hint of a vibrato. Such a pro.

"Who's jealous of who?" he asks in the chorus, his falsetto indicating he has no qualms about reaching for notes that may not be in his natural range, but he nails them, and he sounds cool doing it.

You, sir. I'm jealous of you.

There's more. There's so, so much more. But I'll let you experience it for yourself. Later in the summer I'll break down some more new White tunes, but for now, you can listen to the entire album for free on one video. You even get to glimpse both of his bands -- the male one and the female one -- and hear the differences in their style and attack. You also get to see Jack White full-body tackle his interviewer before the music starts. Bless you, YouTube.

After the jump: Full track list of the primary video. It includes most of the songs off the new album and a number of selections by the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather.

Bassnectar: "Wildstyle Method"

The music genre "dubstep" has been around for more than a decade, but it's only in the last few years that the (usually younger and possibly drug-addled) masses have embraced it. Dubstep is electronic dance music, often including remixes and samples, centering on loud, raunchy basslines and driving drum beats. It's the kind of stuff that vibrates the floor, and your bones, until you either leave the room or head-bang. There is no in-between.

Dubstep will be well-represented at Lolla this year by the seventh name on the line-up, Bassnectar, a.k.a. 34-year-old Californian Lorin Ashton. He's a connecting force between heavy metal -- the inspirational genre of his teenhood -- and electronic rave music, so he knows both raunchy basslines and driving drums. Despite little formal music training, he's gained thousands of fans ("Bass Heads") thanks to a home-grown talent, a few years organizing and later DJing raves all along the California coast, and now three years of constant touring under the alias Bassnectar. He's playing a show at Red Rocks in Colorado in a few weeks that sold out so quickly, they added a second, 10,000-seat show. Get tickets for that or other shows (this summer he's playing Germany, France, and Vegas, among other places) here.

Heartwarmingly, Ashton has made it a point to pay his success forward, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in ticket sales to charity. He also runs a program he calls "AmBASSadors," featuring teams of volunteers at Bassnectar shows that greet concertgoers and keep everyone hydrated. It's the little things that show you really care, and Ashton has built his career on building community. I'm looking forward to joining the ranks of Bass Heads when he performs at Friday of Lolla at Perry's.

Check out Bassnectar's newest album, Vava Voom, and download the track "Ugly" for free here.

Polica: "The Maker"

Polica: a soundscape, auto-tuned vocals, and a pixie haircut. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon said this infant Minneapolis group was "the best band I've ever heard." I dig singer Channy Leaneagh's creativity with her vocals, the fact that she controls the effects herself, and the softness she achieves even while singing heavy-hearted words like, "He won't love me like that." I'm not convinced I want to listen to an entire 45-minute set unless I've got some sort of hallucinogens to go with the careening echoes and beats. But with the support of artists like Vernon and Jay-Z, it's clear we'll be hearing more from Polica this summer and beyond.

Check out Polica on Sunday at Lollapalooza.

Michael Kiwanuka: "Tell Me a Tale"

Michael Kiwanuka, a 24-year-old British soul singer, will bring the mellow to Lolla. He's one of the greener performers on the line-up, but his debut studio album, Home Again, hit #4 in the UK after it was released in March. (It didn't crack the top 100 in the U.S.)

His lyrics are simple and soulful, centering around a preoccupation with love, and his voice is mellifluous, soothing, a young Otis Redding. His songwriting even makes jazz flute sound not cheesy, something that hasn't been done since Ron Burgundy terrorized and wowed the patrons of Tino's.

Kiwanuka has a long way to go before he joins the ranks of Redding or Burgundy, but he's worth a look if you need some chill time on Friday of Lollapalooza. Be on the watch for some surprises, like his funky cover of Gotye's hit, "Somebody That I Used to Know."

Delta Spirit: "People C'Mon," "California," and "Trashcan"

Today's jam comes from Delta Spirit, a seven-year-old rock band from San Diego that I'd never heard before today. The first two videos (above and below) were recorded at SXSW in March. While searching for videos of this band, I was struck most by their stripped-down live sound, in which lead singer Matt Vasquez sounds like he's holding nothing back, either vocally or on the guitar. His bandmates contribute solid vocal harmonies, making the songs sound rich and satisfying. I'm convinced, and you can be damn sure I'll be in the front row on Friday of Lolla.

Here's another performance from the same show, a little more calm -- they're sitting -- but just as emotional, as Vasquez howls about a failed long-distance relationship in "California." I've already gotten this one stuck in my head for the day.

Delta Spirit released an EP in 2006 and then toured with the likes of Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, favorites on the Indie rock circuit. They've cut three full-length studio albums, most recently a self-titled album released this past March. In the Lolla website's write-up of Delta Spirit, the band stresses that this third album is more in tune with their identity as a band, as opposed to earlier records that fans dubbed "twangy folk." Vasquez explains: "We found the sound that we've been looking for, that we've been growing into, and as soon as we hit on it, we ran with it...That’s why it’s a self-titled record, so we could connect our identity with the album, because this album is what we think Delta Spirit is. People make records for their time and we wanted to make one for our time. Just like novelists want to write the Great American Novel, we wanted to make a Great American Record. Not one about yesterday, but one about right now.”

Judge for yourself -- if you sign up with your email address on the band's website, you can download six free songs, including the studio version of "California" off the new album.

But will the sound translate to the bigger stages of Lollapalooza? It already has. Below is a video from Lolla 2009, in which the band performs "Trashcan," which appeared on their 2008 album Old to Sunshine and features a trash can lid lashed to a tambourine. It also features Vasquez pounding out some Ben Folds-worthy chords on the piano. And after standing on his keyboard to incite the crowd, he's unable to get the mic back on its stand, so he holds it in one hand and pounds the keys with the other. Hello, rock star.

Tune in to Daijams all summer to preview artists performing at Lollapalooza 2012, held August 3-5 in Chicago.

Alabama Shakes live on KEXP

It feels good to be home! I'm not going to lie, I'm quite content to have missed the last few weeks in American music. I really don't need the Biebs whispering in my ear, and if I want someone to call me, I make it quite clear.

Anyway, I returned last Wednesday from a dream five-week romp through Europe -- documented on my personal writing blog -- during which I didn't actually listen to much music as a rule. I wanted to separate a bit from the familiar, and I was actually getting really used to listening to birds tweet instead of phones. But then I remembered the Alabama Shakes released their first big studio album, Boys and Girls, on April 10, and I folded like a hot yoga instructor. I put the album on repeat, and now it courses through my veins like it's always been there. Seriously, Juke Box Hero called it two months ago: These guys and gal are my new favorite band.

Our first video back is a heftier edition, as appropriate for a Full Concert Tuesday. Back in January the Shakes were invited to play their tunes in the Seattle studio of KEXP, and they chose my favorites from the album. If you want to skip right to the heart of this band's music, jump to 14:45 for the start of "Hold On," their lead single and the song they've been shopping everywhere from Letterman to Conan. (They skipped Leno, which makes me happy for silly, spiteful reasons.) Listen to it, and then rewind and start from the beginning. Trust me.

The video also includes a mini-interview in the middle, where the band talks about how they came together just a few short years ago in -- where else? -- Alabama.

I'm also SUPER EXCITED because I've been granted a second year of volunteering for Lollapalooza, Chicago's famed music festival, held the first weekend of August. There are 125 bands performing at Lolla, including the Shakes, and if I can't see them all live, I can at least try my darndest to give the line-up its proper due before I fall to pieces in front of Jack White (Sunday's headliner, oh. my. god.).

I hereby dedicate the summer to artists who will be performing at Lolla, from the well-known -- like the Black Keys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jack, the Shins, and the back-from-the-dead Black Sabbath -- to the lesser known, such as artists Juke Box Hero told us about months ago, like First Aid Kit and The Tallest Man On Earth. It's going to be fun.