Kinds of Music

I dislike it when someone asks me the question, “What kind of music do you listen to”? It makes me feel claustrophobic … suffocated. So much good music is left out when you limit your musical interest to a few select genres. However, I do tend to go through phases in which I spend a month or so acquiring and listening to one particular genre.

During my Astrud Gilberto-esque-1960s bossa nova phase, I stumbled across Kings of Convenience, a Norwegian duo of ambient harmonic voices accompanied by crisp acoustic piano and guitar. They're sort of like Simon and Garfunkel meets cool jazz saxophonist Stan Getz without the saxophone.

Although this band has a strong retro sound, they’re not old and buried. They’ve been crooning these sweet slow melodies for just five years, and their third and latest album, "Riot in an Empty Street," hit music store shelves two years ago.

"I'd Rather Dance with You" is one song on the album that really shows what these guys are capable of, with a bold violin riff, a catchy snare drum snap and the cool voices of Erlend Oye and Eirik Boe. The video displays the opposite personalities of quiet and serious Boe and his quirky glasses-wearing sidekick Oye, who is shown dancing throughout much of the video while Boe sits at the piano, flashes an occasional soft smile and sings longingly to the camera.

Kings of Convenience just finished up a two-year international tour in July, so I don't foresee their return to the States for a while. But this album is still a must-have for indie music collectors, and the best place for good little indie music appreciators to pick up new sounds is the best little indie music store in Phoenix, Stinkweeds.

Difranco's World

There is one singer/songwriter that I have to say I am a little embarrassed to be totally and completely in love with lyrically, musically, politically, emotionally. (OK, well, I can’t lie. My compact disc collection definitely holds more than this one guilty pleasure.)

She’s 5 feet 2 inches, but don’t let her vertical impairment fool you. She’s got a tall voice in grassroots politics and music, more than 15 years' experience, and prolifically stamps out a new record every eight months or so. Her newest, “Reprieve,” carries with it the brutal yet sincere poetic genius and sweet jazzy melody that she seems to perfect with each new release.

Her name is Ani Difranco, and this time she’s singing about issues that hit close to home, or more literally, hit her home. She started recording “Reprieve” in her New Orleans studio, which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina last August, and the record retains a rough yet sophisticated quality that brings the repercussions of the disaster into her listener’s homes.

Difranco recovered these tracks post-Katrina, brought them to her home base studio in Buffalo, N.Y., and dubbed over the damages. The result is a very eerie, very real personal response to issues looming in the White House, in America's city streets or in the bedroom.

Her political message extends to the cover art of "Reprieve," which shows a lone mangled eucalyptus tree. The original photograph of this tree was taken by Yosuke Yamahata in Nagasaki shortly after the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945, an event Difranco references in the title track of the album.

Difranco won't be travelling through the Valley for this leg of her tour, but if anyone's up for a road trip, she will be at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, Calif., on Sept. 22. She's sure to make a bleedingly liberal comment or two and undoubtedly offend some right-wingers, too.

Where it's Rat-at-at.

I love hearing music. In many ways it’s as vital to my life as breathing. I don’t just enjoy it when I’m working. I need it.

As a wannabe authority on the up-and-coming bands of the indie music scene, I do my best to stay in-the-know. Unfortunately, as a student with a part-time job, it is near impossible to be the know-it-all music snob that I aspire to be. So it helps to depend on friends and the music news grapevine for new sounds when life’s too hectic to stay on-track.

So, with that said, thanks to my good friends Rene and Mikey for introducing me to the New York-based band Ratatat, who just put out their second album titled “Classics” on Aug. 22.

With just two people, a couple of guitars and an Apple MacBook, this group pumped out an incredibly clean-cut production of '80s-style guitar ballads, hip-hop rhythms, roaring cat and whimsical bell samples, and playful synthesizer melodies. The men behind this multi-layered musical madness are guitarist Mike Stroud and instrumentalist Evan Mast.

As an entirely instrumental band, Ratatat is scraping an innovative path on the face of indie music. On “Classics” each song remains in a safe experimental space, never straying too far out of the electronic/rock genre. With a steady heartbeat tempo and easy-on-the-ear melodies, Ratatat is sure to keep you bobbing your head through your onerous reading assignments and won’t distract with a catchy lyrical chorus.

Ratatat will be at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix on Sept. 25 giving us studious types a little stress relief and some fine beats to move our feet to.

The Liars Handshake

For my first entry, let's start with some of the nicest, coolest, sweetest people I've met in Arizona, the Liars Handshake.

The band is Jared Christy (vocals and harmonica), Billy Culbertson (vocals and guitar), Nolan Thompson (upright bass) and the fiddling duo Brittany Sanner and Megan McCluskey.

What was once a post-punk/hardcore band called Bullet Train to Moscow throughout much of the early 2000s, Jared, Billy and Nolan revamped into the Liars Handshake, an all-acoustic sing-along band.

The group stays true to their punk-loving roots by covering The Pogues' "Dirty Old Town" and Minor Threat's "Good Guys Don't Wear White," but have clashed the screeching genre with the laid-back style of folk music to ensure that everyone in the audience can have a hand-clapping hoot of a time.

They proved their potential for mainstream success when they opened for the popular L.A.-based Irish punk band Flogging Molly at the Mesa Ampitheatre last spring, but Liars Handshake is not about to pack up and move to "La La Land" in search of a major record contract. Fame and glory aside, these guys are dedicated to Phoenix with hopes that they can bring back some innocent fun to the city's punk rock scene.

Their next show will be at The Clubhouse in Tempe on Sept. 21, so get out of the house and support your local music venue. You may even spot me in the crowd, clapping along and messing up song lyrics.