Author Archives: Stephen Slaybaugh

Over the course of eight years and five albums, Calla has morphed from a largely electronic studio outfit carving out urbane mood pieces to an indie rock force creating no less adventurous and otherworldly music. The band’s fifth and latest record, Strength in Numbers (Beggars), is a dish best served cold, Aurelio Valle’s chilled vocals and icy guitar centering the album’s 13 cuts. Where Calla’s previous effort, Collisions, glittered with flying emotional sparks, Strength is a more sedate affair, though of no less brilliance. Valle’s six-string spray is tethered to the atmospherics the band erects, and the overall effect is like the calm before the storm, striking moments marked by a sense of something else looming. “Rise” is awash in desert colors, and “Bronson” shows noir pop hues. Elsewhere, “La Gusta El Fuego” is a darkened dream haunted with tones of luminaries like the Gun Club and Loop. Even when keeping their sonic hysterics in check, Calla shows the underlying limitless capacity to everything they do, and Strength in Numbers is powerful evidence.

Locals the Black Canary open.

MP3: “Bronson” by Calla

In the never-ending argument of nature vs. nurture, Gowns lend argument to the latter with their debut album, Red State (Cardboard), released earlier this week. Recording in South Dakota, the trio’s created aural encapsulations that seem influenced by their natural environs. The record is eerie as the Black Hills, as hard-crusted and otherworldly as the Badlands, and windswept like the vast grasslands that make up a good portion of the state. Still, it’s the natural ingenuity with which they apply such soundscapes and which they no doubt brought with them from their former endeavors in Amps for Christ and the Mae Shi that make the record’s mix of folk, noise and rock notions jawdroppingly jarring. So call it a moot point. Cuts like “Rope” and “Subside” creek and clack like ungreased, industrial clogs, while Erika Anderson’s and Ezra Buchla’s vocals give the songs a face and a heartbeat. Or in the case of “Mercy Springs,” it’s the sound of man and machine pitted against each other, escalating into a maelstrom of frenzied sonic cavorting before quieting into an almost robotic mantra. So to come full-circle, perhaps this is the sound of that old dilemma played out.

For more information, visit the Skylab website.

MP3: “White Like Heaven” by Gowns

Tonight’s bill at Little Brother’s brings together two bands that in many ways are at either end of the spectrum. It’s east and west, dark and light, bliss and fury, making for a night of contrasts.

The Broken West, hailing from L.A., are the former of those dichotomies. Following opener Ferraby Lionheart, they’ll play songs from their recent full-length debut, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On (Merge). The record is a warm gale of breezy pop that hearkens to Teenage Fanclub, Jay Bennett–era Wilco and others of that persuasion. The band breathes plenty of life into their songs, most noticeably on “Brass Ring” and “Big City,” which traverse along bouncy keyboard lines . The Broken West play with their sunnyside up, only veering lyrically at times into sadder territory.

Conversely, headliners the Walkmen have made a name for themselves with a tempestuous brew of exorcised emotions. On records like last year’s A Hundred Miles Off, the Brooklyn-based band mixed moody atmospherics with a frenzy of sparkling melodies and guitar cataclysms. Even their recent cover of Harry Nillson’s Pussy Cats, while generally a lighthearted romp, revealed their ever present brood. Live such mixed commotions make for manic thrills.

MP3: Down in the Valley by The Broken West