Welcome to Make-Out Music, a music blog written by Ryan Sheridan, for those in search of the perfect pop song. Forget you actually gave freak-folk a chance and take comfort in discovering pop music that can still be sophisticated. Find the perfect remix, forgotten guilty pleasure, original sample or secluded Scandinavian sound with our MP3s, interviews, genre features and video mash-ups. Befitting a spot on your next mixtape, it's Make-Out Music: because getting to second base needs a soundtrack.
If you have comments, questions or music of your own you'd like me to hear, please send all e-mail to ryan [dot] makeoutmusic [at] gmail.com. MP3s will be taken down upon request.
nbeknownst to me until a couple minutes ago, this blog’s been a straight-up sausage party. Since Make-Out Music’s January inception, I’ve accidentally forgotten about our female counterparts. So, in the name of Equal Opportunity, today the ladies get their due with a trio from Brighton known as Chungking.
Chungking came onto my radar in 2005 when their second LP, The Hungry Years, was released. At the time I was still flirting with Feist’s Let It Die and I viewed The Hungry Years as its unofficial sequel. Both LPs bore smokey white girls who knew their Jazz. As it turned out, The Hungry Years was better than Feist’s official follow-up, The Reminder, which was a boring, predictable romp through Apple-friendly monotony.
“Making Music,” Hungry Years’ first single, is a classy ode to a dreaming debutante’s favorite comfort zone. The piano-clad song creeps along with a frightful violin and sparse horns until it dips into a huge soulful chorus, following singer Jessie Banks’ blissful exclamation: “I just want to cry / so help me along to where I belong / here I’m safe and sound…making music.”
t’s got to be a challenge for a three-piece band. As a small troupe, they’re always overcompensating for a shortage of sounds. I suppose it’s like when small-dicked dudes buy Hummers. Well, one band who shant worry (about a shortage of sounds, not sure about the dick thing) is Virginia’s True Love Always.
The trio, signed to iconic D.C. indie pop label Teenbeat, is like Belle & Sebastian only with better hooks. On “The Losing Part” vocalist John Lindaman’s shiny bossa nova guitar licks recall “This Charming Man” and, though it’s just Lindaman alone on the vocals, a popping bass line and subtle disco shuffle ensure there’s hardly a ‘losing part’ here. Like The Smiths, True Love Always is a classic, bare bones indie pop outfit. With just one singer/guitarist, a bassist and drummer, each instrument pulls its own weight — and they all do so in simple synchronicity to produce a bright, vivid and clean sound. Found on all of their records, this sound can be chalked up to Teenbeat/Unrest founder Mark Robinson, who helmed this album’s production.
The lack of any vocal effect, distorted guitar or auto-tuned verse (Come on, Discovery. Really?) is refreshing and thank fuck for that. Though I fear exposing my age here, this song and its album, Torch, leaves me feeling nostalgic for the more innocent, less gimicky brand of indie rock we knew at the turn of the century. Released in 2000, Torch was just the band’s third LP, but its bossa-nova inflected sophistication has only to be rivaled today by The Changes, a like-minded band from Chicago who put out an album in 2006 (and will also be interviewed here in this space very soon). It’s a shame, too, since True Love Always went on an indefinite hiatus after its last LP in 2002. Apparently moving to New York, completing a Master’s degree and…coaching kids’ soccer was more important.
our months into the new year, I think it’s safe to say 2009 has already found its sound. So far we’ve heard Passion Pit’s huge, gooey synths, Phoenix’s palm muted guitar licks and, now, Norway’s The New Wine — a quartet who’s wrangled all these sexy sonances into one EP.
Given away to fans via a free digital download on MySpace, this self-released untitled EP possesses a certain charm none of the aforementioned bands do. There aren’t any children’s choruses or slick producers here. Rather The New Wine’s output is content to be lo-fi dance-punk, thanks mostly to what has got to be a starter Casio — much like the one your penny-pinching parents probably gave you on your 9th birthday in hopes of you becoming a musical prodigy someday. Though lo-fi can be a deceiving word, think Erlend Oye’s The Whitest Boy Alive…on a budget. The two bands are actually good friends. Check out this video of TNW covering TWBA’s “Golden Cage”:
Available for download today is the EP’s final track “Revolving Cylinder.” Here The New Wine uses that kids’ electric piano to dance with a slinking bass line that backs up bright, shiny guitars, Phoenix-like palm mutes, and, duh, a disco beat.
Monday, April 13, 2009 
nbeknownst to me until a couple minutes ago, this blog’s been a straight-up sausage party. Since Make-Out Music’s January inception, I’ve accidentally forgotten about our female counterparts. So, in the name of Equal Opportunity, today the ladies get their due with a trio from Brighton known as Chungking.
t’s got to be a challenge for a three-piece band. As a small troupe, they’re always overcompensating for a shortage of sounds. I suppose it’s like when small-dicked dudes buy Hummers. Well, one band who shant worry (about a shortage of sounds, not sure about the dick thing) is Virginia’s True Love Always.
our months into the new year, I think it’s safe to say 2009 has already found its sound. So far we’ve heard Passion Pit’s huge, gooey synths, Phoenix’s palm muted guitar licks and, now, Norway’s The New Wine — a quartet who’s wrangled all these sexy sonances into one EP.
