TRUE LOVE ALWAYS

Resurrecting a band that existed before auto-tuned indie rock

Photo: www.myspace.com/officialtla

MP3: True Love Always - “The Losing Part” (from Torch, 2000)

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.

COMMENT | LINK TO THIS POST

12:54pm Indie Pop, Neo-Bossanova, Teenbeat, U.S.
Comments (View)

JOHN LEGEND OFFICIALLY COLLABORATES WITH MSTRKRFT

Remixed neo-souler lends voice on new MSTRKRFT song

Photo: www.myspace.com/mstrkrft

MSTRKRFT ft. John Legend “Heartbreaker” (from Fist of God, 2009)

ho would have ever guessed that Grammy-winning, Classics IV-ripping off John Legend would have been featured on a MSTRKRFT track? Well, I suppose remixes make strange bedfellows. “Heartbreaker” is the culmination of one extraordinary symbiotic relationship that began with the Toronto duo’s 2008 remix of “Green Light,” which brought Legend to the dance floor and the embracing arms of the blogosphere. In turn, it only made sense that Legend made time to guest on this standout track for MSTRKRFT’s second LP Fist of God being released tomorrow.

Most tracks of this nature are comfortable enough to just let the guest vocalist coast on a repetitious lyric, but “Heartbreaker” allows Legend to do his thing — espousing a couple verses and a cathy-as-all-hell chorus over a punchy piano rhythm and thumping beat. This speaks volumes of MSTRKRFT’s discipline to sit back and let Legend turn “Heartbreaker” into a delicious electro-R&B jam. Now, if only they could have gotten “Green Light“‘s featured guest, André 3000, on this…

10:55am Indie Electronic, Dance, R-and-B, Collaboration, U.S.
Comments (View)