Made In America - CONCORD AMERICA, "Suns Out Guns Out" EP (2014)

Brothers, John and Vinny Restivo met Ben Presley while working at an Atlanta, Georgia pizza kitchen but later on, while attending a Cage The Elephant concert, the three would decide to become a band and so became Concord America.

Concord America spits out ragging fuzzy psychedelic garage-rock reminiscent of early Arctic Monkeys only a little louder and a little dirtier.

Made In America - ALVVAYS "Adult Diversion", cassette single (2014)

Another Made In America, Canadian edition. This week we have Alvvays (pronounced always), the Toronto-based five piece indie-pop band fronted by Molly Rankin. Rankin is the daughter and niece of The Rankin Family, a multi-award winning folk family collective from her hometown of Cape Brenton Island, Nova Scotia. Rankin formed Alvvays with fellow bandmates Kerri Maclellan, Alec O'Hanley, Brian Muphy, and Phil MacIsaac and self-released a cassette-only debut last year which was only sold at shows. That album, produced by fellow canuck Chad VanGallen, is expected to get a proper release on a yet-to-be announced label this summer.

Made In America - Parquet Courts

Parquet Courts is a band that’s gotten loads of attention lately here in the U.S., and deservedly so. This post-punk New York-Via-Texas quartet released their official debut album Light Up Gold last summer on front man Andrew Savage’s Dull Tools label to high acclaim from both the underground and the above underground scenes. Their “unofficial” cassette-only debut American Specialties was released in 2011 and has since been reissued on vinyl via Play Pinball! Records. 

Andrew Savage’s angsty vocals marry nicely with bandmates Austin Brown (guitar/vocals), Sean Yeaton (bass) and Andrew’s brother Max Savage (drums) but it’s not one of those cheesy “we do everything together” marriages. It’s one of those ones where everyone has their own ideas and personalities but when you are on the same page, man you are on the same page, and that page is awesome.

Light Up Gold smacks nostalgic for me in many ways, but with a youthful freshness. It’s a record that easily plays through with songs that continuously hit the sweet spot and seamlessly transition into each other. The dB’s, Feelies, Cap’n Jazz, and the Minutemen all seem influential but not directly so. Pinpointing Parquet Courts’ sound would be easier if I just threw random darts into my giant Case Logic cassette suitcase so I won’t try to anymore, I’m just gonna hit repeat and play.

Parquet Courts are on my summer concert list with a show in Atlanta in May and I can hardly wait.

Parquet Courts - Borrowed Time

The rest of Light Up Gold can be streamed here, enjoy:

Made In America - Shark?

At least a couple of times a week I’ll spend a few hours at night trolling the depths of the internet for new music. This both alleviates occasional boredom and feeds my obsession for ear candy. I like to think that I have a pretty good finger on the pulse of what’s out there but in all reality I don’t, not even close, and more often than not, I’ll miss out on a band with some worthy tunes. One of those bands was Brooklyn, New York’s, Shark?

I caught Shark?, yep, pun intended, as one of the two openers for post-punk icons Mission Of Burma a couple of weeks ago at The Earl in Atlanta, Georgia. They were at the tail end of a small tour with a stop through Austin at South By Southwest on their way back home. I must admit that they didn’t get to me at first. Even now I wouldn’t be able to pick out the opening song from a playlist. I only remember that it was a somewhat mono-drone, fuzzy experience and I could even be wrong about that. It was probably as awesome as the rest of the set ended up being. 

Frontman Kevin Diamond knows how to write a song with a head-bobbing groove and a hook that will land the dourest of listeners. I know, the fishing puns, can’t stop, won’t stop. While inching my way towards the front of the stage I invisioned Shark? as a rock and roll love child between The Pixies and The Strokes who received the choicest DNA from both bands. 

 

But the song that did it for me and has been on constant repeat for the last two weeks is the song Shark?, from their 2012 album True Waste. The song was the set closer and it closed the deal for me. I immediately darted for the merch table and netted a copy of the album, on cassette no less. Thankfully there was a digital download card.

So enhance your life a little and check out “You Don’t Love Me Anymore”, fall in love with this band like I did, and then listen to their latest single “California Grrls” from their upcoming album Savior on Old Flame Records, expected to be released sometime this summer.

Here's a link to Shark?s latest single "California Girls" via Soundcloud.
More Shark? music available for a listen on their Bandcamp page.