Powersolo: Bloodskinbones (Crunchy Frog, 4/13/10)

Powersolo: "Gimme the Drugz"

[Ed. note: The track order of Bloodskinbones is different on Powersolo's website than it is on the actual CD.  This review reflects the order as streamed from the band's site.]

Morrow: Denmark's Powersolo are some strange cats. It's a pair of brothers — going by "Atomic Child" and "Kim Kix" — who play a peculiar brand of rock and roll and rockabilly.  Bloodskinbones is their third full-length album (fourth if you include the soundtrack to Himmerland OST).

Hajduch: I expected this album to be more rockabilly, but it actually reminded me of The Hives — driving, bar-chord garage with a few guitar leads thrown in to accent. About half-way through, I started thinking that the vocals sounded sort of like "Weird" Al, and it's been messing with me ever since.

Morrow: Yeah, they definitely have that quality — sort of like Dr. Demento with dick jokes. But if you can get past the sophomoric humor and the oddball delivery, you'll find some quality rock tunes. "Gimme the Drugz" is a good example of that — lowbrow lyrics but a real winner of a track. And yes, Bloodskinbones scales back the rockabilly and genre-hopping blend of the band's first full-length for Crunchy Frog.

The first half of Bloodskinbones is sort of hit or miss, but I think that the second half really comes together. There's a dynamite combination of hooks, weirdness, and garage-rock aesthetic, particularly on "Yeah! Yeah!" and "Busses." Then the last track, "Coco," has a great 1950s rock vibe. And fortunately, people can still stream the whole album at the band's website.

Hajduch: Yeah, right about around "Psych Demons" — a nice slice of jangly, four-chord pop, where the only "psych" signifier is the effected vocals — the album really picks up. The goofy vocals of "Canned Love" are destined to haunt me once an ad company inserts them into a commercial, like Vonage did with The 5.6.7.8s' "Woo Hoo."

Morrow: Well, you saw the "Lemon Drop" Absolut ad with a cut of "Kat Nazer," right?  The only difference is that "Kat Nazer" doesn't drill you with the same simplistic melody over and over, and it's one of Powersolo's best songs.

Hajduch: I definitely saw that ad. It makes me think that this band has major crossover potential to burrow hooks right into my skull. This is not a bad thing. And overall, I'm excited to listen to this album in a format where I can listen to it continuously. (Bands, let us stream the whole album! Don't make listeners click track by track!)  I'd also like to get an up-close look at that grotesque, collage-style album art.

It has a rough patch up front, but overall, Bloodskinbones is a great album.  There are also a few tracks — notably the excellent album closer "Coco" — that invite a positive comparison to Cake. It's hard to call Cake underrated, given that they had a gigantic radio hit and are now basically on a touring victory lap, but they had a knack for combining upbeat riffs and laconic vocals, and it's nice to hear their sound rub off on others years later.

ALARM leaves no genre unloved in our round-up of 50 albums that didn't receive enough attention in 2009.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Old Money (Stones Throw, 1/27/09)

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: "Family War Funding"

The first of many releases in 2009 from prolific guitarist/composer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Accessible and centered on rock, sounding spacey, funky, progressive, psychedelic, a little jazzy, and a little Latin.

Kevin Hufnagel: Songs for the Disappeared (self-released, 2/3/09)

Kevin Hufnagel: "Tres"

Musical themes come and go, covering swaths of Spanish and Gypsy guitar before reverting back to haunting rock melodies, on this solo acoustic album from highly technical Dysrhythmia guitarist Kevin Hufnagel.

P.O.S: Never Better (Rhymesayers, 2/3/09)

P.O.S.: "Drumroll"

Likely the year's best hip-hop album, Never Better draws on Stefon Alexander’s background in punk and rock music (he plays most of the live instrumentation on the record), making this is an album that categorically defines the indie in indie rap.

Zu: Carboniferous (Ipecac, 2/17/09)

Zu: "Ostia"

Sludgy alt-metal with complex repeated rhythms and free-jazz freakouts. Features Mike Patton on two killer tracks.

The Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo: s/t (2/24/09)

The Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo: "Shadow Thief"

A Balkan-influenced classical guitarist joins an ethically inspired finger-tapping guitarist for a disc of skill and beauty.

16: Bridges to Burn (Relapse, 2/24/09)

16: "Throw in the Towel"

Dubbed the "Unsane of the West Coast" by ALARM's Jamie Ludwig, 16 issued another hard-hitting riff fest in 2009 with Bridges to Burn, the band's best album to date.

Umlaut: s/t (3/10/09)

Umlaut: "Kitty Puppy"

Mr. Bungle's Bär McKinnon, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, issued one hell of an album for this new project — one that filters meticulous melodies and asinine vocals through the lens of a whacked-out lounge group.

Jono El Grande: Neo Dada (Rune Grammofon, 3/16/09)

Jono El Grande: "Oslo Coty Suite"

Fanciful music that's different around every turn. Art rock that weaves through theatrical, progressive, classical, and absurdist styles with influences from Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, King Crimson and Igor Stravinsky.

Kylesa: Static Tensions (Prosthetic, 3/17/09)

Kylesa: "Scapegoat"

Down-tuned dirge metal that rumbles with crust punk, sludge, metal, hardcore, and psychedelia, often laced with atmospheric samples. To date, Static Tensions is Kylesa's most powerful album.

(MF) Doom: Born Like This (Lex, 3/23/09)

Doom: "Cellz"

Dropping his “MF” prefix, the incomparable rapper and Marvel-inspired supervillain delivered another nearly impenetrable wall of rhymes and flow, dizzying listeners with his ever-shifting, slowly delivered lyrics.

Heavy Trash: Midnight Soul Serenade (Fat Possum)

As Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray unleash their third disc of old-school roots rock and rockabilly as Heavy Trash, the duo collaborates with a bona fide cast of contributors to create some of its finest tunes on a disc that expands its repertoire.

Accompanying organ is spread throughout Midnight Soul Serenade, an album that also contains splashes of piano on "Gee, I Really Love You," vocal gentleness and female vocal backings on "Good Man," vocal eccentricities on "Bumble Bee," Southwestern guitar and baritone harmonies on "Pimento," and low tones and acid flair on "The Pill," a tune evocative of Twin Peaks that tells its own psychedelic tale.

Top-end players Simon Chardiet, Sam Baker, Powersolo, Mickey Finn, Daniel Collas, and Those Darlins lend their good graces. If this kind of music piques your interest, pick this up.

Themselves: CrownsDown (Anticon)

After six years of silence (spent on countless other projects, many with each other), no-nonsense rap duo Themselves — Adam "Doseone" Drucker and Jeffrey "Jel" Logan — returned with a free "mixtape" earlier this year. Now the two have released their proper third album, CrownsDown, a sample-driven album that is both experimental and traditional.

The gritty, nasally intonation and rapid-fire delivery of Jel are slathered up and down the disc, which is based on hip-hop and dance beats and patchwork samples. Subtle founder Dax Pierson and 13 & God bandmates Jordan Dalrymple and Markus Acher make cameos.

Minamo: Kuroi Kawa: Black River (Tzadik)

Avant-violinist extraordinaire Carla Kihlstedt (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, 2 Foot Yard, The Book of Knots) and prolific classical pianist Satoko Fujii (Satoko Fujii Orchestra) spend much of their time on the outskirts of musical convention, combining their desired genres in whichever ways that they see fit.

Here the two create two worlds on two discs: one of dutifully recorded compositions and one of live, stream-of-conscious improvisations. Fans of experimental chamber music should dig this.

Honorable mentions:

Dave Douglas: A Single Sky (Greenleaf)
Jesu: Opiate Sun (Caldo Verde)
Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things: About Us (482 Music)
Jessica Pavone: Songs of Synastry & Solitude (Tzadik)
Pyramids with Nadja: s/t (Hydra Head)
Rupa & The April Fishes: Este Mundo (Cumbancha)
The Squirrel Nut Zippers: Lost at Sea
John Zorn: Femina (Tzadik)

Powersolo

Released last week in their native Denmark, Bloodskinbones is the latest weird rock offering from brothers Kim Kix and Atomic Child.  Now a duo, Powersolo has an amorphous sound that resembles power pop, dirt rock, and rockabilly on any given song, often crossing into other genres such as mariachi.

The group's creations are always eccentric and often are raunchy, but this album might be its most straightforward, rock-fueled effort to date.  Stream the entire album at the group's website: www.powersolo.dk

Powersolo: "Pirates of the Oblivion"
Powersolo: \"Pirates of the Oblivion\"

Marissa Nadler: Little Hells (Kemado)

Dreamy songstress Marissa Nadler returns two years after her last release, Songs III: Bird on the Water, with an album that expands her style with indie-rock accompaniment, soft organ, guitar murmurs, and more.

Nadler's heavenly harmonies, however, shine brighter than the pretty, minor-key instrumentation. The featured song below doesn't particularly encapsulate the album, so listen to all of it here: kemado.com/little_hells_ecard

Marissa Nadler: "River of Dirt"
Marissa Nadler: \"River of Dirt\"

Harmonic 313: When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence (Warp)

The first full-length album from Australian producer Mark Pritchard as Harmonic 313, the latest of his aliases, is minimalist electro-dance and drum & bass that's light on the cheesy dance-floor sounds.

Pritchard continues evolving from his last full-length as Harmonic 33 (minus the "1"), the 2005 album Music for Film, Television & Radio, Vol. 1, which focused on electronic lounge creations.  This album definitely isn't for written for IDM beat heads, and though one could imagine a club of dudes getting grimy to it, When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence carries a level of sophistication that average dance discs do not.

His new website has some fun color-coded word problems, and if you beat all five levels, you get a free download of the unreleased track below.

Harmonic 313: "Problem 7"
Harmonic 313: \"Problem 7\"

The Soundtrack of Our Lives: Communion (Yep Roc)

With its first album in nearly four years, this Swedish psych-rock group issues two discs of poppy classic-rock anthems that frontman Ebbot Lundberg thinks are the band's best ever.  The group's psychedelic intros and undertones help it live up to its goal, which is, in Lundberg's words, to create a "musical entrance to another dimension."

Flourishes of harpsicord, zither, flute, organ, and tympani accent the rock lineup of this sextet, making a layered, involved batch of feel-good ballads.  If you enjoy this type of music, you won't be disappointed with Communion.

The Bad Plus: For All I Care (Heads Up International)
With a penchant for reworked rock songs, this hard-hitting jazz trio issues a new album full of covers. Three of the disc's tunes are classical pieces; the rest are rock/pop and include vocals, a first for the group.

Powersolo: Bloodskinbones (Crunchy Frog)
A pair of oddball Danish brothers, dubbing themselves "the Railthin Brothers," create eclectic, off-the-wall rock creations as Powersolo. This full-length follows their recent X-mas single Beam Mig Op, Jesus.

Zu: Carboniferous (Ipecac)
This experimental Italian trio combines sludgy alt-metal with complex rhythms and free-jazz freakouts. If it's possible, Carboniferous presents the group's accessible side for one of the winter's better albums.

March

Kylesa: untitled (Prosthetic)
With a new disc for Prosthetic Records, Georgian stoner-metal squad Kylesa issues its first full-length since Time Will Fuse its Worth from 2006.

Dan Deacon: Bromst (Carpark)
Electro-spazz solo artist emphasizes live instrumentation for this anticipated follow-up.

Jerseyband: untitled (self-released)
It's a downright travesty that this East Coast septet is unsigned. Horns + math metal = 100% awesome.

Spring

Mastodon: Crack the Skye (Warner Bros.)
Even when Mastodon issues a dud, it's better than 95% of all metal albums. Here's hoping that it's a return to the form of Remission.

Summer

Mondo Cane: untitled (Ipecac)
Mike Patton's orchestral Italian pop covers. Enough said.

TBD

Coalesce: untitled (Relapse? Hydra Head?)
This previously defunct hardcore outfit doles out crushing grooves, mathy rhythms, and the trademark tracheal attack of vocalist Sean Ingram. Following the outstanding Salt and Passage 7" from late 2007, the group unveils a proper follow-up to 0:12 Revolution in Just Listening from 1999.

Coliseum: untitled (Relapse)
These Louisville hardcore/metal staples Coliseum continue life as a three-piece with their sophomore effort for Relapse.

Converge and Supermachiner: untitled (Epitaph / Deathwish Inc.)
This isn't a joint release, but they're worth mentioning together as Supermachiner is a semi-ambient side project from Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou.

Crudo: untitled (Ipecac?)
Mike Patton and Dan the Automator, who were the heart of the Lovage album released in 2001, unite as Crudo for what should be one of the better hip-hop efforts of 2009.

Fantômas: untitled (Ipecac)
The brainchild of Mike Patton, Fantômas resurfaces after a four-year hiatus with another unpredictable release. The music could be anywhere between incongruous genre spasms and ambient dirges, but Rock-a-Rolla magazine says that it might be an electronic record.

Garage a Trois: untitled (Telarc)
Beautiful groove rock from vibraphonist/percussionist Mike Dillon, drummer Stanton Moore, saxophonist Skerik, and keyboardist Marco Benevento.

Isis: untitled (Ipecac)
These purveyors of epic, accessible heaviness have gotten progressively more melodic. Whatever this new album sounds like, it should take another step forward while remaining heavy as hell.

Medeski, Martin & Wood: Radiolarians 2 & 3 (Indirecto)
The famed jazz/jam trio continues its experiment of meeting for brief writing sessions, testing out that new material (and only the new material) on the road, recording the material, and then repeating the process.

Secret Chiefs 3: Book of Souls (Mimicry)
The long-awaited follow-up of Book of Horizons from this incomparable Indian/surf/metal ensemble. It has to happen this year…right?

Stoner-metal outfit Witch has announced tour dates starting in late February with Tee Pee Records labelmates Earthless. Head to Tee Pee for the list.

Due to illness, Afrobeat star Femi Kuti has canceled his North American tour that was set to begin on Wednesday, January 7.

In anticipation of Bromst, his new full-length album due on March 24, Dan Deacon has posted "Get Older," one of the album's tracks, on imeem. Deacon also has a split 12" with electronic brethren Adventure coming out on January 27.

Converge and Supermachiner (side project with vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou) each have a new album in store for 2009.

Bannon's new experimental project, Irons, has a split 12" with Pulling Teeth also due in 2009. Bannon's label, Deathwish Inc., has a glut of releases planned for this year.

Chinese-American composer Wu Fei will perform on January 16, 17, and 18 in China to celebrate the recent release of her new album, Yuan, on Tzadik. Details can be found at her website.

Watch the brief trailer for Mastodon's new album, Crack the Skye, at the band's website.

Fifty free pairs of tickets are being given away to Kronos Quartet's performance of Terry Riley's Sun Rings in France on January 16. To request a pair of tickets (by Monday, January 12), e-mail announcements@kronosquartet.org, with the subject line "Paris Sun Rings – MySpace", including your name and e-mail address in the body of your message.

Bassist/guitarist Reed Mathis, a founding member of 15 years, has left Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey to pursue other endeavors. The group has a lineup with two new members that will perform for scheduled shows in January and February.

Founding drummer Pat Pengelly has quit Bedouin Soundclash, making the group, for now, a duo with Jay Malinowski and Eon Sinclair. The group's February tour dates will remain intact.

These Arms are Snakes has announced a month-long US tour, primarily hitting the Midwest and East Coast, that begins in late February.

Madlib has a new disc for his Beat Konducta series — Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6 — that will be released February 10 on Stones Throw.

Danish weirdo rockers Powersolo will release their new album, Bloodskinbones, on February 23.

Via an interview with band manager Peter Mensch, the BBC reports that the instrumental members of Led Zeppelin — Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham (son of John Bonham) — are looking to tour and record a new album without Robert Plant. The article says that it is unknown whether the group will continue under the famous name, but in a separate interview with Mensch on musicradar.com, the manager emphatically states that "Led Zeppelin are over."

Apple is finally doing away with DRM protection (short for digital rights management) on its iTunes music files.

Tonight, punk ensemble World/Inferno Friendship Society will perform a special one-off gig at New York's Webster Hall. The show, a multi-media operetta based on the life of Peter Lorre, is part of the Under The Radar Festival.

The Jesus Lizard

With its first performances since 1999, pummeling mid-tempo rock icons The Jesus Lizard will briefly reunite to play at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Minehead, UK in May of 2009. The group's original lineup will be present and play a short series of additional dates that culminates in Chicago next November.

Idiosyncratic rapper Busdriver performs live with a jazz-crossover band called Kneebody tonight in Los Angeles. Pigeon John also performs and tickets are only $10, so don't miss it!

Instrumental violin-centered trio Dirty Three will perform its beautiful fan-favorite album Ocean Songs at All Tomorrow's Parties in New York in 2009.

Comprised of vocalist J. Bannon (Converge), Dwid Hellion (Integrity), and Stephen Kasner (Blood Fountains), Irons is billed as an artistic, nonlinear expression of melancholy through electronics, guitars, and vocals. The trio has announced the impending release of a split 12" with Pulling Teeth.

Minimalist folk group Phosphorescent has recorded a full-length covers collection of Willie Nelson tunes titled To Willie. The group will tour this winter and spring.

One-man grind project Toxic Holocaust will assemble in band form for January tour dates with 3 Inches of Blood and Early Man. Currently, Toxic Holocaust is touring with GWAR.

Andrew Bird's deluxe edition of Noble Beast, due out on January 20, is available to pre-order through Fat Possum Records. The deluxe edition includes a second disc, Useless Creatures, that includes new instrumental works.

Rhymesayers has posted the video for "The Truth," the single from Jake One's great new album, White Van Music, that features Freeway and Brother Ali.

Beginning today, you can download the Christmas single "Beam Mig Op, Jesus" by Danish rockabilly weirdos Powersolo via iTunes or Clicktrack.

Groove trio Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is playing a New Year's Eve show in Tulsa in which the featured performers play the tunes of Prince, Lionel Richie, and Michael Jackson. Get down.

Ennio Morricone

Legendary film-score composer Ennio Morricone will write music for Inglorious Bastards, Quentin Tarantino's next film. Whether he has enough time to score the whole film remains to be seen.

Undefinable folk/hip-hop crossover artist Tim Fite has posted a video for "Big Mistake," his single from Fair Ain't Fair (Anti-). Watch it here.

Fellow Anti- artist and somber, raspy crooner William Elliot Whitmore now has "Old Devils" posted on the label's website. "Old Devils" is a track from Animals in the Dark, his new album due in February.

In promotion of its five-part series of remix records, electro-grind trio Genghis Tron has posted a track from the third volume. Head to the group's remix-specific MySpace page to hear Danny Lohner (of Nine Inch Nails) remix "Board Up the House."

Gorgeous electro-acoustic duo Lymbyc Systym has announced dates for its first European tour. The dates span two weeks and can be seen at its MySpace page.

Ambient horror soundtrack artists Zombi have released the cover artwork for their upcoming album, Spirit Animals, which will be released on February 3, 2009. The cover art is pretty freakin' awesome.

Multi-talented folk artist and loop specialist Andrew Bird has posted US tour dates for January and February in support of Noble Beast, his upcoming full-length due in winter. For now, fans can listen to "Oh No," the album's first track. Melodic genre masher Dosh opens for Bird at Carnegie Hall.

Blistering metal maniacs Burnt by the Sun have posted the first demo track, "F-Unit," from their long-awaited third full-length. The track, which will be on the group's first album since 2003, can be heard at its MySpace page.

Danish psychobilly/alt-country/surf-influenced trio Powersolo has uploaded "Murder in SFAX" to its MySpace page. The song will be on the group's upcoming album, which will be available in March.

Indie hip-hop label Anticon has announced a 10th anniversary show in New York City. The event will be held at The Knitting Factory and feature Themselves (Doseone, Jel), Yoni Wolf of Why?, Sole, Alias, Buck 65, Odd Nosdam, and more.

In a total no-brainer, GQ has named Nick Cave its "Rock 'n' Roll Badass of the Year."