Band Round-Up, Part Three – January 2, 2010

The Ropes, Jen Gloeckner, Chop Chop, Steve Middleton, Why I Hope, Mobile Wash Unit, and Build.

Final installment, three of three, of my band round-ups for 2009 (right, it’s not ’09 anymore; never mind that). Come back for much more in 2010. Nice moody, angsty stuff from The Ropes (NYC), soulful singing with strings from Jen Gloeckner, new wave/pop of Chop Chop, and early introspective demos from UK singer-songwriter Steve Middleton. Then there’s the alt-country of Why I Hope (and their evil twin Why I Hate, but since it’s a new year, I’ll focus on the former). Mobile Wash Unit is the creative project of a philosophy professor, named after New York City subway cleaners. The music’s pretty interesting too. And Build are a hybrid classical indie rock ensemble melding many different influences for a very cool and sophisticated sound.

The Ropes | Jen Gloeckner | Chop Chop | Steve Middleton | Why I Hope | Mobile Wash Unit | Build

The Ropes

Photo by Andi Krop

As The Ropes, Sharon Shy (vocals, bass) and “Toppy” (guitars, drums, sounds) spin a pretty musical web for her to crawl around with. She varies her vocals from low and seasoned to high and innocent – sometimes in the same song. She switches to her little girl vocals to sing such lines as “you can all go f*ck yourselves, you can all go burn in hell, ’cause anything you need at all, I’ll help you out” (“I Don’t Like To Get Dirty”) and “I really thought about killing you, I really thought about it.” (“Water and Headphones”) and “Why do you keep her around? Kill her, kill her, kill her, kill her, kill her off.” (“Kill Her Off”).

They have some shows scheduled for the new year: Jan. 27 in Providence, Jan. 30 at The Space (all ages) in Hamden, CT, Feb. 10 at Santos Party House in NYC, and June 5 at Gallery13 Event Center in Columbus, GA. Their latest EP, Love Is a Chain Store, was released December 15, and all their albums are available as free downloads!

Another great line: “And though I haven’t seen the world, I haven’t seen the world, but there’s a lot you can learn in a room.” Awesome. Or maybe it’s just me?

Jen Gloeckner

An interesting multi-layered sound – dark, dense and mysterious. Jen Gloeckner (from Iowa) has an amazing voice, powerful and soulful. “A Lullaby” is a stirring mix of lush instrumentation and singing mixed with spoken word. Mournful and melancholy strings. Nice dreamy vocals in “Come In My Garden”. Her second album, Mouth Of Mars was released December 9 on Spinning Head Records (Miles Away was released in Europe through One Little Indian Records UK in 2005). In 2006, she contributed vocals for a song on an album by the late French musician and record producer, Hector Zazou. American artist Joseph Arthur appears on two tracks on the new album: “Die” and “Sleep to Dream.” It was mixed at Brian McTear’s Miner Street Recordings studio in Philadelphia, and he introduced Jen to Espers cellist Helena Espvall (Vashti Bunyan, Bert Jansch, Espers), who plays on several songs, and also to Canadian electric violinist Joel Zifkin (Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Emmylou Harris, Townes Van Zandt, Elvis Costello, etc.), who also contributed to several tracks.

Chop Chop

Chop Chop, based in Cambridge MA and Los Angeles, is “Christy and Catherine and a bunch of dudes”. Pretty, floating vocals; dreamy soft guitar strumming and keyboard-based indie pop. Some ’80s new wave influence in there as well (i.e. “C Train David”). They have a self-titled album out on Archenemy Records, and also one called Screens, both of which you can order through their official site (where you can also keep up with what they’re doing).

Steve Middleton

Steve Middleton is a singer-songwriter from the UK. Nice acoustic guitar and vocals. He put some raw versions of songs up on his MySpace, recorded in his bedroom. This was back in April; not sure what’s happened since then, but it sounds like he’s off to a good start.

Why I Hope

Based in California, these guys (“Brandon, Chris, Nick, The Pete, Brett, Tony, Tom, and whoever else shows up to either the porch, or a show…”) are actually two bands – Why I Hate and Why I Hope. Why I Hope has influences ranging from Billy Bragg and Woodie Guthrie to Joe Strummer. They’re sorta alt country, with kinda shouted lyrics. Both bands are currently mixing new albums, scheduled to be released as a double album (one from each group) in February, after which they’ll be touring with a band called Worn In Red.

Mobile Wash Unit

Mobile Wash Unit (based in Brooklyn, NY) is Andy Snyder – a former Chicago Divinity School student and now philosophy professor at the City University of New York – on guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals. He’s joined at times by Clay Andrews and Sim Cain on drums, Rachel Kolster on bass/violin, and Todd Carter on guitar and keyboards. Interesting stuff, bits of synth-pop and psychedelia; the vocals floating and dreamlike, sometimes like a transmission from outer space. He cites Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith, Syd Barrett, and Big Star as influences. As for the name, it’s in honor of the people who clean the NYC subways (inspired by the passing of their trucks outside his house during practice sessions).

Build

Indie rock chamber music

These guys are great, and living proof that there need not be any clear defining lines between musical genres. There’s a classical minimalist thing going on; there’s also elements of jazz, chamber music, and on “Magnet”, they’re a cool artsy indie rock instrumental band with strings (actually, they’re quite a few different things at once on this particular track). Build, based in Brooklyn, NY, features Matt McBane: violin/compositions, Andrea Lee: cello, Mike Cassedy: piano/keyboard, Ben Campbell: bass, and Adam Gold: drums.

They released their debut on New Amsterdam Records in 2008 (which was re-released in October 2009 by Naxos, giving them wider distribution). They’re frequently played on NPR, and have a performance scheduled for Galapagos in Brooklyn on March 19, as part of New Amsterdam Records’ Archipelago concert series. This concert will also feature Matt Marks’ Little Death record release.