NoisePop 2008: Cursive

The group Cursive doesn't play indie rock – they reconfigure it, tearing melodies to pieces with sharp cello parts and stitching them back together with swelling guitar riffs. The Omaha-born quartet has spent the better part of eight years crafting a turbulent, orchestral rock that blooms, rumbles, and lurches to multiple pregnant pauses. But lest you peg them for precious artistes, Cursive's lyrics have a depth and directness that steer you straight. As lead singer Tim Kasher warns in their song "Art is Hard," "the art of acting weak" is part of an indie mythos that serves "to boost your CD sales." With their acerbically twisted morality tales and chaotically scored tunes, Cursive have become a cornerstone of rarified pop.

In the normal scheme of things, getting to open for the Cure -- a band Cursive have been favorably compared to more than once -- could arguably be called a career highlight. Acclaim from national magazines for their 2003 album The Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek) wouldn't be too shabby either. But back in 2004, after four albums and relentless touring, the members of Cursive were fried. "It was kind of like, 'maybe this is a good time to stop' because we'd been doing it for so long," remembers bassist Matt Maginn. "Ugly Organ's success was a surprise
for us. We had to get our heads clear." more

NoisePop 2008: Judgement Day

Judgement Day has arrived, and it sounds like ... stringmetal. For the uninitiated, stringmetal happens when you get a classically trained violinist (Aaron Patzner) who has worked with the likes of Bright Eyes, The Faint, and Audrye Sessions together with his classically trained cellist brother (Lewis Patzner), both of whom love deep, dark metal. After being forged in the heat of busking sessions on the streets of Berkeley, the band became a trio with the addition of drummer Jon Bush. Kings of arpeggiated madness, Judgement Day will soon be sawing away at a club near
you. more

NoisePop 2008: Darker My Love

Hailing from LA, Darker My Love is the sound of a fuzzed-out psych-rock dream seen through black sunglasses. With distorted guitars and echo-y, disaffected lyrics, the band generates layers of static and dissonant fog that envelope the steeliest of non-believers. For all their laidback behavior, however, they're an entertaining bunch who -- if you believe their Darker My Dudes blog -- enjoy driving convertibles into chain pasta restaurants and opening up for the Jesus and Mary Chain. Automotive mishaps aside, Darker My Love brings a rock that is sometimes shadowy and gritty, keeping them a tremolo bar above the rest. more

NoisePop 2008: The Blacks

In the grand tradition of rock trios like Concrete Blonde and, more recently, the sexily angry Husbands, the Blacks have set up in your garage and they're gonna keep you up all night. Mixing reverb-drenched guitar, accusatory vocals, and big waves of tambourine, this sometimes local, sometimes New York-based ensemble brings their petulant shoegaze punk -- as heard on the recently released Tricycle Records album Nom de Guerre -- to a venue near you.more

Super Furry Animals

Furries, for real: Venus! lays Gruff Rhys and company bare

Super Furry Animals are a mischievous lot. Having marked the universe with their tech-pop grandeur for 15 years, they must now keep the world wondering where their music will pop up next and in what form. For their new album, Hey Venus! (Rough Trade), the Welsh quintet maintain their love of vast, Donald Fagen–esque noodling but have stripped down into a craftily introspective niche. In keeping with their new sound, they have a secret weapon in the studio, and it isn't bleeding-edge sonic wizardry or Timbaland at the desk. It's a dulcimer — a hammer dulcimer, to be exact, and it's wielded on some songs with as much aplomb as any siren, blip, or squawk that's graced any of their previous seven full-lengths. What gives? "For some reason, [the album] has a 'band playing in a room' kind of mood," lead vocalist Gruff Rhys offers simply, speaking on the phone from Cardiff, Wales, in early January. "Nobody brought any samplers to the recording sessions."

Super Furry Animals emerged from the Welsh capital city amid a wave of other acts, effectively marking a movement that included bands like Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and Catatonia. The core members of the group had originally come together as a techno outfit — a background that set them apart from their contemporaries. The group's first album, Fuzzy Logic (Creation, 1996), saw the combo establish its mastery of cheekily strident pop tunes. Its next release, Radiator (Flydaddy, 1997), upped the ante with an inventive melodic complexity that the Furries had obviously already mastered.

The band made its mark by continuing to issue fearless, originally crafted indie rock that stemmed at least in part from Rhys's schizoid musical background: he was in a jangle-pop band called Emily before moving on to noise ensemble Ffa Coffi Pawb. The Furries' next release, Guerilla (Flydaddy, 1999), is a densely layered technorock symphony that ranges between the cheeky blips of songs like "Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home)" and the introspective balladeering of tracks like "Fire in My Heart." Each disc since has been notable for a particular reason, whether it's an all-Welsh double album (2000's Mwng [Placid Casual]), a special DVD with a video crafted for each song (2001's Rings around the World [Sony]), or the quirky explorations into spaced-out country rock and überharmonic ruminating on recent albums Phantom Power (XL, 2003) and Love Kraft (XL/Beggars, 2005). Hey Venus!, Rhys explains, is partially based on the mellow mood he described earlier in our conversation. "In the past I wrote all the lyrics, and then the last two years [the band has become] more confident and has started to bring complete songs to the soup." He pauses, then confirms, "I suppose this was a songwriting kind of record."more