Hey folks. My name's Kyle, and I'm the music director over at KUCI. When I was contacted to help write for this fine website, one of things they wanted from me was for me to publish the weekly music blurbs I write for all the new releases I add to the KUCI library. So here, for your reading pleasure, are the new releases for 2/27/07. Enjoy.

Word up, folks.

So, before I start with this week’s edition of “CDs that I am adding to
the KUCI library because I think they're really good and/or I think the DJs
will want to play 'em”, I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce
myself. I know that these things are going up around the internet tubes
now, and I figure people should get a little glimpse into who I am,
thereby putting a human face on these ramblings. My name is Kyle. I enjoy
things that are funny, hugs, and books, and I have never punched my mom
(and can’t foresee a situation where I would, except one where maybe she
gets poisoned by some weird toxin, and only a punch in the face by your
firstborn son will save you). So, now that the rumors that I’m a grumpy,
illiterate mom-puncher who hates hugs are put to rest, allow us to get
into “the blurbs”.

1. !!! – Myth Takes (Warp)
You hear that? That’s the sound of a million asses shaking their asses
off. That’s right. The asses of asses. Can you wrap your brain around
that? It’s OK if not. It’s like when you ride a merry-go-round on your
back and look up into the cloudless sky and get really dizzy and freaked
out and think you’re going to fall INTO the sky forever. That was a little
glimpse into the life of 3rd grade Kyle. At any rate, !!! (pronounced
chik-chik-chik, or any series of repetitive onomatopoeia), are back with
another round of funky dancefloor disco-punk numbers to inappropriately
grind up on people to. Like a mixture of Can, LCD Soundsystem, and
Parliament, !!! are going to make you sweat, girl. And guy. !!! aren’t
sexist. They’re sex-Y. There is a big difference. One gets you punched.
The other gets you crazy makeouts.

2. The Capstan Shafts – Her Versus the Sad Cold Eventually (Asaurus)
The first time one of this guy’s CDs showed up in my office, it was a
CD-R, wrapped in Xeroxed paper that had the tracklisting. The little punk
inside of me was stoked that someone was doing some straight up DIY
guerrilla radio marketing, so I popped it in. At that point, my inner tiny
punk pissed off and my outer pop-geek did such a crazy dance that it
scared a baby. This guy writes short attention span pop-bombs in the same
vein as Guided By Voices and Half-Handed Cloud. Who the hell needs a three
minute song when you have an album full of minute-and-a-half,
catchy-as-SARS, FANTASTIC choruses? Now, Dean Wells (the man behind the
Capstan Shafts) sent me another Xeroxed, cd-r’d CD, and I’m thrilled to
add it to the library.

3. Black Lips – Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo (Vice)
So, Vice signs these dudes, and wants to think of an appropriate way to
kick off their rock-n-roll spotlight. Could there really be any other way
to do this than to have a huge, balls-out rock-n-roll show in Tiajuana with
a bunch of hookers, blow, and a donkey painted like a zebra? This album is
a live documentation of that concert. Black Lips hoarsely tear through
twelve old school tunes of Guitar Wolf meets King Kahn & BBQ garage rock
abandon on this slighty-south-of-the-border live album. You like rock and
roll swagger? These dudes are so swaggery, that I just had to invent the
word “swaggery”, which looks really weird.

4. The Eternals – Heavy International (Aesthetics)
So, what do you expect a band that has toured with Fugazi, Mars Volta,
Hood, Stereolab, Tortoise, Konono No1, and Anti Pop Consortium to sound
like? No, seriously, dudes. What the fuck am I supposed to compare this
to? It’s groovy world-electro-rock? Sort of? Really dubby at points. Just
smear all of those bands I mentioned earlier into some weird Pollack
painting and you got these guys, I guess. Laid back, tropical
experi-dub-hop-electro-sampler-rock.

5. The Blank Tapes – Landfair (Self-relesed)
These dudes are local, folks. Costa Mesa, in fact. They COULD be my
neighbors, except my neighbors are drunken, reggae-loving frat boys on one
side and bitchy girls with tans so deep they look homeless on the other.
But, theoretically. They COULD be. The Blank Tapes lay down some pleasant,
indie-radio-friendly pop jams. I’m not going to go on record as saying
that these dudes are going to blow your mind by re-inventing the pop
wheel. But I WILL say that they make fun Kinks-loving pop tunes you can
chill to. I will also say the word “frumpy”, because that’s basically just
a fun word to say.

6. The Subjects – With the Ease Grace Precision and Cleverness of Human
Beings (Pretty Activity)
Way to not have proper comma use, The Subjects. Also, is the fact that the
band is made up of two high school teachers, and two of their students
creepy? I can’t imagine starting a band with any of my high school
teachers. Except maybe my stroked-out Health class teacher who doubled as
a football coach. Imagine if you will, a stroke victim who coaches high
school football drawing erect penises on a chalkboard. Now imagine that as
a band. Tell me I’m not a genius. At any rate, the Subjects probably
aren’t stroke victims. What they ARE is a band of folks making
easy-to-digest pseudo-prog. These aren’t Dream Theater noodle-fests or Don
Caballero drum-offs. This is indie rock which doesn’t stick with straight
convention and has, deep down, a penchant for arenas.

7. Small Leaks Sink Ships – Until the World is Happy; Wake up You
Sleepyhead Sun (No Sleep)
What the hell? Did they have a sale on ridiculously long album names this
week? ZING!!! The little sticker the promo company slapped on this album
compared it to Minus the Bear and the Mars Volta. So, I throw it into my
trusty little boombox to give it a shot, and I’m greeted with the chiming,
arpeggio-ing guitar notes that sound like Minus the Bear. OK. So the promo
company aren’t total liars. OK. Where does the Mars Volta come in. I mean,
these songs sound like they have a point (oooooooooh. Burn.) Then the dude
starts singing, and I’m like “There we go.” So, imagine indie-prog with
the spazzy vox of Cedix Bixler-Zavala and you got this band. Easy as tasty
cake.

8. The One AM Radio – This Too Will Pass (Dangerbird)
My first experience with this band came with seeing him open for Phil
Elverum/Microphones/Mount Eerie at the very amazing Che Café down in San
Diego. My SECOND experience with the One AM Radio (Hrishikesh Hirway to
his mom) was when he popped up on the Daedelus album “Exquisite Corpse”.
And my third was my ex-gf playing me his split with Ted Leo. So, this guy
rolls with experi-forest-pop folks, tweeky jazz-electro-hop dudes, and
dapper indie-rock gents. His solo stuff is WAY closer to the first one
than the second (and has a dash of the third). Singer-songwriter stuff
with a solid palette of sounds by a guy who could possibly be lumped in
with stuff like Pinback, Owen, Appleseed Cast, etc. Except it’s not as
eeeeeeeeemo as some of those (extra Es for extra dEpression). I seriously
just spent ten minutes looking for a synonym for sadness that began with
E, but none exist. My joke. It fails. John of Monday's "Minus Numbers" radio show just said “elegiac” is a word for sadness. There we go.

Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m gonna go home, get into my pajamas, and make
sure my bathroom has a fresh Febreeze air freshener in it before people
come over for the KUCI management meeting tonight.

NINJA VANISH!!,
Kyle