TALKDEMONIC
In Portland, Oregon, Kevin O'Connor began his pursuit in 2004 for new frontiers in percussion and analog sounds. What was he looking for? Something entirely new in something old. And so he began collecting. Dusty Italian Crumar synths and pristine Moogs, rickety Baldwins and warbly Wurlitzers, pure-sounding Rhodes and cranky old Korgs. Sounds upon floating, gritty and gorgeous sounds, with a muscular backbone of beats alongside a brainy live drumkit. Talkdemonic was born. While Kevin was beating out a new path in the already innovative music community of Portland, his friend and violist Lisa Molinaro joined him shortly thereafter to lend her string skills to further texturize Talkdemonic's alluring sounds. The duo became unstoppable.
Fast forward seven years. Talkdemonic's 2004 Mutiny Sunshine is now considering a downtempo classic amongst fans, while their sophomore Beat Romantic thrust them into indie spotlight. In 2008, Kevin and Lisa released Eyes At Half Mast, a union of haunting strings passages, toungue and groove beats and drums, and lush nostalgic synth layers that call to mind your personal soundtrack to some inner, secret and special moment of your life.
Ruins is the fourth Talkdemonic studio album, and it effectively takes everything about the first three Talkdemonic records and blasts it into the stratosphere. It's as though you've watched this band mature throughout the arc of their discography, with Ruins being the sophisticated culmination of a near-decade spent honing their craft. This newfound sense of maturity however, never translates to apathy. It's more like a refined, renewed sense of space and crescendo. Achieving this sort of balance is no small feat for a largely self-recorded instrumental band. It would be difficult not to fill the vocalist void with melodic clutter, but Ruins never seems overstuffed. It ebbs and flows with the touch of an ace producer.
TWO SHEDS
ailing from the Sacramento area, Two Sheds formed in 2003 when John Gutenberger (bass,vocals), Rusty Miller (drums) and Cailtin Gutenberger (guitar,vocals) began playing together for fun. In 2004, Cailtin triedher hand at writing a song at John’s encouragement, and has yet to stop. Their collaboration made them realize their overwhelming natural musical chemistry, and with the addition of James Finch, Jr. (guitar), Two Sheds went on to record 2006’s Strange Ammunition on UnderAcloud Records.
Their live shows, which John Gutenberger says are different than the recordings, as they tend to go electric most of the time on tour, has led to band to share the stage with artists such as Victoria Wiliams, the Chapin Sisters, the Duke Spirit, Scout Niblett, Akron Family and Be Your Own Pet. After several talked about performances at SXSW last year (including a performance at Filter Magazine’s “Showdown at Cedar Street”), the band is touring behind their self-titled EP on Filter U.S. Recordings. The digital-only EP conjures similarities to a vast array of artists -- from Mazzy Star to Lucinda Williams, Neil Young to Nirvana. Bassist/vocalist John Gutenberger revealed the recording process of standout track “To Be Alive.”
“I recorded it at home into Garage Band through one of those Blue USB microphones, then ran it through my home stereo and re-recorded the sound of it coming out of the speakers,” says John. “I threw in the sounds of my porch wind chimes and my cat eating cat food – and it turned out pretty neat. I feel like it’s the closet I’ve come to making a song sound the way I hear it in my head.”
FINE STEPS
It's a heavy bummer that Sacramento's seminal heroes Mayyors are no more. There's less noise coming from basements, living rooms and backyards these days. Ex-drummer and math teacher to teenagers, Julian Elorduy writes'em in the directional opposite of the Mayyors' grit. His Fine Steps project is jangly and sweet, thanks to a little help from Alex Soles and Kyle Hoover of Ganglians. On "Tomorrow For All Of Today" Elorduy sings with a preppy deadpan affectation, while the Ganglian dudes pull the sonic terrain towards surfer tones that let the sunshine in through the classroom windows.
With Ganglians on tour Fine Steps is on a bit of a hiatus, but hopefully this is a fine introduction into another great Sacramento band. As of today, a Fine Steps record is being self-released on vinyl, but here's hoping as word gets out that a label snags the masters for a proper release.