Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer (Sub Pop, 2008)

In the three years since Wolf Parade released their debut album, the excellent Apologies To The Queen Mary, the members of the band have splintered into numerous side-projects, which, given their quality, almost threatened to over-shadow the achievements of the original group. In fact, with the success of singer/keyboardist, Spencer Krug's Sunset Rubdown, and singer/guitarist, Dan Boeckner's Handome Furs, some began to think that perhaps Wolf Parade had become the side-project.
Such concerns were put to rest, however, when the band retreated in 2007 to the Arcade Fire's studio-within-a-church, to record their second album, At Mount Zoomer (named for the sound studio owned by Wolf Parader, Arlen Thompson).
On their new album Wolf Parade continue the sonically adventurous journey they began on Apologies To The Queen Mary, with nine tracks that twist-and-shake between the upbeat keyboard driven pop of Soldiers Grin to the more pensive Call It A Ritual and the psychedelic freak-out of California Dreamer.
As with their first album, the lyrical content of At Mount Zoomer is delivered with a heavy dose of the cryptic. If you are looking for a straight up boy-meets-girl/boy-loses-girl/boy-has-a-heavy-heart song; you are unlikely to find it on this album.
While a good deal of modern music is bland to the point of despair, Wolf Parade paint their music (and their album artwork) with a wash of vibrant and exciting colors. Here at In(High)Fidelity, Wolf Parade hold a special place in our heart - you should buy their album.

Key Tracks: Soldiers Grin, California Dreamer, Fine Young Cannibals, Kissing The Beehive.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/wolfparade

The Dodos - Visiter (Frenchkiss Records, 2008)

There is a great scene in one of The Simpsons' Halloween specials, in which Mr. Burns is secrectly Count Dracula. When Lisa tries to tell Homer that Burns is a vampire, Homer laughingly retorts: "Oh Lisa, Vampires don't exist. They're make believe... just like elves and eskimos." That line always makes me laugh.
Sadly, the Dodo bird no longer exists. According to my research, the dodo bird was a flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius and has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th Century. There is nothing funny about animals becoming extinct.
Somehow, in my mind, this all ties into the fact that the Dodos, a very cool two-piece band from the San Francisco area are not only existing, but thriving in a time when each week seems to bring new reports of the extinction of the music industry as a whole.
The truth of the matter is, people have always, and will always, need to hear and play music. It is a part of who we are: even when we are sleeping, our hearts are still keeping time. More importantly, as long as group's such as the Dodos continue to consturct albums as enjoyable as Visiter, music will remain a vital component of our culture.
Visiter, for the most part is a mellow, folky affair. Intricate compositions - ruminations on love, loss and life in general - disguised as simple pop songs, in the way that all great pop songs have been since the earliest days of the Brill Building writers.
Using the simplest of tools - a guitar, some very impressive drumming, a litte bit of banjo - the Dodos have created an excellent album that will no doubt fly under the radar of the general public (as all great art seems to), however, flying at all is a pretty impressive feat for a flightless bird.

Key Tracks: walking, ashley, undeclared, god?

Check Out: http://www.myspace.com/thedodos

Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing (ATP Recordings, 2008)

Firstly, members of my family have been known to read this blog, so I would like to apologize in advance for the use of profanity in this piece. However, there is really no way around it when you're writing about a band called Fuck Buttons.
In my opinion, if you decide to call your band Fuck Buttons - an obviously provacative moniker - your music should be loud, weird and obnoxious. If the newly reformed New Kids On The Block changed their name to The Shit Eaters and were still spewing out tracks like Hanging Tough and The Right Stuff, it just wouldn't be right (Editors Note: NKOTB's music does eat shit, so it may be right). Luckily, Fuck Buttons' music is loud, weird and obnoxious (in the best possible way).
My trusted friend, Mr. Martin, turned me on to Fuck Buttons a few weeks ago, and I have been listening to them solidly ever since. As he told me, they are all "weirdo atmospherics and screamo vocals", the music is dense, often dark, and utterly compelling.
Building tracks such as Sweet Love For Planet Earth, and the amazing Race You To My Bedroom/Spirit Rise, with a mulititude of electronic textures, tribal-like drumming, and vocals that sound like they have been recorded in a cement mixer, Fuck Buttons create walls of sound that must be listened to at high volume (tinnitus be damned!).
If Sigur Ros are the house band in heaven, then Fuck Buttons are keeping the masses dancing down in hell.

Key Tracks: Sweet Love For Planet Earth, Okay Let's Talk About Music, Race You To My Bedroom/Spirit Rise.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons