CD reviews

Desolation Wilderness
White Light Strobing (K)
*8.4*

Goes well with: The Durutti Column, Galaxie 500, falling in love (really)

In his Olympia days, a young Kurt Cobain tattooed the K Records logo on his arm as a reminder to maintain innocence even in the corrupt face of adulthood. Best known for DIY ethics and the sensitive, naïve musings of Beat Happening and The Microphones, the K tradition continues with Desolation Wilderness, and their immersive debut album would almost certainly be a Cobain favorite.

For being released by a label consistently associated with amateurism, White Light Strobing bears maturity and scope far beyond its creator’s 22 years. Nicholas Zwart began the project in 2005, and after writing a wealth of material on guitar, he recruited several Olympia-area musicians to assist its recording at his grandparents’ Australian beach house.

Appropriately, it sounds like a summer album created by a lonely kid with a vivid imagination, someone who stayed inside daydreaming rather than soaking up the sun.

Zwart is first and foremost a romantic, and while lines like “You and I will live forever tonight” would sound like awkward diary excerpts in lesser hands, they’re well-measured here. Much like Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox, Zwart is nostalgic for a perfect adolescence that never actually occurred, but rather than becoming a conduit for discontent, he conjures wild, lovelorn fantasies for the young at heart.

Kurt would’ve been proud.
—Todd Kroviak

Angus and Julia Stone
A Book Like This (Nettwerk)
*7.5*

Goes well with: Mazzy Star, Belle & Sebastian,
frolicking

The Stones are finally coming stateside. The Sydney, Australia, folk duo originally released A Book Like This in 2007, and it will make its U.S. debut early next year. Nettwerk, their U.S. label, recently released the siblings’ Hollywood and Just a Boy EPs and will give ABLT its proper due before spring.

ABLT and the EPs are nice. Not much more, and nothing less. No crazy innovation or mad-genius lyrics, but ABLT is crammed full of lazy-day winners, and the EPs are punctuated by convincing non-album tracks. ABLT and its accompanying parts form a nice foundation on which to build.

But Julia Stone is already a star. Her voice is equal parts Joanna Newsom, Hope Sandoval and Bjork rolled into the body of a Rivendell chanteuse, and she plays the trumpet every bit as well as she sings and plays the piano, guitar and bass. She makes her brother’s songs far cooler just by being a part of them and owns every single second of her leads. She also seems a tiny bit crazy, which just ups the ante.

She recently bewitched every single person in the room at their show at UCSD’s The Loft—the band’s first-ever U.S. performance. They’ll be back in town at the end of March. See them, but make sure to practice a few counter-spells first.
—Scott McDonald

Tom Gabel
Heart Burns (Sire)
7.6

Goes well with: anger and organization

Tom Gabel, the mouthpiece for folk-punk combo Against Me!, goes it alone for the first time on this seven-song EP. Although the instrumentation isn’t quite as tight or punctuated as when he’s playing with the band, Gabel’s undeniable fire still wallops mightily with each politically charged verse.
Opener “Random Hearts” plays like a standard Against Me! track, only more stringent and less memorable. However, he finds redemption on the acoustic number “Harsh Realms,” which shows the singer at his most visceral, his penetrating punk-rock vocals striking deep with lyrics tailored for the under-appreciated. “Amputations,” the highlight of the set, is a rollicking number that falls somewhere between Tom Petty and Billy Bragg, and the gang vocals on “What Kind of Future Are You Promising Us” serve as a poignant backdrop during a time when our country is shifting administrations and, hopefully, heading down a less-turbulent path.
Joined by the equally fiery Chuck Ragan, of Hot Water Music fame, on “Ana is a Stool Pigeon,” Ragan’s backing vocals and infectious harmonica licks fit nicely against Gabel’s narrative lyrics about a young revolutionary foiled by the false love of an FBI informant.
Against Me! undoubtedly remains Gabel’s first option, but this short foray into solo territory still leaves the mouth watering for more.
—Paul Saitowitz