New music from Joan Shelley, Kid Cornered and more.

SERvin’ Up – w/c May 15, 2017

Will Stratton – Rosewood Almanac
Perfume Genius – No Shape
Joan Shelley – Joan Shelley
Salami Rose Joe Louis – Zlaty Sauce Nephew
Evan Dando – Baby I’m Bored
Penguin Café – The Imperfect Sea
John Rooney – Still Here
Kid Cornered & The Ice Chest Orchestra – Loopholes
Don Bryant – A Nickel and A Nail
She’s The Driver – The Gone Club
—

Hello,

Kid Cornered has been the alias for one-time Sydney resident Matt Toohey, and he’s also done time in some fine guitar groups of our city’s indie scene including El Mopa and The Woods Themselves. Now based in the Blue Mountains, his solo work crops up all too irregularly but Kid Cornered has quietly returned along with the Ice Chest Orchestra for a new album, Loopholes. With a strong suspicion the Ice Chest Orchestra is essentially Toohey playing all the parts of the multi-layered Loopholes, his songs are gloriously reverb-soaked warm pop, full of intricately melodic wall-of-sound guitars that blissfully head skyward with a magical vibe in their air. Think Dappled Cities meets Flaming Lips as rendered by a one-man band and you’re in the pocket of Toohey’s scope for this fine record.

Artist name and album title of the week, if not the year, surely has to go to Salami Rose Joe Louis and her newie, Zlaty Sauce Nephew. Before you back off, consider that the 32 tracks you’ll find on Los Angeles native Lindsay Collins’ second release aren’t as warped as you may be thinking, rather her slow-rolling lo-fi electronic soul pop is quietly lovely with just a little twist in the tail in that same hazy way Ariel Pink has mastered. There’s a sweet intimacy to Collins’ velvet voice that glides through it all, even if it sounds as though Collins recorded this over her parents’ wedding video. This is one name you really need to try and remember!

Despite a familiar, enduring sound surrounding old-timey country and vintage folk, there’s something about Kentucky’s Joan Shelley that sits apart from the typical Nashville sound that often comes up all too commodified these days, frustrating with its lack of heart. Her songs maintain a perfect poise but always leave enough between the lines to keep creeping up on you anew with each listen. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy produces her fifth album, delivering a typically understated touch as well as his subtly crafty son Spencer on drums. Shelley is deeply personal here, but you will know every character she draws out on this album with disarming detail. Such is her universality.

Also, new songs from Grizzly Bear, Shabazz Palaces, Wade Jackson, The National, Sunscreen, Pheno, LCD Soundsystem and The Stevens.

Enjoy it all on 2SER,

Andrew