Weekly Listening Roundup #5

Alright, I'm going to have to expedite this week's listening roundup, for a few reasons. Work was a little busier than I expected today, I've been distracted trying to score free t-shirts from Threadless (via their Twitter contest, which I succeeded at), and it's Friday and I want to get on to the weekend.. So, I'm going to try to post this as quickly as possible. Here goes.

Veni Vidi Vicious - The Hives (Burning Heart/Epitaph, 2000)

The Hives were all the rage when Sire re-released Veni Vidi Vicious back in 2002. "Hate to Say I Told You So" was a huge song, and also a very good indication of what the entire album sounds like. They were tagged as a nu-garage rock band, but really they played raw 70s punk rock more than anything, while singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist portrayed an incredibly arrogant Mick Jagger. Entertaining, and actually pretty good.

Top jams: "The Hives - Declare Guerre Nucleaire," "Hate to Say I Told You So," "Statecontrol," "Knock Knock," "Supply and Demand"

Tyranosaurus Hives - The Hives (Interscope, 2004)

Tyranosaurus Hives is the cleaner, long-awaited follow-up to Veni Vidi Vicious. It is just as raw in the sense of emotion and pissed off-ness, but it definitely sounds like it was released by a major label. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, however, because their is more diversity in the way the songs sound (both technically and stylistically). I consider this a major plus. It is still really fast and bad ass, but it is not as straight ahead punk. There are some Rolling Stones and Stooges references throughout, and "Dead Quote Olympics" sounds like early Clash.

Top jams: "Walk Idiot Walk," "No Pun Intended," "A Little More for Little You," "See Through Head," "Love in Plaster," "Dead Quote Olympics"

North to the Future - Joe Christmas (Tooth & Nail, 1996)

This one is sort of embarrassing. Joe Christmas was an underground Christian indie rock band I used to listen to back in middle school and high school. They were on Tooth & Nail Records, which back in the late '90s actually put out some really great records, but in the 21st century have come to offend my taste, hearing and probably my faith a little bit. Anyway, North to the Future was Joe Christmas' second and final full length, and overall it has a really sloppy and lazy indie pop feel; sort of a cross between Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Sebadoh maybe? It has a surprising amount of highlights.

Top jams: "I'll Bet You Do," "Dreaming for the Gold," "Haunted Mystery," "A Pretty Girl Never Lights Her Own Cigarette," "East Coast Angle"

Okay Sweetheart - Kiddo (Microindie, 2007)

I'm not sure if Kiddo is still actually an entity in the Detroit music scene, but these lovebirds are most definitely still productive. Singer and guitarist Christian Doble plays in the artsy, spazzy punk act Child Bite as well as '90s indie rock odesmyths Copper Thieves. and bassist Lizzie Whitman plays in Friendly Foes with Ryan Allen (of Thunderbirds Are Now!). On Okay Sweetheart, Kiddo play good, jangly pop punk with some Neutral Milk Hotel-esque melodies thrown in at times. Sometimes they sound way too cute, but even those moments are hard not to like.
Top jams: "This Could Take Forever," "Otherguys," "Sunday," "Rocketship"