Weekend Songs: Gosh Pith, Viet Cong, The Dodos

Songs I can't get out of my head for this weekend, January 16th

Gosh Pith - "Window"
Gosh Pith's latest starts out soft, slow and small... till the clanging percussion claps in and the echo-blurred vocals crackle onto the soundscape in that characteristic whisper-croon that these two young groove-pop prodigies have been perfecting over their first year & a half of existence. Sequenced beats and dreamy synths have been a calling card for them, but on this track, along with that charming bouncing ball rhythmic hook after the second chorus, they allow some other elements, namely that syrupy-static fuzzed guitar, to shine...


Gosh Pith perform Friday, Jan 16 at Arbor Vitae (336 1/2  S. State Street) @ 9PM
with Man Vs. Indian Man, Little Animal and Jonah Baseball. Info: http://on.fb.me/1CfDt3s

Viet Cong - "Bunker Buster"
The gaunt guitars are so caustic and terse they all but take the wind out of you, a droning feedback fills any open spaces between verses while the vocals, delivered with half a sneer and half a howl, find that supernatural sweet-spot between post-punk yowling and new-wave crooning. The musical bedrock of the song, though, has an uncannily enticing pallor to it, with all it's keys bent towards an atonal minor murk... For those lovers of ol' timey Gang Of Four and the darker shit from Liars and Interpol...this is the band you've been...oh you know how the cliche goes.... waiting for...


Viet Cong are starting a UK tour, soon. More info on their self-titled debut here: http://n.pr/1DAplWD

The Dodos - "Competition"
This indie-rock duo dropped this single at the end of 2014, but it bares re-spinning (in case you missed it). The wailing whip of the guitars around the corners of the verse and through the bridge, the hyper-fast percussion kicking along under the word-packed vocals (harmonized nicely, per their signature singing approach), with an ebullient vocal melody waving its way through the chorus. Put the headphones on and listen to just how much janglin' is going on in those furiously strummed acoustic guitars...


The Dodos will come to Ann Arbor, MI in March
Playing The Blind Pig on March 5 with Springtime Carnivore

Speaking of Springtime Carnivore...that's another one of my favorite late-2014 finds...
Try and get this whistled melody out of your head... The soft strings bending through the verses over those strutting drums, jaunty pianos and just enough reverb reared over the soft vocals... Makes January feel like early September...