Up From the Underground : the Mona Lisa Twins

 I was pretty shocked after hearing the guitar playing on their album "When We're Together" that these two cute Austrian girls are only 19.  Their album starts up with  the title track,  a straight forward  almost rockabilly number with unison harmonies. The guitar work is more intricate than the radio pop of the sixties that the girls wink towards.  The  crisp production  avoids being apologetic about the playing as garage rock.  The addition of  harmonica on "Won't You Listen Now"brings a more folk warmth.

Like Simon and Garfunkel , as their strength is their songwriting , which is nuanced by the great guitar playing on this album that captures the feel on the time period recreated . Early Beatles rides the boogie of "This Boy is Mine"  in the vein of  "Can't Buy Me Love" the guitar phrasing even pays homage to Harrison's playing in this era.  This is also the first song where they do not sing in unison through out and use their harmonies only as accents.

The strum of acoustic guitar has the feel more "Revolver" era Beatles, their voices never  over emote and stay honest in their inflections in a manner that would appeal to fans of indie rock. Even when things take a turn into balladry, their harmonies remind me of Rasptutina ever so slightly though it drifts on a much less quirky and much dreamier direction not unlike Joanna Newsome.

The backing band has ample chops to keep their bassist playing rolling melody patterns underneath sections simpler strum to them when their harmonies take the spotlight. Though the pre-psychedelic Beatles seems to be the rule of the day, yet the girls keep their sense of identity injected firmly into this formula. The swing of "June" helps keep them varied and continues to amaze with their smooth vocal blending.

The more Simon & Garfunkel feel returns on "The Wide, Wide Land". The guitar playing as a finer ear for detail than the folk music from this era and has a dynamic flow to it once the percussion kicks in. "All About Falling in Love" straddles the fence between folk and the 60's Beatles pop, with the harmonies leaning in the direction of the latter.  The songwriting never has a lull as their aren't anything songs I would think of as filler, staying pretty strong.

"I Wanna Kiss You" has the fun Beatles boogie to it though their harmonies are unique to them as they transition back into the verse. By the time the album closes with the closest wink to the psychedelic years it's clear these girls aren't just a sum of their influences with touches of 90's indie rock  like Liz Phair sprinkled about before the harmonica comes in.

These girls have some great things ahead of them if this is what they are capable of at 19. The guitar playing and harmonies really shine and keep the album a fun listen even more than the classic pop bounce that keeps things moving.

Up From the Underground: Marla Mase -" Speak"

This New York based singer/ songwriter, is more than a siren or a diva, she tackles her songs with more vigor than most female solo artists who tend to forsake rock emotional introspection. It starts with ear catching intensity. It's easy to hear she is a writer as in the second song her need for prose weighs down the melody a little on " Piece of Peace."

There is something about "Open up My Heart"  that reminds me of "Riders on the Storm".  Like Morrison she wanders  from the melody into spoken word. Her voice is too good for her run from the songs in favor of lyrical indulgence.  The fact she also writes erotica plays to her advantage as the lyrics are accented in a very sensual manner to expose their exhibitionist tendencies.

"Lioness " rides the line between Chili Peppers funk and a children's song. I can see it playing as a narrative  to a puppet show. The woes and stories of cell-phones and the memories attached to them are debated on "New Cell Phone" this kind of tongue in cheek humor was often found in the golden decade of alternative music called the 90's , but how it will play to indie rock audiences  remains in question. The spoken word when it is a main stay of the song might remind younger kids of Cake, who they probably think are classic rock.  

There's a very Diamond Dogs era Bowie swagger to opening riff of "Queen of Imperfection"  and stays in a e boogie aided by the bass player, though the melodies fall prey to lyrical over load. Mase redeems her self  quickly with " She Hooked Him Up" that has the Bowie funk of Fame. The unevenness of the song writing becomes more apparent in " Divine Restlessness"  where it seems like the producer would have stepped in and given her some guidance.

Who would have thought she could pull off a convincing dance hall song? She does just that on "Anna Rexia" which shows her lyrical brilliance put to its best use rather than being somewhat cumbersome as they feel on other songs. I begin to notice Debbie Harry inflections on "Kill Love" but her voice doesn't sound as sure of its self as it did on the previous song.

The vocal layers on the more melodic sections of "Blog" do her voice more justice than it gets in other songs. The band is always pretty dead on in their constant shifting of genres. There is an 80's pop feel to the chorus of  "Dance the Tango" and the whole song moves pretty smoothly, Marla stays in a casual sing-song  monotone.

Mase's voice is effective in the slower tempo of "Smithereens" allowing her to stay safely in her breathy register, where the lyrics have more room to flow freely. There's almost an Ani Difranco feel to "Scream" , though there isn't the quirky confidence to her voice that Ani has, her musicians keep the song moving past this fact. I don't think she is convinced of what ever character she is trying to play on "Squirm" and makes it sound like she was just improvising in the studio.  I think she could condense this into a more focused effort but overall, shows a depth of diverse creative juice that could be overflowing once she realizes the most suited glass to pour it into.

Up From the Underground:Monks of Mellonwah "Ghost Stories"

 Sydney Pop/Rock act Monks of Mellonwash like many artists these days are experimenting with different ways to release music in the face of the industry wide confusion how to work around illegal downloading and keep the album a relevant format in the age of iPod shuffle, so they  are releasing their newest effort in volumes.

This first volume starts of with the sugary catchy title track. The vocal melodies are very refined, and even though this sort of thing isn't what I normally listen the hooks are addictive and to quote Scarface, "Every time I try to get out. they pull me back in." The more rock element of the song lies in the very Muse riff in the b-section, though their bass player isn't shredder like Muse's and doesn't keep up with the riff to give it the same punch, but overall it comes as a dynamic surprise after the first half of the song which is much poppier.

The Muse worship doesn't stop their, the riff to "Vanity" is coated in Matt Bellamy bravado, even in the bridge.  The very Incubus vocal styling's do help to hide this fact, though the falsetto backing vocals work like loss prevention against them.  This song isn't crafted as air tight as the title track, but has more though behind it than you would expect from this sort of thing. The line "Vanity, vanity, you're stretching my insanity, reminds me of Michael Jackson, in the way it's phrased.

They come closer into their own on "Sailing Stones" . They have a more grunge tinge to the guitar riff and the soulful vocals, invoke Corey Glover of  Living Colour. I suppose the string interlude is supposed to be a Muse thing but it reminds me more of "Kashmir" since Muse stole that sort of thing from Zeppelin in the first place.  So these Sydney boys aren't the most original but if they can replicate the type of fine tuning on the vocal lines of the first song they can dominate crossover radio.