The Lacking Permanence

It has been a while since we have heard from this band, with its brutally catchy hooks and ultra-refined pop sensibility, delivering velvet hammer blows with the gentlest vocal harmonies and delicate guitar plucks.

Pure unbridled joy bursts forth from the moment these young Beninese women begin doing their thing. Even if liquid song structures and single-voiced group singing aren’t normally your thing, you should give it a taste.

Bombastic pop filled with lush arrangements, bizarre chord extensions, and unexpected harmonies aren’t everyone’s cup of kombucha, but those of us that have acquired the taste will drink this stuff by the gallon.

Glittery pop vocals fronting a relentless barrage of digital soundbites, shy loops emerging from behind percussive blasts as guitars interrupt with fuzzed yelps or delicate strums… it’s a little bit of everything, and sometimes just enough.

When you’re closing out your fifth decade as a band, you might be expected to rehash all your tired tropes and package them as brand new nostalgia. Instead, this sounds like a lost album from the band’s golden era.

If the name didn't give it away, there is a very distinct beach slash surf feeling to San Diego's Wavves and their sun-glittered sounds.

It's a celebration of Pat Fish, also known as The Jazz Butcher, who passed away unexpectedly last week, on October 5. We kick things off with another one of my favorites, the Asylum Street Spankers, taking on his "D.R.I.N.K." to glorious heights, followed by a couple of sets drawing from his 20th century material.

A strong, sometimes raspy female voice in front of a very clever power indie band can be the equivalent of beige wallpaper after all these years, but this outfit rises above that with a generous dose of unique hooks and singalong rhymes.

“Charmingly abrasive” sounds like an oxymoron, but it is certainly something that describes music like this, angular sounds and a distraught female voice rambling on about blue tits, and I don’t think she means birds.

With close harmonies, tapped rhythms, and a wistful tone, this is music for a sunset porch, or a long drive, or a morning walk, or any situation where a soundtrack gently reminding you that everything is all right with the world is appropriate.