We’ll spare you any Nelly references about how it’s getting hot (upper-90's in NYC today!) and instead suggest using Frankel’s “Thermostat” (MP3) to take it down a notch. The first track on Lullaby For The Passersby has Frankel’s Michael Orendy asking, “Tell me, do you want to come inside? / Because I'm dying to get outside where the sky is blue / And if it's pouring, I mean, it's really coming down / Let's put our clothes on inside out and we'll walk around”
Frankel’s Michael Orendy is a Los Angeles native who grew up steeped in the music of Southern California, from The Byrds to Beachwood Sparks, and you can almost hear the deserts, canyons and the chaparral in his songs. In fact, after listening to “Thermostat,” we’d find it hard to believe it if you don’t finding yourself daydreaming about road-tripping it to California while the album plays the whole way through.
The Lodger’s “Kicking Sand” (MP3) from its glorious debut Grown-Ups, is straightforward Brit-pop gold that deservingly earns the band comparisons to UK greats like The Wedding Present and The Smiths. “We’re not superstars, we’re just kicking sand,” lead Lodger Ben Siddell sings. If that’s the case, we want to be kicking sand right there with you, Ben!
Coming from North England, specifically Leeds, The Lodger is in the company of successful British guitar bands like The Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs but stand out as one of the region’s most promising new acts. Grown-Ups is intelligent and catchy without being arrogant or gratuitously complex. Full of singles, the record has a timeless and classic appeal and the irresistible hooks will have you listening on repeat.
The video for The Loose Salute’s twangy tune “Turn the Radio Up” from its debut album Tuned To Love is the epitome of summer fun. It features footage of the band surfing, swimming, and tandem biking their way across the world in a super-8 home movie style that would make Kevin Arnold, Winnie Cooper and Paul Pfeiffer of “The Wonder Years” beam with pride. Watch it HERE:
Tuned To Love is a record full of summer and nostalgia and songs that make you want to go out, find some friends and dance the night away. The songs are about all the facets of life: falling in and out of love, break-ups, partying, wanderlust, home-cookin’, surfing, travel, fields, beaches, stars and bars…
”The general weight of the world,” explains Ian McCutcheon, Mojave3 / Slowdive drummer and founder of The Loose Salute.
Combined, Lullaby For The Passersby, Tuned To Love and Grown-Ups make for the perfect summer mix tape. All three albums are out now. See below for more information and for best results, listen while wading in your baby pool, driving with the windows down, napping in a hammock, or cracking open a cold one while grilling out.
FRANKEL: Who or what is a Frankel? Michael Orendy, the singer-songwriter behind the indie recording project, reveals that the name came from a fearsome piece of orthodontia that he had to wear as a child, "a giant retainer that filled your whole mouth - huge, kind of like what a boxer wears in the ring." Despite the trauma that it caused, Orendy embraced the term as his musical moniker. Frankel is a strangely fitting choice, for Orendy's music finds the the good in life's little slights. He mines sadness and yearning to create lilting, sun-drenched melodies that are sweet and bitter at the same time.
A Los Angeles native, Orendy grew up steeped in the music of Southern California, from the Byrds to Beachwood Sparks, and you can almost hear the deserts, canyons and the chaparral in his songs. His first musical instrument was a little-used organ in his parent's living room. Too small to reach the pedals, he remembers lying on the floor to hit the bass pedal, perhaps inspiring his later embrace of the bass guitar, Orendy's primary instrument when he played with the noise-pop quartet Meow Meow (Devil in the Woods). However, Orendy is a true multi-instrumentalist who played every instrument on his debut EP, Chatterbox (Three Ring) and - except where drummer Norm Block and banjo/ukulele player Kirk Hellie lent a hand - all of the instruments on his latest record, Lullaby for the Passersby (Red Rockets Glare).
Orendy recorded the six songs that eventually became Chatterbox at home and circulated them around to friends. After a tip from Nyles Lannon (Film School), the San Francisco label Three Ring heard the demos and eventually opted to release them "as is." Chatterbox received widespread praise, with reviewers celebrating his "genuinely engaging sense of melody and highly developed arrangements" (Orlando Sentinel), "pleasantly lush pop sound" (Montreal Mirror) and "dreamy slow-pop concoctions" (Salt Lake City Weekly).
For his follow-up, Lullaby for the Passersby, Orendy aimed to replicate the intimate feel of Chatterbox, but with a little more polish. A chance meeting with Raymond Richards, the owner of L.A. recording studio Red Rockets Glare, led to a recording collaboration that added some high fidelity to Orendy's lo-fi sound. Although Lullaby's core remains Orendy's straightforward piano and acoustic guitar arrangements and tight vocal harmonies, Orendy also layers the album with some unexpected instruments, from theremins to the Twirly Whirly, a children's toy that Orendy says "sounds cool when you swing it above your head."
Despite employing some quirky "bells and whistles," Orendy's focus remains squarely on songwriting, to which he says he takes a "very traditional approach," much like his influences, which range from Harry Nilsson and The Beatles to Elliot Smith and Jon Brion. Like those artists, Orendy mixes catchy pop melodies with dreamy arrangements and dark, incisive lyrics, like "run faster than your skin can crawl." Orendy completed Lullaby for the Passerby in early 2007, and as with Chatterbox, he didn't have to look far to find a label. During recording, Richards had become so enamored of Frankel's songs that he offered to make Lullaby the debut release on his new label, also titled Red Rockets Glare. After mixing by Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart and mastering by Dave Trumfio (Wilco, Grandaddy, Built to Spill), the album is now ready for release on June 12, 2007. Orendy plans to promote the record with many live shows and a regional tour.
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THE LODGER: The Lodger was born in Ben Siddall's Leeds bedsit flat in 2004. Encouraged by local label Dance To The Radio, Ben recruited friends for bass and drum duties, tuned-up with live shows around town and debuted in early 2005 with a track on a Dance To The Radio compilation. The band quickly followed-up with their excellent debut single "Many Thanks For Your Honest Opinion," the "Watching" 7" on Double Dragon, and track for the hotly-tipped Wrath label's split 7" series.
006 was when the band got their act together - a permanent line-up of Ben, Joe and Katie was established and the band went out on the road in the UK with kindred Yorkshire spirits The Research in February. London indie label Angular Records released the band's ace third single "Let Her Go" shortly afterwards. This single won the BBC 6music's Rebel Playlist and started to pick up airplay worldwide. In the summer the band decamped to Alan Smyth's tiny little Sheffield recording studio to record songs for their debut album. Thirteen tracks were recorded in a week in September and the result is Grown-Ups.
On the heels of the successes of bands like The Kaiser Chiefs and The Arctic Monkeys, the north of England is fairly bursting with exciting guitar pop bands, and The Lodger are amongst the brightest hopes. Taking their cues from fellow northerners The Smiths and The Wedding Present, The Lodger's music is classic melodic pop, fueled by sparkling hooks and plangent lyrics. The tunes are sharp and timeless, a thoroughly modern distillation of great Britpop from the 60s right up to today. Grown-Ups is a perfect introduction to the thrilling pop charms of The Lodger.
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THE LOOSE SALUTE: It looked like it might be all over before it had even begun…
After releasing its first single (the Suck It Up Buttercup EP) to a great reception, the plug got pulled on the money. Bored with having to rely on others, the band decided to just get on with it and make an album themselves.
Luckily, while they were busy overdubbing in Cornwall, the first EP was finding fans all over the world. Graveface Records in Chicago had heard it and loved it. They wanted to hear some more, and they loved that too. Then they wanted to hear a demo of the album and they loved the album as well. After a meeting of minds, everyone agreed that Graveface was the place to launch the Loose Salute record.
The result is the album Tuned To Love, a record full of summer and nostalgia and songs that make you want to go out, find some friends and dance the night away. Infectious and groovy, tunes like "Turn The Radio Up" and "Through The Stratosphere To The Bars" are joyful celebrations of friendship and fun, setting you up for the hangover comedown of the beautiful ballads, "Why Do We Fight" and "Ship On The Ocean".
The Loose Salute was formed a couple of years ago by Ian McCutcheon (drummer with Mojave 3) and Lisa Billson, who Ian met after hearing her singing along to Bob Dylan songs while she cooked in the Fortress rehearsal studios cafe.
The album was made by the core band of Ian (Drums & Vocals) and Lisa (Vocals), Pete Greenwood (Guitars), Charlotte King (Harmonies & Percussion) and Al Forrester (Piano & Organ). Paul Noble added some Bass, surf Guitar and mixing skills. Ian's school-yard buddy Pritpal Soor added some more electric Bass, Keys and a producer's ears. Other friends played their parts adding Brass, Strings and Pedal Steel. Tuned To Love was made anywhere that the vibe was right - living rooms and garages, Ian's mums' piano recorded from the kitchen, you get the idea.
The Loose Salute is a gang of friends in the sense that its members are about reporting back from the world they live in together, making records that represent something for them. You can hear the fun and the "Devil may care" attitude running throughout Tuned To Love - the sheer sense that making music is a celebration not a labor. Every track is solid gold. Get tuned in to Tuned To Love!
