Sporadic MP3age: Funeral Party + Marissa Nadler + Reigns

Enjoyed posting about the last few piles of MP3s & whatnot back in December, and since we’ve got an assload of stuff flying by, I figured to take a crack at a handful of the cooler free bits o’ music that’ve flowed through the inbox lately.

Funeral Party – “Carwars” (The Bootleg EP)
It’s easy to dismiss electro-pop revivalists like Funeral Party as just rehashers of stuff that’s been done before. I mean, the music itself sounds fairly Radio 4-inspired, although since those guys pretty much ripped off every quasi-funky ’80s dance-pop band, that doesn’t narrow things down much. Then there’s the resemblance to The Rapture, particularly in terms of the funky percussion (which I’m really digging) and the band’s crazy energy. By the end of the track, I find my feet going berserk next to the desk, doing some kind of white-boy shuffle, and while I’ve got no idea what the hell the song’s about, I don’t care. Rehashers they may be, but the energy is mind-blowing, and sometimes that’s all that really matters.

Marissa Nadler – “River Of Dirt” (Little Hells)
Whoa. I’d heard Marissa Nadler before, but it just sort of drifted past me w/o making much of an impact, I have to admit. This time, though, the gentle, high-lonesome swoop of this gorgeous song grabbed me and refused to let go. Nadler sounds like a more-folky, less-blues-belting Neko Case, singing over a dusty, more melancholy than menacing alternate-universe version of the Cowboy Junkies’ “Seven Years.” Now I feel like I need to wipe the grit and sweat of the open road from my face…

Reigns – “Everything Beyond These Walls Has Been Razed” (The House On The Causeway)
This one was a bit out of left field, as well. Reigns is murky and dark and sinister-sounding, but not in an overblown, Marilyn Manson-esque way; it’s more like a stern, mysterious warning from a wiser person to a curious child in some near-future wasteland. Vocally, I keep thinking of fellow Brits The Beta Band’s less-cheery moments (see “Dr. Baker”), mostly because the vocalist has that totally flat, nearly emotionless thing going but still manages to convey the depth of feeling, even still.