Indie Basement (8/15): the week in classic indie, alternative & college rock

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We’re still a bit in the August slow-down, so this week is a mixed bag of brand-new albums (Cass McCombs, Alison Goldfrapp, Steve Gunn) and a couple releases I missed from earlier this year (Elbow, Silver Synthetic). And for this week’s Indie Basement Classic, we travel back to 2005 for the debut album from London’s** The Rakes**, one of my favorite bands of the era.

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews new ones from Marissa Nadler, Kerosene Heights, Pool Kids, Pile, Molly Tuttle and more.

In other news: Ashes and Diamonds, the trio of singer/guitarist Daniel Ash (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets), drummer Bruce Smith (PiL, The Pop Group) and Sade bassist Paul Denman, announced their debut album; Just Mustard announced their third album; and Cindy Lee has come out of hibernation and is playing shows again.

Head below for this week’s reviews…

Cass McCombs – Interior Live Oak (Domino) Yet another terrific album from one of the most reliable singer-songwriters of the last 20 years

Cass McCombs has been one of the most consistent and underrated artists of the last 20 years, exploring a few different sonic avenues — getting weird, going country, jamming — while continually honing his songwriting chops. His understated style, paired with his reliability, can make him a little undervalued, taken for granted. This writer included. You can’t call Interior Live Oak a return to form — he’s stayed great all along — but it does feel like some kind of return. It’s his first since re-signing with Domino after a decade on ANTI-, and he’s working with some of his longest-time collaborators, including Papercuts’ Jason Quever, Chris Cohen, and Mike Bones, plus help from Sam Evian, Brian Bettencourt (Hospitality, Destroyer), and Matt Sweeney (Hard Quartet, Chavez).

There’s a little bit of everything Cass has ever done here: lo-fi indie rock, twangy cowboy ballads, hazy folk, deserted highway atmosphere, and baroque beauty. Some rock ’n’ roll, too. Few set a scene like Cass, and he’s in fine form here. From the San Francisco-set “Asphodel,” one of the album’s highlights:

A junky on Leavenworth said Below the Transamerica Pyramid There’s a tunnel to the underworld She was just that type of girl To crawl through demonic steam Through a dead dog’s mouth A flower grows in the dark That’s what she’s all about

Cass crafts perfect little vignettes — Polaroids from the fringe — featuring construction workers, off-the-grid wanderers, former lovers, and ghosts of the past. Interior Live Oak is a double album that takes its time across 16 songs and 74 minutes, but it’s a great, easy hang full of warm melodies, memorable characters, and even warmer production. It’s always worthwhile hanging in Cass’ orbit.

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Silver Synthetic – Rosalie (Curation Records) New Orleans chooglers finally return with their second album of warm, melodic psych-pop

The 2022 debut from New Orleans’ Silver Synthetic was a surprise and delight: a wonderfully melodic album of memorable, gentle psych rock that mixed hooks and choogle in equal measure. Four years later, they’re finally back with their second album, out via Curation Records—the indie label run by Brent Rademaker of Beachwood Sparks—which feels like a more spiritual home than Third Man, who put out the first.

Silver Synthetic make it all sound so easy, as these songs beam with warm yet chill vibes, big hooks, and understated flash. There’s more than a little Grateful Dead here—“Choose a Life” owes a bit to “Touch of Grey,” and swoony pedal steel glides throughout—but also shades of Buffalo Springfield, The Velvet Underground, and a touch of Television. The musicianship is killer, but they rarely show their hand until it’s time to clean house. Rosalie is perfect for these late summer days, a cool breeze across your face as the sun goes down in glowing amber.

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Alison Goldfrapp – FLUX (A.G. Records) The second solo album from the namesake half of duo Goldfrapp sounds great but plays it safe

Alison Goldfrapp’s singular voice remains pristine 30 years into her career, capable of elevating any track she’s part of. On her second solo album, she teams with two dance music producers whose styles seem tailor-made for her: Stefan Storm of Sound of Arrows and Richard X, who has worked with Annie, Kelis, and Saint Etienne.

FLUX is a bit hit and miss, though, as Alison’s vocal talents shine brightest when paired with more idiosyncratic backdrops. “Hey Hi Hello” and “Sound & Light” are gorgeous sonic creations but aim straight down the middle, never quite achieving the euphoric liftoff you want, even though she does her best to take flight. “Ordinary Day,” ironically, offers a few nice twists and turns, while “Reverberotic” benefits from inspired, woozy production. FLUX isn’t bad—just safe and uninspired. (It’s extra disappointing given this is her first release on her own A.G. Records.) Alison’s pipes deserve more interesting music than this.

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Elbow – AUDIO VERTIGO ECHO (Universal) Veteran Manchester band keeps the groove and the joy flowing on this excellent companion to last year’s AUDIO VERTIGO

Three decades into their career, Manchester’s Elbow released AUDIO VERTIGO, an album unlike anything they’d made before: playful, rhythm-forward, and—shockingly for them—fun. (Elbow have been many things over the years, including frequently great, but “fun” has never cracked the top five descriptors.) Energized by both the experience and the fan response—it debuted at #1 in the UK—they’ve kept that momentum going with this new, similarly titled EP.

The AUDIO VERTIGO ECHO EP isn’t made up of leftovers but four brand-new songs with the same joyous spirit. “We’re having more fun in the studio than ever,” says frontman Guy Garvey. “Craig’s on fire, Pete and Alex are the coolest rhythm section going, and Pot’s unpredictable guitar is in a really soulful, accomplished place.” All four tracks deliver: “Dis-Graceland 463–465 Bury New Road,” co-written with longtime friend Jimi Goodwin of Doves, boasts the second-best bassline on the EP; “Adrianna Again” marries wild rhythms to a soaring Elbow melody; “Timber” brings spy guitar atmospherics; and the surprise standout “Sober” claims Best Bassline honors and instantly joins the Elbow canon. It’s thrilling to see a band this deep into their career hitting a new creative high.

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Steve Gunn – Music for Writers (Three Lobed Recordings) Steve Gunn’s first-ever solo instrumental album is a welcome and tranquil respite to our stressful times

Very talented guitarist Steve Gunn describes his first-ever solo instrumental album, Music for Writers, as “meant to accompany thought and inspire another way. It is music made in both stillness and motion, music that listens as much as it speaks. Each track offers a space—open, textured, often slow-moving—where ideas, images, and feelings drift in and out.” Using his guitar alongside synthesizers and field recordings, Gunn has created a tranquil world that delivers exactly what he envisioned: a sonic environment that encourages you to slow down and reflect. It’s free-flowing yet purposeful, and uniformly beautiful—a much-needed respite from the outside world.

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSICS: The Rakes – Capture/Release (2005) Two decades later, The Rakes’ underappreciated gem of a debut still brims with restless energy

We’re 20 years on from the height of the ’00s indie revival, and I’ve been doing a little Remember When-ing lately. I wrote about Clor a few weeks ago, and this week it’s the debut album from one of my favorite bands of the era.

The Rakes had it all: angular guitars, dance-punk songs crammed with hooks, a killer rhythm section, and a debut album produced by Paul Epworth, who worked on almost all the biggest post-punk revival records of the era (Bloc Party, Futureheads, Maximo Park) before graduating to the big leagues of Adele and Florence. They also had arguably the best frontman of the scene in Alan Donahoe, a charmingly awkward beanpole with amazing dance moves (mostly via his arms) and a magnetic presence that brought tons of charisma to their tales of 20-something ennui and trying to get by in big-city London. (He was, in many ways, the scene’s Jarvis Cocker.)

Capture/Release is loaded with these tales. “Everything is temporary these days / might as well go out for the fifth night in a row,” Alan sings on “Retreat,” a sentiment echoed on “Work Work Work (Pub Club Sleep),” which feels like dancing through last night’s hangover. The singles are unimpeachable: their punky debut “Strasbourg,” the frantic “22 Grand Job” (still painfully relatable 20 years later in cities like London or New York, where the allure of urban life outweighs having seven roommates), and the slash-and-burn title track. But the deep cuts are just as good — the Wire-y “Open Book,” the nervy “We Are All Animals,” and the panic-attack urgency of “Terror!”

Capture/Release is unmistakably of its time, yet still sounds fresh today. The band went on to make two more albums — 2007’s Ten New Messages and 2009’s Klang (maybe their best) — but they never again captured the zeitgeist the way they did here.

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