The Capps
Broken Hands/Broken Hearts
(Ghost Dog)
In many respects, Westfield's The Capps play in very familiar territory. Heavy slabs of power-chord guitar drive their sound, and the lead vocals land exactly in the zone of much modern day post-punk punk a la Green Day or Rancid. The band's tunes provide short and furious bursts of energy peppered with lots of pick-slide pyrotechnics, rhythmic change-ups and shout-along choruses. The Capps are aided by a sense of melody that's often adventurous, though in the end whether you'll dig these fellows comes down to whether you like your punk the way they play it: straight-up. —James Heflin
Dirty Projectors
Bitte Orca
(Domino)
The latest effort from Brooklyn's Dirty Projectors is a major breakthrough: their most fully realized and enjoyable album. Bitte Orca continues the band's ambitious project of creating their own musical vocabulary from African Juju guitar, electronic funk beats, Township harmonies, acoustic folk and knotty time-changes. That's a complicated way of saying you have to hear their music for yourself. Most listeners tend to balk at leader Dave Longstreth's reedy voice with its sudden falsetto swoops, so it's no accident that backup singers Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian take center stage more often here. They helm the album's most immediate tunes, which pave the way for more overtly challenging material, like the chiming and surging "Temecula Sunrise," that defy categorization. At their best, Dirty Projectors reimagine pop through their own prismatic lens. —Jeff Jackson
Jorma Kaukonen
River of Time
(Red House)
Jorma Kaukonen, one-time guitarist for Jefferson Airplane and the other half of Hot Tuna, released his 14th solo effort earlier this year. As with all his recordings, River of Time is a mix of original compositions, covers and re-workings of traditional songs. Also like his other albums, the result is a rich, finger-picked concoction that continues to deepen in flavor with repeat listens. Produced by Larry Campbell (who recently played guitar in Dylan's band) and recorded at Levon Helm's home in Woodstock, N.Y., the music sounds effortlessly impressive, even though the playing is intricate. Kaukonen's brand of laid-back, blissed-out joy permeates, and works to potent effect in the instrumental "Izze's Lullaby." The only weak link in the recording, "Simpler Than I Thought," has such a simple melody that, after played for six minutes, it borders on monotonous. But after the 12 other tracks of graceful comfort, the one misstep is easy to forgive. —Mark Roessler
