I missed this CD when it was released last year, but I’ve been really digging “Cannibal Sea” by The Essex Green. They actually have origins here in lovely and scenic Burlington, VT (though they currently operate out of Brooklyn), so they’re sorta local. And they don’t sound anything like Phish, so that’s a plus.

They’re actually part of the Elephant 6 collective, if you’re familiar with this; think of a serious debt to guitar pop, folk, and 1960s psychadelia. Some of the E6 bands include Apples in Stereo and Elf Power. (I saw Elf Power open for Elliott Smith a few years ago here in BTV and wasn’t all that impressed.)

The first half of “Cannibal Sea” is better than the second half. The opener, “This Isn’t Farm Life,” is particularly strong. It starts bouncing merrily along, kind of fades out in the middle, and then returns with full strings and a Spector-esque wall of sound.

Like The New Pornographers, the best songs are those where the pretty girl takes center stage. Though Sasha Bell isn’t the singer that Neko Case is—but seriously, who is?—it’s impossible for any indie boy not to fall madly in love with her as she belts out the chorus on “Snakes in the Grass.” (Click for a sample.) And “Cardinal Points” sounds like some weird mash-up between Stereolab and Wilco’s first CD, all primitive blips and bloops and background vocals that suddenly morphs into a guitar rave-up by the end.

But the best song, by far, is “Don’t Know Why (You Stay),” (Click me.) in which Christopher Ziter takes the lead vocals and Bell offers up some beautiful harmonizing on the chorus. It’s a glorious pop song, the kind that in some alternative universe would be blaring from every car that drives down the road on a beautiful summer day.

I shoulda known YouTube would have Young Fresh Fellows videos… not that I actually knew any Young Fresh Fellows videos even existed.

Like their cover of “Picture Book” by the Kinks from This One’s For the Ladies. (In the video, everyone plays drums; on the CD sleeve, everyone is pictured with a drum kit and listed as playing “lead guitar.”)

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In the first of a fully self-indulgent multi-part series on bands that meant a lot to me in my formative years, here’s a look at one of the more obscure awesome ones, The Young Fresh Fellows.

(I probably should’ve started with The Replacements, who are kind of my Beatles/Stones. But I was ripping CDs this fine evening and found my Fellows stash. So the ‘Mats will have to wait, which seems appropriate. And I’d probably have to think more than I want to about how I feel about Don’t Tell a Soul.)

So, “who’s The Young Fresh Fellows?” you say? YFF is a Seattle band led by the inimitable Scott McCaughey. They got their start in the early 80s and have released a dozen or so records in the last 20 years. (more…)