Ramona Falls is Brent Knopf, programmer, general Renaissance man and one third of the superb Menomena. The band takes its name from an idyllic waterfall somewhere in Oregon, which seems a fitting reflection of Inuits effortless, nearly organic beauty.  I have passing cycles of musical ADD, fleeting affairs with different albums from week to week. This is the first album to stick in a while. For anyone familiar with Menomena, it bears Knopf’s signatures: fluid but hesitant piano leads, jagged guitar harmonics, a casual tenor delivery.  The production is immaculate, encompassing an army of instrumentation, but never anything toward the superfluous. Every percussive blast, every guitar strum, every ethereal harmony and horn flare is precise.  In this way Intuit touches on and expands the great parts of Menomena’s Friend and Foe, hitting a solid pop sensibility with a flair for the insane. From moment to moment I’m hearing the harsher parts of Mount Eerie records, the more lofty parts of Flaming Lips records and something undeniably unique swirling in the ether.

The minute mark on opener “Melectric” hits with a melodramatic surge in instrumentation: mandolin backed by sparse piano, brutal kick hits propelling the visceral tug of Knopfs vocals: “Please, don’t give me false hope/you’re free to go.” At this point Intuit could go straight for the forlorn love epic and remain engaging,  but it decides to go straigh rock n’ roll with the following track “I Say Fever.”

“I Say Fever” exemplifies Knopf’s mind for structure and pacing. It strikes humble beginnings on a post-apocalyptic western guitar groove, peppered again with fragile piano leads and a hesitant vocal delivery. It’s almost like he’s scared of what happens next: a neck-bending guitar breakdown, soaring vocals and fractured harmonies. I defy you not to throw your hands in reverence toward the sky when the chorus in “I Say Fever” hits. Reverence of what? I don’t know. Just shit in general, I guess.

As epic as the aforementioned gets, “Bellyfulla” is the song keeping me up at night.  Intuit finds it’s most intimate moments in Bellyfulla’s sweeping harmonies, in the scattered yet gentle pacing of the acoustic guitar. Knopf drops metaphors speaking to a vague restlessness, while the strings fasten an ephemeral existence as they sweep to and from existence. It’s the defining moment many records hint toward but never hit, a type of resolution that people strive for but can’t find. After the darkness of “I Say Fever” and “Going Once, Going Twice” (where he laments “I’m desperate just to find a respite for my mind”) Knopf has found something in “more happiness than a body can hold.” Hell, I want that. And hell, I nearly find it in those harmonies.

From Intuit:

Ramona Falls – I Say Fever

Ramona Falls – Bellyfulla

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Our friends These United States lost their laptop in Los Angeles that contains a few hundred demos of unrecorded songs. If you lead to its safe recovery, you just might find your name on the liner notes of band’s next album!!! (or in tUS frontman Jesse Elliott’s words: “You shall receive my first-born child, and perhaps even my second, depending on whether the songs are any good…”)

The internet community is able to do so much with a little group effort… Raise millions for Ron Paul, RickRoll everything, and even supply an infinite number of adorable kitten pics.. is this to much to ask for? Call up the kids, friends, relatives, whoever you know in LA, and let’s find their laptop and make history (if you can’t help in that way, Digging will help too!). Hooray!

Everything touches Everything (2009):

These United States - Will It Ever

Crimes (2008):

These United States – Honor Among Thieves

A Picture of the Three of Us at The Gate to the Garden of Eden (2008):

These United States – First Sight

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0[/youtube]

I talk about Pretty & Nice a lot. (Like Here and Here.) It’s getting bad. But I’ve taken my obsession to something of a more dignified level. Recently, my friend Addison Post and I produced a video for the Boston Phoenix to showcase a new Pretty & Nice song. They wrote it for a new montly segment called “Homework” where the Phoenix tasks a Boston bands with writing and recording a song under unreasonable deadlines with a bunch of zany critieria. Check out the video here and stream the song below.

From the Boston Phoenix’s Homework Assignment:

Pretty & Nice – Massive U.

Next month we grade Hallejuah the Hills.

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