Sound Advice: Edgy, genre-defying and too legit to quit

Resist not: Saint Solitaire’s EP-listening party last Wednesday night was a sight to behold: 50 friends and music lovers sitting in Kupros Craft House, bobbing their heads, tapping their feet and not saying a word.

Surely it wasn’t just out of respect to Andrew Barnhart, the driving force behind indie dance-rock band Saint Solitaire. It was because the new EP, Versus Resistance, holds some damn fine sounds that demand concentration.

Saint Solitaire does not make background music.

Versus Resistance is the six-piece band’s second release, which officially dropped last Saturday, August 16, at an intimate backyard concert where Barnhart also shaved his formidable beard. (For the record, he said it was getting in the way of intimate moments with the wife.)

Seven tracks make up 25 minutes of experimental pop rock that’s catchy, edgy and still grooveable—which is very important to anyone who has seen Barnhart’s dance moves. And as with Saint Solitaire’s debut EP Full Artistic Control, which Barnhart actually recorded by himself, synthesizers and electronic samples are prominent. Again, his voice is still dynamic—sometimes soft, sometimes closer to hardcore punk. But Versus Resistance feels more elevated, full and polished.

Particularly notable is the final track, “Full Artistic Control,” which was actually meant to be on the EP by the same name. But the song still needed work, so Barnhart sat on it for more than three years. It’s challenging and richly textured, with samples of Björk to boot.

“I have a lot of feelings right now,” Barnhart said before hitting play for the first time. At the end of the final track, applause abounded and friends threw itty-bitty scraps of white paper—basically confetti, right?—at Barnhart.

Well done.

Davis EDM hero: DJ Shadow—the legendary electronic music producer who got his start at UC Davis freeform radio station KDVS—released a surprise EP last week. With said surprise, he also announced his new record label. Both the album and the imprint are called Liquid Amber.

The three tracks—two brand-new originals and one Machinedrum remix—continue Shadow’s expert manipulation of samples with a hip-hop bent. “Ghost Town” shows off some trap, but in Shadow’s words is “an ambitious ride through many of the micro-genres within the Future Bass umbrella that have inspired me lately.” Future Bass, by the way, is all about defying genres.

The second track, “Mob,” is minimalist, subtle, but with a great funky beat. Again, in his words, a “Cali-certified head-nodder.”

North Carolina producer Machinedrum’s remix of Shadow’s classic “Six Days” may actually be the standout. Shadow wrote that he asked Machinedrum for the track as a secret weapon for his live set arsenal. Sure enough, it ups the tempo and experiments with psychedelic sounds but maintains the beauty of the original.

Stream Liquid Amber for free at www.soundcloud.com/djshadow.

Punks mature, kind of: This column quickly turned into a list of new EPs. Fear not—we’ve got an actual full-length album, too.

Local self-described band of “party punks” G. Green released its sophomore effort Area Codes last week. Frontman Andrew Henderson has been playing music of varying degrees of quality under the G. Green moniker for the past few years. He eventually teamed up with Liz Liles—one of the ladies behind Witch Room—to form G. Green’s core, and together they cycled through guitarists and bassists over and over again. They put out Crap Culture, their debut noise-punk album that brought the band some recognition around town beyond being a not very great band. But it was the finalized lineup in 2011 that finally garnered some serious respect for G. Green. With Mike Morales on bass and Simi Sohota on guitar, G. Green’s tales—of drunken sex, drugs and other stuff that happens at parties—became a little more sure of themselves.

Area Codes still exudes rowdy punk rock—and is definitely still party appropriate—but it’s sharper, tighter and poppier. Not that poppier is a bad thing. At just 32 minutes, the 12 tracks fly by with dynamic speed. Maybe it has to do with producer Chris Woodhouse of Mayyors fame. Maybe it’s just because the band has really, finally grown into a legit band.

Celebrate the record release at Witch Room on Saturday, August 30, at 8 p.m. Cover is $5. After that, G. Green goes on tour. Follow the band at www.facebook.com/ggreenband.