It's rare that we here at Robots get to write about a band from the beginning to the end. Of course, we'd rather bands we like don't break up, but I love the fact that I've been enjoying Spaghetti Western String Co. since they released their debut Do Right By People in 2004. They were called just Spaghetti Western then; they added "String Co." for their next one, the Quiet Mob EP in 2005. There have been a couple more since then - 2008's Lull and Clatter, and this year's Final Verse, which is indeed the last work by the band.

Spaghetti Western String Co. - A Minor Pasta Breakdown.

I first saw them open for Michael Penn at the Loring Pasta Bar in Minneapolis, back in 2005. It was a weird night - the show was supposed to be at the nearby Varsity Theater, but renovations there forced everybody to the restaurant around the corner. Penn put on a great show but seemed to mind the clinking of plates and silverware. Spaghetti Western, on the other hand, looked right at home. The room was filled with candlelight and the Loring's faux-fancy decor, and the audience gave the jazz-classical-folk quintet their full attention. I was hooked.

I only saw the band one more time over the years - at the release show for Quiet Mob - and I wish I had seen them more. With Ethan, Mike, Nick, and Paul in vintage suits and Denise in a dress, they always dressed for the occasion. And there was something about the tangibility of it all, the fact that they couldn't hide behind effects pedals or fuzzy noise. This was fingers on frets, and you heard exactly what they were doing.

Denise left the band a while ago, so now it's just a quartet, and with mandolin player Nick moving to Nebraska, it just seemed like time to hang up the whole thing. Farewell Verse is a fitting last statement from Spaghetti Western String Co., including Radiohead's "Exit Music" (get it?), with operatic vocals sung in Italian. You can buy all their records, including Farewell Verse, here.

So long, Spaghetti Western String Co., and thanks.

Wolf People - Tiny Circle

It's not every day that we're blasted in the face with a flute solo. The jazz flute, once the powerhouse backbone in many a funk/psych band's arsenal has been relegated to ren-faire mockery (thanks jethro tull) or outright lunatic derision (ron burgandy!). So here the sweaty fingers of Wolf People have wrested the reigns back and stuck a flute front and center in their new single. So there.

And the rest of the song is great too, riding a strong riff and a classic psych vocal. These folks are right at home on the rest of the Jagjaguar roster, and a double bill of them and Black Mountain would be downright incredible. The record, Steeple, isn't out until October 12th, but they released a singles/b-sides collection earlier this year that you can pick up on the cheap. Definitely recommended.

The Chap - We Work in Bars.

It's rare to hear someone so excited about gainful employment. Are the Chap just victims of the poor economy and simply glad to have a place to work, even if it's a mundane job at the bar? Or are they mocking bars and bar culture? I'm going to have to go with the latter, right? Either way, the Chap have traded in some of their jagged edges for smoother hooks while retaining their trademark sense of pranksterism and ironic detachment. Does it still work? I'd argue that it works even better.

Their new album, Well Done Europe, will be out on July 6th on Lo Recordings (who also put out that fun Grovesnor record this year). Definitely recommended.

The PDX Pop Now! Festival, to be held from July 30 to August 31, will raise money for is a free festival brought to you by PDX Pop Now!, a non-profit dedicated to supporting Portland's music scene. It looks like a pretty great organization, and if the lineup on the schedule is to be believed, this year's festival will have 50 sweet Portland bands.

Tope & Epp (feat. Illmaculate) - The Basics.

The organization also releases a compilation every year to celebrate the festival, and to raise money for the organization. "The Basics" is the first track from the 2010 edition, and it's a good way to get things going. The rest of the record is very strong, and it features a lot of heavy hitters: Blitzen Trapper, Hockey, Laura Veirs, Menomena, A Weather. Good times.

If you're interested in attending the festival, make sure to check out the PDX Pop! Now website for details. You can buy the compilation, which raises money for the organization's activities, from our friends at CD Baby.

The festival takes place July 30-August 1 at Rotture (formerly Loveland).

Tame Impala - Runway, Houses, City, Clouds.

This is one the sound of getting lost in it. It starts in the middle, it ends in the middle. It's like eight different parts of middle. At first we find the band already launching into some kind of chorus and then, just eight bars later they launch into another chorus. It just rolls from there, rolls and rolls and rolls; sticky like a ball of honey rolling down a hill.

It's seven minutes, you know. It's not tedious, it's not forced. It's not the "new sound of psychedelia" or whatever it is the kids are into these days. It's seven minutes of someone else's dream. That that someone else is a three-piece from Australia is only mildly relevant. They did, however, make an incredible album of classics. It opens like a window on summer and it's deceptively listenable.

The new album, Innerspeaker, is available now from our old friends a Modular People, and a little bird tells me they'll be at Spaceland later on this month.

Kathryn Calder - Slip Away.

Kathryn Calder's got a new record out soon, and it's called Are You My Mother?. "Slip Away" is the first track from the album, and it may not sound like much at first. It's lighter than air, with a melody that seems vague and arbitrary. But then, as instruments come and go, and rhythms congeal, and the song finally snaps together, it all makes sense.

You know Calder from the New Pornographers, but she's also a singer and keyboardist for Immaculate Machine, a great band that, like the Pornographers, specializes in a kind of mosaic pop: parts swirling around each other to make a whole. I loved their record Fables, and though I've lost track of that band, I'm glad to see Calder's still making good music.
Are You My Mother? - which I hope is named after this book - comes out on File Under: Music on August 10.

Miniature Tigers - Gold Skull.

I was supposed to see Miniature Tigers open for Free Energy and Jukebox The Ghost the other night, but their van broke down and they never made it to Boston. Bummer.

I first saw Miniature Tigers, with their DHARMA-clad instruments, last year in Minneapolis. I was there for Bishop Allen, but it was the Tigers who impressed me most. Their melodies are funny things, snakelike and stealthy. They wind their way into your subconscious, and you find later that you have five or six Miniature Tigers songs in your head at once.

This track is from the Tigers' new album Fortress, out July 27th. The record has some pretty awesome producers on board: "Gold Skull" was produced by Neon Indian, and the rest of the record was produced by Chris Chu of Morning Benders. Not bad, right?

You can pre-order Fortress in all kinds of formats here.

It took me a while to realize I like Animal Collective.

Dada Trash Collage - In Season.

Well, as is the case with many artists, it depends on the song. When they give us something we can grab onto - "Chores" from Strawberry Jam, say, or "Summertime Clothes" from Merriweather Post Pavilion - it's all there for us to take in. I understand the appeal of their other work, but, for better or worse, I need a handle, a foothold.

That's how I feel about Dada Trash Collage. There's so much going on here that I don't know where to start, but I know I like it. And it seems obvious that Billy Freed and Richard Bell, two dudes from Minneapolis, owe a debt to Panda Bear and company, but that's fine with me. Building on what's there is how it all works. In this interview, Freed calls their music "experimental noise pop," which sums it up nicely. It's order on top of a glorious mess, ready to be devoured in one gulp.

You can find "In Season" on Dada Trash Collage's new record Neighbors, available here.

Phosphorescent - Mermaid Parade.

We can walk the same streets each day and have it be different each time. The path we wear in the road will deepen, will wear in different spots, will reveal different layers beneath our feet. And each time we know the road a little better, letting us focus on smaller details, on the life around us. And while Phosphorescent's Matthew Houck wanders down the same melodic roads each time out, these trip yields new beauty, each step forward a literal and figurative one. And here we have his newest effort, the aptly titled Here's to Taking it Easy. A serious rumination on life and love disguised as a boardwalk breeze, the album is the logical step forward after To Willie.

Matthew scooped up a newfound storytelling ability from the redheaded stranger, and his band has never sounded tighter after touring on Nelson's sophisticated songs. And in the end he still remains the same Phosphorescent, in love with big choruses, in love with the wrong women. He inhabits a world where every song is last call, and every last call leads to sad leavings and regrettable tomorrow mornings. He may traffic in cliche, but those well worn roads still have plenty left to show us.

The new record was released this week by our old friends at Dead Oceans. It is highly recommended.

Peter Wolf Crier - Hard As Nails.

The music of Peter Wolf Crier came out of a single summer night's writing session. I haven't heard the duo's whole record, but I could see how "Hard As Nails" would fit into this narrative. It's a stop along the way, a few hazy minutes in the life of its narrator.

Peter Wolf Crier consists of Peter Pisano (formerly of the Wars of 1812) and Brian Moen (also a member of Laarks, the Shouting Matches, and Amateur Love). They hail from the midwest, where summer nights are summer nights - sticky, sweaty hours spent hoping for breezes. I can picture Peter banging this one out before a drive along the lake to the ice cream place, or to the air-conditioned bar.

Peter Wolf Crier's new record Inter-Be is out May 25 on Jagjaguwar.