Waking up to new material from The Veils

I don't know about you, but a lot of the new releases in January have put me to sleep. Iron and Wine, The Decemberists, yes, even destroyer... Too sleepy.
Cake put out what must be its 15th album of songs that all sound just like "The Distance" and indie fans were rejoicing over a record by Chicago popsters The Smith Westerns.

In fact January has been so tired that on the album charts, The Decemberists displaced Cake last as the number one record in the country according to Billboard. That's right. The number one record title actually belonged to Cake...  The only thing this could mean is that the only people actually paying for music anymore are Gen Xers whose tastes stopped evolving in 1995.

I don't know. I like my rock to rock. I like to hear movement. Long-haired bearded dudes on acoustic guitars -- I'm just not in the mood for you.

So, I was pleased to find this morning that The Veils, a moody rock outfit from the U.K. via New Zealand fronted by Finn Andrews (who happens to be the son of a guy who played keyboards in XTC) has released a new seven-song EP. The Veils have spent the last six years putting out some seriously good, if not great, records.  The band's 2006 record Nux Vomica and 2009's Sun Gangs (one of my favorites that year) were very good records.

For anyone who hasn't heard the band, I think it's fair to say there's something of Arcade Fire's mood in the Finn's songwriting if not the actual bombast. There's also a healthy dose of britpop a'l a Pulp and Suede. The new EP Troubles of the Brain, produced by Finn and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler starts off on a fairly upbeat Arcade Fire/Neon Bible footing with "Bloom" and keeps up the energy through.

Bloom is followed by The bouncing, Beatles-esque "Don't Let the Same Bee Sting you Twice" and then another Arcade Fire-like piano-pop number called "The Stars Came Out Once the Lights Came Out."

After a trance-like, droning up-tempo number called "Wishbone," things do slow down for the remainder of the set with three moodier and slower pieces. It drifts into some sleepy spaces, but not enough so to ruin the mood set by the first four tunes.

Overall, the EP is worth picking up. It's a nice collection of songs from an underrated band.