Going underground The Subways lead a pack of up-and-comers into 2006 BY MATT ASHARE

With bad news about 2005 sales figures flooding the accounting departments at the major labels in a year that’s ended on a flat note in record stores, it’s easy to overlook just how well indie labels have been doing. From little ol’ Merge down in Chapel Hill, where big little bands like the Arcade Fire were joined by profitable reissues of Dinosaur Jr.’s first three albums, all the way out to Nebraska’s Saddle Creek, home to Conor Oberst’s ever-changing Bright Eyes, to the tiny imprints like Secretly Canadian (which scored a big hit with Antony and the Johnsons’ Mercury Prize–winning I Am a Bird Now) and Asthmatic Kitty (Sufjan Stevens, anyone?), the little guys have been reaching heights unheard of since Matador and Sub Pop were at the top of their game. The emergence of this new pop underground is clearly linked to the Fox teen drama The OC — or rather to the ongoing series of popular compilations tied to the show, even as they’ve stood alone as promotional tools for the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, the Killers, and Modest Mouse, to name but three recent modern-rock success stories.

The latest newcomers to be championed by The OC are a young British trio who don’t even have an album out in the US. The Subways had already won over their native England with Young for Eternity, which was released last July to reviews like "The sexiest thing to sweep rock ’n’ roll off its feet in years" (NME), when Music from the OC Mix 5 (Warner Bros.) came calling. Not only did the trio’s romantic anthem "Rock ’n’ Roll Queen" make the cut, it’s the first track on Mix 5, which appeared in early November, just in time to prime fans for the Subways’ first major US gig, a show at the Bait Shop. Yes, that is the name of the club in The OC, and the episode aired on November 17. Capitol couldn’t have asked for a better set-up for the American unveiling of Young for Eternity, a waiting-to-be-huge album that was quickly moved up from March to Valentine’s Day. Looking for more hooks? Well, scruffy frontman Billy Lunn and blonde bassist Charlotte Cooper, who often trade verses, are in pure puppy love, and drummer Josh Morgan is Lunn’s younger brother. It’s almost too perfect. But this is the album to watch for in the first quarter of 2006.

The genuine indie upsurge begins on January 24, with a trio of very different female singers. Beth Ditto fronts the Kill Rock Stars blooze-punk powerhouse the Gossip with a Big Mama Thornton voice and a whole lot of sassy attitude. But on the guitar/drums/voice trio’s Standing in the Way of Control, Ditto, an Olympia-by-way-of-Alabama force of nature, reveals her sensual soulwoman side for the first time. On Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love), Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis takes a step away from her indie-pop roots to play a little countrified folk with vocal help from the Watson Sisters. Some of her other guests include Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Bright Eyed Conor Oberst, and if M. Ward’s first name is Matt, then he produced four tracks. (Lewis’s Rilo Kiley mate Blake Sennett also has an album coming out on the 24th, Sun, Sun, Sun on Sub Pop, the sophomore disc from his rootsy side project the Elected.)

But the most eagerly awaited January 24 indie release comes from Chan Marshall’s new and improved Cat Power. The Greatest (Matador) is as fully produced and confident-sounding as its title suggests. It’s also a departure: Marshall recorded it in Memphis with Mabon "Teenie" Hodges and Leroy "Flick" Hodges, the guitar/bass brother act who worked with Al Green and Willie Mitchell starting way back in the late ’60s and haven’t lost any of their soulful sense of swing or groove. Oh and while we’re talking roots, might as well mention Rosanne Cash: her Black Cadillac (Capitol), inspired by her father Johnny, may be a major-label release, but it’s not likely to sell like one.

The indie boys get off to a slower start, with Palace Brother Will Oldham in his Bonnie "Prince" Billy guise partnering with Chicago post-rock pioneers Tortoise for a January 24 disc titled The Brave and the Bold (Overcoat). It’s good for both parties: Oldham’s always at his best when he’s got a real collaborator, and, as their tour with Daniel Lanois last year demonstrated, Tortoise can be a little stifling on their own. But even that combination of talents won’t overshadow the return of the seven-piece Glasgow-based Belle and Sebastian, who hooked up with Beck producer Tony Hoffer in an LA studio to record The Life Pursuit (Matador; February 7), a typically cryptic title from a band who’ve always had literary pretensions. What’s interesting this time is not just their choice of producer but rumors that they delved into a little neo–new wave. It’s hard to imagine Stuart Murdock getting his groove on, but anything’s possible.

Meanwhile, having inked a solo deal with V2, former Belle and Sebastian chanteuse Isobel Campbell has joined forces with gruff-voiced Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan for a full-length due on February 21. It appears the two met when Lanegan was on tour with Queens of the Stone Age and bonded over a mutual fondness for Hank Williams. As a teaser, the Ramblin’ Man EP, featuring a cover of the Hank title tune, has already come out in the States. The full-length Ballad of the Broken Seas is scheduled for February 21, just one week ahead of Hank Williams III’s long-delayed two-disc set Straight to Hell (BRUC). And before we move up from the underground, it’s worth noting that Eels made a live recording of last year’s impressive orchestral tour and February 21 will see the release of the CD/DVD set Eels with Strings: Live at Town Hall (Vagrant), which documents a June 30 concert in NYC.

The majors start rolling out their big guns on, yes, January 24, when both Yellowcard and P.O.D. will have new discs in stores. P.O.D. pull out all the stops on Testify (Atlantic): guests include Hollaback grrrl Gwen Stefani, Kornman Jonathan Davis, rapper B-Real, and even Hassidic reggae sensation Matisyahu, whose major-label debut, Youth (Epic), is due on March 7. Pop-punkers Yellowcard, meanwhile, went the video-game route by licensing the first single from Lights and Sounds (Capitol) to EA’s Burnout Revenge game. Some of the other commercial contenders scheduled for the first quarter of 2006 include the My Chemical Romance live CD/DVD set Life on the Murder Scene (Reprise; February 7); Kid Rock’s imaginatively titled Live (Atlantic; February 14); Juvenile’s cameo-loaded Reality Check (Atlantic; February 28); Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour’s first solo disc in more than two decades, On an Island (Columbia; March 7); an as-yet-untitled new Vines album on Capitol that, given the band’s reputation, will probably be pushed back past its current March 7 release date; an as-yet-untitled new EVANESCENCE disc on Wind-Up that at least has a debut single titled "Prisoner for a Long Day" (March 14); a Rick Rubin–produced new one from the Dixie Chicks that Columbia has down for March 21; and, in April, new studio albums from the Red Hot Chili Peppers (the 4th), and Jet and Pearl Jam (both April 11).

In the wake of the passing of founding Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller last June, singer/guitarist Dave Pirner and guitarist Dan Murphy have regrouped with former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson for the tentatively titled Crazy Mixed Up World (Legacy; April). And Astralwerks is checking into the possibility of having a track from Beth Orton’s Jim O’Rourke–produced Comfort of Strangers (February 7) on one of them OC mixes.