bipedal in five

I've Moved

2011-12-18T04:06:00.002-05:00

Don't read this blog anymore.

Read this one:
http://soundtracksandflashbacks.blogspot.com/

Same inconsistent author,
same rarely-updated content.

Remembering FLNL and Puller

2010-03-29T21:08:00.000-04:00

Once or twice a year I get into these serious fits where I listen to a lot of For Love Not Lisa and, by extension, Puller.

For Love Not Lisa --
- two full-length albums (Merge, 1993, and Information Superdriveway, 1995)
- a compilation of b-sides and alternate takes (The Lost Elephant, 1999)
- and at least one EP in there somewhere.
Formed in Oklahoma City in the early '90s. Broke up soon after releasing Information Superdriveway.

Vastly overlooked, supremely underrated. They were a '90s band, to be sure, playing '90s music. They rode that wave of post-Nevermind grunge/alternative rock that infiltrated every college radio station and cassette mix tape between Seattle and DC, but their songmanship was extraordinary. Everything had to be as serious and as passionate as possible, and it came off (in these days before inherent irony ruined everything about loud music) completely sincere. More post-grunge than anything, the music stops and starts and climaxes and crescendos and, when given enough running time, wanders in and out of semi-lucid dream states.

If there's any wide-spread familiarity of the band at all it's from their appearance on the soundtrack to The Crow. In fact, "Slip Slide Melting" is playing in a bar in one of the scenes. But other than that, despite their dedicated following, FLNL was never given the promotion they needed and deserved.

Frontman Mike Lewis, bassist Clint McBay, and guitarist Miles went on to play in...

Puller
- three full-length albums
- one live release (Live @ Tomfest, 1999)
- and a split EP with Roadside Monument (1997)
Until their final album Puller still benefited from Lewis' impassioned vocals and the plowing guitars that gave FLNL their signature sound. However, Puller songs were not laden with so much heavy atmosphere. Lyrically the songs still came from someplace angsty, but there's an unpinpointable lightness (or is it just maturity?) that serves as an almost unconscious undercurrent to the music.

...Except it's not so subtle in "#1 Fan". That song is just silly.

Puller never made it onto any cult movie soundtracks, but they've been on just about every Tooth & Nail compilation album produced between 1997 and 2000. Songs From the Penalty Box, anybody?

Puller's final album, What's Mine at Twilight (2001), saw the band reduced to a Mike Lewis/drummer Geoff Riley duo (although Miles makes a songwriting credit). This one lacks the punch and swagger of all other Lewis-related rock projects and is a Puller release in name only. It is still special in its own sort of way, mostly because it contains LOVE SONGS. I actually find it very accessible and spin it more than I do the other albums.

Anyway, following the demise of Puller, Mike Lewis released a solo album. I remember listening to one track from it and being very disappointed. But that was one listen to one song, and that was years ago. I'm more than willing to give the album a full chance, if I can ever find the dang thing.

Lewis went on to form Zambooie.com with Bruce Fitzhugh, a company devoted to merchandising shirts and stuff for bands (or something like that). Bill Power is involved now, and if you enjoyed Puller ten years ago you were probably also jamming to Blenderhead. Lewis and Power are actually doing very good things at the moment.

I've only seen Puller once. It was at Cornerstone '01. Stupidly I never took any pictures. The band was promoting WMaT, and rather than playing the softer intimate love songs they (a full live band, none of this wimpy duo stuff) blasted the rock, shooting energy through their instruments and bodies like this was the last show they were ever going to play, hitting up a few of their old favorites, engaging their sweaty audience, ensuring that no matter what they played or where they played it nobody would forget the time spent with Puller. I can only assume the same would have been said for any given FLNL performance.

For Love Not Lisa - Coming Into Focus
[also, the music video for this song is infinitely entertaining]

For Love Not Lisa - Lucifer For Now

Puller - Light In Eve's Time (Live @ Tomfest 99)

2000-2009:10-1

2010-01-21T15:30:00.000-05:00

So here we are. FINALLY. My top ten releases from the years 2000 to 2009. Keep in mind that this is a subjective list of favorites, and I don't really care if you think I messed it up.

These final ten are comprised of an internationally diverse group of musicians. Music is, after all, a medium unrestricted by the boundaries of coherent language. Included here are a bunch of Canadians, Icelanders, Frenchies, a couple of Italians, our Japanese vocalist again, and I think Shelby Cinca was born in Romania or something. And then there are the Americans, of course. Loud and proud.

10) Kathleen Edwards - Back to Me
Though all three of her full-length releases are outstanding, this one stands out a bit more than the others. You might remember the "Back to Me" single, and it is by far the friskiest song on the album. The other tracks are emotionally heavy and vocally harmonized to perfection. Though lyrically focused, the instrumentation is solid and the bittersweet slide guitar bends the music into what sad country songs should be.
Kathleen Edwards - Back to Me
Kathleen Edwards - Copied Keys

9) Blonde Redhead - Misery is a Butterfly
A little bit aristocratic, a little bit arty, a little bit rock 'n' roll, Misery is completely magnificent. The vocals (shared by Kazu Makino and Amedeo Pace) are breathy yet somehow also squeaky, if that makes any sense. Atmospherically lush by way of strings and organs, Misery is a dreamy voyage to familiar places you've never been.
Blonde Redhead - Misery is a Butterfly

8) Frodus - And We Washed Our Weapons in the Sea
From the grinding bass that opens track one to the calming afloat-at-sea instrumental at the end of the record, this, Frodus' final studio album, is their magnum opus. It is all at once angular, blistering, paranoid, and post-apocalyptic. Labeled "spazz-core" early on, the band takes the genre to unforeseen and awesome (as well as awe-some) levels. Though completed in 1999, it was not released until 2001 and is thus technically an aughties album.
Frodus - The Earth Isn't Humming
Frodus - There Will Be No More Scum
Frodus - Red Bull of Juarez

7) Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
One day it suddenly dawned on me that I had never heard a BSS song I didn't like. You Forgot It In People is a fantastic collection of songs that I really truly don't not like. It's chill, but still incredibly noisy. This is headphone music as there's a lot going on. The album credits also read like a Canadian Indie roll-call.
Broken Social Scene - KC Accidental

6) twothirtyeight - Regulate the Chemicals
Originally released in 2000 on Takehold Records (oh, the memories), Chemicals was re-released by Tooth & Nail and features two additional songs, neither of which sound like they should be on the album but are good songs nonetheless. The original tracks are angsty, but not in the annoying teenage way. More in the awkward young-adult way where the future is wide open yet unattainable. Personally I've attached many fond memories to this album and it will always remain an all-time favorite.
twothirtyeight - The Songs Will Write the Words

5) Sigur Rós - ( )
Probably the most pretentious records ever. None of the tracks were named upon the album's release, the album's title is unpronounceable, and all of the lyrics are sung in a made-up language. It's kind of ridiculous, and if the songs weren't as absolutely beautiful as they are then it would be an exercise in silliness. But these songs are bucolic and hopeful, building layers upon layers until the idyllic has turned into something triumphantly grandiose.
Sigur Rós - Untitled #4 (aka Njósnavélin)
Sigur Rós - Untitled #8 (aka Popplagið)

4) Norma Jean - Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child
Chug-chug-weee-weee'd to perfection. Botch clone? Perhaps. But I find Norma Jean deliciously more chunky, and when Bless the Martyr was released all the xJCHCx kids desperately needed an anthemic 'core album to get behind. It has since moved from trendy to endearing and will never be forgotten, a testament to the music's craftsmanship and the hookiness of each songs' "key moment."
Norma Jean - Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste

(Holy Cameo Appearances, Batman!)

3) Iron & Wine - Woman King
Either a short album or a long EP, Woman King is six songs of woodsy southern gothic folksiness. More upbeat than his prior releases (and significantly more hi-fi), Samuel Beam continues to explore his (your? my?) disquieted soul. Not long enough to bore you, not short enough to tease you, Beam has crafted (perhaps with an antique chisel) one of the best collection of songs ever.
Iron & Wine - Woman King

2) Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - Rats in Heaven
Gritty and real. Like, REALLY real. Jeff Suffering takes an honest look at the dark soul of man, revealing what undeserving creatures humans are. But found at the lowest point is redemption, and a solemn eleven-and-a-half minute rendition of "Amazing Grace" concludes the album. I am blown away each and every time I hear these songs.
Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - The Collector
Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - The Potters Field

1) Comity - The Deus Ex-Machina as a Forgotten Genius (Andy Warhol Sucks)
So my favorite album from the aughts comes from France. A French metal band, no less. Only seven tracks in length, the band packs as much metal and as many metallic genres into these songs as they can. The end result is ambitious, complex, and epic. Listening to the entire album at once would be akin to being a part of an hour-long car crash. Even hearing out just one track is a serious endeavor as most push the ten-minute mark. There is a parental advisory that accompanies Ex-Machina, but it's probably because the metal of Comity is capable of exploding a child's head.
Comity - Alleluia Versus Amen (As Eros Kills)

2000-2009:20-11

2010-01-11T21:20:00.000-05:00

20) Neko Case - Blacklisted
Even those tired of country music will stick around to listen (really listen) to Case's resounding and haunting vocals. Echoes, slide guitars, vocal pipes, and basically everything are perfectly utilized to create an atmospheric album culled from a sepia-toned past located somewhere between the Appalachians and the American mid-west.
Neko Case - Deep Red Bells

19) Pedro the Lion - Winners Never Quit
A David Bazan project through-and-through (he performs all the instruments and wrote all but one of the songs) Winners spills the details of a cautionary tale full of political scandal, murder, familial turmoil, and redemption (with a Bazan twist, naturally). Fun for everybody!
Pedro the Lion - A Mind of Her Own
Pedro the Lion - Never Leave a Job Half Done

18) Aaron Sprinkle - The Kindest Days
Known primarily for his production work and his 1990s contributions to Poor Old Lu, people forget that his solo stuff is marvelous. So dig this overlooked gem out of some discount CD bin somewhere and marvel at it. Elliott Smith-ish, and hooky as heck.
Aaron Sprinkle - Genevieve

17) Mason Jennings - Boneclouds
Jennings does what he does best here, and that's croon the loveliest love songs this side of Neil Young balladry. He has the sense of rhythm and positivity that will draw comparisons to Jack Johnson, but here he puts together something very solid without losing the folkiness that makes him so appealing in the first place.
Mason Jennings - Moon Sailing On the Water

16) Elliott Smith - Figure 8
I hear a lot of White Album in there, that oximoronic subtle lushness. Songs here are divided into two categories: the acousties and the rockies. The acousties sound bare despite the studio effects and are disarming in their ability to twist the hearer's emotions (even the bouncy acousties). And the rockies... well, they just freakin' rock.

15) ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Source Tags & Codes
Pitchfork gave Source Tags a rare 10/10, for whatever that's worth. I give it a high-five for devastating the way I think about music. It is agitation musically embodied without any of the cliches that riddle rock and roll.
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Relative Ways

14) Bob Dylan - Love & Theft
Released on September 11, 2001, the fact that this album was not ignored in the ensuing months is a testament to how good it is. Dylan voice is froggier, but the man himself is just as wily as ever. Hear him swagger them Delta blues. Feel some banjo-pickin'. Lap up the mud.
Bob Dylan - High Water (For Charley Patton)

13) Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
Listening to this album (save for the couple fun upbeat tunes) is like putting your heart in a vise and having your every human failing turn the crank as they're revealed to you. Of course, Edwards does this with musical sensibilities of a morose Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen, but with sultrier vocals.
Kathleen Edwards - Goodnight, California

12) Royksopp - The Understanding
There's some pop in there, but this album isn't electro-pop. But neither is it convoluted electronica. It's butter-smooth and open like a clear winter sky. The Norwegian duo's strength relies on their mid-tempo output, but there's subtle genius in the slower and faster songs as well.

11) mewithoutyou - Brother, Sister
This is the band's best album. Deal with it. Deal with the melancholy, deal with Jeremy Enigk dropping by to blow you away, deal with the flugelhorn, deal with interludes full of multi-colored spiders, deal with convicting lyrics, and deal with the passion with which it's all delivered.
Now watch them undermine it all with just one music video that grows increasingly more awkward as it progresses.

2000-2009:30-21

2009-12-30T17:45:00.001-05:00

A bit more mainstream.
A lot more video.

30) The Decemberists - Picaresque
Picaresque is an epic and theatrical step forward from Her Majesty, yo-yo-ing the listener between the high highs and low lows like a catchy melodrama.
The Decemberists - Engine Driver

29) mewithoutyou - Catch For Us the Foxes
This follow-up to [A -->B] Life surprised its listeners when it was first released. The songs were more angular, more melodic, less distorted, easier to discern, more accessible, and more awesome. There are still moments of severe rocktitude, but on the whole Foxes is a little bit more subdued and lyrically introspective.

28) Damien Jurado - Where Shall You Take Me?
Like all good Jurado albums, this one covers themes of bittersweet nostalgia, America, loves, lost loves, regret, and contains a good folksy song or two in there for good measure.
Damien Jurado - Texas to Ohio

27) Aimee Mann - Lost in Space
Dour but not dark. Aggressive but smoooth. Cold but alluring. This but also that.

Aimee Mann - High on Sunday 51

26) Elliott Smith - From a Basement on a Hill
Incomplete when Smith STABBED HIMSELF TO DEATH IN THE CHEST, this album was pieced together from what was already recorded. It still manages to sound polished and full, maybe a bit more swaggery than what we're used to, and though Smith may have had other ideas regarding the direction of this project, Basement is still an Elliott Smith album through-and-through.
Elliott Smith - Twilight
Elliott Smith - Memory Lane

25) The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
It's hard to take things seriously when pink robots are involved, but these songs are beautifully lush and tinged with mournful undercurrents. Yoshimi is ambitious electro-psychedelic rock goodness. Listen to the album with good speakers/headphones as there's a lot going on here.

24) Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Inspired by the great country music of the past half-century, Fox Confessor features the glorious vocals of Case over music that will make you scoot your boots or fill your beers with tears.

Neko Case - Hold On, Hold On
Neko Case - Star Witness

23) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
I'm not going to try to explain The Crane Wife. I just made an attempt and it just sounded like buckets of pretension and ignorance. So instead I'll mention that there are some stories in those songs, some movements, and a lot of good prog moments (if there is such a thing).

22) Mason Jennings - Birds Flying Away
Jennings' second full-length release is a tremendous piece of American folk-rock. He gets agitated and political, but in the catchiest way possible. And just in case songs about the Black Panthers aren't your thing, the ballads here are some of the loveliest you will ever hear.
Mason Jennings - Stars Shine Quietly

21) Extol - Undeceived
One of the best metal albums ever. Epic, brutal, technical, and surprisingly beautiful (strings!). The Nords do it right. For some reason I take special satisfaction when those of immeasurable musical talent use their superpowers for the sake of metal.
Extol - Undeceived

2000-2009:40-31

2009-12-22T18:20:00.000-05:00

In this ten:
3 Canadian-based bands
1 Brazilian-based band
2 Japanese front-women
1 pair of Italian twins
1 Swede
The rest are just American leftovers.

40) Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Listening to Crystal Castles is like watching a Nintendo have a grand mal seizure at a warehouse rave. I kinda like it. A more direct description, Crystal Castles drops percussion on a bed of 8-bit audio smeared by edgy distorted chick vocals. There are a lot of ways to describe this duo, but none of it will make sense until you let them abuse your eardrums.

Crystal Castles - Untrust Us

39) Blonde Redhead - 23
Released in 2007, this is their latest full-length release (though apparently the band is working on a new one). Poppier than their previous albums (or "more accessible," whatever you want to call it), 23 still delivers Kazu Makino's ghosty vocals and the Pace twins' haunting melodies. But rather than being hypnotized by the music, you will probably find yourself doing some toe-tappin'.

38) Wintersleep - untitled
Everybody likes Welcome to the Night Sky, released in 2007. It's okay, but their 2005 release is where it's at. Not necessarily a self-titled release (they already had one of those in 2003), this album picks out the best elements of dour post-grunge to bring forth excellent and surprisingly explosive moody alt-rock.

Wintersleep - Insomnia

37) Bright Eyes - Fevers and Mirrors
Released in May of 2000, Fevers set the tone for super-sensitive neo-folk. Lots of angsty late-teenage introspection, as Conor Oberst was 19 when he recorded these songs. What sets him apart from the other whiny nonsense is his ability to convey these heavy emotions sincerely without any sense of irony (which makes the mock interview found on the album all the more hilarious).
Bright Eyes - Something Vague

36) Christian Kjellvander - Songs From a Two Room Chapel
There might be something about the northern snowy desolation of Sweden that intrisically causes its musicians to produce bleak and soul-bendingly sorrowful music. This perspective also allows the Swedes to write and perform Americana better than the Americans. Anyway, meet Christian Kjellvander, the Swedish Richard Buckner.

Christian Kjellvander - Allelujah

35) CSS - Cansei de ser Sexy
Slightly snotty, fairly reprehensible, and mostly electro-funky. Like everything that displays youthful exuberance through loud fashion and mild crassness you'll find CSS (both the band and the album) either cool or annoying. As we're so far down the list you can correctly postulate where I stand.

CSS - Alala

34) Hopesfall - No Wings to Speak Of
Under twenty-minutes in length, this four-song EP is completely and wholly glorious, displaying Hopesfall at their musical apex. Epic, melodic, passionate, and, when appropriate, brutal. Line-up changes soon after No Wings was recorded ensured music like this would never be heard again.
Hopesfall - The End of an Era

33) Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
The highly-anticipated follow-up to Funeral is a little bit more serious yet is just as catchy and even a bit more fun. There's lots of social/political/religious commentary (mostly sarcastic criticisms) but the moderate tempo keeps the album from being too heavy-handed. "Intervention" makes me want to physically explode, spontaneous combustion-like.
Arcade Fire - Intervention

32) Deerhoof - Apple O'
Insane and/or ingenious. Either way, the music is spastically delightful and, in its own special way (and I do mean special), quite beautiful. Fun if you like bursts of atonality, a mashed sense of what rock 'n' roll should be, pandas, and very short Japanese women.
Deerhoof - Sealed With a Kiss
Deerhoof - L' Amour Stories

31) Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlantacism
My favorite Death Cab album. Songs revolve around themes of travel and love and departed loves and weepy things like that. The tracks meld nicely into each other, but naturally stand strongly on their own.
Death Cab For Cutie - The New Year

2000-2009:50-41

2009-12-10T16:20:00.001-05:00

TOP 50, EVERYBODY!

50)Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down
Pre-DC Chris Carraba on vocals + post-Strongarm band members = passionate rock 'n' roll. The Moon is Down takes me back to a time of musical discovery, late nights, and most excellent camaraderie. It's the soundtrack to life lived, peaks and valleys and all.
Further Seems Forever - Monechetti

49)Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State
Any album inspired by the state of Michigan is going to have an underlying undercurrent of depression and lost hope, and Stevens doesn't skim over these things. In fact, Sufjan's most heart-breaking songs are found here. But, as always, there is sweetness amongst the bitter and, utilizing xylophones and banjos and whatnot, he reminds us that there is always cause to rejoice.
Sufjan Stevens - For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
Sufjan Stevens - Holland

48)Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
A concept album about a boxer and his girlfriend and the way they mess up each other's lives, each song stands up on its own even as the unifying story takes its depressing turns.

Aimee Mann - Little Bombs

47)Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
Melodic and woodsy (if things pertaining to forestry are accurate ways to describe a music group). The songs are mellow and full of story-snippets, possibly putting Van Occupanther somewhere in neo-folk territory. Hippies will dig it.

Midlake - Roscoe

46)Feist - Let It Die
Let it Die is the better, lesser-known older sister to The Remainder. It's cool and smokey and a wee bit jazzy. And none of the songs appear on Apple commercials (although "Mushaboom" has appeared... somewhere).

Feist - Gatekeeper

45)The Postal Service - Give Up
Okay, so maybe it sounds a bit dated after six years, but these are still good catchy songs. Looking past the peppy novelty of the boops and beeps we hear songs of remorse and regret countered with songs of love and hope. Synth-pop fan or not, there isn't a bad song here.

The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

44)Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel the Illinoise
Like Michigan, except a little more ornate, a little more celebratory, and a little more... is that a song about John Wayne Gacy? Though not as outright depressing as Stevens' preceding release, Illinois banks on the extremes as it peaks with jubilation and dips into authentically spine-chilling moments.
Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

43)Cat Power - You Are Free
Grittier than The Greatest, You Are Free is just as powerful and more musically diverse. Normally I find guest-vocals distracting, but Eddie Vedder's appearance is perfectly low-key.
Cat Power - He War
Cat Power - Good Woman

42)Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
Mark Kozelek's songs are gentle and sweeping, yet stripped down and direct. There is nothing extravagant about them, especially the ones found on Ghosts, but they are timed and crafted so perfectly. It's less like listening to music and more like looking at a Flemish painting.
Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio

41)Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
First of all the album cover features Case on the hood of an old Mercury Cougar wielding a sword. Who cares what the songs sound like. But they are good songs indeed. Taking another step away from her country music roots (steering herself in more folksy, more Alt-country directions), she instead turns her attention to nature and goes so far as to record the album in a barn. Despite the fact that I have heard these songs at work nearly every day for the better part of a year I have yet to become sick of any of them.

Neko Case - People Got A Lotta Nerve
Neko Case - Magpie to the Morning

2000-2009:60-51

2009-12-07T12:01:00.004-05:00

60)As I Lay Dying - Frail Words Collapse
I remember when I first heard "94 Hours" I nearly soiled myself. Like, literally. The volume was up really loud, and those bass blasts... Anyway, solid crunchy metalcore. So good. So good.
As I Lay Dying - 94 Hours

59)Over the Rhine - Ohio
Reoccurring themes on this list: smokey-voiced female singers. Few croon it better than Karin Berquist in that sultry-on-accident kind of way. Regarding Ohio, double-discs usually end up boring me, but all 21 of these tracks are captivating on their own while contributing to some sort of familiar-but-not bigger picture.

58)Death Cab For Cutie - Plans
Yes, I think Plans is better than We Have the Facts and Photo Album. This is my list, not yours. Though Plans was released on a major label, and though it went Platinum, and though it received several Grammy nods, I still get the feeling it's the red-headed step-child of Death Cab albums. It's soft and tender without being whiny, and the songs are really well-crafted.
Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body

57)Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites
Danes! One neat thing about this album (and there are several) is that most of the tracks bleed into each other, forming what could either be a few epic songs or many normal-lengthed ones. Regardless, the music of Mew falls from somewhere beyond the upper atmosphere, a place both heavenly and slightly dangerous. I think it's called Denmark.

56)Richard Buckner - Dents and Shells
Not as generally stripped down as his previous releases (though equally as devastating) Buckner and his posse still utilizes the two most heart-wrenching instruments known to man: the slide guitar, and his own husky voice. There's an underlying sensation of hope, however, that prevents Dents from being such a downer.
Richard Buckner - A Chance Counsel

55)The Dismemberment Plan - Change
Are they being serious? Are they being sarcastic? Joking around? Bored? Somebody tell me how to feel. The songs themselves are unquestionably awesome as they're built around the hookiest hooks and too-clever lyrics. Tragically, this was the Plan's last studio album as they broke up a couple years after its 2001 release.

The Dismemberment Plan - Superpowers

54)Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day
Southern rock with a much-needed conscience. The Truckers exhibit southern pride without ignoring the socioculteral elements and attitudes that have retarded the region since the 1800s. And somehow they do it in a musically ear-pleasing way.

53)Morrissey - You Are the Quarry
Speaking of social consciousness... Morrissey! Despite the natural heaviness of political, social, and religious commentary, many of the tracks are upbeat and seriously catchy -- radio-friendly, even, which is somewhat unusual for Morrissey -- and cleanly put together.

52)Denison Witmer - Of Joy and Sorrow
Introspective songs about old and new relationships, friendships, and bittersweet nostalgia. Witmer's delivery is gentle and hushed, yet he holds your attention by striking familiar emotional chords.
Denison Witmer - Simple Life

51)Pedro the Lion - Control
This is where David Bazan made the move from slo-core to something more musically aggressive (though his lyrical aggressiveness has always remained consistently... aggressive). Less a concept album than Winners Never Quit, themes of death and sex and misinterpreted Christianity still permeate Control. The album is both a commentary and a challenge.
Pedro the Lion - Rapture
Pedro the Lion - Penetration

2000-2009:70-61

2009-12-04T18:05:00.005-05:00

70) Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye
More Canadians! Electronic music always seems best when it is composed by duos. While techno, house, and trance have a tendency to lull its listeners into a... trance, Junior Boys music is captivating and groovylicious.
Junior Boys - In the Morning

69) Sigur Ros - Takk...
Sigur Ros's second-best full-length album, Takk... displays more of the magnificent instrumental and vocal arrangements that make the band so wondrous. Always needing to be different, the CD packaging itself is awkwardly sized and sticks out funny on my shelf like an extended middle finger amongst all the other jewel cases.

Sigur Ros - Gong

68) The River Bends - And Flows Into the Sea
A collaboration with One Star Hotel, The River Bends is Denison Witmer backed by (gasp) a full rock band. Though several of the tracks sound more robust than Witmer's solo work, each tune is vintage Denison in its introspection and perfectly placed hooks.
The River Bends - Are You Lonely
The River Bends - 22

67) Ladytron - The Witching Hour
The Witching Hour, when it was released, was a severe departure from the group's cutesy minimal-retro electro-synthpop. The one-dimensional boops and beeps that harmlessly led the listener on were replaced with heavily layered waves of sound crashing rhythmically about. Ladytron, in one album, had turned from a novelty to something positively dangerous. "Destroy Everything You Touch" is a tremendous track.

Ladytron - Beauty*2

66) Mogwai - Rock Action
Murky without being muddled, triumphant without being celebratory, Rock Action is a bipolar musical exploration.
Mogwai - Dial: Revenge

65) Ted Leo + the Pharmacists - Living With the Living
Until The Brutalist Bricks is released in March, Living With the Living is Ted Leo's most recent full-length album. I had previous noted that it wasn't quite as good as his previous releases, but I now see the error of my ways.
Ted Leo + the Pharmacists - A Bottle of Buckie
Ted Leo + the Pharmacists - Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.

64) Envy - All the Footprints You've Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead
Old pros, Envy does epic the way epicness is supposed to be done. The songs are dense, go soft-to-loud (or loud-to-louder), and the vocals are passionately SCREAMED in Japanese.
Envy - Farewell To Words

63) Desaparecidos - Read Music/Speak Spanish
It's Conor Oberst, and he's mad at suburban America. Raging like a teenagers who just learned about the evils of corporations and consumerism, Oberst plugs in his guitar and plays some serious rock 'n' roll.
Desaparecidos - Man and Wife, The Latter (Damaged Goods)

62) Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album
More Death Cab goodness full of smirk-worthy lyrical wit and structure. The music, even when conveying severe agitation, is smooth. The hooks are hooky. The Photo Album is a Death Cab classic.
Death Cab For Cutie - We Laugh Indoors
Death Cab For Cutie - A Movie Script Ending

61) Cat Power - The Greatest
Bluesy, mellow, and solid. Chan Marshall's smokey vocals mesh perfectly with her backing ensemble. I guess you're allowed to name your album The Greatest if it really is the greatest.
Cat Power - The Greatest

2000-2009:80-71

2009-11-30T13:02:00.001-05:00

80) Kathleen Edwards - Failer
Edwards' first full-length commercial release is about as good as debut albums get. Full of fictional (?) first-person accounts and nuggets of what are presumably bigger stories, Failer revolves around Edwards' smokey vocals and songs of personal frustration and human shortcomings.
Kathleen Edwards - One More Song the Radio Won't Like
Kathleen Edwards - Lone Wolf

79) Damien Jurado - Ghost of David
Taking the bleak storytelling a bit further, Jurado, in his minimal folksy way, sings of death, fear, and all that other good stuff. The standout track is "Tonight I Will Retire," a song that is so simple, yet so devastating.
Damien Jurado - Tonight I Will Retire

78) Cool Hand Luke - I Fought Against Myself
The transitional album between their scream-tacular ...So Far EP and the more subdued (though just as passionate) introspective Wake Up, O Sleeper (which set the tone for the remainder of their releases), I Fought Against Myself is full of extremes. It's aggressive, then bare. Obvious, then subtle. Comforting, then convicting.
Cool Hand Luke - Numbing Agent

77) My Hotel Year - The Composition of Ending and Phrasing
Post-power pop, if there is such a genre. In Composition they hit the big chords, but mix it up with starts and stops and time signature changes. MHY were lumped in with all the other faux-emo bands of the late '90s/early '00s, but their tightness and dang-good music separated them from the others.
My Hotel Year - Key Exchange

76) Ted Leo + the Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance
A bit of a throwback, but still adequately bringing the rock, the music of Ted Leo hearkens back to the times of old-school punk. Sometimes you have to keep it pozzie. (Although "The Gold Finch and the Red Oak Tree" is surprisingly tender.)
Ted Leo + the Pharmacists - Squeaky Fingers
Ted Leo + the Pharmacists - Gold Finch and the Red Oak Tree

75) Benoit Pioulard - Précis
Cluttered with sound, though not distractingly so, Précis is an exercise in acoustics and loops, melodies and repetitions. It sounds pretentious and European, but Benoit Pioulard is really just a guy from Michigan. Nothing out of Michigan is too pretentious to enjoy.
Benoit Pioulard - Triggering Back
Benoit Pioulard - Palimend

74) The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
Modern prog-rock, yet restrained and catchy enough to thoroughly enjoy. Lots of fodder for SAT word definitions.

73) Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
With elements of Appalachia folk and Americana permeating their music, Grizzly Bear is too hazy and experimental to be either. Imagine guitars and xylophones and autoharps and banjos and ethereal voices all floating in the midst of a looming cumulonimbus cloud.

Grizzly Bear - Lullaby

72) Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future
The band's only full-length release (so far, they've been working on a new one for years), Myths is psychedelic, groovy, rockin', and dance-worthy disco fun. Personally, it makes me want to visit other planets, but only if their primary heat sources are glowsticks.

Klaxons - Golden Skans

71) Denison Witmer - Carry the Weight
Witmer has steadily given in to the 70s singer/songwriter influences he always mentions in interviews and live performances. His least whiny album, Witmer channels his inner Jackson Browne and Carly Simon to create a great collection of mellow California-folk tunes.
Denison Witmer - One More Day

2000-2009:90-81

2009-11-27T13:00:00.000-05:00

90) Damien Jurado - On My Way to Absence
Musically this sounds like a positive album. Jurado softly croons through most of the songs, lulling the listener with acoustic guitars and reserved pianos and gentle percussion. It's all very serene. But then, of course, you tune into the lyrics and suddenly your whole world is devastated. And just to make sure your soul is adequately crushed he scalds you with surprising vitriol in the song "Icicle." So awesome.
Damien Jurado - White Center
Damien Jurado - Icicle

89) Chris Staples - Blackest Hair, Bluest Eyes
Not quite lo-fi, not quite hi-fi, Christ Staple's first (and so far only) commercial solo release is a mid-fi exploration of mid-western Americana folk rock. A few tracks can be found on his previous two self-produced independent releases, but if you're like me you own all three anyway.
Chris Staples - Blackest Hair, Bluest Eyes

88) Uncle Bob Drives a Combine - Episode III: The Journey Begins
This album is a mind-boinking trip. Episode III tells the story of a man who heads for the city, meets his robot spirit guide (?!) and is eventually befallen by calamity. The music is one part Western soundtrack, one part grindcore, one part sci-fi, and one part... farm. It all comes together to form a killer brain hemorrhaging experience.
Uncle Bob Drives a Combine - Interlude V: Moo!

87) Jose Gonzalez - Veneer
The most relaxing music ever. Gonzalez's voice is gentle, his guitar is gentle, and his songs are perfectly and subtly crafted. Most surprising is his heart-squeezing rendition of "Heartbeats," originally done by the sharp Swedish electronic duo The Knife.

86) Frank Black and the Catholics - Black Letter Days
A good collection of solid catchy, bluesy (but not the blues), acoustic and plugged-in rock. It made the dissolution of the Pixies easier to tolerate, although they're back together now so it really doesn't matter. Everybody wins.
Frank Black and the Catholics - Chip Away Boy

85) Ozma - Rock and Roll Part Three
From their first full-length studio album, Ozma delivers the nerdy power-pop. The best and worst lyric you'll ever hear, from "Apple Trees":

"Take a number like 5, times 10, times 10 again.
500 miles of apple orchards to defend."

Rock and Roll is full of goofy lines like that. Also, track four is a big blatant ode to Natalie Portman. It's called "Natalie Portman."
Ozma - Shooting Stars
Ozma - Battlescars

84) Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - Real Panic Formed
From the very first track (about anti-depressants!) to the last (an eleven-minute lyrical foray into emotional self-torture following the disintegration of a relationship), Real Panic Formed is an unhappy, though probably very necessary, listening experience.
Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - The Other Side of the Moon
Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - Sex is Dead

83) Air - Pocket Symphony
The music of Air is very chill and is the perfect soundtrack to anything. Driving? Eating? Love-making? Dying? Any given song from Pocket Symphony has it covered.
Air - Once Upon a Time

82) Extol - Synergy
Synergy, when it was first released, was a severe departure for the band musically. Suddenly Extol was a thrash metal band instead of a black metal one. For better or worse, due to this shift the songs of Synergy are more accessible than the ones found on their previous albums. Regardless of how this effects you as a metal-head, be assured that their metal-playing abilities were not diminished. Not in the slightest.
Extol - Grace for Succession

81) Songs: Ohia - Didn't It Rain
Minimal and dreary, this album showcases Jason Molina's excellent song-crafting abilities. A rung below Americana, a rung above folk, a rung with some blues influence, and a rung unremoved from indie lo-fi, these tunes are deceptively difficult to define but enthralling to hear.
Songs: Ohia - Two Blue Lights

2000-2009:100-91

2009-11-25T16:00:00.003-05:00

100) Hopesfall - The Satellite Years
Though a far-cry from Frailty of Words and No Wings to Speak Of, The Satellite Years is still full of melodicore goodness. "The Bending" continues to be one of my all-time favorite songs.
Hopesfall - The Bending

99) Death Cab For Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Released March of 2000, this is DCFC's second full-length release. The songs are soft and creamy and, at the right times, bouncy. Gibbard is a great songwriter when he's paying attention.
Death Cab For Cutie - For What Reason
Death Cab For Cutie - Lowell, MA

98) Sunny Day Real Estate - The Rising Tide
From the band's final album (so far... they've reunited this past summer and people keep talking about new material), The Rising Tide is tight and explosive. It does lack the rawness that made their previous albums emotional rollercoasters to listen to. Nevertheless, a weak SDRE is mightier than most anybody's strongest anything.
Sunny Day Real Estate - Snibe

97) The Gloria Record - Start Here
Though active for eight years, The Gloria Record released exactly one full-length album before splitting for other endeavors. This is that record, and it is golden. Despite the dense sonic richness of the music, these songs evoke human fragility. Highlights include "Ascension Dream," a song about intense regret after running over a deer.
The Gloria Record - Ascension Dream
The Gloria Record - Good Morning Providence

96) Starflyer 59 - Old
Starflyer 59 is probably the most consistent band in the world, at least in terms of musical quality and the regularity of new content. As Starflyer's been known to linger in low-tempo ranges, Old is full of mid-to-up-tempo tunes to catch the ear of finicky new listeners. Also, lots of peculiar atmospheric elements.
Starflyer 59 - Underneath

95) Goldfrapp - Supernature
Not disco, but certainly disco-inspired. For whatever it's worth I've heard samples of this album used on TV a lot. The groovy tunes are danceable and the ballads are dreamy. Great stuff.

94) Elevator Division - Years
A staple in the KC music scene for a while, ED played downcast rock that retained enough pop sensibilities (read: HOOKS) to keep the listener perpetually engaged. They put on great live shows and served to remind us what good music is all about. It looks like you can get a used copy of Years through Amazon for $0.01 (+shipping, of course). That's a good buy.
Elevator Division - Radio
Elevator Division - Rearview Mirror

93) Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
On the complete opposite end of the music spectrum is Deerhoof. Zany, quirky, and frantic (and very much musically capable) Deerhoof toned it down slightly for Friend Opportunity. While this made them more accessible, it did little to deter the band's awesomeness.

Deerhoof - +81

92) David Bazan - Curse Your Branches
Released in September, Bazan's long-awaited full-length album did not disappoint. More sonically diverse than anything he did with/as Pedro the Lion, Bazan still sings about the hardest subjects, holding the ugly mirror to our faces while we try to ignore the things that wreck us.
David Bazan - Please, Baby, Please

91) Minus the Bear - Highly Refined Pirates
This is MtB's first full-length album, released in 2002. The song-titles have nothing to do with the music itself, and all they really sing about are girls and booze. Still, they do it so well.
Minus the Bear - Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!

2000-2009:110-101

2009-11-23T13:10:00.005-05:00

The span between 2000 and 2010 were, historically, a peculiar set of years. This was my generation's decade and appropriately they were, event-wise and life-wise, culturally and personally, highlighted by the highest of highs and marred by the lowest of lows.

The soundtrack to our decade is adequately representational and, fortunately enough, supremely enjoyable. Musically the Aughts far exceeded the nonsense that was the Nineties.

Unfortunately I was not able to slim down my top picks to the best five or ten or twenty. I counted 110 albums that were absolutely necessary to include on this best-of list. Be happy I ranked them for you. I usually don't do that. So, for the next several weeks we are going to take a listen back at the albums (compact disc, vinyl, or otherwise) that made the last ten years tolerable.

I know there are a vast number of superb LPs, EPs, Internet-only releases, etc., that never crossed my ears. I can't listen to everything. I have better things to do. So what we have are my personal picks that, in some way or another, moved me, shook me, and/or dropped me dead. These are collections of songs that worthy to be shared and enjoyed by others.

110) mewithoutyou - [A-->B] Life
The band's first blistering release. While the band continues to be awesome, they've never thrown punches as hard as they did with A-to-B. En Francais, even.
mewithoutyou - Bullet to Binary.

109) Living Sacrifice - Hammering Process
Released in 2000, Hammering Process set the bar in br00tality. Most other songs from most other albums sound pithy in comparison.
Living Sacrifice - Bloodwork.

108) Arcade Fire - Funeral
Our first Canadians on the list. Quebecois at that. An Indie darling, at least until Neon Bible was released, Funeral is pleasantly dense, lulling but ungentle, and anthemic.
Arcade Fire - Wake Up.
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).

107) Dntel - This Is The Dream of Evan and Chan
As this is a single containing five versions of the same song, I am probably cheating here. I completely don't care. A lot of remixes don't do justice to the original. But these remixes, as they build on the themes and elements of "Evan and Chan," remain true while simultaneously exploring the bounds of the song. Track 6, "Your Hill," is a keeper as well.
Dntel - (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan.
Dntel - (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan [Barbara Morgenstern Remix].

106) St. Vincent - Actor
Marry Me was excellent. This follow-up is more excellenter. Angular, catchy, bizarre but familiar, Actor illustrates how and why Annie Clark is new American Kate Bush.
St. Vincent - Actor Out of Work.
St. Vincent - Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood

105) The New Pornographers - Challengers
The New Pornos got serious with Challengers while still maintaining the sugeryness that made their previous albums sparkle. The only thing I could have asked for was more Neko Case voicebox. But then it would have been a Neko Case album, and there already are a couple of those to come.

The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour.

104) Ladytron - Velocifero
Picking up where Witching Hour left off, Velocifero is a catchy cool display of electro-rock fuzz. Two songs are sung in Bulgarian, which I think is fantastic as Bulgaria is vastly underrepresented in the modern indie rock scene.

Ladytron - Black Cat.

103) Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
They may be Joy Division rip-offs, but if you are going to rip-off a band it might as well be a good one. Bright Lights is tic-toc steady and a little more goth (in the early-80s punk sense of the word) than anybody wants to admit.
Interpol - NYC
Interpol - Obstacle 2.

102) Mouse Fire - Wooden Teeth
These hooks are so killer that the corpses are still bobbing their heads. Pop-rock with a furled brow. Pop-rock without the frills.
Mouse Fire - Feel Good Drag

101) Beach House - Beach House
Haunting and bendy, like lucidly finding ones' self in a dream. They say their follow-up, Devotion, is even better, but I haven't had a chance to listen to that one yet, and my list is already made, so self-titled it is!
Beach House - Master of None
Beach House - Auburn and Ivory

Stay tuned.

2009-11-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

The Bipedal blog is being resuscitated for an end-of-the-decade send-off.

Stay tuned.

2000

2009-03-17T19:13:00.000-04:00

The year 2000 does not seem like such a long time ago... and yet it was! Nine years have passed since the Y2k scare, since we exited the 1990s, since Bush, Jr., first entered the White House. A lot really has happened between now and then. I had to make a lot of personal adjustments as well since this was also the year I graduated from high school and entered college. Music was also turning a corner as certain scenes died (ska, industrial) and others (rap-core, metalcore, revitalized hardcore, and something we mislabeled as "emo") took off. Of these I tended to favor the sad stuff because, obviously, nobody on Earth could possibly understand how I felt.

We're not going to look at the outright emo-y stuff because, in retrospect, quite a bit of it was actually quite annoying. Instead we'll focus on these five performers who were (and some continue to) express loss and doubt and shame in an authentic and ear-pleasing manner.

Lock the door so nobody will see you cry. We're going to revisit some of the music that made gray clouds weep cold rain... IN THE YEAR 2000!

Bear Quartet - Helpless
The Bear Quartet are, at last count, a quintet from Sweden who, despite having been around for twenty years, remain fairly obscure. They cover a myriad of noisy genres, from straight up rock to electro-pop to post-punk, but excel when they tone it down for the weepy ballads. In "Helpless" the lyrics are vague (and Swedishly accented), but the stumbling acoustic guitar and pitter-pat percussion and the wispily sung chorus convey soft forlorn emotions that are bittersweetly familiar, even if there's not really anything identifiable to put your finger on.

Kind of Like Spitting - Birds of a Feather
In 2000 Ben Barnett, who pretty much IS Kind of Like Spitting, released (at least) three full-length albums and a split, and there were probably some other EPs recorded that year as well. He is a prolific beast, yet his songwriting remains uncompromised. Two things stand out in this song... well, way more than two, but these are the things that grab me hardest: 1) the violin that winds its way through the music like a thin stream of water, and 2) the closing lines of the song. It's all a little bit angsty, but in a resigned sort of way rather than the more irritating overwrought sort of way.

Damien Jurado - Tonight I Will Retire
This was the very first Damien Jurado song I ever heard, and it is still one of my favorites. I couldn't understand how such joyful things like embracing your lover and going to heaven could end up being so dang sad. Listen to the lyrics and hear it all unfold. The instrumentation doesn't add much in the way of happiness as it's only Jurado's soft voice over top sparse piano playing and even sparser percussion. It's a bleak recipe for complete and utter sadness. Enjoy! By the way that's David Bazan on keys and drums, and sources tell me that even the album's name, Ghost of David, refers to Mr. Bazan. Why don't they just get a room?

Pedro the Lion - Bad Things to Such Good People
So... David Bazan. He can and will devastate you. The story told in this song makes a little bit of sense on its own, but to be fully appreciated it should be taken within the context Winners Never Quit which tells the story of two brothers, one a successful politician, the other a screw-up. There's a lot of drama and "Bad Things", located near the end of the album, describes some of the aftermath. It's amazing how many emotions this one song can elicit, all of them negative. What's completely positive, though, is Bazan's acoustic guitar-playing. It churns and gallops as he wails about familial disappointment and spiritual crises. This album changed the way I thought about music while depressing the heck out of me.

The Gloria Record - A Lull in Traffic
This title track from The Gloria Record's A Lull in Traffic EP. It's a musical departure (or advancement) from the band's previous work in that there is a lot more going on here sonically. While the band's first recordings seemed to pick up where Mineral left off, the initial pop of the very first note from this, the very first song from the EP, indicates that the music is going to hover in a more etheral direction. And it certainly does. "A Lull in Traffic" (both the song and the entire album) sound like Christmas songs for the wary. Lyrically every line of this song is a keeper even though nothing is really being described. It's like hearing a vague outline to the story of a failed life, and you can interpret the middle as you like.

Jesper Norda Update

2009-02-20T22:01:00.000-05:00

If you enjoyed Jesper Norda's Little Ones EP as much as I did (it was amongst my favorite releases of '08) then you'll be happy to know he has posted some new material, We Have the Guts EP, available to freely download and listen. As before this new collection of music is very low-key and stripped bare and carries on like a brooding inner monologue (that is, if that inner monologue were backed by a piano and delivered with a Swedish accent).
Jesper Norda - Ami's Song

However if cold introspection isn't your thing, but groovy synth-pop is, then check out the duo If There Is Something, another Norda-involved project shakin' things up on the opposite end of the musical spectrum. Again, the entire release, titled Put Your Jacket On, is free to have and to hold, so get on that.
If There Is Something - The Joy Of

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T14:30:00.002-05:00

It's a great day for those of us in love.
And for all you other suckers...
there's always next year.

Valentine's Day = the Chicago Cubs of holidays.

The Status - Happy Valentine's Day

Kathleen Edwards, Hunting Horns, 2/9/09 @ Aeolian Hall, London, ON

2009-02-10T22:50:00.004-05:00

I've been wanting to see Kathleen Edwards for a long time. She tours constantly and even lives less than a couple hours away from where I do, but I've never had a good opportunity to attend one of her live shows. I've gleaned some performances from Youtube and have recorded her televised 2004 appearance at Rehearsal Hall that Bravo! airs periodically, but it's not quite the same as living and breathing in the same room at the same time as her. So finally, finally, a London concert was scheduled and I scooped up tickets for what turned out to be a sold-out show.

The event was held at the historic Aeolian Hall of London, Ontario (not to be confused with the historic Aeolian Hall of London, England), housed in the upper half of a 125-year-old building located just east of downtown. A narrow stairway spirals patrons up from the ground floor and into a quaint old lobby. The lobby, being that it is a lobby, abuts the hall itself where ticket holders can either climb more stairs to hang out on the balcony (where the view of the stage is very nearly obstructed by the chandelier) or claim a chair on the floor. High or low, as long as the chandelier isn't in the line of sight there isn't a bad seat in the house. The floor space is unexpectedly small but not tight, although it may only feel small due to the stage being so large and the ceiling so far away. Holding that ceiling up, by the way, are a series of large wooden beams. Beams, in addition to bearing loads, carry a surprising amount of character.

Following a brief introduction by the Hall's owner, Toronto's The Hunting Horns took the stage. Wearing tweed suits and thin ties the four performers appeared dressed to hawk snake oil. Couple that with the 19th century hall architecture (beams!) and the atmosphere became oddly nostalgic in a brown-colored post-war sort of way (though I'm sure nobody in that building except for the old man taking tickets could even remember the 1940s). Short a drummer, they crooned out lonely neo-folky southern gothic numbers by way of a stand-up bass and guitars and a keyboard in piano mode, and occasionally an accordion and a mandolin and a banjo would make an appearance. They seemed a bit loose, and maybe some solid percussion would have tightened things up.* It didn't help that the guitarist broke a string on the very first song. Anyway, if you like Nick Cave or the Castanets or you read too much Faulkner then check out their Myspace page. "The Vulture" is a good song.

After the Hunting Horns came Kathleen Edwards. Again, a drum set was conspicuously absent and she was accompanied by only one instrumentalist on either side of her; "Jim Bryson on red guitar" and "Gord Tough on yellow guitar." Bryson also played the keyboard and harmonized beautifully with Edwards, who also played guitar and harmonica. This was to be a stripped down and low-key affair, but a no-less entertaining one.

The setlist was full and varied and covered all three of her major releases. She often swung suddenly from a completely depressing song to something upbeat, but the transition was never jarring or even awkward. Midway through the set a Merle Haggard tune was played in honor of an encounter she had with an American border guard (an occurance that residents of Southern Ontario are not unfamiliar with).

In interviews and certainly during between-song banter Edwards continuously cracks jokes and tells funny stories. A lot of humor stems from her honest approach to things, and this honesty carries over into her music as well, but in a darker, more serious way. Her songs are often quite serious and usually about strained relationships (gruesomely like "6 O'Clock News", subtly like "Hockey Skates", and everywhere in between). If it weren't for the upbeat songs that periodically appear on her albums then listening to Edwards' music could become quite a downing experience. But during the show she was good enough to follow a somber song with a fun one, and there was plenty of talk to keep the audience amused.

Here is the complete setlist, by the way.

Buffalo
6 O'Clock News
Asking For Flowers
Copied Keys
Summerlong
I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory
Run
Alicia Ross
Are the Good Times Really Over (Merle Haggard cover)
Hockey Skates
In State
Scared at Night
Cheapest Key
Back to Me

[Encore]
(new song)
Lone Wolf
Your Love (The Outfield cover)

Yeah, that's right, she closed the show with THAT song, and everybody couldn't help but hum it as they drove home that night. Also of note was the new untitled song (it may actually have a title, but she didn't happen to mention it). It was good -- another one of those slower-but-catchy relationships-down-the-tubes numbers -- and should be interesting to hear on any upcoming EPs or LPs that would feature a full band. Also, there are a couple more new songs on her Myspace that are worth listening to.

The only dismal part, at least for me, was my inability to remember to bring a camera. Somebody sitting nearby with video recording capabilities, though, has already posted the first song. Watch it if you care to.

Kathleen Edwards put on a great show and I hope to see her again soon. She hinted that she might return to London for a summer festival, so everybody in the area can hopefully look forward to that. She'll be touring elsewheres in the meantime and I recommend catching her if you can.

(*My wife made this observation. I initially just assumed that they were trying to sound this way.)

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto: Tim Buckley

2009-01-30T00:12:00.001-05:00

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto.

Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights.
Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.

Tim Buckley

I must be a sucker for live images because once again I prefer an in-action photograph of the performer over any of the posed shots. This is the cover to The Copenhagen Tapes, a live recording from a 1968 performance in Denmark. I like how Buckley's black shirt camouflages him with the black background, and the only thing you can really see clearly is his head cocked to the side as croons one of his soul-stirring love songs (or one of his manic jazz-edelic pieces). There's some emotion being presented here, and I like my album covers to emote.

This is the cover to Buckley's final studio album, 1974's Look at the Fool. It'd be too easy to make a comment regarding the album title, so I'll instead direct my jabs at the artwork itself. Cal Schenkel, who did a lot of awesomely weird art design for the Mothers of Invention, is credited with the art direction here. I don't know if that means he painted the picture himself or commissioned a freelance artist who showcases all of his work at his uncle's Wyoming trading post. I like to think this is part of a larger picture with wolves howling at the moon, maybe a couple deer grazing in a nearby field, and it's all printed on some grandmother's sweater.

From Buckley's final album to his very first, take a look at his self-titled debut, released in 1966 when he was only 19-years-old. I imagine he sent the same image to a number of local fashion agencies. I like that wall for some reason, probably because it appears incompletely painted. In fact, if that's fresh paint then the young Buckley has just ruined the back of his turtle neck. He is a handsome figure standing there (a somewhat awkward figure as well), but is that garish tweed jacket eating him? What's going on here?

MMFRR#13 -- The Lakeside Is For Killers

2009-01-22T14:04:00.003-05:00

(Careful, heavy flannel will always tip a picture over)

This entry, lucky number 13, is a special one. Drummer Nich specifically asked me to review his band for this particular purpose. I was all, "Are you sure, 'cause what if you suck?" And he was all, "Bring it!" And I was all, "Fine, I will." And he was all... actually, this conversation never happened, but he still wanted me to check out the band, be they awesome, awful, or otherwise. Anything for promotion's sake, I guess. There really is no such thing as bad publicity.

I've often been leery of local bands no matter where I've lived, and it's a terrible bias to have. A band doesn't have to be from a major metropolitan area in order to be good, but I've had to sit through too many not-at-all-good small-town local openers to assume otherwise. Of course now I must remind myself that the "town" in which I currently live has a metro area of half-a-million people and these reservations I have don't make any sense anyway.

I'm still hesitant to publicly review a local band though because if the members don't like what I have to say THEY KNOW WHERE I LIVE. There are five members in TLIFK, only one of me, and I sure don't know any kung-fu.

Am I leading up to another dismal review of another dismal Myspace band? Let's take a look at the evidence.

- Bogged down Myspace? Check, somewhat. It still slows down my computer, but I've seen much, much worse.
- South Park illustrations of band members? Check. For some reason I freakin' hate that.
- No "real" website? Check. And no, Purevolume.com doesn't count. Invest in your own dang domain! (As I write this on Blogger.com).

Otherwise there's not much else to complain about, and these items are nitpicky anyway.

But what about the music?
They've got all the explosive stops and starts of metalcore, but the vocal delivery of southern rock. We could amalgamate the terms and call it drrtycore™. I like the call-and-responses, I like the guitar work, I like the change in rhythms, and I like the screamy bits. I like that the backup vocalists are capable of good screams even though this isn't really a screamy band, per se. I like the songwriting. This is good stuff. These songs are also very well recorded considering they're just demos.

Also, bonus points for naming a song after a "Double Indemnity" quote. You're just a little taller.

I wish there were more than two songs because I certainly want to hear more. I mean, I have heard more (a live performance at the freezing cold Embassy in London), but I would like to hear more studio-quality recordings. Post more songs, fools. Get on that.

And thank you for disproving the notion that all local bands, at least in this municipality, suck.

I give The Lakeside Is For Killers
8 Walter Neffs out of 10.

"You're Not Smarter, Walter, You're Just A Little Taller" (.mp3)

2005

2009-01-21T15:06:00.001-05:00

It's far easier to pick five great songs from the 1950's when there were only, like, ten albums released every year (half of which belonged to Frank Sinatra) than it is to choose five great songs from within the past couple years as there are literally hundreds of thousands of LPs and EPs and singles and samplers and CD-Rs currently being produced. So, after a painstaking narrowing-down process, here are five completely awesome songs from 2005.

Sleater-Kinney - Jumpers
This is a rockin' catchy little ditty, but if you pay attention to the lyrics you'll find something terribly sad going on. I'd explain it all to you but listening and experiencing the story yourself is half the fun. I will point out that all the verses save the last are told in first person present tense. The last verse is told in first person past tense, effectively (and tragically) concluding the song and story. Adding another layer of finality to the song is the fact that it appears on Sleater-Kinney's final studio album, The Woods.

El Perro Del Mar - Party
Instead of sad lyrics sung to an upbeat tune, here we have happy lyrics set to a sad tune. "Come on over, baby, there's a party going on." Yeah! "Be-bop, Be-bop-a-lula." That's right, rock it like Gene Vincent! But before you include this onto the rockin' portion of your party mix you should first consider the moderately slow tempo, the moderately lo-fi recording, and the moderately wispy vocals of Sarah Assbring. Moderate, yes, but catchy as all get-out. I don't know about you, but this song gets stuck in my head for days at a time.

Discover America - Green Eyes
Chris Staples... with beats and loops! But his lyrical wit and his unique take on love songs remain. Also unique, at least compared to Staples previous efforts, is the feel of this song. There are several layers of electro-thumpety-thump underlying everything and it creates an interesting, almost-but-not-really foggy atmosphere. Lyrically this is a song about that unapproachable ultra-hip scene goddess who (the twist!) is not as snobbish as you might think. She's not impressed, but she's so polite.

Christian Kjellvander - Drunken Hands
Kjellvander is Sweden's answer to Richard Buckner, but in my world I can accept them both. Also acceptable are songs that begin quietly and conclude loudly -- "build-up" songs. "Drunken Hands" begin with Kjellvander's deep and warbled voice setting a mid-western scene. He goes on to describe something I can't put my finger on (but still very obviously bleak) as the music builds behind him. The final minute is head-nodding bliss, a surprising guitar-chug that could go on forever.

Animal Collective - Grass
Some Animal Collective songs go on for dozens of minutes. I can't handle that. There's only so much ambient pseudo-earthy rhythmic indie whateverness I can take in one sitting. But this... clocking in at just under three minutes, "Grass" is absolutely perfect and is a great song to fire you up if you ever need to run a race or wrestle a gorilla or sprint through a brick wall. I have absolutely no idea what this song is about, but like good poetry there's a sensation and/or indescribable imagery painted by the words. Couple that with the unique sound of the song itself and you've got yourself a tune that is experienced rather than just heard.

The Letter T

2009-01-13T18:00:00.003-05:00

The Goods of '08

2009-01-07T09:30:00.003-05:00

For better or worse another calendar year has come to an end and now we turn our thoughts backward. There was some good music, there was lots of bad music, and there was much more I completely missed. I'm usually a year behind the trends anyway.

Here're my '08 faves, albums that resonated especially well with me. Go talk to Pitchfork if you want a "Best Of" list ('cause they will tell you what you like, and you will just have to deal with it). (Pitchfork motto: "We're easy to hate on!)

The Baseball Project
Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails
It's tough for me to deny an album completely dedicated to baseball. These songs hearken back to the good ol' days of the game with songs about its stars (Ted Williams, Satchel Paige) and its tragic figures (Ed Delahanty). Each toe-tapping tune tells a poignant story and each one is surprisingly informational. By the end of "Harvey Haddix" you'll have memorized a handful of players who have thrown perfect no-hit games.
"Jackie's Lament"

Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles
The opening track has a surprising groove to it and puts to question what the remainder of the album may sound like. The remainder of the album, of course, is full of the 2-bit hemorrhage-inducing electro-core that we've all come to love, but this time with a disco bent. Completely awesome.
"Untrust Us"

Forest Fire
Survival
Do you know what makes a good album better? When it's FREE. Check out Survival in its entirety by going HERE. If you like them (and you should) then donate some cash moneys. The tunes themselves are a bit swarthy, a bit folksy, very woodsy, inexplicably sad... if you like Blitzen Trapper then you'll appreciate what these guys do to your ears.
"I Make Windows"

Fulton Lights
The Way We Ride
Do you know what makes another good album better? When it's ALSO FREE. Click HERE to scoop up the goodies (and be sure to thank Catbird Records for all the freebies). Anyway, Fulton Lights: The Way We Ride... hazey and dark but with enough groove to keep your attention. This was my surprise find of the year and I highly recommend giving this one a listen.
"This Is The Way We Ride"

Jenny Lewis
Acid Tongue
I was disappointed by 2006's Rabbit Fur Coat (though it did have a couple very excellent moments), but I was (and continue to be) blown away by Acid Tongue. The ballads are quiet but sincere, and the entire album plays out like a wacky confessional. It's the upbeat songs that will really get you going, though. Can you scoot your boots to a song called "Jack Killed Mom"? Oh, yes you can. On the whole Acid Tongue is a lot of fun. In addition to being so dang good it also features guest performers M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel and Elvis Costello.
"Acid Tongue"

Jesper Norda
Little Ones EP
Another freebie. Thank goodness for the Internet. Go HERE for these five songs plus a handful of bonus ones. These tunes are sparse, all ballads, and often just feature a piano and Norda's no-frills voice.
"Tomorrow You Will Be Forgiven But Tonight You Will Have Your Teeth Knocked Out"

Kathleen Edwards
Asking For Flowers
Despite containing the one (and only one) K.E. song I don't care for, Asking For Flowers is her best album. Sure, I'll pass on "Cheapest Key", but I can't pass anything else. A few of these songs fall into the social commentary category ("Alicia Ross", "Oh Canada") while the rest are about strained relationships and, uh, shooting cats. As you can see by this Last.fm chart I listened to this album last year way more than I listened to any other full-length release.
"Scared At Night"

Ladytron
Velocifero
Velocifero picks up where Witching Hour left off three years ago (and it's about time) but with way more Bulgarian. There's more of the cloudy/muddy electronic instrumentation that made Witching Hour great, but the delivery here is, like in their earlier releases, more deliberate. The songs here are murky but clear, dense but obvious. I don't know if that makes any sense to you. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Just listen and enjoy.

The Out_Circuit
Pierce the Empire With a Sound
It's been five years since Nathan Burke released an Out_Circuit full-lengther, and thankfully it was worth the wait. There's lots of mellow-but-uneasy music-to-fill-the-lull-just-before-the-bloody-apocalypse stuff, but there's also a fair bit of tortured screaming. Fun for everybody! That's drummer extraordinaire Matt Johnson bangin' out some of those beats, and Sean Ingram from Coelesce making your ears bleed on "The Fall of Las Vegas". Stream 6/10ths of the album on Virb.com HERE.
"Come Out Shooting"

A Bipedal Christmas

2008-12-13T14:00:00.003-05:00

The best way to retain readership is to post sporadically and with little fanfare, right?

Anyway, Christmas has thrust itself upon us. Instead of whining about over-commercialism and the pressure to get the perfect gift, I'm just going to share these tunes. CHRISTMAS tunes! Ones that aren't awful! Maybe between now and the 25th I'll share some more, but I'll wait until they pry my trampled body off a Wal-Mart floor before I make any promises.

Viva Voce - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Ridiculous and guitar-heavy, the chunky riffs and squeely feedback play against the jingly bells and Anita Robinson's heavenly vocals. It works (for me, anyway) and this traditional ballad is turned into a two-minute rock nugget. Find it on Tooth & Nail's Happy Christmas Vol. 2, released in 1999.

Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - Silent Night
This version is hypnotic and looong (how many verses are there to this song?). But, like most Hideous Thieves songs, you the listener are taken on a journey and, if you were paying attention, you'll emerge from the fade-out a slightly different person. This appears on Lujo Records' very excellent 2004 All I Want For Christmas compilation.

Starflyer 59 - A Holiday Song (Happy Holidays)
It's interesting when a band releases a Christmas song in the middle of a non-Christmas album (1998's The Fashion Focus, released in early October, no less). This one certainly sticks out, but it's so good it doesn't even matter. Hearkening back to Christmas pop of the 1960s, the tempo is upbeat while the lyrics are about sad goodbyes. It's vintage without being old and familiar without being a complete rip off.

Grandaddy - Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland
"In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend he is Alan Parsons..."
This song was released as a non-album promo single back in 2000, but I seem to recall hearing it before then for some reason. The easiest way to attain this song on a compact disc is to acquire the It's a Cool, Cool Christmas compilation, and the best way to appreciate this song to its fullest extent is to listen to an Alan Parsons Greatest Hits cassette.

Rosie Thomas - Christmas Don't Be Late
A new Rosie Thomas album! And it's full of Christmas songs! You can listen to all of the other tracks from A Very Rosie Christmas over at Virb.com, but this one here might be my favorite. Somehow she takes this giddy chipmunk song and turns it into a bittersweet Christmas epic.

MMFRR#12 -- Three Star Seed

2008-11-04T12:24:00.004-05:00

(I hope SOMEBODY is wearing pants.)
(Also, who is the lead singer? You have exactly one guess.)

Man, can't you just hear the distortion and the ANNGGST and the catchy riffs? And the scratchy vocals? Check, check, check, and check. Do they call their biceps "guns"? I'll get back to you on that.

Okay, obviously I'm not a fan of alterna-nu-metal-doucherock. There is just so much of it, and Canada appears to be the leading supplier (Nickelback, Finger Eleven, Theory of a Deadman, Three Days Grace, and now... this). I'm sick of the constipated vocals. I'm sick of the one-dimensional music. I'm sick of the meatheads who listen to this crap. I'm sure Grunge is sorry it spawned such tripe.

As for the band itself...

Venture into 3SS's hyper-cluttered myspace site if you dare. It bogs my computer down terribly, so enter at your own risk. They don't have a real website, which is lame, but maybe they were too busy ROCKING OUT to purchase a domain and hire a site designer. Know how I know they are often too busy ROCKING OUT to do anything else productive? Check out those photos. All the alternative rock douchebaggery you can handle.

(Editor's Note: Sal Coz from the band just sent me a terribly nice email full of positive feedback. Now "I" feel like the douchebag. I'm probably just jealous because I'm not hanging out with Deep Purple. Ignore all those personal attacks I just made.)

Next item up for bid: the music.
3SS has four streaming demos up for a courtesy listen. The first one is called "Caroline", and it pisses Neil Diamond off quite badly. "Sweet Caroline, she's all mine." ...Followed by the sound of me shooting myself in the face.
Second is a little ditty called "Who", and honestly it's not bad. Not awful. It sounds like... you know when a screamy band includes one odd clear-voiced song near the end of a CD? It starts off sounding like one of those before wandering off into nu metal territory. It's got a bit of a groove to it and the basswork is alright, so if you must listen to a 3SS song then listen to this one.
RE: "Run With Me" -- Jonathan Davis called. He wants his beatbox back.
And finally, the fourth track, "Little Boy", sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack to a failed Tony Hawk video game.

I hope the band doesn't read this and start yelling at me (Editor's Note: Thank you for not yelling at me... I'm actually quite fragile) 'cause then I'd have to argue, and really I want to be done with this music forever. Three Star Seed is better (believe it or not) than most of the other nu metal bands around (including all the ones I mentioned above), but if this is as good as it gets then I pray for ear leprosy.

I give Three Star Seeds three star seeds out of ten.

(Editor's Note regarding Editor Notes: I'm my own editor, there are no others, so I'm really just talking to myself here. Thank you for tolerating my schizophrenia.)

1955

2008-10-28T14:10:00.002-04:00

The most frustrating part about listening to music decades older than myself is knowing I'm missing out on the song's original context. Even though the guitars and voices I hear through my computer speakers are the same ones that crackled through AM radio fifty years ago, my interpretation and reaction is, by default, going to be different than that of those who hear the same thing when the song was originally released. Our environments are different and our perceptions of music are different. Quite simply, I can't unhear the years of rock and roll fuzz and unexperience the years of modern technological advancement that now filter the way I hear music, and Joe Nineteen-Fifty-Five couldn't even begin to imagine what a Led Zeppelin was, or that his children would eventually have access to a universe of music at the touch/click of a button.

But despite this, I try. I try to go back to simpler times. Before sampled beats. Before heavy distortion. Before FM. Before the Beatles. When it was all quite innocent, when even the rebellion was all in good fun.

Hop into your Delorean, we're going back to 1955.

Chuck Berry - Maybellene
This track flies -- dig, man, dig-- and was quite ahead of its time. Music back then just didn't rock like this. There's no country twang, no big band orchestration, no crooning, and though this song has a blues foundation Chuck Berry, instead of wallowing in it, sets everything on fire. That guitar solo must've driven the fogeys crazy. And OF COURSE this song is about cars and girls. "Maybellene" turned out to be Berry's first big hit and more or less ushered in the rock 'n' roll era. The kids, both black and white, loved it. Berry followed up with more hits. Music got aggressive. Rockabilly grew from a fetus to a musical movement, perpetuated by Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, among many others. Somewhere along this chain of events that extends to this very day your favorite band exists on a rung that links way back to that duck-walkin' man and his ditty about drag-racing hotties.

Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues
Cash is so many things to so many people -- country singer, gospel singer, hero to the common man-- but the line about shooting a man just to watch him die? That's straight up GANGSTA. Lyrically this song goes all over the place. He dwells on what's outside the prison walls, recalls his mama's unheeded words of wisdom, dwells on an after-prison life, wonders extensively about what the people inside a passing train are doing, and, of course, laments his evil deed. Musically "Folsom Prison Blues" is easy on the ears. The rhythm shuffles along and the bass is cool and plucky. Cash's guitar kicks back, steps up when it needs to, then hangs back again. There's no urgency to the sound, no focus to the lyrics, and really if you're doing time in prison you've got time (nothing but time) to amble and ramble.

Eddy Arnold - Cattle Call
Every time I listen to this song I try to recall what John Ford film I heard it in. None of them, of course, but this could very well have appeared on the soundtrack to "My Darling Clementine". In the Dvorak-ish introduction to the song I can see the low sun spill across the western plains, casting shadows across the face of the upright cattle man, equal parts good-ol'-boy and frontier cowboy. And screw the Swiss Miss, old school country singers are by far the best yodelers, and Eddy Arnold's golden voice could quell even the most aggressive Indian raids. Despite the abundant countryness of this song, Arnold's use of "pop" orchestration led many in the country music community to cry "sell out". Music snobs existed even back then. And though I am usually a fan of stripped down music, the strings and brass and xylophone add a nostalgic and cinematic element to the tune that makes it inseparable from the classic and wholly appealing old west imagery.

Wanda Jackson - Tears At the Grand Ole Opry
Before Wanda Jackson became a rockabilly hellcat she was a straight up twangy country singer. While with Decca Records in the min-50s she released a series of country ballads that were certainly charming but definitely not edgy. Later, after hanging out with Elvis for a while, her music evolved into something very aggressive and she became one of music's first female rock stars. But back in 1955 she was playing the role of country music chanteuse, crooning traditional-esque waltzes about heartbreak and such. Though Jackson was only 17 when this song was released she already sounds quite accomplished and seems to understand (and thus able to effectively channel) the heart and soul of the genre.

Porter Wagoner - Satisfied Mind
"Satisfied Mind" sounds like a cautionary tale as told by your grandpa... that is, if your grandpa spoke in sweet gentle harmonies and carried a pompadour atop his head. Money can't buy happiness, the song goes, though I don't know if Wagoner continued to perform this song after becoming rich and successful. He probably did as this was one of his most popular songs, reaching #1 on the country charts in 1955. The tempo and melody and Wagoner's own mournful voice makes this song sound a lot sadder than it is, but maybe there's nothing more sad than seeking shallow happiness through earthly wealth rather than, y'know, finding fulfilling happiness through good deeds and being nice and stuff. There's also a Bible lesson in here somewhere. Camels and needle eyes, etc. Anyway, Wagoner passed away exactly one year ago today, hopefully with a satisfied mind.

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto: Elton John

2008-10-14T13:29:00.009-04:00

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights.
Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.

Elton John

This is the cover to Elton John's first official live release, titled 17-11-70 (when it was released stateside it was renamed 11-17-70). I'm a fan of sparseness and monochrome coloring where just enough detail exists to outline some sort of context. If you were shown this image without the title you'd be able to discern a figure hunched over, possibly (or possibly not) doing something (or nothing). But tack on the words and you know it's Ol' Reg bangin' away on the keys. And though John and his stage persona were often flamboyantly over-the-top, this cover is pleasantly low-key, yet it doesn't ignore the electricity of his live shows.

Good song. Great album (double disc!). Awful cover. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, released in 1973, is Elton John's best-selling studio album and features such classics as "Candle in the Wind," "Benny and the Jets", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," and the title track. It also features the image of Elton John in a purple bowling shirt and faaaabulous red platform shoes stepping into a tattered Oz-as-English-countryside picture. Ian Beck is a reputable children's illustrator, and it's too bad that he's mostly known for this cover. It IS imaginitive, yes, but it's also cheese-a-riffic. I don't even know what to make of the tiny wind-up baby grand. However, I do wish I owned this album so I could see what other inane imagery exists on the rear and inside flaps.

This is Caribou, released eight months after Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 1974. I've got JC Penney portraits that look exactly like this.

The Letter S

2008-10-04T15:00:00.002-04:00

In this series I spotlight five bands and/or artists whose names begin with the same letter. I try to feature active (or recently active... it's hard to keep current with all the break-ups) performers so as to reflect who I'm listening to and enjoying at the moment.

Sally Shapiro
File under "guilty pleasure" because Swedish Italo-disco revival is a pretty dweeby musical genre. Audibly there isn't much to the music of Sally Shapiro, though everything about it is pleasant to the ear. The beats are firm but cool, the voice is detached yet soothing, and you could either dance or sleep to every song. But who is Sally Shapiro? NOBODY KNOWS. It's really just the moniker for the guy-girl duo. The dude who creates all the nice electro noises is named Johan. The chick who sings may or may not actually be named Sally, won't ever perform live, and rarely has her picture taken. Some have even questioned if she actually exists. Sally Shapiro is the yeti of Euro-club music.
There are dozens of remixes for "I'll Be By Your Side" floating around the internet. They're all good, but I really like this one by DJ Aven (free and easy from the official Sally Shapiro website).
I'll Be By Your Side (DJ Aven Remix)
Jackie Junior (Junior Boys Remix)
Hold Me So Tight

Shearwater
I know two things about Shearwater:
1) Shearwater features at least one member (used to be two) from Okkervil River, a band that is awesome.
2) This is a band that is awesome.
And really that's all you need to know. You could even skate by only knowing Shearwater fact #2. Musically they're pretty low-key, yet are capable of some good quality jubilant rockout. Epic, but in no way pretentious. They're actually comparable to The National in these ways and others, so if you like The National you'll like this (and vice versa).
Since I honestly don't know much else about the band I can only recommend songs. Here you go. Eat up.
The World in 1984
Red Sea, Black Sea (via Insound.com)
Rooks (via Insound.com)

St. Vincent
Another dude-with-a-moniker performers, but NOT just another dude-with-a-moniker performer. St. Vincent is Annie Clark, a New York-based singer/songwriter/instrumentalist born in Oklahoma. In fact, both she and I are the same age and from the same state. That's where our similarities end, however, as she is musically very talented and I am musically very talentless. She's recently made her rounds in the indie scene by touring with Sufjan Stevens (like, as a part of his band) and guitar-playing with the Polyphonic Spree. To date she has only one full length album and one EP (well... two EPs if you count the one she self-released in college). I like her because she's like an American-in-the-2000s version of Kate Bush. Her songs are sharp and almost at odds with her angelic voice. Also if you're interested in amusing little penned-by-Annie Clark snippets, she's got, like, two or three blogs floating around.
Now Now
These Days (cover song)
Jesus Saves, I Spend

Starflyer 59
It seems like Starflyer has been around forever, and it's difficult to remember what the world was like before they began releasing albums (and it's difficult to imagine a world existing after Starflyer ceases to be). Of course I'm being dramatic, but for fifteen years this band has been producing some of the best music in the world. Being dramatic again? Skip the rest of these words and listen to the tunes yourself.
The music itself is remarkably consistent. That is, you could probably identify a Starflyer song just by listening to it. The guitars are dense and shoegazey, the drumming is tick-tocky, and Jason Martin sings like he just woke up. Despite this, many of their songs are insanely catchy. Their earlier material is gloomier and maybe even a bit primitive when compared to the band's latter-day work, but it's no less awesome and really quite groundbreaking when you consider it was released to a Christian market.
Jason Martin is the genius behind the guitar fuzz, and it really is astounding how prolific the guy is. Apart from the dozens of releases full of outstanding music, he's also contributed to a handful of side projects, including Bon Voyage, which he duoed with his wife (and holy crap, they've got a new album out, the first new one in years... it's a blast from my high school past!), and that Neon Horse nonsense.
Anyway...
Download "Wake Up Early" from Purevolume, then stream the other five songs.
Good Sons (via Insound.com)
Play the C Chord

Suffering & the Hideous Thieves
S&tHT is one of the few bands that are capable of being lyrically provocative and instrumentally moving... all within the same song. Indeed, this band has performed some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard, yet I fully realize these guys aren't for everybody.
If that name and voice sounds familiar that's because you're vaguely recalling Jeff Suffering from the spazz-punk band 90lb Wuss. Initially just a straight up punk band, they matured and explored new ground with each release, and perhaps The Hideous Thieves are the culmination of that. Sounding like a band of disgruntled rock and roll gypsies, The Thieves brilliantly back Suffering's warbly voice as he chronicles the best and worst (usually the worst) of human nature. Lyrics explore the farthest and darkest recesses of man's emotions and motivations, and more often than not the songs are completely depressing. Yet there still remain glimmers of positivity and glory, songs about hope and rebirth. Listening to Suffering & the Hideous Thieves is almost exhausting, but the investment is certainly worth it.
Go to Purevolume and download "I Am Tomorrow" and "The Collector"
Lujo Records has a handful of downloadables. ISound.com has a couple more (at a higher bit rate). Of those I recommend... ALL of them, but especially:
St. Elizabeth
The Other Side of the Moon
[Note: the song "Twice in Water Color" is actually sung by The Hush Hush, with whom S&tHT did a split]
Also listen to:
Return

See You (Not) In September

2008-10-04T13:47:00.003-04:00

It looks like I missed the entire month of September. One reason is that I was on another continent for over half the month. A second reason involves high doses of work (as in, being at). There may be a third or fourth reason, but those two are the biggies.

So I really have been absent.

But now I'm back to let you know I can really shake 'em down.

At least until things get manic again during the holiday season.

Stay tuned.

in the world of better blogs

2008-08-21T12:38:00.004-04:00

I now contribute to yet another blog.

"SONGS K"

Check it.
Lots of good music to be listened upon.

So I'll continue to maintain this little thing in periodic bursts, and every whenever-I-feel-like-it I'll drop a post over there.

Deal?
Deal.

Google Custom Search

2008-08-08T13:35:00.002-04:00

You may have noticed the Google Custom Search thing on the right. You may have wondered if it was different than any other kind of search, Google or otherwise. Here's the scoop:

If you're anything like me you'll be reading an article and come across something that you want to know more about, either to fact check or for mere curiosity's sake. Let's say you're halfway through one of my posts and suddenly you want to look up information for, I don't know, Neil Diamond. Pop 'er in the custom search and it'll open up a new window (so you won't lose your place in the original post) full of legit search results. "Neil Diamond" yields results from Last.fm and Wikipedia (not to mention NeilDiamond.com) and all those good relevant sites.

But say you want information on The Turtles. Holy cow, there must be a zillion different turtles populating the internet! Put them in the search anyway. POW... Wikipedia, ClassicBands.com, "Happy Together" on Youtube, etc. The search has been tweaked to yield music-pertinent results.

Smooth, eh?

Play around with it, use it as a research tool, do whatever.

1999

2008-08-05T12:11:00.005-04:00

Are we partying like it's 1999? Well, no, mostly because 1999's party music was pretty awful. Despite this, many of my favorite songs came out in 1999. I believe this is because I started college in 2000 and instead of being sociable with the other people who lived in my dorm building I locked the door and listened to music all day. I'm perpetually a year behind the trends, and in 2000 I filled up on music from 1999.

You'll notice that these artists and bands are all popular within Christian coolkid circles. This really was the best time for Christian indie and hardcore and folk and all that, and nothing delighted me more than discovering there was life beyond Michael W. Smith (though I'm not saying that I was ever the cool kid, 'cause I never was).

Sleeping By the Riverside - "Something To Say"
This song was re-recorded for 2003's A Breath Between Battles, but I'll always favor the original that appeared on the 1999 split with a band called Carry The Dead. "Something to Say" is the standout track from that album, and it is absolutely glorious, more or less changing the way I perceive hardcore music. The lyrics are honest, full of passion, and understandable. The instrumentation is aggressive but surprisingly melodic. I would later learn that this song came at the tail-end of the spirit-filled hardcore movement of the '90s, and influences from Strongarm and Unashamed (among others) can be heard. From the first "Oh how the fire BURNS" to the final "MOVE ON" this song grabs and twists your guts, double-bass pedals your skull a couple times, and may even provoke you to turn some windmills or something.

Unwed Sailor - "Once in a Blue Moon"
On the other end of the musical spectrum we have Unwed Sailor, an instrumental band featuring bassist Johnathon Ford and a never-constant cast of instrumentalists. The band is into the whole multimedia thing, releasing picture books with their albums (The Marionette and the Music Box, 2003) and providing soundtracks for short conceptual films (Stateless, 2002). The Firecracker EP was their first release (re-issued in 2003), and this is its fourth and final track, a very fitting closer. The first three songs bounce and flutter, but this one swoops and melts, ticking like a grandfather clock lost at sea. Melissa Pallandino's violin absolutely kills me. That's David Bazan on drums, by the way.

Brandtson - "Potential Getaway Driver"
I don't know if this song is about girls or God or what, but that's some catchysweet riff. Bap bap badee bap bap bap BAP. Though Brandtson would later lean too far into boo-hoo territory, it was here in the 1990's where they retained a good amount of rock & roll edge. I don't really have much else to say. It's just a dang good song. Fallen Star Collection is out of print, so if you're looking to pick up the album it'll have to be used or digital only.

Starflyer 59 - "Play the "C" Chord"
This was the first Starflyer song I'd ever heard (back in 1999, and for once I was listening to something current) and it totally blew my mind. Jason Martin sings like he's sleeping, there's a slide guitar going up and down, a dense musical foundation carrying everything downstream... and do my ears spy an acoustic guitar? I couldn't understand how something so heavy sounded so light. This was long before I discovered My Bloody Valentine and Mazzy Star, and this shoegazey goodness was so far left of what I was used to musically that I couldn't help but like it. Lyrically it's a call to rock, for bands to stop writing automatic songs and to "play the "C" chord like it's something new." If you want to take it further you could somehow apply it to how we live our lives, but I'll leave that up to individual discernment.

Damien Jurado - "Tornado"
Jurado is great at crafting a story in only three-to-five minutes' worth of song. Sometimes he'll give us a nice story, but most of the time the lyrics revolve around the foul side of human nature. Sometimes he'll trick us by putting a sad story into an upbeat song. He does this a couple times on Rehearsal for Departures. See "Letters and Drawings." See also this song. "Tornado" is a relatively "full" song for Jurado who usually strips things down to one guitar and one voice. But this song builds and builds, crescendoing with saxophones, Jurado singing as high as he possibly can, some sort of organ (mellotron?) and -- I don't get to say this very often -- some wicked flute work. It all comes back to the lyrics, though, and after the first line we know that the main characters are in trouble. The deep resent and bitterness that develops between couples doesn't usually make for pleasant song fodder, but that kind of stuff is Jurado's bread and butter. As an irrelevant aside, the ever-present David Bazan makes another appearance, but this time he's credited with the "drawing" on the album.

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto: The Moody Blues

2008-07-23T12:04:00.007-04:00

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights.
Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.

The Moody Blues

This is a 2001 compilation of the Moody Blues' pre-Justin Hayward days, before they got all epic and grandiose. In the early-to-mid 1960's the band was riding the English Merseybeat wave, though here they look like Dutch Reservoir Dogs. This is a cool picture made cooler by the sleek silhouettes, the empty sky space, and just the right amount of windmill. I also like the throwback label at the top, and even the name of the album works in a Meet the Beatles sort of way.

This is the cover to The Other Side of Life, released in 1986. OF COURSE it was released in 1986. Look at it. Xeroxed head shots of the band floating around a chemistry lab in space. The other side of life doesn't make any sense. And even though these glamor shots are floating around in zero gravity, somehow the beakers and crap remain affixed to the tables, which themselves somehow remain affixed to the floor. Also, nice spacelab wall trim.

Again, back to the pre-Hayward days. In fact this is the band's debut album, The Magnificent Moodies, released in 1965. I don't know if this picture came from the same photo shoot as the image that appears on the cover of An Introduction to the Moody Blues, but it very well could have. It would be a great cover too were it not for the goofy Rocky & Bullwinkle-fonted text spilling all over everywhere. I like that the horizon is hard to discern. I like the guy on the right straddling the water. I don't like the gigantic letter E balancing on that one guy's head.

The Letter R

2008-07-14T17:56:00.004-04:00

In this series I spotlight five bands and/or artists whose names begin with the same letter. I try to feature active (or recently active... it's hard to keep current with all the break-ups) performers so as to reflect who I'm listening to and enjoying at the moment.

Röyksopp
Norwegians excel in two things: metal and electro-pop. (They also do the Americana thing better than Americans, but that doesn't fit into the point I'm trying to make.) There's something about the frigid and isolated country that instills itself into its citizen's songwriting. This might seem at odds with the POP in electro-pop (or techno-pop or whatever other -pop we're dealing with), but pop, when you think about it, really is a cold and removed sort of thing. Enter Röyksopp, an electro duo from Tromsø, who plug together the most magnificent and chill beats ever conceived. There is an iciness to their music, but there's an underlying warmth to it as well. Norwegians, see, are passionate about whatever it is they do, and "cold" as their music might be there's still that human passion that weaves itself in and out of each song's DNA. I don't know if any of that makes sense, and I know I'm making wide generalizations about Norwegians (for all I know they could all actually be robots, a nation of Johnny 5s), but these are the impressions I get.
Whatever. Let the music speak for itself. And instead of linking .mp3 files I'm going to post their music videos which, in addition to perfectly matching the music, are mindboinks.
"Remind Me"

"What Else is There?" (featuring Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife, though that's not her floating around in the video [though that IS her sitting at the dinner table])

"Poor Leno"

Red Sparowes
Epic wordless landscape-ish music in the same vein as Explosions in the Sky and all those other epic wordless landscape-ish bands. What sets these guys apart? Two things, at least. One, a couple of the guys are also members of the doom-core band Isis, which certainly influences some aspects of their sound. One-and-a-half, one of the Red Sparowes was also in Neurosis, but he's no longer a Red Sparowe. Two, slide guitar! Two-and-a-half, their song titles, as you'll see below, are absolutely ridiculous.
Two .mp3s via their Neurot Recordings page:
"Like the Howling Glory of the Darkest Winds, This Voice Was Thunderous And the Words Holy, Tangling Their Way Around Our Hearts And Clutching Our Innocent Awe" (10:08)
"Alone and Unaware, the Landscape Was Transformed in Front of Our Eyes" (8:27)
"A Brief Moment of Clarity Broke Through the Deafening Hum, But it Was Too Late" via Stop Okay Go.

The Rapture
Not to be confused with the Finnish metal band or Jesus' triumphant return, The Rapture are a electro-punky-dance-rock band from New York. Their songs are beat heavy, but there's definitely a rock 'n' roll edge in there. On their first full-length album, Echoes, they follow up songs fit for clubbin' with songs fit for punching you in the face. Their last full-lengther, Pieces of the People We Love, was released in 2006, so they're probably about due for something new.
Check out their MYSPACE and enjoy a handful of their sweet sweet music, including the funkin' little ditty found on the GTA IV soundtrack.
Also, and I don't remember where I got this (though YOU can find it on their The Chair That Squeaks 7-inch released in 1998), here's a cover of the agitated Psychedelic Furs song "Dumb Waiters."
"Dumb Waiters"

Radiohead
Obviously.
Instead of waxing poetic, and instead of dropping tracks you've already heard, I'll link up some fun remixes.
"Videotape (Amplive Remix Feat Del The Funky Homosapien)"
"Street Spirit (Funkagenda Remix)"
"Nude (Let's up the Beat of them Blues, TAET Remix)"
"Unravel {Pocket Mix}"

Rogue Wave
You know a band is popular when it appears on the soundtracks of every hip new movie and TV show. I don't actually know much else about Rogue Wave except that they used to be on Sub Pop. Now they're not. By definition a rogue wave is something that could potentially do a lot of damage, especially if you're having an adventure on a boat named Poseidon, but this Rogue Wave is fairly non-threatening. A nice easy listen-to. A bit of The Shins, a bit of Belle and Sebastian. A lot of good.
"The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight" via Stereogum's Drive XV: A Tribute to Automatic for the People.
"Lake Michigan" via Insound.com.
"Publish My Love" via me, because I want you to hear it.

2003

2008-07-11T13:07:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that 2003 occurred five years ago. I was ending my third/beginning my fourth year of college, thankful to be nearly done with school yet hesitant to face what lay beyond. Twenty-aught-three was a good year for music and it provided a great soundtrack for this soon-to-be transitional phase of my life. The music was so great that it killed me to only choose five tracks. Killed me. I'm dead now.

Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - "St. Elizabeth"
In the 1990's Jeff Suffering was best known for heading the spazzpunk outfit 90lb Wuss. As the 90's progressed so too did Suffering's freedom to experiment, and Wuss's sound evolved from (and I use these terms loosely and probably inappropriately) skate-punk to grind-punk to some sort of hard-to-define pseudo-space-core punk-ish. All through these incarnations the band's sound remained gritty and aggressive. So it came as a surprise when Suffering organized his Hideous Thieves and released Real Panic Formed in 2002. Clean vocals! Slow tempos! Strings! And the moodiest music ever recorded. It was brilliant. It still is brilliant. The following year, the year we're actually focusing on, S&tHT did a split with an ether-ish pixie-voiced band called The Hush Hush. The Hush Hush songs are good, but the Hideous Thieves songs are absolutely glorious. Listen here as St. Elizabeth starts in a romantic-but-melancholy way, beautiful strings bending around lyrics about writing desperate notes in blood. But from these depressing depths the song moves backwards, reminiscing about happier times, adding layers, eventually exploding like a moment of passion, then tailing off again (as those moments of passion inevitably do) until we're right back to where we started. This is a song that resonates long after its over, and even though I can't personally relate to the lyrics they (hand-in-hand with the music) still somehow strike a familiar chord within.

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - "Intelligence"
The concept behind the EP The Secret of Elena's Tomb is as interesting as the songs themselves. Read about it HERE and be thoroughly grossed out. The songs on the EP seem to be loosely inspired by the story (as opposed to being directly about it), and as far as I can tell "Intelligence," the final song on the disc, doesn't have much to do with necrophilia. It DOES have much to do with freakin' awesomeness, and listening to this song makes me want to run through a brick wall. It starts of mellowly, even casually, but then the drum machine kicks in, and the rhythm follows, and suddenly you're listening to a metronome made of rock 'n' roll. Three-and-a-half minutes in things suddenly fall apart for no reason, but as if nothing happened at all it quickly reassembles before eventually squealing to a halt. The song is a sub-electronic departure for the band but no less an awesome one. The kids are hopped up now, indeed.

Cat Power - "He War"
According to ye olde Wikipedia Chan Marshall is dissatisfied with the recording of this song. Whatever. It does sound hastily mixed, but it's totally to the song's benefit as it adds a brittle edge to the manic lyrics. There are actually a lot of little things that make this song great. The tinkly intro keys, the "hey hey hey," the double vox, the processed vocals in verse #2, and when the song picks up near the beginning it doesn't let up until the end. Lulls are for suckers. That's Dave Grohl boom-tappin' the drums, by the way.

Beloved - "Defect From Decay"
For a few short years Beloved (the North Carolinian Beloved) was the greatest thing to happen to music. The music was all at once beautiful and aggressive, much like early Hopesfall. What differentiated Beloved from Hopesfall (as well as most other "melodic-core" bands) were Josh Moore's clean vocals. Not only was he on-key (which already gave him the advantage over other singers in the genre), but he was also a very good singer. Naturally there had to be screaming too, and anybody can scream into a microphone. But Beloved's screamer, drummer Joe Musten, had a voice that could wipe out armies. Somehow he found the strength to beat the crap out of his set while bellowing mightily at the same time. And as if the vocal tandem wasn't enough the band also had a fantastic sense of melody. The pretty parts were indeed very pretty, but even while they were throwing down and being all XcoreX the THREE guitars continued to paint rich sweeping musical pictures. I chose this song from Failure On because listening to it is like getting punched in the face over and over. We could all use a punch in the face.

Viva Voce - "Brightest Part of Everyone"
Viva Voce's 1998 debut full-length release, Hooray For Now, was good, full of straight-ahead pretty-voiced rock, but it only hinted at things to come. For a long time, actually, it seemed there would be no follow up. Their record company folded soon after the album's release and though they released an independent EP in 2000 they weren't heard from again (by me anyway) until a 2002 split with Soul Junk. At this point their sound had wildly diverged from that initial release and 2003's Lovers Lead the Way, full of creative and crafty sounds, shows it. A husband and wife duo, Anita Robinson usually takes the vocal lead, but here she does the angelic background thing while Kevin Robinson croons away. The music is murky but rhythmic (clap along!) until the chorus where everything, save for an acoustic guitar and the vocals, drops out. Then the bouncy fuzz comes right back and takes us to the next chorus which happens to be at the very end of the song. It's all at once positive and moody. It's also completely enjoyable.

You're Up

2008-06-28T20:52:00.004-04:00

Again, lack of posting not due to disinterest. It's due to excessive busyness. And I'll mention this every time until updates become daily.

Anyway, I made a mix cd for somebody going to Europe. Each song had something to do with her destinations either by subject, song title, band name, band origin, or language. By the way, do you know how hard it is to find songs about Liechtenstein? (Fortunately [or UN-, depending on whether or not you listened to the song] the "Liechtensteiner Polka" saved the day.)

Things I learned while compiling the playlist:
- Nearly every song by Beirut could qualify for this particular mix.
- Greek pop sucks.
- Czech pop does not.
- Francophonic songs are much more abundant than Belgian-phonic ones.

Here are the highlights:
St. Vincent - Paris is Burning
Tim Buckley - Moulin Rouge
Peter Bjorn and John - Amsterdam
Bloc Party - Kreuzberg
Waldemar Matuska & Eva Pilarova - Tam Za Vodou V Rakosi
Ultravox - Vienna
Beirut - Postcards From Italy
Roxy Music - A Song For Europe

Apology + NY

2008-06-18T14:55:00.005-04:00

I apologize for the severe lack of recent postings. Life has been hectic.
Heck. Tick.
And I do what I can.

If you, sick of these lengthy non-content gaps, would like to contribute to the Bipedal blog (either regularly, semi-regularly, bi-annually, etc.) then let me know. Pay is zero. Readership is minimal. Credit is full.

Anyway, this one's just to tide. Recently I visited New York City. To celebrate this event here are a handful of New Yorky songs.

Death Cab for Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan
Mason Jennings - New York City
Beastie Boys - Open Letter to NYC
Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan
Interpol - NYC

1984

2008-05-30T11:29:00.005-04:00

It's funny how you can just tell whether or not a song came from the mid-80s just by listening to it. Sometimes "the 80's sound" makes that particular tune more endearing. Sometimes it just makes it sound dated. And then there are those other songs that don't seem to age at all, that if they were released today would garner just as much attention as they did twenty-four years ago. Listen and decided for yourself which tunes sound classically quaint, good as new, or anything otherwise.

The Smiths - "How Soon is Now"
I recently read where a critic declared that this was THE song of the 80s, and I can't really argue. It's epic, searing, mournful, groovy, the soundtrack to virtually any given situation. There are a hundred little "favorite parts" in this song. Here are a few:
- the introductory "wugga-wugga"
- son, heir/sun, air... get it?
- the spookadelic guitar that wangs in every so often like an oscillating fan made of razors
- the vitriol spewed when Morrissey says "in particular"
- the fact that the song is long enough to appreciate while you're still listening to it
- whistling at 4:30
- everything dropping out at 5:00
- the last chorus, even though it's sung no differently than the others
It's interesting how this is the tune most people associate with the Smiths even though the rest of their songs sound nothing like this. Regardless, listen to it a thousand more times while continuing to not get sick of it.

The Cars - "Drive"
I know this song reeks of 80s, like, in a bad way. Blatant synth abuse, drums that plug into an outlet, wispy background vocals, etc. You've probably also heard this one a thousand times at your JC Penneys and on your local Lite-FM. I don't even want to look at the music video. But for all its zillions of faults, I STILL REALLY LIKE THIS SONG AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. I can't honestly tell you why. It's not a so-bad-it's-good thing because it really is good. It's not a guilty pleasure thing because it's by the Cars, and the Cars are awesome. Maybe it's because the lyrics are so dang down. Maybe it's because Benjamin Orr (or, as I like to call him, NotRicOcasek) does such a convincing job singing those downed lyrics. Anyway, I felt like I was the only one in the theater who appreciated the fact that the dumb car in "Transformers" used this song to try to hook up Shia LaBeouf with the girl.

Bruce Spingsteen - "I'm On Fire"
This wasn't released as a single until 1985, but it's found in the middle of Born in the U.S.A. which came out in '84, and that's good enough for me.
When you think about the songs of Springsteen (including the ones found on BitUSA) you think of the swarthy Jersey boy crankin' out tunes about glory days or dancing in the dark or something hand-clappingly rockin'. Maybe you don't. Maybe you already know he's a folky at heart and often hangs his hat on darker themes. This song qualifies as one with "a darker theme." In fact it bothers me when I pry apart the lyrics to find out what "I'm On Fire" is really about. Instead I nod along to Max Weinberg's boom-taps and listen to that marvelously subtle guitar-pickin'. Everything about this song is subtle, actually. The lyrics, the guitar work, the (for once in its existance) UNobtrusive synthesizers. Before you know it Bruce is howling for reasons I don't want to contemplate and the song is over.

Cocteau Twins - "Beatrix"
The Cocteau Twins are the only UK band I can think of whose accent permeates their singing voices enough to make it more difficult to understand what they're saying (as opposed to trying to decipher what they're saying when they merely speak). When I say "they" I guess I'm just really talking about vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. I can understand everything that comes out of KT Tunstall's mouth, but why can't I discern a stinkin' thing Fraser sings? Her vowels are too warped or something. But you know what? I like it better this way. Her words sound more magical and fanciful (instead of, y'know, just being rugged English). Couple her unique approach to singing with the glassy musicianship of the othe two guys and you end up with something that sounds like a lake of frozen pink lemonade. Drums don't kick in until the song is 2/3 over. That last 1/3 will twist your head right off.

Die Kreuzen - "All White"
Are you ready for some Milwaukee hardcore? This is actually one of their slower songs (at least until the last few seconds) from their '84 self-titled cassette, all the songs of which can now be found on October File, which was released a couple years later. In addition to being a relatively slow song, this one is also three times longer than most of the other tracks on that aforementioned self-titled, clocking in at a whopping three-and-a-half minutes. I chose this one because while those other minute-long speed demons are sweet-tastic, "All White" is at least more accessible. Enjoy this, get a frame of reference, then check out the rest of their early songs. Their later material (including the first half of October File, which is really album #2) chugs rather than skates, but it's still pretty good. Gotta love those Cobra Commander vocals.
Anyway, I thought "All White" was going to be a commentary on race a la Minor Threat's "Guilty of Being White." Instead it's about isolation and dispair and blah blah blah whine whine whine.

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto: Michael Jackson

2008-05-19T11:43:00.004-04:00

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights.
Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.

Obviously I chose to feature a very specific point in Michael Jackson's career. If I wanted to I could also feature album art from his adolescent years (including time spent with The 5) or album art from his latter bleachier years. But these images here reflect the Michael Jackson I know and love.

This is the cover to the "She's Out of My Life" single released in 1980, though the song itself is found on Off the Wall released in August of 1979 (see below). I don't know who gets credit for taking this picture, but it's raw and awesome. Here we see a tuxedoed Jackson channeling his inner Marvin Gaye during some life performance somewhere. According to Wikipedia (the source for all things absolute truth), Jackson couldn't get through the recording of this song without crying. I don't know if he was singing this song while the picture was being snapped, but look at the way he's pouring himself into that performance. He's belting out SOME kind of ultra-emotional ballad. It's also worth pointing out that I like a good concert shot where musicians play to the crowd instead of to the camera.

Here's the, uh, "brutto" of our set, the aforementioned Off the Wall. We have photographer Steve Harvey to thank for this (though cover "designer" Mike Salisbury should share part of the blame). Obviously there's the tux theme, which is fine. I don't mind a well-dressed performer. And I suppose it could be sort of clever to contrast the ritzy duds against a butt-ugly brick wall. But clever or not (not) it just looks dumb. Add to the dumbness the chalk-scrawl font. Add to the dumbness Michael Jackson trying to do the robot with his thumbs in his pockets. Multiply to the dumbness some sort of uncontextualized window or painting. It's possible this image continues around to the inside of the album (I believe the back is just a picture of his feet), but that doesn't matter unless these things were sold in stores inside-out.

Now we jump ahead a couple years to 1982 to gawk at the "The Girl is Mine" single. Thriller may have made Michael Jackson the king of the world, but here he looks as unkingly as possible. It's not a bad picture, and there are certainly many endearing qualities to it, but it's just overshadowed by a lot of awkwardness. See Paul McCartney. See him wearing three layers of clothing, all of which are too tight. See that charming-but-goofy smile only Brits can do. See him rubbing literal elbows with a coy Michael Jackson (who appears to have just gotten back from a Cubs game). See how Jackson was never able to remove his thumbs from his pockets. They're arguing about who gets a girl in the song, but does SHE have any say in the matter?

Better Than "Centerfield"

2008-05-16T07:06:00.000-04:00

Via Buzzgrinder, via CMJ, some aging rocksters (including members of REM) have formed a new band called The Baseball Project. (And to be fair, Linda Pitmon isn't really at all old... "experienced" rocksters, rather than "aging" ones.)

Peter Buck is involved. I didn't know he (or any other musical artist this side of Meatloaf) liked baseball. But he does, as do fellow REMer Scott McCoughey, Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate (remember them?) and drummer Linda Pitmon.

Their first release, Volume 1: Frozen Ropes & Dying Quails, will be released on July 8 on Yep Roc records. The song "Past Time" is already up on Myspace and lyrically sounds like a baseball encyclopedia put to music (with some whoo-hoos thrown in for good measure).

This could be something to get excited about if the songs don't suck. But anything mentioning Oscar Gamble's afro is alright with me. And really, looking over the track list, how many awful songs about Harvey Haddix could there possibly be? (None, that's how many.)

MMFRR#11 -- Amerodd

2008-05-08T16:40:00.006-04:00

Often, in lieu of actual people wanting to be my Myspace friends, I get piles of friend requests from bands and musicians attempting to get me to check 'em out/attend their shows/join their street teams. Naturally a great bulk of these bands are awful and I want nothing to do with them, yet the requests keep coming. As a mild form of revenge I have decided to review these bands. Welcome to another therapeutic entry of what I like to call Myspace Music Friends Request Review.

You asked for it, and now you've got it: India-rooted Canadian hip-hop. Yeah, boy!
Meet Amerodd.
Before you click yourself over to Amerodd's Myspace space I must caution you. There is so much crap all over everywhere that your web browser will ask you what it did to deserve such torture. Mine died the first time. If your computer can't handle the pain then maybe you should just stay right here.

Amerodd is angry. He's an angry person, but he's not quite sure how to focus his anger. Players and ballaz make him angry. B****es and hoes make him angry. Police and racists make him angry. People who call him a virgin make him angry. And finally, basic grammatical rules make him angry. What's left to do but RAP about it? And when you lay down your tracks, and you're still angry, what do you do then? Barf homemade graphics all over your dang Myspace. My favorite is the one that reads:

F*** Hoes,
F*** the Law,
F*** you all motherf***ers
who want to f*** with Amerodd!!!
Go ahead call the b**** a** cops!!!

Sans asterisks, of course. Next to the image of an AK-47, of course.

Okay, so we see WHAT Amerodd is. But WHY? Aren't Canadians a docile bunch? Where is this rage coming from? In the bio (which is an absolute headache to read) we learn that Amerodd was born in India. The details are vague (or mashedly unreadable), but apparently his family fell on hard times prior to their Canadian voyage. And whatever strife he endured out east didn't let up when he came west. My theory is that he probably got made fun of in Canada because the only word he bothered to learn in English was b****a**motherf*****.

Somehow along the way he mistook himself for a gangsta. For whatever reason he felt the need to represent.

I'll give him credit for being one of the few Indians on the hip-hop scene. The Canadian hip-hop scene at that (which, now that I think about it, is probably the only place this side of Calcutta where you could get away with such a combo). You know what else I give him credit for? His tunes aren't half bad.

Wait, what?

Yeah, that's right, I spend paragraphs dumping on his silly posturing and the laughable image he's created only to come back and say his songs are worth listening to? The imagery and frontin' have been hip-hop's greatest downfall, and once you get past that you'll usually find that there's no substance to a lot of rap's "artistry". With Amerodd's music (seperate from the Amerodd characature he's created, at least for now), he struts what he has, and it ain't much. All he has, when it comes down to it, is his anger, his ethnicity, and his belief in Jesus.

These three components of Amerodd's being haven't been resolved with each other and that in itself creates sort of a fourth component, one of conflict. It doesn't appear that he's really taken charge of this conflict, hence all that posturing, and what results is this baffling swirl of lyrical content. With his Punjabi accent he asks Jesus why these motherf***ers are acting like b****a** punks, and when will He (the good Lord) do something about it? Or how soon will Amerodd blast them himself? Fascinating, and probably for all the wrong reasons.

Three songs are available on Amerodd's Myspace. "Jealousy and Hate" has a pretty sweet sitary beat but otherwise follows the well-trod gangsta rap path. I've got a bit of a soft spot for angry street hip-hop (though, honestly, I could never get into 2pac), so I kind of dig this one. "End of My Life" is a more passive song and Amerodd comes off sounding like a victim (how ungangsta-ly). The third song, "Curfew", is an odd little disjointed musical jaunt. Something about a Hindu-Muslim society, something about escaping from prison, something about a military mission. I'm sure it makes perfect sense in Amerodd's brain, but to me it feels like an unintended experiment.

And that seems to be Amerodd's greatest strength. The best parts of him are unintended. He's trying to do all the "right" things as far as hip-hop is concerned, but he comes from such a different place that, while fileable under the "wannabe" category, the end result is more curious than bland.

I rate Amerodd 6 busted caps out of 10

The Letter Q

2008-04-29T12:40:00.004-04:00

Thoughts on DCFC's new single

2008-04-19T18:05:00.002-04:00

I love Death Cab For Cutie.
I love Death Cab For Cutie.
I LOVE Death Cab For Cutie.

BUT

"I Will Posses Your Heart" sucks really bad.

The eight-and-a-half minute album version is up on Myspace. I dig the four minute intro. I don't dig the parts where Ben Gibbard sings (which is unusual as I normally find his voice soothing and his lyrics clever-ish).
The radio single axes the huge intro, so if the song pops up on your local rock 'n' roll music station all you're left with is four minutes of crap.

Listen for yourself.
Or don't.

I fear for the rest of the album.

1974

2008-04-09T13:30:00.000-04:00

The year 1974 was a peculiar post-hippy pre-disco time in music when funk was just gettin' its groove on, arena rock was big and loud, prog rock found an audience, glam rock was making people uncomfortable, and punk rock was still only protopunk (as if they could know). I'm not going to discuss any of these genres. Instead we're going to check out some folkish and soft-rocky gems. Why? Because in an era when music and music's image was so brash and obtuse, the introspective and low-key tunes get kind of overlooked. But don't worry; none of the following songs are too schmaltzy.

Al Stewart - Nostradamus
Past, Present, and Future was released in the UK in '73, but was released in the US the following year, SO IT COUNTS. Though this song is a bit proggish, Stewart had yet to shed his folk influences as the song (nearly ten minutes long... you better set aside a block of listening time) is carried by acoustic guitars and some manner of bongo. Lyrically we have a odd history lesson about the things Nostradamus saw years before they happened. In pseudo-poetic language he sings verses like this:

From Castile does Franco come and the Government driven out shall be
An English king seeks divorce, and from his throne cast down is he
One named Hister shall become a captain of Greater Germanie
No law does this man observe and bloody his rise and fall shall be

If this sort of wordaging drives you crazy I understand, but the tune is a catchy one, and those guitars sound really good, and if you're patient you'll get to enjoy the fun claptrack three-and-a-half minutes in.
I will admit that the chorus makes me really paranoid:

Man, man, your time is sand, your ways are leaves upon the sea
I am the eyes of Nostradamus, all your ways are known to me

Nostradamus, just sitting there knowing all your stuff. Creepy.
Anyway, that's a pretty cool album cover, isn't it? Doctor Strange, travelling through time or something. The previous year's UK cover is a much more drab one of an urbane Stewart hanging out next to a mantle.

Harry Chapin - W*O*L*D
Most songs about radio are pretty lame. This one is the opposite of lame. Rather than just encouraging the listener to crank up the volume, Chapin tells the story of a radio DJ who's been a part of the ups and downs of the biz, who's loved and lossed and still pines, who's aged yet still yearns for the good ol' days. It's actually a pretty sad story and makes me want to reconsider this Broadcasting degree I've got hanging on the wall.
What intrigues me as much as the story are all the subtle odes to golden age and early jock radio. Harmonious background singers, when they sing "W-O-L-D", sound like they're crooning the call letters to some long-forgotten station. Chapin calls himself a daddy-o, and later a doo-wop bass nudges in a great 1950's "yeeeah". And he's "feeling all of forty-five", y'know, like his age or like the vinyl singles they would spin.
This is a bittersweet song, to say the least. But DJs are like the truck drivers of the music industry, so it fits very well.

Leonard Cohen - Who By Fire
I suppose this could be considered a duo as Janis Ian backs Cohen up word-for-word. Anyway, I like how initially this appears to be a very simple song (sparse instrumentation, each line begins with "who...") and yet there are deep spiritual implications found within the lyrics. Inspired by a Jewish prayer (where the first line is taken) the song explores various ways a person might pass from this earth, and yet all the same nobody is beyond God's scope, and each person will be righteously judged. It's like a moodier "Gotta Serve Somebody" (which was released five years later).

Tom Waits - (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night
Before he got all weird and his voice went to gravel, Waits wrote sweet little lounge ditties about women named Martha or, like this one, havin' yourself a good ol' Saturday night. Waits sings this like he's singing about YOU, and goes so far as to kick the song off with car sounds before singing about you driving your car. As you listen you become Joe Everyman, blowin' your fresh paycheck on beer and pool. You're a working man, of course, so you're living for the weekend and moments like these. But maybe this is a paltry existance for you to live, and you consider it as there's a "melancholy tear in your eye."

Makes it kind of quiver down in the core
'Cause you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
And now you're stumblin'
You're stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night

And maybe the heart of Saturday night can't be found cruisin' the strip with your "sweet one" or flirting with the waitress. But you'll take it because this is all you've got to look forward to.
Now I'm all bummed out, but I'll meet you next week.

Chicago - Wishing You Were Here
While beginning a song with car noises might be innovative, beginning a song with crashing waves is not. However this song is completely and wholly redemed by the melting harmonies done by (and never done better) three members of the Beach Boys. Lead vocalist Terry Kath, in a very subdued manner, does a call-and-response thing with the BBs until unexpectedly Peter Cetera blasts in with the bridge. The bridge is short and ends before you realize what an odd thing it is considering the rest of the song's context.
Thematically this song is about life on the road. Peter Cetera's got a job to do, and doggone it, he does it well. But that doesn't prevent Chicagoans and Beach Boys alike from pining for their far away loves.
I suppose bittersweetness is today's theme.

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto: Gordon Lightfoot

2008-04-07T14:30:00.000-04:00

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights.
Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.

Gordon Lightfoot
This is the cover to Gordon Lightfoot's debut album, enthusiastically titled Lightfoot!, released in 1966. I like this one for a number of reasons. First, he looks like James Dean from the movie "Giant". Second, it's simple and casual and gives you a good idea of what the music sounds like. Third, Gordon Lightfoot doesn't even need to look at his fingers when he plays the guitar. Obviously I would change the goofy turquoise font, but this is still my favorite Lightfoot(!) cover.

I'm apologizing for the foul quality of this picture. I couldn't find a higher-rez one, so I had to do some image stretching. Even so, Mr. Lightfoot looks quite dorky here. Interestingly enough, despite being such an unintentionally silly album cover, Sundown (released in 1974) was his most commercially successful original album. It contains such classics as "Sundown" and "Carefree Highway", and possibly other tracks about hairy be-sandalled men sitting in hay. Although a clearer image would probably reveal more, I have no idea what that stuff is behind his Gibson. Lightfoot himself appears as though he's about to say something, possibly "It smells like poo and the hay is itchy. Do I have to sit like this? Are you sure I look awesome?"

Continuing with the blue shirt/blue pants/guitar theme, here we have the follow-up to Sundown titled Cold on the Shoulder, released in 1975. You can see that the album designer and/or photographer tried to incorporate the title into the imagery. See? The woman, in his shadow, looking down on him, over his shoulder... see? The image itself appears to have been developed on some sort of fabric, possibly even denim. Gordie loves his denim. Anyway, aside from making the picture appear as though it was taken during a hard indoor rainstorm, the end result is intensely moody. How dark, man.

MMFRR#10 -- Metavari

2008-03-31T09:39:00.007-04:00

Severe apologies for the non-updates. Life happens.

You know what else happens? Myspace music friend requests. This, of course, leads us to another edition of Myspace Music Friend Request Reviews.

I used to have a bunch of these in my inbox, but for some reason they've all disappeared, wiped out by Tom. All except for Metavari's request. Prepare to have the spotlight shoned upon thee.

Before I go on I have to mention that Ty-from-Metavari frequents this here blog. This has no bearing on what I think of the band (honestly!), but it is good to know that readership exists.

Metavari

(featuring the talents of four disembodied heads and a fellow who really digs his horizontal stripes)

A lot of bands (a LOT) shoot themselves in their collective feet with bad vocals. How many times have you been jammin' to a rockin' intro only to have awful singing ruin your special little moment? COUNT THE TIMES RIGHT NOW. When this happens while I'm driving it makes me want to jerk the wheel. But anyway, as a band the best way to get around this is not to sing at all. Let the instrumentation say what needs to be said. Let the listener translate the music into a language that speaks best to him or her.

In the past fifteen years instrumental indie-rock (indie-mental rock?) has become quite fashionable. Fortunately it's a fashion I don't mind wearing. Explosions in the Sky, GY!BE, and Unwed Sailor are, in my opinion, the best purveyors of the genre. But what they don't do is add the boopy and beepy influence of indie electronica (indie-tron?).

The electro-rock wire is a shaky one to walk, especially for an instrumental band. Too far in one direction and suddenly your techno; fun but full of headaches. Too far in another (eliminating the beats, for example) and you become overly atmospheric and quite boring. Air and Zero 7, at least in the chillout department where Metavari qualifies, balance themselves in this manner quite excellently (albeit with the use of vocals). Done just right the music can hover around unobstructively in the background OR it can be the fascinating center of attention.

Do Metavari successfully accomplish the same? Shoot yeah they do. Without employing pesky words either.

I'd be interested to catch the band live (like, in person... Youtube performances exist) where their shows become multimedia events. Also they've been incorporating Beach Boys music into their sets, and I am completely interested to hear how well and how differently they rearrange those songs. In fact, Metavari is releasing a digital nine song Beach Boys cover album FREE this summer, and that is something I cannot wait for.

My only complaint is that there are only these two-minute samples on their Myspace page. Fools, I want to hear the whole song. Even if it's ten minutes long. ESPECIALLY if it's ten minutes long.

Anyway, highly recommended, blah blah blah.

I rate Metavari 10 moogs out of 10.

The Letter P

2008-03-09T13:07:00.001-04:00

In this series I spotlight five bands and/or artists whose names begin with the same letter. I try to feature active (or recently active... it's hard to keep current with all the break-ups) performers so as to reflect who I'm listening to and enjoying at the moment.

P

Britta Persson
It may or may not be worth mentioning that Ms. Persson is from Sweden (though it would explain why, despite not having an entry on the regular ol' English Wikipedia, she does get a brief nod in the Svenska Wikipedia). There is a detectible accent, but it certainly doesn't detract from the goodness of her music. It's probably a very ethnocentric thing to assume that it would, and you're a very bad person for having thought so. ANYWAY, Britta sings wide-eyed whole-voiced mellow rock. I detect some 1970s influence (even though she herself was birthed in the 1980s) in a lot of her singer-songwritery tunes, especially the ones I've heard from her newest album, Kill Hollywood Me. I think I also detect a lot of lyrical wryness (see, 'cause I've got a wrydar detector). Good stuff, all of it. Even her forlorny songs have enough groove and bop to them to warrant a casual hip shake (except for "Defrag My Heart"... I don't know what's up with that song OR the video).
There are four streamies (all from the new album) and some videos on her Myspace.
Also, "You Are Not My Boyfriend" (.mp3).

The Psyke Project
On the same side of the pond, but in a different realm of music altogether, from Denmark here's the brutal doomy metalcore stylings of the Psyke Project. The Nordic region is renown for its metal progeny, and this band represents well. As you would expect, the music is dense with atmosphere and at times slogs along. But in a blink of an eye (or a punch of a fist) things can/do get violent and speedy. The vocals are well-done, too. Not too shrill, not too gutteral... very enthusiastic. I hope one day they come stateside (Canadianprovinceside?) so I can see them in action. The Psyke Project: something excellent in the state of Denmark.
They've got a bunch of streamed songs on their neat-lookin' website.
Their four songs on Myspace are awesome and downloadable.

Pure Horsehair
I think they're a duo, though sometimes it's just one guy, other times there's a full band. Other than that I don't know much about Pure Horsehair. I know the music is nice in a folksyrootsy sort of way. I also know it's experimental as much as it is traditional, which is actually very refreshing. After hundreds of years of backwoods gee-tar strummin', sometimes it's hard to do something new with the genre. Somehow they/he/they make music that is both haunting and inspiring at the same time.
Those first two songs on their Myspace page, "Grasshopper" and "Trees (EEG)", are really good.
"H.D. Told Me" (.mp3)

Panda Bear
The man who calls himself Panda Bear is probably a mad genius. His work, both as a member of Animal Collective and his own solo material, is so far out in left field that he has to be completely nuts to have ever conceived it in the first place. And he calls himself Panda Bear. But when you try to peel back the layers and sort it all out (the rhythms, the instrumentations, the meanings) you'll find it's like figuring out a pulsing rubik's cube. Of course sometimes it's just too much and therefore too annoying. But Panda Bear's good parts far outweigh the bad, and if you can acquire the tastes he offers, then you'll ultimately end up redeemed.
Two streamed Myspace songs.
If you like "Comfy In Nautica" then you can download that one and three others over at Insound.com.

Poni Hoax
You like crafty Euro-disco, you say? A lot, you say? Weirdo. But Poni Hoax is good. They make groove-able shake-able funk-able remix-able SLIGHTLY PARANOID dance rock from France. Their music creeps around nice and rhythmically and allows you, with your huge tinted glasses and European trash 'stache, to scope out the fine foxes scattered about the club. Their music also reaches loud and triumphant apices, doing so as you simultaneously come across the one hot fox who won't throw her Red Bull and vodka cocktail (black market and expensive, of course) into your face.
Poni Hoax's pièce de résistance is the song "Budapest", a pseudo-apocolyptic and catchy ditty about... I don't know... Budapest, or something. Listen to it and like it. Do so from their Myspace space.

1987

2008-02-28T08:07:00.005-05:00

In 1987 the hip 80's were still awesome as the awkward transition to the cool 90's hadn't yet begun. By this point most rock 'n' roll sub-genres had reached their aesthetic peaks and the procreators of such were either just now easing into bland obscurity or, for better or worse, they were taking their art to the next level.

Although at the time I favored the music of Raffi over that of The Smiths, I've since come around, aged twenty-one years, grown a few feet taller, and have forgotten the words (though not the melody) to "Baby Beluga". The Smiths probably would've warped this five-year-old's mind anyway.

As much about re-discovery as it is about the regular sort of discovery, here are five kickin' songs from 1987. Reoccuring themes include life after punk rawk, bitter ends, and disturbing stories. Enjoy!

Husker Du - Ice Cold Ice
In January of 1987 Husker Du released Warehouse: Songs and Stories. In December of that same year the band unexpectedly broke up following a show in Columbia, Missouri. It was unexpected in the sense that they were in the middle of a tour, but drugs and strained relationships, those things that slowly wedge bands apart, things Husker Du had been trying to work through for years, finally culminated and destroyed the band. You'd never know that by listening to this album, though. They sound great. There's the odd 80's production that makes these songs feel a bit dated, but the tunes themselves are brilliant. As far as "Ice Cold Ice" is concerned, revel in the sweet melody, the desperate vocals, the harmonies... even some call-and-response. And underneath it all is the aggressiveness and attitude that made them such an awesome early 80's hXc punk band. By the way, if you turn the volume up to listen to the fade-out, watch out for that final chord. BWAAAAANG.

New Order - 1963
Murder you can dance to! The lyrical story is a bit vague, but evidently Bernard Sumner wrote this about the Kennedy assassination. The story goes that JFK hired Jack Ruby to take care of Jackie O. so that he and Marilyn Monroe could live together happily ever after. Ruby turned to Lee Harvey Oswald to make the actual hit. The hit was a miss and the bullet got JFK instead. Monroe, distressed that her lover had been killed, committed suicide. Ruby, miffed that Oswald screwed up the job, shot him in the stomach on national television. Obviously this isn't a story to be taken literally (Kennedy had been hit with two bullets, and Monroe died in 1962), so you can take the song to mean whatever you want. "1963" was released as a b-side to "True Faith" in July and appeared on the Substance compilation in August.

The Smiths - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Probably the most depressing song EVER. I don't know what's up with the intro at the beginning, but it sets a weird mood. Two minutes of piano and an angry mob(?) and orca sounds(???)... only to be crushed by a sudden wall of sadness when the real song begins. If it annoys you then pick up the 7-inch single, which omits the intro. But if you're a big enough Smiths fan to purchase vinyl singles then you're probably not going to care either way. This appears on the band's final studio album, Strangeways, Here We Come, and is in fact their final single (apart from re-issues, which obviously don't count). A downer song on multiple levels.

Rites of Spring - Patience
Time to get emo, but in the original post-hardcore definition of the word. Forerunners of the now-mislabeled genre, vocalist Guy Picciotto (later to join Fugazi) attacks and wrestles with the lyrics in a manner that is definitely reminiscent of punk and hardcore. The instrumentation, on the other hand, is almost subdued and even kind of jazzy. It all comes together, though, to create this brief and intensely emotional package. "Patience" appears on their 4-song All Through a Life EP, but you might as well get End on End compilation which contains the entire EP as well as their entire self-titled 1985 album. (Each of these releases, by the way, was produced by Ian Mackaye.)

The Sugarcubes - Birthday
You know what this post needs? More Bjork. Though this song appears on 1988's Life's Too Good, "Birthday" was released as a single in October of 1987. It was the band's first hit and was voted the #1 song that year on John Peel's radio show. It's got that doomy Icelandic feel to it, but this is most certainly a chipper pop song about love between a five-year-old and the... bearded guy... who lives... next... door... ew. If you don't want to admire the lyrics then you can admire Bjork's enormous pipes. She's, like, five feet tall but has a voice that can knock down a brick house.

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto: Depeche Mode

2008-02-25T10:32:00.006-05:00

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights.
Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.

DEPECHE MODE

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This is the cover to Depeche Mode's 1982 album A Broken Frame. It features an absolutely beautiful scene photographed by Brian Griffen. It's such an awesome image that Life Magazine named it one of the "World's Greatest Pictures" from the 1980s. According to Pop Rock Gallery, "this photo was shot in Hertfordshire, just off the Motorway M11, and all effects were achieved in camera." Half the album is comprised of synth-poppy fun beats, but though Depeche Mode wouldn't perfect their electro-gloom sound until later, the other half of the album is dramatic enough to warrent the use of this particular cover image. My only real gripe is the purple text at the top. Yucko.

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This is from Depeche Mode's follow-up album, Construction Time Again, released in 1983. Same photographer, cheesier photograph. It features an industrial worker about to smash himself some Matterhorn. At least, that's what it's supposed to be. Forced perspective works only to a point, and we know that when this fellow brings down the hammer he's not going to hit anything. In fact, I bet immediately following this snapshot he found himself tumbling down the Alps. And once again I don't like what the cover designer did with the text. I understand that it's slanted to mirror the mountain, but doing that forces it to become a (distracting) part of the image. Interesting note, though: you'll notice that in this picture and the one before the subject is facing away from the camera. Griffen purposely did this because he felt that it would allow the viewer to more easily place his or herself in the subject's shoes.

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This is the cover to Depeche Mode's Only When I Lose Myself single released in 1998. Here we have what appears to be a very stark and very orange hotel room. Rick Guest with the photography credit here (though Brian Griffen did do the surreal "Only When I Lose Myself" music video). I don't really know why this image appeals to me so much. Maybe it's because hotels remind me of travel, and I love to travel. Maybe I'm oddly attracted to simple geometric shapes. I do know that the blank television set is jarring, but somehow completely appropriate. The band logo in the mirror creeps me out just a little bit, and I don't know if the letters themselves are actually backwards, or if the entire image itself was flipped around after the picture was taken. Anyway, several different versions of the single were released, and as with differing versions there are varying (though thematically similar) covers as well. Example, example, example.

404'd

2008-02-18T14:40:00.003-05:00

From my new file hoster, Boxstr.com:

"We are going under major server troubles. We will be back up asap."

I can't win. My filing patronage is like the kiss of death.
Hopefully Boxstr WILL be back up and you WILL once again be able to sample those groovy tunes.

In the meantime I've got some more myspace band friend requests primed and ready to exploit.

Album covers, too, if I can decide who's next.

Anyway, as soon as I can once again host a file we'll jaunt on over to 1987.

1968

2008-02-12T16:00:00.001-05:00

If 1967 had the summer of love, then 1968 had the summer of HATE, right? No, of course not. Hippies still existed in abundant numbers and those motivated enough to write songs in '67 got around to recording and releasing them in '68. These would be rock 'n' roll's last innocent years, though, as arena rock would soon rear it's ugly head.

I'm actually featuring a variety of song-styles here. We've got the Motown sound, a British band, an Irish folky guy who likes his jazz, Nederpop, alt-country in its infancy, and, um, Lee Hazelwood.

Also, I'm trying out a new file hoster, so if things don't work correctly then please let me know.

Edwin Starr - Twenty-Five Miles
Starr is more well-known for asking what war is good for (answer: absolutely nuthin'), but here we have him huffin' and hawin' out this thigh-slappin' song about walking a bunch of miles. There are a lot of numbers mentioned (twenty-five miles, three days, two nights, etc) but if you can keep everything straight you'll find this guy's serious about his devotion to his woman. Best part of the song? The countdown near the end.

Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra - Some Velvet Morning
When they did the dead people montage during the Grammys the other night, I was disappointed that they didn't play this song when they put up Lee Hazelwood's picture. Instead they played "These Boots were Made For Walking", which Hazelwood wrote. But that in itself showed how inseparable Hazelwood was from Nancy Sinatra. Hazelwood was a gritty cowboy-type character, and Sinatra was a smokin' minxy little songstress. Yet somehow they joined forces during the 1960s to create music most excellent. "Some Velvet Morning" is, if nothing else, their most interesting collaborative effort. It's flowery, pastoral, orchesteral, and lyrically bizarre. The song see-saws between Hazelwood's tough-as-bark vocals and Sinatras heavenly "Phaedra" presence. He says he's gonna open up your gate. I don't know what that means.

Van Morrison - The Way Young Lovers Do
This is by far the most pop-friendly song from the super-awesome Astral Weeks, and it's probably for accessibility reasons that I chose it. A nine-and-a-half minute song about a transvestite makes sharing awkward, so here we have "The Way Young Lovers Do". The rest of the album moseys along, so it's a little bit startling to encounter this swingin' jazzy tune. The instrumentation is outstanding, and Morrison's voice is at its soulful best. It's that Richard Davis double-bass that really sets this song apart from any others, though. It ambles along with little regard for what the rest of the song is doing and dang near leads the charge into musical destruction about halfway through. Then everything somehow snaps back into sweet cohesion and things continue as if nothing had happened. Awesome.

The Zombies - A Rose for Emily
In 1930 William Faulkner published a short story called "A Rose for Emily". It's about a shut-in named Emily who kept the dead body of her lover upstairs. Southern gothic necrophilia is the way to go. This song, released thirty-eight years later, has absolutely nothing to do with that story. Instead it's about a woman named Emily who tends a rose garden. Couples in love pluck her roses, but nobody gives her any. So her garden withers and she withers and everything dies. The music itself is very stripped down and features Colin Blunstone's wistful vocals, a simple piano melody, and some sweet Zombie harmonies.

The Shocking Blue - Send Me a Postcard
Apart from "Venus" (yeah baby, she's got it), Shocking Blue didn't do very well Stateside. That's really too bad because they had a handful of very good songs. Take "Send Me a Postcard" for instance. Super-fuzzed guitars, moments of elated rock frenzy, Mariska Veres's big Dutch pipes... it all kinda makes me want to run through a wall. Though released as a single in 1968, this song didn't peak on Euro-charts until 1969 and didn't appear on an album until 1970's The Shocking Blue compilation.

BONUS TRACK

The Byrds - Pretty Polly
This song was recorded for Sweetheart of the Rodeo but ultimately didn't make the final cut. When Sweetheart was reissued in 1997 "Pretty Polly" was featured as one of the bonus tracks. Personally I think this song is better than the original eleven. It's a traditional murder ballad rearranged and country-rockified by Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn. The instrumentation is appropriately blue-grass inspired but comes across as a little frantic. The song gallops along at a steady rate and seems like a sweet little hillbilly love song until, terrifyingly, pretty Polly gets stabbed IN THE HEART. Two-part harmonies are used here for optimal effect and kick in when murderous intentions are discovered. If you're interested, on Roger McGuinn's Folk Den blog you'll find the lyrics and a more traditional recording of the song.

Quick Kathleen Edwards Update

2008-02-07T12:54:00.000-05:00

For the Kathleen Edwards fans out there (which should be all of you) half of her not-yet-released album, Asking For Flowers, can be streamed on her website. Also found on her website are new tour dates and a handful of .mp3s from her previous two albums (all of which I highly recommend listening to).

The new songs are quite good and I look forward to hearing the rest of the album.

That's all.

2008 R&RHoF Inductees

2008-02-05T11:24:00.000-05:00

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a bit bunky, in my opinion. A small handful of aging music industry folk choose some popular names that both suit their own tastes (James Taylor, rock & roll GOD) and will also sell lots of tickets at the induction ceremony. You're not going to find many punk or metal or hardcore or prog-rock or electronic bands showcased inside that glassy Cleveland half-pyramid.

Also worth noting is last year's Dave Clark Five controversy.

But with that being said I'm always interested to see, deserving or not, who made the annual cut. This year's lineup is fairly worthy. I can't ascribe to being a John Mellancamp fan, but I suppose he's left his mark. Madonna, too. Leonard Cohen was a bit of a surprise -- I've always felt he was too cool for the R&RHoF crowd. And as for the DC5 and the Ventures? Well, dude, they rock.

Leonard Cohen

"The Stranger Song"
[Video Comment: The closing seconds... passionate, or just something in his eye (and dribbling down his face)?]

Dave Clark Five

"Because"
[Video Comment: The DC5 weren't terribly good live performers, and here it's likely the guys were just singing over their own non-live music tracks. Great song, though.]

Madonna

"Get Into the Groove"
[Video Comment: I really like this one for some reason. Also, ROSANNA ARQUETTE!]

John Mellencamp

"Human Wheels"
[Video Comment: I actually like this song, probably because I'm a sucker for mandolins. Bizarre video, though. Equal parts midwest livin' and circus nightmare.]

The Ventures

"Hawaii Five-O"
[Video Comment: Book 'em, Danno.]

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto: Peter Gabriel

2008-01-31T15:32:00.000-05:00

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights. Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.

PETER GABRIEL

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This is the cover to Peter Gabriel's second album, released in 1978. It doesn't have a title because his first three albums don't have titles. Something about treating his records like issues of a magazine. Anyway, people either call this one "Peter Gabriel's second album", or, more simply "Scratch". I like this one because he looks pissed. He's so pissed that he's tearing the fabric of space and time with his fingernails. I think it's doubly cool that his palms are faced towards him, which places this shredded plane somewhere between his hands and his body. I don't know. It's a simple picture, but it's blowing my mind.

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This is the cover to Gabriel's Secret World Live live (duh) album, released in 1994. To me it just looks like outerspace Communist AT&T propaganda. A double-disc release (I don't even know if this is available on vinyl), I'd be interested in seeing the rest of the packaging. That is, unless it's full of angry red telephones.

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Once Gabriel decided to name his albums, he kept the titles short and succinct, like So, Up, and Hit. Here we have Us, released in 1992. I was about to toss this cover into the Stupid File (ample fuzziness, baggy pants, lunging Pete) until I realized that the big white blotch has a face on it. Holy smokes (literally), it's a full body apparition! And Gabriel is either conjuring her from the depths of wherever, or he's playing Ghostbusters with his bare hands. Regardless, it's the best image of a ghost, fake or otherwise, I've ever seen used on a commercial product.

One Good Turn...

2008-01-31T14:46:00.000-05:00

Don't ask me why, but somehow I knew William Stenner would read this blog. He was good enough not to flame me in the comment area, so I'll give him another hat tip -- linkedy link.

www.williamstenner.com
Nominated for the 2007 "Best International Rock Song" by Toronto Exclusive Magazine "Awards Online", for whatever that's worth.

But of course I capped my pants when I listened to his older (early 1990s) Ritual stuff.
Ritual on Myspace
Bands nowadays sure don't crush your skull like they used to. Death Metal, baby.

And if you're into industrial gotho-somethingratherness:
The World Black on Myspace
I like that instrumental track for some reason.

I read about so many recording artists unable to cope with criticism and acting like spoiled divas. But more people will like you if you're just NICE to them. Weird how that works.

il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto: Genesis

2008-01-28T09:54:00.000-05:00

I like album art, be it for actual vinyl albums or for these newer fangled compact disc-mo-trons. Cassette art I'm not so crazy about unless it's actually featured on the cassette itself and not just the plastic case. That's rad.
I have no opinion on 8-track art.

Check out A Grand Design for album art commentary, as well as for good/bad promo shots, show posters, and whatever other mediums that've been (in)adequately designed.

Also check out the not-updated-in-a-year ~~Livejournal~~ Deadjournal album cover group I birthed (then let die).

I'm sure there are countless other album art websites out there, but you should also check out album art BOOKS. "45 RPM: A Visual History of the Seven-Inch Record" by Spencer Drate, for instance. Or "1000 Record Covers" by Michael Ochs, a favorite of mine. Michael Ochs actually has several books about rock and roll imagery and history. If that kind of thing interests you then definitely check out his contributions.
"Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings", though not explicitly an album art book, does spotlight a boatload of great albums and, consequently, great album covers (in addition to some awesomely lame covers).

Anyway, having mentioned all this, I think it's high-time I introduced another feature.
il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto.
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights. Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.

First up to bat, Genesis (appropriately).

(click for bigger)
This is from Genesis' first live album, released in 1973. It'd only be a decent and un-noteworthy live shot were it not for the absolutely terrifying existance of Peter Gabriel looming between band members in one of his many freako costumes. This picture gives me nightmares, but it's one of my all-time favorite covers.
According to the official Genesis website, "front photograph courtesy of Bob Gruen".

(click for bigger, but what's the point?)
This is the cover to the 1981 album Abacab. I hate it. The design itself is garishly 80s and pointlessly abstract. The "Genesis" font appears to be the same one a cosmetics company would use. The whole thing also sort of reminds me of the Young and the Restless squiggle. Interestingly, subsequent re-releases feature the same image but with differing colors. More aesthetically pleasing? Perhaps, but I could also paint my feces bright pink and say it's more "aesthetically pleasing".
Cover by Bill Smith, by the way.

(click for slightly bigger)
Genesis' 3x3 EP, released in 1982. I'm mostly just impressed with Phil Collins' air. Blatant homagery, see also The Beatles' Twist and Shout single.

Some Artists That Get My Attention

2008-01-15T12:06:00.000-05:00

Periodically HM Magazine will send me e-newsletters. I don't insta-delete them because often they'll have trivia contests with CDs and stickers for prizes. I like CDs and stickers. Other times they chuck a list of bands at me that they'd like me to check out. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

A couple weeks ago they sent me an email titled "Some Artists That Want Your Attention". I'm only just now getting around to giving them their precious wanted attention.

These pictures you're about to see, by the way, are the same pictures that appear in the email. No doctoring. No searching for the goofiest picture elsewhere. The images that follow are the ones they want me (and you!) to remember them by. Just keep that in mind.

I'm not entirly sure why I'm giving out points. I might as well just rate each band on a ten scale. But I think I'm just grading the hit-or-missiveness of HM's recommendations. Should we ever listen to their suggestions ever again? Stay tuned.

All the Day Holiday
I initially thought this band name was stupid, but the more I tossed it around my brain the cleverer it became. Try it.
The music itself is good. Very good. Unexpectedly good. Take the best parts of the Appleseed Cast, Mae, Copeland, dieradiodie (remember them?), layer it all together, call it a stupid band name that gets cleverer the more you toss it around your brain, and you've got yourself something very listinable. It makes no difference that they missed the emo-pop bandwagon by seven years. Call it a second wave. Call it whatever you like. Just listen.
1 point

Arts and Sciences
They look like a Klezmer band gone horribly dumb, but they sound not at all how they appear, at least in this picture. They do the "emotionally driven" rock whateverness pretty good, but add brass (including a wholly unnecessary tuba) and various other instruments to enhance (or at least vary) their sound. Fortunately the accordian is subtle. Arts and Sciences is fairly comparable to Anathallo and maybe even to Foxhole (with whiney vocals). The music keeps my interest, and it's really not bad, but for some reason I'm underwhelmed. Maybe they don't quite fulfill their ambitious attempts at romanticism-rock. Maybe it's that stupid promo shot.
.7 points

A Study in Scarlet
A Study in Scarlet was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first novel to feature Sherlock Holmes. It is now, apparently, the name of a Memphis metal-ish band. ASiS sounds like a grittier From Autumn to Ashes, which would be fine if FAtA weren't nearly washed up at this point. Again, being seven years too late to a scene really kills you. They follow the same rules and methods of metalcore-ism that, while producing an energetic and pit-worthy sound, is completely un-unique. ASiS is good at what they do, but if you're even slightly familiar with the genre you will quickly become bored. If at a show, entertain yourself by stomping on some skulls.
.5 points

Cage
I'm not going to say a thing about the picture. Not a thing.
So I mentioned metalcore, but now it's time for some metal METAL. Like, Dio metal. Judas Priesty metal. Metal that was popular twenty-five years ago. And despite the cheese of it all (the goofy lyrics, the shrieky vocals, the tight leather) the genre does retain some sort of ironic charm to it. It's better than hair-metal and has more balls than a lot of the "hard" bands nowadays. And now we have Cage (not to be confused for the hip-hopster of the same name) thrashin' out old-school style. They've actually been around for a while and are fairly popular in Europe (where metal is taken very seriously). If you like Iron Maiden and, I don't know, Dethklok, you'll enjoy this.
Their myspace page is a disaster, by the way.
.7 points

Eliot Fitzgerald
As if it's not enough that solo artists give themselves band names, now we have bands giving themselves solo artist names. Here is Eliot Fitzgerald, four individuals not named Eliot or Fitzgerald. Musically I'd liken them to Copeland or Jars of Clay, though I personally enjoy EF (the myspace samples they're giving me, anyway) more than both. Lyrically they're as spiritually honest and assertive as Derek Webb, and you can read these lyrics on their myspace page. Good stuff, not great, but worth a listen.
.7 points

Mishka
Almost exactly a year ago HM sent me a newsletter full of bands to check out... and Mishka was on there as well. I don't think they've added any newer songs to their profile, and I'm finding I'm not enjoying this at all. There are a couple good moments in each song, but each tune somehow manages to foil itself somehow. It could be the vocals, or it could be the bland direction these songs take before they end. Although the half point I gave them last year wasn't good, I'm now giving them...
.3 points

William Stenner
I'm sure William Stenner is a swell guy, but these tunes are kind of blah. Not my style, but maybe yours? No? Regardless, I'm not hearing the Vengeance Rising and The Crucified influences he cited on his bio page. I want to hear THOSE songs.
0 points

Lightswitch
Evidently they have a song that they're known for. I guess I'm out of the loop.
This is typical CCM fodder; studio heavy, pozzy lyrics (worship lyrics even, which I won't say is a bad thing), -lite, SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE ON K-LOVE, etc. I just don't like it. Your mom might.
0 points

We end up with 3.9 out of a possible 8 points. I don't know what that means. Maybe it means I like half the stuff that appears in HM newsletters. Maybe it means I spend too much time assigning arbitrary points to bands I don't even care about.
Whatever.
Go listen to All the Day Holiday.

Goods of 2007

2008-01-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

I don't like calling my best of 2007 list a "best of 2007" list. How am I to know without having listened to every single release what is and is not the best? Rule by album art? Instead I offer up my "albums that I really liked" "of 2007". Not sorted qualitatively, just alphabetically.

I know there's a ton of stuff I've missed out on. I'll either get around to filling in the musical gaps in 2008 or, and this is far more likely, not at all. I also apologize for posting this so far into '08, thus nullifying the relevancy of this list. Stay tuned for my best-of-2008 list to be published sometime in 2015.

Unfortunately my go-to file hoster, Filegunner.net, has been haxx0rcized, so when I want you to listen to choice tracks it'll either be a link from somebody else's music site or a link to Myspace. It's not the way I want to do it, but I guess you get what you pay for (which, to date, has been zero dollars and zero cents).

Enough 'splaining. Here are the goods of 2007.

Air
Pocket Symphony
Great chilllll music. Good atmospheric music without being too ambient. That is, the songs of Pocket Symphony work well as background music, but you could also pop on the headphones and pay close attention to the dynamics of every song. Not too electro, if you're not into the whole techno thing. Not too soft if you're not into the whole Yanni thing. Not too anything, as a matter of fact. Just perfect music that will drop you off somewhere between the ocean and outerspace.

"Once Upon a Time"

Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
The Arcade Fire have become so popular that they've become an indie cliche. But if you're honest with yourself and listen to them with undiscriminating ears you'll (re)find that they're really very good. Anyway, I find that I enjoy Neon Bible much more than I enjoy Funeral. This is either because Neon Bible is a step-up for the band with regards to songmanship and sonics (and whatever else makes up a piece of music), or it's because I burnt myself out on Funeral a long time ago. Both are probably true, and I imagine I'll burn myself out on this album as well.
"Intervention" .mp3 (via Alucinante.net)

Beirut
Lon Gisland
Maybe EPs are a cop out as there's less opportunity to drop a terrible song to ruin the performer's credibility. On the other hand, sometimes you say everything you need to say in just five songs. As is the case with this one, sometimes I wish the artist would say more. Five tunes? Let's hear ten! These songs are a lot of fun, but in a stumbling gypsy carnival kind of way. There are accordians and horns and various other odd instruments and, of course, the warbly voice of Zach Condon.
Why am I talking about the EP instead of the full-length The Flying Club Cup, which came out in September? Because I haven't listened to that one yet. That's why. So deal.
Why am I talking about this EP instead of the other two that also came out in 2007? I don't know. Leave me alone.

"Elephant Gun"

Blonde Redhead
23
People usually say, "This album isn't as good as their other ones, but it's still pretty good." I say the exact same thing. But shoot me in the face, 23 gets better and better with each listening. The band shies away from that arty fartiness that up until this point made their music interesting. But while this is definitely a more pop-oriented album, it is (once you listed to it a half-dozen times) no less awesome. In fact, I would say that 23 is a good start for people checking out Blonde Redhead for the first time.
myspace.com/blonderedheadislove
Listen to "23", then listen to the other three songs.

Deerhoof
Friend Opportunity
Speaking of accessibility from bands who normally shun such general appeal, if you've never had an opportunity to let your ears experience the off-kilter excellence of Deerhoof, now's the time. The time is now. It's now time. Time: NOW. The inanity is still there, and at times they seem on the verge of a complete musical meltdown, but this time around the band crafts (rather than barfs) their tunes into shape, and the result is amazing. Song after song of blow-your-mindism.
"Believe E.S.P." mp3 (via Busted Up Bulldozers)

Deerhunter
Cryptograms
All the epicness and gloom of Explosions in the Sky without any of the pomp. There are vocals on these songs, but more often than not they fall into the dense haze of guitars and become a part of the musical landscape. I don't have much else to say about this album or the band because I have such a hard time wrapping my mind around these songs. But sometimes it's okay to be overwhelmed.
myspace.com/deerhunter
Start with "Heatherwood", then listen to the other tunes.

Julie Doiron
Woke Myself Up
I don't know why I like the music of Julie Doiron so much. It's all fairly simple, very subdued. Maybe it's because her straight ahead folky tunes are the yin to the nearly convoluted yang of such bands' music as the aforementioned Deerhunter. Complexity is neat, but simplicity is refreshing. Anyway, Doiron's been making music since the mid-nineties, but I find her latest full-length album to be pretty dang enjoyable (though there's still that 2003 split with Okkervil River I really need to check out). Give 'er a listen if for no other reason than she deserves one.
myspace.com/juliedoiron
Only one song on her myspace, but it's exactly the one I want you to listen to.

Feist
The Reminder
Feist is almost overplayed, but not quite yet. I might be done with "1234", but there's still the whole rest of the album to enjoy. A bit bluesy, a bit groovacious, a tiny bit folky... this one's a nice unintrusive soundtrack to most casual social situations. What's most important, though, is that these songs will stick with you. I've had the word "sealion" bounce around my head for days at a time.
By the way, the other day I overheard somebody refer to her as Feast.

"My Moon My Man"
She totally stole that idea from OK Go, who totally stole it from Jamiroquai.

Klaxons
Myths of the Near Future
Dancy punky psychedelically funky rocky rock. From the planet Spectra. This band, their songs, and this album are all a whole lot of fun and would make a suitable soundtrack to a mind-altering pixy stix binge (including also the horrifying comedown crash).
myspace.com/klaxons
After listening to "Golden Skans", pick yourself back up and jam out to the other songs.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Living With the Living
This is all I've heard other people say about this album: it's good, but his older stuff is better. I tend to agree, but that's how awesome Ted Leo is; even his less-than-stellar material is still quite stellar. There are fifteen tracks on Living, so whatever might be lacking in quality (which actually happens to be nothing, thus rendering this sentence non-sensical) is made up for in quantity. Ted Leo has always given me insane deja vu as I always feel I've heard each of his songs somewhere else before. This isn't a bad thing, and this ghost-familiarity is probably the thing that makes his music so initially appealing to me in the first place, and so once again he's given me another excellent album that messes with my perceptions of space and time.
"La Costa Brava" .mp3 (via Captainsdead.com)

Mixtapes & Cellmates
Mixtapes & Cellmates
Swedes! Ambitious and creative ones! This self-titled release is full of etheral atmospherey stuff, some electronic boops and beeps, hushed male vocals, hushed female vocals, some angst here and there, and a bunch of good songs. I think this album is internet-only in North America, but if you want to shell out some extra kronas for an imported and tangible compact disc then by all means do it.
myspace.com/mixtapesandcellmates
"The Better Half of Cynical Boys", then "Hold", then "Dress Up Wear Down", then "Quiet", IN THAT ORDER.

Mob
Polygon
Super emotional (and super-emotional) stuff reminicient of the old-school days of emo. If broken hearts were to piece themselves back together with equal parts sadness and rage, and they had singing voices and could play driving music, and they were Danish, then you'd have yourself a Mob. They label themselves "shoegaze" on their Myspace, but I don't think that definition fits unless their shoes are on fire. Though just a four-song EP, there's more awesomeness on Polygon than there is on a lot of other full-lengthers.
www.myspace.com/mobnoise
The first two tracks are from the Polygon EP, but the other ones are good as well.

New Pornographers
Challengers
I had previously considered the New Pornographers the outlet for AC Newman's poppy bubbly songwriting efforts (though his solo material isn't what you would call overly saddish) and the twing to Neko Case's country twang. Indeed, the band's prior albums sounded as though they were fashioned from sweet dancing candy canes. But here on Challengers they go in a different and mellower direction. I was off-put at first, but these songs have really grown on me. There's still plenty of head-bopping to be had, but there are also handfuls of surprisingly low-key moments. Good album.

"Challengers"

Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
More psychedelia! This time a bit darker and with more electro-dabble. There are still elements of their old poppy selves on this album, but until you've listened to all twelve minutes of the track "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" then YOU JUST DON'T KNOW. Other songs spazz all over the place, slow down, speed up, get lost in the haze, breakdance on your retinas, teleport to 1980 leaving behind an environmentally disasterous contrail, and do various other crazy interesting things.
"The Past is a Grotesque Animal" .mp3 (via PrettyMuchAmazing, via KeithSchofield.com)

Rosie Thomas
These Friends of Mine
Rosie Thomas has the prettiest voice ever, and that's just something you'll have to deal with. And as if hearing her soft sweet folky tunes weren't enough, Sufjan Stevens, Denison Witmer, David Bazan, and Damien Jurado all make appearances on this album. It's like a Christian coffehouse wet dream! The harmonizing is glorious, the lyrics are honest and poignant, there's a great rendition of "Song Bird", a great REM cover, and a great Witmer cover. And really funny between-song studio banter to lighten those heavy moments. Every minute not spent listening to These Friends of Mine (it's only half-an-hour long, by the way) is a minute of your life wasted. Don't waste your life, friend.
myspace.com/rosiethomasmusic
"Much Farther to Go" kills me. "The One I Love" is also killer. The other two songs are off of If Songs Could Be Held and are just as killful.

St. Vincent
Marry Me
Also pretty-voiced is Annie Clark, whose stage name, for whatever reason (though simple research could probably explain why, but I'm not really interested in simple research right now), is St. Vincent. Her songs are a little bit loopy, but not overtly zany. A little bit experimental, but still quite palatable. Interesting and good. She also has a neat blogger blog (that hasn't been updated in a month, but I'm sure she's been busier than I have) that's full of tour pictures and various Youtubery and word snippets. My favorite is the piano she manually bloodied, though apparently she's done that more than once. Anyway, Clark's the American Kate Bush of the aughts, so check her out.
myspace.com/stvincent
Listen. To. All. Four. Songs.

Tegan and Sara
The Con
Is it funny that I like Tegan and Sara? That I've followed their career for years? That I'm a fan-letter-written-in-blood away from being a creepy stalker? Anyway, after being dissapointed with So Jealous I was (and continue to be) very super impressed with The Con. The recording quality, as well as the song-writing itself, is a great improvement over most of their prior material. They ease back on that tinny "Tegan and Sara sound" (which made it seem like they filtered their music through AM radio) and allow a backing band and various keyboardy/synthy instruments to fill things out. Retained are the elements that make T&S so appealing in the first place (the folk-punk attitude, the killer hooks ["Back In Your Head" is often stuck in my head for days at a time], the faux adorableness).

"Back In Your Head"

Voxtrot
Voxtrot
Voxtrot's first full-length album is really dang good. Imagine Ted Leo being a bit mellower and more rounded, but equally as catchy.
"Kid Gloves" .mp3 (via Despite the Times)

Various
Definitive Swim
What's better than a sweet hip hoppin' comp? A FREE hip hoppin' comp. There really isn't a bad song here, which says a lot about the quality performers on Definitive Jux records. I'm not even a huge fan of the genre, but I can appreciate creativity, and I can appreciate a dang good song, and I can appreciate ten dang good creative songs found together in one place. My favorite is the Aesop Rock tune, which will absolutely spin you around.
Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass .mp3

You Give Pause, I Take It

2007-12-28T23:47:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a Top Such-and-Such of 2007, and I do aim to finish it. It just mightn't arrive until January. End o' December is such a superbusy time: social engagements, holiday doings, retail hell, etc. My silly little countdown can wait.

Given a free weekend I can type scads.

Daniel says, "Say, whatever happened to Anah Aevia?"
I says, "ionno".
But here's one of their songs I sure like.
Anah Aevia, one of the severest purveyors of "pterodactyl vocals" ever.

Anah Aevia - Closed Arms and Clenched Fists

Christmas Time is Here

2007-12-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

Christmas songs are dumb. I'm sure at one point in history Christmas songs were fun and enjoyable, but even though they're only played one month (sometimes two) out of the year, the same songs are repeated over and over EVERYWHERE.
You know all this already. You've suffered from lame Christmas songs enough this year. But I'll offer a few that are at least tolerable. I do find that I'm more inclined to appreciate the hymny Jesus songs. Tunes about jingling bells and frosty snowmen don't stack up so well against songs about the savior of the world, if you know what I mean.

Anathallo - O Holy Night
Pedro the Lion - O Come O Come Emmanuel
Viva Voce - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
The Wheeler Sisters - Don Oiche Ud I mBeithil

Merry Christmas, y'all.

2007-12-08T23:50:00.000-05:00

The art of trickery

- Awww Snaps! You got RickRolled!

Rick-rolling or RickRolling or being Rick Rolled all refer to the subtle art of misdirection. You look left while I lead you right.

HOLY CRAP a V1DE0 of a dude lifting a bus off of a K1D. Amazing…

Bam you just got rickrolled. You weren’t expecting it, they never are. This little act of shenaniganary is merely a testament to the fact that anyone will think of anything to use YouTube for. Whether it be Mastering the Quadruple Kickflip or Taking the Kitty to the Spa. This can only be categorized into the lowest form of entertainment right next to old clips of “Kimmy” Gibbler or Joy Junction.

I pain to have to link that.

On a side note…Who is Rick?

Rick is Richard Paul Astley. Rick was a Dance-Pop singer in the early to mid 80s with a few top hits, mostly in the UK. He was nominated for a Grammy award for best new artist of the year but lost to Tracy Chapman.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

On a more metal note. I would like to plug my latest metal fancy. A small band by the name of The Devil Wears Prada.

Yes. yes. you’re thinking, why the hell am I being fed this, my girlfriend already made me watch the movie with her, which wasn’t all that bad, but was all about fashion and girl-crap like that.

I swear to you this is no hoax. The Devil Wears Prada is a metal band. Damn good one at that. I mean look at these ablum coverz.

Nought but metal found within.

Pretty good metal at that.

Okay so what I think about said band is as follows. They mix very fluent and fluctuating sound into a diverse harvest of musical talent and lyrical mastery. That was almost poetic...

Anyhow I think theys good. I likes good. They make muh eers giggle. I like to tickle puppies.

The albums images above are actually in reverse order. The bottom one “dear love: a beautiful discord” came out last year (2006) while “Plagues” was released August 21 of this year. The prior is much more youthy with a very distinguishable basement or Generator stage quality while the latter is more polished and sophomoric, flaunting a bit more experimentalism and edge. Both albums are choice and can be purchased using the wizardry of iTunes or from the artists’ label site Here.

No seriously, Here.

Rofl.

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okies. I’m done, but before I go I’ll leave you with something seriously and truly disturbing…you will never want to read Mark Twain again.

Children’s Show?