2000-2009:100-91

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

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.

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

Stay tuned.

2000

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

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

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

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.)