LIST: The Breakdown: 2007 Sorted and Stacked
When compiling this year's Best Of... list I felt that I could do more. There was a lot of great stuff out this year and the best of it came from multiple genres, so I'm taking a little extra time to shuffle through the year, compiling small lists of my favorites in hopes of giving some exceptional albums their due.
Best Rock
The National The Boxer
Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Band of Horses Cease to Begin
Arcade Fire Neon Bible
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists Living with the Living
Rogue Wave Asleep at Heaven's Gate
Best Rocktronica
LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
Radiohead In Rainbows
!!! Myth Takes
Best Pop
New Pornographers Challengers
Feist The Reminder
Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight
The Shins Wincing the Night Away
Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha
Apples in Stereo New Magnetic Wonder
Best Weirdo Pop
Grizzly Bear Friend ep
Panda Bear Person Pitch
Animal Collective Strawberry Jam
Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Sunset Rubdown Random Spirit Lover
Besnard Lakes ...are the Dark Horse
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! Some Loud Thunder
Best Electronic
Dan Deacon Spiderman of the Rings
Matthew Dear Asa Breed
Justice (cross)
The Field From Here We Go Sublime
Simian Mobile Disco Attack Decay Sustain Release
Best Hip-Pop
M.I.A. Kala
Lily Allen Alright, Still
Jay Z American Gangster
Kanye West Graduation
Best Post-Something
Battles Mirrored
Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation
Liars Liars
Black Lips Good Bad Not Evil
King Khan & the Shrines What Is?
Best Americana (Rock)
Okkervil River The Stage Names
Iron & Wine The Shepard's Dog
Wilco Sky Blue Sky
Avett Brothers Emotionalism
Ryan Adams Easy Tiger
Lyle Lovett It's Not Big It's Large
Joe Henry Civilians
Steve Earle Washington Square Serenade
Best Plain Old Folk
Jose Gonzales In Our Nature
Best Surprise
Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation
Black Moth Super Rainbow Dandelion Gum
Biggest Letdown
Interpol Our Love To Admire
Best Song
Okkervil River Unless it Kicks
The National Apartment Story
LCD Soundsystem Someone Great
Liars Houseclouds
New Pornographers All the Old Showstoppers
Spoon You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
Arcade Fire Keep the Car Running
Dan Deacon Wham City
The Shins Australia
M.I.A. Boyz
Animal Collective Peacebone
Of Montreal Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse
New Pornographers Myriad Harbour
The Shins Phantom Limb
Band of Horses Is There a Ghost
The National Fake Empire
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Satan Said Dance
Wilco You Are My Face
Feist I Feel It All
Battles Atlas
Lily Allen LDN
Radiohead House of Cards
Panda BearBros
Rilo Kiley Breakin' Up
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.
Black Lips Veni Vidi Vici
Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation
!!! Must Be the Moon
Black Moth Super Rainbow Melt Me
LIST: 25 Best Albums of 2007
Every year as I compile my Best Of... list a theme emerges. Last year it was percussion (Liars, TV on the Radio, Glenn Kotche). This year seemed to mark a return to good old rock'n'roll peppered with outstanding electronic artists who seem to be at their best when applying their craft to - you guessed it - rock'n'roll. The top two spots were cemented early. The real battle was for the heart of the line up, #2 - 10, and #11-25 weren't much easier. Hope you had a good year of listening, all the best in 2008!
1. The National Boxer A bruised and beautiful punch drunk love letter to lost nights and the normal life.
2. LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver Dance and rock make beautiful babies, as smart and soulful as they are fun
3. Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Texas via Motown, Spoon grows and brightens their sound without losing the thread.
4. Radiohead In Rainbows Surpirse! Radiohead is a real band made of real men and they make real songs! What, you thought it was an elaborate technopolitical audio supercomputer managed by the great and mysterious Thom Yorke?
5. Battles Mirrored Score one for mathrock and unintelligible vocoder babble - big, bad, brainy and fun.
6. Band of Horses Cease to Begin The band's move to South Carolina softens well honed Pacific Northwest guitars.
7. Okkervil River The Stage Names Heart exploding rockudrama - amazing stories and characters set to outstanding Americana infused rock'n'roll.
8. Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation Their sophomore album marks huge strides forward. Loose and accessible but still loud, weird and fun - a very pleasant surprise.
9. New Pornographers Challengers Coming off of Twin Cinema's huge critical success in 2005 the bar was raised. AC Newman and Co. turn in yet another solid set of power pop anthems which sounds better every time I listen.
10. Grizzly Bear Friend ep EPs are like soup, often served in prelude to the main course. This soup eats like a meal, maybe an autumn lunch in New England with Brian Wilson.
11. Liars Liars Liars connect the dots between Trench and Drum and points between.
12/13. Panda Bear Person Pitch / Animal Collective Strawberry Jam Animal Collective member Panda Bear's solo outing isolates the larger outfit's parallel atmospheric and pop sensibilities while the full band's effort reins in the former, showcasing an increasingly tighter sound and Avey Tare's leadership as a frontman. Both are still plenty out there, but getting closer all the time.
14. Dan Deacon Spiderman of the Rings Is there such a thing as freaktronica? There is now, and Dan Deacon is its king.
15. Arcade Fire Neon Bible Oh so gloomy beautiful - a Springsteen / Bowie lovechild is born.
16. Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Of Montreal can come off as simply trippy, manic or oddball, but Fauna finally adds some grown up teeth to the sound without dampening the party.
17. M.I.A. Kala Third world rhythms and politics meet western production causing many dance rave-ups along the way. I bet the kids still can't find Darfur on a map.
18. Lily Allen Alright, Still Saucy, grrly brit pop that doesn't slip into some Spice Girls caricature. Catchy and fun with no sticky aftertaste.
19. Iron & Wine The Shepard's Dog They might finally be a band rather than Sam Beam's musical moniker. I&W steps out rhythmically, bumping the tempo and volume ever higher but keeping their roots in Beam's poetic southern snapshots and situational studies.
20. Feist The Reminder Lovely, airy pop vocals from the Broken Social Scene siren. I'm sure this would have ranked higher if I were a nineteen year old girl.
21. Jose Gonzalez In Our Nature Earnest folk balladry gently pleas for better days, instead gets better music.
22. Matthew Dear Asa Breed To quote Greenie, "minimal-meets-electro funk." Dear keeps his vocals on the down-low letting the subtle swagger of his beats do the talking.
23. Justice (cross) Francokrautronica. Dark, big, bombastic and tightly controlled electronic / dance tracks from French kids who hate American kids but want all their stuff.
24. Black Lips Good Bad Not Evil Cheeky, raw, sincere and political, the Atlanta garage band breaks out.
25. Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight Jenny Lewis' recent solo turn ads confidence to their sound, now sparkling beneath a mirror ball on loan from Debbie Harry.
2. LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver Dance and rock make beautiful babies, as smart and soulful as they are fun
3. Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Texas via Motown, Spoon grows and brightens their sound without losing the thread.
4. Radiohead In Rainbows Surpirse! Radiohead is a real band made of real men and they make real songs! What, you thought it was an elaborate technopolitical audio supercomputer managed by the great and mysterious Thom Yorke?
5. Battles Mirrored Score one for mathrock and unintelligible vocoder babble - big, bad, brainy and fun.
6. Band of Horses Cease to Begin The band's move to South Carolina softens well honed Pacific Northwest guitars.
7. Okkervil River The Stage Names Heart exploding rockudrama - amazing stories and characters set to outstanding Americana infused rock'n'roll.
8. Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation Their sophomore album marks huge strides forward. Loose and accessible but still loud, weird and fun - a very pleasant surprise.
9. New Pornographers Challengers Coming off of Twin Cinema's huge critical success in 2005 the bar was raised. AC Newman and Co. turn in yet another solid set of power pop anthems which sounds better every time I listen.
10. Grizzly Bear Friend ep EPs are like soup, often served in prelude to the main course. This soup eats like a meal, maybe an autumn lunch in New England with Brian Wilson.
11. Liars Liars Liars connect the dots between Trench and Drum and points between.
12/13. Panda Bear Person Pitch / Animal Collective Strawberry Jam Animal Collective member Panda Bear's solo outing isolates the larger outfit's parallel atmospheric and pop sensibilities while the full band's effort reins in the former, showcasing an increasingly tighter sound and Avey Tare's leadership as a frontman. Both are still plenty out there, but getting closer all the time.
14. Dan Deacon Spiderman of the Rings Is there such a thing as freaktronica? There is now, and Dan Deacon is its king.
15. Arcade Fire Neon Bible Oh so gloomy beautiful - a Springsteen / Bowie lovechild is born.
16. Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Of Montreal can come off as simply trippy, manic or oddball, but Fauna finally adds some grown up teeth to the sound without dampening the party.
17. M.I.A. Kala Third world rhythms and politics meet western production causing many dance rave-ups along the way. I bet the kids still can't find Darfur on a map.
18. Lily Allen Alright, Still Saucy, grrly brit pop that doesn't slip into some Spice Girls caricature. Catchy and fun with no sticky aftertaste.
19. Iron & Wine The Shepard's Dog They might finally be a band rather than Sam Beam's musical moniker. I&W steps out rhythmically, bumping the tempo and volume ever higher but keeping their roots in Beam's poetic southern snapshots and situational studies.
20. Feist The Reminder Lovely, airy pop vocals from the Broken Social Scene siren. I'm sure this would have ranked higher if I were a nineteen year old girl.
21. Jose Gonzalez In Our Nature Earnest folk balladry gently pleas for better days, instead gets better music.
22. Matthew Dear Asa Breed To quote Greenie, "minimal-meets-electro funk." Dear keeps his vocals on the down-low letting the subtle swagger of his beats do the talking.
23. Justice (cross) Francokrautronica. Dark, big, bombastic and tightly controlled electronic / dance tracks from French kids who hate American kids but want all their stuff.
24. Black Lips Good Bad Not Evil Cheeky, raw, sincere and political, the Atlanta garage band breaks out.
25. Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight Jenny Lewis' recent solo turn ads confidence to their sound, now sparkling beneath a mirror ball on loan from Debbie Harry.
REVIEW: Simian Mobile Disco "Attack Decay Sustain Release"
Dance is a label meant to describe the effect music has on one's body - a visceral, ape-brain response to rhythm and tempo. Electronic simply describes the way a sound is made. Together they are a thing and its purpose - form and content. The question is this: if the form is properly described (electronic) but the content falls short of its intended effect (dance) can it still keep the label? Is it dance music if it merely sounds like dance music without making one dance? All the signifiers are there, the bmmp bmmp bmmp and the arpeggiated metallics, the sexy guest vocalists half-singing syllables meant to loose meaning the second they've been heard. Yet there is something that falls just short of ecstatic / tribal / sexy or whatever else it is that flips the switch every time. "I Got This Down," the stand out single "Hustler," and "Tits & Acid" are each great tracks but they come off sounding more hip than hip-shaking. It's truly fine electronic pop mined from the rich and often tapped Daft Punk vein, but hipness can turn on a dime and there is seldom room for imitators at the top. Dance music about dancing that somehow barely, though occasionally, manages to make me dance.
LIST: Kyle's Totally Shameless Twelve Days of Music Wish List, 2007
It must be time for the 2007 edition of my Totally Shameless Twelve Days of Music Wish List!
5. Ryan Adams Follow the Lights ep
8. Queens of the Stone Age Era Vulgaris
9. Akron Family Love Is Simple
10. Great Lake Swimmers Ongiara
11. Various Artists People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, 1913-1938
12. Magnolia Electric Co. Sojourner (box set)
REVIEW: Liars "Liars"
Liars' self-titled fourth LP looks at noise, punk, dance and pop through the long lens of last year's very awesome Drum's Not Dead. Rather than returning to their Brooklyn punk roots they're digging them up and transplanting them on the other side of the jagged fence built by Drowned.
This is their most varied and accessible album yet, starting off with the numbing riff/bash stadium noise rocker "Plaster Casts of Everything" - a song within a song, really - followed by "Houseclouds" which is a dead ringer for what Beck should have been doing instead of The Information. Most songs track pretty close to Drum's reductive atmosphere and night stalker tension, however the added buzz of guitar, saturated feedback loops, and rhythms aimed at listeners' asses rather than bowels makes the Liars sound more like an adventurous rock band than a talented trio of noisy artists. Add "accessible" to the oft used "experimental" tag they bear. Keep the "awesome" too.
This is their most varied and accessible album yet, starting off with the numbing riff/bash stadium noise rocker "Plaster Casts of Everything" - a song within a song, really - followed by "Houseclouds" which is a dead ringer for what Beck should have been doing instead of The Information. Most songs track pretty close to Drum's reductive atmosphere and night stalker tension, however the added buzz of guitar, saturated feedback loops, and rhythms aimed at listeners' asses rather than bowels makes the Liars sound more like an adventurous rock band than a talented trio of noisy artists. Add "accessible" to the oft used "experimental" tag they bear. Keep the "awesome" too.
NEWS: Farewell to Stylus
REVIEW: Interpol "Our Love to Admire"
Wire to wire gloom and flat dynamic shifts render a once admirably intense unit predictable and dull. Echoing guitars no longer stir with the same electricity, drumming moves from insistent to incessant and vocals fail to register an actual emotion, hanging hopes instead on a lingering sense of ennui now dead from long term exposure to matter-of-fact-ness. Not with a bang but a whimper goes this stadium sized incarnation of smart and sexy New York emo-gloom.
REVIEW: The National "Boxer"
Writer Pierce Egan first referred to boxing as the "sweet science of bruising" in his 1824 publication "Boxiana" [originally a serial publication called "Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism (1813-1828)," a perfectly 19th century title if e're there was]. Another writer, A.J. Liebling, popularized an abbreviated form of the phrase in the 1950's with "The Sweet Science," a collection of boxing pieces written for The New Yorker. “A boxer, like a writer, must stand alone,” said Liebling,* succinctly framing what has become a great American metaphor - the artist as boxer; a lone fighter who must use his talent, strength, wits and will to stand his ground. And win or lose, he is going to take a beating.
Entering the ring with their second album on Beggars Banquet, The National. Boxer is a bruised and beautiful love letter to the "unmagnificent lives of adults," (track 2 Mistaken for Strangers) and it goes the distance.
The metaphor fits on a couple of levels. Topically: Each round in a boxing match lasts 3 minutes and title matches are scheduled for 12 - 15 rounds. An average pop song lasts about 3 minutes (Boxer averages 3:42), and there are 12 songs on the album. More importantly, the band moves like a boxer. Circling, staggering, lilting, leaning, repeating flourishes and lines when they stick, rocking on the balls of their feet until, punched out, they can only find their heels.
Boxer further distills Alligator's subtle use of simple, heart felt melodies allowing the band to emphasize its well established sense of mood, pulse, and motion. They play with an ease learned through years of practice, not surprising since the band is comprised of two sets of brothers, Aaron & Bryce Dessner and Scott & Bryan Devendorf plus singer Matt Berninger, all childhood friends from Cincinnati, as well as string contributor Padma Newsome. Tension builds within passages through contrasting rather than competing play - moving like fighters in a ring - together, alone.
Each instrument also seems to consciously embody a specific part of the fighter. Drums pound resolutely becoming a boxer's unfaltering will to fight, driving on even as other elements of a song bleed and stumble. Piano stands in for stamina, at times rhythmically bolstering the will, other times dragging its feet, gently blurring the melody. Guitars and strings reach, parry, bob and weave providing a map of the fighter's movements on the mat and a consistent energy, even when he's against the ropes. Finally it's Berninger's combined writing and vocal performance that takes center ring, creating a rich paradox of strength and defeat. His well dressed lyrics are unbuttoned but not untucked by an end-of-the-evening delivery. Berninger's deadpanned baritone, never wandering above middle C, belies a great mass whose gravitas is buoyed by alternately romantic and mundane images of life's everyday struggles. From track 5 to track 6 (Green Gloves to Slow Show) he moves from proclaiming himself "the best slow dancer in the universe" to being the very definition of awkward, feeling "a little more stupid, a little more scared, every second more unprepared." This is the guy weaving away from the party without the girl, still carrying a glass of ice cubes.
The album is able to reconcile, even at times relish the way life can simultaneously offer beauty and a beating while in the end leaving you wanting another shot. Egan's original quote calling boxing the "sweet science of bruising" ingeniously fails to specify whether the word bruising refers to the act of creating a bruise on one's opponent or that of sustaining a bruise on one's self. Dropping the simple prepositional "of bruising" to dub boxing The Sweet Science strips the concept of its most important truth, trading away its visceral poetry in favor of abstract praise. The National returns this missing, ambiguous poetry to the phrase. After 12 rounds even if you've won you've been beaten. And if you've been beaten but leave the ring wanting another shot then what of importance have you really lost?
* paraphrased from Jon Christiansen's "The Sweet Science of Stories" featured on Great Basin News.
REVIEW: Battles "Mirrored"
Mirrored is stadium sized mathrock pulsing with head-nodding beats and devil's horn riffage tweaked, twisted and (at times) assaulted by dense time structures, glitchy keys and some lengthy nerdy noodling. Impenetrable vocalizations bring to mind Smurfs in a blender - colorful and perversely satisfying without making any sense at all. Battles are the high school jocks who quietly aced Calculus. Brains and brawn.
REVIEW: Gob Iron "Death Songs for the Living"
In 1997 I saw Son Volt at the Fillmore in San Francisco on their Straightaways tour, and they were great. The show introduced me to opening act Varnaline fronted convincingly by this guy Anders Parker. I caught a couple of Farrar's solo shows in the years that followed. Each stripped down, largely acoustic set showcased Farrar's voice and guitar playing - always underestimated - and the strong supporting role of sideman Parker. Like you, I sensed the possibility of something new, something which now has a name. Gob Iron.
I looked it up. Gob Iron is old fashioned folksy British slang for harmonica. Not that it makes the name any less awful. I think it was chosen to keep with Farrar's penchant for unlikely sounding three letters then four while referencing the arcane musical name (Son Volt). Coincidence? Probably.
Death Songs fits nicely into Farrar's catalog as a possible bookend to Uncle Tupelo's March 16-20, 1992. It is simple, moving, clear and heart-felt folk music offering new reads on old tunes and themes. The album's structure situates brief instrumentals between each proper song acting as prelude to sepia toned portraits of the way friends used to - and thankfully still do - make music.
REVIEW: Son Volt "The Search"
Two years ago Jay Farrar revived Son Volt with a retuned crew and offered up Okemah and the Melody of Riot. It was a politicized look back to his earlier guitar driven, plugged-in troubador sound and offered a glimmer of hope to this dyed in the wool fan for the return of insurgent country's oaken heart and bared teeth. I played The Search with these same high hopes - and was immediately deflated. The album leads off with "Slow Hearse," a piano scale with psychish Beatles guitar decorations over the lyric "Feels like driving 'round in a slow hearse" repeated like a mantra. Okay, intro track, skip it. Track two starts with a flat take on Memphis horns and proves, like most of the album, to be unexciting, overly verbose and lost in its own philosophy. Disappointing to say the least, especially considering Farrar's excellent work with Anders Parker (Varnaline) as Gob Iron.
I try to be charitable and Farrar's place in my musical pantheon was cemented long ago with No Depression and again with Trace so I tried The Search a few times and it's not a bad album. It's just not a very good one either. "Action" almost gets it right with a nod to swampy rhythms and growling organs but Farrar's always appealing, laid back tenor hits a pitch too sincere and worried to really rock. A few tunes make the cut for a passable mid-tempo alt-rock background shuffle but nothing quite manages to percolate to the surface. Maybe it's one of those things that needs time to settle in or find some sort of personal resonance. I'm still a fan, just not of this album. Not yet anyway.
REVIEW: The Hold Steady "Separation Sunday"
I can't believe I missed this. I remember scanning it at one of those tinny listening kiosks somewhere and thinking about the unlikelihood of my ever being drawn to a pseudo-literate Randy Newman sound-alike shouting at me about doing drugs in Minneapolis over chugging roadhouse guitars. So I'm an idiot and now it's all I can listen to.
The album's first half boasts what may be the best first-six-song combo strung together since people like me started keeping track of such ridiculous things, followed by a much needed respite before a one-two follow up near the end. Themes and characters that would soon inhabit Boys and Girls in America are introduced then mythologized to Biblical proportions, literally, alongside Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. A must have rocker with brains, brawn, heart and soul to spare. Credit this one an extra little half star up there.
REVIEW: Wilco "Sky Blue Sky"
It's nearly impossible to talk about a new Wilco album without addressing the entire Wilco catalog. Each outing showcases a shift in their sound, sometimes subtle but often dramatic enough to earn tags like "reinvented" and "experimental." These labels are ultimately decorative when applied to a band so clearly intent on eschewing labels and making up the rules as they go along.
I was listening to Summerteeth the other day and realized more clearly than before how "pop" the album is and why. It's Beatles, Beach Boys, Big Star pop - Liverpool to Surf City via Chicago. So I started thinking about other Wilco albums in terms of influences and a few things started making sense. Being There is a dark edged take on the Rolling Stones at their most soulful, and a perfect sophomore response to AM's cheeky, off the cuff take on life after Uncle Tupelo. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot nods to the desolate precision and glitchy open spaces of Brian Eno (an influence that probably earned them all the "America's Radiohead" comparisons), and A Ghost Is Born is equal parts Sonic Youth and Grateful Dead (Grateful Youth? Sonic Dead?). Sky Blue Sky is their album as Bob Dylan and The Band - respectful and poetic basement jamming around ideas large and small. Its the kind of thing that can only happen after everyone knows each other pretty well and there is plenty of room to share.
Maybe their most Dad Rock album yet, Wilco sounds relaxed, focused and in sync with one another. You can hear echoes of the rangy rock confessional indulged by Loose Fur and still smell the backyard bbq left behind from the last Golden Smog album. No one is working to earn a permanent spot in the band and no one is trying to change the world. They seem to be trying - with success - to have some fun and make something worth keeping.
REVIEW: LCD Soundsystem "Sound of Silver"
James Murphy's breakout s/t debut as LCDSs featured jaw dropping highs ("Daft Punk is Playing at My House," "Disco Infiltrator") and a few ho-hum lows. Sound of Silver offers improved maturity, balance, precision, greater scale - oh, and fun!
Some of the gaps have been ironed out and other peripheral ideas given their due, like the tranced-out sensitivity of "Someone Great" which gently percolates matching doses of loss and hope, the ambitious space rock of "All My Friends," and the chugging, shoutable, dance-rock of "North American Scum" and "Watch the Tapes." "Get Innocuous!," "Time To Get Away," and "Us V Them" sit solidly in the the tweaked epic/tronic dance groove that has so far defined LCDSs industry footprint - though that mark will be bigger and more difficult to predict considering the above advancements. Album closers "Sound of Silver" and "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" are respectively a self-conscious, less successful reflection of the album's strengths and a frank acoustic anomaly / homage to a place as densely difficult as it is inspiring.
REVIEW: Arcade Fire "Neon Bible"
Sophomore albums often wade into deeper, darker waters (see Interpol's Antics) and Neon Bible is no exception.
Arcade Fire's second LP builds on the band's top notch, heart wrenching debut, stretching their sound further toward contrasting poles of anthemic strum-and-din pop and spare, gloomy bedroom folk. Dynamic swells grow more quickly, build to a larger scale and last longer, the pacing is pushed until it rattles, and Regine's backing vocals sound like a choir. The specter of Spector looms large in an increasingly dense wall of sound – there’s even a girl-group number ("Bad Vibrations") over an 80s synth pop beat. Then quieter moments open up some space, creating room for Win Butler's pleading tenor over subdued percussion and rhythmic guitar drone.
Thematically the cathartic, healing power of Funeral has largely turned to bitter pill and biting barb. Most songs smolder with a blend of paranoia, despair, disgust and rebellion, all stripped naked as heard in the moving "Windowsill" when Butler sings:
The windows are locked now so what'll it be?
A house on fire or a rising sea?
You know you’re in a pretty dark place when you assume the world is near its end and you're just waiting to see if the apocalypse will be delivered by a few more planes crashing into buildings or by global warming. Equally dire views of politics, religion and pop-culture are exposed, turning Butler’s pitch-perfect barometer away from himself and onto a CNN, Haliburton and mega-church driven American landscape.
While the rest of Montreal worked on its David Bowie impression Arcade Fire has been listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen and NPR, using the Boss’s iconic phrasing and New Jersey by way of Nebraska sense of Americana to build a pretty accurate picture of the boardwalk before setting it ablaze with roller coaster climb-to-freefall songs full of caustic social observations for the All Things Considered set. As an aside, it strikes me that Springsteen is suddenly the primary touchstone for some of the best rock-n-roll being made these days (see The Hold Steady).
The Butler famiy Fire has taken advantage of a well deserved spotlight by leading the way into a raw, shifting, and emotional sound matched, though at times awkwardly, by equally raw and complex content. It’s a move that reminds me of U2 at its egoless best, another appropriate touchstone for their long view on global politics and their guitar-and-drum fueled new wave marches. Arcade Fire may not be the world's biggest band, but for my money they are the most important band working today.
REVIEW: !!! "Myth Takes"
If we are to sustain ourselves as a species we must procreate. It is the simplest, most elemental truth, something known as clearly in the fiber or our bones as it is in our brains. While actual procreation ie. pregnancy equals social / professional suicide in the brains of most party goers, the primal urge remains. Nic Offer knows this and he isn't afraid.
Myth Takes is !!!'s most swaggering, driven, sexual album yet and, it should come as no surprise, most danceable. Previous outings teeter-totter on the dance/rock fulcrum, tipping more frequently on the rock side of things with an inclination for dance. This disc falls solidly on the dance floor ready to rock.
Offer's charismatic performance oohs, groans, and yelps up a Purple Rain-worthy lather with plenty of solid funk, rhythm, bass and hand-claps to lock down the loose guitars. And the more obvious presence of a few digital elements and machined beats finally makes sense of their spot on Warp Records, an indie electronic/dance/noise label if ever there was.
Highlights for me include "Must Be the Moon," "Yadnus" and "Bend Over Beethoven." Dance. Rock. Sex. Repeat.
REVIEW: Peter Bjorn and John "Writer's Block"
Writer's Block is the smart, snappy, unironically sensitive pop of sunny days and silly friends. It's like Simon & Garfunkle ate The Sugarcubes then pooped out an album of tasty little ditties for the nerdy-but-lovable indie-savant set. Caffeinated beats clap and skitter, melodies charm like an old movie, and lyrics walk easily through the mix; a few riffs rock but most of them jangle.
And let me count the ways they're hip: (1) they're from Sweden, (2) Girl Talk remixed "Let's Call It Off" (3) the peppy/slacker anthem "Young Folks" played on Gray's Anatomy (4) Drew Barrymore wore a PB&J t-shirt during the "good-nights" when she hosted SNL (with equally hip musical guest Lily Allen) (5) their initials spell PB&J - you know, like the sandwich. Geez, you can practically hear the scurry of little ad-man feet at The Gap right now.
A solid pop treat and great car music.
NEWS: EDITORIAL: Brafflash
A Mild And Wholly Unnecessary Defense Of Zach Braff
Like you I check my favorite web sites daily to see what I missed while I was eating, sleeping, watching Heroes, etc. This includes pitchforkmedia.com and stylusmagazine.com (the best British equivalent I've found). Both reviewed The Shins highly anticipated Wincing the Night Away the day before it dropped, as is the custom, giving decent reviews (pitchfork = 7.0, stylus = A-). Both also pointed out how The Shins have been laboring in a shadow of "Braff-lash," a phenomenon resulting from Zach Braff's rapid ascendancy to mainstream pop status on the merits of his seeming likeable, earnest, emotive, and clever - and for his active promotion of indie-pop acts possessing similar qualities. That's my own definition but it's the best I was able to piece together.
My thoughts on shoehorning celebrity names into everyday language aside, this pinched my ear. Sure, the public has a saturation point for media personalities and will rightly reject those whose handlers don't know when to back off. I will also concede that Braff's on-screen persona can veer into some pretty thick cheese. But the guy has hardly entered the realm of celeb-ubiquity in a post Paris Hilton age, nor can his sappy, goofball antics disqualify him as socially relevant as long as there is a Hallmark store anywhere on Earth. Neither form of celebrity nuisance is at issue here. It’s a question of style vs. content.
If one has a negative reaction to Braff’s style - not necessarily who he is but the supposedly charming yet slightly smug characters he plays or his hipster dude-who-knew-about-Death-Cab-before-you persona, however artificially imposed it might be – then one might be inclined to reject another formal element with which he is associated, ie. music. It would be easy to reduce Braff’s man-boy character JD (Scrubs) to something so easily dismissible. The character is intentionally puddle deep, an innocent narrator and Chaplainesque clown meant to exist for thirty minutes, sell whatever NBC is selling and then evaporate. JD listens to Toto.
Braff, on the other hand, made a mix-tape that won him a Grammy (Garden State) and exposed a mainstream audience to the joys of a few bands they might not have otherwise heard. Dismissing Braff or his allegiance to a certain kind of music, however emotive or independent, makes the mistake of assuming that he is dictating a style rather than filling a need for content - style being what sounds good and content being what sounds right. Ultimately, it’s a bit of both.
The Shins and other bands do what they do independent of Zach Braff and his hair or whatever else it is about him people don’t like, and while Garden State’s popularity gained The Shins and Iron & Wine a larger audience, the music gained them critical acclaim. I hope Zach Braff continues to champion independent artists like Amos Lee, Rachael Yamagata, Turin Brakes, and Joshua Radin just like I will continue writing about them here, hoping my next mix-tape goes platinum.
For some real Braff-love check out this high-larious video on youtube.
If one has a negative reaction to Braff’s style - not necessarily who he is but the supposedly charming yet slightly smug characters he plays or his hipster dude-who-knew-about-Death-Cab-before-you persona, however artificially imposed it might be – then one might be inclined to reject another formal element with which he is associated, ie. music. It would be easy to reduce Braff’s man-boy character JD (Scrubs) to something so easily dismissible. The character is intentionally puddle deep, an innocent narrator and Chaplainesque clown meant to exist for thirty minutes, sell whatever NBC is selling and then evaporate. JD listens to Toto.
Braff, on the other hand, made a mix-tape that won him a Grammy (Garden State) and exposed a mainstream audience to the joys of a few bands they might not have otherwise heard. Dismissing Braff or his allegiance to a certain kind of music, however emotive or independent, makes the mistake of assuming that he is dictating a style rather than filling a need for content - style being what sounds good and content being what sounds right. Ultimately, it’s a bit of both.
The Shins and other bands do what they do independent of Zach Braff and his hair or whatever else it is about him people don’t like, and while Garden State’s popularity gained The Shins and Iron & Wine a larger audience, the music gained them critical acclaim. I hope Zach Braff continues to champion independent artists like Amos Lee, Rachael Yamagata, Turin Brakes, and Joshua Radin just like I will continue writing about them here, hoping my next mix-tape goes platinum.
For some real Braff-love check out this high-larious video on youtube.
NEWS: EDITORIAL: The Beard
In recognition of my own indefinite hiatus from shaving (effective February 1, 2007) The List takes a look at my favorite bearded artists of the day and the rise of Beardcore.
Here's why:
1. The Beard can create a greater sense of depth and commitment to one's creative pursuits, as if to say, "I'm a Genius and this is important, I can't be bothered to shave."
2. The Beard offers a direct connection to the spirit of rugged independence that spawned Rock-n-Roll in the first place (not to mention the American Revolution, Civil War, Civil Rights movement, etc.).
There is plenty of evidence supporting #1. Look at landmark Beatles albums Abbey Road and The White Album, both recorded during the band's bearded years. Brian Wilson's mental fugue produced what turned out to be his most stirring work... and a beard.
There are a few important variants of #2: the Southern Independent (Little Feat, Allman Brothers, The Band); the Free Spirit (Jerry Garcia, George Clinton, Frank Zappa); and the Outlaw (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings). Each subgroup associates itself with a unique sense of nostalgia and/or optimism for The Beard and finds itself opposing the status quo within a genre of music when the climate is less than conducive to independent expression.
Socially relevant icons and occasional beard wearers Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan seem to equally support all of the ideas enumerated above, becoming models for generations of younger bearded artists.
Sure, The Beard has been used by some to claim a mature edge in spite of adolescent pop leanings or boyish handsomeness (see The Killers), while other genres never let The Beard go (bluegrass, heavy metal). But now, in this moment of merging economic, political and musical climates, The Beard has given birth to its own scene: Beardcore.
As defined by urban dictionary.com, beardcore is "a subgenre of indie music characterized by folk or country-twinged songwriters who intertwine wistfulness and irony in such a way that each element cannot be plucked from the tune. They also wear beards."
Skipping over the erroneous "w" in what I'm assuming was meant to read "country-tinged," this definition lacks the musical breadth and conceptual specificity needed to properly situate The Beard in the music. Post-rock guitar acts like Built to Spill and Band of Horses may sound different than beardcore poster band Iron & Wine but they share a dedication to the ideals of The Beard.
So from now on Beardcore will be defined as follows: A subgenre of independent music sonically drawing on Americana, folk, and indie-rock committed to depth and creativity in songwriting, an earthy sense of individual independence, and beards.
Enjoy.
Today's Top 20 Bearded Artists
1. Sam Beam (Iron & Wine)
2. Will Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Palace)
3. Doug Martsch (Built to Spill)
4. Jim James (My Morning Jacket)
5. ?uestlove (The Roots)
6. Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses)
7. Devendra Banhart
8. Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips)
9. Patterson Hood (Drive By Truckers)
10. Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio)
11. Matisyahu
12. Brent Hinds (Mastodon)
13. James Mercer (The Shins)
14. Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters)
15. Common
16. Rivers Cuomo (Weezer, Harvard)
17. Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)
18. Ryan Adams
19. Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar)
20. DJ Danger Mouse
REVIEW: The Shins "Wincing the Night Away"
It's been four long years since The Shins turned in the excellent Chutes Too Narrow, raising the collectively perceived IQ of indie-nerds and paving the way for our acceptance of The Decemeberists as lit-pop laureates of the soon-to-be post-something era. Since then James Mercer and company have received the double-edged endorsement of Zach Braff and more recently stellar promotion of the album by SubPop via a date-of-release appearance on Letterman following a guest spot on SNL earlier in the week... all leading to a Billboard debut of #2 behind boy-band Pretty Ricky, who I'm pretty sure doesn't exist. As a point of reference, SubPop's previous high water mark was The Afghan Whigs’ outstanding 1996 album Black Love which entered the chart at #79.
Wincing seems like a consciously reached half-way point between the roomy guitar and vocal atmosphere of their Oh, Inverted World debut and the hyper literate song craft of Chutes Too Narrow. The production slightly deemphasizes the central role of lyrical content and vocal performance leaving room for harmony, reverb and occasional empty spaces - musical forms just rich enough to balance the regular use of words like "conundrum" while rhyming "January" with "contrary" (track two, "Australia").
The album generally showcases the band's strengths in both regards without building a consistent theme or sense of direction. Things start off well enough with "Sleeping Lessons" whose drawn, tinkling introduction harkens back to early Shins before finding its pulse, stamping its way into the wide open pop of "Australia."
Track four offers the first and easily the best single on the album "Phantom Limb" which manages to blend their trademark simple melodies with vaguely complex lyrics capped by a soaring chorus as rewarding as mid-tempo emo-pop gets. It's a tough act to follow, and "Sea Legs" broken beat and backing strings ala Beck without the funk does not rise to the occasion, playing too long and allowing things to drift briefly into the doldrums.
This awkward transition might best exemplify the band's greatest strengths and few weaknesses. There is no questioning their ability to write engaging, smart pop tunes full of nuance, humor, and veiled social relevance so it should follow that an album full of such songs would make for a good album... right? Yes and no. Those keystone tracks in the middle of the disc fail to hold together a strong beginning and end. Songs are forced to live and die on their own without the aid of momentum to buoy difficult or plodding moments along. This can be forgiven on an album with multiple standouts, and Wincing has a few, but it isn't quite enough to bridge the gap between a being good record with really good songs and being a great record with really good songs.
REVIEW: TV on the Radio "Return to Cookie Mountain"
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