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December 31, 2007
Individual lists: BEST ALBUMS OF 2007, MERRY SWANKSTER
20. Bishop Allen -The Broken String
Guilty pleasures are defined by questionable validity from the critical canon, pan-accessibility, and most of all a slight embarrassment. If any of those three things truly determined the music we enjoyed we'd all be in serious trouble of exploding from "am I cool?" anxiety. Thankfully, irresistible pop from Bishop Allen was around to alleviate such ridiculous, asinine methodology. Because sometimes all you need is an honest sounding pop tale, and few did it better with such simplicity this year.
Favorite tracks: "Rain", "Flight 180", "Click, Click, Click, Click"
19. Phosphorescent - Pride
Matthew Houck is the one man force behind Phosphorescent, which you may or not know is the word for the emission of light without burning, sometimes referred to as "afterglow". The soft, slow burning sounds emitted by Mr. Houck's folk-tinged Pride seem to fit into that definition rather gorgeously.
Favorite tracks: "A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise", "My Dove, My Lamb", "Wolves"
18. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
This era's most improbably popular musical basket case strikes again. Offensive, nails on the chalkboard sounds like digital static, sudden high-pitched vocal squeals (think 13 year old boy going through puberty fluctuations), and ear-piercing screaming is dexterously fished from some mythical junkyard of circus noise and repatriated into perfectly difficult pieces of each composition's puzzle along with surprising elements of harmonies and indeed, melody. Without argument, masterful. Still probably headphone music, but go ahead and freak out your friends and neighbors anyway. They don't know what they're missing.
Favorite tracks: "For Reverend Green", "Unsolved Mysteries"
17. Deerhunter - Cryptograms
From the first three words of the title cut, "My greatest fear" to closer chorus "was not seen again", Deerhunter haunted, entertained, shocked, piqued interest leading to reference digging and sent tongues wagging -- often all at once. Once you got past the splashy tabloid worthy headlines, all apt descriptions for the album. Also, nod for best sonic representation of a scary nightmare where you're left alone and lost in a dark, dank cave.
Favorite tracks:"Heatherwood", "Strange Lights", "Cryptograms"
16. Justice - †
Ever wonder what would happen if the next generation of French DJs took over the Rock/Techno/Awesome baton of Daft Punk and added even more gigantic arena-rock sentiments and aspirations? No? Here is your answer anyway.
Favorite tracks: "Genesis", "D.A.N.C.E.", "Phantom"
15. Arthur & Yu - In Camera
In a list glutted with excellently updated takes on dance, glam, Americana by way of 60s pop or otherwise, and Bruuuuuce spawns, Arthur & Yu is unlike anything else while still sounding familiar. If My Bloody Valentine is the go-to reference for the noisy meandering of certain rock and rollers with footwear facing dispositions, then Velvet Underground seems the clichéd bet for grounded psych rock built around scratchy 60s music. In the face of conventional wisdom I agree with my comrade on the VU hop being fairly misplaced. Perhaps a less harmonious Simon & Garfunkel with less sheen. Better yet would be something rougher and less beautiful than Camera Obscura. Like a long nostalgic conversation with an old, dear friend - cozy, warm and well acquainted. Have you met Arthur and Yu?
Favorite tracks: "There Are Too Many Birds", "Afterglow", "Lion's Mouth"
14. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
America's most dependable band continues to showcase their chops by churning nugget after nugget of fantastically crafted pop. Succeeding in reaching at influences without explicitly trying to recreate them. So what about that baby talk album title? Nonsensical? Or an allusion to their prowess in producing delicious rock and roll coated candy? Either way, everybody wins.
Favorite tracks: "Underdog", "Target"
13. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Because Brian Wilson on acid would be doubly redundant, Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) put hundreds of music writers (and their thesauruses) on a path of wordy explanation when attempting to describe the echoing chamber of 60s soundscapes he created on Person Pitch. Consider this an admission of failure in attempting to revise what I consider the cheapest form of musical commentary (e.g. _____ sounds like _____ on acid).
Favorite tracks: "Take Pills", "I'm Not"
12. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Neon Bible finds the band grown up, so to speak, from the majestic debut of Funeral. Montreal's emotional marauders shifted their focus from the coming of age challenges defined in Funeral to confront some very adult, very relevant themes on their second long form album. However romanticised, Arcade Fire is a band obsessed with the purity of innocence and the pursuit of justice - in search of human truths, whether pretty or pockmarked with warts. Neon Bible doesn't present the same levels of exuberance compared to it's predecessor, but that thirst for existence in visceral anguish remains. Whether coming to terms with the lies we tell ourselves on "Black Mirror", ruminating on complex religious saviours on "The Well and the Lighthouse", or reeling in the post-9/11 burning paranoia of "Windowsill".
Favorite tracks: "No Cars Go", "Keep the Car Running", "The Well and the Lighthouse"
11. Feist - The Reminder
Squeezed out of the top ten, but for what it's worth - the best album of the year to share with your parents. Not to say Ms. Leslie Feist is hokey, no sir (though that depends on your parents). With a voice that never veers far from the narrow window of tentative inward breathiness, Feist isn't built to blow you away. However, it's that authentic weariness that propels way past the limitations of those overworked vocal chords to give credence to all the tales she spins. With a great knack for vocal timing to boot, Feist clearly knows how to use her strengths for maximum benefit. You'll feel it all too.
Favorite tracks: "Sea Lion Woman", "I Feel it All", "The Limit to Your Love"
10. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
Eleven songs ready for the mix Cd's of tortured, unrequited, and all other forlorn forms of love of the future. My go-to choice for non-offensive musical accompaniment during hosting duties at the crib. Breezy, and catchy enough for almost any occasion. Also, #1 most requested band to the excited "who are these guys!?" question from the uninitiated. Remember that one for the play at home version of Merry Swankster Feud; coming, never.
Favorite tracks: "To the East", "The Greater Times", "After the Call"
9. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Lost in the shuffle of the brouhaha caused by the buyer-defined price point ("no, really") was a wonderful new Radiohead album. Existing in some weird middle ground of career revisiting, slightly alleviated paranoia, and relatively curbed experimentation. Like a mixed bag of all things Radiohead from the last 15 years. In other words, pretty great.
Favorite tracks: "15 Step", "Nude", "House of Cards"
8. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
Sunset Rubdown's second release in as many years is a deeper adventure into the mind of wunderkind Spencer Krug. Trudging atop the rope stretching from literary art-rock to contemporary medieval interpretations, Mr Krug finds inspiration in women's dresses, the making of unicorns, and big cat analogies for bored housewives. Extrapolating the sowing of wild oats from the African cat and not some comment on the 'urban cougar' movement however, Krug prefers leopards for the simile.
Favorite tracks: "Up on Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days", "Winged/Wicked Things", "The Taming of the Hands That Came Back To Life"
7. Besnard Lakes - Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse
Besnard Lakes are the dark horse with their sonic assault that will creep on you from behind, envelop you from all sides and rapidly take over your music playing devices one pretty harmony and monster riff at a time. If this is the direction independent music is taking in redefining the intents of progressive rock then count me in for the ride.
Favorite tracks: "Disaster", "Because Tonight", "Devastation"
6. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Will Sheff's adroitness with wordplay is eventually going to get the guy into serious trouble. Arguably one of the best lyricists of our time, on Stage Names, Sheff presents his view of the world through the reality warping prism of tour vans and pop culture. Without necessarily passing judgement on the height of the cultural brow, everything ends up simmered in an exhausting pace of post-modern witticisms. A veritable clusterfuck of headiness. All that, and "Unless It's Kicks" brilliant riffage.
(P.S. - I read somewhere that should you ever need a good trivia guy, Will Sheff is your man. I agree with that.)
Favorite tracks: "Unless It's Kicks", "Plus Ones", "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe"
5. The National - Boxer
"I better get my shit together, better gather my shit"
Matt Berninger is intense. His words are intense. Most intense for those of the X through Y generations especially. On Boxer his words are heavy and never accidental. No shortage of examples detailed in the type of fantastic wordplay reprinted above. Prevailing themes of losing control over life, familiar inspiration (or lack thereof) of growing up in middle class America and all it's real or make pretend anxieties. Be it relationships, careerism, growing up, not growing up, when to grow up, all pop up repeatedly in the magnificent lyrics of Mr. Berninger. Like he sings on "Guest Room", who born between 1972 - 1985 hasn't felt like they shouldn't be sent to "prison for jerks" at one point or another? This year's version of "Boys and Girls in America" comes a bit less obvious, is found in the goth kid's bedroom journal, is delivered with a large dose of melodrama, and never got drunk in the parking lot.
Favorite tracks: "Mistaken For Strangers", "Apartment Story", "Fake Empire"
4. Caribou - Andorra
2007 was a great year for fans of new interpretations of 1960s psych-rock and Caribou's lovely release was no exception. Lusciously busy in every way but not so much that its ambition distracted. Dan Snaith's PhD worthy math rock succeeds by coming off pleasantly tender both musically and lyrically where the other math groups try to get you on their impressive structural complexity. Which is cool and all, but at the end of the day what resounds most with me is the end and not the means.
Favorite tracks: "Melody Day", "She's the One"
3. M.I.A. - Kala
Describing my love for Kala is like describing why I enjoy traveling, or smiles. Completely ineffable. Have you seen the Discovery Channel's amazing "Planet Earth" series in high-def? It's a completely breathtaking production that takes you to far flung places all over the world and shows you shit that you sorta knew was there, but never really had the imagination to fully envision. Places like caves, jungles, and deserts are showed in colorful ways that blow you away with the diverse vibrancy of flora and fauna. One particularly harrowing episode showed a pride of desperate lions hunting and eating an elephant in the dead of night. Listening to Kala is like that violent scene in that after your done with it, you can't believe it was possible, but clearly it just happened. Unlike seeing a poor elephant eaten by a gang of bloodthirsty lions, M.I.A. will make you feel alive. She'll also bring the smiles from her runnings around the world to you.
Favorite tracks: "Boyz", "Paper Planes", "$20", "Bamboo Banger"
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Youthful idealism, lost lovers, foreign impressions, large East Coast metropolises, drugs. Not exactly novel subjects in the tomes of recorded music. So why does it come off so clear and present and right for "this moment" when integrated as part of an LCD Soundsystem song? Just something about the way James Murphy's simple language - in both the rock/punk/electro production and matter-of-fact vocal delivery - that resounds so much when listening to this touchstone album. The man delivered a classic for the ages. Material this strong should not be taken for granted. One of my many favorite lines comes courtesy of the stunning "All My Friends", in which the audacity of attempting impossible tasks correlates directly with the age of the dreamer. It's this merging of all the music we love and all the things we think about that makes us love this shit.
"We set controls for the heart of the sun, one of the ways that we show our age."
Favorite tracks: "All My Friends", "Someone Great", "North American Scum"
1. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Was there ever really any doubt that Kevin Barnes masterpiece concept will be topping the awesome year of music that was 2007? Considering the fact it was leaked well over a year ago and I'm still not even close to bored with it speaks volumes for the quality of the work. From the telling inspiration of his baby's cry starting off the ode to painful separation on "Suffer For Fashion" all the way through the cathartic chronology listing the ascent of a new, modern glam hero named Georgie Fruit, through to the latter half's effervescent funkiness, this was as close to being a perfect album as anything. Barnes has never been shy in the liberal use of vocal effects and intensifying electronic beats in his work, and this album was no different from others except that it was so overwhelmingly well done that it was impossible to walk away from. Not at least without a shimmy of the bum and a spin.
Favorite tracks: Every single one
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Battles - Mirrored
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Jay-Z - American Gangster
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Chromatics - Night Drive
Glass Candy - B/E/A/T/B/O/X
Best cover:
"All My Friends" - both by Franz Ferdinand & John Cale
When the source is this strong...
Biggest Disappointments:
Interpol - Our Love To Admire - I liked Antics, but not enough to get a repackaged version.
White Stripes - Icky Thump - This coming from the guy who adored Get Behind Me Satan and all its campy vintage Film star inspirations.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder - Did anyone make it past that horrendous opening track? What the fuck guys?
Worst use of expensive studio time:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Some Loud Thunder" - See above
Posted by Merry Swankster at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Denver/Boulder: Shows this week | 12.31 - 1.6
Monday, December 31 - Happy New Years!
DEV-Oh! @ Hi-Dive
The Greyboy Allstars @ Ogden Theater
Homemade Tank @ Larimer Lounge
Outformation @ Gothic Theatre
The Railbenders @ Soiled Dove
Rose Hill Drive @ Boulder Theater
Slim Cessna's Auto Club @ Bluebird Theater
Yonder Mountain String Band @ Fillmore Auditorium
Zilla & The Glitch Mob @ Fox Theatre
Tuesday, January 1
Asylum Cinema @ Larimer Lounge
Wednesday, January 2
The Way Things Go @ Hi-Dive
Yuzo Nieto & The Hand That Rocks The Dradle @ Larimer Lounge
Thursday, January 3
Gata Negra @ Larimer Lounge
Of The Wolves @ Gothic Theatre
Friday, January 4
Kort McCumber @ Boulder Theater
Left In The Fire @ Marquis Theater
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ Bluebird Theater
Spring Creek Bluegrass Band @ Fox Theatre
Synthetic Elements @ Gothic Theatre
Widowers @ Larimer Lounge
Wymond & The Brethren Of The Free Spirit @ Hi-Dive
Saturday, January 5
3OH!3 @ Gothic Theatre
Havok @ Larimer Lounge
LC Committee @ Boulder Theater
Pena @ Hi-Dive
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ Fox Theatre
Slaughterhouse Rootz @ Marquis Theater
Streetlight Manifesto @ Bluebird Theater
Sunday, January 6
Angela Bachman @ Larimer Lounge
Schedule appears courtesy of Mystik Spiral.
Posted by Merry Swankster at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 29, 2007
Individual Lists: The Five Best Albums from musicians decades past the point of ever being eligible in the “Best New Artist” category, Yonah Korngold
In a year where breaking up a band in order to someday do a reunion tour became a profitable marketing strategy, these vets should not be overlooked for their 2007 contributions.
5. Prince- Planet Earth
Truth be told, I don’t even own this album, but if it's half the reason why Prince made the most confusing sexually suggestive moment of 2007 then it belongs on this list. If ever brought to trial by the FCC for the phallic holding of his guitar during the Super Bowl halftime show, Prince could offer the chorus of the album’s first single as Exhibit A.
I love you baby
But not like I love my guitar
Not like I love my guitar, no
4. Neil Young- Chrome Dreams II
If Neil Young hadn’t put out four albums, two archival releases, and two concert films in the last four years then Chrome Dreams II could be considered a comeback album. We can all look forward to the day when Todd Haynes directs a Neil Young biopic and casts Kirsten Dunst, Steve Buscemi, and Tommy Lee Jones to play different facets of Young’s life.
3. Bruce Springsteen- Magic
Buddhist monks have abandoned the one hand clapping meditation and started postulating the enigma of Magic sounding like Neon Bible.
2. Robert Plant/ Alison Krauss-Raising Sand
A collaboration just as interesting as Jack White and Loretta Lynn, Krauss and Plant combined sound almost too natural that if Plant hadn’t strutted around shirtless crooning high register screams he could have been a moneymaker on the bluegrass circuit.
1. Levon Helm- Dirt Farmer
The Lance Armstrong of drummers, Helm overcame throat cancer to belt out some of his most passionate pleas since The Band’s famed last concert. If I were ever to do a full chronology of The Band’s sound I would have to put Dirt Farmer at its roots.
Posted by Yonah Korngold at 02:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Video: High Places live @ the Mercury Lounge
High Places - "Sandy Feat" + unknown song
(live @ Mercury Lounge, 12.15.07)
So, I've been going on and on about my 4th quarter band crush, High Places, for months now and this is the first piece of decent quality video I've found to validate my verbosity. Taken from the latest installment of Crackers United's continually excellent FRICTION concert series earlier this month. You know, you'd think I'd have video from my own damn show that they played in September but you'd be sadly wrong. I'll work on that. Wheels are in motion for Rob and Mary to be '08 next big things, which would be an unusually just thing for the world to let happen, but fingers remain crossed.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 03:25 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 28, 2007
Hey ________, It's Your Birthday, Today!
This is what kind of great guy I am, it's my birthday and I'm giving you, the loyal MS reader, a gift. A gift of a horribly memorable, and quite possibly profoundly disturbing, personalized birthday song that's been laser engraved into my cerebellum since I was very small. It was tracked down by my sister and brother in law, on the anniversary of my arrival to existence. Seeing as it is by the wildly popular (if not wildly versatile) "Captain Zoom" perhaps you know of what I speak. Only my fellow Jeffs can really enjoy this particular version whole heartedly though. So Jeffs of the world, you're welcome/I'm sorry.
Captain Zoom - "Happy Birthday (Jeff)"
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 11:57 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Prefix Magazine Ecstatic Peace Showcase
I know, I know, how many concert promotions can one man be affiliated with? But my good pals, and you know, employers, over at Prefix have thrown their digital hat at the NYC concert tree, ringing it on the first try. On January 8th at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan, Prefix will be teaming with Thurston Moore's increasingly rad Ecstatic Peace label to bring you four solid art rock acts, including a set from the mogul himself! Pretty curious about MV & EE after reading of Ms. Kim Gordon's enthusiasm for them in Art Forum (although maybe she has to say that). Anyway...
Tickets on sale now, right here, for the low low price of ten bucks.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 09:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 27, 2007
Individual lists: BEST ALBUMS OF 2007, KEITH O'BRIEN
An explication (Feel free to invalidate my list). I spent almost no time with the sort of mainstream rock that has been on other list (Spoon, The National, Band of Horses, etc.) and absolutely zero time on Braffian rock like the Shins. I'm sure more time on the former would put one or two of those on my list, not sure about the latter. Anytime, work kicked my ass this year, and this list was only created with some late December cramming. Of the brilliance and placement of 1-5, however, I am sure. Enjoy. And stay brilliant out there. Out.
10. Justice - Cross
So, I just grab the stem here? It won't burn my hand, will it? OKAY, thanks Mssrs. de Homem-Christo and Bangalter. Sure I loved D.A.N.C.E. as much as they next guy, but the real gems were found in the instrumental selections on Cross, from full-throttle noise beauties like "Let There Be Light" and "Stress", to the more accessible "Phantom Pt. 1" and "Genesis."
9. Blonde Redhead - 23
If Blonde Redhead made a movie soundtrack, the resulting film would have a budget of $14 trillion. Everything about its anthemic, graceful sound implies fast cars racing on smooth pavement, flowing gowns and diamond-studded hands holding expensive champagne, as suitors look on in impressive suits. That is to say, Blonde Redhead's music is gorgeous and sprawling. Potential lost in the gloss? 23 (and indeed all Redhead albums) is incredibly calculated math rock, fundamentally sound. A winner, all around.
8. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Bring on the earnestness. Let's tackle the weighty themes. Let's pretend that "(Antichrist Television Blues)" is about Jessica Simpson's dad. It is true this album is Brucian, in that it tackles the dishy issues found in dusty towns, but, like all good albums, it extrapolates that into larger issues graspable by the larger populace. Bruce seemed to be consumed with escaping or remaking his towns, Arcade Fire seems focused on escaping the nadirs of life itself.
7. Times New Viking - Present The Paisley Reich
Hilarious that teens from Columbus, OH (Go Buckeyes!) deliver a line about NYC (not that the line was intended to convey that) greater than any past musician or poet. "I don't want to die in the city alone." So many disparate great tracks. From the knowing "Devo and Wine" to the sheer frenetic madness of "Let Your Hair Grow Long" to the patient, Pavement homage "Love Your Daughters." Noise pop rock, done perfect, for 28 minutes.
6. Fiery Furnances - Widow City
I'm still waiting for a 60s-inspired solo album from Eleanor Friedberger, but, while I do, I will enjoy some "Restorative Beer" and Matthew Friedberger will enjoy the title of the most frustrating genius. Friedberger, as chiding parent, gives you what (he thinks) you need, rather than what you want. The song, unsurprisingly, are rich, fuzzed-out tapestries of folk, electronica, Middle Age troubadour, and who knows what else. A rare gem under the scuff.
5. Deerhunter - Cryptograms/Florescent Grey EP
Fear me not if I walk past you singing "Patiently, patiently, patiently, patiently." I'm just remembering how good Deerhunter's output was this year. You can dissect Deerhunter if you'd like, but I find it to be a rare beast whose parts contain no sum of its whole. It rocks; it weeps. I can imagine (incorrectly) that this album was filmed on a hill - where the storms lay ahead and the summery wake behind. Everything changes.
4. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
I'm pretty sure there is not a tighter album in this year's list. Not quite electronica, not quite rock, but pure gold. As a band as focused on textures and landscape as meaning and emotion, it's not the sort of brilliantly damaged album that seems to attract the most attention these days. But the songs traverse a tightly orchestrated path, rewarding the attentive listener with unheralded surprises. Witness "Tram 21," an amalgam of surf rock, Stereolab-style humming, feedback, and Clean-frenetic synth.
3. LCD Soundsystem - Sounds of Silver
Many keyboards have composed peons to James Murphy and his band, and this entry shall not be any different. Sounds of Silver feels more cohesive than the S/T album - and best of all, it doesn't feature songs from four years ago. The rave-ups "North American Scum" and "Us v. Them", long the band's staple, actually come nowhere close to the pathos of New Order-ish "Someone Great" and the methodical "All My Friends." Our favorite band is getting wistful, and it doesn't entirely make us wistful for the "Beat Connection" days we hold so dear.
2. M.I.A. - Kala
Good luck to the future author that tries to explain this album in 33 1/3. Kala is a rich stew of baile beats, dance hall, Bollywood, disco, and probably more than a few invented genres. It also touches down on a number of American hip-hop nabes. From the kick-drum adrenaline rush of "Bamboo Banga" to the languid "Paper Planes" to the manic dance hall "Boyz", M.I.A. comes, correct, with the power-power.
1. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
In the case of two albums being pretty equal, which, of course, is rarely the case, I would normally boost the ranking of the more adventurous album. That's why it took me near forever to decide on M.I.A. topping my list. Kala is a pan-cultural concerto. Of Montreal is the coolest Martian cruise house band ever created. Of Montreal wins for being (nearly) ineffably better. I'll try to explain. It's wittier; it's sense of showmanship is (surprisingly) a smidge better; and its best songs touch upon six different elements to Kala's five.
Honorable mentions
After Dark compilation
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Arthur & Yu - In Camera
Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Glass Candy - B/E/A/T/B/O/X
Handsome Furs - Plague Park
Harvey, P.J. - The Piano
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Best specialty album that couldn't be included:
Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Artists whose albums predictably disappointed this year.
Low - Drums and Guns
Kanye West - Graduation
Albums whose judgment is hereby pushed to 2008
The Eight Diagrams - Wu-Tang Clan; the Big Doe Rehab - Ghostface Killah
Posted by Keith O'Brien at 09:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 26, 2007
Individual lists; BEST ALBUMS OF 2007, JEFF KLINGMAN
20. A Place to Bury Strangers - A Place to Bury Strangers
While the album couldn't capture the overwhelming "I'm a stalk of wheat in a raging hurricane" feeling of their imposing live show, I'm not sure I'd want that. There are sharp songs here that have a utility beyond sensory overload.
19.Chromatics - Night Drive
Portland's Chromatics actually recorded and sorta released two discs this year, and while a combination of the sleek disco anthems from In Shining Violence and Night Drive would have probably cracked the top ten, this stand alone was close enough to a mandate for dreamy obsession.
18.A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal
I sort of expected the Daniels clan to shoo away the fog on their full length debut and boy, they sure didn't. Bewildering sonics and lovely left turns galore (whoa, they're Aphex Twin fans!) filled in for the clarity. We finished ahead.
17.Liars - Liars
It was a bit of a recording rush job and in places that's exactly what it sounds like, but it's gratefully humanizing too. They don't just listen to This Heat albums a smoke human bones, apparently.
16.Handsome Furs - Plague Park
Of all the Bruce-sters littering this year's release calendar I like this one the best, because I believe it the most. The minimal, broken throb of these songs are like the claustrophobic shack that Dan Boeckner's wail is desperate to escape. It's the starkness I trust. I mean, if you've got string arrangement cash lying around, what's to complain about?
15.Panda Bear - Person Pitch
I don't begrudge Noah Lennox the accolades that his blissed out breakout generated, but let's just be real for a sec. The droning echo that permeates these seven songs only morph into coherence during four. Surely it's worthy of note, but it's not suited for the tip top pinnacle.
14.Various Artists - After Dark
For decades it was like Giorgio Moroder had predicted a future that never came to pass, and then it suddenly came to pass!
13.the Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
I had a real Road to Damascus (or, uh, Plane to Oregon) moment with this album recently when I realized it was really, sincerely great. Sure, every insult you could throw at them still applies; it's too long, Matt F's penchant for annoying synth tones remains occasionally sadistic, and there are just too many words in there to immediately process. Once you soldier past that though, it's so human, funny, and even raucously heavy that it's a shame its makers seem borderline autistic. I mean, "Japanese Slippers" is the pop song the Fall never really wrote, and by now they've lost scores of people who might never come back to hear it.
12.Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian
Valedictory status is conferred on Herr Mercer for expanding his dark and vicious murder ballads to the point that even pure beauty could find a place to rest its head. The tears come because he has to realize that even a career best like this won't free him from his cramped "cult artist" box.
11.Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
I'm not sure if this album was that much sharper and more enjoyable then the rest of the band's work, or if I was only now ready to be this intensely charmed by them. Swiss efficiency with barbeque pit warmth.
10.PJ Harvey - White Chalk
On a purely intellectual level, I'd have to respect the idea of White Chalk and how far PJ pushed herself from standard operating procedure. Made almost entirely on an instrument she barely knew and even performed in a vocal register that's not naturally her own, it's a profoundly brave artistic statement. That the songs should be so soft and creepy and memorable all at once makes it easy to admire and enjoy. Easily her best record since To Bring You My Love, I'd say.
09.Glass Candy - Beatbox
Maybe three records from Italians Do it Better in one top twenty list is too much, but it's all exciting music. After slogging through James Murphy's Fabric compilation I know quite well that even when studiously selected, vintage disco was seldom this laser focused or as killer on headphones for ears removed from the dance floor. Ida No's affected New Yawk voice makes her my least favorite of producer Johnny Jewel's girls, but his production here is too sharp for that quibble to rate.
08.Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
The early career knock on Electrelane was that they were way too deep in the Marxist lounge shadow of Stereolab to really be taken seriously. In reaction, the ladies morphed themselves into a brooding instrumental rock monster, handing their initially breezy charm to Albini's waiting claws. They seem to have put all that behind them now, on an lovely, lonely album that'll be a worthy swan song if this temporary hiatus they're on inches into permanence. A touch monochromatic maybe, but it's hard to get sick of golden glow.
07.Radiohead - In Rainbows
It took a while for me to get around the fact that the album's punk single was actually its marketing plan, and that the music itself was quite modest and subdued. But once I let go of my memories of the band as a pessimistic flag for warming shrugged teenage shoulders, I ended up liking it quite a bit. As did everyone. That should not be read as an endorsement for Thom to continue writing about his sex life, however.
06.Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
Probably the most snubbed album of the list making season, Spencer Krug's second opus in as many years dove deeper into ancient mythology and inscrutable personal clues. It doesn't give up its charms immediately, but it may be even stronger than my favorite record of 2006 (although clearly in a tougher year for competition). Krug's fan dance of the specific and the vague left you feeling like a hallucinating priest; feeling the weight of confession without any lucid understanding of what sins were actually committed.
05.Deerhunter - Cryptograms/Fluorescent Grey
I defend the inclusion of Fluorescent Grey on the spotty foundation of its function as Cryptograms side three on the lavish vinyl LP. But the addition doesn't feel like a cheat, so much as a fuzzy idea gradually inching into focus. So much menace and so much sweetness. Did you see that 30 Rock episode where Andy Richter continually played out the day before his horrible ski accident over and over again? If you filmed that plot as a gothic punk art installation, this could be its soundtrack. "I was sixteen, I was sixteen..."
04.Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Animal Collective's sound settles down to form some quasi traditional song-- still bizarrely positive and full of alien joy but now decipherable without some tribal/hipster Rosetta Stone. Person Pitch tricked us momentarily into thinking that Panda Bear was the band's floating soul, and then this Avey Tare dominated set blew it away. Far far away.
03.M.I.A. - Kala
02.LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
These two seem intrinsically linked to me, both for their exceptional ability to stuff party playlists and my sneaking suspicion that at this point I've got pretty much nothing to add to the mountainous discourse they've inspired thus far. Both are made of borrowed bits from decades of pop music, held together by superlative production and force of personality. Both are kept out of the top spot by the objective realization that their standout tracks are slightly too much better than the songs they leave behind.
01.Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, are You the Destroyer?
Looking back now, it seems hopelessly naive to have held out hope that someone would make a better record than this during 2007. It seemed fairly perfect in its own supremely damaged yet deeply life affirming way when the seedy undernet delivered it about fifteen months ago, but i guess I'm one of those never satisfied types. Really, it didn't leave my personal top spot for even a week of adulterous love with another album. I had this tigress back at home and besides, they didn't know what to do with me.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 09:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Retrohump: Boxing Day
According to our friends at Wikipedia, "Boxing Day is a traditional celebration, dating back to the Middle Ages, and consisted of the practice of giving out gifts to employees, the poor, or to people in a lower social class." Here at Merry Swankster dot com, Boxing Day is an opportunity to misinterpret the name of a non-American holiday and use it as an excuse to post some videos that we've wanted to post anyway. In this case, it's a group of alt-rock videos from Canada, where at this very moment, people are celebrating Boxing Day.
Since many of our puck-pushing brethren will spend today waiting in long-ass lines at department stores, I think it's fitting that we start things off with a long-ass Canadian rock song.
Neil Young - "Down by the River"
Treble Charger is, by most accounts, a generic late-'90s pop-punk band from Sault Saint Marie, Ontario. They're not much different from Stroke 9, Sum 41 or Blink 182... if Tom DeLonge went onto Broken Social Scene instead of the more-alliteratively named Angels & Airwaves. (Guitarist Bred Piddle pulled duty for TC and BSS.) Here is the video for "American Psycho", from the 2001 album Wide Awake Bored, that sadly has nothing to do with the 1991 novel nor the 2000 film of the same name.
Treble Charger - "American Psycho"
Of course, the whole "American girls are effin' nuts!" thematic is about as overplayed in Canadian rock as "Boy loves girl, but boy also loves to surf!" was in 1950s and '60s California. Here is perhaps the most well-known of that ultra-specific genre:
The Guess Who - "American Woman"
You're frequently good for some Velvet Underground love here at MS, and good for the intents and purposes of this post, the Cowboy Junkies, who hammered out a pretty solid cover of "Sweet Jane" for 1988's The Trinity Sessions, hail from Toronto.
Cowboy Junkies - "Sweet Jane"
And since, you know, it's Boxing Day and all...
Posted by Randall Monty at 01:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 25, 2007
Christmas, Elastica, John Peel, Tidings, Comfort, Joy
Elastica - "All For Gloria" (John Peel Show, December 1994)
Elastica - "I Wanna Be a King of Orient Aah" (John Peel Show, December 1994)
Disaffected, angular, possibly drug addled, smart ass season's greetings from us to you.
XOXOXO,
JK for MS
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 02:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 24, 2007
Denver/Boulder: Shows this week | 12.24 - 12.30
Monday, December 24
Misery Loves Company @ Sputnik
Tuesday, December 25
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Wednesday, December 26
The Caves @ Larimer Lounge
Thursday, December 27
Ideal Fathers @ Larimer Lounge
Split Second Massacre @ Gothic Theatre
Friday, December 28
Born In The Flood @ Bluebird Theater
Congress Of The Crow @ Larimer Lounge
Holiday Metal Ball @ Gothic Theatre
Leftover Salmon @ Ogden Theatre
The Motet @ Fox Theatre
Saturday, December 29
Buzzard @ Larimer Lounge
Forth Yeer Freshman @ Marquis Theater
RJD2 @ Fox Theatre
Rocky Mountain Riptide @ Bluebird Theater
Wish We Were Floyd @ Gothic Theatre
Yonder Mountain String Band @ Fillmore Auditorium
Sunday, December 30
Beneath The Strangled Mass @ Larimer Lounge
EOTO @ Fox Theatre
The Helio Sequence @ Marquis Theater
Outformation @ Gothic Theatre
Rose Hill Drive @ Boulder Theater
Slim Cessna's Auto Club @ Bluebird Theater
Yonder Mountain String Band @ Fillmore Auditorium
Schedule appears courtesy of Mystik Spiral.
Posted by Merry Swankster at 05:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
After the Jump New Year's Eve
Due to computer maladies of varying degree in addition to various holiday travel/general bustle I've been pretty slow on the draw in publicizing the next big After the Jump show, on two levels of the Knitting Factory, New Year's Eve. We all know that NYE in NYC royally sucks, so why not go to a great show with plenty extra trimmings? Details...
Tickets here
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 02:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 21, 2007
Individual lists: BEST ALBUMS OF 2007, DAVID KLEIN
10.The Clientele – God Save the Clientele
Nothing makes me feel more like I just woke up in a wet paper bag on shrooms while listening to Nick Drake more than the Clientele. I keep thinking they’re going to burn out on their trademark sound, but they keep finding plenty of lovely facets of it to explore.
9.Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
On the official list of the world’s most awkward record titles that God keeps in a file cabinet, Hissing Fauna... appears well below Fiona Apple’s When the Pawn… and not far from Bright Eyes’ Lifted, or The Story’s in the Soil Yet... , for all the obtuseness and kinda bratty falsetto vocals, Of Montreal’s mix of beats, glam, and bitterness makes for a surprisingly frothy (and danceable) experience.
8.Radiohead - In Rainbows
It’s not Nebraska, but this Radiohead feels awfully stripped down. I, for one, appreciate In Rainbows’ utter lack of anything resembling the kind of philanthropic wankery (that’s wankery for the benefit of the fans) of post-OK Computer releases. Just 10 strong songs and nothing so overtly experimental that it kills the momentum. And unlike any of their other records, this one actually gets stronger as it reaches the end. Each time out, Radiohead seems somehow more in control of its art than ever before, and the trend continues with In Rainbows, along with the band’s obvious mastery of commerce.
7.Blonde Redhead - 23
With its slaloming Loveless guitars and Kazu Makino’s vocals so reminiscent of ethereal 4AD stalwarts Lush, 23 is a difficult album to talk about without resorting to the word “shoegazing.” I thank the secret cabal that controls world events that I didn't have to go there.
6.M.I.A. - Kala
Kala’s rich sonic stew expertly blends styles and sounds of the last three decades while managing to sound completely up to the minute, genuine, and deeply weird.
5.Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
That fat bass locking in on the beat, the terse guitar commentary, the handclaps, finger snaps, and tambourines, and the ragged glory of Britt Daniel’s vocal add up to a cocktail that’s potent and pure.
4.Von Sudenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions
Von Sudenfed’s LP shot an arrow straight through my umlaut-loving heart, exuding toxic charisma, nervous beats, and the unmistakable sound of Mark E. Smith.
3.Feist - The Reminder
The male-centric indie rock world hasn’t been this unanimous in its praise of a record by a female artist since Exile on Guyville. I wonder if 10 years I’ll put this on and think, “this is so 2007.” Right now it sounds timeless. I bet Leslie Feist would do a great cover of “Fuck and Run,” with that spare upright-bass sound of “My Moon My Man.”
2.Deerhunter - Cryptograms
Deerhunter’s blend of noise, drone and melody is evocative. Sometimes it’s bracing and intoxicating, like being slapped in the face with absinthe-soaked seaweed. Sometimes it’s like the net of static electricity when you pull a sweater over your head. But even while throwing all manner of wrench into the work, the band hangs on to the thrust of these song and never veers into wankery for its own sake (as opposed to wankery for the sake of others, also known as philanthropic wankery, see Radiohead.)
1.LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Hard to deny the genius of these heartfelt songs, which soar in spite of the dark tales they tell. Murphy achieves dance-floor glory with “Us V Them” and in “All My Friends” he has penned a flat-out classic, as the gripping covers by John Cale and others attest.
Posted by David Klein at 03:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Numerology: Number 37? Have a Look...
No less of a heavy than Lewis A. Reed tells us that 37 is a piss-poor excuse of a number. That’s how I interpret his line in “Femme Fatale”: “You’re written in her book/You’re number 37 have a look.” Guy could have picked any other number to signify utter ignominy, but he chose 37. And indeed, it does have the uncanny ring of the end of the line.
With Lou’s damning assessment in mind, I guess I should feel relief for the existence of a viable 37 song, by a major figure, from a major record. It’s a bit of a downer—and with a few exceptions (Charley Patton’s “34 Blues,” PIL’s dour “Radio 4,” and the council-flat ennui of Television Personalities’ “14th Floor”) this list has eschewed songs that inspire suicidal thoughts. But our winner this week has me contemplating man’s inhumanity to man, at a time of year when I much prefer to be admiring the lighted snowflakes bedecking the lampposts along Delancey Street.
In 1961, the social psychologist Stanley Milgram attempted to fathom the repeated assertion of the Nazis on trial in Nuremburg that they were just following orders. Milgram devised an experiment to determine just what the average person was capable of doing when reassured by a man in a white lab coat that the act was perfectly acceptable and appropriate. Volunteers who were assigned the role of “teacher” were told to administer electrical shocks of increasing voltage to the “learners” in the experiment when they made an error on a test involving word pairs. Despite the sound of screams, and even though they knew it was wrong, 65 percent of the volunteers complied with the official-looking people conducting the tests, and continued to deliver punishment.
Peter Gabriel has always been drawn to dark subjects. His solo records have included songs from the point of view of an assassin, a housebreaker, an amnesiac, and a mental patient, along with elegies about Stephen Biko and the poet Anne Sexton. “Sledgehammer”—the song that put him over in the U.S. chiefly through a swaggering horn line and an innovative use of Claymation—was out of character for him. “We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)” with its ominous drumbeat and slowly uncoiling atmosphere, is prime Gabriel territory. Lyrically, through, it’s atypically concise, which is surprising coming from a man who once filled up album-length suites with tales of giant hogweeds and astral travelers. I’ll never understand how a song about a subject he was so passionate about became a haiku. “We do what we’re told” is repeated six times, followed by “One doubt/one voice/one war/one truth/one dream.” Certainly minimal is one way to go, but I can’t help thinking that if “WDWWT(M37)” had some of the lyrical detail of “Biko,” the result would have been a stunning. Oh, and if you’re wondering what the 37 refers to, it’s the number of volunteers who were willing to give the maximum voltage. These 37 (from a group of 40) were willing to authorize the maximum punishment because in this arrangement, the actual punishment was meted out by a third party, enabling the punisher to keep a safe distance.
Peter Gabriel - “We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)”
Despite some reservations, I’m going with Gabriel over the competition because of his ingenious use of 37, the song’s spooky majesty, and its overall place in the rock firmament. Also, it figures prominently in a “Miami Vice” episode. (Ricardo Tubbs portrayer Phillip Michael Thomas was apparently such a Gabriel fan that he reportedly played “In Your Eyes” at his 1989 wedding to Kassandra Green, including a reenactment of the famous Cusack-ian boombox scene, complete with real rain.)
On a far less disturbing note, let me introduce you to the rest of the “37” Club. I was hoping for better things from Game Theory, winners of the 24 crown. At one point in my life, GT’s skewed, psychedelically tinged power pop fulfilled many of most deep-seated needs, but “37th Day” is one of the bass player’s songs, and one of the few not written and sung by bandleader Scott Miller. Miller freely admitted the limitations of his own vocal instrument, so logic would dictate that the bass player in such a band would simply have to have a worse voice than the lead singer, right? Right. Striking a more traditional power pop note, in a more forthright voice, is “Love Song #37” by Ann Arbor’s own Maypops.
The ramshackle “37 Pushups” by Smog grows on you, like bracken, with its scrape-y violins and the beleaguered-sounding Bill Callahan singing bleakly humorous lines: “I feel like Travis Bickle/listening to Highway to Hell/It’s a shitty little tape I taped off the radio…37 pushups/in a winter-rates seaside motel.” Similarly bleak yet lacking humor, are “37 Hours” by former Throwing Muse Kristin Hersh (sample lyric: “I dropped a cigarette in my shoe and dove in the water”), and “Number Thirty-Seven” by Odes, from their lone release on Merge Records.
The strange cocktail that is “Black 37” by Mr. Nogatco (aka Kool Keith) is distinctive indeed, with cheesy sci fi-movie dialogue segueing abruptly into heavy-metal crunch chords and a lusty, impressionistic rap (“Her bra’s made o’ mink/her panties fur is a bear/My eye contact is everything I touch/I wanna lick her hair.”) Kool Keith would probably dig La Polla, a punk band from the Basque Country whose fractious career spanned three decades. This is not meant as a dis, but “Tumba 37” from Toda La Puta Vida Igual (1999) is exactly how Green Day would sound dubbed into Spanish. Cleveland-area electronic music maven Jon Sonnenberg gives us the moody, blipped-out “Channel 37,” and finally, “Size 37” is by a band called Granger that I can find next to nothing about (surprising in this day and age). The band’s sole release, Underwater Hum, was released by Shanachie, one of the world’s largest independent labels, which is known for just about every other genre but indie rock. But that’s what this is, and it’s surprisingly tuneful, with touches of New Pornographer-type harmonies and a comforting jangle, yet not quite audacious enough to knock down a heavyweight.
So world, here’s your number 37. Have a look.
Please continue.
The experiment requires that you continue.
It is absolutely essential that you continue.
You have no other choice. You must go on.
Numerology is our pal Dave's ill advised quest to find the definitive song for every number from one to a hundred. It's starting to get a bit tricky.
Previously: No. 1, 2-4, 5-7, 7 (counterpoint), 8, 9, 10/11, 12/13. 13 (counterpoint), 14/15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26/27, 28 , 29 , 30, 30 (counterpoint), 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36
Posted by David Klein at 12:50 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
December 20, 2007
Interview: Romy Hoffman, MC, Macromantics
Romy Hoffman is hip-hop act Macromantics (which includes DJ Amy), a wordsmith from Australia with an unique flow. Her debut album Moments in Movement was released by Kill Rock Stars at the beginning of 2007. Her re-interpretation of "Darkside of Dallas", a song created by fellow Aussie band Ground Components, made it to our top 50 tracks of 2007. Via e-mail, Hoffman discusses why hip-hop is alive, why YouTube is frightening, and why being an MC is like being a doctor. More questions and some A/V after the jump.
You have an unique flow. How did you develop your "voice" and do you find it's something that requires experimentation or practice, or would you describe it as preternatural?
I guess my voice developed itself. It is preternatural in that I was given this voice, I had no say in how I wanted it to sound, but that said, i control things such as flow and delivery and content. My voice, in terms of what I'm saying and how I'm saying it, will continue to morph and evolve. I think I've gained a lot more confidence on the mic both on stage and in the studio. I want to continue to experiment with things such as singing and screaming and flow, so I guess experimentation and practice are integral to me as an artist.
People love two things: Illmatic and declaring, annually, that hip-hop is dead because of the insularity of rap radio or the depravity or banality of high-selling hip-hop acts. I'm going to be contrarian; why is hip-hop alive?
Hip hop is alive because once you create energy, which hip hop certainly has and is, you cannot completely kill it. It cannot die, and that's a prime law of physics. I see some of the mainstream, more current club music as pop more than I see it as hip hop. Hip hop is about the 4 elements. I don't think something like crunk pertains to keeping the 4 elements alive. It is definitely an evolution of rap music, but it is not hip hop. That's not to say it's bad, because I really love a lot of that stuff, and I think it's sonically done something really interesting to music... But, hip hop is alive because it's saving lives and gives people a voice and a medium to express their views. Hip hop is alive because people and humanity are alive.
How did "Dark Side of Dallas" come about? Did you envision it from the start as having multiple parts?
I did a verse on another Ground Components (the band whom I collaborate on "Darkside" with) song called "Coming in from all angles". It was only fair, being the just and bratty person I am, to make them return the favour! I heard them perform their version of "Darkside of Dallas" live, and I knew I had to have it for myself. I got the instrumental off them and Tony, my producer, and I rearranged the song into a more concise version. We made the drums sound a bit less rock and more hip-hop, and then I wrote my parts. I think it's one of my favourite songs on the album.
Are you always brainstorming lyrics (i.e. constantly toting a notebook) or do only focus on your lyrics during specific, set-aside times?
I never stop writing. I see my work as a form of journalism, so I feel it is my duty to constantly be documenting things. When the time comes to write a song and an album, I have the arduous task of editing all my work. For my next record, which I'm working on now, I have to edit 8 books which are full of all sorts of writing. It is not exactly a fun process, editing. I love just writing and writing and jotting away and rambling on, but then I have to cut and paste, and go to work on my patient. It's similar to being a doctor really!
Macromantics - Physical
Judging from the comments on ABC's Triple J - people are either very enthusiastic or dismissive of you, the latter talking about "proper representation of the Australia hip-hop scene." At what point do you consider yourself an Australian MC - and does that even matter anymore in a global community?
I am a writer, first and foremost. Then I consider myself an MC. I do not consider myself a female rapper, any more than I consider myself an Australian rapper. I feel like I represent a zillion things, and there's no need to state them all, it's obvious. Therefore I don't need to say I'm a conscious rapper or a comic rapper or a depressed rapper, because I am all those things and so much more. And, I do see my music as being global and universal, indeed. That is very important to me that I reach as many people from as many places that I possibly can.
Follow-up: Where do negative comments on a blog rank in your hierarchy of worthwhile criticism?
Everyone's got a blog these days, which is a good thing, it's the same thing as having a journal or diary, except it's a bit more flashy and opinionated and doesn't really show any sign of emotion or feeling. I no longer feel hurt or offended when I read negative criticism about my work. There are inevitably going to be lovers and haters. Some
blogs are more worthwhile than others, but again, it's simply an opinion which I do not let get to me.
(Unavoidable post-Napster question) - Is the net-result of the MP3 blog culture beneficial for the artist?
Yes, it can be. It can also damage an artist. I really think it's important that if someone downloads an album and it blows their mind, that they go out and buy it. All the mediocrity should be free, but the substantial stuff should be paid for. I think there'll come a time when people miss having a physical form of the music in their hands
while they listen to it. They'll miss seeing the artwork and having all their records filed on a shelf. They'll see how downloading effects social space too...
Follow-up: As someone, according to Cadence Weapon), who grew up following underground MCs (a much more complicated task in the 80s-90s then today), how do you feel about music fandom in today's digital world - where one can amass an entire music collection in as long as it takes to transfer to an iPod?
I feel uneasy about YouTube, honestly. I feel like I should be asked permission by someone wanting to put up some horrible quality video of a performance I did, before they go ahead and do it. If downloading music has effected music sales, whose to say something like watching shows on you tube might not affect concert attendences? most of the videos on there are dismal in sound and image quality. I feel like musicians should have to give their consent on this.
What should we expect from you in 2008? And do you have any new plans to tour N. America?
Expect a new album from me in 2008. I will be back in America when that's done, for sure. I miss you guys!
Posted by Keith O'Brien at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Individual lists: BEST ALBUMS OF 2007, RANDALL MONTY
I completely agree/disagree with the notion that you can/cannot encapsulate a year in music based on a single trend or concept. To whit: 2007 has seen the release of a lot of songs that talk frankly about taking (unspecified) pills.
As for a musical signifier, 2007 will go down as the year when it became critically acceptable to completely rip-off another artist’s work. In fact, praised, preferred. In no particular order, my favorite albums of the year manage to bite easily-recognizable chunks out of New Order, the Beach Boys, David Bowie, Pixies, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, the Clash and others. There used to be at least a little bit of shame in so blatantly copying another’s art, it was something that you'd admit only to your closest friends or in the basement of the liner notes. But then again, taking too many pills probably used to be that way, too. This is a post-Night Ripper America, and now these are things you openly trumpet in public forums.
Here are my ten favorite albums of this past year:
10. Good Girl Gone Bad by Rihanna – Make no mistake, this is by no means a paper tiger. For sure, there are some throw-away tracks here, (I’m talking to you, “Say It”), but when this album is firing on all cylinders, like with “Breakin’ Dishes”, “Shut-up and Drive” and the dragon-slaying “Umbrella”, Rihanna is stating her case as the 21st Century's Donna Summer. But I doubt Summer rhymes her way through, “I’ve got a house, but I need new furniture/Why spend mine when I could spend yours?” while what sounds like the Florida A&M marching band bounces around the background. You know what, just replace the filler with all of the singles’ remixes, and this album would’ve placed even higher.
9. Neon Bible by Arcade Fire – From the unnecessarily parenthetical “(Antichrist Television Blues)”: “Do you know where I was at your age?/Any idea where I was at your age?/I was working downtown for the minimum wage/And I'm not gonna let you just throw it all away!” You couldn’t throw a rock at a review of Neon Bible without hitting a reference to Bruuuuuuuuce, a fact that sent many an indie fanboy into a tight-wadded tizzy. But if you’re going to throw stones at this, the most anticipated follow-up album of the year, then you’re probably some kind of jerk anyway, because Arcade Fire managed to not only meet the high expectations set by the magical Funeral, they did so while creating a record that is both politically critical and extrovertedly antidisestablishmentarian. If Bible owes anything to Springsteen it’s the idea that you can’t be taken seriously about anything important if you aren't actually sincere about things that are important. So throw you damn lighter up, already, just don’t let you’re other first stop pumping.
8. Wild Mountain Nation and Cool Love #1 by Blitzen Trapper – Trapper's work is all over the place. Acting as unofficial chroniclers of the 20th Century’s closing decade, these guys do jam band on the title track and it’s “Come out from the world/and into my arms” opening; a little Soundgarden grunge with “Miss Spiritual Trap”; spacey, Lips-inspired psych-pop on “Sci-Fi Kid”; a short Oh, Brother –type bluegrass number (“Wild MTN. Jam”); an appropriately-named, nonsensical Elephant 6 instrumental (“Woof & Warp of the Quit Giants Hem”); and twelve other eclectic brothers that invite you to play a game of “spot that influence”. The only unifying thematic is the northwestern mountain twang (if there even is such a thing). If you love the ‘90s but the VH1, then Nation and its companion EP are right up your alley, er… dirt road.
7. Person Pitch by Panda Bear – “Coolness is having courage/courage to do what’s right”, Noah Lennox assures us on the opening track to this (recently) zenithly-praised album. But Lennox's claim is an incredibly profound and pertinent observation, a fact that seems to have been overlooked considering that most of the praise heaped on P. Biddy has been directed at his instrumental/sampling/lap topping prowess. Not that that admiration is completely misplaced – Person Pitch is overstuffed with idiosyncratic nuances that become more and more impressive with each successive listen – but what makes this album move beyond merely nice and into the territories of timely and meaningful is the humanizing lyrics that flow in and out of all the beautiful arrangements.
6. The Stage Names by Okkervil River – Should Okkervil River stop right now? The “band” has crafted a career out of constantly trying to create the perfect concept album, and on the Stage Names, they succeed in conceptualizing concept. It’s an album full of quirky and clever wordplay, so it’s oddly fitting that my favorite line on the disc is all melody. “By the second verse, dear friends, my head will burst and my life will end, so I'd like to start this one off by saying ’live and love!’” The opening verse on the Beach Boys lifting, “John Allyn Smith Sails” utilizes a beautiful, see-sawing that is downright ironical when you consider that Will Sheff’s Achilles heel has long been his singing voice. But as the case with many of other beloved song writers (Dylan, Darnielle, Mangun, Bjork all come to mind), the accompaniment of a traditionally great singing voice would manage only to detract from the impact of the songs. Sheff’s transgression into accessibility is thankfully temporary, turning focus back to the real star of the show: the songwriting about songwriting.
5. Good Bad Not Evil by the Black Lips – The problem with the garage rock revival sound of the early oughts is that bands like the Strokes and the Hives didn’t sound a damn thing like actual garage rock. On the other hand, it’s as though the Atlanta-based Lips grew up listening exclusively to Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. And that’s a good thing! “Veni, Vidi, Vici” and “Navajo” are catchy yet cheesy enough that they could have charted alongside Sham’s Nuggets-era hits “Wooly Bully” and “Little Red Riding Hood”. But it’s on the shouting/bass call-and-response section of “Bad Kids” where you get gems like, “They’ll try/to give us pills/Oh wait/Give us all the pills!”
4. Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem – I love the show Scrubs because of its remarkably authentic portrayal of what it’s like to be married and a parent when in your 20’s. For reasons that probably don’t make any sense at all, Sound of Silver makes me feel the same exact way. However, on this record, each episode does not end with a predictable happy ending, a notion definitively summed up in “All My Friends”: “It comes apart/The way it does in bad films/Except the part/Where the moral kicks in.”
3. Friend and Foe by Menomena – Blankets, the autobiographical graphic novel created by Craig Thompson, the one who designed the intricate and interactive cover art of Menomena’s second proper full-length, succeeds in part because it creates a contradictory duality between the wintery weather of the story and the interpersonal warmth of the characters. In a similar fashion, Friend & Foe is an album that is all at once cold, uninviting and strangely humane. And it was written by robots or something.
2. Curses by Future of the Left – Must be something in the water of Cardiff, Wales, because musicians from that lightly populated capitol seem to have a firm grasp on the difference between being funny and being a joke. It’s commitment, stupid, and FotL are flat-out dedicated to their comedic craft. How else can you get away with a rococo segment that ends in, well, I don’t want to spoil it for you. The self-proclaimed “super group” rising from the ashes of McLusky keeps the previous band’s Ricklesesque charisma but adds in heavy doses of keys, synths and enough metal riffs to create indie’s answer to lifting music.
1. Boxer by The National – From the intoxicating piano melody that opens “Fake Empire”, all the way to a completely different intoxicating piano melody in the closing-track “Gospel”, Boxer melts with a drowsy, pastoral influence. This is an album of America the way Main Street is a book of America: sure, it’s nostalgic, but more than that it is cautious and self-aware, exposing the nation’s soft underbelly without overtly criticizing it – that’s the reader/listener’s job. I won’t pretend that pathos isn’t plying a large role here: Boxer soundtracked a large portion of my cross country drive this past summer. That’s not exactly a strong pitch for its artistic relevance, but at least the National seems to know they aren’t making any grand claims, keeping their braggadocio modest with lines like, “I glide and swan because I’m the best slow dancer in the universe” (from “Green Gloves”).
Other Favorites:
A couple of great comebacks: American Gangster by Jay-Z and Beyond by Dinosaur Jr.
One career-maker: Hissing Fauna, are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal
Best Album/Worst Lyrics: Kala by M.I.A. She’s the Sri Lankan Run D.M.C.
Favorite album with the worst name: Cease to Begin by Band of Horses. Had they gone with Pastor of Muppets, the alleged original title, it would been “favorite album with the best name”.
Best classical recording: Bruckner’s 7th by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I find it difficult to really appreciate Bruckner and Wagner, but on the other hand I don’t think you can really blame them for their most notorious shared fan, can you? (Ed. Fixed)
Out too late: 8 Diagrams by Wu-Tang Clan. I haven’t actually listened to it in its entirety, but from what I’ve heard so far, this is psych-hop at its best. Or is it first?
My wife’s choice: Insomniac by Enrique Iglesias. Paraphrasing her sentiment here: “Even though he’s undoubtedly made much more money because of the Anglo-switch, Enrique’s better versions are always in his native Spanish.” Wait. What’s the opposite of paraphrasing?
Vicky’s choice: Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy. Of all the dudes making money by singing lyrics found in an 8th grade girl's diary, FOB is the most likely to be played on the oldies station in the year 2050.
Eva’s choice: Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem. This album had the antidote. Song starts: asleep and quiet. Song ends: awake and crying. Repeat with next song.
Posted by Randall Monty at 12:02 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
December 19, 2007
Our Top 50 Songs of 2007: #10-1
#50 - 41
#40 - 31
#30 - 21
#20 - 11
Prinzhorn Dance School - "Crackerjack Docker"
Prinzhorn Dance School keep to an approach so simple that it threatens to obscure the fact that this Brighton duo has done that rare thing—come up with a sound of its own. But with non-sequiturs as ripe as these (Hobnail boots/on the escalator/Beeswax beeswax/Down the radiator!) it's probably only a matter of time before PDS edges toward the next musical level. Let's hope not. - D. Klein
Animal Collective - "For Reverend Green"
Motorheads and experimental rock fans rejoice! Crunchy, growling, heavy-duty rated and delay-enabled guitars loop through the entire five-minutes of this brilliant song. Revving like a gas-hungry muscle car puttering in idle. In a mutually exclusive, industrial way, both types of sounds elicit fawning as things of beauty. Avey Tare's rantish comments are hurled specifically at Brooklyn hipsters, but work just as easily referencing anyone from our entitled times, from boomer to Gens X through Y. Accentuated by ceiling-busting, primal screams, each subsequent shriek blows past the scratchy boundaries that would otherwise ground Tare's playfully adaptive, chameleon voice. Lucky us. M. Swankster
Of Montreal - "Suffer for Fashion"
The first rush of greatness from Hissing Fauna. It seemed like those of us who take Eno's pop records really seriously in spite of their silliness were finally vindicated by this record, and this song specifically. It's got those glam guitars entwined with the intellectually oddball phrasing, but damn if it all doesn't seem like it means something. - J.Klingman
Another (seemingly obligatory) mailed-in Jay-Z performance. Chris Brown trying to fuck up my entire summer, ("Cinderella?" Are you kidding me?). Yankovician remakes, ("Salmonella", anyone?). Coincidental, even deadly, inclement weather in England, New Zealand, Spain, Greece and Mexico… but none of it mattered because, driven by blistering turns of fuzzed-out feedback, this ode to kinky friendship was all ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh. - R.M.
Deerhunter - "Fluorescent Grey"
In which Bradford Cox-- blood stained, frock wearing, rock(y) horror-- makes you tingle with anticip.... Before that neutron bomb feedback hits you though, you've got to appreciate the dark literacy and itchy diction. Cox (and his critics) threw the name Dennis Cooper around a lot this year, but this meditation on how a fleshy shell of guts and gore can inspire overwhelming, unfair devotion is where he earned and transcended the comparison. - J.K.
It was Thriller that was released a hair over 25 years ago today, but Justice's self-evident, nonstop party banger owes a whole lot to the entirety of Michael Jackson's career. Direct lyrical references are made to MJ classics like, "PYT", "ABC", "Black & White" and "Working Day and Night", but it's the sonic allusions that interest me more. The vocal tone is vintage 5, the keys, drum and strings are Off the Wall, the bass is freakin' Bad. Nowadays, most people know MJ only as the no-nosed, child molesting freak. Glad to see his legacy hasn't been completely soiled. - R.M.
Of Montreal - "She's a Rejecter"
Missing new Franz Ferdinand output this year was mitigated by several songs, none more so than this dip by Of Montreal into the jagged, angular pool of dance-rock . The best Hissing Fauna... track, and more quantifiable, the most prototypical song of the scorned man cum glam conqueror storyline. Most/More importantly - its damn danceability. - M.S.
LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
Trading sentimentalized grief for a sentimentalized stock taking of life, James Murphy takes bronze plated hardware by penning the year's best chance for lasting anthem. By providing a first person account through the prism of a world-shaker, it presents superficial glitz wrapped in a ribbon of staccato keys. Ultimately ending with rationalized nostalgia typical in these clarifications on the lack of regrets. Terrifically reflective in that respect, also about death in terms of grown-up awareness of an end versus the sorrow of "Someone Great". Always the entertainer, jet-setting around the world yet finding a strong pining for the special allure of friends. Anthemic, yet terribly sad. Murphy grown up, the sad clown. - M.S.
A song stitched together from so many parts that it's baffling there aren't more seams showing. It loops the first 20 seconds of the Clash's "Straight to Hell," making that song seem like it never lost its early propulsion. It takes the chart shaking chorus of "Rumpshaker" but swaps out that song's vapidity for wordlessly sinister cartoon effects. It even throws up that cloying old staple of the children's choir, but cuts the sugar by giving the little bastards a taste for your blood. Just relentlessly good. - J.K.
LCD Soundsystem - "Someone Great"
James Murphy fashions his scratches, sirens, and blips like a jeweler, dotting his work with transcendent glockenspiels. I never realized how dark a tale "Someone Great" tells until I sat down and read the lyrics; to me it was always the sound of triumph. For my money, the song of the year. - D. Klein
Posted by Jeff Klingman at 08:00 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
December 17, 2007
M.I.A. video - Paper Planes
Posted by Keith O'Brien at 10:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Our Top 50 Songs of 2007: #20-11
Gui Borratto - "Beautiful Life"
If Panda's Person Pitch was the essence of Brian Wilson, spaced out and made newly weird, Brazilian producer Gui Borratto's "Beautiful Life" did the same for New Order. That's a tough sell in the first two minutes, when it's just a buzzing loop and a machine press beat. But long before the heartbreak guitars cement the comparison, it's there in the simple progression of synth chords and in the way the fey voice can't quite match the rhythm but feels more human by failing to measure up. Sure, N O were never this sunny, but they're from Manchester and he's from Brazil. See how that alters your world view.
- J. Klingman
This here is more epic tragedy than mere "song", clocking in at over nine minutes and containing some eleven different movements. Did I mention that one of them is 126 seconds of guitar soloing? There are tumbling walls of piano and a lot of laughable hoopin' and hollerin' going on as well, and the song is actually about a farmer, but don't let all the art school idiosyncrasies fool you, "Bushels" is pure classic rock at heart. - R. Monty
All three of Maya Arulpragasam's tracks on this list cannibalize recognizable bits from other songs, but "Jimmy" is the only straight up cover. As some very non-intensive search engine time will inform you, "Jimmy Adja" is an old Bollywood number, an awesome one at that. Save some excellent studio updates, the bones of it are right there to hear. But where some run of the mill hipster might exploit it for kitsch, Maya recognized the killer tune there. That it was a piece of her treasured childhood pop culture explains the loving faithfulness, but the universality of the end result (and Kala as a whole) suggests a new pop reality. Now that we have this giant pool of cultural ephemera from around the globe at our fingertips, why should we keep it sequestered? - J.K.
After the, "Hello, Cleveland!" into, fast-forward to the 4:15 mark, kick back for thirty seconds, and bask in the two-fisted glory. That right there was the best drum solo performed by a member of homo sapiens this millennium, my friend, courtesy of no less than three different people playing at once. (So I guess, technically, it's six-fisted glory. Even better!) But that's just the jelly filling in this donut of awesomeness. Replete with power stance guitar chords and lyrics about being in love with a spy (or something), "Devastation" is a song that demands you to turn it up to 11! - R.M.
The burrower... One, two, three, four - by the end it may have annoyed, but, seemingly forever, you adored. The soaring swings, Feist's slightly raspy, charming voice; and the banjo and horns. Easy listening the world can get behind. We, here at the Swankster, love our noise rock and complicated structures, but we know simple and pure. Here's to Feist and the musical equivalent of a simple, delightful seared sea scallop. Maybe with a little bacon. Mmmmmmmmmhhh, bacon. - K. O'Brien
Based solely on his public persona in this year, Deerhunter's Bradford Cox seems a tough nut to crack. Similar notes seem valid for "Heatherwood", surely the anomaly of Cryptograms based on clarity alone. Recorded in the second of two spaced out sessions, it exists artistically distant from the rest of the album. For those curious for a more accessible side of Deerhunter, look no further. After all, satisfying the jones for bands with fuzzed out reverb must start somewhere. - M.Swankster
Modest Mouse's cousin... No, you didn't read that wrong. Spoon wins the 2007 version of the Modest Mouse award - the band that surprisingly is embraced by a much larger audience than you thought possible. And that suggests all might be right with the world - Britt Daniel & Co. have always had a great sense of melody and pace - "The Way We Get By" should have been a rock radio staple. This song evokes a stud