I don't typically find a lot of debut albums that are worth getting excited over. In the past few years, I've been amazed by debut albums by Arcade Fire, Interpol, and the Strokes, but that's about it.
I just picked up the debut album by a new internet-hyped sensation called Vampire Weekend. The first thing that amazed me about this album is that it is sold at Target. I thought bands like this had to gain some status before the get sold at grocery stores, so the fact that they sold it there made me feel obligated to buy it (this is how my backwords logic works).
Getting past that, I was amazed how many good ideas this band packed into 34 minutes. They have this idea that African music can work alongside that New York indie-punk sound that the Strokes helped bring back (that is, before the Strokes ruined it). They also don't shy away from using harpsicords and violins as lead instruments as opposed to only guitar. If these ideas are so simple, why have so few bands tried them?
One of my favorites on this album is "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"; you can't listen to this song without thinking about Paul Simon's Graceland. I also love "Bryn", where they work a fun guitar lead around a trippy rhythm. Please, just go hear the whole album, and don't be ashamed to dance in your room when nobody's looking.
Two great albums in January? Ok, maybe this will be a great year.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
I wish I was born a few years earlier...
After listening to "New Day Rising" by Husker Du, I can't help but think I missed a golden age for underground punk. Here are a few less-than-popular 80s albums that seem as angry, wild, and groundbreaking as they did in the 80s:
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation: If the guitar solo halfway through "Silver Rocket" doesn't scare you off, this is a rewarding record with some amazing conventional punk songs like "Hey Joni" and "Teen Age Riot". Of course, it also has "Rain king", which sounds like the apocalypse probably feels.
Husker Du - Zen Arcade: At about 70 minutes long, this is one of the longest punk albums ever made, but it also has more surprises than most punk albums ever will. After the sheer force behind songs like "Something I Learned Today" and "Standing By The Sea", its amazing to hear Bob Mould write a fun acoustic song like "Never Talking To You Again".
Joy Division - Closer: This is the final word on suicide albums, so play this one at your own risk. It's also an album that many of the best bands today took notes from, including the Arcade Fire, the National, and Interpol. Even though the lyrics are terrifying, am I the only one who dances to the song "Isolation"?
Since I was born in 1982, I was too young to remember any of these albums. Thank heaven for CD reissues.
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation: If the guitar solo halfway through "Silver Rocket" doesn't scare you off, this is a rewarding record with some amazing conventional punk songs like "Hey Joni" and "Teen Age Riot". Of course, it also has "Rain king", which sounds like the apocalypse probably feels.
Husker Du - Zen Arcade: At about 70 minutes long, this is one of the longest punk albums ever made, but it also has more surprises than most punk albums ever will. After the sheer force behind songs like "Something I Learned Today" and "Standing By The Sea", its amazing to hear Bob Mould write a fun acoustic song like "Never Talking To You Again".
Joy Division - Closer: This is the final word on suicide albums, so play this one at your own risk. It's also an album that many of the best bands today took notes from, including the Arcade Fire, the National, and Interpol. Even though the lyrics are terrifying, am I the only one who dances to the song "Isolation"?
Since I was born in 1982, I was too young to remember any of these albums. Thank heaven for CD reissues.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Stephin Merritt: Screw You, Restraint!
If you ever have an entire weekend to dedicate to music listening (for me, that's every weekend), spend some time with the Magnetic Field's 69 Love Songs. It manages to be amazingly consistent despite being the second longest album I've ever heard, since Tom Waits was able to top it with Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards last fall.
Two things hold 69 Love Songs together and make it worth playing for an entire 3 hours: his voice and his sense of humor. He writes pop melodies that are memorable, but they never last long enough to wear themselves out since very few of these songs last past three minutes and none last past four. The result is some beautiful ballads ("I Don't Believe In The Sun", "Busby Berkeley Dreams"), some catchy pop songs that should be hits ("I Don't Want To Get over You", "It's A Crime"), and some moments that are just plain goofy ("Washington DC", "Love Is Like Jazz"). These songs are some of my favorites, but every listener who takes time with all three discs seems to find their own.
Today, it's a lot easier for bands to release no-restraint artpieces like this one due to word-of-mouth fanbases and Internet distribution, but this album was a few years ahead of its time when it was released in 1999. Remember, that was the year pop music on the radio and MTV made its last stand: everybody was listening to Limp Bizkit, Creed, the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync (thank you Florida for your great musical contributions). The Magnetic Fields, along with the Flaming Lips, Pavement, and Wilco, really helped turn a corner in American music at the end of the 90s.
It took the Magnetic Fields 5 years to follow this up: the result was a spotty, disappointing record called i. I haven't heard their new album (Distortion) yet, but with 69 Love Songs, Stephin Merritt has contributed more than his share to the last ten years of indie music.
Two things hold 69 Love Songs together and make it worth playing for an entire 3 hours: his voice and his sense of humor. He writes pop melodies that are memorable, but they never last long enough to wear themselves out since very few of these songs last past three minutes and none last past four. The result is some beautiful ballads ("I Don't Believe In The Sun", "Busby Berkeley Dreams"), some catchy pop songs that should be hits ("I Don't Want To Get over You", "It's A Crime"), and some moments that are just plain goofy ("Washington DC", "Love Is Like Jazz"). These songs are some of my favorites, but every listener who takes time with all three discs seems to find their own.
Today, it's a lot easier for bands to release no-restraint artpieces like this one due to word-of-mouth fanbases and Internet distribution, but this album was a few years ahead of its time when it was released in 1999. Remember, that was the year pop music on the radio and MTV made its last stand: everybody was listening to Limp Bizkit, Creed, the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync (thank you Florida for your great musical contributions). The Magnetic Fields, along with the Flaming Lips, Pavement, and Wilco, really helped turn a corner in American music at the end of the 90s.
It took the Magnetic Fields 5 years to follow this up: the result was a spotty, disappointing record called i. I haven't heard their new album (Distortion) yet, but with 69 Love Songs, Stephin Merritt has contributed more than his share to the last ten years of indie music.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Drive By Truckers
The Drive By Truckers are a difficult idea to buy into. A southern rock indie band? It sounded like a horrible idea to me up until and two years ago, when I finally gave them a chance. Here's a few things that I love about this band:
-They've managed to put out 4 great albums in the past 5 years: Decoration Day. Dirty South, A Blessing And A Curse, and Brighter Than Creation's Dark. How about that for consistency?
-They sound more country than anything on popular country radio. They don't look like models and they sing about crystal meth, hookers, and murder, so it's a guarantee that they will never get played on country radio.
-They just lost one of their main singers, so they got another one since they refuse to have less than three lead singers. I think this idea should catch on.
-Their new album has 19 songs. That is ridiculous for any album that isn't a rap album. For most bands this would be excessive; for them its just generous.
So if you still aren't sold on this band, try their new album. You might find yourself buying their entire catalog like it did. Thank you Drive By Truckers for the first great album of 2008!
-They've managed to put out 4 great albums in the past 5 years: Decoration Day. Dirty South, A Blessing And A Curse, and Brighter Than Creation's Dark. How about that for consistency?
-They sound more country than anything on popular country radio. They don't look like models and they sing about crystal meth, hookers, and murder, so it's a guarantee that they will never get played on country radio.
-They just lost one of their main singers, so they got another one since they refuse to have less than three lead singers. I think this idea should catch on.
-Their new album has 19 songs. That is ridiculous for any album that isn't a rap album. For most bands this would be excessive; for them its just generous.
So if you still aren't sold on this band, try their new album. You might find yourself buying their entire catalog like it did. Thank you Drive By Truckers for the first great album of 2008!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Surviving January
For a lover of new music, January is always the worst month of the year. After you catch up with the previous year's music, there usually isn't anything great in stores until early March. To make this year worse, almost all of my favorite musicians of the past ten years released albums last year, including Wilco, the White Stripes, Radiohead, Spoon, the Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, etc. I don't see a lot of great albums coming out in at least the next six months, but hopefully I'm wrong.
With that said, here are five artists who I badly need to hear new records from. All of these artists have not released a new album since 2005:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: I loved the Grinderman album, but it wasn't the Bad Seeds. After hearing the sprawling Abattoir Blues & The Lyre Of Orpheus, it's hard to think of all the directions this band could go with a follow-up, but nothing seems to be in the works. I'd like them to go back to a somber Boatman's Call-type sound, be we'll see.
Coldplay: Ouch, there goes my hipster indie-cred. I don't care, I love every album they've done. X&Y really didn't offer anything new that A Rush of Blood to the Head didn't do, it just gave us more well-written songs. With Brian Eno in the studio with them, I'm sure they have something new to offer.
Fiona Apple: I know, she only is supposed to release an album every 6 years. Given the unprecedented songwriting growth of When The Pawn and Extraordinary Machine, I hope I don't really have to wait until 2011 to see what happens next.
My Morning Jacket: Not only was Z a masterpiece critically, but I got the feeling this band was ready to breakthrough commercially. Are they going to be one of the rare indie word-of-mouth bands to be mainstream like the White Stripes did? We'll find out this June.
Sufjan Stevens: With Michigan, Seven Swans, and Illinois, he gave us three masterpieces in three years. Then he gave us two large leftover compilations in 2006. Then he surprisingly laid low in 2007. As for 2008, all I know are rumors about a Minnesota album and other rumors about giving up the state concept. If you are craving like I am, he did a wonderful cover of Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells" on the I'm Not There soundtrack. After that, to be continued...
With that said, here are five artists who I badly need to hear new records from. All of these artists have not released a new album since 2005:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: I loved the Grinderman album, but it wasn't the Bad Seeds. After hearing the sprawling Abattoir Blues & The Lyre Of Orpheus, it's hard to think of all the directions this band could go with a follow-up, but nothing seems to be in the works. I'd like them to go back to a somber Boatman's Call-type sound, be we'll see.
Coldplay: Ouch, there goes my hipster indie-cred. I don't care, I love every album they've done. X&Y really didn't offer anything new that A Rush of Blood to the Head didn't do, it just gave us more well-written songs. With Brian Eno in the studio with them, I'm sure they have something new to offer.
Fiona Apple: I know, she only is supposed to release an album every 6 years. Given the unprecedented songwriting growth of When The Pawn and Extraordinary Machine, I hope I don't really have to wait until 2011 to see what happens next.
My Morning Jacket: Not only was Z a masterpiece critically, but I got the feeling this band was ready to breakthrough commercially. Are they going to be one of the rare indie word-of-mouth bands to be mainstream like the White Stripes did? We'll find out this June.
Sufjan Stevens: With Michigan, Seven Swans, and Illinois, he gave us three masterpieces in three years. Then he gave us two large leftover compilations in 2006. Then he surprisingly laid low in 2007. As for 2008, all I know are rumors about a Minnesota album and other rumors about giving up the state concept. If you are craving like I am, he did a wonderful cover of Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells" on the I'm Not There soundtrack. After that, to be continued...
Sunday, January 20, 2008
2007 In Review
This is all I thought about at work today. Here we go, my top 15 albums of 2007:
15. "Grinderman" by Grinderman - Nick Cave just lost his mind, but I guess it's all relative...
14. "Graduation" by Kanye West - Even his worst album is one of the best rap albums ever.
13. "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" by Miranda Lambert - 2007 was another banner year for psychotic country woman!
12. "The Stage Names" by Okkervil River - Bonus points for making "Sloop John B" sound like a suicide letter (you have to hear it...)
11. "Person Pitch" by Panda Bear - This album is good proof that people in Baltimore do lots of drugs; like we needed proof.
10. "Year-Zero" by Nine Inch Nails - Doing a political album about how George W. Bush is destroying humanity was a great idea for Trent Reznor!
9. "Children Running Through" by Patty Griffin - If you listen to this album start to finish, at least songs will make you cry; if not, you have no heart.
8. "Kala" by MIA - This album is great by being just plain ridiculous. One song uses a birdcall in the beat, and it gets weirder.
7. "Young Modern" by Silverchair - No band (besides the Flaming Lips) has improved so much in the past 15 years; they grew out of the crappy grunge music.
6. "Sounds Of Silver" by LCD Soundsystem - Finally, an album to dance and mope to at the same time.
5. "Magic" by Bruce Springsteen - His best album in 25 years. Long live the Boss.
4. "Neon Bible" by Arcade Fire - They're just getting started.
3. "Boxer" by The National - I love this band; they gain some respect by doing a loud rock album and then gain more respect by doing a dark, depressing acoustic album about urban alienation. God bless them.
2. "In Rainbows" by Radiohead - This album is beautiful enough to make everybody forget about the last two they put out, and the internet donation this was brilliant.
1. "Civilians" by Joe Henry - I think my obsession with this guys music might last a long time. This is the artist I'm going to force everybody to listen to for now on.
I bought so many CDs this year, I have a 5 worst CDs of 2007 list:
5. "Wincing The Night Away" by The Shins - This band's peak came and went very quickly; time to quit guys.
4. "Our Love To Admire" by Interpol - Interpol decided they want to sound like the Arcade Fire. I don't know why that sounded like a good idea to anybody.
3. "A Weekend In The City" by Bloc Party - What happens when a punk band decide they want to be the next Coldplay? Another crappy idea I paid to hear.
2. "Alright, Still" by Lily Allen - A lot of critics think this girl is brilliant. A lot of critics need to be shot.
1. "Cassadaga" by Bright Eyes - Overproduced, overdone instrumentation, poor sequencing, poor lyric writing, songs that drag on for three minutes too long... this album has everything that can I hate about music. His last album was a masterpiece; what happened? Curse...
2007 was a deep year; I'll probably find albums that I missed. Let's hope I have just as much money to blow on music this year.
15. "Grinderman" by Grinderman - Nick Cave just lost his mind, but I guess it's all relative...
14. "Graduation" by Kanye West - Even his worst album is one of the best rap albums ever.
13. "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" by Miranda Lambert - 2007 was another banner year for psychotic country woman!
12. "The Stage Names" by Okkervil River - Bonus points for making "Sloop John B" sound like a suicide letter (you have to hear it...)
11. "Person Pitch" by Panda Bear - This album is good proof that people in Baltimore do lots of drugs; like we needed proof.
10. "Year-Zero" by Nine Inch Nails - Doing a political album about how George W. Bush is destroying humanity was a great idea for Trent Reznor!
9. "Children Running Through" by Patty Griffin - If you listen to this album start to finish, at least songs will make you cry; if not, you have no heart.
8. "Kala" by MIA - This album is great by being just plain ridiculous. One song uses a birdcall in the beat, and it gets weirder.
7. "Young Modern" by Silverchair - No band (besides the Flaming Lips) has improved so much in the past 15 years; they grew out of the crappy grunge music.
6. "Sounds Of Silver" by LCD Soundsystem - Finally, an album to dance and mope to at the same time.
5. "Magic" by Bruce Springsteen - His best album in 25 years. Long live the Boss.
4. "Neon Bible" by Arcade Fire - They're just getting started.
3. "Boxer" by The National - I love this band; they gain some respect by doing a loud rock album and then gain more respect by doing a dark, depressing acoustic album about urban alienation. God bless them.
2. "In Rainbows" by Radiohead - This album is beautiful enough to make everybody forget about the last two they put out, and the internet donation this was brilliant.
1. "Civilians" by Joe Henry - I think my obsession with this guys music might last a long time. This is the artist I'm going to force everybody to listen to for now on.
I bought so many CDs this year, I have a 5 worst CDs of 2007 list:
5. "Wincing The Night Away" by The Shins - This band's peak came and went very quickly; time to quit guys.
4. "Our Love To Admire" by Interpol - Interpol decided they want to sound like the Arcade Fire. I don't know why that sounded like a good idea to anybody.
3. "A Weekend In The City" by Bloc Party - What happens when a punk band decide they want to be the next Coldplay? Another crappy idea I paid to hear.
2. "Alright, Still" by Lily Allen - A lot of critics think this girl is brilliant. A lot of critics need to be shot.
1. "Cassadaga" by Bright Eyes - Overproduced, overdone instrumentation, poor sequencing, poor lyric writing, songs that drag on for three minutes too long... this album has everything that can I hate about music. His last album was a masterpiece; what happened? Curse...
2007 was a deep year; I'll probably find albums that I missed. Let's hope I have just as much money to blow on music this year.
Greetings Music Lovers
Good morning fellow vegetables. This blog is maintained by Brian and Eric. We met six years ago at Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky and have had an enthusiasm ever since for all things music, new and old, easy or hard, and however else you can think it. As such, we started this blog to share our (hopefully) unique perspectives with anybody who wants to listen. Or anyone who doesn't. We are not hipsters. In fact, we have boring jobs and friends who are sick of us shoving every skein of inaccesible skronking we find into their gullets. So we have moved operations. We wish to shove them onto you, and we hope somebody at least will come along.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)