4.1.09
I first fell in love with Tim Kasher's music when I heard the second album from the Good Life, Black Out, back when that moniker was merely considered to be a solo side project of his main band, Cursive. Since then, he has alternated releases between the two groups, and has added a permanent lineup (or as close as you can get to such a thing with Kasher, with his ever-changing cast of accent musicians who flesh out the core of both bands on any given record) for the Good Life, establishing it as a full-fledged second band.
I haven't really liked any Good Life album since Black Out, although that record and its predecessor, Novena on a Nocturne, are probably still my favorite Kasher offerings, but I've been a fan of both of the Cursive records that came after Black Out, The Ugly Organ and Happy Hollow. I'm still waiting for a proper follow up to Black Out——that record was intensely personal and accented by drum machines and keyboards, whereas the two subsequent records he's recorded under that name, Album of the Year and Help Wanted Nights, have been country-tinged concept albums (Help Wanted Nights was even orginally conceived as a stage musical)——but I've more or less accepted that Kasher has put that kind of alone-with-a-laptop songwriting and recording process behind him and that his more aggressive and brawny work with Cursive is what I'm going to be focused on as a fan. (The Ugly Organ and Happy Hollow were both concept albums, too, but they worked. The Ugly Organ is the reigning fan favorite, but for me, Happy Hollow is the better record, although it did take a while to grow on me.)
The new Cursive record, Mama, I'm Swollen, doesn't seem to be a concept album, which would be a first for Kasher this decade, and in some ways it hearkens back to the sound of his earlier work with Cursive from the Domestica period——it's lacking Organ's cello and Hollow's horns, both of which altered the sound of the band dramatically (but in a positive way). And although it's nice to hear the band return to a more stripped down sound, the songs don't seem as strong, and there's a lot more stuff that doesn't feel as vital and visceral, which are hallmarks of this band's work for me.
I have a feeling it will grow on me still, and I already know that it's still better than either of the last two records from the Good Life, but it's scary to think that Kasher's nonstop schedule of writing, recording, and touring with two bands might finally be depleting his considerable songwriting talents (this is also the first time in a decade that Kasher hasn't released a companion preview EP before a new record). He actually addressed this concern about running out of steam on the companion EP to Album of the Year, Lovers Need Lawyers, and when the full album came out, it seemed more like a prophecy than a meditation. But Happy Hollow restored my faith, at least temporarily; let's hope that Mama will sound more focused after a few more listens.
4.2.09
I love "My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille", which is the lead track on Realpeople'sHolland EP, Zach Condon's solo eletronica project was was released in tandem with a new Beirut EP, but the rest of the disc really doesn't live up to the promise of that song (which was intially released last year as part of a charity compilation). "The Concubine" is the only other keeper from the five songs on the EP, and it actually sounds more like a Beirut track, lacking the obvious use of electronic instruments that are the common thread between the other four songs.
4.3.09
I get so confused by the digital versus physical release date issue, especially because there are so few definive guides to release dates and Pitchfork and everyone else reviews stuff as soon as it's available anywhere, even if the European or digital release dates are months before the physical US release.
What I really want to know is this: if the new Thermals CD at my local record store right now or not?
4.6.09
I really like the song in the no-longer-all-that-new McDonald's Filet O' Fish commercial:
No, I don't know what's wrong with me.
4.7.09
How huge would Oasis' legend be now if they had all been killed in a transatlantic plane crash while on tour for (What's the Story) Morning Glory? or disbanded after one of the very public fights between the Gallagher brothers? It took a while for me to give them a fair listen after all the hype, and like most everyone else, I find their output after their first two records to be diminishing returns that are either retreads of their earlier work or ill-advised ventures into classic stadium rock posturing, but both Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory still hold up pretty well.
Definitely Maybe is the superior of the two, and the Stones-ian stomp of "Cigarettes & Alcohol" is probably the best track of their career (which is a bit ironic given primary songwriter Noel Gallagher's obsession with the Beatles). It's hard to imagine a world in which their subsequent lesser works haven't tarnished their legacy to a degree that they've been relegated to near non-star status and their new albums hardly get noticed (at least in the US——they're still huge in their homeland), but not thinking about their later output sure does make it a lot easier to love their earlier stuff.
4.8.09
It seems like every year it takes me a little bit longer to post my top 10 lists, and this year I'm more than a month behind when I posted them last year (and last year was the latest I'd ever posted before now).
Anyway. Today will be my top 10 singles, followed by the album list tomorrow. As usual, the list is in reverse order, so the final song is my favorite single from last year. Here we go:
Magnetic Fields——"California Girls"
The Jesus and Mary Chain, who were the acknowledged inspiration for this entire record, did the distorted guitar take on sunny 60s songs almost two decades ago, but Stephen Merritt makes it sound almost new again. And how can you not love a song whose entire reason for being is to repeat this phrase over and over again: "I hate California girls."
The Streets——"Everything Is Borrowed"
I was really rooting for the Streets to come up with another album as brilliant as A Grand Don't Come for Free, but this album kind of missed the mark. Still, this is a great, incredibly catchy track. Maybe a little too sentimental for some people, but hey, I'm getting older and I've always been a bit of a sucker for grand statements.
Death Cab for Cutie——"Cath..."
I love love love this song, and have from the first time I heard it. This most recent album reminds me of the Death Cab I first fell in love with, the Death Cab of We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes and The Photo Album, and "Cath..." might be the track that does the best job of reminding us of their roots while simultaneously showing us just how far they've come since then.
Vampire Weekend——"Campus"
Yes, yes, I love "Oxford Comma" and "M79" just like everyone else, but I love this song equally, and I never hear anyone talk about it, so I'll use this opportunity to make a push for the underdog. Because of the hype, this band's next album will either be brilliant or an absolute disaster, so while we wait for it, let's just try to forget all the critical pedastal-placing (followed almost immediately by the sneering backlash) and appreciate these songs for what they are, putting aside all the proclamations and sniping.
British Sea Power——"Atom"
I really love "All In It", the album opener, but I can't resist these lines:
When you get down
Down to the subatomic part of it
That's when it breaks, you know
That's when it falls apart
That's not just a metaphysical truth, that's a physical truth——we have a pretty clear understanding of how to write equations that describe the nature of the universe at the atomic level and higher, but we're still a long way from understanding how things work at subatomic scales. And I'm a sucker for artists who understand scientific theory.
The first minute is a quiet prologue; the final minute is a messy, noisy epilogue. The real heart of the song is in that middle three minutes, and it might be the best thing British Sea Power have ever recorded.
TV on the Radio——"Lover's Day"
This was by far the most consistent and most accessible record from TV on the Radio, and this song, the album closer, might be the best of the bunch. It's not the best song they've ever written, but it's one of many standout tracks from the album that will now be the first one I recommend to people who have yet to hear this band's unique take on modern rock.
Los Campesinos——"My Year in Lists"
Between the two albums the band released this year, you could almost need a separate top 10 singles list just for Los Campesinos, but given that I'm only going to put one track on this list, "My Year in Lists" seems an appropriately witty choice. But it happens to be one of my favorite tracks as well.
No Age——"Teen Creeps"
The whole album is great, but this one is probably a little closer to my heart than the others. "Things I Did When I Was Dead" is a close second.
of Montreal——"An Eluardian Instance"
Way, way too many choicees from of Montreal for this list. I chose "An Eluardian Instance" because I fell in love with it all over again when I heard Jon Brion's acoustic version, and because, if we lived in a world where is was remotely possible for a band like of Montreal to have a massive chart hit, this would probably be the prime candidate from their most recent album.
The Faint——"Machine in the Ghost"/"Fulcrum and Lever"
This is probably the best pair of back-to-back tracks on any album released this year, and that's one reason these songs end up in the first position. The other is that being in the first position here is kind of a consolation prize for how overlooked this album was on everyone else's top 10 lists; I don't recall seeing it anywhere——not even on the more exhaustive top 50 lists——and it certainly deserved better.
4.9.09
Top 10 albums from 2008, starting from the lowest ranked and ending with the highest:
Cut Copy——In Ghost Colors
This record and M83'sSaturdays=Youth mine the same vein of nostalgia for 80s electronica/postpunk guitar, they both came out around the same time, and they both have some great songs on them, but this one stuck with me more, possibly because Cut Copy were just slightly more slavish to New Order as their primary influence. I'm not officially listing them both at number 10, but really, if you like one, you'll like them both.
The Hold Steady——Stay Positive
Overall I liked this record better than Boys and Girls in America, but it lacked the knockout punch from songs like "Southtown Girls" or "You Can Make Him Like You" (although "Slapped Actress" comes pretty close. Take out "One for the Cutters", "Both Crosses", and "Joke About Jamaica" and sub in "Ask Her for Aderall" and "Two Handed Handshake" from the bonus disc and this record probably moves up a couple spots, but it's still deserving of the top 10.
Paul Westerberg——49:00
This sprawling masterpiece, which Westerberg released as a single track, features almost 45 minutes of stream-of-consciousness songs and song fragments recorded at demo quality, and is the most vibrant work of Westerberg's post-Replacements career. Fans divided it into 23 tracks, some of which were conglomerations of more than one song idea. Unfortunately, you can't buy this record, at least not anymore. After releasing it for 49 cents, the album was mysteriously pulled with no explanation after a couple of weeks.
Speculation places the blame on "Short Cover Medley", which features a snippet of the Beatles' "Hello Goodbye", along with short covers of many other well-known songs——on a follow up single titled "5:05" (which was supposed to bring the 43:55 runtime of 49:00 up to a full 49 minutes), Westerberg rants about lawsuits and being sued. In a better world, Westerberg would re-record the best ideas here as an official release and include as much of 49:00 as was legally allowable as a companion piece, but that seems unlikely at this point.
Tokyo Police Club——Elephant Shell
I had high hopes for this full-length after the band's EP releases, and while no single song here achieves the brilliance of "Citizens of Tomorrow" or "Box", there are few weak tracks, and "Juno" and "Tessellate" are standouts. This record didn't do as well commmercially or critically as I thought it would, but that might be a good thing, giving them a little more time out of the spotlight to firm up their ideas and avoid the sophomore mistakes of a band under a lot of pressure to produce another hit. It would be a real shame if these guys didn't eventually become at least indie famous, if not mainstream famous, but having a lower profile for their next album or two might result in a stronger body of work in the long run.
TV on the Radio——Dear Science
Their best album to date. Maybe missing some of the whimsy from great tracks from earlier in their career, and like most of their albums, it probably would have been stronger if they had cut it by another song or two, but this disc spent a lot of time in my rotation last year.
Death Cab for Cutie——Narrow Stairs
A great return to form for a band I'd almost given up on. A friend told me that this was the first time in the last few albums that the band recorded the tracks live in the studio together instead of everyone recording their parts separately; if that's true, then I highly recommend
you stay with this method from here on out.
No Age——Nouns
In a different year, if I was in a different mood, this album could have been my favorite. I love a lot of the stuff here, but the mood never hit me quite right to get obsessed with it. I have a feeling I'll really fall in love with this sometime in the next couple of years, but for now, this ranking seems about right.
The Faint——Fasciinatiion
My favorite Faint record by far——I have no clue why this didn't do better critcally. I don't recall seeing it on any other year-end lists, which just baffles me. I listened to this on repeat for weeks, and it happens to make a great companion piece to fellow Omaha natives Cursive'sHappy Hollow, which I also spent a lot of time listening to last year (even though it came out in 2006). It's a new direction for them, but it's still the Faint, and they're still just as awesome as you thought they were when you first heard Danse Macabre. Give this a serious chance and you won't be disappointed.
Los Campesinos——Hold On Now, Youngster/We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Not much to say here. Two great batches of songs from one of the most interesting bands to appear on the indie pop scene in the last couple of years. Can't wait to see what they do next.
of Montreal——Skeletal Lamping
I love this album so much that there's almost no need for me to talk about it anymore for regular readers of this site, given that I went through a period for a few weeks earlier this year where I wrote about almost nothing else. I can't explain this music, or even recommend it, but if you get it, you won't need anyone to explain or recommend it to you. There's no one in pop music doing anything nearly as interesting as Kevin Barnes on this record and the two of Montreal full-lengths that preceded it. It's dangerous to make Prince-at-the-height-of-his-powers parallels, but if anyone is worthy of such a comparison, it's Kevin Barnes.
4.10.09
I had my first experience with Apple's new variable pricing structure for iTunes music store tracks, and I'm a little concerned. My understanding was that they would only price the hottest singles at the new highest price point, $1.29, while the vast majority of songs would still be at the $.99 price and some older back catalog stuff would be at $.69. But on the first thing I went to buy after the new prices went into effect, Death Cab for Cutie'sThe Open Door EP, each song was priced at the new $1.29 level, and none of them are really meant to be singles.
The singles chart looks how I expected it——all but three of the top seven are at the $1.29 price point, and two of those three tracks are from Miley Cyrus. Looking at a few other albums on the iTunes top 10, maybe I just got unlucky——only three other records had individual songs priced at the $1.29 level, and you could get everything at $.99 or less per song buy purchasing the album as a whole (including the Death Cab EP).
But I don't like that Apple caved the record industry on this one (most of iTunes competitors immediately followed suit once the changes went live on the iTunes store), because if the record executives have shown anything, it's that they're too stupid and greedy to avoid killing their own industry, and I don't know anyone dumb enough to have faith that, in short order, all new releases will be priced at $1.29 per song, and they'll probably look to jack up the whole album price from the more or less standard $9.99 to something closer to the price of a CD, which means that either 1) people will go back to buying CDs, because why not have a permanent copy on physical media at higher quality if you're going to pay the same price or 2) people who have been persuaded to download music through legal channels like iTunes will return to stealing it because it the price point has now gotten high enough again that they're willing to take that risk.
Really, if the record companies wanted to have a show of good faith with their customers and demonstrate that they understand the need to change their business practices to fit with what their consumers want and the new technologies that save the labels enormous amounts of money (there are no manufacturing or distribution costs for downloads compared to CDs), they should have dropped the price of individual tracks to $.50 and the price of albums to $4.99. That would have converted a lot of physical media holdouts like me, and also likely convinced a bunch of the illegal downloaders to download legally because the cost was no longer significant. And it would have led to a huge upswing in sales among those two groups and existing iTunes customers who had already bought into the download model.
Instead, they're going to keep physical media diehards firmly encamped where they are, push a lot of people who were previous customers of the iTunes store back to BitTorrent, and further amplify their negative image as clueless, arrogant hogs who are determined to suck every last drop of blood from artists and customers even though they will destroy their industry and livelihood in the process.
4.13.09
"Talking Bird" was one of my least favorite tracks from Death Cab for Cutie's otherwise much-loved Narrow Stairs, but the demo version of the song on their new EP of Stairs leftovers, The Open Door, is growing on me. It's very stripped down, with just Ben Gibbard's quiet, tremulous voice and what sounds like a ukulele for accompaniment, and it makes for a much stronger track than the polished studio version.
The rest of the EP is pretty good, too——you can understand why some of the tracks weren't selected for inclusion on Narrow Stairs, but there's no reason for them not to be part of the band's catalog. It reminds me a bit of the Forbidden Love EP, a companion piece to The Photo Album, only the tracks here are on average stronger than the tracks on that earlier EP (although "Photobooth", the lead track from Forbidden Love, is one of my favorite Death Cab songs ever).
4.14.09
Got some very good news in the Decemberists email newsletter today: Robyn Hitchcock is going to be opening a few dates on their upcoming tour, including the Colubmia performance that we'll be attending. This isn't some random pairing, either——not only did Hitchcock contribute some guitar work to a track on the Decemberists' latest album, The Hazards of Love, but Colin Meloy also sings vocals on a song from Hitchcock's recent release, Goodnight Oslo. In addition, Hitchcock's backing band, the Venus 3, is composed entirely of members of the Minus 5 (one of whom, Peter Buck, you might have heard of from his other band, R.E.M.), and Colin contributed lead vocals to a track from that group's last record. So these guys have all worked together on various projects over the past few years, and there's clearly a desire to continue those collaborative efforts in the future.
I've seen Hitchcock in concert three times before, and each show was memorable. The first time, at a small theater in Raleigh that was across the street from my grandmother's Baptist church, he came down with laryngitis the day before the show and had to cancel. Ever the trooper, he still came out and performed three acoustic songs, singing in barely more than a whisper, and then hung out in the lobby to sign autographs and chat with friends. Peter Buck was there as a special guest that night, and he joined Hitchcock in the meet and greet.
The second time I saw him was in the same theater for the make-up date for the canceled show. Poi Dog Pondering opened for him, and Hitchcock was in fine form, rambling through weird little stories between songs that are a hallmark of his live show. I remember some sort of costumed character was part of the show, and also the trumpeter for Poi Dog joining Hitchcock's band for "Veins of the Queen", but not much else specifically except that it was a great show.
The final show was an intimate, seated acoustic performance at the Cat's Cradle in support of his Eye record. Hitchcock's rapport with the audience was amazing, and with his trademark stories and switching up of lyrics, the show was more like an extended performance piece than a simple concert.
I don't know why I haven't made attempts to see Hitchcock in the years since (the last show I saw was more than 15 years ago), but I'm looking forward to seeing him again, even in the context of an outdoor amphitheater. It certainly helps that our tickets for this show are only seven rows back, so that should help make it feel more intimate, but I'm sure that Hitchcock will find a way to overcome the challenges of the venue. A performer and songwriter with his gifts can't help but fill the stage with his presence.
4.15.09
Picked up some new discs yesterday: Yeah Yeah Yeah'sIt's Blitz!, Peter Bjorn and John'sLiving Thing, and the Thermals' Now We Can See. Haven't had a chance to listen to any of them in depth yet, but intitial impressions: Living Thing is a real departure from Writer's Block, but that might be okay; It's Blitz! is actually pretty mellow, but I really like it so far; and Now We Can See is fast on its way to becoming my favorite release so far this year.
4.16.09 The Black Lips have moments in almost every song that make me swoon, but they are rarely able to sustain that feeling for the entire track. I think if I was in a little different mood, or if I sit and listened to nothing but them very intently for a couple of weeks, I'd get into obsessive mode about them, but for now, they're competing with a lot of other good stuff in my playlist, and those little moments are likely going to be what defines them for me for a while.
4.17.09
Not that I ever really fell out of love with the Yeah Yeah Yeah'sKaren O., but It's Blitz! makes me fall in love with her all over again. This record has a pretty different sound than their earlier releases (even though there were hints of this direction on Show Your Bones), and there are moments when, if I didn't already know it was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and you asked me to identify the artist, they would be pretty low on my list of guesses, but despite its title, it's generally a very calming record, and I need some peaceful influences in my life right now.
4.20.09
Lyrics I never thought I'd hear in a Peter Bjorn and John song:
Hey
Shut the fuck up boy
You are starting to piss me off
4.21.09 Art Brut vs. Satan is out today and I don't know if I'm going to have time to hit a record store until sometime next week. I am so tempted to download this one...
4.22.09
I love of Montreal so much that I'm seriously considering buying MGMT's record simply because of their relationship with of Montreal (Kevin Barnes is collaborating with a member of MGMT on a side project and the band opened for of Montreal on their 2007 tour) and the aping of some of of Montreal's musical stylings. I think I'm going to have to fall in love with at least one of their songs first, but "Time to Pretend" is starting to dig its hooks in pretty good, so it might just be a matter of time.
4.23.09
I keep listening to the samples from the new PJ Harvey record, trying to convince myself to buy it, but I don't think I'm going to. I still more or less revere her, and I'd go see her live in a heartbeat, but I'm not sure if there will be enough brilliant moments on this record to be worth the money and time it will take to give it a serious listen.
4.24.09
Pretty disappointed in the new Peter Bjorn and John. I keep looking for the innocent charm of Writer's Block, and it's just nowhere to be found. There are a couple of decent songs, but nothing close to "Amsterdam" (my favorite song of theirs by far) or
even "Up Against the Wall". The title track is probably the best of the bunch, and that's mostly because of the weird way it reminds me of Paul Simon'sGraceland.
4.27.09
The iTunes recommendation system really, really wants me to like Deerhunter. But so far I don't, at least not in a consistent, listen-to-an-album-all-the-way-through kind of way.
4.28.09
Last.fm is supposed to post a new and much improved version of their desktop client for Macs sometime in the next couple of weeks (at least if the notes in their changelog are to be believed), and I hope if nothing else it addresses the issue of Last.fm recording songs in your tracks played list twice even though you've only listened to them once. For obsessive people like me, it's maddening; if the new version does correct this, I'm tempted to wipe my whole history and let Last.fm rebuild it from scratch from the more accurate iTunes library data.
4.29.09
After receiving an email from a friend about being obsessed with MGMT for a bit, my purchase of their debut CD is pretty much a done deal.
He also pointed out that I didn't have to limit myself to listening to clips on songs on iTunes; they have their entire album posted on their web site. It's a Flash player that you have to tend to, and the inefficiency of Flash code on the Mac means it starts to eat up a lot of resources in my browser after a while, but I've listened to it a couple of times and it's making its mark.
4.30.09 Wilco have posted a new song to their web site: "The Jolly Banker", a Woody Guthrie cover. It's pretty blah——I was a big fan of the first Mermaid Avenue collaboration with Billy Bragg where Wilco and Bragg wrote new music to go with some of Guthrie's unpublished lyrics, but Volume 2 was mostly a waste of time, and this song would fit solidly in that batch (if it was even good enough to be included at all). Wilco fans are going to download it anyway, but I predict that, like me, they'll listen once or twice and then never again.
