1. Ida Maria: "Oh My God" If I were to create something as wretchedly passe as a best album list, Ida Maria's Fortress Round My Heart would probably sit atop of it. Here's what I said in my review:
Instead, think about the good things here: the way "Queen of the World" sounds like "Vertigo" by The Libertines, or "Stella" rips off an old Motown track, or how "Oh My God" is an absolute classic brimming with barely concealed sexual energy. Ida Maria's got charisma, man, and if you can't handle that, then take your Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer records and fuck off.
2. Supergrass: "Diamond Hoo Ha Man" In all honesty, I haven't had much time for Supergrass albums since 2000's uneven self-titled effort. In 2008, however, I did have time for this infectious riff-based rocker and its hilarious accompanying video.
3. Mystery Jets--Half in Love with Elizabeth 21 was one of the albums I played to death earlier in the year but sort of forgot about as time went on. Returning to it now, I think it holds up. Here's what I said in my original review:
To be sure, on "Twenty One", the Mystery Jets have developed both as songwriters and musicians. The question is whether they're quite done evolving. Lead-off single "Young Love" has all the makings of a classic, an odd jangly little tune that's so simple even a child could sing it: 'One night of love, nothing more nothing less; one night of love left my bed in a mess. Is that you on the bus? Is that you on the train? You wrote your number on my hand and it came off in the rain.' Yes, guest singer Laura Marling's reformed Eliza Doolittle crooning seems a bit overdone, but that's a small complaint. Elsewhere, 80s homage "Two Doors Down" has a chorus that's pure Whitney Houston (pre-Bobby Brown) and a closing sax solo that Huey Lewis would trade his best beige blazer for.
"Flakes", given away as free download at the end of 2007, is "Earth Angel" on acid. It's a genuinely affecting ode to lost love and misspent youth. "Behind the Bunhouse" makes fine use of techniques perfected by The Smiths like arpeggiated guitar and that incessant shuffling beat. There's a distinct indie-disco vibe to "Half In Love with Elizabeth", the album's highlight
4. Mike Bones--What I Have Left I don't know much about Mike Bones, and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure I want to know more. Some artists are best presented in single servings, and I get the feeling that if I heard tracks besides "What I Have Left" I might be disappointed. Over the course of the song, the hopeful, rollicking music builds to a powerful crescendo, overtaking Bones' guilt-wracked lyrics and weary vocals. Powerful stuff.
5. The Veils--The House She Lived In (Live)Ok, I'll admit to a bit of cheating here. This is a 2007 live version of a song that will most likely be released in 2009. Split the difference and you get 2008, right? I had to include this if only because this was my most played track of the year. And because I interviewed Finn:
DF: Nux Vomica had some of the poppiest music you've ever produced ("Advice"), while at the same time containing some of the darkest ("Jesus for the Jugular"). How do you reconcile those two moods?
F: We put them on the same album, that's about as much reconciling as was necessary. Too many records just sounds like 10 slightly different versions of the same song to me, I'm a strong believer in The Album. You have such opportunity to bring together all the greatest elements of film and art and literature and it seems a shame to waste that - a great album can be Kubrick, Hemingway, Carravagio, The Wire and The Stones all at once and that is such an extraordinary thing.
In October I saw the Veils perform at Chicago's Lakeshore Theater. It was a fun show, and I've never seen Finn so loose with the crowd, but really it felt like more of a formal rehearsal of new material than a proper concert. Their third album should finally establish them as a top-tier group, so keep an eye out for them.
6. Glasvegas--Please Come Back Home As an early advocate for Glasvegas, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by their self-titled debut. Whereas their early recordings had a sort of rough beauty to them, possessing the sort of sound you get when big ambitions collide with modest means, I felt the record was over-produced. My review of the LP, which never saw the light of day, even compared the album version of "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry" to a power ballad by Poison. The whole thing felt short on tunes and long on major-label sonic affectations.
Over time though, my disillusionment slowly eroded, and I found myself reevaluating the album on its merits. Their recently released Christmas album, from which "Please Come Back Home" is taken, scored a few points in my book as well.
7. Sune Rose Wagner--Hvad Der Sker Better known as one half of The Raveonettes, Sune Rose Wagner quietly released his Danish-language solo album Sune Rose Wagner in December. It seems like he's perfectly content to let it fly under the radar, which is shame, because it's really, really good. Coming off like a less kitschy Raveonettes, it wears its influences (50's music, Sonic Youth, The Smiths) on its sleeve. In a year when The Raveonettes released a series of largely forgettable EPs, those looking for a Wagner fix would be wise to seek this out.
8. The Radio Dept.--Freddie and the Trojan Horse At the risk of this turning into one long mea culpa, Radio Dept. were another band that disappointed me with a record, their sophomore effort Pet Grief, but then slowly worked their way back into my good graces. This comeback single certainly didn't hurt. Returning to some of the guitar work that made debut Lesser Matters such a success, but with their fondness for drum machines and The Pet Shop Boys firmly intact, the Radio Dept. gang raised hopes for their third album.
9. The Notwist--Good Lies Although it's true that The Notwist's The Devil, You + Me never captivated me like Neon Golden did, it's still true that this it was a fine record. Here's what I said in my review:
Listeners have waited six years for "The Devil, You + Me", and although it's not entirely clear what took them so long, there are plenty of fine moments on this record. Maybe expectations were simply too high, but what they've basically given us is "Neon Golden 2". Opener "Good Lies" is fantastic, with a circular melody repeating and reinforcing the key lyric: "Let's just imitate the real until we find a better one". Being German, Acker's unusual delivery gives lyrics that might sound cliche coming from a native speaker a decidedly uncanny quality . "Good Lies" also reveals the band's new secret weapon: the acoustic guitar. Whether it's the descending chords in that track, the Teutonic Bossa Nova of "Gloomy Planets", or the space-age blues of "Gone Gone Gone", this post-modern band using the most traditional of instruments results in added warmth and texture.
10. Sigur Ros--Med Sud I Eyrum Sigur Ros are a perennial favorite for me, and this year was no exception. Here's a bit from my review of Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust:
Sigur Ros' music was always a distillation of more complicated acts: Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor, The Cocteau Twins, et al. "Hljómalind" and much of Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust are a distillation of that distillation. Straight-forward arrangements, pretty melodies, luscious string tones. Nothing jarring. Perfectly pleasant...
Opener and preview track "Gobbledigook" is a bit of a red herring--it's leaden acoustics and dull melody don't really do justice to the rest of the album. Tracks 2 and 4 ("Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur" and "Vid Spilum Endalaust") are like the best moments of Takk edited down to four and 3 and a half minutes respectively. Elsewhere on the record, Sigur Ros tread familiar ground. A widescreen epic like "Festival" would not feel out of place on previous records.
So try as I might to disown them for cozying up to the Starbucks/Banana Republic set, I have to admit that I still love Sigur Ros' music. Rumors of a drastic change in sound have been greatly exaggerated; what we're presented with is the essence of the band's music and the continuation of an already impressive winning streak.
Vessels: "Walking Through Walls" Vessels' "Yuki" made my Best of 2007 list for good reason: their immaculate sense of texture and atmosphere was pretty much the only game in town. The same goes for "Walking Through Walls", taken from the band's debut album White Fields and Open Devices. In a transition year for mainstream rock, this sounded like nothing else.
Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy head on a "Journey to the East" for BBC Sport this summer.
This animated sequence, based on the classical Chinese novel, "Journey to the West", has been produced by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the men behind virtual band Gorillaz.
It will feature on TV, radio, web and mobile, introducing coverage of the Games on BBC Sport - the Olympic broadcaster in the UK.
Here's a cool development: Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth fame played the 'new' Velvet Underground song, "I'm Not a Young Man Anymore" at South by Southwest. The song was originally brought to wider attention on this very blog in February. You have to love technology.
Tour Dates: Apr 27 2008 8:00P Coachella Festival, Mojave Tent (Time TBD) Indio, California May 26 2008 8:00P Neumo’s Seattle, Washington May 27 2008 8:00P Wonder Ballroom Portland, Oregon May 29 2008 8:00P The Fillmore San Francisco, California May 30 2008 8:00P Casbah San Diego, California May 31 2008 8:00P Music Box at the Henry Fonda Hollywood, California Jun 3 2008 9:00P Emo’s (on sale 3/28 @ noon CST) Austin, Texas Jun 5 2008 8:00P The Masquerade Atlanta, Georgia Jun 6 2008 8:00P Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, North Carolina Jun 7 2008 8:00P Theatre of Living Arts Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Jun 8 2008 8:00P 930 Club District of Columbia, Washington DC Jun 10 2008 8:00P Paradise Club (on sale 3/29 @ noon EST) Boston, Massachusetts Jun 11 2008 8:30P Bowery Ballroom New York, New York Jun 12 2008 8:00P Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York Jun 13 2008 8:00P Lee’s Palace Toronto, Ontario Jun 14 2008 8:00P Metro Chicago, Illinois
In indie rock, there is a perpetual false choice: innovate or write a song that people can actually sing along to. Blame it on The Beatles: while they seemed capable of doing both, bands with lesser talent have since felt compelled to pick sides. Thus from the same record label in the same decade you had a band like Ride, heavy on the innovation but lacking in the memorable tunes department, alongside Oasis, a band forever doomed to share royalties from their greatest hits with songwriters from the 60s and 70s.
There's no mistaking there's something a bit classic about Ida Maria's "Stella". Now perhaps, as astute youtube commentators have pointed out, that's due to its similarity to "Jimmy Mack" by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. "Stella"'s unabased Motown influences make the song instantly recognizable, and even more impressive than the band's formidable single, "Oh My God". And while it's short on groundbreaking sounds, "Stella" will no doubt dig itself into your subconscious by the second listen. Definitely worth tracking down.
Getting into an artist, especially an established one, is no easy task. There's often a daunting amount of material to sift through, along with the possibility of being called a bandwagon jumper. With this feature, I'll try to introduce you to the best aspects of an artist, with the hope that you'll hear something you like.
Pulp are (were): Jarvis Cocker (vocals) Candida Doyle (keyboard) Mark Webber (guitar) Steve Mackey (bass) Russell Senior (guitar/violin) Nick Banks (drums)
1. Common People Truth be told, a "10-Song Introduction" to Pulp is a bit unnecessary given the undeniable brilliance of their released singles. The compilation "Hits" collects these singles into one incredible package and is a great place to start for any aspiring Pulp fan. Standing at the forefront of those singles is "Common People", which is not unlike "Like a Rolling Stone" in several ways--it's simultaneously one of the groups's best and most well known songs, and it tackles potent issues of class and identity:
Rent a flat above a shop, cut your hair and get a job. Smoke some fags and play some pool, pretend you never went to school. But still you'll never get it right 'cos when you're laid in bed at night watching roaches climb the wall If you call your Dad he could stop it all.
Besides being a massive tune, the ability of people to relate to the story of an upper-class girl "slumming it" at an English art school is what made this a Britpop anthem. But the idea of class is not only a European concern--contrary to what American politicians might have you believe. As culture and the arts increasingly become an elites-only game in the US, Jarvis Cocker's diatribe against a posh girl from Greece only becomes more relevant.
2. Disco 2000 Probably Pulp's second most recognizable song, this is a wistful, upbeat tale of unrequited love and nostalgia. Behind the narrator's longing is a deep sadness and even desperation. Cocker sings about how he and a girl lived very different lives--she was the beautiful girl down the street and he was the awkward kid who knew her through family. What's even sadder is how Cocker still longs for her even as a grown man:
What are you doing Sunday, baby? Would you like to come and meet me, maybe? You can even bring your baby.
This being Pulp, these stalker-ish sentiments are bathed in the warm glow of "Gloria"-aping pop, underpinned by a (what else) disco beat. On paper, it sounds terrible. Coming through one's speakers, however, it's a totally different animal: It's the kind of absurd amalgamation that only Pulp in their golden period were capable of.
3. I Spy A lot of people have difficult childhoods. They live in fear and wallow in high school obscurity, seeing their obvious wit and brilliance go unnoticed by the pretty girl who is more interested in the school soccer star. Most of those people grow up and move on. Not Jarvis--he gets revenge.
But we're not talking revenge in the angst-y, Marilyn Manson/Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" sense of the word. No, Jarvis knows that the best revenge is returning to that small town and seducing that pretty girl (now middle aged) while the former soccer star (now fat and balding) is away at his office job:
You see you should take me seriously. Very seriously indeed. Cause I've been sleeping with your wife for the past sixteen weeks, smoking your cigarettes, drinking your brandy, messing up the bed that you chose together. And in all that time I just wanted you to come home unexpectedly one afternoon, and catch us at it in the front room. You see I spy for a living, and I specialise in revenge, on taking the things I know will cause you pain. I can't help it, I was dragged up. My favourite parks are car parks, grass is something you smoke, birds are something you shag. Take your "Year in Provence" and shove it up your arse.
4. A Little Soul Another Pulp concoction of seemingly disparate elements--John Cougar Mellencamp guitar, lyrics about a dad telling his young son not to become a depraved bastard like him--that the band turns into a true thing of beauty. On the album "This is Hardcore", Jarvis has several tearjerker lines, but none as heartbreaking as this:
You look like me but you're not like me I know. I had one, two, three, four shots of happiness. I look like a big man but I've only got a little soul.
5. This is Hardcore Late-period Britpop saw a host of troubling musical developments as artists tried to keep things fresh, one primary tactic being the introduction of long songs. The longer, the more poignant, they would have us believe. "This is Hardcore", however, is one of the few diamonds in that rough. Yes it's long, but it's long for a reason. Jarvis' epic analogy of fame and porn, accompanied by an excellent video, made this one of the best songs of the late 90s.
6. Razzmatazz Nobody does the scorned lover routine quite like Jarvis. In his bitterness, he's not beyond waiting months or even years to see that ex-girlfriend lose her looks and fall on hard times. Come on, it doesn't get more petty than this:
You started getting fatter three weeks after I left you Now you're going with some kid looks like some bad comedian Are you gonna go out, are you sitting at home eating boxes of Milk Tray? Watch TV on your own, aren't you the one with your razzmatazz and your nights on the town? Oh-oh-oh And your father wants to help you doesn't he babe? But your mother wants to put you away Now no-one's gonna care if you don't call them when you said And he's not coming round tonight to try and talk you into bed And all those stupid little things they ain't working Oh they aren't working at all
7. Babies While this is far from this reviewer's favorite Pulp song, no introduction would be complete without it. "Babies" is Jarvis in storytelling mode, and represents perhaps the most engaging narrative he's ever committed to tape. The subject matter would seem trivial, if not downright sleazy: a teenage Jarvis watching his girlfriend's older sister make it with boys in her room. But Jarvis pulls the whole story off with wit and yes, innocence ("I only went with her 'cause she looks like you") so that he comes off as more endearing than perverted. Live versions of this song were often prefaced with one of Jarvis' lengthy monologues--an underrated aspect of Pulp's appeal as a live act.
8. Live Bed Show Like "I Spy", this song represents the darker side of Pulp's defining album "Different Class", both musically and thematically. As Russell and Candida set a gloomy stage behind him, Jarvis sings about love gone wrong, cleverly wrapping the story around the couple's bed:
She doesn't have to go to work, but she doesn't want to stay in bed, cos it's changed from something comfortable, to something else instead.
9. Dishes According to Jarvis, he wrote this song after hearing the theory that men raised in the West go through a mid-life crisis at 33 because they realize they won't be Christ. Originally seeming like little more than an afterthought than a full-fledged song, "Dishes" blossoms into a beautiful climax:
And aren't you happy just to be alive? Anything's possible. You've got no Cross to bear tonight. No not tonight. No not tonight.
10. Sunrise With Pulp having lost a good deal of their commercial mojo with "This is Hardcore", the British press falsely assumed that the band had lost most of their creative fire as well. That couldn't be farther from the truth: the band's final effort, "We Love Life", is remarkably consistent and just as artistically bold as its predecessors. Produced by legendary cult crooner Scott Walker, the album is full of big booming percussion and has a more acoustic feel than previous Pulp records. The album's closer, and high-point, is "Sunrise", an admission from Jarvis that he has squandered his youth:
I used to hate the sun because it shone on everything I'd done. Made me feel that all that I had done was overfill the ashtray of my life.
It ends with a dizzying guitar freak-out led by Mark Webber and sometimes guest guitarist (and now bona fide solo artist) Richard Hawley. It's an exhilarating final glimpse of a band frequently misunderstood, yet unfailingly brilliant.
Setlist: '15 Step' 'Bodysnatchers' 'Nude' 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi' 'All I Need' 'Faust Arp' 'Reckoner' 'House Of Cards' 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place' 'Videotape' 'Up On The Ladder' 'You And Whose Army?' 'The National Anthem' 'My Iron Lung' 'The Bends'
Here were Jake Drake's favorite records in 2007. You can also see the list on his site, The American Underground [Link].
#1 (By a landslide): VietNam- "VietNam"
Dr Dog-"We All Belong" Baby Shambles-"Shotter's Nation" Band Of Horses-"Cease To Begin" Devendra Banhart- "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Mountain" LCD Soundsytem -"Sound of Silver" PJ Harvey -"White Chalk"
The Good The Bad and The Queen -"The Good The Bad and The Queen"
The Willowz- "Chautauqua" The Long Blondes -"Someone To Drive You Home" The Hives -"The Black and White Album" Arcade Fire -"Neon Bible" Delta Spirit-"Ode To Sunshine"
The Guardian Writes: From Blur bassist to farmer, Alex James has now turned to his first love - cheese. Watch the trailer and subscribe below to our free vodcasts to follow him on his voyage of cheesemaking discovery...
What did the BBC ever do to Win Butler? At the 3:49 mark of this video, Win smashes the camera with his guitar. This could be even more painful to watch than his pathetic guitar smashing on SNL. What could be the reason for such irrational behavior?
a) He finally realized he recorded a crap second album b) He's trying to escape his posh roots with pitiful acts of rebellion c) He has no sense of humor d) All of the above
Setlist: Brown Sugar Bitch Gimmie Shelter Dead Flowers Happy Tumbling Dice Love in Vain Sweet Virginia You Can't Always Get What You Want All Down the Line Midnight Rambler Bye Bye Johnny Rip This Joint Jumping Jack Flash Street Fighting Man
Disclaimer:
Commercially available MP3s are 64 kbps and for word-of-mouth purposes only. If you like any of the music featured here, please purchase it to support the artist and enjoy higher quality audio. If you are an artist or represent an artist and would like a file removed, please contact me. If you are a website owner, please link to posts, not MP3s. All written material Copyright 2006-2009 Mike Kegler, unless otherwise noted.