Great Music in '10

[nlanza]

Why didn't any of you people tell me about The Break?

Most of Midnight Oil, the bassist from the Violent Femmes, and a big pile of instrumental surf rock. I'm so happy now.

[triggercut]

Ok, let's talk Hindi Rock.

I'm sort of kidding, but that's what Montreal multi-instrumentalist Rishi Dhir occasionally jokingly refers to his music as. Rishi first came to my attention playing sitar, guitar, bass, and keys in The High Dials, a band I've made no secret about being a total fanboy of.

His new band is called The Elephant Stone. They're absolutely fan-damn-tastic. Here, let's start off with a song that just screams sunny Sunday afternoons:

"Strangers"

I mean, if you were going to teach guitar-pop theory, you could just use that song as exhibit A on how to do everything right.

That song is on the new Elephant Stone EP, called "Glass Box". That song, along with "Yesterday's Gurl" (which has an amazingly sneaky hook in the chorus) makes it worth investigating.

And if you dig that, you oughta check out The Elephant Stone's 2009 album, The Seven Seas, which goes from straight-ahead Mancunian-sounding guitar jangle through a steady progression of adding more and more interesting ideas as each song goes by. Here's the cliff's notes on that progression:

"Bombs Bomb Away" (What a glorious, awesome, shimmery cool song, especially when they do the key change the last time through the chorus)

After "Bombs", the album gets more layered....and here's the title track, the fourth song in:
"Seven Seas" (Ok, sure, it nicks "Across The Universe", but still, here comes the sitar baby!)

And here's the album closer. Go grab a bong, we'll wait. Ready?

"Don't You Know". That right there is seven and one-half minutes of pure unadulterated awesomeness.

Best of all, you can listen to both the full lp from last year and this year's new ep right here:

http://www.elephantstonemusic.com/music_listen/

[Shadari]

All IMO, of course: Last song was VERY good, the rest were fairly dull.

[Matt Bowyer]

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but I just grabbed Christopher Tin's "Calling All Dawns" and it's freaking brilliant. He's the Civilization IV composer, and I love Baba Yetu more than almost any other piece of game music out there. This entire album is just amazing.

[tiohn]

There's a new recording of Morton Feldman's Trio out on Mode Records. It's pretty incredible.

[rrmorton]

Really digging that Elephant Stone!

[rrmorton]

Lately I've been listening to...



Light Pollution APPARITIONS


The Flaming Lips EMBRYONIC



Wild Nothing GEMINI

[PeterGinsberg]

"Bombs Bomb Away" (What a glorious, awesome, shimmery cool song, especially when they do the key change the last time through the chorus)

I like this! I'm reminded of early records by The Lilys on this track in particular.

Also, given the sound, surely the band namesake is this, no?

[triggercut]

I like this! I'm reminded of early records by The Lilys on this track in particular.

Also, given the sound, surely the band namesake is this, no?

Absolutely. Rishi's never been shy about his adoration of Madchester rock from that era. And absolutely well-spotted on the Lilys influence as well; the High Dials have covered them in the past and played a few gigs with them as well.

[madkevin]

First TFC impressions: Gerry Love's songs ("Baby Lee" and "Into The City") are freaking great. Norm starts off rough, but "Dark Clouds" is lovely (thanks, well, dammit, in large portion to Gerry's high harmonies, although the melody's quite lovely on its own.)

"Baby Lee" is actually a Norman Blake composition, according to the liner notes anyway. They trade off Gerard / Norman / Raymond throughout the record.

I liked Man Made quite a bit, but I'm madly in love with Shadows. Norman's "When I Still Have Thee" completely kicks my ass*, and I love the mini guitar workout that closes out "The Back Of My Mind".

It's a pity they only crank out one of these records every five years or so, but you can't fault their quality control.

* Great lyrics too: "The Rolling Stones wrote a song for me / it's a minor song in a major key."

[rrmorton]

SHADOWS has been growing on me in a big way. I like it way better than MAN MADE.

I bought tickets for Teenage Fanclub and Belle & Sebastian playing outside in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Sept. 30. Can't wait for that one.

[spacerat]

SHADOWS has been growing on me in a big way. I like it way better than MAN MADE.

I bought tickets for Teenage Fanclub and Belle & Sebastian playing outside in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Sept. 30. Can't wait for that one.

Woot for Belle & Sebastian!
I got my tickets for the Boston show in October (got 'em for Arcade Fire as well). Can't wait to hear what they came up with after the all the years since the Life Pursuit.

[triggercut]

So two years ago, Paul Weller puts out 22 Dreams, with tons of attendant hype and adulation....and I've gotta admit, that disc did very little for me. I kept trying to get it, kept trying to scale that massive mountain of a record, kept getting knocked back. I admired what he was doing--or trying to do--but nothing on that record ever, ever clicked for me.

...And so back in April, our Modfather puts out a new album called Wake Up The Nation, and I couldn't be bothered to even grab an import copy. Sure, it got great, even stellar reviews across the pond, but so did that previous record and I wasn't going to be convinced, even if old Jam-mate Bruce Foxton was in the credits and playing on a few songs, and even if right next to him was Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine. Album finally came out here stateside earlier this month, and I picked it up, dutifully loaded it onto my ipod, and then never listened to it. Just couldn't find the time.

Started giving it a listen for realsies last week, and god fucking dammit if Weller didn't just go back to kicking ass again. Part of what helps is that if he's being every bit as eclectic and ambitious as he was on 22 Dreams, he's also being concise. Wake Up The Nation is 16 songs in under 40 minutes. The other thing that helps is that Weller's apparently been listening to his own back catalog, because this new disc sounds like nothing so much as the logical successor to The Jam's The Gift.

In other words--I still so totally want to be Paul Weller when I grow up.

[CSL]

Noticed that the Gaslight Anthem had a new album out and grabbed it. What
an excellent step forward. While it might not have the hits like the 59 sound it has a better overall flow, better
writing, etc just a much better all around effort by
the group.

[triggercut]

So yeah, two weeks ago Morton posts three disturbingly similar aphasic pictures (one with bonus stigmata!). While Light Pollution is seeming like something I'll want to listen to some more, right now of those three Wild Nothing is the one that's totally taking over my current listening time. "Chinatown" especially sounds like some great lost Creation records track from 1987.

[Jazar]

To quote an amazon Review: Shady's Back. Tell a Friend.

If you've ever liked Eminem before, his latest album Recovery is a much appreciated return to form. No silly voices just raw emotion and phat hooks.

[Rightbug]

Noticed that the Gaslight Anthem had a new album out and grabbed it. What
an excellent step forward. While it might not have the hits like the 59 sound it has a better overall flow, better
writing, etc just a much better all around effort by
the group.

Yes, I'm really loving this album. Spirit of Jazz is a highlight but the whole thing is great.

Does anyone here like Delta Spirit? I'd never heard them before but I'm enjoying their new album, History From Below.

[rrmorton]

I posted those covers mainly for the sight gag, but yeah, Wild Nothing is pretty cool stuff. Especially for those of us who were around when the 80s revival was simply known as the 80s. :D

Here's their myspace page where you can listen to that song Chinatown (among others).

I've got to try out that Paul Weller disc. Lately I find myself doing what you describe with far too many new albums. I need a week of dedicated listening time just to catch up.

[triggercut]

So the knock on The Len Price 3--if there's any--is that, perhaps more than any other band, they're beholden to their influences, even if they're imitating brilliantly.

If they ever breakout of obscurity, here's the moment when they went from tributing the Kinks and Ray Davies and stepped up right alongside them. Great, great song, the goofiness of the video belying the sadness of the lyric.

[Incendiary Lemon]

Love, love, that song.

[spacerat]

Noticed that the Gaslight Anthem had a new album out and grabbed it. What
an excellent step forward. While it might not have the hits like the 59 sound it has a better overall flow, better
writing, etc just a much better all around effort by
the group.

I've recently gotten into Gaslight Anthem, mainly because of this clip:
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/musicvideo...-live-columbia

Normally I don't care much for random one-off duets like this, but I thought Springsteen and the Gaslight dude really sounded great together.

Anyway that video was enough for me to get American Slang and 59 Sound, which I'm enjoying. I kind of wish they had piano or keyboard player in the band though. Somehow it feels like they could use a fuller sound. Maybe thats me just wishing they sounded more like the E Street Band.

[nlanza]

If they ever breakout of obscurity, here's the moment when they went from tributing the Kinks and Ray Davies and stepped up right alongside them. Great, great song, the goofiness of the video belying the sadness of the lyric.

Wow, that's an awesome song. I may need to pick up the album.

[rrmorton]

Yep.

Song just ended. I think I'll fire it up again!

[triggercut]

From the ashes of The Tyde and Beechwood Sparks comes a new project for these fellows, this time recording as The Painted Hills. Their debut disc sounds fantastic--kinda like the Rain Parade with a little bit of a country-ish twang.

http://www.myspace.com/bolerobolero

Oh yeah, so this dropped back in April and I bought it and (sheepish grin) didn't listen to the damn thing. As in "not once". Such is the nature of digital subscription music listening, I suppose. My buddy Steve emailed me a handful of tracks to whet my appetite, I noticed it was on Emusic a few months ago and grabbed it with a bunch of other stuff...and forgot all about it.

First listen through: I'm digging it. Very, very Rain Parade, except when its being very, very Dream Syndicate. I'm not sure this is anywhere near a best of the year type effort (that mid-tempo swirl got fatiguing with Rain Parade, and I think it'll be fatiguing here too), but it sounds pretty damn good in small doses.

Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/bolerobolero

[rrmorton]

Oh, right! Forgot about that one. Thanks for re-mentioning it. I see Amie Street has it for $3.27. For that price, I'm definitely in the mood for an emergency third rail power trip.

[kerzain]

Here's a link to one of the songs from Mastodon's Jonah Hex soundtrack/E.P. that goes on sale this coming Tuesday. The song is called Indian Theme. It, like the rest of the E.P., is an instrumental.

[Papageno]

Has no one else here been rocking out to Devo's new album Something for Everybody? For shame. Maybe only us oldsters can appreciate Devo these days.

[Omniscia]

Last.fm tells me there's a new Stanley Clarke album out. Anyone hear it yet?

[CSL]

I've recently gotten into Gaslight Anthem, mainly because of this clip:
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/musicvideo...-live-columbia

Normally I don't care much for random one-off duets like this, but I thought Springsteen and the Gaslight dude really sounded great together.

Anyway that video was enough for me to get American Slang and 59 Sound, which I'm enjoying. I kind of wish they had piano or keyboard player in the band though. Somehow it feels like they could use a fuller sound. Maybe thats me just wishing they sounded more like the E Street Band.

Glad you posted that link. I hadn't ever really listened to any Bruce Springsteen and he's scratching an itch I never knew I had.

[triggercut]

This is the band Panic At! The Disco (girls, did I put the exclamation point in the right spot there?):



If that picture doesn't say "This band are awful, and in a grab-you-by-the-collar-and-yell-AWFUL-in your-face-way-awful" then I don't know what does. Holy crap. It's like emo exploded all over the damn place.

And so now, that hilariously crap picture burnt into your memory, I want you to hold it in mind while I mention that PATD (that's how the kool kidz and 14-year-old girls refer to them) probably broke up last year (oh no--what's a girl to listen to on her way to see Twilight at the cinema for the 15th time?) when leader Ryan Ross and second guitarist Jon Walker left the band to start their own group.

For this new group, they recruited some friends, including the sorry snot who produced the last PATD album, as well as poor old/young Alex Greenwald, singer of another teenage heartthrob band gone defunct, Phantom Planet. Now then, I want you to imagine how terrible, how supremely awful and beyond the limits of bad such a band might sound.

Now click this link to hear them. (Click advisory: reading the comments after clicking will likely result in geometrically high numbers of your own personal brain cells suiciding in protest).

Uh so yeah. If you would've given me 10 million probable reference points for a band spun off of Panic At Th!e Disco, "Early Zumpano or The Kinks or perhaps even Phil Spector" would be right around not on that list because seriously.

But seriously.

I mean really?

And sure, go ahead, dismiss this band--The Young Veins, they're called, and yes, I seem to have buried that inadvertently by being snarky further up--as simply doing some weird homage-by-numbers. But I think you'd be incorrect to do so. Listen to the way the chorus in the first song I linked goes nowhere you'd expect it to, and carries off a rather unexpected and sort of difficult note progression very nicely. Check out the way the second song I linked "Cape Town" does the same thing and then does the AC Newman thing (yeah, AC Newman of The New Pornographers) of putting so many meters in that chorus that the thing should collapse but doesn't.

There's some serious craftsmanship going on here, and this debut record is--if not earth-shaking in any way, shape, or form--really, really fun and interesting and enjoyable to listen to.