Great Music in '10

[Eric P]

oh i see

alternative to the mainstream

rather than

independent of the mainstream

[madkevin]

Alternative in the 80s sense. Back before Nirvana's breakthrough, "alternative" was the catch-all for "music mainstream rock stations don't play". That could mean the kind of college rock that eventually morphed into indie rock (Camper Van Beethoven, say), or it could mean Madchester (Stone Roses, Happy Mondays), or shoegaze, dance-oriented stuff like New Order and Depeche Mode, or whatever.

"Indie rock", to me, meant stuff that was mostly rock in format - guitars, drums, bass, vocals - but was musically more skewed than the mainstream.

[Eric P]

ah, so stuff like Nirvana?

[sinfony]

So I went to pick up the new Arcade Fire album at the local cool record store, and they were sold out. I can't remember the last time something like that happened. I was talking with the dude behind the counter - a nice kid, whom I chat with a lot - and he said they ordered 50 copies and they were gone before they could get them out on the shelves. "It sold like a Tool CD would have six years ago," he said.

So I wonder: Is this indie-rock's Nevermind moment?

When I went to a local cool record store last May and asked if they had the new Isis album on release day, they were sold out. Of course, that probably meant the clerks bought the only two copies that arrived.

[madkevin]

ah, so stuff like Nirvana?

Nope. Stuff like Nirvana after Nevermind was labelled alt-rock, not indie. Indie in the 90s was more of a catch-all for different subgenres - lo-fi, math rock, post rock, etc.

[madkevin]

Has anybody been listening to the Titus Andronicus record? The Monitor?

I HAVE! I'm not sure how I missed this until now, but holy crap, The Monitor is fifteen kinds of awesome.

Imagine, if you will, Springsteen's E-Street Band circa, oh, let's say 1975. Now imagine Paul Westerberg on vocals. Now imagine that they're doing a bunch of Pogues covers, except the lyrics are about the Civil War. That's Titus Andronicus.

I love everything about this record. I love how they cheekily cop to the Springsteen connection right in the first song while also checking Billy Bragg - "No, I never wanted to change the world, but I'm looking for a new New Jersey / 'Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to die!" (Later on, they make the Bragg connection more direct with "Richard II", a nod to Bragg's "Richard", which directly lifts the line "There will be parties, there will be fun".)

And, seriously, the lead singer couldn't sound more like Paul Westerberg. People who require their rock singers to have operatic ranges need not bother with this - the singer sounds like he's getting a headstart on sounding like Tom Waits in twenty years.

And then there's the insane idea of tying together these stories of suburban New Jersey alienation and late-night binge drinking with the Civil War, which shouldn't make any sense but, strangely, does. It helps that they tie everything together by repeating snippets of songs throughout, including an awesome yelling chorus of "THE ENEMY IS EVERYWHERE!" Like all great rock records, at it's core, The Monitor is about the cathartic power of finally learning not to give a fuck. Punk rock for the new depression!

Anyway, I love it. Kudos for Gabe for mentioning it months ago. Anybody know if the first album, The Airing Of Grievances, is as good?

[Gabe Lewis]

Glad you're enjoying the record. It hasn't stuck with me in a big way, but it's definitely a lot of fun.

Sorry to direct you to a pitch fork link, but there is some footage from their festival set and it's pretty good:

http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/episode/27...s-andronicus/1

[spacerat]

I HAVE! I'm not sure how I missed this until now, but holy crap, The Monitor is fifteen kinds of awesome.

...

Anyway, I love it. Kudos for Gabe for mentioning it months ago. Anybody know if the first album, The Airing Of Grievances, is as good?

Yeah the Monitor is all kinds of awesome.

I have Airing of Grievances, but I find I can't really get into it because the production is just too lofi and murky, so much so its hard to really appreciate the different instrumental parts and lyrics. Comparing the two records its striking just how much better sounding the Monitor is, aside from the songs themselved.

[Rumpy]

Oops. Nothing here, move along...

This is what happens when you post on multiple forums...

[triggercut]

I grew into liking The Monitor too...but also I think my experience was similar to Gabe's--it just didn't stick with me after a few weeks of fairly obsessive listening. Not that I don't like the record, mind you, but rather that it just doesn't occur to me to listen to it that often. If that makes sense.

[PeterGinsberg]

I do love some Cee-lo Green: Fuck You (uh, lyrics NSFW!). And as much as I like the Gnarls Barkley stuff, his earlier solo work is still my fav, and this is right in line with that.

[Rightbug]

I do love some Cee-lo Green: Fuck You (uh, lyrics NSFW!). And as much as I like the Gnarls Barkley stuff, his earlier solo work is still my fav, and this is right in line with that.

That's awesome -- Thanks for that.

[Eric P]

does anyone here like punk, garage, hardcore or noise? It's been a pretty great year for all the genres which operate in the punk orbit.

My favorite of the past few weeks has been Pregnant's debut self titled album. They operate under the "punk" sphere but it's flat out rock in roll. It can get kind of melancholy and emotive without devolving to the worst excesses of "emo" or "melodic punk."

You can listen to the full album from their website:
http://pregnantpunks.blogspot.com/

vinyl only release for now, but a hell of a great album

[Jag]

I do love some Cee-lo Green: Fuck You (uh, lyrics NSFW!). And as much as I like the Gnarls Barkley stuff, his earlier solo work is still my fav, and this is right in line with that.

What would you recommend? The song is quite catchy. I'd like to hear some more like it, that is safer for public consumption.

[extarbags]

I just got turned on to the new record by The Bird and the Bee, which is called Interpreting the Masters Vol. 1. It is a Hall and Oates tribute album. Phenomenal.

[PeterGinsberg]

What would you recommend? The song is quite catchy. I'd like to hear some more like it, that is safer for public consumption.

You're best bet is probably just to pick up the "best of" record they put out in 2005, it's called "Closet Freak", has the best of his solo work.

The Gnarls Barkley stuff is good too, just not so upbeat (aside from "Crazy" which you've surely heard by now).


...

On an entirely different front, I'm going to post some videos by Yeasayer, just because it's one thing I can be fairly sure both triggercut and alexlitel will hate, and I love to bring people together:
Madder Red: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1y1wJduCo
One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mpqHi9RFew
Ambling Alp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6VatNuR_Uk

I'm not sure if they're supposed to be, but I find them all kind of hilarious. I do like the music too, but it's undeniably pretentious as hell and all up in Animal Collective/MGMT land.

[madkevin]

That Madder Red video is reaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllly creepy.

Yeasayer is pretentious, but I like it anyway. I'm a sucker for 80s revivalists.

[antifood]

I just got turned on to the new record by The Bird and the Bee, which is called Interpreting the Masters Vol. 1. It is a Hall and Oates tribute album. Phenomenal.

I thought that was a fun album as well.

[sinfony]

The first album from Pale Sketcher, which is, as far as I know, the most recent Justin Broadrick project. It's a more synthified version of his Jesu release Pale Sketches, and it's much better this time around. Incredibly talented guy.

[triggercut]

http://stream.apolloaudio.com/Blood-...ness-Gracious/

You're welcome.

Saw these guys last night after the ballgame at the Black Cat. Maybe one of the best live rock and roll shows I've seen in a long time, so I want to pimp out their new record a little more, because it's one of the best of the year so far.

For starters, if I told you The Blood Feathers was a bunch of folks who'd played with Mazarin, Aspera, Lilys, etc., you might think "Oh, ok, so sort of delicate and fragile-sounding psych-pop music."

Yeah, no. As if in reaction to their previous careers, The Blood Feathers come on like a roaring freight train. These guys bring some real excellent rock that sounds at various times like early-seventies Stones, with a little rockabilly here, a dash of the blues there, and just loaded to bursting with wonderful hooks you could hang a hat on. I'm not sure when the last time I saw a band play with someone onstage playing gut-bucket sax, but dammit more bands nowadays need this.

At any rate, the link I quoted above has the full album for streaming. Give "Same Mad Part", "Don't Know You At All", "Great God Almighty" (holy shit did this song smoke live--and yeah, this has more cowbell than any song by any rights should ever have), or "King Cotton". Give it a shot, and if they're coming to your town, worth seeing.

[Eric P]

I'm not sure when the last time I saw a band play with someone onstage playing gut-bucket sax, but dammit more bands nowadays need this.
.

check out Brooklyn band Bottle Up and Go

http://www.myspace.com/bottleupandgoband

it's a blues duo who added in a saxophonist and it's pretty damn amazing live

[Be Szpilman]

Has anyone mentioned Ok Go's Of The Colour Of The Blue Sky yet?
I've picked up Fleet Foxes and For Emma, Forever at the same time as that one, and it just cranked up so many more spins than those.

I especially like "Skyscrapers", "This Too Shall Pass", and most of all "White Knuckles", but for me there is not a downer in the record.

The music video for End Love is also very much worth checking.

[madkevin]

OK, this isn't exactly a recommendation, because what I'm about to show you is not what I would normally call "good". However...

Do you like 80s movie soundtracks, but wish they were more bombastic? I present to you Gatekeeper, which sounds like every 80s fantasy movie soundtrack played at the same as loud as possible. Subtle it ain't, but I gotta admit it put a smile on my face.

[rrmorton]

I'm getting very excited for The Walkmen LISBON due out Sept. 14th. Check out Angela Surf City here on myspace. Holy shit is that a killer tune.

[Be Szpilman]

I'm getting very excited for The Walkmen LISBON due out Sept. 14th. Check out Angela Surf City. Holy shit is that a killer tune.

Is it just me or does that sound like Bob Dylan? I like it. What's getting you excited, share your thoughts on the band :)

[Eric P]

Pregnant, the band I mentioned earlier, has kind of nudge nudge given the ok for people to download their album for free from the internet

http://pregnantpunks.blogspot.com/20...oad-my-lp.html

[triggercut]

First new Superchunk album in like forever is out next week, but NPR is streaming the whole thing here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...80411#playlist

First impression: I fucking love Superchunk.

[charmtrap]

I'm only half-way through the album, but I think I'm disappointed for the same reason that I fell off of Superchunk around Here's Where The Strings Come In...Mac Macaughan is a terrible pop singer. When he's doing the punk-rock shouting over "Skip Steps 1 & 3", "Slack Motherfucker" or "The Question is How Fast", he sounds fucking awesome. But he's not tuneful, and the whiny timbre in his voice just grates on my ears.

As much as I love pre-1995 Superchunk, I probably won't be buying this.

[triggercut]

It is his voice, and it is stupid.

But it is his noise.

Love Mac's voice, but it took some getting used to. Hearing it in slightly different context in Portastatic helped.

I fell off the Superchunk bandwagon because they stopped being quite as interesting to listen to as Portastatic. Second impression here is: maybe the best Superchunk album since On The Mouth.

EDIT: third impression is "This is very good, but best experienced in 3-song doses."

[triggercut]

BTW, Yep-Roc is giving two classic albums that are a must-have for any informed rock collection a re-release in October. After being out of print for 5 years or so, Can Of Bees (which is a good record) and Underwater Moonlight (which is one of the five best records of the 1980's, and completely essential) by the Soft Boys are out on 180 gram vinyl and full CD. If you missed the latter album when Matador reissued it in the first part of the 2000's, now's your chance.

If you're not familiar with the Soft Boys, now's your chance. Led by future iconclastic solo artist Robyn Hitchcock, and featuring future founding Wave (as in "Katrina And The", and yes he *did* write that song) Kimberley Rew, the Soft Boys manage to check all of the excesses I came to loathe in Hitchcock's solo career while keeping the oddness of it all and creativity intact.

Hear for yourself:

Three reasons why anyone interested in guitar-based rock and soul should think about owning Underwater Moonlight if they don't already:

"I Wanna Destroy You"
Covered by everyone from Wilco to Radiohead, and still prescient as all hell: "A pox upon media and everything you read/They tell you your opinions and they're very good indeed." Why couldn't Robyn do an entire career of sounding this pissy and relevant and aware?

"Kingdom Of Love"
Push to shove, my favorite song from this remarkable record. As the song begins, I can never remember what my favorite part of the song is: could be Andy Metcalfe's astonishingly funky Motown bass line (the weak old vinyl mix on that Youtube clip doesn't do the remastered version justice), or perhaps it's Hitchcock's loopy vocals...and then I remember when we get past the chorus. Kimberley Rew plays a simple little ascending-then-descending guitar riff that defines "chiming guitars", and frankly it is the kind of guitar riff that gets handed down perhaps only every few years or so from the Rock Gods for us mortals to hear.

"Queen Of Eyes"
Sounding for all the world like Syd Barrett covering a post-punk version of "Mr. Tambourine Man", this is the jangliest song in the Soft Boys catalogue. So, come to this one for the melody you'll never forget, but stay for the lyrics: "Blinking on and off it's the Queen Of Eyes/With her carapace shell and her black-lace thighs". This is Robyn being as direct and evil as hell--and I love it. There is no better skewering of self-absorbed superficiality than the third verse:

"In this horrible age of abuse and decay
It's good to know somebody's lookin' okay."

Awesome.