All right, you’s guys, I’ve got opinions about albums and since everybody likes to show off their super-important and highly-refined musical tastes by way of year-end lists, I’ve decided to join everyone…like a sheep to slaughter. I’m gonna have some oldies which I’ve just been turned onto in 2008 sprinkled in there too, so please don’t be alarmed that I don’t only listen to new music. In fact, it’s not healthy to only listen to new music.
After mine, you have to show me yours though…as creepy as that sounds. So start thinking about everything you heard in this last great year of our unruly despot’s reign, and be ready to list ‘em by the time you finish looking at mine.
In no particular order…
Frances – All The WhileOkay, yes, they are friends but this album is truly original and stands out in a sea of indie-rock music that is becoming more and more boring. Hooks abound, beautiful harmonies, and amazing arrangements…all with a good sense of humor too.
.
Here’s an album I was all over when I got an advance copy. It’s totally trippy and neo-psychedelic and totally up my alley. Here’s me singing it’s praises last January…lalala. The backlash is already present but isn’t it always there for bands who get any kind of recognition for actually being good?! They sounded great at a super-packed McCarren Park Pool this past summer too! I look forward to a second album from these cats.
Black Mountain – In The Future
Here’s another one that I got an advance of and I picked it for my year-end list last year even though it came out in 2008. Trippy , heavy, ter’riff’ic! These guys have a great loud live show too. On the album, “Wucan” will hypnotize you…and live, “Wucan” will bewitch your skull. You’ve been warned!
What a great show last night at the Ballroom, where the sound is always perfect! We got there towards the end of the opener, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, and were pleasantly surprised to hear a top-notch folk-psych outfit who could be Steeleye Span folky one minute and the next, launch into some scorching jams led by electric guitar maestro, Phil Wandscher. Jesse’s voice is beautiful and hauntingly mesmerizing, and completely set apart from the vocal style that a lot of ‘alternative’-ish female singers are latching onto these days. Dig their songs on MySpace!
And then it was on to the main event, Black Mountain, who started strong and never let up. Here’s the setlist…
…and that’s about the best picture I got, since the band likes to keep the stage nice and dark. They are named Black Mountain, after all! These guys pound you with heavy riff-filled sound that you can’t help but bang your head to…kinda like Black Sabbath, but more trippily-psychedelic, and with killer proggy keyboards. They have a female singer with a ‘bleating vibrato’ (a la Roger Chapman…anyone?) and the guitarist also sings. And the band is at their best when the two are singing together, like in the third song of the night, “Wucan”, a song that puts me in a willing trance every time I hear it. Check out their video for the song…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8upxRhff7cE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]
…is that not amazing? And it was 11 times the badassedness live at Bowery Ballroom last night. There was nary a dull moment. Other highlights for me besides “Wucan” were “Druganaut” and “Stormy High”. Check this band out if they come to your town!
I love that there are now bands like this out there playing to indie-rock audiences and reminding them how good a guitar solo can sound. It seems like the guitar had become just an instrument to make cutesy little jangly sounds on for so many indie-rock bands, as it somehow became unhip to have songs with guitar solos. Why is this? Did all the sensitive guys think of a guitar solo as an extension of their penis, which of course they would never want to admit to having? Or maybe their lyrics were so deep that a guitar solo would only water down their dire message to the world. Well, I’m happy to say that I’d rather wallow in the guitar-centric new pool of talented psych-rock bands such as Black Mountain, Dungen, Howlin Rain, Wooden Shjips, Earthless, and Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter.
Check out Black Mountain music on MySpace and, if you dig ‘em, pick up In The Future, an album that I nominated for one of the best albums of 2008 at mid-year.
All right, I noticed that a lot of blogs are doing their ‘best of 2008…so far’ lists about now since we’re half way through the year, so I’m gonna blindly follow suit. Well, maybe not so blindly, since I’m gonna allow you to share stuff that you got this year…but didn’t necessarily have to have come out this year. But it can be new too. Whatever you want, because Sh*t L*sts are all about YOU!
So my list is probably gonna be a mix of new and old, cuz that’s just where I’m at. Just click on through after the MGMT album pic below to see my list (which I’m starting to compile in my head as I write this), and then leave your list in comments.
Unfortunately I just missed Black Mountain’s show at Bowery Ballroom on Friday (great venue, great band…oops!). Check out this amazing Conan performance which was also on Friday night…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dyBeuseIX4&rel=1]
Click on through for the rest of their tour dates…
So, I’ve recently stumbled on some new music that I really like, but of course that’s because it’s music that isn’t afraid to go in new (old) directions. It may sound confusing, but how uncool has it been in the last 20 years to sound like prog-rock at all? Correct, very. But throughout that time I’ve still always harbored a love for progressive rock, in all it’s ‘indulgent‘ grandeur. The argument against prog rock has always been that it’s over-indulgent, which I never understood because I figured music would be the perfect place to indulge. It’s every other facet of life that we must curb our indulgences…but why not let’s make the music freer than we?
All right, now that I’ve confirmed that I’m a dork, I wanted to turn you on to some examples of new Indie bands who aren’t afraid to borrow from some of rock’s taboo past. All of these bands had albums that just dropped this month too, that I recommend any and all of. Let me start with this video from a duo called MGMT, who have a prog thing going on in their music. They’ve got something pretty magical going on…this video will prove that… See the video for “Time To Pretend” here.
And here’s the same song performed on Letterman, with capes, mind you…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqzoRQv2UIU&rel=1]
Now check out this band, Black Mountain, who have a heavy prog thing going on. Their new album, In The Future, is one of my favorites right now. Check out them performing ‘Wucan‘ at ATP…wicked riffin’…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhvE-D9osY8&rel=1]
And here’s Vampire Weekend whose album just dropped today, who are not afraid to use African rhythms, rock-style, like the Talking Heads did…and Paul Simon. The Dirty Projectors kinda have the African thing going on too, but first check out this brand-new Vampire Weekend video, and dig their style…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XC2mqcMMGQ&rel=1]
Click on through to the other side, to see the amazing Dirty Projectors video, as promised…
It sure is the time of year for lists, huh? I’m seeing them everywhere, especially now that every other jerk-off out there has their own blog and thinks that their opinions of the year’s top stuff really matters. Well, unfortunately for you, I’m one of those jerk-offs but at least I’m going to admit that I don’t listen to a ton of new music and can concede that just about any other list you’ll find will be more accurate and attuned to popular modern society.
I am also going to spare you my enormous lists of great NYC vegan restaurants and best foreign films made in Hollywood of 2007 and only give you my listy opinions about music (and you will hopefully share yours) so as not to drive the whole end-of-the-year requisite lists into the ground. So, that being said, I’m going to try to list my Top 10 Favorite New Album Releases of 2007. Since I may not be able to come up with a full 10, I’m going to allow myself (and us) to pad the list with albums that you were turned on to during 2007, but came out whenever. Cool? Let’s do it after the jump…. (more…)
…East Village Radio