Cloud Nothings: Attack on Memory (a review)
Youth is so great. At some point in the near future, I’m sure, Cloud Nothings (or whatever moniker Dylan Baldi is recording under) will record something boring, or a ill-fated concept album, or just run out of ideas (ala Conor Oberst), but at the moment, he’s breathlessly racing through his ideas like there isn’t enough tape to capture them. And that’s why we get a third full-length in as many years, this one spilling over with new ways to distill his love for hooks. Read More…
Craig Finn: Clear Heart Full Eyes (a review)
In retrospect, the last Hold Steady record was the exact opposite of a sleeper – it sounded great on first listen, all hooks and guitar fire, but in the end felt paper thin, an album of an idea rather than of ideas, and outside of a couple highlights (“Sweet Part of the City,” “Barely Breathing”), I haven’t gone back to it frequently, preferring Separation Sunday or Stay Positive or even b-sides.
Which is why this new Craig Finn record is such a pleasant surprise – it doesn’t sound unlike a Hold Steady record any more than an Extra Glenns (Lens) record sounds unlike a Mountain Goats record (i.e. not much at all) as much as it sounds like an interesting sidestep from the pressure of making a record under the appellations of those bands – the pressure to make something that SOUNDS like a Hold Steady record. Read More…
The Mountain Goats: All Eternals Deck (a record review)
It’s a special sort of gift that my favorite songwriter is still making good music, let alone some of the best of his career, into his second decade of songwriting. Have you heard a Prince album lately? Sure, I can go back and listen to Dirty Mind whenever I want to, but I have to be contented with one or two good songs an album nowadays… not so with the Mountain Goats, who have just released one of the best albums of his/their career with All Eternals Deck.
The high water mark of John Darnielle’s songwriting is pretty damn high – it’s pretty hard to find a weak spot in his post-Coroner’s Gambit catalog. But where the past couple Mountain Goats records have had their flaws Read More…
Telekinesis: 12 Desperate Straight Lines
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I wait all year for a moment like this – putting on a new album that’s been sitting on the release calendar for months, tantalizing me. Often, of course, these moments are anticlimactic – not disappointing, always, but it’s hard for a record to live up to whatever hype I’ve built up for it in my head. For most of the year, I’m listening to albums I thought would be great but are merely good, or great albums I didn’t even know were coming out, or albums I thought would be boring and are, or the occasional complete bomb.
So it’s moments like this – putting on the new Telekinesis record and having it kill from the first notes of acoustic guitar that grace album opener “You Turn Clear in the Sun,” then having every song barrel forward like front/onlyman Michael Benjamin Lerner is afraid if he slows up, you might stop listening. Read More…
The Extra Lens: “How I Left the Ministry”
Oh yeah, the album title and artwork are pretty great too.
I recognize that I’m incredibly lucky that my favorite songwriter is both alive and incredibly prolific – I get to enjoy somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-15 new John Darnielle songs EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Yay me. This time around, it’s his first release on Merge and second record with Franklin Bruno, as The Extra Lens. Since their previous collaboration (Martial Arts Weekend, as The Extra Glenns) is only a tiny step down from the best Mountain Goats records (Tallahassee, Get Lonely, and All Hail West Texas, and in that order, if you were wondering), I was, ahem, looking forward to this one. Read More…
The Thermals: Personal Life
I saved a placeholder post for this record about three weeks ago, when Kill Rock Stars sent me advance MP3s. Since then I’ve listened to it multiple times, but I don’t actually have a ton to say about it. If you like the Thermals, you’ll like it; it’s better than Now We Can See but not better than TBTBTM; it’s a fun listen front to back. It’ll end up in the middle of the pack on my end of year list.
Um. Ok. Buy the new Thermals record!
http://www.buyolympia.com/killrockstars/item=krs519/ (I went vinyl because it was a buck cheaper.)
The Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
While you’re reading: The Arcade Fire: “We Used To Wait” (right-click to download)
It’s one thing when a band labors at their craft for a number of years, eventually creating an album that could rightly be called a masterpiece. I feel like it’s not hard to evaluate those bands – Yo La Tengo’s Ride the Tiger is boring, Electr-o-pura is a masterpiece. They spent multiple years and multiple albums figuring out how they wanted to make music, and they eventually made something that would stand the test of time. It’s a good story, but it’s to be expected. It’s how it usually works.
But when a band hits with full force the way the Arcade Fire did with Funeral… it’s hard to know what to expect next. Read More…
I Was There: Pitchfork Music Festival 2010 (Day 2)
Titus Andronicus Rocks the Afternoon
I live in Orlando, Florida, and one of the truths of life in Orlando, Florida is that not that many bands come through when on tour, especially in the summer. Yeah, we have a couple clubs, and yeah, we get more than, say, Miami, but I get it – if you’re looking at minimizing your days off and driving time, you don’t want to blow a day coming into Florida and driving out again. But what that means is that there’s a certain level of band that really never comes to Florida at all, which generally I just accept because really, what else am I going to do? But this year, I decided that I was going to take matters into my own hands and go to the second day of the Pitchfork Music Festival, at which Wolf Parade, Titus Andronicus, and LCD Soundsystem were all playing. So I did. Read More…
On Liz Phair and Funstyle
One thing I can give Liz Phair‘s Funstyle (and musically speaking, there’s not a ton to be said for it) – it seems to have more of HER in it than anything she’s done since Whip-Smart. Go back to the Girly Sound tapes – they’re sometimes funny, sometimes stupid, sometimes breathtakingly awesome… they’re all over the place. Obviously I don’t know anything at all about her state of mind at the time – but I don’t think you write and record 40 songs over the course of a year (or so) unless you have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. So based on history, Funstyle shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise to anyone. Read More…
