List Time!

Somebody in the record store today reminded me that I should start planning my "Top 10, 2010" list.


 

...crap!

What?

(Older) Stuff You Should Be Listening To:

1. Stereolab: Switched On
2. Broken Bells: Broken Bells
3. Zoot Woman: Zoot Woman
4. School of Seven Bells: Alpinisms
5. Say Hi to Your Mom: Ferocious Mopes
6. Lesley Gore: 20th Century Masters, Best Of
7. The Like: Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?
8. Flunk: For Sleepyheads Only
9. Filter: Title of Record
10. Preston School of Industry: Monsoon

*I should add that the Like, Filter, School of Seven Bells and Lætitia Sadier from Stereolab all have pretty recent releases...although if you want my honest opinion, the Filter album was garbage.  Everything else was pretty fab.

Beards

I can't believe I missed this.  Chief's Modern Rituals is awesome!  It reminds me of the bastard child of the Walkmen circa A Hundred Miles Off singing their cover of Mazarin's "Another One Goes By" as channeled through some of the Decemberists' more normal moments.  ...Did that even make sense?

Hold On!

I love the self-titled debut from the Hundred in the Hands!  It's  electronic guitar pop with a dance-able beat that ranges between Tiger Baby and School of Seven Bells, with occasional forays into Sleigh Bells staccato (without being obnoxious and discordant).

I'm also digging Shit Robot's 'debut' From the Cradle to the Rave. It's all kinds of LCD Soundsystem-style dance (which shouldn't be at all surprising, considering Marcus Lambkin and James Murphy are BFF...all together now: Awwww!)  Both Murphy and that one dude from Hot Chip lend their vocals to a few tracks, and it is fabulous.

Tired Pony is Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol with members of REM and Belle & Sebastian playing sleepy Americana-ish.  Betty Clarke over at the Guardian says it best: "Tired Pony ends up sounding like Snow Patrol with slide guitar."  I want to like this, and maybe after a few listens I will...but honestly the first three tracks kind of bored me and I moved on.

Also Shelf-Worthy this week: 

• Margot and the Nuclear So-and-Sos: Buzzard
• John Legend & The Roots: Wake Up!
• Mavis Staples: You are Not Alone

Elvis Lives

"It's like: 'I know that you're Santana, and that you play guitar, but you dont have to play lead throughout the entire song'.  It was alright up until he played over everything on 'Riders on the Storm'--has he ever even heard the original?  You were already on shaky ground having Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) sing lead vocals.  I was kind of excited about Santana doing these songs...but he didn't do Santana versions of them. It's a Vegas album; it's like he was doing Showgirls covers."
                                       ~Wallace

Brave Combo tickets available here! 

$10 in advance

Brought to you by: Friends of Bob

A Classic

Have you ever seen Phil Collins look more uncomfortable?

Heart of Darkness

Is this not the greatest album cover this year?  Black Mountain's Wilderness Heart is, quite frankly, excellent.  (None of this Lightning Dust nonsense)  It's a fun, doom-filled extravaganza of 70's style rock filtered through quirky, dirty hippie pop masking Stephen McBean's gathering thunderclouds.  

Viva Las Vegas?

The new El Guincho album Pop Negro is fabulous Spanish tropical-tinged electronic pop-ishness--very breezy and upbeat. I didn't give Pablo Díaz-Reixa's 1st foray much thought, but this makes me want to go back and try again. 

I have fond memories of listening to Mice Parade in the art studio, so I may be a bit biased when I say I absolutely love their new album What It Means to Be Left-handed. "Tokyo Late Night" is a particularly lovely lo-fi song, and the opening track "Kupanda" rocks the world-music pop sound Mice Parade has worked in the past, but "Fortune of Folly"'s Spanish guitar might be my favorite.


Azure Ray's new album  Drawing Down the Moon is Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor's 1st post-2004-breakup album. It's just as sparse and eerily pretty as the rest of their catalog, but I think this one is a bit creepier. After a few years of Maria's Americana-pop and Orenda's experimentalism, this is a nice nostalgic slide back into dream-pop territory. This is by no means avian Scandinavian pop, but this will do just fine.


Oh, Brandon Flowers.  Flamingo isn't bad at all, but nothing like I expected. It sounds sort of like Ryan Adams reinterpreting synth-pop, but with more emoting (natch).


The Walkmen, how I love you so. Lisbon is everything I needed, and more. Marry me?


Of Montreal's False Priest came out this week, too, but I haven't listened to it yet. I've heard good things, though.

Other Shelf-Worthy titles this week: Lobisomem's Onze Pedras, Kim Richey's Wreck Your Wheels, and the Drum's self-titled debut.

And in case you missed it last week, Interpol's latest--and self-titled--album is a return to Matador and sparseness. Pitchfork hated it, but what else would you expect. It took me two or three listens to fully appreciate it, but I do like it. The vinyl was released in 2 formats, so ask for your special adapter at the counter if you buy the "weird" one.

V.2

Congratulations, Faronheit: You're my new favorite pastime ♥

Fun Now!

Shelf-Worthy This Week:

1. Richard Thompson--Dream Attic

2. Jenny & Johnny--I'm having Fun Now

3. Sonny & the Sunsets--Tomorrow is Alright

4. Neon Indian--Psychic Chasms

5. Rabbit!--Connect the Dots

6. Weepies--Be My Thrill

7. Carl Broemel (of My Morning Jacket)--All Birds Say

8.Film School--Fission

I'm seriously enjoying Film School's 4th major release. It rides its low-fi, post-rock shoegazeyness like a professional fox-hunt--and we all know my potentially inappropriate love for fuzz.

Rabbit! and the Weepies are both charming and sweet--Rabbit! on the up, and the Weepies on the sad side.

Jenny & Johnny is fun--think She & Him, but less kitschy 50's nostalgia.