i have nothing better to do these days & my keyboard is currently reacting as it should when i press the l, o, ( and . keys, so i might as well take advantage of the current climate, right? oh & there's the whole lack-of-posts-for-eight-months-thing, but we won't talk about that, k? your prize: the most comprehensive list of my favorite new & upcoming releases from the first 8 months of the year...and by that i mean my five favorite albums thus far:
be your own pet - be your own pet
goddam. so i came across this album a few months back & put it on knowing nothing about it other than they had been dubbed "proteges" of sonic youth's thurston moore, so i went in thinking that there was a 30% chance that it was a bunch of wank-rock. um, nope. the album's 15 songs clock in at a total of just over a half-hour & smash you in the face the entire time. for me, there was a void left by the recent inactivity by erase errata (which is thankfully now over with their first release since 2003, nightlife) & the death of the sick lipstick, who disinegrated soon after the release of 2003's sting sting sting. be your own pet fills this. the facts: they're from nashville, they're teenagers, the lead singer, jemina pearl, shovels the final clump dirt onto karen o's grave.
they've since picked up a mention in a recent rolling stone & a full page in the latest edition, which means that there'll be a lot more of the coveted 18-34 demo (myself now included) who know about be your own pet. their myspace page currently features a live shot of them on the floor sprawled amongst a pile of drums & cords. nuff said.
fave track: "bicycle bicycle you are my bicycle"
video link to live conan performance here.
dirty pretty things - waterloo to anywhere
i'm lazy sometimes, so here's the review i wrote for ny press:
there are two types of rock stars in this world--those who break into their bandmates' flat, swipe the telly, and procure some sweet crack rock and those who wonder where the ef the telly went. dirty pretty things' carl barat knows this dichotomy all too well, but with the stateside release of waterloo to anywhere, all should be resolved--it turns out that barat was the talented libertine. while his tabloid/drug-addled ex-bandmate pete doherty fell ass-flat late last year with the spottiness of the babyshambles' down in albion, this august brings barat's first post-libertines release to the u.s. the libertines' two albums engaged fans because of their upbeat jagged pop-crispiness. from start to finish, waterloo embraces the same feel. opening with "deadwood" and finishing with "b.u.r.m.a.." waterloo romps through twelve solid tracks of un-fey brit-pop. the kicker: there are few standouts on the record. the first single, "bang bang you're dead," appears to declare doherty a non-factor, but that may be just wishful rock-critic thinking. while barat offers up a solid first release, he still needs to pen tunes closer to doherty's standouts if he wants to be thought of without the anti-shine of crack teeth over his shoulder.
fave track: "deadwood"
video link here.
sunset rubdown - shut up i am dreaming
basically, spencer krug is the preppiest/most straight-edged looking guy in indie rock (or damn close to it). as the lead vocalist/songwriter foil to wolf parade's dan boeckner voice o' gravel, i've come to prefer his songs over dan's, although at this time last year, when i was in a more frenzied mood & had just seen them for the first time at cmj, i was a dan fan...but there's now a canadian indie supergroup project i'm all gaga for called swan lake, that features spencer, destroyer's dan bejar & frog eyes' carey mercer & it does a nice job of defining the type of indie rock that tickles my fancy these days...anthemlike, chaotic, bowie-vocaled sort of stuff.
...and this is what sunset rubdown is like--krug's keyboards & vocals & track names like "i'm sorry i sang on your hands that have been in the grave." it took me a while to fully embrace the album, but now it bests wolf parade in my book. well, it would if i had a book. which i don't.
fave track: "swimming"
check out the "unofficial" videos for "us ones in between" & "i'm sorry i sang on your hands that have been in the grave."
tunng - comments of the inner chorus
these tunng dudes are all british & stuff & use all types of bleeps & acoustic guitar & "found sounds" & i guess people might refer to it as folktronica or some such thing. its the sort of stuff you can listen to on bus rides or beach days or walks across a city bridge or any of those times you want to be all reflective & shit...but you don't have to be reflective to listen to it, because the fact remains that these dudes just create damn beautiful songs. i might go as far as to say that they're pretty. the album starts with the sounds of wind chimes for christ's sake.
to take a ride on the comparison train, i'd say that they're similar in style to the books, but not as wanky & probably more "accessible." after all, they did release a single with a cover of bloc party's "pioneers." it's the second full-length from them, after last year's mother's daughter & other songs, which was just as purty. now all that needs to happen is for them to fly their butts on over to america & play some shows so i can drool in person.
fave track: "jenny again"
video link here.
j dilla - the shining
i just got to hear this one for the first time while in the midst of writing this list & it instantly made the list, bumping thom yorke, who would have been boring to write about anyhow. this album was j dilla's last, recorded while his kidney was failing (which eventually led to his death earlier this year). as a counterpart to donuts, his album released just before his death, which features 31 songs that have a very choppy, cut-up feel (& of which only one is more than two minutes), the shining features songs that are more fully-realized & feature appearances by common & madlib.
j dilla has always been low-profile, known more for his producing skills (see de la soul, pharcyde, a tribe called quest). when artists talk about dilla, they use some pretty strong words...both common & ?uestlove have spoke of him in the same breath as charlie parker. this album is not some posthumous tupac/biggie junk though. it's solid in a way that their from-the-grave albums aren't & showcases a nice final chapter in the life of a producer who artistically crafted beats & rhythms without the need to ever be some showy puffy-like type.
fave track: "e=mc2" (featuring common)
random video here.
be your own pet - be your own pet
goddam. so i came across this album a few months back & put it on knowing nothing about it other than they had been dubbed "proteges" of sonic youth's thurston moore, so i went in thinking that there was a 30% chance that it was a bunch of wank-rock. um, nope. the album's 15 songs clock in at a total of just over a half-hour & smash you in the face the entire time. for me, there was a void left by the recent inactivity by erase errata (which is thankfully now over with their first release since 2003, nightlife) & the death of the sick lipstick, who disinegrated soon after the release of 2003's sting sting sting. be your own pet fills this. the facts: they're from nashville, they're teenagers, the lead singer, jemina pearl, shovels the final clump dirt onto karen o's grave.
they've since picked up a mention in a recent rolling stone & a full page in the latest edition, which means that there'll be a lot more of the coveted 18-34 demo (myself now included) who know about be your own pet. their myspace page currently features a live shot of them on the floor sprawled amongst a pile of drums & cords. nuff said.
fave track: "bicycle bicycle you are my bicycle"
video link to live conan performance here.
dirty pretty things - waterloo to anywhere
i'm lazy sometimes, so here's the review i wrote for ny press:
there are two types of rock stars in this world--those who break into their bandmates' flat, swipe the telly, and procure some sweet crack rock and those who wonder where the ef the telly went. dirty pretty things' carl barat knows this dichotomy all too well, but with the stateside release of waterloo to anywhere, all should be resolved--it turns out that barat was the talented libertine. while his tabloid/drug-addled ex-bandmate pete doherty fell ass-flat late last year with the spottiness of the babyshambles' down in albion, this august brings barat's first post-libertines release to the u.s. the libertines' two albums engaged fans because of their upbeat jagged pop-crispiness. from start to finish, waterloo embraces the same feel. opening with "deadwood" and finishing with "b.u.r.m.a.." waterloo romps through twelve solid tracks of un-fey brit-pop. the kicker: there are few standouts on the record. the first single, "bang bang you're dead," appears to declare doherty a non-factor, but that may be just wishful rock-critic thinking. while barat offers up a solid first release, he still needs to pen tunes closer to doherty's standouts if he wants to be thought of without the anti-shine of crack teeth over his shoulder.
fave track: "deadwood"
video link here.
sunset rubdown - shut up i am dreaming
basically, spencer krug is the preppiest/most straight-edged looking guy in indie rock (or damn close to it). as the lead vocalist/songwriter foil to wolf parade's dan boeckner voice o' gravel, i've come to prefer his songs over dan's, although at this time last year, when i was in a more frenzied mood & had just seen them for the first time at cmj, i was a dan fan...but there's now a canadian indie supergroup project i'm all gaga for called swan lake, that features spencer, destroyer's dan bejar & frog eyes' carey mercer & it does a nice job of defining the type of indie rock that tickles my fancy these days...anthemlike, chaotic, bowie-vocaled sort of stuff.
...and this is what sunset rubdown is like--krug's keyboards & vocals & track names like "i'm sorry i sang on your hands that have been in the grave." it took me a while to fully embrace the album, but now it bests wolf parade in my book. well, it would if i had a book. which i don't.
fave track: "swimming"
check out the "unofficial" videos for "us ones in between" & "i'm sorry i sang on your hands that have been in the grave."
tunng - comments of the inner chorus
these tunng dudes are all british & stuff & use all types of bleeps & acoustic guitar & "found sounds" & i guess people might refer to it as folktronica or some such thing. its the sort of stuff you can listen to on bus rides or beach days or walks across a city bridge or any of those times you want to be all reflective & shit...but you don't have to be reflective to listen to it, because the fact remains that these dudes just create damn beautiful songs. i might go as far as to say that they're pretty. the album starts with the sounds of wind chimes for christ's sake.
to take a ride on the comparison train, i'd say that they're similar in style to the books, but not as wanky & probably more "accessible." after all, they did release a single with a cover of bloc party's "pioneers." it's the second full-length from them, after last year's mother's daughter & other songs, which was just as purty. now all that needs to happen is for them to fly their butts on over to america & play some shows so i can drool in person.
fave track: "jenny again"
video link here.
j dilla - the shining
i just got to hear this one for the first time while in the midst of writing this list & it instantly made the list, bumping thom yorke, who would have been boring to write about anyhow. this album was j dilla's last, recorded while his kidney was failing (which eventually led to his death earlier this year). as a counterpart to donuts, his album released just before his death, which features 31 songs that have a very choppy, cut-up feel (& of which only one is more than two minutes), the shining features songs that are more fully-realized & feature appearances by common & madlib.
j dilla has always been low-profile, known more for his producing skills (see de la soul, pharcyde, a tribe called quest). when artists talk about dilla, they use some pretty strong words...both common & ?uestlove have spoke of him in the same breath as charlie parker. this album is not some posthumous tupac/biggie junk though. it's solid in a way that their from-the-grave albums aren't & showcases a nice final chapter in the life of a producer who artistically crafted beats & rhythms without the need to ever be some showy puffy-like type.
fave track: "e=mc2" (featuring common)
random video here.
posted by parowpyro at 9:56 PM
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