Swan Lake
Friday, November 24, 2006

Post-Thanksgiving cubicle dwellers blues.

Swan Lake - Beast Moans
RIYL Destroyer, Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade, Ethereal Dream-Pop

I shouldn't like this album. By rights it's too dreamy, too dramatic, too over the top for my tastes. Yet somehow it's just right. I suppose this could be attributed to the fact that Swan Lake is a goobery indie "supergroup" comprised of members of The New Pornographers, Destroyer, Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown and Frog Eyes, and therefore possesses a lineup to create music that's simply irrefutably good.
Were I the type to eat turkey then the wonderfully aptly named Beast Moans would be the perfect tryptophan come-down. Its insane layering, its blissed out production, its staccato'ed out pseudo western overtones... you couldn't ask for a better soundtrack for the post-glutton malaise. Read more about Swan Lake on Wikipedia.
http://jagjaguwar.com/swanlakeband/

posted by josefek @ 12:11 PM, ,


The Hold Steady Killed Me... Again
Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The soundtrack to Thanksgiving-eve at work, catching up on this and that.

The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
RIYL Classic Rock, Bar Band Rock, Springsteen, Americana

The Hold Steady return from Separation Sunday, a critically acclaimed release that apparently sold little, with Boys and Girls in America, an album that builds upon that release. Finn's singing more on this one, for the most part foregoing the singsong beat-speak of previous releases. His storyteller lyrics are still wonderful, though perhaps a bit more accessible than they have been before. The music is pure Hold Steady; unabashed rock and roll circa Born to Run. It's strange that in 2006 a band like THS even exists... after all, there isn't much of a market for good old American Barroom Rock™, save for that recorded 30 years ago, these days. Were there any justice in the world songs like Hot Soft Light and Party Pit would be in heavy rotation on your local "classic" rock station, sandwiched firmly between Thunder Road and The Kinks Destroyer. Boys and Girls in America is a nearly perfect American Rock record. Read more about The Hold Steady on Wikipedia.
http://www.theholdsteady.com/

posted by josefek @ 1:50 PM, ,


Watt and Clarkson
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

I ain't gonna lie; this freaks me out a little: Mike Watt guests on Kelly Clarkson record [pitchformedia.com].
"Old punk guy" indeed. Leave it to Kahne (producer of the best Fishbone records, new one aside because I haven't heard it yet, among a myriad of other 80's/90's staples) to pull such disparate figures together. I appreciate that it sounds like Watt had no idea who the hell Clarkson was prior to these sessions.

posted by josefek @ 6:57 AM, ,


What's Spinning
Friday, November 17, 2006

I spend all day at work listening to music. It's one of the few perks of being a systems administrator. What follows is the very first "What's Spinning," a catchy phrase stolen from a band discussion list I ran once.

William Elliott Whitmore - Song of The Blackbird
RIYL Mississippi Hill Country Blues, Deep Blues, Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, alt.Country

WEW is stunning. Gravel voices, storytelling lyrics, old school intrumentation and down to earth production mark this, as well as his previous, release. I can't recommend this cat enough. Honestly while it's usually hard to go wrong with a Southern Records release, this one is a real gem. Read more about William Elliott Whitmore on Wikipedia.
http://www.williamelliottwhitmore.com/


Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go
RIYL The Silver Jews, alt Country, Sufjan Stevens and his ilk

Will Oldham has been doing that unnecessarily-lumped-into-the-genre "alt country" thing for a long, long time... much longer than Sufjan and his kind. And, taking nothing away from those folks, he's much better at it. The Letting Go represents a step forward for Oldham, if that's possible. For the first time he has, under the Bonnie Prince moniker, managed to craft music every bit as embracing as his lyrics (in my opinion, of course). So often I find the new mainstays of the alt country genre to ultimately be, well, boring. The Letting Go, though understated, is anything but. This is a confident record well worth seeking out. Read more about Will Oldham on Wikipedia.
http://www.bonnieprincebilly.com/


Jamie Lidell - Multiply
RIYL Super_Collider, Prince, Otis Redding, Parliament, Motown

Multiply is a pretty amazing album. Lidell comes thundering out of Super_Collider, his collab with fellow electro-laptop producer Cristian Vogel, to produce a soul album that represents a stake in the heart of the perpetually disappointing "neo-soul" genre. Lidell's a total package; producing, songwriting, arranging, performing charisma, and a 3 octave set of pipes that almost seems ridiculous coming out of a skinny white boy from Cambridge, England. His live shows typically include extended improvisations, with Lidell wrangling equipment to sample, cut, chop and transform his voice and beatboxing stills into new and different tunes.
On record the man proves schizophrenically funky, easily sliding from Otis Redding stylings to Parliament-Funkadelic freakiness with a healthy portion of everyone from Sly to Earth, Wind and Fire in between. Add to all this just a touch of tastefully applied laptop weirdness (some barely dicernable without headphones... which this record is a treat to listen to via, by the way) and you've got Multiply. Somehow, despite the myriad of touchstones, the album manages to retain a cohesive feel due to how natural and genuine Lidell manages to sound throughout. I'm wearing this record, along with it's remix companion Multiply Additions, out. Read more about Jamie Lidell on Wikipedia.
http://www.jamielidell.com/

posted by josefek @ 2:44 PM, ,