Neutral Milk Hotel

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea AND On Avery Island will be reissued on vinyl? Yahoo! So what if it's been over a decade since they've released a song? I'm still excited for the reissues and am placing the disks on my Wish List. (Also on the Wish List is a record player, but hey, one conquest at a time.)

The day Neutral Milk Hotel announces pre-production, the music world will cream their pants in giddy joy. And for once, I will join the masses in this feat.

I decided to pick up those albums mentioned in the last post. Brand New. Monster of Folk (even though I got the leak two weeks ago, but here's to supporting music). Or, the Whale. Islands. Of the records acquired, I recommend the latter two albums. Strictly for the face that both albums are amazing. Nuff said.

Gone and Back

Sorry for the hiatus, work has done a disappearing act on all of my free time. In the meanwhile, here's a playlist of current favorite songs:

• Orenda Fink - High Ground
• Conor Oberst & MVB - The Reason #2
  
• Rural Alberta Advantage - The Dethbridge in Lethbridge
• Friendly Fires - White Diamonds
• Fleet Foxes - Your Protector
• The Choir of Young Believers - She Walks

And now for a list of yet to be released albums I'm looking forward to hear:

• "Daisy" by Brand New
• "Vapours" by Islands
• "Ask the Night" by Orenda Fink
• "Earthly Delight" by Lightning Bolt
  

Finally, a list of artists with albums slated for this year that I'm slightly intrigued by but won't necessarily go out of my way to listen to:

• Dashboard Confessional (those songs about heartbreak and self-loathing better play over more than 3 chords or I'm giving you the "one trick pony" card, Chris Carrabba)
  
• Backstreet Boys (seriously??)
• Creed (wow, I guess Scott Strapp got tired of being poor and wants to bang the Christian anthem for more money)
• OK Go (produced by David Fridmann and entitled "The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky?" Bring on the Flaming Lips comparisons!)
• 30 Seconds to Mars (hahahahaha, you're a band?)

And with Pavement announcing their reunion tour, I wonder which Britpop bands from the 90s are left to reunite? Blur's back, Oasis is halved, and Jarvis Cocker is enjoying his tweed art professor look too much to reunite Pulp. So Suede's left. Really, that's it?

Congratulations Courtney on being smarter than the average bear. Gold star!

The Wooden Birds

If the American Analog Set had an older, more mature cousin, it would be the Wooden Birds. It's Andrew Kenny's new brainchild, so don't be surprised if you recognize the similarities in the songwriting. The sparse, dreamy sound of AmAnSet pervades Magnolia but it's not a hindrance. Kenny builds on it so we're given a 38 minute lullaby of rich harmonies (with Leslie Sisson's assistance) backed by layers of percussion. Each plucked note is crisp like the crunch of autumn leaves beneath footsteps. The vocals have a instrumental role versus a storyteller. And did I mention the harmonies? These are twelve tightly wounded songs; what more do you need?

The stand out track for me is "Seven Seventeen," which musically seemed like a cute song. Until I looked at the lyrics and realized that I now have a favorite song about pedophilia. Oh, young romance and your statutory age laws. But really, take the song from a rose-tinted glasses view and assume it's about meeting cute. Instead of my dark, To Catch a Predator stance.

They're currently on tour with Great Lake Swimmers, who I believe everyone should also check out. In the meanwhile, here's a video for "Hometown Fantasies":

Monsters of Folk

Monsters of Folk.

Monsters. Of. Folk.

Let's try that one more time: Monsters of Folk. Okay, I still don't believe the so-called supergroup named themselves as such. Sure, it's a testimony to their status in the indie folk community but it also seems like the most expensive inside joke. MOF comprises of Conor Oberst, M. Ward (also in She&Him), Mike Mogis (of Bright Eyes), and Jim James (of My Morning Jacket.) Their back story finds the four musician playing on each other's set five years ago that a collaboration was eminent.

Here we are in 2009 and from the songs released so far, it sounds like somebody put together a Bright Eyes/M. Ward/My Morning Jacket mesh. There doesn't seem to be a cohesive feeling on the tracks leaked so far, hence my disappointment. Individually, each track has it merits as well as faults. "Dear God" rolls over this lush drum loop. "Between The Sandman, The Brakeman, And Me" carries a jaunty guitar line under smile-worthy harmonies. "Temazcal" must have been left off the track list for Outer South while the chorus in "Magic Marker" shows their songwriting as their weakest. "Say Please" trails as a continuation of "Handle with Care" from Jenny Lewis' debut album. Basically, we've got the Travelling Wilburys stretched out on fifteen tracks.

The album as a whole wobbles on unsure feet of where to walk: Do we go with a Oberst song or a James song? Maybe we'll throw Ward's vocal over Oberst's lyrics? Monsters of Folk teeters and totters on potential only to topple underneath old ideas and familiar territory. Worst yet, these are four very talented men and three come with weighted musical histories. I'm not surprised by my disappointment in a sense. Their collaboration doesn't work as we're rehashing An Evening With Jim James, M. Ward, and Bright Eyes. People can shit bricks over this album but I'm going to wipe my ass and walk away. Let me know when each respective band releases their next album as these tracks might as well be b-sides to old records.

If you must, listen at their myspace.