Wishlist

On my commute to work, I think about acts/things that would make the world a better place. For instance, if I found the cure to cancer. Or if I were president, my first act would be to grant myself season passes to the Hollywood Bowl. But it wouldn't have to be front row box seats because I'm not greedy.

Today, I wish that the Arcade Fire followed in the footsteps of Neutral Milk Hotel. What path am I talking about? Release a critically acclaimed full-length record that the musical world is still creaming its pants over a decade later, do a grand tour and finally break up. Hell, I think My Bloody Valentine might have originated this plan with Loveless. Kevin Shields, you neurotic innovator.

Neon Bible, while good, was lackluster to the grandiose swell of Funeral. Which makes sense as the "break-out, indie darling meets the Universe" album is the hardest to follow. Other bands have fallen to this trap, some times known as the Sophomore Slump. The Strokes should have stopped after 12:51. Interpol had Turn on the Bright Lights. I'm glad the Postal Service had one album to their name. That's all they needed. So who else is on the list and where should they have stopped their careers?

Rilo Kiley with Take Offs and Landing. Under the Blacklight was a hot mess of homages to 1980 female singers. Jenny Lewis channeled Heart, Gloria Estefan and an array of other teased hair mallrats. What the hell is "dejalo?" And why should I be doin' the smoke detector? I will concede to a b-side of "The Execution of All Things" though as it's my favorite song from the band post-Take Offs.

Death Cab for Cutie after Transatlanticism. We all know "I will Follow You into the Dark" was the start of the end. You knew it. I knew it. Hell, Ben Gibbard must have known it. Give me the bite of old Ben Gibbard who would ask, "Am I drunk enough to drive you home?" (via "Champagne from a Paper Cup.")

The Decemberist after Picaresque. They ooze stage presence and I've never been let down by their live show. Was it the switch to Capitol Records for their last two releases that had me turn a deaf ear? Or am I just bored with their penchant for references to old folk tales and bayonets?

Fountains of Wayne after Welcome Interstate Manager as the constant rotation of "Stacy's Mom" on MTV proved to be the entrance to "One Hit Wonder" land for the band. Damn that infectious chorus and Stacy's mom who's got it going on. This album proved Adam Schlesinger genius song writing capabilities as he switched multiple genres, from crooning country to heartbreak emo to handclap pop.

Vampire Weekend has me on the fence. I know Contra will not be released till next year but their debut topped so many "Best of 2008" lists that I worry for their follow-up.

Speaking of "Best of 2008" and follow-ups, Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes are taking well-deserved breaks, but I wonder what 2010 has in store for both groups. A tiny fragment of myself flirts with the hope that this was a flash in the pan moment. How do you top For Emma? Actually on second thought, Fleet Foxes need to merge with My Morning Jacket and we would have an epic end result smashed heart strings and tearful eardrums. Thinks of the angelic harmonies!

This is becoming an unending list. So feel free to add your own.

The Anniversary

My Monsters of Folk review: I love Conor Oberst. The end.

There are some songs that play, rewind, and repeat in your head for a few days before it's replaced by another song. I've had the Anniversary's "I Believe that the End of the Reign of Terror is Soon Near." The song itself is just as long winded at the title, but that just adds to it epicness. There's three parts to this nine minute song. The first two minutes that play like any straight forward indie rock song minus the twee pop factor. Around the two minute mark, we enter this Sunny Day Real Estate zone with crashing drums and maniac guitars lines before the reverb transcends into a piano solo with echoing choir harmonies. Following this instrumental part, we enter the third and final section: stripped down arrangement of pianos, vocals, and acoustic guitar before the drums and lap steel rush over us like an undertow.
 

I miss this band. Here's hoping a reunion tour is underway after the release of their B-sides album, despite the band's break up four years ago.

Math rock

Me

+

Conor Oberst (and those other guys)

+

the Greek theater

+

free tickets

=

Jubilation!

I love free tickets. They make up for the ones I had to buy. I like to think that my presence at their show is a musician's reason for living. Literally. Without my ticket purchase, these artists wouldn't be able to buy toilet paper. And there is no one on earth that will deny the value of toilet paper.

I know I called the Monsters of Folk album a few dirty names in a previous post but do recall two things: 1) this is a free ticket and 2) this is my cult figure love. Please refer to the above equation for further clarification. 

So the concert calender for the following weeks read as so:
10/18 Monsters of Folk at the Greek
10/21 Choir of Young  Believers at Spaceland
10/22 Jason Lytle at the Echoplex
10/28 Le Loup at the Echo
10/29 Alela Diane at the Echo
10/30 Dead Man's Bones at the Echo
11/7 Or, the Whale at Echo Curio

If I were in the country and not gallivanting around in Japan, I would be at the following shows:
11/14 Pinback at the El Rey
11/17 Loch Lomond at the Bootleg Theater in downtown
11/21 Friendly Fires with the xx at the Henry Fonda Music Box

But sadly (not really), I will be in Tokyo and expecting it to be like Times Square NY on acid.

Orenda Fink

Orenda Fink popped on the music scene a few years back with the duo Azure Ray, who I adored because their music was perfect for rainy weather and cozy blankets. Perfect contemplation music. Then the pair pulled solo albums from beneath their guitar strings and now we have Fink's sophomore release Ask the Night.

The first single from that album is "High Ground" featuring Issac Brock (of Modest Mouse) and it's a slight departure from her solo debut album that tingles with echoes of Azure Ray. Which is expected as she comprised half of the band. "High Ground" is a foray into what Saddle Creek considers "haunting bluegrass" but I see it as an ode to the banjo. As the chorus swells with Brock's voice on backup vocals, the banjo is brought to the forefront of the song until all we hear is a mesh of vocals and the ting of steel banjo strings. Haunting? No, this is a stampede of sounds.

As a bonus, here's throwback to the Azure Ray days. This video questions their visual artistic skills. Is this supposed to be a goth version of Thelma and Louise but with scooters instead of a convertible? Or is this a replacement to the opening credits for Shannon Doherty's supernatual show "Charmed"? At least, it would replace that god-awful remix of The Smith's "How Soon is Now?"



P.S. My concert calender this past weekend was kindly filled with the Wooden Birds, Great Lake Swimmers, and Sunny Day Real Estate. The Wooden Birds were wonderful live. Although if you weren't aware, you would have assumed the American Analog Set released a new album. That's how similar the song arrangements are. As for Great Lake Swimmers? I'm sorry but the lead singer needs to learn how to enunciate. Who does he think he is? Jeremy Enigk? Nein, I say, nein.

Up next on the calender are Adele Diane, Dead Man's Bones, Choir of Young Believers, and quite possible Monsters of Folk. Though I've reduced their album to much, much less than the sums of their parts, I still wouldn't mind seeing them live. (Conor Oberst, three times this year? It might make up for missing him at Coachella. Might.)

Oh, humbug

At a party where my friends have left me for more beer, I am sitting next to Alex Turner* beneath the guise of raucous music and cigarette smoke. His deep, dark secrets of spurned lovers and dismay are whispered into my ears and I crane my neck to hear him correctly. Did he just asked, "What came first, the chicken or the dickhead?"

Yes. Yes, he did. Humbug is the Arctic Monkey's latest release and each song is crafted like a well-versed spat of contempt. Turner's disdain for posers and hipsters resurface on "Secret Door" as he croons in his lounge lizard voice of those silly "fools on parade." It must be residue from his side project The Last Shadow Puppets, because we are faced (or is it eared?) with his voice dropping to a smooth sneer while the drums and bass trample our heartstrings. On their previous records, Turner was a fresh-faced punk ready to slap you in the eardrums with his witty lyricism, but Turner of 2009 is a city weary man who has the lost The One. From "Dance Little Liar" to searching for her beneath every "Cornerstone" to the strange desire of "Fire and the Thud," Turner is a downtrodden lyricist rejected by rose-tinted romance. No wonder the album's titled Humbug.

"Crying Lightning" is their first single and the video takes an odd Poseidon twist but who cares, just listen to that intro bass line.


*said party never happened but let's pretend it did for poetic license

E for Emo

“Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?”

Well said, John Cusack. Now, did I listen to emo music because I'm miserable or am I miserable because I listen to emo music? Chicken, meet egg.

I'll defend emo music for as long as I can breathe because I grew up during the "golden" days of emo. Right before Chris Carrabba became MTV's poster child for the genre and the midwestern boys took it a tad too far in naming their bands/songs. Back before the naming became an internet meme, before black nail polish meant you had a sensitive soul, and back before every freaking band has a singer and a screamer.

Paste Magazine made a list of ten bands that supposedly paved the way for today's absurdity. If you took away Rites of Spring from the list and replaced it with Jets to Brazil and Saves the Day, then you've defined my musical taste in high school. Many of these bands are defunct, i.e. the Promise Ring, Braid, Texas is the Reason. Some bands have grown to an unrecognizable form (I'm talking about you, Weezer. What happened after Pinkerton?) Others are drifting in search of a solid state: Alkaline Trio, Cursive (to a degree).

What makes the music from those halcyon days any better than the stuff we have today? The emotional drive. The honesty. The soul shaking guitar riffs. We can dissect these songs until I've proven my point but sometimes you can't understand a sentiment until you've experienced it. These bands arrived as pop music peaked. The mid to late nineties plastered the world with boy bands, girl power, choreographed dance movements and matching outfits. Radio pop music had (and still has) an obsession with sexually charged songs. Case in point would be the introduction of Britney Spears' to the world in 1998 with "Baby One More Time." One more time to do what, Brit? The music videos prances her in a school girl uniform, the skirt a bit too high and that bare stomach a bit too taut.

Then "10 Minutes" by the Get Up Kids reach my ears and I was given three minutes of honest, well phrased lyrics. Three minutes of jaunting, upbeat guitars over lines like "you're falling in love/while I just fall apart." It's a purge of wants and frustration crammed into three minutes of simple chords and crashing drums.

And what do we have today? My Chemical Romance? Boys in angled hair cuts and black tight fitting jeans? Songs about being so depressed that death is your bitch lover? Wow, no thanks. The emo of yore acknowledge heartache and depression but in a humorous, self-deprecating way over a three-chord riff. My favorite example is Weezer's "Pink Triangle": "I'm dumb. She's a lesbian/I thought I had found the one." No speak of endless tears under the inferno of the sun or demented brooding.

Emo was good ol' rock n roll fun with a dash of lovesick pain and occasional spite. As if you gave Paul McCartney and John Lennon from the "I Wanna Hold your Hands" days rolls of toilet paper and a carton of eggs with the following directions: Go nuts. The end results may be simple, honest lyrics hidden by loud guitars, but man, oh, man, it was a frolicking good time.

My emo playlist:
-"Out of Reach" by the Get Up Kids
-"Across the Sea" by Weezer
-"Forever Leaving" by Tijuana Crime Scene
-"Cars and Calories" by Saves the Day
-"My Heart Skips a Beat" by the Promise Ring
-The New Amsterdams' Para Toda Vida album
-"Sweet Avenue" or "Starry Configuration" by Jets to Brazil

...my list is actually unending for this genre but these songs were on constant rotation when I was 16. I might also revert to a giddy 16 year old come this Sunday when I'll catch Sunny Day Real Estate. Here's hoping they play Diary in its entirety. If not, who cares? I'm seeing Sunny Day Real Estate!

The Rural Alberta Advantage

(image by Patrick Leduc)

Jeff Magnum. Sorry, just had to get that out of the way as the Rural Alberta Advantage is our It Band for the day. Pick a song, any song, off their full length debut Hometowns and one will instantly make the comparisons when Nils Edenloff opens his mouth to fill your ears with nasal wails of heartbreak and nostalgia. Paul Banwatt and Amy Cole round out the rest of the band. It's a good thing the trio decided to avoid a whimsical direction on their debut as Edenloff's voice will be a constant reminder of Neutral Milk Hotel.

With that out of the way, Hometowns is a flip through an audio photo album. This album reminds me of fond farewells. Be it to stages of schools, relationships, or even happy days. The end verses of the opening track mirror that sentiment: "And all these things will past/It's the good ones that will last/And right here what we've had/Is a good thing, it will last." And I want to believe Edenloff, I want to believe that though we can't turn back, the trite yet good memories remain.

These thirteen tracks will lyrically revolve around the same theme, which makes for a cohesive, earnest album. What was Over the Sea in an Aeroplane without WWII or Anne Frank? But while it's hard to emotionally connect with semen stained mountaintops, it's not difficult to recall heartache or homesickness. The sparse arrangement on "The Air" is a beautiful combination of both ideas. (And take a listen to the piano and acoustic guitar on that song!) But what drives a large majority of these tracks are the cleverly disguised synthesizers and ever up-centered drums. Banwatt basically hands you a cymbal to sit on so you can careen down the slopes and away from your woes.

The best track is "The Dethbridge in Lethbridge" because it's a rock stomp, face kick send off with aching spite. My favorite type. Just listen: