Album: Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror

Album: Reign of Terror
Mom & Pop
Release Date: February 21, 2012
Rating: ******* (7/10)

Personally, I think you’d have been foolish to harbor high hopes for Sleigh Bells’ follow-up to their 2010 debut, Treats. Sure, Treats was, hands down, the best album of 2010. But remember, 2010 wasn’t exactly 1991. The reason Treats was such a treat is that it was one of the only albums that sounded like 2010. >> Read the full review at piquedmag.com

In Defense of the Black Eyed Peas

I would not have guessed in a million years that it would be the Black Eyed Peas that would inspire me to start blogging again. But here goes.

After last night's appalling superbowl halftime performance, the Peas have been getting a lot of flack. But before you jump on the bandwagon, how about giving the Peas the benefit of the doubt?

It's a music snob's most innate instinct to scoff at any Top-40 puke like the Peas, but a music snob also knows that the general population is usually going to have pretty poor taste in music (the lowest common denominator) and in fact, the music snob's very identity is dependent on that fact. Accept it - horrible music is going to exist for mass consumption as long as there's any money to be made in the music industry. And occasionally, no matter how much we try, we are going to have to hear some of it - even if just when pulling off our noise-canceling headphones to hear what the pharmacy cashier is trying to tell us. Ranting against the existence of such music is like ranting against the existence of the gravity. No matter what you say, it's not going to stop.

So granted, there's going to be bad music that is consumed en masse, mostly by impressionable young people. Currently, the best charting group in the country is the cast of Glee. In a decade that started with Britney Spears and 'N Sync and ended with Katy Perry and Glee, the 2000's were certainly a dark time for mainstream pop. In this universe of high-grossing crap, I will support the lesser of the evils, not because I enjoy listening to any of it, but because if kids are going to insist on listening to crap, I'd rather it be Black Eyed Peas than Katy Perry or the cast of Glee any day.

First of all, Black Eyed Peas are self-made. True, they're heavily produced, but they did start as a group of b-boys from the hood and they frequently demonstrate how close they hold their b-boy roots to the heart of their current identity as megastars. The Peas still write their own material and write it collectively as a group. Many pop stars are simply instruments - good looking faces with decent voices, programmed to wail out "songs" their producers, managers and labels made in five minutes using a tried and tested Top 40 template. That's not to say the Peas aren't formulaic and that their songs don't sound the same as one another and as everything else on mainstream radio - but at least the members of the band are smart enough to use the formula themselves. Like it or not, the Peas are musicians, at least compared to packaged products like Justin Timberlake and the Jonas Brothers.

Moreover, the Peas seem to be at least loosely aware of their sociohistorical context and they do have a message. Not really in their lyrics, but in their general existence, in their interviews and how they present themselves. The message is pretty stupid: "let's all have a party and get along with each other." But at least it's a message, and a socially responsible one at that. Compare that to the ambiguously homophobic messages of "artists" like Katy Perry or the anti-messages of stars like Kelly Clarkson, Timberlake or Spears.

On the other side of the coin, the Peas are willing to embrace and epitomize the worst of pop as evidenced by their hit single "My Humps." "My Humps" is spectacularly bad, in fact called "transcendentally bad" by Slate. How many pop stars have made something that can truthfully called "transcendental" in any sense in the last 10 or 20 years? Blatantly sexual in content and yet profoundly unsexy, "My Humps" is one of the single worst songs in human history. And that's what I admire about the Peas - they have reached an extreme. The song renders all discussion of meaning and pop-music-as-art a colossal joke. It's the same thing that made T-Rex and MGMT great, but pushed to an even worse extreme: the creation of pop music that's intentionally pure garbage, meant to be consumed and discarded. No matter the Peas intentions with the song, its success in itself serves as a much-needed mocking critique of contemporary pop.

To put in another way, if you're going to make horrible, meritless pop music, go all the way. Don't hold back. Strip every hint of merit out of your music. And sell it for millions of dollars. That's called gaming the system and it's bad-ass and worthy of serious props.

"My Humps" is the ultimate guilty pleasure song. It's the ultimate statement of an era of 30 second fame and flash-in-the-pan pop shit, the ultimate reduction of decades of increasingly blatant, tawdry, artless lyrics. Say what you will, but no group has had the inspiration or balls to make quite such a indisputably, unmistakably BAD song, possibly ever. At least not that's had the bullshitting skill to bring it to the Top 10 Chart.

As for the Superbowl performance itself, it was unlistenable. But the issue was entirely with the mix. The backing track was barely audible, leaving the vocals naked. Some of the singing, granted, was not great, but given how bad the sound quality was on broadcast, it's hard to imagine how much worse it undoubtedly sounded in the stadium. Although I'm sure the Peas were wearing ear pieces, I'm also sure that didn't completely solve the problem that the music was entirely inaudible. Performing in a huge sports arena is a hellish challenge, acoustically. Performing on live TV is just as hellish and neither are helped by an audience who isn't actually there to hear you perform.

Yes, I would rather be repeatedly run over by a bus than have to listen to a Black Eyed Peas album, but so much better them than so many of the megastar options for the show. The trainwreck that was their halftime set was the fault of phenomenally incompetent mixing and I say props to the group for continuing to sing and dance with full enthusiasm even knowing how bad they sounded (although they likely didn't know exactly how bad they sounded until after the show). It's a tough gig, probably one of the toughest a band could face and even for a band as seasoned as the Peas now are, it's got to a difficult task.

There's no way the band can be faulted for the unbelievably awful mixing. They can only be faulted for making throw-away pop, and fault them all you like, but if you had the opportunity and the talent to make millions selling something you basically pulled out of your ass, wouldn't you do it?

Album: Coltrane Motion - Hello Ambition!

Album: Hello Ambition!
Data Was Lost, 2010
Rating: ******* (7/10)

Coltrane Motion are one of those bands that illustrate just how much of a crap-shoot the indie scene is. As an electronic indie pop duo, they certainly aren't the edgiest/artsiest/most prentious band around, but they are as catchy as anyone and there's no reason they shouldn't be getting some serious love.

But so far they've been flying under the radar, especially outside of their windy, square-shouldered hometown. And yes, that sucks, but selfishly, I am glad to have a chance to see them at the miniscule Bruar Falls tonight.

And what of their new album? It's what those who have heard the band have come to expect - a string of knock-out, sweet, noisy, heartfelt electropop songs that make you jump up and down a little and smile a lot. There's nothing that quite equals the blasting, hooky "Year Without a Summer" but there's not a bad track either. The opener, "When We Were Old," sets the tone with a rich, driving pop gem. The more measured, expansive tune on "Maya Blue" keeps the record from getting ahead of itself, while the deep bass on "I Forgot There Was a War On" keeps it from falling behind.

The album ends strong as well. "High Tide" loops over a bobbing, synthetic bass line, while the buzzing, lo-fi jangle pop of "My Heart Might Go On" nods to Yo La Tengo's warm, dreamy soundscapes. Rounding it out, "Please Call It a Comeback" holds its breath for a full minute before exploding into a dark, shivering swirl of melancholy pop.

Coltrane Motion could stay an undiscovered gem forever, but there's certainly no guarantee - and certainly every reason for the kids to get hip to Hello Ambition! So get your ass to Bruar Falls (or Arlene's tomorrow), pick up a copy and enjoy the secret while it lasts.

[myspace]

Live: Los Campesinos!

When: 4/22
Where: The Fillmore at Irving Plaza

I always seem to be running behind on live reviews. This show was ages ago, but here goes...

So Los Campesinos! are enough Welsh kids to cramp a tour van (let's hope they get a bus) and they originally played manic pop music and in a way, they still do, but they are depressing while being manic and their latest album proved how much they've aged in just a couple of years.

Even when they got their first break with Hold On Now, Youngster, Los Campesinos! had an excellent command of the stage, despite being barely old enough to drink beer in the U.S. Now, with their deepening maturity as musicians and as humans, the band play as well as any seasoned old pros. I mean that strictly in a good way - the band's youthful energy is certainly intact.

Guitarist Tom Campesinos (not his real last name) may bear a lot of the weight when it comes to writing, but frontman Gareth Campesinos (not his real last name) carries the weight in the live show. And Gareth has what it takes. He's passionate and sincere with every note and when he's not banging on his glockenspiel, he's climbing around on the drums and pogoing with an odd intensity and jumping out into the audience, as he did once during the set, walking all the way to the back (an extremely long mic chord was hooked up in anticipation). Gareth is an indie kid and certainly shows no trace of ego when he performs. In fact, the whole thing seems rather painful for him - as it surely must be, if you actually listen to his lyrics and actually know they are entirely true.

The Campesinos have had some personnel changes, most notably losing their keyboards and female vocalist Aleks - to higher education, if I'm not much mistaken - and adding in her stead Gareth's sister Kim. Kim was certainly struggling when I saw the band - her singing was offkey and the situation wasn't helped by her mic being mixed too loud. As I've said many times, it's never fair to judge a vocalist by one show. Everyone has nights where they can't hear themselves and are just swinging at pitches in the dark (baseball metaphor turned bad pun?). Anyway, I sure hope it was just a rough night. The other big change was an eighth Campesino lurking in the back with auxiliary percussion. I'm guess this is Rob Campesinos but he kind of blended in - which is good, auxiliary percussionists should probably not be too showy.

The setlist was great. The band hit a lot of old favorites and many of the best songs off their new record. They let some of their more post-rock tendencies shine through as well, with a few swelling instrumental sections that, while not show highlights, avoided being overindulgent or boring. The band's end of set tricks were different from last time I saw them, but they did again descend into noisy camaraderie. On stage and off, it seemed like everyone was having a good time.

Albums: The Depreciation Guild - Spirit Youth

Album: Spirit Youth
Kanine, 2010
Rating: ***** (5/10)

So Depreciation Guild are three attractive (if short-ish) guys who play electronics and guitars and make electro-shoegaze-pop. It's a good enough combination to pique my interest and the interest of quite a few young hipsters as well. But the band is starting to wear thin already.

Spirit Youth starts with cheesy electronics that open into a reasonably dense wall of sound and an interesting-enough melody. If the album kept this up, it would be decent, even interesting, but only three or four minutes in, the melody shifts to something off Top 40* radio - you know, where the guy's voice drifts around to a bunch of notes so that the tweenage girls think he's so talented. Not that Depreciation Guild are trying to win over tweenage girls - but then again, maybe they are.

The lyrics are deeply lamentable. A song titled "Crucify You" doesn't exactly bode well and it certainly lives up to expectations: "Sometimes I can't control the things I do / but you know I always want the best for you / ...I will crucify you." Yikes. And the rest of the album follows similar lines, although luckily, sometimes the lyrics aren't really audible.

With the highish, processed male vocals, Depreciation Guild sound like Mew but without the darkness and volume that keeps Mew at least semi-interesting. Instead, Spirit Youth is flowery and sappy and even formulaic. I like a good pop melody, but a good pop melody is like the Beatles or even like Depreciation Guild's Kurt Feldman's other band, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. It's not this formless three note banality.

Now, the shoegazer in me does have to give the band some credit. Each song is packed with a shimmering wall of sound and the arrangements - electronic lines cutting in and out, layer upon layer of processed guitar, it's good, solid, dreamy noise pop. There's nothing amateurish about Spirit Youth, particularly where sonic polish is concerned. Every sound in every song seems painstakingly shaped and mixed, forming lush waves of noise that few bands could match.

However, the sonic success is not enough to really make this album worthwhile. Twice, I tried to relisten to this album today to refresh my memory for the review, and both times, I could only sit through a few songs, all with the same sound, same tempo and same nebulous sort of melody, before I shut it down and turned on Sleigh Bells.

Hey, at least the album art is cool! [myspace]

* There are some good songs in the Top 40 from time to time. I am just referring to the bad Top 40 songs. And that is the majority.

Album: Woods - At Echo Lake

Album: At Echo Lake
Woodsist, 2010
Rating: ******** (8/10)

OK, I admit, I'm one of those fickle critics (or wannabe critics) who build a band up and then suddenly turn on them and tear them to shreds. I would fit in well in the UK, where they love to generate insane amounts of hype and declare a band the best thing since the Beatles, then in a fit of sobriety or shame or vengefulness, turn the band into the butt of a national joke. You can't with them, or me.

So last year around this time, Woods were one of my favorite bands. But it's been a long year and my thoughts on music have really evolved since then. I wouldn't take back my reviews of Woods or revoke the nine(!) stars I gave their last album, but I am certainly far less excited about anything related to folk music than I was at the beginning of 2009. The ultraconservative attitudes that have hijacked indie rock have grown increasingly obvious in the last year and I've come to see any music that doesn't challenge the backwards backlash as a dangerous and cowardly abuse of the art form.

On the other hand, I can't ignore or deny that Woods write beautiful music. And I wouldn't even argue that they are derivative. They have forged a unique sound that, yes, pulls audibly from Neil Young and the Grateful Dead but spins it as something distinctly post-2000. Drenched in LSD, their warbly, poppy folk and shimmering, folky pop conveys an intangible sense of mystery, like the band is playing from very far away.

At Echo Lake is pretty much like every other Woods album. Of the four, this has the most consistent quality of songs - and keeps them all well under the five minute mark. The arrangements are the richest and most complex the band has offered to date, showing a growing musical sophistication.

The real skill that has always set Woods apart is their ability to write beautiful melodies and Echo Lake shows they haven't yet exhausted the well. Centerpiece "Time Fading Lines" is a particularly notable melancholy masterpiece. Early on in the album, "Suffering Season" shows Woods exploring new layers of sound while earthy, simple songs like "Get Back" keep the record down to earth. And despite a more major-key opening than previous Woods albums, that same darkness lurks just behind the music.

Woods remain one among the finest songwriters on the indie scene today and their sonic experiments are distinctly their own. After seeing Sleigh Bells tonight, a folk-tinged lo-fi psychedelic band seems pretty insignificant in the progression of pop music, but this is pure beauty, at once saccharine and haunting, in sonic form, and that's worth a listen or ten.

[myspace]

Album: Sleigh Bells - Treats

Album: Treats
Mom & Pop, 2010
Rating: ********* (9/10)

What a week for new music! In case you were in a coma during CMJ last fall, Sleigh Bells are a LOUD electronic duo that were the surprise stars of the festival. Their debut album is finally out (today) and it definitely lives up to the hype.

Now, I spend a lot of time lamenting the lack of balls in indie music. And Treats, from the first note, seems to agree. "Tell Em" starts out with explosive hits and nasty, distortion-laden guitar. Alexis Krauss tops the rage with a surprisingly sweet, quick melody, even while amplifiers around her explode.

"Kids" follows, a jolting, static-thick beat and peeling guitars broken by girlish monologues about sunglasses and vacation. "Riot Rhythm" runs along similar lines, while "Infinity Guitars" starts with a rock'n'roll guitar hook and finds vocals more shouted than sung (though still with a certain girlishness) over a bare-bones, slappy beat. It sounds like the Kills - well, if the Kills did a whole lot of crack and then turned their amps up way past eleven. Then, two minutes in, the song suddenly lurches into overdrive with the loudest guitars this side of A Place to Bury Strangers, a sheer atom bomb of sound.

The next few tracks don't quite live up to the strong starters, but hold out to "Rill Rill." A sampled guitar and piano over deep, deliberate beats support Krauss's finest moment on the album. By far the most melodic and, well, prettiest track on the album, "Rill Rill" has the potential to be a left-field hit. The open arrangement allows the vocals to shine and prove that they need no sonic tricks to prop them up.

After the song's closing chime, the in-your-face roar of the rest of the album is back. "Crown on the Ground" opens with sneering guitar, then BAM, a whomping beat with hip-hop smarts threatens to bust your speakers entirely. Here again, Krauss's melody is nothing short of lovely, standing as always in juxtaposition to the ruthless instrumentals. "Straight As" comes on even stronger, with a twisting minor-key guitar riff that borders on metal, switching between gritty crunch and a sheer wave of distortion.

The album ends a little weak on a title track that really doesn't live up to its name. But at this point, if you're not begging for mercy, you don't have your stereo loud enough. Sleigh Bells are here to cause as much hearing damage as possible and I have to say, it's worth it.

But aside from competing with A Place to Bury Strangers and My Bloody Valentine for the Loudest Band Award, Sleigh Bells present something totally fresh. Yes, there are precursors to their sound - Germany's EC8OR comes close - but in the constant contrast between the vocals and the instrumentals, in the strange annihilation of the border between guitar rock and electronica, in the particularities of the distorted, trashed production, Sleigh Bells have got something that's entirely their own. It's about fucking time.

[myspace]

Album: Holy Fuck - Latin

Album: Latin
Young Turks/XL, 2010
Rating: ******* (7/10)

Although I'm not really a fan of instrumental music nor of electronica, I've long been a fan of Canada's Holy Fuck, a (now) quartet who proved to me that electronic groups could put on a live show worth watching. Their recorded material, however, I've always been able to live without - it's not bad but it rarely holds my attention. Still, I thought I'd give their new LP a listen - third time's the charm, right?

Well, Latin doesn't really contain any surprises. It may well be the group's most direct album today, with focused songs mostly sticking well under the five minute mark. However, despite scaling back some of the repetition and other indulgences, any LP without melodies (vocal or otherwise) is going to struggle to keep its audience's interest. That's not to say Holy Fuck should add vocals or even extended instrumental melodies - that's not who they are. It's jut to say that who Holy Fuck are puts them in a tough position from the start.

They do have a few new tricks up their sleeves this time around. The opener, "1MD," builds gently from silence into a hum of noises. While this does demonstrate more restraint than the band usually shows, if we've learned one thing from post-rock, it's that no matter how well executed, any slow swell of noise is an easy and predictable trick.

Speaking of post-rock, the album's two calmest tracks, centerpieces Stay Lit and Silva & Grimes, are oddly post-rock-esque. There's a similar feeling of measured exploration and winding, indirect structure. I haven't decided yet whether this is a good or bad thing.

"Red Lights" and "Latin America" (which, incidentally, does not use Latin rhythms, as one might expect) get the album out to a strong start, but the sequencing is a bit surprising, since two of the coolest, slickest tracks come near the end, "Stilettos" and "Lucky." All four of these songs keep head-bobbing beats at the fore while adding some surprisingly beautiful noises to the mix.

Closing things out, "P.I.G.S." is the album's longest and most unruly track - and that's fine, every decent band gets at least one song like this per album, and especially as a closer, it works. The band lets lose a little, moves between sections and really shows their chops.

All in all, it's an album I wouldn't mind not owning. It's not bad - in fact, it is Holy Fuck's most consistent and disciplined effort to date. If you like pulsing electronica and excited noise, you'll like this. But personally, I'm going to hold out for the next time they come through town.

Live: A Place to Bury Strangers, Big Pink

When: 3/30
Where: Webster Hall

I've never thought about A Place To Bury Strangers being a particularly tight band but that's only because they are so seamless, you don't even think about them stumbling. At least, I never had until I heard them in the craphole that is Webster Hall.

Turns out APTBS now have a friend doing their sound, and while friends are awesome for listening to your problems and buying you beer when you have a bad day, they aren't necessarily awesome for controlling a sound board in a way that sounds good. I know it's an uphill battle to sound anywhere near decent in Webster - the acoustics in that room are notoriously slushy. But the room and the untrained sound guy - well, with their forces combined, they nearly trainwrecked one of NYC's most unstoppable bands.

From the get-go, it sounded like the three musicians on stage could not hear each other. At times, the drums and guitar seemed to be in entirely different places. The bass was barely audible. The guitar noise was a mess, at once hollow and muddy - and then it cut out all together for quite a long time. In the middle of one song, guitarist Oliver Ackerman walked over to the bass amp and adjusted the sound from there. That's a sure sign the guy in the sound booth is failing.

Several times, I thought the band was going to lose it entirely, fall apart and end their set. Much to their credit, they hung on, plowed through and finished in style. For all it ravaged their sound, the venue did beef up the band's visuals, with some serious smoke machine action and some serious strobe lights. The band's visual intensity helped mask the sonic failings, Ackerman in flashing silhouettes abusing his weathered Fender Jag. The deafening noise jam near the end of the set finally managed to lock in the sound a bit and the band exited with their audience rapt.

Though this was by far the worst set I've ever seen from this band, I think the problems were only visible to loyal fans. Anyone seeing APTBS for the first time was bound to be impressed - how can you not? And for those of us who did notice the band struggling, it could only increase our admiration as well. Anyone else would have given up and left the stage, but this trio rode their intensity alone and put on a damn show.

Of course, adding to the problems was the fact that APTBS were opening. Opening bands usually have their volume capped ten or twenty decibels below the headliner, and since APTBS's sound is based on pure volume, the dimmed sound destroyed what little clarity they may have been able to achieve. The true power of the massive speakers hanging in front of the stage was immediately apparent, however, when The Big Pink appeared. The bass was loud enough to severely damage my eardrums despite my fairly heavy-duty earplugs. It was the kind of bass that rattles your bones to the point of physical discomfort.

But I could see why the band cranked up so loud - except for the phenomonally brain-shattering volume of their bass line, there was absolutely nothing going on. How did this band get so popular? Their songs have no substance at all. There were a few decent beats but not a tune, not a song, not cool guitar sound, not an emotion, just vapid showmanship.

And let's talk about the showmanship too. The front man has a rock star haircut and was sporting a tattered white t-shirt under a black leather jacket. Several metal chains hung from his neck. The other major force in the band, the DJ, was a stockier fellow in a black hoody, hood up. Um, could you get any more cliche? Please? Cause that's just not enough for me.

Meanwhile, the bass player was entirely unremarkable and the drummer, well, the drummer makes me sad. See, I hate to hate on a female drummer, but this girl, one Akiko Matsuura, is NOT a good drummer. Granted, she was scantily clad and flailed her arms pretty good, but as a drummer, she sucks. Luckily, about 80% of the beat was coming from the DJ, so her inabilities were well hidden. But seriously, folks.

Maybe if I did a lot of drugs, I might have enjoyed this band. But it would have to be a lot of drugs. As it is, the Big Pink is a waste of time and space. Wanna be ahead of the curve? Forget about them. Everyone else will have forgotten them in a year too. Thankfully.

Album: MGMT - Congratulations

Album: Congratulations
Sony/Columbia, 2009
Rating: **** (4/10)

In 2008, the trend of rich college kids making trashy hipster pop reached its zenith (though sadly, that sun has not yet set) and suddenly Wesleyan duo MGMT crashed on to the scene, a little too late. Their trashy hipster pop was unabashedly trash, throw-away psychedelic synth hits catchy enough to land the band on Sony/Columbia well before their full-length debut. But somehow, despite all of this, the band had some appeal, some hint of integrity that their fellow spoiled-East-Coat-collegiate-douchebag bands lacked.

I guess it's because MGMT seemed to be gaming the system. They were snagging serious bucks from the major label machinery on behalf, it seemed, of smart-ass indie kids everywhere. The whole thing had the air of a colossal prank. The band certainly reinforced this by doing things such as suing the president of France for unauthorized use of their songs, then donating the settlement monies to legal aid for artists (I'm getting this from Reuters).

But the band's attitude and ability to not take themselves at all seriously wasn't the only thing that made them worthy of note. None of use would have heard of them and they never would have had these opportunities if their songs weren't so damn catchy. Sure, they're cheap pop songs, but they are near-perfect cheap pop songs that dare you not to like them. If someone tells you they don't like "Kids," they are probably lying.

And this is where Congratulations fails. It explicitly forgoes any attempt at singles. Big mistake. Singles are exactly what MGMT did right. The new album lacks melodies and more generally, lacks focus. It's a random, half-assed jumble of psychedelic ideas. Selecting producer Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember can't have helped the band either - based on my encounters with Kember, I'm perpetually surprised he hasn't died of an O.D. yet. He's certainly not going help anyone make judgment calls or edit themselves.

MGMT are still cool guys and they still know their music is garbage - and for that, I will always respect them. However, bland and nebulous, Congratulations isn't even worth a listen. There are better ways to spend 45 minutes.

Album: Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be

Album: I Will Be
SubPop, 2010
Rating: ******** (8/10)

All I want to do today is talk about how good this album is! Dum Dum Girls is mostly one Dum Dum Girl who goes by "Dee Dee" (real name Kristin Gundred) and has backing from Frankie Rose (Crystal Stilts, ex-Vivian Girls) and a couple of other badass ladies. And this, their debut, has the rare privilege of seeing release on SubPop, the West Coast's most prestigious (pseudo-)indie label.

Sonically, the band falls in with the cavernous reverb and jangly lo-fi popularized by Thee Oh Sees, Rose's Crystal Stilts and Vivian Girls, Gundred's husband's Crocodiles, Blank Dogs' Mike Sniper (who has a side-project with Gundred called the Mayfair Sect) and others. The vocals are dusted with fuzz, but never enough to obscure the fact that Gundred is a singularly gifted singer and songwriter.

The band's name, Frankie Rose connection, fuzz-pop asthetic and all-female membership has led to a whole lot of Vivial Girls comparisons and it's not an unfair reference to make. However, Dum Dum Girls have much more in common with the other bands listed above than with their fellow girl group. And unlike any of the others, Dum Dum girls set a clear focus on vocals. While most bands in this genre have vocals mediocre in pitch, melody and tone, Gundred can sing. She's no Aretha Franklin or anything, but she can definitely carry a damn tune.

Of course, almost inextricably linked to good singing are good melodies. And in terms of melody, Dum Dum girls blow all their ilk completely out of the water. Their tunes smoothly combine decades of pop influences into a single, cohesive style - 60's girl groups and even earlier radio pop, 70's early punk and 80's post punk - pretty much everything cool and catchy that's hit the radio over the last century is here distilled. It's hard to say what makes a melody great - a wider palate than simply major keys, a rolling, foot-tappable syncopation and just enough repetition to stick in your head - but not enough to drive you crazy. Whatever the exact formula, Dum Dum Girls are like few others on the indie scene today - never cliche, relentlessly catchy.

And in all of this, the album somehow avoids complacency. Producer Richard Gottehrer has a resume that includes the likes of Blondie and the Voidoids - he's got the perfect sense of big-pop-meets-intelligent-edginess and the dark sheen with which he covered the album makes every song interesting and effecting.

I Will Be starts out with a bombshell trio of songs, the driving, building "It Only Takes One Night," a slick druggy ditty called "Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout" and the fuzzed-out, quick-footed "Oh Mein Me," sung in a surprisingly adorable German. "Jail La La" continues the streak, with effects-scrambled call-and-response vocals and a simple, sweeping chorus. Ballads(ish) like "Rest of Our Lives" and "Blank Girl," as well as the closer, "Baby Don't Go," take things down a notch without getting mired in their own restraint.

I Will Be is just a pop album. But it's a great pop album. Get it on vinyl and put it on when you're cleaning, when your friends are over or when you feel like doing a little dance by yourself in front of the mirror or singing badly in German. That's what it's for.

Live: Miniboone, Quiet Loudly, the Vandelles

When: 2/26/10
Where: Cake Shop

I wasn't planning to write a review of this show, but it turned out to be worth a few words...

Quiet Loudly was already playing when I arrived. It's been ages since I've heard them and man have they changed! Before, their music was made of angular, teethy guitar and bass lines that would lock together in some sort of bizarre skeleton. Now there are melodies, structures and grooves - the band has hammered their jagged soundscape into a dense, restrained blues rock. Still, from time to time, a sharp guitar will slice through and the band suddenly transforms into their dissonant, broken former selves. But the groove always returns and what before were empty spaces are now filled with a wall of misty guitar and keyboard sound.

Hints of blues always existed somewhere at the very base of Quiet Loudly's sound but only now can they manage the unhurried, sighing phrases that make the genre what it is. Not that they are a blues band - their psychedelic leanings and the shadows of pop that cross their songs are pure indie rock. They've managed to strike the perfect balance of the two genres without resorting to a cliched drunken swagger or country drawl.

Unfortunately, in other aspects their music is not yet balanced. While they still make room for their sonic romps, without their jerky guitar lines, the band risks fading into a background. Moreover, the spaces they do make seem to go on a little too long and accomplish a little too little for their span. The band's long periods of jamming were more enjoyable than many, mostly because a song-oriented sensibility still governs the grounding but nimble bass and kicked-up drums. Still, self-indulgence is always a risk and seldom one worth taking in the world of music. Let's none of us turn into a jam band, okay?

Overall, though, Quiet Loudly are making vast strides, incorporating some (if not quite enough) of their innovation along into far more focused, well thought-out pieces. They're creative and they're on the right track. That's more than you can say for most bands. [myspace]

The Vandelles played next and they fucking ruled, like they always do. There was a bit too much downtime, but when they were playing, all four members owned the stage, sending a wave of feedback hurdling through the room. They seemed a little cramped up there - this is a big-stage sort of band - but they still threw themselves mentally and physically, 100%, into the songs. Their 50's and 60's throwback melodies buried under layer after layer of searing distortion, their drummer pounding primal beats like the devil's personal handpuppet, their deep bass and low guitars rumbling without pause, the Vandelles are a force to be reckoned with, that much is sure. [myspace]

And lastly, Miniboone, a band I've followed a least vaguely since their very first show. Like Quietly Loudly, these guys have transformed. Once they played a freaked-out, intellectual punk a la the Minutemen, with screams and spasms. Next I saw them, they were playing pop, and not just any pop but big pop, the kind with larger-than-life melodies and harmonies, following the finest pop traditions of the 1960's - girl groups, orchestrated am pop and all the rest.

But now, they've finally found themselves as a band. Their manic, brainy Minutemen-like bursts have found a way to fit naturally into their bigger pop instincts. It's awkward, in a way, but in a way that suits them, in a way that's fun and exciting. With jerky stop-and-start pieces coming together into guitar-swinging pop and with vocal melodies that are equal parts sixties radio fodder and eighties punk, Miniboone have found their niche, and they're definitely the only band in it.

But what made this show so extraordinary isn't that the members are gifted songwriters or that their music is unique. What made this show extraordinary was that everything broke. The mics stopped working, the amps were crapping out, nothing was going right, and all this only two songs in. The band was on the verge of giving up, but with some encouragement from their friends in the crowd, they hatched a plan. If the microphones weren't going to work, they would just need to find another way to amplify the vocals.

So they started a sing-a-long. Guitarist Doug Schrashun picked up a floor tom headed for the center of the audience while the band launched into some covers. The audience joined in with the singing(/shouting), also taking turns pounding the tom and playing what percussion they could grab. When the covers ran out and microphones were still out of commission, the band rounded out the set with a couple more originals. Luckily the audience knew most of these too and helped kick the singing up to audible levels.

It was a great show because it was unplanned, because it was a disaster. A good band can do some damage control, but only a truly great one can pull off a feat like this - making the crumbiest night imaginable into an unforgettable experience for all. Even a cold bastard like me left with the warm fuzzies. Miniboone are not just a good band, they are a great one and it's concerts like this that keep me coming out to hear new bands. Sometimes it seems like there are so many bands and so few new ideas that it's not possibly worth it to keep searching. But then I find what I'm looking for - something exciting and new and real. Miniboone may not play my favorite style, but they've got something special, something 99% of Brooklyn bands don't even know they're missing. And that's worth a lot. [myspace]

Album: Japanther - Rock'n'Roll Ice Cream

Album: Rock'n'Roll Ice Cream
Menlo Park, 2010
Rating: ******* (7/10)

Pop-punk/art-punk duo Japanther have long been a bit of an oddity in the Brooklyn music scene - you won't see them with a lot of other NYC punks or underground popsters. Instead, the bands with whom they are most closely associated are stylistically far away, united instead by attitude, and unsurprisingly, attitude more than sound defines Japanther.

That attitude, for better or worse, is clear from track one of Rock'n'Roll Ice Cream. Japanther are (usually) two dudes from Pratt and their music hints at that combination of artistic inclination and obnoxious privilege so commonly associated with their alma mater. They have always had an anti-corporate bent, this time most clearly in the opening track, a catchy pop blast called "Surfin Coffin." Their lyrics on the rest of the album, as in their previous songs, range from the excitement of being young and maybe hanging out with a girl you like a lot to the frustration of being surrounded by a seemingly passionless, anticreative world.

But it's not all good. The band runs into trouble from time to time when, as on "Surfin Coffin," their arrogance dominates their social critique. Rather than uniting, as such mildly political punk should, this divides by pretty clearly indicating that Japanther think they're better than you. And maybe they are, but they shouldn't sing about it. However, on one level, even this can be a bit charming. It reminds me of the arrogant phase most of us went through around age 14 - remember that? When you were so much more enlightened than your parents and teachers and had the world just about all figured out? It's kind of cute that Japanther have, apparently, not yet realized the error of their conceit.

Enough! Let's talk about the music! There's plenty to say... First of all, Japanther grew a bit for this record, adding Anita Sparrows not only for female vocals but also as a full-on band member with writing and recording contributions across the board. Sparrows's presence clearly opened many doors for the band and they made the most of these opportunities, all while staying true to their band's identity. It's certainly one of the most successful add-a-member attempts I've heard in a long time. Sparrows has a wide stylistic range, tackling girl-group meets surf back-up vocals on "None's Listenin" as well as her punky chant on "Surfin Coffin."

If you haven't guessed it yet, the album has a surf thread running through it, but I'm thankful to say it's not overdone. With everybody and their grannie making Beach Boys-influenced indie pop these days, I'm glad to hear someone make it work without compromising. And Japanther, though never the edgiest band on earth, are still defiant and uncomplacent even in their seaside harmonies.

Sonically, the album is subtly unique. Bringing in mainstream, big-name pop producer Michael Blum but keeping their good ol' telephone mics (which sound worse than the computer mic I sometimes use for home recording - and that came free with my parents' PC back in the mid-90's), Japanther sound muddled - but not necessarily in a bad way and certainly in an interesting one. The sound crafted is far larger than ever before, but it's as raw, young and immediate as always.

Not every song on Rock'n'Roll Ice Cream is a winner, but it's got enough syrupy sweet melodies and enough fuzzy, rumbling guitars to be worth a listen. It's not gonna change your life, but it's fun. And we all need some fun from time to time.

[myspace]

Upcoming Shows: Darlings, Big Troubles + more

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
Wednesday, March 10

Magnetic Fields @ Town Hall * Midtown, Manhattan * $35
The Magnetic Fields were a sad band who played very simple late-90’s style indie pop. Now they are back together for some shows.


Thursday, March 11

Iran @ Knitting Factory * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $10 / $12
Iran is a great lo-fi band with one of the guys from TV on the Radio. Their songs will go straight to your core, in their simple way, and they’ll stay there. [myspace]

Magnetic Fields @ Town Hall * Midtown, Manhattan * $35
See above.


Friday, March 12

Pygmy Shrews @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
I love the Pygmy Shrews. They play HARDCORE – fast, loud, nasty. But it all fits into good songs that are as catchy as they are abrasive. [myspace]

Scout Niblett @ Union Pool * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Scout Niblett is an English woman who could teach even the most minimal bands a thing or two about minimalism. She supports her dry, pained vocals with a guitar, maybe, or a drum, but her voice alone carries the music. She’s well regarded by just about everyone. [myspace]

Henry Rollins @ The Fillmore * Union Square, Manhattan * $35
Henry Rollins is the poster boy of hardcore. As the definitive vocalist for Black Flag, he pushed American punk into darker, angrier territory than it had ever seen before. Now he does some crazy spoken word stuff and is generally nutso. You don’t want to meet him in a dark alley.


Saturday, March 13

Darlings, Sundelles, My Teenage Stride, Big Troubles, Total Slacker @ Cake Shop * LES, Manhattan * $10
This is a great line-up of bands looking to make a little money for their respective trips to Austin for SXSW. All have a rough, wild edge around a true pop core, though in different ways. Darlings make catchy indie rock but seem to keep changing their minds and veering from one direction to another, starting and stopping and letting their pop tunes slip in and out of their songs with no apparent order. Sundelles play enthusiastic garage rock. My Teenage Stride are an indie pop band whose infectious melodies are just unpolished enough to be lovable. Big Troubles play LOUD motherfuckin noise pop like the Smashing Pumpkins, rocking hard and heavy but never losing track of their warm, poppy side. I haven’t heard Total Slacker, but they’re supposed to be good, I guess. [darlings myspace] [sundelles myspace] [mts myspace] [big troubles myspace] [slacker myspace]

Henry Rollins @ The Fillmore * Union Square, Manhattan * $35
See above.

PC Worship @ Shea Stadium * Greenpoint, Brooklyn
PC Worship is a strange lo-fi project that combines wistful, fuzzy songs with sonic experiments. They are more original than 98% of bands in Brooklyn (at least). [myspace]


Sunday, March 14

Drunkdriver @ Cake Shop * LES, Manhattan * $7
Drunkdriver play the hardest of hardcore. Guitar shreds and roars while a heavily tattooed young man paces the front of the stage like a caged tiger, intensely screaming into his microphone. [myspace]


Tuesday, March 16

Miniboone @ Bruar Falls * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * FREE
I just saw the coolest show, and it was by Miniboone. This one is free, so you should go. They are a band with a huge pop sound but a young, exploratory spirit. Like Phil Spector x the Minutemen. And their live show kicks serious ass. [myspace]


[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

March
18
Killswitch Engage @ The Fillmore

19
Killswitch Engage @ The Fillmore
Oneida + Sightings @ Knitting Factory

23
Black Lips @ Brooklyn Bowl

24
Black Lips @ Bowery Ballroom

25
Nada Surf play Let Go + surprise guest @ Bowery Ballroom
Jello Biafra and Guantanamo Schools of Medicine @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple

26
Nada Surf play The Weight Is a Gift + surprise guest @ Bell House
Spoon, Deerhunter @ Radio City Music Hall

27
Nada Surf play Lucky + surprise guest @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

30
Big Pink, A Place to Bury Strangers @ Webster Hall

April
1
Bonnie Prince Billy @ Monster Island Basement

2
The Bronx, Japanther @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Captured Tracks Showcase: Blank Dogs, Wet Dog + more @ Glasslands
Bonnie Prince Billy @ Monster Island Basement

3
Soft Pack, Nodzzz, Male Bonding @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

6
The Bronx, Japanther @ Bowery Ballroom

8
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ Webster Hall

9
Pissed Jeans + Himalaya @ Knitting Factory
Xiu-Xiu, Tune-Yards @ Bowery Ballroom

10
Washed Out, Small Black @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

15
Liars @ Bowery Ballroom

17
Trans Am @ Santos Party House

18
Liars @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Trans Am @ Market Hotel

20
The Thermals @ Brooklyn Bowl

21
Apples in Stereo @ Bowery Ballroom

22
Quasi, Let's Wrestle @ Bowery Ballroom

25
Shellshag, Noun (Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females), Black Wine, Pregnant @ Mercury Lounge

May
3
Chapterhouse @ Bell House


[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Live: Trail of Dead + The Damn Low, Midnight Masses

I got to the [...and You Will Know Us by the] Trail of Dead show way too early and as a result, caught the entirety of the first band's set. The Damn Low are a duo who may not actually be a real band - the whole thing seemed to be some sort of inside joke I didn't care enough about to figure out.

The duo play a minimalist blues punk, a la the White Stripes (though I have a sneaking suspicious they might resent the comparison). It's easy material to play, but they were pretty ok at it and it all might have been good except for one thing - the whole thing was cloaked in some sort of "irony." Folks, irony is dead. This sort of thing has got to stop. The guy sang a song about his "two favorite things," as he put it: "guns and dogs." Har har, get it, cause that's so redneck, har har. I'm over it.

We didn't realize the show was four bands so we left for a bit and skipped band number two and half of the set by Midnight Masses, whose residency it was. I didn't know anything about this band or I might have realized why they were playing with Trail of Dead's "original line-up" - the two bands have two members in common. Midnight Masses is a whole lot of people though, and the only original member of Trail of Dead who isn't in their band, Conrad Keely, joined them for the part of the set I saw.

Midnight Masses make tug-at-your-heart-strings gospel-influenced alternative rock. It's better than it should be, for what it is - I think because this band (in stark contrast with the first act) really means it. They are sincere, if a bit unoriginal. As to be expected of a band with so many members, the songs were layered. The songs, which grapple with spiritual subjects, build on a lot of pounding tom-toms. One, the obvious high-point of the set, opens out into an choral solo with a half dozen voices replacing instruments, then builds it up into swelling refrain. It's moving....easy, but moving.

Midnight Masses is fronted by the tall and charismatic Autry Fulbright. He's got a welcoming and bold stage presence, but unfortunately, he's not as good of a singer as he thinks he is. He noodles around way too much and doesn't quite hit the notes with the precision his style calls for. The rest of the band seems a little scattered as well, the pieces not quite settled. The band seems fueled by instinct - not quite jamming but with a lot of freedom. Which is fine, but not quite my thing. I can't say as I care much about the future of this band, but I'm pretty sure they'll do well for themselves, and they're definitely worth checking out, if you're into that kind of thing. [myspace]

Trail of Dead, whose "original line-up" is apparently songwriters Jason Reece and Conrad Keely along with a bass player, closed the night out with a great set. They hit up quite a few old favorites that loyal fans probably haven't heard live in a decade, and tossed in a song or two off their better-known albums (notably "Another Morning Stoner"). We got the rare treat of seeing Keely behind the drums and all three kept the show low-key, as such a small event should be. They kept the set short and sweet and left a happy audience. [myspace]

p.s. NYC Taper taped the show. Check it!

Album: Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring

Album: Romance Is Boring
Wichita/Arts & Crafts, 2010
Rating: ********* (9/10)

Friends, the news is bittersweet: Los Campesinos! are cute no more. That shouldn't be a big surprise, given the leaps in maturity the band made within the few months between Hold On Now Youngster and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. Here, with over a year under their belts, Los Campesinos! continue on their dramatic trajectory. But even with the band's explicit attempts to distance themselves from their twee past and their glockenspiel, it would have been hard to see the trajectory reaching quite as far as it has on Romance is Boring, which often barely sounds like an "indie" album at all. Instead, you can hear echoes of every UK pop great of the last 30 years and could almost imagine this band taking their place among them.

Although their compositions and arrangements have grown, the most noticeable change is in the voices. Gareth (gotta use first names, the band doesn't use their last) has changed in his boyish holler for a professional, adult sound - not that the pitch has changed, just the tone. For her part, Aleks has also found a bit richer, more developed voice. Los Campesinos! are all grown up.

And the lyrics are grown up too. The band revealed their darker side on We Are Beautiful, but here, it hits full force and in the context of a fully developed LP (We Are Beautiful was more like an LP-length EP). In a minor key breakdown in "Media Res," Gareth announces "I'm leaving my body to science / Not medical but physics." Maybe this line could have fit with the band's indie pop days, but the delivery makes clear this is no joke but rather a serious meditation on mortality and physical decay. Later in the album comes its masterpiece, "The Sea Is a Good Place to Think About the Future." This track has been floating around for a while so maybe you've heard it. But if not, and especially in the context of the full album, it hits like a ton of bricks. Describing a self-destructive friend, the narration comes restrained, matter-of-fact tone with which we have to deal with life's most horrifying tragedies if we are going to survive them.

It's a far cry from "You! Me! Dancing!"

The musical developments keep up with the emotional strides. Much of the credit must go to producer John Goodmanson (Blonde Redhead, Death Cab, Nada Surf, Sleater-Kinney, etc.), who has beefed up the band's sound from the tinkering twee-punk of 2008 to an almost grandiose sound. The complex parts are still there, but even the glockenspiel solo on "Media Res" does not sound toyish, it's dark and alarming. Who knew glockenspiel could be dark and alarming?

However, while Goodmanson's skills did push the band to the next level, they can take even more credit themselves - their songwriting has become infinitely more sophisticated. The downside is that some songs are not quite as tight as the band's poppier material, but finally, the band's post-rock origins shine clearly, with swells of noise, counterpart melodies, vast choruses and subtle instrumentals. As with much post rock, the compositions seem to closer in mindset to classical than to the rest of pop/rock, but it's not overkill. The band reigns it in and keeps every song focused, without crossing the five-minute mark even once. The album even includes a short instrumental track ("200-102") and a distant, echoey post-shoegaze interlude with vocals ("Heart Swells/100-1").

I'm not entirely wild about the unison on the title track and I have trouble following some of the songs early in the second half, but even despite its rough patches, the album is a powerful statement. From the hyper-distorted, raging opening of "Plan A" (the group's most aggressive song to date) to the gentle ebbing of the guitars in "The Sea Is a Good Place," from Aleks's cynical "We've Got Your Back" (which lyrically and musically revisits and seems to attack "Drop It Doe Eyes" on the band's debut) to the understated closing track, burned on the edges with static, Romance Is Boring is an album to be reckoned with. Hold on now, young and old alike.

[myspace]

Album: Spoon - Transference

Album: Transference
Merge, 2010
Rating: ******** (8/10)

There a number of indie groups who, over the last decade, have managed to establish themselves as household names, maybe not in most homes, but thanks to the support of NPR and news magazines trying to seem hip, in most upper-middle class, white, college educated ones. Spoon is one of these and their every release is anticipated, then celebrated by their pseudo-indie fans almost by rote.

I've never fully understood the popular reaction to Spoon - I think the band at their best are universally lovable, but their output is certainly not universally great. Their last album, 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, was greeted with high praise and I still can't figure out why. If one hadn't heard Spoon before, maybe it would come across as pretty nifty, but as compared to Girls Can Tell and Gimme Fiction, it seems bland, formulaic and uninspired. Sure, it may step up sonically, showing the telltale signs of a bigger budget - added instruments, more meticulous engineering - but the songs themselves are weak.

Not so with Transference. In an established pattern of making a great stride on every second album (Telephono but not Series of Sneaks, Girls Can Tell but not Kill the Moonlight, Give Me Fiction but not Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga), Spoon was due to put out a good one and they have delivered. Transference takes what few strides the band forced into Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga as well as the more heartfelt progress of Gimme Fiction and carries the sum to yet another level of maturity.

It's clear from the opening of "Before Destruction" that Transference is a step forward. The song begins with warm, intimate layers of sound, breaking over Britt Daniel's naked vocals. Some songs are classic Spoon at their best, like the riff-focused "I Saw the Light" and the piano clunk of "Written in Reverse." But others, like "Who Makes Your Money," indicate bold progress, much as the song "I Turn My Camera On" did a few years back. Circling a slick beat, "Who Makes" is tense and edgy but at the same time, peels away another layer of timidity and announces yet another slew of conventionally un-cool influences. Once again, Spoon proves they can pull off almost anything they try.

Lyrically as well, the band has further let down their guard. The songs are the band's most immediate and personal since 2001's Girls Can Tell. Also, as Spoon's first truly self-produced LP, Transference does away with the almost sterile sonic perfectionism of albums like Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. "Trouble" boasts the sound quality of a 60's garage band's high-end home recording. Even the more sonically complex songs like "Before Destruction" and "Who Makes Your Money" have a raw immediacy and the sincerity the last album so lacked.

Transference is the result of Spoon's broadened sonic vocabulary finally finding space to lock in to the band's more emotional, vulnerable tendencies. It's all of the band's explosive creativity and none of their cerebral overreaching. It's everything Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga wasn't and everything Spoon should be. Finally.

[myspace]

Album: Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

Album: Astro Coast
Kanine, 2010
Rating: ******** (8/10)

Astro Coast is one of those albums that is nearly perfect in execution but uninteresting in concept. The one time I heard Surfer Blood live, I walked out after a few minutes because I could not stand another minute. My reaction to this album has been much warmer, but something about it really puts me off.

And that something is that this album is devoid of courage. It's a pop album with a semi-cool underground facade but the band doesn't take risks, emotionally or musically. The last thing we need to start 2010 is another Beach Boys influenced band of white boys making music no one could ever find scary. That said, if we had to keep one, I'd throw out Girls and Real Estate in a heartbeat and keep these guys instead.

Surfer Blood, though recording in a dorm room, have certainly created a masterful record. The production is astounding, with reverb on the vocals that captures the Brian Wilson-style three dimensions so popular these days. The melodies are far more tightly constructed than many of the band's peers - like it or not, it's an album of perfect pop songs, with greater maturity and greater composition than the others of its type. The most obvious reference point is Weezer, but Surfer Blood sound bigger. I suppose if there is an element of courage in Astro Coast, it's that the band doesn't cling to indie falsehoods. They are a pop band and they aren't afraid to sound larger than life.

The only other major flaw in the album is, for all its great songwriting, it manages to rip off more than one source. The opening of "Harmonix" almost exactly echoes the first bars of Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood 2 - Laika" while the major guitar riff in the chorus of "Swim" was lifted from an 80's pop-metal song I can't remember the name of ($10 to whoever names it!). "Anchorage" barely alters a few guitar licks on loan from the poppiest of late 80's/early 90's Sonic Youth. There are more familiar pieces than these, but none are nearly enough to constitute copyright infringement and given the limited possibilities of major key pop guitar tunes, I'm sure the band didn't consciously rip anyone off. But if you're well versed enough in music, you'll hear a lot more of other bands than you'll hear of Surfer Blood themselves.

That isn't to say the record is jumbled - it's a cohesive digestion of vastly varied pop influences, each song fitting well into the package. A few slower, longer, more involved songs like "Slow Jabroni" and "Anchorage" grant the album a little depth. Though not remotely groundbreaking, Astro Coast is an appealing record of professional quality and I wouldn't be surprised to see this band selling out some huge venues in the near future. I just won't one of those buying a ticket.

[myspace]

Best Albums of 2009, Part 5: #5-1

PREVIOUS>>
Part 1 - Rules and Runners Up
Part 2 - #25-21
Part 3 - #20-16
Part 4 - #15-11
Part 5 - #10-5

#5

The Horrors - Primary Colours
XL

I've hated on the Horrors pretty seriously based on seeing them live, but after a recommendation from my punk heroes Fucked Up, I decided to give the album a fair chance. And I gotta put my foot in my mouth after those snide remarks. This band is what it would have sounded like like if Kevin Shields had been Joy Division's guitarist instead of Bernie Sumner. The guitar itself isn't mixed high, but its twisted reverb and overtones play off the tense Peter Hook-esque bass. The vocals are influenced by Ian Curtis in their flat, desperate melodies, but the delivery is slightly higher and younger - this is no aping. The songwriting may be a throwback to the 80's, but sonically, despite each component's obvious roots, Primary Colours sounds far more ahead of its time than it does retro. Moody but catchy, the Horrors' music is well worth the attention it's garnered. I'm sorry I didn't know that sooner.

How I found it: It was Fucked Up's Best of 2009 list that made me give it a fair chance
Track picks: "Mirror's Image," "Who Can Say"
Link: [MySpace]


#4

Pterodactyl - Worldwild
Brah

As I explained, this is a list of "most exciting" albums, and Worldwild is certainly that. It may not be as professional as the releases by been-around-the-block musicians like Sonic Youth, Raekwon and Flaming Lips, but it proves that it's still possible to find new directions for music in 2009. And though Pterodactyl sound like no one else, they are accessible and melodic. Fast, arpeggiated guitars, jumpy drums and soaring multi-part vocals combine for a totally fresh take on indie rock. The whole album speaks of exploration, energy and elation. Even the album cover, depicting two hikers under a glitchy, digital rainbow, evokes a strange and beautiful otherworld. Unjustly overlooked, Worldwild is good for your brain and your heart.

How I found it: They opened for Oneida.
Track picks: "One With Everyone," "Share the Shade"
Link: [MySpace]


#3

Wavves - Wavvves
Fat Possum

Last winter, Wavves was the first breath of fresh air for me as an indie reviewer. It's a return to the simple, minimal, poppy guitar punk of the 80's. There's no gimmick, there's no bullshit. I know something this simplistic doesn't sound revolutionary, but in a scene dominated by orchestral pop, self-aware art rock and pseudo-ironic hipster club tunes, someone needed to bring us to our senses. And who better than the 21-year-old slacker Nathan Williams whose four-track tunes exploded out of his bedroom and across the indie world last winter and spring, then crashed and burned its way out of the spotlight just as fast? We'll see if Wavves can dust themselves off from their sharp tumble and continue on, but what really matters is that in 2008 to 2009, they were exactly what indie rock needed.

Read more from the original RFR review...

How I found it: I don't remember!
Track picks: "California Goths," "No Hope Kids," "Beach Demon"
Link: [MySpace]


#2

Dinosaur Jr - Farm
Jagjaguwar

In the 1980's, Dinosaur Jr put lead guitar back into indie rock. Without their tuneful but heavy anthems, rock would not be the same today - they paved the way for grunge and 90's punk bands like Nirvana, who, um, might have influenced other bands to say the least. Though J Mascis has most of the songwriting credits, Dinosaur Jr's unique energy has always come from the friction among its three members. Farm can stand alongside the band's best (i.e. first) albums, and for those of us who weren't yet in kindergarten when the band first imploded, it's great to experience Dinosaur Jr not as some historical artifact but as something relevant to our time. They may have some gray hairs, but Dinosaur Jr haven't aged at all. And what could be more exciting than a truly great album by one of the greatest rock bands of all time?

How I found it: It's Dinosaur Jr, duh!
Track picks: "Pieces," "See You," "I Want You to Know,"
Link: [MySpace]


#1

Antlers - Hospice
Frenchkiss

Hospice is the kind of album that changes lives. Exploring the guilt that lingers after abuse and after loss, Hospice is a painful record. Tales of mental illness, terminal cancer and emotional abuse enigmatically intersect while singer-songwriter Peter Silberman comes to terms with the fact that love does not conquer all. Musically, the shaky, dark electronica creates a distinctive soundscape perfect for the psychological decay and hospital setting of the album, while Silberman's high, clear voice unnervingly reveals dark secrets and deep fears. It's rare that an album comes along with the power to mend people, to change their lives permanently. Hospice is one of these albums, surely not for everyone, but for enough of us to be numbered among the greats.

Read more from the original RFR review...

How I found it: Pop Tarts Suck Toasted
Track picks: "Two," "Atrophy," "Wake"
Link: [MySpace]

Best Albums of 2009, Part 5: #10-6

PREVIOUS>>
Part 1 - Rules and Runners Up
Part 2 - #25-21
Part 3 - #20-16
Part 4 - #15-11


#10

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Domino

Animal Collective have been charming indie ears for years with their quirky pop and for months before this album was released, leaks and buzz built it up to be the record of 2009. Inevitably, it's slightly overrated - many tracks just aren't that memorable. On the other hand, the best tracks on the album are, simply put, flawless. Every sound has been honed to perfection and mixed into a Brian Wilson-esque three dimensions. And as with the Beach Boys, the band's warm melodies are gently unforgettable.

Read more from the original RFR review...

How I found it: Only, like, the whole internet
Track picks: "Summertime Clothes," "My Girls"
Link: [MySpace]


#9

Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Matador

It's been a year of changes for Sonic Youth, putting out their first indie label release in twenty years and their first release with bassist Mark Ibold. The addition of Ibold, formerly of Pavement, sends the band in their most rock'n'roll direction maybe ever. With dense, heavy guitars, The Eternal is strikingly direct. For Sonic Youth, the songs are bite-sized, though there are still some sprawling numbers and while this is one of the band's more accessible efforts, it certainly sounds like no one else. To say Sonic Youth pushes boundaries isn't accurate because their music is so uniquely the band's own that it can't be described in relationship to rock's boundaries at all. The Eternal is no exception.

How I found it: N/A
Track picks: "What We Know," "Anti-Orgasm"
Link: [MySpace]


#8

Why? - Eskimo Snow
Anticon

Apparently, during the recording sessions for last year's Alopecia, the band recorded another set of songs entirely disconnected from their hip-hop roots. Eskimo Snow is country-tinged indie rock. And that doesn't sound appealing, at least not to me. However, instead, Eskimo Snow is a staggering accomplishment. Yoni Wolf's lyrics are always personal and always clever, but here, for the first time, the cleverness is never used as a shield - Wolf rips himself wide open. The lyrics reveal the deepest pains of early adulthood, and one astounding melody after another make this album extraordinary. Easily one of the year's best and most underrated releases.

Read more from the original RFR review...

How I found it: several ways
Track picks: "Into the Shadows of My Embrace," "These Hands," "Eskimo Snow"
Link: [MySpace]


#7

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. II
Ice H2O

Few albums have been as long anticipated as Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, the sequel to Raekwon's 1995 solo debut. It seemed unlikely that after so many years, Raekwon could live up to expectations - after all, his debut was considered one of the greatest rap albums of all time and the Wu-Tang Clan's prime has certainly since passed. But OB4CL2 is every bit what it should be - inventive, hard-hitting and simply a mess of amazing MCing and production. The credits are mindblowing, featuring the entire Wu-Tang Clan (except U-God, who cares), Busta Rhymes, Beanie Sigel, J Dilla, Dr. Dre and a whole lotta others. The only real problem with the album (other than it being a bit musically incohesive) is that it only fulfills expectations, it doesn't defy them. Nothing here breaks the Wu-Tang mold, but it still blows everything else of its kind out of the water.

Read more from the original RFR review...

How I found it: No great story here.
Track picks: "Broken Safety," "House of Flying Daggers"
Link: [MySpace]


#6

Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Warners

I don't think anyone saw this coming. Sure, Flaming Lips have put out great albums many times over, and they have never stopped evolving, but the appropriately titled Embryonic is a rebirth of sorts. Many bands have sought to stay relevant by incorporating electronics, and Flaming Lips numbered among these with 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. But on Embryonic, the band looks back to roots, making their rawest, grittiest sounds in well over a decade. It's not a move backwards though. Embryonic is as bold a step forward as any the band has made today. The dark, hypnotic psychedelia is the band's most professional album, doing away with any hints of indie quirk in favor of large production and unwavering statements. Soft Bulletin remains the band's masterpiece, but Embryonic opens an exciting new chapter and makes Flaming Lips as relevant in 2009 as they were in the 90's.

How I found it: N/A
Track picks: "Convinced of the Hex," "Powerless"
Link: [MySpace]


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