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| From | "Stewart Mason" <craigtorso@verizon.net> |
| Subject | non-retro things I've dug lately (was Re: Pet Sounds-a-likes) |
| Date | Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:01:42 -0500 |
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In case anyone's actually interested in new and non-retro music, with
links to YouTube videos or Myspace pages where applicable.
The Antlers -- IN THE ATTIC OF THE UNIVERSE : The whole "freak folk"
movement isn't doing it for me, because it's got way too many people
in it just lifting ideas off old Incredible String Band records and
thinking they're doing something new and interesting. (I swear,
Devendra Banhart needs to be cockpunched repeatedly, at least until he
admits that his real first name is David or Danny or something equally
non-hippie.) The Antlers' second album kinda-sorta fits in with that
scene, but it also reminds me a little bit of Sigur Ros and a little
bit of Neutral Milk Hotel, so it definitely has its own spacey thing
going on. Myspace page here: http://tinyurl.com/ysknqb (Note the
surprisingly good reworking of My Bloody Valentine's "When You Sleep."
Sir Richard Bishop -- POLYTHEISTIC FRAGMENTS / WHILE MY GUITAR
VIOLENTLY BLEEDS : Two new albums' worth of solo acoustic guitar
pieces by the ex Sun City Girl in full Davey Graham/Robbie Basho mode.
You could call that "retro," I suppose, but if you did, you'd just be
being a prick. Live video here: http://tinyurl.com/z7hod (NB: despite
the generic title, this is actually "Zurvan," the last track on
VIOLENTLY BLEEDS. He closed with it when we saw him at a church gig
in Toronto last September, opening for Bill Callahan, and it was
epic.)
Clare and the Reasons -- THE MOVIE : Gorgeous, lush, cinematic
arrangements and Clare Muldaur's wispy, high register voice...I was
utterly smitten within the first 30 seconds of the first track. Live
video here: http://tinyurl.com/22ruqm
Feist -- THE REMINDER : I can't remember the last time I was so
pleased to see an artist I've loved for a long while make a mainstream
commercial breakthrough...mostly because I can't remember the last
time that happened! Okay, it's vaguely a shame that it wasn't with one
of her own songs ("1234" is by New Buffalo, a labelmate on Arts and
Crafts Records), but still, it's a great song and it couldn't have
happened to a more deserving artist. Expect unwarranted hipster
backlash in three, two... Video, as if you haven't already seen it,
at: http://tinyurl.com/22datm
Flight of the Conchords -- THE DISTANT FUTURE : If that's what you're
into. http://tinyurl.com/24nlwk
Tim Gane and Sean O'Hagan -- LA VIE D'ARTISTE (OST) : A soundtrack
collaboration between Stereolab's Tim Gane and the High Llamas' Sean
O'Hagan, their first extended work together since the TURN ON album
about 10 or 11 years ago. As nothing but a bunch of instrumental
soundtrack cues, this is basically two CDs' worth of the little
interludes and bridges from the High Llamas albums, always my favorite
parts. Trailer here: http://tinyurl.com/ysqdsd
Emily Haines -- WHAT IS FREE TO A GOOD HOME : Okay, actually, this EP
is fairly minor, an add-on to last year's amazing KNIVES DON'T HAVE
YOUR BACK, but this gives me an excuse to post a link to the video for
my favorite song from that album, "Doctor Blind," a spooky little
video that's particularly weird for me because the Zeller's store this
was shot in looks just exactly like the discount stores my dad used to
manage when I was a little kid: http://tinyurl.com/2lgsjn
Half Cousin -- IODINE : Half record to explain. You got this guy
who's got this sweet, sweet tenor voice, very much like Green Gartside
from Scritti Politti, but he's also singing in this absolutely
impenetrable Scottish burr -- I mean, take Ivor Cutler and add both
Proclaimers, Billy Connolly and Shrek and that's not quite half as
Scottish as this guy sounds. Meanwhile, the songs are at their heart
all folky and acoustic, but the arrangements are about 1/3 traditional
acoustic instruments, 1/3 electronics and 1/3 things the guy picked up
around his flat and started bashing on to make a noise. What's weird
is how all that coheres into fairly normal pop songs instead of
veering into weird for weird's sake. Video here:
http://tinyurl.com/3bxwvx
A Hawk and a Hacksaw -- AND THE HUN HANGAR ENSEMBLE : My wife is
hugely, hugely into Balkan music. She used to sing with a local band,
and even performed with them at a famous Balkan music festival in
Bulgaria about 15 years ago. Her collection of Eastern European
records and CDs is staggering, and she's slowly been teaching me about
it all ever since we started dating. I'm nowhere near the expert she
is, but even I can tell that this album is light years ahead of the
previous A Hawk and a Hacksaw albums, as good as they were. Jeremy and
Heather moved to Hungary last year, and this is their first album
recorded entirely with Hungarian musicians. It's the difference
between playing this music with technically adept fans of the styles
and with musicians who have had this music ingrained in their souls
since childhood. There is a groove to this stuff that's just amazing.
I can't see how anyone can listen to this song (
http://tinyurl.com/yr8fj7 ) without wanting to dance.
Angie Heaton -- THE RUMOR MILL : A huge, huge step up for an artist
I've never much cared for before. This is only barely "alt" country:
it's more like what country would sound like if Nashville wasn't full
of dipwads. Prediction: somebody like Gretchen Wilson is going to have
a #1 country hit with an inferior remake of this album's title track
within the next two years.
Lavender Diamond -- IMAGINE OUR LOVE : There's a surprising number of
haters out there, and I suppose I see why. They are right on the edge
of unbearably cute, and if there was the slightest hint that they were
being "ironic" about any of this, it would be inexcusable. But
especially after having seen them live a few months ago, I totally buy
that they're utterly sincere about the love, peace and flowers lyrics,
and the music is catchy and sweet. Also, if that concert is any
indication, Becky Stark is a complete frickin' spaz, and she'd have to
be a much better actress than I suspect she is for it to all be an
act. Video here: http://tinyurl.com/22fvsv
Jens Lekman -- NIGHT FALLS OVER KORTEDALA : I just find this album
utterly charming. There are a couple songs that remind me a bit of
the Magnetic Fields (who have a new one coming out next month,
incidentally), but mostly it's just really floridly orchestrated, twee
little pop songs (the single "Sipping on the Sweet Nectar" adds an
atypical disco-samba bassline) with odd, fanciful lyrics. Video here:
http://tinyurl.com/2z6fw4
Madagascar -- GOODBYE EAST, GOODBYE WEST : 100% free of hooks in the
Audities sense, Madagascar are an instrumental group from Baltimore
whose musical lineup is fronted by two things that aren't just among
my favorite musical instruments, they're among my favorite SOUNDS,
period: the accordion and the musical saw. Sonically akin to A Hawk
and a Hacksaw or Beirut, but without the ethnography: nothing but
long, slowly unfolding songs that are all about the bliss-out. Myspace
page here: http://tinyurl.com/343umf
New Buffalo -- SOMEWHERE/ANYWHERE? : An Australian singer-songwriter
named Sally Seltzmann, now signed to Broken Social Scene's Arts and
Crafts label and raking it in as the songwriter of Feist's "1234."
Her latest album isn't as instantly lovable as that tune, but those
like me who love both female vocals and minimalist keyboards will be
all over this. Video here: http://tinyurl.com/29hjjb
Pistolera -- SIEMPRE HAY SALIDA : Bands like Los Lobos and the Texas
Tornados and the other groups that tried to blend rock and roll with
the Tejano, norteno and conjunto music of the border states never did
it for me, because my experience growing up in Texas and New Mexico
was always that the real, non-crossover stuff rocked much, MUCH
harder. Pistolera, from New York City, are the first pop-oriented band
I've ever heard that gets the balance right: crucially, the bass isn't
driving the beat, the accordion is. I've never understood the
accordion's general reputation as a comedy instrument simply because
where I'm from, the accordion rocks. The video for their first single
"Cazador" is here: http://tinyurl.com/yo7uft
The Weakerthans -- REUNION TOUR : I'm starting to think this may be
even better than RECONSTRUCTION SITE. Great, hook-filled songs, strong
melodies and John K. Samson might be the best lyricist working today.
It's amazing to me the way he can write lyrics that basically function
as prose. The lyrics of "Civil Twilight" -- verses and choruses
both -- are, fundamentally, a very short story written in complete
sentences that also happen to scan as pop-song lyrics. Video here:
http://tinyurl.com/33most )
Kanye West -- GRADUATION : Better than THE COLLEGE DROPOUT, not quite
as good as LATE REGISTRATION. Still, between the Can and Steely Dan
samples, the Jon Brion string arrangements and getting Zach
Galifianakis and Will Oldham to make a video for the album's best song
( http://tinyurl.com/2h75pm ), it's like he's now aiming directly for
the aging-former-college-radio-guy market.
Zoroaster -- DOG MAGIC : Somehow, I've gotten onto the promo list for
a label that specializes in Northern European-style black metal, a
musical style that I mostly cannot stand at all. I usually just leave
their CDs sitting on the counter at the coffeehouse in my
neighborhood, assuming that someone's going to pick them up, but I
took one package home because the other CD looked vaguely interesting
in a sort of Soundtrack of Our Lives / Dungen way. That one turned
out to be pretty dull, but I put this one on a few days later just to
hear it before I chucked it out, and it's a pleasant surprise.
Basically, it removes the things I hate about black metal -- foremost
among them the trademark Constipated Muppet vocals and wheedly-wheedly
guitar parts -- while emphasizing the things I like (mostly the slow,
doomy, bass-heavy parts) and adding stuff you don't normally hear in
this kind of music, like Balkan-style brass band parts and theremins
and oscillators and stuff. I went out and got their earlier stuff,
which just turned out to be the usual dull Black Sabbathy plod, but
this record is basically a heavier version of bands I love like
Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions in the Sky. This is
probably the surprise of the year for me.
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