notes - archives - february 2006

2.1.06
It's been a month since Bryan Harvey and his family were killed, and it's still hard to hear one of his songs without breaking down. So, of course, iTunes has been selecting House of Freaks songs an unusually large percentage of the time, almost no matter which playlist I choose (unless I select one that just doesn't contain any of their stuff).

I still have a few demos that he sent me that I intend to post here, but I'm not quite ready yet. The traffic has mostly died down and I'm not as concerned about my bandwidth restrictions, so it will probably be sometime this month that I make them available. Stay tuned.

2.2.06
My first impression of First Impressions of Earth: I like it.

2.3.06
I haven't focused a lot on listening to Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which I picked up used last week, but as is the case with most double albums, it's got a lot of extra stuff on there that easily could have been cut. The good stuff is really good, but there's no reason this couldn't have been a single disc. I mean, other than the massive egos of the band's two stars insisting that they each get a whole CD to themselves, that is.

2.6.06
Most music sounds a little creepy when you're in a fever-induced haze. I think it's just too abstract for the borderline-hallucinogenic brain to assimilate properly.

2.7.06
The Strokes' First Impressions of Earth isn't the knockout that their debut was, but it certainly has its share of knockout moments. The best one so far is a short line from the end of "Evening Sun":

I love you more than being seventeen.

That could easily be a fragment from the best haiku ever written about adolescent love, and Julian Casablancas' gift for tossing off lines like that so casually that you almost miss them just makes them that much more powerful.

2.8.06
Before I do my annual top 10, I always like to go over the outright failures from the previous year along with the records that were good, but not quite good enough. Today: the bad.

There weren't as many outright awful records this year as there were disappointments, records from promising bands that didn't live up to their previous work. Among the truly awful were the Evens' self-titled record and Super Furry Animals' Love Kraft, both of can be included in my regular object lessons as to why you should take any glowing review on Pitchfork with a grain of salt, since the reviews were really what pushed me into buying both of these records and neither one was even close to being the masterpieces promised by the writers (and it's not like these bands are slouches, either——I really like SFA's previous two releases, and the Evens' frontman is none other than Ian MacKaye of Fugazi fame).

Another really terrible record: the Fiery Furnaces' Rehearsing My Choir, which is essentially a long spoken word set of stories from their grandmother. I love this band and their determined quirkiness, so I really gave this one a chance, but it's just not a good record. Here's hoping their formal follow-up to last year's stunning Blueberry Boat will be a nice rebound.

The disappointments from 2005 include British Sea Power's Open Season, Architecture in Helsinki's In Case We Die, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead's Worlds Apart, and Gorillaz' Demon Days. Trail of Dead's and Architecture in Helsinki's previous two records were favorites of mine, but these new releases just don't measure up, although there are individual songs that resonate with me. Gorillaz' sophomore effort was especially disappointing because, with the addition of rogue DJ Danger Mouse (the mastermind behind last year's The Grey Album), I expected it to exceed their debut, and it was really pretty average.

Tomorrow: the good.

2.9.06
The list of decent to better-than-average records from 2005 is surprisingly long, so let's get going. First, the stuff that was pretty good, but that wasn't really a serious contender for my personal top 10 list. The discs in this category for 2005 include Doves' Some Cities, Franz Ferdinand's You Could Have Had It So Much Better, Ryan Adams' Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights (I feel this is an appropriate time to remind you, Mr. Adams, that if you could just put all of your A tracks on one record instead of scattering them among many B and C level tracks spread across three records, you'd make the top 10 list of just about any reviewer every year), My Morning Jacket's Z, Nine Inch Nails' With Teeth, Mazarin's We're Already There, Death Cab for Cutie's Plans, Out Hud's Let Us Never Speak of It Again, New Pornographers' Twin Cinema, Rogue Wave's Descended Like Vultures, The Books' Lost and Safe, Deerhoof's The Runners Four, Stars' Set Yourself on Fire, the Kills' No Wow, and Animal Collective's Feels.

There are some pretty good releases in that last batch, I know, but the ones that follow are were a cut above, just not quite good enough for my top 10: Danger Doom's The Mouse and the Mask, Sleater-Kinney's The Woods, Beck's Guero, Spoon's Gimme Fiction, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's eponymous debut, LCD Soundsystem's self-titled double album, Broken Social Scene's self-titled latest release, 50 Foot Wave's Golden Ocean, Iron and Wine's Woman King, the Calexico/Iron and Wine collaboration In the Reins, Bloc Party's Silent Alarm, and last but not least Grandaddy's The Diary of Todd Zilla, which would likely have made the top 10 if it had been a full length instead of an EP.

Tomorrow: the top 10. Finally.

2.10.06
So at last, here's my list of the best 10 albums from 2005. They're in reverse order, just like my singles list, meaning the one you see last is the one I think is the best.

Wolf Parade——Apologies to the Queen Mary
This record could have almost earned a spot based on "I'll Believe in Anything", which I picked as my top single for 2005, but the fact is, there are plenty of other tracks on this record that deserve your attention. This band is already damn good, but you can also tell that they've barely scratched the surface of their talent. Let's hope 2006 will see a new release that will rank even higher on next year's list.

Fiona Apple——Extraordinary Machine
I was this close to making this my number one album, just so I could have two years in a row where my top pick was an unreleased record (last year I chose Danger Mouse's The Grey Album). But then Fiona had to go and release an official version which was notably weaker than the unofficial version, so I split the difference and she ended up here. Buy the official version because it's The Right Thing To Do, but download the unofficial one if you can.

Bright Eyes——I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning/Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
The last time Conor Oberst released two records in one year (Bright Eyes' Lifted and Los Desaparecidos' Read Music Speak Spanish), they both ended up in the top 10 as separate entries, but it took the combined weight of the country/folk inspired Morning and the jittery electronics of Digital Ash to get him on to this year's list. Both records are worth having, but if you have to start with just one, stick with Digital Ash.

White Stripes——Get Behind Me Satan
I don't know why the critics were so down on Satan, other than the long overdue but still groundless backlash that always happens when indie darlings make it big. This is a great record, and Jack and Meg continue to impress me despite their baffling popularity. If you're still not sold on them, catch them live——even in a stadium setting, this two-piece will blow you away.

Fiery Furnaces——EP
This collection of odds and ends was merely meant to be an appetizer while we waited for two new releases from the Furnaces, but one of those releases got delayed until this year and the other one...well, the other one sucked. I still have faith in this band, but it's going to be hard to keep preaching to the unbelievers if they don't give me another great record this year.

Eels——Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
At 33 songs, you might be expecting Ryan Adams-like bloat from this two disc collection, but there's very little dross here. I've been sick in love with Eels since their masterwork Electro-Shock Blues, but no release since that one has been anywhere near as good, and I was beginning to think they'd lost their way. I've never been happier to be proven wrong.

Decemberists——Picaresque
This might actually be the Decemberists weakest release, but the fact that it's still in my top 5 should tell you something about how much I love their earlier stuff. They've been steadily increasing their fan base with near-incessant touring, and they just signed to a major label, so you're likely going to hear a lot more from them in the coming year. If they can keep their releases at this quality, I don't see any reason why they can't keep their old fans happy while winning over legions of new ones.

The Hold Steady——Separation Sunday
These top 3 are essentially a tie, and I debated long and hard about the placement within the top 3. Even though this one ended up third, I stand by what I said about it the week after I bought it: rock album of the year.

Kanye West——Late Registration
I don't even need to explain this one. If you don't like Mr. West, then either you haven't heard his music or you have such a preternatural hatred of rap/hip hop that nothing is ever going to win you over.

Sufjan Stevens——Illinois
This record was pretty much unanimously named the year's best album, and for once, I see no reason to go against the crowd or be contrarian for the sake of being different. This is a damn fine record, plain and simple. The whole album-about-each-state thing seems like a gimmick, but if he actually manages to finish, his catalog could become the American history text for the 21st century.

That's it. On to 2006.

2.13.06
I bought the iTunes exclusive live session from Iron and Wine last week, and I have to say, I'm not really sure that it was worth it. I'm a huge fan of Iron and Wine, but the unplugged acoustic thing is pretty much what Sam Beam does anyway, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference on this disc between the live versions and the studio versions that I already know well. There was one new song, a cover of New Order's "Love Vigilantes", but just as with his cover of the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights", Beam's slower-paced, guitar-and-vocals-only approach doesn't give any new insights into the song.

2.14.06
Two of the tracks on the iTunes top 10 best selling singles for today: "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)" by T-Pain and "L.O.V.E." by Ashlee Simpson.

You know what? Whoever among you out there who are buying this garbage, you deserve all the bad relationships in which you're undoubtedly embroiled. Enjoy putting those on the mixtape you made especially for your sweetie on your stupid little fake holiday. I can at least take some pleasure in knowing that you'll regret spending that $.99 after your imminent break-up because these songs will now be too painful for you to listen to (but still not as painful as they are currently to people with a modicum of musical taste).

That doesn't sound bitter, does it?

2.15.06
I know it's only another week until the Artic Monkeys' full-length makes it to the US, but they released another EP on iTunes this week, so I've picked that up. Since each of their three EPs is headlined by a single off the album, that means that I already own about 1/4 of their debut (3 EPs, 13 tracks on the record).

Oddly enough my favorite songs on these EPs are the b-sides, the non-album tracks, which leaves me in the strange position of hoping that the regular tracks on the album are more like what the band considers substandard material than the singles that they think represent their best efforts.

2.16.06
Picked up some new CDs yesterday: Jay-Z's The Black Album (used), Superchunk's Come Pick Me Up (used), Belle and Sebastian's The Life Pursuit, and Beth Orton's Comfort of Strangers.

The Jay-Z I picked up because I love the Danger Mouse mashup The Grey Album so much that I just think it's appropriate that I own both records that were the source material for his mix (I already own the Beatle's White Album). I don't plan on listening to it that much, but I'll give it a couple of tries before I decide that Danger Mouse did a much better job making beats for Jay-Z's raps than his phalanx of superstar producers.

I considered buying the electronic version of The Life Pursuit because it has two bonus tracks not available on the hard copy, but for once iTunes/the record label decided to be sensible and let me download the bonus tracks individually, instead of making me purchase the entire album online, which seems to be the usual practice. I've listened to this one the most of this batch of purchases so far. It's definitely building on Dear Catastrophe Waitress, maybe not recreating that record's more subtle and melancholy moments, but also not recreating its outright flops. It's a happy, bouncy CD for the most part, as if the spirit of the Woodentops' songwriter Rolo McGinty had invaded the body of Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch.

Beth Orton's label took the opposite approach on iTunes with Comfort of Strangers, raising the price for the album to $12.99 (albums on iTunes are normally $9.99, even if they contain more than 10 songs) and NOT including any of the bonus tracks that are available with the limited edition of the CD. Granted, the limited edition costs $5 more than the regular version of the CD, but even the hard copy of the regular version is no more than $12.99, so it even makes sense for the more casual fans to buy CD version of this record.

I really loved Beth Orton's first full-length, Trailer Park, and the EP that followed it, but I was less than thrilled with much of Central Reservation and I was so underwhelmed by Daybreaker that I couldn't remember whether I actually owned it without checking my CD collection. So when most of the reviewers described this as her folkiest record to date, I didn't hold out much hope that it would be something that would interest me, but I really liked the clips I heard on iTunes, and so far I'm definitely pleased with the decision to purchase it.

Far from being folky, it recaptures the same kind of vibe she had on her Best Bit EP, which is my favorite overall release from her so far. It's also mixes in some Fiona Apple-ish touches, which don't hurt either. It's always nice when an artist you gave up on has a nice comeback (like R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi coming on the heels of the atrocious Monster), and it's looking for all the world like Ms. Orton has pulled herself back from the edge with this release.

2.17.06
I keep seeing these things called "vingles" on iTunes——I guess that stands for "video singles"? Or maybe when you buy one, you get the digital files for both the video and the song? I don't know for sure, and I guess I never will, because I don't plan on purchasing any and Apple doesn't seem inclined to provide an explanation for the less hip among us.

And while I'm in a ranting mood, what the fuck is up with this whole "Grillz" phenomenon? (For those of you who might not know, this is the recent trend among some rappers to adorn false teeth with tens of thousands of dollars worth of precious metals and gems, giving them a personal appearance akin to Jaws from the James Bond movies, but more sparkly.) Is it really a phenomenon, or is it just something that 100 ridiculously rich rappers are going to do for the next three months before moving on to some new travesty in personal decoration? I swear, ten years ago you could have used this as a premise for a comedy sketch, and people would have seen it is hyperbole with a ring of truth, but they would never believe it would actually happen. But I guess all bets are off now——today's ridiculous exaggeration apparently has every chance in the world of becoming tomorrow's fashion statement.

2.20.06
I bought the bonus tracks from Belle and Sebastian's The Life Pursuit that are available via iTunes, and it's clear why they're not on the album proper, but the completist in me couldn't pass up such an easy chance to add a couple of more songs to my collection.

Note to record labels: there are a ton of music fans like me out there, and by forcing us to by the whole album on iTunes to get the bonus tracks (something that many of us will refuse to do), you are missing out on a significant revenue stream. And that's what you bastards are all about, right? New revenue streams? So quit trying to completely screw us over and not getting anything from us and settle for making more money off of screwing us over a little bit.

2.21.06
I'm not going to try to convince you that the Arctic Monkeys are going to save rock and roll or anything like that, because they're not. But I am going to remind you that their debut record, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, gets released stateside today, and you'd be hard-pressed to find another recent release that's good for lifting you out of the mid-winter blues.

2.22.06
I didn't get a chance to get to the record store to buy the Arctic Monkeys yesterday (or Arab Strap's The Last Romance, which has finally been released in the US as well), but on the way home the iPod played a Beulah song for me which made me remember just how much I love that band even though I only have their last two albums. Realizing that the first two (Handsome Western States and When Your Heartstrings Break) are more or less out of print and that I likely won't ever own them on CD, I finally broke down and bought them from the iTunes store.

They're both as good as I could have hoped, and I feel stupid for waiting so long to download them. If you are a fan of Beulah, especially The Coast Is Never Clear, but you don't own these yet, stop screwing around: just get yourself to iTunes and get them on your playlist already.

2.23.06
I love the title of the closing track on Beulah's When Your Heartstrings Break: "If We Can Land a Man On the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart". It all sounds so simple when you put it that way...

2.24.06
Taking a few days off for vacation. Going to be driving for several hours to get there and back, so we'll see what the iPod has in store for me. I should really be listening to Belle and Sebastian exclusively to prep for their upcoming show, but I'm really in more of a shuffle kind of mood.