Listening • Out With the Old

For so long we’ve seen decline, dissolution, and departure. From our vantage here in the middle of winter we’ve seen Nature itself stripped of life and leaf, but memory serves to remind that these are merely cycles within a greater cycle. The days’ arcing sunlight is gradually getting longer, warmer. January’s nearly past. Suddenly the new year’s first marks are set. At last, we have new things to look forward to.

In this spirit we present Telekinesis, a new band recently signed to Chapel Hill’s Merge Records, a label well-known for signing some of the best bands working today. Their first single, “Coast of Carolina,” evokes the same refreshing sense of renewal. The count-off is always the same, the familiarity tugs at something elemental, buried deep down, but it’s still a new take, another chance to do it right. And don’t let the meek lead-in fool you. This one’s a rocker. Telekinesis will be touring the West coast this spring, with their last performance of this introductory tour at SXSW in Austin. Welcome them. —Erik Bryan, Jan. 22, 2009

» Listen to "Coast of Carolina" at Brooklyn Vegan

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Listening • SXSW 2K9

The Academy of Indie Rocks and Cultural Science People has released its official list of candidates for consideration during the Academy’s annual Spring bacchanal in Austin, TX. Among these nominees, one winner will be chosen to win the grueling South by Southwest Showcase competition, thus earning the title of Most Hyped New Band in 2009.

Based on nothing more than the band’s names (and the deafening cacophony of insider music biz gossip going on behind the scenes here at the Digest), I’m going to tell you which bands have the best shot of making their pie-in-the-sky dreams of never being played on commercial radio but somehow having songs end up on Zach Braff’s next project a reality:

• Asylum Street Spankers
• Black Acid
• The Black Angels
• Black Cherry
• Black Diamond Heavies
• Black Drawing Chalks
• Black Gold
• The Black Hollies
• Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
• Black Lips
• Blacklisted Individuals
• Black Math Horseman
• Black Skies
• Margaret Cho
• Dananananaykroyd
• Les Breastfeeders

I give up. There are so many more ridiculous band names on this list, but obviously one’s chances of claiming the title are dramatically improved by adding “black” to the beginning of your name. Something to consider, Dananananaykroyd.

To hold you over until you get to see and hear all the fun in Austin, here’s “Happy Up Here” from the new Röyksopp album, due March 23, which has no chance of winning SXSW this year. —Erik Bryan, Jan. 16, 2009

» Listen to "Happy Up Here" at The Yellow Stereo

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Listening • Wish in One Hand

This Friday past, peeps over at the Hype Machine finished up their year-end Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008, which uses data compiled by the search results and bookmarked favorites of registered users to determine what were the most popular artists, albums, and songs (in those three catergories) of the past year. The Machine’s design for the albums list is particularly handsome, and no one can argue that there aren’t some real winners on there.

A minor concern is that the list only considers registered users’ input (which doesn’t include me. Are you on there?), and that it’s a popularity contest, not an objective consideration of what artists and music was in our best interest over the past year (see the inclusion of Lonely “SNL’s Andy Samberg” Island’s “Jizz in My Pants” on the top songs from December. Sure, it’s good for yuks, but anything else?). However, the only highly troubling aspect of the list is how strongly it favors dance/techno (and the rare sad bastard song by Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes), and how little it rocks. Not that this Digest is wholly immune to the (mostly fleeting) charms of either, but something greater lies at stake.

With a new president being sworn in next week, it may well behoove us to think for a minute about what American ideals are and what makes this country better than any other in the world. Our economy sucks, we’re increasingly into super creepy stuff like rendition and torture, and our culture wars show no sign of abating. The answer, of course, is rock and roll. We invented rock and roll. We might go so far as to say that we built this city on it. Okay, bad example.

Both musicians and listeners should take heed. Our cultural legacy is hanging in the balance. If we lose rock music, we won’t be so cool anymore and won’t be able to act so superior to the rest of the world at the world’s best parties. Consider, then, a new song by The Joy Formidable, a Welsh band (with some fun videos here). This is chart-topping rock and roll over there, America. Are we just gonna sit here and let them out-rock us? While, as Fluxblog points out, the song “Cradle” has a somewhat atavistic bent, sometimes taking a look back at our roots (back in the halcyon 90s in this case) is just the shot in the arm we need to take that step forward. This year has every potential to rock. It’s up to you, America.  —Erik Bryan, Jan. 13, 2009

» Listen to "Cradle" at Fluxblog

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Listening • We Will Fall

It would be remiss not to mention the recent passing of Ron Asheton, guitarist for Ann Arbor’s most acerbic contribution to the late 60s garage rock scene, The Stooges. As reported first in the Ann Arbor News on Tuesday, Asheton’s body was found by police in his apartment that morning. Later reports suspect the cause of death was a heart attack days prior. While frontman James “Iggy Pop” Osterberg tended to steal the spotlight (both onstage with wildly histrionic performances and offstage with his volatile drug and alcohol dependencies), Asheton’s guitar work (driven by his brother Scott Asheton’s drumming) is every bit as crucial to the sound developed by the Stooges, which would influence nearly every rock band thereafter.

The development of this sound is described by Asheton in the book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which is really worth checking out if you’re at all interested in the subject. In his own words:

We’d never been into a recording studio before and we set up Marshall stacks, and set them on ten. So we started to play and John Cale [of the Velvet Underground, producer of The Stooges’ self-titled debut] just says, “Oh no, this is not the way …” We were like, “There is no way. We play loud, and this is how we play.” So Cale kept trying to tell us what to do and being the stubborn youth that we were, we had a sit-down strike … So our compromise was, “Okay, we’ll put in on nine.” Finally he just said, “Fuck it,” and he just went with it.

Which is precisely the attitude that led to the band being the bellwether of the entire genre which became known as punk rock.

Strangely, one of the reformed band’s final non-tour performances last year was at the ceremony inducting Madonna into the laugably formal Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, purportedly at her request for the Hall’s repeated snubs of The Stooges. Their performance of “Ray of Light” can certainly be read as a grandiose “fuck you” to the mainstream music industry which counted them out so long ago, even as it continues to do so (although they are up for consideration for induction this year, but whatever).

The song linked below, “No Fun,” not only features Ron Asheton’s trademark, unheedingly overdriven guitar work, but was one of the songs famously covered by the Sex Pistols and helped introduce a generation of British youth (who, it turns out, also loved punk rock) to the Stooges. What’s more, I think it’s only fitting. —Erik Bryan, Jan. 8, 2009

» Listen to "No Fun" at Here Comes the Flood

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Listening • Animal Collective

Animal Collective have a new album and we have a new year. It’ll take a while to get to grips with both, so I’m jumping in, spread-eagle, and soaking it up; hesitation and caution are bad resolutions. “My Girls” is all purple lightening, Koyaaniqatsi scenery and soundtrack, magic carpets. It wipes memory of 2008 not with a blinding light, but a haze of glittery samples and drummed thunder. Bubbles of synth burst at the speed of two handclaps as the flesh drips and the metal body is revealed: pulsating, chanting, living. Just don’t call Merriweather Post Pavilion your album of 2009. Bide your time. Pounce in late spring. (Not in January when comparisons to Tropicalia seem alien and wrong.) —Mike Smith, Jan. 6, 2009

» Listen to "My Girls" at the band's MySpace

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Listening • Diamonds From the Trough, Part 3

Enguarde! Ole! Here here! In the second part of our end-of-year mini-series searching for forgotten gems in the best-of-list, Erik got down dirty with year-end lists and caught some tasty morsels that almost slipped through our nets. Let’s continue wrestling with the lists—there’s a lot of good stuff still out there that we will not allow to be forgotten.

The Catbird Seat’s monthly mix tapes continue to be a thing to behold, especially with the Guardian declaring 2008 “The Year of the Mixtape.” Mr Ryan Catbird’s December mix-tapes are especially worthy when held up next to people indiscriminately uploading almost 1GB of Pitchfork’s Top 100 songs; no context, no voice, just treasure and complete submission. Instead we yearn for the more esoteric, idiosyncratic lists that make the internet a warm place of soul, not just booty.

The Catbird Seat and Gorilla Vs Bear both rounded the year off by applauding Karl Blau’s slow and steady desert-drift. They shared “Mockingbird Diet;” it has lasting appeal but with thousands of tracks and albums called “best,” you’ve really got to go for the quick easy option. Sean from Said The Gramophone succeeds by going for Blau’s “Before telling dragons,” currently at 32 listens. You’ll whistle it through your dreams, skip up the curb, share your best stories, and wonder whether this is the Holy Grail that Weezer will discover after the floods subside.

Bon Iver had everyone’s heart this year, including mine; singing proudly with no apologies—all good. But then there’s Karl Blau; he knocks first, telling grizzly stories in the corner as Bon Iver stands on the table in the next room. Both are good hometown woodsmen but Blau will furnish the soundscape of my mind’s eye with so many more monuments, great forest characters that Bon Iver couldn’t carve or summoun in a decade of winters.

So many sound like Deerhoof, Broken Social Scene, or the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s when they try to do this. Gang Gang Dance either worked hard or got really lucky. They drown you in rain dances and have you reborn and remade from a fiery cauldron in the middle of the jungle. These arty Brooklynites jam through all hues, with little hesitation and complete disregard for compass points and magnetic fields, disorienting listeners and light with a sound so difficult to tune out from. This must sing of pre-rapture parties, in caves painted psychedelic, where we party to lights in the sky, to the end. The Grime MC breakdown at the midway point brings the dance to peak. The whole album is a mirage of LCD Soundsystem running beats, Burial’s Gothic bass busting, and the more hip-tropical Animal Collective beats, a feast for those left lacking in the holiday season.

Listen to Gang Gang Dance at This Recording’s end-of-year run-down. This Recording is “a blog dedicated to the enjoyment of audio and visual stimuli,” and another great discovery this year. The editors at This Recording have you covered for pop-culture reminiscences, and the writers keep spinning words, keep loving, keep finding things and people to love—it’s random, and shuffling, but I’ll read every word while I work out exactly what the deal is, when I hit January. I’ll keep reading as I look and see the door to 2008 is shut, and that there is a whole year to be had: a fresh, clean slate, new tunes, new people, new places. No resolutions for me though, I want my year remembered by lists, not restricted, tied up, and held hostage by something that December Me thought would be smart.

 —Mike Smith, Dec. 19, 2008

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Listening • Diamonds From the Trough, Part 2

In every effort to outdo Mike’s first entry in this ad hoc series, I’ve gone about collecting those lapidary listens from the past year’s releases which, though somehow managing to miss my attention, became firmly lodged in the collective consciousness of list makers the internet over.

Some find the whole listing process—in the literal sense of rating songs integrally better or worse than another song—either arbitrary or too unnerving to be helpful. Am I only listening to the 27th best song this year when I could be listening to a song from the top ten? What does that say about me as a consumer? Dispensing with a numbered list altogether is wise of Fluxblog’s Matthew Perpetua, who offers his collection of the year’s finest tunes as a podcast, free to all takers. Believe it or not, several of those songs have appeared in this very space. Another group eschewing a formal list structure comes to us from the Onion’s AV Club with their offering of celebrity guests’ favorite albums. I honestly can’t tell if David Cross is just screwing with us.

Another list to note is Idolator’s continuing 80 ‘08 (and Heartbreak), which catalogs the 88 things (80 wonderful, 8 tragic; their rules) that made a cultural impact this year, many of which are songs. Songs like Andrew W.K.’s “The McLaughlin Groove” or Parry Gripp’s “Hamster on a Piano”. Songs that, while dearly loved, I was perhaps too ashamed to write about here. Idolator also brings the indie cred with great songs by Jenny Lewis and the French Kicks (listen to “Abandon” here).

Also favoring the old school, numbered list thing is a countdown of this year’s 50 best over at Gorilla Vs. Bear. It is a respectable list despite the inclusion of the way-overhyped and marginally overmaligned Vivian Girls. Oh, those Vivian Girls. Toward the top of the list, at number seven, I was introduced to Grouper, the recording name of Portland’s Liz Harris. The song “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping” off this year’s Dragging a Dead Dear Up a Hill features dreamy, murky, saturated vocals and instrumentation reminiscent of Beach House and Mazzy Star in their swirls of sweet, somber noise. Another great find on this list is the number two spot given to Austin trio White Denim’s “Sitting.” It bounces along amiably with a refreshingly atavistic bent, but halfway through the song the tempo is halved and an extended garage rock experiment in stereo suddenly slips in, showing everyone who cares to listen what a simple arrangement can become in the hands of musicians willing to go that extra mile. What was cute became so much more.

Finally, while not so much a list as series of kickass posts, My Old Kentucky Blog has been running a Holiday Interview Series with notable persons, most of whom are musicians. (One exception would be the artist, writer, and now record label owner Stanley Donwood who has done all of Radiohead’s packaging artwork since 1994.) One of my favorite, newly discovered tracks from the year is featured in the interview with Alejandra Deheza of School of Seven Bells. The song, “Half Asleep,” apart from being beautiful in the dreamlike, saccharine sense advocated by Grouper, also adds layer upon layer of pop perfection and glitchy programming. It’s uplifting, complex, and you can dance to it. Happy holidays! —Erik Bryan, Dec. 17, 2008

» Listen to "Half Asleep" at My Old Kentucky Blog

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Listening • Diamonds From the Trough, Part 1

Heaving in another year’s haul, diamonds gradually reveal themselves as I trawl through lists and lists of the year’s best music—people distilling a year of high energy and much distraction. It’s being summed up with usual swish, swash, and style by Said the Gramophone right now. They and their kin do more than wave dimmed torches across now crackly and over-played records. The diamond filled troughs they fill this time of year set us up well for thrills and spills in 2009, bidding us Good Hunting!

Diamonds, an indie-pop band worthy of year-end honor-roll, sing of their namesake. “Diamonds” is carved by a whole generations’ heartbreak sighs, from lungs that were great celebrated church organs in their day. Heavy words are echoed by light appreciative voice, tempered by dragging feet. Six tracks follow with brisker pace, much spirit, and a cosmic restorative power: sharp and proud tones of drum, voice, and charged strings. It all builds to the stunned power-up of “The Waking.” But it all begins with “Diamonds” and that moment when the friends dozing in the backseats start to sing with you; by the end of the record they are right there, wrapping their arms around you and your journey, all watching the sun and the moon speed across the windshield. Get the record—It’s free!—and see for yourselves.

I began the year by finding a diamond in the dirt: The Rollercoaster Project’s electronica. Those diamonds were really made of ice, melting away as thaw came. A presidential election in a country I had just met and thoughts about climate crisis moved me in new directions.

Like the end of the Diamonds record, “The Waking” happened, and I got going. Arriving in December there’s a lot I missed, a lot of good stuff to hear, so many diamonds being shined up for their final viewing as new, just dug up, bright things with an inner light will soon compete with them.

Sasha Frere Jones keeps his best of list updated all through the year—a marvelous way of doing it. Also crucial are people like Eric Harvey, who runs the Marathonpacks blog, reviewing records all year long, calibrating our sense of speed, gush of positivity. Amongst great fanfare—oh the joy of only reviewing things I like—temperance is virtuous.

I really like these list-bearers, not just for their voices, but for their heart and promise. They are prologue and talisman to a new year prime for good hunting for good things and, most importantly, for good people to share these things with—the old media can’t match labor of love these independent voices sustain all through the year.

I’ll continue gorging on these lists and try to dig up some more small diamonds before the year is out. But for now, just one observation regarding Elliot Spitzer & the diamond rated escorts: NASA (NASA!) got there first. “Spitzer’s Eyes Perfect for Spotting Diamonds in the Sky.” —Mike Smith, Dec. 15, 2008

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Listening • Blood Bank

Man goes to the woods, builds fire, thinks, records album, wins huge, deserved praise in end-of-year list gatherings. Justin Vernon, Bon Iver, will soon be back with Blood Bank EP. Less snow, presumably less contemplation—he had all winter to record his previous work—though the layers continue to pile on as he burns folk down to its charcoaled, wind-bent, dark-blooded essence.

He does like Imogen Heap did on “Hide and Seek” in EP closer “Woods.” Vocoders don’t have a magic quality, they only give life to big voices. Inner fear echoes as outer noises of the woods howl, exposed, and demand the flesh. Or at least Bon Iver demands a live viewing, hearing the next 200 pages that will never be given justice on record, moments that would seem indulgent laid down on tracks. But, witnessed first person, the second half of every song, as it ascends and triples seasons’ lengths, is worthy. For Bon Iver, the physical tracks aren’t even half the story, it’s the ongoing process that lives and breathes. This starts to come close:



 —Mike Smith, Dec. 8, 2008

» Listen to "Woods" at The Hype Machine

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