The Ruby Suns, Sea Lion Fleet Foxes, s/t Spoon, Girls Can Tell Faust, s/t and Faust So Far All this talk about krautrock this week made me finally pick up a couple of Faust records. I've only listened to Faust once, but So Far is really pretty great. It's pretty much been all I've listened to for the last three or four days. Faust, So Far
Pitchfork has a pretty exhaustive list of what's coming down the pike in the next three months. Here are a handful that are piquing my interest in one way or another. Margot & the Nuclear So & So's, Animal and Not Animal (Oct. 7) Yeah, I just finished saying that Margot's only other album was a disappointment. Why do I hold out hope? For one, I think Richard Edwards is a good song-crafter, and the record sounds good; its flaw is in its delivery. [...]
When you pick up twenty-five albums in three months, it's inevitable that some percentage of them will disappoint, if not outright suck. For me, these six albums let me down, and/or have almost completely evaporated from my memory. Most disappointing were My Morning Jacket and Pas/Cal, both albums I was looking forward to and had high hopes for. MMJ seemed to get slagged for taking too many risks on Evil Urges , but in fact it was all the risky songs???essentially, the first three or four tracks and the album closer???that succeeded for me; everything in [...]
So we come to "the rest." These are albums that aren't bad; in fact many of them are quite good. They just, for whatever reason, didn't force their way into that part of my brain that compelled me play them over and over and over. Nevertheless I still recommend everything here. Sometimes the albums in this category are slow burners, either melting into a bunch of my playlists or just consistently sneaking their way into rotation. The Flatlanders, More a Legend Than a Band Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, 100 Days, 100 [...]
Fleet Foxes, s/t I'll stick with what I said in my original review —namely that this is the only 2008 release I've heard so far that took my breath away from note one. One of my qualifiers for a great album is noting how many songs become "my favorite" the more I listen. Thus far I think I've declared four or five different tracks here as my favorite. Most recently, "He Doesn't Know Why." I look forward to Fleet Foxes' next album, whenever it may come, for two reasons. Now that they've got J. Tillman [...]
I thought for a second there I was going to start doing these My Listening Hours posts monthly instead of quarterly, since they're so gargantuan. Well, I only managed to get through July before realizing that just wasn't going to work. Aside from it being more work rather than less, I think it also doesn't give the albums proper time to sink in. So, back to quarterly. I acquired twenty-five albums in the last three months, thanks to the local library, eMusic, and Amoeba. Nine albums were from 2008; three from 2007; four [...]
Every album I listened to, week by week, since June. Stay tuned next week: lots more thoughts on everything I've been listening to in the last few months.
Okkervil River, The Stand Ins Four Tet, Ringer Dr. Dog, Fate The Flatlanders, More a Legend than a Band Sam Prekop, Who's Your New Professor? Holy Fuck, LP Spoon, Kill the Moonlight , Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga , and Girls Can Tell Okkervil River, Black Sheep Boy As is plain to see, it's been pretty much all Okkervil River and Spoon this week, not coincidentally because I've tickets to [...]
Okkervil River, Singer Songwriter Your great-grandfather was a great lawyer, and his kid made a mint off the war, your father shot stills and then directed films that your mom did publicity for. I saw your older sis on the year's best book list, and your brother, he manages bands. ???This is very Royal Tenenbaums . Then again the sister/novelist reference reminds me of Colin and Maile Meloy. And you're keen to downplay but you're quick to betray with one well turned out [...]
Michael Stipe has taken to answering Pop Songs readers??? questions about his songs/lyrics over the course of the next few days (weeks? seems to be until whenever he wants to stop). This one comes from the first installment : A general question: you???ve intimated in interviews that the first two R.E.M. albums essentially had no real lyrics (something which you just alluded to in mention of the chorus to "Orange Crush???). Did the lyrics to the songs on those two albums eventually stick or do they continue to evolve for you over time with repeated [...]
The Fiery Furnaces, Widow City Ms. John Soda, No P. or D. Simon & Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Waters Shearwater, Rook Superchunk, On the Mouth Okkervil River, The Stand Ins Amon D????l II, Yeti Four Tet, Ringer and Rounds At some point in college or shortly after I had one of those "I need to eat" moments and I sold a bunch of my CDs???including the three Superchunk albums I owned. So [...]
Guess what I googled . Guess what returned 287 results. Prefix magazine : "...TV on the Radio heads back to the future on Dear Science ,. (The comma is intentional.)" New York Times : "On Sept. 23 TV on the Radio follows its widely praised 2006 album, ???Return to Cookie Mountain,??? with a magnificent third album, ???Dear Science,??? (the comma is part of the title)." Metromix LA : "Metromix has been given access to the new TV on the Radio album Dear [...]
By now the Large Hadron Collider has begun its test , though it won't be a couple weeks until it reaches its fullest power???you know, when it recreates the big bang. It's been nice knowing you: go out dancing. Elvis Costello, Waiting for the End of the World Chris Mills, Atom Smashers Andrew Bird, Dark Matter Fred Astaire, Dancing in the Dark [...]
Where do I even begin with this one... how about my expectations? They were high. I loved Pas/Cal's debut EP, The Handbag Memoirs , and have waited ever since for the band to get its shit together for a proper full-length debut. My expectations only went up when I heard "You Were Too Old for Me" a couple months in advance of the album. It was sprawling, epic pop, like two or three Kinksy songs jammed together into one monstrous stream-of-conscious monologue. I imagined the track to be a kind of tentpole among other more streamlined exercises in twee [...]
I didn't see quite all of the VMAs last night... I think I dozed off with about 20 or 30 minutes to go. Anyway, it was okay, considering (old man alert) I didn't know ANY of the songs these people were singing. I am hopelessly and happily out of touch with mainstream tween-oriented music. I will say this: Pink's performance/spectacle was the highlight. It looked like something not everyone could do--jumping from a balcony, breaking a window on cue, rolling into a coreographed dance routine, and actually singing* while she did it. It was impressive. Compare [...]
God, looking down my recent posts list, it's a little sad. Six weeks nothing but those soundtrack posts. And August came and went without a My Listening Hours post, which back in July I said would start coming monthly instead of quarterly. Well, I'm rethinking that. I'm rethinking a lot of things. I think I'm spreading myself too thin , with the many blogs thing (not ready to kill anything yet, though). Related, I think I've fooled myself into thinking only a certain kind of post belongs on pgwp. Well, that's all gonna change, I think. Though [...]
Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours Dr. Dog, Fate The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema Brian Eno, Another Green World Holy Fuck, LP Jose Gonzalez, Veneer Jens Lekman, Night Falls Over Kortedala Jens Lekman, It Was a Strange Time in My Life
Paul Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years Philip Glass, Solo Piano Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps R.E.M., Reckoning V/A, Calypso Atrocities Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther Vampire Weekend, s/t Don Ho, Greatest Hits Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina, Tom & Elis Holy Fuck, LP Brian Eno, Another Green World Coldplay, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends Simon & Garfunkel, Bridge [...]
Pretty Goes with Pretty
The Rains of Castamere by The National
Nas - Daughters
DIIV "How Long Have You Known?" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
CHROMATICS "THESE STREETS WILL NEVER LOOK THE SAME"
A Place To Bury Strangers - "You Are The One" (Official Video)
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
