Adding this to my Really Long Song Takes Really Awesome Funky Turn Right Around the Halfway Point" mix tape, along with "Pyramids," "Chief Inspector Blancheflower," and of course, "Station to Station."
Always nice when Autolux comes out of their cave and makes an appearance, although as much as I loved Future Perfect, I think Transit Transit was a bit of a disappointment. The Boots connection is interesting, we'll see how that plays out. I admittedly didn't know anything about the guy or his pop production connections, but I saw him open for Run the Jewels recently and he left me scratching my head more than anything. Very bizarre performance. But his 'thing' (whatever exactly that is) might actually mesh okay with Autolux, as long as he leans into Autolux's strengths and doesn't turn it into a clandestine Boots album.
I actually became a bit of a Superdrag fan years later, when In the Valley of Dying Stars came out. That's honestly on the shortlist of my favorite records, just perfect tunes top to bottom as far as I'm concerned. Regretfully Yours and (insert name of Superdrag record featuring girl with headphones on cover here!) are both good, but I'll take Dying Stars any day. (Though I'll take Master of Puppets over any of those).
A friend of mine back in middle school bought a CD of Metallica's Master of Puppets, and when we went back to his house and hit play, instead of hearing "Battery" we heard some mysterious alt-rock band. It took until track 4, "Sucked Out," that I realized the CD was actually Superdrag's Regretfully Yours. We went back and returned it to Target, to a very confused and disbelieving customer service rep. In hindsight, he should've just kept it. Not that it would be worth money or something, but just as a funny random rare little oddity.
Funny timing for me... I listened to this album almost every night last week. While I personally like Haha Sound better, Tender Buttons totally holds up and is a beautiful listen. Trish Keenan's death is one of those too-soon artist deaths that somehow hit me even harder than someone like Elliot Smith or Jeff Buckley; those two guys (and others like Nick Drake or the more obvious Kurt Cobain) died young, but their work will continually gain a following and respect from new audiences years after their passing. Broadcast made some incredible music, no doubt about that, but I fear it's just esoteric and 'underground' that she (no slight meant whatsoever to James Cargill) might never get the post-mortem popularity that she deserves. But I hope I'm wrong, and that the cool kids some day 'rediscover' the awesome music Broadcast made.
I always liked Grandaddy in their heyday, but it took me a few years, up until now even, to really appreciate how capital-G-Great they were. And even though they did have a good reputation in indie-guy circles, part of me feels like they should be held in more esteem. They're on the short list of the best bands of this generation, as far as I'm concerned. And while I liked Lytle's solo albums (though the second one is a huge step up from the first IMHO), they lack whatever it is that the Grandaddy work always had (which always confused me, because I was under the impression that Lytle essentially recorded the Grandaddy records on his own). So I'm super excited! Also worth noting, if anyone ever liked Sophtware Slump and Sumday, but for whatever reason never paid attention to What Happened To The Fambly Cat, by all means give it another shot. It's an awesome record, and shamefully under appreciated!
No shame at all in standing up for Fambly Cat. I'm not sure it has a 'negative' reputation necessarily, but at the very least, it came out after indie music tastes had moved on to chillwavey/synthy/other things, so people just didn't care. I think it's an awesome album! Sure, it's #3 behind Sophtware Slump and Sumday, and doesn't necessarily have as clear of a mission as those two (The Epic and The Pop records, respectively), but yeah, awesome songs, good mix of weirdo shit and pop hooks. "Geez Louise" is maybe my favorite song in their whole catalogue. Their Diary of Todd Zilla EP is also wonderful and super
under appreciated.
PTA directing a Joanna Newsom video. I nearly died right in this chair. If Jon Brion would've been involved, I'd be a pile of guts right now.
I like this song, but I do worry it sounds a bit much like something off of Have One on Me. That was an amazing album, so I'm not necessarily complaining, but she's grown and perfected her craft so much between her first three albums, I was hoping this new one 5 years later would continue the pattern. Maybe it will—this is just one song!—but for now it sounds a little too much like a comfort zone. (Even if Joanna Newsom's comfort zone is better than the greatest work most songwriters will ever create).
Sounds like Blackalicious. Fashion and attitudes have clearly moved well past what these guys were on the pinnacle of at the turn-of-the-millennium, but goddamn if it isn't still quality. I like it. I'll take one of these over a dozen new Future albums.
I voted for The Go! Team's "What D'You Say?".
But if I'm being honest with myself, Eleanor Friedberger's "Stare at the Sun" has been my SOTS for the last three summers.
Hey, I did too! Nice to know there's someone else out there. Even though I don't think I've listened to it since the month it came out. But every now and then a song from it will pop up on shuffle, and it's super pleasant. I think I have a "David Gilmour's guitar" sector in my brain that just releases pure dopamine every time I hear it. Explains why I also really liked the new Pink Floyd album quite a bit.
That's the funny thing about these guys... as much as I'm completely unmoved by their "new" music ("new" of course meaning everything they've done since "My Hero" became a mega hit way back when), I still have a solid respect for them, and I'm glad that they're the ones on that throne, rather than some other bullshit rawk nonsense. I'd follow Dave Grohl into battle, even if I roll my eyes at every new song he writes.
It's probably because I'm an old man who was in the prime of his naive youth when this came out, but as far as I'm concerned this self-titled record and, like, half of the Colour and the Shape, IS the Foo Fighters to me. Everything they've done in the decades since (despite becoming the biggest arena band in the world and reaching an unimaginable level of popularity and selling more records than Jesus) has struck me as being a very elaborate practical joke.
Super sad. Who knows if he was the "greatest" bassist in rock, whatever that means (though it's hard to argue he wasn't), but his playing absolutely defined one of the greatest bands of its era, and his style and sound are unparalleled to this day. I hope this is a moment when Yes gets some attention from people who have previously ignored them or passed them off as indulgent nonsense, which (unlike their many imitators and peers) they absolutely were not. Personally, I don't have a lot of patience for most prog of the era, but Yes, thinks to Squire, was the cream of the crop.
For the record (and I'm sure I'll probably get shit on and downvoted for whatever blasphemy I may have voiced), I think Beck, of all people, as earned the right to do whatever he wants to do. The guy's had a long and fruitful career mixed with popularity, artistry, experimentation, and success more than just about anyone in the last two decades. This song just feels like a cheap cash-in more than anything he's ever done, but based on his track record, I'm fully ready to forgive it and wait for the next project.
So Beck has decided to jump headlong into the 21st century pop monogenre, with a song so devoid of character that it could have been recorded by any one of a dozen different artists. "Hey, cool song! Who is it? MGMT? Fun? Charlie XCX? 21 Pilots? Katy Perry? Foster the People?" No, it's Beck! "Who?"
I'm as big of a Metallica apologist as you'll find (which might not sit too well around these parts?), as I feel like they've taken an undue amount of shit over the last, oh, 20 years (yikes!). But this reminds me of something I've noticed with these guys that speaks to their odd and suffocating group dynamic: None of them have ever released solo or side-project albums over the years!
It's seemed like latter-day Hetfield has this sort of acoustic country-ish singer-songwriter waiting to get out of him. Some sort of Rick Rubin-y stripped down record of a crooning James Hetfield might (MIGHT) actually be worth hearing. At the same time, I can imagine Kirk Hammett must be dying to put out some kind of collection of instrumental bluesy/hard-rocky/experimental(?) guitar nonsense, especially since he's been so famously the #3 guy in Metallica over the years. It seems crazy to think he's actually creatively satisfied at the rate that they write and record. Lars, who even knows what he'd attempt. Bass guy, who cares.
I'm not saying any such records would be great or anything... just that they'd be interesting to hear. And given all the bizarro creative tension you always hear about with these guys, it seems like something they should've tried a long, long time ago.
This is a somewhat embarrassing 'shame on me' type situation, but having been a fan of Insignificance and Eureka since 2000–2001ish, I just VERY recently (two weeks ago!) discovered that Halfway to a Threeway, Bad Timing, and The Visitor were in that same general 'pop' vein, rather than his more experimental, improvisational avant garde stuff. I assumed Eureka and Insignificance were just two cheeky little outliers in his catalogue, and now I feel like a big dope having ignored those other records all these years!
As a non-New Yorker, can somebody give me a quick explainer on what's so awful about Terminal 5? This is the third time I've heard somebody bash it in the last couple weeks, and I'm just curious about the subject.
Hey, that was good! Lovely even. Actually, I wouldn't mind a whole album of John Legend and John Mayer doing Nina Simone covers. You could do worse. You know, like that Xiu Xiu album of Nina Simone covers.
I want to add a quick addendum to this overlong rant: I get really excited when I hear about artists like this. I'm a big fan of Nilsson and his ilk, and the idea of a true songwriter is rare enough these days that I love getting my hopes up. But I just haven't been impressed by anything I've heard by Tobias Jesso or Natalie Prass. And for whatever reason, Father John Misty has just never floated my boat. But recently I love what I've heard from Courtney Barnett, she seems like the real deal... and while her sound is a bit 'garage,' her spirit is purely a songwriter. Jens Lekman is sort of a veteran at this point, but he's one of the best we've got. Blake Mills put out a great record last year that seems to have been overlooked.
And one of my favorites who has never received nearly enough attention, Benji Hughes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f610EsNGFPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MWmFpLoLlE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKePX9RsdpU
He's a bit of a tough egg to crack, has hardly any online presence, and some of his music is all over the map, but when he sits down and does his Laurel Canyon thing, I think he's f-ing amazing. He should be huge (cult-huge, at least...), but sometimes I worry I'm the only person who has any idea who he is.
That's all!
Totally. Hour of the Bewilderbeast was-and-is-the real deal! And the About a Boy sdtk is very nice. But after that he just sort of lost his grip on what he was doing.
To be a grouchypants about this, it needs to be noted that Harry Nilsson was great because he was a genius interpreter and arranger and great writer with a voice as powerful as anyone had ever heard. Not because he had strings and a horn section. Randy Newman was great because he wrote lyrics that cut to the bone with melodies and arrangements that felt both spookily timeless and utterly original. Not because he played a piano and sang funny. Nick Drake performed his music with absolute honest integrity, and played his guitar in a method completely unique to him, that people are still trying to figure out today. He wasn't just a sad guy who sang quietly. All these Tobias Jessos and Natalie Prasses might be picking and choosing some aesthetic or another, and it might be pleasant, maybe a breath of fresh air after a few years of endless synth washes and drum machines, but that doesn’t make them great artists. But it's possible! I think Joanna Newsom is one of the best songwriters and composers of this generation. Her work (especially newer) has Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman all over it, but she has a point of view and a voice that is so powerful, it cuts through the comparisons. Belle and Sebastian was doing Nick Drake and Nico from the start, but they have a point of view and a voice that is 100% without equal. I don’t want the next guy who plays music like Harry Nilsson or Nick Drake… I want the next guy who approaches his music with the genius and care and talent of Harry Nilsson or Nick Drake, whatever kind of music that is.
Every time I listen to War on Drugs' "An Ocean Between the Waves," I can't help but imagine the band up on stage performing as skeletons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCYbRmSlW-M
So ready the 80s synth pop thing to die already. Wet drums. Synth washes. 808 handclaps. Breathy, reverbed, nondescript female vocals singing Janet Jackson melodies with Cocteau Twins detachment. Slap a cyan-magenta gradient somewhere on the cover, call it "Look At Me Too!" and become SoundCloud's most popular artist for an hour or two, sell a couple downloads on Bandcamp, get the rest of it illegally torrented, and sell a song to Forever 21 to pay for your textbooks for a semester. Music is easy!
I hope the FCC destroys net neutrality, simply so ISPs around the world can blacklist any Miles Davis album ranking blog posts that attempt to place anything above Kind of Blue.
Let's all settle down everyone. This is just B&S getting back to their roots. Don't you remember "Electric Renaissance?" Oh, you've been trying to forget it? Oops.
For the sake of discussion,
CDs GUARANTEED TO BE AT A THRIFT STORE NEAR YOU:
R.E.M. — Monster
Natalie Merchant — Tigerlily
Matchbox 20 — Yourself or Someone Like You
Macy Gray — On How Life Is
Norah Jones — Come Away With Me
Bush — Sixteen Stone
Paula Cole — This Fire
Fiona Apple — Tidal
The Forrest Gump Soundtrack
Wow, I didn't read to the end of the article, and see that this very fact was mentioned! And that there was an entire Popmatters article about it. It's so true though!
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