Showing posts with label white stripes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label white stripes. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Favorite albums of the decade

Tell me why I'm wrong/what's missing in the comments section.

It'd always be preferable, obviously, to say things were better off exiting the decade than entering. But my generation's first decade with a (nearly) grown brain was one of disappointment — the country, the world, etc. It's like everyone was handed a Faberge egg in 2000, told to look after it, and instead used it as a drink shaker for Jeppson's Mallort and pyrite.

While our country was raging war across the globe, weathering one recession and entering another, I had some of the best years of my life. (Insert white guilt here.) Senior year of high school, all of college and every summer in between was like my own carefree icing on top of the world's fresh-shit cake.
Am I better off (life's achievements relative to age) now than I was at the dawn of the century? The jury's still out.

Attempting to choose even just one infinitesimal aspect of human life from the decade — music — and decide if it took a leap or a plunge as a whole is a similarly maddening experience. Picking what was the "best" will fail by definition. My first CD as an 8-year-old was Niel Diamond's "Greatest Hits," so we'll just go ahead and assume some of these albums will be slightly embarrassing in 15 years. Trends and (non) trends come and go. What appeared to be a cutting-edge melding of two seemingly disparate genres in the year 2007 could easily sound fool-hearty and painfully dated in the year 2020. But, listing arcane knowledge helps my brain keep it all organized for my own future listening pleasure, and that's the real point, right?

So, here's the familiar cop out — these are my favorite albums of the decade. The best as viewed through my prism of experience.

In 2000, I was 14, and my tastes were mostly defined by classic rock, grunge and blues. The newer stuff I did listen to sided towards alternative (when that word meant something) from the '90s — Beck, Cake, the Eels. I was also starting to find something considered "indie" interesting, which was difficult without an older sibling or a college radio station in my home town. That was also the year I saw a CD burner for the first time, and Napster. And with the added access, came more new music than I ever would have discovered otherwise.

Runners-up:
The Walkmen - "You & Me," My Morning Jacket - "It Still Moves," Vampire Weekend - "Vampire Weekend," Modest Mouse - "Good News for People that Love Bad News," The Go Team - "Thunder Lightening Strike, " The Streets - "Original Pirate Material," Bob Dylan - "Modern Times," Okkervil River - "The Stage Names," M83 - "Before the Dawn Heals Us," The New Pornographers - "Twin Cinema," Lupe Fiasco - "Food and Liquor," Black Lips - "Good Bad Not Evil," Rjd2 - "Deadringer," The Postal Service - "Give Up," People Under the Stairs - "OST," Band of Horses - "Everything all the Time"

29. The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2001)
Key track: "Frontier Psychologist"

28. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)
Key tracks: "Do You Realize," "Fight Test"

27. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (2007)
Key track: "Me and Mr. Jones"

26. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)
Key tracks: "Summertime Clothes," "My Girls," "Brothersport"

25. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009)
Key tracks: "Lisztomania," "1901," "Love Like a Sunset (parts I and II)"

24. Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy (2000)
Key tracks: "Grace Kelly Blues," "It's a Motherfucker," "A Daisy Through Concrete"


23. Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow (2002)
Key track: "Blazing Arrow"

22. Kanye West - Late Registration (2005) - I guess being crass isn't always so bad, especially when it's this fun.
Key track: you know which ones

21. Panda Bear - Person Pitch (2007)
Key track: all of them

20. Decemberists - The Crane Wife (2006)
Here's some escapism, if killer children and sharpened bayonets ingrained in a Japanese folk tale are your idea of a pleasant distraction.
Key tracks: "The Crane Wife 3," "O Valencia!," "Shankhill Butchers"

19. The Thermals - The Body the Blood the Machine (2006)
Key tracks: "Here's Your Future," "A Pillar of Salt," "Returning to the Fold," "St. Rosa & the Swollows"

18. M. Ward - Post War (2006)
A warm blast of reverb and Americana when my cornfield-lined routes needed it the most. I absolutely wore out this record after finding it used at Co-op.
Key tracks: "To Go Home," "Requiem," "Chinese Translation"

17. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
"Oh, Inverted World" got all the attention, but this is where I got into the Shins, and looking back, most agree this is the superior record ... driving to Andiamos during high school for Thursday open mic night, sneaking a cigarette on the ride down, staying too late, and listening to "Chutes Too Narrow" both ways for several months.
Key tracks: All of um

16. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (2007)
A cold sound for a cold year. Iraq was still dragging into civil war, and "the surge" had not yet quelled partisan fighting. The housing market was starting to plunge, and deep down everyone (hopefully) knew the economy wasn't actually healthy. But cognitive dissonance can be a powerful thing. Famous for its party's over vibe and lyrics of the lead single, I can't think of a better record to play when the concrete walls finally close in, and you know, we have to fight the symbiotic robots wearing red Elephant patches. I'll play "Get Innocuous" when Pfizer pays the FDA to approve Soma and Monsanto runs the USDA.
Key tracks: "All My Friends," "Get Innocuous"

15. Black Keys - Rubber Factory (2004)
Key track: "10 A.M. Automatic,"

14. Arcade Fire - Funeral and Neon Bible (2004, 2007)
Key track: "Wake Up"

13. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (2008)
Key tracks: "White Winter Hymnal," "Ragged Wood"

12. My Morning Jacket - Z (2005)
Key tracks: "Wordless Chorus," "Off the Record," "Gideon"

11. Radiohead - Kid A (2000)
Key tracks: "Everything in its Right Place," "The National Anthem"

10. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2005)
Key tracks: "Jacksonville," "Decatur," "Chicago," "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."

9. Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America (2006)
Key tracks: "Stuck Between Stations," "Hot Soft Light,""South Town Girls," "You Can Make Him Like You," "Massive Nights"

5-8. Spoon - Gimme Fiction/ ga ga ga ga ga/Girls Can Tell/Kill The Moonlight (2000-2007) I couldn't pick one of these four above the others. The band is unstoppable. Look forward to Transference next month.
Key tracks: all of um

3 and 4. White Stripes - Elephant (2003) and White Blood Cells (2001)
Jack White has participated in a great album every year this decade except one (EVERY YEAR!), be it with the Raconteurs, Loretta Lynn, the Deadweather or his marquee group, The White Stripes. Guitars and feedback and rock and roll vocals hadn't sounded this fresh in decades. The visceral, lo-fi punch of "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" is when I first fell in love with the White Stripes' bursting energy and childlike enthusiasm for the blues and rock 'n' roll, and White hasn't let up steam since.
Key tracks: all of um

1 and 2. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2001) and A Ghost is Born (2004)
I have nearly nothing to say. This is my favorite two album stretch by Wilco (and almost any other band). These songs made sense to me, mystified me, challenged me as a 16 year old and a 19 year old, and they make even more sense in different ways as a 24-year-old. They soundtracked the brooding moments in the bedroom after arguments with friends and family, they soundtracked sunny road trips to visit friends at other colleges, they soundtracked both get-togethers in college and meditative moments of solitude in the dorm room, and they soundtracked my first two years on the job. Let's hope Tweedy and Co. continue to soundtrack the rest of our journey.
Key tracks: all of um

Friday, July 17, 2009

MONSTERS OF FOLK

The first track from indie roots-rock collective, the Monsters of Folk (My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Bright Eyes' Connor Oberst, M. Ward and Mike Mogis), is available for free download on the group's Web site:

http://www.monstersoffolk.com/

The track has the trademarks of M. Ward's production - warm, layered acoustic guitars and reverbed vocals, with a fuzzed out electric guitar solo melting the top of mix (complete with a Jack White-esque octive-shifting wammy-pedal affect).

It's a track that would have livened up portions of both My Morning Jacket's last LP "It Still Moves," or feel at home on a Wilco record. James sounds like the principle singer on this track, but the quartet chimes in for the chorus.

The LP is due Sept. 22.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Waiting

Several bands seem to be distracted by over-productive side projects, detours or, who knows? I need new albums by the following:

Spoon — The Austin, TX band last released 2007's excellent "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga," continuing an epic run of four near-perfect albums (it was their sixth full-length over all). The boys have been busy, front man Brit Daniels produced the White Rabbits' good new album "It's Frightening." It sounds (big surprise) a lot like Spoon — shades of the Walkmen — with unusual percussion occasionally replacing standard drum kits, captured studio chatter and sparse pianos fulfilling some of the rhythm duties. "It's Frightening" has some great sounds, it needs more great songs. This sounds harsher than I intended. It's a good record with some absolute standouts, namely "Percussion Gun," and "Company I Keep." Definitely worth checking out, especially for any Spoon fan.

Spoon drummer Jim Eno recently produced Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears' garage-soul riot "Tell 'Em what Your Name Is!"

Spoon will also headline each night their own three-day festival of sorts (named Spoon x3) at Stubbs in Austin from July 9-11. Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears, ... Trail of Dead, Low, Dale Watson and Atlas Sound open on select nights.

All this Spoon news and yet, where's a new album? I haven't heard anything about the band in the studio, or writing fresh material, so a new one will probably be a ways off, but I always like surprises.

White Stripes — The band's last effort, "Icky Thump" was alternately brilliant, hum-drum and down-right awful. On two tracks, White's fashionation with the UK unfortunately translated into bag-pipe informed Scottish doodles. Since the spring '07 "Icky Thump" release, Jack White has arguably been the busiest man in rock 'n' roll. His other band, The Raconteurs, released 2008's mainstream-leaning grower "Consolers of the Lonely." His other other band The Dead Weather (he's at the drums this time) is set to release its debut next month. In the meantime, he managed to start a record label, Third Man Records, with a new Nashville facility featuring a vinyl record store, performance venue and studio. He also toured with the Raconteurs and is starting a new tour with the Dead Weather. All this doesn't leave a lot of time for the White Stripes.

But, in a recent interview, White said last month he is working on new White Stripes songs for an album that isn't “too far off. Maybe next year.”

UPDATE: This may or may not be complete bullshit, but apparently White allegedly maybe sorta might have also hinted at working on a solo album on top of it all.

Sufjan Stevens has also stayed busy, laying his indelible orchestration on the Welcome Wagon's debut ( a Brooklyn husband/wife duo singing original church songs — though you'd never know it unless you listened to the lyrics). The songs are good, but it's Stevens' production and arrangements that prove the album listenable for folks who otherwise keep things secular.

I'm pretty sure Stevens also released a Christmas album, I didn't bother.

His last full length of originals, 2005's "Illinois," is one of the best albums of the decade. More, please.

The Hold Steady — Yeah, yeah it's only been 11 months since the release of "Stay Positive," but dammit I'm greedy. And it's the band's fault they kept up a pace of an album every 1.25 years. Now they're locked in. They've been touring nonstop during that same time span, and I haven't heard anything about new songs. Figure it out, Craig. They did contribute a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City" to the War Child charity album this year, and released their first live album "A Positive Rage" packaged with a documentary DVD.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

When you're in the little room

Music obsessives like myself, while laying in bed at night, like to make-believe the kinds of bands they wish they were in. Mine typically sound exactly like this.


Get Yo Shit - Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears


Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears were brought to my attention Thursday, thanks to, like almost everything I know, the AV Club. Their debut album was produced by Spoon's drummer, whose last album "Ga ga ga ga ga" featured their first foray into a some neo-Motown sounds.

Let's see the check list, which has existed in my head every time it's too hot to sleep, and I'm imagining the "musicians wanted" flier.

1.) Singer in vein of Otis Redding (soul shouter)
2.) All-tube, vintage garage rock guitarist with more distortion than traditional R'n'B
3.) Bassist fully versed in the Stax catalog, but also the Nuggets box set
4.) Any drummer
5.) Keyboardist owning a Hammond B3 organ
6.) This isn't on my list, but it's in Joe Lewis's band - horn section

Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears are a fairly straightforward R'n'B band (in the southern, Stax mode), but as with all indiesnobs, old sounds made new are best when slanted grimy, and Black Joe Lewis knows how to keep things in the garage.

The Greenhorns fulfilled my need for this sound (minus the horns) the last couple years, and before that it was the Dirtbombs, and their garage punk attack on "Ultraglide in Black," a collection of loud covers of '60s soul tunes. Going back to high school (and to this day), the Black Keys and White Stripes kept the garage-blues side of my brain happy, the Keys on the more traditional side of things and the Stripes splattering indierock bone marrow onto candy-striped memories.

I'm happy that Mr. Lewis and Co. will now fill that void until I finally get my make-believe band put together.

"Well you're in your little room
and you're working on something good
but if it's really good
you're gonna need a bigger room
and when you're in the bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started
sitting in your little room" - The White Stripes

Thursday, March 12, 2009

New Band. (!)

Niice.

The White Stripes + The Kills + The Raconteurs + Queens of the Stone Age = The Dead Weather

Jack White has teamed up with Kills front-woman W (aka Alison Mosshart), Jack Lawrence (bassist for the Racontuers and Greenhorns) and QOTSA member Dean Fertita to form the Dead Weather. The link
above lets you listen to a track or two.

I'm psyched.

I have never really cared for Brendan Benson, or his contributions to Jack's other side project the Raconteurs, and
I'm excited to see what Jack can do with some fresh blood. According to Pitchfork, Jack is playing drums and singing with this, his third band, and the debut LP is already due for a June release.

If I had to make up a label for the Kills, I guess I'd call them a fashion-blues (or maybe punk-blues?) duo. Their 2003 debut "Keep on Your Mean Side" combined arty nihilism, stomping-dirt guitars, drum machines, lots of sex and cig smoke for one nasty/awesome record. (The best chorus on the album is "Fuck the People.) Other sweet Kills tracks include "Fried My little Brains" and "Monkey 23." Their newer albums have been a little more boring, but still, they are pretty sweet.

This pairing does make perfect sense, the best parts of two blues/rock duos joining forces? I guess the Black Keys are next.

According to Stereogum, the new group coincides with the grand opening of the new offices for his Third Man Record label. The place includes a vinyl record store, photo studio, dark room, and performance stage. Who want to move to Nashville with me?

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

2009?

2009 is already shaping up to be a good year for music. Previous posts provided links to stream the new Animal Collective disc (which is living up to the hype - I just received my copy in the mail today), new M. Ward album (sounds as good as 2006's "Post War") and the new Andrew Bird album (I haven't listened yet).

On the horizon is self described flower-punk act The Black Lips follow up to its breakthrough 2007 album, "Good Bad not Evil." The new record, "200 Million Thousand," drops on February 24.

Wilco I believe is set to release a new record this year, I dunno when, let's hope they take a couple big steps away from 2007's boring and guitar-cliche riddled "Sky Blue Sky."

And on March 24 the Decemberists will release their concept album "The Hazards of Love" (how many times will Meloy using the word beyonette? listen to find out ...).
You can download a track off the album here: http://www.decemberists.com/

Throw in a couple debuts like last year's Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend and the decade might just close out on the right foot. Oh yeah, its time for a new White Stripes album, too, but Jack's been pretty fucking busy with the Raconteurs ... we can always hope.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Candy Cane Children


If you are as sick of Christmas music as this grinch is, you should enjoy the White Stripes' offering to the yuletide canon.

The 2002 rarity "Candy Cane Children" currently plays on the whitestripes.com homepage automatically one click past the Betty Page RIP tribute photo. The track (I believe) was released as a vinyl single only and has never appeared on any album. It's short, but sweet vintage Jack and Meg.

Photo courtesy of whitestripes.com

Monday, July 21, 2008

An Album for Every Year



This is an interesting excercise that has been making the blog circles. Pick the best album from every year you have been alive. The 2000s and '90s were easy.
But my '80s music knowledge is pretty spotty. I know the albums by my favorite groups and the pop and new wave singles, but as for what was then called "College rock" I don't know more than few songs by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cure, Smiths, Pogues, Nick Cave, Pixies, Husker Du, etc. Same goes with some of the critically acclaimed pop artists like Prince and Paul Simon, who supposedly have solid albums to back up the singles. I only have two ears, and it takes plenty of energy keeping up with all the new stuff, let alone continue to educate my self on the '80s.
If only I could write this list going back to the 70s and 60s, I could have a more informed selection.
The next installment will be an album for every year before I was born.


1985 Talking Heads - Little Creatures

1986 Beastie Boys - License to Ill

1987 REM - Document

1988 N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton

1989 Black Crowes - Shake your money Maker
Close Second - Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Honorable Mention - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

1990 A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

1991 Nirvana - Nevermind
Close Second - Pearl Jam - Ten (of course)

1992 R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
Close Second - Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Honorable Mention - Eric Clapton - Unplugged

1993 Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 Chambers
Close Second - Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Honorable Mentions - Nirvana - In Utero
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Snoop Doggy Dog - Doggystyle

1994 Weezer - (Blue Album)
Close Second - Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Honorable Mention - Beck - Mellow Gold

1995 Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Close Second - Radiohead - the Bends
Honorable Mention - Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five

1996 Beck - Odeley
Close Second - Eels - Beautiful Freak
Honorable Mentions - Cake - Fashion Nugget
Wilco - Being There
Weezer - Pinkerton
Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire

1997 Radiohead - OK Computer

1998 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Honorable Mentions - Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Beck - Mutations

1999 Wilco - Summerteeth

2000 Deltron - Deltron 3030
Honorable Mention - Radiohead - Kid A

2001 Spoon - Girls Can Tell
Honorable Mention - Ryan Adams - Gold

2002 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Close Second - People under the Stairs - O.S.T.
Honorable Mention - White Stripes - White Blood Cells
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Black Keys - Big Come Up
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow


2003 White Stripes - Elephant
Close Second - The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Honorable Mention - Kings of Leon - Youth & Young Manhood

2004 Black Keys - Rubber Factory
Close Second - Wilco - A Ghost is Born

2005 My Morning Jacket - Z
Honorable Mentions - Kings of leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak

2006 Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Honorable Mentions - The Black Angels - Passover
Tapes n Tapes - The Loon
Decemberists - The Crane Wife

2007 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Honorable Mentions - Radiohead - In Rainbows
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

2008 Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes