The announcement of new albums being released by my favorite indie rock
bands just keep coming -- The New Pornographers to Broken Social Scene
to The National to Wolf Parade... as I ponder which band will be next
(still waiting on Arcade Fire with fingers crossed), I did a quick
calculation... only 3 months into the year, fully 25 of my top 100
favorite bands of all-time (a list I periodically update) are releasing
a new album in 2010. I kind of cheated a little by including
Pavement's "best of" as a new album and Destroyer's re-releases, but
other than that, everyone's got something new coming in 2010, and
again, we're only 3 months in!!! By comparison, on this same list of
bands, only 18 had a new release in the entirety 2009. We've already zoomed past
that and we're sure to have many more... I know this is just a personal
list of my favorites, so others may disagree on whether or not this
calendar year will be so great for their music faves, but for me, god I
can't think of a better year so far...
Below is my list of top 100
artists for
reference. I've seen Shearwater, I have tickets to Silver Mt. Zion and
Frog Eyes and Pavement, and will definitely be seeing Wolf Parade when
they come to the area. I might see The Besnard Lakes next month and
I'm sure there will be many other great shows as well. I cannot wait. Best year in music ever?! It's certainly on its way.
I saw Shearwater and Wye Oak play at the Bowery this weekend and they were both wonderful. Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak made a comment on stage about loving playing at the Bowery because the acoustics are so great and I have to agree, it really does make a spectacular sound and both bands played to perfection. I didn't get there in time to see Hospital Ships perform but I heard from the crowd they were excellent as an opening act. Well, I was actually there in time, but I was downstairs at the bar (shocker) and talking to Wye Oak at the merch table (Jenn was great!) and trying to warm up after a shockingly cold night walking around the city and getting half-lost on the subways trying to get to the site. But I was upstairs when Wye Oak was on and they played a great set. I own both of their albums, If Children and The Knot, but I have to admit I didn't quite recognize many of their songs, so I can't give a set list, but "Family Glue" and new track "I Hope You Die" were definitely memorable. Jenn announced they were playing several new tracks that hadn't been performed in the city before, so maybe that's why I couldn't name too many. They didn't play "I Don't Feel Young," unfortunately, which made my Top 20 songs in 2008, but the set was really great otherwise.
Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater joined Jenn and Andy on stage for their final song, a cover song, and then he came back about 20 minutes later with his own band. Jordan Geiger from Hospital Ships was on the stage for the set, and Andy Stark joined them for a couple songs, so there were upwards of 6 performers on stage, bringing Shearwater's beautifully dramatic songs to life. They played a long set, probably 70 to 80 minutes I'd guess, and played almost every song I'd ever heard of in their catalog. I only came to know the band through Okkervil River (Meiburg used to be a member), so I only own Rook and the latest Golden Archipelago, but I did recognize the magical "Seventy-four, Seventy-five" as well as "White Waves" from Palo Santo. I'd say in all they must have played 15 songs or so, an expansive selection that included just about every song from Golden Archipelago I believe. Standouts beside "Seventy-four, Seventy-five" included "Black Eyes," which they opened with and -- unless I am mistaken because the whole night feels kind of hazy at this point -- repeated later in the set, along with "Century Eyes" (the crowd exploded for it), "Corridors", "Rooks", and the memorable "Castaways" -- "You are cast away!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Thanks for a great season Cuse. I've never seen you play even close to this bad -- at least on offense -- in some time, probably since last year's Sweet 16 loss. Rick Jackson looked like he'd never touched a basketball before. The rest of the team kept turning it over trying to get it to him and then took horrible shots down the stretch after coming back on the strength of Andy Rautins' three-point shooting. All in all, just a bad, bad, bad, bad game. They didn't look like they'd ever played together before most of the night. Congrats to Butler, but they didn't exactly play like they were just the better team tonight. We could have lost to just about anyone. I think Rutgers would have won by about 15 tonight. It's tough to lose like that after such a great season, but I've got to just try to remember the joy you guys have brought me this year, despite the horrendous ending.
Thank you Wes and Andy and Arinze for your time at Syracuse. Your careers brought me many years of happiness, especially Andy and Arinze, but you will all be missed. And we could have really used you tonight, AO. We could have used something.
Could be a double album, since they have 15 songs with about 80 minutes of material recorded and ready to go, but could simply be an LP and an EP
New album was recorded over a couple weeks and is almost exclusively live to tape, so it should be closer to live recordings than the sometimes overdubbed At Mount Zoomer
Keyboardist Hadji Bakara has left the band to focus on PhD studies
Dan and Dante filled in on keyboards, which were used a lot on the new album, although Dan mentions plenty of guitar solos
While Dan and Spencer wrote their own songs as usual, they sing on all the songs and they were all kind of written and recorded together
Dan will be playing with Spoon at Radio City Music Hall in April
The new record was produced by Howard Bilerman, most famous for producing Arcade Fire's Funeral
Two songs are titled "Caveosapian" and "Yulia"
"Yulia" has something to do with Russian Cosmonauts, of which Dan is obsessed
Spencer is still sporting that creepy mustache that I saw in another picture recently -- Spencer, shave the mustache, please!
We don't have a title yet, or the full tour dates that will come along (which include 2011 dates in Japan and Australia) but according to the Wolf Parade forums, the North American dates are coming in two weeks. I can't wait to see them again. I can't wait to hear the new album. And basically, I'm just thrilled about this news. You know what, passing universal health care was nice. But a new Wolf Parade album is better.
The National are returning with a new album on May 11th called High Violet, and while we don't have an official released track or any leaks yet, we did get a sneak preview last week with an appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show and the song "Terrible Love," which will appear on the album. Take a listen. I'm very, very impressed, and add The National to the huge and growing list of bands whose albums I can't wait to hear this year.
Holy Fuck is an interesting band to me. Unlike many of my indie rock loving brethren, I just don't get into the indie "dance" music so much. Bands like Hot Chip and Passion Pit do little for me, and Holy Fuck is very much in that genre, an instrumental dance band, and most of their first album LP, including the popular "Milk Shake" did nothing for me. But "Lovely Allen" off the same album is absolutely one of my favorite songs by any band ever. So yeah, it's a little confusing. Their new album is called Latin and is supposedly showing a more mature, expanded sound, and first track "Latin America," while not reaching the impressive heights of "Lovely Allen" is a really great song. So I'm excited. And I still think they have the best name for a band of any band ever.
A completely dominant performance by the #1 seed Syracuse Orange this weekend was highlighted by the play of Wes Johnson, who is finally back to his early-season form before the February fall against Providence hurt his back and a subsequent hand injury hurt his shooting. Wes was absolutely the best player on the court and as Gus Johnson repeatedly said "the best player in Buffalo" and he followed up a 20-point outing against over-matched Vermont with a 31 point, 13 rebound domination of the #19 team in the nation, Gonzaga. Wes played as well on Sunday as he has all year and the team did the same, despite not only being without Arinze Onuaku but also without Rick Jackson for the final 9 minutes of the first half, when he recorded his third foul. But even semi center-less, with freshman DeShonte Riley filling in the gap, the Orange just went on a dominant run against the Zags to close out the first half with a 16 point lead and then they came out in the second half and just blew the doors off their opponent, staking themselves a 32 point lead before some late game sloppy play pushed the final score to 87-65.
I was frightened to death about this weekend's matchups, both Vermont and Gonzaga, because we were without Onuaku and we hadn't been playing well, but neither game was close and neither team had even a shred of a chance to stop our offense, especially with Wes Johnson playing this well. Three-point shooting was probably the biggest factor, against both teams, as we shot incredibly from long-range and the opponents did not, so the size of the blowouts was definitely affected, but we do lead the nation in field goal percentage and it was no fluke that we were ranked #1 in country just two weeks ago. The Big East may be struggling mightily early but Syracuse is carrying the banner for the league and if they can come anywhere near as close to playing this well next week, a trip to the Final Four should be theirs. There is still hope that Onuaku will be back for Thursday's game against Butler, and even though we played great without him, I still think we need him to keep winning, so my fingers are crossed that he keeps healing, but damn, DeShonte Riley didn't play half bad today... I still can't believe it.
I don't mean to do this every Sunday, because it's not a good or fun trend in music to talk about deaths but I felt like I needed to say something about legendary indie hero Alex Chilton, who died on Thursday at the age of 59 from a heart attack. I first heard of the lead singer of Big Star (and The Box Tops as a teenager) from The Replacements song with his name, as I imagine most alternative '80s kids like me did, but I don't think I ever sought out his songs until much later. The Big Star songs were maybe not as great to me as they were to my '80s idols (both The Replacements and R.E.M. cited Chilton as a big influence) but they are certainly wonderful in their own right. Vic Chestnutt. Jay Reatard. Mark Linkous. And now Alex Chilton. 2010 is not getting off to a wonderful start.
Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round
They sing "I'm in love. What's that song? I'm in love with that song."
And on a personal note, yesterday was the birthday of my friend Dan, who died about a year ago, so while I'm saying rest in peace to strangers, I'd like to add this personal note for him. Miss you Dan. The world has been worse without you.
I think I'm at the breaking point, or the end of my breaking point. Since January 1st, I've been working non-stop, strange hours, long days, no breaks, no time off, nothing but the pressure of it all and it's killing me. Drinking tons of caffeine to get through the day and wired, too wired, to even think straight by the end of the day, like now, when I write this. And I'm taking two classes at the same time, with all the homework involved, and I'm writing my thesis so I can graduate this spring, and I'm writing a novel, which is my thesis, but is more, I think, or hope, and there's research for that and insanity and doubt, and did I mention all the caffeine? Friday night I was at a client from 6 pm until 5 in the morning, slept through some of Saturday only to wake up in the midst of Hurricane Hell here in NJ, and my fence blew down, or part of it, so I have to buy a new fence, and he came out here yesterday to give me a quote and shit it's expensive, so I have to keep working to pay for crap that I don't really even want, but the fence is hanging over and it's a disgrace and I couldn't stop staring at it on Saturday on no sleep and exhausted and hoping it wouldn't fall down but it did. And did I mention the caffeine? And then there's Syracuse, my favorite sports team of all sports teams (sorry Phillies fans) and they were #1 in the nation and now, it's all falling apart I'm afraid, like my mind. But I'm trying to pay attention and hoping Arinze will be healthy but there's too much going on and I'm running my NCAA pool again of course and then entering Todd's super-complicated one that takes hours to enter but I did it anyway, because hell, I have no time, and I've got more money to throw away, so why not? And I'm planning a party, my Final Four party and why I'm throwing it when I have no time to even breathe let alone throw a party and I have no fucking fence even but I hope it's nice out because with the number of people I invited they'll have to stand outside next to the tattered waste of a former fence and what if Syracuse is playing, but no they won't be playing, not without Arinze, and did I mention the caffeine? And then last night, for reasons unknown to me, we had a good time, an excellent time, but I didn't get in until 3 am and then I had work today, like every day, even though I worked on Saturday until 5 am, because I'm leaving for Dallas on Monday and a report needed to be done by me, alone, again, because, well I have to pay for the party and the fence and the betting and the caffeine -- oh the caffeine -- so I sat at my desk on the most beautiful day of the year and just worked and worked until I almost died and then I had some caffeine and I almost died some more and then there was Lost and South Park which was so fucking funny and now it's after midnight and I can't even breathe but I'm wide awake, because did I mention the caffeine, and I know this isn't making any sense, but thank you for reading, and tomorrow... tomorrow, March Madness begins so I can take a break, but I can't take a break, I need a break more than I've ever needed a break, but I can't take one, I know I have to, ever so brief. And I need to forget about work and forget about school and forget about my novel and my party and this blog and caffeine and everything else and just drink, god I need a drink, and I hope Syracuse wins. The way Spencer looks in this video is the way I feel right now and I've felt it for 3 months. I really need this ride to stop.
She said my name and my spirit are both corrupt and if you hold me close you gotta hold me up.
The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night is an absolutely wonderful new album from Canada's The Besnard Lakes, not so much a concept album any more than all their albums are conceptual, but it's just an explosion of interesting, unique sounds and warbling rock arrangements that sing and swing through every song, highlighted by the magical "Albatross," one of the best songs of the year, but also by the wondrous 2-part opener, "Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent". It's a familiar sound to anyone familiar with the band's last effort, The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse, but at the risk of sounding like a cheesy record reviewer, I'll say they shouldn't be a dark horse anymore, they need to be heard by the indie rock masses.
It's only been 8 days since Syracuse was the #1 team in the country and losing on the road to Louisville in the final game at Freedom Hall, but so much has seemed to happen to the team in that time that I'm rather surprised, but pleased, that we ended up holding on to the #1 seed. We lost to a Louisville team that outplayed us 8 days ago, but also a team in which some white kid off the bench banged home about 6 three-pointers in the 2nd half and I think was something like 11 of 12 from the field. It was a miracle performance by one player and the rest of the team responded as well and Louisville figured out a way to beat our zone in the end. But it wasn't too bad a loss, we still had the Big East tournament to come, and then the NCAAs and our #1 seed wasn't in jeopardy from a loss on the road to another tournament team.
Then came Thursday's debacle against Georgetown, who came in as the #8 seed in the Big East. This is why a team like Duke or Kentucky or even Kansas can run away and win their conference tourneys and stake a claim for the #1 seed without trouble. Because they're not facing fucking Georgetown (who ended up with a #3 seed) in the quarterfinals! The Big East -- for the 2nd straight year -- is far and away the best conference in the nation, and you can certainly make a case that the last two years the Big East has had have been the best two year stretch of any conference in the history of the sport. They've been that good. Let me reiterate: Georgetown was the #8 seed. 7 of the Big East's 8 entries in the NCAA Tournament are top 6 seeds, with Louisville as a #9, not quite up to last year's level when all 8 entries were top 6 seeds, but it's pretty damn close. Anyway, we played Georgetown for the third time this season (we'd won the first two) and had the lead at the half but it was close and Georgetown was attacking the zone much, much better than the first two times we played them. But we went on an 8-0 run to open up a double digit lead and all seemed well. Then everything fell apart.
