Salmon of Rock

Top 10 of 2010: #5-1

2010-12-17T11:19:00.013-05:00

5. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
In the year of Kanye West, former OutKast MC Big Boi was one of the few rap stars to appear something more than drab. The brilliant Antwan Andre Patton dropped nothing short of the best in his long-awaited return to the spotlight.

Prior to Sir Lucious, it would have sounded ridiculous to assert that Big Boi would release anything this spectacularly weird, hypnotic, fierce, funny and catchy. After all, we hadn't heard from the South's preeminent hip hop group OutKast in years, and Big Boi wasn't even supposed to be the brains of the bunch. You have to love underdogs who triumph and make it look like they were front-runners from the start.

Big catch: "General Patton": "This s*#t is like breathing to me," Big Boi raps over military cadences. Believe it.

4. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Monae, self-proclaimed "weirdo," is like no one else, but somehow she manages to sound like everyone else.

The metamorphing songstress spins jazz, funk, classical melodrama, hip hop, Stax-era soul, pre-pubescent Michael Jackson and spacey Tommy James rock like the record industry's going to die tomorrow and someone needs to memorialize all of it.

At the same time that Monae champions her roots, she seems intent on pushing toward the future, or at least a future where genres are irrelevant.

Yes, it's a concept album that picks up where a previous EP left off, and concept albums can be tiresome. But Monae, who's dazzled for years without ever releasing a full-length LP until this year, keeps the flow of The ArchAndroid limber and irresistible.

Big catch: "Faster" - Monae turns into 10-year-old Michael Jackson at the end of this frantic, funk number.

3. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Arcade Fire can make anything dramatic, even the crappy neighborhood where you used to set bugs on fire with a magnifying glass and shoot BB guns at your friends to break up the boredom.

Some might scoff at the idea of suburban life as being short of idyllic, but the "little pink houses" business is anything but a dream these days. Pensions are drying up, college costs too much, there are no jobs, your parents are convinced the country is under siege, and your closest friends would rather play scratch and sniff with a bottle of glue than apply for a scholarship.

Arcade Fire, in true Springsteen fashion, believe this is a "suicide trap" and we need to get out. It's a good thing they've cushioned the dramatics with another slew of well-written, explosive songs that make every other rock band look like slackers. This album is a grower, maybe forgettable once but a classic by the fifth listen.

Big catch: "We Used to Wait" - We used to wait for it, but now we're screaming "sing the chorus again." Perfect description of Arcade Fire's slowly unrolling masterpiece.

2. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
A friend of mine once said he would be willing to proclaim LCD's James Murphy a prophet if every song were as good as album opener "Dance Yrself Clean."

Halfway through the drifting, low-fi track, Murphy drops a blitzkrieg of club-heavy beats, rambling keyboards and half-screamed vocals as catharsis. If you can't get your dance on with this track, then you probably don't like dancing.

Either way, This is Happening is filled with epic, danceable numbers that scream for repeat listens.

Big catch: Aside from the aforementioned "Dance Yrself Clean," there are too many to mention. But "All I Want," the classic Heroes-era grandchild that Bowie would have recorded if he and Brian Eno had thought of it, deserves mention.

1. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
West made most other hip hop artists look hopelessly uninspired through the course of this 13-track masterwork. It's a testament to his productivity that he had another dozen or so songs that he recorded during the making of this album that would have filled LPs for lesser artists.

Nothing is better for rap stars than for everyone in the world to doubt them. Let's face it, everyone was doubting West after he made a tuneless rant like 808s and Heartbreak and did his best impression of a cokehead jumping on stage to lampoon Taylor Swift.

Somehow, in the middle of it all, West found time to lock himself in the studio and make songs that crackle with creativity and his trademark self-awareness. Meanwhile, the sometimes clumsy rapper also found a way to turn in some of his best verses ever put to tape.

Big catch: "Power" - King Crimson-sample and a fired-up West obliterate just about every other song in their path.

Top 10 of 2010

2010-12-08T12:27:00.009-05:00

It's that time of year. Time to get out your ice-scrapers, wish you had spent your last paycheck on Xmas gifts instead of comic books, and proclaim bold top 10 lists about various things from the last year.

Being that this is the Salmon, here's the first half of the top 10 albums of 2010, the keepers. If I left out your favorite album, too bad. You're wrong about that album, it's actually awful.

Also, if you're waiting around to see where the Salmon placed a Kings of Leon or Eminem album, you will be disappointed. The Salmon believes they reek like seaweed and Danny Bonaduce.

10. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Cartoon band makes like they're really real. Really worldly. Really expansive. Really poignant. Really funky. Really good.

Big catch: "Stylo" - Mos Def + Bobby Womack + Gorillaz = Really awesome underwater rock.

9. Beach House- Teen Dream
Victoria LeGrand sounds like Grace Slick way before she got drunk and helped Starship build that crappy city.

The indie-rock band takes their Xanax arrangements and fills them with shimmering guitar and haunting choruses. It's not beach music, but Teen Dream certainly warms these winter days.

Big catch: "Zebra" - Captures this band's propensity for patient, melting tunes with achingly memorable choruses.

8. The National - High Violet
Good bands with a distinct sound can opt for one of two roads; completely rework your vibe or chisel it down to its most refined.

The National go for the latter on High Violet, taking their thunderstorm-in-the-distance sound to great, if not unexpected, places.

Frontman Matt Berninger continues to make a name for himself as a quietly seething presence with a forked tongue. I'll bet you a dollar his baritone could make even "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" sound like a dirge.

Big catch: "Terrible Love" - Walking with spiders, really? Sounds like a worst-case scenario.

7. Sufjan Stevens- The Age of Adz

Easily the indie comeback kid of the year. Sufjan Stevens, 2005's genius behind Illinois, gets past his existential crisis to finally make another full-length where he's not hiding behind the production credits.

The good news is he's as tuneful as ever, although he's no longer the shy, super-talented loner sitting on the back porch playing a banjo who you would love to ask out on a date to the local coffee shop. He's still super-talented, but now he wants to go clubbing, sort of.

Glitchy dance beats combine with Stevens' penchant for writing melodic wonders. If you listened to the boy wonder's earlier catalog -- see 2001's Enjoy Your Rabbit -- you could have seen this one coming.

Big catch: "Impossible Soul" - Twenty-five minute run time makes it impossibly long, but not impossible to listen to.

6. Vampire Weekend - Contra

The sophomore album from this delightful, world music-inspired indie band is every bit as irresistible, educated and sharp as its predecessor.

The Salmon watched these guys scarf into barbecue sandwiches following a show in South Carolina last year and they looked all of 14.

Truth is, they're in their 20s, but they've already written more classic pop songs than most artists could dream. At one point, it seemed their world beat tracks would eventually be stale, but they still taste fresh through two albums.

Big catch: "Contra" - Title track reveals something new about VW. A band known for danceable, punchy choruses can make a slow-moving ballad that cuts just the same.

Review: Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

2010-11-23T15:37:00.014-05:00

Rating: 10.0
Released: Nov. 22, 2010
Roc-A-Fella

Of course you hate this guy.

Is any major pop artist more grandiose, bewildering, or oddly sensitive right now?

Would anyone else think to make a 30-minute music video with a cameo from a giant Michael Jackson head?

Does any other artist think that indie-folkster Bon Iver belongs on the same track with rap legend Jay-Z?

Does any other musician describe himself as being akin to that guy standing in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square? I couldn't make that last one up if I tried.

This guy was made for head-scratching, unapologetically insane moments even before he stormed the stage in Taylor Swift's big moment, but I'm reminded of an old saying about being crazy like a fox.

Kanye wears his lunacy like it's a badge, and he's likely made one of the best and most insane rap albums you'll ever hear in My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Over the course of 13 songs, thankfully whittled down from hour upon hour of studio tinkering, West reminds us of all the hip hop formulas he has burnished to solid gold over the past decade, and then he demolishes them with a missile launcher.

Fuzz guitar? A vocoder solo? An Elton John piano solo? No one else would be this ambitious or ludicrously wide-screen, and we're all richer for it.

"They say I was the abomination of Obama's nation, well that's a pretty bad way to start the conversation," West raps in his characteristically self-conscious drawl on the King Crimson-ripping "Power."

Like the best self-absorbed pop stars who have come before him, West inflates his own importance on "Power." Thoughts of a "beautiful death" crowd his head in the unforgettably morbid coda to "Power."

No doubt he believes all of our lives and album collections would be so much more drab if he did take a dirt nap. I believe him.

"Power" is just one of many tracks on this album that take the minimalism of hip hop classics like Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt and replace it with clattering drums, tinkling pianos, fuzzy guitars, soaring horns, musical interludes and choirs.

The world-beating "All of the Lights" makes its hero a deadbeat loser who could be bouncing checks at the power company. The super-rich West, who is probably all done with threats from utility companies, inhabits the role with spite, regret and a beating heart.

"Restraining order/can't see my daughter/her mother, brother, grandmother hate me in that order/public visitation/we met at Border's/Told her she take me back I'll be more supportive," West spits at all of the doubters.

Where other rap stars play up their lower-class roots for credibility, West inhabits his character fully, making an epic for all of the underdogs. Oh, did I mention the beat is intoxicating?

Throughout the album, West raises the bar, and then raises it higher, birthing the disturbed younger sibling to his previous outstanding albums.

On "Lost in the World," all notions of formulaic hip hop are incinerated as he turns a distorted Bon Iver dirge into a stomping finale, complete with tribal drums, chants and a spoken rant from the ever-acerbic Gil Scott-Heron.

"You're my devil, you're my angel/you're my heaven, you're my hell/you're my now, you're my forever/you're my freedom, you're my jail," he raps.

West has been this intimate before - see his desperate, difficult previous LP 808s and Heartbreak - but he's rarely been this convincing and brilliant.

Hate him if you want to, but West is redefining what it means to be a rap star, pop star, celebrity, you name it. Refreshingly, he emphasizes the 'artist' part of 'rap artist.'

Based on his previous output as a producer for rap bigwigs like Jay-Z (face it, The Blueprint falls short of classic without Kanye's contributions), Common and Talib Kweli, it's easy to see that West was staking a claim as the greatest hip hop producer ever.

But if West keeps making albums like this, it's not farfetched to say he's ascending the ranks of the best rap stars ever.

-SoR

Top Five of 2010: 5. Gorillaz- Plastic Beach

2010-07-21T13:38:00.008-04:00

"If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon band, something that would be a comment on that."

Yeah, that'll work, right? (crickets chirping)

Those are the words of Gorillaz co-creator and British cartoonist Jamie Hewlett about the brainstorming session that sparked this virtual act in 1998.

The snob in me says the conceit of a cartoon band would be short-lived. There's room for a few months of good-natured social commentary and then all parties will agree to move on.

After all, most cartoons only last as long as the viewing audience's childhood.

In the case of Gorillaz, I would be hopelessly wrong. The British band has real flesh and brains behind their creation, and it helps that Blur genius Damon Albarn is the mastermind.

Here it is 2010 and I'm picking Gorillaz' latest Plastic Beach as one of my favorites. Whooda thunk it?

Three albums in and Albarn's brainchild is not just surviving, it's thriving. Plastic Beach is the strongest of the group's creations, a lush, funky and, surprisingly poignant entry about disposable materialism and its effects on our culture.

The revolving door of guest spots continues. Check hip hop artifacts like Snoop Dogg and De La Soul sharing tape with all-time rock legends like Lou Reed. Only in Gorillaz' ever-expanding, virtual world can these artists co-exist without a heavy dose of awkward.

In the past, Albarn might have turned in grungy freakouts like "Song 2" (you know, the "Whoo Hoo" song), but now he's giving you the Lebanese National Orchestra on "White Flag" to punctuate his world view of music these days.

One of the top tracks is "Rhinestone Eyes," an electro workout where Albarn compares your eyes to "factories far away." You get the idea.

Gorillaz' animated world is growing ever more cranky and weird. Albarn's beach is not like yours. There's no robin's egg sky and gently rolling waves to lull you to sleep on the shore while you read your favorite book.

No, Albarn's beach smells sort of like a dump. There's a tire sinking into the sand over there and that crab scooting across the shore looks like it's missing a few legs.

It's good then that in a world of disposable rotting goods Albarn and Gorillaz are able to create something that will last in a good way.

- SoR

Best of 2010 So Far - Five Albums You Should Pick Up Today

2010-07-20T16:43:00.005-04:00

That's right, you should pick them up today, not tomorrow.
It's THAT urgent.

Um, not really, but a little drama goes a long way.

Over the next few days, the Salmon will be listing the top five albums of 2010 so far.

The year has been long on obvious hits, left-field surprises and colossal disappointments (I'm looking at you, M.I.A.).

In case you were wondering, that's Janelle Monae above, the metamorphing songstress who's made 2010 such a blast. Expect more on Monae and her frantic, fast feet.

It should also be noted that this list will not factor in the must-haves in the coming months like Arcade Fire's The Suburbs on Aug. 3 and Of Montreal's False Priests on Sept. 14.

In the meantime, here's a clip of Monae showing off her muscly James Brown footwork on Letterman.

- SoR

Review: M.I.A.- / \ / \ / \ Y / \

2010-07-14T12:16:00.006-04:00

Rating: 6.0
Released: July 13, 2010
Interscope/N.E.E.T.

Get the newspaper print out of your ears.

That's my advice to all of the critics lambasting hip hop chameleon M.I.A.'s latest album. Arriving on a sour wave of ill will ignited by a recent New York Times profile and her subsequent response, M.I.A.'s latest (that's really the title - her first name, Maya, in annoying computer characters) is not the triumph we expected.

Nor is it the Waterloo described by overly-cynical critics with an inability to decipher between bad publicity and good music, or vice-versa.

It's simply the work of an artist, who perhaps unwisely, really wants to follow Elvis Costello's example and bite the hand that's feeding her. Never mind that Costello was still writing pop songs at the time. M.I.A. certainly isn't, not unless you like your club beats to sound like automatic gunfire and chainsaws.

M.I.A.'s headache of an album is chock-full of glitchy filler and repetitive, overly-simplistic semi-songs. But for every two duds, there's always a reminder that this is the same artist behind zeitgeist albums Arular and Kala.

Those albums were mostly a form of hip hop, one of the most American of music forms, refracted through the foreign lenses of a Sri Lankan-born Londoner with a taste for multi-cultural rhythms.

No, she can't really sing. No, she can't really rap, her meager vocabulary doesn't provide the means.

But yes, there are hooks. Look to the world-beating pop of mega-hit "Paper Planes" for proof that subversive and often-alienating artists can sometimes strike gold.

And yes, her grooves are as fascinating and brilliant as we've heard from any mastermind producer. Kala tracks like "Boyz" and "Bird Flu" are mad dashes for the finish line, complete with distorted vocals, infectious beats and enough chaos to keep you on your toes.

The Sri Lankan rapper and purveyor of all things incendiary looks and sounds like the future of music, but there remains the distinct scent of the past too. M.I.A. retains all of the firebombing wit and charisma of hip hop activists Public Enemy and proto-punks The Clash.

If Arular was her version of The Clash's self-titled lightning-rod of a debut, Kala was her London Calling, proof that she could make any style or form of music fit her gutter rat world view.

It follows then that /\/\ /\ Y /\ would be her Sandinista, a globe-trotting, noisy, ambitious, overly long and frustrating affair.

Tracks like "XXXO" and "Teqkilla" would be club anthems in that seedy dive that most people avoid.

"Lovalot" is a sterile banger where M.I.A. is bold enough to take the point of view of an extremist.

"I really love a lot," she chants in her trademark monotone. "But I fight the ones who fight me."

"Born Free" is every bit as explosive as the title suggests, a thrash-anthem that finds her back in the shoes of a rebel. This is the pop singer who defends bloody militant groups like her father's own Tamil Tigers in war-torn Sri Lanka.

"Yeah, I don't wanna live for tomorrow, I push my life today," she sings behind a megaphone. "I throw this in your face when I see you, I got something to say."

The song never explains what it is she has to say, but it's clear that she'll punch your teeth out if you try to stop her from saying it.

Only in a modern age where the music industry leaks and creaks like a foundering ship could an artist this directly confrontational succeed. Back when boy bands ruled the landscape, we would never have known M.I.A.'s name, or known about the aforementioned Tigers and the atrocities of Sri Lanka's civil war. If that's the case, thank goodness we sprung a leak.

-SoR

Michael Jackson Pepsi Footage Revealed

2009-07-15T13:48:00.004-04:00

Here's some astounding video that captures the infamous 1984 Pepsi burning incident where Michael Jackson's hair caught fire.

The much-discussed accident happened when pyrotechnics exploded too soon during one take of the Pepsi commercial.

You can actually see MJ's head catch fire. This is like the Zapruder film for pop music fans, and it was only recently released by Us Weekly.

Some say MJ developed an addiction to painkillers after this that might have precipitated his June 25 death by cardiac arrest.

I say that's an astounding leap. Either way, it's odd to finally see this footage.

-SoR

Genesis To Release Live Box Set

2009-07-09T16:04:00.006-04:00

Good news if you're a Genesis fan.

Billboard reports that the band, on the heels of reissuing its tremendous 1970-1975 output, is pulling together its live albums.

Keyboardist Tony Banks told Billboard the live compilation is "the next logical thing to do."

Expect small-venue tracks from the Peter Gabriel years - the only years if it's up to me - as well as mega stadium shows from the Phil Collins years.

Included in the 10-disc box, set for a Sept. 29 release from Rhino, is five of the group's six live albums, as well as a treasure trove of unreleased booty.

The Salmon's got his eyes on the oft-bootlegged "Live at the Rainbow" show in 1973, shortly after the band released Selling England by the Pound.

The Gabriel years, while commercially disappointing, reeked of brilliance.

As an aside, check out Collins' (second from left) sweet beard and muscle shirt. He already looks like he's mulling pushing Gabriel (center) out of the picture.

Let me wet your gullet with an underrated gem off the band's 1971 LP Nursery Cryme. Only Brits would spell in so goofy a manner.

- SoR

The Michael Jackson Revival

2009-07-02T15:30:00.009-04:00

No big surprise here.

The death of Michael Jackson seems to be doing wonders for his album sales.

Since his death last week, Jackson has dominated the charts.

Billboard says Jackson occupies nine of the top 10 album catalog sales, meaning sales of records from back catalogs.

iTunes has also gone Jacko crazy. Nine of the top 10 most-downloaded music videos as of Thursday afternoon belonged to Jackson, and the Essential Michael Jackson collection remains poised atop the albums list.

We've seen this phenomenon before when it comes to recently-passed artists. See Otis Redding, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Nirvana and Tupac Shakur if you need proof.

Me? The Salmon already has his Jackson albums, although I could go for a 90-minute collection of MJ's greatest dance moves. I hope the Jackson fam's listening.

-SoR

Review: Wilco- Wilco (The Album)

2009-06-29T12:12:00.028-04:00

Rating: 7.5
Released: June 30, 2009
Nonesuch

What's more unexpected than doing what's expected?

Which is to say that more than 14 years since this Chicago band released their debut, Wilco continues to defy expectations.

Their latest (peep the camel cover!) is as close to a career retrospective as you're going to get at this point in the group's career, capturing the arc of frontman Jeff Tweedy's ever-finicky muse.

From country rock (1995's A.M.) to heartland Sonic Youth-disciples (1996's Being There) to indie poppers (1999's Summerteeth) to would-be industry killers (2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) to minimalist Krautrock (2002's A Ghost Is Born) and back again (2004's Sky Blue Sky), the only thing that's remained consistent about Tweedy's evolving songcraft is its quality.

I defy you to find a subpar record in Wilco's catalogue, other than its fledgling debut, and there's an argument to be made in defense of that LP as well.

2002's YHF is, by all accounts including the Salmon's, the band's high-water mark to date.

A near-perfect distillation of Radiohead-esque atmospherics with a beating country heart, YHF set the bar for post-Radiohead American acts, and it set it pretty high with 12 songs documenting a disintegrating relationship under the guise of a coming-and-going radio signal.

The band, ever cagey, has yet to make a sequel to YHF, opting instead for Crazy Horse guitar antics and spacey, country rock.

Seems at this point in their careers that Wilco, now a little older than most indie rockers, could take a deep breath and look back.

Enter Wilco (The Album).

The songs are as solid as ever, if not more subtle, revealing their charms over repeated listens.

"Deeper Down" isn't going to blow you away, but it's shifting soundscapes and straining pedal-steel overlay are as lovely as music gets. See the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis segue as a side of Wilco you've never seen.

The self-titled album opener and ethos-spouting "You Never Know" are the obvious singles, three-minute blasts of mid-tempo hoodie songs with certified grade-A choruses.

"Come on children, you're acting like children/every generation thinks it's the end of the world," the ever-ascerbic Tweedy sings at one moment, responding moments later with an "I don't care anymore" hook over Beatles-fuzz and harmonized slide guitars.

The real stars here are "Bull Black Nova" and "One Wing," the former a paranoid, chiming growler with a dank underbelly of purring guitar and the latter being the best Wilco power ballad you'll ever hear.

Recent addition Nels Cline remains a versatile gem, filling in Tweedy's most sparse moments with post-punk guitar heroics.

You get the sense that Cline, like refined genius Richard Thompson, could give you a searing guitar solo at any time, but he picks his spots.

His gentler moments - the eerie closing tones of "Everlasting" - are as effective as the harder tones of the aforementioned "Bull Black Nova."

Tweedy's none-too-precious vocals are as essential as ever, imparting a world-weary authenticity to even the biggest songs.

"I'll fight, I'll fight, I'll fight for you/I'll kill, I'll kill, I'll kill for you," Tweedy sings in the aptly-titled "I'll Fight."

In Tweedy's hands, it's an interesting, if not chilling, statement. Imagine those words sung by a silver-throated pop star and you can see the danger for overkill.

Not everything here hits the bulls-eye. The pretty Feist duet "You And I" sometimes strays dangerously close to schmaltz, and rocker "Sunny Feeling" feels oddly shallow after several listens.

But the road, much like the bumpy airplane flight of "Sunny Feeling," hasn't been easy for Wilco.

Members defected, sued Tweedy and then died. Tweedy faced and overcame a dependency on prescription painkillers. Record labels deemed them "unsellable" and dropped them.

But for all the storm clouds that once hovered around the band, the future seems awfully bright for this fantastic, potent giant of a band and its omnipresent leader Tweedy.

Float on, brother.

- SoR

Last Days of Michael Jackson: Aug. 29, 1958-June 25, 2009

2009-06-26T17:26:00.011-04:00

It could be said that Michael Jackson died long ago.

Sometime around the first accusation of child molestation, guilty or not, Michael Jackson, the megastar with the highest-selling album of all time, became Michael Jackson, world-class oddball.

Gone was the white glove. Gone was the Sgt. Pepper coat. Gone was the awe-inspiring moonwalk.

What we had left to devour was a scarecrow with an eroding face, piles of financial trouble and questions about his sexual preferences.

Still, the disturbing news that one of pop music's greatest ambassadors died from what appears to be cardiac arrest is a sad conclusion to a strange tale.

Michael's legacy, like Elvis', will always reside somewhere in limbo. Here was a personality and a fame worth noting.

His musical output, spotty in the latter years, remains the strongest testament to his greatness.

MJ needed only three albums and a bucket of jaw-dropping music videos to make the 1980s his playground. His peak LP Thriller redefines chart-topping, thanks to three massive smash singles in "Thriller," "Beat It" and "Billy Jean."

The three tracks run back to back to back on the album. By the time you turned that record over, MJ had already laid the blueprint for the perfect pop song and made one of the greatest party songs laid to tape (I'm looking at you "Thriller").

The music deserves a thorough analysis, and it's gotten it many times. But considering MJ on his LPs and singles alone isn't enough.

Check out the music videos. Mini-movies with professional actors, sets, costumes and rigorously practiced choreography.

It's not hard to look at every popular dancer after Thriller and see something of MJ.

His career as a world-conscious philanthropist set the standard for generous celebrities, and the millions he donated in his arc have done untold good.

Yes, there are the messy issues. MJ fit the profile of a child molester to the tee, and his free-spending lifestyle leaves millions in debt behind.

But if we are to look at life as an equation, MJ probably comes out on the positive end, and the only thing about his mysterious life not bookended with question marks is his output.

That tremendous, stellar musical output. Pour one out for Michael and put on "Thriller," you'll probably never hear a pop song that breaks more generational and racial boundaries than this one.

As a reminder of his greatness, here's MJ's performance of Billie Jean at Motown's 25th anniversary celebration in 1983. The dancing around the 3:40 mark is nothing short of magical.

Michael Jackson-Billie Jean-Motown 25 live
Uploaded by sitting25. - See the latest featured music videos.

-SoR

Live Review: TV On The Radio

2009-06-12T16:44:00.006-04:00

June 11, 2009
TV On The Radio at Amos' Southend
Charlotte, N.C.

Band Rating: 9.0
Venue Rating: 5.0

So I'm staring Kyp Malone (above) in the face.

The TV On The Radio bassist and vocalist, who is not unlike a panda bear in appearance, has a Frederick Douglass-style beard and he's wearing what looks like a tunic.

His band has just put on a solid and occasionally great show marred by subpar acoustics.

I'm in this business to interview rock stars and listen to great music, but oddly enough, the only thing I can think to say to one of the architects of 2008's best LP (see Dear Science) is, "Great show!"

"Thank you," he replies, smiling shyly. He shuffles his feet for a moment, hugs an excited fan, and walks nervously back to the band's tour bus.

Amazing that one of the most overwhelming records in a decade comes from such a muted guy.

All personality quips aside, TVOTR's stopover in Charlotte (they're scheduled to play today at Bonnaroo) is a rare treat for a city that can't seem to find the right venue for the medium-range acts who tend to make the best records these days.

Respect to Amos' Southend for bringing the group here, although the squat, two-story building with the muddy equalization did little for TVOTR's very fetching sound.

The set list hit the highlights of the Brooklyn band's ever-expanding sound, which runs the gamut of Joy Division stomp to Radiohead atmospherics and Parliamentary funk.

Playing live, TVOTR uses the opportunity to stretch out on their moody tunes, which didn't coalesce into something resembling pop music until last year's aforementioned and truly outstanding Dear Science.

The band opened with the tender "Love Dog" before whipping up frenzied takes on "Wolf Like Me" and "Halfway Home."

Throughout, frontman Tunde Adebimpe blew out the be-hoodied hipsters with his elastic, Arthur Lee-style tenor and frantic stage presence.

If you can hear TVOTR - and by that I mean, hear them without shoddy acoustics - you'll hear a great band with a big future.

Here's hoping Charlotte can find more places to fit rising stars like Malone, Adebimpe and company.

- SoR

Review: Mos Def - The Ecstatic

2009-06-10T14:14:00.018-04:00

Rating: 7.8
Released: June 9, 2009
Downtown Records

A funny thing happened on the way to reviewing Mos Def's comeback The Ecstatic.

Two days ago, I started with a rating hovering somewhere around a 6.

But each time I queued the record up, what before seemed like a jumbled mess of foreign instruments, breakbeats and tone-deaf choruses now sounded like a pitch-perfect love letter to planet Earth.

Suffice to say, Mos Def's latest is somewhere around an 8 for me today.

This is why I listen to LPs multiple times before I dare to make some form of a critical assessment.

Aside from his award-winning Hollywood output, a stellar guest turn here and there (I'm looking at "Two Words" from Kanye West's debut) and a pair of mish mash albums, the actor/rapper (we've got a slashie here) has been quiet in recent years.

Flash back to 1999. Mos Def was just the latest hip hop savior with a smooth flow, social awareness and penchant for experimentation.

His collaboration with Talib Kweli and soulful solo turn Black On Both Sides made the Brooklyn-born MC a breath of fresh air for hip hop fans exhausted by lyrical beef and gunplay.

It wasn't long before Hollywood stole Mos Def away. Our loss, but the good news is he's back in the studio and trying a little harder, at least for now.

The Ecstatic is just that, ecstatic.

These are good times for left-leaning political pariahs with street cred, although Mos Def doesn't let the good times hamper his skill for bucking the system. See Common's goofy Universal Mind Control if you want to see how happiness can sometimes dull a once sharp wit.

If you think Mos Def is satisfied with having the first black president in office, look no further than the album-opening Malcolm X monologue on the need for extremism. It would seem there is more work to be done.

"Ecstatic, ecstatic, ecstatic," he chants moments later.

What follows is roughly 45 minutes of Middle Eastern instruments, electro-tinged hip hop, antique Madlib samples and Mos Def's ruminating, anti-gangsta presence.

"Sometimes it's too hard to sit still/ things are so passionate, times are so real/ sometimes I try to chill mellow down blowin smoke/ smile on my face but it's really no joke/ you feel it in the streets the people breathe without hope," he raps over classic film scores on the outstanding "Auditorium."

The recipe for comeback success in rap often involves a good producer. In Mos Def's case, he's got six - Madlib, Preservation, Chad Hugo, Mr. Flash, J Dilla, and Madlib's brother Oh No - and they're all up to the task.

Madlib and Preservation provide the best beats, the latter cooking up a storm in the grainy minimalist "Quiet Dog Bite Hard."

Mos Def seems most at home on the simple, jazz-infused samples, although multiple tracks showcase a traveler's flair for world-savvy pop, including the MC's ode to hotels "The Embassy."

Still, The Ecstatic isn't perfect.

There probably isn't much of an audience for Mos Def's tuneless singing on Latin ballad "No Hay Nada Mas," and electronic stompers like "Life In Marvelous Times" seem oddly out of place on an album that only occasionally masquerades as pop.

Mos Def might be front and center on the big screen, but he seems more comfy trolling the hip hop underground.

Perhaps best of all is his 90-second manifesto "Priority," a mellow builder that sums up all things Mos Def.

"Top priority: Peace before everything/God before anything/love before anything/real before everything/home before anyplace," he riffs in street preacher mode.

The proof is in the pudding. Acts like Eminem and Lil Wayne may be the body of hip hop, but MCs like Mos Def are its soul.

- SoR

Review: Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

2009-06-09T17:51:00.005-04:00

Rating: 8.3
Released: May 26, 2009
Kanine

Bringin' pretty back.

That could be the second title for Brooklyn four-piece Grizzly Bear's latest, and greatest, album to date.

The lovely Veckatimest is the band's most adventurous, and oddly enough, most accessible LP in its catalog.

It's no surprise that the record finds Grizzly frontman Daniel Rossen sometimes eschewing the sparse arrangements of past work for the wrought pop ambition of last year's gem In Ear Park, a riveting listen from Rossen side project Department of Eagles.

With some bands, you ask for a redefinition of sound to prove growth. Not the case here.

Veckatimest is largely a refining of Grizzly Bear's spooky, folk aesthetic. Where previous albums were sleepy and at once forgettable, Veckatimest is anything but.

The woozy dreamscapes are still here, but the melodies stick like fly paper and the Pet Sounds horns and symphonics make it sound like a classic.

Case in point: The Bear has never recorded a pop song as memorable as "Two Weeks," or as blissful as "Cheerleader."

Rossen's delicate voice and airy harmonies still sound like the backdrop for "Wizard of Oz," and two seconds of any Grizzly song remains enough to identify the protagonists.

"While You Wait For The Others" is a triumph, employing smoky guitars and breathy vocal acrobatics like seasoned veterans. It's enough to make you forget these babyfaced folkers are twenty-somethings.

"They'll try, they all try/to keep us apart," Rossen laments on "I Live With You," a psychedelic, lonesome call for an estranged lover.

With tunes like these, Grizzly Bear isn't likely to remain lonely too long.

Heartily recommended, Veckatimest is one of the first great albums this year.

- SoR

Hop on Pop: Live Acts to Catch in June

2009-06-08T17:47:00.006-04:00

Hot month for live music.

Here's a listing of acts playing in the North Carolina region in the month of June.

Most notable is TV On The Radio's (left) sweep through Charlotte and Atlanta.

The Brooklyn band had the top album of last year in my humble opinion and they've earned a reputation as a ferocious live act.

I can guarantee the Salmon will be there, although not without some temptation from TVOTR's Brooklyn contemporaries Grizzly Bear.

Grizzly Bear's playing that night at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill.

Also look out for Band of Horses' stop in Charlotte's always delightful Neighborhood Theatre.

The Peaches show in Chapel Hill promises to be an eyecatcher too.

June 9: Phish, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville
June 10: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte
June 11: Grizzly Bear, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
June 11: TV On The Radio, Amos' Southend, Charlotte
June 12: Jenny Lewis, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
June 12: Yardwork, Milestone, Charlotte
June 13: TV On The Radio, Tabernacle, Atlanta
June 15: Sunset Rubdown, Local 506, Chapel Hill
June 16: Band of Horses, The Orange Peel, Asheville
June 16: Peaches, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
June 17: Band of Horses, The Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte
June 20: Camera Obscura, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill

- SoR

Hop on Pop: June Album Releases

2009-05-29T12:06:00.009-04:00

Supergroups are a tricky thing.

The road to superstardom is littered with so many Blind Faiths and Traveling Wilburys.

Enter The Dead Weather, Jack White's latest side project with The Kills frontwoman Alison Mosshart, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita and Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence.

The good news about White's side projects is they usually bring all the goods of a main act. From the looks of it, The Dead Weather is a beast unto itself.

That's White straddling the front in all of the press photos, but he'll be taking a step back on the records and hiding behind the drum kit.

This raises the question: If Jack White can play drums, should Meg White consider modeling full-time?

The Dead Weather isn't the only meal you'll get this June (UPDATE: The album has been delayed until July 14). There's plenty to go around.

Check out Lil Wayne's rock Rebirth (Update: Lil Wayne's latest is postponed until Aug. 18) and piano-pop queen Regina Spektor's return in Far. There's the Dave Matthews Band launching its comeback less than a year after the death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore, and former The Band drummer Levon Helm releasing his latest solo outing (the man's a marvel).

Also, feast your ears upon Wolf Parade offshoot Sunset Rubdown, virtuoso rapper/actor Mos Def, and, of course, Wilco's sort-of self-titled record.

June 1:
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor

June 2:
Elvis Costello - Sweet, Profane & Sugarcane
Eels - Hombre Loco
Dave Matthews Band - Whiskey and the Groogrux King

June 9:
The Dead Weather - Horehound
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Joan of Arc - Flowers
Mos Def - The Ecstatic
Sonic Youth - The Eternal

June 16:
Amanda Blank - I Love You
Twista - Category F5

June 23:
Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Patterson Hood - Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
Regina Spektor- Far
Pete Yorn - Back And Forth

June 30:
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
The Fiery Furnaces - I'm Going Away
Levon Helm - Electric Dirt

- SoR

Review: Eminem - Relapse

2009-05-28T16:15:00.009-04:00

Rating: 4.5
Released: May 19, 2009
Aftermath, Interscope, Shady

The cover of Eminem's vaunted comeback album has a photo illustration of Shady made out of pills and a fake prescription label in the lower corner.

That's all you need to know about the once great Slim Shady's latest self-flagellating, narcotic opus, subtly titled Relapse.

Em's appetite for pills has been well-documented in his decade-long career, thanks to his fiendishly virtuosic turn on 2000's The Marshall Mathers LP, a hip hop classic by all accounts.

Two years later, he set the bar for comeback singles when he dropped "Without Me," arguably one of the most devilishly produced call-to-arms you could get out of a non-political artist.

But he's dropped off the map in recent years, making more headlines for his perceived eating habits and drug problems than his rhymes.

Record buyers' taste in pop stars is notoriously fickle. Here today, gone tomorrow. If so, that doesn't bode well for Shady, who hasn't had an LP since 2004's limp-wristed Encore.

Nevermind that.

The American public's appetite for Em has apparently not waned, based on the 600,000 or so buyers gobbling up copies of Relapse in the first week, making it the fastest-selling album so far in 2009.

Truthfully, that's no major feat since he's among the first of the heavyweights to really clock in this year, but his success has to come as some sort of a surprise.

More surprising still might be his eagerness to get back to work.

Encore was, above all things, a tired effort from a tired artist. The put-downs sounded oddly manufactured, and the choruses, always Em's forte, were forgettable.

Flash forward five years and Shady hasn't improved that much, but he at least seems to be trying harder.

He's still making fun of mile-wide targets like Sarah Palin and Kim Kardashian, he still hates his mother, and he still wants us to believe that he'll say anything, anytime.

First single "We Made You" is dreadful in its nursery rhyme beat, produced under Dr. Dre's watchful eye, and its business-as-usual verses.

Does anyone really need to hear more jabs at Jessica Simpson? Really?

Predictably darker second single "3 a.m." fares a little better, although Shady's mock Jamaican accent is troubling at best. More troubling? The embarassing off-kilter accent makes a victory lap in several Relapse tracks.

"It's 3 a.m. in the morning, put my key in the door/bodies laying all over the floor/ I don't remember how they got there but I guess I must of killed them," he spits on "3 a.m."

Ensuing rhymes about masturbating to Hannah Montana are sure to offend whoever it is that still gets offended by this guy.

The album tracks are stronger than the dud singles here, a switch from any previous Em album.

The slick, horn-driven beat of "My Mom" is a cure-all for the routine rhythms of "Hello" and "Medicine Ball."

"I know you're probably tired of hearing about my mom," he raps on the former, the closest you're going to get to an apology from Em for his redundant subject matter.

"Insane" employs a skittish, horror-movie soundtrack to make a chilling manifesto for Shady's loose screws, if you can bear accounts of anal rape.

Although c'mon, if you bought an Eminem album in the first place, that's probably not going to bother you too much.

Later tracks like "Crack A Bottle" bring the star power courtesty of 50 Cent and Dre himself, but by then, it's too late for the Shady one.

The verdict? Relapse is a step up, but it's still a throwaway from a once indispensable artist.

- SoR

Jay Bennett: 1963-2009

2009-05-27T14:51:00.004-04:00

As you've probably heard by now, former Wilco multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett died Sunday in his sleep.

The 45-year-old performer was found in his Urbana, Ill. home. Cause of death has not been released.

The news comes just weeks after Bennett filed a lawsuit against his former Wilco bandmate Jeff Tweddy over royalties and his part in the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot documentary "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."

A lot of things have been said about Bennett, even on this blog.

But his contributions to Wilco albums, including their masterpiece YHF, are undeniable.

He's remembered as a gifted arranger and all-around musician, but his public film battles with Tweedy added another dose of drama to Wilco's tortuous history.

Bennett was weeks away from hip surgery and his latest solo record. Seems a terrible shame. R.I.P. Jay.

Tweedy posted the following comment on Wilco's Web site:

"We are all deeply saddened by this tragedy. We will miss Jay as we remember him -- as a truly unique and gifted human being and one who made welcome and significant contributions to the band's songs and evolution. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends in this very difficult time."

- SoR

Review: White Rabbits - It's Frightening

2009-05-21T15:59:00.006-04:00

Rating: 7.5
Released: May 19, 2009
TBD Records

Yes, this is another indie band named after an animal.

Yes, they have two drummers.

Yes, it sounds like Spoon, thanks in no small part to silvery-sheen production from Spoon frontman Britt Daniel.

Yes, it's one of the best rock albums of the year so far.

No, Grace Slick is nowhere to be seen.

Brooklyn-based White Rabbits, touted for their sharp hooks and minimalist approach, deliver on their sophomore record.

Their debut, 2007's Fort Nightly, was that rare debut that sounded like it was made by decades-old rock vets. It was polished, the tunes were dramatic and they lent themselves to singalongs.

All the keys were there for a big splash.

The big splash never really came, but It's Frightening finds the Rabbits playing to their strengths, which is seamless pop songs driven by the left end of the piano.

Like Spoon, the Rabbits recording approach likely requires hours of trimwork. The best songs sound shaved to their most basic elements - eerie vocals, chugging keys, and amped up drums and bass.

The rhythm section, much like in Spoon's 2002 opus Kill the Moonlight, is the star. It's true that Daniels has a formula, but it works.

Frontmen Greg Roberts and Stephen Patterson record menaced, harmonic vocals with the right amount of pretty to keep it pop.

"They done wrong/and we done wrong/ what makes you so certain all their fingerpointing's done," Roberts sings in paranoid album highlight "They Done Wrong/We Done Wrong."

A low-end piano riff keeps the track gassed until the shimmering, melodramatic coda straight out of a Sigur Ros cookbook.

Other songs like the aptly titled album opener "Percussion Gun," employ Spoon and Cold War Kids tricks - the dark guitars and soaring vocals - to make indie drama ripe for the radio. More power to ya.

- SoR

Review: Steve Earle - Townes

2009-05-18T16:17:00.007-04:00

Rating: 7.5
Released: May 12, 2009
New West

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the long unheralded late Townes Van Zandt (photo right) is due for some flattery.

A brilliant folk and blues songwriter, Van Zandt's acolytes read like a laundry list of popular and influential modern artists: Conor Oberst, Neil Young, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Norah Jones, Meat Puppets, Devendra Banhart, and, oh yeah, Bob Dylan.

His three-decade recording career yielded heaps of blues and country originals that injected Woody Guthrie's everyman poetry with Texas attitude and grit, including the Van Zandt-penned country smash "Pancho and Lefty."

It also produced equal heaps of financial disarray and addictions.

Yet his death in 1997 passed, much like his troubled life, under the radar.

It should come as no surprise that perhaps the most moving tribute so far for the "songwriter's songwriter" comes from his protege, Nashville roots icon Steve Earle (photo left).

Earle once called Van Zandt the best songwriter in the world. Still, he doesn't let his devotion get in the way of a good performance on Townes.

This 15-track collection cherrypicks Van Zandt's wandering catalogue of sparse folk and gritty blues over three decades, delivering faithful takes that, for the most part, steer clear of overly reverent canonizations.

The wry Van Zandt would probably have wanted it that way.

The hits, or as close as Van Zandt came to hits, are all here, including "Pancho and Lefty," Townes' legendary outlaw drama.

In the hands of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, "Pancho and Lefty" was a chart-topping smash in 1983. Don't expect the same for Earle's lonely, acoustic interpretation.

But the highlights here are the overlooked numbers.

Earle delivers an apocalyptic take on "Lungs," spicing up Van Zandt's original with breathy vocals, Crazy Horse guitar distortion and an amped up rhythm section.

"Won't you lend your lungs to me/mine are collapsing," Earle sings like he wrote it.

Earle seems positively giddy to spin "Delta Momma Blues," Van Zandt's playful folk ode to lusty Mississippi stool pigeons, and his pub love letter "Loretta," which Earle turns into a Celtic ballad.

"My guitar sings, Loretta's fine/Long and lazy, blonde and free/I can have her any time," Earle drawls on the latter.

For an artist like Van Zandt, whose music is often packaged with the troubled, drug-addled story of his short life, it's refreshing to hear what pushed the blues troubador more than booze and narcotics: women.

All of it sounds like Earle, whose earned the right to sing the blues. The "hard-core troubador" has had his fair share of drug and legal problems.

As with most covers albums, most of the tunes end up sounding like the performer and not the icon, but the 15 songs here hew closely enough to Van Zandt's homespun pastiche to weave a fitting tribute.

If you're into Earle's ragged roots rock and churning grungy anthems, you'll dig it. If not, buy the originals for the real deal.

It may be too late to give Van Zandt's wallet a well-deserved fattening, but here's hoping he finds a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a little help from his friends.

- SoR

Wilco (The Album) - Get Some!

2009-05-14T12:56:00.007-04:00

Good news if you're a Wilco fan, which you should be.

Wilco is streaming its entire new album, brilliantly titled Wilco (The Album), now on the band's Web site.

Listen to it here. (Update: Wilco has temporarily stopped the streaming, but they promise it will return).

The LP doesn't debut until June 30 on Nonesuch Records, but Rolling Stone is reporting the band is responding to its leak on the Internet.

This is nothing new for the band. They've streamed each of their last three albums free on the net.

First impressions? The Chicago band is retreating from the country-rock of 2007's Sky Blue Sky and embracing more of the spacey guitar heroics that made 2004's A Ghost Is Born so memorable.

The early highlight is "Bull Black Nova," an extended cut with haunting, staccato keys and chiming guitar rawk. This sounds like the first time fans will get to hear Wilco guitar superhero Nels Cline cut loose in the studio.

Listen and enjoy. Then buy in June.

- SoR

Lil Wayne and Rock = Vietnamese Food?

2009-05-12T14:55:00.005-04:00

Alright, I've kept my peace on this long enough.

What's it like to ascend to the very top of your genre, declare yourself the greatest in that respective genre, and then switch genres?

Few people can give you an answer on that, save for Lil Wayne.

The mini-rapper extraordinaire's rock album, Rebirth, is still weeks away from a tentative June 23 release, but the piecemeal offerings that have trickled out from the LP in recent weeks all point to one thing.

Doom.

Miss Limp Bizkit? Can't get enough Linkin Park and Kid Rock? Still waiting for a Faith No More reunion? Don't everybody jump up at once.

That's what Wayne's first single from the album, titled "Prom Queen," sounds like. If you were to drop several forks in a trash compactor and ask your 12-year-old brother to play his first guitar solo, you might have an idea.

You can understand my trepidation.

Rolling Stone is reporting that at least one of the tracks will shoot for an old-school Beastie Boys sound. The Beasties were one of the few groups that managed to pull off rap-rock. Let's hope that carries through the rest of Rebirth.

Just months ago, Wayne was topping the world with Tha Carter III, one of the most potent hip hop records from the last decade. The singles were unforgettable and the album tracks were brilliantly subversive.

No doubt it takes stones to switch it up when you're at the top of your game. Kudos to Weezy for the stones.

But that doesn't mean we have to like it, and according to Wayne's manager, "He don't care."

This isn't the first time a rap star believed he could fly. Check out Tupac in 1994's "Above the Rim" to see Tupac act like, well, Tupac.

Red Man and Method Man soon followed suit, while Kanye West released his soul record, 808s and Heartbreak, last year. Kanye sings and he sounds not unlike a drowning goat!!

Still, maybe Rebirth will be awesome.

If I ruled out everything based on the first taste, I never would have liked beer, wine, vodka or Vietnamese food. Let's cross our fingers and hope that Wayne's latest is like Vietnamese food.

- SoR

Art Brut - Art Brut vs. Satan

2009-05-11T18:00:00.002-04:00

Rating: 4.0
Released: May 12, 2009
Downtown

To quote Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand, who so clearly influenced Art Brut, "You could have it so much better."

British pop act Art Brut made a name for itself in recent years making the kind of tongue-in-cheek disco rock that, in theory, would make Pulp proud.

Whether they've lived up to that expectation or not is another thing.

Frontman Eddie Argos shoots for the singspeak wit and presence of vet Jarvis Cocker, but on Art Brut's latest, Art Brut vs. Satan, he just sounds oddly tuneless.

The propulsive tracks and slashing angular guitars are, no surprise, like the heaviest tracks from an Artic Monkeys or Bloc Party album, but without the tight pop sensibility.

"Bring me tea/bring me coffee/I was up all night/I've been making mistakes/I'm hiding it well but I don't feel great," Argos sings on first single "Alcoholics Unanimous," which sounds like an anthem for unimaginative pub crawlers.

Other tracks like "DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake" make you wonder if Art Brut is running out of things to say.

"DC Comics and chocolate milkshake/some things will always be great ... even though I'm 28," Argos rants on the grating chorus.

The song is funny, but it sticks like a song in an ad. Which is to say, it's annoying.

Some tunes fare better than others.

Pixies mastermind and producer Frank Black predictably brings the guitars and it works sometimes, like on slash and jab rocker "Demons Out!"

"The record buying public shouldn't be voting," Argos sings to the demon idiots in the room.

It's likely someone will find love in Argos' cockney jabbering, but his voice, which tends to make all Art Brut songs sound identical, could turn just as many people off.

"How am I supposed to sleep at night/when nobody likes the music I write," Argos bemoans during "Demons Out!"

Um, have you tried sleeping pills?

-SoR

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South

2009-05-08T15:30:00.012-04:00

Rating: 6.0
Released: May 5, 2009
Merge

Let's just say we're going to take this Dylan comparison seriously.

If so, 29-year-old Conor Oberst is in Dylan's late 60s, early 70s John Wesley Harding and New Morning period.

Perhaps tired of being asked to sit in as the voice of a generation, he just wants to wear matching jackets with his drinking buddies (it's like the Pink Ladies in Grease 2!), drive a motorcycle, wear Top Gun aviator glasses (woot homoerotic beach volleyball!), drive to Nogales and indulge his classic rock bone.

Like Dylan, he's going to take his knocks for not making the album everyone wants to hear. For Dylan, it was Highway 61 Revisited or Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. For Oberst, it's his landmark 2005 folk opus I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.

But if you like your artists subversive and willful, it goes with the territory. So hush up! Outer South isn't that bad.

It isn't that good either.

You can't talk about what this album is without saying what it isn't. It's not a Bright Eyes album or even a Conor Oberst solo record, like last year's even-keeled, self-titled travelogue. It's more like a jam around a campfire. With electric guitars.

Oberst writes 10 of the 16 tracks here, ceding some songwriting and vocal duties to bandmates Nik Freitas, Taylor Hollingsworth and Jason Boesel.

The non-Obersts are pleasant. They're not the least talented guys in the room, but The Band they ain't.

Their amicable folk and power-pop numbers pass by without making a fuss, which is to say they're forgettable.

No surprise, the strongest songs here belong to Oberst. The good news is if you trim those six Mystic Valley tunes, you still have an album's worth of new Oberst.

"To All The Lights in the Windows" sounds like Wilbury-era Tom Petty, and "I Got The Reason" is patient folk rock with some Crazy Horse spice for good measure. It knows where it's going so there's no need to rush.

Meantime, "White Shoes" and "Roosevelt Room" is as close as you're going to get to old Bright Eyes material. "Just tell me what you want to do/anything you want to do," Oberst sings over spare acoustic guitar in the former.

It's a haunting reminder of just how good a songwriter Oberst can be. His strength has always been his lyrics, which have grown increasingly cryptic.

In "Roosevelt Room," he's still raging against the political establishment.

"You want me to pay my taxes/ So you can propagate your lies/While there's barefoot dudes down in New Orleans
Looking like they're gonna die," he sings.

Somebody go find Bush, it's time to stick it to him again.

Others like "Slowly (Oh So Slowly)" and "Nikorette" are regrettably generic songs, especially from an artist whose blunt histrionics and trembling baritone made him one of the most distinct singer-songwriters in the whole pack.

Chances are this material breathes well on the road; much of it sounds like it was recorded there anyway.

In the end, that's one of the biggest differences between Dylan and Oberst, at least for now.

In the early 1970s, Dylan found happiness living a remote, homely life with his love. Oberst seems to have found his love too, and it's the road.

- SoR

Hop On Pop: May Album Releases

2009-05-07T11:10:00.006-04:00

Yes, in honor of Eminem's comeback this month, I have posted a picture of him looking 14 and wearing a pink Alf T-shirt.

Something about this picture just screams, "Beware the coming onslaught of homophobia!!!"

Otherwise, it looks like a pretty slow month for music, aside from Steve Earle's tribute to his late mentor Townes Van Zandt and Grizzly Bear's well-timed return.

We also have an hour-long punk-pop opera from Green Day to look forward to. What has two thumbs and is highly skeptical? This guy!!

The Field is an excellent electronic artist and Iron and Wine can make seductive modern folk. Check it out.

May 12:
Art Brut - Art Brut vs. Satan
The Crystal Method - Divided By Night
Steve Earle - Townes
Roman Candle- Oh Tall Tree In The Ear

May 15:
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown

May 19:
Eminem - Relapse
The Field - Yesterday and Today
Iron and Wine - Around the Well
Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications
John Vanderslice - Romanian Names
Iggy Pop - Preliminaires
White Rabbits - It's Frightening

May 26:
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - II

- SoR

Tweedy Returns Fire

2009-05-06T11:29:00.002-04:00

One day after the Chicago Tribune reported that former Wilco member Jay Bennett is suing frontman Jeff Tweedy, Tweedy is speaking out.

Bennett is seeking royalties and claiming Tweedy didn't have permission to include him in the 2002 Wilco documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.

Here's the text of Tweedy's statement, posted Tuesday by Paste magazine:

"I know exactly as much as everyone else does. I've read the news and I honestly have no idea what these claims are based on. It was such a long time ago. Aside from everything else, I'm being sued for not paying someone for appearing in a movie I didn't produce. Go figure. I am truly sad it has come to this. I am equally convinced, however, that I have done nothing wrong and that this will be handled fairly and swiftly."

Seriously? Tweedy didn't produce that movie.

- SoR

Hop on Pop: Live Acts to Catch

2009-05-05T15:00:00.005-04:00

Here's a new addition for the Salmon.

I'd like to point out fantastic live music to see in the coming days.

Obviously, this list focuses on Charlotte, Asheville and the Triangle region of North Carolina because that's where I live.

This isn't comprehensive. It focuses on major or up-and-coming acts, but it might leave out what you're looking for, especially if you're into jam bands. Send me any suggestions if you've got any.

So many venues, so little time. Seek tickets from the respective sellers.

Enjoy.

May 6: India Arie, Amos' Southend, Charlotte
May 9: The Lights Fluorescent, Local 506, Chapel Hill
May 12: Richard Shindell, The Evening Muse, Charlotte
May 13: Mastodon, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
May 13: Snoop Dogg, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
May 14: Snoop Dogg, Amos' Southend, Charlotte
May 22: Roman Candle, The Evening Muse, Charlotte
May 27: The National, Tabernacle, Atlanta
May 28: The National, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
May 30: Josh Ritter, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
May 30: The Lights Fluorescent, Milestone, Charlotte
May 31: Little Feat, Amos' Southend, Charlotte
June 3: The Decemberists, Tabernacle, Atlanta
June 4: The Decemberists, Memorial Auditorium, Raleigh
June 6: Gaelic Storm, The Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte
June 6: Rusted Root & The Rosebuds, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
June 9: Phish, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville
June 10: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte
June 11: Grizzly Bear, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
June 11: TV On The Radio, Amos' Southend, Charlotte
June 12: Jenny Lewis, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
June 12: Yardwork, Milestone, Charlotte
June 13: TV On The Radio, Tabernacle, Atlanta
June 15: Sunset Rubdown, Local 506, Chapel Hill
June 16: Band of Horses, The Orange Peel, Asheville
June 16: Peaches, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
June 17: Band of Horses, The Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte
June 20: Camera Obscura, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
July 13: Handsome Furs, Local 506, Chapel Hill

- SoR

Ex-Wilco guitarist Jay Bennett returns! Mwa ha ha!

2009-05-05T11:48:00.006-04:00

It's like night of the living ex-band members over here.

Jay Bennett, former Wilco multi-instrumentalist, is suing frontman Jeff Tweedy for royalties and his part in the 2002 Wilco film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.

Check out the story in the Chicago Tribune.

If you can't remember Bennett, he was the sort-of dreadlocked white guy grousing during the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It's a good thing he was there to grouse. That album totally sucked!! On opposite day!!

Bennett says he wasn't compensated for his part in the film and that Tweedy didn't obtain the releases he needed for Bennett to appear in the movie. It's an odd claim because it's unclear if Tweedy had any production role in the movie.

For his part, Bennett probably has a point. Every good movie needs a villain, a well-paid villain, and Bennett certainly appeared to play the part, fair or not. He left the band shortly before the album and the movie made a splash.

In other Wilco news, the band has a new album coming out in June titled Wilco (The Album). There's a song on it called Wilco (The Song). Hmmm, hope this isn't like a Bad Company thing. Naming songs and albums after the band doesn't always make for record gold.

- SoR

Don't Call It A Comeback, I've Been Here For Years

2009-05-05T11:40:00.004-04:00

I'm making a comeback, and hopefully I'll fare a little better than Britney.

Apologies for the silence radiating like waves from the Salmon of late. Work and grad school applications have kept me away, but there's much to talk about.

There's good music to be had, and good shows to talk about. If you're still reading, thanks.

- SoR

"Love Hangover" playlist - Shogun Dialectic

2009-02-16T16:25:00.004-05:00

As promised, the Salmon is presenting playlists for your digestion. The first comes from my friend Shogun Dialectic. Shogun's a wicked writer who introduced me to the Velvet Underground.

Dig Chet Baker and Heartless Bastards in the same playlist.

1. Chet Baker – I Fall in Love Too Easily

2. M. Ward -- Never Had Nobody Like You

3. Ladyhawke – Back of the Van

4. Lily Allen – The Fear

5. Poland – Finally September

6. The Enright House – Darkwave = MC Squared

7. Efterklang – Mirador

8. Selfish Cunt – Feel Like A Woman

9. Heartless Bastards – Be So Happy

10. The Cloud Hymn – Wide

11. The Long Blondes – Autonomy Boy

12. Sunset Gun – I Want to Fuck You Up

Bruce Springsteen- Working On A Dream

2009-01-31T14:02:00.004-05:00

Rating: 7.2
Released: Jan. 27, 2009
Columbia

I have come to think of Bruce Springsteen as America's conscience. Think of him as Jiminy Cricket with a bandanna.

There are few constants in this life, save for The Boss and his link to our better instincts.

When thousands of Vietnam vets returned to a lukewarm ovation in America in the 1970s and 1980s, Bruce sang for them (see "Born in the USA").

When Reagan Republicans turned a blind eye to AIDS research because the disease was commonly associated with homosexuality, Bruce sang for them too (see "Streets of Philadelphia").

When scores of Americans prepped for holy war after 9/11, there was Bruce, singing, "Better ask questions before you shoot (see "Lonesome Day")."

When former President George W. Bush made the case for war in Iraq, there was Bruce singing about political slight-of-hand (see "Magic").

And when Republican demagogues threatened to shout down Presidential candidate Barack Obama as a liberal firebrand, Bruce was there to make the case for change.

Of course, the Boss is a legend today not just because he was in the right place at the right time. He is one of America's most enduring songwriters, and few artists can claim to have recorded as brilliantly as Bruce did from 1972 to 1980.

That said, his latest album "Working On A Dream" is Bruce coasting. His lyrics, once sharp and keen, have grown increasingly vague, and his voice, once a harrowing rock and roll battle cry, has deepened and weathered.

Rolling Stone will crown "Working On A Dream" a triumph. Pitchfork will dub it an unmitigated bland failure. As is often the case when overzealous critics look for bold proclamations, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

There are great songs here. Who knew Springsteen was still capable of romantic epics like "Outlaw Pete" and "Working On A Dream?" Both songs are heavy with massive Born To Run guitars, strings and Clarence Clemons' explosive saxophone.

There are intimate gems, like bonus track "The Wrestler." Written for the film of the same title, the sparse, downtrodden tune is perfect for Mickey Rourke's Raging Bull-style epic of an aging fighter.

There are oddities like The Boss gone Tom Waits on bluesy stomper "Good Eye."

And there are sleepers here too. I'm not sure that the cheesy "Queen of The Supermarket," a weird hymn to a grocery store clerk, is going to last in a good way.

But Bruce will last, and when he takes the stage during the Super Bowl halftime show Sunday, it'll be most fitting.

In this time of turmoil, as our economy collapses underneath us, Bruce will sing to the gathered throngs in Tampa to call on our better nature again.

In the meantime, go out and buy this album.

-SoR

Charlotte Viewpoint

2009-01-29T16:14:00.002-05:00

In addition to the blog, the Salmon is now doing work for Charlotte Viewpoint, a fine multimedia publication covering local and national arts and culture.

Check it out. It's a good read. I will hope to post to the Salmon blog with more frequency in the coming weeks. Master's applications are a grueling, time-consuming process.

There are lots of albums to read about. Expect new album reviews for The Boss, Franz Ferdinand and A.C. Newman in the coming days.

-SoR

Bon Iver- Blood Bank EP

2009-01-26T14:51:00.005-05:00

Rating: 7.3
Released: Jan. 20, 2009
Jagjaguwar

Bon Iver makes winter music.

It doesn't matter that Justin Vernon recorded his 2008 debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, while holed up in an old, drafty cabin.

The music just sounds like it was made for a blustery evening. Hushed guitars, check. Campfire vocals, check. Singer pining for a woman while the metaphorical wolves bark at the door, double check. I'm feeling chilly already.

It may come as a surprise then that the best track here finds Vernon singing about summer. "Summer comes/to multiply," he sings over a simple, repetitive piano chiming variations on the same note. This tune, titled "Babies," might remind you of LCD Soundsystem's 2007 stunner "All My Friends" without the full-band outro.

The important thing is it thaws any reservations that Bon Iver is going to record the same song over and over.

The first two songs on the four-track release tread the same ground as For Emma, but "Babies" and the a capella "Woods" are the real stunners.

In "Woods," Vernon uses a - GASP! - vocoder to layer his always haunting tenor, stacking vocals one upon another like a dusty Beach Boys tune.

It's a bold trick for a folk star, and it pays off. We might have seen this coming.

Vernon used the device, infamously popularized by hat-wearing geeks like T-Pain, sparingly on his first album. Let's hope he doesn't go Kanye West on it and O.D. in his next set.

EPs can serve a few purposes. Some are merely collections of leftover tracks immediately following a popular album. Others are rough drafts that can give clues on a rising star's direction.

Blood Bank is likely the second of the two, and it should pacify Bon Iver's bloodthirsty, devoted fans at least until Vernon releases his next full-length.

- SoR

Ryan Adams Not To Retire?

2009-01-14T21:33:00.003-05:00

An update on Ryan Adams Retirement Crisis 2009!!!

He's not going to retire.

Here's his most recent post, in its entirety:

"Of course everything i said got taken out of context. as always, i did not say i was quitting i said i was taking a step back…so thanks…..thanks again."

SoR

Ryan Adams to Retire?

2009-01-14T12:59:00.003-05:00

Bad news if you're a Ryan Adams fan. Maybe.

The prolific singer/songwriter is apparently taking a break from music.

This according to a post on his band blog this morning. Adams has released five albums and an EP since 2005, at least three of which were solid to excellent. That's not a bad ratio in this biz.

But Adams wrote Wednesday that a March 20 show at Atlanta's Fox Theatre will be his "last venture" with his band The Cardinals. Adams said he is "ready for quieter times."

In the lengthy post, Adams also finds time to blast the music media. It seems fair given the snark-tastic tone music writers have taken to the Raleigh songwriter for several years now.

"This is not much of a life, not glamorous," Adams wrote this morning.

It's likely that a slowdown for Adams really means he'll release music at the rate of a normal artist. Who knows? He indicates in his post that he hopes to eventually be in a position to make music again.

Here's hoping that we hear tunes from Adams again. If not, live well.

SoR

Animal Collective- Merriwether Post Pavilion

2009-01-05T17:37:00.006-05:00

Rating: 9.5
Released: Jan. 6 (vinyl), Jan. 20 (cd)
Domino

Question: How do you know when a band has the indie world's ear?
Answer: When the months leading up to an album release are filled with cloak and dagger grabs to get an early copy.
Somebody even hacked into a band member's e-mail and sent fraudulent messages pleading for an Internet leak.
People want this album. They won't be disappointed.
Merriwether Post Pavilion is electrifying.
Animal Collective is one of a handful of bands that gets more beloved every time its members innovate.
Like Wolf Parade, there is more than one savant in this band (see Panda Bear and Avey Tare). The wild thing is these guys actually collaborate.
With 2005's Feels, AC sounded like a Pet Sounds-revival with acoustic guitars. By 2007, the band was making Strawberry Jam: the weirdest pop you've ever heard, which, depending on your ears, might have sounded like the most thrilling pop you've ever heard.
This record should convince everybody that Animal Collective, once dismissed as "freak-folkers" by people who write such things, is one of the best bands in the land.
Merriwether Post Pavilion might not be a superficial grab for record sales, but the Beach Boys vocal acrobatics and MGMT electronics could sell a few.
Less club-friendly than MGMT, Animal Collective washes every second of the tape with sublime noise. If these guys were painters, they'd be impressionists.
Panda Bear takes the lead on this album (good news if you heard his 2007 solo masterpiece Person Pitch), but AC blends its sound into a big melodic soup.
It's hard to pick out one ingredient in a great soup. Same thing applies here. The lyrics have never mattered with this band. Just the sound.
"In the Flowers" is a slow-building stunner. "If I could just leave my body for a night," Avey Tare sings just before the bottom falls out, climaxing in a pulsing keyboard coda.
Other tracks like "Also Frightened" and "Daily Routine" cover the tape in spacey harmonies, tribal hoots and warm vocals like Dennis Wilson's best solo output.
The lyrics have never mattered with this band. Just the sound, and Panda's voice has always bore an uncanny resemblance to Dennis' brilliant bro Brian. The comparisons won't stop here.
The most accessible tracks here, "My Girls" and "Summertime Clothes," might be the real stunners.
Always oddly rhythmic, these are dance tunes disguised as indie rock. Look out MGMT.
There's little stopping AC if it's capable of Merriwether Post Pavilion. This is an astoundingly good record. We're in for a good year if this sets the tone.

- SoR

Hop on Pop- The Salmon's Guide to January Albums You'll Want To Pick Up Soon

2009-01-03T13:13:00.007-05:00

With the new year comes new albums. That December dry spell is always the toughest to weather for a certified music fanatic.
Here are the albums I think you should be picking up in January.
I urge everyone to buy the albums. These artists deserve the money.
I have also tacked on the mind-bending album cover for Animal Collective's latest. Check it out. It's moving man! I think I'm going to hurl!
Also, look for my review of the new Collective album this week.

Jan. 6
Animal Collective- Merriwether Post Pavilion (vinyl release)
Burial- DJKicks
King Khan & BBQ Show- Animal Party

Jan. 20
Animal Collective- Merriwether Post Pavilion (CD release)
A.C. Newman (from the New Pornographers)- Get Guilty
Andrew Bird- Noble Beast
Antony and the Johnsons- The Crying Light
Bon Iver- Blood Bank EP
Diplo and Blaqstarr- Get Off
John Frusciante (from Red Hot Chili Peppers)- The Empyrean

Jan. 27
Franz Ferdinand- Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Bruce Springsteen- Workin' On A Dream
Duncan Sheik- Whisper House
Of Montreal- An Eluardian Instance EP
Of Montreal- Jon Brion Remix EP
RZA- Afro Samurai: The Resurrection

- SoR

Fresh Run DMC video

2008-12-29T17:01:00.006-05:00

Folks, I apologize for the lack of postings in recent days. I am applying to graduate school, a time-consuming process. I will return with fresh fish rock after the start of the new year. In the meantime, here's my favorite dance video, a remix of Run DMC's "It's Like That." Enjoy.

The Lights, Fluorescent- Neoteny EP

2008-12-15T17:29:00.004-05:00

Rating: 8.5
Released: Jan. 19, 2008

Charlotte, of late, doesn't have a reputation as a hotbed of modern rock.

Perceptions can be, well, misleading.

Charlotte' s The Lights, Fluorescent (note the sneaky comma!) are getting some buzz, and deservedly so.

They stick out like a bent nail in Charlotte's retro scene, partly because they rock unapologetically, and because singer Erika Blatnik sounds like the second coming of PJ Harvey.

Blistering lead vocals, torrential guitars and a jackhammer rhythm section make for a winding listen.

The band fuses melodic and math rock for theatricality, employing complex time signatures, sudden stops and angular guitar lines.

A debut EP, Neoteny, has been out for almost a year, featuring at least one certified big winner in "So Sweet."

Halfway through the hard-charging track, members duet for a melodic interlude a la the Pixies.

The harmonizing guitars, courtesy of Andre Francois and Craig Friday, sound like Peter Gabriel-era Genesis and Queen with 'roid rage.

The band sounds best when Blatnik teams with Friday and limber bassist Robby Hartis for heavy AM gold.

Most startling might be that The Lights, Fluorescent only took two days to record this lightning bolt.

Blatnik started her ascension playing acoustic shows in Charlotte's NoDA arts district. Here's hoping she, and her fantastic band, find a niche and a record company.

The band's sound translates well live. Catch them at Charlotte's Tremont Music Hall Tuesday.

If you're looking for more hot Charlotte acts, check out Yardwork too.

SoR

Interview with Of Montreal's James Huggins - Part 3 of 3

2008-12-12T12:14:00.008-05:00

SoR: What did you think of Skeletal Lamping when you first heard it?

JH: I really disliked it. Until I started deconstructing it, I didn't see how unique and multi-dimensional it was. At least for the first two or three listens, I felt like it was just really disjointed, frustrating, simple, sexual booty-pop or something and I just couldn't understand where he was going.
And then when he started sending these isolated keyboard parts and harmonies and stuff and I sort of detached myself from my personal interpretation of the lyrics just by knowing him and knowing his family and knowing his psyche, I tried to not consider that. And not consider any of the lyrics literally and pretend like it's some sort of alien voice that's just coming in and doing a little tap-dance and getting off on it. That's what he wanted.
And then I talked to him about it and said, 'God what's the point of this? Why did you end it like this?' And he was saying how it was his calculated intention to make it upsetting and jarring to listen to, and that all of those cut-in-half songs and quick starts and sharp endings were meant intentionally to kind of keep you on your toes. He wanted to make this sort-of difficult arrangement that wasn't like a standard, three-minute song, track by track for 14 songs.
So anyway, after a little bit of context and a little bit of time and then actually trying to piece it together myself and learn parts, then I got a deep respect for this album. I think it might be one of the best. But that defines any good record if you can listen to it five, eight, 10, 12 times and find something new out of it, that is definitely the case with this one.
I would recommend a minimum of 10 listens before making any sort of opinion. And, it's such a short record and it does change so often that you can stomach listening to it 10 times in as many days and it wouldn't be like some kind of chore. Just pop it in your car and ride for a half an hour and it's over.

SoR: I understand what you're saying. With each successive Of Montreal album, I think that I'm not going to like this one as much and than after 10 listens, it's my new favorite. I guess that's the mark of a good album and I guess that's what you guys are hoping for.

JH: The thing is, I think Kevin just disregards any of that when he's making them. For him, I really do think he's making it for himself.
It's really hard being an artist, and especially if you know that your voice is being heard. I can sit around and write stuff and I'll actually consider, 'Does this sound like it could be played on the radio?'
But Kevin doesn't give a shit what anybody thinks, obviously. So he's able to detach himself from any self-editing, and that's a big part of some of the creepier, sexual lyrics. He said he wasn't going to sit there and say, 'Oh I shouldn't say this,' or 'I shouldn't say condoms on my ice-cream cone.' Whatever he wanted to say he just said it, because it made him laugh and it made him smile in the moment of creation. And then he wouldn't go back and reconsider, 'Is this offensive?'
I have to respect that, not to suggest that just anything you fart out is gold. There's obviously some consideration there, and I don't think anybody wants to hear every random thought that an artist has. I do think that freeing up your ego a little bit can certainly yield interesting creative work and I think he's done that very successfully.

SoR: There's an image that people seem to have of you guys. I keep hearing the word 'superfreak' thrown out there to describe the personality that you have on stage. Is that really how you guys are or are you actually just sitting around drinking hot tea and relaxing?

JH: I think it's a very real and natural part of all of our personalities, but that's a misconception. When we're on stage, we are trying to put our best foot forward to put on a show for people to have a great hour and a half.
It's not like it's difficult for us to do that or that we're forcing some other personality on ourselves because each one of us has that in us.
But then, we all have a depressed, sitting in the back of the bus side. We all have a groggy, bitchy in the morning side. We all have a crazy, loud eccentric side.
I guess the thing that bugs me mostly when people say stuff like that is that a) we are insane, or most frustratingly, we are on drugs.
We eat well, aside from maybe drinking a little too much. Nobody even smokes pot at all, not ever. Everyone just assumes that to be inventive you have to be abusing substances and that drives all of us nuts.
Why can't we not have decided to put on this performance with a gigantic, rotating room and a man in a centaur outfit and not have it come from a night of smoking bongs?
It's like, no, we had a production meeting where we sat around and came up with that. To us, it's not that insane. It's just entertaining.
That's the thing that gets lost. It's trying to be entertaining and definitely comical. Some people feel like maybe they shouldn't laugh because this is serious art. Well yeah, it is art and we're serious about it but it doesn't have to be uptight and it can be very playful and comical.

SoR: Is this a band you hope is going to be around in 30 or 40 years?

JH: Well, the goal is not longevity for the sake of a good story. It's like, as long as there's good material and we're healthy enough to jump around, and if Kevin still wants us to work in this sort of arrangement. But yeah, I would definitely see it five or 10 years from now. I don't think we're slowing down.
I was talking with (Kevin) about that yesterday, that it's funny to me that young kids are discovering us that now we're approaching this sort of territory like Sonic Youth. Because right now, we're definitely over the decade hump. After five or six more years, and then suddenly 15 or 20 years, you think, 'God we've been doing it for 20 years.'
I could see that definitely. I'm not going to make any predictions but I will say I don't think we'll be stopping anytime soon.

SoR: I have to ask, based on the band's influences. Beach Boys: Pet Sounds or Smile?

JH: I'm always going to go with Smile because it represents everything that I love about recording, but then Pet Sounds is also fantastic. It's just two different things. It's like when people ask me the Beatles or the Stones. I think it's a ridiculous question because I love them both for so many different reasons.

SoR: I think that's the best answer you could have had.

JH: Anyway, for the sake of whatever, Smile.

SoR: Prince: Purple Rain or Sign 'o the Times?

JH: I would have to say Purple Rain personally. I was always a sucker for the hits and that one has a bunch of them.

SoR: I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me.

Interview with Of Montreal's James Huggins - Part 2 of 3

2008-12-12T11:54:00.006-05:00

SoR: Can you walk me through the recording process? I know Kevin Barnes records most of the parts and then you guys learn it and perform it live. Is that generally how it all works?

JH: The last couple of records, that's exactly how it works. So if we're talking current events, yeah. But it's a weird thing because we've had lineup changes with people coming in and out of the band.
Dottie and I have almost exclusively been working with the band for almost 11 years, and there was a lot more time where we were living in a house with Kevin, writing all of our parts, singing all of our own parts on the record, and actually writing entire songs for the record. So that was like a whole other era.
To me, it feels like two different bands, and they just kept the name.

SoR: Does it feel odd to make that change?

JH: Obviously, that's a tough transition, but after a couple of albums and seeing how dramatically it's shifted the whole audience and seeing what that's done for him to to get these records out of his brain uninterrupted by compromise, it's good for him and fun for us to see what he comes up with.
Now, we feel much more like musicians. We're all still songwriters and do our own thing, but in this band it's much more about the performance now. I always say that we feel much more like actors, like we're given a juicy script but it's our job to interpret it. And we do that kind of in our own style with each thing and it's never as strictly regimented as a lot of people assume. We usually take what he's done and create a part that represents some kind of essence of what it was and then play them live.
Because a lot of the songs are really impossible to play verbatim. Most of them have four or five or as many as eight bass lines. No one person can play that, so we'll listen to it and find the major points of what pops out the most and then try and construct one single part from that. And it's the same with all the vocals. Most of the songs have at least 10 vocal harmonies and there's only four of us that are singing.
It's like interpreting it, and that's another reason why the performances have gotten so outrageous because the rest of us in the band need to do something creative if we're not writing the material. All that shit we do. Very, very little of the stage design has anything at all to do with Kevin, or people also seem to think that it has some literal translation of the lyrics. That's not always true.
It's like the band and his brother, and we just get together and come up with these ridiculous ideas and go shopping and we build all the stuff ourselves. All the video content we shoot ourselves. So it's very much a group effort that a hundred ideas are sort-of in a pot and we'll come out with 10 good ones.

SoR: You've recorded under the James Husband name.

JH: That's been an ongoing recording project for me for years that I haven't really ever made much of an effort. I've done shows, I've even done whole opening tours for Of Montreal. But it's mostly just a bedroom recording project that I make mostly for just my friends and to distribute to a few. It's a real small-time project for now.

SoR: Are you still working on coming out with another album?

JH: I'm desperately trying to get into a situation where I feel like I can release something with a label that's going to do it the way that I want to. I've been really reticent to put out like a small release of a single album because I've seen it happen so many times where you put all your eggs in one basket and then it doesn't get any kind of attention. Then the songs are dead and you gotta start over again. ... I want to make a multiple disc release that is not just like 10 songs, 12 songs. At this point, I've amassed so much material that I'm trying to find someone whose willing to put out like a four-disc thing, almost like a posthumous-type thing, like a collection of an entire decade. I think that I will eventually be able to do it and I'm talking with Polyvinyl about trying to convince them to do it.

SoR: Are they giving you an impression that they'd be willing to do it?

JH: We haven't even gotten that far in the discussion. It's more about them agreeing to do something and then we'll have to figure it out at a meeting. But yeah, I would absolutely love to do that, and if I have to make them myself, which is what I've been doing, and sell them at shows, then I'll do that. That's a whole other ball of wax. But to be honest, I'm not sure what's going to happen.

SoR: I figured you had to be working on your own material as well, if Kevin is putting all the albums together.

JH: Yeah, it's actually pretty interesting. We did go into a real studio and we attempted to do this album "Skeletal Lamping" live, as like a live feed. And we did, we went in for like a week. We did about six or seven songs. We thought it sounded great, we were really enjoying being in the studio.
And we were working with this producer who I think Kevin felt uncomfortable with. And then I think he just kind of napped on like the sixth or seventh day and just decided that he didn't feel comfortable and explained to us that it wasn't about our playing or his recording, but that he was really dying for the privacy, the personal experience of staying up all night and recording whatever he wanted in his pajamas.
That's how he works, he usually recorded way late in the night, starting around 9 or 10 until like 7 or 8 in the morning. So he ended up using a lot of that stuff on the album. There's a couple of tracks where it is all of us playing and he's gone back and sprinkled all his crazy electronics and falsetto vocals over it and taken that as a blueprint and gone with it.
So it's frustrating to us because, of course, we think we could do a great live album, and that we're considered, I hope, to be really musical beyond theatrics. It's frustrating to never get a real chance to show that in a recording. But at the same time, we have to allow him that because when he did get full control he came back with something that really surprised us and was actually fun for us to listen to as fans.
It's like a weird kind of give and take sort of thing, but I think we're all at a point where it's not about egos or feeling like we're not getting some sort of opportunity to do this or that. It's more like just releasing all that crap and allowing him to have his voice and we just help him.

The Welcome Wagon- Welcome To The Welcome Wagon

2008-12-10T17:05:00.008-05:00

Rating: 6.5
Released: Dec. 9, 2008, Asthmatic Kitty.

My generation isn't known for being plain-spoken.

Irony is our most devastating weapon, and indie-bands employ it to wax eloquent on our society and its pitfalls.

Rest assured; there is no irony intended with the Welcome Wagon, talented Michigan folker Sufjan Stevens' latest brainchild.

The album comes with a hokey cover designed like a 1950s LP you'd find stuffed in a ratty, old box in your grandmother's attic. The collection is purported to offer "pastor and wife join(ing) voices in sacred folk songs."

It's nothing new for Stevens, who packaged a Christmas set like an old caroling book last year, complete with new classics penned by the whimsical singer and multi-instrumentalist. He has also recorded a dynamite Christian allegory, 2004's Seven Swans.

You never could tell if Stevens was completely serious about the old-time religion. Wonder no more, he's not kidding.

His latest project, producing a 13-song set of non-secular shuffles from a New York minister and his wife, looks and smells like Stevens, minus the humor.

The fussy arrangements, delicate melodies and layers upon layers of music are all here (just as Stevens perfected his trademarks with 2005's Illinois), but Stevens is bringing the Rev. Thomas Auito and his wife Monique to the forefront.

It's a pleasurable listen. Songs like "Up On A Mountain" and "Sold! to the Nice Rich Man" breeze by, peppered with banjos, harmonicas, glockenspiels and Stevens' typically ornate horn arrangements.

The guitars sometimes encroach, uncomfortably, on well-tilled muzak soil, but the Auitos plain-spoken (there's that word again) performance is not tongue-in-cheek. As the reverend and his wife said, they just want to make their own hymns.

Religion and indie-pop rarely mix. Hymns haven't been hip since Johnny Cash and June Carter duetted over traditionals four decades ago.

But the Welcome Wagon and Stevens have created something unique in this oft-snarky music scene: a sincere, unpatronizing reflection on God.

Most of the lyrics avoid directly Christian lyrics, save for the Christ memoir "He Never Said A Mumblin' Word." There's no condemnation of society and its sin, as many have come to expect from religious mouthpieces, just warm songs.

"But For You Who Fear My Name" is pure fun, thanks to an infectious, singalong chorus (with an impromptu indie choir), unadorned banjo and hand-claps. It sounds ready-made for a youth group camping trip.

Stevens, like Bowie's 70s projects with Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, often does little more than make his proteges sound like, well, Stevens. The results can be, at times, grating, especially if the songs aren't up to the quality of Illinois masterpieces like "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades."

Yet the Welcome Wagon's debut is hip hope for the warm-hearted spiritual folks out there. No kidding.

BB

Tomorrow: A new EP from talented Charlotte band The Lights, Fluorescent.

Interview with Of Montreal's James Huggins - Part 1 of 3

2008-12-10T13:00:00.006-05:00

I had the chance to chat with Of Montreal multi-instrumentalist James Huggins this weekend. The Athens band is wrapping up the U.S. leg of its Skeletal Lamping tour these days.

If you haven't seen the band live yet, I'd recommend it, if you want to see and hear mock hangings, ninja action sequences, centaurs and brilliant musicianship.

Skeletal Lamping was one of my favorite albums this year, a fantastic mix of psychedelic rock and indie-funk that should pass the test of time.

Huggins has been in the band for more than a decade, and now the collective finally appears ready to make a splash on the charts, thanks to ever-imaginative frontman Kevin Barnes. Catch the group performing live on the "Late Show with David Letterman" Thursday, Dec. 18.

Barnes recorded most of Skeletal Lamping in his home studio, and his big band fills in the gaps on tour.

Huggins, a gifted songwriter in his own right, is responsible for a solo album under the name James Husband.

He called me from a Tampa beach this weekend and talked about his time with the band and Barnes, what it's like to finally hit the "big time," and his plans for an upcoming solo project.

I will post the half-hour interview in three chunks over the next three days. Enjoy!

SoR: How's the tour going?

JH: This is the very bottom of the tail end of the last straw of this tour. We feel like the whole tour was over essentially right before Thanksgiving and then these Florida shows were added on at the last minute. They're all a little bit lower profiles, so we're just kind of doing them just for like a bonus.

SoR: It's obviously the most elaborate show the band has done, with ninjas and costumes and action sequences. Is this your ideal view of what a concert should be?

JH: This time we were more motivated. The time before it was a little bit less. The scary thing is trying to top this now because there's an expectation when you do something really big and theatrical that then, each time, I feel like there's some expectation that we have to impress and improve. So at some point it's going to have to hit a plateau and go back to something minimal.

SoR: You can't really top mock hangings I guess?

JH: Yeah, but that's exactly how we wanted to do it. And for us the only real limitation on this whole tour was venue size, like stage size, and then, of course, money. But we found some very creative ways around the money thing. As far as the size of the venues, we could just adapt our set to accommodate most places.
Like in Atlanta, that was the ideal setup where we had all five video screens and our little drum towers and all that. But a lot of times, like in Nashville, I remember it was really small. We had to strike the risers all together and only use one video screen. I don't know, all those things we have to work around every night. It's sort of a new setup but the show is essentially the same.

SoR: Do you sense that you guys have turned the corner and maybe moved out of the smaller rock band status and into one of those larger acts?

JH: Well, definitely, that's undeniable. For us, it's kind of like a funny thing that we're talking like we're so old and we've been doing it so long. So we have the same excitement that you see in a younger band that's put out their first or second record.
I feel like we've been trained for disappointment because we sort of expected it to do this six or eight or 10 years ago. And with each record and each tour, we feel like we've just been waiting for the audience. Now 10 years later, to have some of those things start to happen, I think we're all a little bit distrustful of the whole situation.
Because it's like it's great that we can be able to put on the shows we want from larger audiences and have respect from other groups and press that wouldn't give us the time of day two years ago. It's definitely a very interesting transition but I think we're all just slightly confused and maybe wary of the success.

SoR: What would be the optimal topping out point? Do you guys want to sell out Madison Square Garden?

JH: Sure, that would be great!

SoR: I understand that the music scene is splintered today with the larger record companies struggling to make a lot of profit. Now there seems to be a lot of the smaller bands that hit the medium status and never get to that Britney Spears-type status. Would your goal be to sell out the big stadiums?

JH: Well that's the thing. I don't think there is an ideal. It's just different things. We love putting on big, funny things and playing in small clothes. I guess it just depends on what it calls for. We had an offer to do a show at the Hollywood Bowl, which I think the maximum there is like 15,000 people.
I don't know if we'd get anywhere close to that. I guess the last show we did in L.A. was like 4,000 people in a single room, and this was like an outdoor room. So we would have the opportunity to have like an orchestra or something crazy. But that would be something we'd do once, and then the next time we might play at the small, little rock club and put on a special show.
Last time we played in London in a big theater and put on the first, real U.K. big performance. But then we're going back in a few weeks and we're playing this show with Franz Ferdinand in a little club that only holds like 600 people.
I think that it's really just keeping it interesting by doing a variety of different kinds of shows and different kinds of environments for different kinds of audiences. I think rotating it gives you perspective.
Because if you just start doing detached, large arena kind of shit, I can see how that would kind of kill the personality of the performance. I've gotten a glimpse of that a couple of times. I've heard of a couple of other bands that say that they can't stand playing really large, arena-type venues because they don't feel any connection. I can see that too, but I don't think we're in any immediate danger of having to do that.

Ears Of My Peers

2008-12-09T15:39:00.007-05:00

I give you my good friend Nate's top 25 albums of 2008. He's a good authority.
This guy is a house party waiting to happen.
Send me your faves, I'm curious to hear what everybody thinks.
BB

1. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
2. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
3. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
4. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
5. The Walkmen – You & Me
6. Blitzen Trapper – Furr
7. Frightened Rabbit – Midnight Organ Fight
8. The Dodos – The Visiter
9. Sigur Ros – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
10. Lil' Wayne – Tha Carter III
11. Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing
12. Beach House – Devotion
13. Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
14. Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride
15. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
16. Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
17. Portishead – Third
18. The Black Keys – Attack & Release
19. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
20. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
21. Langhorne Slim – Langhorne Slim
22. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
23. Deerhunter – Microcastle
24. Okkervil River – The Stand-Ins
25. Hot Chip – Made in the Dark

Neil Young- Sugar Mountain Live at Canterbury House 1968

2008-12-09T12:55:00.005-05:00

Rating: 8.0
Released: Dec. 2, 2008, Reprise.

Neil Young has always liked to have it both ways.

One minute he's a folk troubadour. The next he's recording garage-rock bliss.

This 1968 set, culled from an intimate Michigan performance just days before his 23rd birthday, finds Young firmly entrenched in the former position.

It's weeks after he released his self-titled solo album, and years before he would release a string of 1970s masterpieces, including After the Gold Rush, Tonight's the Night and Rust Never Sleeps, that would establish him as one of the most important and versatile artists of the decade.

Young came to prominence leading 60's rock pioneers Buffalo Springfield, and he leans heavily on that output here, recording stripped-down, acoustic versions of classics like "Mr. Soul" and "Broken Arrow."

The still-fresh solo work feels remarkably lived in, and Young relies on his bittersweet lyrics and pinched voice to make the tunes. There's no studio trickery here. Young allows the songs to speak for themselves.

For those who think Young can't sing, listen to his hushed rendition of "The Old Laughing Lady." It's clear he knows something about atmosphere.

The Ann Arbor venue allows for maximum interaction between Young and his enamored audience, with Young filling the set with disarming chatter. He's funny, frank and clearly heading for bigger things.

If you're looking for pre-punk rockers and distorted guitars, don't look here. Search out Young's recently released 1970 performance at the Fillmore East with Crazy Horse.

But if you want Young working his storyteller mojo, check out this outstanding CD and DVD set.

On a side note, Young is currently touring with gifted followers like Wilco. Raise your hand if you want to hear Young and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy exercise a guitar-stomp duet on "Southern Man."

If you didn't raise your hand, I find it hard to relate to you.

Tomorrow: Sufjan Stevens' latest project Welcome Wagon.

BB

Rivers Cuomo- Alone II: The Home Recordings

2008-12-05T12:31:00.008-05:00

Rating: 6.0
Released: Nov. 25, 2008, Geffen.

Admit it. The first time you heard Weezer singing "Buddy Holly," you figured this band was one and done.

The tune was incredibly catchy and simple. It sounded like a MTV-distillation of Pavement. These guys were living on borrowed time, right?

Wrong.

More than a decade later, Weezer remains a favorite for fans who would listen to the ever-prolific Rivers Cuomo belch the ABCs if he did it on tape. Those people, and more, are going to eat this one up.

Cuomo has always been more than a Pavement-imitating, pop-punk songwriter. He was emo before that was a slur, blending 1960's singalongs with big, harmonizing guitars.

The uncompromising fragility of his lyrics and plaintive voice were utterly unpretentious, reaching their peak on 1996's Pinkerton.

Alone II: The Home Recordings is the second lo-fi album of rarities Cuomo's released in recent years.

Like its predecessor, some of the tracks are genuine keepers, revealing Cuomo's talent for sincere alternative songs bundled with joyful choruses and joyless lyrics. See "The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World" and "I'll Think About You" for examples.

Others, less so. Some are documents of Cuomo's oft-fried voice. It's hard to enjoy his off-key cover of the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" after hearing the original.

Still, Cuomo and Weezer will prosper, no matter how many dreadful Good Charlotte bands squeeze the aesthetic for a few more bucks.

Unreleased material finally packaged can fall into two camps: music that probably shouldn't have been heard by anyone other than the artist's dog and mother, and tunes that shed light on a gifted songwriter's creative process.

Cuomo's latest falls in the latter category.

BB

Mice and Men

2008-12-04T17:26:00.003-05:00

The best-laid plans...

Of Montreal's Jamey Huggins was stuck in a long sound check today, and we had to postpone the interview until tonight or Friday.

I plan to post the entire interview once I've wrapped it up. Sorry for the delay.

BB

Common- Universal Mind Control

2008-12-04T15:55:00.004-05:00

Rating: 5.5
Released: Dec. 9, 2008, Geffen.

What's a nice-guy rapper to do?

Chicago rapper Common ascended to rap stardom in the past decade breaking the mold. While his peers might have talked gunplay, Common led the soul pack of MCs, recording a retro-infused batch of songs that sounded like latter-day, street-preacher Nas without the rampant narcissism.

Common made his living by standing out from other hip hop stars, but his latest does little to set him apart, and with mixed results.

In a time when hip hop's leading star Kanye West is recording melodramatic break-up albums that sound like Fiona Apple, Common is indicating he just wants to party, and he's asked Converse-loving Pharrell and the Neptunes to come along for the ride.

He kicks off his latest LP, Universal Mind Control, with a title track that sounds like standard club fodder, sporting a glitchy techno beat that's crying for Usher to body up on somebody.

"This is that automatic/I stay fresh like I'm wrapped in plastic," Common raps, moments before he starts talking about "booties droppin'."

On the next track, he partners with Mr. West himself (who phones it in for a monotonous chorus) for "Punch Drunk Love," a weirdly unappealing song with one too many sex jokes.

"Check my dictionary, that ass is so defined," Common spits. "It's slippery when wet, I can read the signs."

This isn't your mother's Common.

The rapper's experiments fall flat when he tries to sound like a thug, save for the head-banging "Gladiator," where he raps over a trilling trumpet and pounding beat.

"Don't violate or you get violated/some of you model bitches are so overrated," he brags. Who put the chip on this guy's shoulder?

The warmer, fuzzier Common makes a guest appearance on "Changes." The end of the song, which features an excerpt from President-elect Barack Obama's victory speech, might explain why Common feels so much like getting down.

"We see change in the wind/ it's a new day and I gotta take it in/ see a black man run, we need him to win," he raps.

"Changes," along with the Cee-Lo winner "Make My Day," are refreshing listens on a largely innocuous album. Perhaps Common shouldn't have picked overexposed producers like Pharrell and the Neptunes as pilots.

BB

The Decemberists- Always The Bridesmaid EP

2008-12-03T13:02:00.005-05:00

Rating: 6.8
Released: Dec. 2, 2008, Capitol Records

The Decemberists have carved themselves quite a niche. They've pumped out highly arranged folk rock for years now, marrying artsy prog songs and serious pop instincts.

The band can sound big and it can sound small, a fitting background for frontman Colin Meloy's warbly singing voice.

It's caught the attention of scores of brainy hipsters and others who long to hear words like fontanelle in their rock songs.

2006's The Crane Wife was a marvel of songcraft and artistic commitment, a major step above 2005's excellent Picaresque. Few major bands would base an entire album on a Japanese folk story and succeed for it.

If the rumors are true, then the band's forthcoming LP, slated for a Marsh 2009 release, should be another leap, supposedly combining lots of guitars in a modern rock opera. Sounds appealing, if only because The Decemberists pull off geeky pop in a way that is sometimes triumphant (see the last two songs on The Crane Wife).

That said, the recently released Always the Bridesmaid EP can be a little underwhelming, possibly because it's a collection of singles.

The six tracks here retreat to the melodic, disarming rock that made Picaresque fun, although they're not quite as engaging, at least for the moment (The Decemberists are a grower).

"Valerie Plame" is a great start. It's probably one of the most infectious songs this band has written, thanks to terrific melody, Chicago-like horns and swirling accordion.

The Beatles outro is a reminder that the band really just wants a good singalong.

"O New England" and "I'm Sticking With You" are a little more forgettable, but not for lack of trying. The latter track is funny and cute, tossing out such nuggets as "I'm sticking with you/cause I'm made out of glue," but I'm not sure that the song really sticks in a good way.

"Record Year" and "Raincoat Song" close the EP on a strong, bittersweet note.

You're left with a feeling that these songs are toss-offs, a way to clear out the attic before the new album arrives. Still, toss-offs from a great band make for good listening.

Interview tomorrow with Of Montreal's Jamey Huggins

2008-12-03T10:36:00.005-05:00

I've scored a tentative interview with Of Montreal's multi-instrumentalist James Husband, aka Jamey Huggins, Thursday.

Huggins is a longtime member of the fantastic Athens band, which at the moment appears to be headed for the spotlight. It's about time.

Of Montreal is what you would get if the Beatles turned into superfreaks. Their ultra-catchy songs can be thrilling, beautiful, hilarious and poignant.

Check out their new LP Skeletal Lamping to hear what Brian Wilson might have sounded like if he had moral support from the rest of the Beach Boys.

Huggins recorded a solo album several years ago under the Husband monicker, and filled it with more of the harmony-laden, electro-pop Of Montreal is known for, indicating frontman Kevin Barnes isn't the only big brain in this band.

Check back in tomorrow for a transcript of the interview.

Early Bird Gets The Worm

2008-12-02T17:47:00.003-05:00

Just in time for Obama's inauguration.

Pitchfork is reporting Andrew Bird is pushing up the release date of his Noble Beast album, with the first pressings featuring a bonus disc of instrumentals. The new North American release date is Jan. 20, up from Jan. 27.

This is good news.

If you haven't listened to Bird yet, you should. The Illinois folker is good at writing brooding ruminations on fiery crashes and other such morbid things. The songs stick in your head. Check out Bird's Armchair Apocrypha to hear Bird cut loose on the electric guitar and the violin.

Little Joy- Little Joy

2008-12-02T10:12:00.004-05:00

Rating: 7.2
Released: Nov. 4, 2008, Rough Trade

The Strokes are, after all, a great band. Their contribution to modern rock cannot be understated, paving the way for hordes of indie, throwback bands to rock the hipster dens and the stadiums alike, combining The Kinks rave-ups with post-punk fury.

Together, the five-piece Brooklyn band has done a lot for our ears, starting with 2001's Is This It.
It would seem to be asking a lot for the band's solo members to make their mark too.

Enter Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, who has teamed with girlfriend Binki Shapiro and Brazilian singer Rodrigo Amarante to make the aptly-titled Little Joy.

The record is remarkably pleasing, stuffed with lilting acoustic ballads, gentle tropical shuffles and, occasionally, a Strokes-style rock-out.

Like Panda Bear's 2007 masterpiece Person Pitch, this is a summer record arriving just in time for winter. Employing ukulele, crystal-clear guitars and Amarante's sleepy croon, this is perfect music for a nap in a hammock, if it wasn't too frigid outside.

This isn't the first indie band to use world music to make a record that will appeal to American sensibilities. Look no further than New Mexico-wonderkid Beirut if you want proof.

"Brand New Start" sounds like a 60's Drifters standard, carried by reggae-lite horns and an infectious, blissful chorus. "There ain't no lover like the one I got/she and I and a brand new start/ got to give all my love," Amarante confesses. It's not often that hipsters admit to being happy.

Other tracks, like "Don't Watch Me Dancing," are immediately accessible, coupling what could be two songs about a wallflower into one Velvet Underground meets Yo La Tengo tune.

"Keep Me In Mind" is the closest you'll get to a Strokes song here. "Evaporar" closes out the album with Amarante singing in Portugese, a fitting reminder that we owe Brazil more than we owe Brooklyn for this album. It sounds ripe for the plucking in Wes Anderson's next film.

BB

TV On The Radio - Dear Science

2008-12-01T15:10:00.002-05:00

Rating: 9.0.
Released: Sept. 23, 2008, Interscope

Perhaps the best record I've heard this year.

This five-member New York art-rock collective is recording some of the most thrilling music today.

It's heavy, melodic and dense. The band records progressive, dramatic songs that flirt with multiple genres, often in the same song.

This is their most accessible album yet, which, oddly enough, is also their best. TV On The Radio proves the best bands are both challenging and accessible.

There's the Joy Division stomp of "Halfway Home," the brainy funk of "Crying," the spacey pop of "Golden Age," and the cinematic swell of "Family Tree." The latter song is a marvel of minimalism, building on a ringing piano and strings that crescendo like Radiohead's "The Bends."

Singer Tunde Adebimpe uses his Arthur Lee voice with equal parts grace and, at times, ferocity, pairing with musical partner Kyp Malone. Malone often sings the tenor to Adebimpe's bass, injecting even the most sorrowful of songs, "Love Dog" for example, with a sprightly foil.

The pop comes with a message.

"Hey jackboot, fuck your war/ cause I'm fat and in love and no bombs are fallin' on me for sure," Malone sings on "Red Dress," a horn-heavy romp that bridges the album's first-half dance epics to the moody histrionics bookending the collection.

Best of all might be "Shout Me Out," a pounding call-to-action that starts with a muted bass, majestic horns and an irresistible melody, before pounding out the kinks with a double-time electronic coda and distorted guitars.

"Lord if you've got lungs/ c'mon and shout me out," Adebimpe sings. It could be a birthday shout-out or a furious break-out song, depending on your point of view.

Welcome to the Salmon of Rock

2008-12-01T14:38:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Billy.

I am kicking off my new blog, Salmon of Rock, which I hope will get me started as a music writer.
The format is simple. I like an album. Maybe you'll like the same album. Or not. Either way, there's so much great music to be had these days, it needs to be documented.
If you know me, you know that I think this is a golden age for music. Let me know if there are any great albums you'd like for me to check out. The more music, the better.

First, a little about myself. I'm a 26-year-old reporter from Charlotte who spends his evenings moonlighting as a music writer. I've written for numerous publications, including the Charlotte Observer and Street & Smith's.

Music is my passion. Indie, electronic, soul, hip-hop, trip-hop, white-hot rawk, blues, progressive: Anything that has a soul and shows creativity.

I've come to think I had to be doing this. My evening with Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes made that abundantly clear.

I hope to post a review of a new album each day, grading it on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Nickelback and 10 being somebody really really good. I also plan to integrate breaking news at some point and interviews with the innovators of our time.

Again, comments will be fantastic. Let me know what you want to see or hear. Enjoy.

BB
billyball24@gmail.com