After spending the better part of a decade in the musical minor leagues, Death Cab for Cutie went pro with 2005’s Plans, a record whose optimism and Technicolor sound gave the band enough leverage to finally enter the mainstream. “Soul Meets Body” became their biggest rock single to date, but it was Ben Gibbard’s delicate love song, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” that earned the quartet a Grammy nomination and legions of new fans. Some bands might have taken a cue from such success and resigned themselves to a career of acoustic ballads, not unlike the Goo Goo Dolls’ transformation in the mid-’90s. But Narrow Stairs roughs up Plans‘ bright palette with something starker, more harrowing, and altogether darkened by Gibbard’s blues.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joel Martin and Matt Edwards take their alias from Martin Denny’s exotica landmark, yet their approach can be likened — not just through the title but in its sound as well — to “Quiet Pillage,” the slack but unease-inducing interpretation of “Quiet Village” by experimentalist post-punks 23 Skidoo. Beneath the tracklist of Silent Movie, an album highlighted by material released in small runs on 12″ during 2005 and 2006, the duo thanks “everyone that’s been involved in making this album. You know who you are.” It’s probable that not everyone knows who they are, at least not in this case. The most creative and affecting sample-reliant album since the Avalanches’ Since I Left You, Silent Movie plucks from numerous forms of marginalia, whether obscure, loathed by the stereotypical record store clerk, or loved by legions of geeks who were dealt wedgies in high school by Van Halen-loving jocks: prog rock and yacht rock punchlines, new age pin cushions, unhip singer/songwriters, largely unknown Italian film-music composers, and several others. For the most part, these sources are not so uncool that they are cool. They are so uncool that they are… extremely uncool.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joseph Arthur’s fans can download free music from his latest project, Bag is Hot, at the songwriter’s Tumblr site. “Like fresh popcorn for all the kids to grab,” Arthur explains. “Digital hands eating the digital popcorn.” [Billboard.com]

Thom Yorke doesn’t approve of Radiohead’s upcoming Greatest Hits album, which will be issued by the group’s former label, EMI Records. [NME.com]

The recently reunited Gang of Four is now a gang of two, with bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham announcing their exit from the group. [CMJ.com]

Read the rest of this entry »

We love 1999 a whole lot, but maybe not quite as much as we love making lists. Each month (or so), until we have covered every year we can remember (unless we get tired), we will take a look at our favorite albums and singles released during a given year. In the year 1999, Basement Jaxx, Eminem, Mos Def, the Flaming Lips, the Dismemberment Plan, the ageless Tom Jones, the mighty LEN, and dozens of others produced nonperishable goods that would’ve gotten us through a Y2K drought of just about any magnitude.

Marisa Brown
I heard “Where My Girls At?” on the radio a couple of weeks ago and I still remembered every single word. If that’s not a testament to powerful songwriting (or um, limited radio playlists), I don’t know what is.

Blackalicious - A2G
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Aesop Rock - Float
Beth Orton - Central Reservation
Goldie - INCredible Sound of Drum’n'Bass
Rob Swift - The Ablist
Quannum - Quannum Spectrum

702 - “Where My Girls At?”

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
There was a bunch of great music in 1999 — I can’t think of another year in the past decade with so many great singles from all genres of music — so I decided to whittle my list to the albums and singles I still actively play (although I do admit that the singles are in heavier rotation than the full albums).

Fiona Apple - When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts…
Pavement - Terror Twilight
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Paul McCartney - Run Devil Run
XTC - Apple Venus, Pt. 1
Super Furry Animals - Guerrilla
The White Stripes - The White Stripes
Alan Jackson - Under the Influence

LEN - “Steal My Sunshine”
Madonna - “Beautiful Stranger”
Sugar Ray - “Every Morning”
Supergrass - “Pumping on Your Stereo”
Kid Rock - “Cowboy”
Super Furry Animals - “Northern Lights”
Backstreet Boys - “I Want It That Way”
Christina Aguilera - “Genie in a Bottle”
Suede - “Electricity”
Eminem - “Guilty Conscience”

David Jeffries
At the end of the year, Billy Joel promised to never play pop music again. Had he kept this promise, it would have been the best year ever. I also wish I could have fit Eiffel 65 or the Vengaboys on the list but the boss told me to keep it to ten.

Cut Chemist & DJ Shadow - Brainfreeze
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Beanie Sigel - The Truth
Tom Jones - Reload
Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
The Fall - The Marshall Suite
The Chemical Brothers - Surrender
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Basement Jaxx - Remedy

Mr. Vegas - “Heads High (Kill Dem Wid It)”
Ol’ Dirty Bastard - “Got Your Money”
Q-Tip - “Vivrant Thing”
Mr. Oizo - “Flat Beat”
Buccaneer - “Bruk Out”
Armand Van Helden - “U Don’t Know Me”
Groove Armada - “At the River”
Foxy Brown - “Hot Spot”
Capleton - “Jah Jah City”
Terrance & Phillip - “Uncle F**ka”

Andy Kellman
Basement Jaxx - Remedy
Mary J. Blige - Mary
Aril Brikha - Deeparture in Time
Dettinger - Intershop
Drexciya - Neptune’s Lair
Gas - Königsforst
Innerzone Orchestra - Programmed
Kelis - Kaleidoscope
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
Stewart Walker - Stabiles

Basement Jaxx - “Red Alert”
Bows - “Girls Lips Glitter”
Pépé Bradock - “Deep Burnt”
Foxy Brown - “Hot Spot”
Vladislav Delay - “Huone”
Farben - “Live at the Sahara Tahoe, 1973″
Donell Jones - “U Know What’s Up”
Moodymann - “Shades of Jae”
Theo Parrish - “Summertime Is Here”
Slum Village - “Get Dis Money”

Andrew Leahey
Wilco - Summerteeth
The Waking Hours - The Waking Hours
Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers - Honky Tonk Union
Kate Rusby - Sleepless
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
Drive-By Truckers - Alabama Ass Whuppin’
Beck - Midnite Vultures

Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers - “Green & Dumb”
The Waking Hours - “Dolores”
Jimmy Eat World - “Lucky Denver Mint”
Madonna - “Beautiful Stranger”
Kate Rusby - “The Unquiet Grave”
Fountains of Wayne - “The Valley of Malls”

Jason Lymangrover
Mr. Bungle - California
Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
Handsome Boy Modeling School - So…How’s Your Girl?
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break
Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
The Dismemberment Plan - Emegency & I
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Luxury
Pavement - Terror Twilight

James Christopher Monger
The Negro Problem - Joys & Concerns
XTC - Apple Venus, Pt. 1
Agalloch - Pale Folklore
The Gourds - Ghosts of Hallelujah
Waterson:Carthy - Broken Ground
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Nightmares on Wax - Carboot Soul
Dolly Parton - The Grass Is Blue
The Auteurs - How I Learned to Love the Bootboys
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

Heather Phares
Add N to (X) - Avant Hard
Basement Jaxx - Remedy
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe
Jim O’Rourke - Eureka
Royal Trux - Veterans of Disorder
Smog - Knock Knock
Stereo Total - My Melody
Super Furry Animals - Guerrilla
The White Stripes - The White Stripes

Tim Sendra
These poptastic songs are guaranteed to rub you the right way, get your game on, and be friends forever. These songs are strong enough, as high as Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Aphrodite, and if you’re lucky, they might just kiss you beneath the milky twilight. None of these songs are also known as a buster, none will hang out the passenger side of their best friend’s ride, and they will never, not ever, steal your sunshine. And yes, we like butter tarts!

LEN - “Steal My Sunshine”
Cher - “Believe”
Smashmouth - “All Star”
Sugar Ray - “Every Morning”
Tal Bachman - “She’s So High”
Sixpence None the Richer - “Kiss Me”
TLC - “No Scrubs”
Christina Aguilera - “Genie in a Bottle”
Vitamin C - “Graduation (Friends Forever)”

Some of the recordings listed above are technically 1998 releases, but they made more of an impact in 1999.

Today’s theme is a sad one. Goodbyes are hard but sometimes a sweet melody can help ease the pain. Sometimes, not so much. Still, we have to carry on and for that we turn to the Postmarks. Their self titled album from last year is littered with hushed heartbreak delivered in sugar sweet tones of sadness. The video for “Goodbye” is suitably charming and painfully autumnal. It looks like the most melancholy children’s book ever come to life (Madeline and the Bad Break-Up, perhaps) and also reminds us that it’s just about time for their next album! Hopefully the band can wipe away the tears soon and get it together in time to soundtrack the broken hearts of this autumn.

Read the rest of this entry »

In Milos Forman’s 1984 film, Amadeus, court composer Antonio Salieri seeks out Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Archbishop Colloredo’s salon in Salzburg. Circling a group of musicians, all dressed identically in powdered wigs and blue uniforms, Salieri ponders, “Which one of them could he be?” But as we soon learn, a homely, giggling fellow, wearing the same court dress as the others but looking disheveled from cavorting with his fiancée in the dining room, turns out to be the musical Wunderkind.
 
How is it that, on the one hand, one of the most sublime composers in history can be portrayed as the grotesque, cackling caricature of Forman’s movie, and on the other, be represented as the smooth-faced matinee idol that graces wrappers of Mozartkugeln? Though both are recognizable to us as Mozart, his true image surely must lie somewhere in between. What did he really look like? For that matter, can we be sure of the portraits of other classical composers? Because we idealize and idolize these artists, we have often felt a strong need to see them as better looking than we are, sometimes even godlike in appearance.

Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Time was, Jason Castro was a refreshing contestant on American Idol as he didn’t fit in with the rest of the competition. As time wore on, his freshness faded, due entirely to the grind of the show and how it broke him down. For the last two weeks of the show he clearly hasn’t wanted to be here, and between the Ford commercials, phone Q&As, and trips to The Beatles: Love, who can blame him? As I said yesterday — the day when I called him Jason Cook, as the show has clearly worn me down, too — he’s done enough to have a career outside of the show and my money is that he will make an album about as good and true to himself (the ultimate Paula criteria) as David C.

To me, the real atrocity of last night was that group sing on “Reelin’ in the Years.” I have no problem with Steely Dan on the show, of course — if anything, the great Walter Becker and Donald Fagen would be my dream judges/mentors, rivaling that legendary episode with Quentin Tarantino as guest judge — but this was an outright embarrassment, with each line getting more ridiculous, culminating in David Archuleta botching lyrics once again. The only thing they can do to make up for this is to have a Becker/Fagen night next year, preferably early in the season when the show has enough contestants to be interesting to watch.

Read the rest of this entry »

The rumors are true: the next in what seems to be a trend of sneak release attacks, Beck is putting out a new album sometime soon, and Danger Mouse is producing it. [Billboard.com]

Heralding the inevitable decline of the festival, Vegoose has been canceled this year. [Pitchfork]

That hasn’t stopped the Siren Music Festival from announcing its initial line-up, however. [Village Voice]

Read the rest of this entry »