Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 1

I was tempted to be a wise guy and list my bands record but that would be too obvious, right? Oh by the way, click here and do a little commerce and come back in a few.

Let me stress that this list is for my FAVORITE record of the year. Like I said at the start of this it is impossible for your humble correspondent to declare what the best record of the year is. I can most definitely say what it is NOT however, and it certainly is NOT the Kanye West record. That guy could smear his shit on a disc and Spin would give it 5 stars. Please. No, it is far more accurate to say what my favorite records are, the ones I keep coming back to to enjoy and find new things with.

So my favorite record pf the year is hands down The Eldritch Dark by Blood Ceremony. The band's name coupled with the album cover make it sound like this is some satanic band. Well, only kind of. HA! This nominally gets put into the metal category, but more appropriately it is folk-metal. What the hell is that, you ask? I describe Blood Ceremony as if Jethro Tull did Black Sabbath songs. Or maybe Black Sabbath doing Jethro Tull songs. Imagine it either way but front the band with a sexy witch. Mix that up and shake and you get Blood Ceremony.

They are another Canadian act. Four-piece. Guitar/bass/drum with the lovely Alia O'Brien doing vocals and keys and naturally the flute. They traffic in a classic proto-metal sound while incorporating folk touches. It's great stuff. Lyrically they find interest in the occult. Titles like "Witchwood," "Lord Summerisle" (for you Wicker Man buffs), "Ballad of the Weird Sisters," and "The Magician" give it a way. It is not as tongue in cheek (or Dio-inspired) as Ghost, but it's wicked in an amusing not sinister way. It sort of reminds me of the goth girl on my residence hall floor my Freshmen year who was probably casting spells on everyone, except with better taste in records. It plays like those creepy Italian horror movies from the 70s.

Why do I name it my favorite? It is an alluring record, especially with the alluring Ms. O'Brien presiding over the festivities. It helps, I will not downplay it. But without that the music is still great, still alluring in of itself. Ms. O'Brien is an excellent singer. The songs are catchy and heavy and airy all at the same time. The band is super-tight. Great riffs and grooves. I saw them open for Kylesa and was so blown away I hunted out and found a similar Yamaha guitar that guitarist Sean Kennedy plays. Which has incidentally become my go-to guitar for shows. Back to the record. The songs are just really good. Great interplay with guitar and keys/organs and flute and fiddles.

Here's "Goodbye Gemini."

So there you go...my favorite ten records of the year. I do hope you have been inspired to check them out! Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble. I will talk about some of the records I got recently that did not crack my list but might have if they had shown up earlier!

Oh, and a very Happy New Year! To paraphrase a poet of old, got a feeling '14 is going be a good year!

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 2

Ultraviolet by Kylesa was an album I gushed about earlier this year. They are a Georgia band that has grown past the wall of noise that made up their earlier records. This builds upon their previous record to show a continued progression, not to the mainstream mind you, but a progression to more interesting and rewarding paths. Stoner metal and sludge metal is good, but when a band can use that as a foundation instead of a ceiling, those are the bands that are on to something.

Here is not a record for everyone. It's hard and it's heavy and it's trippy and it's spacey and it hits like a punch to the face. It takes a progressive track. The driving forces behind the band are Laura Pleasants and Phillip Cope. Their trading of vocal duties be it from song-to-song or within the same song keeps a close listener on his feet. Whether they are singing or shouting it remains mesmerizing with the heavy yet melodic music. "Unspoken" channels Megadeth-esque guitar runs with chanting vocals underlaying the main vocal line. It is a record with bottom in the guitars. I love the tone. It's heavy but it grips you not just through power and explosiveness but through strong song-writing. Good metal has good riffs and Kylesa has them by the bushelful. The swirling opening of "Grounded." The chugging Sabbath-esque riff powering "We're Taking This."

Another positive. It is short. At just under 39 minutes it starts, beats your ass, then gets out. I do not subscribe to the more-is-better school. My favorite records are those that do not fuck around. That say what they are going to say and be done with it. It is not brevity for the sake of it but it is knowing when the point is made. That's refreshing.

It astounds me that this record is failing to show up on so many best-of-metal lists. It is number two for me. I find it impossible to fathom there are 25 better metal records than this.

There was ONE record I found better than this one....what will it be!?!

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 3

When you think of metal, what do you think of? Hair bands from the 80s like Twisted Sister or Ratt or Poison? Weird Brits singing about the devil and other similar things like Ozzy and Iron Maiden and Judas Priest? Nu-metal from the 90s like Korn and Limp Bizkit and Slipknot? The metal-as-fuck bands that the weirdos in high school listened to like Metallica and Slayer and Megadeth?

To me, only the second and fourth ones qualify as metal. That's just what I think so sue me. The first is glammed up pop, though Motley Crüe was close. The third is just....ugh...it's just not my thing so I will leave it there. I grew up on bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, more commonly reffered to as NWOBHM by nerds like me. That's Iron Maiden and Priest and and Mötorhead and even Def Leppard before they went pop. Bands like Metallica and Slayer have definite roots in NWOBHM.

That is all to say is that all music is a progression. The good bands are the ones that build on what came before. There is not too much new ground to tread. I joke that every chord progression has been used up. It is just how you use that progression; how you play that riff. Coming up with something completely new and different, at leafs with guitars and drums and amplifiers turned way the hell up is exceedingly difficult.

To me modern metal is no better exemplified than by a band like Pelican and their new album Forever Becoming. It is all instrumentals. A vocalist is not needed here because the music says it all. It is very hard to pull off but a band does not need a singer when the music is as perfect as this is. Metal can be difficult for many to find accessible. Pelican is accessible. Listen to "The Cliff" or "Perpetual Dawn" or "Immutable Dusk," listen to the prettiness in the passages. No band brings together beauty and aggression together better than Pelican. The songs are all sort-of longish, around seven minutes each. They form and twist and spiral within themselves; heavy aggressive passages power into majestic soaring riffs before spiraling back into black twists and turns. I have said again and again, good music is power. Good music grabs you by the throat and says "listen to me!!!" Forever Becoming grabs hold and doesn't let go, it makes you race back to the turntable to flip side over or hurriedly put on the next disc.

I love heavy bands. I love old-school Metallica, I still love Iron Maiden and admire Slayer for staying true to what they do, and for being one of the few bands I actually fear. HA! Metal today is post-metal bands like Pelican and Isis making heavy, melodically brilliant music. Metal is metal-as-fuck bands like High On Fire and Kvelerator keeping thrash alive. Metal is the Sabbath-worshipers like Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Black Tusk and Lo-Pan. Metal is the bands like Mastodon and Red Fang and Baroness that bring metal without ignoring pop sensibilities. Metal is bands like In Solitude and Ghost paying tribute to their NWOBHM forbearers. Metal is the doom bands like Windhand and Wolves In The Throne Room making music frightening. And metal is the progressive bands like Opeth and Anathema and Alcest. It is the most interesting genre of music out there because it has so many facets, so many limbs from the enormous trunk. The future of rock is not metal. Rock will always be metal.

Enjoy "Immutable Dusk." The louder the better.

Up next...number two! Georgia has a plethora of amazing metal acts. Here comes my favorite.

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 4

True Widow's Circumabultation was originally lower on the list but after listening through the headphones a week or so ago it catapulted into the top 5. And really made me sad that I missed them when they came through town a couple months ago.

This year I have been really into heavier music. From this point on the list will reflect that. Some records that just missed the cut included new joints by Dead Meadow, ASG, Earthless, Windhand, Uncle Acid, Kadavar, Palms, Anciients and Red Fang. Great records all around put only so many could make the list.

Circumabultation is heavy but not loud. It's heaviness is rooted in dread but not doom. The vocals aren't shouted or grunted or screamed or growled. They are quite...normal I guess is the best way to put it. True Widow is a three piece from Texas. They deal in a mix of stoner metal and shoegaze. Vocal duties mix between the guy guitarist and the girl bassist. it makes for a great and interesting shift from song to song. The guitars do not shriek but echo and hum and shimmer. Each song finds a musical idea and explores it. There are not any time shifts or even any discernible choruses. The band just powers along filling the space with energetic dread. Being done well it does not get old or boring. The groove catches you up and propels you along. The song titles are often as enigmatic as the music: "S:H:S" and "I:M:O" and "HW:R" balanced against metal-esque song titles like "Creeper" and "Numb Hand" and my favorite, the spaghetti-western inspired "Four Teeth."

Next up...instrumental post-metal bliss from one of Chicago's best bands.

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 5

As I have said before, Steven Wilson is the artist I admire most. He is supremely talented. He makes amazing music. He does it across a variety of projects. He has been the driving force behind Porcupine Tree, the best progressive rock band this side of Rush. He has worked with Aviv Geffen in a more pop-oriented project called Blackfield. He has also worked with more esoteric progressive projects like No Man and Bass Communion. He has done remixes for classic King Crimson and Jethro Tull albums. Sadly it looks like Porcupine Tree is finished and that Blackfield is less a priority for Mr. Wilson. But that is OK because his solo output has been amazing.

Each solo record has gotten better. The first, Insurgentes, is already great. The follow-up was Grace For Drowning and was my favorite record of 2011. I am hesitant to call his latest, The Raven That Refused To Sing, his masterpiece because his track record has shown him getting better and better and better.

This is definitely progressive rock so it is not for everyone. But the biggest knock against prog is that it's unemotional, it is detached, lacking feeling. One cannot listen to Raven and miss the feeling. It is just a gorgeous, lush album. It is not particularly guitar-driven, though Steven Wilson is one of the best guitar players around. Strings, keyboards, rhythm all work to bring the work to life. It is a beautiful listening experience. The band he has assembled is fantastic. And all the talents he has honed and skill he has is brought to bear here. His work remixing King Crimson records has rubbed off here; this is a very Crimson-sounding album.

This is the one album on my list I don't have on vinyl because I purchased the beautiful hard cover book that came with the CDs. Like any good progressive rock record there are stories at work here. Each song tells a story. The most touching of them is the final track on the record and the record's namesake. I will not spoil it for you. The video bellow is a beautiful interpretation of the song. I encourage you to watch it and enjoy it.

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 6

The words Elephant Stone immediately call to mind The Stone Roses, that hard luck British band that spawned a million mop-headed imitators. Canada's Elephant Stone sounds like they owe thanks to The Stone Roses but they do not imitate that band at all. They are excellent at creating a sound all their own. Twelve-strings, keyboards, sitars, grooves. It works.

There are great grooves at work here. "Heavy Moon" has this slinky rhythm that gets the head bobbing. "Setting Sun" and "Masters of War" have that great classic sounding twelve-string guitar work. "Hold Onto Your Soul" is a total Teenage Fanclub homage. That's not a bad thing because the Fannies are an awesome band themselves. The sitar gets broken out half-way through the record. I am listening to the record as I write this and I couple pretty much just name each sopng and tell you how great it is. "Looking Thru Baby Blue" has a hyper-Pink Floyd kind of feel, especially in the organ line.

I guess this gets lumped into the psychedelic, trippy category. But it is not weird psychedelic. It is much more like a kaleidoscope. Most psychedelic music mellows you out; this will brighten you up.

Here's the most groovy cut..."Heavy Moon."

Up next...the most progressive of this year's favorites, from one of the artists I most admire.

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 7

Arbouretum's Coming Out of The Fog is striking for the classic rock vibe it has. The band that comes to mind is Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Take "Renouncer," it struts along at a slow beat with a thudding bass and heavy guitar run.  It's the kind of song that would play when we first see the smooth not-too-sure-about-this-guy in a movie. There's a sense of dread around it. "All at Once, the Turning Weather" is similar. Nothing fancy in either of these tracks but there is a tremendous heavy vibe. Not a metal heavy but a strong rock heaviness. That classic rock heaviness is balanced by other tracks with a cosmic-American sense like side 1 closer "Oceans Don't Sing." Pedal steel and acoustic guitars come together to close out the side on a warm note.

This record is about mood, it is about texture. I played a couple tracks for a friend who was not impressed at first, but he came back to me a few months later with greater appreciation for it after giving it a chance on his own. When I first heard it the power beneath it struck me. I liked the simple beats and simple bass lines propelling the guitar playing.

Arbouretum are a Baltimore band. I live in DC but even though the distance is not immense I cannot say I have a good feel for the Baltimore scene. A band like Arbouretum makes me wonder about the rock and roll life. Not the nonsense you see on Behind The Music about big-time-bands but the working life of a small time band. I imagine the guys in Arbouretum must have day jobs. They just finished up a two-week tour that took them as far as Chicago and Atlanta. Making a life out of music is terribly difficult, especially a life that has spouses and kids and mortgages and bills to pay. I would love to go out on a tour with my band but a) I know the likelihood of that is slim to none; and b) I have a job and taking a month off to do that is not feasible. We just recruited a new bass player because ours sadly had to move away to St. Louis. He's been in a moderately successful band, especially when compared to what we have accomplished. But he has still had a day job the whole run of that outfit. It is tough sledding I imagine.

Here's the aforementioned "Renouncer."

Up next...Canadians invade the list!!

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 8

Sometimes albums come out of nowhere. No buzz, no future warning, no seeing them open for somebody else. Sometimes it's just happenstance. Destroy This Place's self titled debut is one of those records. I read The AV Cub on The Onion's site and I noticed a blurb titled "Destroy This Place Show How Press Releases Can Get It Right." The name of the band caught my eye so I checked it out, which led me to their Bandcamp page, which led me to searching out whether they had their record on vinyl, which led the vinyl copy arriving in my hands a week later. A chance encounter with a headline on a website brought about commerce. Hooray technology and capitalism!!

DTP is a perfect example of what I talked about before about the state of rock n roll. You listen to this record and you are assured that rock n roll is just fine. It's noisy, it's aggressive, it's remarkably memorable. It is a loud record, in fact I just went to the stereo to turn it up louder. The songs bite and snarl but they are filled, I mean FILLED, with great hooks and harmonies. For such a noisy record the singing is not just great but put nice and clear in the mix! Serious kudos to producer Mike Bridavsky, this is one of the best produced rock records I have heard. Mike, if you read this I would love to have you produce my band's next record.

DTP probably should be higher on the list. It's easily my favorite power-pop record of the year and if I was in a more power-pop frame of mind it probably would be my #1 favorite of the year. And I am KICKING myself for not going to see them earlier this year. Please come back to DC soon. Pretty please! I promise I won't be lazy.

Back to the point, this record shows that their is plenty of great rock out there if you just go and look for it. It might be hard to find and it might not be popular but it is out there. These guys have almost 900 likes on their Facebook page. What the fuck? Bands like Destroy This Place belong on the radio. If not terrestrial radio then DEFINITELY on Little Steven's Underground Garage. C'mon, Silvio! Play more bands like this!!

Next up....another great guitar record from a great Baltimore band.

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 9

Minnesota is a cold place in the winter. As I write this it is 1 degree in Duluth, MN, which is where Low is from. That is cold. In terms of misery, I prefer cold weather to hot weather because I can do something about cold. I can keep putting layers on. When it's hot, you can only strip down so far, and then you have to worry about getting sunburned. When it's cold you can put on a tee shirt and a button-down shirt and sweater and a coat and a couple pairs of socks and trudge around in the snow.

Low makes music for cold days, for staying inside with a warm beverage and a nice fire and a hi-fi and maybe a book. Especially their latest record, and my #9 favorite record of 2013, The Invisible Way. I like this record for that very reason. It is an open record; it has open spaces between the notes that make every note you hear stand out. It is not a busy album. It does not fuss or complicate things. Every instrument, every voice begs to be heard. Jeff Tweedy, of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo fame, does an excellent job producing in that he does not get in the way. It takes a deft hand to make an open record sound as good as this one.

Low is Mimi Parker, Alan Sparhawk, and Steve Garrington. Ms Parker and Mr. Sparhawk are married. The former does most of the singing and those songs I like better. But the latter's are no slouch either. When they sing together it works well. It is tricky to sing together; maybe not so much when you are a professional, at least then you are more firmly aware of whom you can and whom you cannot sing with. In my band, as it meager as it is compared to the real deal here, harmonies sometimes work and sometimes they...do not. But we do not pretend to be pros at this; we do try our best and sometimes it does not always work.

Though I like Ms Parker's sung songs better, I choose to provide the album opener "Plastic Cup". It is a perfect example of the record and if you like this I strongly recommend checking out the rest. I like this one because I like the lyrics. The plastic cup in question is a piss cup and at one point in the song the cup is found buried thousands of years later and thought to be the chalice of some forgotten king. The fact that lyrics like that can work in an acoustic trio show you the quality of the material.

This is the second one for today because I did not have a chance yesterday and I want to be done by New Years Day. Tomorrow we go from mellow to very very noisy.

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 10

First things first...I do not claim that this is a "best of 2013" list. As copious as my music listening is, I have not heard everything, so any claim to best is silly. For example, the latest record from a psychedelic band called Earthless should be landing on my doorstep sometime today. And after a couple of listens on Spotify that record would have had a good chance to make the list.

But time waits for no man!! And...here...we...go!!!!

Around about the turn of the century I was way into alternative country. Ha ha! Turn of the century. That was ten years ago. Technically 13 years ago. Whatever. I was huge into Wilco and Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo and The Jayhawks and Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown and Old 97s and all the bands of that ilk. I still like those bands a ton but the current state of alt country sort of bores me. That's not the music's fault, that is my fault. My ear, my sensibility, whatever you want to call it, has shifted. Right now, I am much more tuned into harder music, heavy music.

Caitlin Rose is neither hard nor heavy. What she is is a damn good song-writer and a damn good singer. Her latest record is The Stand-In is a great bar-room friendly, classic-country sounding record. If you like that show "Nashville" you should be checking out Ms Rose.

She also knows it is smart to surround herself with talented people, especially The Jayhawks' Gary Louis who helps out on a couple songs, two of the songs that happen to be the best on the record: "Only A Clown" and "Silver Sings." Both those tracks have an unmistakable Jayhawks-vibe, those shimmering 12-string guitars that seemed just a little bit amped up than usual, that great country meets rock with a heavier lean toward rock.

But what's best about Caitlin Rose is her voice. She has a sensational voice. Most importantly it is an interesting voice. It is not a hard-road kind of voice, like a Lucinda Williams, but is very unique, more like that of a young woman starting to see the mess that haunts the honky-tonks. The band that supports her is top shelf, switching between rockier numbers to more hard core classic country tunes without problem.

Nashville is a concept I have railed about a ton. The majority of music that is coming out of their factories is uninteresting, dull, not-really-country. Country is a vibe, country is a mood. It's more than sombre; Johnny Cash knew how to get jaunty when he felt like it. Too much country music comes across as fake. And nothing about Caitlin Rose comes across as fake.

Other lists I have seen feature young country artists like Kacey Musgraves and Ashley Monroe. Those young women are definitely talented compared to a lot of the junk Nashville is putting out, but Caitlin Rose is hands down my favorite of the group.

Here's "Only A Clown," my favorite song off the record and one of my favorite songs of the year.

Next up...more mellowness from way up north!

The Future Of Rock

First off, let me say that the state of rock n roll is just fine. Many folks I talk to somewhat lament the lack of hard rocking bands. They mention the Foo Fighters as the only one left standing. Bands like fun and Imagine Dragons and MGMT and Lorde and the plethora of "x" the "y" bands dominate the charts. Looking at the current Billboard Top 0 in Rock, the only two bands I think qualify are Pearl Jam and to a much-lesser-extent The Arctic Monkeys.  The rest of these acts are not rock acts. They are pop acts.

What these folks are talking about is the lack of rock acts on the radio. There is a TON of great guitar-driven music out there. Right now I am listening to a record by two young women from California called DeapVally. It's bluesy, gritty, sloppy rock like The White Stripes and The Black Keys. It's great ROCK music. And I will bet you haven't heard of it! LOSER!

HA! I jest. That's not your fault at all. It simply involves seeking it out. You are not going to hear Deap Vally, or any of the bands on my top 10 list (commencing later today), on the radio. If you get exposed to them it's going to be through your own efforts, your own searching them out.  There are ton's of places to find it, especially on the internet. There are plenty of websites to scour. I know, I am scouring them!!

Radio is a wasteland. There are outliers sure but for the most part big city radio is a dumping ground for the lowest common denominator. That's fine. Radio exists to make money for the people in charge. Being on the cusp of up and coming rock n roll is not a money-making opportunity. I think there is a great opportunity for satellite radio to fill this role but even Sirius and XM shy away from it. Little Steven's Underground Garage is a station I often turn to in the car, but the ratio of old-to-new is about 75-25. I really wish it would switch because there are so many great bands out there to be heard.

From yesterday's blog I think we are going to see that happening amongst less and less people. Music has become a background event for the majority of folks and their desire to spend time with music and only music is dwindling rapidly.

There's a line in Almost Famous that I love. One of the band-aids says it to Cameron Crowe's stand-in near the end, as they watch the new girls arrive backstage. She says "They don't even know what it is to be  fan. Y'know? To love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts."

I think that line says a ton about the state of music today. Bands are not followed, admired, or to use a stupid word worshiped like they once were. You can argue and say well look at Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift or Beyonce. They are huge!! But with their fans I do not believe the music is central. The image is central. The vibe, the party, the fact that it blends into the background of the gathering. That is where the connection is made. The song itself is secondary to the individual swirls it is the soundtrack to. Nobody lights a candle and sits in the dark and sees their future when they listen to Justin Bieber.

All that said...all that pessimism...and I am convinced that rock n roll at its core is fine. Big labels and record producers and svengalis are not  needed anymore to make rock happen. It is happening at a local level with the amazing bands I have met and played with here in DC. It is happening on the internet, as bands are able to get their music out to the people who are searching it out. There is so much music out there it it difficult to stand-out these days. And like at the birth of rock n roll and in its heyday, a great band needs a lot of talent and a basket of great songs and they need a shitload of luck. That's the way it has always been and that is what makes it so cool.

Later today I am going to start my countdown of my top 10 favorite records of 2013. I'll do a post for each album in turn. There will be a bunch of metal records, there will be some garage rock records, there will be some mellow stuff for the quiet times. What I hope most is that the list, along with my usual ramblings, inspire you to check these bands out. I think they are worth the time you can give them.

Passivity and Music

I have mentioned before how much I appreciate the music writing of Steven Hyden. I don't necessarily like all the same things he does, but I do find unsurprising congruence in our tastes. His latest submission for Grantland is about the failure of music in 2013 to take-off, or maybe re-take-off is a better way to put it.

At one point in his article, in the context of troubles within the record industry, Mr Hyden quotes a Forrester Research analyst named James McQuivey from a New York Times piece:  "Music is an accompaniment, to add to your jog, your workday, your prep in the kitchen...But it's not something you're eager to pay for if you don't have to." Mr. Hyden asks his reader if it depresses them as it depresses him. I would not say it depresses me; my parents passing away, the plight of children in Syria, those things depress me. But the idea of a major shift not just in music but in music listening seems to be happening.

Life, compared to 30 years, is much more distracting. The pace of life seems much more frantic. I want to be careful to not verge into curmudgeon territory, but even in high school I do not recall my teen-age life being as filled. Listening to music has an ability to be an extremely passive or an extremely active endeavor. Much more so than other media. You can't read a book in the background. You can't go to the movies and half watch it, well I guess you can but you don't get anything out of it. TV comes close, many people have the TV on at night to help them fall asleep. My wife is expert at this, but I find myself unable to not pay attention if there is any semblance of plot.

Music is both passive and active. People can switch from one to the other on the fly. But like books and TV and movies, appreciation of music comes only from attentiveness. In another Grantland piece, Ernest Baker discusses the new Beyonce record and his reaction to it and passive versus active listening and that once he actively listened it the record changed for him.

One of my favorite activities is to lay on the couch with the lights out, put a record on the hi-fi, slip on the headphones, and just listen. Listen intently to every note, every fill, every nuance of the record. The immerse myself in it. I've written before that I think vinyl is the best way to do this because it captures the essence of the music better than any other medium. Digital and the compression that comes with that fails to capture that. I don't want to drift into metaphysical mumbo-jumbo but good music can be a transcendental experience and that is only accomplished through immersion.

But who has time for that anymore!!! Life beckons! Doing this or that. Going here and there. Tapping away on a smartphone. There are distractions everywhere. I have friends that do SOMETHING every single night. I can't fathom that.  Just from a shear exhaustion level. For me, I cannot exist without down-time. I enjoy spending quiet time with my wife, with my records, with my guitar, with a book, with just myself. My wife and I went to the mall this morning. I knew my iPhone was low on juice so I planned to charge it in the car. Except I and taken the charger out of the car (it's probably in the other car). I expressed dimly and outrage! What would I do without my phone. But then I decided that I would go without. I would find a way to endure a couple hours without my lifeline. And you know what, I survived just fine without it. Waiting outside the stores at the mall I just watched people, looked around, thought things. A constant stream of information was not necessitated in order to pass the time. As I sat down waiting for my wife and her search for final gifts, I sat in a chair and watched a young woman talk on her iPhone while texting with her BlackBerry. During the call and after the call her eyes never left the BlackBerry, her fingers never stopped typing. I am in no way judging that activity, but I find it the perfect representation of modern living.

But to be that tethered, to have that much access, how is there time, how is there opportunity to appreciate a piece of music? I started putting together my favorites-of-the-year list. One record that was on the cusp of falling off the top 10 list I gave a listen to a few nights ago. And in listening through the headphones it was revelatory, it impacted me in a way listening at work or while typing on a keyboard or surfing the web never touched me. By listening to it closely and deeply, it resonated. It was like magic, it was a fantastically enjoyable experience to hear and appreciate the creation within those grooves. I think less folks have that experience anymore nowadays. It scares me only in that music could suffer for it. That bands will no longer be around to create this.

Stay tuned for part 2! Steve's thoughts on the future of rock and roll!

Laziness

Earlier today I found myself thinking about all the shows I did not go to this year. Shows I told myself I should go to, shows that I would go to. But then at the moment of truth I decided nah I'll just stay home because going out is a pain in the rear.

I admit going into DC is a bit of a pain in the ass. I live outside the city but not terribly far. On a good night it takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to get downtown. Parking is a big issue. The city seems to have made it a real chore to park. I went to an Old 97s show earlier this year and got a ticket for parking in the neighborhood; I hadn't noticed that the zones had been adjusted so you couldn't park on them at all. This is a relatively recent happening. Same thing for seeing my friends in Bells and Hunters do a gig at Velvet Lounge;  I parked on Georgia Avenue by the Howard University hospital and got a ticket because it was a street-cleaning time. Down around the 930 Club and DC9 and the Velvet Lounge there aren't any parking garages. Over by The Black Cat there is one garage. On H St by the rock and roll hotel there is parking in the neighborhood but it can be tough to find if you get there too late.

Metro isn't an option. First, it's kind of far from my house. By the time I drive there and park I could be damn near downtown. Second, it isn't like New York where it runs all night. By midnight it's closed, and although shows have started to get finished earlier to accommodate that I still don't like chancing it or leaving a show early.

When I lived in the city I would just take the Metro to the show and then take a cab home. That was awesome. When I saw Elliott Smith play I was living in Van Ness, so before going to the show with a bunch of friends I had them all over for dinner. Good times, man. A cab ride from downtown to my house now would cost about $50. Ack!

That part is really just lazy ass loser talk. There's nothing like seeing a band bring it on stage. The energy I get after a show is always worth the annoyance and near dread I feel about actually going. Once I get there it's awesome and fun, but like going to the gym the hardest thing is often getting off the couch.

But....another problem rears it head. I am old. And I have a job. And for said job I get up at 5:15am. I am not required to get up at 5:15am but I am one of the weirdos who likes getting one early. If I get in late I feel like I am already behind and playing catch up. So even though once I get to a show where I love it and enjoy it, I still am likely not going to get home until well after midnight. Which means I have, after getting home and showering and finally coming down off the energy of the show, maybe 3 hours of sleep. And like I said, I am old now. Not Methuselah old but old enough where only getting a couple hours a sleep is hard to recover from.

That's also a cop out. I am not that old. It isn't that difficult to find a split to park. Those shouldn't be excuses for not going out to see the bands I love.  If I hadn't been a wuss I could have seen Pelican, High On Fire with Kvelertak (!!!!!), True Widow, Surfer Blood, Frontier Ruckus, Blitzen Trapper, Steven Wilson. And those are the ones off the top of my head.

So for this coming year I already have on my calendar Grant Lee-Phillips, Band Of Horses, Josh Ritter, The Men, Neil Finn. So, dear friends, if you see me blogging about a new record and saying how I plan on seeing them this coming so-and-so, do me a favor and prod me so I don't act like a big baby. Rock on!

Ripples Never Come Back

My friend Erik commented about my picking up The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway on vinyl and how it was getting a lot of play on his iPod. That makes sense. Erik is a helluva a keyboard player and Lamb is very much a keyboard record. Sunday night I turned off the lights, put on the good headphones, lit a candle and gave it a full attention listen. It really is a spectacular record. Take "The Carpet Crawlers":

It's just a soaring song, especially when part of the story as a whole. It becomes almost holy the way the chorus soars. It's a great harmony between Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins.

Genesis is a fascinating band in terms of evolution. I can't think of band that evolved as organically as Genesis. With Gabriel at the fore they started as a very British art band, culminating in his masterpiece. He left the band because he felt the band structure couldn't offer him anything more; that he needed to go in different directions. Most of us have seen the Behind The Music and before long Genesis found their singer behind the kit. Happily, the split was amicable.

And the split changed the band, but it did so over time. The first post-Gabriel record, A Trick of The Tail is in many ways a miracle in how good it is. Songs like "Dance On A Volcano" and "Squonk" and "Entangled" and "Ripples" are fantastic. The follow-up to that Wind and Wuthering is not as good to me, at least I don't enjoy it as much. At this point guitarist Steve Hackett left for similar reasons to Gabriel, feeling confined within the band and wanting to move on to other things.

How many bands could lose their singer and guitarist and replace them not by hiring new people but by assuming the role internally? I can't think of any. And not only did they continue, then continued to make great music. And Then There Were Three was the first as a trio and is outstanding. "Burning Rope" is one of their best songs; "Snowbound" and "Undertow" and album opener "Down and Out" are all exceptional. The last song on the record hinted at where they would go: "Follow You Follow Me."

The next record, Duke, is one of my most favorite records of all time. And it's another miracle in plastic in how good it is. It's without a doubt more radio friendly than the Gabriel days, but it still retains many of the progressive bonafides. There's the hits "Misunderstanding" and "Turn It On Again." Then there's the non-hits but songs that are amazing: "Duchess" and "Man Of Our Times" and favorite of mine "Please Don't Ask" and the very proggy conclusion with "Duke's Travels" and "Duke's End."

Abacab and Genesis followed in the pop trajectory. That and Phil Collins pop solo career led to the monster that was Invisible Touch. It's very easy to forget what a great drummer Phil Collins was. A seriously fantastic drummer. The knock he gets for turning Genesis into a pop act is unfair. Listening to the post-Gabriel records the change is there but it is natural; Lamb does not give way to IT but evolves there. Some might say devolve but whatever.  I don't begrudge them moving more towards pop. It's their art and they get to choose what to do with it.

The resiliency of the band, their ability to grow and mature and evolve is fascinating. It is a testament to what exceptional musicians Phil Collins and Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford were (are).

If you've forgotten, or maybe never knew, what a great band Genesis could be, here's one of my favorites:

Record Store Day Black Friday 2013

After gorging on food on Thanksgiving Day, I dragged my self to Record and Tape Exchange in Fairfax for the Black Friday special edition of Record Store Day. For those unfamiliar, RSD is when artists will release special stuff, usually 7" vinyl but sometimes 12" selections. A store does not get everything, so it's kind an exciting and sometimes disappointing proposition. But it's a cool way to support local vinyl shops!

I was planning to get in line at 6am but sense took over. I wound up sleeping until 7am. After hopping up and brushing my teeth and throwing on a bunch of layers I drove over to the shop. I brought a blanket to protect my rear end from the cold concrete and my iPad to help while away the time. I was 7th in line with a bunch of high school kids ahead of me. Not too shabby. Nobody showed up after me until the store opened, so one could argue it didn't really matter but whatever.

But MAN it was cold. Like high 20s when I got there. I was warm for the first 30 minutes but it did not last. I was convinced my nose was going to fall off. My toes went numb even through the wool socks and my heavy hiking boots. I talked a little while with the kid in front of me but for the most part is read and listened to my iPod to tune out the talk of the group of 5 kids at the front of the line.

My list included live cuts from Dawes and Band Of Horses, the Albini mix of Nirvana's In Utero, a Rush 10" single, a Townes Van Zandt collection and the latest Brendan Benson which doesn't come out officially until 2014. From that all I got was the Band of Horses 7". But it is very cool. It's two acoustic songs from a Ryman Auditorium gig, a beautiful version of a favorite called "No One's Gonna Love You" and backed by a cover of Gram Parsons' "Song For You." The Nirvana record was there but somebody snatched it. The rest didn't interest me.

I then headed over to the new vinyl arrivals section and happily found a bunch of gold. The Beatles White Album, the first James Gang album as well as their Carnegie Hall live album, One Of These Nights from The Eagles, the last Peter Gabriel-fronted Genesis record The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Led Zeppelin 1, and three classic Rush LPs. I also got my sweetheart a copy of The Muppet Movie soundtrack, since I wasn't able to find the special Muppets Christmas 7".

All in all a good day record wise!! If you like vinyl you should definitely check out Record Store Day when it happens.

Old Favorites: Living Room Scene

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope everybody has a great holiday, eats a ton, and then hits the gym tomorrow!!

I am going to debut a new feature and I am calling it "Old Favorites." Three guesses as to what it means. You...in the back...what's that you say? CORRECT! Here I will be talking about old records that happen to be favorites of mine yet maybe haven't been played for a while.

For this inaugural post, I am listening to Living Room Scene by the late, great Dillon Fence. They are a four-piece out of North Carolina who toured the East coast extensively in the early to mid-90s. They never got any national exposure, except for a brief mention in a Rolling Stone cover story about Hootie and the Blowfish. Regardless of that, they were one of my most favorite bands whilst in college. Their sound in kind of typical alternative power-pop from those days. Hootie was one of the bands they were "associated" with; they and other bands from the North Carolina and South Carolina power-pop scene had supposedly made an agreement to take some of them on tour if they ever made it big. Hootie did so they took Dillon Fence with them. That's nice.

Dillon Fence only made three full length records, the mellow-ish Rosemary, the harder edged Outside In, and their swan-song Living Room Scene. I probably like OI slightly better than LRS, but this was the one that first got me into them. The music is earth-shattering but it is really well done. Lead singer and guitarist Greg Humphreys was the soul of the band; his voice is very reminiscent of a rockier, Faces-era Rod Stewart.

I first saw them when they opened for The Connells, another North Carolina favorite, at old WUST Hall, which is now known as the New 930 Club, though it's been there nearly 20 years now. WUST Hall didn't have many rock shows there back then. The configuration was pretty much the same as the 930 is now, but it was much dingier. The coolest part was there were murals of Baptist revivals on the walls. Back then, the U Street Corridor in DC was much more sketchy than it is now. Going down there for college kids was a bit of a dangerous thrill. We didn't know any better.

After LRS came out the band went through a bunch of members. Bassist Chris Goode left to go back to school or something, then guitarist Kent Alphin left to form Granger. Drummer Scott Carle stuck around. I saw the original line-up just once, though I wound up seeing their various incarnations about five times. I remember seeing them at old old 930 Club and meeting the band in the long hallway leading to the club. What was most cool was how happy they were to see me and my friend Eric wearing our Dillon Fence tee shirts. They were genuinely happy about it. I remember seeing them at at the old Bayou in Georgetown where we got to hang out with them for a while after the show. I also saw drummer Scott Carle as a roadie for The Connells and was very excited he remembered us and talked with us for a while. They were very nice guys but seemed bummed about not making it big.

I still spin the old Dillon Fence records, and my LRS tee-shirt is one of my oldest and rattiest but I still like wearing it. Here's the title track; hope you enjoy it!

Sink In The Fangs

Red Fang continues in the tradition of scuzzy looking guys drinking a shitload of beer and playing heavy stoner rock. They are heavy, they are loud, they play fast and then they play sludgy. And if you watch any of their videos they really love beer. Take "Wires" for instance. The setup is they receive a check for $5000 to make a video, which they promptly use to buy beer and destroy a ton of shit. It's funny and stupid all at the same time and perfectly encapsulates who they appear to be.

Whales and Leeches is their new record and it builds on their self-titled debut and 2011's Murder The Mountains.  Like the last record it is produced by Chris Funk from The Decemberists. If you have heard of that band you might find it curious he would produce a band like Red Fang. They both come from Portland, OR, so they have that going for them but other than that the connections are sparse. The Decemberists offer a very progressive take on folk music. Red Fang would be expected to beat those guys up. But music is really all connected. It's chords and notes and guitars and beats no matter if it is loud or soft or someplace in between. And Funk's production is something that makes Red Fang stand out from the common stoner metal band. Sure it's heavy but there are dynamics and nuance working here that you don't always find on albums from like-minded but lesser bands. A special treat is seeing Roger Joseph Manning Jr.'s name in the credits, he being the former keyboardist in power pop bands Jellyfish and Imperial Drag. His talents are utilized for just one track but it helps escort Red Fang's trip down the road toward more interesting and different places.

Stand out tracks include the album opening one-two punch of "DOEN" and "Blood Like Cream." The latter offers an almost power-poppy bounce and an Iron Maiden-esque guitar run near the end. Other cuts, Like "No Hope" and especially "Crows In Swine" remind me of their former tour mates Mastodon. Album closer "Every Little Twist" brings on the psychedelic-a; if you have the vinyl and are not paying attention, you'll find this song will go on forever as the record's lock-groove comes blessed with the end of the song...playing forever and ever and ever.

Here's "Blood Like Cream" from Live at KEXP:

You Will Get This Record...Then Pass The Time By Playing A Little Solitaire

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats' Mind Control is as Sabbath sounding a record as you can get without actually being Black Sabbath. In fact, it is easily the best Black Sabbath record of the year by far, this included.

Take "Mt. Abraxas:" it starts gloomy and doom, total homage to the first eponymous Sabbath record, then it gallops into "After Forever" territory. before sludging back down. After that "Mind Crawler" kicks in, with it's heavy and simple riffs backed by a barely audible but completely essential piano run. It's the kind of song that makes me get up and dance like Michael Shannon covered in bugs. And that's just the first side of the first record. There's nothing terribly complicated in this music. It's derivative sure, but it takes everything that was great about Black Sabbath and just nails it. It's heavy and it stomps and it is a little bit scary. You feel like something evil (or maybe just interesting) is going to ooze out of the speakers. (Aside: googling "70s horror movie girls" brings up a surprising amount of lesbian activity).

Speaking of lesbians, here's something to do: check out their website, specifically the Garbage Dump section, where fans upload images that might or might not have anything to do with Uncle Acid. It's.....strange...that's about the gentlest I can say about it.

Happy story about this record: I had first read about them when Steven Hyden mentioned them in a write-up he did about the state of metal citing primarily Kylesa (awesome), Deafhaven (OK) and Queens Of The Stone Age (tired). In fact that article is where I also first read about ASG and Blood Ceremony and Kvelertak, but I digress. Thanks to Spotify I was able to hear this Uncle Acid record and I dug it much. Then one day it disappeared off Spotify, with some message saying it could no longer be available in the US. FRAK! A couple weeks later I went down to Som Records on 14th Street in DC and lo-and-behold there it was, a vinyl copy of Mind Control, sitting on the shelf. I gasped..really...I gasped and probably squealed with delight when I saw it. I grabbed it lest another metal head lurked somewhere ready to pounce. It cost over $40 but I didn't give a shit. This record rules. Listen here for confirmation!

Fourth Time (Not) The Charm

Blackfield is a kind of supergroup, featuring Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and three amazing solo records, and Israeli pop star Aviv Geffen. It's a fascinating collaboration: Wilson uses Blackfield as a opportunity to write shorter, more focused, almost-pop songs; Geffen uses Blackfield to explore new sonic terrain beyond what his solo career offers.

Their first three collaborations (along with a live set from New York City) are all great, especially Blackfield II. The fourth, simply titled Blackfield IV does not have the impact the others do. This could be due to Steven Wilson taking a backseat to Aviv Geffen, supporting this effort less as a collaborator and more as a guest, in addition to his normal production duties. The record also hosts a number of additional guest spots. Vincent Kavanaugh of Anathema, Brett Anderson of Suede, and Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev all appear to different effect.

All the songs are credited to Geffen, but the songs that are the best are those that are the real collaborations between Wilson and Geffen: album opener "Pills", "Sense Of Insanity," and "Jupiter," easily the best track on the record, all have what made the other Blackfield records so great.

Unfortunately the rest of the record is lacking. "X-Ray" featuring Kavanaugh is a pleasant piece and the music works very well with his voice, but is ultimately a trifle. Brett Anderson doing "Firefly," while having a compelling voice that works incredibly well in the glammish Suede, is almost embarrassing; his over-the-top delivery fits well with Bernard Butler or, to less effect, Richard Oakes' churning guitars. It doesn't work with the orchestration and precision of Blackfield. Donahue's "The Only Fool Is Me" feels like filler to end an album side, coming in as a two-minute lullaby.

"Springtime" and the second side has more of the Blackfield vibe. Side opener "Jupiter" is followed by the heavy-ish "Kissed By The Devil" and the poppy "Lost Souls." "Faking" has a middling chorus and verse but then soars into a brilliant bridge; too bad it couldn't have been used in a better overall song. "After The Rain" closes the album but still feels like more filler.

Overall it is a disappointment. I really love Blackfield and was seriously looking forward to this record. It isn't a bad album on it's own; perhaps it should have been marketed as an Aviv Geffen solo record. I understand Steven Wilson wanting to step back a bit from other commitments, especially considering how well his solo career is going, but Blackfield works best as a true collaboration between two unique artists.

Here's the aforementioned "Jupiter." A great song that is supported by a fantastic video.

Forever Becoming

The best music is pure power. It attracts you, it reels you in, it envelops you. That is a primary reason why I often retreat to albums through headphones, searching for a powerful construct that overwhelms the sense. I prefer the lights extinguished except for a single candle. I take my contacts out or my glasses off. My primary sense at this point is auditory. Words are not even necessary. Often times it is simply the music that rushes over.

The latest record from Chicago's Pelican is Forever Becoming and it is one of those records. It occupies the post-metal niche but it is more than that. It is not just meticulously crafted but almost created. It is movement and energy. It feels alive.

The album opens with "Terminal." A slow build-up, like an engine turning over on a cold morning. It is after a minute the song finds its footing. Bass and drums driving the slow rhythm, an electric guitar picking notes over the top as the melody builds. It comes to a stop before "Deny The Absolute" crashes like a wave, the tuned down guitars assaulting the record needle. The jarring bass of "The Tundra" that rumbles like a beast. "Immutable Dusk" open the second side of the first vinyl record (the orange vinyl, as compared to the blue), might be the best of those songs, interlacing doom sludge with respite of cascading guitar work.

What sets Pelican apart is that dichotomy. Of power giving way to groove giving way again to power. Without any vocals the music must stand on its own. It cannot give way to predictability but has to be grand in scope. So we have 8 songs that vary in length three-and-a-half minutes to over nine. But none of those minutes feels wasted or for naught. It builds upon itself in emotion.

Here is "Deny The Absolute."

Start Your Weekend Early!

Tomorrow night, which would be Thursday September 26, my band Braddock Station Garrison hits the stage once again. This time at the Tree House Lounge at 1006 Florida Avenue, NE in Washington DC. This is a nice intimate club, occupying the second floor of a townhouse right next to Gallaudet University. No jokes about a rock club next door to the school for the deaf. Actually makes perfect sense, I think.

It's a special show for us. We are supporting California's Aloha Radio on their national tour. They are a very cool alt-surf-indie band. Also sharing the stage is our good friends Bells & Hunters; the are a great modern rock band sure to impress you. A real treat for us is having our record producer Don Zientara open the show at 8pm with what I expect will be a great acoustic set. When we last saw him he had a surf-themed slide show so it really fits perfectly with the bill.

Speaking of our record, it is finally available. It is called High Water. You can get digital copies at iTunes and Amazon. You can also get a real CD or digital version through CDBaby. You can stream it through Spotify and Rhapsody. It astounds me that our cool little record is available at all these places. Most importantly we have a whole box full of them that I shall have in tow tomorrow night. Come on down and get a copy!!

High Water features 6 original songs: "Into Your Arms," "A Lot To Ask," "Fall," "Maria With Child," "California Specific," and "Girl Gotta Gun." All were recorded and mixed at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington VA by Don Zientara and mastered by TJ Lipple. Photography was done by my wonderful wife Jodi. Our logo was designed by the extremely talented Emily Blackwell. The package design was put together by our own Patrick McCann. Not surprisingly we encourage you to get yourself a copy!

We hope to see you there!!

Patrick, Steve, Michael and Tom
at Manassas Battlefield 

The Eldritch Dark

When all is said and done this year, I expect The Eldritch Dark by Blood Ceremony to by sitting at the top of my favorite records of the year list. They are one of the many bands that Spotify has recommended to me since I started using the service.

I have mentioned them a couple times here. First when I
saw them open for Kylesa; second when they made my mid-year report. In case you're just tuning in they are a four-piece from Canada fronted by a keyboard and flute playing lady. Naturally she is fine but that is honestly just ancillary to the music, which is a cross between Jethro Tull and Black Sabbath. Lyrically it is kind of silly, singing about witches and sorcery and goings-on in related forests, but that's part of the fun. It doesn't waste anytime, as album opener "Witchwood" (of course) demonstrates:

Black magic has come to Witchwood

Their devilry takes place within our lonely woods

Such strange words and stranger visions

Forbidden hymns to summon things one never should

The record continues in that vein. There's more about shape-shifters, and sisters up to no good, and the moon, and the dark, and magicians, and a song about Christopher Lee when he burned up The Equalizer in The Wicker Man. This kind of stuff always makes me laugh a bit. When I was a kid I used to think how dangerous it was to listen to things like Iron Maiden. It was more interesting than what you usually got out of rock lyrics. Blood Ceremony are the same way. The pseudo-witchiness comes across as kitsch more than anything else. It's not scary like Slayer is; when you see Kerry King you get the impression he probably does worship Satan. Blood Ceremony does it with a nod and a wink. And I mean this all as a positive!! Looking at the notes in the record it appears guitarist Sean Kennedy writes all the lyrics. That is somewhat disappointing. Lead singer Alia O'Brien is a looker and it's more alluring to think she wrote them, but that's really a whatever kind of thing. The charm is that you have a pretty girl getting all witchy and singing about devil hymns. She seemed like a nice girl when I saw them live.

The music is great through and through. It's a very folky kind of heavy rock. I've seen them filed under doom metal. It's not really metal...too much gets lumped under metal these days. It has mellow spots where the flute takes over but it has plenty of rock to keep the head banging, but it stays to a very 70s inspired brand of metal. Really very debut record-era Sabbath. The band is altogether tight. Good grooves, good melodies that are both bright yet sinister-esque. Great vocals. Guitarist Sean Kennedy played a beautiful Yamaha when I saw them which inspired me to look into getting one of my own. I found one on eBay which I got for a total steal. Granted mine is the low-end base model wile his was the high-end fancy one, but it plays amazingly well for a guitar I got mainly because I liked the look, so much so it has become my primary gig guitar. Sweet!

Anyway, here's the second track off the record, "Goodbye Gemini."

Power Pop Round-Up

Here's a round-up of some of the power poppy kind of records I have added to the collection the last few months.

One of the records my lovely wife got me for my recent birthday is the latest from Scottish power poppers Attic Lights, Super De Luxe.  The best in Scottish power-pop has always been Teenage Fanclub, whose drummer Francis Macdonald handles production duty here. The band is kind of large, three guitarists not including one of the vocalists who also handles keyboards. All those guitars don't make for a Lynryd Skynyrd sounding album, instead we get a great bunch of 3 minute tunes. Very classic sounding Raspberries kind of power-pop. Album opener Say You Love Me sounds a bit too much like Weezer, but second track "Future Bound" has one of those choruses that make you jump. "Hit And Miss" and "Orbison" and album closer "Gabrielle" are the rest of the best of a really good set of smartly written songs.

Someone Still Love You Boris Yeltsin is an interesting band from Missouri. I first saw them when they were first on a bill with Two Door Cinema Club and somebody else who I already forgot. I have this feeling it was somebody I actually like quite a bit, but I am just spacing out on it right now. Anyway I liked them quite a bit and wound up leaving with their t-shirt. They do this jittery, lo-fi kind of power-pop.  Their new record is called Fly By Wire and it is OK. The production is a little hollow sounding, a real 80s British vibe permeates the record. The vocals are up in the high registers. Most power-pop doesn't need to be deep, but this is a bit more trifling than most. My head didn't really turn until we got to "Ms. Dot" at the end of the first side. It is a really nice, Shins-y number with a nice acoustic guitar line that lilts along. Second side openers "Loretta" and "Unearth" are nice mid-tempo numbers that bounce along. The record has the lyrics printed within gatefold of the record; I wonder why they felt compelled to do that. The lyrics aren't particularly deep, especially when compared to Attic Lights; they are the cryptic variety, back of the high-school notebook kind of stuff. One very cool thing is the vinyl disc itself; it's half red and half white and smeared in the middle thing so that when it rotates it wobbles. Very cool looking but it gives me a bit of a belly ache.

I heard of Big Eyes through a tweet from Dischord Records. They mentioned having CD copies of their latest record Almost Famous. I listened to a few tracks on Spotify and immediately found the record on Amazon (Dischord was out of vinyl). It has a harder vibe; when I shared it with my band-mate Patrick he mentioned I tend to like the crunchier, louder, more punky kind of power-pop. A buddy in college once told me the same thing, where he liked his power pop mellower and cleaner while I went the rough and teetering out of control kind. Lots of great tracks on this record, all of which would be perfect on Little Steven's Underground Garage: "Ain't Nothing But The Truth," "A Matter Of Time," "Nothing You Can Say," "You Ain't The Only One" might not have the best grammar but they have killer hooks. The record kind of blends into one another but it's hard and fast and gets in and out. Hey, that sounds dirty.

Lastly for tonight, we have Destroy This Place. I read about these guys in The Onion, where they and an article about good ways to market your band. I guess it worked because I checked them out and bought the record! Again, very noisy, fast, hooky, but with great singing and great harmonies. Great singing in that it fits perfectly with the vibe, not just screaming or yelling along but using the voice as part of the rock. Reminds me of bands like Heavy Into Jeff, bands I found hidden away in the Not Lame catalog and described as heavier Cheap Trick and Sweet.  Kind of Replacements-ish without the worry they might pass out at any moment. Bunch of really good tracks here: "Tight Sleeves," "Absorb You," "Born With Guitars In Our Hands," "Like Mice" and the killer album closer "Ghost Ride The Lightning."

Disconnecting Art From Action

For the most part I don't really dig emo bands. I find them kind of tiresome in general but moreover they tend to lack in hooks. Surfer Blood falls in the sort of emo, more indie rock kind of thing but has the pop hooks I hold near and dear to my heart.

Album opener "Demon Dance" gets things off to a rousing start before giving way to "Gravity", the best track on the record. It has one of those great 90s college radio choruses. Then there is a spectacular hook at the start of the chorus of "Weird Shapes" that soars up before doing a Walter Payton-esque stutter step. "I Was Wrong" bumps along like a harder-edge Shins track. The second side doesn't resonate as much as the first but it still bounces along.

Lyrically the record has familiar tropes of broken relationships and bad love. But it has an added element of real life that is potentially hard to disengage from. Before the record came out earlier this year, band leader John Paul Pitts was arrested for domestic battery, though charges were ultimately dropped. The interview I have read is admittedly one-sided to the artist, but it is also something he hasn't shied away from. He acknowledges it while not going into details. That's his right I reckon, but it provides a context around a song like "Squeezing Blood" that has lyrics like 

Damning allegations have come to light

Stapled to the background in black and white

That's the way it's always been

That's the way it's gonna end

All this world fell silent when I read the verdict

Steven Hyden writes about disconnecting art from the person much better than I ever could. He eloquently describes his challenges and dutifully brings in the likes R. Kelly and Chris Brown. He ultimately dismisses the record because the music isn't worth the guilt he would feel about liking it; the music isn't worth the hassle.

For me, I have no idea what went on in the world of this songwriter. I don't know the man, the woman, what the situation is/was/will be. Is he an asshole? Was he in a complex and volatile relationship and just snapped? Why were the charges dropped? Because there weren't any to press? Because the woman has her own issues to sort through? I don't condone anything here, but nobody knows the truth but them.

If he had come out and been all Sean Connery that would probably be one thing; or maybe not. Do I not watch James Bond movies or Indy 3 because Connery is a douche? If I equate morality with all the artists out there, then there probably won't be much to watch or listen to or read. J.D Salinger ran through girls like they were going out of style, does that make Catcher In The Rye unworthy of appreciating (or depending on my mood being exceptionally critical of)?

But what's the limit? If it came out that the lead singer of my favorite band murdered somebody in cold blood would I still listen to their records? Wow, probably not. If it came out that Pitts did assault his girlfriend would it change my view of the record? Maybe. Probably. Would I even remember five years from now any of that? Like Hyden I agree it isn't spectacular so as to remain culturally relevant because of any potential backstory, sordid or not. So I am left to sort out how I feel about it.

Interesting questions; a bit of heaviness to what is ultimately a lightweight yet enjoyable record. In Surfer Blood's case, I am in no position to judge anything but the music. In that vein let's just call the music what it is: a good indie rock record.

Anyway, here's the video for album opener "Demon Dance."