Lost In Translation

Random Rules: Dean Wareham

Dean Wareham is one of my indie rock heroes, part of the legendary Galaxie 500, followed by luna (one of my favorite bands of all time) and his current incarnation with wife former Luna band member Britta Phillips. In this AV Club feature an interviewer talks about random songs that come up on the shuffle of the interviewee's iPod. Here's the intro:

The shuffler: Dean Wareham, the former leader of indie-rock featherweight champs Galaxie 500 and Luna. Wareham's current project is Dean & Britta, a team-up with his wife and ex-Luna bandmate Britta Phillips; their latest album, Back Numbers, was released last year. The duo also scored Noah Baumbach's 2005 film The Squid And The Whale. Wareham's first book, a memoir titled Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance, comes out in March.

Calexico & Ryan Adams

Calexico has been a favorite of mine for years. It seems that they’ve gone back to the formula that started out with in Tool Box; it is a collection of atmospheric instrumentals, which is an about face after the singer-songwriter-esque songs from Garden Ruin. I think I was coming around to the new style, but I guess that they have shown that they can do either style with aplomb. I guess this is a tradition with Calexico, a tradition that I was unaware of previously, before technology made it easier for me to collect the more obscure recordings of favored artists.

This is also true of Ryan Adams, another favorite. I have also recently acquired his EP with the Cardinals-Follow The Lights. It seems different from his Easy tiger material-more laid back and contemplative perhaps: among the seven tracks are a version or “Dear John” without Norah Jones, an Alice In Chains cover, “Down In The Hole”, as well as some other rarities like “Blue Hotel” a Fleetwood Mac tune. Ryan Adams’ throwaway stuff is better than most artist’s finished products.

Gram Parsons: The Grievous Angel

More often than not I get introduced to a band or artist through a reference and sometimes a tribute album. I didn’t truly appreciate Neil Young until I heard The Bridge tribute album, I’m Your Fan was my first introduction to Leonard Cohen, and I didn’t appreciate The Grateful Dead until I heard Deadicated. Gram Parsons (as a solo artist) has just come on my radar via the excellent tribute album Return Of The Grievous Angel. This is in turn led me to Gram Parsons solo albums G.P. and The Grievous Angel. I guess it's no surprise since he is often regarded as the father of alternative country-a genre, which I am very found of.

Best Music of 2007

I feel as though I have been more in tune with recent releases than other years. Although it was easy to pick the first 8 albums on this list, it was much more difficult to fill in the last two spots since there were a number of worthy releases this year. I will follow the top 10 list with some singles from some of those worthy albums that didn’t quite make the list.

1) The Neon Bible-The Arcade Fire: this was one of the big discoveries of the year for me. A startling great album.

2) Band of Horses-Cease To Begin: No sophomore slump here another great collection of brilliant songs.

3) The Shins-Wincing the Night Away: Not as good as the previous two albums, but still impressive.

4) Rilo Kiley-Under The Blacklight-Jenny Lewis and company have an enjoyable album with a variety of genres explored.

5) Nick Lowe-At My Age: whimsical and classical at the same time.

6) Ryan Adams-Easy Tiger: The prolific singer/songwriter cleans up and doesn’t miss a beat.

7) Okkervill River-The Stage Names: roots inspired songs from another new find.

8) Wilco-Blue Sky Blue: Wilco goes back to the drawing board and hits the mark again.

9) Rufus Wainwright-Release the Stars: some excellent songs with impressive vocal deleivery.

10) Radiohead-In Rainbows/The New Pornographers-Challenger: Radiohead’s best album since OK Computer, and The New Pornographers put out another collection of power pop gems.

Some other great songs from 2007:

“Don’t You Evah” / "The Underdog"-Spoon-Ga Ga Ga Ga

“All My Friends” / “North American Scum ”-LCD Soundsystem-Sound of Silver

“No Pussy Blues” / “Get It On”-Grinderman-Grinderman

“Because It’s Not Love” / “I Love You”-The Pipettes-We Are The Pipettes

“So Sorry” / “One Two Three Four”-Feist-The Reminder

“Heavy Weather”-Jarvis Cocker-Jarvis

In The iPod: Rilo Kiley, The Pipettes, and Rare Whiskeytown

The irrepressible Jenny Lewis sparkles again on Rilo Kiley’s latest offering, Under The Blacklight. I enjoyed her previous collaboration Ben Gibbard on the Postal Service recording and her excellent solo album with the Watson Twins. But this is my first Rilo Kiley album and it has been getting a lot of play. It is defiantly on of my top 5 albums of the year. I don’t think there’s a weak song on the album, but my favorite tracks are “15,” “Silver Lining,” “Under The Blacklight,” and “Give A Little Love.” The video for “The Moneymaker,” which you can see here, is notable for its use of professional porn actors.

I first discovered The Pipettes while watching a Japanese comedy-drama called “Hatachi no Koibito” (20 year-old Lover) whose theme song is “Because It’s Not Love.”

It sounded both familiar and fresh. The Brighton based group, featuring three female vocalists, has a sound that is based on the Phil Spector girl groups of the 60s with an edgy or modern sensibility. Other standouts from We Are The Pipettes include, “I Love You,” “Pull Shapes,” and “Judy.”

I also got a collection of B-sides and rarities from the now defunct alterna-country band, Whiskeytown, that featured the wunderkind-Ryan Adams. Some of the gems include the tributes to Gram Parsons (“A Song For You”), Big Star (“Give Me Another Chance”) Tom T. Hall (“I Hope It Rains At My Funeral”), The Knitters (“Silver Wings”). Some of the other songs are unreleased material or out takes, 7” singles, and EPs. There's a lot of good stuff that I hadn’t heard before.

In The iPod: Fall 2007

Some of the latest stuff that I’ve been listening to includes the latest release by Okkervil River, The Stage Names. This album has been hyped a lot of this year. I am especially suspicious of any album that gets an 87 from Pitchfork. But it lives up to the hype-a great collection of roots rock with catchy lyrics and guitar licks. My favorite tracks are “Plus Ones,” “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or…” and “John Allyn Smith Sails.”

Feist, the Canadian solo artist Leslie Feist, is a performer that I had encountered previously in The Believer’s Music issue from 2006. So when my friends Eric and Phatrick recommended The Reminder I got it and have been enjoying it ever since. The sparse, folk-based songs with an original vocal delivery reflect the gamut of life, love, and loss. My favorite tracks are: “One Two Three Four,” “Past in The Present,” and “So Sorry.”

Band of Horses first album, Everything All The Time, was one of my favorite recordings of 2006. Their follow up, Cease To Begin, is nearly as good. They haven’t derived too much from their original formula of melodic guitar driven rock. Perhaps there's not as much roots rock in the mix this time around, but its still a winning batch of songs. The standouts include: “Is There A Ghost,” “Ode To LRC,” and “No One’s Gonna Love You” start the record off with great expectations. Like its predecessor, Everything All The Time, there’s nary a weak song on the record.

Radiohead has been making interesting music for several years, but I have to admit the direction that they took after OK Computer has left me a bit cold. So it was nice to see a return to guitar/strings driven music, In Rainbows, which is probably their most accessible recording since the aforementioned album. My standout tracks include: “Bodysnatchers,” “15 Steps,” and “House of Cards.” But to be honest I still need to listen to this recording more to have a fully informed opinion on it. But I have to say that I like what I’ve heard so far.

Permanent Records: All Mod Cons

The Onion AV Club has selected a recording from one of my favorite bands, The Jam's All Mod Cons as one of their Permanet Records:

All Mod Cons was The Jam's first giant leap toward greatness. Its predecessor, This Is The Modern World, was an unfocused mess of mostly lackluster songs (plus a corny Wilson Pickett cover), and the whole thing bore only a hint of In The City's punky fire. Weller, barely 20 when All Mod Cons was released, dove deeper into his roots just as the nascent post-punk scene was turning futuristic: The Kinks became his new benchmark, and the album includes a faithful, forceful rendition of The Kinks' 1967 class-conscious "David Watts" (sung by bassist Bruce Foxton, whose voice in The Jam was quickly dwindling). All Mod Cons' first two songs—the title track and "To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time)"—are surprisingly effective explorations of the dark side of stardom, but Weller is careful not to get too insular. Just coming off a humiliating U.S. tour opening for, of all bands, Blue Öyster Cult, Weller sounds wise and wounded beyond his years. Besides sterling, bittersweet power-pop in the form of "Billy Hunt" and "The Place I Love," All Mod Cons boasts the politically charged "'A' Bomb In Wardour Street," an apocalyptic nightmare set to slashing riffs and raw imagery. Most startling, though, is a pair of gorgeous folk ballads: "Fly" and "English Rose"—the latter still a staple of Weller's solo shows—are awkwardly tender moments of adolescent romance that gently offset the songwriter's punk-jabbed vitriol. The Jam's next two albums, Setting Sons and Sound Affects, have higher highs and lower lows, but All Mod Cons is the band's most uniformly excellent record—and one that captures Weller at a perfect spot between acidic indignation and careful yet ambitious songcraft.

What I'm Listening To...

I guess I might be alone in saying that I think The New Pornographer’s new album Challengers is more accessible than their last release, Twin Cinema.  I'm not saying that I didn't like the last release, but I immediately got into this one at first listen.  As ususal the Neko Case sung tunes seem to stand out for me

Recently I've been listening to various songs from the Paul Weller (former lead singer of The Jam and Style Council) catalogue.  Especially Modern Classics and Heavy Soul but also stuff from As Is Now, Heliocentric, Stanley Road, Studio 150, and Wild Wood.  I think the man has managed to stay more than relevant.  Unfortunately it seems that his releases have not been distributed in America for some reason. There's got to be an audience for an icon like him.

Pyschocandy from The Jesus and Mary Chain, a classic album that still sounds very contemporary to me with all the feedback and fuzzed out guitars surrounding those gorgeous melodies in songs like "Just Like Honey," "Taste of Cindy," and "You Trip Me Up."

I've also been listening to Nouvelle Vague's first release of the same name, which has a sly, sexy version of The Dead Kennedy's classic "Too Drunk To F**k."  As well as some other great bossa nova versions of some of my favorite punk/new wave classics like Modern English's "I Melt WIth You," Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough," XTC's "Making Plans For Nigel," and The Undertone's "Teenage Kicks."

"Don't You Evah" Spoon

WIRED recently produced a video that sees Keepon, a robot developed by Hideki Kozima and programmed by Marek Michalowski, dancing to the track “Don’t You Evah” by Spoon, with all locations in Tokyo. Via Tokyomango.

This video is awesome and the new Spoon is growing on me. Check it out.

At My Age

I was inspired to get a hold of the new Nick Lowe album, At My Age, after reading this interview in the Onion AV Club. I guess I am most familiar with his work as a producer for artists like Elvis Costello (he also penned one of Elvis’ biggest hits “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding”), The Pretenders, and The Damned. Of course I also knew his early stuff from MTV like “Cruel To Be Kind” and so on. I even had his country album The Impossible Bird (on cassette? Now lost) at one time. But he has been off the radar for some time. This album is a revelation, I’ve been listening to it two or three times a day since I got it (it is only 33 minutes long). But it is a great pastiche of styles: “Ray Charles-like country soul, smoky late-night jazz, lush Western swing, and even a bit of Rockpile-style rockabilly.” So I can hear echoes of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, etc… That is to say that it has a sort of old timey feel to it, but it has the distinction of being fresh and vibrant at the same time. It is truly a strong album and all of the tracks are great, but I particularly like “A Better Man,” “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day,” “Not Too Long Ago,” and “I Trained Her To Love Me.”