Recent pop

[Vince Kargatis]

Placeholder for comments on recent popular music releases. (Including pop, rock, hip hop, popular electronica, etc.) "Recent" can mean in the last few years, if you like.

Here are some recent acquisitions I've enjoyed and would recommend to like-minded listeners. I don't really enjoy reviewing much, so won't say much (glad to answer questions tho), but I have included links to reviews to all, from canonically useful sources AMG and Pitchfork. I generally get my indie news and reviews from Pitchfork, and they always have an interesting and useful year-end list.

Neko Case - Blacklisted (AMG, Pitchfork) Really sweet-sounding "alt-country" pop songs.

Enon - High Society (AMG, Pitchfork) Fun and eclectic.

Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights (AMG, Pitchfork) A very popular band these days (#1 in Pitchfork's year-end roundup), regularly referred to as today's Joy Division. Whatever - it's good, propulsive, convincing rock.

Ted Leo - The Tyranny of Distance (AMG, Pitchfork) and Hearts of Oak (AMG, Pitchfork) Good Elvis Costello-like rockin' songwriting. The latter suffers a bit from his slightly painful falsetto, but I can deal. Several mp3s at the label's site (lookout records).

16 Horsepower - Folklore (AMG, Pitchfork). I love this band. Seriously evocative, dark, dark southern gothic rock.

Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (AMG, Pitchfork) A typically strong record from these indie faves. Their writing styles and sounds are branching out some.

Spoon - Girls Can Tell (AMG, Pitchfork) and Kill the Moonlight (AMG, Pitchfork) Very approachable indie, good writing.

Amon Tobin - Out From Out Where (AMG, Pitchfork) One of my favorite drum'n'bass/electronica musicians - I heartily recommend any of his albums.


On my soon-to-buy list:
The new New Pornographers
Lamb - What Sound
Lou Reed - The Raven
The new Cat Power
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
Some Electrelane (interested from those Wire sampler cuts)

[Brian Olewnick]

On the few occasions I've heard Amon Tobin (aside from Sleater Kinney, the only one from the above list I've heard at all), I've enjoyed the music pretty well. Almost actually bought a disc, but haven't yet. Oh, I've also heard and seen Cat Power. Loved her version of 'Satisfaction' but her live performance (I think Gary was there with me) was one of her "legendary" rambling, fumbling, stoned-out shows. Sorry, I wasn't buying.

Ooh, just noticed you also listed Electrelane. YES! Loved their first record and have been meaning to get the second.

[Troy D]

Sparklehorse.

Hard to categorize, although I'd say it's something like low-fi/alt-country/punk. That probably doesn't do it justice, though. Their latest disc is It's a Wonderful Life , which is excellent, although my favorite is Good Morning Spider from a few years ago. These are albums that I have listened to again and again without tiring of them--and I can't say that about too many records.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally posted by Troy D
Sparklehorse. It's a Wonderful Life

I really like this one. It's a fairly gauzy and melancholy sound, which, in the right mood, is a perfect listen. Will have to evnetually get GMS.

vince,
the new Cat Power is terrific.
by the way, she's the old girlfriend of my man Bill Callahan
(Smog)--she'd covered his songs on tweo records---so go find some other Smog songs to listen to. Listen to the cut on the High Fidelity soundtrack, for instance. If you like Sparklehorse (I do too), you have to check out Smog.

[Troy D]

I'll be sure to put Smog on my list, achilles. Anything in particular you'd recommend?

Vince--I think "gauzy" is the perfect term for Sparklehorse. There's plenty of gauziness on GMS--but it also rocks out a bit more than Wonderful Life. I think it's got a great mix of mellower, somber stuff and harder stuff.

For Smog, I like "Knock Knock" and "The Doctor Came at Dawn"
as places to begin.

3 indie record labels I think are consistently putting out the best new rock and pop music are: Thrill Jockey, Constellation, and Kranky.

[al j]

Death Cab for Cutie, my fave indie band of the past 6 or so years. Their latest, Songs You Can Play With Chords, is a collection of demos and b-sides. I could usually give a hrmph about that type of record, but so much love and care was put into the mastering and sequencing of the tunes.

Mush-wise, I've been digging Rufus Wainwright's POSES for the last couple of years. Love the brutal honesty and metaphorical air to his songwriting. Quite the arranger too.

Califone-

I was lucky enough to catch them last time I was in LA. I like their stuff along the same lines as the SEA AND CAKE. These bands do wonderful stuff without the aggression I normally look for in that area of music.

Deus-

Any word on this Belgian group following up The Ideal Crash?

[lazarus]

Joe Christmas.
I agree about Rufus Wainwright´s "Poses". He´s very talented! I´m really looking forward to hear some more from him.
Have you heard his first cd?

[saltwatersnow]

Belle & Sebastian is the only band that matters!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by saltwatersnow
Belle & Sebastian is the only band that matters!!!!!!!!

did you see High Fidelity? funny moment about them (Belle & Sebastion) in the movie.

[Vince Kargatis]

No one reading this thread should (have) miss(ed) High Fidelity! :)

[Troy D]

Originally posted by Vince Kargatis
No one reading this thread should (have) miss(ed) High Fidelity!

Well, I didn't miss it...but I don't remember liking it very much.

Great soundtrack, sure--and it was cool to see a movie about a guy so serious about music. I could relate to that. But other than that, I don't remember anything about it that really captured my attention. I found it kind of boring. I know lots of people loved it, though--maybe I'll give it another shot sometime.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally posted by Joe Christmas
Death Cab for Cutie, my fave indie band of the past 6 or so years.

I like these kinds of pointers. I grabbed a few tracks from their label's site, liked what I heard, thanks Joe. Given their sound, I presume you've at least dabbled in stuff from the Elephant Six collective? Seems likely you'd like some of that: Olivia Tremor Control, Beulah, etc.

I'll return the "favor", by pointing out two of my very favorite indie bands (both from DC, now both recently defunct ):

The Dismemberment Plan
Burning Airlines

Both have mp3s available from DeSoto Records' site, I think.

I also dearly love Modest Mouse.

[Vince Kargatis]

Maybe somebody can help me out:

A fairly popular indie rock musical device in the 90s onward is having the guitars strum a steady every-beat 'bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum' rhythm to propel the song. E.g. practically every Interpol song does it, or Unwound, or many random heavier rock tracks of that type.

When did this device start? I can't think of any 70s rock with it (though perhaps I'm being daft?), and my knowledge of 80s underground rock is scant, though I'm almost sure it was in the 80s. Was it an 80s industrial thing? Curious about its emergence.

It was probably inversely correlated with technical ability. :) But it still works well, imo.

[al j]

Vince, thanks for those recs, I'll check them out for sure. Of all you mentioned I'm only familiar with Dismemberment Plan, thankfully so.

Re: Death Cab, the wife and I might go check out Ben Gibbard's new project, The Postal Service. AMG calls it indie-rock-meets-electronica, featuring members from Rilo Kiley and Tattle Tale-r. Also Dntel (Jimmy Tamborello). Nice to know that Death Cab might have a new fan. I checked out those MP3's; did you d/l "Champagne from A Paper Cup" from Something About Aeroplanes? Outstanding tune.

[bbrooksux]

Originally posted by Vince Kargatis
I'll return the "favor", by pointing out two of my very favorite indie bands (both from DC, now both recently defunct ):

The Dismemberment Plan
Burning Airlines

Both have mp3s available from DeSoto Records' site, I think.

I also dearly love Modest Mouse.

Ah, Burning Airlines (of old Jawbox fame). Wonderful discs!! A KC band (now defunct) along those lines is Shiner. Last 2 discs were amazing. During their final show, another band opened for them called Houston that was out of this friggin world!! I think Houston is from Minneapolis (if that makes sense).

[bbrooksux]

Probably one of my favorite discs of late is the new Queens of the Stone Age. The flow of the disc just gets your blood burning (in the good way). And the accompanying DVD, if you were one of the lucky ducks to get one, is fantastic.

[S.Eden]

My latest purchase is Donnie's "The Colored Section". Some scattered thoughts about it after listening to the album straight through three times:

• What exactly is so controversial about the racial content of this album's lyrics? Maybe I'm biased for having grown up with Public Enemy, but his content is about as controversial as finding a Snickers bar in a Milky Way wrapper
• Donnie has some amazing vocal abilities(very indebted to Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder) and the album's production didn't do him alot of justice
• Donnie's songcraft also owes alot to Wonder and Hathaway, maybe a little too much right now
• The songs are ambitious, sprawling, and full of grooves. And while on some songs it all comes together beautifully(like "Heaven Sent", "Turn Around" and "Our New National Anthem"), the album as a whole seems to suffer from grooves stealing the lyrics and vocalese, as I can't recall one particularly catchy melody or hook, no track I really felt like I needed to listen to again to digest. He also didn't offer a lot in terms of his vocal arrangements, sticking tightly to an overt, synchronous gospel formation
• Many of the songs are entirely too long; 9 of the 14 tracks run over 4 minutes, 8 of those 9 over 4 and a half, which is a daunting length for this kind of uptempo R&B. The problem is that the songs don't build up well and climax too early, and since the vocals were generally underplayed when the album was mixed, they depend on the groove to keep up the interest for an extra 30-60 seconds, which to these ears just didn't work

I'm certainly not on the bandwagon of legendary soul/R&B album status that many reviewers seem to be giving Donnie(certainly Raphael Saddiq's debut should've been at least this worthy of such praise). But this is definitely a promising debut from a young artist, who, given more time and guidance, could make some legendary music.

[al j]

Been looking into some of the recs in the first post. I picked up Neko Case, which I'm really enjoying. 16 Horsepower... much depth but it tends to stay on the bottom. The best of it sounds like early Sisters of Mercy meets Townes Van Zandt.

[mke]

I LOVE The Roots latest album, "Phrenology". Then again, I'm an unconditional fan. As usual, this album is quite different from their previous albums.

Common's latest, "Electric Circus", I'm less sold on, and have listened to less. Adventurous, maybe, but it doesn't really gel, for me.

[saltwatersnow]

common is a pepsi drinking dork

[Tanager]

Originally posted by Troy D
Great soundtrack, sure--and it was cool to see a movie about a guy so serious about music. I could relate to that. But other than that, I don't remember anything about it that really captured my attention. I found it kind of boring. I know lots of people loved it, though--maybe I'll give it another shot sometime.

Troy, I liked the movie (especially any of Jack Black's screen-stealing moments), but I loved the book. Might be worth giving a go for you.

[mke]

Originally posted by saltwatersnow
common is a pepsi drinking dork

Maybe (I've never seen that ad), and his current dress style is a bit odd, but "Like Water For Chocolate" and "Resurrection" are good.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally posted by Tanager
Troy, I liked the movie (especially any of Jack Black's screen-stealing moments), but I loved the book. Might be worth giving a go for you.

I liked both a lot, but may have enjoyed the movie slightly more, if only because the book's character was more irritatingly neurotic, which I found a bit tough to relate to.

[al j]

Originally posted by Vince Kargatis


I'll return the "favor", by pointing out two of my very favorite indie bands (both from DC, now both recently defunct ):

The Dismemberment Plan
Burning Airlines

Looks like Dismemberment Plan are touring, by info on their website. I'll be checking them out for sure in San Diego on June 4th.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally posted by Joe Christmas
Looks like Dismemberment Plan are touring, by info on their website. I'll be checking them out for sure in San Diego on June 4th.

Cool. I was lucky and caught them in Baltimore while I was in DC in March. First and probably last time. They've "broken up", but are doing a last-hurrah tour. I hope you can manage to familiarize yourself with some of their tunes beforehand (always helps me enjoy concerts more). I promise you can't go wrong with Emergency & I (suitably enthusiastic review here).
--
I was listening to epitonic's radio stream of their Indie Rock genre today, found one band I quite liked: Thingy. 3 mp3s there. epitonic rocks.

[al j]

Vince, I picked up Emergency & I a couple of days ago, thanks soooooooooo much. What a great record! I've been having a shitload of fun with it (turned up LOUD), my 6 year old boy quite likes it too. The singer has a wonderful, wonderful voice, very fitting to the band's sound. "What Do You Want Me to Say?" "A Life of Possibilities" "The Jitters" This band has a masterful way with melodies and, especially, hooks. Great fucking record. How are the albums prior to E & I?

[Vince Kargatis]

The earlier ones are most punkish and spastic.. E & I and Change are more mature records, but most of the elements are there before too. I'm glad I have all of them. I went mostly backwards myself: (E&I | Change [got at same time]) -> Is Terrified -> !

I'm quite bummed they're disbanding, but hope Travis Morrison does a solo effort soon enough. (Thinking the same thing about Jawbox/Burning Airlines' J Robbins too!)

there's Radiohead, Wilco, and (Smog) and then
some occasionally good records made by people like The Flaming Lips, Cat Power, Giant Sand, etc.

But really, there's only Radiohead, Wilco, and (Smog)......