When I first read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the two words that best described my experience was both harrowing and hopeful. It's a tough job to do when the story is about society completely being shut down and it seems that there is no hope for humanity. When I heard there was a film version in the works, I immediately wondered how the sparse novel with intense imagery and a very thin story arc would transfer to film. After much reading and over a year and a half of waiting, John Hillcoat's adaptation of The Road is a fantastic adaptation; one filled with dedication to the novel's heart and it's extreme attention to detail. After delay's in production, we finally get a chance to see the story come to life. The two most important parts of this film is the portrayal of a landscape scorched by unknown forces and to get across the relationship between father and son. Director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe capture the essence of the scorched Earth that is so integral to the story. Only for a few minutes do we get a glimpse of the world we once knew filled with greenery, flowers and animals, but those flashbacks are fleeting and the gray and brown world filled with haggard faces and even worse environmental damage prevails. The dreariness is tiring putting the viewer in the shoes of the man and his son. It's a difficult film to watch but it all lends itself to the deeper meaning
The visuals are extremely important to this film, but the real heart and the story revolves around the relationship of father and son. Viggo Mortensen in easily the role of his career plays the Man who is guiding his son, newcomer Codi Smitt McPhee, to find a safer and happier tomorrow. Day after day the scavenge for whatever possible food might be lying in abandoned homes and farms. These possible places for food are also possible traps and many times the two will find more than what they asked for. Mortensen plays his father figure with a very stoic yet heartfelt demeanor. When it comes down to survival or even possibly having to take his and his son's life, you see every ounce of his being on his face. His bedraggled hair, emaciated body and constant hacking cough are the physical attributes that he brings to the character but it's in the crackle in his voice and the drive to succeed in his eyes that makes the performance have some more depth. McPhee also tends to steal the show at times. His naive nature and innocence brings the ray of light to an otherwise bleak story. Having only known a world of chaos and destruction, his knowledge of the world is narrow and shows even more so in scenes where artifacts from a long ago lost time come creeping up and then disappearing. A can of soda is a hoyl grail in his eyes, even if he will only have just one Coke for his whole life. The acting goes further in two extremely intense and eye popping cameos. Robert Duvall may have earned himself an Oscar as the Old Man wandering the road. His few minutes on the screen are filled with brilliant observations of society and life and yet we can barely tell udner the glassy blinded eyes and completely worn face that it's even Duvall. The other best cameo is delivered by Michael K. Williams from The Wire. As the theif, we see one of the most intense moments in the film. Not in action but in reaction to what has happened. It's a beautiful site to see the small child sympathize with even a common criminal, but in desperate times you can't be sure what is right and wrong. It's an incredible lesson and one of the best scenes in the film.
The Road doesn't follow traditional story arcs and doesn't have a clear set plotline. The conflict arises in each characters destiny and decisions in a world completely in ruins. The conflict is situational and the end result much more realistic then anything Hollywood can conjoure up. And thankfully from transfer to page to film was smooth with very little liberties taken minus a few that enhanced the emotional attachment of the characters. John Hillcoat is far and away one of the best directors to watch in the future. With just The Proposition and The Road in his catalog, he has done nothing short of brilliant work.
I love making mixes. Of an kind. Whether it's just for someones birthday or it's a heady complex alternate universe where Y2K has destroyed the world. I enjoy the process and the end result as well as input from others. Recently a few of my friends, all bored and complacent at our respective jobs, have started a Fantasy Mix Making draft. We will pick a topic and then draft artists/songs and develop a mix based around those parameters. I have been pleased with all my entries so far and thought I'd share them with you along with my mission statements of each. The most recent mix won't have any description as voting is still in play and I do not want to sway the opinion of my mix to those involved in case they read this. Here goes the past three mixes.
Draft: British Invasion (only bands hailing from the British Isles were allowed)
The Xenophobic Limey
1. Depeche Mode - The World in My Eyes 2. David Bowie - I'm Afraid of Americans 3. The Prodigy - Firestarter 4. Brian Eno - Baby's On Fire 5. Goldfrapp - Lovely Head 6. Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers 7. Portishead - Small
The mission of this mix was to paint a picture of a lonely Brit who has fallen away from society. Main motif's, songs with whistling, lyric themes of fire and loneliness.
Draft: States (Instead of drafting bands or songs we drafted State from the USA and could use any band hailing from that state. We drafted without any research as well. A tough draft indeed.)
My Decent Into Madness
1. Thurston Moore - The Shape is in A Trance (Connecticut) 2. Smashing Orange - Flower Kisses (Delaware) 3. Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun (Rhode Island) 4. Dreadnaught - R. Daneel Oilvaw (New Hampshire) 5. The Black Angels - Doves (Texas) 6. Secret Machines - The Walls Are Starting to Crack (New York) 7. Mastodon - The Last Baron (Georgia)
This mix documents someone slowly being driven to madness. Themes include lost love, poison, fire and musical themes include shoegze/shimmering guitars and loads of tambourine.
Draft: Robocalypse (Drafted songs and crafted a soundtrack to the impending Robot Apocalypse)
Ja tvoi sluga, Ja tvoi rabotnik
1. Kraftwerk - The Robots 2. Battles - Atlas 3. King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man 4. Nine Inch Nails - The Day The World Went Away 5. Gary Numan - M.E. 6. Vangelis - Tears in Rain (Blade Runner Soundtrack)
Beck is coming up a lot lately this year and has been getting more buzz then if he had a proper album being released. Between his Record Club series through his new and revamped website to his working with Charlotte Gainsbourg, their has been no creative shortage from one of the best musical minds of our generation. That being said, this post serves a two fold purpose. First to chronicle the 25 Definitive Beck Tracks as well as to say Happy Birthday to Midnite Vultures.
Recently, a few friends of mine gathered around and surprisingly banged out a fantastic 25 Best Beck Songs spanning his entire career. For those who only know Beck's big hits, the man is more prolific than some give him credit. With over 400 different songs, Beck has pounded out some of the most intriguing tracks be his big hits or his rare, B-sides. This list takes into consideration all of Beck's catalog. IT was chosen by four people by casting votes on their 25 favorite Beck tracks. After arbitration, intensive listening and lots of beer and whiskey, this is the list. If you want to set this list up and listen, it flows really well from 25 - 1. Somehow the fates steered us to a Definitive Beck list that works as a listenable mix as well. Enjoy!
{Editor's Note} - The other three goons involved in making this great list were Daniel Somavilla, Ryan P. Carey and Steven Lipenta.
It was much a surprise how this played out. Some of it is obvious (7 out of 13 tracks from Odelay, most major radio hits appear) but some things didn't work out as planned. The top 5 alone sits as a testament to the different styles Beck would tackle. "Loser" is where it began, "Hollywood Freaks" is like "Loser" on ecstasy, "Diamond Bollocks" took a trash pilke of song ideas and crammed them into one glorious track, "Nobody's Fault But My Own" is poetry and melancholy and "Chemtrails" sounds like a throwback to 60's psychedelia with a modern twist. It's no surprise that this list careens from dance floor exagerations to relationship lamentations. Only Beck could do an album like Midnite Vultures and follow it up with Sea Change. To those who don't understand the Beck mythos, I suggest you give this 25 song listening experience a whirl.
Now, it seems odd to me that after 10 years, Midnite Vultures has yet to get old or dated. Maybe because the album is an homage to Young Americans era Bowie and 80's Prince or maybe because it's such a frenzy of different sounds, I still see myself coming back to it for many reasons. First and foremost, this album will pump you up. It's party aesthetics and it's overall dedication to groove is incredible. As much as it seems odd, Midnite Vultures may be Beck's biggest departure. You can compare most of his other albums to each other to some extent, but nowhere else in his catalog can you say he has done Midnite Vultures again. Beyond the albums overall vibe,it has turned into a veritable memory explosion. Nostalgia comes oozing forth from each song with sign-a-long memories of drunken parties to still having the urge to play it at midnight during any given late night event. From the opening horn exultation on"Sexx Laws" to the lulling post sex euphoria of "Debra," Midnite Vultures never stops slaying. Even when the lull of "Beautiful Way" comes on, the only downfall to the record, we are spit right back into the maelstrom. If you look at the record as a party concept record, only then can we see "Beautiful Way" as that time when you steal away from the party with a close friend or two and complain about the bad things that are going on over a smoke, but then you crack the door to your bedroom back open and into the "Pressure Zone" ready to burn those last few hours of partying off. Beck was relentlessly fruitful around this time. Just a year after Mutations and with loads of B-Sides attached to the Vultures sessions, it's no surprise it took a few years for Beck to return to the studio in 2002. If there were to be a deluxe edition release of Midnite Vultures, it would be worth picking up for insane B-Sides like "This is My Crew" or "Arabian Nights" to make you wiggle and giggle. Beck is an absurdly brilliant guy and it's no surprise that Midnite Vultures has endured. It's 10 years young.
Yo La Tengo has always had a penchant for the classic age of pop music. Mainly the garage rock of bands like The Kinks, The Zombies and the art pop of John Cale to name a few. Their latest record aptly titled Popular Songs enlists the sounds of these old school pop artists and puts the usual Tengo Twist into the formula. Album opener and stellar psych pop track "Here To Fall" is a beautifully adult love song about the trials and tirbulations of a relationship but in the end you just have to be there together. It's devastatingly beautiful and the epic strings over a droning bass and constant splash of drums really makes it something special. Then there is the Booker T & the MG's style jam of "Periodically Double or Triple" with it's funky organ breakdown and groovy tones. James McNew shines on this album not only as the groovy bass master but on his own poignantly beautiful love song "I'm On My Way." When McNew softly says "Baby that's all" after saying simply that he's on his way to be with his loved one is so minimally romantic. The guitar work is swooping and simple but buttery and sweet. Over the span of the very dreamy album, which seems would be best listened to on a weekend getaway at a bread and breakfast, we don't see the many faces of Yo La Tengo that other albums sometimes have, but it's in the simple beauty that makes Popular Songs so great. The album never picks up too much. The final three tracks, of all decent length, are sprawling space jams. "The Fireside" especially is a minimal instrumental but the shimmering guitars and swoops of ambience paint a picture words could never tell. The only freak jam really comes in the guitar noise jam of "And The Glitter is Gone" at first seems like an odd choice but the glitter and shimmer of the past 11 songs is no longer present during the loud drones and waves of noise. It's a statement that although happiness can sometimes come in, there are dark times that you have to get through. It's the perfect coda to "Here to Fall." It may not come off as the most fun or memroable album Yo La Tengo has done, but there is nothing with creating solid pop songs that set a mood perfectly. In fact, that is exactly what I like about this record. Simplicity never hurts and easy beat pop songs are a welcome addition to a year of all over the map styles and sounds of music.
I forgot to add to the catch up reviews one album review and one show review, but since both are Super groups, I will devote a new post to them.
Monsters of Folk - Traveling Wilburies blah blah blah... ok beyond that comparison, Monsters of Folk have put together one of the most interesting albums of the year. M Ward, Conner Oberst, Jim James and Mike Mogis are the four headed monster but what is intriguing is the lack of straightforward folk music the album actually has. This isn't to say that is a bad thing, in fact it's welcomed. Jim James clearly shines on the tracks he masterminded. "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)" is the furthest from folk on the album with it's drum machine sample, harps and strings and falsetto love groove vocals careening into the three contemplative versus from the three main voices of the bunch. Popier tracks like "Say Please" and "Goodway" are campground sing-a-longs that are best accompanied by friends. One of the highlights comes straight out of the Jeff Lyne/Roy Orbison songbook. The track "Whole Lotta Losin'" has M. Ward crooning over a funky struming guitar and a most infectious hook. Somber moments ushc as "Slow Down Jo" and "The Sandman, The Brakeman and Me" may be the folkiest and their riff on "Battle of Evermore" style Zeppelin comes forth on the epic Oberst penned "A Man Named Truth." Overall, the album has a disjointed feel but each song in random order or just plucked from the disc is delightful enough. It's hard when a huge collective effort comes together. The band may not be cohesive as a band as much as elements coming together and their own voices shining through more on different moments, but it's definitely a refreshing one off album.
Them Crooked Vultures - The other side of the super group coin comes in the three headed beast of Them Crooked Vultures. Their debut record has yet to drop, but thanks to a live tour I have a pretty damn good idea of how this will play out. Josh Homme takes lead guitar and vocals, Dave Grohl smashes his drum set to death and John Paul Jones looked cool, calm and collected doing various roles in bass, piano, keytar and mandolin. From what I remember at the show, their were ferocious riffs, fantastic guitar solos and bone crushing ryhthm that was even more intense than one would gather Grohl and JPJ would bring to the table. The first song of the night "Elephants" came out like gangbusters and did not hold back over the course of it's rocking. With several defining parts including some groovy breakdowns, it's definitely one of the best. "Gunman" stood out as one of the best rock churners. The final rocking epic "Warsaw or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up" which blistered on for what seemed to be a good 10 minutes was chock full of different rock landscapes and movements. "New Fang" is your standard radio rocker and "Caligulove" is a crooner love anthem with a heavy twist. Needless to say, I'm not sure the world is ready for the rock beat that is going to be unleashed soon. I know I'm anticipating it big time, but even that anticipation is not prepared for the studio version of what was easily one of the most mind numbing concert events of the year. Can't wait.
After all the decade in reviews, lets look at this last year for a second and at some of the albums I have been listening to (or trying to.) Lord knows I have some catching up to do for a 2009 Year in Review!
Dirty Projectors - Bitte OrcaI first heard of Dirty Projectors through the song they did with David Byrne called "Knotty Pine." It's an art rock track that goes in all sorts of musical directions and at first glance put me off a bit. But I was intrigued enough to pick up their latest and what has been touted as "most approachable" record Bitte Orca. What I can gather from that comment is that previous Dirty Projectors albums must be insane. Bitte Orca is a good listen when you are interested in something with a lot of intense mood shifts, unique vocal arrangements and a skewed sense of melody. This is not a record you just throw on in the background or would go driving somewhere to. No, this album demands your constant attention and as it took me about 5 months to finally say "Alright, I am ready for you!" And it was quite the experience. First track "Cannibal Resource" starts off with a pretty decent guitar riff but when the multitudes of backing vocals kick in, it shifts gears. The whole album has this controlled chaos vibe and reminds me of an art rock/post punk version of Captain Beefheart. It all sounds like a din of chaos at times, but you can tell all the intricacies of the music. This stuff was planned. It's really nutty and hard for me to fully grasp. More listens will have to ensue and that is good news for the record. It's not just slapdash weirdness, it's calculated brilliance. It does, however, make it a very intense listen.
Electric Six - Kill - Although it lacks the wow factor that last years Flashy gave fans, Electric Six's latest album Kill has some memorable moments but is more along the lines of their overblown record ...The Master. Don't get me wrong, when E6 does overblown stuff, it's still delightfully enjoyable. Songs like "Body Shot" and "Steal Your Bones" fall in the category of Electric Six expanding their sound a little bit. But most of the rest of the album just relies on your usual heavy power chords and synthy bleeps and bloops to add some fun to the mix. It's not an immediate love like Flashy or Senor Smoke but it has some splendid moments and has easily some of the most ridiculous lyrics yet. Example: "Come a little bit closer... Be my Kenny Rogers Roaster!" For a band who has put an album out every year for the past 5 years, it's no surprise that Kill lacks a little authority.
Air - Love 2 - I guess because I am in such an Air phase (not to mention the French have been killing it this year with good tunes,) but I am really digging this new record. It may be a poor man's Talkie Walkie, but it still has some stellar musical moments and overall enjoyable songs. Nothing stuns, but everything soothes. It's a perfect record for background music or meditation. Songs like "Be a Bee" have a churning back bone behind their smoothness while a track like "You Can Tell It To Everybody" has a more mystical quietude with it's Zelda like chimes in the intro. Air has a knack for making damn good music. Nothing extraordinary but at the same time, the backgroundy elements to the music doesn't make it boring. If you need a good soundtrack to relax to and still have it be a little more than background noise, Love 2 hits the spot.
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic - Ok, where do I start? Well I can first is that this is only a partial review. Let me back up a second. I have only listened to about 1/3rd of the record so this is less a review and more of a commentary on how music can effect mood and reflect mood. Embryonic from what I have gathered with my few false starts sounds much like the usual Flaming Lips record but churned through a meat processor. The ryhthm section is the true hero here, but the recording is extremely abrasive. Hidden beneath the build up of this grating sound is the usual Lips soaring space age prog rock, but the veneer of distortion really hides it. Songs like "The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine" lends itself to Yoshimi's "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21" but where that song is a lush paranoia, "Sparrow" is a grating and dark paranoia. Anyway, I digress from the object at hand. Embryonic so far is a really daunting listen. It's intensity matched by it's complexity and abrasiveness. My mind does not comprehend these sounds right now. But when I am in the mood for a brood fest, I can tell Embryonic will turn out to be one of their best records.
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young -The Strokes may have been a one trick pony looking back at their three recrods. Is This It was captivating, Room on Fire was a supposed sophmore slump with lots of repeat sounds albeit good songs and First Impressions of Earth just fell flat. It's no surprise after such a forgettable record that the band members would look forward on solo pojects, but it took from 2006 to 2009 for the supposed brain behind the Strokes to drop his first solo output. What we get is Julian Casablancas' What everyone will gather from this record is that Casablancas has taken the sound of the Strokes and fed it into a synthesizer. New Order becomes the muse more so than Television, but the bratty lyrics and overall swagger is still ever present. The real dynamite tracks come in the 1-2-3 punch of "Out of the Blue" , "Left & Right in the Dark" and the superb "11th Dimension." It may be the most Strokesy, but it also turns out to be the most catchy tunes on the album. Altho Casablancas is still hsi sneering self lyrically, he gets introspective and realizes some of his faults that in the past he has basically told the naysayers to "fuck off." This time he's finding time to contemplate his actions. The rest of the short album veers into different territory but it's all welcome. Phrazes is a refreshing twist on the Strokes sound and maybe if they get together again this new sound will come into paly with all the players involved.
Looking ahead: Them Crooked Vultures, Built to Spill, The Raveonettes, A complete review for The Flaming Lips, Reigning Sound and hopefully more! 2009 has been interesting to say the least.
Here it is! The ten best records of the past ten years. It has been a wild ride. Comment away and enjoy. I will throw in a live cut and or music video for each album so you can taste this...
#10. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights (2002) "I know you've supported me for a long time, somehow I'm not impressed." What I gather from Interpol's first record is a jaded band looking to find some feeling in a completely drained and paranoid New York City. To me, this is the best post 9/11 album that deals with what happened to New Yorkers and to everyone in the country after it took the downward spin after that fateful day. Interpol's Turn On The Bright Lights was a request to get back to the brighter more innocent days, but those prayers were never answered. So it's no surprise how dark and dismal the record seems. It creaks through the opener "Untitled." Even the apathy of just naming a song "Untitled" goes to show you the prevailing feelings of the world. The anthem "NYC" is about as close to many feelings in New York as you can get in a track. The more classic rockers like "PDA" and "Obstacle 1" bring in an element of danceability but even in their catchiness is a deep seed of regret and darkness. Interpol would never be able to completely tap into this feeling with such sheer precision on their next few albums, but it goes to show just how drained they were after creating the brooding Turn On the Bright Lights. It's hard to keep writing about such themes before you run yourself into the ground.
#9. Beck - Sea Change (2002) Break-up albums are always moody but when Beck is helming it you would think you'd get some strange freak-outs or weird brooding electro songs. Instead, Beck sticks to his Mutations basics and expounds upon the broken heart with beautiful poetics and gentle guitar folk. Beck sheds every last drop of his broken heart onto this record and for that, Sea Change is a very mood driven record. Unlike Odelay or Guero which are built to be listened to anytime, Sea Change is so melancholy that it sometimes doesn't work when you are in a good mood. A song like "Lonesome Tears," easily one of the best tracks Beck has to offer, would sound downright terrible when you are in a good mood. It's heartbreaking stuff. "Lost Cause" seems to be about moving on but there is always that last bit of sadness when a relationship comes to an end. "Round the Bend" hearkens to Nick Drake's "River Man" and there is no denying Drake's influence on this album. Instead of it becoming a weak rip-off, Beck's own feelings and sentiments are easily discernible. It may be Beck's most straight from the heart record, but that's what makes it stand a part from others. It may not have the fun of Odelay or Midnite Vultures, but Beck's just as human as the rest of us and is obviously susceptible to pain and misery as anyone else.
#8. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Pig Lib (2003) Post Pavement, Malkmus has been trying to get his footing with what his solo career may sound like. It really has yet to solidify, but even with Pavement they seemed to by trying to define a sound. Malkmus now seems to be leaning towards the long, drawn out Television style guitar jams, but on his second record, a moody mixture of these jams and what his first self titled record of pop songs would blend to make Pig Lib. It's been hard to touch the greatness of this record on further efforts, although Face the Truth comes very close. But when off kilter tracks like "Water and a Seat" first hit you, their complexity doesn't yet shine. "Animal Midnight" and "Witch Mountain Bridge" are two tracks that blend the jammy atmosphere and more deep seated pop sensibilities perfectly. Then there are the polar opposite tracks "Craw Song" and "1% of One." The former is a cute little pop ditty with plenty of hum along melody and cutesy harmonium where as the latter is a sprawling rocker of an epic. The beauty of this record comes to me in the form of searching for a sound. Since there is no clear definition, the boundries between free form sprawl and concise pop writing takes perfect form on Pib Lib. It's a sound that has been hard to re-create with each consecutive album losing one half of these two sides. Here is where you'll find it perfectly executed.
#7. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born (2004) - Wilco is lauded for their brilliant Yankee Hotel Foxtrot but for some reason, my personal favorite Wilco disc from the past ten years. It may because it defined a year in my life or it may have just been sheer excellence, but the grittier and trippier A Ghost is Born has a selection of great tracks... all of which take me back to one of the best times in my life. Driving down to the shore on a dark night while blasting "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" is a trip to be had. The pulsating and looping guitar sounds and drum beat are hypnotic before they explode into one of the best riffs the album has to offer. "Hell is Chrome" and "Handshake Drugs" are more nihilistic in their approach with dark imagery and quieter instrumentation. "Hummingbird" comes amid a lot of the darker tracks hovering forth over with it's beautiful but melancholy message. Overall, the album has many overarching ambient effects, howling guitars, especially in the album opener "At Least That's What You Said" and many other things that were apparent on YHT and all in all, it fits together nice and sloppily over the albums entirety. Sometimes the sloppy more free ranging younger brother can outshine the superstar and that younger brother for Wilco is A Ghost is Born.
#6. Portishead - Third (2008) Out of all the comebacks, the best came through Portishead's fitfully brilliant Third. An 11 year absence from music, Portishead returned to form... sort of. The band's first two releases were melancholy melodic and heartbreaking but the music was much more trip-hop centric. A melange of Massie Attack style orchestrations with Beth Gibbons sorrowful cantor like voice. On Third, the music is still trippy but instead of hip-hop style sequencing, it turned out to be more like a psych rock record. And for my dime, it made a huge leap forward. It's a menacing record. Their are dark moments hidden amidst beauty, especially in"The Rip" which starts as a gorgeous acoustic guitar plucking ditty that turns into an eerie drum and deep bass synth jam and the Ukelele driven "Deep Water" but these brightest moments are still melancholy thanks to Gibbons deep and beautifully toned voice. Darker moments are brooding deep on the record, especially in the mechanical and harrowing "Machine Gun." It's a song that will leave a mark on your subconscious. "Small" and the closer "Threads" are equally dark and daunting with the guitar effects and synthesizers taking on beastly sizes. It's hard to not describe every song as they are all cogs in the overall dark and menacing machine. But what Third boils down to is a record that will leave an imprint on your mind from first listen on.
#5. Queens of the Stoneage - Songs for the Deaf (2002) A supergroup of sorts, Queens of the Stoneage came together via 90's stoner rock Kyuss and a special guest in Dave Grohl going back to the drum set for one record of Queens heavy rocking. What we got is the eras best balls to the wall rock album. Nothing is held back. It became the stoner rock equivilant of The Who Sell Out with it's radio station narrative, but the similarities end there. The decades best riffs are all over this record. Even the decades best rhythm section is found here. The trio of Homme, Oliveiri and Grohl are a force only to be possibly matched by Homme, Grohl and John Paul Jones once the first Them Crooked Vultures disc drops. Until then, this album reigns supreme. "No One Knows" may be the catchiest hard rock song I've ever heard with it's thumping bass, precision drums and howlingly catchy riff. "Song for the Dead" has a bone crushing intro and outro with back and forth guitar slaying and vocals care of the Screaming Trees Mark Lanegan. Lanegan woudl shine on other tracks such as the intense "Hangin' Tree" and the brooding "God Is In the Radio." Other stunners come in the boogie piano infused "Go With the Flow" and the surf freak out of "Another Love Song." What keeps Songs for the Deaf moving is the amount of sound coming forth, blasting through your stereo. It's a rock and roll juggernaut that has yet to stop.
#4. The Raveonettes - Pretty In Black (2005) The feeling I get when I listen to any Raveonettes album is a sort of nostalgia. It's of a decade long past that has no discernible time period attached to it. Yes you can say that the album Pretty in Black has its roots in either 50's rock and roll, 60's girl groups and surf guitar or 80's shoegaze and noise, but it's not definable. There are country rockers and Wall of Sound sing-a-longs. Garage classics and paranoid road tracks. It goes everywhere and yet it's decidedly fresh and new. The Raveonettes are best known for their loud shimmering guitars and sugary sweet dueling vocals and on Pretty in Black these two things take flight with some of the best rock and roll music I've heard. "Love in a Trashcan" is their take on the Kinks while "Red Tan" is a summer time Velvets track (punctuated by Maureen Tucker on drums.) "Sleepwalking" has a sprawling sound while "Seductress of Bums" has Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo exchanging lines over two paralleled and distinct musical structures built around each others vocal qualities. Underneath every track is a centimeter of filth and depravity but it's very hard to see sometimes through the shinning light of the duo's bright vocals. Whether this album sounds like a John Cassavetes directed western or the dark musings of the Ronnettes unleashed is besides the point. It's the Raveonettes nailing the sounds of the past with a touch of their own.
#3. Black Mountain - In The Future (2008) Contrary to the album title, Black Mountain's second LP In The Future takes nothing from a futurisitc sound, but rather falls back on the rock of old. Infused with the epicness of King Crimson, the bluesiness of Led Zeppelin and the psychedelia of Jefferson Airplane, Black Mountain made a name for themselves be taking stoner rock and psych rock and rebuilding it for new generations. It's an ensemble record with all of it's five members taking massive leaps forward to make straight up classic rocking music. The howling and impending maelstrom of sound kicks off with "Stormy High." The song will dig it's hooks into you as Amber Webber's howling gale of a voice will chill you to the bone. "Tyrants" is the first of two epics with it's sprawling churn of riffage into a slow building midsection before the clamourous ending. It's a breathtaking track. "Wucan" and "Queens Will Play" hark back to Houses of the Holy era Zeppelin with their spaced guitar antics and foreboding organs. It's no wonder that this band has such amazing scope as each member has gone on to several solo projects of equal value, but it's when all the elements amass to create the craggy Black Mountain that we see memorable music. The songs seem to solidify better on In the Future as the band fully emerges through the haze to have a monolithic sound. If only it were 1972. Black Mountain would be the best band of all time.
#2. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)Yoshimi shaped most of my musical leanings for the past decade. Before this album I was knee deep in classic rock research. Jaded by what music sounded like from about 1997 too 2002, I pretty much turned my musical radar off to the new. With The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, I found the perfect bridge from the classic rock I was listening to at the time to something new and exciting. It had the feel of a lot of the psych rock I was delving into with influences from Pink Floyd and Yes seen on some angles but it had a taste of the futuristic. Songs like "Fight Test" and "Do You Realize??" were more traditional pop songs with a gloss of sweetness and futurism that sounded both distant and contemporary. "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21" is a brooding track filled with all sorts of swirling drones and sounds. "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" is a bouncing delight of a pop song and leads into the extra terrestrial space age rock of "Are You A Hypnotist??" The Flaming Lips concocted something that sounds utterly artificial. It's a futuristic record that still owes debt to traditional pop music with it's strum-along chords and beautiful harmonies. The music is utterly beautiful and captivating and Wayne Coyne's lyrics are poignant and touching. It's the perfect album.
#1. Arcade Fire - Funeral (2005) - So here it is, the best album of the past ten years. Canadian band Arcade Fire came out of nowhere to bring a record unlike anything I had heard at the time. Funeral is baroque in its orchestration and punky in it's angular guitars and searing vocals. It sways with the tide and swirls in the air like a light breeze at times. It made the whistling of the tea pot a mournful sound and the disco beats of police lights every ready for a dance party. All in all it was an album about coping with death and loss and done so in a beautiful way. Where Sea Change is a share in your misery kind of thing, Funeral is a unique way to mourn. As I have stated before on this blog, any music lover will someday come to embrace Funeral as one of those great accomplishments in music. It becomes an almost religious event. Whether it's the booming and glooming of "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" with it's shimmering guitars, deep bass rhythm and it's gentle xylophone or if it's the wailing chant over the epic "Wake Up", you are going to be in for a musical experience unlike any other. The amount of sound and isntrumentation that the group brigns to the table, with accordians, violins, synthesizers and other so much more is utterly beautiful. The heartbreak and loss that anyone feels can be really hard, but for the members of Arcade Fire, they turned that sadness into sheer beauty, even if it's melencholic beauty. It stands as a testament of our generation dealing with the loss of all innocence and Arcade Fire's Funeral is the perfect soundtrack for such loss.
Well that's it for the decade in review. Be sure to come on back for all sorts of other end of 2009 shite.
I first read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the two words that best described my experience was both harrowing and hopeful. It's a tough job to do when the story is about society completely being shut down and it seems that there is no hope for humanity. When I heard there was a film version in the works, I immediately wondered how the sparse novel with intense imagery and a very thin story arc would transfer to film. After much reading and over a year and a half of waiting, John Hillcoat's adaptation of The Road is a fantastic adaptation; one filled with dedication to the novel's heart and it's extreme attention to detail. After delay's in production, we finally get a chance to see the story come to life. The two most important parts of this film is the portrayal of a landscape scorched by unknown forces and to get across the relationship between father and son. Director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe capture the essence of the scorched Earth that is so integral to the story. Only for a few minutes do we get a glimpse of the world we once knew filled with greenery, flowers and animals, but those flashbacks are fleeting and the gray and brown world filled with haggard faces and even worse environmental damage prevails. The dreariness is tiring putting the viewer in the shoes of the man and his son. It's a difficult film to watch but it all lends itself to the deeper meaning
