Twitter Review Session #3

(30) Paranoid Cocoon - Cotton Jones (Suicide Squeeze)
Best thing Michael Nau's done since Hello, Dear Wind. Pretty, reverby, bluesy folk pop that is simply solid. (7/10)

(31) Mythomania - Cryptacize (Asthmatic Kitty)
Nice, quirky indie pop from Nedelle and Chris Cohen (ex-Deerhoof). Some nice tunes, but mostly pretty boring. (6/10)

(32) Tentacles - Crystal Antlers (Touch & Go)
This would be pretty decent if the vocals weren't so goddamned awful and the whole thing wasn't so obnoxious. (5.5/10)

(33) Mama, I'm Swollen - Cursive (Saddle Creek)
With their return to slightly more straightforward, v. dark emo-ish rock, somehow Cursive are still relevant and good. (7/10)

(34) Why There Are Mountains - Cymbals Eat Guitars (self-released)
Solid, intense, dramatic, sorta emo-ish 90s style indie rock with Tim Kinsella-esque vox. Prettay good. (6.5/10)

(35) Dark Night of the Soul - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse (self-released)
A subtle, theatrical, intense, wonderfully dark, collaborative mega-opus. Chilling and gorgeous. (8/10)

(36) Bromst - Dan Deacon (Carpark)
Not much different from Spiderman of the Rings, but still really neat, bloopy, arty electro pop. Also, beautiful. (8/10)

(37) Spritle 7" - Deastro (Five Three Dial Tone)
The slight additions to "Spritle" are unnecessary, but song still rules. "Treefrog" is standard synth pop fare. (6.5/10)

(38) Moondagger - Deastro (Ghostly International)
Kind of emo-y, New Order-ish synth pop to the max. A lot of it blends together too much, but overall, not too shabs. (6/10)

(39) The Open Door EP - Death Cab for Cutie (Atlantic)
I think I can finally say that I am over this band. "My Mirror Speaks" is a good song, though. (4.5/10)

(40) Split 7" - Child Bite/This Moment in Black History (Forge Again)
I give the Child Bite song an 8/10, but I can't really stand the TMIBH one. (5/10)

(41) The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists (Capitol)
The Crane Wife was the first step in the wrong direction (despite some jams), but this is MUCH WORSE. Ridic. (3/10)

(42) Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP - Deerhunter (Kranky)
This is really good, but doesn't offer much more than the shoegaze/psych pop they've already become known for. (7.5/10)

(43) Hot Green 7" - Algernon Cadwallader (Be Happy)
Dudes are nothing new at all, but they do the Cap'n Jazz/American Football emo stuff REALLY WELL. (7.5/10)

(44) From Way Out to Way Under - Copper Thieves (Jack Holmes)
A solid mix of 90s indie rock and 70s classic rock with some unconventional drumming from these Detroit boys. (6.5/10)

(45) Farm - Dinosaur Jr. (Jagjaguwar)
Another Dino Jr. album that sounds just like any of their other ones, and somehow it is still really good. (8/10)

(46) Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors (Domino)
Arty, soulful, Zeppelin-y indie rock loaded with R&B vocal acrobatics. UP THERE with AC's MPP, duh. (9/10)

(47) Ducktails - Ducktails (Not Not Fun)
Mostly instrumental, trippy, ambient something. Neat and pretty, but probs need to be high off my ass to get it. (6.5/10)

(48) OK Bear - Jeremy Enigk (Lewis Hollow/Cydonia)
Ex-SDRE frontman creates a gorgeously layered, accessible pop record that is somewhat forgettable but solid. (6.5/10)

(49) Yesterday & Today - The Field (Kompakt/Anti-)
Very pretty and only slightly interesting electronic songs that are way too long. I will slightly smile and yawn. (6/10)

(50) Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (Domino)
Former arty, dance-y post punk hype band complete their journey into the realm of irrelevance. This is bad. (3/10)

(51) The Fresh & Onlys - The Fresh & Onlys (Castle Face)
60s lo-fi psychedelic rock, like The Velvet Underground and The Zombies, with a smidgen of post punk. GOOD. (7/10)

(52) Born Radical - Friendly Foes (Gangplank)
90s style punk-infused indie rock a la Superchunk and the like. Nothing groundbreaking, but totes good. (6.5/10)

(53) God Help the Girl - God Help the Girl (Matador)
Stuart Murdoch twee-popera with the rest of B & S and friends. Defs corny in parts, but still wonderful. (7.5/10)

(54) Petits Fours - Grand Duchy (Cooking Vinyl)
Sweet Pixies-ish indie pop from Frank Black and wife. A little synthy, a lot of badass mixed with cute. (7/10)

(55) Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear (Warp)
Over-hyped, is no Yellow House, and missing the eerie vibe, but DAMN, guys. Way to record a helluva record. (8.5/10)

(56) Face Control - Handsome Furs (Sub Pop)
Wolf Parade's D. Boeckner + wife wax electronic on his WP style with decent results. "Legal Tender" rules hard. (6.5/10)

Emotional Listening #3

Neon Golden – The Notwist (Domino, 2002)
My long-time pal Abbott had been pushing The Notwist on me for a while, since my sophomore year in college, I believe. When I moved into a house with him, his wife and some buds after I graduated college, I just couldn’t avoid them anymore. Why I wanted to avoid them in the first place is beyond me. I eventually purchased Neon Golden at Used Kids in Columbus in August 2007, and to be frank, I still haven’t really listened to it all that much. I’m not going to deny that it is gorgeous and completely original. The last several songs are just really really boring (though, am I correct when I say that they are bonus tracks for the U.S. release?). All of this to say that there are some outright jam-diddles within the first nine songs. “One Step Inside Doesn’t Mean You Understand” is so beautiful and its off-kilter rhythms are the album’s top highlight. “Trashing Days” is a badass pop song. Neon Golden is filled to the brim (well, at least the first nine songs are) with subtle, indistinguishable intricacies that combined with the deadpan vocals and sort of ahead of their time laptop-isms make for a pretty, groundbreaking electronic folk record.
Top jams: “One Step Inside Doesn’t Mean You Understand,” “Pick Up the Phone,” “Trashing Days,” “This Room,” “One With the Freaks,” “Off the Rails”


Q & A – Office (self-released, 2005)
Scott Masson, the head honcho behind Office, has gone through a lot of changes over the past couple of years. A while back, the project had inked a deal with James Iha’s record label. That deal has since been destroyed. Also, more recently, Masson has relocated from Chicago to Milford, MI, I do believe (which is an interesting move, if you ask me). What kind of effect has this transition had on his output? If anything, it is a positive one: his latest, Mecca, is chock full of memorable hooks, catchy choruses and topnotch production. But, this is not the focus here. Let me take you back to 2005’s self-released Q & A. I won’t go into it, but let’s just say the album randomly fell into my lap and stayed there for a few months. I took an extended break, and kind of forgot about it until somewhat recently. I can basically describe Q & A exactly as I described Mecca, but they are not the same record. Where Mecca is subtle but loud and totally a grower, Q & A is louder and more instantly accessible (though, not by all that much). There definitely is an Of Montreal feel to the overall sound, but aside from that, it is a really solid pop record that more people should know about.
Top jams: “Wound Up,” “Oh My,” “The Big Bang Jump!,” “If You Don’t Know by Now,” “Q & A”


Synchronicity – The Police (A & M, 1983)
I’ve loved The Police’s singles for many years now, and I’m not sure why I waited until the summer of 2009 to purchase my first proper album of theirs. I feel like I picked the right one to start off with. The mix of obviously 80s style pop with reggae and maybe even a little bit of art punk makes for quite an original album, even if things end on a string of forgettable notes. And, Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland are fantastically tight and talented musicians (in case you didn’t know). “Synchronicity I” and “Miss Gradenko” were pleasant surprises, “Synchronicity II” is badass, duh, and “King of Pain” is by far the band’s best song. A point of interest: I never liked “Every Breath You Take” until now. The song hits its wonderfully high point when the nice backup vocals enter for its outro. A choice move.
Top jams: “Synchronicity I,” “Miss Gradenko,” “Synchronicity II,” “Every Breath You Take,” “King of Pain”

Pitchfork Music Festival @ Union Park, 7/17/09 - 7/19/09

For the forth time in five years, two weekends ago I took the plunge and attended the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival. There are two things Pitchfork Media do better than everyone else. I have mentioned the first on here before, and that is making year-end music lists. The second? Putting on festivals. Granted, I have never been to a summer music festival that wasn’t put on by Pitchfork, but I have no desire to go to any other. They have the right idea. Anyway, here is my account of the splendid weekend that actually didn’t turn out to be the best P-Fork fest yet, but was still totally great.

I made the trek out to Chicago beginning early Friday afternoon with my bud Phil Dokas, who allowed me to tag along with him for a very cheap price. We arrived at Union Park just in time for the beginning of Tortoise’s set. As much as I love The Sea and Cake and especially John McEntire’s drumming, I was bored by this band’s experimental, instrumental post rock or whatever (though, I will admit they are better than most of the bands considered to be in the same genre).


Yo La Tengo were atop my list of bands I was stoked to see, in spite of the fact that they played a total snoozer of a set at P-Fork ’06 (when they only played material from I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, before that record had even been released). The band were way more exciting, energetic and charming this time around, and it really helped that it was a request set. “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House,” “Mr. Tough” and “Sugarcube” were the ultimate highlights of the night, and they even treated the crowd to a new song from their upcoming LP, Popular Songs, and it was nice. The only two disappointments were that they played all eleven minutes of “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind,” (which, yes, I know has an awesome title, but the song is WAY too long), and that they didn’t play “Little Eyes.” I’ll take what I can get!

I had never heard The Jesus Lizard before, so obviously I didn’t care to watch them. This is when I met up with my hosts for the weekend, Alec Jensen and Emily Powers. Then, I eventually made my way over to the Built to Spill set. I only love one of their records, Keep It Like a Secret, but I REALLY LOVE IT. Quite possibly my favorite guitar album of all time. This also being a request set, I expected a lot more, but they played maybe three or four songs from it, tops. Bullshit. There were two major turn offs to the set: (1) no one but Doug Martsch seemed to care that they were there, and (2) TOO MUCH JAMMING. Major letdown.


Saturday was the day of the fest that I was least looking forward to. I mean, of course I was glad to be there, but there was the least amount of bands I cared to see that day. I started things off by checking out Cymbals Eat Guitars, whose 90s emo-ish Pavement record is totally good, and they did not disappoint.


Fucked Up was my #1 of the day, and easily put on the most entertaining set of the fest with Pink Eyes’ variety of stage antics and all the badass stage diving. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and their poppier and less dramatic version of The Smiths was cute and fun, and they were obviously floored by the crowd size for them, which makes me like them even more. The rest of the day was pretty hit-or-miss, and I only caught snippets of Ponytail, Yeasayer, Lindstrom and Matt and Kim.

I worry that The National are becoming a fratty dad kind of indie band. I love Alligator and Boxer, but I will not be surprised if I don’t end up liking the next one. Anyway, they were mostly boring, except for when they played “All the Wine” and “Apartment Story” back-to-back.


Sunday was by far the day I looked forward to most, and though there were a few bummer moments, it was fantastic. I got into Dianogah the summer before I went to college and was glad I got to see a few songs. Blitzen Trapper were perfect for a sunny afternoon at a music festival.


Women completely nailed it and put on my favorite performance all weekend. Their really noisy and messy yet somehow beautiful and catchy songs came across amazingly in a live setting, surprisingly so considering how intimate every performance during the weekend was not. They played most of what I wanted to hear from their 2008 self-titled masterpiece (“Lawncare,” “Black Rice,” “Shaking Hand,” “Upstairs”), plus four new jams, all of which were exactly what I was hoping for. The whole thing was perfect, really.

I didn’t pay as much attention to The Walkmen as I should have, but this was my fourth time seeing them live. They played some favorites from last year’s You & Me, plus some good oldies like “The Rat” and “Louisiana.”


I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome Vivian Girls were. Seeing them helped me to finally get their reverb-y pop punk. What I wasn’t surprised by was how flawless Grizzly Bear was. They might have felt a lot of pressure being the band to lead into The Flaming Lips’ set, but actually, they were even better. Both the Yellow House and Veckatimest songs were incredibly tight and either were exact duplicates of their album versions or had a completely different but awesome feel to them (usually due to Chris Bear’s more ridiculous drumming live).

The Flaming Lips were number two on my list of bands to see before I die, so needless to say, I was incredibly excited to see them. Unfortunately, and maybe because I was really worn out, their set was a major disappointment. They had an hour and twenty minutes and only played I think nine songs. They played boring versions of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1” and “Fight Test” that each featured only one instrument, basically. This also was a request set and they made us suffer through two new songs, neither of them being very good at all. Wayne Coyne talked and talked and talked in between each song, wasting a lot of time. They only played “Race for the Prize” from The Soft Bulletin. My major complaints end there. They did play “Bad Days” and “She Don’t Use Jelly,” which pulled them a little out of the shitter.

So yeah, the fest wasn’t perfect or anything, but per usual, it was well worth the money, and I will probably be there again next year.