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Cursive have recently been preparing to enter the studio to record the follow up to 2006’s Happy Hollow. In the mean time, they have been a bit busy giving the fans a few chances to check out some new material both live, on the road, and recorded before the record comes out.
Cursive recently recorded sessions at Daytrotter and WOXY which can be heard here and here. On Monday the 19th of May, they also recorded a live session for Sound Opinions in Omaha. The show will be available as a podcast within the next couple weeks, so keep an eye out because we all know art is hard…boom.
Come on Sufjan do a cheer! Yay! No? Well, alright then. We’ll just pretend you aren’t staring off into the distance like we don’t exist. Asthmatic Kitty is probably best known for the music of (and co-founder) Sufjan Stevens, who better get cracking on his 50 albums in his lifetime project he set for himself some years back. We only have two states since 2003, and in that a b-side record for one of them.
The Music:
Paul Simon - Graceland
I wanted to do a whole post dedicated to this, and I will most likely some day, but I want to say now that this is seriously one of the best records within the last 30 years. I’ve had it for a bit and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until a friend recently had really sworn by it and couldn’t stop listening to it that I really gave it a shot further than I ever had. It’s very close to becoming a perfect record for me, which there aren’t many of, and it is my favorite solo work Paul Simon has done to date. The album has the 80s sound, slap bass, and as you all know, a sort of an African theme about it (though only a few songs really embrace that), but I’d expect nothing less. I look forward to more time with Graceland and I still find secrets hidden within with each listen. So do yourselves a favor and delve in headfirst and don’t look back (if you haven’t done so already).
From the blog on the Spring Fresh myspace:
“For the month of April, Kevin Drew will be known by his hip-hop name Spring Fresh.
Word.”
End Scene,
Dan Tana
Weezer has really impacted the music world by delivering some of the most powerful and inspirational albums in the 90s. Either of those records are almost always on top 100 lists, and on top of that, they invented a sound and look that to this day is emulated among many kids and musicians. They then made Green Album, which was pretty good, though many felt let down by it. The rest we all know and needs no further discussion, as I’m sure you all have done already a few times over lattes. That brings us to the present, which brings us to the up and coming Red Album.
We don’t usually just do track reviews on The Schmarm, but I felt the need to talk about “Tessellate” by Tokyo Police Club this fine day. So this will be more of a discussion than a review. I heard this song a week ago or so and since I’ve come to enjoy this little number. I’m not one for the catchy novelty bands that come and go, and/or the “animal nouns” of the word, or bands with the name “Black” in it, but the new single “Tessellate” has something to it. It still has the catchy dance hand clap CMJ buzz band qualities to it, but it’s also well delivered. I’ve always said that it’s all in the delivery. You can get away with pretty much anything as long as you deliver it well. As far as I’m concerned that’s how bands like Sonic Youth and Pavement made their career. Their unconventional ways were done with so much flair that you had no choice but to love it. Thurston Moore even said once in an interview he did with Pitchfork regarding Daydream Nation: “We’d been listening to the mastertapes, and it’s ridiculous how crude the mastertapes are; specifically myself. Did I really accept that for myself? It sounds like I’m wearing a boxing glove on one of my hands.”
It amazes me how many phases of music there were in one decade. We had the tail end of glam rock, grunge, lezbo rock, ska, techno, swing, pop punk/emo punk, rap rock, and we even managed to squeeze in the macarena. How did it all get squeezed into one decade? It’s a mystery we’ll never solve, but I’m just glad I was there. I still think it’s funny how indie rock just didn’t exist when I was in high school and how much fashion has changed in the last ten years. I’m that old proud guy who wishes he could swear his era was the best, and it was in some ways. It got pretty ridiculous, and the crap that we listened to for the most part was pretty bad, but in that full circle kind of way. Only ten years later and indie rock exists, and it feels musicians are trying to make good music again, and the variety of music is wider as a whole. I wish we had the music scene we have now for my youth, but alas, I’ll have to settle with, “We took this trip to Garden Grove, it smelled like Lou Dog inside the van, oh yeah.”
I decided not to count records that I got into after the 90s by bands like Neutral Milk Hotel or Sonic Youth. I was not very with it for the 90s, but I was there blasting KROQ, donned in wife beater, dangling cigarettes from the lips. These have no bearing as far as what one would read in some other schmarm magazine, where one would find either Wowee Zowee or Ok Computer as number one. That being said, below are the records that I just liked at the time in the 90s. All this really does is make me feel old and I am honestly ashamed of some of these. Stop judging me. Don’t look at me!
This is my props to the ladies for some random videos I like. The last video counts due to Elvis’s jacket. My last ”Video For The Vault” post was for best representation of ”Mesculine Sword” videos. I know you’re at home and/or work and have just hit a good wave of You Tube videos, well here are some more.
Feist - My Moon My Man
Maybe one day someone will explain Mesculin Sword in full. The basic idea of it though is insanity and sanity in actual form. It’s in a building (a hotel or resort) and every year switches location. Upon entering Mesculin Sword, you will be greeted by a beautiful receptionist and the room will be pure white. From there you can visit different rooms, such as the Misconception Room, Confusion Room, and the Cocaine Room. You can stay there if you like, but you wont know you’re there because time and you don’t exist there. That’s the super short summary of it, and like I said, one of these days we’ll get around to fully explaining it.
These videos (including one of my all-time favorites, Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker”) are all great and represent a little bit of Mesculin Sword…because after all, sleep does look like it.
Animal Collective - Peacebone:
David Bazan has been one of my favorite artists over the last few years, and has been making solid records for years. He started back in the early 90’s playing drums in a band called The Guilty, later changed to Coolidge, and from there has had quite the career. Aside from Pedro the Lion, he also has played drums and sang back-up vocals for Seldom and has also played with Starflyer 59 and released the drum and synth project Headphones, including other solo material.
We did it! We have made it to the end of 2007, which proved to be a way better year for music. Pretty much the only thing 2006 delivered was Ys, The Avalanche and Shut Up I Am Dreaming. This year we got a plethora of new great records, and those of us who are aren’t googly crying babies, actually had a top 10 worth mentioning without struggling to get there.
We decided instead of arguing about what was the best as a whole without all killing each other, we’ve decided to all just list our favorite records of 2007 separately. Some are the same and some aren’t and either way you get to hear an opinion on each and why it’s there and all that fun.
Indie Schmarm’s top records of 2007 (Sorry, no Panda Bear. We aren’t puppets):
The Music:
Mae - Destination: Beautiful
I decided to not be elitist and hip, and pick a record to spite my friend Mike, and because it’s just good. I was there, you don’t know! Mae is actually one of the best live bands that I’ve ever seen. Yes that’s right, ever. Of course they can’t win over Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Ugly Casanova, Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom, but who can? Perhaps reviving some of the dead maybe. Mae though really shocked me when I first saw them at the Roxy years ago and was blown away by how good they were. Admittedly there are a few lyrical dips in Destination Beautiful, but who cares? We’re all having a good time. It is also very unfortunate that they have since slowly formed into what is known in the industry as “dog crap”, but I will always enjoy Destination Beautiful and so should you.
It is the mission of this 30th Century Man to bring to the readers of Indie Schmarm albums from the past with a story behind them. The tragic commercial flop of a next-big-thing band, the unsung masterpiece of 1968, the daring departure from an artist’s catalog on which he plumbed the depths of a dark side he’d never been before or since…these are the types of albums I will bring to you, dear reader, and together we will celebrate them.
Album: “Twin Engine” by Twin Engine
Recorded/Released: 1971/2004
Obscurity Factor: VII
Sunset Rubdown have made their triumphant return to Daytrotter.com! As some of you may remember, all the way back in 2K6 they dropped by the Daytrotter studio to record some raucous renditions of older tunes and previewed the then-previously-unreleased “Winged/Wicked Things”, which of course went on to become one of the highlights of this year’s superb Random Spirit Lover. This time they’ve given us yet another brand new jam, “Idiot Heart”, as well as a slower, somewhat ballad-ish run through of “The Mending of the Gown” and the live show highlight “Three Colors” (originally released in two light, breezy parts on their self-titled EP, now somehow transformed into one six-and-a-half minute, vaguely bluesy rager.)
And, of course, it’s all free. God bless Daytrotter and the horse they rode in on.
Yours,
Torquil Crossingham
As much as all you slutz hate Britney, jeesus christ she knows how to work a song. Her newest album Blackout features the single Gimme More, and I shit you not, I have never in my life heard a catchier chorus, it’s just stunning really. I mean, I thought Toxic was amazing, but this song just screams club-whore-dance-your-fucking-ass-off-show-your-pune-whore. If you can’t get with this song there’s something wrong with you, it’s fucking brilliant and serious kudos to the writers/producers, I half-stock salute you. Quit the Britney hating, she’s still got my heart.
When one thinks of Thanksgiving, one usually thinks of turkey, stuffing, gravy, and the works, but when you have some of The Parson Red Heads over for Thanksgiving, it’ll usually end up being something like a breakfast, a tofu scramble with pumpkin pie and other desserts, toped off with mimosas. As you all may or may not have noticed, I’ve been mentioning The Parson Red Heads a lot recently on Indie Schmarm. I honestly believe they are the next ones to get some serious attention from the “Silverlake scene” and actually already are. In the last year or two, Cold War Kids and Silversun Pickups came out of the “scene”, and the Red Heads are right on their tales. They’ve played shows with Cold War Kids and other bands such as Cursive, Maria Taylor, The Autumn Defense, The Mother Hips, and in August played The Sunset Junction.
Not too long after touring wrapped up for Broken Social Scene’s last album (the ridiculously beautiful mindfuck that is their self-titled record) reports came in that hinted at a hiatus. Hiatus. That word scared the ever-loving crap out of me. I stopped bathing. I started having conversations with myself in Hopelandic. I nearly shaved my entire body with a dry razor and dug a tunnel to the center of the earth. ‘Cause a hiatus is never a hiatus, it just means “don’t be surprised when we cash in for a reunion tour in 15 years.” Hiatuses are band cancer.
I’m a busy, busy man. Between golf appointments at the country club, box seats for every local cock fight and charity beer-pong tournaments, I don’t have a lot of time to hunker down and listen to music. I do, however, make it a point to set aside a few passing moments every so often to take a good look at music. Therefore, I now present you with a brief analysis of some choice album covers. In today’s post we shall take a walk through the fertile fields of hard rock…
Artist: Sunset Rubdown
Release: Random Spirit Lover
Label: Jagjaguwar
Rating: IX
So how does one write a proper review for their record of the year? One could sit and type and erase, type and erase and try to do it justice and at the same time try to convince the world to hear Random Spirit Lover by Sunset Rubdown and agree with you. One could apply the laws of opinion and it might become a bit easier, but not in this case because this review is fact in a lot of cases. I therefore allow myself full snooty rights, complete free reign to say what I want, and that the statements made for this review will be true for the most part and not opinion, and im ok with pissing people off as a result. What if someone said Abbey Road was “just a decent record”, they’d be wrong wouldn’t they? Opinion at a certain point becomes obsolete even though they are entitled to it.
Here at Indie Schmarm we often will sit around and rate records on our own for hours going over what a perfect record is and what that means to us so on and so forth. Some perfect records that have been included in these conversations have been In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, Kid A by Radiohead, Highway 61 by Bob Dylan, Lifted by Bright Eyes, Velvet Underground and Nico, Broken Social Scene’s self titled, Perfect From Now On by Built to Spill, Moon and Antarctica by Modest Mouse, Ys by Joanna Newsom, Astral Weeks by Van Morrison, and you get the idea. Not too long ago I decided to make In Reverie by Saves The Day a perfect record. I still sometimes feel I might have rushed that decision, but I’m sticking to it as of now. It’s one of my favorite produced records as well as having really really solid songs. The influential factor though hasn’t been as high as other past records, so it can be debatable. The old ground zero fans of Saves The Day will tell you that nothing is hardly worth listening to after Through Being Cool and later fans will claim In Reverie is the best record they’ve made and Sound The Alarm is a dip (I am one of those later people, though I still really like Sound The Alarm). Stay What You Are seems to be a good middle ground everyone can agree on for the most part.
Artist: Tegan and Sara
Release: The Con
Label: Vapor/Sire
On their 2004 breakthrough, So Jealous, Canadian twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin locked in on the sound they had hinted at on 2002’s If It Was You and left behind the Ani-Difranco/Lillith Fair acoustic folk that made up their first two albums. The duo’s latest offering, The Con is another work of “Grey’s Anatomy” ready pop perfection.
The Rentals’ Matt Sharp, who had lent the keyboard work that defined So Jealous’ sound returns here, but only for bass duties that he shares with AFI’s Hunter Burgan while the girls handle the keys themselves. Sara continues to expand on some of the more non-traditional song structures that she explored on their last album and succeeds here with “I Was Married” and “Relief Next to Me” but misses with songs like “Knife Going In” and the almost annoying “Like O, Like h”. Tegan, however, plays it safe with the 4 chord verse-chorus-verse approach and produces many of the album’s finer moments (“The Con”, “Call it Off”).
This year thus far has given us some tasty selections in the smorgasbord of music. We here at Indie Schmarm can agree that it’s surpassed 2006 already in music, and we are only half way there. 2006 however did bring us some great records, including one of the best records ever made in general, Ys by Joanna Newsom. So far we have gotten some new Ryan Adams, Of Montreal, Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, Wilco, Joanna Newsom, Modest Mouse, Feist, Arctic Monkeys, and more.
We have yet to receive anticipated records from such artists as Kevin Drew, Sunset Rubdown, Jonathan Rice, and The Good Life. Some of us have heard a few of these already, and let it be known that everyone is in for a treat.
That being said, we would like to raise our glass to some of the records released already this year. Listed below is an ensemble of 15 records we love and recommend that have come out so far for 2007.
Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
(Merge)
There are those few in the music industry that really work for it, regardless of not being taken that seriously at times. I refer to the gentleman in Wolf Parade. Dan has been nearly as busy as Spencer in other musical endeavors, Spencer however having the edge with Swan Lake, Sunset Rubdown and the occasional Frog Eyes. It’s rare one dedicates himself to do the amount of work Spencer does, following in similar foot steps to musicians like Ben Gibbard and the entirety of the Arts and Crafts crew, and I love every bit of it.
Broken Social Scene’s resident scruffy dream hunk, Kevin Drew, has posted a new b-side from his upcoming solo album Spirit If… up on his Ye Olde MySpace Profile. The song carries the quintessentially Drewish title of “Cocaine Skin” (it may be no “Gang Bang Suicide” but I’ll take it.) Personally, the tune puts me in mind of drifting down the Mississippi in a canoe, circa 1920, lying on my back, gazing up at a dreamlike canopy of stars that gradually morphs into a game of Asteroids, all while my Cajun man-servant, Pickle Joe, cooks up a mean cabbage soup on a little stove at the other end of the canoe (it’s a very long canoe.)
Spirit If… drops like a lysergic water balloon on September 18th via Arts & Crafts.
Yours,
Torquil Crossingham
Artist: Ryan Adams
Release: Easy Tiger
Label: Lost Highway
Ryan can hardly do wrong, even when he does horribly wrong and has his watch illuminated to show 4:20 on the cover of Easy Tiger, his 9th release since going solo from Whiskeytown and first release since 2005 (aside from his 8 albums worth of material released on his website not too long ago). He does do right though by having Steven King write his press release and getting the name for the record when he asked a girl to dinner and she said, “Easy tiger”. From what I’ve heard and read around town, this record hasn’t been very well received, but I’m going to change that by saying I think this record is great. It starts off great and ends great. You even get an extra song titled “Nobody Listens To Silence” with the UK release. How special is that? Ryan decided to also bring back a bit of the wailing vibrato voice throughout the record, which makes me feel just as warm inside as soft voice Ryan whispering sweet nothings into my ear, which he actually gives us a little of too.
Kevin Drew is my hero. This is why (sizzle). September 18th, Kevin Drew will deliver his first solo record to us…probably adorned with porn and pot made ribbon. Since the release of Broken Social Scene’s self titled, he has been touring with his circus of band members and doing who knows what with what and who. As reported earlier, he also had been working on his solo record over the last few years, and recently it seems has completed it or is near done. The first track released is titled “Tbtf” appropriately meaning “Too Beautiful To Fuck”, and was given to us recently for our listening . I love Kevin Drew and his lyrics, but he does push the boundaries even for me sometimes. “When I was a kid, you fucked me in the ass” is about the extent I can handle, but “you’re too beautiful to fuck” might even bring it over the edge. Looking at the track titles:
(Red Rockets Glare)
Frankel is Los Angeles based singer-songwriter Michael Orendy’s musical outfit and is named after the behemoth head gear he was forced to wear as a child. Lullaby for the Passerby is his first full length and the follow up to last year’s Chatterbox EP. It also serves as the first release on producer Raymond Richards’ (Idaho Falls, Mojave 3, Brian Jonestown Massacre) Red Rockets Glare label, named after his West LA studio where The Broken West, The Chapin Sisters and Ferraby Lionheart have all recorded.
Artist: Bright Eyes
Release: Cassadaga
Label: Saddle Creek
Being adored by critics (except those fucks at Pitchfork) since the age of 20 can take a toll on an artist and put extreme pressure on them, but Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst seems to be doing just fine though as he delivers yet another breath taking work in the form of Cassadaga at the still very young age of 27.
Cassadaga is Oberst’s third full length since the breakthrough of 2002’s flawless Lifted or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground and continues to see the artist distancing himself more and more from the documenting of his own inner turmoil and widening his lyrical scope to focus on the world around him. Named after a small community of psychics in Florida (which will probably see the largest influx of kids with a-line haircuts since Oberst sent them all to Omaha five years ago), Cassadaga focuses on many of the spiritual themes that Oberst discovered upon a trip there.
When an artist passes away, especially early on in the career, labels go crazy trying to scramble everything they ever did for years to come. Soon to be released, hear Bradly Knoll taking a shit! Due out this summer! When one is obsessed with an artist, it isn’t so bad and you can always appreciate the attempt.
Hey dudes and what not. Jonathan Davis and Meg White are gonna release another record! HEY! Zing! I will run this lame joke into the ground. Ok, Jack White will be releasing another record with Meg White on June 19th. Who’s excited!? Not us so much, but there will be some good songs and in theory we’re all extremely pumped.
Artist: Arcade Fire
Release: Neon Bible
Label: Merge
1. French.
2. Guitar noise lead at 2 minutes 20 seconds. Right now.
3. Is it right? I’d kind of like to know right now. On a time clock.
4. Whale organ mating sounds.
5. Hurray for Win saving the day.
Artist: Bright Eyes
Release: Four Winds EP
Label: Saddle Creek
The once one man (plus whatever friends were near) band of Conor Oberst now officially includes longtime stage and studio contributors Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, and their first offering as a trio is the six track Four Winds EP.
Ryan Adams is about to do it again. Hmm, now what could that be? Yes, that’s right, release yet another album. Although he threw up 8 albums worth of material on his website not too long ago, and released 3 albums in 2005, he kicks off his first record of 2007, June 5th, titled Easy Tiger. It’s a bit late in the year to start releasing records for Ryan Adams I know, but he’s still got months left until the end of the year. The tracklist order hasn’t been set in stone, but goes perhaps something like this?:
Yesterday, February 26th, www.nme.com posted the Arcade Fire’s upcoming release Neon Bible for all to hear. The highly anticipated album will be available for streaming in its entirety
for one week before it is released in the UK on March 5th and the US on March 6th.
Newsom yes. Poo no. I almost went into something, but I realized that I already started this off weird, so I’m just going to tell you guys that Joanna Newsom is going to release an EP in April.
Four for you Glenn Kotche, you go Glenn Kotche!!! Hey guys and gals. There’s something in my veins…is it bloodier than blood? No, it’s a new Wilco record! Hurray! May 15. Bam. Nonesuch. What’s up. New Wilco record titled Sky Blue Sky.
As we kick off the new year, we have high hopes for some good music in 2007. Well, at least I do. Talking around, and being a connoisseur of music as one would hope running the huge conglom that is Indie Schmarm, I found others are excited as well.
As Dan already stated, this year was in fact a disappoint to most of the music scene, with bands like the Arctic Fuckholes not missing an indie convo around the globe, there wasn’t much hope for music in 2006. Alas, a few managed to break through into my tiny, leaking heart, but really, this year was nothing special, so I will be quite brief.
Read the rest of this post »
Let’s start the new year by loving me. And these people….
This year was kind of disappointing honestly. I currently don’t care about TV On the Radio, some of the hip-hop, nor techno. Then again, I really haven’t jumped in and swam the mile. This year for me was more going into and exploring a bunch of records previously released that I feel I missed, or that just need to be listened to. This next year is promising though with hopefully releases from Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, most Saddle Creek artists, Wilco, Of Montreal, Modest Mouse, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, etc. Hopefully maybe a Headphones record and some more Ryan Adams seeing as he was dry for 2006…oh yeah, except for his 8 albums worth of material released on his website. Last but not least, we can all cross our fingers for any Broken Social Scene release.
My top 5 records of 2006:
![dc303[1].jpg](http://www.indieschmarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/dc303[1].jpg)
![ryanadams400[1].jpg](http://www.indieschmarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/ryanadams400[1].jpg)
So Ryan Adams probably would break records if there were a song writing contest. Heck, you could actually break half his records and have enough to still fill your 12 disc cd changer in your dads Escalade. Zing.
So Ryan released 8 albums worth of who knows what on his website today. Look out Soof, Ryan is out of his mind too. I mean Soof is about to release his 5 album Christmas box set soon…it’s a close call on the winner of amazing insanity. Ok well most of the Ryan Adams’ songs are probably one take ghetto up in the house songs, but I’d expect nothing less from Ryan.
In other related news not pertaining to any other news prior to this news, The Postal Service have struck again. They have recorded a version of John Lennon’s classic, “Grow Old With Me.” The song will be available for download December 10th, and all sales benefit Amnesty International’s Human Rights efforts. You can also download the song now for one whole dollar here at the Amnesty website. This contradicts it being available December 10th doesn’t it? I just report the news though. You can hear a preview if you don’t want to commit to the full dollar too.
![The_Nightmare_Before_Christmas_by_bloodbarbarian[1].jpg](http://www.indieschmarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/The_Nightmare_Before_Christmas_by_bloodbarbarian[1].jpg)
Happy late Halloween peeps. I have the T.V. on here at the office, and just as I was typing that last sentence, a Ross commercial appeared promoting Christmas. It’s November 1rst. It’s a race apparently to see who can get the first Christmas ad out the door. Ross loses out of principle.
I’m going to keep this brief. Read the rest of this post »
Hey, I’m Sufjan Stevens.
I’m going to release records on my co-owned label. Oh, by the way I’m going to make a record for each state. Oh, by the way I’m going to put out records in between not having to do with that. Oh and they’ll be better produced than most records. Oh, and I’m going to play most of the instruments on the records. Oh, and I’m going to do tours with 15 musicians.
Artist: The Decemberists
Release: The Crane Wife
Label: Capitol
Rating: +3.3
There was a land a long time ago filled with marigolds, sabers, dirigibles, palanquins, silk Arabian threads, keening bells, papery skin, and things of that lot. It was a happy land where one could run, play, and sew freely in the fields without worry of dragon or troll. We were all fond this land with its hot summers and cold winters. The Decemberists haven’t left this land. This is their land and hopefully will always be their land. The Crane Wife is nothing short of this land, and delivers exactly what you’d except from them. This era of The Decemberists finds us smack dab in the 1700’s, with weevils and all, well at least in the artwork. But hey there is a story from the 70’s…so there’s that.
Artist: The Hold Steady
Release: Boys And Girls In America
Label: Vagrant
Rating: +3.1
“There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right. Boys and Girls in America have such a sad time together.?
And with this reference to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Craig Finn begins yet another venture in the world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll that The Hold Steady inhabits. A world that, when described by Finn’s barked vocals, sounds as harsh as unyielding as the world around us, but still leaves us feeling hope of redemption, or at least that there’s a light at the end of tunnel.
But before looking at this latest release, let’s establish a couple of things. First of all:
THE HOLD STEADY ARE NOT THE “SAVIORS OF ROCK AND ROLL?.
Artist: The Album Leaf
Release: Into The Blue Again
Label: SubPop
Rating: +2.5
www.thealbumleaf.com / www.myspace.com/thealbumleaf
Today I’ll be reviewing the latest release from The Album Leaf (Jimmy LaValle) “Into the Blue Again”, his 3rd full length (SubPop). If anyone is qualified to make this review, I would have to say it’s myself. Being an adamant fan of The Album Leaf for many years now and owning every possible release, I’d like to say I know the range of Jimmy’s talents, where he’s been, and what he’s capable of. I’ll be honest, this is going to be closely scrutinized review as my faith has been questioned in regards to The Album Leaf in these past few months of anticipation of the release.
Admittedly, from the few tracks that were pre-released on MySpace I had the absolute lowest expectations from this release, less the track “Red Eye” which sounds stunning. Before my listen, I was affraid he had blown it, but let’s see how he faired.
Artist: Saves the Day
Release: In Reverie
Rating: +4.5 (on a scale of -5 to +5)
So, Here’s the deal right now. I ranted a little just now about the music industry, and how music is viewed in general. It’s the same argument we’ve all heard and I want to put more time into it so I don’t sound like the cliched music critic/schmarm taking a stab at pop culture. I don’t mind pop culture and success in music, but there is something to still be said on it and now wasn’t the time to really get into it. In summary it was really something tailored around how “they say it’s murder on your folk career to make a rock record with the disappeared.”
Maybe you’re out from school early. Maybe you stopped at the local Barnes & Noble, perused for about 45 minutes and bought some music magazine featuring promising articles about bands you hear are important but you can’t muster the energy to care about, all so you can awkwardly “flirt” with the girl at the counter. Lord knows you don’t have anything better to do. Maybe you smoke a cigarette in the parking lot, eyes darting furiously, paranoid a stray teacher from school will catch you and decide to out you and your torrid love affair with Marlboro Lights.
Maybe you sit back in your ‘93 Volvo, not yet ready to go home (or anywhere,) and listen to this wee little ditty over and fucking over because, once again, you really don’t have anything better to do.
Yours,
Torquil Crossingham
Artist: Cursive
Release: Dorothy at Forty
Label: Saddle Creek
Rating: +3.5 (on a scale of -5 to +5)
Oh man I had to wrench away from The Avalanche and set some time aside for Cursive. I’ll be back Soof, we have more things to go over you and I. I will always put time aside for Cursive though, and most Saddle Creek artists for that matter. Cursive, all band members, all instruments used, gentleman, and some lovely lady by the name of Nancy Vogt who played horns throughout the single, rock me out on Dorothy at Forty. Please also waltz me up. I don’t want some regular waltz though. I want to be rocked to the core whilst I waltz.
Artist: Headphones
Release: Headphones
Label: Suicide Squeeze
Rating: +5 (on a scale of -5 to +5
Headphones is Gold Bond for your soul.
Artist: Thom Yorke
Release: The Eraser
Label: XL Recordings
Rating: None
It’s Thom Yorke. Go buy the record. Do you really need a review? I didn’t think so.