12.25.06: 2006 Review Recap
These past few month I did keep writing, regardless of what you’ve seen here. But selfishly - unless you played ‘I Spy’ with my name on www.artistdirect.com - i’ve been keeping some things from you. I know, I’m sorry, it was wrong. But in honor of the holidays I am corralling it all here for you in one easy-to-read section, newest first. Don’t say I never gave you nothing.
11.21.06: Brand New + The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me +
When I first heard Brand New, I was sitting shotgun in my girlfriend's Toyota Cressida. I was a freshman in college, back home for Thanksgiving. She was a year younger, still stuck in high school, and the distance was hard on us. She said I was sure to love this song, and keyed up "Soco Amaretto Lime," the acoustic finale to BN's debut Your Favorite Weapon. As it ends, singer Jessie Lacey repeatedly shouts "you're just jealous cause we're young and in love." In that moment the distance and the fighting didn't matter, we were together, young, and in love.
The release of The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me arrived almost five years from that moment. I've graduated college and moved on to the frantic Manhattan working world. Brand New released Deja Entendu in 2003 and has continued to expand their sound from its early pop-punk/emo origins into something much denser and darker. Brand New's earlier work was adored by fans for capturing the epic feelings of the small moments in life. Can their new work connect in the same way after a three-year hiatus?
Many a punk band is striving for a more mature sound these days, but that usually just means they pen the same troubled tales in the past tense. That's not the case here. With The Devil, Jessie's lyrics have become increasingly poetic, opting for the abstract over the obvious. While earlier songs like YFW's "Jude Law and A Semester Abroad" were blatantly bitter send-offs to ex-girlfriends, new tracks like "Archers" and lead single "Sowing Season" deal with subjects like paranoia, politics, and the afterlife. They come through in lines like, "'cause the God I believed in worked on a campaign trail." There are still songs about love and girls, but just like life, there are more subjects to touch on after high school.
Brand New certainly didn't have a sophomore slump. Deja Entendu was highly acclaimed, a far more intricate and mature album than high-school penned YFW. The Devil is the next step in that progression, with the band shredding almost all elements of the dreaded emo tag. Vinnie, Garret, and Brian meld the distortions of Radiohead and Digital Ash-era Bright Eyes with the loud/soft dynamics of grunge bands. Then there are the new wave elements, and the old emo influences like Sunny Day Real Estate and Inside. But, unlike some of this year's identity thieves -- see The Killers, Jet -- Brand New meld all their influences to a sound that is, well, brand new. All while still sounding like themselves.
Even with all the abstract, Brand New still finds the direct line to your heart. Lacey's lyrics will creep up in the slow songs and hit you hard on the rockers. "No matter what they say, I am still the king," Lacey tells us on the ominously layered "Degausser." The message is clear: Brand New is back to reign. With a batch of songs like these it will be hard to argue. - David Pessah, kNewIt06
11.14.06: Plus 44 + When Your Heart Stops Beating +
I was never the biggest fan of blink-182. There was always something about them that irked me. When Your Heart Stops Beating, +44's debut album, assures me that that something was Tom DeLonge. Tom was one-third of blink's trio, and when he ditched to do his arena rock thing with Angels & Airwaves, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker recruited two more guitarists and it was on. +44 is blink minus Tom's whine and cheese.
When Your Heart Stops Beating sounds a good deal like Blink's last -- and best -- album. That self-titled release was darker than anything they had ever done before, their first step on the way to that "mature" thing bands always strive for in their later years. And it found Mark taking a more vocal role, with songs that were dirty and dark instead of silly and poppy. Tom was already being phased out.
+44 is the completion of this trend, and with Mark at the vocal controls, this new batch of songs stays in familiar territory: relationships. But it's more than just boy-meets-girl, gets-dumped-by-girl. Mark weaves themes of missed opportunities, new desires, and hope for the future into the trio of swirling guitars over Travis' always-rolling drums.
It's clear these veterans are comfortable in their musical styles, as both Tom and Mark settle easily into the melodic pop they have always created. But while Tom faltered in his grandiose ambitions, +44 are not trying to reinvent the wheel. They don't need to. Here, they improve on what they know, and strike a sound that should please fans of blink, as well as punk fans who, like me, disliked Tom's nasal vocals. When Your Heart Stops Beating proves that sometimes breakups work out best for the dumped. - David Pessah, kNewIt06
Play: Plus 44 - Cliff Diving
Play: Brand New - Degausser
10.10.06: Cold War Kids + Robbers & Cowards +
The other day, as I was listening to Robbers & Cowards, it occurred to me that I would have been a completely different music fan without the Internet. Sure, I was still a fanatic even when I just listened to the K-Rock, watched MTV and MuchMusic, and read Rolling Stone. I liked the one semi-obscure band all the medias championed and had a ton of CDs arrive by mail from BMG music service before downloading was all the rage. But when I think about all the bands I missed that I would have liked – Pavement, Sunny Day Real Estate, Built to Spill – I am sure I definitely would have missed out on the Cold War Kids.
It's not that Robbers & Cowards is an easy album to let go once you've heard it. Its angular garage sounds and frontman Nathan Willet's oscillating vocals are intriguing enough to warrant many a repeat listen. Opener "We Used to Vacation" pits morality against booze over the loud-soft garage rock that Nirvana mainstreamed. "Hospital Beds" crescendos from a piano ballad into thumping drums and whining guitars. My personal favorite, "Tell Me in the Morning" finds the guitar licks paralleling Willet's vocal path about putting off dealing with life. All throughout these songs, the Cold War Kid's brilliance show in bass lines that propel songs along, infectious vocal bridges and some of the more crafty lyrics this year.
I may never have gotten my hands on this album back in the day. The bloggers love Cold War Kids now, but the magazines still don't give them too much press. There isn't a radio "hit" to be found. Even with its abundance of standout moments, the "rawk" is still slightly too raw to be sold to the mainstream. Robbers & Cowards, with all its intricacies, falters in random spots, leaving portions of songs, and sections of the album, slightly grating, repetitive, or boring.
Even with their missteps, I still like what I've heard of these Cold War Kids. Robbers & Cowards is an ambitious production, but this is one example where the separate pieces are more engaging alone. So I'm glad there is the blog phenomenon and I caught their debut, even if they still have a way to go as artists. A consistent album is just outside their reach. This is a band best listened to in small doses, one song at a time. Thankfully I can do that on my iPod these days. - David Pessah, kNewIt06
10.03.06: The Killers + Sam’s Town +
Way back, early in the summer of 2004, I found an advance of Hot Fuss lying around my intern desk at FHM Magazine. I popped it into my computer and instantly fell in love. That disk would be my crew's summer soundtrack as we drove all over Long Island, frequenting parties and bars, and proclaiming how we were "On Top" along with singer Brandon Flowers. Hot Fuss, even though it brandished style over substance, possessed a ballsy bravado that perfectly meshed with summer decadence.
A year later everyone knew Mr.Brightside or was smiling like they meant it. Two years later all the things the Killers have done led to platinum plaques, high profile quarreling with other bands, and a new moustache for Mr. Flowers. Unfortunately, it has also led to a new sound for the foursome. Instead of continuing their nu-wave revival flight, featuring futuristic interpretations of Duran Duran and The Cure, The Killers decided to hop on the Springsteen and U2 train to Sam's Town. This is their attempt to create soaring anthems with universal meaning and lyrical depth. And while Sam's Town proves they still can't do substance, this one's lacking in style too.
Sam's Town is not without it's redeeming qualities. "Bling (Confessions of a King)" has some flash to it. As does "The River is Wild," with its alternating chunky punk guitar riff and keyboard breakdowns. Still, both songs find Flowers questioning or apologizing, even if I do wake up with their melodies in my head.
In a 2004 review of Hot Fuss, Anthony Miccio of stylusmagazine.com wrote "those of us who enjoy a good nu-wave dance party should appreciate these flashy drama kings before drugs, professionalism or a desire for respect renders them truly intolerable." While not truly intolerable, Sam's Town is a step in the wrong direction for these dancers.
On "Bones," Flowers sings, "I never had a lover/I never had a song/I never had a good time/I never had hope." If that's true, Hot Fuss must have been erased from his memory. If I erase it from mine too, and let Sam's Town stand alone, I do find myself singing along. Hot Fuss set the bar high in my mind, and though Sam's Town doesn't reach that mark, this album is still filled with songs that get just a little more addictive with each listen. - David Pessah, kNewIt06
10.03.06: The Decemberists + The Crane Wife +
While wandering through a park in my hometown this summer, I came across a confederate civil war re-enactment camp (oddly enough, since I live in Long Island, NY). Twenty or so full-grown men and women were dressed in linens, brandishing bayonets, cooking stew in the ground, and wholeheartedly refusing to admit we now live in the age of iPods and MTV. If they did, be damn sure one of the Decemberists' soldier songs would be blasting out from the flaps of their tents.
The Crane Wife is old school done modern. For a present day rock band to base an album around a Japanese tale of a crane becoming of woman would seem ridiculous enough -- then they throw in a 12-minute epic about a sailor's journey and some civil war era character sketches. But this is the Decemberists, who've built a critically acclaimed career off singer Colin Meloy's epically verbose historical tales. And this new batch is lighter on SAT verbal and higher in instrumentation, giving their song about kidnapping a landlord's daughter at gunpoint -- one of the album's best -- its well deserved mass appeal.
The Decemberists wrap their stories -- deceptively full of sordid themes like murder, rape, and other disgraceful behaviors -- in airy packages of jangly acoustic-electric guitars, light percussion, and a few oddball instruments like Wurlitzer and bouzouki. Each song channels the gritty underbelly of civilizations past. If my history classes had been anywhere near this entertaining, I wouldn't have slept through most of them. And you shouldn't sleep on this album. - David Pessah, kNewIt06
09.12.06: TV On the Radio + Return to Cookie Mountain +
Where's Cookie Mountain? No, don't click on Mapquest or Google Maps. The only way to get there is to sit down, turn on your iPod and listen to TV on the Radio's latest effort. It's a state of mind, and it's worth the trip.
TV on the Radio is one of those bands that relish their spot as outsiders and thinkers. Their previous releases -- two LPs and two EPs -- were bizarre and sometimes brilliant mixes of varying genres. There was post-punk, there was electronica, there was free jazz, a cappella, trip-hop, spoken word -- you name it, it was likely to be found somewhere on one of these albums. The band, formed in 2001, seemed to be aimlessly experimenting, searching for what struck the right chords. Sometimes they found these chords, like on "Staring At the Sun" from their 2004 release Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. Other times, they did not fare as well, offering up noise instead of brilliance.
Return to Cookie Mountain¸ TV on the Radio's first major label release (on Interscope) is the soundtrack that opens the doors to a fictional wonderland. The name seems straight from a fairly tale, but the songs are both dangerous and vibrant. As you travel through the album, different notes, chants, and noises pop out of the loops of distortion in the background. Narrating your journey is singer Tunde Adebimpe's uniquely soulful voice, his vocals at times thrust front and center, at other times just serving as melody in the background. This world's swirling soundscapes play like an organic version of Radiohead's computerized distortions.
The lives lived on Cookie Mountain, Tunde tells us, are filled with hopeless romantics of all kinds, from the tragic loser to the reckless predator. In "Hours" we learn of lives of overconfidence and shallowness. And "Wolf Like Me" finds someone out on the hunt for love with the mentality of a werewolf. Somewhere else on the mountain, devils and pirates rush around playhouses with broken spirits. On "Let the Devil In," Tunde warns that all must repent or "when we get to heaven's gate we're not getting inside." But most of the time, Tunde is the observer, viewing the world as he brings us through it.
The songs are so rich in detail that there are new things to be discovered on each pass through. Producer David Andrew Sitek does his best to fill every bit of empty space with a loop, beat, keynote, guitar slide, or sample. You truly have to return to Cookie Mountain many a time to take it all in.
And this time TVOR didn't make a mess. Instead, Return to Cookie Mountain finds them discovering the formula that brings their multi-layered tracks from crash to classic. "We did believe in magic, we did believe," Tunde sings on the album's closer, "Wash The Day." That magic is abundant on Return to Cookie Mountain. - David Pessah, kNewIt06
Play - TV on the Radio - Hours
10.03.06: JET + Shine On +
The thing about Shine On that you have to understand right off the bat: It's not a bad record. I'm not saying you'll love it either, but there are no tracks that will have reaching for the fast forward as you moan, "this is absolutely horrible." Jet really seem to like The Beatles and AC/DC, and like Oasis before them, the results of this retro fandom output plays more like a tribute bar band and less like original recordings. Read on if you're just looking for some aural pleasure, even if it's only another slice of the same old.
Here's the thing about the pleasure that Shine On provides: it feels best out of its element, those times when you are distracted enough not to really focus. Play it in as background music to a backyard party, as another CD to talk over on a long road trip, or the soundtrack to a night of drinking games. Songs like "Bring It On Back," "Stand Up," and "Holiday" have enough crunching guitar licks and screamed vocals to drape a false energy over their lyrics.
On that note, Memo to Jet: Write about something. The band's best songs from their debut Get Born had a purpose. They were either asking "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" to an attractive female or calling another a "Cold Hard Bitch." Shine On, by comparison, is just a mess of halfway thought out ideas with no thesis. Sexual come-ons, political statements, unwarranted enthusiasm, and pronouncements of excess all jumbled together, even on the same tracks. They are thematically schizophrenic at best, vapidly pointless at worst.
It's clear here that Jet did not set out to make history -- at least I hope not. What does come out of their sophomore effort is a very listenable album with no depth to make you want to care. Shine On is acceptable for the superficial listener, not so much for the lyric-posting MySpace crowd. - David Pessah, kNewIt06