Yearly Austin Music Fest Underway

If you are looking for a broad overview of bands and sounds from South-By-Southwest, many participating labels have begun posting MP3 samplers or streams from their attending artists. For those less concerned with acquiring free and legal MP3s, grey-market compilations are also sprouting up like weeds. Best stick with the official stuff. If you are looking for collectibles, rarities, and vinyl exclusives, the list of items to be made available at this year’s Record Store Day seems to be growing every day, and includes its fair share of awesome: exclusives and/or first looks from Elvis Costello, Ani DiFranco, Peter Gabriel, Bright Eyes, Modest Mouse, Pavement, REM, Velvet Underground, John Lennon, Flaming Lips, and even Negativeland’s favorite band Neu!

Among the other big indie releases, there is a crop of new stuff from many acts who have long been just one massive song from leaving the indie world behind for mainstream success. It should only be a matter of a few weeks to see if any of these upcoming releases have that one big tune in them or not:

One of the “Most Likely To Succeed” candidates with the biggest momentum behind them is Brooklyn transplants The National, who used the Fallon show to preview a track from their upcoming LP High Violet. If they are right on the cusp of breaking big, and this could well be the disc that does it.

Band Of Horses has tasted a bit of mainstream success, yet also retained much of their indie cred. For my money, they have so far been able to deliver at least 2 or 3 major winners, and almost no duds, on each of their first two albums. Now they are ready to drop their third LP, Infinite Arms, which is their first for major label Columbia, and represents the end of their relationship with super-indie label Sub Pop. While they make music one might be tempted to call modern classic rock, there is just enough punk edge and Americana undercurrent to their work that they could easily veer well-off their beaten path in either a noisy or twangy direction while still making a Band Of Horses record. It will be interesting to see where they take things if not simply forward.

The first promo MP3 from MGMT’s sophomore release Congratulations has begun making the rounds, and I gotta say, it portends good things. MGMT is one of those bands who either is going end up able to deliver the goods a la Beck (which is to say consistently, and for a long time), or they are destined to clog used CD bins with an over-hyped, half-baked, and otherwise jinxed 2nd disc that functions as a weak goodbye to a cruel world. If I had to guess, I think they are more likely to actually keep the quality high and the work steady than to collapse under their own bloat

The next album from Mathew Houck’s project Phosphorescent is called Here’s To Taking It Easy. It appears to be an album of original material, and if the first songs floating around are any indication, it is a return to a bit more light-hearted, country-tinged fare, but still immediately identifiable as Phosphorescent material. I myself enjoyed the more ethereal moments on their last few albums of original music, but for the most part, I think Mathew Houck is maturing and getting better at song craft and is finding his true voice as time goes by. Hopefully this album is a sum of all his recent progress.

In the classic rock realm, this week sees the blue-ray release of The Who’s mockumentary The Kids Are Alright. Fan reviews have been good, and even though loving The Who requires one to buy reissue after reissue and repackage after repackage, the extras on this disc – including commentary from Daltrey – appear to make it worth picking up. It may just be good enough to redeem their Super Bowl performance.

Finally, word is out that their is at last to be a Rolling Stones reissue laden with extras from the vaults surrounding an era in which they were (again) peaking. Rolling Stone magazine reports that the reissue of Exile On Main Street not only includes many of the known out-takes of the period, but that Mick Jagger himself went back into the studio to finish and touch-up a few of the fragments left behind, creating some quasi-new, yet classic, Rolling Stones material. I may be biased in favor of the indie and alternative stuff of recent vintage, but I started out with the basics, and consider anything from the Stones in that era well worth a listen. I simply hope that this round of Rolling Stones reissues are given the same treatment. The last round added nothing but 3 or 4 bucks to the price of the albums. One can always dream!

Washington gridlock: new cause celebre for the left.

It is tempting to say that NOTHING should be done to make it easier for our government to do ANYTHING. One need not have a fetish for small government to fear a highly partisan political class even more free from restraint. Hopefully, for those on the left today, they would need no more convincing on this point than to be reminded of how they felt in 2005 at the prospect of George W Bush having an entirely free hand to act as he saw fit within the Executive, and finding his legislative agenda unrestrained by any fear of the political minority. I personally don’t feel the Democrats in Congress during the years of GOP/GWB trifecta did anywhere near enough to scrutinize and restrain that man and his minions, but only an unrepentant Nader voter of 2000 would dare say there was no meaningful difference between the Dems and Repubs during that era.

I am unhappy that Bush got away with much, but it could have been much much worse for the political left and for the nation if things had been even mildly easier for him to operate when the majorities favored him. Ideally, those on the right are now in a position from which they can easily understand the wisdom of The Gang of 14. If you are a far-right knuckle-dragger who can’t see why the Gang of 14 ultimately did you a favor, I would at least suggest you ask yourself if you can look at the major flip-flop of 2008 and say with a straight face that George W Bush ever enjoyed a clear mandate from the electorate? If you think he did, could you possibly deny that by the same criteria, President Obama’s is even bigger?

Would removing the barrier of the filibuster result in policies likely strengthen Obama’s chances in 2012? Would a weakened filibuster in 2005 resulted in freer hand for GWB to act in ways that would have helped the GOP’s chances in 2008? I don’t believe so, either way. Every time the GOP loses big nationally, their fringe kooks claim credit, just as the wacko lefties now want to take credit for the loss of Ted Kennedy’s seat (and want to be taken seriously as Kingmakers once again as we head into the 2010 election season.)

I would suggest that much of the threatened punishment that was supposedly going to be dished out by the loons of the right on the GOP members of the Gang Of 14 for blocking The “Nuke-lee-er” Option never came to pass. McCain didn’t lose in 2008 because he didn’t override the filibuster in 2005. If the Dems take a drubbing in 2010, it won’t be because of a tantrum of the left-wing of the party over the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. The elections of recent years have been so close, it is true that the fringe may indeed help one side or the other to just get over; but as usually happens, the fringes always over-play their hand. The key is for those of us who can disagree on individual issues – or choices of our opponent’s coalition partners – to keep in mind the fringe’s tendency to overplay hands.

Imagine the fringe you dislike most, either now or 5 years ago, and picture them having an even freer hand to act just as the checks and balances protecting you are watered down even further. Your gains will never outdo your pains, and we as a nation, are nowhere near being in position to take up a debate with those kinds of stakes. Let’s not lose sight of this debate, and let’s not fear talking about the big systemic problems hobbling the nation, but let’s not take up the checks and balances at the moment when divisions are most stark and forced. We are beset by a hyper-partisanship and political uniformity which benefits the parties far more than the people. That is precisely why we should do absolutely nothing which might make it more likely that the party line enforcers will have such a heavy, blunt instrument with which to operate upon our body politic.

PIL's Metal Box

Naturally, alongside all the plundering of the past are the revivals of many long-defunct bands who just now are putting their reunion projects together, or are establishing new eras in their band’s history. This week we will cover a good number of reunions from classic New Wave/No Wave 80′s/90′s alt rock outfits, plus some of the other big releases either now in stores or on the way.

Public Image Limited – Of all the defunct New Wave/120 Minutes-era bands to influence modern music, few could be said to have had a bigger impact than John Lydon and his post Sex Pistols project, PiL. While the Pistols reunion shows sporadically surface, the first PiL shows in nearly 20 years finally took place in the UK this past December. No wider release from the reunion is in retail stores per se, but official, multi-disc concert recordings from most of the shows were put online almost immediately. While I personally would have loved to see an early lineup reunion, the current PiL leans toward the Happy?/9 lineup. From the look of the setlists and sound of the arrangements from the shows, this revival’s aesthetic will skew that way as well. While we wait to see what fruit will be born of the reunion, there is very noteworthy re-issue of PiL’s classic Metal Box album on CD. This album has been reissued in several formats as both Metal Box and Second Edition through the years, but this issue is the first attempt to faithfully recreate on CD the original packaging and format of the original albums-in-a-can vinyl.

This Metal Box reissue splits the album over 3 CDs, much like the original vinyl was split over 3 discs (the first Metal Box reissue and all Second Edition reissues fit on one CD.) It is a bit gimmicky since there was an audio fidelity rationale for splitting the vinyl over 3 discs at 45rpm instead of 2 discs at 33rpm (the rationale was BASS – the only rationale ever needed, really), and no such fidelity gain is to be had from using 3 CDs. The Indie Rock Object Fetish rolls on! Let’s just hope the youngins picking up this disc spend as much time focusing on the supreme awesomeness of this seminal release (in my top 3 albums of all-time, and on occasion, the #1.)

Killing Joke – While Killing Joke has said their Last Goodbye several times before, the “Death And Resurrection Show” carries on as they now have their original lineup reunited and prepping an album for early 2010 release after playing a few reunion shows over the last year or so. The major news in that is the return of original drummer Paul Ferguson and bassist Martin ‘Youth’ Glover , who after leaving Killing Joke, went on to become one of the top-tier producers of the 90′s and Oughts (he produced The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony and U2′s under-rated cover of Night And Day, among others.)

Youth takes over after the untimely death of KJ’s second bassist, Paul Raven, who also played on the original reunion albums (both excellent, including the inspired stick work of Dave Grohl who sat behind the skins on the self-titled disc from 2003.) As sometimes happens, if you don’t know Killing Joke’s catalog, and approach it now, it may not leap out like it did at the time since their work has been so thoroughly co-opted since their initial prime (Nirvana’s Come As You Are is simply a slowed-down run on KJ’s Eighties, as far as I’m concerned). That shouldn’t dissuade you from going back and working your way through the catalog as a warm-up for their next material. Their melding of reggae and punk with the big tribal beat and angular guitar riff is really something no one has been able to touch, and not for a lack of trying.

Swans – While head Swan Michael Gira took to the web to trumpet the fact that THIS IS NOT A REUNION, it is tough not to think of new Swans material as just a continuation. While some of the late-period, less noisy and confrontational Swans stuff is, and has been, out of print for a long time, much of their material has remained in print and has aged quite well (check what used copies of Love Of Life and White Light go for on Amazon, y’all!) The most interesting aspect of the next-mach Swans is the absence of icy chanteuse Jarboe, who was key to the sound of the last albums of Swans’ original run. Fans of Gira’s Angels Of Light will likely find some continuity with the next stuff since the new Swans lineup shares a few members with the final Angels lineup. Hearing the nightmare contra-bass of Michael Gira propelling Swans material again is something a wider audience might be ready for. Certainly if Gira’s promotion of Devandra Banhart and Akron/Family is any indication, tastes of a wider audience may have finally caught up to his.

Xiu Xiu – Speaking of Michael Gira and wider audiences, one of the (rare) lighter moments to be found on the last Xiu Xiu album was his duet on the cover of Queen’s Under Pressure. With Gira playing Bowie to Jamie Stewart’s Freddy Mercury, their surprisingly faithful run at the old rock nugget might prove a foreshadowing of the upcoming Xiu Xiu release, Dear God I Hate Myself, which – despite the overwrought title – is said to be as close to accessible as Xiu Xiu has yet come. I myself cannot imagine them ever really breaking through as they have been historically, but from the sound of the first MP3′s from the new disc, it is possible they may be seen as more approachable by those with a sense of adventure. Xiu Xiu’s catalog can be a bit of work to break through with, but if you can hang with it, there are usually significant rewards. I still think Boy Soprano to be one of the best songs of the Oughts.

Out this week: Two big releases this week worth a listen…first is Teen Dream from Baltimore’s Beach House. Said to be a branching out from their first two (excellent) albums, this release’s first single Norway shows them still in top form and well-suited to the addition of organic drums and bass. Perhaps not the most upbeat band in the world, but their music has that rare ability to be rewarding as background material and close-up in headphones and given full attention. Seek out their free and legal MP3s for a taste and see if you can move ahead with them. Also out is a new album, Realism, from indie pop alpha’s Magnetic Fields.

Their last album Distortion was a most-faithful homage to the Jesus And Mary Chain’s stone cold alt.classic Psychocandy, whereas this plays as a counter-point to Distortion, relying entirely on organic instrumentation. For you conservative-types, you might have a tough time balancing your feelings here since their excellent leader and head songwriter Stephen Merritt is gay, yet also, he has been the object of a PC smear campaign in which – for nebulous and ultimately unconvincing reasons – he has been labeled a racist by East Coast Media Elites. Tough call. If you care to just focus on the music, homeboy writes excellent pop songs that will earworm you before you know what happened.  By most accounts, the new album is up to form.

Vampire Weekend set for a big 2010. Photo courtesy SHANE MCCAULEY

In the same way that MA’s newest Senator prompted Glen Beck to wonder if a dead intern might not be in future for the Senate’s newest alpha, one has to wonder if Vampire Weekend intentionally bared the uncomfortable reality of their collective id in their choice of cover photo. I believe it was Sting who said “Many miles away, there’s a shadow on the door of a cottage on the shore of a dark Scottish lake.”

So, 2010 has already sent an indie hero up the pop chart, causing one to wonder if the heydays of under-the-radar indie rock/rap greatness are over, and if the Heartland Values-types are finally gonna get in on the action. The year’s crop of new releases has some big names front-loading the calendar, so anything is possible. Are these releases big enough to prompt WalMart to make room on their precious shelves? Only time will tell. Either way, here are a few highlights from the recent release calendar to keep on your radar:

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach: Back from the dead is Damon Albarn’s project Gorillaz with a full album of original material. While he had said he was done with the Gorillaz project, and had moved on to both a short Blur reunion, and a nice alt.supergroup outing with The Good, The Bad and The Queen, the new Gorillaz sees new collaborations with old partners (De La Soul and Paul Simonon both appear on this new one), as well as new collaborations with the likes of Lou Reed and Bobby Womack. The first single is out this month, the whole album comes in March.

Spoon – Transference: Another indie band expected to break large, Austin TX’s Spoon launches their first of the new decade after seeing much from their past catalog on many high profile “Best Of” lists from the previous decade. This self-produced album should keep Merge’s years-long hot streak hot for awhile longer yet as the early reviews are positive, if perhaps showing some indications that this is the end of a phase for the band.

EELS – End Times: A return to the racks for Mark ‘E’ Everett’s EELS project, the second such release since 2009′s return.  This new one was recorded on 4-track and is generally thought of as true-to-form in that it covers such weighty material as Everett’s recent divorce. Yours truly has long hoped another album for his ‘E’ project might find its way to the surface one day, but given that EELS enjoyed significant success and the poppier E stuff came and went with barely a whimper almost 20 years ago, I am prepared to take the light out of the window and give this new one a try.

First Aid Kit – The Big Black And Blue: While much love went to Fleet Foxes’ debut a few years back, I thought the quickie little cover of their Tiger Mountain Peasant Song by First Aid Kit was where attention might better have been aimed. It could be just me, but family harmony vocal arrangements just seem sweeter than even the best the professional musicians and singers put out. This upcoming album is the Swedish sisters’ first full-length album, and follows up a fun little EP from a year or two back which showed huge potential. They are still quite young, so it may not pay to get too worked up over this debut, but in time, I gotta think these two are capable of jaw-dropping work. Only time will tell.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMrqBldlqzA

Owen Pallett – Heartland: Pitchfork gave much love to this first release by Owen Pallett under his own name. Lest ye “Heartland ‘Mericans = REAL Mericans”-types read too much into this album’s title, you might want to check out some of his work under the name Final Fantasy as a guide to what sorts of materials Mister Pallett works with. I am not sure his aesthetic needs will meet your definition of REAL music or GOOD music appropriate for dancing. It isn’t that it is impossible to dance to this stuff, especially if your hips don’t lie about orchestral arrangements, but I am not sure one can both dance and properly take in the lyrics at the same time; and if one is to err, they must err on the side of being good and scrupulous content consumers. You don’t need to buy any new music just to have something to dance to, y’all!

Johnny Cash – American VI, Ain’t No Grave: The final installment of Johnny Cash’s towering final work with Rick Rubin is to see the light of day in early 2010. It is easy to wonder if he would have ever deviated from this stripped-down style had he lived, but I don’t think anyone could make the case he had yet found any limit to its ability to completely re-frame him, and the power of his core approach to music and to the world. The track list for this album is up on Amazon, and looks like it is as good a mix as the other American Recordings albums, and also is said to include his final original work. If you haven’t given these albums a try yet, I am not sure what you are waiting on. You still have time to start with the first one and work your way up to this, the resolution work of a long, wonderful series.

Ted Nugent "Dixie-Chicks" Obama to the max.

After all, we are a nation at war.  This man has the audacity to undermine the authority of the Commander In Chief in a public forum like this. Imagine the comfort and aid this gives to Al Qaeda!  Obviously, I’m just reversing what many on the right said about the Dixie Chicks and their President Bush remarks.

I know that the folks who wanted the Dixie Chicks strung up for disclaiming George Bush as a Texan at a concert in the country of our closest ally will not flinch; they will reflexively see that Mister Nugent’s music is dashed from the dozens of station playlists still playing it! When they see him hawking his new album or a Venison Spice Rub out of the trunk of his car, they will surely taunt him with cries of “Shame Shame Traitor Shame!”  Those  Americans who taught the Dixies what’s-what are sure to not want to be seen as hypocrites, and surely, too,  they will tell Mister Nugent in no uncertain terms that his best course is to Shut Up And Sing (how one does both at the same time is for the Motor City Madman to figure out…come to think of it, was he really from the city of Detroit? He seems kinda country to me…but I digress.)

I am not sure what charge Mister Nugent would have the President jailed on. In his statement he merely states the opinion that President Obama is a communist, and that the President’s middle name is Hussein. Perhaps there are counties in Northern Michigan where these are jail-worthy offenses; if so, then let their varying sheriffs greet Air Force One when it arrives in their county, and let Nugent Justice take its course. Until then, we will – if only for consistency’s sake – have to wait to jail, and otherwise depose, the elected leader of the country until there is some actual proof that he has done something requiring him to be put in jail and removed from power.

In the meantime, we will wait for Heartland Values to enact their swift and sure justice on Mister Nugent for his denunciation of the Commander In Chief during a time of war.  Yeah, right.

Portland's Jona Bechtolt of Yacht

On with the countdown:

10. Jeffery Lewis – Em Are I: No real musical chops to speak of.  Not trail-blazing.  The album title sucks, and indeed, Mister Lewis comes off as an over-simplifying snotty little smug artiste-type; but there is more going on than meets the eye for this moonlighting graphic novelist . The songs are deceivingly tight and there are many an earworm here that will sneak up on you over time.  He is no Elizabeth Cotten, but pickin’ grows on you too. (Politically, not going to be a big favorite for those on the right, but I have to guess if you love music and have a right-wing orientation, you already know how to separate the politics out.) Perhaps for the uninitiated or disinclined it may prove enough that he is really just a big fan of music who happens to be having fun making it. Key cuts: Bugs & Flowers, If Life Exists?

9. Franz Ferdinand – Blood/Tonight: I prefer the dub version (Blood), but only because the original songs are so good. It may lack the killer single their first two albums came with. There is more to their white-boy post-punk/funk formula than one might have suspected early on. If you are so inclined,  try digging up their live run through Blondie‘s Call Me from the 2009 charity compilation War Child – Heroes, Vol. 1. It fills out an iPod playlist nicely.

8. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life: Together Through Life compares favorably with his recent output as far as general sound and arrangement goes. I myself think this album catches him having some fun, taking some chances, and making one of the better albums for a long drive than anyone did this year (all albums should be road-tested to fully grasp their value.) As a bonus, this year actually saw two Dylan albums of new material; and while Together is the heftier of the two offerings, you’d be wrong to write-off his Christmas album as just another confused failure of self-editing. Many of the songs fit his recent focus on popular American music of the first half of the 20th Century, and his performances are inspired and appear to be a labor of love. Key cuts: My Wife’s Home Town, Must Be Santa.

7. Handsome Furs – Face Control: There were some harsh reviews of this disc, and while I admit the concept underpinning the lyrics and structure on this release is lost on me (something about post-Communist EU/RU – I think?), I didn’t buy this expecting a post-punk revival’s stab at besting The Wall (it sounds more like the Cars circa 1985 than high-concept Pink Floyd circa 1980.) The pop and synth backbone here will be familiar to anyone who picked up their previous album, and while this might be a shade or two behind Plague Park for overall power, I think time will be more kind to this album than it will be to At Mount Zoomer, the sophomore effort from singer Dan Boeckner’s other group, Wolf Parade. Key cuts: I’m Confused, All We Want, Baby, Is Everything.

6. El Perro Del Mar – Love Is Not Pop: Something about the Scandinavian weather must make humans dour. On this release, Ms. Assbring is clearly loosening up and having a little more fun with things, but there is still that sad undercurrent to the whole album. It is nice to hear her broaden her sound, although in this case “updating” her sound means moving from middle-ages hymns and fifties pop to an SPF-90 take on early 80s synth-funk. She is very close to putting something big together out of a synthesis of all these things. I hope she ends up finding the wider audience she deserves. If you can, try to track down her split single with Lykke Li from 2009 Record Store Appreciation Day as well. Key cuts: A Better Love and (At Your Best) You Are Love from the single.

5. Various Artists – Yeti 7: This was a pretty good year for compilations. Dark Was The Night was an excellent cross-section of the NPR-wing of Indie music, but the Yeti magazine‘s sampler CD #7 single-handedly put together the definitive comp of indie-Indie, lo-fi stuff so big this year. Yeti collections are usually excellent, and many swear by Yeti #1 (which is huge), but this has come to be my favorite (for now, anyway.) Key cuts: Dutchess and the Duke – Living This Life, Woods – Get Back.

4. Girls – Album: I think the comparisons to Elvis Costello are fair and unmistakable, but it does these younguns a disservice to force them to have to compete with that. They may not prove capable of it, and they wouldn’t need to be in order to have a run of top-flight albums. I would also be very surprised to find out that they were huge devotees of EC – the similarities seem more accidental than anything. They certainly don’t seem to obsess over the songs, and at the end of the day, these awesome little pop performances feel as easy and organic as EC’s early stuff felt wound tight and hammered out. The non-album cuts from the singles are up to the quality of the album material. Key Cuts: Lauren Marie, Lust For Life, Hellhole Ratrace.

3. St. Vincent – Actor: Watching Annie Clark play this material on Austin City Limits might be the best intro to it – especially if you want to match the songs to a visual of the artist. In the live setting, you get a little better sense of some of the tension and drive of this album. This isn’t noisy stuff, nor does it meander into any prolonged white-girl funk workouts, but it does “rock” and it does “groove” and can get angular without losing focus. Better yet, throughout its various stylistic turns it leaves plenty of room for the feminine touch that distinguishes it, and in doing so, makes the whole feel most refreshing in an era in which there are just too many middling she-folkies and mopey synth-ballad girly bedroom albums out there. Better yet, in following her nascent career, one definitely gets the sense she has only begun to develop her considerable powers and talents. Most won’t get this good at their peak. Key cuts: The Strangers, Marrow.

2. Wooden Shjips – Dos: Simple variations on a theme, often cooked up low-n-slow from a single groove; never given any sort of bombastic, cathartic release or even covered up by fretboard-workout soloing or ponderous lyrics (no small feat for a band who have had the term “prog” used to describe them!) I don’t hear “prog” so much here; there is too much real groove to their stuff. It’s big and warm and analog, and on Dos, they pick up largely where their debut left off, getting tighter and more singular in pursuit of everything the cold laptop clinicians hooked up to Garageband are doomed to miss. At the same time, they may be a little too blurry and psych at points to appeal to the lovers of 6-string-razor garage band purists either. Take it out on the open road and give it some volume and you’ll either get it or you won’t. Key cuts: Down by the Sea, Motorbike.

1. YACHT – See Mystery Lights: Portland, Oregon punches WAY above its weight when it comes to its music scene, and what is great about it is the fact that they are not locked into any particular sound. For all the great alt.rock stuff and folkie stuff to come from Portland in recent years, YACHT seems to borrow little from those genres. If there is any Portland connection to the content on this album, it might be the politics. For all the rancor of the GWB years, it is surprising how little great art was made in reaction to the highly polarized political environment of the decade (I admire the Dixie Chicks for not making nice I guess, but in eschewing “nice”, they opted out of the only thing they seemed to do even partially well; but I digress.) Perhaps in time, the current administration will inspire a great creative spurt of one orientation or another since GWB’s really didn’t. In any event, if no other album springs forth in reaction to the GWB years than See Mystery Lights, then at least the limited responses to his terms will have finished strong. While decidedly unsympathetic to the Red State ‘Murika worldview, YACHT also tends to avoid the sorts of ABC After School Special morality plays which tend to make a lot of politically-focused stuff so bad. I think they avoid a lot of the cheap/easy/obvious stuff for the right reasons (to put it in their terms, because to do so “is boring, it’s boring, it’s boring!”) The politics are more nuanced than the simple “right = bad, left = good” variety; and I think I would have loved this album had it been about nothing. (Lest ye think it is all political, they did put out an all-instrumental version of the album for free download, and I think it holds up well enough sans lyrics to be quite pleasurable in that form as well.) Politcs aside, the music here leaves behind some of the more abstract and noisy elements found in previous YACHT releases, and does so without making it just another poppy dance record. The addition of Claire Evans as a full-time partner, plus the statement of YACHT as a true collaboration, is the real revelation. It’s fun to dance to, the arrangements are smart, and the flow of the song sequence has yet to produce even slight fatigue to my ears, this after months of end-to-end playback.

—-

Up next, best reissues and songs.

The White Stripes

In this case, we are gonna go over Favorite “Indie” Albums of The Oughts. The term “Indie” is a bad catch-all at this point to describe what had once been called either “underground”, “alternative”, “modern”, and/or “college” rock, among other names. Since those names have slackened so greatly in how accurately they describe their subjects, we will use the catch-all function of the Indie label to our advantage and simply say it is rock music originally released on an independent label.

For fans of that music, these 10 years have been about as good as any 10 years in music. True – much of what is called Indie is highly derivative of garage rock, new wave, post-punk, and the FM stuff I recall from the early 80′s. Love for albums like The Strokes Is That It? being shown by Rolling Stone and Pitchfork show just how little current Indie bands are penalized for being derivative wholesale. I freely admit that I like so much of the Indie output because it is so well aligned to the music that I bonded around the time music became my primary connection to the outside world I hoped to one day inhabit. So again, we are talking favorites here. Whether history deems any of these releases to be big-time highlights, I cannot say and wouldn’t dare predict. That said, I think these are all 100% safe purchases for anyone wanting to get caught up on what has been going down.

1. White Stripes – Elephant: As one of our resident libs, I want to promote diversity, so I am going to limit groups to one album in our top 10, and the White Stripes are a band likely penalized by this (git the squirrel guns teabaggers!) This album is an end-to-end rock masterpiece, and single-handedly remakes the case for the potency of a primal six-string. That Jack White is, by first-training, actually a drummer, it isn’t surprising that his playing is so propulsive and basic to the tempo and flow of this album. It is no slight on Meg’s drumming to say she is largely not a keeper of the beat, but the beater of the beats that need more sound than the guitars can punch up. If you don’t like rock-n-roll in its stripped-down, electric-blues form, this isn’t for you. I am not sure rock-n-roll is for you if you don’t like this album.

2. Arcade Fire – Funeral: Arcade Fire’s short, but impactful, career has been a clinic on how important the song is. It is possible to be very innovative with sound and still produce nothing of any import to anyone. On the other hand, if the songs are there, you almost have to try to sabotage the recording to remove its value. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Arcade Fire break big like REM and U2 did since they basically started their careers as far along as those bands were by the time they put our Fables of the Reconstruction or War. Comparisons to late-period Talking Heads aren’t all that far off either. Lest anyone think Funeral was a fluke, Neon Bible has shown itself, with time, to be just a few hair’s length behind Funeral in overall quality. Had Neon Bible been the debut, it might have taken a little longer to get them to their perch, but they woulda arrived either way.

3. Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary: If you can’t take affected male vocals, much from the indie world will feel alienating to you, and this album is probably going to be a bit polarizing if your concept of “good singing” is the kind of thing that will impress a choir director or get you on American Idol. Both singers here are distinct and bring these songs to life, with Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock’s production feeling organic to the soul of the songs themselves. Might be work for some, but the payout is hefty.

4. Elvis Perkins – Ash Wednesday: Actor Tony Perkins’ son Elvis first put this collection of wistful folk-rock songs himself, and with time, it eventually found a much wider audience. Not blues, but like the blues, finding a sort of sweetness and happiness while experiencing dark moments (Elvis’ mother perished on a 9-11 flight) is what gives this album the ability to stand up to heavy rotation over a long period. The follow-up, while a little more straightforward and uptempo isn’t bad either.

5. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?/Icons, Abstract Thee: The song titles are pretentious, ponderous, and artsy, the songs themselves frequently namedrop this fringe author or that, and the soul-baring content may seem a bit overwrought at a distance, but those things end up being a feigning move by leader Kevin Barnes. These songs are poppy, ecstatic, and groove. It ain’t Prince homage (that came on the most recent album Skeletal Lamping), but you’ll hear a Prince fan in action. Actually, you’ll hear a fan of all types of rock with a near encyclopedic sourcing of music reference material. The follow-up, The Sunlandic Twins, is another near-masterpiece too.

6. Panda Bear – Person Pitch: One of the leading alt-lights, Animal Collective’s Panda Bear produced a sprawling, a 60′s Brian Wilson-channeling homage to the big questions facing someone of his age from his generation. Even so, it is impossible not to feel warmed and immersed by this cycle of bright and affirming songs.

7. Sleater-Kinney – All Hands On The Bad One: The breakup of SK in the Oughts is a big loss to alternative rock. They were easily among the most talented bands playing in the Pacific Northwest during that region’s elevation to hotbed status, and yet, mass acceptance seemed to pass them by. They have their harsh, angular, and aggressive moments, and compromise was never a part of their ethos, so perhaps that was too much for those who found the classic rock affectations of the Pearl Jam/updated-classic-rock stuff. All Hands finds SK at the peak of their power, and while the albums that follow are also excellent, this is the keeper from the new millennium.

8. Cat Power – You Are Free: A transitional album between the raw guitar-piano stuff around which her legend was built, and the more straightforward band arrangements to follow. No matter the arrangement, Chan Marshall’s ability to produce songs that are by turns both haunting and thrilling is easiest to access on this album. After this, she took a hard turn towards the Starbucks-rock of the late-Oughts which might be easier on the ears of the casual fan, but lack the power found here.

9. Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs: Multi-instrumentalist and musician’s musician Andrew Bird takes his amazing songcraft on a run through rock here, producing some of the strongest songs in his catalog, including his stone-cold classic Fake Palindromes.

10. The Good, The Bad, And The Queen – The Good, The Bad, And The Queen: With Blur’s future uncertain, Damon Albarn’s output in the new millennium was mostly channeled to his side projects The Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad and The Queen. A UK supergroup of sorts, this very British album holds far more universal appeal than Mr. Albarn may have suspected or intended. It’s a bit grey and dour in key and word, but the underpinning is bass and world-drum driven in such a way as to keep a slow-burn groove under the whole thing.

The Obamas last Thanksgiving.

If there has been one wonk or wag who’s had the story right from the beginning, they likely were drowned out or buried by the nearly infinite amount of speculation-heavy and (ultimately) fact-free coverage blaring out of whatever your news venue of choice is.

This period of national giving of thanks, in which our better impulses call us to be introspective and to meditate on just how grateful we should be for the bounty we enjoy (even now), we instead will have more lack of variation on the old themes as hashed and re-hashed by the usual suspects. It goes without saying that a reasoned, honest discussion of the merits of the many, and varied, ideas on reforming the delivery of health care to our population will be absent from the headlines. Fear not, for during this time of national rest, there is all but zero chance that any high-profile media outlet will disturb your state of mind this holiday weekend by making your thin about the nuances of the discussion. You will get to hear about the death panels, the salaries of every HMO executive on the continent, Gulag Proctologists, and potential candidates for Senator Snowe’s upcoming primary-that-may-happen-or-may not. You are sure to hear much of a majority who expects a minority to pass on using the only formal input they have on the process, a minority who believes that anything their base dislikes necessitates a super-majority to pass, and just how lucrative the pork is for those who know how to play them off of each other.

Of course, if you have a bad case of the flu or an ear infection, you might not hear much of anything with all that gunk in your head. For you, take the stuff that helps you sleep and for your sake, I hope you sleep a good long time and wake up feeling great after all of this is over.

For the rest of us  who would love to see real discussion, real debate, and a real effort on our behalf by those who are supposed to represent us, it will be tempting to hide from any possible contact with any news from the nation’s capitol. I can understand you imposing a news blackout in your homes so that you can enjoy the holiday; and I don’t blame you if you stretch that blackout long beyond Turkey Day, Black Friday, and the days beyond.

Grim as the national politics have become, they only get worse if we allow our cynicism to get the best of us and cause us to disengage from the process and from each other. Some day we are going to have to table the particulars long enough to deal with the over-arching dysfunction that keeps sending us back to this maddening place.

At some point, we need to decide on just how sacred some of our sacred cows really are. The Way We’ve Always Done It eventually needs to have more to recommend itself as The Way It Should Be Done than mere inertia. The hard miles we are putting on the society aren’t taking us anywhere, and this well-worn path we find ourselves on again is anything but the scenic route.

Might there be better checks-and-balances available to us than procedural obstructions and nuclear options? Is everything a winner-take-all event every single time? Is every point which lacks consensus proof of evil on the part of the others with whom we may not agree? Is it only in dealing with each other that we must always play for keeps?

Don’t worry about answering any such questions; after all, as far as I can tell, I know of no one else who really seems all that interested in asking them or having them answered. As far as that goes, it may just be that I am missing the bigger picture. If that is the case, I am thankful I can’t see that bigger picture; I have a feeling it is very very frightening.

Ex-CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs

For years now, Mr. Dobbs has clearly labeled himself an “Advocate Journalist” – as opposed to being  “Just A Journalist”,  presumably.  In so contrasting himself, he’s being clear.   Since most of us have a sense of what we think a good (regular) journalist’s work would be, it is valid to decide what it is that would separate the good Advocacy Journalists from the bad. In short, shouldn’t we judge an Advocate Journalist  as to the success of their advocacy?  

I can’t say I ever went out of my way to watch Mr. Dobbs in any capacity. Business news bores me silly in general, and even when he transcended the bonds of mere business journalism, I had enough sense of Lou’s worldview from some of his past New Economy work at Space.com to know that his brand of non-linear thinking was not for me.  Why not just go right to Art Bell’s “Coast to Coast”  for the good stuff?  Still,  Lou’s recent visit to Fox News got me to pay it attention. In general, I find the modern tendency to work the storytellers into the story to be maddening, and if nothing else, proof at how far away from useful the media has strayed. Ignoring it won’t put the genie back in the bottle, so I’ve got to engage.

No matter how one feels about Fox, I have never heard Bill O’Reilly described as modest and deferential about his profession’s role in the world. For that reason, it is not a particularly high bar to be able to get him to gush over you when you are willing come on his show to malign one of his competitors – especially when said guest can be painted as another victim of bias. That visit might have been one of Lou’s most high profile appearances, and I find nothing in it to suggest he did much for his pet causes for the effort.

Is the immigration issue, as Lou Dobbs would frame it, any closer to meaningful action for his effort? If we were to ask him to show some sort of result for all of the jaw-flappin’ done by him and his detractors, could he? Could anyone? Did any of the counterpoint to Lou Dobbs’ line of thinking materially gain or lose for all the dust-up? If so, I am hard pressed to point out exactly how. Beyond immigration, did Lou’s ideas about the middle-class squeeze or foreign trade imbalances sustain any meaningful move of the needle either way, for all the back-and-forth? Is there any issue we can point to as benefiting from Lou Dobbs’ successful application of Advocacy Journalism? If you think so, I am all ears as to what exactly that benefit was.

I am inclined to call “baloney” on anyone who might suggest the entire story arc of Lou-Dobbs-as-Advocate-Journalist changed much of anything, least of all the debate. Where the rubber meets the road, the immigration debate is still a caricature of itself, with one-dimensional villains and victims maintaining their usual posture in front of those somehow sympathetic or entirely apathetic. There aren’t too many other folks who name themselves Advocacy Journalists, but there are plenty of folks who occupy space on the program schedule of news outlets who won’t apply the restraints of traditional journalism to themselves. They make no bones of their bias, and, actually, differentiate themselves precisely on the basis of that bias. That’s fine. It’s a free country. Do what ya like.

From what I can see, Advocacy Journalism generates neither much light or much heat, and the net impact of having one of its leading lights go dim is something so slight, one has to wonder why anyone cared either way to begin with.

Nidal Hasan the day of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

At some level, asking why a thing likes this happens is something no satisfactory answer exists for. Even so, it is our job as members of this society to try to find an answer for the question “why”? The stakes for answering that question are very high – and a free society that wishes to remain free cannot give into suggestions that there are limits on what can and cannot be questioned in such an inquiry. A society that lacks the courage to undertake a meaningful self-examination at such moments is one that hastens its demise with each question unasked out of fear, or each answer hedged to preserve a self-delusion.

American society, more than any I think, carries in its national DNA a basic set of values well-suited to answering the big and important questions, both good and bad. Paramount among such values is that our society elevates the individual as the most important political unit. We are in every sense a collection of individuals, and we are right to value the individual first and foremost. The bedrock of our nationhood is the notion that only by a preponderance of individual wills can we create the rules under which all individuals will live – and even then, no such preponderance can will to undermine the primacy of the individual. The offense taken here at the act of murder is as much a rejection of the notion that any individual has any possible right to make such decisions on the lives of others as it is a revulsion at the destruction of life itself.

Each of us makes choices as to what we will do with our own lives, and while we may not have the same choices to choose from, the freedom to choose among them for ourselves is inviolable. A free society rejects the notion that any other person’s life is of any greater or lesser value than our own, and none has the right to make the life choices of another. When one kills as Nidal Malik Hasan is reported to have done, they break this most basic contract among free people.

No good idea can be behind such actions. If we find that Nidal Malik Hasan’s actions were a representative extension of an idea, or of a value system that would sanction such things (or even attempt to rationalize them), then we are right to reject such ideas and purge them from a decent, free society. If this case calls for such actions, let’s waste no time in getting to them. As is our normal inclination, let’s start this process the place we customarily start such inquiries – with the individual.

All agree there was only one shooter present, and barring some later proof of severely diminished capacity, no honest person would seek to hedge in attributing guilt to the shooter. Until some form of collective guilt is established otherwise, then none should be attributed. The only way we can be 100% sure that collective guilt can fairly be established around answering these questions is if we, as a society, betray our own values concerning the primacy and responsibility of the individual above all in answering them.