From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V4 #22 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Saturday, January 24 2004 Volume 04 : Number 022 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] 2003 Music Round-up [Michael Zwirn ] Re: [loud-fans] 2003 Music Round-up [Stewart Mason ] Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... [glenn mcdonald <] Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... [George Mastalir ] Re: [loud-fans] Best of 2003 [Carolyn Dorsey ] Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... ["Fortissimo" ] Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... [Stewart Mason ] Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... ["Fortissimo" ] Re: [loud-fans] my top 15 [JRT456@aol.com] [loud-fans] my top 15 ["Michael Zwirn" ] Re: [loud-fans] 2003 Music Round-up [Roger Winston ] Re: [loud-fans] resolved: 2004 sucks! [dc ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 00:11:30 -0800 From: Michael Zwirn Subject: [loud-fans] 2003 Music Round-up Dear friends, attached is my round-up of music in the year 2003 ... enjoy! Comments welcome. For me, the artist of the year was Joe Pernice. Not only did the Pernice Brother release a superb album, but their abilities as a touring ensemble proved that literate pop songs can provide abundant energy and drive to a crowd. The set the band performed at Lola's Room in Portland in July was my highwater mark for live performance in 2003. It's rare that four standards are met or exceeded at the same show: great songs, great performances, great sound and a great audience. The Pernice Brothers set met all these standards. In addition to the new Pernice Brothers, I acquainted myself with his rich back catalogue from the Scud Mountain Boys era, and read his entertaining and touching take on a classic Smiths album. ALBUMS 1. Pernice Brothers, Yours, Mine & Ours. From the alternately combative and self-defeatist songs from his Scud Mountain Boys days, Joe Pernice has absorbed the lessons of Big Star, the Zombies, and Brian Wilson most obviously, but perhaps less intuitively, the lessons of the Cure and the Smiths. For another thing, Joe and I agree on comma placement (and he's got a master's degree in English). 2. Decemberists, Her Majesty the Decemberists/Five Songs EP. Portland's great hope, lyricist and singer Colin Meloy, sets his anachronistic and historically-informed tales of betrayal, piracy, and vagabond ways to tuneful pop  with touches of alt-country, pedal-steel guitar, French accordion cafi chanson, and mid-tempo rock. Despite all the flirtations with European and even Middle Eastern tones, the Decemberists album find linkages between bands I'd never previously thought linked before: Fables of the Reconstruction-era R.E.M., They Might Be Giants, Jolene, and most strikingly, New Zealand's Mutton Birds. 3. Kathleen Edwards, Failer. Heartsick and bone-chilling when you listen to the words and sturdy mid-tempo Canadiana when you don't. 4. Go-Betweens, Bright Yellow Bright Orange. To my surprise, this is not only a fine revisiting of the attributes that made their best singles so worthy in the 1980s, but a genuinely engaging record that I've played more frequently than anything else they ever did. 5. New Pornographers, Electric Version. Less enthralling than their debut but full of great singles. "Introducing for the first time / Pharoah on the microphone" is one of the great sing-along couplets in ages. 6. Delgados, Hate. Swirling pop that refers matter-of-factly to its 60's roots but distances itself from its naivete. 7. Shins, Chutes Too Narrow. Their first album was replete with shards of the Kinks and the Creation and the early Who; this one takes elements of Cat Stevens and acoustic Neil Young and does the same thing. 8. Leona Naess, s/t. In a year without an Emm Gryner record, this was the subdued and unapologetically feminine album I played most. 9. Richard Thompson, The Old Kit Bag. Some are songs I've been hearing for years in concert, but "Gethsemane" and "A Love You Can't Survive" are welcome additions to his catalogue 10. Daniel Lanois, Shine. Even if this is one of the biggest disappointments of the year, it still has some loveliness tucked away. CONCERTS 1. Pernice Brothers, Lola's Room. A masterful pairing of songwriting and performance chops, and a sound system and audience that was more than capable of handling it. 2. Daniel Lanois, McCaw Hall, Bumbershoot. Superb acoustics, and the added muscle of a four-part band, gave the best songs from Shine and his previous albums a much-needed sonic boost. 3. Michael Penn, Dante's. In his shows, he manages to act clumsily and awkwardly in ways that only convey how articulate and sophisticated he really is. 4. Pedro the Lion, Meow Meow. Bazan's individual songs are mesmerizing and can transcend the limitations of just about any venue. 5. Tori Amos/Ben Folds, Hard Rock Casino. This would rank higher if Tori just ditched her rhythm section, and played the keyboards like Ben does. 6. R.E.M./Wilco, Clark County Amphitheatre. An inspired selection of songs, and a great showcase of the band's back catalogue, but the attendance was a shame. 7. New Pornographers/Cinerama, Aladdin. Glam posing, a seemingly unending supply of New Wave hooks, and more fun on stage than they probably deserve to be. 8. Neko Case/Buddy Miller, Oregon Zoo. A picnic dinner, sun-dappled lawn, and Neko ballads? Pretty decent afternoon. 9. Amelia, Alberta Street Public House. This is what the band in the film version of High Fidelity should really have sounded like. 10. Mary Lou Lord, Dante's. I see Mary Lou Lord about two or three times a year, but this was one of the better sets she's delivered in some time. FOUR NEW WAVE COVERS 1. Mandy Moore, "Senses Working Overtime" (XTC). I promise I'll be dancing to this at my wedding. 2. Marti Jones and Don Dixon, "Room With a View" (Let's Active). From the surprisingly engaging Every Word tribute, this is a startling Rasputina-meets-the-Loud Family hybrid. 3. Pernice Brothers, "Talk of the Town" (Pretenders) in concert. Just in case you were wondering where he gets that pairing of pop hooks and lacerating wit. 4. No Doubt, "It's My Life" (Talk Talk). A perfect sonic recreation of its era, but it's a pity that Gwen Stefani really can't sing. COMPILATIONS 1. Billy Bragg, Must I Paint You a Picture? 2. Lori Carson, Stolen Beauty. - --------------------- Michael Zwirn, michael@zwirn.com (t) 503-232-8919 (c) 503-887-9800 http://zwirn.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 04:25:39 -0500 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] 2003 Music Round-up At 12:11 AM 1/23/2004 -0800, Michael Zwirn wrote: >5. New Pornographers, Electric Version. Less enthralling than their >debut but full of great singles. "Introducing for the first time / >Pharoah on the microphone" is one of the great sing-along couplets in >ages. Oh. That *does* make a lot more sense than "Phil on the microphone," which is how I've heard that line all along. S ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 07:09:47 -0500 (EST) From: dmw Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... On Thu, 22 Jan 2004, Fortissimo wrote: > Along the same lines, Translator's best-known song "Everywhere That I'm > Not" sounds more like...uh, who exactly?...than the rest of their > catalog. I'm partial to the strange, discordant things like "My Favorite > Drug" - plus there's the handful of Moon-like drum freakouts on songs > like "Circumstance Laughing." Anyway, I'm not sure who they sound like, > really. Are you thinking of any band in particular? i played that great first translator record for my new front man and he promptly said "jonathan richman" for "...that i'm not," which had never occurred to me, but which i could certainly see. i'd like to hear about this band that was better at being translator than translator, unless it was just translator on albums 1 and 3 vs. 2 and 4. > I can't quite remember Wire Train...I think I liked one or two tracks in > a kind of reverb-laden, j-wordish, early-eighties kind of way. So I might > agree with you there. in the chamber of helloooooooooooeeeess but yeah. even back then, my friends were all like, ooh, wire train, and i was like, eh. wots j-wordish? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 08:38:49 -0500 From: Dave Walker Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... Brought to mind by last night's "Bands Reunited" show, is there any greater sin in the Big Rock Book of Rules than "non-founder recruits a bunch of nobodies and tours under the band's name?" (Klymaxx) I tend to think not. Even when a founder does it (AFOS, Berlin) it seems to breed a non-trivial amount of ill will. -d.w. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 08:55:44 -0500 From: glenn mcdonald Subject: Re: [loud-fans] 2003 Music Round-up >> Pharoah on the microphone > Phil on the microphone In my review I transcribed this as "Phero-wa!-mone microphones", the idea of which I liked so much that I later made it (sans "wa!") the title of my best-of issue! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 09:04:50 -0500 From: glenn mcdonald Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... > i'd like to hear about this band that was better at being > translator than translator I dunno if this is exactly responsive, but when I sacrificed everything by Translator other than the best-of in my recent purge, my main reasoning was that after "Breathless Agony" and "Sleeping Snakes" I would probably rather switch to old Pop Art records. Wire Train did not survive the purge either. Nor, from other periods, Big Dipper, O Positive or Saturnine. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 06:59:33 -0800 From: George Mastalir Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... > So only two outright clunkers out of 10, which is a much better quality of act > than I expected. *However*, the poll they've got on the site for "which band > would you like to see reunite?" indicates that the concept may head straight > into the crapper when they do the next bunch. Here's their proffered choices > (remember, not actual episodes *yet*, merely suggestions): > > Nu Shooz > Expose > Soul II Soul > Europe > Naked Eyes > The Thompson Twins > T'Pau > 'Til Tuesday > Vixen > Winger > > I'd be down for a 'Til Tuesday episode, and I'd probably watch Soul II Soul > and Thompson Twins episodes. But the rest of that list is pretty ugly, and > not that far away from tapping Pretty Poison and L.A. Guns... Of the above, I'd watch and surely enjoy the T'Pau and Thompson Twins episodes. And the one early 80's one hit wonder I'd love to see added to the above list is probably Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo (Shelley's Boyfriend). - --Lurker George ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:10:48 -0500 From: Carolyn Dorsey Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Best of 2003 Hello- I just rejoined this list about a week ago after eight months. I'm glad to see it's still humming away! I've been looking at the 2003 favorites that everyone has posted recently. This year I hardly bought any new releases, just mostly reissues. But I did get something I wanted to mention, I don't know if it would appeal to everyone here but I really like it. It's called Greetings From Michigan by Sufjan Stevens. I wouldn't compare him to Tris McCall at all but the whole album is songs about Michigan, similar to how Tris did his album about New Jersey. His label is the same as Danielson Famille and I think they perform on this record but I'm not sure. I'm from Michigan originally and I like how the songs capture the mood of the different towns there. The music is orchestrated beautifully, and there are many different instruments used, some of the songs are a little long but they are very lovely. Here is a nice review. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/s/stevens_sufjan/michigan.shtml Carolyn ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:55:59 -0600 From: "Fortissimo" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 07:09:47 -0500 (EST), "dmw" said: > On Thu, 22 Jan 2004, Fortissimo wrote: > i played that great first translator record for my new front man > and he promptly said "jonathan richman" for "...that i'm not," > which had never occurred to me, but which i could certainly see. On that line - but as a general claim of resemblance, it would be extremely misleading! > i'd like to hear about this band that was better at being > translator than translator, unless it was just translator on > albums 1 and 3 vs. 2 and 4. Me too - even though I like 2 just fine (No Time Like Now, right?) > > I can't quite remember Wire Train...I think I liked one or two tracks in > > a kind of reverb-laden, j-wordish, early-eighties kind of way. So I might > > agree with you there. > > in the chamber of helloooooooooooeeeess > wots j-wordish? "jangle" - ------------------------------- ...Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ :: Miracles are like meatballs, because nobody can exactly agree :: what they are made of, where they come from, or how often :: they should appear. :: --Lemony Snicket ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 11:56:41 EST From: LeftyZ@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... In a message dated 1/22/04 9:17:01 PM, outdoorminer@mindspring.com writes: << >I'd actually say Romeo Void was at least as "damn good" as Dramarama - >they succumbed to David Kahne Disease on their third album, but the first >two and the EP are fine work indeed. I dunno -- I always thought of Romeo Void as second-rate Pylon. In fact, most of the other 415 bands (Translator and Wire Train come to mind immediately) were, to me, similarly cursed with vastly superior peers. Don't get me wrong, I like all these bands, and they each have considerable merit -- but they also had contemporaries who did their sort of thing better than they themselves did it. >> I saw Romeo Void a LOT of times way back when. They were great....but....cute and quirky. No comparison the energy and fun of Dramarama.......not even close. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 08:59:53 -0800 (PST) From: Gil Ray Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... - --- Dave Walker wrote: I tend to think > not. > Even when a founder does it (AFOS, Berlin) it seems > to breed a > non-trivial amount of ill will. > > -d.w. An even bigger sin seems to be hiring a lover, or even worse, hiring a sibling! Gil __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 12:01:30 EST From: LeftyZ@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... Question: Dramarama played a show in Hollywood on New Years Eve. Was this related in any way to the show we've been discussing? Original lineup? HAVE they reunited? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 12:37:10 -0500 From: "Larry Tucker" Subject: [loud-fans] a plug for graceland A quick message to plug a friend of mine's band called The Saving Graces that I think many of you would enjoy. There's a few others on this list who also know Michael through their contributions to the Let's Active tribute he compiled this past year. Michael just finished recording a new album at Jamie Hoover's (Spongetones) studio in Charlotte which he's currently shopping to release. There are a few songs from it in the Music section available for download, "Giving up the Ghost" being a favorite of mine. He's also just posted a live show from last year complete with a downloadable cover. www.thesavinggraces.com Larry ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:25:43 -0800 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: [loud-fans] How about a show where they try to get bands to break up instead? George: >>I just finished watching three episodes of the new vh1 series >>"Bands Reunited", and I can't believe just how great it is. The wife saw the Berlin episode and I was satisfied just to hear her describe it. But I resist the whole concept because it seems at root to further consolidate the ongoing quantification of the '80's as a parade of generally substance-less one-hit wonders. Partly not VH-1's fault, for two reasons: one, most bands of critical merit and persistent harcore cult fanbases have/will reunite anyway (because such fans will actually buy a new album by Mission of Burma or the Soft Boys (Matador Records-- where great band go to die, the second time) but your average Flock of Seagulls fan is more of an '80's radio fan, is how I read it), and secondly, there aren't big ratings numbers in reuniting a fantastic band *none* of whose songs anyone has ever heard. Mostly out of lack of interest in the artists chosen, and lack of TV viewing hours in the day... I think I'm giving this one a miss. Then again, for an occasionally self-described fogey of '80's vintage, I fucking hate most of what you hear on KROQ's Flashback Lunch or those Just Can't Get Enough compilations, so there's that. Michele: >>BTW, have any of you L.A. folk listened to Indie 103? Any reactions? >>I'm loving it, and yes - I do know who is behind it! No radio in my car and their signal doesn't reach my work in Burbank. So I'm living vicariously through my friends saying "You won't believe what I heard..." Pylon vs. Romeo Void: I really don't know Romeo Void past the single and have never been inspired to look further... interesting to see that there's more credibility to them than I would have thought; that tune always sounded pretty standard-issue to me, whereas Pylon was just flat-out weird and compelling on first listen for me (nb. discovered them before Gang of Four). Man, VH1 could really pull down some incredible numbers with a Pylon reunion show, huh? >> I'm thinking in particular of "No Clocks," where the first half of the song >>is all flirty and murmury and then for the bridge she suddenly becomes >>possessed by Mercedes McCambridge as Satan. Which song also contains my favorite, deeply committed "No, This Bass Note Isn't Wrong, You Are!" moment in all of rock music history. Dig it as you have no other choice. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:36:53 -0800 (PST) From: "Tim Walters" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... Stewart Mason wrote: > As someone > else (Tim? I forget) mentioned, there's a definite erotic undercurrent to > many of Romeo Void's best songs, Not me--I love Pylon, but know nothing of Romeo Void except "Never Say Never" (which I like a lot). - -- THE DOUBTFUL PALACE Free exquisite music http://www.doubtfulpalace.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:36:59 -0800 From: Michael Mitton Subject: [loud-fans] Best of 2003 Probably because I bought more new CDs this year than any previous year, this was the hardest year for me to put together a top 15--my list of potentials had about 40 albums on it. At the same time, though, I never did find the album that was a clear contender for a #1 slot. In the end, I came up with what will probably be a pretty normal loud-fan list: 1) Radiohead / Hail to the Thief. It makes the previous two albums seem like learning experiences, and HAIL is the payoff. This would have been a clear contender for #1 if not for "Suck Young Blood". 2) Belle & Sebastian / Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Stories that involve me, melodies that bounce, a return to form. 3) Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks / Pig Lib. What can I say? I'm a laid-back who likes laid-back vocals. 4) The Shins / Chutes Too Narrow. They received the honor of having the song that got the played the most consecutive times by far (15 or so), "Mine's not a High Horse" 5) The Pernice Brothers / Yours, Mine, Ours. Does anyone else hear a Morrissey resemblance? 6) Kathleen Edwards / Failer. Once again, I fell in love with the singer at a concert. 7) Decemberists / Her Majesty. This could climb higher as I listen to it more, but I barely got to it in my overloaded emusic box. 8) Rainer Maria / Long Knives Drawn. 9) Ted Leo / Hears of Oak 10) New Pornographers / Electric Version 11) Beulah / Yoko 12) Delgados / Hate 13) Mojave 3 / Spoon and Rafter 14) Chris Whitley / Hotel Vast Horizon 15) Jayhawks / Rainy Day Music 16) Calexico / Feast of Wire And finally, a thanks once again to Aaron for running the poll! - --Michael ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 14:34:25 -0500 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... At 12:01 PM 1/23/2004 EST, LeftyZ@aol.com wrote: >Question: Dramarama played a show in Hollywood on New Years Eve. Was this >related in any way to the show we've been discussing? Original lineup? HAVE >they reunited? Apparently so -- they recorded a new version of "California Uber Alles" about Herr Gropenator's candidacy just before the special election, and from what I've heard, they're gigging around L.A. and working on new material. S ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 12:57:30 -0800 (PST) From: Gil Ray Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... - --- George Mastalir wrote: > > not that far away from tapping Pretty Poison and > And the one early 80's one hit wonder I'd love to > see added to the above > list is probably Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo > (Shelley's Boyfriend). I absolutely love this song! (one of Scott's faves. also). I got to see Bonnie Hayes play about a year ago, at a street fair in Marin County. She too, is aging really well and had a funny story about hearing one of her later songs on muzak, in a grocery store. She said she went up to people saying "that's one of my songs!" Gil __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 15:00:48 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... At 08:20 PM 1/22/2004 -0800, septembergurl@mindspring.com wrote: >I just got cable again after being without it for over a year. At first, I >was disappointed at how much VH-1 had gone downhill. It seemed like they >were producing new shows on everything *except* music. If I really wanted to >learn about the life of Paris Hilton or watch a countdown of the Top 50 >Hottest People, I would watch E! already! So, it's very nice to see a show >such as this one come along. VH-1 Classic is what you need -- 100% music. The All-Request Hour and We Are the Eighties are usually what we watch. later, Miles, who has no hatin' for the Just Can't Get Enough series ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:05:45 -0800 (PST) From: Gil Ray Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... Sorry 'bout the 80's overkill here but a couple of half way interesting tidbits...Besides not auditioning for Romeo Void, around the same time I had a meeting with Bob Darlington of Translator and Jeff Trott (future Sheryl Crow guitarist)to talk about forming a band. It never got any further than that, though. And while I'm at.......Fade To Black (my band before GT), had the origional bass player from the Renegades that soon became....Wire Train! Ok, I hope I'm done here...on to the 70's! Gil - --- glenn mcdonald wrote: > > i'd like to hear about this band that was better > at being > > translator than translator > > I dunno if this is exactly responsive, but when I > sacrificed everything > by Translator other than the best-of in my recent > purge, my main > reasoning was that after "Breathless Agony" and > "Sleeping Snakes" I > would probably rather switch to old Pop Art records. > > > Wire Train did not survive the purge either. Nor, > from other periods, > Big Dipper, O Positive or Saturnine. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 16:19:59 -0500 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... At 12:57 PM 1/23/2004 -0800, Gil Ray wrote: >--- George Mastalir wrote: >> > not that far away from tapping Pretty Poison and >> And the one early 80's one hit wonder I'd love to >> see added to the above >> list is probably Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo >> (Shelley's Boyfriend). > >I absolutely love this song! (one of Scott's faves. >also). I got to see Bonnie Hayes play about a year >ago, at a street fair in Marin County. She too, is >aging really well and had a funny story about hearing >one of her later songs on muzak, in a grocery store. >She said she went up to people saying "that's one of >my songs!" She has a new album out, but I haven't heard it yet. GOOD CLEAN FUN is one of the classic albums of the California new wave scene, up there with anything the Go-Go's did, and it's BEGGING for a reissue. S ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 18:34:09 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: [loud-fans] my top 15 My ever-apologetic picks for best records of 2003 follow. Links are to whatever song(s) the label/artist provided, not necessarily to the songs I would have picked myself. 5::New Pornographers - Electric Version I wouldn't remove a single track from this record even if I could, which is very rarely true. You know what it sounds like. http://www.matadorrecords.com/mpeg/the_new_pornographers/new_pornographers_new_face.mp3 http://www.matadorrecords.com/mpeg/the_new_pornographers/new_pornographers_laws.mp3 4::Postal Service - Give Up It's been almost exactly a year since I heard a promo of this and went into paroxysms of joy. A lot has changed -- the ways in which The Postal Service instantly reminded me of New Order are now pretty common currency, and so for the first time in a decade my standards for "sounds like New Order" have gotten tighter. And Ben Gibbard's other band, Death Cab For Cutie, made a record weak enough that I've had to go back and admit that Give Up contains some awful lyrical clunkers. But New Order were a pop band too, and if in some way The Postal Service's thin spots are a trade-off that had to be made for me to always perk up when their songs show up on iTunes shuffle-play, so be it. http://www.subpop.com/multimedia/The_District_Sleeps_Alone_Tonight238.mp3 http://www.subpop.com/multimedia/Such_Great_Heights214.mp3 4::Ad Frank & The Fast Easy Women - In Girl Trouble Ad's become much more visible on the local scene recently, to the point where his concerts are regular occurrences and one no longer picks up his new album wondering if it'll be the last. This may be his best record yet; while the intense Leonard Cohen thing from his live shows still doesn't translate to plastic, the band mostly stays out of Frank's way, playing decent pop-rock arrangements for Ad's ludicrously heartfelt vocals to drift over. http://www.stoppopandroll.com/audio/ad_casual.mp3 3::Cobra Verde - Easy Listening Another one most people on the list probably know. http://www.cobraverde.com/audio/easy1-56.ram http://www.cobraverde.com/audio/easy4-56.ram 3::Noise For Pretend - Happy You Near Technically a 2002 release, but I don't remember hearing about it at ALL then, so I voted for it under the 'sleeper' rule. Recommended if you like early Everything But The Girl or late Ida. http://hushrecords.com/mp3/Due%20to%20Lamplooking.mp3 http://hushrecords.com/mp3/Go%20Figure,%20Another%20Warm%20Day.mp3 3::Decemberists - Castaways & Cutouts Another 2002 sleeper. http://hushrecords.com/mp3/Here%20I%20Dreamt%20I%20was%20an%20Arch.mp3 http://hushrecords.com/mp3/July,%20July!.mp3 2::Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth Despite being the best new hip-hop album I heard all year this was kind of a disappointment, as Aesop Rock's self-production is dazzling in small doses but overwhelming at album length, particularly when the album has nothing tying it together lyrically. http://www.definitivejux.net/av/player.php?id=224&filetype=song http://www.definitivejux.net/av/player.php?id=228&filetype=song 2::Ben Folds - Speed Graphic/Sunny 16 I think there's something special about the way Ben's piano is recorded on these EPs and on his first album, because while I also think his new "self-released" (via Sony distribution) EPs feature his best songwriting since that first album, even on first listen I was overcome with excitement. 2::Salteens - Let Go Of Your Bad Days Retro for some era whose music I don't really know, to judge by what other people have said about it. Extroverted indiepop. 2::Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Pig Lib I liked Pavement up until Terror Twilight, with Malkmus's first solo album also failing to impress. Hearing his voice and quirks on an enjoyable record again makes me want to say that he's rediscovered what was good about Pavement, but I'm not sure that's true -- seems to draw more from Built To Spill and other indie guitar heroes who've never really traded in obscurity or incompetence. http://www.matadorrecords.com/mpeg/stephen_malkmus/stephen_malkmus_oyster.mp3 http://www.matadorrecords.com/mpeg/stephen_malkmus/stephen_malkmus_us.mp3 1::Thermals - More Parts Per Million When "lo-fi" was a buzzword, nobody really made the distinction between realistic "hey we just threw this together" lo-fi like Sebadoh (where the sound quality proves authenticity or otherwise demonstrates something about the process of writing/recording) and "lovingly fucked with by Mike Hummel" lo-fi where real and unreal distortion are combined for an effect that is not necessarily naturalistic. This is the latter. http://www.subpop.com/multimedia/No_Culture_Icons215.mp3 1::Radiohead - Hail To The Thief You know what this one sounds like, too. But my interest in Radiohead, while strong, has always been completely limited to Kid A and after, and only the weird songs. This album has the first few conventional songs of theirs I've wanted to hear more than once, including the single "There There". I find myself on the verge of embrading the band more wholeheartedly. 1::Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Hearts Of Oak The title track was my song of the year; I'm not sure any one other song came close. But by my lights the record had a lot of... well, not filler, exactly, but stuff that rode Leo's basic electric-soul template too closely for me. (www.lookoutrecords.com has mp3s, but they don't allow direct linking.) 1::Cat Power - You Are Free Converted me to a fan. I guess the "can't get it hold it together" schtick ran its course, or maybe some time off from the studio fixed a real problem she was struggling with? I could never tell what the deal was. But what I realized when I heard this was that her stuff had always been the kind of thing I liked, just largely lacking in a payoff. http://www.matadorrecords.com/mpeg/cat_power/he_war.mp3 1::Tricky - Vulnerable Even with the stated intention of being "vulnerable", Tricky doesn't sound any less dark. He's just set down some of his otherworldliness, and as a result made his best record since Pre-Millennium Tension. He won't ever *match* PMT unless he finds his feet a little better, but I was pleasantly surprised to find he still had any passion in him at all. http://content.anti.com/Anti/Tricky/6648-Vulnerable/mp3/Tricky-Vulnerable-02-Antimatter.mp3 a ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 17:36:23 -0600 From: "Fortissimo" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 08:59:53 -0800 (PST), "Gil Ray" said: > --- Dave Walker wrote: > I tend to think > > not. > > Even when a founder does it (AFOS, Berlin) it seems > > to breed a > > non-trivial amount of ill will. > > > > -d.w. > An even bigger sin seems to be hiring a lover, or > even worse, hiring a sibling! Or even worse, hiring someone who's both. Maybe that only happens with Southern-rock bands... - ------------------------------- ...Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ :: Solipsism is its own reward :: :: --Crow T. Robot ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:49:38 -1000 From: "R. Kevin Doyle" Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... (sort of sc) Curiously, there seems to be a Game Theory thread developing at http://www.vh1.com/interact/boards/main.jhtml/bands_reunited/ViewThread?tID= 489642&mID=2552909&offset=0&index=0 Well, if three posts total counts as "a developing thread." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 18:01:49 -0600 From: "Fortissimo" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my top 15 On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 18:34:09 -0500 (EST), "Aaron Mandel" said: > 3::Decemberists - Castaways & Cutouts > > Another 2002 sleeper. Also, didn't Kill Rock Stars reissue this in 2003? - ------------------------------- ...Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ :: crumple zones:: :: harmful or fatal if swallowed :: :: small-craft warning :: ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 19:05:14 EST From: JRT456@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my top 15 In a message dated 1/23/04 6:37:48 PM, aaron@eecs.harvard.edu writes: > > 4::Ad Frank & The Fast Easy Women - In Girl Trouble > And it starts with "A Little Devotion," which has to be the Pathetic Loser anthem of the year. Catchy, though. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 16:33:06 -0800 From: "Michael Zwirn" Subject: [loud-fans] my top 15 > > On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 18:34:09 -0500 (EST), "Aaron Mandel" > > said: > > > > > 3::Decemberists - Castaways & Cutouts > > > > > > Another 2002 sleeper. > > > > Also, didn't Kill Rock Stars reissue this in 2003? > > Yeah, they also reissued the 5 Songs EP - their stuff was > originally issued by Hush Records here in town. I may be seeing > Decemberists tonight, actually. > > Michael ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 20:44:42 -0700 From: Roger Winston Subject: Re: [loud-fans] 2003 Music Round-up At Friday 1/23/2004 01:11 AM, Michael Zwirn wrote: >5. New Pornographers, Electric Version. Less enthralling than their debut >but full of great singles. "Introducing for the first time / Pharoah on >the microphone" is one of the great sing-along couplets in ages. I always heard it as "Fell on the microphone", which I admit doesn't make much sense. So, Michael, what are the rest of they lyrics? Latre. --Rog ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 21:10:36 -0800 From: dc Subject: Re: [loud-fans] resolved: 2004 sucks! not sure who wrote: >> In April there should be a new Shalini album, and based upon the demos >> I've heard I'd say it's even better than WWJD. >> http://www.dallowayrecords.com/dalloway.htm cool! now i wonder if anyone has an ETA on the Fiendish Minstrels disc? anytime soon? i was thinking the other day, this would be a good year for Mitch and Shalini to apply for a slot (or two) at Bumbershoot. as at least one of them will have a new record out by fall, playing a big West Coast fest would seem like a good use of their time. (plus, i'd finally get to see them.) note: applications are due March 8, at www.bumbershoot.org. anybody know Mitch? doug c vicinity of seattle ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V4 #22 ******************************