Sometimes I take a break from my steady diet of the Gap Band, Zapp, and Kool and the Gang to give some new music a listen. Here's some of the lovely ladies that caught my eye this year. I'm sure that I am leaving a bunch out of the list, and I attribute that to a lack of fruit in my diet.
Dead Confederate Wrecking Ball
Dark, kinda redneck-y, Southern Gothic, wailing, yearning rock and roll brimming with trouble just beneath the surface. I see a new rock sub-genre. Dark-neck, anyone? This would still be one of my favorites of the year even if I wasn't long-time friends with these nice fellows. A perfect album for sitting down and bonding with your great-grandfather over some snuff or chaw.
Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
I'm a sucker for great harmonies mixed with beards, Bonnaroo-styled knit caps, and a lot of candles. Earnest and intimate.
Harvey Milk Life...The Best Game In Town
Big drums, big cymbals, big amps, loud de-tuned fucking riffs, and Creston Spiers' distinctive vocal stylings make me happy. Very, very good.
Kings of Leon Only by the Night
These guys continue to explore and diversify their sound with each album. Not content with sticking to the same old two-step southern-Strokes-ish boot kickin' dust-ups and screwing hot model chicks in Europe all of the time, Kings of Leon continue to mature into memorable songwriters with a knack for catchy hooks.
Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works
Released in late 2007, I had to include this one. This is one of my favorite bands of all time ever since I saw them open for Mr. Bungle at the old Cotton Club in Atlanta. Live, it's like watching a car crash inside of a fireball inside of a tornado filled with cottonmouth rattlers for an hour. You can't take your eyes away. Bodies flying everywhere. Their former drummer, Chris Pennie, is one of my favorites. Their new drummer Gil Sharone stepped in without missing a beat and just killed it. This album furthers their genre-bending, sharp, precise, powerful attack to places yet to be traveled.
My Morning Jacket Evil Urges
I'm an admitted late-comer to My Morning Jacket. My bad, dude! I thought Z was catchy as hell and then I delved into their back catalog. I eagerly anticipated this release and was pleased with the results. Their songs have a way of connecting with me down to the core, mining up emotions, whether they be bittersweet, reflective, down, or celebratory. I know in 30 years when I hear "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream," "Thank You Too!," "Sec Walkin," and "Librarian," they will bring me right back to this time in my life. Plus, we've all got those evil urges, baby.
Of Montreal Skeletal Lamping
Inventive harmonies, melodies, and arrangements. Psychedelic, schizophrenic, shy and cocky all at the same time. Instrumentally fantastic. Oh, and it's funky as hell and you can dance to it. Kevin Barnes just don't give a fuck. I don't know if all men share some of the same worries, fears, and insecurities that Barnes bravely sings of. But know I do.
T.V. On The Radio Dear Science
Another terrific live band whose albums continue to impress me. I'm a drummer at heart and I'm thrilled with their creative and tasteful mixture of live drumming, programmed beats, loops, bleeps, bloops, leeps?? and ambient hand claps. Kyp and Tunde sing soulfully and confidently, and the gang vocals are reminiscent of some long-ago congregation singing a familiar hymnal. Drone-y and syncopated all at once, TVOTR melds many distinct styles and elements into a one successful mixture.
Deerhoof Offend Maggie
Man, oh man!! Daddy likey. Greg Saunier is a drumming powerhouse. He flows freely between Elvin Jones and Tony Williams-like blazing free-jazz chops, funk and drum & bass backbeat, and pushing and pulling the beat to the band's liking. Awesome guitar lines and inventive chording. Mix in a lot of whimsy and musical playfulness, and you get maybe a small idea of Deerhoof. I cannot do them justice. Buy all of their albums!
Dodos Visiter
Johnny 5 from Dead Confederate turned me on to these guys. Mostly finger-picked or heavily strummed acoustic guitar and African Ewe-style drumming. The drummer plays on a non-traditional kit standing up without a kick drum. My arms hurt just listening to some of his beats. Pretty melodies and harmonies.
Gift Horse Demo EP
Man, these guys are the biggest assholes in Modern Rock today. Rapes, bullying, theft, drug abuse, degradation, blasphemy, and rape. But I'll be damned if they don't make some great music. Hypnotic and throbbing, with melodies and lyrics floating in and out of a lush thick smoky fog of reverb. If you're looking for Vai or Satriani or any overly-note-filled fusion jam-offs, this is not the band for you. If you're not an asshole, then you'll probably like it.
Gnarls Barkley The Odd Couple
Cee-Lo is the shit. He is one of my favorite artists. Danger Mouse is incredible as well, and when they combine forces they make great music. They bring old-school sounds and aesthetic but still break new musical ground at the same time. Shit, you could pair up Cee-Lo with anyone (Reznor, W. A. Yankovic, my roommate Joey's cat, Wendell) and I would like it. At their last Athens show at the 40 Watt when Elf Power opened, Gnarls played a show-stopping rendition of Reckoner by Radiohead. I am in no way insinuating that Thom Yorke has a lack of soul, but Mr. -Lo put some Comeback Sauce all over that song.
The Mars Volta Bedlam in Goliath
What it would sound like Dennis Chambers or Fish Fisher (2 more of my fave drummers) played drums for the Mars Volta, a band I respect for their complexity and style? With their new drummer Thomas Pridgen, now I know, and then some. Shit, dude. Serious chops. Chops McGhee. John Theodore kept Mars Volta in some seriously deep nasty grooves while he held the drum throne. I was bummed when he stopped playing with them. Now with Pridgen, it's all goooood. Track 4, Wax Simulacra, had me going over to my drums to learn some shit.
Whigs Mission Control
Cheers to three local guys who have made good. 2008 was nice for the Whigs. Mission Control finds the group sounding terrific, partly due to the fact that they recorded the album at the legendary Sunset Sound Studios in L.A.. The songs are tight, simple (not in a negative way,) and catchy as hell. Good old-fashioned rock and roll. Always great to see live. And guess what? They're nice!!
Torche Meanderthal
Loud, lumbering, concussive, ass-kicking metal/rock and roll. Oh yeah, and dude sings, too! Steve Brooks expertly lays on the poppy melodies over the loud sludge, for the perfect combination of shampoo and conditioner.
Popo Go
Popo is three very tall brothers: Zeb, Shoaib, and Hassan Malik from Philadelphia. They toured with Dark Meat and spent an extended amount of time in Athens this year.
My co-worker at Taco Stand, Tim Schreiber, recorded this album in his kitchen, super econo. At first I didn't know what to think of it. But thanks to Tim playing the album and rocking out to it EVERY DAY AT WORK FOR A MONTH, it has really grown on me. I hear something new in it every time I listen. Zeb has a cool-ass voice.
I can't wait to see what's in store for us all in 2009!
Hopefully plenty of this:
