An Ear For An Era: 2006

Hello there! Long time!

These are going to be spread out quite a bit now. Because we are entering the world of me acquiring all of the music. Full on.

2006 was a rough year. I lost a good friend and my great grandmother.
2006 is also the last time I've been to Chicago (other than driving through). I went to the Touch & Go Records anniversary show and saw tons of bands I never thought I'd see like Shellac, The Ex, Scratch Acid, and lots more. That was awesome.
I also had plantar fasciitis. That sucked for going to a big music festival.
That's mostly it. There is too much music to talk about so I'm kind of pushing that off here. But okay, let's go.

I made a change here for 2006 because it's the first full year that I had this computer I'm using right now, so I was able to divide it up by when I added stuff to my library. So I shuffled everything I added in the first quarter of the year, then second, etc. And then all the stuff I added after the year had ended. Which was a ton in this case. It kind of made it weird because I knocked out all the stuff that dominated my year at the beginning. Because in 2006 I listened obsessively to that early 2006 stuff all year. And then the stuff I added afterward I barely listened to.

Anyway. This order may be random.

Early on in the year I felt like women were putting out a lot of great music. In fact, when I made my end of the year mix I dedicated a full CD to female fronted jams. In retrospect, that was kind of silly because they don't need to be segregated out. That seems a little insulting now. So I apologize! But I will still segregate them here to point out how many great female artists put out great music in 2006. And/or I discovered a lot of great women as my mind was quickly expanding in the music world at this time.

It started with Cat Power. The Greatest. I hadn't heard of her before this but such a strong album of melancholy. And then Beth Orton. Comfort of Strangers had me obsessed with her singing voice. I can't quite put my finger on it but it just sounds so amazing to me. It also helped that we saw her do a sound check at the Gothic Theater, which has amazing sound, and it just filled the place. I also quite enjoyed Katharine Whalen's solo album Dirty Little Secret. She was from Squirrel Nut Zippers. She's got a great voice and this album employs it in various interesting ways. El Perro Del Mar was interesting, a sad sad version of girl pop.  Jess Klein has an incredible voice reminiscent of Emmylou Harris. I already was a fan of Nina Nastasia but On Leaving might be my favorite album of hers. Just short, sweet, a bunch of slices of life. My favorite song is "Our Day Trip," which kind of says it all. It's not about moving away or changing your life, it's about a day trip. Just taking a day off.

Disclaimer: Several of these British artists' albums didn't come out in the states until 2007. I set the release date as 2006 anyway, even though my experience of this stuff was just various singles that came in out 2006 and then the full album in 2007. One such example: The Pipettes may have had their music written by a man, but I just loved them for their personalities and pizazz and singing as much as the music. Before it became kind of an overdone thing, they had that 60s throwback stuff DOWN. I saw them live and it was magical. Rosay was my favorite. Did you have a favorite?

The Pipettes "Pull Shapes"

Similarly, Lily Allen's debut Alright, Still didn't come out here until 2007 even though we were clamoring for it on the strength of her MySpace popularity! But I quite like "LDN." And "Smile" is nice now that it's been so long since it was overplayed. And her sassy songs about stupid boys are a lot of fun too.

Same with Amy Winehouse! Oh man, was she special. Back to Black is so much more than "Rehab." Do yourself a favor if you only know "Rehab," listen to this album.

I'm going to use Outkast as a segue here because the highlight of Idlewild was my introduction to one of my favorite female artists, Janelle Monae. On "Call The Law," there's a little bit of Big Boi on there but it's really just a showcase of Janelle Monae's vocal prowess. She completely steals the show. I didn't even know the half of it, of course. Her concept albums that would follow are so much more than a powerhouse voice. But this was my first exposure to her and just knocked me out.

Outkast featuring Janelle Monae "Call The Law"

Food and Liquor by Lupe Fiasco was a great intro to a great talent who kind of fell off. Or maybe I'm the one that fell off. Because as much as I love "Daydreamin'," some of it seems a little too on-the-nose (I am aware I used that same expression below for Neil Young). But I guess I've felt the same way about The Coup and when you want to get your message out to the masses you kind of have to.

J Dilla's last album from his lifetime was the amazing Donuts. Such a great collection of beats that I now recognize on stuff that came out later by great MCs. It was nice to run to. And then The Shining, his first posthumous album with great artists such as Pharoahe Monch (I love that song "Love") and Black Thought. It is no wonder he is so desperately missed in the music world. A rare talent.

My first non-alternative-or-whatever hip hop album was Fishscale by Ghostface Killah. I just wanted something different and this one got good reviews or whatever. So I dove right in. And I loved it for the most part! Especially the more soul songs, but especially "The Champ," which became my favorite song to pump be up for kickball.

Remember how inescapable Gnarls Barkley was? I revisited this inescapability by having tons of versions of "Crazy" on my computer so it came up lots of times. Besides that, St. Elsewhere was a fantastic crossover album that everybody loved.

Teddybears' Soft Machine is a classic party record as far as I'm concerned. Great Swedish dance music featuring the likes of Neneh Cherry and others, the definitive version of "Cobrastyle," and of course Iggy Pop on "Punkrocker," which is maybe my favorite song to run to.

The Lawrence Arms, one of my favorite bands of all time that I'm sure I've written about many times here, put out Oh! Calcutta! and it was just strange to me. It was their most straightforward punk rock album at a time when I was getting out of the business of punk rock (not that I ever did or will completely get out of that business!). It's a favorite of the band based on how much of the stuff they play in concert since it came out, but I didn't get into it nearly as much as everything else they put out. They even put out an album recently and I love it and immediately was drawn to it more than this one. But I really think I need to just give it some more spins. The same goes for Lawrence Arms side project The Falcon. Unicornography continues in that direction and I'm just not as much into it.

I had a similar reaction to Happy Hollow by Cursive. They'd put out these amazing personal albums where Tim Kasher would just stare into his own soul and bare it for all of us and poke and prod it with hot things, and this one was just an attack on the bible belt. Which isn't unwarranted, it just felt like a cheap and easy subject. But it's not like he can keep making albums about himself. In retrospect, it's still a very good album. It just will never hit that place in my heart reserved for Domestica and The Ugly Organ.


Calexico's first album since I officially became a fan was probably the least Calexico-sounding album they put out. Garden Ruin was closer to indie rock than the others, but they did it so effectively and with quite a big of grace that it turned out really strong. Particularly the closing track, which is a perfect fusion of the two genres for a truly epic, building track.

Calexico "All Systems Red"

Also great at epic songs was Yo La Tengo. And great at album titles: I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is one of the best album titles ever. This was when I really personally started getting into YLT and the way they have 10+ minute songs that you want to go for hours, along with nice shorter pop songs. But the best for me was this sad song. As discussed, I had some tough times this year and the best song for feeling sad was "Black Flowers."

Yo La Tengo "Black Flowers"

The Gothic Archies' Tragic Treasury was a great collection of Stephin Merritt songs based on the Lemony Snicket books. Those dudes are friends! And similarly fantastic with linguistics! Daniel Handler actually came into work and performed one of these songs ("Scream and Run Away") on air, and it was really really awesome.

The Crane Wife may be The Decemberists' crowning achievement. Or maybe that's just because it's the first one I got. But it is a very special album with epic folk songs and catchy angry songs and lovely other songs. Protest music of the 21st century!

I finally got into The Mountain Goats (I am now a devotee and get everything!) with Get Lonely, a lovely album. The only reason I really even got into them though was because they had a music video directed by Rian Johnson, who I admired for Brick. But the song the video was for turned out to be a great slice of life, and just a great way to get into a great band (and a great director who would go on to direct an upcoming Star Wars movie!).

The Mountain Goats "Woke Up New"

My number one album officially at the time was The Life Pursuit by Belle and Sebastian. I still love this one quite a bit. It dominated my year. Kind of more rock than they'd previously done, maybe a little more pop and a little less precious.

However, my real number one in retrospect is one that topped everyone else's lists that year. TV On The Radio just blew up with Return to Cookie Mountain and they were one of my favorite bands at the time. The only reason I put them at #2 at the time was because it came out later in the year and I'd spent all year getting obsessed with the pop sounds of Belle & Sebastian. Plus its positivity helped me through tough times. But Return to Cookie Mountain is a monolith of a record, it has so much happening, and is what got me started on all my hyperbolic talk about TV On The Radio being the most important band of the decade or whatever and all that. I particularly love the four song stretch of Wolf Like Me - A Method - Let The Devil In - Dirtywhirl. The way they build on each other and ebb and flow is just perfect. And particularly particularly "Let The Devil In" with its primal cleansing expression of pure emotion is still one of my favorite songs ever made.

TV On The Radio "Let The Devil In"

Observations. Lots of stuff will go here.

• Arctic Monkeys! They actually were the first I listened to here. I thought they were kind of overrated at the time but it was a blast to revisit them.
• Other British/European bands had a similar sound. I kind of got sick of that sound in 2006 but I enjoyed all of them quite a bit this time around. Dirty Pretty Things, Brakes, The Fratellis, Mando Diao, etc.
• Ray Davies solo! fun!
• They just announced a reissue of the first Jenny Lewis solo album. She has a lovely voice but I was a little underwhelmed by the lyrical content. Still enjoyable.
• Loose Fur. Jim O'Rourke and Jeff Tweedy! Having a lot of fun.
• Kris Kristofferson put out another album and it was solid. I saw him with my dad on the tour for this album!
• Sonic Youth was rather excellent on Rather Ripped.
• Remember Neil Young and his Living With War album about impeaching George W Bush? I dug it at the time but now it feels a little too on-the-nose.
• I kind of dug Peaches' dirty response to hating on W though. Impeach My Bush indeed.
• Raconteurs were pretty good I guess!
• Elvis Costello put out an album with Allen Toussaint about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It was quite lovely.
• Supersystem were awesome.
• Game Theory saw The Roots pissed off, and it made for some very compelling music. I really like this stage in their career. It was also around the time I finally got into them so...
• The Return of Dr. Octagon was a scam! Kind of! I guess it is officially legit but I remember getting so mad at that album. I got it because it was The Return of Dr. Octagon, but then found out it was more of a remix album of a few demos or something. I don't remember the whole story. But it's weak as far as Kool Keith albums go, doesn't even include that much of him, and is more electro than anything else. It's weird.
• ...Nogatco Rd. was much better. A more legitimate Kool Keith sci-fi release. And look at that title in reverse if you didn't figure it out. The REAL return of kind-of Dr. Octagon.
• Weird Al. Straight Outta Lynwood. Yet another classic! Particularly for "Trapped In The Drive Thru," which my wife couldn't stand but I think is brilliant.
• I'm going to put this here. I just realized that one of the bonus tracks on Return to Cookie Mountain was an El-P remix of "Hours." Was that the first time they worked together? Because TVOTR backed Run The Jewels on Colbert and it was so awesome and they need to work together more.
• I wasn't super into Pieces of the People We Love by The Rapture at the time, because I wanted it more rock like the amazing previous album...but upon revisit, I'm pretty impressed with it. It's quite fun.
• American V: A Hundred Highways by Johnny Cash was just heartbreaking. "Rose of My Heart" was amazing. Rest in peace.
• Ludacris being serious can be pretty damn good. Release Therapy has "Tell It Like It Is" which is a great raw expression from him.
• Modern Times by Bob Dylan was pretty good!
• Remember Lady Sovereign? I quite enjoyed her at the time but now I know more about hip hop and find her a bit bland and trying-too-hard.
• I only have one Cunninlynguists album, A Piece of Strange, but I like it a lot and need to get more. And I need to listen to this one more.
• Rhymefest. Blue Collar is a catchy record. He is a very enjoyable rapper. I remember we got mad at him for homophobia a couple years later. And I stand by that. But why do we hold some rappers to different standards than others? We just have high hopes for some I guess.
• ...I did like that P.O.S. album and he had a good statement about that on his.
• Rock Plaza Central is great too! A concept album about robot horses deserves more than just a bullet point but damn there is a lot of music to cover. If you are reading this, listen to "Anthem for the Already Defeated," one of my favorites!
• Islands! 
• Cut Chemist!
• Tom Waits put out that three disc compilation Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. Too much to even begin to write about it. It has an awesome Daniel Johnston cover though. Among many other things.
• I thought revisiting Yellow House by Grizzly Bear would make me love it but I still didn't think it was all that special. I don't know why, I think I'm supposed to like it but it sounds too fussed over for me. I think I like their next album more though.
• I didn't get Ta-Dah by Scissor Sisters until later in life even though I was a fan of their first album and got subsequent albums. Just the idea of them not doing dance music didn't seem appealing to me. But of course it is a great album. Like good Queen songs kind of?
• Hank III's best album is probably Straight to Hell. That hidden 42 minute track is something that just has to be heard.
• Hot Chip! So good!
• More amazing women! Bat For Lashes! Joanna Newsom! Neko Case! Gossip! Nicole Atkins (just an EP but a great EP)!
• Peter Bjorn & John! Come for the "Young Folks," stay for the rest! Stay forever!
• How about The Knife!
• Model/Actress was a project from a dude from Brainiac. It sounded great. All we got was an EP.
• I wanted to run to LCD Soundsystem's 45:33 Nike track thing but it didn't work out. Awesome set of music though.

2006 Mix From 2006:
It Was 2006
1. Gnarls Barkley "Go-Go Gadget Gospel"
2. Polysics "Toisu!"
3. Model/Actress "Wait, What?"
4. The Streets "Memento Mori"
5. Thom Yorke "The Clock"
6. Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"
7. Belle and Sebastian "Dress Up in You"
8. Yo La Tengo "Black Flowers"
9. Mr. Nogatco "Bionic Fuse"
10. Ludacris "Tell It Like It Is"
11. The Raconteurs "Intimate Secretary"
12. Loose Fur "The Ruling Class"
13. Kris Kristofferson "In The News"
14. Neil  Young "Let's Impeach the President"
15. The Gothic Archies "Shipwrecked"
16. Built to Spill "Liar"
17. TV On The Radio "Let The Devil In"
18. Sonic Youth "Incinerate"
19. The Lawrence Arms "Jumping the Shark"
20. Calexico "All Systems Red"
21. Johnny Cash "Rose of My Heart"

It Was 2006: The Women (I really do apologize for doing it this way!)
1. Cat Power "Empty Shell"
2. The Dresden Dolls "Sex Changes"
3. Peaches "Two Guys (For Every Girl)"
4. CSS "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above"
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Gold Lion"
6. Lady Sovereign "Public Warning"
7. The Pipettes "We Are The Pipettes"
8. Neko Case "John Saw That Number"
9. Nina Nastasia "Our Day Trip"
10. Lily Allen "LDN"
11. Katharine Whalen "Want You Back"
12. Outkast featuring Janelle Monae "Call The Law"
13. Beth Orton "Shopping Trolley"
14. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins "Rabbit Fur Coat"
15. El Perro Del Mar "Dog"
16. Joanna Newsom "Monkey & Bear"
17. Cat Power & Karen Elson "I Love You (Me Either)"

Next Time:
2007 has long been declared my favorite year of music. Was it just because I was at such a level of consumption that I discovered a lot of great albums then, or was it actually that good? Without even looking ahead...of Montreal, Battles, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Jesca Hoop, Shellac, LCD Soundsystem, Animal Collective, Talib Kweli, M.I.A., Okkervil River...

An Ear For An Era: 1997

Happy 200th post on this log, log and log readers!

I made a mistake of not pre-writing any of this when it was still fresh. Recently I've taken to working on this here written essay portion of my assignment in pieces so fresh stuff will have fresh thoughts and opinions and writings representing it. But not this time. Most of the 1997 stuff is a nostalgia trip though and not really anything too fresh to add other than how I feel now about the old 1997 feelings.

I really just wanted to finish 1997 as quickly as I could so I could listen to this new Spoon album. And The New Pornographers. And some other 2014 hits I've acquired recently.

Okay, where was I? I hadn't started yet? Good. I'll start from the top then.

1997 is an enigma. It was the year when I switched, a huge year personally. Every once in a while I count back to 1997 to see how long I've been entrenched in underground/my-own-thing music. The very brief time I spent in the mid 90s listening to the radio and MTV and more or less identifying with it as "my music" ended and I finally found MY music. So now I've been intimately involved with music in this way for 17 years. This number used to give me pride; now it makes me feel old. But I have this working theory about the '7s being the peaks of the decade and I'm not sure if I can say that about '97 even though it was huge for me. I'll come back to that at the end.
It's also been weird hitting 1997 in this project because as I listen to the stuff I am having a hard time figuring out how music has evolved since then. I'm sure it has but since I've experienced it first hand from here on out it just feels like trends have come and gone but there hasn't been a lot of growth. I mean, where do you go from OK Computer and "Autumn Sweater?" I guess you go to Kid A and "Black Flowers" but even so, it's hard to trace actual evolution over the musical landscape as a whole. I guess we'll just see what we get.

Let's just start with that then, the big one. The one that could make a case for my theory of '7s being tops. OK Computer was world changing music from Radiohead. I don't really have much I can say about it that hasn't been said much more eloquently by the critical consensus. At the time I remember being merely intrigued by the band and its music videos but I actually didn't get OK Computer until Amnesiac came out a few years later. I think Best Buy had some sort of buy-one-get-one deal on Radiohead albums or something so I finally got into it. Talk about an album! Sure, the singles sound good on their own but this is something you just put on track one, do nothing but listen until it's done, and then reluctantly leave to do something else (or just repeat as needed).

Radiohead "Paranoid Android"

On the last day of classes in 1997 before summer vacation I went to a party thing at my friend's house. A boy-girl party and I think some spin-the-bottle happened and I ended up with my first girlfriend (which lasted maybe a week?). But for some reason my strongest memory was after the girls left and the dudes were hanging out watching MTV and this music video came on:

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones "The Impression That I Get"

I remember making declarations to my friends that this music was the best stuff because they used a trombone in such a cool way (I played trombone in concert band). I didn't know what ska was. I think I had heard the song/seen the video before maybe with my brother but watching it at this point switched something in my brain. I made some sort of conscious decision watching this video at this time that I had to have more. I needed more awesome rock music with trombones in it! Now, as previously mentioned, I didn't personally even get this CD. My brother did. So I only heard bits and pieces of it, mostly the singles. I remember VH1 would play the "Rascal King" video every night at midnight on the dot so I would tune in before bed (it was summer vacation!) and watch that video every night. This all led to Reel Big Fish obsession and new friends from band class once we started 9th grade in the fall.

One friend in particular, Paul, was the other trombone player and he seemed to have a head start on this whole ska thing. He introduced me to quite a few bands, most significantly I'd say being Mustard Plug. He had their album Evildoers Beware! which I ended up getting as one of my earliest "underground" purchases. Today it's an album I can't listen to objectively. It's just so damn catchy and it puts me in a good mood. Now I'll try to get through a quick summary of the other albums that do the same thing. Hang-Ups by Goldfinger surprised me because even though I loved it at the time I can admit they aren't the greatest. But the front half is so energetic and ska-centric that I can see why I loved it so much. The Hippos kind of sounded just like Reel Big Fish which was just fine for me. Buck-O-Nine reminds me of some other friends I kind of got into ska...there were some mild nostalgic feelings coming up when 28 Teeth came on. Link 80 was a little more hardcore than I preferred at the time, but 17 Reasons... was still a good transitional record into hardcore sounds. The EP they put out later in the year (and the last Link 80 album with Nick Traina as vocalist) entitled Killing Katie (get it? Kill Link 80?) I preferred because it was more varied and had lighter ska-flavored songs and a cover of "For What It's Worth." Sad story, that of Nick Traina. I read the book his mom (Danielle Steele of all people) wrote about him. Labelmates and still one of my favorite of the ska bunch MU330 started maturing with Crab Rangoon, which involved some very serious topics such as molestation in the Catholic church and cancer, which I didn't particularly like at the time but I would later realize was maybe my favorite album by them.  I dug Bruce Lee Band pretty much immediately because they were Mike Park's band and I loved Skankin' Pickle and Asian Man Records pretty deeply. And he was playing with Less Than Jake as his backing band at the time! And finally, a good band that transitioned me into other things (and was the main remaining "ska" band I listened to after moving on), The Impossibles had a good combo of ska/punk energy and Weezer-esque earnestness. The lyrics were very clever and while the majority of the songs had ska guitar I could almost exclude them from the skapunk category of the rest of these bands. Kind of a growing up kind of band.

When I got more deep into the ska-punk thing I started realizing I should listen to punk too if I could only find a band that stuck with me and didn't have a ska element. Ironically, I had already gotten into something that was sort of punk-related in The Offspring's Ixnay on the Hombre. I must have gotten it right before the ska switch because I liked that song "All I Want" and I just associated the album with the whole "alternative" thing. I actually got quite into this album briefly and then kind of dropped it. Years later I would realize that Jello Biafra does the opening "disclaimer" track. Which gave me a little bit more respect for The Offspring and a little less respect for Jello Biafra.

Beyond the punk rock already covered (apparently I liked old punk from the start!) we sure liked local heroes Pinhead Circus. The songs "Detailed Instructions for the Self Involved" and "Carefree Metal Days" were our anthems. We also saw the band Bigwig opening for someone (or someone opening for them) and liked them mostly on the strength of their cover of the theme from Cheers. My friends may not have particularly gotten into the Mr. T Experience but I sure did. Revenge is Sweet, And So Are You is one of my favorite pop punk albums because of its great wordplay and earnestness in a combination that not many can accomplish. Also I remember watching this music video on Punk TV, a TV show on public access I was obsessed with around this time (mostly because they also played ska but MTX was a good first step into the punk world).

The Mr. T Experience "And I Will Be With You"

I remember being a rebel but still watching MTV (slowly weaning myself off!) and there was a show where a panel of random dumb people rated music videos, giving the winner some sort of heavy rotation on the network. I think it was down to The Toasters' "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down" and Daft Punk's "Around the World." I had mixed feelings, because I wanted The Toasters to win because they were awesome but the dumb people didn't know anything about ska and I didn't think they deserved it. I was very judgy. Anyway, Daft Punk won (probably) because that "Around the World" video is quite the video and it's quite the song. But at the time I did not care for Daft Punk. I was not there when James Murphy played Daft Punk for the rock kids.

Daft Punk "Around the World"

Techno or whatever you would call it was getting pretty big at the same time as ska. So it was automatically the enemy of course. They don't use real instruments and ska uses MORE instruments! So much more real! I had some friends that weren't so closed minded; I remember listening to a friend's tape that he was somehow involved in (I don't know what he did, some sort of remixing or something?) so he was into it. And now I can appreciate these artists but I still have a hard time differentiating the different genres of electronic music. But Daft Punk was great. And so were The Chemical Brothers. The beats on Dig Your Own Hole are pretty undeniable.

After the punk stuff I got into the melodic almost-emo sounds of bands like Hot Water Music. Fuel for the Hate Game was their first full length and my introduction to them (even though I didn't get it until probably around 2000). There's just so much bearded passion going on, it is a strange experience to listen to Hot Water Music. So rough around the edges, such a bumpy ride with the vocals yet comforting as an overall experience. Similarly, Tuesday just takes me back. The first post-Slapstick band to put out material, their only full length was Freewheelin' and it's all they needed to do to solidify themselves in the cannon of great melodic pop punk bands of the era. Of course, bandleader Dan Andriano would soon join Alkaline Trio. And of course the early Alkaline Trio releases (the "Sundials" 7" and the song "97") just showed the brilliance they would further develop for a few more years before I would disown them once they left Asian Man Records. But those early years, oh man!

But of all the earnest/melodic pop-punk that got lumped in with emo of 1998, The Smoking Popes absolutely nailed it with their final album (before reuniting years later) Destination Failure. Anyone that is ever going through a painful breakup, has ever felt the doubt deep inside needs to listen to this album. Anyone that has held out hope needs to listen to "Megan." Anyone that has lost that hope needs to listen to "I Was Right." Any anyone who is anyone needs to listen to this song to experience the gamut of emotions from loss to betrayal to hope to self doubt to a little bit more hope.

The Smoking Popes "Pretty Pathetic"

I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One is one of those albums of a now-veteran indie rock band settling into its groove. Confidence abounds. At this point they know who they are but still aren't afraid to experiment with different sounds (as they still demonstrate on every new album they put out to this day), vary wildly from track to track without losing a cohesive sound, and just sound like comfort in their longer, jammier songs, building a setting, a place that you just want to hang out in for a while. And then "Autumn Sweater" comes on. That's just one of those songs, you know?

Yo La Tengo "Autumn Sweater"

Another "indie" band that just hit its groove in this time was Built to Spill. Perfect From Now On is a perfect title for the album that saw them confidently move on from the poppier tracks of their previous material and into an artsy, longer-song, "perfect" sound that now really defines the band. It was never my favorite BTS album but that's probably just because I haven't spent more time with it. There's really nothing wrong with this album, it's just slightly more difficult. 

Electro-Shock For President was the last we would ever hear from the brilliant Brainiac. All the ideas going into an EP just concentrated the creativity onto 6 tracks, making it unbelievably brilliant. And all the more tragic that Tim Taylor left us in 1997. I can only imagine where they would have gone from here. 

Brainiac "Fresh New Eyes"

Modest Mouse was on top of the indie world (nearing breakthrough status they'd hit very soon) in 1997. I don't actually own the album The Lonesome Crowded West but the few songs I have from that one are among my favorites. I absolutely need to get that record! Plus the 7" songs from that year from the same compilation I've referenced before are more of my favorites. "Baby Blue Sedan" was one of my ex-girlfriend's favorite songs and "Other People's Lives" spoke to the world of the Internet that we would all soon experience first hand. 

Pavement was still a great band as demonstrated by Brighten The Corners, an album that includes my introduction to the band, a song called "Stereo." I liked the ironic detachment of it all. In around 2000 my brother was getting into this band because he'd just gone off to college and introduced me to them. I was still pretty punk rock but could dig what they were doing. But actually, my actual introduction to Pavement was when they were on a show I loved in 1997 or so, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I still love that show. The precursor to all the Adult Swim shows of varying quality, SGC2C spoke to me like nothing else. And the fact that years later I discovered that the random band that played on an episode, introduced as The Beatles and played a noisy, somewhat off-putting set turned out to be super hip indie band Pavement, my appreciation for the show just multiplied. Great stuff!

Pavement "Land of the Hot Knives" and the Space Ghost theme

Speaking of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, its spinoff program Cartoon Planet was another thing that defined me in these days. My screen name for many things, skankinwithbrak, says it all. Ska and Brak. Brak from Cartoon Planet. I know it was a more kid friendly version of Space Ghost but as a 14-year-old I just embraced it. The first of two albums, Musical Bar-B-Que was an album I remember singing (particularly the Brak songs of course) with my friends, and that was also an early version of being completely myself without caring what people thought and people embracing that about me. We made friends with some girls for the first time and as much as it would seem to make sense to hide this immaturity we embraced it and they seemed to love that about us. It was a great time in my life. And then my slightly-ironic love of those songs kind of got confused when my family got into it. I think I had hoped they would find it obnoxious and they totally called my bluff by getting into it themselves. When it stopped being rebellious and different it got annoying and I couldn't listen to it with my family anymore. But now it's cool. If I have a child someday I'll probably try to get them into it. Here's a song from the happy times, one that I remember singing for our female friends and them loving it (it didn't get me a girlfriend though, if you can imagine that!)

Cartoon Planet "Crazy Lovesick Fool"

So. Aside from all the silly jokester music and ska and punk, does '97 qualify as one of the "7s" I have a working theory about? The best year of the decade? "Indie" rock may be able to make a case for itself with Radiohead, Built to Spill, Yo La Tengo, Brainiac, Blonde Redhead, and others putting out arguably their best material. Ben Folds Five and Cornershop also broke through with some genius albums as well. Hip hop was following a different trajectory and starting to get crappy but Notorioius B.I.G., Wu-Tang, Del, and Jurassic Five represented a great development in the genre. But aside from a few choice records, it might not be on the level of a '92 in hip hop.

What an odd year.

Other Comments:

• Oddly I didn't even know about Del The Funky Homosapien's album Future Development for quite some time. I thought there was a big gap between No Need for Alarm and Both Sides of the Brain. Eventually I discovered its existence and couldn't find it anywhere. Now I have it and it's as good as I hoped, a good bridge between those two albums.
• Early Beulah is quite good but I'll have more to say about them in upcoming entries.
• Early Cursive is a whole different band. Very emo or something.
• Early Piebald is decent too.
• Other "alternative rock" at the time: The Foo Fighters! There were some great singles off that The Colour and the Shape album, particularly "Everlong."
• Time Out of Mind by Bob Dylan is one of the best late-period albums by someone like that.
• Still dig the Man or Astro-Man with Made From Technetium.
• Les Savy Fav was starting out promisingly.
• Rest in peace Notorious B.I.G.! I dug the album Life After Death but Puffy/Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Diddy/whatever-he-is-now handled it very awkwardly and was a big reason I didn't like rap music at the time. 
• I remember liking the Smashing Pumpkins song "The End is the Beginning is the End" from whatever Batman soundtrack that was. Must have been my waning days of MTV and that stuff.
• Same with The Verve and the song "Bittersweet Symphony." Particularly the video!
• of Montreal had some early music in 1997. They were only 10 years from their masterpiece. I'll see how that evolution moves along with music itself!
• I need to listen to the self-titled album by OOIOO more because that's the kind of weirdness I can get behind.
• I should have more to say about Elliott Smith's Either/Or. It's just a beautiful record that I haven't listened to enough. But "Say Yes" is a song I cannot get enough of.
• Early Jim O'Rourke is great! Bad Timing is an album I got a while ago and couldn't really get behind at first. More or less a bunch of 10 minute acoustic guitar solos, but in the right frame of mind you can hear the innovation happening and the future of his contributions to the musical landscape.
• Samiam might have been my bridge into "melodic punk rock with heart" that I used to confuse with emo. But "She Found You" is still a song I love.
• Stephin Merritt's side projects reigned supreme in 1997. The Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes both put out albums. They are decent but not quite on the level of the great Magnetic Fields material.
• I should get that Jurassic 5 EP they put out in 1997 because the three songs I have are stone cold classics.
• Cornershop was gold beyond their big hit "Brimful of Asha." When I Was Born for the 7th Time is a great album up and down.
• That Murder City Devils album (self-titled) is fantastic too!
• And Sleater-Kinney! Dig Me Out might be one of their best.
• Wu-Tang Forever! I agree with ODB, they should have won the Grammy because Wu-Tang is for the children.
• Ben Folds Five! Too much to talk about, right?? "Brick" was the breakout sad song hit and they kept me around with goofier upbeat songs like "Kate" and "Song for the Dumped."
• Self-titled Blur? Woohoo!
• I need to give Blonde Redhead's Fake Can Be Just as Good more spins. A great transitional record from one of my all-time favorites.

Next Time!

Air! Alkaline Trio for real this time! A left turn from the Beastie Boys! Beck, yo! BLACK STAR ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS IN HIP HOP! The Broadways were one of my favorites though! Fatboy Slim! More Fugazi! Jets to Brazil at last! Lauryn Hill! Neutral Milk Hotel! Outkast still rules the world! Pulp! Refused with one of the greatest albums ever! Slow Gherkin! Suicide Machines! And more!

An Ear For An Era: 1987

Those '7 years, man. Always a big deal it seems. The culmination of a decade and the promise of the following decade. I didn't think 1987 would be that way, but here it is. "College" rock and hip hop were in a very '7 way in 1987.

But let's get the boring mainstream stuff out of the way first.

One of the biggest album of all of the 80s was Guns N Roses' Appetite for Destruction. This happened to come on when my metalhead friend was in the car and he had to laugh a bit about it. So quaint in the metal scheme of things. I don't really care for most of the album but the hits are pretty undeniable. Welcome to the Jungle. Paradise City. Sweet Child O Mine.

And then U2. Boring. I like their singles ok kind of, but yeah. The Joshua Tree came on and it was all boring and stuff. Were they interesting ever? Was it all lost by 1987?

Just like in 1982, there were giant albums from the two pop giants. Michael Jackson put out Bad, which had a good number of hits itself (but there's no following Thriller), including one of my favorites "Man in the Mirror." Prince put out Sign 'O' The Times, a massive double album that I only have in vinyl format. But I have a couple singles, including my favorite "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man."

Ok now to get to the interesting stuff. Not that Prince & MJ were ever not interesting. But looking to the future was hip hop, which was rapidly growing up. Boogie Down Productions' Criminal Minded came up and I was like "KRS One already??" because he has this flow about him, it's astonishing and so fast and beyond all the hip hop previously encountered in this project. It's like, an actual flow! The only problematic things are "The P is Free" (which kind of seems like it glorifies taking advantage of people's crack addictions in a very misogynistic way) and the whole bridge wars thing. When I read about the bridge wars to put some of these songs into context, it turns out it was really stupid because BDP kept saying "I can't believe you think hip hop started in Queens! You're so wrong!" and then Queens was saying "we didn't say that" and then BDP said "I can't believe you said hip hop started in Queens!" etc. I like Scott La Rock's DJing in a 1980s hip hop manner. He was pushing things forward.

But then I heard something that felt even more forward. An album that must have been one of the most influential albums for all the great early 90s golden era hip hop that I'm looking forward to exploring, I'm of course talking about Paid in Full by Eric B. & Rakim. Rakim's vocals just have this sound to them, something that just feels good. The laid back flow way beyond everything else. And Eric B. was sampling different things, soul things. In jazzy ways to complement Rakim's flow.

Eric B. & Rakim "As The Rhyme Goes On"

Ok now for my wheelhouse. I put "college" rock up there meaning indie rock as it was referred at the time. But I also consider all the post hardcore (mostly DC) developments to be a part of this even though I have no idea if Dag Nasty was played on college radio stations. But Wig Out At Denko's is some sort of indie classic. To me it sounds like a somewhat more technically advanced Descendents. The energy is similar and I think that's what I like about it. We're also approaching Fugazi but one of the essential pitstops on the way to that is Embrace, Ian's short-lived emo project. I only have a few songs off their album but "No More Pain" is kind of the quintessential example of early emo to play for people that don't get it. Guy Picciotto's band of this era was Happy Go Licky, who didn't officially record anything in a studio but a live show was recorded.

You know, I talked about the Descendents above so here is an awkward segue into The Descendents' (original) swan song, All. Kind of their most mature album, say an Enjoy! without (as many) fart jokes. Not that it took itself particularly seriously. Yes, there are some of their better pop songs on here ("Coolidge," "Clean Sheets," "Pep Talk") but there are their most experimental pieces as well. Jokey experimental pieces. Like "Van" about doing stuff in a van. "Impressions" about a journey. "Ice Man" about a crazy Ice Man that cometh! The almost 7 minute "Schizophrenia." And the manifesto.

The Descendents "All-O-Gistics"

Qua quaaaaaaaaaaa qua qua...

And Dinosaur Jr! You're Living All Over Me! Can we get more classic college rock than that? And by that I mean they are both classic and they are influenced by classic rock. But with such youth and vigor, because that's how it was back then. Those dudes were young once, it turns out.

In the same vein of people that are now old but have been doing great work forever...Yo La Tengo. New Wave Hot Dogs is the earliest instance of YLT I have in my collection and it's quite good. Lots of the atmospheric things they are now known for can be seen here, just in smaller bursts. None of their patented long songs just yet.

I was missing a good chunk of Sonic Youth records between their self-titled debut and Sister, because now they are suddenly at the top of their game. Melodic when they needed to be, insane when they needed to be, they were shaping the future man! The underground would never be the same. I'll share this track mostly because it's Ash Wednesday.

Sonic Youth "(I Got A) Catholic Block"

But the biggest college/alternative/indie/whatever album of all of 1987, the biggest deal at least, was an EP by an up and coming band called the Pixies. This blog will be obsessed with the Pixies for the next few entries and then they will disappear. So playful, such great screaming, such odd guitar licks, it was all there on their very first EP Come On Pilgrim. Even if all of that has disappeared on their recent EPs.

Pixies "I've Been Tired"

Should I put The Smiths down here? It looks like The Smiths broke up here, and this part is about the ends of journeys. 8 songs on that Louder Than Bombs collection are from 1987, the last hurrah. Including one of my favorite Smiths songs because it's pretty relatable, "Half a Person."

Another one of those bands were still around still doing very good work was The Cure, who put out one of their stronger efforts (in my opinion), Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. It's got some of my favorite hit songs of theirs ("Just Like Heaven" in particular), it's got a lot of Cure-sounding songs, and it has my favorite Cure song that doesn't sound so much like The Cure. Save this one for a special mixtape.

The Cure "Catch"

I guess that'll do it.

Also I may mention...

• Sinead O'Connor's The Lion And The Cobra played and it feels like a big influence on lots of the great female singer songwriters of the past 20ish years, such as Fiona Apple, Feist, Jesca Hoop, etc. that I dig because of how much creativity they push into a genre I would have otherwise assumed was just someone strumming a guitar.
• Fat Boys are very definitely a novelty act in 1987 with half-cover songs, a song with The Beach Boys, and a Chubby Checker featuring "The Twist (Yo, Twist!)"
• Operation Ivy had some undergroundish EPs in 1987 but I'll hold off talking about them until we at least get to the Hectic EP.
• One of Johnny Cash's lesser known lesser albums, Johnny Cash is Coming to Town, came up and I dig it because he covered an Elvis Costello song on it. And some cheesy love songs and other cheesy things.
• I also had the distinct pleasure of listening to the other half of The Pixies' "Purple Tape," which Come on Pilgrim was derived from. Mostly it's just interesting to hear early versions of songs that would make their major upcoming albums.
• R.E.M. was doing pretty good and starting to blow up thanks to their hit "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
• And just to clean up the last of the pre-Fugazi stuff in time for Fugazi, Rites of Spring had a 7" come out (even though they had been broken up a couple years) and it was fabulous.
• Big Black! Headache and Heartbeat!

What's Next??

1988 in punk/whatever: FUGAZI FUGAZI FUGAZI! Descendents turn into All! Big Black goes all out! An actual album by The Ex! Operation Ivy! Pogues! Shudder to Think! 

1988 in indie/whatever: Camper van Beethoven make their (here) debut! More Dinosaur Jr! Fishbone! Do My Bloody Valentine go here? One of the Two Best Pixies Albums! The Best Sonic Youth Album! 

1988 in singers or whatever: More Leonard Cohen! Traveling Wilburys! 

1988 in hippity hop: NWA! Ice T! (stuff's about to get profane!) Public Enemy! Slick Rick! Ultramagnetic MCs! 

...And another classic album from "Weird Al" Yankovic.

2013 in Music: An Outsider's Opinion

Is that title ok? Is it pretentious? I'd like to think not. I'm not saying I was above it all, I was just outside of it all. Doing this thing I've been doing on this blog I was much less invested in the music of this year than I have in years past. It will be funny when I finally reach 2013 in that other project, because the memory will be that I was focusing on older music at the time.

Not that I can consider myself a huge outsider. While I was less invested than usual, I still got a lot of music and tried to listen to it when it made sense to. In between years and whatnot. There was a lot of music I was looking forward to this year, and I couldn't just leave it alone. I just only have a few listens through of each of the albums I took seriously. And have less than the last few.

But yeah, anticipation. That has to be the theme of this year. Highly anticipated releases in some ways or others. Strange that many favorites were surprises.

I'm going to take a cue from last year and not try to rank anything. I'm just going to write about whatever I feel like sharing an opinion about. And the top top releases, I'll put stars in front of them showing my enthusiasm. But there were some overrated things I also want to write about. And other things I'm sure. Enjoy!

In Alphabetical Order Because I Am Serious About Not Ranking Things:

• ***Arcade Fire starts with an A! Early hype was "Arcade Fire is recording with James Murphy!!" Then there was the whole shrouded in mystery thing. And then a TV blitz. And it was just too much. Funny thing about this record. I love it in spite of all of that. I need to hear it more but I quite enjoy it. And I've complained in the past about them showing too much ambition, trying to make big statements and such (particularly on Neon Bible) when they were so young, and I so appreciated The Suburbs because they were taking a step back in that department. But here, they shot for the stars. And the results are fantastic. It takes a couple listens (honestly I didn't really like any of the songs the first time I heard any of them on their various TV appearances), but now songs like "Joan of Arc" and "Here Comes The Night Time" have pulled me in, and I discover more joy in this each time I put it on.
• ***Crooks On Tape just snuck up on me with their debut album Fingerprint. I've been a John Schmersal fan for a while now. After I discovered Brainiac in my early college years I was obsessed with his very own blend of delightful weirdness and undeniable catchiness. Enon became one of my "top 3" bands for the longest time past that, and they kind of mysteriously stopped doing things, and I tried to watch for any new Schmersal projects but didn't hear about anything. Until a week before this album dropped. It is almost everything I love about Enon! A wide variety, a respectable amount of experimentation and weirdness, and the catchiness. Oh, the catchiness. I have a new band to try to get my friends to love as much as I do!
• **David Bowie managed to make a giant comeback without much hype about it. I need to give it even more time than I did, but I do quite like all of the material from the original album, bonus tracks, and bonus EP. That James Murphy remix for "Love is Lost" on the bonus EP is epic and I don't take that word lightly. But it's everything you would want from a combination of Bowie and Murphy.
• *Deltron 3030 put out Event 2. Now there's a release with a buildup. The first album came out in 2000 and I first started hearing about the sequel being worked on in 2006. That means the time it was hyped for for me personally (I know the artists didn't spend all this time building it up, I just got very excited when I heard about it and kept trying to find more information) was longer than the time between the original release and the start of the hype. As the release date approached and I didn't hear much from Koala or Automator and I got less and less interested in Del's solo material, I started dreading this. I worried it would suck, my expectations dropped considerably, but I still knew I had to get it. And I was just relieved that it was good! I guess the critics didn't care enough about it when it came time to make year end lists, but damnit if Automator didn't create some more catchy beats here! And the David Cross/Amber Tamblyn skits are mildly entertaining even after quite a few listens. And all the guests bring it and Del brings it and nothing will ever meet that original Deltron album but this is a very worthy successor.
• *Elvis Costello working with The Roots? Do You Want More??! Get Happy! This one was an odd one, this Wise Up Ghost. Again, highly anticipated for me, as Elvis Costello is my #1 all time #1. And The Roots are The Roots! And for as restless as the chameleon Mr Costello is musically, it felt like he was treading water on the last couple albums. So ?uestlove was just the one to shake things up. Things never live up to expectations but still, this is a good shake up of some old Costello lyrics and new context and yet another dynamite ballad from the master, "Tripwire."
• ***Janelle Monae is The Electric Lady. She got considerably more popular this year, didn't she? That "alternative reality pop music" I spoke of a couple years ago may be coming to fruition. I don't know if this album quite measures up to The Archandroid in consistency, but its bangers are as hot as the bangers of its predecessor. It's just so damned front loaded. Hook 'em with the hook, hold 'em with the heartbreak and love ballads. She makes it work but I just preferred the ballads of old a little more. Might be the lack of commitment on my part though.
• Ok, everybody putting Yeezus on the top of their list makes me feel like this year was subpar or something. I was so excited for this after seeing him on Saturday Night Live, because it was (one of?) the biggest stars in pop music doing something abrasive and angry and anti-commercial and using his talent for good. But then I got the album and it just fell short for me. And the more I listened to it the more I wanted to just listen to Saul Willams' Trent Reznor produced album from a few years ago. Something with an actual message and not just bitching. Something with anger instead of hate. Something with the passion I thought I heard when I first heard those first couple songs.
• ****My Bloody Valentine killed it with their first album in forever (making it highly anticipated) and its surprise release (undercutting any building anticipation that would have formed). This cuts to my soul, man! Like Radiohead. And it beats "chillwave" at its own game by bringing a rock-oriented version of that atmosphere (that mbv had been integral in creating in the first place all those years ago). I don't know how to write about this but this might be #1 if I were keeping track.
• ***Not only do The National grow on me when I listen to an album over and over, but they grow on me with every album they release. The odd time signatures on this one, the chorus about being the television version of someone with a broken heart, I keep liking every album of theirs a bit more than its predecessor. Not sure if that's just me...
• ***And Okkervil River continues to be underrated forever as they just up and put out another masterpiece this year and nobody seems to remember it come year-end time. I mean, it's fine, I appreciate that I can see them at places like The Marquis instead of having to pay for The Fillmore.
• Another highly anticipated one was Talib Kweli's Prisoner of Conscious. When I first heard about it it seemed like it was going to be a very personal album for him, a grand statement that would push him to a new level. There were even a couple albums that came out before that, so I figured he was saving something for PoC. But then it just came out without fanfare and something about it just isn't what I hoped for.
• **Weird, this Yo La Tengo album doesn't have any songs over 10 minutes! Not even over 7 minutes! What we get is the usual YLT catchiness and diversity and they even sneak some of that feel-goodness that only they ever really accomplish for me, usually over the course of an epic long track. In this case it's over some short pop songs, but it still works.

I have less to say about these but still something:

• !!! THR!!!ER They have some good beats here, and this album served as the soundtrack to many runs this year very effectively. Highly energetic, singing about sweating, other catchiness. Pitchfork complained about the lack of huge builds and drops a la "Intensified" from their first album, and sure, those would have pushed this over the top, but this album shows a maturity and songwriting craft that was very conspicuously absent from their older material.
• Aceyalone's Leanin' On Slick was kind of a sequel to The Lonely Ones, one of my favorite random hip hop experiments. But this one felt like it should have come before The Lonely Ones, because it was less of a stretch from his "normal" material.
• Bilal. I wanted to love A Love Surreal but instead I merely like it. There's plenty to like on this record and he continues to be quite underrated.
• I like the idea of the Daft Punk album and it took me longer than it should have to get over "Get Lucky."
• Danny Brown...yeah I got it because it was cheap and I think I like it but I didn't have time to listen to it enough to form a strong opinion of it. Maybe it will be spoken of highly when the ol' EfaE catches up to 2013...
• Death Grips put out another free album in case people forgot about a true bombastic/abrasive/angry hip hop artist in the wake of Yeezus...
• The Ex & Brass Unbound. Enormous Door. What else can The Ex do these days? Bring in a brass band! It's a killer combination.
• How about that Justin Timberlake? Fun guy.
• Man or Astro-Man made a triumphant return as well this year! Defcon 5...4...3...2...1 is that same old band that's been consistently awesome with every release.
• Hey everyone! Neko Case is still amazing! Bonus points for the cover of the "other" Nico!
• of Montreal in a song format must leave less of an impression on me than their wild and crazy concepts, but I still like that they did what they did with this one.
• I dug that Phosphorescent one, it reminded me of what I like about Fleet Foxes.
• The Pixies have to have their name on something from this century, and something without Kim. I kind of dig that "Indie Cindy" song but for the most part this new EP sounds just like a Frank Black solo album. But what else are they supposed to sound like at this point? 
• Run The Jewels. El-P and Killer Mike just having a good time. Yes please.
• I feel like She & Him have reached a new level of confidence and swagger with Volume 3. I like it.

I admit I missed the boat on...

• Savages. That was on my list all year and I never did get it. I know, it was the best.
• Vampire Weekend. I'm ok with Pitchfork calling it album of the year if only because I'm sick of seeing Kanye top every list. I used to have something against them but I think I'd actually like their new material now.
• Where CHVRCHES as great as people have been saying?
• Disclosure?
• Who are all these young whippersnappers?

I'll be back in a bit with something older than me.