I've Got Style, Miles and Miles, So Much Style That It's Wasted

Just a short update and some recommendations from your friends here at the Ideological Cuddle. The first week of big releases of 2010 was last week, and with it came 2 wonderful records. First, Ted Leo and his Pharmacists dropped The Brutalist Bricks - now fighting with Spoon's Transference for first place in the early Best of 2010 race. It's filled with Leo's trademark hooks, political rants, and enough guitar RAWK to satisfy the most jaded of rock fans. Leo always brings the indie cred as well, as most of our favorite indie outlets (pitchfork, Stereogum, et al) are drooling over this record. As usual, I suggest the vinyl version - available at most music outlets worth their salt, or at matadorrecords.com. Unfortunately, the local Ideological Cuddle turntable had to be sent back from which it came for repairs (it's never good when you can't get through a track without significant motor slowdown), but hopefully it will return very soon.
The second of last week's important new releases (ok, there were plenty more, including The Broken Bells record - Danger Mouse and James Mercer of Shins fame; Titus Andronicus' The Monitor; and The Gorillaz' Plastic Beach) is the first "greatest hits" record from THE MOST IMPORTANT BAND IN MUSIC HISTORY (according to Pitchfork and hipsters everywhere). That I am this late to this party (15-20 years by my calculations) comes from avoidance. There was just soooooo much hype around this band that I purposefully didn't listen. Now that I am completely obsessed, I wish I wouldn't have been so foolish.
The band is Pavement, the record is Quarantine The Past. Since the band only had one "hit" (90's alternative anthem "Cut Your Hair"), this isn't really a "greatest hits" album. It's more of a love note to fans old and new. Since most Pavement devotees will already have all of these songs, Matador likely put this together as a means to capitalize on the band's reunion tour and a means to rope in younger fans. Their plan worked with this new convert. When I initially considered picking up the record, I checked out Pitchfork's review - the critic described each of the album's 23 tracks as "unimpeachable gems" and gave the record a 10 out of 10. Hmmm. Sounded like typical Pavement wankery to me... until I actually listened. "Cut Your Hair", "Summer Babe (Winter Version)", and "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" I knew. But tracks like "Stereo", "Golden Soundz", "Two States", "Shady Lane", "Range Life", and "Spit on a Stranger" just blew me away. Slightly off-kilter but genius none-the-less, I slowly began to agree with Pitchfork's assessment. Needless to say, the CD hasn't left my car's stereo. I look forward to digging deeper into the band's back catalogue (which isn't that extensive and has been exhaustively expanded through Matador's re-releases) along with Stephen Malkmus' work with The Jicks.
A final word for today's post. This month's issue of Paste magazine contains a great little one page editorial article by Maura Johnston that describes why MP3s and digital music don't have the power of physical forms of music like albums and CDs. I encourage all of you to check it out, as it beautifully sums up my feelings. Check it out at Paste's website HERE.

Until next time, check out Matador Records' latest two-headed monster - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' The Brutalist Bricks and Pavement's Quarantine The Past - while thinking about thumbing through some albums that you might have forgotten about. Enjoy.