I'm Tongue Tied and Dizzy and I Can't Keep It To Myself

Time to start getting excited for the latest chaper of beautiful acoustic indie-folk from Robin Pecknold and company.  Mark May 3rd, 2011 on your calender... Color me really excited... Listen/Download :


Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues by subpop

The City's Been Dead Since You've Been Gone

Why is the music world so in love with nostalgia?  Each new release day is littered with re-releases.  Bonus tracks added!  First time on vinyl!  Newly remastered from the original analog tapes!  Record companies will do anything to get we, the consumers, to purchase stuff that we've already purchased previously.  It's really genius marketing.  Resell the customer something that he or she already owns by adding only a few bells and whistles (usually tracks that are available on the web if you search hard enough).  In this day and age of MP3s, concrete media (vinyl, CDs) and heading toward extinction at a breakneck pace.  There are just too many people who haven't fallen in love with the physical feel of holding an album in your hands, taking the vinyl out of its sleeve and catching the aroma of freshly pressed wax, thumbing through a CD booklet, reading liner notes, peeling open the wrapper... it's like food porn, but with music. 
No matter how one tries to intellectualize it, music obsessives can't help but be nostalgic.  We want, no,  need, to obtain everything that an artist has committed to tape, no matter how terrible or insignificant those recordings are (it's not a perfect example, but see the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series 1-3 for plenty of tracks that should have remained hidden in Columbia's vaults).  Many will argue that demos and unreleased tracks are an excellent way to recreate an artist's thought process by closely examining what was left on the cutting room floor.  Many people would be wrong on most occasions.  But let's reward those who, because of the era that their magnum opus was released, can repackage their music merely for the sake of getting it out there on vinyl for the first time... with 4 bonus tracks that are easily found elsewhere.
In 1999, the indie music landscape was littered with disparate styles.  Emo was reaching a peak, with bands like The Get Up Kids, Modest Mouse, Pedro the Lion, and Jimmy Eat World selling album after album of whiny, derivative drivel.  Meanwhile, bands that would reach fantastic heights in the 2000s put out albums that would define their sound, such as The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun, The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs, Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada by God Speed! You Black Emperor, and The White Stripes' self-titled album.  Wilco dropped their Beach Boys-worshipping Summerteeth, Beck dove head-first into white boy funk with Midnite Vultures, The Hot Rock by Sleater-Kinney pushed their sound away from Riot Grrrl and toward the future, while Tom Waits' Mule Variations put his junkyard percussion into a retro-blues suit fit for the mainstream.  Pavement recorded and released its swan song, Terror Twilight, which still seems forced.  It was clear that Radiohead was the most important band in indie rock (by quite a margin), but their twin forays into electronics, Kid A and Amnesiac, would not appear until 2000 and 2001, respectively.  The ripples that they put into the water with 1997's OK Computer were trying to be copied left and right - to no avail.  Then along came Travis Morrison, Jason Caddell, Eric Axelson, and Joe Easley with an album that sounded very out of place to my ears at the time, but sounds timeless now.
The Dismemberment Plan were really nothing more than Washington D.C. also-rans, living on the outskirts of the post-hardcore scene, which very recently had been abandoned by Ted Leo as he disbanded the flag wavers of the scene - Chisel.  They had put out a few records on DeSoto over the preceding 5 years, but really hadn't made much noise on the scene.  Emergency & I was released on October 26, 1999 and was immediately met with rave reviews.  I was encouraged to check out the band (whom I had never heard of) by my guide through everything cool on the music scene at the time, KB.  Since KB had moved from Buffalo to the hustle and bustle of New York City (with a boyfriend in the music biz at the time), she had much more exposure to the cutting edge than I (not to mention, I was drowning in the work of my first semester of medical school).  When she suggested this record, I immediately went out and bought it (and was surprised to find it at New World Record).
On the first few spins, I didn't get it.  It was too obtuse, too fast and noisy in places, changed tempos waaaay too often and quickly.  "What Do You Want Me To Say" worked for me right away, the rest, not so much.  But it seemed to seep in day after day after day.  Right when it started to really take hold, it got pushed out of the way by Kid A and Turn On The Bright Lights. 
Fast forward to the end of 2010 - it's announced that Emergency & I would be pressed for the first time on wax.  A double 180g affair that sent me back to rediscover an album that never got its due on my play lists - it didn't even exist on my iPod.  What I found was something that had gone from sounding way left of center to sounding eerily prescient of what indie rock had become.  It predicted the math rock boom.  It incorporated Radiohead's knob-twiddling with the best elements of emo (yes, emo has its moments).
The songs are stellar top to bottom.  There's no extended intro to the album - Travis Morrison hits you right up front at the outset in "A Life of Possibilities" - as the band burns through cathartic song after cathartic song, all centered around what sounds like a break up that has forced the narrator to a city that is cold and empty without the former object of his affection.  "8 1/2 Minutes" is especially emblematic of this, as the singer frantically asks, "What were you doing for those 8 1/2 minutes?", knowing that he doesn't want to know the answer. 
Besides the lyrical content, the album's angularity and variety are its other secret weapons.  Try counting the beat in "Gyroscope" with its 15/16 time signature - i've tried and still can't seem to keep up - and yet, the song is just joyous sounding while being dour ("Happiness is such hard work and it gets harder every day").  "The City" moves along with strange, yet apropos synth lines set up by intricate drum fills, but again, finds the rock bottom feelings of the narrator ("The city's been dead, since you been gone" and "All I ever say now is goodbye").  The secret weapon here is Joe Easley's drumming.  On this record, he stakes his claim as indie rock's Neal Peart, moving the beat in different time signatures and directions seamlessly and cleanly.  That the band's angular time changes remind me of Rush's trademark flow is a testament to how tight the playing is on the album.  "You Are Invited" is sparse, haunting, and, possibly, the only positive song on the record, as Morrison sings of the search for community in party after party in a city where one feels so alone.  The lonely, ascending guitar arpeggio from the opening minutes echo Robyn Hitchcock's "Autumn Is Your Last Chance", another desolate, lonely tune.  I'm not sure that a group of post-punk indie kids was listening to much 1980s psych-folk, but the shared DNA is striking.  "The Jitters" gives the listener just that, as icy computer noise mixes with twittering synthesizers in the record's most Kid A-like moment.
There's clearly a time and place for looking back, even in the hipster world of indie rock.  We might not have decade after decade to reflect upon, but those of us in our 30s do still long for the time when we were floating through college and grad school, still forming our identities and seeking out new musical horizons.  That an album from just over 11 years ago stirs these memories, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and gives me that butterflies-in-the-stomach-feeling that true love does, isn't an accident at all.  It's just what good music is supposed to do.  Call it nostalgia if you must, but it's great to have Emergency & I back at the forefront of my musical psyche, fitting in like that missing puzzle piece that hides under the couch.  I'm glad that others haven't forgotten about it and clued me in to what I had nearly lost.  All you have to do is remember... and listen...

Sometimes I Look Into The Sun and Wonder What All My Worrying Was Really For

OK, I know, I know.  I started something that I couldn't finish (to quote Moz).  The Ideological Cuddle Top 10 Albums of the year started well, but never came to a conclusion.  Part of this is due to being busy, part is due to being lazy.  I think it's time to remedy this...

Album #9 - Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
Now, I outlined my new-found love for Teenage Fanclub in the last post, but a few more select thoughts - Shadows continues down the pathway that the band blazed from Grand Prix forward.  It's modern pop that looks backward to the grandiosity of 60s and 70s AM radio.  The first two tracks are stand-outs - "Sometimes I Don't Need To Believe In Anything" and "Baby Lee" - and a heck of a 1-2 punch.  Here's a taste:



Album #8 - Corin Tucker Band - 1,000 Years
Another album that was outlined in its own post just a couple months ago - October, to be exact (found here).  Not Sleater-Kinney, but no less powerful and affecting, Tucker harnesses years of being a mother, a wife, and an adult (there's a concept in modern indie rock!).  It is an album that is reflective ("Riley" and "It's Always Summer"), sensual ("Dragon"), and angry (standout track "Doubt" - the closest to Sleater-Kinney that you'll hear... that is, until Carrie Brownstein's new band Wild Fang hits the ground running).  I really look forward to what Tucker has planned next.




Album #7 - Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away
This one has been a quick riser on the Ideological Cuddle list (if I hadn't finished the list in mid-December, it might have made the top 5).  Ritter's latest LP was released in special vinyl form on Record Store Day and it took quite a while to dig through all of the lyrical depths that Ritter presents.  The full impact of his prose has to be studied to be fully appreciated.  The BFF and I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Ritter in concert in Toronto back in October, and he and his band absolutely tore the Phoenix Concert Hall up. The band is tight and Ritter's renditions of "Folk Bloodbath" (which premiered in fetal form on his March, 2008 tour stop to the same venue) and "Lantern" from SRTWA were fantastic.  I have been waiting months for the right time to share the video for "The Curse".  Be forewarned - this might be the only time that marionettes have ever made me cry :




Album #6 - The New Pornographers - Together
Another band that I have been singing the praises of for years, The New Pornographers stick to their formula (joyous power-pop filtered through the lenses of songwriters Carl Newman and Dan Bejar), yet allow Kathryn Calder to take her place next to Neko Case, rather than in her shadow.  You can't help but feel energized by the band's sound. Here they are performing "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" live in studio on Q TV in their native Canada (undoubtedly the best lyrical use of the word "Byzantine" ever):




Album #5 - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks
Another long time Cuddle favorite who swung through our region in 2010, Leo brought his trademark punk energy to venerable Buffalo dive-bar landmark Mohawk Place in June.  The place was packed wall-to-wall with every age of devotee - aging hipsters, young punks, and whatever group I belong to.  Everyone seemed to vibrate at the same frequency with the sheer frenetic energy of Ted's music, as he showcased the live intensity of the tracks from The Brutalist Bricks.  As if you ever needed another reason to see Ted Leo in concert (if you haven't you're missing out big time), the songs from this record absolutely shine live.  "Where Was My Brain?", "The Mighty Sparrow", and "Gimmie The Wire" shook the room to its foundation, while my favorite track, "Bottled In Cork" (a rumination on the state of the world filtered through a travelouge that stings of regret) was drawn out into a full-scale sing along with the tune's closing couplet" "I told the bartender/I think I'm falling in love".  The official video is downright silly and hilarious (and Paul F. Tompkins rules) :



Album #4 - Spoon - Transference
Somewhat overlooked as the year went on, owing to its release in January, 2010, Spoon continued its streak of amazingly crafted records with Transference.  As with many of the albums on this list, the band didn't really try to reinvent themselves, just merely made a few tweaks to alter their sonic delivery.  "Written In Reverse" follows in the footsteps of other danceable, funky Spoon tunes like "Don't You Evah" and "You Gotta Feel It".  "I Saw The Light" sounds like it would have fit perfectly between "I Turn My Camera On" and "My Mathematical Mind" on Gimme Fiction.  "Goodnight Laura" is contemplative and heart wrenching piano ballad along the lines of, well, nothing else in their catalogue.  Everything this band puts out sounds nothing like anyone else.  The band is truly original and fantastic.




Album #3 - The National - High Violet
Yeah, it's not my #1 record of the year.  Yes, it's fantastic.  No, it's not as good as Boxer, but not much out there is.  I've outlined the grandiosity of the National's live show (at both the Massey Hall and Rockin' at The Knox gigs in 2010) and sung the praises of Matt Berninger and crew over and over again.  This album helped to get me to understand that it was OK to be a thirty-something indie music fan in this day and age; that there were people out there in my age bracket making music and outlining themes that we understand (namely, having kids, struggling with a career, maintaining friendships, finding/losing love, mistaking sex for intimacy, feeling claustrophobic in our day and age, feeling paranoid about the government - you know, your  basic Top 40 radio themes).  And somehow, despite the heaviness of these topics, the band absolutely blew up this year; you could scarcely turn around mid-year without seeing The National on late night TV or being highlighted in print/internet media.  It would have been impossible for the band to have reached this level if the songs weren't fantastic (and they most certainly are).  Here's my favorite, live on The Interface in LA (and yes, I partially grew a beard this past Fall in a feeble attempt to look more like Matt Berninger):



Album #2 - The Black Keys - Brothers
Speaking of bands that absolutely blew up in 2010... After slogging along on the outskirts of fame for years, the Black Keys made their long-deserved breakthrough to the big time this past year, on the heels of their most ambitious (and, to my ear, best) album to date.  Prior to this album hitting the stores, there were plenty of folks who knew and loved the Black Keys, but they weren't exactly household names.  Now, they've played Saturday Night Live, have had their songs soundtrack commercial after commercial, and even came full circle to parody their "commercial" breakthrough on The Colbert Report (which, if you haven't seen, is an absolute riot - much credit to Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend for skewering their robust fame as well.  Check out the clip at Colbert's website here.)  The album should be enjoyed on vinyl (and that goes for all of my top 10) and can be purchased in one of many forms (I must say that I feel that I was punished for being a dedicated little fan and buying the record on its release day on double LP vinyl - it's subsequently been re-released on limited edition 10" records with 45rpm mastering and I would have preferred that version, but whatever).  The addition of bass and Hammond organ/harpsichord/keyboard is key to the album's success, as it pulls the Keys sound out of a blues orbit into more of a 60s Stax/Volt R&B vein (right down to the choice of recording studios - legendary Muscle Shoals).  "Everlasting Light", "10 Cent Pistol", "Black Mud" - these are centerpieces, but for me, the last two tracks are what cinches it for me.  The closing 1-2 punch of soul classic "Never Gonna Give You Up" (made famous by Isaac Hayes) and should be new soul classic "These Days" (imagine the late Sam Cooke or Otis Redding crooning this one) and unparalleled.  It's refreshing to see a band so confident in their songs that they can end a record with such gems.  Absolutely killed it live at Town Ballroom in September as well. 



Finally, The Ideological Cuddle #1 Record of the Year for 2010... Drum Roll, please...
Album #1 - Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
This album turned out the be the feel-good story of the year for me, as this was not only the most catchy, well-written return-to-form album, but also the soundtrack to my running resurrection.  On a personal level, this record gave me the push that I needed to get out there and get healthier.  It has been, almost exclusively, the soundtrack for each of my two and four mile runs since its release.   What Mac, Laura, Jon, and James did with this record is nothing short of amazing.  For a band that seemed to be lost to nostalgia just a few short years ago, to rebound with such a vital, triumphant record is inspiring.  That they've done it while making sure that Merge Records, the label Mac and Laura founded in 1989, continues to flourish as indie rocks' foremost success story is even more impressive.  The songs are great individually, but even more impressive when taken as a whole.  The track order is seamless, with one anthem flowing into another, but never feeling "samey".  As with High Violet, So Runs The World Away, and The Brutalist Bricks, Majesty Shredding finds its authors struggling with adult issues in a changing world.  No track that I heard in 2010 sums this up better than "Fractures In Plaster", a tune that celebrates getting older while recalling the fragility of life as we yearn to be like Christopher Robin "in the woods with your yellow bear", perpetually in childhood.  It was fitting that the band chose to remaster and re-release two of their best loved records, No Pocky For Kitty and On The Mouth, in 2010 as well, since Majesty Shredding sits right next to those two classics in Superchunk's celebrated discography.  You won't find a record that makes you feel better being an adult than this one.  It's about time, in the current musical milieu, that we can say that.



So, there you go. It took a while to get posted, but I hope it was worth the wait. I hope that everyone who reads this post will go out and check out these albums. They're all well worth your time.
Until next time (when I'll likely be drooling over the reissue of Emergency & I by The Dismemberment Plan), take some time to review the wonderful music that 2010 had to offer... and listen...