Your Sweater's Fuzzy Against My Skin

Ah dear readers, welcome back to the Cuddle. After a re-energizing week's vacation from work, including 3 days in the Boston area (that's Rockport, MA above), it's back to the daily grind tomorrow. Before then, I would like to wax poetic on my newest musical obsession - Lambchop.

My latest love affair was spurred by reading the recent history of Merge Records, Our Noise, an oral history of the label and some of its flagship bands, primarily narrated by the label's two founders, Mac MacCaughan and Laura Ballance (who also happen to be founding members of legendary power-pop band, Superchunk). The book is a wonderful testament to the perseverance it takes to maintain an independent label in our world of major-label giants. It makes a compelling argument for bands NOT signing with a major label (and the pitfalls, loss of creative control, and nightmarish relationships related with that process).

Merge has always been home to some of our favorite bands - Spoon, The Arcade Fire, Camera Obscura (until they jumped to 4AD with My Maudlin Career), Destroyer, M. Ward, and The Magnetic Fields to name a few. It is interesting that, to survive as a label, Merge not only required the smarts that Ballance and MacCaughan provided, but the luck to have ownership of some of the past 20 years' greatest independent label hits, such as The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs, Spoon's entire catalogue from Girls Can Tell onward, and The Arcade Fire's Funeral - the surprise juggernaut of the Merge catalogue.

Those bands are all fantastic, but not the focus of today's post. The band in question is Nashville's Lambchop, an ever-changing conglomerate of musicians, helmed by songwriter, lead singer, and indie-music original, Kurt Wagner. A cross between Porter Wagoner, Dean Martin, and Dan Bejar, Wagner weaves strange non-sequitors with gorgeous melodies of almost every genre. The entirety of Lambchop's discography lives on Merge (except for early, privately released material), some volumes can be hard to track down in "typical means" (i.e. independent record stores), but the Merge website has you covered - almost every disc is available through their web store (accessible here).

The Lambchop sound cannot be pinned down (although I love Merge's description most - "Nashville's most fucked-up country band"). Their songs range from chamber music dirges to funky R&B rave-ups, all fronted with Wagner's plain-speak drawl. The band isn't an "easy" one to just jump into, so, by point of explanation, some starting points (click on the titles to go to Merge's web site for samples of each song on each record) :

2000's Nixon - A broad jump into a retro-soul sound previously unexplored by the band - consistently ranked amongst Top Records of the 2000's lists. May have made this blog's list, had this writer not stumbled upon it so late in the decade. Highly recommended.

1996's How I Quit Smoking - Consistently rated as one of the band's best, this album gives a more broad swatch of the band in full force.

2002's Is A Woman - A purposeful step into more quiet, piano-driven balladry. This album is almost hushed from start to finish, with only small flourishes of saxophone, drums, bass, and guitar.

2008's OH (Ohio) - An album that matches the pastoral beauty of Is A Woman with the full band sound of How I Quit Smoking in a more mature and well-thought-out direction. Not to be missed.

2009's Live at XX Merge - I was lucky enough to find a CD copy of this disc at Newbury Comics in Faneuil Hall Marketplace. It hasn't left my CD player since. The album includes an HD video of the show, shot beautifully at their performance at the Cat's Cradle. Anyone who was at there insists that Lambchop stole the show from other more high-profile label-mates such as Spoon and Superchunk. I wasn't, but can't imagine that anyone else could put on a show full of such musicianship, fire, and joy. Each song seems faster in tempo than the one that preceded it, and each song is a gem. From the off-kilter romantic observations of everyday life in "I Will Drive Slowly" to the barn burning set closer, "Give It" with its quotes of "Once In A Lifetime" by Talking Heads, Wagner, despite minimal interaction with the audience, has them in the palm of his hand. The show is a tour-De-force and could not be more highly recommended.

Check the songs out below and please, visit the Merge Records website for more info on Lambchop and many, many other bands worth your time and cash. The label stands as a success story in a field littered with failures and the indie level.

Lambchop - "Your Fucking Sunny Day" - From Thriller

Lambchop - "I Will Drive Slowly (Live on KCRW)"

Lambchop - "Grumpus" - From Nixon

Lambchop - "Slipped, Dissolved, and Loosed" - From OH (Ohio)

Until next time, be well, check out the fucked-up poetry of Kurt Wagner and Lambchop, and listen.

People Say That Your Dreams Are the Only Things That Save Ya

Hello again, fearless readers... As we prepare to jump into the next portion of the Decade's Best, let's take a minute to think about how nice the weather was in the Buff today... feel kind of bad for those down the East Coast being hammered with snow (sorry, Baltimore), but, our time is certainly coming sooner or later. Anyway, here we go...

NUMBER 15:
Eels - With Strings: Live At Town Hall
I can almost guarantee no one else posting a list of the best albums of this decade has this album ranked, but that's fine with me. To the uninitiated, the Eels may be known only as a one-hit-wonder ("Novocaine for the Soul", from the underrated Beautiful Freak, 1996), but the work that Mark Oliver Everett has amassed over the past 10 years stands alone in its naked emotion. To anyone not familiar with where Everett is coming from, by all means, read Things The Grandchildren Should Know, his autobiography (easily one of my favorite books of the decade). You'll have a true appreciation for someone who was able to harness a completely fucked up childhood (and life in general) and make beautiful music from it.
I could have easily chosen Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, the Eels excellent 2005 double album, at the 15 slot, but I think that this album really crystallizes what makes the Eels songs so heartbreakingly beautiful. The use of all acoustic instruments, including plenty of strings, puts Everett's fragile voice at the forefront and forces the listener to face his demons with him. The covers on the album are carefully chosen as well - Bob Dylan's "Girl From the North Country" and the Left Banke's "Pretty Ballerina" are great, but Johnny Rivers' "Poor Side of Town" has forever been marked with Everett's stamp - even the original can't compare. Other highlights include the theremin-soaked "Flyswatter", Eels favorite "My Beloved Monster", and a complete reworking of "Novocaine For the Soul". I've decided to post quite a few tracks from this record, as I think it deserves to be heard by many more folks. By all means, dive in.
With Strings: Live at Town Hall - "Railroad Man"
With Strings: Live at Town Hall - "Novocaine For the Soul"
With Strings: Live at Town Hall - "It's A Motherfucker"

NUMBER 14:
The White Stripes - Elephant
This record is a monster. In fact, I really feel guilty that there wasn't a place for it in the Top 10, as it is as re-listenable as albums get. There isn't a bad track amongst the album's 14 cuts, and some are just stone-cold classics. "Seven Nation Army" received more airplay and attention than most other cuts on Elephant, and rightfully so - it's a beast of a song, punishing the listener with a massive thumping bass line throughout its almost 4 minute running time. The cover of Burt Bacharach's classic "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" isn't a complete reinvention, although it is tough to listen to the Dusty Springfield or Elvis Costello versions without thinking about Jack White's guitar solo superimposed in them (the sexy black and white video with Kate Moss doesn't hurt, either). "Ball & Biscuit" (available below) is 7 minutes of pure throwback blues, and the album's standout track. White Blood Cells may have been the album that launched the Stripes to world-wide acclaim, but Elephant put them in a league all their own (unfortunately, Get Behind Me Satan almost derailed the entire outfit).
Elephant - "Ball & Biscuit"

NUMBER 13:
Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP/Fleet Foxes
I'm very proud to have jumped on this bandwagon well before the band set foot on the stage at Saturday Night Live at the beginning of this year (yeah, that sounds like indie-hipster posturing, but whatever). The Sun Giant EP appeared kind of out of nowhere on the Sub Pop label in early 2008 and heralded the onslaught of honey-voiced harmonies that litters the indie world today. By the time their self-titled full length dropped in the Spring of 2008, the buzz around the band had built to a frenzy, and with good reason. The easy comparison is with CSNY, mostly for the harmonic textures found throughout the album's 11 tracks. It is clear that this record wouldn't have sounded out of place in the late 1960s. Robin Pecknold, the Fleet Foxes' lead singer, has a voice that seems effortless, yet carefully honed. This album also sounds great no matter what the season - it fits well in a warm summer night next to a bond fire and a frigid winter evening next to the fireplace. Ethereal, pastoral, gorgeous. A classic.
Sun Giant EP - "Drops In The River"
Fleet Foxes - "Sun It Rises"

NUMBER 12:
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Unlike Live at Town Hall, this is an album that most music critics can agree on placing in list after list of the Decade's Best. Like Fleet Foxes, this band carried an enormous amount of buzz with it as Funeral was released. It easily lived up to the hype. Boasting an amalgam of instruments and sounds unheard previously, the Arcade Fire came screaming out of Canada with both guns blazing. Every time I hear "Wake Up" I get chills. Using it in the Where The Wild Things Are trailer? Tears. Seriously. Anytime a band can conjure that type of emotion, it's got a winner on its hands. The album is complex, layered, and full of surprises. A cornerstone of this decade's indie music foundation.
Funeral - "Wake Up"

NUMBER 11:
The Strokes - Is This It
Another album that clearly has a place in all Best of the Decade lists (at least, those worth their salt), The Strokes' debut record sounded as if it was unearthed from a locked vault of 1970s New York City rock and roll. Like a lost transmission from CBGBs, Is This It shot out of the gate with a laid-back, self-assured vibe that owed its very existence to The Velvet Underground, Television, and early Talking Heads. Even though the American press hyped the record, the British press was even quicker to crown it as the Second Coming. Many British publications have placed this album at the top of their lists for greatest albums of all time. The album was released just weeks after 9-11 in the US, further underlining its NYC connection.
All of this would be pure hot air if the songs weren't so good. The album is easy to listen to over and over and over again. "The Modern Age", "Barely Legal", and "Someday" are just consistently excellent. Through it all, Julian Casablancas' voice lays behind the beat, loping along with his trademark sleepy drawl. The songs are deceptively simple and unbearably catchy - an easy recipe for success. Critics weren't as kind to the Strokes' follow-up, Room On Fire, but for my money, that album is almost as good ("What Ever Happened?" might be their greatest song). The Strokes may have made their last record (while rumors of a reunion in 2010 have been tossed around, multiple members of the band have put out solo records or new projects, and we all know what happens to bands when the members start having success elsewhere...), but we'll always have Is This It to remind us of their prowess.
Is This It - "Someday"

We'll delve into the top 10 with our next post. Until that time, and as always, be well, enjoy, and listen...