EPISODE 17: The Last Road Trip Home
Song: Chicago
Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Album: Come On Feel the Illinoise
Label: Asthmatic Kitty (2005)
With the upcoming tour and surprise EP drop, everything's suddenly comin' up Soof! As if I have to tell anyone about the incredible back catalog, and this - the album that took indie pop up a notch... forever? Sorting through all of my many faves from several much loved albums, I just couldn't resist kicking off 'the last road trip of the summer podcast' with Chicago - I think it's been long enough.
Song: The Orchard
Artist: Ra Ra Riot
Album: The Orchard
Label: Barsuk (2010)
Real great new album from Ra Ra Riot. We played a similarly mellow cut from their excellent 2008 debut on the Xmas cast, way back on episode 4. Less hooky, and a little more mature sounding this time around, with emphasis on towering vocal range via even closer sound study of early 80's Sting and the Police.Been playing this a LOT.
Song: Hooligans
Artist: Neighbors
Album: Hooligans EP
Label: Paper Brigade (2010)
I'd love to get Active Child and Neighbors together for their cover art alone - to say nothing of their musical compatibilities. Someone needs to put them on a tour bill. Love this EP, first of a few short but sweet selections on this episode.
Song: Magics
Artist: Disappears
Album: Lux
Label: Kranky (2010)
That's some seriously incredible guitar tone. Hypnotizing, muscular guitar plodding and Brit-Punk spit from a typically... well... not very muscular label. Excellent record for fans of Japandroids, and inherited memories of small late 70s London rock clubs. The band I'd most like to be in right now.
Song: Sister Savior
Artist: The Rapture
Album: Echoes
Label: Universal (2003)
!!! (chk, chk, chk) just put out a new record... So anyway, here's a classic cut from commonly favorited Rapture album 'Echoes'. Excellent record if you haven't heard it. They epitomized electroclash in the early aughts, and got me excited about music again in a big way. Don't think anyone put the formula together quite like this since. Super raw, super glammy, super danceable. Yeow! Don't miss it!
Song: Done With You
Artist: The Whitest Boy Alive
Album: Dreams
Label: Asound (2006)
I'd been a huge fan and follower of Royksopp, Kings of Convenience, and Erland Oye's solo album and DJ Kicks mix, but didn't clue into the existance of his minimal rock band 'The Whitest Boy Alive' until I saw it mentioned on one of the members of Air's myspace page in early '07. They've also released a second as-excellent record since. So hard to choose one Erland project as his best - they're all so perfectly realised in their own rights, but this project is definitely it while I'm listening. This song in particular hit me so hard when I first heard it that I started fantasizing about breaking up with my then girlfriend... Yeah. I know...
Song: Marathon
Artist: Tennis
Album: Baltimore EP
Label: Underwater Peoples (2010)
Husband and wife. Self-deprecatingly white. The band name is the wife's poking fun of the husband's past tennis involvement, and the EP (and hopefully more to come) was recorded on a rented sailboat last summer. Reminds me of a lot of indie stuff in the late 90s where experimentation could even involve a bit of sped up playback, mixed with doo-wop. I mean... I assume it's sped up. Nice little EP. Glad to have it along.
Song: Dark Tower
Artist: Miniature Tigers
Album: F O R T R E S S
Label: Modern Art Records (2010)
Interesting stuff here. Neat arrangements and a quickly-becoming trademarked Indie Pop sound that does admittedly get a little Animal Collective once in a while. Kid from Morning Benders produced it, and guests on this track. The rest of the record is a little more high energy and fun. Lots of surprises and merrymaking, and a song about tropical birds... hence the cover art... obviously...
Interesting stuff here. Neat arrangements and a quickly-becoming trademarked Indie Pop sound that does admittedly get a little Animal Collective once in a while. Kid from Morning Benders produced it, and guests on this track. The rest of the record is a little more high energy and fun. Lots of surprises and merrymaking, and a song about tropical birds... hence the cover art... obviously...
Song: See Birds (Moon)
Artist: Balam Acab
Album: See Birds EP
Label: Tri Angle (2010)
3 of 4 groovy little EPs on this episode, Balam Acab released a handful of unique enough sounding electronic pieces to earn him his own genre designation 'Witch House'... apparently. He probably doesn't want any part of it, but that don't stop Pitchfork. I've been a little burnt out on electronic music as a rule, but the textures and grooves here are haunting, clingy, and very worth taking a listen to. Er.. very worth a listen to taking... Worth hearing.
Song: Djohariah
Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Album: All Delighted People EP
Label: Asthmatic Kitty (2010)
[Deep Breath] Hope you enjoyed the cast... but full disclosure... it wasn't about the other music. I mean - I like those albums and you will too. But really, all this episode is about is playing something from this EP. Buy it. Right now. I've been listening to this thing on repeat for days. I wait long periods of time for that to happen. The last time was with Yeasayer's new one, time before that was Grizzly Bear. A friend and I were talking about how we don't usually go back to Illinoise as much as we do the other folkier records, maybe due to the sort of heightened 'camp' of the breakthrough hit. Then, after the 50 states project was called off, and all we got in 4 years was an electro acoustic art film score (not to mention his confessions of waning songcraft enthusiasm) I began to wonder whether the time of his chamber pop spin on the diy music phenomenon had past, and any hope for the evolution of our hero was misplaced. Actually, I probably didn't care enough to fully form the thought. I think that was probably the feeling for most people, but hear this: I've never seen so much foul language meant to express delighted surprise as tore up the blogs on Friday when he surprise-revealed this EP (streaming free, or buy it for $5). And I'm sure it didn't take most of us long to come to terms with the fact that we were listening to an artist who has never rested for a moment since 2005. Sufjan Stevens should never again be taken lightly. Brilliant, glorious, wonderful music the kind that no one else I know of is even close to making (though I think that fans of the last Newsome album will have a more direct in here than most). The songs are staggering, the composition is rich, complex, nourishing and invigorating. Most incredibly, the full 17 minute version of Djohariah is worth every minute (included here is my edit... down to 13 minutes. Admittedly, it plays best when taken as a whole with the entire rest of the album. I hope I haven't ruined anything by offering it alone). The title track, also over 10 minutes long, is also completely stunning (as he mounts, strips and alternates layer after layer of arrangemental shuffle), as are all of the gorgeous ballads in between. Everything here stands eye to eye with all of his best previous material - and then a WHOLE lot more. The only album I needed this year, and a breathtaking almost scary preview of what could be coming our way whenever the next full length surfaces.[Update: The Full Length "The Age of ADZ" is out October 12th, coinciding with the tour kickoff in Montreal - vinyl to follow on Nov. 9th. Sound described as the electronics of Enjoy Your Rabbit plus the orchestration of BQE, but all in 3 minute, hook heavy, danceable pop song format. ie: pretty much perfect.]
