Hold Me

"Hold Me" by Fleetwood Mac, from Mirage (1982)
Oh, I just wanted to share another song that proves exactly how hard Fleetwood Mac rules.

Gruesome Flowers/Idle Labor/Here Before/Helplessness Blues

Gruesome Flowers: A Tribute to The Wake 7" - Beach Fossils/Wild Nothing (Captured Tracks, 2011)

I'm not surprised that the two best Captured Tracks bands, Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing, got together for this tribute 7" to 80s and 90s Glasgow post-punk/indie pop group The Wake (who, after listening to this, I really want to explore their discography). Beach Fossils' take on "Plastic Flowers" is almost as good as anything on the stellar What a Pleasure EP, while Wild Nothing's version of "Gruesome Castle" isn't quite up to par with 2010's masterpieces. Still, Gruesome Flowers: A Tribute to The Wake is a nice hold-over piece.

Idle Labor - Craft Spells (Captured Tracks, 2011)

Craft Spells is yet another Captured Tracks group doing the whole 80s post-punk revival thing, and doing it well. Like the other artists on this particular record label, there are obvious nods to The Cure, The Smiths, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, et al. Craft Spells aren't quite to the level of excellence that Beach Fossils and especially Wild Nothing have reached, but Idle Labor is still a very good collection of moody, mid-tempo, guitar and synth oriented pop songs. I'm beginning to wonder if from here on out I'm just going to like absolutely everything that Captured Tracks releases.

Here Before - The Feelies (Bar/None, 2011)

The long awaited and hinted at return of classic jangly indie pop band The Feelies is finally here. And, for the first album from the band in 20 years, Here Before is surprisingly successful. The charm from their fantastic 80s albums is still there, just with more modern production and a slightly more tired feel. But, that's all ok, because the majority of the songs on Here Before live up to my expectations. Some even exceed them. The opening one-two punch of "Nobody Knows" and "Should be Gone" rank amongst the best of the best Feelies jams. Not my favorite record of 2011 or anything, but Here Before certainly is a welcome and much enjoyed listen.

Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop, 2011)

After finally spending some good time with Fleet Foxes' latest, I must admit, I have a hard time noticing any substantial differences between Helplessness Blues and 2008's self-titled LP and the Sun Giant EP. When an album is as gorgeous as this, though, I'm not sure how much that matters. I can't really mention any tracks or instances on Helplessness Blues that stick out, but if you loved, or even liked, the band's 2008 releases, I don't see how you couldn't dig this. This isn't even close to one of my favorites of the year, but the modern take on folk music that is Helplessness Blues always brings on a soothing and enjoyable listening experience.

Emotional Listening #11

Return of the Frog Queen - Jeremy Enigk (Sub Pop, 1996)
It had been quite some time since I had last visited Return of the Frog Queen, Jeremy Enigk's solo debut. It's fun to imagine the shock of all those original Sunny Day Real Estate fans when they first realized how much of a departure this was from Enigk's involvement with that band. No, this is not a classic mid-90s emo album. In fact, it's much closer to that "freak-folk" stuff that was going on in the mid-2000s. Enigk's voice fits in perfectly with this take on folk music, which is more urgent than soft spoken. These songs are fuller than I remember them being, but just as unsettling yet beautiful. There is some sort of dark ages carnival or fantasy feel or something like that to the entire record, but somehow its charming, and overall, excellent.
Top jams: "Abegail Anne," "Lewis Hollow," "Lizard," "Call Me Steam," "Explain," "Shade and the Black Hat," "Fallen Heart"


Only Life - The Feelies (A & M, 1988)
I've been enjoying The Feelies' classic Only Life for a while now, and now is the time to finally write about it. Really, though, I don't have a ton to stay. Only Life is easy to describe: jangly, guitar dominated indie pop with peppy rhythms but sleepy vocals not too unlike Lou Reed (who's old band, The Velvet Underground, was definitely a huge influence on The Feelies). It took me a while fully understand this album's greatness, but I am so there, now. It's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be. I'm not sure why it took me until recently to realize exactly how awesome songs like "Too Much," "Deep Fascination" and especially "Away" are, while "It's Only Life" pretty much asserted itself as one of my favorite songs of all time right off the bat.
Top jams: "It's Only Life," "Too Much," "Deep Fascination," "Higher Ground," "The Final Word," "Away," "What Goes On"


Clouds Taste Metallic - The Flaming Lips (Warner Bros., 1995)
For several years I was under the impression that Clouds Taste Metallic was my second favorite Flaming Lips album (after The Soft Bulletin, of course). Don't think that's the case anymore, but it's still really badass. "This Here Giraffe," "When You Smile" and "Bad Days" are three of my favorite Lips songs ever, and every other song here is at least totally good. Aside from the typically great Wayne Coyne melodies, what really draws me in are those gnarly, distorted Frid-drums, and those chimey guitars that flow in and out of songs wonderfully (the best of which is showcased in "When You Smile"). I think I'm finally ready to admit that Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is superior to Clouds Taste Metallic, but not really by much.
Top jams: "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles," "Placebo Headwound," "This Here Giraffe," "When You Smile," "Kim's Watermelon Gun," "Christmas at the Zoo," "Evil Will Prevail," "Bad Days"


For the Birds - The Frames (Plateau, 2001)
Thanks to be to my dawg and former bandmate Stephen Dahmer (via Alec Jensen, I think) for turning me on to this album back during my junior year of college. It's hard not to rolly my eyes at Dublin's The Frames these days since the main dude was in that Once film and is one half of that Swell Season group. But, miraculously perhaps, their 2001 album, For the Birds, actually is fantastic. Steve Albini worked with the band on it in some (unknown to me) capacity, and you can sort of tell, which is cool. When things get loud, the drums get Albini-esque and loud too. Anyway, For the Birds is a polite, dynamic record. There are slow, drawn out, constantly building ballads ("Headlong"), balls out rockers ("Early Bird"), and even a couple nice pop songs ("Lay Me Down," "Fighting on the Stairs"). For the Birds is chock full of outright jams, and even the album's secret track is great. If you your jam is somewhat safe but interesting, mostly mellow pop/rock with a little bit of experimentation, I'm not sure there's an album I can recommend any higher.
Top jams: "In the Deep Shade," "Lay Me Down," "What Happens When the Heart Just Stops," "Headlong," "Fighting on the Stairs," "Early Bird," "Santa Maria," "Mighty Sword"


One Time Bells - French Kicks (Startime, 2002)
Without question, One Time Bells, French Kicks', is a severely overlooked album by one of the most underrated bands of the past decade. It's not there best or anything, not even close, but it's still quite a debut LP, with the majority of the songs being at least great. Yes, French Kicks were a band in NYC when the whole garage rock revival occurred in the early 2000s, and it's unfortunate that they just get lumped in with that scene. They're way more like The Walkmen than they are The Strokes. Add some soulful vocal harmonies with that smart and quirky drumming, sparse guitars and cheesy keyboards and you have One Time Bells (and in essence, French Kicks). "When You Heard You" and "Crying Just for Show" immaculate show off the band's choppy, post-punk side (which they do best on this particular record), but are only the second and third best songs here. The plodding, full on R&B of "Close to Modern" takes the cake as #1 (which is funny to me because it is also the album's most subtle track). As much as I like One Time Bells right now, it's insane to think about how much better French Kicks got on their next two records.
Top jams: "Wrong Side," "When You Heard You," "Down Now," "Crying Just for Show," "Close to Modern," "Trying Whining," "Where We Went Off," "Sunday Night is Fair"

Bored to Death: Season One

Bored to Death: Season One (2009)
Finally got around to watching the first season of Jonathan Ames' Bored to Death with my housemates last week. Unsurprisingly, it was totally good. Surprisingly, it's not nearly as edgy as standard HBO fare.

Bored to Death is about a young author who struggles to write his second novel along with getting over his ex-girlfriend and decides to use the knowledge and insight he's gained from all the detective novels he's read to act as an unlicensed private detective. Quite the funny plot, if you ask me, and it actually works.

What I love about season one, aside from Jason Schwartzman being his usual self and Ted Danson's outstanding performance, is how near innocent it is. Sure, there's a smidge of hilarious violence here, and a touch of sexual activity there. I guess I mean that the events that take place, let alone Schwartzman's character and a good portion of his decisions within the story seem juvenile in an adorable and innocent way, which I think is the main thing that makes Bored to Death different than any other HBO show. Instead of grimey and defiant, it is simply fun, quirky and absolutely hilarious. I don't think it's the best television series I've ever seen or anything like that, but I thoroughly enjoyed this first season, and look forward to watching the next one.

Oh yeah, and that Zach Galifianakis is pretty funny in it, too.

Savage Night at the Opera

"Savage Night at the Opera" by Destroyer, from Kaputt (2011)

If you still haven't listened to Destroyer's Kaputt, then get with the program and at least listen to this sweet jam, please. The song gets especially awesome when the lead guitar riff finally comes in at around the 2:40 mark.

True Grit/The Crying of Lot 49

True Grit - Charles Portis (1968)

After quickly reading True Grit, it is not surprising that in 2010, the Coen brothers wrote and directed a modern film version. This western style revenge story certainly seems up the Coens' alley, as it is intelligent, dark, disturbing, clever and even quite hilarious at parts. The tough, young main character presents interesting contrast with her older, grittier companions of the law. It feels like the details of the story's antagonists were rushed, but that makes for some vague, mysterious villains, which is always cool. I love the way True Grit is written. It's almost as if you're sitting around a campfire in the wild west with an old, close friend who is retelling his or her most recent epic adventure. Plus, there were certain elements of the dialogue that made me chuckle out loud, which is always a bonus. True Grit didn't completely blow me away like I was hoping, but it is a very fun novel that is interestingly and well written, and I recommend everyone to take a stab at it at some point.

The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon (1966)

I had quite the difficult time following the seemingly post-modern classic, The Crying of Lot 49, which is the first Thomas Pynchon novel I've read. I feel that the fact that I was let down is my fault. I don't know if it was distraction, or that everything about the book caught me off guard, but I missed so many details (that I'm sure were crucial to the apparent charm of the story), and quickly lost the plot. I would pick it back up from time to time, but overall, I feel that this reading experience was lacking, and I definitely intend to give The Crying of Lot 49 another shot at some point down the road. There were still some things I liked about it, though. Pynchon definitely has a style and a way with the technical form of language that is very appealing. Most if not all of the characters were quirky if not totally hilarious, and they had awesomely funny names, like Mike Fallopian and Genghis Cohen, to name a few. Also, I was intrigued by how insane, detailed and entirely complex the plot was for a 150 page novel. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I thoroughly enjoyed the ending, which definitely came out of left field, but in a really cool way. I am not proud that I went to Wikipedia to try to make sense of all that I was confused about in The Crying of Lot 49, but maybe that will have a positive effect on the next time I read it.

Suburban Home

"Suburban Home" by Descendents, from Milo Goes to College (1982)

Is it weird that as I get older, I am becoming more and more interested in pop punk? "Suburban Home" is one of the greats.

1984/Choke/Boys Will be Boys/Little Children

1984 - George Orwell (1949)

Aside from being slightly more complex and monotonous than I was expecting, George Orwell's 1984 was damn close to being exactly what I hoped for. Not my favorite dystopian novel ever (that would be Orwell's other classic, Animal Farm), it still succeeded at making me feel like an idiot for never having read it before. In roughly the same way as Animal Farm, Orwell's characters here are vague and a bit confusing, which, I think works really well for his style. Unsurprisingly, I was enamored with the eerie feel of pretty much every detail within the book, and a portion of the events were more unsettling than I was looking for (which is a pretty cool thing, I think). I wish I had read this back in mid-college, when I was especially obsessed with Animal Farm, for I think I would have appreciated it more. Still, it's about time I finally did it, and it was not disappointing in any way.

Choke - Chuck Palahniuk (2001)

A little closer to mediocre than good, Choke is shamefully the first Palahniuk novel I've read. His repetition of phrases reminds me of Vonnegut, but the comparisons definitely end there. Choke is an utterly twisted character study of a true anti-hero who is easy to hate. His addiction to sex is entertaining and leads to some juicy, disgusting text. The "choking" element of his character, where he purposely chokes on food at various restaurants to provide random people a heroic opportunity, and then benefits from well-meaning cards and donations of cash, is somewhat detestable but unheard of, and thus, fascinating. The stoner dialogues are humorous but often times confusing, meaningless and utterly stupid. I don't know. Choke was definitely an entertaining read, but I sure am glad that it was a quick one.

Boys Will be Boys - Jeff Pearlman (2008)

Jeff Pearlman's summary of the scandals and triumphs of the 1990s Dallas Cowboys dynasty is easily one of the best things I've read thus far in 2011. It was just as enjoyable to read about the game of football actually being played (granted, I'm a huge football fan) as it was to read about all the insanity that took place behind closed doors. Hookers. Weed. More hookers. Cocaine. More cocaine. Drunk driving. Dramatically tense business relationships. Even more cocaine and hookers. Most fascinating were the tense moments throughout owner Jerry Jones' and former coach Jimmy Johnson's partnership, defensive end Charles Haley's mental issues, his obsession with his penis, and just being an overall jerk, and the fact that Michael Irvin once stabbed a teammate in the neck with a pair of scissors (amidst all of his other ridiculous and disturbing antics). I already had a good idea about all of the sex and drug scandals, but it certainly was entertaining to divulge in all the juicy details. Fortunately, the game details were just as interesting as well as nostalgic for me, as this all took place during the time I was first getting into football, and I remember watching all of these Super Bowls. Irvin, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith and co. had quite a run in so many ways throughout the 90s, and I loved all the insight and scandalous tales the Pearlman brings to life in this brilliant if not perfect book.

Little Children - Tom Perrotta (2004)

I had seen the film version of Little Children several years ago, and though I don't remember all the intricate details, it seems like it did a good job of capturing the feel and displaying the events of the book, which I ended up liking even more than I expected. With this novel, Tom Perrotta tells a dark, comedic tale of questionable marriage and parenthood, dominated by events such as extramarital affairs, child molestation, and dealing or reconciling with those in the midst of a seemingly normal suburban town. Some elements of Little Children are unsurprisingly (and probably intentionally) juvenile, but Perrotta offers up some interesting insight. More than anything, I enjoyed the wonderfully formed and incredibly flawed characters, and the events that take place within the story are dramatic, disturbing and funny in all the right ways. Also, it is so rare that a book has such an appropriate ending that is equally funny and depressing.