New Music Tuesday - Sun Kil Moon

Sun Kil Moon - April

4.5 out of 5



I'm glad I'm married to my first love, because Sun Kil Moon's new album is going to turn you into a giant, emotional, blubbering mess of a human being reminiscing about yours. If the album is titled "April" in order to appropriate an overall theme, it isn't the April of sunny days of backyard baseball or sundresses and Easter. This is the April of "showers" fame, of walking down a chilly, wind-blown street, of sitting inside on a gray day with nothing to do but think about lost loves and the past. In fact, I'm not sure if Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon is little more than a stage name for Mark's solo work) knows how to write a song that isn't in the past-tense. If you are a nostalgic person at all, this album is your holy grail. Mark conjures images of friends and lovers, and shrouds them in idealism and longing. He does this atop a backdrop of the most trance inducing fingerpicked and/or fuzzy guitar until you are a part of his inward and backward looking world. If anyone knows and embraces his obsessive ability to dig up the past, its Kozelek, with lines like:


I have all these memories, I don't know what for.
I have them and I can't help it.
Some overflow and spill out like waves,
Some I will harbor for all of my days


Some part of me is amazed that he harbors any of his memories because he seems to tell a whole life in each song.


The album starts with a couple of distorted Neil Youngian epics (much in the same vein as his first SKM release, "Ghosts of the Great Highway"), "Lost Verses" and "The Light." They clock in at 9:43 and 7:50, respectively, but Mark finds a way to keep his songs from becoming exhaustive. If it is possible to be intricate and simple at the same time, that would describe his style. His music has many layers, whether from his intricate fingerpicking, layered solos, or vocals, but his songs are never hard to follow, as they were in his days as the leader of The Red House Painters. Once he finds some intricate pretty little thing, he plays it again and again, until it sounds so simple and so light. This is what leads to the meditative and lulling aura of this album. And just before a song starts to get too repetitive, he mixes it up, as he does in both "Lost Verses" and "Tonight in Bilbao," where at the end of the song he introduces a completely new beat and invigorated melody. These little shifts always come at just the right time, and breathe new life into a song you think you have figured out.


If the first two songs recall "Ghosts of the Great Highway," the rest of the CD is an amazing expansion on his latest CD, "Tiny Cities," both physically ("Tiny Cities" was barely a half hour long, while "April" is more than double that), and musically. The fingerpicking is incredible and moving. Songs like "Unlit Hallway" (which sounds beautiful with some vocals from Bonnie "Prince" Billy), "Tonight in Bilbao," and "Blue Orchids" demonstrate that Mark is still one of the most impressive and underrated guitar players around. The arpeggios in both the bridge and end of "Tonight in Bilbao" are mind-blowing, and in "Tonight the Sky" his solo noodles into fuzzy oblivion.


Despite all of the wonderful guitar and catching melodies, what really makes the album work is the way Mark Kozelek can spin a yarn. In the gorgeous song "Moorestown" he sings, as on most of the tracks, of a lost love. Obviously, this has been done before, but he has the ability to put you there, in the shoes of the protagonist, by using the starkest details while at the same time singing about somewhere that could be "Anytown, USA." "Her walls are Mediterranean blue/ Her baby sister picked the hue," against "We'd spend our days just driving round/ Old parking lots and neighborhoods/ Our framed and charming Moorestown."


I think time will tell if "April" will be as good as "Ghosts of the Great Highway," which I still consider to be Mark's finest work, because his music is enticing at first, but the more it's heard, the more it's understood and the finer it becomes. This is easily the best, most complete album I've heard this year, and I demand you pick it up. 74 minutes will never go by so fast again.

Buy it straight from Kozelek's

Caldo Verde Records (7.99 download)


Sun Kil Moon - Moorestown

New Music Tuesday - Counting Crows

Counting Crows - Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings

4 out of 5 stars
Ok, so Tuesday is a little late this week, as Anne was out visiting. But I still managed to download and listen to this CD a few times since then. This is my most anticipated CD in years, and despite my obviously high expectations, it exceeded them! This is the first full length release from the Crows since Hard Candy back in 2002, so they've had more than enough time to work on this one.

The CD is a concept album of sorts, with the first half ("Saturday Nights") being hard rocking songs of partying, and the second half ("Sunday Nights") being the more somber, regretful day after. It's a great way to highlight the fact that the Crows even have hard-rockers, and of course the downtrodden songs are always lead singer Adam Duritz' forte.

The album starts with "1492," a song I'm pretty sure the Crows have been touring with for a few years, and I think they just finally found a home for it here. The guitars are wailing and the song is loud and immediate. It's definitely "Saturday Night," and it kicks the album into a stream of songs with loud, layered guitars, plenty of neat little licks, and wonderfully written songs. Adams voice sounds great on every song, and each song feels like the band is playing live-- they are filled with energy.

The last song of "Saturday Nights" is "Cowboys," the best song the Counting Crows have done since "Mr. Jones." The song is loud, immediate, filled with paranoia and despair, and catchy as hell. The "come on, come on" lyric from "Accidentally in Love," is back, but this time it is the flip side of love; it's the selfish need of love and attention. It's the song after one too many drinks, when you're starting let all your insecurities out and frankly, you're kind of scaring people. It's a great lead-in for Adam to start telling his Sunday morning stories.

The last half of the album has the Crows going very country, in the way they did on the album This Desert Life. More Americana or roots rock than Nashville, but the songs have plenty of slide guitar and banjo. The slow songs are more forgettable than the first half of the CD, but one of the highlights is "When I Dream of Michaelangelo." Adam steals a line from his "Angels of the Silences" from Recovering the Satellites to string a little song about faith and sex and God. Duritz evidently misinterpreted Michaelangelo's scene with God and Adam as not having just touched fingers, but as Adam not being able to actually touch God: "And he seems so close as he reaches out his hand/ But we are never quite as close as we are led to understand." If there is a better line about alienation from your creator, I haven't heard it. "On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago" Adam does his recquisite solo piano, horribly sad song ("Raining in Baltimore" on August and Everything After, "Colorblind" on This Desert Life). "Come back to me/come back to me" he croons, mournfully, over and over, and the song would be a little repetitive if it weren't for the emotional impact of Adam's voice. It's also got a great little line in there: "She is the film of a book of the story/ Of the smell of her hair." The album ends with a nice little song about getting dumped called "Come Around." It's sort of a happy song in disguise, as it's about a guy who is hard on his luck, but he is on his way back up.

Overall, the album does start to lag because of the slow/midtempo songs starting to back up, but this is a great CD for all Counting Crows fans and rock fans in general. It's not indie, but this isn't your standard pop either. The music is wonderfully made, lyrics full of emotion and story, and it sounds like a band having fun. Check it out.

Counting Crows Website


Counting Crows - Cowboys
Counting Crows - 1492

I guess the point is i really fucking love this album

Ok in the last blog i wrote i said i'd bought the new Kathleen Edwards album ' Asking for Flowers'. So i'll give a quick review for you all. The review is this BUY IT. Get over the fact that it's a girl singing. Get over the fact that she has a country twang to her and BUY this album.
I've been a fan of Kathleen Edwards since her first album 'Failer' came out in 2002. It was a great pissed of country album. She wrote great songs about drinking, bars, sex, drugs, loss. Now i know what your thinking. My baby took my dog i'm gonna drink and be a cowboy music is crap. It is. All of it. This is different. The reason is that Kathleen edwards is an incredible lyrisist. She tells these brief little stories and builds the songs around them. They're much more touching and emotionally powerful because of her abilities as a songwritter.
'Asking for Flowers' is a big shift from her first two albums. She's grown comfortable in her skin. While her second album 'Back to Me' was better then 'Failer' because it took the anger and sorrow up a notch, 'Flowers' is better then 'Back to Me' because it tones everything down and really looks inward. These songs are very personal. Specific moments in her life are laid out to pen a complete picture of Edwards' life.
Let's just take one line from the title song apart. This is a song about a woman in a long term relationship comming to terms with her lover not really loving her. Her life has been less then it could be because of this man. '' Asking for flowers, is like asking you to be nice. Don't tell me your to tired, ten years i've been working nights'' everything you need to know about that couple is right there in that line. Working class low income family. He's mean to her and doesn't buy her flowers, which is all she really wants from him. Yet she still wants to love him and again he pushes her away saying he's just to tired. All of this tied into a single line of her song.
The singer songwriter is the most self centered type of music. No matter what you do your paining a self portrait. People assume they know you by the way you come across in your songs. Nina Nastasia is a dark eyed lady of the night, Kristen Hersh is pretty fucking crazy, Joni Mitchell is much smarter and much sadder then anyone else on the planet. These are all stereotypes i get from listening to my favorite female singer songwritters. Kathleen Edwards is a girl who can drink you under the table, fuck your brains out, come home covered in dirt after being away for 4 days and who beats the shit and trashes the car of someone who does her wrong.
Ok this is getting all disjointed in long because i didn't prewrite and i'm at the library and can't listen to the person i'm talking baout. So i'll wrap it up.
This is a great album. Start to finish every song is solid and i haven't skipped a song. I've bought about 20 albums in the last month and this one is getting pretty much all of my time. Buy it, listen to it and love it.

Ok let's start

Ok not much time. I'm on my way home from work, but i did want to make a post to say that I am going to post.

So I've been buying a lot of music. Even for me. Yes, I did say buying. I'm rebuilding my CD collection from scratch. I've been getting 3 cds every 2 weeks, maybe more if I'm not spending my money on anything else. Today I bought Against Me- New wave The Headlights- Some Racing, Some Stopping and Kathleen Edwards - ( I forget the name but it has something to do with flowers). I love Kathleen Edwards and she's one of the few people I will buy a cd of the day it comes out without hearing anything about it. Her first 2 are grea Alt country and her writting gets better every album. Against me is an interesting pun-rock group who suddenlly got political. I didn't give it much of a listen, but i will tonight. The headlights are a lot like Saturday Looks Good to Me.....the cricket noise means nobody knows who that is. There Indie pop along the lines of belle and sebastian and architecture in helsinki.... more b & s though. Anyway I'll drop some reviews after i give them a few listens.

Anyway I have a lot I want to write about. I'm going to spend some time to night puting together a post and put it up tomorrow. Have fun everyone.

P.S. Yeah I can't wait for the new Sun Kill Moon....and who got you into them mike?

An iPod Diary

I recently connected my iPod to my computer for the first time in what has no doubt been nearly year. As such, the track count recorded by my mini is a close approximation of my most played tracks of 2007. The list is organized as the most played starting with Jack Johnson, which I wouldn't have expected but now I realize I do listen to that song kind of a lot. I was also amused by the clear distinction in tempo between the first 10 and the other 10. I underestimated the psychoanalytical potential of this post.

There were two songs I couldn't find on imeem so they got the boot: "Maybe you can owe me" by Architecture in Helsinki and "The Calendar Girl" by Stars. One album that didn't crack the top 20 but dominated the next group was Yann Tiersen's soundtrack to "Amelie."



John will post eventually, right?

New Sun Kil Moon Album Streaming on MySpace

My friend Nick just told me about this one. From Sun Kil Moon's Website:

April, the new album by Sun Kil Moon, is being streamed March 18th through March 20th at www.myspace.com/sunkilmoon. The album will be in stores April 1st and is available to order now at http://www.caldoverderecords.com/

Since I've been counting down the days til this release, it's pretty exciting news. He is touring as well (2 dates in Japan, what do you think the odds are I could make it there?) and as Nick and I can tell you, his show is amazing and definitely not ordinary. "No pictures, no recording, no talking." Yes, no talking. Anyways, my review of this will be up on April 1st, but check out this preview first.

We're from Barcelona

It shouldn't be any surprise that I'm a sucker for the band genre of bordeline-cult-ensembles. We're from Barcelona fits neatly on my imaginary shelf where I would hypothetically keep tiny versions of the Polyphonic Spree and Architecture in Helsinki to play me happy songs on a rainy day. Their album debuted in 2006, but it's clearly still making an impression. Their debut US performance also just happened to be at Lollapalooza last August. I'm not convinced they'll have as lasting of an impression on me as Architecture has, but wanted to share with you anyway. I don't have quite the enthusiasm to write as thoroughly as Mike, so here is what some satisfied pitchfork writers had to say:

Pitchfork song review: “We're From Barcelona” *****
Pitchfork Album review: Let me Introduce All of My Friends [8.4]

I'm From Barcelona Myspace

New Music Tuesday - Mike Doughty

Mike Doughty - Golden Delicious

Mike Doughty is one of my favorite wordsmiths of all time. How can you beat a refrain of "is Chicago/ is not Chicago?" Or how about "the best I ever did with my love/ said just three honest words to you/ three droplets in a pail of lies/ three gems among the alibis." The guy can make things sound right that just shouldn't sound right. When he was the frontman for Soul Coughing his lyrics hardly mattered because of the craziness going on around them, but when he went solo his lyrics were right there front and center. And luckily so was the guitar- his "gangadank" guitar style is buried in those old SC songs, but in his solo stuff you really start to hear the personality and skill involved with his guitar playing. That's why this CD is so hard to swallow. On his first major label solo album, Haughty Melodic, he sounded a lot more adult contemporary than most Doughty fans were expecting. If you didn't like that direction, this album is not gonna help. Not that Golden Delicious isn't a good album, it's just not as good an album as Mike could make.

The album starts off with two songs very much in the style of the single from his last album, "Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well." Plenty of layers and keyboards and guitars and pianos, that really hide the essence of his music in Q104 goodness. "Fort Hood" and "I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing" are catchy and all, but the third track, "Put It Down," starts to appeal a little more to the old school fans. Still plenty of production, but the word playing in the refrain and the "na na na's" done in a way you haven't heard before spice it up. This is followed by the biggest misstep in M. Doughty's backlog; "More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle," a song that attempts to recall the Soul Coughing days and fails painfully. He follows this up with "27 Jennifers," which is another catchy song, but was better when he did a simpler version with a guitar and a drum machine on his Rockity Roll EP.

The first of a string of great songs hits after that. "I Wrote a Song About Your Car" works because the simplicity of the production allows the songwriting to shine through. Then the truly stripped down song, "I Got the Drop on You," grabs you. Dark and heavy, just Mike, a guitar, and a little piano trickling in. The emotion bleeds from this song that seems to be about Doughty's drug addiction days (many of his songs in the past can be read in the same way, including "Looking at the World"). Another beautiful song follows, the partially bi-lingual "Wednesday (Contra la Puerta)," and Doughty paints a somber, pretty scene without really telling much of a coherent story. The end of Golden Delicious heads back towards mid-tempo rock with catchy songs like "Luminous Girl," "Nectarine (Part 1)," and "Navigating By the Stars at Night." The CD ends on a particularly weak note with the syrupy "Book of Love," which dies, despite the simple accompaniment, due to the weakness of the lyrics.

Overall, if you are a Doughty fan, you should definitely check this out, because there's enough of the stuff you love about his music trying to dig its way out of this album. If you are just an alt music fan, I would still recommend this CD, but it's not the strongest stuff in his catalog (check out Skittish/Rockity Roll or any of the Soul Coughing albums for one of the most underrated bands of the '90s). Hopefully we will see more from Mike Doughty soon, and if you have a chance to see him live, DO IT! His shows strip his stuff down to just the good stuff, and plus he keeps them good fun with excellent banter, ad libbed songs, and guitar playing you will be trying to learn for weeks afterwards (until you pretty much give up).

Mike Doughty Website (on tour now with The Panderers, who sound pretty good too)

Mike Doughty MySpace

Tilly & the Wall - Beat Control

I'll never forget my introduction to Tilly & the Wall, and I'm willing to bet whoever was with me that night won't be able to either. Few bands exist that have the talent of removing bodily inhibitions quite like them. I became the guy standing too close to you, dancing in a way that can only be compared to the way Pheobe runs. Without further ado, I present my first obsession of 2008: Beat Control.

Tilly & the Wall Myspace

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Submitted by Mike
jjjjj





Alright, I know I just posted, but I can't help myself, because I am obsessed with Bon Iver (pronounced bonn eevair, french for "good winter"). Guy's name is Justin Vernon, and, like Sam Beam, he self-recorded and produced his album For Emma, Forever Ago. Frustrated with his career and thinking of giving up professional music altogether, he holed up by himself in his dad's hunting cabin in Wisconsin, snowed in for four months, just to figure out his life. Evidently he brought along a few instruments, because the music he made up there is amazing. His voice is often compared to Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, but his sound is much more like Iron & Wine. His vocals are reverbed, layered, and include lots of falsetto, and the acoustic accompaniment is simple, but includes plenty of random noise to keep things a little ghostly. Anyways, he's picked up a ton of momentum due to blog buzz, an 8.1 pitchfork revew, and he's listed in Paste Magazine's 4 to Watch for March. He's touring right now (played the Grog Shop in Cleveland March 6th, so Drew and John J you missed your chance) and I'm gonna obviously miss his Seattle show, but yeah, if there is anyone else out there reading this, you should go see him. Okay, that's it.

Bon Iver Myspace

Bon Iver - Skinny Love.mp3

Dan's Best of 2007

Dan's Best of 2007

I was having a hard time coming up with lists long enough so I reduced the numbers to 5 & 10 (+HMs). Playlist included as well....

Top 5 Albums of 2007

HM "Raising Sand" Robert Plant & Alison Kraus

HM "The Mating Game" - Bitter:sweet

5. "Wincing the Night Away" - The Shins

4. "Too Young to Fight It" - Young Love

3. "The Reminder" - Feist

2. "Armchair Apocrypla" - Andrew Bird

1. "Life in Cartoon Motion" - Mika





Top 10 Songs of 2007

HM "All Will be Well" - Gabe Dixon Band

HM "Click, Click, Click, Click" - Bishop Allen

10. "Hey there Delilah" - Plain White T's

9. "Silver Lining" - Rilo Kiley

8. "Dark Matter" - Andrew Bird

7. "Beautiful Girls" - Sean Kingston

6. "Two" - Ryan Adams

5. "1234" - Feist

4. "Candyman" - Christina Aguilera

3. "I go to sleep" - Sia

2. "D.A.N.C.E." - Justice

1. "Grace Kelly" - Mika

Mike's Best of 2007

Mischief's Best of 2007

Alright, due to my being a compulsive lister, listener of new music, and spreader of my opinions this is my first blog post for Drew, Dan, and the Johns. The Best CDs and songs of 2007. I had a hard time making it only 20 songs-- I could definitely do 40, but I am limiting myself, because who wants to read a list over 20? By the way, playlist below has the full list (minus one that I couldn't find, and one accidental live version). Ok, without further ado:

Top 10 CDs of 2007:

10) The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

9) The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

8) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

7) Battles - Mirrored

6) Radiohead - In Rainbows

5) Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger

4) Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight

3) The White Stripes - Icky Thump

2) Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

1) Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

Top 20ish Songs of 2007:



HM) Make It Wit Chu by Queens of the Stone Age from Era Vulgaris

HM) Bodysnatchers by Radiohead from In Rainbows

20) Antichrist Television Blues by The Arcade Fire from Neon Bible

19) You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb by Spoon from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

18) Detlef Schrempf by Band of Horses from Cease to Begin

17) Two by Ryan Adams from Easy Tiger

16) Ddiamondd by Battles from Mirrored

15) Pretty Girl from Chile by The Avett Brothers from Emotionalism

14) Halloweenhead by Ryan Adams from Easy Tiger

13) Boy with a Coin by Iron & Wine from The Shepherd's Dog

12) Electric Feel by MGMT from Oracular Spectacular

11) Rag and Bone by The White Stripes from Icky Thump

10) Our Live is Not a Movie or Maybe by Okkervil River from The Stage Names

9) Spitting Venom by Modest Mouse from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

8) Little Weapon by Lupe Fiasco from Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

7) We've Got Everything by Modest Mouse from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

6) White Tooth Man by Iron & Wine from The Shepherd's Dog

5) The Moneymaker by Rilo Kiley from Under the Blacklight

4) D.A.N.C.E. by Justice from Cross

3) Time to Pretend by MGMT from Oracular Spectacular

2) All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem from Sound of Silver

1) Stronger by Kanye West from Graduation