Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
Her debut solo effort is as good as I anticipated it to be. Although I enjoy Rilo Kiley, this is a completely different record that owes more to classic country and soul influences than it does to modern indie-rock or power-pop. Her singing is beautiful throughout and the backing by The Watson Twins is understated, but effective. The definitive standouts are “The Charging Sky”, the title track and the cover of The Traveling Wilburys’ 1989 hit “Handle with Care”, featuring Lewis trading off verses in the style of the original with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fame.
Serena Maneesh – Serena Maneesh (Honeymilk)
A previous Top 10 entry, this record grabs you and compels you to play it more and more until the melodies, usually buried under feedback and other guitar noise, come forth to the surface. In addition to that, though, I like the energy and physicality that’s present in their music as well. Not merely content with atmospherics, Serena Maneesh wanna pulverize you at the same time and in the best way possible. I thought I’d include it also because they’re playing in the area this weekend and I’m going to see them. Their live show should be great, too.
Editors – The Back Room (Kitchenware)
Although I’ll be missing them this weekend since tickets were really hard to come by, I anticipate that the next time they come back to New York, they’ll be in a much larger venue. Why? Well in this case the hype is justified. Yes they sound a lot like Interpol (though I hear lots of early U2 in their sound as well), but who cares when the songs are as strong and as catchy as “Blood”, “Munich”, “All Sparks” and especially the great single “Bullets”. I promise that you won’t be able to stop playing this record and I can assure you that even though I don’t like to play songs on repeat too often, some of these songs (especially “Bullets”) are so infectious that I have to play them 3 or 4 times in a row!
The Monks – Black Monk Time (Repertoire)
I’ve digging this reissue of the Monks’ classic 1966 album. For those of you who don’t know, The Monks were 4 American G.I.s stationed in Germany who shaved their heads like monks and were at least a decade ahead of their time in terms of playing their own skewed version of garage-rock (featuring an electric banjo!) which had not a little in common with the punk explosion a decade later. Regardless of its influence, songs like “Complication”, “Drunken Maria”, “That’s My Girl” are pure genius in the best possible post-adolescent ‘60s garage rock kind of way. This reissue also includes two singles, the Kinks-like “I Can’t Get Over You” and “He Went Down to the Sea” in addition to 2 other bonus tracks, including the great “Cuckoo”. And how can you not like an album with song titles like “I Hate You” and “Shut Up” (later redone by The Fall as “Black Monk Theme” parts 1 and 2, respectively)? Highly recommended.
The Shaggs – Philosophy of the World (RCA)
I know I’ll probably get a lot of flack for this since it’s either a love it or hate it kind of thing, but I really like this record. As many of you probably know, it was recorded in one day in 1969 by a group of sisters from New Hampshire under the direction of their domineering father, who naively thought that they were as talented as The Beatles, so he wanted to record them as quickly as possible. Aside from its innocence and consequential iconic outsider status in certain status, songs like “My Pal Foot Foot”, “Who are Parents”, “My Companion” are catchy as hell (though of course I hated this record at first until the songs got stuck in my head months after I’d first heard them; they’re almost impossible to forget) despite the lack of any kind of musicianship or competence. Thus, it’s not unreasonable to understand why they had a small following at school dances and what not back then.
Tracie – “Far from the Hurting Kind”
Thanks to a friend who sent me an mp3 of it, I’ve been digging this terrific Paul Weller-penned song from the unfortunately out-of-print 1984 album of the same name this past week. You can hear the Weller influence all over it, from his backing vocals and the Style Council-ish keyboard sound and above all, this Motown-style song will get under you skin because of its catchiness. Far from the bubblegum its critics decry it as, this song is more sophisticated adult pop in the mold of other UK stars of that era like Everything But the Girl, Aztec Camera, Deacon Blue and Prefab Sprout.
Everybody Hates Chris (Thursday, UPN)
Interestingly enough, 2 of my favorite new shows (the other being Veronica Mars) are on the UPN network. This is a fascinating and often funny portrayal of Chris Rock’s life as a 13 year old growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1982 with Rock himself doing the narration.
Shure E3C in-ear headphones
I got a pair of these as a holiday gift and I’m in love. I can’t recommend them enough if you own an iPod or other digital music player and you’re dissatisfied with your earbuds or other current headphones. The sound quality and clarity is astonishing and you’ll be able to hear your music as the subway rumbles through tunnels and better yet, you don’t have to turn it up loud at all to get great sound, so your ears will be spared as well.
Brokeback Mountain®
Initially I was reluctant to see this movie since I cynically thought of it as an “issue” film designed to score points with the Academy come Oscar time, but I’m glad that I did since it was really terrific, moving, heartfelt and well-acted, though very sad. My minor quibbles were the temporary loss of the 2 main actors’ Wyoming and Texas accents at certain points and the fact that the sex scenes (especially the initial one) seemed a bit forced, rushed and awkward, but otherwise, the chemistry was great and I recommend this movie highly.
Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit (Matador)
Unlike some, I don’t long for the twee-pop Belle and Sebastian of old, though I still think that If You’re Feeling Sinister is their strongest set of songs. However, I’m really fond of the more direct, Love-influenced orchestral pop 2001 single “I’m Waking Up to Us” and the subsequent 2003 masterpiece Dear Catastrophe Waitress and their new one shows them moving even further in that direction and embracing T Rex style glam-rock as well. While I think it’s a solid effort, I don’t think that the songwriting is as strong as on their last album, but I’ll take “Another Sunny Day”, “Sukie in the Graveyard” and the infectiously catchy “Song for Sunshine” any day of the week and I’m sure that it’ll continue to grow on me.
