Robert Forster – The Evangelist (Yep Roc)
I have to echo Jack’s thoughts from his most recent Top 10 list regarding this album. It is indeed wistful, absolutely beautiful, yet haunting and a bit difficult to listen to since it was made after his GO-BETWEENS partner GRANT MCLENNAN passed away in May 2006. Nevertheless, I’m happy that Forster was able to make this record, as it was unclear whether we’d ever hear from him again. The last track “From Ghost Town” deals explicitly with McLennan’s passing, but his spirit is all over this record.
Be Your Own Pet – Get Awkward (Ecstatic Peace/XL)
I’m bummed that I missed their show here last month because I can only imagine how much fun and energetic this band must be live. Like early YEAH YEAH YEAHS if they were from Nashville (though there’s absolutely nothing country about this band) instead of New York or THE DONNAS back when they still wanted to steal your lunch money, these guys (and gal) are barely out of high school and it shows in lyrics that are about breaking up friendships, crushes, food fights, breaking stuff and what not. However, the music is so catchy and the overall vibe so infectious that it’s hard to resist, even if some may find them juvenile. There’s even an homge to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (“The Kelly Affair”) here as well.
Beach House – Devotion (Car Park)
This is slowly becoming one of my favorites of the year so far. Although sound-wise it’s almost identical to their debut, the songs are more memorable and the production is greatly improved as well. It’s like they’ve come out of their shell a bit. To my ears, they recall the female-fronted dream-pop haze of MAZZY STAR or even COCTEAU TWINS or perhaps early LUSH, so it’a amazing that they’re not on 4AD.
Nick Lowe – Jesus of Cool (Yep Roc)
This is a welcome reissue of Nick’s debut solo album from 1978, which was retitled Pure Pop for Now People in the U.S. The UK track order is restored here and 11 bonus tracks are added as well. It helps that not only is this album a power-pop landmark as well as one of the first post-modern pop records ever released in terms of the self-awareness in each style Nick was employing here, but that the bonus tracks (especially an incredible early version of his big hit “Cruel to Be Kind”) are generally excellent as well.
Saint Etienne – Finisterre (Beggars)
An underrated gem in this great band’s catalog, this album includes the international dance hit “Action” as well as “B92”, one of their best songs ever. The album inspired the movie of the same name (a love letter to London) and the album also provided the movie’s score.
Brian Eno and Robert Fripp – No Pussyfooting (E.G.)
Robert Fripp’s pioneering “Frippertronics” guitar method set to tape loops made by Eno provide the framework for this still-stunning 1973 album. It works both in the background (thus predating the ambient records Eno would pioneer years later) and in the foreground (especially on headphones). If you can find it, check out the Air Structures bootleg of them performing these two pieces (both are almost thirty minutes long) live in Paris in 1975.
The Stooges – Fun House Sessions (Rhino Handmade)
6 CDs of every note recorded during the sessions for Fun House, which I consider one of the greatest rock and roll records ever made and The Stooges’ finest achievement. You would think that hearing nineteen (!) different takes of “Loose”, for example, would get boring, but then again you’d be wrong. Somehow, this maddening repetition works, but then again maybe that says more about me and my love for these songs than it does about the box. This box was released by Rhino Handmade in the late ‘90s and limited to 5,000 copies. Thus, it’s been out of print for a long time, but if you can find it, go for it!
Husker Du – Flip Your Wig (SST)
This was the first Husker Du album I ever got and though Zen Arcade and New Day Rising typically get more respect, this is the end of several different eras. First off, it’s the last record the Huskers ever made for an indie label (SST in this case) and more significantly the last in an incredible run that stretched from the Metal Circus EP in 1983 up through the aforementioned Zen Arcade and New Day Rising. They were not only cranking out two records a year back then, but making some of the most incredible rock and roll of their era (or any other, truthfully). Side 1 of this is absolute genius, with songwriters BOB MOULD and GRANT HART hitting their absolute peaks on material like Mould’s “Makes No Sense at All,” “Divide and Conquer” and Games” along with Hart’s sublime “Green Eyes” and “Every Everything”. Side 2 is more experimental and as a result, a bit more disjointed. You get the whimsy of “The Baby Song” (just Grant blowing into a whistle for about thirty seconds) and the instrumentals that close the record perhaps showed that they were running out of ideas at that point, but you also get Hart’s great “Flexible Flyer”, Mould’s proto-shoegaze “Find Me” and the fine “Private Plane” as well.
R.E.M. – R.E.M. Live (Warner Brothers)
This collection shows that R.E.M., if nothing else, is still a formidable live band. Heavier than most of their studio albums save for 1994’s Monster and perhaps parts of 1987’s Document and 1988’s Green, the material featured here goes all the way back to ”(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville” from 1984’s great Reckoning and “Cuyahoga” from 1986’s equally great Life’s Rich Pageant. However, it’s the ‘90s and ‘00s material that dominates, with the versions of songs like “The Great Beyond” (from the soundtrack to Man on the Moon), the mega-hit “Everybody Hurts” as well as newer tracks like “Bad Day” and “Leaving New York” bettering their studio counterparts.
The Slits with Satanized, Shellshag, Northern Liberties and Rad Racket – Danger Danger Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) – March 22, 2008
The highlights of this five-band bill were not only The Slits, whose current lineup has gotten tighter since their show here a year and half ago at the First Unitarian Church, but the male/female, guitar/drums duo Shellshag, who played lots of neat covers (WIPERS, LIZ PHAIR and even WHEN IN ROME) and then proceeded to destroy a floor tom at the end of their set. The house band RAD RACKET (formerly RED ROCKET) opened the show with their captivating brand of spazzy prog-punk.
