What I’ve Been Listening to and Reading Lately
The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar (Atlantic)
This acclaimed London via Wales trio’s debut full-length is finally here and boy does it live up to the hype. Fans will recognize about half of the tracks here (“Austere,” “Whirring”, the incredible “Cradle” and “The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade” among them) from last year’s A Balloon Called Moaning EP, but the other songs are no slouches as well. Among them is the new single “I Don’t Want to See You Like This” and overall, The Big Roar lives up to its name and then some. This is an early candidate for album of the year, though I do wish they would’ve put their best song (“Greyhound in the Slips”) on here!
Buffalo Tom – Skins (Scrawny)
Anyone who has ever been caught up in the Boston, MA scene of the 1990s should be happy to hear this fine new Buffalo Tom album. Self-released on their own label, it’s full of solid songs that won’t let you down.
Sharon Van Etten – Because I Was in Love (Language of Stone)
Sharon Van Etten’s debut Lp from 2009 is a completely different record from the newer epic (see #1 above). Instead of a fleshed-out, more band-oriented sound, it’s much sparser and is often just Van Etten with her guitar. Produced by Espers‘ Greg Weeks (also a former contributor to The Big Takeover), the album recalls the work of Weeks’ own band and Espers vocalist Meg Baird along with older troubadours such as Karen Dalton alongside contemporaries like Marissa Nadler (with whom Van Etten has toured). This is a lovely record and great to put on late at night, but to those of you who may get this after hearing epic first, don’t expect something similar.
Sharon Van Etten – Live on Radio K (streaming)
Sharon Van Etten stopped by Minneapolis’ Radio K for a short performance/interview session twice in 2010. The first session from January 2010 features material from her debut album Because I Was in Love and her early home demos while her second appearance on the station in November 2010 features material from her most recent release epic. You can stream them here and here, respectively.
Office of Future Plans – “Harden Your Heart” EP (self-released)
This is the new band featuring the inimitable J Robbins (Government Issue, Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels) along with Gordon Withers (who several years ago put out an album of Jawbox songs played on his cello) and Darren Zentek (Kerosene 454 and Report Suspicious Activity). The sound is exactly what you would imagine from a Robbins-led band, but that’s definitely not a bad thing. You can download the songs from the 7” here and there will be more vinyl pressed soon as well for those who missed the Kickstarter project (their 7” was funded by fans and for now will only go to those who funded it).;
The Feelies – “Should Be Gone”
The first new Feelies song heard by the general public in almost 20 years sounds almost exactly like where they left off with their two A&M albums, particularly 1988’s Only Life. I can’t wait to hear the rest of it. You can stream or download the song here.
Gang of Four – Content (Yep Roc)
Although the quality of the songwriting isn’t quite up to the standard of their 1st 3 Lps (though I doubt that few expected that), this (like Devo‘s Something for Everybody from last year, which was their best in almost three decades) is still easily their best album since 1982’s Songs of the Free though only Jon King and Andy Gill remain as bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham have since left (replaced by Thomas McNeice and Mark Heaney, respectively) after the original lineup got back together in 2005. Nevertheless, it’s still closer to the classic sound of the 1st 2 Lps then anything they’ve done since.
It’s currently streaming here.
Patti Smith – Just Kids (Ecco, 2010)
This won a National Book Award recently and I got a chance to see Smith read from it about a month ago, which piqued my desire to read it that much more. I’m glad I did, because this not only feels like part of her autobiography as well as a story of two friends and lovers, but a tribute to the lost New York City of the ’60s and ’70s. Thus, this book will not only appeal to fans of Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, but to connoisseurs of the time period as well.
Destroyer – Kaputt (Merge)
I’ll be honest here. Though I’ve always liked the songs that Dan Bejar contributes to each New Pornographers release, I’ve never been much of a fan of his own project. That is, until now. Kaputt sounds unlike anything I’ve heard by Destroyer. While the first track is firmly ensconced in mid ’80s Prefab Sprout territory, the rest of it feels firmly rooted in Roxy Music‘s late ’70s and early ’80s material (think Manifesto or Flesh and Blood, though not Avalon). Bejar has also dialed down the vocal histrionics that kept me from fully embracing Destoyer in the past.
Wye Oak – The Knot (Merge)
Though often classified under the “folk-rock” umbrella, to my ears this is something else entirely. On initial listens, this reminds me lots of ’90s slow-core such as Low, Codeine, Red House Painters or even Silkworm, but with more hints of Americana. This is more than the sum of those parts, though, and well worth a listen.
