I know it’s a tired medium, but I love writing these “best of” lists because they force me to intensively focus on some of the music I have admired over the stretch of a few months.I listened to a boatload of awesome tunes this past summer that grabbed my attention, but most of my music choices were influenced by the year I spent working in Brooklyn and hanging out in some pretty cool live music venues there and in Manhattan. The last time I ventured into “best of” territory was last Spring, and much of the music that landed on the list expressed a passion for all things nostalgic (a good deal of it was either the latest incarnation of 80s-influenced synth pop or travelers riding the latest popular wave of indie folk).
In defense of past posts, I would argue that my frequent fits of nostalgia for 70s and 80s music is perfectly reasonable – I can’t remember a period when contemporary popular music has been this heavily influenced by multiple musical genres from the past. A few years ago I watched an interview with Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow fame (another infatuation of my youth) who credited the heavy emergence of past musical styles to the wide availability of music through the internet and mp3 players, which allow listeners to experience music from several periods and genres in a matter of seconds through their enormous storage capacities and the random playlists and instant variability such devices offer.
Anyway, this time around I’ve attempted to look forward, addressing artists and styles that are potentially harbingers of alt/indie sounds to come, therefore many of my musical choices over the summer veered into the realm of contemporary electronica, garage post-punk, dream pop, and some downright musical experimentation (although heavily biased by my NYC experience). Okay, I can’t resist a couple nostalgia picks, but I have at least made a retreat from the heavy amount of folk rock that pegged me for a devotee of the dreadful Mumford and Sons and the bright-eyed-bushy-tailed frivolity of the Lumineers. A few of the picks won me over during amazing live sets I saw in New York. Others just wowed me because of their straight up coolness. Most of these, on account of their sheer eclectic nature, will probably fail to win any places on many top ten lists at the end of the year. What some of these pics represent to me, however, is the potential state of the musical changes affecting the indie sound in the next few years – especially as some influential critics claim momentous changes are crucially necessary.
For example, Jon Caramanica, a New York Times music critic, suggested in a piece last year that rock music has maintained a steady downward trajectory to its contemporary state of zombification (his term not mine) since the demise of Nirvana in the 90s and the fading of guitar-based bands like the White Stripes and the Strokes in the early 2000s. Given the notion that Cobain and other grunge artists saved popular rock from the musical doldrums created in the late 80s by such acts as Winger, Poison, and Salty Dog, thinking about the possible future of alternative rock music for me is an exercise in considering how the genre will continue to maintain itself as fresh and relevant. Although I have neither the intention nor capability of providing any real direction (after all, I’m an anthropologist not a music critic) my list intends to at least entertain the concern regarding who or what will emerge out of Brooklyn, or Seattle, or maybe even Montreal to save rock.
10. The Hundred in the Hands – Red Night. Right off the bat I begin with a nostalgia pick (and certainly not a pick that will save rock), but I’m a sucker for Siouxsie and the Banshees, and this sophomore effort by the Brooklyn-based duo recalls their mid to late-80s sound. The sweeping orchestral arrangements and synths on Red Night combined with Eleanore Everdell’s subdued, gothic vocal suggest kinship to Banshee tunes like “Dazzle” or the sublime “Overground.” The Hundred in the Hands’ percussiveness thanks to Jason Friedman’s acoustic and synthetic beats also recalls Budgie’s awesome tribal drums that always made the Banshees’ tunes so distinctive. Red Night plays like a contemporary update to that sound though with all the bells and whistles employed by the duo’s collection of dreamy synths and percussion machines. Top picks for me on this record, however, are the subtle tunes “Keep it Low” and “Let the Light In” thanks to their mixed electronic/acoustic percussion and Everdell’s overlapping vocal work. Unfortunately Everdell and Friedman pull a Sleighbells during their live show with only a guitar and an analog synthesizer on hand (and plenty of pre-recorded music), which somehow doesn’t distract me from enjoying this record.
9. DIIV – Oshin. I discovered DIIV (pronounced “dive”) before I ventured off to the Best Coast show last July (DIIV was the first act on the bill). Due to circumstances beyond my control, I reached the show late and only caught the last song in their set. I apparently enjoyed what I heard, and since the band has been fairly popular in the Brooklyn scene, I gave their debut disc a few additional spins. Thanks to the great instrumental work clothed in dream/indie pop peppered with moments of fleeting, shadowy lyrics, Oshin reminds me of an old Meat Puppets album (Up on the Sun) I owned on cassette and played incessantly until it died of overuse. This album does not represent a lapse into teenaged nostalgia for me, however, but marks a foray into something that Isis had mastered by Celestial – the use of voice as a contribution to the whole rather than a featured piece of a composition. That in combination with some stellar instrumental craftsmanship earns Oshin a spot on my list and invites pangs of guilt whenever I’m reminded that I missed these shoe gazers from Brooklyn warm up the crowd for the surf rockers from SoCal.
8. Laurel Halo – Quarantine. I first discovered this one-woman electronic act from Brooklyn as an opener at the Chairlift show (Ice Choir was also on the bill and their new album Afar is a pretty intriguing disc as well). While not really coming across as pop music, the Laurel Halo experience is unique and never fails to conjure in my imagination a reworking of movie soundtracks for gritty, noirish science fiction flicks like Blade Runner and Escape form New York. Halo incorporates a good deal of sampling in her tunes, but positions them to feel more like organic pieces of the music – see “Thaw” and “Wow” – rather than added elements. Compositions such as “Years” also invite interesting disjunctures where synths and samples unevenly give way to eerily syncopated vocals similar but smaller in scope than fuller-sounding work from Dirty Projectors and Ava Luna. Also, with its depiction of the geographically harmonious, sword wielding Japanese school girls bathed in blood, Quarantine gets my vote for the weirdest album cover of the year.
7. Blanche Blanche Blanche – Wink With Both Eyes. This album nearly receives a spot here due to the band’s hilarious name. Its two members (Zach Phillips and Sarah Smith) are also more or less my neighbors as they live just a few miles down the road in Brattleboro – one of the hippest towns in Vermont. I had never heard of them though until they played a show at a club in Brooklyn, and I soon thereafter looked them up. Blanche Blanche Blanche is yet another act dependent upon synthesized sounds in addition to some occasional guitars. Of the synth-based albums on my list, this is perhaps the most interesting thanks to its odd low-fi sounds that echo compositions found in 1970s dish detergent adds – for a taste of this see “Appetite” and “The River.” Although this disc comes across as a low budget affair, the crackling static, off kilter beats, and hollow vocals heighten the overall quirky intrigue of the recording. In the midst of all this musical peculiarity, Phillips and Smith manage to work in a few catchy hooks and periods of synth sublimity. The greatest thing about this record is that it often appears to be mimicking other genres and styles (as diverse as disco, top 40, and Asian Karaoke) in a totally laughable cheapskate way, but throws in a cool hook or an appealing musical foray forcing the goofiness to give way to stimulating musical ideas (the album’s opening track, “Results” and later “She’s Adopted,” accomplishes this effect nicely and sets the tone for what to expect). I’m dying to catch Blanche Blanche Blanche live and pray they don’t decide to change their name.
6. The Men – Open Your Heart. The Men are another group from Brooklyn and are simply straight up cool. This album is in stiff competition with the new Cloud Nothings disc as the best in “heavy indie,” but Open Your Heart earns the nod because I think it’s comparable in the energy it brings as a recording to what Cloud Nothings delivers in a live set (but their new album doesn’t quite pull off). The record also functions as a veritable smorgasbord of genres sweetly assembled around a heavy confusion of growling lyrics and heavy rock riffs. From alt-countryesque tunes like “Candy” and “Country Song” to something resembling post-punk found in “Cube” and “Turn is Around,” the disc offers a seriously diverse collection of influences. Yet, through the aggressive nature of these songs the band manages to synthesize the hodgepodge into something uniquely cohesive and fresh. Also, just by dropping my familiarity with The Men in conversations with people who know Brooklyn music, I raise my coolness rating a few notches (which still doesn’t make me as cool as the slicker than silk bearded gentleman Frank Nooch).
5. Gold Motel – Gold Motel. Packed full of great hooks and easy pop guitar riffs, Gold Motel’s second, self-titled disc worked nicely as a summer album. I rank Gold Motel as the best of the bands with California sunny-beach sensibilities with chick lead singers like Tennis, Best Coast, and the Dum Dum Girls. For me, Gold Motel surpasses other acts of their ilk though as they often venture beyond catchy pop songs and into more interesting musical territories featuring the full force of a well-equipped rhythm section (I find Atlas Genius to be a band also achieving such heights), nicely exemplified on the pop rockers and standouts on the disc “Cold Shoulders” and “Leave You in Love.” Lead singer and keyboard player Greta Morgan is certainly a cute, peppy singer (a mainstay for these kinds of bands), however, guitarist Dan Duszynski joins her on several tunes providing some nice harmonizing vocal moments such as on the steamy lounginess of “Slow Emergency.” Since Gold Motel is from Chicago, their tunes also avoid the “This Is The Place!” pretentiousness of a certain band from southern California.
4. Tanlines – Mixed Emotions. Tanlines is yet another synth-pop duo from Brooklyn, but their broader pop sensibilities distinguish this record from those of the other, more eclectic, synth-based bands on this list. Of course I loved the perky single “All of Me” when it came out last spring, but this band seems to be more than just a poppy singles machine, as both members, Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm, are pretty talented instrumentalists. Cohen is apparently a trained percussionist, which shows in the complexity of the both the programmed and live beats found on this album, and Emm is a solid guitarist. I think their attention to musical details creates moments causing this album to rise a little further to the top than other synth-driven albums I liked this year. Such moments occur, for example, with the crisp, tinny hand drums played during the chorus of “All of Me,” or the crunchy guitar riff (al la Jesus and Mary Chain) giving way to an acoustic passage in “Green Grass” (my favorite moment on the album). Mixed Emotions has been criticized elsewhere for being uneven, but even beyond the catchy singles, most of its tunes harbor super cool musical ideas making it a great (not good) album.
3. Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan. I’ve been a hard core admirer of Dirty Projectors since I listened to Swing Lo Magellan several months ago, but became even more devout while watching a live performance of “About to Die” the other night on Letterman. Later the same night, I caught Electric Guest performing “This Head I Hold” on Jimmy Fallon. The difference between a fully formed musical project that knows how to play live and an inexperienced alt pop singles band was striking. Thanks to the internet skills of Senor Franko Noocho, I have listened to the entirety of Dirty Projectors rather vast discography, and although I like much of what is there, Swing Lo Magellan is by far the best of the bunch. The reason for this is that although the new disc maintains Dave Longstreth’s distinctive inclination for dissonance and off-tempo beats, it is much more accessible and poppy than anything arising before it from this band. One need go no further than lead single “Gun Has No Trigger” as the female chorus backs Longstreth’s powerful lyric to take notice, and this disc has a slew of other notable semi-pop, delightfully accessible tunes. The handclaps and hooks of “Dance for You,” the Simon and Garfunkel harmony of “Impregnable Question,” and the playful banter critiquing Longstreth’s eccentric lyrics during the crescendo-packed “Unto Caesar” transform these pieces into brilliant pop songs. I think Swing Lo Magellan is a good representation of the current moment in the Brooklyn indie music scene at its absolute creative height. Take a look at the performance from Letterman to see them in action.
2. Sophia Knapp – Into the Waves. Now that I’ve seen her live performance twice and listened to her debut Into the Waves about a million times, I’ve fallen hard for Sophia Knapp. I have no idea if she is trying to impersonate Olivia Newton John, but Knapp’s employment of space loungy (and at times discoey) arrangements and her vocal similarities with the princess of
Grease Lightening suggest a strong resemblance.
Knapp’s excellent live sets demonstrate her keen sense for assembling some talented musicians around her adorable vocals. Alas, since the best song on the disc, “Weeping Willow,” is a duet with Bill Callahan, I haven’t seen her perform it. I think my attraction to this disc arises though because it reminds me so much of the contemporary spin on earlier lounge music that made acid jazz so interesting to me in the late 90s (bands like Omar and Jamiroquai especially).
Knapp is no acid jazz act though as her compositions are firmly entrenched within some great instrumental performances (Knapp plays the guitar both live and on this recording). I especially like her acoustic guitar preluding the easy listening pop of “Close to Me.” As good as that song and “Weeping Willow” are, however, this is one of those albums about which I can say “it’s all good.”
1. Twin Shadow – Confess. Twin Shadow (aka George Lewis Jr.) snuck up on me in the middle of the summer (I’d never heard of the band or Lewis before), but beautifully hit the mark in terms of providing the perfect summer sound. Twin Shadow is yet another project from Brooklyn unashamedly dedicated to co-opting 80s pop aesthetics for contemporary musical purposes (especially the likes of Prince and Bruce Springsteen). I must say at this juncture that I hated Springsteen in the 80s, but love a great deal of the bands he has influenced such as Gaslight Anthem. Anyway, this album has some ambitious production creating an aggressive sonic boom complete with big synths and drum machines (thankfully accompanying live drums) on several of the songs (like “Beg for the Night”), but manages to miss the dated cheesiness of later post-80s albums that likewise attempted to capture the sound (most notably Adam Ant’s comeback flop Manners & Physique). I also like the narrative urban grittiness of Twin Shadow’s music videos recalling the cinematic masterpiece that is The Warriors demonstrated quite nicely on this clip of “Five Seconds.” Given that Confess marks a progression from 80s synth-pop of Twin Shadow’s debut album Forget to mid-decade pop rock, I’m really interested to see where Lewis goes with his next recording.
Thanks to my days living in Philly during the 90s when acid jazz took off (anyone from Philly remember DJ King Brit and Josh Wink?), I became firmly transfixed with 1970s African American funk music, especially with the heavily rock influenced tunes coming from groups like Cymande, the Ohio Players, Gil Scott-Heron, and especially Donald Byrd. I spent nearly all of last September working through the discography of the Ohio Players and realized that although African Americans created rock n’ roll back in the 50s with the likes of Chuck Berry (and without the blues steaming out of the Mississippi Delta forget Sabbath and Zeppelin), the last time people of African descent have seriously contributed to rock music in large numbers (Michael Jackson and Prince not withstanding) ended sometime in the late1970s as jazz-based rock music (aka funk) firmly gave way to soul, rhythm and blues, and of course hip hop. African American influences and performers crept into 90s rock hybrids, particularly in the UK, with acid jazz and trip hop, but the lowest common denominator for most acts was hip hop, and of course both genres suffered a quick death. Other than those blips, the long absence of a significant African American influence on rock has, I would argue, left a creative void that dudes from Scandinavia just can’t fill (sorry Mew).
This notion was further reinforced to me while watching an old clip of the Ohio Players performing “Love Rollercoaster” during a Midnight Special episode. This clip deserves a peek just to check out the pure coolness of 1970s pop culture (check out Wolfman Jack’s intro and don’t miss the funky dancin’ dudes at the 2:22 mark). Even more impressive here though is the Players ability to rock.
I would like to think that with the several African Americans writing and performing indie/alt rock these days – especially to my liking are TV on the Radio, Santigold, Cold Specks (for whom I traveled all the way to Montreal to see live) and the above mentioned Twin Shadow – we may very well be experiencing a resurgence of African American attention to rock music.The annual Afro-Punk festival in Brooklyn that attracts black artists such as Alexis Brown with Straight Line Stitch, Angela Best with Body Language, and Bad Rabbits (check out this band covering Deftones’ Sextape) is another hopeful sign. Ironically, some of the major black indie artists like Santigold and Twin Shadow have gone back to the mainstream rock music of the 80s (the period when African Americans departed from the business of playing rock) for influences.
I’m not sure I agree with Joe Caramanica’s assessment that the current state of rock music is mired in a static lack of creativity. As my “best of list” above suggests, with each year’s wave of new rock albums, I always find a huge amount of attractive and exciting music. I do, however, firmly believe that the introduction of more African American artists to the various genres of rock will make future new music even more exciting.