I can't define it, but I know it when I see hear it.

Tonight my friend Siobhan and I attended the Philadelphia "Get Together," a listening party for the new New Pornographers album (see what I did there?), Together. The event was held at Kung Fu Necktie in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia, and featured free PBR (of course), PBR-branded chapstick (thankfully not PBR flavored or scented!) and all kinds of giveaways, including a pretty awesome-sounding, unlabeled spring mix compiled by Carl Newman that, 5 tracks in, seems to consist mostly of vaguely psychedelic/garage-flavored obscure rock songs.

As for the album itself, the only song that I had been exposed to before tonight was the fairly rocking "Your Hands (Together)," which Matador had already released as an mp3 download. I was aware that first official single, "Crash Years," had been released, but I had not yet heard it. The only other pieces of information that I knew about the album were that Annie Clark of St. Vincent and Will Sheff of Okkervil River both made guest appearances on the record.

The album kicks off with "Moves," an arrestingly catchy Carl-led power pop gem featuring bright, crisp production that gives the song a sheen but doesn't defang the power of the hook; it sounds arena-ready yet still raw and immediate, and frankly after two listens to the album I think it may be second only to "Mass Romantic" as the best opening song on a New Pornographers album, and in spite of the glossier production the song presents a welcome return to the general sound and feel of the New Pornographer's second album, Electric Version.

"Moves" proves to be only the beginning of an absolutely brilliant opening three-song salvo that continues with singles "Crash Years" and "Your Hands (Together)" - which, by the way, becomes a completely different song when blared through the PA system in a bar. I found out tonight just how much better that song becomes the louder it is played. By this point in the album, you would be forgiven for thinking that it could end up besting even Mass Romantic.

The fourth track, "Silver Jenny Dollar," the first of three Dan Bejar-fronted songs, finds the Destroyer frontman in unusually poppy and accessible mode, and on first listen it seemed a bit of a let down. It's not that it was a bad song, it just didn't seem to offer a lot to hang on to. It fared better on second listen, however, perhaps because I was paying more attention to the song itself the second time through. "Silver Jenny Dollar" is followed by the Kathryn Calder-spotlighting "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk," the song that ended up providing the biggest surprise of the album; ever since she was added to the lineup, I have found Calder to be the weak link in the New Pornographers. She just never seemed to mesh with the rest of the band, especially when attempting to sing Neko's songs during live shows. She totally makes this song work, however, and avoids making it this album's equivalent of "Failsafe." The first half of the album wraps up with an engaging ballad-ish Neko Case number called "My Shepherd."

Halfway through the album, side 1 seems to hold up as one of the most consistent album sides the Pornographers have recorded thus far. This is obviously an immediate gut reaction and not the result of extended reflection and evaluation, but right now I would rank it at least equal with the first side of Electric Version, possibly even edging that album's first half out. It is certainly a more coherent and engaging listen than the first sides of Twin Cinema and Challengers.

The second half begins just as promisingly with the second Bejar-led song of the collection, "If You Can't See My Mirrors." As poppy as "Silver Jenny Dollar" had sounded, "Mirrors" may well be the most immediate and accessible song Bejar has written yet, and it does not suffer for it. On the contrary, it is a perfect song to kick off the second side of the platter, setting an infectiously playful tone. This gives way another Newman rocker, "Up in the Dark," that cheekily seems to crib its drumbeat from Simple Minds, coming off as a harder-edged older brother of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" - all it's missing is Carl shouting "Hey, hey, hey, HEYYYY!!!" at the beginning.

It is at this point that the album begins to lose steam and reveal its almost impossibly front-loaded nature. The well-meaning but ultimately clumsy Neko Case-sung "Valkyrie in the Roller Disco" presents the first lull in the sequencing of the album, and the remaining songs never quite recover from it. Even Bejar's remaining composition, "Daughters of Sorrow," seems somewhat lugubrious and half-hearted, as though the entire band had completely spent themselves on the first eight songs. Still, those first eight songs are almost unbelievably solid and consistent, and it is quite possible that the back third of the album will leave a better impression on me when I am listening to it in an optimal environment (i.e., not a loud bar).

My second time through I focused my attention on the instrumentation, trying to pick out the contributions of Clark and Sheff. It did not sound to me as though either one contributed vocals, although it's possible that I just didn't detect them over the din in the bar. The third Bejar song, "Daughters of Sorrow," seemed to have a distinctly Okkervil River-ish quality to the guitar tone and the interplay of the rhythm section, so I am thinking that Sheff may have at least made an appearance on that song. Throughout the album I heard several guitar lines that sounded as though they could have been the work of Ms. Clark, but I did not take not of which songs they were.

Overall, this record has immediately surpassed Twin Cinema and Challengers, and established itself as my favorite New Pornographers album in seven years. I heartily recommend it, and I look forward to being able to spend more time with it.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't thank Siobhan for coming out, having fun, and just being awesome in general, Matador for presenting these listening parties, and Brian from Beggars for all his hard work organizing and hosting the event tonight.

Together will be released on May 4. If you pre-order the CD or LP from the Matador online store, you will receive a free three-song 7" single of non-album cover songs with your order.

I'm coming home, I'm coming home.

Hello there, internet. It’s been a while. I’d be lying if I said that I always had a good time during my absence, but I’d also be lying if I said that it was all doom and gloom. I will just say that a good, head-clearing, life-redefining catharsis can be a positive thing every now and again. Now that I am more or less back to being settled after all that, I hope to maintain a more regular presence here (and, hey, maybe even over at my other blog as well!) in 2010.

I won’t spend a whole lot of time, as I’ve already lost over 6 months. There is a lot that I want to touch on, but for now I will ease my way back in by picking up right where my last entry left off and try to give all you beautiful, beautiful people a kind of hastily-written, knee-jerk, and likely shortsighted yet completely honest retrospective of what were, to me, the highlights of the year in music. Before I attempt to rank them, here is a brief, chronological rundown of some of the contenders

• Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion: Everything I said last time continues to hold true about this album, although as the year progressed this seemed to become a bit less of a standout in my mind. In a way, the move of dropping Fall Be Kind so late in he year, when critics would be finalizing their end-of-year lists, was an ingenious move that guaranteed a strong bump in this album’s status; it gave critics an opportunity and excuse to re-evaluate the album and rediscover what was so great about it. As for myself, I have not heard Fall Be Kind yet, but if it is anywhere near as good as I have heard, I know I am in for a treat.
• Bon Iver – Blood Bank: This one didn’t make so big an impact on me at first, but it grew on me. Short and sweet, and if you try to tell me that “Woods” is not the best and most inventive use of Autotune ever, then I will call you a goddamned liar. In fact, “Woods” may be my favorite song of Vernon’s. No lie.
• Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light: Another one that took some growing. While I would not describe its predecessor as fragile, there was a certain stateliness to it that gave it a disingenuous veneer of delicateness. The Crying Light quite simply eschews any pretense of fragility and presents itself as an audacious, bombastic, and stunningly ambitious record that demands to be listened to on its own terms.
• Various Artists – Dark Was the Night: This was definitely the year of the all-star indie rock collaborative compilation album, and of all the examples, this one remains the first and the best, even if it was eventually lost in the shuffle when the year-end retrospectives came out. You can’t argue with great music for a great cause.
• The Mountain Goats & John Vanderslice – Moon Colony Bloodbath: These two need to collaborate more often. I would love to see their long-rumored Comedians band come to fruition.
• Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Vs. Children: Nine months later (ha ha), I still think the smoother and more embellished production was the right decision for this album. Sue me.
• St. Vincent – Actor: I sincerely hope that the title of this record is another Arrested Development reference. Geeky pop culture references aside, I have three points to make that I didn’t make last time. 1) Here is where you will likely hear the most compelling and freshest-sounding guitar playing of the year. 2) I DARE you to listen to “Marrow” and not dance. I don’t dance, but I can’t resist the urge to move when I hear that song. 3) Umm, yeah. I’m kind of in love with this woman. That is all.
• John Vanderslice – Romanian Names: Definitely one of my top five of the year. Everything I said before, or in my recommendation on the other blog, holds true. Rather than repeat myself, I will just entreat you to please read what I’ve already written about this album and, for the love of God, go listen to it!
• Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest: It cannot be stressed enough that 2009 was, improbably, Grizzly Bear’s year. I don’t know how or why it happened, but I’m not complaining. It’s fun to watch deserving bands have semi-meteoric rises.
• Rhett Miller – Rhett Miller: I was not a fan of Rhett’s previous two solo albums. I was prepared to ignore this one. Then I saw him live, solo acoustic, opening up for his own band, Old 97’s. I was floored by how good these new songs were. These were genuinely some of the best songs I had heard from Mr. Miller in quite some time. I expected the studio versions to be overproduced to the point of being unlistenable, but surprisingly found the album presentation to be tasteful and appealing. “Like Love” would possibly be my single of the year if the label would see fit to release it as a single. Is anyone listening? Seriously, people: a 7-inch of “Like Love” with a live version of “Another Girlfriend” on the flip. Get it into the right hands and it could be a hit. Screw it, I’m gonna start my own label. Grumble grumble grumble.
• Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca: I continue to be amazed by this album. Inaccessible artsiness has perhaps never been so appealing. I can admit when I’m wrong about a band (although I’m still not delving into the back catalog just yet).
• Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Was the Night: Besides appearances from two other artists with albums on my 2009 shortlist (The Flaming Lips and Vic Chesnutt), the involvement of David Lynch and the multimedia nature of this project/experiment ensured that it would be intriguing. It’s a shame that the legal grey (album) area of this (non)-release means that most people will never get to hear it.
• Dinosaur Jr. – Farm: Perhaps not quite as strong an album at the end of the year as it had seemed when I first listened to it, but I maintain that these guys have still got it. As far as reunion albums go, this is one of the best. I wish I could say the same for the new Mission of Burma, which seems like a bit of a misstep to me.
• Wilco – Wilco (the album): Not necessarily one of their best albums, but one has to admire the cultural currency that Wilco has achieved, and which they use to their advantage most effectively here. Wilco has reached a place where the band can do whatever they please. They have a comfortably sized fan base that allows them to make a living off of music, and that is loyal enough to ensure that wherever the band goes, the audience will follow. This album was not profound, but was a great jab back at the critics who accuse them of self-importance or lacking a sense of humor. The juxtaposition of songs such as the murder narrative “Bull Black Nova” ensure that tension remains part of the dynamic. Oh, and “I’ll Fight?” One of the best songs of the year, I don’t care what anybody says.
• Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs: This one came out of nowhere. Over the years, Yo La Tengo has consistently proven that it is capable of anything; on this album, it sets out to prove it in the space of four sides of vinyl. Progressing from spy-movie-strings-embellished psychedelia to warm indie pop to Motown bass and organ genre exercises to almost ambient soundscapes, the band here blend disparate sound palettes into a surprisingly coherent, engaging, and fun album. The pacing feels a bit odd with its obviously front-loaded tracklisting, placing the three long and quiet tracks at the very end, but that is ultimately the only criticism I am able to level at this almost-perfect album.
• Vic Chesnutt – At the Cut: Hyperbole and discussion of the tragedy of his recent loss aside (that is another topic for another blog post), this is one of the most visceral and heartbreaking albums of the year, perhaps of the past several years. With members of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion, and Fugazi as his backing band, Chesnutt crafts stunningly haunting and uncomfortably frank collection of odes to pain and death. The fact that “Flirted with You All My Life” was intended to be Vic’s “breakup song” with death and to signify that he was done with suicide attempts gives the album an even more grim and oppressive shadow to an already overwhelmingly powerful album.
• The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come: I have a complicated relationship with this album. This is my Get Lonely; the album that I just did not (and to this date still do not completely) get. Seeing the songs performed live have helped with some of it, but I still have problems. I have problems with some of the ultra-glossy production touches. I have problems with what seems to me at times like lazy songwriting; a lot of the guitar songs sound like conscious attempts to write a tMG song. Ultimately, though, I recognize that there is something compelling about this album that is pushing me to make the effort to try to get it, which is a sure-fire sign of a worthy piece of art. Even if I can’t keep all of those damned Bible verse track titles straight.
• The Flaming Lips – Embryonic: I was ready to give up on the Flaming Lips. The Soft Bulletin was, I thought, one of the best albums of the ‘90s, hands down. I was disappointed in Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but I stuck with them. I flat-out hated At War with the Mystics. It sounded awful and the songwriting – well, I would criticize the songwriting, but I remain convinced that there are no actual songs on there. I was hopeful concerning Embryonic, but cautiously so. I am happy to report, however, that this is perhaps an unprecedented return to form. The album is noisy, scattershot, rough around the edges, and certainly not for everyone. What it reminds me of the most, however, in spite of all the noise and sound experiments and utterly unique touches, is early Pink Floyd – think a cross between Barrett-era soundscapes such as “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive” with, say, Meddle. It’s a completely psychedelic album, and it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that if Pink Floyd were just starting today, with access to contemporary technology and musical influences, they may have sounded something like this.

There were, of course, other albums that caught my ear and tickled my fancy this year, but these are the ones that stand out the most standing here, almost a week into the new year. And now to rank the top ten:

1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
2. Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
3. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
4. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
5. John Vanderslice – Romanian Names
6. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
7. Vic Chesnutt – At the Cut
8. The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
9. Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light
10. St. Vincent – Actor

As for what I am most looking forward to in 2010, here’s a taste of the albums coming out just in the first quarter:

Owen Pallett, Beach House, The Magnetic Fields, Spoon, Shearwater, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Los Campesinos!, Retribution Gospel Choir

!!!

I have missed you all, and I hope you enjoyed slogging through this monster of a post (4 full pages in Microsoft Word!). I will talk to you all again soon – maybe even tomorrow? In the meantime, I invite you all to weigh in with your thoughts on my list or with a list of your own.

Paint the Black Hole Blacker: St. Vincent, 2009.05.21

St. Vincent/Pattern Is Movement

First Unitarian Church

Philadelphia, PA

2009.05.21 

I was first exposed to the music of Annie Clark in early 2007, months before her debut album as St. Vincent, Marry Me, suddenly and unexpectedly stole countless indie rock hearts (mine included). She was opening for John Vanderslice on a tour preparing for the release of his Emerald City album. Going into the show, all I knew about her was that she had previously played with both Sufjan Stevens and the Polyphonic Spree, and that she was apparently some kind of guitar prodigy. When she took the stage, I was intrigued by her nimble fretwork, her use of effects pedals to create layers of texture from a single electric guitar, her steady rhythm-keeping by way of a pedal-operated kick drum sample,  and her idiosyncratic songwriting style. Of course, although I would like to downplay this, the fact that she was unbelievably gorgeous did not hurt matters. By the end of her set, when she played a self-assured version of Jackson Browne’s oft-covered “These Days,” I had fallen completely in love. I immediately purchased her tour EP (happily featuring the aforementioned Jackson Browne cover) and decided to make it a point to see her every time she came to town.

I missed her every time she came to town.

In April 2008, I got my first taste of what her live show sounded like when augmented with a full band when she played the PLUG awards in NYC, playing a brief two-song set comprising “Now, Now” and “Your Lips are Red.” Where before her performance had been marked with precision, complexity, and a graceful patience, there was now an air of danger, recklessness, and ferocity. I was very excited to see a full set by St. Vincent the band.

Once again, I missed them every time they came to town.

Chris from Pattern is Movement

To cut  long story short (too late), the release of Actor, the second St. Vincent album, quickly became one of my favorite albums of the year so far, and when the band’s tour stopped at the First Unitarian basement in Philadelphia, I made damn sure I was there. Local heroes Pattern Is Movement opened; I had seen them once before, ironically, opening for North Carolina band The Physics of Meaning, which is the main gig of Daniel Hart, who also plays violin and guitar in St. Vincent. Pattern Is Movement is a 2-piece band – drums and keyboards – marked by gentle vocals that reach into the upper register of the vocalist’s range and odd time signatures with unpredictable and seemingly random changes. They kind of sound like a less aggro Dismemberment Plan, perhaps. Daniel Hart came out and played violin with them for a song or two – though, oddly, I didn’t remember them being a two-piece last time I saw them. My impression of them, however, was exactly the same as it had been the last time I saw them: although it was pretty music and definitely was a refreshing change from your standard “indie rock” band, I found that they had sort of worn out their welcome with me after about 20-25 minutes. Their set lasted for nearly 50 minutes this particular night, which was just far too long to hold my interest. The highlight was a D’Angelo cover.

I was excited to see the array of instruments being set up for St. Vincent’s set – clarinet! Saxophone! Flute! Fender Jaguar! (Seriously, does EVERY band have a Jaguar these days?) Plus the typical drums, bass, and keyboards, as well as Annie’s two guitars and trademark double microphone stand. From the opening salvo of “The Strangers” and “Save Me From What I Want” – also the first two songs on Actor – the band made it clear that although they were perfectly capable of recreating the textures and layers of the studio recording on stage, they were not interested in stopping there. The mannered, structured, orchestrated noise that ever so politely bruises the lush studio arrangement on records becomes an entirely different beast on the concert stage – there is a disquieting, threatening quality to the guitar outbursts here, a palpable physical violence in both Ms. Clark’s guitar playing and her occasional vocal outbursts (such as during the performance of single “Actor Out of Work,” which on record relies on a building tension that never resolves itself into an explosion – in performance at the Church, Clark suddenly shrieked “I think I’M FUCKING MAD!” so loudly, it ended up being the only moment of the main set that caused my recording to clip, and genuinely startled me at the time).

It was a long show – at 74 minutes, it was definitely much longer than I would have expected from an artist with two albums to her name, neither one particularly long – but it was well paced and never once felt boring or like it was dragging. The setlist was, as one would expect, heavy on the excellent Actor material, but almost to a fault – although Annie promised to mix in Marry Me material and make it a “greatest hits show,” the band only played three songs from the debut, and had already played two of those by the time she made that promise. And of course, the nostalgia lover in me would have loved to have heard her perform “These Days” either in addition to or even instead of her delicate solo reading of “Oh My God.” But these are all minor criticisms. Annie Clark has assembled a fantastic group of musicians to flesh out her arrangements, and they seem to share a hive mind of sorts. Impossibly tight and precise, the musicianship combined with Ms. Clark’s vibrant personality, witty humor, and uniquely subtle yet intense stage presence make for a compelling and entertaining live show that everyone should experience given the chance. I will definitely be in the crowd the next time Ms. Clark and crew pass through.

Setlist:

The Strangers
Save Me From What I Want
Now, Now
Actor Out of Work
Marry Me
Oh My God
The Bed
Laughing With a Mouth of Blood
Black Rainbow
Marrow
Just the Same But Brand New
----------------------------------------
The Party
Your Lips Are Red 

More photos can be found at my Flickr account.