My to 25 Music Releases of 2008 – continued.

19.
Algernon Cadwallader
Some Kind Of Cadwallader
Be Happy / Sars

This is a record I just can’t keep off of my iPod. I’ve rambled a bit about these guys in a prior blog and here it is again. So yeah – It’s that good. Some Kind Of Cadwallader just evokes good vibes and memories of basement shows. Sure, they sound like Cap n’ Jazz and Braid – that’s a no-brainer. But there’s this genuine no-bullshit quality to everything they do here.  Do you miss late 90s emo? Do you like off-key,  screechy vocals ala Tim Kinsella? Then look these dudes up and support a hard working band. I can’t wait for whatever they do next.
 

18.
Meshuggah
obZen
Nuclear Blast

Meshuggah’s seizure-inducing math metal started blowing minds in 1995 with their second LP, Destroy, Erase, Improve; these progressive Swedes have been pushing the extreme envelope ever since. Melting jazz-fusion leads on top of stop-stuttering riffs became their secret recipe. Now on their sixth album, obZen sure feels like they’re returning to form after some critics responded with disappointment and confusion to their concept record, Catch Thirtythree. So I was psyched when those dump truck-heavy riffs smacked me in the face within the first ten seconds of the first track.  The title track, “obZen”, is my favorite track here, almost entirely for the riff/breakdown at around the three-minute mark. There is a short break, a drum fill – and then a blissful cacophony of China crash.  For the uninitiated listener, please refer to early period A Life Once Lost, Burn the Priest/Lamb Of God, and pretty much any hardcore band on Victory Records from 1998-2004.  obZen is a record to listen to with all of the windows down, or maybe to test out just how much sweet punishment your speakers – or ears – can endure.  Need  gift idea for your head-banging friends for the holidays? Look no further.
 

17.
Boston Spaceships
Brown Submarine
Guided By Voices Inc.

For all Guided By Voices fans, 12/31/04 was a dark day indeed. It’d be the last time Robert Pollard and his merry men would set the bar up on the stage and pour through song upon song. But fret not, super fans – Uncle Bob is back! Mr. Pollard has maintained a decent solo career which has satiated those fans of his special blend of pop sentimentality. And yes, he’s had some time left wanting in another project dubbed Circus Devils; and now here he is with Boston Spaceships. Because really – what other front-man can take cues from British invasion bands like The Who, strain them through punk rock and have it make sense? Brown Submarine is the debut record and it just drips with 90s nostalgia for me. It’s a completely satisfying punk pop record for anyone who needs something new, even though it’s from someone old. Wire, Cheap Trick, and of course Guided By Voices fans should check this out post haste.

 

16.
Elbow
The Seldom Seen Kid
Geffen Records

It’s been a pretty good year for Elbow. This year they beat out Radiohead for the Mercury Music Award. And after being nominated originally seven years ago for their debut album Asleep In The Back - well, patience seems to pay off them. The Seldom Seen Kid is the band’s fourth LP; if you’re unfamiliar it can be nestled near Verve, Catherine Wheel, and Radiohead. Singer Guy Garvey has this heartbreaking and evocative delivery coupled with such fantastic lyricism such as these from “Mirrorball”:

 “We kissed like we invented it / And now I know what every step is for/ To lead me to your door/
Know that while you sleep / Everything has changed”

The record even has a guest in fellow UK rocker Richard Hawley, who can be found singing a boozy yarn alongside Guy on “The Fix”. Elbow might not be a band you’ve heard of before, but I highly recommend them if your of the disposition to enjoy albums and not just songs. The Seldom Seen Kid won them an award for good reason. It’s a damn good record.

 
15.
Sun Kil Moon
April
Caldo Verde 

Mark Kozelek (or “The Koz” to those in the know) has been the king of sad bastard music long before Elliott Smith decided to quit Heatmiser and pick up an acoustic. He spent over twelve years fronting the Red House Painters, whose slow-core folkiness came to an end in 2001 when Sub Pop delivered the band’s final opus, Old Ramon. Kozelek put out a few EP releases under his own name, but then decided to get a proper band assembled. Sun Kil Moon made their debut in 2003 with Ghosts Of The Great Highway, and after a few years of silence between released Tiny Cities, an album comprised entirely of Modest Mouse covers/revisions. So now we have a proper follow up with April. It’s been a little while and surely he’s made some friends because here we can find Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie, and Will Oldham of Bonnie “Prince” Billy fame. Their presence isn’t overkill, since you don’t truly recognize Ben on “Lost Verses” at all, and Will’s contribution on “Unlit Hallway” just makes sense. April is just a beautiful record for lazy Sundays or for the early morning commutes.

To be continued…

In 1996 General Motors debuted the first modern production electric vehicle, dubbed the EV1 -that’s “Electric Vehicle 1.” Clever, huh? But GM killed the EV1 in 2003, and now needs to be bailed out to compete with the success of other companies’ hybrids, like the Prius and other high MPG vehicles. Wait, what? They had the head start! There’s a documentary film called Who Killed The Electric Car? which essentially shows GM building these things, buying up patents for the technology and then shredded EVERYTHING. People were devastated to lose their beloved EV1s. I think they even made Ed Begley, Jr. cry.  So in the midst of this whole Big 3 bailout, I’m just wondering why no one has mentioned their seppuku of the EV1. What do you folks think about this whole debacle?

Belle And Sebastian
The BBC Sessions/Live In Belfast
Matador

I haven’t really listened to Belle and Sebastian since the late 90s; they got a bit overexposed and I was part of the “meh”-mumbling backlash. But I don’t discredit them at all. I rather enjoy their early records and I was very happy to find that The BBC Sessions plays more like a greatest hits than a live collection.

The first disc, Radio Sessions, is a compilation of unreleased recordings from between 1996 and 2001; also the last to feature ex-cellist and vocalist Isobel Campbell. It’s been so long since I’ve heard Isobel’s soft, dewey vocals next to founder Stuart Murdoch’s twee, nasally expressionisms; it made me dig out my copy of the band’s second record and personal favorite, The Boy With The Arab Strap.

The second half – Live in Belfast - is what you’d expect – a live recording from a performance in Belfast on December 21^st, 2001. It includes covers of The Beatles staple “Here Comes The Sun”, The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting For The Man” and hard rockers Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town”. The band hardly plays live, so don’t think you’ll hear the same versions of your old favorites. You’ll be surprised throughout the 12 tracks.

This is a great starting point for new listeners, and worthwhile for old ones who remember why they liked this band in the first place. Recommended for any indie rocker’s stocking or Hanukah spoiling this holiday season.

Coldplay
Prospekt’s March
EMI

Like many Coldplay fans, I have been a bit put off by the happy, colorful direction in which vocalist Chris Martin has taken his band, seemingly since his marriage to actress Gwenyth Paltrow. X and Y seemed too polished and lush to be from this little Parachutes band of yore. Gone were the earnest songs that craned our necks to the heavens, look at the stars, and “See how they shine for us.” Instead, Coldplay somehow became more akin to a U2-styled stadium-rock type of entity – a perpetual self-parody, confirmed again as such with the release of their fourth studio album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.

But now Coldplay are back roughly five months after the release of Viva La Vida with Prospekt’s March - an EP of songs that weren’t ready for Viva’s initial release, and one that shows glimmers of the band they used to be.

Sure, there’s a bit of the old-hat remix, re-visioning that’s simply fodder for triple-A radio – like “Lost”, which features a rap verse by Jay-Z amongst bigger drum beats and loops.

But the EP’s title track, “Prospekt’s March/Poppyfields” had my jaw drop as I heard Martin ache and coo, “Here I lie, in a separate sky” – it’s like hearing a ghost. It also sounds like things might not be all that well in paradise. It’s this song that has me crossing my fingers that Coldplay can do another Parachutes, or perhaps even something like A Rush of Blood To The Head.

Also of note is the EP’s second track, “Postcards From Far Away”. All 48 seconds of the song are used very deliberately and effectively. The short piano coda drips with such melancholy that you can almost hear Martin’s heart tremble.

Prospekt’s March sounds like a band remembering; now I’m really hoping they don’t forget.