SIS The Best of 2009 ... So Far, Part Two

As we approach the 4th of July weekend, we take a look back at the second half of what we started yesterday: the best albums of 2009 ... so far, that is. These 10 albums, listed in nothing but alphabetical, could be and are the top contenders thus far for the Top 10 of '09, but we still have many months to go, and many albums to come yet to shake things up. But until then, if the year ended today the Top 10 would include these fine albums.

Japandroids / Post-Nothing / Polyvinyl

The first time I heard this record, it was loud and it was abrasive and I couldn't find anything I really liked about it. But with every subsequent listen, I found the melodies hidden beneath the maniacal playing of this Vancouver-based duo. And then on headphones, besides the musical jewels, you listen to the lyrics and you realize this must be a concept record. All this talk of girls and their homeland, getting the sweats and the shits and "x-o-x-o-x" that end letters and text messages. I was listening to it just yesterday and "Sovereignty" and there was one lyric that sealed the deal on this being a great album and a great concept on that I dubbed Teen Angsty Love, Canadian Style: 'It's raining in Vancouver / But I don't give a fuck / Cause I'm in love with you tonight." But their not in love with just girls, but a city, a place far from home that is their hearts.

Peter, Bjorn & John - Living Thing - StarTime / Almost Gold

For their fifth album, the Swedish trio drop their guitars, fire up the samplers and drum machines, and make the best record the 80s just couldn't handle back then. Choruses of kids belt out there's nothing to worry about, and it's true: for those who feared the band wasn't the same band, they still are. All the catchy melodies are there just presented in a different form. The title track with it's nod to Graceland and the first UK single yelling out 'Hey shut the fuck up boy' are just some of the gleaming moments. "I'm Losing My Mind" veers back to what we can now call classic PB&J with a psychadelic guitar riff driving the album, but that's its low point. I much prefer the dark and ominous jams like "4 Out of 5" that will protrude from my car stereo all summer long.

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer - Jagjaguwar

Those who say this third album from one of Spencer Krug's many guises is his most accessible are truly right in their sayings. But for me, I always thought Sunset Rubdown was accessible and easy to get in to. This album features everything you'd want - epic prog moments ("Dragon's Lair," "Black Swan") and driving, hard hitting anthems ("You Go On Ahead," "Idiot Heart"). For me, what I like most is picking up on subtle nuances or just taking in the things no one else would. Like the swirling keyboard notes that open the record on "Silver Moons" or the way everything starts to collide on the aforementioned "Swan". Hell, even their cover of "Paper Lace" (cover because it was originally done by one of Krug's other outfits, Canadian indie supergroup Swan Lake) is worthy of debating whether their version is better than the original. As prolific and as talented as this band is getting along with a spot in the limelight, makes you wonder if this could become Krug's day job over some Wolf group he plays in.

Telekinesis - Telekinesis! - Merge

It's not just because of my allegiance to the infamous label that turns 20 this year, but every year I feel they always put out a new record from an up and coming up that just resonates with me like no other. This year it Michael Benjamin Lerner, aka the Seattle-based Telekinesis. On this record, Lerner teams up with producer Chris Walla to brings us tales of obsessions with foreign lands and time zones that, while it appears he's visited on the surface, his bio will tell you otherwise. And boy are the songs catchy - we all know my love for "Awkward Kisser," but the acoustic punch of "Great Lakes" and the soaring guitars of "Tokyo" all give way to the 'I'm in love with you, return the favor' serenade of "I Saw Lightning." Dare I say this is a perfect record?

Wilco - Wilco ( The Album) - Nonesuch

So, yeah, everyone's favorite band from Chicago caught a lot of flack for the Dad-rock infused Sky Blue Sky. I know back upon its release two years ago I wasn't a big fan of it; I never even blogged about it once! But their new album, it just immediately stuck with me. It's not this mid-tempo 70s record like Sky, and it definitely veers from their meandering ways of A Ghost Is Born. It's not Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, though - but it's on par with the now legendary album. "Bull Black Nova" builds and build over repetitions before exploding. "You Never Know" is driven by a clanging honky tonk piano. "Sonny Feeling" is just that and essentially tells the entire tale of an album full of upbeat moments, and tongue-in-cheek-ism's down to the title track and band theme song.

SIS The Best of 2009 ... So Far, Part One

I'm going to go out there on the limb of bloggerdom and just say it: 2009 is so better than 2008. I don't remember ever in the history of me charting a course of the best albums of the year (started back in 1998) that by the halftime show already being stacked up with so many quality albums in where I might just have a three-way tie for first. OK, that's a lie - the classic line-up of Guided by Voices couldn't reunite and put out their best album ever in an attempt to top out what is #1 so far. No, I'm not going to give away the high order just yet. Instead, we let the alphabet take precedent as we look back at Part 1 of the Best Albums of 2009 .... so far.

Cymbals Eat Guitars / Why There Are Mountains / Sister's Den

It's pure coincidental that the first album mention was the first to make its impact on me this year. It was a record that 10 years from now I'll still be able to point my finger on the moment I first heard it. After frantically searching the internets, this Staten Island-based quartet's first album was blasting through my Macbook. For a month straight it was all I heard. And now it's everything else the indie world is listening to and more will soon be joining the pack. After a glowing Pitchfork review, the band is playing festivals and hitting the road with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart this fall. Their star is on the rise.

Dark Was The Night / 4AD

I know of at least one person, a former co-worker, who gave me shit for mentioning this one because it's a compilation, but damnit if it isn't a good one. You get Feist dueting with Grizzly Bear ("Service Bell,") you get Feist dueting with Ben Gibbard ("Train Song"). You get Yo La Tengo committing to tape one of their obscure covers ("Gentle Hour,") and you get new music from every other hot commodity on the indie scene (Spoon, The National, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver.) It's like some great Time Life comp or what have you that was advertised in the 70s for the indie generation, something like a Nuggets compilation except not because these aren't a bunch of one hit wonders, but rather an established sect of bands getting together for a cause. Hopefully the Red Hot organization has another good comp or three in them.

Eels / Hombre Lobo / Vagrant

E had a lot riding on this one for me - he had to follow up the winner of my Album of the Year 2005, the double-opus Blinking Lights & Other Revelations. Since then he occupied the time of myself and the other Eels fans with three grueling tours, penning his memoirs, and putting out a best-of and double-disc set of rarities. So when it came time to finally make a new studio record, he brought the beard back to reivisit the "Dog Faced Boy" of 2001's Souljacker. It's an album that sonically is a gritty sounding Shootenanny: bluesy 60s guitars covered in static and lo-fi aesthetics. Everything's cranked up to 10, there's next to no overdubs unless hums and hisses of feedback count. It a song-cycle based on longing and desire, things E has always written about, but not so much from the third person.

Foreign Born / Person To Person / Secretly Canadian

This album, the second from the California natives, gets almost a daily spin here at the SIS HQ. If you love the French Kicks, you'll love this, maybe even more then that Brooklyn trio. Person comes off as the album Swimming is not: it's bright and sunny and the guitars shimmer, all the instruments coalesce and co-exist in perfect symmetry. There's not a bunch of jangly guitars bogged down by an organic production and darkness, they beam like the sun. "Vacationing People" is a strong contender for one the year's finest tunes, while the album ties itself together with other songs like "Can't Keep Time," "Blood Oranges" and "Can't Keep Time" keeping it in check.

Grizzly Bear / Veckatimest / Warp

I remember writing the Can't Stop Spinning column/letter of love back in February and the second it was done, I was sad it was available for all to read. Months later when the album finally came out and we all helped it get to #8 on Billboard (I bought the CD and the LP and tickets to three shows,) I still was finding new things I loved in and out about this record. A year after debuting it to the world, "Two Weeks" holds up as one of the strongest songs of the year, but it's not just an album about songs it's about the building blocks that make the songs. The lush arrangements on the grand "Ready, Able" and the perfect harmonies of "All We Ask" and the epic angels and demons allusions of Daniel Rossen vs. the Brooklyn Youth Chorus in "I Live With You" are just a few of its perfections making it a strong contender for not just Album of the Year, but Album of the Decade, if not, my lifetime.

New Elvis Perkins Video: "Chains, Chains, Chains"

We're halfway through 2009. I'm compiling the Top 10 So Far (Albums and songs this year, for the last time[!?!]) and I thought this would be a fitting little video to post. One of the albums that may/may not be on the Top 10, most certainly in the year-end Top 30, will be the newest one from Elvis Perkins in Dearland. Their eponymous album is near perfect, though upon my first listen I was more attracted to the first half of the record. Eventually the whole thing came together for me and it's easily one of the year's finest. Definitely a band one should catch live if you can; seriously, I've seen the man and his band five times now and they've never let me down once. Do enjoy the video for the song "Chains, Chains, Chains" which was directed by Sean Pecknold. Wonder if he's related to that Robin Pecknold guy from Fleet Foxes? Either way, the album is out now on XL.

Band of the Week: Maribel

Lately, it seems that a simple analogy could be used to sum up the musical preferences of two of the Scando territories: Sweden is to sunny pop what Norway is to dark shoegaze. Norway has taken over and added to this decade's shoegaze, especially when you look at bands like Sereena-Maneesh, Simon Says No, and the Megaphonic Thrift.

Add to that list Maribel, who just recently released their debut album, who take fuzzed out dreamscapes to a new and exciting level. Long-player Aesthetics is nine tracks (plus a bonus song only available on a Norwegian 7") of what we have come to love from this genre. Now the next thing we want to know is this -- when are you coming to the States?

Download: "Ecstatic" [mp3]

Monday Morning Newsletter (6/29/09)

How does one write an obit for Michael Jackson? José sees it this way: Suffice it to say he is possibly the most over-rated recording artist since Elvis. Popularity isn’t everything. Mayonnaise is popular, Wonderbread is popular. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is popular. Most things with that level of near-universal popularity are utter shite. The man’s most popular two records were largely written by Quincy Jones. His most recent album Invincible came out 8 years ago and sold 2 million copies, barely a tenth of his album HIStory from 6 years earlier, that itself is a fraction of the 109 million that Thriller sold. He peaked early. He’d been on the way out for 20 years. His freaky self-mutilation kept him in the spotlight long after his 15 minutes were over. His claims to genius are arguable. The evidence for pedophile is much more convincing. More revolting is our instant lionizing of the publicly unrepentant pederast. He’ll share a room with Gary Glitter in hell.

In much more amusing news, Lemonheads lead vocalist Evan Dando is suing General Motors. His lawsuit claims that the automaker copied his 1992 single "It's A Shame About Ray" in an ad for Chevrolet and Buick. If you’ve seen the ad, you already know they are gonna lose bad. The Lemonheads will release their new album, Varshons, later this month.

José is way into this EP of down-tempo electronica by Mouse Kills Tiger. This LA-based trio kept it high and tight. They rock an uncharted region triangulated between Tommy Guerrero, Radiohead and Stellastar. Free Download HERE.

Billy Corgan has finally confirmed the identity of his new drummer. Replacing long-time smack-head Jimmy Chamberlin is 19-year-old Mike Byrne. Bryne is a Berklee College of Music freshman and former member of the Oregon-based band, Moses, Smell the Roses. He is already recording demos with Corgan.

Alice in Chains has gotten a tad more specific about their new album. The title has been revealed to be Black Gives Way To Blue and the record will drop September 29th. It will be their first album featuring new singer William DuVall and their first album of any kind in 10 years.

The Killers have stated that they intend to record an album of cover songs this fall. Singer Brandon Flowers stated that they were talking about covering songs by Joe Cocker, Billy Squire, The Baja Marimba Band and even Grover Washington Jr.

And on a lesser note, Phish have announced some details on their supposed “comeback” album. José askes: Come back to what? The 10-song album Joy was was recorded with producer Steve Lillywhite. Trey Anastasio stated “We played one long noodling riff over and over and over till everybody left the room.”

HOLY CRAP Oxford Collapse broke up. Their last two shows will be July 17 and 18 in Hoboken and New York. The bands official statement reads: After eight years, 450 shows, and four albums, we’ve decided that we’ve reached the end of the line. To paraphrase the Grateful Dead, “what a long, strange, eye-opening, stomach-bursting, heart-breaking, bittersweet, educational, enlightening, mind-numbing… absurd, amazing trip it’s been.” Damn.

The Republic Tigers: "Made Concrete" Video

When they were first mentioned on Stranded in Stereo as a Band of the Week, The Republic Tigers had me sold by the song "Made Concrete." In the past two years, it has seriously been one of my favorite songs, one of the few on their debut album Keep Color about lead singer Kenn Jankowski's divorce. So now there's a video for "Concrete," a video I dreamt up in my head a thousand times over, a thousand concepts the band did not go with. Instead we find Jankowski in an out of body experience and the rest of the band performing surgery. I don't think it's Grey's Anatomy and that's probably a good thing.

Portugal. The Man: Satanist Leaks, Band Responds

In the music world today, the leak of an album prior to it's release is inevitable. It's almost commonplace for sometime before an album's release date - sometimes too early, sometimes just before - some fan or someone in the industry will upload an album to the internet and everyone will get a chance to download it. I've spoken my peace, re: leaks when Grizzly Bear leaked months ago. And now, the new Portugal. The Man album The Satanic Satanist has leaked four weeks prior to it's July 21st release date. When their previous albums leaked two weeks in advance of being on store shelves, lead singer John Wayne Gourley would come out and more or less champion it, saying it's ok, give us feedback we enjoy it. But this time he painted a different picture...

In a longwinded piece posted online yesterday, Gourley points the finger directly at who was responsible before going on to talk about bands like Grizzly Bear and others who would have benefited better than they already did if it wasn't for a leak.

"I had mixed feelings when I hear the album had leaked. On one hand it was exciting to think that people were actually searching so hard in advance (We have never had an album leak more than two weeks in advance of release date). On the other hand I was somewhat frustrated, not in an angry way. Just looking back at our history of touring and shows gradually getting bigger and bigger but still watching sales drop from our low thousands to the lower thousands. It was more frustrating to hear how it leaked seeing as how all the links we had sent out were private and coded. There is a certain level of professionalism that has been lost along with the idea that is the album. To hear about these things happening from the people that should understand music as much as any musician is just heartbreaking. I am happy vinyl is coming back, it needs to. We need to have albums and music. I need to."

This is just one more example that makes me sad for the artist. It's not that they're sad but they're disappointed and it just makes me feel bad. Now, granted, I've had this album for quite some time from a source inside the band but still, makes me feel bad hearing the whole thing so far in advance. I, too, champion the return of vinyl in the marketplace and can only dream of the day when I can be my 13-year old self again, having my parents take me to the record store after school or on the weekend to get the newest albums that I was so excited to hear.

Here's another new Satanist song, it's my personal favorite, actually. No matter what you do, though, please buy this record. They have lots of awesome pre-order options on their website that you should check out. Also, read all of John's letter on their website.

Download: "Do You" [mp3]