Monday, June 30, 2008

Fleet Foxes



















The debut long player from Seattle's Fleet Foxes has slowly been making its way up the ranks as a serious contender for record of the year. After last weeks tear inducing or should I say "beard" inducing performance at San Francisco's Bottom of The Hill they may have done just that. Absolutely amazing is what comes to mind and when I think about it, I haven't had a chance to say that for quite some time. Strong compositions, tight four-part harmonies soaking in reverb and a group of players as seamless as I've seen in five years or so. Stay tuned cuz these Fleet Foxes are onto something and remind me of a time when music was simple, eloquent and just plain good. See you in Portland on July 25th.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Robert Pollard Is Off To Business




















It is no surprise that Robert Pollard’s latest solo effort clocks in at around 35 minutes. What is surprising, though, is the fact that it takes him just 10 songs to get there. Rather than islandhopping around to as many snippets of sound as he can on his new album, Pollard settles into these songs and builds them out. This makes for not only some of his longest post-GBV offerings, but also some of his best.There is a charm to the way Pollard approaches his career. He, particularly of late, doesn’t take it too seriously and spends his time building a huge collection of albums that he wants to make. And while he shouldn’t take himself too seriously, there’s nothing wrong with getting down to the business of being a songwriter. Records can be fun and carefully crafted and even serious all at the same time, and Pollard seems to have remembered that fact on Robert Pollard Is Off to Business. These songs have a presence and heft to them due in no small part, to Todd Tobias’ role as producer and multi-instrumentalist on the album. This is easily his warmest and most inviting sound yet. The warm, classic-rock crunch of “The Original Heart” starts the album off with a punch, and shows that Pollard hasn’t forgotten how to weave his love for The Who into his own off-kilter brand of power-pop. “The Blondes” is a big ol’ rock ballad, and perhaps his best arrangement since “Edison’s Memos”. There’s also the punk-tinged, infectious punch of “1 Year Old” and the five-minute-plus “Weatherman and Skin Goddess”, which melds Britpop with arena rock . The wah-wah tinged "Gratification To Concrete" contain some of Bob's best melodies this side of The Keene Brothers "Death Of The Party" and makes for arguably the best track on the record. (On a side-note I'd like to add it's one of my wife's favorite songs and when it comes to Senor' Pollard, I'd don't hear the phrase "that's a really good song" too often) These songs show Pollard’s best effort yet at tackling different genres in his songs, filtering his wide swath of influences through his own uncanny knack for melody. He doesn’t try to make a psychedelic song here, or a punk song, or craft a rock opera. What he does is give us ten Robert Pollard songs, with those elements weaved throughout, the way he used to with GBV and his best solo stuff on Matador. Of course, Pollard doesn’t lose his goofy side in all this variety. He dips his vocals into his newly found cartoony bass briefly on “The Blondes”. (Rich Turiel, Pollard's manager, said Bob had scribbled, "sound like Pete Ham" (of Badfinger) on a piece of paper before cutting the vocal track. Robert Pollard Is Off to Business is a great return to form for Pollard. It has songs just as strong as anything on his Merge releases. As the first full release for his new record label, Guided by Voices, Inc., this album is the start of a new era and if this record is a sign of what’s to come, then Pollard’s long-time fans should rejoice.

The Original Heart
The Blondes
Gratification To Concrete
Weatherman and Skin Goddess
Wealth and Hell-Being

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Rolling Best of 2008















drive-by truckers - brighter than creation's dark
fleet foxes - fleet foxes
robert pollard - is off to business
the tallest man on earth - shallow grave
sun kil moon - april
hayden - in field and town
the dexateens - lost and found
chris mills - living in the aftermath
jonny greenwood - there will be blood - OST
brett cash - how will i know if i'm awake

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The Tallest Man on Earth

















It’s strange to think that it took a Swede to capture the spirit of American folk music, or at least come the closest to imitating it. But with the soon to-be release of Shallow Grave, the debut LP from Sweden’s own The Tallest Man on Earth, Americana has been given the Swedish touch. With his ramshackle delivery, nimble fingerpicking, and whimsical lyrics, you get a sense that the Tallest Man on Earth has spent a lot of time absorbing Harry Smith’s Anthology of Folk Music and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan without the latter’s overt socio-political commentary. Like Dylan, who aped the musical and visual style of his pre-war forebears but later developed his own sound, the Tallest Man on Earth is a highly gifted singer-songwriter who may be a bit derivative, but what music isn’t?

10 songs in 30 minutes. I've been playing this non-stop for a week.

Enjoy !

HERE