Recent Music: Most of 2007, Thus Far
Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 10:11 pmHoly crap I’m slacking. It’s been damn near four months since I’ve posted one of these, so this is going to be an abridged version.
January
At some point, I got The Weepies’ Say I Am You, a very mellow, folksy indie rock album that I listened to non-stop for about a week.
The last weekend in January, I was wandering around DC and protesting the war with a bunch of people. We stopped into a Starbucks, I grabbed the Decemberists’ The Crane Wife, and quickly fell in love with it. I haven’t listened to it much lately, but it got a lot of play in February and March. Plus, I actually bought the physical CD - isn’t that quaint?
The New Pornographers figured in there prominently as well.
February
I spent the first week of February in the SF Bay area, and while I was there, I picked up Kaiser Chiefs’ Employment (again, the actual CD!) and listened to it a whole bunch - mostly because I had heard Ruby on Ethel (on the flight there, no less!) and it was stuck in my head all week. I managed to find that MP3 and listened to it dozens of times while I was there. A couple weeks later, I got Yours Truly Angry Mob when it came out, and earlier this month, I got to see them live. They’ve been in rotation since early February.
Around the same time, I heard about Rautakoura, the Finnish bluegrass band, thanks to Boing Boing.
March
St. Paddy’s Day and Shamrockfest were upon us, so Flogging Molly and Dropkick Muphys got a lot of action.
Flogging Molly released the Complete Control Sessions EP (only on iTunes, I think), so I got the Float and Requiem for a Dying Song singles.
Later in the month, I got the Street Dogs’ Fading American Dream after catching a song or two during their Shamrockfest set. They’re a lot like Dropkick Murphys - no coincidence, really, since the lead singer sang for Dropkick before leaving to be a firemen, before leaving to be a musician again. Similar musical style, more working-class pro-union liberal lyrics.
April
Lucky Boys Confusion made a comeback earlier this month, probably by accident. I particularly like the song Atari.
Jonathon Coulton sauntered in for a while with Code Monkey and Re: Your Brains.
And this week, it’s been all about Arcade Fire. Somebody somewhere linked to a video of them playing in a freight elevator, and I knew I had to have it. I got Neon Bible, listened to it a few times, and began to understand why people had been raving about them for the past couple years. I did pick up Funeral after that, but I still like Neon Bible better, particularly Black Mirror, Intervention, and above all, No Cars Go. I feel like I’ve known them forever.
I’ve also been on a comedy kick for the past month or two, so Eddie Izzard’s Unrepeatable, Jim Gaffigan’s Beyond the Pale, and a Henry Rollins album (I can’t remember which one) have been repeated far more than such things should be repeated, and excessive quoting has resulted.
So that’s most of the music and spoken word I’ve been listening to. Sooner or later, I’ll get around to posting about the podcasts I’ve been listening to lately. Be patient.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:46 am
The Weepies album is quietly good. I like that every so often.
May 1st, 2007 at 11:27 am
Here are a couple random recommendations for you.
Ever since I heard one of their songs, I have been totally obsessed with The Format’s Dog Problems. Their first album, Interventions and Lullabies, is less mature and polished, but also very good.
Last week I went to see Modest Mouse and two openers I’d never heard of. The first one sucked, but the second one, Man Man, totally blew me away. They are not nearly as cool recorded, but check out their latest album Six Demon Bag anyway.
Another band I’ve been playing a lot lately is Bedouin Soundclash, they play really mellow rocky reggae, hard not to like.
That’s all I have, I haven’t been downloading random things much lately