January's Reviews (from the token ovary bearer)

CD Reviews:

Cursive – Ugly Organ:
If anyone remembers my earlier recommendation, Murder by Death, they will remember that I love the cello. Murder by Death was recommended to me because of my love of this band Cursive. Cursive began without a cellist and the album “Domestica” is amazing, but the addition of their cellist Greta just added a little extra spark to their music. Lyrically Tim Kasher is fantastic, though angry and embittered. He wrote most of this and the previous album after a bitter divorce. In “Art is Hard” he criticizes a lot of commercial or shall I say “emo” music out there “Cut it out- your self-inflicted pain / is getting too routine / the crowds are catching on / to the self-inflicted song…Fall in love to fail / to boost your CD sales." Songs like “Sierra” and the tale of Pinocchio in “Driftwood: A Fairy Tale” are favorites of mine.

If you like it, check out their album “Domestica,” which some people consider their best album or check out Tim Kasher’s side project The Good Life.
Score: 4


Joybang! – 1,000mg:
As soon as I started listening, I was immediately reminded of Sunny Day Real Estate, in some cases…a little too much. The vocals were uncannily similar to Jeremy Enigk and in trying to find out who their vocalist was; I could find no information on the band so I’m not even sure if it is him. I love Sunny Day Real Estate and this could easily be an EP of theirs, but not necessarily a good EP. It was mediocre at best. I give it a 2 for the Sunny Day Real Estate sound but I’d listen to “Diary” over this any day.
Score: 2


The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute:
I was/is a big fan of At the Drive In which split and formed two bands, Sparta and The Mars Volta. The two went in completely different directions and I am a fan of both, but The Mars Volta offers something completely different. This album may be difficult to listen to because of the seemingly endless moments of strange and somewhat un-listenable noises, but if you were to edit the songs and delete those crazy jumbles of monotonous noise…then this album would be quite amazing and would have made my top ten of the year. I do really like this album, I have just learned through many repeated listens (I do own this album) when to fast forward to the next track. (If you notice, on my best of 2005 CD, I used the radio edit of “The Widow” instead of the full, long-as-hell, album version.)
Score: 3 (Would probably have been a 5 without all of the unnecessary “noise.”)

The Waterboys – A Pagan Place:
The Waterboys are one of those groups that, if you’re Irish and like rock music (Irish rock especially), make you feel guilty if you don’t like them. I, having some Irish heritage, feel like I should worship this band like so many others do. Alas, I cannot commit to the church of the Waterboys and all of their saxophone glory. In all of the different albums of theirs that I have heard, not one has really stood out as a groundbreaking or amazing CD. This one is no different. There is better “Irish music” out there and as a regular rock band, they kind of bore me. And did I mention I hate the saxophone? Replace that saxophone with some fiddle, violin, bagpipes, or Uilleann pipes and then perhaps I would like this album a little more. It’s not terrible; it’s just kind of there.
Score: 2

The Fugs – Greatest Hits:
Can I just say…what the fuck? This is just plain insanity, but I loved it. It really had me cracking up. The poor recording quality and the randomness made me think that these guys just got together every now again, drank a lot and told someone to press the ‘record’ button. It still makes me laugh just thinking about certain songs. Amazing, not musically, but amazing nonetheless.


Topics

Top Ten of 2005

At first I thought making this list would be difficult, because there was a lot of good music that came out this year, but once I began making my “Best of 2005” mix I was able to limit my list to ten pretty easily. My decisions were based on my difficulty in picking one favorite from these CDs to put on the mix.

Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – S.T.
System of a Down – Mezmerize/Hypnotize
Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
The Decemberists – Picaresque
The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Howl
Bloc Party – S.T.
Spoon – Gimme Fiction

Honorable Mentions:
Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now


Question #1 – “Selling Out?”

I am so torn on the subject of musicians selling their music and most of my reasons against it are selfish. It is somewhat of a touchy subject for me. There are two different ways a band can “sell-out.” They can either get signed to major label (and lose all creative control of touring and licensing), or they can sell their songs to commercials.

I like going to small shows where ticket prices aren’t overly inflated and there is a small, faithful following. I like the more-intimate setting of club shows versus large arena shows, regardless of where your seats are. When a band becomes too commercial, they tend to draw the “bandwagoners” and teens who only care about that one single and end up either talking through the whole show and then screaming when they hear that one hit song, or they are hanging out in the bathroom or by the merch tables for the duration of the show. Perhaps this may only apply to some of the music I listen to, but it gets quite annoying to see these kids at shows where they only seem to be there just to be “seen.” (Don’t even get me started on what kids are wearing these days!)

But on the other hand, having met a lot of bands in my day, seeing them get commercial success makes me happy for them personally because I know the sacrifices many of them have made to get that far. Being broke and touring non-stop is difficult and to finally make good money for what you’ve given up so much for must be amazing.

I admit that when Moby sold the rights to an entire album of his music, I lost a bit of respect for him. I think a lot of his fans did. There are many other songs that I love being exploited on car commercials and jeans commercials and I cannot help but feel a little disconnected to those songs now. They aren’t as cherished to me anymore now that everyone across America is hearing them daily on the television.

I am still torn on this issue. It does bother me immensely but I like to see the “little guys” get something for their efforts.

Question #2 – Best Band of the Last Ten Years

The best band of the last ten years is Radiohead, because even my least favorite albums of theirs are amazing.