All posts by G. Gordon Gritty

Glen’s Top 10 LPs of 2009

#1. Nature Is A Taker by Uninhabitable Mansions [Self-Released]

#2. Merriweather Post Pavillion by Animal Collective [Domino]

#3. Invisible Girl by The King Khan & BBQ Show [In The Red]

#4. Humbug by Arctic Monkeys [Domino]

#5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart [Slumberland]


6. 200 Million Thousand Black Lips [Vice Records]
7. The Strange Boys and Girls Club The Strange Boys [In The Red]
8. Great Escape The Rifles [Sixsevenine (WMG)]
9. Face Control Handsome Furs [Sub Pop]
10. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Phoenix [V2 (UMG)]

CD Review: Smith Westerns

Band: Smith Westerns
Label: Hozac
Release: 2009

1. “Dreams” – 9.4
2. “Boys Are Fine” – 8.9
3. “Gimme Some Time” – 9.2
4. “Girl In Love” – 8.5
5. “We Stay Out” – 8.8
6. “Tonight” – 8.6
7. “Be My Girl” – 9.3
8. “The Glam Goddess” – 9.5
9. “Diamond Boys” – 9.2
10. “My Heart” – 9.6

Comments: Love the band name! They sound eerily similar to their homosexual counterparts, Hunx and His Punx. What does that even mean? Well, if you are like Benny Boy Tan and don’t get the obscure reference, let’s just say lo-fi garage. If you listen to both bands, you’ll get a great idea. I don’t know if I just got a really crappy quality download or if this is the real deal, but if the vocals were clear this thing would be much better. We got some Herman’s Hermits in here! I would definitely see this guys live, so I better not forget them.

Grade: 9.1

Glen’s Nominations: Top Songs of 2009

Correct me if I am wrong, but I’m pretty damn sure that nothing else noteworthy is coming  out in 2009! So I am going to proceed to figure out what the best songs of 2009 are…okay?

Almighty Defenders
– “Cone of Light” – Mark Sultan (vocals) and Joe Bradley (drums) make this song the beast that it is. Upbeat gospel!

Animal Collective – “Summertime Clothes” – With a heart pounding bass line and incredibly catchy chorus, this is an all around fun psychedelic popper!

Arctic Monkeys – “Dangerous Animals” – Heavy and simple guitar bashing contrasted with Turner’s warm and inviting vocals.

Atlas Sound – “Walkabout” – Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) comes in the clutch here making this a surefire summertime psych-pop classic with unforgettable lyrics.

Black Lips – “Starting Over” – This track hit me way back in February as one of the BL’s best. Listening to it again, it’s not entirely clean-sounding, but might just be the band’s best attempt at garage pop.

Bobby Ubangi – “Back To You” – This Ramones inspired posthumous release exemplifies that basic instrumentation is sometimes best.

Box Elders – “Jackie Wood” – Like “Back To You,” this isn’t exactly revolutionary, but it sticks with you…for a very long time.

Cymbals Eat Guitars – “And the Hazy Sea” – A great opening track that seems influenced by the ’80s post-hardcore scene; it’s the loud-quiet-loud that attracts me to this 6 minute overture.

Editors – “Papillon” – Electro-pop at its finest, at least for this year. For Editors, it’s a change in direction, for me, it’s an impressive classic that makes ya dance.

Flashy Python – “Obscene Queen Bee” – This neo-psych song has been floating around for a while in Alec Ounsworth’s repertoire, but it’s most polished and “epic” when sung as Flashy.

Girls – “Lust For Life” – This song is messed up if you are straight-guy singing along and the video is even more screwed up, but the sound is no b.s instantly memorable jangle pop.

Handsome Furs – “All We Want  Baby…” – Back in the summer, this was the song that I consistently had on repeat; it has a fantastic drum beat and static guitar riffs.

Jay Reatard – “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me” – Jay’s mellowed out a bit here, but essentially he incorporates all of what’s made him a perennial garage hammer in this tune.

Julian Casablancas – “11th Dimension” – Yeah, yeah, the rest of the album’s been getting a lot of hate, but this is Strokes + excessive synths + cowbell. Not a bad combination.

Kid CuDi – “Pursuit of Happiness” – Ratatat is to be surely complimented for providing great electronics, but CuDi transcends what is modern hip-pop and is it’s savior from being near-shit.

King Khan & BBQ Show – “Tryin'” – So many great songs on a fantastic album, it was tough to choose which one really is the best. I feel like this one is most like the songs I’ve grown to love by this duo.

No Age – “You’re A Target” – Sounds like it would belong on “Nouns” but is essentially even noisier (yet poppier) than much of what the duo embraced on Nouns.

Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “Young Adult Friction” – Twee as fuck, as I remarked back when I did this review. This is the group’s chef-d’oeuvre, thanks in part to the clever “Don’t Check Me Out” ending.

Phoenix – “Lisztomania” – Another song of the synth-pop variety that has a very catchy bridge “it’s show-town…” and overall is a complete listening experience.

Rifles – “Sometimes” – A real British tune that plays the post-punk card quite well. The ending is awesome!

The Strange Boys – “No Way For A Slave To Behave” – A ghetto country-punk classic that definitely sounds like a lo-fi best-of leftover.

Uninhabitable Mansions – “The Speed Is Deceiving” – Too many freaking good ones on this, the hinthinthintwinkalbumoftheyearhinthinthinktwinkwink. The vocal harmonies on this one rule.

Wavves – “So Bored” – Snap, crackle, and pop lo-fi surf pop at its optimum level of noisiness.

——————————————————————————–

With over 20 songs in the running, it will be tough to decide, but decide I will. Stay tuned…

Black Lips Booked Through February

Europe/Eurasia
11-11 Lisbon, Portugal – Caixa Economica Operaria
11-12 Madrid, Spain – Joy Eslava
11-13 Valencia, Spain – El Tinglado
11-14 Barcelona, Spain – Nitsa Club
11-17 Torino, Italy – Spazio 211
11-18 Milan, Italy – Musicdrome
11-19 Bologna, Italy – Covo
11-20 Rome, Italy – Blackout Club
11-21 Istanbul, Turkey – Babylon

United States
12-31 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
01-20 Costa Mesa, CA – The Detroit Bar
01-21 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
01-22 Pomona, CA – The Glasshouse
01-23 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
01-24 San Diego, CA – The Casbah

Australia
01-29 Brisbane, Australia – Laneway Festival
01-30 Melbourne, Australia – Laneway Festival
01-31 Sydney, Australia – Laneway Festival
02-01 Auckland, Australia – Laneway Festival
02-02 Wellington, New Zealand – SFBH
02-24 Melbourne, Australia – Corner Hotel
02-05 Adelaide, Australia – Laneway Festival
02-06 Perth, Australia – Laneway Festival
02-08 Sydney, Australia – Manning Bar

Japan
?????

Does this mean that they could be launching a full out U.S tour in the spring like last year and the year before? One can only hope!

CD Review: Them Crooked Vultures

Band: Them Crooked Vultures
Label: Interscope
Release: November 17, 2009

1. “”No One Loves Me & Neither Do I” – 8.4
2. “Mind Eraser, No Chaser” – 6.3
3. “New Fang” – 5.5
4. “Dead End Friends” – 5.8
5. “Elephants” – 5.0
6. “Scumbag Blues” – 5.9
7. “Bandoliers” – 6.3
8. “Reptiles”  – 4.8
9. “Interlude With Ludes” – 6.7
10. “Warsaw…” – 5.5
11. “Caligulove” – 5.0
12. “Gunman” – 5.8

Comments: Hailed as a hard rock supergroup [Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age)], I’m sure many music critics have big expectations for this album. Fact: I’m not really into this type of music. I was deceived by the first song, which isn’t that bad; it has the same kind of flair as a song by Rage Against the Machine (pretty good, but not something I’d listen to repeatedly). The rest sounds the same. I mean no disrespect by this, but it is truth. It’s stuff that I thought was way out there in sixth grade, but now I listen to and just shake my head.

Grade: 5.9

CD Review: Wall of Arms

Band: Maccabees
Label: Fiction Records
Release: May 2009

1. “Love You Better” – 9.2
2. “One Hand Holding” – 9.4
3. “Can You Give It” – 9.6
4. “Young Lions” – 9.8
5. “Wall of Arms” – 9.5
6. “No Kind Words” – 8.9
7. “Dinosaurs” – 9.2
8. “Kiss and Revolve” – 8.9
9. “William Powers” – 9.6
10. “Seventeen  Hands” – 9.5
11. “Bag of Bones” – 8.8

Comments:
I guess The Guardian already wrote what I was going to say: “If this all sounds a bit Arcade Fire, note that production credits go to Markus Dravs, who worked on Neon Bible. Thankfully, though, the sound of cynical bandwagon-jumping has been edited out of the mix. In its place are a collection of atmospheric, heartfelt pop songs that frequently fly off at unexpected angles.” The comparison is uncanny and frankly a little disheartening, because naturally Arcade Fire is so awesome that, for lack of a better word, ripping them off is going to make you sound pretty damn good. I try my best to think of Maccabees as a completely separate entity that just happens to sound like Arcade Fire. Doing that makes this album fall in place among (sort of) the greatest of the year. Oh yeah and you know how sometimes you listen to a song and then one minute later forget that you were listening to it? That’s happened to me with this album. What should I make of it?

Grade: 9.3