Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #80-71

#80

Souljourney
Gillian Welch
2003

I can't believe it's been 2003 since a new Welch solo album.  She tours (is going to be with Rawlings in support of his new album), but I guess just hasn't sat down to make something happen.  It's a damn shame, too, because this stuff if fucking gold.  Best true 'folk' artist in the game.  This one, though, is more rockin' than her previous albums.  There's actually drums here!  The additional instruments and production don't overshadow those pipes, though, as evidenced when she belts out Oh me oh my oh/would you look at Ms Ohio/she's runnin' around with the rag top down in the opening track.  Her No One Knows My Name is a great reworking of her Orphan Girl, from her fucking amazing debut, 'Revival'.  Those two songs are so incredibly sad, but somehow they overshadow their sadness with hope.  That, in a nutshell is what makes Welch so special of an artist.  She somehow blends a traditional aesthetic with a modern sensibility, but I'll be damned if you couldn't take her back to 1930, drop her in, and she'd rule it.  Hell, she's as homely as a depression era dirt farmer.  You couldn't have cast her any better.  She makes M Ward seem like a total poseur.

#79

Get Lonely
The Mountain Goats
2006

Jesus, who pissed in Darnielle's cornflakes?  I love it when this guy goes thematic.  You could put this one up in the sad song Pantheon, for sure.  Every song is about loneliness, making the title perfectly literal.  Why beat around the bush?  Is it sadder than the previous record, about his abusive stepfather?  Fuck, I don't know.  I'm thinking this is the kind of stuff a great artist pumps out to either stave off, or bring on suicide.  I guess he's in a better place, though, since his stuff has moved on to other lyrical territory, since then.  This album is like an existential study on sadness.  His girlfriend must have filmed one of those 'Fuck 500 Guys in 30 Minutes' videos, or something.  Really dig the sad piano line on Song For Lonely Giants.  If you ever get dumped, here's your album to revel in your loneliness to.

#78

The Tyranny of Distance
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
2001

Holy fuck, I used to listen to this album a lot.  I think what gets lost in the shuffle about Ted Leo, who was the poster boy for the punk infused indie rock period that seemed to fizzle about halfway through the decade, is how awesome of a lyricist  he is.  He's funny as hell, and it shines through in this material.  Snarky would be a good descriptor, but not pretentious.  Listen to Squeaky Fingers, for instance.  Brilliant song, brilliant lyrics.  Ted Leo has largely disappeared.  Remember when Hearts of Oak had all that crazy hype?  Yeah, we'll talk about that in a little bit, but if you wanted to introduce yourself to Leo, this would be a the right album to start with.

#77

The Stage Names
Okerrvil River
2007

I whiffed on these guys, initially.  Thought they were an Arcade Fire cover band.  Shows that ignorance can get best of even my great ear.  I don't think I really gave them any due until my friend Andrew saw them out West, and I forced myself to go back and listen to some stuff.  This album is just fantastic.  Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe does not disappoint.  Love the 'whoo-hoos' in that one towards the end.  They have a flair for the dramatic, and almost, I think, see themselves as writing storyboards, rather than just crafting songs.  This comes across in their live shows, at least what I saw on the recent ACL...I could see these guys kicking out a true Rock Opera one day.  Maybe I'm buying into their aesthetic a little too hard, but it feels like the best is yet to come with these guys.  Chick guitar player, too.  That's always a bonus.

#76

Como Te Llama?
Albert Hammond, Jr
2008

Who knew the rhythm guitarist from the Strokes was actually good?  Not me.  I have still not heard that other album he did, back in 2006, and probably would have missed this one, had it not been for my friend Andrew bringing it over last year.  Damn, what a good pop album this is, though.  These songs are catchy as hell.  GFC was one of the better songs from last year, and I'd put it in a list of singles from the Decade in a heartbeat.  I smell some Costello-cum-Police in him, though, like on the quasi-reggae song Borrowed Time.  You just don't hear a lot of stuff like this in today's indie rock scene.  I have no idea if he'll continue doing solo stuff.  Lord knows, the Strokes are done.  That solo stuff from the lead singer is atrocious, so if Albert wants to keep kicking out the jams, I think he could make a good career of it. 

#75

Pneumonia
Whiskeytown
2001

Technically recorded in 1999, this one didn't see the light of day until 2001.  Record label issues and band troubles (they were basically broken up, minus Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary by this point) kept this one on the shelf until after Ryan Adams had actually had two solo albums out (and at least one other solo album recorded, but also shelved).  This one gets lost in the lexicon, thanks to the fact that everyone is jumping over themselves to anoint 'Stranger's Almanac' as Whiskeytown's opus.  So why did this one fall out of favor, after once being considered a 'lost classic'?  I have no idea.  Maybe the fans missed some of that old school twang, or maybe by the time it was released, Adams had found his voice as a solo artist, so it was no longer vital.

What we have, though, is a damn fine example of great country twinged rock n roll.  Jacksonville Skyline shines as well as 95% of their previous output, while songs like Sit and Listen, To The Rain basically foreshadowed Ryan Adams from 2002-2004.  I'd love to hear a hardcore Beatles fan's take on Mirror, Mirror, which I think is Ryan Adams most obvious mimic of a 'British Invasion' style song in his catalog.  The songwriting was handled mostly by Adams/Daly (who rocks out the awesome pedal steel on this one), with Caitlin Cary only popping up twice.  She was marginalized, to the point where many call this a Ryan Adams solo project.  All that is so far in the past now, though, that it's getting fuzzier around the edges, and what we're left with is a great album, from a great band.  Better than 'Stranger's Almanac'?  Maybe not.  But just as vital, and we're better off having this one out there. 

One last notable about this one; there is a collaboration with James Iha, of Smashing Pumpkins fame...Don't Be Sad.  I have long been puzzled about how Adams came to work with Iha, who at the time was in the biggest rock band in the world.  Go figure.  Good song, too.

#74

Destroyer's Rubies
Destroyer
2006

I will admit to being a bit ignorant on this guy.  Saw him live, as my main introduction to his sound, and enjoyed the shit out of it.  This is the only album of his that cracked my Ipod, for whatever reason, and I enjoy the shit out of it, as well, pretty regularly.  FWIW, I seem to like that Swan Lake stuff more than his other material, outside of this album.  I don't know what to make of that.  Anyway, he's a genre bender.  I have no idea how to tell someone what he sounds like, much less figure out if someone would like it.  His voice is an acquired taste, to say the least, and there are so many key changes and disjointed melodies, you'd think the man was mainlining heroin mid-song.  The epic opener, Rubies would be a great litmus test for someone trying to give this guy a shot.  Like it?  Keep listening.  Don't like it?  Go listen to your fucking Lady Ga-Ga, and get the fuck away from me. 

#73

The Shepherd's Dog
Iron & Wine
2007

If you don't like the tinkly, quiet, laid back Iron & Wine sound, this is your album.  It's got world beats, crazy rhythms, and even ELECTRIC GUITAR.  Wow.  Seriously, though, Sam Beam only sounded like he was recording in his basement on the first two I&W albums because...that's where he was recording those albums.  I believe his vision was always larger, though he:

1. Lacked the chops or the backing band.
and
2. Was a film professor moonlighting as a musician, not the other way around.

Now?  He's got some backing.  He's learned to play well with others.  The songwriting is still freaking outstanding.  Heavy imagery, great metaphors, and catch as fuck choruses.  But what he's mixed in is a bunch of new ideas about percussion, and some loopy electronic elements.  I spoiled myself on this album, initially, by listening to a live show he did of a lot of the material in a stripped down, acoustic setting.  It sounded like what I had expected I&W to sound like.  I wasn't expecting him to take the Woman King EP and extrapolate off of that even further out of his original territory.  So when I heard the release, officially, it took me a long time to get into the groove. 

I think it's safe to say, though, that his evolving sound is good for all of us (including M&M candy, and movie soundtracks).  Resurrection Fern, House by the Sea, and Lovesong of the Buzzard are all just freaking amazing.  This one fits neatly into his catalog, and now two years later, is making me thirst for even more creativity and growth in future albums.

#72

Magnolia Electric Co
Songs:Ohia
2003

Molina has eschewed some of the pallor that hung over the previous Songs:Ohia albums, and really sounds more like his band-to-be, Magnolia Electric Co, than ever before.  I'm in love with the man's tone on the guitar.  You can call it Neil Young-esque, and you'd be right, but that doesn't really give Molina the credit he deserves.  It's more than just mimicking Young's licks, it's adding on to them.  I wish I knew more about the chick who sings on Peoria Lunch Box Blues.  That is a haunting tune.  The two bookends on this disc are both epic rockers, and would probably appeal to anyone who likes to tune in to the Classic Rock station on their local dial.  I could see my Dad digging some Molina stuff.  Hold On Magnolia actually reminds me a little bit of Radiohead, for some reason.  Who knows.  This is also the first of three albums that Steve Albini produced for Molina.

#71

Gather, Form and Fly
Megafaun
2009

Maybe I've fallen too hard, too fast on this one, but damn it sounds good.  I really regret not getting to see these live with the boys earlier in the year.  Kicking myself over that one...They lack a real good singer, which is why I think they went for that harmonized 'campfire sing-a-long' style, as AMG puts it.  The musicianship and production, however, is dynamite, and there are few albums that have hit me right out of the gate like this one.  Maybe it's my rural lean in my musical tastes these days, or maybe I've just got them wrapped up in the Bon Iver afterglow.  Darkest Hour, with it's rainfall segment, that slowly morphs into the song, is stunning, and maybe the best song of 2009.  It's kind of bluegrassy, and there's all kinds of instruments all over this one.  Will it stand the test of time, and hang around all these other great albums over the next decade?  Who knows, but my Ipod thinks it's one of the best albums of all time, if you sort by listens.  And my Ipod is rarely wrong.


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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #90-81

#90

Boys and Girls in America
The Hold Steady
2006

I've got a working theory: The Hold Steady is the 2000's version of Hootie and the Blowfish.  Now wait, I'm not finished...hear me out.  I've been working on this theory for a while.  What was Hootie, when you boil it down?  I'm talking pre-Hold My Hand/Let Her Cry Hootie?  They were a KICK ASS barband.  I remember hearing 'Kootchypop', which was their pre-label deal release, and thinking 'Fuck, this band is just a rollicking good time'.  They packed the little clubs in.  Did they deserve to move 15 million, or whatever it was, units of that first album?  Hell no, and the backlash from the Dan Marino love was well deserved.  But, look at their general formula...Simple song structures, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus, full sound (they are loud, live)...rock songs, man.  They sing about drinking, getting laid, getting hurt in relationships, and having a good time.  That is all The Hold Steady is, except they draw from a different set of influences.  Hootie was REM.  The Hold Steady is Springsteen and Thin Lizzy.  It's anthem rock...arena rock, if you will.  Smoky bar rock n roll, meant to jam to while your trying to fuck the girl with puffy hair, who you've just watched throw down three jager bombs in 15 minutes.  Hold Steady is this decade's Hootie and the Blowfish.  I'm convinced of it.  They will meet a better fate (they are not overhyped, and they are generally better musicians and songwriters), but the formula is the same. 

As far as this album goes, holy fuck does it have some good songs on it.  Chips Ahoy! is straight out of the Thin Lizzy playbook, with it's out of your gourd riffs.  You Can Make Him Like You is one of the best songs of the decade, with it's final repetitive stanza...There's always other boys/There's always other boyfriends/There's always other boys/And you can make him like you is classic bar band territory.  My fave, though, is Southtown Girls, maybe the best album closer of the decade.  When in doubt, fuck the girl from the other side of the tracks.  Southtown girls wont blow you away/but you know that they'll stay...Hootie could have wrote that.

#89

We Shall All Be Healed
The Mountain Goats
2004

This was the first album I heard from Darnielle that wasn't stripped down lo-fi.  I missed the boat on Tallahassee, somehow, and had to work back to it.  You can imagine my surprise, when I found out what this guy would sound like if he cut an album that wasn't on his 4-track in his basement...it's damned good!  John Vanderslice was behind the knobs, making this album's studio time one of the first stops I'll make when I get my time machine up and running.  Even with the extra production, the actual band, and the unmuffled vocals, it's the same formula that brought him huge victory in the lo-fi 90's...crazily strummed guitar parts, nasally snark ridden vocals, and the driest wit in indie rock.  I think this would actually be a great starting point for this band...or maybe Tallahassee, which we'll talk about later on.

#88

Neon Bible
Arcade Fire
2007

While not nearly as great as the previous album, this thing is a fucking party.  Black Mirror is a great track that kicks off this album.  I love the deep tuba line at the end of that one.  Really, the first four tracks leave you feeling like they are still working off that old magic.  I really feel like the second half of the album loses a little something, for some reason or another.  Not saying it's bad, and I've seen a lot of the material live (on youtube, ACL, etc), and it shines in that format...but they kind of need that narrative that they based their debut off of.  These guys could wind up being the best band in the world.

#87

In Our Nature
Jose Gonzalez
2007

Chilean born, moved to Sweden, and classically trained in the Spanish style of guitar play...I downloaded something off of one of his old hardcore albums, from before his slow acoustic stuff, and it was horrible.  He does a great cover on this one of Massive Attack's Teardrop (the theme song  to House, FYI).  Down The Line is also a great one.  It might not be 'Veneer', which earned him a lot of critical acclaim, but this one is damned close to as good.  It'll be really interesting to see how/if he can evolve as an artist, or if he'll stay in his narrow niche.  He's got crazy chops on guitar, though.

 #86

Wincing the Night Away
The Shins
2007

I was surprised that this one wasn't higher, to be honest.  There's just a ton of great albums left on this list.  It's not as good as their two albums left coming for a couple of reasons.

1. The production on this one is just a little too slick.
2. They aren't really pushing their sound into new territory, overall.

I swear, 2007 was the year everyone tried to mimic 'Pet Sounds', and see if they could be Brian Wilson.  The Shins were guilty, but also incredibly good at aping that aesthetic.  I always look for a great opener on a good album, and Sleeping Lessons really succeeds here.  Phantom Limb is possibly my favorite Shins song ever, on paper, though I doubt it will change your overall worldview.  With what's his face now working with Danger Mouse, we're possibly on the cusp of some cool shit coming from these guys.  They are already past the normal age of bands that learn new tricks, though, so their current version of the indie pop sound might just have to be enough to continue changing our lives.

#85

Moon and Antarctica
Modest Mouse
2000

I wax and wane on this release...right now, I'm a little down on it.  Modest Mouse is just one of those bands, like Mars Volta, for example, that I know I'm supposed to like more, but just can't get over something innate that kills it for me.  For some reason, the dynamic for me is Death Cab vs Modest Mouse...I am on the Death Cab side of indie rock.  It's more melodic, straight forward, and the lyrics are (IMO) better on the whole.  That's not to say I don't respect Modest Mouse (who I think is better live, FWIW).  This is probably their finest work, as their later output this decade has been largely 'meh'.  It's interesting that I have gotten into 'prog' a bit more over the past five years or so, I just don't relate more to Modest Mouse's variety of key changes and syncopated rhythms.  Still, this is a fine work, and worthy of inclusion in the Top-100, and is a chewy experience, if you're inclined to take a dive.

#84

The Crane Wife
The Decemberists
2006

For those who didn't see the riffage of 'Hazards of Love' coming, I point back to this body of work as evidence that you weren't paying attention.  These guys clearly love the sound of guitars, as much as they love rhyming  7 syllable words, dressing up like it's 1850, and singing indie rock sea shanties.  I love the 'epic-ness' of this album.  Just a great, great album of weird, nerd rock.  It's a loosely constructed concept album that has prog-like characteristics.  It almost defies description, to be honest.  If you can handle the nasally, pretentious lyrics, you might just fall in love with these guys right off the bat.   I didn't give it it's due at the time, but I'm taking a good look back these days, and there's a lot to like.

#83

Cardinology
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
2008

Perhaps one of the most frustratingly good albums of the decade.  It's flaws remind me of this girl who works for GE...she's got a smoking hot body, an exotic look (from Spain, maybe), and other than this big, red, Gorbachev-like birthmark right on her cheek, ruining an otherwise beautiful face.  But she's still very pretty, despite that big red mark that looks kind of like Norway, with the top end broken off.  That is this album, in a nutshell.  Tossaways like Magick are almost redeemable, when you take the album as a whole.  Or take Sink Ships, which is somehow the best and the worst song that Adams has written in years...just absolutely frustrating.  Take these two stanzas, which occur back to back in the song:

This position is not open now for applicants
The application forms got shredded
There was faulty wording in the documents

I can still hear you laughing
Coming up the rickety stairs
Laughing as the springtime
Filled your lungs with air

The first stanza misses the meter of the song, sounds disjointed, and might be one of the worst 'love didn't work out' metaphors ever put in the middle of a rock song.  The second stanza is just beautiful poetry, with great imagery, and fits the meter of the song, and sends the whole song soaring.  He put a raw demo version on his website recently, and it's even better, because he tones down the whole 'do-cu-ment' enunciation.  This song needed another week in the percolator, and it could have been epic. 

You can see why Adams and the Cardinals are 'on a break'.  After three or four collaborations, where Adams finally was able to flesh out his OWN sound, things are kind of in a rut.  Go Easy almost feels like a mashup of material from the past 5 years, but it still sounds good.  Standouts like Natural Ghost prove that he still has it, though.

Take a picture of your life for a second now freeze it and look at the screen
What parts of you were daydreams, illusions, and other things
These things they pass in time but the moments are real and it's hard sometimes

Right on.

#82

Keep It Hid
Dan Auerbach
2009

The front man/guitar player makes a solo album, and I think it's better than anything the Black Keys have done as a collective.  Maybe it's that there are some more acoustic-y moments?  I don't know.  The guitars still shine, and it's all fuzzed out and awesome.  I don't really know why the drummer wasn't along for the ride here, as there is not really a dynamic sea change in the overall sound.  But this is the one I listen to, and even though it's only 10 months old, it sounds like an old friend.  Could be the cocaine?

#81

Trials and Errors
Magnolia Electric Co.
2005

Not sure if there is another live album on my list, offhand, so this could be considered the best live album of the decade.  Recorded in 2003, on the backs of Jason Molina 'retiring' the Songs: Ohia name.  This is sort of their debut album, and in my mind really feels like a normal release.  Neil Young riffs, and long as fuck songs.  You can really play 'Name that Neil Young Riff' on a lot of these.  For instance, the opener has a stone cold electric 'Heart of Gold' riff, changed up just a hair.  The lyrics are still dark and depressing, like the older Songs: Ohia stuff, but the amped up sound gives things a lot more space to be dark, but still melt your face.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #100-91

#100

Figure 8
Elliott Smith
2000

Pardon me if I don't blow Elliott Smith's dead cock all that much.  I'm not ready to anoint him some spot in the pantheon of great, dead before their time artists.  Don't get me wrong, though, this is a great album.  'X/O' was better, IMO, but that was in the 90's.  The Everything Reminds Me of Her into Everything Means Nothing to Me segue remains one of the best 'related, but unrelated' song coupling on an album that I have ever heard.  If this album suffers, it's that it's maybe a little too long.  Son of Sam was supposed to make him a superstar, but it just didn't happen.  In the Lost and Found (Honky Bach)/The Roost, and it's Western saloon piano parts is just amazing.  Wish he wouldn't of killed himself, but his music was pain, and that's what you get sometimes, I guess.

#99

One Bedroom
Sea and Cake
2003

This is about as Sunshine Pop as I get.  It's also one of the more electronic albums on this list.  These guys had a sound that was about 10 years too early.  If they debuted now, they would be huge.  Shoulder Length is one of my favorites, but Interiors, and little loopy guitar riff, tops it.  Great cover of Bowie's Sound and Vision (I swear I hear this song on that commercial where the people are floating around in bubbles, listening to music).  If that song could be any gayer, Sea and Cake took the bar and set it really high.  Music for a good mood.  Hard to beat your wife to this one...pretty much the polar opposite of that Elliott Smith album!

#98

White Blood Cells
The White Stripes
2001

I read a blurb about their live show, back in 2000/2001, and kazaa'd 'De Stijl' (which I think is their best record).  I didn't even really listen to it at the time.  Then I saw Hotel Yorba late night on MTV, and had to go get the (by this point) much hyped 'White Blood Cells' album.  Fuck man, these guys were amazing, when there wasn't anything else like it.  Raw riffage, sloppy drums, and a fuck-all attitude.  This was back before we knew these two crazies used to be married, and everyone thought they were brother and sister.  Before 'Cold Mountain', the supergroup fad, and overexposure.  The Same Boy You've Always Known seems so different from something like Ball and a Biscuit, it's like they were a different band.  What surprises me, going back, is how much acoustic guitar there is on this album.  It's not all power chords and yelping lyrics.  Jack White had the world on his platter, but this band was/is too one-dimensional to be groundbreaking, anymore.

#97

You In Reverse
Built to Spill
2006

Just listen to Conventional Wisdom...that's the essence of indie rock, right there.  These guys do it better than just about anyone.  I have long thought they peaked in the late 90's, and that their watershed moment was an album that will be coming up later, but I'm really reassessing their legacy.  These guys are still making great music, it's just coming from a different place.  It's grown up, I guess.  Or maybe I've grown up, and finally caught up with where they are moving to.  I could listen to those clean guitar licks in Goin' Against Your Mind all day.

#96

Wild Mountain Nation
Blitzen Trapper
2007

The title track is one of the best one of the catchiest riffs that have ever come out of rock n roll.  It's got some Zep drums, too (sound-wise, not talent-wise)...that tinny, echo-y, bombastic, spacious sound.  They were lauded as psychedelic-rock's new face, and I can see where they get some Grateful Dead/New Riders of the Purple Sage influences, on this album...but they are a little deeper than just a ripoff of stoner bands from the 70's.  I'd say a song like Murder Babe is almost more Big Star, than Jerry Garcia.  Shit does make you want to grow a beard, and start a rock band, though.  They make it sound so easy.

#95

Rejoicing in the Hands
Devandra Banhart
2004

This is the first of two albums in 2004 from Banhart, and the one I like the most of the pair...they were recorded together.  Beautiful guitar work, great lyrics (they even sound great when he goes Spanish on our asses, like on Todo los Dolores).  My favorite, and one of his best songs, is The Body Breaks.  Where Sam Beam is unpretentious and earnest, Banhart is the polar opposite.  He yearns to be earnest, but it all just comes out a little uppity.  That's ok, by me, because it's part of what makes him great.  I'm not sure who's more eccentric...Devendra or Destroyer.  I am super pissed that he beat me to the song title Tit Smoking in the Temple of Artesan Mimicry, though.  That was going to be my #1 jam.

#94

We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Deathcab for Cutie
2000

This is back when DCfC was a little less cohesive, and a little more experimental.  You can almost say they sold out a bit.  I used to mock them as a rich man's Jimmy Eat World, but then I figured out just how bad Jimmy Eat World was, and stopped using that joke.  It's taken a while to grow on me, but this album, now almost 10 years old, is creeping into my subconscious more and more.  Company Calls/Company Calls Epilogue spark some of what was to come, I think.  That AMG review makes it seem like they'd arrived, but I don't think they really had.  Gibbard and company were clearly still finding their feet.

#93

One Beat
Sleater-Kinney
2002

This one hits you like a banshee, right out the gate, and doesn't let up until it's done.  One Beat -> Faraway will take the breath away.  This is an album meant to be played at '11', which is rare for a female group.  This shit makes Lita Ford and Joan Jett blush.  The drumming, which I think is S-K's strong suit, is at it's most 'robotic' on this one.  If you want to run my wife off, crank up Oh!.  She hates S-K's vocals, and this one hits her the hardest.  She'd probably leave me, if these guys were the soundtrack of my entire life.

#92

In the Future
Black Mountain
2008

Another great Jagjaguwar release...love that label, these days.  I think this one is leaps and bounds over their first full length album, and I find myself listening to this one (on vinyl, of course, thanks Ryan) frequently these days.  I love the 70's metal/psychedelic feel of these guys.  You could totally do lines of coke off of this album cover.  For me, it starts with a bang, with Stormy High, and doesn't really let up.  It's a thinking man's 70's metal homage, if you will.

#91

Wilco (The Album)
Wilco
2009

Let me get this out of the way: this is a solid album, with no real holes.  Bull Black Nova is dominant.  Wilco (The Song) is catchy, with a great rolling drum piece.  A song like I'll Fight almost sounds like it could have been on 'Being There'.  It's not a bad disc, at all.  But it lacks a certain something.  I just can't get into it...it doesn't engage, like other Wilco material.  It doesn't make me want to play it 30 times in a row.  They didn't exactly mail it in...I think the performances are solid.  If anything they are just in a slight creative rut...maybe touring too much, or in need of some personnel upheaval.  One thing that did surprise me was that Nels Cline seemed to almost be muzzled.  His freakouts, which made the last couple of albums special, were very few and far between here.  It's the atonal Bull Black Nova where he shines the best, IMO.  I hate to say it, but a lot of this album screams 'we're getting old'.  The Adult Contemporary Grammy could be on it's way!

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11/17/09 Interesting Releases

dave rawlings machine - a friend of a friend
miles davis - live in vienna 1973
norah jones - the fall (ryan adams and will sheff (among others) each worked with norah on a song
mumford & sons - sigh no more
real estate - real estate


thats all i have....anyone have anything else to have. i'm super interested to hear dave rawlings and miles davis!!

The Lost Recordings of Ryan Adams: 'Destroyer'

It's common knowledge the Ryan Adams writes 14 songs a day, cuts three albums a week, and still finds time to operate the weirdest website on the internet.  Well, maybe only that third point is totally true, but the man is as prolific as they come in the music business.  There are a whole host of albums that were 'shelved' or never intended for actual release...and 'Destroyer' is one of them.  I had originally thought this was a Post-Heartbreaker effort, done around the time of '48 Hours' (another shelved project), but this isn't the case..  Turns out that it's an album that was recorded before the Heartbreaker sessions, sometime in 1999.

Like all things that don't technically 'exist', this album was incredibly easy to procure through illicit means.  Ryan, I promise I'll buy the material if you've ever got a price tag on it.  I neglected to look at the track listing upon download, figuring I'd recognize some tunes, and wanted to be surprised.

Right off the bat, I knew what I had.  You see, kicking around in my CD book that occupies my car is a bootleg of some Ryan Adams gig from October of 1999, and I instantly recognized the opening track Born Yesterday, which also kicks off most of the live sets from that week long or so tour that he was doing on the material from this album.  That show has long been a favorite of mine, and I was stoked to realize that I had most likely fallen into 'official' recordings of some of those great songs.  You might also know that Born Yesterday is on '48 Hours', but the version here is a totally different mix, with Gillian Welch offering some assists on the vocal duties.  Perhaps the most important thing to note on this entire album is her presence, as a backing vocalist on what seems like just about every song on the disc.

I have been fascinated with the Ryan Adams era that intersects with Welch/Rawlings, and feel that nothing they've ever collaborated on has ever gone awry (well, except for that show where Adams kicked out the fan for heckling...).  Hell, you could make a strong argument that Rawlings (and to a lesser degree, Welch) are the reason 'Heartbreaker' is so tragically great.  It's after these guys stopped being cozy that Adams appeared to go off on his little tangents; a litany of unreleased material, smashed together Label releases, band changes, and running up Rock Legend Widow's AMEX accounts.  Shit like that.  What is clear from this recording, which has the Rawlings/Welch footprint, even more than 'Heartbreaker', is that Adams was in a great songwriting place.  I don't know if he's tapped the Americana/Roots influences any better, other than pieces of 'Heartbreaker', and it's almost certainly Adams that shines through.  There's no way you could really play the 'Who's Adams Trying to Sound Like' game here.  All the songs are HIM.  It took him all the way to 'Jacksonville City Nights' to get back to that, I believe.

The shuffling country song Poison & the Pain, which I had never heard before, is a perfect example of this.  It's sloppy, rambling, and emotive.  Welch provides some seriously out-of-tune, but oh so perfect vocals over the chorus.  You could picture this one being plucked outside the barn, on a Fall night, during the harvest.  I'd say this type of songwriting is a direct effect of working with Rawlings/Welch, who write Americana narratives, maybe better than any contemporary songwriters who cross over into the mainstream (Steve Earle comes to mind as competition). 

Rainy Days is another standout, with it's layered harmonized vocals, throughout.  Welch/Adams compliment each other, but still remain singularly out-of-tune.  This track is stripped down, but with a tinkling xylophone like instrument adding a little extra.  It's remarkable how quiet the middle of this album is, just in general.  Not until the closer, a cover of Welch's Time (The Revelator) do they even plug in.

The studio recordings of these songs are surprisingly great, compared to my perceptions of the live versions. Statuettes With Wounds, co-written with Van Alston (who was featured heavily in the live sets that presented this material in 10/1999), could have certainly have made the 'Heartbreaker' cut.  It's a lonely ballad of rejection, with Adams belying his own pain with a great chorus:


Is it funny that you're laughing at me/The joke's on you/Cause I feel sorry for him 

Only two cuts here actually made it onto 'Heartbreaker'.  One is Bartering Lines, and on this disc we're presented with a strong duet over the chorus with Welch that just freaking pops, and rivals the haunting version that would become the official release.  If anything, that backwoods drawl that Adams pulls out of his Easter NC upbringing so rarely these days, is most prominent in this rendition.  The entire song seems to have been reworked for 'Heartbreaker'.  It evokes more of a tribal Indian rhythm here, and without words might convince you it was time to do the Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop.

In My Time of Need stands out as the gem of the album, perhaps because of it's familiarity.  Such an earnest song, which Adams has said he wrote from the perspective of man in his 70's.  The reflective 'look back at love' type song can be cliche, but the delivery (which could actually be the same cut/mix from 'Heartbreaker') elevates the song past any cheesiness, and takes you into the soul of the song like only the best songwriters can do.

Material like this is usually for completists.  Fans who are OCD and fanatical will seek this stuff out, trade the tapes/CD-R's/mp3's (depending on how old you are), but it will forever be off the radar for the casual guys.  That's a damn shame, because what we've got here is a great piece of American songwriting, and it's stuck in 'unreleased' purgatory.  I'd rate the final four songs, Time of Need/Bartering Lines/Memories of You/Time (The Revelator) as equal to anything else in his catalog.  The soaring Welch cover that closes this thing out is a huge exclamation point on an album that should become a necessity for anyone who claims to appreciate earnest Americana/Alt-Country music.  The reworking is straight out of the Neil Young book on riffage, and Welch's classic takes on a grittiness that almost surpasses her seminal work.  You can see why she'd have shared such great material with Adams, who must have been this close to embarking on a Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris type jaunt with Welch.  Damn all, if that wouldn't have been amazing.

Grade: An Unreleased 9.0

Destroyer Track Listing
h/t answeringbell.com 

Reviewed Album Log

You can find a log of reviewed albums from this site here.  This will be maintained and bumped, periodically, and I'll put a direct link on the sidebar.

Pitchfork Rebuttal #1: Molina and Johnson

Molina and Johnson

by Molina and Johnson

2009

Secretly Canadian

Pitchfork gave this guy a 5.1.  For those who don't know, this is a collaboration between Jason Molina (Songs:Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co) and Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel).  According to legend, it was cut during a 10 day session at Molina's house.  I'm much more familiar with Molina, who has a long indie history that has shown up on the radar more frequently than Johnson's material.  I have heard the 2008 double LP of Centro-matic and SSG, I guess twice, and it was quite good.  Something that I would like to delve deeper into.

So, there's the backdrop.  Call it a stripped down supergroup, if you will, since those are all the rage.  So, what's wrong with Pitchfork's review?  They paint this album as a dark 'funereal' experience, drab in the middle, and altogether unexciting.  That is certainly a believable picture, if you listened to this thing in a vacuum.  But what I want to ask them is, what the hell did you expect?  If you'd have handed this to me, told me who it was, and asked me what I thought it would sound like before you let me listen...I'd say, 'A 50 minute poem about how sad life is, and how it's never going to get any better'.  That's what these guys were born to do...somber, introspective music.  Sure, Molina could have brought more guitars, a la 'Magnolia Electric Co', versus the more downbeat alter ego 'Songs:Ohia' sound, but I fully expected this album to be sad out of the box.  And it is...it is.

I listened to this album yesterday, as the remnants of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ida pummeled us with rain.  I was in the drive thru at Zaxby's.  My shirt was soaked from running through a parking lot 3 minutes earlier, and I was cold.  Basically, everything about that moment kind of sucked.  Tinkling in the background was a piano/guitar effort on this album; don't even remember the exact track.  It was perfect.  I'm guessing that Stephen M. Deusner, who wrote that Pitchfork review, just didn't have a cloudy day to share this album with.  I'm a sad album guy, especially when it's a sad album day.  You certainly wouldn't throw this on as a backdrop for Wii night, with your 6 most fun friends.  If you hold it against a standard that it can't stand up to, this album is a failure, as would anything that is nuanced like this is.  Imagine your worst day.  Now imagine the soundtrack that would sum that up.  That's this album.

I'd rate it out pretty strongly.  In fact, I'm prepared to give this one, say a 7.8.  I'm not going to burn down any buildings if it's not on the All Time Lists in 10 years, and I doubt that was anything near what the two guys set out to make.  Seems to me like they just wanted to share some pain through music together, and by that measure, they succeeded to their maximum ability.  I'll certainly listen to it again, and this definitely endears me more to these two's respective solo endeavors. 

Ron's Pitchfork Rebuttal Score (RPRS): 7.8
Pitchfork's Score: 5.1

Pitchfork Douche Score (RPRS minus Pitchfork Score): 3.7

Pitchfork Rebuttals

I think a regular feature on this site will be a 'Pitchfork Rebuttal'...a contrast review on something they've missed the mark on (either too low a score, or too high), and need to be called out for it.

I've been reading Pitchfork for years, pretty much on a daily basis. I consider them to be a vital piece of the 'Indie Rock' scene, and recognize them as perhaps the biggest trend setter in the entire game. They can make or break a band, with the wave of a 'Best New Music' alert. They are also pretentious indie rock douchebags, to the 10th degree. That means you have to put your BS detector up, sometimes. Like when they reviewed Wilco's new album, and basically trashed it for 7 paragraphs, then ultimately gave it a 7.something.

Am we right where they are wrong? Well, I think the key answer to that question is that there is no right or wrong. It's all subjective, in the end. But perhaps even a group lacking in true 'Street Cred' or 'Indie Rock Critic Certification' can lend something to the debate. Or maybe we're just douchebags, too.

Perfect Soundtrack to a Rainy Night

This album sounds so damn good on vinyl too.

That is all.

Austin City Limits Review - M Ward and Okkervil River

Finally had the chance to sit down and watch the ACL from 10/31 (original airdate on PBS in Greenville, SC), thought I'd crank out a bit of a review.

M Ward - *snooze*...seriously. I actually tried to put this on, just to see a little clip, the other night. The wife immediately nipped that one, saying it was going to put her to sleep. It is a dreamy little set, but I guess that sums up my man M Ward pretty well. Things pick up a little bit, when he gets the female backing vocalists in for a few songs, but having just watched it, nothing but the instrumental noodling he does at the end sticks out as memorable.

I will say, he looks like he fell out of some old Cuban war film from the 50's, or something. Strange looking dude.

As far as Okkervil River is concerned, they are worthy of bumping this ACL from 'delete that shit fast' to 'keep forever' status. Nice little performance. It's the first time I think I've seen the band, in the flesh, and I was surprised to see a girl on guitar. Who knew? Her chops were a little lacking, but she's there more for atmospheric sound, as far as I can tell. Proves you don't have to be a technical wizard to be successful in a good band. Sheff, the frontman, is obviously the driving force behind the band, and he's a pretty electric performer, even on TeeVee.

Material-wise, they showed their most recognizable songs, as ACL always does when they trim a performance down to 30 minutes. I'd have loved to have seen these guys get a full hour. I did get a good chuckle watching the percussionist/multi-instrumental guy. Sure, guys like that play a pivotal role in the band...but you just wonder if they are getting the table scraps off the band's backstage spread, or maybe being forced to sleep with all the ugliest groupies.

The interview with Sheff at the end of the episode is worth the price of admission. He comes off pretentious and hyperbolic...almost a caricature of what you'd expect an art-rocker type would be. Paraphrase: 'If you want to be a good writer, you have to set out aiming for better than Shakespeare'. Ridiculous, but whatever he needs to light his creative fire, good for him. Sounded more like he was just trying to sound important. No self-deprecation. The percussionist was sitting beside him, nodding...the only way to elevate your level of maraca play is to set out to be better than Bez Berry!

Still rocked, though.

Grades:
M Ward - C
Okkervil River - B+

Naming the Site

Ryan is opposed to The Indie Dish as a name. He's looking for something less 'paparazzi'-feeling. It's an easy change, so I'm up for something else.

His suggestions:

Carry the Zero (named after Built to Spill's song)
Something Neil Young related

I'm open to other suggestions, and thought we might collect them here.

Album Release Calendar - 11/10/09

According to Metacritic, there's not a ton coming out tomorrow of note.

Tori Amos has Midwinter Graces dropping, and while I really can't say that I've listened much to her material since the album where she's breastfeeding a baby cow, it might be worth a listen to see where she's at these day. Some additional digging needs to be done, to see if anything else is going to fall under the radar.

*UPDATE*

Andrew has called attention to these releases tomorrow, some of which are already out, just coming to vinyl:

Wilco - Being There (vinyl reissue)
The Cribs - Ignore the Ignorant
Devendra Banhart - What Will Be (vinyl)
Ola Podrida - Belly of the Lion
J. Tillman - Year in the Kingdom (vinyl)

Notable, indeed.

First Four Neil Young Albums Being Re-Issued (On Vinyl, Too!)

Check it.

Neil Young, the godfather of grunge, whatever the hell that means, is throwing us a big bone this Holiday season. He's releasing remastered versions of his first four solo albums, 1969’s Neil Young and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, 1970’s After the Gold Rush, and 1972’s Harvest.

The sweet part? The special edition box set, with all four albums together on 180 gram vinyl. :drool: Oh yeah, that's the stuff, right there. Looks like you can pick them up a la carte, on 140 gram, if you want it that way. Oh, and if you're still living in the 90's, back when we bought CD's, you can get them on disc, too.

You'd have to work hard to convince me that After the Gold Rush and Harvest aren't his best acoustic-y recordings. There's a lot of pain in those recordings, and Neil Young is at his best when he's hurting. I believe between the three main collaborators here, we have all of these guys on vinyl, as they were issued originally. It'd be a great 'Pepsi Challenge' to line those old pressings up against the new remasters, and see where technology can make the great even better.

In related news, I know what to tell Rosa to get Ryan for X-mas...

Power Rankings - An Idea To Rank Labels

I envision plenty of album reviews on this blog, but on thing that I think we can provide, that I haven't seen elsewhere, is a Power Ranking style feature on record labels. The methodology is still yet to be invented, fully, but I envision a two tiered system:

Releases from the well known (and even lesser known and/or fledgling) labels would be put through some kind of meat grinder formula, taking into account subjective and objective measures (# of quality releases, our review ratings, maybe even some outside influence from other rating sites?). The end result should give us a Top-10 or Top-25 style ranking, that we can update every month or so. It should be real interesting, over time.

I'd say we'll test the method out a bit, the last couple of months of 2009, and then roll it out officially in 2010.

Welcome to the Indie Dish!

The Indie Dish is a blog centered around Indie Rock, non-mainstream music, pop culture, and other various things that are awesome. Come here, if you are finding your Pitchfork snark a little too snarky, or if Rolling Stone just isn't covering your favorite band.

Collaborators include Ron, Andrew, and Ryan, three guys who spend too much time listening to music, not to eventually write something down about it.