Seattle Subsonic - December, 2008
My Year In Lists
This is a list of my favorite albums of 2008. Obvious, right? Trite, but sincere. My list is not much cooler than anything you might find on Pitchfork, you have probably already heard it all before, and seen most of these albums all over all sorts of year-end lists, and well, here they are again. I’m not gonna talk about super cool low budget Swedish vampire movies, or the stark conviction of some Brooklyn Noise artist, I’m just going to lay out albums that I really enjoyed and that I think really defined the sound of 2008, you know stylistically, or some shit like that, but mostly I just liked them. So, here they are, and it’s not in any top ten order, but there is definitely an order about it all.
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5. Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair
Here come the horn and violin stabs, and if they aren’t well placed, then how do you feel about the vocals scattered around these noveau disco jams? Anthony Hegarty lends his expressive voice to DJ Andy Butlers disco project “Hercules and Love Affair” to wondrous results. With an infatuation with Greek mythology and well… um, homo-eroticism, Hercules and Love Affair bring disco back to the dance floor, and boy do they. This music evokes every single scene that ever occurred in Studio 54, but also incorporates enough contemporary sequencing elements to make the sound fresh and able to withstand the gritty electro jams of the majority of today’s dance music. When/if you listen to this album just be ready to make evocative eyes at someone across the room okay, that’s really all I need to say, the bass will tell the rest of the story.
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[Audio:http://www.seattlesubsonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/02-hercules-theme-1.mp3]
Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules Theme
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1. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
This was the hardest album for me to review, because I just didn’t know where to start, that’s one of the many reasons that it is number one on the list. Now keep in mind that Dan Whitford is a master DJ with a penchant for the aesthetic of bands like Fleetwood Mac and ABBA, but also New Order and Roxy Music, these pop sensibilities shine through on Cut Copy’s sophomore album. Recorded with Tim Goldsworthy (DFA, The Loving hand), and implementing a great combination of vintage and modern synths, real and sampled drums, and sampled flourishes, Cut Copy has shined a light on the blue print for all of the intricate components of pop music mastery. Taking their cues from a wide array of dance, disco, pop and punk, and synthesizing them all together in such a potent concoction as to create the dance/pop sound of 1974, 1982, 1987, and most importantly 2008. And all of the shit that went along with all of these years is scraped away, and promptly thrown aside, allowing for the diamonds hidden beneath it all to shine bright. Now I think that there are a lot of talented bands out there, who could commit to tape a single that does all of this, but that’s not what Cut Copy did, they made a whole freakin album. With all of the tracks relative to one another, detailing a lifetime of doubt at a party, and a night of triumph all at one, short teasing tracks tie the album together, and hits bleed together in beautifully manipulated waves of sound bouncing off themselves just before the perfectly executed drum groove comes in and the pop starts it off once again.
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[Audio:http://www.seattlesubsonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/03-lights-and-music-1.mp3]
Cut Copy – Lights and Music
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8. No Age – Nouns
Now, I must say, complacent I may be, I still have some pent up aggression, I like to listen to garage rock abrasion, the idea of harnessing noise for a visceral reaction is pretty interesting, and in 2008, no one did it better than No Age. Enough said, maybe, but for starters buried beneath all of the distortion, and the bombast, there is an unmistakable sense of melodic sensitivity. For all its noise, and this duo sure does have enough at its disposal, this album has an absolutely acute sensitivity for emotion, this band can force you forward at a constant unerring speed, but still convey some very different messages from song to song. Until this album I was relatively certain that there were only so many types of distorted noise that a guitar could assault me with, since this album, I have decided that there are at lease twice as many as I guessed before, and that my estimate is still sadly lacking.
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[Audio:http://www.seattlesubsonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/02-eraser.mp3]
No Age – Eraser
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3. M83 – Saturdays = Youth
Saturdays = Youth is more eighties than a lot of things from the 1980’s. But its also another pop speckled electronic album from M83’s Anthony Gonzalez. Certainly the gems here are the one-two punch of Kim and Jessie and Graveyard Girl, but for followers of M83’s early work a marked evolution is noticeable in the execution of the long form bubbling electro pop and ambient marches of teen angst. Recorded in Anthony Gonzalez’s home studio using only equipment from the 1980’s this album has a definite call back feel from the time period it seeks to emulate, but so much of what people seem to hate about the 80’s is implemented so perfectly on this album that no one can help but be endeared to these songs about teenage emotions sung in a broken, reverb drenched, French accent. Do you remember being 15, and god, you were pissed off and depressed about something, and you couldn’t express it to save your life, well this album is the way you would have expressed it if it were 1986 and you just happened to be a master musician who could write moody lyrics, and really stereotypical poetry. This would be it. This would be your song to play on your shitty stereo while you mourned all sorts of problems, and recalled all sorts of beautiful experiences.
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[Audio:http://www.seattlesubsonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/04-graveyard-girl-1.mp3]
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Alice Russell is no Amy Winehouse
.She’s much, much, much better.
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You should get to know her. She has an amazing voice and a great ear for production (Nostalgia 77, Quantic, ect). The only thing she doesn’t have going is the whole “I’m a crack addict and life is pointless” strain and pain in her voice. Which Amy has dialed and does come through the speakers. Good or bad, it does add a ‘lil something.
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What Ms. Russell lakes in suicidal-ness she more than makes up for in pipes and sheer range. I mean wooooowwww… White English chicks are on some whole ‘nother shit these days. Must be all those crumpets or something (heroine?). Regardless, this is another soulful Brit to add to the list and she deserves a spot towards the tippy, if not for her production choices, arrangements, covers and whatnot, then I guess her voice will do. One must admit this woman has one of the most soulful set of vocal chords since Aretha. Yes, I do understand the comparison I just made.
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Her new album Pot of Gold is all over the place, and I mean that in a great 
way. She pretty much nails every note, genre, cover and vibe on each of the lp’s 11 songs. The production is great and gives her a near-perfect backdrop for the many styles and themes she tackles. My only complaints are it’s “cleanliness” and that she almost tries to outdo herself vocally. That may sound stupid. What do I mean by “cleanliness?” I like the gritty funk of Sharon Jones, the basement vibe of Breakestra/Orgone and the new Saadiq album has that Detroit circa 1961 sound. I know I can’t win em all. The stuff she does with Quantic Soul Orchestra is filthy. I’m stuck in a time machine and some types of music are meant to be raw. Also, she just sounds like she’s trying to shine a little too hard at times when subtler vocals would fit the vibe better. Not a major complaint cause she can sing WELL but as a producer I’d have told her to lay off a smidge on a few parts. I’m an ass I guess.
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Anyways, buy the album…if only for her rendition of ‘Crazy’ that shits all over Gnarls Barkley’s.
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[audio:http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/28/192067/07 Crazy.mp3]
And Now for YOUR Top Albums…
It’s high time you got to hear the albums you ranked as your top ten of the year. Beginning today at 10:00 , KEXP will be playing the top 90.3 albums of 2008 as picked by you, the listener. The DJ’s seem to be tag teaming the event so it might to be a little like a pledge drive… with all the insanity but minus the guilting. After each album’s representative single is played the online list of albums is updated. you can check it out here.
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I have a REAL good feeling that my favorite will not be at the top of the list…
My Favorite Albums of 2008 – local and otherwise
So it may seem a little last minute to unleash my favorite albums of the year, but I wanted to give the record companies every possible chance to squeeze in a last attempt and slip into my 2008 list. I mean, it’s only fair, right? Isn’t that what they strive for? I was actually very torn between this post and another listing the most overrated albums of 2008. Maybe if we’re lucky I’ll have a minute before the new year to unleash my rant. Until then, these 10 albums deserve all the praise they received and then some.
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10) The Black Angels – Directions to See a Ghost (LITA)
Torn with fury from the dark mud of an ancient jungle comes Directions to See a Ghost, the Black Angels’ sophomore follow up to the 2006 album Passover. Picture a dimly lit, smokey room of an endless warehouse. Stack the Marshall Amps up tall, wrench up the bass and you might get the same feeling that this album gives your soul. The music does not come at you, it comes through you. It lurks in your chest and attacks your ears from the inside. The only thing you can do is to pull your over-sized headphones on, kill the lights and let it run its course. Eventually the ceremony will be over and you’ll be set free to continue on your merry way, but you’ll feel primal… almost cleansed.
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9) High Decibels – High Decibels (Rolling Jack)
When people talk about fusion music, this is what they are referring to. Hip hop, rock, soul and blues blended like a really good mint julep. The one defining component of the High Decibels is the fact that the loops are not digital but come from a live guitarist laying down the blues riffs for Duke Johnson and Chief. This album is just oozing with cool head nodding tracks, peppered with highlights like That Dude which brings in a Zeppelin-like aspect and Miss Cindy which takes the slide guitar to places Howlin’ Wolf would never have imagined.
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Ting Tings – We Started Nothing (Red Ink)
The Ting Tings are yet another power duo to add to the long list of 2-person groups of recent days. All I can say about this album is that it’s terribly fun – my guilty pleasure of 2008. At first, I wasn’t turned on by the sound, but I kept hearing songs off of the album and found myself asking who the hell it was. You may have caught Shut Up and Let Me Go on the iPod commercial, or That’s Not My Name on the YouTube video for Yo Gabba Gabba (OK, I admit, I may be the only one to have seen it there, but it’s 2 great tastes that taste really good together, c’mon!) It’s a total dance party dipped in electro rock beats and chanting sing-along lyrics.
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7) Elliot Brood – Mountain Meadows (Six Shooter)
Naming an album after the site of Mormon militia massacre seems like a bold step for any band. Especially if you’ve been previously dubbed as Urban Hillbilly and Death Country. While Mountain Meadow, the sophomore effort from the Toronto trio, isn’t pushing a political message, it is chock full with emotion. The album moves from song to song incorporating banjos ukuleles and here, thick electric guitars and drums there, all while maintaining total coherence. It’s one of the few albums produced that works best as a whole even though there are several stand-out tracks. It’s not quite country, not quite folk, not quite blues and not quite rock but instead a gritty, rasping and progressive combination of each.
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6) Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It (Sony)
If you would have told me 5 years ago that one of my favorite albums today would be released by the frontman of Tony! Toni! Tone!, I would have simply laughed in your face. But here we are and The Way I See It has earned a permanent spot in my rotation. Yuk’s on me I guess. While Amy Winehouse was the first to mainstream the retro soul sound, Raphael has embodied it. This is a true tribute to Motown bridging a generation gap by including old-school and new-school guests on the album including Stevie Wonder, C.J. Hilton, Joss Stone, and even Jay-Z.
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5) Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead (Sub Pop)
Love it or hate it, this is the new sound of the Helio Sequence. Personally, I love it. After wearing the digits off of their 2004 release, Love and Distance, this long-awaited follow-up struck me as strange at first. Then, it grew on me, like a stubborn northwest moss. The most obvious difference is lead singer Brandon Summers’ astonishingly altered voice after severely damaging his vocal chords on tour. The overall sound is decidedly less poppy, instead capturing haunting melodies, especially shown in the tracks “Shed Your Love” and “You Can Count on Me.” The snappy drums, electro-pop sequencing, and grimy guitars that define Helio Sequence still appear throughout the album, though “Hallelujah” might be the beacon of light for those looking for something familiar in the duo’s sound. Kudos must also be given to Brendan and Benjamin for producing and arranging this album themselves.
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4) Black Keys – Attack and Release (Nonesuch)
Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney truly have the Midas Touch. Their most recent release, Attack and Release was initially slated to be an album written by them for the legendary Ike Turner and produced by DJ Danger Mouse. When Ike unexpectedly died, so did the project. Then, over a couple drinks, Patrick convinced Danger Mouse to pick up the reins and give the songs they had written new life as the band’s 5th album (7th if you count the Junior Kimbrough tribute and the first EP). This rebirth seemed to inspire the Akron duo to do some reinventing with their sound – incorporating organs, pianos and banjos into the arrangements. Nothing seems off limits. The result is an incredibly well constructed tribute to the ability these two possess to rock your ass off as well as the talents DJ Danger Mouse has make a gem shine bright without removing any of the dust and grime.
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3) Does it Offend You, Yeah – You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into (Almost Gold)
So are you offended by Daft Punk or Death From Above 1979? How about Arcade Fire or LCD Soundsystem? Justice? The B-52’s? What if you mashed them all up in a giant musical goulash spiced it up with a little 80’s new wave and video game sound effects. Would it offend you then? Me either. In fact I love them all with a side of toast. While DIOYY has been criticized for ripping off the sound of most of the above mentioned bands, I have found them to have incorporated the best of all of them into one glorious body-jerking mess. The tracks are filled with heavy beats, pounding bass, and overflowing with cowbell and “electro-infused Weird Science” (to quote Jules). This music is an inevitable dance party. You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into sits in my top 3 this year because it is one of the only albums that I can leave on repeat and always look forward to the next song.
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2) Foals – Antidotes (Sub Pop)
Foals are Sub Pop’s newest disco-rock child hailing from Brighton, UK and fronted by the often out-of control Yannis Philippakis and Jimmy Smith on lead and rhythm guitar. They each play in perfect high pitched discord, almost everything above the 12th fret. Their guitars chirping like electrocuted crickets cranking out methodic and mathematic rhythms. Walter Gervers takes bass playing into a jerking and convulsing realm along with the piercing leads and Jack Bevan’s drumming is precise and punctuated. But what really strikes me as the album progresses is Edwin Congreave on keyboards and synth. This is the band’s bread and butter. This echoing pulsing sound. This is the source of the hypnotism, the part that kicks you in the back of the knees over and over causing you to bob and weave. Antidotes is filled with it and I challenge you not to submit.
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1) Saturday Knights – Mingle (LITA)
This was (and shall continue to be) Seattle’s official album of summer. Now while local blogs and critics embraced Mingle, there was a hefty amount of national backlash against it calling it disjointed and immature. As many times as I have tried to sum up my feelings for the long awaited full length masterpiece from local Hip Hop heroes, Tilson and Barfly, I cannot top the words of our own DJ 100 Proof, so to wrap up my 2008 top ten, I will stand aside and let his words take over for me.
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“I can’t remember any group that incorporated so many musical styles and genres into an action-packed 40-minute album. I can’t even bring myself to classify this as a hip-hop album, which is a great thing. Off the top of my head, I can pinpoint elements of punk, greaser, surfer, and classic rock, heavy metal, blues, Euro-pop, reggae, rockabilly, electronic, and of course hip hop. To blend all those different sounds (and more cowbell!) into one album and pull it off so seamlessly is effing impressive. Not to mention that they bring an arsenal of quotable verses, rewind-worthy one-liners, and all around great lyricism to the tracks. A lot of the lines are subtle, but after a few listens you can’t help but flash the “O face.” Barfly calmly drops gems on “45″ (”Can’t hang homeboy? I’m fuckin drapery”) and “Dog Park” (”She party like a rock star, so delirious/ I party like a Dog Star, so Sirius.”)
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All the songs are great in their own way, but of course I have a few favorites. “Ass Kicker’s Haircut” sounds like the beat was made for the Heavy Metal soundtrack. “Dog Park” is as close to pop they get. It’s damn catchy and has a sing-songy chorus with endless, classic dog references. “So off the chain” indeed—Motorin’ makes you wish you were racing Greased Lightning with the radio on blast. It has the best beat on the album and Tilson’s tongue-twisting verse is truly something to behold. “I Go” is the shortest song on the album but packs the most punch (more cowbell!) and begs to be rewound the first few times you hear it.” — DJ100Proof
Intelligence, Coconut Coolouts @ the Sunset
Simply put, Intelligence is one of the best bands in Seattle. Check ‘em out. The Coolouts are a pizza-crazed, party-fun-time garage band that gets it done. Late 10 pm start time.
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w/ Idle Times
$8 / 21+
LB's Top NW Albums of 2008
Happy Winter Solstice, everyone. Here are my favorite local albums from 2008 (with summaries! and Honorable Mentions!) for you to peruse and/or scoff at. ‘Twas a banner year, IMHO, for the town’s best record label, Sub Pop, from Fleet Foxes, Sera Cahoone, the Helio Sequence, and Grand Archives to Wolf Parade, No Age, and Foals. Not surprisingly, a number of Portland bands also caught my ear this year—three in my top 5! Without further ado.
10. A Killer of Snakes - The Heavy Hearts (Selector Sound)
The members of the Heavy Hearts have paid their dues, playing in local hard-rock outfits for almost a decade and a half, yet the grunge-punk band with two bassists and a bombshell sound still manages to live below the proverbial radar. A Killer of Snakes is a distinctive, snotty, chugging, blistering, and defiant work of punk that never quite stops its bludgeoning tempo. “Attrition” is a fine example of their vicious dual attack and Brian Burnside’s almost-jangly guitar drives the melody while his wife and cohort, Denise Maupin, bridges the song with an exemplary solo. The militant, deftly scaled “Revolution” is an instance where Burnside’s inspiration from guitar heroes like Thurston Moore and J. Mascis are proudly put on display while the chorus echoes, “I know you know I know you want it!” If there’s one thing this band has gotten down pat, it’s the bratty, insistent vocal repetitions presented in most every song. Who can’t get behind that? [Full Album Review]
9. Mono in VCF - Mono in VCF (Stylomusic)
It’s difficult not to first notice vocalist Kim Miller when listening to Mono in VCF. She plays the stoic songbird passionately layering the jazz-inspired trip-hop emanating through her bandmates. But dig a little deeper and the low-velocity catalogue of loungy, psychedelic soul rock becomes just as clear to the listener as it does hazy. The newish Tacoma band has somehow managed to concoct an intimately grandiose sound, as evidenced by the Kinks-inspired pyschological urban escapade “Escape City Scrapers” or the dramatic musings of “Cinch Ring”. Led by guitarist/keyboardist Hunter Lea, the drums are jazzy and unobtrusive, the bass steady and chilling, and the keyboards emanating with a little drug-induced piano dust. [Live Show Review]
8. She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke – the Dutchess & the Duke (Hardly Art)
The Dutchess and the Duke seemed to wander in on the back end of Seattle’s bearded folk revival scene. But instead of the poppier alt-country tendencies of outfits like Band of Horses, Grand Archives, and Fleet Foxes, the D&D instead focused on true ramshackle folk-rock songs about supersonic jet planes, fuckin’ in the phone booth, carefree Armageddon love, and ships made of stone. The chemistry between Kim Morisson and Jesse Lortz is both amazing to listen to and fun to watch, and their off-kilter lovelorn harmonies and endearingly simplistic tunes set themselves apart with nimble guitar pickin’, sassy maraca shakin’, constant tambourine playin’, flighty flutes, and sparse drumming. You might as easily have your heart strings frighteningly tugged as be caught dancing barefooted in your kitchen. These are songs for both sunny days and troubled times, and most definitely anyone who cares to listen.
7. Only As The Day Is Long - Sera Cahoone (Sub Pop)
Simply put, listening to Sera Cahoone just makes me feel good. Her sultry, plainspoken voice, her lo-fi, homespun guitar, and her honest, humble attitude all worked together in creating one of the more touching and beautiful records to come out this year. And despite the feel-good aspect of her music, the tone and subjects of Only As The Day Is Long tend to the somber and lovelorn, much like the Nashville stars of yore. “Baker Lake”, a love song with foreboding overtones, “Shitty Hotel”, a steel-pedal driven heartfelt plea, and “The Colder the Air”, a grand tune with a steady Americana tempo, are my favorites. And while her friends do quite well in making her visions come true—in particular plucker Jeff Fielder and steel pedaler Jason Kardong—it’s Cahoone’s voice and relaxed persona that draws me in.
6. Strange Symmetry EP - Past Lives (Suicide Squeeze)
The band’s name, they have said, is about friends reincarnate, past experiences dovetailing into something unique and contemporary. As such, you will most likely be reminded of the now-defunct Blood Brothers, the band from which members now make up three quarters of this one. But the addition of guitarist Devin Welch (one of the more intriguing players in Seattle) created an entirely alternate mood that both contained and matured their previous sound. Dark, choppy, and fluid—like an angry sea (or any number of early 80s British bands)—is how Strange Symmetry flaunts itself. “Beyond Gone”, with its chilling guitar and synthetic steel drum backbone, introduces Jordan Blilie’s handsome croon and Mark Gajadhar’s clickity-clack drumbeat. Its sinister tone is quickly blasted away by the 5-song EP’s title track, detonated by a dual guitar chug and Blilie’s familiar urgent yelp. The final track, “Chrome Life” begins with a wonderfully cacophonous guitar squeal behind a wide snare beat. Henderson swells the song with a baritone guitar reminiscent of “Knight Rider” and it quickly escalates to something mysterious and volatile. Here’s to the future of Past Lives. [Full Album Review] [Live Show Review]
Top 5 after the jump.
Blue Scholars – Common Market Shows Rescheduled
Well, the snow/ice/sliding around looks like it’s here to stay, and the folks at Neumos have decided to cancel tonight and tomorrow night’s Blue Scholars/Common Market shows. Actually, that’s a lie, they’re not canceled, they’ve been rescheduled for March 14th-16th.
Song of the Day
Sloan’s “Snowsuit Sound”. Check it, snowbound people.
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John Spalding Benefit @ the Sunset Tavern
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The Sunset Tavern Presents
John Spalding Memorial Benefit
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Helms Alee
Born Anchors
Patrol
& guests
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9pm / 21over
$8
John Spalding Benefit @ El Corazon
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El Corazon
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MXPX
Amber Pacific
Nazca Lines
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doors at 7pm Show at 7:30
$10 advance
$12 Day of show
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All Ages
Bar With ID
