The way it sounds to me: Indie files

Musical categorization is a tricky thing. Talking about music, in general, is regarded as being a useless pursuit on par with discussion of religion in an online forum. Since I don’t let that stop me from doing one, why should it stop me from doing the other? So, here we go. I’ll do my best to get the categories right, even when they don’t make sense to me (For example, I think emo fits much better with much of the goth stuff than with, say, Fugazi, which I would call post-punk, purely based on the overall impression that I get from the sound.). So without further ado, here is the rest of the Indie rock that I picked up from Karl and Jim early in my de-ruttification. There will be a couple more installments of just Indie in the future to cover the stuff that I’ve picked up since then, but I’ll break it up with electronica, folk, singer-songwriter, harder stuff, and older stuff.

Badly Drawn Boy The Hour of the Bewilderbeest
This is a weird one for me, because I hate the whole BDB persona/gimmick somehow, but I think that he’s really talented. The songs are composed largely of very familiar- sounding acoustic rock hooks and melodies, with an occasional dip into the more danceable (“Disillusion”) or psychedelic (“Start a Rockslide”, “Body Rap”). There’s a unifying element of self-discovery throughout the tracks, and a few songs are patched together in the fade-outs to further the sense of an integrated project, but I don’t see this as a concept album. It’s a nice collection of nice songs that, while not breaking down walls creatively, gets a lot right, and reveals a decent talent for song craft. Sorry in advance for that link. His videos are universally and embarassingly bad. Watch it alone.

Band of Horses Everything All the Time
This is a prime example of a band that is defined by the unique voice and delivery of the lead singer. The songs are hit and miss, with some real winners like “I Go To the Barn Because I Like the”, “Part One”, and “The Funeral”. Others, like “The Great Salt Lake” drag a bit and have a plodding energy that clashes with the overall sound in an unpleasant way. Generally, though, Band of Horses employ good instincts, and I enjoy this album. Overall, the sound reminds me of a few mid-late 90s bands that were getting a lot of airplay like Everclear.

Belle and Sebastian The Boy with the Arab Strap
Jim hooked me up with this work of his fellow Scots. These are great songs, most of which have you feeling like you’re wearing a corduroy jacket and jeans, slumming around England in autumn 1970. They’ve nailed this mood pitch perfect, with lyrics disaffected and cynical enough to be dialogue from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”. The only weak spots in the album come when frontman Stuart Murdoch turns over the vocals to a female lead, and in the boring, irredeemable “Seymour Stein”. Otherwise, a perfect album. Check out "Dirty Dream Number Two".


Dirty on Purpose Hallelujah Sirens
This is still kind of new to me, but it’s a very likeable collection of tunes. The comparison that I keep coming back to is Yo La Tengo-lite. This probably isn’t fair, but I need to hear a bit more. The only knock that I have is that many of the songs are one or two choruses too long. With dance music, I can see saying "One more time!", but with guitar-based fuzz rock, you have to come up with a reason to keep going. Like YLT, they manage to subsume a lot of styles within their own sound. Generally, though, it’s moody rock with an affected garage band sensibility, and some interesting ideas, songwise. Here's one of the more frenetic ones, "Car No Driver".

Figurines Skeleton
These guys sound like they’re always on the verge of turning into Blind Melon. Certainly, the lead vocalist’s warbling-yet-strong tenor delivery gives promise to that notion, but the bands tendency to pull punches and drag songs out too long, and their lack of true melodic creativity assures that it will never happen. Oh, well. There are some really good, catchy songs on this CD, but there’s also a lot of samey-ness, which will keep me from digging deeper into their catalog. I’d be curious to see how they come across live. Here's a pretty one, "Back in the Day".

Japancakes Waking Hours
Mannnnn, this is mellloooowwww. Like steel guitar? Like beautiful melodies? Hate singing? Well, this is for you. I really dig this album. The songs are 5-7 minute tracks of interlude music featuring drums, bass, guitar, and steel guitar. Great background music, thinking music, and, especially, sleepytime music.

The Kingsbury Manx
Mellow stuff from a Chapel Hill based group. It's a mostly likeable mix of Beatles/Kinksesque acoustic tracks with some organ and a healthy dose of post-production magic. It’s perfectly nice and meticulously crafted. Good tracks include “Hawaii in Ten Seconds”, “Fields”, “Whether or Not It Matters”. Dull tracks include “Regular Hands” and “Silver Trees”. I despise “New Old Friend Blues”, which taints the whole album for me. I'd like to check out their more recent stuff.

Modest Mouse This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About
Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
I haven’t listened very closely to either of these, I just had them on while I was working on something. First impressions are thus: very few songs pulled my attention from what I had been working on, which shouldn’t have been very hard to do. Also, there was a lot of yelling. I have Tom Waits for yelling. I don’t need Isaac Brock, too. The one consistent thing is interesting melodies and arrangements, but there's a certain claustrophobic quality to much of it that doesn't appeal to me. I will listen again and reassess, but I doubt Modest Mouse will ever become a favorite with me. Here's their earliest single, "Dramamine".

My Morning Jacket Z
MMJ have mastered the late ‘70s album rock sound a la Genesis, Elton John, and The Who. Z has some great tracks like “Lay Low”, “Gideon”, “Anytime”, and “Wordless Chorus”. They also venture into the realm of the offbeat with “What a Wonderful Man”, and the corny and irreverent “Into the Woods”. While many of the tracks have a dark, subdued feel, musically, the lyrics are generally upbeat and interesting. The album closer, “Dondante”, has an epic Zeppelin feel to it, but it also drags on in repeated listens. Still, that’s about the worst that I can say about any of the tracks. It’s a good, solid album. I hear they’re great live, as well. Here's a tune that would've hit the Top 40 back in '79, "Off the Record".

The Sea and Cake The Fawn
Honestly, I hated this album for a long time. Then I took it off my iPod autofill list. I knew that there was something good there, but I was put off. After a year, I went back and listened again. Now, I kind of like it. I think that it was mindset, in that I previously saw this as a very serious attempt at some rock/jazz fusion with the intention of challenging the audience to find the beauty therein. On my second attempt, I heard it as light, summery music that incorporates elements of jazz and rock, fronted by a singer who makes…interesting decisions sometimes. There’s a hypnotic groove underlying much of the album that holds a state of tension in the midst of the pretty, easygoing melodies. It’s very nice, but I doubt that I’ll seek out any more The Sea and Cake. (I couldn't find anything off of this album, but this track should give you the flavor.)

Spoon Gimme Fiction
Spoon is big right now, having just released their much anticipated follow-up to Gimme Fiction, entitled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. The tracks on Gimme Fiction are relatively straightforward rock songs with a touch of post-production glibbertyflibber. The style is constantly referred to as “experimental” in indie press for some reason, perhaps because they don’t sound quite finished. There’s often not much buildup or letdown in these tunes, and two tracks end with a bit of instrumental section going on for awhile. One of these tracks, “Was it You?” is probably my favorite. Their sound is characterized by sharply strummed chords on the guitars, and an overall emphasis on rhythm. A lot of their "experimental" sound seems borrowed from The Cars. They have a great lead singer in Brit Daniel, who has a distinct delivery and produces literate, understated lyrics. The songs range from the disco of “I Turn My Camera On” to the ‘70s concept music of “The Beast and Dragon, Adored”, and “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine”. This is another good album, but after listening to samples of their new album, I get the sense that this one pretty much sums up the limits of Spoon.

TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain
Another one that I probably haven’t given much of a chance. Simply put, I don’t like the lead singer’s voice. These guys are from NYC, but he sounds like Foghorn Leghorn. The songs themselves are really interesting and fresh. The drums are a big part of what they do, and tracks like “Wolf Like Me” have desperately thundering rhythms that give the impression that the song will fly apart like a broken centrifuge, but they use an ingenius keyboard drone to hold everything together through the madness. There’s lots to like here, and I haven’t even listened that closely to the whole album. It’s very dense and not quickly digestible, like Modest Mouse, but I think that I’ll end up really liking this. Try this tasty video of "Province".

Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One
This was the first record that Karl loaned me that made me go, “Wow.” YLT have an understated, classic Indie rock sound with lots of acoustic guitar-based tracks, warbly singing (from both male and female leads), and off-kilter guitar work. They take on nearly every subclass of rock from the ‘80s and ‘90s (short of metal), but all of the songs end up sounding like a YLT song. Lots of great songs on this one, so I’ll do the whole thing, word-association style!

“Return to Hot Chicken” Easygoing intro
“Moby Octopad” creeping and menacing
“Sugarcube” Pop music is on fire
“Damage” David Lynch is in your closet
“Deeper into Movies” Whirling dervish
“Shadows” Patsy Cline’s corpse is in your closet
“Stockholm Syndrome” Indie Rock, exhibit A-- the prosecution rests
“Autumn Sweater” Yawn, at least the drums are cool.
“Little Honda” OK, I actually hate this song
“Green Arrow” Driving at night
“One PM again” Alt-country, but pretty
“The Lie and How We Told It” I don’t remember this one
“Center of Gravity” is fun! BOPnBOP-BAAA ba ba bum BOPnBOP-BAAA ba ba bum….
“Spec Bebop” 8 minute groovy space jam with drone. Awesome! Five stars!
“We’re an American Band” Shoegazer and slacker gold.
“My Little Corner of the World” Lullabye and goodnight.