It's amazing that I had time to put this thing together while on my 10,000 calorie/day holiday diet. Enjoy it, because I might explode before making the next one.
This is the first track on the new Shins album, "Wincing the Night Away", which comes out on January 23rd, 2007? What - am I a Sub Pop publicist now? Nope. I'm just a guy that's excited for such a good record to come out on his 29th birthday. Really appreciate James Mercer and Co. timing their album release around such a big event. Swell chaps, those Shins. Good kids. Can take 'em home to mom and everything.
"Trouble" - Voxtrot
"I never would've slashed my parent's trust." Seeing those seven words on the page with no musical context, would you guess they were a fist-pumping refrain to a rock song? Yeah, me neither. Such is the greatness of Voxtrot - they take literate and obtuse of lyrics and fashion them into the great, lost Smiths singles.
"Live Forever" - Oasis
"Futtin' Oasis!" If I only had a dollar for every time Fast Ed, Big Mike and/or I had uttered those two words. Or for when we'd slipped into character as Niles, the third (and long forgotten) Oasis brother. I had my 10-year high school reunion this past month, so I may be waxing a bit nostalgic here (not really a first for me, I'll admit), but I can remember riding around West Houston as a kid with this song pouring out the windows of a red Ford Probe at an ear-crushing volume. Those first six drum tom hits - they still rope me in every single time. This is one of the great singles of the 1990s - I will not argue about this. It may also be one of the last great guitar solos in a pop song - at least that I can recall without doing any research. If you don't play air guitar at the 1:42 mark - at least in your mind - then you suck. We will not be friends.
"To Go Home" - M. Ward
The first six tracks on "Post War" are as good as you're gonna get on any album released this year. A couple of songs in the middle of the album are, at worst, "average" - but through and through, this is probably the album that I've listened to the most this year. If I had to make a Top 10 list of Albums Most Listened To in 2006, all four of his records would make the cut. And yes, that's Jenny Lewis you hear singing harmonies on this song, she of the Rilo Kiley, Postal Service, and solo career fame.
"Sleep Tonight" - Stars
The last time I drove home from Houston, I decided to put my iPod on shuffle. This is noteworthy only because I never use shuffle. Ever. I've become such an album guy over the past few years that nowadays I only really get into records that I can listen to the whole way through. And, of course, the occasional mix CD. But I've never been too friendly with shuffle feature – until this past Thanksgiving weekend. Somewhere in the wasteland of I-45 between Houston to Dallas, as I was experimentally shuffling through my iPod, "Sleep Tonight" came on. It was a pitch black night, freezing cold outside, and I was riding alone. Maybe it was the sleigh bells – which I'm an unabashed sucker for – or the context of the evening, but whatever it was, at that moment it was the perfect winter song. Like a poppier My Bloody Valentine. Which, of course, may be one in the same.
"A.P.B" - Grant Lee Buffalo
Somehow I missed out on Grant Lee Buffalo when it came out in 1998. I wonder how? Oh yeah – I was at Texas A&M in the pre/nascent Internet days. No good college radio, no easy way to find out about music that wasn't in Rolling Stone or Spin. Kids these days with their iTunes and MySpace and whatnot. They don't know how hard we had it - clinging to mixtapes so we could remember the name of some random band we'd never heard of, hoping someone's cool older brother would come home for the holidays with something new in the stereo. Plus we had to walk uphill both ways to concerts. In the snow. Barefoot. In Texas. Really. I'm serious. (I am the walrus).
"The New Science" - Ola Podrida
Not sure exactly when this is going to come out, but if a half-decent publicist can get this into the hands of people that like Iron & Wine, then this is going to be big. The album (which I believe is still untitled) is by David Wingo, who you may (or may not) know as the guy that's scored all the David Gordon Green movies - movies like "All the Real Girls" and "George Washington". Good stuff - and the rest of the album is just as good.
"So Here We Are" - Bloc Party
This song is allegedly meant to simulate/recreate an ecstasy trip. If that's true, then it's a pretty convincing argument to do drugs. I love how the rhythm section builds the tension throughout the second half of the song, the guitars and bass locked in as they toggle back and forth between two notes, ramping up, climbing - and then at the 3:24 mark, they change the second note from a major to minor key. It just soars from there on out.
"Hot Soft Light" - The Hold Steady
I haven't made my Top 10 Albums of 2006 list yet, but I'd be surprised if anything knocks this album out of the #1 slot. To use a well-worn cliche, this is exactly the kind of album that they don't make anymore. The Hold Steady and Marah are the only two bands I know of that mine this territory as well as this. "Boys & Girls in America", front to back, is a f-ing classic. Finding a song for this months mix was just a matter of picking a song that worked well with the others. Ok, and the guitars kinda seriously kick ass in this song. That helped too.
"Hello Jenn, I'm A Mess" - Evangelicals
Another whimsical pop song from one of my favorite new bands of the year with ridiculous overdubs, top-shelf mixing, and some falsetto that gives Jim James a run for his money. BONUS - Best. Handclaps. Ever. Pay attention starting at the 1:40 mark.
"Nightingales" - Sondre Lerche
After letting Sondre Lerche score a recent Sunday evening assembling IKEA furniture, he's been in high rotation for my post 10pm listening needs. I'm so punk rock.
"Islands" - Cat Power
Ah, Cat Power. We finally got to know each other on that cold and overcast Saturday morning we spent in bed a few months ago. I don't think I'll ever forget it. What? Um, you know, the day that I finally listened to your music for the first time and fell in love with it? I feel like we had a moment. We did have a moment, didn't we? Hello? Chan? Yeah, ok...I'll just be right here.
"Everybody Always Leaves" - Matthew Ryan
Does anyone make music that rides the line between beautiful melancholy and crushing depression better than Matthew Ryan? Even Ryan Adams doesn't get this sad - and that's saying something. While the song title alone is the perfect representation of his muse, it's the refrain beginning at the 2:18 mark that really lays everything to waste. Dear Lord. How do you respond to that? This may very well be the saddest song of all time.
"Lit Up" - The National
Try listening to this song and not singing the chorus for the rest of the afternoon. Go ahead - I dare you. Double dog (if ya nasty).
"Ohio" - [D.A.R.Y.L.]
Why this album didn't put [D.A.R.Y.L.] on the national map, I'll never know. This is front-to-back one of the best records from a Dallas band released this decade. There's a genuine, young Springsteen romanticism to Dylan Silvers writing and arrangements that capture the spirit of "Born to Run"-era Bruce without outright aping him, which is damn near impossible to do. Trust me - I've tried for years with absolutely no success. Extra kudos to Stuart Sikes for the great recording.
Copyright 2005, Travis Hopper. All rights reserved.
