Vikings & Beekeepers

In 1979, New Jersey-bred sisters Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche released their first album as a trio. The album, simply titled The Roches, was a sparse collection of quirky New York bohemian folk tracks buoyed by the sisters’ amazingly nimble and alternating sweet and dissonant harmonies (Terre on top, Suzzy in the middle, Maggie on the bottom) and high school drama girl charm (kind of cute, but not quite; kind of hip, but not quite; kind of annoying; but not totally). Of course, it had been roughly a decade leading up to this terrific album. The elder sisters, Maggie and Terre, had actually been performing together since the late 60s, busking throughout New Jersey and New York. The duo were eventually befriended by Paul Simon who recruited the pair to perform backup vocal duties on his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. Simon then went on to produce the pair on their 1975 debut, Seductive Reasoning.

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“Advice To The Graduate” by Silver Jews (from Starlite Walker)

There’s something not quite right about Starlite Walker, Silver Jews’ first full length, when compared to later Silver Jews albums. Part of it is because it sounds exactly like I imagined the Silver Jews to sound when I first caught wind of their existence about five years ago. In short, it sounds like Crooked Rain era Pavement with a different singer (Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich provide the bulk of Starlite Walker’s  musical expertise). Singer David Berman’s porch side musings are mostly there, but the songs, for the most part, are too shambolic and tossed off – frivolous even. Berman is a killer poet (barring “Living Waters’” shitty chorus), but he is a considerably limited vocalist (the bum notes on “Rebel Jew” are cringe worthy), so he tends to need a strong cohesive song in order to lay a foundation for his prose. Unfortunately, early Pavement, as much as I love them, is not the kind of structure that one needs and a great deal of the songs on Starlite Walker indicate that. Not so, however, for “Advice To The Graduate,” Starlite’s leading track. If nothing else, Silver Jews are good at putting their best foot forward (with the exception Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea) and “Advice To The Graduate” stands out despite the fact that it sounds a lot like Pavement. Berman shows some of his potential for wry lyricism (“On the last day of your life / don’t forget to die”) while Malkmus takes the mic on the lovely, touching chorus. Starlite Walker, improves during its second half, but “Advice To The Graduate” is nearly enough to buoy the sloppy, uncertain first steps of the album’s front half.

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What I love the most about doing these quarterly reviews is that they’re as far from definitive as you can possibly get. I think back to my first quarterly review and there are albums that are on my 6 to 10 list (or not even on the list at all) that are now more preferred than my top five. These things are very “of the moment.” It’s a living, breathing organism, music. What tickles us one day turns around to bite us on another day. More commonly, what confounds and disappoints on our first listen, may very well morph into something rewarding and worth of re-visitation.

These are the recently released albums that I’ve been enjoying lately. You’ll notice that many of them are fairly popular albums. Perhaps in a few months time I’ll discover a little self-released album brimming with glorious moments. Or maybe I wrote another album off too early. Either way, these are the precious few that spoke to me with immediacy and at least hinted at the promise to stick around for the long-haul.

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“What’s your guilty pleasure?”

There are two different answers that aggravate me when someone asks this fateful question. The first, and the less annoying of the two, is when someone says something that doesn’t make them that guilty: “Oh, I like some rap,” one’ll say. “I hate to admit it, but I like the Strokes,” says the holier than thou art school kid. “I like (insert random older pop act that has been heralded by retroactive critics for years – you know, like ABBA or Michael Jackson or the Beach Boys),” says another. It’s a bullshit copout, but it’s also 100% understandable. If we pick something safe or vague, then we give off the appearance that we are above something that others of a similar ilk consider valuable. It’s a savvy bit of social jockeying for position.

The other more common, and more aggravating, answer is some variation of the phrase, “I don’t believe in ‘guilty pleasures.’ I like what I like and I don’t feel guilty about it.” Ugh.

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“Adore” by Prince (from Sign O’ The Times)

This is just classic slow jam Prince. When different artists decide to do a song that sounds like Prince (Beck’s “Debra,” Ween’s “Freedom Of ’76.” My Morning Jacket’s “Evil Urges”), this is always the track that is most easily aped. My guess for why they do these kinds of tracks is that they can be so totally ridiculous, but totally awesome at the same time. Even on this track, listen to Prince take this Marvin Gaye style groove and start squealing all over it. It’s totally hilarious, but like most things Prince did on Sign O’ The Times, it’s holds up in spite of itself.

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I was away, so I’m a little late with this, but better late than never.

Those late spring/early summer months are probably my favorite music listening times, where I just find myself devouring music at a rapid pace and discovering new classic albums in the process. These last three months were no exception. In just a short time frame, I was discovering albums that feel like they will last forever as all time favorites. In recent years, I’ve occasionally felt like I was liking a lot of new music less, but these last few months have proven that I’m not losing my mojo at all. There are still some dynamite sounds being produced.

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I wasn’t going to write on this. Or at least I didn’t think I was, but Tyson’s comment on my post on the Band (way to stay on topic, Tyson!) made me kind sit up and think ‘Hey, if this stupid band was so supposedly important to me, why wouldn’t I write something?’

So yes, the new Weezer album is out on Tuesday. It’s self-titled and will henceforth be referred to as, sigh, The Red Album. I’ve heard the whole thing and it’s…it’s…well, let’s talk about that.

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There’s a reason why I keep writing about the Band. Once discovering them, once delving, say, three songs deep into their catalogue, The Band simply stays with you. Their body of work is stunning and far out-reaches the confines of a Greatest Hits album (although newbies should, by all means, pick up a Greatest Hits as a primer). What’s especially impressive is that as vast as their music seems to be, the Band was only good for five proper albums of new material (I exclude their 1977 odds and sods label requirement, Islands, and subsequent reunion albums, although they are worthy of pursuing). From their breakthrough, 1968’s Music From Big Pink, to 1971’s oft-maligned, but deserving of no less praise, Cahoots, the Band released four unique and excellent albums.

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Since starting My Alphabetical iPod Diary, I’ve had one thought consistently run through my head – “Shit, Carson, if you keep going at this pace you’re going to die before you get to the “Ps.” That’s why I have decided to, only occasionally, go for a quantity over quality approach. This is the “I’m in over my high-concept concocting head” version of the diary. It’s almost like when Sufjan Stevens inevitably craps several marginal Delaware and North Dakota EPs. Enjoy the brevity.

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I did a little experiment this year. Instead of dishing out a padded, half-informed year end list, I would sit on it, let that baby incubate, and crack several months later fully thought out and ready to fly. I don’t get too many free albums sent my way, so I have to do a late December mad scramble for new albums like the rest of the world (downloads and torrents are only intermittently available to me).

I wish I had done this for 2006. Instead of including great-for-a-month-only albums like I’m From Barcelona’s Let Me Introduce You To My Friends or Earl Greyhound’s Soft Targets on my list, I could have included amazing albums by the likes of Oxford Collapse, Sonic Youth, Brightblack Morning Light, Fujiya & Miyagi or Man Man (among others) – all albums I finally got around to hearing months after I rushed out my list.

So I’m finally unleashing the list now, but I still feel like it’s only half-cocked. While I stand by my selections, I would be remised if I didn’t at least mention bands who put out great albums this year that a) weren’t quite as good or b) I haven’t absorbed nearly enough. So hear goes: Radiohead, Kevin Drew, No Age, Black Lips, Freeway, Caribou, Devendra Banhart, Travis Morrison, Enon, Menomena, Levon Helm, The Tough Alliance, Grizzly Bear, Health, Joel Plaskett, Liars, Justice, John Vanderslice, Okkervil River, Pig Destroyer, UGK and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

Whew, now that that’s done, here are my top 25 (okay, 32) albums of 2007.

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