SXSW 2012 - A Gathering of Vibes

To sum up the SXSW experience – we saw 50 performances over 4 days and that wasn’t nearly enough. By breaking the SXSW cardinal rule, we still (if only slightly) fretted because we still didn’t get to see another 50 – those we missed included Alejandro Escovedo, Amanda Shires, American Aquarium, Archie Powell & The Exports, Beaver Nelson,  Billy Joe Shaver,  Brendan Benson, Buxton, Cloud Nothings,  Cuff the Duke, David Mayfield Parade, Delta Spirit, Dum Dum Girls, Ed Sheeran, Erik & The Happy Thoughts,  Frank Turner, Free Energy, fun.,  Girls, Horse Feathers,  Imagine Dragons, Jack White, James McMurtry, Jimmy Cliff, Joe “King” Carrasco, John Doe,  Kelly Willis, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Lissy Trullie, Luluc, Mumford & Sons, Nada Surf, Nick Waterhouse,  Nikki Lane, Of Monsters and Men,  Ruthie Foster, Sleigh Bells,  Strange Boys, The Bellefuries,  The Gourds,  The Honeydogs,  The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Kopecky Family Band, The Lumineers,  The Staves, The War on Drugs, The Weeks, Todd Snider, Tristen and Two Gallants.

The best thing about SXSW – music is everywhere - just like Elvis. And I mean everywhere  - in pizza joints, in parking lots, on patios, in hotel lobbies, in upscale bars, in crappy dives, in houses turned venues, in an old Spaghetti Warehouse, on the street and even on top of bus cruising downtown Austin – any possible space you can cram a band, they cram a band. For you Philly folks, imagine sealing off South St and 2^nd St in Old City and jamming a band into every nook and cranny available. Plus add in all the venues in Fishtown and University City, simmer with some Greek Week and Spring Break hoopla, and you start to get a feel of SXSW mania. Couple that with warm weather and a beer in your hand for 12 hours a day and you reach a state of suspended fanimation – the only buzzkill was that we had to stop to sleep and eat.  Not to mention the March Madness bonus – which featured a brutally quick exit for Michael’s Missouri Tigers but a wonderful 48 hours for the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.

As I stated earlier, a SXSW cardinal rule is don’t worry about what you are not seeing. But it’s almost impossible as it seeps out of every crevice, with every 10 steps bringing a new, fleeting sound.  Two years ago, my SXSW traveling bud (let’s call him V as he either craves anonymity or is ashamed to be associated with me… probably the former) were strolling home from an afternoon party when we passed a tiny, darkened bar on San Jacinto and heard someone banging away on electric guitar that sounded a lot like Billy Bragg. And with good reason – it was Billy Bragg himself playing an industry invite-only shindig to a barely interested room of journalists and scenesters. Nothing quite that serendipitous this year, but we definitely stumbled onto a few nice surprises.  Here are some highlights and lowlights from the week:

Wednesday

Highlights – Even though we missed them for the Consequence of Sound day party, Brooklyn’s noise punk ravers The Men pulverized the crowd with a breathless aural assault of a thousand jackhammers. Unfortunately the vocals were a cacophonic, ear bleeding din, but the guitar blitzkrieg was blinding and exhilarating. England’s Dry the River stately, grandiose “big” music sounded like what Radiohead might sound like if they were still a rock band instead of an art project and then mated with Fleet Foxes.  Ben Kweller’s Texas pop was an afternoon delight and we ended the night with the mighty Titus Andronicus, who tore up Bar 96, validating their current King of Rock standing and nodding to their classic rock roots with an amped up cover of Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town”. Bonus points to Bar 96 for being a block from our crash pad.

Lowlights – the generic, anthemic rock of The Apache Relay provided swells but no swell songs and Phosphorescent’s main man Matthew Houck seemed unprepared and unironically prophetic when he began his solo set by saying he “wasn’t exactly going to get this party started”. Also, after 5 minutes of whistling and fiddling about, we decided to fly the coop for (from?) Andrew Bird.

Moments to savor – Ben Kweller’s sublime “Penny on the Train Track” and Titus Andronicus’s majestic “A More Perfect Union”, still the leader in the clubhouse for song of the decade.

Also Got to See - the charming indie girl pop of Tennis, the angular Britpop of New Cassettes and the alt country lilt of husband and wife led The Mastersons.

Titus Andronicus - "A More Perfect Union" (from The Monitor)
The Men - "Candy" (from Open Your Heart)
Ben Kweller - "Penny on The Train Track" (from Ben Kweller)

Up Next... Day Two.

#10 (MA) Adele - 21

I love a consensus.

# 11 (TM) - The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing

After an avalanche of hype and well-deserved love showered on Hometowns, their minor masterpiece of a debut, The Rural Alberta Advantage returned in 2011 with a barely noticed follow-up, the even better Departing.

Finding a soft spot between the mopey bleat of Conor Oberst and the boozy, urban strum of Deer Tick, the RAA are warm and inviting like a best friend's patience, but they hold you at arm's length while they luxuriate in winter's icy loneliness. And they seem to like it. Singer Nils Edenloff's nasal stabs at breakups and breakdowns are somehow comforting, because who doesn't want the last word in a split? Especially when it's "Good Night", a woozy, elegiac album closer that leaves everything behind except the possibility of love.

The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Good Night" (from Departing)

The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Eye of The Tiger" (Survivor cover)

#11 (MA) Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo

Listening to this album is like enjoying a nice Scotch. The amber glow, the slow burn, the smoke, the hazy, stray notes that reveal themselves over time. Smoke Ring for My Halo is a gentle record that implies violence, riding the line between Neil Young and Lou Reed. It's a dark record that casts off light. It's a nighttime record that can carry you to morning. In short, a gem.

# 12 (TM) - The Head and The Heart - The Head and The Heart

The Head and The Heart are a loose-limbed collective of indie folkies whose "Sounds Like Hallelujah" sounds like Rufus Wainwright leading a midnight reverie with Mumford and Sons. The Seattle group join a growing list of young bands (Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Avett Brothers, Felice Brothers) who sound like old souls blending acoustic roots music and heavenly harmonies to create nu-folk sounds that can reach across generations. Lovely.

For all you haters and Pitchfork nerds, keep pretending  tUnE-yArDs is listenable.

The Head and The Heart - "Sounds Like Hallelujah" (from The Head and The Heart)
The Head and The Heart - "Rivers and Roads" (from Fuel/Friends Chapel Sessions - 3/12/11)

Davy Jones, 1945-2012

#12 (MA) Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines

Whereas Army Navy (Trip's number 13) hail from power pop's retro jangle division, Telekinesis approach the form from the overdriven post-punk point of view of Redd Kross and the Cure, complete with stomping beats and jagged, sludgy guitars. This is cotton candy with a kick, part shiny sun, part ominous moon, all songs that buzz around your skull without asking permission or forgiveness.

# 13 (TM) - Army Navy - The Last Place

Power pop lives on in the skinny jeaned, parallel striped shirt world of Army Navy. Lead singer Justin Kennedy writes about affairs of the heart and sings with the airy, well-scrubbed breeziness of Glenn Tillbrook. Their sophomore release, The Last Place, finds our hero at Relationship's End (what a perfect band name) with someone who might be a celebrity and might be married. Every sad-sack song is crafted for maximum sing-along-ability, blurring the acidic effects of heartbreak like greasy burgers ease hangovers.

If you like Squeeze, Teenage Fanclub, early REM and the dB's (especially the dB's on "I Think It's Gonna Happen"). you will love this record. If you don't like these bands, maybe it's time you started seeing other blogs.

.

Army Navy - "Ode to Janice Melt" (from The Last Place)

Army Navy - "I Think It's Gonna Happen" (from The Last Place)

Ladies and Gentlemen... Bon Joviver

This is the best music video of 2011... maybe of all time.

Bon Joviver mp3

#13 (MA) Destroyer - Kaputt

Here's the album that answers the burning question "what would have happened if Al Stewart had fronted Roxy Music?" Before Kaputt, I thought of Dan Bejar as the other songwriter in The New Pornographers, the one who crafted the inscrutable tunes with the off-kilter rhythms and made confounding records on his own. A few years back, when Destroyer's Rubies was released to critical huzzahs, I went in search of its magic but came away frustrated by the labyrinthine songs. Kaputt solves my Destroyer problem by coating the harsh medicine in the sugar of early 80s romantic pop, and the result is strangely and completely satisfying, an album that stands outside of time.

# 14 (TM) The David Mayfield Parade - The David Mayfield Parade

Sometimes just doing one thing well can elevate an album from also-ran to contender status. That's the case with David Mayfield, whose soft, crystalline twang envelops each song on The David Mayfield Parade with unswerving good cheer, even when heartbreak looms around each corner. Sounding like early James Taylor and even more like fellow Ohioan Craig Fuller, Mayfield hits that sweet spot between slick country pop and the commercial black hole that swallows up most alt country.

Fans of the Avett Brothers should be bewitched as Seth and Scott add harmonies to the lover's plea "I Just Might Pray', Caitlin Rose duets on the stately old-time vibe of "Faraway Love" and "What Do You Call It" has the most insane, immediately catchy chorus of the year. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Mayfield's May show at the Tin Angel was a three ring circus - one part Grand Ol Opry, one part slapstick vaudevillian and one part campy goofball. High entertainment.

The David Mayfield Parade - "What Do You Call It" (from The David Mayfield Parade)

The David Mayfield Parade - "Faraway Love" (from The David Mayfield Parade)

#14 (MA) Wilco - The Whole Love

This album goes here because this is how I feel about it today. Some days, it would be a lot higher, some days a lot lower. Oh, how I've wrestled with you, The Whole Love. Some days, you're warm and radiant, some days cold and distant. There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy, there's only you and me and we just disagree. But when we're on the same wavelength, like that night that Wilco and Nick Lowe came to my town and played one of the most mesmerizing shows I've ever seen, well, it makes up for all the hard times.

# 15 (TM) Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones

Pop music has always been safe haven for an angry young man with a guitar. From A.P. Carter to Billy Bragg, Bob Dylan to Ted Leo, a solitary figure railing against social injustice and hammering away at the six string is a time honored and noble tradition. After serving time in agit punks Million Dead, Frank Turner adds his name to this list.

England Keep My Bones mines the same Billy Bragg territory as his earlier solo albums, with perhaps a bit less witty wordplay but an even more naked sincerity. You can't help but love a song as simple and brilliant as the rock-and-roll-will-save-your-life call to arms of "I Still Believe" or the rabble rousing "I Am Disappeared", which calls out country and self to have and believe in dreams, lest we all fade away.

Frank Turner - "I Am Disappeared" (from England Keep My Bones)
Frank Turner - "Thunder Road" (Springsteen cover)

#15 (MA) Okkervil River - I Am Very Far

Okkervil River might be the most under-appreciated band in the world. They turn out good-to-great albums like clockwork, richly textured, emotionally resonant, deeply fulfilling and beautiful things that ought to put them side-by-side with Arcade Fire as indie rock kings. But they don't inspire the same kind of cult. The hope is that they take the response as a challenge and keep striving, because there's a whole lot of greatness left to be teased out of this band.

# 16 (TM) Amanda Shires - Carrying Lightning

It is so hard to get heard over the din of an ever-expanding media maze of itunes, video games, facebook, twitter, radio, TV, commercials, movies, concerts and clouds - what's a girl to do? If you're Amanda Shires, you do it yourself . Although a veteran of tours and recording projects with such alt country luminaries like Jason Isbell, Justin Townes Earle, Billy Joe Shaver, Shires is just beginning to get noticed for her burgeoning, self-directed solo career. Her melancholy Texas twang recalls a less craggy Lucinda Williams with the emotional purity of prime Nanci Griffith.


Her fourth album, Carrying Lightning, is chock full of strong originals like the missed opportunity lament "When You Need A Train It Never Comes" and the whistling, banjo flecked lover's longing glaze of "Swimmer". It's also one of the best americana releases of the year - lyrically direct and emotionally potent.

Amanda Shires - "When You Need A Train It Never Comes" (from Carrying Lightning)
Amanda Shires - "Bees in The Shed" (from Carrying Lightning)

#16 (MA) Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What

When you have fewer songwriting peers than you have fingers, when you're nearly a half-century into your career, it's nearly preposterous to think that you could create new music that fits comfortably in your canon. But Paul Simon has done just that. This is a graceful and winning collection, ten little reveries that I could have placed anywhere on this list depending on my mood, up to and including number one.

# 17 (TM) Jason Isbell - Here We Rest

For some reason, the Drive-By Truckers last few albums have left me cold, while former Trucker Jason Isbell seems to have stolen their mojo on Here We Rest, easily his most consistent record.


Here We Rest is rooted in its southerness, with a deep Alabama groove set to fluttering fiddles and sure-handed shuffles that make characters like the broken soul barfly in "Codeine" come alive even as they battle addiction, and his version of Candi Staton's southern soul standard "Heart on A String" sounds like a lost Delbert McClinton classic.

But the highlight is "Alabama Pines", whose lonesome loser has lost touch with home as he's stuck in a crappy little room in a nowhere town and aching to find his way back by pleading for "Somebody take me home, through those Alabama pines". As another great songwriter once opined, it's sadly beautiful.

#17 (MA) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

I picked this one because it's in the vein of Massive Attack and Portishead, and every once in a while that's exactly what I need. I also picked it because it's fun to sometimes irritate Trip.

#18 (TM) The Postelles - The Postelles

For anyone who thinks Joe Jackson's Look Sharp was the perfect synthesis of punk rock's slutty edge and the magnificently manicured songwriting smarts of Squeeze's Chris Difford and Glenn Tillbrook, then the Postelles debut is the album for you. After being dropped by Astralwerks before releasing a single note, 2011 saw The Postelles long-gestating record finally glimpse the light of day.

Opening with the staccato guitar romp, call-and-response sizzler "White Night", The Postelles updates the 70's power pop template with the nervous energy that all those THE bands (The Vines, The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Hives) thrilled us with a decade ago. They look unapologetically backward, and singer Daniel Balk's cheerful croon makes these mostly up-tempo gumdrops go down easy.

The Postelles - "White Night" (from The Postelles)
The Postelles - "California Sun" (from Summer Undercovers)

#18 (MA) Have Gun Will Travel - Mergers & Acquisitions

I was going to put Wild Flag's excellent album here, but Trip already got that one, so I'll offer up a left-field choice. I don't know much about Have Gun Will Travel, but Mergers & Acquisitions is a near-perfect mix of rustic and tuneful that will transport you to the halcyon days of early alt.country. This is the album Uncle Tupelo didn't make between March 16-20, 1992 and Anodyne.

Have Gun Will Travel - Time Machine
Have Gun Will Travel - Disappearing Kind

#19 (MA) Butch Walker & The Black Widows - The Spade

Butch Walker makes musical confections, sweet rock candy that cuts through the sour indie rock landscape. Once upon a time this stuff made you a star, but now it just makes you a cult hero to folks who want to enjoy new music but who don't subscribe to the new musical paradigm. Big hooks, big drums, sly words, plentiful beer, willing girls and cunning song craft all wrapped up in a shiny box and bow. It hits your body first and then works its way to your brain. A sugar rush in all the right ways.

# 20 (TM) - Foster & Lloyd - It's Already Tomorrow

Just as Foster & Lloyd's recording hiatus was able to buy a drink, it up and went on a harmony-filled alt country bender. Twenty-one years is a l-o-o-o-n-g break, but the rust is barely noticeable on It's Already Tomorrow, possibly the least touted reunion album of the year. And quite possibly the best.

What makes this partnership go is the marriage of Bill Lloyd's jangle pop guitar sensibility to Radney Foster's clear, warm vocals, but what makes it soar are the old school harmonies, two voices meshing as one on immediately memorable choruses. Sure their cover of "Picasso's Mandolin" is a misstep better left to the craggy story telling of the great Guy Clark, but the daylight fading, gracefully aging title cut reminds us of the Foster and Lloyd's Top 40 hitmaking heyday. And album closer "When I Finally Let You Go" is a heart tugging, father to daughter love letter that will inspire more "Ahh Seanie" comparisons than this author would care to admit.

By the way, go buy the fantastic This One's For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark, which features our boy Radney absolutely killing "L.A. Freeway".

Foster & Lloyd - "It's Already Tomorrow" (from It's Already Tomorrow)
Radney Foster - "L.A. Freeway" (from This One's For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark)

#20 (MA) Amy Winehouse – Lioness: Hidden Treasures

If you didn’t know this album was cobbled together from odds and ends after Ms. Winehouse’s death, could you discern it by listening? Maybe, especially once you noticed “Tears Dry,” an alternate version of “Tears Dry On Their Own” from the brilliant Back to Black album. But would it make the experience any less enjoyable? I can’t image that it would. Winehouse was one of the last contemporary singers who could fully inhabit a song, tugging at melody and tempo to make other writers’ tunes her own, and never resorting to studio tricks. Her buoyant takes on chestnuts ranging from “Our Day Will Come” to “A Song For You” never fail to charm, and they serve as a reminder of what a rare talent she was. You won’t find her death in this collection. Only her life.

# 21 (TM) - Fucked Up - David Comes to Life

Holy crap this album has a lot going against it - the NSFW for band name, the unrelenting hardcore growl of a mostly shirtless lead singer named Pink Eyes, the hard to penetrate (and understand) lyrics to a godforsaken prog-punk opera, a 78 minute running time - but every time I put this disc on my heart rate accelerates and I feel like a better man. This thing explodes in scream-along mayhem with force, anger, bile and a bulldozer's soft touch that takes its only breaths with the occasional sweet touch of girl group coos that leavens a song like "Queen of Hearts".


Rock and roll is dead? Nah... it's just Fucked Up.

Fucked Up - "Queen of Hearts"  (from David Comes to Life)
Fucked Up - "Turn The Season" (from David Comes to Life)

Etta James, 1938-2012

Johnny Otis, dead at 90

The obituary of a fascinating man is here.

Bruce Springsteen - "We Take Care of Our Own" (Listen)

We interrupt our 2011 countdown to acknowledge 2012.

# 22 (TM) - The Red Button - As Far As Yesterday Goes

Now Pop for Pure People

As Far As Yesterday Goes plays like an unwritten John Hughes movie, with looming heartbreak leavened by day-glo horns and impossibly sunny arrangements. Each chorus, each handclap and each strum screams pure pop. There are 60's nods everywhere - the "I Should Have Known Better" harmonica riff that powers opener "Caught in The Middle" to euphoric heights, the heavenly, Turtle-y "ba-ba-bas" of "You Do Something to Me" and album thesis "On A Summer Day" that plays like a full on celebration of Small Faces ultra-modness crossed with the elegance of Bachrach/David classic.

Teenage Kicks review of As Far As Yesterday Goes

The Red Button - "Caught in The Middle" (from As Far As Yesterday Goes)
The Red Button - "On A Summer Day" (from As Far As Yesterday Goes)

# 23 (TM) - Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

This album can inspire love and hate - I've both loved and hated it. Sometimes the ordinary lyrics ("Honey Bunny", "Magic", "Saying I Love You) seem like empty platitudes and songs veer off into Pink Floyd wankery territory ("Vomit", "Forgiveness), but then I find myself going back to this album again and again because it truly sounds wonderful and different - except "Vomit", which is an exercise in noisy tedium.


The lyrics are mostly uplifting (and ordinary, but they work) and who doesn't love an album that calls to mind the fractured, desperate beauty of Sister Lovers and the deeply touching melancholia of Sunflower / Surf's Up era Beach Boys.

Love... for today.

Girls - "Honey Bunny" (from Father, Son & Holy Ghost)
Girls - "Love Like A River" (from Father, Son & Holy Ghost)

# 24 (TM) - Wild Flag - Wild Flag

With a scorched earth policy that leaves no riff unturned, Wild Flag's joyous rocket launch sounds like 1977 in 2011. I hear the new wave mannerisms of Lene Lovich and the exaggerated strangulated yelp of Richard Hell, but Wild Flag carries not a whiff of punk revisionism or slavish tribute. This is breathtaking rock and roll in the moment, loaded with hooks and F-U-N.


Inspirational verse from the slam bang opener, the absolutely irresistible "Romance":

"You watch us sing, we sing till we're crying
We sing to free ourselves from the room
We love the sound, the sound is what found us
Sound is the love between me and you"

If you are not moving to this one, have someone check your pulse.

Wild Flag - "Romance" (from Wild Flag)
Wild Flag - "Boom" (from Wild Flag)

# 25 (TM) - Ron Sexsmith - Long Player, Late Bloomer

Eleven albums into a career that has flown mostly under the radar, Ron Sexsmith has had his praises sung by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Elvis Costello. Sexsmith writes rueful, self-deprecating songs about the painful joy of being in love. Long Player, Late Bloomer is more of the same, but only better with a strict no filler mandate among the album's 13 tracks.. The title song "Long PLayer" is a nod to his own survivor's instincts and his slow, gradual climb to the middle.


"I'm a late bloomer, I'm a slow learner
And I've turned the record over, I'm a long player
My song is my saviour, Got to raise it up"

His vocals cling to melodies like thick maple syrup on the edge of an amber jug, causing the world to spin a little slower while Sexsmith spoon feeds melancholy one bite a time.

Ron Sexsmith - "Believe It When I See It" (from Long Player, Late Bloomer)
Ron Sexsmith - "Give Me Love" (George Harrison cover)

# 26 (TM) - The Black Keys - El Camino

I am jumping on this train as it hits top speed. Forget all the comparisons to The White Stripes, and forget all the critical hosannas and flowery expositions of The Black Keys as rock and roll saviors, even though they might be. Let's celebrate the big fat choruses, the head-bobbing, hair-flyin' groove, the underpinning of greasy soul that lifts them above the fray. This is big, dumb rock in all it's bare chested glory. The Black Keys are 2012's Foghat and "Lonely Boy" is their "Slow Ride", as camaro rock as it gets.  

The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy"

Foghat - "Slow Ride"

Fashionably Late

Trip could come up with a list of one hundred albums about which he was genuinely enthusiastic in the past year if he set his mind to it. Me, not so much. It's not that there weren't that many (and more) worthy of enthusiasm, it's just that I didn't work hard enough to find them. I'll join the fray at album number 20.

# 27 (TM) - Tommy Keene - Behind The Parade

It would be easy to dismiss Tommy Keene for rehashing the same formula with each album. But with a Ramones-like devotion to the mid 60's pop anthems championed by The Who as well as early 70's power pop, Keene's stunning lack of commercial success has freed him to crank out yet another batch of soaring tracks that make Keene sound as vital today as he did on his classic Songs from the Film album.


This is album is loaded with ringing electric guitars, Keene's dry vocals and wry wordplay and thankfully not much else. Sure there are nice touches like the Belle & Sebastian horns that adorn opener "Deep Six Saturday", but mostly Behind The Parade sounds like another record full of stirring, sharply played songs in a career full of them.

Tommy Keene - "Deep Six Saturday"
Tommy Keene - "Already Made Up My Mind"

(both songs on Behind The Parade on Second Motions Records)

# 28 (TM) Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass Kickin Team - More Smooth Jazz & Sweet Sweet Jams

Terry Anderson's sweetness is most definitely my weakness. Working with the modestly named Olympic Ass Kickin Team, Anderson delivers a record that is quite simply without frills. Bashing out ragged bar band nuggets for urban hicks that suggests Rockpile playing a set of NRBQ covers, Anderson delivers a back-to-the basics clinic that leaves no wiggle room - rock and roll can save your life. For 38 minutes, it sure felt like More Smooth Jazz & Sweet Sweet Jams saved mine.

Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass Kickin Team - "Gambled And Lost"
Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass Kickin Team - "Spend The Night"

(both songs available on More Smooth Jazz & Sweet Sweet Jams)

# 29 (TM) - The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

One of the benefits of year-end reviews is that you have had time to let an album sink in and make your own decision on its relative merits or shortcomings. A major drawback is having already other reviews. So this album is either a "well rounded pop-jugular album" (The A.V. Club) or a disc that "fails to muster much sense of enthusiasm for itself beyond those first and last tracks" (Drowned in Sound).

Me - all I hear is effervescent gloom that seems to be a lab experiment grafting Jesus and Mary Chain's acidic wall of buzz onto the sing-along friendliness of Irish goobers The Saw Doctors. In a year mostly devoid of guitar albums, this one couples stompy riffs with singer Justin Young's anthemic melodic swells in 3 minute amphetamine rushes. I love it, but skip the 8 and 1/2 bummer of a closer, "Family Friend", and make this a 10 song album that wraps up in a tidy 27 minutes. That gets the Teenage Kicks seal of approval.

The Vaccines - "Post Break Up Sex" (from What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?)
The Vaccines - "Norgaard" (from What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?)

# 30 (TM) - Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now

With Jenny Lewis abandoning the americana soul of her solo lps for the fizzier, buzzier pop of Jenny and Johnny and Zooey Deschanel using up every ounce of her vast accumulation of good will on the unwatchable New Girl (Ben Gibbard must be delighted he doesn't have to watch that dreck anymore), America needs a new winsome sweetheart to embrace. Looking like Heart Like A Wheel Ronstadt, but with a Laurel Canyon via Nashville sound, Caitlin Rose's Own Side Now was one of the more impressive 2011 debuts. Standout tracks include the leave-me-alone kiss-off "Spare Me" and the buoyant kiss-off "Shanghai Cigarettes", that sounds like the kind of hit Mary Chapin Carpenter would have had 20 years ago. One to watch.

Caitlin Rose - "Shanghai Cigarettes" (from Own Side Now)

Caitlin Rose - "Faithless Love" (from Columbia Hotel EP)

The sign says OPEN

After a spotty, fallow 2011, Teenage Kicks returns in 2012 with one our favorite things - a list. We are quite happy making lists - to do lists, grocery lists, concert lists, revenge lists, what-i'd-do-if-i-won the lottery lists. One of my New Year's resolutions was to start a list of all the lists I wanted to make. I still have time for that.

But for now we'll each be putting up our favorite albums from 2011, which was a very good year for music, but had no slam dunk rock and roll classic, like Titus Andronicus' The Monitor from last year The Hold Steady's Boy and Girls in America in 2006. In 2011, music was everywhere - on your phone, in the car, on TV, and instantly accessible on your computer and ipod. Now with Spotify, you can stream millions of songs for free. It's mind-blowing, fantastic and incredibly daunting. Because with millions of options, how do you choose? How do you ferret out the diamonds in the rough, separate the wheat from the chaff, make sure you get to hear Ezra Furman and skip James Blake? We hope to help here at Teenage Kicks, and we'll start with our 2011 faves. And maybe this time next year we'll salute 2012.

Have a Roman Candle Christmas

Roman Candle's Oh Tall Tree in the Ear made our list of ten best albums of the last decade (at least I think it did; feel free to check). The members of the band are in the studio with their kids working on a long-player promised for 2012. In the interim, they've written and recorded "It's Christmas, Go On and Say Hello," three minutes of yuletide cheer. Get it as a free download at the band's website.

Dave Hause & Cory Branan at Johnny Brenda's Tonight!! (plus a Long Overdue Report on The Replacements Movie & Tribute Concert)

A couple of weeks ago I made the trek to New York to see a screening of the new Replacements documentary, Color Me Obsessed. If the idea of driving two hours in the rain with two other degenerates to see a music film in a dank, crowded subterranean shithole about a drunken bunch of stumblebums who were touched by genius, and knowing that the film contains exactly zero music by said stumblebums - well, if that's your idea of a good time, I've got one thing to say to you... welcome friend. This movie features talking heads doing nothing but trying to explain the unexplainable - what made The Replacements great? As the saying goes - if I have to tell you, you'll never know. But the film is a clunky, heartfelt, ultimately sweet valentine to the last great rock and roll band - you'll laugh, you'll shake your head and god damn if you don't get goose bumps just remembering how mighty they could be.

So see it if you get the chance. Right after the screening, there was a tribute concert that was pretty good, but lacked the careening unpredictability that made The Replacements either the world's greatest or world's worst rock and roll band, often in the same night. There were some head scratchers - Steve Wynn sleepwalking through "Never Mind", Robert Gordon's flabby and meandering "I Will Dare" (a waste of a big moment) and Matt Pinfield (the dj!) flop sweating through "Waitress in The Sky". Bree Sharp's Vegas-y "Unsatisfied" gets a pass because quite frankly I am not really sure I can say anything bad about her.



But there were also some real standouts - Kevn Kinney making "Here Comes A Regular" his own as a southern fried lament and Craig and Tad from The Hold Steady falling just short on "Within Your Reach" but knocking it out of the park on "Color Me Impressed", while Tommy Ramone gently found the sweet pathos in a moving solo take of "If Only You Were Lonely". Danny Sage seemed pleasantly befuddled as he brought some New York scuzz to "I'll be You" and "Answering Machine", while host Jesse Malin was perfectly reverential with "Achin to Be" and "Alex Chilton". But the highlights of the evening were Titus Andronicus' Patrick Stickles nailing the confused desperation of "Sixteen Blue" and Dave Hause's super-charged take on "Anywhere is Better Than Here" and an electric and show stealing "I.O.U." The all hands on deck finale of "Bastards of Young" was a fitting sloppy mish-mash highlighted by the Little Billy antics of Patrick Stickles and his video recorder.

Which is a very long way of saying go see Dave Hause tonight in his first full band Philadelphia show in quite some time. We raved earlier this year about Resolutions, his 2011 marriage of punk rock spittle and sensitive singer songwriter-isms that is one of the year's best albums. Tonight he'll be joined by Cory Branan, whose literate story songs sit somewhere between John Prine and the softer side of Lucero. And it's ten bucks. Get off the couch, lazy ass.

Dave Hause (11:00)
Cory Branan (10:00)
Turning Violet Violet (9:00)
at Johnny Brenda's
1201 N. Frankford Ave. (near Girard)
215-739-9684

Dave Hause - "Years From Now" (from Resolutions)
Dave Hause - "C'mon Kid" (from Resolutions)
Dave Hause - "Another Town" (Steve Earle cover)

Cory Branan - "Troublesome Girl" (from The Hell You Say)

Love this band, love this song, love this video

This is Deer Tick conjuring the spirit of vintage Replacements while playing an homage to the Rolling Stones. The song is "Main Street." The album is Divine Providence. And if you're the kind of person who has been to this blog more than once on purpose, you should own it.

New Paul Weller: "Around the Lake"

We're big fans of the Mod God around here, and his album Sonik Kicks is set to arrive on March 26, 2012. The first single "Around the Lake" is a classic Weller stomper, checking in at an economical two minutes, twelve seconds. Enjoy.

Paul Weller, "Around the Lake"

Honey Pies, You Were Meant To Be Near Me

The Honey Pies are an Australian four-piece that makes the kind of breezy, 60's R&B-inflected pop and buzzy, punk-inflected rock that never goes out of style, but never quite comes into fashion. They'll be releasing their second long-player Carpe Carp at some  time in the future described only as "soon." While you wait for soon to come, enjoy the first single "Girl," an irresistible ray of sunshine.

The Honey Pies, "Girl"

Welcome to the new Teenage Kicks

This used to be a semi-dormant rock and roll blog. Now it's a semi-dormant rock and roll blog with style.

Lester Speaks

I had read thousands upon thousands of his words, I had seen him portrayed in Almost Famous, but until stumbling upon this on YouTube, I had never seen video of history's most notorious rock writer.

New Craig Finn!!

Craig Finn will be releasing a sure-to-be-impossible-to-find 7" single, "Honolulu Blues", as part of Record Store Day's Black Friday boondoggle. It's the first taste of his forthcoming solo album (out soon) and the single also features b-side "Rented Room". Both songs will be avialble digitally 11/29. Thanks to Finn's English label Full Time Hobby for the streams below.

"Honolulu Blues" reminds me of... you guessed it, The Hold Steady, and the racket they kicked up for their greasy take of Dylan's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window".

The Hold Steady - "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" (from I'm Not There)

Streams removed per request of label.

Austin Has Always Had The Best Music, Now They Have The Best Halloween Too

Patty Griffin and her squeeze welcome some local demons.

Behold The Power of Rock and Roll

Butch Walker killing it at Union Transfer in Philadelphia earlier tonight.

photo: Hudak

Fierce Bad Rabbit Tonight!

Here's a late heads up for all you Philadelphia couch potatoes looking for a reason to leave the house tonight - the pride of Fort Collins, CO, Fierce Bad Rabbit, scampers into the M Room as the headliner on a four band bill including Oh! Pears, Dad Rocks and Attia Taylor. Fierce Bad Rabbit are touring behind their excellent, brand new 3 song EP, Live and Learn, whose well scrubbed rock finds kindred spirits in the harmony heavy americana of Mumford & Sons, Dawes and Band of Horses. Lead singer Chris Anderson has a voice that would sound perfect on AAA radio. Let's hope those programmers take notice.

And I'm all in for a future all Rabbit tour - Fierce Bad Rabbit, Frightened Rabbit, White Rabbits and Pepper Rabit.

Fierce Bad Rabbit - "You"

M Room

15 W. Girard

Philadelphia,PA

215-739-5577

fun. with Deer Tick!!!

While that headline would work for any Deer Tick show, it takes an absurd literal turn Friday night as emo-freindly heartbreakers fun. share the stage with your favorite scuzz rockers at the University of Pennsylvania's Harrison Auditorium. Me? I really love both bands but I wouldn't have put them together on the same bill on a dare.

You know that girl whose nose is a little crooked, wears skinny jeans and ragged t-shirts, buys you a beer when you're down, can stay out late and not complain, has nerdy glasses and knows everyone? Who doesn't read but is whip smart, smokes when the moment is right and never seems alone? The one all the guys want and all the girls want to be? Well Deer Tick is that girl. And they've even got a cute friend. Let's call her Divine Providence and she's BOS. Fresh of a surreal appearance on Letterman, they'll both be in town for what's sure to be one of the weirder pairings in recent memory. I am asking the music gods right now for duet featuring John McCauley's boozy creak paired with Nate Reuss' woozy falsetto. I vote for either "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" or "I Got You Babe". Let's call it He & Him.

fun. (complete with lower case "f" and a period as part of the name - a Google nightmare) are a couple of years removed from their dizzying debut, Aim and Ignite, which sounded like Freddie Mercury preening with the Beach Boys during a Broadway casting call, but it worked. They've got a new album in the works and so far have dropped one single "We Are Young", a collaboration with Janelle Monae that shows the band heading in a busier direction with eyes on the dance floor (expect many remixes), but with vocal harmonic histrionics intact.

Deer Tick's Divine Providence (out 10/25 on Partisan Records) is a career high point - a mix of their homespun citylbilly freakouts mixed with some of the foamy explosiveness of their tightrope-walking live show. Opening with the primal stomp of "The Bump", it seems like McCauley and company realized it was OK to relax and have fun in the studio. "Main Street" fulfills the promise of those Replacements comparisons and sounds like a lost Tim track. First single "Miss K" is a Byrdsy cum Costello valentine to a darlin' girl, easily the most radio friendly thing they've ever done.

Deer Tick - "Main Street"
(from Divine Providence)

fun. (w/ Janelle Monae) - "We Are Young"

Here's the show info, and tickets available here:

Deer Tick and fun. - 10/14 @ 8:00 PM
Harrison Auditorium - 33rd and Spruce Sts.
Philadelphia, PA

Lydia Loveless (Again)

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In my post yesterday, I inadvertently linked to another mp3 rather than "Steve Earle", the stalker fantasy rave-up by 21 year old upstart Lydia Loveless, who makes her Philadelphia debut Friday night at Fishtown's M Room. So today we bring you "Steve Earle" plus a track from her 2010 Peloton Records debut, The Only Man. You can order Indestructible Machine here and The Only Man here. Both are highly recommended.

Get thee to the M Room Friday night.

Lydia Loveless - "Steve Earle"
Lydia Loveless - "Always Lose"
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And here's Maria McKee sounding positively unhinged on "East of Eden" from Lone Justice's debut - I'll bet Loveless is a fan.
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Lone Justice - "East of Eden" (from Lone Justice)

All the Girls Say "Steve Earle, Steve Earle"

2011 is the 25th anniversary of Steve Earle's Guitar Town, so I guess it's also the 25th anniversary of my being able to stomach country music. Prior to that, it was classic rock, punk rock, power pop and AM radio that filled my listening hours. Guitar Town is not only one of rock and roll's great debut albums, it was also a gateway drug to Waylon, Merle, Willie, Gram and a thousand others.

Earle has quite the career since - Grammy winner, drug addict, actor, divorce attorney's dream, novelist, activist, absentee father, record producer, playwright - but it's the songs that keep us riveted. That and the mystical puzzle for the ages of how he pulled Alison Moorer.

And now 21 year old Lydia Loveless (who name conjures up a goth country diva) has written "Steve Earle", a fitting "tribute" that paints Earle as a stalker of sweet young things who "won't stop calling me" and "just wants to write some songs", but all Lydia wants is for Steve "to please introduce me to your son", the ultimate backhanded compliment. And it's just the tip of the iceberg for Indestructible Machine, Loveless's brand new firecracker of an album, out now on Bloodshot Records. The album traffics in that Old 97's galloping backbeat, but recasts Rhett Miller as Loretta Lynn.

But mostly this album recalls the glory and go-for-broke-ness of the debut Lone Justice record, especially on the roiling "Bad Way to Go" and the unapologetic war cry of "Do Right." Loveless may not possess Maria McKee's wondrous range, but that's really praising by faint damn. Loveless is a take-no-prisoners storyteller, the freshest new female alt-country voice in recent memory.

Just for fun, I've also attached another "Steve Earle", this one by sappy country megastars Sugarland. This one sounds like Elly May Clampett first stalking then squawking Steve Earle. And finally a gorgeous, brand new cover by Kasey Chambers of Earle's "Nothing But A Child". Enjoy.

Lydia Loveless - "Steve Earle" (from Indestructible Machine)
Sugarland - "Steve Earle" (from Love on The Inside)
Kasey Chambers - "Nothing But A Child" (from Storybook)

Filligar!

Two things I know about the Chicago band Filligar: (1) their drummer Pete sends the kind of direct, concise and polite emails that cut through the inbox clutter; and (2) they play the kind of loose-limbed, four on the floor rock and roll that never fades away even as trends come and go. We gladly direct you to the band's website where you can download two fine new tracks for free. "Knock Yourself Out" is a slow-burning hip-swayer, and "Dead Wrong" is a spirited blast of rock and roll joy.

While you're at the website, be sure to visit the tour section to see how the band is reviving the classic concert poster one show at a time.

Happy Birthday to Us

Buddy Holly and Chrissie Hynde share the same birthday as Teenage Kicks. Johnny Brenda's, the best rock on the planet, is celebrating their five year anniversary. Michael and I have bonded over many things (The Hold Steady, 70's AM radio, Springsteen, college hoops, family histories), but maybe the real Teenage Kicks totem is a band non-celebrating it's 30th birthday (where's all the love for Sorry Ma?), The Replacements.



Westerberg is the greatest songwriter of the last 30 years (apologies to Steve Earle).


Dig the 14 year old Tommy Stinson.


RIP Bob.

Rock and Roll Can Kiss My Ass...

As Teenage Kicks (quietly) celebrates our fifth birthday (stay tuned for a couple of contests next week), on Saturday we'll be hightailing it down to the new World Cafe in Wilmington, DE to catch Marshall Crenshaw celebrating the 30th anniversary of his stone classic debut album. A primer on creating the perfect pop song, Marshall Crenshaw has been a constant companion on every road trip for Mr. & Mrs. Teenage Kicks (speaking of Mrs. TK, happy anniversary baby!). And wait, it gets better! The Bottle Rockets, promoting their new acoustic disc Not So Loud!, are opening the show and will serve as Crenshaw's Crickets to his new wave Buddy Holly. Concert wood alert!

But tonight, halfway across the country at The Turf Club in St. Paul,MN is the superb triple bill that has us salivating - Tommy Keene, Slim Dunlap (Slim!) and Minnesota's best kept secret High on Stress. Tommy Keene has been so good for so long that I hereby declare him a national treasure. His latest, Behind The Parade (out now on Second Motion Records), is exactly what you'd expect - 10 blasts of revved up guitar pop nirvana. Slim Dunlap is best known as the post-Bob guitar player in the Replacements and a charming, if slightly wobbly, frontman in his own right. High on Stress open the show (then pull a Bottle Rockets as Slim's band) and their jangle crunch is highlighted by main man Nick Let's sardonic wordplay and world-weary delivery. Their 2008 release, Cop Light Parade (no relation to Behind The Parade), pretty much tells everyone to kiss their ass - I love High on Stress.

Marshall Crenshaw - "Cynical Girl" (from Marshall Crenshaw)
Bottle Rockets - "Kerosene" (from Not So Loud)

Tommy Keene - "Deep Six Saturday" (from Behind The Parade)

Slim Dunlap - "The Ballad of The Opening Band" (from The Old New Me)

High on Stress -"Table 8 in Queens" (from Cop Light Parade)

Lou Reed is not being egotistical when he says he may have just created the best music ever

Lou Reed and Metallica have collaborated on a new album called Lulu, to be released October 31. And according to Lou, the result may be even more spectacular than you might expect: "The [music] is awe-inspiring. It’s maybe the best thing done by anyone, ever. It could create another planetary system. I’m not joking, and I’m not being egotistical."

Five Years

Earlier today, Trip sent me a note asking if we were about to hit Teenage Kicks’ fifth anniversary. So I looked it up, and it turns out that said milestone is . . . today. You can accuse us of a lot of things, but not of hyping our own history.

Five years is a blink. But it’s also a chasm. It’s the time between Meet the Beatles and Abbey Road. It’s enough time for the entire world to change.

It’s also enough time for lives to change in significant ways. When we started, my kids’ ages were five and two. Now at ten and seven, their activities and tastes (hello, Nickelodeon!) dominate my free time in ways I never expected, as do other things I never expected, like running the occasional half-marathon or taking a stab at writing long fiction.

That’s my way of saying that I used to pour a lot of effort into this place, but that I don’t anymore, and please don’t blame me.

I still love music, and I’m even trying to learn it (my third piano lesson is coming up), but it doesn't consume me quite like it used to. Still, it can still possess me in unexpected ways. Over the past four months, I've listened to the Beatles more than at any time in my life, and I’m working on reading a couple thousand words about them. Forty years after they went away, they’re blowing my mind all over again.

And bands like Dawes and Ezra Furman and the Harpoons give me faith that rock and roll, even in a time of great technological and creative upheaval, will continue to thrive as long as there are talented young people who want to connect with others in the most powerful way possible.

Five years is a blink. But it’s also a chasm. Clarence Clemons has played on two original Bruce Springsteen albums since we started. Now he’s gone.

The spirit of Springsteen and The Hold Steady, more than any other acts, animated this space like no other in our original burst, and provides the framework of our worldview. It’s a deep love of what came before and a fervent belief in what’s coming next. We love our old records, but we can’t wait to hear the next thing to grab us by our collars and shake our bearings loose.

Five years is a blink. But it’s also a chasm. When we started, I hadn't even met Trip in the flesh. Now he’s my blood brother, a bond formed over rock and roll, the occasional beer, college basketball, the community of friends we've formed, and a shared sense of what’s good and right in the world.

Thanks to all of you who have spent some of your valuable time with us. We and our friends are like the drums on “Lust for Life.” We pound it out on floor toms. Our psalms are sing-along songs.

William Elliott Whitmore - Field Songs

William Elliott Whitmore's Iowa farmer perspective infuses darkly soulful songs with dirt under the fingernails realism put across with an extraordinary big, booming voice. Each song is a call to arms, inspiring the listener action and reaction. Reminds me of Jay Farrar - an old soul frozen in a young man's body.

Field Songs evokes old time spirituals, songs of faith sung by slaves to try and ease their burdens. "Let's Do Something Impossible" implores the listener to reach for something grand, something unthinkable like escaping Alcatraz, defeating Custer or Hitler, or just betting it all on one horse to win it all. Just dream big. It seems to be the most hopeful statement from Whitmore to date.

The sparse instrumentation (a gently picked banjo, a barely strummed guitar) puts the focus on Whitmore's bruising vocals, and he hangs on to words like he's afraid to let them go. The vocals can be folky soothing like John Gorka, punky soulful like Willy DeVille or bar room broken akin to Lucero's Ben Nichols. At 8 songs and 34 minutes, Field Songs scores a quick and decisive knockout, landing blows for the oppressed and depressed everywhere.

William Elliott Whitmore - "Field Song" (from Field Songs)

William Elliott Whitmore - "Hell or High Water" (from Animals in The Dark)

William Elliott Whitmore - "Don't Pray on Me" (Bad Religion cover)