10 Albums From 1989 That Are Better Than The Stone Roses

This week saw people get their knickers in a twist about a Stone Roses reunion. Again. Now don't get me wrong, I think The Stone Rosess is a really good album, but it certainly has its fair share of filler - and don't forget Elephant Stone wasn't even on the original album. FAIL.
So time for a bit of perspective. Here's a list of albums that also came out in 1989 and are better than the Roses' debut. It also inadvertently helps to illustrate some of the gaping holes in the Spotify catalogue - only five of these full albums are on there. Pah!
So in no particular order...

Lou Reed New York - no one was expecting Lou Reed to come back with an album this good, abunch of sketches about the city and various NY characters. Romeo Had Juliette, Dirty Blvd, Busload Of Faith - the Lou Reed album I still play most.

Ministry The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste - in 1989 I thought Al Jourgensen was a genius - he'd worked or went on to work with Jello Biafra and Ian MacKaye, Skinny Puppy, Cabaret Voltaire and Revolting Cocks amongst others. Who knew it'd all go downhill after one more album. This still sounds pretty intense.

De La Soul 3 Feet High And Rising - 1988-1990 was when skinny white boys like me* 'got' hip-hop, pretty much thanks to this album and...

Beastie Boys Pauls Boutique - At the time, the overlooked follow up to 'Licensed To Ill'. Now acknowledged as the classic it is.

Nirvana Bleach - this debut is rough and ready but that's its charm. The riff from School, Swap Meet, Been A Son, About A Girl. Fuckin' A. At the time I thought this was a better album than...

Pixies Doolittle - with hindsight, a better album than Bleach. Is it a better album than Surfer Rosa? I think so. It's definitely better than The Stone Roses. Even the sleeve's better.

Rapeman Two Nuns And A Pack Mule - Get past the controversial name and it's an awesome album. Also features one of the best cover versions EVER in Just Got Paid (ZZ Top). I wish Albini had done another album more like this rather than the first Shellac album.

Pop will Eat Itself This is the day..The hour..This is. - scrappy grebo band embrace sampling culture to great success. Wake Up...Time To Die, Can U Dig It, Wise Up Suckers!', Def Con One. All brilliant.

The Cure Disintegration Their last great album. Lovesong, Fascination Street, Pictures Of You, need I say more? Even casual fans should own this one.

Fugazi 13 Songs - OK, this one is a bit of cheat as it's a compilation of their first two vinyl EPs, but if you only own one record on this list, I'd suggest it should be this. Still sounds like the most exciting thing ever committed to tape.

That's the definitive list as of this morning. Have I missed anything off?

*yeah, I was skinny in 1989

Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘It’s Blitz’

Yeah Yeah Yeahs burst into my consciousness when the fractured energy of Bang first filled the Xfm airwaves eight years ago. An iconic lead singer with an electrifying presence, a drummer and guitarist who clearly understood that art rock dynamics and sonic experimentation weren’t the enemy of catchy songs, this was a band that couldn’t fail to excite. Their full length debut Fever To Tell certainly delivered on all the promise.

However, 2006’s Show Your Bones met with a cool response from some quarters, Pitchfork saying it “sounds guarded, with very little danger and too few moments of real urgency” and The Guardian claiming “the band are still struggling to raise their game beyond White Stripes-goth-lite”. If casual fans struggled with the direction of that album, it’ll be interesting to see what they make of It’s Blitz!.

Early reports revealed that production was going to be shared between long time knob twiddler David Sitek and the man who helmed 2007’s Is Is EP, Nick Launay. Given the band’s acknowledgement that Launay’s work with Public Image Limited was why they wanted to work with him in the first place, along with Nick Zinner’s recently declared love for vintage synths, it was clear that the album was going to take at least some of its cues from the early 80s. Sure, first tune out of the traps Zero certainly hit everyone in the chest, driven along by squelching synth/heavily effected rumbling guitar line, its dynamic structure and feel coming across like the mutant dancefloor cousin of Muse’s Map Of The Problematique, but once you get past that first song those influences come thick and fast.

Heads Will Roll shamelessly ‘borrows’ from PiL’s This Is Not A Love Song; Skeleton Me is the missing track from OMD’s Architecture And Morality (it even has a faux martial /highland pipers bit like in Maid Of Orleans); while the scratchy guitars and syncopated bassline of Dragon Queen funks along nicely. All of a sudden Zero starts to look like the band throwing everyone a bit of a curveball.

Elsewhere, the spirit of Fever To Tell can be felt on Dull Life and Shame And Fortune, the former the only track on the album that comes close to matching the tempo of Zero, the latter featuring some serious fuzz and a yelping vocals. Those looking for this album’s Maps or Cheating Hearts should check out Runaway. With a simple piano intro, some great power ballad drumming, ebowed guitar, tortured strings and synths that could have been lifted straight off Duran Duran’s first album (check out To The Shore), it features one of Karen O’s most melancholy lyrics “I was feeling sad / can’t help looking back / want you to stay / want you to be my prize”. Easily their best chance for a massive hit single.

When the band announced the title of the album some hoped this was going to be their hardest record yet, few would have imagined it likely they might be referencing the club that birthed the new romantic movement. While I’d still like to hear an album that is 10 different versions of Machine, to these ears Its Blitz! is the sound of the band appropriating the best bits of a much maligned era and effortlessly creating something that sounds new and vital. No mean trick, but it’ll be interesting to see if everyone else is convinced.

Muse Recording New Album

Sound of 2009 and Marketing

Yesterday I mentioned this article on Drowned In Sound which bemoaned the marketing techniques of record labels and the pressure they put on new acts. The premise was that aiming to get new bands hyped onto start of year tip lists such as BBC’s Sound of 2009, means that bands are forced to deliver new songs to a strict calendar that isn’t conducive to making great art. Also, that failure to deliver on the promise of these tips within the first 12 months means artists don’t get time to develop any more.

Historically these lists are pretty meaningless in the scheme of things and are inevitably from the school of throwing enough shit at a wall and some of it sticking. But certainly with this and last year’s BBC poll there is a stronger bit of method to the madness, with last year's having a pretty successful hit rate. It probably helps that the BBC have tapped into the grassroots music enthusiasts rather than just rely on who are the labels’ priorities. Looking at the 2008 list you can see that when they have tripped up, it's because they’ve bought into the crap coming from the labels (Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong) or they’ve got sucked into the miasma of blog hype for artists with little to back it up (Cajun Dance Party, Black Kids).

Where they were successful is with either acts that had already been in development for a while (Adele, Duffy, Santogold) or with acts who’s albums they would already have heard by the time the list was put together (Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Alphabeat, Black Mountain, Lil Wayne). It can certainly be argued that Joe Lean and Black Kids weren’t given enough time to develop, but you can’t really imagine all the development time in the world helping Joe Lean, can you?

Of the others, have any of them really suffered from unrealistic release schedules? Not really, because they nearly all had the albums in the can already. So it seems a bit unfair to be hating on the marketing departments so much when they look like they’ve pretty much played it just right for most of the 2008 list. Even Foals had the chance to redo their album after not liking the David Sitek produced version.

So looking at the top 5 of this year’s list how will they fare? While White Lies have won the sprint with their solid debut 'To Lose My Life...' going straight in at No.1 in the album charts, judging by the amount and quality of stuff she’s already put out on the web, poll topper Little Boots has to be the favourite for a truly great debut in 2009. I don’t really care for Florence and The Machine, so I’m hoping that she might be the Joe Lean of 2009, but I suspect she’s probably this year’s Bat For Lashes - contrived, average but inexplicably nominated for the Mercury prize.
Empire Of The Sun are the opposite in that I’d love them to be this year’s MGMT, but they’ll probably be the Black Mountain (great overlooked album of the year). La Roux I’m still unsure about. Their combination of low key indie club dates and touring with Lily Allen could be just the right thing to break them but they might be just too pop and Elly could just be a little too young and inexperienced to pull it off.

Certainly the lack of landfill indie on the list is to be applauded and here’s hoping that the retro 80s electro vibe will see Ladyhawke album becomes the sleeper hit of 2009.

Latest Problems with the Music Industry

Drowned in sound have started a new series of industry articles from those in the know. The first is called ‘How To Get Tipped’ but would be more accurately titled ‘how the marketing department is killing new bands’. It’s a good article, but a little unfocused in what it’s actually against. Have a read, I’ll post some of my thoughts on this tomorrow

Warner Music Group have come in for some flack over the removal of YouTube videos that infringe their copyright. Admittedly, most of the flack is coming from unlikeable kids who don’t understand copyright but it is another case of the industry wading in and pissing off their potential customers without thinking about how they can use what they are doing to their advantage. NB:I don’t think kids need to understand copyright to be likable.

On a more positive note, I'm loving this from French Horn Rebellion

My Morning Jacket 'Live From Las Vegas At The Palms'

It’s no secret that I’m a longtime fan of My Morning Jacket, if you want to know about the transcendent power of rock music there are currently few finer live bands and certainly they are in my top three live acts I would recommend to any music fan (full list coming soon). For my money their 2005 John Leckie produced album Z was pretty much faultless, although many fans prefer the reverb soaked, recorded-in-a-grain-silo sound of their first two albums and the major label debut It Still Moves, Z is the one that finally comes closest to capturing the full extent of their majesty (although the live album/dvd Okonosos is probably the best starting point for new fans). So the release last year’s eagerly awaited follow up Evil Urges was something of a disappointment.

Whereas in the past they’ve successfully implemented elements of reggae (Phone Went West) and ska (Off The Record) and they’ve always had a lot of soul, the funk, r’nb and falsetto experiments found the band misfiring. That and a few slight songs with cheesy lyrics marred what otherwise should have been the album that crossed over.

Skip forward seven months to this iTunes only curio recorded live in the state of the art Palm Casino studio in Las Vegas. There’s a suitably lounge-tinged feel here that, given the city’s place in the whole rat pack mythos, seems appropriate. This cocktail vibe is enhanced by picking five of the more laid back and quieter tracks from either end of the band’s catalogue to date, which gives the six song EP a consistency that it might otherwise be lacking. Opener Tonight I Want To Celebrate With You employs the omnichord that worked to such great effect on Touch Me I Think I’m Going To Scream Pt 2 , but rather than go with the latter’s gentle electro groove it takes on a country flavour with some pedal steel guitar. It’s this country rock and cocktail theme that runs through all the tracks here, bringing out the AM friendly side of the band, and although it’s certainly not the reason why I love the band it is something they do well, and stripped of the wailing guitars it serves to showcase the quality of Jim James songwriting.

New tune Dear Wife could happily have sat along side the better tracks on the last album but the standout is the Tennessee Fire's They Ran, a lesson in restraint with sweet wordless, backing vocals that to these ears has the same feel as The Flamingos version of I Only Have Eyes For You.

As a companion piece to Evil Urges it’s a strong offering (and at only £4.74 a bargain), although fans of the band’s more rocking side (assuming they already own Okonosos) may want to check out some of the recordings from the Madison Sqare Garden NYE show as well. That and keep your fingers crossed for rescheduled UK dates.

Bon Iver, Sufjan, Arcade Fire and loads more on 'Dark Was The Night'

‘Dark Was The Night’, the Red Hot Organization HIV / AIDS charity album produced by Aaron and Bryce Dessner from The National that I mentioned last week now has a confirmed tracklist. It looks pretty awesome - a veritable who's who of North American indoe in 2009 - with a bunch of original tracks and some well chosen cover versions of the likes of Dylan, Shuggie Otis, Blind Willie McTell, The Troggs and Vashti Bunyan.

Confusingly, the Red Hot Organization’s MySpace page says that 32 songs were recorded for the project but their are only 31 tracks listed on the album (could just be a typo). The organization's MySpace page will be streaming every track one at a time over the 31 days between Jan 15th and the release date on February 16. The site is on US time so if you’re quick you can still hear yesterday’s first track right now - Dirty Projectors and David Byrne’s Knotty Pine - and mighty fine it is too.


This Disc (Disc One)

1. ‘Knotty Pine’ - Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2. ‘Cello Song’ - The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
3. ‘Train Song’ - Feist and Ben Gibbard
4. ‘Brackett, WI’ - Bon Iver
5. ‘Deep Blue Sea’ - Grizzly Bear
6. ‘So Far Around The Bend’ - The National
7. ‘Tightrope’ - Yeasayer
8. ‘Feeling Good’ - My Brightest Diamond
9. ‘Dark Was The Night’ - Kronos Quartet
10. ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’ - Antony with Bryce Dessner
11. ‘Big Red Machine’ - Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12. ‘Sleepless’ - The Decemberists
13. ‘Stolen Houses (Die)’ - Iron & Wine
14. ‘Service Bell’ - Grizzly Bear + Feist
15. ‘You Are The Blood’ - Sufjan Stevens


That Disc (Disc Two)

1. ‘Well-Alright’ - Spoon
2. ‘Lenin’ - Arcade Fire
3. ‘Mimizan’ - Beirut
4. ‘El Caporal’ - My Morning Jacket
5. ‘Inspiration Information’ - Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
6. ‘With A Girl Like You’ - Dave Sitek
7. ‘Blood Pt. 2’ - Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8. ‘Hey, Snow White’ - The New Pornographers
9. ‘Gentle Hour’ - Yo La Tengo
10. ‘Amazing Grace’ - Cat Power
11. ‘Happiness’ - Riceboy Sleeps
12. ‘Another Saturday’ - Stuart Murdoch
13. ‘The Giant Of Illinois’ - Andrew Bird
14. ‘Lua’ - Conor Oberst with Gillian Welch
15. ‘When The Road Runs Out’ - Blonde Redhead & Devastations
16. ‘Love Vs. Porn’ - Kevin Drew

Red Hot Organization on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/darkwasthenight

Music News Round Up, Jan 13

The death of Ron Asheton of The Stooges gave the year a mournful start, with precious little else to cheer up fans of good music (that’s you, right?).

While we can wonder at Bono writing a column for the New York Times, and feign interest in the latest Amy Winehouse gossip, Kanye rant or Babyshambles guest, surely there is something actually newsworthy out there?

Here's what's piqued my interest in the first two weeks of '09.

The release of Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion would have been reason to get excited at any time of year but has been enhanced by the dearth of other quality records coming out and the fact that My Girls borrows a synth line from Frankie Knuckles.

Various people are spouting forth on best new music for 2009 lists, with most agreeing that, love it or hate it, electro-pop will be BIG. After great releases from Ladyhawke, Friendly Fires, Hot Chip and Cut Copy in 2008, Little Boots, La Roux and Lady Ga Ga head up this year’s electro-assault while Pet Shop Boys have a track on the Girls Aloud album and are getting Outstanding Contribution award at The Brits.

At the spookier end of the spectrum, how about this little beauty from Fever Ray (Karin from The Knife’s new project).





Norman Cook prepares to release his Brighton Port Authority album. The project he’s been working on for a few years features Iggy Pop, David Byrne, Jamie T and Dizzee Rascal and others. Speaking of Byrne and Cook, whatever happened to the Imelda Marcos musical they were working on?

Motown celebrates it’s 50th birthday this year. Richard Williams, the Guardian’s chief sports writer get’s all fanboy about it.

Nice to see Xfm, despite having the worst post-Capital buy out year ever! are again running with the Xfm New Music Award for the best debut album by a UK act. Last year’s event was excellent John Leckie is already lined up as one of the industry panel judges, but you can vote for the shortlist.

Oh, and iconic London venue The Astoria closes this week not with a bang but with a whimper. Yes, it’s terrible to lose a venue in the heart of town, but despite all the great acts that have played there, the sound was always shit upstairs, it was dirty and it smelled. God, I’ll miss it!

Don't Call It A Comeback: 2009 Ones To Watch

Plenty of places are all to ready to tell you who's gonna be the next big thing in 2009 - just check some of the tips from last year to know these need to be taken with a pinch of salt, or the Terris Factor as I like to call it.

Basically, unless these artists already have the albums in the can, it ain't that easy to say that they can turn a couple of great live gigs and a promising demo into something worth cherishing. Many bands fall at the first hurdle.

So let's put aside the brand new and take a look at who the most exciting follow up albums of 2009 will probably come from...

A Camp
The 2001 eponymous debut A Camp album featured The Cardigans’ Nina Persson teaming up with Niclas Frisk and Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous. The follow up ‘Colonia’ finds Persson and Frisk hooking up with ex-Shudder To Think guitarist (and Persson’s husband) Nathan Larson. The album is already in the can and if lead single 'Stronger Than Jesus' is anything to go by it’ll be another melancholic country tinged affair highlighting Nina’s singular voice. Due out February 2.

official site: http://www.acamp.net/


Silversun Pickups
‘Carnavas’ is an album I still can’t get enough. I think I saw these guys six times in 2007 and I’d go and see them six times again if I could. They were recording on and off between July and September last year so we should expect something sometime this year. Until then I’ll just have to make do with playing ‘Lazy Eye’ on Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii.

Silversun Pickups on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/silversunpickups


Band Of Horses
Two brilliant albums so far and the band went into Alabama’s legendary Muscle Shoals studio back in October to start work on the new album which they promise will include “More Than 10 Songs!!!!” with all members of the band writing songs
and once again the album will feature “brand new beautiful artwork” by Christopher Wilson.

official site: http://www.bandofhorses.com/


PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey and erstwhile collaborator John Parish have teamed up to record the follow up to 1996’s Dance Hall At Louse Point and is due out at the end of March on Island. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s lost interest in Peej over the last couple of releases, could this be the one that wins us back?

official site: http://www.pjharvey.net/


Beirut
Zach Condon follows up 2007’s the Flying Club Cup with a double EP due in February. March of the Zapotec/Holland. Latest info says that part one of the EP will be under the Beirut name and was recorded with Mexican musicians The Jiminez Band, while part two is “bedroom style recordings” under Condon’s previous moniker Realpeople.

official site: http://www.beirutband.com/


The National
The band are in the early stages of making the follow up to Boxer but it’s unlikely to see a release until 2010. But I mention them here as Aaron and Bryce Dessener have produced what has the potential to be an awesome compilation for the HIV/AIDS combatting Red Hot Organization. ‘Dark Was The Night’ features stellar cast of the indie great and good from Sufjan Stevens, Spoon, New Pornographers, Arcade Fire, Stuart Murdoch, My Morning Jacket, David Sitek and a shitload more. Check out the full details.

The National on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/thenational
Red Hot Organization: http://tinyurl.com/redhotanddark


Animal Collective
The Baltimore based trio release ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’, this Monday and have made an early punt for Hipster Album Of The Year. With tracks appearing all over the internet and new song ‘My Girls’ up on the band’s MySpace page this looks likely to grow their fanbase much more than 2007’s ‘Strawberry Jam’ with Pitchfork already giving it a 9.6 review and calling it more “accessible and complete” than their earlier work. Their Koko show on Monday is sold out but they’re back at The Forum in March.

Animal Collective on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/animalcollectivetheband

Podcast 10

Podcast 10 recorded.

Best Of 2008

For me 2008 was a weird year for music, I spent a lot of the time traveling and then a couple of months trying to catch up with new music - I’ve still got a list of over a dozen albums I want to get my hands on.

Live I was fortunate enough to catch Coachella and Daydream festivals in the US and Spain respectively as well as see Split Enz in New Zealand, Duran Duran in Paris and The Dodos in LA not to mention a slew of bands in London including superlative shows from Band Of Horses, The Hold Steady, TV On The Radio and The Gaslight Anthem.

Back in November I was thinking that this wasn’t going to be a vintage year, but my list ended up surprisingly strong. I mainly consumed music as whole albums in ‘08, in 2009 I’m expecting to a more eclectic pick and mix.

Best of 2008...

Stone Cold Killers
Friendly Fires ‘Friendly Fires’
Johnny Foreigner ‘Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light’
Bon Iver ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’
The Dodos ‘Visiter’
Kings Of Leon ‘Only By The Night’
TV On The Radio ‘Dear Science’
Elbow ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’
Vampire Weekend ‘Vampire Weekend’
The Raconteurs ‘Consolers Of The Lonely’

Great albums with a couple of dud tracks or overlong
The Hold Steady ‘Stay Positive’
Black Mountain ‘In The Future’
The Walkmen ‘You & Me’
Ladyhawke ‘Ladyhawke’
Sigur Ros ‘Med Sud....’
Los Campesinos! ‘Hold On Youngster’ and ‘We Are Beautiful We are Doomed’
Nick Cave ‘Dig Lazarus Dig’
Death Cab For Cutie ‘Narrow Stairs’

Really Good Albums with a couple of great tunes
Fleet Foxes ‘Fleet Foxes
The Gaslight Anthem ‘The ’59 Sound’
School Of Seven Bells 'Alpinism'
Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks ‘Real Emotional Trash’
MGMT ‘Oracular Spectacular’
Lykke Li ‘Youth Novels’ - Scandiniavan electro pop
White Denim ‘Workout Holiday’