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Posts Tagged ‘music’
I wish it was The Best Of….
2010 -
06.04
The Best of Doves (“The Places Between”) was released on April 5, and two months later, I have a beef. Doves are a stellar band with a great body of work, and I love their most recent albums The Last Broadcast, Some Cities, and Kingdom of Rust. Admittedly, their albums tend to run out of steam by the later tracks (especially The Last Broadcast), very much like some Snow Patrol albums. Because of this, a greatest-hits-type album showcases Doves in a very good light, featuring all the stellar tracks: The Places Between: The Best of Doves.
A grave error has been made though. I looked through the tracks today for the best song Doves have recorded, “Satellites,” from The Last Broadcast, which I also happen to consider one of the best songs ever recorded by any band. Also missing were songs I love like “The Greatest Denier” and “Sky Starts Falling.” Now I realize that ultimately, you’ve got to appease the greater audience with a “Greatest Hits,” so I can forgive the last two, but leaving off “Satellites” is a shame.
Links:
In 2010, The Punks Are in Crystal Castles
2010 -
05.20
Check out my guest post over at the new Promotions Crew blog, it’s a review of Crystal Castles’s second album and a discussion of dancepunk in general: http://www.promotionscrew.com
5 albums you probably don’t own (but should)
2010 -
05.11
Here’s 5 albums and bands that I have in my collection that I talk about a lot, but most folks have never heard of. There are Amazon affiliate links with each one to listen and buy if you wish. By my count, 4 out of the 5 bands listed are long broken up, but regardless, they made some great albums.
#5: “Caution” by Hot Water Music.
I discovered HWM after they had fizzed out. Hailing from Florida and releasing albums sporadically since the mid-90s, I always describe them as “swamp-water punk,” and I think it’s really fitting – throaty, thick music with a nice southern thwomp. Their later albums are the better ones, and this is my favorite release from them.
#4: “Year of the Rat” by NY Loose
NY Loose came and went with one release in 1996. I offer this as a mid-nineties predecessor (and truthfully, a better alternative) to Paramore. New York City grimy rock with a female vocal. Plus, they cover Velvet Underground!
I know like 4 people who’ve ever heard of 16HP. 16HP released 8 albums from the late nineties until they broke up and made little more than a ripple in the alt-country scene. They’re from Denver, and I tell people to imagine if the Cure made a country album, but I think that doesn’t give enough credit to 16HP. They’re dark, dreary, hard, and spiritual in all their recordings and as their releases went on, they got darker. This one is a live album with most of their best songs, so it’s a good start.
#2: “Smack Smash” by Beatsteaks
Beatsteaks are a German band who’ve been around since the mid-nineties, but unlike most on this list are actually still together. This album is one of their most recent and is unbelievable. It’s a punk album with incredibly catchy songs but none of the pop-punk goofiness. The vocals are beefy and cool, the music is tight and refined. As far as I can tell, there were initially no US releases of their stuff, though through the miracle of the internet, you can get them on Amazon and iTunes now. I got this album in 2004 from a German friend and it’s one of my favorite albums ever.
#1: D-Generation’s self-titled album
This album is so cool, you can’t even find it anywhere. If you do, buy it! With Jesse Malin on vocals (who has some great solo albums as well), D Generation single-handedly introduced the US to glam again in the 1990s. The link above is for their second release, No Lunch, which features a few of the songs here, but this one is a gem – think Appetite for Destruction. Rumor has it, DGen was so frustrated with their original record company Chrysalis, they took the masters of this album and threw them in the East River. Don’t bother with their third album, Through the Darkness, my friend Jason is the only person I’ve ever met who likes it.
