Rather than compiling a huge list at the end of the year, not having enough time to do a good job, and simply throwing something together really fast, I'm going to start compiling my thoughts on albums over the whole year - month by month. Some of these may have actually been released earlier in the year, but are in this months set because this is when I got my hands on them.
Every once in a while I get down about the indie music scene because it seems like every band is trying so hard to forge a unique indie sound that will get them recognition as doing something groundbreaking. In the process, however, too many veer off into genres and sounds that just aren't listenable. This is one reason for why I have always loved Brendan Benson. There is no shtick here. He just makes good 'ol fahsioned indie-rock albums. I really wish he would dedicate more time to his solo ventures than what he was doing with Jack White and the Ranconteurs. My Old Familiar Friend has been a long time coming too. His last solo release, Alternative to Love, was in 2005! It was a phenomenal album and set the bar fairly high for this new LP. Since then, and especially over the last 12 months a good batch of new demos have been floating around, whetting our appetites. The resulting LP is great. However, there are a few misteps - Garbage Day is a travesty. A few other tracks are good, but not great, and I wonder why some of the really stellar demos I had collected didn't make the cut. In any case. Benson's mix of indie-rock with classic southern rock sounds and tight harmonies is great. No frills rock. I love it. Top tracks include a Whole Lot Better and Misery.
2. fun. Aim and Ignite I was saddened when The Format broke up. I had followed them since their first EP was produced by Bob Hoag at Flying Blanket Studio and I was so excited when their 2nd LP, Dog Problems, did so well. In the wake of the break up, lead-singer Nate formed a new band - fun. If you liked The Format, you will like fun. There are quite a few moments on the album where direct links to the Dog Problems sound can be traced. The multi-phase pacing of At Least I'm Not as Sad (as I used to be) is a direct translation of things they did on Dog Problems. There is a greater reliance on string arrangments, rather than brass and woodwinds, throughout Aim and Ignite that signal a new direction. The album is good, but disappointing at times. 4 of the songs are honestly some of the best tracks from any album this year. Some of the others, however, are just "ok." When the good tracks are good, though, they are REALLY good. Consider Be Calm, Benson Hedges, At Least I'm Not as Sad (as I used to be) [download mp3] and Walk the Dog.
Pedro the Lion's frontman (and only man in some ways) David Bazan is now releasing his brand of acoustic indie-rock under his own name. Must be a trend - Conor Oberst, Matt Pryor, etc . . . In any case, I saw Bazan do an acoustic set last year and was very excited to see how the songs he played would translate into studio tracks. It is great in its simplicity - as always. Even when there is full instrumentation to his songs, there always seems to be a very streamlined approach to his music. A welcome addition to an already prolific discography. Top tracks include Hard to Be, Curse Your Branches, Bless This Mess [download mp3] and Please, Baby, Please.
4. Fruit Bats The Ruminant Band Sub Pop's Fruit Bats have taken quite a break since their 2005 Spelled in Bones. The new album is good, consistent and introduces some new sounds to their alt-folk repertoire. Few tracks leap out as amazing masterpieces, but the album as a whole holds together very well. Top tracks are Primitive Man, Being on Our Own and Feather Bed.
5. Owen The Seaside [EP] The Seaside EP includes a grouping of songs that had been previously released on splits, 7"s and compilations. While I had already dug most of them up, having them in one place is nice. It has gotten me excited about Owen's upcoming LP New Leaves as well. A good addition to your Owen library. Top tracks are Head Will Ache and I'm Not Seventeen.
6. Blue Scholars OOF! [EP] Blue Scholars MC Geologic grew up in Hawaii in the 1980s before transplanting to Seattle. This EP is all about the island and would have been a better release for the early summer - that way I could have listened to the island-inspired beats and rhymes all summer long! Sabzi's production and beats feature a host of new sounds and tricks. In many ways, the rhymes are secondary to the beats on this EP - which is usually not the case. As a matter of fact, the lyrics are pretty horrible in parts. It seems to me that Sabzi had some new beats he had worked out, and Geologic quickly slapped together some inane verses on top of them. They really lack the sophistication, poetic quality and complex syncopation of the Blue Scholars that have won me over in the past. Come to think of it, "New People" is all around horrible. A few somewhat redeemable tracks are HI-808 and Cruz.
7. Andrew Bird Fitz and the Dizzyspells [EP] This EP came out back in May and features one track off of Noble Beast, with 4 new songs. It is classic Andrew Bird. Not much commentary to make. Favorite track was Ten-You-Us.
Folks, I may have found a new favorite song. Well, I'm not sure if I could actually do a top songs list, but this one would be up there on it. It comes off of J. Tillman's upcoming September LP A Year in the Kingdom. It is called "There is no Good in Me."
I can't post it now, but will include it in my September Best of 2009 post. Until then, keep your eyes peeled on Tillman's Myspace in case he posts it as a sample track.
Another related heads up: as I am reviewing his new LP for the future post, I can't get enough. This is going to be a TOP contender for best of the year. Seriously. A
ugust has some strong contenders too though - fun.'s Aim and Ignite, and The Fruit Bats' The Ruminant Band are also sounding great!
You've been asking for ages for details of the new album, and we are very pleased to be able to FINALLY offer some up! fun.'s debut, Aim & Ignite will be released on August 25th. The record was made with great friends new and old, and we're psyched to show off the incredible album cover by the very talented Jacob Weinstein.
Aim & Ignite 8.25.09
Track Listing: 1. Be Calm 2. Benson Hedges 3. All The Pretty Girls 4. I Wanna Be The One 5. At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be) 6. Light A Roman Candle With Me 7. Walking The Dog 8. Barlights 9. The Gambler 10. Take Your Time (Coming Home)
I was crushed when The Format broke up. Very sad indeed. Thankfully, Nate has started a new band named fun. Here are the 2 demos they have released. Download them, love them, get them stuck in your head.
At Least I'm Not as Sad (as I used to be) [download mp3]
My hope is that you are reading this because you are interested. My hope is that you are reading this because you have been waiting. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve said anything, and for a lot of you it may have seen like I left on a weird note. For that I apologize but my hope is that you’ll feel that it was worth the wait. This letter is going out through The Format’s email list, so I’m hoping to talk directly to you, the folks who have always been so good to us.
The last time I wrote was when i had the unfortunate task of informing you that The Format had broken up. I must admit, it’s still kind of a touchy subject for me. After all, I spent almost seven years travelling the United States (and eventually much of the world) with some of my best friends, doing something that we all loved dearly. I had a great time doing what I love most; making and performing music. Sadly though, we made a decision to put The Format to the side and one of the best things about music is that it isn’t confined to working with only one specific group of people. I get to do it again.
For a music obsessive, one of the great things about touring is the opportunity to not only meet some of the most talented people on this planet, but its also the opportunity to make great friends and forge certain bonds. I can recall so many times when I’ve watched someone else on stage doing what they love and thinking to myself how fortunate I am to be in the same position. The day after The Format had broken up, I already knew that I couldn’t just call it quits. I wasn’t ready to give up music. I had a handful of songs that I was convinced were the best songs I’d written and I don’t think that I would have been able to live with myself if I had just left them to evaporate somewhere in the back of my mind. I don’t even think I had told my mother of the band’s demise before I made the two phone calls that set the amazing events of the past few months in motion.
Much like Dog Problems, some of the songs that I had been writing were in dire need of arrangements, harmonies, and a whole bunch of player piano. Did I ever know the guy: Andrew Dost. Hopefully you had the chance to see Andrew when he was in Anathallo, or when he was the seventh member of The Format on one of our ’Dog Problems’ tours. I remember being on tour with him and just being blown away at his ability to play almost every instrument with ease, sometimes switching from singing and playing the glockenspiel to playing the piano and flugelhorn (all mid-song!!!) (oh and I just read that last sentence back to myself and it reads like something out of the renaissance fair pamphlet). On that tour we spent many nights bonding over our love for Weezer b-sides, among many other things. So I called him, gave him the bad news, and asked him to help me finish these songs I’d been writing. He was anxious to get busy working on some of the rough song ideas I would send him. I remember a few days after we talked I was feeling really upset about how things were unfolding, when I received a call from his home in Michigan with the exclamation that he had written some harmonies to the end of a song I had sent him. I rushed home to download and proceeded to spend the rest of the day feeling invincible. Andrew and I were going to make a record, but I had one more phone call to make...
Whether I want to admit it or not, guitar is most likely (see...cant do it) my favourite instrument...I remember every great guitarist I’ve ever met (sure I can only count them on one hand) and since the moment I saw Jack Antonoff play he has always been the index finger. He and I can both vividly remember the first time we actually met, at a concert in New Jersey. We both remember thinking the other was an arrogant asshole. We were both kinda right. I barely got the words out of my mouth before he said yes, count him in. That fast.
At this point I was walking on air. We all made plans to meet in New York immediately. Looking back I didn’t know what I wanted to come out of this. I think I just wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t completely nuts, but in hindsight I must have been, because four days later we were sitting in Jack’s living room going over some of the music I had sent them. The first song we had worked on was "Benson Hedges" (the demo, which we record that very first day, is up on our MySpace). I remember Jack understanding it right away. He picked up the guitar and played it exactly the way I had heard it. Then there’s Dost: I had explained to him that when we would record the song properly, I would want a gospel choir. He said that he wanted a crack at it for the demo, so Jack and I left him alone for a while and tried our best not to laugh when we heard him singing so many different variations of "holyghost" from the other room. If only we had known what it was going to sound like when it was all said and done. My jaw dropped - in thirty minutes his one voice had recorded all of the harmonies and sketched out one heck of a gospel sound. We proceeded to collectively put more bells (literally) and whistles (the triangle) on the song and once Jack and Andrew had mixed it, we listened in a car in the garage and I had chills. If I had any fears or concerns, it was right then, once the song finished, that I knew I couldn’t have been in a better place. When we left New York after that first batch of demos, we knew that things were going to really change for us.
I flew back home to phoenix with the decision that it would be my last few weeks there. My girlfriend lives in New York. She and I had decided to get an apartment in Brooklyn. It was hard because Phoenix is "my city", despite the fact that I’ve been to 47 states (I keep count, sorry Alaska,
Maine and Montana) I had decided, like with many things in my life at the time, a change of scenery was in order. One of the first things I did when I got home was meet up with Sam to play him what we had been working on, after all, a few of the songs that we worked on were started by the both of us.
Sam, not only being one of my best friends, was also my musical companion for so long. Not only do I respect his opinion incredibly, but I also know that I need it. Fortunately he had the same excitement. It was nice to see a few of the songs that were to be on the next Format record ushered along NOT by strangers, but some of our good friends. Andrew came out to work for a week while i packed up, and a few weeks later i said an extremely tearful goodbye to my parents as I drove east.
The next few months had been more work, adjusting to the city and quietly figuring out who was going to help us on this crazy expedition. We didn’t have to go very far. Nettwerk was The Format’s management and really the company that helped ’Dog Problems’ become the off-the-beaten-path business success that it was. I was still being managed by them and when they heard the demos, they jumped (just like they did when they met Sam at our super-craziest, right before we got dropped. They’re nuts over there). I’ve been very lucky to have kept so many great friends through this whole thing, we have the same booking agent that we’ve had for the last six years, and he was one of, if not the first person, who really came forward to me and told me how important it was that I continue working and making music.
We are also very fortunate to be making a record with most of the same
Producers (their manager included!), arrangers, and musicians that helped me see out a dream when Sam and I made ’Dog Problems.’
And lately while jack has been on tour, Andrew and I have been jet-setting back and forth from New York to Michigan to Los Angeles getting all of the songs ready for when we head into the studio on September 1st. Somewhere in that time the very wonderful Andrew McMahon decided that he wanted our new band to play on his upcoming Jack’s Mannequin tour. I can’t begin to tell you how flattering it is that Andrew would have enough belief in us that he would take us on tour without our having made any official announcements about the band, let alone choosing a name. We were really taking our time and trying to get things right before this tour really set us into full motion.
So here I am now, months of silence and months of preparation, finally able to proudly introduce you to what has so gratefully been my life for the past seven months. I’m not going to lie, I’m nervous, and despite how much fun (ha!) I’m having there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about all of my friends in the format and the wonderful job we did for the last seven years. But things change and we have to move forward, I just never knew that I would be able to move this forward this fast. I’m dying to get back on stage and perform, I’m dying for you to hear what I get to hear. And I am so thankful for all of the support I’ve received from you guys over the last seven years and over the last seven months. So I really want this new band to be a celebration of the things we love and what it takes to accomplish and keep them. I can’t wait to keep doing this with Jack and Andrew and I am so fortunate to hopefully be a part of you, the listeners, lives. I’m not going anywhere. Why should you?
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is only $5.99. Not bad for what many blogs ranked as the best album of the last decade! 
