covering my ass
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girls’ “album” is excellent
26-Jan-10I’m gonna take a break from my 15 lists to write about Girls. Despite their un-Google-friendly name and album title, I love this band’s debut, “Album.” Like pretty much everything these days, it’s retro in a way. Don’t let that bother you. I’ve stopped letting it bother me. I think it’s a function of the unprecedented ease of becoming musically literate in the information age. Instead of saying, “Oh, this is just a [insert seminal rock-and-roll band name] ripoff,” let us appreciate the songs for their interpretations of their predecessors, how they mix in the old and the new, and whether the songs are just good on their own, without any implied references. Girls shines in these respects throughout their album, and especially on my three favorite tracks, which follow. I also absolutely love all of these videos.
“Laura”
“Hellhole Ratrace”
“Lust for Life”
15×15 lists: ABOUT | MUSE | SINGER-SONGWRITER | GUILTY PLEASURES | RADIOHEAD | BEST SONGS PT 1 | PT 2 | PT 3 | PROMISING
(The image is from Wordle. Thanks Wordle.)
Nothing like a few vacation days to get the ol’ elielioh caught up. I have to admit, this whole 15×15 list was a little ambitious, especially since I’d hoped to finish them up before the Naughties ended. I’ve done five. I assure you, though, faithful reader, that I actually have all of these lists mapped out, and I will ride this biatch out.
That being said, this list isn’t really about the Naughties. It’s a compilation of songs from bands that debuted late in the Naughties, who I predict we’ll look back at in ten years as being some of the best bands of the Teenies. (I’d argue for this to be the official name of this decade, but apparently porn has a stranglehold on the term).
So… now that I lost half of you who surfed to porn, I should mention that this isn’t what I think the list is going to look like in ten years. Obviously many new artists will surface over the coming years. Also, quite honestly, I’d put Radiohead as the odds-on favorite, of bands that exist now, to be the best band of the next decade. (BTW, is everyone enjoying how I’m treating completely subjective matters like science?) I’m thinking Arctic Monkeys and M.I.A. are the other current artists that we’ll be talking about most in ten years.
So, here’s the list, alphabetically:
“Atrophy” by The Antlers – Nothing starts a great list off like… the saddest song you ever heard, a somber story of someone in hospice care. Oy. Really though, it’s an amazing song, and part of an even better (as a whole) concept album called, appropriately enough, Hospice. Also, this song is really two songs.
“Gila” by Beach House - This is one of two songs that it pained me to leave off the “Best Songs Period” list. Baltimore represent.
“Flume” by Bon Iver
“Vanished” by Crystal Castles
“Never Stops” by Deerhunter
“Trashcan” by Delta Spirit – Listen for the trashcan.
“Old, Old Fashioned” by Frightened Rabbit
“The Boys Are Leaving Town” by Japandroids – These days, you don’t see a lot of good fuzzed out emocore punk rockers.
“Kids” by MGMT
“Say Aha” by Santigold – This is the other song that it pained me to leave off the “Best Songs Period” list.
“Green Rain” by Shugo Tokumaru – How does one dream up stuff like this? Seriously!
“Campus” by Vampire Weekend – Don’t make the same mistake I did, partially dismissing them because they seem at first glance like a bunch getting by on kitsch more than talent. But really, there’s song-writing and song-execution talent here. Think Paul Simon. (I think this means so far so good with my predictions.)
“You Can’t Say” by White Denim
“Crystalised” by The XX – An easy choice for my favorite new artist of 2009.
“Tightrope” by Yeasayer – One of my five(ish) favorite song from 2009.
15×15 lists: ABOUT | MUSE | SINGER-SONGWRITER | GUILTY PLEASURES | RADIOHEAD | BEST SONGS PT 1 | PT 2 | PT 3 | PROMISING
“Toxicity” by System of a Down – 2001
I just love this band. Their co-headline show at MCI Center (as it was called then) with Mars Volta was my second best concert experience in the Aughties. In this track, they show off their incredible knack for challenging, yet accessible music, with better in-song stop-start and loud-soft transitions than pretty much anyone. (Mars Volta would be in that discussion too.)
“Last Nite” by The Strokes – 2001
MTV2, in 2001, introduced me to three new bands that most people had never heard of, and actually became respected by critical and discerning music nerds. The bands were System of a Down, Coldplay, and The Strokes. You would have a lot trouble finding any useful musical inspiration nowadays in the Reality Era of MTV. Trust me. (Last night I tried to watch some MTV countdown show of the supposed best rock songs of 2009, and I had to mute the TV to satisfy my curiosity of who made MTV’s cut.) So, I was probably witnessing the programming selections of the last person who cared about music at MTV.
“Toxic” by Britney Spears – 2003
WHAAAAT? Seriously? Yes, seriously. It’s a masterpiece.
“15 Steps” by Radiohead – 2007
Obviously, there are about a dozen other songs I could have picked to represent Radiohead here, but I had to go with this one, because 1) It’s the first track off “In Rainbows,” which was one of the releases I’ve been most excited about in my life, and it instantly lived up to my expectations, and 2) I wanted an excuse to show this video of the band performing it live … at the Grammys … with the USC marching band. Yup.
“All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem – 2007
And now it’s time to end my epic mix of the decade with an appropriately epic song from LCD Soundsystem. You don’t notice it happening, but it swells from a stumbling piano and a whisper to a desperate, roaring conclusion. Not many songs, even from this list, can match this one in significance and beauty.
15×15 lists: ABOUT | MUSE | SINGER-SONGWRITER | GUILTY PLEASURES | RADIOHEAD | BEST SONGS PT 1 | PT 2 | PT 3
“Tamacun” by Rodrigo y Gabriela – 2006
These former Mexico City metal thrashers gave us the decade’s most impressive piece of guitar work in the instrumental, “Tamacun.” And guess what. They’re both amazing guitarists, but Gabriela is the one that makes this band special. No sense in describing it. Just enjoy the epic awesomeness:
“Paper Planes” by M.I.A. – 2007
Speaking of epic songs… M.I.A., daughter of a Tamil political activist, provided the decade with what must be it’s “biggest” song. What does that mean? I do not know. It has an absolute killer of a hook; so simple, so recognizable, and so big. [Edit: That hook is from The Clash's "Straight to Hell," but I still think M.I.A. and her collaborators, Diplo and Switch, made something totally different out of that riff.] It was featured in one of the decade’s most enjoyed movies, Slumdog Millionaire, and it never fails to catch one’s attention. I could go into the global significance of an artist that embodies the genre-cross-pollination that gave the Naughties the closest thing it has to a musical identity, but I’ll leave that to people who know about that stuff. I just like the music.
“Over and Over” by Hot Chip – 2006
Here’s another genre-bender. This is just plain good dance music. It’s fun, but not too fun. It’s hip but not too hip. It’s noisy and fussy and tension-building, until the release of a crackling guitar solo. It makes me wanna shake around and dance crazy.
“Heartbeats” by The Knife – 2003
I posted about this song way back when I was actually still presenting “Songs of the Day.” Those Scandinavian countries produced a lot of good records and artists in the Naughties. Still, I don’t care where you’re from; if you make songs this good, your titles will grace the screen of my iPod on a regular basis.
“Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” by Kylie Minogue – 2001
Kylie Minogue was my roommate’s first crush…. in the late ’80s. How an the Australian former soap opera star whose biggest previous hit was a cover of “The Loco-Motion” be the source of one of the best songs of the Naughties, a full decade and a half after her peak popularity is a mystery to me. Of course, I could look it up, but I don’t care that much. You know why? Because I’m listening to “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head,” and I don’t want to think about anything but “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.”