The Sonic Parthenon Playlist: Autumn 2009, Vol. II

Magnolia Electric Co. - "Little Sad Eyes"
The deftly sedate Indie band conjures up a little Jazz in their melancholic love story.

The Maldives - "Blood Relations"
An epic song from the love children of Neil Young and Levon Helm. Every modern country act should sit down and listen to this and find out everything they are doing wrong. Then go to Rodney Crowell for some help. Then bring these guys on a tour and rock the worlds of every Nashville-loving cowpoke yon South and West. No man worth his salt would turn his nose up at this song.

Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles - "Special Party Time for Everybody"
The cutesy title is misleading - this is a dense, well-played country-pop song.

Monsters of Folk - "Say Please"
This year's supergroup of supergroups, it is just more evidence of the primacy of M. Ward, the improvement of Conor Oberst, the occasional flash of brilliance from Jim James (excuse me, Yim Yames) and the whatever from that Mike Mogis guy.

Lookbook - "The Only Ones" and Neon Indian - "Terminally Chill"
A pair of ultra-dance songs: Lookbook are pure 80's revival and have fun doing it. Neon Indian is a totally typical trendy hipster act but if I had heard this song earlier in the year, I'd have had a summer dance hit. This year's Justice/Junior Senior.

Pearl Jam - "The Fixer"
Pearl Jam's gone happy! Pearl Jam's gone happy! The band was always melodic but they never got over their grunge-era grumpiness. Then Eddie and the boys shed their recording contract and suddenly pop isn't such a bad thing in rock. "The Fixer" is a shockingly fun Pearl Jam song. Repeat: This PEARL JAM SONG IS FUN. The only thing more shocking than this song's existence is the news that the band closed out the Philadelphia Spectrum on Halloween by donning up as Devo and doing "Whip It". Yes I am still talking about Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam. To quote my co-worker on all things..."What the hell is going on?!"

The Raveonettes
After a good set at the Siren Festival, the Raveonettes backed it up with two great songs from their new, back-to-pop, record called In and Out of Control: "Suicide" and "Last Dance"

Rodrigo Y Gabriela - "Hanuhuman"
The best damn Dublin-based Mexican mixed sex former metal acoustic duo in the world have asserted themselves as an act that won't change its sound. They don't have to.

Sea Wolf - "Wicked Blood"
Plain, straight-up, clearly identified Indie rock can be dull but every now and then a band that is grouped in this category breaks the mold. Sea Wolf does that with this striking song that has not left my playlist despite the fact that I never give the band much else thought.

The xx
The badly named xx are a very buzzed, very fast rising pop band ala the Airborne Toxic Event but with backing-tracks everywhere and almost no rocking intensity on their debut LP. This is not a negative however as they are so clearly inspired by the Velvelt Underground and the Jesus and Mary Chain in all the right ways. So now you're thinking distortion. Nope, no distortion. But the pop sensibilities. Mixed with a sense of sleek. Great walking-around-the-city-at-night music - maybe the best since the National's Boxer. And one of the rare completely good full-length albums of 2009.

Honorable mentions:
The Avett Brothers - "I and Love and You"
Forro in the Dark - "Perro Loco"
The Fucking Eagles - "Gentlemen's Blues"
Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks: "The Blues My Naughty Baby Gave to Me"
Islands - "Shining"
Soulsavers - "Pharoh's Chariot"
Yo La Tengo - "Periodically Double or Triple"

Siren Music Festival 2009: The Raveonettes; Grand Duchy; Frightened Rabbit

The Raveonettes; Grand Duchy; Frightened Rabbi (Siren Music Festival)
@ Coney Island
Brooklyn, NY - July 18, 2009

Another hot, crowded, noisy year at Siren but the sound was good and the bands better.

The Raveonettes never seem to play the same show twice, which works in their favor. But by continuing their "We're Dour Again" ways, they've lost that spark from Chain Gang of Love. No matter, it rocked.

Grand Duchy, Black Francis' collaboration with his wife Violet Clark, retains the hard rockin' thrust of Charlie's Pixies with the same flair for melody and sly swipes of pop. What is it about this man and his work that always connotates an image of bleakness yet always reliably brings about a good case of the jollies? Side note: the image of blue and white beach balls tossing about in front of four all-black dressed musicians made for a fascinating image.

Frightened Rabbit seem to get lobbed in with the long line of lush Scottish pop music but their consistently pounding energy makes them more in the vein of the better sides of U2. They had the crowd in the palm of their hand, proving that even the most stylist, indifferent hipster is a sucker for well-made pop music.

Metric Performed on Fearless Music

Handshakes

Fearless Music is an inconsistent but nevertheless needed and relevant music program that airs here in New York late Saturday nights on the Fox channel. Be Your Own Pet plays tonight and the past has seen the Mooney Suzuki, the Raveonettes, and a host of others, perhaps most notably Murder By Death, which is how I found out about that band.

Raveonettes Return to Southpaw

The Raveonettes; Nicole Atkins; Gliss
@ Southpaw
Brooklyn, NY - October 10, 2007

Denmark's Raveonettes, relocated to the USA, have returned to the stripped down (B minor?) sound that they introduced themselves to the world with some four or five years ago. A hard working band, they do lo-fi distortion right but there was still something lamentable about the lack of a second guitarist and the whimsy of Chain Gang of Love and Pretty in Black.
"Attack of the Ghost Riders":

A new one
Nicole Atkins is a singer-songwriter type who does some great ballads and some hit or miss peppy ones. The ballads work because she borrows a little bit of soul, a little bit of country, and a little bit of Spector - both of them.
Gliss are a trio from California that merge the neo-Jesus and Mary Chain thing with the cluddered neo-Joy Division thing. It mostly works. They also make a habit of changing positions all show long.
Photos

Artist of the Week: The Raveonettes

With all the hullabaloo of the National kicking off Terminal 5 and Jay Reatard setting up shop here this week, short shrift is sort of being given to the Raveonettes, one of the great bands of the decade. They may have peaked with their 2003 record Chain Gang of Love and their Christmas song, arguably the greatest new holiday jingle of the last 40 years (no hyperbole, honest) but they have a chance to prove us all wrong with three shows this week.