The Sonic Parthenon Playlist: Spring 2011, Vol. 1

A little bit different for this recap of the passing season.

Albums
Airborne Toxic Event - All at Once ("Changing" is by far the stand-out on what may prove to be a sophmore slump record for a band that has exploded.)
The Lonely Forest - Arrows (as of right now, my album of the year - except I didn't think to put this in the list when I first published it, and I forgot to play them as I intended on last week's Sonic Parthenon Show.)
The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh ("Boeing 737" sounds like nothing else as their road of a record.)
Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong (the title track and "Heart in Your Heartbreak" rule the roost but overall the Pains have asserted themselves as one of THE bands of the era. They're in this for the long haul.)
The Strokes - Angles ("Taken for a Fool" is great. "Under Cover of Darkness" could be the single of the year. Everything else is essentially dreck. Letdown.)
Tv on the Radio - Nine Types of Light (With each record, TVOTR not only improves but makes the case that they may be the band we cite first and foremost for this generation of music, the way we cite Nirvana).

Songs

4 on the Floor - "Junkie"
Boat - "Forever in Armitron"
The Dogs - "Dance More"
Manhunt - "Just in Time"
A quartet of rockers that I've grouped for simply being straight-up rock n roll. "Junkie" is straight out of the playbook and "Just in Time" sounds like the stepchild of Dinosaur Jr (only missing of course the solos).

Usonia - "It's Your Night"
Starfucker - "Bury Us Alive"
A pair of dance numbers for that warm weather groove. There are two more that I just started listening to that will be around for the summer recap. Dirty Vegas on the Sonic Parthenon Show?! Anything is possible...

Sonic Parthenon's The Year in Music 2008: Part 7

The Ting Tings
I'm not going to kid you. I loved We Started Nothing. They may flame out faster than even Vampire Weekend, but brother, this is a band. Everything felt good, everything sounded good (it certainly did from outside McCarren Park). Every song was a damn hit. Anyone who didn't feel like moving to this band really needs to lighten up a bit.

Titus Andronicus
Their nom-de-song is a keeper, one for the parties and the workouts, and their Maxwell's opening slot for the Dirtbombs was compelling enough.

TV on the Radio
No big shock that Dear Science is one of the best albums of the year. If any band demonstrated a keen ability to make a more open-arms record than what they had previously made it was this band. Essentially, this band can do anything it wants and probably do no wrong. Good on them. And good on Tunde especially for his sly role in Rachel Getting Married and good on Kyp for that hauntingly good opening over the summer for Celebration as Rain Machine, and good on Sitek for helping the Dirtbombs out in a gear jam in Austin last Spring.

Vampire Weekend
Like with the Ting Tings, if anyone truly went out of their way to dislike this band, they really need to consider the concept of loosening up. A band doesn't need to be the greatest thing ever to be good. They just need to be, at the bare minimum, conducive to having a good time. And Vampire Weekend fills that role smashingly. Another record where everything is a hit and so what? Good. They were really only a B+ band going into 2008, but the backlash was so out of proportion, it made them look like an A.

The Virgins
Their opening for the Hold Steady in the Spring at Webster Hall was a lightning bolt of polished pop-rock and the "radio edit" of "Rich Girls" should have been coming out of every car all summer long. 2009 should be a big year for these cats.

The XYZ Affair
With a scene-stealing performance at the Bowery Ballroom in February, and lending "Evening Life" to the soundtrack of our lives, the good, young lads in the XYZ Affair made a sparkling contribution to 2008.

Honorable mentions:
The Bird and the Bee - "Birthday" is such a cutie of a song.

Bound Stems - "Happens to us Otherwise" was the "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe" of 2008.

Brazilian Girls - "Good Time" is one of the best, if not the best, party songs of the year, and any band that tastefully covers the Talking Heads is a-ok in my book.

Don Cavalli - "New Hollywood Babylon" is a strange, spooky, captivating hybrid of India, folk, and hiphop.

Katie Costello - "Kaleidoscope" is a darn tootin' sweet pop single if ever there was one.

Katie Herzig - I know nothing about this woman except that "Wish You Well" haunts me everyday.

Holy Fuck - “Lovely Allen” was lovely indeed, an inspiring bit of instrumental heaven.

Honeyhoney – “Little Toy Gun” was an unexpected bit of Tex-Mex rock, a light version of something that belonged in a Tarantino movie.

Jaguar Love - They sounded terrible after literally 2 seconds at Siren Festival but then "Highways of Gold" turned out to be a humdinger of a single.

M.I.A. - Oh, "Paper Planes" - was there ever a better hiphop single that got a second life a year after its release?

The Notwist - once a metal band, now a provocative Indie pop band with "Good Lies". They could only be German.

Passion Pit - They are all over other lists but for purposes here, "Sleepyhead" was a truly great single. It would have been the "Paper Planes" of 2008 if "Paper Planes" hadn't come back. Instead it has to settle for the "D.A.N.C.E." of the year.

Saturday Knights - "45" was the funniest single of the year and sublimely smart too, and it's good that it came via rap.

The Stills - "Being Here" was one of those great Indie rock numbers, the kind you like to listen by your lonesome when feeling sappy, or at the very least, it didn't make you want to puke.

The Teenagers - "Starlett Johaanson" was the novelty hit of 2008. Moving on.

The Watson Twins - With "How Am I To Be" the Watson Twins sorta kinda proved that they were the secret to Jenny Lewis' solo success.

Dream Tickets: TV on the Radio & The Dirtbombs; The Hold Steady & The Drive-By Truckers

Regionally and Sonic Parthenon-speaking:
TVOTR and the Dirtbombs:
Fri Oct 10 at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia
Tues Oct 14 at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Brooklyn (sold out)
(TVOTR is also playing another show at the Temple the next night, while the Dirtbombs play Maxwell's and Southpaw the next night and night after, respectively)

THS and DBT:
Thu Nov 6 and Fri Nov 7 at Terminal 5 in NYC
Sat Nov 8 at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia
Tue Nov 11 at the Phoenix in Toronto

Both tickets are full-blown tours, check the band sites for details

Celebration; Rain Machine (Kyp Malone) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Celebration; Rain Machine
@ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY - July 20, 2008

Every piece on Celebration inevitably makes a comparison between front woman Katrina Ford and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O. So too will this piece, except this piece declares that these two women have almost nothing in common except they have each made a serious mark on pop/rock music in this decade. The latter is a whirlwind, an unstoppable force, a very distinct figure in a trio that relies on her voice as much if not more so than the guitar and drums. The former is working with an entire different palate. Katrina's voice - much more gorgeous and controlled, much more naturally attuned to music - is but one of the instruments used in this extremely talented Baltimore-based band. For as much as she stands out with her natural talent, her gravitational presence as a performer, and as a real good looking gal, Katrina is playing only a part in this church called Celebration.

Tonight, the Baltimore trio was joined by two Charm City-friends on percussions, strings, and whatnot and two New York friends on horns and percussions. This made for a full invigorating experience. There are only a handful of bands out there who can rely on percussions to carry them through and Celebration may be at the top of that short list. Let's see, how can this be put without going overboard...this was like attending a tribal virgin sacrifice in which the virgin turns out to not be a virgin at all and is in fact leading the festivities. Yeah, that's subtle enough.

The band's recordings do not do them justice (with all do respect to their producer, Dave Sitek). This is a force that needs to be seen live, to let the experience wash over you and to play with your mind. You could close your eyes and still have a good time, that is if you can keep your eyes off Katrina for a few seconds.

The only thing more of a surprise than Kyp Malone being the opening act (under the banner "Rain Machine") is that the TV on the Radio member cut off his 'fro. It turns out his magical powers did not stem from that head of hair, that in fact, his power and appeal come from his art, his mind, his heart. In stark contrast to the musical orgy that followed, this performance was a lesson in simplicity. Whereas Celebration made use of everything but with practically zero emphasis on guitars, Kyp was on stage with his Epiphone-brand Les Paul and nothing else. He played a series of sterling mood pieces, ranging from the reflective to the socially conscious, giving full weight to his words against a backdrop of a few simple yet haunting chords. He made some use of a loop-pedal thingamajig, especially on his last song, an old TVOTR nugget that was absolutely perfect. His songs all sounded like they would each be the perfect climaxing ballad on an album of thoughtful Americana rock, with only occasional dalliances into that classic TVOTR distortion, but rather than sound redundant, they were each impressive, goosebump-giving meditations on life.

In other words, this was one hell of a show.

See? It's Kyp.

Blue Republic's My Space Band of the Week: TV on the Radio

Brooklyn's most notably artistic rock band, TV on the Radio, is back with a new album and a killer single. If you missed their performance on Letterman, shame on you.

Listen to "Wolf Like Me" on my page, before going to the official page and official site.

Why YouTube and David Letterman Rule

Sometimes it's just time to unload a lot of rock n roll on you all at once and sometimes YouTube is the best avenue by which to do this.

David Letterman, for all you want to say about his comedy, remains the best network TV source for rock n roll music (ok probably second nowadays to Conan O'Brien but still...).

TV on the Radio, playing "Wolf Like Me" (their network TV debut, so good that the Late Show site has kept the performance up)



Morningwood playing "Jetsetter"



and a band that needs no introduction or word of mouth, Gnarls Barkley, doing the best performance of "Crazy" that I have seen



Meanwhile, here is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs recent video for "Turn Into"



And speaking of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, here they are, a few years back, on Later with Jools Holland, the BBC program that I have finally been able to watch here in the States on Ovation. Here is the YYY performance from the show, a few years back



And finally, what the hell, here are the White Stripes cameo on the Simpsons this past Sunday