I saw this sign on Cedar & Lake. Too bad I'm not in the mood for any sarcastic furniture.
There's some good music by new artists here. Some of it came out at the very end of 2008 and took a while to move through the filter. Some of it is brand new. Don't mistake the inclusion of a Decemberists track as an endorsement of the album. It's a horrible record, just with one good pop song near the end. If a band is going to move away from pop music and attempt some serious music, we're going to judge it based on real things now. You can't just fly by on catchy melodies and a cutesy voice anymore. This album is just painful to listen to. A lot of people are calling it brilliant, but it's not brilliant to write a rock opera when you don't know anything about writing actual music. It's pathetic. There's one passage that made me want to throw my iPod in the river, where there's about 45 seconds of parallel sixths in the harmony in this melodramatic duet between Mr Meloy and some woman. They really should have stuck to their schtick. It was a good one (listen to the song here - even that is schmaltz) The Hazards of Love is a poor man's Dream Theater, and that's being generous.
Passion Pit seems like kind of the star here. I feel weird falling for hipster electro dance pop, but this gets catchier every time. It sounds like Jay Dee producing for the Dirty Projectors.
Baseball starts tonight!
- Passion Pit - Cuddle Fuddle
- DOOM - Ballskin
- Now, Now Every Children - Not One, But Two
- Julie Doiron - Nice to Come Home
- Bill Callahan - All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast
- Telekinesis! - Coast Of Carolina
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Runaway
- Throw Me The Statue - Written In Heart Signs, Faintly
- Deer Tick - Art Isn't Real (City of Sin)
- Women - Group Transport Hall
- The Girls - Transfer Station
- The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)
- Laura Veirs - Wildwood Flower
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Previously: Mix #38, March '09
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