05/27:

Screaming Females, Castle Talk

Screaming Females opened for Ted Leo & The Pharmacists when I saw them in 2010. I had never heard of them. I left that venue a believer. I bought then most-recent album Power Move on site, hunted everything else down in the intervening weeks and was pretty excited when Castle Talk made its appearance later that year. It did not disappoint. Straight up rock music (all-too rare these days) by some great players, with the distinctive voice of singer/guitar Marissa Paternoster to seal the deal. Paternoster is also a dynamite guitar player, but wisely keeps her ability to play thrilling, tumultuous solos in check as a secret weapon rather than filling every moment. It’s a killer album by a great band that keeps getting better.

Screaming Females, “Wild”


Okkervil River, The Stand-Ins

Okkveril River’s two-album experience, The Stage Names and The Stand-Ins, is a wonderful thing. Will Sheff’s is the kind of layered, clever songwriting that ranks up there with some of my all-time favorites, and the performances are as varied as they are memorable.

Okkervil River, “Lost Coastlines”


Beastie Boys, Hot Sauce Committee, Part Two

Hey, I’m happy to say I like this. To the 5 Burroughs didn’t do much for me. The obsession with old school hip hop seemed a big misstep. Both because the Beasties had previously been characterized by their willingness to experiment and try new things, making a regression like that seem really weird, and also because it was so dependent on samples from better songs. The best part of every song was the sample from a song as much as 20 years old (Even the guitar riff from Dead Boys’ “Sonic Reducer” in “Open Letter To NYC”). This, tho’, is not that. This has a quirky new sound to it. While in a sense it’s still something of a look back, at least it’s a look back to more adventurous fare. They play their instruments again, there’s a punk song again, there’s an instrumental. And the production is interesting, sounding as if they may have jammed on their instruments and then chopped up the sessions and made beats out of them. However it was made, I found it much more engaging and interesting than its predecessor, and that’s good news.

Beastie Boys, “Make Some Noise”


Dredg, Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy

I really don’t know what this band is doing anymore. They’ve evolved considerably over the years, but I must admit I’m baffled by this latest incarnation. Working with Dan the Automator, they’ve issued a record based much more in instrumentation you wouldn’t expect, reigning in past guitar pyrotechnics in favor of the dreamy, atmospheric production that has always been on the edges of their work, but never the focus. And the title and lyrical content... Dredg is a band I would call “pretentious” (Their last record was called The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion, for cryin’ out loud), though not in a way I couldn’t enjoy. And now they have an album called Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy. I just don’t know what’s happening anymore. But, whatever it is, it’s not bad, really.

Dredg, “The Thought Of Losing You”


Clutch, The Elephant Riders

The essential 3rd album. Originally planned as a concept album about an alternate history US Civil War fought with zeppelins and elephants, the final album has no overriding concept, but a lot of the imagery remains.

Clutch, “The Soapmakers”


DJ Shadow, ...Endtroducing

Generally speaking, when this album appears on this list (As it has often in the past), it was late in the evening and I was trying to relax. This album was amazing when it came out and my estimation of it has only risen since. The atmosphere is spectacular. And unlike most people with the word “DJ” in their names in the late 90s, the music feels organic, moving and powerful.

DJ Shadow, “Building Steam With A Grain of Salt”


The National, High Violet

The follow-up to Boxer, one of my favorite albums of the last ten years for sure, is moodier and mopier. Lead single “Bloodbuzz Ohio” is the only song to really carry on the catchy-yet-low-key feel of that album. But High Violet has its own charms, with a more expansive sound and darker tone. Also: this video is incredible.

The National, “Conversation 16”


Yup.

--D