6. OFF!, Pitchfork Music Festival – http://t.co/t1X1Zsm

5. Arctic Monkeys, Lollapalooza – http://t.co/JMJ8PJM

4. TV On the Radio, Pitchfork Music Festival – http://t.co/zrYfapK

3. My Morning Jacket, Auditorium Theatre – http://t.co/YtLjYQS

2. Arcade Fire, UIC Pavilion, Night 1 – http://t.co/2Dto4jo

1. The Strokes, SXSW – http://t.co/5lSL6S0

10. Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer

9. Beirut – The Rip Tide

8. The Horrible Crowes – Elsie

7. Not in the Face – Bikini

6. Arctic Monkeys – Suck It and See

5. The Decemberists – The King is Dead

4. Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde

3. TV On the Radio – Nine Types of Light

2. Yuck – Yuck

1. The Vaccines – What Did You Expect From the Vaccines?

For the past few weeks I’ve been able to finally live out the inevitable. At some point, for however long or short a time, I knew I was destined to log some time as a record store clerk. Realistically it just had to happen because it suits my personality almost too well. I love music and can be kind of a prick about it when it comes to defending my tastes, and generally speaking I like hanging out and talking to people. There’s more to it than that, especially during the holiday season when Florence and the Machine records are flying off shelves left and right, but in general its been a nice way to pass the time and make some cash.

But I’ll quit stalling. The real perk is the insane employee discounts I get on everything in the store, including 60 percent off of CDs and vinyl. Holy fuck, right? If I wasn’t jumping ship to Chicago I think I’d gladly give myself up to the gods of retail full time. Anyway, I haven’t bought much in the way of music this year, but the temptation to buy proved to be too much to ignore. Below are in no particular order the six discs I bought with said discount and my early impressions of each:

1. Sunny Day Real Estate – S/T (Sub Pop, 1995)

SDRE’s respect amongst fans and critics has always been there, at least in some small part, but it seems lately people have really come around to just how fucking great these guys were. As the preeminent band to push emo into the pop music foreground, the band’s music still resonates some 16 or 17 years later, and for my money nothing in the band’s short catalogue beats the material boasted on their 1995 self titled release. The songwriting is earnest yet aggressive, the recording vivid and crisp and together it just makes for a great listen. No way Alkaline Trio and Hot Water Music didn’t have their ears keenly tuned to Sunny Day’s dial when they were starting out.

2. Beach Fossils – What a Pleasure (Captured Tracks, 2011)

Joy Division’s influence has always wielded a huge influence in the alternative/indie/shoegaze sound, and the music world is chalk full of uninspired imposters. So when Beach Fossils manage to make such overused influences sound legitimately fresh and compelling, it’s a huge complement. What a Pleasure may be rooted in the same jangly guitars, echoey vocals and muted, robotic drumming that made Joy Division so famous, but they expose a sunnier, almost surf pop-ish side to the formula that you’ll never find on Unknown Pleasures.

3. The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian, 2011)

War On Drugs fans had to worry, or at least be curious, as to how the atmospheric Philly band would fare minus the contributions of founding member Kurt Vile. But while Vile’s talents and contributions can’t be denied, his absence only makes Slave Ambient that much more impressive. Rather than cower in the absence of their co-founder/songwriter, the band picked up the pieces to make their best record to date. Meshing classic rock influences such as Springsteen and Dylan with the decidedly artier sounds of My Bloody Valentine, it might be best described as heartland indie rock. Then again you could just as easily call it the best album of the year.

4. Bad Brains – Black Dots (Caroline Records, 1996)

I’ve written about this already in the blog’s last incarnation, so I’ll just give you the cliff notes. Black Dots is an awesome collection of previously unreleased tracks culled from the band’s late 70s, early 1980 heyday. Blisteringly aggressive and awesomely powerful stuff from arguably the best band of their genre’s era.

5. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Mirror Traffic (Matador Records, 2011)

Maybe the biggest complement I can pay to Mirror Traffic is that I like it. I love Pavement, but I’ve always found Stephen Malkmus’ stuff to be a hit or miss. Face The Truth was cool, I’m kind of on the fence about Pig Lib and I can’t get into Real Emotional Trash‘s jammier tendencies. But Mirror Traffic does as good a job of any Jicks record of fine tuning Pavement’s slack rock sound into something a bit poppier and compact. I’ll take that.

6. The Chemical Brothers – Surrender (Virgin Records, 1999)

Oh yeah, I went there.I did that. Indie rock to big beat electronica in one move. Sure, 80 percent of this record probably made its way into either a car commercial or a movie trailer at one point or another, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that it’s a great, really addictive record. I’ve always appreciated the Chemical Brothers’ ability to seamlessly bridge the gap between rock, hip hop and dance crowds, and Surrender might be their most accessible and successful attempt. Play this fucker loud with the bass UP.

 RB

- Yuck – Get Away – A nostalgic return to the days when alternative was king.

- My Morning Jacket – Circuital – Live kings bring the big sound into the studio, or in this case, high school gym.

- Not in the Face – Downtown Girl – My favorite song from a band no one outside a band’s hometown has ever heard of.

- Givers – Meantime – If you like to have a good time, play this song.

- Mayer Hawthorne – Hooked – Soul’s been making a comeback, and Mayer Hawthorne is helping to lead the charge.

- Florence + the Machine – Shake It Out – BOOM. Kablammo. Easily one of the most powerful voices in music right now.

- The Vaccines – Nordgaard – A sexy song about an underage supermodel? Oh Vaccines, so inappropriate, yet so good!

- The Strokes – Under Cover of Darkness – They needed their first new single in years to say yeah we’re still better than everyone, so they revisit their past. Well done.

- Beirut – East Harlem – Zach Condon, a true musician, who plays actual instruments. Take that synthesizer world!

- The Decemberists – January Hymn – Such a simple song, Colin Meloy shows he can rule with simplicity.

- The Horrible Crowes – Sugar – Who doesn’t like a really sad song? Probably my favorite sad song this year.

- Nicole Atkins – Cry, Cry, Cry – Show the female singer-songwriter some love! Plus a wicked guitar solo.

- Smith Westerns – End of the Night – Powerful, impactful, shredding solos, an awesome and we know it attitude, one of the strongest songs off a stellar record.

- Cults – Most Wanted – If you like tapping your foot and nodding your head, and you do, you’ll dig it.

- Telekinesis – Car Crash – Michael Lerner solidifies his argument that some of the best songs come from the saddest people.

- Wilco – I Might – Jeff Tweedy.

- TV on the Radio – New Cannonball Blues – Perhaps one of the most well-rounded albums of the year, this track is a great blend of everything that made this album awesome.

- Portugal. The Man – So American – Kinda felt bad when they had their van and gear jacked from Lollapalooza, but they found it. I cried a single tear when I found out it was ok, but mainly because the song is that good.

- The Joy Formidable – Whirring – Plug in, throw up the amps and distortion, recipe for success each time. And Ritzy Bryan, small stature, big voice.

- Arctic Monkeys – That’s Where You’re Wrong – The Arctic Monkeys did some growing up, and the last track off their album, reminiscent of “A Certain Romance,” which closed their debut album, shows off that maturity.

I’m feeling optimistic about the future no matter what happens at this point. I mean, every band runs its course. We’ve been together way longer than any of us ever imagined would happen and it’s been for the most part an incredibly pleasurable ride. There’s still a lot of stuff we’re going to continue to do. There’s tons and tons of archival projects and things like that that are still going on, so there are so many ways in which we are tied to each other for the future both musically and in other ways. I’m just happy right now to let the future take its course and I guess I’m kind of thankful that I’ve got this other project that kind of came about on its own. It wasn’t kind of like, well, “Oh the band is ending for a while and I’ve got to figure out what to do.” It kind of naturally happened in the course of things so that was a nice way for that to come about. 

Thanks Lee. Just sinking everyone’s hopes like a lead fucking balloon. But really, it is what it is. I’ll tread on similar water I did with my post on REM’s demise awhile back. Yes, I’m a Sonic Youth fan, have been for many years now. Would I like them to keep making records? Abso-fucking-lutely. Considering 2009′s “The Eternal” was one of their most shitkicking and impassioned releases in years, I was hoping they’d keep making records into their 60s (which is only a few years off). But it’s pretty clear that isn’t going to happen. But as with REM, you can’t say you feel robbed of anything when a band calls it quits after 30 years. They’ve left us with a lot of cool shit, and nothing good lasts forever. So I guess I’ll just have to fulfill my need for noisy squalor somewhere else.

And yes, that’s Jason Lee shredding in the below video. Sweet.

RB

We hear you, Joe.

Sadly (or maybe not so much) I lost my job last week. There are a lot of pros to working as part of a small company of five people, namely that its a pretty loose environment stripped of a lot of the typical corporate world bullshit. But the one drawback is that companies like that are a house of cards. They’re not really equipped to handle much turbulence, so the second anything even remotely goes wrong shit gets right fucked up in a hurry.

But the hardest thing about unemployment, at least at the very start, isn’t the stress of having to find another job, or even concerns about staying financially afloat. It’s what to do with all the empty space that’s all of a sudden left to fill in your life. Ever since I started working six years ago, my days have been pretty jam packed. Whether I was running around covering meetings and filing stories or dragging my feet through the drudgery of a 9-5 office job, good or bad I was never short of things to do. Now that everything is up in the air, it’s the exact opposite, which is both exhilarating and maddeningly frustrating at the same time.

Like everything else in life, there’s a band or song or album that ultimately syncs up pretty closely to these feelings. Music draws from real life, so it makes sense that it would. And with that, I have to say that I’m gaining a healthier appreciation for the Clash as of late, something I didn’t think was possible until I started relating to the material a little more closely.

The Clash’s music has always had a real acute ability to tap into the tension that often arises through boredom and nothingness. The stress, anger and desperation that pours in buckets out of the band’s 1977 self titled debut is downright tangible. The whole album is a brutally honest reflection of its time, that of a less-than-glamorous period in London’s rich history where regular Joes were being held back and marginalized by forces outside of their control. Times were tough, jobs weren’t readily available for the many people who were in need of them, and as a result a lot of people began to feel victimized by fate.

I can’t really say that I all of a sudden feel like the album was written for me, but I definitely sympathize with its viewpoints a little more today than I did even a week ago, let alone when I was in high school. Back then I just liked the Clash because they were cool. They were loud, pissed off and didn’t bow down to anyone or anything. But I didn’t really bother delving in too deep to the band’s overarching political themes of government angst, middle class frustration and suburban blight. Why would I? I’m not even going to sit here and pretend I had much of anything to be mad about growing up because it largely all roses.

But then you grow up and you start seeing how the world has a lot of different little ways of setting you up for a fall. Not to be too dramatic, but lets face it: life’s not fair, and until you find yourself on the receiving end of the cosmos’ backhand it’s hard to really relate to that. In my case, my particular setback is minor in comparison to what a lot of other people have to go through (I was getting sick of my job anyway, so it could even be called a blessing in disguise), but even still I appreciate songs like “White Riot,” “Career Opportunities” and “London’s Burning” a little more now than I once did. All of a sudden, Joe Strummer’s lyrics went from being just words to thoughts and ideas that I could put in context.

Even taken out of my particular situation, all I have to do is walk around Boston for evidence that the band’s message is as alive today as it was 34 years ago. You see it when you walk by the Occupy protesters in Dewey Square, or with the various people holding signs in demonstration in Copley. You read it in the papers and see it in the news. People are frustrated, angry, confused and in desperate search for answers in a world that seems to constantly be calling their lives into question. In the end you have to wonder how much really separates 1977 from 2011? It’s all just further proof that it’s the Clash’s world, and we just live in it.

RB

Finally, Deer Tick makes an album that lives up to its raucous attitude.

Rock and roll loves bad boys, and the members of Deer Tick are proud to live up to the lore.

The Providence band almost giddily pegs itself as a haggard bunch of roots rock tunesmiths, and it’s a leathery skin that fits its members well. Their songs, even at their most weary and dustily downtrodden, always sizzle with wayward cocksureness and unchecked bravado. It’s music that could only be written by a group of young kids enchanted by rock and roll’s debauched mythology.

But up until now, the band’s hungover swagger was always neatly couched beneath a slew of desolate alt-country songs, ones that coyly hinted at their wild side without ever catching it in full stride. We say up until now because with the release of their fourth studio effort “Divine Providence,” they strip away any pretense and show their true red blooded, rock and roll colors.

That’s not to say they’ve only just now learned to loosen up. The band has never lacked for want of a drunken good time, and anyone who has seen them live can attest they’re not shy about satisfying their urges. But while it’s probably a stretch (or at least too soon) to call “Divine Providence” Deer Tick’s best record to date, it’s definitely their most brash and forward, and the album benefits from the band’s willingness to be their fun loving selves on record.

This is a ROCK record, all caps, and the band isn’t at all subtle in conveying the message. “The Bump” starts things off with an urgent garage stomp, while frontman John McCauley barks what may well be the album’s credo of “We’re full grown men, but we act like kids/We’ll face the music, the next time we roll in.”

Any questions?

Other tracks like “Let’s Go To The Bar” and “Clownin Around” also convey the album’s hard partying theme with all the subtlety of a kick to the junk, but that’s part of the fun. And I’d be remiss not to be the 270,000 reviewer to make note of the album’s clear and obvious connection to the Replacements, arguably the standard when it comes to rough and tumble rock and roll with a bruised heart. And it’s true, McCauley exhibits some decidely Westerbergian tendencies, but if you’re going to mimick or pay homage (we won’t say steal), at least he’s taking cues from a master of the form.

But long time Deer Tick fans need not fret. “Divine Providence” isn’t all whiskey shots and bar fights, as tracks like “Chevy Express” and the ironically titled “Electric” keep to the band’s quieter, more emotive singer/songwritery moments. In the end, “Divine Providence” is the sound of a young band on the rise learning to be true to themselves, which for these guys makes for one fun, somber, drunk, occasionally sober, loud, soft spoken, bratty rock and roll record.

RB

You can check out their exact itinerary below, with the most recent and last announced show to take over Lincoln Hall, in what is undoubtedly the small and relatively still new venue’s biggest show to date. Not only will you be able to see a phenomenal band, it’s the rare opportunity you’ll get to see them in some of Chicago’s best and most intimate settings. To give you an idea of how intimate, I’ve included the approximate capacity next to the venue. While every show except the Lincoln Hall show has sold out, hit up StubHub or your local scalper, as each show will be unique and most likely amazing, a must for any Wilco fan. Don’t miss out!

12/12/11 – Civic Opera House (3,500 capacity)

12/13/11 – Riviera Theatre (2,500 capacity)

12/15/11 – Vic Theatre (1,200 capacity)

12/16/11 – Metro (1,100 capacity)

12/18/11 – Lincoln Hall (500 capacity)

Tom Waits first album of new material in seven years gives listeners more of the same. What, would you have it any other way?

Seven years have passed since Tom Waits’ last proper studio effort, 2004′s Real Gone, hit shelves, and while that’s more than the average lifespan of most bands, it’s not out of character for the hoarse-voiced troubadour to let the months grow into years between records.

But that’s part of the whimsical fun that has always come with the arrival of a new Tom Waits album. Much like the forlorn drifter he so expertly portrays, a new Waits record wonders through town once every so often, and often times without warning. You get so used to him not being around and then before you know it, he’s back with an armful of beautifully bizarre songs that sound like they were composed through discarded remnants of rock and roll’s long, sorted past.

To that end, Bad As Me, his latest effort for Anti- Records, delivers on its expectations, meaning it sounds like nothing you’d expect from anyone else but everything you’d expect from Waits. While other artists are wrangling with riffs, beats, hooks and melodies, Waits continues to play in his reclusive corner of the musical sandbox, tinkering with folk, blues, jazz and long forgotten musical styles such as vaudeville and cabaret. And anchoring it all is his famous graveled, baritone bark– equal part junkyard dog and ramshackled crooner–which has always stood as Waits’ musical weapon of choice.

And like his other records, Bad As Me takes such a mysterious musical recipe and brings it wildly to life in stereo. Waits’ penchant for theatrics is once again on full display, be it in the horn driven, back alley romp of album opener “Chicago” (which without being able to explain why actually sounds like what Chicago would probably sound like if it were a song, if that makes any sense), the warped 50′s inspired rockabilly of “Get Lost” or the murky, experimental weirdness of the albums title track. But Waits’ also proves once again that he’s pretty damn good at crafting songs on the polar opposite end of the spectrum. Breezier, folk-oriented ballads such as “Back In The Crowd” and “Last Leaf” fit the singer’s tattered, road weary persona as well as his trademark hand me down sport coat and fedora, and those subtler moments are his finest.

Ultimately Bad As Me is largely more of the same. It’s Waits wigging out, getting weird and reeling it in in just the right spots to let some true sentiment creep out. But for a one in a million artist like Waits, the formula never gets old. It might border on schtick, but it’s still the only schtick of it’s kind, which still makes it worth hanging around for after all these years.

RB