Anticipation

The end-of-the-year lists have begun. The new issue of Paste ranks the top 50 albums of 2007, with The National's Boxer claiming the No. 1 spot. I've probably been annoying people all year with my National lauding, so it's good to see them get some well-deserved love.

I'm thinking I'll do a Top 20 of 2007 list, and undoubtedly Boxer will end up in the top five. But until then, there are a few releases I'm looking forward to in 2008, including albums from U2 (hopefully), My Bloody Valentine and The Mountain Goats. But I think I'm most looking forward to Bon Iver's debut on Jagjaguwar. I only have three tracks from Bon Iver (aka Justin Vernon), but I can't stop listening to them. Vernon doesn't really sound like Sam Beam, but fans of Iron & Wine will probably enjoy him nonetheless, mostly because it's acoustic, folkish and Vernon has a beard. Where Beam is whispery and delicate, Vernon uses ample amounts of falsetto and some soul to create achingly beautiful, semi-lo-fi love songs.

Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

i guess i'm recommending

In the wake of In Rainbows, it's hard to say how much of an effect Radiohead's pay-what-you-want model of album releasing will have on the industry. Music fans rejoiced, some artists have followed suit (NIN, The Antlers) and some artists have lambasted the group for ruining the music business (Lily Allen, Oasis, Gene Simmons).

But, it seems most bands like Radiohead's idea, and they're aping it (much to the benefit of those who like free music). Music blog i guess i'm floating picked up on this trend and started a new regular feature called mpFree in which the blog has begun highlighting EPs and LPs available for free. It's a good idea, and I recommend checking it out/subscribing to get news about such releases if you're like me and enjoy artist-sanctioned, complimentary downloads. The first installment features Boston's Ezra & The Harpoons. The band is offering its most recent release, Banging Down the Doors, as a free download through Nov. 27 (tomorrow). Get the zip file here.

Rolling Stone = predictable

I stopped reading Rolling Stone for music recommendations a long time ago, but I still like some of the feature stories from time to time. For all its faults, RS gives its writers a lot of freedom in profiles, and the longer word lengths allows them to really sink their teeth into the stories. I don't get the feeling the writers are over-edited, either, which I appreciate; too many publications strip writers' of their voices.

Of course there are plenty of faults with a music magazine that has no qualms about putting Zac Efron on its cover, but what's been getting under my skin the past few years is how utterly predictable the magazine has become. Every single issue starts with a story or two on how the major labels or the touring industry is tanking, and these stories don't say anything that wasn't said the previous month. Then there's the departments, a feature or two and a gigantic political story about how [insert well-known Republican here] eats children and skins baby leopards to fund his campaign. It's fine to have a political bent to your magazine, I guess, but sensationalism gets old very quickly. Speaking of sensationalism, RS also has a spread with People-style paparazzi photos of celebrities with oh-so-witty captions in each issue.

I can always count on the reviews section to give me dry descriptions of whatever Clear Channel has deemed the top 15 artists for that month (the exception being Fricke's Picks, the only RS reviewer who hasn't become obsessed with the Extra! culture and can speak quite intelligently about recent releases).

The decline of Rolling Stone as a credible music journal has been apparent for years now, but I never thought it would become quite as formulaic as it is in its current form.

Feist, Wexner Center, 11-18

The Wexner Center has hosted some great shows this season, and the Feist show in Mershon Auditorium Sunday night was just another feather in its cap. Not long ago, it would have been tough or impossible for Leslie Feist to fill out Mershon, but thanks to a critically acclaimed album released this year (The Reminder) and a catchy tune featured in an iPod commercial (“1234”), the place looked just about sold out.

Feist has a pretty good indie rock resume, having played with Peaches (her former roommate) and Canadian indie supergroup Broken Social Scene. A Calgary-born Toronto girl, Feist has a knack for crafting neo-folk with overtones of jazz, indie rock and even African tribal music. (After all, the Wex doesn’t book artists unless they can be described as “eclectic.”) Her voice is her greatest asset, and on Sunday it sounded just the way it should. It’s like a good shot of whiskey--smooth, slightly smokey and warm on the way down.

Feist, in a tube top and jeans, played vintage-looking semi-hollow-body electric guitars most of the night on an unadorned stage with a large video screen behind her that displayed bright, solid colors (evoking an iPod commercial) or silhouettes of various objects such as leaves, pebbles and lace. The set list drew mostly from The Reminder, and listening to these tunes, it became obvious that all the critical praise for the album is justified. Songs like “So Sorry” and “The Park” had her play the role of an emotive folkie as well as anyone, “The Limit to Your Love” and “I Feel It All” proved that she can groove and “1234” shows that she’s not above writing a super-catchy pop song. (Those Apple folks aren’t idiots.) The instrumentation and melodic flourishes tend to be just what each song needs--nothing more, nothing less--and are varied enough to tickle your ear. Though there’s some room for adult contemporary appeal, the songstress is infinitely more interesting than a one-trick pony like Norah Jones.

The only snoozer of the night was “The Water,” mostly because it was the one song on which she decided to play piano. The piano was positioned off to the side, and as a result her back was to the audience, making for a boring rendition of the mellow tune. Contrast that with “How My Heart Behaves,” a piano-based song that starts off ominous and minor, then melts away into a major refrain with the lyrics, “A cold heart will burst if mistrusted first.” She wisely let one of her bandmates handle the piano for that one.

As usual, the Wexner Center crowd watched attentively and silently in their seats without ever getting, well, feisty. Butts were even planted for “1234,” despite Feist’s commercial-evoking head bobs and hip-shaking. I guess these concertgoers were too self-aware to let TV advertising affect their concert behavior. After all, they listened to Feist way before that iPod ad ever came out.

More pics below and on the Flickr site.

My Brightest Diamond with Tim Fite, Wexner Center, 11-13

It will probably take awhile for Shara Worden, singer/songwriter for My Brightest Diamond, to live down the fact that she toured with Sufjan Stevens as one of his Illinoisemakers. Stevens has become too big of a name not to mention it, and the tour is how Worden began to make a name for herself. But judging from the show at the Wexner Center Tuesday night, Worden can fill a stage on her own just fine.

With a voice like hers, touring as merely a background singer for other bands would be a colossal waste of her talent, which was meant to be showcased in the Wex’s minimalist performance space in the context of a three-piece band, as opposed to Stevens’s traveling orchestra. Worden played her semi-hollow-body guitar gingerly at times and aggressively at others while her excellent drummer held down the vacillating beats and the bassist established the groove. But the tastefully simple instrumentation was merely window dressing for what everyone came to hear--Worden’s voice. It was pitch-perfect, veering from rock to jazz to soul to opera, ethereal at times and raucous at others.

Worden has studied opera, and it shows. Yet, she’s also a Nina Simone fan, and that shows, too. The versatility of her singing allows her to pull off all sorts of vocal theatrics, from trembles to yelps to whispers, often within the same song. It was apparent by the covers she played, as well: “It’s Over” by Roy Orbison, “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone and “Tainted Love,” made famous by Soft Cell. They all sounded as good, if not better, than the My Brightest Diamond originals, which drew from the 2006 debut, Bring Me the Workhorse.

For some reason, Tim Fite is touring with My Brightest Diamond. His music can best be described as folk-rap, but the style changes drastically from song to song. It’s not even close to the same genre as My Brightest Diamond, and the pairing felt forced. Still, Fite’s an entertainer with a boisterous sense of humor who played in front of a video screen that mostly showed himself playing guitar and singing along to the songs. Fite looks like a younger Paul Giamatti, and decked out in seersucker pants with suspenders, he displays endless energy. The more rap-leaning tunes worked the best with all the pre-recorded loops, and “It’s All Right Here,” a rant against consumerism, was the true highlight of the set. The humor outside of the songs, such as a story about a rat named Juice who had an orange-scented hiney, didn’t work as well, and Fite’s sidekick didn’t help; he felt the need to explain jokes and chatter nonstop.

More photos on the Flickr page. (Not the best shots this time around, unfortunately.)

Jens Lekman

I'd rather talk about music I like on this blog rather than stuff I don't like. But every once in a while there's an album that despite massive amounts of critical praise from people/media outlets I usually trust, I just don't enjoy it. Jens Lekman's Night Falls Over Kortedala is one of those albums. Not only do I think it's not everything it's cracked up to be--I really can't stand it. To my ears, it's subpar Swede crooning over string arrangements straight out of Lawrence Welk. I don't have a problem with pop songs at all--there's plenty of pop ditties I'm not ashamed I enjoy. But Lekman just grates on my ears, no matter how many times I try to give the tunes another listen. Even the album cover bothers me.

For Lekman fans out there (and I'm asking this honestly, not smuggishly), what is it you find appealing about this album and his music in general? And for those who don't, well, I guess just know that you're not alone.

Columbia Gas bill--Now with Scratch 'N Sniff!