Best of 2009:The Top 10

10. Twilight Sad – Forget The Night Ahead

I call music like this “open wound”. The heaviness and emotion are so dense and hard, yet it’s melodic and exquisitely beautiful. Imagine densely powerful alternative pop bands like The Cure or Interpol, but with Billy Bragg, or someone else with a thick Scottish brogue, as the lead singer. Two components that don’t seem like they should go together, yet they do and it makes for something new and special. Proof that something can be both dark and beautiful. Hopefully, you already knew that.

Best Track: "I Became a Prostitute"

9. Jack Penate – Everything Is New

This one is a lot of fun. First bonus, it’s only nine tracks long so it’s over before it wears out its welcome. Second bonus, each song has a heavy influence of world music as if he traveled the world and brought back these knick-knacks. Third bonus, it’s all set to some excellent beats. I’ve heard several people compare him to Lily Allen, but I don’t see that. Maybe they both write pop music with a wider world-view, but she’s totally pop. Jack appears to be an artist. Maybe if he was a hot, drugged out girl that’s always running around naked, the comparison would be more obvious.

Best Track: "Everything Is New"

8. The xx – xx

Definitely the most hyped band of the year and the latest in that ongoing assembly line of bands getting enormous in the UK and then attempting to keep the momentum going in the States. It’s a couple of young ‘uns, a boy and a girl, with only a guitar, bass, and a drum machine, but the sounds they create are intense. It sounds like the hushed, minimal guitar strums of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” with some chilled out, bubbling beats. The voices are sly and sexy, but seemingly by accident, like they’re too shy to really belt it out, yet that’s what makes it magical. So simple, but so incredible. Believe the hype!

Best Track: "Infinity"

7. The Temper Trap – Conditions

Probably the safest bet of the year. It’s the best album for the most amount of people because it has multi-quadrant appeal. In other words, they sound the most like Coldplay. I mean all of these things as complements. It’s rare that rock music is done right, AND presents something slightly on the edge. It’s comfortable in a way that the best music should be. I predict big things from them.

Best Track: "Sweet Disposition"

6. Passion Pit – Manners

Another example of the domination of excellent synth pop in 2009. Passion Pit started out as one guy who made some songs for his girlfriend and then posted them on MySpace which led to a record deal. Isn’t that basically the success story template of the new millennium? The beauty of Passion Pit is the sense of soul at the heart of the electronics. That’s difficult to pull off without working really hard at it and it appears to come naturally to them. Plus, his voice hints at some boiling chaos just beneath the surface, which is exciting and keeps you wondering if/when he’s going to blow.

Best Track: "Little Secrets"

5. One eskimO – One eskimO

I’m leery whenever I read that a band is really a single artist on a creative binge, because it’s usually some indulgent nonsense that only sounds good to him (or maybe I’m still scarred by Primitive Radio Gods). In this case, it’s some guy I’ve never heard of named Kristian Leontiou. That being said, this is some rich, full pop music that goes down really easy. It’s largely acoustic with some nice beats percolating under the surface and one of those vibrant blue-eyed soul voices.

Best Track: "Kandi"

4. Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires

I lucked out on this one, as it’s technically a reissue. Originally released in 2007, these French dance club maestros showed a ton of promise with their version of what LCD Soundsystem do so well. In other words, dance music with instruments. In 2009, the single “Kiss Of Life” completely knocked me out with its martial African drums and yell along chorus. It made a splash, which lead to the album being rereleased with the song attached (it isn’t included on the original). The rest of the album is just as good.

Best Track: "Kiss Of Life"

3. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Probably the most challenging and least conventional album on the list. These guys create a beautiful racket that sounds strangely like the Beach Boys mixed with Wilco wrapped in a heavy gauze that’s been stained by the sun. When it works, as it does on about 8 of these 12 tracks, it’s intensely powerful and mightily expansive. When it doesn’t, it can make for some forgettable white noise. Luckily, the highs don’t just transcend you, they transcend what you understood music could be and sound like. It’ll stretch your mind and you’ll like it.

Best Track: "Two Weeks"

2. Glasvegas – Glasvegas

Another reissue. What often happens is come January, record companies will throw marketing dollars at the smaller artists on their roster that weren’t priorities during the high traffic shopping seasons. This is what happened to Glasvegas, so their debut also got a rerelease with a bonus track or two. They deserve the attention because it’s gorgeous. Maybe it does sound sort of trendy, the whole early U2/Interpol/Big Country thing with the ringing guitars and melodies to fight a war to. Who cares? Just add them to your list of favorite things that make your life better. That list can never be long enough.

Best Track: "Geraldine"

1. Owl City – Ocean Eyes
Most people hate this guy. Well, not most people, he did have one of the biggest hits of the year from out of nowhere. But, purists will tell you that he sounds too much like the Postal Service and, since Ben Gibbard and all he produces is sacred ground, Owl City is to be sentenced to death by firing squad. I don’t get this. The best true “pop” music is all about improving on a template. Postal Service is great, but they always left me a little cold. Owl City has much more heart and the tunes sound fuller and warmer.

This was a rough year for a lot of people, me included. We all just want to feel better. As a music lover, I can appreciate being challenged (hence Grizzly Bear), but not right now. Not during these times. I just want my outlook brightened and my heart lightened. Owl City provided that for me. I am choosing not to be negative about him. There’s enough of that filling up the rest of my day.

Best Track: "Fireflies"

The Best Albums of 2009: 20-11

20. Fanfarlo – Reservoir

A fun little band of gypsies. The songs are as strong and poppy as anything Coldplay would come up with. But these guys throw on the brass, the accordions, the violins, etc. It ends up sounding like a Russian hoe-down. After their excellent contributions to the "Little Miss Sunshine" soundtrack, kindred spirits DeVotchka’s profile was raised, but they should have been bigger. Hopefully, Fanfarlo, who sound very similar, can make that breakthrough.

Best Track: "The Walls Are Coming Down"

19. Kiss – Sonic Boom

Everything you want from a Kiss album. Sure, it’s absolutely riddled with clichés, but when you figure Kiss basically invented those clichés, it’s really just them doing what they do best. It’s crass and lunkheaded and misogynistic and all the rest of the stuff they’re constantly accused of. And, that’s why we love them.

Best Track: "Modern Day Delilah"

18. Pet Shop Boys – Yes

If you really think about it, it’s baffling how consistent the Boys are. They’ve been at it for 25 years and have never released a bad album. In fact, there may not even be a bad song. Now, when you follow a template as meticulously as they do, it may be hard to screw up. It’s not like they take a lot of chances. But, it is an enviable skill to be so good at something that you consistently do it well year after year.

Best Track: "All Over The World"

17. Gomez – A New Tide

As these guys have stripped a lot of the cool little tricks they lathered on top of their earlier albums, the songwriting has gotten stronger and stronger and they’ve actually become a much better band, even if they sound less unique. In the beginning, their genius blend of blues and techno was unlike anything anyone else was doing at the time. Still is. But now their sound is richer and the songs are deeper. The gimmicks are largely gone, but the maturity is, arguably, more interesting.

Best Track: "Win Park Slope"

16. Metric – Fantasies

Another example of a band that found the groove among the gimmicks. Canadian band, Metric came up during that time in the early 00’s when groups were merging indie rock with 80s style and synths. Metric were catchy, but lacked much heft. It was pretty noodly in that 80s pong kind of way. Fantasies is them honing those skills into a set of tracks that could almost be described as meat and potatoes alternative rock. Every song is good. Every song is catchy. Never do they sound simple or amateurish. Solid.

Best Track: "Help, I'm Alive"

15. Bob Mould – Life and Times

The guitar God plays it straight. A few years ago, Bob decided he was hanging up his axe for good and turning to turn-tables full time. His fans revolted in droves. Noticing that when you’re one of the world’s greatest guitarists the public would rather you not release dance music, Bob has been melding the two sounds successfully since he returned to form. Of his albums since the comeback, Life and Times rocks the most and will most likely remind you of his excellent work with his power-pop band Sugar.

Best Track: "City Lights (Days Go By)"

14. Simple Minds – Graffitti Soul

Another example of a once world-dominating band from another era that’s releasing consistently strong stuff. It pains me when I realize that one of my all-time favorite bands continues to release music every couple years (admittedly with spotty results) and that music isn’t available for purchase in the United States. Simple Minds have one of the biggest hit singles of all time (“Don’t You Forget About Me”) and was one of the most important and adventurous bands of the 80s, and yet they can’t seem to secure an American record deal. Boggles my mind. The new album is good. They deserve more.

Best Track: "Moscow Underground"

13. Raveonettes – In and Out of Control

They finally get the mixture right. After years and years of combining Buddy Holly pop simplicity with a Jesus and Mary Chain sonic backdrop, the Raveonettes have produced an album of fluid consistency. They’ve always been able to write a few excellent songs. Now, they have an excellent album. Strange how catchy songs about suicide, drugs, and rape can be. Hope they can keep it going.

Best Track: "Bang!"

12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz

It shouldn’t work. One of the most innovative sludgey-guitar-based bands of the last decade decides they want to focus on the synthesizers. In keeping with a recurring theme on this list, it made for one of their most consistent albums. Their first album with that epic hit “Maps” was a smash, so expectations were high for what they’d come back with. Doubt anyone expected this. The nutty thing is, this album’s better than the first. This is the year for techno-pop and who would have guessed that these guys would be leaders of that charge.

Best Track: "Zero"

11. Mando Diao – Get Me Fire

Mando Diao released one of the best albums of the last decade with their 2003 debut, “Bring ‘Em In” which is also one of the greatest garage rock masterpieces of all-time. Since then, they’ve spit out about an album a year and each one seems to be them taking on a more successful band’s persona whether it be Oasis or Kaiser Chiefs or Stereophonics. None of them were as good as them just being themselves. "Give Me Fire" is the first time since 2003 that they’ve sounded like they should. Hope they can keep it going.

Best Track: "Blue Lining, White Trenchcoat"

Top 10 Movies of 2009

10. Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Rock and Roll dreams come through! The band of Canadian knuckleheads had the chops to make it in the 80s hair metal scene, but never managed to make it click. They sunk further and further into obscurity while they watched their fellow cohorts go multi-platinum. After 20 years of wondering what happened, and struggling to hold down regular jobs while still putting on shows that only a handful of people even attend, the spotlight is finally shown on them. The film stands as an emblem of the power of redemption and shows that sometimes karma smiles.


9. State of Play
A rare thing: excellent entertainment for adults. Hollywood continues to dumb us down by either sensory overload or trite formulaic story lines. The interesting stories usually have to be found in the indie films. Not this time. It doesn’t hurt that I’m a sucker for movies about journalism and politics. Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck are so good they may cause you to like them again. Granted, the movie indulges one twist ending too many, wish they would have stopped when they were ahead, but I’ll forgive it since the rest was so satisfying. It’s the perfect thing to watch when the kids have gone to bed and you’re dying for some grown up time.


8. I Love You, Man
The funniest movie of the year (hear that, Hangover?). Paul Rudd has ascended to that rarefied air where you’ll line up for just about anything he’s in. And Jason Segal is proving himself to have a similar cache. Today’s man is sensitive. He’s in touch with his feelings and his needs. This evolution calls for a bro-mantic comedy and I Love You, Man fits the bill perfectly. Easily the best odd couple since Oscar and Felix.



7. Funny People
This one took me by surprise. Judd Apatow was beginning to reach that perch in his career where you’d prefer to see him fail rather than continue to succeed (Coldplay is another good example). Just when you’re ready to write him off and think it’s safe to condemn his new “dramedy” (speaking of men “evolving”) before even seeing it, something unexpected happens. He throws something at you that’s half Apatow, half Ingmar Bergman. Funny People feels more like a foreign film for the leisurely pace and high dramatic content, and, yet, it’s OK. In fact, it’s better than OK. I’m sure it was exactly this mix that doomed it at the box office, which is a shame. Just hook up to it and let it take you on a journey. It’s a surprisingly good one.


6. Sugar
Speaking of being surprised, wait til you see Sugar. It’s the story of a minor league baseball player from the Dominican Republic and the culture clashes he’s forced to acclimate to while playing ball in small-town America. A sports movie, but not really, it’s one of the rare films that tells a story you didn’t know, but assumed you did, and then learn you had no idea about. The hidden gem of the year.




5. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wes Anderson’s films had begun to rub the wrong way. They were like one big pregnant pause without a payoff. Who would have thought that his best film by a mile would be an animated one. But, it actually makes sense. Go back and watch his other films and they’re practically animated as they are. It was a stroke of genius to go old school with Rankin-Bass looking puppets. Never having read Roald Dahl’s original book, I have no idea how close it is to the original story, but I wouldn’t call this a “kid’s movie” by any stretch. They’ll probably think it looks really cool, but not understand the subtext of the little guy fighting off the boss man. I can’t wait to show it to my kids when they’re old enough to sit through an entire movie.


4. Up In The Air
Michael Jordan was born to play basketball. Michael Jackson was born to entertain. And George Clooney was born to be a movie star. These people couldn’t possibly be anything but exactly what they are and we’re lucky to have them enrich our lives (even if we are blind with jealousy). No movie has captured George at the top of his natural powers until this one. It’s the Network or Wall Street or All The President’s Men of its time. In 50 years people will want to know what life was like at the turn of the millennium and that curiosity should lead them right here.


3. Food Inc.
The documentary of the year and, hopefully, the film that changes the way you live and think about life. Not only is it dispiriting to learn about the ugly politics behind the food and goods we buy from our local grocery story, it’s a sobering reminder of how difficult it always seems to be to do the right thing in this country. The system’s corrupt, from how the food we eat is made, to who gets to provide it and who doesn’t (tip: the money makes the rules). Food is a hot topic now in this country and deservedly so. Inform yourself and start here. It’s essential.


2. The Informant!
I’ve heard a lot of gripes about this film because it doesn’t stack up to the book. Well, I never read the book so I have no problem saying it’s one of the best movies of the year. Matt Damon is hilarious (who knew?) as an unstable corporate whistleblower who’s really in it for himself. Another excellent film for adults with brains. Both horrifying and hilarious, the tone keeps you slightly off guard, never really knowing exactly whose side to take or how you should feel. After an hour or so of laughing with tears in your eyes, you’ll know where it’s all going.

1. (500) Days of Summer
Simply, the best time I had at the movies last year. If you’re in the right demographic, this is probably the story to a half-dozen of your own love stories. It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s insightful, and it’s a different spin on the traditional rom-com. By the end you realize it isn’t so much a love story, as the story of the person you fall in love with just before the person you end up with.

Live in Concert: Green Day 8/15/09

It's rare I see a big name band at the top of their powers. I tend to gravitate to the nostalgia circuit in an effort to either catch one last glimpse of a former favorite (John Mellencamp, Steely Dan), or play catch up on someone I ignored back in the day, only to finally come around to their brilliance later (Def Leppard, Camper Van Beethoven). So, I was on the fence whether to bother with Green Day since, I'm sure, they'll be around long enough to see them in some package deal with the Offspring, Sugar Ray and Live in about 10 years (that's usually how it works).

But, I went against tradition and decided to see the real deal in all it's present glory. I'm glad I did. It was an especially welcome example of fan payback compared to the distant stiffarm from Trashcan Sinatras a couple nights earlier. If you want to see it done right, see Green Day. Surprisingly, I'm not even the world's biggest GD fan. I self-identify as a product of the 80s, while GD are totally and completely aligned with the 90s (no matter how crucial their more recent work is), so they never belonged to me. There isn't a moment in my life that's capped by a GD song (they were completely ubiquitous during my first days and months and year after my mission, but by then my innocence had been lost and songs didn't carry the weight they did during adolescence).

However, it occurred to my while watching the show that no band in the last 15 years have more effectively and exactly held a mirror to their generation than Green Day have. Let's explore the parallels.

First, they were birthed out of the early 90s grunge scene. While not being grunge themselves (I heard a lot of Social Distortion at first, which no one ever mentions), they were harder edged rock and that was in style (finally). Also, their attitude was that of a slacker who sat around their parent's house aimlessly daydreaming about what to do next, both in the macro sense (for a job) and the micro (what's on TV). Songs like "Longview" (a song about masturbating while stoned) and "Basket Case" (name says it all) perfectly summarized in clear and direct words how the youth of America were feeling at that time. The message was powerful, millions listened and followed. They had yet to lose their innocence.

As the indulgent 90s wore on, messages like that became less and less immediate (even the Clinton administration became mired in sex scandals, probably out of a lack of anything better to do). After a couple years of living the slacker dream, it was time to grow up and growing up can be hard, especially if you are ill-equipped. Green Day's next few albums, while trying to expand on the snotty punk that had painted them into a corner, made less impact and the band found themselves as irrelevant as a guy in his late 20s still getting high in the basement.

Then, suddenly in September of 2001, the country woke up. Woke WAY up. Shaken from their juvenile stupor, Green Day got wise. Feelings began to boil inside, like anger and skepticism and frustration, that weren't there before not pointed in this direction anyway. Matters became more important. But, this is the generation that gets their facts from the Daily Show. They aren't reading the New York Times, rather they're obeying their media heroes. Information funneled this way may not be complete, but it's potent and it sparked one of the most miraculous turnarounds rock has ever seen. And, once again Green Day were talking in a language their generation, as well as just about everyone else, could understand when they released American Idiot, the album that changed everything.

American Idiot managed to take the bits of facts and soundbites of the media and regurgitate them in a way that incited action. It gave words to the feelings of the less informed that the New York Times couldn't touch. It didn't have to. All this generation needed to hear was our President called an Idiot. That alone made us feel better and, God knows, no one else was doing it. It managed to direct that anger at the singular person who embodied the trainwreck our country was racing headlong into. Who is this idiot and why are we listening to him and what can we do about it? It was also a huge smash.

Fast forward five years and Bush is no longer in office and Obama has assuaged some of that anger, but now what are we left with? Christian fundamentalism. A new great depression. A whole ton of residual frustration. If American Idiot said "I'm pissed!", 21st Century Breakdown says "I'm still pissed because I still don't see any reason not to be!" If Green Day's career isn't the trajectory of, what Pepsi called Generation Y, I don't know what is. They go from uninformed slacker, to Daily Show educated, to media ingestion 24/7, just like everyone else.

The best part about the show was how they got the crowd involved, inviting people up to the stage to sing backup, play guitar, stage dive, you name it. The highlight was when a 12 year old boy came up to play "Jesus of Suburbia" with the band. Green Day made these people's lives better. That 12 year old gets to go to school and tell his friends (not to mention the bullies who may beat him up) that he got to jam with Green Day in front of a few thousand people. That is what being a true rock band is all about, knowing enough to give back to the people who got you there. Green Day know this. They live by it. And it helps to ease the anger.

Live in Concert: Trashcan Sinatras 8/06/09

This feels like blasphemy. One of my favorite bands and I'm speaking ill of them. I was even lucky enough to meet them once and they couldn't be nicer. It doesn't feel right, but neither did their show. In fact, neither does the trip they're on these days. I'm disappointed.

Here's some backstory. TCS burst on the scene in 1990 with their debut album, Cake (my 2nd all-time favorite album). Their popcraft was immediate and beautiful, their wordplay clever. It was the perfect sound for the time and completely in line with contemporaries like the Ocean Blue, the Smiths, and Aztec Camera. Cake was not the smash in America that it should have been (though popular on alternative radio thanks to the obvious perfection of singles "Obscurity Knocks" and "Only Tongue Can Tell" which if you don't like them, you don't know what joy feels like) and they followed it up with the comparatively darker I've Seen Everything, which also underperformed in spite of another infectious single, "Hayfever". Here's where things get dicey.

This was followed by A Happy Pocket, an almost glacially paced album of heavily hushed tunes that their record company refused to release stateside and remains out of print and hard to find to this day. Not that it's a total lost, despite a few pretty tracks (including their somber take on "To Sir, With Love") it is quite a bear to get through. Then, they disappeared without nary a peep for eight years before coming back in a major way with 2004's Weightlifting. Their fans rejoiced! The songcraft hadn't lost a step in the years off, but, if I'm honest, the songs got very delicate and soft. Still beautiful, in fact there may have been TOO high a premium on beauty, (as evidenced by "Weightlifting" and the gorgeous "Got Carried Away"). No one minded too much because we were so glad to have them back. I love that album, but that joy has been replaced with some sorrow and sympathy.

Ok, here's the point: the concert was almost completely dominated by new material. They just produced a new album called In The Music that has, so far, only been available online. If Weightlifting was soft, then In The Music is practically weightless. The show consisted of ZERO songs off Cake (I was so pissed), three from Everything, ZERO from Pocket (just as well), three from Weight and the rest new.

So, do the math with me on this. A beloved band returns from hibernation choosing (that's the key word here, bands don't forget to play those songs, it's a choice) to ignore the past and focus on the now. That works if you're a band like U2 or the Cure who have an extensive catalog of hits and crowd faves that people will forgive you for skipping some obscure early faves. But, TCS only have five albums and it was the early stuff that hooked us! You can't throw us a bone and just sprinkle a couple of them here and there? There was a section in the show of about seven sleepy new songs in a row (remember, the album has not even been officially released). You expect people to stay awake for that? Here's another sort of nervey thing, they kicked the show off with a new song (of course) and then played two crowd faves ("Hayfever" and "Easy Read") back to back and then didn't return to the classics until the end of the show. That's such cruel foreplay! It's like they wanted to get that stuff over with as soon as possible, yet satiate the crowd who don't know that's the last bite they'll get for a long time.

Bands will often try to distance themselves from their past because they get tired of playing the hits, or they were only that way in the first place because of label pressure (notice the descent of the Police, especially Sting, who went from angry, artful punks, to guys who write music for soccer moms). But when your career and output are as scattered as TCS's, ignoring a chapter of your history is ignoring half the story! Plus, it's the good part!

I'm afraid my TCS worship has fallen off the rails. I'll continue to get their music (the new album, which I bought at the show, is underwhelming so far), but I doubt I'll pay to see them live again. It's a shame, I was rooting for them. The world is a better place with them in it, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. The weird thing is, I'm a "friend" of theirs on facebook and they post setlists and such every couple days. Well, I took it as an opportunity to tell them I was annoyed about the show. They didn't respond, but the other fans sure did. Some of them were on my side and felt similarly, others were calling for my head. My feeling is, if you're going to purposely alienate your fans like that, you deserve to get kicked in the nuts a little. I just hope they don't get their feelings hurt and disappear for another eight years.

The opener, however, was a band I had never heard of but now love called Brookville. No one knew them, they asked the crowd a couple times to no response at all, but people were impressed. Turns out, Brookville is basically Andy Chase's band and Andy is a member of Ivy, an excellent band that I like a lot, as well as the producer of some of the TCS's stuff. So, the night wasn't a complete waste. It's like I went on a double date and ended up with a crush on my date's friend. It ain't cool, but love is love and so is good music.

Live in Concert: Jonathan Richman 7/01/09

Here's exactly how this typically goes down. I've seen him three times now and every time it's the same.

Me: "I'm seeing Jonathan Richman tonight"

Someone: (very confused look on their face) "Who?"

Me: "He's the singer that pops up throughout 'Something About Mary'"

Someone: (the light just went on) "Ooohh!"

That's how JR is most widely known. He is best known, however, as the leader of the Modern Lovers, one of the seminal underground punk bands in music history. The Modern Lovers, who only really released one proper album under the original line-up, were important for a few reasons. 1) They were from Boston which set them apart from the hub of the scene in New York. 2) The band featured Jerry Harrison, who went on to the Talking Heads, and Dave Robinson, who went on to join the Cars. And 3) JR's heartfelt, almost childlike lyrics. Where most punk bands yelled about drugs and mayhem and desperation, JR was the nerdy punk who wore his heart on his sleeve. It set him apart from the rest of the pack. They didn't really have any hits, but they had some classics ("Roadrunner", "Pablo Picasso" and "I'm Straight")

Now, JR's solo stuff over the last 25-30 years bears almost no resemblance to punk. It's become almost performance art, a sort of comic/musical mix that sounds somewhat like the Violent Femmes and Flight of the Conchords. Sparse, emotive, lovelorn, and deeply serious about how unserious it is. He's been doing this thing for many many years (the guy's almost 60) and has it down. In fact, everything you could say about him live can be explained in this clip of him on Conan (a big fan) in 1992 performing one of his staples "I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar". This is exactly what you get. It's like watching a child perform their first dance recital looking intently at their parents in the front row for encouragement. That child like innocence in his eyes is mesmerizing. He also makes up songs on the spot or adds new lyrics to existing ones or sings them in a different language. He doesn't have any hits he has to trot out, so it can all be as off the cuff as he wants. In fact, this time he made up a song about how he makes up new lyrics. He compared it to fresh baked bread. It's great for the first couple hours, but after 8-10 hours it's sold as day old bread. That's his philosophy. If he doesn't feel it, he doesn't perform it (his words exactly).

So, either he is a consummate performer with his schtick nailed down tight, or he's a total kook. This interview from 1978, where he actually gets emotional when the host mentions William Blake, implies he may have a screw loose. However, I saw him in the bar before the show talking to a friend and he seemed as normal and unassuming as anyone else. It's quite a trick he pulls off, but it's a good one.

I wanted to post the song and performance that turned me onto him in the first place. Like I mentioned, Conan's a fan (as are the Farrelly Brothers, hence the "Mary" and "Kingpin" cameos) and has had him on the show a few times. This performance of "Let Her Go Into The Darkness" was released on a cd of performances from the show that I purchased from BMG or Columbia House back in the day. I thought it was haunting and, not being able to see him perform it, took it to be deadly serious. Only now do I realize everything he does is with a wink.

Live In Concert: Doves 5/26/09

I feel sorry for those who don't know Doves. I feel even sorrier for the ones that don't get it. When they're on, their music is a spiritual experience on par with total rapture. How artists can cause a listener to feel sadness, beauty, gloom, and hope at the same time and within the same 5 minute song is a miracle brought only by God, or the Muses. Think about that. The literal sinking and soaring of your soul in a single, short journey.

Doves started out as more of a techno outfit, producing dance tracks in Manchester under the name Sub Sub to some local acclaim and success. After their studio burned down with all their stuff in it, they picked up proper instruments and found a groove symbolic with that fire. Dance music going up in flames and burning to a crisp might be the best way to describe their music. When Coldplay said "a rush of blood to the head" they might have been talking about their fellow countrymen and label mates.

So, why all the hyperbole? Because it can be that good. Because their song "Rise", off their first album Lost Souls, is my #5 all-time favorite song and, possibly, number 1 in terms of emotional response. Because few modern bands are imbued with this power. And because they're still fairly unknown among the general American population (though far from underground nobodies).

Notice I said "can be". When they're on, they set the bar for the power and weight pop music can carry. When they're off, as they have been on their last two albums, (the first two are near perfect) it sucks more because of what could have been. I've seen them live twice now and something is occurring to me: The best songs on the albums miss the mark live, while the lesser material really takes shape in front of an audience, which leads me to believe the studio is a crucial place for this band to get where it needs to go (or, rather, where I need them to go). They seem to live or die by studio trickery. It goes back to that dance music background. Groove and mood are their driving force. Production can either capture and organize that raw energy, or stifle it.

So, how was the show? It was pretty good. I heard several songs I was hoping for and not sure I'd get like "Words" (one of my favorite running songs. My pace and this beat are one), "Black and White Town" (one of the only songs I even remember from their last record), "There Goes The Fear" (one you might know if you heard it) and "Pounding" (the rallying cry for the battle at the end of the world and if you don't believe me, click that link and take up your arms!). They also played "Rise", but at, what felt like, twice the speed, thus ruining my ability to achieve total liftoff. I suppose I should be grateful I heard it at all, but just tossing off my favorite tune left me wanting. Click on the link for a live version that is a full two minutes shorter than the original which proves my point.

AND, they didn't play two staples that were sorely sorely missed. "Catch the Sun", the first song of theirs to make a splash in America, was nowhere to be found, as was "The Cedar Room" a live staple for years and the song most often yelled out by the audience this night. Skipping two of your fan's favorites doesn't make any sense. Doves create music that washes all over you completely. Omissions like these felt like a cold shower.

Still, I love them. I want everyone to love them. The good stuff is, pretty much, better than anything ever. I hold out hope that it can all be that good and will remain devoted as long as their is hope. Luckily, I have every reason to feel that way. They deserve it.