Oscar Round-up

Had you going there for a second, huh? No, this blog will not be mentioning the Oscars in any way. Nope, I won’t mention the horrible mash-up during the best song nominees presentation, nor the bizarre attempt to revive the corpse of the musical. That would just be insulting to your intelligence. I mean we can all think for ourselves, we don’t need any corporate oversight committee telling us where we should get our entertainment. So here are some alternative viewpoints on what’s good in music. Now, I have to get to the movie theatre…to…see…Slumdog Millionaire…yes, master…must obey…

Mark Olson & Gary Louris – Ready For The Flood – *** – Cool to have these fellows back, and it’s great to hear them together, each adds so much to the other. The songs themselves, are good, but don’t really reach their full potential, some sound too alike, and there’s not a lot of variety.

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Communion – *** – This band certainly likes to record a bunch of songs. Their second consecutive double-disc collection, it is good, but you get the same feeling at the end that it’s a bit much. You can find plenty of songs that probably didn’t need to be here, and for all of it, there is not really one really good takeaway song that really captures the magic I felt from some of their earlier material.

Salim Nourallah – Ciphers From Snowing – *** – Good record from Salim, great, mid-tempo pop, definitely an energetic step down from the last album, but still good.

Fiction Family – Fiction Family – *** – Fairly good record from members of Switchfoot and Nickel Creek…two bands I love. The result is mixed. There are some great tracks, such as the lead-off track and a few others. But some go on a bit long, and are not very memorable. Still, it is not an unpleasant record.

Bishop Allen – Grrr… – *** – More from Bishop Allen. And it’s clear they are still good at what they do. It is an enjoyable, interesting record. There are a lot of bands around that kind of sound like this, but I think Bishop Allen is one of the best right now.

What what?

Hey everybody! Here’s where I normally write a bunch of useless garbage and random non-sequitors, ending with a plea to read my blog. That will not happen this time, I promise. Remember, promises are the key to your eternal happiness. It only takes one to make an elephant walk. Now read my blog!!

Modern Skirts – All Of Us In Our Night – *** – Very nice record. While playing it low key for the most part, it has a blend of instruments, vocals, and atmosphere that make this very pleasing to the ears and enjoyable.

Andrew Bird – Useless Creatures – *** – I love Andrew Bird, and this instrumental companion piece to his new album is a cool addition. It starts off with some nice short pieces, but once it gets into the longer pieces, it tends to trail off into background music. Which is fine, but I think I just prefer singing for the most part.

Steve Martin – The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo – *** – Interesting record, obviously this is going to have some novelty to a lot of people, but I think the banjo songs hold up. I am not familiar with a lot of banjo music, but this sounds good to me, so who knows.

Duncan Sheik – Whisper House – ***1/2 – This is a great CD, definitely picking up after the disappointing White Limousine, and the Spring Awakening Cast Recording, which while great, didn’t have Duncan singing on it. A concept album for another musical, it plays like an actual album, I can’t even tell the story of the play. It’s interesting, exciting, and quite enjoyable. Also features great female vocals by Holly Brooke, which blend well with Sheik.

Ben Kweller – Changing Horses – *** – Cool record from Ben Kweller. I hear everyone saying, oh it’s his country album, well whatever, it still sounds like Ben Kweller. Sure there’s a slide guitar and the themes are more country, but it would never be confused for country music. It’s Kweller-twang.

The first of 2009

Ok, here we are, 2009, it’s gonna be great! Let’s get started!

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast – ***1/2 – More goodness from Andrew Bird. I think it finds the happy medium between the Mysterious Production of Eggs album and the Armchair Apocrypha album, having some of the lightness of Eggs with more of the electronic instrumentation found on Armchair.

Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light – *** – Beautiful as expected. This album seems to be very organic and stark. This is a bit more clear vision than I think the first album had. The focus is on his voice primarily, and this album definitely shows some touches we have not seen before.

David Mead – Almost and Always – ***1/2 – You can’t go wrong with David Mead. What’s great is that he sounds just as good doing slower acoustic songs, as he does when he is doing high energy pop. This album is an example of the former, and is really great.

Coconut Records – Davy – *** – Jason Schwartzman has had an interesting life, and he wastes no time telling us all about it on the new album. While cool sounding and interesting, lyrically, it is a bit too self-reverential, which is good to a point, but wears thin.

tenniscourts – dig the new sounds of… – *** – This was a cool sounding record. Very energetic and rocking, nothing really jumped out at me, though, as being new or unique. But its good.