Big Star- Sister Lovers (1974) {CF Edit}

http://www.mediafire.com/?tm12klsl5gzcpmo

There was an American band in the late 60s and early 70s who made quite a name for themselves by playing rock and roll. Their records were good, but they never quite reached the critical mass that The Byrds, The Beatles, or The Rolling Stones did.

By the time their third album was coming around, they had signed to Stax Records, which was falling apart and going bankrupt. The band was splitting up, and the singer Alex Chilton was having his own personal issues to deal with. He did what every musician should do, which is deal with his stuff openly and on tape.

Sister Lovers (so-named because he and the drummer were dating two sisters; this cd is also known as "Third") was Big Star's third record, though many consider it Chilton's solo outing, recorded with session musicians, the band's drummer, and an ambitious producer who wanted to carry the session through to fruition.

Sister Lovers is a bizarre collection of songs that ping-pong between sheer bliss, caustic sarcasm, utter detachment, total loneliness, and tongue-in-cheek. In a way, it was indie rock way ahead of it's time, and Sister Lovers nails the sonic experiments, loose arrangements, and sheer coolness that a lot of homemade rockers tried to sound like. Even in 2011, it sounds like it was recorded last month, which says a lot!

A lot of crazy-huge bands (R.E.M., Yo la Tengo) refer to as one of the most influential of all time.

I could go off on how I like each song, but everyone in the world has beat me to it. So there.

Rykodisc finally released the "official" version of Third/Sister Lovers, including bonus tracks, in 1994 or so with a setlist picked by Chilton. I have to say that i liked and didn't like it. For one thing, it's very hard to cobble any kind of cohesion together out of the songs, that make Pet Sound's diversity sound relatively tame. For another, it is 17 songs long, which is far too many, in my opinion. It also includes a handful of cover songs that range from campy to utterly atrocious.

So-called purists will get all huffy, but i made my own tracklist that has a more natural listening arc to it, and i also made my own album art (since the reissue is pretty fugly). To me, it's the strongest tracks put in an order that a skeptic would really appreciate.


(A little aside: This is Chilton's year, as people are performing Third live all over the place. This poster was from North Caroline, i believe, but a superstar cast was doing this in New York City also. Flattering or self-serving?)

Rural Alberta Advantage- Hometowns

http://www.mediafire.com/?iujv5ydu15r9iwt

Do you remember in the early 2000s when everyone was gaga for Neutral Milk Hotel? Nothing really touched Aeroplane Over the Sea, and they pretty much dropped out of public view.

The Rural Alberta Advantage, for better and for worse, is reminding a lot of people of those years. RAA has the sonics and raw energy of a lot of NMH's songs and almost captures that magic. The singer is often described as a "non-singer," someone who puts energy over phrasing, or other things that "singers" apparently think about. Seems a little bit like a derisive complement, to me. But then again, I like Fugazi as much as i like Nina Simone.

 Their lyrics aren't quite as jarring or imaginative, but there is something very immediate and punk about the simple delivery of each song. Imagine AOTS without the horns and religious reference, and you'd have a pretty good idea of what they sound like.

Definitely worth a listen.

Women- Public Strain

http://www.mediafire.com/?8yfmqd2wcls4ycf

A friend turned me on to Women's "Group Transport Hall," which i covered for a performance about jeggings. The song is really great-- weird, wobbly, beautiful, and catchy.

Public Strain could be described that same way. It has that uncanny element to it, where you recognize and don't recognize the music. It goes from sounding strident to blissful, and makes me feel like i'm underground looking at cathedrals when i listen to it. I read that it felt more like an "album" than most cds, and sounds best (*surprise surprise) when listened to on headphones. If you play it through speakers at work, like i did, people will just glare at you.

Recommended for fans of Deerhoof and Slowdive or Aaron Martin. *A disclaimer: it took at least 3 listens for me to really like this, which I think is a sign of a great album. One of my favorite discoveries of this new year.

St. Vincent- Actor

http://www.mediafire.com/?3yqdtb7gz9zspru

Probably a commonplace name at this point, but I am still really impressed by this album. I was especially impressed to learn that Annie Erin Clark (aka St. Vincent) wrote and arranged the CD, right down to the drum beats (which is contrary to the average singer-songwriter who simply writes tunes on a guitar, then has the pros come in and flesh them out until they sound like solid songs). She's more of a composer, in the classical sense, than a songwriter. But she's still composing songs.

There is an other-worldliness to some of her melodies, and they are sung in a delicate, lilting voice that is really strong. When singers like Bjork or Janelle Monae are able to impress by their sheer range and emotional range, St. Vincent does the opposite-- she impresses by possessing an incredible voice but refusing to show it off.

She's pretty theatrical, which turns a lot of people off. But i definitely appreciate the comprehensive approach: music, image, lyrics, production, execution. One could also call her narcissistic, but eh... what singer-songwriter isn't, really?

Definitely worth listening to, and recommended for fans of left-of-center indie pop songwriters, or fans of Sufjan Stevens, My Brightest Diamond, Neko Case, et al. 

Thao- We Brave Bee Stings and All

http://www.mediafire.com/?18673kcrsfv5pht

Get ready to throw rocks at me, but i'll go ahead and say it: i have never liked Cat Power. Ever. Besides being pretty inconsistent and self-absorbed, she is responsible for spawning a whole army of singer-songwriters who think that singing off-key and writing boring songs is somehow charming.

So, let me introduce you to Thao Ngyen. She's often compared to Cat Power, and i guess the vocals have a similarity, but she's far superior. She has personality, a sense of humor, writes great songs, and can rock when she wants to. Plus-- and say what you will about this-- the people who rule the singer-songwriter indie world tend to be white. So to see a Vietnamese American coming in and kicking ass in this genre makes me feel pretty elated.

She has a follow-up which is good as well (and has Andrew Bird on it! Oooo!). But for my money, i'll take We Brave Bee Stings and All.

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(By the way, i will admit that i like Cat Power's "The Greatest." But mostly because the musicians on it are so accomplished that they could play even MY songs and make them sound amazing.)

Neil Young- After the Gold Rush

http://www.mediafire.com/?8zcgvu8evr15cca

At this point, Mr. Young is more likely to appear in a tepid Rom-Com about high school friends falling in love than a rowdy bar. But so many people like it, that it doesn't seem to matter too much.

After the Gold Rush is a nice often-overlooked LP that kind of bridges a gap between his quiet folky moments and harder Crazy Horse rock. The first few listens made me think it was really unspectacular. But like a lot of Neil Young's records, it really grew on me.

Lift to Experience - The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads

http://www.mediafire.com/?wqggbh5a1stgiz0

This is the stuff legends are made of.

A hugely-bearded cowboy who shovels horse shit for a living in north Texas has a thing for shoegazer music. He plays giant spacerock through two amplifiers. One of those amps has a cow's skull drilled onto the top. He enlists another bearded cowboy and a large jazz drummer with big cymbals to create the largest live sound you have ever FELT, let alone heard. Think My Bloody Valentine, only they are all Texan cowboys. And the singer sounds like Jeff Buckley. And their lyrics are a semi-fictional fantasy about Apocalypse where Texas is Mecca.

They famously signed to Bella Union (run by ex-Cocteau Twins members) and release a double album. Absolutely incredible quality, predictably poor sales. They tour like crazy until a huge tragedy rips them apart (involving a sudden brutal death of one of their wives). They don't reunite, and have dropped off the face of the planet.

The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads is their double album that deserves a few listens. It is so well laid out that even the titles of the songs spell out two beautiful sentences:

"Just as was told/ down came the angels/ falling from cloud 9/ with crippled wings/ waiting to hit/ the ground so soft"  and "these are the days/ when we shall touch/ down with the prophets/ to guard and to guide you/ into the storm."