Because,

Los Campesinos! just announced their next record is arriving November 14, and I’m still too out of breath from the last one even to think about writing about the new one.

It’s the end of the year as we know it…Mike’s favorite songs of the year, 10-1

10. Andrew Cedermark - Moon Deluxe
Better than any other track on his solo debut, Mr. Cedermark here employs his two-parts The Microphones, one part “Born to Run” formula to wonderful effect. At various points the song is chugging, windy, longing and anxious, but it always feels honest. There’s so many layers of instruments, it’s easy to miss the fact that there’s no percussion throughout much of the track except for a digital bass drum. Or at least the whole thing is too big and scorched for me to tell whether that’s a cymbal roll or a destroyed speaker cone flapping. Probably the latter; I bet this guy has gone through his fair share of ruined gear in building his awesome sonic palate.

9. Los Campesinos! - The Sea Is a Good Place To Think of the Future

8. Firekites - The Bowery
Bearing my favorite video of the year, I suppose this song had an unfair advantage over the others. But I did spend several weeks humming the main guitar line, that spare three note descension of guitar notes sounding not unlike, say, diamond raindrops tumbling out of a cloud.

***

7. Arcade Fire - Suburban War
It’s my favorite guitar riff of the year, played over two completely separate backdrops, and coming to the fore in interesting and unpredictable ways from behind Win Butler’s lyrical phrases of varying length. I admire how the band has managed to layer so many beautiful sounds, especially in the opening section, to create something at once so unique and immediately fundamental.

6. Joanna Newsom - ‘81
We got more than two hours of new songs from Joanna Newsom this year, and the one that really hit me showed Ms. Newsom sticking closest to her previous work, at least in terms of sound. She’s learned to relax and spread out into different styles on this record, but I can’t get away from the one she started out with; voice and harp with fantastical lyrics and one brilliant melody after another. I’m the biggest fan of the compositions like this one, which sounds as though she’s worked tirelessly, just to pull it off in a way that seems perfectly natural.

5. Spoon - Nobody Gets Me But You

The capper on an album of left-field weird-burners, this one works much in the same way that many of Spoon’s best tracks do, by besting the competition both in the swagger department, and the creation of sounds that reward repeat listens through the best headphones you can find. To finish off the track and album, frontman Britt Daniel howls the song’s title as his voice comes undone, dissolving into a bizarre, brilliant pastiche of piano recordings and studio noise. And the flawless rhythm section churns along. You could set your watch.

4. Los Campesinos! - This Is a Flag. There Is No Wind.

3. LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean

Here’s a word I’ve never spoken, nor typed, and I will hopefully never need to use it again. Eargasm (Ugh, gross!). But when I heard this breathtaking track last summer and those synths came blasting in, the sensory overload was so intense that I literally couldn’t see straight, and each successive note felt like a stream from a geyser holding me suspended 30 feet off the ground. “brb,” I agonizingly typed to friends I was chatting with online, letting them know that I had to depart for a moment, both from the conversation and from my body. And then when that second blast comes in, it’s all over. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard such a blissful thing.

2. Los Campesinos! - A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State, or, Letters From Me to Charlotte

1. Los Campesinos! - I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know.
From the Los Campesinos! photo album above, you can probably tell that the band was its own toughest competition for my favorite song of the year. “I Just Sighed” emerged as the victor on account of the detailed narrative (“the traffic’s so consistent that it barely registers”), the authentic anguish (“me, rolling, writhing on the floor”), and the tragically hopeless attempts by the protagonist to get his love back (“I’ve written eulogies in guest books of galleries in the hopes that you might pass”). Additionally, on an album of gorgeously fiery explosions, this one is the biggest and has had the most lasting impact throughout 2010.

That searing blast of noise. My god. Not only does it begin the song by blowing me to smithereens, but there’s that moment half way through, where its tidal wave qualities are brought to the fore as it returns to punctuate my favorite lyric from the band. “When I hold sea shells to my ears, I’m pretty sure I can hear you” is one of the many ways on the album in which lyricist Gareth Campesinos! uses a recurring sea theme to astounding effect. If all this hurts your ears, I guess that’s your taste of the suffering described in the song.

As we near the end, all the clamor washes away and the apology comes. Our protagonist promises to keep away, offering to direct his compulsions elsewhere. But he’s been drinking, and face to face with his girl, he notices she looks prettier than the last time he saw her. And so at the end, he makes his plea yet again, and it comes back even bigger and more intentionally than before. Nothing is resolved, just like in real life.

He wants to be the person who “keeps track of the freckles and the moles” on her back. It’s a weird request at face value. Moles are gross, but the protagonist fantasizes about having such an intense level of intimacy that he’ll be allowed to adore even the least lovable part of this other person. That microscopic attention to detail is the band’s best trick. It elevates the weird minutia normally residing in a person’s unexpressed thoughts, to a level where it represents the demented feelings that simply could not be expressed had he chosen less powerful lyrics in a more common style (see: any torch song ever recognized at the national level).

The same way the scene under the blankets in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind left such a stunning impression, this song sucked me in almost dangerously close to the subject matter, provided me with some of the strongest emotions I’ve ever experienced from a piece of music, and then dropped me on the sidewalk, dizzy, sore, exhausted. I’ve been listening for a year now, and it still has not worn off. Absolutely unbelievable.

Since it’s been awhile,

…a little catch-up.

1. I passed my thesis defense. This is relevant because my thesis is about how adolescents listen to their favorite music. Now I have to do rewrites, which is such a pain that I’m avoiding the task, right now, at this very second!

2. I saw Nite Jewel the other night. It was one-third all right, one-third total mess, and one third brilliantly executed blissout. This could be a big deal someday.

3. Playing a supporting role in the Nite Jewel touring band was one Julia Holter. I can sheepishly admit that I dismissed her during the set as a hipster-looking backup player, enlisted to play very few notes, sing a little, and dance around like a total hipster, albeit a really good-looking one. My sheepishness is an issue because her own music just got a mention on Altered Zones (I hadn’t even known she was a recording artist), and I really like it. More than the Nite Jewel stuff, actually.

Here’s the link: http://alteredzones.com/posts/144/guest-post-laurel-halo

Guess it goes to show you, the more you think you know, the less you know.

4. The new Thermals video is a lot of fun.

5. Shows upcoming that I’m excited about and don’t want to forget, so I’m making the top-of-my-head list right now. Breeders, Fennesz, Holy Fuck, Baths (with El Ten Eleven), Land of Talk, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, The Books, Menomena, Perfume Genius, and OH MY GOD! LOS CAMPESINOS! ARE COMING!!!!

6. Apparently, Los Campesinos! are coming to play in Philadelphia in October, like 5 blocks from my house. Tickets only seem to be onsale the day of the show, but I’m sure there will be more details, seeing as the band hasn’t even announced this show yet.

7. Gareth from LC! got all busted up jumping off a stage. Youch. Feel better, dude.

RE: Feeling Bad

Oh man, that is REALLY disappointing about the Hold Steady record.  I had a good feeling I was gonna like this one.  Crap.  Any standout tracks?

I’ve taken a short break from all new albums all the time — been listening to The Hot Rock by Sleater Kinney, HLLLYH by Mae Shi, and right now, Keep It Like A Secret by Built to Spill.  All three of these are wildly wonderful, all albums I associate with SUMMER! 

Also, God’s Money by Gang Gang Dance (which I talked about already) and Romance is Boring and This is Happening, which I have been talking about pretty consistently.

It’s time to grab up some albums on eMusic too.  Frankly, I feel like leaning into the hipster bullshit wind this month.  I don’t know, we’ll see.

A few quick notes on a busy Sunday

Hey,

God’s Money by Gang Gang Dance is still really really fucking good, and a really nice way to change the feel of a room on a quiet Sunday.  It’s also really effective at getting a song out of your head, without sticking another one in there. Just a big fascinating wash of wonder and mystery.

I’m obviously very excited for tonight’s massive LOST Spectacle.  A little disappointed that Ben didn’t have anything to say about my Daniel Faraday/Los Campesinos tweet the other night, but I understand Ben’s a busy man.

Here’s something we might need to discuss further.  I tried to watch the Janelle Monae clip Ben posted earlier this week, and it had me on the edge of nausea.  Just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine and to my stomach. Her presentation makes me extremely uncomfortable for some reason, and I only got through about a minute and a half.  I recognize the extreme musicality and showmanship for sure - she had such incredible control of her voice - but I’d venture to say I hated what I saw.  It makes me queasy even to think of the video as I write this.  Now, I also hated the first Bjork video I saw, and the first Beastie Boys video, and the first Eminem video, so maybe there’s something positive to be said for my having this type of reaction to something so obviously good…but at the moment I’m completely not interested in hearing any more.

Power Rankings

As we’ve remarked over and over again it has been a hell of a first quarter to the year music-wise. The upcoming months promise to be full of good stuff as well. In May alone so many heavy-hitters are releasing new records it’s going to be hard to keep track.

I thought I’d take a quick breather then, since this month looks to be relatively quiet on the new music front, and do a sort of power rankings for the year so far. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the idea, sports websites often rank teams on a weekly basis to track who is rising and falling as the year progresses. I’m curious to see which of these records gets bumped and whether the top spot has already been decided.

So here it is my top five records of the year so far.

1. Los Campesinos!- Romance is Boring- This beautiful train-wreck of record has brought me more joy this year then I can possibly describe. It is so genuine, so fist-pumpingly energetic. If any record means more to me this year I’ll be genuinely surprised.

2. Spoon-Transference- The perfect slow-burn kind of a record that I liked very much upon its release and yet still has revealed more below the surface. It may not be the most immediate Spoon record, but where Romance wears its heart on its sleeve, Transference has been my favorite record to really delve into.

3. Local Natives-Gorilla Manor- This has my favorite big and shiny moments of the year so far. There are a couple duds to be sure, and there are some big and shiny records coming so there is a real chance this one falls off.

4. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists- The Brutalist Bricks- I gave this a fairly middling review and there is a very decent chance that this gets relegated to honorable mention status as the year goes on. But it does have my favorite song of the year and a number of other tracks I’ve enjoyed, so as far as my favorite records of the first few months of the year it is clearly part of the conversation.

5. Titus Andronicus-The Monitor- This one could easily go either up or down as the year goes on. I love the opening one-two punch but have yet to really be grabbed by the record as a whole. It is massive and messy and really is going to take more focused attention. What that focused attention yields will determine its fate.

HONORABLE MENTION: Moonface- Dreamland- Marimba and Shit-Drums EP. This came out online last year but I delved into to it thoroughly this year and it really is just wonderful.

INC. Joanna Newsom-Have One on Me- I don’t know if I’ll ever have the time for it. What I’ve heard I’ve liked but I haven’t been back to it recently and I still need to actually purchase it.

So bring it on Broken Social Scene, New Pornographers, Wolf Parade, Hold Steady and LCD Soundsystem! Do you have what it takes?