Tomorrow is the first day of Noise Pop, San Francisco’s annual five day indie rock festival. The festival — now in its seventeenth year — has grown immensely from its humble roots, and it’s astounding the variety and quality of bands that they manage to lure out to the Bay Area for it. It’s also depressing as hell, because for me it mostly just serves to remind me of how old I am.
I mean, aside from the obvious — Noise Pop 17?!? I think I went to, like, Noise Pop 4 or something! — I’ve found the schedules of the last couple years to consist largely of: bands I’ve heard of but never heard, bands I’ve never even heard of, and bands that I used to listen to, but don’t anymore. Mind you, I’m not blaming Noise Pop for this (though they should really find a way to convince the Fastbacks to reform and play a one-off festival show) — it’s just that I’m getting older and losing touch with a lot of what’s going on in the indie rock scene. So whereas ten years ago, the Noise Pop schedule seemed like an impossibly awesome line-up of bands that I couldn’t possibly see half of (I was never gung ho enough to buy a festival pass and hopscotch to three or four clubs each night, like some of my friends did), now it just taunts me with how out-of-it I am. I’m not planning to go to a single show in the festival.
On the bright side, the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are playing a free “secret” show at the Rickshaw Stop tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be able to make it to that. I love the Rickshaw Stop because they have lots of seats on the second level, perfect for my old man legs
Useless aside: Sorry for any typos, my PC suicided and I’m reduced to using my wife’s accursed Macbook. This keyboard warps my hands.
cerulean, Brighter/Still: I think this is what Buffalo Tom would have sounded like if they’d decided to record a shoegaze record. Big droning guitars, but the singer’s gruff vocals gives the proceedings a sort of American alt-rock flavor. The album doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the majestic instrumental opener “Cathedral City”, but it’s pretty good.
Travis, Ode to J. Smith: Travis’ most recent album, written and recorded on a rushed schedule which resulted in a much more vital, rocking sound than they’ve tried in a decade. That said, my favorite song (so far) is “Song To Self”, which sounds much more typical of the band’s recent, anthemic output.
Asobi Seksu, Hush: Yeah, this album was a letdown, but I still figured I’d pick it up. The best gauge of my disappointment: I bought it digitally off eMusic, instead of buying a physical CD like I originally assumed I would.
Slowdive, Morningrise – An early Slowdive EP. eMusic was worthing signing up for if only to pick up all the early shoegaze albums and EP’s that they have (they just added the first two Swervedriver albums, too).
Longwave, Life of the Party – I would’ve sworn this EP, with its seeming hodge-podge of tracks, was a promotional disc for the band’s second RCA album, There’s A Fire, but it turns out it that it came out a full year earlier. Two songs off Fire appear here, the punkish “We’re Not Going To Crack” and an alternate (inferior) acoustic take of “There’s A Fire”. The EP’s title track may be the oddest thing I’ve ever heard by the band.
I just noticed — about a month late, apparently — that Longwave has a new song, “Sideways Sideways Rain”, up on their MySpace page.
The song is available on the Japanese version of their 2008 album, Secrets Are Sinister, and it certainly sounds of a piece with that album’s material — relatively stripped down and muscular, briskly paced. I like the handclaps, too (but then, I almost always like handclaps). Cool song.
I don’t really feel qualified to do a “Best of” list for the year, because I simply haven’t listened to enough of the year’s new releases, not even enough of the new releases that I was planning to listen to.
That said, it was a pretty good year for me with regards to music, since — after a couple years of not paying all that much attention — I started to much more actively seek out new music, and found a lot of stuff that I’d been missing out on the past few years. So, here’s an incomplete list of stuff that I really got into this year:
Swinging Popsicle
Swinging Popsicle — I’ve written so much about this Japanese indie pop band on this blog, I don’t really feel there’s much point in writing anything more right now. But they’re definitely my favorite of the bands listed here. MySpace.
Asobi Seksu — Another band I’ve written a lot about on this blog. I’ve been listening to tons of shoegaze records this year, and Asobi Seksu is the best of the new wave of bands that I’ve heard. MySpace.
Club 8
Club 8 — A band I really should have checked out years ago, as their name pops up a lot in the same sentence as personal fave Saint Etienne. Melancholy Swedish pop duo, who periodically augment their lush pop with elements of electronica, bossa nova, and 60’s pop. MySpace.
Panda Riot — After stumbling on this band back in September, I finally picked up their debut album a few weeks ago, and it’s fantastic. Another really great modern shoegaze band. MySpace.
The Charade
Luminous Orange – Although I have two solid albums by this Japanese shoegaze band, Luminous Orange is really on this list because of one song, ”Sakura Swirl”, an absolutely brilliant and hypnotic track full of mysterious glitchy electronic bleeps. MySpace.
Piana — Minimalist, ethereal pop from Japan, with hints of electronica. Absolutely beautiful. MySpace.
The Charade — More Swedish guitar pop. I wrote briefly about their great song “Monday Morning” here. It’s still the best thing on the album, but the rest of the album is pretty great, too. MySpace.
After I wrote yesterday’s post, I ended up downloading some more stuff:
The Church, El Momento Descuidado — Though they’ve only been mentioned in passing on this blog, I was a huge Church fan in my late teens (they were pretty much my Beatles until I belatedly got into the Beatles in the mid-90’s), and I’ve generally kept up with them since. This 2005 release contains acoustic re-recordings of nine songs from their back catalog (ranging their entire career, from “The Unguarded Moment” to “Chromium”) and five new ones. I have a hard time believing that they could improve on the original version of “Almost With You”, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
Popsicle, Template – Not to be confused with Ack Phhht! fave Swinging Popsicle,I was just sort of poking around eMusic looking at 90’s Swedish indie rock bands, and this is what I ended up downloading. I really know nothing about this band, or this 1992 mini-album.
Slowdive, “In Mind” — Off the 5EP. My copy of Souvlakicontains three of the four tracks off this EP, so I thought I’d pick up the missing one.
Panda Riot, She Dares All Things– I wrote a bit about this indie shoegaze band back here when I first stumbled onto them. I’d been trying to find their album on CD, but I’ve given up and bought the MP3 version from Amazon.
Luminous Orange, Sakura Swirl– 2007 release by excellent Japanese shoegaze band. I got this one from eMusic.
Waltz For Debbie, Gone and Out– I’ve never listened to this Swedish duo before, but I’ve been meaning to check them out for quite a while, since they often get compared to mid-90’s Saint Etienne. Another eMusic pickup.
Longwave, Secrets Are Sinister– Longwave’s new album, I picked this up at their show in San Francisco Thursday night. I’ve listened to it a few times and it sounds pretty awesome so far.
Longwave, Endsongs– I picked this one up at the show too. It’s Longwave’s debut album from 2000, and I’ve been meaning to pick it up for years. I probably won’t actually listen to this until I’ve digested Secrets though.
It seems like it’s been a while since Longwave put anything out, but their fourth album, Secrets are Sinister, finally came out last month. There’s a promotional clip for “Shining Hours” on YouTube now:
It’s not really a proper video per se, just a bunch of footage of the band in the studio recording the album, without any particular syncing of image to video. But the song sounds like trademark Longwave, waves of echoing guitar behind Steve Schiltz’s melancholy, impassioned vocals — and with a pretty nice guitar freak out at the three minute mark.
I haven’t picked up the album yet, but I’m hoping to soon — maybe when they play the Rickshaw Stop next week, if I can make it to the show. The Strangest Things is still one of my favorite albums out of the New York neo-post-punk explosion back in the early part of the decade, and based on “Shining Hours” and some of the songs on their MySpace page, I have high hopes for this album, too.
Random stuff I’ve been enjoying off eMusic lately:
Whirlaway, “Strange Planes” – This sounds like Going Blank Again era Ride with raspier vocals and a bit more agression. I really like this song. The band – apparently broken up now? – was from Florida, and this song was off their 2004 album Pompano. It’s the only song they have on eMusic, which is a bummer.
The Charade, “Monday Morning” – Twee Swedish pop music. The opening piano and briskly strummed guitars remind me of Belle & Sebastian, but by the time you get to the great chorus the song has moved beyond mimicry to something great. I actually bought the whole album, The Best Is Yet To Come, and quite like it, but this is still the star of the show. You can also buy the track here on MP3 from Amazon.
Sarah Cracknell, “Empire State High” – Actually this song – a b–side off the “Goldie” single from the Saint Etienne singer’s 1997 solo album – isn’t as good as the album the single was pulled from, the sublime Lipslide. But honestly I’m so excited to find one more track from these sessions that I’m thrilled. Amazon MP3 here.
For most people, the band that personifies early- to mid-90’s indie rock seems to be Pavement. But to me, it’s the Archers Of Loaf. Their music was gloriously noisy, laden with white noise and a sometimes almost hardcore level of aggression, but somehow they managed to still be catchy as hell and fun to listen to. Like Pavement they gave off a distinct slacker vibe (with their sloppy arrangements and Eric Bachmann’s clever and often arch lyrics), but somehow they gave it off while they were thrashing away like crazy.
My first intro to Archers Of Loaf was the fantastic track “What Did You Expect?” off the Rows Of Teeth compilation, which I absolutely loved, so after reading a favorable review of their EP Vs The Greatest Of All Time in Alternative Press (I think) a few months later, I ran out and picked up the 10″ vinyl version. Translucent lime green vinyl, as I recall.
Coming out in 1994 between Icky Mettle and Vee Vee, the band’s first and second albums, the EP showed them transitioning towards the denser, noisier sound of the second. The songs are full of static and shards of dissonant noise, with goofy, pointless jams interspersed between the tracks. But the songs themselves are fantastic, without a weak song in the batch. “Audiowhore”, “Lowest Part Is Free!”, and “Revenge” are all pounding rockers, while “All Hail The Black Market” is a slow shout-along, and “Freezing Point” – the EP’s centerpiece and best track – is a stately anthem that wrings far too much pathos and drama out of what is likely another set of lyrics about indie rock (at least, that seems to be what most Archers songs were about at this point).
Anyway, I listened to the EP endlessly and then ran out and picked up the equally excellent Vee Vee when it came out, picking up their first album on the same day. I’m probably thinking about them now because we’re having our usual belated hot September weather in San Francisco, and it’s reminding me of driving around Los Angeles in my beat up old car in ‘95 cranking those two albums, which I’d copied onto opposite sides of a cassette (that’s what we did back then, kids). That was actually a miserable time in my life, but listening to The Greatest Of All Time, I still feel nostalgic for it. Go figure.
: I think this is what Buffalo Tom would have sounded like if they’d decided to record a shoegaze record. Big droning guitars, but the singer’s gruff vocals gives the proceedings a sort of American alt-rock flavor. The album doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the majestic instrumental opener “Cathedral City”, but it’s pretty good.
: Travis’ most recent album, written and recorded on a rushed schedule which resulted in a much more vital, rocking sound than they’ve tried in a decade. That said, my favorite song (so far) is “Song To Self”, which sounds much more typical of the band’s recent, anthemic output.
– An early Slowdive EP. eMusic was worthing signing up for if only to pick up all the early shoegaze albums and EP’s that they have (they just added the first two Swervedriver albums, too).
– I would’ve sworn this EP, with its seeming hodge-podge of tracks, was a promotional disc for the band’s second RCA album, 
, but it turns out it that it came out a full year earlier. Two songs off Fire appear here, the punkish “We’re Not Going To Crack” and an alternate (inferior) acoustic take of “There’s A Fire”. The EP’s title track may be the oddest thing I’ve ever heard by the band.
— Though they’ve only been mentioned in passing on this blog, I was a huge Church fan in my late teens (they were pretty much my Beatles until I belatedly got into the Beatles in the mid-90’s), and I’ve generally kept up with them since. This 2005 release contains acoustic re-recordings of nine songs from their back catalog (ranging their entire career, from “The Unguarded Moment” to “Chromium”) and five new ones. I have a hard time believing that they could improve on the original version of “Almost With You”, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
contains three of the four tracks off this EP, so I thought I’d pick up the missing one.
– I wrote a bit about this indie shoegaze band back 
– 2007 release by excellent Japanese shoegaze band. I got this one from 
– Longwave’s new album, I picked this up at their show in San Francisco Thursday night. I’ve listened to it a few times and it sounds pretty awesome so far.
– I picked this one up at the show too. It’s Longwave’s debut album from 2000, and I’ve been meaning to pick it up for years. I probably won’t actually listen to this until I’ve digested Secrets though.
is still one of my favorite albums out of the New York neo-post-punk explosion back in the early part of the decade, and based on “Shining Hours” and some of the songs on their MySpace page, I have high hopes for this album, too.
on MP3 from Amazon.
.
in Alternative Press (I think) a few months later, I ran out and picked up the 10″ vinyl version. Translucent lime green vinyl, as I recall.