Dancing About Architecture 01.02.07
Posted by Ian Wright on 01.02.2007
We start the year with an end of year roundup. Beware, here be lists.
The bit at the start
Hello and happy new year (if you're a laowai anyway). I hope you had a nice festivus, I spent mine messing around with my new synth trying to get one particular sound out of it, which was more fun than it sounds.
I have to say that I'm a bit wrecked at the minute though. My new years eve ended at 5AM on a friend's love seat with my legs hanging over the edge and my knees are in bits.
So, 2007. I guess this will be the year I enter my late 20's, seeing as I've got the mentality/sense of humour of a 15 year old this might prove problematic. At least I've (hopefully) got new albums from Arcade Fire, The Wrens and Radiohead coming my way this year. Any year when your 3 favourite bands put out records has to be good.
I've been away from this pretending to be a journalist on the internet (at least it's better than pretending to be a 16 year old girl I think you'd agree) for 2 weeks. There's not much to catch up on. James Brown is dead, but you probably heard about that. Arcade Fire meant to put a song on iTunes for charity but someone from their label put up the wrong one so now there's 2 songs from The Neon Bible out in the wild "Intervention", which I like very much and "Black Wave/Bad Vibration" which I'm not so hot on.
So there's the news, thanks for reading, come back next week. Ashish already has your page impression so he doesn't give a shit.
If only there was some sort of filler I could use for an end of year column that I could be really lazy and do.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Wilco Kicking Television
It's track 11 before you hear a not-brilliant song.
You news, you loseLists.
The Dancing About Architecture Top Ten Gigs Of The Year.
10. Nada Surf - Whelan's, Dublin - 30th April
This was a very pleasant surprise. I've long been an admirer of Nada Surf's blend of infectious pop rock but my previous live experience with them was that they were solid but hardly mindblowing. In fact I only went because the opening act was a band called Delorentos that I like. I'm glad I did because in front of a packed house the band took the roof off the place.
9. Beck - Marley Park, Dublin - August
I can't say that I love any of Beck's albums, I find him to be a very hit and miss type of musician; but when he hits he's brilliant.
Opening for Radiohead in front of 17,000 people Beck and his band treated the crowd to a greatest hits set featuring marionettes, dinner table percussion and some of the greatest songs written in the past 15 years.
8. M. Ward - Crawdaddy, Dublin - 31st October
I'll spoil the album list a bit and say that M. Ward's Post War features very highly on that list. One of the reasons it's so high is because of this gig. I'd bought the album after it was recommended to me by a few people and had thought it to be pretty good but didn't listen to it that often and to be honest I only went to the gig on a whim because I'd nothing better to do that night (not a big Halloween fan). The gig was a delight. Ward played solo with his voice bathed in reverb and revealing himself to be a more brilliant guitarist then I even imagined. There was also a wonderful version of Daniel Johnston's "Story Of An Artist" thrown in. After this I found myself listening to the album a lot more.
7. The Redneck Manifesto - Electric Picnic - September
I was pretty excited about this year's electric picnic as I was finally going to get to see one of my favourite post-rock bands play live.
And Mogwai were very, very good. However it was a Dublin based instrumental band that were my highlight of the weekend. Coming on stage after midnight TRM eschewed the typical quiet/loud/veryfuckingloud post-rock formula and played a set of songs that are far more riff and groove based than what you might expect from a band of that ilk.
6. Flaming Lips - Vicar Street, Dublin - 18th November
I've seen the Flaming Lips numerous times over the years and I thought that seeing pretty much the same show as all the other times again (but this time in a smaller room) might not be all that much fun.
Turns out it was one of the most life affirming experiences of my life and I left the gig with a love for humanity that not even a fight in the chipper could dampen.
Then I nearly crashed my car the next day.
5. Radiohead - Marley Park, Dublin - August
I saw Radiohead twice this year, the first time was cool because I got to hear a lot of their new material for the first time but it was the latter gig a few months later that I preferred. The band were tighter, more confident in the new material and most importantly I got to hear Videotape for the first time live.
4. Broken Social Scene -Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin - 11th February
A gig I'd been waiting years for. You Forgot It In People stiffed sales wise in Europe and it was only on the back of this year's third eponymous album did the Toronto collective make their Irish debut.
Worth the wait, upon entering the venue I saw the stage set up with more amps then a decently stocked small guitar store and thought that I might be in for something unusual here. What I got was a 2-hour long set and hug from Kevin Drew during an excursion of his out into the crowd. I saw them twice more during the year but while they were wonderful both times nothing came close to that first time.
3. The Wrens - Carling Academy, Birmingham - February
Day 2 of my Wrens air/rail/road trip around the UK. A gig beset by technical difficulties and all the more special for it. The Wrens do a fine line in triumphing over adversity and when not fighting with non-functioning power transformers they were utterly brilliant with impromptu R.E.M. covers and off the cuff renditions of songs they hadn't played live in a decade.
2. Final Fantasy - Whelan's, Dublin - 29th October
I thought the first Irish Final Fantasy show of the year in May was going to be pretty hard to top. Owen Pallet surpassed it with ease. It's hard to put into words how simply wonderful he was at this gig but the fact that he played 3 encores and the crowd still wanted more gives some indication of how good he was.
1. Okkervil River - Whelan's Dublin - 7th May
If Nada Surf the week before in the same venue had been a pleasant surprise then this was a fucking shocker. I went to see Okkervil River expecting a perfectly pleasant evening of quiet-ish acoustic based folk-tinged indie. What I saw that night was on of the most exciting gigs of my life. Only one person I know agrees with me about how good this gig was and to be honest I don't give a shit that it's only us, we're right, we know.
The Dancing About Architecture Top Ten Albums Of The Year.
10. Liars - Drums Not Dead
For this album the previously Brooklyn based band relocated to Berlin to record/not starve to death while doing so. The result was a wonderfully dense and challenging collection of songs which rewarded many repeated listens. For the record, Radiohead fanboy I may be but I was digging this before Thom Yorke started on about it.
9. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
For an indie-rock kinda guy I didn't much enjoy any indie albums released this year which tackled the "rock" part of that phrase, this is the closest thing on this list to being indie-rock.
What started out as a solo project a few years ago has blossomed into a full band Spencer Krug may just well be the most talented, prolific and busy man in indie music today in and he followed up the fantastic Wolf Parade album last year with this less visceral but nonetheless hugely rewarding record. Probably not as good as Apologies To The Queen Mary, but not many albums are, Krug's a fantastic songwriter but he was missing the edge Dan Boekner gave his songs last year.
Krug had another album out this year with Destroyer's Dan Bejar and Frog Eyes' Carey Mercer but not being a huge fan of either of those two I haven't got around to it yet.
8. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Let's get this out of the way first. In the pantheon of Thom Yorke's work this record isn't anywhere close to the second, third and fourth Radiohead albums; if anything it goes to show how important the other members of the band are. Nonetheless I really like The Eraser and I think that had anyone other than Yorke put it out with wouldn't have faced the same scrutiny as other albums.
7. Si Schroeder - Coping Mechanisms
Time may lead me to declare Coping Mechanisms to be the second greatest Irish album ever recorded (nothing is touching Loveless) but it's certainly in the top 5 already. I don't listen to much Electronica but I've always found that the best of it (basically Boards Of Canada) manages to be able to be simultaneously cold while being very emotionally powerful. This record has it in spades.
6. Cat Power - The Greatest
Chan Marshall always had a soulful voice, so it seemed pretty obvious to team her up with a soul band. Why no one did it before is probably more down to finances than anything else. When it finally happened the results were wonderful and gave Marshall her best album since 1998's Moon Pix
5. Islands - Return to the Sea
The Unicorns are extinct, Islands are forever. A genre spanning album with nods to nods to country, calypso, post-rock and underground hip-hop while still clinging onto it's indie-pop core Return To The Sea is my favourite pure pop album since the first Shins record.
4. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
I think I hate Zach Condon, I really do. 20 years old living in New Mexico and he produced this wonderful record all on his own.
I know, what a prick.
Truth be told the songs on this record sticks quite closely to conventional American song writing the fact that all the Eastern European sounding stuff is "tacked on" shouldn't detract from how good this album is.
3. Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
The first Final Fantasy record came 7th in my top ten of last year contained some fantastic songs, and some that were not so fantastic. He Poos Clouds was a huge step forward in terms of song writing and musical ambition for Owen Pallet with a much fuller sound and this album must surely rank in the all time top ten for concept albums about role playing games ever.
2. M Ward - Post War
When M. Ward released this record he said that the title wasn't a reference to current events but rather it was a nod to the post-WW2 music that he'd been listening to whilst working on this album. It certainly had an effect because this record is positively timeless and ably demonstrates why Ward is one of the most in demand guitarists in American music, that's not to denigrate the quality of the song writing here though, which is top notch.
1. Joanna Newsom - the Ys
Ah Joanna, let me count the ways that I love thee.
Well in 2006 it was 8*.
Once for the enjoyment I got from the repeated listenings of The Milk Eyed Mender throughout the year.
Once for the wonderful performance you gave at ATP and the dignity you maintained while a bunch of assholes who wouldn't shut up.
Once each for the 5 songs you released this year. Those clever songs that make me feel like a buffoon when I hear them because I occasionally don't get what you're on about.
And once more for the album that they make up. The wonderful, ambitious, challenging, beautiful album with its epic scale and Van Dyke Parks arranged strings.
*9 if you count the obvious but cavemanish "girl pretty" thing.
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Si Schroeder Coping Mechanism
The Butterfly Explosion Turn The Sky
The Coldspoon Conspiracy Plays Well With Others
Croyonsmith Stay Loose
Various Coin Meloy solo and Decemberists stuff.
The bit at the end
I'm not ranking my songs of the year but here's a few that I really liked. If you can name al the artists I'll give you a shout out or something next week:
- Emily
- Swans
- Stadiums and Shrines II
- Heartbeats
- Poison Cup
- Post War
- Harrowdown Hill
- The Other Side Of Mt. Heart Attack
- Wolf Like Me
- Intervention
- Oh Mandy
- Ibi Dreams of Pavement (a better life)
- Superconnected
- 7/4 shoreline
- Young Folks
- We're From Barcelona
- In This Home On Ice
- 9 Crimes
- Living Proof
