The Dunce Cap, Vol. 53: The things that used to mean so much to me have gone the way of dinosaurs – hopes and dreams and everything. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks or play above)
1. “Career Day” – The Format
2. “Silver Things” – Limbeck
3. “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” – Motion City Soundtrack
4. “Blacking Out the Friction” – Death Cab for Cutie
5. “Social Development Dance” – Pete Yorn
6. “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” – Weezer
7. “Let Me Go” – Marvelous 3
8. “I Saw Lightning” – Telekinesis
9. “I Need My Girl” – The National
10. “Breathing Underwater” – Metric
Happy 2015, y’all! I’m still mostly listening to tracks from the past decade, though I admit I’m really hopping on the Swift train with the singles from her recent release. Just a few notes on these:
“Her Words Destroyed My Planet” has such a solid Veronica Mars reference in it; the whole track reminds me of being 17 and heartbroken and desperate to move forward (Justin Pierre’s near-yelp of “I’m learning to speak Japanese!” slays me every time), and it’s just great.
My sister and I are big Pete Yorn fans; I was 11 when I picked up musicforthemorningafter from Tower Records in Buckhead, and my father – tired of hearing it constantly – dubbed him “Pete Yawn.” His follow up efforts didn’t come close to his first record, but 2009’s Back and Fourth comes pretty damn close. “Social Development Dance” is a decidedly weird song – but I like it.
In September, Riot Fest brought an incredible line-up to Chicago’s Humboldt Park, including the likes of The National, The Hold Steady, Weezer, The Get Up Kids, Tegan and Sara and a whole slew more. It was, in short, fantastic. Ten artists played their seminal albums in their entirety, like The Get Up Kids’ Something to Write Home About and Weezer’s Blue. Somewhat surprisingly, the most captivating moment of the three-day festival was Metric’s showstopping finale; I caught the tail end of Metric somewhat on a whim and was bowled over by their haunting performance of “Breathing Underwater.” The studio version doesn’t quite do it justice, but it’s certainly a start.
Eek – I haven’t been blogging regularly, as I’ve been on a bit of a chase, journalistically speaking. I’m building a mystery, y’all know? Anyway. So much has happened recently, and I’ve been AWOL. Here are a few things that have led to incredible excitement.
It’s getting hard to keep pretending I’m worth your time
I’m not going to lie. The just-released video for Yeasayer‘s single “Madder Red” is weird. It’s kooky and certainly off-kilter, but it’s also sweet and tender. The gorgeous Kristen Bell of Veronica Marsfame is the leading lady in this video, which New York mag’s Vulture blog calls “the touching story of a girl and her pet blob monster.” And they’re not kidding. The object of Bell’s affection isn’t cute or cuddly but rather totally grotesque and absurd. It looks a bit like the inside of a body, with an oozingly bloody facial cavity thing and piercing blue eyes.
The video, directed by Swede Andreas Nilsson (a long time music video man behind songs by Fever Ray, José González and one of my personal favorites, I’m From Barcelona’s “We’re From Barcelona”) is certainly a bit creepy but it’s also heartwrenching. Check it out below, and definitely give Yeasayer’s full album, the incredible Odd Blood, a listen. [NY Mag]
Let it Sway
Springfield, Missouri's Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin
I really must have been living under a rock these last few weeks. Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin – one of my absolute favorite bands – just released a brand new album today. Their third LP, Let it Sway, is joyous. I’ve been a huge SSLYBY fan since their inception and the release of their first album, Broom, and Let it Sway doesn’t disappoint – itis refreshing. It’s hook-laden with ooh’s, aah’s and ear-pleasing choruses, and the feel is ’90s powerpop, recalling Built to Spill or a softer, more sing-songy Camper Van Beethoven. It’s a record of good-feelings and, while not as stellar as Broom, it has its standouts. Check out the lead single and title track “Sink/Let it Sway” below or give a listen to the anthemic attention-grabber “Back in the Saddle.”
Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin, “Sink/Let it Sway”
Weezer loses sense of irony – and gains indie musicality
Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo with album namesake
Weezer is going indie with their forthcoming eighth album Hurley. Rolling Stone reports the band will be channeling “Sixties pop” on the disc, to be released Sept. 14. The band isn’t merely changing their sound – they’re switching labels too. They’ve left their longtime label Geffen/Interscope and are seeking solace at California-based Epitaph, known for hosting bands such as Alkaline Trio (after their parting from Vagrant), Motion City Soundtrack and the Weakerthans. The album art, which Weezer also released last week, actually is a headshot of Lost character Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, portrayed by Jorge Garcia. I’m excited for their alleged return to indie. It’ll be a nice change of pace after the machine-like churning out of Top 40-ready records (though “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” was entirely charming, thanks in great part to producer and lyricist Butch Walker). I’m eager for Hurley – even despite the cheesy (cheeky?) and dated cover work. And despite the rather paltry attempt at a first single, “Memories.” [Rolling Stone]
And in other Weezer news – guitarist Brian Bell hinted in an interview at the Mile High Festival in Denver that the band would be touring in support of their pinnacle album, Pinkerton, which has reached cult classic status since its release in 1996. This one is personally near and dear to my heart. Pinkerton remains one of my absolute favorite albums, and the band is releasing a deluxe reissue of the record October 5 on Geffen. Keep your fingers – and toes! – crossed that Bell isn’t just merely being a tease. [MySpace music]
The Dunce Cap, Vol. 17: The room is on fire as she’s fixing her hair. (listen to mix via 8tracks)
1. “If You Find Yourself Caught In Love” – Belle & Sebastian
2. “Congratulations Smack and Katy” – Reggie and the Full Effect
3. “I Met a Girl” – Wheat
4. “Spitting Games” – Snow Patrol
5. “Down” – Blink-182
6. “Reptilia” – The Strokes
7. “Naive” – The Jealous Sound
8. “So Says I” – The Shins
9. “Amsterdam” – Guster
10. “Chicago is so Two Years Ago” – Fall Out Boy
11. “California Waiting” – Kings of Leon
12. “Mexican Wine” – Fountains of Wayne
13. “The Sound of Settling” – Death Cab for Cutie
14. “Shiny” – The Decemberists
15. “Toxic” – Britney Spears
16. “My Favorite Accident” – Motion City Soundtrack
17. “Shakin’” – Rooney
18. “Such Great Heights” – The Postal Service
19. “So Long, Astoria” – The Ataris
20. “My Coco” – stellastarr*
Four score & seven years ago…
The year is 2003. Ariel Sharon is the newly elected Prime Minister of Israel. I am only nominally Jewish. The war in Iraq has just begun. 100 people have lost their lives in The Station night club fire, as pyrotechnics from Great White’s stage show set the insulation foam ceiling alight.The O.C. premieres on Fox.
I am in seventh grade. I no longer have braces, and my hair is just growing out of its yield sign phase. I carry a tin Weezer lunchbox to school, and I still listen to Good Charlotte mostly unabashedly. This is the summer of my musical discontent, and it is, in response, the spring of my musical awakening.
Seven years ago,I was in seventh grade. I had just recently discovered that all music did not come from boy bands and teen queens, and I had also become incredibly engrossed in Josh Schwartz‘s The O.C. I was obsessed with Weezer. My taste in music was rapidly expanding, and 2003 was certainly the year my music repertoire really took shape. It was the heyday of pop-punk and my real transition into indie. In the hopes of avoiding sounding even sappier than I do now, this should suffice: 2003 was the first year I really, truly started to love music. Music by musicians with musical talent. And, man, the new material that came out of 2003 continues to astound me and occupy my iPod with some regularity. It may be a bit melodramatic to say that 2003 was the year I came into myself, as that’s an exaggeration, but it was certainly the year I began a great passion for music.
I started to make mixtapes for friends and boys, and these artists really became staples of my playlists. There was The Postal Service’s Give Up, Belle and Sebastian’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Death Cab’s gorgeously lush Transatlanticism, The Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow. There was the catchier-than-the-common-cold Yellowcard, a maturing Fall Out Boy, an aging Chris Carrabba in Dashboard and an Alkaline Trio album that was just melodious enough to shout out loud. There were two hilarious videos for Motion City Soundtrack’s “The Future Freaks Me Out” and Reggie and the Full Effect’s “Congratulations, Smack and Katy.”
There was a White Stripes album that nearly overshadowed the brilliance their fans had come to expect with De Stijl and White Blood Cells. There was a disappointing Saves the Day follow-up to an album (Stay What You Are) as they drifted away from a record label, Vagrant, that would come to define my early interactions with music. That’s not to mention The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Stills, The Long Winters’ brilliant photograph of adolescence, When I Pretend to Fall, or even The All-American Rejects eponymous first album, a CD I bought the day it was released.
The Long Winters, “The Sound of Coming Down”
So much of who I was in school was defined by my ownership of these and other albums. I had a fervent passion for music, and 2003 was really the year that fueled my musical ravenousness. So this is an epic tribute to the year 2003, to seven years ago, to the music of the year and the efforts that would come subsequently.
Not as interactive as the last Dunce Cap, certainly, but a fair tribute to a year that changed music – for me, at least.
coco keevan 