Vulture Kult - Don't Let Rock N' Roll Ruin Your Life

Released: September 15, 2012

The Canadian prairies are, in the opinion of this West Coast son, like the barren mouth of hell.  Flat expanses of nothing for as far as the eye can see.  There are no mountains.  So it's no surprise that the prairies are also home to some of Canada's more aggressive bands; they need to express the darkness growing within themselves through the magic of song like Julie Andrews, but with rock and/or roll.

This is never more apparent than on Don't Let Rock n' Roll Ruin Your Life, which is the second full-length from Saskatoon riff rock duo Vulture Kult.  They bill themselves as "rock n' roll for the modern age" and they're not kidding around.  This album is like Black Sabbath's Paranoid remodelled without all the fluff; just two dudes riffing hard and fast and howling songs like Ozzy about drinking ("Cyanide Hand Grenades") and the devil ("Welcome to the Land of the Dead").  There are hints of other styles that pop up here and there to keep things fresh like the southern rock flair on the guitar lines in "Avenue H", and the percussive style throughout the album sounds like the Stooges.  The two closing tracks also stand out, as the creepy ambiance of "Movie of Me" recalls Pink Floyd, and the instrumental "Checking Out" is like a sad surf rock song.  But on the whole, this is a rocking affair that aims to make you "Go Loose".

Vulture Kult just came off a small Western Canada tour in support of Don't Let Rock n' Roll Ruin Your Life which kicked off from their album release show on Sept 15. It looks like things are only looking up for them as they continue the shake the prairies with their modern brand of straight ahead rock and roll.

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Time And Energy - Strange Kind of Focus

Release date: November 16, 2012

If someone put on Strange Kind of Focus at a party and told me that it was just two guys, I would call that person a liar because there is a ton going on in this record, far too much for just two guys and their four hands.  And then I would have to apologize because it is mean to call people liars and also because, lo and behold, Time And Energy are comprised of just Jorge Rios and Brennan Roach, both billed as playing "instruments".  Technically they do list their looping pedals (Boss RC 50, RC 20, RC 2 and a Line 6 Modular) as members but since Skynet isn't active yet, they don't count.  Yet.

Hailing from the heart of Orange Country, California, Time And Energy play a roaming experimental melange of alt-rock, pop, jazz and funk that eschews standard song structures.  They're like a slightly more restrained and mellow version of the Mars Volta.  Though they don't employ recurring choruses, they retain a strong sense of melodic flow and nicely varied instrumentation.  "Thought Forms" for example takes the bass line for a walk while the keys dance circles around the soft soulful vocals, then a dash of cowbell before the keys take the forefront with spacey frills around a melodic vocal melody reminiscent of Morning View-era Incubus, which settles into a snappy drum beat and an A.C. Newman vibe that fades into dissolving synth wave outro.  Each song on Strange Kind of Focus is just as schizophrenic (with the possible exception of "Tree Salad"), and yet they still feel like cohesive works individually, which speaks to the skillful musicianship of Rios and Roach and how well they work together as a unit.

While Strange Kind of Focus isn't due to be officially released until November 16, Time And Energy have been building an impressive amount of buzz off it already.  You can hear a full stream on their bandcamp page, and if you like it they've offered it as a pay-what-you-want download as well.

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EndAnd - The Adventures of Fi in Space

Released: June 26, 2012

EndAnd are a punky noise rock trio from Brooklyn, growing up within the King Killer Studios community along with friends Generator Ohm.  This release compiles two of their previous EPs: The Adventures of Hi-Fi in Space, which has five sharply recorded studio tracks; and The Adventures of Low-Fi in Space, consisting of four fuzzy DIY style songs.

The Hi-Fi portion of the record kicks off with "Far In Between", trading off driving guitar lines reminiscent of Green Album-era Weezer and verses echoing The Cure.  After the upbeat opening track, EndAnd slow things down a bit with "Labor Force" which has an even stronger 80s vibe initially, which juxtaposes very well with the aggressive break and shouted bridge at the end.  While each song on Hi-Fi brings its own particular flair to it blending styles and eras, the standout track is definitely the first single "Commando", from the flashy guitar riffing to put Jack White to shame, to the gruffest vocal delivery on the album and the rock solid drumming keeping everything together.  It's just a shame that "Commando" wasn't released at the peak of the Guitar Hero craze because it would have been a perfect addition to the playlist.

Low-Fi sets itself apart right away with "Dawi", opening with slowly strummed discordant guitars and a repeating feedback loop that resolves into an off-kilter melody that wouldn't be out of place in Nirvana's discography.  "Legend" continues with the slower pacing and darker harmonies, and though "Sweet" is more melodic the wall of menacing distortion layered underneath keeps in from being particularly uplifting.  "When and There" closes out the album in almost shoegazy, sprawling style.

As a package, The Adventures of Fi in Space is a great introduction to a young band who clearly have a strong sense of place amid the current milieu of the rock canon.

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Generator Ohm - Upon the Me Om I

Released: September 2012

In the words of Neil Young: "Rock and Roll can never die".  Around the world there are communities growing and thriving and keeping Rock and Roll alive.  One such community has risen up in Brooklyn around King Killer Studios, who are rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with.  Generator Ohm is at the forefront of King Killer's roster, and with the release of Upon the Me Om I they are making their contribution to a musical tradition passed down since the 1950s.

The album starts strong kicking into "Lemming Shuffle" with upbeat bouncy bass lines and some snazzy high hat action laying the groundwork for very grunge inspired vocals which rush forward up to the half timed bridge.  The rest of Upon the Me Om I never quite matches the urgency and cohesion of the opening track, but this feels intentional following the ebb and flow of the album as a whole as the band push themselves in different directions.  There is a lot of experimentation going on while still retaining the general framework of a rock band: from the pseudo hip hop break in "Smoke Eater" to the psychobilly feel of the bridge / solo of "Youth in Arms", from the brooding and spacey "Lynarco's Men" to the early 90s Chili Peppers vibe on "Marginal Hop".

There's a lot of good here, but it could benefit from being more concise.  At close to fifty minutes, it is a tad too far out of my preferred sweet spot of a thirty minute record, especially since there are moments where certain parts feel like they drag on too long.  That said, this is a very strong first release from a band that is just getting started.  Keep an eye out for great things coming from them.

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Mixtapes - A Short Collection Of Short Songs

Released: November 30, 2010

I just discovered this band a few days ago and they are so much fun!  This is absolute summer music!  How so, you ask?  Maybe it's the poppy minimalism, maybe it's the boy/girl vocals, maybe it's the album cover, or maybe it's the first song "Birthday Party Summer Camp (Hellloo Meggann)".  Incidentally, that's the song that hooked me.  I'm a sucker for songs that start soft and slowly build throughout; in this case, from a simple plucked bass line up the big gang vocals (no matter the genre, or how closely they resemble a "sing-a-long", I will always call them gang vocals because that makes them sound cooler).  The middle of the (short) album is filled up cheerful pop punk melodies that just brush the 2 minute mark and, thankfully, don't overuse the "whoa-uh-oh's".  And, in classic form, the last song is the ballad.

It's bands like this that make me feel vindicated in my relentless search for new music.  They come out of nowhere and put out music that feels immediately fresh, but familiar.  They're refreshing and fun, and I want to listen to this album over and over (I've already played it over 5 or 6 times now and I'm just getting started!).

The Damned Things - Ironiclast

 

Released: December 13, 2010

I was leery but hopeful when I first heard about The Damned Things because the band is made up of members from bands that wouldn't seem to naturally coexist in any natural environment: Every Time I Die, Anthrax and Fall Out Boy.  Yeah.  Right?  Now, I had complete faith in Keith Buckley is a vocalist and lyricist, but the rest of the line up is: Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano of Anthrax, and Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy, all playing guitar; Josh Newton of ETID on bass, and Andy Hurley of FOB on drums.  I've not really cared about Anthrax in years, despite them putting on a good show when I saw them on a reunion tour, 8 years ago.  Dudes are getting old.  And Fall Out Boy... Well, let's just say I've never been a fan.

It turns out that they all love classic blues-inspired riff rock and they perform it well.  Ironiclast is so damned (ha) catchy it's silly.  Every time their first single "We've Got A Situation Here" ends, I just want to skip right back to the beginning and hear it again.  And that's not a singular phenomenon, there's delightful melodies and harmonies and fun riffs and huge choruses being flung around like a cat clinging to a ceiling fan!  If this is what a modern rock record sounds like, then count me in.  I just hope the world follows their lead and forgets about the Puddle of Nickelcreedbacks out there, but honestly, that's been a dream of mine every time any record comes out. 

Do yourself a favor, get this album and hit the highway with it because this is driving music, dammit!

The Chariot - Long Live

 

Released: November 23, 2010

Long Live is probably one of the most interesting hardcore records to come out this year.  It far exceeds last year's (what I thought to be) hit or miss Wars And Rumors Of Wars and rivals 2007's The Fiancee in terms of mayhem and unexpected highlights like spoken poetry break in "David De La Hoz" or the big sing along at the end of "The City".  Everything just works on Long Live; the rhythm section is tight and pummeling, the guitars are spastic and fun, and Josh Scogin continues to howl his conviction like an old southern preacher condemning the devil.  The Chariot have just been getting better and better over the years, and their live show is stunning.  As long as Scogin and co. keep making music, I will keep listening. 

Rob's Best: #1: Have Heart - The Things We Carry

Released: August 8, 2006

Have Heart are my favorite band ever.  The Things We Carry is my favorite album ever.  Have Heart were the champions of hardcore for the four years after the release of this album until their final show on October 17, 2009.  The last song they played at the final show was "Watch Me Rise":

'Goddamn', he said, 'I promised myself I'd never feel this fucking way again.
This world has got me praying on my knees for one peaceful thought.
In my mind, my stride, my life,
My time is consumed with a thousand thoughts
Flying free like a flock of birds with no direction or intention of finding home.

It's so hard to think
It's so hard to change
When this world doesn't see you any other way.

In this world, they choose to see me, they choose to see me like a setting sun
So it's up to me, I have to see me like a rising one

In my days, somebody told me that the rain would always come,
always come to wash away the pain
But nothing changes and this world still wants me down
Wants me on my knees praying in that rain
Born this way, die this way'

I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees.

I'd rather die on my feet so you can watch me, watch me,
Watch me rise
With the things we carry:
The loss, the scars,
The weight of heavy hearts.

So, I say to the slaves of depression:
Carry on,
And sing the sweet, redeeming song,
About living this life, free and long,
It goes like this:

Watch me, watch me,
Watch me rise,
For miles and miles.

Rob's Best: #2: Circle Takes The Square - As The Roots Undo

 

Released: January 6, 2004.

This is an epic, swirling, layered monstrosity of an album that examines different paths to self-actualization with haunting and unique imagery and prose.  It would be impossible to even scratch the surface of all the myriad layers of device and meaning in this album; the most basic of these being cyclical repetition, images of various birds, weaving, and examinations of paintings like the French Revolution era The Death Of Marat by Jacques-Louis David and The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters by Francisco Goya.  Suffice to say that, in the end, the journey concludes essentially where it begins, albeit after having grown and learned of all the highs and lows of life.  The final conclusion being that the joy in life is taken from the journey, rather than the destination. 

Whispers invoke the artists of this tragically seamless, ill fated tapestry,
blistered fingers are tending their loom.

She collects the strands to braid into life.
Logging the weft of an ageless, woven infinity, countless raw fibers are clawing the frame.

A woman's work is never done, but the final stitch has got to come,
and so three witches contend to slice the very last thread.

(That you curse, curse constantly)

But nothing's immortal, and comfort is not guaranteed-
a yearling who bears our sincere passions is chosen, frozen and quivering,
like a thread in the wake of a blade.

So we compromise, so we sacrifice.

Rob's Best: #3: Every Time I Die - Hot Damn!

Released: July 1, 2003.

Dear friends, I give you my Top 3.  They are all undeniable monoliths of sound.  Every Time I Die are scholars of aggressive music; minstrels of wit and swagger; laureates of lyricism, ready with a nudge and a wink.  Hot Damn!  This album is the pinnacle of the genre; the bar against which all others are compared.  Exactly what genre is this, you ask?  Well, that's part of the fun, isn't it?  Part metal, part hardcore, part southern rock, part witty observation-based sitcom, part dance, part cut brake wires, part Clockwork Orange, part standing on the ledge of a bridge staring at the river below, part infectious disease party... But all a great time: Groove metal, perhaps?  Party metal?  No, Andrew W.K. already has the rights solidly for that one.  For lack of a better term... One must always fall back once again to Hot Damn!

It seems that all good things come in threes: This album is the number 3 album of the decade for both Trystan and I.  It was released in 2003.  And Every Time I Die stand tall at Number 3 on my Best Live Bands Ever list.  An Every Time I Die show is like witnessing seasoned rock and roll veterans dominate a stage with pure spectacle.  Pure, wondrous, entertaining spectacle.  

Trystan's Best #1: Arcade Fire - Funeral

Released: September 14th, 2004

I was going to pick Radiohead like everyone else... but then I remembered that they suck and I hate them... anyway, back to professionalism...

The best way to sum up Arcade Fire's seminal album, Funeral, is in a Jeopardy-like fashion. What is the album that made the Canadian alternative music scene a real player on the international stage? What is the album that created a style that was endlessly emulate for the remainder of the decade? What is the band that started the aging-stars-playing-with-the-hip-new-kids trend? (David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, etc.) Of course, all of this impact on the cultural world resonated from the music. Beautiful, powerful music by an orchestra of starry-eyed believers. Funeral is an emotional rebirth of a musical experience, uncontrived and shameless and without the slightest shred of indie pretense. Beauty. Art. Rock'n'roll. Perfection.

Trystan's Best #2: Against Me! - The Acoustic EP

Released: December 1st, 2001

Yep. A six song EP is my second favourite album of the entire decade. Here's why: The Acoustic EP is a collection of the most passionate, driving acoustic songs ever put to microphone. Tom Gabel covers more thematic ground here than some bands do in entire double-albums. Separation, betrayal, disillusionment, nostalgic longing, unyielding idealism, the list could go on and on. And beyond that, Gabel seems to touch on something here that so many punk troubadours fail to perceive: Punk Rock isn't about rebellion as much as it is about fear, fear of a world spinning helplessly out of your control. And the only way to show any kind of resolve in a world like that is pick up a guitar and sing, even if you can't.

Trystan's Best #3: Every Time I Die - Hot Damn!

Released: July 1st, 2003

Didn't think you could throw a metal album on at a party? Thought it would be a buzz-kill? Clearly you haven't heard Every Time I Die, asshole. ETID, as some people like to call them, make truly butt-shakin' rock'n'roll music and their best example of this is Hot Damn!, an album that finds them between their much bleaker, earlier stuff and their more tongue-in-cheek, recent albums. Singer Keith Buckley wields his words like a knife here, adding a level of intellectuality to a genre that isn't really known for poetry. Not that you'll notice this initially, since you'll be too busy handling the adrenaline rush that is this entire album. "Only the lonesome love us; only the careless can handle us". Fuck yeah.

Trystan's Best #4: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Release Date: April 23rd, 2002

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot might be the most storied album of the decade. Initially dismissed for being too weird and then bought back by a subsidiary of the same conglomerate responsible for the dismissal, it quickly launched to the top of every hipster's name-dropping list. And with good reason, here Wilco conquered new frontiers for the alternative americana genre, using the kind of sonic architecture reserved for weirder, less accessible groups, or The Beatles during their LSD years. Jeff Tweedy is also at his most interesting and effective lyrically, tying a perfect bow on a truly great album.

Trystan's Best #5: Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary

Released: September 27th, 2005

With Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown both appearing on my list, was there any doubt that an album by Wolf Parade, which has the singers of both the aforementioned bands in it, was going to make my list? Apologies is a great album front to back, from the drum opening and Krug-yelping of "You Are A Runner, And I Am My Father's Son" to the punchy, passionate closer "This Heart's On Fire". What really makes this album such a gem isn't just the incredibly catchy songs but the dichotomy between Boechner and Krug's equally distinct voices and songwriting-styles. This is the album of a supergroup if supergroups were good.

Rob's Best: #4: Propagandhi - Potemkin City Limits

Released: October 18, 2005.

Propagandhi are one of the best bands on the planet, period.  They are a thrash-influenced punk band from Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Their lyrics are some of the most insightful and witty and challenging that that I've ever heard.  From the opener "A Speculative Fiction" which plays with the idea of open conflict breaking out between the United States and Canada, to "Cut Into The Earth" and it's examination of the hypocrisy of the descendants of immigrants, now living comfortably, as they decry the newly immigrated in their struggles to survive in North America, this album is full of cutting observation performed overtop technically impressive musicianship.  My favorite song, "Iteration", illustrates a courtroom scene in which all the varied visages of war profiteering are put on trail for crimes against humanity:

But how can one man ever repay a debt so appalling?
Can’t gouge 10,000 eyes
from a single head so I
think we should observe
a sentence that will serve
to satisfy both a sense of function and poetry:
so you will spend the rest
of your days drenched in sweat,
with your face drawn in a rictus of terror as you remove
another buried land mine fuse.

Meanwhile,
100 yards back
behind the sandbags,
a legless foreman
pulls the trigger on
a red megaphone.
Squelching feedback.
Drunken laughter.
Broken English.
His dead daughter’s picture.

Time and tide,
no one can anticipate the inevitable waves of change.

Rob's Best: #5: Against Me! - As The Eternal Cowboy

Released: November 3, 2003.

Against Me! are a punk band from Gainesville, Florida led by Tom Gabel.  As The Eternal Cowboy, and their Acoustic EP, are two of my principal inspirations for wanting to perform music.  This is my favorite album out of their illustrious catalog.  Each of Against Me's albums has had it's own distinct personality: Reinventing Axl Rose is brash, vigorous and loud; Searching For A Former Clarity is bleak and bitter; New Wave is just a straight up rock and roll record; and As The Eternal Cowboy is a fast, fun, punk rock romp.  It's party music, despite the albums opening line of "The party's over..."  And this album is wonderfully varied as well, from the first upbeat strums of opener "T.S.R. (This Shit Rules)" through the glorious punk rock of "Cliche Guevara" and "Rice And Bread" to the driving acoustic songs "Sink, Florida, Sink" and "Unsubstantiated Rumors Are Good Enough For Me (To Base My Life Upon)."  The final three songs are some of the best punk songs ever recorded: "You Look Like I Need A Drink" is the standout track on the album, "Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists" is a slow burning epic of a song that explodes like Mount Saint Helens, and there is not a single person who I've shown closer, failed love ballad "Cavalier Eternal" to that hasn't loved it.

Rob's Best: #6: Murder By Death - Who Will Survive, And What Will Be Left Of Them?

Released: October 14, 2003.

Murder By Death essentially embody the rebirth of Johnny Cash.  They play noir western rock music and they sing about whiskey and the devil.  Who Will Survive tells the story of a small Mexican village that's under attack by the devil after it's residents betrayed him.  The album opens with a brief, but perfect prologue with a simple old time piano tune before the curtain rises on the album proper.  Musically, this album pays homage to Johnny Cash and Ennio Morricone, with a standard rock set up of guitar, bass and drums, but supported by cello and piano as well, which allows for some very epic builds like on "The Devil In Mexico" or "Killbot2000."   The rest of the album plays out like a dark western epic with scenes of men hanging, revenge, whiskey and shotguns leading up to the finale of a town of barricaded doors bracing for the arrival of the devil himself who's charging in with all the fury of a speeding train.

Trystan's Best #6: Japandroids - Post-Nothing

Released: June 8th, 2009

With nothing more than a guitar split between two amps and a drum set, Japandroids manage to fill your headphones with fuzzy, epic punk rock and your mind with equally epic feelings of nostalgia and euphoria. "Young Hearts Spark Fire" is a battle cry for every young person feeling the cynism of the uncertain times we live in now, because we all certainly used to dream and now worry about dying. "Wet Hair" and "Heart Sweats" are both builders, the former being about beautiful girls and adventuring to France, and the latter being about being in love with an imperfect girl. This album is full of alt-fuzz gems. It is perfect driving music and perfect wind-down music all at once. Perfect get-drunk music and perfect reflect-and-recollect music. It's perfect music, through and through.

Rob's Best: #7: Set Your Goals - Mutiny!

Released: July 11, 2006.

This is the best damn pop punk record ever.  Listening to this album is like being at a party with all your best friends.  It's fast, fun, and catchy as hell.  This record flows exceptionally well as songs often segue from one to the next perfectly, and often building up as a kind of prequel, like the combos of "Dead Men Tell No Tales" into "Mutiny!" and "Don't Let This Win Over You" and "Echoes."  I can't help but bounce and swing my arms in jubilation whenever I listen to Mutiny!  The two vocalists duck and weave around each other, trading line for line for the most part, but occasionally singing together as well, to tremendous effect like sing-a-long at the end of "Echoes".  It's never been more fun to sing along to songs about life, religion and death... and pirates.

Rob's Best: #8: Gaslight Anthem - Sink Or Swim

Released: June 12, 2007

Wow!  The first direct overlap of the countdown!  I think that means this record has been scientifically proven to be the 8th best record of the decade.  Well done.

Trystan said it already, I'll say it again but different.  This record is awesome summer music.  And Brian Fallon is, by far, the best nostalgia lyricist to come out of our generation, and with Sink Or Swim he sang with a gruffness and a conviction that made his every word magical.

Honey, we came to dance with the girls with the stars in their eyes,

Do the jump back jacks, stop and slide to the right,

Never break their hearts, never make them cry, come on

Strike up the band, play a song that everybody knows,

If I'm not your kind, then don't tell a soul,

I'm not the one who hates being alone, so come on.

Rob's Best: #9: Kodan Armada - A Collection Of Songs

Released: June 22, 2004

This is one of the greatest screamo records I've ever heard and I mean screamo in the traditional sense a la bands like Saetia, Neil Parry, and Orchid rather than what people call screamo now like The Used or I Set My Friends On Fire (who, incidentally, rival brokenCYDE for one of the worst bands ever).  But I digress, A Collection Of Songs is essentially just that, a collection of songs taken from their one EP, and the few 7"s they released over the years.  It's their only real full length record, and it plays almost like a retrospective (which, at this point, it is since they broke up years ago) with short recordings of between-song banter from live shows explaining the meanings behind the songs interspersed throughout. 

None of this has really told you anything about the music.  They play an abrasive, cathartic, and emotive form of hardcore music.  They tend to write either relatively short bursts of chaotic noise like "Cops", or much more epic songs that push the boundaries of tension and release that build into an unstoppable fury like "No Has Never Had Three Letters" or "Butterfly Effect".  There was a period a few years ago where I listened to only this record for about a month straight and I was constantly surprised by the discovery of new melodic nuances.  These songs are dense with layers that only reveal themselves after repeated listens, much like Dillinger Escape Plan.

Trystan's Best #7: Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm A Machine

Released: October 26th, 2004

Is it possible to make an album that's as sexy as it is heavy? As catchy as it is unaccessible? Death From Above 1979, the one-time duo from Toronto pull this off with their masterful and only album You're A Woman, I'm A Machine. Between singer Sebastien Grainger's banshee-like vocals and bassman Jesse F. Keelers distorted bass-lines their is pop gold to be found. "Romantic Rights" and "Blood On Our Hands" are two of the catchiest songs you'll ever silmultanously shake your butt to and mosh to, and "Black History Month" has enough build-and-explode in it to blow the speakers at the biggest stadium. And nevermind closer "Sexy Results" which, if put on at the correct time during a date, could in fact lead to very sexy results.

It's a shame the two in this band couldn't stick it out longer, because they were certainly going to be greats. So we'll have to settle for their lone album, which happens to be one of the greats of this whole decade.

Trystan's Best #8: The Gaslight Anthem - Sink Or Swim

Released: June 12th, 2007

Sometime before critics couldn't stop ejaculating their Springsteen-comparisons all over The Gaslight Anthem's second album The '59 Sound, The Gaslight Anthem released one of the best punk rock albums of the decade Sink Or Swim. Their debut, which was edgier, catchier, and ballsier than their latest, never really got it's due, which seems absurd with such midnight-drive sing-a-longs like "We Came To Dance" and "Boomboxes & Dictionaries". Or how about their ode to the late Joe Strummer "I'da Called You, Woody, Joey" or their perfect acoustic closer "Red At Night"? How about all of those great songs, music presses of the world!? That's right, The '59 Sound didn't even make my list! Dicks!

Trystan's Best #9: Murder By Death - In Bocca Al Lupo

Released: May 23rd, 2006

Murder By Death are in a class of their own: They make western rock music. Not country rock, but western rock. The latter you would tap a toe to, line dance to, or fire up the barbeque to, and the former you would shoot-a-man-in-reno-just-to-watch-him-die to. In Bocca Al Lupo is a collection of stories. Stories of redemption, revenge, and obligation, and like and good piece of spaghetti western film, this album has rising and falling action. Things begin slowly and then burst wide open on "Brother" then slow with "Dynamite Mine" and again go wild with the prison-break-anthem "Sometimes The Line Walks You". This pattern continues, closing with the optimistic sing-a-long of "The Devil Drives", some much needed optimism for anyone taking their first step into singer Adam Turla's dark, whiskey-soaked world. Murder By Death are the best band you probably haven't heard of, so get to it!

Trystan's Best #10: Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Released: February 19th, 2008

Enough has been written about Justin Vernon in the past year and a half to make whatever I have to say almost irrelevant. So I will simply say that this minimal, beautiful folk album may be the most poignant lament to lost love since Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks. And "Skinny Love" could be the best song of the decade.

Rob's Best: #10: Bomb The Music Industry! - Scrambles

Released: February 14, 2009.

This is my best album of 2009.  I've been listening to this album constantly since midnight on the 14th when I downloaded this record.  It's amazing!  I've never so personally connected with the lyrics of any album before this one.  I feel like I could have, and should have, written half this record myself.  But Jeff Rosenstock went ahead and did it first, and made it catchy as hell, and he made it all happen for less than $50 and released it for free off of his own record label, Quote Unquote Records. 

From this point on on my side of this list, the writers and lyrics are a huge factor in reaching the top 10 of this pinnacle of music journalism.  Jeff Rosenstock is easily one of my favorite lyricists ever, I mean, I stole the name of this blog from the name of one of his songs, "Brian Wilson Says SMiLE, a.k.a. Beard of Defiance" off of To Leave Or Die In Long Island.  I'm constantly torn over what my favorite song on this record is, but as of this moment, it's "(Shut) Up The Punx!!!":

‘Cause the last thing I wanna be is another negative asshole.
Like God speaks through my acoustic guitar
and I’ve got the perfect set of morals
on a dry erase board at the front of the house:

'FOLLOW THESE CONDITIONS OR WE’LL KICK YOUR ASS OUT:
Vegans only: NO MEAT ALLOWED!
Straight Edge only: NO DRINKING ALLOWED!
Fixed gears only: NO THREE-SPEEDS ALLOWED!
Me me me!!!: I’M SMART! I’M RIGHT! I’M SMART!'

I think it’s dumb when you take the inherently fun like riding bikes
and singing songs and say they’re not for everyone
as if for your whole life you were cool as shit.