March 9, 2010
#20: 2003
THE NINETIES-IST
Welcome to another edition of Brook Pridemore’s The Nineties-ist. This edition discusses 2003 and the good old days when kids took the time to ride their bikes to record stores to pick up new albums instead of downloading songs with a simple and thoughtless click. For earlier installments, go here.
If the moment upon which the music industry gave up the ghost for real can indeed be pinpointed to a single date, I would posit that it came with the release of Good News for People Who Love Bad News, the commercial breakthrough from Modest Mouse, long beloved Washington indie rock darlings. And I can’t even blame the death of the industry on Modest Mouse: while Good News is not nearly as good as the albums upon which Modest Mouse’s reputation was built, the album is still quite good. I would posit, though, that the end of the old standard came with Modest Mouse’s crossover because I can’t for the life of me think of one other new album that’s had anywhere near the impact of Good News.
(Before you get started in on me about music over the last seven years, let me just say: Animal Collective, M. Ward, Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, Bon Iver, !!!, Neko Case, My Morning Jacket, Screaming Females, etc. I know. Shut up.)
But given that I promised to wrap things up in 2003, let’s just go ahead and say that any events dating after December 31, 2003, are epilogue. I would point out that 2003 is the year Radiohead, previously the bastions of adventure and limit-testing in modern rock, first failed to live up to the hype surrounding them. Where moments on each of their previous albums carry unmistakable resonance to this day (discounting 2001’s Amnesiac, which was more of a companion piece than actual album), 2003’s Hail to the Thief was the first more or less unmemorable Radiohead album. Considering that Thom Yorke and Co. are hailed in the media as industry saviors on a more or less daily basis, I would guess that a lot of guys who wear ponytails and $1,000 suits started bucketing water out of the higher floors of the Capitol Records building when Hail to the Thief failed to reinvigorate the industry.
Watch New Modest Mouse Video For No One’s First and You’re Next Single “Whale Song” – It’s Got Plants Playing Drums! And Strange Nautical Contraptions! [Pitchfork]
Stream Live Animal Collective Jam “Bleed,” To Be Released With Merriweather Highlight “Brothersport” As 10” Single December 8th…Coincidentally The Same Day That Fall Be Kind, The (Non)Existing Hypothetical Animal Collective Album is Scheduled [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Beach Boys Frontman/Mind Behind/Pet Sounds/Resident Crazy Person Brian Wilson To Finish The Compositions of Legendary “Rhapsody in Blue” Composer George Gershwin [NME]
Watch Grotesque New Converge Video For “Axe To Fall,” the Title Track To Their Upcoming Album (Warning: Not For Individuals Prone To Seizures, Nausea, Fear, Emotional Instability, General Sensitivity); The Excellent Axe to Fall Released October 20 [Stereogum]
Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien Says Radiohead Will Make Another Radiohead Album Instead of Only Releasing Radiohead EPs; New Radiohead Album Released in 2010 – I Decide The Amount of Times I Say Radiohead In Post Will Directly Increase JM.com’s Rising Popularity; P4K Credibility [Pitchfork]
Sonic Youth To Appear On Gossip Girl Next Monday, Performing Acoustic Version of EVOL Deep Cut “Star Power” – Which Brings Me To the Most Important Question: Will Kim Gordon Smite Thurston in the Episode and Sleep With the Ever Stylish Chuck Bass? (Also, All Hope For “Indie”’s Continued Existence Lost) [Pitchfork]
Watch Video For New Moon Death Cab Single “Meet Me on the Equinox;” It’s So Irrelevantly Bland It’s Spoooooooky [Spin]
Daily Swarm Notes New Trend: Current Rock ‘n Roll Causes Rise In Number of Young Men Peeing in Public; New York Times Ought Run a Trend Piece On This [The Daily Swarm]
compiled by Max Sebela
August 11, 2009
Modest Mouse | No One’s First and You’re Next
FRESH BAKED
Modest Mouse
No One’s First and You’re Next
2009 | Epic
B
No One’s First and You’re Next is much in the vein of Modest Mouse’s previous (and fantastic) compilation Building Nothing Out of Something. It is a collection of b-sides and singles from the Good News and We Were Already Dead sessions that didn’t quite make it onto an LP. But the songs aren’t just mere outtakes. Included with a couple of new tracks are full re-recordings of the previously shelved tracks, making the album feel far from a group of oddities thrown together. The extra effort in production might indicate the same level-headed polish found on the band’s last two LPs, but this isn’t the case. And, in a good way, No One’s First retains some of the rough edges that characterized the spirit of Modest Mouse’s early work.
The songwriting, however, is very much like the sessions these songs sprang from. So while “Satellite Skin” has some of the ratty distorted guitar from the Modest Mouse of old, it keeps a solid composure that resembles the band’s recent brand of cross-eyed pop. The start of “Guilty Cocker Spaniels” even has a similar shuffle to Modest Mouse’s breakthrough single, “Float On.” But what makes this compilation most like the band’s recent output is its dabbling in bluegrass and Americana. While these genres have always found their way into the music of Modest Mouse, No One’s First finds the band drawing on their even more traditional aspects.
More on Modest Mouse | No One’s First and You’re Next
The Pope Criticizes Glasgow Band For Destroying Bible. Let’s See How He Feels About Censorship After His Album Drops! [NME]
That’s Right, The Pope is Dropping his Debut LP This November. Holy Shit. [Prefix]
Watch Heath Ledger-Directed Video For Modest Mouse Song “King Rat” [Rolling Stone]
Another Reason I Prefer Ghostface: Method Man Allegedly Shoots Fan With Pellet Gun. [AllHipHop.com]
In Case You Cared, MTV Revealed The Nominees For 2009 VMAs [Idolator]
Unfortunately, Mistah F.A.B.’s “Hit Me On Twitter” Video Overlooked By VMAs, but We Think You Should Check It Out Anyway [Idolator]
Nick Cave Releasing Double CD, Will Be In NYC To Talk About His Book [Brooklyn Vegan]
My Bloody Valentine To Give Away Earplugs At Shows. But I Like That Battered Eardrum Feeling! [NME]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
Stream New Sondre Lerche Single, “Good Luck” Off His Upcoming LP Heartbeat Radio; Released September 8 [Brooklyn Vegan]
Stage Collapses at Big Valley Jamboree Festival in Canada; 1 Dead, At Least 15 Injured [Rolling Stone]
Artwork To Jay Z’s Much Anticipated The Blueprint 3 Unveiled; Looks A Lot Like Michael Jackson’s “Scream” Video (I’d Kill To See A Video of Jay Dancing Through Space) [Idolator]
Wu-Tang Member Raekwon Releases Artwork For Equally Anticipated Only Built For Cuban Linx… Pt II; Features Raekwon Tied Up, Having Decapitated The Statue of Liberty With A Ninja Sword (Uh, Hell Yeah? I Guess?); Cuban Linx Due Out (Supposedly) September 8 [Pitchfork]
Red Hot Chili Peppers To Record In October; More Importantly Drummer Chad Smith, Already A Member of the Ludicrously Named Chickenfoot, Is Recording With A Band Called Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats (?…!) [Spin]
Heath Ledger-Directed Video For Mouse Mouse Song “King Rat” To Premier On Myspace Tomorrow [Pitchfork]
Island Def Jam To Advertise In CD Booklets, Starting With Mariah Carey’s Upcoming Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel; At Least They Aren’t Selling Ad-Space On The Album Yet [Prefix]
Brooklyn’s St. Vincent To Tour With Grizzly Bear – Tour Hypothesis: These Shows Will Sound Nice. [Pitchfork]
UK’s Bat For Lashes Debuts Video For Two Suns Single “Sleep Alone;” Video As Inexplicable And Plotless As The Recently In The Tube-d “Daniel” [Prefix]
by Max Sebela
Now a Monster of Folk, Conor Oberst Says Goodbye to Bright Eyes with Final LP [Prefix]
Leonard Cohen Announces Fall US Tour, Playing MSG [Pitchfork]
Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 to Feature MGMT, Inexplicably [Stereogum]
Stream New Times New Viking Track — Now with More Tape Hiss! [The Tripwire]
Modest Mouse Set August 4th Release Date for Long Awaited Odds-and-Ends EP [Pitchfork]
Os Mutantes to Release First Album in 35 Years on ANTI- [BrooklynVegan]
Yo La Tengo Announce Fall Tour, NYC Date with Black Lips [Prefix]
compiled by Sean Hallarman
Weekly Review
Thank god, finally, we can hear the Grateful Dead spliced and diced, backed by spastic jungle-cum-calypso beats. We never thought we’d see the day. Nor did we ever think we’d see a Manhattan prep-school girl make Top 40 history. But sometimes seeing (Paul McCartney playing on top of the Ed Sullivan Theater, Ne Yo sobbing on stage), or reading (Spencer Pratt’s offensive interview with SPIN), or eBay surfing (for posters of Stone Roses singer Ian Brown), or streaming (Modest Mouse’s new honky-tonk inspired single), is believing.
Speaking of streaming…we are out at Pitchfork’s annual music festival in Union Park and did you know that you can, yup, stream it, live? Catch today’s, the last day’s, acts right here, right now! We’re off to go check out the rest of the bands in the flesh (teeheehee, muhaha), but we’ll be happy to share with you are thoughts and reactions once we return to our fair city.
by Elana Jacobs
Madonna’s Stage Collapses In Marseille; 1 Dead, 7 Injured [Billboard]
The Guggenheim Museum (This Big Twirly Building) Puts On “It Came From Brooklyn” Concert Series; First Show Features The Walkmen and High Places [Brooklyn Vegan]
Stream War On Drugs’ Frontman Kurt Vile’s New Single “Overnite Religion”; New LP Childish Prodigy Released October [Matador]
Paul McCartney Plays On Top of David Letterman’s Marquee – Forgive Him The Relationship With Starbucks, And Wings’ Whole Catalogue, Because This Is Pretty Cool [Idolator]
Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, and Dudes From Panic! At the Disco and Gym Class Heroes Debut Coke Sponsored Video/Single That Looks Ripped From Shark Boy and Lava Girl [Idolator]
The Hills’ Spencer Pratt Announces Rap Career; Spin Conducts Interview That Simultaneously Enrages, Confuses, and Destroys Mind [Spin]
Nick Cave and Bad Seed Warren Ellis Release Two-Disc Anthology Of Their Film Scores [Pitchfork]
LA’s Spaz-Punks The Mae Shi Breaks Apart Into New Mae Shi And A New Band Called Signals [Pitchfork]
Stream Yet Another New Modest Mouse Song, “History Sticks to Your Feet” – This Time It’s Electro (And Boring) [Pitchfork]
Calvin Johnson’s K Records (Home of The Microphones & Mirah) Announces Sleepover At Helsing Junction in Washington…Which Again Proves K To Be Most Adorable Label Ever [Tiny Mix Tapes]
compiled by Max Sebela
