Another day, another soap box.
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Not so surprising musically. In that regard it’s right up my alley: fuzzy, speaker bleeding guitars chugging through power-pop songs, while some dude in a cardigan sings about doing it in a library. That’s pretty much all of my boxes ticked right there. The thing that surprised me though is that I couldn’t stop listening to it all year long. Usually an album so complete, so full of immediately unforgettable melodies, so absolutely crammed up the wahzoo with memorable hooks gets tired just as quickly as it endears itself, like someone trying way too hard to be your friend. The fact that this record has endured all the way into 2010 surprises the hell out of me.
King Khan and BBQ Show - Invisible Girl
I dunno if you know this, but I also play in this garage band called Straight Arrows with, among others, my pal Owen. Technically it’s his band, he writes the songs, he bosses everyone around and he makes recording an album hell (I just play solos and sing back ups and drink beers). Now Owen’s the kind of guy who would rather die than be made to listen to Pains Of Being Pure At Heart or any other hipster blog endorsed ‘indie’ music. Seriously, die. So he’s made it his personal mission to drag me away from the dark side and into the light. Some successful endevours: Red Kross - Born Innocent, GG Allin - Always Was, Is and Always Shall Be. Some unsuccessful endeavours: A whole bunch of stuff I only listened to for a second and have no real recollection of. However, Invisible Girl is one hell of a record. If you haven’t heard it yet, you really should. SURPRISE!!
Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy
This one came recommended from the good people at Repressed Records in Newtown. I know! A record store! In 2009! SURPRISE!! But those guys know everything. I had no idea who Kurt Vile was or what his thing was, and I still don’t really know much about him, except that his album was a very welcome, though late addition to my 2009. It’s vaguely psychedelic, vaguely folkey, kinda lo-fi, kinda not. At times it’s gentle, at times it’s all worked up. I can’t really explain, but it creates a mood, one that my head likes to swim around in for hours. And one of the songs that my iTunes only recognises as Unknown sounds like a distorted acoustic cover of some Go-Betweens song that doesn’t exist. What a gem.
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