My Top Releases of 2004
By Nima Shirazi (Drummer, On My Signal)
Because my dreams of becoming a legitimate music critic were cruelly dashed long ago, due mostly to my shoddy vocabulary and in part to my inability to comprehend the popularity of Hawthorne Heights, I have since decided to try my hand at rock stardom instead. Nevertheless, I'll attempt to finally enter this venerable field with a list that took me about six minutes and forty-three seconds to come up with. Here goes, with sometimes not-so-brief explanations, my Top 20 Albums of 2004:
20. LUNA – Rendezvous (Jetset)
As this will be the very last album from Luna, a band I have loved for years and seen countless times live, I felt compelled to include it here, in tribute, an encomium. Plus, it’s the best thing they’ve done since their album Pup Tent, which came out in 1997. In their final effort, they go out with a deafening moody whisper.
19. TV ON THE RADIO - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (Touch and Go)
These Brooklyn hipsters are way too cool for me to really understand, but this trio could definitely kick the shit out of all the combined members of The Walkmen, Interpol, Aesobi Seksu, and Ambulance LTD in a steel cage match, armed only with a vintage analog Korg synthesizer.
18. LITTLE YELLOW BOX - Et Cetera EP (Negative Progression)
This band is incredible, though anyone who’s from Connecticut or possibly Long Island already knows this. Truth be told, since they’ve blown up on Purevolume lately, I feel less cool including them here, however, I was lucky enough to play a show with them this past August and they blew me away. It’s almost like if The Mars Volta stopped doing heroin for a second and moved to New England. If I had any balls I’d put this release in my Top 5.
17. THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES – Oxeneers, or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home (Jade Tree)
I hate Seattle, Washington. It seems like every band from that town is awesome. I guess it wasn’t enough that the Space Needle capital of the world already gave us Jimi Hendrix, Soundgarden, Minus The Bear, The Blood Brothers, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Nirvana, Acceptance, Sunny Day Real Estate, Pedro The Lion, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Vendetta Red, Gatsby’s American Dream, Duff McKagan, and Kenny G., they had to sucker punch us all with one more. I wasn’t expecting this album to be as good as it actually is, despite the promising discordant and Jesus Lizard-esque merits of their first release, This Is Meant To Hurt You, and that may be in part to the guest appearances by Matt Bayles, Dave Knudson, Derik Frederiksen, and Mark Gajadhar, among others. Plus, there are pictures of naked breasts all over the album insert artwork. I mean, c’mon.
16. AS TALL AS LIONS – Lafcadio (Triple Crown)
Again, a band I shared a stage with this past year has made my list. I don’t have much to say about these guys, except that they are what I imagine Coldplay would sound like if they were from Massapequa and the lead singer didn’t have sex with Gwyneth Paltrow quite as often.
15. THE HONORARY TITLE - Anything Else But The Truth (Doghouse)
Everyone likes youthful acoustic guitar music, especially when it’s accompanied by quivering, desperate, and hushed vocals and subtle but expressive drumming. The thing that makes these two guys from Brooklyn stick out above the dejected hoards, is that I actually believe them; they are sorrowful and lost in The City, not stubborn and angst-ridden in the suburbs. It’s a welcome relief as, to me, urban agony and irony is something I understand and as a result, I’ll take Jarrod Gorbel over Ace Enders any day of the week. Plus, this album has positively the most emo-rrific cover art I’ve ever seen.
14. PINBACK - Summer in Abaddon (Touch and Go)
Pinback reminds me of a time before ProTools, before Purevolume, before every kid in algebra class had their own record label. They remind me of a time when a band actually had to be good to be popular; when a band had to strive to be original because being defined by a genre was abhorrent. With Summer In Abaddon, Pinback delivers their finest work yet, with plenty of atmosphere and attitude to spare, expertly demonstrating that reservation can often produce just as much impact as release.
13. IRON AND WINE - Our Endless Numbered Days (Sub Pop)
Miami-native singer-songwriter Sam Beam’s brilliant, plaintive, reflective, intimate and oftentimes melancholy music and melodies make me want to commit suicide on a regular basis. But in a good way.
12. THE BLOOD BROTHERS – Crimes (V2)
Crimes is sheer energy and spastic passion encapsulated in thirteen jaw-dropping tracks. Damn you Seattle!
11. PEDRO THE LION - Achilles' Heel (Jade Tree)
Firstly, Pedro The Lion is not Christian Rock. David Bazan is not a devoutly religious person, nor is his music evangelical or proselytizing. Questioning one’s morals, values, and faith is not the same as blindly believing them. With that, I urge everyone to listen to Pedro The Lion. While I do think this album falls short of its predecessor Control, and can’t compete with the cathartic introspection of his earlier, lo-fi endeavors, it still achieves a level of uncompromising style, self-conscious class, wry humor, and somber sobriety that is unparalleled this year.
10. LOVEDRUG - Pretend You're Alive (The Militia Group)
Despite the injustice of widespread voter fraud that turned the tide of this past year’s…uh…"election," the great state of Ohio still has something to be proud of. Not only is it the location of my lovely alma mater, but also it is the home to the talented boys of Lovedrug. Despite many close listens, I have yet to find one filler track on this entire album. And the song “Pandamoranda” alone makes the invention of guitar distortion worthwhile.
9. MODEST MOUSE - Good News For People Who Love Bad News (Epic)
I include this album only because I’m happy that this band was finally recognized this year (in a much more massive and popular capacity than ever before), though I still think they did their best work back when I was trying unsuccessfully to get laid back in high school (see 1997’s The Lonesome Crowded West). Still, they make damn good music to drive to…while getting a mediocre BJ from some toothless junkie you picked up outside of Amarillo.
8. CODESEVEN - Dancing Echoes/Dead Sounds (Equal Vision)
Hardcore fans give this North Carolina band a hard time because they rue the day when these guys stopped screaming and calmed the fuck down. In my opinion, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to them. This album fully embodies the one word so often scorned by proponents of the never-ending thrash and roar of an unchanging, adolescent music scene: maturity.
7. ELLIOTT SMITH - From A Basement On A Hill (Anti)
Having been a huge Elliott Smith fan for many years now, it’s understandable that I was eagerly anticipating the release of this album…and thankfully, it did not disappoint. Although it may not be his very best work (see XO and Figure 8, have tissue box handy), this guy is so amazingly sincere in his delivery of every note and word that even an unfinished opus is justly worthy of high praise. Plus, his girlfriend killed him, just like Kurt Cobain. Ok, that’s not true…Courtney Love was technically his wife.
6. GATSBY'S AMERICAN DREAM - In The Land of Lost Monsters EP (LLR)
Believe the hype, everyone, it’s justified. I have yet to fully comprehend how this band writes their music; how they write some of the catchiest rock tunes I’ve ever heard without the presence of a single sing-along chorus; how they tactfully piece together seven or eight different parts into linear song structures and fluid transitions without repeating themselves and somehow wind up with perfectly focused two and a half minute rock songs. All this, coupled with their flawless and dazzling live show, makes GAD one of the most important young bands around right now. This is the future of rock music, ladies and gentlemen, so be sure to get this one now (and their 2003 full-length Ribbons and Sugar), so that you’ll be able to say “I remember these guys back in the day…” when you eventually hear the distressing news of their inevitable MTV Mash-Up collaboration with Jay-Z sometime in mid-2006.
5. JOHN VANDERSLICE - Cellar Door (Barsuk)
Not only is this guy an amazing songwriter, a thoroughly original lyricist, a movie buff, a recording studio owner/operator, a gear nerd who does 100% of his work in only analog, and quite possibly the nicest human being to ever walk the earth, but he bears a striking resemblance to Yertle the Turtle. This is a must-have for fans of sardonic indie-pop and Dr. Seuss alike.
4. THE ARCADE FIRE – Funeral (Merge)
I usually can’t stand bands that sound like David Bowie mouthfucking the Talking Heads while getting a handjob and rounds of applause from Roxy Music, Joy Division, and Echo and the Bunnymen, but there’s something about The Aracde Fire. Maybe it’s their Quebecois je ne sais quoi, or the fact that their intentions seem far more sinister than contemporaries like British Sea Power or Interpol. Maybe it’s because they kinda sound like what I’d imagine Cursive might sound like if Tim Kasher had never met Conor Oberst…just as theatrical, dramatic and morbid, just not quite so spoiled. Either way, there is genuine pain underneath those lush strings and New Wave pop beats. There is a deep sadness nestled uncomfortably within the layers of sighs and cries found throughout the album. In times like these, a time of such devastation, a time of universal deception, of uncontrollable sorrow, and of limitless injustices, Funeral serves as a testament to the awful power of loss…but also hints at the regenerative powers of destruction. Hope rises from this dark dreamscape like a Phoenix from ash…the hope that the folks in Stellastarr* will blow their heads off after hearing this album.
3. BRAZIL - A Hostage and the Meaning of Life (Fearless)
The energy and excitement generated by the boys of Brazil is unmatched this year in the world of rock music. Relentless in their execution, unforgiving in their intensity, and incomparable in their talent, Brazil writes and performs the music you always wanted to hear but could never quite aurally synthesize that time you blasted all your Coheed and Cambria, At The Drive-In, and Pink Floyd albums simultaneously while playing Chopin on your parents’ piano. Albums like this are rare, especially from bands hailing from Muncie, Indiana, and almost make one forget that the lead singer has braces. Almost.
2. RACES TO APRIL - The Syntax In Everything EP (Tinted Amber)
This Virginia band proves that lyrics aren’t everything, but that even if they were, this album would still be this high up on my list. I can’t quite describe how excited it makes me to know there are bands out there that write music as honest and unpretentious as Races To April. This seven (and a half) song EP from Tinted Amber Records has only one notable problem: it’s not enough. RTA has recorded the soundtrack to what I wish my life could be; and sadly, though it’s longer than most full-length albums, at 40:19, it’s all over too quickly. Singer Robin Smith coins timeless phrases that we all wish we could have thought of when we tried writing that first failed screenplay, while Nate Madden may very well be the most tasteful rock drummer since Stewart Copeland, exuding a staggering amount of power and control without even having to hit that hard. The Syntax In Everything displays the true possibilities of what rock music has to offer. It reminds us that just because four guys pick up some guitars, drumsticks, and microphones, it doesn’t mean we’re in for redundancy and regurgitated ideas and intentions. It proves that a fully plugged-in rock band can just as accurately honor the intimacy and integrity so often found in a coffeehouse acoustic set. With their first release, RTA has produced somewhat of an audible mood ring, ever changing based on the disposition of the listener, the timbre of the audience, the pulse of the environment. This album would be just as relevant if you heard it after an agonizing breakup as it would be on your wedding day; it would generate feelings appropriate to your circumstance, regardless of whether you were on your way to a loved one’s funeral or returning from the hospital after the birth of your first child. In short, The Syntax In Everything is heart. And I sincerely hope that Races To April’s inevitable success will break just as easily.
1. WILLIAM SHATNER - Has Been (Shout! Factory)
Need I say more?
Plus, in looking to the future, I'd like to now regale you all with my uncannily adept precognition and clairvoyance by providing you with my anticipatory look at the Top 3 Albums of 2005:
3. COLDPLAY - whatever it's called
2. THE MARS VOLTA - Frances The Mute
1. ON MY SIGNAL - as of yet unwritten
Happy New Year.
Originally posted on Wrankmusic on January 5, 2005.