I'm turning into sentimental man
So, it's officially Christmakkuh time, and maybe you've already bought a copy of Souvenir for your loved one and you're looking for something else to stick in a stocking, or under a candle or wherever you leave your presents.
These are the Top Five best independent records I bought this year:
#1 Tim Bluhm – California Way (Fog City Records 2005): You could criticize Tim Bluhm for being overly sentimental, but that would be like criticizing a sunset for being overly colorful. This record is the best of the solo catalog of the lead singer of Chico, California’s own The Mother Hips. Tim’s melodies elicit a yearning for cool candlelit evenings with fireplaces and wool blankets, hot coffee, old friends and a couple of acoustic guitars. His harmonies are somewhere between Brian Wilson’s sweetest and Jeff Tweedy’s most earnest. Truly a beautiful paean to a California that may or may not have existed in our lifetime, but that Tim connects us to in a very real way. Standout track: Angry Waters
#2 Colin Clary – Sweater Weather or Not, These are the Songs I’ve Got (Asaurus 2005): I feel confident that this record is the best handmade, homemade cd-r ever released, and I’m proud to own it and to show it to everyone who ever asks about cd-r labels as a shining example of what our little sub-genre of indie music can produce. Every review of this album has to mention the handmade cover art. The cd-r comes packaged in a little felt sweater wrapped around a hard card shirt which has a little page of liner notes folded neatly in its little front pocket. There’s also a little button pinned to the front of the sweater. Yow! What I hope doesn’t get lost in the excitement over the truly inspired cover art is the exciting and truly inspired music contained on the cd-r within. I love the art, but I don’t have the art on my (3G) iPod. I have the music, each song a 1 minute forty five second gobstopper of hard candy goodness. This may be the best five bucks (only $5!!!) I’ve ever spent. Colin is on a mission to prove that being nice is a political statement and that comes across in every aspect of this record. Standout track: The Engine Light’s Always On
#3 Smoosh – She Like Electric (Pattern 25 2004): Though they’re now on the verge of getting way too gigantic for their own pre-pubescent good, Aysa (age 13) and Chloe (age 11) recorded an album that rocks like nobody’s business. The legend has it that after a year or so of lessons from Death Cab for Cutie’s drummer Jason McGerr, Chloe was told she was good enough to be in a band, so she enlisted the help of her older sister, a piano lesson dropout, and Smoosh was formed. Two years later the band has appeared on NPR, the Today Show and KROQ, toured with Sleater-Kinney (who they tend to sound like), Pearl Jam, Death Cab and Cat Power, all on the strength of an album they recorded at home with dad engineering. Aysa’s melodies are highly clever, reminiscent of a young Corrie Brownstein or a drunken Tori Amos. The lyrics can be silly (Now you’re snapping your feet to the beat/I think that’s great/if you’re trying to play/go play/maybe football maybe soccer/you should get on a soccer team/you could help them), but they’re endearing as hell. This is the band you hope your indie kids someday form. Standout track: La Pump
#4 Pants Yell! – Songs for Siblings (Asaurus 2005): Though Twee is an over-used and often inappropriate moniker, there are still plenty of true indie-pop bands out there that are descendants of the Vaselines, Heavenly, Tullycraft and the K Records anti-rock star aesthetic that may be appropriately called something approximating Twee. I love a lot of these bands, and Pants Yell! might be the best of them. Songs for Siblings is consistently good – every song tickles your ears and makes you feel so, so good. Their guitars are twingly (not a word, I know, but I’ll bet you know what I mean) and Andrew’s vocals are like a phone call from a particularly melodic friend you’ve missed for quite some time. This record seems to get a spin in my iPod pretty much every day. Highly recommended. Standout track: My Boyfriend Writes Plays
#5 Shelley Short – Oh’ Say Little Dogies, Why? (Keep Recordings 2004): A old-timey country influence wafts through this record like the smell of a Christmas tree wafts through a warm, happy house in December. Her melodies are sweet, her voice is gentle and the musicians loose and laid-back just like those best jam sessions you ever had, where everyone was listening to each other and you all rambled together happily and the embellishments were tasteful and the songs were beautiful though occasionally wistful or just plain sad. I recommend this record for tea-drinking, newspaper-reading Sunday mornings when you and your cutie have got nothing to do and all your best friends are a million miles away. Shelley’s voice is like a cuddle. Standout track: Sugar Falls
Honorable Mentions: Bright Eyes “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” (okay, this one probably should be in the top 5, but I’m guessing most indie music fans have heard Bright Eyes and it’s not like Conor Oberst is hurting for listeners); the Mathletes “Jest and Earnest”; and finally, The Robot Ate Me “On Vacation”
These are the Top Five best independent records I bought this year:
#1 Tim Bluhm – California Way (Fog City Records 2005): You could criticize Tim Bluhm for being overly sentimental, but that would be like criticizing a sunset for being overly colorful. This record is the best of the solo catalog of the lead singer of Chico, California’s own The Mother Hips. Tim’s melodies elicit a yearning for cool candlelit evenings with fireplaces and wool blankets, hot coffee, old friends and a couple of acoustic guitars. His harmonies are somewhere between Brian Wilson’s sweetest and Jeff Tweedy’s most earnest. Truly a beautiful paean to a California that may or may not have existed in our lifetime, but that Tim connects us to in a very real way. Standout track: Angry Waters
#2 Colin Clary – Sweater Weather or Not, These are the Songs I’ve Got (Asaurus 2005): I feel confident that this record is the best handmade, homemade cd-r ever released, and I’m proud to own it and to show it to everyone who ever asks about cd-r labels as a shining example of what our little sub-genre of indie music can produce. Every review of this album has to mention the handmade cover art. The cd-r comes packaged in a little felt sweater wrapped around a hard card shirt which has a little page of liner notes folded neatly in its little front pocket. There’s also a little button pinned to the front of the sweater. Yow! What I hope doesn’t get lost in the excitement over the truly inspired cover art is the exciting and truly inspired music contained on the cd-r within. I love the art, but I don’t have the art on my (3G) iPod. I have the music, each song a 1 minute forty five second gobstopper of hard candy goodness. This may be the best five bucks (only $5!!!) I’ve ever spent. Colin is on a mission to prove that being nice is a political statement and that comes across in every aspect of this record. Standout track: The Engine Light’s Always On
#3 Smoosh – She Like Electric (Pattern 25 2004): Though they’re now on the verge of getting way too gigantic for their own pre-pubescent good, Aysa (age 13) and Chloe (age 11) recorded an album that rocks like nobody’s business. The legend has it that after a year or so of lessons from Death Cab for Cutie’s drummer Jason McGerr, Chloe was told she was good enough to be in a band, so she enlisted the help of her older sister, a piano lesson dropout, and Smoosh was formed. Two years later the band has appeared on NPR, the Today Show and KROQ, toured with Sleater-Kinney (who they tend to sound like), Pearl Jam, Death Cab and Cat Power, all on the strength of an album they recorded at home with dad engineering. Aysa’s melodies are highly clever, reminiscent of a young Corrie Brownstein or a drunken Tori Amos. The lyrics can be silly (Now you’re snapping your feet to the beat/I think that’s great/if you’re trying to play/go play/maybe football maybe soccer/you should get on a soccer team/you could help them), but they’re endearing as hell. This is the band you hope your indie kids someday form. Standout track: La Pump
#4 Pants Yell! – Songs for Siblings (Asaurus 2005): Though Twee is an over-used and often inappropriate moniker, there are still plenty of true indie-pop bands out there that are descendants of the Vaselines, Heavenly, Tullycraft and the K Records anti-rock star aesthetic that may be appropriately called something approximating Twee. I love a lot of these bands, and Pants Yell! might be the best of them. Songs for Siblings is consistently good – every song tickles your ears and makes you feel so, so good. Their guitars are twingly (not a word, I know, but I’ll bet you know what I mean) and Andrew’s vocals are like a phone call from a particularly melodic friend you’ve missed for quite some time. This record seems to get a spin in my iPod pretty much every day. Highly recommended. Standout track: My Boyfriend Writes Plays
#5 Shelley Short – Oh’ Say Little Dogies, Why? (Keep Recordings 2004): A old-timey country influence wafts through this record like the smell of a Christmas tree wafts through a warm, happy house in December. Her melodies are sweet, her voice is gentle and the musicians loose and laid-back just like those best jam sessions you ever had, where everyone was listening to each other and you all rambled together happily and the embellishments were tasteful and the songs were beautiful though occasionally wistful or just plain sad. I recommend this record for tea-drinking, newspaper-reading Sunday mornings when you and your cutie have got nothing to do and all your best friends are a million miles away. Shelley’s voice is like a cuddle. Standout track: Sugar Falls
Honorable Mentions: Bright Eyes “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” (okay, this one probably should be in the top 5, but I’m guessing most indie music fans have heard Bright Eyes and it’s not like Conor Oberst is hurting for listeners); the Mathletes “Jest and Earnest”; and finally, The Robot Ate Me “On Vacation”
posted by Paul Dylan at 4:02 PM
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