January 2010
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Watch#1 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Manners by Passion Pit
No band better defines 2009 than Passion Pit. After first hearing their song “Sleepyhead,” from their 2008 EP Chunk of Change, this Boston-area band has been at the top of my go-to list when people ask me, “What are you listening to these days?” I’ve pushed the band onto friends and family from all sorts of disparate circles, and...
December 2009
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Falling in love with The Rural Alberta Advantage
I wish I had had the Vera Project when I was in high school, growing up in Oklahoma. I surely would have developed good musical taste and consequently used it to my advantage to rise above the “perfectly average” persona I had diligently built for myself. Actually, it probably wouldn’t have done any good. I just wasn’t ready to form my own opinions about anything back then. And now — well,...
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Watch#4 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
The First Days of Spring by Noah and The Whale
Once again, an album by a band with a ridiculous name. But at least this time around the name has a reason: the band are huge fans of the Noah Baumbach-directed movie “The Squid and The Whale.” End of story.
The sophomore album from Noah and The Whale, The First Days of Spring is a complete departure from...
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#6 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Hometowns...
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Watch#7 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Velvet Underground & Nico by Beck
Merry Christmas!
There’s not much I can say about Beck that you haven’t heard already. But I bet a lot of you have not heard of this new, amazing project he’s undertaken: Record Club. From his website:
Record Club is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day. The album chosen to be...
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Watch#8 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut
When I first saw Zach Condon and his orchestral masterpiece of a band Beirut perform, Condon wasn’t allowed to drink or hang out in the club before or after his performance due to the fact that he was only 20 years old. What were you doing at 20? Certainly not leading 6-7 talented musicians, all of whom were older...
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#9 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
There is...
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#10 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Dark Was...
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#11 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
The...
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Watch#12 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
Looking for a band that acts like a chameleon, changing musical styles from one song to the next, and using that skill to create a master-thesis-of-indie-rock album? Throw Me The Statue is that band.
And the fact that they did have a “Modest Mouse” song and a “Built to Spill” song used to bother me. But, similar to...
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Watch#13 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
Yes, their name is trying so hard, it created its own cliché. And some of the antics the band pulls on stage can feel a bit tired as well. But once you get past those bits, listening to Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is quite a rewarding experience. Because of these facts, hipsters the world over...
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#15 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
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#17 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Blood...
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Watch#19 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
I first heard Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears when they opened for, and were the horn section with, Spoon. And I was thoroughly blown away by this throwback to another era. Horns. Keys. Wailing. It’s all in there, and it’s damn near perfect.
There’s not much more I can say about these...
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Tom Waits on helium — Passion Pit at the Moore...
Michael Angelakos, the lead singer of Passion Pit, sings like what could be mistaken for a 12-year-old girl. Screaming at the top of his lungs, in falsetto, Angelakos puts everything he can into his voice, attempting to hit the notes and extremes he did when recording in the studio. Trouble is, the human vocal chords just aren’t meant for that kind of abuse. Try singing like he does on any one of...
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#20 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Mo...
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Grace Potter & The Nocturnals at the Moore...
It is with all my might that I restrain myself from titling this article “Amazing Grace.” It wouldn’t be so hard if it weren’t so true. Grace Potter commands a stage. In fact, stages were created specifically for Potter to perform on. And you should be glad Deadly Viper Squad member Brittney Bush Bollay was on hand to photograph the performance; not even 1,000 words would do that magenta-sequined...
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#23 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Hungry...
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Watch#28 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar
Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
As one-half of The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach drags the duo through the depths of blues rock to a place more modern than can usually be expected of the genre. And, so it is in his solo work as well. Keep It Hid slows it down a bit — critics would probably call it a “departure from their last album” — but overall this could very...
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