Out the Other

Father John Misty - Fear Fun

Tuesday marked the release of my favorite-so-far album of 2012, Father John Misty's Fear Fun. It's certainly the album that I've listened to the most this year - though "listened to" isn't really the phrase I'd use. I feel like I've cocooned myself in this record for the last month - wrapped myself in it, buried myself in it, woke up to it and gone to sleep to it and had dreams where its songs were stuck in my head. This sounds a bit like obsession and maybe it is, but sometimes albums sync up with your life just perfectly, and for a month or two they're almost the only thing you want to hear.

Father John Misty is Joshua Tillman, who I had been in love with for quite some time even before Fear Fun cast its spell over me. A former Fleet Fox with an already impressive solo catalog under the moniker J. Tillman, the singer first whistled his way into my heart about five years ago with "My Waking Days," a hushed and captivating tune from Long May You Run, J. Tillman that I included on my Whistle While You Work mix. The more heard, the more I wished I could swap out every Ray LaMontagne CD and mp3 and record in the world for something by J. Tillman - here was a talent ten times as large making music ten times as beautiful, that would appeal to the same fans, but that deserved one hundred times the fame of LaMontagne.

Today is actually Tillman's 31st birthday, and in very hobbit-like fashion, we are the ones who are receiving the gift. In fact, it's as if Father John Misty is the birthday party version of J. Tillman - the musician I fell in love with in "My Waking Days" is still there, but he's been doing birthday whiskey shots. Now that he's tipsy, he's a little bit bolder, a little bit braver, confessional and sentimental in all the right ways but clearly having as much fun as anyone else in the room. Tillman's voice still has that touch of haunting fragility, but he sounds uninhibited now - like the slightly-soused birthday boy is standing on his chair to sing his heart out, and if he falls - well, that's the Fear Fun of it.

"Fun Times In Babylon"
"Misty's Nightmares 1 & 2"

Fear Fun is out now on Sub Pop Records. Stream it on Spotify then get it on vinyl, and by all means follow @FATHERJOHNMISTY on Twitter - he is a delight.

Menomenamenamenamenamena

 

Being laid off from a regular ol 8-5 kinda jobby job TOTALLY changes the way you listen to music, FYI.  Before, my days were filled with spreadsheets and cubicles and computer speakers and new records.  Now, my days are spent here, there and everywhere, so consumption is more intermittent and only the really really good stuff really really sticks.

That said, Menomena's new album Mines, which is out tomorrow on the wonderful Barsuk records, is some of the really really good stuff.  It's obviously been a while since I've been inspired to write about a new record that I'm loving, but this is totally one of them - the perfect follow-up to 2007's Friend & Foe, which served as my head-over-heels-in-love introduction to the band.  Like a carefully constructed web of intricately interlaced instrumentation, with sticky passages of percussion and pianos like dewdrops and the spider's melodic siren call at the center of it all, I feel like I'm still unraveling the album three years later, but I have to set it aside for the moment to turn my attention to Mines. 

The other day, the boyfriend said that he thinks Mines is a better album than Friend & Foe, but I'll argue that the former is just the latter's perfect complement.  More of what I fell for the first time, but maybe the web is a bit bigger this time around, a bit stronger, a bit more dappled with spots of sunshine and shade.  It certainly makes me want to discover a way to clone my ears so that I can listen to Mines again and again WHILE I also give Friend & Foe another spin.  Actually, while we're at it, I'd like to lend a third pair of ears to last year's Intuit by Ramona Falls, a side project of Menomena's Brent Knopf.  Intuit was one of my favorite releases of 2009, but while it was exceptional, and certainly and obviously Menomena's sonic cousin, Mines is making me appreciate the extra note of urgency - and saxophone! - that appears in Menomena's work. 

As always, regardless of what I think, check out Menomena's Mines for yourself. Just know that: (a) it's one of my favorite albums so far this year, (b) in the new landscape of unemployment it's soundtracking my days more than anything but LCD Soundsystem at the moment, and (c) were it not for the Summer of Guest DJs on Out the Other, I would be playing as many songs as possible from the album on the show tonight.

"TAOS"
"Five Little Rooms"

Mines is out tomorrow on Barsuk, and Menomena will be at the Mercy Lounge on Saturday, October 9. Pencil that one in, kids.

A few new - The Ruby Suns, Tunng, The Besnard Lakes, Caribou

I've been doing a decent job playing the new tunes that come through my inbox on the show now and then - I know I try to focus on each week's new releases, but sometimes it's fun to look ahead and check out what we have to look forward to.  But a few of those tunes have ended up in regular rotation in OtO HQ, so I thought I'd share.

The Ruby Suns - "Cranberry"
(from Fight Softly, out March 2 on Sub Pop)

Based on the sheer number of times I've listened to this, it's already a contender for my favorite songs of 2010 list.  Two songs in one, "Cranberry" evolves from an organic, pulsing rhythm layered with streaks of vocals to a punchy synth line providing the foundation for a gorgeous melody that builds to a snowball of a chorus. There I go - totally listened to it five times again.

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Tunng - "Don't Look Down Or Back"
(from ...And Then We Saw Land, out April 1 on Thrill Jockey)

I went through a little Tunng phase a few years back where I got into one of their albums, and then devoured everything else I could get my hands on.  This song evolves too - from something I initially found relatively disappointing (straight vocals, a plucked guitar?) to something so sweeping and epic it actually took me by surprise.  Like, stop what you're doing and stare at the speakers for a beat surprise. Delightful.

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The Besnard Lakes - "Albatross"
(from The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, out March 9 on Jagjaguwar)

By now I've heard all of The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, but I keep coming back to this first track I heard. The best line? "And I have to admit / things got weird for a bit." That alone should keep this in regular rotation for the rest of the year.

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Caribou - "Odessa"
(from Swim, out April 20 on Merge)

Caribou's an act I never paid that much attention to, but as my love of electronic-y things seems to increase and increase (due to lots of time spent in the gym, and lots of time lately just spent craving good beats), I find myself really looking forward to hearing the rest of Swim.  This reminds me a lot of The Whitest Boy Alive, with elements of Hot Chip thrown in too. Actually, I think it's time to stop writing this so I can go download and check out Caribou's last album, Andorra.

The Features - Some Kind of Salvation

UPDATE:  Okay kids, sorry this post went MIA for a little bit.  I spoke to Rollum from The Features and apparently someone SERIOUSLY jumped the gun when this was released digitally, and it's going to be taken down ASAP (if it hasn't already).  The band is really thrilled that everyone loves the album, but the original idea was to release Some Kind of Salvation on vinyl first, and they in no way planned on having the digital version available before they had something big and gorgeous and LP-alicious to get into your hot little hands.  That's still the plan at this point - the LP should be out in August, and the CD and digital version should see a release in October.

I know, I know, October is forever away.  But Some Kind of Salvation will be spinning on your turntables soon enough, and in the meantime I've gotta respect the fact that the band wants the album to make its debut as a physical release. 

I'll let you know as soon as I get any additional details, and I'm going to go back to not being a big tease and refraining from talking about the album (other than on the radio - it's still fair game to play tunes on the show).   You still get to check out my favorite track on the record though:

"Lions"

Anticipation revisited: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

The beginning of the new Elbow album, The Seldom Seen Kid, is rather jarring - the opening track arrives in a cacophony of instrumentation and then alternates between gorgeously undulating sweetness and startling, abrasive horn blasts - making it impossible to find a volume that offers a comfortable middle ground.  In fact, on my first several trips through the record, I found the harsher parts of "Starlings" so.... harsh that I kept the volume low and barely noticed the song.

So how did "Starlings" become my favorite song on The Seldom Seen Kid - a difficult feat considering the wealth of great music on the album? Well, I finally turned up the volume and paid attention to the words.  Strung between those abrasive blasts of sound, floating upon the crest of undulating sweetness, are lyrics that melt me into a romantic puddle:

How dare the premier
Ignore my invitations,
He'll have to go.
So too the bunch he luncheons with,
It's second on my list of things to do.

At the top is stopping by
Your place of work and acting like
I haven't dreamed of you and I
And marriage in an orange grove.
You are the only thing
In any room you're ever in.
I'm stubborn, selfish and too old.

I'm normally not the doe-eyed, sappy kind of listener that likens music to poetry and only cares what's being said - often I'm more susceptible to a particularly heart-wrenching melody or even just a well-placed key change than a series of words.  But sometimes when I'm listening, the lyrics will slowly drift up to break the surface and - wow - suddenly I'm girly goo.  And if "you are the only thing in any room you're ever in" didn't do it for me, the last line of the song - a quietly posed "darling, is this love?" - completely seals the deal.  Yes, Elbow, yes it is.

"Starlings"

So anyway, if you haven't noticed - this is my attempt at revisiting Anticipation, the mix I made back in February when I was looking forward to a number of early 2008 releases.  Of the ten albums I mentioned in that mix, I hadn't heard eight in their entirety at that time, and I plan on stopping to talk about each and every one of the eight now that they're out in some form (I believe Guillemots is the only one of the bunch that isn't out stateside, but it is available as an import).

As for the rest of The Seldom Seen Kid, which is out today on Geffen in the U.S. - I think it's one of my favorites in the list (although I have a feeling I'm going to keep saying that, as I skip from album to album).  It's certainly one I've been spending a lot of time with - I seem to listen to it obsessively for a day, then put it down and come back to do the same thing a week or two later.  It almost feels like I'm excavating the record... slowly but surely digging deeper into the songs, just like I did with "Starlings."  But that doesn't mean it's growing on me slowly - everything sounded wonderful to begin with, and repeated listens just mean the songs start to reveal themselves a little more, strike a more familiar chord.

The verdict?   I think I'm going to continue spending quite a bit of time with The Seldom Seen Kid this year.  The album is a little slower than I expected after initially hearing "Grounds For Divorce" (one of my favorite songs so far this year, hands down), but it's beautiful and multi-dimensional and I'm thinking very, very hard to get sick of.   Absolutely recommended.

"Weather to Fly"

I've met someone that makes me feel seasick

I cannot believe I'm going to be in Austin two weeks from tonight - it feels like I was just in Texas for my very first SXSW, and here we are again, with March right around the corner.  And if, like me, you're headed to the festival this year, I'm sure that you've been hitting up the official SXSW website on a daily basis.  The site is chock-full of information on the ridiculous number of bands playing official showcases this year - set times, biographical info, and lots and lots of freebie mp3s.

I've been slogging through the list in preparation for my trip to Austin, not because I really think I can familiarize myself with all 1,600 (or whatever) artists playing the festival in the next two weeks, but because I know for a fact that there are quite a few hidden gems buried in the lineup that I'll be madly in love with six months down the road.  And nothing sucks more than "discovering" a fantastic band... and then discovering the fact that you were obliviously standing on the sidewalk outside their showcase just a few months earlier.

Case in point:  The Wombats.  Last year my sis and I found ourselves traipsing through Austin on St. Patrick's Day with a few new British friends, trying to track down some Liverpool party in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  We found the party - and I was introduced to Eugene McGuinness and  Hot Club de Paris - but we eventually wandered next door because it was easier to procure Irish car bombs at the adjacent empty bar.  You can't really blame me for being drunk and semi-clueless on St. Patty's Day, and I know that at SXSW no matter what you're doing you're always missing something, but I'm still kicking myself for standing outside on the sidewalk doing (quite literally) nothing, while The Wombats played inside. 

Mostly, I'm bummed because "Kill the Director" has been stuck in my head for what feels like MONTHS now, and it would have been amazing to hear the song live.  It's bouncy and catchy and vaguely ridiculous - filled with the kind of punchy chorus and cheerful background "oooh-ooohs" that make you want to pogo around a crowded dance floor.  Exactly the kind of song that could have complemented a drunken St. Patty's Day blow-out on the last day of my first SXSW.  Ah well.  SXSW is about many things, but it's certainly not about regrets.

"Kill the Director"

Hopefully I'll have a chance to catch The Wombats at this year's SXSW - they're playing a few shows, and this time around knowing what I'm missing will hopefully keep me off the sidewalk.   They'll also be releasing a self-titled EP here in the US in April, but if you can't wait you can always pick up an import copy of their full-length album, The Wombats Proudly Present: A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation.  Want a bonus song?  Sure you do!

"Backfire at the Disco"
 

Favorite Songs of '07 - #1

Miracle Fortress - "Have You Seen In Your Dreams"

Driving home to New York for Christmas last month, I played this countdown for my sister so she could hear what I thought was the best of what 2007 had to offer.  She knew I was torn between making "Welcome Home" or this song #1, and when we had listened to both she turned to me and said something along the lines of "wow, you really like these big, building-up kind of songs."  It's true, and it doesn't take someone who has known me for my full 26 years to figure that out.  I've always been a sucker for the epic-sounding stuff - I think it stems from my band-nerdiness and love of classical music, the world of massive orchestras and huge crescendos, the kind of music that's always managed to give me goosebumps.  I think songs like "Have You Seen In Your Dreams" (and "Welcome Home") will always be my favorites; there's something about these songs that dwarf everything else - and I think they manage to capture the way I've always felt about music.  Miracle Fortress certainly captures something perfectly with this song, even if I can't perfectly describe what that is. 

But I what I can say is that this was my favorite song of 2007.

Favorite Songs of '07 - #2

Radical Face - "Welcome Home"

Up until just a few minutes ago I still hadn't decided where I would put the last two songs in this countdown.  Both are entirely worthy of the #1 spot, and for many of the same reasons - they're both nearly epic in scale, layered, gorgeous, massive-sounding, so much bigger than the waves they're comprised of.  And I love both almost equally, for those reasons and also because they are incredibly emotional in two different ways.  But in the end, Radical Face's "Welcome Home" is sitting here at #2  - and it's pretty much because it kind of makes me want to cry. 

This isn't a depressing song per se, in fact it has this kind of beautiful, sweeping hopefulness to it that I absolutely love.  But there's an underlying melancholy too - the kind of vague hint of something that after several repeats puts your heart in your throat.  Most of Radical Face's Ghost actually has that hint of something running through it - which is why the album is amazing, and so unlike anything else I heard in 2007.  And this song, "Welcome Home," is one of the most amazing songs I heard in 2007, even if that lump in my throat is keeping it from #1. 

Favorite Songs of '07 - #3

Department of Eagles - "No One Does It Like You"

I wrote about this song back in November, and while quoting myself is kinda lame, I'm going to do it anyway:

At some point in the last few months, the Department of Eagles tune "No One Does It Like You" crept into the race for "favorite song of '07."  Its appearance in the contest was entirely unexpected, but now that I think about it I guess I'm not really surprised.  In July I included the track in my Whistle While You Work Mix, which I listened to a fair number of times (I still think it's the best mix I've ever made) providing me ample time to fall in love with the song, and then a little bit later in the year I chose a line from the it to be part of my password at work, which meant for a period of time I always had the melody stuck in my head for 5-10 minutes a day.

And here it is, at #3.  At first this was just a song with a nice little whistle, so I put it in a mix.  Who knew I'd fall so completely and madly in love?

Favorite Songs of '07 - #4

Spoon - "The Underdog"

This song seems like such an obvious, obvious choice.  While I don't necessarily pride myself on the obscurity of my music taste (it's just kind of the nature of my life that I listen to a lot of stuff many of my friends have never heard of, and maybe never will), I will admit that I'm susceptible to the exhaustion that comes when a band or song reaches a certain amount of popularity.  And while "The Underdog" isn't nearly as ubiquitous as something like "1, 2, 3, 4," the song is still the - once again - obvious single on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and it's been everywhere lately - including a cameo in Cloverfield, for pete's sake.  But while I'm head over heels for Spoon's latest record, and every last slightly-more-obscure track on it, this one is still the stand-out for me.  And specifically because it's so obvious.  It's the song that made me grin for a three minutes and forty two seconds the first time I heard it, it's the song I fell for just a little bit harder than the other nine, it's the song that made me think "wow, this record is really going to take Spoon somewhere."  And when it comes to one of my favorite bands, I'll trade obscurity for #10 on the Billboard 200 any day.