'07's Music to Love More Than Music: Love, pt. 2

Jesca Hoop - Kismet
Like a mixture of about a hundred people (in my mind I can remember comparing her to Tom Waits, Casey Dienel, Nellie McKay, Norah Jones, and Nelly Furtado, and that's just off the top of my head), Jesca sings songs that seem to be lullabies conducted by sirens, lulling sailors into deep sleeps for malicious purposes. I like it, but the fact that her live show is a dreamy trip into a dark wonderland doesn't hurt.
Jesca Hoop - Silverscreen

Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew - Rimes of the Hip Hop Mariners
Holy crap, I think I've just found my favorite sub-genre of Nerdcore Hip-Hop: Piratecore! I'm for effing real here. The beats are awesome, the lyrics are hilarious, and Cap'n D has the best voice for this.
Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew - (sorry kids, I've just got a link to samples)

Loney, Dear - Loney, Noir
Like the Indie rock side project for the members of Sigur Rós, it's soothing and surprisingly upbeat sound fills the listener with hope and love. The lyrics are some of the most easily relate-able lyrics I've heard in while. Puts a smile on your face.
Loney, Dear - I Will Call You Lover Again

The Bastard Fairies - Memento Mori
Like the little sister of Rasputina, sounding like musicians who've recently moved to the old west playing Turn-of-the-Century-Londontown Street-Urchin Chamber-Music. Now add time travel in (transporting those musicians to today so they can use synthesizers and the like), and you have The Bastard Fairies. They talk about religion, love, and, over all, sex.
The Bastard Fairies - A Case Against Love
The Bastard Fairies - Whatever

Aqualung - Memory Man
one of the most evolved singer songwriter albums I've ever heard, save for the fact that a lot of songs sound kind of the same. Undeniably charming. Sounds kind of like some of the less produced Radiohead songs at times.
Aqualung - Vapour Trail

Battles - Mirrored
Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh domdomdomdomdomdomdom. When you hear them, you can't help yourself, all you can think is "oh my god what is this glorious glorious glorious music!?" It's Battles. And we've all got Battles in our lives. Unfortunately not every song on the album is Atlas, which is really what stops this album from climbing higher in my charts. That one song can really only carry an album so far.
Battles - Atlas

Feist - The Reminder
I hate 1234 now ... thanks pop culture for killing the crap out of that one. That one death made the album a little harder to listen to. I wish it was back many months ago when the album initially leaked and I got a copy of it and I got to hear studio versions of all those lovely songs she'd been performing for so long (seemed like more than a year). The album is just ... oh ... wonderful. One of the best BSS side/solo projects to date ... its just that ... man ... pop culture killed it...
Feist - So Sorry
Feist - Sea Lion

Gorillaz - D-Sides
B-side collections are always tricky to rate, because I'm never quite sure about how to go about thinking about the songs. Should it stand alone, or should I think of it as a companion piece to the album the songs are B-sides to? I liked the remixes, and the B-sides were sometimes good enough to stand on their own, but the album as a whole would be a pretty piss poor excuse for a Gorillaz album, so I can't rate it too high. I liked it though.
Gorillaz - Rockit

Let's Go Sailing - The Chaos In Order
Cutesy indie pop straight from the playground of your heart. Simple and beautiful, no more no less.
Let's Go Sailing - We Get Along

A Fine Frenzy - One Cell In The Sea
Apparently everyone seems to know at least a little about A Fine Frenzy. All I know is her string section and backing band really give her songs life, but the would be nothing without Alison Sudol's smoky voice and wonderful piano playing
A Fine Frenzy - Near to You

Saturnine - Remembrance Of Things Past
Few artists can get away with basing a song or an album off of a Proust story, but to then do so and release it for free as the band's swan song ... now that takes some major sand. The sound is that of many different bands, drawing heavily from the Velvet Underground, Saturnine's album is good, despite it's tendency to, occasionally, drag on. I'm trying really hard not to bash the album for it's shortcomings, because it really is a brilliant album, but it's not perfect. Check it out. If anything, you can, after listening to the whole album, say you know a Proust story.
Saturnine - (Get the whole album here)

Earthless - Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky
It was only a matter of time before post rock bands reached back and explored the roots of popular rock and roll and extrapolated upon the sounds of 70's Rock. This is what Wolfmother would sound like if Wolfmother were Explosions in the Sky if Explosions in the Sky were Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The album has two 20 minute epic Post-Rock concoctions and a cover of a Groundhogs song that I can only assume is there so they can have something that might someday get radio play. None of this matters however. What matters is that this is one of the most competent 1970's Classic Rock Style Post Rock albums of all time. Never mind that it is probably the only album in that specific genre.
Earthless - Godspeed (edit)
Earthless - Cherry Red (Groundhogs Cover)

Architecture In Helsinki - Places Like This
There were a few albums that I heard this year that, when I heard them, I instantly thought that they sounded like they'd been out for years. That's not to say that I thought they were ripping off other people's sound, or that they were rehashing their own sound, but that it was instantly nostalgic. You hear it and go "oh yeah ... man ... that was such a good summer." Thing is it wasn't album of the year in whatever year I'm reminded of, despite it's nostalgic qualities, and that means it doesn't climb much higher on my list.
Architecture In Helsinki - Debbie

Sigh - Hangman's Hymn
Deep and brooding, these boys created quite the epic, with themes that I'm sure could only be unearthed by being sat down by the members of the band and having them explain it to you (mostly because the lyrics are gloriously unintelligible). Charging songs, every part brutal. While not the top of the pops, it is one of the most competent Death Metal albums I've heard in a while.
Sigh - Introitus/Kyrie

"Usually I Play This For A Bunch of Drunk People In A Bar, But Because We're At A Festival, I Expect EVERYONE To Put Their Boob In My Drink."

Did you hear about this shit? If not, check it out. Wes Anderson is basically a god. and, if not that, a damn good director, and probably a good person to boot.

Go see Darjeeling Limited when it comes out (Jan 8th I believe...).

Also: Radiohead's new album is ready for pre-order. Here's a hint: you can pay nothing for it. But since they're doing all this out for their own pocket, I recommend paying the boys for their hard work.

One more thing: Gorillaz D-Sides announced

But now, on to music:

Day 2 of Monolith started out with me getting there hella early. So I went and gave a little visit to the vendors and browsed their various wares. First I stopped by the WOXY.COM booth and chatted with Matt Shiv for a good half an hour. He's quite the awesome dude if I may say so myself. After that I came across a booth selling Xiu Xiu shirts, Sunset Rubdown shirts, Frog Eyes shirts, and a few other equally as awesome shirts. Unfortunately they had no smalls. The Home-tapes Records booth next to them did, and I purchased a Shedding shirt and a Slaraffenland shirt, as well as picking up a sampler (which is actually damn good). While ending my transaction Laylights began to perform, and my day truely began.

I'd last seen the Laylights last year at the South Park Music Festival, and, like Everything Absent or Distorted, they have grown in the past year. But, unlike Everything Absent or Distorted, they haven't grown a lot. Regardless, however, they were a lot of fun, and playing first was some damn good press. I don't foresee them going very far however, because their sound is a very basic "we're just gonna play some local indie rock music." But maybe I'm just looking to hard for music that's weird and innovative.

Laylights - Sheets & Drapes

Laylights finished up their short set fairly quickly, so I moseyed on downstairs at a relaxed pace (my legs weren't killing me at this point, thank god, but I wasn't in any rush to destroy my ability to fly up and down the stairs to get to the next big thing). Via Audio were just finishing up setting up when I arrived at the WOXY.COM stage, which I, so far, had not been disappointed at, so I was fairly excited to see what the WOXY.COM stage had to provide this day. Via Audio reminded me a lot of Great Northern, but with a You Say Party! We Say Die! danceyness. The super inventive drummer, guitar player clearly influenced by Buckethead, and young Feist-ish girl on vocals made them someone to stand up and notice.

Via Audio (Live on the WOXY.COM Stage)

I rushed upstairs as soon as I could pull myself from Via Audio's tractor beam to see Bob Log III, someone I'd been waiting to see for a long while. He was in the middle of a song when i got to his stage, but it was easy to get right into the moment. He sat there with one of the oldest guitars I'd ever seen, hitting a bass drum with his right foot, and hitting a crash cymbal with his left. Occasionally he would activate a sound pad, which would add drum effects to his undenyably good guitar parts. After drawing the song out longer than anyone would have thought possible, he, seemingly as bewildered as the audience, exclaimed "How'd I do that!?", making reference to the fact that he is a one man band. Oh technology, what would we do with out you. From there Bob Log III had as much fun with the audience as they had with him. He somehow got a good number of women to stick their breast in his beer, wooing them with his hit "Boob Scotch." He got some of those same women to sit on his lap while he played a song. He reminded me of a more relaxed Scott H. Biram. Loved it.

Bob Log III - I Want Your Shit On My Leg

The Little Ones were playing just over the barrier on the main stage. I don't remember if I pointed this out before, but a lot of the bands on the main stage were remotely disappointing, mostly, if not purely, because I just didn't feel close enough, and it wasn't loud enough, and ... well ... it just wasn't intimate enough; something I'm very used to when I go to concerts. The Little Ones were no exception. They were super chill, Rooney-esq even. They sent out this "feel good" vibe. I just wasn't that interested... Sorry guys, maybe next time.

The Little Ones (Daytrotter Set)

And with that I was back down to the WOXY.COM stage for another "must see." I had been pining to see Forget Cassettes for months, so to finally experience their live show was ... magical. Their set was Unforgettable. They were orchestral, they were beautiful, they were inventive/innovative, they were some of the most talented musicians to perform at Monolith. These guys too had a sort of Great Northern feel to them, but in a different sense then with Via Audio. They made music that drain your heart of color, while filling your soul with fire. I straight up loved Forget Cassettes, and will be seeing them every time they come through.

Forget Cassettes (Live on the WOXY.COM Stage)

I went back out to the main stage, regardless of the fact that I knew I probably wouldn't like it because of the lack of intimacy, to see Margot & the Nuclear So & So's. Margot & co. are a part of this new wave of (what I like to call) Orchestral Indie Rock. They, like the Arcade Fire or the Polyphonic Spree have this big big big sound, huge crescendos, touching melodies, and just an all around haunting sense of "holy shit this sound is bigger than anything"-ness. Unfortunately, they played the main stage, and I hella wasn't close enough to enjoy it, so, instead of staying and listening and being pissed off that I wasn't enjoying it enough, I went and got something to eat and wait up in front of the New Belgium Stage.

Margot & the Nuclear So & So's - Quiet As A Mouse

Matt & Kim. Oh how I do love thee. I've seen them more than a few times, and every time ... every time it has been stupendous. This time was NO different. They continued to be the smile-en-ist people on the planet, emanating love and happiness. The only real problem was now I've heard the same songs quite a few times... all I'm saying is that I'd like to hear some new material. That didn't take away from the magic that was Matt & Kim on the top of Red Rocks, with the sun majestically coming over the clouds at just the right time.... beautiful. Please move to Denver Matt & Kim.

Matt & Kim - 5K

I'm on the home stretch! More Soon!