Posts Tagged ‘Conor Oberst’
More of the Year’s Best Albums from A to Z
November 26th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
I’m going to be working a buttload of hours this holiday season, so I thought I’d speed things up by combining a bunch of the year’s best albums into one list.
Brendan Benson
My Old, Familiar Friend
Most likely you’ll recognize Benson from his work with The Raconteurs, but he’s also an accomplished songwriter who plays guitar, bass, keys and drums. He’s worked with a number of other bands like The Mood Elevator, The Waxwings, Ashley Monroe and Cory Chisel. Benson’s latest release dates back to 2007, when he began writing and recording material between Raconteurs albums. A lot of these songs (when they were in their early stages) ended up on Benson’s MySpace page at various times. Tennessee indie-rock band, The Features, back Benson on some of this record. These songs have often been described as ’70s Power Pop, drawing comparisons to bands like Paul McCartney’s Wings, ELO and Cheap Trick.
Bruce Springsteen
Working On A Dream
With nineteen Grammy Awards and more than 120 million albums sold worldwide, the career of the Boss needs no explanation. Songs from his most recent/16th studio album came just in time for both Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration and this past season’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at #1, selling 224,000 copies in its first week. It was the Boss’s ninth number one studio album, tying him with the Rolling Stones; only The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Jay-Z have had more number one albums. Rolling Stone gave it a five star rating, comparing it to his 1975 album, Born to Run, in scale and ambition.
Built to Spill
There Is No Enemy
As one of indie rock’s most influential bands of the early ’90s, Built to Spill has inspired bands like The Ataris, Modest Mouse, The Strokes and Death Cab for Cutie. Their most recent release is their most critically-acclaimed yet, reaching #50 on the US charts.
Not only did Conor’s musical career begin at the age of thirteen, but he also founded the Saddle Creek Records label at that age with his brother Justin. Conor’s most known for his work with Bright Eyes, but has also played with many of Saddle Creek’s bands like Cursive, Commander Venus, The Faint, Desaparecidos, The Magnetas and Park Ave. His most recent album is his fifth, although it is the last album to be credited with his backing band, the Mystic Valley Band. Reviews and ratings of the album all over the place; Rolling Stone gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 while BLARE Magazine gave it four, but Pitchfork gave it a 4.9 out of 10 rating and Sputnikmusic gave it just two stars out of five.
Cymbals Eat Guitars
Why There Are Mountains
One of my ten favorites of the year, maybe even a top five, comes from an artist I previously knew about, but never really spent a lot of time listening to. Auerbach is highly respected in the music world, whether it be what he’s done with The Black Keys, or the number of band’s he has helped produce. I think I was expecting to hear something very similar to the Black Keys, but this album is actually all over the place. Whether it’s the quiet, folkier songs or the loud, bluesy-garage rock, Auerbach has introduced me to a side of him I wasn’t yet aware of.
Dave Matthews Band
Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King
DMB’s latest release is the last album to feature recorded material from their late sax player, LeRoi Moore, who is only featured on a few songs. It’s also the band’s first album in nearly ten years that features Tim Reynolds on lead electric guitar and Jeff Coffin of the Flecktones on sax and flute. Since the passing of Moore and the departure of keyboardist Butch Taylor, it seems as though the band is getting away from that jazz element that made them popular in the early ’90s, even with the help of Rashawn Ross on trumpet. There’s no telling where the band goes after this; does Coffin become a full-time member to help revive those beautiful sax solos ‘Roi was known for, or do they put the focus into Reynolds and his hard rock guitar solos? All I know is that after fifteen years, I’ll continue to stick by them to find out where they go from here.
David Bazan
Curse Your Branches
Death Cab for Cutie
The Open Door EP
The Decemberists
Hazards Of Love
When I first heard the Decemberists’ Crane Wife album (the album that introduced me to this band), I thought to myself that they would never be able to make an album that could top it. And it actually took awhile for me to consider this album up there on that same level. While the album is still growing on me, I think it deserves a best of the year mention, even though I don’t have quite the same feelings as I do for the Crane Wife.
Depeche Mode
Sounds Of The Universe
Devendra Banhart
What Will We Be
The Dirty Projectors
Bitte Orca
The Duke and the King
Nothing Gold Can Stay
eels
Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire
You’ve probably heard the eels but aren’t quite aware of it. You typically won’t hear them on commercial radio or falling into the mainstream, even though they have had songs featured in a number of films like American Beauty, Holes, The Anniversary Party, Knocked Up, Yes Man, The End of Violence, Hellboy II, Hot Fuzz and Shrek 1-3. Their latest is a concept album about desire, with the band taking on a more straight-forward rock sound rather than mellow, experimental, ambient alt rock they are known for.
Elvis Costello
Secret, Profane And Sugarcane
When you think of Elvis Costello, you probably don’t first think of Americana and country music, rather, you probably think of late ’70s New Wave and punk rock, or songs like “Alison”, “Pump It Up” or “What’s So Funny.” You actually have to do your research to discover that Costello is an avid country fan, which kind of shocked me at first. It’s a sound that he has taken on with his most recent album, and although I was skeptical at first, I have to tell you that these songs are simply brilliant. Costello’s got one of my favorite voices in music, and this album showed me that his voice is amazing with any style of music. While he was backed by Jenny Lewis and her band at this past summer’s Bonnaroo performance, the backing band for the album consists of quite an exceptional cast including T Bone Burnett, Jerry Douglas, Emmylou Harris and Jim Lauderdale.
Elvis Perkins
Elvis Perkins In Dearland
The son of the late actor Anthony Perkins (Psycho) and late photographer, Berry Berenson. His debut album, Ash Wednesday, was more of a solo effort, dealing with more somber themes and moods (he lost his mother in the 9/11 attacks), while his latest, self-titled disc seems to be more hopeful, as well as a songwriting collaboration with his bandmates, In Dearland.
Most Influential Music Figures of The Past Decade
November 5th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Jack White
The White Stripes/The Raconteurs/The Dead Weather
As if trying to achieve world domination with The White Stripes wasn’t enough, White is out to accomplish the same feat with his other two bands. Although his other two bands have a similar bluesy, hard rock sound found in the Stripes, they take that sound to the next level by having more than just the one-two punch of guitar and drums. The Raconteurs features Brendan Benson (who is also making quite a name for himself) and Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler of The Greenhornes, who are one of the best things musically to ever come out of the Cincinnati area. Lawrence joins White for the newer project, The Dead Weather, which also features Alison Mosshart of The Kills and Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age. In this supergroup though, White often plays drums, as opposed to the usual distorted and reverb-soaked guitar solos.
Thom Yorke
Radiohead
There’s not many alternative rock bands from the nineties that can say they’re even bigger now than they were ten, fifteen years ago, but Radiohead is undoubtedly the biggest and most beloved of the group. Radiohead hasn’t released a lot of material the past few years, but they kicked off the 21st century with what would become one of the greatest albums in rock history, Kid A. And of course there was the controversial “pay what you want” for their last album, In Rainbows, a couple years back. It actually worked out quite well for the band, as their fans proved to be rather generous. Yorke has also done the solo thing, with the release of his more electro-fueled disc, The Eraser, back in 2006.
Here’s another guy who was also pretty popular in the nineties, but has continued to climb the latter, despite having only a few releases of the 2000’s. He’s also lending his hand to television and film, as well as the creation of his own clothing line, and leading a sober lifestyle. OutKast is one of the few hip-hop groups I can actually stand, and Andre is one of the few rappers I can actually admit to having some form of respect for, unlike some people named Kanye who think they are even bigger than God.
Damon Albarn
Blur/Gorillaz/The Good, the Bad & the Queen
London’s alternative rock band, Blur, rose to fame and hit its peak in the nineties, while Gorillaz achieved success quicker in the early 2000’s, and more recently, Albarn’s musical project has been The Good, the Bad & the Queen, which formed in the mid-00’s. But Albarn is also quite the record producer, by lending his skills to World music and artists like Manu Chao and Amadou & Mariam.
Danger Mouse (Brian Joseph Burton) first rose to fame with The Grey album, a mash-up of Jay-Z’s The Black Album and The Beatles White Album. He formed Gnarls Barkley in 2003 with Cee-Lo, and is also quite the producer, working with bands like Gorillaz, The Black Keys and Beck, as well as collaborating with MF DOOM and Sparklehorse.
Here’s another guy who rose to fame in the nineties, but has continued to get even bigger, by kicking off the 21st century with the album 18, which hit #1 in the UK and #4 in the US. He is viewed as one of the most important dance music figures by bringing together mainstream audiences both in the UK and US. Moby has remixed and collaborated with a number of artists including Lou Reed, David Bowie, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and Ken Thomas of Sigur Ros. He also a noted advocate for a number of causes such as MoveOn and the Humane Society.
Elliott Smith
(1969-2003)
As one of indie folk-rock’s first and finest singer/songwriter’s, Smith was never the type seeking out the limelight, although he would find mainstream success with his song “Miss Misery” in the film, Good Will Hunting. Most of his music came in the nineties, as he only had one release in the 21st century, before taking his life in 2003 at the age of thirty-four. But there has since been two post-humous releases, 2004’s From a Basement on the Hill (which he had already started working on) and 2007’s New Moon, which featured twenty-four previously unreleased songs. Think of him as what Kurt Cobain was to grunge and alternative rock. A sad and tragic ending for a man with an exceptional talent.
Ryan Adams
Whiskeytown/The Cardinals
In the nineties with Whiskeytown, Adams became an integral part as one of alternative country’s most influential and successful bands, despite not having a consistent band lineup. The 21st century was full of all kind of Ryan Adams albums, whether they be solo or with his backing band, the Cardinals. He has been known for his occasional dramatic outbursts during shows, as well as the loss of hearing he has been undergoing for the past several years due to over exposure to loud music when he was younger. After the Cardinals completed a tour earlier this year, they went on hiatus, as everyone, especially Ryan, felt it was necessary to take some time to do their own thing. Ryan recently married pop star Mandy Moore, and has released a few songs under his black metal moniker, Werewolph.
Conor Oberst
Bright Eyes/The Mystic Valley Band/Monsters of Folk
What Elliott Smith was in the nineties, Oberst has become that of the 21st century. Conor has played in nearly ten different bands, but is best known for his years in Bright Eyes and devotion to Saddle Creek Records and Omaha’s indie music scene. Although the Bright Eyes project formed in the mid-90’s, it wasn’t until their 2002 release, Lifted or the Story…, when they started receiving high praises. Bright Eyes went on to release three more albums, all of which received high praises, before he would drop the name Bright Eyes, concentrating on his solo material and his work with the Mystic Valley Band. His most recent project, Monsters of Folk, dates back several years and features his musician friends like Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis, M. Ward, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket (see below).
Jim James (aka Yim Yames)
My Morning Jacket/Monsters of Folk
Being a Kentucky native, I can’t help but feel proud to know that Jim James and My Morning Jacket are from Louisville. My Morning Jacket has done a lot of genre-crossing since the late 90’s; from quiet, Americana folk-rock, to psychedelic, jamband rock, to elements of hard rock and metal, even expanding to the sounds of reggae, dub, R&B and dance, Jim James and My Morning Jacket have found the perfect concoction of nearly every style of music, which is creating one of the most devoted fanbases of the 21st century by bringing together music fans of all walks of life. His most recent project, Monsters of Folk, is seen as one of the greatest supergroups since Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
And the Supergroup of the Year Award Goes To…
October 19th, 2009
Posted in Uncategorized
Monsters of Folk
(Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst, also of Bright Eyes)
When I arrive at the pearly white gates many, many, many years from now, I’m going to be awfully tempted to thank God for creating the members that make up this band. I’m not sure if you can still embarrass yourself even after you’re gone, so maybe I won’t thank him, for fear of appearing like a little schoolgirl when it comes to my thoughts on this band. Oh shoot! I think I have already said too much.
But seriously, in my honest opinion, Monsters of Folk are not just the greatest supergroup of the year, but maybe, just maybe, the greatest supergroup of all-time. The band actually goes back as far as 2004, when all three were touring with their respective bands and would jam together both on and off stage. All four men have appeared on a number of each other’s albums.
Because of commitments to everyone’s various projects, (M. Ward is also one-half of the duo, She & Him with singer/actress Zooey Deschanel), it took Monsters of Folk just about five years to finally get their debut album finished. The self-titled album features fifteen tracks, all of which take on a different sound, with lead vocal duties being spread throughout Oberst, James and Ward.
Monsters of Folk are coming to the Louisville Palace Theatre on Saturday, October 31, and believe it or not, tickets are still available, priced at $33 and $43 plus service charges.
Enjoy the second track off of the album. The first voice you’ll hear on this track is Ward, followed by Oberst, then James.
