2005 Random 21

Following up on my best records of 2005, this is the semi-promised "song post." This is the result of a long train ride and an iPod, drawn from a playlist of records from 2005, set to shuffle. I've added a few comments... This is more significant than it might look - the iPod changes how you listen to music. I don't listen to whole records like I used to. Even at home, I've taken to turning on iTunes and letting it give me a show... It turns my CD collection into a radio station...

1. Antony and the Johnsons - Hope There's Someone: "torch songs from Mars" says Mojo - with a rushing piano ending...
2. Jandek - Blue Blue World: oy - or not... is this any good? he's like a parody of an "outside" rock musician - blues, kind of mocked... I doubt that's the point, though... it's not really all that bad - but it isn't anything special, that I can see. He's no Keiji Haino.
3. Wilco - One by One (from Kicking Television): I bought a lot of live records last year - this, Gomez, Richard Thompson, half a dozen Mars Volta records - all quite good. I still can't quite get into Wilco - they do very little I feel like I need.
4. Interpol - Not Even Jail: got that joy division groove going...
5. Dangerdoom - Old School Rules: very cool, amusing record...
6. Devendra Banhart - Beatles: more twee than usual.
7. Sun Volt - Gramaphone: Jay Farrar remains more conventional than Wilco, but writes better songs - though sometimes he is so obsessed with Neil Young (Harvest/Comes a Time Neil Young) that he threatens to disappear. That would be a shame, since he has a rather better voice than Neil Young, and has always been a strong songwriter in his own right.
8. The Killers - Somebody Told Me: not bad, which alone is something of a triumph - how many of these friggin bands are there? I got at least 4 of them in 05 - this, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party - and can't hear a nickels worth of difference among the lot. Last year, at least, we had the Liars representing the post-punk/new wave 80s revival - the Liars were (probably are - I see they have a new EP out) a far far better band than any of this lot... They aren't bad (all these 80s revival bands) - they are just indistinguishable. The Liars, of course, come off a good deal different - and Interpol is better than the rest... They are American, of course, always an advantage - well, maybe not always...
9. Mercury Rev - In a Funny Way: one of those songs that sounds like it wrote itself - a feature shared with a lot of these Nick Drake revival bands... Though this one, on the chorus, shifts into Echo and the Bunnymen mode, doesn't it? Isn't that "Lips Like Sugar" they're playing? Anyway - mercury Rev blows just about everybody away - and this is, I think, a fairly mediocre record. Maybe not mediocre - pleasant but unspectacular. I don't think there was a better record this year - and this is their what - 5th best record?
10. Sleater Kinney - Steep Air: not bad, but the turn to more conventional rock didn't help them all that much. This is a good record - probably their best since the Hot Rock - the songs, especially, sound very good in isolation, though rather tedious taken together. I don't think Dave Friedman was a very good choice to produce - they need someone like Steve Albini - someone to sharpen the edges and define the spaces of the guitars, rather than try to turn them into something - what? Mars Volta? Oy... Carrie Brownstein has talents, but they really don't run toward wanking. They don't really even run toward screeching noise mongering...
11. Sun Volt - Who: hey, a repeat! another nice song...
12. Wilco - Shot in the Arm: oh boy! an Uncle Tupelo reunion! with Nils Cline making guitar screetches over a pretty tame bit of songcraft.
13. Ruchard Thompson - How Does Your Garden Grown: quiet folk, the real stuff - or a torch song with guitar... with bits of acoustic brilliance, as onewould expect.
14. Xiu Xiu - Brooklyn Dodgers: sounds like an odd mix of Antony and Rufus Wainwright - soft, odd music...
15. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Upon the Tidal Wave of Young Blood: where did this come from? I downloaded it somewhere. I remember they are from Brooklyn, not much else. Nico-esque voice, someone has. Rather nice song, though - glad it came up.
16. Beck - Hell Yes: an interesting tune, though a bit familiar, shall we say...
17. Xiu Xiu - Sad Dying Guerilla Girl: oh no! can I take two Xiu Xiu songs within 4? [I keep trying to like them - they don't sound like what people say they sound like - "the band itself has been likened to just about any angular guitar band from the late '70s and early '80s" sez AMG, but where are those vaunted guitars? how much of this is due to owning their last two records? how much is due to listening to them on the iPod? I don't know. I should know better than to be buying records by a band named after that movie - Xiu Xiu the Sent Down Girl was a genuinely awful film...] Back in the moment, however, this song has a nice weird ending, that makes it worth the wait.
18. Sleater-Kinney - Jumpers: an odd one, sounds like the New Pornographers, more than the rest of The Woods...
19. Audioslave - #1 Zero: bit of guitar wanking over a Sleater Kinney "beat"... [This almost broke me - it took an act of will to keep going...]
20. Antony and the Johnsons - You Are My Sister: back where I started! maybe a good place to stop... duet with Boy George - nice song...
21. Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple: "all your sanity and wits will vanish, I promise, it's just a matter of time" - this is a fine end to the trip. I was very impressed to find that the Gogol Bordello web site had been taken down for violating their ISP's terms of service. Somehow, that seems better than any actual web site could have been. Anyway - they are a great deal of fun - picking up where the pogues left off, I suppose - fast, raucous, folk songs - they bring a smile, whenever I listen to them.
[And that just felt like a good place to stop.]