Here’s the new site – it’s called dead by christmas.

Superchunk | Majesty Shredding | Merge | 2010

Usually, when an influential band comes back years later with a new tour and/or album, I’m skeptical. Am I right? Doesn’t it always appear to be a thinly-veiled cash grab or mid-life crisis? There are so many bands that come back after five or ten or even twenty or thirty years with less than half of the original band members. They look old, they sound like shit, and they don’t put out any worthwhile new music. But then you have Mission of Burma and Wire who came back, went on tours, and put out some of the better albums of their careers. It can be done.

This is the case with Superchunk. All original members, the energy of the early days, and the tight songwriting of their mid-nineties records. Majesty Shredding brings us back to Here’s Where the Strings Come In. Right from the start, they pull you in with “Digging for Something” and “My Gap Feels Weird.”

I could be wrong about this, but musically, and lyrically, it seems like they’re trying to say something with “My Gap Feels Weird.” Musically, you hear a lot of what’s divisively (and derisively) called emo. Lyrically, they could be talking about the generation gap between themselves and the bands who were influenced by them. Many people blame the Get Up Kids for creating the whiny side of emo, but to many fans, the Get Up Kids are just a pale imitation of Superchunk. Know what I’m sayin’?

There’s so much energy in this record, it really is like they got tired of NOT playing, and came back full-throttle. They didn’t make a half-assed effort here. I admit, it took me a few listens for most of the record to grow on me, but its energy kept me coming back for more.

If you click on the album cover above, you can buy the CD/vinyl/digital downloads, plus you can stream the whole thing for free to check it out. That’s the Merge Records site. If you didn’t already know, that’s Mac and Laura’s label that they started to release the first Superchunk single. Since then, they’ve made cult heroes out of Neutral Milk Hotel, Magnetic Fields, Spoon, Arcade Fire, and Seaweed. Don’t buy from Amazon – buy from Merge.

Against Me! | White Crosses | Sire 2010

By this point, I think most of the stubborn Against Me! fans who particularly appreciated the band’s early days have stopped paying attention. This is probably a good thing. They still have some growing up to do. Maybe eventually they’ll ‘get it’, come back, and understand.

From their very personally political early folk-punk sound to the Springsteen-ish sheen that they have now, Against Me! have always meant something to their fans. Many of those fans took it very poorly when the band moved from small indie punk label No Idea Records to Fat Wreck Chords, which is still independent, but pretty damned big. Every blog post, every record review, and every discussion about the band had “sellout” all over it.

But what’s wrong with spreading your message to a wider audience?

I hated this album when I first heard it. Really, I did. The second track, “I Was A Teenage Anarchist” was a standout, but the rest of it just seemed kind of bland. But it’s Against Me!, so I gave it a chance. The previous record, “New Wave” was an obvious turning point. Despite a handful of great songs, it was overall a disappointment for me.

But now I think they were just trying to find their focus. J. Robbins (Jawbox) produced all their previous records, and assisted Butch Vig on “New Wave.” On “White Crosses,” it’s just Butch Vig. Yes, their sound is now more polished, but the way I see it, it’s just another thing they need to do to reach more people. The music industry is a big game, and Against Me! are stepping to the plate.

Yes, they’re playing the game to get to a wider audience, but why? It’s for the current generation of ‘teenage anarchists’ and the other generations who never grew up and figured out that they just need to think for themselves.

Against Me! are a full band with two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer. All but the latter have been with singer Tom Gabel almost from the beginning (drummer George Rebelo, formerly of Hot Water Music is the new drummer). But, it’s always been Gabel’s band. He writes all the music/lyrics, and even though he stood off to the right-side of the stage early on, he is the face of the band.

I brought that up because Gabel recently wrote an article for antimusic.com detailing his early experiences with the anarchist movement and why he got involved. He points out that all these kids don’t understand that they don’t need to belong to a scene to supplement their identity. And that’s just one ideal that Gabel wants to expose to the world.

With “White Crosses,” he may get the chance to do educate a lot more people. I hope he does. And I probably won’t doubt Against Me! ever again. I’ll keep giving the new albums a chance, no matter what.

I realize that this ‘review’ wasn’t very focused on the music on the record. If you’re a longtime fan, give it a chance. If you’re new to the band, and you like anthemic rock n roll with politicized lyrics, check ‘em out. Also, if you get a chance, check out Tom Gabel’s blog I Feel Sick To My Stomach. The video for “I Was A Teenage Anarchist” is posted there, along with the article he wrote for antimusic that I mentioned above.

New Bomb Turks | Nightmare Scenario | Epitaph | 2000

It was a Wednesday night at the Gold Dollar in Cass Corridor before it was re-branded as ‘Midtown’. The New Bomb Turks were headlining, and Bantam Rooster were opening. I’m not sure, but I think the Clone Defects played, too. I don’t remember, it was about ten years ago. The set change from Bantam Rooster to the New Bomb Turks was quick. As the NBT were getting ready to start up, the singer, Eric Davidson, was noticing all the college kids getting up to leave. They came out for Bantam Rooster. It was a ‘school night’. The band were plugged-in and ready to go. Davidson gets up there and starts ranting about all the college kids leaving so early. And then he thanks the rest of us for sticking around, and he says “…and I’m looking out there right now, and I can tell that for each and every one of you, every night is Saturday night!”

I try to still be that person who goes out to late shows on weeknights, but the nine-to-five job does make it tough.

Anyway, I started this blog to tell you about good music. That’s subjective, right? It’s music that I think is good. I’ve spoken to a few people who seem to value my opinion, so here I am.

I bring this up because this particular New Bomb Turks album is not what a devout fan would consider a ‘starting point’ for the uninitiated. Nightmare Scenario is, however, a very palatable and easy to digest record for the newcomer. Remember that garage rock stuff from the late ’90s and early ’00s? Take that, and make it raw and trashy. Sleazy, too. That was the style for bands on Crypt Records, the New Bomb Turks’ early record label. Crypt Records is almost a genre unto itself. Based in Hamburg, Germany, owner Tim Warren single-handedly brought us some of the best and truest ‘garage rock’ that ever existed. Whether it was current sounds like NBT or modern classics like the Gories or re-issues of regional garage bands from the ’50s, he had it covered. But, sometime around 1998, Warren stopped releasing new music and focused on re-issues. The Turks moved on, and their sound started to get a little cleaner. They found an unlikely home with Epitaph Records (mostly known for ’90s-style punk bands).

What is their sound? Think Jerry Lee Lewis meets the Stooges. Amped-up and sludgy. Of course, Davidson is also a ‘confrontational’ frontman, like Iggy. He will not hesitate to get in your face while he’s out there on the floor during a set. I’ve seen him grab people’s heads and sing a whole song to them, just inches away from their face. He will push you. He wants confrontation. And he does it well. It was disappointing years ago when I saw the NBT open for The Hives…it really should’ve been the other way around. Pelle Almqvist stole all his moves from Davidson, and Almqvist doesn’t do it as well. But, that’s for another post.

If you want to dive right into the raw wounds, check out their earlier records like Destroy-Oh-Boy and Information Highway Revisited – particularly the latter. That one blew my little mind when I picked it up in the late ’90s.

Despite that, I’m still recommending Nightmare Scenario if you’re new to this. It came out in 2000, and it was their fifth record. No, it isn’t their best. But you know what? It was recorded right here in Detroit by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders, and he put the perfect sheen on their sound. Their raw early style shines through the clean production. The whole record is solid, but the first three tracks will hook you automatically. The lyrics are pretty good, too. Track three is “End of the Great Credibility Race,” which calls out bands/musicians who care more about credibility than just playing and doing their thing. The last line is so perfect: “…next thing you know you’re at your Crypt, reading your Epitaph.” Get it?

P.S. – If for some reason, Matt Reber (NBT bassist) happens to see this, I’d like to say thanks for being cool about my friends and I showing up at your place in Columbus back when the Hellacopters played the Newport. Some girl told us it was an ‘afterhours’ and gave us an address. We had no idea it was your house or that the Hellacopters would be there.

Teenage Fanclub | Bandwagonesque | DGC | 1991

Everything exploded for me in 1991. The sky opened up, the clouds cleared, and the sun was shining brightly. It was my freshman year of high school. Every Sunday night I’d watch MTV’s “120 Minutes,” and I’d tape it and watch it again later in the week. That was my window to the outside world. The internet was nothing more than a bunch of boring crap on AOL that took forever to load. The web wouldn’t exist for another three years. I was 15 years old and had no way of getting to shows in Detroit, 50 miles away. I grew up in Marysville, a town of 8,000 people. Sure, it was part of a larger semi-metropolitan area of roughly 160,000 people, but it was still ‘the boonies’ as far as I was concerned. So, all I had was that British dude, Dave Kendall, who hosted “120 Minutes.”

When I first saw the video for Scottish band Teenage Fanclub’s first single “What You Do To Me,” I thought it was perfect pop. That Christmas, I got my first CD player (Sony Sport Discman). Unfortunately, I was a paper boy, and didn’t make much cash, so I’d save it up and then buy a bunch of CDs at once. Teenage Fanclub’s second album “Bandwagonesque” was one of the first CDs I bought. And somehow, I still have it. I bought two others that day, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s album “God Fodder,” and something else that may have been REM’s “Out of Time,” but I’m not sure. All I know is, the CDs came in those annoying wastes of cardboard – the ‘longbox’. All that’s left of the three is Teenage Fanclub.

Because it was 1991, and they had a sort of dirty guitar sound, they got lumped in as a grunge band, but that made no sense. The same thing happened to Sloan. In fact, something similar happened to Weezer. All three bands were on DGC records around the same time. All three bands had a big breakthrough album, then an even better subsequent record that was ignored because it was too ‘different’, or not ‘grunge’ anymore. Weezer and Sloan’s second records, “Pinkerton” and “Twice Removed,” respectively, are now considered fan favorites, but at the time they didn’t sell. Teenage Fanclub met a worse fate. Every record after “Bandwagonesque” was, quite honestly, brilliant, yet completely ignored by the people who originally pushed the band up the charts. But that’s just here in America. Liam Gallagher of Oasis has been famously quoted as saying Teenage Fanclub “are the second best band in Britain.” They actually do get respect, just not in this country. Sometimes (okay, often), Americans are dumb when it comes to music.

This is the thing, “Bandwagonesque” is an album where every single song is a perfect pop nugget. What does it sound like? Big Star. Badfinger. The Raspberries. And if all of those are too obscure for you, then I don’t know what to say. Some critics have taken to referring to the record as Big Star’s ’4th album’. Big Star were a ’70s band. You may have heard about them recently because the singer/songwriter/guitarist of the band, Alex Chilton passed away a few months ago.

But as a 15-year old in a small town with no internet to research these things, I didn’t know anything about Big Star. I had never heard them before. To me, Teenage Fanclub’s sound was something fresh and different, yet familiar. Familiar, like an oldies radio station, yet totally original.

As the band grew, their 60s/70s pop and folk influences grew, as well, but “Bandwagonesque” stands alone in my mind. The rest of their albums are great, too, but that one is a complete and perfect record. It wasn’t ’90s rock, or ‘alternative’ or whatever. To this day, it still doesn’t sound dated, because the record easily could’ve been recorded in 1974 or 1994 or 2004. That’s an important signifier for me, when a record that old doesn’t sound like the year it came out. That means it’s timeless.

It seems that 2010 is an exception. Times have changed.

Here, in no particular order are my favorite records of 2010, so far:

Spoon | Transference | Merge | 2010

Seven albums into it, Spoon are well-established. Their sound is unique, yet somehow familiar. There’s something about the distinctive bass tones, Britt Daniel’s voice and the occasional piano. The previous album, 2007′s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” was possibly their most accessible yet. “Transference” is more of a ‘grower’. It takes some time to hear everything, despite this being some of Daniel’s most stripped-down songwriting. They’re gotten to the essence of their sound. Many of the songs were left in their demo form, which adds a unique gloss, considering Daniel and Jim Eno (drummer) are both accomplished studio engineers. Most bands wish their demos could sound this good.

Hot Chip | One Life Stand | Astralwerks | 2010

I didn’t start paying attention to Hot Chip until their 2006 album “The Warning.” I’d read a lot of good reviews, and it seemed like something I’d be into. So I bought it, and for years, I just couldn’t get into it. I liked the sound, but couldn’t get into the songs. Then the next album came out, “Made In the Dark,” in 2008. I immediately picked it up, and loved it right away. The songs were catchy, and very articulate. The band’s grip on ’80s electro was strong. At times it was a bit industrial. So then I went back to “The Warning,” and realized that I loved it. And then “One Life Stand” came out, and yet again, I bought it right away. Compared to the others, it’s sensitive and serious right away. These songs aren’t all dancefloor bangers, they’re literate, grand, and at times, sweeping epics. It seems like there’s nowhere to go but up for Hot Chip.

Yeasayer | Odd Blood | Secretly Canadian | 2010

In 2007, Yeasayer’s first album “All Hour Cymbals” was on everyone’s year-end best-of lists. Being the good little sheep that I am, I dutifully checked it out. Shit. It blew me away. The only references I could put to it would be obscure world-beat/industrial act 23 Skidoo or maybe the stranger experimental stuff from Public Image Ltd. It was like a soundtrack to a modern film epic set in the Sahara. There’s no way that I could picture four hipster kids from Baltimore making this music. Their second album, “Odd Blood” is completely different. They went from sprawling arabesque soundscapes to crazy electronic freakouts. It’s weird, wild stuff.  And like “All Hour Cymbals,” it’ll take you some work to get into it. But once it’s under your skin, it’s stuck there.

Retribution Gospel Choir | 2 | 2010

One night last year, I ended up at a late night party in Detroit. I got there, and it was just three of my friends (all guys) with their shirts off, wasted, and listening to music very loudly. It was Jimmy’s iPod, and he kept changing the music every few minutes or so. Total ADD. Out of the five or six bands he insisted I hear, one really stuck out: Retribution Gospel Choir. Alan Sparhawk, the mastermind behind Low is also the man behind Retribution Gospel Choir. But this is something totally different than Low. In face, it’s the polar opposite: big riffs and power pop. With this second album, “2,” you get working-class anthems and stoner rock. It’s some heavy stuff. Definitely work checking out. And if you like that, get your hands on their first, self-titled record, which featured Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters).

Fucked Up | Couple Tracks | Matador | 2010

Toronto’s Fucked Up have gotten a lot of press in the past few years, and deservedly so. They’ve made hardcore punk interesting again. The comparisons to legends like Negative Approach are obvious…but then the next track starts with chorus-boy vocals and a three-minute instrumental buildup. You never know with these guys. They are truly making epic hardcore. Epic-length, in some cases. “Couple Tracks” is actually a compilation of b-sides, alternate takes, and singles. With two discs priced as one, you can’t go wrong here. There are a few tracks on the first disc that I could do without, but the rest is pretty solid, and a good lengthy introduction to the band. The liner notes are excellent, too. There’s a little backstory for each song, but mostly the notes show the band’s sense of humor. I also recommend checking out their blog, Looking For Gold.