Last Week In Music | 08/19 – 08/26

I’ve decided to try something new here for Monday mornings. Last.fm keeps track of all them music I listen to, except for when I’m in the car. It’s basically recording what I listen to 16 hours out of the day for 5 days a week, and then a little more intermittently on the weekend, depending upon what’s going on. So I thought I’d start posting a weekly tally of what I was listening to the previous week!

So based upon the chart above, I’ve listened to the new Jens Lekman album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, a whole lot. I was a big fan of ‘Oh You’re So Silent Jens‘, but this new album destroys all the others. The record comes out on October 9th, so be sure to keep a look out!

Next is the new Earlimart record, Mentor Tormentor, which could possibly be in the top 5 albums of the year. Moving away from their overly fragile/depressing style on the last record, their totally kicking ass and making some of the most layered, beautiful music they’ve ever created. The best way I can describe it is somewhere between Elliot Smith (duh) and The Dandy Warhols circa ‘Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia’. Go check out their site to hear some of the tracks from the new album!

The rest of the list includes Mike Andrews, someone I will be posting about seperately. My all-time favorites Belle & Sebastian and Rilo Kiley’s new record, Under the Blacklight (which isn’t that great, seriously disappointing).
Then there’s Thurstoon Moore’s new album, Trees Outside the Academy, which is like a stripped down, acoustic version of Sonic Youth. It’s completely amazing. After that is Caribou’s new record Andorra, Jarvis Cocker’s newest, The Thrills AMAZING new album, Teenager, and of course, the lovely Travis.

Check back next Monday for a new update!

Update: My friend FW over at unfolded/now has decided to join me in posting his previous weeks tunes, as well as the folks over at DTYBYWL… just go to their site to see what that means, haha. Everyone should do this!

Bobby Solomon

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August 27, 2007 - See more posts by Bobby

Favorite Records of 2007 (so far…)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how great of a year this has been for music. I kind of feel like in 20 years people historians will look back and be amazed at all the greatness. So I decided to write all of my favorites artists who had amazing albums so far in 2007. A list of 21 bands, only halfway through the year, is pretty damn remarkable. If you don’t know what they’ve put out this year, then wiki it, it’s worth the trouble.
Still coming up there’s the new Rilo Kiley, Beirut, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, and I’m sure many more that I can’t think of right now. It’s gonna’ be an exciting year.

Bobby

P.S. The new Modest Mouse is shit, I didn’t forget it, and you can keep your Icky Thump, I don’t want it.
P.P.S. I forgot the new Shins album, which was amazing, definitely top 10 material.

Bobby Solomon

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May 29, 2007 - See more posts by Bobby

Travis / The Boy with No Name

Travis / The Boy with No Name

I’ve loved Travis since basically forever. I was that sensitive kid in high school wondering “why does it always rain on me?” and cutting my hair into a faux hawk because Fran Healy, the lead singer of Travis, had it that way. I want to interject here, that Fran Healy totally, and completely started the faux hawk. He was rocking it WAY before everyone, and I copied him way before it was the cool thing to do… we’re talking 10 years ago.

Anywho, The Boy with No Name is an excellent album so far. It’s a return to form for the band, after their last album, 12 Memories. This new album seems much happier again, moving away from the dark political feel of the last one. It might be partially because Nigel Godrich came back to produce for them again, injecting his bit of genius into the mix. I’ve only listened to it about 3 times through… but so far, so good.

Bobby

P.S. I read this on Wikipedia and thought it was really rad.
“When Travis took the stage to perform [Why Does It Always Rain On Me?"] at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival, after being dry for several hours, it began to rain as soon as the first line was sung.”

I wish I would have been there for that, I’m sure it was such an incredible experience.

Bobby Solomon

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April 25, 2007 - See more posts by Bobby

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