Another Interpol Show?

Well, if you read this blog, it definitely looks like the only shows I go to are Interpol and Wilco shows, and that actually is about right for the last few months. Finally, however, the summer is coming and there should be many more concert reviews hitting this blog soon. For now, I saw Interpol last night at the 9:30 Club with Blonde Redhead, and again, they were amazing. Here's the setlist.

Next Exit
Slow Hands
Narc
Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down
Public Pervert
A Time to Be So Small
Not Even Jail
Hands Away
Evil
NYC
Take You on a Cruise (into)
PDA

Encore:
The Specialist
Obstacle 1
Roland

I was actually quite surprised about how much the setlist varied from when I saw them back in November, considering it was the same tour, but it was a very different show. I'd have to say the highlight was "Take You on a Cruise," which I've never seen them play live and still gives me chills every time I hear it. Right after the little breakdown, when Paul sang "I am a scavenger. . . " I almost completely lost it. And the song never ended, it just went directly into "PDA," where Interpol proved themselves to be the coolest band on earth. When Daniel does his solo, the rest of the band stops playing, then all come back with lit cigarettes to finish the song. All you could see were the shadows of Paul, Sam and Carlos with orange flames next to their faces, it looked sooooo awesome. Anyway, hearing them play "The Specialist" was quite a treat as I'm under the impression they do not play it very often, and I was worried about them ending with "Roland," but it worked very well as a song to close the night with.

Daft Punk - Human After All

This is not going to be a full review, as I do not yet own the album, but I just streamed it off of NME's site, here's the link in case you're interested: http://www.nme.com/features/

Well, it pains me to say this, but it looks like the early reports were correct. As I sit here listening to "Technologic," I can only think of it as an inferior version of Discovery's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." Never did I think that I'd ever be bored with a Daft Punk album, but that is exactly what I've just experienced. Gone are the lyrics and pop melodies that made Discovery such a perfect album , as are the innovative beats and the freshness that Homework brought us all the way back in 1997. The sound is more along the lines of Homework, as Human After All is largely made of instrumental tracks with repeated, computerized vocals, but frankly, it just sounds like it was shoddily done.

The album may be Daft Punk's weakest work to date, but it does have a couple of bright spots. Single "Robot Rock" follows the formula of "Around the World" with a catchy synth line driving the song and "Rock, Robot Rock" chanted over and over, but a song like this would not stand out on another Daft Punk album, it would just fit right in. "The Brainwasher" turns up the volume for a very aggressive 4 minutes, and the album closer, "Emotion" tries to make you forget about what you just heard. Unfortunately, I did forget, even listening to it through twice, I couldn't tell you the hooks to more than a couple of songs. It's very rare when I'm at a loss for words about an album, but this is one of those times, usually I'd just rant on and on here, but not today. I'm just so disappointed and I know this band can do so much better than this, there are two full albums worth of evidence. I hope this is just a little bump in the road, but my advice for Daft Punk would be to get in the studio now and not to come out until they have something brilliant to release, and it better be within the next year or so. If the follow up to Human After All takes the requisite four years a Daft Punk album typically takes, we may all forget the greatness that once was Daft Punk.

Argh! Cocteau Twins Reunion Halted

This will be a quick one here. So I was perusing the Coachella message boards and found a press release saying that the Cocteau Twins would not be playing at Coachella after all due to singer Elizabeth Fraser's personal issues. I figured, hey, it's a message board, what do they know? But a few hours later, the same press release appeared on coachella.com and I knew it was for real. This is slightly annoying, given that I've paid $400 for my concert and plane tickets and was hoping to see every band that I was told I would see, but it's not all bad. I actually didn't start listening to the Cocteau Twins until after the Coachella lineup had been announced, so really, just the simple announcement that they were playing introduced me to an amazing band. So yes, it sucks that I won't get to see them live, and maybe, just maybe, they'll replace them with a comparable band, though I'm not holding out hope since no one replaced Wilco last year. I highly recommend all three Cocteau Twins albums that I now own, Treasure, Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas. If you're looking for some excellent music to just sit back and chill out to, they may be just the band for you. (Convoluted post, yes, but I'm waiting for a file to transfer at work and had nothing better to do)

New Albums Coming Soon

I've got some reviews in the works, and I'd like to reflect back on 2000 and 2001, but I thought I'd first comment on some new albums from some longtime favorites that will be hitting stores over the next few months. Lots of classic bands will be releasing new material this spring and summer, so here are my predictions for how these albums will turn out.

Daft Punk - Human After All (March 15th) - Early reports on this album are that it isn't as strong as 2001's Discovery and that it finds DP moving away from electronic music on some songs. Still, I will buy it and I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but from the buzz I'm hearing this might be the weakest Daft Punk release to date.

Beck - Guero (March 29th) - Honestly, does Beck ever release a bad album? I can't think of one, and I expect this album, which is a supposed return to the sound of Odelay, to fall right into place in the excellent Beck catalogue. I'm glad to see that Beck is rocking again, Sea Change was good, but sooooo sad.

New Order - Waiting for the Sirens' Call (April 12th) - I can't really say what I expect here, the band is more relevant now than they've been in 20 years, but can they make a great album so many years after their 80's masterpieces? I think it'll be another album like 2001's Get Ready, a solid effort, but not one to go down in history. Early word is that it's quite diverse with "something for everyone."

Weezer - Make Believe (May 10th) - According to many, Weezer hasn't made a great album since 1996's Pinkerton, but I happened to like Maladroit a lot. Regardless, it's been 3 years since we've had any new Weezer, and at the rate that Rivers Cuomo writes songs, he has to have written over 100 to choose from for this album. For that reason alone, I have a feeling that this album could be truly great, I think this Weezer album trumps the last two efforts and puts the Weez right back on the map.

Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth (May 31st) - Okay, now here's a band that really has fallen from grace, 2002's Heathen Chemistry was a forgettable joke of an album and their last great record was released ten years ago. So can Oasis get back on the horse? Honestly, I think Noel Gallagher has lost something as a songwriter (could drugs possibly be to blame here?), but they seem so determined to become a musical superpower once again that there is a chance that this album could be something special. It won't touch Morning Glory or Definitely Maybe, but it could be their best album since the mid-90s.

Coldplay - X&Y (June 7th) - This album recently was bumped from late March to June for unspecified reasons, but that is never a good sign. No one thought they could follow-up Parachutes, but 2002's Rush of Blood to the Head buried the "sophomore jinx" that everyone expected. Now they have to follow up a giant commercial success instead of just a great brit-pop album. I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that Chris Martin crumbles under the pressure, it'll be the weakest Coldplay album yet.

Music of the Last Five Years

So I posted my favorite albums of 2004 a few months back, and when pitchforkmedia.com released it's top 100 albums of the last 5 years, I started to think back to what my favorites were back then and what music from years past I still listen to today. Now, maybe it's because I've become a big indie dork over the last couple of years, but my tastes have changed as the years have gone on, so I'm going to compare what my top 5 albums from each year are now and compare that list to what my top 5 albums were back then. I'll stop explaining and just get right into it:
Top Albums of 2003 (back then):
1) Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
2) White Stripes - Elephant
3) The Strokes - Room on Fire
4) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
5) The Postal Service - Give Up
Honorable Mention: The Darkness - Permission to Land

Top Albums of 2003 (now):
1) The Postal Service - Give Up
2) Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
3) The Rapture - Echoes
4) Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michican: The Great Lakes State
5) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Honorable Mention (three-way tie): The New Pornographers - Electric Version, The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart, The Wrens - The Meadowlands

See, that's how it works, as you can see, things have changed a bit. I was introduced to pitchfork in late 2003 and they introduced me to Sufjan Stevens and The Wrens. The White Stripes' Elephant just has not stood the test of time, nor has The Strokes' Room on Fire, and I don't know what I was ever thinking with The Darkness. The Postal Service were new to me at the end of '03 so I wasn't sure how they'd hold up, but I still love them as much now as I did then. Okay, enough of the explanation, ONWARD!!!

Top Albums of 2002 (back then):
1) Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
2) Beck - Sea Change
3) Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
4) The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
5) Andrew WK - I Get Wet
Honorable Mention - Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf

Top Albums of 2002 (now):
1) Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
2) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3) The Streets - Original Pirate Material
4) The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
5) The Notwist - Neon Golden

Once again pitchfork strikes, as I never would have heard of The Notwist without them. I bought Interpol's debut when it was released, but I don't think I was ready for it at the time, I stored it away and dug it back out in the summer of '03 where I fell in love with it. Original Pirate Material was like Give Up in '03, too new at the end of the year to know how I truly felt about it. Also, in the time between December '02 and now, Wilco has become my favorite band, and their masterpiece goes near the top of any list I'd ever make. As for the albums that slipped off the list, Beck's Sea Change just doesn't carry the gravity that it once did for me, and almost seems to drag a bit when I put it on today. The Chili Peppers decided to make about half the songs on By the Way singles, and since I was working at a radio station during that period, I heard every song about a billion times. A Rush of Blood to the Head is still a good album, but it has gone the way of Elephant and Room on Fire as just not sounding as new and fresh now as it once did. Andrew WK were my Darkness of '02, and QOTSA are still great but my tastes have moved away from them. Digging up my best-of from '01 and '00 is going to be a little tougher, so I'm going to take a break and post those in the coming days.