Another Performance of Two by The Antlers

This is one of the better songs this year. I can tell because I have listened to it back to back on several occasions.

AON Sessions: The Antlers, "Two" from All Our Noise on Vimeo.

A Users Guide to The Life Of The World To Come-The Mountain Goats

The disection of albums might be one of the most annoying things to read or listen to. With that being said I wanted to look at the bible verses that went along with each song. Way to early to talk in definitives with this album, but its hard to not say its one of the best.

-Track 1 1 Samuel 15:23
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king."

-Track 2 Psalm 40:2
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand

-Track 3 Genesis 3:23
23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

-Track 4 Philippians 3:20-21
20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

-Track 5 Hebrews 11:14
People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.

-Track 6 Genesis 30:3
3 Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family."

-Track 7 Romans 10:9
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

-Track 8 1 John 4:16
16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

-Track 9 Matthew 25:21
21"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

-Track 10 Deuteronomy 2:10
10 (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites

-Track 11 Isaiah 45:23
23 By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.

-Track 12 Ezekiel 7
The End Has Come (I only posted the entire thing because it is pretty great and scary...like what is war if it is against everyone)
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says to the land of Israel: The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. 3 The end is now upon you and I will unleash my anger against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. 4 I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will surely repay you for your conduct and the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
5 "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Disaster! An unheard-of [a] disaster is coming. 6 The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. It has come! 7 Doom has come upon you—you who dwell in the land. The time has come, the day is near; there is panic, not joy, upon the mountains. 8 I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you; I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. 9 I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will repay you in accordance with your conduct and the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that it is I the LORD who strikes the blow.
10 "The day is here! It has come! Doom has burst forth, the rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed! 11 Violence has grown into [b] a rod to punish wickedness; none of the people will be left, none of that crowd—no wealth, nothing of value. 12 The time has come, the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller grieve, for wrath is upon the whole crowd. 13 The seller will not recover the land he has sold as long as both of them live, for the vision concerning the whole crowd will not be reversed. Because of their sins, not one of them will preserve his life. 14 Though they blow the trumpet and get everything ready, no one will go into battle, for my wrath is upon the whole crowd.
15 "Outside is the sword, inside are plague and famine; those in the country will die by the sword, and those in the city will be devoured by famine and plague. 16 All who survive and escape will be in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valleys, each because of his sins. 17 Every hand will go limp, and every knee will become as weak as water. 18 They will put on sackcloth and be clothed with terror. Their faces will be covered with shame and their heads will be shaved. 19 They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be an unclean thing. Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the LORD's wrath. They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it, for it has made them stumble into sin. 20 They were proud of their beautiful jewelry and used it to make their detestable idols and vile images. Therefore I will turn these into an unclean thing for them. 21 I will hand it all over as plunder to foreigners and as loot to the wicked of the earth, and they will defile it. 22 I will turn my face away from them, and they will desecrate my treasured place; robbers will enter it and desecrate it.
23 "Prepare chains, because the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of violence. 24 I will bring the most wicked of the nations to take possession of their houses; I will put an end to the pride of the mighty, and their sanctuaries will be desecrated. 25 When terror comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none. 26 Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders. 27 The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

Trip To The Record Store

I think its worth mentioning, any time you have a good trip to the record store. There have been plenty of times that I go in with excitement at the thought of coming away with 2 or 3 cds I have been looking forward to owning. There are times I walk away as disappointed as a kid who finds out that Wally World or California is closed and other times that I walk away having that excitement fulfilled in the form of new music. This weekend I had a great trip to Euclid Records (my proximity replacement for Vintage Vinyl). I went in looking to pick up the Mountain Goats new album, which I did, and find to be great. Also went in looking for Built to Spill-There Is No Enemy, which I also found and have been very pleased with so far. I would go as far as saying that it is great as well. Picked up Monsters of Folk because I felt I had to and I haven't given it much of a listen yet. The fourth was The Avett Brothers-I and Love and You. This was the surprise purchase of the trip. If you have the time and the money you should pick it up, especially if you have been complaining about your music collection for as long as you can remember.
I will refrain from giving any review other than the following
The Mountain Goats-The Life of the World To Come-I don't know if there is a more unique songwriter today than John Darnielle.
Monsters of Folk-No Opinion so far
Built To Spill-There Is No Enemy-Maybe my favorite of the bunch
Avett Brothers-surprisingly great

Townes Van Zandt

I bought a Townes Van Zandt cd years ago and listened to it once then never again until recently. The record is High Low and In Between and I believe it was released in 1972. I had always heard that Townes Van Zandt was regarded as one of the best songwriters that there is, but never gave him much of a chance. He is closer to folk than country, but some of his stuff is as country as it gets. He was from Texas, drank a lot, did heroin more (he tried to sell all the rights to his songs for 20 bucks when he needed some drugs) and ended up dying at the age of 52.
Steve Earle once said "Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that". That might be a stretch, but he is pretty great.

Townes Van Zandt [mp3] You Are Not Needed Now

Preview New Mountain Goats

Listen to the new Mountain Goats album here. Also watch them on the Colbert Report on October 6. You can also buy the album on this date

The Mountain Goats-The Life Of The World To Come @ Colbert Nation

Top Albums of the Decade

What are your favorite 10 albums of the last 10 years? I can't answer it right now, but I plan to answer it within the next couple days. The list will come out tomorrow (this has been inspired by Pitchforks top 200 or so albums of the decade) or the next day or the next. I am trying to get this done by soon so I am not influenced adversely by their efforts to impress. The year 2000 (cue Conan OBrien and Andy Richter with flashlights and space helmets) was a long long time ago and I will have to double check dates on some of my favorite records. I do know that Kid A was released in 2000 and that was one fine piece of music.

Please add your favorite albums as we go along.

1. Radiohead-Kid A
I think this might be one of the best albums ever made. That is a huge statement but I stand by it. To me this record is a new definition of what music is. I read in a Chuck Klosterman book (can't remember which one) that if you listen to the first 5 or 6 tracks of this album and picture all the events that took place on 9-11 that it fits in a very eerie kind of way)
2. Interpol-Turn Off The Bright Lights
This album feels like a great winter record to me. NYC is one of my favorite songs and in it has one of my favorite lines comparing the subway to a porno. Their next two albums have been alright, but haven't been able to live up to how good this one is.
3. Wolf Parade-Apologies to the Queen
Its amazing and they have come out with some great albums after this one, but none of them (Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) have been better. Great songwriting and great sounds.
4. Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
I thought Summerteeth was a great cd. And then Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out and I was pretty much blown away like everyone else. Mainly, because it sounded so different from what they had done in the past.
5. Mountain Goats-Sunset Tree
John Darnielle is one of the top 5 songwriters ever.
6. Arcade Fire-Funeral
There is something kind of spooky about this band and the stuff they do. I can't quite explain it. Laura says they are militant and we both say they are awesome.
7. Band of Horses-Everything All The Time
This record makes me want to vandalize.
8. The Thermals-The Body, The Blood, The Machine
No matter what this band does, nothing can be better than this cd. If you don't have it you should buy it. I think that this is a record that almost everyone will enjoy.
9. Modest Mouse-The Moon and Antarctica
Modest Mouse is one of my favorite bands and this is one of my favorite albums of theirs. Its not their best (The Lonesome Crowded West) but its their best in the 2000's.
10. Bright Eyes-Lifted
This cd feels like a Wes Anderson movie to me. There really isn't another album, that I have heard, that has the kind of feel this one does. Can't really explain it so I won't. If you listen to it you will understand. Its pretty great

Backspacer

As the posts of top villains have come to a standstill I will take some time to talk about important music. Pearl Jam and their new release Backspacer. Since No Code has been released, maybe Yield, I have been trying to figure out where the greatest rock band of the Post Rolling Stones era fits in to the music world. I know where they arrange themselves in my world and that is firmly at the top. As mentioned previously, a new band can be currently "the greatest music I have ever heard" (a typical overenthusiastic overstatement), but prefaced with the note that Pearl Jam is the greatest band of all time. They are our Rolling Stones, our Led Zepplin.

Critics seem to be tired of their act and that is not surprising because critics, whether they admit it or not, are out to "make a band famous" or at least relevant (go to any music "blog" and see what I mean**). A critic has nothing to gain by praising Pearl Jam. They are giants, they are Mount Olympus, they are outer space. They can't get bigger so there is no motivation to "sing their praise", plus if an artist isn't -reinventing music itself- then it is thought of as pedestrian ...kind of laughable really (this gets into music snobbery and that is a post all to itself). My point here isn't to highlight the ridiculousness of music critics because their absurdity is evident; my purpose is to talk about a great album and a greater band. How can a band be greater than the albums they put out? They put on amazing live performances that take a great studio recording and blow it up in a chemistry set.

Backspacer is the best Pearl Jam album since No Code. It contains all the great things you want from a PJ album. The first three songs rattle your window panes. Gonna See My Friends, Get Some, and Fixer are in the vain of Animal or Go, Hail, Hail, or Alive. They are the "play fucking loud" Pearl Jam songs that can make someone in his 30's act like a high school kid again. Then you have Just Breathe, Amongst the Waves, and easily my favorite Unthought Known (the keys in this song are great, you almost want it to break into a little E-Street but nonetheless it sounds great). Eddie Vedder, slowing it down a bit. His strength is in his ability to write great rock songs and also good "songwriter songs" like the ones he wrote for Into the Wild.

I started to wonder if I liked newly released Pearl Jam albums because they are Pearl Jam and I have great memories tied to their old records. The last few definitely made me wonder if I liked what they put out anymore...at least in the way that I used to. Backspacer is great. It is apolitical. It is a rock album in a musical world where the attempt to reinvent music is at a premium and where good rock music is sometimes lost. Go buy it and listen to it until you can't do it anymore.

**The Sun Sets On Indiana is a machine, not a blog