Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
As with its predecessors, The Campfire Headphase initially sounds almost too easy on the ear. The music itself offers little more than a tweaking of the duo's template to date. The only real change is the presence of guitars and the reduced prominence of vocal samples (where they do occur they're much more blurred and distant than before). This latter may be a reaction to the relentless puzzle-solving provoked by Geogaddi's multiple references.
Only time will tell whether Boards Of Canada can continue to produce this kind of music without surrendering to the rule of diminishing returns. Despite this concern, the duo remain extremely adept at creating lacunae at the heart of their music, spaces into which you can project your own feelings and memories. As you do so, you'll slip into a gentle whirlpool of slowly emerging sonic details. The effect is seductive and remarkably subtle. A perfect accompaniment to summer evenings as dusk falls, The Campfire Headphase provides a key to the lost art of daydreaming.
- Colin Buttimer October 17, 2005 via bbc.co.uk
Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
Earlier this year, Rolling Stone put forth the theory that Connor Oberst is the heir-apparent to Dylan’s poet-singer throne. It’s a ridiculous supposition. First, because there’s no need for such an heir; Dylan’s albums hold up just fine, thank you. Second, Oberst is a whiny little punk from Omaha without a quarter the creative drive or genius of Dylan. Third, we already have Dave Berman.
I’m not arguing that Berman’s music is really all that related to that of Dylan (even if they are both poets), or even that the two musicians exist in similar musical realms, but rather that at some basic level of songwriting and personal expression, they’re operating on a similar plane. Berman, along with Stephen Malkmus and a few others, help pioneer the '90s concept of "indie rock," but did it as an extension of country music rather than the punk that many of his peers were using. Dylan saved rock by mining folk music while starving his way through New York City in the early ‘60s. He emerged from the decade not entirely unscathed and then went on to make Desire and Blood on the Tracks, two of my favorites, with an entirely different take on music and songwriting. And now it seems that Berman has conquered at least some of his demons (and addictions) and hits 2005 wth one of his strongest and most focused albums to date, Tanglewood Numbers.
- Peter Hepburn October 13, 2005 via Cokemachineglow
Finally, and by no means is this album an actual new release, but it's finally available on iTunes and worth picking up if you've been sleeping under a rock and don't have it yet.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clap Your Hands are a five-piece from Brooklyn who are known to break out both harp and harmonica. They've recently been garnering rave press in their home city, and, over just the past two weeks, burning up the internet like a vintage Lohan nipslip. The pundits are saying Wilco (not hearing it), Talking Heads (okay), and Neutral Milk Hotel (getting warmer), but if it checks in with a number of modern and classic new wave referents, the music sings for itself: Clap Your Hands traffics in melodic, exuberant indie rock that pairs the shimmering, wafting feel of Yo La Tengo with a singular vocal presence that sounds like Paul Banks attempting to yodel through Jeff Mangum's throat. Or imagine the Arcade Fire if their music were more fun-loving and less grave.
Of course, if Clap Your Hands had a press kit, it would undoubtedly include something about "synthesizing these influences into a sound that's uniquely their own." And for once, it would be true. On the album's first true song, "Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away", a wailing vocal evokes Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser, as hitching, muted guitars and singing melodic ones twist and furl over throbbing bass. On "Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)", the band veers into more Interpol-ish territory, with small, stripped guitars and bass, a thin synth wash, and lilting vocals with woozily yawning vowels. Same goes for the iridescent guitars, purring synths, and weary vocals of "Details of the War".
The record is consistently, remarkably strong, but "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" in particular stands out, with its richly buzzing synth phrases, textbook Modest Mouse guitar lead (a trebly, gliding string bend skimming over the rhythm like a flat stone over a pond), contrapuntal bass, and shuffling drums. The song also features one of vocalist Alec Ounsworth's most memorable performances: He ramps up the urgency as the heavier chords kick in, his voice cracking and shifting in cascading waves as if someone were pressing his vocal cords to a fret board and bending them. "Is This Love?", with its clean, galloping guitars and fruit loop synth trills is the song most blatantly redolent of Neutral Milk Hotel (especially of the unhinged pop and careening vocals Mangum favored on On Avery Island), and its dizzily wowing vocal harmonies carry over to "Heavy Metal", where fuzzed-out bass and wheezing harmonica punch smart shapes into the fizzy guitars.
There's something really refreshing about stumbling across a great band that's trembling on the cusp without any sort of press campaign or other built-in mythology-- you actually get to hear the music with your own ears. While a lot of bands view the promotional apparatus as a necessary evil, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah prove that it's still possible for a band to get heard, given enough talent and perseverance, without a PR agency or a label. Indie rock has received a much-needed kick in the pants, and we have the rare chance to decide what a band sounds like of our own accord before any agency cooks up and disseminates an opinion for us. Damn, maybe this is how it's supposed to work!
-Brian Howe June 22, 2005 via Pitchfork
North American Halloween Prevention Initiative - "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" from the Do They Know It's Hallowe'en? - EP.
Recorded over four-nights in front of a sold-out hometown crowd at Chicago's historic Vic Theatre in 2005, Kicking Television: Live In Chicago is the first official live release from Wilco.
It wouldn't be a new day if there wasn't a new Strokes track to listen to now would it??? Someone over at the Strokes message board has posted a link to a live track of what is, as Julian puts it, a "fun" new song called 
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