What? That came out last year?!

Even the biggest music connoisseurs miss things, and I will be the first to admit that there are a few bands/albums/songs from 2008 that I have only stumbled across so far in 2009. I'm as shocked as you are that I hadn't heard some of this stuff until now, but it's never too late to discover the music, and I hope you find something of your own to discover in this list of Things Dana Didn't Hear Until 2009 (and is now in love with). (Part 1)

Department of Eagles.
This video for "No One Does It Like You" is the first for the sophomore release from Daniel Rossen's (Grizzly Bear) side project.



The album In Ear Park came out on October 7, 2008, but it didn't grace my ears until late January 2009. I owe this discovery in large part to my Metromix Columbus producer, Justin Powell, who tried and tried to talk me into seeing DOE when they passed through Cbus in January, but I thought the name of the band sounded contrived so I resisted giving it the time of day. And then I was bored and thought I'd check it out, some MySpacing happened, and I fell in love. Hard. Seriously--I only have one DoE album in my library and already the band has shot up to my 4th most listened to band slot on Last.fm, out of 31572 songs played. Yikes.

The music is a lot like Grizzly Bear, but for me it seems to be what I most love about GB times one million. All of my favorite parts from Yellow House, like Rossen's soothing voice on "On a Neck, On a Spit," are found in an amplified fashion on In Ear Park, especially in songs like my favorite, "Phantom Other."

Passion Pit
I heard about Passion Pit for the first time from Paper Magazine's new blogger spotlight sometime in January or February 2009 and then somehow the band name kept popping up EVERYWHERE. This was in large part due to the fact that Passion Pit was playing an upcoming show in Columbus with Paper Route, and Metromix did a nice front page display of both bands, where I discovered that Passion Pit started originally with one guy's project to make a Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend. I had a listen and, damn--if I got this EP as a Valentine's Day gift, the guy would get so lucky.

Well, Michael Angelakos (lead singer/keyboardist, aka "the guy who gifted uniquely") sure did fall into some luck, as he was signed to French Kiss and the original gift was released as the Chunk of Change EP on Sept. 16, 2008. The album is full of what might be considered ballads, hidden under a disguise of good dance grooves, electronic beats and Angelakos' falceto, that apparently has no limit as to how high it can go. "Sleepyhead" is the peak of the album, closing it out as the last track, and is the one that I continue to listen to on repeat a few months after I first heard it. Passion Pit was just announced as a part of the Lollapalooza line up for 2009, and there is a full-length set to be released May 19, 2009- this time I'll be waiting for it.



Los Campesinos!
I feel like I really did myself a great disservice by not knowing about Los Campesinos! at all in 2008, when they had a busy year releasing two full-lengths: the debut Hold on Now, Youngster... in February 2008 and their second album, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, on October 27, 2008. That's a lot of music to put out, and the best part is that both albums are extremely solid.

Hold On Now, Youngster... has a slightly more upbeat sense to it lyrically than We Are Beautiful... does, but both albums have at heart a disillusioned perception of reality that I equally respect and identify with. They follow the guide of their band name, which means "The Peasants," and have a shitload of people on the stage (7 members), with as many instruments as people, including a fiddle in true peasant style. The product is anthem rock for the indie kids, and it rocks. Compare: "You! Me! Dancing!" from Hold On Now Youngster... to "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" from album of same name:

You! Me! Dancing!


We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed


That's all for now, but I'll probably have a "Part 2" to this series coming soon...stay tuned, and happy listening!

Papercuts

Today's discovery: San Francisco-based band Papercuts. Very Beach Boys meets Beach House. Check out this video until I have time to do a proper write up:

New feature, yay!

Hey readers,

I've added a new feature to the end of each posting that allows you to easily let me know if you find something funny, cool, interesting, etc. Please use it up, I love feedback :).

D.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Greetings from the land of article writing procrastination. Today I will entertain you with my thoughts on The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, not to be confused with notions of a self-help book. This 4-piece Brooklyn-based band has seemingly blown up overnight thanks to a little thing known as Pitchfork (PFork's review, overall reviews on Metacritic), but then also thanks to the band's generally awesome music.

First of all, let’s just take a minute to contemplate the name of this band. It captures in one breathtakingly long phrase the notion that anyone who is inherently good by nature will probably experience some form of disappointment. Because why? Because the world is generally shitty? Because people who are nice get walked on? Because they get their hearts broken? Because of any other number of reasons? Probably yes, to all of these queries.

But then there’s also the sense that this is a totally pop music band name, with “The Pains” being an easy abbreviation that triggers thoughts of The Beatles or the Killers, or The Smiths.

The Smiths is where the thoughts really start going, because the music is so reminiscent of their 1984 self-titled release. The main difference is definitely in the vocals, with The Pains being more anthem-based sing-a-longs, but the same idea of crooning understatedly is at heart in both albums.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart tap into the pubescent stage of their lives for main lyric topics, especially in “Young Adult Friction,” with lines like “between the stacks in the library/ not like anyone stopped to see/ we came they went, our bodies spent/ among the dust and the microfiche.” This is all cleverly combined with the idea of library checkouts being somehow tied to checking a human being out from head to toe. I like it.

If you are in the Columbus area, The Pains are playing at the Summit on May 1, and if you're not in Columbus, check out the rest of their tour dates.

Check out the music video for "Everything With You":

Here We Go Magic

So I should definitely be focusing all of my writing energies right now on my article with a looming deadline, but instead I'm choosing to spend my time sharing my latest discovery with you all.

I'm sitting at Cafe Apropos, where they always have Sirius XMU playing. There are worse things to hear in a coffee shop, especially when you discover that the song you're listening to is by a band you've been reading a lot about but haven't heard yet: Here We Go Magic. The song: Tunnelvision



I first heard about this band a few weeks ago because Edward Droste from Grizzly Bear is way into this band, ergo Here We Go Magic is touring with the Grizzlies this spring/summer. This makes me doubly sad that this tour doesn't make a stop in Ohio, but maybe dates will be added for July and August that are closer to the big O.

So here's what I've found out about this band: First of all, the band name is pretty sweet. I don't even care if it's a reference to Harry Potter or if it's about drugs or whatever, it just makes me smile. It seems that there is one guy, Luke Temple, who does everything on the recordings, but he tours with some other dudes and dudettes (Peter Hale, Mike Bloch, AJ Lambert, Kristina Lieberson) so that there is actually something to experience live.

The sound: To me, I hear looping guitar that seems to hold hands with some toned down Animal Collective songs, but with a sound very very similar to Grizzly Bear at the same time. The tone is rather haunting in a way that hooks me in, and makes me happy that the sounds seem to go in circles and always come back to me. To play the devil's advocate, my friend Kyle says it's not for him because it's "really repetitive, but no energy." So there you go.

The latest self-titled Here We Go Magic record was released in March, and you can see how the critics rate it here.

Karate Coyote and Blastronauts at Outer Sounds

The opening show for Outer Sounds at Oldfield's on High on April 4, 2009, featured Columbus bands The Lost Revival, Karate Coyote, Blastronauts, and concluded with a dance party courtesy of DJ Self Help. I got there in time for KC and stayed through Blastronauts...here is my account.




Some tips for using the slideshow: scroll your mouse over the top of the slideshow frame to see the command options; scroll over the bottom of the slideshow to select individual photos. Click on the larger image of the photo to see information about the picture.

A live update

Hello all. I seem to have taken a year-long hiatus without ever intending to, but my musical life has definitely not taken a break in that time frame. Since May of 2008, I have experienced the glory of Pitchfork Music Festival, fallen completely in love with the Fleet Foxes and Department of Eagles, discovered Under the Radar Magazine, totally freaked out at the Radiohead tour, and reached the "30,000 songs listened to" mark on Last.fm. Oh yea, and I received my degree from OU in magazine journalism, relocated to Columbus, and began writing for Metromix Columbus.

This new writing gig (new as in new to this blog; I've been writing for MM since November 2008) has proven to be the perfect excuse for me to delve into the Columbus music community and become involved in a meaningful sense. Check out my Columbus local music guide for 2009 here.

Bands on the guide include:

Super Desserts
Couch Forts
Brainbow
The Hot Damn
RTFO Bandwagon

Any a few more! Also, feel free to look at some follow-up bands I've gotten really into since putting together the guide: the Andy Shaw Band, the Lost Revival and Karate Coyote.

More photos from Karate Coyote coming soon!

D.