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Annabelle Lord-Patey, Best Coast, Jill Sobule, Lannie Flowers, Rob Clarke and the Wooltones, Streetcar Conductors, The Call
So far, the end of world sounds more like “The Sounds of Silence” than the rumble and destruction of a Simpsons-esque apocalyptic crowd waving torches. But if this is the end of the world, what should our soundtrack sound like? Not the obvious choices, obviously (yes R.E.M., I mean you). At the very least the end of times should give struggling indie artists the spotlight for once.
That’s why we’re kicking things off with cheeky Portland band Streetcar Conductors. They’ve got a great new song called “Brand New Lease on Life” (which also seems timely in its own way) but our featured tune and the inspiration for this post, “It Sounded Like the End the World,” is actually from their amusingly-titled debut album, The Very Best of the Streetcar Conductors. Kicking off your career with a ‘greatest hits’ – that’s serious moxy. On the theme of worlds ending, Lannie Flowers wastes no time getting to the “Edge of the World,” a terrific song that clocks in at just a minute and two seconds. Good thing too as I guess we really don’t have time to waste. Liverpool’s Rob Clarke and the Wooltones lighten the mood with their jaunty, jangly “End of the End,” from their 2014 LP The World of the Wooltones. Who says bad news has to sound bad? By contrast, a song sure to be voted more cinematically ‘end of the world’ is The Call’s “Apocalypse,” from the band’s least successful early album, 1984’s Scene Beyond Dreams. I always thought The Call were British but they are certainly vibing their Santa Cruz roots on this track. Annabelle Lord-Patey is Elliott Smith reborn on her gentle apocalyptic ode, “Doomsday,” a cut from her wonderful debut album Polaris. Fingerpicking your way to oblivion never sounded so good. Hip fuzz rockers Best Coast prepare for “The End” in style on this song from their exquisite 2010 release Crazy for You. This swinging track will definitely put a skip in your step. And for something a bit different, Jill Sobule imagines the end of times as an orgy of not paying bills and making beds on “A Good Life” from her 2009 record California Years. Now, that sounds about right to me.
Lannie Flowers – Edge of the WorldThe Call – ApocalypseBest Coast – The EndJill Sobule – A Good Life
It may have sounded like the end of the world over this past week but we’ve been mistaken before. On the off chance we’re still all here in the days ahead, let’s help our fave artists keep heart and hearth fortified with some cash transfers via Bandcamp or your favourite internet music retailer.
Christmas music gets a bad wrap (pun intended). Some people seem to think that you can take any old song and throw a seasonal reference in and – voila! – holiday classic. Hardly. Every year an ocean of new Christmas songs hit the holiday beach but few have any staying power. There is something inexplicably magical about the combination of tune, sentiment, and bells that maketh music genuinely seasonal. Kinda like if tinsel and marzipan had a soundtrack. Fortunately, there are a few tunesmiths who still understand how to work the formula, with some of the finest featured here on our now annual holiday music post!
Nine. I don’t why or how I settled on that number but my three previous holiday music posts have all featured nine artists. Weird. Well, I’m not one to needlessly buck tradition so here’s nine more … starting with the amazing Lannie Flowers. Flowers is a longtime veteran of the power pop/indie music scene, charming audiences with his consistently Beatlesque melodic hooks. He returns this year with a remixed version of his 2013 holiday release, “Christmas Without You,” a song that nicely combines jangle with just a hint of country. Next up is a very modern take on seasonal themes, namely, that surely Joseph would have had some doubts about just what was going on with Mary and their miracle baby. Only the New Pornographers could pull off such content and they do on “Joseph, Who Understood,” a new holiday, sing-along classic. Proving their recent comeback Good Times! album was no fluke, the Monkees return this year with a whole album of festive music, with a similar crew of indie pop royalty providing the tunes and musical direction. There’s plenty of good stuff here but “The House of Broken Gingerbread” stands out for me as a superior poprock tune, written by celebrated author Michael Chabon and FOW’s Adam Schlesinger. I’m kinda cheating a bit with this next contribution from Gregory Pepper who just released his holiday-themed four song EP Tsundere. I’m treating his effort like a double-A sided effort, but one with four songs. Pepper’s work sounds deceptively simple but melodically and lyrically he’s a master of so many genre styles and a brilliantly funny and smart lyricist. Spend some time with these tunes. Anybody who can song-check both Macca (“Secret Satan”) and the mopey one (“Home Alone”) knows what he’s doing!Lannie Flowers – Christmas Without YouThe New Pornographers – Joseph, Who UnderstoodThe Monkees – The House of Broken Gingerbread
Digging a bit deeper into our Christmas music bag, Pugwash prove they are the deserving inheritors of XTC’s brand of hooky, intelligent indie poprock with “Tinsel and Marzipan,” capped with a darling Irish-accented child at the end! Crossing the water to Liverpool Rob Clarke and the Wooltones Mersey up the Christmas music scene with a whole album of festiveness on Bring Me the Wooltones This Year! It’s a very Beatles-ish collection of serious and not so serious contributions, with new songs and old faves. The double-A single for me would be “Another Wooltones Xmas Record/Santa Claus.” It can’t be a Christmas tune-age roundup without a tender ballad of seasonal longing so now we head a bit north to Glasgow to hear from The Pooches and their simple song of needing to be with someone as the yuletide comes, “Christmas, With You.” Both stark and moving. Super poprock stars Fun. haven’t put out much in terms of albums but they did put out a holiday single shortly after their first album. “Believe in Me” bears all the hallmarks of that band’s winning formula: intriguing change ups in the song structure, toy piano solos, and plenty of hooks of course.Pugwash – Tinsel and MarzipanThe Pooches – Christmas (With You)Fun. – Believe in Me
Wrapping up this year’s holiday blog post (literally this time), something more traditional. Well, sort of. Quiet Company love the holidays and we’ve featured their stellar coverage of the traditional canon before. Now they’re back with a timely release that captures the distemper of the times with Baby It’s Cold War Outside. With song titles like “Merry Christmas, The President is Terrible” and “Alone on Christmas (You’re Going to Die)” the sense of seasonal dread really comes through. But the traditional themes of hope are there too with “Little Drummer Boy” and particularly on their original reworking of “Carol of the Bells/Setting the Trap.”
I don’t often get to use a word like ‘redux’ but when I do it’s definitely for collections like this. In Songs, Bond Songs: The Music of 007 twenty-five artists ‘restore, bring back’ and ‘present in a new way’ the entire canon of theme songs from the James Bond movies, with an accent on indie, poprock treatments. Why bother, you might ask? Well the Bond canon is unique in so many ways. The quality of the songs stretching over a half century is surprisingly strong and consistent. And, as is apparent from the performances on this record, they are open to broad and varied re-interpretations. Some performances here are fairly safe and unremarkable but most try to do something original with the basic raw material of their specific Bond song. I won’t comment on everything but rather just highlight what I think are the more unique, sometimes daring, and ultimately single-worthy remakes from the collection.
Poprock Record 