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The Pipettes, Faves 2007, Cutout Bin, Thanksgiving   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Thursday, November 22, 2007 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND STARTS HERE: 

...with THE PIPETTES!  Chances are I saw them last night at the Double Door (where Barry Jive and the Uptown 5 play at the end of High Fidelity; spoiler alert).  Having reviewed their gig at the Empty Bottle in June, I'm guessing I'll still think they brought the house down -- and the video links there still seem to work.  There is actual video from that gig on the Tube now -- pretty dark, but a clip like "Pull Shapes" shows the energy these women brought, even in a sweltering, packed club.  (Update:  Another fab show, though the pre-holiday crowd was more subdued.)  Anyway, rather than rehash that review, I'll note that the discerning Frank Yang was won over by their latest gig in Toronto, esp. because his review makes a point similar to the one I have made about Pate (in the liner notes to the box set) and a select few other bands, like the Replacements (Westerberg, anyway), Guided by Voices and the Hold Steady.

The Pipettes, similar to these bands (albeit in their own way) are thoroughly post-modern.  Frank characterizes them as calculating yet genuine, which captures the idea that they (and the other bands I mentioned) really think about what they do in a field where authenticity is prized and tends to be equated with pure emotion and an anti-commercial attitude.  Particularly, they aspire to artistic and commercial success (of some magnitude) in the sub-genre of indie, which generally attracts those most likely to reflexively dismiss The Pipettes' act as phony or manufactured.   As Frank notes, they do not take themselves or the act too seriously -- even though the indie audience usually wants its bands to have some level of gravitas.  And if those were not big enough challenges, The Pipettes can veer from pure pop fluff to deliberately melding pre-feminist girl-group music with second-wave feminist lyrics.  It is quite the juggling act, yet The Pipettes make it seem near-effortless.

FAVES 2007:  I occasionally hear from folks who want to know what -- from among all of the posts I do here -- I recommend.  To some degree, I recommend all of it, unless I expressly write otherwise (e.g., it's not my thing, but it might be yours).  With the holiday shopping season upon us, I have tried to make a list of reasonable size.  It's an unordered list, some of which is not readily available in the US, and I likely will have overlooked something that I really dig.  And some of these are grouped together, because that's the way they occurred to me at the moment.  And note these are my faves; I'm not purporting to list the "Best" albums of the year.

THE PIPETTES, for the reasons stated above, I obviously recommend We Are The Pipettes, which became easily available in the US this year. Like Frank Yang, I would recommend Lucky Soul's The Great Unwanted, which is in the same retro ballpark though more Northern Soul than girl-group pop.  Unfortunately, it's an import-only at the moment, so maybe I'll list Lucky Soul again next year.  The same is true of Candie Payne's I Wish I Could Have Loved You More, the title track of which could have been the theme to a Bond movie in the 60s.

SPOON:  The commercial success of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga horrifies some hipsters, but it does not deter me in the slightest.  The LP retains Spoon's trademark minimalism, with an occasional nod to the warmth of the classic Van Morrison albums.  I have the same general attitude toward the double-bounce success of Feist, whose Reminder hit the charts in the Spring, only to return in the Fall with that iPod Nano ad as a reminder.  And, for that matter, the meteoric success of The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible.

SHARON JONES and the DAP-KINGS: 100 Days, 100 Nights puts just enough mild twists on the classic soul sound honed on their first two LP's to let you know they aren't resting on their laurels after the Dap-Kings backed Amy Winehouse to international stardom (and infamy).  Similarly, Bettye LaVette got nice, gritty backup from the Drive-By Truckers at The Scene of the Crime.  Ryan Shaw, whom I mentioned on Monday, also rolled out the retro R&B this year.

THE GO! TEAM:  Proof of Youth may not make most "Best of" lists, but it was no sophomore slump, either.  It is metaphorically like The Cars' Candy-O -- arguably a notch less than the debut, though hard to say whether that assessment is due to the loss of the element of surprise.  Ian Parton cites Sonic Youth and Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts music as touchstones, which is my musical version of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  They are still "Doing It Right."

BEIRUT:  Paralleling the prior entry, The Flying Club Cup was a nice follow-up to Gulag Orkestar -- not veering from the Gallic and Slavic-influenced sounds of that breakthrough LP.  Cabaret pop of a slightly different flavor turned up this year from the Pale Young Gentlemen.

DUNGEN:  Paralleling the prior entry, Tio Bitar cannot shock the way Ta Det Lungt did, but you'll be hard pressed to find a better Swedish psychedelic rock album this year.

JENS LEKMAN:  Speaking of Swedes, Jens Lekman hit it out of the park with Night Falls Over Kortedala, his second proper album, iirc.  Unlike Dungen, he sings in English.  Sad songs, funny songs, sometimes both at the same time.  Songs like "A Postcard to Nina," in which he tries to play the beard for a lesbian friend at her father's house.  It's one of my favorite songs of the year.

THE NATIONAL:  Boxer lacked the dramatic range of Alligator, but its subtlety gives it legs, able to withstand heavy rotation.  If Paul Miller still owned a record store, it would be the sort of LP from which you could sample bits of its brilliance as it ran all day in the background.

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS haven't made a bad album yet.  Challengers is another album I could listen to for hours without tiring of it.

OKKERVIL RIVER:  The Stage Names may have disappointed some who wanted another helping of angst in the style of OR's excellent Black Sheep Boy album (and its appendix).  But the somewhat lighter tone here shows a versatility that helps cement Will Scheff's rep as one of rock's better songwriters.

CARIBOU:  Paralleling the prior entry, Andorra sounds more like a modern take on what Syd Barrett would have sounded like fronting the latter-period Zombies.

WILCO will probably suffer a bad case of hipster backlash on "Best of" lists this year -- both for the less experimental sound of Sky Blue Sky and for licensing a bunch of its songs to VW.  But a decade from now, will we care about either issue, or appreciate the way the latest lineup can cross The Band with Television?  It being Thanksgiving, here's the bonus track, "The Thanks I Get."

WHITE RABBITS garnered blog buzz a-plenty and landed on Letterman for bringing a funky Caribbean edge to the sharp songs on Fort Nightly without sounding like an 80s ska revival band.  Nicely done.

THE WEAKERTHANS are another band I discovered via Chromewaves, though I suspect I would have found the Reunion Tour album after Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn began championing songwriter John K Samson.

PANDA BEAR:  Person Pitch was often likened to a modern indie take on Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson, which pretty much guarantees I'm going to like it.  Indeed, I liked it more than Strawberry Jam, the latest album from Animal Collective (of which Panda Bear is a member).  I'm sure that's probably heresy in some circles, but I live without fear.

RICHARD THOMPSON:  The darkly witty songwriter and guitar virtuoso transcends genre, and thus tends to get overlooked by most.  NPR has a concert from his Sweet Warrior tour for your streaming pleasure.

CUTOUT BIN:  This Thanksgiving Thursday's fortuitous finds from the ol' HM are: "Bob Dylan" - Those Fabulous Sixties; Scott McKenzie - San Francisco; Echo & The Bunnymen - People Are Strange (The Doors); Peter Sellers - Hard Day's Night; The Beatles - Here, There And Everywhere; Yo La Tengo - Fourth Time Around (B. Dylan); Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - Girl of the North Country; Elvis Presley - In The Ghetto; Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Nobody's Baby; The Pipettes - Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me; Arctic Monkeys - Baby I'm Yours; Lee Hazlewood - Boots (Original Melody); The Raveonettes - Dead Sound; U2 - Desire; The Rolling Stones - Miss Amanda Jones; Off Broadway - Full Moon Turn My Head Around; The Posies - Dream All Day; Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline); REM - It's The End Of The World... ; The Replacements - Customer; Okkervil River - Plus Ones (demo); Supertramp - The Logical Song; Boz Scaggs - Lido Shuffle; ABBA - Take a Chance on Me; and Art Brut - Good Weekend.

A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING:  Tubed for your seasonal enjoyment (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).  BONUS:  Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz is the subject of a new biography by David Michaelis, which has received mostly glowing reviews -- including one from Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson -- but which has been sharply criticized by Schulz's family.  Michaelis recently defended the book on MPR.

NOW SHOWING:  I forgot to mention that Wednesday's wide releases for the Thanksgiving weekend are: Disney's fairy-tale come to life (and perhaps satirical) Enchanted, currently scoring 91 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Hitman, currently scoring 12 percent; Stephen King's The Mist, which again brings in Frank Darabont ("The Green Mile," "The Shawshank Redemption") for a 73 percent score; the drama August Rush, which is scoring 53 percent; and the Yuletime family dramedy This Christmas, which is also scoring 53 percent (but 70 percent with the "cream of the crop" critics).  The Coen Bros' No Country For Old Men opens near-wide on 860 screens with its 96 percent score.

THANKSGIVING has a lot of myths, both traditional and the new "Pilgrims were evil" o­nes taught in some public schools. However, if you read the journal of William Bradford -- who served some 35 years as governor of the Pilgims' colony -- you quickly discover that the Pilgrims' relationship with the natives was complex and that the colony was ultimately saved when Bradford started doing away with collectivism and granting property rights.

SPEAKING OF THANKSGIVING MYTHS, while there is an amino acid in turkey that induces sleepiness, experts say it's much more likely the reason you're tired after having Thanksgiving dinner is a combination of simple factors: you ate and drank too much and didn't sleep enough.

TURKEY ADOPTERS brave the holiday.

TURKEY WRAP:  A not-safe-for-most-family-gatherings holiday geek crunk original from Boing-Boing TV.

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