Consider the acoustic change-of-pace. Sometimes, it comes from a desire to shift gears: a musician who’s worked primarily in an electric vein wanting to explore a different dynamic and all of the emotions that said dynamic can summon. At others, it can resemble an intentional artistic restraint: musicians or songwriters cutting themselves off from a previously essential part of their repertoire. Sometimes, entire genres can attract notice for turning off the amplifiers. Punk is a particular example, as seen on the 1991 compilation SST Acoustic, which collects work from the likes of Screaming Trees, Minutemen, and fIREHOSE.
This list of unexpected acoustic records covers albums made in the studio and recorded live; it encompasses punk and ambient work, cover songs and audio manipulations. These eight albums have little in common save their instrumentation and their relationship to the artist’s larger of body of work. Some fall into the camp of solo performers accompanied only by an unamplified guitar; others seek out a stranger space.
With every new cultural trend, a counter-trend inevitably evolves to rebel against it. We are living in an era when the most popular music is beaten to a shiny, shiny Auto-Tuned pulp. It is no surprise, then, that many of those making music outside the mainstream have shifted into reverse and record on old, obscure equipment that submerges the music in a bath of clipped sound and fuzzy distortion. Some of these artists choose lo-fi for practical reasons -– studio time is expensive. But in this day of cheap recording equipment and open-source software, it’s not hard to sound professional, even recording out of a bedroom. More and more artists are choosing lo-fi as an artistic statement, and using its limitations to their advantage.
However, there comes a time in most lo-fi artists’ careers when it makes sense to move on to less fuzzy pastures. This transition can be a difficult one, often diminishing a band’s intimate, retro charm and angering a fanbase dedicated to the old sound. (Dylan going electric, anyone?) But sometimes it works out. After the jump, we’ve complied a list of artists that navigated the passage from lo-fi to hi-fi with grace and ease. We’re not gonna lie: we love the early stuff. But as their production values escalated, their music kept pace, and for many of these artists, their best work is surely still ahead of them.
Marnie Stern built her reputation on two albums’ worth of finger-tapping guitar virtuosity. But last fall, she released a third self-titled record that, while packed with some of the year’s best guitar squall, entirely transcended its technical merits. Marnie Stern is a personal document of loss and recovery, full of worry and indecision and fear, yet flecked with glimpses of strength and hope.
On the heels of the most powerful album of her career, Stern took some time out of her crazy-busy CMJ week to curate and guest host an episode of the Flavorpill Fix. In the video, she performs a song from each of her three full-lengths, talks about the process of making Marnie Stern, introduces clips by some of her favorite bands (The Thermals, Grass Widow, Talk Normal, and Pterodactyl), and gives us the inside scoop on her hilarious tour blog, The Vagina Monoblog. As always, New Yorkers can watch this episode Wednesday night at 10:30pm on NYC life, channel 25 — although, unfortunately, the TV version will be pussy-free. Watch the unedited version after the jump.
Something seemingly obvious struck us upon reading that Dirty Projectors plan to perform their zany, quasi-Don-Henley-themed 2005 album The Getty Address in full February 19 at Lincoln Center: The ’00s are really over. Among other things, that means the decade’s best music is now ready to take its place in history and ascend to classic status. And there’s just no better way to cement an album’s place in the canon than to play the whole thing live to a packed crowd of adoring fans.
But not every great release lends itself to this treatment. Many are simply collections of outstanding but fairly unrelated singles that are just as powerful on their own. Albums ripe to be performed in full need to possess a kind of unity: a certain narrative thread, concept, or lyrical or sonic motif that elevates the whole above the sum of its parts. With that in mind, we’ve selected 10 albums from the ’00s that we’d love to see played live.
Noisevox focuses on high-quality artist chats, paired with live sets. The clips go beyond the sound-bite, allowing Japandroids to tell medical horror stories and the Thermals to explain songwriting metaphors. Noisevox also offers interesting live takes, such as Arctic Monkeys‘ snarling cover of Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand.” Read More »
Play-by-plays are a dime a dozen in post-festival Pitchfork coverage and they never really capture the visceral experience of a three-day event. So instead we’re giving out awards to what we loved (and hated) at this year’s PMF, with an eye to the idiosyncratic aspects that made the weekend come alive. We can’t help but pay attention to some of the heavy hitters — they’re at the top for a reason, and many brought their A-game — but this festival is as much about the underdogs, the up-and-comers, and the new discoveries. After the jump you’ll find our round up of hidden gems, charismatic acts, standout sets, curious episodes that might have gone overlooked, and more. Read More »
Welcome to What We’re Listening To, a weekly roundup of the tracks that have been getting the repeat treatment in our office. After the jump, a dozen songs that FP staffers are loving right now, along with some light commentary on why we think they’re special (we hear a lot of music ’round here). Enjoy and feel free to leave your own recent obsessions in the comments. Read More »
