Video: Antony & the Johnsons - "Another World" live on Late Late Show

Antony [Hegarty] & the Johnsons performing the beautiful, haunting "Another World" from their recently released album The Crying Light on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Death Cab for Cutie - The Open Door EP

Many musicians' creativity is subject to dilution when mixed with fame and bulging wallets. Death Cab for Cutie have made some strong albums, notably Transatlanticism (their fifth) and Songs About Airplanes (their first). These albums exhibit a depth, subtlety, sincerity, and richness that DCFC haven't been able to tap into since. In the their last two albums (Plans and Narrow Stairs), they seem to be more concerned with being pop executioners than tender storytellers. Granted, none of their albums are truly breathtaking, but their particular brand of remorse-filled nostalgia struck a teenage chord that was hard to deny. Instead now we get songs like "I Was Once A Loyal Lover": undeniably bland college pop-rock. The lyrics have gone from poignant to dispassionate. The drums from adroit to dull.

To be fair, DCFC are just trying to write decent little ditties that you can hum along to as you go from your home to your school/work and back again. Death Cab are a band fit for the suburban middle class, where your biggest problem is not having a date on Saturday night. But because they've proven they can throw more emotional weight around than this, I expect more than what can be found on the unfortunately underwhelming The Open Door EP. *Sigh*

The Open Door EP - Death Cab f...

Video: The Thermals - "Now We Can See"

The single for Portland-based The Thermals' new album Now We Can See.

Video: M83 - "We Own The Sky"

This consest-winning fan video for M83's "We Own The Sky" (off last year's superb Saturdays=Youth) is filled with the same cheese found in most of M83's videos: young pretty people dancing in trendy clothing on anonymous hilltops or in high school dance halls. Yet, its makers have unbelievably managed to get the ever so notorious flying shapes into it! There's a conspiracy going on here and as soon as I get to the bottom of it, I will lobby to pass an international law banning flying shapes of any kind in any music video (or any motion picture of any kind, for that matter!)!! This means war.

Video: Bat for Lashes - "Daniel" Live on Later with Jools Holland (UK)

Here is a fantastic rendition of "Daniel" by Bat for Lashes on the UK show Later with Jools Holland. When it comes to live bands, the production quality for most tv shows is pretty piss poor, so it's nice to hear a perfectly dialed-in version of this great song.

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

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The Decemberists are not strangers to grandeur. In 2004, they released an 18 minute, 5-part EP called The Tain, even then getting recognition for its classic prog rock vibe. The Melville-amped song "The Mariner's Revenge" appearing on 2005's Picaresque was a fan-gathering success about revenge on the high seas. And 2006's release The Crane Wife contained no more than two separate 3-part songs: a bookending story about a lonely man's brief affair with a she-bird (unsurprisingly titled "The Crane Wife") and the murderous yarn "The Island". Since they have already done it before, it makes perfect sense that The Decemberists would once again weave an epic tale of love, murder, and revenge, dripping with folky sensibility, infused with classic rock panache for good measure. So we have The Hazards of Love, which compared to everything else before is more bloated saga than clever fable.

While "The Crane Wife" was wisely displaced by unrelated songs, The Hazards of Love is just one damn long song. Nothing breaks up the slow, linear progression of the story; each song just casually bleeds into the next. Momentum built up from one song is unceremoniously dashed by the next. Passages from earlier in the album are repeated, and then repeated, and then repeated ad naseum until you realize they have four tracks of the very same song, arranged slightly differently each time. Moreover, no single song really makes sense when plucked out on its own, either. The only track that actually feels like a "song", and is arguably the best moment, is the very last one dubbed "The Hazards of Love 4." (The irony is bludgeoning me). Finally, the band and lead man Colin Meloy forgo all the indulgent theatrics and just lay down a decent song.

Reportedly, Meloy's original vision was to write and perform a full-on Broadway musical containing the whole shebang: costumes, sets, props, and overacting. Instead we get the soundtrack for a musical that doesn't exist. When you think about The Hazards of Love this way, it becomes slightly less confusing (and confounding). On the other hand, maybe we should be thankful that only the soundtrack survived the brainstorming process, and now that they've got it out of their system, these guys can get back to doing what they do much better than this--writing good songs.

Hazards Of Love - The December...

Video: Phoenix - "1901" and "Lisztomania" on Saturday Night Live

There's a great line from an Animal Collective song called "Cuckoo" in which the discombobulated protagonist, before losing it all, cries out, "sometimes all I want is one favorite song/in two or three minutes/don't sing so long." That sentiment pretty much sums up my attraction to the songs of French band Phoenix. Why draw it out when you can hit your audience over the head with a memorable, smacking pop song? The gummier the better really. And therein lies the difference between good pop and bad pop: good pop actually makes you feel good, while bad pop causes brain aneurisms (see: Fergi).

Phoenix is putting out a new album called Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix on May 25th. I thought they did splendidly on SNL the other day performing "1901" and "Lisztomania", which both appear on the new album.

BvtO Album Pick: Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

I quite like Neko Case's new album Middle Cyclone. It's a logical follow up to 2006's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, albeit with less immediacy, but so very rewarding upon repeated listens. Her blend of dark storytelling and angelic vocalizations make for an unique experience indeed. And her loves songs are far from obvious, as this lyric can attest: "Carved your name across three counties/Ground it in with bloody hides/Their broken necks will line the ditch/'til you stop it, stop it/Stop this madness". I'm excited to finally get to see her live in June! 

In any case, I stumbled upon yet another music browsing website, Lala. This one's set-up pretty well for discovering music and buying it cheap if all you want is the MP3, which you can then use any way you want. Personally, I'm still a sucker for the good 'ol cd, but the prices are enticing. Anyway, you get one listen for free, so don't be confused when it don't work twice.

Middle Cyclone - Neko Case