What I Listened To October 29 - November 4, 2010

1. Three Mile Pilot - The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten (Temporary Residence)

2. Film School - Fission (Hi-Speed Soul)

3. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge Records)

4. The Eels - Tomorrow Morning (E Works)

5. Birds and Batteries - Panorama (Velvet Blue Music)

6. Blitzen Trapper - Furr (Sub Pop)

7. Andrew Bird - Useless Creatures (Fat Possum)

8. Kelley Stoltz - To Dreamers (Sub Pop)

9. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts)

10. Radars To the Sky - Supra / Infra (self release)

The beauty of the Three Mile Pilot album is that it reveals new pleasures with almost every listening. It's such a departure from their previous work, over ten years ago, and shows such growth and maturity. It's a very special record and fans only had to wait 13 years for it.

Still loving the Film School album which is an easy choice every time I'm, like, in a 'what do I want to hear now' mood. I also had a sudden urge to hear everything by Blitzen Trapper for some reason and Furr came out on top.

The new Andrew Bird CD, Useless Creatures, was first released in the deluxe edition of Noble Beast, which may explain why it sounds like it's part of a separate tangent from Andrew's other albums. I even think it could be filed under classical music, as it's almost exclusively instrumental and the compositions are closer to Debussy and Ravel than to indie rock. That's one of the reasons I love it. It's genre-bending.

whrabbit

What I Listened To October 22 - 28, 2010

1. Three Mile Pilot - The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten (Temporary Residence)

2. Kelley Stoltz - To Dreamers (Sub Pop)

3. Film School - Fission (Hi-Speed Soul)

4. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge Records)

5. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts)

6. Radars To the Sky - Supra / Infra (self release)

7. Broken Bells - Broken Bells (Columbia Records)

8. Seven Saturdays - The Snowflakes That Hit Us Became Our Stars (self release)

9. The Black Heart Procession - 1 (Headhunter Records)

10. The Black Heart Procession - 2 (Touch and Go Records)

Three Mile Pilot resumed it's number one position as one of the most addictive records of the year. Did the Kelley Stoltz interview that Monday and enjoyed hearing the material live. Everything else is "same old/same old" with the exception of the re-emergence of Seven Saturdays and their relaxing, contemplative movie score-style music which I find both soothing and stimulating.

As Halloween approached, I gorged myself on the haunted, other-wordly strains of The Black Heart Procession and their first two albums. Also, they will be in town soon to open for The Books at The Fonda in December.

whrabbit

What I'm Listening To October 15 - 21, 2010

1. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts)

2. Three Mile Pilot - The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten (Temporary Residence)

3. Kelley Stoltz - To Dreamers (Sub Pop)

4. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge Records)

5. The Eels - Tomorrow Morning (E Works)

6. Film School - Fission (Hi-Speed Soul)

7. Eastern Conference Champions - Santa Fe EP (self release)

8. Birds and Batteries - Panorama (Velvet Blue Music)

9. Autolux - Transit Transit (TBD Records)

10. Radars To the Sky - Supra / Infra (self release)

This was Broken Social Scene week, what with their show at The Wiltern that Tuesday the 19th. I think their new album is one of their best, and certainly easier than their last record, Broken Social Scene, five years ago. Lots of memorable songs that intrigue and entertain. The show was an electrifying two and one quarter hour set that covered all aspects of their career. And the new songs were among the best.

The Three Mile Pilot record is completely addictive. The songs go round and round in my head, even when I'm sleeping. It's definitely not the Three Mile Pilot of the past as this shows such subtantial growth and maturity in the songwriting, displaying what Pall Jenkins and Zach Smith have learned over the years in their respective bands, and there's not a bad song on the album.

Still memorizing the Kelley Stoltz album, To Dreamers, in anticipation of my interview with him on Oct 22. He seems to toil away in his own fashion, regardless of the latest trends and continually comes up with catchy and original stuff.

I want the memory of the Arcade Fire shows to live forever so I'm still indulging in The Suburbs as often as I can. And I'm also spending lots of time with The Eels (like a beautiful film score), Film School (Fission just doesn't let go!), Autolux and Radars To the Sky. Birds and Batteries are coming to Origami Vinyl on Nov. 26 so I'll get to see them for the first time and Eastern Conference Champions are a recent and current obsession of mine who are just great live.

I have to start listening to my favorite albums of the year to begin reassessing and collecting data for the inevitable onslaught of Ten Best Lists about to hit the internet.

whrabbit

What I Listened To October 8 - 14, 2010

1. Three Mile Pilot - The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten (Temporary Residence)

2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge Records)

3. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts)

4. The Eels - Tomorrow Morning (E Works)

5. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge Records)

6. Birds and Batteries - Panorama (Velvet Blue Music)

7. Broken Bells - Broken Bells (Columbia Records)

8. Kelley Stoltz - To Dreamers (Sub Pop)

9. Film School - Fission (Hi-Speed Soul)

10. Shadow Shadow Shade - Shadow Shadow Shade (Public Records)

I picked up the new album by Three Mile Pilot, popped it into my player and within one minute, knew I was listening to one of my favorite albums of the year. When I saw this band perform at Echoplex over a year ago and they played material which undoubtedly has surfaced on this record I figured the album would be released soon. Even thought this band is the band that, when they broke up in 1999, became part of two of my very favorite bands, Pinback and The Black Heart Procession, I didn't expect to be so enamoured of their music. The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten is a real beauty.

Preparing for their concert, I purchased Forgiveness Rock Record by Broken Social Scene and find this ambitious record to be among their most accessible, with some really compelling songwriting, which The Broken Social Orchestra perform with all the instrumental and vocal variety at their disposal.

The Arcade Fire concert continued to resonate as I played The Suburbs constantly, and Neon Bible a few times, to relive the amazing concert axperience. The Eels played in town this week and I really wanted to be up on their newest material, though their superb concert covered all aspects of E's career. And I like hearing him sing upbeat songs.

Birds and Batteries CD is still surprising me by how many times I want to hear it. It's the same with Broken Bells. Kelley Stoltz and Film School were upcoming concerts that I wanted to be prepared for (since I was going to interview one and had already interviewed the other) and Shadow Shadow Shade is just a damned fine record...so I played these too.

whrabbit