Over the Wireless

I've been somewhat remiss in updating over the past few months, but hopefully normal service has now been resumed.

To kick start a new year of blogging, here is the track listing for traditional end of year mix of some of my favourite songs of the past 12 months. Looking back, apparently 2010 was the year I went all power pop. Which is alarming and not exactly how I remember it. Some cracking songs here, and plenty of gritty alt country to balance out the big choruses and power pop goodness. As always, if you want a copy emailed or posted to you just holler.

A Rush of Surfer Blood to the Head - The 2010 Roundup

1. A More Perfect Union - Titus Andronicus
2. Ain't No Grave - Johnny Cash
3. You Won't Let Me Down Again - Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
4. Burning The Bowery - Jesse Malin & The St. Marks Social
5. I Just Want My Fucking Life Back - Jeff Klein
6. Twin Peaks - Surfer Blood
7. Been Down By Love - John Meeks
8. Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National
9. Birthday Boy - Drive-by Truckers
10. Oh My Sweet Cantankerous Baby - Leland Sundries
11. Digging For Something - Superchunk
12. Same Mistakes - Cinema Red and Blue
13. Waterfall - Fresh & Onlys
14. The One - Pains of Being Pure at Heart
15. Psycho - Imelda May
16. Heathen Child - Grinderman
17 Little Golden Age - Wolf Parade

The first single from Florida based Surfer Blood; 2009's blog buzz generating "Swim" was all crashing reverb ladden vocals and muscular guitar hooks, hinting at feel good summer time rock. In a tremendous bait and switch, Astro Coast is an album steeped in a desire and longing for movement, but unable to find momentum, as John Paul Pitts lets slip in the opening line of "Anchorage" - "I don't want to spin my wheels, I don't got no wheels to spin".

That's not to say that Astro Coast is a stodgy affair, far from it. Surfer Blood are a band who understand the power of a sing along hook, and who write youthfully exuberant songs with enough fist pumping feel good melodies to counterbalance the inertia and landlocked frustration in the lyrics. And landlocked is a phrase that seems central to Astro Coast - while the song titles, band name and and cover art (which incidentally has to be a strong contender for album cover of the year) all share a nautical (or at least beachside) theme, Pitts' lyrics are very much concerned with growing distance between lovers (Floating Vibes) and friends (Harmonix), and encountering a frustration at his inability to keep up.

The result is a summertime rock record that sounds as good as anything Weezer ever recorded (the most obvious comparison being the Blue Album), which can be approached on the basis of a great soundtrack to summer BBQs, or as a sad sack solitary drinking record in the vein of Dinosaur Jr. Really though Surfer Blood sound like neither of these bands. The slightly rough recording and gritty guitars lend the songs a convincing garage band appeal, with vocals and guitars being drenched generously in reverb. Pitts has an honest and youthful voice that conveys the early twenties uncertainty with real feeling.

2009 may have been the year in which bedroom recordists strove to make music that sounded like days at the beach (to wit the hypnogogic pop movement), but 2010 has seen Surfer Blood record an album that could actually be listened on the beach by people actually having a good time. Or not. It depends how you want to approach Astro Coast really.

The Antlers’ debut Hospice would have been one of my favourite albums of 2009 had it arrived in time for the traditional seasonal compiling of lists. As it was the gorgeous lead single “Two” landed a spot on my 2009 mix, but I had to wait until 180g of vinyl hit my doorstep in January of this year before I heard the album properly. By which time I’d already booked tickets to see The Antlers play Leeds Cockpit on 22 May, prompted by glowing reviews and a certain amount of internet buzz about their live shows.

Listening to the cracked and claustrophobic record, where every crackling synth, vocal tick and tinny guitar seemed to have been sculpted and laid in place meticulously, I did wonder how such carefully constructed (albeit at times gloriously messy) songs would translate onto the live stage. The answer? Live the songs expand to fill the available space, presenting what I can only describe as “more Antlers” or maybe just “more”. The synths crackle and splutter even more than on record, with an organic quality that has them feeling like living breathing sounds rather than collections of circuit boards. The drums are much more present than on record, propelling the music and surprisingly imposing a much more groove based feel than listening to album cuts would indicate. Most importantly though was the increased emotional range and contrast between light and shade. Hospice makes for a harrowing listen with few moments of respite. Yet the monumental chorus of "Sylvia had a sweaty Cockpit dancing in with a desperate and grasping joy, which made the sucker punch of "Bear" even more emotionally devastating. The dynamic range was equally vast, and these songs, swinging as they do from whisper quiet to crushingly loud, were perfectly suited to the intimate Cockpit.

Front man Paul Silbmerman has a phenomenal vocal range and real control, hitting the falsetto in “Two” effortlessly, and really powering through the (many) towering choruses of his band’s small but potent repertoire. Playing the entirety of Hospice in sequence, The Antlers delivered a hypnotic and transcendent show, teasing many of songs, letting each build up and ebb away naturally, and expanding a 45 minute album into a full hour long set.

The Antlers are a band to catch soon before they are catapulted to larger venue.