11 Noteworthy Albums From 2005

Here’s a top 11 list for 2005 in no particular order because I don’t
believe in order, just disorder.  And I do not even want to call
this a ‘top’ list because that would infer some sort of order which is
not my purpose here.

• 
  Sam Prekop, Whose Your New Professor, “Something”
  
• 
  Broken Social Scene, S/T, “Fire-Eyed Boy”
• 
  Etienne de Rocher, S/T, “Meditation # C.O.B.”
• 
  Stephen Malkmus, Face the Truth, “Baby C’mon”
  
• 
  American Watercolor Movement, And the Maps Came Down, “I Paparazzi”
• 
  Low, The Great Destroyer, California
• 
  Queens of the Stone Age, Lullabies to Paralyze, “Little Sister”
• 
  The Double, Loose in the Air,  “Idiocy”
• Wilco, Kicking Television : Live in Chicago, “Handshake Drugs” (not the live version)
• 
  Smog, A River Aint Too Much to Love, “I Feel Like I’m the Mother of the World”
• Deerhoof, The Runners Four, “Wrong Time Capsule”
• Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise, “Chicago”

Vitamin Party debuts in true punk form

“Jazz presumes that it would be nice if the four of us -
simpatico
dudes that we are – while playing this complicated song together might
somehow be free and autonomous as well. Tragically, this never quite
works out. At best we can only be free one or two at a time – while the
other dudes hold onto the wire…”

“Rock-and-roll,
on the other
hand, presumes that the four of us – as damaged and anti-social as we
are – might possibly get it to-fucking-together, man, and play this
simple song. And play it right, okay? Just because we’re breathing,
man. Thus, in the process of trying to play this very simple song
together, we create this hurricane of noise, this infinitely
complicated, fractal filigree of delicate distinctions.” – Dave Hickey
from his 1997 book Air Guitar, Essays on Art & Democracy

Vitamin
Party had its public debut Saturday, December 3 at Jack’s Club,
a friendly neighborhood bar near General Hospital. They have no stage,
and may have never hosted a band before, but this new punk outfit
seemed almost comfortable with its four members and their instruments
(drum set, two guitars, and a bass) squeezed into the small space
between the front and back rooms. If you wanted to go to the bathroom
you had to sidle past Matt Campana, who admits his stage choreography
is a leftover habit from his days in a Ramones cover band in upstate
New York.

These
guys have put there practice time in – they play together well. The
songs are simple and straightforward rock, but the interplay of the
instruments and multiple vocalists give them a compelling complexity.
With their gritty indie-punk, Vitamin Party embodies the beauty of rock
described in the Hickey quote above.

Vitamin Party : Animal Farm
Vitamin Party : Vitamin Party
Vitamin Party : Last Known Photograph
Vitamin Party : Endless Conversation
Vitamin Party : Prospect Street

Review by Todd Berman.  The above image is titled Vitamin Party at Jack’s Club marker on
paper, 4″x6″ by Todd Berman from TheArtDontStop.org in
the “musicians“
section.

The Breakmakers and James Iha returns!

Nice, warm, sweet music from a bunch of Brits I know little to nothing
about.  I’ve got a soft place in my heart for these kinds of tunes
because, heck, I’m fuzzy inside.  The Breakmakers
blend clean harmonies with simple melodies that hit the sadness button
(that’s if you have one).  I don’t know how many of you go ‘home’
for the holidays, but perhaps this somewhat ‘Bon-Jovi’-esque ballad may
help you get through the Christmas dinner without a fight.

The Breakmakers : Home

On the other side of the Atlantic we get a re-mix by the one and only
or once legendary or missing or who knows what ever happened to James
Iha from the once chart topping Smashing Pumpkins.  I said a lot
about stellastar* some months back when I reviewed their new album Harmonies for the Haunted
and that’s saying a lot since I usually say very little.  Does
anyone else hear a more masculine Robert Smith in this music? 
Read that previous post here and listen to the changes made by the mixological machinations of, who knew, James Iha:

stellastar* : Sweet Troubled Soul (the remix by James Iha)
not a bad video