Listening Habits 01-02.13

Two of our all-time favorite bands have started 2013 by releasing excellent and long-overdue new records (one considerably more so than the other), so there will be no prize for guessing who’s at the top of our "Best Albums" list for the January-February period.

There is no denying that "mbv"’s impact would have been considerably greater had this record come out when it was supposed to, sometime in the mid-90s. The fact, though, that "mbv" still possesses such a great power two decades down the line since the heyday of shoegaze that My Bloody Valentine have practically invented, is truly a testament to this band’s timeless quality. My Bloody Valentine’s sound is beyond genre and era constraints. "mbv" opens up again the door to another dimension of guitar music that we thought it was closed forever. Welcome back Mr. Shields!

For The Bad Seeds it’s been 5 since their previous work (our 2008 Album of the Year "Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!") but Nick Cave has hardly been away, dividing his time between wreaking havoc with the blues punk stomp of Grinderman, writing screenplays and composing soundtracks with Warren Ellis. Having released so much primal energy with his previous albums (let alone the shootouts he wrote about in his script for "Lawless"), with "Push The Sky Away" it’s time for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to return to a more quiet, contemplative and restrained sound. As usual, Cave’s lyrical dark streak and unique sense of humor can lead the most beautiful melodies to sinister turns and unexpected surprises while The Bad Seeds successfully create the right atmosphere for this new batch of songs by giving an admirably minimal, less-is-more performance.

The sophomore efforts by Foxygen and Veronica Falls as well as Foals third LP complete our Top 5 for January-February. You can read about our stunned reaction upon listening to Foxygen’s excellent "We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic" for the first time here.

Veronica Falls gained our attention immediately with their first singles and debut album. With "Waiting For Something To Happen" the band stays on course, still mining their favorite sounds from the '60s and '80s, while refining their technique and melodic skills. Veronica Falls achieve guitar pop perfection not through innovation, but by staying true to the spirit of the music that has inspired them and by adding their own memorable contributions to the cause.

As for Foals, "Holy Fire" should be the album that will help them move up in the line ups of the summer festivals. Funk influenced dance rock tracks like "My Number" will sound perfect both in clubs and in open fields while the album’s lush production by Flood and Alan Moulder is another asset for the band in their effort to reach the wider audience that they deserve.

Here's the list of our favorite albums and tracks for the start of 2013:

Top 12 Albums

1.   m b v - MY BLOODY VALENTINE
2.   Push The Sky Away - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
3.   We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic - FOXYGEN
4.   Waiting For Something To Happen - VERONICA FALLS
5.   Holy Fire - FOALS
6.   Fade - YO LA TENGO
7.   World Music - GOAT
8.   Out Of View - THE HISTORY OF APPLE PIE
9.   Wash The Sins Not Only The Face - ESBEN AND THE WITCH
10. Almanac - WIDOWSPEAK
11. Coming Out Of The Fog - ARBOURETUM
12. For Those Who Wish To See The Glass Half Full - SLOWNESS

Top 15 Tracks

1.   San Francisco - FOXYGEN
2.   Full of Fire - THE KNIFE
3.   New You - MY BLOODY VALENTINE
4.   Jubilee Street - NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
5.   Ohm - YO LA TENGO
6.   Teenage - VERONICA FALLS
7.   My Number - FOALS
8.   Stoned and Starving - PARQUET COURTS
9.   World Split Open - ARBOURETUM
10. Spider X - CALIFORNIA X
11. 2013 - PRIMAL SCREAM
12. Locusts - WIDOWSPEAK
13. When That Head Splits - ESBEN AND THE WITCH
14. See You - THE HISTORY OF APPLE PIE
15. Calm & Dispel - SLOWNESS

New MBV, New You

I bet you're all listening to "m b v" right now and so are we. It starts all woozy and whispery and then it explodes with a big bang towards the end with the final three tracks ("In Another Way", "Nothing Is" and "Wonder 2"). It feels like opening a portal to a parallel universe and discovering the alter-ego of "Loveless". My Bloody Valentine have finally delivered the goods and the space-time continuum is disrupted: it feels like we're back to 1991.

Favorite track after the first listen? I'm between "In Another Way" (where the big bang begins) and "New You", "m b v"'s pop moment which is wisely put between the album's dreamy first part and the explosive finale. One of the most anticipated albums of the last 22 years is finally here and it is all we could hope it would be.

My Bloody Valentine - New You

My Bloody Valentine - In Another Way

1990: Top 50 Singles

Our '90s flashback is about to begin! Last year we revisited our favorite singles of the '80s with a monthly series of posts featuring our Top 50 lists for each year of the decade as well as playlists where you could listen to most of these 500 tracks.

Between now and November 2012 (just in time for the Mayan Apocalypse!) we are going to choose another 500 remarkable singles, this time from the '90s, and create playlists with the music we like to remember from this period.

For the first installment of our '90s Singles project, we have the Top 50 of 1990, the year that the Madchester sound reigned supreme, Shoegazers flooded our ears with sweet noise and the American underground rock scene was revving its engines loudly as it was about to overtake the mainstream. Meanwhile, My Bloody Valentine who were getting closer to the end of the two-year gestation period that gave us "Loveless", released in April of that year the "Glider" EP on Creation Records (Sire for USA), showing us that they were not immune to the charms of the dance-rock crossover. And with "Soon", they proved that they could do it better - and dreamier - than anyone else:

My Bloody Valentine - Soon (Glider EP)

Here's 1990's Top 10 Singles - for the complete Top 50 click here:

1. Glider EP - MY BLOODY VALENTINE
2. Kool Thing - SONIC YOUTH
3. Telephone Thing - THE FALL
4. Heavenly Pop Hit - THE CHILLS
5. Jacket Hangs - THE BLUE AEROPLANES
6. I Am One - THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
7. The Wagon - DINOSAUR JR.
8. Everything Flows - TEENAGE FANCLUB
9. Velouria - PIXIES
10. Sliver - NIRVANA

And here's the (almost complete) 1990 Singles playlist:

Primavera Sound ’09: Day One Review (May 28, 2009)

Without a doubt, Barcelona was the happiest city in the world for the last few days of May. On Wednesday there was the all-night celebration for the Champions League victory of the city’s most popular football team and for the next three days and nights there was Primavera Sound ’09, one of the best festivals in the indie-world. C.M.C. was there, sending you brief, postcard-sized reports and now it’s time to bring you the whole story - or, at least, the part of the story that we’ve actually witnessed, as it is humanly impossible to watch around 150 bands playing on 6 different stages in just three days.

Magik Markers' Elisa Ambrogio live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 28, 2009)

The first day of the festival started for us with Magik Markers who kicked off proceedings at the ATP stage early in the afternoon. The sun was still hot and the band seemed to be in sound check mode at first. They picked up the pace with new tracks “Psychosomatic” and “Don’t talk in your sleep” while the highlight for me was “Taste”, one of the best tracks from their previous, Lee Ranaldo produced, album “Boss”. A little before the end of their charmingly shambolic performance, we left in a hurry to catch a little bit of The Bats who were playing at the nearby Ray-Ban Vice stage. The recently reformed New Zealand legends gave us a taste of their heavenly pop hits (to borrow the title of a famous Chills track), produced down under in the '80s and early '90s. This was the first of several reunited bands from that era playing at Primavera, giving the festival the feel of an '80s-'90s class reunion. And I have to say that, in many instances, the old school gave a lesson or two to the young guns who were also present at the event.

Dashing to the main stage (the one sponsored by Estrella Damm), we got to see the end of Spectrum’s set, another representative of the '80s-'90s scene. Sonic Boom’s music was buzzing, making its usual lift off towards space and the final landing came with a track dedicated to Alan Vega.

The Vaselines live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 28, 2009)

Having seen three bands in less than 90 minutes, it was time to concentrate our attention to The Vaselines, one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands. Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee have joined forces once again, touring in support of the recently released compilation “Enter The Vaselines”(on Sub Pop), featuring remastered versions of all their recorded material, demos and live recordings. The band was in high spirits, taking requests from the enthusiastic audience with the prerequisite that you removed an article of clothing to have your favorite song played. There was really no need to do that as they played all their classic '80s pop tunes, including "Son of a gun", "Molly's lips", "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam", "You think you're a man" (their disco cover) and "Dum Dum". A fun lesson in indie-pop history from a highly influential band who gave us ample evidence that a bright future may still lie ahead for them.

After taking a brief noise hit courtesy of Lightning Bolt at the ATP stage, we went back to the main stage for 20 minutes of Yo La Tengo (during which they played one of their best songs ever, “Autumn sweater”) and then on to the Pitchfork stage to check out the folk melodies of Bowerbirds.

The Jesus Lizard live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 28, 2009)

But, as the time approached 10:30, I realized that this wasn’t really a good moment to be listening to folk. This was the time to run back at the ATP stage for the return of The Jesus Lizard. One of the most memorable gigs I’ve ever been to was by this band, sometime around 1993, at The Garage in London. David Yow spent more time close to the venue’s ceiling than on the stage, climbing speakers and stage-diving like a madman. Could he pull a performance like that now, after all these years? The answer was a resounding “Hell, yes”! Of course, what makes all this madness work, is one of the finest, most finely tuned punk rock machines ever - the super-tight trio of David Wm. Sims, Duane Denison and Mac McNeilly. The Jesus Lizard are back in action, as wild as ever and hungry for more mayhem.

My Bloody Valentine live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 28, 2009)

After all this excitement, it was time for some pop relaxation with Phoenix before the next shock to the system, which came a little after midnight. The extra earplugs provided to those close to the stage could not really do anything to stop the noise onslaught that My Bloody Valentine had in store for us. The music coming from the speakers seemed to aim more at our bones than our ears, being experienced more as a vibration of the body than a sound wave. What really stood out from this levelling wall of noise that hit us, were the final three tracks - three of the songs that have defined the legacy of My Bloody Valentine: "Soon", "Feed me with your kiss" and an extended version of "You made me realise" which turned into a feedback orgy.

The night ended with a little bit of the beat frenzy of Aphex Twin and a lot of the psychedelic freak-out of San Francisco’s The Wooden Shjips, who presented us their fine new album “Dos”, as well as highlights from their self-titled debut, including my favorite “We ask you to ride”.

The Wooden Shjips live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 28, 2009)

Live action from Primavera Sound '09 - Day One (May 28): Magik Markers ("Taste"), The Vaselines ("You Think You're A Man") and The Jesus Lizard ("Destroy Before Reading")

Our complete report from the second and third day of the festival coming soon..