Upcoming Albums You Should Like

In the Internet age we're getting a rush of albums way earlier than is to be expected. As such I have pulled the wheat from the chaff and have my recommendations and theories about some albums that will rub lovingly against your ear drums this fall.

Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil No surprise here one of my most anticipated albums of the coming months does not disappoint. Thank god. I'd spent so much time talking these guys up in the past few months that anything less than a one band new garage rock moment was going to leave me looking pretty foolish. One of the top 10 garage rock albums this decade, no question. The high light of the album is track three, "Veni Vidi Vici". Yes a modern garage rock band has used that reference again this decade. (Can these guys seem less self aware?) It's a ballad of sorts and sure to incite slow ass sing-alongs from all corners of the indie community.

M.I.A - Kala I had curbed my expectations for the follow up to an innovative rap classic coming out on a major label. This sort of skepticism has proved ludicrous and is probably bad for my over all disposition. The high light of this album is the penultimate track "Paper Planes" a smooth verse beat leads to a great hum along chorus complete with guns cocking and cash registers erm.. caching-ing.

Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover This comes as a surprise. I found Shut Up I'm Dreaming to be somewhere below the Postal Service and the Raconteurs as a side project worth paying attention to. Sure there was good songs but the middle of the album was mucky and I couldn't groove much passed the killer opener over the long haul. Not so with this one that seems bludgeon you with a boat load of melody and musical fireworks in an incredibly manageable period of time. The high light is once again the killer opener "The Mending of the Gown". It twists you in all the ways you liked about the last album but seems to do it in a punchier less obstructive way. If that makes any sense.

Albums I am currently indifferent to include Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam and The Go! Team's Proof of Youth. The albums I'm still dying for are Jens Lekman's Night Falls Over Kortedala(which has apparently leaked) and Les Savy Fav's Let's Stay Friends. As far as albums I'm excited but skeptical about Kanye West's Graduation should cause no shortage of hair pulling over the next couple of weeks.

Obituary: Siren Music Festival

Saturday's Siren music festival went the way these shows have for the better part of a decade. Bands play, people sweat, some complain, some burn, some dance, some sway semi-rythmicly, many induldge in over priced hot dogs and (assuming such a thing exists)over sized beers. Some bands were great(Twilight Sad, M.I.A., Black Lips), some boring(Dr. Dog), several were better than expected (Elvis Perkins, We Are Scientists). But all in all it was a summer high light. A day that you know a cross section of the most and least attractive people in the city will cross your eye. A day where the pain of a sunburn is offset by an afternoon buzz. Exhausting, and entirely worth the trek the Siren Festival has been one of the finest free events our city has had to offer for 7 years.

I wish I had taken more pictures and yet I know that it would have limited my ability to have fun. As is the only serviceable pictures of any bands I got were of the excellent Twilight Sad. They opened the day running late and somehow cut through the mid day sun with their bruting Scottish Post-Mope Rock. After catching smidges of Elvis Perkins and Dr. Dog I indulged in some gastric challenging Nathan's.

The rest of the day was a triple shot of excellence. Black Lips ripped through their rowdy garage rock set with flair, though less I'm told than their usual more intimate sets. We Are Scientists had energy and clearly had a hold over the (likely blogger heavy) crowd. Then there was M.I.A. who overcame mic trouble with energy but also with help from an exuberent audience. Cynicly I skipped the New York Dolls and took that time with friends lounging on the boardwalk.

All in all it ranks as over all my most positive Siren experience, too bad it will be my last.

Top 5 Siren Performances That I Have witnessed (I have been to 4 of these, all are represented):
1. Ted Leo and The Pharmacists - 2003
2. M.I.A. - 2007
3. Art Brut - 2006
4. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - 2004
5. Mission of Burma - 2004