Best of 2010: #1 Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks

It happened in the mid July heat. Days before I’d see an excellent set by Ted Leo and his mighty Pharmacists at the Siren Festival. I dropped the needle on my copy of The Brutalist Bricks, as I had done several times a week since it’s March release. Everything went as it should, at first. But then… “No one lives for ever love, no one’s wise to try, to try, to try, to try, to try…” I had worn this LP down, old school style. Like your parents did to their Born To Run and Perry Cuomo. Thankfully the record sounds nearly as good exploding out of earbuds. (Thanks also to record companies being wise enough to offer free downloads with the far superior but also occasionally fragile LP format.) That’s when the record leaped from an early favorite to the clear front runner for album of the year, and it tightened it’s grasp for the rest of the year.

The Brutalist Bricks was never likely to top many year end lists. It’s not colossal in it’s commercial reach. It doesn’t upend rock and roll convention. What it is, is a batch of songs, most among the best of Ted Leo’s incredibly fruitful career. But Ted Leo is a workhorse, and the buzzy fly by night world of blogging(not to mention the even more depressing world of corporate magazine music typists) is often bored by consistency. So bored sometimes, that they might not notice an ever-present artist’s second renaissance.

Something in these songs seems to capture the feeling of the moment. Politics abound on the album. Somehow Leo name drops corn subsidies and Congressional pork in punk songs, and never settles for over simplified sloganeering. Instead these songs seem to understand the complexities of the issues piling up on our collective shoulders. They also provide excellent accompaniment to sooth your anxieties about the government and the economy, about the Tea Party lunatics and high unemployment.

The whole record, packed though it is with worries seems to suggest that there is reason for optimism. “Bottled and Cork,” easily one of the brightest rock singles of the year, finds common ground with Yankee doubting foreigners through life’s great equalizers, love and booze. “Even Heroes Have To Die” suggests our living isn’t futile, even though our time might be finite. The album ends with genuine End of the World 2012-style angst on the song “Last Days.” Leo demands we live for the moment even as he assumes that rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated.

Optimism seems like as good a reason as any to ware through a nice piece of vinyl. I’ve rarely heard a rock record balance a sense of intimacy without dipping into pathos or self serving confessions. Ted Leo has no time for that bunk, he has a lot to expound in forty minutes. I wonder what my year might have sounded like without The Brutalist Bricks. It seems stark. No record on this list, clearly no record this year, comes this close to where I am right now. Since I can’t sing, play guitar or write a song, I look for records that don’t just speak to me but in some way speak for me. Every once in a while I get one.

Jay Reatard, I Hate You! I Hate You! ...gah... I Love You. (sob)

Some people have jobs Jay Reatard!

Every once in a while a person who loves your music has to be at a desk(or somewhere else perhaps, like cleaning animal cages, or in surgery) at a particular time. They can't log in to an internet presale right on the dot to order your records. They can't be at Other Music at opening to grab one of your precious split 7" records with Deerhunter on the b-side.

It's just, well, all I wanted was a record. Now I'm left to download an mp3, devaluing music even further in my mind.

Times New Viking, A Band That Makes Me Want To Eat Bic Lighters

In a Good Way? In a GREAT WAY!


One might be lead to believe Pitchfork also likes them. But why then, I ask, why would Modest Mouse's latest snooze fest (with a 7.8) rating crack the recommended release pile, while the superb Present the Paisley Reich with an 8.2 be left to flounder as the third review of the day? Why?

This band is amazing. They also have intellectual currency as they get to reignite the ol' lo-fi as asthetic choice debate. (Any band on the same label as Cat Power can probably afford to have their albums mastered.) What else do they have? How about another album (their debut) that is called Dig Yourself? How bout super cool indie hotties for us all to gawk at? (2 guys and a gal to satisfy both gender preferences.) They have a Guided By Voices pedegree, comming from Ohio and releasing the two aformentioned albums on Siltbreeze Records and making the leap to Matador. On top of all that they have my favorite band name in foreva'.They are sure to be hot shit if you travel in circles that imbibe illegal substances and don't mind a bit of hiss in their music.

So why do I wish to eat cheap lighters when I hear this band? I don't know. I guess it's sort of a turn of phraze(?).

Times New Viking on MySpace Page.

They also have an official site.