It’s been a good year so far for those of us who were Coming of Age or whatever in the early 2000s. The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Thermals, Born Ruffians and Flaming Lips have all released albums this year. A couple of those bands released albums just this past week! They were all pretty good at inducing some nostalgia for albums past but who took the cake this week? Find out below.
Listen:
I’d heard about Thee Oh Sees for a while now and they may have been on a bill or two of shows that I had to miss for some reason or other. That being said, their Floating Coffin is the one album that I couldn’t get out of my head all week. Girl and boy vocals have always been one of my favorite things but add that to their gnarly garage rock and you get some amazing results. My favorite song is “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster,” a stoned out gem. Album closer “Minotaur” is a great broken dreams dirge as well, with John Dwyer speak-singing an anthem for the working class citizen. Just listen to the whole thing.
“Sacrilege” is such an anthemic song that it made hard to see what exactly the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had up their sleeve for the rest of Mosquito. Other than “Subway,” “Under the Earth,” “Despair,” and “Wedding Song,” the rest of the album didn’t live up to the lead track. I’ve personally never felt that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have had a perfect album, so it could still be coming. The band is definitely the tightest it’s ever been, and that’s partially thanks to Nick Zinner’s snake charmer abilities with his guitar.
Like most of their fans, it seems The Thermals are okay with completely ignoring the fact that 2010’s Personal Life ever happened. When I saw them at 285 Kent last month they completely ignored playing anything off that album. It’s not that it was a horrible album––it’s just that it’s production value was way too high for anything The Thermals have ever made. With Desperate Ground, they’ve returned to the formula that makes a good Thermals album. Album closer “Our Love Survives” should be the new closer for all their shows because it sums up The Thermals’ attitude that the punkest thing you can do is be in love.
Call it some sort of strange sound association but Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” from the upcoming Random Access Memories just reminds me of this Geico commercial. Anyway, Daft Punk goes disco? I can dig it.
Watch:
The Knife’s video for “A Cherry On Top” is trippy in ways that hurt.
Youth Lagoon on his favorite movie of all time.
“It is quite indulgent, isn’t it? I’m not saving lives, am I? I love my job, and I don’t think it’s a job. I think it’s a complete joy to be able to do this. My boyfriend works at a school and gets up every day at six o’clock. Here I am in a hotel room, speaking to you in Los Angeles, by myself. It does feel very indulgent. I appreciate it all.” Jessie Ware in Under the Radar talking about her career. I don’t think there’s anything about this woman that I dislike.
Random Nostalgia:
The two weekends of Coachella are officially over. I wasn’t able to make it this year but this is one of my favorite festival memories ever. I remember being so dehydrated and sunburnt and then Beach House started covering Gucci Mane?! Hell yeah.