Mixtape 18: Late September 2005

1. Okkervil River – For Real
2. Why? – Fall Saddles
3. The Occasion – Cannery Hours
4. Grizzly Bear – Shift
5. Yo La Tengo – Sugarcube (Mind-Blowingly Amazing Video)
6. Radiohead – I Want None of This
7. Franz Ferdinand – The Fallen
8. Metallic Falcons – Berry Metal
9. The Arcade Fire – In the Backseat
10. Wolf Parade – Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts

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There's not a lot that's remarkable about this playlist. The songs are all good, but the list lacks a real centerpiece and it meanders from tracks 3 to 6. Nevertheless, it has a couple of little gems if you know where to look.
Okkervil River's "For Real" is pounding, emotional (not emo, don't say emo) rock music. If Spoon insists on regressing, they could at least regress to something like this.
The Occasion came to my attention when it was namedropped by a member of The Double in a KEXP interview. I gave the band's free mp3s a shot and was impressed. Brooklyn/NYC bands tend to fall under a few categories that, for the most part, are pretty much mutually exclusive.* There are the post-punk revivalists, the DFA types, the so-called "freak" folk bands, and a few more that I don't really feel like thinking of. I'm not really sure if dancepunk's still making the rounds. Anyway, the point of all this retardedness is that The Occasion defy all that stuff. They're basically making classic rock, all epic and poundy and slow-building. Yet they manage to interest me. Fancy stuff, that Occasion.
Franz Ferdinand's "The Fallen" is the Franz Ferdinand concept stretched to its logical conclusion. It's what I think is a pretty silly superficial band making the swaggery, flashy music that such a band must make. I like it a lot, and for the first time I'm not ashamed for Clinic on account of they're both on Domino Records. I should clarify: I really like Clinic.
Metallic Falcons is CocoRosie member Sierra Casady's "baby metal" side project. It's real pretty stuff. "Berry Metal" is part of The Enlightened Family: A Collection of Lost Songs, the inaugural release of VoodooEROS records, the new label run by the other half of CocoRosie, Bianca Casady. The compilation also includes recordings of Devendra Banhart at 15 years old or something.
"In the Backseat" was originally going to be the triumphant theatrical playlist closer, much as it is on Funeral. I decided, however, that that whole triumphant closer thing was played out, and decided to give "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" its rightful position at the pinnacle. Now, I've liked Wolf Parade okay (need I remind you that I was on top of that shit back in June?), but I never found them to be quite as mind-blowing or transcendent as their hype would suggest. They had great songs, I said, but they were no Arcade Fire. Heck, they were no Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. This song though, hot damn, this is one of the best songs of the year. It's so gloriously constructed, and when the verse swings back around 2:30 and twists and contorts with the bridge chords and the screams of "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah," it's one of those musical moments where the stargate or whatever opens up, you see the face of God a teensy bit, you take off your socks cause you're Above that shit now, etc. It's enthralling.

*I'd like to mention that I find this type of broad labelling pretty stupid and lazy and inaccurate, but it works for the purposes of this paragraph.