By Jason Hunter
Pretty Girls Make Graves
The first thing I heard Andrea Zollo sing was from the single "Speaker Push the Air": "Do you remember when you could not put it away? / Do you remember what the music meant? / To you / To me". It's a perfect explanation of the delirium that arrives when you fall in love with a new song, hitting repeat again and again again. Pretty Girls Make Graves made three distinct albums - a punk record, an art rock record, and a pop record before breaking up in 2007. I was fortunate to see them perform one last time and cherish being part of the crowd screaming along to every word. When I put these albums on I am in awe of the guitar playing – it is fast, technically bat-shit crazy, and devastating. However, when the albums are done and I eventually stop hitting repeat—its the words that linger long after.
Portishead
I first got interested in Portishead in high school based on the strength of the "Sour Times" video on MTV's 120 minutes. It was like listening to two different things at once - the classic sound of strings, jazz guitar, and the haunting singing of Beth Gibbons and the booming beats, spooky samples, and scratching. I loved this album and spent many years listening to it while waiting for the next album to drop. When it arrived I hated it. It was rougher, darker, more fragmented. Slowly over time, favorite songs emerged as I listened to it again and again and again walking across Virginia Tech's campus. Portishead will never be mistaken for prolific recording artist - 3 studio albums in 12 years - but the wait has proven to always be worth it.
Pale Saints – The Comforts of Madness
Ah, the Pale Saints. They make such a sonic fuss but really are just a pop band underneath all the dissonance. They have a stellar debut album (The Comforts of Madness) that bleeds one song into another, which is strange since each song borrows contrasting elements for band's collective influences. Some songs start like Sonic Youth songs, others start like classic rock songs, and others like bubblegum pop. I don't have favorite songs on this album (they are all great) I just have favorite moments within each song. If you're a fan of Britpop or shoegaze and you've not heard this album, check it out.
The Papercuts – Can't Go Back
This album is a like a hazy, sleepy, time warp to another era. The lyrics, with their reference to secretaries that hid affairs for their boss, scorn for the restaurant staff, and pining for the neighborhood girl gone bad, could be the context of any era but always makes me think of the 50's. This is an album for accessible to everyone with it's soft pop songs composed of bells, male/female vocals, and the occasional Dylan-esque romp ("Take the 244th Exit"). I always remember what great songs "Dear Waitress" and "Unavailable" are but in listening again for this post I am captivated by mini-epic "John Brown" with its blues riffs, changing tempos, and the shifting vocal styles of each singer.
The Pixies
Everyone is going to post about them, right? You love them, I love them. It's nice to see them get their due recently. My favorite memory of the Pixies isn't a performance by them but a cover of "Here Comes Your Man" used in a the wedding of two dear friends on the banks of somewhere in Brooklyn.
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