Friday, Jun. 13, 2008

Halfway through 2008 and the music's already great

By Jeremy Dutton, Herald staff writer

2008's halfway point is here and gone and it's time to assess the best.

I held off for a week to try to include My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges, but it's left me so uneasy it might take me until December to render a verdict.

Here are my 10 faves:

10. Flogging Molly,Float: First they were a punk band with an Irish tilt, then an Irish band with a punk edge. Now FM is comfortable in their own skin, and their latest is their most mature but still a heck of a lot of fun.

9. Duffy, Rockferry: She's a little saucier than Joss Stone and seemingly way more under control than Amy Winehouse. Duffy's Stax-inspired sound is spot-on and great for Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.

8. Nick Jaina, Wool: This Portland songwriter played a show at 321 Art Space earlier this year and blew me away -- the album didn't disappoint either. His dark lullabies stick in your head like bad dreams.

7. Vampire Weekend, self-titled: Their fleeting melodies are a little off-putting at first, but their earnestness more than makes up for it. Just bright-eyed, quirky indie tunes.

6. Sera Cahoone, Only as the Day is Long: There's a dash of Neko Case in Cahoone's songwriting, but it's her sultry voice that makes this country-noir album a great listen.

5. Fleet Foxes, self-titled: You can actually picture these guys sitting in a candlelit basement writing these hippy tunes. And oh yeah, they've got Tri-City ties. Remember the Crystal Skulls?

4. Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers: Covering emotions from pleasure to pain and everything in between, it's the most lyrically satisfying of the bunch. Her wit will blow you away.

3. M83, Saturdays = Youth: Anthony Gonzalez's beautiful tribute to the 1980s brings you back to the decade with unabashed reverence. No sarcasm here. It's even better than being Rickrolled.

2. R.E.M., Accelerate: If you don't have this yet, it's everything you've heard. The trio brings back the rock with fury. It's 35 minutes of everything you forgot you loved about the band.

1. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Real Emotional Trash: Malkmus' guitar prowess can't be questioned after this album, but the songs stick with you, too. I've listened to Cold Son at least 75 times and it still hasn't gotten old.

-- Dead at 27 ... or 28?

I was watching the Today show this week before work (not the fourth hour, I swear) and heard some banter between Al Roker and Ann Curry. I think they were talking about Heath Ledger when they started listing other untimely deaths of celebrities. Included were Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and Tim Buckley. But what ties all of these deaths together is not how they happened, but that they all happened when these stars were either 27 or 28 years old.

How did I not know this? I'm 28! Is this common knowledge, like the weird coincidences between the lives of JFK and Abraham Lincoln?

I now can't stop thinking about how I'm going to avoid this untimely fate. I've made a list and checked it off (no illicit drugs; no guns in the house; no crazy wife). Now if I can just hang up my rock star aspirations for a year I should be OK.