January 2010

One of Ze Catalist’s favorite records of 2007 was The New Pornographers’ fourth studio release, Challengers. It was the band’s by-far least celebrated release to date an, in our opinion, their by-far best work yet. It’s a diverse pop record that sees frontman A.C. Newman (who released a great - also overlooked - solo record last year titled Get Guilty) flexing his compositional skills in subtle yet brilliant ways. The songs were both strange and poppy, and to this day we at Ze Catalist love them more every time we hear them. 

And thus, yes, we are very stoked at the news of a follow-up record featuring the Porno’s usual gang of high-talent players. Neko’s in. Bejar’s in. Calder (swoon) is in. The whole gang, led by one of the great pop songwriters and arrangers alive, A.C. Newman.

Set for a May 4 release date on the great Matador Records, the new record, titled Together, was produced by Phil Palazzolo and the band in Vancouver, Woodstock, Catskill and, of course, Brooklyn. Look for nine new Newman songs and three new cuts from the always interesting Dan “Destroyer” Bejar. Annie “St. Vincent” Clark, Zach “Beirut” Condon and Okkervil River’s Will Sheff all guest.

Between this and the recently released Spoon record (which, by the way, is GREAT), 2010 is feeling like 2007 all over again. No complaints here. Head over to www.newpornographers.com now to see photos from the recording sessions. And, because it’s what we do, here’s a list of our favorite Porno records, in order, with ratings …

6. Electric Version (2003) - 7.5/10

5. Mass Romantic (2000) - 8/10

4. Get Guilty (2009) - 8.5/10

3. Twin Cinema (2005) - 9/10

2. The Slow Wonder (2004) - 9/10

1. Challengers (2007) - 9.5/10

Wow … it sure was a Porno-filled decade. Definitely an argument there for Band of the Decade honors. So watch out, Spoon, Bradford Cox, Arcade Fire, Thom Yorke, etc.

Written by G. William Locke

SCREENTIME: WIM'S PARIS, TEXAS FINALLY REISSUED AND MORE!

January 18, 2010

I spent much of my time in 2003 alphabetizing CDs, cleaning LPs and 45s, explaining the concept of “phasing out” to fans of the cassette format, selling music to customers and, best of all, talking about and listening to music with my boss and customers. During this busy time of simultaneously working at two music stores my aforementioned boss, Wooden Nickel’s Tim Hogan, put me onto a gritty blues garage band called Left Lane Cruiser.

“Hey man, listen to this sometime tonight in between those Sonic Youth records you’ve been spinning,” I remember him saying with a smirk on his way out one night. Before I could tell him how much I liked the disc he’d passed my way, he informed me that one of our customers was in the band, and that they’d only been playing together for a few months.

Local? Really? Only a few months? No way. I could hardly believe it.

Soon enough Left Lane Cruiser released their proper debut album, Slingshot; a year after that they were on their way to winning the coveted Best Local CD Release (Non-Rock) award with their second album, Gettin’ Down On It. Oh, and they finished second in the whatzup Battle of the Bands II sometime around then, too. Not too shabby for a fresh-faced blues outfit in a rock n’ roll town.

Now five or so years into their run as a band, Left Lane Cruiser have signed a national recording contract with Alive Records, the label responsible for – amongst other things – putting The Black Keys on the map ...

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Written by G. William Locke

FEATURE STORY: BLOOMINGTON'S THREE GOLDEN RECORD LABELS

January 4, 2010

If you were to write a book about the history of music in Indiana (someone already has, and someone will again), you’d have to include a chapter or two on not just the much known Secretly Canadian, a record label based out of Bloomington, but also one of its many brother businesses.

There’s Jagjaguwar, a label started by Darius Van Arman that eventually merged with the Canadians in 1999. The label has released an impressive number of acclaimed albums, including the entire catalog of Okkervil River, a band already considered by many to be one of the best of their generation. After a solid start in Charlottesville, Va., Van Arman settled into Bloomington with the three core Canadians, brothers Ben and Chris Swanson and Jonathan Cargill. Four big brains, many big ideas to come.

Next came Bellwether Manufacturing. “We started Bellwether in 1999 as a way to pay the bills,” explained brother Ben Swanson to NUVO in a recent interview. “The labels weren’t bringing in enough to pay the four of us, the rent for the house we were working out of and everything else. We had worked with several different vendors over the years and knew that if we could get our volume up we could get better rates — so it helped make [the production of] our SC and Jag projects cheaper.

“We’d also realized how unorganized and weird these companies could be, sort of preying on customers’ inexperience,” Ben Swanson explained when asked about the idea for Bellwether, a company that helps other record labels and independent artists — anyone who wants to release a record, really — with every step of the manufacturing process of putting out albums. “We wanted to build a manufacturing company with the same ideals as our labels: one that thrives on transparency and long-term relationships” ...

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Written by G. William Locke

NEW EDITION OF SCREENTIME COLUMN ATTEMPTS TO TOP BASTERDS

January 3, 2010