Andrew Bird
Chicago singer/songwriter/violinist Andrew Bird updates the traditions of small-group swing, German leider, and New Orleans jazz, mixing gypsy, folk, and rock elements into his distinctive style. Bird’s projects include his group the Bowl of Fire (which also includes drummer Kevin O’Donnell, bassist Josh Hirsch, and guitarist Colin Bunn) and performing as an auxiliary member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers; in turn, the Zippers’ Katharine Whalen and James Mathus appeared on the Bowl of Fire albums Thrills and Oh! the Grandeur. Bird has also recorded with artists like Pinetop Seven and Lil’ Ed Williams, teaches music at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and performed on the score and soundtrack from the 1999 Tim Robbins film The Cradle Will Rock. His third album, 2001’s The Swimming Hour, surprisingly found the Bowl of Fire turning to pop music, and with excellent results. As bandmembers remained active in their various other projects, the band continued and work on a follow-up began in 2002. To tide fans over, Bird self-released a limited-edition EP, Fingerlings, which documented live performances of some old and new songs by the band and solo. Early 2003 brought the release of another LP, Weather Systems, on the independent Grimsey label. Bird debuted on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe imprint in 2005 with Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs. He switched to Fat Possum for 2007’s Armchair Apocrypha and 2009’s Noble Beast, both of which were ambitious and eclectic albums even by Bird’s standards.by Heather Phares, All Music Guide
Antony
Growing up in California, Antony felt himself to be the consummate outsider until he came face to face with the image of Boy George on the cover of the Culture Club’s 1982 debut album, Kissing to Be Clever. He relocated to New York City in 1990, where he found a world more accepting of his avant-garde sensibilities and sexually ambiguous nature. He created the cabaret ensemble Blacklips and modeled himself after Blue Velvet-era Isabella Rossellini and the drag queen that graced the cover of Soft Cell’s 1982 single “Torch.” He formed Antony and the Johnsons and released their self-titled debut on David Tibet’s Durtro label in 2000, followed by an appearance on the Lou Reed albums The Raven and Animal Serenade — he toured with Reed as well throughout 2003. He has also appeared in the Steve Buscemi film Animal Factory as an androgynous convict. Antony and the Johnsons released a series of EPs in 2004, followed by the band’s second full-length, the Mercury Prize-winning I Am a Bird Now, in February of 2005. Antony spent the next two years on the road, as well as appearing on Björk’s Volta and in the Leonard Cohen documentary I’m Your Man before returning to the studio for the 2008 EP Another World, which preceded 2009’s full-length The Crying Light.By James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
Arcade Fire
Régine Chassagne, Richard Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and brothers Win Butler and William Butler comprise the Arcade Fire, an experimental indie rock outfit hailing from the musical hotbed of Montreal. The five-piece band formed in the summer of 2003, after Butler spotted Chassagne singing jazz standards at a local art exhibit at Concordia University. The two quickly became inseparable, both professionally and personally, and gathered Parry on organ, Kingsbury on bass, and Win Butler’s younger brother William on synthesizer and percussion to form the Arcade Fire — the band fleshed out an eclectic mix of bossa nova, punk, and classically tinged songs, drawing upon everything from U2’s passion to David Bowie’s eclecticism in the process. A self-titled EP appeared in 2003, and the Arcade Fire signed with Merge Records and prepped for their first studio album that same year. Win Butler and Régine Chassagne were married in August, but tragedies nevertheless plagued the band, including the deaths of Chassagne’s grandmother, the Butlers’ grandfather (swing-era composer/arranger Alvino Rey), and Parry’s aunt. The band persevered, and its debut album, Funeral, arrived in September 2004. The record was met with unanimous acclaim — both commercially and critically — and the Arcade Fire extended their resulting tour into 2005, playing such high-profile festivals as Lollapalooza and Coachella while touring the world, appearing on the cover of Time magazine’s Canadian edition, and garnering a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. Following an exhausting year, the Arcade Fire decamped to a church outside of Montreal to work on a second release. The ambitious Neon Bible arrived in March 2007, featuring such grand ornamentations as a pipe organ, a military choir, and a full orchestra.By Andrew Leahey & MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
Beach House
Alex Scally (guitar/keyboards) and Victoria Legrand (vocals/keyboards), the latter of whom is the niece of French composer Michel Legrand, create the dreamy lo-fi sounds of Beach House. The Baltimore duo formed in 2005 with Legrand’s Nico-like vocal hush and Scally’s delicate instrumentation. Within a year, Beach House charmed indie music enthusiasts across the blogosphere with their languid songcraft, while the eerie warmth of “Apple Orchard” landed on Pitchfork’s Infinite Mixtape MP3 series in August 2006. Two months later, Beach House issued their eponymous debut album for Carpark.By MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
Beirut
One of 2006’s most unexpected indie success stories, Beirut combines a wide variety of styles, from pre-rock pop music and Eastern European Gypsy styles to the alternately plaintive and whimsical indie folk of the Decemberists to the lo-fi, homemade psychedelic experimentation of Neutral Milk Hotel. At the heart of this sonic hybrid was a teenager from Albuquerque, NM, a fact that made Beirut’s debut album, Gulag Orkestar, all the more surprising.
Condon crossed paths with fellow New Mexican Jeremy Barnes, formerly of Neutral Milk Hotel, whose own albums as A Hawk and a Hacksaw share similarly ethnographic interests with Condon’s new material. With the help of Barnes and his A Hawk and a Hacksaw partner, Heather Trost, Condon recorded the songs that would make up Gulag Orkestar largely on his own, playing accordion, keyboards, saxophone, clarinet, mandolin, ukulele, horns, glockenspiel, and percussion along with Barnes’ drums and Trost’s cello and violin.
After Barnes gave an early version of the album to Ba Da Bing! Records label head Ben Goldberg, the newly christened band Beirut was signed to the New Jersey-based label and Condon moved from Albuquerque to Brooklyn, where he put together a floating collective of part-time bandmembers along the lines of Broken Social Scene for live performances. Following the release of Gulag Orkestar in May 2006, critical approbation quickly moved from the smallest blogs to mainstream media outlets that pegged Condon as a one-man cross between Jeff Mangum, Conor Oberst, and Sufjan Stevens. The EP Lon Gisland followed in 2007, leading up to the full-length The Flying Club Cup later that year.
By Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead’s noisy, dissonant guitars, alternate tunings, and quiet, stilted lyrics have often been compared to early Sonic Youth. After randomly meeting at an Italian restaurant in New York, Japanese art students Kazu Makino and Maki Takahashi and Italian twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace formed the band in 1993. The name was taken from a song by the ’80s no wave band DNA. With Makino and Amedeo on guitars and vocals, Simone on drums, and Takahashi on bass, the band’s chaotic, artistic rock caught the attention of Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, who produced and released the band’s debut album, Blonde Redhead, on his Smells Like Records label. Shortly after the album’s release, Takahashi left the band. The remaining members continued as a trio, releasing a second album in 1995 on Shelley’s label, titled La Mia Vita Violenta. For their 1997 release Fake Can Be Just as Good, recorded on Touch and Go, the trio was joined by guest bass player Vern Rumsey from Unwound. By 1998, the band eliminated bass and scaled back to guitars, drums, and vocals for In an Expression of the Inexpressible. Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons and the Melodie Citronique EP followed two years later. The band’s first for 4AD, Misery Is a Butterfly, was released in spring 2004. For 2007’s 23, the group opted for a mix of dream-pop and delicate electronic textures.By Tracy Frey, All Music Guide
Bon Iver
Justin Vernon began recording under the nom de band Bon Iver following the breakup of DeYarmond Edison, an indie folk group similar in tone and manner to Iron & Wine, Little Wings and, to a certain extent, Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Vernon’s solo project took DeYarmond Edison’s introspective, folky sound and embellished it with squinchy, quirky orchestral touches that nodded to Sparklehorse and a drifty optimism reminiscent of the Flaming Lips. Vernon moved back to Wisconsin the winter following DeYarmond’s demise, setting up camp in a remote cabin in the north woods for three months. It was a hugely generative period for Vernon; writing and recording songs in 12-hour bursts, he found himself with a nine-song debut album by spring. He dubbed the project Bon Iver (an intentional misspelling of the French for “good winter”).By Margaret Reges, All Music Guide
The Books
The Books’ story began in 2000, when Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong met through a friend in New York City. Sharing similar interests but different backgrounds in acoustic music and found sound, Zammuto and de Jong experimented and plunked away with sound. Eventually, with some urging by Tom Steinle of Tomlab Records, they created what would become their debut record, Thought for Food, in 2002. Within a year, the Books relocated to Hot Springs, NC, and recorded and released The Lemon of Pink. With a lot of favorable word of mouth and critical buzz from the first two records, the Books relocated again in winter of 2004 and recorded in an old Victorian home in North Adams, MA. With the release of Lost and Safe in April of 2005, the Books prepared to tour with their unique blend of samples and acoustic music. All three Books albums were released on Tomlab Records.By David Serra, All Music Guide
Buck 65
Born in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, Richard Terfry (aka Buck 65, Stinkin’ Rich) spent the majority of his adolescence as a self-described b-boy. He eventually moved to Halifax in 1989, where he founded a seminal hip-hop show on local college radio. The program (dubbed “The Bassment”) helped Terfry cement his status as Halifax’s premier hip-hop head; inch by inch, artist collaborations, production duties, and club residencies soon followed. During this time, Terfry dabbled with mic duty, often to acclaimed results. While 1992’s Chin Music helped him win a deal with local label Murderecords, 1996’s Psoriasis (recorded with friend Sixtoo under the moniker Sebutones) garnered underground plaudits and 1997’s 12” trilogy The Wild Life raised eyebrows overseas.
Later in 1997, Buck 65’s first well-circulated full-length followed; Language Arts was hailed by everyone who heard it as a hip-hop triumph. Fusing Terfry’s hard-luck grumble with a decidedly lo-fi (but immaculately produced) instrumentation, it trumpeted his (and Halifax’s) entry into the hip-hop circuit. In spite of — or perhaps, as a result of — his tendency to veer towards more opaque territories (Terfry’s albums rarely come with any tangible track listing), the big guns soon came calling. Revered turntablist Mr. Dibbs was so enamored with Terfry’s records that he inducted Buck 65 into seminal underground collective 1200 Hobos. Fraternizing with the likes of heroes such as Biz Markie, Peanut Butter Wolf, and Cut Chemist, Terfry’s follow-up was even more inspired. 1999’s Vertex was hailed by critics as a progressive, brilliantly conceived concept album, a regulated mix of measured neuroses and marble-mouthed charm. The follow-up, 2001’s Man Overboard, released on the respected underground Anticon, followed on that note, pitting Terfry’s numerous personalities against each other, often to brilliant effect. WEA Canada picked up the record and released its follow-up, Talkin’ Honky Blues, an excellent collection of introspective stories. An international contract materialized with V2, which released the career-spanning compilation This Here Is Buck 65.
By Mark Pytlik, All Music Guide
David Byrne
Best known for his groundbreaking tenure fronting the new wave group Talking Heads. Born May 14, 1952, in Dumbarton, Scotland, Byrne was raised in Baltimore, MD. The son of an electronics engineer, he played guitar in a series of teenage bands before attending the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, where, feeling alienated from the largely upper-class student population, he dropped out after one year. However, he remained in the Providence area, performing solo on a ukulele before forming the Artistics (also known as the Autistics) with fellow students Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth.
After changing the name of the band to Talking Heads and enlisting onetime Modern Lover Jerry Harrison, the group signed to Sire Records; a series of LPs, including the debut Talking Heads ’77, 1978’s More Songs About Buildings and Food, and 1980’s Remain in Light followed, establishing the quartet as one of contemporary music’s most visionary talents. During a band sabbatical in 1981, Byrne teamed with Brian Eno, the producer of much of the Heads’ work, for the collaborative effort My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a complex, evocative album which fused electronic music with Third World percussion and hypnotic vocal effects.
1992’s Uh-Oh marked Byrne’s return to more conventional rock performance, a direction continued on a self-titled effort issued in 1994. Feelings, recorded with members of Morcheeba and Devo, followed in 1997. Four years later, Look into the Eyeball was issued on Virgin Records/Luaka Bop and captured Byrne’s signature wry humor and musical diversity. In 2003, Byrne’s music for the film Young Adam (featuring members of Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai) was released as Lead Us Not into Temptation by Thrill Jockey. Grown Backwards, his first disc for Nonesuch, appeared a year later. In 2007 Byrne released a CD/DVD version of The Knee Plays that featured the 12 original tracks along with eight demos and outtakes. Big Love: Hymnal, containing material composed for the HBO series Big Love, appeared in 2008; Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, a collaboration with Brian Eno that took in folk and gospel influences, followed later in the year.
By Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues
Cat Power was the alias of Chan Marshall, a Southern-bred singer/songwriter whose father, Charlie, was an itinerant pianist. After dropping out of high school, Marshall found herself in New York; performing under the name Cat Power, she was booked as the opening act for Liz Phair, where she met Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Two Dollar Guitar’s Tim Foljahn, who agreed to become her backing band. Following the release of 1995’s Dear Sir and 1996’s Myra Lee — both recorded on the same day — Cat Power signed to Matador for 1996’s What Would the Community Think?, which won acclaim for Marshall’s unsettling, emotional songs and cathartic vocals.
The superb Moon Pix followed two years later, and in the spring of 2000 Cat Power resurfaced with The Covers Record. Released in 2003, You Are Free featured a lusher, more polished sound as well as cameos by Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder; 2006’s The Greatest was recorded in Memphis, TN, with legendary soul players including guitarist/songwriter Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, bassist Leroy “Flick” Hodges, and drummer Steve Potts. Another set of covers, Jukebox, was released two years later.
By Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
The Decemberists
Led by Colin Meloy, the Decemberists are a five-piece outfit whose pop sound has been compared to the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel and Belle & Sebastian. Meloy, who hails from Missoula, MT, is the main songwriter for the group, whose initial lineup consisted of Ezra Holbrook on drums, Nate Query on bass, Jenny Conlee on keyboards and accordion, and Chris Funk on theremin and pedal steel guitar. Frontman Meloy, who also held a degree in creative writing, previously devoted some time to an alternative country group before breaking off to pursue his craft as a singer/songwriter in the city of Portland, a period that eventually led to the Decemberists’ formation. Before Hush Records released the Decemberists’ first album in 2002, the group put out an EP of five tracks. Their full-length debut, Castaways and Cutouts, was re-released that same year on the Kill Rock Stars label, and the band began to accumulate a serious fan base. After adding organist and keyboardist Rachel Blumberg to the group, in 2003 the Decemberists released Her Majesty, another fine collection of theatrical indie pop with British folk sensibilities that further cemented their growing reputation as a band to watch. The next year the five-part epic EP The Tain, based on the eighth century Irish poem of the same name, came out, followed by their third full-length, Picaresque, in 2005. The group, who at this point consisted of Meloy, Conlee, Query, Funk, and drummer John Moen, made the move to the majors (Capitol Records) for 2006’s The Crane Wife, which managed to hit number 35 on the Billboard 200, and even grabbed the attention of comedian/actor Stephen Colbert, who challenged Funk to a guitar solo competition during a live taping of his show, The Colbert Report.By Linda Seida, All Music Guide
Aaron Dessner
Aaron Dessner is a founding member and primary composer in the Brooklyn-based band The National. Aaron and his brother Bryce are co-founders, alongside Alec Hanley Bemis, of Brassland Records, a label thatwas home to artists including The National and Clogs’ catalogs and releases by Doveman and Nico Muhly.
The two Dessners also write, produce, and perform contemporary music internationally in collaboration with many artists. Most recently in August 2008, Aaron and Bryce performed at Guitare Au Palais Festival in Perpignan, France and a collaborative concert with David Cossin, and Luca Tarantino as a part of SOUNDRES, an international residency program for contemporary music and art in Salento, Italy. Together they also performed at Matthew Ritchie’s Ghost Operator opening at the White Cube Gallery in London in May 2008.
Bryce Dessner
As well as being a member of The National, along with twin brother Aaron, Bryce Dessner has been involved in a variety of musical projects.
Bryce is a founding member of Clogs, an improvising quartet that has toured with the Books in the UK and at the Sydney Festival. Clogs’ music served as the soundtrack to the Chris Eigeman film Turn the River.
He served as the musical director for Ritchie’s The Morning Line installation, collaborating with Ritchie and a number of contemporary composers.
Bryce is a frequent collaborator with artists including Philip Glass, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Glenn Kotche, is also the founder and artistic director of the MusicNOW Festival, an annual showcase of the best in contemporary music held in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Devastations
Just as sinister as Nick Cave and equally heartbreaking as Tindersticks, Devastations feature Conrad Standish (vocals/bass), Tom Carlyon (guitar/vocals), and Hugo Cran (drums). The stylish alternative rock trio came together in late 2002 in Melbourne, Australia; however, a move to Berlin in 2003 provided Devastations the chance to introduce themselves to a European audience. Performances for Alexander Hacke’s (Einsturzende Neubauten) Bada Bing concert series followed, preceding the release of the band’s self-titled debut in 2004. Both the press and their peers were impressed; Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O championed Devastations in an issue of Mojo, describing it as “the best thing I’ve heard all year,” while Rolling Stone Germany hailed it as the best debut of 2004. Australian dates with the likes of the Dirty Three, Cat Power, Tindersticks, and the Black Heart Procession coincided with the band’s growing popularity, while Devastations earned an Australian Music Prize nomination before the year’s end. A second album, Coal, arrived stateside on Brassland in fall 2006. Their next album, Yes, U, was released in 2007.By MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
Dirty Projectors
The Dirty Projectors are the project of Dave Longstreth, a former Yale student who left college to become one of the most prolific and unique indie singer/songwriters of the early 2000s. In early 2002 Longstreth released his first album, The Graceful Fallen Mango, under his own name on the This Heart Plays Records imprint. Largely recorded on four-track with the help of friends in likeminded projects such as Wolf Colonel and Dear Nora, the album introduced Longstreth’s distinctive, crooning voice and equally unique approach to arrangements and both lo-fi and hi-fi production. As he continued to record, Longstreth played shows with other contemporaries like the Microphones, Bobby Birdman, and [[[[VVRSSNN]]]] (aka Yume Bitsu’s Adam Forkner). Forkner helped record his next album, The Glad Fact, which was the first to bear the Dirty Projectors name and arrived on Western Vinyl in fall 2003. This was followed quickly by Morning Better Last!, an album culled from three triple albums he recorded in 2001 and 2002; it was an Internet-only release on States Rights. Slaves’ Graves and Ballads, which Longstreth described as “a song-journey for me singing with a ten-piece chamber group called the Orchestral Society for the Preservation of the Orchestra,” arrived in early 2004 as a split release on Western Vinyl and Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records. Later that year, the orchestrally enhanced Slaves’ Graves & Ballads arrived.By Heather Phares, All Music Guide
Kevin Drew
As a founding member of the experimental indie pop group Broken Social Scene, as well as a memeber of the label that puts out its music, Arts & Crafts, Kevin Drew worked with ten or more musicians in a collective that helped usher in the chamber pop movement. He grew up in Toronto and got his creative start attending high school at the prestigious Etobicoke School of the Arts along with two future members of BSS, Emily Haines and Amy Millan. After his interests changed from acting to music, he became involved in a recording project called K.C. Accidental and released two records. The duo gradually blossomed into the more ambitious Broken Social Scene, and in 2007 he recorded his first solo release, Spirit If…, the first in a proposed series of solo records by various members of the mega-group.By Jason Lymangrover
Feist
Born Leslie Feist in Amherst, Nova Scotia, singer/songwriter Feist goes by her surname when it comes to making music for a living. The songstress relocated to Calgary at a young age and got her start playing in an all-girl punk band named Placebo (not to be confused with the U.K. modern rock act of the same name). After winning a battle of the bands contest, Placebo (whose members were still in high school) played their first gig opening for the Ramones in 1991, and for the next five years, Feist perfected her rock & roll ways.
A year later, Feist was asked to join By Divine Right as the group’s touring guitarist. Somewhere in between touring with some of Canada’s biggest acts, she also found time to record and self-release her first solo album, 1999’s Monarch (Lay Down Your Jeweled Head). After playing some smaller gigs in the Toronto area, Feist then moved in with electroclash rap vixen Peaches in 2000. Peaches christened Feist Bitch Lap-Lap and from there, Feist sang on and toured in support of Peaches’ debut album, Teaches of Peaches.
Not one to stay too long in once place, Feist joined Broken Social Scene during the recording of the group’s sophomore effort, You Forgot It in People. When she wasn’t touring North America and Europe with Broken Social Scene, she worked on her solo material with Renaud Letang of Manu Chao and Chilly Gonzales, often traveling back and forth between Calgary, Toronto, and Paris for the album’s recording. Let It Die was soon released on the Arts & Crafts label in May 2004.
2006 saw the release of Open Season, a collection of remixes, collaborations, and other songs. Feist then set to work on her next full-length effort, recording and assembling the material in one week in a rented house near Paris. The Reminder hit shelves in the spring of 2007, where it debuted at number two in Canada and number sixteen on the U.S.‘s Billboard charts. Buoyed by such singles as “My Moon My Man” and “1234,” the album became the year’s best-selling item on iTunes and took home an additional pair of Juno Awards.
Ben Gibbard
Death Cab for Cutie’s rise from small-time solo project to emotive, Grammy-nominated rock quartet is one of indie rock’s greatest success stories. Launched in the bayside college town of Bellingham, WA, the group was originally a side project for singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard, an engineering student at Western Washington University who split his time between school and music. Taking a break from his local power pop band, Pinwheel, Gibbard began recording an album’s worth of solo material in the summer of 1997.
The quartet made its studio debut with 1998’s Something About Airplanes, an album that featured several re-recorded tracks from the You Can Play These Songs with Chords cassette as well as a dreamy, pop-oriented sound reminiscent of Built to Spill. Although both Gibbard and Walla continued to pursue their own projects (including Gibbard’s successful stint with the Postal Service), Death Cab for Cutie continued to rise in popularity, and the follow-up effort We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes was issued in 2000. The Forbidden Love EP arrived that same year, while a third full-length effort, The Photo Album, was released in 2001. By this time, a sizable audience had gathered around the band’s emotional music, and Barsuk re-released You Can Play These Songs with Chords in 2002 with ten additional songs.
The album also proved to be a very important step in the band’s career, gathering positive attention from consumers and industry execs (including television producer Josh Schwartz, who prominently featured the band’s music throughout several seasons of The O.C.). With their popularity at an all-time high, the bandmates issued a live disc, The John Byrd E.P., and later signed a worldwide major-label deal with Atlantic Records in November 2004. Plans was released the following summer and debuted at number four, remaining on the Billboard charts for nearly one year and achieving platinum status on the strength of three singles (including the acoustic ballad “I Will Follow You into the Dark”). Death Cab for Cutie graced the cover of Spin Magazine, appeared on an episode of Saturday Night Live, and earned a Grammy nomination for their major-label debut. Work on a follow-up album coincided with the release of Chris Walla’s solo effort, Field Manual, and Death Cab returned in May 2008 with Narrow Stairs, a darker effort that debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. The band proceeded to tour throughout the remainder of the year, while a deluxe version of Something About Airplanes (which was packaged with a recording of their very first show in Seattle) was released in November to introduce newer fans to Death Cab’s early material.
By Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear began as a home recording project for Boston-bred experimentalist Edward Droste, the son of an elementary school teacher, who laid the groundwork for the band’s otherworldly debut album on a small hand-held tape recorder while holed up for 15 months in his Greenpoint, Brooklyn, apartment. His homespun D.I.Y. effort took on new life with the help of multi-instrumentalist Christopher Bear, a Chicago native who had worked in a diverse range of musical projects ranging from laptop electronica to free jazz, who added additional instrumentation and vocals to Droste’s stripped-down sonic blueprints.
The resulting album, Horn of Plenty — a pet project originally meant only for Droste’s friends — eventually circulated through New York’s underground music scene, with its unique blend of acoustic instruments, layered vocals, and found sounds earning comparisons to alt-rock heavy-hitters such as Sigur Rós, Sufjan Stevens, and Animal Collective. Originally released to little fanfare in 2004, the album gained momentum thanks to copious touring, with Chris Taylor joining the band on reeds and electronics, and Daniel Rossen providing additional guitar and vocals. It was reissued in 2005 as a two-CD set featuring remixes by Dntel (of the Postal Service), Final Fantasy, Solex, and the Soft Pink Truth (aka Drew Daniel of Matmos). An album of Droste’s early demo recordings, Sorry for the Delay, was released in 2006 as the band finished up recording Yellow House, their second proper full-length album. Warp signed the band that spring and released Yellow House that fall. A year later, the Friend EP, which featured cameos from Beirut, CSS, and Band of Horses arrived.
By Bret Love, All Music Guide
Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine is the stage name for one Samuel Beam, a Florida native who made his name by releasing lo-fi tapes in Miami. After catching the attention of Sub Pop honcho Jonathan Poneman, Beam was asked to send material to the label for submission. After a few months, he sent two CDs in the mail — both of them full-length albums. Poneman considered releasing them both, but instead slimmed down the set to 12 songs and released it in September 2002 as The Creek Drank the Cradle. One year later, The Sea & the Rhythm followed, featuring five tracks recorded during the same sessions. Shortly thereafter, Beam headed into the studio for the very first time to make a record. The end result was the resolutely hi-fi record Our Endless Numbered Days, which was released by Sub Pop in 2004. Also that year, three Iron & Wine songs were used in the film In Good Company, and Beam’s cover of the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” was featured on the Garden State soundtrack. For the next Iron & Wine project, the group recorded an EP with Calexico; In the Reins was issued by Overcoat Recordings in September 2005. By this point there were no traces of the lo-fi sound of Beam’s first recordings, and the band’s third full-length album, 2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog, was their lushest, most produced yet.By Bradley Torreano & Tim Sendra, All Music Guide
Jose Gonzalez
Swedish singer/songwriter José González is a star in his native land. His album Veneer was released there in the early 2000s and has achieved gold status. Far from the pop album you might expect from such a statement, the album is an entirely acoustic affair that reflects a childhood spent listening to equal parts bossa nova, classical, and post-punk by the likes of Joy Division. Touchstones for González’s sound include Nick Drake, Paul Simon, Red House Painters, and Elliott Smith, all artists who are literate, quiet, and melancholy but also create memorable songs as well. Veneer was released in the U.K. by Peacefrog in 2003 and was a critical success there; it was released in the U.S. by Hidden Agenda in the fall of 2005. His U.S. prospects were aided by the appearance of his song “Crosses” in the season-ending episode of The O.C. The title track from his 2006 Stay in the Shade EP also appeared on an episode of that show. The EP showed a move away from the bedroom sound of the first album but still maintained the same high level of songcraft and performance. In 2005 González joined with Elias Araya (organ, Moog) and Tobias Winterkorn (drums) to form Junip, releasing an EP at the end of the year with a full-length to follow in 2006. The year 2007 saw him returning to his solo career with the album In Our Nature.By Tim Sendra, All Music Guide
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
By the sound of them, you would think Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings started making funk-threaded soul music together in the 1960s. Few devotedly retro acts are as convincing. Few singers as skilled as Sharon Jones at stuffing notes with ache and meaning might be willing to invest in a sound so fully occupied by the likes of Bettye LaVette and Tina Turner in the Ike years, too. But what Jones brings to the funkified table has legs of its own — eight of them, to be exact — and they belong to Binky Griptite, Bugaloo Velez, Homer Steinweiss, and Dave Guy — her Dap-Kings.Jones, like James Brown, was born in Augusta, GA; there she sang in her church choir, and from fellow parishioners picked up the kind of back-patting she needed to convince her to go mainstream. As a teenager, she moved with her family to Brooklyn, where she immersed herself in 1970s disco and funk with an eye toward cutting a record of her own. Instead, studios came calling and with them steady work — by her twenties, Jones was turning in backup vocals for gospel, soul, disco and blues artists, most of it uncredited. In the ’80s, however, Jones’ sound was deemed unfashionable, and instead of pushing ahead with her soul diva’s dream she went back to church singing. She also took a job as a corrections officer at New York’s Rykers Island. It wouldn’t be until 1996 that Desco Records would rediscover Jones’ sweat-basted, lived-in talent. With that label’s house band, the Soul Providers, Jones released several singles in the late ’90s; their warmth and genuineness propelled the act across the Atlantic, and Jones picked up a moniker — the queen of funk — that stuck. Jones released her first full-length with the Dap-Kings, Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, after signing with Daptone Records in 2002. Years of touring behind it, as well as cutting singles with other artists (including Greyboy) ensued. In 2005, Jones reteamed with the Dap-Kings for the winking groovefest that is Naturally, following it up two years later with 100 Days, 100 Nights. Jones also had a bit part The Great Debaters as the singer Lila.By Tammy La Gorce, All Music Guide
Kronos Quartet
The Kronos Quartet has for years cultivated a chimeric image: is it a highbrow ensemble with pop leanings, or a crossover group with classical expertise? Yet whatever its methods and motivations may be, the Kronos Quartet has blurred musical categories for decades and attracted interest from audiences who might never have otherwise encountered a string quartet. Respected for its charisma and innovation, Kronos was founded at Mills College in 1973 by violinist David Harrington. By the end of the 1970s, violinist John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt, and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud rounded out the group’s original personnel. Since then, Kronos has aggressively commissioned new music, including over 450 of its repertory of 600 pieces. This unprecedented zeal for commissioning has been credited with reviving and revitalizing the otherwise stagnating medium of the string quartet.
The ensemble made a strong impression with guest appearances on recordings by Warren Benson, Dane Rudhyar, and David Grisman before cutting its own debut on the Sounds Wonderful label in 1982. Since then, Kronos has recorded over 30 albums for Nonesuch, receiving six Grammy nominations and one award for Best New Composition, (Different Trains by Steve Reich). Kronos specializes in performing modern and contemporary music, music by jazz pioneers Ornette Coleman and John Zorn, and artists as varied as Jimi Hendrix, Anton Webern, and Béla Bartók. The group has devoted entire albums to such diverse figures as Thelonious Monk (Monk Suite, 1985), Bill Evans (Music of Bill Evans, 1986), Alfred Schnittke (The Complete String Quartets, 1998), and Philip Glass (on several discs, including Dracula, 1999). For its recording of Black Angels (1990), the quartet provided spirited, effective accompaniment to a scratchy, decades-old recording of American iconoclast composer Charles Ives singing one of his own songs.
Kronos has been profiled on the television show CBS Sunday Morning, has produced its own syndicated radio program that combined interview and performance segments, and has been consistently nominated for Grammy awards.
In 1999 Jeanrenaud began a sabbatical leave, and before it was over she had resigned, no longer wishing to maintain Kronos’ active travel, performance, and rehearsal schedule. Jeanrenaud was replaced by Jennifer Culp, who remained with the quartet until 2005, after which Jeffrey Zeigler joined as Kronos’ cellist.
By Ron Wynn, All Music Guide
Stuart Murdoch
A band that takes its name from a French children’s television series about a boy and his dog would almost have to be precious, and to be certain, Belle & Sebastian are precious. But precious can be a damning word, and Belle & Sebastian don’t have the negative qualities that the word connotes — they are private but not insular, pretty but not wimpy; they make gorgeous, delicate melodies sound full-bodied. Led by guitarist/vocalist Stuart Murdoch, the seven-piece band has an intimate, majestic sound that is equal parts folk-rock and ’60s pop, but Murdoch’s gift for not only whimsy and surrealism, but also for odd, unsettling lyrical detail keeps the songs grounded in a tangible reality.
Based in Glasgow, Scotland, Belle & Sebastian released their first two albums in 1996 at the peak of the chamber pop movement.
The idiosyncratic approach to building their career isn’t surprising given Murdoch’s approach toward beginning a band. A longtime fan of Felt, Murdoch left Glasgow for London in the early ’90s in hopes of finding the group’s leader, Lawrence Hayward, but he never found his idol. Upon his return to Glasgow he enrolled in university and he began writing songs and short stories. While at school, he took a music business course where he decided to form a band and release a record for his final project (he had tried to form a band before to no success). For the project, he assembled the seven-piece Belle & Sebastian, featuring himself on guitar and vocals, choosing and recruiting members by instinct in a local all-night cafe in late 1995. He eventually found Sarah Martin (violin), Stevie Jackson (guitar), Chris Geddes (keyboards), Stuart David (bass), Richard Colburn (drums), and Isobel Campbell (cello). All seven members were college students, and all agreed that the idea behind the band was to stay on a small scale, to keep it as a project and not let the band run their lives; they even assumed they would release two albums and break up.
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
My Brightest Diamond
Mixing elements of opera, cabaret, chamber music, and rock, My Brightest Diamond was the project of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Shara Worden. The daughter of a National Accordion Champion-winning father and a mother who was an organist for their Pentecostal church, Worden grew up in Ypsilanti, MI, listening to gospel, jazz, and classical music and performing in the church choir. She studied opera at the University of North Texas’ music program, and after graduation, moved to New York City to continue her vocal studies. In N.Y.C., she became as involved in the world of underground rock as she was in the realms of classical music, becoming inspired by the likes of Antony and the Johnsons and Nina Nastasia and their intimate performances at venues such as Tonic, the Living Room, and the Knitting Factory. Worden began writing her own material, which had one foot in her classical training and the other in the avant rock she was discovering.
She began performing and recording as Awry, gathering a supporting group of musicians playing everything from wine glasses to wind chimes, and eventually added a string quartet after studying and collaborating with Australian composer Padma Newsome. She released The Orange Album and Quiet B-Sides in 2001, and a remix album in 2003. After meeting fellow transplanted Michiganian Sufjan Stevens, she became one of his Illinoisemakers and took a hiatus from her own work to perform on his Illinois tour as cheerleading captain. When the tour was over, Worden renamed her project My Brightest Diamond and set to work on two albums: A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, a collection of songs performed with a string quartet, and Bring Me the Workhorse, a more rock-oriented set that was released on Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty in summer 2006. My Brightest Diamond toured with Stevens that fall in support of the album. Early the following year, the remix album Tear It Down, which featured contributions from Lusine and Gold Chains, arrived. My Brightest Diamond’s second album, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, was originally planned as a piece for a string quartet, but eventually included 20 players and drew on influences such as the works of Maurice Ravel and Tom Waits.
By Heather Phares, All Music Guide
My Morning Jacket
Although they first emerged in 1998 as devotees of Neil Young’s country-tinged classic rock, My Morning Jacket steadily widened their sound throughout the following decade, embracing everything from neo-psychedelia and Americana to funk, prog, and reggae. By the time Evil Urges arrived in mid-2008, they had successfully molded themselves into Kentucky’s answer to Wilco, with unexpected detours and sonic experiments adding complexity to the band’s alt-country roots.
My Morning Jacket’s de facto leader is vocalist/guitarist Jim James (birth name: James Olliges), who founded the band in 1998 alongside his cousin Johnny Quaid (guitar), Two-Tone Tommy (bass), and J. Glenn (drums). Headquartered in James’ hometown of Louisville, KY, the young group released its debut on Darla Records in 1999, with keyboardist Danny Cash joining the lineup one year later. Although The Tennessee Fire only found modest success in the U.S., the debut effort became a genuine smash overseas, particularly in the Netherlands. My Morning Jacket responded by launching a tour in Europe, where they were featured in a Dutch documentary film and received accolades from the Dutch music press. A Christmas EP was released in 2000, but it was My Morning Jacket’s follow-up effort — 2001’s At Dawn — that helped exponentially expand their audience at home. Jim James recorded his vocals in a grain silo, and the resulting reverb-heavy sound became a hallmark of the band’s early work. Upon the album’s stateside release, James’ best friend from childhood, Patrick Hallahan, was enlisted as the band’s new drummer.
My Morning Jacket maintained a grueling tour schedule throughout the early 2000s, hitting the road with such acts as Guided by Voices, the Doves, and the Foo Fighters. They also made the jump to a major label (RCA/ATO Records) for the 2003 release of It Still Moves, but the frantic pace had already taken an irreparable toll on Quaid and Cash. Tired and burnt out, the members announced their departure in January 2004. Keyboardist Bo Koster and guitarist Carl Broemel joined soon after, and the group continued to tour as a unified five-piece. My Morning Jacket’s energy remained, and their sound took an experimental turn on 2005’s Z. Produced by John Leckie, the album did away with the heavy reverb that blanketed the band’s earlier efforts, while the addition of synthesizers and reggae influences introduced audiences to My Morning Jacket’s experimental side. Tracks from Z were also present on Okonokos, a live album released in 2006, and the band’s sonic experimentations continued with Evil Urges. Arriving in June 2008, the album showcased James’ expanding vocal range, his bandmates’ fascination with Prince, and My Morning Jacket’s eagerness to challenge the boundaries of alternative country-rock.
By Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
The National
Setting up their tunes on a creative territory amid American electric rock and indie rock’s mellowest tunes, the National ultimately present melodious and inspiring compositions also enlightened by a set of influences, including country-rock and even British pop/rock. Originally coming from Ohio, the band eventually formed in New York in the late ’90s, with a five-piece lineup, embodied by brothers Scott (guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums), Aaron (bass) and Bryce Dessner (guitar), and by vocalist Matt Berninger. Following a series of live presentations, the group eventually managed to enter the studio to record their first record. The National, their debut and self-titled album, hit the record stores in 2001, achieving considerable acclaim. The Ohio natural crew then continued to play on several live shows, eventually securing a growing fan base. In 2003 the group released Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, a deft blending of alternative country and chamber pop, followed by the EP Cherry Tree in 2004. The following year the band signed with Beggars Banquet and released Alligator. The National returned in 2007 with Boxer, an ambitious effort that featured orchestration by the Clogs’ Padma Newsome and Sufjan Stevens on piano.By Mario Mesquita Borges, All Music Guide
The New Pornographers
The Vancouver indie rock supergroup the New Pornographers features the talents of Zumpano’s Carl Newman, the Evaporators’ John Collins, Destroyer’s Dan Bejar, cartoonist/filmmaker Blaine Thurier, drummer Fisher Rose, and guest vocalist Neko Case. Newman began the band in 1996 as a lark after releasing Zumpano’s Goin’ Through Changes; one by one, the other members joined the fold, and the New Pornographers’ first official rehearsal took place in 1997. By the following year, the group had completed four songs, but then Case left Vancouver for Chicago, Thurier began work on his film Low Self Esteem Girl, and the other members attended to their other bands and projects. Rose left in 1999, and Limblifter/Age of Electric drummer Kurt Dahle and guitarist Todd Fancey joined the Canadian supergroup. With a solid lineup in tow, the New Pornographers reunited and began recording again in early 2000, completing their debut album, Mass Romantic, in time for a fall release and critical acclaim. Ray Davies joined the band at SXSW in fall 2001, performing the Kinks classic “Starstruck” for the first time ever. After a brief North American tour, each member returned to their respective projects by 2002. Bejar recorded with Destroyer, and Case headed out on the road with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in support of her second solo album, Blacklisted. Nobody strayed too far, however, for the New Pornographers headed back into the studio before the year’s end to work on a follow-up to Mass Romantic. The pop-powered Electric Version, which appeared in spring 2003, marked their first for Matador. Twin Cinema followed in 2005 and garnered a good deal of critical praise, receiving near-perfect rankings from such influential outlets as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork. Bolstered by such a positive reception — as well as the success of Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood in 2006 — the group went in a mellower direction with 2007’s Challengers.By Heather Phares & MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
Conor Oberst
With a trembling voice, acoustic guitar, and confessional approach to songwriting, Conor Oberst played an important role in shaping the lighter, intimate side of indie rock during the late-‘90s and beyond. His main project was Bright Eyes, an eclectic group of rotating musicians that vacillated between pop, folk, electronica, and country-rock. Although Oberst remained at the center of that band, he also logged time in a number of other outfits, including Commander Venus, the Magentas, Park Ave., Desaparecidos, and an early version of the Faint. Finally, he supported likeminded artists on an executive level, co-founding Saddle Creek Records in the ’90s and launching his own label, Team Love, in 2003.
A native of Omaha, NE, Conor Mullen Oberst was born on February 15, 1980. He began playing guitar at the age of ten, receiving lessons from his brother, Matt — a part-time teacher who doubled as the vocalist for Sorry About Dresden — as well as the boys’ father. Conor’s second sibling, Justin Oberst, joined the effort three years later by financing Conor’s first release. Entitled Water, the album featured a cameo by fellow Omaha resident Ted Stevens, who also played alongside Mike Mogis in Lullaby for the Working Class. This early partnership set the stage for Oberst’s collaborative discography; it also allowed Oberst to further his friendship with Mike Mogis, who would later play an integral role in Bright Eyes’ success.
Although still a young teenager, Oberst joined the ranks of Commander Venus and Norman Bailer (who later rechristened themselves the Faint after Oberst’s departure) in 1994. The Faint’s Todd Fink then joined Oberst in 1996 for a short-lived band named the Magentas. That same year, Oberst expanded his résumé by playing drums for Park Ave., although the group disbanded two years later. Bandmates Jamie Pressnall and Neely Jenkins went on to form Tilly and the Wall, with Conor Oberst issuing the group’s albums under his own Team Love label.
Along with longtime partner Mike Mogis, Oberst experienced an unexpected amount of success with Bright Eyes. The group released several recordings in the late-‘90s and early 2000s, during which time Oberst also set time aside to play with Desaparecidos. He returned to the Bright Eyes project in 2002, issuing the intimate Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground that summer and following it up with several EPs. It was 2005’s ambitious double-album release, however, that established Oberst as a commercial artist, with both discs (I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and the electronic Digital Ash in a Digital Urn) enjoying high-ranking slots on the Billboard 200. Bright Eyes released another album, 2007’s Cassadaga, before Oberst decamped to rural Mexico to work on his first solo effort in years. Recorded in a makeshift studio with a cast of musicians dubbed the Mystic Valley Band, Conor Oberst arrived in 2008.
By Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
Riceboy Sleeps
Serengeti
Drawing from emo, indie rock, avant electronica, and more, Chicago-based indie rapper Serengeti earned a reputation as being an immensely prolific writer for his barrage of long-players, all imbued with his oddball personality and abstract rhymes. Born David Cohn, the whimsical MC spent most his youth in the Chicago suburbs and began writing rap lyrics around the same time he moved into the city at age 16. His eccentric inclinations developed under his divorced parents’ two schools of thought: his mother was a political activist and self-styled socialist, but his father led an uppity middle-class way of living. When Cohn went off to college, he met fellow classmate DJ Crucial, who had similar hip-hop ambitions. Crucial eventually founded F5 Records and issued Serengeti’s 2003 debut, Dirty Flamingo. It was the first of practically a dozen albums that he released through various independent labels within the next few years. Noteworthy standouts were the experimental rock-leaning Gasoline Rainbow (2006), released via MF Grimm’s Day by Day imprint, and the imaginative, blogosphere-approved Dennehy (2006) on Bonafyde. Signed to Audio 8, Serengeti collaborated with glitch-hop producer Polyphonic for Don’t Give Up (2007), but then revisited Dennehy a year later, issuing an expanded version of Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action!).By Cyril Cordor, All Music Guide
Dave Sitek
The Brooklyn-based group TV on the Radio mixes post-punk, electronic, and other atmoshperic elements in such a creative way that it only makes sense that its core duo, vocalist Tunde Adebimpe and multi-instrumentalist/producer David Andrew Sitek, are both visual artists as well as musicians. Adebimpe is a graduate of NYU’s film school and specializes in stop-motion animation, which his Brothers Quay-like video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs single “Pin” demonstrates amply. He is also a painter, as is Sitek, who also produced the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Machine EP and their full-length Fever to Tell.
The duo met when Sitek moved into the building where Adebimpe had a loft; each of them had been recording music on his own, but realized their sounds would work well together. Sitek’s brother Jason began playing drums and other instruments with the pair during their recording sessions, which resulted in a self-titled, 24-track CD released by the Brooklyn Milk imprint. Jason Sitek left the band for a short time due to other musical commitments but returned to the band when they recorded their Touch and Go debut, the Young Liars EP.
After the EP was completed, TV on the Radio added guitarist/vocalist Kyp Malone to their fold. Young Liars, which also features the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Brian Chase and Nick Zinner, was released in summer 2003 to critical acclaim, coinciding with their gigs opening for the Fall. Their first full-length release, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes arrived in spring 2004. The band remained busy for the rest of the year, embarking on their own tours as well as dates with the Faint and the Pixies. That fall, they released the New Health Rock EP and won the 2004 Shortlist Prize.
In 2005, the band kept busy with touring and returned to Sitek’s Stay Gold studio to work on their second album. They also made an MP3 criticizing President George W. Bush, “Dry Drunk Emperor,” available on their website. TV on the Radio signed with 4AD for European distribution of their albums and moved to Interscope in the U.S. In summer 2006 they resurfaced with Return to Cookie Mountain, a more polished but still searching collection of songs that featured David Bowie on backing vocals. The band went in a sleeker direction on 2008’s Dear Science, which featured cameos from Antibalas and Celebration’s Katrina Ford.
By Heather Phares, All Music Guide
Spoon
Hailing from Austin, TX, Spoon originated in 1994 as a collaboration between Britt Daniel (vocals/guitar) and Jim Eno (drums) and a rotating cast of supporting players. Their hybrid of indie and punk resulted in a number of Sonic Youth and Pixies comparisons after their 1996 debut album, Telephono. Spoon toured with the likes of Pavement, Guided by Voices, Silkworm, and Archers of Loaf before their Soft Effects EP was released in 1997. Following an ill-fated move to Elektra Records, which found them being dropped from the label following the issue of their third album, A Series of Sneaks, in 1998, Spoon went the indie route with a handfull of 7” singles and the The Agony of Laffitte EP in 1999. In fall 2000, the Love Ways EP was released on Merge, paving the way for spring 2001’s full-length Girls Can Tell. The album was a critical success, ending up at or near the top of many best-of-2001 lists. Spoon released the more musically adventurous follow-up, Kill the Moonlight, in August 2002. The band opted for a bigger, darker sound on 2005’s Gimme Fiction. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga — which was named after the melody of one of the album’s songs, “The Ghost of You Lingers” — mixed unusual instrumentation and nods to Motown and soul, and was released in summer 2007.By Mike DaRonco, All Music Guide
Sufjan Stevens
A singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Sufjan Stevens started his venture in the music world as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band based in Holland, MI. Following the release of two full-length albums with the group, Stevens decided to go solo in late 1999, investing fully in a career that was waiting to shine by itself. During subsequent months, Stevens moved to New York City, where he continued dedicating himself full-time to his solo recordings. Sun Came, his debut album, appeared in 2000, confirming his superior musical command, complex instrumentation, and sparkling melodies. The promotion of the disc included playing on the road with the Danielson Famile, with whom he began regularly working. Enjoy Your Rabbit, his second album, hit record stores in 2001, underlining once more his unusual instrumentation and excellent compositions. In addition to his solo work, Stevens also offered his contribution to the album 1942 for Soul-Junk, on which he participated amply as a multi-instrumental musician. While preparing a new collection of songs, Stevens appeared on several benefit compilation discs, including Seen/Unseen, which featured Frank Black, Giant Sand, and 16 Horsepower. 2003 saw the release of Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State, a 15-track conceptual piece produced and performed by Stevens — he played over 20 instruments — that placed his home state under the writer’s microscope. Despite the record’s narrowed focus, it was among the best reviewed that year and made many critics’ year-end lists. In 2004, Stevens released his follow-up, Seven Swans, which was produced by Danielson Famile mastermind Daniel Smith. He returned to his ambitious “states” project in 2005 with Illinois, which was followed by The Avalanche in 2006.By Mario Mesquita Borges, All Music Guide
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch first appeared on the folk scene as a young singer/songwriter armed with a voice and sensibility far beyond her years, earning widespread acclaim for her deft, evocative resurrection of the musical styles most commonly associated with rural Appalachia of the early 20th century. Welch was born in 1967 in Manhattan and grew up in West Los Angeles, where her parents wrote material for the comedy program The Carol Burnett Show. It was as a child that she became fascinated by bluegrass and early country music, in particular the work of the Stanley Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, and the Carter Family.
In the early ’90s, Welch attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA, where she began performing her own material, as well as traditional country and bluegrass songs, as part of a duo with fellow student David Rawlings. After honing their skills in local open mike showcases, the duo began performing regularly throughout the country. While opening for Peter Rowan in Nashville, they were spotted by musician and producer T-Bone Burnett, who helped Welch and Rawlings land a record deal. With Burnett producing, they cut 1996’s starkly beautiful Revival, an album split between bare-bones duo performances — some even recorded in mono to capture a bygone sound — and more full-bodied cuts featuring legendary session men like guitarist James Burton, upright bassist Roy Huskey, Jr., and drummers Buddy Harmon and Jim Keltner.
Her sophomore album, Hell Among the Yearlings, followed in 1998. The years following her second release found Welch involved in several soundtracks (O Brother Where Art Thou, Songcatcher), tribute albums (Songs of Dwight Yoakam: Will Sing for Food, Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons), and guest spots on other artists’ albums (Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker, Mark Knopfler’s Sailing to Philadelphia). Following the success of O Brother, Welch and Rawlings found themselves in the center of a traditional American folk revival and released their third album, Time (The Revelator), in mid-2001. Steady touring, guest appearances, and the release of a DVD (The Revelator Collection) kept the pair busy, but in 2003 they found time to record Soul Journey, their second release on their own Acony Records label.
By Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Yeasayer
The music of Brooklyn’s Yeasayer is an eclectic, genre-bending journey into pop, rock, Middle Eastern and African musics, folk, and dub. Vocalist/keyboardist Chris Keating and vocalist/guitarist Anand Wilder were both raised in Baltimore, where they honed their vocal skills in a barbershop quartet and played in a high-school band, Sic Transit, before leaving town to attend different colleges. Years later, the two relocated to New York and began shaping the project that would soon become Yeasayer. Wilder’s cousin, Ira Wolf Tuton, joined as the group’s bassist, and drummer Luke Fasano was the last member to climb aboard in May 2006. The band set to work on recording its debut album, All Hour Cymbals, which was unveiled to much critical acclaim (not to mention a healthy blogosphere buzz) in October 2007. International tour dates followed, during which the band honed its blend of live instrumentation and prerecorded samples.By Kenyon Hopkin, All Music Guide
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo was in many respects the quintessential critics’ band: in addition to its adventurous eclecticism, defiant independence, and restless creative ambition — three qualities that virtually guarantee music press acclaim — the group’s frontman, Ira Kaplan, even tenured as a rock scribe prior to finding success as a performer. So frequently compared to the Velvet Underground that they even portrayed the legendary group in the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol, the Hoboken, NJ-based unit explored the extremes of feedback-driven noise rock and sweetly melodic pop, shading its work with equal parts scholarly composure and fannish enthusiasm. Prolific and mercurial, Yo La Tengo ultimately transcended its myriad influences to ensconce itself as a beloved institution of the indie community.
The core of Yo La Tengo (Spanish for the outfielder’s cry of “I’ve got it!”) was comprised of singer/guitarist Kaplan and his wife, drummer/vocalist Georgia Hubley. After forming the band in 1984, they placed an advertisement seeking other musicians to round out the lineup, requesting applicants who shared their fondness for the Soft Boys, Mission of Burma, and Arthur Lee’s Love. A number of bassists and lead guitarists passed through the band’s roster during its formative years, but after bowing in late 1985 with the single “The River of Water,” backed by a cover of Love’s “A House Is Not a Motel,” Yo La Tengo’s membership appeared to stabilize with the additions of guitarist Dave Schramm and bassist Mike Lewis prior to the sessions for 1986’s full-length roots pop debut, Ride the Tiger, produced by former Mission of Burma bassist Clint Conley.
However, both Schramm and Lewis exited in the wake of the record’s release, leaving Kaplan to assume lead guitar duties. Bassist Stephan Wichnewski signed on for 1987’s New Wave Hot Dogs, a more assured outing that brought the group’s Velvet Underground obsession to the fore via a cover of the early VU composition “It’s Alright (The Way That You Live).” Not only did Kaplan’s introverted, half-spoken vocals and buzzing guitar work closely recall Lou Reed, but Hubley’s rock-steady drumming and breathy backing turns simultaneously conjured memories of vintage Maureen Tucker. Even better was 1989’s President Yo La Tengo, recorded with producer and guest bassist Gene Holder; opening with the droning squalls of the stunning “Barnaby, Hardly Working,” the record spotlighted the group’s sonic schizophrenia by including two Jekyll-and-Hyde versions of the track “The Evil That Men Do” — one a gorgeous instrumental, the other a blistering feedback freakout.
Schramm returned to the fold for 1990’s Fakebook, a remarkable acoustic folk-pop journey through Kaplan’s record collection and a virtual family tree of Yo La Tengo reference points. A wonderfully low-key collection of covers ranging from forgotten nuggets (the Kinks’ “Oklahoma U.S.A.,” the Flamin’ Groovies’ “You Tore Me Down,” Gene Clark’s “Tried So Hard”) to absolute obscurities (Rex Garvin & the Mighty Cravers’ “Emulsified,” the Escorts’ “The One to Cry,” the Scene Is Now’s “Yellow Sarong”), Fakebook also included a handful of outstanding new originals as well as luminous retakes of the previous record’s “Barnaby, Hardly Working” and New Wave Hot Dogs’ “Did I Tell You?” The superb That Is Yo La Tengo EP previewed 1992’s May I Sing With Me, the first effort to feature permanent bassist James McNew (formerly of Christmas). A return to noise typified by the hot-wired nine-minute feedback saga “Mushroom Cloud of Hiss,” the record balanced out its extremist tendencies with the occasional sidestep into melodic beauty (“Detouring America With Horns”) and infectious indie pop (“Upside-Down”).
A move to the Matador label predated the release of 1993’s Painful, another winner informed by the atmospherics of shoegazer drones and dream pop. Bookended by radically opposed renditions of the track “Big Day Coming” — the first an organ-driven mood piece, the other an edgy guitar outing — the record pushed Yo La Tengo in a multitude of new directions, significantly expanding the trio’s palette of sounds and textures. Released in 1995, Electr-O-Pura continued the progression, zigzagging from dead-on British Invasion re-creations (the sparkling “Tom Courtenay”) to shimmering folk (the Hubley-sung “Pablo and Andrea”) to bracing sonic experimentation (“Decora”). After 1996’s Genius + Love Equals Yo La Tengo, a two-disc compendium of B-sides, compilation tracks, rare singles, and unreleased material, the trio resurfaced in the spring of 1997 with I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One; And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out followed in early 2000.
The group also performed a three-night stint as the backing band for Ray Davies on his 2000 U.S. tour, and in 2002 released The Sounds of the Sounds of Science, a soundtrack to the undersea documentaries of French filmmaker Jean Painleve. That fall, they released the Nuclear War single, which featured several versions of Sun Ra’s epic, and that winter performed their second annual Hanukkahpalooza, an eight-night musical festival at Hoboken, NJ’s Maxwell’s, which also featured a special limited-edition EP of Christmas songs. Yo La Tengo released Summer Sun in spring 2003, and that year Georgia Hubley performed in Mirror Man, an avant-garde rock opera by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas.
In 2005, Matador Records paid homage to the band’s 20th year as recording artists with the career-spanning compilations Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs: 1985-2003 and A Smattering of Outtakes and Rarities 1986-2003. The band returned the following year with the strong all-new album I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.
By Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide