Puddlegum

10. Rosie Thomas - These Friends of Mine
Just as the title portrays, you feel as though you’re sitting in the studio with Rosie.

9. Seabear - The Ghost that Carried Us Away
This album makes me miss Iceland, though I’ve never been.

8. Taxi Taxi! - Taxi Taxi!
I could sit and listen to these Swedish twins sing all day.

7. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Not only did this album stir the industry up, these songs will be favorites for a long time.

6. Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills
Our Ill Wills struck me as an album I had heard before, yet never had.

5. The Innocence Mission - We Walked In Song
The Innocence Mission has a way of grabbing my emotions like no other band.

4. Blonde Redhead - 23
Phenomenal album. It felt like a chemical addiction and I kept sneaking spins.

3. The Forms - The Forms
Twelve songs, each under four minutes, and I find myself listening to them several times on repeat.

2. Pela - Anytown Graffiti
My friends will attest that I asked them if they had heard Pela yet, and made sure they had.

1. Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters
Maybe it’s the thick Scottish accent, the shoegaze distortion, and lyrics that plot out like a well written film, but this album continues to amaze me.

The Silent Years are in the spirit of gift giving during this holiday season. Their self titled debut can be downloaded for free: http://www.mediafire.com/?8mnmzy4mbig

According to an update from the band, The Silent Years are preparing their follow-up to their debut album that was released early in 2007. “The Silent Years are currently holed up in a studio from 5 pm until 7 am daily mixing their new album, The Globe with Chris Coady (TV on the Radio, Grizzly Bear, Blonde Redhead).”

Giving away their debut full-length allows them to build hype for the album in the making, allowing them to reach listeners that missed them the first time around. Doing so increases the demand for more music… theoretically.

A note from The Silent Years concerning The Globe:
“We were watching the film ‘Powers of 10,’ which they used to show in middle school science classes. In the film, the camera starts out, framed on a couple having a picnic. Every 10 seconds, the field of view expands by a power of ten–the picnic becomes Chicago, Chicago becomes North America, and soon you’re seeing the Earth in the context of its solar system. This got us thinking about the similarities between mankind and all other components of the universe. An atom is to a cell, as a cell is to a man, as man is to the Earth, as the Earth is to the universe, etc…

The Globe was chosen as the title since it serves as a very perfect symbol of scale being an integral part of our definitions of self and reality.”

From suburbia Detroit, the six members of The Silent Years are consistently performing. They have toured the US three times, and have garnered the needed attention to launch their enterprise. Spin Magazine named them Underground Artist of 2007, and Pitchfork gave the album a 7.3 rating.

The Silent Years - Someone To Keep Us Warm

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Nada Surf have announced they will be releasing Lucky on February 5, 2008 on Barsuk Records. The band co-produced the album with John Goodmanson (Death Cab for Cutie, Sleeping At Last, Blonde Redhead, Sleater-Kinney) at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews). Ben Gibbard made a guest appearance on the album, along with John Roderick (Long Winters) and Phil Wandscher (Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter).

Nada Surf’s website describes Lucky:

“The record is filled with songs of restlessness, longing and the elusiveness of love. Yet, in its inimitable way, the band beautifully counterbalances its signature lyrical wistfulness with its singular musical buoyancy.”

See These Bones is Nada Surf’s first promotional song from Lucky, made available on Myspace as a free download. Oddly enough, See These Bones is the last song on the album. It’s an attractive song that will fit well on radio, without sacrificing the band’s musical integrity. They reference the two gangs in The West Side Story in See These Bones: “Everyone is right, and no one is sorry. It is the start and the end of the story. From the sharks and the jets to the call in the morning, and life is just bets anyway.”

Nada Surf’s itinerary for 2008 is being set, which can be summerized in one word: tours. Matthew Caws of Nada Surf spoke about how he copes with future plans:

“I tend to be pretty hopeful about things further in the future, but full of anxiety about the next eight hours, Unlike my friend John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants, who says he’s manic depressive without the depression, I think I’m manic depressive without the mania. Yet I’m ready to be cheerful at the drop of a reason. I’m always looking for rapture in music.” (Barsuk)

On October 13 Nada Surf set out on a National tour with Sea Wolf, lasting until Nover 2. Barsuk Records invited bloggers to the shows to offer a taste of Lucky. Puddlegum had the opportunity to see Nada Surf at Birdy’s in Indianapolis. I enjoyed watching the enthusiastic crowd sing along, and was taken by Daniel Lorca’s impassioned performance with his signature cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

Nada Surf - Lucky tracklisting is:
Weightless
Whose Authority
Beautiful Beat
Here Goes Something
From Now On
I Like What You Say
Ice on the Wing
The Film Did Not Go ‘Round
The Fox
Are You Lightning?
See These Bones

Nada Surf - See These Bones

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Blonde Redhead is bouncing back from an undisclosed illness that forced them to cancel three US shows in September. “Amadeo [Pace] is very sick and he cannot perform. We are so sorry about this and will do our best to make it up to you as soon as we can.”

The remaining US tour has since continued, and New York City will bring them in on October 6. Taking a much needed two weeks off, Blonde Redhead will pick up the pace with shows along the West Coast later in the month.

In November, Blonde Redhead will tour Europe, supporting Interpol. Though some would argue that Blonde Redhead deserves the majority of the stage time, Blonde Redhead will open the concerts with several songs. The Italian twin brothers, Amadeo and Simone Pace, and Kazu Makino, from Japan, will travel down well-known roads: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, and England.

Blonde Redhead have been supporting 23 since it was released in April via 4AD Records, their ninth album since they formed in 1993 while the Pace twins were in jazz school. This stunning album was the first time they produced their own work, and has  gathered critical praise. It is likely this album will adorn many “albums of the year” lists.

Five videos have been filmed, out of ten tracks that make up 23. The fifth video for 23 was directed by Melodie McDaniel, and is the more marketable video of the five that were filmed. Mike Mills directed the other four music videos with an artistic approach, and sat the band down for a video podcast that stretched into eleven episodes. Blonde Redhead and Mike Mills discuss everything from the difficulties in recording 23, to creating the four music videos.

Blonde Redhead - The Dress

Blonde Redhead on iTunes
Blonde Redhead on Amazon

Subscribe to Blonde Redhead’s video podcast

Blonde Redhead live recordings

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Annuals are several shows into their first of two tours, opening first for Kaiser Chiefs and The Walkmen, and then for Blonde Redhead. The first tour takes them through several East Coast states and into Canada, traveling the second tour from California back to their home state of North Carolina. In June the band will perform at Bonnaroo.

The band is posting a "month-long video diary" on Purevolume. Each week, Annuals will be posting "new exclusive footage from the road" from their tour. This week's webisode is On the Road with Annuals: 24 Hour Trek to Seattle.

On January 29 the band released an EP in the UK called Big Zeus, through EMI/Virgin/Ace Fu. The album included an unreleased song, Misty Coy.The band's video for Brother also premiered the same day on MTV2's Subterranean, and Fair was on the TV show Veronica Mars. A month later they performed in WOXY's studio, playing a new song called Do You Like It?, among three others.

Annuals - Ida My
Annuals - Brother
Annuals - live on WOXY (track listing: Fair, Complete or Completing, Do You Like It?, Brother)

Annuals on:
iTunes | Insound | Amazon | Hype Machine | Elbo.ws | Musicofthe.net | Last.fm | YouTube | Flickr

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