Overlooked in 2008

December 31, 8:55 AMMusic ExaminerLinda Laban

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Music Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

The Real Tuesday Weld

Despite the digital age looming large, countless albums were released throughout the past year. Some we heard a lot about – adorable Britpop balladeers Coldplay's lengthily titled “Viva La Vida Or Death and All His Friends,” for instance. Some made a passing appearance in the zeitgeist. Others sank anonymously into obscurity with barely a word written.  Here’s a selection of some overlooked albums released in 2008. Dig through your local used record store bargain bin now!

The Real Tuesday Weld The End of the World (Six Degrees) This is an eerie mock concert, set on the eve of Valentine’s Day, which turns out to be the last day people exist. Or something. The darkly witty RTW, aka Stephen Coates, aka the Clerkenwell Kid, is a beautiful pianist and arranger. Here, he mixes jazz standards with a heavy dose of irony and tragedy. It’s not quite the brilliant mix of electronics and 1920s-style flapper pop of 2007’s “The London Book of The Dead,” which included “Kix,” a riff on Noel Coward’s romantic “I Get A Kick Out of You”: “The booze and pills, the cheapest thrills,” croons Coates, “they mean more to me now than you do. I don’t get my kicks out of you.” Way to break up.

The Dirty Heads Any Port in a Storm (self-released) Okay, given the utter crassness of the band’s name and album title, not to mention the music being a reggae ’n’ hip-hop hybrid commonly called frat rock, this CD should be appalling.  It’s not. Rather than Sugar Ray, it’s more in line with late great '90s ska chill troupe, Sublime. When this lot purrs, “I never sweat it,” in opener “Neighborhood,” the mood is instant cruise.

Kate Maki On High (Ow Om Records) Dusky, sweet voiced Kate Maki sat all year in a swamp of sensitive female singer songwriters, many of whom adopted an old time bent. Let’s face it, be it chick rock/pop/folk or whatever, 2008 was a bumper year for girls making music.  Still, when Maki coos assertively  “I got myself to please” on the washboard rhythmed bluegrassy ditty,  “To Please,” she sounds in a class of her own.

                                                         The real Kate Maki

Imani Coppola The Black and White Album (Ipecac) “Sometimes it feels like life’s sucking you up, but it’s not. It may just be you sucking,” sings the gorgeous Ms. Coppola on “Black and White Jingle # 1.” What’s not to love in such universe-hugging, interconnectivity wiseass wisdom? Ipecac head Mike Patton wisely picked up Coppola, who released an incredible debut, Chupacabra, on Columbia in 1997. Don’t expect feelgood, though, this girl is angry.

                      The surreal Motion Sick

The Motion Sick The truth will catch you, just wait… (Naked Ear Records) This Boston-based indie rock band has a swashbuckling swagger to its artful tales. While “The Owls Are Not What They Seem” certainly references David Lynch’s surreality series “Twin Peaks,” it’s likely that “Jean Paul” has something to do with Sartre… Or maybe it’s Belmondo?