While I’m a good boy about keeping up with the pop singles chart, when it comes to classier, indie-oriented stuff I tend to focus on the familiar. Last night I hunkered down with Sun Kil Moon’s April, The Gutter Twins’ Saturnalia, and Portishead’s Third, all great albums from artists who made their biggest impression well over a decade ago. So it’s not a total surprise that I hadn’t heard any of the five nominees for the Mojo Honours’ Breakthrough Act Of 2008. But it gave me an excuse to get familiar with singles from Duffy, Foals, Bon Iver, Pete Molinari, and the Last Shadow Puppets.
Bon Iver
Wait, is this the guy who got dumped, went out into the woods, and came back with a Secretly Canadian album? I think I checked out his MySpace page when reading Pitchfork’s 2007 best of. His songs sound like TVOTR having a cathartic singalong by a campfire after a friend’s funeral. Not feeling the falsetto–I’ll stick with Sun Kil Moon.
Duffy
Dusty In Memphis is an album I’ve heard and think is alright, only I never get around to buying it. Or even downloading it. Once I’ve gotten that, some other Dusty albums, and maybe some Joss Stone, then I’ll give one of Duffy’s albums a listen. I didn’t think we were running low on Starbucks soul, but I guess some record company felt they were missing out. This isn’t blue-eyed, this is albino. Plus, she looks like Stifler’s mom.
Pete Molinari
Nice hat, New Bob Dylan. “Absolutely Sweet Louise?” Is this, like, a parody?
Foals
I don’t think being British completely makes up for what a tool the singer appears to be, but they seem to do the yelpy herky-jerk thing as good as our Supersystem did, if not our Polyrock.
Last Shadow Puppets
Hey, this is an Arctic Monkeys spin-off that sounds more like a side project than a fresh start! Oh, boo. “Breakthrough artist,” Mojo? Would Electronic been up for this in ‘91?
So what have we learned today? Is being the kind of person who hears new bands and immediately mentions an older act they resemble better than being the kind of magazine that praises groups for religiously aping older bands? Is there really no greater way to “break through” than to dress like an eight-year-old and hold your guitar up to your chest? Has there been a New Dylan worse than Pete Molinari and, if so, has he been arrested? Whatever the answers to those questions might be, I’ve learned that I should just stick with our homegrown sources of Best New Music, and that I’m not quite old enough for Mojo yet.
Shortlist announced! [Mojo]
@Maura Johnston: Yeah the album is really good. It’s no reinvention of indie rock, but they do what they do very well. They seem to think it’s math rock, although I’ve still to figure out what that really means.
Skip Joss Stone. I don’t like Duffy that much at all but Joss Stone is unqualifiably bad- so much so that I don’t even have a suitable metaphor for how much she completely and utterly sucks.
How is April, I haven’t heard it yet.
@whoneedslight: Doesn’t break any new ground per se, but predictably beautiful.
Every other song on the Duffy album is better than “Mercy”, just for the record.
@brasstax: oh, I checked out multiple clips of each group.
Plus, she looks like Stifler’s mom.
Good god, she does!
I think I’m going to have to get that Last Shadow Puppets album. Couldn’t bring myself to check out the other videos, though.
Foals are pretty decent, their lead singer is a bit of a poser though. I saw them in Chicago last weekend and I was quite impressed. Their “live” persona’s are a wee bit less contrived.
i am listening to the foals record right now, and i like it a bunch. it’s very tense and that matches well with the drilling going on outside my door.
I dig Bon Iver, but I feel like most of his fan base is either people (like myself) that are from Western Wisconsin, or people who found his Unabomber-esque press release captivating.