Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak are either two of the most talented musicians currently out there right now, or they’re aliens from a distant planet where all beings are born with the inherent ability to produce songs that are equal parts intelligent, emotional, challenging, and fun. Quite frankly I’m starting to think the latter, because they do it just a little too well.


The Knot, the duo’s follow-up to Wye Oak’s 2007 debut If Children, shows that the band has set its Crock-Pot to slow simmer and added some key ingredients while maintaining the stew’s, uh, original flavor, if I may follow through with that metaphor.


This time around they’re a little moodier; brooding tracks like “For Prayer” and “That I Do” alternate between melancholy, foreboding guitar riffs laid over menacing keyboards and crashing, cacophonous interludes that stretch and bend, adding incredible texture to the songs. Their music, by extension, captures—by way of magic, or the aformentioned alien powers, or I don’t know what—the very essence of emotion. Wasner’s small, bittersweet voice is pitch-perfect and anxious as she sings “Cross your fingers, say a prayer / You don’t believe, but I don’t care.” In fact, anxiety hovers edgily above the entire album, which is fraught with lyrics like “We are both the same: unwell”; “Better isn’t always doing well / I know because I’m better now myself”; and “It’s true, you love me too / But not the way that I do.” Wasner has a gift for nailing a particular feelingin a few simple words, and her delivery is often devastating. But it’s not all doom and gloom. One of the album’s most sparkling moments is “Siamese,” which has a lovely wilting string part and kicky drum beat with a brilliantly-placed tambourine.


The shiniest jewel in the crown is “I Want for Nothing,” of which I’ve been a big fan since first hearing it live. The album version is vastly reworked and downright stunning; a heartswelling violin part has been laid over the spruced-up guitar riff, which itself no longer wobbles, but rather wafts in perfect harmony with the new addition. And to top it off Wasner opens the song with some of the best lyrics I’ve heard in the past few years: “Say no to me, and I will love you more / Play me for keeps.”


The only song on the album that I don’t love inside out is the sprawling, seven-minute “Mary Is Mary.” It’s a little too depressing and aimless, even for me. Other than that, The Knot is air-tight, hovering expertly between anxious noise and intricate melodies, imbued with intelligence but almost never marred by self-indulgence.


The Knot [Merge Records; full-album stream available]

As promised: The state of my “2009 awesomeness” playlist, in which I collect the songs that catch my ear as the year progresses in order to not make my best-of list a last-minute-of-December clusterfuck sort of thing. (It inevitably winds up being like that, but you know, I have noble intentions.) It’s after the jump, and has some contextual links added in. Feel free to make your own and share it here!


The Joy Formidable, “Cradle”
Vistoso Bosses, “Delirious”
Lily Allen, “Everyone’s At It”
Brandy feat. Ne-Yo, “Decisions”
Annie, “Anthonio”
Anthonio, “Angel Face (feat. Annie)”
The Breeders, “Fate To Fatal”
Chrisette Michele, “What You Do (feat. Ne-Yo)”
The Dead Weather, “Are Friends Electric?”
Depeche Mode, “Wrong”
Dum Dum Girls, “Catholicked”
Kelly Clarkson, “Don’t Let Me Stop You”
Laura Izibor, “From My Heart To Yours”
Maxwell, “Pretty Wings”
Miranda Lambert, “Dead Flowers”
Moby, “Shot In The Back Of The Head”
Wye Oak, “I Want For Nothing”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Zero”
Micachu & The Shapes, “Golden Phone”

The Knot, the second album from Baltimore dream-pop duo Wye Oak, comes out next month, but you can hear the whole thing streaming at Merge Records’ site right now. And you really should, as it’s an absolutely lovely record that only gets better the deeper you sink into it. [Merge Records]

Last night, between a very annoying Mets loss and a session of bug-searching, I took some time to listen to a side of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour while sitting on (well, leaning up against, really) a bean bag, a cold beer in my hand. And I did nothing else. It was nice! It was also the first time in a long time that I’d just spent listening to a record and staring into space and not doing anything else–not even a crossword puzzle. And today is a beautiful spring day in New York City, one that’s perfect for engaging in similar activities (while being outside). Three records that I need to really pull out and just chill out to sometime soon before I go crazy, after the jump. Feel free to share yours!

Broadcast, The Noise Made By People. Given that the climate in the Northeast is slowly (so slowly) edging away from the winter chill, the clock may be ticking on this album’s seasonal appropriateness. But Trish Keenan’s vocals–icy, precise, removed–are, paradoxically, like warm milk.

George Michael, Ladies And Gentlemen The Best Of George Michael: For The Heart. Yes, there’s a lot of emotion, but there’s also a lot of room to just sink in to the music. Scott MacIntyre, your future is in helping stressed-out hausfraus make it through.

Wye Oak, If Children. The aural equivalent of a fifty-foot featherbed and an endless rainy afternoon. Their new album is going to come just in time.

Just a note: It was way too hard for me to come up with just three of these albums. Can I blame the Information Age?

The Baltimore slowcore duo Wye Oak is one of the best acts to come out of the indie woodwork during my time at Idolator, and I’m pretty amped to hear their forthcoming album The Knot, which comes out on Merge Records this July. “Take It In” is the first “single” from the record, a gently strident bit of clambering indiepop that’s tugged along by Jenn Wasner’s confident alto; it reveals some—but not too much—maturing from Wasner and partner Andy Stack. After the jump, the video for “Please Concrete” from their fine debut album, If Children.

New Wye Oak MP3: “Take It In” [MBV]
Wye Oak – Please Concrete [YouTube]
Wye Oak [MySpace]

What were the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008? What were the eight things this year that broke our hearts—or, at least, our ears? We’re happy to announce 80 ’08 (and Heartbreak), Idolator’s year-end overview. The list is below the jump.

80. Andrew W.K., “McLaughlin Groove”
79. Elvis Costello puts his trust in Fall Out Boy
78. Wye Oak, “I Want for Nothing”
77. Nine Inch Nails’ flood of digitally distributed music
76. TV on the Radio, “Golden Age”
75. Journey welcomes the Web 2.0 Era (and a new singer) with open arms
74. Jenny Lewis, “Acid Tongue”
73. Radiohead scores the year’s strangest Top 40 hit
72. The Music Tapes at Athens Popfest, August 2008
71. Kanye, Lily, Pete, and Courtney form their own blogger nation
70. French Kicks, Swimming
69. Soundscan: down for the recount
68. Make It Stop! The Most of Ross Johnson
67. Parry Gripp, “Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn)”
66. Okay, Huggable Dust
65. Mariah Carey, “Touch My Body”
64. 360 deals make heads spin
63. Daniel Amos, Darn Floor Big Bite
62. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
61. Solange, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams
60. The Numa Numa Dance revival
59. The Gaslight Anthem, The ’59 Sound
58. ’90s alt-rock memoirs
57. Larry Norman and Sonseed
56. Sheryl Crow, “Shine Over Babylon”
55. DJ Koze
54. David Cook beats David Archuleta on American Idol
53. T-Pain, Thr33 Ringz
52. Perez Hilton Vs. Sony BMG: slapfight!
51. Justin Moore’s “Back That Thing Up” video
50. Optimo’s mix CDs
49. Extra Golden live at the Caledonia Lounge, Athens, GA, June 2008
48. Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song
47. Daveigh Chase sings “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA” on HBO’s Big Love
46. Gnarls Barkley and the Raconteurs race each other to the record store
45. Pete Wentz tries to save the music video with FNMTV
44. R&B’s breakbeat vogue
43. Jobromance!
42. Dennis Wilson, Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition)
41. Miley Cyrus, “See You Again”
40. Max Martin and Dr. Luke infiltrate rock radio
39. Of Montreal get Skeletal
38. Poplife Presents Poplife Sucks
37. Alec Foege, Right of the Dial and Taylor Clark, Starbucked
36. Major labels fail to kill the single—again
35. Velvet Revolver brings the drama
34. Blake Leyh makes us listen closer to The Wire
33. Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, “Yahhh!”
32. The end of TRL
31. The old-skool rave revival
30. Ida Maria, “Oh My God”
29. Fred Schneider on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
28. CMT’s Can You Duet
27. ’90s reunion fever
26. Estelle makes her way across the ocean
25. John Darnielle’s Master of Reality and Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste
24. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
23. Santogold, “Lights Out”
22. Summer festival glut
21. Monotonix live in Baltimore
20. James Sullivan, The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America
19. Be Your Own Pet, “Becky”
18. Kanye West’s aesthetics
17. “Vinyl is back!”
16. Global reissues bonanza
15. Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”
14. Rickrolling rolls on
13. M.I.A., “Paper Planes”
12. Alphabeat get “wonky”
11. The year of the remix
10. R. Kelly goes to court
9. Jarvis Cocker at Pitchfork Festival, Chicago, July 2008
8. The Ron Clark Academy, “You Can Vote However You Like”
7. Portishead, Third
6. Prince at Coachella Festival, April 2008
5. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
4. Guitar Hero / Rock Band
3. A very musical Presidential election
2. Lil Wayne: All things to all people
1. Ne-Yo, Year Of The Gentleman

HEARTBREAKS
1. Mamma Mia Misses The Essence Of ABBA (Kate Richardson)
2. The Death of Baltimore Club Music’s Queen, DJ K-Swift (Al Shipley)
3. The blogosphere as the new status quo (Lucas Jensen)
4. Britney Spears on the 2008 MTV VMAs (Molly McAleer)
5. Be Your Own Pet breaks up (Mike Barthel)
6. Everyone in the music business losing their freakin’ jobs (Michaelangelo Matos)
7. Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy (Maura Johnston)
8. John Rich shills for the GOP (Chuck Eddy)

It used to be that you had to lurk on fan sites and wait for someone to post a concert bootleg to hear unreleased material from your favorite bands, but that process has since been boiled down to a single YouTube search. Case in point: “I Want for Nothing,” an unreleased track by Baltimore’s Wye Oak.

As with any band that I particularly like, I consistently check the YouTube results for Wye Oak to keep an eye out for new songs and good performance videos that I can watch as part of my elaborate life procrastination ritual. In April I found that high quality videos from an entire concert had been posted, and it was like Christmas morning. “I Want For Nothing” became daily listening.

As with most of the duo’s music, “Nothing” is kind of a hard track to put your finger on. The two adjectives that first came to mind were “slinky” and “grinding,” but then it occurred to me that those two words are actually somewhat at odds. The frantic guitar strumming and aching vocals lend a forceful urgency and messy uneasiness, but, as always with Wye Oak, there’s an ingenious melody buried underneath the noise.

(Side note: If you made a video montage of stupid cat shenanigans set to this song it would more or less define my experience of the Internet in 2008.)

80 ’08 (And Heartbreak)

Saturday’s Daytrotter/Take the Handle/SnowGhost Music showcase at Brooklyn’s Glasslands Gallery had two things going for it: Wye Oak was on the bill, and it was in the afternoon. Hoping it might end my CMJ coverage on a much-needed high note, I camped out for most of the afternoon and heard some genuinely recommendable music at a lovely, mercifully couch-equipped venue.

For starters, here’s where my CMJ Bingo card stands at the end of the festival:



Almost had that diagonal! And for the record I nearly saw a band called I Wrestled a Bear Once, but according to the official rules you have to watch at least one song to mark off the square.

First up was Laura Gibson. I’ve been antagonistic towards solo acoustic sets this week, but Gibson somewhat redeemed the stripped-down singer/songwriter performance for me. While still treading in extremely well-worn territory she has a nuanced way with melodies and song construction, and her soft voice is confident and dynamic. She isn’t doing anything new, but she’s doing it incredibly well. Her music is very pleasant and thoughtful, and sometimes that’s all you really need.

“Come By Storm”

Next was Idolator favorite Wye Oak. If you feel like you hear a lot about this band on the site it’s because they’re just that good. And if you’ve never heard of them I refer you to Maura’s excellent writeup from last year, which is far and away a better and much more skilled description than I could ever conjure; if I may quote directly: ‘…the wall of sound they erected during their set was fortresslike, yet laced with hooks that forced you to focus on individual songs, instead of just the massive amount of noise they were producing.” That’s a perfect way to put it. There’s something enchanted about this band on record, and live they’re even more bewitching, especially for just two people. Their set was disappointingly short, but they played some great-sounding new songs along with a few from If Children.

“Warning”

“I Don’t Feel Young”

My favorite Wye Oak song:

Untitled (New song)

“I Want For Nothing” (Another new song)

Next was Cincinnati band Bad Veins. Built around crashing cymbals and soaring vocals, they’re a little hard to warm up to, but about midway through the set they’d charmed me. Unfortunately the songs on their MySpace don’t transmit quite the same energy as did the live show, so I don’t know that I’d necessarily go out of my way to get the album, but I had a nice time hearing them play live.

“Gold and Warm”

The last band I saw was Cut Off Your Hands, a pretty well-hyped powerpop outfit from New Zealand. To my pleasant surprise they were every bit as fun as the hoopla would suggest, with ferocious percussion and killer hooks.

“Still Fond”

Feeling a little antsy and with the dark cloud of a midterm season looming I left before The End of the World and Luke Temple played.

To close out our CMJ coverage, here is my official list of festival favorites:

Ponytail
No Kids
Mirah
Beach House
Cuchillo
Depedro
Laura Gibson
Wye Oak
Cut Off Your Hands

I’m finding it hard to say much about the video for “Please Concrete” by the Baltimore duo Wye Oak, mainly because I’m struck by its almost-scary resemblance so many daydreams I had as a solitary, sorta-sickly young girl, right down to the muted fall colors. (Sure, the shoegazy indiepop twosome is something of a House Band for this here site, but I didn’t think that would give them a line in to my childhood memories!) Anyway, I suppose “childlike reverie” is kind of a nice thing to be plunged into on a day when the world seems to be going even crazier than usual, right? Ha ha. [Pitchfork.TV]

Idolator-beloved Baltimore duo Wye Oak–p.k.a. Idolator-beloved Baltimore duo Monarch–had their debut album If Children reissued by Merge Records this week, and you should buy it if the idea of “an indiepop record that’s equal parts mid-’90s K Records and shoegaze” pushes your buttons like it does mine. And! Those of you who have had If Children since its original release will be delighted to hear this live set of theirs, which features a few new songs. It’s like Christmas in April, except with a blog post from last month! [Aural States; HT Al Shipley; Photo Nikola Tamindzic]

And the song at No. 12 shows that two people, when they put their mind to it, are able to emit enough light and heat for everyone to stay warm.

The Baltimore duo Wye Oak–formerly known as Monarch–was one of my favorite new bands this year, with a two-person lineup that made the layers upon layers of feedback and melody they unleashed on their debut album, If Children, all the more remarkable. When Wye Oak played our anniversary party last fall, the No. 1 question people asked me about them was “Are there really only two people on stage?”; the wall of sound they erected during their set was fortresslike, yet laced with hooks that forced you to focus on individual songs, instead of just the massive amount of noise they were producing. “Warning” is the first song I heard from the band and remains probably the best example of how they channel their indiepop through otherworldly wails; its beauty shines from the first guitar peal, and when Jenn Wasner accompanies the overdriven guitar with some crystal-clear “na na na”s it’s hard for me to resist the impulse to skip in time to the music, even if I’m sitting down. (No studio-quality YouTube of the track, alas, although there is an MP3 of the song at the band’s site, which is linked below.)

Monarch >> MUSIC [monarchmakesmusic.com]
Monarch @ the Cake Shop [YouTube]
Wye Oak [MySpace]
[Photo: Nikola Tamindzic]