Let It Spin: Alternative/Indie 2017
My favorite offerings from this year’s alternative/indie scene
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Good morning, music fans, and welcome to Let It Spin. In each installment of this series, we will focus on three albums during a set time period of which each one must fit into one of three categories: Obscure, Up ’n’ Coming, and Name Brand. Obscure is for bands that most people have never heard of but are gaining traction. Up and Coming is for bands that you might have heard of either on FM radio, Alt Nation or other middle ground XM radio stations, and/or Spotify/Apple Music playlists. The Name Brand album is for bands that get heavy attention and could be in the running for Grammy nominations. These bands usually have a large following and are considered a commercial success.
Obscure: Active Bird Community, “Stick Around”
This lifelong quartet of Brooklyn rockers self-released this album during their senior year of college. According to vocalist/guitarist Tom D’Agustino, “I think that time is emotional for everyone who is about to graduate, but I think for us, childhood friends who had been making music since we were 11, this was like the last moment for us to say everything we wanted and needed to say.” This 9-track album so easily relates to your life now or whisks you back in a time where you wish you had these songs to sing along with your problems. The first track (my personal favorite), “QB Sneak,” is about being addicted to caffeine and trying to get out of the hole you’ve dug yourself into. Their anthem to youth and the struggle for what they want in life shows up in the buzzing guitar-led song “Newbie.” The final and titular track, “Stick Around,” lets the listener know that even though life is weird and ugly sometimes, it’s not worth giving up on. If you like tempo changes, catchy riffs, buzzing guitars, passionate but melancholy toned lyrics, and solid drum work, then let Stick Around drift you away into the new year remembering when you were still figuring it out. If you’re still figuring it out like me, then at least we know we aren’t alone.
Tracks That Stick Out: QB Sneak, Newbie, Dead Legs, Stick Around
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Up ‘n’ Coming: The Front Bottoms, “Going Grey”
The New Jersey duo’s fourth studio album (second via the Fueled By Ramen label) explores the complications of relationships and friendships as Brian Sella (vocals/guitar) and Mat Uychich (drums/assorted sounds) get older. Released on October 13, The Front Bottoms leave their usual rough and simple style behind for a fuller, more polished sound. Sella is just as stellar as ever with his witty yet raw lyrics about girls, stress, memories, and his typical middle finger towards pretentious people. “Vacation Town” is one of my favorites on the album where the band does some reminiscing:
“I miss the hours in the morning,
And you in the morning hours
I miss walking, naked
Through the backyard to get to the outdoor shower
I miss the way things used to be”
This 11-track album utilizes Brian and Mat’s backing band to incorporate synths; a new and welcoming addition to the TFB arsenal. What The Front Bottoms do on Going Grey is not new or revolutionary, but it takes that great acoustic guitar and drum combination and makes it so much bigger. The album starts and ends with the sound of the tide coming in and out, which seems to play a central role to the feel of these 11 tracks. The ocean is vast and deep, and many times Sella seems to be lost out in the middle of it, anxious and self-aware as ever. No wonder he’s “scared to be living by the ocean” on “Ocean,” the final track of the album.
Tracks That Stick Out: Peace Sign, Vacation Town, Grand Finale, Ocean
Listen here:
Name Brand: Queens of the Stone Age, “Villains”
Josh Homme has done it again! The King of “robot rock” has landed himself another “Best Rock Album” award nomination at the Grammys for the dancey and pulsating tunes that comprise Villains. Even though he’s the only founding member left, the validity hasn’t been lost through QOTSA’s teenage years (one former member in particular, Dave Grohl (2001–2002) on drums). Villains was released on August 25 and does not feature any guest musicians like their prior albums. As Homme’s style has evolved since the California band’s beginnings (1996), he has proved time and time again that his dark and black leather jacket wearing persona carries the band through any style choice they decide on. This time that style is rock’s variation of electronic music.
Why is Villains different from the band’s previous albums? Well, maybe it’s because pop icon producer Mark Ronson put it together. Says Homme: “If you listen to ‘Uptown Funk,’ you hear that tight, kind of vacuous dry sound, and that’s where I wanted to take this new Queens record. I wanted it to be like our record Songs for the Deaf, but looking at it with goggles on underwater — that kind of clarity. Also, he’s as obsessed with drum beats as I am.” Though “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” kicks off the album with a long, quiet intro, when the beat kicks in, you’re ready to stop, drop, and dance. At only 9 tracks, Villains gives you a quick taste of what a villain’s soundtrack might sound like, with Homme’s eerie vocals and echoes in a haunted house of instrumentals. Near the end of the album, “The Evil Has Landed” draws you in with its old-school riffs as Homme howls, “come close,” literally dragging you into the final breaths of this dark, dancey, raucous album.
No matter what the Recording Academy says in a few weeks, this is the best rock album of the year.
Tracks That Stick Out: Feet Don’t Fail Me Now, The Way You Used to Do, Un-Reborn Again, The Evil Has Landed
Listen Here:
