After twelve years, five albums, hundreds of shows, festival appearances, and a string of gold and platinum awards, Something For Kate front man Paul Dempsey is spending 2009 stepping out on his own to release his first solo album in the middle of the year. Recorded at a friend’s house on the NSW central coast, with producer Wayne Connolly and mixed in LA with Doug Boehm, the album is a departure from the heavier, more intense Something For Kate sound. Dempsey plays every instrument on the record, and uses space and atmosphere in every song.
TV on the Radio / Dancing Choose
This track has so much manic energy: buzzsaw synth-bass, mad shuffling drums and a rapid-fire lyrical rant that sounds like some kind of crazed public service announcement. Guaranteed to shake you from your mid-morning malaise.
Animal Collective / My Girls
This is such a great pop song, like the Beach Boys with synthesizers and delay pedals. And acid. I’m sure I’m not the first person to make that comparison. I love the way it builds from a few melodic pieces into this huge bouncing, chanting, anthem.
David Byrne and Brian Eno / Strange Overtones
I saw David Byrne play in January while I was finishing my record and there was one song that I had been trying for months to finish and I was running out of time. I hadn’t heard this song before but he opened his set with it and sang the lines, ‘Your song still needs a chorus, I know you’ll figure it out’. And it was oddly encouraging and inspiring.
Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band / Get Well Cards
This whole record has a really great loose, shambolic feel to it and Conor Oberst always paints amazingly vivid pictures with his lyrics. This is a real summer day song. I just picked up their new album today, which I’m very much looking forward to hearing.
The Drones / Oh My
This song kicks off with a lurching guitar riff worthy of Crazy Horse and then proceeds through one of the most harsh and blackly humorous lyrics I think I’ve ever heard. Best live band in the country, too.
French Kicks / Also Ran
French Kicks are a really unique and under-appreciated band. This song takes some really unexpected and dreamy melodic turns over some high-tempo drumming that sounds like helicopter rotor-blades or something. Good times.
The National / The Geese of Beverly Road
I loved the Boxer album, but I still have a greater affection for the previous album Alligator and this song is sad, beautiful, uplifting and funny all at the same time. Amazing words and the cellos and clarinets seem to perfectly conjure up geese. Weird!
Bob Dylan / Ballad of a Thin Man
Still one of the most paranoid and sinister songs ever written. Not an easy listen if you’re in the wrong headspace! It has a really dank, nasty swing to it. And even though everything has already been said about Dylan’s lyrical genius, when he completes that verse by yelping out the words, ‘tax-deductible charity organizaasssshhhhhuuuuuuunnnnnnnssssss!’, you have to chuckle in awe and wonder.
No related posts.
{ 0 comments… add one now }