Into my ears

I've started working. A real job. Real Job. All capital-lettery! With the feeling of being appreciated and being part of something! This is extremely novel, after 8 years of contracting.

I knew it was going to be a fun place when I walked in for the interview and saw the place covered with concert posters, including Queens of the Stone Age, Social Distortion, Foo Fighters and No Doubt. The President of the company is one of the only people I know who reveres Arcade Fire more than I do.

I have to hide in sound often to be able to concentrate, and I've been getting much music, because many of my favorite bands have been releasing albums. So I thought I'd write a short entry about some of the music that I've bought lately.

We're in the concert dull zone. Next month we have Austin City Limits festival, Henry Rollins' spoken word event and Interpol.

The new Interpol album, Our Love to Admire, was something I was anticipating with quivering joy. They are brooding, owe perhaps far too much to Bauhaus and Joy Division, and have obtuse lyrics. And I love them. Intensely. Let me be more specific: I loved their first two albums, Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics. The third album is fine, and I definitely love, so far, several of the tracks. But I'm not sure whether it is as stunning as I had hoped. I will have to give it more listens, but I was not overwhelmed. It almost hurts to type that, since I was so looking forward to it. Ah well.

Editors' sophomore effort, An End Has a Start, impressed me far more than I expected, especially after the first single didn't excite me nearly as much as Munich did more than a year ago. Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors is not quite the Coldplay-esque anthem some have deemed it, but there are some far better tracks on the album. In fact, the only song I could skip is the last one. Roy is not nearly so fond of it.

The National is a fairly recent discovery. I have all their albums, I think, but I need to listen more to give a better critique comparing them. This little piece isn't really an in-depth anything anyway. MY blog, MY lazy! HA! Anyhow... I suppose I enjoy the morose in music. And somewhat obtuse lyrics. The Bauhaus/Joy Division/Tom Waits/Smiths influence is obvious in this band. The vocal range of the lead singer, Matt Berninger, is perhaps limited, but it does seem to exceed that of Interpol's Paul Banks. Yes, a recovering opera singer is fond of lazy vocal stylings. The fact that they must be coupled with exceptional, heady lyrics speaks more to the writer/poet I might be than the vocal craftsperson I was.

Other worthwhile new music: Crowded House's Time on Earth, an emotional but highly listenable elegy to their former drummer, Paul Hester, who committed suicide some years back; The Black Dog Book of Dogma, appealing if a bit mellow electronica; Mocean Worker Cinco de Mowo, drum and bass with heavy 50s-60s lounge and jazz influence (with "Tickle This", "Shake ya Boogie" and all tracks with flutist Rahsaan Roland Kirk being my faves... and not at all because of my fondness for China Mieville's King Rat).

I'm eagerly awaiting more material from Louis XIV, Future of the Left, and Bob Mould. What's a post-punk gal supposed to do with herself?? I suppose I'll just get more black clothing, practice the irony and the mope, and.... go to bed.