keyed up

minutes after i turned on Brothers, my under-versed-in-indie brother hopped into my room asking me what in the blue blazes the fantastic music was. it was the hopping that confirmed my hope of Brothers being the album of the year. hopping still isn't that generous an action for it. there are people who want to marry the album, yes the album, for godsake.


this blues-rock duo - Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney - have put out fifteen of the fiercest and freshest tracks for the year. that indie sound need not actually write any more posts for they've done the work for the music industry. to hell with what the critics say. burned-barn riffs, vintage floorborad-creaking beats, Auerbach's wicked stripped-down, sandpaper howl, and percussions with an eighties feel is what you'll get from their latest album.


i can't decide which track i love the most. they're all stupendous. their opener - 'Everlasting Light' - is sacred, with Auerbach's acid vocals preened to perfection, hymn-like with its choir-ish background vocals, and Carney's drumming abandon. 'Tighten Up' begins with playful whistling and carries a torn-jeans raw edge through, till at the last minute there's a sneaky swerve, changing the tempo - it made my head spin. gold, pure gold.


'The Only One' is a bluesy rock ballad. and then there's wind running through my hair, riding a caravan through a vast expansive desert road past a solitary church - restless tumbleweed rasping at its door - where a choir sings its blues in Too Afraid to Love You. if you think i exagerrate here's what my favourite music reviewer said when he first heard Brothers: 


'I would let Dan & Patrick violate me in ways that aren’t even human. And I would let Patrick play bongos on my buttocks.'


this coming from a married, father-of-three man.

http://www.theblackkeys.com/


past must-listen-to album: Attack & Release

an indie year

2010 is the year of indie music, and that called for a space (or a few drinks if you will). there are bands that are playing some incredibly sweet music. we know of a few - Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, Animal Collective - but there's so much more that is happening in the indie scene, although confined mainly to the US - where a renaissance of americana, folk-rock, vintage rock is flowering - and of course internet radio stations.


so what is indie music, you will ask? technical answer: bands that work with smaller, independent record labels, which may/or may not go commercial later in their career. some say 'underground music'. that indie sound prefers not to describe it. it knows indie music when it hears it. but it you’re putting a gun to its head then here it: stoned rock made up of sea-washed lazy guitars, echoing riffs overhung with percussions, alive with pulsating drums, and most important heady, mind-blowing lyrics. that indie sound is putting up, as best as it can, the bands that are making this music happen.