Best Music of 2006 (Spring Installment)

By Aaron

16 Mar

We’re already almost three months into 2006, which means only 290 days until the year-end Best Of List! Might as well start assembling the early contenders right now, eh?

Wolfmother, Wolfmother
They’re Australian. They sound like they’re channeling Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin simultaneously. They will be the biggest band on the planet by the end of this year. Then the critical backlash will begin. The critics will be wrong.

Soledad Brothers, The Hardest Walk
Detroit’s best band continues their evolution away from blues revivalism to dirty, stripped-down Southern garage rock.

Motorpsycho, Black Hole/Blank Canvas
This criminally underappreciated Norwegian band has been around for 16 years and dabbled in every style under the sun, from metal and grunge, to acid rock, country, power pop, Krautrock, and jazz. This is their first new studio album in three years, and finds them mixing the psychedelic power trio sound of their late 90’s work with the jazziness of their more recent material. As with all their albums, it will be totally ignored in America, which proves that Americans are stupid.
(Note: I couldn’t find an English-language review online yet, so I linked to their homepage instead)

Boris, Pink
Kables clued me into these Japanese sludge-metal masters. If you play this loud enough, you can actually feel your eardrums being pressed inwards by the waves of distortion and feedback. This is a good thing.

The Strokes, First Impressions of Earth
The critics landed on this one, and I’m not sure why. Yeah, it’s too long, and could have benefited from chopping out four or five filler songs. Yeah, Julian Casablancas can’t write lyrics to save his life – but then, he never could. At least he’s finally dropped that annoying “singing in a telephone booth” vocal effect he used on every single track of the first two albums. But the band rocks harder than ever, and they’re trying new things sonically. It’s no Is This It?, but it’s a million times better than that turd sandwich Room on Fire.

Bonus St. Patrick’s Day Rotation
These aren’t new releases, and won’t figure into the year end list, but they’re currently in heavy spin on the mp3 player. Erin Go Bragh!
Flogging Molly, Drunken Lullabies
Dropkick Murphys, Live on St. Patrick’s Day from Boston, MA

Filed under: Lists, Music

13 Responses for "Best Music of 2006 (Spring Installment)"

Tracey March 16th, 2006 at 12:52 pm 1
Aaron, I can sometimes read Norwegian…if you link to the page I might be able to give you some ideas of what’s being said.
Aaron March 16th, 2006 at 12:57 pm 2
I’ll see if I can find one. Most of the reviews I’ve found are actually in German, strangely enough. The cd hasn’t actually been “officially” released in the States yet (it was leaked last month, hence my copy) so I’m expecting to find some English reviews once the cd makes it across the pond.

Interestingly, even though the band’s fanbase is based entirely in Europe, their album titles, lyrics, and website are all in English. They speak better English than most Americans…but I’m guessing that’s a common trait in Scandinavia, eh?
Tracey March 16th, 2006 at 1:00 pm 3
Yes…Scandinavians will apologizing for incorrectly splitting particle verbs. Scary, actually. They’ll say, “I’m sorry I’m so stupid…” while you wonder what is a particle verb.
Tracey March 16th, 2006 at 1:01 pm 4
And if you needed further proof…
D M March 16th, 2006 at 1:11 pm 5
Hmm. Wolfmother seems to have all the right names being dropped. I want to distrust this. Especially when those right names are being linked with ‘bands’ like Jet and trainwrecks like Oasis (who did their one good song and should’ve flown the plane into the ground afterward. That’s not too harsh is it?)

Still, as someone who loves Andrew WK, I am no stranger to triumph rock. I will give them a shot.

Personally, I cannot stop listening to Pelican. I just got Australasia, but I have yet to cease listening to The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw. They are magnificent metal soundscapes, unsullied by vocals.

May I suggest this Allmusic link for Motorpsycho>?
It’s not perfect, and there isn’t a review, but you can get a sense of the band, maybe.
Aaron March 16th, 2006 at 1:23 pm 6
Wolfmother is a guilty pleasure. I was skeptical too, figuring any band coming with this much buzz had to be bad. And they certainly won’t get any points for originality. But while I’m not a fan of all the 80’s revivalism currently going on, I have a soft spot for the era (circa roughly 1968-73) when bands first discovered tube amps and dropped-D tunings. (Probably because I was a toddler when all those bands were first arriving on the scene.) In addition to the aforementioned Sabbath and Zep, you can also throw in Blue Cheer, Cream, and Deep Purple as major elements on this band’s sound. When I crank this up, I can practically smell the spilled bongwater dripping from the speakers.

Also: If “magnificent metal soundscapes, unsullied by vocals” float your boat, Sunn0))) might be your thing.
Kables March 16th, 2006 at 2:30 pm 7
For me:
Copy – Mobius Beard
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat
Tapes ‘N Tapes – The Loon
Destroyer – Destroyer’s Rubies
Jay Dee – Donuts

I haven’t head the new Neko Case yet. The new Cat Power is pretty damn good. I’m underwhelmed by the new Belle and Sebastian; the Liars are overhyped.
D M March 16th, 2006 at 5:43 pm 8
SunO))) makes me think of this poster I saw today: Slow Is The New Loud.

I can appreciate it’s existance, but I wasn’t fond of that pace when the Melvins did it.
Aaron March 16th, 2006 at 6:07 pm 9
Sunn0))) isn’t really my cup of tea, either, truth be told. I tried one of their cds, and it was such an extreme sound I couldn’t really get into it. 20 minute feedback drones are a bit much even for me. I just saw the “wordless soundscape” concept and took a stab in the dark.

I do like the Melvins, though. Not so much their earlier, drone-y, plodding indie releases, but the more concise, song-oriented stuff they did on their three major label albums (Houdini, Stoner Witch, and Stag.) The Melvins are the exceedingly rare example of a band that got better on a major label.
D M March 16th, 2006 at 6:22 pm 10
If you can, check out the trilogy the Melvins did on Ipecac records (also home to Isis, who is excellent) which is owned by one Mike Patton.

The Maggot was their rock album. The Crybaby was their midtempo album. The Bootlicker was the weirder one, with 10 minute collaborations with Tool, and a cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit with Leif Erickson. Those 3 records are, to me, as good as if not better than their major label stuff.
Aaron March 17th, 2006 at 8:28 am 11
Oh my yes, all about the Ipecac. All about the Patton. I’ve been a huge fan of the man since the Faith No More days, and I snap up every recording I come across that has his name on it. Between Fantomas, Tomahawk, Lovage, Mr. Bungle, his solo stuff, and collaborations with everyone under the sun, he seems to put out three or four albums a year.

Hmmm, it appears that The Maggot contains a cover of “The Green Manalishi.” Yes, I will indeed have to check that out.
A Bunch of Us » Best. Music Review. Ever. April 20th, 2006 at 1:41 pm 12
[...] Last month, I posted a list of my favorite new albums of 2006. In that post, I lamented my inability to link to an online review for Motorpsycho’s Black Hole/Blank Canvas. Since the album has not been released in the US, and might not be due to the band’s lack of an American distributor (I obtained my copy through a certain file-sharing network), I despaired of ever finding a review in English. [...]
A Bunch of Us » Best Music of 2006 (Summer Installment) June 21st, 2006 at 8:55 am 13
[...] Back in the spring, I was rocking out to new releases by Soledad Brothers, Motorpsycho, Wolfmother, Boris and the Strokes. I have since lost interest in the Strokes, but the other four are still in heavy rotation, especially Wolfmother. When I listen to their cd, it pins me down spread-eagled on the floor and screams “RESPECT THE ROCK, BEEATCH!” into my face at full volume. Um, in a good way. [...]