Cannibal Cheerleader launch! Dec. 31st, 2007
Hey everyone and welcome to Cannibal Cheerleader, a music blog based right here in Austin, Texas made to bring you the best in local and international rock news. Since we’re just starting up the design is pretty plain and we’re gonna need some serious feedback, so be sure and email cannibalcheerleader@gmail.com with any questions or comments!
This blog will update five days a week with the rough format of Mondays as the Local Band Showcase, Tuesdays as the Breaking National Band Showcase, Wednesdays as YouTube (Music videos etc) Day, Thursdays as Wild Card Day, and Fridays as Live Show Reviews. And of course everyday we’ll try and bring you the latest on Austin music news, national rock journalism, and commentary on the current music scene.
So I’d figure I’d start the blog on Dec. 31st so I could lay down some top 10 lists and show everyone what we’re all about. We’ll start with my top ten songs of 2007.
10. “Girl in the Slayer Jacket” – Pig Destroyer
Pig Destroyer has been making some of the most brutal and technically skilled grindcore metal for years now and while this year’s Phantom Limb wasn’t quite as good as their seminal Terrifyer, this track makes you wanna sacrifice a goat and carve pentagrams into your chest. The crunch of the guitars is at its heaviest and the assault of the drums (which have really come into their own on this LP) matches well with J. R. Hayes newfound vocal maturity. Great track.
For the followup to the critically acclaimed I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning, Conor Oberst decided to expand his band’s sound outwards while retaining his insular take on feelings and personal politics, resulting in some of his most finely crafted tunes to date. This track exemplifies Bright Eyes’ talent at pop songcrafting and lyrical prowess by remaining political and powerful as well as personal while wrapped in a sheet of delicate choruses and folk melodies.
The Monkeys’ sophomore LP showcased the band’s transition from a young, street-smart pop-rock band into genuine art-rockers, maturing both their sound and lyrics. “Balaclava” recalls the fury of songs like “From the Ritz to the Rubble” but it’s tempo changeups and intricate guitarwork show that this is a band that’s changed its formula, if not its basic song template.
Critically divisive, Interpol’s Our Love to Admire nonetheless contained its fair share of seminal tracks to the ultimate NYC-new wavers’ catalogue. “Pace is the Trick” hearkens back to Antics standout “Public Pervert” with its sweeping guitars and dark, moody lyrics on starlight and demise. If this is the band’s worst record they still stand head and shoulders above most of their contemporaries.
While the idea of a Nine Inch Nails record that did NOT deal directly with self-hatred, loneliness, and depression and instead concerned itself mostly with international politics might have seemed disconcerting with some hardcore NIN fans, the album is without a doubt one of Reznor’s best. This Year Zero standout combines a creepy vocal chorus with some of the best industrial electronica since The Downward Spiral.
2007 was definitely a banner year for M.I.A. whose song “Paper Planes’ topped many a critics’ and bloggers‘ best of lists. Still, it was this track, pulled off the awesome Kala, with its samples from New Order and the Pixies that makes this list. Choice lyrics like “I put people on the map/ That never seen a map” really showcase the length M.I.A. went to mold this record out of the soil of a dozen different countries.
Always an underground pleasure, the Raveonettes‘ Lust Lust Lust sees them reaching a shoegazey nirvana, with each track sounding like a cut from Psychocandy. This track, the first on the LP, exemplifies the feeling of getting lost in guitar feedback as a metaphor for getting lost in the arms of love.
Following up their distinctively suburban and insular first album with a far superior and more political sophomore effort, the Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible is anchored by the gigantic organ sound of “Intervention”, the best anti-war track of the year. Built upon the phrase “working for the church while my family dies”, Win Butler and company have truly bested themselves, focusing their big band sound into a single, poignant message.
Perhaps the best evidence that Pete Doherty is more than just a defeated junkie and fodder for the UK tabloids is his influences, which range from the Kinks to the Stone Roses on his newest LP. On “French Dog Blues” Doherty and co. dance a round a jangly melody before dropping into the famous Ian Brown lyrics “I only ever wanted the one with the flag/All you ever wanted was a sixty dollar bag”. Heart-breakingly poignant and relateable even from the guy who dated Kate Moss and has more arrests than records.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have done it again and proved to many that their strength lies with their EPs. Finally committing to tape some of their live staples such as “Down Boy” and “rockers to Swallow” the highlight of the album is the rip-roaring closer “10×10″ which begins with Nick Zinner’s wirey guitar solo and soars through Karen O’s shriek/sing vocals to a pounding conclusion by Brian Chase’s drums. Definitely one of the best YYY tracks ever and my number 1 pick for 2007.
10. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
While most indie-rock fans would claim Funeral as being the Arcade Fire’s magnum opus, I would argue that Neon Bible’s unique approach to instrumentation, its focused message, and its careful balance between rockers and crooners places it well-above the band’s freshman effort. While some may disagree, it can’t be argued that tracks like “Intervention”, “Keep the Car Running”, and “Antichrist Television Blues” will stand the test of time as some of the band’s best work.
Starkly different from the band’s excellent debut LP, Bloc Party’s second outing sees the band as bigger and at times even better than before. Tracks like “On”, “Hunting for Witches”, and “Uniform” rank among the band’s best while still retaining the sing-a-long specialness that keeps Bloc Party at the top of the charts as one of the best band’s working today in the UK.
From the first jangly notes of “Mistaken for Strangers” you know that the National have finally come into their own after several LPs of moody, and dark pop tunes. From the loneliness of “Apartment Story” to the furor of “Squalor Victoria” the National ride the wave of Joy Division with a lean towards an even darker territory that even that which Ian Curtis feared to tread.
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Is Is EP
Recorded during the tumultuous period between Fever to Tell and Show Your Bones, the Is Is EP shows the band falling into the softer realm that would define their sophomore effort while retaining the fierceness that categorized the first. What results is a set of five tunes that are divided between bare-bones rockers and art-rock de-jour mood songs that chew the listener up and spit him or her out. A first rate effort from a first rate band.
5. Babyshambles – Shotter’s Nation
4. Rilo Kiley – Under the Blacklight
While Jenny Lewis’ and company’s last outing marked them as a group of pop raconteurs and the songs as wordy tomes of the times, Under the Blacklight sees the band as keen-eyed observers and the tunes as beautiful blurry Polaroids of passers-by and acquaintances. Tracks like “Silver Lining” and “Close Call”, with their Fleetwood Mac melodies and Lewis’ endearing croon make this one of the best pop albums of the year.3. Stars – In Our Bedroom After the War
The criminally underrated fourth effort from indie-pop wizards Stars ranks among their best work to date. Equal parts tender love songs and political diatribes on the current state of affairs, Stars brilliantly straddle the line of love and war. The metaphor of bedrooms and battlefields is not lost to the songwriting team of Torquil Campbell and Chris Seligman and with that in mind they crafted the best pop record of the year.
When it came time for these bratty Brit-rockers to step up to the plate following their phenomenal first album, lauded to death in the UK, the band swung and hit it out of the park with this art-rock classic. Divided between short, punky flashes of furor with songs like “Brianstorm” and “Teddy Pickers” and meaningful crooners like “Do Me A Favour” and “505″, the Arctic Monkeys have proven once and for all they are here to stay.
What else can be said about M.I.A. that hasn’t already been said in numberous publications around the world. 2007 was clearly the year of the killer Kala, spawning hits such as “Boyz”, “Bird Flu”, and “Paper Planes”, though truly, the album is not unlike the greats, in that every track is incredible and necessary to the overall piece. Best album of the year, hands down.