Cannibal Cheerleader

SXSW 2009 – ‘09 BEST EAT

NEW NEKO CASE ALBUM – ‘09 BEST EAT

With 2009 coming on strong, we can all admit that it’s about time the last two years ended, and not just because we’re ready to get the ’so-called’ Texan out of the White House. We’re talking about the length of time between the last Neko Case album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and the upcoming Middle Cyclone. We’ve had quite a few stories already about this highly anticipated release, but we just stumbled across a live version of an upcoming track and had to share it with everyone. Here’s Neko performing “I’m An Animal”:

Be still my heart! This album’s gonna be a doozy. Be on the lookout for it in March (or a little before, knowing us!). 

NEW YEAH YEAH YEAHS ALBUM – ‘09 BEST EAT

HOWLING BELLS RADIO WARS LEAKS

NEKO CASE PREVIEWS NEW LP

Neko Case – “The Needle Has Landed”

THERMALS SIGN TO KRS, RELEASE TRACKLIST

Now We Can See Track Listing:
1.) “When I Died”
2.) “We Were Sick”
3.) “I Let It Go”
4). “Now We Can See”
5.) “At the Bottom of the Sea”
6.) “When We Were Alive”
7.) “I Called Out Your Name”
8.) “When I Was Afraid”
9.) “Liquid In, Liquid Out”
10.) “How We Fade”
11.) “You Dissolve”

YEAH YEAH YEAHS REVEAL XMAS SONG

CANNIBAL CHEERLEADER’S BLOODY BEST

10. Spinnerette – “Ghetto Love”

Squeaking in at the last second care of the newest incarnation of ex-Distiller Brody Dalle, Spinnerette, “Ghetto Love” combines spidery guitar riffs and wailing female vocals to make a part-industrial, part-punk masterpiece that rivals the tunes from such seminal works as Coral Fang. Highly recommended for fans of old school LA punk with a 2008 twist.

9. Frightened Rabbit – “The Twist”

Tender as a broken heart and bloody as a gaping wound, “The Twist” by Frightened Rabbit combines a lovelorn tale of self-loathing with a minimalist piano line that nonetheless sounds more true to life than the majority of romantic ballads on the radio today. Combining real-world experience with careful, quiet riffs makes this tune one of the finest love songs of the year.

8. The Whispertown 2000 – “Atlantis”

Morgan Nagler’s voice remains fragile as a icy lake but on “Atlantis” from the Whispertown 2000’s latest effort Swim her lyrics are focused on under the water, escaping into the hidden city deep below, away from sin. A testament to the quiet, serene songwriting of the Whispertown quartet, this tune is one of the most haunting of the year.

7. M83 – “Graveyard Girl”

The tale of a suicidal goth girl might not be construed as one of the most whimsical and heartwarming songs of the year, but under the sweeping electronic orchestra of M83, “Graveyard Girl” is an equal parts kitschy ode to John Hughes narratives and a shoe-gazing spin through layers of haunting vocals. Slightly out-edges “Kim and Jessie” just due to our morbid fascination here at Cannibal Cheerleader.

6. Jenny Lewis – “Acid Tongue”

With the year’s release of her sophomore album Jenny Lewis went from sultry songstress to road-weary troubadour, winding tales of a life hard-lived, and none harder than the lovelorn ballad as told in “Acid Tongue”. With a sense of the weight-of-the-world on your shoulders held up only by one’s own hope, Jenny Lewis spins a tale of drug abuse and loneliness that’s a road song for the 2008 generation.

5. My Morning Jacket – “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2″

2008 has been a good year for My Morning Jacket, cementing them in their rightful place as one of America’s premiere rock bands. Perhaps no better testament to this exists than in the wild experimentalism displayed on their newest album and on the song “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2″, which features bizarre instrumentation combined with the signature Jim James vocal stylings to create a haunting a captivating song that remains one of MMJ’s best ever.

4. Crystal Castles – “Courtship Dating”

Slinking in on a tide of electronic clicks and swishes “Courtship Dating” is easily the most radio-ready and immediately catching track off the Crystal Castles’ debut LP. With a fiery chorus and a dance-worthy groove “Courtship Dancing” is easily the top electronic track of the year.

3. The Hold Steady – “Constructive Summer”

This year saw the release of the Hold Steady’s Stay Positive, yet another release of bar-ready rock jams that weaved tales of lost Americana in a country that’s lost in innocence but still clings to undying dreams and hopes. Nothing better captures this attitude that “Constructive Summer”, the first song off the album and one of the best straight up rock tracks the Hold Steady have ever composed. 

2. Bloc Party – “Ion Square”

As the final track off Bloc Party’s newest LP Intimacy, “Ion Square” needed to encapsulate the message of the entire piece, an instantly politcal and romantic tune, all awash in electronics and guitar pedals. The song succeeds with ease, capturing the zeitgeist of the band’s current incarnation and pummeling the listener with equal parts poetry and passion, forming one of the best tracks of the year.

1. Be Your Own Pet – “Becky”

This was the year of Be Your Own Pet, and just in time as the band imploded near the end anyway in a decidedly rock and roll move. Still, the group left us with a string of punk rock revivalist tunes that screamed of Buzzcocks and hellfire, with all the fury and passion that first made the world fall in love with youthful rage. Perhaps none of these tracks is better or more definitive of the band’s delightfully sordid career than “Becky”, a tune banned in the US and full of high-school politics, figurative and literal backstabbings, and all the blazing guitarwork and shrieked Jemina Pearl vocals that have made the group so endearing. While their entire discography deserves a thorough examination by indie rock lovers everywhere, this is a good song to start with and the best song of 2008.

TOP TEN ALBUMS OF ‘08

10. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

Every few years America needs a reminder that they’re musical legacy is carried on the back of a quintet from Kentucky, hefting the burden of Southern-rock and fuzing it with massive degrees of guitar heroics and rampant experimentalism to rival the likes of Radiohead. This year’s reminder is Evil Urges by that same quintet, My Morning Jacket, and it’s packed full of such a wide range of incredible tracks to be considered one of their most far-reaching and fantastic releases to date.

9. The Action Design – Never Say

Resisting the urge to rework tracks from their Tsunami Bomb repertoire, Agent M and her new band the Action Design have constructed an entirely new sound, combining heartfelt punk ethos with elements of dance-rock and electronic. The formula works fantastically, displayed best on their album Never Say, an album of surprising depth and meaning during a time when Warped Tour bands are becoming more and more vapid. One of the best punk releases of the year.

8. Ponytail – Ice Cream Spiritual

With wild experimentalism and frenetic energy rivaling any indie rock band this year, Ponytail have a chokehold on the mad-crazy progressive meets jazz fusion rock and roll market. Their newest release Ice Cream Spiritual describes their sound perfectly in the name alone – a combination of childish delight and wild religious fanaticism. Capture that image in your mind, turn it into a move, and Ponytail is the perfect soundtrack.

7. Scarlett Johansson – Anywhere I Lay My Head

With a subversive edge totally unexpected in a covers album, Scarlett Johansson’s Anywhere I Lay My Head, a collection of Tom Waits’ songs, surprises and delights with its inventive renditions, creating a new set of standards for actresses turned singers. With David Sitek of TV on the Radio behind the boards, and a patented ‘Tinkerbell on cough syrup’ sound, tracks like “Falling Down” and “Green Grass” take on a new and incredible life of their own. Deservedly one of the best of the year, both for its music and for the gutsiness of its creation.

6. Bloc Party – Intimacy

On Bloc Party’s last album A Weekend in the City, the politics of everyday London living became very personal, hitting home with every subsequent sweeping song. On their newest album Intimacy, the quartet have managed to switch gears, making the most personal of moments become full of political meaning. On tracks like “Trojan Horse” a lover’s betrayal is akin to the fall of Troy and on “Talons” the group details the terrible (and deadly) consequences of romantic dishonesty. An emotional album fighting against an ‘emo’ world, Intimacy finds a band in rare form, taking the lessons of the past and moving their sound forward with rewarding results. 

5. Marnie Stern – This is It…

On the lengthily titled This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That, supreme shredder and songwriter Marnie Stern has managed to deliver on the promises of her early albums by taking her prestigiousness behind a six-string and combining it with excellent songcraft and a Karen O. wail to make one of the best albums of the year. Singles “Shea Stadium” and “Transformer” confirm the album’s pop sensibilities and deep cuts like “The Crippled Jazzer” delight with their destructive riffs and dizzying imagination. The best release from one of the best indie rock guitarists ever. 

4. M83 – Saturdays=Youth

Capturing the spirit of youthfulness couldn’t be a harder task for a young songwriter. How to describe all the nervous fumblings, the magnificent discoveries, the awesome highs and terrible lows of approaching adulthood? If you’re M83, the solution is to let the music do the talking, sweeping maximalist riffs over John Hughes-style cinematics, creating an aura of energetic passion with all the ignorant bliss of a lonely teenage dreamer. Saturdays=Youth is perfect soundtrack to your years in high school, that is, if you were a nervous indie rock kid like myself. The best release from the already formidable M83 so far.

3. TV on the Radio – Dear Science

Following up on an album like TV on the Radio’s Return to Cookie Mountain might be seen as some to be an impossible task. To surpass its rip-roaring fury one would have to turn inward and redefine what made the band so remarkable to begin with, and that is just what TVoTR have accomplished on Dear Science, a remarkably careful and sensitive record with no less of the force of the former but more secure in its songcraft and enriching in its tunes than ever before. Sounding more like a soul-session band with a rock edge than an indie band hiding behind laptops, the group careens through dizzying tunes of power and depth with equal parts dark sorrow and unimaginable hope, crafting one of the best records of the year.

2. Be Your Own Pet – Get Awkward

The kids will never be alright if Be Your Own Pet has their way. From violent zombie fights to rampant drug usage, Get Awkward is a violent adolescent wet-dream come nightmarishly true, an over-exaggerated version of High School the Musical with a horrific injection of bloody reality. Though it turned out to be the band’s swan song, what a collection to go out on, combining a matured punk rock sound with endearingly clumsy lyrics and the trademark Jemina Pearl snarl carrying the whole crew along. This album should be the definitive soundtrack to every awkward youth, every wanna-be punk rocker, every indie-kid ready to cast off scene politics and relearn the magic of rock in pure, unfettered form. 

1. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles

What is punk rock? A daunting question to be sure, but demanding of an answer in an era of strict genre definitions and blogosphere gossip dominating true music journalism. Is it fast and loud music? Politically charged songs? Here at Cannibal Cheerleader we’ve come to believe that punk rock is a passion for change, a forward-thinking musicality that underlies a band’s music, an adventurous spirit and a talent for creating new and different sounds. With this in mind, we can say with no reservation that Crystal Castles perfectly epitomizes punk rock in 2008 to us. Braving criticism and legal woes all year, the band nonetheless released a fiersome collection of sixteen magnificent tracks that race back and forth from soothing electronic noodling as in “Air War” to blood-splattered rockers like “xxzxcuzx me”. In a year that saw the world change wildly it seems only fitting to have a band that did the same in between every song on their album top the list of our bloody best of 2008. Crystal Castles, a true Cannibal Cheerleader original. 

BALMORHEA REVEAL DETAILS FOR THIRD LP

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With a setlist to die for and sounding tighter than Jenny Lewis’ thigh-highs, Rilo Kiley blazed through classics old and new at their triumphant turn at Austin’s Stubb’s BBQ.

We managed to catch My Morning Jacket three times this year but none better than in the intimate setting of the Parish, where their magnificently raucous live antics threatened to collapse the second-story floor and show off their technical skill rather than their arean-rock readiness.

With a fiery set reminiscent of end-of-days prophecies, Converge annihilated all expectations with a set that was both brutal and enthralling, recalling the days when punk meant something more than just fast guitars.

Easily topping the list of this year’s most enthralling live sets, Cat Power at Stubb’s recalled classic soul songstresses of yesteryear, soaring through classics from You Are Free, the Greatest, and this year’s Jukebox, all the while maintaining the composure and confidence of a road-weary but hardened troubadour. Chan Marshall has walked through the fire and come out the other side a little older, a little dustier, but all the better for her trials. 

Simple setting, not-so-simple enemy, the Ruins managed to combine pleasingly-gory special effects with an overbearing sense of dread as the protagonists find themselves trapped on an ancient pyramid being eaten by, what else, rabid plants. Bloody pom-poms awarded all around. 

Perhaps the most outright terrifying flick on our list, the Strangers captures the nihilism of modern horror with stark and brutal imagery and enough impending dread to make you queasy throughout. Plus, check out the awesome old-timey poster, great stuff. 

A coming of age tale for the morally reprehensible amongst us (myself definitely included) Teeth tells the story of a young girl blossoming into full-fledged womanhood and all the blood, guts, and terror that it inevitably involves. Recommended for every frat-boy considering date-rape (warning: castration abounds).

A horrifically stark and undeniably enjoyable trek into the darkest reaches of the horror-film psyche, Funny Games forces the viewer themselves into sadism for continuing to watch the terrible torture of an affluent family by a deranged duo of golf-club wielding maniacs. Are we the real monsters for enjoying the film? It’s hard not to be when Naomi Watts starts gunning people down. A must see.

Of all the horror movies this year to question the brutal and sadistic nature of the genre, none dared to go so far as to question the medium of delivery itself, to identify the maddening pervasiveness of media in our society and our cult-like devotion to it. In the Signal, the three directors attempt just that, fusing elements of horror, drama, zombie-flick, dark comedy, gore, and psyche-freak-out all into a visionary masterpiece that undeniably captures what is at times both the best and the sickest elements of horror cinema – the unending search for meaning in a cruel world attacking from all sides. So highly recommended I’m wondering why you’re still reading this and not buying it. You must have the crazy.