May 15, 2008

Bloggy Goodness: Frozen Ropes & Dying Quails

I know we promised a moratorium on baseball stories here, but we couldn’t pass on telling you about The Baseball Project – the all-star collaboration between R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Scott

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The B List: Seven Reasons Why Rupert Can’t Stop Listening to The National’s Boxer

Over the past couple of months, I’ve wanted to write something about a growing obsession, which is The National’s May 2007 release, Boxer. The question was “what is relevant about writing about an album that came out an entire year ago that most people already know all about?”


Well, nothing really, but I revisited some reviews – in particular, the original May 2007 review on Pitchfork – and it struck a chord. This review by Steve Deusner, among about a million others, deemed the album, like its predecessor Alligator, a “grower” – meaning it grows on the listener as they embrace the quirky lyrical stylings and subtle nuances of the instrumentation. It’s kind of a bunk term, but whatever.

Boxer is the album equivalent to the Cable Guy, or as I like to call it, the “Mustache Movie.” It gets more powerful every time you see it. Anyway, this disc not only reels in the listener over time, but it continues to develop a new fan base as well, because it hooks people in like junkies and coverts them into passionate devotees who make it their mission to spread the word.

Thus, I suppose it is somewhat relevant to revisit the album a year later, because at least in this case, it really is a grower. So, what is it about Boxer and the National in general that has this effect on people?

READ ON for Rupert’s seven reasons why Boxer rules…

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Warfield: Phil Keeps The Trend Goin’

Phil Lesh and his friends treated fans at the Warfield to another double-header of entire album covers. For their first set they played all of Aoxomoxa before busting out Live

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Tegan and Sara: Bogarts, Cincinnati, OH 5/9/08

Canadian born identical twin sisters, Tegan and Sara Quin have invaded America and gained a cult following without much help from MTV or radio. Now working to promote their latest, yet almost one year old album, The Con, these girls brought their brand of acoustic pop to Cincinnati for the first time in quite a few years. These young ladies brought together many different walks of life inside a venue that was far too small and put on a very respectable performance

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Foals: Antidotes

ust when you the thought the dance-rock thing had hit overkill, Foals tries to one-up the angular, jangly guitar movement. The Oxford quintet lists Steve Reich, Public Image Ltd and Afrobeat as key influences, but Gang of Four rings hard on their debut – Antidotes.

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