The Cookblog by Brian Cook

I’m Excited for Bonnaroo 2009

Tomorrow, I head south to my first ever music festival: Bonnaroo 2009. Running from June 11-14, it promises to be a fantastic time. The forecast calls for plenty of lightning and high temperatures. As long as the music still happens, I welcome extreme weather. There are a few bands I’m particularly excited to see, some that I’m really looking forward to, and others that I’m merely intrigued by. With a few screenings of The Big Lebowski also on the festival schedule, it should be a fabulous few days. I shall dutifully provide pictures, video and opinions upon my return. Briefly, here’s what I hope to catch:

MUST SEE
Wilco – Can’t wait for their newest album, titled “Wilco” and including a song called “Wilco”. Jeff Tweedy is an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a vest.
Andrew Bird – Violin virtuoso. Check out his Takeaway Show.
Grizzly Bear – With Radiohead, breaking more sonic ground than any other group at the moment.
Elvis Perkins in Dearland – An old soul and master folk bard.
Delta Spirit – Piano-driven rock with plenty of other tricks in the a.a.bag.
A.A. Bondy – Another folk favorite.
Phoenix – Precocious French rockers with a sizzling new album.

WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO SEE
White Rabbits
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
An Evening (or Afternoon) with the Daily Show featuring John Oliver, Rob Riggle & Rory Albanese – John Oliver is funny.
TV on the Radio – John’s Georgia got me into them. Thanks, Georgia!
The Decemberists – A pleasingly melodious story-telling outfit with Edward Gorey-esque sensibilities.
Animal Collective
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – I’ve never really been a fan, but the girlfriend is and I want to be able to report back with my thoughts on his live performance.

Passion Pit – I’m interested to see how their laptop electropop works in the middle of a farm in Tennessee. 

MGMT – They’ve recently moved higher up my list. 

WOULD FAIRLY MUCH LIKE TO SEE
Jenny Lewis
William Elliot Whitmore

Band of Horses
of Montreal
Michael Ian Black & Michael Showalter
Okkervil River
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

WOULDN’T MIND SEEING
Elvis Costello Solo
Bon Iver
Gomez
Neko Case
Amadou & Mariam
Shadows Fall
St. Vincent
The Dirty Projectors – Ed Droste likes them, so they’re probably worth a shot.
Yeasayer

Top 10 Albums of 2008

End-of-year music lists are always fascinating to read and tough to create, mainly because the date of my discovery of a particular band or album is so weakly correlated to the date of its release. Therefore, it took a bit of research to figure out which of these albums were indeed released in 2008. I’m still quite happy with what I’ve found, especially recently. I’m no music critic, so my comments will be brief. Enjoy, and if you do, buy the album.

1. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Pastoral pop-rock from a feral band of mountain men. Absolutely wonderful stuff.
Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal

2. Meursault – Pissing On Bonfires/kissing With Tongues
A sort of collision between Wolf Parade and Radiohead, which means unusual-yet-melodic music with gruff singing.
Meursault – A Few Kind Words

3. Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
I discovered them at the perfect time, and drove down to New York City that weekend to see them live.
Frightened Rabbit – Old, Old Fashioned

4. TV on the Radio – Dear Science
Hat-tip to Georgia (of John and Georgia) for turning me on to these guys.
TV on the Radio – Halfway Home

5. Beck – Modern Guilt
I’m a late-comer to Beck, and this album’s just over 30 minutes long, but even the B-sides are good.
Beck – Bonfire Blondes (B-side)

6. Au – Verbs
Quirky indie-rock with some electronics thrown into the mix.
Au – Boute

7. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
A side project of Daniel Rossen from Grizzly Bear, this is every bit as good as its forebear (geddit?).
DOE – No One Does It Like You

8. Evangelicals – The Evening Descends
Challenging and innovative, capable of great things.
Evangelicals – Party Crashin’

9. She and Him – Volume One
Loungey, adorable, old-timey and feel-good from Zoey Deschanel and M. Ward.
She and Him – Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?

10. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Going from strength-to-strength since Transatlanticism.
DCFC – No Sunlight

Honorable Mentions:
Beach House – Devotion
Los Campesinos! – Hold On Now, Youngster
Aimee Mann – @#%&*! Smilers
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Deerhunter – Microcastle
Does it Offend You, Yeah? – You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into
The Dodos – Visiter

And the 5 Best EPs

1. The Decemberists – Always The Bridesmaid
More gold from the master songsmiths.
The Decemberists – The Record Year

2. Fleet Foxes – Sun Giant EP
A terrific EP to go along with their brilliant LP.
Fleet Foxes – Mykonos

3. Princeton – Bloomsbury
Discovered only days ago, but has earned a spot on this list already with their sunny indie-pop.
Princeton – Blackbeard

4. Library Voices – The Library Voices EP
Similar to Princeton, this is another band to watch.
Library Voices – Step Off The Map & Float

5. Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons – Cabin Ghosts
Folk music at its best.
Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons – Home In The Woods

Hot Spring Music Mix

Spring has always been my least favorite season. For me, the clean smell and cold air contrasts unfavorably with the rich colors and cozy chill of autumn. But spring has plenty to redeem it, including the onset of warmer weather and copious amounts of album releases from artists I like. This year, Weezer and Death Cab For Cutie have both come up trumps and they feature prominently on this 2008 spring music mix.

Weezer – The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)

Death Cab For Cutie – No Sunlight

The Shins – Little Boxes (Weeds Theme Song)

Born Ruffians – Foxes Mate For Life

Blonde Redhead – Spring And By Summer Fall

Billy Bragg & Wilco – Ingrid Bergman

Josh Ritter – Tonight You Belong To Me (with Blake Hazard)

Danny Michel – Young Americans

Enjoy!

Three, Two, One MUSIC!

Today’s post features a new gimmick; you’ll get three bands with two songs each discovered at one unlikely source. So without very much further ado, here they are.

She & Him (M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel (yes, the actress from Elf))

This unlikely duo plays an unlikely variety of tunes, by turns sounding like the Beatles and Ella Fitzgerald. The first song is from their new album, Volume One, while the second is one of Ward’s best.

She & Him – Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
She & Him – Magic Trick

Evangelicals

Evangelicals has been compared to the Flaming Lips, mostly due to the wacky sounds that permeate their songs (a very loud, very out of place SPLAT! effect, for instance). To me, they’re most comparable to Fiery Furnaces, since both bands have an ear for a great hook and a penchant for burying them amidst a lot of sonic clutter. Enough BS. Here are the songs.

Evangelicals – Skeleton Man
Evangelicals – Party Crashin’

Menomena

Somehow, Menomena stayed under my radar until very recently, but some quick online research shows that many people are very aware of and very into their music. And why not? They’ve got a little bit of Man Man, some Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and a pinch of Postal Service. Enjoy.

Menomena – Muscle ‘n’ Flo
Menomena – Rotten Hell

And what’s the magic source for these discoveries? You guessed it: the Urban Outfitters music blog! It all started after walking into a store in Boston and hearing the latest Radiohead. It ended after logging on to their website and being greeted by She & Him. If this is your kind of music, chances are you might discover something good and something new to you.

Food for Thought This Friday

It’s 2008 and things are going well. I’ve got a good year to look forward to, what with Borgamo growing, a trip to Europe on the horizon and plenty of web design projects with which to further my education. Already I’ve been harnessing some power searches on the major engines, Google, Yahoo and Live Search, which have yielded tremendous results. Of course, I’m unwilling to give my secrets away [for free], but suffice it to say that knowledge of various search parameters and a little creative thinking can really let you see some interesting things. But let’s put that aside for a moment and take a look at my latest project for my cousin, Maureen Jeffery.

If you live in Ohio and are planning on getting hitched, you could certainly use a good Ohio wedding photographer. Maureen’s photographs are wonderful. She does black-and-white as well as color and the pictures are always beautiful. Her portraits in particular capture such personality that I have no hesitation in giving Maureen Jeffery the highest recommendation for wedding photography or as a photographer for any other occasion. My confidence in her talent persuaded me to help design a website for her, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Some moments are so transcendent that everyone who’s there is aware they’re experiencing something special; viewing Mount Everest, riding around on a purring elephant and attending Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS were a few of those moments. Thanks to Dan Russell, I’ve got another to add to my collection. Google tells me that the song was Wu Tang Clan’s “Triumph”. I tell you that Dan nailed it, rapping like the procrastinating mother on Christmas Eve and earning the mad respect of everyone lucky enough to be in the bar area of City Steam Brewery. Verse after verse rattled by and still Dan spat rhymes. Ten minutes later, the song ended and we all broke out in rapturous applause. It was truly magnificent. And lucky you! You get a thirty second slice of it: watch Dan Russell rap

I also saw “Juno” this past weekend, which was excellent. Here are a couple of songs to enjoy from the soundtrack:
Barry Louis Polisar – All I Want Is You
Kimya Dawson – Tire Swing