Audio By Carbonatix
Artist: Unnatural HelpersTitle: Cracked Love & Other DrugsRelease date: April 27Label: Hardly Art
Last week, I blogged about Esquire‘s 50 songs every man should be listening to right now, and I put out the call for readers to submit their list of songs everyone should be listening to. After sifting through the thousands of responses I received, here is one man’s list. Brandon Jacobs listed 40, and here they are, after the jump:
1. Money Tree — “It Ain’t Mine”2. Beirut — “Postcards from Italy”3. Scouting for Girls — “She’s So Lovely”4. Other Lives — “Paper Cities”5. Sia — “Breathe Me”6. Rilo Kiley — “More Adventurous”7. The Wombats — “Kill the Director”8. Amazing Baby — “Pump Your Brakes”9. Walter Meego — “Forever”10. White Lies — “Death”11. Mumford & Son — “Dust Bowl Dance”12. The Gutter Twins — “The Stations”13. My Morning Jacket — “Librarian”14. Jeremy Warmsley — “Lose My Cool”15. Erykah Badu — “The Healer”16. Sean Hayes — “When We Fall In”17. Conor Oberst — “Snake Hill”18. Rufus Wainwright — “Tulsa”19. Jay Jay Pistolet — “Happy Birthday You”20. The Maccabees — “Lego”21. Drake w/ Lykke Li — “Little Bit”22. Arctic Monkeys — “You Know I’m No Good”23. Cold War Kids — “Audience”24. Heartless Bastards — “The Mountain”25. Gipsy Kings — “Hotel California”26. Michael Jackson — “Beat It” (Blister Boyz Remix)27. Frightened Rabbit — “Good Arms vs. Bad Arms”28. Bon Iver — “Skinny Love”29. CocoRosie — “Werewolf”30. Glasvegas — “It’s My Own Cheating Heart”31. Laura Marling — “My Manic and I”32. Los Campesinos! — “The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future”33. Matt & Kim — “Daylight”34. Monsters of Folk — “Temazcal”35. We Were Promised Jetpacks — “Quiet Little Voices”36. Fink — “This Is the Thing”37. Norah Jones — “With Wax Poetic Angels”38. Classified — “Inspiration”39. Das Racist — “You Oughtta Know”40. The Dodos — “Park Song”
So, thanks, Brandon. We can at least agree on Frightened Rabbits, Cold War Kids, and Los Campesinos!. I noticed you left off Unnatural Helpers, a band from Seattle that has a damn fine new record on Hardly Art Records.
Judging by your list, U.H. may not really be your thing, though. Think 40 years of Pacific Northwest rock squeezed into 15 songs in 29 minutes. It’s all there: Sonics, Mudhoney, Wailers, Dead Moon, Makers, even Nirvana. The only thing missing are Hendrix and Heart. Cracked Love & Other Drugs is a simmering stew of stomping drums, super-fuzz-big-muff guitars, a singer that sounds more than a little bit like Mark Arm, and some big-time garage-rock hooks that seem to appear out of nowhere then disappear as quickly as they emerged.
Best song: “Claim It Mine”Rotation: HeavyDeja vu: Garage-y grunge or grungy garageI’d rather listen to: Hardly Art act The Dutchess & the Duke, whose Kimberly Morrison (a.k.a. The Dutchess) played bass on this Unnatural Helpers recordGrade: B+
“Nothing Not New” is a yearlong project in which New Times editorial operations manager Jay Bennett, a 40-year-old music fan and musician, will listen only to music released in 2010. Each Monday through Friday, he will listen to one new record (no best ofs, reissues, or concert recordings) and write about it. Why? Because in the words of his editor, Martin Cizmar, he suffers from “aesthetic atrophy,” a wasting away of one’s ability to embrace new and different music as one ages. Read more about this all-too-common ailment here.
The “Nothing Not New” Archives
April 26 — Harlan T. Bobo: Sucker (A-)
April 23 — Roky Erickson and Okkervil River: True Love Cast Out All Evil (A-)April 22 — Caribou: Swim (D)April 21 — The Apples in Stereo: Travellers in Space and Time (C-)April 20 — Jakob Dylan: Women + Country (D+)April 19 — Cornershop: Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast (C)
April 16 — Frightened Rabbit: The Winter of Mixed Drinks (B+)April 15 — Coheed and Cambria: Year of the Black Rainbow (D-)April 14 — Foxy Shazam: Foxy Shazam (D, later changed to a B)April 13 — MGMT: Congratulations (B+)April 12 — Odds ‘n’ Sods: Robyn Hitchcock, RJD2, Scorpions, and More
April 9 — Murder by Death: Good Morning, Magpie (B-)April 8 — Harlem: Hippies (C+)April 7 — Slow Club: Yeah, So (B)April 6 — Black Francis: NonStopErotik (B+)April 5 — Growing: Pumps! (F)
April 2 — Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs: Medicine County (B)April 1 — Dum Dum Girls: I Will Be (A-)March 31 — The Dillinger Escape Plan: Option Paralysis (B+)March 30 — Local Natives: Gorilla Manor (B)March 29 — The Bird and the Bee: Interpreting the Masters: Hall & Oates (C)
March 26 — Eddy Current Suppression Ring: Rush to Relax (C+)March 25 — Let’s Wrestle: In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s (B)March 24 — Goldfrapp: Head First (D)March 23 — She & Him: Volume 2 (A-)March 22 — Broken Bells: Broken Bells (C+)
March 19 — Locksley: Be In Love (B)March 18 — jj: jj no. 3 (C-)March 17 — Xiu Xiu: Dear God, I Hate Myself (D+)March 16 — Drive By Truckers: The Big To-Do (B-)March 15 — April Smith and the Great Picture Show: Songs for a Sinking Ship (C)
March 12 — The Morning Benders: Big Echo (C+)March 11 — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Beat the Devil’s Tattoos (B)March 10 — Acrassicauda: Only the Dead See the End of War (C-)March 9 — Titus Andronicus: The Monitor (B+)March 8 — Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: The Brutalist Bricks (A)
March 5 — Liars: Sisterworld (A-)March 4 — Gorillaz: Plastic Beach (A-)March 3 — Johnny Cash: American VI: Ain’t No Grave (B+)March 2 — High on Fire: Snakes for the Divine (C)March 1 — Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me (C)
Feb. 26 — Freeway & Jake One: The Stimulus Package (D)Feb. 25 — Past Lives: Tapestry of Webs (B-)Feb. 24 — Shout Out Louds: Work (B)Feb. 23 — Brian Jonestown Massacre: Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? (B+)Feb. 22 — Shearwater: The Golden Archipelago (D+)
Feb. 19 — The Strange Boys: Be Brave (B+)Feb. 18 — Tindersticks: Falling Down a Mountain (A)Feb. 17 — Lightspeed Champion: Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You (C-)Feb. 16 — Adam Green: Minor Love (B-)Feb. 15 — Juliana Hatfield: Peace & Love (B+)
Feb. 12 — Massive Attack: Heligoland (C-)Feb. 11 — The Watson Twins: Talking to You, Talking to Me (C-)Feb. 10 — Hot Chip: One Life Stand (B+)Feb. 9 — You Say Party! We Say Die!: XXXX (B+)Feb. 8 — Allison Moorer: Crows (B)
Feb. 5 — Joe Pug: Messenger (C)Feb. 4 — The Soft Pack: The Soft Pack (A)Feb. 3 — Polysics: Absolute Polysics (B-)Feb. 2 — Pierced Arrows: Descending Shadows (A-)Feb. 1 — The Brunettes: Paper Doll (B-)
Jan. 29 — Basia Bulat: Heart of My Own (C)Jan. 28 — Priestess: Prior to the Fire (B)Jan. 27 — The Magnetic Fields: Realism (B)Jan. 26 — Four Tet: There Is Love in You (D)Jan. 25 — Delphic: Acolyte (C+)
Jan. 22 — The Hot Rats: Turn Ons (B+)Jan. 21 — Los Campesinos!: Romance Is Boring (A-)Jan. 20 — Midlake: The Courage of Others (D-)Jan. 19 — Laura Veirs: July Flame (B+)Jan. 18 — Beach House: Teen Dream (C)
Jan. 15 — Charlotte Gainsbourg: IRM (B)Jan. 14 — OK Go: Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (D)Jan. 13 — Eels: End Times (A-)Jan. 12 — Spoon: Transference (B)Jan. 11 — Editors: In This Light and On This Evening (D+)
Jan. 8 — Surfer Blood: Astro Coast (B+)Jan. 7 — Yeasayer: Odd Blood (C-)Jan. 6 — Cold War Kids: Behave Yourself EP (B+)Jan. 5 — Vampire Weekend: Contra (D+)Jan. 4 — Texas Tornados: Está Bueno! (B)
Jan. 1 — Scanners: Submarine (B-)
