A few days back I came back to an album that I didn't listen to without any reason for many years. The Lonesome Crowded West was the second album by Modest Mouse before they signed to a big company. Modest Mouse were at these days an typical American band somewhere between the Pixies, Meat Puppets and early Pavement. Their songs cannot be assigned to any particular style. Too many musical influences can be recognized without any particular one dominating. Trucker Atlas is one of them. A rolling bass and simple drums form the basis for guitar riffs and screamed vocals. The song progresses constantly and inexorably until a break occurs and the speed is suddenly reduced and the focus is on improvisation. Probably one of the songs I would play if I were driving through America's West in a convertible.
It took more than six years for Isaac Brock, guitarist and singer of Portland based indie-rock and art-punk band Modest Mouse to release a new album. The Golden Casket will be released next month and the first appetizer We Are Between was released the recent days. Of course nothing new or groundbreaking was expected and this song is what they stand for: a powerful rock song with concise riffs over a chugging rhythm guitar. Repeating a good recipe is better than creating a spoiled new menue.
All in all, this was an unspectacular year with one highlight. Nevertheless, the future already throws her shades ahead. At the middle of the year it was officially announced what many of my colleagues have already supposed. We will merge with another bank and put our arithmetic system completely on another base, in addition, still next year. This means for me that I must invest a lot of time in the preparatory works for a free from problems crossing on the new arithmetic system. Namely after my regular work. With this background we have decided, to visit my sister-in-law who lived at this time in Japan. Presumably we would never have visited Japan if not a part of the family lived there. And we have not regretted it. We have seen a fantastic country with so many places of interest. Thanks Kerstin that you could show us so much from this country. There are some things I will never forget: One of them was the onsen, a Japanese term for hot springs. It's located in the countryside and describes the bathing facilities around hot springs. If you ever get the chance to see it check it out and take a bath in the hot springs. The other are the Pachinko halls. Widespread all over the country you can find them halls filled with a lot of slot machines. From far away you hear the noise from inside the halls and you thousands of flashing lamps which are supposed to animate one to play and spent your money. Another thing you don't have to miss when you visit Japan is to go to a local pub for eating and drinking. I've never seen so small bars filled with so many people drinking their beer and sake and eating yakitori.
Some remarkable records were released in 2007:
Tocotronic - Kapitulation: I follow this band since their first record
Feist - The Reminder: Softly breathed songs of a wonderful singer
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible: Indie-rock at it's best
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: Simply fantastic
Pantha du Prince - The Bliss: Electric music on a high level shows us the future of this kind of music
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank:
Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge: I simply love to hear him sing
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times: Their third record - great as before
With these songs I connect this year:
300: Another great move based on a comic
No Country for Old Men: The Coen brothers made a fantastic movie again
Hot Fuzz: This kind of movie can only made in Britain
The Bucket List: Nice story about two old men
Some headlines from 2007:
European heat wave: approximately 200 wild fires broke out in Greece // The Nepalese government announces that the 240 year old monarchy will be abolished in 2009 and a new republic will be declared // Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a bomb blast at an election rally // Mine disaster in eastern Ukraine kills more than 100 people
Another great record from Modest Mouse. Already their last publication Good news for people who loves bad news was splendidly they reach with this record their next level. Johnny Marr joined the band and you could hear his guitar on some spectacular riffs. The new album of Modest Mouse differs only some from his younger predecessors. However, it is present not in the least boringly. Since another quality the volume was always to be sounded them, thus richly, variably and essential as usual only a few. Also by often obsessed, broken voice of Isaac Brock which fits usually well to the music of his tapes. It is just no catchy pop music which Modest Mouse characterises. It is the miraculous wide world of the tricky rock music whose borders the tape as usual no other has plumbed. A world whose discovery needs time. Modest Mouse are and remain the Hobos from the province of the American northwest, and Johnny Marr has been incorporated only without further ado. He has become the Hobo and has completed the unbelievable talent this Trucker-Lookalikes.
This year we had the chance to go to Hawaii but we missed it. Christianes sister married there and we were invited. But for several reasons we couldn't take the chance. First one was that I changed my job in my office to become a risk controller in the bank and we changed on a new operating system were I was hardly integrated just at the day of her marriage. The second one was that Christiane started a new job at the time of wedding as well. So we decided not to travel for a few days around the world and sent our best wishes to them. In fact of our busy working we took just a few weeks to go to Mallorca in early summer. The weather wasn't that bad but every time we started a little journey into the hillside it started to rain. So we spent a lot of time in the local pubs to watch the UEFA EURO with some British guys. All in all a year with no very big highlights but a year of relaxed going on.
Some records that made fun this year.
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand: Great Indie-rock from Glasgow
Interpol - Antics: Indie-Rock as well from over the Atlantic ocean
Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Loves Bad News: Fantastic music in the tradition of Pavement, Pixies and Meat Puppets
Morrissey - You are the Quarry:
Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days: Just good songs
Melissa Auf der Maur - Auf der Maur: Mostly overseen rock album
Velvet Revolver - Contraband: One of the best hard rock records of the decade
Four Tet - Late Night Tales: Fantastic remixes
Some songs from this year that are worth to be played again:
And that's what we've been seeing in the movies:
The Aviator: Great Scorsese movie about Howard Hughes
Million Dollar Baby: Another good drama from Clint Eastwood
Ray: Great biopic about the life of Ray Charles
The Motorcycle Diaries: Good to see the young Che Guerva riding
Head-On: Very emotional drama about the life of Turks and Germans
Hellboy: It's a cute little devil
Shaun of the Dead: Zombies could be funny
Let's take a little look what happended in the world:
251 pilgrims were killed by a Hajj stampede in Mina // Rebellion in Haiti and Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president // Terrorist bombing in the Madrid railways kills 191 people // The start of banning smoke in working places, pubs and bars starts with laws in Ireland // North Korea bans mobile phones // Greece wins the UEFA-EURO in Portugal (what a shame, that defense can win against playing forward) // Armed robbers steal Edward Munchs the Scream in Oslo.
What one must hold of Morrissey, the cover already betrays: there Morrissey poses as a tastefully dressed dandy with machine gun – he embodies exactly this ambivalence also in excellent manner. You are the quarry connects demanding, melodic and minor-heavy guitar-rock/pop with political lyrics, to big gestures and a pinch Morrissey like megalomania: He sings "I have forgiven Jesus", and this points in which class he sees himself and to whom he has to prove here something else. In addition this striking and warm voice – this carefully produced and on no account stale album completely gets by without gap fountain pen and stands out anyway from the mass product in rock and pop, but why also the "old people" should leave the field without a fight to the "boys"? Maybe also, therefore, the machine gun, or he has reloaded only for his critics? My favorite:„ Also it is for ridge of the way to them“ – subversively about weapons.
