Paste's Best Music of 2009 (So Far)
Cory Chisel - "Born Again"
If You're Happy and You Know It: The 13 Best Songs with Handclaps
Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons- "Born Again"
Even the most over-the-top festival freaks need a break during a 24-hour onslaught of music. Taking a cue from Bonnaroo, several fests now devote entire stages to funny. “Outdoor festivals force me to confront my two biggest fears,” says comedian Todd Barry, “lightning and Port-O-Pottys.” 
Cinco. Spagett. Pep-Pep. B’Owls. The unique language of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim—once the conduit for private jokes between the two aspiring film students—has become a lexicon embraced by insomniacs across the country, thanks to the bizarro world of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, an 11-minute program that airs during Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
I
suspect that most OCD-addled, music-worshipping fans can point to one
particular influence—pusher, “The Man,” gateway princess—who enabled
their rock ’n’ roll addiction. For me, it was my mom’s sister Diane, or
“Auntie Dee”—seven years Mom’s junior, just different and cool enough
to bend my young will to her ways.
Fearsome.
Perched on a stool in the center of a Manhattan studio control room,
Ingrid Michaelson stares through glass. On the other side, a cellist, a
violist and a violinist play flourishes the songwriter herself can
hardly handle. “It just makes your heart hurt,” she says, turning away.
Her eyes refocus on a monstrous reel-to-reel recorder sitting dormant
in the corner. Fingering the dials, she considers its presence—analog
and anachronistic. “What is this thing? It’s gonna take me back in
time!”
When Tony Hale heard the news that Buster Bluth had performed his last chicken dance and been attacked by his last loose seal, his first thought was of the new baby daughter at home who needed to be fed. It wasn’t very long ago, after all, that Hale was doing Shakespeare in the parking lot and waiting tables on the side. He worked eight years in the business before his big break came in the role of Buster on Arrested Development, and he wasn’t sure what would be waiting on the other side of the series’ cancellation.
Victoria Hesketh, the nymphish Brit behind electro-pop outfit Little Boots, wrote her university dissertation on originality in pop music, so she knows what she’s talking about when she admits, disheartened, that some of it can be “bland and manufactured.” But her debut EP, Arecibo,
is much the opposite—especially its breakout single, “Stuck on Repeat.”
Paste writer Henry Freedland recently tested the song’s infectious
premise (and his sanity) by listening to it nonstop for 12 hours. Here
are the highlights.
It’s been six years since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs exploded onto the New York scene with the heady concoction of guitarist Nick Zinner’s angular riffs, Brian Chase’s pinpoint drumming, and frontwoman Karen O’s barbaric yawps. Since then, the freshly minted thirtysomethings have explored more territory than Magellan (he made maps; they made “Maps”). The trio continues its sonic evolution with third album It’s Blitz!, a sparkling, synth-laced gem. Proper analysis from Karen O requires the entire alphabet.
After a successful debut album and a few years on the road, the Silversun Pickups have gained a deeper confidence. Their muscular new record, Swoon, roars with the authority of a band that’s found both gravity and velocity. With string sections that wash over you before giving way to tight, grinding and endlessly distorted guitars, Swoon is a brave sonic attempt to recapture the mainstream’s fascination with its noisier edges. Brave, too, are the Pickups’ attitudes toward the inevitable comparisons. Nursing whiskeys beside a bubbling fountain at Edendale, an oasis on Los Angeles’ East Side, the band brings up the oft-referenced Smashing Pumpkins before I’m gauche enough to do so, matter-of-factly deflating the issue.
A-Trak is a DJ and blogger whose new mix, Infinity + 1, is out now.
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Wilco - "Wilco (the song)"
