2007: A Punk/Art Rock/Indie Cross-Section

This is based on the poll that's been at the bottom of the page for quite some time now. This is not exactly a best of, all though, some of these I really loved. All in all, 2007 was something of a weak year. Quite frankly, I'm not enjoying the Pitchfork-touted trendy pop that's supposedly so groundbreaking, and 2007 saw a lot of that in Modest Mouse, The Arcade Fire and especially The Shins. It's not that it's particularly bad music, it's just that it's not that great, either. There were a lot of good albums last year, but very few great ones. 2007 also saw some interesting reissues, specifically work by The Fire Engines and Pylon. There were some interesting things that happened, too, like the rise of my hometown of Charm City as a punk/indie hot spot. Curious business that. Here are some of the albums that represented different corners of the indie world in 2007:


Double Dagger-Ragged Rubble
Label: Stationary (Heart)
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Seeing as this is my third successive post concerning Double Dagger in one way or another, it's pretty obvious how I feel about this record. It's my favorite record of 2007, and maybe the year's only true classic. In an age where quiet is in, post-hardcore mainly exists as a shell of its former self as emo, and the modern post-punk movement is apparently tapped out creatively, Double Dagger is playing punk rock for the rest of us. Double Dagger's brand of the music is sharp-edged, minimal and anthematic. Driven by a single bass guitar which blasts away any preconceived notions about the instrument's capabilities, Double Dagger's sound is hardcore for kids raised on and subsequently abandoned by New York/England 21st century post-punk. Double Dagger have been working under the radar since 2002 and steadily improving, and if new songs they've been playing live recently are any indication, Double Dagger are only just getting started. Look for their new 7"s, they're going to be big ones.


Love of Diagrams-Mosaic
Label: Matador
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

In a lot of ways, this band is Double Dagger's moody Aussie cousin. Both bands play a stylish update of post-hardcore that turns the hip minimalist aesthetic of the post-punk revival into a lethal weapon. The two bands even share a song title, "Form and Function," an accurate summation of what I'm banking on to be the new punk sound for 2008. A lot of talk about this album has been about how it combines confrontational New York No Wave with the chilly end of British Post-Punk, and indeed my own first impressions of the record were along those lines, but that's not entirely right. While groups like Joy Division are indeed audible as influences on the album's mood and melodic sense, there's a big influence of 90's art punk like the noisy clatter of Native Nod here as well (This combination has been tried before, see From Safety to Where). Love of Diagrams could also be described a sinister Rainer Maria, keeping that band's post-hardcore approach and male/female vocal interplay but trading Rainer Maria's sunny melodies and inviting mood for speed, noise and razor-sharp angularity. Mosaic is highly recommended.



Bloc Party-A Weekend In The City
Label: Vice
Location: London, England, UK

Are Bloc Party part of the problem or part of the solution? Their debut full length, Silent Alarm, a glorious album of eclectic, glossy art punk which played out like a dance-damaged version of At The Drive-In's landmark effort Relationship Of Command, was one of the best records to come out of the modern post-punk movement, and their early non-album work set standards for speed and melody that still has yet to be matched by their English contemporaries.

However, when I first heard "The Prayer," the debut single from A Weekend In The City, I sensed trouble. For one, a hip hop-like drum machine line had relegated the band's technical and energetic rhythm section to the back drop, and synthesizers and vocal samples had largely taken the place of Bloc Party's melodic and rhythmically complex guitar work. I'm certainly not opposed to bands developing and trying new sounds, but in the process of trying to do so Bloc Party had taken away what made them great. When I picked up A Weekend In The City, it confirmed most of my fears raised by "The Prayer" and then some: The songwriting was loaded with awkward dynamic shifts, and the rhythm section's performance felt largely phoned-in. Additionally, the lyrical focus moved from the fears and joys of the everyman to histrionic, messianic declarations and trendy political posturing, and the electronics-heavy textures which had more or less replaced the guitars struck me as poor imitations of TV On The Radio. Revisiting the record a few months on I've warmed to at least a little to it, and it's always had highlights like "Hunting for Witches, " a paranoid electro-punk song built around a guitar riff which recalls Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" as well as the only song that equals the material found on Silent Alarm, and "Where is Home?," an eerie ballad concerning the immigrant experience in post-subway bombing England. Still, though I certainly did not expect a record on par with Silent Alarm, I expected much better than this.


The Ponys-Turn The Lights Out
Label: Matador
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

The Ponys' third album Turn The Lights Out is easily the closest thing to groups like Wilco or Peter, Bjorn and John among these five albums, due to its laid back, playful yet mature mood. Even then Turn The Lights Out still pretty far away from material by those bands. It's an album of mid tempo, catchy garage rock songs swathed in noisy, almost psychedelic but definitely hard-rocking guitars, and powered by punk energy. It was an album I played on a daily basis around the time I first brought it, mainly because it was nice high-powered break from the assortment of calculatedly quaint indie pop groups a friend had given me digitally that I was trying to develop a taste for. I've cooled to it slightly since then, as its nowhere near as exciting as the new model hardcore bands or the Baltimore scene. Nonetheless, it's an album of fun, energetic stoner punk with songs like the sweet and swirling yet visceral "Small Talk" and the dark charge of "Poser Psychotic."


Radiohead-In Rainbows
Label: None (self-released)
Location: Oxfordshire, England, UK

No discussion of art rock or indie in 2007 would be complete without some mention of Radiohead's In Rainbows, which received much notice in the press for its unusual distribution and sales method, and quite simply for being a Radiohead album. Musically, it follows the integration of the electronics on Kid A and Amnesiac with the traditional rock instrumentation of their earlier work that was begun on 2003's Hail to the Thief, but in much different fashion. The guitars and drums on Hail to the Thief were loud and bombastic in the fashion of The Bends or even Ok Computer. For the most part here, the guitars are clean and melodic, and the drums delicately complex, and one wonders if there's a bit of a jazz influence going on here, particularly on opener "15 Step." The overall feel of the record is spare yet subtly brainy. My favorite track, though, is this record's black sheep, "Bodysnatchers." Coming probably the closest to punk Radiohead has ever come, this track builds upon Hail to the Theif highlights like "Go To Sleep" and "Myxamatosis," "Bodysnatchers" recalls Fugazi's "Bed For The Scraping" in its squared off yet swinging groove, energetic performance and tight, interlocking guitar parts. Also worthy of note is the airy, cinematic funk of "Reckoner," and the epic yet understated closer "Videotape." In Rainbows is simply another great release from the dependable Radiohead, who are always good for a solid art rock record every few years.