Overshadowed in '09
I'm not going to tell you that the records I enjoyed most are the best of 2009. But I will suggest that you might like a few things if your tastes and mine are simpatico. The band Canadian Invasion made a great record called Three Cheers for the Invisible Hand. They didn't get a lot of blog love, except when they covered a Vampire Weekend song. (I preferred their Fugazi cover.)The only place I saw Canadian Invasion in a Best of 2009 list was at Magnet Magazine. Magnet apparently thinks that Canadian Invasion sounds like Teenage Fanclub, but I hear the Pernice Brothers, especially in the witty lyrics, delivered in a cool and tuneful voice. And what's not to love about a song called "Standing on the Shoulders of the Corpse of John Mayer"?
The Australian trio Love of Diagrams was hailed as post-punk heirs to Pylon, but they were dropped after one album for Matador. It's is a shame, because in many ways Nowhere Forever is better than its predecessor, 2007's Mosaic. "We hope Matador hear it and shit their pants," the band told Tiny Mix Tapes.
When the single "Forever" was released earlier this year, it was clear from the insistent, overdriven guitar and the laconic vocal that Love of Diagrams had begun to incorporate a shoegaze influence into their sound. "Look Out" is my favorite from the new album. The minimal lyrics read like a haiku:
Time has come, better
Look out before you're overrun
They said to look out
Like Pylon, Love of Diagrams understands the hypnotic appeal of repetition. According to bassist Antonia Sellbach, "For me, repetition has always been a way of expanding a song, of sitting on a word or a lyric or a moment in time or an idea and allowing it to grow, instead of continually moving on with the narrative."
Canadian Invasion: Wave of Mutilation
Canadian Invasion: Public Witness Program
Love of Diagrams: Cool
Love of Diagrams: Look Out
Labels: Best of 2009
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