2013 Nanobots by They Might Be Giants

For many people, this band is really old school. This is their sixteenth studio album. They Might Be Giants launched in 1982, during Ronald Reagan’s first term, and the two main members, John Flansburg and John Linnell, are well into their 50s, for god’s sakes. But as is often the case, I was a little behind on the whole TMBG thing. I’d heard of them. I remember something about their Dial-a-Song project years ago. But I had never really listened to their music before. After giving Nanobots a quick review, everything fell into place almost instantly. I realized Nanobots has many of the classic features of a successful Album of the Summer. First, it’s happy. Indeed, TMBG is a group with a silly, somewhat adolescent sense of humor and fun. (They have done several albums of children’s music.) So, right off the bat, one of the historically most challenging criteria of the AOTS (“2. It has to be happy.”) was solidly met. I have a clear preference for clever lyrics, and They Might Be Giants remind me of Fountains of Wayne and Barenaked Ladies, both of which are known for their intelligent, wiseacre wordplay. You will smile, and you will often feel like dancing. Very importantly, this is great music to crank up in the car with the windows cranked down. Finally, the best Albums of the Summer include songs you find yourself singing involuntarily: in the shower, in the produce section of the grocery store, while doing the dishes. This happens to me regularly with the songs from Nanobots.

There are no fewer than 25 songs on this album. Some of them quite short, but all are really good. Noteworthy numbers of the fun/ridiculous variety include the opening number, “You’re On Fire,” the title song “Nanobots,”  “Call You Mom,” “Stone Cold Coup D’Etat,” and “Darlings of Lumberland,” which includes the refrain, “It’s getting difficult for a ghoul.” I particularly like the lyrics to “You’re On Fire,” which is about a man with a combustable head:

          The lights are low, and the music is extremely loud.
          You're hard to get to know, but you're easy to spot in a crowd.

But not everything is silliness. “Black Ops” is a political commentary that is quite timely in light of controversies surrounding the NSA and drone warfare. “Circular Karate Chop” appears to be a satirical repudiation of a certain kind of American macho culture, but like several of these songs, it is a bit difficult to parse. There are two very sweet ballads. “Tesla” is an adoring, somewhat nerdy (TMBG are definitely nerds) homage to the inventor, and “Sometimes a Lonely Way” is a beautiful breakup song. Both retain a hint of tongue-in-cheekness, but both are lovely.

To follow up on the nerd assertion, I offer the following evidence of the group’s appeal to fellow nerds: two academics have written a forthcoming book entirely devoted to the TMBG album Flood. http://amzn.to/15EWiOG

If you get hooked and want to go down the rabbit hole of TMBG geekdom, there is a fan-maintained TMBG wiki at the link below that contains every bit of information you could possibly want about this group.

http://tmbw.net/wiki/Main_Page

Finally, always pioneers of new ways to deliver their music to listeners, TMBG has a free iPhone app that recreates their Dial-a-Song project by offering a rotating list of five free songs.

TMBG will be playing for free @ 7:30 PM on Saturday August 10 at the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY. Closer to home, they will be playing at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence on Thursday October 10.

Thanks to Jenn Siegel for nominating Nanobots.

Here is a live version of "You're On Fire" performed in Sydney, Australia, complete with a psychedelic light show:



Here  is a live performance of the title track, "Nanobots," preceded by a little comedy routine by the two Johns:



And just to show a more serious side of TMBG, here is "Sometimes A Lonely Way" accompanied by artistic, if somewhat retro, moving black and white shapes:

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Forward/Return by The Album Leaf

A new wrinkle in this year’s AOTS awards is an emphasis on instrumental music. If there are unspoken, implicit criteria for the AOTS—and there definitely are—lyrics seem to be a necessary component. Happiness and the impulse to dance are often facilitated by fun lyrics. So all eleven winning albums of the summer over the first decade of the award’s existence have been albums full of songs with words. But I always tell my students that they should not try to read or study while listening to music with lyrics, due to problem of verbal interference. At the same time, I understand the temptation. Not unlike my students, I sometimes find myself in a noisy environment or simply longing for the enhanced mood that music can create. And yet I would prefer not to have the interference of lyrics. I have some classical music and a collection of Philip Glass in my iTunes library for just this kind of situation, but there is a whole world of contemporary instrumental music that goes far beyond Tubular Bells and George Winston (though I admit to still loving George Winston).

I discovered this album in one of the ways that have become traditional for AOTS selection. Late at night, reading a book in my favorite coffeehouse in the world, The Coffee Exchange in Providence, Rhode Island, I heard this music and was moved to get up and ask one of the baristas about it. About a month later at the same location, I heard the same sounds again and again consulted the barista. That was sometime last winter, and I have been playing Forward/Return ever since.

The Album Leaf is a “post rock” solo project of Jimmy LaValle, who, soon after launching the project, toured with Sigur Rós. The music on TAL’s 2012 album Forward/Return is somewhat electronic, employing synthesizers and the occasional drum machine, but there are also conventional instruments and voice. I like the music very much and have played it a few times in class—particularly in my “study hall” between sections of Psychology 100 this spring semester—to positive reviews. "Descent" and “Low Down” are favorite tracks.

Here is a live performance of "Descent"with another fancy light show that renders the band all but invisible:

 

Leaving Eden by  Carolina Chocolate Drops

This is a real change of pace, but I think you might like it. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are primarily made up of Rhiannon Giddens, Hubby Jenkins, and Dom Flemons. The CCD have devoted most of their efforts to reinterpreting traditional African American string band and jug band music of the 1920s and 30s. Their 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album, and Leaving Eden is their most recent album, released in February of 2012. This is southern folk music, and it is mostly very happy. Rhiannon Giddens, who takes the lead vocal on most of the tracks, has a sweet lyrical voice that she can twist into a bray when required by songs like “Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man” or  “No Man’s Mama.” The instrumentation of the songs includes banjo, fiddle, guitar, some truly excellent mandolin, and the clicking of bones (actual bones, played like spoons). Most of the songs are arrangements of traditional numbers, but the single “Country Girl” was written by Rhiannon. This is a really fun album with spirited music from a different era.

Thank you to Liza Talusan for nominating the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Here is the official video for "Country Girl":



There are many wonderful live performances by the Carolina Chocolate Drops on YouTube. Here is one of the Ethel Waters tune "No Man's Mama":



ALBUM OF SUMMERS PAST AWARD

JEALOUSY & GREAT STANDARDS by STÉPHANE GRAPPELLI AND YEHUDI MENUHIN

In recent years I’ve reached back to pull out an old album worthy of our summer attention. Continuing the instrumental theme of 2013, this duo—Grappelli (1908-1997), the French master of jazz violin and Menuhin (1916-1999), the Jewish American classical violinist—paired up for several jazz recordings in the 1970s. Grappelli was in his 60s at the time, having begun his career busking at age 15, then playing in the pit of a silent movie theater, and eventually teaming up with Django Reinhardt. Menuhin, whose parents came to the United States from Belarus, showed early promise and soloed with the San Francisco Philharmonic at age seven. He went on to become one of the world’s greatest violinists. During World War II he played for the allied troops, and, accompanied by Benjamin Britten on the piano, he played for the surviving members of the Bergen-Belsin concentration camp after it was liberated in 1945. Menuhin also collaborated with the eminent sitar player, Ravi Shankar, with whom he recorded the album West Meets East.

I picked Jealousy because it is an album I enjoyed many years ago, but if you are interested, there is now a Very Best of Grappelli & Menuhin CD, as well as a 4-CD boxed set of all their recordings together. I never tire of listening to the great standards of Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and George Gershwin, and these lilting and soaring violins convey great pathos and joy.

In this segment from a 1997 BBC tribute to Grapelli, you get a video of what is described as their first ever collaboration on "Jealousy," followed by a brief comment by Menuhin, followed by a performance four years later of Gershwin's "I've Got Rhythm." At the end of the clip is an interview with the two men, which—apart from some potentially offensive references to Gypsies—is quite delightful. A points, Menuhin translates for Grappelli. This video will make you smile.



ALBUM OF THE SUMMER LOCAL HEROES AWARD

CAMP EP by CAMP

Camp is (was?) made up of former Connecticut College students, Liz de Lise ’13 (guitar & lead vocals), Jon Markson ’12 (bass, keyboards, and backing vocals), and Gautam Sinha ’13 (drums). I don’t believe I’ve met any of the three, but I had the pleasure of hearing Liz de Lise’s wonderful lead vocals in David Dorfman Dance’s recent production Come, and Back Again. She wrote all the songs on this eponymous three-track EP, and—mark my words—you will hear from Liz de Lise in the future. She is going places. The three songs provide just a brief glimpse of great talent, but all three are very tight. Sinha’s drumming adds a nice dimension.

You can listen to the full EP below, but I recommend you download it here. You can name your price.


Thank you to Cody Fisher for introducing me to Camp.

ALBUM OF THE SUMMER BONUS TRACK

“When the Sun’s Out” by JAMES MADDOCK
  
I heard this song for the first time on WEHM 96.9 earlier this summer, and it was love at first listen. James Maddock is a British transplant to the US, and you will note the similarity to Bruce Springsteen, with whom he has performed. The song’s booming chorus is a wonderful expression of the joys of music and summertime love:
  
     When the sun’s out I want to be with the one I love.
     I want to know what she’s thinking of.
     Is she still in love?
     When the sun’s out.

     When the sun’s out, I want to go where the people go.
     I want to turn up the stereo,
     Hear that song I know.
     When the sun’s out.

“When the Sun’s Out” is from Maddock’s 2010 Sunrise on Avenue C album, and although there are many YouTube videos of him performing this song live, none of them are particularly good. I recommend you download a copy from your favorite digital music vendor. In the meantime, here is a YouTube version that isn’t too bad:



I hope you get a chance to turn up the stereo a few more times before the summer is gone.

Thanks to all who nominated albums this year.

See you next summer.

SV