The Pelican’s Perch

So, great comments and feedback so far regarding the list. Always makes blogging easier when you hear directly from your readers. Sounds like Field Music and Animal Collective have been hit or miss, with Reid even preferring Panda Bear’s solo effort Person Pitch over AC’s latest. Person Pitch is a wonderful album, I’ll give him that, but I don’t know if it beats out Strawberry Jam. But that’s for another day. The list continues…!

4. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup

I read an interview with Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy where he mentioned how much he liked the band Beirut and wanted to meet up with them to collaborate on something. I remember thinking, “God yes, that would be incredible. Please make that happen!” Of course, he didn’t hear me because I was yelling into the magazine, but the collaboration did end up happening on Zach Condon’s latest album The Flying Club Cup and I couldn’t be happier (Pallett sings lead vocals in the song “Cliquot”). The title comes from a hot air balloon race held in the early 1900’s that Condon found out about while writing the album, and he describes having wanted to write more over the top pop songs with arrangements galore. Well, he definitely succeeded there, making this by far the most ambitious Beirut release yet. Wonderful little numbers like “In the Mausoleum” find Condon sounding a bit like Sufjan musically on piano, then Pallett’s amazing string arrangement comes in and puts it over the top. So good. Other stand-outs include the Yann Tiersen sounding “Un Dernier Verre (Pour la Route)”, with solo piano that resembles the Goodbye Lenin! soundtrack and is later joined by drums and every instrument under the sun. “Nantes” sounds slightly like if Condon did the soundtrack for Napoleon Dynamite (wouldn’t that have been incredible), and could end up being my 2nd favorite from this album behind “Forks and Knives (la fete)”. The absolute best part about this album is how Condon is promoting it. With the help of Vincent Moon over at the ever-amazing La Blogotheque, Condon and Moon collaborated to film Take Away Shows for each track on the album and are releasing them one at a time until the album is released . Now that is an amazing idea! Head over to The Flying Club Cup’s promo site to watch them and pick up the album October 9th (or buy it on iTunes now).

Beirut live at SXSW 2007

Forks and Knives (la fete) (seriously, does it get much better than this?)
[youtube uRxgDAC-4kI]

Other take away video:
Nantes / Un Dernier Verre / The Penalty

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3. Rogue Wave – Asleep at Heaven’s Gate

I got a little carried away with that Beirut section, so I’ll keep this one shorter. Rogue Wave are probably in my top 10 bands ever. I know, I know…bold statement. But I go back to their past albums so much when I don’t know what to listen to, that statement is more than justified in my book. I mean, according to my iTunes, I’ve listened to Decended Like Vultures 75 times through, and who knows how many times on my iPod. The point is, I was going to like this newest album whether I wanted to or not. I was told by a few friends that it was going to be way different now that they were on Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records, to which I just rolled my eyes and said, “Yeah, I heard it basically sounds like a Jack Johnson album fronted by Zach Rogue”, which made them happy in an “I told you so” sort of way until they realized I wasn’t serious at all. Nothing has changed with Rogue Wave. The music is still great and the members of Rogue Wave finally truly feel like a band, rather than a Zach Rogue solo project fleshed out. “Harmonium” is the best song I think Rogue Wave have written in a long time topping six minutes, while the rest of the album goes more rocking than we’re used to with Rogue Wave. I’ll admit to not immediately liking this album the whole way through, but after 10+ listens through, I’m more than convinced at how good this album is. It’s a slight shame there’s no true acoustic numbers like previous albums have had like “Be Kind + Remind” and “California”, which are when Rogue Wave are at their best, but despite this lack of a gentle acoustic number, Asleep at Heaven’s Gate is still an amazing album that I’m glad I can add to my Rogue Wave library.
Stand-outs: The 6+ minute long “Harmonium”, “Chicago x 12″, the George Harrison feeling “Cheaper than Therapy”

Harmonium

Lake Michigan

Making of Asleep at Heaven’s Gate
[youtube oNMuqIY_CIM]

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Bonus:
Grizzly Bear – Alligator (choir version ft. Dirty Projectors and Beirut)

Rogue Wave – Eyes

Rogue Wave – Sightlines