For some reason, the company for which I work decided to forgo a Christmas Party this year. Instead, we had a party to launch the new year. That the party took place two weeks into February didn’t seem to bother any members of the planning committee and they stuck to the goal of having a party to kick off the new year.
The big wigs from HQ were going to be at this party and they announced that they were going to be there wearing tuxedos. So the word came down from the kickoff committee that this was to be a “”black tie optional”" affair. My coworkers and I were generally unfamiliar with the term “”black tie optional”". We were informed that this meant that if you had a tuxedo that you should wear it. Otherwise, dress in the most formal clothing possible.
This high-class wardrobe requirement knocked out about half the companies employess from being able to attend. Fortunately, I happen to have a custom black suit and I looked down my nose at my wardrobe-challenged coworkers. After a few weeks, the kickoff committee wanted to know why so few people had RSVPed for this event, which would feature a full dinner and open bar at an upscale hotel on the fashionable North side of town. The responses to their query could be summed up in the following sentence: “”If I can’t wear jeans, I ain’t going!”". The company for which I work is a software development company with a pretty lax dress code, which is something along the lines of “”Yes, you have to be dressed”". Many of my coworkers barely own a clean set of Khakis let alone a button up shirt and tie. The committee finally came back and said that a suit is not required, but you should at least try to wear a clean pair of khakis, a button up shirt, and a tie. That kept about 20% of the people from being able to RSVP but more than enough signed up to keep the party as formal as possible.
I own a really nice black suit but not a tuxedo. I have a sharp dress shirt and a fair collection of good silk ties. The question to me was not if I could dress well enough to attend the event; rather I wanted to do what I could to take my attire over the top. What could I wear that exudes a sense of chic and style, of extreme formality without coming off as a dork. Well, I’m not sure about the dork part, but I did nail the other parts. I decided that I needed to wear a hat to the event. Not just any hat, but a real Humphrey Bogart/Frank Sinatra hat. The kind of hat you see in movies on dapper and dashing men as they sweep fawning women off their feet. Wearing a big time black hat that matches my black suit would raise the bar amongst my coworkers on style. Come to find out, there was only one flaw to my plan: Actually finding a hat!
I have never really looked good in a hat. Maybe it’s my big head. Maybe it’s because I wear my hair a tad longer than the average male and a hat just doesn’t look quite right. So I never wear hats or at least the hat du jour of my generation, the baseball cap. I just look like a dork in baseball caps. However, one day my roommate came home with a floppy Notre Dame hat. I threw it on and thought it didn’t look all that bad on me. So the seed was planted that maybe I would look good in a hat if I could find the right one.
So the day of the kickoff party arrives and I leave work at 4P to go out and buy a hat (Yes, a master of the last minute!). The party was to start at 6.30P but being a fashionably late kind of person, I considered 7.30P a good time to show up. Adding in time to shower, shave, and change into my suit, I figured I had about an hour and a half to find my hat. Living in a city of around a million people, I didn’t think it would be too difficult to find a hat. Boy was I wrong.
Never having worn good hats, I figured I just never paid attention to the hat section in stores. Well, it appears that no one pays attention to the hat section in stores, including the store owners as almost no store actually has a hat section. On a whim, I started my hat search at TJ Maxx, a chain retailer of overstock and other sundry goods. I thought it was a long shot to find a hat there, but I was hoping they might have some hats there and I could save a few bucks. No such luck. I really didn’t know where to go from there. I couldn’t remember ever seeing a store with a hat section. So I thought I should probably go to a store that deals exclusively with men’s clothing and, more specifically, men’s suits. So my next stop was the Men’s Wearhouse, a chain of suit sellers that prides itself in helping men look good.
I walked in and scanned the place, looking in the corners for the hat display. I didn’t immediately notice a hat section. A salesman walks up and asks if I need help.
I thanked him and headed to Von Maur. Seeing as I was already next to the mall, it was the obvious choice. Also, I didn’t really want to invest the 20 minute drive to get to 38th and Illinois. Further, when I think of a part of town to find a quality hat, 38th and Illinois doesn’t even register on my radar. It’s a border neighborhood between lower and middle income families. The neighborhood is going through some rejuvenation (witness the Starbucks a block east) but it is absolutely not where I would think to go for a hat. Instead, I kept my search to the fashionable North side of town.
I stroll into Von Maur and head toward the suit section. On my way, I pass the men’s accessories section (wallets, belts, etc.) and find a small hat display. I can describe the entire hat display in one word: Tan. The ten or so hats they had were almost all tan in color, the type of color most commonly seen on a retiree sitting on the porch in front of his house reading the newspaper in his white undershirt, tan shorts, black socks, and sandals. This was exactly the type of hat I was not interested in.
Next, I headed to the Macy’s in the mall, which is a very, very large department store. I walk through the suit section, the accessories section, the cologne section, the shoes section, the jeans section, the designer label clothes section, and the female undergarment section and find absolutely no hats. I really wasn’t expecting to find a hat in the female undergarment section, but hey, don’t hate me for being a single male in the big city.
I make the long walk back to my car and begin to think that this search is hopeless. Four stores and zero quality hats. Being a bit of a stubborn individual, I decide to make the drive to Queen’s hat store on 38th and Illinois. The time was about 4.30P. I figured I had to hustle because that sounded like the type of store that closes at 5PM sharp. Knowing the city pretty well, I was able to avoid any major congestion on my drive to 38th and Illinois by using secondary streets and a certain amount of driving genius (aka, driving like a convict on a prison break fleeing from a squad of policemen while not having any concern for trivialities like stoplights and pedestrians.).
I am rather familiar with 38th and Illinois, as it is the home of my favorite dive bar called the Melody Inn. I go there a few time a months to see local bands and, less occasionally, to just hang and have a beer. Also, one of my current roommates lived about 3 blocks from there. So I’m well aware of what kind of neighborhood I’m driving to in order to find a quality hat. I park on the street, just a few dozen feet south of the Melody. I look to my left and see a narrow storefront that has two big signs on the top of either window. One sign says “”Hats”" and the other says “”Wigs”". In my 50 or so visits to the Melody Inn, I never paid attention to the stores huddled together on the east side of the street. I look at the storefront and question if this journey is really worth the effort. My thought, based on the neighborhood and signage, is that I may have found a place to find a pimp hat, but not a place for a Frank Sinatra special. Plus…Wigs??? This thought is compounded by a smaller sign advertising the presence of Kangol hats in the store, a brand very popular in the urban parts of town, the part of town that I now find myself in. And while Kangol makes a quality hat, I can’t remember them making a style of hat for which I was looking. I continue staring at the storefront from the comfort of my car and see a stack of cardboard separated hats through the window. After having visited four stores and raced through town, it only made sense to go in and see if the salesman at Men’s Wearhouse actually new what he was talking about.
As I walk up to the store, I see a small placard above the door informing me that this store was called Queen Bee, confirming that I had indeed found Queen’s on 38th and Illinois. I open the door and walk in. Inside, I find nothing but shelves and tables full of quality hats. There is nary a pimp hat in site. The only baseball caps are there more for commemorative reasons than for sale. Tan hats are found, but not in the floppy brimmed look seen at Von Maur; rather the tan hats on sale here are to match a tan suit or overcoat and not to match tan shorts while sitting on the beach reading a copy of the Reader’s Digest. I walk around, taking in the floor-to-ceiling racks of hats, ranging from top hats to bowlers to Indiana Jones to Frank Sinatra to cab driver. I pick up a Stetson hat (probably the first I’ve ever held in my life) and glance at the $260 price tag. It’s a stunning hat by the name of the only hat company I’ve ever heard of (barring Kangol).
The woman working the counter, an elderly Asian woman, was finishing up a sale to well dressed black man. Once they completed their transaction, she came to me and asked if I needed any help. I told her I had a formal event later that night and wanted to have a hat that would look great with a black suit.
She quickly informs me that she most certainly has something for me and shows me the Stetson I had picked up earlier as well as a mid and lower-tier hat. A quick hat test determines that my hat size is an XL and she shows me the three specific hats in XL that would suit my needs (pun more or less intended). I tell her that I’m not a complete shlub so she should show me the mid-tier hat. It looks exactly like the high end Stetson and it’s lower priced brother. She informs me that it is really a quality issue more than a style issue and to my untrained eye, she was right. I couldn’t immediately tell a difference between the Stetson and the two Beaver Brand hats that were priced a bit more economically. I settle on the mid-tier Beaver Brand hat (a much more affordable though still pricey $90.00).
As we walk to the counter I start telling her about how hard it was to find a hat. She mentions that the Nordstrom downtown has a few hats but other than that, she is the only hat store. She tells me about how her website (Yes, her website!) garners all kinds of business from California, Texas, Florida, and Chicago. She tells me how there is not much demand in states like Indiana and Ohio for hats. She tells me how players for the Indiana Pacers buy their hats there. She tells me that ministers are good for her business. She tells me the theory that hat wearing died when John F. Kennedy became President since he was the first President who didn’t wear hats. She tells me how she gets a lot of orders from LA because the stars are often seen wearing hats during red carpet premiers. She tells me how repeat customers in the hat business are rare because a good hat can last a lifetime. She tells me that a lot of her business is from children buying hats for their dads (which ties in to the website name of dadshats.com though the biography on the website gives a different reason). She tells me that she sells a lot of hats to ministers. She tells me that my hat can stand up to a little bit of rain and I immediately think back to a Sanford and Son episode where Lamont buys his dad a new hat and informs him that the hat can’t get wet. Cut to the end of the show when nothing goes right for Fred Sanford and he’s standing out in a downpour, hat firmly planted on his head. Finally, she tells me that she doesn’t accept American Express.
I leave Queen Bee’s hat store and walk over to the Melody Inn with my new hat. (Oh yeah, she does sell wigs, but I don’t see how. There are stacks of hat boxes making it all but impossible to actually get to the wigs.) The time is now around 5.20P and I decide it’s time to get a drink. I sit down at the bar, order a beer and talk to the bartender about my hat. She seems about as impressed as one could be about my hat. In other words, she didn’t jump on the bar and start singing songs in honor of my hat, but rather commented that it was a sharp hat and that I owed her $4 for the drink. I downed my beer, hopped in the car, and drunkenly ran into a school bus of nuns…OK, in reality, I had a fairly uneventful drive home, other than answering a call on my cell phone from my older sister and telling her I just bought a hat. She thought it was funny in a good way.
I showered and shredded my neck with the shaver (It was total chopped meat). Time was quickly passing and around 6:00 PM I hop in the car to go pick up a coworker at his house. He volunteered me to be the designated driver since he really wasn’t in the mood to go pick up his car from some parking lot the next day. Again. As I come in, he immediately asks if I was able to find a hat. I give him the condensed version of this story and show him the hat. He gives a knowing chuckle and immediately puts it on. The hat engulfs his much smaller head but, as he is checking himself out in the mirror, he comments on how sharp the hat is.
We drive to the hotel and dinner is well underway. We stroll in, fashionably late, and I toss my hat on top of the coat rack. It is the only hat on the hat rack and it looks down at the 40 or so coats beneath it. After dinner and speeches by the bigwigs in their tuxedos, the “”party”" portion of the evening begins. The open bar is doing a fine job of providing me with Gin and Tonics and the gaming tables with free “”Vegas style”" gambling do an excellent job of keeping me occupied.
The deal with the gaming is this – you get a pile of chips, roughly $2500 worth. At the end of the evening, you turn in your remaining chips for tickets. You take the tickets and drop them in different bags and the tickets are drawn out of an assigned bag and the holder of the winning ticket wins a prize, ranging from gift certificates at restaurants to floor tickets to a Pacers game to a surround sound DVD package. I go to a blackjack table and immediately start betting with my $500 chips. Hey, this is fake money and if I want to get those floor tickets to the Pacers game, I’ve got to stuff the bag with tickets. About 3 minutes later, all of my $500 chips, $100 chips, and $50 chips are gone, leaving me with about $125 in chips. At this point, I leave the table for the only time, go to the coat rack, grab my hat, place it atop my head, and return to the table. The table laughs appreciably of my hat. I know its poor form to wear a hat indoors but I try to tell everyone that this hat will bring me luck. Suffice to say, by the end of the gaming, I was sitting on over $5,000 in chips. Without wearing the hat, I lost around $2400. With the hat, I won about $7,500. Sure, the dealer was violating a whole bunch of rules (like looking ahead at the cards and giving us a nod when we should hit and when we should stay), but I still would have ended on the plus side without her help after putting on the hat.
At some point, my hat ended up making the rounds without me. Pictures from the event show my hat dancing, playing craps, and posing in a half dozen pictures. Over the course of the evening, all kinds of people were asking about the hat, where I got it, how long I had it, etc. The hat ended up being quite the hit. The luck of my hat ran out when I did not win the Pacers tickets, but you can only ask for so much luck from a hat on your first night together.
I now have a hat sitting on a chest of drawers at home. I’m planning on putting a hook on the wall of my bedroom so my hat can have a proper place to rest for the next six months until the next “”black tie optional”" event I need to attend. I’m now thoroughly a convert of wearing a hat with a suit. It adds a certain style and flair that can not be matched simply by a black suit or a tuxedo. Due to the rarity of modern day hat wearing it is an accessory that easily stands out. People – buy hats. Go visit Queen Bee and help her spread the hat gospel.
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular – 
Minus the Bear – Acoustics EP – This is a 7 song collection of songs re-recorded in a more acoustic style. It’s a good listen – somewhat essential for Minus the Bear fans. It can probably be skipped by the average listener in favor of pretty much any proper studio album. It provides a nice intro into the band but it misses some of the electronic touches and flourishes that make the band so interesting.
Mirror – Mirror – This is a quiet, chilled slice of electronic pop. Each of the songs feature a guest vocalist (most notably Depeche Mode’s David Gahan) and they are all good enough. None of the songs are entirely awesome but then I don’t think that is the point of this album. It’s one for the quieter, more laidback moments of your life and if listened to in the corret time and place, this could become a useful soundtrack.
Miss Kittin – Batbox – This sounds like the album Goldfrapp should have put out. It’s a bit of a hit-or-miss album and doesn’t break any ground musically. However, there is a certain personality that Miss Kittin brings out through her songs that makes the album much better than the sum of its parts. If you want to add some electronic music to your collection without going off the deep end, I think this is a good one to buy.
Moby – Last Night – I was a huge Moby fan back in the day. I even met him once after a show in…1995? Some time around there. While Moby has continued to put out some good music, he’s not been as daring as he used to be. As such, he kind of latched onto a sound with the Play album and hasn’t moved much from there. This album ditches the old-school samples and sounds much more modern, but it still isn’t far from his last few albums. It’s a good, if not essential, listen. I really like the song “Alice”.
Monkey - Journey to the West - Somewhat of a spinoff from the band Gorillaz, this is the music to a play/musica/theatre production things. As such, don’t look for singles and a traditional album format. Sitll it’s a decent listen and anyone open minded who is also a Damon Alborn or Gorillaz fan should give it a listen.
Mystery Jets – Twenty One – Between the great single are some much more ho-hum songs. “Two Doors Down” is a catchy little tune and needs to be heard by a lot of people. The rest of the album is generally uninteresting. I think I liked their previous albums better.
The Mystery Tramps – We are the Mystery Tramps – I don’t know much about these guys but I’m going to guess that the members of this band are still pretty young (They definitely look it on the album cover). The songs generally fall into a pop-rock model, scarily close to some fake Disney band. Though the seven-song album is inconsistent, the song “Actors” is a total winner and shows that these guys have some promise.
Kate Nash - Made of Bricks - I really have a hard time figuring out the different between Kate Nash and Lilly Allen. I gues Kate Nash is more guitar oriented and loss cocky. Despite attempts at being edgy (songs like “Dickhead”) I find it all so cute and whimsical kind of like when a 2 year old kid flips you off. They may have seen the gesture and they are repeating the gesture but that little child has no clue whatsoever as to the actual meaning of that gesture. And that’s what Kate Nash (and Lilly Allen) feels like to me. They sure are trying hard to be taken seriously and to be important and all that. But in the end, it’s just a meaningless gesture.
Navel4Eve – Sex Makes Song EP – Fun little 3 song synthpop EP. It doesn’t solve anything and really adds little to the world. But it’s fun in it’s own way. They are trying so hard and I can commend that. Let’s see if an album ever comes out before passing full judgement. Musically, it sounds straight-out-of-the-80’s. Like a long lost Human League b-side.
1. Peter Alexander - Wiehnachts Musik. No clue if that is the name of the album. But it is a collection of German Christmas music sung by the German equivalent of Bing Crosby. It’s probably the first time when I was a little kid that I tied music together with atmosphere and emotion. I knew it was Christmastime when mom put that record on and played it seemingly non stop until Christmas finally arrived. I still listen to a (now pristeen MP3) version of that album all December. On top of just being memorable, it’s a pretty well produced album. Church bells cling (sampling? In the 60’s?), children sing, strings swell, choirs bellow…it’s all good. I’ve never heard anything else by Peter Alexander and I don’t want to. Anything else would just be a disappointment.
2. Culture Club - Kissing To Be Clever - I bought this cassette at either Ayr-Way or Target. Cant’ remember exactly when the stores made the switch. I really liked the song “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” that I had heard on the radio. I went to the store and bought it with whatever allowance I had scraped together. Boy George was probably the first flaming dude I had ever seen or paid attention to. He kind of scared me. But I am kind of proud now that at such a young age I was able to separate a person from their art. It actually probably intrigued me even more that this weirdo put out such good music and I just had to buy it.
3. Howard Jones - Dream Into Action - I was always a sucker in the early 80’s for new wave. So at some point in my Freshman or Sophomore year I bought this tape and listened to it so damn much I wore it out and had to buy it again. I listened to it again a few months ago after not having heard it for years. It didn’t hold up.
4. INXS - Listen Like Thieves - Also purchased sometime as a freshman or sophomore. I remember listening to this a TON. I freaking loved “What You Need”. Laugh if you want, but this was one of the few “rock” album I had ever listened to so it definitely held my attention. I’ve also listened to this recently and it has held up much better than the Howard Jones album. Also, INXS’ Shabooh Shoobah is a way better album.
5. Pretty In Pink Soundtrack - By 1986 my little circle of friends were starting to explore non-mainstream music. This was s tough battle, pre-Internet and all. I bought this tape and it introduced me to Psychedelic Furs, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths, and, most importantly, New Order. Their song “Shellshock” was exactly what I was looking for. Something far more serious than New Wave but still electronic and it just sounded grand.
6. New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies - After hearing #5, I ran out and bought this album. It took me a long time to get into it. For a teenager, it’s not the easiest album to get into. But i knew it was great. It also had the song “Blue Monday” on it. I had heard this song in Germany when I visited there in 1983 and I really liked the song then. But I had no idea who did it. So when I heard this song on the album, it all came together for me. I also saw the original painting that was used for the album artwork on my one trip to London, so that was cool.
7. New Model Army - The Ghost of Cain - So my orthodontist had a motivational ploy for his patients. If you put in your rubber bands and all of that crap, you would “win” a wooden nickel. After you had collected enough, you could trade it in for a gift certificate or some other prize. After I had eventually collected enough, I traded them for a gift certificate to the Camelot music store at Washington Square. The next time I got to the mall, I went to the back wall of tapes (where they housed “the cool stuff” and just scanned all of the tapes, wondering which one I would buy. For some reason, I was magically attracted to this tape. It looked kind of bad ass what with it’s leather jacket on the cover and interesting album title. I knew I wanted something that rocked. Little did I know this album would have such a profound musical effect on me. This album had the unbridled energy of punk but was far more musical than what I had heard at that point in my life. This band is still going strong and I have traveled hours to see them play within the past few years. I still buy everything they put out. The album they put out after this one (“Thunder and Consolation”) is a complete master stroke and is also one of my 5 favorite albums ever.
8. Art of Noise - In Visible Silence - The album that taught me that you can deconstruct music and it can still be music. This album was very eye opening (or is it ear opening?). AoN have since become one of my most collected bands. I have almost their complete discography, complete with picture discs and Japanese 7″ singles I paid too much for.
9. Negativland - Escape from Noise - Wayne at Rockin’ Billys was a musical sensei for a few friends and myself. We’d go in there, chat, and he’d push an album on us and we would buy it. He knew I liked Art of Noise so he told me this one was in the same vein. And it was, except that it deconstructed music even more, often to the point of being more avant garde radio plays than “music”. I loved it. This album helped cement my interest in experimental and non-standard music.
10. Cabaret Voltaire – Code - I was in Ozarka in Bloomington on day. I think I was visiting my older sister at IU when I stumbled into there and was browsing the record selection. They were playing the most amazing electronic music I had ever heard. I asked the person at the counter what it was. They said it was Cabaret Voltaire. I told them to sell it to me and they said they were out of stock. Bastards. I eventually found it and listened to the hell out of it. This was electronic music taken to the next level (particularly the song Code). It was cool, it was adventurous, it was so mechanical! Yet they would sing every now and then in this really hip, laid back style that gave the album some soul. This is the album that sent me spiraling out of control into electronic music.
11. Front Line Assembly - Corrosion – I would go to Tracks and just buy anything from Wax Trax. I bought this, never having heard of the band. I loved it because it had an organic sound to the electronics going on. Front Line Assembly and the numerous spinoff bands is now by FAR the largest band that I collect. I keep buying anything put out. And fortunately, it continues to maintain a very high level.
12. – He Said - Take Care - If there’s an album I’ve heard more than #13, this might be it. It’s a spin off from the band Wire (another of the numerous bands that Rockin Billy’s Wayne pushed on me). I remember going to my friend Walter’s house and asking him to give me the weirdest album he had. He gave me a copy of this. I was disappointed int hat it wasn’t weird so much as it was very original. Chock full of 7 minute long songs that have strong rhythms, dispassionate and obtuse vocals, and all sorts of creativity. Most people I’ve pushed this album to haven’t fallen in love with it as much as I did. Their loss.
13. Front Line Assembly - Tactical Neural Implant - I got a promo copy of this while working at the radio station at Ball State – WCRD FTW! I’ve listened to that album so much that I think it is now permanently implanted in my DNA. To me, this is not only one of the best electronic albums ever made, but one of the best albums, period. And even though it was released in 1991, it does not sound dated in the least.
14 – Front 242 - 06:21:03:11 UP EVIL - This was essentially the last full Front 242 album and it’s my favorite one of theirs. Like many electronic bands in the early 90’s, they dabbled with guitars and “rock” but they way that Front 242 did it was in such a cut up, everything int he blender, mad scientist approach that I’m still in awe today. There was nothing that sounded like this before and nothing that sounded like it since.
15. Legendary Pink Dots - From Here you’ll Watch the World Go By - I was quite often exposed to LPD through my electronic/industrial music listenings but never got into them because I flat didn’t “get them”. Then, on a whim, I ordered this album and they finally had morphed to meet me halfway. This is a wonderful, deranged album of generally straight ahead rock. There are certainly touchpoints with early 70’s Pink Floyd. But this album got me into LPD and their album releases throughout the 90’s were one of the few good things to come out of that decade. Through them, I pursued Krautrock and got a great appreciation for that genre. But the band morphed again in the 2000′a and we’ve more or less parted ways.
Nine Inch Nails – The Slip – I love the first NIN album, found the rest to be pretentious, went to see NIN last summer, and maybe I’ve changed my mind. This particular album seems a little mailed-in for my tastes – going by the numbers, if you know what I mean. The second half of the album is better than the first half. Using old school parlance, I would totally listen to side 2 more than side 1. Side 2 seems like it is more soulfull and emotional.
The Notwist – The Devil, You + Me- This is a band that I really try to like but I never really get it. I’m a sucker for a guitar/electronics blend but somehow The Notwist is just too laid back, too chill for me I guess. And I don’t mind chilled music. But somehow it’s never sucked me in. And I’ve listened to about 3 of their albums over the past 2 or 3 years. I can totally see how people like this band but they just don’t work for me. My loss.
Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul – I had never listened to an Oasis album in my life until this one. I always thought that they were just a bunch of Beatles ripoff artists. Maybe they’ve changed, or maybe I’ve come to grips with Oasis. Regardless, I like this album, a lot more than I thought I would. It certainly has that classic BritPop sound and there isn’t nearly as much whining as I had anticipated. Maybe I need to go through their back catalog.
Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping – Really a good album. The reviews I’ve read seem to point out how quirky this band is or how experimental. Whatever. They should focus more on just how good it is and spend much less time trying to describe it. Because really, it’s not that weird of a record. A good record doesn’t need to have excuses made for it. And this is a good record.
Oppenheimer – Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It – Quirky little album. Full of shorter-than-usual songs. None of them are particularly catchy or memorable. But it’s a fun listen that blends some cheese-ball synth and other silly effects (like the occational vocoder) with more run of the mill indie rock. If you are into quirky, then give them a go.
Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer - She certainly has a unique voice and sound. She’s sounds like a weary, slightly pissed off piano-bar musician. Think of Billy Joel’s iconic Piano Man, but not lame. Someone you’d actually want to have a conversation with and not ignore.
Peter Bjorn and John – Seaside Rock- Coming from the “we really don’t care what you expect from us” school, PB&J (not to be confused with the PBJ (Peanut Butter and Jelly)) decided not to offer the expected followup to their breakthrough album Writer’s Block. Instead, they put out an experimental, instrumental album with only vague hints of vocals (barring sampled voices and the like). This thing conjures up images of sitting on a bizarro beach in the Bahamas. All said, it’s not a bad album but don’t expect ridiculously catchy melodies to be stuck in your head.
Pia Fraus – After Summer- Pia Fraus is out to prove that the country of Estonia is not some culturally barren wasteland on the Baltic sea. And they succeed. This album tends toward the shogazer genre. Other than the requisite overdriven guitar, you get some keyboard twinkling and guitar arpeggios along with the standard shoegaze beats and rhythms underpinning the whole affair. For shoegaze fanatics, I think this is a must get. Otherwise, it’s a nice album that reaches its goals satisfyingly.
Plus/Minus – Xs on Your Eyes - Generally quiet and laid back music. The good thing here is that the songs have such a nice sound that it sort of pulls you in. There is a subtle, underlying emotion that makes you think that there is more going on that what really is. Nice album. Not essential but a pleasant listen.
Portishead – Third - Sweet. During their long sabbatical, I managed to become a bigger fan of this band. This album is no big change from their sound. It is what they do. And what they do is cool. This album was exactly what I wanted from them, full of chilled, vampish tunes and enough noise to keep things interesting.
Portugal, The Man – Censored Colors - This is a vast, diverse album. I’m not sure if there are any hits or singles on the album, but it is a good thing to have on in the background. The music tends towards the powerful, spirited side of the world. It has a fair amount of musical emotion, if that makes sense. I could see people thinking that maybe this album is a touch “uppity”. But I like it. Apparently, I am also a touch uppity.
Primal Scream – Beautiful Future- I’ve never been as big of a fan of Primal Scream as I thought I should be. Somehow I’ve never been pulled into their web. I have crossed paths with them many times and have heard many of their albums. This is a good album. It is lively, has some really good tunes, and no one can be faulted for buying it and enjoying it. But like all of the Primal Scream albums, it’s just missing a certain something that keep me from loving it. I can’t explain it any better than that, really.
The Radio Dept. - Freddie and The Trojan Horse EP - 4 song EP from British Indie band The Radio Dept. These guys are a nice band, generally focusing on pleasant mid-tempo tunes. The title track here isn’t their best song ever. But that’s not really the point I don’t think. This EP is a throwback to the way things were in the 80’s when bands focused more on releasing EP’s and singles and less so much on albums. As such, this is a nice little gift from the band. Not their best work but still an example of the quality music that The Radio Dept. produces. 
Robots In Disguise – We’re In the Music Biz – A fun, irreverent little album. This is one of those albums where I don’t think anyone takes themselves too seriously. The music and vocals all sound like there were no more than 2 or 3 takes and they just selected the best version and stuck with it. I’m not sure if any of the songs are particularly awesome but overall it’s such a silly little release that you can’t help but like it.
Sankofa – Music With Friends 1 - Give it up for the underground sound of Ft Wayne, Indiana. OK, everything out of Ft. Wayne is underground. This is a rough collection of 8 songs from a rapper named Sankofa. You will find no over-the-top bitches and bling rapping here. This stuff is earnest and raw. It’s got more of an early 90’s vibe where the words and vibe were much more important than posing and attitude. This stuff is free so 
Santogold - Santogold - Bored music journalists have been throwing out terms like “80’s throwback” a lot lately just because they can’t be bothered to be creative in describing a band. So you have some crap album like the one from Ladyhawke getting traction because of it’s alleged “80’s-ness”. As much as Ladyhawke completely missed the boat, Santogold (now Santigold, I see) set full sail on that ship. Aside from having some great songs, the music actually does have an overt throwback-to-the-eighties vibe to it. But the throwback sound doesn’t come off as a cheap trick here like it does in most of the current crop of 80’s throwback music. She makes it work. The song “L.E.S. Artistes” was one of my favorite songs of 2008.
Scarlet Blonde – Bedroom Superstars – Fairly obscure little band. Mixes the electronic and the rock in a throw back kind of way. Here is what they call themselves: “
The Sea and Cake - Car Alarm- These guys just have such a cool, laid back sound that completely connects with me. Really, all of their songs sound the same. I can’t explain it. They cast a spell over me. Maybe they are warlocks or something. But I could listen to this stuff on repeat for days before I got bored with it. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how this album is any different than any of their other albums, but I don’t care. I like it.
She & Him – Volume 1 - So apparently every music journalist on the planet just really wishes that Karen Carpenter had eaten a few extra sandwiches and that The Carpenters were still cranking out there special brand of yawn rock. I don’t hate this album but really – Amazon.com reviewers: 4 stars. Metacritic: 76% Good. Users on Metacritic – 8.7 out of 10. So I’m out of the loop. This album is obviously great fun and I don’t get it. All things equal, I’ll listen to a greatest hits from The Carpenters. The only redeeming value is the chick (whose name I currently forget) got to be Trillian, so she gets a lifetime pass from me.
Shiny Toy Guns – Season of Poison- Very inconsistent album. I could see these guys being wildly popular with the moody teenager demographic. The songs all seem somewhat shallow and relying on attitude as much as songwriting. There are a few highlights though. “I Owe you a Love Song” is a wonderful synth-pop tune and “Ghost Town” sounds like an updated Bow Wow Wow. I’ve heard both their albums and here’s a bit of advice: The good songs are almost universally the ones that the girl sings on. So do more of that.
Sigur Rós – 
Simian Mobile Disco – Sample and Hold – For a while, these guys seemed to pop up all over the place. Propelled by the success of their 2007 album Attack Decay Sustain Release, they clearly felt compelled to release the obligatory follow up remix album that seems to have become de rigueur for electronic acts. As far as remix collections go…well, this is one of them. None of the remixes are entirely outstanding and, as such, this collection is strictly for fans of SMD. Fans of general electronic beats should spend their dollars elsewhere.
Smashing Pumpkins - American Gothic EP - Digital download EP that apparently features left-over tracks from their 2007 Zeitgeistrelease. Nothing here stands out and falls strictly under the category of “for completionists only”. The last song “Pox” is kind of funky, at least as far as Smashing Pumpkins go. I’ve also just read that they are essentially done releasing albums and will concentrate on singles and EP’s from now on. I’m OK with that, because trying to get through the Melon Collie… and Machina… albums was very time consuming.
Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns- The more I’ve heard from Snow Patrol the more boring it had become. This album is a bit more upbeat and anthemic but isn’t anything that will shake my opinion of them. They are a nice band for people who are musically cautious and have 15 CD’s in their entire collection, much of it revolving around Billy Joel and Dido.
