Ten Songs I'm Constantly Listening to These Days

In alphabetical order:

1. Scott Bishop - "The Deep End"
2. Bush - "Afterlife"
3. The Duke Spirit - "The Step and the Walk"
4. Ladyfinger (ne) - "Little Things"
5. Ride - "Like a Daydream"
6. Roky Erickson and The Aliens - "Bloody Hammer"
7. Sabatta - "Raw"
8. Switchblade Seranades - "On Parole"
9. The T4 Project - "15 Minutes"
10. Them Crooked Vultures - "Mind Eraser, No Chaser"

- Snilch

11 Songs I'm Playing Constantly These Days

In no particular order:

1. The Weakerthans – "The Reasons"
2. Scott Bishop – "The Start (Again)"
3. The Wrens – "Rest Your Head"
4. Ride – "Time of Her Time"
5. Ride - "Furthest Sense"
6. Idlewild – "Little Discourage"
7. All – "She’s My Ex"
8. The Shiela Divine – "Like a Criminal"
9. Manic Street Preachers – "Marlon J.D."
10. Bob Mould - "Paralyzed" (yes, still)
11. The Big Sleep - "Pinkies"

- Snilch

Scott Bishop - New Lights (2009)

Full disclosure to start: Scott Bishop is one of my best friends, and I've heard many of these songs in one form or another over the last ten years. So I'm going to be as objective as possible in this review. Of course, he didn't bother to thank ME, just that ridiculous alter-ego that he always ends up with at The Field or Bison County. Bastard.

Scott and I first met about 10 years ago at a porno theater in Portland, Maine. Okay, so it was a converted porno theater (only in the previous few weeks... it was pretty disgusting, actually) the owners were trying to turn into a music venue, and he was playing on a bill with Baby Ray and Ross Phasor. When I look back on it, that was also the first time I met Sean Hennessey, Ken Lafler, Paul Hilcoff, and Eric Groat as well, which actually is pretty epic considering the amount of time/shows/trips/basketball that resulted. Well, Scott was on fire that night, and I can honestly say I was first a fan and later a friend. Before getting back to Boston, I got both Scott's original demo tape (Detour on the Way to Being Human), and his Slippy Keane demo tape, and I was sold.

So as the years have moved along, Scott has gone solo, into Aura Phase, then back solo. I kept listening to his demo tapes and encouraging him to release something. And thus we come to New Lights. (Yes, I just condensed approximately ten years into three sentences.)

Objectively, I am happy to say that this album is excellent. Great pop songs, smart lyrics, and happiness, sadness, and angst. Quiet and loud, it offers a little for all and plenty for most. And it's got singles: "Dinner 1," "Number 16," and one of the best songs you've never heard, "Kitten's Got Curves."

If I was going to criticize something here, it would have to be the track order. The album works, but in this order it plays better:

1. DC -- very versatile, nice vocals, previews acoustic and electric for the album
2. Dinner 1
   
3. Cable Knit
   
4. Kitten's Got Curves -- 'nuff said
5. Dinner 2 -- after the high of Kitten, this works very nicely and wraps up the narrative of D1/D2
6. Sky Blue and Black -- to this point, tonally, 1 & 4 are "upbeat", 3 & 5 are "downers", and 2 is "neutral-upbeat"; so a "lighter" works nicely right here
7. New Lights -- keeping the balance, we go softer again
8. #16 -- needs some space from "Kitten" and really punches up the energy here; the anchor for the back half
9. Temporary Condition -- works great off "#16"
10. Blind Spot
11. Other Explorations
12. Ultra-violet -- REALLY works as the last song: a little whimsical, and very interesting musically; even the first note

I just wish someone had told Scott this before the album was completed. Wait, perhaps someone did, and perhaps Scott ignored him anyways. This may or may not have led to an inordinate amount of focus in his album review on the subject, as some form of "last word revenge." But no one knows.

In the end: get this album at CD Baby or iTunes. I've had it for two years and if anything I love it more now than I did when I got it. Friend or not, I can objectively say Scott's album is great.

Merch Rating: I would buy the single with b-sides that's never going to be released, as well as the entire box set I'll never get a hold of. I'll also buy the vinyl he's never going to press, the poster he's never going to commission Sheppard Fairey to create, and the t-shirt he's never going to send to Taiwainese laborers to sell for $10 a pop. It's a rich, wonderful, and totally spend-free world I live in.

CD Placement Rating: This has sat in my car CD changer through many a culling, and unfortunately still sits there as the damn thing is now broken. It will remain there for quite some time even after I fix it.

- Snilch

Scott Bishop and Pie Factor Five will be appearing on May 21st at Porter Belly's in Brighton at 9PM.

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Guest Blog: Scott Bishop on M83 (Live at The Middle East)

This is the first in a series of guest columns for The Snilch Report. Well, maybe not a "series," more like "something that seemed like a good idea after a few beers last night." Scott Bishop is a Cambridge-based musician I've mentioned a number of times in this blog, and I'd link to those posts if I weren't so incredibly lazy. Take it away Scott!

Let’s get a couple of things out of the way first:

I’m old. Walking into the Middle East downstairs, I immediately raised the average attendee age by five years.

And the Middle East, what a tough place to see a show—and I stress the seeing part, because a good portion of the allure of a live gig is that you can, you know, actually SEE the performers—and not just a bobbing head or an occasional peek at a guitar neck, but entire bodies, amplifiers, drum kits and the lot. If they posted a sign above the door that said, “Abandon all hope of getting a clear view of the band, ye who enter,” they would not be lying.

Don’t get me wrong—some of my favorite shows have been at the Middle East. Arthur Lee and Love, on his first tour in God-knows-how-long after spending years in prison. My first Sleater-Kinney show and a couple of great Crooked Fingers gigs, all with the Snilch. Rainer Maria in 2004. And of course The Dandy Warhols with Sean and the Snilch, where we actually stuck our heads into the speakers.

Still, if there’s one place in Boston where you absolutely have to get there early and claim a spot, the Middle East is it. And where was I when I could have been marking territory? Out in Waltham, at Bison County, watching game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals with the Snilch.

Yes indeed, music fans—sports once again interfered with a music aficionado’s ability to hit the club and rock hard. Snilch had to give M83 a pass and cheer on his beloved Red Wings. In a cruel twist of fate, Detroit gave up the tying goal with about 30 seconds left in regulation, then prolonged the agony into a third overtime before succumbing. In case you hadn’t heard, kiddies, life ain’t fair.

I was committed to seeing M83, so Snilch and I parted ways after the second period, and the #70 zipped me from Waltham to Central Square just in time to grab an IPA before M83 started.

M83 were good—not quite the rocking set that Snilch, Paul and I caught during the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2005, but some of that may have been the shock from that first time of seeing a synth-driven band really bring it. You’d figure with a lot programmed keyboard and sample elements that a band would be locked into a tempo, and some of the life would get sucked out of the performance, but that really wasn’t the case. M83’s set at ACL was tight, propulsive, and hard hitting.

They had a lot of those qualities last night, but with a longer set—their ACL gig was closer to 45 minutes—they took more time to stretch out, bringing in a lot of the ambient and repetitive elements their longer songs employ. That was an aspect I enjoyed, but it led to the usual Boston response to quiet passages—chit chat.

Many Boston club goers seem to pride themselves on their music knowledge and a certain indie hipness (and yes, I’m pretty sure I would have won Indie Bingo last night—the Chuck T’s and PBR cans were as pervasive as ever). But except when Jose Gonzalez played Paradise earlier this year, I can’t recall a show I’ve attended in the last few years where people failed to talk during quiet sections. And to add a long time beef of our dear friend Sean, these people couldn’t be buggered to shake their asses when things went up-tempo, either. As an acquaintance of mine might say—because I’m all about stealing other people’s ideas today—Boston is not a giving audience.

Which is a shame. For the 50 or so minutes that I watched, I found the byplay of low key, repetitive buildups and mid-to-up-tempo songs to be pretty entrancing. They touched on key songs from Before the Dawn Heals Us and the poppier tunes from the new Saturdays=Youth. Once the sound man got the guitars in the mix—just after the second, “Graveyard Girl”—everything was nicely balanced. But as I said before, downstairs at the Middle East is a bitch for viewing, and the audience response to M83’s mellower elements represented one of the few occasions I’d have preferred to see a group in a seated venue, because it might have encouraged people to listen when things got quiet.

I ended up bailing halfway through, after M83 played my favorite song—“Don’t Save Us from the Flames”—which rocked as righteously as it had in Austin nearly three years prior. Hey, I’m old, I was feeling curmudgeonly… why not leave on a high note?