THE PROCRASTINATOR’S
gift guide
Mountain Goats
Transcendental Youth
Shakes. Part-Janis Joplin, part-Aretha Franklin and
part-Amy Winehouse, Howard’s voice leads the
band’s soulful, riff-heavy, tightly written freshman
rock album with earth-shattering power, emotion and
grit. The record swings from inspirational ballads (“I
Found You,” “Hold On”) to languid melodies (“Boys
& Girls”) to the deliciously bitter (“Heartbreak”) with
ease and grace.
track: “Hold On”
— Alex Notman
John Darnielle of the
Mountain Goats is not
known for range; there is
a sameness to his rhyth-
mic-guitar playing and
vocal melodies. But it’s
always been about his
words: shocking, person-
al, utterly unique and spit
with venom. Prior to 2012 the Mountain Goats’ for-
mula had grown a bit stale, but with his latest release
Transcendental Youth, Darnielle has reignited the fire
in his belly, reminding us he’s one of the best song-
writers of his generation.
track: “Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1” (a tribute to
Amy Winehouse)
— William Kennedy
Fiona Apple
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of
the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve
You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Perfume Genius
Put Your Back N 2 It
Don’t let the terrible title scare you; Mike Hadreas
aka Perfume Genius’ latest release is a beautiful and
gentle gem of a record. Based almost entirely around
Hadreas’ sparse piano playing and feminine voice, the
songs are sad, soulful and entrancing: sucking the air out
of the room and absorbing your attention like only good
music can. I was underwhelmed with Perfume Genius’
earlier records, but Put Your Back N 2 It and its textural
indie-rock-torch-ballads rank tops with me this year.
track: “Hood”
— William Kennedy
Fergus and Geronimo
Funky was the State of Affairs
Like Holy Modal Rounders to the hippies, or
Pavement to alt-rockers in the ’90s, Fergus and
Geronimo poke fun at the social mores of the hipster
generation, mixing ironic “I buy vinyl” genre tourism
with tongue-in-cheek songwriting. But unlike the
more overtly juvenile Ween, Fergus and Geronimo
made a really great record in addition to the jokes.
Expect techno-pop, ’60s garage-rock, punk, jazzy
saxophone squawk and a trippy sampled voice
interlude from “Heather Strange,” a “23-year-old
human earthling”: “Really I’m just looking for a man
whose cerebral capabilities haven’t been fried by
LCD screens yet.”
track: “No Parties”
— William Kennedy
Alabama Shakes
Boys & Girls
These days with so
many aloof, wispy-
voiced, guitar-strum-
ming, bearded troupe
bands, it’s nice to lis-
ten to something that
really makes you feel
something. That’s how
I felt the first time I heard the voice of Brittany How-
ard, lead singer of the Athens, Ala., band Alabama
Nutcracker Time in Eugene !
It’s a
performance
that always
says Happy
Holidays.
Dec. 21 - 7:30pm
Dec. 22 - 2:00pm
Dec. 22 - 7:30pm
Dec. 23 - 2:00pm
Hult Center, Eugene
Nutcracker Tea
Dec. 22 & 23, noon
WHISKEY
RIVER
RANCH
Not only is this my favorite album of 2012, it’s the
best album Fiona Apple has ever ripped from her
heart. The Idler Wheel feels bold, wise and liberated,
in spite of, or perhaps because of, her continued
struggles with anxiety and depression, and at times,
it’s as if you can hear white-hot sparks firing off in her
brain. Apple’s robust classical voice is better than
ever, her piano laughs and weeps, accompanied by
celestas, bouzoukis, marimbas, koras and a “truck
stomper” (basically, someone stomping around on the
hood of her brother’s truck). The use of timpani
drums on the track “Hot Knife” adds booming big-
band texture to playful and sharp lyrics: “If I’m butter,
then he’s a hot knife.” No one combines humor and
bitterness like Apple, especially on “Every Single
Night,” when she wails “I just made a meal for us
both to choke on. Every single night’s a fight with my
brain.” Keep up the good fight, Fiona.
track: “Hot Knife”
— Alex Notman
PRESENTS
THE
HANK SHREVE
BLUES SHOWCASE
TONIGHT:
BEN
RICE
DEC. 27:
JOANNE
BROH
JAN. 3:
BILL
SHREVE
Toni Pimble, Artistic Director
Help Food for Lane County by
donating a jar of Peanut Butter
at the performance.
EVERY THURSDAY FROM 8PM TIL MIDNIGHT
4740 MAIN STREET, SPRINGFIELD
eugeneweekly.com • December 20, 2012
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