In The Changer: Killer "B" Edition

Here is another installment of my semi-regular feature, "In the changer," in which I review some of the things to which I have been listening. My motivation for writing now is that this past weekend in Albuquerque I went to a couple of different shows at The Launchpad, a great Downtown music venue. On Friday night I saw several hip hop bands, the names of which I never caught. On Saturday night I got to see a reunion show from the original lineup of Sebadoh, which was spectacular. I got to hang out with Jason Lowenstein and Lou Barlow for a bit after the show (Lowenstein was really cool, Barlow standoffish. In any case, Barlow's 2005 solo album is among this large batch of albums by artists whose names start with "B."

Banyan: Live At Perkins' Palace Banyan is one of many projects of former Minutemen and fIREHOSE bassist Mike Watt, whose solo project, Ball-Hog or Tugboat? I quite liked several years back. I got this album by accident -- I ordered a different album, this one came in its stead, and the place from which I ordered it told me to keep this and sent me the cd I had actually wanted. In any case, Banyan is an instrumental group and this album sounds like soundtrack music for a crime caper film. But instrumental music can grow tedious, and this does. Sometimes I suspect that the movie is not a very good one. The album has its moments, but you are better off checking out the back catalogue of the Minutemen or the aforementioned Ball-Hog . . ., which brought together more than a dozen giants of indie, post-punk, and the puink scene of the mid-1990s. Grade: C+

Lou Barlow: EMOH This may have been my favorite album of 2005. EMOH (yes, "Home," backward) is an acoustic album that gets better with each time I listen to it. The unquestionable highlight is a brilliant version of 1980s heavy metal stalwarts RATT's "Round 'n' Round," which Barlow reinterprets as a suble, smart relationship song. EMOH captures a talented artist who has hit full maturity and who is comfortable with his soundcraft. A

Beck: Guero Beck has become the sort of workmanlike artist who is easy to overlook. In a relatively brief period of time he went from being the lovable funky weirdo to an alt-rock elder statesman. Guero represents another solid performance by the onetime Loser. But where it is solid, it is not especially memorable, which is another tendency his maturing albums have shown. B+

The Belles: Idle Acres I kept trying to figure out what other band this Lawrence, Kansas lo-fi duo evoked. The harmonies are beautiful, the fact that these guys are a twosome makes the arrangements spare, and their lo-fi ethos rings clear. So it came as a bit of a shock to me that the band that kept coming back to mind was Toad the Wet Sprocket. For some this might be a dealbreaker, but the reality is that like Toad, The Belles rely on a certain level of unabashed pop prettiness for their forward momentum, and Idle Acres has it in abundance. A-

Belle and Sebastian: The Life PursuitThis might be this Glasgow group's most fully realized album. The Life Pursuit has all of the hallmarks of Belle and Sebastian -- lush chords, pretty melodies, sing-songy lyrics, clever imagery -- but they stretch themselves musically more than they have on previous efforts. If you are a fan of Belle and Sebastian, you'll like this album, if you don't, this may be a good place to start. A-

Bloc Party: Silent Alarm I got this one from dcat's own RoJo, and wouldn't you know it, Bloc Party made it big saoon after. They just released their second album to much more fanfare than the first, but so far I like Silent Alarm better. The lead singer's voice takes some time to get used to but the drummer has jackhammer forearms and the guitarist anchors the band. B+

James Blunt: Back To Bedlam "You're Beautiful" is already destined to be one of those somgs that play at the end of high school dances because most high school students are too fundametally stupid to grasp the fact that this is a song in which boy decidedly does not get girl. Then again, that sounds like most high school dances. Blunt produces pretty, falsetto-laced pop music with accessible hooks. There are worse things for a pop star to do. B

Bowling For Soup: A Hangover You Don't Deserve There is a fine line between clever and annoying, and this Texas foursome generally ends up on the right side with this collection of songs that oftentimes try to evoke the lighter side of relationships, school, fashion, and reminiscence. "1985" is one of those songs that probably evoked a great deal of recognition among us thirty-somethings and "Ohio (Come Back to Texas)" was a variation on a theme familiar to anybody who has dealt with long-dstance relationships. It is tough to imagine these guys making a career out of this sort of thing, but their wit is endearing more than cloying. B

BR549: Dog Days I love these guys. They are at the alt-end of the y'allternative movement that broke with the No Depression scene of the mid-1990s. They produce bluegrass-inflected country that, for lack of a better word, rocks. A

Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning Rule one of producing an album ought to be that you do not annoy the listening audience in the first minute. This one starts out with Nebraskan indie it-boy Conor Oberst telling some largely uninteresting story leading in to the first song. Why would anyone listening to this album want to listen to that damned anecdote for a minute-and-a-half every single time around? In any case, I've never quite gotten the Oberst/Bright Eyes phenomenon, but I want to. The album picks up after the dubious production decision at the beginning, but I'm not yet fully on the bandwagon yet. B

Paul Brill: New Pagan Love Song This is one of those albums that I bought based on one song I kept hearing on my two favorite internet indie stations. And what a fantastis cong it is. "Weekday Bender" grabbed me by the scruff of the neck with all of the characteristics for which I am a sucker: A gorgeous melody, smart, plaintive lyrics, and simple production. The rest of the album does not really hold up, but his potential is clear, and I just read somewhere that he has a new album that is on the way, so I'm going to hold out hope that there is more "Weekday Bender" in him. B (But an A for that one song.

Dave Brubeck: The Essential Dave Brubeck Like most people, the only song I knew with any certainty was Dave Brubeck's is "Take Five." And yet "Take Five," the most essential song in the Dave Brubeck catalogue, is not on The Essential Dave Brubeck, which is peppered with old standards of which you have heard but about which you also would probably prefer to hear in their original incarnations. If I'm going to hear Duke Ellington, I'll go to the source. Give the people what they want, Dave, before deciding what they need. C+

Built To Spill: You In Reverse This is probably their best album from first track to last even though purists who were there from the beginning will tell you otherwise. Then again, everything they have ever done is great, so maybe I'm making distinctions without a difference. Doug Martsch is, in any case, part of a wave of indie rock geniuses that began to crest in the mid-90s and against all logic broke free of indie obscurity. And like all of them (Examples: Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie) Built to Spill defies convention by making accessible pop that still stays true to the ethos that made its rise improbable to begin with. There are a lot worse things that could be said about a band in this topsy-turvy world of ours. A