The XCHW Looks Back on 2021…Strange Tunes for Strange Times

By The XCHW

The year 2021 was an odd one in many ways. Halfway out of the pandemic, halfway still in. We had a sane president, but the country still seemed crazy. My musical associations for the year were equally scattered. Some of my favorite artists put out albums that I didn’t really care about. I found myself obsessed with songs and bands that came out ten or more years ago. I started listening to genres of music that I had dismissed 10 years ago. I fell in love with an artist who never recorded. As the late, great Hunter S. Thompson said, “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

Volbeat, “Still Counting.”

I had never heard of these guys until a buddy asked me late one night, “Hey man…you wanna hear something?” He put on the video below and I was instantly hooked. I kept being confused. It sounded funky, but heavy. The lead singer had his hair slicked back like a greaser from the 1950s and sung like someone obsessed with Elvis. Yet they were playing heavy rifts and yelling about the circle pits. I started listening to more. Volbeat is a Danish band that’s been around for 20 years. They sound like what would have happened if Metallica stayed in The Black Album phase (which was their peak—yes, I will fight you on this point!) and started listening to a lot of Stray Cats and Gaslight Anthem. I’m still not sure if it’s good, but it’s a damn catchy formula and I’ve been listening to a ton of it.

Modest Mouse, The Golden Casket.

I was late to the Modest Mouse party. It wasn’t until Good News for People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank came out in the mid-2000s that I started listening to them. However, once I started listening to them, I was a pretty quick convert. I’ll put The Lonesome Crowded West into the discussion about greatest albums of all time. Modest Mouse has a unique sound, with echoes of The Pixies, but a much wider, richer sound. However, their last two albums have been distinct disappointments. Strangers to Ourselves just bored me. I listened to it a few times and just never had a reason to put it back on. The Golden Casket is similar. There are a few decent songs, and a few catchy parts of songs, but as a whole it’s an incredibly underwhelming effort, and a huge disappointment coming from a band I love so much. The sound is crowded, like their trying to compensate for a lack of inspiration by layering on more uninspired ideas. It also sounds overproduced. “Transmitting Receiving” starts off haunting, but never moves past the promise. The ever-present chanted meaningless vocals just end up washing out any melodies. Possibly the best track on the album is “The Sun Hasn’t Left,” which has an epic Modest Mouse chorus. However, even on that song, the overlayered vocals and dense production just leaves me feeling like I’m listening to Imagine Dragons. Overall, a very disappointing effort for a band with such an amazing discography.

Pearl Jam, Gigaton.

So Pearl Jam is one of my all-time favorite bands. I was 14 when Ten first hit the airwaves. While most of my friends preferred Nirvana’s darker edge, I loved Pearl Jam’s swirling, funky guitars and extended solos. I could hear elements of my parents’ vinyl collection and the San Francisco psychedelic scene making their way through the corners of the tracks. They’ve been a steady presence in my musical rotation, and I’ve enjoyed growing up with them. While I’m a Pearl Jam classicist, even some of their later, weaker albums still produced the occasional diamond in the rough (see: “The Fixer” of “Sirens” below), so I was pretty darn excited when I saw they had a new album coming out. However, after listening to it a number of times, I can’t label this album anything but a disappointment. There’s not a single song on it that I want to sing along to. There’s not a single guitar solo that makes me pause and listen. I couldn’t tell you a single lyric off the album (unlike Versus, which twenty-plus years later I’m still pretty sure I can recite from front to back). While I’m glad Pearl Jam is still together and making new music, when I see them next I hope they don’t feature this album too strongly. They have too much stronger material. 

The IDLES.

I started playing music with my new friend Dan last year. We’re having a blast learning and writing new songs, but we’re also having tons of fun introducing each other to new songs and bands. One of my favorite bands that Dan has turned me onto has to be the IDLES. They’re an old-school punk band out of Bristol, United Kingdom. They have incredible energy (check out their NPR Desk Concert) and a ton of punk angst. However, unlike so many punk bands, they also possess a strong musicality. They understand dynamics and space, and work both into their songs. They’re not just a wall of noise that hits you in the face and doesn’t stop. Instead, they draw you in with an element of quiet vulnerability, and then hit you in the face with an explosion of sound. I’m still getting into their discography, but so far Ultra Mono has been my favorite of their albums. If you like your punk sprinkled with a bit of rock, Celtic folk, and psychedelic prog, this might be your new favorite band.

The Lowdown 91.1 [Grand Theft Auto V].

So there was another late night with some good friends and we were talking about all manner of things unimportant and I was feeling good. The music playing in the background was like the soundtrack of a 1970s crime thriller. There was soul, funk, jazz, and even some disco. It has a low-fi, warm quality that just left me feeling good. At one point I asked my buddy who was manning the music, “What are we listening to?” He grinned in response and told me it was one of the stations from Grand Theft Auto V. I was floored! We were listening to the background music from a video game? Wasn’t that the one where you beat up prostitutes and ran over children with a school bus? My friend’s grin just broadened and he nodded enthusiastically. It was awesome. It was sultry R&B, low-groove hip-hop beats and rhythms. It made me think of some of the Beastie Boys’s instrumental pieces off Ill Communication and Paul’s Boutique. They even have a “D.J.” voiced by Pam Grier along with occasional (and hilarious) advertisements. There aren’t songs on this list that particularly stand out to me, but if you want to put on some great background music during your next party or gathering, give this station/album a listen.

Marc Rebillet (https://www.marcrebillet.com/).

I have no idea how to describe this man or the music that he creates. The same friend who turned me on to The Lowdown, played one of his streams for me one night and I haven’t looked back since. Marc is now one of my favorite go-to musicians (if that’s even the right term to use for him). Marc Rebillet is to music what great improv is to comedy. His schtick is that he just constantly makes music up. He uses a keyboard, loops, drum machines, and a microphone to create his own samples and build songs on the spot. Everything he does is improvised and overwhelmingly most of it is genius. He does a regular stream where he’ll just spend two hours building a few songs, taking suggestions from fans for content and themes. He wears funny robes and usually loses them at some point during the stream. The music is R&B and hip-hop flavored, but by no means constrained by those genres. At one point he’ll be frantically rapping about being a “bad bunny bitch” (during his Easter stream) and twenty minutes later he’s improvising a soft, gentle jazz piano piece over a sparse backbeat. He’s recorded three studio albums, but I think his strength lies in his improvisation. It’s all just music in the moment. He’s had some great guest on his stream including Wayne Brady, DJ Premier, Brady Watt, and Emily King. I don’t know exactly what he’s doing but it’s something new and creative and I love it. I can’t wait to see him on tour. Until then, he’ll continue to dominate my weekend morning soundtrack.

Parov Stelar (http://www.parovstelar.com/).

So continuing the theme of sharing music that I have no idea how to classify, I want to leave you all with Parov Stelar. This is an Austrian band/DJ that a German friend of mine turned me onto. I’m normally not that interested in house, dance, or most forms of electronic music, but this is something different. I’ve only watched live shows on YouTube, but I constantly find myself being drawn in and captivated. The music is some combination of jazz, house, industrial, and big-band swing. The live version of the band heavily features a horn trio. The music bounces around different genres and moods. At one point you’re listening to a funk-rock, slap bass solo, but then the next moment it seamlessly shifts into a sparse, jazz vocal piece. Then (still not stopping), the electronic beat builds and you find yourself bobbing your head to something close to what I assume is played in dance clubs while the horns blare out over it. What makes it all so alluring is how well the divergent elements fit together and complement each other. I don’t know where this music fits in, but I highly recommend you give it a shot. Check out one of their live shows and just let them take you somewhere.