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7.9 1. Dan Deacon: Bromst 2. Fever Ray: Fever Ray 3. The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love 4. MSTRKRFT: Fist of God 5. Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains 6. Swan Lake: Enemy Mine 7. Peter Doherty: Grace/Wastelands Find it at: Insound | eMusic | Lala EMAIL LINK 8. Lotus Plaza: The Floodlight Collective 9. I.U.D.: The Proper Sex 10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart For a few minutes early in 2003, D.C. clatterers Black Eyes were basically the best band in 11. Wavves: Wavvves the world. They fed the sharp-shock Rapture dance-punk of the day through about 50 layers 12. Mr. Oizo: Lamb's Anger of organically grimy Dischord history, ending up with a whirling sort of catharsis that was as 13. Gui Boratto: Take My Breath Away fun as it was heavy. The band's personnel went like this: two drummers, two bassists, and 14. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone: Advance Base one dude who made dying-pterodactyl squawks while thrashing out tinny, spidery almost- Battery Life funk guitar riffs and doing everything he could to disrupt the thundering groove exploding all 15. Various Artists: Dark Was the Night around him. Black Eyes' live shows were dank basement dance parties for the ages: furious, 16. Nick Lowe: Quiet Please...The New Best of Nick Lowe immediate, jarring, sweaty as all hell. And then the band recorded Cough, their half-assed 17. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys: The Tiffany dub experiment of a second album, and suddenly ended. They were, after all, a D.C. band, Transcriptions and that's what D.C. bands do. 18. Kylesa: Static Tensions 19. Pan American: White Bird Release Black Eyes bassist Jacob Long and squawker/guitarist Daniel Martin-McCormick make up two thirds of the San Francisco trio Mi Ami, whose existence makes me not miss Black Eyes so 20. These Are Powers: All Aboard Future badly anymore. Their debut album, Watersports, takes the skritchety tumble of Black Eyes and stretches it out into something psychedelic, near-infinite. Watersports is seven songs 1. The Hold Steady: A Positive Rage long, and it lasts 47 minutes. Their beats don't rattle; they push and flicker and fade. Watersports is like the self-titled Black Eyes album calmed down and zoned out, the 2. Beth Orton: Trailer Park: Legacy Edition attempted dub of Cough fully developed and realized. The songs don't have verses or 3. Mi Ami: Watersports choruses; they're endless, mesmeric builds that flare up and then cool out again. Even at their 4. Belbury Poly: Ritual and Education / From an Ancient Star noisiest, they maintain their mantra-like repetition. 5. The Qemists: Join the Q Part of the secret is in the recording itself. Watersports sounds terrific. A couple of pre-album 6. DOOM: Born Like This 12" singles captured a similar sound, but the bass was too thin, the drums too muffled. Here, 7. Crystal Antlers: Tentacles the bass is thick and supple, echoing and ringing and never losing its footing. Long's bass 8. Various Artists: Local Customs: Downriver Revival makes the real rhythmic bed here; Damon Palermo's drums color spaces around that 9. The Coathangers: Scramble metronomic bubble as often as they keep time. Martin-McCormick's voice, which could be 10. It Hugs Back: Inside Your Guitar downright annoying even when Black Eyes were at their best, still works as an agent of 11. Pearl Jam: Ten: Deluxe Edition rupture. But even he has cooled out a bit, muttering deep in the mix rather than yowling 12. Various Artists: Nigeria 70 overtop of it. His lyrics, on the rare occasions when I can understand them, seem to turn 13. Ben Klock : One Watersports into a disco album about being trapped inside your own skull; other people are 14. tUnE -yArDs: BiRd-BrAiNs "only the echo of my mind." On his guitar, he plays Morse-code pings, letting them fall over the tracks like rain as often as it slashes through them. 15. Charles Hamilton: DJ Skee Presents: The Best of the Hamiltonization The album comes sequenced almost like a DJ set; grooves maintain across tracks, and 16. The Dukes of Stratosphear: 25 O'Clock / Psonic sometimes you don't notice immediately when one song dissolves into another. That reverb-y Psunspot stretched-out quality is Mi Ami's greatest strength, one I hope they keep pushing on whatever 17. Swervedriver: Raise / Mezcal Head records they do next. But you've probably already noticed that I can't help comparing this 18. Matteah Baim: Laughing Boy band to Black Eyes. This isn't really Mi Ami's fault, but Black Eyes were just too good, and 19. Various Artists: Pop Ambient 2009 wishing Mi Ami sounded just like them is as inevitable as wishing "30 Rock" was even more 20. Obi Best: Capades like "Arrested Development". The two ex-Black Eyes dudes in Mi Ami have some powerful magic working here, but they had even more when they just couldn't contain themselves.

— Tom Breihan, April 7, 2009 recently related Tuesday, Reviews

April 7 The Hold Steady: A Positive Rage Track Reviews Beth Orton: Trailer Park: Legacy Edition "Echononecho" Monday, Mi Ami: Watersports April 6 Belbury Poly: Ritual and Education / From an Ancient Star The Qemists: Join the Q Friday, April 3

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