Song List

With the close of 2008 fast approaching, I thought I’d add a little twist to the typical year end lists (which, by the way, is forthcoming from the good folks here at JamsBio) and give a run-down of 12 artists and bands that I feel deserve to have a breakout year in 2009. Some are familiar veterans who should be even better known, while others are rookies who who should be the next big thing or buzz band, as it were.

I’d love to hear your picks for underappreciated artists due for a breakout in 2009, so send them my way in the comments section.

Los Campesinos!

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This Welsh sextet released not one, but two amazing albums in 2008. Chock full of bratty, ramshackle indie-punk-pop, you’d be hard pressed to find music more fun and oddly uplifting than what’s found on Hold On Now, Youngster and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. With titles like “We Are All Accelerated Readers,” and “Don’t Tell Me to Do the Math(s),” Los Campesinos! have created the perfect soundtrack for hyperliterate indie kids with senses of humor. A perfect antidote to the cloying intellectualism of bands like the Decembersists and the sappy self-absorbed melodrama of bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Los Campesinos! ply enough humor and wit to offset what at the core is pretty heavy emotion. The boy/girl vocal sparring of Gareth and Aleksandra (like the Ramones, all band members have taken Campesinos! as their last name), the tinkling glockenspiels, violin, and chiming guitars mesh to create, as AMG describes, a “thrilling madcap whirlwind of sound, words, and voices that by the end leaves you feeling like you’ve been engulfed in an indie pop-driven hurricane.”

Frightened Rabbit

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I can’t say enough good things about this Scottish quartet. Their 2007 debut, “Sing the Greys” was a solid collection of lo-fi sloppy punk pop. Their 2008 follow-up, The Midnight Organ Fight was a giant leap forward; a confident powerhouse of clever hooks and theatrical lyrics. “You won’t find love in a hole / It takes more than fucking someone you don’t know to keep warm,” Scott Hutchison sings on “Keeping Yourself Warm,” an admonishment to an ex –girlfriend. The song builds on a steady keyboard and guitar riff to a fist-pumping climax with Hutchison exhibiting a vocal range that would make Chris Martin jealous. In a fair world, Frightened Rabbit will enjoy the widespread success they deserve. Look out Coldplay, there’s a rabbit on your tail!

Shearwater

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While not quite new (having released their debut in 2002), Shearwater is poised for a breakthrough with Rook. Built around the otherworldly voice of leader Jonathan Meiburg, Rook is a beautiful record that evokes the lush, classically rooted music of Brian Eno and Talk Talk with just enough aggressive outbursts to keep things interesting. Strings, woodwinds, guitar, percussion, and brass combine with Meiburg’s haunting vocals to create a suite of lush, richly textured mini-epics. Fans of Jeff Buckley, take notice: Shearwater has picked up the mantle.

Gentleman Jesse and His Men

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If I didn’t already know, I would swear that Gentleman Jesse’s debut was recorded in England in 1978, produced by Nick Lowe, and mentioned in year end lists next to the Jam, Buzzcocks and Joe Jackson. When the twentysomething Jesse sings that he was “born in the morning and lives in the wrong time,” he wasn’t kidding. This kid should have been plying his wares thirty years ago. At 32 minutes, Introducing Gentleman Jesse is packed with enough hooks to last an entire career. This is pure power pop that just might get you digging into your crates and dusting off your old Jonathan Richman records. That alone guarantees Gentleman Jesse a spot on this list.

Oneida

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Inspired equally by the wild punk adandon of the MC5, the restless experimentation of Faust, the stoner riffs of Blue Cheer, and the proggy noodling of Deep Purple, Oneida have been releasing consistently great (and greatly varied) albums for the last ten years. Their live shows already a thing of legend, the Brooklyn based trio burst onto the scene with the ear-splitting assault of A Place Called El Shaddai’s and never looked back. While things got a little tamer on subsequent releases such as The Wedding (2005) and Happy New Year (2006), Oneida’s adventurous spirit has never wavered, a fact clearly demonstrated on 2008’s sublime Preteen Weaponry. Comprised of three extended tracks, the album touches on many of the band’s stylistic strongpoints (from acid rock to post-punk) unfolding in a suite-like manner that’s guaranteed to blow your mind.

These New Puritans

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If there was any justice, These New Purtians will eclipse Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, and Arctic Monkeys as the UK’s reigning kings of the still surging post-punk revival. Taking their cue from Wire, PiL and The Fall, These New Purtians, although clearly derivative, still manage to sound fresh. This can be chalked up to the surging, almost danceable rhythms that infuse the terse songs from the band’s 2008 debut, Beat Pyramid. I’m looking forward to more great music from These New Puritans in 2009.

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