I caught the season finale of Bones tonight. It’s weird having a new “show,” you know? I haven’t had a show since Buffy and Angel went off the air. So I suppose it’s fitting it’s another Boreanaz vehicle, but yeah, I thought I’d check it out. My friend, Ryan, thinks my fandom is insane, but as I’ve already laid out, there’s some stuff to dig about Bones. I still reserve my usual complaints about realism and transparent storytelling, but overall, it’s amusing stuff. The season finale was oddly disappointing, however. And yet somehow, it managed to make me love it by throwing a curve ball that I would have never predicted in a million years…

…or at least a month or two of serious guessing, anyway. Give me a moment to ‘splain.

From an objective standpoint it was just fine. A big, plot-heavy episode was what we expected from a lot of shows whose mid-sections were neatly excised by last Fall’s WGA strike, but this story, which involved the return of the “Gormagon Killer” (the show’s intermittent Boogie Man) was loaded with emotional potential that never quite pays off. That’s the sort of thing I can occasionally live with in a show I like; I’m always furiously rewriting these shows in my head as I watch them, anyway. But while the episode loitered in the lobby of greatness, it never took the elevator to the top floor. It never, as a way of comparison, came close to matching the average Buffy episode.

But a shocker in the final act was what stunned me into TV-love. The surprise came in the final act. No, it’s not the big character reveal about which the BonesBlogs are buzzing. This one comes just afterwards. A big action-y, revelatory scene unfolds. The FBI runs pell-mell in pursuit of a solid lead (for once without Dr. Brennan tagging along.) Guns out, tension rising, flashlights whipping about. Music playing…. And what music did they secure to go with it? Avenged Sevenfold, perhaps? Velvet Revolver? Hot Chip? She & Him? Nope, nope, nope…

Music spoiler after the jump.

Michael Hedges. “Aerial Boundaries.”

Billy Gottlieb is credited as Music Supervisor. If he’s really responsible for this, I hope he’s got a lot more of whatever it is he’s smoking.

Michael Hedges – “Aerial Boundaries”

on the web: live-blogging the finale, EW blog post, Hedges on YouTube, RS article about Hedges’ death

Had I heard Narrow Stairs beforehand, I don’t know that I would have been so cavalier about DCFC’s set. While their last album was so jangly and well-intentioned, so full of cotton candy, this new one is a different beast entirely. It’s darker, it’s leaner, it’s more likely to lurk in alleyways than frolic in danedelion patches. Take “Your New Twin Sized Bed” for example, which kicks off with quiet stings and Ben Gibbard’s reclusive, spectral voice sounding not entirely unlike something Nineties-era Manchester might have given us, but then kicks up an insistent, orchestral flavored jam. Maybe it’s because I’ve been all over Saturdays=Youth lately, but it sounds like M83 without all the cinema.

It’s not a complex tune, but if this is the sort of stuff they were belting out on the Coachella stage sixteen days ago, I’m gonna have to take the ol’ DeLorean up to 88, if you know what I mean.

Death Cab For Cutie – “Your New Twin Sized Bed”

on the web: amazon, itunes, official site, allmusic (Andrew Leahey’s review)

As usual, Elbow has put together a collection of tunes that run the gamut between lush, mournful ballads to crunchy, energetic rockers. But there’s always one tune that grabs me from the outset and becomes the base camp for exploration of the rest of the album. On Leaders of the Free World it was, “An Imagined Affair,” and before that (Cast Of Thousands) was “I’ve Got Your Number.” This time around, it’s “Mirrorball.”

Check it out:

Elbow – “Mirrorball”

on the Web: allmusic, amazon, pitchfork

And speaking of predictable (you’re welcome for the marvelous segue) that’s something that the first listen through 59.59, the debut album by Sian Alice Group just plain isn’t. SAG is Rupert Clervaux and Ben Crook, a progressive-minded duo that had the good sense to bring vocalist Sian Ahern into the fold. Adding a few more musicians turned them into a “group” in the proper sense of the word. The album is a disarming collection of tunes that flow from one to the next yet manage to stand out from one another in a way that’s adventurous and, well, unpredictable.

It’s tough to find a representative track on 59.59, but “Murder” does a good job of hinting at the album’s overall mood. The piano is front and center at first, but true to their process, the other musicians sneak in, one by one until Sian’s vocals step in and wrap themselves in the warm musical tones her bandmates have just spun. Check it out. I’d be curious to know what you think. The whole album is worth picking up, so get thee to a music shoppe. I’ll check in with you when I get back from the Beast (read “East Bay.”)

Sian Alice Group – “Murder”

on the Web: allmusic, myspace, pitchfork (7.7), itunes, amazon

Anyway, first on the list this week is Australia’s Midnight Juggernauts. Their official website references Air and ELO in its breathless bio on the group. And you know what? That’s about accurate. I’ve spun the debut album three or four times now and it’s got that danceable spacey quality that ELO was so good at, with sparkly, space-age synths and a nifty 124 bpm dance groove. Check out “Tombstone” to see what I mean.

Midnight Juggernauts – “Tombstone”

on the web: official site, ‘shadows’ video

As I wrote before, they have a full, satisfying classic rock style, full of meaty chords and singalong melodies. Good luck actually singing along, however. Kumi’s lyrics drift in and out of English at will, and meaning becomes elusive. It’s like trying to study a landscape through the fluttering of a gauzy, windblown curtain.

And if you think that image was obscure and overwrought, there are plenty more where that came from.

It’s a pretty solid collection and seems to represent the band well, from the obviously beatles-inspired “Lady Madonna” to the country twang of “These Days” and the solid, acoustic melodica of my own fave, “Neverland.” I would have liked to have seen “Everyone, Everyone” or “Aha! (All We Want)” which are my own top tunes from the Japanese duo, but that’s merely an observation. The collection is as solid as they come.

1. Standing Bird
2. Your Song
3. Everybody Needs Somebody
4. Lady Madonna
5. Fantastic World
6. Unchained
7. My Last Fight
8. Last Smile
9. All Over Love
10. “O”
11. These Days
12. Neverland
13. A Day For You

Love Psychedelico – “A Day For You”

on the Web: amazon, hacktone records, myspace, wikipedia

I happen to be all three, so I’ll glow for a while about this album if you’d like. Or maybe we can just take the glow for granted.

I remember one night in Santa Barbara when I went to a coffee house on lower State (that’s no longer there) and pulled a chair up outside in chilly temps, slapped my notebook on the table and plugged myself into The Downward Spiral. Sixty five minutes later I had some words written. They were probably bad, and thanks to the famous Santa Barbara chill, I was a shivering wreck, but I’d made it through the album. I could go home. That’s he kind of Nine Inch Nails fan I am. I dig Reznor’s stuff for the sprawling, multi-part stories that they are. If I drop the disc into the player, it’s got to go all the way through.

I haven’t done that with Ghosts yet. It certainly sprawls, covering four discs, and on the surface, it feels like a shapeless mass of instrumental meandering. But yesterday, I did get through the first two discs in one sitting (new writing session, new town, less biting chill.) I had previously spun through all four discs, but only let them play as background noise. This time I was actually listening. As background noise, the disc is interesting enough, but in headphones, with attention turned inward, it’s a revelation. Reznor’s attention to detail is remarkable and his mastery over sonic texture and nuance draws a dark, twisting thread out of the speakers that can be both gorgeous and unsettling.

As for cohesion? I dunno yet. The Downward Spiral was a symphony, complete with its own movements and leitmotifs. Ghosts I-IV might be too much. Sometimes it plays like a collection of music cues from an apocalyptic film I haven’t seen yet. But I love film scores. And I love Reznor’s dark material. Some people will undoubtedly blast this stuff as nothing more than aimless noodling, but when the noodler is as talented as Reznor, and when the noodles can be had for five bucks it’s certainly worth a listen, and it might be the best five bucks you spend all year.

NIN: Ghosts I-IV

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Listen to a good chunk of the release:

As it happens, that’s the first thing I did on the new album by Los Campesinos!, Hold On Now, Youngster. I happen to be one of the throng of admirers of last year’s Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP, so I expected to like the new one. So far I love it. But I’ve only really gotten as far as the final cut. “2007, The Year Punk Broke (My Heart)” contains the upbeat jingly poppiness I expect from a Los Campesinos! effort, but it’s different enough to qualify as a stellar album closer. It’s got that requisite build and that climactic finale feel. If I get around to back-tracking through the rest of the album and find that I hate it, I’ll be sure to post an update. But I don’t think that’ll happen.

Los Campesinos! – “2007, The Year Punk Broke (My Heart)”

On the Web: allmusic, official site, itunes

Examples? Sonic Youth. My Bloody Valentine. Yo La Tengo. In fact, no one is better than calculated cacophony than Yo La Tengo, and nowhere more than on their album, May I Sing With Me. “Mushroom Cloud of Hiss” begins as a rapid-clip jam but at the two-thirds point completely dissolves into a feedback freakout. Ira Kaplan wails on his guitar for a solid few minutes before James McNew pulls us back into rhythm with his bass, providing a thread around which Kaplan can wrap his noise. Order is restored. I’m also fond of “Drown” by Smashing Pumpkins for the same reason. The song is fine, but what makes it for me is the final four minutes, where Jimmy Chamberlain and D’Arcy lay down a simple rhythm track and Billy Corgan sits down and sculpts something of astonishing beauty out of feedback.

Most call it indulgent. I think it’s really cool.

All this just prefaces a little blurb about the opening cut on the new album by The Raveonettes. The new disc, Lust Lust Lust, is better than the last by a long shot. “Aly, Walk With Me” kicks it off the album with a grimy, marching beat. Sharon Foo and Sune Rose Wagner interweave vocals and sharp, brittle guitars. There’s a bit of plucked melody, ominous in tone, and then as the beat drives forward, Wagner layers a wash of vicious, humming guitar noise over the beat. It builds to the breaking point then fades, leaving the beat and a pair of ringing eardrums.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. Turn it up.

The Raveonettes – “Aly, Walk With Me”

On the web: amazon, itunes, official site, Pitchfork review