It List: Wednesday

Built to Spill/Finn Riggins/Telegraph Canyon (Granada): I've never been the kind of person to like or even be interested in something merely because its "local," which is probably why I've never really taken the time to sit down and listen to Telegraph Canyon. I mean, I'd heard them before today, but only briefly and passively, and frankly, they've left me largely indifferent over the years-- after all, they're an "Observer band," championed by people like Noah Bailey and Pete Freedman, which means they probably sound like some mixture of Arcade Fire and Wilco minus the prestige of actually being Wilco or Arcade Fire, right? Fair enough, but guilt by association doesn't always apply in music, and these guys deserve to be heard before I go shooting my mouth off any further, don't they? Well, I'm listening to them right now, and they actually DO sound a shitload like Arcade Fire and at least a little bit like Wilco (I promise I wrote that sentence before I listened), not to mention groups like Band of Horses (that one dude even looks like the other dude), My Morning Jacket and, uh, whats that one where they were tried to be like a southern version of the Strokes until they turned into a boyband? Oh yeah, Kings of Leon. But the older stuff, not the boy band stuff. There's also a song that sounds like Arcade Fire COVERING a Springsteen song, which could produce all kinds of post-modern angst if contemplated for too long. The thing is that although there seems to be hundreds of bands in North Texas doing this sort of folk/post-arcade fire/lil bit country indie rock sound, Telegraph Canyon is one of, if not the best of that bunch, and that fact becomes pretty clear after just a few minutes of listening to their music. I'm aware that the band has already been reviewed in Rolling Stone and received "Album of the Year" honors from almost every major media outlet in Dallas-Ft. Worth, but their music, although somewhat predictable and conveniently marketable, is quite proficient and not even close to being as boring as it might look on paper. Whether you disagree with me or not is up to you, but this little experiment sure beat having to come up with yet another thing to say about Built to Spill. Tonight is the Granada's 6th Anniversary celebration.

Naomi Punk/Masters and Johnson/Sundress (Dan's)