Paul McGeachy
My Latest Novel
Top Eight Albums Bought in 2006
Not really sure what my favorite albums “released” in 2006 were, but here is a list of my top albums I bought. I know you want it in order but I just can’t do that.
Animal Collective: Feels—I
remember I saw them three years ago in the Tramway in Glasgow and being
totally blown away. It was so spiritual watching them and like nothing
I had ever seen before. Everyone was sitting watching them and I think
I stood up in between the crowd mesmerized and couldn’t sit back
down. A lot of the songs they played, I recognized on Feels.
It’s much more poppy than previous albums and I love it.
The Microphones: It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water—We
played a show in Dublin and afterwards I was sitting in our dressing room
and I could hear this guy singing and playing an acoustic guitar in the
room next door. I didn’t realize it was Phil Elverum until I met
someone outside that told me Mt. Eerie were playing. By the time I ran
back up the stairs, this 12ft by 12ft room had emptied. I bought this
album to cheer myself up but it always makes me think of that and what
I had missed. I always check behind every door in the venues now. (Ed.
Note: This album was released in 2000.)
Beirut: Gulag Orkestar—A friend recommended
this to me. Made me buy a ukulele. It’s simply great folk music,
that’s all!
Jens Lekman: Oh You’re So Silent Jens—I
think this was released in 2006. Again, it’s amazing pop music.
I love his voice, and his lyrics just make me smile. I saw one of his
shows in Glasgow when he played with Bill Wells and I knew I was going
to love this album.
Joanna Newsom: Ys—The best album I’ve
bought or had for a long time. Jim O’Rourke and Steve Albini recorded
it. Van Dyke Parks helped arrange it. All legends to me, so it’s
going to be good regardless. What I love about it most is the fact that
most of the songs are over ten minutes or just under but it never seems
to matter or even cross my mind when I’m listening to it. An album
void of time.
The National: Alligator—When this was
recommended to me, I put it off and forgot all about it until I spotted
it in a record store. I’ve overplayed this to death now while touring
but I know I’ll come back to it.
Thom Yorke: The Eraser—Huge Radiohead
fan. Especially of Kid A era. Play it in the house when I’m
alone and dance about like a nutter.
Sigur Rós: Takk…—One of the
albums I listen to most in the tour van when I’m sick of looking
at the other guys’ faces. Offers that little bit of escapism needed.
What was the highlight of 2006 for either you personally or for the band?
Most definitely the release of Wolves. We worked on and wrote the songs over a two-year period and to get it released was almost cathartic and therapeutic. For the last three years we have basically done everything together and even lived together for a short time, with the amount of energy and passion we put into it was good to see it getting released and well received.
What are your hopes and plans for 2007?
At the end of 2006 we are playing a few shows in Canada and Australia and our album has just been released by Worker’s Institute in America so hopefully we will be able to do a bit more touring in the U.S and perhaps a Michael Jackson style year-long world tour. Who knows? We have been writing new songs over past few months and when we feel they are ready and we are finally past the point of killing each other to the point when we are happy, we will get them recorded. We do foresee this in 2007, maybe?
What was the best album released in 2006 that few people heard?
It’s hard to answer as I never really follow when albums have been released. But I guess as [Joanna Newsom’s] Ys has just been released then not enough people have heard it yet. I’ve even bought my parents a copy.
What do you hope to hear more of in 2007? Less of?
I really wish I could hear more from Broken Social Scene. I hope it’s not true but I hear they are in hiatus. I only caught the last three songs of their set in Glasgow due to some unnamed person getting the times wrong and us arriving late. I’m not really one to ask for less of anything, but if there was some way or if some control could be put on overhyped bands and the creation of “new movements” in music magazines, I’d like that very much.
What album or song do you feel best defines this generation?
Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years.
What’s the biggest goal for your life that you have yet to achieve?
I don’t like to set outrageous goals in life as I know I’d only disappoint myself. The biggest goal I’ve ever set I’m living right now—writing songs with like minded people and getting the opportunity to release them. But, I’d also like to take Scotland into the next World Cup.
With the rise of MySpace and the ever-increasing presence of bloggers, what is your feeling about using the Internet as a promotional tool? Will MySpace last and are you actively involved in your band’s MySpace page? With the music blogs seen as an increasingly influential source for breaking new artists, do you read them and are they a positive influence that bypasses the industry machinery or just empty hype?
It can work both ways for bands really.
The Internet in general is a great promotional tool for unsigned bands
and signed bands alike to get their music heard by an audience that perhaps
wouldn’t have. We all created and update our own website and try
to make it personal and reflective of what’s currently happening
at the time within the band. The same goes for our blogs on MySpace. It
makes it easy to let our fans know what interests us or what our plans
for the future are. Our manager Tam gives us a hard time about keeping
things updated—we know he’s right, we just like giving him
a hard time back.
However, with the likes of MySpace, I think it could give false pretences
of a band’s popularity. It would be so easy to plough through and
add 10,000 fans in one day, and to record companies it may appear that
there is already a huge fan base for them to work with. It’s amazing
to see the Internet causing such a debate in the music industry at the
moment. It’s been around for years but it does appear that it’s
just waking up to it.
If the world were ending in 24 hours, what would you do in those 24 hours?
What would Jack Bauer do?
If you could have any superpower, what power would you want to have and why?
Wouldn’t it be much more interesting to be a superhero who didn’t have a superpower? Like Batman or Robin or Mysterio or The Punisher? No, you’re right. They were all shite. I’d probably want to have all of Superman’s powers and use them to destroy all superheroes with no super powers. Then I’d start a club and let everyone worship me. Yay me!
If you could be one fictional character, who would you be and why?
At the moment Gary, Ryan, and myself are 24 freaks. So I guess I would be speaking for them as well when I say Jack Bauer. The pressure the guy endures over that short period of time and the decisions he has to make, you just don’t know until that final episode if they were the right ones. We are now on season five and I guess Jack is a big part of us now.
1/2007