Lesser-known CDs worthy of attention
By Paul Bullock
Old Gold and Black Reviewer

Any true music fan can testify to the incredible variety of acts on the scene right now.
With an ever-increasing number of great bands to keep track of, even the biggest fan may find a few CDs missing from his or her collection. So as you compile your holiday wish lists, here are a few CDs that you may have missed, this fall but that definitely deserve a place in that stocking:

Death Cab For Cutie, The Photo Album: If I were going to make a record tomorrow, I would definitely drive to Seattle and park my car outside of Chris Walla’s house to sleep on his lawn until he agreed to sign on as the producer. The third full-length outing from Death Cab for Cutie has some of the most tasteful production I can imagine coming out of a ProTools set up.

Walla’s mixing ability has also grown from a boisterous adolescence with Death Cab’s We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes to a strong 20-something on its way to opening a small business that will definitely turn a profit in its first year. Guitars melt over plucky bass, hold as pylons for keyboards, and suddenly jack up to dog track speeds fully realizing Ben Gibbard’s songwriting.

Gibbard’s lyrics have moved away from classic emo-style high school issues towards reflective investigations of relationships and the passage of time. With smart lines like, “I was in a corner booth thinking (pretending to read)/About the impossibility/ Of one to love unconditionally,” he is moving away from angst to the distance of a more mature songwriter.

Songs like “Blacking Out the Friction” and “I was a Kaleidoscope” dovetail well with more personal numbers like “Steadier Footing” and “Styrofoam Plates” to create a collection of snapshots that are perfectly represented by the title.

The compact disc was released in two editions, with a limited number including an extra disc with three more songs highlighted by a cover of Bjork’s “All is Full of Love” (a studio version of a past tour favorite). It is definitely worth the extra effort to pick one up at a show or annoy the good people at tiny Barsuk Records.

The Dismemberment Plan, Change: After touring Europe in support of Pearl Jam in the summer of 2000 and returning to the states to play such high-profile gigs as a party at the radio fraternity at the College of William and Mary, you could imagine the Dismemberment Plan might have mixed feelings about their career.

Change, the Plan’s first record since Emergency and I (which is on its way to becoming one of those albums that people 15 years down the line will lie about having listened to when they were in high school), is a sharp turn towards stronger production and a more cohesive album. While some of the energy of their earlier work is lost, songs like “Pay for the Piano” and “Secret Curse” still deliver ridiculous shoulder-lunging rock and roll.
Change’s drumming is amazing. Joe Easley’s inventive rhythm drives the entire record propelling Travis Morrison’s pleasantly abrasive vocals in an entirely unique dynamic.
With songs about coming to grips with a sometimes not-so-rockstar-ish life (I’m doin’ fine/ I’m stayin’ busy hangin’ with my nephew/ And tryin’ to keep my eyes on the prize), finding

comfort or even their place in the United States indie scene seems to loom over Morrison’s mind, despite a healthy distance in voice in some songs’ lyrics.
Somehow, Change magically appeared in Spin Magazine’s top twenty records of the year. I find this to be especially strange since it has not even been out for three full months. Even after a period of major label courting, deSoto is (thankfully) still the label that pays them. Without the pressure of a major label they have remained creative and are beginning to gain some much deserved national attention.

If you are lacking in things to do early in exam week, they are performing on Dec. 9 at the Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill supported by Ted Leo. At the moment, I cannot think of a better excuse to skip out on exam study.

Beachwood Sparks, Once We Were Trees: In sub pop’s ever diversifying roster of acts, the Beachwood Sparks hold the distinction of the only act that could occupy the seat designated as alt-country. But, they remain an impossible to define oddity in that line up, mixing late ’60s and early ’70s sunshine psychedelia with slide guitars and lap beats. Once We Were Trees finds the act improving upon the formula they established with their first full-length album in 2000. If Graham Parsons and Brian Wilson had taken a cross-country drive from Los Angles to Nashville on the way they might have written much of this record. Painted with reverb and lazy feedback punctuated with the occasional harmonic blast, Once We Were Trees is the perfect record for one of those strangely warm late fall afternoons we occasionally get in Winston-Salem. It brings to mind overexposed 8mm home movies of cookouts with those sprinklers with the arched tubing raking individual streams over yellowed lawns. It is decidedly American music.