#27 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Fontaines D.C.

January 05, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Fontaines D.C. have managed a feat very few other bands have: they’ve released four albums as a band, and all four of those albums have been on the Bacon Top 31: their debut, Too Real was #26 in 2019, A Hero’s Death was #12 in 2020, and Skinty Fia came in at #20 in 2022. Their fantastic fourth album, Romance, is coming in at #27 here in 2024. That’s an impressive run of great albums.

Romance feels different from the band’s past post-punk efforts. This album is darker, more The Cure-like, with a little more force behind it, reminding me of Clinic’s 25-year-old (!) album Internal Wrangler. There’s still Grian Chatten’s Irish-accented, more sung-than-spoken lead vocals, and the four other members building out the music. But there’s more depth to the songwriting that didn’t used to be there. Hit play on the video above, for their song “Starburster.” The monotone verses that lead into the deep-breath chorus immediately puts you on edge. Then at the bridge of the song, you’ll hear Chatten channeling his best Damon Albarn.

These are all positive shifts in the music from Fontaines, but let’s also talk about the videos. “Starburster” above is a strange, alien mystery of a narrative. Chatten uses an inhaler to fill in on the song’s deep-breath choruses, and the story shifts at each breath. Crazy makeup and costumes abound, all in an off-kilter way that makes you feel uneasy. Then there’s the video for “Here’s the Thing,” which features a girl mocked for her high-school talent-show riverdance set who then finds a supernatural girl group to enact revenge on the mockers.

The craziest video is for the song “In the Modern World.” Ewan Mitchell, aka Game of Thrones’ Aemond Targaryen, takes center stage, as a low-life who engages in non-sactioned car-jitsu in public settings. Pretty sure you won’t know what car-jitsu is any more than I did, so watch the video and you’ll get a sense for it. Yes, it’s a real sport. And yes, it’s ridiculous.

The most “normal” video of the bunch is for the song “Favourite,” which leans heavily on old home video footage from the band members’ families, jumping around in the band’s history from birth to now. It actually feels kinda pleasant, especially when compared to the other three videos.

I’m loving this shift in musical direction for Fontaines D.C., and I’m not the only one: KEXP listeners voted Romance as the #1 album of 2024. While I can’t make it number one, it does speak to the strength of the music that came out this year that I’m only able to put it in at #27, through no fault of Romance. Give it a listen, even if you haven’t liked Fontaines in the past. You may be pleasantly surprised.

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#12 on the 2023 Bacon Top 31 — Blondshell

January 20, 2024 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Blondshell by Blondshell

I love getting in on a new band on the ground floor and watching them rise to the top. 26-year-old Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum, otherwise known as Blondshell, is a great example of this experience. I saw her and her band open for Porridge Radio (#12 last year) at the tiny 200-person venue Barboza in September 2022. At the time, she had released exactly three songs (“Olympus,” “Kiss City,” and “Sepsis” – the latter of which is featured in the video above). Three months later, she was signing a record contract with Partisan Records, home of recent Bacon Top 31 faves Fontaines D.C. (#20 in 2022, #12 in 2020, and #26 in 2019) and IDLES (#24 in 2020 and #16 in 2018) among many others. And now, a year later, she’s released a superb, Obama-approved self-titled debut.

Prior to 2020, Teitelbaum performed under the name BAUM, and had a distinctly different musical personality. BAUM’s music was more centrally Pop with a capital P, and she had a minor viral hit with a song called “Fuckboy.” Listening to that song now, while a little catchy, it unsurprisingly sounds immature and hollow. As COVID started to settle in in early 2020 she made the switch to Blondshell (a name she and her sister came up with over dinner one night). After a couple years of rumination and deep thinking, the first Blondshell song to be released, “Olympus,” came out in June 2022. Over the next year, the magic appears to have taken over as she assembled what became the debut album.

Blondshell has clear linear ties to similar sources as Indigo de Souza did, but Teitelbaum feels more singularly Courtney Barnett, a Bacon Top 31 fave (#5 in 2021, #8 in 2018, and #5 in 2015), and further back into 90s rock, like Hole or the Cranberries. When I saw her perform back in 2022 she played a cover to Built to Spill’s “Carry the Zero,” which came out in 1999. Being a huge BTS stan, of course this had some positive influence on me, personally. You can watch her “KEXP Live Performance” to see her and the band in action, or watch the handful of additional videos she’s released from the album:

“Salad”
“Joiner
“Veronica Mars”
“Street Rat”

We’re getting into the portion of the Top 31 where every artist becomes a must-listen. There’s no “give this a try,” it’s all very much “stop what you’re doing right now and listen.” And that’s where I‘ll end this review. Do it. Now.

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#20 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Fontaines D.C.

January 12, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Skinty Fia by Fontaines D.C.

The band just barely making the Top 20 of 2022 should be known to avid readers of the Bacon Review. Fontaines D.C., five Irishmen now living in London, have been on the Top 31 for their entire history — their debut, Dogrel, was #26 in 2019, and their stellar second album, A Hero’s Death, was #12 in 2020. Now they’re back, at (what we hope is) the tail end of the Covid pandemic, with a brutal album that is so perfect for right now.

Whereas in 2019 I was quick to compare the band to English post-punk outfit (and KEXP darlings) Idles (who were #16 in 2018 and #24 in 2020), Fontaines has pushed further and further from the sound that they burst onto the scene with back in 2019. The band still has the same core members (Carlos O'Connell and Conor Curley on guitar, Tom Coll on drums, Conor Deegan III on bass, and Grian Chatten, principle lyric writer and singer). But they’ve found a new version of themselves that will no doubt put a lot of previous listeners off. Chatten, who barely sings as it is, seems to magically take his voice an octave lower – more haunting, more droning. I love it.

The album name, Skinty Fia, is an arcane Irish slur that translates to “damnation of the deer.” In the interim between their 2020 2nd album and this one, the band left their native Ireland for London, in from what I read was more like an act of rebellion against the status quo. And yet the amount of Irish and Dublin-related elements of the album belie the fact that the band clearly miss home.

Listen to the song in the video above, “I Love You.” It starts off well enough, a paean to the home they left. But then it goes on, a near-shouted list of shame about Dublin that settles into a groove not unlike the best Underworld lyrics (substitute “lager, lager, lager” for “echo, echo, echo”). But London can be hard for the Irish, as demonstrated in the opening song, “In ár gCroíthe go deo” which is an Irish phrase that translates to “in our hearts forever”. Back in 2020, a recently departed Irish woman’s family had wanted to put that phrase on her gravestone but were forbidden to do so by the Church of England unless the family also put the English translation on there as well. That’s a level of cultural control bestowed by the state that is hard for me to even fathom, and well worthy of a song to commemorate it.

If you enjoyed “I Love You,” there are four other videos the band has produced from the album:

I know I can’t make you like everything I like. What a boring world that would be. But I hope you give this one a chance, even if it’s not resonating with you at first. After a few listens it sinks into your pores. With the torrential downpours the western side of the US has been getting these past few days, I can’t imagine something better to be listening to.

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21. I Love You Jennifer B by Jockstrap
22. Too Much to Ask by Cheekface
23. Dripfield by Goose
24. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief
25. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood
26. NOT TiGHT by DOMi & JD BECK
27. Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain
28. Live at KEXP, vol. 10 by Various Artists
29. All You Need Is Time by Daisy the Great
30. Cool It Down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
31. CAPRISONGS by FKA twigs

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#28 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Various Artists via KEXP

January 04, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Live at KEXP, vol. 10 by Various Artists

In 2022, KEXP — the radio station that broadcasts at 90.3 on the FM dial in the Seattle area and worldwide at kexp.org — turned 50. The station has recorded countless “Live at KEXP” sessions that they then post on their YouTube channel. From those sessions, they’ve produced ten “Live at KEXP” collections over the years. These are wildly varying mixes that lovingly reflect the eclectic nature of the station and all its DJs loves and influences. And that finally brings us to why we’re here: Live at KEXP, vol. 10, my #28 album of the year.

First, a bit about the history of this much-loved radio station: it started as “KCMU” when four UW students in 1972 wanted an outlet and learning environment for journalism and on-air music to students beyond what had been previously available via KUOW, the original UW station (which had been severely reduced due to university budget cuts in the early 70s). It has been through a variety of changes over the last five decades: shifting from KCMU to KEXP thanks to an agreement with Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project in the early 2000s; a formalization of format from a mix of news and DJ-led music to only music in the 90s; and a successful transformation from solvency being provided by university or investor backing to being fully listener supported.

The mission of the station has never wavered: “to enrich [listeners’ lives] by championing music and discovery. [The station’s] vision is a connected and compassionate world embracing curiosity and a shared love of music.” They mean it when they say “KEXP: Where the music matters.” While I can’t pinpoint the connection exactly, it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t have the love of music that I do without KEXP in my life. And KEXP has truly been “in my life”:

While my wife and I were in the hospital for the birth of our daughter, we made a request to the station during a quiet moment in the delivery room that was played on air by John in the Morning, along with a sharing of our story, and heard live on our personal speaker in the room
It is KEXP I think of when I think back to my personal experience around 9/11 – with my alarm going off early in the morning to the sounds of KCMU in 2001, John’s telling of the first plane hitting the Towers is as clear in my head now as it was that morning
At the start of the pandemic, the station adapted quickly to the new rules of society, figuring out how to broadcast from DJ’s homes, and the station’s secondary motto “You are not alone” became a powerful mantra to listeners worldwide, including me and my family. The support the station provided then continues today as the station digs deeper into the support that the station brings to our lives through the music and stories they share.

Having been a Gold Club member multiple times over the years, and privy to the secret stage shows the station held in the tiny Children’s Theater at the Seattle Center during Bumbershoot, I’ve been witness to many intimate and monumental musical performances thanks to the station. It’s those types of performances that fill out the Live at KEXP releases, and Volume 10 is no exception. There’s “En La Front” from a 2022 performance by Argentinian singer/songwriter Barbi Recanati next to “Lump” from a 1995 performance by The Presidents of the United States of America, a 1997 Modest Mouse performance of “Dramamine” (that will simply bring you to tears due to the recent untimely passing of MM drummer Jeremiah Green due to cancer) next to “Legend Has It” from the 2017 Run the Jewels set linked in the video above. My personal favorite from the album is “Süpürgest Yoncadan” from the 2019 performance by (new to me and the Bacon Review) Turkish psych-rock band Altin Gün shown at the top of this post.

I am (we are) so lucky to have an outlet as consistently strong as KEXP to introduce me (and you) to new music from around the world that I (we) would never hear otherwise. I mentioned earlier that the station is listener supported, and consequently the album is not available to hear on the streaming services. You’ll need to go to your local (Seattle) record store to pick up the vinyl, or you can pay (minimum $10) to download the album from Bandcamp. Or of course you can just peruse the full library of performances on KEXP’s Youtube channel. All proceeds from the vinyl and from the album go directly back to the artists featured. And then when you’re done buying the album, why don’t you head over to kexp.org and throw the station a few bucks as well — without them we would not be talking here, today.

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29. All You Need Is Time by Daisy the Great
30. Cool It Down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
31. CAPRISONGS by FKA twigs

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#24 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Various Artists

January 08, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico by Various Artists

Here at #24 we’re crossing off a couple of unexpected scorigami-like firsts here at the Bacon Top 31. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico, the lovely full-album cover of the seminal debut album Velvet Underground & Nico, is not only the first time I‘ve featured not one but two full-remake cover albums on the Bacon Top 31 in the same year, but, somewhat unbelievably, it’s also the second time a full cover of this particular 1967 album is appearing on the countdown.

Way back in 2009 (the inaugural Bacon Top 31), Beck’s Record Club version of The Velvet Underground & Nico was #7 on the countdown that year. The 2021 cover version, put out by the band’s original 1967 label, Verve records, is aiming to cash in on the recently released Todd Haynes documentary about the band that was in theaters earlier this year.

(It’s mildly interesting that Verve has put this together, given that one of the reasons the 1967 original suffered poor sales at first — according to Wikipedia — was because of Verve, “who failed to promote or distribute the album with anything but modest attention.”)

But they’ve put together a masterpiece. The album’s roster is like the Bacon Top 31 all-stars: Andrew Bird, Kurt Vile, St. Vincent, Thurston Moore, King Princess, Fontaines D.C., and even Iggy Pop.

Like any compilations of covers, there are some highs and lows. The Matt Berninger cover of ”I’m Waiting for the Man,” shown in the video above is one of the lows. Berninger tries to channel his inner Lou Reed, but he’s too polished and controlled to pull it off. “Sunday Morning” by Michael Stipe and Bill Frissell is gorgeous from the very first note. Sharon van Ettan’s cover of “Femme Fatale” with Angel Olsen is slowwed waaay dowwwwn, a beautifully frustrating listen. And Courtney Barnett brings her usual off-beat and -key production to the title song “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” proving her music is a direct descendant of what The Velvet Underground & Nico accomplished 54 years ago.

If you like any of the artists mentioned above, definitely check out this album. They’re essentially performing the songs of their grandparents – without them, these artists would not exist. If you don’t know the artists, but like the original album, give this one a listen. You’ll find some kindred spirits you can explore to widen your tastes.

late addition: check out this live rendiition of Andrew Bird and Lucius’ cover of “Venus in Furs”. Watching Bird put the sonic landscape together all at once is a sight and sound to behold.

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25. Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats
26. NINE by Sault
27. Observatory by Aeon Station
28. The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania by Damien Jurado
29. A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
30. Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan
31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

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#12 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Fontaines D.C.

January 20, 2021 by Royal Stuart

A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.

You may remember Fontaines, D.C. from their appearance on last year’s Top 31, where their debut album landed at #26. Proving there’s always an exception to the rule, the Dublin-based band’s 2nd album, A Hero’s Death is anything but a sophomore slump. They created a work of art with their first release, but it wasn’t without mistakes — a little too predictable, a little too derivative. In the short span between that debut and the release of Death in July, they’ve clearly learned how to be themselves, how to create something that sounds like Fontaines D.C. and not like some earlier band they’re mimicking.

The songs they craft are hard hitting – driving drums, strong guitar lines and Grian Chatten’s droning vocals repeating common refrains throughout. Despite the repetitiveness, or maybe because of the repetitiveness, this music hits in a much different way than bands that came before. Those repeated refrains become the titles to the songs. Take “Televised Mind,” for instance. It starts with the line “That’s a Televised Mind” repeated six times. That happens two more times in the song, becoming the defect chorus, despite being only 4 words long. Most of the songs on the album are like that. Reading it this way, it sounds horrible and boring. But there’s something to how they deliver it, the droning yell, the incessant beat. It’s invigorating.

A mix of Television and Juno thrown together in a blender that’s missing a blade or two. The lads in the band (Carlos O'Connell on guitar and backing vocals; Conor Curley on guitar, piano, backing vocals; Conor Deegan III on bass guitar, guitar and backing vocals; Tom Coll on drums, percussion, guitar; the aforementioned Grian Chatten on lead vocals) all met the British and Irish Modern Music Institute, a collection of eight colleges scattered throughout Great Britain. The education pays off, clearly. They chose their name based on the character Johnny Fontane from The Godfather, and had to add a superlative to their name when they found out a previous band called The Fontaines had already claimed the name. “D.C.” was added as the initials for Dublin City.

The video above, for the title song, is fantastically weird. Starring well-known Irish actor Aidan Gillen, who played Tommy Carcetti on The Wire and Littlefinger on Game of Thrones, the video starts out fairly normally before devolving into a sick and twisted fever dream of repetition, ending in Gillen going in to kiss a ventriloquist’s dummy of himself. It’s tough to watch, and the refrain “Life ain’t always empty” replaying over and over and over on top of the visuals is a cruel irony for the pain that Gillen’s character is continually going through. But, hey, at least we got a great song with a great album to surround it.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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#26 on the 2019 Bacon Top 31 — Fontaines DC

January 06, 2020 by Royal Stuart

Dogrel by Fontaines DC

From one literal throwback to 70s music, now to one that’s a throwback in style if not in the time it was recorded. Fontaines D.C., a five-man post-punk group out of Dublin, fall right in line with a separate scene from Marvin Gaye’s world of the 70s. Fontaines are hard-hitting, loud and obnoxious, evoking feelings of Joy Division, The Clash and even maybe a little bit of that early-U2 fervor.

I first fell in love with Fontaines by listening to KEXP 90.3 FM, my favorite Seattle-based (but more prominently available online) radio station. They received equal airplay to the station’s #2 album of 2018, Idles (#16 in my Top 31 of 2018), and were often played back to back with that band despite not releasing their album until April 2019.

If you’re a fan of guitars, barking vocals, and music with a message, then Fontaines DC are right up your alley. If you liked Idles’ Joy as an Act of Resistance from 2018, then you’ll especially love it. Give it a listen now.

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27. You’re the Man by Marvin Gaye
28. Big Wows by Stealing Sheep
29. 1000 gecs by 100 gecs
30. In the Morse Code of Brake Lights by The New Pornographers
31. Radiant Dawn by Operators

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