tenessential
We're still waiting on follow-ups to
Alternative Press - Editorial Intern on 8/27/08 @ 12:56 PM - altpress.comSelected by Trevor Kelley
As longtime readers of AP may note, some of the artists featured in this 10 Essential column have actually appeared in the various Most Anticipated issues that we've churned out over the past two decades. However, that doesn't mean they ever got around to recording the albums that we profiled them for. That's why we're saluting those seminal records that made the following 10 artists worthy of our anticipation, as well as the elusive follow-ups they never made. So make some room, Axl, because these are our versions of Chinese Democracy...
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MY BLOODY VALENTINE Loveless (SIRE,1991)
Filled with gauzy guitar lines and ethereal co-ed vocals, this shoegaze classic seemed like an obvious place to start, considering that most My Bloody Valentine fans have literally spent half of their lives waiting for its follow-up. Oh, sure, frontman Kevin Shields recorded a handful of mediocre solo tracks for the Lost In Translation soundtrack, but eventually even his label lost faith in the project and pulled the plug. But not before Shields blew through a million dollars and still didn’t have a record to show for it.
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PORTISHEAD Portishead (UMG,1997)
In 2007, your favorite band probably hates being called “emo” as much as these sophisticated Brits despised being called “trip-hop” 10 years ago. But the thing is, there was no better way to describe the heady electronic music Portishead were creating in the mid-’90s. Unfortunately, the Bristol-based act all but disappeared after the release of their eponymous second album, and many of the scene’s diehards have been left waiting for its successor-which, don’t hold your breath, is supposed to come out sometime next year.
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NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (MERGE,1998)
As the legend goes, Neutral Milk Hotel leader Jeff Mangum has only performed one song from the follow-up to his band’s psych-folk masterpiece-and it was on an acoustic guitar, at a friend’s house, during a birthday party. If you’re lucky, maybe you can find the footage on YouTube, but that’s as close as most indie snobs will come to a new album seeing that in the years following Aeroplane’s release, the only “songs” that Mangum released were some field recordings that he tracked in Bulgaria.
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RIVAL SCHOOLS United By Fate (ISLAND,2001)
When rumors began to circulate a few years ago that Rival Schools had recorded a follow-up to United By Fate with Helmet’s Chris Traynor on guitar, many saw it as band leader Walter Schreifels’ return to the brainy post-hardcore he’d abandoned when he formed the mostly acoustic pop act Walking Concert. The only problem? After handing the much whispered about album into their label, the New York quartet were served their walking papers, and they still haven’t decided what to do with it.
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WHISKEYTOWN Pneumonia (LOST HIGHWAY,2001)
While there are plenty of middle-aged alt-country fans out there pining for an Uncle Tupelo reunion, just as many “old fogies” are awaiting a comeback from Whiskeytown, who left the world nearly seven years ago with their eclectic and oftentimes wistful third album. In the time since, both founding members Caitlin Cary and Ryan Adams have publicly stated they plan on getting back together, but let’s face it: Loudmouth Adams will say pretty much anything to get a little press.
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DESAPARECIDOS Read Music/Speak Spanish (SADDLE CREEK,2002)
When your band name translates to “the disappeared” in Spanish, what else are you supposed to do after you’ve recorded your first album? Then again, even if Conor Oberst was warning us with his side project’s chosen moniker, Desaparecidos didn’t exactly go quietly into the night. In fact, in 2003 Oberst told AP he had written a handful of songs for Spanish’s follow-up, and earlier this year, a rep for the Bright Eyes frontman said the raucous indie rock band were still considered an “open book” by their members.
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GLASSJAW Worship And Tribute (WARNER BROS.,2002)
For the past five years, Glassjaw’s follow-up to Worship And Tribute has felt like a rumor: The inventive Long Island hardcore act started hinting about the record on their website in December 2004 when they posted a tongue-in-cheek animated graphic of Dimebag Darrell, Tupac Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G., Ol’ Dirty Bastard and their own logo alongside the caption, “It wasn’t their time.” While official information on the album has been scant since, trust us: A whole lot of basketball jersey-donning meatheads are going to go absolutely apeshit when this thing finally sees the light of day.
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UGLY CASANOVA Sharpen Your Teeth (SUB POP,2002)
When Isaac Brock recorded this collection of boozy indie-folk stompers over the summer of 2001, things didn’t looks so hot for his main group, Modest Mouse: Their record label had essentially written them off and drummer Jeremiah Green was about to quit the band and check himself into a mental hospital. For a while, Ugly Casanova looked like the only way Brock could earn a living, which may explain why he quickly promised another album. However, when Modest Mouse rebounded a few years later with a little tune called “Float On,” Brock’s beloved side project became far less of a priority.
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THE DISTILLERS Coral Fang (SIRE,2003)
Okay, so you probably know by now there won’t really be a follow-up to Coral Fang, as these snarling modern day punks quietly threw in the towel in early 2006 (and for whatever reason, still haven’t made it official). Nevertheless, lead songwriter Brody Dalle insists that she has spent the past few years working on material for a new band, Spinnerette-recording when Dalle’s not too busy with such rock star activities as driving her and Josh Homme’s two-year-old daughter to daycare. Here’s hoping she actually finishes their first album before the kid makes it to middle school.
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THE POSTAL SERVICE Give Up (SUB POP,2003)
Written after the first major breakup of his adult life, the debut album from Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and his laptop-toting pal Jimmy Tamborello became one of the most surprisingly successful albums of the past decade; and for the past four years, a legion of introverted music fans have anxiously awaited its follow-up. Well, they’re going to have to keep waiting: Though a second disc of sighing electro-pop was purportedly due this December, we just checked our mailbox and guess what? There was nothing but the stupid phone bill staring back at us.
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How could you disrespect Ryan Adams like that? He's one of the only true artists you mention on your site that is keeping great music alive and original. If anything he does what he can to stay out of the limelight and in the studio, relentlessly performing and continuing to pump out great songwriting. Ryan was Whiskeytown, and what he is now is so much. Your little comment has totally turned me off so much that I will never visit your site again. Great musicians don't deserve to be bashed by a retarded teeny-bopper magazine like this one. Peace out Fuckers!
lmao scooter2x7 noob
THE DISTILLERS Coral Fang is amazing but have no fear the cd from Spinnerette is out (I think). I haven't heard it yet but I don't think it could hold a candle to coral fang