Once the distractions of daily life (read: school) fade from our collective subconscious, summer feels like a time of endless pauses and waning afternoons. Unless, of course, you’re the least bit interested in music. The summer of 2005 promises pockets of excitement for everyone. Clubs get a new Missy album, moody hipsters get Spoon’s Gimme Fiction and geek-rockers stuck in the mid-’90s get Weezer.
- Ken Srdjak
- “Yippee-kay-yay, motherfucker.”(Courtesy of Warner Bros.)
Wherever you listen to music — in your car, in your bedroom, walking down the blistering city streets — this summer’s releases promise to be more than enough to make the hazy nights just drift away.
Dave Matthews Band
Stand Up
RCA
May 10
Crash into — a brick wall! DMB’s latest promises even more annoying, sedated violin solos and quasi-passionate saxophone riffs. Forty-year olds who think they’re “hip” and conformist teenagers alike will bask in the glow of Matthews’s fun-guy meets-wannabe-activist persona. A quick tip for summer hookups: Setting the mood with DMB will not get you laid on a first date. Try something less awful, like Rob Thomas’s new album.
Spoon
Gimmie Fiction
Merge
May 10
Spoon has arguably been indie rock’s most dependably exciting band for the last six years. Gimme Fiction comes on the heels of a career- defining three-album streak; it holds the band’s sharp melodies against a surprisingly funky rhythm section. Forget that “O.C.” appearance: These guys are on some Al Green-meets-Wire, middle of a July night, glory days shit. That’s the way they get by.
Weezer
Make Believe
Geffen
May 10
Hooray for disappointment. Six years after they were good, Rivers Cuomo and his band of manic-depressive nerds look to release another album somewhere between Maladroit and The Green Album. The first single, “Beverly Hills,” is a few minutes of pithy guitar schlock and insipid lyrics about everyone’s favorite rich-bitch enclave. Yeah, we’re not that enthusiastic about it, either.
Stephen Malkmus
Face the Truth
Matador
May 24
Rumor has it that, post-Pavement and post-Jicks, the venerable king of ’90s indie rock goes it alone on Face the Truth just as he did on his self-titled solo debut. Fans shouldn’t expect another collection of cute, abstract pop like Stephen Malkmus or the brooding, ambling guitars of Pig Lib — he’s got a few more tricks up his sleeve. Don’t tell anyone, but a friend on the inside mentioned something about lots and lots of synthesizers. Watch out for SM and whoever he’s playing with at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit on June 10.
Sleater-Kinney
The Woods
Sub Pop
May 24
Since 1996’s Call the Doctor, indie guitar goddesses Sleater-Kinney haven’t misstepped once — and they don’t even have a bass player. (I heard there isn’t one single chord played on The Hot Rock.) Their first release since 2002’s bright, politically charged One Beat, The Woods promises more incendiary guitar counterpoint, machine gun drumming and throaty howls from the ultra-badass Olympia, Wash. trio.
The White Stripes
Get Behind Me Satan
V2
June 7
The delightfully vintage rockers will release their fifth album, Get Behind Me Satan, on V2 Records in a few short months. The album was recorded at Jack White’s Third Man Studio in Detroit. Plan on the channelling of dead or near-dead blues and country legends, White’s signature growl-whine and a whole lot of nothing from eye candy/place holder Meg.
Coldplay
X&Y
EMI
June 7
After their multi-platinum sophomore album A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay embarked on an arena-packing tour, frontman Chris Martin knocked up Gwyneth Paltrow and “Clocks” became the soundtrack to a thousand teenage heartbreaks. The lead single from X&Y, “Speed of Sound,” hits airwaves this week with enough ethereal Brit-rock to keep fans at bay until the album’s release in June.
Foo Fighters
In Your Honor
RCA
June 21
Dave Grohl screams his way through another surefire million-seller this June. Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones makes a guest appearance as Grohl attempts to satisfy his ’60s rock fantasies. Also accompanied by soccer mom favorite Norah Jones, The Foo Fighters seem to be appealing to a different demographic (i.e., your parents) with their first two-disc release.
Missy Elliot
Cook Book
Atlantic
June 28
Get ur freak on! With help from The Neptunes, Elliot promises to fill Clear Channel lineups with one or two club-licious hits. Enlisting Ciara and Fat Man Scoop, Missy Misdemeanor will have fans flipping and reversing it before the summer’s over. Come on, Missy, bring back the puffy black trashbag garb. You looked freakin’ hot as a sumo wrestler.
— Compiled by the Daily Music Staff