Album Review: Wire, Red Barked Tree

Release Date: January 11
Label: Pink Flag

Long after the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and the Clash have ascended into history or descended self-parody, Wire are still here. The seminal English art-punk band have withstood the test of time, continuing to release intriguing records while their more celebrated peers have faded away. Red Barked Tree is the latest addition to their stunning body of work. The fact that it comes over thirty years after their most celebrated releases is just gravy. The original 1970s trilogy of Wire albums, Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154, tracked the band's evolution from minimalist, abstract visions of three-chord fury towards a more keyboard-heavy, textured post-punk sound. Red Barked Tree continues this legacy, showcasing the band's more jagged tendencies with songs like "Two Minutes," while still giving plenty of time to the group's more restrained side. The opening track, "Please Take," is insidiously catchy, especially for a song that opens with the line "please take your knife out of my back." The album reaches a fantastic balance between these styles, offering a concise encapsulation of everything Wire have been and continue to be.

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Album Review: Cake, Showroom Of Compassion

Release Date: January 11
Label: Upbeat Records

In a move that should surprise no one, Cake have recorded yet another Cake album. The Sacramento-based group have an immediately identifiable sound and Showroom Of Compassion is steeped in it. Never mind the fact that they haven't released a new album since 2004. Cake are back and, hey, they still sound like Cake. Like all five before it, this new Cake album comes complete with a catchy lead single ("Sick Of You"), featuring John McCrea's distinctive speak-singing and a snappy trumpet section. There even a few yelped backing vocals for those of you who still love "Short Skirt/Long Jacket." Unfortunately, after "Sick Of You," there's a substantial drop-off in the album's song quality. Cake have never been much of an "album band" and Showroom Of Compassion is no exception. You get more nibbling guitar lines, more horns, even more snarky McCrea, but those pieces never gel as well as they do on the lead single. Indeed, Cake have returned after a long absence, virtually the same as ever: one solid, quirky single nestled amid more forgettable tracks.

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Projecting the Mariners 2011 Roster, v. 2.0

It's been over a month since I last took stock of the 25 guys the Mariners are going to throw on the field in April. With the latest additions, subtractions and developments, here's what I think we're all gonna see:

Rotation
RHP Felix Hernandez
LHP Jason Vargas
RHP Doug Fister
LHP Erik Bedard
RHP Michael Pineda

Ryan Rowland-Smith got non-tendered, eventually signing with Houston, so the re-signed Bedard takes his place. Of course, Erik is our resident fragile china doll, so who knows if the reports that he'll be ready by the spring are true. Hopefully, the club has enough cash to sign a mid-rotation guy and put all our doubts to rest. Whatever happens, David Pauley will at least be given a chance in Spring Training.

Bullpen
RHP David Aardsma
RHP Brandon League
RHP Dan Cortes
LHP Garrett Olsen
RHP Josh Lueke
LHP Luke French
RHP David Pauley

Aardsma's hip surgery isn't supposed to sideline him for too long, but if he's not ready by Opening Day, League will be the acting closer and everyone else jumps up a peg. Also, if guys like Pauley or French are needed in the rotation, Anthony Varvaro, Rule 5 pick Jose Flores or non-roster invitees Justin Miller, Chris Smith, Royce Ring and Chris Seddon could all pick up the slack. Free agency is yet another option. We're also still not sure if Lueke's criminal record will keep the club from including him.

Lineup
RF Ichiro Suzuki
3B Chone Figgins
DH Jack Cust
1B Justin Smoak
CF Franklin Gutierrez
C Miguel Olivo
LF Michael Saunders
SS Jack Wilson
2B Brendan Ryan

Cust and Olivo do add a bit of power to the lineup, but not enough to make this set of nine guys seem even remotely intimidating. The big questions are whether Figgy and Gutierrez will rebound from their disappointing 2010 campaigns and if Justin Smoak will be the star player we expected when we got him in the Cliff Lee deal. When Dustin Ackley gets called up in mid-summer, things should get more interesting. Until then, barring some major trade, this looks like the lineup we're gonna be dealing with.

Bench
C Adam Moore
INF Josh Wilson
INF/OF Matt Tuiasosopo
OF Milton Bradley

Bench help is one place where the team can dramatically improve. I'm sure Tui is a great guy, but we can do much better with someone plucked out of free agency. Josh Wilson is serviceable, but other options exist. He'll be fighting for his job in Spring Training, as non-roster guys Luis Rodriguez and Sean Kazmar will be out to prove things. Milton's contract is too big to deal with right now, but he actually provides a lot of flexibility, batting against lefties for Cust and Saunders. The roster still isn't all that pretty, but it's getting better. Let's see what January has in store for us.

Notes from the Most Boring MLB Team

The Seattle Mariners have had an unbearably dull offseason. Budget limitations and prudent thinking have resulted in a handful of low-level free agent signings and virtually no trade chatter. As such, I haven't had much substantial M's news to talk about here. Here is the last three or four weeks worth of Mariners updates:

-we picked up infielder Brendan Ryan from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for prospect pitcher Maikel Cleto. Ryan immediately slides in as the likely starter at second base and will presumably bat ninth. Ryan has a reputation as a fantastic glove man, but of course, he can't hit his way out of the proverbial paper bag. That said, he projects to have somewhat of a comeback year after posting a hilarious .223/.279/.294 line last season. The other good news is that we gave up essentially nothing in Cleto. He's a guy with an explosive fastball, but absolutely no control. He was nowhere near the majors. Shed your tears and move on.

-way back at the Winter Meetings, the team had a verbal agreement with Miguel Olivo to catch for the Mariners, on a two-year, $7 million contract. The official announcement still hasn't come, but that's just a matter of time and paperwork. While most M's fans are already screaming to the heavens about this signing, I don't think it's that awful. Yes, Miguel looks suspiciously like Jose Lopez, with his complete lack of on-base skills and inconsistent, right-handed power. However, he's still more than an adequate catcher, which was something that the tandem of Rob Johnson and Adam Moore never quite accomplished last season. Is Olivo ideal? Of course not. But there weren't too many better options out there in our pay range and leaving the job in Moore's hands could have been really messy. Let's let this one play out, yeah?

-after getting designated for assignment to make room for Jack Cust, Rob Johnson got traded to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later or cash. So yeah, basically one of those "new bag of baseballs" trades. Rob had nowhere to go in this organization and the Padres had no catching depth. This works for everyone. I wish Rob the best.

-we added another slog of minor league free agents to the mix. Ryan Langerhans will return for his third season with the organization, while Chris Gimenez will add catching depth. Denny Bautista and Royce Ring have also been added as bullpen options. All in all, not a bad bunch, to be honest. All four could see some time in the Majors with the club.

-finally, we have the soap opera surrounding David Aardsma, We spent several weeks trying to drop him and his salary on some other team, to no avail. Our noble closer is in line for a raise in arbitration, but the team could really use the $4 million or so he's taking up to add a few other mid-range free agents. So, imagine our collective disappointment when the team announced that David was going to have hip surgery. Goodbye, trade value. So, he's here to stay. The team says they expect him to be ready by Opening Day, but our hands are now substantially tied, from a financial point of view.

Album Review: The Decemberists, The King Is Dead

Release Date: January 18
Label: Capitol Records

Colin Meloy and his merry band of indie-rock troubadours have spent the past five years thinking big. After the breakthrough success of 2005's still-excellent Picaresque, Meloy seemed to think that what people wanted were epic songs, full of heavily described characters and convoluted narratives worthy of Russian literature. The following albums, The Crane Wife and The Hazards Of Love, ended up missing the mark somewhat, as Meloy's sharp songwriting skills got consumed by ambition. So, The King Is Dead is a shift away from all that pomp, as the band mines heavily from R.E.M. and the more twangy end of Neil Young's career to create simpler, country-inflected tunes. This shift would be admirable if not for the fact that Meloy swings the pendulum ridiculously far, robbing his songs of what made them interesting in the first place. The King Is Dead is a lifeless, trite and altogether boring trawl through the lazier elements of American music, sewing together an endless stream of lyrics about seasons and "ancient riverbeds" with dull, major chords. There are no five-part operas about fawns, for which I am thankful. But there's also aren't any interesting songs. That's a rough trade-off.

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