Sports are cool, but Deafheaven is about to release the best album of 2015: While We’re Waiting

Happy Tuesday, WFNY!

We’re in the heart of football season, but it seems like all anyone wants to talk about is basketball, right? It’s crazy that we’re still in September, the Indians are still playing, the Browns have only played three games, the Buckeyes haven’t even played a Big Ten game yet, and still the Cavaliers dominated the media cycle on Monday.

Well, you’re not going to get any exceptions here. It might be crazy that the Cavaliers stole the media thunder yesterday, but it’s not surprising. It was Media Day for the best team in town with the best chance of winning a Championship. The Indians have fallen out of Wild Card contention and the Browns are still very, very much the Browns.

What would you rather talk about? I know there’s a sentiment among some fans in Cleveland that the Browns are the only team that matters. I’ve seen Browns fans tweet that if the Cavs win a Championship first, that they won’t count that as ending the city’s title drought. And no matter how exciting and fun the Cavaliers are, nothing drives traffic on this website more than the Browns.That’s simply the reality of the Cleveland sports climate.

And there’s nothing wrong with any of this. I’ve been fond of saying “like what you like” recently, and it applies to almost everything in life. We spend so much energy being concerned with what we should be talking about, what’s popular to like, what is embarrassing to like, etc. Everything would be so much simpler if we could all just agree to like what we like. Talk about what we want to talk about. There’s a time and a place for everything.

We’re going to get into this concept a little deeper in a minute, but I just wanted to set the table upfront on why we talk about so many different things across the board in WWW. It would be simple to say that this is Browns season and so the Browns are the only thing we should be discussing. But it was so much fun seeing all the excitement for the Cavaliers yesterday. I can’t wait for this season to get going!

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General thoughts on Media Day

Yesterday was fun. It was awesome to see everyone back in a Cavaliers uniform. It was really great to see Mo Williams back. It was awesome seeing Anderson Varejao hanging around, smiling, and laughing with everyone. And it was especially awesome seeing LeBron, Kyrie, and Love all back together again.

Media Day is often about the fluff. You get a few choice soundbites, you take a few photos, you have one on one interviews for the team website, all that stuff. But there’s not much material to it. The real meat and potatoes of the work begins today with practice.

And that seemed to be a common thread. I remember back in the post-Decision era when media day seemed, for lack of a better word, goofy. There was a lightness to it but also a bizarre seriousness to it. It somehow seemed like media day mattered more than it should have.

I was struck yesterday by the businesslike nonchalance of the event. There seemed to be a laser-like focus for so many of the players and for Coach Blatt. I realized that this team really is on a mission. I don’t know what was all said in those voluntary workouts LeBron held in Miami, but it’s obvious that these guys are all on the same page already. More so than last year, that’s for sure.

Unfinished business is the motto and you could feel the eagerness in the players’ answers to questions yesterday. It made me realize, also, just how much Tristan Thompson is missing out on right now and how stupid it is that both sides haven’t reached a compromise yet. Tristan wasn’t part of any of the offseason team activities organized by the players. He won’t be at practice today. He’s simply been isolated on his own. Which is less than ideal for everyone involved.

I don’t want anything to become a distraction for this team. Last year was considered the most anticipated season in Cavs history. Well, this season is even more highly anticipated. Last year, nobody knew how good the Cavs would be. Nobody knew if a Championship was really a realistic goal in year one. But this year? This year we know. This is a Championship caliber team. And barring injuries and distractions, I really think the Cavaliers will pull it off.

But the longer the Tristan stuff plays out, the more it will become a distraction. Everyone will say the right thing about not letting it become one. But we’re talking about human nature. If Tristan’s holdout extends into the season, too, it will become more and more of a dark cloud. I know. I remember the Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic holdouts in 2007 and how much it disrupted the team that season. A team that had such high hopes coming off an NBA Finals appearance.

Every situation is unique unto itself. Tristan’s holdout isn’t the same thing as the Varejao holdout. And nobody wants to focus on this stuff anyway. Nothing I heard yesterday surprised me or changed my outlook on this team and this season in any way. If anything, I got the affirmation I wanted to see that these guys are ready for the task at hand.

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Just because

Headed into my 13th season/media day straight like this! #Dre #LetMeRide #StriveForGreatness

A video posted by LeBron James (@kingjames) on Sep 28, 2015 at 9:10am PDT

I did the same thing on the way into work this morning. Only, you know, I was driving my car.

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New music of the week

I teased last week that I had a monster album to talk about this week. To be perfectly honest, there are many albums I could talk about in this space this week. I could discuss Geoff Rickley’s new project No Devotion. I could mention the new Eagles of Death Metal album. I could share some thoughts on the really, really, really great new Wavves album, “V”.

But there’s only one album I want to talk about today, and that is the new Deafheaven album, “New Bermuda”, which hits stores on Friday. I know Craig already discussed this album a bit on Friday, but this album is, frankly, too amazing for me to not also discuss.

Let’s start at the beginning. Sometime in late January or early February 2013, I began to notice an awful lot of buzz over this album called “Sunbather” by some band named Deafheaven. I knew nothing about them. But so many people were talking about “Sunbather” so I naturally had to check it out.

I hated it. I mean, I thoroughly HATED it. I thought it was pure garbage. Sure, I was intrigued by the instrumentals, but I just couldn’t get past the vocals. The whsipy, shrieking howls that passed as vocals. It actually offended my sensibilities. So I put it away. Never to listen to again. Or so I thought.

Fast forward to later in the year, as many year end lists started coming out. “Sunbather” kept showing up at or near the top of list after list after list. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but it caught Craig’s attention. Craig asked me if I had listened to it, and I told him how much I hated it. Thankfully, Craig listened to it anyway, and Craig insisted that I give it another chance. “Just focus on the music itself”, he told me.

Grudgingly, I followed through and gave it another listen. And somehow I was able to get past the vocals and really allow myself to get lost in the dreamscapes of the music. I don’t know if it was just my headspace I was in at that time or what, but for whatever reason, I was just more receptive to the music and the album clicked with me. Now “Sunbather” is one of the few albums from 2013 that I still listen to today.

So sure, I was excited for a new Deafheaven album. But I couldn’t even imagine liking a follow up album as much I love “New Bermuda”. For many, nothing will ever top “Sunbather”, but for me, “New Bermuda” does just that.

Whereas “Sunbather” was expansive and left so much room to breathe, offering interludes between most songs, “New Bermuda” is like some rapidly vacuumed all that breathing space out and put a pinpoint focus on these songs. Deafheaven are a band on a mission. In many ways, they are the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Sunbather” was great, but it hinted at potential for something even greater.

“New Bermuda” doesn’t waste a single note or movement. Every last ounce of musicality is delivered with a purpose. The vocals are more ferocious and delivered in a lower register that seems to hasten the urgency of the music itself. And make no mistake, guitarist/songwriter Kerry McCoy is a damn genius. These songs are massive and minimalist at the same time, a quality very few songwriters can pull off.

The band still understands the dynamics of when to push and when to pull back. For all the beautiful movements of shoegaze sheen, the band often uses those moments to setup the next brutal blast of metal splendor. Heck, there are even traditional palm-muted slowed down metal riffs on this album. There are moments prettier than any pop song can deliver in 2015. This is the dichotomy of McCoy’s vision for Deafheaven, and he pulls it off flawlessly on “New Bermuda”.

The album even ends with a stunning tip of the hat to Oasis, one of my favorite bands ever and one of Deafheaven’s influences. As the album closes with an ode to Oasis that harkens back to “Champagne Supernova”, one is left taking a deep breath after the album they just experienced. And then a sadness sets in that the album is over and an eagerness for another listen takes over.

This is my favorite album of 2015 so far, and nothing is even close to this. This is everything I want in my music. It’s aggressive, multi-faceted, impactful, focused, and urgent. The album comes out Friday, and I encourage anyone to give it a chance and to pass along Craig’s excellent advice he gave me two years ago, if the vocals are holding you back, try to look past them. Try to just focus on the music itself and let it carry you away.

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That’s it from me, have a great rest of your week!