Mandible: Emerald City Hall [purchase]
Figuring that most people would be posting jazz, jazz samples, and jazz-influenced rock, I wanted to go in another direction. Mandible uses the trumpet, not for improvisational exhibition, but as a framing device for their challenging, spastic, but ultimately rewarding cartoon music. And I say "cartoon music" in the highest, Raymond Scott/Carl Stalling sense of the phrase. This is a band that isn't happy unless a song has at least 17 changes. OK, that's a slight exaggeration. But, if you're like me and you've ever wondered what it would sound like if They Might Be Giants covered Dark Side Of The Moon, now you have your answer. And like TMBG, Mandible is one of those rare bands that creates compositionally challenging music, yet maintains a total command of their humor sensors. Funny, off-beat, yet ultimately rewarding, (Here Come The) Mandible is the Raising Arizona of albums.