28 December 2011

2011:: Favorite Albums


All told, I probably listened to about 400 albums in 2011. Tough to pick favorites, but here it goes nonetheless. Don't pretend these are the "best" just my favorites, subject to change as quickly as tomorrow. Plenty of great stuff that didn't make the cut.


As in the past, grouping them together...

The top ten (in alphabetical order):

Blitzen Trapper -- American Goldwing
After a bit of a dud (in my opinion) with "Destroyer of the Void," BT is back in fine "Furr" form with this release. As perfect a rock and roll album as I've heard this year.


Danger Mouse -- Rome
Growing up, the Good the Bad and the Ugly was one of my favorite movies, due, in no small part, to the soundtrack (which I also owned). Here producer extraordinaire and Daniele Luppi recreate and update the feel of those old Morricone soundtracks perfectly. With sweeping cinematic instrumental tracks and terrific vocal contributions from heavyweights Jack White and Norah Jones, Rome is a soundtrack to a movie we can only wish existed.

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
Either you find Colin Meloy & Co. to be a bunch of pretentious Portlanders or you can't get enough of them. Chalk me up for the latter column and their latest release proves to me why. They've been all over the place lately, but this finds the band firmly in the Americana business with superlative songwriting and crisp acoustic instrumentation.

Bill Frisell -- All We Are Saying...
Hands down my favorite jazz album of the year. Frisell is a constant, usually pumping out 2 or 3 amazing albums a year and contributing to a few others. This record is all John Lennon covers performed to perfection by an all-star cast of Frisell regulars: Jenny Scheinman, Greg Leisz, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wolleson. As with any great album of covers, some are true to form while others take the source material as a launching point for further exploration. The instrumentation -- Frisell's dreamy guitar, Scheinman's violin, Leisz's pedal steel -- feels like it's built specifically for my ears. If you take my advice to listen to just ONE track this year, their take on "Across the Universe" is the single best thing I've heard in 2011.

Fruit Bats -- Tripper
Something about this album just makes me happy. I'm usually not at a loss for adjectives and metaphors to describe the music I love, but the phrase I keep coming back to with this one is "good music." Just well-conceived and wonderfully crafted pop rock music. Highly recommended.

Portugal. The Man -- In the Mountain in the Cloud
What can I say, I'm obsessed with Portugal. The Man. With good reason, they've popped out a "best of year" album almost like clockwork and this year was no different. Impossibly matching radio-friendly hooks with dense, psychedelic production ready-made for jamming in the live show, PtM proved that they are, indeed, at the top of their game. As fresh as exciting on the 100th listen as the first... take it from me.

Smith Westerns -- Dye It Blonde
Sure, it's derivative as hell, but if you're gonna rip off a sound you a) should choose some damn good music to copy and b) do a damn good job pulling it off. Smith Westerns may sound like some bastard child of T Rex and Mott the Hoople, but don't it just sound so good? Rock and roll at its finest and the songs are just so great. Loved it from first listen and hasn't gotten stale yet.


Gillian Welch -- The Harrow and the Harvest
Dear Gillian, take as much time as you'd like between albums, if they're going to be this f'in good, I'll wait 20 years if I have to.... Welch & her soulmate David Rawlings have done it again. Timeless. Simple. Pure. Amazing. If I were a musician I would probably hate these two for making it look so damn easy. Either you love this album or you have no soul.

White Denim - D
Edging their way into my obsessive can't-get-enough nature this year was White Denim. I've devoured their past output, but with "D" they've taken a leap into don't-miss territory. Jambands as we knew and loved them may be dead, but as long as bands like White Denim exist, that itch will continue to be scratched. Somehow combining the technical dexterity of Yes with the soulful southern jam of the Allmans or WSP, White Denim may very well be the best thing going these days.

Yellowbirds -- The Color
Here's what I wrote for Hidden Track about the Yellowbirds album: "Their biggest fans would contest that the now-dormant Apollo Sunshine was a band ahead of its time, but AS guitarist Sam Cohen’s new project, Yellowbirds is decidedly *of* the here and now. Cohen doubles as a visual artist with a focus on collage, which is no surprise because every track on Yellowbirds’ debut album, The Color, is a meticulously crafted collage of sounds. Psychedelic reverberating guitar and echoing harmonized vocals swirl with organ and otherworldly autoharp to beef up the already strong set of material Cohen brought to the studio. The result is a keep-hitting-repeat experience where every listen brings about new discoveries and details.  We’ve heard of a phoenix rising from the ashes, we just never knew that the bird was yellow."


Just one notch below (albums 11-25 in alphabetical order)  
The Dears -- Degeneration Street

Deerhoof -- Deerhoof vs. Evil
Eulogies -- Tear the Fences Down
Fleet Foxes -- Helplessness Blues
Eleanor Friedberger -- Last Summer
Grails -- Deep Politics
The Head and the Heart -- The Head and the Heart
Iron & Wine -- Kiss Each Other Clean
Buddy Miller -- The Majestic Silver Strings
Stephen Malkmus -- Mirror Traffic
My Morning Jacket -- Circuital
Real Estate -- Days
TuNe-YaRdS -- WHOKILL
Toro Y Moi -- Underneath the Pine
Woods -- Sun and Shade


Honorable Mention
Bardo Pond -- Bardo Pond
The Barr Brothers -- The Barr Brothers
Battles -- Gloss Drop
Beastie Boys -- Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
A. A. Bondy -- Believers
Brett Dennen -- Loverboy
The Dodos -- No Color
Elbow -- Build a Rocket Boys!
Holy Ghost -- Holy Ghost!
Joan As Police Woman -- The Deep Field
Megafaun -- Megafaun
Middle Brother -- Middle Brother
Radiohead -- The King of Limbs
Gruff Rhys -- Hotel Shampoo
Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations -- Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations
Bob Schneider -- A Perfect Day
Andy Statman -- Old Brookly
Tea Leaf Green -- Radio Tragedy
Tedeschi Trucks Band -- Revelator
Thao & Mirah -- s/t
Chris Thile & Michael Daves -- Sleep With One Eye Open
Unknown Mortal Orchestra -- Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Vetiver -- The Errant Charm
John Zorn -- Nova Express


Finally, sometimes it doesn't take a full album to make a statement. 


My 12 favorite EP's of the year

    1. Broken Bells -- Meyrin Fields
      Carolina Chocolate Drops/Luminescent Orchestrii
      Gary Clark Jr -- The Bright Lights EP
      Collections of Colonies of Bees -- Giving
      The Decemberists -- Long Live the King
      Here We Go Magic -- The January EP
      Junip -- In Every Direction/Without You
      The Sea and Cake -- The Moonlight Butterfly
      Superhuman Happiness -- The Physical EP
      Typhoon -- A New Kind of House
      Kurt Vile -- So Outta Reach
      White Denim -- Take Place in Your Work Space


2011:: Favorite Artist of the Year

(photo stolen from Scott Bernstein)

Once again, having a little fun with my year-end retrospective and picking a band or musician who had a big year with respect to my personal music-going and music listening.

Last year's pick was Jim James.
2009 = Portugal. The Man
2008 = Apollo Sunshine
2000's rundown

Having been lucky enough to see and hear so much music in 2011, there were plenty of good choices to pick from. If I was being true to myself, Portugal. The Man would be the pick (saw them 6 freakin' times and one of my favorite albums of the year), but they were my favorite in 2009, and c'mon, no repeats! Other worthy picks could easily have been White Denim (blew me away live twice, top 10 album of the year and a pretty sweet EP taboot) or even the Middle Brother/Dawes/Deer Tick/Delta Spirit family which had multiple great albums and shows throughout the year.

When it comes down to it, though, I decided to get a little historical, risk whatever indie cred I have and go with Medeski, Martin and Wood who celebrated their 20th year in existence with a superlative year of making music. Whether as a trio or in random other configurations, it seemed barely a month in 2011 went by without the opportunity to see some sort of project involving multiple members of MMW. Alas, I saw only a tiny fraction of them, but every time it was something special, whether it was an August resideNYC(TM) in the cool, intimate Whitney Museum space or a big MMW+Anitbalas Halloween blowout in Terminal 5.

Personally, I saw:

  • an awesome mini-set from Medeski, Martin & Dunn (Trevor Dunn) playing as part of the John Zorn Masada fest at the NYC Opera
  • MMW at the Whitney, one set with the master musicians of Jajouka and another with John Scofield
  • a second night at the Whitney with BMW + Mr Rourke (Charlie Burnham, Medeski and Wood).
  • that awesome Halloween show at Terminal 5. Review here.
All of these were amazingly groovy, mind+body music sets. I loved every note. But, again, this was just a small taste of what these guys did this year. NYC taper extraordinaire, Scott Bernstein (@scott_bernstein) captured so much of their output this year, it'd take you a month just to digest it all:

(a flavor in reverse chronological order, click on links for downloads)

The trio didn't release an album proper this year, but instead doled out a few (FREE!) 20th anniversary tracks at a time, which included every kind of music you might expect from MMW -- from DJ Olive remixes, to can't-get-no-funkier jams; from total sonic noise jams to (nearly)straight jazz... so that by the end of the year there essentially was a full album of music to enjoy. Not to mention a great new Wood Brothers album and a Medeski, Martin, Wood and Scofield live release.

There were a lot of great acts that kinda owned 2011, but through my eyes, having done it for so long, it's amazing and awe-inspiring how much Medeski, Martin & Wood owned their 20th year.

21 December 2011

2011 Year End Mixes: #4 Sunburn Summer


Happy end-of-year!

I'll be doing 4 mixes of tunes for some of my favorite music from 2011, each playlist will be a triple-strength minimix = 18 tracks, not necessarily the "best" music, but stuff I enjoyed this year and hopefully you will too. Some of these were on minimixes throughout the year, but most were not.

Split a year into 4 parts and you get four seasons, so that's how we'll do it. One a day thru Friday.

The first mix was Fall Folk
The second mix was Winter Women
The third mix was Psych Spring

Today's mix is Sunburn Summer

Enjoy!

Stream at:
Spotify
Rhapsody

Sunburn Summer:
01 At The Farm -- White Denim
02 End of the Night -- Smith Westerns
03 Lonely Boy -- The Black Keys
04 Bright Lights -- Gary Clark Jr.
05 Intimate Debris -- Eulogies
06 High Ideals -- Elbow
07 Tangie and Ray -- Fruit Bats
08 Got It All (This Can't Be Living Now) -- Portugal. The Man
09 Windows -- Broken Bells
10 Gmyl -- Superhuman Happiness
11 Fine Fine -- Josh Rouse
12 Monkeys Uptown -- Iron and Wine
13 Easy To Be Your Lover -- Tea Leaf Green
14 Booty City -- Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
15 Say My Name -- Holy Ghost
16 Stubborn Comfort -- Medeski, Martin and Wood
17 Tongue Tied -- Grouplove
18 Holdin on to Black Metal -- My Morning Jacket

2011 Favorite Albums mix (Spotify)
2011 CD Pick of the Week mix (Spotify)
2011 minimixes

2011 Year End Mixes: #3 Psych Spring


Happy end-of-year!

I'll be doing 4 mixes of tunes for some of my favorite music from 2011, each playlist will be a triple-strength minimix = 18 tracks, not necessarily the "best" music, but stuff I enjoyed this year and hopefully you will too. Some of these were on minimixes throughout the year, but most were not.

Split a year into 4 parts and you get four seasons, so that's how we'll do it. One a day thru Friday.

The first mix was Fall Folk
The second mix was Winter Women

Today's mix is "Psych Spring"

Enjoy!

Stream at:
Spotify
Rhapsody

Psych Spring:
01 Real Slow -- Megafaun
02 Pushing Onlys -- Woods
03 Covers -- The Sea and Cake
04 The Rest of My Life -- Yellowbirds
05 Cowboys In The Void -- Quilt
06 Thought Ballune -- Unknown Mortal Orchestra
07 Ice Cream (Featuring Matias Aguayo) -- Battles
08 Tulip -- Here We Go Magic
09 City Reprise #12 -- The War On Drugs
10 Christopher Columbus -- Gruff Rhys
11 It's Real -- Real Estate
12 Society Is My Friend -- Kurt Vile
13 Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie -- Buddy Miller w/ Marc Ribot
14 Give Up the Ghost -- Radiohead
15 Without You -- Junip
16 It's Beyond Me -- Vetiver
17 Across the Universe -- Bill Frisell
18 Outro -- M83

2011 Favorite Albums mix (Spotify)
2011 CD Pick of the Week mix (Spotify)
2011 minimixes

2011 Year End Mixes: #2 Winter Women


Happy end-of-year!

I'll be doing 4 mixes of tunes for some of my favorite music from 2011, each playlist will be a triple-strength minimix = 18 tracks, not necessarily the "best" music, but stuff I enjoyed this year and
hopefully you will too. Some of these were on minimixes throughout theyear, but most were not.

Split a year into 4 parts and you get four seasons, so that's how we'll do it. One a day for the next 3 days.

The first mix was Fall Folk

Today's mix is Winter Women

Enjoy!

Stream at:
Spotify
Rhapsody


Winter Women:
01 My Country -- tUnE-yArDs
02 Go Outside -- Cults
03 Skipping Stones -- Mia Doi Todd
04 The Bad In Each Other -- Feist
05 Scenes from Bensonhurst -- Eleanor Friedberger
06 Write Me a Letter -- Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside
07 Damn Love Song -- Amy LaVere
08 My Baby Don't Lie -- Nicole Atkins
09 Pleasuring The Divine -- Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter
10 Black -- Danger Mouse feat. Norah Jones
11 Lemonade -- Braids
12 The Magic -- Joan As Police Woman
13 Learning to Ride -- Caitlin Rose
14 Annabelle Lee -- Sarah Jarosz
15 Love is Won -- Lia Ices
16 Eleven -- Thao & Mirah
17 King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O -- Laura Veirs
18 Shelter -- Tedeschi Trucks Band

Links:
2011 minimixes
2011 favorite albums mix (Spotify)
2011 CD Pick of the Week mix (Spotify)


20 December 2011

2011 Year End Mixes: #1 Fall Folk


Happy end-of-year!

I'll be doing 4 mixes of tunes for some of my favorite music from 2011, each playlist will be a triple-strength minimix = 18 tracks, not necessarily the "best" music, but stuff I enjoyed this year and hopefully you will too. Some of these were on minimixes throughout the year, but most were not.

Split a year into 4 parts and you get four seasons, so that's how we'll do it. One a day for the next 4 days.

The first mix is Fall Folk.

Enjoy!

Stream at:
Spotify:
Rhapsody:

Links:
2011 minimixes
2011 favorite albums mix (Spotify)
2011 CD Pick of the Week mix (Spotify)

Fall Folk:
01 Battery Kinzie -- Fleet Foxes
02 Million Dollar Bill -- Middle Brother
03 Ashes & Fire -- Ryan Adams
04 On My Knees -- Seryn
05 Ookpik Waltz -- Chris Thile
06 Dust Bowl Children -- Alison Krauss
07 Old Mythologies -- The Barr Brothers
08 Drmz -- A. A. Bondy
09 Bottle In My Hand -- Hayes Carll
10 Undercover Dad -- Jonny Corndawg
11 Eitan And Zaidy -- Andy Statman
12 Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes -- Ollabelle
13 Saw You First -- Givers
14 Hospital -- The Roadside Graves
15 Ghosts -- The Head and the Heart
16 Robin Egg Blue -- Cass McCombs
17 Molly-O -- Steve Earle
18 Rise To Me -- The Decemberists

16 December 2011

minimix: Archival2011


Here are some tracks from new archival releases, newish, old and really old,  for your rocking weekend. Year-end mixes forthcoming

Enjoy!

Spotify:
Rhapsody

01 Playing In The Band -- The Grateful Dead
02 Chest Fever -- Levon Helm
03 War / No More Trouble -- Bob Marley
04 Black-Eyed Katy --  Phish
05 Boban (Mere Yaara Dildara) --  Galactic
06 Spanish Castle Magic -- Jimi Hendrix

08 December 2011

minimix: RandomFaves2011.4


More music for your weekend.

Enjoy!

All the minimixes that ever were
Spotify
Rhapsody
RandomFaves2011.1
RandomFaves2011.2
RandomFaves2011.3

01 Tongue Tied -- Grouplove
02 Minah Bird -- My Sad Captains
03 Lost & Lewd -- Quilt
04 Te Amo -- Atlas Sound
05 Untitled -- Seryn
06 Bright Lights -- Gary Clark Jr.

02 December 2011

minimix: RandomFaves2011.3


Enjoy! Probably the next mixes will be year-end mega-mix style, but we'll see...

Spotify
Rhapsody
RandomFaves2011.1
RandomFaves2011.2

01 Shanghai Cigarettes -- Caitlin Rose
02 Row Jimmy -- The Decemberists
03 Back Alley Blues -- The Deep Dark Woods
04 Amplifiers -- Atlas Sound
05 No Real Reason -- White Denim
06 Just A Song -- Girls