Already looking forward to 2009, but one last shout out to 2008... recapping:
Caveat: these are my favorites who knows what the best are. Who cares. I didn't listen to every album and I didn't see every concert, so your mileage may vary.
The Russo/Metzger award for Artist of the Year: Apollo Sunshine (read about 'em here)
Album of the Year: Stephen Malkmus "Real Emotional Trash" (full list here)
Jazz/Instrumental Album of the Year: John Zorn "The Dreamers"
The "Nedstalgia" Award Archival Release of the Year: Phish 5/8/93 & 2/20/93 (tie)
The HankNLil Kiddie album of the Year: Medeski Martin & Wood "Let's Go Everywhere" (runner up: Kimya Dawson's "Alphabutt")
Producer of the Year: Danger Mouse (rockin' it w/ Gnarls Barkley, The Black Keys and Beck... damn!)
Live Show of the Year: John Zorn's The Dreamers at St. Ann's Warehouse (full list here)
The I-Spilled-My-Drink-Again Party of the YearAward: Freaks Ball VIII
The "This better be worth the ticket price!" Award for Benefit show of the Year: HeadCount pre-election throwdown (runner up: Scotty Hard Benefit @ Highline Ballroom)
The "Good Riddance Knitting Factory" Award for Venue of the Year: Mercury Lounge -- was surprising how many awesome shows I saw there this year including Apollo Sunshine pre-Halloween Hendrix hit, the return(s) of Rana and the wild CD release party with Broken Social Scene. Good times. (runners up: Sullivan Hall, Music Hall of Williamsburg -- two old rooms under new names and attitidudes are welcome additions to the NYC live music diorama)
The "You Just Blew My Mind" Award for Jam/Interlude of the Year: The Bad Plus playing Giant at the Village Vanguard. My lord, that was gorgeous!
The "This sounds like the Talking Heads... sorta" Award for Influence of the Year: Prince. From My Morning Jacket to TV on the Radio to local faves Pimps of Joytime, it seems like this was the year to sound like the Purple One. Could be worse.
The "1's and 0's" award for Best Download of the Year: (tie) crazy Mojito residency from the Benevento/Russo Duo in San Fran (just get this and listen to the whole run from beginning to end & My Morning Jacket from Bonnaroo.
The "Medium Popcorn & Cherry Coke Award" for Best Movie: Happy Go Lucky (full list here)
The "I Love my DVR" Award for TV show I'm Not Ashamed To Declare My Love For: Chuck
The "I Dunno about this Facebook thingie" Award for online-app: Twitter.
The "Guaranteed to Have some LIRR-related mishap" Award for Night on the Town: (tie) 12/28/08 (Gov't Mule > Bustle > lost my phone (I was too hungover to integrate this into my shows of the year, but both were on the list somewhere)); 12/12/08 (ask me about the 2-act dramatic rendering if you haven't seen it); 8/15/08 (the return of Rana, 'nuff said)
The "Yes We Can!" list of things I'm looking forward to in early 2009: Andrew Bird's new CD and seeing him next month at Carnegie Freakin' Hall; The Bad Plus' new album and everything they will do ever; the new Marco Benevento CD; my finding Phish Hampton tickets, rocking it from the front row and coming back to tell you all about it (finger raised, c'mon, help a brutha out!!)
Seems like I don't get out all that much and then going back over what concerts I went to, it averages to more than one night a week. I should be thankful. Also thankful that the quantity is backed up with some real quality. Not too many bad shows. I won't list them all (although I'm happy to). Here are the top 25 with some notes and links to reviews for the ones I wrote.
1. The Dreamers/Essential Cinema @ St. Ann's Warehouse (Brooklyn) 28 February/1 March an amazing couple of nights of music in a great room; review here
2. Marco Benevento January residency @ Sullivan Hall especially 1/10 and 1/31 which were transcendentally jamtastic; reviews here (1/3/08), here (1/10/08) and here (1/31/08)
3. All Points West Festival [Radiohead, Andrew Bird, Mates of State, Grizzly Bear, Go Team, et al] @ Liberty State Park (Jersey City, NJ) 8 August As a festival, this was pretty shitty, but the music was hard to beat. Watching a set of Bird and then walking over to Radiohead is nearly as good as it gets.
4. Freaks Ball VIII [Bustle In Your Hedgerow, American Babies, Mocean Worker] @ Southpaw (Brooklyn) 9 February Like clockwork, the party of the year. Just like it will be in 2009. Sloppy, rocking sets from Bustle.
5. Broken Social Scene @ Mercury Lounge 17 July This was the Brendan Canning release show and was an utterly ragged, drunken show from start to finish. But it was quintessential BSS and in a nice intimate room. Couldn't have been more fun. Don't miss these guys!
6. Widespread Panic @ Fillmore 19 November Review here.
7. My Morning Jacket @ Radio City Music Hall 20 June It was the standard MMJ show. Except it was at Radio City and Jim James was literally climbing the walls while shredding his guitar. In reality, this is probably just a placeholder for the NYE show at MSG, but that'd be getting ahead of ourselves.
8. The Musical Box @ IMAC (Huntington) 2 May Hometown dork out. Review here.
9. Stephen Malkmus & Jicks(John Vanderslice opened) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (Brooklyn) 2 April Malkmus backed up his superlative album with a superlative live show at this kick-ass new venue in Brooklyn. Lots of expansive, rocking post-jam goo. This band is tight.
10. Rana @ Mercury Lounge 15 August (& 12 October) The return of Rana was triumphant. The morning after was not. Neddy's faves. Review here.
The rest of the top 25: 11. Apollo Sunshine @ Half Moon Cruise (8/5), Monkeytown (Brooklyn, NY) (9/16), Mercury Lounge (10/29) Review 12. HeadCount Benefit (11/3)@ Highline Ballroom 13. The Bad Plus @ Blue Note (3/19), Concert Hall (6/24) Village Vanguard (9/23), 14. David Byrne @ Landmark Theater (Syracuse, NY) (11/29) Review 15. The Sea and Cake @ Music Hall (Brooklyn, NY) (11/11) 16. Benevento/Russo Duo @ Spiegeltent (9/23), Mexicali Blues (Teaneck, NJ) (3/27) 17. Scotty Hard benefit @ Highline Ballroom (3/19) 18. Grey Fox Festival @ Walsh Farm (Oak Hill, NY) (8/19) 19. Neil Young/Wilco @ Madison Square Garden (12/16) 20. Rashanim @ Stanton St. Shul (4/3 review, 5/22 review) 21. Widespread Panic @ United Palace Theater (4/5) Review 22. Rilo Kiley @ Terminal 5 (6/2) 23. Medeski, Martin & Wood/Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog @ Prospect Park Bandshell (Brooklyn) (6/19) 24. The New Mastersounds @ Sullivan Hall (11/8) 25. The Wood Brothers @ Bowery Ballroom (5/17) Review
It's Christmas -- movie time! It's rare that I get to the movies (in reality I'm probably better off doing the 2007 releases I saw on DVD this year), but what the hey! Here are my top 10 films from this year... if it's not on this list, I probably didn't even see it, so I welcome your recommendations and they'll go straight to my Netflix queue.
Happy Go Lucky -- Even more than the whole Obamanon, this movie presents the perfect antidote to the spiral of despair this world seems to be in these days. Cause when shit gets a bit hairy, you can always go trampolining. I loved everything about this movie. Sally Hawkins = performance of the year.
Wall-E -- Seems like there's a Pixar movie near the top of my favorites every year with good reason. Not quite the masterpiece that Ratatouille is, but still a pretty complete package. Some hauntingly beautiful imagery and a simplistic point of view. The best movie about holding hands I've ever seen.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona -- This movie single-handedly moves Barcelona to the top of my "places to visit" list. It's good to know Woody Allen still has it in him when he puts his heart to it... this one has none of the things you might find annoying about a Allen film and all the things that make you keep giving him another shot. Plus, Penelope Cruz kissing Scarlett Johanssen!
The Dark Knight -- It was a comic book movie year (again). This had to be the best of them, even if it's a little too self-important at times. It's been said plenty already, but Heath Ledger as The Joker elevates this to that next level. I only wish I could take my kids to see a Batman movie.
Pineapple Express -- Funniest shit I've seen in a while. Much more brilliant than your average Rogen/Apatow nonsense... although still quite nonsensical, wonderfully so. The ending was one of the better things I've seen in a while.
Encounters at the End of the World -- Documentary by Werner Herzog as he visits Antarctica and the mix of weirdos living and working down there. In typical Herzon fashion, his viewpoint is a bit bleak, but his insights and the amazing imagery make this a pretty fascinating film.
Burn After Reading -- Ever since "Blood Simple" the Coens have been the A-1 masters of the plot where one stupid decision begets an even stupider one which is horribly misinterpreted repeating the cycle until the whole thing collapses in a bloodbath. This isn't necessarily the best example of it, but it's the most neatly (and messily) packaged. Like all their other movies, I expect this one to age very well. I thought this was severely underappreciated.
Chop Shop -- Depressingly realistic tale of a kid hustling his way through life in the rough-and-tumble in the shadows of (the old) Shea Stadium. The kid who plays the lead does one hell of an acting job taboot.
Kung Fu Panda -- I see a lot more kiddie flix than I'd care to admit, but it gets me into the theater and sometimes they're pretty good. This one had me laughing both times I saw it. Great animation, good voices, decent plot. Fun for the whole family.
Iron Man -- That's one freakin' awesome suit! Not looking forward to the tarring of this one with an endless array of sequels, so let's enjoy it while it's still fresh and new.
Decent fun but, in the end, not worth wasting a valuable night out at the movies: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Indiana Jones; Harold & Kumar; Madagascar 2
There were a few bands that spent a good time in my consciousness this year, in the car stereo, through the earbuds, popping up in my RSS feed, on my mind and up there on stage. I seemed to see Marco Benevento on a monthly basis and his "Invisible Baby" was in heavy rotation from back when there were plenty of calendar pages to turn. Heck, even Phish wormed its way into my days with reunion talk going from rumor to reality and several amazing archival releases scattered through the seasons.
But one band's blip on my radar screen was a bit brighter and a bit noisier: Apollo Sunshine. There was a three month period in the heart of 2008 where I saw these guys on three separate, silly sweet occasions and was bunkered down with their "Shall Noise Upon" CD while my love for the band just grew and grew.
Yeah, it's great to see a lot of shows from your favorite bands, but the Apollo Sunshine shows I saw this year somehow transcended your average "gig" -- each was a one-of-a-kind snowflake, a unique crystallization of the basic elements that became something much more wonderful. It seems like they don't do run-of-the-mill shows and so the average Apollo show is already a special occurrence. In August, they played on the always a-rockin' Half Moon Cruise Ship as it sailed its famous course over the East River. The cruise shows always lend themselves to drunken, summer fun: loose and constantly teetering, literally and figuratively. The setting is perfect for Apollo, the style is intentionally ragged -- a pair of distressed jeans where you don't know if the holes and bleach spots were made purposely or actually worn down naturally over years of heavy use. That August night didn't quite reach the epicness of their 2007 cruise, but it still was quintessential Apollo Sunshine: loud, fast and constantly teetering on the edge of chaos although never quite toppling.
Barely a month later, I caught wind of the band's return. Of course, it was a "special event," this time two gigs in the back room of a Williamsburg restaurant, Monkey Town. 50 people max in the room each night, I would not be missing it. The room was one of the cooler places I've seen music this year, a truly unique spot to see a show. The band was set up in the middle with very low couches lining the four walls and tables for food and drink not too much higher. Each wall was covered with a gigantic screen so there was a wicked quadraoptic effect as bizarre clips and animations were projected. The setlist couldn't have varied too much from the boat cruise a few weeks earlier, but the show couldn't have been more different. Apollo Sunshine has a way of filling up the space before them, much in the same way the Aquarium Rescue Unit used to. Yes, the stuff they use to fill that space -- the songs -- is the same, but the way they fit together to fill that container, like rotating pieces in a Tetris game, is unique and interesting and almost always awe-inspiring. The September hit at Monkey Town felt like something out of a different time. Part of it was like being a Greek emperor, lounging in Dionyisan excess, food, whiskey and blissful entertainment at our utterly relaxed fingertips. On the flip side, we could have been the Austrian aristocracy, sitting in a chamber while beautiful music was presented for our liking. With the tripped-out visuals and Apollo Sunshine's psychedelic power trio, we could have been dropped-out stoners in a basement in the bowels of Summer-of-Love San Francisco. The band was all those things and also just straight up rock and roll.
Finally, in October, the band announced a gig at Mercury Lounge as part of their short Halloween tour. A couple days before the show they announced they'd be donning the costume -- both music and attire -- of the Jimi Hendrix Experience... the Apollo Sunshine Experience. Well, that just about settled it, so on the Wednesday before Halloween, I found myself back in front of these three guys listening to much the same songs and hearing them as if they were fresh and new. This was the most standard of the gigs for a while, as they played a too-quick hour of the standard material. The crowd was thin that night and it sapped some of the energy in the room. Still, it is a testament to how much this band does it for me that I was still raging with every thumping bass lick, rollicking guitar solo and off-kilter drum splat. They left the stage and returned in full regalia, big fat wigs and wild, psychedelic outfits. They looked the part perfectly and launched into an extended encore/short set of Hendrix tunes. 100% kick ass... even in the most vanilla of circumstances, they found a way to elevate the situation, pouring a bunch of hot fudge and whipped cream and giving us a nice Halloween treat.
In between all these shows, the band put out "Shall Noise Upon" which was one of my favorite releases of the year. The best bands are those that grab you a bit at first, but don't sink their teeth into you right away... and then, as time goes on, you realize that you're smitten. Apollo Sunshine has been that way for me and this album is that experience in a nutshell. "Shall Noise Upon" diverges pretty strongly from the raging, haphazard glory of their live shows. It's a details-oriented wunderkammern with little baubles of music popping up in between some real yummy songs. The styles hit on the rocking, grooving and freak folk from their past albums, but also gets into some nifty Latin moves with "Honestly" and adds vast swaths of string section and other accouterments to flesh this out into an all-encompassing near-masterpiece. If anything, it seems a little overambitious at first, but after several listens you realize (once again) that these guys love to rock and go crazy time, but they're actually supremely talented musicians and songwriters. The sound is just right in each spot. The pedal steel, which is like a bonus throw-in during the live shows is featured prominently here. The opening one-two punch of "Breeze" and "Singing to the Earth" is as poignant and wonderful as any introduction to an album you'll hear this year. "Coming of the New World Government" is a total Beatlesque production freakout with music going forward and backward at the same time leaving wicked vortices to wrap your brain around in between. The track of the album is certainly "Money." Jesse Jarnow did a much better job explaining the potency and relevance of this song, so check out his blurb.
As usual, having trouble organizing my thoughts 100%, so here's a bunch of worth-checking-out links to get you to the next brain-dump. Enjoy you some Apollo Sunshine!
Think I read something last year that said something like "2007 was a strong year for album releases... becauseevery year is a strong year for album releases." I tend to agree. Lots of good stuff. I'll follow my example from last year and list in groups of 10. As always, a strange mix of jazz, rock, pop, etc. But that's the way I listen, so why change. I think I can honestly recommend everything up to about #60. Never got around to doing any CD reviews this year, so some comments do follow. Happy to give out more opinion on others down below.
Enjoy!
The top 10 (alphabetical):
Apollo Sunshine -- Shall Noise Upon A real masterpiece of an album. Not sure how a band that is so loose and carefree on stage can put together something so crisp and concise. I'll be writing more about Apollo Sunshine in the near future.
Marco Benevento -- Invisible Baby This one came out real early in the year (as his next one will in 2009) and has had plenty of time to stew in my soul. I believe Marco has been in my top ten by himself or with the Duo for several of the past year. Not much more I can say about the guy.
Blitzen Trapper -- Furr I feel like if I had any talent at all and could make music, this is the music that would result from my various influences. Perfect balance of good songs, rocking, grooving... definitely the big surprise for me this year. Looking forward to seeing these guys live in February.
Broken Social Scene presents... Brendan Canning -- Something for All of Us Personally, this is my favorite Broken Social Scene album. A bass players sensibilities and songsmanship brought to the big, bad sound of the BSS.
Gnarls Barkley -- The Odd Couple I'd couple this and the Racounteurs together with almost the same comments, even though the music couldn't be more different. Darker, deeper and more complete than their first effort. Doesn't sound like a "side project" any more. Less poppy, radio-friendly hits = more meat on the bone.
Stephen Malkmus -- Real Emotional Trash This list is in alphabetical order, but make no mistake about it, this is my album of the year. Top to bottom, each song has "classic" potential. I've not yet determined the number of times I can listen to this before getting sick of it... such a number may not exist. Even my 4 year old digs half the tunes on this one.
Medeski, Martin & Wood -- Zaebos MMW put out 3 awesome albums this year and Zorn released at least 3 awesome Masada Book 2 discs. In the Venn Diagram of groovy, Jewy awesomeness, this one makes the grade. Classic, deep funky shit. Out there just enough to make it interesting. A perfect Chanukah present.
My Morning Jacket -- Evil Urges I guess part of me is disappointed that this didn't quite live up to "Z." Still, the more I listen, the more deeply I fall in love with MMJ. This is more of a repertoire-builder than a game changer -- that album we all know they still have in them. Blazing rock riffs, Prince falsetto rip-off and some touching lyrics. I don't think this album is as sick as they intended it to be, but it's still pretty sick.
The Raconteurs -- Consolers of the Lonely See above. Damn, this thing shreds. If they play their cards right, we might look back on the Raconteurs in 20 years the way we look back at Zeppelin right now.
John Zorn -- The Dreamers I guess you'd file this under jazz, but as with all Zorn's music, there are no genres and no boundaries. This album stretches from Funkadelic Maggot Brain guitarotechnics to groovy surf music to offmetered brilliance to straight piano jazz without one jarring moment. It helps to have, pound-for-pound, the most talented musicians playing your music. At that, JZ does not fail. Even if you think you'd never want to listen to anything like this, it's a must have for any discerning music lover. Yes, that good.
11-20 (alphabetical)
Cyro Baptista -- Banquet of the Spirits Bar Kokhba -- Lucifer The Black Keys -- Attack & Release Drive-By Truckers -- Brighter Than Creation's Dark Aimee Mann -- @#%&*! Smilers Medeski, Martin & Wood -- Radiolarians I The Sea and Cake -- Car Alarm Todd Sickafoose -- Tiny Resistors TV On The Radio -- Dear Science McCoy Tyner -- Guitars
21-30
Beck -- Modern Guilt Steven Bernstein -- Diaspora Suite Death Cab For Cutie -- Narrow Stairs The Fiery Furnaces -- Remember Fleet Foxes -- Fleet Foxes Jenny Lewis -- Acid Tongue Man Man -- Rabbit Habits Edgar Meyer/Chris Thile -- s/t Jenny Scheinman -- Crossing the Field She & Him -- Volume One
31-40
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals -- Cardinology Andrew Bird -- Live In Montreal Dr Dog -- Fate The Felice Brothers -- The Felice Brothers Bill Frisell -- History, Mystery Stanton Moore -- Emphasis! (On Parenthesis) Ratatat -- LP3 Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog -- Party Intellectuals Secret Chiefs 3 -- Xaphan The Wood Brothers -- Loaded
41-50
Grand Archives -- The Grand Archives Charlie Haden & Friends -- Ramblin' Boy Medeski, Martin & Wood -- Let's Go Everywhere JJ Grey/Mofro -- Orange Blossoms Of Montreal -- Skeletal Lamping Old Crow Medicine Show -- Tennessee Pusher What Made Milwaukee Famous -- What Doesn't Kill Us Robert Walter -- Cure All John Zorn -- Filmworks XX John Zorn -- Filmworks XXI
51-60
AC/DC -- Black Ice Theresa Andersson -- Hummingbird, Go! Mike Gordon -- The Green Sparrow Juno -- Soundtrack Daniel Lanois -- Here Is What Is Brad Mehldau Trio -- Live Tift Merritt -- Another Country Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band -- Whole Fam Damily Jenny Scheinman -- Jenny Scheinman John Zorn -- Filmworks XIX
61-69
Calexico -- Carried To Dust Cat Power -- Jukebox Kimya Dawson -- Alphabutt Girl Talk -- Feed the Animals Jimmy Herring -- Lifeboat I'm From Barcelona -- Who Killed Harry Houdini? Sonny Landreth -- From the Reach The Mars Volta -- The Bedlam in Goliath Marc Ribot -- Exercises in Futility
I've never really considered myself to be interested in music videos, but I saw a bunch in the past 6 months or so that have really made an impression. So, figured I'd assemble them to kick off my couple weeks of a 2008 rundown. Kind of a random mix here, not sure how many of these are "official" or what, but good shit all around and good tunes taboot, of course. I'm sure there are plenty of masterpieces I've missed, so please enlighten.
01 Something For All Of Us -- Broken Social Scene presents... Brendan Canning: Something For All Of Us... 02 666: The Coming Of The New World Government -- Apollo Sunshine: Shall Noise Upon 03 I Will Possess Your Heart -- Death Cab For Cutie: Narrow Stairs 04 The Next Messiah -- Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue 05 Real Emotional Trash -- Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks: Real Emotional Trash 06 Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt. 2 -- My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
The mix returns. Gonna try to hit some new-in-2008 goodies between now and the end of the year. Starting off this week with an early Halloween seeing some heady ladies and gentlemen doing some sweet covers. Enjoy.
01 Break on Through -- Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog: Party Intellectuals 02 Buckets of Rain -- The Wood Brothers: Loaded 03 I Should Have Known Better -- She & Him: Volume One 04 Twilight Time -- Jenny Scheinman: Jenny Scheinman 05 A Change Is Gonna Come -- Bill Frisell: History, Mystery 06 New York -- Cat Power: Jukebox
01 Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife -- Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark 02 Blind Mary -- Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple 03 Metatron -- The Mars Volta: The Bedlam In Goliath 04 Rich Kid Blues -- The Raconteurs: Consolers Of The Lonely 05 I Should Have Known Better -- She & Him: Volume One 06 Hopscotch Willie -- Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks: Real Emotional Trash
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