tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-324633462024-03-16T03:08:45.420-04:00Dylan, EtcConcert reviews and mp3s from Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Relient K, Buddy Guy, the White Stripes, Lost and Found, and anyone else who currently piques my interests.Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-9237627001863934882023-12-19T10:51:00.005-05:002023-12-19T10:52:33.501-05:00My Favorite Albums of 2023<p>Top ten, ranked </p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Peter Gabriel — i/o</li><li>The Mountain Goats — Jenny from Thebes</li><li>Olivia Rodrigo — Guts</li><li>Wilco — Cousin</li><li>We Are Scientists — Lobes</li><li>Tiny Ruins — Ceremony</li><li>Anohni and the Johnsons — My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross</li><li>Molly Tuttle — City of Gold</li><li>The National — First Two Pages of Frankenstein</li><li>Lana Del Rey — Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd</li></ol><p></p><p>Rest of list, unranked:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Alex Lahey — The Answer Is Always Yes</li><li>Altin Gün — Aşk</li><li>CMAT — Crazymad, For Me</li><li>Der Assistant — Der Assistant</li><li>Feine Sahne Fischfilet — Alles glänzt</li><li>Gia Margaret — Romantic Piano</li><li>Grace Potter — Mother Road</li><li>Gregory Alan Isakov — Appaloosa Bones</li><li>The Hold Steady — The Price of Progress</li><li>Hugjiltu — Returning to Childhood</li><li>Jason Isbell — Weathervanes</li><li>Joseph — The Sun</li><li>Julian le Play — TABACCO</li><li>Juni Habel — Carvings</li><li>Low Cut Connie — Art Dealers</li><li>Lucero — Should've Learned By Now</li><li>Mimi Webb — Amelia</li><li>Mitski — The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We</li><li>Pippa — Blick</li><li>Romy — Mid Air</li><li>Sigur Rós — ÁTTA</li><li>Sunny War — Anarchist Gospel</li><li>William Lee Ellis — Ghost Hymns</li><li>Woods — Perennial</li><li>ZSK — HassLiebe</li></ul><p></p>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-14186302582043707962022-12-22T11:04:00.000-05:002022-12-22T11:04:41.290-05:00My Favorite Albums of 2022<p> </p>Top ten, ranked<div><br /></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Wilco - Cruel Country</li><li>Camila Cabello - Familia</li><li>David Ford - Love & Death / May You Live in Interesting Times</li><li>Aurora - The Gods We Can Touch</li><li>Kikagaku Moyo - Kumoyo Island</li><li>Kyla La Grange - While Your Heart's Still Beating</li><li>Bob Vylan - Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life</li><li>Lissie - Carving Canyons</li><li>Titus Andronicus - The Will to Live</li><li>Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You</li></ol></div><div><br /></div><div>Rest of list, unranked:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Amenra / Cave In / Marissa Nadler - Songs of Townes Van Zandt Vol III</li><li>Anaïs Mitchell - Anaïs Mitchell</li><li>Ashley McBryde - Lindeville</li><li>Bear's Den - Blue Hours</li><li>Benjamin Clementine - And I Have Been</li><li>Blaudzin - Lonely City Exit Wounds</li><li>Bonny Light Horseman - Rolling Golden Holy</li><li>Buck 65 - King of Drums</li><li>Buddy Guy - The Blues Don't Lie</li><li>The Cactus Blossoms - One Day</li><li>caroline - caroline</li><li>CMAT - If My Wife New I'd Be Dead</li><li>Dedicated Men of Zion - The Devil Don't Like It</li><li>Gabriels - Angels & Queens - Part I</li><li>Ghost - IMPERA</li><li>Hurray for the Riff Raff - Live on Earth</li><li>John Fullbright - The Liar</li><li>Joyride - Miracle Question</li><li>Kamaiyah - Divine Timing</li><li>Let's Whisper - The In-Between Times</li><li>Los Bitchos - Let the Festivities Begin!</li><li>Lumbematz - Nichts Perfekt</li><li>Lykke Li - EYEYE</li><li>Medicine Singers - Medicine Singers</li><li>Messa - Close</li><li>Midlake - For the Sake of Bethel Woods</li><li>Mitski - Laurel Hell</li><li>The Mountain Goats - Bleed Out</li><li>Noah Kahan - Stick Season</li><li>Pup - The Unraveling of PupTheBand</li><li>Quiet Hollers - Forever Chemicals</li><li>Say Sue Me - The Last Thing Left</li><li>Shearwater - The Great Awakening</li><li>Shilpa Ray - Portrait of a Lady</li><li>Sorcha Richardson - Hot Fuss</li><li>Starcrawler - She Said</li><li>The Weeknd - Dawn FM</li><li>Wet Leg - Wet Leg</li><li>WILLOW - <COPINGMECHANISM></li><li>V/A - Stór agnarögn</li></ul></div>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-69258603505406627002021-12-26T15:59:00.007-05:002021-12-26T16:01:03.592-05:00My Favorite Albums of 2021<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Top ten, ranked:</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR</span></li><li>Five Iron Frenzy - Until This Shakes Apart</li><li>Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood</li><li>Weezer - OK Human / Van Weezer</li><li>The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore</li><li>Black Fly - Black Fly 01</li><li>Lucero - When You Found Me</li><li>The Antlers - Green to Gold</li><li>Halsey - If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power</li><li>Grandbrothers - All the Unknown</li></ol></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Rest of the list, unranked:</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />Afterlight - Afterlight<br />Altın Gün - Yin<br />Balmorhea - The Wind<br />Black Country, New Road - For the First Time<br />Bo Burnham - Inside (The Songs)<br />The Burning Sun - Marrow<br />Clever Girls - Constellations<br />Dean McPhee - Witch's Ladder<br />Delta Rae - The Dark<br />Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - I Told You So<br />Dornenreich - Du wilde Liebe sei<br />Erik Cohen - Northern Soul<br />girl in red - if i could make it go quiet<br />Goat Girl - On All Fours<br />Herzel - Le Dernier Rempart<br />The Hold Steady - Open Door Policy<br />Korpiklaani - Jylhä<br />Lily Seabird - Beside Myself<br />Lorde - Solar Power<br />Lowland Hum - So Low<br />Marisa Anderson & William Tyler - Lost Futures<br />Midnight Odyssey - Biolume Part 2: The Golden Orb<br />My Morning Jacket - My Morning Jacket<br />Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE<br />Palberta - Palberta5000<br />Pale Waves - Who Am I?<br />Rose City Band - Earth Trip<br />Ryley Walker - Course in Fable<br />Saint Sister - Shere I Should End<br />Steve Earle & The Dukes - J.T.<br />Strand of Oaks - In Heaven<br />Talons - new nightmare<br />Vapour Theories - Celestial Scuzz<br />Whitehorse - Modern Love<br />Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights<br />ZSK - Ende der Welt</div>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-6093042057221279892020-12-22T10:50:00.000-05:002020-12-22T10:50:28.847-05:00My Favorite Albums of 2020<p><b> <span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Top Ten</span></b></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Bob Dylan - Rough & Rowdy Ways</li><li>The Killers - Imploding the Mirage</li><li>Emel Mathlouthi - The Tunis Diaries</li><li>Low Cut Connie - Private Lives</li><li>Ásgeir - Sátt</li><li>Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You</li><li>Brian Fallon - Local Honey</li><li>Wolfhand - The Devil Arrives</li><li>Amy Macdonald - The Human Demands</li><li>David Ford - Quarantine Singles</li></ol><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>#11-50, Unranked</b></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A2VT - Twenty Infinity</li><li>Agnes Obel - Myopia</li><li>Anachronist - Stay Late</li><li>Arborist - A Northern View</li><li>Arbouretum - Let It All In</li><li>Ben Patton - The Swan, For Instance</li><li>Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman</li><li>The Bubs - Cause a Fuss</li><li>Community Gardens - Don't Sweat It</li><li>Couchsleepers - Only When It's Dark</li><li>Delta Rae - The Light</li><li>Die Ärzte - Hell</li><li>Don Bryant - You Make Me Feel</li><li>EOB - Earth</li><li>Francesca Blanchard - Make It Better</li><li>Frazey Ford - U Kin B the Sun</li><li>Gill Landry - Skeleton at the Banquet</li><li>Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain</li><li>Isobel Campbell - There Is No Other…</li><li>James Elkington - Ever-Roving Eye</li><li>Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Reunions</li><li>Jónsi - Shiver</li><li>Lady Gaga - Chromatica</li><li>Lily Wade - 5teen</li><li>Little Big Town - Nightfall</li><li>Local H - Lifers</li><li>Lucinda Williams - Good Souls Better Angels</li><li>The Magnetic Fields - Quickies</li><li>The Mountain Goats - Songs for Pierre Chuvin</li><li>My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall II</li><li>Ren Harvieu - Revel in the Drama</li><li>Rosie Carney - The Bends</li><li>Sam Amidon - Sam Amidon</li><li>Sigur Rós - Odin's Raven Magic</li><li>Steve Earle & the Dukes - Ghosts of West Virginia</li><li>V/A - AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex</li><li>V/A - Saving for a Custom Van</li><li>The War on Drugs - Live Drugs</li><li>Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud</li><li>Wilsen - Ruiner</li></ul><p></p>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-44375925221895253662019-12-16T12:27:00.001-05:002020-01-06T15:19:10.614-05:00My Favorite Albums of 2019#1: The National - I Am Easy to Find<br />
#2: Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars<br />
#3: Rhiannon Giddens - There Is No Other<br />
#4: Hallowell - Hallowell<br />
#5: Strand of Oaks - Eraserland<br />
#6: Nakane - You Will Not Die<br />
#7: The Hold Steady - Thrashing Thru the Passion<br />
#8: Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride<br />
#9: Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?<br />
#10: Kristina Stykos - River of Light<br />
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Aldous Harding - Designer<br />
Alex Lahey - The Best of Luck Club<br />
Amy LaVere - Painting Blue<br />
Bedouine - Bird Songs of a Killjoy<br />
Bernard Fowler - Inside Out<br />
Craig Finn - I Need a New War<br />
Emel Mathlouthi - Everywhere We Looked Was Burning<br />
Ernest - I'm Gonna Do It (Anyway)<br />
Grace Potter - Daylight<br />
Guster - Look Alive<br />
Hand Habits - placeholder<br />
Helium Horse Fly - Hollowed<br />
Henry Jamison - Gloria Duplex<br />
Jade Bird - Jade Bird<br />
Jenn Champion - The Blue Album<br />
Joseph - Good Luck, Kid<br />
Josh Garrels - Chrysaline<br />
Juliana Hatfield - Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police<br />
Júniús Meyvant - Across the Borders<br />
Kanye West - Jesus Is King<br />
Lauren Jenkins - No Saint<br />
Maggie Rogers - Heard It in a Past Life<br />
Miriam Bernardo - Songs from the Well<br />
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Colorado<br />
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen<br />
Nivhek - After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house<br />
Olivia Jean - Night Owl<br />
Pedro the Lion - Phoenix<br />
The Raconteurs - Help Us Stranger<br />
Reed Foehl - Lucky Enough<br />
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Mettavolution<br />
Sam Fender - Hypersonic Missiles<br />
Strangled Darlings - American Pageant<br />
Sunwatchers - Illegal Moves<br />
Thea Gilmore - Small World Turning<br />
Titus Andronicus - An Obelisk<br />
The Well - Death and Consolation<br />
Tom Pearo - I Am a Mountain<br />
Wilco - Ode to Joy<br />
William Tyler - Goes West<br />
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Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-48625355558827980432018-12-21T09:36:00.000-05:002018-12-21T09:36:06.877-05:00My Favorite Albums of 20181. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy<br />
2. Shannon Shaw - Shannon In Memphis<br />
3. Moira Smiley - Unzip the Horizon<br />
4. Lissie - Castle<br />
5. Haley Heynderickx - I Need to Start a Garden<br />
6. Typh Barrow - Raw<br />
7. Ben Patton - Meaning What<br />
8. Niklas Paschburg - Oceanic<br />
9. David Ford - Animal Spirits<br />
10. Nils Frahm - All Melody<br />
11. Stonefield - Far From Earth<br />
12. Emma Back - Little World<br />
13. Brandi Carlile - By the Way, I Forgive You<br />
14. Cedric Burnside - Benton County Relic<br />
15. Nicki Bluhm - To Rise You Gotta Fall<br />
16. Ryley Walker - Deafman Glance<br />
17. The Decemberists - I'll Be Your Girl<br />
18. Mark Knopfler - Down The Road Wherever<br />
19. V/A - When the Wind Blows: The Songs of Townes Van Zandt<br />
20. Ashley McBryde - Girl Going Nowhere<br />
21. Stick in the Wheel - Follow Them True<br />
22. Olden Yolk - Olden Yolk<br />
23. Max O'Rourke - Disquiet<br />
24. Titus Andronicus - A Productive Cough<br />
25. Motorcade - Motorcade<br />
26. Ry Cooder - The Prodigal Son<br />
27. Santa Librada - Santa Librada<br />
28. Lucero - Among the Ghosts<br />
29. Muddy Gurdy - Muddy Gurdy<br />
30. We Are Scientists - Megaplex<br />
31. Field Report - Summertime Songs<br />
32. Ver Sacrum - Stirrings Stil<br />
33. Buddy Guy - The Blues Is Alive and Well<br />
34. The Low Anthem - The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea<br />
35. Danielle Nicole - Cry No More<br />
36. Caudal - Fight Cry Fight<br />
37. Marlon Williams - Make Way for Love<br />
38. mewithoutYou - [Untitled]<br />
39. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour<br />
40. Say Sue Me - When We Were Together<br />
41. Calexico - The Thread That Keeps Up<br />
42. Meshell Ndegeocello - Ventriloquism<br />
43. Editors - Violence<br />
44. Camp Cope - How to Socialise & Make Friends<br />
45. Fatoumata Diawara - Fenfo (Something to Say)<br />
46. God Is an Astronaut - Epitaph<br />
47. James Kochalka Superstar - How to Tie a Tie on the Internet<br />
48. Bombino - Deran<br />
49. Dead Combo - Odeon Hotel<br />
50. Natalie Prass - The Future and the PastRayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-18066342224607142232017-12-22T13:12:00.001-05:002017-12-22T13:12:49.030-05:00My Favorite Albums of 2017<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
1. Emel Mathlouthi - Ensen</div>
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2. Lorde - Melodrama</div>
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3. Swale - There's No One Here</div>
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4. Rob Jungklas - Blackbirds</div>
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5. The National - Sleep Well Beast</div>
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6. Henry Jamison - The Wilds</div>
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7. Natalie Hemby - Puxico</div>
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8. The Orwells - Terrible Human Beings</div>
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9. Rhiannon Giddens - Freedom Highway</div>
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10. Walpyrgus - Walpyrgus Nights</div>
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11. The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers - No Glory</div>
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12. Ex Eye - Ex Eye</div>
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13. Hurray for the Riff Raff - The Navigator</div>
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14. Slowdive - Slowdive</div>
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15. Valerie June - The Order of Time</div>
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16. Bathsheba - Servus</div>
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17. The Unthanks - Diversions Vol. 4: The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake</div>
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18. Andrea Laszlo De Simone - Uoma Donna</div>
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19. Aaron Watson - Vaquero</div>
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20. Matt the Electrician - The Doubles</div>
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21. Jaakko Aukusti - Mountain</div>
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22. Cory Branan - Adios</div>
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23. Jessi Colter - The Psalms</div>
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24. Andrew Combs - Canyons of My Mind</div>
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25. Bedouine - Bedouine</div>
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26. Ane Brun - Leave Me Breathless</div>
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27. the xx - I See You</div>
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28. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound</div>
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29. The Killers - Wonderful Wonderful</div>
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30. Offa Rex - The Queen of Hearts</div>
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31. Josh Panda - Shake It Off</div>
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32. Steve Earle - So You Wanna Be an Outlaw</div>
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33. Fiver - Audible Songs from Rockwood</div>
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34. The Mountain Goats - Goths</div>
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35. Grandaddy - Last Place</div>
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36. Kesha - Rainbow</div>
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37. Kevin Morby - City Music</div>
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38. The Raveonettes - 2016 Atomized</div>
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39. Thundercat - Drunk</div>
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40. Nev Cottee - Broken Flowers</div>
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41. Bob Dylan - Triplicate</div>
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42. Jon Latham - Lifers</div>
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43. The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir</div>
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44. Sam Baker - Land of Doubt</div>
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45. The Caretaker - Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 2</div>
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46. Jesca Hoop - Memories Are Now</div>
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47. Amy MacDonald - Under Stars</div>
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48. White Reaper - The World's Best American Band</div>
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49. Shilpa Ray - Door Girl</div>
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50. Elder - Reflections of a Floating World</div>
Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-8772542559841498532016-12-28T10:17:00.000-05:002016-12-28T10:19:08.077-05:00My Favorite Albums of 2016Eric Bachmann - Eric Bachmann<br />Júníus Meyvant - Floating Harmonies<br />Robert Ellis - Robert Ellis<br />The Jayhawks - Paging Mr Proust<br />Vultures of Cult - Pastoral<br />Honeyblood - Babes Never Die<br />Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker<br />Francis and the Lights - Farewell, Starlite!<br />Weezer - Weezer [White Album]<br />Mistki - Puberty 2<br /><br />Ben Watt - Fever Dream<br />Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree<br />Bleached - Welcome the Worms<br />Iron Eyes Cody - Goodness All Good Saints Have Died<br />Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool<br /><div>
High Spirits - Motivator<br />Lucinda Williams - The Ghosts of Highway 20<br />The Coathangers - Nosebleed Weekend<br />Frightened Rabbit - Painting of a Panic Attack<br />The Pines - Above the Prairie<br /><br />Sidestepper - Supernatural Love<br />Malcolm Holcombe - Another Black Hole<br />Emmitt Rhodes - Rainbow Ends<br />J-Zone - Fish-n-Grits<br />Beach Slang - A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings<br />Minor Victories - Minor Victories<br />Russian Circles - Guidance<br />SAGE - SAGE<br />Violet Ultraviolet - Pop City<br />William Bell - This Is Where I Live<br /><br />Kevin Morby - Singing Saw<br />The Bo-Keys - Heartaches By the Number<br />Waco Brothers - Going Down in History<br />Shearwater - Jet Plane and Oxbow<br />Wooden Dinosaur - Working Weather<br />The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time<br />The James Hunter Six - Hold On!<br />Look Park - Look Park<br />Glenn Jones - Fleeting<br />Escondido - Walking with Strangers<br /><br />Tom Brosseau - North Dakota Impressions<br />case/lang/veirs - case/lang/veirs<br />Jimbo Mathus - Band of Storms<br />Kat Wright - By Your Side<br />Jason Collett - Song and Dance Man<br />Emma Pollock - In Search of Harperfield<br />The Cactus Blossoms - You're Dreaming<br />Duke Aeroplane and the Wrong Numbers - Higher Ground<br />Sam Moss - Fable<br />The Besnard Lakes - A Coliseum Complex Museum<br /></div>
Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-40342788043375505372015-12-28T14:39:00.000-05:002015-12-28T14:39:07.128-05:00My Favorite Albums of 2015<div class="p1">
1. The Decemberists, 'What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World'</div>
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2. Jason Isbell, 'Something More Than Free'</div>
<div class="p1">
3. Madaila, 'The Dance'</div>
<div class="p1">
4. John Moreland, 'High on Tulsa Heat'</div>
<div class="p1">
5. Natalie Prass, 'Natalie Prass'</div>
<div class="p1">
6. Algiers, 'Algiers'</div>
<div class="p1">
7. Tom McRae & The Standing Band, 'Did I Sleep and Miss the Border'</div>
<div class="p1">
8. Bob Dylan, 'Shadows in the Night'</div>
<div class="p1">
9. Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, 'Django and Jimmie'</div>
<div class="p1">
10. Titus Andronicus, 'The Most Lamentable Tragedy'</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
11. Torres, 'Sprinter'</div>
<div class="p1">
12. Sufjan Stevens, 'Carrie & Lowell'</div>
<div class="p1">
13. Buddy Guy, 'Born to Play Guitar'</div>
<div class="p1">
14. Hana Zara, 'The North'</div>
<div class="p1">
15. Neil Young & Promise of the Read, 'The Monsanto Years'</div>
<div class="p1">
16. Brandi Carlile, 'The Firewatcher's Daughter'</div>
<div class="p1">
17 .Tom Brosseau, 'Perfect Abandon'</div>
<div class="p1">
18. Whitehorse, 'Leave No Bridge Unburned'</div>
<div class="p1">
19. Lucero, 'All a Man Should Do'</div>
<div class="p1">
20. Kacey Musgraves, 'Pageant Material' </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
21. The Sonics, 'This Is the Sonics'</div>
<div class="p1">
22. Enforcer, 'From Beyond'</div>
<div class="p1">
23. The Snaz, 'Running Away from Home'</div>
<div class="p1">
24. Caitlin Canty, 'Reckless Skyline'</div>
<div class="p1">
25. William Basinski, 'Cascade'</div>
<div class="p1">
26. Kelly Ravin, 'County Tracks'</div>
<div class="p1">
27. Grace Potter, 'Midnight'</div>
<div class="p1">
28. Asaf Avidan, 'Gold Shadow'</div>
<div class="p1">
29. Stone Jack Jones, 'Love & Torture'</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
30. Bomba Estereo, 'Amanecer'</div>
<div class="p1">
31. Will Hoge, 'Small Town Dreams'</div>
<div class="p1">
32. Guster, 'Evermotion'</div>
<div class="p1">
33. Alabama Shakes, 'Sound and Color'</div>
<div class="p1">
34. Árstíðir, 'Hvel'</div>
<div class="p1">
35. Blood Warrior, 'Letter Ghost'</div>
<div class="p1">
36. Death Cab for Cutie, 'Kintsugi'</div>
<div class="p1">
37. White Reaper, 'White Reaper Does It Again'</div>
<div class="p1">
38. Colleen, 'Captain of None'</div>
<div class="p1">
39. Eskimeaux, 'O.K.'</div>
<div class="p1">
40. Local H, 'Hey Killer'</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
41. Fabrizio Moro, 'Via Delle Girandole 10'</div>
<div class="p1">
42. Shamir, 'Ratchet'</div>
<div class="p1">
43. SOAK, 'Before We Forgot How to Dream'</div>
<div class="p1">
44. Will Butler, 'Policy'</div>
<div class="p1">
45. Richard Thompson, 'Still'</div>
<div class="p1">
46. Lady Lamb, 'After'</div>
<div class="p1">
47. The Libertines, 'Anthems for Doomed Youth'</div>
<div class="p1">
48. Charlie Parr, 'Stumpjumper' </div>
<div class="p1">
49. Otis Taylor, 'Hey Joe Opus Red Meat'</div>
<div class="p1">
50. Ezra Furman, 'Perpetual Motion Machine'</div>
Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-67194209420489810882014-12-19T17:07:00.002-05:002014-12-19T17:07:52.502-05:00My Top 40 Albums of 20141. Leonard Cohen, 'Popular Problems'<br />2. John Fullbright, 'Songs'<br />3. First Aid Kit, 'Stay Gold'<br />4. Doug Paisley, 'Strong Feelings'<br />5. GRMLN, 'Soon Away'<br />6. Hurray for the Riff Raff, 'Small Town Heroes’<br />7. Weird Al Yankovic, 'Mandatory Fun'<br />8. Agalloch, 'The Serpent & The Sphere'<br />9. The Gloaming, 'The Gloaming'<br />10. Ex Hex, 'Rips'<br />11. Lykke Li, 'I Never Learn'<br />12. We Are Scientists, 'TV En Francais'<br />13. Robert Ellis, 'The Lights from the Chemical Plant'<br />14. Buck 65, 'Neverlove'<br />15. Doug Keith, 'Pony'<br />16. Weezer, 'Everything Will Be Alright in the End'<br />17. Sun Kil Moon, 'Benji'<br />18. Alvvays, 'Alvvays'<br />19. Sam Amidon, 'Lily-O'<br />20. Roadkill Ghost Choir, 'In Tongues'<br />21. A Winged Victory for the Sullen, 'Atomos'<br />22. The Majorleans, 'Black Belt'<br />23. The Orwells, 'Disgraceland'<br />24. Christopher Denny, 'If the Roses Don't Kill Us'<br />25. The New Pornographers, 'Brill Bruisers'<br />26. Mirel Wagner, When the Cellar Children See the Light of Day'<br />27. Anthony D'Amato, 'The Shipwreck from the Shore'<br />28. Sonny Knight & The Lakers, 'I'm Still Here'<br />29. The Barr Brothers, 'Sleeping Operator'<br />30. Christopher Owens, 'A New Testament'<br />31. Field Report, 'Marigolden'<br />32. Frazey Ford, 'Indian Ocean'<br />33. The Gotobeds, 'Poor People Are Revolting'<br />34. Rosanne Cash, 'The River & The Thread'<br />35. Bear's Den, 'Islands'<br />36. Mono Town, 'In the Eye of the Storm'<br />37. Daniel Lanois, 'Flesh and Machine'<br />38. Lucinda Williams, 'Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone'<br />39. Epic Rain, 'Somber Air'<br />40. Bloodpheasant, 'Traum'Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-5829242479635470322013-12-19T23:11:00.000-05:002013-12-19T23:18:51.303-05:00My Top 50 Albums of 20131. Dawn of Midi - Dysnomia<br />
2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away<br />
3. Christopher Owens - Lysandre<br />
4. David Ford - Charge<br />
5. Blaudzun - Heavy Flowers<br />
6. Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer, Different Park<br />
7. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories<br />
8. Steve Earle - The Low Highway<br />
9. Gregory Alan Isakov - The Weatherman<br />
10. Five Iron Frenzy - Engine of a Million Plots<br />
11. Paul McCartney - New<br />
12. The National - Trouble Will Find Me<br />
13. Sam Amidon - Bright Sunny South<br />
14. Pet Shop Boys - Electric<br />
15. Iron & Wine - Ghost on Ghost<br />
16. Richard Buckner - Surrounded<br />
17. Elton John - The Diving Board<br />
18. Night Beds - Country Sleep<br />
19. Avicii - True<br />
20. King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon<br />
21. Baths - Obsidian<br />
22. San Fermin - San Fermin<br />
23. The Leisure Society - Alone Aboard the Ark<br />
24. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito<br />
25. Sam Baker - Say Grace <br />
26. The Lonely Island - The Wack Album<br />
27. Xiu Xiu - Nina<br />
28. Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks<br />
29. Har Mar Superstar - Bye Bye 17<br />
30. David Bowie - The Next Day<br />
31. Sigur Rós - Kveikur<br />
32. Okkervil River - The Silver Gymnasium<br />
33. The Front Bottoms - Talon of the Hawk<br />
34. eels - Wonderful, Glorious<br />
35. John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts<br />
36. Ezra Furman - Day of the Dog<br />
37. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City<br />
38. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2<br />
39. The Civil Wars - The Civil Wars<br />
40. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold<br />
41. The Flaming Lips - The Terror<br />
42. Camper Van Beethoven - La Costa Perdida<br />
43. Rhye - Woman<br />
44. Shearwater - Fellow Travelers<br />
45. Jon Hopkins - Immunity<br />
46. Jason Isbell - Southeastern<br />
47. Houndmouth - From the Hills Below the City<br />
48. Dear Reader - Rivonia<br />
49. Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse<br />
50. The Handsome Family - WildernessRayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-54638687840582737172012-12-31T11:35:00.000-05:002012-12-31T11:39:02.993-05:00The Best 50 Albums of 20121. Shearwater – Animal Joy<br />
2. Kyla La Grange – Ashes<br />
3. Japandroids – Celebration Rock<br />
4. The Killers – Battle Born<br />
5. Sinead O’Connor – How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?<br />
6. Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball<br />
7. Father John Misty – Fear Fun<br />
8. Of Monsters and Men – My Head Is an Animal<br />
9. Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas<br />
10. Cosmo Jarvis – Think Bigger<br />
11. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill<br />
12. Kishi Bashi – 151a<br />
13. The Mountain Goats – Transcendental Youth<br />
14. Bob Dylan – Tempest<br />
15. Calexico – Algiers<br />
16. Hip Hatchet – Joy and Better Days<br />
17. Cat Power – Sun<br />
18. Lost in the Trees – A Church That Fits Our Needs<br />
19. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist<br />
20. Jason Lytle – Dept. of Disappearance<br />
21. Sigur Rós – Valtari<br />
22. PS I Love You – Death Dreams<br />
23. Die Ärzte – Auch<br />
24. the xx – Coexist<br />
25. Swans – The Seer<br />
26. Glen Hansard – Rhythm and Repose<br />
27. Cody ChesnuTT – Landing on a Hundred<br />
28. Andre Williams & The Sadies – Night & Day<br />
29. The Raveonettes – Observator<br />
30. Julia Holter – Ekstasis<br />
31. Fang Island – Major<br />
32. Oberhofer – Time Capsules II<br />
33. Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dreams<br />
34. Patti Smith – Banga<br />
35. Bill Fay – Life Is People<br />
36. James Iha – Look to the Sky<br />
37. Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music<br />
38. Plants and Animals – The End of the That<br />
39. Lower Dens – Nootropics<br />
40. The Shins – Port of Morrow<br />
41. Sun Kil Moon – Among the Leaves<br />
42. Howlin’ Rain – The Russian Wilds<br />
43. mewithoutYou – Ten Stories<br />
44. iamamiwhoami – Kin<br />
45. Best Coast – The Only Place<br />
46. Men Without Hats – Love in the Age of War<br />
47. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!<br />
48. The dB’s – Falling Off the Sky<br />
49. Islands – A Sleep & A Forgetting<br />
50. Titus Andronicus – Local Business<br />
<br />
<i>Note: I excluded any albums I worked PR for from consideration. </i>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-53256627776926545222012-01-01T15:31:00.000-05:002012-01-01T15:31:02.368-05:00The Top 50 Albums of 201150. Wye Oak – Civilian<br />
49. Childish Gambino – Camp<br />
48. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse<br />
47. Feist - Metals<br />
46. Richard Buckner – Our Blood<br />
45. Le Butcherettes – Sin Sin Sin<br />
44. Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest<br />
43. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong<br />
42. Calhoun – Heavy Sugar<br />
41. Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo<br />
40. O’Death - Outside<br />
39. Kanye West & Jay Z – Watch the Throne<br />
38. Iron and Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean<br />
37. The Rosebuds – Loud Planes Fly Low<br />
36. Hunx & His Punx – Too Young to Be in Love<br />
35. Mates of State – Mountaintops<br />
34. Cosmo Jarvis – Is The World Strange or Am I Strange?<br />
33. Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer<br />
32. Britney Spears – Femme Fatale<br />
32. Dum Dum Girls – Only in Dreams<br />
31. My Morning Jacket – Circuital<br />
30. Florence + the Machine – Ceremonials<br />
29. Crooked Fingers – Breaks in the Armor<br />
28. The Streets – Computers and Blues<br />
27. Gringo Star – Count Yer Lucky Stars<br />
26. Drive-By Truckers – Go Go Boots<br />
25. Fountains of Wayne – Sky Full of Holes <br />
24. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake<br />
23. Bobby - Bobby<br />
22. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues<br />
21. R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now<br />
20. The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck<br />
19. A Dancing Beggar – Follow the Dark As If It Were Light<br />
18. The Antlers – Burst Apart<br />
17. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life<br />
16. Low – C’mon<br />
15. Wilco – The Whole Love<br />
14. Damion Suomi and the Minor Prophets – Go, and Sell All of Your Things<br />
13. The Coathangers – Larceny & Old Lace<br />
12. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine<br />
11. Tom Waits – Bad As Me<br />
10. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saint<br />
9. Ezra Furman & the Harpoons – Mysterious Power<br />
8. Buck 65 – 20 Odd Years<br />
7. The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow<br />
6. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming<br />
5. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost<br />
4. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes<br />
3. Julianna Barwich – The Magic Place<br />
2. Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver<br />
1. Josh T. Pearson – Last of the Country GentlemenRayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-44233245106036200022010-12-31T23:15:00.003-05:002011-01-01T00:16:22.306-05:00The Best Albums of 2010: #25-1<div style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">The Top 50 Albums of 2010</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Part 2: #25-1</span></span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>25. Best Coast - Crazy For You</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61-kIQ373OL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">One of 2010’s big breakout bands, Best Coast have already begun enduring the inevitable backlash. The timing makes sense though; winter temperatures make this music harder to appreciate. Bethany Cosentino’s lovesick summer jams about beaches and weed created one of the year’s enduring sounds. If you need to wait til next June to play it again, it’ll sound just as fresh.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AAM-5fGaHcs?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AAM-5fGaHcs?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Boyfriend"</i></div></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>24. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - I Learned the Hard Way</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61D4pFmqJQL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Sharon Jones has been wowing live audiences for years now, but she’s never made a record worthy of her talent. Until now. Like previous albums, <i>I Learned the Hard Way</i> sees the Dap-Kings letting loose with irresistible swagger, but it offers what others lacked: good songs. From the opening Mexicali horns of “The Game Gets Old” to the final gospel shout of “Mama Don’t Like My Man,” I Learned finds retro soul as alive as ever.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zQMu6er4oWQ?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zQMu6er4oWQ?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "She Ain't a Child No More"</i></div></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>23. James Keyes - Ruminations</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://images.cdbaby.name/k/e/keyesjames.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Old-school country through and through, <i>Ruminations</i> hits all the genre’s touchstones. Work chants (“Interlude”), jaunty saloon piano (“Two Mirror”), and delta-blues slide guitar (“Black Ceiling”) sound like music Alan Lomax might have unearthed in the ‘40s. The lone electric track, “SSG,” sounds like Merle Haggard fronting the Sex Pistols.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/I54YTcu88b0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/I54YTcu88b0?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Black Ceiling"</i></div></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>22. Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X4ceHjVQL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Many artists would put a smash like “Fuck You” on an otherwise-disposable album. Frankly, Cee Lo himself did so with “Crazy” in 2006. But if “Fuck You!” is the best song on <i>The Lady Killer</i> (and it is), it’s only by a hair. Perfect soul-pop productions like “Wildflower” and “I Want You” uplift with strings, horns, and Green’s inimitable croon.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/apvNaQENK7M?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/apvNaQENK7M?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "I Want You"</i></div></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>21. Jónsi - Go</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51I2HhRLGCL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">In some ways, Jónsi’s solo debut reminds one of his work with day job Sigur Rós. There are two main differences though, one superficial and one deeper. For one, <i>Go</i> is mostly in English and not Icelandic (or his made-up language "Hopelandic"). More significantly, it offers a childlike joy only hinted at in previous work. If the next Disney critter movie got experimental, a song like “Animal Arithmatic” would make a perfect scampering soundtrack.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ky_GwkBDMYA?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ky_GwkBDMYA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Animal Arithmetic"</i></div></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>20. Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://mokujinjitsu.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/tumblr_kvu3r8y70k1qzj4a0.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">For a guy who didn’t tour or release an album, Beck was all over the place in 2010. His web cover series continued with off-the-wall picks like Yanni and he led his production talents wherever needed. Nowhere did he do better than here though. On this electronic throb of an album, Charlotte Gainsbourg (Serge’s daughter) imbues 13 Beck compositions with poise and grace, underscoring each with an uneasy feeling you can’t quite explain. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-RSRmQ6WiUU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-RSRmQ6WiUU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Time of the Assassins"</i></div></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>19. Yelawolf - Trunk Muzik [Mixtape]</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://cdn.2dopeboyz.com/m.php/2010/01/20100101-YELAWOLF1.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Alabama rapper Yelawolf may be 2011’s breakout rap star. His rapid-fire southern diction on this critically-acclaimed but little-heard mixtape marks him as the second coming of Eminem, and not just because of skin color. Where Em 1.0 detailed exactly the gruesome things he’d do to people though, in songs like “Pop the Trunk” Yela’ gives only threatening hints.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q4Dj4A0GD7M?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q4Dj4A0GD7M?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Good to Go (ft. Bun B)"</i></div></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>18. eels - End Times</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DWm2zLNhL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">No one does “downer” better than Mark Everett aka “E” aka eels. Unrelenting from beginning to end, <i>End Times</i> chronicles Everett’s recent divorce in painful detail. Yeah, it’s that kind of record. Many breakup albums carry an undercurrent of hope or resilience. Not here (that came a few months later on <i>Tomorrow Morning</i>). Once again, Everett proves a master at capturing the dark side of human emotion.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XlLT3hLXDUU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XlLT3hLXDUU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "The Beginning"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>17. Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible - Bulevar 2000</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61sfxd0vurL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">The “Nortec” in Nortec collective describes an unlikely fusion: <i>norteño</i>, a traditional Mexican music, and techno. Such absurd cross-cultural sounds usually fail as often as fusion restaurants, but Bostich and Fussible (two members of the Collective) effortlessly mix accordion and vocoder. The thick bass grooves of a song like “Radio Borderland” sound right at home in an Ibiza club…until you realize they’re coming from a sousaphone.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Y_WXaGFJtQ?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Y_WXaGFJtQ?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Radio Borderland"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>16. Revolver - Music for a While</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41b0tVlRI3L._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Close harmony singing took a hit when the Everly Brothers stopped releasing records, but it’s about due for a comeback. Parisian trio Revolver produce heartwarming melodies, sung in English with a delicate French accent. What could easily come off as cutesy works because they infuse the pop sound with jazz guitar lines (“Leave Me Alone”), eastern rhythms (“Do You Have a Gun?”), and just a little bit of rock and roll swagger (“Get Around Town”).<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nt9EYSpzlTg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nt9EYSpzlTg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Get Around Town"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>15. Elton John and Leon Russell - The Union</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dMhyy6WwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">The narrative of this album describes a megastar (Elton John) pulling a fallen hero (Leon Russell) back into the spotlight. One listen to the music, though, makes it clear that Russell in fact revived John, inspiring some of his best songwriting in decades. T Bone Burnett’s uncharacteristically lush production steers clear of mall-pop pulp, using a gospel choir in the service of Dr. John boogie. Neil Young and Brian Wilson guest spots only sweeten the deal.<br />
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<i>Click to play "I Should Have Sent Roses"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>14. Hurts - Happiness</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41llsJ-rAXL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Kylie Minogue guests on Hurts’ debut, which you may view as a dealbreaker. Push past it. This new synthpop duo piles hook upon hook in this catchy-as-hell album. They display a uniquely British pessimism on “Stay” and “Evelyn,” but “Wonderful Life” proves unexpectedly inspirational. And to think it starts with a girl jumping off a bridge...<br />
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<i>Click to play "Wonderful Life"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>13. Grinderman - Grinderman 2</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TwslYuibL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Nick Cave’s Grinderman represents music at its dirtiest, in every sense of the word. The vulgar puns amuse (sample: “My baby calls me the Loch Ness monster / Two big humps and then I’m gone”), but the rough-as-sandpaper guitar sounds like Cave’s battling the devil. And losing.<br />
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<i>Click to play "Evil"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>12. James Blackshaw - All Is Falling</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31JPhcqPXsL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Twenty-nine-year old guitarist James Blackshaw crafts an instrumental suite that ebbs and flows around his trusty 12-string. Violins, pianos, and xylophone surge throughout the most beautiful 45 minutes you’ll hear all year. Long after the final eight minutes of feedback fade away, the feeling remains.<br />
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<i>Click to play "Part 3"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>11. Solomon Burke & De Dijk - Hold On Tight</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.thegoldbrick.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Solomon-Burke-and-De-Dijk-Hold-on-Tight-338x338.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">The September death of Solomon Burke would have been a tragedy no matter what the quality his current output. The fact the he released not one, but <i>two</i> terrific albums this year though makes the loss that much greater. Recorded with Dutch rock band De Dijk, <i>Hold On Tight</i> bursts forth with such force you wonder if he knew this was his last shot. The band gives the songs the gritty “rock and soul” crunch they deserves while Burke roars like the 400-pound bear he was.<br />
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<i>Click to play "Seventh Heaven"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>10. The Gentle Guest - Cast Off Your Human Form</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LqOTbrEBL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Sounding like a circus circa 1923, the Gentle Guest pull out the stops, throw the stops on the ground, and parade a heard of elephants over 'em. Horns blast and accordions wail on gut-bucket hollers, back-porch stomps, and what sounds like a whole lot of carny dancing. “Judgment” turns the big top into a tent revival as a fire-and-brimstone preacher condemns the very joy the music inspires.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1pxVA7r7jW0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1pxVA7r7jW0?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Judgement"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>9. Dessa - A Badly Broken Code</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PNbog4gGL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Perhaps the most slept-on hip-hop album of 2010, <i>A Badly Broken Code</i> moves the genre in at least a dozen new directions. Rapper/poet/author Dessa gets über-personal when she describes struggling to forgive a former lover (“Mineshaft II”) and watching a retarded sibling fall behind (“Children’s Work”). Throughout, the unexpectedly quirky production make this a hip-hop album in name only.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gSxSCv7Cegc?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gSxSCv7Cegc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Children's Work"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>8. Robyn - Body Talk</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mLuQ6rkDL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Like “Dancing in the Dark” before it, “Dancing on My Own” cocoons depressing lyrics in a misleadingly cheery pop bubble. This song – the best of the year – kicks off fifteen tracks that will revive your faith in pop music. This is music for the dance floor, but the thoughtful lyrics and clever production twists make it equally hipster-friendly. <br />
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<i>Click to play "Dancing on My Own"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>7. Les Savy Fav - Root for Ruin</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514XA4zdWLL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Seeing Les Savy Fav singer Tim Harrington bound about onstage in a monkey suit, you might assume these guys are a goof. Quite the opposite. The post-hardcore roar of this Brooklyn quintet cuts like never before on their fifth LP. Harrington yelps his typically aggressive/angsty lyrics, but Seth Jabour once again becomes the band’s secret weapon, delivering jagged riffs and cascading chords.<br />
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<i>Click to play "Dirty Knails"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>6. Evelyn Evelyn - Evelyn Evelyn</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61hk0e5zpzL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Amanda Palmer “discovered” conjoined sister duo Evelyn Evelyn via their MySpace page. The sisters grew up in the circus, abandoned by a chicken man who tried to kill them, a hooker who tried to save them, and finally a conjoined-twin elephant. They (really Palmer and parter-in-crime Jason Webley) detail the whole morbid, convoluted story in beautifully dark cabaret. As evidence, take their hilariously literal cover selection: Love Will Tear Us Apart. Ouch! <br />
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<i>Click to play "Evelyn Evelyn"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>5. Fang Island - Fang Island</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51m1jU1hxnL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">“Math rock” is one of those labels that makes no sense until you hear it, at which point you go, “Oh, yeah, okay.” Fang Island represent the best in the admittedly niche genre. Their intertwining guitar lines turn left when you expect them to go right, up when you're waiting for down, on this largely instrumental album. Weird time signatures come and go like nothing. On songs like “Daisy” though though, the cumulative effect is strangely uplifting. A rare combination of challenging and cheerful.<br />
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<i>Click to play "Daisy"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>4. David Ford - Let the Hard Times Roll</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://bandweblogs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/davidfordletthehardtimes.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">David Ford deserves to be up there with today’s best songwriters. Politics loom large on his third album, but you don’t need to know that “She’s Not the One” is about Margaret Thatcher to enjoy its bluesy thump. The desperate cry of “Panic” builds until it entirely overwhelms you, lines falling all over each other in a frantic rush. Then, with the flip of a switch, he can deliver one of the most beautiful love ballads you’ve ever heard (“To Hell with the World”).<br />
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<i>Click to play "Panic"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>3. Midlake - The Courage of Others</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KaplTt84L._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Midlake’s sound is hard to place in time. They certainly don’t scream 21st century, but they hardly guide you elsewhere either. Spatially though, it’s much easier to place: in a forest. This rich choral folk lifts you higher and higher through the trees, til you don’t know where you are but you’re happy to be there.<br />
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<i>Click to play "Core of Nature"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://cdn.theurbandaily.com/files/2010/11/my_beautiful_dark_twisted_fantasy_kanye_west_526x5261-300x300.png" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">After years of providing ample fodder to his critics, Kanye West roundly silenced them with the most brilliant album of his career. Combining all the best parts of his first four albums, <i>My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy</i> raises hip-hop out to absurd pomp and circumstance. Never has rap been this ambitious, and only Kanye could pull it off. He incorporates rap vets (Jay-Z, Rick Ross) and underground indie icons (Bon Iver??) into one gigantic, sprawling, ridiculously self-absorbed masterpiece.<br />
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<i>Click to play "Monster"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>1. The National - High Violet</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2010/04/The-National-High-Violet.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Over the course of five albums this Brooklyn quintet has slowly built up a following of hardcore fans and music critics. In 2010, they finally made the jump to certified "popularity." <i>High Violet</i> is at once delicate and majestic. You almost hold your breath listening, feeling that that the slightest change would cause these delicately crafted compositions to crumble. Improbably, the sad-sack muttering of 40-year old grump Matt Berninger strikes instant emotional chords. This isn’t an album to hear; it’s an album to <i>feel</i>.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IprgVNlFIqM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IprgVNlFIqM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Bloodbuzz Ohio"</i></div></span><br />
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<a href="http://the3penguins.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-albums-of-2010-50-26.html"><i><b>See #50-26 here.</b></i></a>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-36686775966749596662010-12-31T23:00:00.001-05:002011-01-01T00:15:45.503-05:00The Best Albums of 2010: #50-26<div style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">The Top 50 Albums of 2010</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Part 1: #50-26</span></span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>50. Swans - My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CXztiBPhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">In 1998, Michael Gira released his final album with his Swans collective, aptly titled <i>Swans Are Dead</i>. That was that, until this past January. Out of nowhere, the band’s MySpace sprung to life with a message reading, simply, “SWANS ARE NOT DEAD.” Indeed not, as the band’s melt-your-face post-rock hits just as hard twelve years later. Opener “No Words/No Thoughts” roars along for eight minutes before the words begin while Gira reveals an unexpectedly sensitive (but still loud) side on “Inside Madeline.”<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/obi1EGDKXY4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/obi1EGDKXY4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Inside Madeline"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>49. She & Him - Volume Two</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6171I%2BWylAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward’s unlikely beach-pop combo hits a second home-run with this breezy summer soundtrack. Deschanel’s voice is nondescript enough to casually deliver these lite-rock ditties about sun, cars, and surf. M. Ward’s guitar churns along amicably behind. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xj45HUNX8Lk?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xj45HUNX8Lk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Lingering Still"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>48. John Knox Sex Club - Blud Rins Cauld</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://bandcamp.com/files/17/15/1715533599-1.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Say that album title aloud and see if you can guess where this band is from. If you pronounced it right, it should sound unmistakably Scottish. These Glasgow punks use their thick brogues in the service of loud-soft rockers. Unexpected bits of free jazz and gospel worm in and out of this eight-song suite.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XoSb31VBt0A?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XoSb31VBt0A?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "William"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>47. Yukon Blonde - Yukon Blonde</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/613nlgRsatL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">No one told the boys of Yukon Blonde that 1974 ended a while back and, hopefully, no one ever will. Their debut album updates the ‘70s folk-rock sound not a lick, copping tricks from CSN on “Wind Blows” and Crazy Horse on “Ghosts on Film.” <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sbgliL3eceE?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sbgliL3eceE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Wind Blows"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>46. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61AF01PFaWL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">The Gaslight Anthem tuned down the Springsteen references on their third album...lyrically, that is. Musically the band continues to meld the Boss with the Clash, unleashing instant rock anthems like “Boxer” and “Stay Lucky.” Rich production (by their standards, at least) can’t mask the punk snarl.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OQMCkFQ9zS4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OQMCkFQ9zS4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Boxer"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>45. Fredrik - Trilogi</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31jiQ3PQOvL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">What is it about Scandinavia? All their music seems so…<i>arty</i>. Sigur Rós aficionados, take note. This Swedish three-piece writes similarly quirky art-rock symphonies, blending unidentifiable instruments with indecipherable lyrics. The fact that their Wikipedia page needs seven genres to describe them says it all.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_BfDKGfBFpM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_BfDKGfBFpM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Flax"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>44. The Capitalist Youth - At the Campfire</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PTAdoSpUL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">At this summer’s Newport Folk Festival, the Capitalist Youth handed NPR All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen a burned demo. He played a track from the old-school folk collection on his radio show, giving unprecedented exposure to a Philly trio just out of a high school. Their tongue-in-cheek songs detail “summer camp, existential crises and gubernatorial indiscretions” (their words) and, in one case (“Arcade”), a creepily evangelical girlfriend.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/imyk6HBYtaU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/imyk6HBYtaU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Arcade"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>43. Chromeo - Business Casual</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RwAN2mbhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">In 21st-century indie rock, there is perhaps no group less cool to emulate than Hall & Oates. So props to Chromeo for pulling it off with even a modicum of dignity. <i>Business Casual</i>’s unabashedly cheesy electrofunk finds Dave 1 and P-Thugg blending dumb lyrics and shameless guitar solos as tackily as ever. The talk box is back.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DmbdtbdBqI0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DmbdtbdBqI0?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Night By Night"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>42. Dr. Frankenstein - In 4 Dimensions</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61CI08Hj7mL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Beach pop came back in a big way in 2010, but surf rock? Not so much. If more people heard Dr. Frankenstein though, it might stand a chance. Like the Ventures on speed, these eight tracks roar by in 21 minutes, leaving you panting and ready for another round.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z90ks8x1w18?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/z90ks8x1w18?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Sneaky Surf"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>41. Diamond Rings - Special Affections</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518WjjLyXeL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Don’t let the Perez Hilton getup fool you. In his dance moniker Diamond Ring’s debut full-length, John O’Regan sounds as pensive as he does camp. It’s music that says, “Come dance...but if you don’t want to, that’s okay too.”<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1MF4J7u1B8E?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1MF4J7u1B8E?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "It's Not My Party"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>40. Johnny Dowd - Wake Up the Snakes</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.97ruedurock.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/johnnydowd.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">You can tell a lot about certain albums by their track titles. “Howling Wolf Blues,” “Swamp Woman,” and “Organ Grinder” give you a good picture of Johnny Dowd’s latest. The less-interestingly-named “Yolanda” shines brightest though. The dark tale of love-through-patricide sounds like Tom Waits at his spookiest.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QgDAib_gVUI?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QgDAib_gVUI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Yolanda"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>39. Chumbawamba - ABCDEFG</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51m0h-tQ%2BDL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">If you only know Chumbawamba from “Tubthumper,” you’re sadly uninformed. You’re also in the good company of, well, everyone. That inane/catchy hit represents about 1% of their style. Mostly, these Brits represent a vaguely anarchic strain of agit-folk. They deftly mix message with humor on this, their 372th album (note to self: double-check number). Bonus points for calling themselves out as one-hit wonders on “Torturing James Hetfield.”<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oEqvmD90zRg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oEqvmD90zRg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Wagner at the Opera"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>38. Neil Young - Le Noise</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BZyWeA-GL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">"I said solo...<i>They</i> said acoustic." So read the t-shirts on Neil Young's latest tour, but the sentiment holds for this album. Originally slated for a solo acoustic record, <i>Le Noise</i> got seriously beefed up with producer Daniel Lanois' wall-of-effects. Young's electric guitar sounds like an atomic bomb hitting; Young's voice sounds like the lone survivor.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/A2uvMGvN2u4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/A2uvMGvN2u4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Hitchhiker"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>37. Erland and the Carnival - Erland and the Carnival</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/product_images/321847L.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Four of the twelve songs on this promising debut are covers of traditional British folk songs, but you’d never know which four. Songs like “Tramps and Hawkers” (cover) and “The Derby Ram” (original) sway along jauntily in this old-new folk-rock pastiche. The Verve’s Simon Tong tackles instruments like harmonium and zither, but Erland Cooper’s indie-yodel vocals lend a certain authenticity even to the most hammed-up bops.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yGdVdtvZHVI?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yGdVdtvZHVI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "My Name Is Carnival"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>36. Alejandro Escovedo - Street Songs of Love</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Vljna%2BFwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Most artists would be more than happy to rope Bruce Springsteen onto their album, but Alejandro Escovedo has more than just an enviable Rolodex. He pushes the Boss duet (“Faith”) down to track twelve, one-upping it with eleven stronger tracks before. A concept album about love may be something of a nonstarter, but tracks like “Anchor” and “This Bed Is Getting Crowded” show that, 31 years after he started, Escovedo rocks as hard as ever.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/llVYRAagVCs?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/llVYRAagVCs?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "This Bed Is Getting Crowded"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>35. Eminem - Recovery</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41jV4I8NiGL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Everyone likes a good comeback story, and no one epitomized left-for-dead success in 2010 like Eminem. Unlike cinematic comebacks though, real returns prove a little messier. Technically, Em released his so-called “comeback” album, <i>Relapse</i>, last year. As he admits now though, it didn’t count (“<i>Encore</i> I was on drugs, <i>Relapse</i> I was flushing ‘em out”). The aptly-titled <i>Recovery</i> shows a whole new side of Eminem, comprising personal struggles (“Talkin’ 2 Myself”) and feel-good anthems (“Not Afraid”).<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8cUExrTRSRw?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8cUExrTRSRw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Talkin' 2 Myself"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>34. Azure Ray - Drawing Down the Moon</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510yKpppNPL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Fans of this Georgia duo had to wait seven years for this one, but the dreamy folk harmonies return stronger than ever. Track after track on <i>Drawing Down the Moon</i>, released on Conor Oberst’s label Saddle Creek, melts your heart and warms your soul. Whiffs of electronics lend an unexpected kick to the acoustic splendor.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s5DXp3n6l8I?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s5DXp3n6l8I?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Larraine"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>33. Screaming Females - Castle Talk</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HiL4yy9bL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Never was a band so aptly named. Yes, technically there’s only <i>one</i> screaming female here (along with two not-screaming males), but this tiny tyrant hollers loud enough for a dozen banshees. As always thought, her guitar shredding impresses even more. Jimi Hendrix, reincarnated as a 4’6” girl with a bob haircut.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/70uA7_FdILU?hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/70uA7_FdILU?hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "A New Kid"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>32. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Edwvqyx5L._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Titus Andronicus rep the other side of the <i>Jersey Shore</i>, the dirty working-class grit that makes a bunch of punk kids die to escape the basement. Somehow, they do so on a concept album about the Civil War. Whatever works. With shout-along put-downs like “You will always be a loser,” <i>The Monitor</i> roars for underdogs everywhere.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8YCLBL4LEkc?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8YCLBL4LEkc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "A More Perfect Union"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>31. Harvey Milk - A Small Turn of Human Kindness</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Lx6un6YwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Loud and fast, fast and loud. You don’t realize how closely you associate the two into you hear an album like this. It’s really, really loud and really, <i>really</i> slow. Sounding like Metallica played at 3 beats-per-minute, Creston Spiers roars over the molasses-slow sludge. In its own way, this sleepy-stoner metal as brutal as anything Slayer ever recorded.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5h3LObKbmaU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5h3LObKbmaU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "I Just Want to Go Home Now"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>30. Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra - Honker</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JazL5ZfpL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">This past March, Ethan Lipton and his Orchestra opened the National’s first show of the year. The Brooklyn hipsters that comprised much of the crowd looked bemused, unsure what to make of the mustached man backed by double bass, hollow-body guitar, and sax (sometimes flute). Lipton’s Newman-esq lyrical humor opens your mind enough to accept this unapologetic lounge act, but the serious musicianship keeps you coming back even after the LOLs wear thin. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NQROG1SRqPY?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NQROG1SRqPY?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "Poor Old Whitey"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>29. The Magnetic Fields - Realism</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2B8JXPFcoL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><i>Realism</i>, the quieter companion piece to 2008’s <i>Distortion</i>, finds Stephin Merritt at his most droll. Though humor abounds, most notably in an elaborate dig at Scientologies (“We Are Having a Hootenany”), brutal kiss-off songs like “You Must Be Out of Your Mind” show Meritt doesn't need much volume to pack a wallop. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/77gy-2UUA-c?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/77gy-2UUA-c?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "You Must Be out of Your Mind"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>28. Gogol Bordello - Trans-Continental Hustle</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61xItRxG2PL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Gogol Bordello only do one thing, but they do it better than anyone else. It helps that no one else even tries to compete. Rick Rubin produced thirteen more tracks of rollicking gypsy-punk, letting the band do what they do best: go nuts. Accordion and fiddle wail on “My Companjera” while “Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher)” features the band’s best shout-along chorus yet.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="25" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yXU5zUHA1Ak?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yXU5zUHA1Ak?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="25"></embed></object><br />
<i>Click to play "My Companjera"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>27. Francis and the Lights - It'll Be Better</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41oVSiME63L._SL500_AA280_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Francis Farewell Starlite spent much of the year opening for Drake and, by all accounts, left mixed impressions. This midtempo synth-pop may not be ideal for huge halls, but in its own laid-back way it rocks the house. The songs constantly threaten to burst open, but the band’s restraint holds them back.<br />
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<i>Click to play "In a Limousine"</i></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>26. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs</b></span></div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61B3oKLwUoL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">That Arcade Fire’s third album blew critics away should surprise no one. That it topped the Billboard charts, on the other hand, shows just how far this band has come. <i>The Suburbs</i> finds a comfortable middle ground between the bombast of <i>Funeral</i> and the anxiety of <i>Neon Bible</i>. Sixteen tracks honor the highs, lows, and, most often, <i>middles</i> of suburbia at its most mundane.<br />
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<i>Click to play "City with No Children"</i></div></span><br />
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<a href="http://the3penguins.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-albums-of-2010-25-1.html"><i><b>See #25-1 here.</b></i></a>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-42149572776460408572010-05-19T10:55:00.004-04:002010-05-22T12:10:46.785-04:00Local H at the Gramercy Theater 5/18/10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S_P7XfkTZ_I/AAAAAAAABds/iS2onCpj0GE/s1600/localh_04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S_P7XfkTZ_I/AAAAAAAABds/iS2onCpj0GE/s400/localh_04.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Tuesday night’s Local H show carried all the hallmarks of imminent disaster. The Gramercy Theater bumped up the very much un-sold out show to accommodate a last-minute Stone Temple Pilots appearance later that evening, imposing a 9:30pm curfew on Local H. “We feel like we’re opening for STP,” frontman Scott Lucas remarked at the beginning of the show, "but we’re not…I don’t think.” <br />
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Then there was the tour’s theme: <i>6 Angry Records</i>. The premise is a clever one. At the beginning of every gig, Lucas hands an audience member a hat containing the names of all six of their records. The fan picks one randomly, then the band plays that entire record beginning to end. An ingenious twist on the classic-record tour trend that has infected the music world of late.<br />
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The Chicago cult duo has six records. Five of these are beloved by a small by fiercely loyal following. The sixth is <i>Ham Fisted</i>, their 1995 debut, likely the only album that no audience member was rooting for.<br />
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Guess which one got picked. <br />
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The band clearly knew this choice would prove unpopular. “We thought about rigging the system,” Lucas joked. “But it’s a slippery slope. First you’re rigging a hat-pull, then before you know it you’re fucking babies.”<br />
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So by God they played the Nirvana-aping <i>Ham Fisted</i> beginning to end, treating the audience members who didn’t spend the entire 45 minutes texting to a fiery grunge throwback. Lucas howled out lyrics no one knew (even he had a cheat sheet) while thrashing at his guitar as if to punish the songs for being so mediocre. Drummer Brian St. Clair, who didn’t even play on the original, channeled his inner Dave Grohl with the least subtle drumming this side of Animal. It was only through sheer force of will that the band staved off a trainwreck, but by rocking the subpar tunes as if they were God’s gift to mankind they pulled it off.<br />
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After completing the album, the pair rewarded the crowd with a second set of fan favorites like “Hands on the Bible” and “Bound for the Floor.” “All the Kids Are Right,” a song about fan backlash after an ill-received concert, seemed particularly relevant. The (relative) hits quickly won back the punk dudes and rocker grrrls, who shouted along with every angsty lyric when they weren’t too busy busting heads in the circle pit. By encore “Wolf Like Me,” a TV on the Radio cover that went right up to that 9:30 deadline, all sins were forgiven.<br />
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<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/localh2010-05-18.cabbage.SSDSM6SL.flac16"><b>DOWNLOAD THE FULL SET </b></a><br />
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<i>Photo by Michael Alan Goldberg (via <a href="http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/music/2008/11/21/photos-electric-six-local-h/">Philadelphia Weekly</a>)</i>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-47195288883701951712010-03-31T12:47:00.020-04:002010-03-31T13:10:11.495-04:00Killola at the Studio at Webster Hall 3/30/10<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S7OAKuomoLI/AAAAAAAABa4/WcW--5mWAJs/s1600/KillolaL2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S7OAKuomoLI/AAAAAAAABa4/WcW--5mWAJs/s400/KillolaL2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454844495481184434" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:90%;">For a girl who's appeared on <span style="font-style: italic;">the Cosby Show</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">King of Queens</span>, Lisa Rieffel is surprising vulgar. Upon taking the Studio at Webster Hall stage Tuesday night with her band Killola, she raised her middle fingers high. She may have lowered them to sing, but for the next sixty minutes they stayed up in spirit.<br /><br />Live, Killola pays winking homage to the snot-nosed brats of early punk. On record the band’s garage-pop tunes are carefully constructed rock and roll throwbacks, but on stage self-awareness vanishes. The <a href="http://killola.com/free/">album giveaways</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuybQTdwWyg">elaborately conceived videos</a> can preach the music’s merits, but only in person does the effect of shoving an audience member’s face in your crotch really come off.<br /><br />With the aid of a hired-gun keyboard player, the quartet thundered out renditions of their garage-pop tunes far grimier than their polished recordings. The music sounded like it was coming from a tin can and the band played like they were trying to be heard over beer pong games at a frat party.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S7N_xwRbqhI/AAAAAAAABaw/LK9KjEwVn50/s1600/KillolaR2.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10pt 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 224px; height: 336px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S7N_xwRbqhI/AAAAAAAABaw/LK9KjEwVn50/s400/KillolaR2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454844066424138258" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:90%;">With song titles like “I Wanna See Your Dick” though, sonic nuance may not be the goal. Sure, the Motown swing of their tunes got lost in the racket, but it’s tough to focus on singing when you’re writhing around on the floor or dangling upside down from a water pipe.<br /><br />When the band closed the show with a wonderfully sloppy cover of “Hey Mickey,” an overly enthusiastic audience member hopped onstage to engage in antics too raunchy to describe without getting this blog flagged by Google. Eventually Rieffel gently told her to settle down. Even crotch-shovers have a limit.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Photos by L.R. Adams (via <a href="http://www.quirkynychic.com/">Quirky NY Chick</a>)</span></span>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-43111237505547804872010-03-27T15:54:00.009-04:002010-03-27T15:59:03.914-04:00David Ford at Union Hall 3/26/10<span style="font-size:90%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S65g91hz5hI/AAAAAAAABZY/FZFdprpWLS0/s1600/DavidFordR.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 342px; height: 227px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S65g91hz5hI/AAAAAAAABZY/FZFdprpWLS0/s400/DavidFordR.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453402814249428498" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:90%;">David Ford walked onto the basement stage at Union Hall carrying two small briefcases. Without a word he started shaking them into an old-fashioned radio mic. Filled with god-knows-what, the briefcases clattered in a violent rhythm like workingman’s maracas. As he shook, he sang. “Well I took me a deep breath and I counted to three / I am nothing at all like I wanted to be / I was born into comfort, I was raised by TV / I am nothing at all like I wanted to be.”<br /><br />With porkpie hat and ratty tie, Ford looked like a small-time huckster and the music fit the role. He stomped like the Cold War Kids busking on a corner. He sang like Tom Waits right when his voice began to go sour. He preached like a one-man Pentecostal revival and if the small crowd wasn’t quite speaking in tongues, by god they were full of the holy spirit.<br /><br />One assumed Ford traveled with a full band. Enough instruments littered the stage that even if he’d played a different one on each song he’d still have a few left over. But he doesn’t play a different one on each song. He plays them all at once.<br /><br />“Panic” began with Ford winding a small music box, the plinking melody recalling an imagined ‘50s childhood. A stomp of a pedal looped the four-bar line so that the music continued when he put the box down. He moved on to a jaunty piano riff, adding it on top of the music box with a second stomp. Thumps on a briefcase. Another stomp. One acoustic guitar line. Stomp. A second. Stomp. O</span><span style="font-size:90%;">rgan, tambourine, drum machine. Stomp, stomp, stomp.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S65h2hXeGgI/AAAAAAAABZo/9AZmCd8PUP8/s1600/DavidFordL2.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 253px; height: 362px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S65h2hXeGgI/AAAAAAAABZo/9AZmCd8PUP8/s400/DavidFordL2.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453403788089891330" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:90%;">After a couple minutes he </span><span style="font-size:90%;">had crafted a junkyard orchestra behind him. Now instrument-less, he hung from a water pipe crying out the cascading word vomit. His voice roared louder and louder as the verses piled on top of each other, the backing music looping endlessly. The cacophony of sound seemed to shake the room. Then one more stomp, and silence.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:90%;">In other hands this looping might have amounted to little more than a neat parlor trick, but in Ford’s it served the songs. In fact, thanks to Union Hall’s terrible sightlines, some people in the audience may not have even realized he was playing all these instruments live. It wouldn’t have mattered…though they might have suspected something was up when Ford’s created so many voice loops for “Go to Hell” it sounded like a Gregorian choir onstage.<br /><br />It says a lot about Ford</span><span style="font-size:90%;">’s writing that the songs in which he didn’t loop a thing were just as powerful. Sitting alone at the piano, Ford poured the emotional honesty of a wedding vow into “Song for the Road.” On acoustic guitar, “Requiem” poetically lamented “the gradual decline of civilization into the pit of hell” (a description that, he wryly noted, could apply to many of his songs).<br /><br />When song, performance and passion came together, the effect bordered on catharsis. Fans singing along to “State of the Union,” the emotional climax of the show, didn’t seem to realize they were doing so. The cries that followed lines like “Come on Jesus Christ, come back, all is forgiven” and (strangely) “Heroin tastes like ice cream” sounded like an involuntary release.<br /><br />The night’s only awkward moment came after Ford bowed and walked off. He was clearly not going to do an encore, but the crowd would not leave. The minutes passed, the cheering mounted.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S65h8A24uUI/AAAAAAAABZw/QEg_0FpZOBE/s1600/DavidFordSetR.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 203px; height: 306px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S65h8A24uUI/AAAAAAAABZw/QEg_0FpZOBE/s400/DavidFordSetR.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453403882442504514" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:90%;">Finally Ford slunk back onstage…to explain why he doesn’t do encores. He gently chastised the crowd, saying the encore loses all meaning when it becomes a predetermined part of the show. Yet try though he might to talk himself offstage, the hooting and hollering continued. He paused, seemed to mull something over, then said the words that got perhaps the most explosive cheer of the night: “Fuck it, it’s my last night in Amer</span><span style="font-size:90%;">ica, why not?”<br /><br />By audience request, he</span><span style="font-size:90%;"> performed “Katie” and “Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck).” As the sing-along at the end of the latter grew to deafening levels, it was hard to imagine that he had considered ending the night without it. Shouted by an audience trying desperately to give something back, “La la la” had never felt so meaningful.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >SET LIST</span><span style="font-size:90%;"><br />Nothing At All<br />Panic<br />I Don’t Care What You Call Me<br />To Hell with the World<br />She’s Not the One<br />Stephen<br />Requiem<br />Go to Hell<br />Waiting for the Storm<br />State of the Union<br />Song for the Road<br />---<br />Katie<br />Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck)</span>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-28668810620683566952010-03-22T09:45:00.006-04:002010-03-22T09:53:42.761-04:00Air at Terminal 5 3/20/10<span style="font-size:90%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S6d1UVkh_jI/AAAAAAAABYg/_MgPXsYCizA/s1600-h/Air2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 414px; height: 275px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S6d1UVkh_jI/AAAAAAAABYg/_MgPXsYCizA/s400/Air2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451454866203475506" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:90%;"><br />In the three years since Air last touched down on U.S. soil, a lot has changed. Mario Cotillard won an Oscar for her portrayal of Édith Piaf in </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:90%;" >La Vie En Rose</span><span style="font-size:90%;">. Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of Serge) got major indie cred by releasing an album with Beck. Phoenix was interviewed by Snooki on the Grammys red carpet.<br /><br />When Air came on the scene ten years ago with the critical favorite </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:90%;" >Moon Sa</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:90%;" >fari</span><span style="font-size:90%;">, the idea of a French electro-lounge act selling out the 3,000-person capacity Terminal 5 would have seemed absurd. Their songs never progress much beyond sensual slowjam, yet on a warm Friday night the venue was bursting with kids ready to rock, or at least stand around delicately sipping gin and tonics.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S6d1azYcgoI/AAAAAAAABYo/B_9h1nybJrE/s1600-h/AirNickR.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 325px; height: 216px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S6d1azYcgoI/AAAAAAAABYo/B_9h1nybJrE/s400/AirNickR.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451454977285063298" border="0" /></a>Electro-lounge combines two genres that have difficulty coming across live, a fact of which this duo is clearly aware. Hired-gun drummer Alex Thomas (Bat for Lashes, Badly Drawn Boy) pounded out the dance beats at a volume far surpassing the recorded versions and a fancy video screen flashed various lighted effects to compensate for the lack of onstage movement. At a seated theater or club this might have sufficed, but the audience packed onto Terminal 5’s hot ballroom floor seemed ready to topple any moment.<br /><br />To be sure, the music was there. Many of the older songs enjoyed new arrangements, some pretty drastic. The inevitable “Sexy Boy,” for instance, found its funky bass line submerged under an ocean of synth shimmer while “La Femme d’Argent” turned into a wall-of-sound jam.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S6d1lrZ1QaI/AAAAAAAABYw/UX4drRA1bh8/s1600-h/AirJean.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 325px; height: 216px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S6d1lrZ1QaI/AAAAAAAABYw/UX4drRA1bh8/s400/AirJean.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451455164121956770" border="0" /></a>Impressive though their musical dexterity was though, music this laid-back is best enjoyed while half-asleep on a sunny afternoon. Air is the soundtrack to the imagination, but it’s hard to let the mind drift with the constant threat of a stray elbow or martini surrounding you.<br /><br />The half-hearted attempt at visuals only underscored the static onstage. The high-powered animations were mostly excuses to display the band’s name, swirling and surging like a Windows screensaver. A screensaver can be fun to watch for a few minutes, but pretty soon you either want to shake the computer awake or go do something else.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:90%;" >SET LIST</span><span style="font-size:90%;"><br />Do the Joy<br />So Light is Her Footfall<br />Love<br />Remember<br />Venus<br />J’ai Dormi<br />Missing the Light of Day<br />Tropical Disease<br />People In The City<br />Don’t Be Light<br />Radian<br />Cherry Blossom Girl<br />Be a Bee<br />Talisman<br />How Does It Make You Feel?<br />Alpha Beta Gaga<br />Kelly Watch the Stars!<br />---<br />Heaven’s Light<br />Sexy Boy<br />La Femme d’Argent</span>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-57200647864830403182010-03-12T11:06:00.006-05:002010-03-12T11:26:39.552-05:00The National in Brooklyn 3/11/10It’s been years since the National have qualified as a “Brooklyn band.” Last summer <a href="http://the3penguins.blogspot.com/2009/08/all-points-west-day-1-73109.html">they packed the All Points West main stage</a> despite pouring rain and this summer promises to be even bigger, with a sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall in June and another gig a month later at Prospect Park. So when they announced two last-minute gigs at Brooklyn’s tiny Bell House, demand was high. Like, <a href="http://twitter.com/BellHouseNY/status/10184758976">sell out in under a minute</a> high.<br /><br />And for good reason. Last night’s tour opener promised the chance for fans to get a first look at song from their anticipated-is-an-understatement <span style="font-style: italic;">High Violet</span>, due May 11. The band did not disappoint, playing eleven new songs with a horn section, violin/piano player, second piano player, and second drummer. National + brass is always incredible (see: “Fake Empire) and <span style="font-style: italic;">High Violet</span> looks to be their brassiest yet, with a trumpet and trombone playing on every song last night.<br /><br />The set opened with “Blood Buzz, OH,” proving that, though the National are generally pretty smooth operators, they can get loud. Though none of the new songs quite hit the volume level of <span style="font-style: italic;">Alligator</span>, they bring more energy than <span style="font-style: italic;">Boxer</span>’s slow jams. “Little Faith (Chromehorse)” boasted a distortion pedal-led intro that may be the loudest thing they’ve ever done (it quieted down when the singing began).<br /><br />The new songs stay true to the honed National sound, but incorporate some unexpected influences. “Sorrow” featured Bryce Dessner playing near-surf guitar on the verses, while “Ghost” sounded like Quentin Tarantino directing a Western. A few new instruments took center stage too, like some type of pump keyboard (“Afraid of Everyone”) and a bowed guitar (“Vanderlyle”).<br /><br />For a group known for their sonic tightness, the band members were borderline unhinged as their energy bounced off the walls of the tiny club. Dressed in a dapper three-piece suit, lead singer Matt Berninger knocked over everything in sight (“That’s how you know he’s nervous,” guitarist Aaron Dessner quipped), leaning into the crowd so far that he fell on audience members, who were more than happy to nudge him back onstage.<br /><br />Matt may have been anxious about the new songs, but the band’s only falter came on “Start a War,” the first old (read: already released) song of the night. Despite having the first line to every song written on his set list (see below), Matt forgot the lyrics halfway through the first verse. “These songs are so old!” he exclaimed.<br /><br />Old, maybe, but the audience, which included Michael Stipe of R.E.M., ate them up. The band’s seven “old” choices were obvious but appropriate, hitting both the high-voltage hollers and mellow meanderings of their most popular songs. “Abel” delivered a full-throttle scream while Matt lurched and jerked among the amplifiers. On “Mr. November,” he left the stage entirely, running then crawling through the audience, grabbing a random girl from the audience to tow along. When the horns came in on set-closer “Fake Empire,” it was the emotional release after a full-concert build.<br /><br />By the time the band closed their encore with “Terrible Love” (played the previous night on <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/134071/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-the-national---terrible-love?c=Comedy#s-p1-sr-i1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Late Night with Jimmy Fallon</span></a>), they seemed wrecked, but convinced they’d gotten the songs across. If last night’s show was any indication, <span style="font-style: italic;">High Violet</span> may be their best yet, bridging the divide between rocking and crooning more than their previous releases. May 11th has never seemed so far off.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">SET LIST (<span style="font-style: italic;">Matt's</span>)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.covermesongs.com/Misc/TheNationalSetlist.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 425px; height: 568px;" src="http://www.covermesongs.com/Misc/TheNationalSetlist.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-73459283073766006252010-03-04T11:01:00.010-05:002010-03-04T11:36:03.399-05:00The Music of the Who at Carnegie Hall 3/2/10<span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_Ykoi1c6I/AAAAAAAABVY/7bgq8IFAeYA/s1600-h/WhoTributeCarnegie.gif"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 311px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_Ykoi1c6I/AAAAAAAABVY/7bgq8IFAeYA/s400/WhoTributeCarnegie.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444808598384636834" border="0" /></a></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">The Who have been enjoying a career resurgence in the l</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ast few years, with</span><span style="font-size:85%;">out really trying. They’ve been honored by Pres. Bush at the Kennedy Center and played the Super Bowl, all without putting out a new </span><span style="font-size:85%;">album or touring. Last night they were the inspiration for a 2.5-hour</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> tribute concert at Carnegie Hall. Tho</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ugh Townshend apparently declined his invitation to appear (Roger Daltrey is off on tour with Eri</span><span style="font-size:85%;">c Clapton) and </span><span style="font-size:85%;">the Pix</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ies’ Frank Black canceled at the last minute, 21 artists picked up the slack, including a surprise</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> performer who always seems to turn up at these things.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_YqQZHdpI/AAAAAAAABVg/bfw6QWZdAqw/s1600-h/WhoBernstein.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 231px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_YqQZHdpI/AAAAAAAABVg/bfw6QWZdAqw/s400/WhoBernstein.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444808694980638354" border="0" /></a>Sex Mob trumpet player </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Steven Bernstein</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> opened the show with, appropriately enough for the venue, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Tommy</span> Overture. He played very litt</span><span style="font-size:85%;">le though, turning the heavy lifting over to house band Rich Pagano & the Sugarcane Cups and the </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Music Unites Youth Choir</span><span style="font-size:85%;">. The subtlety of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Tommy</span> score doesn’t exactly come through when belted by forty overly enthusiastic teenagers, who went so far as to sing the electric guitar part of “Pinball Wizard” (“dun-duu</span><span style="font-size:85%;">uuunnn”). Pagano’s bongo solo didn’t help.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Living Colour</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> came out looking like an old episode of <span style="font-style: italic;">Family Matters</span>, but the soul-funk veterans ripped into the lesser-known “Eminence Front” (off the Who’s decidedly non</span><span style="font-size:85%;">-classic <span style="font-style: italic;">It’s Hard</span>) with a wall of guitar and seemingly nonstop bass soloing by Doug Wimbash. The Afro-pop sound suited the song’s many parts, as the band hopped and bopped around.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_Y2SRPbzI/AAAAAAAABVo/WsDckhcI4Kg/s1600-h/WhoSondre.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 235px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_Y2SRPbzI/AAAAAAAABVo/WsDckhcI4Kg/s400/WhoSondre.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444808901642907442" border="0" /></a>Norway’s </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >So</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >n</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >d</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >re L</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >erche</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> ca</span><span style="font-size:85%;">me out wit</span><span style="font-size:85%;">h just an acoustic guitar – rarely a good sign. However, his guitar playing on “I’m a Boy” paid obvious homage to Who virtuos</span><span style="font-size:85%;">o…Keith Moon? Lerche’s guitar playing owed more to Moon’s drum attack than Townshend's windmills, attacking the chords with a stop-start rhythm that traded big chords for rhythmic fills, including an instrumental break that sounded like a drum solo plus melody.<br /><br />Thanks to that youth choir, </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Kaki King</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> performed only the second-worst “Pinball Wizard” of the evening, feebly approximating the guitar part as if she wasn’t entirely sure how it went. Reedeming the performance somewhat was a partner playing some sort of feedback machine, squalling out noises that filled Carnegie Hall and a</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ll but drowned out King. Not that that was a bad thing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_ZDdDl-eI/AAAAAAAABVw/ZeX6zCEoBXY/s1600-h/WhoPostelles.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 198px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_ZDdDl-eI/AAAAAAAABVw/ZeX6zCEoBXY/s400/WhoPostelles.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444809127876753890" border="0" /></a>When <a href="http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-32245-NY-Local-Music-Examiner%7Ey2010m2d10-Interview-The-Postelles">I interviewed <span style="font-weight: bold;">the Postelles</span> a few weeks back</a>, they spilled the beans that they would be performing “I Can’t Explain.” From a band that takes such obv</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ious influence from the British Invasion, picturing this cover was not a challenge. Give them credit for being the first band of the evening to actually sound like the Who though, roaring through the ban</span><span style="font-size:85%;">d’s first single with obvious delight.<br /><br />Israeli songwriter </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Asaf Avidan</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> made the bold choice of ignoring the Who’s catalogue completely and instead imitating Melissa Etheridge strangling a cat. Wait...the program says that was “Naked Eye” off <span style="font-style: italic;">Who’s Next</span>? Could’ve fooled me.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_ZyQeIw0I/AAAAAAAABV4/1sZUn9CuYEs/s1600-h/WhoMoseAllison.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 234px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_ZyQeIw0I/AAAAAAAABV4/1sZUn9CuYEs/s400/WhoMoseAllison.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444809931952276290" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Mose Allison</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> continued the one-two punch of awful, paying tribute</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> to himself with </span><span style="font-size:85%;">“Young Man Blues.” Yes, I realize the Wh</span><span style="font-size:85%;">o covered your song countless times</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> when they were </span><span style="font-size:85%;">younger, but if you’re not even going to play their version it’s just bragging. And follo</span><span style="font-size:85%;">wing it up with a recent sequel “Old Man Blues”? Tacky.<br /><br />Count on </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Bob Mould</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> of Hüsker Dü to get things back on track. What the program listed as a <span style="font-style: italic;">The </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Who Sell Out</span> medley was mainly just “I Can’t Reach You,” complete with a windmill or two on his roaring sky-blue guitar.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_aM_u5U2I/AAAAAAAABWA/HggjR6ZOqHM/s1600-h/WhoNicoleAtkins.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 247px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_aM_u5U2I/AAAAAAAABWA/HggjR6ZOqHM/s400/WhoNicoleAtkins.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444810391315632994" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Nicole Atkins</span><span style="font-size:85%;">' gorgeous voice tried to soar on “The Song Is Over," but th</span><span style="font-size:85%;">e</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> Sugarcanes’ leaden backing kept dragging her back to earth. Throughout the evening they proved better on the early punkish Who than tackling the grander orchestral scope of the band’s later years, where it seemed to be all they could do to just hang on.<br /><br />This made “Love Ain’t for Keeping,” also off </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Who’s Next</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, a particularly poor choice. Muddy sound didn’t help their case as, after an introductory speech comparing Keith Moon to Levon Hel</span><span style="font-size:85%;">m, </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Pagano</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">proved that unlike the legendary voice behind “The Weight” he could not competently drum and sing at the same time.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_ajJyXRiI/AAAAAAAABWI/nk3xkd6RXtY/s1600-h/WhoRaulMidon.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 212px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_ajJyXRiI/AAAAAAAABWI/nk3xkd6RXtY/s400/WhoRaulMidon.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444810771971655202" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Judge </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Raul Madón</span><span style="font-size:85%;">’s performance by the applause: polite as he entered the stage, thunderous (and standing) as he exited. This blind guitarist turned “I Can See for Miles” into a flamenco rave up, tapp</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ing on his guit</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ar like Rodrigo y Gabriela as his beautiful tenor reached the Carnegie rafters. The gorge</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ous faux-trumpet solo made people strain to see the instrument; no way a sound this pure was simply coming from his vocal chords. It was.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Bobby McFer</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >r</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >in</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, the man behind “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” continued the world-music vibe with an a cappella “My Generation.” Accompanied only by his hand thumping his chest, he half-scat, half-beatboxed his way through one of the most creative interpretations of the night. The song hit its peak as he riffed through John Entwhistle’s classic bass solos though, otherwise, it seemed this approach might have been better suited to a different tune, something off <span style="font-style: italic;">Quadrophenia</span> perhaps.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_aw7KsxJI/AAAAAAAABWQ/Rx-4-y7ig74/s1600-h/WhoSmithereens.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 199px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_aw7KsxJI/AAAAAAAABWQ/Rx-4-y7ig74/s400/WhoSmithereens.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444811008565363858" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Th</span><span style="font-size:85%;">e Who drew on the blues for much of the earlie</span><span style="font-size:85%;">r work, but that side got little notice Wednesday night. Only college rock veterans </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >the Smithereens</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> hinted at the bloozier side of the band with their choice of “The Seeker.” Pat DiNizio roared through a punked-out version that tacked on the “Sparks” outro from <span style="font-style: italic;">Tommy</span> after, blasting like a rocket.<br /><br />Another unexpected high point came with </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Matt Nathanson</span><span style="font-size:85%;">’s “The Real Me,” delivered</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> primarily on acoustic guitar, strummed spastically while a bass drum thumped away in the background. Nathanson attacked the microphone like a python, darting towards it and back away.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_a-Qe4zTI/AAAAAAAABWY/8L4KYAbxCys/s1600-h/WhoLaVette.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 208px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_a-Qe4zTI/AAAAAAAABWY/8L4KYAbxCys/s400/WhoLaVette.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444811237625482546" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Pete Townshend has said soul legend </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Bettye LaVette</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> brought him to tears with her version of “Love, Reign O’er M</span><span style="font-size:85%;">e” at the Kennedy Center Honors. Where there she had the benef</span><span style="font-size:85%;">it of a full band though, at Carnegie it was just her and pianist/arranger Rob Mathis performing an arrangement that the louder it got, the more fragile it became. The woman’s voice deserves </span><span style="font-size:85%;">a Carnegie Hall tribute itself and if she milked the vocal riffing a little, blame the lack of drums to keep things in time.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">The Sugarcanes </span><span style="font-size:85%;">were back to support ex-Drive-By Trucker </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Jason Isbell</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> on a pedestrian version of “Behind Blue Eyes.” As often happens with this tune, it didn’t really take off until the bridge (you know, the “When my fist clenches, crack it open” part).<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_bKTmgSRI/AAAAAAAABWg/syoEoiQUf8k/s1600-h/WhoFab.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 205px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_bKTmgSRI/AAAAAAAABWg/syoEoiQUf8k/s400/WhoFab.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444811444621166866" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">A Beatles trib</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ute band? Did the people scheduling this thing sink so low? Maybe they knew something the rest of us didn’t, because </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >the Fab Faux</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> (who, to their eternal credit, didn’t dress like </span><span style="font-size:85%;">or otherwise really try to imitate the Beatles) performed the hell out of the longest cover of the night, ripping through the entire “We’re Not Gonna Take It” from <span style="font-style: italic;">Tommy</span>. The problem with these tribute shows is that only being on a couple minutes no band has time to </span><span style="font-size:85%;">establish a mood or repartee with the audience. Not a problem if you play for ten minutes, building the repetitive “Listening to you” bit at the end to a crescendo they rode all the way to the fin</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ish.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_bZ9Bd3gI/AAAAAAAABWo/HbZ7CJHcEs4/s1600-h/WhoWillie.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 360px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_bZ9Bd3gI/AAAAAAAABWo/HbZ7CJHcEs4/s400/WhoWillie.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444811713438146050" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The energy continued with </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Willie Nile</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, an upstate rocker who never got the notice he deserves despite a long friendship with Bruce Springsteen. He hobbled onstage with a crutch, but his performance made it unclear</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> whether it was a prop or he was defying doctors orders as he played air guitar on it, lashed out at the audience with it, and threw it across the stage on several occasions. Doing “The Kids Are Alright” with the Sugarcanes (the best they pla</span><span style="font-size:85%;">yed all night), this seemed appropriate. Bonus points for a quick “Happy Jack” outro.<br /><br />Harvey Danger frontman Sean Nelson and Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye joined </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Robyn Hitchcock</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> onstage where, a</span><span style="font-size:85%;">fter Robyn rambled for a few minutes about the “loser culture,” they began to sing: “Her man’s been gone nigh on a year…” Fantastic! Were they really going to do the entire ten-minute epic “A Quick One, While He’s Away”? Sadly, no they were not. This tease went into a take on “Substitute” that, while thoroughly competent, just came off as a disappointment. Don’t promise what you can’t (or won’t) deliver.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_bziRFUyI/AAAAAAAABWw/X996_Yg_nms/s1600-h/WhoGaslight.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_bziRFUyI/AAAAAAAABWw/X996_Yg_nms/s400/WhoGaslight.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444812152932487970" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >The Gasligh</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >t Anthem</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> made no such pretensions. Guitarist Alex Rosamilia turned the synth intro of “Baba O’Riley” into a fast-and-furious guitar part before Brian Fallon Joe Strummer-ed his way through it. The band didn’t blow minds like <a href="http://the3penguins.blogspot.com/2009/10/gaslight-anthem-at-brooklyn-bowl-101609.html">they sometimes do</a>, but it was still an excellent choice to close the show.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">Except…who was this onstage now? All the scheduled performers had finished, but Carnegie had one more surprise in store: </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Patti Smith</span><span style="font-size:85%;">. “Carnegie Hall, forgive me for what I am about to do” she said before ripping through her punk-as-hell “My Generation,” a song she played in the early ‘70s, light on melody and heavy on feedback. “I don’t need their fucking shit!” she spat. “Hope I die because of it!” A beat poetry message about taking the world back from the corporations followed, delivered to the tune of her ripping the strings off her guitar.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_ctfx9EKI/AAAAAAAABXA/7GhAyrxBe0E/s1600-h/WhoAllStar.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 238px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_ctfx9EKI/AAAAAAAABXA/7GhAyrxBe0E/s400/WhoAllStar.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444813148697464994" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The night ended, as these nights always do, with the inevitably all-star jam. The song was “Won’t Get Fooled Again," the only major hit not yet performed (no, "Boris the Spider" does not count). It sounded terrible, as these things always do, but was an absolute blast to watch. Willie Nile and Bettye LaVette took charge as most people just danced around or sang in the background. Nicole Atkins appeared for the Daltrey-worthy scream before disappearing in the background while Patti Smith decided she didn’t care about all this and just leapt into the audience and danced. A suitably irreverent way to end the evening.<br /><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_cUsGS-mI/AAAAAAAABW4/_nlC-NnQsqo/s1600-h/WhoPatti.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 241px; height: 318px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S4_cUsGS-mI/AAAAAAAABW4/_nlC-NnQsqo/s400/WhoPatti.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444812722507283042" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >SET LIST</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Steven Bernstein & Music Unites Choir – </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Tommy</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> Overture<br />Living Colour – Eminence Front<br />Sondre Lerche – I’m a Boy<br />Kaki King – Pinball Wizard<br />The Postelles – I Can’t Explain<br />Asaf Avidan – Naked Eye<br />Mose Allison – Young Man Blues<br />Bob Mould – I Can’t Reach You<br />Nicole Atkins – The Song Is Over<br />Rich Pagano & the Sugarcane Cups – Love Ain’t for Keeping<br />Raul Midón – I Can See for Miles<br />Bobby McFerrin – My Generation<br />The Smithereens – Sparks/The Seeker<br />Matt Nathanson – The Real Me<br />Bettye LaVette –Love Reign O’er Me<br />Jason Isbell – Behind Blue Eyes<br />Fab Faux – We’re Not Gonna Take It<br />Willie Nile – This Kids Are Alright<br />Robyn Hitchcock – Substitute<br />The Gaslight Anthem – Baba O’Riley<br />Patti Smith – My Generation<br />Everyone – Won’t Get Fooled Again<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(photos by <a href="http://saedhindash.com/">Saed Hindash</a>, via <a href="http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2010/03/the_who_tribute_everyone_from.html">the NJ Star-Ledger</a>)</span><br /></span>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-69027444101423492572010-01-30T20:39:00.012-05:002010-01-30T20:50:30.131-05:00Les Savy Fav at the Brooklyn Academy of Music 1/29/10<span style="font-size:90%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2Tfh_wkhLI/AAAAAAAABTI/1yHafzojNaA/s1600-h/LesSavyFav.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2Tfh_wkhLI/AAAAAAAABTI/1yHafzojNaA/s400/LesSavyFav.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432712825659491506" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:90%;"><br />Tim Harrington came onstage in purple tights. He had clothespins fastened tightly to his beard like a Walmart witchdoctor and sported a tan tunic. This latter didn’t last long though, as Tim prefers to put his corpulent belly front and center.<br /><br />Tim didn’t say a word, and his band was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he silently danced around the stage for four or five minutes, leaping and twirling and stopping short and glaring at the audience. The macabre ballet soon entered the aisles, Tim waltzing up and down with entranced gazes trailing in his wake.<br /><br />Did I mention this was happening in an opera hall, the sort of place that shows Shakespeare’s <span style="font-style:italic;">The Tempest</span> (this month) and Chekhov’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Uncle Vanya</span> (next)? The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House may have played host to the proceedings, but no reverence was spared for this most illustrious of spaces. By the time Tim’s band, Les Savy Fav, joined him onstage, all high-art pretentions had vanished. “If you sit in your chairs like this is a fucking art show, it becomes a fucking art show,” Tim cajoled as he physically maneuvered audience members into standing positions in front of the stage.<br /><br />So began the Sounds Like Brooklyn festival, an annual celebration of the music of New York’s most creative borough.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2TfpAPAqCI/AAAAAAAABTQ/nqfUW3hZOOY/s1600-h/LesSavyFavBand.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2TfpAPAqCI/AAAAAAAABTQ/nqfUW3hZOOY/s400/LesSavyFavBand.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432712946046248994" border="0" /></a>Many terms are thrown about to encapsulate just what it is Les Savy Fav do. “Post-hardcore.” “Art rock.” “Fugazi meets Bloc Party.” Words cannot encapsulate the frenzied insanity of a Les Savy Fav concert though. Harrington yips and yelps and shrieks all over the stage as a backing quartet pounds out thundering riffage and swirling noise explosions. A packed hall of fans jump and scream and sweat along with the band while those not in the know (in this case the Academy’s season-ticket holders) look on in, at best, bemusement.<br /><br />It would be easy to review this show by simply listing all the crazy things Harrington did -- riding a good-natured fan around the room like a horse, inflating a Hefty-bag snake for audience crowd-surfing, donning a monkey costume and, when accused of looking feline, busting out an ape-themed parody of “Memory” from Cats -- but the real story of a Les Savy Fav show is the communion between band and fan.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2TfwP4K36I/AAAAAAAABTY/RfKia33AEKs/s1600-h/LesSavyFavMonkey.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 234px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2TfwP4K36I/AAAAAAAABTY/RfKia33AEKs/s400/LesSavyFavMonkey.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432713070504501154" border="0" /></a>Harrington breaks down the divide between performer and audience to the extent that you don’t feel like you’re watching a great show; you feel like you’re helping create one. He spends half his time down among the people, jumping with fans, singing with fans, and playfully heckling anyone who seems to be holding back. “I didn’t realize how much our audience depended on being wasted,” he remarked when crowd participation faltered Friday. “It’s kind of their thing.<br /><br />By the time the band threw down their instruments and roared offstage ninety minutes after they begun -- no encore when you give it all the first time around -- even the most sober was left gasping for air. As the crowd went their separate ways down the cold Brooklyn streets, people walked with a conspiratorial gleam in their eye, like they knew they had been a part of something. Maybe it was art after all.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:90%;" >Photos by This Week In New York (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/twi-ny/sets/72157623188500633/">via Flickr</a>)</span>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-65409459471473957142010-01-29T12:40:00.002-05:002010-01-29T12:42:02.025-05:00Cold War Kids at the Music Hall of Williamsburg 1/28/10<span style="font-size:90%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2Mb0S2hTEI/AAAAAAAABSg/rj5UcISFkN4/s1600-h/ColdWarKids1.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 288px; height: 216px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2Mb0S2hTEI/AAAAAAAABSg/rj5UcISFkN4/s400/ColdWarKids1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432216160766610498" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:90%;">Nothing sinks a band faster than that dreaded c-word: Comp</span><span style="font-size:90%;">lacency. At their sold-out show Thursday night at Brooklyn’s Musi</span><span style="font-size:90%;">c Hall of Williamsburg -- a last-minute addition to their much bigger sold-out show tonight at Terminal 5 -- the Cold War Kids played like professionals doing a job for which the thrill is gone.<br /><br />I last saw the band at Bonnaroo 2007, when their debut <span style="font-style: italic;">Robbers & Cowards</span> was just beginning to get some notice. Playing <a href="http://the3penguins.blogspot.com/2007/06/bonnaroo-day-2-61507.html">a grueling set in the midday sun</a>, the quartet performed like they had everything to prove, ripping through booze-soaked songs about drinking, friendship, and more drinking. They made a lot of converts that day and have made a lot more since, but now that the evangelism has ended the coasting begins.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2Mb6w_k9fI/AAAAAAAABSo/B6UwcRPjA5c/s1600-h/ColdWarKids2.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 254px; height: 339px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2Mb6w_k9fI/AAAAAAAABSo/B6UwcRPjA5c/s400/ColdWarKids2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432216271936878066" border="0" /></a>If you made a checklist of “fun live band” signifiers, the Kids would get high marks. Wander about the stage? Check. Josh around with each other, shoving your bandmates like it’s after-hours at the Bourbon Saloon? Yep. Yet even at their most apparently engaged they seemed to be going through the motions.<br /><br />The crowd tried to compensate with energy of their own, but by show’s end even that felt like an obligation. “I don’t even need to sing this,” Nathan Willett remarked before the final chorus of rousing sing-along “Hang Me Up to Dry,” and he was pretty much right. After three years of performing this song nightly, Willett’s boozy holler went on Autopilot, leaving a gleeful crowd to try to compensate despite an unsteady grasp of the lyrics.<br /><br />Flashes of the old passion poked through, but they were only brief glimpses of sun in an overcast set. Sitting at the piano, Willett belted “Santa Anna Winds,” off the band’s recent <span style="font-style: italic;">Behave Yourself EP</span>, with grit and vigor, and during “Saint John”…well it’s hard to be bored when someone’s playing percussion on a wine bottle.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2McH4Lb85I/AAAAAAAABSw/JSXCluBRNBo/s1600-h/ColdWarKids3.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 273px; height: 364px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2McH4Lb85I/AAAAAAAABSw/JSXCluBRNBo/s400/ColdWarKids3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432216497203966866" border="0" /></a>The Cold War Kids’ classic covers are invariably high points, and in that regard they didn’t disappoint. At Bonnaroo ’07 they took on Tom Waits and Sam Cooke; last night the Americana cover came in the form of “Long As I Can See the Light,” originally by obvious inspirations Creedence Clearwater Revival, though the swampy slow-burn failed to move an audience unfamiliar with the original.<br /><br />The entire evening, the band’s energy dwindled whenever the crowd’s rose. The band put it all on the line for tunes the audience didn’t care about, while the night’s biggest crowd-pleasers received a disinterested delivery. The huge cheer that greeted the opening chords of “Hospital Beds” dwindled to a polite golf-clap by song’s end.<br /><br />At one point in the evening Willett read a passage from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Catcher in the Rye</span> as tribute to the late J.D. Salinger. He chose the section about the ducks in Central Park, but the bit about Holden Caulfield grabbing the brass ring on the carousal might have been more appropriate. After years of stretching for that ring, the Cold War Kids now seem content to just sit back and ride.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Photos by CLme (</span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/clme/sets/72157623181447357/">via Flickr</a><span style="font-style: italic;">)</span><br /></span>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-86517152968162653302010-01-27T12:27:00.011-05:002010-01-28T11:53:45.093-05:00Of Montreal at the Highline Ballroom 1/26/10<span style="font-size:90%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2B3vrRijBI/AAAAAAAABSA/JH1c7UlT2J0/s1600-h/OfMontreal1.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2B3vrRijBI/AAAAAAAABSA/JH1c7UlT2J0/s400/OfMontreal1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431472811562667026" border="0" /></a>Of Montreal has reached a place in their performing career where each show is just a test to top the last one. Two years ago theatrical frontman Kevin Barnes <a href="http://www.youaintnopicasso.com/2008/10/13/of-montreal-roseland-ballroom-101008/" target="_new">rode a horse onstage at the Roseland</a>. More recently he dressed in a centaur outfit and smeared himself with whipped cream at Santos Party House. What could top that at last night’s Highland Ballroom show, announced just a couple weeks ago?<br /><br />Try Susan Sarandon spanking a pig.<br /><br />The evening began after a highly competent pop set by OM drummer James Husband, when five performers in black unitards (the go-to outfit of the evening) and animal masks began to play. Well, "play" is a generous word -- try "make noise with instruments." Regardless, the faked-out crowd rapturously cheered Of Montreal’s arrival…that is until the real band arrived to kicked off the imposters.<br /><br />Sanity-wise, it was all downhill from there. The unitard-clad sidekicks reappeared often throughout the night, doing handstands, flashing strobe lights, or hitting the band with cutouts of fish as the situation dictated (or didn’t). Glow sticks flew through the crowd here, chalk-covered Greek gods wearing tighty-whities posed with apples there. The band, clad in a wardrobe that can only be described as futurist-psychedelia, mugged against video backdrops of swirling neon circles and tigers morphing into bananas. It didn’t make sense, but with the band singing songs titled “</span><span class="" style="font-size:90%;">Heimsdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse</span><span style="font-size:90%;">” would you really expect it to?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2B4Ioj-ezI/AAAAAAAABSI/twNx9KPcJIc/s1600-h/OfMontreal2.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 337px; height: 224px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2B4Ioj-ezI/AAAAAAAABSI/twNx9KPcJIc/s400/OfMontreal2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431473240331418418" border="0" /></a>The campy theatrics peaked during set-closing Morrissey “Everyday Is Like Sunday” when the band reenacted the crucifixion on a spinning wooden cross brought out solely for the occasion. Barnes played the role of half-naked RoboChrist dying for the crowd’s sins before being carried off by his masked (and, now, wigged) assistants. The stations of the cross haven’t carried such a heavy S&M undercurrent since </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:90%;" >The Passion</span><span style="font-size:90%;">.<br /><br />It seems remiss to review a show with no mention of the actual music, but an Of Montreal event (the word concert does not do the spectacle justice) is about what you see, not what you hear. Yes, the band performed their freak-pop with tight focus, treating a crowd of regulars to some back-catalogue chestnuts as well as a new song titled “Teenage Unicorn Fisting.” And yes, longtime favorites like “She's a Rejector” and “For Our Elegant Caste” got the rambunctious crowd jumping and crowd-surfing. But with a band singing lyrics like “I want you to be my pleasure puss,” sonic nuance is hardly the point.<br /><br />Ironically, the music only too center-stage during the least technically proficient song of the evening. Solange Knowles (aka. Beyoncé’s sister) is no stranger to the band, covering “Heat Wave” with them last year and appearing on their upcoming album, but this time the occasion was a gloriously sloppy cover of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.”<br /><br /></span><center><span style="font-size:90%;"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aqdrnUROtnI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aqdrnUROtnI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object></span></center><span style="font-size:90%;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2B4Vp3KAJI/AAAAAAAABSQ/U1kKqt92rEM/s1600-h/OfMontrealSusanSatandon.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 210px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/S2B4Vp3KAJI/AAAAAAAABSQ/U1kKqt92rEM/s400/OfMontrealSusanSatandon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431473464018600082" border="0" /></a>Now, about that pig-spanking. When a fight broke out between two man-pigs, who else but Susan Sarandon could bring peace? Sitting on a crouched Barnes, she bent one of the pigs over a knee to gave it the business end of her ruler (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXY4xKKfvEA" target="_new">video here</a>). Her presence was never explained, but it didn’t really need to be. After all, this is the woman who had sex with a robot in </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:90%;" >Rocky Horror Picture Show</span><span style="font-size:90%;">. So if she wants to explore some onstage school-marm bestiality onstage, let her. At an Of Montreal show, it’s best not to ask questions.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:90%;" >SET LIST</span><span style="font-size:90%;"><br />Suffer For Fashion<br />Mingusings<br />Forecast Fascist Future<br />Du Og Meg<br />Lysergic Bliss<br />Disconnect The Dots<br />Spike The Senses<br />And I’ve Seen a Bloody Shadow<br />Plastis Wafers<br />St. Exquisite’s Confessions<br />Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse<br />Teenage Unicorn Fisting<br />An Eluardian Instance<br />Oslo In The Summertime<br />Everyday Feels Like Sunday (Morrissey cover)<br />A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger<br />She’s a Rejecter<br />[encore break]<br />For Our Elegant Caste<br />I Want You Back (Jackson Five cover)<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=2365" target="_new"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:90%;" >DOWNLOAD RECORDING</span></a><span style="font-size:90%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:90%;" >Photo #1 &#2 by Josh Silk (via <a href="http://bit.ly/7j3qXl" target="_new">SPIN</a>), Photo #3 by Joe Parker (via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeparker/" target="_new">Flickr</a>).</span>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32463346.post-14733261636370732102009-12-23T16:20:00.008-05:002009-12-23T16:25:36.356-05:00The Top 40 Albums of 2009: Part 2<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">Dylan, Etc's Top 40 Albums of 2009</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">Part 2: #1-20</span></span></span><br /></div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />A Memphis punk who relieves himself onstage. A Somalian rapper who describes his country’s civil war in blood-curdling detail. A mysterious group of ABBA wannabes about whom nothing is known save a few cryptic videos. All these artists produced some of this year's best albums. Yesterday we counted down <a href="http://the3penguins.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-40-albums-of-2009-part-1.html" target="_blank">#21-40</a> of the Top 40 Albums of 2009, but those were just twenty small steps leading up to this.<br /><br />Read about the picks (<a href="http://the3penguins.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-40-albums-of-2009-part-1.html" target="_blank">here are the first twenty</a>), listen to the sample MP3s (or download them all at once from a link at the bottom) and feel free to bitch about why this list sucks in the comments. Animal Collective’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Merriweather Post Pavilion</span> has topped just about every other best-of list…find out if it did here too!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6eQx4F6I/AAAAAAAABNo/CVj68gCq43A/s1600-h/jay.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6eQx4F6I/AAAAAAAABNo/CVj68gCq43A/s320/jay.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418527961998956450" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">20. Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall</span><br /></div>Jay Reatard’s roller coaster year has established one fact: the guy is an asshole. He <a href="http://www.prefixmag.com/forum/music/6794/" target="_blank">urinated on his band onstage</a>, then called them “boring rich kids who can't play for ahit <span style="font-style: italic;">[sic]</span> anyways” when they quit. He hates everyone from his peers (Jay to The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: “It must hurt being so bland”) to his fans (Jay to Brooklyn: “Shut up!”) He's such a thoroughly unlikeable individual it’s almost a shame his music is so good. Short punk nuggets pepper <span style="font-style: italic;">Watch Me Fall</span>, smacking the listener in the face then getting out. Hey, it’s better than getting peed on.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/ItAintGonnaSaveMe.mp3">It Ain’t Gonna Save Me</a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6ehfW9PI/AAAAAAAABNw/sZ9vIxycQEo/s1600-h/matt.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 220px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6ehfW9PI/AAAAAAAABNw/sZ9vIxycQEo/s320/matt.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418527966484690162" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">19. Matt the Electrician – Animal Boy</span><br /></div>No, Matt the Electrician is not some take-off on Joe the Plumber (remember him?) and from the sound of “Bridge to Nowhere” he probably wasn’t pounding the pavement for McCain-Palin. Instead, this quiet Texas folkie spends his time writing nice letters to the Walmart Complaints Department (“For Angela”), solving math problems (“Divided By”) and doing ukulele-and-horn Journey covers (“Faithfully”). Not bad for a guy who only a few years ago was wiring houses all day.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/BridgetoNowhere.mp3">Bridge to Nowhere</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6eyUMsAI/AAAAAAAABN4/XLBpV3k4SY4/s1600-h/mika.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6eyUMsAI/AAAAAAAABN4/XLBpV3k4SY4/s320/mika.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418527971001282562" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">18. Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much</span><br /></div>Very British, very Broadway and very, very effeminate -- Mika has long been a man easy to hate. From the sound of it, he couldn’t care less. His second release after 2007’s debut smash <span style="font-style: italic;">Life in Cartoon Motion</span> finds Mika pumping out shamelessly catchy hooks designed to get in your head and stick. Mika’s the <span style="font-style: italic;">Clueless</span> of music: claim you’re too cool all you want, but the grin on your face will betray you.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/WeAreGolden.mp3">We Are Golden</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6fKor48I/AAAAAAAABOA/NzoYq8zJqw4/s1600-h/wolfmother.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6fKor48I/AAAAAAAABOA/NzoYq8zJqw4/s320/wolfmother.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418527977529664450" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">17. Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg</span><br /></div>Led Zeppelin’s back, and comes in the form of a jew-froed Australian. Between the first two Wolfmother albums Andrew Stockdale fired the rest of the band and replaced them with three more Zep devotees who sound identical. The quartet leaves no misty mountain unturned, giving us their Stairway to Heaven (“In the Castle”) and Black Dog (“New Moon Rising”). Wolfmother nails the Zeppelin sound so perfectly, calling them derivative is a compliment.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/NewMoonRising.mp3">New Moon Rising</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6fWsdZeI/AAAAAAAABOI/1LE5mpOLhlQ/s1600-h/elms.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ6fWsdZeI/AAAAAAAABOI/1LE5mpOLhlQ/s320/elms.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418527980766717410" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">16. The Elms – The Great American Midrange</span><br /></div>The Elms come from the same Indiana town that gave the world John Mellencamp, so heartland rock is in their blood. Their small-town themes just might be the story of America though, from hope during hard times (“Strut”) to the desire of the disconnected to discover their roots (“Back to Indiana”). From the sound of things, they’re doing a pretty good job.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/BacktoIndiana.mp3">Back to Indiana</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8gLhSkBI/AAAAAAAABOQ/dclMPYOFhmw/s1600-h/knaan.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8gLhSkBI/AAAAAAAABOQ/dclMPYOFhmw/s320/knaan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418530193970204690" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">15. K’Naan – Troubadour</span><br /></div>Rappers have long boasted about coming from a tougher background than the other guy. Guys, it's over; K’Naan wins, but for him it’s nothing to brag about. Born in Somalia in a neighborhood known as the River of Blood, he experienced the devastating civil war firsthand, only escaping when his mother’s visa was approved on the last day the U.S. Embassy was open. His painfully personal lyrics detail the pains of growing up in war-torn poverty: at age 11 he saw his two best friends shot dead next to him (the third bullet was meant for him), then later that year he casually tossed a rock he'd picked up and blew up half his school (that "rock" turned out to be an active grenade). In spite of it all, hope courses through <span style="font-style: italic;">Troubadour</span>’s veins in optimistic songs like “Dreamer” and “Waving Flag,” the official song of the 2010 World Cup.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/WavinFlag.mp3">Wavin’ Flag</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8gWCWxoI/AAAAAAAABOY/vWUx-EnTCOM/s1600-h/raveonettes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 223px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8gWCWxoI/AAAAAAAABOY/vWUx-EnTCOM/s320/raveonettes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418530196793247362" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">14. The Raveonettes – In and Out of Control</span><br /></div>For a band whose musical sensibilities grow out of the teen-crush pop of Buddy Holly and the Ronnettes (“Rave On” + “Ronettes” = Raveonettes), this Danish duo tackle some mature themes on their fourth albums. Serious songs about overdoses (“Last Dance,” “D.R.U.G.S.”) vie with slightly more cavalier songs about sexual assault (“Boys Who Rape (Should Be Destroyed),” “Break Up Girls!”). Heavy topics aside, the pair’s shoegaze pop has never been sharper -- the fact that the lyrics stuck in your head actually say something is just a nice bonus.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/LastDance.mp3">Last Dance</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8gpZvCUI/AAAAAAAABOg/1jPDoQL0sNI/s1600-h/aceyalone.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8gpZvCUI/AAAAAAAABOg/1jPDoQL0sNI/s320/aceyalone.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418530201991579970" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">13. Aceyalone – Aceyalone & The Lonely Ones</span><br /></div>“Right now I would like to introduce you to my band,” Aceyalone says to introduce this album. “These gentlemen and these lovely ladies I have behind me go by name of the Lonely Ones.” Here’s the catch: the Lonely Ones don’t exist. Though these funky soul grooves sound like the second coming of the Delfonics, they were actually cooked up in the studio by rapper Aceyalone and producer Bionik. If you can’t find the perfect ‘70s samples to rap over, you just gotta create them yourself.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/CantHoldBack.mp3">Can’t Hold Back (ft. Treasure Davis)</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8gwhBuCI/AAAAAAAABOo/xSvUQL6pc6I/s1600-h/florence.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8gwhBuCI/AAAAAAAABOo/xSvUQL6pc6I/s320/florence.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418530203901212706" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">12. Florence and the Machine – Lungs</span><br /></div>“The dog days are over,” Florence Welch sings at the beginning of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lungs</span> and by the time the hearty drum wallops kick in you’re inclined to believe her. This eccentric frontwoman surrounds her tales of heartbreak and excess with delectable power-pop, emphasis on the power. When she sings about domestic abuse on “Kiss with a Fist,” it’s clear this gal hits back.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/DogDaysAreOver.mp3">Dog Days Are Over</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8hL_RzCI/AAAAAAAABOw/o15x99rISyY/s1600-h/shilpa.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ8hL_RzCI/AAAAAAAABOw/o15x99rISyY/s320/shilpa.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418530211275852834" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">11. Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers – A Fish Hook An Open Eye</span><br /></div>Nick Cave called this his favorite new band, and with song titles like “I’m Not Frigid…Yet” and “Woman Sets Boyfriend on Fire” it’s easy to see why. Shilpa’s girl-punk swagger recalls the garage soul of the Detroit Cobras with a macabre twist.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/ImNotFrigidYet.mp3">I’m Not Frigid…Yet</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9QAFW-nI/AAAAAAAABO4/DdpieZn9550/s1600-h/wewerepromised.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9QAFW-nI/AAAAAAAABO4/DdpieZn9550/s320/wewerepromised.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418531015533984370" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">10. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls</span><br /></div>What is it about a Scottish accent? Ever since Franz Ferdinand took over the world in 2004 a hearty brogue has been the height of indie style and We Were Promised Jetpacks wear theirs well. Their swaggering tunes strut and sway in turns, angled hooks giving way to piano codas in defiant blasts of north-of-the-border pride.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/QuietLittleVoices.mp3">Quiet Little Voices</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9QQLHijI/AAAAAAAABPA/ZlTxyy0sPM4/s1600-h/andyouwillknow.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 247px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9QQLHijI/AAAAAAAABPA/ZlTxyy0sPM4/s320/andyouwillknow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418531019853105714" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">9. …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – The Century of Self</span><br /></div>Austin’s …Trail of Dead has never been a band to keep ambition in check. On their sixth full-length, one minute they’re imagining the music of angels and the next they’re reflecting on the violent history of the Khyper Pass. Whatever. The pounding drums and wall-of-distortion guitars speak for themselves.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/IsisUnveiled.mp3">Isis Unveiled</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9RNBWczI/AAAAAAAABPY/c2Nfej1x4Ys/s1600-h/kidharpoon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 248px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9RNBWczI/AAAAAAAABPY/c2Nfej1x4Ys/s320/kidharpoon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418531036186702642" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">8. Kid Harpoon – Once</span><br /></div>September 28 was a long time coming for Kid Harpoon fans. British singer-songwriter Tom Hull released his first single under the Harpoon name in 2006, dropping two incredible EPs since but no album proper. Once was worth the wait. Instead of compiling a bunch of the brilliant EP tracks for a wider audience, Hull released <span style="font-style: italic;">Once</span> with twelve new songs tackling the same old themes. His wharf-rat lyrics hit on auto theft (“Stealing Cars”), rodents (“Running Through Tunnels”) and killing pretty girls (pretty much everything else) but the baroque-pop is as upbeat as ever.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/StealingCars.mp3">Stealing Cars</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9QllL5SI/AAAAAAAABPI/qbCk8ZVNcfQ/s1600-h/deadweather.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 249px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9QllL5SI/AAAAAAAABPI/qbCk8ZVNcfQ/s320/deadweather.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418531025599587618" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">7. The Dead Weather – Horehound</span><br /></div>When Jack White announced his third band at the beginning of the year, fans everywhere wondered why the greatest guitarist of his generation would get behind the drum kit. The answer is still unclear, but the world of music is a better place because he did. Sultry singer Alison Mosshart’s Janis Joplin growl takes center stage while Jack bashes away contentedly like a man who knows he’s proven the skeptics wrong yet again.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/TreatMeLikeYourMother.mp3">Treat Me Like Your Mother</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9Q3mpTZI/AAAAAAAABPQ/nAb22qam1dE/s1600-h/johnfru.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ9Q3mpTZI/AAAAAAAABPQ/nAb22qam1dE/s320/johnfru.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418531030437547410" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. John Frusciante – The Empyrean</span><br /></div>The news recently broke that John Frusciante had quit the Red Hot Chili Peppers after twenty years. Good. One listen to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Empyrean</span> shows his ambitions go far beyond adolescent ditties about californicating. His guitar wails with more soul than a dozen Anthony Kiedises, incorporating everything from gospel to ambient in these sprawling psychedelic epics. Though this move may hurt his pocketbook, giving his eccentric creativity free reign can't be a bad thing at all.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/Central.mp3">Central</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_4H6AIXI/AAAAAAAABPg/8MG_rwULn0I/s1600-h/eels.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_4H6AIXI/AAAAAAAABPg/8MG_rwULn0I/s320/eels.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418533903851856242" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Eels – Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire</span><br /></div>Eels singer “E” may look like a mentally unstable homeless man, but under the monstrous beard lies the soul of a poet, a gruff-voiced balladeer chronicling the ups and downs (mostly downs) of love. “The Look You Give That Guy” portrays the jealous would-be boyfriend imagining what will never be while “In My Dreams” finds quiet hope in what already is.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/InMyDreams.mp3">In My Dreams</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_4WgeZ_I/AAAAAAAABPo/pioDS6JlMJU/s1600-h/musicgo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_4WgeZ_I/AAAAAAAABPo/pioDS6JlMJU/s320/musicgo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418533907771320306" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Music Go Music - Expressions</span><br /></div>If happiness has a soundtrack, Expressions is it. Little is known about Music Go Music aside from <a href="http://www.scjag.com/mp3/sc/justme.mov" target="_blank">a glorious series of ‘70s-cheeze performance videos</a>, but watching them grin through their ABBA-inspired pop anthems tells you all you need to know. It’s not the feel-good album of the year -- it’s the feel-invincible.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/JustMe.mp3">Just Me</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_4pPEuFI/AAAAAAAABPw/ifOn2ZkgI4w/s1600-h/davidbazan.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_4pPEuFI/AAAAAAAABPw/ifOn2ZkgI4w/s320/davidbazan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418533912798607442" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. David Bazan – Curse Your Branches</span><br /></div>There’s a certain irony when a lifetime Christian rocker makes the album of his career the moment he decides God doesn’t exist. Through ten brutally personal songs David Bazan preaches the Gospel of Doubt, describing his fall from faith and the toll it’s taken on the believers around him.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/InStitches.mp3">In Stitches</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_4xw6RmI/AAAAAAAABP4/PNxfGJjPAL0/s1600-h/decemberists.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_4xw6RmI/AAAAAAAABP4/PNxfGJjPAL0/s320/decemberists.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418533915088012898" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love</span><br /></div>It seems the more outlandish the Decemberists’ artistic vision becomes, the better they get. In <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hazards of Love</span> they infuse their Victorian folk with a prog-rock crunch to create a swirling 17-song opera that, not surprisingly, will soon become a movie. Their tragic tale this time concerns a woman torn from her shape-shifting lover by a malicious forest queen and a vengeful widower who gleefully brags about murdering his children in the show-stopping “The Rake’s Song.” Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond’s Sharon Worden come aboard to voice the female characters, but as always it’s Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy’s theatrical vision that holds all the pieces together.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/TheRakesSong.mp3">The Rake’s Song</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_5Iu8OhI/AAAAAAAABQA/0JdEIWBF6-c/s1600-h/balmorhea.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 243px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vv6t1AUV6IY/SzJ_5Iu8OhI/AAAAAAAABQA/0JdEIWBF6-c/s320/balmorhea.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418533921253767698" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Balmorhea – All Is Wild, All Is Silent</span><br /></div>Few bands could credibly list among their influences French composer Claude Debussy, post-rock pioneers the Six Parts Seven, and country singer Gillian Welch. On an album that gets richer with each listen though, Texas sextet Balmorhea do indeed sound like the bastard child of all three. To put it another way, imagine Beethoven conducting Fleet Foxes through a set of instrumental Sigur Rós covers. <span style="font-style: italic;">All Is Wild</span>’s nine tracks spin tales too vast to be confined to the spoken word, too emotional for verse-chorus-verse narration. The world Balmorhea creates encompasses snow-capped mountains, isolated brooks, forest clearings. Don’t analyze it, just let the experience take hold.<br /><a href="http://covermesongs.com/MP3s/Bestof2009/Settler.mp3">Settler</a><br /><br />Th-th-th-that’s all folks! See you in 2010.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Download all MP3s featured in this post </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A3PBBST6" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-style: italic;">. For #21-40, click <a href="http://the3penguins.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-40-albums-of-2009-part-1.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span>Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146900707159083819noreply@blogger.com3