2011

Bibio - Mind Bokeh
Monastics - Topography
Clams Casino - Clams Casino
Shlomo - Bad Vibes
Boduf Songs - This Alone Above All Else In Spite Of Everything
Atlas Sound - Parallax
The Scoobie Brothers - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe
Rothko - Eleven Stages Of Intervention
tune yards - W H O K I L L
Buke & Gass - Riposte
BMSR - Extra Flavor (Dandelion Gum outtakes)
Slugabed - Ultra Heat Treated
Andy Stott - Passed Me By
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Junip - Fields
Jürgen Müller - Science Of The Sea

check em out!

-ej

2011 Picks

This year I got more into older music than any new stuff that was coming out.  That said, here are my picks for the best stuff that I heard that came out this year.

-When Saints go Machine, Konkylie
These guys do some really interesting voice-as-instrument stuff, paired with really rich synthetic tones that walk a nice line between the abstract and Depeche Mode pop.

-Obits, Moody, Standard, and Poor
Rick Froberg uses blues-rock to tell you how it is.  Yes, it is shitty.

-A Winged Victory for the Sullen, S/T
What would happen if two guys tried to make Millions Now Living Will Never Die after listening to Gorecki's 3rd about a million times.

-Bibio, Mind Bokeh
I imagine that if you replaced the music in all the movie adaptations of Clive Barker novels with something pretty and soothing, this is what it would sound like.

-Junior Boys, It's All True
If we allow ourselves to pretend that George Michael's output dropped off in the '90s not because he was fighting with his label, but because he was hard at work on an only whispered-about masterpiece whose working title was "I Want Your Sex Pt. 3", we can also allow ourselves to pretend that this is the long-awaited fruition of that long endeavor.

-Destroyer, Kaputt
stream of consciousness musing, call a woman's name, drop an f-bomb, repeat.

-Cut Copy, Zonoscope
Men at Work, Paul Simon, others, big bright Australian production.

-Atlas Sound, Parallax
 Yes, of course.

-True Widow, As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth


-College, The Northern Council

Favorite new stuff from 2011

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been very active here, but i'll really try to do a better job next year!!! Here's a short list of the 2011 records that I liked the most! (in no particular order)

Dakota Suite and Emanuele Errante - The North Green Down
Liro Rantala - Lost Heroes
Francesco Tristano - Idiosynkrasia
Nils Frahm - Felt
Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
Jd Mc Pherson - Signs and Signifiers
Hauschka - Salon Des Amateurs
Beirut - The Rip Tide
Destroyer - Kaputt
James Blake - James Blake

My 2011 list

Imaginary Softwoods: maybe I heard some of this in 2010 but I finally got Spectrolite via the DC wax-to-digital, which pre-Spotify was pretty cool. This is just some of my favorite stuff, so beautiful, but stays away from the touchy/feelyness of new age. It makes me want to quietly pass away someday listening to this taking in a Huxley/Leary-like dose of psychedelics. I've probably listened to this hundreds of times this year.

King Krule (formerly Zoo Kid): you see a lot of posts on Facebook of music stuff and if you're like me you skip most of it. a guy I don't even know well posted a video of Zoo Kids' "Out Getting Ribs" and I clicked and have become a big fan. Maybe it was the title of the song, which I don't think has anything to do with anything, that got me to click, not sure. It's just a killer song, low-fi, and the guy's got a cool baritone voice dripping with English attitude. I became more of a fan when I started reading about him and found out he's Archy Marshall, 17 year old, tall, pale, skinny ginger kid who is totally unimpressed with rising success, cold chilling in sweatpants at CMJ and just not giving a shit. Not that much already out there from this guy but check out "the Noose of Jah City" and tell me that shit's not great. He's playing Glasslands in Williamsburg on 1/13 and I got a ticket, psyched for that show.

Grouper -- Alien Observer / A I A Dream Loss: I have really liked all of Grouper's music, her ethereal vocals have soothed my insomniac soul (along with copious scotch) on many an evening, but I didn't take to this right away. But after a little while, sure that there was something that I didn't quite get I began to feel this one too, in the same places. I just found (thanks Spotify!) the part two aspect, Dream Loss, to this.

Aglaia: I don't know that much about this, but I think it's two dudes from Italy. I got a few of their albums in 2011 and now have access to several more via Spotify. Another deep ambient trip, veering towards new age, another great one for the late/early hours, listening brings you back to floating in amniotic bliss, unaware yet ecstatic, great music for drifting off or waking up to.

Real Estate--Days: Another I tried the mediafire trick on, didn't work, and I gave up and sort of forget about but then got on Spotify and now I get to like (that sentence made me dizzy, sorry). An album I definitely wouldn't have bought (maybe if it was $5?) but now I'm more a fan of the band and would really like to check them out live. The music reviewers do a good job describing these guys and their blissed-out suburban stoner vibe and those mid-tempo or slow ones are what I'm most into, in fact I got "Kinder Blumen" going right now as I type this.

Kurt Vile: When I first heard "Smoke Ring for my Halo" my reaction wasn't good, it sounded way more slickly produced than his other albums. And I still don't love the whole record, but its got some of my favorite tracks on there--"On Tour" & "Puppet to the Man"--and the KV EPs that either came out this year or that I just checked out this year further solidified this guy as one of my favorite songwriters. On the Square Shells EP the first track "Ocean City" sounds like a throwback, catchy melody almost campy lyrics, and then he fades in this gorgeous wash of ambient sound, and it's classic KV, beautiful, deep but with darkness and irreverence co-mingled just right.

Ryan Adams: I wanna send this out to my main man DC because I know he's a fan. For real though, this guy is one of the most hated dudes around, both for his behavior (which I've personally confirmed through several direct sources is as bad or worse than what I've read about) and his output, which can be uneven. But forget the inconsistency of his work, some people just hate what this dude is about (you know who you are), straight-forward, alt-country stuff, kind of a modern James Taylor at times. Fuck it, dude sometimes writes great songs. I guess he got cleaned up and leaves out in LA and is married to Mandy Moore and he put out his best album since Heartbreaker this year, Ashes & Fire. If you hate him, don't bother. If you've liked some of his earlier work, give it a listen.

The music piracy/industry stuff continues to be fascinating. I already noted my come to Jesus moment with Spotify on the blog, but that's been a huge shift for me, really. I've gone from trying to accumulate music (which I had been doing, sincerely, really for decades) to paying to access it. It's an amazing world where I can use my phone to instantly pull up a band and check out their album right away. There's still lots of rough edges to the way the industry is evolving, how musicians and people who support them (labels, people who do album artwork, etc.) can make a living, but I mostly think it's an amazing time to be making and listening to music.

Happy holidays everyone and thanks for all the music picks and convo this year.

JH.

DC's Favorites of 2011

As originally contemplated in the astute post by Professor Peter a few weeks ago, this really isn't the "Best of 2011" list, it's really the "DC favorite’s of 2011" list.

Here are my #3 picks:



#3: BALAM ACAB. I first posted about the See Birds EP last January (I think?), which was great. After that, he had a song on a Beyonce/L'Oreal commercial, and his full length came out to much brou-ha-ha from Pitchfork, The Fader, and I think mainstream Rolling Stone, etc? It blew up is what I'm saying. I can’t lie, it bugs me that this kid is 17 years old and lives in his moms basement, not jealousy, but it affects how I perceive the music. The product is indisputable, however, the music is great. Epic super mellow chill out.



#2: Peaking Lights, "936". Man, what a fucking awesome album. Great album but (along with the #1 pick below) just totally in my personally sweet spot. Groove-based with beats + weird sounds + lo-fi chick vocals. The “press” called this a “dub” album, and I ain’t mad at that. Top shelf A+++ great album.

#1 spot goes too……… DRUM ROLL.............



Forest Swords! OH DAMN !!!! OH DAMN!!!! Forest Swords wins in a landslide. Stripped down beats (like, one tom tom stripped down), dj elements, atmospeheric vocals, but with spaghetti western guitar on top. Just a solid vibe/concept from beginning to end. Best possible album to listen to driving home out of the city late from band practice with half a buzz going. I haven’t done the analysis, but factoring in listens in the car, this has to be what I listen to most in 2011. Fucking awesome album, if you missed it go check it out. Also, it’s on Olde English Spelling Bee records. Rootless gets MVP award for tipping me off, PROPS.

Biggest music related life changer of 2011: TIE, Sonos and Spotify.

HONORABLE MENTIONS go to:
-Dirty Beaches
-Trouble Books with Mark McGuire (this CD is awesome if you missed it)
-Prince Jammy "Computerised Dub"
-Matthewdavid (a little anonymous but i like ti and it got a lot of play, good background music)
-That new Grouper joint(s)


Happy Holidays, guys. Thanks for all your posts and tipping me off to so much great music.
dc

The War on Drugs

Anyone ever check out this band? I don't know much about them, just quickly checked them out after they made the Pitchfork Top 50 of 2011 list (I will have a list up before the year is out...) and it's cool, kind of the Kurt Vile tip, if you're into KV, sounds like Dylan at times to me too (so does KV come to think of it).

Hark! The Iron Man

Merry holidaze folks!

I dig it!

R.I.P. Césaria Évora

That voice. Oh, that voice...

2011 List of Lists

I make absolutely no claims to this list being anything other than what caught my attention in a good way in 2011.  I wouldn't know if it's the best, and I'm not even sure I care about the concept "best" anymore.  Some of the music mentioned didn't even get released in 2011, it's just what I'm listening to.  In no particular order:

Tyler the Creator: Goblin  Enough ink has been spilled on this already, but I stand by this as one of the most interesting records of the year.  And yes, I know you don't agree.  So far I like most of what I've heard from OWFGKTA.

Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972  This would be the year that I really started listening to ambient music.  2012 will probably be the year I stop.  This, however, is a record I am sure I will return to quite often, along with a few other pieces of Hecker's discography.  Other ambiance that caught my attention this year (and is likely to stay in rotation for me): Black to Comm, God Destroyer, Biosphere, Johnny Raper.  Listened to a whole lot more ambient music, discovered I really didn't like most of it.

Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring for My Halo  A bit underwhelmed by the E.P. that came out later in the year, but Smoke Ring really delivered.  I am continually surprised by how much I like Kurt Vile's stuff; it's nothing like anything I would normally gravitate toward.

Death Grips: Ex-military  If pressed to pick a favorite record of this year, this would be it . . . I mean, they sample Link Wray, for the love of god.  HARD.

Shabazz Palaces: Black Up  Smoky, smart, dark, politcal, and funky.  Another really nice hip hop number.

Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi: Live at the Hungry Brain
Akira Sakata & Jim O'Rourke with Chikamorachi: And That's the Story of Jazz . . . Free jazz is becoming the new punk rock in the sense that it's getting harder every day to stand out from the masses of improvisers.  Sakata's spare, biting alto brings some distinction to the proceedings, and Chikamorchi (Darin Gray, bass, and Chris Corsano, drums) has to be among the best (if not the best) rhythm section currently working.  When O'Rourke gets his turn, he doesn't eff things up.

Loren Connors: Red Mars  I've listened to Loren Conners for a while now, but this year I really started to listen to him.  Red Mars is the kind of music that seeps into your consciousness so subtly that you often don't even notice until its gone.

Boris: Attention Please
Boris: Heavy Rocks 2011  I guess I didn't expect to Boris to become one of the foremost purveyors of disposable pop music, but there it is.  The breadth that the band demonstrates is sometimes at the cost of good taste, but I can live with that, overall.  Haven't even had a chance to really listen to New Album, their third release of 2011 . . . what I've heard sounds like cheesy theme songs to Japanimation dramas they show late at night on [adult swim], which isn't a good thing.  While I like these two albums quite a bit, I really miss the days when they did whacked-out feedback fests and hung out with people like Merzbow and Sunn O))).

Bill Orcutt: How the Thing Sings  As a fan and practitioner of all sorts of guitar fuckery, Bill Orcutt is one of my current favorite guitarists.  It is tempting to see him as a Derek Bailey-esque one trick pony; but, like Bailey, sometimes when your style is so far outside the norm, it's hard to see where the subtleties are.  I'll be curious if I'm still as fascinated several albums down the line, but for now, everything he does is pretty OK by me.

I was going to finish up this post with a few of the things that got on my nerves this year, but I guess I'll not bait all the Das Racist/Sun Arraw/Bon Iver fans this post.  Love to you all, and happy Hanukkah/Christmas/Solstice/Kwanzaa/New Year/and any other holiday I may have forgotten to you all.

Admission

I have to get this off my chest. I like The XX.

I like them, even though they sound like the soundtrack to "Sixteen Candles". Straight up, their song "VCR" was written to play during that last scene when Molly Ringwald finally connects with that other guy that looks like Matt Dillon.

This is music for 14 year olds to hold hands to in their parent's basement. This is music to cry to while you carve your ex-girlfriends name into your arm with an exacto knife.

How about this gem? "I want to drown, when you leave... can you teach me, gently... how to breathe?" Gabe, please help me find a word for this that doesn't start with a "G" or end in a "-AY". This is not music a 37 year old man should be listening to. At least its not Ke$$ha.

But having said that, it's really good shit. I really like Jamie XX's production. I go back to that Jamie XX vs. Gil Scot Heron record a lot, actually.

I came up on this interview with Jamie XX on Turntablelab.com, it's interesting that he shouts out RJD2 "Deadringer" as what got him started making beats/music.



Later. Don't you forget about me...

dc

Clark's 2011 Favorites

This isn't going to take long... In no particular order:

St. Vincent "Strange Mercy"
She snuck up on me. I didn't really register her prior recordings.

Mogwai "Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will"
A) Awesome title.
B) First cut is just pure gold with a "hook" that haunts for hours.
C) ... I dunno, just dig it.

Fucked Up "David Comes to Life"
I'm kind of a sucker for the punk rock opus ("Zen Arcade" et al).

Los Campesinos! "Hello Sadness"
Like I said in the Favorite vs. Best thread, I have a weak spot for this band. But, even given that, I think this is a mature effort that shows progress.

The Supremes "More Hits by the Supremes"
Total spotify thing. Just a great comp.

Kings Go Forth "The Outsiders are Back"
Okay, not 2011 (it's from 2010 according to spotify), but still new to me. I dig it. Feels authentic, not intellectually retro.

TV on the Radio "Nine Types of Light"
Really the whole TVOTR catalog for me this year. Like I may have said elsewhere, they're our Radiohead (us being Yanks). Fucking creative as all get out AND they can swing.

Music devalued

Some thoughts about Spotify from my alma mater, the New School....

http://www.nsfreepress.com/story/music-devalued

How bizarre is this?

The Mega Upload song

My 2011 list

Imaginary Softwoods: maybe I heard some of this in 2010 but I finally got Spectrolite via the DC wax-to-digital, which pre-Spotify was pretty cool. This is just some of my favorite stuff, so beautiful, but stays away from the touchy/feelyness of new age. It makes me want to quietly pass away someday listening to this taking in a Huxley/Leary-like dose of psychedelics. I've probably listened to this hundreds of times this year.

King Krule (formerly Zoo Kid): you see a lot of posts on Facebook of music stuff and if you're like me you skip most of it. a guy I don't even know well posted a video of Zoo Kids' "Out Getting Ribs" and I clicked and have become a big fan. Maybe it was the title of the song, which I don't think has anything to do with anything, that got me to click, not sure. It's just a killer song, low-fi, and the guy's got a cool baritone voice dripping with English attitude. I became more of a fan when I started reading about him and found out he's Archy Marshall, 17 year old, tall, pale, skinny ginger kid who is totally unimpressed with rising success, cold chilling in sweatpants at CMJ and just not giving a shit. Not that much already out there from this guy but check out "the Noose of Jah City" and tell me that shit's not great. He's playing Glasslands in Williamsburg on 1/13 and I got a ticket, psyched for that show.

Grouper -- Alien Observer / A I A Dream Loss: I have really liked all of Grouper's music, her ethereal vocals have soothed my insomniac soul (along with copious scotch) on many an evening, but I didn't take to this right away. But after a little while, sure that there was something that I didn't quite get I began to feel this one too, in the same places. I just found (thanks Spotify!) the part two aspect, Dream Loss, to this.

Aglaia: I don't know that much about this, but I think it's two dudes from Italy. I got a few of their albums in 2011 and now have access to several more via Spotify. Another deep ambient trip, veering towards new age, another great one for the late/early hours, listening brings you back to floating in amniotic bliss, unaware yet ecstatic, great music for drifting off or waking up to.

Real Estate--Days: Another I tried the mediafire trick on, didn't work, and I gave up and sort of forget about but then got on Spotify and now I get to like (that sentence made me dizzy, sorry). An album I definitely wouldn't have bought (maybe if it was $5?) but now I'm more a fan of the band and would really like to check them out live. The music reviewers do a good job describing these guys and their blissed-out suburban stoner vibe and those mid-tempo or slow ones are what I'm most into, in fact I got "Kinder Blumen" going right now as I type this.

Kurt Vile: When I first heard "Smoke Ring for my Halo" my reaction wasn't good, it sounded way more slickly produced than his other albums. And I still don't love the whole record, but its got some of my favorite tracks on there--"On Tour" & "Puppet to the Man"--and the KV EPs that either came out this year or that I just checked out this year further solidified this guy as one of my favorite songwriters. On the Square Shells EP the first track "Ocean City" sounds like a throwback, catchy melody almost campy lyrics, and then he fades in this gorgeous wash of ambient sound, and it's classic KV, beautiful, deep but with darkness and irreverence co-mingled just right.

Ryan Adams: I wanna send this out to my main man DC because I know he's a fan. For real though, this guy is one of the most hated dudes around, both for his behavior (which I've personally confirmed through several direct sources is as bad or worse than what I've read about) and his output, which can be uneven. But forget the inconsistency of his work, some people just hate what this dude is about (you know who you are), straight-forward, alt-country stuff, kind of a modern James Taylor at times. Fuck it, dude sometimes writes great songs. I guess he got cleaned up and leaves out in LA and is married to Mandy Moore and he put out his best album since Heartbreaker this year, Ashes & Fire. If you hate him, don't bother. If you've liked some of his earlier work, give it a listen.

The music piracy/industry stuff continues to be fascinating. I already noted my come to Jesus moment with Spotify on the blog, but that's been a huge shift for me, really. I've gone from trying to accumulate music (which I had been doing, sincerely, really for decades) to paying to access it. It's an amazing world where I can use my phone to instantly pull up a band and check out their album right away. There's still lots of rough edges to the way the industry is evolving, how musicians and people who support them (labels, people who do album artwork, etc.) can make a living, but I mostly think it's an amazing time to be making and listening to music.

Happy holidays everyone and thanks for all the music picks and convo this year.

JH.

Happy Holidays from The Scoobie Brothers

The new Scoobie Brothers LP! It was originally 47 tracks in 52 minutes... so we edited it down and put together as 5 tracks to stream or download. This is some hot dog style scoobie, all lips and assholes. We present to you... "The Funkiest Brothers in the Universe" LP!

The only physical copies created were the limited edition 5 sided (with etching on side 6) LP set with deluxe packaging which was exclusively sold in Japan, and is now long sold out. You may be able to find a copy on eBay but they are going for north of $400. So if you would like to "own" this you can download it off the Soundcloud page.

Enjoy and have a great holiday!

The Scoobie Brothers

Side A - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

Side B - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

Side C - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

Side D - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

Side E - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

access over ownership: one man's saga/capitulation

So I finally checked out Spotify, went right for the premium option, and it's pretty great. I was never really against it, I just wanted to fuck with DC, and that was pretty rewarding for a while, but it ran it's course.

Over Thanksgiving I decided I'd give myself over fully to the cloud and the idea of access over ownership. I looked into Apple's iCloud service, which for $25 a year allows you to upload your library to the cloud to back it up and access it anywhere you want. Apple will match any song you have, even if you didn't purchase it through itunes and provide uniform quality (so if you have low-quality Mp3 uploaded when you access it via iCloud it will be of higher quality). But it will only upload up to 25,000 songs that haven't been purchased through itunes; I currently have 56,573 songs in my library. So that's not really the best option at the moment.

But Spotify's rad, for $10 it's well worth it. It has me checking out all sorts of things I haven't gotten my hands on. I've been digging deep into the oeuvre of Prefuse 73; dude is so prolific, great stuff, some of his Savath & Savalas stuff I hadn't checked out as well. But I guess some bands are pushing back. I've been waiting for the new Black Keys to drop on Spotify but I guess those dude's ain't playing ball. I see their point, though they are kind of an exception. Actually, probably worth a whole post about the Black Keys right now, crazy that they've literally become one of the biggest bands in the world, well deserved too. Anyway, I'm slowly moving away from my squirrel-like project of trying to get my hands on as much music as possible for my library and now I'm releasing myself to the glory of the cloud.......

The Best vs. My Favorite

Many years ago, Donnie and I had a discussion centered around whether or not you can think something is your favorite but not the best. This was before either of us had children and we were definitely drunk at the time and those things combined mean that neither of us will remember the details of the discussion (NOTE: This principle does NOT include the Andrew Hat Debate. Not only was it never in my pants, I am certain I never claimed it was. But that's not why you called, is it?)

The basic argument I was making was that it is possible to look at art and separate your objective and subjective views. I believe my example referred to literature (but it relates to all art, music, women, etc.) My favorite book of all-time is Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. I think it's the perfect combination of cerebral and visceral storytelling with wonderfully developed characters, heart to spare and a perfect ending. However, the best book I've ever read is unquestionably The Great Gatsby. Every single word in that book is exactly as it should be and I don't believe there is any way it could be improved upon. While I know that there are some people who would take issue with Robbins' language and tendencies to go so far off on tangents one forgets what book they are reading sometimes, it works for me. And while Gatsby didn't make me finish it while driving so as to not put it down for a single second (Jitterbug did,) I can appreciate it for the literary perfection that it is.

So why am I going on and on about this on a music blog? Because I've been struggling with this concept in some of the records (or Spotify tracks if we're being honest,) that I've been listening to recently. Specifically, I finally 'discovered' the Mumford and Sons record a month ago. I'd seen the performance on the Grammy's and because I work down the hall from the Rolling Stone folks, I'd been aware of their existence, but never dove in. However, on a recent flight to LA (thank you Delta for having free music as well as a decent free trivia game...SUCK IT guy in 24C, I OWNED YOU!) I was able to listen to the album straight through for the first time. And the second. And the sixth. After I got back home and had played it so many times in my office I considered buying a banjo, I realized I had a problem. But I couldn't shake the thought that I might not actually like it. I mean, it's definitely possible that it's really cheesy, right? I could see myself never listening to it again. But one thing that I knew for sure was that it was awesome. They are clearly good at what they do and I couldn't imagine the record possibly being better than it was. Objectively, I appreciate it. I'm still waiting to decide whether or not I subjectively like it.

Conversely, I am 100% convinced that I absolutely LOVE all of the John Linnell songs from They Might Be Giants. Yes, the early stuff is so horrific on a production level (bad drum machines, bad synths, etc.,) and his partner (the other John,) is so incredibly annoying and shitty that it takes away from my overall enjoyment. But when you get to the later albums where they're actually playing with a band (John Henry and Factory Showroom being my 2 favorites from the period,) the songs that Linnell writes and sings on are, in my view, incredible works of pop/rock songwriting. I love that shit. But it's also entirely possible that it sucks beyond belief. I've almost lost the ability to be objective about it I love it so much.

So I ask you, gentlemen (are there ladies on here?) What are your favorite band/albums that may not actually be good and what are the albums that you KNOW are fantastic but you may not like?

What I've Been Listening To 2011 Edition

Okay, I'll go first with an end of the year list. I could do a list of my top ten albums/singles that were released in 2011 but it would end up being a bunch of reggae that I'm sure wouldn't be too interesting to the rest of the group here. Instead, here's a list of what's made the biggest impressions on me this year - including some new stuff but a lot of older things that I'm either rediscovering or discovering for the first time. I thought it would be more interesting than a list of reggae nobody's heard of before. The list is not in order of preference, just a list.

10) Cream - Disraeli Gears - Never heard this album before this year...except for one track they played on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I like this one a lot better than Fresh Cream , which was my only previous exposure to Cream. And if you're curious, they played "Tales of Brave Ulysses" on BtVS. I still think Clapton turned into a wanker but I appreciate him a bit more after hearing this record.

9) David Crosby - If Only I Could Remember My Name - When I'm out digging through the stacks I always keep an eye out for records that have Jerry Garcia on them (yeah, yeah, save it - I've heard it all before). I fell in love with this record from the first drop of the needle. It captures a certain rock/country-ish vibe that appeals to me. Love the long track "Cowboy Movie" on the first side.

8) Misfits - S/T compilation - For whatever reason I never checked out the Misfits in my youth. I listened to many punk/hardcore bands back in the day but never them - what a mistake! I've been making up for lost time by cranking their 1988 self titled compilation frequently. I want your skull, indeed!

7) David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - I'm a casual fan of Bowie and checked this one out from the library this year. I was a little surprised I liked it so much - especially "Moonage Daydream" - put your ray gun to my head...

6) Rolling Stones - Tattoo You - I was already kind of a late comer to the Stones and had sort of dismissed later (can early 80's be considered later?) Rolling Stones. I was in love with their earlier stuff like Aftermath and Out of Our Heads. Someone on Facebook made a post saying Tattoo You was the best Rolling Stones album and, even though I'd never heard it, took umbrage with that opinion. It so happened that the next weekend at the flea market there was a minty copy in the dollar record section of a booth I frequent. I don't know if it was fate or whatever but I gave it a listen when I got home and now I almost agree that Tattoo You is their best...almost.

5) Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Go Down Under - This was actually released in 2011..I just wanted to point that out! The latest from this punk "supergroup." The group is comprised of people from Lagwagon, NOFX, No Use for a Name and one or two other bands. If you aren't familiar with the Gimme Gimmes, their schtick is to do covers of familiar tunes in a punk style to great result, at least in my opinion. They've done show tunes, country music, 60s rock, 70s rock, etc - this release, a 2 x 7" set, is comprised of covers of Australian bands. Love it....and now I know Australia's to blame for Air Supply - something I hadn't know before.

4) Ahmad Jamal - Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal - I really could've chosen anything by Ahmad Jamal but I listened to this one most recently so I went with it. He's just such a force on the piano - swinging but mellow. His playing oozes emotion and the blues.

3) Disrupt / Tapes - Events Occur in Realtime / Atomica Rydim - Another release from 2011, albeit early 2011. Disrupt is easily my favorite current producer and he really shines on this 7" b/w his buddy Tapes (whom my love and respect for is growing). Events Occur is a speaker tester as the bass is unreal. I would love to hear this played out on a good club system - it might shake the building down. I kind of over looked the Tapes side for a while because I was so crazy about the A side but my appreciation for it has grown now that I revisit this release. This was put out by Police in Helicopter - another great German reggae label.

2) Black Chow - Wonderland - I made a post about this one earlier in the year. Haunting vocals by both the Japanese singer on the title track of this 12" and by Pupa Jim, a Frenchman, on the track "Signs." Another great Jahtari release - and it's from 2011 too!

1) Nicodemus - Serious Nicodemus: Nicodemus Meets Roots Radics at Channel One Volumes 1 & 2 - More reggae for the list. Dancehall at its finest. Nicodemus is the real deal - heavy, heavy heavy shit. These two comps may have catapulted him to my favorite dancehall artist - every track on these records sounds fresh and vital.

So there you go - my list for 2011, which was another shitty, shitty year for me personally but which has started to improve a bit towards the end. Hope everyone has a merry holiday season and a great 2012.

Respect,

-matt

Rhys Chatham

He'll do the same thing with gongs and trumpets he does with guitars.  Rhys Chatham just doesn't give a damn.

Drone with a capital "D", mesmerizing with a capital "M".

Ryhs Chatham - An Angel Moves Too Fast To See: Selected Works 1971-1989

Typically great commentary from the top-notch GLOWING RAW blog, so I'll leave the rest up to him, other than to say that Chatham, along with Branca, formed the baseline that Sonic Youth built from. On second thought, I won't say that . . . because, as much as I love Sonic Youth, such statements only diminish the music of Rhys Chatham.  So, do yourself a favor, check out the Glowing Raw blurb, and listen to this album.

A-ha!

I love that "A-ha" moment when you hear the source material of some famous sample...



c/o Matt Varnish....

dc

Quilt

Another gem I saw on Altered Zones.

This is like a hipster Peter, Paul and Mary. Or maybe The Free Design (if you feel that). 60's pop sensibility and three part harmonies. Really great, I think I just hit the "over 10 listens in 24 hour period" mark.

I listened like 5 times before i googled them to put a face to the name. Amazing that what I'm listening to is produced by a three piece, but if you listen closely it checks out. It all comes across with zero irony, and, look at those pics... They're adorable! I want to give them a big hug and say "you knuckleheads! Keep up the good work!"

Everyone go listen to their one LP on Spotify 100 times so they can get $20 bucks.

dc