Tracks and tricks

Alright, let's get this list out of the way so I can resume packing my pokemon cards for my trip north. Without further ado:

Top ten albums of 2009 in no particular order:
-Dead Man's Bones, Dead Man's Bones Children's choir that does Halloween love songs.
-The Antlers, Hospice The aching grief of sitting by a hospital bed as your love deteriorates, physically and emotionally.
-The XX, XX Overwhelming quiet pierced by vocal duet and we are passersby who peep through holes at their conversation
-Rural Alberta Advantage, Hometowns Longing for what was, be it hearts or homes
-Franz Ferdinand, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand A night out on the town where the hours blur and so do the faces
-Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Infectiously good music that will you have bopping in your pants
-Alela Diane, To Be Still Northeastern songbird with prickly guitar strums and a mother's voice
-Friendly Fires, Friendly Fires Pleading vocals for you to join the dance riot. Sidenote: really good looking guitarist, too
-Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Outer South It's Conor and other folks. Not to be confused with Monsters of Folk, where it's also Conor and other folks.
-Various artists, Dark was the Night Melee of indie artists and all proceeds went to charity

Favorite songs of oh-nine:
"Dull Life" The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
"The Dethbridge in Lethbridge" Rural Alberta Advantage
"Liztomania" Phoenix
"Seven Seventeen" The Wooden Birds
"Never Coming Out" Or, The Whale
"High Ground" Orenda Fink
"Fever" Neko Case
"Map of the World," "Temazcal," "Ahead of the Curve" Monsters of Folk
"Ulysses," "Bite Hard" Franz Ferdinand
"Ten Women," "To All The Lights In The Windows" Conor Oberst and the MVB
"Bear," "Epilogue" The Antlers
"Daniel" Bats for Lashes
"Titus Andronicus" Titus Andronicus
"Strobe," "Photobooth" Friendly Fires

As you've noticed, there was no mention of Animal Collective, even though they've topped nearly every single "end of the year" list. And "My Girls" was a highly rated single. Unfortunately, that album barely made a bleep on my radar this year. The band is starting to reach Radiohead-level art expectations for me. I like Radiohead and think Thom Yorke is a bloody brilliant songwriter, but that's about as far as the compliment go. If Radiohead never released another album, my world will not explode. Same goes for Animal Collective. AC is supposed transcend, er, they're supposed to transcend something. The labels of freak-folk? Neo-psychedelic experimental pop? Indie rock? I like their use of layering vocals and the moog's. But I also hated "Panda Pitch" and "Strawberry Jam," so, uhhhhhh, let's just end 2009 with this: More cowbells!

Surprise!

Tuesday marked the "no-go" list. Wednesday marks the "pass go and collect 200 dollars" list. I came across a lot of stuff I will pretend I never heard. But also I came across a lot of musicians that are now on my to-be-worshiped list. It reinforces my love for music and how organic music is. Music is a constantly changing force, where no two (good) songs should be alike. After all, there are only so many notes and chords to choose from. Yet under those limited circumstances, these musicians have chosen to chart further than those expectations. Given those sets of notes, they've crafted unique songs that set my heart on fire. (Granted, I can hear inspiration of past bands in certain songs but we'll call that admiration.) That's why I love music so much. It's unpredictable. It's shape shifts more often than public opinion. And it's a labor of love.

I'm officially a fan of Phoenix as of last Monday. I don't listen to the radio so I never heard their radio friendly singles: Lisztomania and 1901. After much convincing, I used Google's friendly music search function and instantly fell in love after five seconds of Lisztomania. Those initial five seconds are two repeated notes but they set the tone for the rest of the album. It's head swaying, seat bouncing summer sunshine pop goodness. I'm not talking boyband sex driven lyrics pop, I'm talking exceptional rock n roll hit the switch pop.

Hey Marasilles is an orchestral folk pop band from Seattle, which is not surprising as the Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, the Builders and the Butchers, and Loch Lomond are from the Northwest and orchestral folk pop bands tend to emerge from that area like dandelions in open fields. I'll write a further blurb on this band next year but trust me when I say, start listening to them now.

Dead Man's Bones proved that Ryan Gosling needs to propose to me.* I feared this band would go the way of Jared Leto or Juliette Lewis' dive into music: annoying and unnecessary. But Gosling bucked the trend of actors-cum-musicians to craft a handful of Halloween singalongs, treading the path of broken hearts with werewolves, ghost ships, and graves. Kudos for including the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children's Choir. Though Gosling's been getting most of the press, I have to give Zach Shields three thumbs up for being a grand bandmate, co-songwriter, and vocalist. His track  "Pa Pa Power" is easily my favorite with its upbeat intro and chant-along lyrics.

*what a marriage proposal has to do with anything music-related is anyone's guess, but indulge me for a second here

Friendly Fires will round out the list and they are cute enough to kidnap, especially guitarist Edd Gibson. But that is a scheme to be detailed another day. These St Albans boys have managed to fuse a bunch of labels together: indie dance rock synth pop. I'm not sure how they managed that but imagine Bloc Party to a less screeching degree. Vocalist Ed Macfarlane is a crooner and will swoon dive you with tales of girls and downtrodden romances. The man who keeps it all together is their drummer Jack Savidge, who sidelines as a cowbell player. I saw these boys play during the summer and the only thing that kept me from bum-rushing the stage and dancing my pants off along side Edd Gibson was my dignity (and sobriety). They're bloody brilliant and I hope 2010 has greater things in store. But when you reach certified gold, have a Mercury prize nomination, and played at Glastonbury, things should be pretty great as is.

Love/Hate

I encountered many surprises this year and was very please to have come across new bands. However, by the time December rolled around and my stacks of music magazines reached my knees, I could have strangled the next reporter if they mentioned the following bands:

HEALTH
Girls
Wavves
No Age
Neon Indian
Crystal Castles
Ariel Pink

I'm also pretty sure all of these bands played at the Smell in the past year, if not housing residencies there. For kicks, let's throw in Phoenix and the XX as well. But I became a fan of those two, so let's not include them into the hater's list.

A dominating factor between the above mentioned band is their penchant for "noise-rock" or lo-fi bullshit. Yes, I will call it noise or bullshit because I can't discern one song from the next. After giving their album a listen, my ears are mad at me for treating them to a 36 minute track with slight pauses between moog's and minor chord changes. Neon Indian, Crystal Castles and Ariel Pink can suck it. I've seen their live shows so I feel qualified to say so. I'm not amused. I'm not entertained. And I'm really not drunk enough to give a flying finger flip. So my problem lies with HEALTH, Girls, Wavves, and No Age. I want to like them. I truly, madly, deeply do. I forced my niece to sit through a Wavves music video with me and she clapped at the end. So while I would love to love them, I'm waiting for a track worthy of my admiration. So boys, I demand better come 2010.

And please don't break my heart with these bursting expectations.

(Not so) Final Countdown

We are trampling upon the final days of 2009 and I normally don't make a big deal of year ends but as a blogger, it makes for great themes and easy categorization. So let's just move on and start with the first list. And let's also recall, everything's in no particular order.

Some of the more interesting shows I've attended this year:
-Islands at Sunset Junction. Their performance of "Where There's A Will There's A Whalebone" was entrancing as the crowd was bopping along the best that hipsters can. But when local act Busdriver came to rap the bridge, I was floored. Better than the original track.
-Bon Iver at the Forever Hollywood Cemetery. 6 am with rolling fog through the grove of palm trees, chanting monks for an opening act, and as the bleak sun peeks through the gray clouds, Justin Vernon's haunting falsetto carries over the cemetery field.
-Dead Man's Bones at the Echo. Children's choir in black robes. No harm, no foul, no kool-aid involved. Everyone was in the Halloween spirit and Ryan Gosling proved to be more than a pretty face and transcended the "actor-slash-musician" curse.
-Diplo at La Cita. My friend called me, "Hey, do you want to have some beers tonight? There's a DJ set at La Cita." He failed to mention it was Diplo. Granted the man only performed for less than an hour but on that rainy night as we were about to trudge our way home, we stayed an extra hour as the pulsating beats dragged us back into Diplo's lair.
-Choir of Young Believers at Spaceland. For a band that doesn't speak much English, I commend the head Believer for writing his songs in English. I also think without their celloist, their live performance wouldn't have had such an impact on me. But orchestral pop always has a soft spot in my heart.

These shows were but the tip of the iceberg of shows I went to in oh-nine. I'm already looking forward to what 2010 has in store for me and though the year hasn't started, I've penciled in a few dates. I'm also too lazy to post the pictures I took from these shows, but trust me when I say they were epic. Which means, you, yes, YOU should catch these band at one point in your life.

Oh and be proud of me. I didn't mention any Conor in this list. Granted, I saw him more times than I should have but he's my Conor. And I (musically and lyrically) love him. Always have, always will.

Xmas eve!

Happy whatever to you and yours. Here's Stereogum and team9's gift to us all. Take a listen and visit their page for direct downloads.

I'm only 45 percent ashamed to say that I like the U2/Taylor Swift mashup. But it's actually pretty good! Top votes go to that one and the Cure/Phoenix one. Vampire Weekend/Rupert Holmes is an interesting also-ran but it sounds more like a remix of VW than a mashup.

Oh well.

Hate to say I told you so

It's Sunday so that means I buy a shit ton of CDs and hope that I find a new gem. I combed through the "Best of" 2009 lists and realized that I skipped over many hyped albums: Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion, Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Miike Snow's self-titled, and Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca. Honestly, I wasn't planning on hearing any of these albums but curiosity got the better of me, especially since three of these album have made every list I've read: but so did Bradford Cox and I hate him. For no apparent reason, too.

But these four bands had inadvertently fallen on my "For No Apparent Reason" list and once you've been FNAR'ed, it's hard to fall back on my good side. Usually it'll take an act of God. I once hated the Arctic Monkeys until I heard "Teddy Picker" in my friend's car. Instant love afterward. Now they reign supreme on my list of "Favorite Bands from Sheffield." In fact, they could be number one.

So when I come across a song that really piques my interest, there's some self-loathing involved as well. Because I wish I could have gotten rid of that prejudice and given the band a try in the first place. Oh well, better late than never.

So Phoenix, I salute you for reigning me with Liztomania. Barely three seconds into the song, I said to myself "Fuck, this is a good song." And all I heard were two repeated notes during those three seconds.

Animal Collective: You're alright. Way too overhyped, but alright with me.

Miike Snow and the Dirty Projectors, I'm still on hold with you because I haven't heard your album yet. But I will as soon as iTunes finishes downloading.

Bands on the FNAR list:
the Dirty Projectors (I'm really forcing myself to listen to Bitte)
Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Bradford Cox
St Vincent
The Pain of Being Pure at Heart (one song in and I realized they ripped off the Field Mice, who I don't particularly care for because it's lo-fi shoegaze)
Au Revior Simone (I saw them in 2006 and was not impressed, annoyed in fact.)
Wilco (Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, ehhhhhhhh.)
CSS
Neon Indian (okay, this is legit hate because I don't care for this current fad of lo-fi moog electropop)
La Roux
Annie
Uffie
Julian Casablancas
Paul Banks/Julian Plenti (which is weird because I love Interpol)
Son Volt
Devandra Banhart
Volcano Choir

...should I stop there? Okay, part 2 will come when I'm too lazy to type up a review/praise of my new favorite band.

Rural Alberta Advantage at the Bootleg Theater Tuesday night. I'm going to shout out Neutral Milk Hotel songs and see if one of them gets covered. It's the closest I'll get to hearing that band live, unless I listening to a live recording. Tomayto, tomahto.

Get Down Stay Down

December is a bad month for music. For movies, it's awesome because Hollywood and its affiliate cram in their final Oscar films and advertising. But with music, not so much because of ranking reasons. Unless you're a small town indie band who does care about rankings, no good release happen during the year's end. To make up for this dearth, I flipped through Best Of lists to catch what I've missed or looked over. December 2009 is especially critical because it marks the end of the year and the decade, so double duty!

Based on a few music blogs, I've hunted down copies of David Bazan's Curse Your Branches, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down's We Brave Bee Stings And All, Song: Ohia's The Magnolia Electric Co and Belle and Sebastian's Fold Your Hand Child, You Walk Like a Peasant.

So let's start with Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: I was pleasantly surprised by her and her backing band. I expected cutsey, Emily Haines styled-vocals but I got Feist's beautiful baritone instead. Well, since she's a woman, it's mezzo soprano. But tomayto, tomahto. We Brave Bee Stings And All is a cohesive title for the album as Thao takes us through the whimsical journey of childhood segueing into adulthood. Nothing overwhelms on this album, from the trumpets to the guitars or the jaunty piano lines and even the handclaps on "Feet Asleep." All the instruments, including Thao's voice, merge into a warm blanket for the ears. The album is a bandaid for scraped knees and broken hearts. My only regret is not picking it up when it was released. My parting words will be taken from Thao Nguyen herself. "We brave bee stings and all/And we don't dive, we cannonball."

Words to live by.

Location is Everything

I found my Jade Tree Record compilation last night and I'm over the moon because I thought I had lost it. I also found a stack of records that I haven't copied to my computer yet. I own "Veni Vidi Vicious?" "The Life Pursuit?" Wow, news to me. The comp features a nice selection of bands, most recognizably The Promise Ring, Jets to Brazil and Pedro the Lion. Not so noticeable bands but still beloved by me are Denali, onelinedrawing, and New End Original. My favorite track is Lukewarm by New End Original.

Fun drum roll, fun hook, somewhat simple guitar chords, it's a poppy little indie rock song from the vault. So thanks, Jonah Matranga for this little gem from my high school days because the shout out loud anthem is still valid years today: I never want to be lukewarm and I never want to say my best days are behind.

P.S. Speaking of my high school days, I had a fit of word vomit on my friend's page: Permanent Standby. I need better metaphors but please do a hop skip long jump over there for some musical interludes for when I'm not available.