Pop Headwound

PHW's SONGS of the DECADE

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:25:00 +0000

Two weeks ago my friend John and I got together for our annual “Year In Music Fest” (it’s not really called that, I just don’t know what else to name it right now). At the end of every year we do a “Favorite Songs” countdown along with a discussion of our top 10 albums. This year was epic, as we not only got that out of the way, but then played our 20 favorite songs of the decade and discussed our 100 favorite albums. All told, it was about 7 hours of excellent beer and better tunes. Most people wouldn’t understand the need for two grown men to do this, including my ever-so-patient wife, but it’s one of my favorite nights of the year.

Anyhow, I could spend a lot of time telling you all about my 50 favorite, or 100 favorite, or 500 favorite songs of the last ten years, but I don’t have the energy to compile another list of that size. So here are the 20 songs I played for him, including either their official videos or live clips, followed by the 20 he played for me. I think his list is spectacular - some unexpected choices from some of my favorite artists. Since we alternated on a song-by-song basis we actually heard “Farewell Transmission” twice in a row, so those were 15 pretty awesome minutes.

And I know….no New Pornographers, no Centro-Matic, no Califone, no Iron & Wine, I’m really happy with the way my list turned out, but there were some tough exclusions.

20. Comfy In Nautica / Panda Bear (2007)
(from Person Pitch, PHW’s #3 album of decade)

19. Black Cab / Jens Lekman (2003)
(from Oh You’re So Silent Jens)

18. Stuck Between Stations / The Hold Steady (2006)
(from Boys & Girls In America)

17. Faraway You / Marah (2000)
(from Kids In Philly, PHW’s #6 album of decade)

16. Not For The Season (YHF demo) / Wilco (I played this one)
Not For The Season (Tweedy - acoustic)
Not For The Season (Wilco - live)
(released as “Laminated Cat” on Loose Fur)

15. Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken / Camera Obscura (2006)
(from Let’s Get Out Of This Country, PHW’s #20 album of decade)

14. The Rat / The Walkmen (2003)
(from Bows + Arrows, PHW’s #41 album of decade)

13. Re: Stacks / Bon Iver (2007/8)
(from For Emma, Forever Ago, PHW’s #21 album of decade)

12. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) / Arcade Fire (2004)
(from Funeral, PHW’s #4 album of decade)

11. Chariot / Page France (2006)
(from Hello, Dear Wind)

Though this live take is much rougher than the studio version, it only makes me love it more:

10. Hey Ya! / Outkast (2003)
(from Speakerboxx/The Love Below)

9. Paper Planes / M.I.A. (2006)
(from Kala)

8. The Underdog / Spoon (2007)
(from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, PHW’s #11 album of decade)

7. Gimme Back My Dog / Slobber bone (2001)
(from Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today)

Here’s a video with Slobberbone’s lead singer-songwriter Brent Best playing the song with his new band, The Drams:

6. Shakey Dog / Ghostface Killah (2006)
(from Fishscale)

Ghost crams an entire movie into 3 ½ unbelievable minutes.

5. All My Friends / LCD Soundsystem (2007)
(from Sound of Silver)

4. Biomusicology / Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (2001)
(from The Tyranny of Distance)

3. 3rd Planet / Modest Mouse (2000)
(from The Moon & Antarctica, PHW’s #14 album of decade)

2. Farewell Transmission / Songs: Ohio (2003)
(from Magnolia Electric Co, PHW’s #19 album of decade)

1. Abel / The National (2005)
(from Alligator, PHW’s #18 album of decade)

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John’s 20:

20. Set Out Running / Neko Case (2000)
(from Furnace Room Lullaby)

19. Dirty Dishes / Deer Tick (2007)
(from War Elephant)

18. Mississippi / Bob Dylan (2001)
(from Love & Theft)

17. Radio Kaliningrad / Handsome Furs (2009)
(from Face Control)

16. The Trapeze Swinger / Iron & Wine (2005)
(from Around the Well)

15. Land Locked Blues / Bright Eyes (2005)
(from I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning)

14. The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism / The New Pornographers (2000)
(from Mass Romantic)

13. This Year / The Mountain Goats (2005)
(from The Sunset Tree)

12. For Emma / Bon Iver (2007/8)
(from For Emma, Forever Ago)

11. Thin Blue Flame / Josh Ritter (2006)
(from The Animal Years)

10. All These Things That I've Done / The Killers (2004)
(from Hot Fuss)

9. I Turn My Camera On / Spoon (2005)
(from Gimme Fiction)

8. Certain Songs / The Hold Steady (2004)
(from Almost Killed Me)

7. Come Pick Me Up / Ryan Adams (2000)
(from Heartbreaker)

6. For Real / Okkervil River (2005)
(from Black Sheep Boy)

5. All The Wine / the National (2005)
(from Alligator)

4. At Least That's What You Said / Wilco (2004)
(from A Ghost Is Born)

3. Farewell Transmission / Songs Ohio (2003)
(from Magnolia Electric Co.)

2. Southside Of Heaven / Ryan Bingham (2007)
(from Mescalito)

1. Let There Be Rock / Drive-by Truckers (2002)
(from Southern Rock Opera)
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Singer-Songwriter Vic Chesnutt dies at 45

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:27:00 +0000

Athens singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt died yesterday at the age of 45. Paralyzed as a result of a car accident in 1983, Chesnutt released 12 studio albums over the past two decades, including this year’s critically acclaimed At The Cut. I saw the story this morning on MSN.

I first heard Chesnutt about 10 or 11 years ago as part of a compilation called Exposed Roots: The Best Of Alt. Country. On a double CD set that featured several artists I was quite familiar with (Johnny Cash, The Jayhawks, Steve Earle, Whiskeytown, etc.), it was Chesnutt’s heartbreaking “Gravity Of The Situation” that stood out most among the music I didn’t already know. Though I never dove into Chesnutt’s catalog with full force, the songs I did hear over the years were obviously the work of a truly gifted artist who never compromised his vision.

In 1996 Victoria Williams’ Sweet Relief organization released a benefit album featuring many notable acts covering Chesnutt’s music - R.E.M., Garbage, Madonna & Joe Henry, Soul Asylum, Smashing Pumpkins, Cracker, Sparklehorse, & The Indigo Girls, among others. Proceeds went to help defray the enormous medical bills Chesnutt was faced with. Apparently, 14 years later the expenses were still a tremendous burden. "Flirted With You All My Life" becomes eerily prescient in the wake of this sad news:

MP3 :: Flirted With You All My Life
MP3 :: Philip Guston
MP3 :: Chain
(from At The Cut. Buy here)
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[video] The Sweetbriars - "Virginia, This Christmas"

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:19:00 +0000

PHW favorites The Sweetbriars have released a holiday-themed single over on iTunes. “Virginia, This Christmas” may recall some of your favorite Christmas music of the past 20 years, but a few of the lines (I’m thinking “Christmas ain’t about the stash in your trunk, it ain’t about cussin’ and getting’ drunk, it ain’t about asking Santa to score you drugs”) make this one NSF your family party or for sing-alongs with the kiddies. Plus, the video confirms my long time theory that of all your mom’s favorite 80’s music icons, Sting had the best fashion sense.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. PHW will be back next week with my Songs of the Decade and a December mix. Peace.
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jj Sign to Secretly Canadian, Announce New Album

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:38:00 +0000

The digital ink is barely dry on the many Best of 2009 lists Swedish pop band jj’s jjnº2 appeared on, but today came word of their signing to Secretly Canadian, as well as a new album, jjnº3, to be released in March. Here’s the hypnotic, Lil’ Wayne-pilfering “Ecstasy” from earlier this year. Stick it in your IV.

The band is set to tour the U.S. with fellow hype machine sensations The xx starting in March.

Dates below.

MP3 :: Ecstasy
(from jjnº2. Buy here)

3/22 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
3/23 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
3/24 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
3/25 Carrboro, NC - Cats Cradle
3/28 Washington, DC - Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
3/29 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
3/30 Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory
3/31 New York, NY - Webster Hall
4/02 Boston, MA - Paradise
4/03 Montreal, QC - Le National
4/04 Toronto, ON - Lees Palace
4/05 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center
4/06 Bloomington, IN - Buskirk-Chumley Theater
4/08 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
4/09 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater
4/12 Bellingham, WA - The Nightlight Lounge
4/13 Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
4/14 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
4/16 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 10 - Simon Joyner

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:49:00 +0000

When I first heard Out Into The Snow earlier this year I knew I was listening to something truly special. I hadn’t heard, or even heard of, Joyner before that day - but the first song to be released by Team Love, “Roll On”, was a barreling folk-rocker with some standout lines (“you were up to your necklace in drunk friends and wreckage”, for example) that made my further investigation into his catalog an easy decision.

As exciting as that song is though, it doesn’t really capture the album’s overall hazy, narcotic mood. Here was a singer/songwriter who sang like Lou Reed (on valium) with a knack for the type of gently sweeping folk music of “Ambulance Blues”-era Neil Young or early-70s Townes Van Zandt. Out Into The Snow was on constant rotation around here for the rest of the year, and wound up at #5 on my year end list last week.

I said it then and I’ll say it now - of all the albums I listened to this year, I feel this is the most criminally overlooked by the larger music publications and blogs we all frequent. That’s probably because Joyner doesn’t sing songs with mass appeal - his slow, brooding folk music and impressionistic narratives seem destined for cult status. But though it may be the wallflower in a room full of great albums, Out Into The Snow proves the quietest guy around might well be the most interesting.

I think it’s fitting then that Simon contributes the final Year In Review “guest post” to PHW - he was my favorite new discovery of 2009. He’s really gone all out on this too, offering insights into music, movies, and books both old and new. Check it out, then be sure to check out the two free downloads below from Out Into The Snow, if you haven’t already. Then be sure to buy it on vinyl if you like the songs:

I've never done one of these end-of-the-year "best of" lists. My sense of time is so embarrassingly poor that I am unfortunately just as likely to think something happened in the last calendar year as happened five years ago. A friend asked me recently how old my daughter Frances is and I said "eleven" (she turns thirteen next month). So, this is tough for me. I am also unforgivably out of touch with most new music releases lately so I don't feel qualified to comment on what came out in 2009 anyway. I will try and rectify this in the coming year. What follows is my attempt to compensate for failing the assignment I've been given here. I don't have a best of 2009 but I do have a few lists of some things I listened to, watched, and read. I apologize for not distilling and honing. My New Year's resolution is to keep track and try to do better next year.

Of the music I did purchase this year which was relatively new, I was excited about this stuff:

Neil Young: Archives Vol.1 1963-1972.

This was a fairly life-saving collection, along the lines of Dylan's Bootleg Series, vol 1-3. I'm sure everyone knows how great this is already so I won't go into too much detail. The only downside in my opinion is too many versions of "Sugar Mountain", a song I could do without.

Outlaw con Bandana: Faeries and Rewards.

My favorite local band. Brendan Hagberg writes beautiful, gritty, truths and lets all his personal trials wave in the wind. Pearl Lovejoy-Boyd improves on the truth with harmonies to take the edge off and make you forget you're listening to stories of broken-hearted people suffering terrible things or doing terrible things. Regular life stuff, romantic too, and funny sometimes. I don't know how many times I've gone home after watching Outlaw play and just had to write a song before I went to bed, otherwise I'd toss and turn all night. It would be fairly easy as a songwriter to hit the sack hating this man and his goddamn songs. Outlaw con Bandana has got a lot of records, self-released or on little labels. Itinerant, moody, folk and blues country singer-songwriter soul music. They just keep getting better but I suspect they're true fellow foot-shooters and you'll have to dig a bit to keep up with them. I highly recommend this latest lp, link to Slumber Party Records below. Probably the first album since early Descendants to feature the words "Diarrhea" and "Halitosis", but somehow Outlaw con Bandana pulls it off unflinchingly. Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home" features the word "Hot Dog" three times, I guess, so it isn't wise to get too high-minded about the English language.

http://slumberpartyrecords.com/catalog/013faeriesandrewards/

Paleo: The Song Diary (on dvd)

David Strackany isn't the greatest ping-pong player in the world but I'll admit he can write a song. A couple years ago he wrote a song every day in fact while on a nearly never-ending tour (his life) and put all 365 songs on a dvd. In the wrong hands, this could be the worst thing ever attempted but it's amazing to me how much great stuff came out of this inspirational experiment. He put out a kind of "best of" collection of selections from the Song Diary called "Death and Taxes" but I recommend springing for the whole year. It's a great chance to support real artistic sacrifice. Most people barely lift a finger in the name of anything, let alone a chance to toil in obscurity for the sake of the song. The least we can do is throw some scratch his way to keep him on the road. Not sure when this came out, seems like yesterday but the internet says otherwise.

http://www.paleo.ws/goods.html

Michael Hurley: Ancestral Swamp

I think this came out this year but if it didn't, who cares? It's timeless and typically effortless sounding, like everything Michael Hurley does. Hurley's mind-blowing 2nd lp, "Armchair Boogie" was just reissued on vinyl recently too. Get it. Get it all. If you've got to take your sweet time, that's okay, I understand we are in a recession and may be slouching towards Bethlehem even, but you should begin acquiring these records as quickly as your wallet permits. Do not find the records free on shareware somewhere, buy them so he'll keep putting them out for us. Michael Hurley has been releasing incredible records since 1965 ("First Songs" came out on Folkways and was later re-titled "Blueberry Wine". Don't hold it against him that Cat Power tried (in vain) to ruin one of his songs on her covers cd. For anyone not familiar with this giant of Song, I encourage you to get acquainted here:

http://www.bluenavigator.net/docsnockdisc.html

Anne Briggs: Time Has Come (reissue on Four Men with Beards)

This is another vinyl reissue of a seminal work previously only available for hundreds of dollars or on cd. It's a beautiful record, originally released in 1971, the year of my birth. They also reissued the first Anne Briggs record (also recommended) which is mostly traditional songs. This second record is full of Briggs' own haunting songs. Four Men with Beards is doing a great job. Available on Amazon and elsewhere.

Linda Perhacs: Parallelograms (import vinyl reissue)

Basically the same story. Incredible 1970 psych-folk-electronic masterpiece, previously only available as a cd reissue but finally reissued on vinyl. This is the only record Perhacs made. When you make records this good, you only have to make one. You can get this on Amazon too.

That's all the new music releases I can remember right now. I mostly bought used vinyl. My relationship with movies is similar, I haven't seen too many recently made films but between Netflix, TMC and my favorite arthouse theater, Film Streams (filmstreams.org), I watched hundreds of movies in 2009. If I had kept track of them all I'd cherry pick some favorites to recommend but unfortunately, I didn't. Maybe next year. I can remember the last twenty or so movies I've seen though, and some are among the best I've seen all year, and all are worth checking out. After re-reading my observations of music releases above, I think I'll stick to listing these and spare the reader unnecessary "reflections".

The Locket (Brahm)
Cornered (Dmytryk)
Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Herzog)
Sanjuro (Kurosawa)
A New Leaf (May)
Dog Day Afternoon (Lumet)
Five Easy Pieces (Rafelson)
Taxi Driver (Scorsese)
The Tenant (Polanski)
The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)
The Gunfighter (King)
Strange Illusion (Ulmer)
The Messenger (Moverman)
Wages of Fear (Clouzot)
The General (Keaton)
The Marrying Kind (Cukor)
Men In War (Mann)
Killer's Kiss (Kubrick)
Crime Wave (De Toth)
The Apartment (Wilder)
The Far Country (Mann)
The Best of Youth (Tullio)

Here are some books I have no regrets about reading (or re-reading) in 2009 and recommend to others for 2010.

The Savage Detectives (Bolano)
2666 (Bolano)
Last Evenings on Earth (Bolano)
Time Will Darken It (Maxwell)
So Long, See You Tomorrow (Maxwell)
The Sportswriter (Ford)
Moons of Jupiter (Munro)
Tree of Smoke (Johnson)
The Wild Palms (Faulkner)
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Mishima)
Back in the World (Wolff)
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories (Chekhov)
Tell Me a Riddle (Olsen)
Suttree (McCarthy)
Kentucky Strait (Offutt)
Incognito Lounge (Johnson)
Fires: Essays, Poems Stories (Carver)
Cruelty (Ai)

If you live in America I suspect you will be growing very cynical in the coming year and will likely need a lot of music, film and books to help you slog through with heart intact. I hope some of this helps a little.

Happy New Year,

-Simon Joyner

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MP3 :: Out Into The Snow

MP3 :: Roll On

(from Out Into The Snow. Buy here)

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SONGS of the YEAR - 2009

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:10:00 +0000

It’s exhausting putting together these end of the year/end of the decade lists, so for this one, this year, I’m just keeping things simple. Here’s my 20 favorites of the '09, followed by 40+ more in no particular order that I also listened to an awful lot. One song per artist, mp3s where I can. Enjoy:

1. Vampire - Pink Mountaintops
2. My Girls - Animal Collective
3. Stillness Is The Move - Dirty Projectors
4. Radio Kaliningrad - Handsome Furs
5. All For The Best - Thom Yorke
6. Vessels - J. Tillman
7. Lisztomania - Phoenix
8. Young Hearts Spark Fire - Japandroids
9. Little Bird Courage- Old Canes
10. French Navy - Camera Obscura
11. Walkabout (ft. Noah Lennox) - Atlas Sound
12. Roll On - Simon Joyner
13. Quiet Dog - Mos Def
14. Northern Lights - Bowerbirds
15. Get Older - Dan Deacon
16. Two - The Antlers
17. Sun Was High (So Was I) - Best Coast
18. Something Waiting For Us In The Night - The Wooden Sky
19. Just Like Nathan Hale, pt. 2 - Brook Pridemore
20. Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm (When The Saints Go Marching In) - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
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Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear
Ruby - The Roadside Graves
I Am An Animal - Soft Black
Tell It (In My Ear) - Fergus & Geronimo
People Got A Lotta Nerve - Neko Case
Reasons To Quit - Phosphorescent
Fetal Horse - John Vanderslice
Glasses On - Schwervon!
There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve - A.C. Newman
Starting Over - The Black Lips
Lalita - The Love Language
The Poet - Matt Singer
So Far Around The Bend - The National
From The Hips - Cursive
You Can’t Get It Back - Gentlemen Reg
Sitting On The Sidewalk - Capgun Coup
Don’t Lie - The Mantles
The More That I Do - The Field
Wind Phoenix - Cymbals Eat Guitars
I Knew - Lightning Dust
Whip-poor-will - Magnolia Electric Co.
Dream City - Free Energy
Island, IS - Volcano Choir
Ida Walked Away - AU
Julia - The Very Best
Despicable Dogs - Small Black
Be My Girl - The Smith Westerns
Ravens - Secondstar
Young Adult Friction - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Ecstasy - JJ
Oh The Vampyre - A.A. Bondy
Can’t Won’t - Bruce W. Derr
She’s Got Stripes - Aaron Young & His Nightjars
Beauty Force - David Shane Smith
Hindsight - Built To Spill
Olympians - Fuck Buttons
Lust For Life- Girls
Over It - Dinosaur Jr.
No Time, No Hope - Times New Viking
Overnight Religion - Kurt Vile
Thanks A Lot - The Empties
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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 9 - Capgun Coup

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:10:00 +0000

Omaha, Nebraska’s Capgun Coup released their second album earlier this Fall through Team Love Records. It’s called Maudlin and it’s full of reckless garage rock and fuzzed-out folk - a real barn burner that would appeal to anyone who likes the idea of The Replacements (circa Hootenanny) getting drunk in a basement (hard to imagine, I know) and giving Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home a run through.

I caught up with Sam Martin from the band, who sent along the following Top 10 list:

Top 10 shit that happened in 2009

1. The Vaselines reunited and toured the United States. I saw them play in Chicago and it was the best show of the year hands down, maybe of my life. Usually people who reunite their bands from their youth lose "it" - they most def still had "it".

2. Os Mutantes reunited as well and toured the US for the first time in decades. I have never been in a room with everyone smiling the entire show before, that was perfect.

3.Obama was elected and everyone thought Washington would be on our side.........that lasted a day but it was a good day.

4. The Velvet Underground still have records in print, that's great.

5. UUVVWWZ released their debut record, one of the finest bands in the country, they make me wanna be a girl lead singer and a bass player and a drummer and a crazy good guitar player all at the same time.

6. A Wallmart closed in Omaha.......VICTORY!!!!

7. I broke three phones this year out of my hatred for technology, that felt great..........I'm typing this from my phone.

8. We toured the South where, in many places, bars never close. It is truly a beautiful country we live in.

9. Tom Waits lives to see another year, and he still puts out rad fucking records.

10. 2010 is gonna look so cool on calendars, I've been waiting to write "2010" on something all year.
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MP3 :: Sitting On The Sidewalk

MP3 :: Bad Bands

(from Maudlin. Buy here)

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And be sure to check out this one from their debut:

MP3 :: Bobby Chops And The Do-Gooders

(from Brought To You By Nebraskafish. Buy here)

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[mp3] Retribution Gospel Choir - "Hide It Away"

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:46:00 +0000

Retribution Gospel Choir, which features Alan Sparhawk of Low (who have kept a, um, low profile since 2007’s Drums & Guns) will be releasing album # dos, imaginatively titled 2, on January 26 through Sub Pop. Listen to “Hide It Away”, the first free mp3 to emerge from the album. It’s very good.

MP3 :: Hide It Away

(from 2. Info here)
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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 8 - Soft Black

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:13:00 +0000

“We woke up with no blood in our hearts, trying to count all our Frankenstein parts”

Way back in early January, when the only 2009 albums I had heard were leaked copies of Merriweather Post Pavilion and Get Guilty, NY’s Vincent Cacchione sent me a copy of the latest album, the subtly titled The Earth Is Black, and other apocalyptic lullabies for children, from his band, Soft Black. To say I was blown away would be an understatement. It’s an album haunted by nightmare-induced sleep deprivation, serious religious doubt, and the occult that takes the strummy folk-leanings of 2007’s Blue Gold and shoots it up with a sort of raw glam influence, best exemplified on the ferocious “I Am An Animal”. It’s pure rock & roll that hits all the right spots - swaying from the chiming folk of the title track to Kinks-like shuffles (“Time Gets Away And Has Its Way With You”) to depraved slow jams like “Mouth Is Drippin’”. The Earth Is Black remained a favorite all year long - ending up #8 on my year end list the other day. Cacchione has made this great album available on the Soft Black website as a “pay-what-you-want” download. It’s the best deal going. Toss the guy a ten spot, would ya.

Thanks Vin for putting together a summary of a very weird year:

This year grabbed me from a flimsy part. It started in DUMBO, drunk on lychee martinis, with a bunch of haggard looking hipsters trying to shake their groove things. Everything since then has been set at high contrast. Low lows, High Highs, the in betweens all dissolving in the ether of NYC. I ended a several month stint of homelessness and got a fly place out in Bushwick, the happiest town in the world. We toured America with our friends Werewolves and released our first notable record in "The Earth Is Black." I narrowly escaped being murdered in Atlantic City. I got robbed. I got robbed again. And spent my first couple days in jail.

2009 was a sloppy kiss.

It was, however, a fantastic year for records made by friends of mine.

Here are the creme de la creme:

Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers- "A Fish Hook, An Open Eye"

Shilpa is a wild woman, refined genius, and nothing short of classic. Nick Cave is a fan. A Fish Hook, An Open Eye is her first record apart from original group Beat The Devil. I got the privilege to play guitar on this album, and despite my involvement, the record is unstoppable. As a singer, Shilpa somehow manages to straddle idiosyncrasy and familiarity and remain pure, sincere and savage. Her songwriting shines on everything she's done but several tracks on this album are genuine masterpieces, check out "Beating St. Louis," "Looking For Mr. Goodbar," and "Filthy and Free." Look out in 2010 for the new record, it will be even better no doubt.

Forest Fire- "Survival"

In a lot of ways this was my favorite record of 2008 and 2009. A total classic somehow overlooked by mainstream indie tastemakers. But in a perverse way I'm glad. "Survival" is an underdogs album. A record you can examine like the surfaces of your lover, it allows you in and asks you to study all of it's blemishes without shame. As a collection of songs it reeks of personality from start to finish and flows seamlessly. I've never put this album on and skipped around. I could go on for a while about this one, but it wouldn't do it justice. Most cats who know me well, know this is an album I hold at the highest of statures, check that shit out!

Werewolves- "Dance Raincoat Glass"

This is a whirlwind of a record made by the craziest group of 20 somethings in Brooklyn. I love these kids like brothers. I hate them like brothers too. But regardless of all that it's easily one of the greatest records of the year. Soulful singing and lyrics pistol-whipped by deep kraut-grooves and hypnotic guitars.

Daniel Bernstein- "Everybody Knows"

One of my all time favorite NYC songwriters makes his most well-formed and crafted release yet. I also played guitar. Dan is a diamond in the rough. A genuine weirdo and genius who only a select and highly privileged group of cats get to know about. I've followed his career throughout it's many twists but the quality of art that this guy has made has never dwindled, never dulled. He has the rare gift of making genuine pop-music sound genuine. He's totally and uncontrived and contrived simultaneously in a exquisite way. I'm sure he'll be well onto his next record before the 50 copies of this record disappear but if there's a way to get your hands on this shit you won't regret it.

Thank You James.
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MP3 :: I Am An Animal
MP3 :: The Lions
(from The Earth Is Black. Buy here)

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[video] Raekwon - "Catalina" (live on Jimmy Fallon)

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:16:00 +0000

RftTRCJFL from O's Cool on Vimeo.

From J Tillman playing an intimate acoustic session to Raekwon bringing “Catalina” to life with The Roots on Jimmy Fallon last night. Yeah, I’m covering both extremes today. Rae, who seems to be wrapped up in the holiday spirit (with a pocket full of contraband), got a little help from Questlove on the chorus and last verse. I just dove into Only Built For Cuban Linx pt. 2 about a month ago, but you might have picked up on the fact that it’s really made an impression (#14).
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[video] J Tillman live @ Luxury Wafers

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:43:00 +0000

J Tillman - Year In The Kingdom - Luxury Wafers Sessions from Luxury Wafers on Vimeo.

As you might’ve guessed, if you’ve been checking in here recently, I thought J Tillman had a pretty great 2009. Both Year In The Kingdom (#13) and Vacilando Territory Blues (numero uno) found their way into my Albums of the Year post from the other day, not to mention that the man has a really fantastic cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “My Proud Mountains” on a recent tribute compilation and also yet another Western Vinyl release in the works - a limited edition vinyl only 7” with two new songs - “Wild Honey Never Stolen” and “Borne Away On A Black Barge”. Well, now, over the next seven days, you can hear/see Tillman perform those two songs, as well as a handful of others from his recent full lengths (and even a previously unreleased song), over at Luxury Wafers. Available right this very minute for your viewing pleasure are videos of “Year In The Kingdom” (above) and “Casualties” (an older song from I Will Return/Long May You Run). New videos will be added everyday until Christmas, so keep dropping by over there for more great music. Check out a handful of free live mp3s below from the sessions:

MP3 :: Year In The Kingdom (live)
MP3 :: Above All Men (live)
MP3 :: Borne Away On A Black Barge (live)
(from Luxury Wafers live session)
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ALBUMS of the YEAR - 2009

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:40:00 +0000

Those of you out there who actually read this blog from time to time know that 2009 was a momentous year in my life. My wife gave birth to healthy, beautiful (if I do say so myself) twin girls back in February, and though there are a thousand things to worry about every day with children, my life has been on the proverbial 9th cloud ever since. One of the many wonderful things about them is that they are amazing sleepers - seriously, they’re in bed at 7 every night and only on the rarest of occasions do we see them before we have to get up for work (and besides that, my wife is usually in bed by, like, 9). Hence, lots of time for me to still run this humble little website that shares with you the music that matters to me. And in 2009 there was a whole hell of a lot of it.

In the past I’ve limited my year end list to my favorite 20 albums, but it was obvious right when I started drafting this that 20 just wouldn’t suffice. Not this year. I thought about doing 25, it’s a very nice number, but even then there were albums that I really like that would’ve been left high & dry. So, this year you get to see and hear and read about my 30 favorite albums, and believe it or not there are still a few that I wish I had room for. Regardless, these are the albums that I enjoyed most this year. Among them you’ll find a bunch of the same albums everyone else seems to love, but also scattered throughout rather generously are ones that I hope differentiate Pop Headwound a little bit from the many, many other music blogs out there. Hope you find something new to love.

30. Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle - Bill Callahan

This one was a late contender for this list, as I just started listening to it after it was so highly recommended by Brook Pridemore in his Year In Review guest post a few weeks back. Callahan’s second solo album since ditching the Smog moniker has been in heavy rotation ever since, and even though I’m still getting to know these songs that are content [to ripple] along like a river in low water season (thanks Brook), it’s clear that Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is a brilliant record (he’s dark again), and one that would no doubt be higher if I had gotten around to it sooner.
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29. There Is No Enemy - Built To Spill

After two good-not-great albums over the past ten years, There Is No Enemy finds Built To Spill back in the business of being awesome. While it may not be quite on par with their mid-to-late 90s run of classics (not much is), it is their best effort since Keep It Like A Secret, and comes full of the expansive guitar jams and skewed alt-pop Doug Martsch & co. made their name on in the first place.

MP3 :: Hindsight
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28. S/T - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Here is a band with a lot going for them - looks, locale, buzz, youth, and a laundry list of influences that are cooler than your bands’. The thing that sets The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart apart though from the dozens of other similarly armed indie-rock outfits who were shot through the hype machine this year are the songs - a whole album’s worth of snappy potential singles that match melodic twee-pop with fuzzed-up shoegaze. One of the year’s brightest debuts.

MP3 :: Come Saturday
MP3 :: Everything With You
MP3 :: Young Adult Friction
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27. Childish Prodigy - Kurt Vile

On his Matador debut, Vile alternates between heavy, stomping full-band rockers, open-road anthems filled with bright, chirpy melodies, and murky folk-blues that feature only his voice, electric guitar, and noise effects - each showing he writes compelling songs in a wide range of styles.

MP3 :: Overnight Religion
MP3 :: Hunchback
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26. Cloud Pleaser - David Shane Smith

Smith’s relocation from Brooklyn to Los Angeles has only intensified the jarring tales of consumerism, urban decay, and environmental corrosion that dominated his previous albums, Wintertower and Angry Earth. Cloud Pleaser is, to say the least, a bleak album that continues the trend - if there’s one prevailing theme at work here it’s probably about feeling disconnected from just about everyone and everything. But, ironically, Smith himself has never sounded as engaged as he does throughout these 10 songs. Dark beats, tape glitches, military march drums, jarring sound effects, ambient stretches, finger-picked acoustic guitars, and Smith’s nasal, sing-speak vocals coalesce into a seamless whole - the best album yet from a young artist whose grim worldview continues to inspire stunning songs.

MP3 :: Miserablism

MP3 :: Brand New

MP3 :: Beauty Force
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25. Logos - Atlas Sound

As the leader of Deerhunter, Bradford Cox has been behind some of the most affecting (and, yes, divisive) indie-rock of the past few years. A restlessly creative spirit, his Atlas Sound project has mostly, until now, been a vehicle to set at large a massive amount of lo-fi home recordings, either on last year’s Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel or through his ever-prolific blog. Logos sees Cox taking his solo project to the next level though, with successful collaborations with Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) and Laetitia Sadier and a whole batch of his best drone/pop songs yet.

MP3 :: Walkabout (ft. Noah Lennox)
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24. The Ecstatic - Mos Def

Anyone who’s ever seen Be Kind Rewind, Cadillac Records, or The Woodsmen knows the talents of Mos Def reach far beyond the mic. But The Ecstatic reminds us of how he made his name in the first place - this is a diverse, socially conscious, genre-hopping hip-hop record with tinges of blues-rock, soul, pop, and Latin among its 16 songs. The highlights are many, but my favorites are the soaring “Life In Marvelous Times”, a nostalgic look back at his tough Bed-Stuy roots, and “Quiet Dog”, a brooding boogie down with some deep dark rhythms.

MP3 :: Life In Marvelous Times
MP3 :: Quiet Dog
MP3 :: Casa Bey
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23. Tarot Sport - Fuck Buttons

Tarot Sport is a more mature, fully-realized version of the electro-noise band who brought us last year’s terrific Street Horrrsing - the arrangements have more of a sense of urgency and the scream-o vocals are all but extinct. Overall this is an expansive, deeply hypnotic work that will appeal to fans of electronic music as well as left-of-center indie-rock fans.

MP3 :: Surf Solar (7” edit)
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22. Face Control - Handsome Furs

Handsome Furs tightened things up on Face Control, streamlining the sprawling urban-paranoia of their debut, Plague Park, into focused pop-rock gems. Dan Boeckner has never had a problem writing macho, fist-pumping indie-rock anthems, but “Radio Kaliningrad” might be his best one yet.

MP3 :: I’m Confused
MP3 :: Radio Kaliningrad
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21. Album - Girls

In an era when most bands using nostalgia as inspiration are going back to The Beach Boys or the synth-pop of 80’s new wave, Album looks back even further, recalling the 50s pop of your local “oldies” radio station more than anything else. The androgynous, Iggy Pop-quoting lead single, “Lust For Life”, (with its “I wish I had a boyfriend, I wish I had a loving man in my life” lyric and NC-17 video) isn’t really a fair representation, sonically, of the album. Much of it is comprised of slow-building, self-pitying anthems that, like “Hellhole Ratrace”, suck you in and repeat their refrains like mantras until you can’t help but feel a strange sort of affinity.

MP3 :: Lust For Life
MP3 :: Hellhole Ratrace
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20. Feral Harmonic - Old Canes

Feral Harmonic is a raucous folk-rock record that, despite being predominantly the unaided work of The Appleseed Cast’s Chris Crisci, sounds like it was recorded by a bunch of friends as part of a drunken hootenanny. Every song is a winner, but the mess of acoustic guitars, in-your-face drums, careening horn section, and shout-along lyrics on “Little Bird Courage” really stands out to these ears.

MP3 :: Little Bird Courage
MP3 :: Trust
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19. Get Guilty - A.C. Newman

The second solo album from the chief new pornographer was one of the most underrated and overlooked albums of the year. Yet again Newman proves himself to be this generation’s most skilled craftsmen of melodic indie-pop, churning out infectious, blissful tune after tune. The orchestral “There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve” and “Elemental” are two of his most beautiful songs yet, and “The Heartbreak Rides” continues his long string of terrific track 2’s. Seriously, check his back catalog and tell me how often track two is just the shiznit….

MP3 :: There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve
MP3 :: Submarines of Stockholm
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18. My Maudlin Career - Camera Obscura

The bittersweet indie-pop of these Scots is much the same on My Maudlin Career as it was on their 2006 new-classic, Let’s Get Out Of This Country. That means more reverbed, ringing guitar chords mixed with lush keyboards and Tracyanne Campbell’s unsinkable melodies. One only need listen to “French Navy” to be forever smitten.

MP3 :: My Maudlin Career (follow link)
MP3 :: French Navy

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17. xx - The xx

On their debut, London’s The xx create spellbinding, noirish little songs where the negative space between notes expresses as much emotion as the music and vocals. The starkly minimalist arrangements are impressive enough on their own, but combined with the chilled-out back and forth boy-girl vocals and mature, fully-realized songs far beyond what you’d expect from a bunch of kids in their early twenties adds up to one of the year’s strongest debuts.

MP3 :: Basic Space (Sapha Remix) (follow link)
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16. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear’s elegant, painstakingly detailed third album is easily my favorite thing they’ve ever done. Their nuanced art-folk sways from sweeping, near-pop masterpieces like “Two Weeks” and “While You Wait For The Others” to cathartic, slow-building mood pieces like “Ready, Able” and “I Live With You”. Less raw and more, well, choir-boyish than the music that made my Top 10, Veckatimest is still every bit the “fucking stunning achievement” I called it way back when everyone only had their 128 kbps leaked copies.

MP3 :: Cheerleader
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15. A Brighter Light - Brook Pridemore

A Brighter Light finds NY’s Pridemore once again bashing out his fiery, invective brand of punk/folk/agit-pop at a variety of deserving sources, but it also manages to be his most personal album to date. Recalling The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle or anti-folk legend Ed Hamell, Pridemore sounds, as always, intent on moving your ass and your mind in equal measure. Overall, there’s not a weak moment on A Brighter Light – it’s a tour-de-force rock ‘n roll record that’s smart, sharp-tongued, and fun. As he says himself, “I didn’t come here to proselytize; I came to bring the noise”.

MP3 :: The Buckeye State and Russell

MP3 :: Remain Upright

MP3 :: Stockholm St. Syndrome
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14. Only Built For Cuban Linx pt. 2 - Raekwon

I’ll be perfectly honest - I’ve tried to avoid the thuggish, misogynistic, stereotype- prolonging traps of some rap music for most of life. But then, in 2006, I heard Ghostface Killah’s impossibly detailed drug heist-gone-wrong masterwork “Shaky Dog” and all bets were off. I‘d call that the best story song since Dylan’s “Hurricane”, but that‘s probably an undersell. And then I remembered that I was watching Scorsese movies and professional wrestling in my early teens, when I was actually still impressionable, and both of those are probably way more guilty of the above crimes Raekwon and his buddies, if not more so. Surely I can take this now, like, 20+ years later. Raekwon’s magnum opus is a true street poet (and a bunch of his scary-ass friends, including his bff Ghostface) rapping his (their) ass(es) off for well over an hour. And yeah it’s violent and graphic and full of exactly the kind of terrible things that I never ever want my daughters to know about. But it’s also completely enthralling - the kind of animated, vivid storytelling that most (people like me) would ignore out of ignorance. Maybe “romanticizing” isn’t the right word, but I don’t know how else to describe how I feel about the crime saga this record details.
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13. Year In The Kingdom - J. Tillman

Compared to his more expansive Vacilando Territory Blues, the 9-song Year In The Kingdom can come across as a somewhat minor offering. But listen carefully and you hear a fully developed batch of songs that whisper about mortality like a man who thinks about dying a lot. Tillman sounds like he’s consumed by this inevitability - offering ruminative insights over gorgeous, hymn-like arrangements. He’s on such a streak right now that even this, his second best album of 2009, tops nearly everything else I heard this year.

MP3 :: Earthly Bodies
MP3 :: Though I Have Wronged You
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12. Farm - Dinosaur Jr.

Yeah, 2007’s Beyond signaled a startling return to form from the original cast of Dinosaur Jr. It was a record steeped in their early, sludgy SST sound and housed a lot of Mascis’s best songs in a decade and a half. But Farm, the even better second coming of the second coming, finds the band leaning more towards their early 90s days (my personal favorite DJr. era). It was then that they were alt. rock’s best near-miss on the strength of the slacker anthems and stoned guitar-god heroics of Green Mind and Where You Been. That latter album seems to be Farm’s best point of reference, with the band playing tight, searing mid-tempo crunchers for the better part of an hour.

MP3 :: I Want You To Know
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11. Embryonic - The Flaming Lips

Embryonic is a thrillingly excessive display of warped, druggy songcraft and musicianship. It’s the band walking the fearless freak-walk instead of just talking it up with a megaphone, balloons, and a light show. Since The Soft Bulletin they’ve spent the better part of 10 years making a major label’s idea of “weird alternative” music (granted there are a few great songs mixed in there), but on Embryonic The Flaming Lips sound like a band again; albeit one that’s been hanging out on Mars and listening a lot of Can, Zappa, Beefheart, and Miles Davis. Since At War With The Mystics I wasn’t expecting to ever really like a new Flaming Lips album again, let alone love one.
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10. My Son’s Home - The Roadside Graves

The latest from New Jersey’s Roadside Graves is a raucous journey through nearly every corner of American music. The 18 songs here touch on barroom rock & roll, folk, blues, country, and soul, as well as The Pogues, Exile-era Stones, The Band, and Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue. Despite its long running time, the album is held together by the theme of family and friends trying to stick it out during hard times. Singer/lyricist John Gleason’s aptitude for using simple details to reveal universal human truths makes him stand out as a songwriter, and the 6-piece band never fails to further bring those words to vivid life. Hell, just listen to “Ruby” and see for yourself.

MP3 :: Ruby
MP3 :: Far And Wide
MP3 :: My Son’s Home (demo)
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9. Outside Love - The Pink Mountaintops

Part Phil Spector wall of sound pop, part Jesus & Mary Chain feedback-fueled madness, part warped folk/country, Outside Love strings together some pretty disparate influences and coalesces them into a unified set of songs about the ups, downs, and middle grounds of love. Every song is top notch, but the hauntingly romantic “Vampire” never ceases to amaze me – it's my favorite song of the year.

MP3 :: Vampire
MP3 :: While We Were Dreaming
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8. The Earth Is Black and other apocalyptic lullabies for children - Soft Black

The Earth Is Black is a strikingly personal album from an artist spilling his guts on the effects of deep fear, religious doubt, and nightmare-induced sleep deprivation. While that may seem like soporific inspiration for a rock n’ roll record, singer-songwriter Vincent Cacchione never puts his owns demons before the good of the song. The Earth Is Black is thematically bleak, but Cacchione surrounds his words and melodies with a crackin’ band that’s equally capable of anthemic glam-folk (“I Am An Animal”), Ray Davies-like shuffles (“Time Gets Away And Has Its Way With You”), and propulsive folk-rock sing-alongs (“The Lions”, “The Earth Is Black”). It’s all brought home by the album’s cathartic finale, “Night Terrors”, whose creeping tension is relieved only by the vulnerability in the vocals. Over the past few years I’ve heard and written about a lot of New York’s up-and-coming talent - The Earth Is Black is the fanged, rabid animal at the front of the pack.

MP3 :: I Am An Animal

MP3 :: The Lions
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7. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix

Kicking off an album with two of the year’s very best singles (“Lisztomania” and “1901”) is a sure way to get the rest of your songs ignored, but those who managed to stop hitting repeat for “Fences” and beyond heard the most consistent record yet from these slick French indie-rockers. Never ones to shy away from their obvious commercial ambitions, the clumsily titled Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a straight pop-rock album that’s, for lack of a better way to put it, un enfer de beaucoup d'amusement pour écouter.. Seriously I don’t know how anyone with five working senses could not enjoy the hell out of this record.

MP3 :: Lisztomania (A Fight For Love & 25 Hours A Day remix)
MP3 :: 1901 (L’Aiglon Remix)
MP3 :: Fences (The Soft Pack remix)
MP3 :: Love Like A Sunset (Animal Collective remix)
MP3 :: Love Like A Sunset (Shuttle remix)
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6. Post Nothing - Japandroids

The primordial garage-rock of Vancouver’s Japandroids hits with a combination of brute force and undeniable hooks. This duo may just be yelling about french kissing French girls and getting older and the tediousness of their hometown, but they do so with such conviction that you can’t help but hang on their every word. “Young Hearts Spark Fire” is one of the best angst-anthems I’ve heard in a long time, but Post Nothing is filled with 7 more songs that are its near equal.

MP3 :: Young Hearts Spark Fire
MP3 :: Wet Hair
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5. Out Into The Snow - Simon Joyner

Out Into The Snow is Simon Joyner’s 12th full-length record since debuting way back in 1993, and it finds his songwriting talent finally peaking. A highly impressionistic writer, he matches the creativity of his words with acoustic guitar and piano-driven arrangements that, on the surface, are not dissimilar to some of his obvious inspirations - Townes Van Zandt and On The Beach-era Neil Young. Though it may recall these classics, Out Into the Snow is a quietly intense album that stands entirely on its own. In my opinion, the most overlooked album of the year.

MP3 :: Out Into The Snow
MP3 :: Roll On
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4. Bromst - Dan Deacon

What’s most apparent when listening to Bromst is that Deacon is at the peak of his creative powers - a madcap genius striving to be taken seriously as both sound artist and traditional musician. Bromst is looong, but its sizzling kinetic energy hardly wavers. Simply put, this record is fucking righteous.

MP3 :: Woof Woof
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3. Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors

2009 was a breakthrough year for Dirty Projectors. First they were prominently featured on the terrific Dark Was The Night compilation on a song co-written with David Byrne. Then they dropped Bitte Orca, a surprisingly accessible album, to near-universal praise from critics. It deserved every bit of it - Bitte Orca is a kaleidoscopic art-pop thrill ride. Despite being masterminded by David Longstreth, the whole record is a truly collaborative effort, which is never more evident than on Amber Coffman’s star-turn lead vocal performance on “Stillness Is The Move” - one of 2009’s best songs.

MP3 :: Stillness Is The Move
MP3 :: Useless Chamber
MP3 :: Temecula Sunrise

MP3 :: Knotty Pine (w/ David Byrne)
(from Dark Was The Night)
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2. Merriweather Post Pavillon - Animal Collective

Most people were ready to declare Merriweather Post Pavilion 2009’s best album when it leaked last Christmas. Yet here it is almost a year later, having withstood its unfair head start and even a moderate degree of online backlash (initiated more by competitive Grizzly Bear fans than critics or bloggers methinks). There’s no doubt that it’s proven to be every bit the classic that those first few listeners intimated.

After the brooding intensity of much of Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective filled MPP with similar lush harmonies and mesmeric repetitions to those found on Panda Bear’s Person Pitch. That stylistic decision works particularly well within the album’s recurring themes of fatherhood and the struggle to overcome limitations to provide for your kids (see “My Girls”, especially). For years before Merriweather, Animal Collective churned out whimsical sing-alongs (“Grass”, “Leaf House”, “Peacebone”, etc) that seemed tailor-made for kids to blindly shout along with. It wasn’t until they started voicing adult concerns that they truly exploded with a whole new generation of indie-kids.
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1. Vacilando Territory Blues - J. Tillman

There are records that you hear in your life that become inextricably linked to a specific time and place. Hearing Vacilando Territory Blues for the first time last February, five days before the birth of my twin girls, gives it a distinct advantage when held up against the other great albums on this list - sentimentality. As much as I adore Merriweather Post Pavillon, Bitte Orca, and the other albums I have just written about, those feelings just don’t come close to the ones I have for this humble little folk-blues record by a guy best known (for now) as the drummer in Fleet Foxes. I just can’t hear songs like “Firstborn”, “Above All Men”, or “Someone With Child” without being immediately brought back to the (sniff, sob) happiest days of my life. Which is kind of ridiculous considering that much of Vacilando Territory Blues is made up of weary, whispered folk songs whose overall mood, while certainly celebrating life (as opposed to Year In The Kingdom’s meditations on death and what comes after it), wouldn’t be confused with “joyful” in a thousand years. When he does employ fuller arrangements the songs are just as stark, merely louder. Regardless, there’s a deeper connection here for me that won’t ever fade - every time I put it on I feel like I did on the morning my little world doubled in size. Fatherhood. Holy shit. “I don’t want to live again cause I don’t want this life to end” - yeah Josh, that about sums it up. But honestly, take away the personal affiliation and what’s left is a soul-stirring album with a cohesive mood that’s thirteen great songs deep. The most moving, most beautiful album to find my ears in a long, long time.

MP3 :: James Blues
MP3 :: Steel On Steel
MP3 :: Firstborn
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[mp3] Titus Andronicus - "Four Score and Seven"

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:08:00 +0000

New Jersey heavy hitters Titus Andronicus will be dropping their Civil War-themed sophomore album The Monitor, named after an ironclad Union battleship, on March 9 through XL Recordings. Judging from the sounds of the first available track, “Four Score and Seven”, which is split into Part 1 and Part 2 below, the band hasn’t lost any of their edge since the cathartic The Airing Of Grievances blew out my speakers early last year. “Four Score and Seven” will be released as a 7” single prior to the album‘s release - that’s why it’s split, so each part could fit on a side of vinyl. Much more detail was revealed earlier today over at Pitchfork. The list of upcoming 2010 releases to be excited for just keeps growing. But for now, just listen up:

MP3 :: Four Score And Seven (Part One)
MP3 :: Four Score And Seven (Part Two)
(from The Monitor. Info here)
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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 7 - The Empties

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:03:00 +0000

Last Spring I was sent the self-titled debut album from The Empties, a young 4-piece band from Athens. I immediately found myself caught up in their angular guitar-rock and strong melodic sense. The Empties is predominantly a good old-fashioned rock album, but it does contain enough variety to suggest their best days are ahead of them. The chugging, Spoon-ish “Thanks A Lot” even served as the title track of sorts to my Best-of-April Mixtape. Ben Wills from the band was nice enough to send in this very funny look back at the high highs and low lows of the year in music, both theirs and others’.

By Ben Wills of The Empties, Athens GA

The two best things that happened in music in 2009: The Dave Rawlings Machine record and of course Susan Boyle singing the Les Miserables song. Third place... TI going to prison.

The Dave Rawlings Machine, which is a collaboration between Dave, Gillian Welch, Old Crow Medicine Show, Bright Eyes, and a few guys from The Heartbreakers, is the greatest thing I think I've ever heard. It's good old fashioned American Primative Rock/Folk. The album is called Friend of a Friend, and it's flawless. And it's much better live.

As far as for me personally, 2009 was a difficult year. I watched my drummer pull his own tooth out of his head in the back of a van some where in New Jersey. I also played on stage with a drum set that refused to stay together a few times, For some reason, it seems like the keytar is making a comeback, and so are red shirts with black ties on stage. It's a strange time for someone who only owns two pairs of jeans and a Fender bass.

OH! Kanye! That was great too. Sure, was it rude of K Dog to get on stage, sure. But giving out mad props is something that I will never criticize. When Tim Commerford from Rage Against the Machine did the same thing after Fred Durst won some kind of award, I applauded the move. I shall now do the same for Kanye. Beyonce deserved that award.

Perhaps the most significant event that took place in 2009 for music was the U2 proved that they could even further tarnish their cool 80's punk band image. It's their thirty year anniversary as a band AND their twentieth anniversary of providing music I never asked for. The world has flip flopped. Now I just consider U2 a poor rip off of Coldplay.

Crack the Skye by Mastodon was great. Adam Lambert somehow lost American Idol and Billy Joe of Green Day continues to do a poor job combining three chord pop punk with equally shallow political messages.

2009 music was only a set up for 2010. We used this year to get back to the top of the batting order and get some really great stuff out. I hope.

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MP3 :: Oh My God

MP3 :: Thanks Alot

MP3 :: Flood Rises

(from The Empties. Buy here)

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Pitchfork Predictions

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:29:00 +0000

I’ve had some fun the past few years trying to predict Pitchfork’s Top 10 Albums of the Year, usually with little success. But 2009 looks to be a bit easier - if I was a betting man I’d put money on the following 10 being in there. And the top 3, well, that’s seemed set in stone for most of the year anyway. We’ll see this Friday if the old ‘fork has any surprises up their sleeves. In this order, mind you:

1. Merriweather Post Pavillon - Animal Collective
2. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear
3. Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors
4. Only Built For Cuban Linx, Pt.2 - Raekwon
5. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix
6. xx - The xx
7. Album - Girls
8. Psychic Chasms - Neon Indian
9. Embryonic - The Flaming Lips
10. Tarot Sport - Fuck Buttons

The top three were the only (I think) three from 2009 to make an appearance in their Top 200 of the Decade earlier this Fall, so those spots seem pretty safe. Besides, the entire internet seems to think they’re the best three albums of the year, and even Stereogum’s feisty readers said MPP>Veckatimest>Bitte Orca when all was said and done. Raekwon comes up 4th to break up indie-rock’s dominance this year. I’m listening to that as I type this and thinking it needs to be higher on my own list. Phoenix is going to ride its two monster singles into the top 10, but that whole album is top notch. The debuts from The xx and Girls have been getting universal blog love for months (years) and seem to be a lock. Neon Indian are going to represent that “glo-fi/chill-wave/hypnoblogic-whatever” stuff that was everywhere for most of the Spring/Summer and made for some interesting singles (but not albums, IMHO), and The Flaming Lips made a triumphant return to the conversation this year with Embryonic. Rounding out the 10 is going to be Tarot Sport. First alternate is Logos by Atlas Sound. Put money on that shit. Although I may be wrong.

So, what do you think? What am I missing? Do you even care at all?
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[mp3] Savoir Adore - "We Talk Like Machines"

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:34:00 +0000

I’ve really been digging this track from Brooklyn’s Savoir Adore lately. “We Talk Like Machines” is from their debut album released earlier this year called In The Wooded Forest. Tight co-ed vocals over shimmery indie-pop.

MP3 :: We Talk Like Machines
(from In The Wooded Forest. Buy here)
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[mp3] J. Tillman - "My Proud Mountains"

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:29:00 +0000

Even with two of the year’s best albums under his belt (Vacilando Territory Blues & Year In The Kingdom), a brand new limited edition 7” on the way, and a full band tour (not to mention his drumming duties for Fleet Foxes), J. Tillman has still found time to contribute a song to a recent Townes Van Zandt tribute album called Introducing Townes Van Zandt Via The Great Unknown. He chose “My Proud Mountains”, and typically, does the TVZ song proud. Hear it courtesy of An Aquarium Drunkard, who also have several of Tillman’s hard to find early albums available digitally through their Autumn Tone label as well as a bootleg’d show from this past summer available for free download.

MP3 :: My Proud Mountains
(from Introducing Townes Van Zandt Via The Great Unknown. Buy here)
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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 6 - David Shane Smith

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:32:00 +0000

As I’ve done for the past two years on PHW, I’ve asked a handful of the artists I’ve blogged about over the last 12 months to reminisce, musically, on 2009. I asked a mix of my favorite local artists, as well as several more nationally recognizable acts, with the hope of having a diverse assortment of reflections on the music that mattered to the artists that mattered to me. In the coming 2 or 3 weeks there will be a series of “guest” posts from some names you may recognize, if you were paying attention this year…

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I stumbled upon the music of David Shane Smith at an open-mic night 2 or 3 summers ago in Brooklyn. I’m sure open-mics in Brooklyn are better than in most places, but they can still be pretty rough. Smith took the stage at around 2 A.M. after hours of established local acts pushing their upcoming shows, the occasional promising newbie, and a lot of painful mediocrity. Dressed in a plain v-neck white tee and ratty jeans, this lanky kid hovered over a room full of (drunk) aspiring musicians (and a friend of one of them, me) and silenced them. He played two stark, absolutely magnetic songs that I never did get the names of, and though they were played alone on acoustic guitar, to call them folk songs would be deceiving. He said a quiet “thanks’ and was gone. Just like that. The next day I looked him up on myspace and listened again, emailed him, and have been sharing his music with you ever since. He’s made a bunch of homemade “albums”, three that I actually have burned copies of - Love Songs, Wintertower, and Angry Earth.

I finally got a chance to talk to him a few months later after a show of his at the same place, Bar 4 in Park Slope, and learned he was soon moving out to L.A. 2009’s Cloud Pleaser was recorded after the transplant, and it’s his best, most fully-realized album yet. I’ve written about him so many times over the past few years that I kind of feel like a broken record describing his music. But it can’t be ignored - Smith is at his best writing bleak yet evocative songs about environmental corrosion, urban degeneracy, and human indifference. He mixes folk, electronica, ambient, and, to a lesser degree, hip-hop, to create a truly original sound. Cloud Pleaser might not be for all of you, but the ones who it is will discover a unique artist with songs well worth hearing.

DSS passed along the following (mostly) non-musical top ten list summing up his 2009. Listen up:

10. The Rite of Spring

All the music I listen to is probably not released in 2009. I'm not trying to avoid current music but in 2009 I think I might have listened to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring a hundred times.
I'm not sure why. I'm going to have my Tarot this afternoon and I'm going to ask the medium about it and see what she thinks.

9. Psycle

This is a free synthesizer program that I found online that mimics analog synthesizers. I haven't been able to stop playing with it since I found it! I might be a little unhealthily addicted to it in fact. I think I might also be unhealthily addicted to some other things but I will leave that alone for now.

8. Marijuana

The weed in California is plentiful and cheap. It varies in quality when you buy it from friends. I haven't actually smoked any in about a week but I might have a contact high right now from just being in Los Angeles.

7. Barack Obama

This guy seemed to come out of nowhere with a few interesting hits that could potentially stay in the cultural lexicon for sometime. Things like "Hope" and "Change" are catchy and rhythmic. Real club anthem potential.

6. Keith Niles

He's a poet. Probably one of the best writers I've met in a long time. He was hosting a poetry open mic at a dive bar in Echo Park which has since disbanded. I wonder if he will get mad if he notices that I wrote about him here. I think he might hate me. We've had some arguments. I still like his writing. Google him!

5. Songwriting

Songwriting is frustrating but can be fulfilling in the end. I hear all this talk about how "everything's been done" so I'm just doing it all again. I've found that I enjoy inventing a character from my past and telling people that he/she wrote the song I am about to play. I also invent progeny and attribute the song to them.

4. Cultural Pastiche

I am fan of the mash-up as much as anyone, but I love it when it presents itself through cultural traits. For example at work the other night I was treated to the music of a young Muslim of Arab descent from Texas. It was straight up radio country fit for American Idol and based on Muslim poetry sung through a thick Texan accent. He started doing some Green Day and I wanted to throw my shoe at him.

3. Being friendly.

This is a crazy new thing I've found! How many years have I spent brooding in the back of bars scribbling on napkins or chewing my fingers? How long have I passed up simple, positive, life affirming social interaction in exchange for earbud headphones and caffeine overkill? I can tell that its not going to last too much longer because it gets a little repetitive, but people aren't all that bad when you actually talk to them.

2. Bigotry

It makes me laugh. Say what you want about ignorant racial or sexist slurs, but I just can't stop.

1. Reading.

Here are some books I read this year that stroked my brain stem.
Frederic Jameson - Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Marshal Mcluhan - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
Roberto Bolano - The Savage Detectives

Thanks James, for this platform on which to share my thoughts. Happy New Year!

~DSS
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actor from davidshanesmith on Vimeo.

David Shane Smith - Beauty Force from Gato Blanko on Vimeo.

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MP3 :: Miserablism

MP3 :: Brand New

MP3 :: Beauty Force

(from Cloud Pleaser. Buy here)

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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 5 - Old Canes

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:45:00 +0000

One of the fall’s most pleasant surprises for me was Old Canes’ Feral Harmonic, a record I first heard back in late September and have had in regular rotation ever since. Old Canes is the side project of The Appleseed Cast’s Chris Crisci, and his sophomore album under the Old Canes guise is a positively raucous batch of exuberant indie-folk. The album works as a cohesive 40-minute artistic statement, blending, as the title hints, subtle melodies with unhinged recklessness. “Little Bird Courage” introduces this ramshackle aesthetic - it’s a barreling, Neutral Milk Hotel-influenced burst of hyperactive drums, street-procession horns, buzzing acoustic guitars, and the joyous call-and-response refrain of “And when I’m thirsty / You are the fountain / In the face of danger / I am not afraid” that'll have you shouting along in no time. From there the album hardly comes up for air, even the ballads possess an urgency you just don’t get with most bands. In short, Feral Harmonic is just pure guts captured on tape.

Crisci was kind enough to pass along a reflection on 2009 where he waxes on fatherhood, Jay-Z, Dirty Projectors, & Michael Bay. He even manages to diss Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Listen:

2009 will probably be remembered as the year Transformers 2 came out. I'll admit that I tried to watch it. Maybe I was tired, I was kind of drifting in and out of consciousness as I was watching. I'm not sure if the movie was making me tired, or if the movie just made no sense to me because I was tired already... but I don't know, am I the only one? Was there an actual coherent, followable plot unfolding?

2009 will also be remembered for the first of hopefully many installments of G.I. Joe films to grace our multiplexes. And Paul Blart Mall Cop.

Even the good movies were kind of a let down. Actually the only movie I saw this year that I really enjoyed thoroughly was Inglorious Basterds.

Music in 2009 seemed to be an equally barren landscape for me. There was a time when I would listen to college radio, or check out bands online, and I would find something every once in a while that I could connect with. This year it seemed like there was a fuss being made about band after band that have no content. It's as if Michael Bay has jumped into the music business. There's a lot of image going on.

The Dirty Projectors album is pretty damn amazing though. It took me a couple listens, but I came around.

Other than that, I really liked the Jay-Z New York song, and I saw a bunch of unsigned bands that I liked a lot.

The truth is, I probably could have dug a little deeper in my quest for any kind of edifying art this year. I was a pretty passive observer. I had too much on my plate to go out searching. I'm a new dad, and that pretty much ties up my free time. I worked on several records this year, one of them my own. Now that that's out I've got a few more projects to do, and then maybe I'll come up for some air and see what's happening in the world again.

2009 to me will be remembered as the first year of my boy's life. That and the year I got no sleep. They're closely related. Every parent in the world tells their friends the same thing. Having a kid will change your life. Little did I know, what they meant was I'd just not sleep anymore. Having a kid also brings some perspective to life that is sobering. It's not like having a pet (I love that one)... we're not just feeding the guy and giving him a place to sleep, we're trying to cultivate his mind, make him laugh, help him grow and learn about the world. It's heavy man.

~ CC
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MP3 :: Trust

MP3 :: Little Bird Courage

(from Feral Harmonic. Buy here)

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Introducing :: Why Write?

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:57:00 +0000

I hereby declare “Burning Holes” today’s official jam. Consider it a statement of my youth.

Why Write? is the project of Danish singer-songwriter Jacob Faurholt, who has just released a 5-song EP (also called Why Write?) on Canada’s What A Mess! Records. Last summer he assembled a bunch of his friends in Denmark and recorded the tracks, which were mixed & mastered by the American producer Kramer (Galaxie 500, Daniel Johnston, Low, Half Japanese). Vocally, Faurholt has a huge presence; I’m picking up a resemblance to Interpol’s Paul Banks, minus the blatant Ian Curtis mannerisms. What a song! - harsh squeals precede a brash electric guitar riff which is quickly sweetened by airy backing harmonies. The song whizzes by in just over two exhilarating minutes, with Faurholt droping a series of memorable lines - most notably the repeated phrase that races the song to its ending - “burning holes in the art you make with your hands”. Yeah, that’s pretty much what he’s doing here. Almost as good is “Jesus On A Stamp”, which you can stream here.

MP3 :: Burning Holes
(from Why Write? Buy here)
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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 4 - The Wooden Sky

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:46:00 +0000

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It’s no secret that great indie-rock bands are in no short supply in Canada, but it’s rare to hear one with such an anchor in a style we generally term “Americana” as The Wooden Sky. It seems like an inappropriate descriptor for a band from Toronto, but the 13 songs that make up their 2009 effort, If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone, are rooted in the kind of dusty folk-rock and acoustic balladry you generally associate with the American South. The album’s centerpiece, and it’s eerie heart of darkness, is a brooding, slow-building folk song called “Something Hiding For Us In The Night” that crescendos with lead-singer Gavin Gardiner’s passionate wailing. It’s an earnest, striking work of art, and is easily one of my 15 or 20 favorite songs of the year, sounding like it could be a cover of a Nebraska-era Springsteen outtake. The whole record is beautiful though - there’s a spacious and pristine sound permeating nearly every song. Even the rockers have a distinct sense of elegance about them. Other highlights are the soulful sing-alongs “The Late King Henry” and “Oh My God (It Still Means A Lot To Me)”, the effervescent “While We Were Young”, and the beautiful country harmonies of “Oslo”.

The Wooden Sky helped their own cause this year by touring relentlessly, but chose to do so in an unconventional manner. Their “Bedrooms and Backstreets Tour” found them avoiding the usual bars and rock clubs most young bands head for, instead playing house parties, rooftops, outside of motel rooms, and in a variety of other locales not usually designated for concerts. The point was to get out there and play for people in intimate settings, make friends and acquaintances along the way, and build a fan base from the ground up. The tour was documented in a series of video clips called, appropriately, “A Documentary in Pieces”, available for viewing on their myspace page. The band is hitting the road again this week, stopping off for a pair of New York shows - Thursday, 12/10 (tonight!) at Pianos and Saturday, 12/12 at Union Hall. They’ll be touring across Canada with The Rural Alberta Advantage in the coming weeks. If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone is available through Black Box.

Gardiner sent along the following detailed account of the year in the life of The Wooden Sky. Enjoy, and listen up:

Strange to think this year is over. Stranger still is the fact that today is the day of the first snow fall this winter. By this time last year we were waste deep and cursing the streetcar, who for all it's flaws still gets us from A to B.

After coming back to Toronto from a few days with my parents in Winnipeg over Christmas, we loaded our van with every instrument we owned and drove straight to Montreal. Actually that's not entirely true, we only got about half way before deciding it was too dangerous to continue, pulled off the highway into Kingston and spent the night at a shitty motel. In the morning we were excited to leave town but our van wouldn't turn over, not a sound. It was a rough start to making the record, but when we finally arrived at the studio in Montreal and were greeted by friendly people, dogs, pianos and espresso machines it seemed all the pieces were falling into place. The bitter cold and blowing snow of a January in Montreal kept us inside but it didn't seem to matter, the studio was warm and the ideas seemed to be there in abundance. It's exciting to see what you're capable of when you are forced to focus and create and perform consistently for 12 hours in a row. We recorded 16 songs, 13 of which made up our new record, If I don't come home you'll know I'm gone.

I have fond memories of 2009 and the making of the record was one of the best experiences I've had (despite the fact that there were at times 9 of us living in a one bedroom apartment). That really set the tone for the bulk of my year, the idea keeping friends and family close. It has been nice to bring friends and family on the road with us, it's so important to me that we are able to share in each others lives and I know that can be difficult when the majority of my life (at least this past year) has been spent on the road.

Some highlights:

1) Dan Auerbach: I love this record, I never really was into the Black Keys but this record really connected with me.

2) SXSW: We had a convoy of bands and friends come down from Canada and descend upon Austin. We were coming pretty much straight from mixing the record in Montreal, with a pit stop in Toronto to pick up some clean clothes and a few good friends. The road trip was great, the festival was great and the ride home was long oh and I got to see Phosphorescent play 3 times.

3) Friends in Bellwoods 2: This, the second installation of the Friends in Bellwoods series, is a compilation curated by some close friends designed to raise money for the Daily Bread Food Bank. I think to date it has raised around $18,000 which is pretty fantastic.

4) Tom Petty.

5) Bedrooms and Backstreets Tour: We did a tour this summer (that we called the bedrooms and backstreets tour) which was designed to get us out of bars and clubs and into peoples homes and other unique locations. It was a great way to meet people and to rethink and reinvent the songs that we had just finished spending months toiling away on. It also allowed us to really bring our music to a much more intimate setting and it was just as exciting for us as it was for the audience. We brought along a friend of ours who's a really talented film maker (Scott Cudmore) to document some of it, and ended up filming in some crazy places (ie. canoes, gondolas, old school houses, sunflower fields...)
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Wooden Sky @ Sonic Boom from NOW Magazine on Vimeo.

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MP3 :: Something Hiding For Us In The Night

MP3 :: (Bit Part)

(from If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone. Buy here)

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[mp3/video] Banjo Or Freakout - "Left It Alone"

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:21:00 +0000

I’m really diggin’ this new song/video from Banjo Or Freakout that premiered yesterday over at Stereogum. I’ve heard their name around the blogs this year, but until now haven’t checked out the music of this one-man bedroom-band spearheaded by Alessio Natalizia. If you’re expecting either some finely plucked banjo or finely fucked freakin’ out you won’t find it here, at least not on this track. “Left It Alone” is a tranquil, gorgeous dream-pop ballad that I‘ve had on repeat now for about a half hour. The video, a simple collection of seemingly mundane images, captures the mood of the track perfectly. Maybe I’m thinking too much about it, but most of the visuals have to do with the movement of water, in all its various guises. What that means…who knows? I like looking at it though. “Left It Alone” is the A-Side to a recently released 7” vinyl/digital single from Half Machine Records. Order yours here. B-Side, “Breathe Out” available as a free download here.

MP3 :: Left It Alone
(from the Left It Alone 7”. Buy here)
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[mp3] Liars - "Scissors"

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:51:00 +0000

The first track from the forthcoming Liars album surfaced today and it’s called “Scissors”. Sisterworld is the follow up to their rather straightforward (for them) self-titled 2007 album. The band is giving the track away for free on their new album-themed website. Check that out here, and look for Sisterworld on March 9 from Mute.

MP3 :: Scissors
(from Sisterworld. Info here)
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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 3 - Secondstar

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:04:00 +0000

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I was given a copy of Secondstar’s debut EP, Teeth, by a friend over the summer, and listened to it a few times on my way home from the Wilco show at Keyspan Park this past July. After a night of glorious ear-ringing rock & roll from one of my favorite bands, the gentle, hymn-like melodies and soft acoustics of Secondstar provided the perfect comedown. Teeth found its way into regular rotation around here for much of the summer, and remains a harbinger of good things to come from the talented young singer-songwriter behind it, Liam Carey.

Liam sent along the following words to sum up his busy year:

I tried to write a year-long music blog at the beginning of the year. It lasted until March 6th [ http://www.yearlongsongs.blogspot.com/ ]. I failed miserably. But this has been a good year. Moving to NYC at the tail end of last year, it took some getting used to the cold again, re-making friends. But it's feeling pretty good now....

Favorite Things Done : trip to The Bronx Zoo on my birthday; first ep/album release party at Bar 4 in June; trips out of town to visit friends & family; watching Geoffrey Rush in 'Exit the King' & shows at BAM; walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at dusk to watch 'Raising Arizona' in the park; lunch at Per Se;

Favorite Music : Tim Fite (Change of Heart); A.C. Newman (Get Guilty ); Patrick Watson (Wooden Arms); rediscovering old Jorge Ben albums (Africa Brasil, Forca Bruta); Nick Jaina (A Narrow Way & Wool);

Brooklyn locals : Matt Singer, Casey Shea, Paul Basile, Dinosaur Feathers

Funny how long a year is when you look back. Always feels like it disappears so quickly...

Happy Holidays!
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MP3 :: Ravens
MP3 :: Tied To The Mast
(from Teeth. Buy here)
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[guest post] 2009 In Review, Vol. 2 - Brook Pridemore

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:54:00 +0000

I get the sense from my limited interactions with Brook Pridemore that he’s a guy with a lot to say. I mean, a week or two ago I sent him an invite to contribute a year end “guest post” to PHW and within three hours he had written the “Top 10 Albums of the Year” list that appears below. It was 15 albums deep, not 10, and came with blurbs about each that were more insightful than anything my sorry ass could put together with a month of editing. His myspace bio is one of the more entertaining reads of its type you’ll probably find, avoiding the easy temptation to be sarcastic, aloof, insincere, or irreverent - instead just sounding like a wise guy with a really self-assured view of himself and his art and a real passion for what he does.

His kinetic 5th album, A Brighter Light, throws words around in a similar manner. Released earlier this year through Crafty Records, it’s filled with verbose punk/folk/agit-pop songs that come on in rapid-fire mode, as intent to move your ass as your mind. In that regard, as well as others, he reminds me of what I imagine Ted Leo to be like - someone who’ll play shows anywhere and everywhere and under any conditions. Someone who's spent countless nights sleeping in vans or on people he barely knows’ couches. Someone who’s as interested in dancing (though I bet he's not good at it) as he is in politics (which I bet he is good at), and who’ll make you a mixtape with The Minutemen, Bill Callahan, and some girl who shared a bill with him last month. More than all that though, he seems like someone who knows exactly who he is and what he does best. Brook Pridemore’s love of music comes through in every word he sings, every note he plays, and, I’d imagine, almost every time he opens his mouth. Case in point:

Twelve Albums (By My Friends) That Made 2009 Infinitely Better Than 2008 (Plus, three by my heroes!)

(My Top 10 of 2009)
by Brook Pridemore

15. Guitar Bomb-Happy Hour at the Silverado (Crafty Records) Finally, dude trades in the loop station for a drummer, and gets "Dirty, Bluesy Bar Rock" right. Look past the fact that Happy Hour at the Silverado contains multiple re-recordings of earlier tracks: this is the definitive Guitar Bomb platter. Heavy drunk blues that'll snap your head clean off. "Shit Stains" will remind you what you like about loud-ass electric guitar.

14. Boo Hoo-Hypermarche (Self-released) Boo Hoo is a guy named Bernhard from Frankfurt, Germany. He sings with a delicate tone that makes the listener feel like he (Boo Hoo) feels lucky to be singing for you. "Pete and Pete" is like Kraftwerk crossed with the Moldy Peaches: techno folk about a relaxed afternoon.

13. Woog Riots-Pasp (Self-Released) What is it with German Antifolkers and their gadgets? Woog Riots are a husband and wife duo from Darmstadt, who's brand of "folk" music includes electric guitars and multiple synthesizers. "People Working With Computers" is a list of should-be-obvious truths set to a vintage 80s beat.

12. The Mountain Goats-The Life of the World to Come (4AD) It's almost criminal that, after consistently releasing quality work for almost twenty years now, John Darnielle's fifteenth album is arguably his best. Backed by the crackerjack rhythm section of Peter Hughes on bass and drummer Jon Wurster, Life is an alternately pummeling and devastating batch of songs titled after (and apparently inspired by) Bible verses. "Psalms 40:2" is a good starter for anyone who thought Get Lonely was too wimpy.

11. River City Extension-Nautical Sabbatical (Self Released)These guys are breathing new life into Asbury Park, NJ. Like Bright Eyes, but not shitty. Banjos and cellos and horns crash over cacophonous drums, while leader Joe Michelini presides over the whole mess like the world's most endearing carnival barker. Get in on it. "Clever and Quickness" to start.

10. Thomas Patrick Maguire-Corporation Town EP (Luv-A-Lot) Tom's been around the New York Antifolk scene at least as long as I have, and this, his fourth release, is the strongest TPM recording to date. Still channeling the lo-fi crunch of Lou Barlow and early Smog, but infinitely more tuneful than either, Corporation Town is reverent to its' (and the authors') 90s roots, without wallowing in nostalgia. After one listen to "Worn Clothes," I challenge you to walk through Williamsburg on a Saturday night, not humming its' acerbic chorus.

9. Short Term Effect-Pit-Yacker Suite (Discount Horse Records) Short Term Effect is Michael Bridgewater of Durham, UK. As someone who works in the punk rock idiom but rarely sounds "punk rock," it was a great pleasure to meet a kindred spirit like Michael at a show in his hometown earlier this year. Pit-Yacker Suite could have been the next Elliott Smith album, if dude'd had a slightly sunnier disposition. Highlight: "The Dead is Coming," with it's haunting coda of "They'll kill us if they catch us."

8. Ching Chong Song-(Self-Released) Everything Is For The Babies The duo of pianist Dan Gower and saw/ukelelist/chanteuse Julie LaMendola expand their sound for their second album, adding accordionist (and Bushwick Book Club founder) Susan Hwang to the fold. The sound on ...Babies, with Gower's vocals a little higher in the mix than last time, is more representative of their live show than its' predecessor, but the style remains the same. What's that style? I have taken to calling it "Dadaist Cabaret." Start with "Giggle Fact," wash, rinse, repeat.

7. Schwervon!-Low Blow (Olive Juice Music) Partners in life and music, Matt Roth and Nan Turner seem to do everything together, which is what makes their albums so sweet. In listening, one gets the impression that one is being given a bird's eye view of Schwervon!'s private life. If Schwervon! weren't such great people, listening to Low Blow would be a chore, but Matt and Nan are two of the smartest and funniest people on the downtown scene, and their fourth album leaves the listener exhilarated and giddy. For fans of: Sleater-Kinney, The White Stripes. Highlight: "Jad Fair," a love letter from Schwervon! to a figurehead of the last generation's DIY scene.

6. Toby Goodshank-Johnny's Democracy (Unicorn Sounds) For his twenty-fifth (depends on who you ask) album since 1999, the potty-mouthed Goodshank of Follow Me If You Want To Fuck returns in full effect. Ten name-them-yourself songs (a la Butthole Surfers' Hairway to Steven) open with "Pulled Pork," in which TG fantasizes about molesting the 2008 Election candidates ("and I think about touching Biden, and the dander on his dick and ass"), and get progressively filthier from there. "I Had Become A Man" (Track 4), with its' over autotuning and Adult Contemporary dance beat, is divisive among longtime Goodshank fans, but a highlight in the man's long, absurd catalog (and the least NSFW track herein).

5. Daniel Bernstein-Everybody Knows (Self-Released) Two years in the making, Daniel Bernstein's latest batch is considerably sunnier than anything he's made before. The band (including local stalwarts Vin Cacchione on lead guitar and Miss Erin Regan on harmonies) sounds more like Out Of Time-era R.E.M. than ever, and these songs are, once again, more representative of what Bernstein and Co. sound like live than any of his other albums. Open your party mix with "Tag You're Hollow." Trust me.

4. Soft Black-The Earth Is Black and Other Apocalyptic Lullabies for Children (Plays With Dolls) In which Vin Cacchione eschews the alt-country elements of his debut, Blue Gold, embracing his love for the Stooges and MC5. Songs sparkle with an intensity heretofore unseen from the chill, affable Cacchione, though my highlight on the album (after the title track), is the mournful, elegant "Mouth is Dripping."

3. Erin Regan-S/T (Self-Released) For such an outsized personality, Erin Regan sure makes some stately, reserved music. Her low alto is not unlike that of Aimee Mann, but her lyrics mine a much more personal depth than her predecessor. Check out the negative space in "Amen," which is almost louder than the song itself.

2. Huggabroomstik-Intimate Huggabroomstik (Olive Juice Music) Though it won't be ready for the world until 2010, I'm telling you now that Intimate Huggabroomstik is the best album I played drums on in 2009 (also the only album I drummed on in 2009, but shut up). Recorded live at Brooklyn Tea Party, a la Tom Waits' Nighthawks at the Diner, Intimate Huggabroomstik is at once Piper-era psychedelia, folk, metal, classic rock, jazz, cabaret and funk. Don't tell Jerry Bruckheimer about the Con-Air sample at the beginning of "O.U.R.6," please and thank you.

1. Bill Callahan-Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle (Drag City) Okay, Callahan's the only guy on this list I don't know personally, but his latest (and at least second-best, after the 2005 Smog swansong A River Ain't Too Much To Love), is definitely my favorite album of the year. Though his relationship with Joanna Newsom ended somewhere between Eagle and 2007's Woke on a Whaleheart, this is not a bitter breakup album. Callahan's songs rarely speed up past a glacial pace, content with rippling along like a river in low water season. If we still lived in a world of singles, "Rococo Zephyr" would be single of the year.

Honorable Mention - Brook Pridemore A Brighter Light (Crafty Records) I am extremely proud of my new album, though not narcissistic enough to put it in my top ten for the year. I have played it's title track, "A Brighter Light," easily a thousand times since I wrote it, and the thrill hasn't worn off yet. If an honorable mention for my own album is against the rules, write your own Top 15. Dick.
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“Just Like Nathan Hale, Pt. 2”

MP3 :: The Buckeye State and Russell
MP3 :: Remain Upright
MP3 :: Stockholm St. Syndrome
(from A Brighter Light. Buy here)

Brook was kind enough to put together a Zip of all the songs he mentions in his blurbs. Download that HERE (available for 7 days starting 12/24).
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