Unite!

Super groups have never been a personal favorite of mine.  It’s the point when musicians begin to see music as more of a means of profit than artistic expression.  On most occasions, super groups are prolific musicians of a certain genre attempt to unite against the forces of the popular media in hopes to add some girth to their wallets, not to their musical repertoire.  It could be likened to the collusion of Noel Gallagher, Bono and Steve Vai.  Each of these three iconic musicians is indispensable to his own act, yet the combination of three acclaimed musicians creates too many ego-headed, talented musicians all looking to make their own impact on the music.  In many ways, Monsters Of Folk is the same way.  Each singular member is outstanding.  Some are already on their way to becoming some of the most respected folk artists of their era.  Yet the collaborations don’t do justice.

Monsters Of Folk is M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes and Jim James from My Morning Jacket.  Individually these acts are superb, but upon release of the self-titled debut, I found it to be MILDLY disappointing.  The music is still enjoyable and there are a few noteworthy tracks.  Make sure you check out each of these artists out individually and then in collaborative form in Monsters Of Folk and tell me what you think.  7/10 on the debut, still  great entertainment.

Here Are A  Few Standouts:

Baby Boomer – Vocals primarily by M. Ward

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Baby_Boomer_album_/23188322

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Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.) – Jim James & M. Ward

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Dear_God_sincerely_M_O_F_album_/23188340

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Temazcal – Conor Oberst

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Temazcal_album_/23188326

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Hope You enjoy these recommendations!

Viva La Musica

5. The White Stripes: Icky Thump
This album makes my body slowly convulse. The actual song “Icky Thump” is loud, hard, and painfully addictive.

4. The Be Good Tanyas: Blue Horse
Blue Horse is a pretty sing-a-long album that never leaves the player.

3. The Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
I fell in love with music all over again with this album. It echoes Bowie, tells sad ghost stories, and energetically cries into the future: “LET’S GO!”

2. Bright Eyes: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
Conor Oberst can make you feel your mortality in such a beautiful way. Surprisingly, you find yourself happy and willing to do so.

1. Ryan Adams: Heartbreaker
This album seriously called me back to North Carolina. It’s always in the player during any road trip, as I wind myself in and out of the mountains.

Så drar den årliga listningsvågen över populärkultursverige. Årets album ska utses. I år igen. Ett givet grepp, visst. Men ofta intressant att få jämföra olika redaktioners och sajters listor med sin egen. På det hela taget har 2009 varit ett betydligt svagare skivår än smått fantastiska 2008. Sonics summering brukar vara stabil, men årets lista (som toppas av Animal Collective) har en del hål. Animal Collective finns också med (plats 7) när gänget på amazon.com listar sina favoriter. Den toppas, lite otippat, av Neko Case utmärkta popsnärtiga Middle Cyclone. Men även där finns blinda fläckar. Så för att fylla gluggarna kommer här min lista.

På Spotify-listan Best Albums of 2009 finns många av albumen.

1. Richmond Fontaine – We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River
2. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
3. Eilen Jewell – Sea Of Tears
4. Joe Purdy – Last Clock On The Wall
5. Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
6. Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels
7. Iron & Wine – Around The Well
8. Girls – Album
9. AA Bondy – When The Devil’s Loose
10. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
11. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
12. Deer Tick – Born On Flag Day
13. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
14. Deportees – Under The Pavement, The Beach
15. Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
16. Anna Järvinen – Man var bland molnen
17. Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band -Outher South
    
18. Son Volt – American Central Dust
19. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
20. Robert Francis – Before Nightfall

Och vi avslutar väl med en tryckare? Från Joe Purdys album, som tyvär inte finns med på Spotifylistan.

“This is the first day of my life..”

My first day unattached from that haze that’s been hanging over my head. I felt strange all day, like I was high. God and I haven’t been at ends lately, we’re getting chummy again. I saw the world today through a telescope, and all the colors of excitement and disgust mixed together to make an ugly brown. So I had to stop looking so closely. If I look from father away, all the little people look pretty.

“On the way to Cassadaga I took commune with the dead, they said ‘You’d better look alive.’ “

What’ll it be like when I wake up tomorrow? I have no idea. It’s a good question though, I guess I’ll let you know. My freedom is swelling up again. The house I live it might be a marvel to you, but all 3,000 square feet are weighting down on my shoulders. Between the houses I’m stuck between and the government owned swamp behind my house, I can’t go anywhere.

“I never thought of running, my feet just led the way.”

Maybe I really am nuts, or maybe the angels are pulling at my feet, trying to get me to run. “Where” isn’t the point.. I’m never really going to run to get anywhere. I’m gonna run, just for the sake of running. Not all that wander are lost. I wonder, what would happen if you stuck one of those old arab nomads from decades ago in a jail cell? Something like what I’m feeling, I guess.

~Listen to Bright Eyes.. Conor Oberst is the maker of my own special brand of musical heroin.

Who doesn’t love a good indie Christmas song?

1. Christmas Party – The Walkmen
2. It’s Only Christmas – As Tall As Lions
3. Happy Christmas (War is Over) – Damien Rice
4. Splitting up Christmas – Kevin Devine
5. Christmas Time is Here Again (Bring Out the Joy!) – My Morning Jacket
6. Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved it!) – Sufjan Stevens
7. Happy Christmas (War is Over) – Thrice
8. White Christmas – Bright Eyes
9. Jinglebell Rock – Arcade Fire
10. Happy Christmas (War is Over) – The Polyphonic Spree
11. It’s Christmas Time – Yo La Tengo
12. Holly Jolly Christmas – The Format
13. The First Noel – Bright Eyes
14. Get Behind Me, Santa! – Sufjan Stevens
15. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Death Cab for Cutie
16. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Daphne Loves Derby
17. The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes
18. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Bright Eyes

Download

Manchester Orchestra, The Strongest & Most Emotional Band Out Of These 4 BANDS & THAT IS SAYING A LOT!!!! Not to mention Andy Hull is also part of the sickest side project since Team Sleep & not only is it painfully emotional, intense & beautiful – But, it & he has it planned out so well. They have 2 Albums out right now & their 3rd Album will be the end to a trilogy amongst a concept regarding a Captain of an old fishing Boat who sets sail and finds the thing that he misses, loves, hates & believes in.. Along with insane Sea Creatures that I won’t even ruin for than fan that will look into this. I have so much respect for Mr. Andy Hull & I am going to try and get Andy to give me my first interview ever for my little Blog which will become an actual website once all of my money isn’t going towards helping others. I figure the Karma Police will eventually come & bail me out of these shackles..

Mimicking Birds – Nate Lacy Was Already My Favorite Songwriter In The Indie Game & Then My Favorite Musician From My Favorite Band (American Band & Almost Global) To Sign Them To Glacial Pace. If You Don’t Know Who I Am Talking About, Then You Apparently Need To Do Some Research~!!

Phoenix (One of my Top Albums Of The Year! By Far The Best Musicians Of All The New Bands. Their Sass Factor Reaches That Of HOT FUZZ By The Killers & That Is BEcause Of ALL 4 MEMBERS INVOLVED!! Greatest Band From France, Not The Best Singer.. They Would Be Lucky To  Crack Top 10, But I Think Their Upside Is A STRONG A+ ~

He Dreams Awake Is The Weird One Of The Bunch.. I Heard Of Him Through A Mutual Friend & I Was Blown Away With The 40+ Tracks I Got My Hands On & That Is When I FOund Out That He Doesn’t Do Many Interviews, There Aren’t Any Pictures I Can Find Of Him & He Hasn’t Even Released His Debut Album Yet~ His Music Is Very Intriguing & The Theories + Structure That He Uses Or Refuses To Use, Makes It That Much More Mysterious To Me. There Is Something About This Solo Artist Who Obviously Treats Music As An Art & His Title Of Musician More Like A Status Of An Artist. This Doesn’t Sound Right, But I Don’t Know What Makes Sense With This Individual & I Would Put A Lot Of Money On The Fact That Is Exactly How He Is Playing His Cards.. Very Close To The Chest~

So. There Are My Four Best Rising Bands in the Industry~

I Hope You Check Them Out & Give Me Some Feedback On These Four Bands & Better Yet, Who You Think The Best Young Bands Are & It Would Be Cool To Hear Of A Few More Like HDAwake, Artists That Are Still UNDER THE RADAR

I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away

milk and apples

My Thoughts and Wishes to All for the Coming Year: Happy Holidays!

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you’d just woke up
And you said “this is the first day of my life
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy”

-Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes: First Day Of My Life

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Saddle Creek has just released Bright Eyes’ “A Christmas Album”, on 180 gram snow white vinyl! This is the first time this album has been available on vinyl, and it features EXCLUSIVE VINYL ONLY cover art. When you order it, you get a free MP3 download  of the full record! You cannot buy this in stores, its only available online, as is the cd version too.

100% of the proceeds will go to benefit the NEBRASKA AIDS PROJECT.

You can order this record HERE!

This fine evening I meandered over to Royal Festival Hall to watch Lisa Hannigan play. More on that later. But while I was waiting in my seat, all cosy and comfortable, a familiar tune came on the PA. It was Bright Eyes’ song First Day Of My Life from 2005’s I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.

Once upon a time, four years ago, I used to adore that record. Bright Eyes were one of my favourite bands. And I loved that song. I hadn’t listened to that song in a long time, and there was something really sweet about hearing it at The Royal Festival Hall, by chance. It made me go ‘awwwwwww’. I always think of records like friends, and it was like seeing an old friend who I haven’t seen in ages and giving them a giant hi-five and  hug. 

On the tube ride home I listened to some old Bright Eyes songs. It was lovely to revisit some of those songs. Awww.

It’s safe to say that everything Conor Oberst has his hands in turns to gold. Monsters of Folk, who also features M. Ward, Mike Mogis and Jim James are just wrapping up their extremely successful tour this weekend, want the fans to get involved in the fun. The band has just released their new video for the track “Say Please,” which is a stunning display of an earlier carefree time in life. Monsters of Folk play to a group of 1920’s rollerskaters who seem almost oblivious the band is even playing. With beautiful colors and strings of Christmas lights, it’s a sight that must be seen.

Though Oberst and company are already looking ahead to the next video, and that is where the fans come in. Monsters of Folk are running a contest for the next single “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.).” Teaming up with Apple/Quicktime and Death & Taxes Magazine, the band is challenging people to make their own creative music video for the song. The winning video will be posted live, and the winner will also win $5,000, a Gibson guitar signed by the band, and a copy of the new Final Cut Studio Software. The Top 5 finalists will all win signed vinyl copies of the album from the band. Talk about a happy holiday!

To enter the contest head over to Shangri-La Record’s Website

Watch Monsters of Folk “Say Please”

af Benjamin Haslund-Krog

Hvad skal man forvente, når musikalske fyrtårne slår sig sammen? Kan monstre supplere hinanden, eller bliver det som når Real Madrid er værst og stjernerne spænder ben for hinanden?

Meningerne var mange, da Conor Oberst sammen med vennerne M. Ward, Jim James og Mike Mogis i september slap debutpladen ud. At Oberst er gruppens hovedattraktion, hersker der denne aften ikke tvivl om i et ikke-udsolgt Store Vega. Hans navn er på alles læber og en Bright Eyes t-shirt sidder på teenagepigen forrest i køen. Man har fornemmelsen af at størstedelen af publikum hellere havde set en regulær Bright Eyes-koncert.

Monstrene
Koncerten viser fire meget forskellige musikalske originaler i ét band. M. Ward er en elegantier og spiller balanceret, velafmålt countryfolk og besidder den varmeste stemmeklang. Jim James ligner en hulemand og hans stemme er noget af det lyseste, reneste og klareste, jeg til dato har hørt. Mike Mogis er nørden og multiinstrumentalisten bag Conor. Han både producerer og spiller de fleste instrumenter på Bright Eyes-pladerne. På hver deres måde er de musikalsk hamrende dygtige.

Conor Oberst besidder kun få musikalske evner, men har altid været meget personlig i sin musik. Han har sin skæve Dylan-agtige stemme, der aldrig lyder rigtig godt, men indeholder så meget alvor og weltschmerz, at de første Bright Eyes-plader om melodramatiske teenagefølelser blev kult i indiekredse. Tænk bare på linier som ‘I fell for the promise of a life with a purpose but I know that that’s impossible now’ og ‘I want a lover I don’t have to love, a girl who is too sad to give a fuck’. Siden er han blevet mere voksen, politisk og samtidig distanceret fra sin musik. Dette er også den Oberst, der møder Vega denne aften, hvor de fleste Bright Eyes-sange er taget fra de nyere albums.

Store forventninger
Det var varslet på forhånd at koncerten ville tage 2½-3 timer og indeholde sange fra alle artisters bagkataloger, så forventningerne var enorme og med bagkataloger med 2-300 sange var der nok at tage af. I alt blev det til 35 sange!

Koncerten svingede meget i form og intensitet med Mike Mogis som den mest stabile aktør, der blev ved sin pedal steel det meste af aftenen. De øvrige skiftede mellem guitar, bas og keys gennem hele koncerten. Trods omskifteligheden og variationerne var koncertens bundniveau umådelig højt og viste et band, der virkelig nød at spille hinandens, egne og fælles sange. De stærkeste MoF-numre var åbneren Say Please, Temazcal, Baby Boomer og ekstranummeret Whole Lotta Losin, hvor monstrene virkelig fik det hele til at gå op i en højere enhed.

Hit and miss fra bagkataloget
Valget af Bright Eyes-sange er nok min største anke, hvor ingen sange fra Fevers and Mirrors og Lifted… fandt vej til settet. Det ville have klædt koncerten og skabt en endnu mere ekstatisk stemning, hvis Oberst havde været lidt mere gavmild med de gamle klassikere. Af de valgte Bright Eyes-sange var det kun At The Bottom Of Everything og Hit The Switch, der virkelig imponerende og profiterede af de andre medlemmer i MoF. Numre som Kathy With A K’s Song, Soul Singer In A Session Band og Another Travellin’ Song har efter min vurdering intet at gøre i et set som dette.

Et af koncertens andre højdepunkter var M. Ward-nummeret One Life Away, hvor den stille sang fra Transistor Radio blev pumpet godt op af det velspillende band uden at miste sin elegance og charme. Jim James’ sange fra My Morning Jacket-pladerne er smukke og velskrevne, men besidder i aften ikke det samme nærvær som de øvrige sange, formentlig fordi færre kender dem, og bliver derfor af mange benyttet som en passende pause til at hente øl.

En koncert er mere end almindelig god, når den varer næsten 3 timer og man ønsker, at den skal fortsætte. Dette var Monsters of Folks første koncert på dansk grund.

For nye folk-fans kan følgende skiver på det varmeste anbefales:
M. Ward – Transistor Radio
Bright Eyes – Fevers and Mirrors
Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
My Morning Jacket – Z

This morning was a bit earlier than usual. At 5am sharp I was wide awake and attempting to wake J up to hop in the shower and take off for his backpacking adventure (maybe hiking/camping more than backpacking). I threw together his lunch and shuttled us off to his parents to meet up with his dad to await his ride. What is funny is that this group of men going on this overnight trip wanted to get up that early so they could make a stop at Cracker Barrel. Funny because my boy could care less about food and what he eats. He would rather take some sort of food pill instead of eating. Seriously. I know.

After coming back home I walked the pup around the park came back and decided a run may be in order before breakfast (since it was just hitting 6:30). Ran on the treadmill for a bit to Bright Eyes and Gwen Stefani (I know weird mix, but got me going) for about 4 miles headed home ate some oatmeal and drank my cafe au lait. Take that starbucks

On a different note last week I celebrated my 28th birthday and my sweet sweet husband and in-laws gifted me with 6 months of yoga at my favorite studio, North Shore Yoga. If you ever stop in Chattanooga this yoga studio is a must try. Last week was full of eating out and my belly is feeling it and now it is Thanksgiving week. I am going to be eating a bunch of grapefruit and the like.

And since I love it when people include pictures in their blogs here is a picture of my boy’s project truck that is has been a work in progress for a few months. If anyone has an old VW bus or truck my husband is the master restorer of these. Check out his website here.

Front view

Backside view

Sometimes as a counselor, I’ll encounter a client who says something to the effect of, “Well, I’m just not that emotional of a person.”

Statements like this always leave me a little bit sad.  Sad because I know it’s not true.

Sorry Kiefer. Even as Jack Bauer, you have to cry sometimes.

I say this, not because I’m a counselor and I think I can “read” people, and know more about them than they do about themselves.  It’s more because of what I believe about people in general.  We’re made in the image of God.  God himself is passionate and emotional.  And he’s made us as reflections of Himself in this regard.

Think you’re not an emotional person?  If you could meet yourself as a small child I bet you’d change your mind.  Anyone who’s spent any amount of time around children knows that they are intensely emotional, capable of experiencing a whole range of emotions in a very short period of time.

Infants cry an average of 2-3 hours per day. You were once an infant.

Now, of course, we mature emotionally as we grow older.  Our emotions become, to some degree, more stable, and we (hopefully) learn how to respond healthily to them.  But our emotionality doesn’t just disappear.

More often, I think that we are not taught what to do with our emotions, and so we learn to just get rid of them, or grit our teeth until they fade into the background.

A story of self-taught numbness.

I love the song “Take It Easy (Love Nothing)” by Bright Eyes, because it illustrates so clearly the process of self-numbing that is usually unspoken and subconscious (at least in adults).  (Warning: This song and its lyrics are not explicit, but do talk about sex before marriage.)

In this song, the narrator tells the story of a time that he slept with a woman, though they had not previously been in a romantic relationship.  When he awoke the next morning, she was gone, but she had left a note by the bed:

“Everything is as it’s always been.  This never happened.  Don’t take it too bad.  It’s nothing you did.  It’s just, once something dies, you can’t make it live.  You’re a beautiful boy.  You’re a sweet little kid; but I am a woman.”

This marks a turning point in the life of the narrator.  He is hurt, and frightened.  He doesn’t give us the details of what he decided at that point, except to say, “Since then I’ve been so good at vanishing.”

For the rest of the story, he is avoiding his pain and perpetuating his numbness by hurting others in the same way he has been hurt, sleeping with them and then leaving.  And, he says, if anyone gets too close to him, “I will trap you in a song tied to a melody/and I will keep you there so you can’t bother me”.

Vows were made.

Similarly, I can think of particular moments in my life, significant events, when I decided, “Never again.  I will not feel this kind of pain again.”  I shut down a part of myself, or decided that I would not let myself care about others or what they think.

What about you?  Especially you men: Can you recall a time in your life when you did the same?  Maybe your anger led to you hurting someone else, and you decided, “Anger isn’t safe.  I’ll never be angry again.” Maybe someone hurt you, making you feel weak and powerless, and you decided, “I’ll always be strong and never show it when I’m hurt.”

The problem is, it’s one thing to shut off the pain, but once we start numbing ourselves, it’s notoriously difficult to reverse the process.  I can kill off parts of my heart, but what then?  What happens when I find myself unable to care for people in my life, or be emotionally available to those who care about me?

Parts of us get cut off, one by one. But a stick will never do for an arm.

We move by slow degrees toward emotional death, until we are just an empty shell.  We get rid of uncomfortable or dangerous emotions one by one: “Anger?  Too dangerous.  Cut it off… Sadness?  Too vulnerable.  Stuff it down…  Vulnerability?  Too weak.  Cover it up.”  Until eventually… there’s nothing left.  And we forget that we ever chose our numbness.  “I don’t know”, we say.  “I guess I’m just not really an emotional person”.

“The only pain”, says Bono in the song A Man and A Woman, “Is to feel nothing at all.”  And in another song, “You should worry about the day that the pain goes away… You know, I miss mine sometimes.” (Fast Cars)

So now what?

Reversing this slow death is not easy.  It is a long and painful resurrection.  And I think most of us, if we are honest, aren’t sure that we even want to.  Oh, we give it great lip service.  We’d love to be more alive, more loving, more passionate, more emotionally engaged in our relationships.  We’d love to care more for the world and the people around us.  But when uncomfortable, messy emotions actually present themselves, we’re quick to push them away.  We expect to be able to go straight from numbness to godly emotion without having to wade through the mess.  We sometimes even have very spiritual sounding reasons for doing so.  (“I shouldn’t show my anger.  After all, the fruit of the Spirit is self-control.  I should be self-controlled enough to just deny myself, take up my cross, and forgive this person.”)

Is this what you're afraid will happen?

Let’s start small: Try just noticing these things.  How many times today will you feel an emotion, and then move away from it?  How many times will a voice inside say, “Hey, I think I might be feeling something”, and then another voice quickly respond, “Best not to think about that.”?

Notice it.

At least know when – and how often – you are choosing to disconnect from what you feel.

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Oh, I’ve made love, yeah, I’ve been fucked, so what?
I’m a cartoon, you’re a full moon, let’s stay up

It was a great year for fine albums, though only one merits to be remembered as a stone cold classic. I’m sorry to omit a number of very good efforts released in 2005, such as those by Brandi Carlile, Iron & Wine, Damien Jurado, Death Cab for Cutie, Maria Taylor, Andrew Bird, Emilíana Torrini, John Frusciante, Colin Hay, Kathleen Edwards, Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators, Kevin Devine, Eels, The Cardigans, John Prine, Kate Earl, Richard Thompson, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Blue Eyed Son, Sarah Bettens, Antony & the Johnsons, Beck, Tristan Prettyman, The Magic Numbers, Hot Hot Heat, Charlie Sexton …

* * *

Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

On the same day as Conor Oberst and chums released their best album — and one of the decades finest — they also released what I think is their worst, Digital Ash In A Digital Turn. It was wise that they did not take the option of releasing these two entirely distinct albums — one alt.country, the other electronica — as a double album. I’m Wide Awake, which features Emmylou Harris on a couple of tracks, has Oberst in a restrained, though not necessarily tamed, form. The indisciplined excesses from previous albums have been ironed out, but not at the expense of that most essential Oberst quality: the feverish intensity. It certainly is the most consistent Bright Eyes album. Every song here is beautiful, especially First Day Of My Life and We Are Nowhere And It’s Now, on the latter of which Emmylou harmonises.

Lyrically, Oberst is in fine form: tender, resigned, confused, hopeful, angry. When he sings on At The Bottom Of Everything about capital punishment, he rightly hectors: “Into the face of every criminal strapped firmly to a chair, we must stare, we must stare, we must stare.” And on Old Soul Song, about an anti-war protest in New York, has some beautifully poetic lines: “We left before the dust had time to settle, and all the broken glass swept off the avenue. And on the way home held your camera like a bible, just wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth.”
Bright Eyes – Old Soul Song (For The New World Order).mp3
Bright Eyes – We Are Nowhere And It’s Now.mp3

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Richard Hawley – Coles Corner

From the moment the melancholy strings strike up on the album’s opener, the gorgeous title track (featured HERE), this album captivates the listener. A more even effort than 2003’s Lowedges, Hawley tries to capture a mood of 1950s balladeering, drawing from country, pop and rockabilly with a healthy dose of torchsong crooning. One can almost imagine Hotel Room being reworked as a doo wop song. The orchestration is lush, scoring Hawley’s warm baritone beautifully. Besides the title track and the countryish Just Like The Rain, the standout track here is The Ocean (not the most encouraging title, it must be said) which starts off quietly and slowly builds up to a dramatic crescendo. I’d gladly call Coles Corner Hawley’s masterpiece, but he has topped it with this year’s Truelove’s Gutter.
Richard Hawley – The Ocean.mp3

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Jens Lekman – Oh You’re So Silent, Jens

Jens Lekman featured with his debut album in the 2004 list; here he returns with a compilation of single and EP tracks — and Lekman has an extravagant catalogue of EPs, some of which he made available on his site for free downloading a while back. So it is suitable, and doubtless intentional, that the opening track would be called At the Dept. of Forgotten Songs. Lyrically and musically it’s all very quirky, but nowhere as much so as A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill, a song that is at once funny and wistful (and which gets the release date of Warren G’s Regulate wrong and fails to credit Nate Dogg), recorded with probably not entirely sober pals who improvise the backing vocals and at the end shout out requests (the woman who requests Black Cab gets her wish on the album). Lekman channels Morrissey and The Byrds on I Saw Her At The Anti-War Demonstration, muses on the use of the F-Word, and forges the punchline to childhood jokes. In a sequence of three songs, Lekman assumes the alter ego Rocky Dennis (the name of the facially deformed character played by Eric Stoltz in the ’80s film Mask), whom he finally bids farewell at the end of the trilogy. It’s a thoroughly likeable collection of songs.
Jens Lekman – I Saw Her At The Anti-War Demonstration.mp3

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Wilco – Kicking Television – Live in Chicago

I’m ambivalent about live albums. Much of the time they are a letdown: the songs don’t sound as good as they did on the studio album, the live atmosphere is not captured and so on. Some live albums work because the artist’s stage presence or audience vibe translates to record. And some live albums work because the performer adds something new to the songs. Kicking Television satisfies at least the latter requirement (I’d argue that the vibe is there, too). Take Misunderstood. A weedy, proto-emo number on 1996’s Being There, here it’s a dramatic monster — I’m among those who love the repeated “Nothing”s. There’s humour as well. Following the mid-tempo Wishful Thinking, Tweedy announces, laughingly: “Let’s get this party started…with some mid-tempo rock”. True to his word, the band eases into the mid-tempo Jesus etc. With the great Nels Cline in the line-up and Tweedy having polished his guitar work, there’s much to be had by way of axemanship, most notably on At Least That’s What You Said.
Wilco – Misunderstood.mp3

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Hello Saferide – Introducing…Hello Saferide

Like fellow Swede Jens Lekman, who gets a namecheck in the wonderful The Quiz on Hello Saferide’s 2006 EP, Annika Norlin (for she is Hello Saferide) benefits from a quirky sense of humour, an attractive Swedish accent and the fact that English is not her first language. The latter is not a handicap as she manoeuvres her way around conventions to create novel lyrical ideas that are often cute but never twee. Norlin’s mind is fascinating: expressing her affection for a friend, she wishes they were lesbians; she wishes her boyfriend illness so that she can take care of her “teddy bear on heroin”; getting in touch again with an old pen pal, she admits to having told lies; as a high school stalker in the very funny song of the same name she breaks into the dentist’s office so that the object of her desire won’t need braces and then has coffee with his mother. The upbeat tunes are catchy, and the slow numbers are saved by almost invariably great lyrics and Norlin’s lovely, vulnerable voice.
Hello Saferide – Highschool Stalker.mp3
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Neil Diamond – 12 Songs

God bless Rick Rubin. Having re-established Johnny Cash as relevant artist, he resurrected Neil Diamond, redeeming him from the lame-jacketed crooner reputation. The title 12 Songs became a misnomer with the belated introduction of two bonus tracks (a rip-off, surely it’s the initial purchasers of an album who deserve a bonus), one an alternative, upbeat version of Delirious Love, a song featuring Brian Wilson that appears in more muted form among the original dozen tracks.. That song is the closest Diamond comes to his late ’60s pomp, the bonus track’s arrangement in particular. Most of the album is reflective, pensive and acoustic. It is beautiful. And it’s tempting to give Rubin all the credit. That would be unfair to Diamond, who wrote the songs and for whom the acoustic arrangement is not foreign, as fans of his ’60s albums will know. More than equipping Diamond with a new sound, Rubin harnessed the man’s strength and, perhaps more importantly, by association made him, like Cash, relevant again.
Neil Diamond – Save Me A Saturday Night.mp3

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Common – Be

I can think of very few albums on which the three closing tracks may be the set’s best. Ziggy Stardust comes to mind as a contender (though its best song, Starman, is on Side 1). This is certainly the case here. Modern hip hop, especially the leering misogyny and swaggering materialism expressed by dentally adventurous people in whose company I would not want to spend a minute, leaves me largely cold. Kanye West’s album of the same year had its moments, but I never feel prompted to play it. West did, however, produce most of Common’s album, which is good, and appears on many of the tracks, which is not so good when he makes those idiotic high-pitched noises. This certainly is not a hip hop album that’s representative of the contemporary genre. As much of Common’s work, it is thoughtful and socially conscious. It draws as much from Public Enemy as it does from the great era of politically aware black music, the early to mid-1970s. There is more than a hint of Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott-Heron on Be, and the Last Poets even appear on the album, as does John Legend, one of the few current non-nasal R&B crooners whose music is rooted in the ’70s soul scene (slightly unexpectedly, John Mayer also pops up). Common, in short, is the Marvin Gaye of hip hop.
Common – It’s Your World (Part 1 & 2).mp3

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Josh Rouse – Nashville

On his fifth album, the Nebraskan Rouse said goodbye to his temporary domicile of Nashville before moving to Spain. Where his previous album, 1972, sought to capture the vibe of the year of the title, on Nashville Rouse revisits 1980s indie pop through a country lense. It’s cheerful, catchy stuff for a warm summer’s evening (even if one track is called Winter In The Hamptons), admirably coming in at under 40 minutes, like LPs used to. The lyrics aren’t very memorable here; some are decidedly pedestrian. The album’s most powerful song, Sad Eyes, is also its least jovial. It starts slowly as Rouse observes a woman’s melancholy and builds up to a, erm, rousing climax as he offers encouragement. Alas, it’s followed by the set’s one clunker, the rocker Why Won’t You Tell Me What.
Josh Rouse – Sad Eyes.mp3

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Ben Folds – Songs For Silverman

Ah, the album the hardcore Foldsians love to hate. Granted, there’s some forgettable guff on here. Much as I love Ben Folds, I would not be able to tell you a thing about Time or Sentimental Guy. And, as I’m getting all my irritations with Silverman off the chest, the tribute to Elliott Smith, Late, has some really poor lyrics. But then there is the vintage Folds stuff. Bastard, ostensibly about young Republicans in old clothes, packs a decent groove. Give Judy My Notice has a great West Coast rock vibe. You To Thank has a superb piano break, and the break-up songs, Trusted (“She’s gonna be pissed when she wakes up for terrible things I did to her in her dreams”) and Landed (“Down comes the reign of the telephone czar”), are among the best work Folds has done, musically and lyrically. And having just listened to Time and Sentimental Guy for the purpose of this project, well, they are not bad songs.
Ben Folds – You To Thank.mp3

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Rosie Thomas – If These Songs Could Be Held

The title If These Songs Could Be Held seems apt; there is fragility in Rosie Thomas’ songs, emphasised by her beautiful, sad voice. You want to hold her and the songs. Her family and friends help out again, with Ed Harcourt duetting on the unpretentious cover of Let It Be Me (featured in The Originals Vol. 24). The arrangements are more complex than a casual listen would suggest. Hear the almost martial bass drum in the opener Since You’ve Been Gone. The lyrics range from perceptive introspection to sophomore poetry, but expressed through the medium of Rosie’s gorgeous voice, even the more inopportune words are entirely forgivable.
Rosie Thomas – If These Songs Could Be Held.mp3

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More Albums of the Year

Mattinata casalinga, a mettere a posto un po’ in casa, a studiare e leggere e a pranzare con le merguetz. Tra un’ora, infatti, vado a un seminario all’EHSS e quindi la BnF sarebbe stata un viaggio troppo lungo. Ma parliamo di cose serie, sto per postare il primo sondaggio di questo blog. Come saprete, da ormai quasi due mesi ho l’iPhone. Come saprete, le suonerie dell’iPhone fanno abbastanza schifo. Come saprete, esistono metodi più o meno ortodossi per mettere nuove suonerie all’iPhone e come immaginerete, ho deciso di fare scegliere a voi.

A parte una suoneria personalizzata, quale delle seguenti è più adatta al mio iPhone?

e per gli SMS?

Ovviamente, se avete altre idee brillanti potete lasciarmi un commento… Bon, vado a sentir parlare di attori del Duecento, voi intanto votate…

Fifteen years ago last night, Any Major Wife and I were chilling out on a Friday night, awaiting news of the induced birth of the baby of friends of ours. The mother was my AMW’s bridesmaid, so we were quite excited. Our baby was due around Christmas. Where bridesmaid’s baby was in no rush to emerge cryingly into the cold, cruel world, our baby exhibited the first signs of a characteristic common to both its parents: impatience.

To cut a long story short, before we received news of bridesmaid’s labour endeavours, AMW was in the maternity clinic. At 5:30am on November 19, just as I glanced out of the window to see the dawn of a beautiful early summer’s day, Any Minor Dude popped out. Because he was five week’s premature and showed signs of breathing difficulties, he was immediately put on oxygen in an incubator — before either of his parents could hold him. In fact, it’d be a couple of days before we could hold him.

Perhaps it was because the vital postnatal mother-child bonding moments were skipped that he presented his Dad with those first milestones which babies more commonly reserve for their Moms. His first smile, on Christmas Day, was at me (well, the first we saw anyway). His first word was “Dada”. And he took his first steps in my direction, on Boxing Day 1995, albeit set off on his way by his mother.

Any Minor Dude, before his second birthday

Any Minor Dude and I have maintained an excellent relationship. I have enjoyed every stage of his life, much as I miss those that came before. I treasure the moments of dancing and singing him, then three, to sleep to the music of the Righteous Brothers, or hearing him singing You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling in the bath. I treasure the memory of him walking Venice flat with us all day when he was four, not once complaining but participating in the fun of being a tourist (he’ll make a great traveller). I still laugh at some of the silly games we used to play, like hiding under the blanket and identifying nonsensical places where Mommy putatively was looking for us in vain (in the microwave oven, under the bath plug) — the beginning of a shared appreciation of the absurd. And how lovely the moments of lying in his bed when he was a Grade 2 or 3 pupil, reading Asterix comics or Pippi Longstocking books together, in funny voices. And, as I have written on several occasions, rarely was I so proud as when Any Minor Dude, then 10, told his guitar tutor that he wanted to learn to play the music of Johnny Cash.

Only rarely was there a need to discipline the kid. Three token smacks on the bottom was the extent of violence ever visited upon him. Among our friends, my threat to buy the then 3-year-old a “cap with ears”, like the hood of his new-born cousin’s babysuit, is legendary. Of course, Any Minor Dude didn’t want to be a baby. Around that time, he emphatically announced after due reflection that he was “not a baby anymore” and, indeed, “finished to be a baby”.

Today, at 15, he defies most of the teenage stereotypes, other than a tendency not to do any more schoolwork than is strictly necessary and getting embarrassed at whatever the parents do or say. Only occasionally does a door slam.

Any Minor Dude, last year

If TV drama shows are any indicator of reality (yeah, right), expectant parents tend to panic about whether they’ll be “good parents” and whether they’ll be to blame if their child turns out to be psychopath. I don’t know whether history books will be lavish in their references to our refined parenting capabilities, but I do know that Any Major Wife and I have produced an intelligent, responsible, balanced, fair-minded, loyal, non-bigoted, kind, funny, respectful, even-tempered and very handsome young man who supports the correct football team and loves the Beatles. The alert reader may sense that I am very proud of my son.

As for the bridesmaid, her daughter finally deigned to exit the womb at 11:30pm. Born six hours before Any Minor Dude, she is a day older.

To celebrate Any Minor Dude’s 15th, here are a couple of birthday songs (and look, Ma, no Beatles or Stevie), plus a very funny comedy routine from 2007 by Patton Oswalt.
Andrew Bird – The Happy Birthday Song.mp3
Abra Moore – Birthday Song.mp3
Altered Images – Happy Birthday.mp3
Bright Eyes – Happy Birthday To Me.mp3
Patton Oswalt – You Are Allowed 20 Birthday Parties.mp3

Vou ser simples e objetivo, camaradas que eventualmente dão uma passadinha aqui para ver se saí do ócio e resolvi escrever alguma coisa: nessa nova categoria do blog, analisarei alguns álbuns que considero, no mais direto sentido da palavra, “perfeitos”.

E o que viria a ser um álbum perfeito? Bem, como qualquer um que tenha um cérebro medianamente desenvolvido e porventura tenha algum gosto por música sabe, todas as grandes bandas tem, em sua carreira, seus altos e baixos. Entretanto, na grande maioria das vezes, lançam apenas aqueles discos “intermediários”, com umas duas ou três músicas boas e um resto mediano que vai de carona no sucesso das demais. O objetivo do presente estudo não é analisar esses álbuns, que muitas vezes são considerados “perfeitos” e os “melhores da banda” por causa das músicas-destaque, mas sim estudar aqueles discos que são bons no conjunto da obra, constituindo verdadeiras “Magnum Opus” de seus compositores. Aqueles que tornam difícil pegar apenas uma música para ouvir (você já arrasta a pasta inteira do disco pro mp3 player) e que certamente terão metade do total das faixas de uma futura coletânea de aniversario “caça-niqueis” da banda.

Mas antes, duas pequenas observações:

1 – Lembre-se sempre daquela antiga máxima imemorial, envolvendo gostos, orifício no final do intestino grosso e o fato de cada ser vivo ter o seu. O texto é (quase) integralmente baseado em observações puramente subjetivas, e, por estarmos no vasto campo dos juízos de valor, é lógico que possivelmente minha opinião não baterá com a sua. E não estou postando nenhuma verdade universal.

2 – Diferentemente daqueles redatores rebuscados e complexos do Whiplash, eu não entendo absolutamente NADA de técnica musical. Tudo que sei de música, além de ouvir e tocar meia-dúzia de musicas no violão e na gaita de boca (que culturalmente falando, sequer é considerada um instrumento musicaç). Logo, não esperem comentários como “UOU, esse sujeito dedilhou em escala pentatônica alternada nessa música!”, porque eu nem sei o que raios significa isso.

E inauguro a seção com Blind Guardian. Motivo especial? Ah, nenhum. A banda é boa e já até foi minha favorita (provavelmente aqueles que me conhecem há mais tempo se lembrarão da minha surrada camiseta do BG, que de tanto uso, mudou de preta para branca), mas escolhi para começar simplesmente porque na ordem alfabética do meu player ela estava em cima, e foi a primeira que eu vi.

O problema é que é difícil falar  álbuns perfeitos do BG, até  porque é raro eles fazerem algo que não presta. Na minha modesta opinião, nunca fizeram, e o trabalho que considero mais fraco deles (A Twist in a Myth)  é, no mínimo, “bom”. Esse fato, inclusive, até compensa o tempo enorme que eles demoram para lançar discos novos… (e por falar nisso, o Hansi tem gordado por 3 anos já. Tá na hora de sair coisa nova, hein?)

E o famigerado álbum da vez é…

"Imaginations From The Other Side" (1995)

Blind Guardian – Imaginations From The Other Side (1995)

Tracklist / Significados e temas das letras

Perfeito?

O Blind é uma banda que, desde o seu início, mudou bastante a sonoridade com o passar dos anos. Os dois primeiros álbuns (Battalions of Fear e Follow the Blind) são mais pesados, e o terceiro, Somewhere Far Beyond, foi o primeiro em que predominou uma sonoridade mais melódica. Contudo, dos dois “jeitos” a banda é excelente. O que pensaram então nossos amiguinhos alemães, numa lógica silogística barata, ao lançar o quarto trabalho? Sim, juntar o útil ao agradável. O Imaginations vem como uma mistura de tudo que o Blind havia lançado desde então: um álbum melódico, mas com certas faixas que lembram o peso da banda em  seu início. E o resultado, bem, só pode ser definido como épico, podendo nos levar a dizer que o Blind inventou e desenvolveu uma nova vertente do Heavy Metal, alternativa a tudo que o estilo tinha visto até então.

O álbum já abre com a suprema “Imaginations from the Other Side”, que é define exatamente o que eu quis dizer com “épico” no parágrafo aí de cima. Mistura passagens mais calmas com outras bem mais pesadas e sombrias, mesclagem que poucas bandas conseguem fazer com sucesso. “I’m Alive” chega literalmente “matando”, rápida e pesada e lembrando bem o BG dos primórdios, pra dar lugar a uma das melhores baladas da banda, quiçá do próprio metal, “A Past and Future Secret”. Uma pausa para um comentário pertinente: se na Idade Média existissem violões, teclados elétricos e efeitos de som computadorizados, e um sujeitinho teutão ordinário com uma voz boa resolvesse compor algo, sairia algo próximo a essa música. A canção, que faz qualquer um ficar cantarolando “my song of the end” o resto do dia, dá lugar a ‘The Script of My Requiem’, música cujo refrão em coro, lotado de backings, resume bem o conceito do “Power-Metal-Medieval-Espadas-e-Dragões”. E cumpre tão bem seu serviço que faz as melhores composições dos merdinhas do Rhapsody of Fire, que usam esse efeito em 30 de cada 10 músicas que tocam, parecerem um bando de otários sem criatividade. A semi-balada “Modred’s Song” também é incrível, começando em um dedilhado lento medieval para, concomitantemente a um urro do colega Hansi, ganhar peso , ao melhor estilo viradinha-manjada-do-metal imortalizado pelo titio Bruce Dickinson em “Hallowed Be Thy Name”. Essa é uma música que queria muito ter ouvido ao vivo quando tive o privilégio de assistir a banda aqui na terra do Pão de Queijo em 2007, mas que ficou de fora do set. Tive, entretanto, o gostinho de ouvir ao vivo uma versão da Silvercrow, banda belohorizontina bem bacana. As demais (a exceção de Bright Eyes, analisada mais adiante) são menos inovadoras, mas ainda assim estão em cima da média. Entre elas, o destaque fica pra “Another Holy War” e seu refrão “grudento” e “And The Story Ends”, que fecha o álbum com chave de ouro.

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Música Top do Álbum: A clássica Bright Eyes, com certeza. Quando tocaram as primeiras notas aqui em BH, quase tive um surto nervoso, e mesmo já morto fisicamente, urrei até o último verso. Introdução perfeita e diferente de tudo que já vi no metal, cai em um ritmo cadenciado pra culminar no belíssimo refrão. Além do solo, ao melhor estilo da banda.

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A pior entre as melhores: Born in a Mourning Hall. Sempre achei essa música “deslocada”, não se parece  com   nenhuma outra do disco. Mas não deixa de ser boa.

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Melhor Letra: The Script For My Requiem, que curiosamente foi a primeira música da banda que ouvi. Como citado, fala da velha lenda do Santo Graal e de cruzadas. Destaque para as estrofes:

“I went out of my mind in desert lands
insanity’s pawn, out of control
much too long I’ve been isolated
from my thoughts, enclosed by the leader’s spell
bewildered to marc as a glory knight
and I tried

Still I hear the scream of thousands:
“Crucify, crucify!”
Take it all
our gold, our home, our life,
but we didn’t kill your Christ!!
Save us from the evil storm
enslave us and make us
your god’s sacrifice!”

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Melhor Balada: ‘A Past and Future Secret’, que disputa com a clássica “The Bard Song (in the Forest)” do álbum anterior o título de melhor balada da banda.

Yes, it is up for argument, of course. But I know what i hate, and for these albums, there was nothing to hate on, save a stray throw-away track here or there. That’s pretty much how I determined which albums to include and which to leave off: did the WHOLE product deliver? I didn’t limit myself to numbers, as in only 2 for each year, but instead just went with albums I could not leave off unless some Strokes hater held a gun to my head. It’s complete coincidence that I ended up with the nice, sort-of-round number of 25.

This list is not exhaustive, I’m sure people will mention a few that I’ll kick myself for forgetting while I was making this. Others will mention albums I wish I could forget, such as anything by TV On the Radio, a band that I cannot for the life of me understand why it is so well-regarded. One last heads up: don’t bother offering any Dave Matthews or John Mayer suggestions. They have, at best, 3 or 4 good songs between them, definitely not enough for placement on such hallowed ground.

2000:

sunny day real estate—the rising tide

This album is full of jangly guitars and soaring vocals bellowing beautiful lyrics–it always makes me remember the ocean and the beginning of my marriage. All good memories. 

Fave tracks: One, Tearing in My Heart

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coldplay—parachutes

Damn, gotta say, when this came out it seemed like Chris Martin and company actually had a chance of giving Radiohead a run for the money in the art-rock circuit (that is a circuit, right?). But then all their albums sounded exactly the same. Not saying they didn’t have good songs on other albums, but come on: most of it sounds exactly the same–for example, one single song on Viva la Vida, their latest, has been the subject of upwards of 5 different plagiarism lawsuits by artists ranging from Cat Stevens to Steve Vai. Regardless, Parachutes was a beauty when it came out, and when you factor in the sweet memories that go along with it for me, it’s only gold.

Fave Tracks: Trouble, We Never Change

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ghostface killah—supreme clientele

It could be argued that this album signaled the death knell of what many hip hop purists (such as yours truly) consider to be “true” hip hop. Yes, we are elitist bastards.  But without getting into arguments about the greatness (or lack of greatness) of Lil Wayne and Chamillionaire, anyone can at least appreciate the cementing of Ghostface’s status as the best rapper to emerge from Wutang Clan. I mean, have you heard Iron Man? And then he follows up with this a few years later. BEASTLY! Listen up. This was as good as it was going to get for many, many years (one could argue).

Fave Tracks: Buck 50, Wu Banga 101

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2001:

radiohead—amnesiac

The first of two Radiohead albums on this list, Amnesiac constantly ended up in my regular rotation during the glorious “Aughts.” It is possibly one of the most accessible ‘Head albums, surpassed perhaps by only 2008’s In Rainbows in terms of listenability.

Fave tracks: Pyramid Song, Knives Out

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white stripes—white blood cells

I remember exactly where I was when I first heard this introduction to The White Stripes, and how many albums can you say that about? It blew my freaking mind. Jack White entered the realm of genius for me with his fusion of old blues and modern rock. There is still no better stimulant on the market for getting a day started off than this banger.

Fave Tracks: Hotel Yorba, The Union Forever

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the strokes—is this it?

Here we have the controversial British version of the cover for this first Strokes album, which was of course not available in the more prudish U.S. But with or without that art, it was still a revelation, and came out the gate with more buzz than a thousand beehives. Backlash followed, of course, but regardless of whether Julian Casablancas can actually sing or that his voice was doctored with various studio trappings to make him sound better (a charge I don’t buy after hearing their later efforts), this album along with White Blood Cells is a killer on every level.

Fave Tracks: Someday, Hard To Explain

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bjork—vespertine

There are some incredibly beautiful tracks on this album. Bjork is from another planet. Her voice itself is poetry. I love her.

Fave Tracks: Hidden Place, Pagan Poetry

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2002:                                                                

neko case—blacklisted

The first of three albums by Neko Case, this album showcases her voice in a way that makes the term alt-country not sound completely stupid. For whatever reason, I am reminded of the Michael Scott quote in the TV show “The Office,” when he says, “ You don’t call retarded people retards. It’s bad taste. You call your friends retards when they’re acting retarded.”

Fave Tracks: Tightly, Pretty Girls

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the flaming lips—yoshimi battles the pink robots

From crazed punk beginnings to the masterpiece that was ’99’s The Soft Bulletin, this follow-up to that revelation of Wayne Coyne’s song-writing ability was a true window into this incredibly sensitive soul. And after meeting him in person (and basically forcing him to take a copy of my book), I can say that he is about as genuine a rock star who also happens to be a real person as any rock star has ever been. If that makes any sense.

Fave Tracks: Ego Trippin’ At the Gates of Hell, Do You Realize??

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beck—sea change

I first heard this Beck album while “working” as a DJ at UNC Greensboro’s 10 watt student-run radio station. It’s the first full-length Beck album that I know of that has him actually writing lyrics some sense can be made of—a real (wait for it…) sea change in his style. It is also heartbreaking, about his breakup from some model, I hear.

Fave Tracks: Little One, Lost Cause

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2003:

yeah yeah yeahs—fever to tell

This 3-piece, Karen O-fronted band is garage rock at its finest as far as I’m concerned. She’s so weird and rock-starry. I’d be afraid of her in real life. Which is just how she likes it, I’m sure. Just listen how she whispers “I’m rich, rich, rich rich rich. I’ll take you out boy.” F-ing hardcore, regardless of the tear sliding down her cheek in the “Maps” video.

Fave Tracks: Rich, Y Control

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death cab for cutie—transatlanticism

For me Ben Gibbard is sort of the poor man’s Thom Yorke, and a total bastard (he married my imaginary girlfriend, Zooey Deschanel). But with this album and his other project, The Postal Service, he pretty much cemented his place in the starry night of my soul or whatever. He writes some catchy shit. But I think an Amazon reviewer said it best: “If you’re an overblown emokid with a yen for the melodramatic, you should buy this CD. You may now stop reading.”

Fave Tracks: Lightness, Passenger Seat

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2004:

air—talkie walkie

This album is on here because I like it more OVERALL than their previous Aughts effort, 10,000 hz Legend. But to be fair, there are a couple of songs on that generally disliked album that are some of my favorite Air tracks, such as “How Does It Make You Feel” and “Vagabond.” But this record is definitely more cohesive and sets a great mood for being drunk/high/tired, so we’re going with this one. And for the record, it is WAY beter than 2007’s Pocket Symphony.

Fave Tracks: Run, Another Day

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danger mouse—the grey album

While this is not officially an album you can buy, since Danger Mouse never got the rights to any of the Beatles or Jay-Z tracks he used to make this groundbreaking album (which, for anyone living in a musical cave for the past ten years, is a mash-up of The Beatles’ “White Album” and Jay-Z’s “Black Album”), I would be remiss not to include it on this list. For better or worse, DM started the massive wave of mash-ups with this effort, and also got himself a pretty good paying gig as half of Gnarls Barkley. Plus, this shit just kicks. Whoda thunk it?

Fave Tracks: Encore, 99 Problems

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2005:

my morning jacket—z

I believe that, along with Death Cab, Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes and My Chemical Romance, My Morning Jacket helped create and nurture the wimpy mid-Aughts  juggernaut that was known as Emo. But unlike Dashboard and Bright Eyes, they don’t totally suck. This is one of my favorite albums of all time. So, cheer up, Emo kid.  

Fave Tracks: It Beats 4 U, Knot Comes Loose

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eels—blinking lights and other revelations

Mark Everett is the frontman of EELS (or eels), and is probably, when I really consider it, the person I most relate to as far as “getting” exactly what he is talking about with the majority of his songs. This double album has songs on it that I absolutely hate (such as the co-penned with one of the guys from R.E.M. “Hey Man”), but since there are over 20 songs on offer here, there is definitely at least a full album’s worth of incredible compositions. My favorite memory associated with this record is painting my daughter’s bedroom in preparation for us to move into our first owned home. Tears me up just thinking about it.

Fave Tracks: In the Yard Behind the Church, I’m Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn’t Break Your Heart

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2006:

neko case—fox confessor brings the flood

Second Neko album on the list, and arguably her best ever. Her voice reminds me so much of Patsy Cline’s. She is a true artist, with seemingly little care about her “image” as far as whether or not she fits into the sterotypical chanteuse mold. She’s all about the voice. Example: her album “Blacklisted” was supposedly named that because while performing at Nasvhille’s famous Grand Ole Opry, she took off her shirt (I never heard if she was completely topless or just offended the genteel southern sensibility with her bra alone) and was banned for life. Totally punk, and what puts the “alt” in her country stylings, I can only suppose.

Fave Tracks: Star Witness, Dirty Knife

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decemberists—the crane wife

Along the Flaming Lips album that follows, this was the last album that my wife and I shared. Every time I hear the 3-part Crane Wife song the album is named after, it destroys me. In a good way. I’ll leave it there. Don’t want to make a complete fool out of myself, after all. Not drunk enough for that anyway. Give me a few hours. Perhaps that dragon will rear its head in the comments.

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beck—the information

This album is the epitome of cool. And one of about 45 albums that Beck released in the Aughts. I’m still not sure if I’m being impartial enough regarding choosing this album over, say, Guero or Modern Guilt, but whatever. These year/decade-end lists are always subjective and come down to much more about what effected the listener personally more than something like whether the songs held complexity in their structures. This album came with a DVD of every song being lip-synched by Beck and his friends, and I would often put it in the DVD player and hit repeat on it over and over again. It was like having a bunch of tripping acid-freaks to keep me company through surely some of the strangest times in a lifetime of strange times.

Fave Tracks: Cellphone’s Dead, No Complaints

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the flaming lips—at war with the mystics

They played a free show in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park on May 21, 2006 in support of this album. It was amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoIohWnbVSk

Fave Tracks: My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion/ Vein of Stars

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2007:

radiohead—in rainbows

As I said earlier in this post, this is probably the most easily listened to Radiohead album (which is most likely why it won or was nominated for more Grammys than any other from their amazing catalog, most notably OK Computer, which is (not so) arguably one of the greatest albums ever recorded). But this one is definitely right up there, and if nothing else serves to cement Radiohead’s place among the greatest bands to ever record together.Plus, they gave it away for free on the internet, and that’s totally kickass.

Fave Tracks: Nude, All I Need

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amy winehouse—back to black

Fuck this album. I can’t even remember why I have it on here, and it was easier to write this sentence than to screw up the formatting on this post by erasing it.

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2008:

MGMT—oracular spectacular

When I finally got up to NYC to meet my agent and publishing house handlers in January of this year, MGMT was still all the rage, and I therefore felt much less of a cultural disconnect than I had originally feared, ’cause I’d been on this bandwagon for a long time, based mainly on the fact that two hippie guys made up the band and had lyrics like, “I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars/ You’ll man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars,” which totally runs contrary to their hippie guy image. Plus many of the songs on here an infinitely hummable, as my 9 yr. old daughter will happily testify.

Fave Tracks: Time To Pretend, Kids

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fleet foxes—fleet foxes

I first heard Fleet Foxes when they appeared on SNL in January. They are from Seattle (how cliche…1991 called, it wants its premiere underground music scene back), but sound like they are Straight Outta Appalachia. Which is kind of disturbing to me, since this means that the two most well-known Appalachian-sounding artists are from the west coast (the other being Los Angeles’ Gillian Welch). But no matter. Listen to this record and know that what you are hearing is authentic bluegrass-tinged. Every time I hear it makes me yearn to go back to Kentucky, if Kentucky weren’t so littered with ignorant rednecks and memories of unbridled happiness that make everything now pale in comparison. And you just can’t live like that.

Fave Tracks: White Winter Hymnal, Blue Ridge Mountains

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2009:

neko case—middle cyclone

I’ll be the first to admit that my exposure to much new music has been severely hampered this year, so it’s pretty anemic of me to only have one album listed for 2009, and to have the one album listed be by an artist that already has 2 other albums on this list. But this record is my favorite of Neko Case’s so far, and her insightful lyrics never cease to amaze me along with her incredible voice. Plus almost all the songs are about love (a first time for her), and the album ends with 28 minutes of frogs and crickets making night noises, which is a perfect way to fall asleep. So there’s that, too.

Fave Tracks: The Next Time You Say “Forever”, The Pharoahs 

ARTIST OF THE DECADE:

I decided on this designation based solely on who had the most presence on the list. Radiohead, Flaming Lips and Beck came close, with two albums each on here, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Thanksfully I didn’t have to think much on it, since only one artist had three albums on my list, and that was, of course,

NEKO CASE

She’s incredible. Have I mentioned that yet? Watch this video, buy her albums, thank me later.

Monsters Of Folk

This is one of the few new releases I have bought – old school – on CD. It happened to be on sale at the same price as an iTunes download, better quality and artwork – Yay! I’m sure everyone knows by now that Monsters Of Folk is the supergroup consisting of M. Ward, My Morning Jacket’s  Yim Yames (aka Jim James) and Conor Oberst & Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes.

It’s around this time each year that journalists, bloggers and any one else similarly obsessed with letting everyone know their bloody opinions get rather excited.

This has nothing to do with the imminent gifts or feasts of meat and alcohol that xmas inevitably brings.

No, this time of year means one thing for these people. Lists.

Yes, they have already started flooding in. Furthermore, this year, while not quite as salivatingly-big an opportunity as the Millennium, we have the prospect of a ‘greatest album of the decade’-a-thon!

The NME has this week been the most prolific perpetrator of this culture with their 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade.

On first inspection, and considering the usual standards of the aforementioned publication, their list seems surprisingly good. The Strokes don’t seem a bad shout for number one seeing as whatever is chosen will make people who believe too much in their own opinions cry. The album also sounds fairly relevant nine years on.

The inclusion of the obligatory Radiohead, Interpol and The Holdsteady also tick the seemingly ‘given’ boxes needed to appease their blinkered readership. And although I wouldn’t argue with any of these, how they figure In Rainbows is better than Kid A is bewildering. Even for the NME.

Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Relationship of Command by At the Drive In are nice surprises, as are The Rapture, Bright Eyes and The Walkmen. All excellent albums.

But, and this is rather large interjection, when you look at the detritus filling out the other spaces on the list, and think about it for marginally more time than it takes to flick through the New Musical Express’ fickle pages, the list loses rather a lot of credibility.

I know this debate is essentially down to taste so I wont deride choices such as Green Day’s American Idiot or Klaxons’ Myths of the Near Future; no one is forcing us to read this. However, I feel the list is characterised by its frankly puzzling omissions: worthy albums; albums which I would expect the NME to include.

Where was Phoenix’s amazing Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix? Where was Burial’s Untrue? Where the bloody hell was Madvillainy?!

These are not the esoteric choices of a bitter music snob. These are merely the most surprising and obvious absentees from an NME list. Is Kasabian’s Empire a not better — if not, more obvious — choice than the detestable and shallow ‘band’ Hard Fi?

Are the NME being purposefully pugnacious by not including anything by Daft Punk? How can one recognise Bright Eyes and Sujan Steves yet ignore Iron and Wine?

My point is to ask if NME are taking the piss or if they really are as inept as we have long suspected?

Lists are controversial; that’s why they are published. But to show that when making a list there’s no need to be so firmly camped inside a bubble of shit, here are some far more considered alternatives.

Paste Magazine’s top 50 albums of the decade.

and

Pitchfork’s 20 greatest albums of the ’00s.

Opinions etc?

Inspireret af dagbladspressen og in part mit job har jeg besluttet, at lave en lille hurtig liste over de bedste plader fra de 00′er som vi snart forlader. Listen er ikke i præfereret rækkefølge; det er bestemt ikke en kanon og listen er ikke udvalgt ud fra andre kvalitetskriterier end, at pladerne har betydet noget for mig på hver sin måde.

In Rainbows – Radiohead 2007

Skelsættende på så mange niveauer. Min samvittighed bød mig kun, at give de 420 kroner for at få the special edition på udgivelsesdagen; LP med Cd udgave + B sider. Når jeg hører pladen er jeg tilbage til dengang, jeg boede på  et lille værelse med megen motorstøj fra Ndr. Ringgade på Trøjborg i Århus. Egentlig burde jeg også nævne Kid A og Hail to the Thief, men man skal jo vælge.

The Singer – Teitur 2008

Soundtracket til mit livs bedste Roskilde. Alt gik op i en højere enhed. Vejret, Lejren, menneskene, festerne, musikken men størst af alt var det det år, hvor jeg foran indgangen ved Pavillion Junior fik at vide, at jeg skulle være onkel. Rørstrømsk som jeg er, stod jeg en times tid senere alene og græd foran Orange imens Teitur sang titelnummeret “The Singer”. Ubetinget lykke!

Zitilites – Kashmir 2003

Deres bedste plade hvis du spørger mig. Stemningsfuld af helvede til og sangskrivning af uhørt høj kvalitet. Udgivet imens jeg gik i gymnasiet blev den både en fest og lejrbålsklassiker. Samtidig den plade der påviste at min ven og gamle guitarelev  havde overhalet mig rent teknisk.

Action Paiting – Speaker Bite me 2007

Igen en plade der blev købt efter en stor koncert oplevelse – muligvis min bedste nogensinde. SPOT festival 2007 i Musikhus Århus. Jeg kan huske koncerten utroligt detaljeret. Måske var det fordi, at man sad ned og var lidt smadret. Jeg mindes hvordan der var så stille i salen, at man kunne høre Jomi Massages høje hæle, da hun spadserede fra den ene ende af scenen til den anden. Efter koncerten sad jeg som paralyseret i et par minutter, hvorefter jeg udbrød: “Det var jo sindsygt!” – en sætning der iøvrigt endte i Dagbladet Information.

White Pony – Deftones 2000

Pladen der både fik mig til at lytte til NU-metal og til at fjerne mig fra den. Jeg synes stadig, at den er genial i sit lydbillede og sin brug af få og sære virkemidler. Numre som “Passenger” og “Digital bath” er små mesterværker der på mange måder definerer min måde at tænke trommegroves og guitarfigurer. Teksten til ” Change (in the house of flies)” sendte jeg iøvrigt til en Eks-kæreste som et billede på den udvikling vores forhold havde taget.  Hun misforstod totalt gestussen og teksten med. Hun takkede mig og synes at det var en sød tanke…..

Absolution – MUSE 2004

Se nedenstående :

Unaturligt valg

Vapen och Amunition – Kent 2002

Købt ved et tilfælde fordi jeg stod i Expert i Nykøbing Mors og så det flotte cover. Som jeg stod der kom jeg i tanke om, at jeg vist havde set noget med dem-her Kent på det-der MTV (som vi ikke havde derhjemme), hvor de vist nok spillede en god sang. Sangen var “Musik non stop” fra Hagnesta Hill – en plade jeg først købte år senere. Guitarrollerne på denne plade kan ses som grundstenen til min egen måde at spille guitar i band sammenhænge på.

Lifted – Bright Eyes 2002

Denne plade fik jeg anbefalet af en ven som gled ud af mit liv fordi vi begge forandrede os. Hans anbefaling var simpel: “Det er ordene der er guldet!”. Jeg fandt dog også stor inspiration i Conor Oberst’s måde at skrive sange på – og måske endnu mere hans DIY-agtige måde at indspille dem. Intimt og rocket, folket og indiepoppet.

Mesmerze/Hypnotize – System of a Down 2004-2006

I know ! – ikke det mest übercoole, men en overgang kunne jeg ikke gå til en fest og slet ikke køre i bus/tog uden at have denne dobbelt plade indkodet på det relativt nye fænomen: Mp3-afspilleren. Jeg var facineret af vokalharmonier og hardrock og så er de her plader ret spot on. Sjovt nok havde jeg sideløbende et Queen-flip – som stadig hænger lidt ved. Queen har også lavet en plade i 00′erne men den er der BESTEMT ingen grund til at nævne.

Once more with Feeling (Compilation) – Placebo 2004

Min værelseskammerat på efterskolen købte i 2000 Placebos Black market music. Dengang fattede jeg ikke rigtig Brian Molkos androgyne røst, men den gang var min musik smag VIRKELIG også håbløs (bortset fra White pony forstås), men det er en anden historie. Det er først da jeg flytter til Århus og dermed tættere på en TP, at jeg opdager Placebos kolosale værdi. Jeg købte Once more with feeling for en 50′er og nu tror jeg, at jeg har hørt et nummer fra den en gang i ugen siden.

Enjoy!