Posted: January 11th, 2009 | Author: Nathan | Filed under: Articles About Music | Tags: anathallo, bon iver, conor oberst, kaisercartel, mates of state, mgmt, noah and the whale, she & him, the silent years, vampire weekend | 3 Comments »
To be quite honest, I am a little disappointed with music this year. It was rather difficult for me to come up with my top 10 again this year, not because there were just tons of great albums to choose from, but that there were tons of mediocre albums to choose from. There were just very few albums that I fell in love with, from beginning to end, this year. So here are the ones that stuck out to me the most, and don’t get me wrong there are some great ones in this list. I just think that the music business has seen and will see better years.
10 KaiserCartel – March Forth
One of the first bands I discovered via I Hope Your Ears Bleed mailbox that didn’t suck. In fact they didn’t suck so much that they made this list. They are a cheery pop duo that kept me whistling all year with this fantastic debut. If you are a Mates of State fan check out this album for a double dose of pop candy goodness. But don’t misunderstand that phrase and think that this album lacks substance or doesn’t leave you satisfied. Unlike most “pop candy” these guys have created something that will last. I will be enjoying this album for a long time to come.
KaiserCartel – Oh No
09 She & Him – Volume One
She & Him is made up of the gorgeous and very likeable actress, Zooey Deschanel and the him part is indie folk artist M. Ward. With her voice and song-writing combined with his gorgeous arrangements you get one of the most enjoyable and accessible records of the year. I don’t know how anyone could not like this album at least a little bit. Which might be why it ended up as Paste’s favorite album of the year. It has a little something for everyone.
She & Him – Sentimental Heart
08 Anathallo – Canopy Glow
These guys are one of the most dynamic groups around. The orchestration on each song is very complex and they utilizes a wide variety of instruments, including horns, guitars, drums, piano, bells, strings, and the list could go on. But what makes them so unique, and why love them so much is they also love to use tons of unconventional objects like chains, velcro strips, stomp boxes, pipes and even their own hands. Plus they have incredible voices that they utilize as yet another instrument with great harmonies throughout the album. Even with its late November release it has become one of the most played records of the year for me. Who knows how high it might have climbed the list had it been released earlier.
Anathallo – The River
07 The Silent Years – The Globe
This album provided for me not just the best song of the year, but just an all-around great rock album. If that’s what you want to call it. I have a hard time describing this album since it seems jump genres from song to song. But it does so gracefully. It isn’t disjointed at all. It seems like their drummer somehow seems to carry you safely from song to song. Not to mention the song-writing and vocals of Josh Epstein are impeccable. This is another album that utilizes a plethora of instruments. But I think my favorite thing about the album is the way they use silence as an instrument in this stand-out track from their great sophomore effort.
The Silent Years – Black Hole
06 Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
While I think that this band is one of the more overrated bands out there, I couldn’t help but include it in this list. I probably listened to this album more than any other this past year. It is incredibly fun and very different than anything else that’s being played these days. Not to mention their song writing is very clever. There are many standout tracks on this album, and if somehow you made it through 2008 without hearing these guys you have to give this album a listen. I absolutely love the way the strings open this stellar track. It takes me back a couple centuries to a time when you still had to squeeze oranges to get fresh orange juice, yet you were still somehow more sophisticated than today.
Vampire Weekend – M79
05 MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
This album started with just two freshmen art students playing pretend that they were indie pop stars. They started off just playing around with some synthesizers and pre-recorded vocals playing shows and just having some fun. Before they new it they had a long-term deal with Columbia Records and were the opening act for Of Montreal. Still not able to believe their good fortune, when asked who they’d like to have produce their record, they responded with Prince, Nigel Godrich, Barack Obama, and “not Sheryl Crow.” Fortunately for us, they were hooked up with Flaming Lips collaborator, Dave Fridmann, who helped them create one of the best psychadelic indie-pop albums around.
MGMT – Kids
04 Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us
So if you haven’t noticed, I’m a big fan of catchy sing-a-long pop. That is so long as it doesn’t completely suck. Like this fantastically addictive, emotionally charged, hook-laden pop masterpiece. While they have injected a little more piano than in the past, they haven’t strayed too far from their roots. Hammel’s slick and drumbeats still drive the entire album, and Gardner’s vocals are better than ever. It’s soft and loud, sweet and sour, cheerful and melancholy. It’s a fully realized album that will appeal to indie snobs and ignorant radio listeners alike. So whichever you are, go out and buy this album today.
Mates of State – The Re-Arranger
03 Noah and the Whale – Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down
Here is the fifth debut album to grace my top ten list (it’s not the last). Yes I am a sucker for folk-rock bands that use lots of strings and horns throughout their songs. But it is Charlie Fink’s songwriting that boosted this mediocre debut into the top of my list. It’s hopeful songs like “Give a Little Love” and its more melancholy successor “Second Lover” that make this album so great. And who isn’t put in a better mood when they hear “5 Years Time” pouring through the tv set?
Noah and the Whale – Second Lover
02 Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
This is one of the last album’s I expected to make my list this year. But I have not been able to stop listening ever since I saw him live back in September. Just think of a happy and country version of Bright Eyes. I am blown away at how well Conor is able to do southern rock. Make no mistake though, this is not a solo album in the least. This record would be nothing without the Mystic Valley Band. Let’s hope that he doesn’t just kick them to the curb and that these guys have only just begun their musical journey together.
Conor Oberst – Get Well Cards
01 Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
While this list was difficult for me make, choosing who belonged on top was not. Justin Vernon isolated himself in a remote cabin in Wisconsin just looking to get away and take a break. And he walked out with the best album of the year. There was a tiny bit added upon his return in the studio (horns, backing vocals, drums), but the majority of the album is just Vernon and his hauntingly enchanting voice.
Bon Iver – Lump Sum
Well I hope you enjoyed the list and found at least one new album to out and purchase. And stay tuned for the albums we’re most excited about for 2009. Here’s to another great year of music. Huzzah!
Posted: December 26th, 2008 | Author: Brady | Filed under: Articles About Music | Tags: 2008, animal collective, arch m, diplo, erykah badu, esau mwamwaya, flying lotus, girl talk, q-tip, radioclit, santogold, stephen malkmus, Top Ten, vampire weekend | 1 Comment »
10. Real Emotional Trash – Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
Always just beneath the iridescent surface of Pavement’s bratty garage jingles and irreverent wordplay lay the six-string noodlings of Stephen Malkmus. Real Emotional Trash finds him embracing and improving upon the classic rock jams of his second solo effort, 2003′s lukewarm “Pig Lib”. But what’s different? Janet Weiss, for one; Pavement’s drummer Steve West was always splendidly inadequate, which was cool because it fit with that band’s aesthetic. But on the forward-leaning “Hopscotch Willie” and the endless crescendo that is the title track, Weiss’ nimble feel changes are all that keep this record from formlessness. Messy and gratifying, like Gary Busey in his prime.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Out of Reaches
9. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
I bought this record in the spring, during a mission trip to Trinidad. I’ll always associate its Afropop guitar tones with my weeklong stay in that country, which is fitting because Vampire Weekend is music for tourists. Ivy-leaguers who borrow musical motifs from the poor and sing of the rich, these dapper young men are nothing if not brave. But their audacity pays off with this brief set of 10 very direct, hummable songs. Cue countless MTV appearances and thousands (but probably hundreds) of young girls screaming, “I LOVE THE UNFORTUNATELY-NAMED EZRA KOENIG” at the baby-faced lead singer, and you’ve got a real pop phenomenon on your hands.
Vampire Weekend – A-Punk
8. Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are The Very Best – The Very Best
Speaking of Vampire Weekend, 2008 was the year of the “We Are the World” sing-along, where indie freshness was all about tearing down cultural boundaries and celebrating unity. No record of quasi-covers embodied this exciting trend more than Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are The Very Best, which found Malawi/London singer Mwamwaya delivering on the promise of his smiling rendition of “Paper Planes”. This is openly joyous music, drawing from too many influences to comprehend (my favorite is a cover of the Beatles’ “Birthday”). It’s an audio-cultural epicenter and it’s readily accessible…Download for FREE here.
The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit) – Birthday
7. Top Ranking – Santogold/Diplo
Let’s get it out of the way. She’s no M.I.A. Yes, the best moment of this release is the M.I.A.-centered “Get It Up”. But Santogold and Diplo do their best to decorate and reinvent the eccentric pop of her self-titled debut while steering away from those comparisons. The result is a surreal and fluid summer mix tape that hops from era to genre to sub-genre successfully for well over an hour. Top Ranking constructs a towering mass of dub- inflected grooves that flow seamlessly into each other before finding peace in the soaring “Icarus”. Let this curb your appetite until the next “Arular”.
Santogold & Diplo – Get It Up
6. The Renaissance – Q-Tip
Headline: Godfather and spiritual guru of hip-hop returns after nearly a decade of absence, STILL puts others MC’s to shame. We all miss A Tribe Called Quest (or at least we all should), and in 2008, The Renaissance is as close as it gets to the jazzy beats and sincere rhymes of Q-Tip’s former group. Don’t be disappointed though, he’s the same as before, except that now he croons about love as much as he raps about it. The album’s pacing arcs so nicely, the drum machines fizzle in perfect time and the album even dropped on the day that our first black president was elected. Besides, “Gettin’ Up” is one the best songs of the year.
Q-Tip – Gettin’ Up
5. Feed the Animals – Girl Talk
This summer, Greg Gillis released his new album of mash-ups in the same manner in which Radiohead released In Rainbows, half a year earlier. Users could download the entire album for free, if they so chose, through the artist’s website. This “pay-what-you-want” system is especially appropriate for Girl Talk, whose very essence is the celebration of all things popular. When I attended a Girl Talk show in late June, at the onset of his Feed the Animals tour, the music’s appeal to the general public was undeniable; this is definitely dance music, albeit dance music with a sardonic twinkle in its eye. You may laugh when Gillis slyly combines Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” with Nine Inch Nails’ “Wish,” but chances are that you’ll dance too. Download for FREE here.
4. New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) – Erykah Badu
“Mama hopped up on cocaine, Daddy on spaceships with no brain,” murmurs Badu on “The Cell,” and it’s a typical example of the singer’s knack at refracting tragedy through the bizarre. As dense and amoebic as Badu’s hair on “Amerykah”‘s front cover, the album is more of a mood piece than a collection of singular entities. One exception is the Madlib-produced “The Healer,” a floating black hole of a song that envelops R&B, hip-hop, and spoken word, spitting out something new altogether. It’s hypnotic in its manipulation of time and theme, and the song is just the first peak of an album that feels like one long high.
Erykah Badu – The Healer
3. Mountain Tan Commercials – Arch M
I stumbled across Arch M while surfing random music blogs this summer. I know next to nothing about Corey Reid, the hands and heart behind Mountain Tan Commercials, except that he has the concept of distortion down to an absolute art. This mysterious cassette release, lasting only a few tics over nine minutes, is only a sampler for the forthcoming “Moon-Tan,” but if the strung out euphoria of these songs is any indicator of artistic intent, it’s time to get your panties all in a bunch. Take a walk with Mountain Tan Commercials and its dreamy, dilapidated pop charm will win you over before the second listen. Download for FREE here.
2. Water Curses EP – Animal Collective
Call me bombastic, but the writing team that serves as the core of Animal Collective, Dave Portner (Avey Tare) and Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), is the next Lennon and McCartney. Portner is the enigmatic, tortured “artist” and Lennox, no less creative, loves him a sugary pop tune. Portner sings lead on each of these songs, seemingly finding some peace after the shouted insecurities of “Strawberry Jam”. Water Curses consists of three tunes recorded during those 2007 sessions and a fourth that might as well have been. It certainly doesn’t feel patched together, though; the songs trickle and gurgle into each other, cascading down from the jubilant title track into the slowly melting ice of “Seal Eyeing”. Animal Collective is making music that sounds like nothing else, and this contemplative EP is a fine place to start for the unacquainted.
Animal Collective – Water Curses
1. Los Angeles – Flying Lotus
The Warp label’s newest poster boy, Flying Lotus (aka Steven Ellison), reminds me so much of labelmates Boards of Canada. Los Angeles shares the same throbbing, hypnotic break-beats of that group’s seminal work; both artists use aching, inferior sounds to construct dystopian fantasies. But where BoC is obsessed with recreating/re-imagining childhood, Ellison’s music inspects the grime of adult city life. Ellison also works from a much more diverse palette; he is the great-nephew of the late Alice Coltrane. By exploring the capacity of jazz’s rhythmical accents, he continues to build upon the rich history of African-American music. Ellison’s heritage (and his exhaustive crate-digging) pay off in dividends; there are signs of Brazilian, Indian, and hip-hop influence plastered all over this album’s gritty alleyways. Feel free to blast it from your Hummer or whatever, but PLEASE listen to Los Angeles with a decent pair of headphones before you die. It’s dark, gelatinous fun and it’s the best record of 2008.
Flying Lotus – Beginners Falafel
Posted: December 19th, 2008 | Author: Nathan | Filed under: Articles About Music | Tags: hot chip, peter gabriel, vampire weekend | Comments Off
That’s right. Peter Gabriel, along with some help from Hot Chip, has covered Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. I suppose Peter Gabriel was so inspired by the shout out that received in the original song from the debut by the highly acclaimed but slightly overrated Vampire Weekend. I really enjoy their take on it, and I think that Gabriel’s voice sounds great matched up with this fun afro-beat indie pop music. This is easily one of my favorite covers of the year. I love that even beyond all of the philanthropic events that he is constantly working on along with touring and writing new songs that at his age he still finds time to do little projects like this. Enjoy this great cover and see how he handles this “so unnatural” tune.
Hot Chip & Peter Gabriel – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Posted: July 2nd, 2008 | Author: Cody | Filed under: Remix of the Week | Tags: vampire weekend | Comments Off
So each Wednesday, I’ve been bringing remixes that inspire and almost unleash an entirely different song; a song beneath the song. Well this isn’t one of those remixes. This remix is plainly there just to make an other wise normal song into a very very upbeat song.
Vampire Weekend launched this album earlier this year, and they dropped the Insane Mix on a cd single for their song Oxford Comma. It’s a playful song, and I love it.
Vampire Weekend – Walcott [Insane Remix] (removed 2/13/09)
Let thine ears bleedeth. Ω
She & Him is made up of the gorgeous and very likeable actress, Zooey Deschanel and the him part is indie folk artist M. Ward. With her voice and song-writing combined with his gorgeous arrangements you get one of the most enjoyable and accessible records of the year. I don’t know how anyone could not like this album at least a little bit. Which might be why it ended up as Paste’s favorite album of the year. It has a little something for everyone.
This album provided for me not just the best song of the year, but just an all-around great rock album. If that’s what you want to call it. I have a hard time describing this album since it seems jump genres from song to song. But it does so gracefully. It isn’t disjointed at all. It seems like their drummer somehow seems to carry you safely from song to song. Not to mention the song-writing and vocals of Josh Epstein are impeccable. This is another album that utilizes a plethora of instruments. But I think my favorite thing about the album is the way they use silence as an instrument in this stand-out track from their great sophomore effort.
