JULY
July was haphazard. I never settled into any one camp and dipped my toes into every pool I came across. I don't know what I was going thru, but it was working for me, so why fight it. So where to start....
How about The Books? Why not? The Books are a "band" I discovered back in oh let's see... 2002, and pretty much pick up anything they do, despite the fact that they never outgrow their original impact, but it's like watching Law & Order. The Books live in their own neighborhood. The Way Out is addictive in its originality, but they're always the same. And for that we love them. And across the street from them live Sleigh Bells (left). Festive right? Well this boy/girl team is not so much Christmas carol as they are party cheer. Treats is an awesome pep rally, where all the kids are so full of school pride and school pride is actually something something to be proud of. Imagine Ratatat got some soul and decided to let their cute younger sister shout along. Suit up. People Of The North put out a four track psychedelic voyage called Deep Tissue that was both unexpected and greatly appreciated.
Varsity (sticking with the theme) players made their presence known. It's quite a feat for a band as trite or cliché as the Mystery Jets have become to still remain so intriguing. And I find ironic that this album, entitled Serotonin, displays their very least effort compared to their amazing debut and even their pop perfect followup. The Jets have wandered into Nada Surf territory, and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, it's far from what they were set up for. Bland is too harsh a word to use to describe this, but blander, while it's not even a real word, seems fitting. And there was a day where I thought Menomena (right) could do no wrong. Well that day came with the release of Mines. Maybe they should have left these in the field for some passerby to detonate leaving no trace of their existence. That is again a little harsh but, I don't know what to tell you. Blitzen Trapper on the other hand took a step towards my heart with Destroyer Of The Void, going from one hit wonders to potentially high-ranked best of nominee.
By chance one night I caught Janelle Monae (left) on Letterman and she blew me away. Loved that tune, that ended up being one of my least favorite on her excellent ArchAndroid album. Whether she's bringing it back MJ style (Off the Wall MJ style) or channeling Busta, but better, she is awesome. Broadening my horizons. Going classical for a brief moment this month paid off as well. Both John Zorn's In Search Of The Miraculous and Wim Mertens Zee Versus Zed are more than enough to convert a jaded rock snob. Not that I am one. I listen to Danny Paul Grody. He makes solo acoustic guitar instrumentals for the ages. Fountain caught me off guard and made me miss my exit. That's a good thing. I didn't wanna go there anyway. But A British duo named after their surrounding or maybe the physical features their sound took on, Walls, was quite a nice sidetrack.
Pop prevailed, as it always does in the form of Petter & The Pix and the hip slapping Good As Gold. Front to back, a new favorite. CEO cast some White Magic with a mini-album, with two of the best pop songs yet this year. And One Happy Island made twee music finally listenable and not quite so tea-partyish. Good for them for having a dark side of the smile. And let's talk jangle pop, like the lovingly fuzzed out tunes of Love Language on Libraries or the sunshiny noisepop surfpunk hybrid of Wavves King Of The Beach. And bringing a little estrogen to the pop party is Best Coast (right) making an album you can imagine Brian Wilson's little sister making in her bedroom in rebuttal of her brothers success, and released 45 years later. Crazy For You indeed.
Mixtape fodder. I listened to an M.I.A. (left) album for the first time all the way thru. She won't become a regular staple or anything, but there were some cool tracks on /\/\/\Y/\, that fit quite nicely on any mixtape. And North Atlantic Oscillation takes the honored position of bands that really mix it up on their debut to the point that you think you may already be listening to a mixtape. I found myself drawn to more than a few random tracks on the appropriately titled Grappling Hooks. And while I'd love to love the Fol Chen and their self-imposed ubiquity, I couldn't get far past the opening track on Part II: The New December.AUGUST
August had superstars. When I got past the fact that The Suburbs, the new Arcade Fire, wasn't going to be the summer blockbuster I had hoped for I turned to other resources. And it was a messy cosmopolitan journey. Starting in the hip streets of Brooklyn, Das Racist (right) browbeat me with their clever but unimposing approach to the hip hop. It didn't hurt that Shut Up, Dude sampled Billy Joel and demanded relevance. Then I tripped over this Brazilian trio fronted by M. Takara. Sobre Todas E Qualquer Coisa is a challenging but intriguing listen of freeform electro funkrock that had me delving into their back catalog. Then for some reason I traveled to the other side of the globe all the way to Mali to find Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté. Once again, a couple of fellows who've been plucking African style acoustic beautes for decades and well, I have digging to do.
The meandering listens didn't stop there. I got my double sax jazz on with Polar Bear. Peepers is better than its predecessor. Connan Mockasin (left) wins the award for weirdest album release of 2010. How he manages to make Please Turn Me Into The Snat sound like he's underwater & in outer space simultaneously makes for an wildly odd experience. Then there's this crew of boys & girls that call themselves Shapes & Sizes that are in a league all their own, as far as the artsy rock is concerned. It seems like every note on Candle To Your Eyes was so carefully chosen and placed and then dumped out retuned and replaced with breadcrumbs. You'd get it if you heard.
I am hooked on Ra Ra Riot's (right) new album The Orchard. They deliver the one-two punch of the year with its first two tracks and stays strong throughout. The mix of bass and strings is more than effective and manages to set what would be an album that gets lost in the crowd its own distinctive personality. I fell out with Hot Hot Heat over the last few albums but they make me regret it with Future Breeds. Some unforgettable synthrock riffs flesh out this album showing growth in all the right places. And finally living up to their press is Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Silly name aside, Let It Sway is the full package of lovable guitar riffs, melodies when we're talking verse/chorus/verse.
Our personal hero this month is Essie Jain (left), and it would only be this month. She recorded Until The Light Of Morning, an album of lullabies that normally would go somewhat ignored but due to the circumstances, it was the most listened to album this year, only because it was utilitarian in its darlingness. Rounding out Augusts great listens was Chief's debut of heartfelt poprock Modern Ritual, the breakout S. Carey hushing himself thru a lovely album called All We Grow, and Tamaryn taking a dark and patient approach on Waves. I took in a little David Karsten Daniels with his new backing band on I Mean To Live Here Still and got a more enormous album than I could have expected. Why isn't this guy bigger? And then the curiously titled Brasstronaut with Mount Chimaera, an album that I barely found enough brass in to qualify a liner credit, but it was still pretty epic.SEPTEMBER
Heavy hitters abound. I had high hopes and all were met. Start off big, with the guys who made my favorite album in 2008 and now making a serious run for the same spot in 2010. The Walkmen, tuggin my heartstrings before I hear a note entitling the album Lisbon (the place I'd like to retire) after the place they recorded the songs. Mutating just enough to keep it interesting but never straying from their sound and style separates the best. This is good stuff. And chomping at their heels is Deerhunter, newer to the scene but no less rightful. Halcyon Digest is not what I expected but that's the best part of it. Track after track is different on each listen and for the better. For the best. Then Blonde Redhead (right), a strong contender from 2007 and one of my favorite live acts brought out Penny Sparkle. This was a pretty big change for them, but they're a band that does change it up every few releases. This is their most laid back and synth-reliant album but just like all the others, it sinks in deep after time. The star studded month rounds out with the ever prolific Of Montreal dropping False Priest on the world. They're always good for a wacky artpop track or two. This time more than that.
I was taken aback upon listening to the earful of neo-psychedelia heralded by Working For A Nuclear Free City. The mouthy name alone was a bit to take but once I got 4 or five tunes in I was sold. Jojo Burger Tempest has made a fan of me, and made a contender of them. Abe Vigoda (left) broke form and really tamed their crazed guitars and leaned heavy on their keyboards to bust out Crush, what the industry would call their breakout, if the industry ever heard of them. The Rumours do the best imitation of The Strokes yet, and with better production From The Corner Into Your Ear would give those hipsters a run for their money. Sweden has a monopoly on quality foreign psychedelia, and at the top of the heap is Dungen. Opening track off Skit I Allt is alone worth the price of admission. Just turn on, sit back and watch the sun go.
I found The Whiskers on a random blog somewhere and their album War Of Currents can be classified as a real found treasure. The cover of the album shows a man's head surrounded by pigeons. I identified with it. The Head And The Heart (right) also had a album cover that sucked me into its sound. Inside I found a pleasant mix of stripped down piano & drum rock ballads, cutesy but not enough to turn up. Annuals were a favorite for a long while, even saw the twice, but their last release fell flat and Count The Rings is even flatter, save one track placed strategically in the middle of the pack, but thank god for the digital age. I was the only kid in my high school to listen to Superchunk, and now that they got back together and released Majesty Shredding I get to relive all the solitude and misery that came along with those years. It's nice that somethings don't change.
The end of the month brought on sleepless nights and extremely early mornings, so we needed some ambience to soothe the situation. Enter Max Richter (left). Infra follows his past brilliance of music that seems like it's not there but still breathtaking in what it doesn't do. Andrew Hargreaves fulfilled the electronic quota with his 24-track Defragment and Haruka Nakamura brought the quiet piano style with the all too familiar Twilight. Out of nowhere Murralin Lane brought Our House Is On The Wall, but isn't that the best way to introduce this genre?
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