These are my 50 favorite songs released in 2012 I submitted them for this year's Contrast Podcast Festive Fifty. We'll see how many show up in the final vote! In spite of the numbering, I like everything from about #15 to the end of the list about equally. This was an excellent music year for me. One of the reasons I stopped blogging was that I no longer wanted to risk legal action by uploading mp3s. Unfortunately, the WordPress version on our poor, neglected site is now too old to [...]
So yeah, I have been in a blog coma since February, but that is not to say I haven't been listening to music, as usual. 2010 is not turning out to be such a great year for albums for me. However, at the top of the list so far is Frightened Rabbits' The Winter of Mixed Drinks , in which Scott Hutchison, the nucleus of the band, continues to document his crawl up from the depths he detailed in the previous album, The Midnight Organ Fight (2008), still recovering from some truly horrendous romantic breakup. [...]
On this day six years ago, my sweetie said he wasn't going to get down on one knee, but didn't I think we should get married? In my twisty little female mind, that counts as a romantic Valentine's Day proposal. I know being a V-Day hater in more in vogue, but I get a little mushy about it. Ivan and Alyosha - Easy To Love from The Verse, The Chorus (2009) MySpace | Buy Joan As Policewoman - [...]
Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I promised myself last year that I would no longer put blogging first in my life when there are other things to do. And there have been other things to do! When it rains here in So Cal-and it has rained a LOT-it's time to put native seeds in the ground. November is prime planting time so I am pushing it a bit, but I am always sorry that I didn't plant more so I'm going for it. And that brings me to the theme of this [...]
Ryan and Rebecca Coseboom I recently heard "Gladhander" as one of KCRW's Songs of the Day, and that was all it took for me to scour the interwebs for Stripmall Architecture, the husband-wife duo Ryan and Rebecca Coseboom from San Francisco. Of their two current albums, Object03 is the older but both it and the latest, We Were Flying Kites , have 2009 release dates. Similar to Beach House and Emily Haynes/Metric but far more adventuresome than Metric's current album, the Cosebooms combine quirky electronica [...]
6. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! The Lost Highway record label debut of this great Austin, TX soul and blues band led by Joe Lewis is pretty good. The production is great and the songs are tight and jumping. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - Gunpowder from Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! MySpace | Buy [...]
HAPPY 2010! We're celebrating today with the first half of Uncle T's favorite albums of 2009. 1. Heartless Bastards - The Mountain This third effort is essentially an Erika Wennerstrom solo CD with great production work by Mike McCarthy (Spoon), recorded after the departure of the band’s bassist and drummer and before the latest players had been recruited. Erika emotes about relationship loss, sadness, transition, and moving forward. While the music retains this band’s signature guitar sound, other musicians were brought in [...]
Continuing from yesterday and the day before - 16. Alberta Cross - Broken Side of Time If this debut full-length by Alberta Cross had been released in the late 60s, it would have stood well against music that is now considered classic. These days, due to oversaturation of the music market, it is likely to be overlooked. One problem with this album is its lack of hooks-"singalongability." Everybody and his sister can sing "Down By the River" and "Cinnamon Girl," but the lyrics on [...]
I realize I am down to the last minute for posting year-end favorites, but I am glad I didn't feel pressured to meet anyone else's deadlines because I would have regretted not including several that made this part of the list. For one thing, I was only recently alerted to the fact that Rural Alberta Advantage and The Airborne Toxic Event had re-released their 2008 albums that I did not get into until very late last year and early this year. For another, a couple of very fine late finds leaped onto the list to replace some other [...]
For me 2009 was a good music year where I had no trouble finding entire albums that I loved to play over and over. Since I am not a musician, nor have I studied music, nor am I a professional music critic, I base my list of favorite albums and songs of the year on what I call "thrill factor," that indefinable something that makes me keep going back to an album or song again and again. I might think something is good, but if I experience no yearning to listen to it again, it is lacking [...]
For the previous three Christmas seasons, I have celebrated with this off-the-wall song by Sweden's Envelopes. I am late with it, but why stop a tradition? The droopy little pink tree above was snapped at Big Lots. I hope everyone is enjoying the day doing whatever you like to do. We are celebrating by roasting vegetables everyone hates! Next week: My favorite songs and albums of 2009, and Uncle T's Top 10 Albums. Envelopes - Pink Christmas from It's Not Like Christmas (2006) [...]
I am no Grinch or Scrooge. I like Christmas. I like the twinkly lights and the green and red. But if I walk into another store where Bing Crosby is playing, I just might scream. These are some familiar carols that benefit from a modern make-over. "Little Drummer Boy" has always seemed kind of boring to me. This however, is a great version, and even in the 15 years since it was made, no one (that I know pf) has done it better than the Dandy Warhols. The Dandy Warhols - Little [...]
Whoa, Prancer! We need some Christmas music! Quick! Happy Holidays from San Francisco's My First Earthquake, with this funny song and video about Santa love. "You make me feel so seasonal-like the mall in December!" My First Earthquake - Holiday Sweaters from Have a Hot Holiday (2009) MySpace | Free Download | Buy More One of the most beautiful Christmas love songs I know. Owl City - The Christmas Song [...]
I would so much rather have an album of five wonderful songs than any full-length that has five wonderful songs and a bunch of inferior filler tracks. That is exactly why you find Loch Lomond's Night Bats EP among my Favorites of 2009. Each of the five songs presents a facet of perfection from the five band members, led by vocalist and songwriter Ritchie Young (center, above). Like fellow Portlander Colin Meloy, Young's compositions are literate and have the characteristics of folk songs played as chamber music. However, Night Bats is closer [...]
Although I haven't been posting lately, I have been doing a lot of listening in preparation for end of the year evaluation lists. One of the albums I have slowly become more enamoured with over time is Faunts' Feel.Love.Thinking. Of . Since this Edmonton, Alberta, band formed back in 2000, it's surprising that we haven't heard more of them. Following their 2005 debut full-length High Expectations/Low Results they released a 2006 EP and an EP of remixes last year. Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. is their second full-length. Members [...]
I will be home again soon, thank goodness. Goddakk - Overnight Travel from Winterizing - Various Artists (2008) MySpace | Buy Beautiful unreleased cover by L.A.'s Jump Clubb, creators of the "no dance" genre. Jump Clubb - Los Angeles (Elliott Smith cover) Website OK, how many of you knew that "Julian Plenti" is Paul Banks of Interpol, and didn't tell me? Julian Plenti - Skyscraper from Julian Plenti [...]
The Appleseed Cast - As the Little Things Go from Sagarmatha (2009) MySpace | Buy Aarktica - Hollow Earth Theory from In Sea (2009) MySpace | Buy STS9 - Phoneme from Ad Explorata (2009) Sound Tribe Sector 9 MySpace | Buy Photo by alt-gramma: actual photograph downtown in my hometown, watercolorized with Corel Photopaint.
Say you like stuff like the Dead Weather and Them Crooked Vultures, but you need a current-year example of near-ambient beauty for that perfect gift for a friend or relative with gentler tastes. Look no further than Australian City of Satellites' new album Machine Is My Animal . I listed "Victor" among my Festive 50 songs. You can find the Festive 50 shortlist and vote: here From Machine Is My Animal (2009) City of Satellites - Narrow Bend in Time [...]
I will be out of town and offline for the coming week during my annual visit with family in the southeastern U.S. I love seeing my family, but I don't feel the same about my old hometown, a place where I never felt at home. Some of today's songs reflect those feelings. Thanksgiving week, I usually post some of the more ambient or instrumental things that I have come across, and 2009 has been a fruitful year. I wish I could say more about these bands, but sadly I am whipping out these posts with [...]
I posted the beautiful and somber "Pharaoh's Chariot" from Soulsaver's third album, Broken , in my Creepy Halloween Mix and liked it so much I decided to look up more songs. I ended up with all of it and a brand-new respect for this joint project of Rich Machin (above, right) and Mark Lanegan (left, of Screaming Trees), who wrote lyrics and provided vocals on most of the songs. Songs are primarily dark and reflective, powered by Lanegan's ominous growl, although "All the Way Down" provides some welcome uplift. The album includes two instrumentals, [...]
speed of dark
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