My Top 10 Albums of 2010

Volume Two by She & Him

I think I like Volume Two by She & Him even better than Volume One! Zooey Deschanel seems more confident as a songwriter with this second album and much more confident in her singing voice.  It's still bright, bubbly, sunshiney throwback pop music just with a little more ooomph.

Contra by Vampire Weekend

Those "Ivy League" boys have done it again. I listened to this album non-stop for at least a month when it was first released.  These are perfect pop songs with that strange yet satisfying world music edge, like some sort of Paul Simon afterthought. 

Infinite Arms by Band of Horses

I love Ben Bridwell's voice. This album is super laid back and dreamy. Although Band of Horses do not push the envelope from album to album they do consistently make good music.

I'm Having Fun Now by Jenny and Johnny

I'd never heard of Jonathan Rice before he became Jenny Lewis' boyfriend and they started making music together, but I've loved Jenny in all her incarnations: Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lews & the Watson Twins, back up vocalist for The Postal Service, or just plain Jenny Lewis.  This album does not make me want to run out and buy all Jonathan Rice's previous work, because Jenny is the star of this show.  She's just got magic in her, you know?  This is pure California pop music and they seem to make a good pair.

The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

A masterpiece.  That is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.

The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit

Another voice that I love.  I also love that you can hear Scott Hutchinson's Scottish accent when he sings.  It's adds an authenticity to his singing.  With this album Frightened Rabbit is definitely aiming to break through to the mainstream and there are some great singles here that could help them do that.

The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) by Janelle Monáe

Wowza.  This girl has IT.  You know what I mean?  IT.  This girl is 5'3" of pure rock and soul.  And man does she have great personal style!  This album is eclectic and conceptual and awesome.

Have One on Me by Joanna Newsom

This album is over two hours long and came on three discs.  Yep.  And guess what?  Every minute of it is exceptional.  No one makes music like Joanna.  She weaves elaborate tapestries of song that you will always be finding new and wonderful things within on every listen.

Release Me by The Like

The Like seemingly reinvented themselves with this, their second album.  Their lineup changed and so did their sound.  But you know what?  I love it.  Their 60s girl group, British invasion-inspired sound is fun and flirty and catchy and addictive.

White Mystery by White Mystery

Thank goodness someone out there is still making straight up Rock n' Roll music!  This Chicago band is a refreshing blast of loud, crunchy guitar and drums.  You can't listen to this brother and sister outfit without tapping your feet or banging your hands on the steering wheel.  Plus, they're REDHEADS! 

And five honorable mentions:

Destroyer of the Void by Blitzen Trapper

Wreckorder by Fran Healy

Gorilla Manor by Local Natives

Write About Love by Belle and Sebastian

A Single Man Soundtrack score by Abel Korzeniowski

Cher on the cover of Vanity Fair

Cher is on the cover of the December Vanity Fair.  You gotta kinda love her, right?

Behind the scenes of the photo shoot:

Trashcan Sinatras House Party

A few weeks ago I got the rare privilege of seeing one of my favorite bands of all time play a house party in my hometown of Las Vegas. I fell in love with Trashcan Sinatras back in 1990. I was a proud subscriber to one Sassy Magazine which had a monthly column called "Cute Band Alert." One month Trashcan Sinatras was the "cute band" and I immediately bought their debut album, Cake. I have been a loyal Trashcan fan ever since. Although they never broke big in the U.S. they do have a strong cult following of which these house parties were born. You can read about the first house party they played in Portland, OR here. When I heard through their official band newsletter that TCS would be playing a Vegas house party, I didn't balk at the $100 price tag, but instead looked at it as the opportunity to see for the first time a band I've loved for twenty years in an intimate and unique setting.

Now that I have had the experience I would have paid double that. I arrived an hour before the show start time with a dozen cupcakes from Retro Bakery and a case of Stella Artois. Yes, this party was pot luck and byob. The first thing I noticed as I came through the door was lead singer Frank Reader wandering around the house talking on a cell phone!!! I introduced myself to the few people in the room and then stood quietly, sipping a beer, and trying not to appear as excited as I felt as I noticed other band members mingling about.

The show itself consisted of two stripped down sets. Stephen Douglas played on a limited drums/percussion setup, Paul Livingston played an electric guitar, Frank Reader and John Douglas played acoustic guitars. They used no bass guitar. Lee Grant, our party host, was invited to play his own piano with the band on one song, A Coda. The forty-five or so guests stood or sat in folding chairs in a semi-circle around the band. The band was friendly, surprisingly funny, and seemed genuinely pleased to be playing for us all.

There was a break after the first set and I went onto the back porch where I had a smoke and some conversation with John Douglas and was soon joined by Stephen Douglas and Paul Livingston, who bummed a few drags off my cigarette. I offered him his own, but he only wanted a few drags off mine, if that was all right. It was. We shared a smoke. We all talked about their tour, which was ending soon, about Scotland (where Stephen and John still live) and L.A. (where Paul and Frank now live) about Las Vegas, and about music of course. Paul Livingston said the first concert he ever went to was The Smiths (!) in '85 or '86. There was then much discussion about Johnny Marr as a guitarist and how it seems that he's never been able to shine as much as he did with The Smiths and why don't they just get back together already! I eventually got up the courage to explain my discovery of them through Sassy magazine, which Stephen laughed at and said he actually remembered, although he would have called them scruffy back then rather than cute.

After a longer second set where the ease and comfort between band and audience grew to a level that really brought home to everyone what a special and unique experience this really was, the night ended. The band started tearing down their equipment but were also very happy to sign posters, t-shirts, or anything else you might want them to sign, and take pictures with people. They also sold flash drives with the audio of concert we had just witnessed burned to them. They are trying to make a bit of money after all. I bought a poster, had each band member sign it, bought a flash drive, and a t-shirt that reads, Trashcan Sinatras - Legendary Scottish Band. How awesome is that?

Here's the setlist followed by photos of the show and a video of Lee playing piano on A Coda with the band:

First Set
Easy On The Eye
All The Dark Horses
Wild Mountainside
Only Tongue Can Tell
The Safecracker
Easy Read
I Wish You'd Met Her
I Hung My Harp Upon The Willows
How Can I Apply?
Hayfever
Unfortunate Age

Second Set
Got Carried Away
Send For Henny
In The Music
Prisons
Earlies
Drunken Chorus
To Sir With Love
Weightlifting
I See The Moon
I've Seen Everything
Oranges and Apples
People
A Coda
Obscurity Knocks
The Best Man's Fall

Trashcan Sinatras: Legendary Scottish Band

From left to right: Stephen Douglas, Paul Livingston, Frank Reader, John Douglas

Lee Grant at piano, John Douglas

Mr. Frank Reader

Sharing some beers and smokes at intermission. That's me smiling all goofily at Paul Livingston.

Frank signing my posters.  I'm probably saying something very gushy and ridiculous.

Me and Paul Livingston, he was super sweet.  They all were.

Trashcan Sinatras - Usually (Live)

I'm so very super crazy excited. Tonight I'm seeing Trashcan Sinatras play a private house party in my hometown. There will only be about 50 people at the party and Trashcan Sinatras will play a few acoustic sets and chat and mingle with everyone. It's potluck and BYOB! I have worshipped this little known, Scottish band since I was a freshman in high school and I have never seen them live. Now, 20 years later I'll see them for the first time in this unique setting. My heart might burst.

Interpol - Live at The Joint - 10/22/2010

Interpol live at The Joint (photo by me)

October 22, 2010

This was my fourth time seeing Interpol live. Two of the three previous shows were absolutely spectacular with fantastic energy, eye popping light sequences, and pure crowd love. One of the previous shows was a short set, two days after they had played Coachella, a quick stopover as they essentially "tried out" some of the tracks for their forthcoming album and it felt exactly like what it was: a practice run. It was a letdown.

I was a little worried going into this show because their new self-titled fourth album is not really doing it for me. But I shouldn't have let my worries get the best of me. This is a tight band that knows how to put on a good show. They are also one of the few bands that seem to truly enjoy playing Vegas and lead singer Paul Banks is vocal in letting us know it. In addition I was a little concerned about Carlos D leaving the band. Would the lack of his prescence be noticeable? He was such a striking figure, a true individual character in a band with plenty of character as a whole, not to mention his throbbing bass lines that provided the crux of so many of their songs. But honestly, his absence did not affect the band's performance. I've always enjoyed watching guitarist Daniel Kessler's manic on stage movement the most anyway. He glides back and forth and side to side on his quick feet until you are suprised that he can move like that and play at the same time!

Overall the setlist consisted of five songs from their first album Turn on the Bright Lights, six from their second breakthrough and most popular album Antics, only one lonely song from their third outing Our Love to Admire, and a full six off their new self titled fourth album. I will first say that the songs off the new album sounded much better live and actually made me want to give the album more of a chance. Secondly, hearing live seven songs from their latter two albums and eleven songs from their earlier two albums ultimately reveals the difference between the two parts of their career so far: their early work contains a palpable energy, propulsion, and ROCK that their latter work is lacking. It's not that there new work is not as good as their older work, but it is decidedly different to my ears and I prefer the raw intensity of their first two albums to the rather lanquid unfolding of their last two.

But Interpol is a very smart band. They obviously know that my opinion is the same opinion as a lot of their fans and they rewarded our loyalty by playing a setlist that consisted of over 60% older songs.

And I thank them for it.

Setlist (for those of you into that kind of thing):
Success (Interpol)
Say Hello to the Angels (Turn on the Bright Lights)
C'mere (Antics)
Memory Services (Interpol)
Rest My Chemistry (Our Love to Admire)
Summer Well (Interpol)
Narc (Antics)
Evil (Antics)
Untitled (Turn on the Bright Lights)
Barricade (Interpol)
Lights (Interpol)
Slow Hands (Antics)
PDA (Turn on the Bright Lights)
Try it On (Interpol)
Not Even Jail (Antics)

Encore:
NYC (Turn on the Bright Lights)
Take You on a Cruise (Antics)
Obstacle I (Turn on the Bright Lights)

The Avett Brothers - The Ballad of Love & Hate

I have no words to describe how good this song is.

Christopher Eccleston in a music video

Here's a music video for a band called I Am Kloot where Christopher Eccleston simply stares into the camera for 2 1/2 minutes. It's rather lovely.



And thanks to my friend Jenni Miller for bringing this to my attention.

The Pains of Being Pure of Heart

The Pains of Being Pure of Heart have a new video for their song Say No to Love and it is adorable. Don't hurt yourself on the twee.

Low Rising by The Swell Season

From Blip.fm - Igor Stravinsky

Was listening to Radiolab about the riot that occurred when this was first performed. Interesting stuff. ♫ http://blip.fm/~ru6v7

The King of Carrot Flowers Part 1

Chet Baker - Before and After

Before:

After:

She & Him, Volume 2 - My Review

I developed a wicked girl crush on Zooey Deschanel after seeing her in Cameron Crowe's incredible rock n' roll film Almost Famous oh so many years ago. Seriously, that came out in 2000 - it's been a DECADE! Her part was small, but she was adorable. Shortly after seeing her in the now Christmas movie staple, Elf, in which she revealed to the world that she had an incredible set of pipes I learned that she had her own musical cabaret act that performed around L.A. AND she was rumoured to play Janis Joplin in a biopic (which never came to fruition). It was no surprise to me then, when she joined forces with M. Ward to form the band She & Him.

Their first album, simply titled Volume 1, was very good - a sweet amalgam of sunshiny California pop, the classic girl group sound, and an occasionally jazzy vocalist vibe. It was fun to hear Zooey singing her own lyrics, although sometimes her voice sounded a little tentative as if she wasn't entirely sure she should be sharing her songs with the world.

Now the duo has released their second album, aptly titled, Volume 2 and its' not just good - it's FANTASTIC. Zooey's tentativeness is gone; she's now a fully formed and confident singer. It isn't a departure from the first album, it's the same sunshiny, girl groupy, jazzy pop music, but it's more consistent, more fully realized, more layered, just MORE MORE MORE. It's music that makes me HAPPY. And that's the best review I can give anything.

From Blip.fm - Joanna Newsom

Off her new album, Have One On Me. This woman makes the most beautiful music. ♫ http://blip.fm/~lq3i8

Vampire Weekend - Contra - My Review

I’ve been listening and listening and listening to the new album from Vampire Weekend, Contra, and mulling over how I want to write about it. It’s really, really, really good. I had to warm up to their first album. At first I just didn’t get them. I grew up a huge Paul Simon fan – I even saw him in concert when I was 14 years old WITHOUT my parents – and at first listen VW sounded like some strange, young derivatives of his genius. But eventually I came to see them as being something entirely new. I still can’t really put what that "something new" is into words though. Sometimes I feel they could be described as the musical equivalent of Whit Stillman’s film Metropolitan but that’s not quite it either. Bah! I give up.

Their new album takes everything they did on their first one and punches it up tenfold while also adding in a bunch of romance and positivity. Lyrics like "I see you shine in your way, go on, go on, go on" and "Said never pick sides, never choose between two, but I just wanted you, I just wanted you" are absolutely dripping with good feelings. These good feelings are nice because the time in 2008 when I saw Vampire Weekend live they came off a little bit like elitist a-holes. At that time I didn't really care if I ever saw them live again, but with this new album my faith is restored. I'm eager to see them live! With this album they are not trying to maintain that Ivy League, Polo ad image that they projected with the first album, but despite NOT trying they are still achieving it, but not in an elitist a-hole way, but in a "Hey! This is who we ARE!" way. Does that make any sense?

Wow. I read over this and it's an awkward review. I can't corral my thoughts! Just take away this: their new album is fantastic with more fun, romance, and positivity and I really like it.

Here's their new bizarro video, guest starring a Jonas brother, Jake Gyllenhaal, and RZA (among others), for Giving Up the Gun:

A Case of You

Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar

On the back of a carton coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice

Oh you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh I would still be on my feet

Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time that you told me, you said
Love is touching souls
Surely you touched mine
Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time

Oh you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed

Oh but you are in my blood you're my holy wine
You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

This is absolutely my favorite Joni Mitchell song. I'm sure that is a claim made by many people as it's one of her most popular songs off what is definitely her most popular album, Blue. But a song this beautiful DESERVES to be at the top of everyone's favorites list. The lyrics are penetrating and confessional and the sentiment is so utterly romantic and heady. Joni sings so sweetly, hitting those incredible high notes that take the listener by surprise.

Have you ever seen the film Truly, Madly, Deeply? It's written and directed by the wonderful Anthony Minghella and stars the lovely Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. Juliet is Nina, distraught over the death of her boyfriend Jamie. After many months of deep mourning, Jamie suddenly comes back to her as a ghost. There is a scene that takes place the morning after their reunion where they are looking out the window at the clouds in the sky and they sing a bit of Joni's A Case of You. It's adorable and comic, and oh so very romantic. You can see it here; it starts at about 7:37 minutes into this 10:00 minute clip. If you haven't seen this movie, I encourage you to do so.

A concert I wish I attended. . .

The Last Waltz of The Band, November 25, 1976

RIP Vic Chestnutt

So sad. Here's Vic on NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts http://blip.fm/~iei7c

My Top 10 (11) Albums of 2009

I tried to narrow my list down to 10 but I just couldn't do it! So without further ado and in no particular order, here are my top 11 albums of 2009:

Wilco (The Album) by Wilco
I enjoy the band that Wilco has become. Tweedy seems to have finally settled down and settled in with his current bandmates for what could be a long haul. Two albums in a row without a change in lineup is a good sign!

Now We Can See by The Thermals
This band is great at creating weird and wonderful concept albums like this one which seems to be told entirely from the perspective of the dead. For such a negative theme, it's an incredibly hopeful record.

Revolution by Miranda Lambert
I fell in love with this spitfire of a girl after hearing her last album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. This time around she is no less sassy, but she is showing more growth and maturity as a songwriter. Makin' Plans is a simple and beautiful love song.

Middle Cyclone by Neko Case
If I had placed these albums in a numerical order, this one would have taken the number one spot. This is definitely my most listened to album of the year and Neko's best yet. Her lyrics are startling and unique. Who else could write a song from the literal perspective of a tornado and make it work as one of the most purely passionate love songs ever? I adore Neko.

Where The Wild Things Are - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Karen O and The Kids
Anyone who read my review of this film knows that I was a bit disappointed by it. But that disappointment has nothing to do with the sublime music that Karen O and her "kids" created. This music gives me the joyous feeling that ultimately the film failed to deliver.

Music For Men by The Gossip
Beth Ditto rocks my socks. This album is more polished and produced (by Rick Rubin of all people) than their previous works which I was worried might be a bad thing. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Gossip were able to retain their rawness despite the polish. What's more? This is a pure dance record! You can't listen to this album without itching to get your groove on.

Only Way to Be Alone by Good Old War
I think this album actually came out in 2008, but I just discovered it a few months ago, so I'm going to cheat a little and include it in my list. This album is lovely, infectious, harmony filled, indie pop gloriousness. The vocals soar and the mainly acoustic guitar riffs are strummingly divine. I dare you to listen to this band and not feel happy.

The Ruminant Band by Fruit Bats
I've been enjoying Fruit Bats' romantic brand of retro pop for years and this album is a welcome addition to their oevre.

Fever Ray by Fever Ray
Of all the albums on my list this one is the biggest departure from my usual tastes. It's weird, synth and drum filled, out of this world, ethereal rock n' roll. The layers of sound are astonishing, all the more for the clarity of the vocals. It's a kind of dark and scary world that I enjoy visiting through the music, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Coraline - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Bruno Calais
Whimsical, delightful, charming music that perfectly suits the film.

Rearrange Beds by An Horse
There is something about this album that reminds me of the 90s rock of my high school years. I can't put my finger on it exactly or even name a band that they totally remind me of, but they induce an odd nostalgia for me. And I'm a sucker for nostalgia.