Not an exhaustive or complete list by any means given that these are the "Favorite Songs of 2011" as I'm recalling them on the last few days of the year, but it's at least fairly representative.
Where an artist had an entire album that could have been listed as a favorite, I tried to list an alternate song from ones I had previously posted earlier in the year.
Here's to doing a better job of documenting favorites in the New Year. Cheers!
In a nod to the recent Grammy nominations, here's some restrictively specific fake Grammy categories to honor some of the best things in music in 2011.
"Best Bluegrass Cover of a Radiohead Song" Artist: Sarah Jarosz Song: "The Tourist" Album:Follow Me Down
"Best Use of Looping, an Elementary School Class, Face Paint, and Synchronized Choreography in a Video"
It's that time of year when you've heard enough renditions of "Deck the Halls" in the corridors of your local mall that you're ready to deck the next cheery cashier in a Santa hat.
Here's a couple songs that put the spirit back in Christmas....the spirit of good music.
Clarence Carter - "Back Door Santa" from Soul Christmas
Marty Stuart - "Even Santa Claus Gets the Blues" from A Very Special Acoustic Christmas
The cover photo of the new Black Keys album, El Camino, is not a picture of an El Camino.
It is, however, a picture of a Chrysler Town & Country minivan, the band's real-life former tour bus, and it is, at least in jest, or maybe for real, for sale.
Naming an album after a bitchin' 70's coupe utility vehicle while juxtaposing it with an image of a beat down, rusted out, soccer mom transport machine is a sly joke, or an unintended prophecy of epic proportion. As the Keys themselves discovered in retrospect, el camino means "the path" in Spanish, so it's fitting that the album that is poised to fully invest them in mainstream superstardom is adorned with the detritus of their journey.
But even when they were driving around a minivan, The Black Keys have always been making El Camino music. Fat, nasty guitar weight and aggressive drumming that was retro but new, familiar yet original, and hung together with the tension culled from making just a guitar and drum compelling. There was a palpable urgency in the music as a result of the thought that they just couldn't make something this simplistic actually last beyond a cool riff or two.
But that's exactly what the Keys did for four albums, from The Big Come Up thru Magic Potion. It wasn't until Attack & Release, which solicited producer duties from Danger Mouse, a.k.a. Brian Burton, that the formula significantly shifted - to more production, new instruments, and a more realized full album vision and conceptualization. Brothers stretched the sound with less structure than Attack and Release into a slinky, muggy, song heavy R&B&rock mixture.
Full disclosure here....I didn't want to like El Camino. It's a predisposition in the cynic in me to write off a new album, delivered a short year and a half after its breakthrough predecessor, the previously mentioned Brothers rocketed to the top of the charts, as a calculated attempt to cash in on new found fame and glory by recruiting big time production muscle (again Mr. Burton) to concoct radio ready choruses to propel a band to the promised land. Stadium sized hooks pre-made for a then announced stadium tour further spiral my cynicism into flat out disdain.
And yet, El Camino is most like the much maligned minivan - part wind catching gas guzzler and part serviceable blend of purpose and practicality. It's dependable and trustworthy. It's adaptable for errands around town or an extended road trip in the same way an El Camino could be - but it's not as cool as a muscle car that's also a truck.
The opening slurred riff of "Lonely Boy", pre-disposed to be the albums first single, keeps you on the line like the female protagonist of guitarist Dan Auerbach's ire, and perfectly mocks my premature judgments by announcing:
"Well I'm so above you / and it’s plain to see / but I came to love you, anyway /
So you pulled my heart out / and I don't mind bleeding"
and culminating in the oh so singable lament - "I got a love that keeps me waiting".
"Dead and Gone" overcomes its "Roxanne"-like guitar rhythm intro to maintain a bombastic grittiness that flows fluidly into the glitzy, glammed-out glow of "Gold on the Ceiling". "Little Black Submarines" eases out around its acoustic opening via a "Mary Jane's Last Dance" styled segueing riff before dropping the hammer on a mini-"Freebird" type moment, as if cranked out guitar and fat drum whacks could convince you that "a broken heart is blind". "Money Maker" keeps the up-tempo scuz rolling into "Run Right Back"'s screeched slide, replete with "Spirit in the Sky" characteristic fuzz.
The driving impetus slows slightly with "Sister", shifts to go-go time in "Hell Of A Season", and transitions to falsetto soul with the slightly lowered volume of "Stop Stop”’s poppy hand claps and the shifty drumming of Patrick Carney. "Nova Baby" strays more into Suburbs era Arcade Fire sounds before rounding out the albums dynamic range in "Minderaser".
Rock & roll isn't complicated - it's not supposed to be.
Moreover, rock & roll is a rejection of the unnecessary.
The Black Keys have built their greatness by letting their unadulterated sound hang and resonate in the space that lesser bands would try to plug with fluff and filler. The unnecessary insulates the sound.
In the end, El Camino is a comprimise. A compromise between the holes that are left open and the ones that get filled. A compromise to be the minivan and the El Camino, the path and the vehicle. But truth be told, it’s still pretty cool to be along for the ride.
During the season of mass consumerism, get out and spend a few of your hard earned dollars at an independently owned record store and help support local music in your area.
If you're in the Rochester, NY area like me, or if you're ever passing through, here's three great record stores to check out:
The Bob Shop, 274 North Goodman St., Rochester NY 14607 (located in the Village Gate for a
couple more weeks until they move to a new location)
Record Archive, 33 1/3 Rockwood St., Rochester, NY 14610
Also, check out the companion video for the Record Store Day release of the new Black Key's single "Lonely Boy", featuring some cool shots of the record making process (in reverse).
If Wilco had been holding out on us, they sure have a hard way of showing it.
The progressively progressive Chicagoans have been the the indie rock critics BFF and cool brand to promote since before you could hype the Internet. Forming in 1994 out of the remnants of equally revered alt-country forefathers Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy and a revolving cast of characters have created year defining albums of straight away roots rock [Being There (1996)], experimental folk [Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)] and explorations in noise [A Ghost is Born (2004)].
The Whole Love stands up to its meticulously curated predecessors with assorted genre bending maneuvers and lithe form shifts but it's not till eleven songs in when the title track demurely coos Wilco's intentions that they "...hope I'll know when to show you my.....whole love". No time like the present, right?
The contorted drumming of "The Art of Almost" opens the album, rattling almost Radiohead-esque towards a wash in orchestration as fellow Wilco founder John Striatt's bass oozes around the cracks of Tweedy's grasp eluding lyrics. Guitarist Nels Cline defines the second half of the seven minute plus opener as his scratchy guitar scrapes through the mix before exploding into an all out psych jam freak out. This seems to carry on a tradition of ambitious album openers, from "Misunderstood" (6:28), to "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" (6:58), to "At Least That's What You Said " (5:30).
"I Might" lets the dust settle a bit with upbeat carnival keys, where the lyrical non-sensicalities matter less than the swagger that Jeff Tweedy can still own, "Dad-rock" label notwithstanding.
Twinkling, lens flared regret blurs swaying oohs and ahhs with squinting-into-the-sun in "Sunloathe" followed up nicely by the retrospective experience of love punchy "Dawned on Me", where Tweedy claims he will "start / to begin / at the end", in the never ending do loop of falling in love.
"Black Moon", "Open Mind" and "Capitol City" do monotone folk ballad, modest country inflection, and bouncy pop, respectively, and nicely round out a middle highlighted by the beach sirens lulling call of "Born Alone, a song that makes you feel good about being "born / to die / alone".
"Standing O" captures the same energy as hitting the open highway with "Monday" on the car stereo. "Rising Red Lung" is "as intimate as a kiss / over the phone", typifying a lot of the lyrical content Tweedy offers, on detached love and loneliness.
"One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)" closes out The Whole Love with Tweedy's best writing about a father and a god, and how a son can never have more than one of each at a time. A modestly twanging melody repeating with each verse and a wind chime piano acquiesces to sound digressions, not at all unlike the meandering beauty of Time Out of Mind era Dylan.
Wilco make me depressed in just the right way. With bits of noise that sound like everything from robot gargle to fuzzed out satellite communications, the sound debris of their slightly fucked up take on traditional rock, country, and pop warp the familiar into the uncomfortable, but in a way that makes depression feel like happiness. No love would be whole without the beautiful and the ugly; or as Wilco play it - the beautiful ugliness and the ugly beauty. With The Whole Love, Wilco sound settled in the discomfort, and content with the love they've created.
Further Listening:
Check out a super cool stop motion video of Wilco performing at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN soundtracked with "Art of Almost", shot and edited by Richie Wireman here.
Addendum: Bonus Tracks
The deluxe issue includes a couple of really fun extras including a cover of Nick Lowe's "I Love My Label". With Wilco's well documented spat with Reprise circa 2002 and the recent formation of their own label, dBpm, the cheeky soul had me smiling into my headphones, from the emphatic "Oh Yes", to Tweedy ironically nodding to Cline to "play the blues".
"Message From Mid-Bar" is a bonus that really feels like you got something for nothing. Would have made the final album cut in my tracklist.
"Speak Into The Rose": A secret agent mariachi guitar band plays shoot-em up with an electronic police squad.
Back in July, Spotify, a digital music streaming service, launched in the U.S. Since operations began in 2008, the Swedish based company's signal has been warming over 10 million European ears in seven different countries and has been steadily building the infrastructure, multiple platforms and strategic partnerships to achieve world domination.
With a stated goal to combat the industry tanking piracy model with a simple and cost effective alternative, while at the same time fairly compensating artists, encouraging the symbiotic music sharing experience and supplying infinite access, Spotify's American launch has some lofty goals live up to.
After spending some time using both the computer based (free) and mobile (paid) versions of the service, here's a few thoughts on why I think Spotify represents an exciting shift in music listening.
1. Price
Everyone can afford free.** Even at the premium level of $9.99, you're getting unlimited access to approximately 15 million songs for the fixed price of one iTunes album purchase a month. For those of us still buying music with any frequency, that's a pretty good deal.
2. Choice
Why have someone else's super complex algorithms (a la Pandora) dissect, classify and characterize millions of song bits to figure out what music you like and play random choices based on that formula, when you can just tell it what you want to here?
3. Storage
Apple solved the portability issue for us; now the storage space of your mobile device is no longer an issue (I think we just endorsed "the cloud"). With an offline feature that lets you sync up to 3,333 tracks on up to three different devices, you've even got a nice well to pull from when the Internet spigot goes dry.
4. Discovery
Risk mitigation targeting your wallet. You can listen to all those albums you wanted to but were never willing to pay for. Now that crappy album that wasn't worth the sticker price is only wasting your time and (less of) your money. Now you can finally listen for yourself and decide whether Weezer's Pinkerton is worth cult classic status or the critical drubbing it got. Ahh, progress.
5. Filling the Gaps
Face it, at some point, accumulating all the music you wanted in your library was gonna be cost prohibitive, making your music stash constantly incomplete, so why not let somebody else fill in what you don't already have. Since you can incorporate your existing iTunes library into Spotify as well, this is the definition of the ever quested for win-win.
**As free as buying a computer and paying Time Warner, or AT&T, or whoever for Internet access can be...I'm considering this aprerequisite of modern life - for better or for worse.
Packing for Bonnaroo and thinking about great canned beers... A portable (and easily concealable) pacakage doesn't always contain great contents, but here's a few that make great companions at musical festivals, BBQ's, wedding receptions, etc.
Photo by L. Coolidge
iPhone Camera+ Toy Camera
Porkslap Pale Ale
Butternut's Beer and Ale, Garrattsville, NY
Not just a pretty can....
Snapperhead IPA
Butternut's Beer and Ale, Garrattsville, NY
Nothing fishy about 6.3% ABV
Brooklyn Summer Ale
Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, NY
Now in cans for hipsters and old guys alike.
Magic Hat #9
Magic Hat Brewing Company, So. Burlington, VT
They get it; they totally get it..
Brooklyn Lager
Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, NY
Favorite person to meet at a picnic.
In just a few short weeks I'll be in a Tennessee field with a few thousand other friends for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The 10th anniversary of the festival takes place in Manchester, TN from June 9th-12th.
In an attempt to discover something new while I'm there, I went through the full lineup for the festival with the following goal: find five new artists of interest I had never heard of before based on nothing but their bio and content on the Bonnaroo website to check out while in Tennessee. Yes, that's a fairly limiting scope, and in retrospect maybe not a wise decision, but hey, sometimes establishing boundaries defines a space for creative things to happen.
Here's what I came up with in no particular order and the videos from the Bonnaroo site I listened to.
Gary Clark, Jr. - "Don't Owe You a Thing"
Straight gas from the first note.
Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons - "Born Again"
If Jim James can like it, I can like it too.
Band of Skulls - "Death by Diamonds and Pearls"
Kinda White Stripesy but I don't hold that against them.
MAN MAN - "Mister Jung Stuffed"
The back story slightly distresses me and I can't condone their press photo, but the conviction in his voice gives me hope. MAN MAN - “Mister Jung Stuffed”
Mat McHugh (of The Beautiful Girls)
Reminds me of a time when I thought no one would top Jack Johnson as a singer songwriter. I'm not really nostalgic for those days, but this will go really well with a dozen PBR's, some Jack and the sweat of the Tennessee sun.
It's easy to elevate musicians, especially those we haven't heard from in while, to an elite status in our musical memory. As the saying goes, time can make the heart grow fonder, for the time when a songs meaning, or the person who created it, was new, fresh, and important in our life. And for most of us, those idols retain their personal significance, even as their star fades from the public consciousness.
Here's a couple such elevated icons who have challenged our memories and their legacies by putting out new work in 2011, some for the first time in a while.
Robbie Robertson - How to Become Clairvoyant (April 2011, 429 Records)
It's been 13 years since the man who became famous as The Band's guitarist and primary songwriter released a solo album. For Clairvoyant, he brings a lot of friends along, including Robert Randolph for "Straight Down the Line" featured below, as well as Tom Morello, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Trent Reznor, Taylor Goldsmith, and Pino Palladino.
Steve Earle - I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive (April 2011, New West Records)
It was 2007 the last time Earle released new, original material (2009's Townes featured songs by singer songwriter Townes Van Zandt). His side projects during his gap in releases, however, did yield Justin Townes father some music - "This City" (nominated for a Grammy) was written for and featured as the closing song to Season 1 of HBO's Treme. Check out his Tiny Desk Concert over at NPR featuring "Waiting on the Sky", "Every Part of Me" and "This City", all off the new album.
Gregg Allman - Low Country Blues (Jan 2011, Rounder Records)
It's been nine years and one liver since the younger Allman brother released a solo album, but he sounds as strong as ever. Check out the original version of this song, "Floating Bridge", by Sleepy John Estes here as well as Eric Clapton's slow blues take here.
He proved that on his 1999 self-titled debut with "Stuck to You" (The Science Song) that he bashfully hid at the end of the album. What's great is that the song works as a song about science, as well as a sheepish love story.
The same can be said for "The Temptation of Adam" from 2007's The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. There's some politics in here too, but stick to the science and it won't be as messy.
Love and science, both beautiful, together or apart.
Record Store Day, an event to promote independent record stores, will be held on Saturday April 16th. Launched in 2008, Record Store Day features exclusive music and merchandise by a range of artists coupled with in store performances, meet & greets, and general good times.
Here's a list of some stuff I'm excited to hear. Check out the website to find participating stores and a list of releases. Take this opportunity to stop in to a record store near you and help support musicians, music lovers and a business model in contrast to iTunes, torrents and the like.
