Listing To Starboard: Favorite Albums 2013

TOP 25: 2013

Here we are once again, another year down the pipes, and based on the evidence found within, a further edging away from the bloated corpse of the music industry, as little if any of this list appeared on a major label. Take that as evidence of my curmudgeon-ness as much as any artistic judgement. While the main focus on this blog has always been performance, many albums crossed the transom this year, and we'll stick with the O.G. format of a top 25, although twice that many would have been doable. Perhaps next year. Shout outs to Don Giovanni and Slumberland for being co-holders of the Label Of The Year distinction, a testimony to their depth, balls, and ears, with multiple releases landing on the list.
Notable releases from the year, just bubbling under the list, include the debut of California X, Anna Calvi's second album, a second full length from Nashville's own Diarrhea Planet, the second, (and unforturnately final) entry from Spectrals, and a double LP celebrating the 20th year of Quasi, (can that really be so?!). Also making waves were Brooklyn via Oakland's Weekend, (not to be confused with the vowel and soul-challenged singer with a similar name), Jonathan Wilson, Mikal Cronin, Sky Larkin, Terry Malts, Janelle Monae, and the first new work in many a year from Sebadoh. Lists, of course, are a fool's errand by definition, and any of these records are worth your valuable time.
Without further ado:

25) Chastity Belt: No Regerts

24) SISU: Blood Tears
23) Upset: She's Gone
22) Bleached: Ride Your Heart
21) Dog Party: Lost Control
20) Joanna Gruesome: Weird Sister
19) Veronica Falls: Waiting For Something To Happen
18) Besnard Lakes: Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO 
17) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push The Sky Away
16: Savages: Silence Yourself
15) No Age: An Object
14) Arcade Fire: Reflektor
13) Cate Le Bon: Mug Museum
12) Swearin': Surfing Strange
11) No Joy: Wait For Pleasure

10: Okkervil River: The Silver Gymnasium
http://www.theowlmag.com/album-reviews/the-silver-gymnasium-by-okkervil-river/ 

9) Wax Idols: Discipline + Desire
 http://www.theowlmag.com/album-reviews/discipline-desire-by-wax-idols/

8) Los Campesinos!: No Blues
http://www.theowlmag.com/album-reviews/no-blues-by-los-campesinos/ 

7) Speedy Ortiz: Major Arcana

On their first full-length, all the pieces fall together for Speedy Ortiz. Helping to spearhead a Massachusetts renaissance, the band effectively torches its way through, though, interestingly, leaves its deepest mark when it dials the volume back (relatively) on "No Below". This bodes well for the future-it will be interesting to see how far they push their boundaries.

 
6) My Bloody Valentine: mbv
http://bamnwgan.blogspot.com/2013/02/mbv-and-me.html 

5) Kurt Vile: Wakin' On A Pretty Daze

Wakin' On A Pretty Daze is Kurt Vile's State Of His Own Union address, as every Kurt Vile album is, but more so. Expanding his vision onto two discs, the title track spins out to just under ten minutes without a wasted note. Vile and the Violaters are in that rare space where they could take on the phone book and make it work, as evidenced by two festival appearances this year that took the same material and transformed it into acoustic lullabies in a foggy San Francisco meadow and aggressive riff-heavy rock in a parched field in the middle of downtown LA.

4) Superchunk: I Hate Music 

There's a special kind of gauntlet being dropped when one entitles an album I Hate Music, and who else but Superchunk could make it work?  Like Yo La Tengo's Fade, it's an LP wrestling with mortality, suffused with mourning over the loss of an old friend. The trick is in embracing the shadow of memories and backing it up with music that's nothing short of life affirming. Their most trenchant and affecting work since Foolish, no matter how dark it gets, Superchunk shows the way forward.

3) Yo La Tengo: Fade

The unsinkable Yo La Tengo faced down mortality and came away with Fade, an elegant collection of the Hoboken trio's pop gems, leavened with the lessons learned from Ira Kaplan's recent health scare. Fade reminds us of the importance of community and the work we do, and how easily it can be lost, and the strength it takes to go forward. Nowhere was this more apparent than in their performance of "The Point Of It" during this year's FYF, pushing the hushed song forward in the face of a noisy, distracted field-leaving a devastating mark on those who were actually listening. A potent reminder that punk is not always loud.

 2) Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt

Casting aside the acoustic rawness, but keeping the incisive portraits of her debut American Weekend, Katie Crutchfield, aka Waxahatchee, amped up the sonics and left us Cerulean Salt as a snapshot in time. "Coast To Coast" was a winning single that hit over the head like great 50's rock classics, in and out in under two minutes. The elliptical "Dixie Cups and Jars"might be her finest achievement to date. The prolific artist also found time for an EP and a double album (!) with side project Great Thunder.

1) Laura Stevenson: Wheel

 

A staggering tour de force from the Long Island wunderkind...the place where all the threads she'd been working with came together in a hypnotic song cycle that flirts with many genres, but can't be confined to one. Ace string and horn arrangements by Rob Moose and Kelly Pratt, respectively, carry the day. Like last year's top choice, Father John Misty's Fear Fun, it's an album I'll be listening to five years down the road.

In closing, this marks the fifth year of BAMNWGAN, and this would be the place to thank you all for your love and support.

Thinking Inside The Box...

The devaluation of music has recently reached a new low, what with Amazon pimping the entire new Lady Gaga LP for just .99 in a recent two day release special...And one can say it worked, shifting 1.2M 'units' in its first week, 600K of which were digital, & who knows how many of those were the .99 variety, because, along with paying taxes, Amazon is not fond of releasing sales numbers. Looks like the 'Opening Weekend' box office mind set is taking over what's left of the music biz...



But we come here today to dwell on the opposite, to celebrate 'value per dollar', and examine the last vestige of quality in the industry, the Deluxe Box Set! (or, the insane money grab from suckers like me, but fill in your own...)

So far this year, I've fallen for four ventures that fall into the DeeLux category...Here's the breakdown for the morbidly curious in order received, not, (ahem Radiohead), order ordered:




Decemberists: The King Is Dead comes in a lavish cloth box, (Bogart came separately), and includes: one LP on white vinyl no less, a hardcover book with session polaroids done by Autumn De Wilde as well as the CD and the bonus Pendarvia short film on DVD, a print by Carson Ellis, (wife of Colin Meloy), as well as one of the actual polaroids done by Ms. De Wilde.




That they did this under the eye of Capitol Records might be the craziest thing of all. The album itself, featuring guest spots from Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Gillian Welch, asserts itself as one of their most musically cohesive collections, and if rumors having it to be their last are correct, the beauty and work that went into this box set are an impressive monument to leave behind.






Los Campesinos! have taken an entirely different turn with the first issue of Heat Rash. Their latest endeavor is a quarterly 'zine to fill in the gaps between records, and provide a more literary experience than blogs & files.

On the left is a 7" single of two new songs that will stand alone from the new album, recorded last month and being mixed as we speak. On the right is Heat Rash #1, (the Romance issue), full of lyrics, band poetry, essays, recipes, and closing words from Neil Gaiman!

Okkervil River went all the way with their newest effort, I Am So Very Far in every sense. Their box set, (which came before the CD street date-yay Jagjaguwar), lives up to the name, arriving in a wooden box!

Said wooden box contains: CD, bonus songs/demos on 7'' single, bound hardcover chapbook of lyrics, poster, laser cut cover art from William Schaff, (longtime affiliate of the band), and a signed letter from Will Sheff...



The main event, I Am Very Far, is stretched over three sides of vinyl, the fourth given over to a laser etching of Schaff's artwork. Very cool.













Worth the wait, Radiohead's King Of Limbs (newspaper LP edition) finally arrived after much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Heeding to their In Rainbows random announcement here it is strategy, they notified the world, released the download a week later, then we who ordered the physical package settled in for The Wait. Like the music itself, it's no so much understated as distilled.
Not overflowing with a million goodies, but it does contain the newspaper, the cd, the traditional out of control artwork, and the LP done as two ten inch clear vinyls, mastered at 45rpm, and it sure does sound swell.









What i haven't fallen for yet, although truth be told I had one in a cart and backed off at the last minute, is what might be the piece de resistance of all of the above...Only the Flaming Lips would conjure up the idea of a gummy life size skull enclosing a USB drive with new music. If you wondered exactly how Wayne Coyne would top last years tour posters done in part with his own blood, well, let this be your answer...



And we can't close without mentioning the continued good works of Mr. Jack White, whose latest endeavor is the Third Man Records Rolling Record Store, a mobile truck equipped equally to sell records, merch, and whose custom sound system allows it to do gigs on the go! Someday i'll run into this wonder on wheels, and I will be taking pictures.

Even with the industry in a state of flux, it's nice to know that there's folks out there doing things a little differently...

newmuzik: Okkervil River/Kills

"Wake Up & Be Fine" is the first taste of I Am Very Far, Okkervil River's new LP that is slated for a 10 May release on Jagjaguwar. They will be on the road this summer with opener Titus Andronicus, in what might be one of the better dollar for dollar values in touring this summer. Look for a report here from their late June show at the Wiltern Theater in LA.

Also, Alison Mosshart has finished with her Dead Weather dabbling and rejoined the fold (partner Jamie Hince)...Domino Records is kindly providing The Kills: 'DNA' ,from their forthcoming LP, Blood Pressures, due in April.

Coachella 2009, day three-part one...

Day 3, or: bringing it all back home...
as we approach the fields, adrenaline starts to kick off the bleariness that’s all pervasive at this point…the last day at last…the ‘march of death’ factor is starting to kick in, but as soon as the first band kicks in, it will dissipate…

On paper, in terms of raw depth, this looked to be the best day of the festival, and it was with baited breath that we made that long walk across the grass to the tents to begin...









Back to the ‘tent strategy’, as temps once again soared into triple digits, starting off the day with Vivian Girls, Brooklyn based girl rockers who’ve apparently got a love ‘em or hate ‘em relationship with the general blogosphere, but out here, on purely musical terms, they’re a winner. Blasted through too many tunes to count in their 45 minute slot, short brutish tunes swelling w/energy. Had some issues with a drifting bass drum that refused to stay anchored, but the ladies kept rocking. Looking forward to their new record, they certainly captured the magic of the first on stage.









Had just missed seeing No Age a few months back, and was tickled to have a makeup
opportunity so soon. Two dudes who make one hell of a lot of noise, the tunes from their album ‘Nouns’ sprung to life onstage, and they backed it up by thrashing the life out of them, despite the heat. A wicked sense of humor was unveiled a few songs in, when in between songs, the drummer mewled, “I can’t stand the smell of burning flesh”, yet another tip of the hat to our man Morrissey. And if ever there was a seal of approval, standing right next to the stage the entire set, bobbing his head & grinning at the noise, was Mr. Bob Mould.
It felt like a passing of the torch…














Next up, the highest compliment I can pay Will Scheff and Okkervil River is that I was there baking at the main stage, pressed against a burning steel rail, transfixed for the entire set. The crowd wasn’t huge, but the band settled in, bashing out tunes from their most recent gambits, 'Stage Names' and 'Stand Ins', including a great version of "Plus Ones" (below), and Scheff's passion drew the crowd in slowly.

High point, ironically, was a slow song, usually a kiss of death in the heat, but ‘Girl In Port’ won the day, elevating the end with a great band jam and trumpet solo. Just a few songs in, my sunscreen evaporated, and I could feel the burn set in, but I did not move…By the end, a fairly sizable crowd had gathered, and it was one of the magical sets of the weekend.







Passed on Lupe Fiasco, having seen him before, took a gander @ Lykke Li, (great soundtrack for food break), and checked in w/Perry Farrell, apparently celebrating his birthday by doing Perry’s greatest hits with an electro rock band and stage dancers…It was total Perry; if you’re down, it was on…

Mid day food break is where we'll leave it...
When we come back, finally, the conclusion!

'08 cleanup-II (best albums)

Capturing a mood seems to be the only common thread in this year’s list…in some cases a zeitgeist, in others a creepy 'locked in my room’ vibe…These were the records that, no matter what name brand release momentarily occupied the spotlight, fought their way back into my heart and on my sound system…On that basis alone, they are the survivors…

The booby prize goes to RADIOHEAD’S In Rainbows, which was released in January on CD, but was already old news thanks to their ‘October Surprise’ digital release strategy, and was considered an ’07 release in my humble heart…the deluxe version came w/a second disc of very strong outtakes, 2-3 of which equal most things on the record. Worth finding the extras...

Honourable mention goes to: Kaki King, Los Campesinos!, Kills, Frida Hyvonen, M.I.A., Amanda Palmer, Beck, Gnarls Barkley, Fleet Foxes, and No Age for their latest releases, all records worth checking out…Cap of the year for producer could only be Danger Mouse, who helmed the Beck, Black Keys, and Gnarls records, and probably one or two i'm forgetting.

Enjoy the Grammies tonight, I doubt there will be much intersection w/this column...


10) AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB: The Golden Age
After a few years hiatus, Mark Eitzel reconvened the American Music Club a few years back in the wake of 9/11 to deliver the righteously angry ‘Patriot Songs’…Golden Age is no less incisive, but turns back to Eitzel’s signature portraits of the citizenry of this land, in all their glory…



9) OKKERVIL RIVER: The Stand Ins
Will Scheff is carving out a niche that back in the day would have earned him the weighty sobriquet of ‘new dylan’ and an avalanche of unwanted expectations…might still for that matter, but now he can dwell in the hype machine of cyber.space and fight off the 21st century equivilant. 'The Stand Ins' is more songs from the sessions that gave us 2007’s majestic 'The Stage Names'...it's not leftovers, it's not a sequel...it's another piece of the puzzles, as the artistically linked covers attest to. My favorite kind of record, the one you can keep going back to and get lost in...

8/8) (tie) BURIAL: Untrue/FLYING LOTUS: Los Angeles
Two sides of a coin...in the endless driving miles I’ve racked up this year, these two records hit it like chocolate & peanut butter…the rarest cases of sountracks for movies not yet made and worthy successors in the 'moody abstract beats' department to DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing…’

7) ABE VIGODA; Skeleton:
Just when one thought that nothing further could be squeezed from the basic punk template, here comes the beautifully named Abe Vigoda a loud, quirky northern CA band that has relocated to LA, and reminds me of At The Drive In in their salad days…relentless. They find themselves part of a group of LA bands along with Mika Miko & No Age that could conceivably be the finest trifecta that city has provided since the X/Blasters/Los Lobos outburst of the '80's. Time will tell.


6) SONS & DAUGHTERS: This Gift
Caustic, aggressive, and unjustly overlooked…this is the record where it all came together for them. Past records split the vocals male/female, but this time the focus is on Adele Bethel, and the band’s attack is vicious & melodic. Some say the band is too one.track, but like the Ramones, what a track!




5) JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD: With Blasphemy So Heartfelt
Simple songs that feel classic from the first notes, a punk Patsy Cline w/an assist from Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys, who helped create a great non.intrusive instrumental pastiche for her to work off of. All the attention on new female vocalists this year seemed to center on the UK brigade of Adele, Duffy, etc, but this young lady stole my ears and heart.



4) DIPLO: Top Ranking Santogold, A Diplo Dub
Yes, it’s a mixtape, but what a blast. Against all hope, (could he possibly top his MIA blast ‘piracy funds terrorism’?), indeed…the grooves are deep & hard w/the usual suspects throwin’ down on an airtight base of deep dub sides…He finds room for Aretha, Sir Mix.A.Lot, and the B'52's, as well as the featured Santogold, leavens it w/a cheeky sense of humor and doesn't drop a beat…a jam from start to finish.



3) SIGUR ROS: Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
One of a kind, sharpening their sound while continuing to defy all expectations in this post.rock world. They continue to conjure beautiful dreams…also, ‘Heima’ a documentary of their musical journey through rural Iceland is enchanting, heartfelt, and quite unexpectedly, one of the most engaging rock documentaries made…



2) PORTISHEAD: Third
Sound of the times, defining what is now a bygone era, (before ‘hope’), this most unlikely of comebacks, from a band that never went away, just stopped….Moving aggressively away from the sampling frenzy of their 90’s triumphs to a cold hard edgy groove, overlayed with Beth Gibbons’ inimitable vocalizings, it thoroughly captures the disconnectedness & overt dread of the last eight years, and I have a feeling that years from now, if the man’s name is so much as uttered, it will be a song from this record that creeps into my consciousness…

1) SUN KIL MOON: April
Pastoral acoustic laments and ominous thunderclouds of electric guitar woven together over Kozelek’s reveries of friends and love, lost and found. In every sense, the soundtrack to my year. The magic here is the way Kozelek takes all the disparate threads, musically and lyrically, that he's been playing with through the years under the names: Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon, and his own, and finds a place for them to coalesce. Constant movement, running from and running to are recurrent themes, and it's truly the journey, and not the destination.