'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.

'08 cleanup, pt I: best shows...

Akkk, it’s already February, and I still haven’t cleaned up last year…Live shows started out on the down, having to miss Coachella for the first time in five years, but after a quiet summer (dodging fires), I made up for it with a vengeance in the fall…
In order, the best shows I saw last year:




#3) RADIOHEAD, Santa Barbara County Bowl, August
Finishing off a two stage US tour at the smallest venue right in my backyard, what’s to complain about? Most years this would have been THE show, hands down, and it speaks to the others that it wasn’t. Tour sharpened, and obviously smelling the finish line, Yorke & co. rocked with a vengeance, surpassing their previous two night stand here years ago…fun trivia, NPR offers a podcast of this show free, so hear for yourself…



#2) NICK CAVE & BAD SEEDS, Hollywood Bowl, September
Crisp fall night at the granddaddy of them all with a bill that didn’t stint on value for the dollar: opening w/Cat Power followed by Spiritualized, making way for the big man himself…the Bad Seeds were razor sharp, and the setlist spanned his whole career…highlights included a vicious reading of ‘The Mercy Seat” from ‘Tender Prey’.
But the spotlight was on the man himself…when the book is written on stage presence, he will have his own little chapter, all to himself. Absolutely galvanizing…by the second song I just started laughing, it was so ridiculous.
The vision that came to mind was not music, but Samuel L. Jackson, in the scene near the end of 'Pulp Fiction' where he reclaims his wallet from Tim Roth's character...("it's the one that says bad ass m@#$@$r")...a man in such complete control of his craft.
As fate would have it, not long after this show, Mick Harvey, Cave's right hand man of 25 years, decided to retire from the band...his fiery counterpoints throughout the night now take on the patina of epitah...



#1) MY BLOODY VALENTINE, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, October
What do you do when your dreams come true? More than I ever could have hoped, (and had given up hoping for), My Bloody Valentine returned to the states for the first time in 15 years, and picked up right where they left off, in a hazy narcotic swirl of harmonies and feedback. Noise, glorious noise.
The story to date: in the early nineties, MBV solidified their lineup, dribbled out a few EP’s, one album, then unleashed ‘Loveless’, their masterpiece…then promptly disappeared for a decade and a half. Guitarist Kevin Shields made some guest appearances, did some soundtrack work (Lost In Translation), and signed to Island, only to record & scrap a record, slave to his perfectionist tendencies…
Then, an appearance was announced at ATP in NY, and fortunately, before I could buy a plane ticket, a short tour was booked, ending in LA.
And, so, one would say, it ended on a high note…
The set drew heavily on ‘Loveless’, with a smattering of ‘Isn’t Anything’…Belinda Butcher was captivating, and Shields stayed out of the spots, letting his guitar communicate…
And what has now passed into legend, the climactic ‘You Made Me Realize’, a couple of quick choruses, then into a 17 minute lockdown feedback frenzy, that chased the weak and earplugless from the floor, reduced the rest into grinning idiots, and even from the seats at the top of the auditorium grew into a vibrating shimmering thing that you could feel.
My only description to those not there would be to imagine laying down on a runway at LAX & having a plane take off over you;)))
…then back into a triumphant chorus, and goodnight & goodbye America…