Here it Is The end of the year and the day after winter solstice

What A good year for music. In fact I caught up with many releases I had let fall away through out the decade. A perfect example would be Of Montral " Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer?" Which proves Kevin Barnes is a genius. It's like taking early David Bowie, Ray Davies, Neu and Kraftwerk to the moon and back again. THe Liars " Drums Not Dead" a record of great ideas and great "songs". Like an updated and contemporary SY " Bad Moon Rising". Gets into your head and flows out into your backbone and the rest of your nervous system. Prince Far I " Chapter 3" re release of his early 80's lp of the same name. The Slits, David Toop and Adrian Sherwood are all in the mix. Like all good dub records this one turns the room upside down and everything else is weightless.

What didn't make this list would be Mt. Eerie " Wind Poem" too fresh in my collection to make an impact. What I did like about my initial listens were the drones and lullaby melodies and a tribute to " Twin Peaks" tv show. Parts sound like The DEAD C jamming with Sunn O)))). A very dark and beautiful record for sure.

The count down...

2009 Best

10. WOEBOT / Woebot ( self released).

09. DOOM / Born Like This

08. Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age

07. Antony and the Johnsons / Crying Light

06. 5 Years - Hyper Dub Compilation.

05 Warp 20 ( unheard)

04 Sight Below

03 Animal Collective / Merriweather Post Pavilion

02 Grizzly Bear / Veckatimest

01 Decemberists / Hazards Of Love

Reissues

01. The Beatles / Mono Box Set Remastered

02. Warp 20 ( chosen)

03. Every Mouth Must Be Fed

04. Abner Jay/ The Story Of Abner Jay

05. Tomorrow Come Someday OST

Singles and individual songs

Radiohead / These Are My Twisted Words

Thom Yorke/ Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses

Atlas Sound / Walkabout

Animal Collective/ " Brother Sport/ Bleed"

Burial and Four Tet " Wolf Cub/ Moth"

Woebot / Central One EP

Grizzly Bear / "Two Weeks"

More Later

Will I return to my blog?

Who knows. Perhaps when I get a better internet connection.

I promise to post my best of 2009 soon.

Everyone likes a list of must haves.

Back Again

I can't even remember what I was going to say. Something about how twitter and facebook are taking over my on line journal habits.

I'm more than happy that in the last two weeks Radiohead have released two new songs one being pretty amazing tribute to Harry Patch and another that reminds me of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Not CAN which everyone seems to think. I'm sure they mean " Go Slowly".

CAN

RADIOHEAD

Now that we have that settled that. "These Are My Twisted Words" is the new song of the moment. Fans nearly exhausted themselves after the song "leaked" trying to figure out what it all meant. New EP, track for the movie twilight, hoax, someone with a connection to the band leaking the song without their permission...........

Both songs are good enough to look into. You can find both at Dead Air Space.

If I have time I will start a guessing game. Where anyone can try to name the group and song I am playing. Should be fun in a crude low tech you tube way.

updatE

The Clean show I posted about below has been cancelled. Would have been amazing but we can't have everything.

Now I can move on to other issues.

Should I purchase the new $99 iPhone? Even at the rate AT&T will charge?

Finally made it through Carl Sagan's series Cosmos. It explained so much but left far to many questions for mind to process. I find it very reassuring that I am made of stars and the universe from which they were created.

Bands I Never Ever Thought I Could Or Would See In Person

First it was The Vaselines, then the Dead C.  Now The Clean. Consider me excited. This I hope will be good. The Stranger mentions the show is on September 19th at Chop Suey. I will most likely be  there soaking in the twin guitar rhythms  and their driving boom boom frenzy. 

Memorial Day. The End of My Week Off.

Saw the 2009 version of Animal Collective in Portland last week. I had a great time because well let's be honest I don't get out much anymore. Joseph thank you for making that a fun 24 hours. Visited Mississippi Records for the first time and bought two Prince Far I lps and a Carl Orff Gassenhaur/ Street Song record. That store charmed me. If you like the reggae, tropicalia, psychedelia, high life African rock/funk, soul, jazz, soundtracks, rock, blues this store is for you and it will love you back. Which also reminded me to save even more money next time I decide to visit it again. 

I shot video from the balcony at the Roseland Theater. The quality is questionable because you can find better video from the same show on the internets.

Enjoy

Television Personalities: The documentary.

I had a hard time watching this sweedish documentary yesterday. It truly is the dark side of Dan Treacy. From what I can gather you can only watch it on the internet and it runs about 20 minutes total.  I wouldn't say the Television Personalities were a total bust. They managed to release a excellent stream of singles and some great underrated albums. 

Whatever personal problems,  hang ups, drug addiction  etc. that Dan might have shouldn't belittle his accomplishments. He should feel very proud of his contributions to popular music, no matter how small. I guess bitterness hits harder for some at middle age. I hope he can put his panic attacks aside and move on with his life and accept the change around himself no matter how crappy the outcome.

More Hauntology. The Woebot EP's.

Between the years of 2003-2008 WOEBOT wrote about music on his very own WOEBOT blog. A wonderful well informed labor of love that  was sadly packed up with little fanfare and put to rest. Then a year later I find out Matt Ingram had resurfaced again on the internets with 2 EP's of his own music on stark hand printed sleeves. One called the Automat EP the other East Centeral One EP

WOEBOT recently described his  music making process on A Resonance FM radio show as just him alone in a dark room with a lamp, computer and  a MPC2500 Beat Production station ( popular with beat producing hip hop DJ's). Along with this he discussed his favorite components to drum and bass, dub step and jungle and other music he has absorbed in his life time .  Which translates into you have to come to your own conclusions about what his recordings are about. I was hooked and had to order the discs to find out more

I think you could figure out that the past holds some importance to his creativity  and so does memory and preservation. Another important thing to notice  about both EP's is how music is handed down, transcribed, how it's heard and to be listened to. 3 inch CDs as a format are not typical nor are they fashionable at all. They are not something you can casually throw on and forget about.

Which means WOEBOT wins and you get to contemplate what you are listening to or what ever ideas might be running through your head. 

Look  here.

Post Record Store Day

I know everyone needs to make a buck or two but the post Record Store Day bidding on limited singles and records from the event  is already happening at a quick pace. The cycle continues. It was bound to happen. Anytime a pressing of a record from a desirable artist goes out of print a veritable feeding frenzy begins. 

Enter the name Pavement, Sonic Youth, Beck etc.. on ebay and you will see what I mean.

On A side note I wish I had picked up The Hazards Of Love and that Decemberist 7". Next time.

Hazards Of Love

How could the music review bible Pitchfork pan this?

I might be a wanna be amateur music writer but middling  the new Decemberists album seems so odd. It's a great group of songs that tell a dark end to a love story. The bands folk like roots get an overloaded and bombastic overhaul.  What I like about what they are doing on this  lp is that they are not trying to be something that they are not. In short it's honest and a good step forward. It's not just a collection of songs but a piece of music that you have to experience all in one sitting or in the hour it takes to play. Many other reviews lump it in with the progressive records  and sounds of Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention and Genesis. To be fair it sounds nothing like  any of those bands but I can see where someone might get confused.  

I hope they perform the album in it's entirety on their current tour.

Snow ... again!

7:0o am snow picture

Cloud of words

Sometimes facebook takes on the shape of a cloud.

Yesterday while driving home the wife and I were listening to KEXP. I started to bemoan safe randomness of their dj's music selection. Normally I like to be challenged or overcome by an artist or performers. Music that wants to rule, destroy or change the world is was I tend to gravitate towards. Some days I like the comfort of " Blue Monday" other days it seems a bit cliched. 

Maybe yesterday was a bit of a blue monday. 40,000 American  jobs lost in a single day. Blue sky in Seattle. ....

Maybe I'm not giving their dj's enough credit for their insights into the world and linking it to a playlist.

If given the choice I would choose ipod over KEXP. I get enough exposure to new music and have enough of it to sustain me for months on end. 

We made it home before " Blue Monday" finished so I couldn't tell you for certain if the next song was linked to the previous one.

One of my favorite things is to come to my senses and acquire some of my favorite artists and titles in Long Playing, Extended Play and 7 inch formats. Last year I went on a spree and bought many original Radiohead vinyl titles. Those being OK Computer, Hail To The Thief, Kid A and Amnisiac.  Thank you ebay. It was an expensive process ( just over $100). Well worth the money spent. Capitol Records just a few months later decided to issue all of those titles plus the Bends and Pablo Honey. Now they are in the process of issuing many of their import EPs on vinyl as well. What is a poor fan to do?

I'm never going to say anything repulsive or snobby by saying no one has heard Kid A unless you have heard in on vinyl but it does hold some charm, a wonderful character and  has an amazing presence and aftertaste. I could even argue that Ok Computer, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief are all wonderful to experience in a analogue setting.

More recently I found two Moondog 10" EPs released through Honest Jons a few years ago. Great stuff. I never know how to explain Moondog to anyone. It has elements of Jazz, Big Band classical, poetry and sound collage. One should better themselves quick and expose oneself to more of his music and quick. All of his stuff has rewarded me greatly. Fantasy Records issued his first two lps on CD a while back. Columbia also reissued his two late 60's masterworks. All great places to start.

The Honest Jons reissues are two impossibly rare EPs released in the late 40's and early 50's. Many of the songs are embryonic versions that would appear  some years later on his full length albums. These are not demos or throw aways or leftovers. This is , was and will always be the shape of popular music to come.

Obligatory 3 line Merriweather Post Pavilion Review.