Category: Music

Has it really been 20 years since 1993?

It’s just struck me that none of the 5 records that totally blew my mind during the grunge era could actually be classified as grunge.

The list would have to be (in no particular order):

  • Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (1993)
  • Mr Bungle – Disco Volante (1995)
  • Faith No More – Angel Dust (1992)
  • Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine (1992)
  • R.E.M. – Automatic For The People (1992)

I lost 3 of these 5 in a burglary in 1995, but have since replaced them all. I’m not sure that Rage Against the Machine had much influence on me past the 12 months this record was released, but I still listen to the other 4 records to this day.

Albums of the first 6 months of 2013

Last.fm says these are the twenty 2013 releases I’ve listened to the most this year.

  1. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
  2. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
  3. Tomahawk – Oddfellows
  4. Joseph Arthur – Redemption City
  5. Primal Scream – More Light
  6. The Indelicates – Diseases of England
  7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away
  8. British Sea Power – Machineries Of Joy
  9. Bill Ryder-Jones – A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart
  10. Ed Harcourt – Back Into The Woods
  11. !!! – THR!!!ER
  12. Mark Mulcahy – Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You
  13. Phoenix – Bankrupt!
  14. Dutch Uncles – Out Of Touch In The Wild
  15. These New Puritans – Field of Reeds
  16. Ghostpoet – Some Say I So I Say Light
  17. Daughter – If You Leave
  18. Steve Mason – Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time
  19. Editors – The Weight of Your Love
  20. The Knife – Shaking the Habitual

All in all, it’s not a bad snapshot of the first 6 months of 2013.

Music that is currently rocking my world

There has been so much good music released over the last few weeks. Unfortunately this has coincided with me being very busy, and so I’m still very much playing catch-up.

Things I have discovered so far that are well worth a listen include:

  • Primal Scream – More Light
  • The National – Trouble Will Find Me
  • Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
  • The Indelicates – Diseases of England
  • !!! – Thr!!!er
  • Bill Ryder-Jones – A Bad Wind Blows in my Heart
  • Mark Kozelek & Jimmy LaValle – Perils From The Sea
  • The Postal Service – Bankrupt
  • Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
  • The Fall – Re-Mit

I’ve probably missed a few, but those are the ones that I am most impressed with on first (or second or twentieth) listen.

Albums of the year – 2012

I think 30 choices is appropriate again this year. They are in vague order (certainly near the top), but I think some of them really depend so much on what sort of mood I’m in on a particular day.

  1. Shearwater – Animal Joy
  2. The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know
  3. How to Dress Well – Total Loss
  4. Lana Del Rey – Born to Die
  5. Bill Fay – Life is People
  6. Scott Walker – Bish Bosch
  7. Chromatics – Kill For Love
  8. Craig Finn – Clear Heart Full Eyes
  9. Metric – Synthetica
  10. Moonface – With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery
  11. The North Sea Scrolls – The North Sea Scrolls
  12. Paul Heaton – Paul Heaton Presents The 8th
  13. A.C. Newman – Shut Down The Streets
  14. Stars – The North
  15. The Indelicates – Diseases Of England
  16. David Byrne & St. Vincent – Love This Giant
  17. Simon Joyner – Ghosts
  18. Swans – The Seer
  19. Paul Buchanan – Mid Air
  20. Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz – Abraxas: The Book of Angels Volume 19
  21. Pog – Between the Station and the Sea
  22. Tennis – Young & Old
  23. Lambchop – Mr. M
  24. Errors – Have Some Faith in Magic
  25. Tame Impala – Lonerism
  26. John Zorn – The Gnostic Preludes
  27. Japandroids – Celebration Rock
  28. Allo Darlin’ – Europe
  29. Yeasayer – Fragrant World
  30. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill

Music that is currently rocking my world

I often get asked to recommend music, which I’m often very bad at because I know from experience that a lot of what I listen to might not be to everyone’s taste. But if I was recommending some music from this year (or from recently but that I largely discovered this year) then my list would look something like:

Shearwater – Animal Joy
The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know
Craig Finn – Clear Heart Full Eyes
Metric – Synthetica
Veronica Falls – Veronica Falls
Pog – Between the Station and the Sea
Moonface – With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery
Crystal Stilts – In Love With Oblivion
AAAHHHRCHESTRA – Denmaaahhrk
Lana Del Rey – Born to Die
Thieves Like Us – Bleed Bleed Bleed
Tindersticks – The Something Rain
Paul Heaton – Paul Heaton Presents… The 8th
The Wedding Present – Valentina
Maxïmo Park – The National Health
Bear in Heaven – I Love You, It’s Cool
The Flaming Lips – The Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends
Errors – Have Some Faith In Magic
Tennis – Young & Old
Julian Cope – Psychedelic Revolution
Guillemots – Hello Land!
Stevie Jackson – (I Can’t Get No) Stevie Jackson
The Kabeedies – Soap
John Zorn – Templars: In Sacred Blood
Holograms – Holograms
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz – Abraxas: The Book of Angels Volume 19
Allo Darlin’ – Europe
John Zorn – The Gnostic Preludes
Yeasayer – Fragrant World
David Krakauer – Pruflas : The Book Of Angels Volume 18
Swans – The Seer
The Indelicates – Diseases Of England
Craft Spells – Gallery
The Fall – Your Future Our Clutter
Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra – Theatre Is Evil

Albums of the year – 2011

These are the 30 records I couldn’t live without in 2011. Some more than others, but they all deserve a mention.

  1. The Indelicates – David Koresh Superstar
  2. Destroyer – Kaputt
  3. Radiohead – The King of Limbs
  4. Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys!
  5. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
  6. Marissa Nadler – Marissa Nadler
  7. The Twilight Singers – Dynamite Steps
  8. British Sea Power – Valhalla Dancehall
  9. Luke Haines – 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970s and Early 80s
  10. 8in8 – Nighty Night
  11. Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones
  12. Craft Spells – Idle Labor
  13. Veronica Falls – Veronica Falls
  14. Widowspeak – Widowspeak
  15. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
  16. Wilco – The Whole Love
  17. Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine
  18. Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi
  19. Amanda Palmer – Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under
  20. Akron/Family – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
  21. Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On
  22. The Horrible Crowes – Elsie
  23. Dum Dum Girls – Always in Dreams
  24. Grails – Deep Politics
  25. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
  26. The Horrors – Skying
  27. Tori Amos – Night Of Hunters
  28. Soft Metals – Soft Metals
  29. Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness
  30. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

A is for Accident, but also for Amanda

I’m not sure how I missed this one.

The Dresden Dolls live album A is for Accident (Collected live recordings 2001-2003) is available to download on a pay-what-you-want model from here. In this case “what you want” can also mean free, so you really have no excuse if you like their music.

You can also download their eponymous debut album under the same model from here. This one is definitely worth paying something for.

Kickstarter and other interesting funding models

Kickstarter is a website where fans of artists and musicians can fund new records or performances, in return for receiving advance copies of the art form in question.  It is a funding model that interests me, and it gives me quite a buzz to receive advance copies of records I would have bought anyway, with the knowledge that I played some sort of part in creating them. The latest record to come out having been funded via this method is Marissa Nadler’s eponymous album, which is a really beautiful collection of songs.

I’m also quite intrigued with how the Kaiser Chiefs are releasing their new record, and have already bought my version of it.

teknostatik

A good month for music

January is usually not great for new releases. But this week so far I’ve taken delivery of new albums from British Sea Power (which I’d highly recommend) and The Decemberists (which Amazon seem to think I deserve two days before it’s available in the shops). I also think we may be getting new albums from both Amanda Palmer and The Indelicates in the next couple of weeks, which I’m very much looking forward to.

My album of the year has never been released in January before. Maybe this year it will be.

Albums of the year 2010

This is a list of every album I’ve encountered that was released in 2010 and that I think is worthy of praise. The top 10 are in some sort of order, the rest are just listed in the vague order of how many plays they got on last.fm, rather than in any order of how much I like them.

  1. The Indelicates – Songs for Swinging Lovers – A lot of people don’t seem to have heard of this band, which is a great shame. This record is witty, literate and seeped in irony and sarcasm. It’s also the best thing I’ve heard this year in any genre, and is still available for free (or as much as you want to pay) from the Corporate Records website.
  2. The National – High Violet – In any other year this would be my album of the year. It managed to do well critically and commercially, and is yet another big step up from their previous work. I would imagine this would appeal to pretty much anyone who likes music with vocals and guitars, and as such I’d recommend it to most people reading this.
  3. Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago – Every year there is an album that I’m underwhelmed by when it comes out, but that by the end of the year I can’t live without. This year it’s by Shearwater, who I’d not even heard of a year ago. Each song is a sweeping majestic masterpiece, and the album as a whole makes early mornings make sense in a way nothing else can.
  4. The Love Language – Libraries – Imagine Brian Wilson and Phil Spector locked inside one man’s head for 25 years. If you like how that might sound then you’ll love this record. It could have been made in any year since 1965, but has some of the most perfect songwriting and production I’ve heard this year.
  5. The Pernice Brothers – Goodbye Killer – I like everything Joe Pernice has ever released, and this album acts as a good start to what is already a huge back catalogue. Some of this is out and out classic pop music, and it’s a brighter and catchier album than I think many people were expecting.
  6. Tindersticks – Falling Down A Mountain – I loved this band 15 years ago, and had no idea they still had this sort of record in them. It’s worth playing it after “High Violet” by the National, because parts of them are tapping the same smoky late night baritone vibe.
  7. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker – This was sold to me as an Australian band who sound like Led Zeppelin for 2010. And I can totally live with that. Another record that could have been made in the late 60’s, but one that I have grown to love this year to the point where I’ve since bought everything else they have ever made.
  8. Vampire Weekend – Contra  – I still think they sound like a cross between Talking Heads and Paul Simon. This is the album where that stops being a problem and starts being something I find oddly enthralling. It will be interesting to see where they go next though.
  9. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan – Hawk – In some ways more of the same, but this time around they have stretched the musical palate slightly, as well as producing “Lately” which is a song of pure beauty and perfection.
  10. The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever – In some ways a disappointment, because it doesn’t live up to the potential I was expecting after “Stay Positive!”. However, if you simply take it on face value then it’s a perfectly good example of a bar-rock record that is trying to move from the bar to the stadium. Very much a grower, which is not what I was expecting.

And the rest…

  • The New Pornographers – Together
  • Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
  • Midlake – The Courage Of Others
  • The Divine Comedy – Bang Goes The Knighthood
  • School of Seven Bells – Disconnect From Desire
  • Wild Nothing – Gemini
  • Richard Youngs – Beyond The Valley Of Ultrahits
  • Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
  • Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks
  • Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra – Kollaps Tradixionales
  • Neil Young – Le Noise
  • Field Music – Field Music
  • Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
  • Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky
  • Kele – The Boxer
  • Solex vs Cristina Martinez + Jon Spencer – Amsterdam Throwdown King Street Showdown!
  • Uniform Motion – Life
  • The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
  • Allo Darlin’ – Allo Darlin’
  • Paul Smith – Margins
  • John Zorn – Ipsissimus
  • Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – III/IV
  • The Knife – Tomorrow, in a Year
  • LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
  • Les Savy Fav – Root for Ruin
  • M.I.A. – // / Y /
  • These New Puritans – Hidden
  • Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid
  • Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
  • Emeralds – Does it Look Like I’m Here?

Yes, that’s a lot of music. I dread to think how many hours of my life I’ve spent listening to these 40 records this year.