On the second of January I left off with German classical composer Max Richter. Today I'll wrap up my musical journey through the year 2010, starting out in California and wrapping it up by going coast-to-coast with a jaunt to Sweden.
The Morning Benders - Cold War: This song doesn't carry the vocal heft of Promises, nor did it have the benefit of the virally Spectorian video that Excuses had. What Cold War had going for it was this perfect time capsule feeling to it, like it had been shrink-wrapped and flash frozen on some diffusely sunny California day in 1964 and unwrapped in the present.
The New Pornographers - Crash Years: If there was any doubt that Carl "AC" Newman was a modern day Canadian analog to Brian Wilson, it was erased with the release of the reluctant Canadian supergroup's Together. Lacking the crazed energy of their first two albums, and not as overtly poppy as the breakthrough Twin Cinema, this is nonetheless their strongest and most mature effort. This song seamlessly blends the voices and talents of their four very different vocalists - Newman, Neko Case, the enigmatic Dan Bejar and Newman's niece Kathryn Calder - into a sweet yet savory confection, smart and catchy. The video for the song also ranks among the year's best.
OK Go - Louisiana Land: The best song from the band that gave us not one, but two, of the year's most inspired videos for their song This Too Shall Pass didn't even make the cut on Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (it was a bonus track on some versions of the album). Instead, their smartest and most energetic new song led off the benefit album Dear New Orleans with homages to Antoinette K-Doe and Galactic drummer extraordinaire Stanton Moore. The other barrel of this sonic shotgun delivers a lyrical critique to government regulators and insurance companies who bailed out failing banks yet left many lower income New Orleanians in the lurch following Hurricane Katrina.
Sufjan Stevens - Impossible Soul: If someone had told me that a Sufjan Stevens concert would break out into a spontaneous dance party after the release of the "States" concept albums, I would have laughed at them...and then proceeded to eat my words 5 years later. Described as "indulgent" and the "Magnum Opus" of his live show, this twenty-five and a half minute long conglomeration starts off as a slightly electrified but not atypical Sufjan love song. The track then takes a left turn into an orchestrally tinged bridge featuring My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden. The song then segues into a silky but experimental Prince-like interlude that itself serves as a transition to the full-on dance coda of the song.
The Tallest Man on Earth - Little River: I'm often amused at how the best of what we might label "Americana" comes from outside our borders - 4 of the 5 members of The Band were Canadian. Swede Kristian Mattson strikes me as a young Bob Dylan who can actually sing, as well as a lyrically thoughtful but vocally superior successor to Conor Oberst.
Vampire Weekend - Diplomat's Son: Ezra Koenig and company's eponymous debut left me a little cold, wanting more from one of the most hyped indie bands of the last decade. Contra left me with the feeling that the band members had relaxed, taken a deep breath, and produced a sophomore effort that showed them stretching to realize more fully their vast potential. This track encapsulates perfectly why they jokingly refer to their music as "Upper West Side Soweto".
The Walkmen - Juveniles: The Walkmen have always inhabited a parallel universe to the rest of us, one of wan sunlight and a faded, derelict majesty. Listening to their albums, you feel like you're at least temporarily transported into their world. The opening track from their latest release, Lisbon, is as good a song (or an opening track) as they've produced. Their vintage instruments add an anachronistic feel to their music, with Hamilton Leithauser's soaring falsetto never sounding more shopworn or emotionally exhausted.
There you have it....21 songs that marked my journey through the year 2010.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Olivia Mancini & The Mates Return to the Black Cat
Back in September singer/songwriter Olivia Mancini left the comfy confines of DC to attend grad school up in New York City. But this Friday, January 7th, she’s back, baby! Mancini returns for her first show since her departure, and she’ll be rocking the Black Cat with her band, The Mates.
Olivia Mancini & The Mates bring a jangly pop sound with subtly sultry vocals provided by Mancini. And she’s obviously psyched to be coming back to the area. “We're chomping at the bit and ready to blast off with some new songs, stuff from our last few records and some deep cuts that we hope will bring back some happy memories for our longtime fans,” said Mancini. “Sweet harmonies! Thumping bass! Melt-your-face guitar! Pop melodies!”
Check out their irresistibly catchy track “Easy Way” below and the video for “Graphology” above. And no, she’s not really made of clay.
MP3: Easy Way – Olivia Mancini & The Mates
Sunday, January 02, 2011
2010 - My Musical Year in Review, Part Deux
On Christmas Eve I kicked off my my musical review of 2010 and left off with Rio, the catchy, handclap-punctuated tune from Seattle chamber pop ensemble Hey Marseilles. Today I'll pick up with the next 7 selections of some of my favorite and most notable songs of the year, starting with a little Charm City love.
J. Roddy Walston and the Business - Brave Man's Death. Residing in the slightly seedy but charming corner of the neighborhood more famously occupied by My Morning Jacket and The Avett Brothers, JRWATB craft hard-edged, piano-driven Southern rock and roll. Know that their impossibly high energy level simply can't be captured by any recording method currently in existence; you can't really know this band until you experience them live. They give Grace Potter and her Nocturnals and the Avetts a run for the title of Highest Energy Rock Band. Do bring earplugs.
Jon Thor Birgisson - Go Do: Better known artistically as Jonsi, the driving force behind Iceland's Sigur Ros. This isn't my favorite track from Go, but it's the one that to me best showcases how Birgisson employs his soaring falsetto as yet another instrument. This is an immeasurably joyful track, as well as a logical and spiritual successor to Sigur Ros' 2008 masterpiece Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust.
Kanye West's - All of the Lights: Featuring a lineup of artists seemingly longer than the Polyphonic Spree roster, this is the standout track of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the high water mark of Kanye's artistic vision. Alternately a tribute to Michael Jackson as well as a warning to aspiring MCs wanting to dethrone Kanye, this song serves as another coming out party for Barbadian chanteuse Rihanna and a vehicle for Kanye's charmingly awful singing voice.
Kathryn Calder - All It Is: One of the darker corners of Calder's breezy yet moody debut Are You My Mother?, this songs builds slowly into a crescendo of self-doubt and fuzzy guitars. Recorded around Calder's schedule of caring for her late mother, this album doesn't coax any of the virtuoso vocal performances that Calder's uncle Carl Newman seems to elicit from her on New Pornographers albums. AYMM? is haunting and beautiful and worthwhile in its own right as a young artist finds her vision amidst tragedy.
The Magnetic Fields - You Must Be out of Your Mind: The opening track of Realism, the final entry in the Fields' "no-synth" trilogy, and another prime example of the brilliant and acerbic wit of Stephin Merritt. Spiritually, I see this song as another stage of the grieving romantic evidenced by the blindly optimistic bargaining of I Don't Really Love You Anymore and the self-immolating depression of I Don't Want To Get Over You. I don't love the rest of this album, but it's tough to argue with the Capote-esque bite of lines like "I no longer drink enough to think you're witty".
matt pond PA - First Song: I'll freely admit to not reading a lot of other music journalists' reviews, or even necessarily artist interviews about the inspirations for their songs. I come from an old school that sees music as a deeply personal experience, and I hope that in some way I can capture in words how these songs make me feel. I like a little mystery in my music; I enjoy lyrics that tend towards the abstruse, and I gravitate towards songs that are sonically understated. These are all the reasons I enjoy matt pond PA, and among the many reasons blogs like Pitchfork do not. This slow-build track is a perfect mpPA track, polite and unassuming as a New England spring day, and a return to the more string laden sound of past albums.
Max Richter - infra 5: The longest track from Infra, the most recent album from the experimental composer dubbed "The Ring Tone Maestro" by the NY Times magazine, and a song well worth the journey. Slowly unfolding over the course of nearly five and a third minutes, this track features the classical instrumentation overlaid with electronic "interference" that have been a hallmark of Richter's recent work and a reason behind his crossover success.
Another post, another third of the journey behind us. Soon enough I'll unveil the final tracks in my travels through 2010.
J. Roddy Walston and the Business - Brave Man's Death. Residing in the slightly seedy but charming corner of the neighborhood more famously occupied by My Morning Jacket and The Avett Brothers, JRWATB craft hard-edged, piano-driven Southern rock and roll. Know that their impossibly high energy level simply can't be captured by any recording method currently in existence; you can't really know this band until you experience them live. They give Grace Potter and her Nocturnals and the Avetts a run for the title of Highest Energy Rock Band. Do bring earplugs.
Jon Thor Birgisson - Go Do: Better known artistically as Jonsi, the driving force behind Iceland's Sigur Ros. This isn't my favorite track from Go, but it's the one that to me best showcases how Birgisson employs his soaring falsetto as yet another instrument. This is an immeasurably joyful track, as well as a logical and spiritual successor to Sigur Ros' 2008 masterpiece Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust.
Kanye West's - All of the Lights: Featuring a lineup of artists seemingly longer than the Polyphonic Spree roster, this is the standout track of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the high water mark of Kanye's artistic vision. Alternately a tribute to Michael Jackson as well as a warning to aspiring MCs wanting to dethrone Kanye, this song serves as another coming out party for Barbadian chanteuse Rihanna and a vehicle for Kanye's charmingly awful singing voice.
Kathryn Calder - All It Is: One of the darker corners of Calder's breezy yet moody debut Are You My Mother?, this songs builds slowly into a crescendo of self-doubt and fuzzy guitars. Recorded around Calder's schedule of caring for her late mother, this album doesn't coax any of the virtuoso vocal performances that Calder's uncle Carl Newman seems to elicit from her on New Pornographers albums. AYMM? is haunting and beautiful and worthwhile in its own right as a young artist finds her vision amidst tragedy.
The Magnetic Fields - You Must Be out of Your Mind: The opening track of Realism, the final entry in the Fields' "no-synth" trilogy, and another prime example of the brilliant and acerbic wit of Stephin Merritt. Spiritually, I see this song as another stage of the grieving romantic evidenced by the blindly optimistic bargaining of I Don't Really Love You Anymore and the self-immolating depression of I Don't Want To Get Over You. I don't love the rest of this album, but it's tough to argue with the Capote-esque bite of lines like "I no longer drink enough to think you're witty".
matt pond PA - First Song: I'll freely admit to not reading a lot of other music journalists' reviews, or even necessarily artist interviews about the inspirations for their songs. I come from an old school that sees music as a deeply personal experience, and I hope that in some way I can capture in words how these songs make me feel. I like a little mystery in my music; I enjoy lyrics that tend towards the abstruse, and I gravitate towards songs that are sonically understated. These are all the reasons I enjoy matt pond PA, and among the many reasons blogs like Pitchfork do not. This slow-build track is a perfect mpPA track, polite and unassuming as a New England spring day, and a return to the more string laden sound of past albums.
Max Richter - infra 5: The longest track from Infra, the most recent album from the experimental composer dubbed "The Ring Tone Maestro" by the NY Times magazine, and a song well worth the journey. Slowly unfolding over the course of nearly five and a third minutes, this track features the classical instrumentation overlaid with electronic "interference" that have been a hallmark of Richter's recent work and a reason behind his crossover success.
Another post, another third of the journey behind us. Soon enough I'll unveil the final tracks in my travels through 2010.
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