thanks everyone for the CV recommendations! my god, i guess i asked the
right folks (have been off the idm list for almost three years now, and my,
how i missed it! :)
for some reason Village Voice has been asking me for my top ten for a couple
years (they actually gave me, like, $1.25 for publishing one lame sentence i
wrote about Sigur-Ros a couple years ago... my big claim to fame, ooooh).
Anyway, keep in mind that that's the intended audience... (it's littered
with pathetic attempts at quote-worthy rhetoric!) enjoy!
Albums of the Year (looking over Other Music?s and Pitchfork?s end of year
lists, I realized that I didn?t miss anything at all like I thought, it just
wasn?t that great a year for music innovation.)The success of Arcade Fire
really sealed the deal with me that the indie rock scene has become the
hiding place for MOR Adult Contemporary. If you?re not super famous you?re
suddenly up for an ?indie credibility account.? Also, seeing Broken Social
Scene (opening for Pixies) pose and flail with scarves made me feel like a
boring old person. Here was some very boring rock that had absolutely
nothing ?left of the dial? about it what-so-ever, expect that they were
CLEARLY young, hip, artistic, and oh-so passionate. Just awful.
A good year for going through used vinyl bins if you ask me.
1. Venetian Snares-Huge Chrome Box Slowly Unfolding In Space (Planet-Mu)
Now that Lord Vader is back in the office, the only thing worth protesting
is the fact that Venetian Snares does not receive the heaping critical
acclaim that he deserves. His music is extremely challenging, it?s not for
everyone, but how these legions of ?music lovers everywhere? have failed to
pick up on this mastermind is too sad. Venetian Snares is one man who lives
way up in cold Canada. Venetian Snares makes the most traumatizingly
complicated drill-and-bass I?ve ever heard? it sounds like he sampled every
single sound that has ever been made and warped them together into something
so big and ugly and awe-inspiring?vomit-inducing music has never felt so
right. I haven?t been this challenged by music since I started listening to
Autechre. Yes, he is THAT good.
2. Dungen- Ta Det Lugnt (Subliminal Sounds) Amazing swedish retro-psych rock
out maximus. I typically hate this kind of stuff, but they do it so well
that you just have to sing along ? ?Fin-smar loo-me too-no-soo laifeitzio!?
Totally meaningful and relevant to my life! Really though, it?s like the
shameless pop finesse you?re embarrassed to be caught listening to, with
foreign art credibility!
3. Animal Collective-SungTongs (Paw Tracks): Really strange and pretty and
silly and real and now hyper-active druggies get props by NYTs! Watching
this band?s progression from their stunning debut, through a couple too many
albums of free-form meltdown, into SungTongs, a collection of camp fire
songs that make you want to pass out face down in the grass. I guess it?s
ok to take LSD again. Who knew?! Joyous strumming, childish banging, and
heavenward yelps.
4. Envy-Dead Sinking Story (Level-Plane) Fantastic Japanese hardcore. Like
Mogwai on sake-drive! Seriously, this is such amazing beautiful and potent
music. Vocals that scream and blur beyond happy-and-sad into that state of
sheer life. A truly epic album that treads through awfully artistic water
(for a hardcore band) with pure intentions and bountiful gifts. And, of
course, English-as-second-language bands are totally in right now!
5. Blonde Redhead-Misery is a Butterfly (4AD): How many times have you
thought to yourself, ?If I was in a band as good as Blonde Redhead, I would
try sometime to make a really, really stunningly beautiful album that my
parents could totally appreciate.? Well, for one album the beautiful people
of BR got old and made a really elegant, graceful piece of work. Tense,
sexual, delirious, introspective yet detached, god it?s like being yourself!
6. Julian Fane-Special Forces (Planet-Mu)
Look for this album to make some waves when it?s distribution improves over
here. Julian Fane used to work on the stock market in England. Then he
quite and started making music full time. His debut full length, Special
Forces, owes some serious debt to the likes of Sigur Ros, but that is AOK,
because what he borrows is that gorgeous, endlessly ethereal sound that,
well, should be found in all music damn it! It?s the sound of a man trapped
by a snow storm with a laptop, a memory man, and an achey-breaky heart.
7. Detachment Kit-Of This Blood (French Kiss): I honestly can?t figure out
if I?m stupid or smart to love this album, because I haven?t seen it on one
top-fifty list this year, but seems to be nothing but brilliant, original
indie rock that you?ll want to listen to ever morning like I did for four
months. The fact that this album was largely ignored makes me worry. God,
what do the kids want these days?!
8. Mum-Summer Make Good (Fat Cat): Everyone was disappointed with this
album, and with some justification. It doesn?t have the immediate, bubbling
joy so present on previous albums. It just wasn?t quite as cute as their
other work. But having seen them perform these tracks live, I was astounded
to revisit the album realizing that they truly were all making all of these
sounds, with their hands! It?s too easy to brush off some many of the
nuances in their work as computer assisted (as their electro-acoustic set-up
will make one think), when the truth is that all these amazing, small sounds
are, in fact, created by a dedicated team of trained experts with children?s
toys. Somewhere down the road we will learn to appreciate this work.
9. The Unicorns-Who Will Cut Our Hair When We Are Gone? (Alien8)-I thought I
would hate this. I feel like this is what I wished all those Williamsburg
bands would sound like if they practiced. These Canadians took the Willy-B
sound template and made some really raw and beautiful and damn fun out of
it. Yeah, they sound like they?re banging on their instruments too, but
they took the time to figure out how to bang just right.
10. Modest Mouse- God, putting them in my top ten, I feel like I?m voting
for U2 on TRL!
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