There is something so wonderfully Portishead-like about Phantogram. I dunno if it’s because the Lo-Fi scratchy intro and fuzzy synth pulses and echoing guitar reminds me of ‘Glory Box’, or maybe it’s how Sarah Barthel’s voice has a similar fragile, floaty quality to that of Beth Gibbons, but it might just be ‘cuz I’m just so desperately in need of some trip-hop that when I heard this today I was immediately drawn in by the unique strangeness, the minimal beats and the angelic arc of Sarah’s vocals. Phantogram signed with indie power-label Barsuk Records last fall and their first full-length album, Eyelid Movies, is due out next month. Show ’em some love and head over to MySpace and make friends!
There hasn’t been nearly enough good, brooding Electro-Pop on the list of late, but when the latest from Cruel Black Dove fell into my lap a few minutes ago I figured it must be a sign from above. ‘Isolation’ has a very Depeche Mode-y feel to it, especially with that sharp, clicky synth and thick bassline that chugs along throughout the entire song, and lead singer Anastasia Dimou’s slinky, sexy vocal gives a soul to what otherwise would be a cold affair. ‘Isolation’ is off of the band’s brand-spankin’ new album, The Myth And The Sum, and if you like it, give ’em a look on their MySpace page and then head over to their website where they have lotsa free downloads to check out. And for you New Yorkers looking for an excuse to get up off of the damned couch, they’re playing the Mercury Lounge tonight at 9:30!
Austin’s Amy Cook just finished up her third album, Let The Light In, which is set to drop March 2nd, and if the rest of the record is as strong as this song, then Ms. Cook will have a real winner on her hands. Produced by Alejandro Escovedo, featuring guest vocals from Patty Griffin and a lush string arrangement performed by the Tosca String Quartet, this is powerful poetry set to music and Cook’s heartfelt, shimmering vocal has put me into a soulful, melancholy mood…but in a good way…
I’ve gotten a lotta e-mails in the past few days regarding this years Songs of the Year, but the runaway majority had to do with Metric’s ‘Gimme Sympathy’. And surprisingly (especially since I regularly get slammed for serving up too much ‘soft’ music) a bunch of you went back to the original post last August and watched the YouTube video of the acoustic version…and then asked if I had an mp3 of that one, too! Well…of course I do…and I’m just here to make you guys happy, right?!! As good as Emily Haines is in the album version, when her vocal is striped down and just a simple guitar is backing her up, all the sadness and hurt comes out and you really see just how great this song is. ‘Gimme Sympathy’ is off of Metric’s latest album, Fantasies. You should all make friends on their MySpace page
Another year is over and another decade done and all that’s left for me now is to cook down the music I’ve served up over the past twelve months into an easily digestible, playlist-sized morsel. God…even after all the years I’ve been doing this, it’s still not easy. With all of the inspiringly good music that came out this past year, the wrap-up could have easily been 30 songs long, so I’ll apologize up front if you felt Carbon Leaf or Blitzen Trapper or Wye Oak should have been recognized, but I had to swing the axe on something, otherwise why have an end-of-the-year list at all?!! Surprisingly, none of my faves showed up on lists compiled by Rolling Stone, Spin or any of the other ‘big’ name music mags. Well…NME did have The Horrors ‘Sea Within A Sea’ at #2…does that make me a little bit mainstream?!! And it might sound melodramatic, but many of these songs have become touchstones to my life…they jog my increasingly bad memory and remind me of how I was feeling, who I was with and what I was doing. As I sat here editing down the list and listening to these all again, it was as though I was watching the year musically speed past me…bringing it all back again as the melodies filled me up. So here they are…my favorites songs of 2009……
There was absolutely zero chance this wasn’t gonna be my number one song this year. From the first time I heard it leap outta my Sirius while listening to Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel I was sold. Ryan Karazija has been compared to everyone from Bono to Thom Yorke, but the simple fact is his voice is an amazing instrument all it’s own, his timing and phrasing are extraordinary and he’s backed up with three of the most talented young musicians I’ve seen in years! And the cherry on top was that I got to shoot them when they were in New York back in March! Their self-titled debut album came out in October and you can check them out on their MySpace page
The one thing that nobody should ever have to witness is me singing, but this is the one song this year that I find myself harmonizing with (horribly) whenever it plays! Rachel Stolte’s trembling, trilling yet powerful vocals send shivers up my spine and the wall of fuzzy noise that accompanies her gets me swaying from the jump. Great Northern dropped “Remind Me Where The Light Is” in April…check ’em out on their MySpace page
Yup…those three goofballs from Leeds who studied the Nirvana songbook easily grabbed the #3 spot on The List with ‘My Rock & Roll’, certainly the most glorious rock anthem of the year. I found ’em on MySpace…where else?!!
There’s a certain member of The List who has told me in no uncertain terms that if ‘Quiet Dog’ didn’t make the Songs of the Year List, I would no longer be welcome at her dinner table! Well…she didn’t hafta threaten holding back food to get me to put this thing on, ‘cuz when I saw Mos Def do ‘Quiet Dog’ on Letterman I was instantly maintainin’ the rock and I don’t stop! Mos Def is the King of Kool…and he’s on MySpace
Just imagine…if it hadn’t been for me tossing and turning from a wicked case of insomnia and then switching on Kimmel I probably never would have known who Anya Marina was, but even in my sleep-deprived state I knew she was the real deal and in an incredibly short time she has rocketed to the top of the indie pile with the kitten-sexy ‘Move You’. In fact, she’s so damned good that she stole the show from headliner Emiliana Torrini when they played the Highline Ballroom this Summer! ‘Move You’ is off of her second album, Slow & Steady Seduction, Phase II and you can hear more on her MySpace Page
So what if Metric are electronically-driven popsters from Canada? Every time Emily Haines’ pleading, raspy vocal cries, “Gimme sympathy!”, it pulls at my heart! It’s just one of those perfectly hook-filled pop songs that I find myself humming long after it’s over and what can be wrong with that?!! Head on over to their MySpace page and listen to a bit more.
Few bands blew up as big as Band Of Skulls did this past year. Besides touring the World in the summer, they also killed it at the Lollapalooza festival and just when they thought things might die down a bit, one of their songs was featured in the blockbuster movie, ‘Twilight – New Moon’…not bad for a group who last year at this time were still playing skeevy clubs in London and only had a couple of EP’s under their belts! Hit ’em on MySpace
Karin Dreijer Andersson’s solo experiment, Fever Ray, caught even the most diehard fans of The Knife off guard. Where The Knife could wander off into an electronic miasma of utter weirdness, Andersson’s icy-cool vocals, haunting melodies and slickly-produced musical constructions created a surprisingly approachable, yet intensely primal, world of minimalism and harmony…while still remaining pretty damned weird! Hear more Fever Ray on their MySpace Page or over on the Official Website
Kate’s new album, White Horses, isn’t due out ’til next Spring, but I’ve been giving out tastes for most of the year! A document of heartache, lost love and rebirth, it’s an intensely personal diary that she presents with an anguish-filled urgency that you feel from the first few notes. Kate’s a friend of The List, and I’m expecting you all to pre-order a limited edition signed and numbered copy of White Horses (Release date: March 2010), and Kate will send you a free gift! Just go the the ‘NEWS’ section on Kate’s Website for details, and then check her out on MySpace
The Idle Hands were basically unknown, but they turned a lotta heads at SXSW this year when they debuted a bunch of the new stuff they’ve been working on, including this Nihilistically re-worked version of ‘Loaded’, for an as-yet unnamed new album. All you Emo Boys and Backpack Kids can check out more songs over on MySpace
What’s a list without a bit of Goth?!! Sure, they wear a lotta eye makeup and they’re probably very full of themselves (I mean, just look at how they pose!), but so did Bauhaus and these guys are the closest thing to that late-great band there is! For those of us with a penchant for gloomy poetics, Faris Badwan’s vocals come across like the like the bastard-child of Peter Murphy and Ian Curtis…just the kinda thing you need to listen to as your life slips away from you…..visit their MySpace page or their website for more.
This was the very first Song of the Day when I moved The List from the e-mail distribution to the blog and it has remained one of the most-played songs I’ve come across all year. Seattle-based Eric Elbogen performs as Say Hi, recording albums out of his home, playing a majority of the instruments and vocals. He is often compared to such disparate artists as Belle & Sebastian, The Beatles, The Strokes, Interpol and Gary Numan and since 2002 has put out a pretty damned impressive body of work…visit his MySpace page to hear more.
I’m always fascinated by Sarah Negahdari’s voice…at times it’s like Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but then she’ll get all introspective and moody like Tanya Donelly from Belly and just when you think she can’t morph into something else, she’ll do a mash-up of Patti Smith and Yoko Ono!!! It’s her trilling, high-register vocals that drive this L.A.-based power trio like a buzz saw on steroids. Their new album, Spells, dropped October 6th, and you can head over and make friends on MySpace
Even more tough-girl vocals from Sarah Daly, the lead singer of London-based post punk pop band, Scanners. Daly’s femme fatale swagger…part Karen O, part Chrissie Hynde…fits in perfectly with the eerie vibe on ‘Salvation’, with it’s dark harmonies that overlay a haunting melody. They’re set to release their second album, Submarine, in February on Dim Mak, but for now, check ’em out on MySpace
It’s kinda fitting that we come to the end of a list of the year’s best songs with a band that doesn’t even exist any more. The Sun were a collective of crazy talented musicians from Columbus, Ohio who packed it in back in January, but before they left, they finished Don’t Let Your Baby Have All The Fun that you can download gratis over at their old label, Rock Proper. And if you like following dead bands, head over to their MySpace page and ask ’em to get back together again, but to maybe come up with a better name!
Well…that’s it for another year. I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves! As for me…Hell, I just wanna be a rock star…..!!!
Because I can’t get it outta my head, I was searchin’ for the mp3 of that AutoTune mixup of 2009 that I posted a couple of weeks ago, when I stumbled across the website of Steve Porter…the DJ who did the remix…and ended up in an hour-long hole watching a bunch of his videos…but at least my time wasn’t a total waste, ‘cuz this one of Henry Rollins discussing his deep love of Techno is killer, because after all…who doesn’t love anything that features the Techno Viking?!!
And as a bonus, I actually did find an mp3 copy of The Year 2009 Filtered Through AutoTune. The quality ain’t gonna win any awards, but what the Hell…
My friend Adrian confessed to me this week that whenever he hears anything from the Charlie Brown Christmas album he turns into a pile of mush, so, because I’m the kinda guy who likes to make his friends get all mushy around the Holidays, here are a couple of versions of that old Christmas classic, Christmas Time Is Here. Happy Holidays!
Is it just me, or does it seem that most movie stars wanna be rock stars too? I mean, toss a dart in Hollywood and you’ll hit some actor who thinks he’s got the chops to rock out and the simple fact is, 99.9% of them suck at it! Why is it that Billy Bob Thornton, Kevin Bacon, Jared Leto and Russell Crowe all think they can force Bono to the unemployment line? Is the music biz so devoid of talent that there are record executives who think Juliette Lewis, Dennis Quaid and Kevin Costner need recording contracts? Can’t actors just be happy with taking huge paychecks for prancing around in front of a camera and leave my ears in peace?!! I guess not, ‘cuz now comes ‘Break Up’, the second simply God-Awful album from Scarlett Johansson. Apparently ‘inspired’ by the ’60’s duets of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, she teams up with Pete Yorn…a great singer/songwriter who bloody well should have known better, but was probably blinded by ScarJo’s inner artist and etherial beauty! I had heard the buzz surrounding the release of this album back in the summer, but after her first lame attempt at grabbing the Golden Ring of Rock-God fame, Anywhere I Lay My Head, an ill-conceived mishmash of Tom Waits covers, I could give a damn if I never heard her disinterested moaning voice plod through another collection of self-important garbage, but then last night as I was driving back into the city, this dirge slithered outta the radio and almost forced me off the road. I am slack-jawed over how amazingly bad it is. I would gladly just jump in front of a bus in order to never have to endure the pain of listening even one more time, but I feel it’s my duty to warn all of the Friends of The List to avoid this nightmare set to music at all costs…so please listen at your own peril!!!
Those Indie darlings, Spoon, are sitting on what is prolly gonna be one of the hottest releases of next year and even though Transference isn’t due out until January 19th (Why blow off Christmas sales…tax implications?!!) the first single, ‘Written In Reverse’, is already burning up the College Radio charts. It’s been almost two years since Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and the Head Spoon, Britt Daniel, calls ‘Transference’ an uglier record….I assume he’s referring to the fact that the new record is loaded up with more spontaneous and raw tunes that started out as throwaways or demos, but there’s no denying the much rougher edge and bluesy feel on ‘Written In Reverse’ is a departure from anything heard on Spoon’s recent albums. Check out more Spoon at Spoon The Band
Mark Lanegan seems like one of those guys who can’t stay still for too long. WIth a music career that began in the 80’s when he formed Screaming Trees to his work with Queens of the Stone Age, Lanegan has collaborated on side projects along the way that have always caught my ear. He’s worked with artists such as Melissa Auf der Maur, Martina Topley Bird, Belle and Sebastian singer and cellist Isobel Campbell, the electronic outfit, Bomb the Bass, and his new group, The Gutter Twins, but recently he’s been mixing it up with the English knob-twiddlers Rich Machin and Ian Glover, also known as Soulsavers. The atmospheric sounds they weave incorporate influences of rock, gospel, soul, and country, and they’ve taken Lanegan’s song ‘Sunrise’…which was first heard on his 1994 album Whiskey For The Holy Ghost…but instead of having Mark sing it, handed it over to featured vocalist Will Oldham, whose bluesy baritone pays homage to Lanegan while sounding a bit like a theatrical revival preacher. That dirty harmonica, along with the plodding bass and marching-drum back beat, create a dark, moody vibe…I can almost feel the heat from the Sun. ‘Sunrise’ came out as a non-album single just before ‘Broken’ was released a back in August. Besides Lanegan, the album features guest vocals from Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers), Mike Patton (Faith No More), Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) and Richard Hawley (Longpigs, Pulp). You can hear more from Soulsavers on their MySpace page
Fans of The List (and any of you who have been paying attention) surely know that Kate Tucker has been in the studio recording her first post-Sons of Sweden album, but what you don’t know is that I’ve had a finished copy in my grubby hands for a couple of weeks and today…with Kate’s blessing…even though it’s not due out until next Spring, you’re gonna get a taste of ‘White Horses’. Backing up Kate’s bluesy, Tanya Donelly-esque vocals is her Sons of Sweden bandmate, Ed ‘Potatoes’ O’Brien on bass, Casey Foubert on drums, Terrill Bailie on organ and Blake Wescott handling the production and also playing various guitars, a mean melotron and crooning a few background vocals. After 20 straight days in a Seattle studio working on the new songs, the resulting album is a dark, moving, anguish-filled novella sung from the heart. There are times when Kate’s voice strains with such pain that you can almost feel the ache within her.
“I wrote these songs as I was facing some serious questions I had buried along the way, questions about faith and love and the sustainability of relationships in a constantly changing landscape” says Kate. “There was a point, early on in the studio, where it hit me that this record is awfully heavy and I wasn’t sure I could carry it through to completion. I got scared and then I got tough. I talked myself out of the fear and into the story. Some songs came to me so quickly and so late in the process that I hadn’t had time to fully understand the depth of their sorrow…”. This is hardly an ‘easy’ record to listen to, but after having it at the top of my iTunes folder for the past few weeks I can’t get the songs outta my head.
You can pre-order a limited edition signed and numbered copy of White Horses (Release date: March 2010), and receive a free gift (and free shipping) from Kate in the meantime. Go the the ‘NEWS’ section on Kate’s Website for details, and to further follow Kate’s movements, check her out on MySpace
Todays news from across the pond is that NME has just named ‘Primary Colours’, the second album from the exceptionally stylish goths, The Horrors, as the Album of the Year. Previously featured on The List back in March when I turned you all onto ‘Sea Within a Sea’, the group has gone on to universal acclaim, shedding their reputation as being just another Bauhaus/Cramps/Siouxsie rip-off Halloween novelty act with too much eye liner, extremely tight pants and a lotta jet-black hair dye and instead morphing into a more melodic Joy Division for the new millennium. Sure, they’re somber…and brooding…and seem a bit disillusioned by the World around them…but the wall of complicated sounds, grungy guitars riffs, goth poetry and sense of urgency these five mopey bastards kick out is truly wonderful, even with the downer lyrics…but as long as it doesn’t make you wanna open a vein, I say why not?!! Head over to MySpace to get more of The Horrors.
I very rarely hear an artist for the first time and fall and hard as I did for Vienna Teng, but from the moment she opened her set with ‘Whatever You Want’ when she played with Over The Rhine earlier this week, I was hooked! Her slightly quirky, syncopated lyrical delivery, the delicately beautifully but complex rhythms and the totally amazing ways her crazy-talented producer, Alex Wong (and also her only backup musician) can turn a snare drum and a few other simple percussion instruments into an orchestra, all had me shaking my head in wonder. And while I’m tossing out compliments, I hear a lot of Aimee Mann in this girl, both in her vocal style and her smart lyrics. WIth all the amazing indie stuff flying at me from all directions, it has gotten a lot harder to truly impress me, but when her set was done I was moved enough to buy all four of her albums! ‘Whatever You Want’ is off of her 2006 release, Dreaming Through The Noise, but she’s touring now to promote her latest album, Inland Territory, and for all you List Members up in Boston, she’s are playing the Berklee Performance Center tonight! I don’t often push, but I really think this is a CD you should all buy immediately, if for no other reason than the outstanding ‘Grandmother Song’…..if you’re all nice I might feature that one next week…but in the meantime, I’m expecting all of you to head over to both her MySpace page and her Website and report back to me about what y’all think, and when you’re done with that, check out Alex’s other gig on The Paper Raincoat MySpace page.
I was all set to spend a quiet night at home, when I get a call from a friend who wants to know if I’m going to see Over The Rhine at the Highline Ballroom? Embarrassed that I didn’t even know one of the Song of the Day List’s all-time fave bands was in town, I stammered, “Of course!”, and pulled my pants back on and thank God, ‘cuz Linford and Karin put on a stunning show! The highlight for me was the haunting rendition of ‘Poughkeepsie’ from their album, Good Dog Bad Dog. There is something so profoundly beautiful about this sadder than sad ballad…the entire audience was swaying & crying and totally captivated by Karin’s passionate, trembling voice and the almost skeletal backing arrangement…just perfect…..
For those of you who are in the New York area and have the means, it’s a little last minute, but OTR is going up the Hudson to play the Tarrytown Music Hall tonight…if you’re a fan, I say pull on your pants, get in the car and make the trip! And for the rest of you, check out Over The Rhine on their website or over on MySpace…..and make sure to visit the OTR Store to round out your collection of the band’s 20 years of music.
London-based Scanners first popped on my radar when a lotta people thought they stole the show whilst touring with another Song of the Day featured band, The Horrors. I picked up their debut album, Violence Is Golden and was immediately taken by the tight production and powerful, angsty lyrics. Sarah Daly’s tough-girl vocals can bring Elastica to mind, but Scanners is a bit more polished…more refined…and now they’re set to release their second album, Submarine, in February. Check ’em out on MySpace
Matthew Morgan and James Spooner, the Afro-Punk guys, have come through again with Afro-Punk Vol. 2: “FUCK ROCK STARS”, a killer compilation of 16 tracks from bands as varied as IrRAdio, The oOohh Baby Gimme Mores, Peekaboo Theory and The London Souls, who get their first Song of the Day with ‘She’s So Mad’…a straight-up rocker from three guys who are, in fact, not from London, but New York! But wait…here’s the best part! You can download the entire album for free by simply clicking HERE!!! and if The London Souls get your blood pumpin’, check ’em out on their MySpace page
I don’t wanna sound like an old fart, but The Sun obviously didn’t name themselves with Google in mind! Maybe if they weren’t so damned hard to find, they still might be together! I dare you…try to get any information about these guys…it ain’t easy, but here’s what I know…..The Sun were from Columbus, Ohio and was made up of Sam Brown (Six feet One inches tall and enjoys the beautiful mountain state of Alaska. He’s a rugged mans’ man), Bryan Arend (Four feet Eleven inches tall and two hundred and thirty-seven pounds. He usually carries a firearm), “Bobby” Brad Forsblom (A handsome Five foot Eleven and walks with a limp. He is a craftsman and was injured in an unfortunate kiln-related accident), Chris Burney (Five feet and Six inches tall. He suffers from the short mans view of things. Don’t get too close) and Bradley Caulkins (Six foot and Four inches tall, all muscle. He was primarily added to the group so the other four could start shit, then get Brad to kick their asses). They apparently packed it in back in January, but if the fuzzy blast of melodic noise kicked up on ‘In Perfect Time’ gets you going, then you can visit Rock Proper and download their entire new/last album, Don’t Let Your Baby Have All The Fun, for nothing! And then why not check ’em out over on their MySpace page to show them a little post-breakup love?!!
You might have noticed that things have been kinda slow here on the Song of the Day…sort of a combination of me bein’ jacked up with other things and my not finding a lot of good new music to toss out to you guys. Then yesterday I heard ‘Everywhere I Go’ off of the just-released debut EP from Lissie Maurus, an L.A.-based singer/songwriter who says she’s influenced by Gram Parsons, The Mamas & The Papas and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Her arresting, achingly beautiful vocal on this track stopped me dead and finally, for the first time in a week, I knew I had something truly worthwhile for The List. The EP, Why You Runnin’, was produced by her friend Bill Reynolds, whose day job is playing bass in Band of Horses and his bandmate, Tyler Ramsey, is on guitar for some of the tracks, but the real reason you’re here is for the haunting voice and raw emotion that Lissie has spilling out of her. Head over to her MySpace page and check her out.
The Brooklyn (by way of Florida) duo (sometimes quartet) of Jonathan Pierce and Jacob Graham claim to only write about two feelings…..one is the first day of summer when you and all of your friends are standing on the edge of a cliff watching the sun set and being overcome with all of your hopes and dreams at once. The other is when you’re walking alone in the rain and realize you will be alone forever. Well…I’m uplifted and depressed all at once…I guess ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, off of their ‘Summertime’ EP, draws more from the former feeling than the later. The boys are workin’ a wonderful new-wavey/post-punk vibe with the low-fi guitars, trash can drums and doo-wop backing vocals and the music press seems to be noticing, with even NME calling them “New York’s official Coolest New Band”. Check out The Drums on their website or over on MySpace
Damn Ugly Photography 