Sorry I haven't written in a bit. I haven't had much time between burning CD's from the library and shooting terrorists in Modern Warfare 2 to research up and coming bands. But I plan to post a few new entries in the next couple of days that I have off. But first, here is my top albums of the year and also the Top things that have influenced my music greatly in the last decade.
There is no particular order with these albums. I like all of them and since the music styles are so different, it really is hard for me to choose one over the other. Comment on any Albums/bands I missed.
Top Albums of 2009
1.Fever Ray – Fever Ray
2.Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
3.Florence and the Machine - Lungs
4.The xx – xx
5.Dead Man's Bones – Dead Man's Bones
6.Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse present – Dark Night of the Soul
7.Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
8.Discovery – LP
9.The Drums – Summertime!
10.Little Boots – Hands
11.Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack
12.Matt & Kim – Grand
13.Yeah Yeah Yeah – It's Blitz
14.Peter Bjorn and John – Living Thing
15.Portugal. The Man. - The Satanic Satanist
16.AU – Versions
17.Atlas Sound – Logos
18.The Antlers – Hospice
19.Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below
20.Noah and the Whale – The First Day of Spring
21.Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
22.Wavves – Self Titled
23.Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Self Titled
24. Peaches - I Feel Cream
25. Yacht's - I Believe in You. Your Magic is Real
Top Influences on My Music Interest
1. Dave Zero and Madcity Music Exchange: Dave introduced me to some amazing Grrl Rock bands and always takes my daily pop ins to his store with great aplomb. And with Cooper and Amy working there, er I mean Kim, it's one of my favorite music stores for a reason.
2. Heidi Olson and WORT: Heidi introduced me to soo many amazing artists when I first moved here that I can't count. She is Bad Sister Heidi who you may know from the local Roller Derby League as well as one of the hosts from Psychoacoustics; the radio program on WORT Thursday nights. WORT also allowed me access to their immensive library of music which allowed me to taste different artists that I knew little about.
3. Myspace: It sucks as a Social Networking site, but the exposure this site has given to bands all over the country is amazing. I would not have known how good some bands were if it weren't for my ability to look them up on this website.
4. Pandora Radio Station: What a genius idea for a web radio station. Not only did it give exposure to lesser known bands, it allowed you to listen to a stream of different musicians but who all are in the same musical vein of each other. It's one of the most brilliant things to happen to music and to help individuals find more music that fit their taste.
5. The Library!: My god. The amount of amazing music that the Madison Library has astounds me. This is something new that I've discovered and I can tell you that I have checked out close to 60-70 albums so far just in the last 2 weeks. From Modest Mouse, Of Montreal, Band of Horses, Pavement, Elliot Smith, Sonic Youth to the Yardbirds, The Who, Metallica...etc. you will find it at the library.
6. Cheng Vue and Ryan Lucas: Cheng, AKA, DJ Chen Cheng, has introduced me to so much amazing electronic/indie rock music and I'm still amazed when he can make me a mix CD and almost every band on it I haven't heard of yet. Same with Ryan Lucas. This guy introduced me to more Folk Indie Rock and I've fell in love with almost every band he suggested for me. Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes...etc. It's great to have amazing friends who are on the cusp of knowing what great new music is just coming on the scene. Both are part of a facebook group that posts "Mix Tapes" online. I'm glad that now more people are able to get their hands on some great music.
7. Hype Machine: A great website that will let you listen to music that is being blogged right now. From songs from albums yet to be released, to obscure music from the past that is only now getting the love it deserves. This is also a great way to find a blog that reports on music you listen to and to stay in touch with what new music from the genre is coming out.
8. Music Festivals: One part of the music scene is finding out about new bands and listen to new music. Another part of the music scene is to see these bands live. And sometimes, at $10/ $15 a pop, it can get pretty expensive. And though music festivals aren't cheap, they are the few places you would be able to see so many big name acts in a 3-4 day period. I've gone to Bonnaroo twice, the Forward Music Festival here in Madison twice, and to a few shows at Summerfest in Milwaukee. I'm excited to go to Sasquatch next May and experience what that music festival has to offer. But I highly recommend that if you love music, spend the extra amount of money and try to go to one of these events.
9. Last, but certainly not least. Local Live Music Venues in Madison/Milwaukee: High Noon Saloon, The Majestic, WUD for the UW-Memorial Union, Project Lodge, The Annex, The Barrymore Theater, Pabst Theater and Turner Ballroom and even Milwaukee's The Rave (Links on the side). I have seen so many memorable shows at these places and I do believe some of these shows have deeply influenced my life. Some of these places I have seen acts that I never in my lifetime would have thought that I would see. Others presented me with smaller shows that even though the attendance was small, the performances blew me away. I'm thankful all the time that I live in a city that pushes hard to get great acts to stop in this city and I'm glad that there are so many other people in this city that will spend money for the music scene even in these unstable economic times. Thank you Madison for helping me love music as much as I do.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
A Sunny Day in Glasgow
Friday, November 20 at Memorial Union
A Sunny Day in Glasgow includes twin sisters Robin and Lauren and their brother Ben along with three other nonrelated band mates. They released their first EP in 2006 called The Sunniest Day Ever and their first studio album in 2007 called Scribble Mural Comic Journal. Both of these were highly praised by music critics and especially enjoyed by the college music circuit. They just released their newest album in September called Ashes Grammar.
I would summarize A Sunny Day in Glasgow's music as being a distortion of guitars over a drum loop with Robin and Lauren's vocals barely breaking free. It's interesting how I like music that has clear, crisp vocals and I also like this combination of a distorted foundation of sound with the vocals fighting to escape it. I might also like it just because A Sunny Day in Glasgow is able to pull this off without having the sound seem to muddle. Like I said about WUD shows, it's a great free show at the Memorial Union, so mark your calendars and there's really no reason not to be there (unless you are late getting there because of the Cougar show earlier that night). I'll see you there.
Ashes Grammar (2009)
Failure
Hybrid Moments
Scribble Mural Comic Journal (2007)
Ghost in the Graveyard (remix)
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Glass Ghost
Saturday, December 19 at the Annex
Winter Art Show w/ Samwell Rowan, Mighty Joe White and Eli August
I like that the production of visual art is being paired up with some good music at this event. And it's even more amazing since this is something I would have expected more from High Noon Saloon then from the Annex. I remember when I saw Janelle Monae at Bonnaroo and for one of her songs she painted a picture at the same time. After the song, she tossed it into the audience. It was awesome to watch her express the songs emotions through painting. I don't know exactly what is going to happen at this event, but I'm guessing that they have a select number of artists that will paint throughout the concert and then sell their art afterwards. Anyway, fun idea.
Glass Ghost sounded familiar to me, and when I looked them up I saw that they actually performed or will be performing with Dirty Projectors, White Rabbits and also with Tune Yards. They are from New York City (guess what part). Hmm, I'm trying to classify them. I almost think they have a similar sound as Of Montreal in a few of their songs, but a lot less simplier it being mainly a drum synthesizer and a regular synthesizer playing. It's mostly Eliot Krimsky's voice sung solo over very minimalistic music that have a poppy, fun sound to it. I like a few of their more intrincate songs, but some of their other songs I'm ehh on. But I do think it would be fun to paint to their music. Also check out Samwell Rowan's music. It's got more of an 80's feel to it with it's New Wave and they are from Minneapolis, so they may play here more often.
Idol Owen (2009)
Saturday, November 7, 2009
New Music Saturday Night, Cause I'm Lame: Evangelicals
Evangelicals: The Evening Descends (2008)
Speaking of "End of the Year" lists, apparently Amazon.com already has theirs up. Yup, all just shit from here till December, so might as well as make the list up now. Well, and I guess it is mainly to sell those albums during the great consumer holiday. If you want to see who they voted for #1 (really?), the link is HERE.
Oh, and I know it doesn't take a brainiac to compare Owl City to a bad ripoff of Postal Service. I am glad though that other music reviewers websites are also commenting on this. I feel like it is similar to the Monkeys copying the Beatles. Owl City can't come close to Postal Service, but for some reason, the masses don't care so much. For their lovely critique, click HERE . I like when Pitchfork's bitchy-ness is in agreement with me.
The Evening Descends (2008)
Midnight Vignettes (Video)
The Halloween Song
Here Comes Trouble
Friday, November 6, 2009
Cougar
Friday November 20 at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Ok, I lied. I said in my last post that there are few local bands I would be all about checking out. This band I would definitely encourage everyone to see. I also think this band has a lot of potential in becoming famous Especially now that their music is signed on to a bigger record label in England. Their music is beautiful and is already played nationally and internationally. They label themselves as experimental rock/electronic. Their songs are like the awesome musical breakdowns you would hear in a huge hit song or they are the quiet sounding instrumental songs that would break up the loudness of the other songs. All of their songs are instrumental, but don't let that fool you into thinking there isn't some very passionate sounds within them. This is an amazing band and hearing them play in the museum should lead to a very interesting experience.
Patriot (2009)
Stay Famous
Law (2006)
Pulse Conditioner
http://www.cougarsound.com/
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Sun Dried Truth
Saturday November 14 at the Annex
Remember the 90's? Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, the entire Crow soundtrack? Well, so does the band Sun Dried Truth. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I have a big heart for 90's alternative rock and these guys have got the sound down really well. It probably is because that two of the members are from the band American Hi-Fi which I'm thinking is a pretty big name band. Interesting that Drew Parsons and Brian Nolan from that band teamed up with Pete and Ken from Madison for this band. Now I'm even more interested in seeing this show. If you like 90's alternative rock or any of the bands above, check these guys out.
Here's some links where you can listen to their music. I like the song My America personally.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
New Band Sun...um Monday: Cymbals Eat Guitars
Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains
I saw these guys at Forward Music Fest and wanted to do more research on them. This was an amazing show at the Orpheum Stage Door. I was expecting more punk bands with guitars playing only 3 chords and lots of screaming. But this band hit me with musical qualities from different genres but qualities that I really like. One moment they would go off on some psychedelic/atmospheric musical interlude to be broken up with some hard yelling/screaming of lyrics, and then go back to an accoustic folky sound. Wow. Compared to Pavement (a band I've been told I should check out) this is definitely a band you want to see live just to be amazed how their musical style can change instantly on stage from rockish to folky. Anyway, check out these songs from their current album.
Why There Are Mountains (2009)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Nana Grizol
Wednesday, November 18th at Glass Nickel Basement
W/ Plumtuckered and Coney Island
So this band needed a place to stay because they were coming into town on November 18th and had no place to stay. And I think we had only one other band stay at our house so far this year, so why not. This band comes from my roommates favorite Pop producing place, Athens, Georgia. I like how they sound and hope they find a place in town to play at. I don't think they all could fit in our basement. Maybe Project Lodge basement? Hmmm. Anyway, this is cute pop music but with horns and a lead vocalist who I actually like listening to. I read a review where they compared them to Bright Eyes and Okkervil River. The music does sound similar to Okkervil River but I don't know anything about Bright Eyes, so who knows about that comparison. But if you know of a place they can perform at, let me know so I can pass that along.
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