CONFUSED BACHELOR

My favorite songs of 2011

On my blog via The Daily Advertiser, I discuss my favorite songs of the year. 

New Classics Vol. 9 and 10
Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago and Blood Bank

As I was watching Soul Power last night, I was taken aback most with Bill Withers’ performance of “Hope She’ll Be Happier.” The song has only a few chords, yet Withers’ voice is so huge and powerful. It made me think, “Damn, I wish music was more like this. Simple, yet emotional and effective.”

One of the reasons I enjoy Justin Vernon (a.k.a. Bon Iver) so much is that he displays this talent.

He writes actual songs. He plays simple guitar riffs. He has a powerful voice.

When I hear songs like “Skinny Love,” “Blood Bank,” and “Flume,” I think to myself, “This is it.” The force of Vernon’s work makes me want to have crazy revelations like Howard Beale from Network.

This isn’t the “emo” emotional. Nor the brand of singer-songwriter that lays out so clearly like the oh-so-loved Shins, Garden State Soundtrack b.s. or Modest Mouse. No laying it all on the table with metaphors.

But, more hidden messages in the simplicity of lines like “What might have been lost” from “The Wolves (Act I and II).” Then making the music and double-tracked vocals infuse that line with resonant emotion. Giving an otherwise bland line force with the chaotic, out-of-time drums and haunting cave of oohs.

When a man can do that, he is one in a million.

Vernon is still a young artist. This is early in his career as us more mainstream listeners know it. But, he’s still taking the right steps on Blood Bank and in his work with Volcano Choir.

These are just teasing glimpses of what might be next. Vernon can still write a damn-good song even after the haze of a muddled relationship is gone (such is the backstory for For Emma, Forever Ago). Just take a look at the lyrics to the title track from his latest EP:

“That secret that you know

But don’t know how to tell
It fucks with your honor
And it teases your head
But you know that it’s good girl
Because it’s running you with red

Then the snow started falling
We were stuck out in your car
You were rubbing both of my hands
Chewing on a candy bar

You said, “Ain’t this just like the present
To be showing up like this”
As a moon waned to crescent 
We started to kiss”

Jesus, if that doesn’t make you want to fall in love. I don’t know what will.

If you ever have any doubts about music and whether it can be that good, there’s Justin Vernon. So far, he’s on a winning streak that I hope never stops.

A Timeline of a Winter Break Afternoon in Music

Without school, I’m trying not to be a bored hermit. To fill in some time, I thought I’d diagram an afternoon of music on LALA, with just a brief opinion.

1) Primal Scream’s XTRMNTR. A little too distorted for my tastes, but has some cool drum breaks.

2) Kasabian’s West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. A little too pedestrian for me. They sound like the British Black Keys, but way cornier and way more electronics and way more disco. OK, they sound nothing like the Black Keys, they only emulate their groove for a 30 seconds then move to another idea. You’re right.

3) Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. Minimalist music is so sparse (joking)….Soon, a big thought on this composer will arrive from reading his journals of lectures (really joking)….Honestly, Steve Reich’s music amuses me. It is sort of cool, but I can just imagine being that guy in a crowd of arrogant indie people…”Hey man, have you heard Steve Reich? He’s probably the best composer…ever.”

4) Kronos Quartet’s Floodplain. I feel unqualified to talk about classical music cause I’m illiterate on the subject. Boom, that’s a gulp of truth. Anyway, Floodplain is the Kronos Quartet’s latest work which dives into more world music and Egyptian themes. Very good stuff, except for the MacBook electronic beat on track two.

5) Joe Kehoe’s Songs for the Lion Man’s Mother and His Uncle. What is this list? Obscure hour?! I found this quaint, three-song disc online at bandcamp.com in a late-night downloading frenzy. Lo-fi, for sure, but what these instrumentals might lack in production, they make up for with arrangement and style. For any fan of Warren Ellis and Nick Cave’s scores, this one should be in your collection.

6) The Cure’s Three Imaginary Boys. I can never get into The Cure. Though, to its credit, this more punk entry does have the cool jangle, “Accuracy.”

7) Black Francis’ Bluefinger. It’s kinda sad how much Frank Black tries to recreate the energy of Pixies and just fall on his face.

8) Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ The Road. Jesus Christ, this is a devastating score. Just don’t listen to it when you’re anxious, “The Cannibals” will scare the ever-living out of you.

9) Eau Claire Memorial Jazz 1, Featuring Justin Vernon’s A Decade with Duke. So far, Vernon can do no wrong. This is a beautiful reminder.

10) Manic Street Preachers’ Journal for Plague Lovers. I’m new to this band, but “Jackie Collins Existential Question Time” shoulda been a goddamned hit.

It’s the new year, and that can only mean one thing—time to unravel my picks for the best albums of the year.

Albums of the Year 2008 

Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago
It’s almost cliche. Break up with girlfriend, record album in a barn somewhere North, release said album to critical acclaim, appear on Letterman. It’s the exact way Justin Vernon(aka Bon Iver)’s solo career has been so far. What isn’t cliche—the music is beautiful. You know how people might say a breakup album is pure poetry when that emo singer talked about how his girl used to eat french fries and chocolate sauce? Well, that’s malarkey. For Emma, Forever Ago is pure poetry. The music is spare: a few bass drum taps here and there, an irregularly tuned acoustic guitar, chains. And Vernon’s voice is drenched in buttery soul. Put it all together, the disc captures heartbreak with Vernon sounding like a beaten man outside a campfire, howling, “Who will you love you?” on one of the year’s best songs, “Skinny Love.” Play the track, and you’ll be howling along with him long after the song is over.   

TV on the Radio — Dear Science
A decade from now, the soon-to-be-ex-president Bush may or may not be painted as this Wiley E. Coyote-type in the history books. Honestly, who knows? But I imagine my kids might find my copy of Bush in Denial by Bob Woodward, and ask me what was it like to live under his rule. And maybe I’ll break out my copy of Dear Science, and tell them that it was a bleak time. “We were cynical,” I’ll say then let them listen to “Halfway Home” and “Red Dress.” “We were sarcastic,” then I’ll turn on “Dancing Choose” and “Golden Age.” “But during it all, most people still wanted to just dance and have sex,” and then I’ll turn on “Lover’s Day.” Maybe, my kids’ eyes will bulge as lead singer Tunde Adebimpe sings, “Ball so hard, we’ll smash the walls/ And break the bed and crash the walls/ Don’t stop to laugh and scream/ And have the neighbors call the cops…” But the truth is, no other band more accurately captured the times and mindset of the ’00s. And they wrote some damn good songs as well. 

Q-Tip — The Renaissance
“What good is an ear if a q-tip isn’t in it?” Good question. For the hip-hop fan, it’s an important question. I mean, what else were you listening to? Don’t bother answering, it was rhetorical. The pickings were slim for hip-hop. And The Renaissance is classic. Unlike Amplified, the album is chock full of feel-good singles. And Q’s flow remains unchanged. His wormy voice still barely breathes from line to line, and he proves he still has impeccable rhythm and flow. Weezy might have claimed to save hip-hop’s life, but no one did it as effortlessly as Q-Tip. 

Marnie Stern — This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That
“It’s like listening to a tidal wave, but bigger…a tsunami-sized wave…the biggest hurricane…ever.” Those are my thoughts while listening to Marnie Stern’s sophomore album. It makes my heart beat faster just thinking about some of the songs. Take “Shea Stadium” and Zach Hill’s constant rat-a-tat on the china cymbal. Or “Ruler” and its safari-like breakdown before Hill once again pummels you with that crackling snare. Then add Stern’s reverb-tinged wail to every song and—BLAM—you’ve got more than 10 of the rockingest tracks of the year. Do I sound like a little child who just got the latest and greatest Star Wars action figure for his birthday? Probably, and that’s how Stern sounds most of the time. And I’ll be goddamned if it’s not the funnest metal party of the year.

Deerhunter — Microcastle
Bradford Cox has finally come into his own. I remember when Deerhunter’s first album was released to glowing reviews, and I remember listening to it, yelling at my CD player, “Did I just waste money on this?” Whereas Cryptograms was filled with the twisting and turning of delay pedals, Microcastle is an actual album…a good pop album. Sure, it’s not that original (it sounds like the younger brother of Stereolab and My Bloody Valentine), but you can’t deny the sugary-shoegaze of “Agoraphobia” or the pulsing bass-line of “Nothing Ever Happened.” It’s a simple alt-rock disc that gets loud and slows down at just the right times. And Cox, a My Bloody Valentine fan, made his “Sometimes” with “Neither of Us, Uncertainly.” Time will tell what Cox will do next, but this is the best thing to come out of the blog scene in awhile.  

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds — Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Excuse me for saying so, but it sounds like Nick Cave finally found his manhood over the past couple of years. Grinderman, scoring films with Warren Ellis, and now this—a rocking throwback that sounds equal parts Petty, Dinosaur Jr., Velvet Underground and Cave himself. On the title track, you can practically hear Cave grunting and flinching his lip better than Billy Idol and Elvis Presley combined. The band threw away pianos for guitars, and they’ve made their sexiest, most exciting album in awhile. And in his old age, Cave can still pen those haunting songs, just listen to “Night of the Lotus Eaters.” (Check that, listen to it while driving at night through a rain-storm. You’ll be looking in the rearview constantly.) He can also still pen those story-songs (try and catch all the metaphors during the seven-minute epic “More News from Nowhere”). By the end of his 14th album, it’s clear: Cave is making the best music of his career.

Plants and Animals — Parc Avenue
The indie-question this year was, “Who would be Canada’s finest to explode onto the scene this year?” Well, no one band really did, but Plants and Animals made a fine stab at it. Parc Avenue is epic in the vein of The Besnard Lakes with songs eclipsing eight minutes, but never quite as dark. It’s got twisting song structures like Arcade Fire, but they let each section breathe so the listener can digest it all. And it sounds like vintage Beach Boys and The Band in some places (“Feedback in the Field” and “Bye Bye Bye”). Released earlier this year, this disc sure was criminally overlooked. That’s a shame—there isn’t one bad track on this debut. Not one.

Portishead — Third
Now here’s an obvious pick for comeback of the year. Portishead had every reason not to return. Honestly, who really liked that second disc? Trip-hop will forever be dead. But Third isn’t about trip-hop, it’s a solid record in the overall alternative genre. Third solidifies their status and puts them into the rock ‘n’ roll record books (not just for length between recording follow-ups—11 years). Throw in two of the best singles of the year with “The Rip” and “Machine Gun,” and you’ve got a band that still knows how to mix a great sample and Beth Gibbons’ quivering voice. Comeback of the year, most definitely.   

British Sea Power — Do You Like Rock Music?
Open Season was a let down. It had a couple of songs towards the end, but that’s the follow-up to one of the greatest debut albums of all-time? Do You Like Rock Music? Now, that’s more like it. It’s grandiose, it’s loud as hell, it’s got pounding drums, songs about football teams and an appearance by Lucifer. So, there’s the quick glance at it. But with this Brighton, England band, there’s always much more. The lyrics have are full of geographical references and historical landmarks that many have never heard of, but the album is never exhausting because the music is rock bliss. So, in answer to the band’s question, “Sure, I like rock music, but I like it more when it sounds like this.” 

Ra Ra Riot — The Rhumb Line
Quitting a band is easy. Ask me or any of the members in The Union Fire. Plunging on—that’s the hard part. Even harder—making a beautiful album. After the accidental death of drummer John Ryan Pike, Ra Ra Riot forged ahead, giving the most elegant album of the year. It’s like Arcade Fire, but instead of the grim cynicism of Neon Bible, we get hope and easy-to-divulge pop tunes. There are simply too many tracks to highlight. You know what? The whole thing is good. No, scratch that, it’s great. And somewhere, Pike is grinning and nodding along.

Times New Viking — Rip it Off
I can see it now: fast forward to 2021, there’s gonna be some upstart filmmaker making a movie about teenagers. In the opening scene, there’s the bowl-haired renegade, staged right, walking from his car to the principal’s office. And what will be playing in the background? Times New Viking’s “My Head.” Rip it Off is the slacker album of the year. It’s so lo-fi, it hurts your ears, but those pop qualities are still heard and irresistible. At a half-hour, the songs are never too long. Your ears will thank you, but your mind will want more. Underneath the fuzz, there’s a classic record. And put your money on it, you read it here first, some young director will use this as background music for a film about a slacker kid. And if someone doesn’t, I will. Why? This is the perfect soundtrack for such a subject, and this album needs to be dominating college radio. Right. Now. 

Wolf Parade — At Mount Zoomer
Months after my first listen, I’m still certain of one thing: At Mount Zoomer is Dan Boeckner’s album. “Call it a Ritual” is still one of the top three tracks on the album, but, here, Boeckner’s skinny, denim-clad Springsteen is bringing this album up from the depths of Spencer Krug’s cryptic sea. It’s a sparse album, but not hard to enjoy. Lacking the immediate punch-in-the-face goodness of its predecessor, but not without its highpoints either. And the question remains: Will the band make something after this? No one’s sure, but this album is another one in the legacy of Boeckner and Krug, fitting snugly next to all those side projects.

Vampire Weekend — Vampire Weekend
Maybe the punk thing to do these days is make unabashedly pretty pop music. Vampire Weekend make a good case for this. Instead of The Ramones, they sound like Simon and Garfunkel. They are kind-of foul-mouthed (see “Oxford Comma” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”) and they have massive, stalker-y crushes on girls (“Campus” and “Bryn”). But I’ll be damned if these guys don’t know how to write a catchy song. Every ounce of press they’ve received, they’ve deserved. OK, maybe not that MTV PSA, but the magazine covers—yes, totally. This is the smartest, most promising debut from 2008. 

Evangelicals — The Evening Descends 
On this Oklahoma band’s sophomore disc, supposedly there’s a concept somewhere, but The Evening Descends is a good listen without all the background details. The music can be frustrating, exhausting and suffocating, but it also delivers the great moments. Take “Skeleton Man,” where this blaring one-note solo permeates through the static around the 1:28-mark. Listening to it always makes me grin; the rest is psychedelic heaven. I’ll take the challenges, the weirdness—the band clearly knows what they’re doing. There’s a method to Evangelicals’ madness. And who I am to question that?    

Drive-by Truckers — Brighter than Creation’s Dark
On Muscle Shoals’ finest’s eighth album, the band weaves 19 tales of love and loss. Relying more on the gentrified country of Mike Cooley, the band released some of its best material this year. The first 10 songs are almost perfect. This album could’ve ended after “The Opening Act,” and I might have named it album of the year. It’s true—this album could’ve been cut by six or seven songs. I don’t know who said make the guitars sound like Staind on “That Man I Shot.” The two-minute “You and Your Crystal Meth” is just too short for me, but the power of the disc remains in the first 10 songs. That’s the Brighter than Creation’s Dark I will listen to and appreciate, and those are the songs that made me find a new band I could cherish. 

Blitzen Trapper — Furr
Blitzen Trapper had a kick-ass single entitled “Wild Mountain Nation,” but the disc that song sprang from didn’t do it for me. Furr dials down the notches on the Wowee Zowee-weirdness of Wild Mountain Nation, and shows the Dylan-side of the Canadian band. And this listener is all the more grateful for it. Sure, they have those what-the-hell moments—the yeller “Love U,” the pop-trashy “Saturday Night”—but the majority of the album is flawless. The title track is a killer, and the honky-tonk suit fits the band better than that alternative mess. Alas, it’s a good lookin’ coat of fur. 

The Walkmen — You & Me
Eight years into their career, The Walkmen have finally made an album. No one can deny the genius of such singles as “The Rat,” “Little House of Savages,” or “Louisiana,” but You & Me is an album-ful of emotional wallops. The guitars are still wiry-thin. The singer still sounds like the always-drunk love-child of Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart. But instead of me just bragging about the beauty of “In the New Year,” the album is full of mopey beauty. “Red Moon” sounds prime for a Scorsese film with those barely-piercing horns peering through the mix. “New Country” could be used at a wedding. It’s true, most of this disc is as slow as Velvet Underground’s self-titled third disc, but You & Me sounds like a fulfillment on a promise. I’ve heard the band growing older, and on this album, they sound their most mature and listenable. You & Me isn’t an album I have to be in the mood for; it’s an album I can listen to whenever I want, and that’s the highest compliment I can give to The Walkmen.  

The Cool Kids — The Bake Sale
Two songs in, Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish announce they are the “new black version of the Beastie Boys.” Lucky for them, the Beasties are one of my favorite rap groups ever. One of the best qualities about hip-hop has been its ability to start a party and make people feel good. Like the Beasties, Run DMC and De La Soul before them, The Cool Kids don’t rely on the bitches, the bullets or the bombastic beats. They spit a few rhymes about their kicks, their bikes, and their undying love for Sega Genesis. On one track, they want to bring ‘88 back. They stick to this formula, and we’ll be time-traveling soon enough, and I’ll be there bopping my head right along with them.

Torche — Meanderthal 
Blame it on my youth: I find myself waking up in the morning wanting to run around to the loudest album possible. And let’s be frank, this year didn’t have many great rock albums. I had listened to the Metacritic and Pitchfork-approved stuff and laughed. “This sounds like pigs humping, not hard rock/heavy metal,” I told myself. I was even reticent to download this album and eager to give into the power of Melvins earliest works. Worry be gone, Torche’s latest is a sweeping opus. Forget Guns ‘n Roses, Avenged Sevenfold and Hinder, this is what hard rock music oughta sound like: a brutal, unrelenting tidal wave across your sleepy face.

Gnarls Barkley — The Odd Couple 
Sophomore slump? What’s that? For all the non-believers, The Odd Couple is a waste of time, a boring disc, etc. But let it sink in. Even I was singing along to those “filler” songs, humming “I should be, a would be killah” to myself in the library. Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse’s second disc keeps exploring those themes from that magical debut album. We have the relationships (“Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”), the b-sides (“Blind Mary”), the danceable (“Run”) and even the psychotic (the aforementioned “Would Be Killer”). It doesn’t hurt that they continue making great singles. “Going On” is the best song of the year. The song is an affirmative head-nod to those pessimists. Gnarls Barkley are here to stay, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

High Places — High Places 
This is how I want Animal Collective to sound—not annoying. For this Brooklyn duo, it’s a simple formula: 4/4 beats, underwater blips/boops, and Mary Pearson’s whirling coo. The results work. Why wouldn’t it? It’s a sound that doesn’t ask much, but it’s complicated enough. Once the album was done, I was begging for more. Slowly but surely, I kept putting this album on. Not just one track for a mix, but the entire thing. Could it be it’s just nice background music? No; it’s the quaint little indie record that could. High Places’ beauty lies in its uncomplicatedness. That and the samples not sounding like an attack of fax machines and dead telephone lines.

Lil Wayne — Tha Carter III
Culturally, this is the album of the year. Lil Wayne’s latest is the best-selling album of the year. It saved the music industry momentarily. It made commercial hip-hop appealing for once. What makes this album relevant is the fact that it barely has no skits or filler material. Sure, there’s that terrible martian song, but Weezy can rap. Check the one-two of Mr. and Dr. Carter. He can make a woman tremble: check the duets with Babyface and Robin Thicke. He can make you think: check the Katrina ode of “Shoot Me Down” and the unforgettable closer “Misunderstood” where he challenges Al Sharpton. And he can do the most important thing in rap music: burn the house down with the flick of a switch. On “Let the Beat Build,” Lil Wayne affirms his status as hip-hop royalty. When the bass drum drops, it’s the sound of rap’s once-dying heart beating and breathing with fresh, confident vigor.

My Morning Jacket — Evil Urges
Evil Urges is the epitome of sellout. Does Jim James even know what he’s singing? Take for instance these three random lines: “I want to thank you… I’m amazed…Brother, brother, don’t you care?” So you don’t listen to this album for the mystic lyricism, and it won’t go down as MMJ’s masterpiece (that would have to be Z). This is the band’s radio album. It’s James’ ode to Prince, but it comes off like Steely Dan. And when you have pipes like his, it doesn’t matter who or what band you sound like. That’s the power of Jim James: he makes you forget the banality of his lyrics and hypnotizes you with every spin. You forget the mediocrity of the album, and that’s why it’s noteworthy. Plus, “Librarian” is a beautiful track.

The Breeders — Mountain Battles 
The Deals are a schizophrenic bunch, going from “I can feel it!” in the first shoegazey track “Overglazed” to “No one loves me!” in the almost-hilarious second track “Bang On.” For me, The Breeders have never made a truly captivating disc, sure they had “Cannonball.” OK, I’ll give: Last Splash is pretty amazing. Maybe, I’m the schizophrenic one. My point is Mountain Battles is a minimalistic mess, and it’s my favorite thing the Deals have ever released. I’ll take “We’re Gonna Rise” over that late ‘80s alt-rock any day. Almost reaching 50 years old, maybe they’ve maintained hope. And in these cynical times, it’s a beautiful non-anthem.

Tapes ‘n Tapes — Walk it Off
This Minnesota band was slapped harder than a third-grade Catholic kid who called his friend a “shit-head” mid-lecture. The Loon was praised, this follow-up not so much. And who can blame the critics? “George Michael” doesn’t sound as promising as its title. Dave Fridmann does better when producing The Flaming Lips. The last half of this album feels like the middle hour of Cast Away (read: boring). But the first half of Walk it Off is brilliant. The first six songs of this album are damn good. Like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah before them, these young ruffians were hardly given a chance. Indie fame comes around faster than Busta Rhymes’ rap styles, and the ending is sadder than a Will Smith Christmas film. What I’m meaning to say: when those blog-defined bands return for disc two, do the blogs care for another round? “Nah,” they reply, “we got this new band out of South America. They use spoons.” As for me, I’m looking forward to what Tapes ‘n Tapes have to offer. They’re young and brash. As for Walk it Off? Sure, it’s got its blemishes, but it’s got a pound or two of gold in it as well.