Lagunitas Brewing Co. (Petaluma, CA) has released a limited production beer called Wilco Tango Foxtrot. Gee, could this be a reference to our favorite band? Lagunitas has been known to produce beers with rock & roll themes (see below).
I am going to go out and get me some WTF beer today!
10: Phoenix: Lisztomania - They've been around 15 years, but I've just discovered this French band. This album has received high accolades for the pop, indie-rock sound that has become so prevalent these days (for better or worse). Bottom line is that this is simply a fun album to listen to.
9: Andrew Bird: Noble Beast - I saw Bird perform awhile back at the Hollywood Bowl and was amazed with how he would record violin or guitar lines during a song then loop it and layer it to use as accompaniment. Impressive.
8: Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion - This album was the critics darling of 2009. Undoubtedly one of the most important bands of the naughts with their idiosyncratic rhythms and harmonies, they sound like nothing else that has ever existed. But when you are this out there, the music is not very approachable and takes some discipline to get into. The payoff is there for the patient listener.
7: Loney, Dear: Dear John - Loney, Dear is essentially Swedish singer-songwriter Emil Svanängen. Sounding like he recorded it in his living room, he works with programmed drum beats and synth orchestration. The result is a modern, toe-tapping sound.
6: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz! - Karen O and gang push forward with their genre-bending sound that blends punk with dance and electronic elements.
5: Wilco: Wilco (the Album) - The latest album from my favorite band combines elements of every Wilco period. From the alt-country of A.M. to the bombastic pop of Being There and Summerteeth to the envelope pushing experimentalism of Yankee, Hotel, Foxtrot to the kraut-rock jams of Ghost is Born and the hushed beauty of Sky, Blue, Sky. The drawback of this is that the album lacks cohesiveness. It is still good fun and has strong tracks such as "Wilco (the song)", "Bull Black Nova" and "You and I" (with guest vocalist Leslie Feist).
4: Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest - Yellow House was one of my best of picks in 2006 and three years later I am still entranced with their sound. Combining approachable melodies with experimental blips, bleeps and unusual production, they have developed a unique, interesting and satisfying sound.
3: Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca - They take the frat-boy Afro pop of Vampire Weekend and combine it with the experimentalism of Animal Collective to come up with an accessible, yet utterly unique, collection of songs and musical ideas. These guys are firmly in the center of the new wave of genre-defying bands that are grabbing the critics attention these days.
2: The Decemberists: Hazards of Love - Props to Colin Meloy for going after the ridiculously ambitious goal of creating a concept album that tells the enigmatic story of a woman's relationship with a mystical creature fusing elements of chamber music, folk and heavy metal and succeeding. At first glance it seems to surely be a joke, not to be taken seriously. But Meloy's poetic word smithing, along with the use of musical elements to reinforce the dramatic elements, serve the song and story perfectly. Colin and gang pulled off an amazing accomplishment with Hazards of Love.
1: Various Artists: Dark Was the Night - How can you go wrong with a double album that includes tracks by Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists, David Byrne, My Morning Jacket and more great bands and for a good cause to boot. A consistent and satisfying collection of songs from start to finish.
I just revisited the two-disc set Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys, a compilation that came out in 2006, and am in full can't stop listening mode. This is fantastic stuff. Although there are some big names on the album (Sting, Bono, Lucinda Williams), it is the lesser-knowns that are most memorable for me. Baby Gramps for instance, who has a unique style on the guitar, and a rough and ready voice quite appropriate for pirate songs. He even goes into some throat-singing which gives his a voice an otherwordly sound. Also, Three Pruned Men's take on "Bully in the Alley" is a rousing number that instantly gets stuck in your head and will inspire spur of the moment sing-alongs for weeks after listening. My kids and I have learned all the lyrics and I will testify that the song will improve any long car ride. Give it a try.
Further on the free music tip. NPR is streaming the new album from Dirty Projectors titled Bitte Orca. This is some good stuff. Their sound is innovative and compelling and while experimental, employs a wide array of musical styles. On the surface the sound is similar to other experimental rock bands that are in vogue these days such as Animal Collective and Fleet Foxes, with their emphasis on lush vocal harmonies over quirky unusual backing. But their influences run deep. There is definitely a debt owed to Sonic Youth and the vocal style of band leader Dave Longstreth at times evokes Jeff Buckley. There is also the (very fruitful) relationship with David Byrne on Dark Was the Night and Byrne may have had some influence. Possibly the catchy "Stillness is the Move", with its Disco-y vocal over a musical backing that sounds straight out of Sub-Saharan Africa. But they've taken all of these diverse elements and melded them into a cohesive whole that as a result explores completely new territory. One of the best albums this year.
NPR has made available a live recording from the "Dark Was the Night" concert at Radio City Music Hall on May 3. Many of the artists from the album appear in various configurations:
"Feist and Bon Iver, David Byrne and The Dirty Projectors, David Byrne with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, The National with My Brightest Diamond and Sharon Jones with everyone."
Jay Bennett, multi-instrumentalist and former member of Wilco, died in his sleep on Sunday, May 24. He was 45. This is a sad loss for the Wilco family even though was fired from the band in 2001 during the YHF recording sessions. To this day, Wilco-heads still argue whether or not the band was better with Bennett. What is clear is that the three albums Bennett worked on (Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) are widely considered to be the best of Wilco's catalog. Bennett was a gifted musician, with a firm vision of where he wanted the music to go. He was responsible for much of the "weirdness" that occurred on those albums and were a major evolution in Wilco's sound. Ultimately, it was his unyielding dedication to his vision that led to the falling out between he and Jeff Tweedy which led to Bennett being fired from Wilco. Bennett never seemed to recover from the bitterness of the separation, naming a solo album "Whatever Happened I Apologize", and recently sued Jeff Tweedy for alleged unpaid royalties. Regardless of the personal issues between Bennett and Tweedy, Wilco fans will always be grateful for the unique contributions that Jay Bennett brought to the band. We will miss him.
