I haven’t heard that much new music this year. Maybe I’m old. Or I don’t have Spotify or Sirius. Or that I just listen to records. Perhaps that’s redundant. — — Wet Leg, Fontaines DC, The Beths, Pup, Frightened Rabbit, Horsegirl, The 1975, Destroyer, Wilco, Alvvays …
A few thoughts, if I may. I’m an antiquated analogue relic. All the titles on my list I own on vinyl. I adore the tactile aspect of objects. That being said I am more than willing to embrace the new “digital” delivery of the PooP. One can bring one’s phone into the loo after all, right? The future is clearly female. Or at least this year was. The majority of the artists I binged on this year were female lead. Not sure what, if anything this means, but I found it interesting. Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent…
Last year at this time I was as ill as this Country appears to be now. I felt like I was dying and just didn’t care about much of anything except my misery and myself. My plague passed, the Nation’s (Not The National, that’s an entirely different story) I fear may be nearing terminal status. Where are the protest singers? Where are the protest songs? I’m seeing Pussy Riot in May so maybe that will be the first in what I hope is a burgeoning musical Resistance. That being said, somewhat clumsily, I admit, I included a few titles from…
Fuc# Fuc* Fuc* Fuc! Fuc@ Fuc& Fuc^ Fuc% Fuc*… Some good music this year, I’m sure. And then November. I listened to more Blue Note, ESP, and 90’s guitar rock than anything new this year. I expect, and desperately hope that next year produces some much needed art and protest. I’ve got the flu and don’t really feel like doing this right now so if you don’t agree with my choices, please consider them alternative facts. 1. David Bowie – Blackstar 2. Wilco – Schmilco 3. Nels Cline – Lovers 4. The Weakerthans – Reconstruction Site (reissue) 5. Dinosaur jr….
Courtney Barnett | Ryan Adams | Craig Finn | Twenty One Pilots | Yo La Tengo | Sturgill Simpson | Wilco | Sufjan Stevens | Jason Isbell | Alabama Shakes | Roger Lion |
1. Nightmares For A Week — Civilian War Local heroes deliver their best yet, bringing a nuance and rootsy depth to their usual winning sing/shout along choruses and melodic muscle. “Bloodshot Monday” is by far the song I played the most this year. 2. Superchunk — I Hate Music I grew up with these guys from a “slack mother fucker” to my forties, where my couch looks as good on a Saturday night as the local used to, both a beacon. Whatever, they still sound terrific and “Me and You and Jackie Mitoo” is an all time great song. 3….
This is the space where I usually vent about the year just passed. Guns are bad, liberals are good, blah, blah, blah. ________________________________________ • This Will End In Tears: The Miserabilist Guide To Music | Adam Brent Houghtaling Yup, a book tops my list for the first time ever. My wife always complains that I listen to too much of what she calls “sad bastard music” and that was before I was armed with “the definitive guide to the sad songs that make us so happy.” I spent most of the year with this collection by my side as I…
Buy New or Used via amazon 1. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harlot Melodic melancholy that sounds sepia tinged and dusty but never depressing. Dave Rawlings is my favorite acoustic guitarist under the age of Richard Thompson. Worth the eight-year wait. Buy New or Used via amazon 2. Wilco – The Whole Love Jeff Tweedy actually sounds happy, which makes me a bit nervous. Nils Cline fixes it all. Buy New or Used via amazon 3. Adele – 21 I listened to “Someone Like You” more than any other song this year, with the possible exception of “Rolling…
I wasn’t going to write a screed about how I didn’t give new artists enough of a chance and how I tend to be contented within a cocoon of comfort. I have been able, or perhaps, more aptly, unwilling to embrace new acts. I swore this year I would investigate, instigate and embrace the new. However, everything I heard seemed sadly second-rate from where it would originate. Why seek works influenced by or in debt of that which I love when I can simply enjoy the superior original? Oh well, our leader needs a new knee and I’m pressed hard…