Buy New or Used via amazon 1. THE IMAGINED VILLAGE – Empire & Love: The project is premised on the belief that traditional folk music was never intended to be static or relegated to history in the form that a generation finds it. It was meant to be poked, adapted, stretched and reflective of the times and society to be passed on to the future. That apparently includes old Slade songs. Buy New or Used via amazon Buy New or Used via amazon 2. DAVID HIDALGO & LOUIE PEREZ – The Long Goodbye and LOS LOBOS – Tin Can Trust:…

 Buy New or Used via amazon 1. THE IMAGINED VILLAGE – Empire & Love: The project is premised on the belief that traditional folk music was never intended to be static or relegated to history in the form that a generation finds it. It was meant to be poked, adapted, stretched and reflective of the times and society to be passed on to the future. That apparently includes old Slade songs. Buy New or Used via amazon Buy New or Used via amazon 2. DAVID HIDALGO & LOUIE PEREZ – The Long Goodbye and LOS LOBOS – Tin Can Trust:…

Is it me or is it getting harder and harder to get my POOP out? Pun very much intended. I know everything seems much harder these days. One of the benefits of being on the other side of 40, I guess. Nonetheless, I somehow managed to get in it, just under the wire. My soft rock tastes of 2010…  Buy New and Used via amazon 1. Junip – Fields Can a record be both light and heavy at the same time? Deep and bass heavy with a 70’s pop/rock sensibility. Pop shines though in the lightness and the rock brings…

Is it me or is it getting harder and harder to get my POOP out? Pun very much intended. I know everything seems much harder these days. One of the benefits of being on the other side of 40, I guess. Nonetheless, I somehow managed to get in it, just under the wire. My soft rock tastes of 2010…  Buy New and Used via amazon 1. Junip – Fields Can a record be both light and heavy at the same time? Deep and bass heavy with a 70’s pop/rock sensibility. Pop shines though in the lightness and the rock brings…

21st Century Schizoid POOP by Jim Finnigan New Paltz, that’s the place we be livin’ If we ain’t puffin’ blunts, we be chasin’ women Magnum Man & Bighead 2010 THOUGHTS Buy New or Used via amazon A good year for music, I thought. My album of the year is Three Bonzos and A Piano’s Hair of the Dog, and the question is, can Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater and Sam Spoons restore the life and fire that was absent from the Neil Innes-helmed Bonzos reunion from 2007? And the answer is CERTAINMENT, thank you Mrs. Slater. Peter Stampfel‘s Dook of…

21st Century Schizoid POOP by Jim Finnigan New Paltz, that’s the place we be livin’ If we ain’t puffin’ blunts, we be chasin’ women Magnum Man & Bighead 2010 THOUGHTS Buy New or Used via amazon A good year for music, I thought. My album of the year is Three Bonzos and A Piano’s Hair of the Dog, and the question is, can Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater and Sam Spoons restore the life and fire that was absent from the Neil Innes-helmed Bonzos reunion from 2007? And the answer is CERTAINMENT, thank you Mrs. Slater. Peter Stampfel‘s Dook of…

Wish I had something interesting to say; alas, the only news I have is that 2010 was a pretty – I said pretty – good year for new music. These are my 15 fave raves, in some particular order.  Buy New or Used via amazon 1. Ted Leo/Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks  Buy New or Used via amazon 2. Sharon Van Etten – Epic  Buy New or Used via amazon 3. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest  Buy New or Used via amazon 4. The National – High Violet  Buy New or Used via amazon 5. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor  Buy…

 Buy New or Used via amazon 1. The Black Keys / Brothers (sounds like: John Lee Hooker + Hendrix + T. Rex). This fuzz-laden, distortion-heavy, heartbroken blues-rock masterpiece hits you like a gut punch. Goddamn.  Buy New or Used via amazon 2. The Tallest Man On Earth / The Wild Hunt (sounds like: Dylan + Mississippi John Hurt + Destroyer). Passion, and acoustic psychedelia, via rural Sweden. Truly transformative. (Also a great EP out this year.)  Buy New or Used via amazon 3. Spoon / Transference (sounds like: Wire + Pixies). Edgy, punky, percussive alley anthems, self-produced this time with…

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…

 Buy New or Used via amazon Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings – I Learned the Hard Way Of course, it’s a little retro, but she doesn’t mimic the Motown or Stax mold. The songs are subtle with no killer bridges or gloss; yet they slowly take hold. It’s mature music about love and relationships gone bad. It’s soul. Buy New or Used via amazon Buy New or Used via amazon The Radio Dept. – Clinging to a Scheme Wonderful melodies, the Pet Shop Boys but less smarmy Four tet – There is Love in You Ambient techno that is…

 Buy New or Used via amazon Black Keys – Brothers I really thought the last Black Keys record, “Attack and Release,” was pretty darn good. But the Black Keys guys take it to the next level on “Brothers.” You’ve got three killer songs to start things off: “Everlasting Light,” “Next Girl,” and “Tighten Up.” This is followed by the stomp of “Howlin’ For You” and “Now She’s Gone.” And then you also get soulful tracks like “Only One” and “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The album closes with a “Little Wing” influenced “These Days.” Sweet.  Buy New or Used via amazon…

 Buy New or Used via amazon Robyn – “Body Talk” [Konichiwa/Cherrytree ] The three shortish CDs/longish EPs which go to make up this release were by far my most loved and listened to items over the year. The combination of dance and pop is nothing new, of course, but the addition of Robyn’s nasty attitude is what makes the difference here. After all, the first track on Body Talk Part 1 was “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do”, and while it is actually the second track on the full length CD, moved down the running order to make room…

 Buy New or Used via amazon 1 – THE BLUE SHADOWS – On the Floor Of Heaven Unreleased in the US until this year, this 17 year old record out of Canada (sweetened with a bonus disc of extras) is a real alt-country classic. Great melodies falling somewhere between the Beatles and the Burritos, ringing early R.E.M. guitar tones, Phil and Don-like harmonies, thoughtful arrangements. How the hell did this fly under the radar? This clicks on every level. Thanks, Irv.  Buy New or Used via amazon 2 – ROBERT PLANT – Band Of Joy Plant has invented his own…

 Buy New or Used via amazon Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky (Young God) Back after 13 years, and still on their own plane entirely. Epic, beautiful, and, yes, LOUD. Like earlier editions via Gira’s later Angels of Light. Sorry, kids: older = wiser.  Buy New or Used via amazon Various Artists – Brazilian Fuzz Guitar Bananas (Tropicalia in Furs) Most insane psych comp in recent memory, easy. Scare singles ca. late ’60s/early ’70s deal an extra-warped Dada mind-blow by being in a foreign (acid-dipped) tongue. Crazy!   Oxford American Various Artists –…

 Buy New or Used via amazon 1. JUNIP – Fields [Mute] Jose Gonzales reforms his old band of Swedes who have a thing for 70s keys and synths that John Paul Jones must have leant them.  Buy New or Used via amazon 2. THE BESNARD LAKES – The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night [Jagjaguwar] Blissed-out, droney heaven that Kevin Shields would thoroughly approve. The album Low should have made right after “The Great Destroyer”.  Buy New or Used via amazon 3. BOB DYLAN – The Witmark Demos [Columbia] Spare, nuts & bolts versions of songs we all know, but…

I don’t think I’ll make it this year. I think I’ve heard only one new thing Brian Wilson does Gershwin and Mom said if you don’t have anything nice to say. Oh wait a minute Crowded House “The Intriguer” sounds to me more of a group effort that a Finn project,very polished, melodic with nothing to hang their heads about. There’s lack of pretense and application of proficient chops I found musically satisfying for pop music which is a feeling I didn’t find much for what was presented to me in 2010. I find returning to works like Buster Williams…

Favorite Things ~ 2010 ALBUMS  Buy New or Used via amazon Daniel Bjarnason ~ Processions (Bedroom Community) 2010’s list begins with a one-two punch from the Bedroom Community label: two albums released on the same January day. As the director of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Bjarnason had won numerous national awards for his insightful arrangements, but had only produced one original song, the stunning “All Sounds to Silence Come”. Processions presents his genius to the rest of the world. His wild atonal leaps and forays into dissonance are balanced here by passages of intense sweetness and flickering light. The…

What I Listened to in 2010 Greetings from my new home in Florida. I must admit that I did not listen to much music this year – first I was preoccupied with selling my house and then by the actual move. In fact, my sound system has not been hooked up since probably August or September. It is still not hooked up – but will be this week. So, I really have no idea what I should have been listening to this past year. To make matters worse, I usually segregate potential POOP list albums during the year, but they…

 Buy New or Used via amazon 1. THE ABOVE – The Above  Buy New or Used via amazon 2. THE SADIES – Darker Circles  Buy New or Used via amazon 3. NICK CURREN & THE LOWLIFES – Reform School Girl  Buy New or Used via amazon 4. STEVE WYNN & THE MIRACLE 3 – Northern Aggression  Buy New or Used via amazon 5. LEN PRICE 3 – Pictures  Buy New or Used via amazon 6. THE SIGHTS – Most Of What Follows Is True  Buy New or Used via amazon 7. THE BLACK ANGELS – Phosphene Dream  Buy New or…

2010: a year in media by Patrick Kennedy TOP MUSIC  Buy New or Used via amazon (1) LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening  Buy New or Used via amazon (2) Sleigh Bells, Treats  Download Free at Illegal Art (3) Girl Talk, All Day  Buy New or Used via amazon (4) Delorean, Subizia  Buy New or Used via amazon (5) Superchunk, Majesty Shredding  Buy New or Used via amazon (6) Tame Impala, Innerspeaker  Buy New or Used via amazon (7) Robyn, Body Talk  Buy New or Used via amazon (8) Big Boi, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty  Buy…