Oh I Don't Know These Buildings I Think I am Lost

Another year of assembling songs, trying to put them into a decent playlist is over. The album is dead dead dead, it's all about the songs now. Looking at other people's year end lists, it is clear I am not listening to what a lot of people are listening to. Am I that out of touch? Or are we that far apart? I admit to gaps in this list, great big colorful ones. Life's too short to hear every little thing though so it's time to get on with the list!

1) The Go Team with Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast - Buy Nothing Day. Rolling Blackouts. I'm not very familiar with the work of the Go Team, and Best Coast bubbled under the year end list a couple of years back. This is an infectious little pop song that has stuck in my head for the whole year. When a song pops up on the iPod over and over for a year and I do not get bored with it, speaks volumes.

2) Grouplove - Don't Say Oh Well. EP. I like this song from these pseudo hippie hipster 420 friendly group of west coasters. It did not even annoy me when I heard it in the background of a Chevy commercial. Someone's got to pay the buds, dude.

3) Blues Brother Castro - Walk in the Park. Out on the Beach. This one I got from the Music Alliance Project. Super high charged indie rockers from Amsterdam. Less that two minutes of full throttle rock with some good shouting. Reminds me of a punky Neil Young.

4) Fitz & the Tantrums - Money Grabber. Pickin' Up the Pieces. I have to admit to hearing this song for the first song on a radio station. A terrestrial one. Local. WWCD-FM. Well done. Sure, the lead singer sounds like Daryl Hall, but Oates is nowhere to be heard.

5) P.J. Harvey - Bitter Branches. Let England Shake. This one's been on a lot of year end best of lists and deservedly so. A Corbjin print of her is now gracing our walls. Good ol' P.J. shape shifts again and devotes a record to the horrors of World War One. Well done!

6) Anne Calvi - Blackout. My favorite app on my iPod is Tune In Radio. It gives you access to thousands of radio stations from around the world. One afternoon I was listening to BBC6 as background and this song came on. I had no idea who it was so I listened to the lyrics and googled them. Through that I found out about Anne, the album it was on and had it on my hard drive within ten minutes of hearing this song. Technology is amazing. In the old days you had to call the radio station and hope you could get through to the DJ so he could give you the information. How does it sound? Brian Eno thinks she's the next Patti Smith. I'm not sure of that, I just hope she's not the next Glasvegas.

7) Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues. I love this song. The arrangement that goes from gentle to soaring to massive back to gentle. Great, great stuff. The rest of the record sucks, but this is one of the best songs of the year.

8) K.T. Tunstall - Alchemy. The Scarlet Tulip. I wanted to like Tiger Suit, but nothing really grabbed me. Over the summer, while on tour, she put out The Scarlet Tulip, a mishmash of songs. I really like how she stretched out of her comfort zone and vocal range on this song. It's not perfect, but I heavily applaud this effort from her.

9) Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse - Body & Soul. She's going to be missed. Lioness should not have been released. We'll never know what she could have accomplished.

10) Eleanor Friedelberger - Roosevelt Island. Last Summer. My Scottish Wife questions whether or not the singer of this song is a man or a woman. I haven't the heart to tell her she's my indie-Brooklyn crush object. I'm not a fan of the Fiery Furnaces, but I enjoyed her first solo effort.


11) Mayer Hawthorne - The Walk. How Do You Do. The white kid who sounds like Curtis Mayfield came out with a fun little record this year. I hope he does this frequently and well.

12) King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Bats in the Attic. Diamond Mine. One of the most unlikely hits over the past year. The record received high acclaim. There's not a real hit on it though. It's all well engineered recordings that demand your attention when you listen.

13) Florence & the Machine - Breaking Down (acoustic) Ceremonials. Have to admit I was scared after Lungs came out. Would she be able to follow it up. She kept releasing different edition after different edition of her first record. Had to wonder if she was capable of following it up. After my first listen of Ceremonials I was not so sure. I thought it was an over produced record of songs that all sounded alike. Then I got to the bonus portion and found this stripped down gem. I'm still worried about her though. Her handlers have her appearing on the X-Factor for crying out loud. At SXSW in 2008 she was splashing around in a kiddie pool in a bar. Now she's on the cover of Vogue. Why should I worry?

14) Nick Lowe - I Read a Lot. The Old Magic. The legend. The master craftsman. One of the greatest songwriters of our time came out with a lovely new record this year. He also got a great amount of exposure opening up for Wilco. Bless him, it's about freaking time.

15) Norma Sass - Robbery. Hunting for Treasures. I'm not sure what music blog pointed me toward this Norwegian quintet. They were performing this song in a corner shop and looking adorable. The record is slick and over produced, the band name is a poor pun, yet they have an appeal

16) Sam Phillips - Broken Circle. Solid State. Sam's been in my radar for years now. Her last few records though, she's painted herself in a corner with the same tone of instrumentals and vocals. This last year she was quite prolific and put out an EP every few months and released them by an innovative subscription on her own over the web. This song has a joyful little shuffle amid the sad lyrics. She's one of my favorite artists.

17) Tom Waits - Hell Broke Luce. Bad as Me. He's back and banging. At 65 he's rocking harder than kids a third his age. An amazing artist who is only improving his skills with age. Left. Right. Left!

18) Wilco - Standing O. The Whole World. What can I say? Tweedy and company bored me less this year than with their recent releases. I almost got cheeky and put the Nick Lowe cover they did on here. But they rip off an Elton John riff on this song, and it's all good. Live, they're still one of the best bands you can see and Nels Cline is a monster on guitar.

19) Imelda May - Mayhem. First saw her on the Grammys a couple of years back. She was playing with Jeff Beck and knocked my socks off. Her own record has been out for a few months, it's a bit too polished but the raw materials are right there.

20) Marianne Faithful - No Reasons. Horses and High Heels. At sixty four, Faithful is still going. I'm really surprised this record got little attention. A lot of special guests, including Lou Reed (better than Metallica) Dr. John and Wayne Kramer. It's a rocking record and she does a fine cover of this Jackie Lomax song.

21) Over the Rhine - Rave On. The Long Surrender. They went all in on this one. Asked their fans to fund their trip to L.A. and to pay for Joe Henry to produce the record. I think it paid off for them, but they have to rock it a bit more to keep me awake.

22) Frightened Rabbit and Traceyanne Campbell - Fuck this Place. A Frightened Rabbit. This is from an EP Frightened Rabbit put out for their fans during their tour of the U.S. earlier this year. Why did they give this song the title they did? It's radio friendly and damn if Scott and Traceyanne's voices do not blend together well.

Enjoy the list.

Merry Christmas!

This is the ordinary

My son was doing his thing when all of a sudden he put his hand in his mouth, handed my wife his tooth, and went back to what he was doing. There was very little blood, it was one of his baby teeth not the permanent ones I spent money on to fix. Some gift eh?



I do not know what to do with the tooth, it's on a table to my right. The Tooth Fairy is not a concept he understands, let alone money. He barely noticed we decorated the tree last night. How do you fake what is considered to be standard operating procedure?

Coming up this Friday, it's First Draft night at Writers' Block Poetry. This month is an extra special event. A face off pitting Dr. Seuss against Shel Silverstein in combat for the 2011 title for Greatest Posthumous New Work by a Beloved Children's Author! I will be reading from the Doctor's The Bippolo Seed and Other Stories. Taking on Silverstein's Everything On It will be none other than Scott Woods. It promises to be an evening of posturing, cool stories, poetry and coy racism. Starts at 8PM at Kafe Kerouac.

The download link is complete, all I have to do is get the liner notes in order and I will be posting my best songs of 2011. This will happen by the end of the weekend by gum!

Annual Consolation

These are five artists who came close to making my favorites of the year. For whatever reasons, they did not make it.



I like this band, but something is not quite complete yet. If they can keep it together long enough to fill in the hole, good things can happen.



I made the mistake of calling this band the Canadian Posies earlier this year. They've been around just as long. I knew this, but failed to make the connection. It's a very pleasant record, but did not have enough to push the top twenty two.



This is a monster of an album. It could be a Grammy sleeper. That said, I really wanted to embrace it, but it's too damn clean. Every note is programmed, played with expert technical precision. I wanted some spontaneity, this record is missing that.



Close, so close.

Is it me or is the video kinda pervy?



Sondre: I love you. You are the Norwegian son I do not have. You are a talented musician and arranger. A craftsman of your instruments. Son, it's been eight years since I've been following your career. It's time to get a lyricist.

Going to get to work on the obsessive liner notes soon and tweak the order of the year's best over the weekend. Expect the official release in a couple of weeks.

The Bills are 5-2, here's some of the soundtrack

Since I'm not a Halloween person, here's the first of the month What I've Been Listening to project, a day early.



This may be my favorite Venezuelan metal band. Ok, screw the maybe, it is! Thanks once again to the Music Alliance Pact for this rocker!



These guys have been doing some touring, previewing some new material for their upcoming February release. I'll never see them for $12 again.



She's released her follow up to Lungs and I'm a bit on the fence. There are a couple of strong cuts on it, but too much of it sounds the same.



White Curtis Mayfield is back. I like this kid. The video for this song has a lot of bad marksmanship. Seriously. A lot of bullets do not find their target.



I think this is the best album of the year.



Will 2011 be the breakout year the Explorer's Club deserve? They have some free music previewing their efforts at Amazon that is worth checking out.

First of the Month Project (September)

The hurricane caused some minor damage to my parents property and I think the wind gave them a bit to think about as well. But it looks like most of my friends and family are alright.

Leaving tomorrow for Scotland, which means this blog is most likely not going to be updated for a couple of weeks. I should have some limited access to email and internet, but I'll be elsewhere.

Before I go, let's continue with the First of the Month Project, aka What I've Been Listening To.



I do not like the lip synching, but I've always been charmed by this cover.



The Motels had a couple of hits in the eighties. Recently, what should have been their third album, Apocolypto, was released. It contained different mixes and track listing from what became their breakout record, All for One. I always like this song from the record. Never became a single. A shame. Good to hear Martha Davis is still rocking.



I liked Beirut's last record and their new one, The Rip Tide, is just as haunting and catchy.



Going to see him in October. Stoked!



I'm not a fan of The Fiery Furnaces, but I like this record by the female half of the duo.



This is the song my son's been listening to on the iPod.

Back in a couple. You call play nice.

First of the Month Project

The political divide continues to grow in this country. It seems no opposing sides can look at a landscape and agree that it even is a landscape. How can you determine the forest, trees when you cannot even define what is being observed?

We have this thing, and it's really bad. Does it matter who caused it, and when anymore? Or is it time to look at right now and the future - maybe even do something about it instead of posturing and worrying about your ideology winning or maintaining political power during the next election cycle.

There's more than a bit of vitriol passed about on the Facebook and message boards. I'm trying to stay out of it this time, having some popcorn, snacks and a beverage.



May start doing something new here on the first day of every month. A little feature called 'What I've been Listening to." Not necessarily what is new, but what I've been listening to in the car, on the iTunes, on TuneInRadio. Some of these songs may make the year end list, some may not. I'll try and pick about 3-6 songs each month and see how it goes.



I am mixed about her last two records, but this song, off an EP she put out for her recent tour, is a real winner. I like the effort she made to go out of her comfort zone here, alot.



Post Clarence death here. This song's been on in the car quite a bit. It even inspired a poem. This is a great performance.



Found this one through a Scottish Music Blog The Vinyl Villain. Had no idea there was a version released before the hit. Liking this one.



First heard of her singing with Jeff Beck on the Grammys a couple of years ago. She just released Mayhem, and it's boss!



One of the joys of listening to radio 10 out of Amsterdam. This gem of a Dutch hit from 1973.



Still missing Paul Hester.

Alright, let's see if I can remember this for next month. Whoops I'll be out of the country. Will figure something out.

Finally, have to give a shout out to my archenemy Scott Woods, he's going to be talking about poetry slam, along with Simone Beaubien on the NPR show On Point this Wednesday at 11AM EDT.

From Stockholm to You

A couple of years back a Swedish band named Love Lindblom hit my radar with the song Till Min Syster. Now he's back with another one.



The video's editing is not my cup of tea, but the song is a nice bit of pop.

I Want to Make Them Wish They'd Never Seen Me

Al had a software problem during a recent show and did a rather straight cover of this song.



The world is a better place with people like Weird Al Yankovic.

Another Day of Now What

It’s been kind of sad, watching the internet hate fly around the past couple of days. There’s nothing approaching closure going on, not while troops are still on the ground, looking for more thumb drives in homes with no internet or phone access.

What I’ve really been doing is watching the story take on Jessica Lynch-like spin.

WB had a couple of poems about the death of Bin Laden last night. I thought the over/under would be three. The Chet claims to have written one before his death, we will not know if he will not read it.

Before the night started a friend mentioned reading my blog last month and with the April 2011 project ending this blog was back to the “thoughts.”

I never once said this place would be specializing in anything, admitted that it would be all over the place from the beginning. I have kept it drama free for over two years since the craziness of Live Journal and I am proud of that accomplishment. Themes are tough, be they poetry, music or otherwise.

Scott Woods has a new chapbook out called, "The Livingston Avenue Suite,” which he read at his latest 24 hour marathon. I was not there when he read it so I’m excited to read it this weekend. I took a peek, holy crap there’s a Chinese Astrology chart in there. What did he do to it I wonder? Quantities are limited.

I do have some thoughts about the new My Morning Jacket record. Want to give it another spin before fully forming them. There may be writing this weekend, also working on the Arts Fest set.

First up, while it’s sunny, fixing the chip in the windshield.

What are you trying to tell me, I don't know

I was listening to BBC6 on the iPod this morning. Liz Kershaw was putting together some nifty sets then she put something that was new to me on. It had a fair amount of bombast along with some compelling ambiance and atmosphere. Plus, a solid vocal that reminded me of Siouxie Sioux and P.J. Harvey.

I tried googling some of the lyrics I was hearing and right by the time the song ended I made my discovery. Her name. Anna Calvi.



She's got a cool style going with the flamenco gear. There's a lot of buzz for her in the UK.

I think she justifies the hype, and she covers Piaf.



Brian Eno thinks she's, "The biggest thing since Patti Smith." High praise indeed.

A Clever and Fun Video

Kid Canaveral's song "Good Morning" was on my best of 2010 list. This song is also off the Shouting at Wildlife album and has a snazzy video.

Threesomes and Coffins, Oh My!

Another night of entertainment and poetry at Writers' Block. There were gnomes.



A gnome spitting hot fire!



So many poems and incidents that seared into my memory forever.

Did a new piece that is dedicated to Frieda Hughes. Needs some work. Clearly shows that I have issues with academia and those who claim ownership of something that was never theirs.

Working it out onstage.

Really liking the new record by Over the Rhine. They're a band that has been mostly out of my radar, but when I put their music on I wonder why they hell they're not on continual repeat. The new release is called The Long Surrender and it's produced lovingly by Joe Henry. He gets some beautiful performances out of the band and reveals the colors of Karin Bergquist's voice.



Nicole Atkins has come back to the scene with a new record also. Mondo Amore has been four years in the making. During this period Atkins left her record label and broke up with her boyfriend and band. It's a darker record that Neptune City and if you're looking for the Brill Building influence it's hard to find. This is a much darker and swampier sound, and it's a decent change of pace for her.



I wonder what kind of record would have come out of Daniel Lanois had produced it.

Kids Getting Their Influence On

If this band was any janglier, these Brooklyn hipsters would be able to afford Rickenbacker guitars.



Despite the snark, I do not mind this. One of their songs almost got into my top 20 last year. Dream Diary's new record ships next month.

What I am really liking is this Norwegian quintet.



Their first album, Hunting for Treasures, has just been released.