I'm the Captain of my Fate, the Master of my Soul

Another year is coming to an end. I've found the 25 songs that I've dug the most this year. There are plenty of gaps in my listening experience, I acknowledge this freely. I like what I like. There have been some disappointments, some pleasant enough records that did not make the cut (Sorry Aimee Mann) and some dull as dishwater material - and I'm looking at you in that case Mumford & Sons. I've put in a few direct links and embedded some of the songs I really like. Most of these you can find on YouTube, as I have.

1) Andrew Bird - Eyeoneye. Something about this guy makes him lead off my year end lists, I do not know what it is. What I do know is the man does not see the same color of the sky that we do, and that's ok.

2) The Shins - Simple Song. There are about two good songs on Port of Morrow. This is one of them. Listen to the rest at your own risk. This song though, full of great hooks. Not sure what happened with the other ten songs on the record.

3) Carole King - Pleasant Valley Sunday. One of the best records of the year is a collection of demos that are over forty years old. She's a legend, and this collection of songs she wrote hammer that point home.

4) Katzenjammer - I Will Dance (When I Walk Away) A lovely Norwegian quartet of ladies who play their own instruments and often switch in the middle of performances. Super tight harmonies. See for yourself here!

5) Los ZappinG - Cine Mudo. I like the aggressiveness of this song. First heard via The Music Alliance Pact. They're from Lima, Peru. You can see a video here.

6) The Hives - Come On! Best lyrics of the year. And the song is perfect in length.

7) P.S. I Love You - Sentimental Dishes. I love this song. Starts out with a riff straight out of Quadrophenia. The drummer tries really, really hard to play like Keith Moon. Then the lead is nicked from an Altered Images song. This duo from Kingston, Ontario is having a lot of fun in the darkness. You can watch them play this live here.

8) The Bombay Royale - You Me Bullets Love. Bollywood surf punk by way of Melbourne, Australia. This record gets a bit tiring but is great to hear in small, diverse doses.

9) M.I.A. - Bad Girls. It has a great riff and a video with a random Alfa Romeo. I'm sold on this one.

10) Rufus Wainwright - Jericho. He swung for the fences here, bringing in Mark Ronson as producer to try and achieve some mainstream success. Did not quite work. Had one cute video with Helena Bonham Carter as a sexy as hell librarian but it never caught on. I'm partial this song because his voice is sexy as hell. I like a planet that has this man on it, making music that more people should be hearing. He does it on The Artists' Den here.

11) Beach House - Myth. Yes, I bought into the dream pop here. It's a nice song. Really. Hate on her for calling her Nico with no pitch, but that ain't true!

12) French Wives - Younger. This Glasgow band might make some waves in the coming years. (Oh, and look out for Frightened Rabbit in 2013) Tight musicianship and some sweeping arrangements give them an edge over a bunch of Arcade Fire soundalikes.

13) First Aid Kit - Bill got me on to this group early this year and it's been interesting seeing them start to blow up. They're Swedish teenage sisters and they write and play like they're from West Virginia. I'm not sure their songwriting skills are close to par yet, but they have plenty of time to improve their craft. This song is devastatingly good.

14) Emile Sande - Next to Me. Hanif turned me on to this Scottish singer/songwriter early this year and I was stunned. She's got the goods. A look, great voice and she writes her own stuff. Pretty major in the UK, she played the Olympics but not much of a factor in this part of the world yet. She's a heck of a lot better than Janelle Monae, and I really liked her record. She did this song on Jools Holland.

15) Jack White - Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy. I was no fan of the White Stripes, was put out by the mystique and image they projected. Yet, they did have a few epic tunes, one that's become a soccer chant. I was very impressed with White's solo work. Very complete. Very respectful to his influences. His image as a control freak is eccentric. I do not think he's hurting anyone. He can keep doing his own thing.

16) Vintage Trouble - Blues Hand Me Down. My Facebook friend Sarah linked to this song last week and I became an instant fan. Really, bought the music off iTunes and everything. Otis Redding backed by Cream or something. The energy is amazing. The lead singer, Ty Taylor, has the motts. What's really cool is that they're opening for The Who, and we were already going in February. Can't. Wait.

17) Jimmy Cliff - Outsider. Never been much of a reggae person, but when I saw Cliff was working with the band Rancid on this record I had to give it a try. This may be my favorite record of the year. At 64, Cliff's been recharged by his new collaborators and it shows in the performances I've seen him do on YouTube. Highly recommended.

18) Tom Jones - Hit or Miss. He's still going. I call him the King of Pop. The voice is still holding on. The man is 72. You try doing what he does. He's kicking the asses of performers half his age. Slowing down to him is being able to service two women a night instead of five.



19) Susanna Hoffs - Raining. Wearing one of my shirts, not much else. Sitting on my bed, or in my kitchen, or on the living room floor - playing this song. Hey, she finally covered Go All the Way after years of my pleadings, anything can happen. She has already played it on some lucky bastard's patio.

20) Bill Fay - This World. I do not know much about this guy other than he is sixty nine years old, has worked with Wilco and has a cult following. Life is People is his first record in over 40 years. It's one of the most honest and life affirming records I've heard in a long time. It's tone is rather positive in the midst of some rather bleak songs. He's dueling with Jeff Tweedy on this song. Here's the official video.

21) Sinead O'Connor - Queen of Danmark. It's a damn shame her health and personal issues have been more prominent than her voice over the course of her career because she is mega-talented. Always has been. If you blinked after reading about her marriage, you probably missed her latest record. It's very good, and this song is both powerful and darkly funny. Reminiscent of Last Day of Our Acquaintance, this song was written by John Grant and is a fantastic cover.

22) Meursault - Lament for a Teenage Millionaire. I keep getting pulled in by Neil Pennycook's vocals. They haunt the shit out of me. The song arrangement by this Edinburgh band are a bit odd, but they put real emotions into them. Sometimes I am reminded of David Byrne, sometimes I'm weirded out, but never enough to shut the record off. LaBlogotheque got this excellent performance out of them.

23) Cait Brennan - (link to video, embed) Madame Pompadour - One of my favorite songs this year comes from my friend Cait. I've known her for about ten years through Live Journal when she and I shared many comments in the wee hours back in the day when my son never slept. We've never met. Cait's been working on her music in Phoenix and has worked very hard. She put this song out there on Valentine's Day, her birthday, and it is such a wonderful gift from her. It's a lovely poppy little jangle tune than will leave you smiling and in this case me putting some of her lyrics into the subject heading of this blog post. Here's the video. Enjoy.



24) Beach Boys - Pacific Coast Highway. I'm glad the guys could keep it together for one record before Mike fired the band just as the tour was ending. It did not suck, they still sing beautifully. The songs were a bit weak, save this one, which is quite honest and reflective.

24) Bruce Springsteen - Land of Hope and Dreams. Yes, I broke up with Bruce right after the horrid Magic. But you got to give the man another chance and he stepped up his game with Wrecking Ball. He wrote this one because he wanted to, not to spec the way The Rising was. And Bruce has things to talk about. Things in this country he is seeing that he does not like, and he nails people to the wall. On this song he completely freaked me out. I gasped when Clarence Clemons' last recorded sax solo came up. I do not gasp much for anything these days. Damn, I needed that.

If you're interested in a hard copy, hit me up via email. The DCMA blocked me for a few hours last year and I have no intention of letting that happen again.

Discoveries and stuff

Last night we went to the Wexner Center to see a screening of Where are my Children, a 1916 message film. It's a film that preaches a very pro birth control and an equally passionate anti-abortion stance. Thing is, in 1916, available birth control was condoms, if available, and the horrid movement of eugenics. Of course abstinence is always an option.

The plot involves a district attorney, who is trying to prosecute a man for selling birth control information and his wife, who, to keep her social life intact, seems to go to the abortion doctor as much as the grocery store. There's tension, some interesting special effects that call Ally McBeal's dancing baby to mind. It's a 96 year old film that still holds up very well.

The film was directed by Lois Weber, a very prolific director of the silent era who operated her own studio before women had the right to vote. Sadly, most of her films are considered lost. I hope to see more of her work, if I can find it.

Accompanying the film live was local musician Derek DiCenzo, who I recognized as being one of Jandek's band when he came though a few years back. Had a chance to briefly talk to him about that amazing experience and how hard it was to play to a very heavily plotted film.

The imitable Guy Maddin came to town to introduce this film. He's been to the Wexner Center six times now, always good to have him here.

Had to miss the second feature, Little Man, What Now? which looked fascinating, but we had to meet an old college friend who was in town on business.

It's always a bit awkward to meet with someone who had not seen in over twenty years, but when you glimpse into each others lives on Facebook you can find something to talk about.

Today on Facebook one of my friends posted this video.



You ever become an instant fan? I did. What really jazzed me up is I found out they're opening for The Who, and we're already going to see them here in February.



These guys are good.

While posting these videos another person in the thread mentioned another band called The Heavy. Did not realize I was familiar with one of their songs already.



Really cool to discover two new bands in the last weeks of the year.

Trajectory but no target in site

Mumford & Sons - Babel



I consider myself an early adopter of this band. Found them on a UK music blog in the fall of 2009, flipped for Sigh No More. Thought it was a fresh sound full of songs with passion and rousing choruses. It was extremely exciting to see them in a small venue on the stage of Mershon Auditorium in the spring of 2010, a sold out show of about 350 people that met and exceeded all expectations. I knew I’d never seen them for $12 again. They were breaking big. A few months later they were selling out hockey rinks.

Mumford & Sons are a hard working band. Their tour schedule is full. Their competence as musicians is not to be questioned. For the new record they road tested many of the songs before taking them to the studio, toning them for the most impact on their audience.

It did not work.

Producer Markus Dravs merely repeated the same formula of Sigh No More with the same sonic palette of guitars, banjos and the occasional horns. And the songs have the same scripted approach: start slow, build to a stomping middle with a shouting lead vocal, finish slow. Marcus Mumford’s songwriting approach is fairly cautious, if not lazy. Maybe in all the chaos of the past three years he has not had adequate time to pause and write? Mumford & Sons has offered this listener nothing new. Very little pulls me in here, or offers me a memorable line.

Babel’s going to sell, but it’s left me as cold as Arcade Fire’s Grammy hauling The Suburbs. I want to seem them do well, but not coast to an easy win with no risks or experimentation taken. It’s a safe record and I’m too old to take this personally. Maybe it will grow on me, or improve over time.

Buster Gangnam Style

Buster did not need auto tune. He did his own stunts. A very well done video.

Definitely orchestral theft

A couple of months ago musician Amanda Palmer raised over a million dollars to finance her new record via a Kickstarter campaign, where fans and admirers of hers donated money online for copies of the record and other perks. A great idea in a changing music industry.

As the still on the site suggests, perhaps this is the future of music.

A couple of weeks ago, she posted on her website that she was looking for volunteers to play strings with her backing band during her upcoming tour. The musicians would not be paid, heaven help that, but given hi-fives, beer and merchandise. It seems Palmer, after raising a million dollars, could not afford to pay musicians $35,000 to go on tour with her. There has been an onslaught of criticism in her direction. Palmer's been retweeting some of the comments on her twitter page, and to her credit has not deleted a lot of hyper-critical comments on her blog.

To my knowledge her only comments addressing this is her saying that, “If my fans are happy and my audience is happy and the musicians on stage are happy, where’s the problem?”

I am not a professional touring musician, but a lousy amateur. Paying trained help in t-shirts and goodwill while you're getting paid, while you're paying the backing band smacks of cheapness and disrespect. Did she pay the musicians who played on her new record, or was it hugs all around in the studio while the million she raised was put to other uses?

This is not a high school production, she's supposedly running a professional tour in venues that (this tour) are not garages and living rooms, but actual theaters and clubs, with actual seats, with paying fans, some of whom funded her new project.

This precedent does not bode well for musicians. How much of a privilege is it to get on stage to play for an artist, and not receive any form of monetary compensation? It's a privilege for me to get out of my house and see a show, perhaps I should get in for nothing, even receive a parking pass. I'll give the artist a high five and say a profuse thank you. Come on Bruce Springsteen, I can shake a tambourine, let me in your show for free and put me on stage! I may even mention it in my blog. How's that going to go over?

Yes, I'm on the couch, blogging.

This one deserves exposure

I'm not overly familiar with his music. His new record, Rebirth, is as pistol hot as Cliff's drummer. He worked with Rancid's Tim Armstrong. Don't miss this.

Fun Friday

I'm digging this 11 piece band from Melbourne, Australia these days. The energy is infectious. Lots of old school mayhem!

An overwhelming series of events

Saturday, after my son's swimming lesson, we came out of the locker room. We walked by the head of the swimming program for the building, and she was visibly upset. She told us she just found out that the mother of one of the lifeguards died very suddenly a few minutes before. The lifeguard was working and got the phone call from her father. The woman was watering flowers in her garden and dropped dead. Just like that, not much older than me. As we left the building after I expressed my condolences, I heard people sobbing.

This morning I saw the name of a coworker in the obituary column. I knew she was ill, but few knew it was cancer. She was always friendly and professional in my dealings with her. She led me to get my Christmas through the OSU farm every year. Going to miss her. Only fifty seven. The workplace was numb today. I suspect it will be for a brief time.

My expression of skepticism regarding my son's appointment with the nutritionist resulted in a strongly worded six page letter from his OT. She pointed a bit of blame toward his caregivers in her reasons to send this letter. That we're not doing the work. Said that he has shown little progress and has she's essentially given up on him unless me meet certain conditions. The conditions are not unreasonable, but she made other statements, including her belief that my son will never be able to chew food and get nutrition from it. How can you trust a therapist with that much pessimism? How can you think she's willing to invest in any more improvement for him? We have an appointment with his behaviorist on Wednesday. Could be tense.

So questioning the methods of a medical professional results in a six page diatribe. Yes, there is a problem.

In happier news there are a couple of good records out right now including this one from Beach House.



This is lovely dream pop. really fine record with nary a bad cut on it.

I'm also pleased with the new one from Admiral Fallow.



Have a feeling this band is going to increase their audience a lot this year.

This man is amazing

That was a one off with Jack White.

He has a new record out later this month, working again with Ethan Johns. He covers Tom Waits for God's sake!



And Leonard Cohen

The Best Part of Breaking Up is when You're Making Up

A honest effort can turn my cynical eye into genuine admiration and forgiveness of an artist. Such is the case with Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball."

Three years ago I broke up with him. I thought he and I were on two different planets and we'd never see each other in orbit again. I wished him well.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about this new record that made me get out the large plate of crow. I think it's hearing the anger in his words, an anger that is not forced, an anger that is not being constructed to blueprints. Springsteen has been on the campaign trail for Kerry and Obama and he does not like what he has seen. It's taken him three years to write about his rage, about the theft of America from the robber barons. He's spitting out the chorus of "We Take Care of our Own" as a lie from the leaders. It's not happening. He's issuing a challenge. Laying his flag down.

The production is a different step for him, he's using drum loops, a full horn section and has been heavily influenced by Irish folk music. He's taken his Seeger sessions work to a different level, added some gospel and it hits the mark more than it fails. It's his best record in years.

There are a few vague moments. "Jack of All Trades" a dirge about a couple trying to make ends meet goes on a bit too long and meanders. And the narrator could not afford to see Springsteen live at this point, not with the prices he's charging to see his shows. Yes, I know it's a great expense, moving all these people across the world, but still...

In the middle of the despair of the stomping and fierce "Death to My Hometown" there are moments of remembrance and joy. In the remade "Land of Hope and Dreams" comes Clarence Clemons' last sax solo. It made me gasp at first listen. There is an orchestra of stringed instruments on this song - mandolins, banjos, all kinds of guitars. Damn, that opening saxophone note put this record into the double plus column.

"Rocky Ground", the second single (if there's such a thing as a single anymore) is the heaviest gospel influenced song on the album that builds into a full on rap by Michelle Moore. I do acknowledge that Springsteen is trying to experiment with new approaches, and not throwing anything to the wall just to see if it will stick.

Wrecking Ball closes with a song of survival, "We Are Alive" is described as a campfire song, with strummed acoustic guitars, hollered lyrics and mariachi horns it describes the losses of fighters for justice while offering more hope for the listener, letting us know that hard times come and hard times go.

Illegitimi non carborundum

One of the bravest performances I've ever seen.



Here's some of the context.

My respect for Kris Kristofferson went up another notch.

I hope she can keep herself intact. Her new record is pretty damn good.

Open the door and let love in

Paying homage to your musical influences while paving your own way in the world of today's music is what The Explorers Club attempts to accomplish with their second record, Grand Hotel.

Each well crafted song is a pleasant game of spot the influence. From The Buckinghams, to Lou Christie, Burt Bachrach to Roy Orbison - Grand Hotel, for the most part, is a sparkling tribute to pop sounds of the late 1960's.

Like their first release, Freedom Wind, which exclusively pays homage to the Beach Boys, Grand Hotel is a shimmering aural display of sunshine, brilliantly mixed by Mark Linnett, made by musicians who play their own instruments. Musicians who sing harmony without the aid of auto tune.



Each room of Grand Hotel offers a treat, a Spanish guitar, Herb Alpert horns, anthem like strings - you want to stay in this Charleston, South Carolina's sextet's world for a long time. Yet I can't help looking for a little oomph, some soul, individual identity - something that tells me this band has more to say, without having to rely on the sounds of the past.

Strong to the finish

Not much to say so I'll keep posting videos until I figure it out. As a kid, I loved the Max Fleischer Popeye cartoons. I think they'd approve of this.

Adult Music for Adults

This record by Tim Finn came out late last year. I have no idea where it was released, maybe just in New Zealand and Australia, but this is another fine pop record by a very good songwriter. Just found it now.



The record is called The View Is Worth The Climb. Here's another one from it.



That's his daughter in the back seat.

Running, not standing still

This is a great video put together by a fan. Love the song.



The Explorer's Club's second album, Grand Hotel, will be released on February 14th.