[Nac Faves] My Favorite Music of 2004
Posted on January 17, 2005 at 10:41 am | No Comments
Without further ado, and later than most, I offer up my favorite discs and live shows from 2004. In no particular order…
Walking Concert – Run To Be Born
As Walter Schreifels gets older, his bands get mellower, step by sonic step. From Gorilla Biscuits to Quicksand, Rivals Schools to Walking Concert, it’s a progression strung together by his voice & guitar, and with songwriting that rarely lets me down.
download What’s Your New Thing? (mp3)
The Futureheads – Self-TitledWow. A little bit o’ Jam, a dash o’ Housemartins, borrows liberally from the old and ends up sounding, well, like the old. So it’s derivative as all get out, but it milks the good stuff. “Meantime” makes me want to jump around the room like a giddy schoolboy. One time I, uh, think I even did. And no, it wasn’t pretty.
download Decent Days and Nights (mp3)
The Album Leaf – In a Safe Place
No matter what mental state I’m in, Jimmy LaValle is able to relax me with just a couple keyboard notes and a programmed beat. The guy can do no wrong in my book, even with added guest vocals on a couple songs this time around.
download On Your Way (mp3)
The New Year – The End Is Near
With this album, the New Year fully embraces their Bedheady past and finds the perfect balance between what they are now and what got ’em here. Any wounds I suffered at Bedhead’s breakup are now entirely healed. I just wish ‘Chinese Handcuffs’ went on a little longer.
“I wish that song was a whole day long… that’d be the best day, that day.” – kith
download Chinese Handcuffs (mp3) / download Disease (mp3)
The Arcade Fire – FuneralYeah, yeah. You knew it was gonna be here. From a slight buzz to all-out-hype faster than the strumming in “Power Out”, the supposed over-blogging and hipster backlash can all be ignored… not just because the songs on this album measure up, but because their live show exceeds it all.
download Wake Up (mp3) / download a complete live set (mp3s)
Pinback – Summer In AbaddonWhile I’ve liked Pinback for a little while, it wasn’t until this record that I really loved ’em. Something clicked, and I’m digging through the back catalog with newfound enthusiasm. Looking forward to them live sometime this year.
download Fortress (mp3)
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Shake the Sheets
It’s a safe bet that any Ted release would end up in that particular year’s list, even it doesn’t reach the highs of the previous ones. Shake the Sheets is a solid record, with some great songs, but none that really hit me in that specific, receptive brainspot that certain songs do. That said, the tracks took on added impact when I saw them live, and made me appreciate the album even more.
download Me and Mia (mp3) / download some live tracks (mp3s)
Matt Pond PA – EmblemsLike Pinback, Matt Pond PA was a band I appreciated but wasn’t passionate about, but seeing them live and hearing Emblems all the way through changed that easily. Time to dive into the whole discography.
download Grave’s Disease (mp3)
Stereolab – Margerine EclipseI’d call this a much-appreciated return to form, but it’s not like they’d gotten terribly off-track with 2001’s Sound Dust. They’ve come full circle since the sterility of Dots & Loops, which nearly shoved me off of the Stereolab train. Glad I hung on, though.
download live tracks from 2004 (mp3)
Hot Snakes – Audit in Progress
They’ve got their sound, and they’ve got it down. A formula that works and works and works, that pummels and energizes and just makes me want to see them on stage again & again. As Chris wrote to me, “It’s no Rocket From the Crypt, but wow wow wow.” My sold-out-peel-session-seven-inch story ends sweetly: Chris bought an extra copy of that limited and long-gone Snakes’ vinyl, and sent it to me as a surprise. Most. Thoughtful. Friend. Ever.
download Hi-Lights (mp3)
Interpol – AnticsA disc that doesn’t only avoid the sophomore slump, but overcomes the worst leadoff track for a good album that I can remember. Took me awhile to get past that, but once I did… tracks 2 through 10 got constant play, with ‘Not Even Jail’ being one of my favorite songs of the year. And it’s not just because the ending of it gets me kinda nostalgic for Starlight.
watch Interpol videos
Snow Patrol – The Final StrawWhile my Snow Patrol enthusiasm has faded a bit from where it was this time last year, I’d be remiss to leave this disc off the list. It spent a lot of time in my player, and I saw ’em no less than four times in ’04. Thing is, I enjoyed each show a little less than the previous one. Too much of a good thing? Could be.
download live acoustic tracks (mp3)
The Sixth Great Lake – Sunday Bridge
This album renders the title ‘favorite discs’ inaccurate, unless of course you’re talking about the black wax kind… because it’s vinyl only for now. This choice isn’t a favor for friends (and what a weak favor that would be), but one that came from repeated flips from side A to side B and back over again. These three songwriters have never blended better than they have here, with four songs from each of them, Zach then Chris then Mike and repeat.
They were kind enough to let me share ‘Fool’, transferred from colored vinyl to mp3. Order the vinyl direct from the band, or ask your favorite independent record retailer, since Carrot Top Distribution is now on board. Fingers crossed for a cd release sometime in ’05.
download Fool (mp3)
Rilo Kiley – More AdventurousA really good album kept from total greatness by 2 or 3 weak songs (*cough* token blake ditty *cough*), but the first three alone are just pure pop genius. I don’t think it has the personal staying power of The Execution of All Things, but time and distance will tell.
download a complete live set (mp3s)
Explosions In The Sky – The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
Technically released in late ’03, but undiscovered by me until ’04, America’s answer to Mogwai grabbed me from the first note of the first epic instrumental. They’re taking this year off to record a Travels in Constants EP, and to write their next record, due sometime in 2006.
download Memorial (edit) (mp3) / download live sets
Elliott Smith – From a Basement on the Hill
A farewell that wasn’t supposed to be, it’s impossible to listen to this and not get sad… to not imagine of what his next album might have sounded like. I still can’t believe that he’s gone, it still doesn’t make sense.
download Twilight (mp3)
Also really liked…
Favorite reissues & collections…
Looking forward to in ’05…
And hoping for news of…
Previous year-end lists… 2001, 2002, & 2003
[Live MP3s] The Church in NYC 1988
Posted on January 16, 2005 at 9:43 am | No Comments
Back in 1988, while going to school at the University of Vermont, and DJing at its radio station, WRUV, I was also interning at local rock station WIZN.
A couple times a week I’d drive the 45 minutes down route 7, from Burlington to their original studios in tiny Vergennes, Vermont. I’d hang out, work on the music library, help cut promos, file away playlists, basically whatever the full timers needed a hand with. I learned a hell of a lot, much of it thanks to a guy named Tom Van Zandt (file under: where is he now?), and even thought I might end up in broadcasting or the record industry after college. Anyone who had similar ambitions, and graduated in 1991, knows what that craptacular economic time did to crush any such aspirations. Finish college, go straight to work at the mall, do not pass Go, do not collect reasonable salary. Rough days.
But I didn’t just learn a lot there; I also ended up with a ton of records and discs that ‘IZN was sent, but would never play. Their classic rock format kept them from using most of the stuff I loved, and my collection was the only logical place to dump the promo vinyl and alt-rock cds. So I hardly volunteered for free… I got paid with the things that mattered most to me at the time. Some of the stuff ended up on my weekly shows at ‘RUV, and sadly, most of it wound up melting into huge chunks of waxy black slag, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Thanks to a random box left at my parent’s place, a bunch of it survived, and I’ll be sharing some of these old promos over the next few months.
So here’s the first: Every week for years, WIZN was sent a syndicated live recording on vinyl, courtesy of programs like the “In Concert” series and the “King Biscuit Flower Hour”, which they’d broadcast once and usually toss. Occasionally, one of ’em would be by a band I was really into, and that’s the case with these Mp3s of the Week: A 1988 live set by the Church, transferred over the weekend from the original vinyl to my computer. Enjoy…
The Church
live at the Ritz, NYC
June 9th, 1988
[ Download set as one .zip file ]
1. When You Were Mine
2. Blood Money
3. North, South, East, West
4. Hotel Womb
5. Under the Milky Way
6. Reptile
7. Tantalized
8. It Doesn’t Change