another one of those ubiquitous lists

[pastels_badge]

I'm not doing a top-whatever of the year music list, but here is a list of records that I enjoyed a lot this year, including some that are (gasp!) actually new. Basically, if I just got into it this year, or if I was already familiar with it but played the shit out of it anyways, it went on the list. It's in alphabetical order by title because

Comments

[datapanik]

Speaking of Let's Active, Mitch's earlier band, the Sneakers, are actually opening for the dB's in New York next month. The Sneakers were Mitch, Chris Stamey and Will Rigby (future dB's).

I'm convinced solo (post-Beatles) John Lennon is an influence point for Spoon (especially the Merge albums). Scorcese used "Well Well Well" in The Departed, very, er, well.

Is Weird Weeds that DC pop band Guy P. was in, pre-Fugazi?

[pastels_badge]

That's really interesting about the Sneakers. I wonder if I'll ever get a chance to see Mitch Easter live.

Yeah, I know for a fact that John Lennon is a major influence on Spoon. When I was hanging out with Britt years ago he had a ton of John Lennon solo stuff, stuff I'd heard of and stuff I hadn't and box sets and everything.

The Weird Weeds are an Austin band that I highly recommend. They play in your neck of the woods every so often, too.

[plainmabel]

Isn't Man-Made great? I really consider it the best since Bandwagonesque. Is the rest of the Mahogany record as good as that one song I know "Supervitesse"?

So looking forward to seeing Camera Obscura next month -- the best part is that Lloyd Cole lives around here and I would imagine he'd be at the show.

[pastels_badge]

I only just started to really get into Man-Made but I like it a lot. Best since Bandwagonesque? I have to admit, I haven't really thought about that, but I could definitely see a case for it.

Yeah, that Mahogany album is really very consistently good. Great, actually. Though it's not blowing my mind quite as thoroughly as Dream of a Modern Day did, it might just be because I've been waiting for, like, five years for it to come out.

Camera Obscura were really good both times I saw them live this year. Seeing them with Lloyd Cole would be really interesting. If anything exciting happens with that I hope you post about it.

[plainmabel]

I think it's at least the most consistent since Bandwagonesque -- really great throughout. And seriously, it doesn't get much better than "Born Under a Good Sign."

I hope there is some cute duet with Lloyd Cole or that at least he is there to hear "Hey, Lloyd..." I also hope plenty of people come out to the show -- shows around here can really go either way attendance-wise. Matt just told me that The Essex Green are opening, so that should be fun.

[14icedbear]

i should do this, but i'm not sure i can make my brain do it...

[minimalrobot]

Boards of Canada? That's electronic. Have I had some kind of influence?

Agreed on the Camera Obscura (their best so far, I think) and the Mahogany (please come Austin!). Ocean Rain belongs on the list every year.

I think I need to familiarize myself with the Chills at some point.

[pastels_badge]

Oh, you've had an influence for sure. Duh! Actually, I'd probably be listening to more electronic stuff if I hadn't been so a) broke and b) distracted for the latter half of this year, but I'm hoping both will be a bit less of an issue in the future. It's also worth noting that you are one of the people that reminded me to really spend some time with Ocean Rain.

Sometimes I think I might like Underachievers Please Try Harder a tiny smidge better than Let's Get Out of This Country. But I'd rather just not pick a favorite of the two. As for Connectivity!--well, I just don't get why Mahogany aren't famous yet. I keep hoping maybe they'll play SXSW this year, like they did some years ago. Since they don't seem to venture below the Mason-Dixon Line otherwise.

I definitely recommend the Chills from my own experience. Though I'm still in the process of exploring them myself--the albums of theirs that I really want are annoyingly hard to track down.

[minimalrobot]

Did you notice you got linked here:

http://mahogany.nu/news.php

[pastels_badge]

That's insane!