Best Random Things 2011

I love excessive releases because there is so much that is passed the first time, and hearing the bits and pieces of other albums that never got made, you sometimes wonder just what the artist was thinking when they thought wouldn't mesh.  Most of the time I disagree with the artist's choices, because I've heard some of the most amazing songs that were deliberately kept out of the main LPs (which, I've always felt should always be the artist's best display of work.

Best EPs

Thee Oh Sees Carrion Crawler/The Dream

There's a thump that is missing in music today.  Last year had great examples through J. Roddy Walston and The Black Angels.  A lot of bands I felt sideswiped this a little bit (The Black Lips come to mind especially).  That's not to say it's a bad thing, that's just the way people work and progress, and should not be judged harshly.  But it is annoying.  Thee Oh Sees play a punkish garage rock without all the goddamn feedback.  It's clean, yet it's messy.


The Decemberists Long Live the King

The Decemberists did some serious things this year, which I will discuss later in the month.  But for now I will only say that there is a great song entitled "Sonnet" that comes at the end of the EP that is amazing. That's the thing with a lot of these old timers is that everything becomes so saturated, and this just trips the simplicity that made me love their last LP (and subsequently all their old stuff again).

Jens Lekman An Argument With Myself

I mean, I'll take whatever Jens Lekman I can get. Because I'm trying to keep standard priniciples about what constitutes an actual album in the top 20, this EP lands here.  But it would have been in there.  Jens never really gives you what want, but he does offer something better.  Kind of like friends you've had for a long time and haven't seen in a while.  A sunny day listening to his rambles is a day for me, even if they have a slight reggae hue to it.


Mayer Hawthorne Impressions

This is one those "Strictly Covers" EPs, and aside from his shitty cover of "Mr. Blue Sky", this is essentially some good stuff.  I think the key to any of these covers EPs is by making the songs very obscure, thus you can more freely perform your instrumental (or in this case, vocal) abilities. Hawthorne is a cornball, but in the best way, and he wandering on this EP is always a delight.


Robin Pecknold Three Songs

Hey remember when the Fleet Foxes only had one album out?  Yeah, me neither.  But inbetween the first and the second LP, as a matter of fact, before the great hipster hype that nearly toppled Seattle for a few days last spring, Robin Pecknold let out three free releases, and they were fucking stellar.  Even through the hype, listening to it now makes me realize just what Fleet Foxes were about do.  All of the songs are like the beginnings of any Fleet Foxes song before their songs take off into some huge thunder.  It's almost ambient and times, and great marker before Helplessness Blues was released.


Best Reissues:

The Beach Boys Smile Sessions

I've always tried to understand the Beach Boys, and it's always been based on the fact that I will never get the surfer/barbershop quartet schtick.  I mean, I acknowledge that every mindblowing band of the 1960s had to start from a simpler medium (Beatles, Who, Stones, etc), but The Beach Boys are starting to slowly turn me around.  Most that are because of these sessions.  It feels like genius struggling, and it sounds like a slow drawn because of it, but to sift through, I start to find some real peaches in the basket. At this point there's been so many versions of this album, including one full recording, I'm just glad to have the basics in a huge bundle.

East of Underground East of Underground

There's such a huge spread of reissues in commission (mostly because marketing people are really banking on the nerds).  But this is the pinnacle of the nerdom.  If the Smile Sessions is Led Zeppelin IV, East of Underground is the Live at Leeds. This album is essentially a reprint (but in 4 pieces, and on vinyl) of a military band (as in the U.S. military).  The set was stationed in Germany during Vietnam, and it plays (omitting some general corniness) almost seamlessly.  It's a modgepodge of general funk and soul, with a few pop hits, but not only is the language more political than one would normally assume.  As well, the songs seamlessly slide in-and-out of each other neglecting the occasional intro for the tape recordings.  It's simplistic, yet it's amazing if presented correctly in its vinyl form.

3 Recent Albums I Feel You Should Listen To.

Deep:

Blitzen Trapper American Goldwing

This music feels amply appropriate for any venture the more agrarian-natured areas of the world.  It's strange to hear something that has almost nothing to do with classic rock, yet it sticks a strange landing.  Veering off-track listening at times I feel like I left a classic rock station on the radio.  What Drive-By Truckers is to southern rock, American Goldwing is that to Northwestern classic rock.  It feels very much parts Idaho, Washington, and Oregon in nature.  Which is odd, because the last time I was listening to Furr, I didn't really feel much of anything.

Deeper:

The Budos Band The Budos Band

Yes, the first one.  Everyone in the last 18 months have gotten really into the third album The Budos Band III (which, in all honesty, is no slouch on it's own).  However this is more stripped down than any of it's predecessors.  It's less neo and more funk/soul (which makes sense, as Daptone Records was just getting its sea-legs.


Too Deep:

Various Artists: East of Underground; Hell Below

I suppose that most of this album collection is in its story:  It's a collection of recordings by a series of bands whom were all active Army servicemen stationed in Germany during Vietnam.  It's all funk, and it's all covers.  My first thought about this was that, aside from it's nostalgic edge, it's little more than a heavy dose of vintage b-sides on the funk side.  But what diminished this thought was how consistently tight the instrumental arrangements are connected, which I equate to a military structure.  Only something funded by the military could be so crisp and tight, which in some strange way works for a large amount of songs that don't typically resonate the views and opinions expressed by the government.