Smith is up for six Grammy Awards, including song of the year.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Sam Smith, Tom Petty Settle Over "Musical Accident"
Smith is up for six Grammy Awards, including song of the year.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Song In My Head - Matt Pinfield Edition
Remember how MTV's 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield would show off his command of arcane musical history by name-checking all the musical relationships and prior bands that musicians were in as he presented their videos? Well here's my best attempt at imitation:
Here's a flashback to 1987, when Howard DeVoto, late of the Buzzcocks and Magazine, teamed up with Noko to form Luxuria. DeVoto of course was on hand when the Sex Pistols played the Manchester Lesser Trade Hall on that fateful night in 1976, along with future bandmate Pete Shelley, future Joy Division and New Order band members Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, future Factory Records chairman Tony Wilson, Mark E. Smith, who would later form The Fall and future Smiths frontman Morrissey. Anyway, Luxuria had a minor hit on college radio with "Redneck" on the critically acclaimed Beggars Banquet label.
Here's a flashback to 1987, when Howard DeVoto, late of the Buzzcocks and Magazine, teamed up with Noko to form Luxuria. DeVoto of course was on hand when the Sex Pistols played the Manchester Lesser Trade Hall on that fateful night in 1976, along with future bandmate Pete Shelley, future Joy Division and New Order band members Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, future Factory Records chairman Tony Wilson, Mark E. Smith, who would later form The Fall and future Smiths frontman Morrissey. Anyway, Luxuria had a minor hit on college radio with "Redneck" on the critically acclaimed Beggars Banquet label.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Best of 2014
It seems like every year I approach this list with the same attitude: I won't have enough to fill a CD, let alone an album side. This year MAY be different. I have 13 legitimate nominees for the best of 2014. We'll get to them in a moment, but first...
Album of the Year
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St. Vincent - St. Vincent
For an album described as party music for a funeral, this was a fitting soundtrack to the last half of my year. Sometimes an album comes along that just fits where you're at and what you're going through, and for me, this was it.
Songs of the Year
"Holding Pattern" - Dean Wareham
The Galaxie 500 and Luna frontman returns with a his first full-length solo album. It's an often melancholy collection of folk-pop, but this track is the album's most upbeat, and it showcases Wareham's dry wit as he contemplates his life in a rut. He name-checks a couple of classic rock bands -- Kansas, Boston, Toto, Journey, Foreigner and Styx -- before completing the rhyme with a football score (San Diego over Denver 17 to 6). Classic stuff.
"Red Eyes" - War on Drugs
Kurt Vile's old band made a lot of Best of 2014 lists. And rightly so. The Philadelphia sextet offers a shimmering collection of introspective songs that sound like Arcade Fire covering "Pale Shelter"-era Tears for Fears.
"Mr Tembo" - Damon Albarn
I know what you're thinking: Damon Albarn is about 20 years past his heyday and only a fool or a fanboy would include him on a Best Of list in 2014. I challenge you to find a more fun and life-affirming song than this one, about an orphaned elephant in Tanzania. It even got my kids to stop singing Frozen for a few days!
"Easy Money" - Johnny Marr
While I'm on the fanboy kick, I include this track here. It's certainly not Marr's best work -- and I feel we've heard that guitar riff before (maybe as recently as Modest Mouse's "Dashboard"!) -- but this song grew on me as the year went on. Look, he's not much of a lyricist and he's recycling his licks but this one came wrapped in such a catchy package that I was compelled to include it here.
"Regret" - St. Vincent
This was a hard choice between this song and "Digital Witness", the song that's no doubt on everybody else's list. There are plenty of reasons to choose "Regret" -- and not just to be contrarian. First, that guitar riff. Then that angelic chorus. If you're not convinced St. Vincent has made the best record of the year by this - the seventh song on the album - I can't help you.
"Seasons (Waiting on You)" - Future Islands
Baltimore's Future Islands makes thoughtful electronic music and marries it to the blue-eyed soul vocals of lead singer Samuel T. Herring. The first time I heard this track I couldn't get past Herring's voice, but ultimately this song just pulls and tugs until it wins you over.
"Goodbye (Butterfly)" - Brian Jonestown Massacre
So this is technically a BJM song, even though it's on an EP where Magic Castles gets side two. And like the best Anton Newcombe songs, there's menace lurking not far from the surface, and it swirls and builds but never quite erupts.
"Inside Out" - Spoon
Austin's Spoon returns with their eighth album, and I'll let the critics decide where this one stacks up in the band's formidable catalog. This track is at once glossy and understated, and I appreciate the trance-like effect it has on me.
"Zigzagging Toward the Light" - Conor Oberst
A positive effort from Mr. Omaha himself. This is one of those tunes I first heard on Sirius XMU and sat in my car until it was over.
"Digital Witness" - St. Vincent
Surprise! The aforementioned single from St. Vincent makes my list, too. It's too hard to choose between songs this good.
"You and Me" - Damon Albarn
Another tough choice -- this time between this and "Mr. Tembo" -- so both make the cut. This is essentially two songs in one, and it's easily a contender for the prettiest song of the year. Listen closely to the turn the song takes at the 3:34 mark. Albarn goes places he doesn't often go -- heroin addiction, for instance -- and in its sublime, minimal beauty has given us a very gentle take on a break-up song. This is one of those tracks that I just played on repeat this year. Sometimes the best music is the most minimal. And it doesn't hurt that Brian Eno was onboard for vocals and synthesizers.
"Coffee" - Sylvan Esso
More elegant minimalism. A simple rhythm track, some lovely synth notes and Amelia Meath's beautiful voice. It all culminates in a familiar 1960s refrain from Tommy James and the Shondells.
"Water Fountain" - tUnE-yArDs
Not unrelated to "Milkshake" by Kelis, Merrill Garbus gives us a track that would be at home in a schoolyard singalong. Garbus has unfairly become the poster child for cultural appropriation but her live performance at Rough Trade NYC won me over this year. She takes the stage with her bandmate and a looper, records a measure of percussion into the looper, and proceeds to play over it in real time. It's a neat thing to watch.
Album of the Year
St. Vincent - St. Vincent
For an album described as party music for a funeral, this was a fitting soundtrack to the last half of my year. Sometimes an album comes along that just fits where you're at and what you're going through, and for me, this was it.
Songs of the Year
"Holding Pattern" - Dean Wareham
The Galaxie 500 and Luna frontman returns with a his first full-length solo album. It's an often melancholy collection of folk-pop, but this track is the album's most upbeat, and it showcases Wareham's dry wit as he contemplates his life in a rut. He name-checks a couple of classic rock bands -- Kansas, Boston, Toto, Journey, Foreigner and Styx -- before completing the rhyme with a football score (San Diego over Denver 17 to 6). Classic stuff.
Kurt Vile's old band made a lot of Best of 2014 lists. And rightly so. The Philadelphia sextet offers a shimmering collection of introspective songs that sound like Arcade Fire covering "Pale Shelter"-era Tears for Fears.
I know what you're thinking: Damon Albarn is about 20 years past his heyday and only a fool or a fanboy would include him on a Best Of list in 2014. I challenge you to find a more fun and life-affirming song than this one, about an orphaned elephant in Tanzania. It even got my kids to stop singing Frozen for a few days!
While I'm on the fanboy kick, I include this track here. It's certainly not Marr's best work -- and I feel we've heard that guitar riff before (maybe as recently as Modest Mouse's "Dashboard"!) -- but this song grew on me as the year went on. Look, he's not much of a lyricist and he's recycling his licks but this one came wrapped in such a catchy package that I was compelled to include it here.
"Regret" - St. Vincent
This was a hard choice between this song and "Digital Witness", the song that's no doubt on everybody else's list. There are plenty of reasons to choose "Regret" -- and not just to be contrarian. First, that guitar riff. Then that angelic chorus. If you're not convinced St. Vincent has made the best record of the year by this - the seventh song on the album - I can't help you.
"Seasons (Waiting on You)" - Future Islands
Baltimore's Future Islands makes thoughtful electronic music and marries it to the blue-eyed soul vocals of lead singer Samuel T. Herring. The first time I heard this track I couldn't get past Herring's voice, but ultimately this song just pulls and tugs until it wins you over.
So this is technically a BJM song, even though it's on an EP where Magic Castles gets side two. And like the best Anton Newcombe songs, there's menace lurking not far from the surface, and it swirls and builds but never quite erupts.
Austin's Spoon returns with their eighth album, and I'll let the critics decide where this one stacks up in the band's formidable catalog. This track is at once glossy and understated, and I appreciate the trance-like effect it has on me.
A positive effort from Mr. Omaha himself. This is one of those tunes I first heard on Sirius XMU and sat in my car until it was over.
Surprise! The aforementioned single from St. Vincent makes my list, too. It's too hard to choose between songs this good.
Another tough choice -- this time between this and "Mr. Tembo" -- so both make the cut. This is essentially two songs in one, and it's easily a contender for the prettiest song of the year. Listen closely to the turn the song takes at the 3:34 mark. Albarn goes places he doesn't often go -- heroin addiction, for instance -- and in its sublime, minimal beauty has given us a very gentle take on a break-up song. This is one of those tracks that I just played on repeat this year. Sometimes the best music is the most minimal. And it doesn't hurt that Brian Eno was onboard for vocals and synthesizers.
"Coffee" - Sylvan Esso
More elegant minimalism. A simple rhythm track, some lovely synth notes and Amelia Meath's beautiful voice. It all culminates in a familiar 1960s refrain from Tommy James and the Shondells.
Not unrelated to "Milkshake" by Kelis, Merrill Garbus gives us a track that would be at home in a schoolyard singalong. Garbus has unfairly become the poster child for cultural appropriation but her live performance at Rough Trade NYC won me over this year. She takes the stage with her bandmate and a looper, records a measure of percussion into the looper, and proceeds to play over it in real time. It's a neat thing to watch.
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