Today is the last day of the year 2010 and I could, quite possibly be one of the last to post my 2010 list(s). While the trend seems to be listing top albums for the year, sometimes with a numerical order, granting one lucky winner the spot of Album of The Year, I opt to list the albums that I spent the most time with that were released over the past 12 months. By no means is this my claim that these albums were the best of the crop, as I probably don’t listen to as many recordings as some of my peers. I try to scan recordings from time to time, that seem to be grabbing the popular buzz, but it seems mostly I exist in my own opinionated, personally jaded world when it comes to music.  I gravitate towards artists and albums for whatever reason and with my addictive personality cling to them, sometimes over consuming and over analyzing the content. That’s me. That’s what I do. And this is what I listened to the most of 2010 releases….

I had to update, as I left this recording off the list initially. It was in my head, just somehow got left out…

-Spoon Transference

Rarely does Spoon put out an album that I’m not into that much, but the predecessor to the band’s 2010 release, felt void of that raw, edgy sound that made the early records stand out from anything in the popular indie format. Returning to that element that has found this band continually growing into the established creative unit that has outlived many of it’s peers, Britt Daniel incorporated years of recording and production experience with a familiar approach to songwriting and produces one of the band’s best records. At least in my opinion. What’s next for the band? I’m not sure that Daniel has a plan at this point, but there’s a good chance it’ll leave critics and fans alike, satisfied.

-Twin Tigers Gray Waves

My love affair with bands from Athen’s, GA has become quite obviously obsessive, and Twin Tigers fueled that obsession early in 2010 with their debut full-length. It’s a sonic invitation into a world that balances the beauty and reality of personal relationships, musically and lyrically. Matthew Rain’s vocals distant in production, but weighing heavily on the songs.

Lyric: “If I am such a creep, why stay within my reach” -Feathers

-The National High Violet

No surprise that this album has ended up on many year end lists, because it’s so f****** great! I’ve been a fan of these guys for awhile, and while one might think that working within their unique sound might have found a dead end early, they have managed to work and refine their sound to a perfection. Matt Berninger’s lyrical content and delivery define the band as much as the music itself, while you find him at his darkest on this record, you find him at his most brilliant. It would be hard for me to try and find a lyrical moment that shines most for me, as I honestly believe that Berninger is one of the strongest, most talented lyrical writers in today’s music scene. He defines emotions and experiences in a manner that brings life to your own personal realizations.

-Deer Tick Black Dirt Sessions

Break out the whiskey, the sorrow, and embrace the experiences in life that aren’t the most welcomed or pleasant. This latest recording from the band finds founder/frontman John McCauley painting a dark portrait of life lyrically supported by a somewhat stripped down musical foundation. Acoustic guitar holds down the base of most of the album with McCauley’s life strained vocals frame the songs, while occasional songs find an electric pulse. Like many of the blues greats of the past, McCauley makes the down side of life sound so good.

MP3> Deer Tick ‘Piece By Piece, Frame By Frame’

-Retribution Gospel Choir 2

No matter what Alan Sparhawk does within his musical career either with Low or Retribution Gospel Choir, he will never receive the accolades that he deserves, but that just might be a good thing. I’m completely obsessed with the body of work that Sparhawk continues to churn out, and this latest effort being the 2nd release from his newest project finds him at complete odds with his birth child band Low, loud, guitar driven, boisterous, and inspiring. If there is one artist that young artist or aspiring artists should look to for inspiration in regards to work ethic..this guy is the real deal.

-Beach House Teen Dream

What a beautiful dreamy, sexy romp through minimal low-fi music. Minimal by today’s standards, but that standard just changed with this album. What a difference an album makes. Usually I’m driven by lyrics, but this is one of those recordings that established itself musically with the lyrics playing a less influential role in my appreciation.

-Blonde Redhead Penny Sparkle

I am quite surprised that this recording didn’t make more lists..Sure it wasn’t the pace of 23 but it was well orchestrated shift in tempo and mood that delivered quite well. It’s dark, it’s sexy, it invokes wonderful imagery and emotions suited for film noir.

-Land Of Talk Cloak and Cipher

Elizabeth Powell established herself as a young woman in emotional transition, and a youthful axe to grind, with her guitar and lyrics on the band’s debut EP  Applause Cheer Boo Hiss. Two full-length recordings later and we find Powell still working the axe, but within a full blown dimension of production and richly constructed songwriting. Production compliments of Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes, Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade) bring a new depth and space to Powell’s songs which have developed as nicely over the years.

Lyric: “How deep is this soul I feel I’m in? Seen a lot of light and done a lot with it. How deep is this hole I feel I’m in?”

-Phosphorescent Here’s To Taking It Easy

I had probably heard two songs from this recording prior to catching the band’s live performance, and my initial reaction was it felt like a modern day version of The Band. The live show was one of the most enjoyable shows of the year for me. The vibe was warm. The energy shared by everyone in attendance. And the band played on for hours, never dulling the experience throughout the entire set. Here’s To Taking It Easy defines the recording well, complimented with tracks like “Mermaid Parade”, “We’ll Be Here Soon”, and “Los Angeles”, the album drifts as softly as the wind shining bright and beautiful like the sun.

-The Black Angels Phosphene Dream

Hometown psych rock heroes put aside their egos and enlist a producer for their third full-length and the end result fines the band honing their drone and roll sound to near perfection. The band’s signature sound still in tact, but the lengthy expansive tracks replaced with tightly wound, pop stuctured songs that draw from psych pioneers from an early day. The band still challenges to shake your dark psyche to the core, but inspires a desire to dance along while doing so.

-Deerhunter Halcyon Digest

Deerhunter have finally captured my full attention with this album, after two albums of tempting me into their camp. Shifting between ghostly minimalist tracks that drift along for minutes and modern day pop rockers, Halycon Digest feels like the beginning of a band quietly and quickly on the rise and refining their talent. The band, in my mind have finally gone from Bradford Cox and company to…Deerhunter.

-Colour Revolt The Cradle

Jesse Coppenbarger defines the history of Colour Revolt right out of the gate with the lead track “8 years”. A band that crumbled to the point of almost non-existence with the departure of 3 out of 5 members, found Coppenbarger and co-founding member Sean Kirkpatrick calling it quits for short period. Just long enough for the two to realize that they still had a desire to make music together, and this album is a culmination of that desire. A different sounding album than previous, slightly more subdued sonically, but as dense and complex lyrically and musically as ever. It’s an album that needs a patient ear to realize it’s full potential, and even after many listens, it continues to reveal itself to you like a slow strip tease.

MP3> Colour Revolt ‘Our Names’

-Dead Confederate Sugar

While Dead Confederate lightened up the mood and at times set aside the epic sonic rides found on the previous album, they produced some of their heaviest work as well. Shifting between the acoustic fronted “Run From The Gun” to the terrifying, gut punch heavy “Quiet Kid”, the band displays their ability to expand the scope of their songwriting, if it only is the beginning of what we might see from the band in the future. An album almost completely developed in the studio, from a skeleton of ideas, one begs to wonder what is capable from this band with more prep work. I for one, can’t wait to hear.

-Futurebirds Hampton’s Lullaby

Athen’s again? Yep. This low-fi, country tinged rock recording, hinting at early My Morning Jacket days with an energy that once witnessed live brings a whole new perspective to these songs. Sipping whiskey, foot stomping, good time.

-The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night

The title and cover art pretty much say it all. Epic rock songs that conjure up images that would cost millions to produce cinematically, mixed in with more conventional rock pieces that maintain the rich layered sound that this Canadian outfit is quickly becoming recognized for producing.

-Minus The Bear Omni

It’s Minus The Bear. They showed up on the scene with their unique quick tempo guitar noodling prog rock years ago with Menos El Oso and continue their trek of making cool rock records that inspire the air guitar player in myself. The band has rarely produced anything that I can’t get my head into, and Omni finds them at the top of their game.

I’m a bit late getting to this band Suckers and their release from this year Wild Smile. While the recording is slowly growing on me, and this song being kinda decent, the video isn’t going to win any awards. What’s up with the nudie suit person covered in that purple sparkly stuff?

The album probably won’t make it as one my most listened to for the year, but it definitely puts the band on my radar for the future.

SUCKERS – It Gets Your Body Movin´ from Amberley Productions on Vimeo.

For those of you paying attention, Austin’s Monahans have bee slowly revealing their 2010 Release album one track at a time since March of this year and making them available for download on their site. The final track revealed this year turns out to be a special one, featuring the one and only Sinead O’Connor contributing additional vocals,  and this is a bit about how it all came about:

“About the song…
Drummer Roberto Sanchez and his family took a trip to Ireland earlier this year, and he was inspired by the landscape enough to write a beautiful sketch of what was to become “Seabirds”.  Upon returning to Austin, the band layered upon Rob’s sketch in the studio and then added lyrics.  It became clear that the one thing missing was a voice.  Sinead O’Connor’s voice to be exact.  One thing lead to another, and the song found it’s way back to Ireland, where Sinead graciously contributed her vocals to the song, and the vision of the original sketch was complete.  We hope you enjoy listening to this track, described by the band as a “hopeful song for a broken world”, as its beauty gives us chills every time we listen to it.”

Congrats to the guys in Monahans who have had a great year, and thanks for the tunes.

MP3> Monahans ‘Seabirds’

Slowcore outfit Low are set to release their next full-length recording C’mon early 2011, but to hold the fans over until, they have released a free live EP recorded at St. Catherina Church in the Netherlands city on January 22, 2009. You can get the download a bit further down this post. It’s a definite recommend for Low fans.

The band has a few dates listed to close out this year, while we patiently await the new release, which will feature Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and Trampled by Turtles banjo player, Dave Carroll. Best news I’ve heard today so far.

Live at Eindhoven EP:

01 Monkey
02 Silver Rider
03 July
04 Laser Beam

The folks over at Austin Psych Fest are working hard on series #4 of their unique festival that honors the pioneers of the genre while incorporating some of the modern artist that dip from the past while keeping it current. Taking place April 29th-May 1st @ The East Side Drive In, the festival has just released this pretty impressive list of confirmed acts. More to be announced as well.

January 13th will see more artists revealed with early bird tickets and more Austin Psych Fest details.

And don’t forget that the Austin Psych Fest 3 DVD is available for stuffing the stockings of your psych rock loving friends..hint, hint..

Preview the vid and then follow the jump for list of confirmed artists..Atlas Sound.nice!

AUSTIN PSYCH FEST 3 TRAILER from oswald james on Vimeo.

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I know..another video, but it’s the Clash for crying out loud. Who doesn’t love the Clash? Quite honestly the preview is kinda lame, but here’s to hoping that the actual documentary which airs Dec 12th on BBC America is packed full of unseen, awesome Clash stuff. And if you want to check out the preview clip for the documentary, you’ll have to hop over to Spin.com as those wiley bastards seem to have exclusive access to the clip. Check your local cable listings and Rock the Casbah.

I’ve included the video for “Rock the Casbah” just for the simple fact that it was filmed here in Austin. If I’m not mistaken the pool scene took place in what is now the Radisson pool by Town Lake/Lady Bird Johnson Lake.

If you haven’t picked up Phosphorescent’s “Here’s To Taking It Easy”, do yourself a favor and get you some early Holiday gift with this recording. It’s beautiful. You will definitely be hearing more from this band in 2011. Until then, check out this quick little vid of Matthew Houck performing an acoustic version of “We’ll Be Here Soon” for O2 Academy TV.

Full steam ahead is what Neon Indian seemed to have going for awhile, but where are we now? Relocating to the hipster equivalent of the Garden of Eden (Brooklyn) from our lovely Austin, Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo has something to prove over the next year. He gets a start with some early year tour dates, and this recent video release for “Mind Drips”.

Neon Indian tour dates

Australia:

Wednesday, December 29 Revolver Upstairs
Prahran/Melbourne

Thursday, December 30 Pyramid Rock Festival
Phillip Island

Friday, December 31 No Years
Brisbane Powerhouse
Brisbane

Saturday, January 1 Field Day
The Domain
Sydney

Monday, January 3 Happy Mondays
Level 7 Curtin House
Melbourne

US:

Thursday, February 3rd W/ Flaming Lips
Palladium Ballroom
Dallas, TX

I’ve never actually experienced a flashback, and one would think that of all people, I would be the ideal candidate for such occurrence. You might think by visiting here on a regular basis that I grew up on a steady diet of guitar driven rock and punk, but there are years when this guy spent many an hour on the dance floor putting in some serious dance time. Pre-rave, X fueled nights that found this kid, bleach blonde hair, black wear from head to toe, eyeliner and cigarettes, breaking out some serious moves in the clubs. A severe 180 from my days of heavy metal. I do not lie, and I wish I had a photo to prove it, but we were to busy with other matters to think about taking pictures. And with this little tidbit of my past much a secret to many, I present this new series of bands that many of you might not have heard of from those 80′s electronic days.

These days you can look back and listen to Propaganda and stamp it synth-pop, but I didn’t really view it as pop in any fashion compared to what else was going on in music those days. Sure it sounds pop by today’s standard, but this was music that was different than much of the other stuff that was happening in the electronic synth genre at the time. The internet wasn’t a household fixture, so our exposure was mostly limited to the lame ass radio, friends, clubs, and record stores. You had to really seek out music that operated under the traditional radar.

I only owned the band’s popular debut album A Secret Wish, and as it was difficult to find bands in this genre that produced solid recordings instead of just pumping out singles, Propaganda accomplished a solid record with A Secret Wish.

The band formed in Dusseldorf, Germany and soon signed to Trevor Horn’s ZZT label a few lineup changes and years after their 1982 inception. One of the more recognizable voices of the band belonged to Claudia Brucken who left the band shortly after the release of A Secret Wish to pursue a solo career and other projects including ACT and Onetwo. The band continues on this day in some form, but my memories lay with the tracks from their debut album, bright lights, dance floor, and chemical induced euphoria all a part of the experience.

MP3> Propaganda ‘Duel’
MP3> Propaganda ‘P. Machinery’

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WTF?

People really do suck sometimes. We hear about this quite a bit here in the U.S. but in Italy? This is a press release from a band representative:

As you may have heard by now, A Place To Bury Strangers were midway through a three week long, 18 show tour across Europe, when on Friday, 12/3, their van stolen in Rome, Italy outside the Blackout club in the venue’s parking lot.

The band’s gear was safe in the venue, but 1000 Euros in merch money, all of their suitcases and clothes, a lot of merch (t shirts, etc.) Dion’s New Zealand Passport, the band’s Macbook Pro laptop and numerous personal items and various other gear were in the van at the time of the theft.

Saturday’s show in Pordenone, Italy and Monday’s show in Bilbao, Spain have been canceled.

We’ve rented a new van in Rome and the tour should resume normally in Nantes on Tuesday.  Sorry to the people of Pordenone and Bilbao for the cancelled shows.  We’d only had to cancel a show one before in three and a half years of round the clock touring, so hopefully this will never happen again.

We’ve set up a paypal link for donations.  The items stolen from the van were worth over 15K and that doesn’t include the excess van rental charges, plane fare, Passport fees, cancelled shows, etc.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=AU3QZ2RECTE3E

People really do suck sometimes…

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Noise rockers, and once heralded one of the loudest bands around, Mogwai are churning out another album. Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will drops it sonic legally on 2/15 via Sub Pop. Album art just revealed along with the first track “Rano Pano” to ease you into the new tunes.

MP3> Mogwai ‘Rano Pano’

Deer Tick has been one of the more delightful music discoveries of 2010, and would probably be the last band that I would imagine to tackle putting out a Christmas tune. Their country tinged southern rock injected with lyrical content that can drain the joy out of any sunny day, just doesn’t seem to lend itself to the joyous feel expected from a Christmas tune. I personally don’t like most Christmas music, but that doesn’t make me a Scrooge does it? As the cover warns, the track has got some naughty in there somewhere.

MP3> Deer Tick ‘Christmas All Summer Long’

And to show that Deer Tick’s John McCauley really is full of the Christmas spirit and has a little nice in him as well, he’s taking part in the Invisible Children Holiday Benefit presented by KCRW, happening in L.A. on Dec 20th.

From the Mind Of Adi comes video Pt 1, featuring interviews with Fun Fun Fun Fest artists Weird Al Yankovic, Wooven Bones, Royal Forest, and Magnifico. The Weird Al interview is worth the few minutes of your day. And being labeled Pt 1, surely indicates that there are more videos in store to stir up your Fun Fun Fun memories.

2010 Fun Fun Fun Fest Feature (Part One) from From The Mind Of Adi on Vimeo.

Austin’s Monahans have been having a pretty decent year during 2010. The band has been slowing releasing tracks from their newest recording simply titled 2010 Recordings making them available for download one a month since March to warm reception. The one and only Robert Plant recorded a Milton Mapes (early version of Monahans) track for his Band of Joy release back in September. And they recently recorded a session for the ACL Satellite Sets, just to name a few highlights of the year. Sunday will find the band closing out the year with a unique show at the Salvage Vanguard Theater promising an intimate live audio/visual intimate experience. The Whiskey Priest is listed as special guest.

$10 gets you in

BYOB

8p.m.- 10p.m. Sunday 12.5

Presented by The Church of The Friendly Ghost

The latest track to be released from the 2010 Recordings

MP3> Monahans ‘Beat Of A Thousand Drums’

Watch the full episode. See more ACL presents Satellite Sets.

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