Iron & Wine: The Creek Drank the Cradle, Kiss Each Other Clean, and Our Endless Numbered Days
Heartless Bastards: Arrow
Belle and Sebastian: The Boy with the Arab Strap
Of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks (2)
Hospitality: s/t
Zomes: Improvisations
Cate le Bon: Cyrk
First Aid Kit: The Lion's Roar
Beach House: Devotion
Simon & Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence
Feist: Metals
The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient (2)
Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Nicolas Jaar: Space is Only Noise
Jason Urick: Husbands
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: s/t
The New Pornographers: Electric Version
It feels strange whenever I listen to one of the New Pornographers' first three albums from beginning to end. I bought all three albums more or less at the same time a few years back, and I've played them on shuffle ever since. Listening to Electric Version sometimes feels weirdly exhausting, despite it containing many of my favorite songs. It is relentlessly upbeat—something they tempered starting with Twin Cinema. As much as I love Electric Version (it's top three, maybe top two for me), it thrives best on a song-by-song basis. The parts are better than the sum.
Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala
Les Paul and Mary Ford: Best of the Capitol Masters
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient
Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring for My Halo (2)
Sharon Van Etten: Epic
V/A: Play Music (Orange Sessions 2)
Feist: Let It Die, Metals, and The Reminder
Junip: Fields
The Radio Dept.: Clinging to a Scheme (2)
Pernice Brothers: Overcome by Happiness (2) and The World Won't End
If you've been reading the blog all week you could predict what I've been listening to: Kurt Vile, the War on Drugs, and the Pernice Brothers. Toss in a kids' album and some of this family's "comfort food" music (Les Paul, Feist, Radio Dept.), and you've sewn up the week. I've been in a very "indie rock" sort of mood lately—not a lot of the ambient and electronica that I was gorging on toward the end of the year. I'm sure the pendulum will swing back in the other direction soon. Since I'm still on a Pernice Brothers kick, here's another one:
Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit
The Radio Dept.: Clinging to a Scheme (2) and Lesser Matters
Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets
V/A: Play Music (Orange Session 2)
Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring for my Halo (5)
Julia Holter: Tragedy
Vampire Weekend: Contra
The Shins: Wincing the Night Away and Oh, Inverted World
The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient
V/A: Rushmore OST
Nick Drake: Pink Moon
Obviously a lot of time spent listening to Kurt Vile this week—another newish discovery for me, via various end of year lists last month. I'll have more on that album next week. The new Shins song got me listening to old Shins songs (as you might have surmised from yesterday's post), and the trailer for the new Wes Anderson movie got me and some friends talking about the soundtracks to his films—always uniformly excellent soundtracks, but I think Rushmore's is my favorite.
The Zombies: Odessey & Oracle
Vampire Weekend: s/t
Elvis Costello: This Year's Model
Andrew Bird: Armchair Apocrypha
The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient (2)
Chopin: The Piano Works (performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy)
Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring for My Halo
A slight visual tweak to my weekly soundtrack posts—a little repetition of imagery, to illustrate when/how certain albums take over any given week. Of course, this week isn't a great example of that outside of two spins of Slave Ambient (more on that record Monday). I listened to the entire first row of records on Sunday, New Year's Day. The last two albums, I listened to yesterday. In between I spent most of the week tweaking my favorite songs playlist and checking in here and there on a few blogs. Oh, and I was sick as a dog so I also spent most of the week sleeping, or wishing I was asleep.
The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient
My Morning Jacket: Does Xmas Fiasco Style (2)
Bing Crosby: Christmas through the Years
Where has the week gone? Somehow I listened to almost nothing, other than a few Christmas songs and a couple of attempts to hear the War on Drugs. I've not been in the vicinity of one listening device—my headphones, my car stereo, my home or work set-ups—long enough to listen to more than a song or two at a time.
Nicolas Jaar: Space is Only Noise (4)
Bing Crosby: Christmas through the Years (3)
Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Harmonia: Musik von Harmonia
Julia Holter: Tragedy
Cluster: Zuckerzeit
Simon & Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence
Tis the season for 2011 over-indulgence, but also tis the season for Christmas songs.
Fleet Foxes: s/t and Helplessness Blues
Tinariwen: Tassili
Julia Holter: Tragedy (2)
The Caretaker: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (2)
Nicolas Jaar: Space is Only Noise
Disappears: Guider
Nico: Chelsea Girl
Brian Eno: Music for Airports
Much of this week was spent listening to albums I came across via other people's end-of-year lists—Tinariwen, The Caretaker, Julia Holter, Nicolas Jaar. Probably the rest of the month is going to be spent doing the same. Some good stuff here, though I don't know yet if I'll need to revise my own rundown of my favorites of the year.
Simon & Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence (2)
Les Paul & Mary Ford: Best of the Capital Masters
The Millennium: Begin
Low: C'mon
Brian Eno: Music for Airports
Dillard & Clark: Through the Morning, Through the Night (2)
Disappears: Guider
Moon Duo: Mazes
For my birthday on Wednesday I did two things I haven't done in a long, long time: I saw a movie in a movie theater (The Descendants), and I shopped in a bricks-and-mortar record store. I went in without a list but within about fifteen minutes had six different used CDs in my hand, while my brilliant wife had a handful herself, plus some old vinyl. After some anguished decision-making, we came home with Brian Eno's Music for Airports, Dillard & Clark's second album, Tom T. Hall's greatest hits, and a few Christmas records.
It's a nice feeling—and, weirdly, a increasingly foreign experience—to have finite options presented to you (i.e., only what is in the store, only what is used, only what you come across), and choosing based on passé criteria like cost, value, rarity, desirability. Music for Airports and Through the Morning, Through the Night are both albums I've wanted for a long time, but for whatever reason I've never looked for them via the internet. Seeing them in front of my face was a surprise and a delight—oh yeah, I want these! Yes! (Alternatively, I justified not picking up one album—Eno Moebius Roedelius Plank's Begegnungen—because the bill was getting too high and I figured it was out there on the web, somewhere.)
Hank Snow: The Hank Snow Hit Collection
Gene Clark: Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers
Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer
Feist: Metals
Thanksgiving is over. You better believe that means Christmas time is here.
Feist: Metals (2), Let It Die, and The Reminder
Junip: Fields
Panda Bear: Tomboy
The Everly Brothers: Best of the Everly Brothers
Moon Duo: Mazes
Tom T. Hall: Country Songs for Children
Hank Snow: The Hank Snow Hit Collection
Can it be that only a week ago I saw Feist in concert? It feels ages ago. Anyway, it was a terrific show and only made any "adult contemporary" references to this new album more obnoxious. It was a big, epic-feeling show with lots of peaks and valleys, supported by a terrific backing band and a trio of fantastic backup singers, who apparently go by the name Mountain Man when not singing with Feist. Probably my favorite live show of the year.
The Delmore Brothers: Greatest Hits
Cat Stevens: Tea for the Tillerman (2)
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer
Animal Collective: Sung Tongs
Beach House: Teen Dream
Cass McCombs: Humor Risk
Feist: Metals
Oneohtrix Point Never: Replica (2)
Tom T. Hall: Country Songs for Children
War on Drugs: Slave Ambient
North Highlands: Wild One
The new Cass McCombs is, in my eyes, a rebound from the dour Wit's End, released earlier this year. Anyone who calls this McCombs' "upbeat" album, however, is speaking in extremely relative terms. There is nothing on here that is better than "County Line," from Wit's End, nor do I think it's overall better than Catacombs, but it's still a pretty good album.
Belle and Sebastian: If You're Feeling Sinister and The Life Pursuit
Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), Before and After Science, and Another Green World
Fugazi: Red Medicine
Oneohtrix Point Never: Replica (4) and Returnal
Feist: Metals
The Beach Boys: Smile Sessions
Cass McCombs: Humor Risk
Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left
Tom T. Hall: Country Songs for Children
Due to some busy times offline I neglected this blog for the last week or so, hence "last week's soundtrack," posted six days late.
I'm finally getting into the habit of using Spotify, using it to listen to a Nick Drake album I had on CD a long time ago but lost sometime in the days before I imported every last thing into iTunes, as well as sampling the new Beach Boys and Cass McCombs releases, not to mention the go-to kids soundtrack in these parts, Tom T. Hall's Country Songs for Children. (If you want to follow me there, search scottpgwp.) Thus far I can bear the commercial interruptions, my mediafire-induced guilt has dropped considerably, and my ballooning hard drive is less burdened.
Feist: Metals (6) and The Reminder
Roedelius: Selbsportrait I
Joe Byrd & The Field Hippies: The American Metaphysical Circus
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: s/t
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer
Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony
My Morning Jacket: The Tennessee Fire
Mountains: Air Museum
Four Tet: Rounds and There is Love in You
Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues
So much conversation about Feist on the internet this week. Or, the idea of Feist. Mostly the conversation had to do with "adult" music and Feist was a stand-in for that trope. I just hope people are, you know, listening to the new Feist album—because it's terrific! I came close to writing more on the topic but stopped myself after deciding I've been to this well too many times. I feel I have more to write about Feist, but for now I'm finished writing about adult music. I'm an adult, I listen to music. So are all of you.
Curiously left out of the conversation, since their album came out almost six whole months ago, was Fleet Foxes. I returned to Helplessness Blues after some time away from it, only to learn my opinion about it hasn't changed. It's a a fine album but it doesn't touch the debut. The wash of harmonies scrubs most of the dynamics away. Pretty songs in small doses, sort of a mush when played straight through.
Real Estate: Days
Paul Simon: Graceland (2) and s/t
V/A: Play Music (Orange Sessions 2) (2)
Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina: Elis & Tom
Astrud Gilberto: Verve Jazz Masters 9
Caetano Veloso: A Bossa de Caetano
Feist: Metals (2)
Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out
Les Paul and Mary Ford: The Best of the Capitol Masters
The Alps: Easy Action
Roedelius: Selbsportrait I
Tim Hecker: Dropped Pianos
ADR: Solitary Pursuits
Woodsman: Mystic Places
Nick Drake: Pink Moon
The unexpected highlight of the week for me was getting the chance to see Paul Simon live at the Gibson Amphitheatre. The last time I saw Simon live was on the Graceland tour and I was probably 10 years old. It was the second concert I'd ever been to (first: Jimmy Buffett) and still ranks as one of the most memorable concert experiences of my life. This week's concert was a little more sedate—the difference between seeing Simon at 70 instead of Simon at 50, I guess—but it was still pretty terrific. He played a lot of songs from his latest album, which I don't really know very well, but also managed to get in most of Graceland and plenty of highlights from the rest of his career, including a couple of Simon & Garfunkel tunes. Of all the songs he could have chosen, I wasn't expecting "The Only Living Boy in New York," but it was a welcome highlight. Surprisingly, the other two high points of the night were his pianist's mid-set solo, which had more in common with contemporary composers than jazz or rock, and Graceland's penultimate track "That Was Your Mother." I've always loved that song, but it's still probably the seventh or eighth track I'd recommend from that album. Live, it sparkled.
Mates of State: Mountaintops (2)
Feist: Metals (8)
Paul Simon: Hearts and Bones
V/A: Play Music (Orange Sessions 2) (2)
Motion Sickness of Time Travel: Luminaries & Synastry
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: s/t
It's basically all about Feist right now, but more on that in the next day or two. Meanwhile, I also dug up Hearts and Bones for the first time in, I don't know, two decades? I honestly can't remember the last time I heard this album. There are a few songs on here that rank among my least favorite Paul Simon songs of all times (for instance "Allergies"), but there are some nice songs here too. Overall I find it to be... okay.
Feist: Metals
Beirut: Gulag Orkestar
Belle and Sebastian: Write about Love
Peter Bjorn & John: Gimme Some
Hans-Joachim Roedelius: Durch die Wüste and Selbsportrait I
Harmonizer: World Complete EP
Nick Drake: Pink Moon
Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
Mates of State: Mountaintops (3)
Andrew Bird: Noble Beast
I featured a Harmonizer track in a recent mix, if you missed it. Their new EP (via Altered Zones) has a similar sound—which is to say they are way, way, way into Jon Hassell.
Donovan: Greatest Hits
Ry Cooder: Paradise and Lunch
Simon & Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence
Motion Sickness of Time Travel: Luminaries & Synastry
Wilco: The Whole Love
Ryan Adams: Ashes & Fire
Bjork: Vespertine
I attempted to get back in the swing of keeping up with new releases this week but I'm not sure it stuck. I streamed both the new Wilco and new Ryan Adams at NPR—the Wilco was a disappointment; the Ryan Adams was much better, though in the end I wasn't in the mood for its sustained moodiness.
T. Rex: Electric Warrior
Tom T. Hall: Country Songs for Children
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: s/t (3)
Feist: Let It Die
Moon Duo: Mazes (2)
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer
The Sea & Cake: The Fawn
R.E.M.: Document
Of course I've been listening to my share of R.E.M. this week after the news came out that they'd called it quits after thirty-one years together. Most of my listening has been to their entire discography on shuffle, though this morning I put on Document and played it the whole way through--probably my favorite R.E.M. album next to Automatic for the People. R.E.M. is dead, long live R.E.M.
Mountains: Air Museum
The Third Eye Foundation: The Dark
Play Music: Orange Sessions 2
Harry Belafonte: Calypso
Simon & Garfunkel: Parsely, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and Greatest Hits
Talk Talk: Laughing Stock
Moon Duo: Mazes
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: s/t
Good news: a day after I wrote my Talk Talk post, I received an email letting me know that both Laughing Stock and Mark Hollis' solo album are going to be reissued on vinyl on October 11 via Ba Da Bing Records! That'll be my incentive to finally pick up the solo album, which I've yet to hear.
Low: C'mon
The Third Eye Foundation: The Dark
Wooden Shjips: Dos
Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972
Play Music: Orange Sessions 2 (3)
Oneohtrix Point Never: Returnal
Arp: The Soft Wave
Disappears: Guider
Jason Urick: Husbands
The Beach Boys: Greatest Hits
The Everly Brothers: Greatest Hits
Some variation of this week's soundtrack has probably appeared at least three or four other times this year. That's because the bulk of the albums here are my go-tos for my soundtrack to writing or editing over long spells. All that's missing is probably a couple of Mountains albums and the latest Rene Hell. One of those albums, which I haven't listened to in a while, was the Oneohtrix Point Never album. That whole record remains outstanding, but the title track in particular struck me as towering over the rest of the album. Those albums that don't fit into that soundtrack were likely chosen as something to listen to with/around my son. He's reached the age where he's developed a desire to listen to music, and for the most part kids' music. If you sing him a line from one of the songs on that Play comp, he'll immediately get up and walk into the living room to the computer, pointing and saying "this! this! this!" because that's where the music comes from.
The Andrews Sisters: 50th Anniversary Collection Volume One
Tom T. Hall: Country Songs for Children (2)
The Radio Dept: Lesser Matters and Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002–2010
The Ruby Suns: Sea Lion
Willie Nelson: Teatro
I'm a few days late with this due to being on vacation for a few days. Oddly, it was a vacation with no music—not counting all the songs at Disneyland. But I didn't take any music with me and we didn't listen to any on the drive, either.
Flying Saucer Attack: Distance
Brian Eno: Before and After Science
Tom T. Hall: Country Songs for Children (2)
Vampire Weekend: Contra
Les Paul and Mary Ford: Best of the Capitol Masters
The Lovin' Spoonful: Anthology
Obits: Moody, Standard and Poor (2) and I Blame You
Belle & Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Dr. Dog: Shame, Shame
The highlight of the week, musically speaking, was seeing Disappears and Obits at the Satellite on Wednesday night. Ever since leaving the concert promotion business ten years ago, I really don't go to shows very often—even a decade later I'm still feeling the burn of seeing a show four or five nights a week for two or three years straight. Happily this show didn't disappoint. Disappears seem to have added a second guitarist, which enhanced their live show considerably; and Obits... well, after being a fan of every band Rick Froberg has ever been in for the last twenty years, it felt great to finally see one of them live. All these years later Froberg still has one of the greatest punk voices going.
Andrew Bird: Noble Beast
Fishwife: Snail Killer
Pitchfork: Eucalyptus (2)
The Beach Boys: Greatest Hits
The Everly Brothers: 20th Century Masters
Rocket from the Crypt: Paint as a Fragrance (2)
Akron/Family: Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free
The Third Eye Foundation: The Dark (2)
Tortoise: Standards
White Rainbow: New Clouds
Superchunk: On the Mouth
Dr. Dog: Fate
Wooden Shjips: Dos
Obits: Moody, Standard and Poor (2)
Disappears: Lux (2)
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer
Paul Simon: s/t
Simon & Garfunkel: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (2)
Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls and Marches (2) and Vs.
Photek: Modus Operandi
Radio Dept.: Clinging to a Scheme and Lesser Matters
Actress: Splaszh
A couple of days late, here's my soundtrack for last week, which felt like it was two weeks long.
The Sea and Cake: The Fawn
Sharon Jones & Dap Kings: 100 Days, 100 Nights
She & Him: Volume One
Shearwater: Rook
Broadcast: Haha Sound
Kluster: Zwei-Osterei
Most of this week was spent shuffling aimlessly through a few different playlists, rather than spending time with any albums. The top row of albums were all listened to on Sunday—I didn't really select the She & Him or Shearwater records, so much as allow my iTunes to keep playing alphabetically once the Sharon Jones album was done.
Simon & Garfunkel: Bookends, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, and Greatest Hits
Willie Nelson: Teatro
Four Tet: Rounds
Harry Belafonte: Calypso
Iron & Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days and The Shepherd's Dog
Kings of Convenience: Declaration of Dependence and Quiet is the New Loud
Josh Rouse: Nashville and Under Cold Blue Stars
Arp: The Soft Wave
Loscil: Submers
Air France: No Way Out and On Trade Winds
Low: C'mon
Cat Stevens: Greatest Hits
Wilco: Summerteeth
Scud Mountain Boys: Pine Box
For whatever reason, I'm not sure why, this week was all about the songwriters. Here and there I put on some electronica and ambient during a couple of writing projects, but all my pleasure listening was mostly all about the acoustic guitar, and more specifically songwriter records that I know inside and out. It was a comfort listening week.
My Morning Jacket: Circuital
Little Scream: The Golden Record (3)
A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders and The Low End Theory
Digable Planets: Blowout Comb
De La Soul: Buhloone Mindstate (2)
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer (2)
Wooden Shjips: Dos
Little Joy: s/t
The Little Ones: Terry Tales and Fallen Gates
Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Sam Prekop: s/t
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer (6)
Astrud Gilberto: Verve Jazz Masters 9
Caetano Veloso: A Bossa de Caetano
Disappears: Lux and Guider
Wooden Shjips: Dos (2)
The Fall: Hex Enduction Hour
Flying Saucer Attack: Distance
The Jesus Lizard: Liar
Dr. Dog: Fate
Karp: Self-Titled LP
Mountains: Air Museum
Dusty Springfield: Dusty in Memphis
Etta James: Her Best
Feist: The Reminder
Loscil: Submers
Harry Nilsson: All Time Greatest Hits
Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony
The Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Desmond Dekker: Rockin' Steady: The Best of Desmond Dekker
From the looks of this list, compared to other weeks, you'd think I was listening to albums nonstop all week. I kinda was, but in truth I was mostly playing the Eleanor Friedberger album over and over. In fact, the majority of these albums—everything from Lux through Air Museum—were played last Saturday, when I stole away to a coffeeshop for six hours or so to do a freelance job. I vacillated between ambient albums and rock albums in which the vocals are blurred, suppressed, or otherwise mostly indesipherable (bonus points also for when the songs are super repetitive).
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer (4)
Les Paul & Mary Ford: Best of the Capitol Masters
Wooden Shjips: Dos (3)
The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man
Etta James: Her Best
Loscil: Submers
The Flatlanders: More a Legend Than a Band
Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues and s/t
The Lovin' Spoonful: Anthology
Pernice Brothers: Yours, Mine & Ours
I'm not sure what possessed me to put on the Pernice Brothers, a band I once loved more than any other. Nor am I sure why I chose Yours, Mine & Ours, an album with a couple of classics but otherwise sits squarely in the middle of my list, were I to rank them all. At any rate it made for pleasant evening listening last night.
Harlem Shakes: Technicolor Health
Harmonia: Deluxe
Antonio Carlos Jobim and Elis Regina: Elis & Tom
Loscil: Submers (4)
Antonio Carlos Jobim: Stone Flower
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer
Neko Case: Furnace Room Lullaby and Middle Cyclone
The majority of this week was spent switching between the Loscil album and Dave Rawkblog's mix of favorite songs from the year so far, nearly all of which were new to me. I've whittled off a few that don't do much for me (Junior Boys, the Minks), but there are a few tracks here that are really outstanding. Little Scream's "The Heron and the Fox" has probably jumped out the most. It's been a while since I've heard something so simply played yet so pretty and heartfelt.
St. Vincent: Actor
The Sea & Cake: The Fawn
Mountains: Air Museum (2)
Gillian Welch (2)
Washed Out: Within and Without
Low: C'mon
Fugazi: Steady Diet of Nothing
Sondre Lerche: s/t (3)
Spoon: Transference
Squarepusher: Hard Normal Daddy (2)
The Radio Dept.: Clinging to a Scheme and Lesser Matters
My Morning Jacket: Circuital
Nick Drake: Pink Moon
Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
American Analog Set: From Our Living Room to Yours
Beach House: Teen Dream
Sam Prekop: s/t and Who's Your New Professor?
The Sea and Cake: The Fawn (2)
The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
It's been an extremely busy work week with a few late night, finishing up with two days of working from home while stricken with fever. Not really the ideal! I listened to very little music, and when I did put something on, it was familiar and mellow. Thursday I fell into a Sam Prekop marathon which spurred me to re-acquire The Fawn, an excellent album that hasn't actually been in my collection for many years. It holds up.
Mountains: Choral and Air Museum (2)
Peter Bjorn & John: Gimme Some (2)
Astrud Gilberto: Verve Jazz Masters 9
Low: C'mon
Disappears: Guider
Holy Fuck: LP
Oneohtrixpoint Never: Returnal
Photek: Modus Operandi
Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets
Vampire Weekend: Contra
Elvis Costello: Imperial Bedroom and My Aim is True
Peter Bjorn & John: Gimme Some (7)
Wild Beasts: Smother
Gal Costa & Caetano Veloso: Gal e Caetano
Mountains: Air Museum (3)
My Morning Jacket: Circuital (2)
Antonio Carlos Jobim and Elis Regina: Elis & Tom
The Radio Dept.: Clinging to a Scheme
Fugazi: In on the Kill Taker
Arp: The Soft Wave
Andrew Bird: Noble Beast
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
My Morning Jacket: Circuital
Wild Beasts: Smother (4)
Talk Talk: Laughing Stock (2)
Beach Boys: Greatest Hits
Tim Hecker: An Imaginary Country
Neko Case: Middle Cyclone (2)
Talk Talk: Laughing Stock (3)
Wild Beasts: Smother (2)
Okkervil River: I Am Very Far
My Morning Jacket: Circuital (3) and Does Xmas Fiasco Style
Dusty Springfield: Dusty in Memphis
Harry Belafonte: Calypso
Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues
Belle and Sebastian: If You're Feeling Sinister
Low: C'mon
The Flatlanders: More a Legend Than a Band
Fleet Foxes: s/t and Helplessness Blues (5)
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours and Tusk
Scratch Acid: Just Keep Eating
Kings of Convenience: Declaration of Dependence and Quiet is the New Loud
Cass McCombs: Wit's End
My Morning Jacket: Circuital (3)
Gang Gang Dance: Eye Contact
Wild Beasts: Smother
This was my week, more or less:
Sunday: a low-effort alphabetical run through a portion of the Fs
Monday: blasted a Scratch Acid album I haven't heard in probably 15 years
Tuesday: Lovely and soft Kings of Convenience soundtrack for the morning routine
Wednesday: Forgot that I got the Cass McCombs album a week ago, so put it on again. Realized I don't like it much
Thursday: Listened to this Rockets and Rayguns mix
Friday: new stuff: My Morning Jacket over and over, Gang Gang Dance, Wild Beasts.
Okkervil River: I Am Very Far (4)
Low: C'mon
Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues (5)
Cass McCombs: Wit's End (2)
Klaus Schulze: Dune
Neil Young: After the Gold Rush
I basically spent the whole week listening to new purchases (all the new releases plus the the Shulze). Still forming my opinion of them...
Low: C'mon (4) and Things We Lost in the Fire
Gal Costa & Caetano Veloso: Domingo (2)
Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony
Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues
The Antlers: Burst Apart
Midlake: The Trials of Van Occupanther
Posting this a little late due to being out of town for the last five days (and, weirdly, not listening to any music while I was gone. I can't remember the last time I went five days without listening to any music).
Ida Maria: Fortress 'round Your Heart
The Andrews Sisters: 50th Anniversary Collection Vol. One
Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record
Bonnie "Prince" Billy: I See a Darkness
Low: C'mon (5)
Cluster: Zuckerzeit
Palace Brothers: Days in the Wake
Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony
Low: Drums and Guns
The Radio Dept.: Clinging to a Scheme
Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What
Low: C'mon (3)
Panda Bear: Tomboy
Pye Corner Audio: Black Mill Tapes vol. 2
Gal e Caetano Veloso: Domingo
Cluster: Zuckerzeit
Harmonia: Musik von Harmonia
Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony (2)
Palace Brothers: There is No-One What Will Take Care of You (2), Days in the Wake, Hope (2), Viva Last Blues
Will Oldham: Arise Therefore and Joya
I was having a perfectly fine week getting to know various new releases and the couple of krautrock classics I got last week, and then somewhere around Wednesday or Thursday I was overcome with an urge to re-acquire all the old Palace Brothers albums that have either fallen out of my collection over the years, or which I still have vinyl (which is code for "inaccessible"). I've been having a chronological marathon ever since, almost getting up to the point where I finally stopped listening to Oldham. My listening time with this (and, most likely, some of the post-I See a Darkness material I'm not familiar with), is not over.
My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What
Low: Drums and Guns
Tortoise: It's All Around You
Sam Prekop: Who's Your New Professor
Panda Bear: Tomboy (2)
Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony (5)
Midlake: Bamnan and Silvercork
Cluster: Zuckerzeit (2)
Andrew Bird: Noble Beast
Harmonia: Musik von Harmonia
This post might seem redundant after my week's worth of music diary posts, but I'm sticking with this since it contributes to my quarterly posts down the road. It's also an interesting comparison to my daily posts because you can see just how much of what I listen to doesn't make it into these soundtrack posts, which only catalogue albums I listened to from beginning to end. So, albums like Catacombs or April in Paris or C'mon, which I didn't actually finish listening through for one reason or another, miss this list. So too does all the country music I listened to all week—which is funny because I feel like I listened to country more than anything else, save maybe ambient/instrumental electronic.
My music diary posts are going to continue through the weekend, then no more. It's been a fun experiment but I know well enough I don't have the stamina (nor you the interest, most likely—it's already starting to get a little repetitive!) to keep doing it.
Harry Belafonte: Calypso
Les Paul & Mary Ford: Best of the Capitol Masters
My Morning Jacket: The Tennessee Fire
The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile
Beach House: Devotion
John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band
Deutsche Wertarbeit: s/t
Earthstar: French Skyline
The Lennon album came on because I have this habit of singing the words "yogurt time / yogurt time" to Cooper every morning. My wife asked me the other day, "Are you singing a John Lennon song?" "I think so," I said. She put on "Hold On," and sure enough there was my melody.
Low: The Great Destroyer (3)
Deutsche Wertarbeit: s/t (4)
Embryo: Opal
Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Iron & Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean
Earthstar: French Skyline
Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972
Simon & Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Reading yesterday's Pitchfork review on the Bridge Over Troubled Waters reissue made me pull out my Simon & Garfunkel records (to be fair, it doesn't take much to encourage me to take out my Simon & Garfunkel records). It's the first Pitchfork review in a long time that had me getting all nitpicky—"a 9.4? It's a 10! It's a 10!!!" I mean, really: the title track, "The Boxer," "Cecilia," "Baby Driver," "Keep the Customer Satisfied," El Condor Pasa." That's half a greatest hits collection right there! (I'll grant that "So Long Frank Lloyd Wright" and "Why Don't You Write Me" are a little dippy, but even then they're still fun.)
And of course I haven't even mentioned "The Only Living Boy in New York," the best song Simon & Garfunkel ever wrote and one of the greatest songs by anyone of the last fifty years. I mean come on!
Crosby, Stills & Nash: s/t
Fugiya & Miyagi: Lightbulbs
Harry Belafonte: Calypso (3)
Radiohead: The King of Limbs
Low: The Great Destroyer (3)
R.E.M.: Collapse into Now (2)
The Third Eye Foundation: The Dark
Desmond Dekker: Rockin' Steady: The Best of Desmond Dekker
Radiohead: The King of Limbs (2)
Sam Cooke: The Best of Sam Cooke
The Radio Dept.: Pet Grief
June of 44: Tropics & Meridians
Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
Wye Oak: Civilian
White Rainbow: Lays the Boogie Down and Night Tracer
Actress: Splazsh
La Düsseldorf: s/t
Manuel Göttsching: Inventions for Electric Guitar
R.E.M.: Collapse Into Now (2)
Harry Belafonte: Calypso (2)
Paul Simon: The Rhythm of the Saints
The Beatles: With the Beatles
Fugiya & Miyagi: Lightbulbs
For all the ambient and electronic and indie rock and folky stuff, it's Harry Belafonte who won the week for me. I picked up Calypso just the other day and it is so wonderful.
Can: Tago Mago and Monster Movie
Radiohead: The King of Limbs (12), OK Computer, and In Rainbows
Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972 (3)
Paul Simon: Graceland and s/t
White Rainbow: Lays the Boogie Down (stream or buy it here)
Junip: Fields and Rope & Summit EP
Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina: Elis & Tom
Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972 (4)
Seefeel: Quique and Succour (2)
Disappears: Guider (3)
Fleet Foxes: s/t
The Everly Brothers: The Best of the Everly Brothers
Psychic Paramount: II
The Radio Dept.: Clinging to a Scheme and Lesser Matters
Iron & Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean
Jens Lekman: Night Falls over Kortedala
I saw the Radio Dept. live on Wednesday. It was the first live concert I've been to in at least a year—definitely since Cooper was born. It was good! Although to be honest I love the band so much they would have had to have been a drunken trainwreck for me to not come home satisfied. They basically stood around and played their songs. They barely spoke, they never let one song flow into the next, and two out of the three guys had creepy mustaches. But anyway they played their songs, and I like their songs, and I had a great night that night, so yay for me.
Iron & Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean
James Blake: s/t
John Vanderslice: White Wilderness (2)
Josh Ritter: The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
PJ Harvey: Let England Shake
Low: Trust
Andrew Bird: Armchair Apocrypha
Belong: October Language
Disappears: Guider
Arp: The Soft Wave
Seefeel: Succour
Three notes:
I listened to the James Blake album in full for the first time and I realize (as I suspected I would), that he doesn't really fit into my soft rock screed the way I tried to squeeze him. My opinion of him and his record has progressed upward, from "eww" to "meh"; I found it to be interesting at times but overall somewhat one-dimensional.
I also streamed the new PJ Harvey album. I love a few early PJ albums but I can't say I've kept up with her since Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. I have lots of respect for her as an artist and fully support her doing whatever she wants to do... though hearing this record didn't move me all that much.
I intended to pick up the new Seefeel album, but it wasn't there when I went looking. Instead I saw Succour, their 1995 followup to the acclaimed Quique album. "Well," I said to myself, "I've never heard this one before, so I guess new Seefeel is new Seefeel." And guess what? I'm pretty into this record. Based on the one listen, at least. This mood and tone is sort of exactly where I'm at right now—exactly one notch above ambient.