Living in a transitional neighborhood on the South Side can be pretty interesting. Some pretty random stuff goes on around us all the time...so I'll chronicle the excitement, along with occassional thoughts on trying to be green on a tight budget, travelogs, and bonus music critiques...
Erp...Two months into the 2012 and this is my first post...and it relates to last year... Argh. I need to do better.
Anyway, I happened to look at my year end mix for 2011 and thought, "Jeez, what is that guy so pissed off about?" Yeah, that mix was bloated and filled with pretty universally angry stuff. I can do better.
It's not exactly revisionist history, but it is a do-over mix. Don't get me wrong, that mix had some of the best music of the year now passed on it. But it wasn't a very diverse look at stuff I've been enjoying. And it had some serious gaps...all of which have been addressed in the new version, which includes new and happier art too:
Atlas Sound :: Te Amo
TV on the Radio :: Will Do
tUnE-yArDs :: The Bizness
Talkdemonic :: Revival
Battles :: Dominican Fade
Mikal Cronin :: Apathy
Thee Oh Sees :: Opposition
Disappears :: Halo
IceBird :: Going and Going. And Going
The Roots :: Stomp
Homeboy Sandman:: The Carpenter
Action Bronson :: Ronnie Coleman
Mariachi El Bronx :: 48 Roses
White Denim :: Bess Street
Wild Flag :: Endless Talk
Timber Timbre :: Bad Ritual
IceBird :: Wander
You can listen to the mix on the 8Tracks embed, or download it:
So...I have this tradition... Being too lazy to come up with good gift ideas, I like to share music. Here is the annual compilation of great tracks from the year about to pass. Pay no mind to the absence of a cute kid on the cover---there will be a supplemental mix in the New Year. 'Til then, enjoy the stream below, or head to http://8tracks.com/jmogs/untitled-mix
Here's the track list:
Ponytail :: Easy Peasy
Mike Watt :: arrow-pierced-egg-man
Disappears :: Guider
tUnE-yArDs :: Powa
Thao & Mirah :: Rubies and Rocks
Anika :: Yang Yang
Battles :: Ice Cream
TV on the Radio :: Repetition
Royal Bangs :: Grass Helmet
JEFF the Brotherhood :: Mellow Out
Ringo Deathstarr :: Do It Everytime
Iceage :: White Rune
Thee Oh Sees :: Heavy Doctor
Obits :: You Gotta Lose
Lykke Li :: Youth Knows No Pain
Icebird :: Please, Don't
Atlas Sound :: Mona Lisa
G-Side :: Came Up
WU LYF :: L Y F
Timber Timbre :: Creep on Creepin' On
Radiohead :: Codex
As you will hear, its a pretty hard-rockin' set of songs this year with all the issues noted in my favorite album list clearly on display...sigh. Still, there is some great stuff on here. And I love how this thing begins and ends.
Listen on the embedded 8tracks player above. Then get it online: music and art.
Man, I am getting old. I don’t know how else to interpret my favorite albums of the year. As I look at the list, there are a lot of repeat performers, a noticeable slide in hip hop representation and a bunch of acts that might just be included solely for nostalgia’s sake. Sigh.
Nonetheless, it was a a tuneful year. So, I've dashed off a list of the albums that made me happy in the year soon to pass (Jeez, I am even still saying "albums") :
Ponytail :: Do Whatever You Want All the Time Filled to the gills with intertwined, hooky, soaring guitar textures, the kids from Baltimore have crafted an album that got a little less spazzy, but no less thrilling. The hair stands up on the back of my neck on some of the songs when they get the grooves really cooking. Dustin Wong has the opportunity to be this generation’s guitar god. If they could intersperse a couple honest-to-goodness real songs, they might get over with a big audience, though I hope it doesn’t happen.
tUnE-yArDs :: W H O K I L L Waiting expectedly in the pews of a big Austin church, I didn’t really know what to expect when they/she were set to play SXSW this year. I liked the previous album, but sensed there was something more exuberant to come as the musical palette expanded on a new album---and oh boy, no disappointment. The set that followed was heavy on weird, quirky looped vocal snippets, Afrobeat codas, hip hop and reggae references for all to see (though the songs don’t really sound like the genres they are giving tips to) and it is all built around the husky, gorgeous voice of Merrill Garbus. The performance was great. This album is better. Really a triumph.
And this bit from WBEZ's Sound Opinions is an interesting look at the songwriting process (Powa is among my favorite tracks of the year):
Disappears :: Guider Think of Neu! running through an angrier, louder reverb filter. Each song sets up its own little sonic world, gets to the groove fast, ending long before the welcome is worn---that includes a 15+ minute track that whizzes by in seemingly a third of the time. A wall of guitars that I am happy to slam headlong into repeatedly.
Battles :: Gloss Drop These frickin’ guys can play. Lots of instrumentals (or songs with vocals that are meant to be another percussive instrument) that come out of left field. It is all over the board, but distinct. Really, they just make very interesting sounds. I love this stuff.
Mike Watt :: hyphenated-man The Feelies :: Here Before This is the best thing the grand bass man has done since fIREHOSE. No, that is not saying much... Yes, this is pure nostalgia... What of it? I’ve always loved Mike Watt’s econo schtick, now he has some good tunes to go along with it for the first time in a loooooong while. The Feelies do not have the same massive sucking hole in their discography---everything they have put out has been great. This is no exception. Tight. Engaging. But it doesn’t feel new or different. That is OK for me…like I said, I am nostalgic.
TV on the Radio :: Nine Types of Light Truth be told, this album is actually a disappointment. The letdown after their previous release (Dear Science stands as one of my favorites in the last decade) was impossible to avoid. Still the solid songwriting makes up for a loss of the wall of sound that marked previous efforts.
Thee Oh Sees :: Carrion Crawler They put out an album earlier in the year that got a ton of hype and I just didn’t get it. Then I stumbled onto this, more guitar focused effort. Wow, wow, wow. The hooks! The glorious chewy guitar hooks that grab you and hold on through each of these spectacularly engaging garage jams that channelling The Cramps and King Kahn without the schtick and tighter rhythm sections! Oh, this is a classic for me.
Icebird :: The Abandoned Lullaby RJD2 had been a pretty sad sack in recent years. His Def Jux big beat turntablist stuff rose to amazing heights, but he’s crashed to earth with spectacularly boring compositions of late. This new partnership with vocalist Aaron Livingston brings great classic rock-R&B songs to the table for people who don’t really like classic rock or R& B (the R. Kelly kind). Livingston's vocals are really fantastic---he has pretty interesting range of delivery and a unique voice. I will be watching these two and hope they stick together to let this grow.
The Roots :: Undun The Roots are not done. They are unDONE. In fact, these guys just get better with every album. Hip hop tied with a Sufjan Stevens instrumental suite? Huh. Think about that!
Others worthy of note:
Royal Bangs :: Flux Outside (they found Ponytail's lost spazziness and hooked it up to pop song structures)
Obits :: Moody, Standard and Poorer (I've always liked Rick Froberg, now that Hot Snakes is dead, more straight ahead rock from his new project).
Timber Timbre :: Creep On Creepin’ On (moody torch songs from Canada, very unique sound)
Anika :: Anika (Remember Nico? Monotone delivery vocals for Velvet Underground? Same thing here, but with heavy, creepy reggae)
Russian Circles :: Empros (intelligent, instrumental metal from Chicago---bounces from baroque to broken ears quickly)
White Denim :: D (drugs pulled away their spazz too---they've gone waayyy psychedelic and it works for now)
WU LYF :: L Y F (I cannot understand a word the singer utters, but they have a very interesting, expansive sound that uses empty space to their advantage)
Ringo Deathstarr :: Ringo Deathstarr (speaking of nostalgia, everything about these guys---from their name to their prototypical shoe-gazer sound---screams of the late-90's. I liked the late-90's.)
Disappiontments:
Gorillaz :: The Fall (aptly named and a sad way for one of the most entertaining bands in recent years to go out)
My Morning Jacket :: Circuital (should be called “Unlistenable”)
Wolves in the Throne Room :: Celestial Linneage (enviro metal heads? Oh I so want to love these guys, but this is a horrid combo of Enya and gutteral screams, the plaudits from reviewers are shocking to me)
Decemberists :: The King is Dead (it is OK, sort of boring. Frankly, I just expect a lot more from these guys)
Watch your mailboxes and this blog for my year end mix.
On the way to day care this morning, we noticed Isaiah really focused on a particular song in the car this morning. He only knows one word in it..."OH!" But Jo-Elle caught him patiently trying to sing along again later today and he had apparently learned a couple more words. Fascinating.
We have been trying. And some of our nature exploits have me plotting my next writing gig.
Last month, we packed Isaiah up and headed out to Starved Rock State Park. And when I say packed up, I mean it. He was bundled into a pack and strapped to my shoulders. They say our troops in Iraq carry 60 pounds on their back all the time---cripes, Isaiah is just shy of 30 pounds and I was ready to fall out after a few miles of hiking.
Still, worthwhile. The Illinois River was way up over its banks, so I was robbed of the opportunity to take an Asian carp cruise. But the views of the river valley from the actual Starved Rock and other elevated perches were stunning and the canyons (as close as we get to them in flat prairie that is) are just cool---plus this is my favorite photo in a while.
Both trips were reminders that we needn't stare tired and bleary-eyed at Isaiah on weekend mornings. Farmer's markets, parks, fests, and nature await if I coffee-up quickly enough to meet the day. And its good writing fodder. The Sherman Park visit was good for a weekend of Chicagoist posts. And the search for invasive species has me charged up about a book or long-form article idea that I am running past some folks.
Wow, I have been lazy about posting. Sorry. We did a week-long trip visiting our friends in the Cayman Islands. Great, as always. Just as this was the first trip Jo-Elle and I took together, it is Isaiah's first trip out of the country too. You should see his passport photo---hilarious, because he hates cameras. You wouldn't know it from the photos on this trip though. Nice shots of us and a bonus shot of Mark and Cindy's younger daughter Erika.
So, what's all the hubub? Well, if you are one of the three people who check in on this blog regularly, you know I had been pretty focused on a big rehab project. We are done, so I won't be writing on that much, but you can relive the glory with this swanky multimedia tour of the new addition.
