Possible Top 10 Albums of 2010 Part 2

In an attempt to work out more albums of 2009 i ended up at this list. Indecisive as always, do i even like this stuff?


List Two:

Jay Z - Blueprint 3

Converge - Axe to Fall

Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Wilco - Wilco the album

Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport

Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Top 10 Songs of 2009 ... So Far

So, last week I know I teased with the fact that I had a put together a list of the 10 Best Songs of '09 so far and I just now realized because of all the BBQ and beers and such, I forgot to share it with the world. How terrible of me. So, anyway, here we are again in the fairest of orders which is alphabetical, here's the Top 10 Songs of 2009 .. so far?

"Brothersport" - Animal Collective
"And The Hazy Sea" - Cymbals Eat Guitars

"Stillness Is The Move" - Dirty Projectors


"Vacationing People" - Foreign Born
"Two Weeks" - Grizzly Bear

"Tunnelvision" - Here We Go Magic


"Lalita" - The Love Language
"Little Secrets" - Passion Pit
"Actor Out Of Work" - St. Vincent

"Awkward Kisser" - Telekinesis

SIS The Best of 2009 ... So Far, Part One

I'm going to go out there on the limb of bloggerdom and just say it: 2009 is so better than 2008. I don't remember ever in the history of me charting a course of the best albums of the year (started back in 1998) that by the halftime show already being stacked up with so many quality albums in where I might just have a three-way tie for first. OK, that's a lie - the classic line-up of Guided by Voices couldn't reunite and put out their best album ever in an attempt to top out what is #1 so far. No, I'm not going to give away the high order just yet. Instead, we let the alphabet take precedent as we look back at Part 1 of the Best Albums of 2009 .... so far.

Cymbals Eat Guitars / Why There Are Mountains / Sister's Den

It's pure coincidental that the first album mention was the first to make its impact on me this year. It was a record that 10 years from now I'll still be able to point my finger on the moment I first heard it. After frantically searching the internets, this Staten Island-based quartet's first album was blasting through my Macbook. For a month straight it was all I heard. And now it's everything else the indie world is listening to and more will soon be joining the pack. After a glowing Pitchfork review, the band is playing festivals and hitting the road with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart this fall. Their star is on the rise.

Dark Was The Night / 4AD

I know of at least one person, a former co-worker, who gave me shit for mentioning this one because it's a compilation, but damnit if it isn't a good one. You get Feist dueting with Grizzly Bear ("Service Bell,") you get Feist dueting with Ben Gibbard ("Train Song"). You get Yo La Tengo committing to tape one of their obscure covers ("Gentle Hour,") and you get new music from every other hot commodity on the indie scene (Spoon, The National, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver.) It's like some great Time Life comp or what have you that was advertised in the 70s for the indie generation, something like a Nuggets compilation except not because these aren't a bunch of one hit wonders, but rather an established sect of bands getting together for a cause. Hopefully the Red Hot organization has another good comp or three in them.

Eels / Hombre Lobo / Vagrant

E had a lot riding on this one for me - he had to follow up the winner of my Album of the Year 2005, the double-opus Blinking Lights & Other Revelations. Since then he occupied the time of myself and the other Eels fans with three grueling tours, penning his memoirs, and putting out a best-of and double-disc set of rarities. So when it came time to finally make a new studio record, he brought the beard back to reivisit the "Dog Faced Boy" of 2001's Souljacker. It's an album that sonically is a gritty sounding Shootenanny: bluesy 60s guitars covered in static and lo-fi aesthetics. Everything's cranked up to 10, there's next to no overdubs unless hums and hisses of feedback count. It a song-cycle based on longing and desire, things E has always written about, but not so much from the third person.

Foreign Born / Person To Person / Secretly Canadian

This album, the second from the California natives, gets almost a daily spin here at the SIS HQ. If you love the French Kicks, you'll love this, maybe even more then that Brooklyn trio. Person comes off as the album Swimming is not: it's bright and sunny and the guitars shimmer, all the instruments coalesce and co-exist in perfect symmetry. There's not a bunch of jangly guitars bogged down by an organic production and darkness, they beam like the sun. "Vacationing People" is a strong contender for one the year's finest tunes, while the album ties itself together with other songs like "Can't Keep Time," "Blood Oranges" and "Can't Keep Time" keeping it in check.

Grizzly Bear / Veckatimest / Warp

I remember writing the Can't Stop Spinning column/letter of love back in February and the second it was done, I was sad it was available for all to read. Months later when the album finally came out and we all helped it get to #8 on Billboard (I bought the CD and the LP and tickets to three shows,) I still was finding new things I loved in and out about this record. A year after debuting it to the world, "Two Weeks" holds up as one of the strongest songs of the year, but it's not just an album about songs it's about the building blocks that make the songs. The lush arrangements on the grand "Ready, Able" and the perfect harmonies of "All We Ask" and the epic angels and demons allusions of Daniel Rossen vs. the Brooklyn Youth Chorus in "I Live With You" are just a few of its perfections making it a strong contender for not just Album of the Year, but Album of the Decade, if not, my lifetime.

SIS At The Club: Grizzly Bear

(Photo by D. Antonaccio)

Ever since that Veckatimest record leaked, the thing that kept me in anticipation with the Grizzly Bear was the fact that I bought tickets, two and a half months in advance mind you, for both nights at Town Hall in New York City to celebrate not just the best album of 2009 (surprise much?) but also to celebrate my birthday. It was the least I could do for being one of the many who downloaded the album far in advance. I also bought it on CD. And vinyl. And, ok, yes I am obsessed with it.

Anyway, I was giddy, I was sitting in my seat and as the lights went down and the band walked out, I told the person sitting next to me how this had been something that was two months in the making. And they did not disappoint. Not one second.

On the eve of this pair of homecoming shows, it was announced that the band would be joined for the first night by their friends in the Brooklyn Youth Chorus that helped bring together some of the greatest moments of Veckatimest, and they just made the night at Town Hall even better. Joining them for "Cheerleader" and "Fine For Now" was one thing, but returning to the stage to later perform the final moments of the Veck were as epic as the songs themselves. "I Live With You" found drummer Chris Bear and his signature fits of rage coalescing with the harmonies provided by the ladies in black, who then said goodbye with the segue in to "Foreground," displaying a moment that was ever the more powerful than one would think from just hearing it on anything from a low-quality file or direct from the CD or LP itself.

(photo by D. Antonaccio)

And for those who didn't make it to the first night, those who showed up the second night got an equally awesome surprise. In place of the choir, the Griz was joined by the ACME String quartet for a set of songs during the second half of their set. They even played the song that Ed Droste introduced as the one that they "failed to perform on late night TV last week" ("Ready, Able"). Getting to see this in the flesh, from the front row mind you, totally makes up for that Letterman guy talking too much to the CEO of GM last week. Lucky for you, the Letterman performance got rescheduled for July - it will not disappoint.

After the string quartet exited, and the band tore through immaculate renditions of "On A Neck, On A Spit" and "While You Wait For The Others," they returned for the simplest of encores. To utilize the impeccable acoustics of Town Hall, the band ended the two night run with an acoustic version of "All We Ask," kind of like that recent Black Cab session. While Bear played a stripped down kit, Dan Rossen strummed an acoustic guitar while Droste sang and bassist Chris Taylor stood there and harmonized.




And then, it was over. I have found very few people not buying in to the hype that is Grizzly Bear and their new album; I know I am a card-carrying member of said hype. But it's not just because they have made a great album, but it is also because they are talented musicians: they are tight in their live performances. They don't waste time, there was such little small talk outside of a few pleasantries between songs. They came onstage, they played their songs, they smiled politely and left. They've been given praise not just from this blogger, but lots of other places, and I know my opinion isn't as regaled as that Pitchfork site or Rolling Stone or Spin, but know this: it is worth every last ounce of hype and attention.


5/28/09 Set List:
Southern Point / Cheerleader* / Fine For Now* / Service Bell / Knife / Little Brother / Colorado / Two Weeks / Ready, Able / I Live With You* / Foreground* / While You Wait For The Others // He Hit Me / On A Neck, On A Spit
*with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus

5/29/09 Set List:
Southern Point / Cheerleader / Lullabye / Knife / Fine For Now / Two Weeks / Colorado / Dory* / Ready, Able* / I Live With You* / Foreground* / While You Wait For The Others / On A Neck, On A Spit // All We Ask
*with the ACME String Quartet

Grizzly Bear: "All We Ask" for Black Cab

So, yes. We've talked about the Grizzly Bear enough. Veckatimest finally hits record shelves and digital retailers on Tuesday. Until then, here's the Grizzle as I've started to call them in a Black Cab doing "All We Ask," jam #3 on the Veck. Oh, and I'll be at both Town Hall shows next week. You can expect the fullest of reports, oh yes.

Click the fun picture above to watch!

Can't Stop Spinning: Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

Dearest Ed, Daniel, Chris' Taylor & Bear:

I feel guilty. I am so sorry. I, too, have fallen victim to the curse on this industry that is the leak. I’ve been a bad fan. It’s just been so hotly anticipated by not just me, but by everyone, the entire community that aligns themselves with the term “hipster” or “scene” or some other word. I just align myself with the idea that some bands just make good music. Grizzly Bear do make great music - they just instead have taken what they do great to the next level, a plateau far out of the reach of some of their contemporaries to make what Mr. Fleet Fox tweeted as “the best album of the ‘00s.”

It’s been on repeat since Tuesday afternoon. Most times from start to finish, other times in pieces. The other night at 1AM, it was the haunting piano and children’s choir filling up the empty spaces of album closer “Foreground” that I left on repeat while taking another dose of Tylenol PM to try and reduce the amount of sniffling and coughing I have done for the better part of the week. This morning, it’s the ’08 summer jam “Two Weeks”, with it’s exploding chorus. As Ed Droste extends the word ‘always’ in the chorus, his voice becomes more and more affected by reverb. At the same time, sparkles of keyboards and samples also flourish to accompany the harmonies of Beach House’s Victoria LeGrand.

I keep reading about “Ready, Able” and every word said about the song that starts off the second half of the album is true. Pockets of starbursts between every line Droste delivers in verse. The breakdown in the middle, where everything builds a trail to, is finally realized and might be the greatest moment in the entire 52 minutes that Veckatimest lasts. Easily in the competition of best album moment is the grand finale of the epic “I Live With You”. Drums out of sync, organs swell and burst like the night is on fire. Or is it a hot afternoon? Before you have a chance to answer it ends abruptly, moving in to the “Foreground” mentioned above.

“Cheerleader” has been something I’ve had on repeat in live form since getting my hands on the MFA Bootleg. It sounds just as hollow on record than it does live. If weren’t bogged down by just 128 bits of sound, maybe we’d find things to be fuller, more enriched. There’s even more catchy bursts that are also in “About Face” and those harmonies on “Dory”. Every time you listen you can find 12 more reasons to like this record. I know I do every time. But for now "Ready, Able" is just the shiniest of shiny moments to me - the apex of the highlight of their career thus far. We all know they're bound to make more. And I just now realized I didn't even mention the awesomeness of "While You Wait For The Others". Sigh.

Records don’t come like they used to. Wrapped in plastic, different booklets emitting different scents and aromas. Now they come in the form of files, zipped and rar’d up for all to consume at the price of nothing. I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes to albums and when they leak; it doesn’t help that I also have a rather large streak of impatience in my blood. But this album, and it leaking three months ahead of its release date, it makes me sad. It makes me want to be 12 again, getting Pinkerton off the shelf at Wal-Mart, or my Dad surprising me at age 11 with Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, which I have had since its third day of release. I want that excitement back; I want the whole music community to be that way again, but I know it will never happen. I want people waiting in lines at midnight and I want listening parties, collectives of people taking the entire thing in together for the first time in the same bed, dorm or living room, not the same chat room or message board.

I’ve bought tickets to two shows. I’ll be buying the album. Odds are I’ll buy a shirt, too, but I’ll still feel guilty. What can I do to make this guilt go away? Make a pact to never download another album illegally ever again? Go and buy everything that I've ever obtained in that matter? This album is so special, so perfect to me that it just saddens me that I've ruined a moment I use to cherish so many times every year for many years.

All I ask of you dear readers if you haven't yet, it to just wait. Wait to soak this all in for the first time in May, when the sun is shining and it's warm out, when you can support the band properly. Until then, just take in this performance of "Ready, Able" from their performance at BAM last weekend.



Your fan,
Rusty

[Pre-Order Veckatimest From Grizzly Bear]

Department of Eagles Takes us In Ear Park

Earlier this year, I totally really got in to Grizzly Bear. When I was in college I was all over Yellow House like the rest of us were in the fall of 2006, but it just really hit me this spring when I revisited the record after spending too much time with that Friend EP. More recently, thanks to their stellar performance at Lollapalooza, "Two Weeks" has been on repeat in my head and at my home. Not so much for the bouncy rhythm and Ed Droste's lyrics, but more for Daniel Rossen's backing vocals of "oh's" and additional occassional words.

So I then found out that before becoming a member of the ol' G-Bear, Rossen and college roommate Fred Nicolaus had a little band called Department of Eagles. I kept reading about them and their new album In Ear Park, now in my possession, I feel is the best transitional record from summer in to fall. It's dreamy and peaceful, splendid guitars filling up the mix overtop of interesting loops innerspersed with both men's contagious vocals. This is going to slowly become one of my favorite albums of the year, mark my word. Either slowly or super fast, only time will tell.

Their second album under the DoE moniker, 4AD will release the album on October 7th. I know Rossen is busy recording the next Grizzly Bear album, but maybe he can find a moment to play a few shows so I can catch them live (please please please please please.)

Download: "No One Does It Like You" [mp3] // [Buy Here]

Lollapalooza: We're Here!

Arriving at Grant Park this morning, the line was around the block. The heat is not our best friend at the moment - while watching Rogue Wave, I'm convinced that I lost 5 or so pounds that got sweated out. What's the rest of the day look like - who knows. Black Keys for sure, Grizzly Bear a maybe, and some Radiohead band will have us under their rainbow spell at 8PM local time.