Daniel Hirshleifer's #3 - The Residents Demons Dance Alone
The pre-eminent experimental band comes out with a dark masterpiece. The
Residents are one of those bands who continue to evolve with each release, and
Demons Dance Alone is no exception. Fantastic performances and songs make this
good on a first listen, but there is so much depth that there's always
something new to hear with each succesive listen.
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Sean Hammond's #3 - Tarentel Ephemera
Granted, it's not a proper album. But, most bands can't put together a full
length as focused and trim as this collection of EP tracks. The tracklist
seemed illogical when I first read it. It isn't chronological, and only one
of the two "Travels in Constants" EP's tracks was included (yeah, the other
*is* almost 30 minutes long). But, as soon as I got the CD in my hands
and listened to it, it made perfect sense.
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Daron Gardner's #3 - Jason Anderson/Wolf Colonel Something/Everything!
Jason Anderson's third record is a conscious move away from the
power-pop-band sound of their previous records. The album is an
incredible collection of singer/songwriter type folk-pop and odd
collaborations with a couple K luminaries (The Microphones' Phil Elvrum
and Yume Bitsu's Adam Forkner), and of course, there are a few moments
of Wolf Colonel's usual full band power-pop. Something/Everything is a
really unique and enjoyable album to listen to, and has spent a lot of
time in my stereo this year.
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Adam Strom's #3 - (((Microwaves))) System 2
The debut full-length from this Pittsburgh trio was one of the biggest
surprises of the year for this writer. I mean, sure I knew it'd be good, but
System 2 blew away my expectations with its precise execution and amazing
production. Easily the best debut I heard in 2002, this album shoved live
electrical wires into my left and right ears and proceeded to burn my synapses
systematically and repeatedly for about three months.
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Cory Rayborn's #3 - The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
With the fire and intensity that's somewhat lacking on Tallahassee, John
Darnielle throws down the lo-fi gauntlet one last time for a while. Hail
Satan!
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Another stunning release by a mysterious, low-profile group. Gil's
12/12 review says more than I ever could, so I'll just say that it's
really great to hear the trancey mind-drone meet a vibrant, almost
quirky compositional sense. And on beautiful, beautiful vinyl too.
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I had a tough time choosing a third one, but I think Hayden deserves some
recognition for this record. Leaps and bound above his previous albums, which
were by no means slouches themselves, the production, the textured songs, the
vocal range are all greatly improved. Furthermore, no longer simply wallowing
in dolorous misery (which was not bad, but somewhat limiting), he's free to
explore other lyrical topics like being murdered in his house while recording
during a snowstorm.
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Gil Gershman's #3 - Golden Hotel The Silver Wilderness
The myth and majesty of the Great American West, as metaphor for the vast,
rocky landscape of the human heart, as conjured by the Brothers Lindner. So
lovely, so sad, and so strangely psychedelic.
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Jim Steed's #3 - Sigur Ros ()
Two years ago I almost removed Ágætis Byrjun
from THE LIST (instead Gil did), and now here I am adding their major label
followup to the THE LIST. What the fuck? On the first album, Gil said it
was "overblown and underwritten music pumped full of excess and artificial
sweeteners," and I completely agree. For the second album, the only word in
that description that still applies is "underwritten," which actually seems
like a compliment in this respect, meaning the music's bare forms make it
seem graceful, not dumbed-down.
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Evidently two of my top three choices are not eligible (Yellow6's Lake:Desert came out last year and the split CD from Rothko, Yellow6, and Landing doesn't actually come out til next year). So I nominate Interpol, because I can't
think of anything else I liked that much.
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Bryan Colesby's #3 - Tristeza s/t EP
This EP from small
jacket wearing hotties Tristeza was a very pleasant
surprise to me for a number of reasons. First of all,
Tristeza are a very popular indie band with many hot
female indie admirers. There is no reason to believe
that they would go out of their way to push boundries,
yet on this EP they explored everything from jazz to
krautrock. Second of all, unlike many bands that go out of
their way to alienate fans, Tristeza found a way to
incorporate these disparate elements into some great
sounding songs!! This EP marks the first time that
Tristeza has sounded wholly unique. Here's hoping
that they continue on this path and blow my mind.
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Anthony Gerace's #3 - The Books Thought For Food
Like last year, this one is here because I needed a third and this is
what's currently in my stereo from this year. It's like DJ Shadow, if he
were two guys instead of one, played all sorts of stringed instruments, and
just used vocal samples. So, kind of not like DJ Shadow at all. Thought For
Food has a really stripped down, melancholic vibe that's perfect, yet
retains a sense of humour that is unoticed in a lot of their peers. Songs
like "Getting the Done Job" and "All Our Base Are Belong to Them" fuse
samples, live instrumentation and vocals perfectly, while haunting tracks
like "Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again" and "Motherless
Bastard" show to what emotional depth found sound can be used. This album is
essential.
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David Christensen's #3 - Wire Read and Burn 02 EP
Read and Burn 01 proved that your punk grandpas could still kick out a 12XU that would hold up to current standards of aggressiveness and teach Orange County wannabes a thing or two. That done, 02 goes on to show that Wire is still as eager as ever to do something once and quickly move on. They take their 25+ years of experience and forge a forward-looking smoking slab of gnarled fury packed with razor sharp guitars, precicion rhythms, and garbled vocals. No matter how old and fat they get, these guys will always be punker than you.
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Tim Whalley's #3 - Black Dice Beaches & Canyons
An unlikely band to produce this collection of eery soundscapes and
pulsating washes of sound, that suceeding in evoking, well, images of
beaches and canyons. It worked well in its juxtaposition of melody and
noise. I liked being thrown off by what people usually call an avante garde
hardcore/noise band or something. I included this partly because they put on
one of the best live shows I had ever seen.
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I didn't give this LP the best review, but it really grew on me.
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Phil Smoker's #3 - Do Make Say Think & Yet & Yet
I didn't think this album deserved to be a "best of
the year" pick, but the simple fact remains that I've
played much more than almost everything else I bought
this year. That could be because I sleep to it often,
but it's also enjoyable as foreground music. The two
drummers weave a very full sound in concert, creating
a suitably soothing undercurrent for the jazzy improv
and dynamic shifts that make this album so worthwhile.
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Dave Raposa's #3 - Streets Original Pirate Material
A lot of hip-hop / rap has passed through my ears this year, and while there's a
lot of stuff I played over and over and over (cf. Clipse, Missy Elliot,
Ludacris, Eminem), this little bugger of a record is the one that I remember the
best. It's a strange record, on some levels—there's this cocky British guy
with a thick accent dropping all sorts of bangers & mash atop rinky-dink
stuttering drum-machine beats, Casio interjections, and blunt samples. However,
once you wade past all this seemingly superficial chintz, there are plenty of
moments where a deft turn of phrase and the right conflation of studio flash
make something remarkable. I could wuss out and call Mr. Streets Mike Skinner
the Mark E. Smith of jungle or what have you—I wouldn't be the first to do it.
Damn if such praise doesn't do Skinner a grave injustice.
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Ned Raggett's #3 - Boom Selection: Issue 01
Nothing could be more emblematic of a time and place—music as
popular medium filtered through software and hardware advances,
the familiarity of the Web, home CD burning (it's a homemade
three mp3 disc collection) and the constant explosion and evolution
of hip-hop and techno mix and production dynamics. Bootlegs here
there and everywhere, full mix sets from some of the most notorious
characters on the worldwide scene, more mashups and cutups and
reattachments than were ever dreamed of. Sign of the times—a
whole bunch of sitting around in a bar in Boston in October, hearing
the Strokes' "Hard to Explain" start and then getting extremely
pissed that it wasn't in face "A Stroke of Genius." Long as hell but
flat out brilliant.
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Round 2
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Daniel Hirshleifer's #2 - David Bowie Heathen
David Bowie IS my favorite musical artist, and Heathen is one of his best
post-Let's Dance albums. The opene, "Sunday" is an amazing mood piece that has
a fantastic build. His cover of The Pixies' "Cactus " runs rings around the
original, and "Afraid" has one of the best intros in his whole catalogue. The
title track is a beautiful closer and was heavenly in concert.
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...fuck. I can't feel my hands.
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On Tanakh's Villa Claustrophobia, the music swells, hypnotizes, and
drones its way between dark Middle Eastern ragas and languid folk.
Mesmerizing, and hard to take out of your cd player. A completely
amazing debut release.
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Adam Strohm's #2 - Deerhoof Reveille
Here, Deerhoof explore new ground after the departure of founding member Rob
Fisk. John Deiterich replaces him on guitar, and the the trio begin to depart
from the stark simplicity that made 1999's Holdypaws so amazing. The
angularity and unpredictability are still there, but Reveille finds a new
lushness within the Deerhoof sound, and electronics and FX gadgetry find a
place in their sonic arsenal. Reveille is yet another magnificent left turn
in the output of a band who's quietly making rock music like no one else around.
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This band was totally unknown to me before this year. I can't say that
anymore as I've played the hell out of this album ever since I first got it.
Great songs that conjure forth a definite mood. I can't wait to see what
they do next.
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Tom Eigen's #2 - Xiu Xiu Knife Play
Believe it or not, after my ambivalent ?/12
review back in April, I've come to really love this record. Though I
hold many of the same reservations I had eight months ago, Knife Play
is without a doubt the most ambitious debut I've heard in years.
Direct, fractured, damaged, whatever you want to say—Xiu Xiu are
forging forward, and as their excellent Chapel of the Crimes EP shows,
they are still fertile with ideas.
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Andy Beckerman's #2 - Grand Buffet Undercover Angels EP
I don't really know what to say about this album. It's baffling—a concept
EP that deals with the two members of Grand Buffet being somehow involved
with an X-Files like project, but then there's all this other stuff. Let's
just describe it as avant hip-hop with catchy beats, great rhymes, and
spectacular flow. And creative ideas. Extremely creative ideas.
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Gil Gershman's #2 - Radian Rec. Extern
Prime post-rock, Chicago variant, liberated by an electro-acoustic palette?
Austrian electro-acoustic trio unified by the angular mechanics of Midwestern
post-rock? Dynamic and densely detailed, with superb production by John
McEntire, either way. Could prove as influential as This Heat. Give it a few
years.
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Jim Steed's #2 - Sonic Youth Murray Street
I have two choices for the 2 slot, and
likely either will be eliminated. The first choice is Bellini's Snowing Sun
which is perhaps the last great 90s Touch and Go album, which will get
removed because my fellow writers are sexist and puritanical and can't
handle a strong woman. The second choice is Sonic Youth's Murray Street,
which will get removed because Sonic Youth shouldn't be Sonic Youth anymore,
or at least that's what they will tell you. I think they're definitely
allowed to still be Sonic Youth. So, I give up, I'll choose Sonic Youth.
I'd rather hear people whine about that one.
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With Yume Bitsu down to 2 people they had no choice
but to distill the music down to the bare
essentials,
and, luckily, the essentials are more than enough.
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The Little
Wings are a relatively new discovery for me and serve
as a very pleasant distraction from all of the drone
and experimental music I usually prefer. Kyle Field's
voice is heartfelt and warm and the songs are simple,
hummable, and inventive. I guess I just really needed
something playful in my life when the Little Wings
arrived and I am so thankful that they did.
I know this release isn't very "important" or
"cool," but it just hit me in a very nice way upon
listening to it for the first time, and every
subsequent time. If nothing else, Kyle should get
credit for writing the best song of the last 5
years, "Look At What The Light Did Now".
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A spur of the moment purchase at a really good record store. This album
bends and combines genres like they were blades of grass, yet still keeps up
an overall mood and feeling. No one song on this album sounds the same, and
it's perfect for that. Broken Social Scene combine drone, post-rock, Appalachian folk, punk,
funk, skronk, jazz, and classical to make what is another great Canadian
export. Hopefully they've got good distribution, because they're on a
microscopic label, and it would be a shame if this were just a local thing.
Supreme, heartwrenching pop for the chin-stroking set.
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David Christensen's #2 - The Liars Fins to Make Us More Fish-Like EP
Breaking free of the hooks and conventions that made their LP like a 21st Century NYC Gang of Four redux, the Liars fuck shit up in the studio to create a more damaged robot. Dubbed and looped; stripped down, but amped up; less gimick and more intensity. So tightly wound that even the quiet parts make your jaw clench. It is a rare record that makes the listener eager with anticipation as to where the band will go next. (Note: the version of "Grown Men Don't Fall in the River Just Like That" on this EP rocks circles around the LP one.)
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David Grubbs' records have always struck me as eloquent, precise, finely
crafted nuggets. I cant get enough of David Grubbs' deadpan delivery, which
I find completely haunting. This record didnt really break any new ground,
but was consistent with his standard of high quality recordings. The
electronic bleeps and blops could have been left off though.
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Jefre Cantu's #2 - Vincent Gallo Recordings of Music For Film
Yes, he is a pig, and this is old stuff... but if you don't read the liner notes
you can seriously enjoy this LP.
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Phil Smoker's #2 - Lambchop Is A Woman
Kurt Wagner crafts another collection of earnest tales
exposing the intricacies of daily life in sublime
detail. Piano-based compositions breathe country-soul
with subtle embellishes to underscore the singing.
Never has a Lambchop album flowed so effortlessly from
beginning to end. They are a real treat live, too.
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Dave Raposa's #2 - Spoon Kill the Moonlight
I like to think of Britt Daniel's songs as wiry, charismatic little gems hewn
from gaudy, grandiose stones. With each successive Spoon album, it sounds as if
he's removing as much as he's adding—the more instruments in the studio, the
less they do; the more influences absorbed, the less overt influence they exert.
Britt's been able to assimilate traditional pop musics as easily and deftly as
he swallowed the artier side of the punk rock, and the resulting mixture
possesses quite the bouquet and body. It's gotten to the point where the only
thing Spoon can be justly compared to, and measured against, is Spoon.
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Ned Raggett's #2 - Babasonicos Jessico
Hurrah for the Internet and worldwide friends. My friend Ce down
in Buenos Aires sent this and an earlier album to me and I listened
to it with no preconceptions. Turned out these guys, like a lot
of the best South American rock bands, listen to everything and
make it their own. Those who know Spanish better than I say that
the lyrics rip into idiocy and the problems of Argentinian life
with little restraint, but that's why the whole combination of
metal riffs, flamenco, techno, and more probably works so damn well
anyway.
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Round 3
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Daniel Hirshleifer's #1 - Peter Gabriel Up
Peter Gabriel is one of my favorite artists, and I've been waiting for new
music from him for a decade. When Up came out, I downloaded all the tracks
before the release date because I just couldn't wait. I love this album. The
textures are magnificent, and the melodies are beautiful and evocative. Proof
that an artist can stay relevant over the decades.
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Recorded during a time of transition and change (the lineup was paired down
from four to two), Yume Bitsu ended up with a record unlike their previous
output. In general, as daring and exciting as it is for a band to make a
conscious shift in their music, it doesn't result in great music. Which is
why this album is such a gem. Not only does it live up to the great records
they've released in the past, but it does so with a new set of rules.
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Daron Gardner's #1 - Six Organs of Admittance Dark Noontide
Completely amazing. Ben Chasney has done nothing but improve. His EP
on the Three Lobed Series blew me away, and this album is even more
amazing (though just slightly). Beautiful and trance inducing. With
his floor thumping and ferociously attacked acoustic guitars, Chasney
has created a primal, and awe inspiring masterpiece.
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Adam Strohm's #1 - The Flying Luttenbachers Infection and Decline
After ten years in existence, The Flying Luttenbachers unleash what is their
best album since Revenge, if not their best ever. Weasel Walter's "Brutal
Prog" is the group's first real step outside of the realm of jazz, and its
maelstrom of bass, bass, and drums pounds out an album that's highly agressive
and equally cerebral. The Luttenbachers' cover of Magma's "De Futura" may be
one of my favorite covers of all time...
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I get more attached to this record with each and every listen. It is so
delicate, artfully done and powerful and such a different side from this
Pelt member. Eclipse has just repressed the final pressing they're ever
going to do—hop to it if you haven't already.
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Tom Eigen's #1 - Consonant s/t
Years after Mission of Burma's demise, Clint Conley
shows that he still has it in him, with a new band that is far from an
uninspired retread of past glory like you might expect. Instead,
Consonant's debut record stands as a summation of twenty years of indie
rock, merging strains of frantic punk, pastoral jangle, and edgy
tension. An achievement.
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Andy Beckerman's #1 - The Revolutionary Hydra Knockout to Dispense
While definitely less esoteric than their earlier work, Knockout to Dispense
makes up for it by being utterly honest, but not in a direct or annoyingly
obvious way. It's reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie's second album being a
great marriage between heartfelt themes and cryptic lyricism. Knockout is a loose
concept album that weaves a lot of motifs about love and art together in a
DiLillo-like piecemeal fashion, while underlying it with catchy, intricate
guitar work. This album has really grown on me since I first started
listening to it, for a while being a daily spin of mine.
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If the notion of a concerto for piano and electronic orchestra has you fearing
the worst sort of stuffy, neo-Classical excess, know that this landmark
recording is as beautiful and accessible as it is important. Extraordinary in
every sense—ambition, conception, execution—and the most rewarding 50
minutes of music I encountered in 2002.
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Jim Steed's #1 - Consonant s/t
Walk up to a hundred people and ask what the "rock
record of 2002" was. You'll probably get a few people who'll say The Hives,
The Strokes, or The White Stripes. If you're lucky, someone might actually
say the Liars or Sigur Ros. Likely no one will say Consonant. Even the
biggest Mission of Burma fan might neglect this amazing, direct rock record.
It shouldn't be possible to pick up a mic 19 years later and make an album
like this. But Clint Conley did. And it is the rock record of 2002.
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Pete Baumann's #1 - Landing Seasons
Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge Landing
fan, and this is by far their best release. The
pop-songcraft has finally come into its own—but not
at the expense of the hazy dreaminess.
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Bryan Colesby's #1 - The Fucking Champs V
This record tops all of
their previous releases for sheer butt-kickingness and
the abilitly to kick butt. The flow is what
differentiates this album from other Champs offerings.
Unlike previous albums, it seems like the Champs are
making an effort to A) make shorter records and B)
insert little interludes that cleanse the metal
pallette.
There is no doubting that the F-ings have
unbelievable chops and write totally sweet metal riffs
one after the other. On V, the Champs finally made
an album I can listen to for more than 5 minutes.
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Anthony Gerace's #1 - Do Make Say Think & Yet & Yet
Going the extra mile from what made 2000's Goodbye Enemy Airship the
Landlord is Dead so awesome to make an album that is super-awesome. No
longer living in Godspeed's shadow as "that other Constellation band," and
in fact proving that Do Make Say Think have the ability to make lasting music, while
Godspeed has fallen through the cracks (come on, Yanqui UXO?), & Yet & Yet
is a stellar album. Combining the morose dirge-jazz of Enemy Airship, and
spicing it up with wordless vocals, joyous songs, and really deft
production, this album is a real gem. Now that I'm living in the big T-Dot,
I'm hoping to be able to catch one of their shows. That is, if they ever
stop touring Europe to come home!
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Believe the hype as Wilco finally lives up to the heretofore undeserved, unrestrained praised. Top notch, modern Americana-steeped songwriting gets all mixed up by mild avant-garde ambitions and Jim O'Rourke. As dry and textured and intelligent as it is sad and moving and relevatory.
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Tim Whalley's #1 - Xiu Xiu Knife Play
Probably the darkest and most depressing record in existence (at
least in my record collection). This hodge podge of post-80s scraps,
piercing sounds and Smiths/The Cure damage burned a whole in my heart. It
really was a superb blend of quality songwriting violated by violent
outbursts. Vital.
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Jefre Cantu's #1 - Songs: Ohia Didn't It Rain
This record rules.
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Phil Smoker's #1 - Queens of the Stone Age Songs For the Deaf
The return of hard rock to mainstream consciousness.
Superb songwriting skills merged with melodic hooks
and powerhouse licks. Regardless of what you think of
his other projects, Dave Grohl can beat the skins
convincingly with a fury few could match. If these
guys can't save rock and roll, I'm turning in my cred.
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Dave Raposa's #1 - Nina Nastasia The Blackened Air
Matter-of-fact stories recited by the fragile, charming voice of a young women
possessed by the spirits of a thousand eccentric grandmothers. Normal folk-type
music for the people that see normal as strange. The spaces in these songs are
as musical as the notes filling the spaces. Aided & abetted by ingenious
instrumentation and Steve Albini's 2nd best engineering effort—for the record,
his best engineering effort would be the work performed on Nina Nastasia's 1st
album, Dogs.
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Ned Raggett's #1 - Peter Murphy Dust
Probably the record I listened to most this year, though in fact I
really didn't listen to many albums more than once. This was
definitely one of the few and for a while there in May and June it
was on near constant play, especially late at night. While on
the one hand fusing more traditional/Western pop/rock structures
to Turkish instrumentation (unplugged and electrified both) might
sound like dilettantism run rampant, it's a case of Murphy's
background (married to a Turkish wife, lived in the country for
years) coming forward very well. Not cultural tourism, but a
depiction of a state and place where he's at that translated into
awesomely beautiful music, with grace and elegance. He's always
been knocked for a Bowie ripoff, but comparing this to Heathen,
good as that is, Dust wins.
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