Amplifying the music, books, movies and journalism that matter.
Life is complicated and busy. Did you notice? Keeping up with the music, movies and books that fed your youthful imagination and conversations is harder than ever, but even more important. Here's the good news: there's never been more great new stuff. The challenge is to find it.
So here are my highly opinionated views on sounds, sights and words that will help you keep it fresh and real, and links to the veins where the richest motherlodes can be found.
It doesn't get any more opinionated than this. Here's what was on "repeat" at my house in 2012:
Storm Queen, Look Right Through You - Let's get this party started. Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah.
Django Django, Hail Bop - Nothing to do with Tarentino; everything to do with the sound of psychedelia which, it turns out, never gets old.
Solange, Losing You - Her big sister may make all the noise but she is the real deal. This one will make you want to dance in the kitchen again, even by yourself. It's okay, really.
Passion Pit, Take A Walk - They were everywhere in 2012, but somehow not overplayed. Soundtrack for the "Fiscal Cliff"?
Vintage Trouble, Nobody Told Me - They opened for The Who"s latest tour. Pete still knows his "maximum R&B."
Tallest Man on Earth, 1904 - Soothing and strangely moving, as if it were blowing in the wind. Nudge, nudge.
Bruno Mars, Locked Out of Heaven - What Hall & Oates and Elton were to the 1970's, Mars is for the 2010's: brilliantly irresistible.
Cloud Nothings, Stay Useless -- Heirs to the Strokes, but with less posing. And oooh, I like it loud.
Frank Ocean, Sweet Life - Damn, just one song from the R&B album of the decade? Ok, then this one.
Michael Kiwanuka, I'm Getting Ready - Will I be listening to all ten of these tracks ten years from now? Maybe. This one? Absolutely.
It's hard to believe a whole year has gone by since I started this blog. Sharing great stuff as the year unfolded makes it easier to sort out what has truly stood out. But hang on -- this is not just a rehash. There's some great music that was only just released or that I never got around to praising. It was harder in a year filled with so much great stuff to narrow this list, even down to this list of ten. (Consequently, lots of great singles will make that list in another week.) What's not here, as usual, is the ubiquitous. You surely don't need me to find "Call Me Maybe" for you. Start the countdown.
10. Lotus Plaza, Spooky Action At A Distance - The title might have qualified even if the music weren't so good. From the Deerhunter family, this is Lockett Pundt's latest project. It's got all the jangly guitars I could ever ask for and a soaring feel that can take your breath away. These are simple songs, really, but they are all dressed up for a long night out that might end in a place like "Strangers":
9. Roller Trio, Roller Trio - "Serious" jazz, with honking saxophone? Do we have to, Jack? Well, no, but if you miss the fresh sounds this British trio are making, you may go on thinking that there's been no jazz for you since "Kind of Blue". Roller Trio's debut is a record that will take you new place and let you hear the roar, so that you can clearly hear the quiet beauty that follows. There's a reason these guys were Mercury Prize nominees this year, and you can hear it beautifully on "R-O-R."
8. Poolside, Pacific Standard Time - While it sounds nothing like it, Poolside sits in the place that Aja-era once Steely Dan occupied in my life: a durable, smart pop sound that offers all-day, everyday pleasure. There's a charming cover of Neil Young's Harvest Moon buried here, but this is the sound of modern Los Angeles, bubbling and blipping along on the digital freeway.
7. Beach House, Bloom - Beach House's dream-pop is the sound of being happily high on a summer afternoon (er, at least as I remember it). Think Time of the Season-period Zombies, put on your Earth Shoes and lay around in the hammock. While it feels a little too fragile on first listening, it opens up in warm way like the best Fleetwood Mac, to whom Poolside owes a big debt.
6. Michael Kiwanuka, Home Again - In the months since I first heard him I've become an even bigger believer in his talent. This music feels absolutely authentic, every note heartfelt. He's Bill Withers, Taj Mahal, Van Morrison and Jack Johnson all rolled up in one Ugandan body. Now that's a neat trick.
5. Lampchop, Mr. M - Kurt Wagner was new to me last summer when I saw him on a weird, but magical Lincoln Center bill with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Yo La Tengo and Jim James. As "Lambchop" he has a whole catalogue of music that's as sweetly eccentric as anything Randy Newman recorded, and as steeped in Americana as The Band's best. Like Newman, he's unafraid to give his songs elaborate and stylistically varied settings. His latest is a fine place to start discovering this great American original. "Gone Tomorrow" shows his talents beautifully.
4. Divine Fits, A Thing Called Divine Fits - I'm a big fan of Spoon, the Austin outfit whose music has a dark, hard, staccato feel that's straight from the swamp. There are no ballads on a Spoon record. The buzz on Divine Fit was all about the "supergroup" coupling of Spoon and Wolf Parade. But when you get a rock record that makes you want to move as much as this one does, I say "Shut up and dance."
3. Meshell Ndegeocello, por une ame souveraine - A Dedication to Nina Simone - Not quite a tribute album, this is where the defiantly original bassist connects the dots between Roberta Flack, Nora Jones and the diva to whom the disk is dedicated. A stunning surprise from a woman whose long, slow musical evolution has been astounding to hear.
2. Alabama Shakes, Boys & Girls - I can't get enough of this bone-rattling, southern rock with its big Muscle Shoals bottom. Brittany's Howard's Janis Joplin pipes are the centerpiece, but this is one tight little band that I think will be around for a while. A classic.
1. Frank Ocean, Channel ORANGE - If there had been no other new music released this year, this would have been enough for me. He is unquestionably Marvin's hier, with his sweet falsetto and his convention-bending songwriting and yet at the same time he is sui generis - we have not seen the likes of Frank before. When I first wrote about Channel ORANGE, I downplayed the "coming out" story that drew so much press. But courage is what this music is all about. Celebrate the New Year with this fine talent. Be brave in 2013.
A quick post, a fanatic rave really, because this is one extraordinary film from David Russell -- a funny, touching movie for grown folks about the possibility of redemption. Go for the Oscar worthy (I mean it!) performance of Jennifer Lawrence, who was criminally neglected for "Winter's Bone" and lately smoldered in "The Hunger Games." Go for DeNiro in the most restrained and affecting he's ever been. Go for Chris Tucker's honest-to-God acting. And go for Cooper, in the role that will make us forgive and forget the endless "Hangovers". Tough subject, brilliant script, Russell at the peak of his game. You get the idea - go!
For years at the end of dinner parties Rob B. and I have been talking about having a radio show together, which in my mind has always been called Atlantic Crossings. In this imagined slot on WTSR or WPRB, we'd bullshit and spin tunes that highlight the persistent difference between American and British tastes in popular music. Because frankly even in a global warming world, we think this is important.
Consider this a preview of our show on "Songs About Jane":
Velvet Underground, Sweet Jane: My opening gambit, the only place to start, really.
Nick Drake, HazeyJaneI: Rob's potential counter, from an artist he introduced me to.
Los Lobos, Two Janes - I come back with a true American sound heard first on their brilliant Kiko.
Bob Dylan, Queen Jane Approximately - A possible Rob spin. "Highway 61 Revisited" cast a LONG shadow.
Beck, SoldierJane - Because we're keeping AtlanticCrossing real and fresh.
And there would be more from me: Ben Folds's Jane, Spiritualized's 2012 killer HeyJane, Petty's Mary Jane's Last Dance. Your move, Rob.
Sandy - so many casualties, so much loss. But in her wake, there's a surprising new mood -- even in New York -- full of worries about the future to be sure, but also brimming with empathy and caring, a desire to make things better here for others. Get the heat and lights back on, but for God's sake, let's nurture this feeling for a little while. No apologies - these tunes have the power to fill your heart with hope:
Talking Heads, ˆNaive Melody (This Must Be The Place) - "Home is where I want to be, but I guess I'm already there"
John Hiatt, Have A Little Faith In Me - "I'll be there to catch your fall, so have little faith in me"
Margo Timmons [of Cowboy Junkies], If I Should Fall Behind (Springsteen) - "If I should fall behind, wait for me"
The Youngbloods, Get Together - "C'mon people now, smile on your brother." Really.
October is my favorite month: longer nights that make the shorter, sunny days seem sweeter, even as the sun loses its heat. A "back to school" feel long after you've stopped going back to anything. A Presidential election and a World Series that leave us all expectant and stuff.
Take a chilly run outside or sit by the fire with this stuff in your ears and see if this fall harvest helps you find a new attitude.
Divine Fits, Would That Not Be Nice - Remember "supergroups"? Blind Faith, Band of Gypsies, CSN? Inspired pairings that stretched everyone involved? Get ready to be stretched by this amalgam of Spoon and Wolf Parade. A top ten 2012 pick. (Well, it's the fourth quarter already, c'mon).
Solange, Losing You - Beyonce's baby sister hits it out of the park on a tune that sounds like Madonna back in the day, the day being sometime in 1986. Got a problem with that?
Storm Queen, Look Right Through You - Note to self: Get the New Year's Eve party started with this.
Lianne Le Havas, Is Your Love Big Enough? 23 year-old Brit serving up a spicy stew of folk and soul that just won her a Mercury Prize nomination. Move over, Adele.
Bloc Party, Day Four - New British Invasion. I surrender.
Daphni - Ye Ye - An electronic wash that will make you hear the sound of your synapses firing. Interested? Read Sasha Jones-Frere on Dan Snaith (a.k.a. Daphni) :
It’s time to talk about Frank Ocean and his latestrelease, a lock for my top ten list of 2012. I have three words for you: Stevie, Marvin, Maxwell. Yup, Channel Orange earns him a place in this top shelf company.
Let’s get some things out of the way. First, Ocean is a pro, an accomplished
songwriter long before this first release of his own and it’s the songwriting
that shines here. Second, this is
not the hooky pop stuff you get from Timberlake or Beyonce; it’s mining the
same vein but in a more restrained way.
Third, the “coming out” that accompanied the release of Channel Orange (Frank said his first
true love was a man) may lend it a zeitgeist-y air of right now, but it should not distract from the fact that this is richly romantic R&B.
Listen to “Sweet Life” and ask why Lauren Hill isn’t making music
like this (or why she doesn’t run right out and cover it):
“Super Rich Kids” is as hip-hoppy as it gets, but it wouldn’t
have sounded out of place on “What’s Going On”:
Finally, here’s “Crack Rock”. Somebody say “Stevie”.
Another summer well past the halfway point --- the corn is as high as an elephant's eye and all. Here are some rave new sounds to see you through 'til September. Your mission if you choose to accept it: remember glorious summers past, but savor every remaining moment of this actual one.
Passion Pit, Take A Walk - Like some social commentary with your electro-pop? Radio ready.
The Gaslight Anthem, 45 - If your idea of an epic summer song is Blue Cheer banging away on Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues, then this Bud's for you, from somewhere in the swamps of Jersey. From Red Bank, actually.
Frank Ocean, Sweet Life - Frank who, you say? What, did you spend the summer on the moon and miss the biggest thing in R&B since, like Frankie Beverly and Maze?
The Tallest Man on Earth, 1904 - He's Kristian Mattson, a Swede, and at first listen, his music sounds like lost tracks from an early Dylan album. But, as Ira Glass might say, "stay with us." Brilliant.
Beat Connection, ThePalace Garden 4AM - Meet Seattle's answer to Vampire Weekend's clipped, trippy pop sound. Top down, people.
If you lived in Los Angeles where all of the KCRW DJ's have this on their list of fav's for August, you wouldn't need me to put you wise to Pacific Standard Time. Poolside is an unlikely pairing of a Dane and San Franciscan dedicated to daytime disco, rhythmic stuff that chugs along with a heavy bottom and an airy top. (Face it, we've all known someone like that, haven't we?)
Pacific Standard Time is Poolside's debut album, after singles and mixtapes. Consistent from end to end, download all sixteen tracks fearlessly. Hell, be old school and buy the damn CD for the car or that paint-spattered boom box you keep on the work bench in the garage. You'll wear it out by Labor Day.
But take note: buried in the middle of this disk is a killer remake of Neil Young's Harvest Moon. I double-dog-dare you to resist it.
I'm so not a detective fiction buff. Igetthe whole thing, the complicated plotting, the eccentric protagonist with the smart mouth and the platform it provides for social commentary (usually poking fun at liberals). I make exceptions. I'm a complete sucker for the hardboiled banter of Raymond Chandler; "The Long Goodbye" with Eliot Gould, made from his best novel, is one of my all time favorite movies.But it's not what I grab for a plane ride or a week at the beach. Until now.
In a recent pre-flight visit to B&N, I was ready to grab "Savages," the Don Winslow novel that was adapted for Oliver Stone's rough new film. Instead, I picked up, "The Dawn Patrol," Winslow's 2008 surf noir and read it in a single sitting. Boone Daniels (I know) is the surfing PI enlisted to investigate an insurance scam that takes a darker turn, with a Chinatown-like back story about the development of the coast south of San Diego. Like crack on the page.
Take a break from the Booker Prize winners and suck this up with Sublime and Guster playing on your iPod.
The XX's debut made my "best of" list in 2010 and has remained in heavy rotation on all my, how you say, devices. (If you haven't listened to it, for God's sake stop right here and go find it now.) Since its release there have been echoes of their airy, but tuneful sound in tracks released by Jamie Smith (aka Jamie XX) or produced by him, most especially his remix of Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here (a 2011 "best of" JFJ pick).
But new music is coming. See if Angels, from their forthcoming disk Coexist, will tide you over or make you an anxious convert. This is beautiful music, quiet but deeply felt, soothing even though it's suffused with sadness.
Can't wait for more? See what Jamie did to (for) Adele:
Or how the band transforms (which is to say renders nearly unrecognizable) a soul number like Womack and Womack's Teardrops:
Just for a sanity check, here's the original in all it's mid 80's glory:
See if the music of the XX isn't the perfect antidote to the heat.
No, this is not me going all Red State on you. This is fan mail from some flounder to Deerhunter, the alternative band fronted by Bradford Cox and Lockett Pundt, whose side projects Atlas Sound and Lotus Plaza make up the Empire part of this thing. Ambient psychedelia? Maybe so. Chiming guitars, metronome drumming and minor key introversion are the pulse running all through this music.
Where to begin? Start with"Agoraphobia" from 2008's Microcastle, by which time the band's sound has gelled from their noisy 2001 beginnings. The noise quotient is toned down, the jangly guitars that Pundt contributes and Cox's introverted sentiments are all here in the prettiest little song you'll ever hear about a panic attack.
Then it's on to Cox's efforts as Atlas Sound. Away from the band, his work can verge on chamber pop, somewhat sunnier (what a relief) and rhythmically complex. This stunner "Walkabout" is from 2008's Logos and features Noah Lennox of Panda Bear (but he's for another day):
I've saved the best for last, the Luna-like sound of Pundt's Lotus Plaza. If LP is the most accessible of these three collectives, you're still not gonna hear it on the radio anytime soon. Hypnotic and trippy, those reverb-soaked guitars are all over his Spooky Action at a Distance, released this year. "Remember Our Days" is my pick on a disk full of gems.
Do you long for the "Summer of Love" sound of the Youngbloods? Does the mention of Moondance make you a little woozy? Maybe you came way too late for that party but have been wondering what Bon Iver would sound like if Justin Vernon had any soul?
If the answer to any of these questions is "yes", then you need some Michael Kiwanuka in your head right now. A Londoner of Ugandan parents, Kiwanuka has clearly been mainlining post-Monterey Otis Redding, all of Bill Withers, and not a little Curtis Mayfield. The fingerprints of the trippy part of the late 60's are all over this. But what's not to like about psychedelic soul?
As we approach the summer solstice, here is an album that has already earned a place on my 2012 Best list. Fittingly, as the northern hemisphere tilts closer to the sun, it's the latest from Beach House, Bloom.
The long shadow of Brian Wilson hangs over this duo, a Baltimore pair that has been recording since 2004 and now sits in the center of the genre known as "dream pop." It's a big, lush sound, full of harmony and vocal wash. Boomers, there are echoes of George Harrison, ELO and the Zombies and later, Dream Academy's Life in A Northern Town. Everybody else, you know this sounds as kin to Panda Bear, Animal Collective, Sigor Ros, Deerhunter, Camera Obscura, Atlas Sound, Grimes, my recent faves Chairlift and Tennis -- oh, for God's sake it's everywhere. Haven't you been paying attention?
This stuff plays with contrast, just like Wilson's best: the sunny melody that wraps up a lyric about loneliness and alienation. (And who doesn't love a dollop of irony with their pop?) But forget about narrative, these songs are all about mood:
Face it, right now this sound epitomizes the antithesis of rap -- there's not a hip-hop bone in its body. But as Beach House puts its across, it's not slack. It has tension and a certain muscularity that's revealed in this live version of Wild:
Earlier Beach House disks felt, well, washed out. This one has cohesiveness and heft. I'm moving in for the summer.
She recorded it in 1976 at the age of
33, long after the poplar success that came with Both Sides Now, Big Yellow
Taxi and Free Man in Paris. Hejira is a dreamscape of jazz
sounds, her own guitar underpinned by Larry Carlton’s and the gently propulsive
drumming of John Guerin. But it’s the bass of Jaco Pastorius that gives
this disk its droning power. From
deep in the analog era, the sound is crisp and clean.
Composed after a cross-country car
trip from Maine to California, the songs are full of the imagery of the road
and the mood is full of loss and longing. Listen to Refuge of the Roads,
which epitomizes the restless, rootless feel:
In
a highway service station
Over
the month of June
Was
a photograph of the earth
Taken
coming back from the moon
And
you couldn't see a city
On
that marbled bowling ball
Or
a forest or a highway
Or
me here least of all
You
couldn't see these cold water restrooms
Or
this baggage overload
Westbound and rolling Taking refuge in the roads
For me, the beautiful, beating
heart of this masterpiece (I do not
exaggerate) is her meditation on Amelia Earhart, then already a mythic figure of
the female adventurer:
I
was driving across the burning desert
When
I spotted six jet planes
Leaving
six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It
was the hexagram of the heavens
it
was the strings of my guitar
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
On a summer night, rain threatening or even coming down, fall under the spell of this
one.
Okay, this is a stretch but stay with me for a minute: Imagine if Sandra Dee, in addition to starring in, it had
written and directed Gidget, the 1959
movie that ushered the surfing craze into popular culture.And what if Sandy had then gone on to
adapt it for television (too bad for you Sally Fields), with an unblinking
focus on what exactly went on with Moon Doggy at the beach? Nuh, uh. No chance for the girls to win big in 1959.
But this is exactly the hat trick that 25 year-old Lena
Dunham has pulled off.Fresh out
of Oberlin, she produced a smart, original 2010 film about coming home to NYC “in a post college delirium” – Tiny
Furniture.It’s a gem.
Now under the watchful gaze of Judd Apatow, she’s got a
breakout hit on HBO, Girls, recycling and expanding the characters and
situations of Tiny Furniture.The
writing is sharp, the acting authentic and Dunham's character heroic.
Watch it for its knowing, hilarious insights into how women
are navigating the straits of young adulthood right nowWatch it for an early look at young
comedic talent who could be this generation’s Elaine May (Wayback Machine alert
– Google her).
But whatever you do, do not watch it as the parent of a 25 year old daughter. If that's you, go watch something else less unsettling, like Game of Thrones or something.
Spring is here. Maybe you'll be headed to a party in a Brooklyn backyard. Maybe you'll be giving one in a crowded apartment or a spacious, green terrace. No matter where it throws down, it's time to think about the music that will get the party started. Here, a guide to new sounds that will make folks think about moving and how much it would be to dance with that girl over there in the corner.
Lee Field and the Expressions, You're the Kind of Girl. Here is where I would start, with a Memphis soul groove (horns and all) crossed with a little Wilson Pickett, that would have felt right at home in 1972. But it's brand new from Brooklyn's Truth and Soul record label.
THEESatisfaction, QueenS - Oooh, you'll like this: a rock-steady groove that's two parts R&B, one part hip-hip, one part alternative -- wait, how many parts is that? A Seattle hip-hop duo with brave originality and minimal beats. Get busy - they want to dance with that girl in the corner, too.
Azaelia Banks, 212 - Now this is nasty -- trashy mouth and all. Don't let your Mother listen. But it's a irresistible dance tune, rapped over a techno beat that will be bustin' out of everywhere this summer. Hattie, where did you find this?
The Funk Ark, A Blade Won't Cut Another Blade. New afro-pop from a DC band. Think Santana goes to Nigeria.
Lushlife, Anthem. Philly rapper Raj Halder samples great beats and name-checks some unexpected pop culture references. Check it out for a chilled moment before the evening ends.
Some of my most enduring musical memories are of male-female duos
whose chemistry comes right through the speakers and sits in your lap: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, and Sonny and Cher (yeah, baby). And later, the Eurythmics, Richard and Linda
Thompson, and Everything But the Girl.
Each of these new duos manages to serve up something original,
yet familiar; tuneful, yet electric.
Tennis, Origins – These two scored last year with a sweet song cycle about a sailing trip. This is a little edgier.
Chairlift, I Belong in Your Arms – Straight outta Brooklyn. If it’s brand new, can it
still be New Wave?
Jenny and Johnny, Scissor Runner – Side project from Jenny Lewis (sigh) of
Rilo Kiley, and her guy Jonathan Rice. As in "never run with scissors". Yes, Mother.
