2007 Best-ofs: Song and Album Art

Best Song:

"Bros" - Panda Bear



2. "The Pelican" - Menomena
3. "Atlas" - Battles
4 "All My Friends" - LCD Soundsystem
5. "Welcome, Ghosts" - Explosions in the Sky
6. "Fake Empire" - The National
7. "Yadnus" - !!!(Chk Ch Chk)
8. "Is There a Ghost" - Band of Horses
9. "Here Comes The Phantom" - The Clientele
10. "Ideals" - The XYZ Affair
11. "Murderer" - Low
12. "Advice For Young Mothers to Be" - The Veils
13. "Intervention" - The Arcade Fire
14. "The Cold Acre" - Augie March
15. "Melody day" - Caribou
16. "Wait For Wintertime" - Yeasayer
17. "Innocence" - Bjork
18. "Higher" - Soft
19. "The Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life" - Sunset Rubdown
20. "Paper Planes" - M.I.A.
21. "Lake Shore Drive" - The Innocence Mission
22. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" - Radiohead
23. "Cocobelle" - Moonbabies
24. "Rest My Chemistry" - Interpol
25. "Wet and Rusting" - Menomena
26. "Peacebone" - Animal Collective
27. "And I Remember Every Kiss" - Jens Lekman
28. "Missed the Boat" - Modest Mouse
29. "Someone Great" - LCD Soundsystem
30. "Childhood Verse" - Figurines
31. "Apartment Story" - The National
32. "Cliquot" - Beirut
33. "TIJ" - Battles
34. "Crossing Line" - The Sea and Cake
35. "See You at the Lights" - 1990s
36. "Islands on the Coast" - Band of Horses
37. "Comfy in Nautica" - Panda Bear
38. "Drum of Glass" - Monomen
39. "Normandie" - Shout Out Louds
40. "+81" - Deerhoof

Honorable Mentions: "Heatherwood" Deerhunter,"Phantom Limb" The Shins, "The Last Engineer" Piano Magic, "Matchbook Seeks Maniac" Deerhoof, "1234" Feist, "Harmonium" Rogue Wave, "Mapped by What Surrounded Them" The Twilight Sad, "Dashboard" Modest Mouse, "Must be the Moon" !!!, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" Spoon, "Bookshop Cassanova" The Clientele, "The Opposite of Hallelujah" Jens Lekman, "Eli" - Caribou, "Í Gær" Sigur Ros, "Violent Past" Low, "Pioneer to the Falls" Interpol

Best Album Art:

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Menomena - Friend and Foe

Piano Magic - Part Monster

Panda Bear - Person Pitch

2007 Best-ofs: Music Video and Take Away Show

Best Music Video:

!!!(Chk Chk Chk): "Must Be the Moon"



Honorable Mentions: Zach Galifianakis's version of Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothin," Bjork - "Declare Independence," Justin Timberlake - "Let Me Talk To You/ My Love," Menomena - "Evil Bee"

(I do realize that I have seen a very small portion of the endless music videos put out these days, so these are the ones that just stuck in my mind. Also, the director -and not necessarily the artist- is who should get the bulk of the credit...but other than Michel Gondry and Zach's homemade video, I don't know the names associated with the videos listed)

Best Take Away Show from La Blogotheque:

Tie! (I couldn't make up my mind): Sufjan Stevens and Menomena

Sufjan Stevens
Session included a cover of The Innocence Mission's "The Lakes of Canada" and a collaboration with friends at the Musicnow festival. The stand out, his rendition of "The Lakes of Canada" was filmed in Cincinnati on top of the building that was housing the festival. La Blogotheques's unparalleled cinematography captured the essence of this song perfectly. Plus, he played the whole thing on a sloping roof! For the complete session, visit La Blogotheque here.

Sufjan Stevens - The lakes of Canada

Menomena
The Portland boys' La Blogotheque session featured awesome songs from their excellent 2007 release, Friend and Foe: "Wet and Rusting" and "Rotten Hell." Apparently filmed in domestic sections of Paris, "Wet and Rusting" doesn't just stand out as a raw, almost-as-good-if-not-better-than-the-real-thing rendition but also some wicked, unreal dancing moves from a passing boy -not to mention Blogotheque's uncanny direction abilities which capture all of this perfectly.
Check out the session in its entirety here.


#62.3 - Menomena - Wet and Rusting

Honorable mentions: The Arcade Fire, Alan Sparhawk, The National, Loney Dear, Beirut

AlbumS of the week(2007 finale)

Radiohead
In Rainbows










hear: 15 Step, Bodysnatchers, All I Need, House of Cards, Jigsaw Falling Into Place



www.radiohead.com/deadairspace


Piano Magic
Part Monster (Important)










hear: The Last Engineer, Incurable(reprise), The King Cannot Be Found, Saints Preserve Us, Part-Monster

The Last Engineer

www.piano-magic.co.uk
www.importantrecords.com

2007 Best-ofs: Concert and Debut Album

These lists are obviously subjectively responsible to my empirical 2007 data.

Best Concert:
TIE! Mew at Irving Plaza(Filmore) and Battles at Studio B

Mew

Battles

Honorable Mentions: Explosions in the Sky @ Webster Hall, Bjork @ United Palace Theatre, The National @ Bowery Ballroom, Interpol @ MSG, Band of Horses @ Blender Theater, !!!(Chk Chk Chk) @ Bowery Ballroom, The Appleseed Cast @ Knitting Factory, LCD Soundsystem @ Webster Hall


Best Debut Album:

The XYZ Affair: A few More Published Studies











Honorable Mentions: The Twilight Sad: Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, Yeasayer: All Hour Cymbals, 1990s: Cookies, Deerhunter: Cryptograms

Video: The Kills - "U R A Fever"

The Kills have been MIA for a while. After the excellent record, No Wow, they deserved a break. Now they return with a new album which will be released this March via Domino and have already made a fun little video for the first single, "U R A Fever."

Explosions in the Sky break out U.S. touring dates

Yes it seems the boys have been touring non-stop, and we have been well aware of their dates in Britain and down under in 2008, but dates for the good 'ol U.S. of A. have surfaced. The America stint will start in mid March in Tuscon, Arizona and finish a month later in Atlanta, Georgia. Then they head off for another European stretch, after which they have supposedly claimed to hibernate for a while.

U.S. dates:

3-14 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
3-15 San Diego, CA - SOMA
3-17 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern Theatre
3-21 San Francisco, CA - The Great American Music Hall
3-22 San Francisco, CA - The Great American Music Hall
3-24 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue
3-25 Aspen, CO - Belly Up Tavern
3-26 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
3-28 Lawrence, KS - Granada Theatre
3-29 St. Louis, MO - Pageant Theatre
3-30 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre
4-01 Chicago, IL - Congress Theatre
4-02 Grand Rapids, MI - Calvin College
4-03 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
4-04 Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall
4-06 Farmingdale, NY - Crazy Donkey
4-08 New York, NY - Terminal 5
4-09 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom
4-11 Norfolk, VA - Norva
4-13 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse

Deerhunter's Daytrotter session

Deerhunter laid down some tracks for Daytrotter a little while ago. And given the stark contrast between their music style and the more raw, acoustic-style of Daytrotter, the products were sure to be original and interesting. Then again, 2 of the songs were unreleased material, 1 was from an old album, Fluorescent Grey, and then 1 from their solid 2007 release, Cryptograms -the awesome "Heatherwood."

To play "Heatherwood" pin the cursor on the donkey

To hear the unreleased tracks, the oldie "Dr. Glass," and read about the full Daytrotter session visit this.

Iron and Wine video: "Boy With a Coin"

Sam Beam has made a video for a song from his 2007 smash folk hit album, The Shepherd's Dog. As far as I know this is the first video attributed to the album, which for me is a bit odd since there are numerous better songs on the album than this one. But I'll trust Sammy knows what he's doing. Apparently he knows what he's doing when it comes to making a video that appeals to a wide audience -including beautiful dancing women will surely do the trick.

Caribou does Take Away Shows...finally

Caribou hasn't done an acoustic show before? Their session with La Blogotheque was their first? That's what La Blogotheque's site claims. It would seem Caribou's music would be great for acoustic meddling. Anyway, here are two acoustic sessions that are not to be missed...

Caribou - She's the One

CARIBOU - Sundialling

Best TV show of the year...again

I know what you're thinking: "When did this become a TV blog?" or "What does this have to do with music?" or "What about Flight of the Conchords?"(uh, acting?) or "Wow Diet Dr. Pepper does taste more like Dr. Pepper." It sure does. This blog originally wasn't exclusively 'music' but now for the most part is. In fact, there's an early post about "Friday Night Lights" if you just go back a few pages. In any case, when there is a TV show this dang good on the air and it's the only one on any of the major networks that blasts indie rock as it's soundtrack every episode courtesy of the mighty Explosions in the Sky, not to mention name-dropping The Knife, Jose Gonzalez, and The Decemberists, then it warrants as much merit as possible. It's raw-style is unparalleled in TV these days, it doesn't make you want to make sarcastic comments the entire time, and it has the best husband-wife(Coach-wife) dynamic I've ever seen on TV. And for all the losers who think sports are uncool, it still holds its appeal - I have many friends(female) who have no interest in football yet still love the show.

Album of the week

Yeasayer
All Hour Cymbals (We are Free)










hear: Sunrise, Wait for the Summer, 2080, Forgiveness, Wait for the Wintertime





www.yeasayer.net
www.nowwearefree.com

Sparhawk, Kozelek, Witmer and others on "Presidents" compilation

Apparently three dudes: Matthew Gerken, Jefferson Pitcher and Christian Kiefer got together last February and wrote songs about each of our glorious country's presidents. Now, they are doing studio recordings of the songs and have recruited quite the regime to do so. Mark Kozelek(Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), Alan Sparhawk(Low), Rosie Thomas, Dension Witmer, Califone, and others will lend their talents to this cause which has been dubbed "Of Great and Mortal Men." It is supposed to be released this next Summer.

Sufjan is so pissed he didn't think of this first.

Alan Sparhawk and Mark Kozelek also like to sing about Christ(mas)!

Kozelek - "White Christmas"

Low - "Little Drummer Boy"

Destroyer to release new album in March!

He may go under a few different monikers but most of those are collaborative: New Poronographers, Swan Lake, etc., but Dan Bejar is at his best when he is under the group of his very own: Destroyer. Plus, Destroyer rules over the fleeting joys of his other acts. Apparently, Bejar will release the new record, titled "Trouble in Dreams," under Merge once again. It is set for launch on March 18th.

And the track list has been set:

Blue Flower/Blue Flame
Dark Leaves From A Thread
The State
Foam Hands
My Favorite Year
Shooting Rockets (From The Desk Of Night's Ape)
Introducing Angles
Rivers
Leopard Of Honor
Plaza Trinidad
Libby's First Sunrise

Bjork and Michel Gondry declare independence

It's nice to see that Bjork couldn't go a round of videos on an album without collaborating with old friend Michel Gondry. Michel directed the video for the 3rd single off Bjork's Volta, the dance-happy "Declare Independence."

Sunset Rubdown returns to Daytrotter

The first Daytrotter session I experienced was Sunset Rubdown's inaugural Shut up I am Dreaming session where they first threw down the excellent "Winged/Wicked Things" that ended up on their latest, Random Spirit Lover. Here, they do one song of that album, "The Mending of the Gown" as well as an oldie and newbie.

To hear "The Mending of the Gown" and the new "Idiot Heart" and read the article on Spencer Krug and co. visit the full Daytrotter session here.

For "Three Colors" press on Spencer's head below.

Album of the week

Sigur Rós
Hvarf / Heim (XL)










hear: Hvarf: Hljómalind, Í Gær, Hafsol
Heim(live): Everything

"Í Gær"

"Staralfur" (live)

www.sigur-ros.co.uk
www.xlrecordings.com

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ Studio B, 11.10.07

The underdogs- who seem to want to be perceived that way- took to the club halls of Sudio B in Brooklyn to give the third show they've done in NYC in a week. Lead man, Alec Ounsworth, came on to the stage looking like he was fronting a post-psychadelic, adult contemporary outfit. But he wasn't -he
was fronting the endlessly-hyped-although their-second-album-wasn't-that-great Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. And why shouldn't we hype them? They have the talent that just keeps on growing and growing despite the step down of their second album, Some Loud Thunder, and it can be seen in their shows. Personally, I think Some Loud Thunder is pretty good but it's no CYHSY self-titled. What I'm not completely sure is if Alec's speaking voice is the same as his singing one. At times when he speaks, it seems so. Other times, not so much. In any case, it's nasally. It was really nice to hear some of the songs from Some Loud Thunder, especially "Yankee Go Home" and "Love Song No. 7." And of course they ripped out a bunch from their debut. "Is this Home on Ice" brought the house -well maybe my house- down. Other tracks translate well live because of their dancey vibe, such as "Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away" and the crowd-hit "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth." The final song of the set was the excellent and awesomely-named "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood," where they delivered a slightly more experimental, loud version. That song rules. If you ever have a chance to see these guys, do so. It's worth it -even if they do come across like they know it.





Recommended Listening:

New Portishead album due in April

We do know Portishead have an album coming out in April and that they are playing a couple shows across the pond this weekend. What we don't know is when in April and what the title will be. It's been a 10-year hiatus for the Brits -which coincides almost with my hiatus from grade school...so maybe we can create the magic once again together.

New Sun Kil Moon album announced!

Mark Kozelek is always doing something, always working on something- so says those who are close to them. He released his 4x Christmas LPs about 2 months ago. Earlier this year, he reissued his current outfit, Sun Kil Moon's classic, Ghosts of the Great Highway- which features a bonus disc -on his label, Caldo Verde. And now an entirely new record! According to Sun Kil Moon's website April will be released April 1st, 2008 appropriately. For those of you thinking the obvious, Kozelek isn't much of a jokester.

A Hawk and A Hacksaw throw down with La Blogotheque

Before Beirut, there was A Hawk and A Hacksaw. Before them, there were a lot of bands but none quite like this duo.

A HAWK AND A HACKSAW - Part 1

A HAWK AND A HACKSAW - Part 2

A HAWK AND A HACKSAW - Fernando's Giampori

Interpol releases limited live CD, Remix EP out today

Those dapper men who comprise Interpol have decided to take it upon themselves to prove their indieness, after they signed to mega-label Capitol. This limited-edition live EP is only available in select indie stores. And guess what, there are four stores in NY that carry it! But guess what again? None of them are in New York City. What the-

Also, check out the Paul Epworth Phones Remix of "The Heinrich Maneuver" which is included in the 3-song Remix EP Interpol released today.

Visit here to see if the limited edition live CD is available in an indie store near you

Album of the week (well, last week)

Grizzly Bear
Friend EP (Warp)

hear: He Hit Me, Little Brother, Shift, Plans(covered by Band of Horses), Deep Blue Sea




www.grizzly-bear.net
www.warprecords.com

Okkervil River daytrotts

Okkervil River sat down -or stood up- with the indie darlings down at Daytrotter. Many bands will take this opportunity to explore some new territory and it should come as no surprise that these kids did just that: covering 3 songs by the likes of Carole King("No Easy Way Down"), John Phillips("April Anne"), and Jimmy Web("Do What You Gotta Do"). I guess they may have felt the need to really jam that Americana button. They did put down one song off their recently acclaimed The Stage Names, “You Can’t Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man.”

For complete coverage of Okkervil's Daytrotter session, including an interview with WIll Sheff, visit this.