New Jamz, New Year

Happy New Year to ya'!

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty fired up about 2009. Despite all the horrible stories you hear on the network news, I'm relentlessly optimistic about the upcoming year. I hope you are too, but if your outlook is slightly more grim than mine there is no better escapism than music. I say keep the positive vibes flowing by taking a look and listen at some new music. Is it possible to listen at music? I don't know, but here's what we've listened to since the last time:

Kuroma - Paris

Cinemechanica - Rivals
Heartless Bastards - All This Time and Stairs and Elevators
Deerhoof - Green Cosmos, Reveille and Milk Man
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell and Show Your Bones
Deerhunter - Weird Era Cont.
TV On the Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes
Ween - Live in Chicago
Sleepy Horses - The Golden Light EP
Russian Spy Camera - Mutiny In The Kitchen With Knives
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Elf Power - Back to the Web
Battles - EP C
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Outkast - Stankonia
MEW - And The Glass Handed Kites
Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson in Crime
UGK - Underground Kingz
Peter, Bjorn and John - Writer's Block
Black Lips - Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Jethro Tull - Extended Versions
Jay Reatard - Blood Visions
Arizona - Fameseeker and the Mono, The Sun and the Room EP
and most importantly,
Slaughter - Stick It To Ya'
and
Space Jam - Music From and Inspired By The Motion Picture

A handful of live comedy discs:
Mitch Hedberg - Do You Believe In Gosh?
Patton Oswalt - Werewolves and Lollipops, Feeling Kinda' Patton
Jim Gaffigan - Beyond The Pale
Todd Barry - From Heaven
Michael Ian Black - I Am A Wonderful Man

A few bits of vinyl:
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes, Sun Giant EP
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedos
Fonzi Thornton - Pumpin'
Blue Swede - Hooked On A Feelin'
Lionel Hampton - Soft Vibes Soaring Strings
Ashley Tappen - Plays A Hammond Organ Tribute to Ken Griffin
Bettye Lavette - Tell Me A Lie
Frankie Miller - Dancing In The Rain
Skip Castro - Fast Break
Loverboy - Loverboy
Pat Boone - The Favorite Hymns of Pat Boone
Patrick Juvet - Got A Feeling
Hooters - Nervous Night
Jacki Sorenson - Jackie Sorenson's Aerobic Dancing Encore
(The VHS tape cover picture is all I could find...)
John Davidson - Touch Me
Outlaws - Playin' To Win
Thumbs McDuff and The Boston Baked Beans - The Not-So-Gay 90's
Children of the King - Singin A Song: A Sing-Along for Kids-By Kids
(I really wish I could find this artwork because I'm pretty sure that the cover and group name is the inspiration for Children of the Corn. Sorry it's just too old.)
Firefall - Break of Dawn
Kim Carnes - Voyeur
Brown Bannister - Talk To One Another
Glen Campbell - Bloodline
Mike Douglas - My Kind of Christmas
The Watkinses - Introducing The Watkinses
(I'm pretty sure this is Johnny 5's family band from when he was a youngster before he joined Dead Confederate. Once again, the artwork is impossible to find.)
Marching Band '88 - Exciting New Music

Most of these were Christmas gifts, especially the vinyl. Thanks a ton to Vaughan, Brantley, Mary Katherine, my bro John, my bro Andy, J.J. and others for a great Christmas. J.J. feel free to chime in with anything I missed.

Select a few to seek out and listen to if you please, but be warned: most of that vinyl came from J.J. and is some silly shit. There's some really funny stuff in there that's hard to find. Be sure to check out the links for either a local band/friends of ours, or the funniest album artwork/band name you've ever seen. But as always, there's some good and bad. I wish everyone the best in the year 2009 and I sincerely thank everyone for reading and supporting our bands and Athens music.

My Favorite Girlfriends of 2008

And when I say girlfriends, I mean albums.

Sometimes I take a break from my steady diet of the Gap Band, Zapp, and Kool and the Gang to give some new music a listen. Here's some of the lovely ladies that caught my eye this year. I'm sure that I am leaving a bunch out of the list, and I attribute that to a lack of fruit in my diet.

Dead Confederate Wrecking Ball
Dark, kinda redneck-y, Southern Gothic, wailing, yearning rock and roll brimming with trouble just beneath the surface. I see a new rock sub-genre. Dark-neck, anyone? This would still be one of my favorites of the year even if I wasn't long-time friends with these nice fellows. A perfect album for sitting down and bonding with your great-grandfather over some snuff or chaw.


Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
I'm a sucker for great harmonies mixed with beards, Bonnaroo-styled knit caps, and a lot of candles. Earnest and intimate.


Harvey Milk Life...The Best Game In Town
Big drums, big cymbals, big amps, loud de-tuned fucking riffs, and Creston Spiers' distinctive vocal stylings make me happy. Very, very good.


Kings of Leon Only by the Night
These guys continue to explore and diversify their sound with each album. Not content with sticking to the same old two-step southern-Strokes-ish boot kickin' dust-ups and screwing hot model chicks in Europe all of the time, Kings of Leon continue to mature into memorable songwriters with a knack for catchy hooks.


Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works
Released in late 2007, I had to include this one. This is one of my favorite bands of all time ever since I saw them open for Mr. Bungle at the old Cotton Club in Atlanta. Live, it's like watching a car crash inside of a fireball inside of a tornado filled with cottonmouth rattlers for an hour. You can't take your eyes away. Bodies flying everywhere. Their former drummer, Chris Pennie, is one of my favorites. Their new drummer Gil Sharone stepped in without missing a beat and just killed it. This album furthers their genre-bending, sharp, precise, powerful attack to places yet to be traveled.


My Morning Jacket Evil Urges
I'm an admitted late-comer to My Morning Jacket. My bad, dude! I thought Z was catchy as hell and then I delved into their back catalog. I eagerly anticipated this release and was pleased with the results. Their songs have a way of connecting with me down to the core, mining up emotions, whether they be bittersweet, reflective, down, or celebratory. I know in 30 years when I hear "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream," "Thank You Too!," "Sec Walkin," and "Librarian," they will bring me right back to this time in my life. Plus, we've all got those evil urges, baby.


Of Montreal Skeletal Lamping
Inventive harmonies, melodies, and arrangements. Psychedelic, schizophrenic, shy and cocky all at the same time. Instrumentally fantastic. Oh, and it's funky as hell and you can dance to it. Kevin Barnes just don't give a fuck. I don't know if all men share some of the same worries, fears, and insecurities that Barnes bravely sings of. But know I do.


T.V. On The Radio Dear Science
Another terrific live band whose albums continue to impress me. I'm a drummer at heart and I'm thrilled with their creative and tasteful mixture of live drumming, programmed beats, loops, bleeps, bloops, leeps?? and ambient hand claps. Kyp and Tunde sing soulfully and confidently, and the gang vocals are reminiscent of some long-ago congregation singing a familiar hymnal. Drone-y and syncopated all at once, TVOTR melds many distinct styles and elements into a one successful mixture.


Deerhoof Offend Maggie
Man, oh man!! Daddy likey. Greg Saunier is a drumming powerhouse. He flows freely between Elvin Jones and Tony Williams-like blazing free-jazz chops, funk and drum & bass backbeat, and pushing and pulling the beat to the band's liking. Awesome guitar lines and inventive chording. Mix in a lot of whimsy and musical playfulness, and you get maybe a small idea of Deerhoof. I cannot do them justice. Buy all of their albums!


Dodos Visiter
Johnny 5 from Dead Confederate turned me on to these guys. Mostly finger-picked or heavily strummed acoustic guitar and African Ewe-style drumming. The drummer plays on a non-traditional kit standing up without a kick drum. My arms hurt just listening to some of his beats. Pretty melodies and harmonies.


Gift Horse Demo EP
Man, these guys are the biggest assholes in Modern Rock today. Rapes, bullying, theft, drug abuse, degradation, blasphemy, and rape. But I'll be damned if they don't make some great music. Hypnotic and throbbing, with melodies and lyrics floating in and out of a lush thick smoky fog of reverb. If you're looking for Vai or Satriani or any overly-note-filled fusion jam-offs, this is not the band for you. If you're not an asshole, then you'll probably like it.

Gnarls Barkley The Odd Couple
Cee-Lo is the shit. He is one of my favorite artists. Danger Mouse is incredible as well, and when they combine forces they make great music. They bring old-school sounds and aesthetic but still break new musical ground at the same time. Shit, you could pair up Cee-Lo with anyone (Reznor, W. A. Yankovic, my roommate Joey's cat, Wendell) and I would like it. At their last Athens show at the 40 Watt when Elf Power opened, Gnarls played a show-stopping rendition of Reckoner by Radiohead. I am in no way insinuating that Thom Yorke has a lack of soul, but Mr. -Lo put some Comeback Sauce all over that song.



The Mars Volta Bedlam in Goliath
What it would sound like Dennis Chambers or Fish Fisher (2 more of my fave drummers) played drums for the Mars Volta, a band I respect for their complexity and style? With their new drummer Thomas Pridgen, now I know, and then some. Shit, dude. Serious chops. Chops McGhee. John Theodore kept Mars Volta in some seriously deep nasty grooves while he held the drum throne. I was bummed when he stopped playing with them. Now with Pridgen, it's all goooood. Track 4, Wax Simulacra, had me going over to my drums to learn some shit.


Whigs Mission Control
Cheers to three local guys who have made good. 2008 was nice for the Whigs. Mission Control finds the group sounding terrific, partly due to the fact that they recorded the album at the legendary Sunset Sound Studios in L.A.. The songs are tight, simple (not in a negative way,) and catchy as hell. Good old-fashioned rock and roll. Always great to see live. And guess what? They're nice!!


Torche Meanderthal
Loud, lumbering, concussive, ass-kicking metal/rock and roll. Oh yeah, and dude sings, too! Steve Brooks expertly lays on the poppy melodies over the loud sludge, for the perfect combination of shampoo and conditioner.


Popo Go
Popo is three very tall brothers: Zeb, Shoaib, and Hassan Malik from Philadelphia. They toured with Dark Meat and spent an extended amount of time in Athens this year.
My co-worker at Taco Stand, Tim Schreiber, recorded this album in his kitchen, super econo. At first I didn't know what to think of it. But thanks to Tim playing the album and rocking out to it EVERY DAY AT WORK FOR A MONTH, it has really grown on me. I hear something new in it every time I listen. Zeb has a cool-ass voice.


I can't wait to see what's in store for us all in 2009!
Hopefully plenty of this:

I Am Not Above a Top Ten List: Matt's Albums of 2008

The Album: A dying expression of creativity? A sonic dodo? Perhaps sometime in the sooner-than-you-think future. Or perhaps only a wilting Phoenix that will rise from the ashes to confirm to the human race that no one song can stand alone--ever.

There's so much that goes on in a year that I can say with 100% confidence I am forgetting a LOT of music (which also tells me I need to better organize my music collection). Nonetheless, here are the ten I came up with in the span of 45 minutes whilst staring at the wall.

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Beach House: Devotion
To give credit where credit is due, I did not know a thing about this band until they appeared on the Gift Horse top friends (where I would I be without the brilliance of Tom?). Devotion makes me want to live out of a car and cruise the highways between Arizona, Nevada, and California for the rest of my life. What I mean by that, I can't clearly express. I just have to leave it at that.

Beach House also shows me what it would be like if Chan Marshall was the lead singer of The Zombies and they all went in on a Holy Grail.

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Cat Power: Jukebox

Speaking of Chan Marshall, her early 2008 release Jukebox was something I had to stumble upon later in the year. Her cigarette charred, stained glass voice is enveloping. To be very cliche, she doesn't just sing the words, she honestly does live them out every time she performs. A highlight of the year was seeing her performance at Bonnaroo streamed online. Below is a clip of her covering "I Feel" by The Hot Boys. Her drummer is also noticeably hammered.*

*To his credit the drummer is Jim White, the extremely talented Australian drummer of The Dirty Three.

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Colour Revolt: Plunder, Beg, and Curse

I was in New Orleans for Halloween and missed their set by an hour. I was in Athens the next week and was right on time. Their performance is one of my top shows of 2008 (if such a list might be conjured). Please listen to this album from a handful of very talented Oxford, MS gents.

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Department of Eagles: In Ear Park

I've talked enough about this band. Here's the album if you haven't had a chance yet:

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Dead Confederate: Wrecking Ball

I was very eager to hear what these guys had put together in a little studio in Austin. And I can't say enough how much I love this album. The mix is perfect, the songs are steady and as a whole, Wrecking Ball evokes exactly what this band is about.

www.deadconfederate.com

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Mike Doughty: Golden Delicious

Mr. Doughty continues to turn his solo acoustic musings into full-band tracks of pure enjoyment. Sure, it's pop. But it's GOOD HONEST pop. It's not trying to be anything else than what it is. Doughty isn't looking for Billboard charts and he's not looking for the approval of the Brooklyn hipsters. He's writing the music that comes out of him, pure and simple. The kind of free-filter oozing of aural beauty that is unique to every musician. The trick is to stop thinking about what you should write, and write what is there to be written. Doughty has that down pat.

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Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

Another top performance of 2008. And enough people are throwing reviews out, that I'll just assume you know what I know.

www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes

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She and Him: Volume One

I love M. Ward and I've had the hots for Zooey Deschanel since "Elf". OF COURSE I'll listen to their musical collaboration! Paste Magazine has named Volume One as their Album of the Year. I'm very much looking forward to the promised Volume Two. Also, check for M. Ward's new solo release in '09.

www.myspace.com/sheandhim

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The Sparrow Quartet: The Sparrow Quartet

This was a gift for my significant other, which I rightly burned onto my computer before giving to her. How can you beat Abigail Washburn, Bela Fleck and Co. "plucking up" (just made that up, i swear) some scholarly bluegrass with a significant dash of the contemplative. Not to mention you can learn some Chinese! In all seriousness however, this is a great headphone album. And you can't beat Abigail's voice. Seriously I will be really mad.

www.myspace.com/abigailwashburn

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Widespread Panic: Free Somehow
Lastly, but not least-ly, my dear employer. This is not a plug, just a fucking good album that the hippies will never understand. I've said before that this is John Bell's best vocal effort to date. It is also the studio debut of Jimmy Herring with the band. And it would have been Terry Manning's (producer) attempt at "Wall of Sound-ing" the band, had the band not been like "WTF" to the early mix. I was able to get a listen to that first mix and let's just say all the doo-wops and string-soaked tracks were taken down from eleven. Top tracks from this album include "Angels on High", "Dark Day Program", "Her Dance Needs No Body", "Already Fried", and "Up All Night". Support you local blogger's salary and buy a copy...okay this is a plug.

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Well, that does it. One through ten. I encourage all the Rebel Forces regulars to jump on in to this list business.