Ladies and Gents, Your Winners

That time of the year again, amigos.  2010 was good in some ways, bad in plenty of others but it was a solid year as far as the musics go, right?  As usual we’ll be looking at music that is actually good…none of this challenging, art-for-art’s sake type of stuff with an emphasis always given to radical songwriting and destructive guitars.  Anything from the latter half of 2009 that I missed when it first came out is up for debate too, so no nitpicking.  Also music that I got into this year that I just totally gassed on from the last few years would be lovely twangy rock of Drag the River (thank you Lisa Marie, I owe you for that one) and the truly genius and haunted strains of Bon Iver (watch that video for Wolves, you will flip).  That Justin Vernon kid is a genius; did you catch him on the new Kanye album?  That is when you know you’re big time.  Straight up.  Below are the best records of the year, listed in reverse order.  Oh, my jury is still out on Titus Andronicus, by the way.

The Arcade Fire “The Suburbs”

Joey started off playing 2 or 3 Lagwagon tunes by himself, along with Going for the Bronze (sick video) off his new solo record (with his iPod playing backup, which is funny in a “Flight of the Conchords” type of way) before having his old school bandmates (Chris Flippin sighting!) come up and rip through 2 Lagwagon tracks with a destructive, full sound.  It was bodacious.  I mean these are my favorite songs of all time basically—Making Friends, Twenty-Seven, Wind in Your Sails, To All My Friends:these are jams, man (and that last link I have probably played 50 times AND it’s the same shirt that Joey was rocking at the show last night.  WARDROBE CHECK, JOEY.).  Boom.  It’s nice that no matter how many times I’ve heard these songs (and judging by the insane amount of sing-alongingness I’m not the only one) they still are amazing.  Far too often Lagwagon gets unfairly lumped in with other skatepunk like NoFx, the Vandals or Pennywise but their sound is so much more mature, boasting not only Joey’s fantastic vocals but also his vocals and non-linear song structure; the man is nothing if not prolific and repetitive “verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus” isn’t going to float his boat.  Nor should it yours.

After Joey finished up his set he was joined by the rest of Bad Astronaut along with many disclaimers that this was the first show they’d ever played and (up until 3 days ago) had never even rehearsed before.  And while the transitions between songs were a little haphazard that’s a tiny, small price to pay for some amazing tunes.  Joey constantly joked about the challenges of relearning all the Bad Astronaut songs and for a guy who probably has released over 300 songs with all of his various endeavors (Lagwagon, BA, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Playing Favorites, solo stuff) that is a lot of chord progressions to keep straight.  This was the first stop on this (way too) short tour and if you are able to catch the shows south of here I highly, highly recommend it.  I mean it took ten years just for this one tour to take place so hit them up if you at all can.  I give this show four renobs up.

Cell phones take the raddest pictures

Who Wants to Play Bass?

Bass, Lead Guitar, Rhythm, Cello, Synth, Drums. Yep, that's Bad Astronaut.

Yeah they have a weird name, get over it

1. Fanfarlo – “Reservoir” – This album can do no wrong.  The easiest way to describe Fanfarlo is to call them the Arcade Fire Unplugged but that’s overly simplistic and incomplete.  Safe to say if you like/love Arcade Fire (and how could you not) you’ll love Fanfarlo but there’s a ton of sheer joy on this album.  You won’t hear anything better than this, guaranteed.
2. Sunset Rubdown – “Dragonslayer” – Holy crap.  While 2009 may not have produced the quantity of albums we would have liked, there’s no denying the quality, as this album would have ranked #1 most other years.  While not quite a concept album and not quite not a concept album, “Dragonslayer” is nothing short of a total mind bending, quasi drug fueled opus.  Was a better song released this year than “Silver Moons“?  No.  No there was not.  Plus the album title gave us a great nickname for Andre Ethier and his late inning heroics.
3. Blind Pilot – “3 Rounds and a Sound” – Nothing but nice songs made by nice people to be enjoyed on a nice day.  Pretty, indie rock that everybody would like and I mean that in the best way possible.  It’s haunting and beautiful and there’s always room for that on your iPod.
4. The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Hometowns” – In the long line of singer’s with voices that are less than stellar (Neutral Milk Hotel, Jets to Brazil, Bright Eyes) comes The RAA and the dubious pipes of Nils Edenloff.  And they are perfect pipes for these stripped down yet wondrously complete songs.  You know how when you eat falafel you’re thinking there’s no way it’ll fill you up and you’ll wish you had a hot dog or something with more meat in it but then after you eat you’re like, “dude, that was great, I can’t wait to get falafel again!”?  That’s how you’ll feel after you listen to this record.
5. Conor Oberst – “Outer South” – Come on, did you think I would make a list that didn’t include Conor/Bright Eyes in some way?  In a lot of ways “Outer South” represents some of his best songwriting with the Biblical based “All the Lights in the Windows” and “Roosevelt Room” (a protest song that would make even Bob Dylan jealous) being my personal favorites.  You can make a case for this album being better than his first solo album in terms of completeness but if I had to chose between the two I’d go with the first one.
6. Mason Jennings – “Blood of Man” – A darker Mason here than we’ve seen before and I like it.  There aren’t any songs that are 10s here and most would probably end up on the cutting room floor of a “Best of” album there aren’t any clunkers.  Gritty, heavy and still hopeful, these are some tight ass tracks.
7. Handsome Furs – “Face Control” – Sigh.  This album was hyped to the moon for me, since their first record is probably a top 10 album for me (of all time) and the fact that there are only two tracks here that I really, really like made it a bit of a disappointment.  Still, those two tracks are retardedly good.
8. Monsters of Folk – “Self-Titled” – Conor’s got 3 songs here that are fantastic and then we’ve got a bunch that just didn’t do it for me.
9. Blitzen Trapper – “Furr” – The title track and “Black River Killer” are 10s.  Just sicker than sick.
10. Manchester Orchestra – “Mean Everything to Nothing” – Not totally sold on these guys but not opposed either.  I think from top to bottom I liked this one more than Brand New’s total misfire but this 10th spot is fluid and I reserve the right to change my mind over this last month.

Mason Jennings, Your Voice Sounds Like a Mix Between Fergie and Jesus

Saturday night found the Mexicutioner, Mrs. Mexicutioner, Jess and myself at the El Rey in West LA at a Mason Jennings show.  While he will never be as popular as his former tour-mate Jack Johnson, Mason’s incredible songwriting and easy appeal make him the (vastly, and it’s not even close) superior of the two.  This is the third time I’ve seen Mason, which ties him with Lagwagon and Face to Face (RIP.  Just kidding.  You’re still alive I guess) for bands I’ve seen the most often.  And if you’re wondering why Mason’s name is familiar it’s probably because of his famous “Make yourself at home/ Cos I’m going out/ Across the street to get us some water” song from what will always be my favorite surf movie “Shelter”.  With his new album “Blood of Man” bumping on our drive down and some semi-dodgy directions we did our best to arrive late and miss the opener but despite our best efforts we still arrived twenty minutes before the show started–nothing a $7 cup of beer Bug Light won’t fix though, right?

Mason’s new album is probably both the darkest and heaviest he’s released to date which may not be much in the grand scheme of dark/heavy music (this is the guy whose [arguably] best known songs are called “Butterfly” and “Darkness Between the Fireflies” so we’re not exactly talking about “Raining Blood” by Slayer) but when the good Lord has blessed you with a voice like Mason’s, songs like “Pittsburgh” and “The Field” have an incredible weight to them.  Mixing in older favorites like the harmonica-driven “Crown” and my personal favorite “Hospitals and Jails” with almost the entire new album, Mason played a solid, if a bit understated, ninety-minutes.  The amiable and good naturedness he has always displayed in the past was kept mostly in check and he shared only a few stories with the thousand or so of us there.  While I would have loved to have seen him end the show with either “Ulysses” or the crazy acoustic-electric version of “Bulls on Parade” that I saw him bust out in San Francisco I won’t complain about anything except again to mention if you are standing in the pit area shut your mouth when the artist is singing.  Go make out with your chick or talk about your facebook page by the bar.  Is that so hard to do?

There are few things as rewarding as seeing a singer like Mason Jennings (and his band, of course); so often we’re confronted by repetitive, mindless garbage it’s easy to forget that songs can be stories and certain singers can evoke images so real that you can almost feel them first hand.  Even if you’ve never camped out on a rocky beach, stepped quietly through Big Sur, chased ghosts through New Orleans or hitchhiked through the Midwest, Mason’s music will make you feel like you have.  Plus, chicks dig it.  So there’s that too.