moosico

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The Black Keys

Mon
25 Apr 2011

12:33 pm

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.] TRACK: Tell Me
ARTIST: Jessica Lea Mayfield
ALBUM: Tell Me (2011) ...

this is off her latest album, which came out a few months ago. like the previous one, it was produced by dan auerbach (of the black keys). but the similarities end there. the simple, folksy mountain pop of the past still peeks through on a few tracks, but it’s really only just a nostalgic sprinkling. a very new sound - one with occasional synths and drum machines and a straightforward pop sensibility - takes clear precedent on this one, and for the most part it works for her. it really sounds like nothing she’s ever done. and nothing that auerbach has ever done either. and more than anything it makes me excited to see what the black keys are up to next. -d

Sat
01 Jan 2011

05:45 pm
1 note

Best of 2010: The Tracks (Part 2)

10.	‘scribble‘/underworld
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	one of those tracks that was in my head long before i knew what it was or who it was by. the kcrw djs were playing it like crazy, and for one reason or another it got in my brain and stayed there. finally after catching myself humming this nameless hook over and over at the gym one night, i ended up sitting in my car for 2 hours listening to the radio just so i could shazam it. if that’s not a catchy song, i don’t know what is.

9.	‘O.N.E.‘/yeasayer
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	after loving their last album, i was initially pretty disappointed by ‘odd blood’. but 10 friends, 2 pounds of queso manchego and 1 crazy hollywood bowl dance party later, i saw the light. (getting a hold of this sweet vinyl demo cut didn’t hurt either.)

8.	‘everything‘/kids & explosions
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	TJ turned me on to this guy no more than 3 weeks ago. and for something to make the top 10 tracks of the year after less than a month of listening is pretty remarkable. granted, he totally cheated by mashing up bryan adams, eminem, guns n roses and biggie. but still.

7.	‘ready to start‘/arcade fire
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	i don’t really know what else i can say about these guys that hasn’t already been said. so i’ll just stick to the track. it perfectly sums up the morose energy of the entire album. there’s a sad uneasiness to it, but also a drive to do something about it. there’s nobody like em.

6.	‘lost in the world‘/kanye west feat. bon iver
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	as rad as this track is, it’s really just emblematic. i wanted to put ‘monster’ on here. it’s easily the best song on the album, and one of the best hip-hop songs of the last 5 years. it’s also pretty coarse. i considered posting the clean version, but it’s bad. like, totally bastardized. so i put this one on here because you don’t lose anything in the clean version. and the track isn’t without its merits. it’s an awesome collaboration, it does belong here, and it probably belongs at number 6. i’m just saying if i’d posted ‘monster’, i would have had to fight myself to keep from at least tying for number 1.

5.	‘simple graces‘/delorean
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	undeniable basque dance music. this song has single handedly made me happier than any other track this entire year. that’s more than enough to merit a spot in the top 5.

4.	‘come talk to me‘/bon iver
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	what appears to have been a favor in exchange for letting peter gabriel cover ‘flume’ in his latest album, resulted in one of the most perfect pairings of song and style in memory. play it loud.

3.	‘everlasting light‘/the black keys
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	i’ve heard rumors that this is the last album they’re making together. that they took the best songs they’d never recorded and put them all into one world beating album. so now we have the dilemma of the goose and the golden eggs. clearly they have laid us a perfect golden egg. but if it means the end of the goose that laid it, was it worth it? or would we have settled for just a good egg, knowing that there were more good eggs to come? i really don’t know. this was just such a good egg…

2.	‘midnight directives‘/owen pallett
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	such a wonderful, unique sound. it was one of those tracks that froze me in place the first time i heard it. not sure what to make of it, not even sure how it was made, but totally electrifying. and lest you think his brilliance is all in the boards, i saw him open for the national last year, and with little more than a violin, he blew the roof off. keep your eye on this one.

1.	‘sinking friendships‘/jónsi
	[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
	cut back to march 2010. i’m sitting in my old office at my old job, waiting for something to happen, and i decide to clean out my cd cabinet. i find an old sigur ros album, the one w/ the fetus-like thing on the cover. i get to wondering what they’re all up to. i get to searching. i find my way to jónsi’s website, and with no warning, a streamer starts playing ‘go do’. i think i might have audibly gasped. it was the first in a long series of visceral responses to this stunning album, the most profound of which took place during a thunderstorm inside the fox theater last october. this is the track of the year.

Fri
31 Dec 2010

11:06 pm
1 note

Best of 2010: The Albums

such a great time of year. everybody pouring over hundreds of albums and thousands of tracks (5827 to be exact) to find the cream. the stuff that, for one reason or another, mattered. and like every list i make, this one comes pre-burdened with addendums and conditional statements, some of which will be addressed, but most of which will go unspoken. so, for better or worse, here it is. the best albums of 2010.

THE GIMMES
the dead giveaways. the albums that will be on everybody’s top tens because there is no denying them. they are game changers and everybody knows it. these are albums so obvious in their wonder that it seems like a waste of 4 spaces to even put them on the list.

	Brothers by The Black Keys. i knew this was the best album of the year the first time i listened to it all the way through. i only pray the swan song rumors aren’t true.

	High Violet by The National. fter falling head over heels in love with Boxer, i was sure this one was gonna break my heart. being wrong never felt so right. and what a show!

	The Suburbs by Arcade Fire. whether they are punking out, tripping on synths or just bemoaning the future of america’s youth, these guys are the Pixar of indie rock.

	My Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West. i don’t love this entire album the way i love the others. in fact there are tracks i hate. but “monster”, “runaway”, “power”, “all of the lights” and “lost in the world” are so mind-blowing that nothing else matters.

THE OLD STANDBYS
unsurprisingly wonderful albums made by people who can really do no wrong.

	Mines by Menomena. i am usually very wary of experimental music. i like my songs to sound good, and experimental musicians tend to put melody pretty low on the priorities list. not menomena. i don’t know how to describe what they do. it is most certainly not mainstream music. but man, it should be.

	I See the Sign by Sam Amidon. a 28-year-old new york-born son of sacred harp-singing hippies who kind of looks like mark zuckerberg. hardly seems like a resume for someone who is, in my mind, the preeminent modern purveyor of american folk music. and while ‘i see the sign’ is no ‘all is well’, it’s pretty damn close.

	Sea of Cowards by The Dead Weather. jack white’s insistance on dragging his effortless knack for melody into even the roughest, crunchiest rock has long had me listening to a genre of music that i thought i had written off back in middle school when i realized i didn’t like nirvana as much as everybody else did. this is not my kind of music. and yet, i sat in giddy awe for two hours as they blew my brains out at the mayan this past year. what’s a guy to do.

GOOD OLD POP
i expect a lot of my pop music. if it’s gonna be catchy, it had better keep me interested. these all did that, and so much more.

	The Violent Blue by Electric President. when i first heard this album back in july, i had a tough time pinpointing exactly why it resonated the way it did. but i listened to it again as i was working on this list, and it’s still just so good. so inexplicably good.

	Animal Feelings by Rafter. this album is a non-stop, start to finish powerhouse of pure pop enjoyment. they laugh, they cry, they swear, they get freaky, and you just sit back and listen. the most fun you’ll have in the car all year.

	Goodness Gracious by The Heligoats. saw these guys at a tiny gallery in echo park earlier this year. the exhibit at the gallery had something to do with sex, and the images on the wall were, um, provocative, let’s say. does that explain why every time i hear this simple, mostly acoustic album i get all excited? you tell me.

SOUNDTRACKS
having dedicated 5 years of my life to the genre, it holds a special place in my heart. which means if it’s on the list, it’s really good.

	The Social Network Soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. looking back, there’s something totally obvious about hiring trent reznor to use his dark techno skills to write the score for a dark movie about technology. but at the time, it was just unexpected and excellent. peer gynt never sounded so good.

	Tron: Legacy Soundtrack by Daft Punk. by far the best part of a movie completely undeserving the music that accompanied it.

WORLD
i love international music, but not so much as to automatically necessitate its own category. this just happened to be a great year for it.

	I Speak Fula by Bassekou Kouyate. the instrument this guy plucks to a boiling frenzy is a tiny little stringed thing called a ngoni, and apparently this guy is the earl scruggs of the ngoni. (afrograss anyone?) i’m not one of those world music people who goes crazy for anything sung in a different language. but if it all sounded like this, i would be.

	Port Entropy by Shugo Tokumaru. technically i think this is considered experimental, but it’s really just bright piano pop with a brilliantly frayed edge. it’s strangely familiar in the way it just makes you feel good, but there’s more than enough originality and raw talent present to keep even the brats at pitchfork in awe. for a while anyway.

QUIET
good music to relax to, sleep to, make out to, whatever.

	All We Grow by S. Carey. stunning debut from the Bon Iver drummer. and instead of declaring his independence by breaking away from the JV’s plaintive echos and harmonies, he just took the formula and made it his own.

	There Is A Wind EP by The Album Leaf. i don’t claim to be a music maven. i’m never the first to discover new bands. in fact, i frequently find myself way behind the curve. example: i heard the album leaf for the first time this year. this was my point of entry. as such, i will never forget it.

ALL THEIR OWN
so tough to categorize, so easy to love. if there was an order to this entire list, all 3 of these would be near the top.

	Go by Jonsi. i almost grouped this in with the world music, but somehow that felt like a disservice to this icelandic mood master. from the first vocal squeak of “go do” to the last lingering, unresolved strings at the end of “hengilás”, i loved almost every single note, every single beat, every single silence of this insane piece of frenetic, aching brilliance. also happened to be the best concert of 2010.

	Heartland & A Swedish Love Story by Owen Pallett. how to describe him. despite chamber pop being pretty hip right now, this guy still sounds like absolutely nobody else. and with little more than a violin, a computer and wicked ear for orchestration, he put on one of the best shows of the year. totally unique and wonderful.

	Forgiveness Rock Record by Broken Social Scene. at times massive, at times modest, and always a bit fuzzy, i struggled from the start to pin this album down. but i also i left it on loop nonstop for the first week after i got it. all i know is, for a group that can kind of be hit or miss, this was a huge hit.