1. Colin Stetson

I love it when an album hooks me from the first track, and then pulls me along for the whole thing.  That was the experience I had with New History Warfare II: Vol. 2 Judges.  Stetson’s deep bass saxophone threads through the entire album, and shows what incredible range one instrument can have, from deep in the earth shaking lows, to fluttery riffs, to percussive drives.  Several tracks feature Laurie Anderson and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) adding a wonderful ethereal feel to the album.

Click here to hear the playlist

Hip-hop phase – The warmup

Excursions (Tribute Remix)
J. Period F. De La Soul
J.Period & Q-Tip: The [Abstract] Best 3:55

Buggin Out 2009 (Tribute Remix)
J.Period F. Consequence & Kid Cudi
J.Period & Q-Tip: The [Abstract] Best 1:57

What (Tribute Remix)
J.Period F. Skillz, Questlove & Randy Watson
J.Period & Q-Tip: The [Abstract] Best 2:28

Twilight Speedball
Mos Def
The Ecstatic – 3:04

Revalations
Mos Def
The Ecstatic – 2:04

Aesop Rock – No Jumpercables (Goron Village)
Team Teamwork
Ocarina Of Rhyme – 4:00






Dance Hall (ish) phase – To keep me going

Soldier ft. Big Red & 5Nizza
DJ Vadim
Hidden Treasure – 4:14

Hold The Line feat. Mr. Lex & Santigold
Major Lazer
Major Lazer – 3:39

Lazer Theme
Major Lazer
Major Lazer – 2:32

Bruk Out
Major Lazer
Major Lazer – 2:55

Fast guitar phase

Hanuman
Rodrigo y Gabriela
11:11 – 3:43

Triveni
Rodrigo y Gabriela
11:11 – 3:56

Atman
Rodrigo y Gabriela
11:11 – 5:51

Things get harder phase – Need to get a little pissed

Miles Away
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – 2:23

Sacred Trickster
Sonic Youth
The Eternal – 2:11

It’s Gonna Be A Long Night
Ween
Quebec – 2:50

Pay To Cum (2003 Digital Remaster)
Bad Brains
Banned In DC: Bad Brains Greatest Riffs – 1:31

Son The Father
Fucked Up
The Chemistry Of Common Life – 6:33






Thunderhorse
Dethklok
The Dethalbum – 2:46

Briefcase Full of Guts
Dethklok
The Dethalbum – 2:44

The best individual tracks of 2009, hand-picked by Jimmy Mac.

So this is rather new, but NNN doesn’t preclude new music. Bowerbirds may be quickly rising as one of my favorite folky bands. I found them, as I often find new music, listening to Pitchfork’s Forkcast. I just have it on in the background while I work, but when something makes me stop and say “what the hell is this great shit,” I put down what I’m doing and check it out. I did this when I heard the track “Northern Light” off Upper Air, which is Bowerbirds second album. They made a name for themselves touring with The Mountain Goats, and I can see how they’d fit perfectly with John Darnielle. This is an incredibly sweet album, featuring the tender voices of Phil Moore and Beth Tacular. It’s quiet and a bit melancholy, much in the same way that Elvis Perkins’ Ash Wednesday was, but without all the wrenching pathos. In particular Silver Clouds, Northern Lights, and House of Diamonds hooked me.

Bower Birds

Carribou – Andorra (21 August 2007) – Polaris Prize Winner 2008

Daniel Victor Snaith

I first heard Carribou on PitchforkTV (a live version of “After Hours” below), and I found myself returning to the video over and over again. There was just something about the energy of Daniel Snaith and some other dude who’s name I can’t find drumming head to head (and not in some lame jam band way) that captivated me. Tracks on Andorra like After Hours and Melody Day feel like they’re reaching back into the 60’s, characterized by a lot of high-energy melodies coupled with whispery, almost ethereal lyrics. Having just re-read that sentence I think I would have passed if I hadn’t heard them, but check it out cause it really works:

Zoe Keating – One Cello x 16 (Self Released 2004), One Cello x 16: Natoma (Self Released 2005)

The thick, moody sound of the cello has always been something that I’ve loved, but oddly enough, not something I’ve sought out. It’s just not an instrument I think about that much. So when someone introduced me to Zoe Keating, it was one of those unexpected boons to my ears. One Cello x 16 and One Cello x 16: Natoma both feature Keating alone with her cello, and she uses a lot of sampling and repetition to give her music a rich and layered texture. She employs sounds I’d expect from a cello (long, drawn out melodious moans), but also unexpected sounds as well (choppy, discordant, almost screeching sounds), and she mixes them together into an emotional pattern that, to me, can evoke pretty big emotions. Whenever I have it on, I feel like I’m sinking, or being drawn into it like quicksand. It’s the kind of ambient music that feels like a narrative in the sense that you feel like you’re being immersed into a different world like you might in a story. Listening to Zoe Keating is a wonderful experience, and it reminded me a lot of Rachel’s, which I’m now revisiting because of her. Below I’ve linked to two of my favorites, so check her out.

Zoe Keating

Tiny Vipers – Tiny Vipers (EP 2007 re-release Luckyhorse Industries)

Tiny Vipers is Jesy Fortino and her guitar, and from the minute I heard her voice I totally fell in love with her. She has this haunting, scratchy voice that she seems to be pressing into an urgent appeal in every song. Listening to “They Might Follow You,” I always find myself leaning forward, straining to hear what she’s saying, shaking my head each time trying to figure out why the song ends with a clip of Arriana Huffington talking about Bill Clinton’s election in ‘92. Why Jesy, WHY? Couple these poetic voices with her lone guitar, the music swims from a kind of ghostly fairy tale (The Book, Shipwreck) to a kind of furious growl (Yesterday, The Ocean Song). I can’t stop listening to it.

Tiny Vipers

Rodrigo y Gabriela – 11:11 (ATO RECORDS / RED 2009)

I love love love Rodrigo y Gabriela. I was once heckled as a noodle-dancing world music loving hippie because of it, and I don’t even care one fucking bit. Just their story is awesome. They grew up playing in a thrash metal band in Mexico City, eventually moving to Europe where they perfected their music. They made ends meet by playing on streets and in restaurants playing what sounded like that bland, touristy crap that is supposed to be providing atmosphere. What it actually was, though, was them taking Metallica and Pantera sounds and slowing it way the fuck down. They realized that they had something there, and started blending traditional music with the metal they loved so. The result is nothing short of fucking magic. The guitar duo play a blend of flamenco and metal, and when I first heard them I totally stopped dead in my tracks and my brain short-circuited, the earth shook and my ears bled. I don’t think I understood the power two acoustic guitars could have until I heard Tamacun. I thought it couldn’t get better than that and then I saw them live. I thought that couldn’t get any better and then I heard 11:11. Again with the magic. Below are a few tracks…if you don’t like these they RyG is not your thing. And you’re retarded.

P.S. Gabriela is the hottest woman on the face of the earth as far as I’m concerned and if she told me to jump into an erupting volcano I probably would.

RodGab

Heartless Bastards – The Mountain
I first came across Heartless Bastards on woxy.com, and loved them the instant I heard “Blue Day.” After immediately downloading “All this Time” I found myself time and again grabbed by hook after hook, loving every second of the ride (particularly Blue Day, Valley of Debris, Came a Long Way). They are one of those bands that seem to channel all the best synthesis of rock and blues, taking lessons that hearken back to the likes of Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin, and while they don’t break any new ground (the Village Voice called their melodies “arctypal”), they have perfected the sound.
The Mountain definitely has its own hooks, to be sure, but it feels like a deeper album. Where All This Time seemed introspective and somewhat melancholy, The Mountain feels more philosophical and hopeful, sometimes even playful (“I could be so happy, if I just quit being sad/I could be so funny, if I just quit being a drag/I could be so sweet, if I just quit being sour”). Regardless of mood, there is just nothing more soothing than Erika Wennerstrom’s weathered voice, sounding like the rock diva who has been where you’ve been, someone you’d sit down and have a beer with and tell your troubles to.

Mos Def – The Ecstatic
I had given up on Mos Def. I thought Black on Both Sides was a fluke, and that I’d be consigned to get pissed every time I saw him in some shitty buddy movie, ranting and raving about how he coulda be a great rapper.
Then Jimmy told me to check out The Ecstatic, and with skepticism I spent 16 of my valuable emusic credits getting it, swearing I’d never speak his name again if it sucked. Un-fucking believably good. That’s all I have to say. I knew it was all going to be ok when I heard “Supermagic” and it just kept getting better.
His voice glides over the tracks, effortlessly weaving between, under, over and around incredible beats and samples.

Bad news and good dope
powder, potion, pills, smoke
baby how you trying to go
Duro o dulce
fast or slow
yay
no
it’s ok you can have it your way
naw, it aint all good but baby I’m cool
feeling great feeling good how are you
10% condition, 90% response
Survival mathematics the number man’s song

I swear the motherfucker just makes the shit sound easy, and like he was born to do it. I don’t pretend to be a hip hop aficionado, but Mos Def in his best form, as he is here, just inspires the shit out of me.

Band of Skulls- Baby Darling Doll Face Honey
Band of Skulls was another great woxy.com find (seriously a great station to listen to) on Future Sounds. I know one isn’t supposed to describe a band by likening it to another band, but I can’t really help it in this case. There are times they sound a lot like White Stripes (Death By Diamonds and Pearls), sometimes not unlike Radiohead (Fires), and I could probably come up with a few other comparisons. Sorry…I know that’s a shitty thing to do, but there you have it.
The thing is, they’re really really great even if they don’t have a totally new sound. I have them in regular rotation, and they are totally a blast to listen to. They are a solid band, and even though I’ve listened to them dozens of times now, I still want more. So much so, in fact, that I’m going to see them this Sunday at Du Nord, and I have a feeling that they’re going to be a blast to see live. Anyway, definitely worth checking out.

Not Necessarily New
Vandermark 5
I first heard The Vandermark 5 in the days of yore when I still shopped at Amoeba on Haight. I was picking through the bargain bin, feeling like a homeless dude looking for the holy grail of an untouched hamburger, when this suite of melancholy saxophones stopped me in my tracks (for future reference “Outside Ticket (for John Gilmore)”. Not wanting to seem like I was displaying the range of catatonic behaviors of some dude with schizophrenia, I continued to flip through the CD’s, eyes closed and lost in that blissful brain frenzy that can only come from Jazz. If I’m remembering correctly, I kinda floated over to the information counter and asked what it was. Looking like I just told him to eat a dick, he pointed at the cover of “Elements of Style, Exercises in Surprise” and told me I should buy it, which I promptly did.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am one of those dorks who spent like a decade with “A Love Supreme” on repeat 24/7. Having said that, The Vandermark 5 brings in such a wide range of music so successfully, careening from the chaos of the jazz improvised solo to the slippery goodness of funk, it feels totally accessible. Led by Ken Vandermark, one of those uber music geniuses who wins all kinds of awards (seriously…sounds like quite the amazing dude) and gets involved with all kinds of cool projects, the quintet makes some amazing music that makes my brain happy every time I put it on.

YYY_1
Both Zero and Heads Will Roll step undeniably into the electronic world, but the essence of what is so great about their sound is retained. I’ve heard a lot of criticism about how this is a backward looking album, how they haven’t really innovated here at all but have instead picked up the electronic sound of the not too distant past. I think that while this seems to be a somewhat fair criticism, it is only so if you expect all good music to be always on the cutting, bleeding, avant-garde edge. I think that’s really the only criticism one can honestly come up with for it…that it’s not anything groundbreaking.

I feel like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs decided to strike out in a different direction, riffing on sounds that have worked in the past and applying (very successfully) their own style to it.

For those who need Zinner’s guitar and Brian Chase’s drums, though, fret not as there is still Dull Life which is straight-up old school Yeah Yeah Yeahs:

YYY_2

There’s also a couple of really nice softer tracks, particularly Hysteric and Little Shadow:

YYY_3
All in all It’s Blitz feels like it fits squarely into the very good category. It was a cool new direction for them to reach out into, and was a solid release. I agree that they haven’t done anything revolutionary here, but it was welcome and it’s going to stay in my regular rotation for a while.

The Mountain Goats (Solo)
w/ Papercuts
Swedish American Hall
February 25th, 2009 @7:30




My love affair with The Mountain Goats is deep and probably somewhat pathological. So just keep that in mind. Wednesday night was the first time I had seen John Darnielle, who was solo at the Swedish American Hall above Café Du Nord in San Francisco. It was the best venue I could imagine seeing him in, and he didn’t disappoint. Darnielle is a wonderful storyteller, and he has a way of carrying me away with his amazing imagery, his dry and sometimes caustic wit. His lyrics have a certain raw honesty (picture me cringing) to them that I am truly and deeply touched by. Even if it’s all contrived and a complete lie, I don’t even care.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that Papercuts were great, and the song John Brown in particularly struck something in me.

Anyway, rather than go any further than this, I’m going to direct you to a much better review than I could write:

SF Weekly

with Japanese Motors
Mimicking Birds
Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Fox Theater, Oakland, CA

Modest Mouse is one of those bands that crept up on me. I didn’t initially think much of them for some reason, but when I was listening to Good News for People Who Love Bad News, I found myself waking up many mornings with Float On playing on a loop in my head. Soon the rest of the songs on the album had joined in, and for a couple of months it was the soundtrack of my life- I have to say it was pretty fucking great. I figure any band that can weasel its way into my consciousness so persistently and pleasantly is doing something very right.

So the good news for me was that, after missing them this summer at the Greek Theater (they were playing with R.E.M. who I kinda don’t care about), I saw that they were playing at the Fox Theater. The newly renovated Fox just reopened after 40 years of being closed, surviving more than one near razing. The theater looked amazing, and it was pretty well staffed and looked like it had its shit together. But before I could really enjoy the good news, though, came the bad news…the opening bands.

Unfortunately, both Mimicking Birds and Japanese Motors were pretty bad. I really didn’t want them to be, and I hate saying that about people who have the balls to get up in front of a crowd and do their best. But bad they were. Mimicking Birds were just too quiet for that venue, and while their music had potential, they just sounded weak, and when they were done, they pretty much skulked off stage. The guitars and drums were just washed out, and Nate Lacy’s voice alternated between too loud and too quiet. To be fair, it looked like they were having sound equipment issues, but even for that, the music was just underwhelming. I’ve checked them out on MySpace, and they actually sound a lot stronger, so I’m willing to chalk it up to just the wrong venue for them.

Japanese Motors, however, were just plain underwhelming. They had tremendous energy, and looked like they had their shit together- but the music just wasn’t moving. It kinda felt like that same surf-punk cum sixties pop sound you’ve heard a thousand times before. Songs that felt like they should have had the place stomping, just didn’t. It wasn’t just me either, as no one in the full house was moving all that much.

Then Modest Mouse crashed on stage, and all the bad news seemed to wash away. Isaac Brock took charge right away and the energy just got everyone in the place jumping. The set list felt like it covered a pretty good range of their work, and it included a Tom Waits cover (which I have to admit I somehow totally forgot about). Brock has an intensity on stage that I don’t see a lot. His whole body seems to double in size at times, violently shaking and vibrating while he projects into the mic. There was one point when he seemed like a man possessed and he started singing into the pickup on his guitar, and the effect was pretty cool. The crowd was totally carried away by his energy, and were jumping the whole time. All in all, a very fun show.

Modest Mouse Setlist (thanks to www.setlist.fm)

1. 3rd Planet Play
2. Black Cadillacs
3. Doin’ The Cockroach
4. Dashboard
5. Wild Packs Of Family Dogs
6. King Rat
7. The View
8. Rains On Me [Tom Waits]
9. Baby Blue Sedan
10. Satellite Skin
11. Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes
12. Spitting Venom
13. Paper Thin Walls
14. The Good Times Are Killing Me
15. Education
16. Parting Of The Sensory
Encore:
17. Interstate 8
18. All Night Diner
19. Alone Down There

Modest Mouse