Saturday, June 21, 2008
 

Seasons are changing my music loving friends.  That glowing ball of super-heated magma is slowly trekking its way across the sky (even in Seattle!).  Evenings grow longer as clothes grow scarcer - by God I think it’s Summer! In celebration the forthcoming solstice and all the good that it entails, I’d like to wrap up the first six months of the year with a brief recollection on my favorite albums so far. I’ll say this, I’m terrible at organization and the idea of cataloguing music by its release date is pretty much a no-go in the Sanders’ household.  Thus, albums fade in to obscurity, liner notes slip behind the crack in the bed, the wrinkles in my grey matter ever-more-quickly start to smooth.  These albums are the ones that have fought through the battlefield that is my daily thought, the gems that have embedded themselves so deeply in my subconscious that no matter what damage I do to my poor old thought-box they still resonate. Hope you enjoy!

Top 5 Records From The First Half Of 2008 (In No Particular Order)

Throw Me The Statue - Moonbeams

I stumbled upon Scott Reitherman and his fuzzy, home-recorded pop songs in the waning days of 2007.  I couldn’t stop listening to Reitherman’s beautifully flat sounding lyrics about loves lost and loves found.  I was entranced by his 9 person mansion in Beacon Hill (South Seattle, baby) and his seemingly unstoppable need to create music, band or no band.

This is electro-pop at its smartest.  Infinitely catchy tracks, held together with layers and layers of electric fuzz, glockenspiels, acoustic guitar, hand claps, excited white-person vocals, etcetera etcetera.  Over the course of the year Reitherman has accrued a band to back him up live, and though in the shows I’ve seen he’s still somewhat working out the kinks, Moonbeams is still a must-listen album.

:Throw Me The Statue - About To Walk:

Fleet Foxes - Self Titled

It isn’t really a stretch of any kind to claim that the Seattle-based Fleet Foxes new album is one of the best so far.  Everyone from The New York Times to Pitchfork are screaming their praises.  But what can I say?  It’s a fucking good album.  Bolstered by the crystal clear vocals of front-man Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes weave near perfect four/five part harmonies in to the kind of folk you’d find in the back catalog of 70s icons like The Band.  Live these guys are pure folk gold, stretching out tracks, dropping covers (their version of Karen Dalton’s Katie Cruel is a must-see), and basically making it well worth every penny of your admission fee.   Buy their album, check them out live, do what you can to see these guys now, while its still cheap and intimate.

:Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood:

Man Man - Rabbit Habbits

I don’t understand how my love for Man Man’s newest album Rabbit Habits seems so un-universal.  I’ve pushed this album on as many of my friends as possible, and no one as become as obsessed with it, or the band, as I have.  Definitions fall vastly short of describing what exactly this album is.  It’s freak-rock mixed with funk, dragged through the mud of vaudevillian madness, gently daubed with Tom Waits’ gravel-voiced conception of folk.  It’s a vast cauldron of varied sounds (including falling trash and bottle rockets let off in a garbage can) that supplies you with a different mixture on each listen.  I pity my friends, and those of you who can’t find the grit-covered magic in this incomparable album.

:Man Man - Hurly Burly:

Rafter - Sex Death Cassette

Out of the all the music I’ve obsessed over this year, Sex Death Cassette by producer Rafter Reynolds was the most surprising.  I contacted the good people at Asthmatic Kitty on a absolute whim, hoping to score a couple of interviews with some of their less known musicians (Cryptacize).   In the middle of a response email laden with new, impressive music, I came upon Rafter. 

You might call this mash-up music, but it isn’t samples of various works being combined.  It’s a mixture of sounds pieced together with Rafter’s melodic voice lilting over the top.  Though 19 tracks long, the album barely peaks at 35 minutes, a mad-cap rush of peaks and valleys pulling the unexpected listener through a sonic landscape rife with electro fuzz and melodic vocal combinations.  At times it’s shockingly loud, but Rafter has an uncanny ability to balance almost metal-like riffs with sugary pop.  It is messy and beautiful and undeniably infectious.

:Rafter - Zzzpenchant:

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Seriously, if you haven’t heard anything about Bon Iver, return to the cave, you’re not needed in the modern world.  Bon Iver is beautiful, simple music, that transcends typical singer-song writer tripe because of Justin Vernon’s absolutely breathtaking falsetto voice.   I’ve little to say that will better explain the emotional effect of his music that won’t be bettered by you just listening below.

:Bon Iver - Re: Stacks:

- Noah Sanders -



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