Monday, December 14, 2009
 

Well hot damn, again again again, that always looming end of year has crashed down upon me, and as always I'm ill-prepared and forgetful.  Let me be honest for a second, the end of the year seems to take me by surprise every year, and every year I look back on the albums I've listened to, and most often can't remember which ones stood out whatsoever.  Instead I see a blur of music, an imaginary stack of albums that could be from 2009 or could be from 1909.   Thus, this year I think I'm going to go a different route.  I'm just going to talk about the various musical inspirations I had this year.  Be they websites or magazines or ladies or whatnot, it's been an invigorating year of musical discovery and I hope this list somehow, someway shares the experience with you. As always, thanks for reading.  Keep the bubbly flowing this New Years, but just remember: what feels good at 11PM hurts like a thousand bull viper bites on your brain the next morning. Toodles!

Noah's 2009 Top 10 List

01)  Justin Vernon

It's been a pretty bang up year for Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.  He released the Blood Bank EP with his band Bon Iver, an impressive stop-gap between their beloved first album and the much anticipated follow-up.  He toured the country, becoming an enormous star in the process.  And finally, with the help of Collections of Colonies of Bees, he released the outstanding Volcano Choir album Unmap, a frosty, bit of melodic electronic that I found myself riveted by.  Where usually the increasing popularity of an old favorite steers me clear, Vernon has managed to embrace his new found stardom with aplomb, continuing his reinvention of the modern singer-songwriter while holding tight to the creative reins.

:Volcano Choir - Island, IS:


02)  Phosphorescent - To Willie

I didn't get Phosphorescent's lauded album A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise.  I blame Bon Iver and the similarities between the two artists, and my crushing love of one.  Thus, I was not even a lick excited for Phosphorescent's early year album of Willie Nelson covers.  Nelson's great, but I'm nowhere near a diehard, so off-the-wall selections from rare albums made my mouth hang open in boredom.  But, as always, I was wrong, very wrong.  Matthew Houck turns the gee-shucks country of America's Favorite Stoner into blissfully sad portrayals of washed-up drunks just trying to hold on.  If the chorus of It's Not Supposed To Be That Way doesn't smash your heart in to a million stubbed out cigarette butts, I call you a robot.

:Phosphorescent - It's Not Supposed To Be That Way:


03)  Hornet Leg - Ribbon of Fear

I barely know what to say about Hornet Leg.  There's a beat, a kick, a pulsing energy tucked between the legs of this lo-fi duo that had me at My Baby.  Garage has been big this year, but Hornet Leg subverts the common thread, banging out a series of rickety rockers that'll get your knees knockin' and your brow sweating.

:Hornet Leg - My Baby:


04)  Lady Singers

In a past life I was sort of a douchebag.  For whatever reason if your band was fronted by a lady, I usually wasn't that interested.  Wasn't a sexist thing, just couldn't invest myself in a female-fronted band.  This has been my year though.  I credit the amazing roster of all-lady bands that have blasted out of SF this year, and my girlfriend's impeccable music taste, because it's been a reawakening.  A year that's found me most often spinning girl groups from the 60s (French please), Grass Widow, Quixotic, Yes Please, The Sandwitches, and whole host     more. A year that's found me flipping through four disc boxed sets featuring the likes of Cher and Twiggy and wholeheartedly enjoying the breadth of discovery found within.  There's been a lot of changes in my life, but this, this love of the lady singer is a huge one.

:The Sandwitches - No, No:


05)  Raven Sings The Blues

If you've never popped on over to the amazing, dirty, grungy, bit of experimental heaven that is Raven Sings The Blues, I implore you, for your own good and for the good of, well, good music, you must.  This site has opened has many doors musically for me as any other on the web.  With a strong emphasis on neo-garage rock, minimal synth, experimental and just good old rock 'n' roll, the mysterious being that is Raven Sings The Blues somehow manages to spot the gems while they're still rocks.  Literally, half the music on this list was featured on Raven Sings The Blues at one time or another.


06)  Ganglians - Monster Head Room

I've never liked The Beach Boys.  Throw rocks, throw stones, throw spears, it just doesn't do much for me.  What I do like is the wave of music that graced the summer months that was inspired by The Beach Boys. At the top of that heap: Ganglians.  San Francisco's own, this trio of psych-surf-stoners managed to turn the idea of mellifluous harmonies on to their head, instead weaving a collection of acid-spun beach ballads better suited for a psychedelic camp fire than a surf session.

:Ganglians - Voodoo:


07)  Sleepy Sun - Embrace

This was a year of transition for me, and no other album was more of a soundtrack for change then San Francisco's Sleepy Sun.  I discovered them in the weeks before I moved to the Bay Area and their mix of noise and beauty, wrapped loosely in a ball of psych, seemed to fit my scared but excited headspace.  I always pictured Sleepy Sun as a really beautifully painted picture of a massacre, exquisite in composition, but terrifying in concept.

:Sleepy Sun - Sleepy Son:


08)  The Numero Group

I've been digging deep this year, in to crates (both online and real) and no other reissue label has impressed me as much as The Numero Group.  Heavy on the funk and soul, Numero Group is renowned for excavating the vaults of labels you and I have never heard of, releasing solidly curated compilations that offer up tiny peepholes in to the past.  This year I found myself entranced by their release of Pisces A Lovely Sight, but my obsession went far past that.  Almost every week I find myself digging through another of their releases new or old, shit eating grin glued to my face.

:Pisces - Dear One:


09)  Box Elders - Alice and Friends

Labels like Woodsist, Captured Tracks, and In The Red have released such a slew of garage rock this year that I find myself happily inundated but also pretty exhausted in terms of lo-fi pop tunes.  Box Elders caught me by surprise though.  This is garage rock but mixed with what I believe is a Rhodes organ and cuts the grime a bit, instead placing us in a dance hall or a sweaty room not thrashing our heads, but moving our feet.  It's an end of year entry, but one I highly recommend.

:Box Elders - 2012:


10)  Woods - Songs of Shame

As beautiful as any album I've heard this year or this decade.  Thrown to the top because of an electrifying performance that not only caught me off guard, and completely blew me away. I love the lonesome strain that runs through Woods sophomore album, bolstered by a sound that alludes to folk but lives warmly inside the arms of psych-rock.

:Woods - The Number:


Honorable Mentions:

Leonard Cohen/Tom Waits - What was I thinking not giving you a chance.

Hip-Hop - you conniving foe, you've found yourself back in to my heart again.

Underwater People - I imagine next years list will be peppered with you.
 

- Noah Sanders -

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