Concerts of the Year

Calexico

Tinariwen

Yamato

Old 97s

Harry and the Potters

Robyn Hitchcock/Baseball Project

Roy Zimmerman

Reverb Brothers

S. Carey/Other Lives

Tucson Women's Chorus

Top Tens for Twenty Eleven

Appended below is my Pazz and Jop ballot for 2011 - or it will be if they count it. Apparently Village Voice editors are keeping banker's hours and knocking off work at a respectable hour. Their website wouldn't let me post my vote last night at 6:30. 

Either way, most of these bands should finish well; I haven't included any left-field obscurities such as Micachu and the Shapes or Fol Chen, like I usually do. I hesitate to speculate on who may win the poll this year. There's no obvious frontrunner like Kanye was last year, though PJ Harvey is getting a lot of love out there. 

For the first time in my decade of voting in the P&J poll, I've come up with a tie for first place. The TuNe-YaRdS album was my mainstay this year, and I didn't think I'd love anything more, until I heard Strange Mercy for the first time. Both Garbus and Clark are equally committed, talented and idiosyncratic, and both speak to the disjointed, irrational and fragmented state of our country in 2011. 

All these albums - with the possible exception of Let England Shake - sound like they couldn't have been recorded in any century but this one, though most dab liberally at the palette of music styles established over the last half of the 20th. And all of this is rock music of one sort or another. I haven't voted for any americana or hip-hop as I usually do, though plenty of music from both camps moved me. What moved me most, though, was the new force of rock music these ten albums represent. Rock as a market share is weaker than ever, but artistically it's far from played out. 

Jazz music evolved through phases of exploration until it reached a dead end (of sorts) with free jazz, having gone as far out as possible. Since then, the full range of jazz styles, including free, are available on that palette. The difference is that rock music hasn't gone down any one road, and while it may have hit some dead ends, it's not clear that it's gone as far as it can. But here are ten artists who keep driving on. 

(The rules insist that music writers divide a hundred points amongst ten albums, with no one receiving more than 30 points or less than 5. The headings are Points/ Artist/ Album/ Label):

15 points: TuNe-YaRdS/ whokiill/ 4AD
      Somehow our hero finds inner serenity amongst the violence and chaos around her. What Merril takes from Afropop is the rhythmic dominance, rather than the instrumental exuberance that Peter, Paul and David found. This suits her confident stride through the mean streets of Oakland, the neighborhood you wouldn't want to move to. Above all, her chameleonic voice, whether squawking or crooning, lets you know she's got it handled.

15 points: St. Vincent/ Strange Mercy/ 4AD

      She's seen America naked, and it's just another authority figure to her, like a coach or a surgeon. Ms. Clark tones down some of the overt dissonance of Actor, instead hanging woozy curtains of synths in the window. Occasional bursts of light shine through, whether Talking Heads keyboards or Sonic Youth guitars, describing a world of casual cruelties and emotional violence. But in contrast to Ms. Garbus, her calm in the face of it comes off as unsettling. 

10 points: Radiohead/ King of Limbs/ Self-Released
      Some have lamented the relative lack of Greenwood's guitar, but it's Selway's drumming that is the dominant voice here. Both loose and tight, like Ringo in "Tomorrow Never Knows," the drums anchor the listener through the atmospherics. While Thom moans of mortality and "routines and schedules," dreams of abduction by raptors, or blisses out on the universe, Phil keeps insisting on the moment. 

10 points: Girls/ Father, Son, Holy Ghost/ True Panther Sounds
      What a delicious blend of audacity and vulnerability. The sound of a young man with absolute confidence in the recording studio, but less certainty once he steps outside. Mr. Owens careens from new love to broken heart with one indelible melody after another. In a just world, this would be all over the radio. 

10 points: Black Keys/ El Camino/ Nonesuch
      Cranks up the neo without turning down the retro. Enough of a step up from their previous high standards that it feels like they're just getting started. And this world is just enough that it gets just enough airplay. When my iPod shuffled up to it, my middle school art students, who love only diva pop and thug rap, knew it and grooved to it. Hope for the future. 

10 points: Wilco/ The Whole Love/ dBpm
      Wilco haters gonna Wilco hate, but they deliver for their base better than Boehner or Obama ever will. Call it dad rock if you will; this old dad loves it. But most dads I know - Boomer, GenXer or Millennial - don't rock out with this much eclecticism or commitment. If the history they sample from is their own - some alt.country steel here, a migraine murder ballad there - it just shows that they've earned their place. 

8 points: Kills/ Blood Pressures/ Domino
      Harkens back to a time before the sexual revolution was won, when desire was somehow menacing. It may not seem threatening any more, because the good guys won, but it's still overpowering, and in their hands, both focused and relentless. 

8 points: Cults/ Cults/ Columbia
      Okay, it's no new trick to marry girl-group harmonies to 00s fuzz. Nor is it unique to fuse that sunny optimism with darker lyrics. Part of what makes it work are the moments of precocious wisdom in a band so young. Like all strong debuts, it begs the question of what's next - continue to mine this vein, or consolidate and move on? But for now, not a waste of time. 

7 points: PJ Harvey/ Let England Shake/ Island
      A career highlight in a career studded with them. Redolent of British folk rock to the point where it was recorded in an old church - and not coincidentally, one perched on the white cliffs of Dover. While the songs look across the channel to contemplate imperial slaughters of a century hence, it's not hard to make the connection to newer ones further south. 

7 points: Yuck/ Yuck/ Fat Possum
      If you're gonna reach back to 20th-century rock styles, that last decade is fertile ground to plow. They've got style; miles and miles. And not without substance, either - but as to whether all that style is wasted, see question for Cults, above. 

Singles

Girls/ Honey Bunny/ True Panther Sounds

Beastie Boys/ Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win/ Capitol

Hanni El Khatib/ Build. Destroy. Rebuild./ Innovative Leisure

Panda Bear/ Last Night At the Jetty/ Paw Tracks

Gang Gang Dance/ Mindkilla/ 4AD

Beyonce/ Countdown/ Sony

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi (Ft. Jack White)/Two Against One/ Capitol

Black Keys/ Lonely Boy/ Nonesuch

Wild Flag/ Glass Tambourine/ Merge

James Blake/ The Wilhelm Scream/ Universal Republic

Monday Random Ten - Best of 2011 Edition

As of today there are 627 songs in my "2011" folder. These are the first ten to pop up on my iPod, Aritst/Song/Album.

1. Group Doueh/ Ishadlak Ya Khey/ Zayna Jumma

2. The Sea and Cake/ Covers/ The Moonlight Butterfly

3. Wye Oak/ Plains/ Civilian

4. The Kills/ Nail in my Coffin/ Blood Pressures

5. Blitzen Trapper/ Might Find It Cheap/ American Goldwing

6. Mati Zundel/ Aero Tinku/ Cuando Yo Bailo, Tiembla La Tierra

7. Major Lazer/ Keep It Goin' Louder [So Shifty Remix]/ Mad Decent vol. 1

8. Best Coast/ Gone Again/ Adult Swim Singles Program 2011

9. Forró In the Dark, Brazilian Girls & Angelique Kidjo/ Aquele Abraço/ Red Hot + Rio 2

10. Atlas Sound/ The Shakes/ Parallax

Monday Random Ten #34

Here are the first ten songs to pop up on my iPod; Artist/ Song/ Album:


1. Teenage Fanclub/ Star Sign / Four Thousand

2. The Pharcyde/ Passin' Me By/ Bizarre Ride II

3. Beach House/ Norway/ Teen Dream

4. Okkervill River/ Lost Coastlines/ The Stand Ins

5. The Contours/ Do You Love Me/ Motown: The Classic Years

6. Jenny Lewis (feat. Elvis Costello)/ Carpetbaggers/ Acid Tongue

7. PJ Harvey/ Grow Grow Grow/ White Chalk

8. Turin Brakes/ Monnlight Mile/ Bottled at Source

9. Bad Brains/ Pay to Cum/ Bad Brains

10. George Harrison/ Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) Live in Japan

That Time of Year

No, not that time. It's the time of year when music geeks everywhere are contemplating their year-end Top Ten Lists. But this year no list-making can commence until this coming Tuesday, when the Black Keys and the Roots will drop El Camino and undun, respectively.

Major releases don't often come out this late in the year; labels try to time their critical buzz, just like studios hold back their Oscar contenders. But these two discs seem to be worth waiting for. The tracks that have leaked so far are oozing awesomeness. The Keys just kicked my butt across the room with "Little Black Submarines," and the vitality of their sound is just my thermos of tea, simultaneously neo and retro. Both albums look like strong contenders for my Top Ten - though as always, there are a lot more than ten strong contenders, and the painful task is winnow them down until ten are left standing.

To my mind, some of the best albums of 2011 were by women. I've already written about Tune-Yards, and the St. Vincent album Strange Mercy is also one of my favorites. PJ Harvey's Let England Shake is one of her best in many years, and of course everybody loves Adele and Florence. I can see those last two cleaning up at Grammy time. Newcomers Cults and Wild Flag are also likely to turn up on a lot of lists.

The other new band I fell for was Yuck, a couple of British chaps with a strong '90s vibe (who have their own blog over here). The Kills also killed me, as previously mentioned. I got a big kick out of the third album by Gang Gang Dance. And then old favorites like Wilco, Stephen Malkmus, Tom Waits and TV on the Radio delivered strong sets as well.

That's sixteen names I've mentioned already, without even bringing up the Radiohead album. Or Bon Iver. Or James Blake. You can see I have my work cut out for me. But next post I'll mention a few of the also-rans that might make good stocking-stuffers for someone on your list.

Monday Random Ten #33

Here are the first ten songs to pop up on my iPod; Artist/ Song/ Album:


1. The Ventures/ Pipeline/ The Best of the Ventures

2. Matt Pond PA/ People Have a Way/ Last Light

3. Jets to Brazil/ Resistance is Futile/ Orange Rhyming Dictionary

4. Dead Kennedys/ Rawhide/ Dead Kennedys

5. The Eagles/ Take It Easy/ The Very Best of the Eagles

6. Iron & Wine/ Innocent Bones/ The Shepard's Dog

7. The Plugz/ Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man)/ Repo Man Soundtrack

8. Cake/ You Turn the Screws/ Prolonging the Magic

9. Frank Black & the Stax Pistols/ Breathless/ Brace Yourself! A Tribute to Otis Blackwell

10. Totó La Momposina y sus Tambores/ Curura/ La Candela Viva


When I was a radio DJ I used to love incongruous segues, but it never occurred to me to play the DKs back-to-back with the Eagles. Thanks, iPod!

Totó La Momposina is the stage name of Colombian singer Sonia Bazanta Vides.

Otis Blackwell wrote more than a thousand songs, including "Don't Be Cruel," "Fever," "Great Balls of Fire," "Return to Sender," "Handy Man," and "All Shook Up."

Jets to Brazil was an American band that released three great albums between 1998 and 2002. The frontman Blake Schwarzenbach was previously with the punk band Jawbreaker, and now makes his living as an English professor.

Matt Pond PA is the eponymous band of prolific New York-based songwriter Matt Pond. Not sure what the PA is for.

1986: Thank You, Peter Rowan

Twenty five years ago this month I was working in a liquor store in Capitola, California. I had just earned a fine arts degree and had no practical idea of how to make a living as an artist. One night I mentioned to my fellow retail clerk that Peter Rowan was playing in a small club down the street, and maybe we'd want to go see the show after work. He said he couldn't make it, but he dared me to write a review and submit it to the features editor at the local paper, where he freelanced as a sportswriter. 

So I did. After the show, for the first of many times, I grabbed a copy of the setlist where from it had been taped to the stage floor. Then I snuck backstage and walked cautiously into the dressing room where an exhausted Peter Rowan was relaxing with his band. Despite his obvious illness, he was gracious enough to take a few questions from a novice music journalist. The next day I typed up my story and it was accepted by the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian, where it ran on 11/7/86. That was the first time I'd ever gotten paid for my writing.

One review led to another, and then to a job as arts editor at the local weekly. A quarter century later, I will always be grateful to Peter Rowan for helping me set out on that path. Oh, and for the other liquor store clerk. For the life of me, I can't remember his name anymore. But if you're out there, pal, Happy Thanksgiving. 

Even a sore throat couldn't keep Peter Rowan from delivering three solid sets of his music Tuesday night.

Playing to a sellout crowd at O.T. Price's Music Hall for the third time this year, Rowan relied on a little help from his friends to keep things rolling past midnight.

The singer/songwriter, who helped evolve the bluegrass/rock style that helped beget the rockabilly revival of the 80s, just couldn't quite hit the high notes, rendering impossible the sublime yodeling and falsetto vocals he displayed earlier this year.

Instead, he dug into his acoustic guitar playing and delivered his songs with a grittier edge to his usually pure voice.

Whether it was his best-known tune "Panama Red" or more obscure gems like "Break My Heart Again," the crowd was behind him all the way.

Younger brother Lorin Rowan, with the Free Mexican Airforce backup band, chimed in with a few lead vocals in each set. Lorin, who heads the rock/reggae band The Edge, injected a Caribbean flavor into his brother's Appalachian/Celtic/Marin County fusion.

Lorin sang reggae standards like "Pressure Drop" and "I Shot the Sheriff" and his reggae version of  "Stand By Me" sounded like songwriter Ben E. King wrote it that way in the first place.

He also reeled off stinging guitar solos all night long.

The pickup rhythm section of Michael White on drums and Dave Perper on bass kept the crowd dancing, particularly during the reggae numbers (both are members of the Texas Chainsaw Band).

Additionally, a couple of guest vocalists saved Peter from overextending his already tired voice.

Local rastaman Tony Gadd sang Bob Marley's "Stir It Up," with Lorin adding a fiery slide solo. Fiddler Darcy D'Eaville sat in for several numbers, harmonizing with Rowan and leading the traditional "Cotton-Eyed Joe" at a breakneck pace.

Another performer might have cancelled the show, but Rowan apparently felt up to it, and no one who was there would dispute that decision. Although he relied on his bandmates to take up the slack, he was obviously in charge. When he turned his back on the crowd to lead the ever-quickeneing jam on "Land of the Navajo," which closed the show, the grin on his face said it was all worthwhile.

After the die-hards clamored for another encore, an obviously weary Peter Rowan sang one of his sweetest tunes, "Thirsty in the Rain," accompanied only by his guitar.

Monday Random Ten #32

Here are the first ten songs to pop up on my iPod; Artist/ Song/ Album:


1. Steve Earle/ I Am a Wanderer/ I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive

2. Common/ Come Close (featuring Mary J. Blige)/ Electric Circus

3. Bruce Springsteen/ Lucky Town/ Lucky Town

4. Burial/ Fostercare/ 5 : 5 Years of Hyperdub

5. Dolly Parton/ To Know Him is to Love Him/ Ultimate Dolly Parton

6. Poe/ Spanish Doll/ Haunted

7. Chris Ardoin and Double Clutchin'/ Dimanche Apres-Misi/ Roots Music: An American Journey

8. Beyonce/ Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)/ I am... Sasha Fierce

9. Les Savy Fav/ What Would Wolves Do?/ Let's Stay Friends

10. Chuck Berry/ Too Much Monkey Business/ The Great Twenty-Eight

Monday Random Ten #31

Here are the first ten songs to pop up on my iPod; Artist/ Song/ Album:


1. Fiery Furnaces/ Even In the Rain/ I'm Going Away

2. Space Mountain/ The Bright Side/ A Drawing of a Memory

3.  Carolene/ Thee Thee/ The Rough Guide to the Music of India

4. Sugar Ray/ Fly/ The Best of Sugar Ray

5. Karen O and the Million Dollar Bashers/ Highway 61 Revisited/ I'm Not There Soundtrack

6. Radiohead/ Bodysnatchers/ In Rainbows

7. Paul McCartney/ Temporary Secretary/ McCartney II

8. Pixies/ Ain't That Pretty at All/ Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon

9. The Jayhawks/ All the Right Reasons/ Rainy Day Music

10. Los Far Fen/ Camino, No Vuelas/ Back to Peru, vol. 2

Eleven Eleven Eleven

Wealthfare Wednesday: Thursday Edition

It's not Wednesday night anymore, but I woke up early from a nightmare with a giant bug, which I took to be a message from my subconscious that I should post some corporate welfare links. Here are a few:

Mother Jones chips in with a nifty report on what a trillion dollars in military procurement buys you these days. Hint: taxpayers may not have gotten their money's worth. Shocking, I know. Just for good measure, Winslow Wheeler of the invaluable Center for Defense Information helpfully lobs a few incendiaries in the direction of Leon Panetta.

Meanwhile, in nuclear subsidy news, Alternet informs us that the military has outsourced the cleanup of the notorious Hanford site to the leeches at Bechtel, who are doing a crappy job for some big paychecks.

And finally, it's amusing to note that when you Google "corporate welfare" + "banks," one of the front-page hits is an ad for Bank of America. I guess no publicity is bad publicity.

Monday Random Ten: Halloween Edition

Plucked at random from my iPod's Halloween playlist: Artist/Title/Album....

1. Howlin' Wolf/ Evil/ His Best: Chess 50th Anniversary Edition

2. The Cranberries/ Zombie/ Stars: The Best of 1992-2002

3. Ryan Adams/ Halloween Head/ Live 2007

4. Vaughn Monroe/ Ghost Riders in the Sky/ Stampede! Western Music's Late Golden Era

5. Screamin' Jay Hawkins/ I Put a Spell on You/ Cow Fingers and Mosquito Pie

6. Ray Parker Jr./ Ghostbusters (12" Single Remix)/ Chartbusters

7. Jim Carroll/ People Who Died/ Catholic Boy

8. Dave Edmunds/ The Creature From the Black Lagoon/ The Dave Edmunds Anthology

9. The Ramones/ Howling at the Moon/ Ramones Mania

10. Reverend Gary Davis/ Death Don't Have No Mercy/ Harlem Street Singer

Don't Look Back

Your Friday Night Video, with Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger, from 1978.

Monday Random Ten #30

Here are the first ten songs to pop up on my iPod; Artist/ Song/ Album:


1. Orchestra Baobab/ Ndeleng Ndeleng/ Made in Dakar

2. Fountains of Wayne/ Hackensack/ Welcome Interstate Managers

3. Eleanor McElvoy/ Mother's Little Helper/ Love Must Be Tough

4. Loretta Lynn/ This Old House/ Van Lear Rose

5. Sinead O'Connor/ Dagger Through the Heart/ Just Because I'm a Woman: A Tribute to Dolly Parton

6. Elvis Costello/ This is Hell/ Brutal Youth

7. Destroyer/ Dark Leaves Form a Thread/ Trouble in Dreams

8. M.I.A./ Paper Planes/ Slumdog Millionaire OST

9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs/ Down Boy/ IS IS EP

10. Jenny Wilson/ Anchor Made of Gold/ Hardships!

Get well soon, Loretta Lynn!

Complaint Department

Reader "aaron" writes to complain that I hadn't provided any commentary on Ocuupy Wall Street, and that no email link was provided (he added a comment to my Random Ten).

To that I replied:

Thanks for caring enough to complain. Posting links to my email has gotten me on too many robo-spam lists, where people all over the world receive viagra offers or Nigerian scam letters, with my email link as the return address! I don't want that to happen again, but you can email me anytime by starting with the thirteenth letter of the alphabet, followed by my last name, then the "at" symbol, then "cox" followed by a dot, and "net" to finish up.

That unlinked address is now affixed beneath my profile picture. As for the #OWS movement, I haven't had much to say because I've been ugly busy. But I did attend the Occupy Tucson gathering on the first day, armed with a slightly wonky protest sign:

I'll explain my list of demands in a future post. Can you spot the typo?

Algorithm Serendipity

Back in September, Kevin Drum described how Netflix streaming works for him:

Basically, I think of something I want to watch and then go look for it. Usually it turned out that my choice wasn't available on streaming, which made the service pretty worthless to me. Apparently, though, most people don't work that way. They just dive into the streaming library and browse around until they find something that looks good. If that's the way you work, then the streaming service is a pretty good deal.

And that's basically the way it works for me; I go looking for something that might work for Family Movie Night, and every once in a while the Netflix algorithms recommend something that hits that sweet spot, and works equally well for the kids and the grownups.

Well, this Saturday, we hit the jackpot.  On a chance, we tried a Belgian claymation toon entitled A Town Called Panic. And all of us laughed our butts off.

Apparently the feature grew out of a five-minute TV series, which was so damn wacky and imaginative that people couldn't get enough of it. The feature film is in French, with subtitles, and the animators' voices add to the general air of lunacy. I can't recommend this highly enough, though I don't want to give away too much, either. Just go stream it, then check out their official website.

The soundtrack is a thing of wonder, too, and turned me on to this garage-punk wacko, among others.

Monday Random Ten #29

Here are the first ten songs to pop up on my iPod; Artist/ Song/ Album:


1.  Swati/ I'm On Fire/ Small Gods

2. Spade Cooley & the Western Swing Dance Gang/ Shame on You/ Shame on You

3. Kaki King/ Playing With Pink Noise/ Legs to Make Us Longer

4. Muddy Waters/ I Love the Life I Live, I lIve the Life I Love/ The Chess Box

5. Tundje Oyelana/ Ifa/ World Psychedelic Classics

6. Rodney Crowell/ Til I Gain Control Again/ The Rodney Crowell Collection

7. Jeff Buckley & Gary Lucas/ Satisfied Mind/ Sings to No One

8. Dwight Yoakam/ Understand Your Man/ Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to Johnny Cash

9. Mavis Staples/ You Are Not Alone/ You Are Not Alone

10. Glen Campbell/ Witchita Lineman/ All the Best

The Yamato Drummers

As both my kids are studying Taiko drumming with the Odaiko Sonora collective, we took them last week to see a performance by the Japanese masters Yamato. Minds were blown.

 These people get up at the crack of dawn, run 10k, lift weights til lunch and then drum together all day and half the night. They're on tour 150-200 nights a year, so they're probably coming near you sometime soon. You don't want to miss it.

Monday Random Ten #28

Here are the first ten songs to pop up on my iPod; Artist/ Song/ Album:


1. Ellie Greenwich/ You Don't Know/ Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found

2. Elvis Presley/ Don't Be Cruel/ The Number One Hits

3. Daniel Lanois/ Rocky World/ For the Beauty of Winona

4. Pete Johnson and his Boogie Woogie Boys/ Baby Look at You/ The Real Kansas City of the 20s, 30s & 40s

5. Franco/ Ou Est Le Serioux?/ The Rough Guide to Franco

6. Thelonious Monk/ Blue Monk/ The Composer

7. Los Mirlos/ Sonido Amazonica/ The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru

8. Bajofundo/ Pa' Bailar/ Mar Dulce

9. Natalie Merchant/ Wonder/ Tigerlily

10. Duran Duran/ The Reflex/ Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Happy Birthday John Lennon