Year End Extravaganza Pt. 1
So 2006 is over and this is a music blog, so what can we do besides make a top ten list that will undoubtedly shame the rest of the interbloggingplanosphere with its superiority.
I'll just do my top 10. Even though there are 5 more albums that belong on the list, I'm just too lazy to write it.
Bottom 5 today, top 5 later.
So let's get to it:
10. Human Television - Look At Who You're Talking To
Human Television came pretty much out of nowhere with this collection of lushly layered jangle pop that was good enough to make me seek out early R.E.M. albums and actually listen to them. Packed with hooks, deep shimmering guitars, and a syrupy production that lets this unlikely album go down smooth. Try not to come back again and again. Actually just come back, because who doesn't want to be able to say they listen to Human Television?
Human Television - Mars Red Dust
9. Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing and a Curse
There's a couple bands I feel deep remorse for not having listened to a long time ago, and these guys are one of them. The best Southern-rock band in the business, the Truckers have put out another in a long line of strong willed, smart, dirty, tough, twangy rock-and-roll songs that are so good it will make you never want to hear Lynard Skynard again. If you actually did want to hear them again in the first place. The point is, these are stories so well told you may actually feel the sting of growing up in a world of whiskey bottles and wells run dry, emotionally rooted in a certain culture anyone who's ever experienced hardship will surely relate to. Rock out or shed some tears, everything you need is right here.
Drive-By Truckers - Space City
8. Califone - Roots & Crowns
We live in a world of derivation, where everything you hear you can probably hear bits of it in sounds that came before, so in music the best you can do is take a group of ideas and make them work in a new way. No group better encapsulates this philosophy than Califone, who's folk meets blues meets experimental style never stops reinventing itself, and never begins to sound forced or pretentious. On Roots & Crowns, Califone takes the traditional and buries it under layers of instrumentation and experimentation. Melodies wind in and out of songs that reveal themselves to the listener slowly, yet manage to entrance and intrigue from the very beginning. Jean-Luc Godard said: "It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to." It seems that Califone has taken worldly sounds from before and has taken them to an otherworldly place I don't think any of us ever knew existed.
Califone - The Orchids
7. Parts & Labor - Stay Afraid
NOISE ROCK, YESSSSSSSSSS! Okay, so the title of the genre pisses you off, and why wouldn't it? Noise rock? Isn't the whole point of rock music to be noisy? It's natural to think that anyone attempting "noise rock" is probably trying too hard, but come on, life isn't fun without a little excess now and then. Stay Afraid is basically a half hour of blistering guitars, spastic electronics, pounding drums, and arena rock vocals. Huge triumphant choruses and surprising pop undertones makes this album about as awesome as possible, the sonic equivalent of going on a week long speed binge, stealing a car, and hauling ass down the road with a bottle of whiskey in your hand and a hooker in the trunk. It's fun, just don't get caught.
Parts & Labor - New Buildings
6. The Thermals - The Body The Blood The Machine
The Body The Blood The Machine compiles so many elements of awesome into one album that the thing is basically irresistible. Straight forward guitar driven pop-punk songs fueled emotionally by confusion and anger toward Christianity and a severe distaste for the current state of American political system with passion and melody enough to draw your lips into a smile, your arms into an air guitar, and your brain into thinking real hard about why this world is just so fucked up. Confident but self-conscious, these guys might not be able to fix the problems they see in themselves and the world, but facilitating thought and expressing anger has always been important elements in punk music; awareness is the foundation of change. And being aware has never been so fun and empowering as it is here. The music doesn't draw all it's strength from punk music though. These songs come together to make a cohesive statement, but like a good pop album, each is memorable and individual. "Returning to the Fold" overpowers just about any other song released this year. Turn it up loud and let's burn this motherfucker down!
The Thermals - St. Rosa and the Swallows
I'll just do my top 10. Even though there are 5 more albums that belong on the list, I'm just too lazy to write it.
Bottom 5 today, top 5 later.
So let's get to it:
10. Human Television - Look At Who You're Talking To
Human Television came pretty much out of nowhere with this collection of lushly layered jangle pop that was good enough to make me seek out early R.E.M. albums and actually listen to them. Packed with hooks, deep shimmering guitars, and a syrupy production that lets this unlikely album go down smooth. Try not to come back again and again. Actually just come back, because who doesn't want to be able to say they listen to Human Television?
Human Television - Mars Red Dust
9. Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing and a Curse
There's a couple bands I feel deep remorse for not having listened to a long time ago, and these guys are one of them. The best Southern-rock band in the business, the Truckers have put out another in a long line of strong willed, smart, dirty, tough, twangy rock-and-roll songs that are so good it will make you never want to hear Lynard Skynard again. If you actually did want to hear them again in the first place. The point is, these are stories so well told you may actually feel the sting of growing up in a world of whiskey bottles and wells run dry, emotionally rooted in a certain culture anyone who's ever experienced hardship will surely relate to. Rock out or shed some tears, everything you need is right here.
Drive-By Truckers - Space City
8. Califone - Roots & Crowns
We live in a world of derivation, where everything you hear you can probably hear bits of it in sounds that came before, so in music the best you can do is take a group of ideas and make them work in a new way. No group better encapsulates this philosophy than Califone, who's folk meets blues meets experimental style never stops reinventing itself, and never begins to sound forced or pretentious. On Roots & Crowns, Califone takes the traditional and buries it under layers of instrumentation and experimentation. Melodies wind in and out of songs that reveal themselves to the listener slowly, yet manage to entrance and intrigue from the very beginning. Jean-Luc Godard said: "It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to." It seems that Califone has taken worldly sounds from before and has taken them to an otherworldly place I don't think any of us ever knew existed.
Califone - The Orchids
7. Parts & Labor - Stay Afraid
NOISE ROCK, YESSSSSSSSSS! Okay, so the title of the genre pisses you off, and why wouldn't it? Noise rock? Isn't the whole point of rock music to be noisy? It's natural to think that anyone attempting "noise rock" is probably trying too hard, but come on, life isn't fun without a little excess now and then. Stay Afraid is basically a half hour of blistering guitars, spastic electronics, pounding drums, and arena rock vocals. Huge triumphant choruses and surprising pop undertones makes this album about as awesome as possible, the sonic equivalent of going on a week long speed binge, stealing a car, and hauling ass down the road with a bottle of whiskey in your hand and a hooker in the trunk. It's fun, just don't get caught.
Parts & Labor - New Buildings
6. The Thermals - The Body The Blood The Machine
The Body The Blood The Machine compiles so many elements of awesome into one album that the thing is basically irresistible. Straight forward guitar driven pop-punk songs fueled emotionally by confusion and anger toward Christianity and a severe distaste for the current state of American political system with passion and melody enough to draw your lips into a smile, your arms into an air guitar, and your brain into thinking real hard about why this world is just so fucked up. Confident but self-conscious, these guys might not be able to fix the problems they see in themselves and the world, but facilitating thought and expressing anger has always been important elements in punk music; awareness is the foundation of change. And being aware has never been so fun and empowering as it is here. The music doesn't draw all it's strength from punk music though. These songs come together to make a cohesive statement, but like a good pop album, each is memorable and individual. "Returning to the Fold" overpowers just about any other song released this year. Turn it up loud and let's burn this motherfucker down!
The Thermals - St. Rosa and the Swallows
posted by Kyle Funk at 11:09 AM
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