The 50 Best Records of 2011

2011 was a much better year in music than I was expecting. At the beginning of the year there wasn;t a whole lot that I was really looking forward to, but as the year progressed, a lot of good records cam out. Listed below are my top 50 from the past year, with #1 being my absolute favorite. Who could have guessed that Kate Bush would have new music, let alone the best of her career. As usual, most are available on vinyl and should be purchased at Music Saves for maximum listening pleasure. And now, the list:

1. Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
   
2. Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Beans, and Hprizm - Knives from Heaven
3. Zola Jesus - Conatus
4. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
5. Tune-Yards - Whokill
6. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
7. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
8. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
9. James Blake - S/T
10. R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now
11. People Like Us - Welcome Abroad
12. Battles - Gloss Drop
13. TV On the Radio - Nine Types of Light
14. Février - The Lover
15. Brian Eno & Rick Holland - Drums Beween the Bells
16. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
17. Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams and He Gets Me High EP
18. Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
19. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
20. Esmerine - La Lechuza
21. M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
22. Wild Nothing - Gemeni
23. Active Child - You Are All I See
24. The Black Keys - El Camino
25. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
26. Austra - Feel It Break
27. Can’t - Dreams Come True
28. Les Cousins Dangereux - Play “All Sprinkles”
29. Washed Out - Within and Without
30. Cults - S/T
31. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
32. Zomby - Dedication
33. Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
34. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for my Halo
35. Feist - Metals
36. John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
37. Cœur de Pirate - Blonde
38. Class Actress - Rapprocher
39. Twin Sister - In Heaven
40. Tennis - Cape Dory
41. Gill Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - We’re New Here
42. Frankie Rose and the Outs - S/T
43. Danger Mouse & Danielle Luppi - Rome
44. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
45. Efrim Manuel Menuck - Plays “High Gospel”
46. Das Racist - Relax
47. Cloud Nothings - S/T
48. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.- It’s A Corporate World
49. Wye Oak - Civilian
50. Daryl Hall - Laughing Down Crying

Here is the part where I usually list the best reissues and archival recordings. Well, there were some good ones in 2011, but only one really matters - The Beach Boys' Smile Sessions. This has been 40+ years in the making and is worth every penny. Yes, you really do need an entire CD of Good Vibrations outtakes.

Record Store Day 2011

Saturday 16 April 2011 was the fourth annual Record Store Day, my favorite holiday of the year. For those of you out of the loop it is a celebration of independent record stores with a lot of exclusive limited edition releases that sell out in a matter of minutes. In order to get these releases one must line up outside his or her favorite record store well before they open. My day started at 8:00 am when I got up, got ready, and headed out to pick up the most awesome person in all of Cleveland. I picked her up and we headed east to the Waterloo area of Colinwood. But first, we stopped off at the Root Café for some much needed coffee. Once we arrived on Waterloo we promptly got in line for the best record store in Cleveland, Music Saves. We arrived at approximately 10:30 and there were already around 20 people in line. The store doesn't open until Noon. It was raining and we had one crappy $1.99 umbrella to share between us. We made some small talk with the other folks in line and made another coffee run, this time at the Arts Colinwood Café. At 12:00 sharp the store opened and a mad rush of people ran inside. Despite the insanity and huge mass of people in the small store I was able to get almost everything I wanted. The only things I didn't get were the Nirvana EP and the Beach Boy's 78s. I did get some pretty awesome stuff though.

Sonic Youth Whore's Moaning EP

Grinderman Evil 12"

Grinderman Palaces of Montezuma 12"

Television Live at the Old Waldorf double LP

James Blake's debut self titled double LP

Shoreway's debut 7" Daylight Dream b/w Empty Lot

The Villagers & Charlotte Gainsbourg split 7"

After we got what we wanted, we headed down the street to Blue Arrow Records, Cleveland's best used record store. Here I picked up a few used records to fill in some holes in my collection.

Hall & Oates Abandoned Luncheonette

Fleetwood Mac Rumours

Henry Mancini The Pink Panther OST

Next, we headed to Star Pop Vintage. They primarily sell vintage toys and collectibles but do have a small use vinyl section. I picked up Men Without Hats Rhythm of Youth for nostalgia reasons. I used to own the cassette in my younger days and thought the vinyl would be a nice addition to my collection.

At this point we were getting hungry and needed a cocktail. We headed to the Beachland Tavern for brunch where we had some yummy bloody Marys and some delicious food. We then wandered downstairs to This Way Out where I bought a few more records.

Sly & The Family Stone Greatest Hits

Esquivel Strings Aflame

Bonjour Tristesse OST. Purchased just for the Saul Bass cover art.

We then stopped by Native Cleveland and browsed their selection of cool t-shirts and other Cleveland centric goods. I picked up a P.O.C T-shirt which is pretty fucking cool if you ask me. The rest of the afternoon was spen alternating between Music Saves, The Beachland Tavern, and Blue Arrow records to catch several local bands. At around 8:00 or so we headed up to the Heights and grabbed some dinner at Tommy's. Food was delicious and the milkshakes are the best in Cleveland. Next up was the Grog Shop to see Zola Jesus. Nika Roza Danilova has one of the best and most powerful voices in music today. The show was amazing. I bought some ore records at the show.

LA Vampires Meets Zola Jesus EP

Zola Jesus Souer Sewer 7" single

We bumped into several friends during the show and all decided to go to La Cave du Vin for a nightcap. I had a Stone Old Guardian Belgo which was absolutely amazing. A barleywine brewed with a Belgian yeast strain. Great conversations with friends made last call arrive too quickly. Drove back to the west side and ended the long day with side one of Miles Davis' Miles in the Sky. A perfect way to end a perfect day. Now to start counting down to Record Store Day 2012.

Fuck the Academy Awards!

Well, it's that time of year again. Awards season. If you know me in real life, you know that I don't give a flying fuck about most of these film awards. It seems like every year there is some new awards show since we don't seem to have enough. The Oscars are the biggest of them all and I do kind of watch them every year. Although recently it has been more as background noise while I follow along on Twitter or some on-line forum making fun of the nominees and the presenters. Every year the ceremony gets longer (10 best picture nominees!?!?!?!) and the films being honored get even more mediocre than in the past. Instead of doing my usual best of list I decided to make my own Academy Awards nominees list. Now obviously I haven't seen every film released last year, or even all the ones I wanted to. I am a film lover but it is impossible to see everything. I know a few key films (Carlos, White Material, Another Year, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Film Socialisme to name a few) may have made this list, but I haven't seen them. Most haven't played in Cleveland yet. This list is based on what I have seen and is done completely from memory. I may have liked a film a lot earlier in the year, but if I can't remember fuck all about it now it couldn't have been that good. All of these films have made some kind of impression on me and deserve some recognition. Feel free to list your own picks in the comments. Nominees listed in bold are who I would pick to win. I listed directors next to my best picture nominees as I was too lazy to look up the producers. And remember, fuck the Academy Awards!

Best Picture
The American, Anton Corbijn
Mother, Bong Joon-ho
Blue Valentine, Derek Cianfrance
Enter the Void, Gaspar Noé
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Niels Arden Oplev
I Am Love, Luca Guadagnino
A Prophet, Jacques Audiard
Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974, Julian Jarrold
Somewhere, Sophia Coppola
Winter's Bone, Debra Granik

Best Director
Jacques Audiard, A Prophet
Derek Cianfrance, Blue Valentine
Debra Granik, Winter's Bone
Gasper Noé, Enter the Void
Niels Arden Oplev, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nathaniel Brown, Enter the Void
George Clooney, The American
Stephen Dorff, Somewhere
Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
Michael Nyqvist, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Noomi Rapace, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Tilda Swinton, I Am Love
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Josh Brolin, True Grit
Vincent Cassel, Black Swan
Bill Murray, Get Low
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Admas, The Fighter
Anne-Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy
Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
Paz de la Huerta, Enter the Void
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Adapted Screenplay
Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Joel Cohen and Ethan Cohen, True Grit
Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini, Winter's Bone
Robert Harris and Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
Rowan Joffe, The American

Original Screenplay
Thomas Bidegain, Jacques Audiard, Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit, A Prophet
Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, Blue Valentine
Luca Guadagnino, Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo and Walter Fasano, I Am Love
Lucile Hadzihalilovic and Gaspar Noé , Enter the Void
Nicole Holofcener, Please Give

Cinematography
David Boyd, Get Low
Roger Deakins, True Grit
Benoît Debie, Enter the Void
Andrij Parekh, Blue Valentine
Yorick Le Saux, I Am Love

The year 2010 in music

2010 was one of the best years in music in recent memory. It was so good in fact that doing my usual top 20 proved to be impossible. What I did was pick my top 20 and put them in order with number 1 being my favorite record of 2010, 2 being my second favorite etc. I also included 20 runners up in alphabetical order. Trying to rank them proved to be an exercise in futility. All the records in the list range from excellent to near perfection. The list includes comebacks (Gil Scott-Heron), records from well established bands and a staggering amount of debut records. It will be interesting to see what 2011 brings. As usual almost all were purchased on good old vinyl. The only exceptions are the William Parker and world's end girlfriend albums. I think CDs are pretty much a dead format. I only purchased three in all of 2010 and was given just a few as freebies. Almost all of these selections can be purchased at Music Saves, Cleveland’s best record store. http://www.musicsaves.com. Big thanks to @sweetsweetjulie for turning me on to several of these bands and Melanie from Music Saves for tweeting incessantly about the Baths record. Her tweets caught my interest, I bought it and it landed at number 2. I must also thank my brother Dan for turning me on to Sleigh Bells. I saw them open for Yeasayer (who sucked) because of him. One quick mention must be made about Brian Eno's new LP. The packaging is vinyl porn at it's best. Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_polak/sets/72157625413304904/. One final word – buy your music legally, support the bands and local record stores. They all appreciate it. As usual, comments and criticism are welcome. And now the list:

The Top 20 Records of 2010 in some semblance of an order

1. Beach House – Teen Dream

2. Baths – Cerulean

3. Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here

4. Sleigh Bells - Treats

5. Little Women – Throat

6. Best Coast – Crazy for You

7. Suckers – Wild Smile

8. Small Black – EP/New Chain

9. Phantogram – Eyelid Movies

10. Menomena – Mines

11. Spoon – Transference

12. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor

13. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

14. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach

15. The Black Keys – Brothers

16. The National – High Violet

17. Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP

18. Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be

19. The Arcade Fire – Suburbs

20. Grinderman – Grinderman 2

Runners up in alphabetical order

Johnny Cash – American VI: Ain't No Grave

Cocorosie – Grey Oceans

Das Racist – Shut Up Dude/Sit Down Man

Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea

Field Music - Measure

Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM

Girls – Broken Dreams Club EP

Maximum Balloon – S/T

Janelle Monae – The Archandroid

Mono: Holy Ground: NYC Live

The Octopus Project – Hexadecagon

William Parker – I Plan to Stay A Believer: The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield

School of Seven Bells – Disconnect from Desire

She & Him – Volume Two

Stereolab – Not Music

Marnie Stern - S/T

Surfer Blood – Astro Coast

Warpaint – The Fool

Weekend – Sports

world's end girlfriend – Seven Idiots

Top ten records of the first half of 2010

Top 10 records for the first half of 2010

2010 has been a pretty fucking good year for music so far. Here my 10 favorite records that were released stateside between 1 Jan and 31 June 2010. As usual all were purchased on the increasingly popular vinyl format. And now, on with the list. I'll start with #1 so you don't have to scroll down to see the best record of the year so far.

1. Beach House – Teen Dream

2. Sleigh Bells – Treats

3. Phantogram – Eyelid Movies

4. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor

5. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

6. Spoon – Transference

7. The Black Keys – Brothers

8. Suckers – Wild Smile

9. Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM

10. Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here

Top 20 films of 2009

Yes, I know this list is a couple of months late but as I am in Cleveland I had to wait until all the 2009 films on my radar opened here. The list is more or less in order with 1 being the best. The order of the list can and will change depending on what mood I am currently in. I may have missed some films I felt were great at the time but If I can’t remember them now they couldn’t have been all that great. I just made the list from memory and put them into an order that seems correct as I type this. And before anyone asks, no, I have not seen Avatar and have no intention of doing so. And now on with the list:

1. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus dir. Terry Gilliam
2. The Limits of Control dir. Jim Jarmusch
3. Tetro dir. Frances Ford Coppola
4. Das Weisse Band - Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte dir. Michael Haneke
5. In the Loop dir. Armando Iannucci
6. Antichrist dir. Lars Von Trier
7. L'heure d'été dir. Oliver Assayas
8. The Girlfriend Experience dir. Steven Soderbergh
9 Goodbye Solo dir. Ramin Bahrani
10. Inglourious Basterds dir. Quentin Tarantino
11. 35 Rhums dir. Claire Denis
12. An Education dir. Lone Scherfig
13. Moon dir. Duncan Jones
14. Food Inc. dir. Robert Kenner
15. Where the Wild Things Are dir. Spike Jonze
16. Away We Go dir. Sam Mendes
17. The Hurt Locker dir. Kathryn Bigelow
18. Fantastic Mr. Fox dir. Wes Anderson
19. Hunger dir. Steve McQueen
20. The Damned United dir. Tom Hooper

Most overrated movie of 2009: The Hangover. At least a dozen people told me to see this piece of crap. Didn't laugh once. Not even a chuckle or smile. Unless it wasn’t supposed to be a comedy.

Best commercial of 2009: Up in the Air. While I thought the movie was good it felt more like a long commercial for United and Hilton.

I am new to this whole blogging thing so bear with me as I get the hang of it. Don't know how often or what I'll be posting about. For my first post I thought I'd post my best records of the year list. I have listened to a lot more that are on the list but these are the ones that stood out the most. Feel free to comment on these or add your own. A special mention of Jim O'Rourke's The Visitor must be made. Is sounds much better than anything else I have heard all year. It was not mastered "hot" like everything else these days. Every instrument is clearly heard as well as all the sonic nuances. He chose not to release it as a compressed mp3 which was a smart move. Too much music is listened to in lossy formats that people have forgotten how good music can sound. Everything on the list except The Beatles re-masters were purchased on vinyl for maximum fidelity. A movie list will follow in January as CLE gets some films later than bigger cities. 

Top 20 Records of 2009

1. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
2. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
3. Tyondai Braxton - Central Market
4. Sonic Youth - The Eternal
5. Tortoise - Beacons of Ancestorship
6. Rain Machine - S/T
7. Do Make Say Think - Other Truths
8. Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live
9. Jim O’Rourke - The Visitor
10. Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind
11. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimist
12. Girls - Album
13. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
14. OOIOO - Armonico Heva
15. Blackroc - S/T
16. Drummer - Feel Good Together
17. Micachu - Jewellery
18. The Swell Season - Strict Joy
19. Robyn Hitchcock - Goodnight Oslo
20. Boredoms - Super Roots 10

Top 8 Reissues, Compilations and Soundtracks

1. The Beatles - Mono Box set
2. The Beatles - Stereo Box set
3. Tom Waits - Orphans vinyl box
4. Various Artists - Dark Was the Night
5. Various Artists - Inglourious Basterds soundtrack
5. Beck - One Foot in the Grave
6. New Order - Movement, Power, Corruption and Lies, Low-life, Brotherhood, Technique and Republic vinyl reissues
7. David Byrne & Brian Eno - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts vinyl reissue
8. The Breeders - POD and Last Splash vinyl reisues

And finally my guilty pleasure record of the year: Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do