By Alex Brenner

Best of 2011 (in no particular order)

Well it’s been a pretty good year for music I guess. Some real strong releases and of course some real turds, thanks Metallica. So here is my list of what I liked about 2011.

1. Wye Oak – Civilian.
This band is phenomenal, live they are amazing. Great songs but also very dynamic and sonically always surprising. I guess a great mix between country and shoegazing if you can put that all together. Check out their live shows on nyctaper.com. They do a version of Danzig’s “Mother” that will blow your mind.

2. Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong
Always been a big fan of power pop bands. Way more Smashing Pumpkins-esque this time around. The Pains get heavy yet remain truly catchy.

3. Yuck – Yuck
One of the best releases this year for me. Everything about 90′s indie rock and Brit pop wrapped into one record, what more can you ask for? Very cool songs and great feedback guitars. A must if you have not heard it.

4. Surfer Blood – Tarot Classics
Technically an EP but still pretty cool. The single “I’m not Ready” is super catchy. The band seems to be growing, very cool arrangements and once again really throwing back to late 90′s indie rock without plagiarizing.

5. David Bazan – Strange Negotiations
A record that really had to grow on me, it did not really sink in until I saw him perform it live. One of the best songwriters of our time without a doubt, he has put out consistently great records for the last 10 years. If you have not really checked him out before very worth it.

6. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire
As much as you want to hate this guy, Ashes & Fire turned out to be pretty good. Even at his most douchiness (is that a word?) the dude can write a hook and a few words that will just slay you. It’s not Heartbreaker but its pretty damn close. Backed by Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers does not hurt either. If you had given up on Adams maybe you should give him one more shot.

7. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien
This one slipped by a lot of people; a very strong second record for this band. Most bands that come out of the gate with this much hype pretty much fall into the sophomore slump but not these guys. The perfect mix of Built to Spill and Swervedriver but still sounding fresh and exciting.

8. Wilco – The Whole Love
Finally on their own label, Tweedy and Co. release yet another solid effort. These last few Wilco records have been growers but very worth the time to listen. This band seems to have no bounds what so ever, they can go from soft folk and jazz to Sonic Youth inspired mayhem all within the course of 4 minutes. Very exciting to listen to, they could be the Zeppelin of our time.

9. We Were Promised Jetpacks – In the Pit of the Stomach
A very fitting title, this band can play so hard at times it feels like you’ve been popped in the gut. Getting even harder on this sophomore effort these Scottish lads blast sonic anthems without being too hooky. I guess if Snow Patrol were trying to kill people this is what you would get. Killing is their business and business is good.

10. tUnEyArDs – w h o k i l l
I’ll tell you, I’ve seen and heard a lot of music but this band really impressed me. It’s so organic, raw and fully of energy. Who would have thought you could make all that music with just one looper pedal? While this is not my go-to record I was really taken back by it and the single “Bizness” is pretty catchy without being a shtick. I watched a bunch of their live performances to see if the showers of adulation were well deserved and all I can say is yeah, they deserve it. It’s just something totally fresh, something no one is doing. Worth checking out for sure.

I would also like to take this time and say Thank God for the reissues. Some great stuff to check out.

1. Archers of Loaf – Icky Mettle
2. Smashing Pumpkins – Gish and Siamese Dream Deluxe Editions
3. U2 Achtung Baby Deluxe Edition
4. Megadeth – Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?
5. SeBADoh – Bakesale
6. Suede – Suede Deluxe Edition
7. Ride – Nowhere

We Were Promised Jetpacks – Act On Impulse
Wye Oak – Civilian
Megadeth – Wake Up Dead

By Matt Jarrard

Matt Jarrard offers up his favorites of 2010, in no particular order but with a little explanation for each.

Dr. Dog – Shame Shame
Dr Dog is one of the tightest, most reliable and energetic live shows you can catch these days. Shame, Shame is more fine-tuned and less lo-fi than their prior efforts, but a great album none-the-less. Shame, Shame is a sign that the Leaman/McMicken songwriting team is headed in the opposite direction as Lennon/McCartney did in the 2nd half of their career…meaning, they’re writing more together, rather than apart these days.
Dr. Dog – Stranger

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s – Buzzard
The album title, and distinctively grungier sound of this record are both evidence of Richard Edward’s departure from the scarf-rock orchestral-pop sound this band created with their first 2.5 albums (Dust of Retreat, Animal!/Not Animal). As a whole, Buzzard doesn’t stand up against Dust of Retreat, but taken separately, tracks like “Will You Love Me Forever?”, “Birds”, and “New York City Hotel Blues”, are some of the bands best yet.
Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos – New York City Hotel Blues

Joe Pug – Messenger
The Nation of Heat EP from 2008 was so freakin good, I was sure whenever his LP finally dropped every person whoever loved The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan would rally behind this guy. Pug’s rise in popularity hasn’t happened to the extent I predicted…but his full length release is still incredible and worth many listens.

Menomena – Mines
Menomena takes its time making records…Friend And Foe (for which they received a Grammy nomination in the Best Recording Package category) was released in 2007, and the follow up just came out this summer. It was well worth the wait though. Mines is more restrained and less frantic. There probably won’t be any Grammy nominations this time around though.

Broken Bells – Broken Bells
I definitely wasn’t excited to hear that Brian Burton is producing the next U2 album, but I’m confident I’ll still be in love with the Broken Bells album 10 years from now. I also heard he’s working on a soundtrack with Daniele Luppi, Norah Jones, and Jack White. So yeah, suck on that, The Edge!

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
A bit of a departure, but a welcome one. The bleeps and bloops of this album are varied enough that it doesn’t get boring after one or two listens (see any Postal Service snooze-fest track). On first listen, one might think Sufie is getting a bit preachy with this album, but songs like “Get Real Get Right” are actually evidence to the contrary. Age of Adz is a concept album of sorts, with the misogynistic spaceship-religion weirdo and sign painter Royal Robertson as its subject (the album cover is some of Robertson’s art work).
Sufjan Stevens – I Walked

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
I like every Arcade Fire album a little less than the preceding one…guess that tells you how much I ADORE Funeral. The faux-synthy-sounding-orchestral strings on this album annoy me to no end, however, Win Butler still has a knack for the epic, which is pretty irresistible.

Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I never thought the best string arrangements I’d hear all year would be on a hip-hop album…well, I stand corrected. Aside from the incredible strings (the best of which is the stunning cello solo “All of the Lights” interlude), West chooses to rhyme about things that I (a 20-something white male from Indiana) can (mostly) understand and even sometimes relate to. That’s not something I find in hip-hop these days. Yeah, Yeezy can be obnoxious, but he can also be hilarious and genius….and I quote: “You got too many Urkels on your team, That’s why your wins low.”

Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Deerhunter is the best thing that ever happened to Atlanta, and the rest of indie-rock for that matter. Halcyon Digest has just the right mix of experimental, rock, pop, and lo-fi. I like every Deerhunter album a little bit more than the preceding one, which probably tells you how much I’m going to LOVE the next one!
Deerhunter – Helicopter (Diplo Lunice Remix)

By Rube Ambler

One year ago this week, when this blog was known by few and posts were weekly events not daily dishes, I wrote about hope. We were inaugurating a new president and had no sense of the dismal months ahead of us as our country staggered through job losses, more dead soldiers, and security breaches. Still, we had hope.

I reminisced on the words of the great man whose birthday we celebrate today. The words I chose were those he used in his most famous moment to describe the Emancipation Proclamation as a “red beacon light of hope.” He knew that the hope dreamt of in that document was not realized on the day it was published, nor after the war it helped to end, nor on the day that he spoke on our National Mall.  It still is not today.

That never swayed the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, however. Hope was the backbone of the dream. Hope was the foundation of a future that he could not see in August 1963. Hope remains the foundation of a future we cannot see today.

You indulge us every week, some of you maybe even every day, for our thoughts on music and books. Please indulge us once each year to honor, celebrate and praise hope. Please indulge us while we honor and celebrate the singular man who most singularly represents it. Please think of it just once today. Please do not give up on hope.

It only seems appropriate to review this record on St. Patrick’s Day. After all, we shouldn’t forgot that this band made its mark by singing out (literally) about the struggle that is modern Ireland. War was an indelible mark on that decade and reached far beyond the significance of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” politically and musically.

It’s easy to forget where this band started given its original contributions to soundtracks for such memorable films as Batman Forever and Goldeneye. (These singles are conspicuously absent from the list appearing on the official website…hmm). Given that and the quality of the band’s last record (which I like to call “How to Dismantle a Legendary Band”), I approached the new record with some trepidation. But I am nothing if not an intentional optimist, so I gave it a swing.

What a pleasant surprise when the title track first rang through my little Bose boxes. I found myself almost immediately considering this U2′s best work since…but wait, before I could make that decision I decided to wait to see what would come next. Neither “Magnificent” or “Moment of Surrender” disappointed and I was thinking about a comparison to The Unforgettable Fire by the time I got through “Unknown Caller.” Then of course, it happened – the obligatory single (or at least one of them). The “Crazy song” (whose long and silly name I will not repeat here) sent me backward. The equally hook laden (and boring) “Boots song” did the same. I cringed as I imagined being assaulted by these songs should I dare get anywhere near a Gap store in the next few months.

Then I stopped to consider what I had just heard and had a thought. Despite this three song transgression (“Stand Up Comedy” is no prize either), this album still contained the best new U2 music I had heard since Achtung Baby. I should note here that the second half of the record (or the last four songs anyway) while not a grand as the first four would have completed a truly outstanding album (even if a bit short).

As for those middle three songs, I understand that a band gets to a place where it understands itself and its audience well enough that it can simply create a single that will get some traction, if not become a hit. I think the Rolling Stones did demonstrated the concept with “Start Me Up” which is still an anthem after all these years (I also willingly admit that Tattoo You was hardly that band’s halcyon recording). The point is this: somebody has to write the single for the next iTunes commercial, so it might as well be these boys from the little island up north.

While this is a real review, I will not go on about the split production team (but the Eno songs are easily better) or the self-aggrandizing “we’ve reclaimed our soul” blather that is being used to promote this record (isn’t that what we heard two records ago?). No. On this (still?) religious holiday, I choose to drive the snakes out of my mind (uncheck the middle three tracks) and embrace the eight wonderful songs that Bono and company have delivered. This is a fine effort.