The year in music 2007 Pt. 3: Best albums

Best of 2007

1. Okkervil River, The Stage Names: I can't, objectively, say whether this a good album or a great one. I tend to lean toward great. But it's hard to be sure when your first memory of the album is on vacation with someone you love, driving along some of the most beautiful highway in the world, and absolutely loving life. Good or great, on this album, the band is solid; Will Sheff's emotive performance is powerful; the songwriting is tight. It's a fun album throughout, short and consistent, and has strong emotional impact—and a surprise ending. Honestly, in the 9 months or so since I compiled this list, I've had my doubts that Stage Names has the long-lasting appeal I like to see in my #1s, and, were I to make this list afresh, it might slip to the second or third position. Still, there's greatness here, greatness that made me think for some time that this album was the best of last year. 
2. The National, Boxer: It's hard for me to describe exactly what it is about this album that's so incredible. It creates a dark, emotional mood, slightly desperate, but also sometimes joyful and sexy. Along with the songwriting, the timbre and texture produced by the band are the highlights here, but the band is technically adept as well; just not showy (for that, catch the live show, where they really let loose). It's easy to listen to, with the rhythm section keeping things moving forward. Ultimately, unlike I don't' grasp this one was well as some others on this list, but I'm sure it's excellent. . 
3. Radiohead, In Rainbows: OK Computer and Kid A may be two of most important musical works of the last couple of decades (centuries?), but they feel cold and emotionally distant. In Rainbows brings a kinder, gentler Radiohead. Rather than working their asses off to produce ART, the band sound like they're having fun, that the songs are flowing forth effortlessly. It sounds like a recording of a band playing songs, not a huge, monumental work that willed itself into existence. One starts to get a feel for the personalities (or at lest musicalities) of the band members themselves. The songs are sometimes downright jazzy, and the whole album is something you can throw on just for fun, without requiring the intellectual and emotional commitment that their twin masterpieces demand. It may not be their best work, but damned if I don't find myself listening to it more regularly than the rest of their catalog. Also, it should be noted that the band was smart enough to realize that they could make money off of a leak, particularly with the advantage of being price-flexible—after all, how do you charge somebody for something they're used to getting for free, except to appeal to their good will and let them choose the value? It may not have been the watershed moment in the music industry it could have been if they'd kept giving the thing away with a virtual tip jar left out, but others have taken the idea and run with it (Girl Talk, Nine Inch Nails, Saul Williams, Walkmen, Bloc Party, and more). Thanks for getting the ball rolling and for a great album, Radiohead. 
4. The Arcade Fire, Neon Bible: It's not up to the level of Funeral, sadly, though I so wanted it to be, and kept an open mind for months after I first heard it. There's a lot of good stuff they did here: the clever ways they've incorporated the (to me) unexpected Bruce Springsteen influence, and the the timeliness of the dystopian, Bush-inspired subject matter. And there are great bits throughout, like the unexpected "(Antichrist Television Blues)", written from the perspective of father Joe Simpson. The sonics are a little lacking: it never sounds quite as good as I fee like it should when pumped through my Big Stereo or Big Headphones, but it's not like you'll notice when the earth-shaking organ of "Intervention" or the relentless excitement of the fresh recording of "No Cars Go" has hold of you. If it's not the perfect follow-up to Funeral, it accomplishes everything it's supposed to, showing off the range of the band and proving that Funeral wasn't a fluke. 
5. Panda Bear, Person Pitch: This one's warm like a summer day. The song title "Comfy in Nautica", judging from title and sonics, seems like it's about a well-worn beach towel. Everything has the evaporating wetness of walking out of the ocean and feeling the sun pulling the water off your skin, with the background noise of kids enjoying the neighborhood pool (forgive the mixed aquatic metaphors). It all manages to feel very Beach Boys in timbre, but with the incorporation of modern techniques of sampling, looping, and electronica. If you don't love this one, I'm pretty sure you don't love carefree summer fun, and therefore you don't love America. Commie. 
6. Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank: Modest Mouse remain a favorite band of mine, and thus this was one of the releases this year I looked forward to the most. It's not the album I'd hoped for; it's neither the tight album of pop perfection that Good News For People Who Love Bad News seemed to promise (though there are again glimpses of it), nor is it the sprawling masterpiece of The Moon & Antarctica. Really at this point I sort of wonder why it's this high on the list, but I'll give past Ward the benefit of the doubt. If you love Modest Mouse, it's solid enough. 
7. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga: Jesus, how do these guys do it? They keep making perfect pop rock albums with mathematical precision. The feel uncomplicated and sharp, like a knife. It's pure fun, and it's likely their most consistent album yet. Some of its impact is perhaps dulled by the fact that there's nothing new here, but everything they've borrowed from earlier albums has been perfected. Great, great stuff. 
8. LCD Soundsystem, Sound Of Silver: This one was a grower. I was instantly turned off by the dancy-ness of the record, as I am wont to be, but thankfully I listened long enough to get to "All My Friends"—more about that in its own place. That song, in and of itself, is absolutely amazing enough to get this album into top 10 territory; the rest of the album doesn't take any points away that it earned, which is enough to keep it right here at #8. 
9. Art Brut, It's A Bit Complicated: Art Brut's sarcastic, self-referential, ironic spoken word rock seemed gimicky enough that their ability to put out a worthwhile second album was in question, in this case the execution of their gimick is so impressive and flawless as to produce a high quality sophomore effort, and one that's likely even better than their first. Give it a listen, unless you, like Bryan, don't like it when people talk instead of sing. 
10. The Magnolia Electric Co., Sojourner: Last year, I commented on, if not outright declared, the mediocrity of What Comes After the Blues. My understanding is that the recordings on the four discs of this boxed set represent a superset of what was on this album, and if so, I suspect there was a better album to be formed from the raw material here. I am still disappointed that the anger, fire, and energy from their self-titled debut is missing, but what this "version 2.0" MECo does, they do well. Maybe one day I'll pick my favorites and make my own version of what their third album should have been, a la 69 Love Songs. 
11. Jens Lekman, Night Falls Over Kortedala: Clever, funny, light pop. Jens Lekman manages to make the preciousness of classic indie pop work for him, but with sufficient good humor to avoid being too cloying. Given the high quality of the material here, I probably should have liked this one better than I did. I'll just say that I feel comfortable praising its merits, even if it doesn't speak to me on the level of some of the albums higher on this list. 
12. Voxtrot, Voxtrot: Another band in the indie pop tradition. This one got some criticism for eschewing some of the simplicity of their earlier trilogy of EPs, but I think that the high quality pop rock that's here is a step above their previous efforts. It's a pretty, fun album that I plan to spend more time with in the future, even if the backlash directed towards this allegedly over-hyped "blog band" makes that a minority opinion. 
13. The Clientele, God Save The Clientele: Strange Geometry was a quiet, pretty, sometimes breezy and sometimes heart-breaking album, and this one is more of the same. Not as emotionally captivating as the previous album, but this British band makes some beautiful music and this album is just another example of it. 
14. Bloc Party, A Weekend In The City: It's big and dramatic stadium-sized rock music, and the band does it well. They are dangerously close to U2-esque over-grandiosity, though, and perhaps for that reason this album doesn't have the impact that their debut, Silent Alarm, did. I think the quality of this record is still high, though, and I plan to spend some more time with it to find out for sure. Depending on what sort of final opinion I come to about their third album, this could represent the beginning of a slow slide into mediocrity, or a minor sophomore slump for a band that would eventually return to greatness, or continually reinvent themselves. 
15. Lucky Soul, The Great Unwanted: A ray of sunshine. Happy, cute, fun girl-group influenced pop. It's a more pure, uncut variety than the winking, sometimes ironic, sometimes anachronistic version of the genre that the Pipettes do, and the better for it. If this record doesn't make you smile, well, I don't understand you. 
16. Les Savy Fav, Let's Stay Friends: More consistent and professional than anything except the Rome EP, and we all know it's easier to craft a perfect work of 4 songs than a full length album anyway. It starts with the great Pots and Pans, incorporating some of the child-like glee of the Flaming Lips and funk of the Dismemberment Plan: it's a great, great song. The rest of the album is solid, too, but honestly at this point I'm not finding it particularly memorable and I'm too lazy to go back and listen to each of these albums in order to better write these reviews—that's what separates me from the pros. If you're curious what's with all the hype over LSF, check out Rome first, and if you want more, check this out. 
17. Beirut, The Flying Cup Club: More great music that sounds like it came from another place and time. This one deserves more of my attention too, as currently it's hard for me to distinguish it from the material on Gulag Orkestar, but I think it's solid enough not to discount. 
18. Caribou, Andorra: Well-crafted, psychadelic rock right out of the 60s and 70s. The individual songs don't strike me as memorable enough to put this album in top 10 territory, but the timbre and textures are right on. Add to that Caribou's strength as a live act (particularly owing to the use of two drummers to great effect), and this one gets a thumbs up. 
19. Loney Dear, Loney, Noir: The quiet Sunday afternoon to the raucous Saturday night of fellow Swedes I'm From Barcelona. This is a soft, cool album of spring and summer sounds that may get a little too precious for some listeners, but it's well done overall, and worth a listen if you're not averse to the twee. 
20. The New Pornographers, Challengers: I'll confess to being a bit of fair weather fan of the Pornographers. Sometimes their power pop proficiency blows me away, and sometimes, well, it's all highs and no lows and sometimes I just find it tiring. Some of the songs strike me as mediocre, and some as quite strong, so I'm mixed on this one. Worthwhile if you're a fan of the band, definitely; if not, perhaps there's a better place in the catalog for you to jump on the Porno Train. 
21. Jana Hunter, There's No Home: This former Houston native gets knocked a ways down the list for having moved away from the Bayou City... well, not really. I liked this album a lot when I first got it; it's got some beautiful acoustic folk on it, but for some reason it didn't have staying power. So it's good enough to make The List, but it sneaks in at the end...

The year in music 2007 Pt. 2: FAILs, Undecideds

FAIL

• The White Stripes, Icky Thump: Nice effort from the White Stripes. Some clever new variations on the theme, without being self-consciously different yet boring the way Get Behind Me Satan was. But. The mastering is awful. Clipped, and not in a musical, interesting way. This one gets a FAIL. It'd be like if I cooked you a really nice meal and then dumped everything out on the ground outside. Maybe the food's good, maybe it isn't, but it's pretty much ruined in any case. 
• Wilco, Sky Blue Sky: Somewhere in here is the band that I gave my 2002 album of the year nod to. I think. It's really hard to tell when Nels Cline wanked his guitar over it, leaving the band buried under opaque goo. Frequently pleasant, but often unpleasantly pleasant. Can't quite bring myself to hate it when I listen to it, but I hate it on principle. 
• Feist, The Reminder: Bored me the way Cat Power often does. Cindy said it was too much of a chick album for me. Bryan liked it. I found it disappointing enough for the FAIL list. 
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Some Loud Thunder: Gut reaction is that this is nowhere near the level of their debut, itself a good but not great album. Maybe it deserved another chance. For the inclusions of the annoying "Satan Said Dance", I'm failing it. Maybe I'll regret this one day. 
• Architecture in Helsinki, Places Like This: Maybe there's a market for weird-ass juvenile disco electronica stuff like this, but I'm not it. Big disappointment compared to their previous record. Cindy once asked me to turn it off when we were in the car. 
• Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?: Liked Of Montreal more when they were a fairly standard Elephant 6 band instead of a slightly more indie, slightly less gay Scissor Sisters. 
• Stars, Do You Trust Your Friends?: Track-by-track remixes of Set Yourself on Fire, an album that I loved quite a lot. Listened once and was bored to tears. The sort of b-side fodder bands probably shouldn't be charging money for. 

Undecided

• Band of Horses, Cease to Begin: Too much backwoods country, not enough soaring, Built to Spill-style indie rock. Needs more listens, though. 
• The Shins, Wincing The Night Away: A lot of albums this year struck me as mediocre and made me wonder if I really got the bands to begin with. This was one of them. Great opening track, though. 
• Stars, In Our Bedroom After the War: Seems so similar to Set Yourself on Fire, but didn't grab me emotionally in the same way. Not bad and I'll probably keep coming back to it, though. So far, I can't quite pinpoint why it's lacking, but technically, seems like it's all there. 
• The Polyphonic Spree, The Fragile Army: Didn't grab me. Maybe just not as good as the first two albums, or maybe I just haven't spent enough time on it. 
• Fountains Of Wayne, Traffic & Weather: Another Fountains of Wayne album. Can't say exactly why it's not as good as the stuff on their first two, but I don't think it is. 
• The Go! Team, Proof of Youth: Made me think I don't really get the Go! Team, which is weird, because it seems like, "What's to get?" Enjoyed this some but didn't feel compelled to go back to it. Certainly I enjoyed it in moments, but those were fleeting. 
• M.I.A., Kala: Made me think I don't really get M.I.A. Really liked the cover of "Jimmy", though. 
• Dntel, Dumb Luck: Seems OK, but I have to admit I've never quite gotten Dntel all by itself. "(This is) the Dream of Evan and Chan" was pretty much a Postal Service song anyway. Maybe if I had a better understanding of Life is Full of Possibilities I'd be better equipped to judge this one. 
• Battles, Mirrored: Totally didn't get the appeal. Tempted to FAIL but willing to allow that there's good stuff here I didn't get.
• James Blackshaw, The Cloud of Unknowing: Great guitar technique but not a super compelling listen. 
• Blitzen Trapper, Wild Mountain Nation: Hillbilly aesthetic vs. Pavement-esque rock. Had potential but didn't grab me. Was much more impressed with the songs live. 
• Bright Eyes, Cassadaga: Bright Eyes used to annoy me, but since spending some time on Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, I think I see the appeal better. I need to give this a listen in its new-found context, but my recollection of it is that it feels quite mediocre next to the aforementioned albums. 
• Bill Callahan, Woke On A Whaleheart: Seemed great at moments; boring and trite at others. Much better performed live. Need to go back and listen to some (smog) at some point to see what all the fuss is about with Bill Callahan. 
• Wes Anderson, Darjeeling Limited: As is often the case with a Wes Anderson soundtrack, some great gems on here (particularly some Kinks songs, but also the track that keeps getting played in the Hotel Chevalier short), and some nice bits of Indian music, too. Left it off the list because as an album, it's not really novel enough to be "Best Of" for the year. Prefectly nice, though. 
• Dan Deacon, Spider-man of the Rings: I found the album horribly, horribly annoying, but the material is a whole lot more fun live, saving it from a FAIL. 
• Nick Drake, Family Tree: Only listened once or twice. Seems like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Probably some good stuff on here but I haven't found it yet. Benefit of the doubt.
• Kevin Drew, Spirit If: Brings back lingering doubts about my understanding of Broken Social Scene. I'd rather put in more listens to their proper albums. 
• Explosions in the Sky, All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone: More perfectly competent post-rock instrumental music, but I'll just keep listening to The Earth is Not a Cold, Dead Place. 
• The Field, From Here We Go Sublime: Listened once, was turned off my how "electronic" it sounded. Jeff claims it's brilliant; I might like it if I had a proper understanding of classic electronica
• Figurines, When the Deer Wore Blue: Don't remember this one very well, but it lacked the energy and fun of their previous release. Need to give it another listen. 
• Interpol, Our Love To Admire: Sometimes I think I get Interpol, sometimes not. In any case, this doesn't seem as good as either of their previous efforts, but ultimately I didn't get enough of a feel for it to make a final judgement. 
• Calvin Johnson & the Sons of the Soil: Nice enough material from Calvin Johnson, but essentially it's him covering himself, and the whole thing might make more sense if I were familiar with the source. 
• Iron & Wine, The Shepherd's Dog: Seems pretty good, but for whatever reason I didn't get enough of a feel for it to put it on the list. Listened more since then and would probably include it now. At times seems like a more boring version of a Sufjan Stevens album, though. 
• Menomena, Friend & Foe: Sonically interesting and displaying good musicianship, but ultimately I found it sort of boring, much like their last one. 
• Pinback, Autumn of the Seraphs: Sonically, I seem to like what Pinback does, but the songwriting didn't really hook me here. Not bad though. 
• Rilo Kiley, Under The Blacklight: I've sort of got a grudge against Jenny Lewis and Rilo Kiley; I think they're over-rated. Given that, I liked this one surprisingly well. It's not the "dance" album it was billed as. Instead, much less homogeneous and more sonically interesting than More Adventurous, but maybe, by comparison, lacking in songwriting. 
• Rogue Wave, At Heaven's Gate: Listened five times when it came out but haven't revisited it since then. A little too serious, lacking the fun of the Shins-ish pop their first couple albums had. Pretty, though.
• St. Vincent, Marry Me: Listened more than five times, not settled on it. Probably would have stuck it on the main list had I composed this today. Definite potential.
• Sunset Rubdown, Random Spirit Lover: Listened five times, and I think I can see the appeal but so far I've found the SR albums unfocused and, overall, boring compared to the tight pop of Wolf Parade's debut. 
• Tegan & Sara, The Con: Birthday gift from Jeff. Still haven't listened but will probably tackle it soon. 
• El Ten Eleven, Every Direction Is North: Nice enough instrumental post-rock, but not something I expect to listen to a lot. 
• The Tough Alliance, A New Chance: Listened quite a bit to this disco/electronica/indie pop-influenced album, and it certainly has its fun moments, but never got a good feel for the whole album. 
• Travis Morrison Hellfighters, All Y'all: Closer to the timbre and style of his older Dismemberment Plan stuff, and far better, than his solo debut Travistan, but I'm not sure the songwriting is as good. Over five listens into this one, but the jury is still out. 
• The Twilight Sad, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters: U2-style grandiosity with a thick accent. I can see the appeal but it never really did much for me. I gave it the requisite five listens. Bryan liked it. 
• Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!: Points for using a Radiohead-derived distribution model, but I've only listened to the album once. If I like it I'll pay for it, I swear. 

The year in music 2007 Pt. 1: Singles, EPs, Belated discoveries

You can blame the tardiness of this list and writeup on, well, everything else that's gotten me over a year behind on my blogging. Still, I enjoy these, so I went ahead and upped it a bit in priority.

A couple of things. First, this is the list I composed just after the start of the year. I have not gone back and added, removed, or changed the order of anything. However, since the writeup was just done, I have reflected some on how my thoughts on all this music have changed in the last nine months. I also am a bit fuzzy on some of this; for the sake of expediency I haven't gone back to refamiliarize with anything. In some cases that provides a better perspective on an album; in some cases it doesn't leave me with much.

So anyway, I present you with my song of the year, my favorite discoveries of the year that were not new releases, and a summary of the year's EPs/singles.

Songs

• LCD Soundsystem, "All My Friends": Wow, what a song. I feel this one, now that I only get to see my three best friends from high school once or twice a year. I'm know I'll be feeling it more as I get older, as I move away to embrace whatever my future is, and part ways with more friends. So round up the guys, and get ready for a booze-fueled all-nighter of a reunion. Pour one out for the good ol' days, because they're gone, and they'll only be back in brief glimpses from here on out. The thing that really makes this work is that it's not a song of despair; it's a song of paying homage to the past by trying to recreate it: a loving tribute. Beautiful and moving. Song of the year.

Discoveries

• Astronautilus, The Mighty Ocean & Nine Dark Theaters: Saw this man open for Bill Callahan at the Orange Show, and is usually the case with Orange Show acts, he didn't disappoint. Great fusion of indie rock tropes and rap technique. I listened to this one a lot. Great songs of dreamscapes, nostalgia, despair. Highly recommended.
• The National, Alligator: More anthemic and immediately impressing highs than Boxer, the album that would followed it, but the quality isn't as consistently high throughout. Much better than their first two albums, though, and some absolute must-have songs. If you've already got Boxer and are craving more, this is the one to get.

EPs and Singles

1. Nina Nastasia & Jim White, You Follow Me: Above average singer-songwriter material buoyed by absolutely stellar drumming. Lots of fun. Very thankful to have seen them play live at the Orange Show.
2. The Hold Steady, Live At Fingerprints: The missing link between the Hold Steady and Counting Crows? Possibly. Puts a nice emphasis on Craig Finn's songwriting and vocals. Good stuff if you're familiar with the catalog, or maybe if the you find the rest of their releases overly frat-ish.
3. Joanna Newsom & The Ys Street Band: Notable for capturing on record her brilliant live band and the excellent job they've done re-arranging the Ys material for this combination of instruments. It's not what I really want, which is a companion piece to Ys consisting of the entire album backed by the live band. I've got a great bootleg (from the Bottletree) of the band playing the entire album, but it's got some skips in it. Maybe I'll find a better one some day.
4. LCD Soundsystem, All My Friends: Again, more on this song in elsewhere, but this single is notable for having covers of the title track by Franz Ferdinand and the Velvet Underground's John Cale instead of the usual generic remixes. Having those two versions of the song side-by-side with the original makes this disc a compelling listen on its own, despite the relatively uninteresting other b-sides.
5. Okkervil River, Golden Opportunities: Good example of how to do right by your fans with some nice, free b-side-ish material. Some very interesting covers that are intertwined with The Stage Names, and some good originals, too. I'd actually pay for a full CD quality copy.
6. The Verve, The Thaw Sessions: Looked like, from this, that they may still have it. Unfortunately, so far, their album strikes me as mediocre, certainly not up there with the best they've done. Still, exciting to get a sneak preview of a long-missed band reuniting.
7. The Decemberists, Live in Soho: Notable, to me, as the first "iTunes Plus" release I purchased DRM free from the iTunes store. Sounds pretty good in 256 kbps AAC, but it can be hard to tell with live material sometimes. The thing itself is a bit by-the-numbers, but certainly competent.
8. Jens Lekman, Kalendervägen 113D: Recorded (if memory serves) in his apartment before he moved away, as sort of a live, solo acoustic concert. Came as a bonus disc with Night Falls, and makes a very strong companion piece to that album, including some storytelling that gives nice insight into its songs.
9. Fleming & John, Wrong/Feel Your Love: Oh yeah, Fleming & John finally released some new material... on MySpace, I think? I can't really remember much of it right now. Seemed solid, though, and gives me some hope for another album for them, probably a full 10 years after the last one.
10. Guster, Satellite EP: Serviceable single/companion piece to Ganging Up on the Sun.
11. Spoon, Get Nice!: Not a whole lot here. Good that this one was a freebie.

So there you go. Tomorrow, the stuff I didn't like, and the stuff that I'm uncertain about.

Kid Amnesiac

In response to yesterday's tweets, Phil commented:

I have to take exception to Amnesiac being cut from your listening sessions. I am by no means a Radiohead fanatic. I probably don't deserve to give this level of input but I have to say that, maybe as a collection of songs, Amnesiac isn't amongst the best. However, the songs are similar in quality to Kid A. As I understand it, they were written and recorded at the same time and they could've been released as a double-album with Kid A.

So my question to you is: if Kid A-mnesiac had been released as a double, would you have listened to the whole thing?

PPK

I'm not a fanatic either; regardless I'm glad to have your input.

I've always felt like Amnesiac was the Kid A b-sides. Kid A is tight, focused, near perfection; Amnesiac is the leftovers. Maybe you could resequence and make a nice double album of the two, but if Kid A was disc 1 and Amnesiac was disc 2, I don't think it would work as one album.

Tweets for Today

• 20:01 Tweets untwittered from yesterday: 1) yay for free pizza @ student talks. #
• 20:02 2) Yay for nice weather and cheap beer @ Valhalla. #
• 21:09 3) Tollhouse pie @ the Chocolate Bar is surprisingly disappointing. Not substantial enough. Should be more cookie and less pie. #
• 21:12 4) Drinks with Grambo and Angela at their place. First time in a year. Char & Alison there too. Always want to play Graham's speakers louder #
• 21:13 5) Dexter back at home. Bed. #
• 23:02 6) Leftover Indian + more Dexter. #
• 23:04 7) Shoe shopping at shoes.com Saturday sale, spent an hour, found good stuff, didn't have my size. FAIL. #
• 23:05 8) Symphony was good tonight. Violin concerto played on a Stradivarius & a nice organ piece. #
• 23:06 And... caught up. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Tweets for Today

• 11:05 ACL '08 lineup: meh. twurl.nl/5br5z6 #
• 12:18 Boss "suggested" I come to the genetics seminar. Hate it when that happens. Better things to do plus bad signal in here. #
• 15:08 Annoyed, for some reason. Construction in adjacent rooms not helping. #
• 15:25 Monster Cable, you just got served: twurl.nl/hnyhrj #
• 15:31 That letter to Monster Cable just brightened my day. I read the whole thing. #
• 15:44 PowerPoint 2008, though less ugly than the previous version, is also less fast. I am undecided which compromise I prefer. #
• 16:15 Oh Excel, why won't you let me make a *series* of pie charts, formatted identically? Sometimes one pie just isn't enough. #
• 16:35 Finding the Raconteurs album aurally fatiguing. They may be professional, but whoever mixed it wasn't. Low dynamic range, I think. #
• 16:46 The last White Stripes album had some bad clipping. Why be all anal about analog recording and then screw it up in mastering? #
• 17:05 Up next, Love As Laughter's vintage "The Greks Bring Gifts" which I finally tracked down. Contains "Singing Sores Make Perfect Swords". #
• 17:06 Which sounds lo-fi in a My Bloody Valentine haze of sound sort of way. #
• 17:09 Maybe also in a Times New Viking way too. There's a line that was crossed, somewhere. #
• 17:47 This LaL album is all over the place. The MBV-ish tracks are good. The more garage-ish tracks are iffy and a bit too demo-ish. #
• 18:04 Mmm... Grado SR60s never fair to satisfy. An amazing pair of headphones. #
• 18:20 Next, Silkworm's "Firewater". Good stuff. Better than "Libertine", close to son-of-Silkworm Bottomless Pit's great "Hammer of the Gods". #
• 19:22 So far, I'm iffy on this Why? album. But it seems that music listened to and work accomplished on any given day are correlated. #
• 19:46 Why's not bad, but I keep feeling like I have more rewarding things to be listening to. I may come around to it, though. #
• 00:48 Ever wonder about the &? www.adobe.com/type/topics/theampersand.html #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Tweets for Today

• 12:01 Monday. Bad: have to work on CM presentation. Good: free Goode Co. BBQ after class; boss has not yet returned. #
• 12:21 Monday. Ugly: guy in lab's fiancé has temporarily taken up residence in lab; they whisper to each other a lot. #
• 14:41 This will end well, too. Blockbuster is on a roll: twurl.nl/0ife8j #
• 15:39 Time to trek over to Rice... #
• 16:09 Jack White is a *professional*. New Raconteurs album may be more artisansl than artistic, but I marvel at the sheer competency on display. #
• 16:10 Now this is a beautiful spring day. Ever so slightly crisp, sunny, some nice wind. Beautiful day to tackle a couple walks. #
• 16:51 Microsoft was not a competitor to Compaq. Please refrain from asking asinine questions, classmate. #
• 16:53 Lesson learned: Compaq, like M$, succeeded on the pure dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time. #
• 23:25 Bad neck ache ruined my afternoon/evening. Just woke up from a very therapeutic nap. #
• 01:53 Shoe shopping online is about 100x less annoying than having to do it in person. As is true of most forms of online shopping. #
• 02:31 2 days of having no tabs in my browser at the end of the day (at least at home). This is down from ~100 tabs usually waiting to be read. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Tweets for Today

• 13:22 Circumstances last night prevented me from Twittering, so I will attempt to recap now. #
• 13:23 1) Nice dinner with Jeff, Jim, Jerry, and Cindy at Buca di Beppo. Well, nice company. Mediocre dinner. #
• 13:23 2) Drink back at Jeff & Jim's. The man makes an excellent martini. #
• 13:24 3) Leave, discover my car along with several other has been egged. Hastily go after my car door with paper towels. #
• 13:25 4) Aside: who says drugs are bad? If those little shits that did this had been strung out on heroin, they wouldn't have been egging my car. #
• 13:25 5) Manage to find car wash that's open at midnight (59 & Kirby). Feel a little better. #
• 13:26 6) Decide it's too late to catch Trail of Dead at #s. Instead consume pitcher of Lonestar at Late Nite Pie with Char & Alison. #
• 13:26 7) Beer makes me feel better. #
• 13:28 8) Who the *fuck* eggs cars anymore? Couldn't they have just broken in and stolen my iPod? Would have been cheaper. #
• 13:29 Now at the car wash getting some *other* cosmetic issues taken care of. Good thing I didn't get that done yesterday. #
• 13:30 Oh, apparently the little fuckers that did this got caught. There are phone numbers, but no guarantee they're real. Feeling litigious. #
• 14:57 Is money that used to buy CDs paying off credit card debt incurred buying CDs? tinyurl.com/589n8b Probably not the whole story... #
• 15:03 My car has been washed 3 times in 3 days. Strange. #
• 15:37 Hick high school kid: why are you playing crap country on your laptop speakers in the car wash waiting area? Because you are a douchebag? #
• 02:54 Cindy & I split the Dogfish Head Red & White tonight. Not as good as I had hoped. Reminded me of their Jiahu or one of the Chimays. #
• 02:55 Watched Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. The Bruce Timm/Paul Dini DC Cartoons (Batman, Superman, Justice League) are *so* excellent. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Tweets for Today

• 12:12 Writing a song with Colin Meloy: tinyurl.com/5f9v5v #
• 12:18 If I can't take the new Death Cab album on vacation, I will be very disappointed. Internets, you have 2 weeks to meet my demands. #
• 17:47 I can't go to Central Market without spending $50 on beer. And I don't even buy that much of it! Got some good stuff this time, though. #
• 17:50 Some DFH Aprihop, their Red & White, last six of NB's Springboard, cheap barleywine, IPA, a special edition mix from 2 breweries. Good haul. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Tweets for Today

• 09:57 Thank God for wireless at the car dealership. Though I always feel a little dirty that it's filtered: no mazda3forums.com for me. #
• 10:03 Wait. Penny Arcade blocked. This just got worse. #
• 10:16 And Houstonist is blocked. Well, it's not that good anyway. #
• 10:19 & Joystiq. Nothing fun allowed, apparently. #
• 10:48 Pitchfork blocked. Now I'm really feeling oppressed. Thank God for the iPhone... #
• 13:31 Having lunch with 'Brina. #
• 15:20 And now, to try to get some work done. #
• 17:21 I realized last night that I just don't get or give enough drunk dials anymore. #
• 18:13 Okkervil River are a blessing. #
• 18:53 Friday and Battlestar Galactica. What a great combination. #
• 01:07 Wow. Didn't realize how much I missed the office until it came back. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Tweets for Today

• 13:28 The mystery of the unknown key has beensolved. It's to the complex's pedestrian gate. No wonder I didn't recognize it. I've never used it! #
• 14:10 Hah. This will go well. tinyurl.com/6krmrq #
• 15:17 Cool houses: tinyurl.com/5voudp #
• 15:50 Preparing for thesis committee meeting. Worst 2 parts of my year. God willing, this is my second-to-last one. #
• 17:38 First take on Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin's new album: too damned slick. #
• 18:51 I'm glad that on my iPhone, Mobile Safari no longer causes the iPod app to crash with great frequency. #
• 03:01 Enough No More Heroes for one night; I suppose it's bed time. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Tweets for Today

Daily Twitterings:

• 14:53 The construction going on in every room abutting mine melds surprisingly well with the Fuck Buttons album. Surprisingly well. #
• 15:09 What kind of publisher doesn't give the author a chance to proof the final layout? #
• 17:35 How fucking hard is it to silence your phone in class? 3 phones went off today! And then people don't silence them when they do ring! Mo ... #
• 21:27 Every morning I think 5 minutes of sleep would benefit me more than a freshly-trimmed beard, and every morning I'm so wrong. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Lossy

Absolutely fascinating article in Stereophile on lossy audio compression* (*Actual results may vary. Your definition of "fascinating" may vary from that of Ward). I've seen the subject explored before, but it's nice to see some actual data.

Of course, the flaw here is that it's only pure data, rather than any subjective reports from actual listening. Although I certainly prefer lossless encoding on my music, particularly when I am using my best gear for playback, lossy encoding is a useful tool for things like sampling new music, listening in the car, or loading a portable device of relatively limited memory (i.e. anything but an 80/160 gb iPod classic). I use it in the car and on the iPhone. I tend to think it's not nearly as bad as most of Stereophile's writers do, but when I really, really want to listen to music, give me the caffeinated version.

Real update coming soon* (*Actual results may vary. Your definition of "soon" may differ from that of Ward).

Fleet Foxes

Just a quick shout out to recent Pitchfork laudees Fleet Foxes.

Not only did they put on a kick ass show at Walter's last night opening for Blitzen Trapper (who were also good), but they get some extra cool points as well.

I went to buy their new EP, sound unheard, on the strength of their vocally harmonious 70s-ish folk rock, and the band member that sold me the EP not only offered to negotiate the price (thankfully I had no problem spending the $7 asked), but told me that if I was internet-savy, I should download the leak of their new album.

Which I would have done anyway. But it's good to see an artist recognize that I just want to hear the music, and have faith that if I like it, I'll buy it when the product itself.

Nice job, guys.

Art out of context

Great piece in the Washington Post about the importance of context to art: what happens when you take a virtuosic violinist and repackage him as a subway performer? Apparently, not much.

I like to think that art has some sort of inherent meaning outside of its packaging; that good art is good and can be recognized as such even if we are not told that it is good. This study certainly makes a strong claim at refuting that idea. Or maybe it's just that people were too busy to stop and notice...

On the similar subject of objectivity and subjectivity in food, here's a very nice talk on the value of embracing the diversity of tastes.

Some things last a long time

The new Beach House album (you may recall that I liked the last one, even if I wasn't crazy about it.

Anyway, their new one has a cover of Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last A Long Time" (which I knew from Built to Spill's cover on their b-sides disc The Normal Years). This is one of those times that a cover is so perfect, so right for a band that it might as well have been there song all along. I'm even convinced that I already had some sort of subconscious link between the too. Even if I never thought about it, it was so obvious it was inevitable.

Stuffed burgers; SxSW

3/14

Due to incompetence on somebody's part (City of Houston?), I had no water. But I was going to the store to buy dinner supplies anyway, so a couple gallons of water solved that problem.

Cindy and I had, for some time, been discussing our idea of stuffed burgers. To offset the massive amounts of grease, we started with a salad. For the burgers, we cooked up some mushrooms and bacon. I split two 1/3 lb. burgers in half, making two patties of each, and put the mushrooms and bacon on top of two of them, along with some bleu cheese. Then put the unused patties on top and seal the seams.

In retrospect, I didn't get the seams quite right, because they opened up a bit during the grilling. Despite some scary moments in flipping them, I managed to keep the topping from spilling out. We put them on some nice hefty whole wheat buns, and I garnished mine with some steak sauce.

We consumed them in front of an episode of Lost. Suffice it to say they kicked ass.

3/15

Despite an unhappy boss, I took off Friday so that Cindy and I could head to Austin to catch some of South by Southwest. So that night there was some packing, and, since I was in the throes of an addiction to the season one DVDs of 24, I stayed up a bit late watching that.

3/16

We got a bit of a late start the next morning, much to Cindy's displeasure. We arrived in town and made straight for Waterloo Records to catch an instore by Peter Bjorn and John. We were initially quite concerned about the line, but it turned out that much of it was for a later act that Waterloo wasn't forming a line for, so we were soon toward the front. The show started and we were still outside while they were doing one in, one out, but we made it in and caught over half their set. Not bad for free. They were pretty straightforward live, but enjoyable.


After that we dropped my car off at Becca's and caught the bus to her place of employment. From there we went the the ACL studios, from which place KEXP was broadcasting for the week. When we arrived they were interviewing the Good, the Bad, and the Queen, and Beirut was setting up, which was the main attraction for us. We were there maybe half an hour early and there was hardly anyone there, possibly due to the (short) distance from downtown.

Beirut were great live, and once again, free. I think they definitely benefited from the live presentation, though I still find that their music is... well, not soulless, but not exactly meaningful. Maybe if I could understand the words...

Dinner was next on the agenda, and Becca suggested the new Salvation Pizza. The pie was excellent; very well seasoned. I need to eat there again so I can try to replicate it.

After that, back to Becca's to let our stomaches settle. Then we went to the nearby Ms. Bea's to attend what we thought was a free Architecture in Helsinki show listed on the 'net, but it didn't materialize, instead filled with bands I'd never heard of. We stuck around for a couple rounds of beer, before heading back to Becca's for the evening.

3/17

After some leftover Salvation at Becca's and a run by the liquor store for some purse-sized whiskey, we headed downtown to try and get into the filter party. Unfortunately Dan didn't show, and we were left without a way to get in. Toni showed up and figured she could get one of us in, and since it was the Pipettes performing, the girls graciously let me go in while they went in search of refreshment. The Pipettes were fun live, as the visuals definitely accentuate the girl-group revival sound. The weren't anything unexpected, but a competent reading of their material was all that was really required, and I certainly enjoyed it.

Becca had noticed that McCormick & Schmidt had a special on appetizers for St. Patrick's day, so we went, had a few cheap beers, and a lot of cheap appetizers, including corned beef sliders, chips and salsa, a burger, fish and chips, and some other stuff that I forget.

We wandered around in a slightly drunken haze for a bit, and happened to be walking by Club DeVille when we overheard the door guy say "Yes, the Polyphonic Spree is playing here." I didn't take any further convincing, so we hooked an immediate left turn into the club, got some drinks, and got in position for the show.

Having not seen them in four or so years, they were once again a revelation. Their new militaristic uniforms and slightly darker tone was effective and complementary to the current political climate, but their was still plenty of bright optimism and I got completely into the show. It was incredible.

Afterwards, in line for the bathroom I chatted with a couple of members, asking about their lack of a French horn player. He had been gone for a while, apparently, and they asked if I knew someone. I mentioned that I played, but was in school in Houston, and they told me that if I ever wanted to relocate to let them know.

Certainly, the idea was intriguing. I'm sure it would be an incredible experience, being part of such an incredible group, but in the end, I let it be a daydream. Somewhere there's a Ward that went for it, and I'd love to sit down with him and hear about it, but I've got a great life here and I've got a degree to finish. And I just may not be cut out for touring, anyway. I certainly like my comforts.

After the show we started a slow, tired walk back towards Becca's car and after a laborious negotation process managed to get Cindy's brother and her friend Sarah to meet us at Thai Passion up north. We had a nice Thai dinner and Steve nicely picked up the check.

We headed back to Becca's place and then walked over to Courtney's, picking up some beer on the way. We had a great evening of beer drinking on Courtney's porch. Good beer, good friends, good times.

3/18

We had brunch at an Italian market sort of place, and I enjoyed my breakfast panini with trouffled eggs.

We walked to a nearby record store and looked around a bit before meeting up with Kristin at the unveiling of a mural at a South Austin music store before returning to Becca's place. On the way out of town we saw Becca's piece for the Texas Biennial, which I hadn't seen in person yet, and then made for home.

Best Music of 2006

I had fully intended to do this at some point. But here it is, 6 months into 2006. But what better way to get some distance and evaluate the best music of last year?

Besides, Bryan wouldn't stop bugging me.

So here it is. 2006 was an interesting year. Lots of solid stuff but little that was just absolutely amazingly spectacular, and it made the ordering of the albums tough. I did actually make the list at the end of last year, and it was tempting to rearrange, but I left the order intact. So, here we go.

Best Albums of 2006

1. The Hold Steady, Boys And Girls In America: I wavered on this one for a bit. I wondered about its longevity. But I still listen to it frequently. The Hold Steady, ladies and gentlemen, are America's best bar band, fronted by a great poet who takes those alcohol drenched nights and extracts their meaning, half-singing, half-reading them (if there's any justice in the world) from scrawlings on a cocktail napkin. This is a band that rocks, and a band that writes songs about the beauty within every drunken teen and twenty something. If they can combine the masterful craftsmanship of this album with their ability to construct a story arc like they did on their previous Separation Sunday, they may put out a truly phenomenal album one day. But you don't have to hit a home run every time if you can just get it to the outfield, and if the Hold Steady has a few more albums this good in 'em, they will have made more great music than most bands can hope for.
2. Band Of Horses, Everything All The Time: Stunningly beautiful, and an impressive combination of the big guitar sound of bands like Built to Spill with the country rock leanings of bands like My Morning Jacket. I haven't quite figured out what it means, but unlike Joanna Newsom's album, I'm not sure I have to. There's raw emotion here, and it's expertly projected through the music. It's an impressive album that grabs me quickly and still gives me goosebumps a year and a half later. It's the kind of album that you just have to turn on sometimes and let wash over you like a wave on a moonlit beach.
3. Joanna Newsom, Ys: This one has still has the potential for the kind of greatness that I like to see in a number one album. I almost considered it for the top spot. But that would have been a leap of faith, and I think it will be years before I know for sure how good this album is. Let's move beyond the fact that I once likened Newsom's vocals to a retarded chipmunk. Start with Van Dyke Parks' beautiful orchestration. Then on Joanna Newsom's beautiful harp playing. Then keep looking past the vocals to the carefully constructed lyrics of this five song cycle. Once you've done these things, you may find yourself starting to appreciate Newsom's strange vocal tics and inflections. That's what I did, anyway. Seeing her live helped too, and it's almost a shame that the sparse arrangements her band backed her with live aren't the ones that ended up on record. So my doubts about the album? I haven't cracked the subject matter yet. Newsom has said that this is very much a reflection of her personal life, and there are pangs of loss that pervade the album. But the whole thing's kind of obtuse, hidden behind the adornments of the lyrics. Time will tell, hopefully, what's there, and maybe one day I'll know what this album really holds.
4. Bound Stems, Appreciation Night: A beautiful jumbled mess. As the music flows by like a river, every bit different, don't worry about where it's been or where it's going, just appreciate what it is. To mix my metaphors, it's a great big cookie with a whole lot of little hooks spread throughout like so many nuts, chocolate chips, and dried cherries. As unstructured as it is, the hooks take some time to sink in, and you still may be lost as you jump from hook to hook, but the hooks are there, something to hang your hat on as you absorb the rest of the album. When "Excellent News Colonel" starts with it half sung/half spoken introduction, and a girl says "I've fallen for someone in New York. It's something that I hadn't expected, though I think it's so much better for us both. The timing was abysmal but we tried. I hope you still find the time to write, to tell me about how school ended, and if you've fallen in love. I hope we can keep it up...", I feel like it's me that's just been dumped, no opportunity to defend myself, just... dumped. It's amazingly affecting. And it's just one moment among many.
5. Beirut, Gulag Orkestar & the Lon Gisland EP: Beirut. This album is an accomplishment. For a kid from the American West to so perfectly make sounds that are so... foreign... is astounding. It's mariachis meets Eastern European folk meets the electronic stylings of the Magnetic Fields, and it's beautiful. But there's no emotional connection. It's nifty music but it doesn't connect to me. The musical accomplishments of this album put it this hi, but the lack of any lasting emotional impact keeps it from being even higher.
6. The Decemberists, The Crane Wife: The Decemberists do it again. These guys are on a role, but maybe they're starting to show signs of needing a break. The highs are still there, but the little moments, the ones that surprise you when you sit down and listen, they're not quite there. But that's nitpicking. The band has managed to deftly incorporate some of the prog and metal influences from their Tain EP, with such multi-part bits as "The Crane Wife" and "The Island". And any band that can make a song like "The Crane Wife pt. 3" so immediately captivating certainly shouldn't be calling it quits any time soon. So Decemberists, rest up and come back with something that ranks up there with your best work. And, while I've got your attention, please, please come back to Houston. What did we do to be the redheaded stepchild?
7. I'm From Barcelona, Let Me Introduce My Friends: Wow, this one came out of left field. Take the Polyphonic Spree's huge size, replace the vaguely scary cult-like optimism with wide-eyed child-like optimism, and make something less new age self help and more simple, infectious fun. Fill it with songs about collecting stamps and building treehouses. What a breath of fresh air this one was.
8. Tapes 'n Tapes, The Loon: Another out of left field, easy to enjoy, fun album. Darker in tone than Barcelona, but yet still breezy and fun. Just put it on and enjoy. Don't overanalyze.
9. Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere: Thank you, Danger Mouse, for making hip hop interesting enough to be palatable to me. Thank you Cee Lo for keeping it weird, yet soulful. And thank you both for putting out a song that everybody can love and that will never get old. And thanks for making the rest of the album a blast to listen to as well.
10. M. Ward, Post-War: Like The Decemberists and the Hold Steady, M. Ward keeps the hits coming. He does his gravelly voice old-time folk thing consistently and well. This one may be my favorite yet, although none of them really stick out. If it's not the best thing I've ever heard, it's certainly impressive enough that I'm proud to share a name with this man.
11. Beck, The Information: Beck's attempted return to Odelayishiciousness with Guero was forgettable, but this time he stops it with the quirky folk, stops trying to out-Prince Prince, and stops making the heart-breaking breakup album and writes a kick ass, fun album of the kind of quirky rock hop that made him famous in the first place. As good as some of his other material was, it's good to have the original Beck back.
12. Centro-Matic, Fort Recovery: Centro-matic slows down the metronome, turns up the volume, and slow jams it with lots of starkly beautiful songs set to Will Johnson's scratchy pack-a-day voice. Turn it on, hear the guitars soar and feel the deep foundation of the bass, and enjoy.
13. The Pipettes, Meet The Pipettes: Liquid crush in a bottle (and not like the orange soda). The girls are cute, the sassy british voices are cuter, and girl group pop makes a surprising return forty years later. Charming and beautiful. Suspend disbelief, forget they probably didn't write the songs, and give yourself over to the thinking man's Spice Girls. I can't put this on without getting a smile on my face. Bonus points for the harmony.
14. Lily Allen, Alright Still: Speaking of sassy British chicks, Lily Allen makes an album that also oozes personality, is consistently funny and entertaining if maybe a bit guilty of trying too hard in spots ("Oh my gosh you must be joking me if you think that you'll be poking me"). The music doesn't bore you but doesn't get in the way of the songs either. If only all rich girls that decided they wanted to make a pop album put this much hard work and talent into it, the world would be a better place.
15. Guster, Ganging Up On The Sun: Guster's back, and I'll forgive them if they don't reach the heights of Lost & Gone Forever and particularly Keep It Together. It's still consistently good and consistently Guster, and they can keep making albums like this for as long as they want.
16. Voxtrot, Raised By Wolves, Mothers Daughters Sisters & Wives, & Your Biggest Fan: I have Dan to thank for this one. I figure two EPs and one single count as one album, right? Take some good indie pop, add some competent Smiths-aping, and age it up a bit. Voxtrot put out fun, bouncy, extremely competent pop, and it's the sort of thing everybody should be enjoying.
17. Islands, Return to the Sea: Turns out that it's not so bad that the Unicorns broke up, because ex-Unicorn Nick Diamonds has surpassed them with this album. Extremely quirky, well-arranged and played, lots of hooks. But yet, I never really felt like it grabbed me the way it should have, hence the relatively low rating. Still, it's good; there's no denying that.
18. TV On The Radio, Return To Cookie MountainNow here's a band I only sort of get. I can tell that this is a good, solid album, but like the Islands disc, it doesn't quite grab me. Still, I know enough to tell you that these guys are doing neat, original stuff that nobody else can come close to, and that makes them worth a look.
19. Built To Spill, You In Reverse: Wow, it's been five years since Built To Spill put out an album? It has been a while. Spin the disc up, and as "Going Against Your Mind" stretches out to 8:42, it's entirely reasonable to be thinking that they're back and kicking ass. But that momentum doesn't keep up, and the rest of the album is pretty much forgettable, with the exception of the single-ready "Conventional Wisdom". So in "Going" you have a song that would fit perfectly on Perfect From Now On, and "Wisdom"'s bounce would sit well across from "Sidewalk" on Keep It Like A Secret. I'll cut Doug some slack, and he makes this list rather than the disappointments list on the strength of two songs that rank among his best work. But then I recall that Ancient Melodies of the Future had pretty similar problems. So Doug, bring it back full on hard core next time, OK?
20. Figurines, Skeleton: Nice competent indie rock that fits well alongside Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. So why did I never really go head over heels for this one? No accounting for tastes, I suppose. Could be that months from now I'll pick this up and not put it down for weeks.
21. The Magnolia Electric Co., Fading Trails: Another band who just keeps turning out good albums, but this one lacks the fire of their self-titled debut, and is too soft and depressed to have the emotionally devastating impact of, say, What Comes After The Blues. I can't complain too much, but I hope for more next time.
22. Beach House, Beach House: I get to here and wonder a bit why I didn't put this up higher. Maybe because it's a bit samey, but musically these dusty, rotting, sepia-toned memories are impressively, devastatingly beautiful. But maybe it's not something that I'll find myself listening to all that often.
23. Girl Talk, Night Ripper: Another one that, maybe, should have ended up higher, but maybe it just didn't have staying power. It's an impressive tour of pop music, and it's fun to play "spot the sample" as Girl Talk mixes rock and hip hop hits from the last couple decades. Technically very impressive, fun in its familiarity, but I haven't listened to it in over a year.
24. Camera Obscura, Let's Get Out Of This Country: Out-Belle-&-Sebastianing Belle & Sebastian with this nice disc of twee pop. Fun, consistent, but it didn't blow me away. Still, in a year when Belle & Sebastian disappoint, good to see someone pick up the baton and run.
25. The Beatles, Love: Stuck near the end of the list because, in some senses, it's nothing new. Still, it's fun to hear the Beatles in a different context. It feels fresher. It sounds fresher too, thanks to new mastering. Makes me thing I'll throw down a whole lot of money to grab the remastered Beatles discs when they show up next year, and, honestly, that's the best thing about listening to this disc. Except for one thing. One of Anthology's biggest selling points was its 3 juxtaposed demos of "Strawberry Fields Forever". Here they chronologically make up different sections of the song (along with the final version), and the end result is like time lapse photography. It's amazing, and does a great job of showing how the songs are great at their core, and how the incredible production that the Beatles were famous for in their later years makes them even better.
26. Ben Folds, Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP: Stuck on here for completion's sake, because all of this material has been put elsewhere. There are some nice moments here, though, and anyone who's a fan should have it if they don't have everything where it was originally published.
27. Hotel Lights, Hotel Lights: Pleasant, pretty, blippy, and totally not what I would have expected from former Ben Folds Fiver Darren Jesse. Not super memorable but likable. A bit samey, perhaps.

Disappointments & Other "Meh"s

• Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit: This is not why I listen to Belle & Sebastian. This bores me. Sorry guys. This happy funky 70s stuff is just not the right direction.
• Junior Boys, So This Is Goodbye: Cindy said this was too "gay" for me, but I dunno. Cold and innorganic; just totally not my thing.
• Sufjan Stevens, The Avalanche: Sufjan, I love you, I made Illinois my #1 album of last year, but sir, you need an editor! As if Illinois wasn't overlong already, we don't need another 80 minutes of forgettable outtakes. There's some nice stuff on here, but I just don't feel like slogging through all this crap to get to it. Brevity, sir, Brevity.
• Summer Hymns, Backward Masks: These guys have gone from endearing, clever, quirky, memorable psychedelic indie rock to completely boring alt country. 2003's Clemency had me worried, and this one confirmed it. Whoever did the interesting shit needs to come back, and fast.
• Tenacious D, The Pick Of Destiny: There are two good songs on this album: "Kickapoo" and "The Metal" (which I'm looking forward to playing in Guitar Hero III). There are even a couple other decent tracks. But after six years, I expected better. The rest of this album is just lame. And if the music's this bad, the movie must be complete crap.
• The Flaming Lips, At War With The Mystics: Guys. I expect better. You've got your moments here, but man, this is just so mediocre. This is the band that brought me Soft Bullettin and so much other brilliance?
• The Walkmen, A Hundred Miles Off: "Louisiana" is great. The rest of this album, it's just boring. Sorry.
• The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers: Not bad, but just not all that great. If it hadn't been Jack White, these guys wouldn't have gotten much press. Except for "Intimate Secretary". That one's good. That one can stay. I was hoping seeing White outside of the Stripes would reveal new things, especially when before this year it seemed like the Stripes might have run out of ideas. But now I've heard the new Stripes album, it's decent, and it's certainly better than this.

Undecided & Underlistened

• Badly Drawn Boy, Born In The U.K.: If I'd gotten through this one more than once, I'm guessing it'd end up on the disappointments list. From brilliance to this.
• Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood: Cindy loved this. I listened to it once and never picked it up again. Points for being super hot, though.
• Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies: Tried listening to it once. Didn't go so well.
• Danielson, Ships: I was not impressed.
• Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds: Owen's music just gets boring, I think. Did I even get through this one once? I'm not sure.
• Ben Kweller, Ben Kweller: Forgettable.
• Sean Lennon, Friendly Fire: Didn't get around to listening.
• Liars, Drum's Not Dead: When I tried to listen to it, it was too weird. Never got back to it.
• Malajube, Trompe-L'Oeil: Picked this one back up towards SxSW time. Pretty good. Would have ended up on the list, in the back third, if I'd gotten to it sooner.
• Mates Of State, Bring It Back: I saw them live. I don't remember much of it.
• Rock Plaza Central, Are We Not Horses: Picked this up on Jeff's urging. Seemed OK but only listened a couple of times.
• Jason Molina, Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go: Didn't finish listening to this one in time, but since then I've decided it's a little flat. With so much more interesting work that the man's put out, I don't see listening to this one much. Not that it's bad...
• Ms. John Soda, Notes And The Like: Didn't grab me the way the last one did.
• Peter Bjorn And John, Writer's Block: Also picked this one up around SxSW time.
• Secret Machines, Ten Silver Drops: Never even listened.
• Sunset Rubdown, Shut Up I Am Dreaming: This one's probably pretty good but I never listened to it that consistently.
• The Divine Comedy, Victory For The Comic Muse: Decent but not all that great, certainly not as brilliant as the last one. Still deserves more listens.
• The Advantage, Elf-Titled: OK but not best-of material. Rock interpretations of video games music are not something I pull out often, but I guess I'll add this to my go-to albums for that genre.
• The Gothic Archies, The Tragic Treasury: Need to give this one more listens. Stephin Merrit's quiet indie goth project takes on Lemony Snicket's dark books. On paper it makes sense.
• Scott Walker, The Drift: Now this one has some potential. But it's so dark and so slow I'm never in the mood for it.
• …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, So Divided: Only made it through once or twice. Got bored. Maybe Pitchfork was right in calling their slow decline. I still think Worlds Apart was OK though.
• Youth Group, Casino Twilight Dogs: Picked it up this year. Good, but didn't capture my attention the way their last one did.
• Thom Yorke, The Eraser: Decent, but I'll just listen to Radiohead.
• Two Gallants, What The Toll Tells: Love these guys live but their albums never quite grab me. Not sure why; they're not all that different. Again, no accounting for taste.
• The Strokes, First Impressions Of Earth: Listened once. Wasn't impressed.

If those last two lists were too critical or too depressing for you, go back and reread the "Best Of" list. There, that's better, isn't it? 2006 was a great year for music; 2007 is shaping up quite well also. Last week I was feeling overwhelmed by the large amount of new music that I try to take in; going back it's nice to see so many gems that I pick up and can go back to whenever I want. Quite refreshing.

I'll also add that I discovered Art Brut's first album from 2005 and that it was phenomenal. Maybe something else from '05 got left out too; can't quite remember. Best single was probably "Crazy". Not sure I picked up any interesting mainstream singles beyond that. I'll end by noting that Okkervil River put out a solid EP, Overboard & Down, with a great single, "The President's Dead", and an absolutely, incredible, phenomenal song, "Love to a Monster".

See you next year. Preferably a whole lot earlier. Or maybe even late this year!

Oh, and Bryan wants me to turn my list into a mix. I'll probably still get around to that.

Music and memory

Pitchfork has a nice column on the influence of music on memory, and vice-versa. Worth a read.

The Bedroom Stereo

The Receiver

On the several occasions (most of which involved poker), I'd been over at Oliver's, I'd taken notice of the vintage receiver he had. I didn't remember it sounding very good. At first it was hooked up to some Bose speakers; they didn't sound good, which is not surprising since they're Bose. They might have been vintage, though, in which case they were probably pretty decent but maybe just getting old, or it might have been them not being set up properly. Later on he bought some active Sony speakers, which was almost assuredly even more of a step down.

Point being, the old thing had never really impressed me. So when he offered it to me because he was getting some sort of iPod speaker system...

Tangent: iPod speaker systems are rather silly things. Unless you're very space-challenged, or you're buying them to be portable, that is. Generally, they're bad speakers and bad electronics. With a few exceptions, you're better off with an iPod dock and a set of good computer speakers. But hell, people love 'em. Who am I to argue?

...I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it, but hell, if he was getting rid of it anyway, I'd at least be interested in playing around with. Especially since he said it had vacuum tubes.

Which it really didn't, as I discovered when I got it home and popped the top of the case off. This after lugging the surprisingly heavy thing up the stairs. It looked to be in pretty good shape, actually.

Rather than set it up in my living room with the main system, which would have been difficult for several reasons (tons of gear hooked up to my home theater receiver, wouldn't have worked well with my subwoofer, etc.), I set it up in my bedroom with the speakers that I have in there. Normally, I run them as a "B" set of speakers off of the main amp in the living room, but that leaves me without the ability to do things like choose music and adjust volume, both of which are handy things.

The Speakers

These speakers started out being a pair of big Technics with 8" woofers. They were a fun speaker, but not really an audiophile-quality one, so at some point when someone posted to the NHT message board that he was selling a pair of their classic SuperOne speakers, I offered to buy them. And I was too late. But the seller noted that OneCall, one of NHT's few authorized internet retailers, had SuperZeroes on clearance for $130 per pair.

Sadly, they were the "Xu" version, in plastic cabinets instead of their standard piano black-painted fiberboard. But hey, the sound would still be there. The SuperZero is really a classic loudspeeker, giving unbelievably good sound for their original 1993 retail price of $230 (and Corey Greenberg's review in Stereophile of the SuperZeroes is really a classic bit of audiophile literature). Of course there has to be a catch; with their small 4" woofers and sealed cabinet design (I'll explain that one in another post), they don't put much bass out. Well, really, they don't put any bass out.

So after I got them and set them up and realized I couldn't exactly handle that (I like a realistic amount of bass), I posted again on NHT's board looking for an inexpensive (under $300) subwoofer, and, as luck would have it, "Chip" was selling an NHT SW1P and matching amplifier/crossover for $175 or so, which was designed to mate with the SuperZeroes.

So, take the full range speaker signal from the B outputs of my receiver, run it through the crossover and then run the outputs to the sub and the speakers, and I had an amazingly kickass bedroom set of speakers for $300.

Back to the Receiver

So anyway, I switched the speakers from running off the main system to running off the Pioneer receiver. I hooked up my iPod to the inputs on the back of the 30-year-old receiver (hah!) powered it up, and pulled up some Okkervil River (a favorite for audio testing).

Holy shit did it sound good! That old receiver was amazing. Everything was nice. I took a look at the model number on the front panel; it was a Pioneer SX-737. It was rated at 35 watts per channel, which must be a very honest rating because the SuperZeroes are a little power hungry and it drives them nicely.

So I decided to get a little work done on it. It's a beautiful piece of gear. Reminds me very much of a Kenwood that my parents owned when I was a kid, which I really wish they had kept. Anyway, I figured it was worth putting a little money into, and ultimately it was around $100. Couple that with my $300 in speakers and assorted gear, and I had an incredible system for a super cheap $400. There are crappy mini systems that cost that much! And this was something that I wouldn't be embarassed to have as my main stereo.

The Source

I suggested in my "Hi-Fi 101" post that you could toss the CD player, instead using the computer as a "transport" (something to supply the bits encoding the music on the CD) and read the music as files on a hard drive instead of tracks on a CD. There are advantages to this, such as taking multiple shots at getting an error-free stream of data off of the CD once rather than having to do it in real time, every time.

CD audio is large; a CD holds 800 MB. You can compress it to mp3 or another "lossy" format which removes data that you're not likely to hear (extreme frequencies and quiet things that get covered up by louder sounds, for example), but I find that best for non-critical listening, like in a car or in the background at home or work. For use on my hi-fi rig, I go with a lossless format (Apple Lossless), which simply removes redundancies in the music and, when it gets decoded to be played back, you get an exact copy of the original signal. You can cut out about 40% of the data that way, as opposed to 90% for an mp3. Sacrifices must be made.

Now, if you don't have your computer sitting next to your stereo, you can run a long cord (lame!) or, better, you can have something hooked up to your stereo that can wirelessly pull music off of your hard drive, decode any compression you've applied, and send the signal along to a DAC, or run it through its own DAC and send the analog signal on to your pre-amp.

Which is what I have. In the main system, it's accomplished by the Apple Airport Express. Basically, the AX is a wireless router which also acts as a wireless receiver for iTunes. iTunes does the heavy lifting, decoding mp3s and whatnot, but re-encoding in Apple Lossless to transmit over the air to the AX, which decodes this, and then outputs a digital or analog signal. It works well in that setting where I always have my laptop nearby.

I considered that option for my bedroom system. But I'd have to have a computer in my bedroom to choose songs and so forth, or would have to walk into the living room to do it. I could also just use an iPod, but that's lame, if for no other reason than that I have to dig it out of my bag and hook it up at bedtime when I want to listen to music.

Instead, there are things that do heavier lifting, such as the Roku Soundbridge and the Slim Devices Squeezebox. These also pull music over your wireless network, but give you an interface for browsing and choosing songs, and can also decode any compression you may have.

The Roku can act as a client for iTunes' built-in music sharing, which is a nice, simple solution. Plus it could read Apple Lossless natively—when the player can't read a format natively, the computer has to translate it into a format the player can read before sending it over the network, which introduces its own set of problems. Plus, it was $150 (on sale), half the price of the $300 Squeezebox.

So I ordered and bought the Roku, and while I like the product a lot, it relies on the older, slower 802.11b wireless networking. This has a maximum throughput of 12 megabits per second, much higher than the 600 or so kilobits per second that losslessly compressed audio requires, but the Roku just could hack it, and I got very frequent skips in the music when the player couldn't get the data fast enough. This is, frankly, unworkable and inexcusable. So back it went. Plus, Stereophile's review of the Roku found some major design flaws in things from an audio perspective.

And instead, I ponied up for the Squeezebox. The Squeezebox relies on its own server software run on the computer, which is open source and quite flexible. It adds a layer of complexity but also means there are a ton of things that I can configure to my perspective. For example, El Ten Eleven: do they get filed under "El" or under "Ten"? It's my choice.

The Squeezebox doesn't decode Apple Lossless natively, but the transcoding works quite well, only using 5% of my CPU time. Only thing is you can't fastforward and rewind within tracks, just skip from one to the next or previous. The Squeezebox also has a far better DAC built in (so says Stereophile), which is important when you use the analog outputs since your 30-year-old receiver was around before the days of digital audio.

There was one more issue. I can pick music via remote control, but the Pioneer has no remote control, so no volume control... on the receiver. The Squeezebox has a volume control, though. It's not ideal, as it's done digitally, which means that some low level musical detail can be lost, but if I'm in bed going to sleep, I can handle that to have the option of adjusting the volume from the comfort of my pillow.

Conclusion

So there you go. A wonderful stereo at $100 of work on a free receiver, $300 worth of speakers and associated electronics, and then a splurge of a $300 networked music player. I'm super proud of it. Now if only that backlight in the receiver had a dimmer...

An Ocean of Noise

There's a lot of new music that comes out. Some of it is even good. So how to deal with it all?

First, what to... obtain. I download before I buy these days; I've bought too many bad CDs to waste money on more. Plus if I wait, I can buy CDs when I see the artists in concert and they get more money that way.

So then since money isn't an issue, at least not in the short term, the limiting factor is time.

So, things I download: new releases by artists I like; things that Pitchfork recommends, if they sound appealing or if Pitchfork recommends them particularly vehemently; things that friends recommend; or old releases I've always meant to check out, back catalogs of artists I just got into, etc.

These things go on the list. The list started out on a post-it on my desk at work, where I get a lot of this listening done. Then it was several post-its, then I finally finished by moving to a Google spreadsheet, which I can handily access from whichever computer I happent to be close to. Which I admit is terrificly nerdy, but hell, this is all about being a music nerd.

The list used to be a fairly loose concept, and after I decided I'd become sufficiently familiar, I'd cross something off. A couple years back Lauren had suggested (not aware of my list) that five listens were sufficient to decide whether an album was your cup of tea or not.

Which is close to the truth. So I try to listen to each album 5 times. At that point, it gets cut loose. Either I come back to it and listen to it, or I forget about it. Maybe I'll pick it back up; maybe I won't.

If I listen to it frequently, I try to buy it. If not, well, wait and see.

As of now, there are 132 albums on the list. So it occurs to me that I probably won't listen to them all five times. That's OK. If something is so completely uncompelling that I can't even listen to it 5 times, I'll let it be and it can either wither or age on the vine. Maybe a couple of years from now I'll just throw it away. Maybe I'll come back to it.

This is why I have 10,590 songs in my main digital music library, 28 days worth of music, 50 GB. This is why I had to upgrade from an 80 GB hard drive to a 160 GB hard drive in my laptop, at great expense to... someone else.

It's far from a perfect system. I need to listen to more old stuff. But it can evolve freely, and does.

Emotiva, the $1000 Stereo, and the $500 stereo

I stumbled upon this a couple weeks ago, but needed to get my big "Hi-Fi 101" post written first or this wouldn't have made any sense.

So I was following up on a namedrop on one of my most frequent audiophile hangouts about an internet stereo electronics company, Emotiva.

Their stuff seems to be quite good. Quality components, realistic power ratings, nice looking, etc. Although sadly, recently when I was asked to recommend some stereo equipment to somebody looking to put together a $1000 system (a nice sweet spot), they didn't have a ~$400 integrated amplifier or receiver for me to recommend, they did have this neat little thing, the BPA-1.

Although I haven't heard it and can't comment definitively, this seems to be an absolutely wonderful project.

You see, the nice thing about stereo components is that, since they're reasonably modular, you can buy a system in bits and pieces, particularly if you start with used or just plain cheap gear to make your initial system, and then upgrade it a piece at a time.

The problem is that if you buy gear that's, say, cheap enough to put together a $500 system, you end up with crap that you're going to throw out, or if you put together a $1000 system and want to expand, you may end up wasting a decent thing.

Let's look at how this little guy, the BPA-1 (shame they didn't give it a cute little name to go with its appearance), avoids that problem.

You want a cheap system. We'll ignore the question of a source; everybody has an iPod, a DVD player, or a computer. Worst comes to worst, you go buy that $30 portable CD player from Wal-Mart; it'll get the job done. It's the least important part of the chain because it's the easiest to do passably.

You buy a cheap but good set of speakers, say, the PSB Alpha B1, carried by my wonderful dealer and recently glowingly reviewed in Stereophile.

They're $279; we'll round up to $300. That leaves us with $200 left in the budget. To get a decent stereo amp that will last you, you could get, say, an NAD C320BEE ($400) or a Cambridge Audio Azur 540A ($500). Either way you're over budget.

Or you could buy the Emotiva, for $180. It's a stereo integrated amp. So that plus speakers plus a source, and you have a system for $460. You're $40 underbudget, which is enough to cover tax, shipping, cables, something along that line.

Now you sacrifice a few things. There's no remote control. It only takes one source. In this age of mp3 players, for a stereo that exists purely to play music, you only need one source. And get up off the couch to change the volume; it'll do you good not to be so lazy. Or get a source with volume control (again, mp3 player, with a really long set of interconnects or a remote control).

Maybe you want more power. You can buy a new integrated amp or receiver, and this little amp could find a nice home in a second system, or biamp your speakers (sepparate amplifier channels for low and high frequency drivers). Or add a passive subwoofer and use this to drive it; it has a built-in low pass filter!

Or just buy a preamp, and use two of these things to drive your speakers. You can run them as monoblock amps (two mono amps), or use four channels of amplification to biamp your speakers.

So in summary, one tremendo