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ha’fway 2016
Happy 240th birthday, United States!
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Ah, the annual halfway through the year music recap where I never post an end of year recap. *eyeroll* Eh… I don’t blog much anymore… regardless, here goes for my Top 10 of 2016 so far…
Artist – Album (style)
- Sia – This Is Acting (pop)
- Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool (rock)
- Wussy – Forever Sounds (indie rock)
- Holy Fuck – CONGRATS (live electronic)
- Elliott Smith – Heaven Adores You (soundtrack) (indie rock)
- Steve Taylor & the Danielson Foil – WOW to the Deadness -EP- (indie rock)
- David Bazan – Blanco (indie rock)
- Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom – Otis Was a Polar Bear (jazz)
- The Claypool-Lennon Delirium – Monolith of Phobos (rock)
- Damien Jurado – Visions of Us on the Land (indie rock)
What’s still to come in 2016…
Chevelle, Peter Mulvey (it’s in the can), Alex Somers’ score for Captain Fantastic, John Zorn (about every month), TOOL (music done, lyrics nearing completion?), Sigur Rós (maybe 2017), Charlie Hunter, and based on kickstarters/pledgemusic that I’ve supported: Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate, Derek Webb‘s Mockingbird Remixed and Fleming & John, plus much more, I’m sure.
Will I continue with blogs in the future? I don’t know. :P
ha’fway 2015
Happy 239th birthday, United States!
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I don’t blog much. Not much time. I haven’t even put out my Favorites from 2013 or 2014… well, here goes for my Top 10 of 2015 so far…
Artist – Album (style)
- Failure – The Heart is a Monster (rock)
- Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (indie rock)
- Faith No More – Sol Invictus (hard rock)
- Steve Taylor & the Perfect Foil – Goliath (rock)
- Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree) – Hand. Cannot. Erase. (progressive rock)
- Daniel Johns (of Silverchair) – TALK (pop, dance, rock)
- John Zorn’s The Dreamers with Mike Patton, Sofia Rei & Jesse Harris – The Song Project Live at Le Poisson Rouge (jazz, avant garde, pop)
- Dave Douglas – High Risk (jazz with electronics)
- Nellie McKay – My Weekly Reader (cheeky 70s rock tribute)
- DRKWAV (Skerik, Medeski & Deitch) – The Purge (doom, jazz, electronic, all over)
What’s still to come in 2015…
Ben Folds with yMusic, Holy Fuck (no release date, but they recorded it in late 2014), John Zorn (about every month), Puscifer (teaser on their Instagram?), TOOL (music done, lyrics nearing completion?), Charlie Hunter, and based on kickstarters/pledgemusic that I’ve supported: Chali 2Na of Jurassic 5 has a couple more EPs due, Dweezil Zappa, Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate, Jude Christodal, Dylan Carlson of Earth, and Fleming & John.
Will I continue with blogs in the future? I don’t know. :P
Dan – np: Critters Buggin – Stampede
ha’fway 2013
Happy belated* 237th birthday, United States!
*-everything I do lately is belated
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So, here are my faves of the first half of 2013… and outside of the Top 5, it’s all kind of random order on how I feel today… it’s all bound to switch around by year’s end (click album art for sound samples):
Artist – Album (style)
- Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace – AMOK ( electronic rock )
- Sigur Rós – Kveikur ( ambient icelandic )
- Kim Taylor – Love’s A Dog ( singer-songwriter )
- Dave Douglas Quintet – Time Travel ( trumpet jazz )
- Fol Chen – The False Alarms ( electronic indie pop )
- Jeffrey Foucault’s Cold Satellite – Cavalcade ( americana rock )
- Goddamn Electric Bill – Dead Alive ( electronic indie pop )
- Jon Madof’s Zion80 – Zion80 ( jewish afrobeat )
- Pat Metheny plays John Zorn’s Masada Book Two – Book of Angels, Vol. 20: Tap ( jewish jazz )
- Palms – Palms ( catharsis, a magical blend of Isis & Deftones )
- Mike Patton – The Place Beyond the Pines ( movie score )
- Overseas – Overseas ( indie rock )
- Pinnick Gales Pridgen – Pinnick Gales Pridgen ( soulful power trio )
- Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused To Sing (and Other Stories) ( prog rock )
- Puscifer – Donkey Punch the Night -EP- ( rock )
- Les Rhinocéros – Les Rhinocéros II ( avant jazz rock )
- Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob – Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti: Sexmob plays Fellini: The Music of Nino Rota ( trumpet jazz )
- Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob ( pop )
- Tomahawk – Oddfellows ( hard rock )
- Wussy – Duo -EP- ( indie rock )
I didn’t get a few that already came out this year (yet) and whatever “et cetera” that the cool kids are listening to these days; but they may make it to the list at the end of the year.
The 2nd half of 2013 promises to bring some potential great ones, too… a few more from John Zorn, Over the Rhine (a double-album Meet Me At the Edge of the World & new holiday album), George Hrab’s 21812 live CD/DVD, another from Holy Fuck, new Nellie McKay (rumored), Levi Weaver (pledge now!), 3rd Ear Experience (just got in the mail), Chali 2Na (more EPs in the Against the Current series), Au4 & Digital Noise Academy (physical CDs for their late 2012 digital only), yMusic, and many more…
Favorite concerts of 2013 (so far):
- Tomahawk in Portland (Feb)
- John Zorn @ 60 in Minneapolis (Apr)
- Charlie Hunter, Booker T. Jones & Carlton Jackson in Portland (Apr)
- Prince in Portland (Apr)
- Secret Chiefs 3 – two nights / four sets in Seattle (May)
and tons more where I didn’t write a review
(click pictures below for review links)
~Dan – np: 3rd Ear Experience (with dUg Pinnick of King’s X) – Boi
My Favorites of 2012
Life has been a been busy/hectic lately, to say the least. Not enough time to do the usual extended blogs for best of instrumental, vocal and whatnot with lots of descriptions. And since, hell, it’ll be 2014 before too long; so I figured I’d get out my favorites of 2012 list in some fashion now before it’s officially too late.
Here’s what was my favorite music from last year…
vocal top 10
(in no particular order beyond #1)
instrumental top 10
(in no particular order beyond #1)
Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola –
Not Getting Behind is the New Getting Ahead
ep, internet, etc
Best Novelty: Sufjan Stevens’ Silver and Gold boxset
Best Internet-only releases: Glen Phillips Coyote Sessions,
Greydon Square Type II : The Mandelbrot Set,
Sufjan Son Lux & Serengeti (s/s/s) beak and claw
Best EPs: Levi Weaver’s I Am Only A Tiny Noise
Peter Mulvey’s Chaser (OOP)
Best Vinyl-only: Wussy “Dangerous Highway” 7″
Sufjan Stevens & Rosie Thomas “Hit & Run” 7″
Enjoy! I’ll sort of promise to do better with timeliness on next year’s lists!