Archive
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)
O.S.I. – Fire Make Thunder
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!
~Dan – np: Pinnick Gales Pridgen – Pinnick Gales Pridgen
REVIEW: Fiona Apple @ the Schnitz (Portland, OR – 7/26/12)
Fiona Apple in Minnesota (July 2012)
Poetic and pop-forward, yet jazzy on record, Fiona Apple turned out a full force band show at Portland’s Schnitzer last Thursday. She bounced around her back catalogue, only playing a handful from the new album
, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.
What to like about what she played?
Just about everything. The pain & hurt in “Shadowboxer,” the disappointment in “Paper Bag,” the anger in “Get Gone,” the positivity and whimsy in “Extraordinary Machine.” I would have loved to hear a live rendition (with vocal loops) of “Hot Knife” from The Idler Wheel, but overall, I was pleased with what she gave us…
Setlist: about 90 mins
- Fast As You Can
- On the Bound
- Shadowboxer
- Paper Bag
- Anything We Want
- Get Gone
- Sleep To Dream
- Extraordinary Machine
- Werewolf
- Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)
- Daredevil
- I Know
- Every Single Night
- Criminal
- Carrion
- Not About Love
- Encore: It’s Only Make Believe [Conway Twitty]
Fiona’s rocking band was helmed by Blake Mills on guitar (the show opener as well), and rounded out by Sebastian Steinberg on bass, Amy Wood on drums, and Zac Rae on keys.
Fiona is on the top of her game, and I just hope that it’s not another 7 years before we hear something new. But even if it is, I know it’ll be a delight.
The Appropriate Linkage:
- Fiona Apple’s Site
- Fiona Apple’s Social Media Links (see below)
- PCPA/Arlene Schnitzer’s Site / Facebook / Twitter
She just ended her 2012 summer tour (dates below), but check out her TOUR PAGE for Fall dates that start in September.
Next show for me… Sigur Rós @ Edgefield (Portland) on Aug 9th.
~Dan – np: Celldweller – Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head, Volume 2
Fiona Apple — 2012 Tour Dates
6/19 – Ithaca, NY – State Theatre
6/20 – Baltimore, MD – Lyric Opera House
6/22 – Mashantucket, CT – MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods
6/23 – Holyoke, MA – Mountain Park
6/24 – New York, NY – Governors Ball at Randall’s Island
6/26 – Washington DC – Warner Theatre
6/27 – Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theatre
6/29 – Danbury, CT – Ives Concert Park
6/30 – Boston, MA – Citi Performing Arts Center
7/1 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
7/3 – Montreal, QC – Olympia Theatre
7/4 – Toronto, Ontario – The Sound Academy
7/6 – Cleveland Heights, OH – Cain Park
7/7 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit
7/10 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
7/11 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
7/13 – Nashville, TN – The Ryman Auditorium
7/14 – St. Louis, MO – Peabody Opera House
7/16 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre
7/17 – Kansas City, MO – The Midland by AMC
7/20 – Denver, CO – Paramount Theatre
7/21 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kingsbury Hall at University of Utah
7/24 – Vancouver, BC – Orpheum
7/25 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
7/26 – Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
7/28 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
7/29 – Hollywood, CA – Hollywood Palladium
ha’fway 2012
Happy 236th birthday, United States!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So, here are my faves of the first half of 2012… 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)
- OSI – Fire Make Thunder (glitch prog)
- Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do (jazzy pop)
- Peter Mulvey – The Good Stuff (indie songwriter playing standards with a band)
- Damien Jurado – Maraqopa (indie rock)
- Celldweller – Wish Upon A Blackstar (electronica)
- Sigur Rós – Valtari (ambient icelandic)
- Emily Wells – Mama (chamber hip-pop)
- Floratone – Floratone II (jazz)
- s/s/s (Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux, Serengeti) – Beak & Claw -EP- (interesting)
- Storm Corrosion (Steven Wilson & Mikael Akerfeldt) – Storm Corrosion (ethereal proggy departure)
- John Zorn – The Gnostic Preludes (jazzy experimental)
- John Zorn’s Moonchild Trio (Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn & Joey Baron) with John Medeski – Templars (noise rock)
- Earth – Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 2 (drone)
- The Chance Brothers – Growing Concern (indie rock)
- Regina Spektor – What We Saw From the Cheap Seats (pop)
- Ani DiFranco – Which Side Are You On? (folk pop songwriter)
- Buckethead – Electric Sea (gentler instrumental guitar)
- Bad Veins – The Mess We’ve Made (indie rock)
- Cosa Brava (Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, etc) – The Letter (rootsy jazz adventure)
- David Krakauer plays Masada Book Two – Book of Angels, Vol. 18 (Pruflas) (klezmer jazz)
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 2012 promises to bring some potential great ones, too… a few more from John Zorn, Mike Patton & Luciano Berio’s Laborintus II, Ben Folds Five’s reunion studio album, Ric Hordinski’s Arthurs Garden (physical CD, though the download came out a bit ago), the Dusted debut from Holy Fuck’s Brian Borcherdt, Erin McKeown’s kickstarter, and I’ve heard rumors of a new Nellie McKay disc for the Fall.
Favorite concerts of 2012 (so far):
- Penn & Teller and Cirque’s Zumanity in Las Vegas, Jan 18th & 20th
- Secret Chiefs 3 in Eugene & Portland, Feb 6th & 7th
- Nellie McKay’s I Want To Live! in Eugene & Portland, Mar 2nd & 4th
- Puscifer in Portland, Mar 14th
- Seun Kuti & the Egypt 80 in Eugene, Mar 18th
- Radiohead in Seattle, April 9th
- Roger Waters presents Pink Floyd’s The Wall in Portland, May 22nd
- Beck in Bend, May 27th
(click pictures below for review links)
~Dan – np: Celldweller – Wish Upon A Blackstar
Fiona Apple announces 2012 summer tour
Fiona Apple has a new album coming out – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw, And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do on June 26th. She also just announced a summer tour…
Fiona Apple — 2012 Tour Dates
6/19 – Ithaca, NY – State Theatre
6/20 – Baltimore, MD – Lyric Opera House
6/22 – Mashantucket, CT – MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods
6/23 – Holyoke, MA – Mountain Park
6/24 – New York, NY – Governors Ball at Randall’s Island
6/26 – Washington DC – Warner Theatre
6/27 – Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theatre
6/29 – Danbury, CT – Ives Concert Park
6/30 – Boston, MA – Citi Performing Arts Center
7/1 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
7/3 – Montreal, QC – Olympia Theatre
7/4 – Toronto, Ontario – The Sound Academy
7/6 – Cleveland Heights, OH – Cain Park
7/7 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit
7/10 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
7/11 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
7/13 – Nashville, TN – The Ryman Auditorium
7/14 – St. Louis, MO – Peabody Opera House
7/16 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre
7/17 – Kansas City, MO – The Midland by AMC
7/20 – Denver, CO – Paramount Theatre
7/21 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kingsbury Hall at University of Utah
7/24 – Vancouver, BC – Orpheum
7/25 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
7/26 – Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
7/28 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
7/29 – Hollywood, CA – Hollywood Palladium
Finally, I’ll be able to check her off my “to see” list…
~Dan – np: Tyler Fortier – Bang On Time
Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel… (album art/details)
As previously reported, Fiona Apple’s upcoming album The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw, And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do is due out in late June. The official release date is now June 26, 2012. We now have the album art and tracklist…
TRACKLIST:
01″Every Single Night”
02 “Daredevil”
03 “Valentine”
04 “Jonathan”
05 “Left Alone”
06 “Werewolf”
07 “Periphery”
08 “Regret”
09 “Anything We Want”
10 “Hot Knife”
(via Fiona’s FB page)
~Dan – np: Radiohead – OK Computer
Fiona’s new album & Sufjan’s RSD 7″ with Rosie Thomas
Fiona Apple has a new album that’s about to pop (late June 2012 on Epic) – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw, And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do. Here it is written out, presumably in her own pen, from her FB page…
So, hunch… we’ll just call it The Idler Wheel…
or… The Screw And Whipping…? ;)
Much like When the Pawn being adopted for the much longer named 2nd album – When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king what he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight and he’ll win the whole thing ‘fore he enters the ring there’s no body to batter when your mind is your might so when you go solo, you hold your own hand and remember that depth is the greatest of heights and if you know where you stand, then you know where to land and if you fall it won’t matter, cause you’ll know that you’re right.
Some more new music news… Sufjan Stevens and Rosie Thomas are putting out a collaborative 7″ vinyl single for Record Store Day 2012 (4/21/12). The A-side of the single is a re-imagined version of “Where Were You?,” a song from Thomas’s album With Love. On the B-side, Sufjan offers up an answer song called “Here I Am!” Sufjan recorded and mixed both tracks, and both artists show up on both songs.
The new version of “Where Were You?” is streaming below:
~Dan – np: John Zorn – Moonchild: Songs Without Words
Fiona Apple – new album in Spring 2011?
As reported on Antiquiet…
Last Sunday, singer/songwriter Michelle Branch gushed on Twitter that she had heard a couple of new Fiona Apple songs. Verdict? “Amazing.”
This Modern Drummer article on Charley Drayton mentions that his current projects include “playing, co-producing, and mixing Fiona Apple’s upcoming record, scheduled to be released in the spring of 2011.”
The last new music we’ve heard from Apple was this cover of Cy Coleman’s Why Try To Change Me Now released last year. She released two songs on that soundtrack.
~Dan – np: Puscifer – Sounds Into Blood Into Wine 
no free mp3 or flac download torrent here. if you like music, support it by buying it!
Fiona Apple “So Sleepy”
As reported by Paste…
Fiona Apple recorded a song for Chickens in Love, a full-length album due out sometime in the near future from Dave Eggers’ nationwide nonprofit, 826LA. The album is a collection of 12 songs whose lyrics were written by 826LA students and then covered by Los Angeles-based artists. According to their Facebook page, the songs are products of songwriting workshops with the kids and musicians, and all proceeds from record sales will go back into the programs.
“So Sleepy,” a cover of 826LA’s The Gummy Bears, is Apple’s and Jon Brion’s contribution to Chickens in Love. You can stream it and other tracks by the likes of She & Him, Cold War Kids, Dum Dum Girls, Crystal Antlers, the Pity Party and more on their Facebook page, and you can pre-order the record here.
~Dan – np: Dave Douglas & Keystone – Spark of Being
Fiona Apple & Múm
Two unrelated music news items worthy of note…
Fiona Apple is back in the studio for the first time in three years. As SPIN reports, Fiona will contribute two new recordings to The Best Is Yet to Come, a forthcoming compilation honoring Cy Coleman, a composer whose most famous material was performed by Frank Sinatra. On the collection, Apple performs Coleman’s “Why Try to Change Me Now” and “I Walk a Little Faster,” which was popularized by Tony Bennett. Patty Griffin, Nikka Costa, Jill Sobule, and Missy Higgins are among the other artists who honor Coleman’s musical legacy on the album. No release date set, from what I can tell.
Here’s an audio YouTube of Fiona’s “Why Try to Change Me Now”…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Icelandic band Múm (pronounced “moom”) is releasing another album and is touring the U.S. I received my ticket to the Portland show (Nov 4th) in the mail today. I figured it was related to an album, but hadn’t heard that until today (over on the BrooklynVegan blog). Musically, Múm are akin to Sigur Rós meets Frog Pocket. And for those not in the know about Frog Pocket… well, the prior sentence meant that Múm are like a glitchy-electronic Sigur Rós.
Honestly, I hadn’t looked, but I now find out that Múm’s new album (Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know) is due out in August 2009, but it has already been leaked. Oh, internets, when you you ever learn that in order for the arts to continue and flourish, you should pay for it!
Anyway, Múm’s 2009 tour dates are as follows:
- Jul 08 TEATRI DI VITA Bologna #
- Jul 11 Loop festival afterparty at Digital Brighton #
- Jul 12 Loop festival Brighton
- Jul 13 TabarnacleLondon
- Aug 14 SUMMER SUNDAE festival Leicester
- Aug 15 Studio 24 Edinburgh
- Aug 17 National museum of Wales Cardiff, Wales
- Aug 18 Norwich art center Norwhich
- Aug 27 Atomic CafeMunich (DE)
- Aug 28 Beatpol Dresden (DE)
- Sep 05 Lido Berlin (DE)
- Sep 06 Knust Hamburg (DE)
- Sep 07 Gebaeude 9 Cologne (DE)
- Oct 21 the Somerville Theatre Somerville, Massachusetts
- Oct 22 First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Oct 23 Black Cat Washington DC, Washington DC
- Oct 24 Le Poisson Rouge NY, New York
- Oct 26 Le National Montreal, Quebec
- Oct 27 Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, Ontario
- Oct 28 Logan Square Auditorium Chicago, Illinois
- Oct 29 McGuire Theater Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Nov 01 Marquee Room Calgary, Alberta
- Nov 02 Richards on Richards Vancouver, British Columbia
- Nov 03 Showbox at the Market Seattle, Washington
- Nov 04 Aladdin Theater Portland, Oregon
- Nov 05 The Independent San Francisco, California
- Nov 06 El Rey Theatre Los Angeles, California
- Nov 07 Yost Theatre Santa Ana, California
# múm DJ set
~Dan – np: Davka – Davka Live
-Eyvind Kang
-Frank Zappa
Amazon.com mp3 downloads
Creative Commons
This blog and concert photos therein are licensed under a Creative Commons License. Available with Attribution for Non-Commercial, Non-Derivative Use.
pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news 