Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - “We Almost Lost Detroit” (Link goes to Spotify)

The band name is certainly goofy and this song is catchy fun, but look below the surface. This Detroit combo takes Gil Scott Heron’s warning about the risks of nuclear power and the near meltdown of the Fermi1 nuclear plant and turns it, perhaps, into an anthem for our current age of rust belt economic uncertainty. We’re now almost in a perpetual state of losing Detroit, both literally and figuratively.

More to come soon.

As with most “best of lists”, the exclusions often become more interesting than the inclusions. Creating a comprehensive, definitive list of the best of anything is a fool’s errand. So I won’t try to sell anyone on this being even remotely exhaustive. This is simply a selection of songs I enjoyed this year.

That’s my preemptive defense to the  ”you missed X, therefore your list sucks” type of comment. Not that I expect to receive any comments, but I like to be prepared.

With that out of the way, I am going to stretch this list out over several posts so I can give each song it’s proper focus. So without any further blathering, here are my favorite songs from this rapidly ending year.

I Break Horses – “Hearts” (Link goes to Spotify)

In baseball, the term wheelhouse is used to define a batter’s “sweet spot” for producing results. In music, I use it to describe bands like I Break Horses. This Swedish duo’s lush, layered sound evokes one of my favorite sub-genres: classic period Shoegaze. The focus is blurred, the music drones, the vocals drift in from a distance and rise to melancholic heights. I was smitten at the intro.

Tuning back in, summer of 2008. Listening to a lot of everything including, but not limited to such entities as the new Coldplay record (not that there’s anything wrong with that). In some alternate universe Viva La Vida is U2‘s follow up record to The Joshua Tree. Would it be heresy to swap it for Rattle and Hum? Probably not. Or maybe slot it in between Pop and All That You Can’t Leave Behind? These are not criticisms of Coldplay, mind you. I come to praise, even if somewhat faintly.

I’m enjoying the fact that my favorite line from Vida was written by Brian Eno. Thanks man.

Maybe I’m just tired of waiting for a new U2 record – which apparently is only a few months away. It’s finished! Mix it Brian and Danny! Prepare for the hype, prepare for the show! Rock is being reinvented as we speak. Or maybe just the guitar. Cue the Bono quote machine. I love it, laugh at it, it’s the best time to be alive.

Another U2 note. I’m genuinely thrilled to hear a deluxe DVD edition of Live at Red Rocks is slated (thanks @U2.com). Apparently the running time of 80 minutes (25 minutes longer than the original release) indicates it’s the full show. Awesome. I’ll take one on blu-ray. Thanks.

What else? Oh yeah, I miss Oink. The beer room at the Bowery Whole Foods is my Sgt Pepper’s. Jane’s Addiction on Rock Band 2 will make me happy.

We’ll get to some site updates soon, hopefully.

Coffee is for closers.

So I can’t promise daily updates, but there will be more from us. Soon. Again, there’s just too much good music to talk about and some great shows coming up to review. The completed three months of this year have already offered the goods. I submit the following as an argument:

1. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver. Call me a hater, but I was confident that James Murphy couldn’t top his early singles and self-titled album. I may be proud to a fault, but I’m willing to admit that I am wrong. Sound of Silver is beyond expectation. It’s a classic, somehow amazing without being all that original or groundbreaking. That’s not meant as a criticism. James knows how to distill the essence of some great influences into a most dynamic sound. It’s one that bursts from the ‘phones, drawing you into its rhythm and sly attitude.

2. !!! – Myth Takes. Another surprise. I’d really stopped paying attention to !!! after Louden Up Now just didn’t work for me. I’ve been won back by the near track one through 10 perfection of Myth Takes, but especially the breathtaking combo of “Bend Over Beethoven” and “Break in Case of Anything”. An album preview show in the skirts of Greenpoint only made me love this album more.

3. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha. I’ve been a Bird watcher since seeing him open for Magnetic Fields a few years back. Weather Systems hooked me then, Mysterious Production of Eggs deepened my love and now his latest has sealed the deal. I’ve yet to venture into his back pages, so my ravings may be uninformed. But to date, Armchair is the most consistently satisfying release from Bird. Certainly “Plasticities”, “Scythian Empire” and “Spare-Ohs” deserve a place in his pantheon.

4. Shows, shows and more shows. I’ve left out some other 2007 albums that deserve mention down the line. I’ll hopefully get to them at some point soon. Yet what is really setting this year apart is the number of really outstanding concerts on the calendar. Arcade Fire, Bjork, Wu-Tang and Rage, !!!, Air. The list grows. Then there’s the big one for me – Daft Punk. I’m not as cult-ish about them as others, but I’ve seen the Coachella performance. I’ve heard it. I want to experience it for myself. I hope all of these shows are as good as last Friday’s LCD Soundsystem performance at the Bowery Ballroom. That show has set the standard for the year.

Again, no promises from me, but this site is not dead yet. Thanks for sticking around.

Towards the end of November, I found myself at The Lowry – a cultural center in one of the greatest of all culture centers, Manchester, England. That night, the featured event (well, one of multiple events as it more of a culture complex with several theaters) was a performance by Jason “Spaceman” Pierce, general mastermind behind Spiritualized. The occasion was the penultimate show of a 10-gig tour dubbed “Acoustic Mainlines.”

The following description featured in the press release announcing the tour: “the dates will showcase some of the songs from the forthcoming Spiritualized album as well as tracks from the ESpacemen 3 and Spiritualized catalogues and songs from other artists. He will be accompanied on all dates by a string quartet, gospel singers and Doggen on Fender Rhodes.”

The live return of the Spaceman with a string section, gospel singers, and an electric organ – Spiritualized diehards collectively lost their shit when they read the announcement for a number of reasons. First, it is not often that the majority of the delicate Spiritualized songs get played live because usually the touring set up just weren’t suitable. However, one of the most satisfying and overwhelming concerts I have ever experienced was in 2001 when Spiritualized played the ornate Riverside Church in New York with a large horn section while promoting the underrated and sumptuously produced (100 piece orchestra on several songs) Let It Come Down. The bombast and the beauty were both perfectly framed that night and the “Acoustic Mainlines” concept sounded like the latter would be the featured event.

Second, as you may have read on here last year, the Spaceman had serious health problems, so severe, in fact, that he was declared legally “dead” twice. (Note: here is a very interesting and revealing interview that the Spaceman did recently with The Guardian). That he has recovered to the point of creating new music and performing was very encouraging. That I was likely to be in England during the tour made it a no-brainer.

The Lowry is a large, “serious” music venue – think a more modern Kennedy Center. When we walked in, an older lady at a table asked us “Are you here for J. Spaceman? The Quays Theater is at the end of this hallway…” At 8:45, a dulcet announcement over the PA noted in the most proper of English-accented voices: “J. Spaceman will be on in 3 minutes.” It would normally seem incongruous to have such a sophisticated location for a rock concert, but when you consider Spaceman’s ambitious tendencies (the Riverside Church show was originally scheduled for Carnegie Hall), it is hard not to expect this sort of thing from the Spaceman.

Notwithstanding incredibly high expectations for this show, Acoustic Mainlines lived up to all of the build up. The Spaceman looked as healthy as ever and received a hero’s welcome to the stage. The show started with a gentle ballad called “Sitting on Fire” and set the tone for the sound of the show. The setlist was a mix of a few new songs, covers of gospel songs, a Daniel Johnson cover, a couple of Spacemen 3 songs and obviously a nice chunk (if I could muster any objective criticism of the show, which I really can’t, this chunk could have been chunkier) of Spiritualized. The Spiritualized songs that were played were all from the post-Pure Phase era, which I was a bit surprised by as Lazer Guided Melodies, a favorite album of mine as well as Rajeev is the perfect album for this setting, and it is hard to imagine that “Shine a Light” would have been anything but stunning in a stripped down form, but this omission did not even dent the overall experience. How could it after hearing “Cool Waves” or “Lord Can You Hear Me?”

Perhaps the most overwhelming moment of the show was the seamless blending of “Anything More” into “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space”. While the Spaceman sang the lead on “Ladies and Gentlemen.” his gospel backup singers beautifully layered in parts of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”  (Note: this is how the song was originally recorded but not released because of the Presley estate not giving permission. However, The “Elvis Mix” is available on the internets)

As you may have expected from a venue that announces over the PA that the show will begin in 3 minutes, the sound in the room was immaculate. The combination of a seated theater and good acoustics were essential for a show like this – Brits are typically a ruckus bunch at concerts, prone to have loud conversations over the several lagers they just carried back from the bar (yeah, I said it!) and without this somewhat solemn context, clearly this could have been a problem as it was at other shows on the tour.

While there are rumors of Acoustic Mainlines having been recorded for an album release, if you want to hear an impressive audience recording of this magical show, you can find it on this Spiritualized message board post.

To whet your appetite, here are a couple of tracks from that recording:

J. Spaceman – “Amen” (MP3)
J. Spaceman – “Anything More” (MP3)
J. Spaceman – “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” (MP3)

(Yousef, whoever you are, you did an amazing job with this recording!)

Not to spread rumors or get hopes up but according to this fellow American that experienced Acoustic Mainlines, and even managed to go backstage and talk to the Spaceman himself, there was some intimation that the show would come to the US (well at least the 9:30 club in Washington DC). Needless to say, it will be worth seeing for if it does.

Setlist: Sitting on Fire / Devil Town / Lord Let it Rain on Me / True Love Will Find You in the End / The Straight and the Narrow / Cool Waves / Hold on / Amen / Soul on Fire / Walkin With Jesus / Going Down Slow / All of My Tears / Stop Your Crying / Anything More / Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space / Can’t Help Falling in Love / Lay it Down Slow / Baby I’m Just a Fool / Coming Down / Funeral Home / Lord can you hear me?

Encore: Oh Happy Day

Nine more deserving of honorable mention (rounding it out to 30):

Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit; Lansing-Dreiden – The Dividing Island; The Classic Brown – Down With Fun; Nathan Fake – Drowning in a Sea of Love; The Gossip – Standing in the Way of Control; Lupen Crook – Accidents Occur Whilst Sleeping; Peter Bjorn and John – Writer’s Block; Cat Power – The Greatest; Junior Boys – So This is Goodbye

Want singles? Sure you do. Who doesn’t?! I’m limiting these picks to 20 songs that were actually commercially released as singles. Without those parameters, trying to compile a list of individual songs would be madness:

Robbie Williams – “Rudebox”
Nelly Furtado – “Maneater”
The Long Blondes – “Weekend Without Makeup”
Art Brut – “Nag Nag Nag Nag”
Depeche Mode – “Martyr”
The Killers – “When You Were Young”
Justice vs Simian – “We Are Your Friends”
Chromatics – “Nite”
The Needles – “Dianne”
Ladyfuzz – “Kerfuffle (Single Version)”
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – “According to Plan”
Joakim – “I Wish You Were Gone”
Peter Bjorn and John – “Young Folks”
Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland – “Promiscuous”
Justin Timberlake – “Sexyback”
The Knife – “We Share Our Mother’s Health”
Sol Seppy – “Slo Buzz”
Cat Power – “The Greatest”
Belle & Sebastian – “White Collar Boy”
Poni Hoax – “Budapest”

The best two (out of two) long-form singles of the year (in no order):

LCD Soundsystem – “45:33 Nike+ Original Run”
Ricardo Villalobos – “Fizheuer Zieheuer”

And last, but not least… ARTIST OF THE YEAR!

Gerard