Music of 2013
I'll start straight off with my favorite shows that I saw this year.
At #3, Shuggie Otis at the Howard Theatre. First off, I'll admit that I thought ole Shuggie was dead. Then by accident, I saw a list of upcoming shows and there he was, scheduled to play at the Howard this summer. Shuggie is tiny, Prince-tiny, but he played the hits and some psychedelic soul he's been working on and played a nice long energetic set. His stage patter is all inside jokes kidding around with the band. He would be a fantastic impression for Dave Chappelle to work on.
At #2, Sparks at the 9:30. If you're as big a Sparks fan as I am, you realize that opportunities to see the Mael brothers are getting less and less frequent. Both of them are in their mid-sixties and aren't the greatest road warriors to begin with. I crossed off a bucket list act when they took the stage. Who would have thought in 1974 when they burst into your house via TOTP that it would have been Ron, he of the comb back, the tiny mustache, and the nerdy shirt-tie combo that would have the more current look? Now, Russell is wearing some Japanese 80's cowl like shirt with matching shorts over footless tights, and bright yellow sneakers onstage. That aside, they play the hits from all the eras of their career and are on the cusp of a new record which is a concept piece, conversations with Igmar Bergmann during the filming of his most famous movies. It takes their normal playful weirdness to the nth degree.
But at #!, was the Robert Glasper Experiment at the Birchmere. I've become a huge fan since Bob slipped me his first Experiment record in 2012. He's released a new record as good as that one called Black Radio II which he played extensively from. And he and his band are so tight and work so effortlessly and joyfully on stage that their music is doubly transporting.
This year I liked the Robert Glasper Experiment Black Radio II record, the Daft Punk Random Access Memories record, and James Blake's Overgrown, but my favorite record this year was Public Service Broadcasting's Inform--Educate--Entertain. Take Appetite-era Prefab Sprout, add a Motorik beat, and play it over PSA's from the 1950s and that's the wild mix that this guy is working with. I've been playing this record non-stop since I got it and would have played it a lot more if the band's merch site had not waited over a month to mail it out to me.
But again, in this era of ever declining venues to browse through discs and find something captivating, I'm drawn again to the individual song format over the record. Even this year, Barnes and Noble, the remaining local vendor which had a good variety of discs has quit stocking music cds. Now it's Target, and Best Buy that's left and neither stock anything but the Top 50. That's great if you want to put more dollars into the ever more ridiculous Mr. Kardashian's pockets, but not good at all if you hear PSB's Everest and want to pick up a copy of their record.
Nevertheless, it's easy to be exposed to new music with all of the podcasts and aggregators that are online, to say nothing of the labels' and artists' sites.
And this year, I loved these songs:
When You Sleep Shonen Knife
Teenage Veronica Falls
Jeans Waving Amor de Dias
Tourniquet Jeremy Messersmith
Don't Play With Guns The Black Angels
The Sunset the Thermals
Nothing's Changed Tricky featuring Francesca Belmonte
Hollow Cloudeater
Blackout Wretch 32 featuring Shakka
Everest Public Service Broadcasting
Just Make it Stop Low Lady
You Shot Me Har Mar Superstar
Sonsick San Fermin
Designer Drug Mayer Hawthorne
Instant Crush daft punk
Kim Chee Taco Man Kelly Stoltz
Muizenberg John Wizards
Relocate (Psychemagik Remix) Kauf
Tennis Court Lorde
The Dream Machine John Zorn
Let It Ride Robert Glasper Experiment featuring Norah Jones
The biggest disappointment of the year was the new Arcade Fire record. And it's not because it isn't good because it kinda is. No, it's because it's not a move forward after their excellent Suburbs record last time out, and because when I read that they were recording in Haiti with local musicians, I expected to hear that out on the record. I've listened to it a number of times now and I don't get any Haiti off of it at all. I looked forward to this new record and all it turned out to be was decent, and not enough. I don't subscribe to the backlash against this band and their pretentions, but I'm also wondering if they have something creatively left in the tank.
Any of you heard anything this year that grabbed you by the lapels and gave you a thorough shaking?
posted by gooner71 @ 12:15 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for getting us going with this thread, mate. As luck would have it, I was working away on my music list last night. No surprise that we share many of the same choices, as you're still my best source for new music.
Beyond that, I’m still relying on old media sources such as National Public Radio and Rolling Stone to find the new ear worms, which makes me feel like a right dinosaur around a lot of my friends who are leaning on the likes of Pandora and YouTube for new music. Here are the records that have kept me absorbed this year:
1. James Blake – “Overgrown”
2. Daft Punk – “Random Access Memories”
3. The Robert Glasper Experment – “Black Radio2”
4. Jessie Ware – “Devotion”
5. Jose James – “No Beginning, No End”
6. Alice Russell – “To Dust”
7. Vampire Weekend – “Modern Vampires of the City”
8. Kacey Musgraves – “Same Trailer, Different Park”
9. Arcade Fire – “Reflektor”
10. Justin Timberlake - "The 20/20 Experience"
Notable Others:
* Laura Marling – “Once I Was an Eagle”
* Madeleine Peyroux – “The Blue Room”
* Rhye – “Woman”
* Yo La Tengo – “Fade”
Here are some of the many, many songs that made my 2013 playlist:
1. Daft Punk – “Get Lucky:” The undisputed song of the summer – a disco gem.
2. Kacey Musgraves – Merry Go ‘Round
3. Rhye – “Open” and “3 Days”
4. James Blake – “Retrograde”
5. Foxygen – “San Francisco”
6. Justin Timberlake – “Take Back the Night”
7. Jessie Ware – “Devotion” and “Wildest Moments”
8. Arcade Fire – “Reflektor” and “Here Comes the Night Time”
9. Robert Glasper Experiment – “Calls” and “Let Me Ride”
10. Vampire Weekend – “Step”
Notable Others:
* Arctic Monkeys – “Do I Wanna Know”
* Au Revoir Simone – “Crazy”
* Chromatics – “Cherry”
* Freedom Fry – “Friends & Enemies”
* Haim – “The Wire”
* Mayer Hawthorne – “Designer Drug”
* Iggy Pop and the Stooges – “Job”
* Junip – “Line of Fire”
* The Postal Service – “Tattered Line of String”
Finally, several live performances kept my head and ears buzzing this year. This included three shows at Lewiston’s Art Park (Billy Idol, BOC and 38 Special and Bad Company). I also saw two world class artists on the Fredonia campus – soprano Dawn Upshaw and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.
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