Posts Tagged ‘Best of 2009’
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Booker T
November 17th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Released April 21st on ANTI- Records
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Hammond B-3 mastermind, Booker T. Jones, returned this year with his first album in twenty years. The man whose career took off as a teenager after writing “Green Onions”, released Potato Hole, featuring Southern Rock band, the Drive-By Truckers, as his backing band, as well as Neil Young on most of the tracks. Booker T’s organ work, matched up with the Truckers raw, dirty rock makes for some wonderful instrumental jams. Most of the songs on the album are brand new tracks, but there are some covers like OutKast’s “Hey Ya”, Tom Waits “Get Behind the Mule” and the Truckers “Space City.”
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Bon Iver
November 16th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Released January 20th on Jagjaguwar Records
![bon_iver[1]](http://www.brokenmic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/bon_iver1.jpg "bon_iver[1]")
I can’t press Justin Vernon and Bon Iver enough. They’re one of my favorite musical discoveries over the past couple years, and they’re simply brilliant on record, and even better live. While most of the songs on their debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, seem to have a somber, wintery feel, the four songs on the Blood Bank EP seem to have a much warmer, positive vibe. The EP entered the Billboard 200 at #16, and peaked on the UK Indie charts at #1.
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Bob Dylan
November 16th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Bob Dylan
Together Through Life
Released April 28th on Columbia Records
A man who needs no introduction, Dylan has released his thirty-third studio album, which debuted at #1 both in the United States and the United Kingdom. It’s Dylan’s first number one album in Britain since 1970’s New Morning. Many of the songs on the album were written with Grateful Dead lyricist, Robert Hunter, and the album also features appearances by David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The album has a similarity to his last album, Modern Times, with a darker, angrier Dylan writing struggling love songs. Bob Dylan also released his thirty-fourth studio album this year as well, Christmas in the Heart, featuring hymns, carols and popular Christmas songs like “Here Comes Santa Claus”, “Little Drummer Boy” and “The First Noel.” 2009 is also a special year for the sixty-eight year old Dylan, who began writing music fifty years ago. No one can deny Dylan’s importance or status in music, and even though he may not sound like he did ten, twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years ago, it’s good to see him writing albums that are still being received so well.
Listing the Best Albums of the Year by Artist from A to Z: BLK JKS
November 15th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Released September 8th on Secretly Canadian
Philadelphia DJ/producer and former boyfriend of M.I.A., Diplo, is often credited for having discovered the African band BLK JKS (pronounced Black Jacks) and dubbing them “the African TV on the Radio.” Although they’ve been together for nearly a decade, they’re still a fairly young band, having just released their debut album a couple months ago, entitled After Robots. Response to the band and the album has been quite favorable, with Rolling Stone and Spin magazines calling BLK JKS one of the bands to watch in 2009.
Backed by the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, BLK JKS mix together a number of styles, giving each track its own distinct style and sound. From the blasting horns in the jammy “Molalatladi”, to psychedelic/prog rock in “Banna Ba Modimo” and “Lakeside”, to the experimental/atmospheric “Standby” and “Kwa Nqingetje”, to the dubbed-out “Skeleton”, to the slowly-building/post-rock of “Cursor”, BLK JKS are mixing up their African roots with traditional elements of American rock that will interest the indie hipsters, the World music lovers, the rappers, and everyone in between. Have a listen for yourself.
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Blitzen Trapper
November 12th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Blitzen Trapper
Black River Killer EP
Released August 24th on Sub Pop Records
Portland, Oregon experimental, indie-folk sextet, Blitzen Trapper, broke through back in 2007, with their third independently-released album, Wild Mountain Nation. They would go onto bigger things by signing to the Sub Pop label and with the release of their follow-up album, Furr. Wild Mountain Nation received high praises from Pitchfork, Spin Magazine, and Rolling Stone, who named the title track #98 on their list of the year’s 100 Best Songs. With the release of Furr, Rolling Stone had a two-page feature on the band and album, which landed #13 on their list of Best Albums of 2008. The title track landed at #4 on the list of Best Singles of the Year, as well as being featured in the television series, Chuck.
Their latest, Black River Killer, is a collection of seven songs, six of which were previously unreleased. The title track was featured on the Furr album, while the other six songs were written during the Furr sessions. It’s one of the most solid collections of songs that Eric Earley and his band have put together, although it’s not exactly where you would want to begin if you’re not familiar with this band. It’s also kind of a surprise that any/all of these songs did not make the cut for the Furr album.
Other Artists I’d Recommend: Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes, Delta Spirit
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Black Moth Super Rainbow
November 11th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Eating Us
Released May 26th on Graveface Records
“I’ve always felt like these ideas shouldn’t outstay their welcome. Three or four records is enough, because I get really bored, and I like to keep these bands and ideas as pure as I can, in their places in time, until it seems like I’ve finally gotten it right.” – Tobacco, FMLY interview
Not much is known about the members of the band Black Moth Super Rainbow, as they like to remain an enigma. The members have all taken on various monikers, like Tobacco (real name Tom Fec, main songwriter, plays the vocoder), The Seven Fields of Aphelion (female, plays keys and monosynth), d. kyler (drums), Father Hummingbird (assuming a male, plays keys and polysynth) and Ryan Graveface (guitars). Power Pill Fist (male, bass) left the band in August 2009.
They formed in Pittsburgh in 2002, formerly going by the names Allegheny White Fish (abstract, noisy music) and satanstompingcaterpillars (more melodic and serious music). The current status of the band is that they are known for their distinctive electro/experimental/psychedelic folk pop sound, using analog instruments like the vocoder, Rhodes piano, Novatron and a Moog Prodigy.
BMSR has a catalog featuring four studio albums and four EP’s. 2003’s Falling Through A Field and 2004’s Start A People feature songs from the satanstompingcaterpillars days, while 2007’s Dandelion Gum and 2009’s Eating Us do not.
Their latest effort is their shortest yet, and features singles like “Don’t You Want To Be In A Cult?” and “Born On A Day The Sun Didn’t Rise.” This album has been described as hallucinogenic easy listening, so I can only imagine what that would be like. Distorted and dreamy vocals and catchy hypnotic beats that will take you to a faraway place.
Other Artists I’d Recommend: MGMT, Stereolab
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Black Lips
November 11th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Black Lips
200 Million Thousand
Released February 24th on Vice Records
Atlanta’s Black Lips formed in 2000, after longtime friends Cole Alexander, Jared Swilley and Ben Eberbaugh left their previous bands (The Renegades, The Reruns). But just days before their tour was slated to begin in December of 2002, Eberbaugh was struck and killed by a drunk driver while he was parked at a toll booth. The band would continue on, stating that’s what he would have wanted.
Over the next few years, they released a few albums while slowly building a fanbase, but gained national recognition in 2006 from Rolling Stone and Spin magazines, and the New York Times. They broke out at South by Southwest in 2007, playing twelve shows in just three days. With their mix of blues, country, punk and psychedelic garage rock, Black Lips have earned a reputation for crazy and intense live shows that have included vomiting, urination, nudity, kissing, electric mini-car races, fireworks, flaming guitars and a chicken. But as the years have progressed they’ve matured and gotten a little bit away from that, noting that they have at times been kicked out of certain venues. Some of the members also play in a number of side projects, like The Spooks, TheFixedFocus, The Original Three, The Gaye Blades and Ghetto Cross.
Their most recent album, 200 Million Thousand, is their best received work yet. There’s quite a clear transition here from their previous works; where their past efforts were more messy and sloppy like their live shows, Black Lips have developed their sound, creating well crafted hooks and riffs. But it still has that crazy Black Lips personality. Don’t look for this to be one of those bands who goes from living the rock and roll dream, to calming down and concentrating on their art. Black Lips art has forever been noise and mayhem and will always be. Four stars from Spin, three from Rolling Stone, and ratings of 7.3 and 7 from NME and Pitchfork, respectively.
Enjoy the albums’ first single, “Short Fuse.”
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
November 11th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!
Released March 17th on Lost Highway Records
I often think of Austin, Texas as ”the Vegas for Music Lovers” because it really kind of is. The official nickname of the city is “the Live Music Capital of the World” and that would be because there are over two-hundred music venues in downtown and throughout the city. And it’s not just a city that every band wants to play in; they want to live there too. Austin, Texas is home to a number of great bands from Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Patty Griffin, to Explosions in the Sky, Spoon and Okkervil River. The latest great band to come from Austin is Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.
Their debut album couldn’t have come at a better time, being released just in time for the South by Southwest Festival, where they had seven performances. Esquire Magazine called them one of ten bands to break out at SXSW 2009, and that they did, where not even two weeks later that album landed #1 on Austin’s Waterloo Records Top 50 Sellers List.
The album sounds straight out of the ’60s, with a fun, energetic mix of funk, soul and R&B, bringing to mind the great artists of the Stax Record label, or what it may sound like if James Brown had fronted Booker T & the MG’s.
Other Artists I’d Recommend: The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Raphael Saadiq
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Ben Harper and Relentless7
November 3rd, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Ben Harper and Relentless7
White Lies for Dark Times
Released May 5th on Virgin Records
The Many Sounds and Styles of Ben Harper
From picking up the slide guitar in his grandparents’ music shop as a teen, to his collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama, it appears that Ben Harper has been everywhere and in between. Whether that be stripped-down acoustic folk music, alternative college radio rock, blues and soul, hard rock or even reggae, the music is constantly flowing out of Harper.
His latest project, Relentless7, does not feature his longtime backing band, the Innocent Criminals, rather, he is joined by three musicians he has known for the better part of the last decade. The story goes that, while Harper was touring in Texas some many years ago, one of the guys driving him around town was in his own band looking to make it. They passed along their demo, in which Harper instantly loved, and the rest was history. They met back up with Harper when he asked them to lay down some tracks on the two-disc, Both Sides of the Gun.
In 2007, Harper was joined onstage at Bonnaroo by John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson (The Roots, guitarist Kirk Douglas also sat in for a song) for what is known as SuperJam. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance, to witness the rare performance featuring these musicians who have made a name for themselves in their own right. That set featured nearly all Led Zeppelin covers (including a near thirty-minute “Dazed and Confused”) and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” It was simply mind-blowing. Harper has stated that the sound created that night, was a sound he was searching for in a band, which thus inspired the formation of Relentless7.
Enjoy the video below!
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 from A to Z: Bell X1
November 3rd, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Bell X1
Blue Lights on the Runway
Released February 20th (UK) and March 3 (US)
“One of Ireland’s greatest bands” – Paste Magazine
The roots of Irish indie-rock band Bell X1, can be traced back to the early nineties with the popular Irish band Juniper. Most of the members of Bell X1 got their start in that band, as did Damien Rice, the band’s former lead vocalist. Despite a number of differences, Rice parted ways with the other members, as both sides moved onto bigger and better things.
Paul Noonan stepped out from behind the drumkit to front Bell X1, although he occasionally still plays drums and percussion. The band also features David Geraghty on lead guitar, banjo and piano, and Dominic Philips on bass. The live incarnation features Tim O’ Donovan (drums), Marc Aubele (guitar, keys) and Rory Doyle (drums).
Bell X1 have released four albums, all which have reached the Top 30 on the Irish charts; the most recent two (Flock, Blue Lights) reached #1. They’ve also released fourteen singles, nine of which landed on the Top 200.
Have a listen to the first single off the new album, “The Great Defector”, the band’s biggest hit to date (#3 on Irish charts).
Dig It: David Byrne of Talking Heads fronting Arcade Fire
