|
Steven Spoerl
Website:
-
Find Me On:
|
Comments
Keeping this simple:
This is a good, respectable, list. I agree with several of the choices and love all the songs on it.
I made my list for fun.
Here it is.
10. Mistaken for Strangers
9. Slipping Husband
8. Conversation 16
7. Mr. November
6. Slow Show
5. Runaway
4. About Today
3. Secret Meeting
2. Fake Empire
1. Bloodbuzz, Ohio
Way into this. Really excited for this record. Got to interview Finn a while back while they were still working on it and from a smattering of the subject matter he mentioned will be on display here (ornithophobia?!), I think my excitement will be justified. This is a really good start, at the least. Dude’s a great songwriter and I still give Nux Vomica frequent spins. Would love to see ‘em live.
Some astounding instrumental releases from 2012 that didn’t get mentioned yet:
Matthew Bourne – Montauk Variations
Dave Stapleton – Flight
The Caretaker – Patience (After Sebald)
Nils Frahm – Screws
Earth – Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
Thomas Bel – Innerly
This contradicts my “You can’t fuck with John Hawkes” rule now that the SIgur Ros video with him and Elle Fanning exists. And that rule is unbreakable.
Plus, I still get chills shot down my spine when I’m driving around at night and “Dead Flag Blues” comes on.
Maybe it’s best utilized in post-rock type settings?
2 comments on the Killers video:
1. Every time he re-emerges from whatever shadowy lab he spends his time toiling away in, Brandon Flowers looks that much closer to being a robot.
2. THAT DRUMMER’S FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. Seriously, watching him in that video reminds me of why I can’t watch the LotR trilogy anymore: my friend invented a game called “Elijah Wood watching goat porn” and every time there’s a shot of his face, you’re supposed to imagine that’s what he’s doing. I think it applies here as well.
Adding a few others to this list o mine: Robert Glasper Experiment – Black Radio, Big K.R.I.T. – 4Eva N A Day, and Aesop Rock – Skelethon.
Related: I can’t have been the only person who was expecting to see Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, and Fiona Apple in the top 3 slots because fuck specifics.
My top 2 hip-hop releases were both incredibly expansive and fairly brilliant (and, as far as i can tell, got glowing press when they did get press) but neither made the list.
There was the enormous hip-hop collective experiment that Geoff Barrow produced, the Quakers s/t and the score/soundtrack that Plan B did for Ill Manors. Both were 2xLPs I think as well. Sad to not see them crop up on more lists, this one included.
Ah well. Glad to see a lot of my other favorites on here, though,
Welcome! and congratulations. Looking forward to a new voice from this site. As for 2013, top of my anticipated releases that no one’s mentioned: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Endlessly intrigued by “We No Who U R” and excited to see how it plays out on the LP, especially after the knock-on effects series he launched with Abattoir Blues straight through Grinderman 2. Could be a fascinating change of pace. We’ll see!
going back to my earlier henry clay people claim, i realized i didn’t leave a link & should’ve as it’s a relatively small release that got next to no publicity, so here it is in all its charm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mfabaxUWyk
that video’s still only barely over 400 views and mine’s still the only comment on it.
this makes me sad.
i hope someone out there loves it as much as i do.
My two favorites from this year seem to have been forgotten or ignored by nearly everyone. The top spot I’m giving to Father John Misty’s “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” where Aubrey Plaza turns in a surprisingly harrowing and utterly gorgeous (which isn’t that much of a surprise at this point) as a girl completely lost in a bad trip. It had a surrealist tint to it but was utterly believable and honestly felt which added up to something as brooding and visceral as the song itself. The other was a little release from The Henry Clay People for The Fakers which, to me, was the most perfect encapsulation of this era of basement-era rock and roll. It was a simplistic idea that was executed flawlessly and an in incredibly joyous affair that I haven’t been able to stop watching since it came out. That video is what rock and roll is to me and an incredible representation and articulation of that little niche.
The nightmarish fever-dream video for Tom Waits’ “Hell Broke Luce” is worth a mention, too. That was a bona fide event with a mysterious press campaign. Can’t remember the last time a music video generated that much pre-release buzz, apart from Joanna Newsom’s STILL unreleased video for “Good Intentions Paving Company”.
On a somewhat related note, did the Sigur Ros releases for the Mystery Film Experiment qualify as music videos or short films? If it’s the former, then a whole slew of them would be on my list as well.
I’d say Sclavunos’ work with Nick Cave (both in The Bad Seeds and Grinderman) is pretty notable as well.
I was there. It was incredible. I’ve got a review going up of the whole thing on PopMatters sometime soon and a halfway decent video or two, to boot. Here’s them taking the stage and launching into “Greater Omaha” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXA_Fx7uMKs
In regards to Grinderman:
YES.