Fresh Cherries from Yakima

whenever i go to write the introduction for this post, i’m not sure of exactly what to say. should i write about how 2009 has been for me personally (lots of massive highs and crushing lows) or professionally (lots of ups and not particularly a lot of downs)? should i write about how the musical landscape, and how easy it is to get caught up in the whirlwind of new releases in the late-00’s? should i write about how 2009 has put out so many good records already, that it was absolutely fucking daunting to compile a list of my favorites? should i write about visiting my (step-)mom in the hospital, thus taking a hiatus from the blog? should i write about visiting a girlfriend in bloomington and pretty much coming home single? should i write about the slow twilight, and the full year of preparation building up to its release? should i write about michael jackson’s death again, and how the memorial was like watching superman or batman or spiderman being carried away in a silver casket? or should i just stick to the music that soundtracked it all, that got me past things, over things, through things? no year in my adult life has been more of a rollercoaster than 2009, and here are the albums that have soundtracked the ride.

bubble teams (or, honorable mentions), in no particular order:

j dilla- jay stay paid
mika miko- we be xuxa
mos def- the ecstatic
japandroids- post-nothing
wale & 9th wonder- back to the feature
ilyas ahmed- goner
st. vincent- actor
city center- self-titled
gun outfit- dim light
eat skulll- wild and inside
the pains of being pure at heart- self-titled
thee oh sees- help

and now, douglas martin’s top-ten:

10. ducktails- self-titled
a pretty brilliant display of summertime psych, and the best thing to sleep to on a hammock with the sun beating down on your backyard in 2009.

9. crocodiles- summer of hate
taking cues from cult-classic bands like suicide and spacemen 3, summer of hate almost sounds like the soundtrack to a david lynch student film, juxtaposing beauty and violence in equal measure in all its low-budget glory.

8. sonic youth- the eternal
give it to the sonics: there are not many bands that, in year twenty-fucking-eight of their career, could quite muster something with as much vitality and panache as their late-period stunner. with songs like “sacred trickster” and “antenna,” it’s easy to see why this is my favorite sonic youth release in years.

7. bill callahan- sometimes, i wish we were an eagle
while every year there seems to be a new “it”-singer/songwriter cropping up somewhere, leave it to bill callahan to quietly drop gem after gem every two years or so. with 2007’s woke on a whaleheart, it seemed as though callahan was ditching understated bummer anthems for brighter, more ecstatic pastures. no dice; eagle is not that type of party. it’s not a party at all. it’s the sound of a man who used to be darker, then he got lighter, and then he got dark again. he even said it himself.

6. wavves- extra v
given nathan williams’ meltdown at primavera sound a couple of months ago and pitchfork’s TMZ-like coverage of said meltdown, it could have been implied that the put-on lo-fi goodness of his shotgun sophomore effort would have gotten lost in the shuffle, but fuck all that. “so bored,” with its slacker/shithead ethos and comically-distorted punk-pop catchiness, is still getting burn everywhere, while the far-superior “to the dregs” and “no hope kids” are just as– nay, even more– anthemic. so, if you’ve already elected to never see wavves live, be assured that the recorded output just as much replay value as they did before wavves decided to become a touring outfit.

5. tiny vipers- life on earth
i’m not going to lie, when i read early interviews from jesy fortino, driving force of my favorite local act, saying that her sophomore album would be even more spare than hands across the void, her utterly melancholic debut album, i called bullshit a little. i mean, few songs consisted of more than fortino’s voice and an acoustic guitar. i was wrong. few songs on life on earth consist of more than fortino’s crestfallen vocals and just one or two plucked strings. and not only is it more spacious, it’s even more devastating.

4. dirty projectors- bitte orca
bitte orca’s most revealing moment comes in about halfway through “useful chamber,” right after the buzz and clutter of guitar noise gives way to a passive hi-hat tap: amber coffman, angel deradoorian, and new co-vocalist haley dekle tangle their voices in enraptured three-part harmony, their lyricless vocals ascending almost straight through the sky above them and into the stratosphere, with nothing underneath except a simple beat from a drum pad. with the nihilism that buoyed rise above, the dirty pros’ song-for-song almost-cover of black flag’s damaged, the next logical step was to record an album that expressed vivacious joy. and dave longstreth and his cabal of accomplished musicians have done it here; mixing up vocal-and-beat-driven R&B with knotty art-damage, creating a feel-good album from about as far left-field as one could possibly come from.

3. DOOM- born like this
out of all of the criticisms i’ve heard of DOOM’s latest– “re-recycled beats,” “too many stream-of-consciousness lyrics,” “not as good as madvillain“– only the last one rings true, and that’s an unfair comparison in itself. what daniel dumile accomplishes here is no small feat; insanely complex rhyme patterns, a reference base almost as wide as the library of congress, getting the best performances out of his guest vocalists, and, with the dilla-produced “gazzillion ear,” the best rap song of at least the past four years. call me crazy, but i genuinely believe all of those components rightfully make born like this the best rap album of 2009.

2. grizzly bear- veckatimest
in the comments section of derek miller’s definitive review of veckatimest, grizzly bear’s absolutely stunning third album, disco vietnam, a peer and friendly acquaintance of mine, compared the craft of the men in the band to sculpture:

I think it’s lazy to assume negative reaction to this record is based purely on negative reaction to the hype. There are a myriad of reasons not to enjoy or admire this record and they are all equally valid. There are many experienced listeners and eloquent writers who have responded to Veckatimist less than enthusiastically and I consider myself one of those. This record requires a tremendous degree of patience because it is very slow, its strengths lie in its subtleties and for some people its perfectly reasonable to conclude a record like this is boring. My personal issue with Grizzly Bear is that the construction of their music is more akin to sculpture. These songs can exist in no form other than the ways in which they are presented here. And that’s fine. There’s a place for that. But when you do that you remove a crucial element to what makes music and its performance truly interesting. This music is inert. That’s a flaw. And to point that out is a legitimate criticism.

although the band has proven that the songs showcased on veckatimest could be translated very well to a live setting, the record itself does require a tremendous degree of patience. however, naturally patient listeners and folks who decide to put in the time with the album will notice flowers blooming from the cracks and crevices of the album’s corners; the alluring four-part harmonies and steadfast musicality flowing through the current of these songs like sparkling blue water. i understand the opinion of those who call the record “boring,” but veckatimest is a musical triumph on the highest level, music that deserves to only be described as “beautiful,” ironically enough, just like the best sculpture pieces.

1. sunset rubdown- dragonslayer
after hours upon hours spent with this record, after hundreds of listens, spencer’s krug’s words still beg to be figured out. sure, the music is more immediate, the songs themselves project a sense of urgency that previous efforts shut up i am dreaming and random spirit lover only hinted at, but spencer krug is not the type of songwriter who’s going to let you figure him out too easily. a man who seemingly spends hours and hours in seclusion, perfecting his craft (takes one to know one, trust me), krug came out of the cave with an effort that is of equal par of his previous two records with him completely at the helm (and two records that will assuredly be on my “best-of-decade” list). dragonslayer, with its raw and “off-the-floor” recording style, gives the outward notion that it’s more “accessible,” but if you know what exactly spencer krug is writing about with his alternately engaging and confounding poetry, please shoot me an e-mail. it’s somewhere on that sidebar.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 7:31 pm and is filed under hella DIY, psych!, punk is/is not dead, art-whatever, singer/songwriter goodies, experimental punk, reppin' the northwest, hip-hop, tiny vipers superfandom, lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.