By Staff Here's the second part of RFSL staff's report on favorite records and live shows of 2011, picks from editors Brad Roberts and Kathryn Pinto.
Brad Roberts, Senior Editor
Favorite Albums of the Year 1. Rob Crow - He Thinks He's People I know people will say, "Oh he's crazy about Pinback anyway..." and it will be of little surprise, but my favorite album of the year popped up unannounced and unexpectedly near the end of the year in October, and it caught me off guard. Rob Crow is such an amazing musician, but I wonder if his greatest talent is in songwriting. Virtuoso guitar and wonderful singing are to be expected, but this is such a varied collection of unforgettable, melodious and structurally complex compositions, subtitled 13 Depressing Pop Hits!, that I don't know where to begin. So I won't. Just go buy it, listen to it and be seduced by it. It hits so many sweet spots it's nearly orgasmic I long to see it in concert.
2. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far This one came across like a ton of bricks from the first listen.
By Staff Earlier Silver Lake and LA bands told us about their favorite records and live shows. This week, in two parts (Part 2 later this week), the staff of Radio Free Silver Lake wraps up 2011 with our take on the best of the year.
Seamus Simpson, Contributor 10. Danger Mouse & Daniel Luppi – Rome & Javelin – Canyon Candy (tie) These are two of the greatest instrumental albums I have heard in forever. One the fake soundtrack to a spaghetti western and the other the old west re-told through the eyes of a robot
9. Raphael Sadiq – Stone Rollin’ Awesome new-style old school R&B
8. Rademacher - Babyhawk (Pt. I & II) Umm, a little close to the bone Silver Lake, and that’s why it’s an amazing inside joke as well as a great album
There are more than a few songs from indie pop act The Western States Motel that remind us of days spent driving in the desert or going to the beach. To say that we find that endearing is kind of an understatement.
The band's latest album Freeway Freeway Riverbed ended up on our LA's Best Albums of 2011 list, so we asked frontman Carl Jordan to write a few words about the making or recording of some of his favorte tracks on it.
Here are the tracks to stream, followed by Carl's own words:
"Country & Western Song"
This was the first thing I finished for the album. It's a pretty straight forward song about simple answers to big questions; the kind of answers you can find in an old c/w tune, and the kind of questions you start asking yourself when you are riding an ATV on the beach in Mexico and it's really fun, but you start thinking it's probably not such a good idea for a lot of different reasons.
The dual analog synths at the start and during the outo were directly influenced by listing to a lot of music by Tobacco. I'm hoping one day I'll get an email from him saying he wants to produce an album for me, free of charge.
"Ghost Town"
This is sort of like The Western States Motel's "Thriller." (The song, not the album.) It's the track most likely to feel appropriately listened to on Halloween.
When recording Freeway Freeway Riverbed, I took a page from The Doors' playbook… I played more-or-less all the bass parts on a keyboard, there's really no bass guitar. So for the recent shows, Paul Zawacki (of 'The Procession', same as our guitar player John Schreffler) has been doing the keyboard-bass live, and it rules.
We all wear our hearts on our sleeves here at Radio Free Silver Lake, so it's easy to guess that our favorite albums of the year were the ones we spared little or no hyperbole for in 2011.
But to save you time digging back through earlier posts, we’ve compiled a list of what we consider the best releases by LA bands over the last twelve months.
We’re still listening to post punk act Manhattan Murder Mystery’s self-titled release like it came out just yesterday. If we could only convince people to check out one album from an LA act in 2011, this would be it.
"Smoky Mountain" is probably the album's brightest gem, full of lyrics that are smart, funny, and catchy and equal parts art and completely punk rock at once -- but lines from "Trailer Trash," "I Always Think About Dyin'," and "Ambulance" get stuck in your head for weeks or months.
The members of Red Cortez emerged from several months of woodshedding with a new sound and a new project rechristening themselves Just An Animal. Already a force to be reckoned with as a live band the foursome closed out 2011 with danceable upbeat record that is catchy as hell.
With this new album, “dynamic mope rock” groupOne Trick Pony delivered a recorded release as impressive and varied as their fantastic live performances. Opening tracks "Knives so Sharp" and "Get Over Yourself" hook from the start, while songs "Diagonal Waves" and "Crepe Hangers" break your heart in the most upbeat possible way and "Andrew Jackson" is worth the trip for its chorus alone.
This band gave some of the best live performances we saw all of this year and this album of five songs shows off their range and uncanny abilities as indie-pop songwriters. What's even more encouraging is that in concert they perform more songs that aren't here and they are every bit as good as these five. Their superb vocal work is beautifully recorded here.
5) RademacherBabyhawk, Part I of III (Self-Released)
This tale of a fictitious rock band almost “making it” in the Silver Lake scene and beyond quickly became habit-forming... The rich detail in the lyrics has a real ring of authenticity and wonderful melodies reveal a deep appreciation of classic rock styles. When we think "summer of 2011,” we think of this album.
Indie act The Californian makes music that combines crooning, Sergio Leone-style western film soundtracks, and Dick Dale surf rock with decidedly crush-worthy results. You’d be hard pressed to find a song on their debut that’s anything less than absolutely charming.
WSM lead Carl Jordan is a virtual maestro at weaving surprisingly complex arrangements with just a handful of tools. Evoking a strong American Southwestern atmosphere, the tales of life on the road offer more plain-spoken, unpretentious observations aided by the lilting and very catchy melodies. And seeing the songs brought to life by a full band at their November On The Rox residency showed off the material's durability.
If more music critics listened to albums three or five or twenty times before writing, this album would be on everyone's Best Of list. Poplar Avenue is about things revealed slowly, the sweetness hidden by bluster, the strength of the ensemble behind a frontman.
Angela Correa lives on top of a steep hill in Mt. Washington that has a panoramic view (metaphorically at least) of the musical landscape of all of Los Angeles. From this vantage point Correatown takes in everything and recombines these styles with Correa's own perspective as a songwriter to create a brilliant amalgam. There are songs on this record more playful pop than anything coming out of Silver Lake in a long time.
10) A Tie for:
One AM RadioHeaven Is Attached by a Slender Thread (Dangerbird)
Every track on electronic pop group One AM Radio’s latest release sounds like a single. There’s no filler whatsoever. The songs are widely varied, but are catchy as hell to a man and either hummable or danceable. Synth pop that melts the mopeyist heart.
The sniff test on this EP (a sneak peek of their next album due next in January) was when it was go-to getting ready in the morning music every day of a particularly tough work week. If you say that Jordan Hudock is one of the best front men in LA, while true, it shortchanges the rest of his band. Seemingly without effort they create the musical structure that lets loose their band leader.
One of the best things about the Silver Lake music scene is that you can see a good show nearly every night of the week, "for cheap or for free" as the song goes. RFSL starts off our Best of 2011 coverage with best new bands. We're calling a new band one that released its first album or played its first show this year, although we can be a bit generous. We included bands that have been playing shows but didn't have a record out and ones that RFSL staff hadn't seen play live until this year. Real talk: if a band is playing the Silver Lake/Echo Park clubs and both Brad and I haven't seen them, they're either brand new or keeping it on the DL.
Spero The prettiest girls at the dance, but they're leaning on the walls all too shy-shy. The Spero's sound is the conversation among romantic/dramatic/ethereal vocals, 1980’s vintage synths and guitar lines that quietly come forward to the front of the mix, along with an understated rhythm section that lays the foundation for the quiet dramas at the front of the stage. (Read more in our Band Spotlight.)
Naive Thieves You take four guys who by all appearances enjoy crate digging for early 1960’s records, playing music for hours in lonely stretches of desert, and a clean close shave. Let them play a midnight set and hear how these vintage influences infuse a modern sound. Guitarist Levi Audette is the show stealer live, but these are well-structured arrangements that breathe in three-dimensional space. (Le Sheik Rhat EP review)
The Lonely Wild The Lonely Wild are another band first seen the last set of the night when I wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep. Fortunately I stayed to be blown away by their excellent songwriting and tight live performance. Since that first show they have released an album, recruited vocalist Jessi Williams--a tough little firecracker of an artist, completed a national tour and come home to write and record their debut LP out in 2012. Not bad for their first year out. (Read Jed's in-depth interview with the Lonely Wild.)
A lot of music sites like to tell you all about why your favorite band sucks. Us? We just want to share what we like. I mean, sure, not everything can be the best thing yet, but goddamn, it's summertime... Let's enjoy the nice weather and listen to some good music while we're at it.
Here are a few of our recommendations on how to pull that off:
Rademacher - Baby Hawk (Part I of III) This is an amazing piece of work that manages to be both time-specific in it's historically accurate storytelling and timeless in it's embrace of classic rock and roll. The lyrics are a model of economy and evocation and it's all wonderfully recorded.
Torches In Trees - Torches EP I think they put this EP together for my Feed You Head third anniversary show, but it's still one of my favorite records of the year. Featuring both new and previously released songs it's a heady compilation that offers a sample of what this band can deliver. But only a fraction of what they deliver live. I can best describe their sound as fuzzy psychedelic diffusion with a hard edge, expertly played.
Chad VanGaalen - Diaper Island This reclusive Canadian musician/artist surfaces infrequently with new albums and amazing self animated videos that are so unusual and unique they are obviously the product of a restive and constantly exploring imagination. The simplicity of Diaper Island was surprising at first, but his singing is so sweet and poignant that the songs grow deeper and richer each time you hear them.
Okkervil River - I Am Very Far This album may turn out to be my favorite Okkervil River album. Bold and skillful songwriting, and lushly varied orchestrations augment the endless flow of fascinating lyrics that come from Will Sheff. I have found this album highly addictive.
OCTAVIUS
Ariel Pink - Before Today There’s nothing more summer time sounding than “Bright Lit Blue Skies.” It’s got a perfect 60’s rock sound. Looking further into the lyrics, the song is about having an outer body experience and floating into the sky, and never coming back.
GIVERS’ joyful, polyrhythmic music broke the spell of melancholy in a month of beautiful, but downhearted music. I first listened to them on one of those days when I thought I would never catch up on email or listening to the tracks piling up in my inbox. So I took a chance on a slightly familiar name in one of those emails and played a couple of GIVERS’ songs. To my surprise, it was bouncy, danceable, percussive music that made me feel like my heart was hopping on a trampoline, in contrast to the doleful, yet excellent, releases of recent weeks (see Bon Iver, the Antlers, Other Lives).
GIVERS, from Lafayette, Louisiana play the Bootleg Theater Thursday with Caddywhompus and Family of the Year. Their debut album In Light comes out Tuesday June 7, but is now streaming in its entirety on NPR Music’s First Listen. Band members Tiffany Lamson and Taylor Guarisco caught up with me by phone from a gas station in Denver on their way out to the Sasquatch Festival and schooled me on young avant-garde Cajun bands, why every band needs a solar bus and their tour van playlist.
Radio Free Silver Lake: We’re really excited to have you guys play LA next week.
Tiffany Lamson: Yeah, we are really excited to play. We love playing on the West Coast; we’ve only done it twice and every time it’s just amazing.
RFSL: How’s your tour going so far?
Taylor Guarisco: The tour is going great. The tour started in New York. We spent a week [there] … just spreading the word about the album that’s about to come out. It’s called In Light; it’s coming out June 7th. We’re really excited about it because we put a lot of love into it.
Light FM here reporting from hot and sticky SXSW. It's Friday March 18th and we have a day off! A few of us who just barely survived the previous night hopped into the Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the Austin streets.
Our first stop was the Filter day party. We arrived just in time for a packed house as NY's Phantogram took the stage. They were energetic and captivating as usual. Great show! But way too hot for us, so we headed to the convention center "artists lounge" and stocked up on free swag, popcorn, and of course beer. I think one of us even got a free massage! Thanks SXSW!
We were on our way again refueling on more free beer and pizza. I don't know if it was the beer talking or not, but we found ourselves at Hoboken Pies literally every single day and agreed it was pretty damn good. We never made it into any of the infamous BBQ joints because the lines were miles long. So we stuck to food trucks. And boy are we feeling it! Ouch.
I have a confession here, I couldn’t stop at five best shows of the year, so my bands to look out for are the five best shows of the year by young bands in a small room.
The Lonely Wild - The Lonely Wild played at the first night of the Marvelous Toy residency at Labrie’s. They were fantastic, so good I went to see them two days later at the Redwood Bar and they were equally good. The cover of “Personal Jesus” is take no prisoners. You look at these fresh-faced kids and ask yourself, “where does all this country soul come from?”
Judson & Mary - If you’ve been around Echo Park or Silver Lake at all in the last year you’ve probably seen Judson & Mary, either playing a regular gig or busking outside a show. For their energy and ubiquity alone they’re one to watch, but they also have well-crafted songs and sweetness that will keep you rooting for them.
Everyone loves The Future. It's where we'll spend the rest of our lives, wear jet packs and drink space wine all the time, drive rocket motorcycles, have sex with sexy hyper-evolved aliens with English accents, and yadda yadda that sort of thing....
But, most importantly? It seems like we'll be listening to a lot of great music.
Writing, writing, writing. Hunter has been demoing some of his best songs yet, and rumors abound that other members might get in on the writing game. If all goes according to plan there should be a release coming in the middle of the year, length and format to be determined. We'll also be touring a lot more in 2011... East Coast, Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and everywhere in between, hopefully. As always we'll do our part to keep Los Angeles entertaining, and we'll be playing a lot here too. 2011 might just be our year-- fingers crossed!
After spending the better part of the last half of the year on the road, we're enjoying the comforts of our home and company of our friends. Soon we'll be putting together the next batch of songs that will be the next Everest record. The plan is to solidify the new songs by road testing the material in small off beat venues on the west coast before coming home to record. Next year is gonna a busy one and we're ready for it. I don't think you'll even have to keep your eyes pealed for us as we're for sure gonna be coming through your town or city with serious regularity. And when we do, come out and let's hang.
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