Actually not really. Sure, there hasn't been even a peep from us One Louder folks for awhile now. But that's not because nothing is happening. 2007 has been great for music so far. Come on, I've nearly filled up a top 20 best albums already and it's just the start of Q2. But life goes on, work has its demands and there's just not enough time to keep this site fresh. But we're not calling it a day just yet.

So I can't promise daily updates, but there will be more from us. Soon. Again, there's just too much good music to talk about and some great shows coming up to review. The completed three months of this year have already offered the goods. I submit the following as an argument:

1. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver. Call me a hater, but I was confident that James Murphy couldn't top his early singles and self-titled album. I may be proud to a fault, but I'm willing to admit that I am wrong. Sound of Silver is beyond expectation. It's a classic, somehow amazing without being all that original or groundbreaking. That's not meant as a criticism. James knows how to distill the essence of some great influences into a most dynamic sound. It's one that bursts from the 'phones, drawing you into its rhythm and sly attitude.

2. !!! - Myth Takes. Another surprise. I'd really stopped paying attention to !!! after Louden Up Now just didn't work for me. I've been won back by the near track one through 10 perfection of Myth Takes, but especially the breathtaking combo of "Bend Over Beethoven" and "Break in Case of Anything". An album preview show in the skirts of Greenpoint only made me love this album more.

3. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha. I've been a Bird watcher since seeing him open for Magnetic Fields a few years back. Weather Systems hooked me then, Mysterious Production of Eggs deepened my love and now his latest has sealed the deal. I've yet to venture into his back pages, so my ravings may be uninformed. But to date, Armchair is the most consistently satisfying release from Bird. Certainly "Plasticities", "Scythian Empire" and "Spare-Ohs" deserve a place in his pantheon.

4. Shows, shows and more shows. I've left out some other 2007 albums that deserve mention down the line. I'll hopefully get to them at some point soon. Yet what is really setting this year apart is the number of really outstanding concerts on the calendar. Arcade Fire, Bjork, Wu-Tang and Rage, !!!, Air. The list grows. Then there's the big one for me - Daft Punk. I'm not as cult-ish about them as others, but I've seen the Coachella performance. I've heard it. I want to experience it for myself. I hope all of these shows are as good as last Friday's LCD Soundsystem performance at the Bowery Ballroom. That show has set the standard for the year.

Again, no promises from me, but this site is not dead yet. Thanks for sticking around.

Before I get to my list, I have some questions and comments about list methodology. If you don't care, please skip the next three paragraphs.

I've been struggling with putting a list together for 2006 because I really don't know how to choose them. Do I base my choices purely on how much I played a certain album? Or is there some other standard, such as gut instinct, to go by? The reason I ask is I'm really having trouble distinguishing a ranking order out of 10,20, even 50 possible candidates. I blame my confusion on iTunes's Play Count tracking feature.

If I go by the purely empirical play count data, as provided by iTunes, my favorite record is obvious. I listened to Bob Dylan's Modern Times more than any other. In numerical terms, I gave Modern Times nearly 40 complete spins. Conveniently, this record also happens to be my favorite from the year. But from there, ranking based on listen counts breaks down. I listened to the Flaming Lips' At War with The Mystics nearly 10 times through (more than some choices in the following list) and it's nowhere near my top 50 or 100. I suppose it took that many plays to figure out I didn't like it very much. My second most played song was "Dog" by El Perro Del Mar, but I wouldn't rank the full album in the same spot (it's at number 13 actually).

Another good example is LCD Soundsystem's "45:33". I've only played it four times all the way through according to iTunes yet I rank it in my top 10. Obviously the track's epic length dampened the number of complete plays, yet I probably listened to portions of it nearly 10-15 times. However in this case, one listen would have sealed "45:33" a place in the upper echelons. It's that great of an experience.

So the following list, while ordered, is rather arbitrary. It's a combination of what I played most, what I liked but should have played more and instinct. Truth is I'm still working my way through a large stack of 2006 releases, so this list may change sometime later in the year 2007.

OK, that's the ramble. Now here's the list, with an odd comment here and there for the top 10:

1. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Perhaps I am predestined to give any new Dylan record a significant chunk of listening time, but Modern Times earned this spot on its merit. On the surface, this record is far less ambitious than Love & Theft or Time Out of Mind. It may lack in challenge, but it abounds in wit, wisdom and pathos.

2. Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye
The second Junior Boys album finds the band basking in some figurative warm sunshine. It might be better meds, or perhaps a streamlined lineup (original member Johnny Dark left before So This is Goodbye, leaving a core of Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus) that explains the mood lift from 2004's Last Exit. The stuttering rhythms that distinguished the debut are simplified here, but thankfully the JBs attention to melody and mood has not been sacrificed. They have not lost their darker edges. There's still enough melancholic synth soul to for those seeking a soundtrack for late night introspection.

3. Trentemøller - The Last Resort
On The Last Resort, Trentemøller has crafted a collection of densely ornate tracks, layered wall-to-wall with a veritable shag carpet of rich sounds. For me it's an often stunning collection of emotive techno. But fans of less-is-more minimalism, you may want to look elsewhere.

4. Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways
5. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

6. Max Richter - Songs From Before
The perfect counterbalance to the bombastic stylings of Trentemøller, Max Richter's engrossing Songs From Before bewitches through simple, emotional passages of strings and piano, weighted from below by ghostly layers of street hassle. Haruki Murakami fans will especially enjoy the readings of his prose by Robert Wyatt during the brief interludes.

7. LCD Soundsystem - "45:33"
As mentioned above, I've sampled portions of James Murphy's Nike workout track many more times than the measly two plays iTunes credits me with. I may be obsessed with play counts, but so far I've avoided forwarding to the last ":33" just to get a credit. No cheating allowed. I also have yet to put "45:33" to the workout challenge. If jogging along to it in my imagination is allowed, let me just say this is best damn workout tape ever. I expect to see a lithe Murphy in March at the Bowery Ballroom!

8. Rub `n' Tug - Better With A Spoonful of Leather
9. Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles
10. Hot Chip - The Warning

The Next 10:

Helios - Eingya
The Knife - Silent Shout
El Perro Del Mar - S/T
Various Artists - Panama! Latin, Calypso and Funk on the Isthmus 1965 - 75
Rickard Javerling - Two Times Five Lullaby
Skatebard - Midnight Magic
Genevieve Pasquier - Soap Bubble Factory
Keef Baker - Pure Language
I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
Booka Shade - Movements

Also great: Ricardo Villalobos - "Fizheuer Zieheuer"; Massonix - Subtracks; Pink Mountaintops - Axis of Evol; Cat Power - The Greatest; The Early Years - All Ones and Zeros; Adrian Klumpes - Be Still; Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit; Chihei Hatakeyama - Minima Moralia; Jeff Samuel - Step; Maximilian Hecker - I'll Be A Virgin, I'll Be A Mountain.

More: The Changes - Today is Tonight; Lisa Germano - In the Maybe World; Rosy Parlane - Jessamine; Bonobo - Days to Come; Marsen Jules - Les Fleurs; Post Industrial Boys - Trauma; The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control; Awesome Color - Awesome Color.

Editor's note: I was lucky enough to spend my 2006 Thanksgiving vacation in merry old England. I traveled over solo, but met up with three good friends from New York in Manchester. The following is a review by Phil of a show we attended together in that city. Enjoy!

Towards the end of November, I found myself at The Lowry - a cultural center in one of the greatest of all culture centers, Manchester, England. That night, the featured event (well, one of multiple events as it more of a culture complex with several theaters) was a performance by Jason "Spaceman" Pierce, general mastermind behind Spiritualized. The occasion was the penultimate show of a 10-gig tour dubbed "Acoustic Mainlines."

The following description featured in the press release announcing the tour: "the dates will showcase some of the songs from the forthcoming Spiritualized album as well as tracks from the ESpacemen 3 and Spiritualized catalogues and songs from other artists. He will be accompanied on all dates by a string quartet, gospel singers and Doggen on Fender Rhodes."

The live return of the Spaceman with a string section, gospel singers, and an electric organ - Spiritualized diehards collectively lost their shit when they read the announcement for a number of reasons. First, it is not often that the majority of the delicate Spiritualized songs get played live because usually the touring set up just weren't suitable. However, one of the most satisfying and overwhelming concerts I have ever experienced was in 2001 when Spiritualized played the ornate Riverside Church in New York with a large horn section while promoting the underrated and sumptuously produced (100 piece orchestra on several songs) Let It Come Down. The bombast and the beauty were both perfectly framed that night and the "Acoustic Mainlines" concept sounded like the latter would be the featured event.

Second, as you may have read on here last year, the Spaceman had serious health problems, so severe, in fact, that he was declared legally "dead" twice. (Note: here is a very interesting and revealing interview that the Spaceman did recently with The Guardian). That he has recovered to the point of creating new music and performing was very encouraging. That I was likely to be in England during the tour made it a no-brainer.

The Lowry is a large, "serious" music venue - think a more modern Kennedy Center. When we walked in, an older lady at a table asked us "Are you here for J. Spaceman? The Quays Theater is at the end of this hallway..." At 8:45, a dulcet announcement over the PA noted in the most proper of English-accented voices: "J. Spaceman will be on in 3 minutes." It would normally seem incongruous to have such a sophisticated location for a rock concert, but when you consider Spaceman's ambitious tendencies (the Riverside Church show was originally scheduled for Carnegie Hall), it is hard not to expect this sort of thing from the Spaceman.

Notwithstanding incredibly high expectations for this show, Acoustic Mainlines lived up to all of the build up. The Spaceman looked as healthy as ever and received a hero's welcome to the stage. The show started with a gentle ballad called "Sitting on Fire" and set the tone for the sound of the show. The setlist was a mix of a few new songs, covers of gospel songs, a Daniel Johnson cover, a couple of Spacemen 3 songs and obviously a nice chunk (if I could muster any objective criticism of the show, which I really can't, this chunk could have been chunkier) of Spiritualized. The Spiritualized songs that were played were all from the post-Pure Phase era, which I was a bit surprised by as Lazer Guided Melodies, a favorite album of mine as well as Rajeev is the perfect album for this setting, and it is hard to imagine that "Shine a Light" would have been anything but stunning in a stripped down form, but this omission did not even dent the overall experience. How could it after hearing "Cool Waves" or "Lord Can You Hear Me?"

Perhaps the most overwhelming moment of the show was the seamless blending of "Anything More" into "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space". While the Spaceman sang the lead on "Ladies and Gentlemen." his gospel backup singers beautifully layered in parts of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love."  (Note: this is how the song was originally recorded but not released because of the Presley estate not giving permission. However, The "Elvis Mix" is available on the internets)

As you may have expected from a venue that announces over the PA that the show will begin in 3 minutes, the sound in the room was immaculate. The combination of a seated theater and good acoustics were essential for a show like this - Brits are typically a ruckus bunch at concerts, prone to have loud conversations over the several lagers they just carried back from the bar (yeah, I said it!) and without this somewhat solemn context, clearly this could have been a problem as it was at other shows on the tour.

While there are rumors of Acoustic Mainlines having been recorded for an album release, if you want to hear an impressive audience recording of this magical show, you can find it on this Spiritualized message board post.

To whet your appetite, here are a couple of tracks from that recording:

J. Spaceman - "Amen" (MP3)
J. Spaceman - "Anything More" (MP3)
J. Spaceman - "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (MP3)

(Yousef, whoever you are, you did an amazing job with this recording!)

Not to spread rumors or get hopes up but according to this fellow American that experienced Acoustic Mainlines, and even managed to go backstage and talk to the Spaceman himself, there was some intimation that the show would come to the US (well at least the 9:30 club in Washington DC). Needless to say, it will be worth seeing for if it does.

Setlist: Sitting on Fire / Devil Town / Lord Let it Rain on Me / True Love Will Find You in the End / The Straight and the Narrow / Cool Waves / Hold on / Amen / Soul on Fire / Walkin With Jesus / Going Down Slow / All of My Tears / Stop Your Crying / Anything More / Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space / Can't Help Falling in Love / Lay it Down Slow / Baby I'm Just a Fool / Coming Down / Funeral Home / Lord can you hear me?

Encore: Oh Happy Day

2006 never seemed like that great a year for albums as it was moving along, but when it came time for me to pick apart and reassemble a list of favorites, I had trouble keeping it to a manageable number. What follows is a list of 21 albums, in descending order of urgency, that you should make an effort to hear (after you put down your craptastical Joanna Newsom and Destroyer records, that is).

Skatebard - Midnight Magic
Norwegian knob-twiddler Skatebard's first full-length is brimming with great Italodisco-inspired sessions and would be the perfect soundtrack for a John Carpenter movie never made. Escape From Oslo anyone?

Henri Faberge & the Adorables - Henri Faberge & the Adorables
What happens when a whole troupe of Canadians get together, write upbeat and innocent-sounding songs and then narrate them with their dirty little potty mouths? Henri Faberge calls it "adorable" and so do I.

Deloris - Ten Lives
It was a weak year for gimmick-free indie rock. With The Shins busy writing, Okkervil River busy touring and The National busy just resting, Deloris produced an impeccable collection of songs in the same spirit as those bands. No weird singer, no cheap toy instruments--just tight songs with deep hooks.

Katerine - Robots Apres Tout
Philippe Katerine is excessively French in every way possible, and his album is better for it. A strange mix of cut-up electronics, live disco-driven instruments and an amateur choir providing the backing vocals on about 70% of the album's songs, it's not like anything else I heard this year (or any previous year either).

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
As I mentioned above with regard to Ladyfuzz, Show Your Bones isn't exactly the sophomore album I'd expected from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It's more spacious, more acoustic, more melancholy and more grown up. Grown up? Hey, that shouldn't always have a negative connotation.

The Long Blondes - Someone to Drive You Home
The Long Blondes could just as easily have existed in 1981 as in 2006. No, really. Someone to Drive You Home is one of the few albums that sounds incredibly modern and different by truly sounding like it comes from another era.

Milkymee - Songs For Herr Nicke
Emilie Hanak (aka Milkymee) writes great songs that deserve to be fleshed out further, but performs most of them with only an electric guitar as her accompaniment. The couple tracks with a full band here really stand out above the rest, so hopefully her next album will move her in that direction.

Sinner DC - Mount Age
I wonder if I'd like this in the daytime. I don't have any idea, because I've only ever listened to it in the wee hours after midnight. Swirling strings on top of rigid beats and totally left-field sonic flourishes make the moon move from one end of the sky to the other. It might just make the sun sleepy, though.

American Watercolor Movement - It Takes Fifteen to Tango in My Book...
American Watercolor Movement is a band that goes great lengths to make rock music something bigger, something different. Picked apart song by song, the album loses a lot. It's when you listen to the whole thing, every art-damaged second of it, that its full impact is felt. Completely genreless.

Imaad Wasif - Imaad Wasif
He may be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' touring-only fourth member now, but don't think he's bringing that world to meet this one. Wasif solo is more akin to the sounds of Elliott Smith and Nick Drake than it is the NYC new-rock scene. Quiet as a mouse and as beautiful as a painting.

Jody Wildgoose - Afterlife
It seems all the best albums this year (or my favorite ones, at least) go a long way to defy classification. Jody Wildgoose's Afterlife is no different in that regard. At heart, he's a pop songwriter, but he does it in about 1,000 disparate ways--sounding like Beck one moment and Robert Pollard the next.

Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
I've never found any of Viva Voce's albums to be all that good before now. Sludgy but sparkly, determined but carefree, these songs are genuinely exciting in a way that most other NW bands once made them (but sadly no longer do).

Super 700 - Super 700
Another giant troupe of people making music (like Henri Faberge & the Adorables), except this time they're led by three sisters from Berlin. Largely guitar-based songs with occasional electronic embellishments and vocals that sometimes bring pre-MILF Gwen Stefani to mind.

Nine more deserving of honorable mention (rounding it out to 30):

Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit; Lansing-Dreiden - The Dividing Island; The Classic Brown - Down With Fun; Nathan Fake - Drowning in a Sea of Love; The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control; Lupen Crook - Accidents Occur Whilst Sleeping; Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block; Cat Power - The Greatest; Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye

Want singles? Sure you do. Who doesn't?! I'm limiting these picks to 20 songs that were actually commercially released as singles. Without those parameters, trying to compile a list of individual songs would be madness:

Robbie Williams - "Rudebox"
Nelly Furtado - "Maneater"
The Long Blondes - "Weekend Without Makeup"
Art Brut - "Nag Nag Nag Nag"
Depeche Mode - "Martyr"
The Killers - "When You Were Young"
Justice vs Simian - "We Are Your Friends"
Chromatics - "Nite"
The Needles - "Dianne"
Ladyfuzz - "Kerfuffle (Single Version)"
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - "According to Plan"
Joakim - "I Wish You Were Gone"
Peter Bjorn and John - "Young Folks"
Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland - "Promiscuous"
Justin Timberlake - "Sexyback"
The Knife - "We Share Our Mother's Health"
Sol Seppy - "Slo Buzz"
Cat Power - "The Greatest"
Belle & Sebastian - "White Collar Boy"
Poni Hoax - "Budapest"

The best two (out of two) long-form singles of the year (in no order):

LCD Soundsystem - "45:33 Nike+ Original Run"
Ricardo Villalobos - "Fizheuer Zieheuer"

And last, but not least... ARTIST OF THE YEAR!

Gerard

I came of age when the Village People, Hooked on Classics and Rick Dees were the sound of disco - literally and figuratively the bell end of the genre and the decade itself. I jumped along to Dee's "Disco Duck" on the family mini-tramp, while over at my grade school, Jimmy Carter was a punch line and Disco Sucked^TM. We laughed at disco then, hooted at the Bee Gees and their cartoon falsettos, goofed on 20" bell bottoms and monster side burns.

The disco backlash was inescapable. It worked its hate deep into my conscience, where remnants still reside today. Ironically I had no trouble embracing disco's progeny. House music and its continuously splintering inspirations seemed to edit out the cheese found in late 70's popular disco. Gone were Indian costumes and dancing aquatic animals. Left were the weirder, underground elements that held more appeal for a straight white kid in Arizona.

But you can't spend much time with House without confronting the disco issue, so a reevaluation was always in order. The work to reshape my understanding and appreciation of disco is on going. It has been helped tremendously by reading Peter Shapiro's outstanding book, Turn the Beat Around - The Secret History of Disco.

Just as Simon Reynolds's Rip it Up and Start Again sparked a deeper love for post punk and added about 200 bands to my must-hear list, Shapiro has overwhelmed me with new sounds and directions. I have months, years of material to find and experience. I've decided to begin at the beginning, with a compilation from one of disco's pioneers, David Mancuso.

David Mancuso Presents The Loft, Volume 1 (Nuphonic, 2000) gives a taste of the music DJs spun at Mancuso's legendary private house parties, held in New York in the beginning in the late `60s. Mancuso's invite-only gatherings, held in his own loft, brought together the soon-to-be who's who of the early New York disco scene, names like Nicky Siano and Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan. Certainly the exclusivity was a draw for the lucky invitees, but it was Mancuso's sound system and the music that poured out of it that inspired them.

The two disc collection brims with foundational tracks. Foremost on disc one is the previously unreleased (at the time) original version of "Is it All Over My Face?" (MP3) an 11-minute groove from Arthur Russell's fleeting group Loose Joints. As Shapiro relates, Russell's record label found the track completely lacking in commercial potential and commissioned Larry Levan to remix for radio appeal. Having grown more familiar with the messy glory that is the original, I find Levan's smooth remix pales in comparison.

The original take of "Is it All Over My Face" is a loose, weird joint indeed, a free jam of vocal chants, rolling percussion and Russell's signature cello holding up the low end. It never works up much of a sweat honestly, but the vibe is pure ramshackle bliss.

Other highlights include, well dammit the whole things is great, but check out Man Friday's "Love Honey, Love Heartache (Larry Levan Vocal Mix)", Ednah Holt's "Serious, Sirius Space Party (Club Version)", Karma's "High Priestess" and Manu Dibango's "Soul Makossa".

I realize I'm glossing over some amazing songs, worthy of many separate posts. I'll spend more time on Mancuso, Siano, and Larry Levan in the next edition.

Do you have 20 minutes to spare? Rosy Parlane's "Part 3", the denouement of his second album Jessamine, is time well-spent. In over a quarter of an hour, Parlane moves the track from the blissful sound of the pop and crackle of a needle on a dusty record to a menacing storm of sound. It's a stunning composition, never boring or incidental.

It may be dominated by a cacophonous meltdown, but "Part 3"'s peaceful beginning is just as interesting. Specks of sound flitter from ear to ear. In the distance, a mournful whistle descends down the spine, chills left in its wake. It's a warning. This idyllic moment will come to a violent end.

The onslaught begins around the 8-minute mark. A white wave of noise slowly builds and surges to utter chaos, thanks to the contribution of eight guitar players and the augmentation of amplified sawblades and shimsaws. If all-absorbing sound is your thing, the next 11 minutes is nirvana. You may start praying for it to end; relief does come on just at the brink of insanity. Parlane ends the track as it began, a quiet moment wrapped in the analog crackling of an old record.

Listen to "Part 3" (MP3)

Jessamine (Touch Records) is available in the U.S. from Forced Exposure.

Here are my picks for Information Leafblower's "top 40 bands in America" list. A few quick thoughts:

- Making a list like this makes me realize, like Jason, how much non-American stuff I listen to. Between the omitted bands from abroad and the mostly European electronic stuff I've been into lately, a list like this ends up feeling like a very distinct subset of my take on 2006 music. That said, this is pretty much the new American music that I've listened to the most this year. My iTunes play counts were a very helpful guide in constructing my list.

- Taking a close look at those play counts also made me realize how much old and "old" (i.e. non-2006) stuff I listen to. In retrospect, I probably should've included some of those bands on my list - in particular, Deerhoof and Sleater-Kinney come to mind, as do the Fiery Furnaces (forgive me, Eleanor...), Cat Power, and the Rapture.

- I was really surprised to see Lavender Diamond make the final list. I've been super into them all year (especially post-SXSW), and I guess others share the feeling. They seem to have been the band to have inspired the most hate in the ILB comments, which also surprises me - I hadn't seen them get reactions like that before. Perhaps the exposure that comes with opening for the Decemberists does the trick. Who knows.

Thanks to Kyle for asking us to participate again! It's always fun doing something like this. Anyway, the list:

1. Lavender Diamond. Their first LP is due next spring and, from how the songs sound live, I suspect it'll be fantastic. I've now dragged five people to their shows and not once was a person was disappointed. Becky Stark's voice is almost enough on its own. I haven't been this excited about a new band in ages.

2. Matmos. Whenever I listen to "Steams and Sequins for Larry Levan" (which is quite often according to iTunes), I wish it would never stop...

3. Brightblack Morning Light. Chillout album of the year. Love the Rhodes!

4. Sonic Youth

5. Yo La Tengo. My love affair with YLT is almost a decade old now and it shows no signs of waning, especially not with an album as solid as their new one in the mix.

6. Asobi Seksu. They've been playing one great gig after another in NYC for a few years now, but Citrus finally does a great job of capturing them on record.

7. LCD Soundsystem. Only LCD could make a list like this on the strength of a single song. "45'33"" is just that good.

8. Au Revoir Simone

9. The Psychic Ills

10. The Evangelicals

LOCAL BAND: Professor Murder

Here's my submission to Information Leafblower's Top 40 Bands In America. Feel free to hate on me for my picks, or just ignore them. Now, back to my Brian Eno collection!

My list:

"Before I list my picks, first let me say that my lack of submissions is not meant to indicate a dislike for American music, circa 2006. Rather, I just haven't been listening to much 'new rock' in general this year. 2006 has been a year for catching up with music I wasn't old enough to hear the first time around. It's also been the year where I've enjoyed more electronic music than usual, and for whatever reason, most of it has come from lands beyond our own. So, I'm not trying to be a hater by not listing any of the obvious bands, I just haven't been listening to them. No offense.

1. Bob Dylan - My favorite American-made music from this year seems to be composed either by old guys (Mr. Dylan) or dead guys (Mr. Cash). Here, the old guy, the bard of Hibbing, still keeps me thinking and listening. Modern Times was an easier music pill to swallow than 'Love and Theft', but it still contained some lovable bitterness and endearing side effects. Namely, obsessive repeat listenings.

2. Johnny Cash - For producing American V

3. Ghostface Killah - For Fishscale

4. LCD Soundsystem: I may take up jogging just to hear 45'33 in its intended context. But "Jams" Murphy's workout tape works just fine as a standing still piece of disco joy. Speaking of pieces, I'm contemplating cutting my favorite section of 45'33, minutes 10:00 - 20:00 into a separate song just so I can enjoy Murphy's clicks and loops over and over and over."

Thanks for asking for my opinion, Kyle!

Pure Language, an easily digestible six-track mini-album, is Leeds resident Keef Baker's follow-up to 2004's The Widnes Years. Baker is an expert at balancing opposing temperaments. Angelic vocals are weighted with snarling attitude, dark machine noises are leavened with serene light.

Stop one on Baker's journey, the opener "Straw Overcoat" is an apt example of the artists' careful craft. The song juxtaposes warm ambience with stabbing rhythms, grounded in organic dirt. It's a hackneyed term, but organic just fits Baker's work. No surprise then that this term pops up often in his press releases.

The glistening mid-tempo "Psychiatric Credit" follows, resplendent in chimes and oboes. The sudden appearance of a skittish breakbeat again heralds Baker's darker side. Shadows give depth to light, fear permeates certainty. It's good stuff.

Listen to "The Middle", courtesy of Baker's label Ad Noiseam.

Has it really been over a month since I last surfaced on here? Yikes. Busy times, what can I say, but here's some of what I've been digging of late:

Rickard Jäverling - Two Times Five Lullaby. This gently meandering record, the Swede's debut, is remarkably coherent and cinematic, a perfect soundtrack to a lazy autumn afternoon. The mostly instrumental LP features harmonica, banjo, guitars, accordion, harp, a Hammond, drums, and more. It's hard to pick a standout track because the whole thing stands together so well, but the pretty opener "Ice Princess" (MP3) and the hints of Tortoise in the slow-burning "Track" (MP3) are good places to start.

Dirty Diamonds II. I have no idea how I heard about this French compilation or where I even got it. All I know is it landed on my hard drive last year, I just started listening to it last week, and I've barely been able to stop since. The tracklisting is eclectic and far-reaching, the sequencing impeccable. The gospel-tinged hip-hop grooves of Sa-Ra Creative Partners' "Glorious" (MP3) are an early highlight, but I've been finding the section anchored by Martin Gore's "Compulsion" especially addictive of late.

Michael Mayer - Immer 2. I haven't had this long enough to say much of substance here, but so far I like Immer 2 a lot. A whole lot. Kompakt's Total 7 had its moments but felt tired in spots - this is more what I was waiting for (and I'm not surprised).

Matmos - For Alan Turing. Three tracks long and three inches wide, this mini-CD was the souvenir of choice on Matmos's recent tour. "Enigma Machine for Alan Turing," which somehow features one of these, and the beautiful violins and vocal loops of "Cockles and Mussles" are both standouts. (I'd rip one of them for you but my laptop can't handle 3" CD's, so you'll have to trust me.) As for the show, So Percussion, Zeena Parkins, and a guitarist joined Drew and M.C. to make Matmos an EIGHT-piece for much of the October 13 gig at Symphony Space. We've been lucky to have so many NYC Matmos gigs this year, and this one was the best of the bunch IMO. The extra hands made the songs extra live and the setlist was a treat with two songs from The Civil War ("Y.T.T.E." into "For the Trees"!) and a few new songs joining favorites from The Rose Has Teeth. One new song was like a symphony of aluminum, another utilized a large block of dry ice. The props and objects never felt like gimmicks or one-liners, though, and that's what makes Matmos so consistently great live.

The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love. As much as I love the Rapture, I really disliked this album on first (and second and third) listen. The production felt far too sleek. But, as they showed on Echoes, the Rapture know how to write catchy songs, and the songs lodged themselves in my head enough that Pieces entered my morning commute rotation. Once I'd adjusted to the production, I found myself really enjoying the record. And hearing "Get Myself Into It" in a club - once from JDH and once from Optimo - made me see the production as a strength; so much stuff in this vein has a dirty sound that the approach the Rapture have taken here makes the songs stand out. Of course, the Rapture are still at their best on stage. Hopefully I'll get to remind myself that tomorrow night at the Bowery Ballroom, if I can get my hands on a ticket.

Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye. Nothing new to report here beyond the realization that this has a good chance at being my favorite album of the year.

Other recent favorites: Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things, TK Webb - Phantom Parade, Minimum Chips - Lady Grey, Professor Murder - Professor Murder Rides The Subway

Also:

As part of CMJ, Lavender Diamond are playing Joe's Pub this Friday night at 11:30. Simply put, their two SXSW sets are possibly my favorite live shows of the year so far. They're currently opening for the Decemberists, and I hear they might be signing to Matador, so big things (and hopefully a new album) may be in store for them soon. They also play Northsix on Thursday night, but Joe's Pub is much better suited to their sound. I can't wait. Try "You Broke My Heart" (MP3).

When I first set about ordering my outlook towards music blogging (see part one here), I had just finished reading Simon Reynolds' history of Post Punk, Rip it Up and Start Again. A few minor criticisms aside (a post for another day I assure you), I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned quite a bit from Reynolds' informative writing.

Each time the proverbial light bulb went off above my head while reading, I was also illuminated by a fairly obvious and simplistic realization: knowledge is a good thing. In this case, knowing more about the music scene in late 70's New York than say "oh the Talking Heads used to play at CBGB all the time" is a very good thing when it comes to listening to said music, let alone writing about it.

Why I waited so long to learn the history behind the music I love, I don't know. Laziness I guess. It took Simon Reynolds spending hard earned time researching and writing his book for me to take a small step beyond a surface understanding. But now that I know a sliver more, I'm hooked on learning. Don't worry, this won't be a PSA.

Or maybe it will be. Yeah this is a public service announcement, to me as much as anyone else: Know Your History.

The way I see it is knowledge brings perspective and perspective begets a calmer, more rational outlook towards the new Best New Thing out there right now. Some applied knowledge might help place today's "my favorite new band" into the smaller, more reasonable threads of a vast and expanding music tapestry. Who knows, it may even assuage the current prevalence of "gold rush"* blogging that is dragging down my enthusiasm. One can hope.

Reading Reynolds's book, I realized I knew nothing. Knowing a fraction more than nothing may someday change how I hear and sometimes write about music for the better.

Digging through the annals of music history, listening to and learning old records, grasping to understand perspective: these pursuits take time. Time is not the friend of an immediate media like blogging. Take a breather from posting and you risk falling behind a trend. Take your eyes off the scene and someone else might scoop you. But so what? Slow down; take a minute to think about this music in a larger world, full of many different perceptions. Maybe you'll start offering context with content.

* - Thanks for that term , Blackmail

What more can be said about Bobby Zimmerman and his new record? This man sneezes and gets a Mojo cover. Personal disclosure: I wear Bob Dylan blinders - the man's phlegm is worth discussing in my opinion. So I'm predisposed to receive his albums as messages from on high. Is Modern Times a Rolling Stone Five-Star album? Not quite, and besides that honor lost it weight when they named Mick Jagger's last solo record a modern classic. Is it worthy of the canon? Hell yes, even if there's not one song on the record that I would define as a classic. There are some just breathtaking lyrics though, and here are a few of my favorites:

(One note: there are of course probably a thousand sites analyzing Dylan's lyrics line by line. I'm not going to attempt to match these efforts. If you're looking for better commentary, check out Expecting Rain's Modern Times review page. As of September 25, there are 384 reviews linked there.)

"Thunder on the Mountain"

"Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches
I'll recruit my army from the orphanages
I been to St. Herman's church, said my religious vows
I've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows"

I love the off the wall lyrics about Alicia Keys, but the sardonic ferocity of these lines get me every time. Perhaps it's the mental image of a haggard Dylan rousing orphans to fight some undisclosed battle that makes these lines so brilliant? Or maybe it's the picture of him assaulting herds of cows?

"When the Deal Goes Down"

"I laugh and I cry and I'm haunted by
Things I never meant nor wished to say
The midnight rain follows the train
We all wear the same thorny crown
Soul to soul, our shadows roll"

I could easily quote every lyric in this beautiful, regret-strewn ballad.

"Working Man's Blues #2"

"Well, I'm sailin' on back, ready for the long haul
Tossed by the winds and the seas
I'll drag 'em all down to hell and I'll stand 'em at the wall
I'll sell 'em to their enemies
I'm tryin' to feed my soul with thought
Gonna sleep off the rest of the day
Sometimes no one wants what we got
Sometimes you can't give it away"

"Working Man's Blues #2" is another song with lyrics worth reading in entirety. I love how the line "Gonna sleep off the rest of the day" just jumps out between lines of vengeance and despair. I picture a weary old man resting from his battles against himself and his imagined enemies.

"Now I'm down on my luck and I'm black and blue
Gonna give you another chance
I'm all alone and I'm expecting you
To lead me off in a cheerful dance

I got a brand new suit and a brand new wife
I can live on rice and beans
Some people never worked a day in their life
Don't know what work even means"

A moment of whimsy ends this fatigued tune. Dylan drags out the line "cheerful dance" on the record as if he's suppressing a cynical chuckle. He's eating rice and beans, dressed to the nines, complaining about the lazy and spoiled. I wonder if the line "some people never worked a day in their life" is a bit of self-deprecation.

"Nettie Moore"

"I'm the oldest son of a crazy man,
I'm in a cowboy band
Got a pile of sins to pay for and I ain't got time to hide
I'd walk through a blazing fire, baby, if I knew you was on the other side"

The last couplet just stabs me in heart every time I hear it. After the first two lines, this endearing remark hits like a sucker punch.

"Ain't Talkin'"

"Now I'm all worn down by weeping
My eyes are filled with tears, my lips are dry
If I catch my opponents ever sleeping
I'll just slaughter 'em where they lie"

Sigh, another track with line after line of gold, but again I'm struck most by the the imagery of weariness, grief and anger. Dylan's character is a man on the run, hiding out from his enemies like David in the Psalms. He's been decimated by bitterness, but is still strong enough to murder his oppressors.

- Lyrics sourced from Expecting Rain and are the property of Bob Dylan. Thanks for the loan.

- The Annotated Modern Times Lyrics is another great source for analysis.

(Disclaimer: These are just my opinions and are not meant to speak for anyone else who posts on this site)

One of the reasons my contributing to this site has slowed considerably are my general feelings of annoyance and discontent with the state of music blogs today. I can't spend more than 10-15 minutes reading a certain group of highly trafficked blogs without feeling a sense of disgust. My complaint is not against all music blogs, rather just the more commonly linked and credited sites I see around the blogosphere.

Instead of tallying up my problems or even listing the sites by name (why give them even more attention?), I'd rather attempt to define the qualities that I believe separate good music blogs from the chaff. Consider it an "in-progress" manifesto: a set of expanding and flexible objectives. I'll be the first to admit I fall far short of these intentions. My point is not to prop this site or myself as a beacon, but to announce publicly why I continue to bother with blogging.

But first I would like to address a couple gripes that are germane to this post. I've seen these grievances pop up in posts and comment boards across the sphere, so I believe it's one worth discussing. While I concur with the sentiment of these generalities to a degree, I have more questions and doubts than certainties and answers. Here are the complaints:

1. Blogs talk about the same small set of bands.

And the corollary:

2. These bands aren't worth the hype.

Yes, it seems true on the surface. A number of blogs that show up in most blog rolls do appear to mention the same bands, over and over. The ad nauseam coverage raises the question of sincerity. What are the motives of these blogs? Do they really like these bands? The content is posited as personal passion (and most likely is) but in the conflagration of buzz, it can appear as no more than shilling for ad revenue, traffic numbers or ego.

But evaluate the bands receiving coverage. It's no mystery or coincidence: they are the acts with new albums to promote, tickets to sell, interviews to give. Bloggers are covering them; paid media outlets ("indie" and mainstream magazines, music review websites, content portals, etc.) are covering them. Content is easy to source and quickly distribute on a minute-by-minute basis.

Is it somehow wrong when music blogs parallel the "what's new, what's hot" mentality as for-profit media? What is the nature and point of music blogs then? Is it the stict realm of personal, unsolicited opinions only? Does crossing into service journalism and covering subjects that fall outside of individual preference somehow violate unwritten rules? I really don't know because there are no rules. There are larger questions here that are better suited for future topics. I do believe that it is only natural that most music blogs inevitably line up with popular trends. It's not wrong. It's an immortal "it is what it is".

So what about the question of worthiness. Are these hyped groups really that great? That is a question that cannot be answered, an argument that cannot be won or lost. It is a wholly subjective matter. I do have a solution for avoiding the blogs I don't like though and it's simple and liberating: I don't read them.

Yes, I can choose to ignore these bastions of buzz. Sure, I want to know what's going on, what "the kids" are talking about. I scan some sites I don't like on occasion just to find out who is hot. But the whole argument of blogger banality can easily be squashed with a simple Google search.

Look beyond the 10-15 most commonly linked blogs and you'll find someone writing passionately about nearly every band that has ever existed. Disregard the sites that seem to hold up fingers to test the wind before posting and find that the Word is out there, testifying in the wilderness to greatness worth appreciating. These are the sites I want to find, frequent and support. These are the examples I want to follow. This is the bedrock for me: keep it honest and personal.

My point? Stop complaining about similarity and start discovering what else is out there. My assumption is the vast majority of music blogs operate under this principle: People write about music they like, without thought of profit, popularity or ego strokes. If it happens to align with the "flavor of the day", so be it. It's ultimately up to the reader to determine the sincerity of the blogger. It's up to the blogger to keep it real. It's magic when those two meet.



More to come.

So my blogging "vacation" went a few weeks longer than Jason's, thanks to a few things in the mix. The more interesting half was a trip to Prague (which was a blast) and Budapest (which was flat-out *amazing* - making the current state of affairs there a bit unsettling). Then school started back up again, and it's been keeping me busy since. But what else I have been up to?

Well, last week had two highlights:

- Soulwax's visit to Studio B in Brooklyn last Thursday tops the list. I was looking forward to the party mainly for the 2manyDJ's set - they're always fun live, and it'd been ages since I last saw them. I was looking at Soulwax's live Nite Versions set as a mere bonus. I had things completely wrong. Soulwax absolutely killed it, putting on one of the best shows I've seen all year.

Inspired by the Human League's Love and Dancing, Nite Versions is Soulwax's Any Minute Now LP remixed in entirety, and the band played it straight through on Thursday with just a few changes - "Another Excuse" got moved to the middle, and snippets from some choice covers ("Your Love"!) were peppered throughout. With a drummer and guitarist joining the Dewaele brothers on keyboards, they played it 100% live (!) and were insanely tight and energetic. Not once they did miss a beat or slip up. I never expected to be so blown away. They reminded me of LCD Soundsystem live, except they took that sound to totally new heights. Perhaps the best thing I can say about the show is that I'll never again think of 2manyDJ's as DJ's first and the guys behind Soulwax second. The fact that I heard only 15 minutes of their DJ set and didn't mind says it all.

- Girl Talk's Night Ripper was an August obsession of mine, and I made my way to APT last Tuesday to catch him live. The most common criticism I've heard about Girl Talk is that he isn't doing anything with his sample-heavy style that Diplo and others haven't done before. I can see that, but Girl Talk's approach is so much more frenzied that I think it still feels fresh. Diminishing returns will probably be an issue, but last week's party came early enough in the curve for me. His live set was good - about what you'd expect, but not as crazy with the samples as on album. It still made for a fun time though. (But my highlight of the night was Roy Dank dropping Loose Joints' "Tell You (Today)" - love that song!)

Plus I've been working through lots of albums in the listening pile, including:

Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass. This album most reminds me of Electr-O-Pura, but what I love is how it doesn't sound quite like anything the band has released to date. The most valid criticism of Summer Sun was that YLT were settling into a groove. You can't say that about this one, not with the falsetto piano pop of "Mr. Tough" staring you in the eye just a few songs after the stellar 10-minute opening guitar jam "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" (MP3). The band recently did a "Name That Tune" feature for the Guardian, and Ira Kaplan wrote up 12 of his favorite albums for eMusic. Both are worth a read. YLT plays Jersey City this Friday, and I cannot wait.

Arthur Russell - Springfield. Take the loopy disco of Calling Out of Context (and especially "Calling All Kids"), add in the dreamy strings, synths, and vocals of Russell's quieter work, and sprinkle in effects liberally. Springfield sees many of AR's styles colliding, and it works wonderfully. "Springfield" - both the original and the DFA remix - is the big highlight here, but I also love the sound of Russell's cello running through a distortion pedal on "You Have Did The Right Thing When You Put That Skylight In" (MP3). Kudos to Audika Records for putting this release together.

Cassy - Panorama Bar 01. Mix of the year? Too many contenders and it's too early to say, but it's up there for me. CD's like this make me want to move to Berlin.

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Yellow Magic Orchestra and Solid State Survivor. Thank you Senor Coconut for turning me on to these guys, the "Japanese Kraftwerk." Try the awesome "Firecracker" (MP3) or their deliciously ragged cover of "Day Tripper" (MP3).

The Velvet Underground - VU. Someone should've told me this was essential listening sooner! "Foggy Notion" alone gets it there.

Also:

Matador has made Matmos's fantastic "Steams and Sequins for Larry Levan" (MP3) available for download. Matmos make their name with electronics but always top themselves live, and this song was the easy winner of their two spring NYC shows. It turned into a 6 person percussion jam both times, and that's not counting all the live sampling. They're back in October for two shows at the Symphony Space. Not to be missed!

Here are two recently released favorites of mine:

Rub-N-Tug: Better with a Spoonful of Leather: Rub-N-Tug's second mix for aNYthing keeps sticking to the bottom of my brain, like the aural equivalent of primordial ooze. Hot tar! The tempos trudge rather than strut, guitar riffs strum and hang in the air before fading like puffs of blue smoke. If you prefer disco slow and low, with heavy helpings of sludgy vocals and drugged out atmosphere, then this is your record.

- Listen to "Slipps" (MP3)

R.E.M.: And I Feel Fine...The Best of the I.R.S. Years: I came of R.E.M. age at the end of their fruitful run on I.R.S. Records. Ushered into the cult by a top-40 radio hit, "The One I Love", and its respective record Document, I was unfamiliar with the glories of their preceding catalogue. So I walked slowly backwards, from Life's Rich Pageant all the way down the road to Chronic Town. From "Begin the Begin" to "Gardening at Night", an unforgettable journey I wish I could repeat again today.

Now I can in a way, with And I Feel Fine..., a compilation of R.E.M.s pre-major label greats. The songs may not be surprises now and recent releases have somewhat tarnished the band's appeal in my eyes, but from start to finish this is an amazing collection. I like jangling, mumbling R.E.M. best, so I appreciate the inclusion of unsung songs like "Feeling Gravity's Pull", "Life and How to Live it", and "Pilgrimage". The second disc of band favorites, live tracks and other miscellany is required listening.