2010 Yearend List: Albums of the Year

I guess I'll throw my metaphorical hat into the metaphorical ring, assuming that makes any kind of sense, metaphorical or otherwise. In compiling this list, I had the same sorts of troubles I had with my list of jams: Was this album even from this year? What did I listen to the most? Should I rank by frequency of listening, or musical innovation? Does anybody even care about my "favorite" albums from this year? Eventually, I put together a long list of candidates and tried whittling that down to a smaller list, finally settling on a Top 13. Yes, 13; I'd like to simultaneously break out of the Top 10 mold and dispel the belief that 13 is unlucky, all at once. Check out the short list below, along with accompanying blurbs of opinion, album arts, and video jams (and links to info about the artist and places to buy the album), then check out the "long list" at the bottom of the page for all of the candidates. And understand that I'm just one guy with some thoughts and this is my list of "favorites"; they're not necessarily the inherently "best" or "ground-breaking" releases of this annual calendrical period. That said, I like a lively discussion, so please comment with your opinions!

The Short list (Top 13):

13. The Soft Pack / The Soft Pack [Kemado]

This quartet of guys from San Diego used be known as The Muslims but after "a slew of nasty emails" they changed their name to the term for "a fake flaccid penis that can be worn in the trousers of someone who doesn't have a penis that wants to convince people otherwise". That said, their brand of rousing, fast-paced, fuzzy, guitar-heavy, pump-your-fist-and-shout-along-with-the-chorus punk/rock makes perfect sense. And it's mighty satisfying. These 10 songs clock in at just over 30 minutes, and only "Mexico" slows down the pace below "blistering". The whole thing leaves you wanting to reexperience it again, but even louder and faster.



The Soft Pack: Website, MySpace
The Soft Pack: Kemado site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

12. Citay / Dream Get Together [Dead Oceans]

It's tough to have a 7+ member band and have the songs come across sounding uncluttered and clean; Citay manages to make these songs sound perfectly uplifting and fun, at the same time, and they deserve much praise. Ezra Feinberg lays down the main vocals with two female backers, while three guitarists play some delicious riffs born from bright, running-on-the-beach-and-collapsing-into-the-waves California sunshine. It's fun to listen to, humming along with the guitars and letting the mood completely engulf you. Tack on a wonderful cover of a Galxie 500 tune and you've got yourself a solid album.



Citay: Website, MySpace
Dream Get Together: Dead Oceans site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

11. Dum Dum Girls / I Will Be [Sub Pop]

I'll admit it: I'm a genuine sucker for catchy garage rock. But when it's done really well and with an interesting twist, I feel like my interest is more deserved, somehow. Dum Dum Girls certainly fall into this category, and the beautiful female vocal melodies and soft, sweet, and slow songs (including a cover of Sonny and Cher) put them in a class above all others. They're completely captivating live, too; I felt like singer Dee Dee's eyes were burning through my soul while I watched them, and I'm not sure now that she even looked in my direction the whole time. No matter, listening to the album makes me feel the same way, and that merits a lot of artistic credit.



Dum Dum Girls: Website, MySpace
I Will Be: Sub Pop site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

10. Dr. Dog / Shame, Shame [ANTI-]

I'm finding it hard to describe what's ultimately really solid and listenable pop music. Dr. Dog fits together the guitars and drums and piano and vocals so well and unlike anyone else, really. You can hear the influences of 60s pop and folk music and current indie rock and whatever else you want to hear, really, but the bottom line is that they sound like no one else but themselves, especially given the fairly unique vocal stylings of the two main singers. These songs make me try to whistle and sing along simultaneously, and I hate them for making me want to do both at once and necessarily failing, but I love them for making such infectious and enjoyable music. "I do believe that there's no more tricks up my sleeve"? I beg to differ, Dr. Dog!



Dr. Dog: Website, MySpace
Shame, Shame: ANTI- site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

9. Love Is All / Two Thousand And Ten Injuries [Polyvinyl]

There's something magical about the songs of Love Is All, and there must be something special about this album, in particular, because since finding it randomly via some Polyvinyl "garage sale" I've gone back to their older albums but didn't feel the same smile-inducing wonder as with this one. Admittedly, Josephine Olausson's vocals are kinda "love it or leave it" but count me among the totally-infatuated/love-is-all-I-have-for-it camp; it's tough to figure out her words (they're in English, but the heavy Swedish accent and tipsy warbling make it tough) but I think it's a fun game, and if I get distracted by the awesome guitar/bass jams in the meantime, I'm not gonna feel bad about it. Seriously, tell me that you aren't instantly caught by the opening drum/bass riff of "The Birds Were Singing With All Their Might" or the strained vocals over a bare bass line in "Early Warnings" or the stop/start guitar/drum intro to "Repetition" or . . . I could do that for every song on this album, and that's hard to ignore.



Love Is All: Website, MySpace
Two Thousand And Ten Injuries: Polyvinyl site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

8. Meeting Of Important People / Quit Music EP [Authentik Artists]

At first, I thought that maybe my liking of this album was influenced by how frequently I've seen (and thoroughly enjoyed) MOIP playing live, but after looking back on the playcounts on my media player and iPod and thinking for a bit more, I have to admit that I really liked this album and listened to it a lot. And for good reason! Garage rock, punk, grunge, folk, reggae, this album has it all, and everything's filtered through the super fun, leg-kicking, toe-tapping, rock-out-like-nobody's-watching stylings of Josh, Matt and Aaron. They've put together a slick (albeit short) collection of upbeat and original pop-rock songs, plus a fun cover of a 60s bubblegum tune. I could listen to every one of these songs over and over and over, and you should too.



MOIP: Website, MySpace
Quit Music: Authentik Artists site, eMusic, Amazon

7. Woods / At Echo Lake [Woodsist]

This might be another band where the singer's voice could turn you off completely, but I find Jeremy Earl's high-pitched, ragged, mic-effect-driven melodies totally endearing. It fits right in with the general lo-fi, psyechedelic folk-rock vibe of the band (and their label, Woodsist, as a whole, too), and it's to their credit that they achieve that without sounding like they're screwing up the audio quality for the sake of doing so; rather, it generates the perfect feeling of sitting on the floor of your friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend's basement, sipping whiskey straight from the bottle, and having a raucous sing-along jam session. Opening track "Blood Dries Darker" (see video below) really sets the mood for the album, jumping right in with a riffy psych-guitar solo and letting those falsetto vocals really shine. Other numbers run along that vein, like "Suffering Season" and "Get Back" and "From The Horn" (a fun raga-influenced instrumental, in fact) but now that I'm playing the album straight through again for critical purposes, I can't help noticing how many of these tracks are on the slower and softer side. It doesn't feel like a slow or sad or downkey album, though; Woods just sneaks those songs of respite in and you're caught up in the ride so you don't even notice. That's a testament to their power to wrap you up in their fuzzy, reverberating blanket of sound and keep you all comfy and cozy.



Woods: Website, MySpace
At Echo Lake: Woodsist site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

6. Sharon Van Etten / Epic [Ba Da Bing!]

I kept hearing about SVE from the guys on NPR's All Songs Considered. I mean, Robin Hilton said that he cried at one of her SXSW concerts. I had to check her out, and I'm glad I did. If these 7 songs don't move you deeply and forcefully, then I just feel sorry for you, because you're missing out on an intense emotional experience that only music with this kind of raw honesty, brutal heartache, and beautiful sound can induce. Even listening to this one on my iPod, it feels like SVE is in the room with me, pouring her heart and soul into a cup, adding in some strummed acoustic guitar, some lap guitar riffs, some plinky piano and percussion, some dirgeful, drawn-out guitar (I think?) sounds, and of course her stirring and hauntingly beautiful vocals and, in the end, making a wonderful, languid mixture of sounds and words. It's amazing how I still feel the same emotional power every time I hear the beginning of "Save Yourself" or the crest after the long, opening crescendo in "Don't Do It" and . . . yeah, I really love the first 3 songs on this one since they have the most immediate pull (for me anyway) but the second half of this short album has been a real grower. Please, at least listen to this album once, straight through. If it doesn't hit you, sobeit, but if it does, you'll thank me. Better yet, thank her.



Sharon Van Etten: Website, MySpace
Epic: Ba Da Bing! site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

5. The Black Angels / Phosphene Dream [Blue Horizon]

This is definitely a rehashing of 60s psych-pop, but I really don't care; they recreate that sound and feeling so well, right down to the 13th Floor Elevators-esque jug on "Entrance Song" and the microphone effects on the howling screams in "Telephone". At 36 minutes, this album is much shorter than their other LPs (59 for Passover and 70 for Directions To See A Ghost), a reflection of their choice to stick to quick, upbeat radio-single songs instead of the long and haunting and mostly instrumental stuff they've done previously. But I like that change and they've pulled it off magnificently; if I'm fixin' for some of their older stuff, I'll go listen to that, but for now I'm welcoming the new style. The guitar riffs in their songs are so tight and clean and catchy that I find myself humming along and playing air guitar immediately without even realizing. Also, despite the inherent "poppy" sound here, this album is still full of gloomy imagery and dark, sinister sounds. The opening track, "Bad Vibrations" (video below), has an awesome eerie vibe and lyrics about "eating hearts", and then there's a straight-up ghost story on "Haunting At 1300 McKinley". There are no bad songs on here, and I love the overall sound. Great stuff.



The Black Angels: Website, MySpace
Phosphene Dream: Band site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

4. Beach Fossils / Beach Fossils [Captured Tracks]

I'll admit I wrote this band off early on for being just another surf rock buzz band. Lesson learned: never judge a band by its name. Beach Fossils sounds much, much better than the name indicates, and main man Dustin Payseur admits that it was a bad choice. No matter, I'm glad I finally gave this album a chance. It's truly simple (as in, not dense (as in, clean and uncluttered)) jangly guitar rock and simple (as in, not so complicated) drum rhythms, layered over with Dustin's vocals, and then everything's washed over with a little bit of fuzzy lo-fi echo. (Luckily, the record comes with a lyric sheet so I can actually understand everything.) It's a simple formula, I suppose, but it's so hard to do it this way and be infinitely repeatable. I've put this on the turntable so many times since buying it over the summer. At first, it felt like a perfect "end of summer" record, then it felt like a great "beginning of autumn" record, and now it just feels like a perfect "anytime" record. Part of what I like about it is the homogeneity and the way I can just listen to it straight through and feel the sound style envelop my mind. I honestly can't even name half the songs off the top of my head, which might make it sound odd that this is #4 on the list, but that just stems from the fact that I play this one and kinda space out. Favorite records don't require endless fandom on the order of memorizing the alternate touring bassist's mother-in-law's birthstone or shit like that, you know? Beach Fossils just has perfect little jangly pop songs and I want to listen to them all in a row and do it over and over again.



Beach Fossils: MySpace
Beach Fossils: Captured Tracks site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

3. Lower Dens / Twin Hand Movement [Gnomonsong]

I'm very glad I happened to see Lower Dens live earlier this spring, but it meant I had to wait a number of months for their album to drop, and that was painful. They were awesome in person, projecting an incredible wall of sound from the stage, full of shimmering guitars and rollicking bass lines and metronomic drum pounding and ohmygod Jana's voice is super and sexy and amazing. Part of the allure of their performance and this album is the enigmatic nature of the muffled vocals and washes of guitar sounds. It feels like I'm talking to a guru who can only give me advice in cryptic nuggets of wisdom like "A donut with no hole is a danish". I think "Tea Lights" is a good example of that vibe, but some other songs have a decidedly punkier punch to them, like "A Dog's Dick" or "Rosie", whereas songs like "Hospice Gates" let the swirling, shoegazey guitars lead the way. In short, there's a lot of innovative song structuring and sound-crafting going on here, and all of it is incredibly catchy without fitting into any standard genre classification or sounding like any other bands. I like that. A lot. And I really love "I Get Nervous". It's so fucking pretty that it almost hurts:



Lower Dens: Website, MySpace
Twin Hand Movement: Gnomonsongsite, Insound, Amazon

[Side note: the folks of Lower Dens are downright nice people, too, and lots of fun to hang out with.]

2. The Spires / Curved Space EP [Beehouse]

Maybe it's strange that a 7 song, 23 minute EP could rank this high on my list, but that's a true testament to just how much I've enjoyed these songs. I'd been a fan of The Spires for a year or more since randomly finding them on the interwebz, and was actually eagerly awaiting the release of this one and downloaded it on eMusic the day it came out. It's markedly different from their previous albums which focused more on clean, sunshiney guitar pop and catchy sing-along strummers. This time, they took their whole sound and fed it through entire clouds of reverb and fuzz and it came out sounding even better. Sometimes, this type of lo-fi scuzz is a defense mechanism to mask poor songwriting, but not here; far from it, even. I'd argue that these are some of the best pop-songs the group has put together, but it just happens that they chose to smother these in delicious layers of guitar fuzz and vocal echoes. "Kent Studies" kicks the whole thing off with some foot-stomping percussion and it just never stops. Every song on here is catchy and makes me want to hum and sing along, if I could only figure out the damn words! Seriously, overall, this is the album I listened to this year the most, by far: on my iPod walking to and from campus, on my laptop in the office, on my speakers at home, etc. And apart from the overall appeal of the album, there are just tons of little moments that grab my attention every time and keep me waiting for that part in the song to come up so I can say to whoever else is listening with me, "Ooh ooh, wasn't that so good?" Examples include: the way the word "Telephone..." echoes away into the ocean of reverb on "Kent Studies", the way the guitars almost stop around 1:15 in "Curved Space" but then they kick back in again even louder, when singer Jason Bays breaks into "It's taking control" in "Dreamer In My Mind" (definitely belted that one out during a long car ride with the windows down), the entire song "Held", the drum fills leading into the choruses in "Orange Yellow", the feedback intro to "Today Was Tomorrow", and the way that spacey and mellow instrumental "Yellow Orange" winds everything back down, leaving you wanting to experience the whole thing all over again. I cannot wait to see what else The Spires can accomplish in this paradigm. Or if they abandon it completely, who really cares, since I'll still have this gem of an EP to cherish.



The Spires: Website, MySpace
Curved Space: Beehouse site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

[Side note: The band posted some videos of live alternate takes of songs from Curved Space that sound a bit more stripped-down. They're different but also quite awesome. Check them out.]

1. Tame Impala / Innerspeaker [Modular]

Shamefully, this is another band I almost wrote off at first without giving them a fair shot. Yeah, I saw they got a good Pitchfork score and the album cover was kinda trippy or whatever, but for some reason I just didn't feel compelled to investigate, until the guy at P4k Reviews Reviews kept raving about them (the description of "a sumptuous slab of psychedelic joy" really piqued my interest). I sampled some previews at eMusic and liked it enough to download the whole thing, and I've been listening to it nonstop since. It really is a perfect psychedelic rock record, filled with shimmering waterfalls of guitar sounds and effects and glorious, pounding drum fills and skippy rhythms, plus some seriously druggy lyrics (opener "It Is Not Meant To Be" is ostensibly about a failed romance because she doens't like "sitting around smoking weed") that still sound as sweet as honey and marshmallows (but not together, eww). I'm incredibly impressed by the song-crafting here, but it's also an outstanding studio production. I can't imagine the kind of work it took to put all of the effects together in such a well-balanced way: nothing sounds too echoey or too dampened or too loud or too soft or anything that's not fucking perfect. Every song on here is outstanding, not a note or tune out of place, but the 3 song run of "Lucidity", "Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind?", and "Solitude Is Bliss" right in the middle of the record really steals the show, for me. For a while, I would just play that section over and over on my iPod when I walked around town. Lately, though, I've been playing it straight through at least twice a week, and I can't imagine ever not listening to at least a few songs on this album in any given week. It's that good.





Tame Impala: Website, MySpace
Innerspeaker: Modular site, Insound, eMusic, Amazon

[Interesting observation: Of these 13 albums, I own 8 on vinyl, purchased 4 on eMusic, and got 1 as a free CD at a live show (thanks MOIP!). So fuck you, people who don't pay for music.]

Honorable mentions:
The Black Keys / Brothers [Nonesuch]
Kurt Vile / Square Shells EP [Matador]
Mariage Blanc / Mariage Blanc [Self-released]


The Long List:
Beach House / Teen Dream [Sub Pop]
Beach Fossils / Beach Fossils [Captured Tracks]
Bear Hands / Burning Bush Supper Club [Cantora]
Belle and Sebastian / Write About Love [Merge]
Best Coast / Crazy For You [Mexican Summer]
The Black Angels / Phosphene Dream [Blue Horizon]
The Black Keys / Brothers [Nonesuch]
Blue Giant / Blue Giant [Vanguard]
The Books / The Way Out [Temporary Residence]
Breathe Owl Breathe / Magic Central [Hometapes]
British Sea Power / Zeus EP [Rough Trade]
Broken Bells / Broken Bells [Columbia]
Citay / Dream Get Together [Dead Oceans]
Deerhunter / Halcyon Digest [4AD]
Disappears / Lux [Kranky]
Dr. Dog / Shame, Shame [ANTI-]
Dum Dum Girls / I Will Be [Sub Pop]
Dungen / Skit I Allt [Mexican Summer]
Frightened Rabbit / The Winter Of Mixed Drinks [Fat Cat]
Charlotte Gainsbourg / IRM [Elektra]
Glasser / Ring [True Panther Sounds]
Holy Fuck / Latin [Young Turks]
Lohio / Family Tree EP [Self-released]
Love Is All / Two Thousand And Ten Injuries [Polyvinyl]
Lower Dens / Twin Hand Movement [Gnomonsong]
Maps & Atlases / Perch Patchwork [Barsuk]
Mariage Blanc / Mariage Blanc [Self-released]
Meeting Of Important People / Quit Music EP [Authentik Artists]
Moon Duo / Escape [Sick Thirst]
The New Pornographers / Together [Matador]
of Montreal / False Priest [Polyvinyl]
Amanda Palmer / Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits Of Radiohead On Her Magical Ukulele EP [Self-released]
Ty Segall / Melted [Goner]
The Soft Pack / The Soft Pack [Kemado]
The Spires / Curved Space EP [Beehouse]
Spoon / Transference [Merge]
Strand Of Oaks / Pope Killdragon [eMusic Selects]
Tame Impala / Innerspeaker [Modular]
Titus Andronicus / The Monitor [XL]
Sharon Van Etten / Epic [Ba Da Bing!]
Kurt Vile / Square Shells EP [Matador]
The Walkmen / Lisbon [Fat Possum]
Warpaint / The Fool [Rough Trade]
Wavves / King Of The Beach [Fat Possum]
Woods / At Echo Lake [Woodsist]
Woodpigeon / Die Stadt Muzikanten [Boompa]
Wye Oak / My Neighbor, My Creator EP [Merge]

Video jams: of Montreal, Bear Hands, Twin Sister, No Joy, Lower Dens, The Greenhornes, Wye Oak

I have a list of posts that I've been meaning to write and it's been growing quickly as of late, so I thought I'd share a slew of videos all at once. Most of these are quite new, and they're all from within the last few months (except for The Greenhornes one, which is a couple years old). Enjoy!

of Montreal / "Coquet Coquette" / False Priest [Polyvinyl] (2010)
One of the standout singles from this year's album, and it sounds like it could have easily been on an older album, like Satanic Panic In The Attic, instead of amongst all of the neo-Prince funk/rock of False Priest. I ain't complaining though; it's a rockin' little number chock full of Kevin Barnes' odd yet witty lyrics and a correspondingly bizarre video that seems like the visual interpretation of a short story that could have been written by a hybrid of Robert Louis Stevenson and George Orwell and George Romero, on Ecstasy. You'll see what I mean. I think.

Director: Jason Miller

of Montreal / "Famine Affair" / False Priest [Polyvinyl] (2010)
Another great song from this album and an interesting concept for the video: what if you were the only guy at an all-girl party? Sounds fun, right guys? Not if that party is life and you're an outcast, nobody feeding you strawberries, the door shut in your face when the "adults are playing", no one will dance with you, everyone wants you out and punches you in the face, and yet when you try to run away, they just chase you down and bring you back. Crazy. And never mind that whole thing with the yellow cup . . .

Directors: Nina Barnes & Jason Miller

Bear Hands / "Crime Pays" / Burning Bush Supper Club [Cantora] (2010)
I've been a Bear Hands fan since seeing them live back in February 2010. "What A Drag" is a great single, and their debut album finally came out in October and it's solid. This is the opening track and really captures their sound stylings. The video itself is a slowish-motion montage of various criminal acts, of sorts, kinda artsy and such but it's fun to watch. Plus, keep your eye out for a quick shot of Mike Tyson (WTF!?) and the album title on a soon-to-be-smashed window.


Twin Sister / "All Around And Away We Go" / Color Your Life EP [Infinite Best] (2010)
This band made a pretty big splash on the blogosphere this year and have a bunch of cred to their name considering they've only officially released a couple of EPs. They're both solid, though, and all the buzz is deserved, I say. They also put a bunch of demos and unreleased versions on their website, including a series of ringtones. This video is pretty cheeky, with cheesy dance moves and animation and swirling, colored lights and a camera panning across the band members with totally serious looks on their faces just barely hiding outright laughter at their own silliness.

Director: ?

Twin Sister / "Daniel"
Here's the band playing a live version of an unreleased (I think) track for the LaundroMatinee series. Look at how young (and attractive) they are!

Twin Sister - Daniel from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

Twin Sister / "Ginger" / Vampires With Dreaming Kids [Infinite Best] (2008)
Okay, last one from them, I swear :-) I just like this song and I only came across this video because it was made and posted by Pitchfork Reviews Reviews, one of the funniest and most interesting music blogs out there. I can't seem to find the link anywhere, but I remember reading somewhere that he was thinking of how this song reminds you of when you've been away from New York City (or whatever your home town/city is) for a while and then you're coming back and you're driving in and you see the skyline again and it reminds you of all of your memories there. Yeah, that's a nice thought.

No Joy / "Hawaii" / Ghost Blonde [Mexican Summer] (2010)
Ah the good old days, when we used to hop in the back of our friend's pickup truck, drive out to the woods, make out with each other, smear berry goop and dirt all over our naked bodies, and . . . wait, you didn't do that? Hmm, me neither. Must be some hazy drug memory that we're vicariously experiencing through this video. It's hard to imagine anything else happening during this skittery, fuzzy, psychedelic, thumping and guitar-heavy track, though, yeah? And can you feel the whole trip melting away at the end when they bathe in the river and the guitars fade out? Pretty cool.

No Joy - Hawaii from Mexican Summer on Vimeo.

Director: SALAZAR
(Note at 2:20 mark: if only my teeth could stay that white while I roll around in the mud!)

The Greenhornes [feat. Holly Golightly] / "There Is An End" / Dual Mono [Telstar] (2002)
I'm glad I found this band on eMusic earlier this year, because I've played this album so often on my walk to and from campus that I've probably worn out the mp3 files. (You'll notice that the playlist I posted last week has 2 songs from them, too, including this one.) There's not too much going on in this video, aside from the outstanding song and some slow-moving, colored lines and shapes and faded images, but it really fits, somehow. One of the top comments on YouTube for this video is "one of the greatest songs to get pissed to". Yes sir, yes it is. (Pissed = drunk, ICYDK.)


Lower Dens / "Batman" / "Batman" b/w "Dear Betty Baby" 7" single [Gnomonsong] (2011)
This song doesn't appear on Lower Dens' outstanding debut album Twin Hand Movement, but it did appear on a demo CD they sold on their tour this past spring and it will be out on a 7" single b/w "" in a month or so (order that here from Gnomonsong). It's a live show staple, though, and this is a lovely version put together in the studio for Yours Truly in San Francisco. Jana's voice is sweet as always, and Will's guitar work is super tight. This band is so good please love them now thank you very much.

Yours Truly Presents: Lower Dens "Batman" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

(Thanks to Baltimore Musically Informed for the link.)

Wye Oak / "My Neighbor" / My Neighbor, My Creator EP [Merge] (2010)
This one is from much earlier this year, but I just found it myself, so I had to share. It's fascinating to watch Andy Stack's simultaneous drumming/keyboarding, and this is one of the better tracks from this year's EP. It's got a wonderfully rough, jagged sound to it here, compared to the album version, too. This band is so good please love them now thank you very much.

Wye Oak - My Neighbor - Luxury Wafers Sessions from Luxury Wafers on Vimeo.

Concert review: Wye Oak, Lower Dens

Wye Oak, Lower Dens (with Jana Hunter)
Saturday March 13, 2010 at Brillobox
with Spencer, Lisa, Brittany

I am so glad Wye Oak passed through Pittsburgh. I've been thinking about how good their music would be to see live, and I distinctly remember checking their website for tour dates only a day or two before it was announced that they were coming to the Brillobox. I didn't recognize the name of the opener (Jana Hunter) and it was even changed (to Lower Dens) later on, and I thought it strange that only one opener was listed, so I didn't feel bad running a little late to the show. However, Brittany was already there waiting on Lisa and me since we had the tickets on reserve (oops!), so I'm glad we happened to catch the 54C after waiting at the stop for five minutes and then deciding to just start walking in the right direction anyway. Spencer met us there later on.

I had a strange experience on the walk to the bus stop. While walking past the driveway entrance to the bank on the corner of Morewood and Centre, there was a car turning right into the bank parking lot. I looked quickly to my left and saw that it pulled up beside us and was waiting for us to walk by, but it still seemed awfully close. I looked forward and kept walking, but then I suddenly felt something hit my “back” leg as the car rumbled into the lot. My first thoughts, upon turning abruptly around, were that someone tossed a bottle or something solid out of the window, or else the car kicked up a rock; but I didn't hear any bouncing rock or broken glass, and I didn't see anything on my pants in the area where I felt a dull pain. What happened? I couldn't think of what else it could be. I must have been “hit” by a car. They were in such a rush to pull into the bank (that was closed, at that time of night, even) that they couldn't even wait for a pedestrian to get fully out of the way! To be honest, I'm still not 100% sure this is truly what happened, but I can't think of any alternatives . . .

Anyhow, after getting to the bar, meeting Brittany downstairs, and venturing upstairs, we came upon a mostly empty room with a DJ playing some “dance” music with the lights fairly bright. It was a little awkward for a while, with people standing around. The only people really dancing were at the front-right area of the stage, and they were Andy and Jenn from Wye Oak!



After a while, Lower Dens took the stage. I had no idea what to expect, and I was blown away. As a hardcore Velvet Underground fan, this is probably the closest I've come to experiencing what it must have been like to see them in their early, noisy days. The drumming was throbbing and metronomic, the guitars reverb-laden and forcefully melodic, and the singer had a Mo Tucker-like alluring androgyny and a soft voice that somehow still perfectly cut through the wall of sound. I was enthralled throughout their entire set, lulled into a strangely soothing and meditative state by their droning sound, despite how fucking loud it really was. I spoke with the guitarist after the show, and they have an album coming out sometime in the summer, ideally; their current tour is preparation for the recording process later in the spring. I bought a CD with 4 demo versions of songs they played and it sounds pretty good; I'm quite excited to see what they come up with in the studio, and I really hope it lives up to their live experience. I definitely want to see this band again.

Wye Oak took the stage around 11:30. After listening to their two albums, I was curious about how they achieved such a full sound, with guitar and drums and bass and (sometimes) strings, despite having only two members. Why did I never think to watch live clips on the interwebs? Well, it turns out that the drummer Andy plays drums with his right hand and keyboards with his left, generating all of the other sounds. He even played while blowing into a tube in his mouth for one song, which I assume is some sort of way to affect the sound of the keyboards. (Update: I learned from this NPR story that it's a melodica. And I watched his feet for a little while, and they never even touched the ground! They were constantly raised and poised to pound a cymbal/drum. Check out this video of him playing the drum and bass parts for their song “Warning” and be prepared to be amazed.



Janna's voice is so haunting and poignant, and I don't know anyone else who can rock out a swirling, reverb-drenched guitar solo and then subtly tap a foot pedal and suddenly switch back into the soft and slow melody from before. It's mighty impressive and fascinating to watch. I really like their sound, and am also looking forward to their next album. They had a 5 song EP for sale (info and a free download of one song here) but I had already spent my cash (and some borrowed cash) on the Lower Dens demo CD and an album of Jana Hunter's.

Oh right, so I did some Googling and reading the next day and learned that Lower Dens is a recently-formed band, and the lead singer is Jana Hunter, a singer/songwriter from Baltimore-via-Texas who has a couple of solo albums out, and seems to be mostly known as a friend of/collaborator with Devendra Banhart. I bought one of those solo albums at the show, thinking (I guess, rather naively) that it would be similar to the band's sound. It sounds quite different, in fact, but is equally good in its own way. I also figured out she was in a band in Austin, TX in the late 1990s called Matty & Mossy and they had one album and that link is the ONLY one I could find with any possible way of obtaining it. Is it really that rare? Is my internet-search ability that poor? I've posted some videos below of her performing solo. Do check them out and be amazed by how they are so different from (and yet somehow similar to?) the Lower Dens songs here.

Overall, this was a truly awesome show. The kind of music that these two bands play is fascinating to see and listen to live, and I really hope to see both of them again in the future.

Thanks to Brittany for taking and sending me the pictures of Wye Oak you see here!

Lower Dens – blog
They, unfortunately, don't really have anything else available/findable on the web.

Wye Oak – For Prayer live
Wye Oak – Live on NPR
Wyea Oak – official video for “Please Concrete”
Wye Oak – Daytrotter session

Jana Hunter – “Palms” live
Jana Hunter – live in Houston (2 parts, full concert)
Jana Hunter – Daytrotter session