#23 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

History Speaks by Deep Sea Diver

And now for the first truly new and exciting thing to come out of recorded music in 2012. Deep Sea Diver, a three-piece band featuring lead vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist/songwriter Jessica Dobson, her husband Peter Mansen on drums, and bassist John Raines, has been on a long, long, LONG road that brought them to the release of their debut full-length, the fantastic History Speaks, in February of this year. An example, from an article from the OC Weekly back in July 2006:

If ours was a logical universe, a universe in which every action was followed by an ordered and patterned outcome—and every decision by a predictable consequence—then Jessica Dobson would be heading back to school right about now. But life is at best consistent in its inconsistency (and the life of a musician even more so) and so presently Jessica Dobson—a cute-though-normal 22-year-old from La Habra—is not filling out college applications, or even job applications, but rather is spending her days inside Avast! Recording studios in Seattle, midway through recording a second full album for Atlantic Records.

Oh, and by the way, her first album? The one that was supposed to be her debut on Atlantic? She spent three months on it last summer, but didn’t like it very much by the end. So she scrapped it.

Trouble is, that “second full album for Atlantic Records” mentioned above? It didn’t happen, either. Chalk it up to artistic differences, again. How a band can keep slogging away for eight years (beginning in 2004), through multiple recording sessions, hundreds of live shows with little more than an EP (New Caves came out in 2009) to show for it is beyond me. That requires a level of sticktoitiveness that I am lacking.

But boy am I glad they stuck around. This album is a fantastic “debut.” Dobson’s voice is a cleaner, less-shrieking Karen O. She’s close to PJ Harvey territory. And the musicians backing her up are amazing as well. The song structure for the album mimics the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and PJ Harvey as well, but those aren’t as listenable, as engrossing, as this album is. The video above, for their song “NWO,” is a good representation of the rest of the album.

I wonder if the other recorded and scrapped albums are as good as this new one. With that much time devoted to recording, I can only imagine the band has a lot more bullets left in the chamber. And they’re slowly building a fan base. It’s taking longer than I expected it would, but so long as Dobson doesn’t implode the whole thing by continuing to throw her artistic license around in a self-destructive manner, this band is going to be huge. Download it now!

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24. A Different Ship by Here We Go Magic
25. Negotiations by the Helio Sequence
26. Moms by Menomena
27. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five
28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

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#24 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

A Different Ship by Here We Go Magic

Yes, this band has a terrible name. But I haven’t had much trouble ignoring terrible names in the past, when the music deems worthy. After all, Neutral Milk Hotel is my absolute all-time favorite, and it’s probably the worst offender. All things considered, Here We Go Magic is a terrible name for a pretty fun band.

Earlier this year I heard the song featured in the video above, “How Do I Know,” and was stopped in my tracks. It’s one of those sickening, totally poppy songs that gets stuck in your head immediately after the first chorus. But sometimes you’re in the mood for one of those kinds of songs. It’s also the best song on this album, A Different Ship, the Brooklyn band’s fourth full-length record. It’s a good album with a great song.

The best description of Here We Go Magic would be “poppy jam band.” I’m still unsure if that’s a good thing or not. They were a hit at Sasquatch! earlier this year, when I wrote:

Here We Go Magic were great. The foursome play Talking Heads-ish electronic-based indie rock, with a lot of long droning-beat interludes stringing multiple songs together. The wind was blowing strong from the South, causing the hair of bassist/keyboardist Jen Turner to blow straight out behind her as she did her Tina Weymouth thing on the bass and backing vocals. The band ended the set on the very catchy “How Do I Know,” with the whole audience bouncing up and down in a mad frenzy.

If you like drawn out bouncy solos and frenzied dancing, go check them out. And if you like catchy songs that come dangerously close to overstaying their welcome time and time again, definitely check out this album.

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25. Negotiations by the Helio Sequence
26. Moms by Menomena
27. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five
28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
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2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

#25 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Negotiations by The Helio Sequence

From a band that was three, broke up, and returned to being a trio, to a band that was a trio and is now a duo, and now to a band that is and always has been a duo—apparently I have an appreciation for small bands. Small bands with big sound. Perhaps you’ve heard me talk about the Helio Sequence before. They’re one of my long-time favorites, having discovered them when they were just starting to take hold in their native Beaverton, Oregon back in 1999 when I lived there VERY briefly.

It used to be that, while I loved their music, I thought the two band members, Benjamin Weikel (drums) and Brandon Summers (guitar and vocals) were cheating. They were using a Mac laptop on stage to play other previously-recorded parts of their songs. Nowadays, a lot of bands do this. But in 1999, this was well before it became unusual to not see a laptop on stage. Summers is an ample songwriter, with a smooth, upper-range sing song-y voice and good rhythm guitar skills. Weikel is one of the best — if not the best — drummers I’ve ever seen. But with a laptop filling out their songs, limiting their ability to improvise on stage, it just didn’t feel right.

12+ years on, I’ve gotten past it. This new album, their fifth full-length, is in the same field as their previous sub-pop releases: pretty, slightly over-produced indie rock songs. None of the albums have been able to achieve the greatness of their first full-length, Com Plex, but it’s been an enjoyable ride.

I wasn’t planning on putting this album on the list, but a perfectly-timed song played on KEXP during my 10-minute snooze routine one morning sunk deep into my psyche and I just can’t shake it. There’s something a little unknowable about this album. Like a few of the albums so far on the list, it’s a grower. This is a good thing.

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26. Moms by Menomena
27. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five
28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

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#26 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Moms by Menomena

In a band whose members all share equal songwriting duties, each creating songs that sound drastically different from one another but manage to still sound like the sound of a single band, there’s bound to be some conflict. Menomena is one of those bands. The internal fighting among the trio broke up the band early last year, after a decade of performing together. But rather than dissolve the band entirely with Brent Knopf’s departure, the remaining duo, Justin Harris and Danny Seim, elected to carry on.

This is a good thing. As the band was essentially three solo artists all performing under one name. So what we’re left with now are two bands (Menomena, and Knopf’s solo project, Ramona Falls, whose new album, Prophet, is also quite good) performing what will always sound to me as “Menomena music.”

And this new album, Moms, is definitely 100% Menomena. The bass sax, layers of sound, unique harmonies — it’s all there. If anything, the sound that Knopf takes with him away from Menomena is the lack of sound. The band has lost the ability to be quiet.

This is not a bad thing. I like quiet music when I’m in the mood for it. And Ramona Falls are chock full of quiet moments. But this new Menomena album is hard hitting from the first note. If you’ve not yet experienced Menomena, I will suggest you start at the beginning, with their first album I am the Fun Blame Monster. Then work your way forward. The history of the band is important, sonically. But if you’re already a fan, pick up this new one. It slots right in where they left off, 33% lighter, but every bit as exciting.

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27. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five
28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
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#27 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five

Reunions tend to suck, regardless of whether they’re family, school, or band related. Sometimes band reunions can be the worst, nothing more than a money grab by some has been star that didn’t manage their money well when they had it and now need to make up for not having any other marketable skills. But not always. Take the Ben Folds Five, for instance. They started making music together nearly 20 years ago, stopped working together after seven, and then Ben Folds went on to have a successful solo career, sans Five. Now they’ve reunited, cut a new record, and are touring again.

But if Ben had great success as a solo artist, why get back together at all? The band surely didn’t need to. Maybe they missed each other and decided to set aside past difficulties for the greater good. Whatever the case may be, the reunion and corresponding new album, The Sound of the Life of the Mind, should be considered a triumph. How many other bands can you point to that took a long hiatus, reunited, and managed to create yet another fun, likable album, as if the band never broke up in the first place? I’m struggling to come up with a single example, other than Ben Folds Five.

As you probably know, the Five are actually only three: Ben Folds (songwriter, lead singer, piano player extraordinaire), Robert Sledge on bass (one of the best rock & roll names ever), and Darren Jessee on drums. Their music would best be described as “nerd rock.” Each song is a story, about a person or thing, each sounding autobiographical. They’re usually dark, twisted stories told with a smile and a curse word or two for comic effect. Ben’s voice and piano are always at the forefront, but Sledge and Jessee provide ample background vocals.

This new album, their fourth studio recording, is a quintessential Ben Folds Five album. The great video above, featuring the Fraggles, is for “Do It Anyway,” the 7th track on the record (if you’re a film geek like me, you’ll also be interested to see the storyboard animatic created for this video). Like the rest of the songs on the new album, it could not be mistaken for anyone but Ben Folds Five, recreating perfectly the sound from their previous incarnation. And with lines like “If you can’t draw a crowd, draw dicks on the wall,” about the struggles of live performance, they’re every bit as fun as they used to be. If you liked them before, you’ll like them again. If you like Ben Folds’ solo work, you’ll like this, too. And if you’ve never listened to them before, pick up this album. Simply the fact that you’re still reading this post tells me you’ll really like this album.

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28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
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#28 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Shields by Grizzly Bear

I haven’t given this album a fair shot. When Grizzly Bear came out with Shields back in September, I remember listening to it a couple of times and thinking “meh.” I didn’t pick it up again until a couple weeks ago when I was putting together this list, at which point my opinion of the album changed entirely. It’s damn good. Much better than 2009’s Veckatimest, which barely made the cutoff for the list that year. The only reason this new, better album is also lingering down here at the bottom of the list is because I haven’t had a chance to give it the number of listens it requires to make it higher up in the list. But I’m confident it would have scored higher, probably in the Top 20, if not the top half of the list, had I given it its due.

Grizzly Bear is an anomaly. Perhaps less so now, but when they hit the scene a decade ago, I didn’t know what to think of them. Here in 2012, they’ve fallen out of favor for me, but I’m feeling that this album is going to change all that.

Jangly guitars, dissonant harmonies, unusual instrumentation (and instruments — was that a door slam I just heard?) are all hallmarks of the band, taking psychedelia from the 60s and 70s and updating it for a younger more musically intelligent audience. Their music, and this album, are tragically pretty.

Imagine a Lars Von Trier movie, in music. You’re not going to cry your eyes out at the end of the album, but you may feel exhausted from the experience of listening nonetheless. Give the album a listen, then rewind back to 2006 and listen to their 2nd album Yellow House, their best. You’ll hear similarities, but it’ll be hard to tell which one came first, as they both feel as if they could be an evolution of the other. Either way, it’ll be an enjoyable experience for you, I’m sure.

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29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

Speaking of hearing about a band for the first time by reading about their new music video on Chrome Waves, here’s Japanese artist Shugo Tokumaru with a great video for his song “Decorate.” It’s off of his new album In Focus? which apparently will see a North American release on January 22, 2013.

As a reminder, you can follow @BaconTunes for album release dates and upcoming Seattle-based show dates I’m looking forward to (without commentary).

#29 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by the Wooden Sky

I discover music in a myriad of ways: recommendations from friends, KEXP radio (online stream and 90.3 FM in Seattle), Record Groop, etc. One of my favorite ways to discover new music is via videos. I watch a lot of music videos. Without getting too deep into it, I would wager that the reason I like music as much as I do is because of the impact music videos had on my still developing brain when I was 7 years old and MTV first lit up my friend’s TV set (since my family didn’t have cable, I had to watch MTV at my neighbor’s house).

And today, without the benefit of MTV to show me new videos on my television, I watch music videos online. I read a lot of music blogs, and one of my favorites, Chrome Waves, pointed me in the direction of the video above, by a Toronto-based band called The Wooden Sky. Before watching this video, I’d never heard of the band. And it’s not as if Frank at Chrome Waves wrote a particularly compelling piece about them that made me want to check them out (although in researching for this post, I did find that he’s written a number of times about the band, but I just failed to notice before now). He merely said:

The Wooden Sky have released a new video from Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun. They’re at The Phoenix on December 1.

And then a link to the video. That was it. For some reason I decided to check it out, and boy was I glad. Watch/listen for yourself. Go ahead, I’ll wait here for you to return.

See? AMAZING, right? I posted the video to the Bacon Review the same day I watched it for the first time, and I keep coming back to it. I don’t know why, but it’s as if this song has given me phantom limb syndrome, and I don’t feel whole until I watch it. But each viewing is unfulfilling, and I have to go back to it again and again, forever.

The rest of the album is pretty great, too. The band performs fairly straightforward indie rock, with a little southern twang thrown in. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but I’m verging on the need to check out the rest of their catalog to see if all three of their other full-lengths are as good as this one. Maybe you’ll have the same compulsion. If you do, be sure to let me know how it goes.

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30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
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#30 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Fragrant World by Yeasayer

I always find the bottom five or so albums the most difficult to pick. Because I’d say any album that falls outside of my Top 25 of the year, but still had more than a handful of plays in my rotation, is somewhat worthy of a spot on the Calendar. But with only spots 26 through 31 left for about 10-20 albums to fight over, it becomes more difficult for me to not just simply pick arbitrarily.

Yeasayer’s 2012 album, Fragrant World, fits that category. I just didn’t listen to the album all that much. Not for lack of trying or caring, there were just 29 more interesting albums grabbing my attention. But, given Yeasayer’s track record (decent debut album, phenomenal sophomore record) I picked up the new album again when planning out this year’s calendar, and found myself really enjoying it. Perhaps you will, too.

Yeasayer ranked in the Top 5 on the Calendar with their 2009 album Odd Blood, which I still find myself drawn to often. Fragrant World is not Odd Blood. But the Brooklyn band has found an interesting crossroads of sound that continues to work very well. Mining the sound of Duran Duran from the 80s, mixing it with slightly tribal, afro-dance beats and strange electronic instrumentation, the music is a bit difficult to convey in words. But listen to the video above and you’ll get it (you can start watching about halfway through, when some fairly sophisticated CGI effects kick in and make for a very interesting video). It’s as if the instruments the band are playing in the video are not plugged in — those sounds playing sound nothing like what those instruments should sound like.

And that’s part of the charm. Where did that sound come from, you’ll hear yourself asking, while you subconsciously move your head to the beat. Ah, caught you, didn’t I? See that? It’s infectious. Yeasayer. Check them out.

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31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

Introducing the 2012 edition of the Musical Bacon Calendar. Every year here at the Bacon Review, I collect my personal top 31 favorites from the year (specifically, November 2011-October 2012) and try to apply some sort of order to the list. Invariably, the list is in flux up until the #1 album is announced on New Year’s Eve, and this year was no different.

2012 was a strange year for music.

The live music scene was on fire: Springsteen, Radiohead, Jeff Mangum (twice!), David Byrne, Sigur Rós, Roger Waters, Elvis Costello… the list goes on and on. That’s more mind-blowing live music than one person should really be allowed to see in a single year.

But only two of those bands have albums that make this year’s calendar. A lot of bands that I’ve loved over the years came out with much fanfare but ultimately unworthy new albums (Beth Orton, Cat Power, Animal Collective, The Flaming Lips, Ben Gibbard…). They did not make the cut. For the first time, I got to travel to Austin for the SXSW Music Festival, and while I had a blast getting to experience a lot of new music there, most of those corresponding albums didn’t have staying power in my musical cue. And once again, like last year and very much unlike 2009 and 2010, I don’t have a clear #1 favorite here at the first of the month. I’ll be forced to land on something by New Year’s Eve, and I definitely have ten solid albums that make up the Top 10 in the calendar, but I find myself looking for (and failing to find) a way to logically categorize and rank them, pointing to an undeniable #1. Only time will tell who wins out in the end.

For now, on to the #31 pick!

#31 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

When Derek Edward Miller and Alexis Krauss first appeared on the Musical Bacon Calendar two years ago (at #12), they were there as the result of a very fast word-of-mouth launch of their debut album, Treats. Now, a little more seasoned, and a little more road weary, Sleigh Bells have released a second album that’s, unsurprisingly, not as good as the first. However, this summation is not a slight on the new album, Reign of Terror, which is quite good. It’s merely the result of Treats being so good that no second album would have matched its success.

Gone is the initial shock of “WHAT IS THIS NOISE?!” leaving the listener with a feeling of “Yep, that’s what I expected.” This album doesn’t push any boundaries — they’ve done all that already. Now they’re just settling into what they know. The true test will be the third album, whenever that may be. You can only sit in the same mold for so long.

Pounding guitar, drums and cheerleader vocals: these are Sleigh Bells forte. If this is the first time you’re hearing Sleigh Bells, by all means pick up Reign of Terror. Just like Treats, it will floor you from the very first strum of the guitar. The video above, for “Demons,” the 7th song on the album, is an apt representation of the entire Sleigh Bells catalog. Like it? Buy them all and blow your speakers out.

There you have it, we’re underway! Welcome to the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar, everybody.

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2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

These Sufjan Stevens videos get more and more bizarre, which, considering what we’ve seen so far, is really saying something. Here’s the first of 7 videos in his “Friendship Slay Ride” series.

Can’t say I laughed out loud at any of these, but I definitely watched each one through to the end in mouth-dropping amazement.

The other 6 can be found here:

Friendship Slay Ride 2 of 7
Friendship Slay Ride 3 of 7 — my favorite
Friendship Slay Ride 4 of 7
Friendship Slay Ride 5 of 7
Friendship Slay Ride 6 of 7
Friendship Slay Ride 7 of 7

Also note if you have tickets to see his show on the “Surfjam Estabanopolis Christmas Spectacular Seasonal Affective Disorder Sing-a-long Sensation” tour, Sufjan has given special instructions on his website.

New Frightened Rabbit album, Pedestrian Verse, coming February 5, 2013. Here’s one of the songs from the album, “Dead Now.” A montage video, not much to it really. But still: NEW FRIGHTENED RABBIT!

Thanks to Sufjan Stevens, it’s going to be one of the most bizarre and twisted Christmases ever. Looking forward to the start of Christmas-music season on November 23, which means the Bacon Calendar won’t be too far behind.

Here’s Trent Reznor’s How to Destroy Angels with “Keep It Together” from the band’s just-released An omen EP._

It’s oddly exciting to hear Trent’s voice after so many years of not really paying attention to him. This song leaves a little to be desired. I felt it building to something, but never really paying off.

Tease.

Sticking with the expectedly bizarre, here’s Sigur Rós with a long-form music video called “Valtari,” featuring dancers having choreographed courtship and consummation to clips from four Sigur Rós songs, all from their 2012 album of the same name.

Bjӧrk, “Mutual Core,” from last year’s Biophilia, of which the official remix album Bastards comes out next week.

(do check out that home page when you get a chance. It’s bizarrely beautiful.)

I left SXSW back in March very excited about Cold Specks, based entirely on — I kid you not — a 15 minute set. But then I got her debut album I Predict a Graceful Expulsion a couple months later, and was thoroughly unimpressed.

But now, here we are, 7 months after SXSW, and my head is back in the game. This new video for “Hector” is just right, and the song is great, too. Enjoy!

Well that’s fun. I know pretty much zero about Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, but this video for their song “Hoshi Neko,” from their 2011 album YT//ST, is a good use of stop-motion animation. This is what David Lynch or Tim Burton would do if they were making music videos in 2012.

Heard this for the first time this morning and have now played it on repeat 5 times. Such a great, simple song by this new-to-the-scene Irish band Little Green Cars. The video’s full of unhappy hipsters (cf), but the song is so good, I’m ok with that.

(also — since when did bands start performing on Dr. Phil, especially as part of their first US tour?)