Flume and Chet Faker — Drop the Game

Here’s an awesome collaboration between two people I wasn’t familiar with until I saw this video. Australians Flume (electronic producer, DJ, and apparent master of the remix — check out this one; Lorde has never sounded so good) and Chet Faker (electronic musician cut in the James Blake mold) have created a song that makes you wish you could move like the dancer in the video above. At a minimum, your head is bobbing up and down slowly while listening to the song in the background as you read this.

The song is from a collaborative 3-song EP that came out last year from the two musicians, called Lockjaw. This isn’t the first time they’ve worked together; Faker appeared on Flume’s 2012 self-titled debut album. Faker’s first full-length album, Built on Glass, came out in April of this year. If you like slower trip-hop grooves, or what might be more appropriately termed “post-dubstep” (groan), then you’ll love it.

This song has been in constant rotation in my ears now for nearly 24 hours straight. Thanks to @AMatthiesen for pointing me in this direction.

The Knife — Without You My Life Would Be Boring (Shaken-Up Version)

Here’s a bit of good news: On June 20 The Knife, Sweden’s craziest brother/sister duo, are releasing an album full of remixes from 2013’s Shaking the Habitual, called Shaken-Up Versions. Habitual was #29 on last year’s Bacon Calendar. I only liked that album so-so, which is why it was at #29. But if the above video is any indication of what to expect on the remix album, then I’m excited.

Kishi Bashi — Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It!

Production value is everything when it comes to Kishi Bashi. And this video demonstrates this beautifully. His new album, Lighght (pronounced “Light,” apparently), comes out May 13, and he’ll be playing the Showbox a week later, on May 20. His live show is every bit as lush as his recorded work, and he is the master of the digital sequencer. It’s impossible to describe how amazing it is to watch someone sing multiple harmonies with themself on stage, live. Go, and marvel at the results.

Masuda Shacho Shobaihanjo Gakudan — Drunk March

I randomly discovered the work of Japanese director Shingo Hashimoto. He appears to mainly create crazy commercials for a grocery chain in Japan called “Family Mart.” But he also had this music video, for the song “Drunk March,” (I think), by a Japanese band called Masuda Shacho Shobaihanjo Gakudan (I think). I can find no more information about the song, the band, or the video, so all information above should be taken with a grain of salt.

Either way, great video. I want to do this with my next wedding party.

Cloud Control — Moon Rabbit

After hitting the 2014 Bacon Calendar at #20, Cloud Control continue to be in constant rotation over here at The Bacon Emporium. Here’s a new video from last year’s Dream Cave. These guys are one of many awesome bands playing Sasquatch this year. They’ll be performing during the first 3-day set, on May 24, 2014.

Iska Dhaaf — Everybody Knows

Nowadays, it’s quite the coup if you get Macklemore to show up in your video. But new Seattle duo Iska Dhaaf did just that. Iska Dhaaf is Nathan Quiroga (aka Buffalo Madonna from Mad Rad) and Benjamin Verdoes (from Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band). That’s some heavy-hitting local talent, and I’m anxious to hear what comes of the band’s debut full-length, Even the Sun Will Burn, slated for release on March 11.

Guided By Voices — Planet Score

I’ve never been a Guided By Voices fan — I always felt I missed my opportunity to get into them. But that won’t stop me from posting their latest video. “Planet Score” stars Breaking Bad’s Badger (Matt Jones) as a poor shot, with the Corddry brothers and a hot dog (Will Maier) alternately yelling at and encouraging him. It’s silly but funny.

Phantogram — Fall In Love

The second release from Phantogram, Voices, came out earlier this week, and it is — as expected — phenomenal. Watch the “Fall In Love” video above, fall in love with the band, purchase the album, then catch them live at a location near you.

Elbow — Fly Boy Blue / Lunette

Great new video from longtime fave Elbow. The band’s sixth full-length, beautifully titled The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, comes out in March.

#1 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Muchacho by Phosphorescent

Some albums make you want to dance. Some make you want to laugh, or to cry. Or to blast as loudly as possible. Or wake up/fall asleep to. And then there are the albums that make you want to do all of those things. Muchacho is that kind of album. This isn’t an album — it’s a soundtrack for life.

Phosphorescent is Matthew Houck. Originally from Athens, Georgia, Houck has been making and playing music as Phosphorescent for over ten years now. Muchacho is his sixth record in that span. I didn’t discover him until his last album, 2010’s Here’s To Taking It Easy, which landed at #20 on that year’s Calendar. (Although looking back at that list now, I should have put it no lower than #11. Damn.)

You can define Houck’s music as country, acid rock, southern rock, or alt.country, but he’s somewhere in the middle of all of them. Keyboards, horns, violins and lap steel guitars play heavily throughout all of his music, and that’s no different for Muchacho. Houck’s voice is like a worn out tee, falling apart at the seams, the most comfortable thing you own. He has the perfect amount of laziness in his delivery, drug along reluctantly by the music laid out before him. Verging on a yodel but never quite getting there, he can sound like sad old dog or a wounded one, backed into a corner, depending on the story he is trying to tell.

And those stories, those yarns, are amazing. Typically about heartache and sorrow, the tales Houck tells can hit you in the deepest parts of your insides. Yet somehow the music isn’t depressing — it’s encouraging. His is a life lived hard but fruitful, a life best avoided but fantastic to vicariously live through.

As a fine capper for this year’s Calendar, you should now listen to Phosphorescent’s cover of Vampire Weekend’s “Ya Hey,” which Houck performed live on the air at KCSN (California State University, Northridge) on October 3. “Ya Hey” was the best song on Modern Vampires of the City, the #3 album of the year, and hearing it performed in Houck’s quiet drawl puts a dark, melancholy twist on the upbeat song. This could have very easily been a Houck original, it’s so different from the Vampire Weekend version.

2013 has been one hell of a year, a life-affirming, fucked up, killer of a year. For personal reasons, I can’t say I’ll miss it. But the music that’s come out of it, and the enjoyment it will bring me for many many years to come has made it much easier to bare. That music will undoubtedly remind me of the ups and downs of the year, and that will be just fine. As time goes on, the memories will smooth out, and the music will shine even brighter. Phosphorescent’s Muchacho will be with me the whole way.

Coda

When I write about each of these albums I tend to have them playing in the background. Tonight, as I went to flip this record over, in the middle of writing this article, I dropped it onto the top of the record stylus and put a big scratch down the middle of my favorite song, “The Quotidian Beasts.” Strangely fitting. It still plays, but with a terrible hiccup in every revolution.

I ordered a new copy immediately.

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2. Trouble Will Find Me by The National
3. Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend
4. The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches
5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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#2 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Trouble Will Find Me by The National

Upon your initial run-through of “I Should Live in Salt,” the first song on The National’s fantastic sixth studio album Trouble Will Find Me, you’re struck by how unnatural the beat is. The measures alternate between nine and eight beats (although I’m not smart enough to know if that means there’s actually a 17-beat measure encompassing both), and every time you hear that ninth beat you’re caught off guard. A few more listens and you’re able to sit comfortably with it, applauding yourself on your ability to recognize it when it’s coming, each time, predictable as the sun rise. Then, after sitting with the album for a couple months, you no longer notice that errant beat — you’ve successfully absorbed the unsettled-nature of the alternating beat, and are therefore left to contemplate the subtleties.

This is the nature of every song on the album. “Demons,” the 2nd song, has seven beats to every measure. You have to get to the third song, “Don’t Swallow the Cap,” before you’re rewarded with a more familiar 4-beat rhythm. Experimentation with rhythm is nothing new to The National. In fact, it’s something that drew me so strongly to them back in 2007, with their phenomenal song “Fake Empire” from their fourth album, Boxer. Back then, Bryce Dessner said of the rhythms in that song:

“The first song, ‘Fake Empire,’ is one that I wrote, and conceptually I said I would love to write a song that was based on a certain polyrhythm, the four-over-three pattern, which is what you hear in the piano. It’s something I, personally, have never heard in rock music. What’s interesting is the song sounds like it’s in four, but it’s in three. The harmonies and the way I’m playing the piano music are actually incredibly simple — sort of like ‘Chopsticks’ simple — with this really weird rhythm.”

This is also not the first time The National have appeared on the Calendar. In 2010, I fell hard for Matt Berninger and the brothers Dessner and Devendorf, placing their fifth album, High Violet, in the #1 spot for that year. So I was predisposed to love Trouble. There’s nothing new about the new album — if you liked them before, you’ll continue to like them, and if you disliked them up to this point, I don’t believe this album will sway your opinion. But if you’re unfamiliar with them, this is a perfect album with which to start your obsession. If High Violet was the output of a band at the top of their game (it was), then Trouble is that of a band finally free of any need to prove themselves.

This album could have been complete shit and people would have continued to buy it in droves. Imagine the freedom knowing something like that would put on your creative process. I would normally believe the pressure to succeed wildly would be a powerful motivator. This album is proof that it can be the opposite as well. We’ve got nothing left to prove, we’ve reached the pinnacle, and oh, by the way, here’s another album that’s going to knock your fucking socks off.

P.S. The band also performed the song “Sailors in Your Mouth,” which is from the cartoon Bob’s Burgers, (animated video here) after having done “Kill Your Turkey” for them last year, and having had the band’s video for “Conversation 16” from 2010’s High Violet directed by Bob’s Burgers director Scott Jacobson. How can you not love them?

P.P.S. The video above, for “Sea of Love,” is an original song by the National, with a completely ripped-off video. “A loving homage to one of our favorite punk rock videos,” as the band put it when the video was released. The original video, which you can watch here, is by a band called Zvuki Mu, a Russian punk band, for their song “Grubiy Zakat” You can view their video here.

Tomorrow: NUMERO UNO. So excited!

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3. Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend
4. The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches
5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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#3 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend

The top three. This year it was tough to put in order. It pains me to have to put this lovely album at #3, because it is SO GOOD. On the flip side, I love that three albums as good or better than this one were released this year.

Vampire Weekend have now released three studio albums in the last five years, and every single one of them has been great. But if you disagree, if you’ve tried to listen to their self-titled debut from 2008 or 2010’s Contra and decided this band isn’t for you, I urge you to try again. Modern Vampires of the City is the product of a band that has matured. You will not recognize it as you have previous Vampire Weekend albums. No longer can their sound be compared to other bands or other sounds from years past. Their sound is now their sound, and they are at the top of the mountain, shouting, victorious.

Lead singer, lyricist, guitarist and co-songwriter Ezra Koenig’s playful phrases display a mastery of history, culture and the English language that is unequaled anywhere in pop music. Koenig and the rest of the band — guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and co-songwriter Rostam Batmanglij; drummer and percussionist Chris Tomson; and bassist and backing vocalist Chris Baio — have crafted an album of twelve songs that is an absolute joy to listen to, one that is equally youthful and wise, one I will undoubtedly be reaching for ten, twenty, forty years down the road.

The band came through town as the headlining act on 107.7 The End’s Deck the Hall Ball, and I was there to take it all in. They were the capper of a full nine-hour day of music, and they proved why they earned top billing. Each song played, from all of their albums, had the crowd up and moving about, smiling happily from ear to ear. Koenig, somehow seemingly appropriate for the occasion, was dressed in a matching pants and button-down navy blue with white polka-dots pajama set. He played the whole 1+ hour set dressed that way, but never once seemed ready to hit the hay. It was brilliant.

This album is that rare beast that is universally loved. Debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 when it was released in May, it has been favorably reviewed by nearly every publication that talks about popular music. Both Rolling Stone and Pitchfork have ranked it the #1 album of 2013. Perhaps owing to the earned media it is enjoying, the band has only produced one true music video from the album: “Diane Young,” shown above. There are a couple official lyric videos out there as well, for “Step” and “Ya Hey” (my absolute favorite from the album, although really any one of these songs could be my favorite).

Modern Vampires is a tour de force, an album unequaled in loveliness. You must hear it before making judgment on this band. You will not be disappointed.

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4. The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches
5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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#4 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches

There’s been a revival over the past couple years in the sounds of the 80s, and I would pin the start of this revival to the soundtrack for the 2011 movie Drive, which was a throwback itself. The highlights of that soundtrack were “Night Call” by French DJ Kavinsky and “A Real Hero” by another Frenchman, David Grellier, an electronic musician known as College.

The Bones Of What You Believe, the fantastic debut album from Chvrches, from Glasgow, Scotland, is the culmination of this revival. Synthesizers, drum machines and echo effects provide the foundation for an album steeped in the past. There is little surprise to this album, other than it is solid from start to finish. This is no one-hit wonder. Each song on the album is a hit in its own right, one worthy of only the best kind of car karaoke.

A trio, Chvrches is made up of lead singer Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty, all of whom play keyboards and drum machines throughout the album. Mayberry’s treacly vocals, dripping with emotion, fuel large swells of passionate, impossibly perfect electronic sounds. “Overly produced” doesn’t even begin to qualify when listening to this album, as it is so over the top that nothing can compare. I would normally shy away from such production, preferring the humanity in the slightly off-key vocal or guitar string, but in the hands of these three perfection is the name of the game, through and through.

Chvrches is the best new band of 2013. No band has created a debut album as powerful as this one in 2013. I got to see the band play Seattle for the first time back in September, and, concentrating on “Recover,” the song shown in the video above, I summed up their songs accordingly:

The band’s songs are amazingly catchy, and very much de riguere. Heavy keyboards driven by repetitive, synthetic drums build each song to a flurry of activity, with Mayberry’s voice imparting a sense of urgency that draws you into your headphones like a tornado. My first experience of the band was “Recover,” from the EP of the same name that was released back in March. What was most unique about the song was also what drove me most crazy. Mayberry’s droning lyric throughout the song “I’ll give you one – more – chance; to say we can change – our – old – ways; and you take – what – you – need; and you know – you – don’t – need me” is every-so-slightly off beat from the underlying synthesizers (go ahead and try to bop your head to the drum beat, rather than her lyrical beat, and the difference is painfully obvious).

While they killed the Showbox that night by playing their entire album, the highlight of their performance turned out to not be one of their songs, but a cover, which they were seemingly unprepared to play but had to for lack of any other song to play in the crowd-demanded encore:

“We only have one more song we can play. Not to be typecast as ‘the band that covers that song,’ but here it is:” a perfectly-played version of Prince and The Revolution’s “I Would Die 4 U.” (CHVRCHES has actually recorded their version of the song, which can be heard here — note the cute name change, too.) It’s almost as if the band was put together and has come so far specifically to play this song.

It’s unclear if this album will stand the test of time. It’s difficult for a band so rooted in the past to hold onto the present while avoiding the “fad” label. But for now, I’m loving it, and you will, too.

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5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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#5 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case

It’s taken me a very long time to get to this point. I have of course known about Neko Case for a long time, having first fallen in love with her powerful voice on “Letter from an Occupant” from Mass Romantic, the debut New Pornographers album from way back in 2000. I’d heard many of her countryfied solo songs since then, and had even been at that infamous hail-covered Sasquatch! performance in 2006, but while I enjoyed those songs, they didn’t hook me. Five New Pornographers and four solo albums later, (as well as two early albums with Her Boyfriends) here we are with her best work to date, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You.

This album is unlike anything I’ve heard from Case previously. At times it feels very country and at others indie rock, sometimes full and at others, sparse, and it is gorgeous throughout. These songs are heartfelt and it shows. It feels very much like a New Pornographers record at times, with fast, soaring-chorus songs like “Man,” which revolves around a rocking guitar / piano solo in the middle of the short 3 minutes. In other ways, it reminds me of Fiona Apple’s #1 album from last year, with it’s pared down, nearly a cappella sadness.

“Nearly Midnight, Honolulu” is the quietest, but also the most powerful moment of the album. A terribly sad story about an experience Case had at the airport in Honolulu where she overheard a mother yelling at her young son. It is moving in its starkness. Case sings harmony with herself at points in the song, punctuating the darkness with a chorus of uplifting voices. The song is arresting, and will make you fall in love with Case, the boy that is the center of the song, and with the album itself. You can hear that song here, but I recommend hearing it in the context of the full album to really understand it.

Case and the band recorded a set for Austin City Limits earlier this year, and it will be airing on PBS on January 11. Here’s a preview of the show, with them performing the song “Man” mentioned above. The video above is apparently the only actual video released from this album to date, and it’s a stupid lyric video, which I don’t care for. Be that as it may, it‘s a great song from an amazing album, one that I know you, too, will love.

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6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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#6 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru

The album at #6 came out towards the end of 2012 in Japan, but not until January 22, 2013 in the U.S. In Focus?, from Shugo Tokumaru, wins my award for Most Listened-To Album in 2013. It is sheer bliss, in musical form. Tokumaru’s fifth official full-length album, In Focus? is my first experience with the artist.

According to what I’ve read online, Tokumaru is a wunderkind similar to Prince. He writes, performs, records and mixes all of his own music. The album reminds me quite a bit — again — of Sufjan Stevens. Whenever recommending Tokumaru to friends, I would sum him up by calling him “The Japanese Sufjan Stevens.” He has a mastery of the strange and unexpected. In Focus? is chock full of whimsy, giving the listener an almost uncanny sense of musical serendipity upon each listen.

As Tokumaru sings in Japanese, this album has the added benefit of not being too distracting to listen to when trying to write (usually an impossible task for any album with someone singing). This also makes for strange car karaoke, where you find yourself attempting to sing along to Tokumaru’s Japanese by simply mimicking the sounds he is making. I’m positive this would sound horrible to anyone who speaks the language. This became especially problematic when I saw Tokumaru at the Sunset on July 16. I like to sing along with performers when I know the words (but I don’t shout over the performer). But for Tokumaru, I felt 100% self-conscious of sounding like the charlatan that I am, which prevented me from singing at all.

The live show itself, however, was unbelievable. Tokumaru had four other people on stage with him (and one off stage, on the floor, as the stage was not large enough): a bassist, a wild-man drummer and three percussionist / keyboard / backup singers who played all manner of instruments and toys, whirligigs and noisemakers. It was a truly happy show, and my cheeks hurt at the end of it. (You can get a glimpse of what that experience was like by watching this KEXP In Studio Performance from the same day.)

The above video, for the lively song “Katachi,” is featuring on the Bacon Review for the second time. It’s so good, I’ve posted it twice. He also has another video from this album, for the song “Decorate,” which I featured in these pages back in December of 2012. Be sure to watch that one as well.

I would like more people to know and love Tokumaru, but only if it means I can continue to see him in venues as tiny at the Sunset. I know this is an impossible request, so, therefore, please listen, enjoy, and do NOT under any circumstances plan on seeing him live.

Thank you very much.

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7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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A lovely version of the best-ever Christmas song

The Pogues and Kristy McColl’s 1987 song “Fairy Tale of New York” is my absolute favorite Christmas song. On December 11, an indie-rock super group made up of Iron & Wine, Calexico, Kathleen Edwards and Glen Hansard got together and performed the song live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which you can watch above.

Looking into the song more, I came across this great article in the Guardian from last year that details the history of the song. I didn’t realize the making of the song involved a two-year process that began with Elvis Costello and ended with Steve Lillywhite. The original demo of the song, which has original Pogues bassist and future Elvis Costello wife Cait O'Riordan singing McColl’s eventual part, is featured within that article as well. Knowing the history makes the song even better, if that were even possible. Below is the original version of the song, starring a young Matt Dillon in the roll of the NYPD officer that throws Pogues lead singer Shane MacGowan in the drunk tank. Merry Christmas!

#7 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Psychic by Darkside

I’m a bit at a loss on how to begin this review of Psychic, the phenomenal debut album from Darkside, a collaboration between Nicolas Jarr and Dave Harrington. I don’t really have a clue how to describe it. All I know is, if you haven’t heard the album yet, you absolutely must stop whatever it is you were doing before you started reading this post and hit play on the above video. (And yes, this is a video and that is not a still image. It is an extreme slow-mo shot of a house burning down. Seriously.)

You may have heard of Jarr, an electronic musician, from his many remixes or various other slow dance ventures over the past few years. He also released a solo album that reached a modest following in 2011 called Space Is Only Noise. Harrington, a multi-instrumentalist, is unknown to me outside of this project. Together, Jarr and Harrington have managed to create an album that is indescribable by modern day standards. This is an album more fit for the early 80s, where the clash of guitars and spacey landscapes of electronic sound defined an era dominated by Pink Floyd.

When I first heard the album — shortly after it was released in October — I reached out to a good friend to tell him about it. I thought he’d love the album, because it reminds me so much of Pink Floyd, a band I knew he loved. It was with complete innocence that I suggested he should listen to it. The irony of suggesting a band called Darkside to someone who loves Pink Floyd was completely lost on me until he started laughing.

Be that as it may, the connection to Pink Floyd is still there for me. This album is spacey, layered in such a way that I continue to hear new things in it every time I listen, even after multiple plays in my headphones. The album is almost entirely instrumental, and when a voice does flow in, it’s more melodic and treated as one of the instruments, rather than front and center.

Apologies for the dumbfounded nature of this review. Just listen to it, will you?

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8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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#8 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

AMOK by Atoms for Peace

Thom Yorke slays me. Throw in master producer Nigel Godrich, amazing session drummer Joey Waronker, percussionist Mauro Refosco, and Flea, and, well, you’ve got the makings of the #8 album of the year. But you’ve already heard and formed your opinions about this album, and nothing I say or do here will sway that. You either like Atoms for Peace or not.

The video above is not the best video from the album (see either “Ingenue” or “Before Your Very Eyes” for that honor), but “Default,” the song the video is for, is by far the best song on the album.

I had the enormous pleasure of seeing Atoms for Peace play the Treasure Island Music Festival back in October. But that pleasure was dwarfed by the sheer joy of getting my hands on one of the 100 “Judge, Jury and Executioner” 12" vinyl singles in a hand-printed sleeve that was sold only at Sonic Boom Records back in March (as chosen by Thom himself). It’s been an Atoms for Peace kind of year.

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9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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#9 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

White Lighter by Typhoon

Do you like the lush sound of an orchestra, complete with horns, stringed instruments, and percussion and/or the inherent pain and suffering heard in every word Bright Eyes ever sang? Then you will like Typhoon. No, Conor Oberst is not in the band, but Typhoon’s lead singer, Kyle Morton, sings quite like him, with an amazing amount of emotion dripping off of every syllable.

Morton is one of 11 people in the band. Yes, eleven. There are three horns, and two each of guitars, violins, and drummers. I’ve seen the band cram onto a too-small stage while managing to find room for two full drum kits (usually front and center) as well as the rest of the amps — let alone 11 people. It’s quite a feat.

The benefits of touring with a band this size are obvious. Too often you hear these amazingly rich albums with horns and strings, but then the live experience is significantly diminished by either a) the strings and horns are recorded and played back via the push of a button, or b) the arrangements are modified significantly to accommodate a smaller touring band. Sometimes these new arrangements are quite good, and it’s nice to hear songs reimagined for the live stage, but Typhoon brings the real deal. What you hear on the album is faithfully restored on stage, with a mixed group of eleven late-20s/early-30s happy hipsters from Portland, bouncing and giddily playing to their hearts content.

I define their music as a derivative of “Americana,” a la Head and The Heart, or the overplayed hand-claps of The Lumineers or Of Monsters and Men. But where those bands stick to the road previously traveled, Typhoon chart their own course. These songs are complicated, with orchestration that would amaze the squarest of symphony goers. And Morton’s lyrics of heartache and the pain of everyday life, sung with the conviction of apparent autobiography, are beautifully touching. There are similarities in the notes to bands like The Decemberists (also from Portland) — not in subject matter or voice, but in rich layers of sound and an educated definition of what makes for a good composition.

This album, White Lighter, is the band’s fourth full-length. I discovered their 2010 album too late to put it on the Calendar that year (it would definitely have been on there), but their 2011 EP A New Kind of House made the list in 2011, at #23. If Morton’s voice doesn’t immediately put you off, I believe there’s something in this album for everyone. Give it a listen, buy it, and then wear out the grooves in the record, as I’m sure I will be doing over the next decade or so.

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10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

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#10 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Hummingbird by Local Natives

Top ten of 2013. Let’s do this.

It’s a wonderful thing when a band disproves the “sophomore slump” pitfall that many bands experience. Hummingbird, the fantastic second album from Los Angeles band Local Natives, has the band pushing out the boundaries from their excellent first album, Gorilla Manor, which made the Musical Bacon Calendar back in 2010 at nearly the same spot in the list. Where the first album was bouncy, joyous, a celebration of life, the second album is darker, sadder, and melancholy. This is not a bad thing.

In the time between the first and second albums, the quintet became a quartet, and lead singer Kelcey Ayer’s mother passed away. These two separate but collectively difficult moments became the foundation of what would turn into Hummingbird. Additionally, the band tapped Aaron Dessner, from The National, to produce and perform on the album, which most certainly had an influence on where it would go. Aside from the vocals, which continue to be lovingly delivered by the lead-singing duo of Ayer and Taylor Rice, this could very well be a National album (and you already know how much I love them). Ayer and Rice alternate duties at the lead mic, each of them with gorgeous, higher-register voices with Ayer relying on falsetto and Rice seemingly pushing his voice up without it. Both of whom sound decidedly different from Matt Berninger’s (lead singer in The National) baritone.

The album’s high points are also the most bleak songs on the album: “Three Months” and “Colombia.” The band hasn’t released either of the songs as singles or videos, but there are a number of band-sanctioned live performances out there of the songs, the best of which are from a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg the week after this album released and this performance from January on air for NPR and KCRW. The videos they have released from this album, including “You & I” above, as well as “Heavy Feet,” “Ceilings,” and “Breakers” all have an irreverance that verges on uncomfortable that makes for an interesting listening/watching experience.

There really is no difference between hearing these songs live or recorded, much to the band’s musicianship. With two albums under their belts, they’ve now proven their ability to craft intelligent, immersive songs that take you to an emotional high only few songs can. This band is still on the unknown side, which is a blessing and a curse. I get to enjoy them at the relatively smaller spaces like The Neptune and the Showbox at the Market, but they don’t get to enjoy the benefits of being an indie band that’s broken through. This will change. Perhaps not on the dour strength of Hummingbird, but maybe on the next endeavor, whenever that will be.

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11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

2012 Musical Bacon Calendar
2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar