Monday, June 8, 2009

Mid-year favorites

Hey, it’s June already, look at that. Time for a very provisional list of my favorite records, in an order that may change and with picks that may grow or fade on me by year-end…and hold a spot for that new Clean record, just in case.
1. Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild Set ‘Em Free
2. Lotus Plaza – The Floodlight Collective
3. Tyvek – Tyvek
4. Mirah – (a)Spera
5. Pains of Being Pure At Heart – S/T
6. A.C. Newman – Get Guilty
7. Obits – I Blame You
8. Fresh & Onlys – S/T
9. Amadou & Mariam – Welcome to Mali
10. James Blackshaw – The Glass Bead Game

Reissues
1. Red Red Meat – Bunny Gets Paid
2. Zero Boys – Vicious Circle
3. Vaselines – The Way of the Vaselines
4. Volcano Suns – All Night Lotus Party/Bright Orange Years
5. Thin Lizzy – Still Dangerous

8 comments:

cuddlefish said...

Is it that time already? (I do love lists...)

My "Mid-year favorites that will probably never make any of the thousands of year-end favorites lists" (Not in any order):

The Callas - The Callas
Gurf Morlix - Last Exit to Happyland
Po' Girl - Deer in the Night
Shemekia Copeland - Never Going Back
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Tell 'em What Your Name Is!
Soap&Skin - Lovetune for Vacuum
I Was a King - I Was a King
Øresund Space Collective- Good Planets Are Hard to Find
Pikelet - Not So Still [EP]
Klaus & Kinski - Por qué no me das tu dinero [EP]

Cheers!

jenniferpkelly said...

Clif, should I go see Black Joe Lewis...with the NY Dolls?

I don't have any of these records, lots of catching up to do. I think someone's been trying to get me to write about I Was a King, maybe I should return her emails.

cuddlefish said...

Yes. See Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. The band is tight. Garage soul never sounded so good :)

I liked the power pop of I Was a King. (I think that Matthew Sweet has some cousins in Norway.)

If you are interested in any of the others, I'd be glad to send them your way...

jenniferpkelly said...

Cool, have to try to check it out...which are the garage-ier bands on your list?

cuddlefish said...

The closest to garage would be The Callas who hail from Athens, Greece. Not garage rock but there seems to be some Billy Childish influence.

The rest:
Pikelet is Australian Evelyn Morris - experimental psychedelic folk (weird Australiana?)
Klause & Kinski - indie pop from Spain
Austinite Gurf Morlix has played guitar with and produced albums by Lucinda Williams, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Robert Earl Keen. - alt country, Americana, "Happyland" it ain't.
Shemekia Copeland (daughter of blues guitarist Johnny Copeland)- soulful blues with a funky backbeat.
Soap&Skin is young the Austrian singer Anja Plaschg - singer/songwriter, fragile darkwave.
Po' Girl (former members of the Be Good Tanyas) - Canadian folk
Øresund Space Collective - space rock from Copenhagen.

jenniferpkelly said...

Hmmm...sounds like a job for Random Friday.

:)

Ian said...

Mine are kind of boring this year so far:

01. Fever Ray - s/t
02. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
03. Matt & Kim - Grand
04. Mountains - Choral
05. Divisible - Less Than Lion
06. Crocodiles - Summer of Hate
07. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
08. The Field - Yesterday and Today
09. Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Twice Born Men
10. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

But I have a ton of stuff to listen to.

jenniferpkelly said...

Well, let's see...I know three of the albums on your list reasonably well, and I kinda thought animal collective would be on my year-end list at the beginning of the year. I just haven't listened to it very much. I might have to go back to it. I like the Mountains a lot, and the Crocodiles maybe just above average (but not top ten)...but I don't LOVE either excessively the way you have to to put something into your top ten.

I want to hear the Sonic Youth and the Clean...and with any luck a couple of new bands will surprise me before the end of the year.