Lost in the Trees put out one of my favorite albums of 2010, and the NC band is due to release its new one, A Church That Fits Our Needs, March 20 on Anti-. This is the first video from the record, which finds bandleader Ari Picker working through the carnage of his mother’s 2009 suicide. It’s a tribute, of sorts, and it takes the band’s orchestral folk sound to new heights. As NPR noted when it debuted “Red” this week, there’s a David Lynch feel to the video, and that haunting/beautiful sensation permeates the entire album. Read what Picker had to say about the video after the jump.

Lost in the Trees return to the Wexner Center April 5 with Poor Moon (Christian Wargo and Casey Wescott of Fleet Foxes).

Via NPR:

When my mom passed, I gathered up all of her art supplies (sewing machines, paint brushes, fabrics) and put them into my writing space. She had also left behind a lot of tapes of her interviewing other artists about their work, a unfinished documentary of sorts. I used the four-track machine to harvest some of my moms conversations with the artist Clyde Jones (a local wood sculptor), and used them as samples on the record. When I was little, we lived in a large unkempt farm house, and my mother turned one of the bigger rooms into her art gallery. Around Christmastime she would put on a show and sell her work. She would take leaves from our magnolia tree and spray paint them gold as decorations for around the house. She would also cut flowers from our night blooming cereus and float the pedals around in the bath tub and take pictures of them. All these little acts of taking normal things and making them beautiful – that is what really influences me. The golden leaves, the swirling paint brushes, they are all intended to conceptualize an intangible place, the place where art is created, as well as a space for passing souls.

To be honest, it was quite difficult to decide on 10 full albums I really enjoyed listening to from start to finish. This could be the fault of BBC6 radio, and it’s persistent nature of turning an “OK” song into a real banger after playing it enough. It could also be the fault of so many let downs and gimmicks. Never in a single year have I looked forward to so many albums that panned out to be so disappointingly average. In a market so over saturated by bands trying to “out-cool” one another and being more conscious of what they wear than how well they play, it’s no wonder that some of names keep recurring year after year or that the best single tracks list was so much more enjoyable to assemble.

But this is it, I’ve done it. I’ve decided what 10 albums and 20 tracks have been the most enjoyable, the least pretentious and will hopefully be a memorable depiction of 2011 – five, ten and fifty years from now.

As for ranking, I must digress to the one brutal truth of end of year lists that my good friend Wes pointed out recently. Ranking is, in fact, arbitrary and simply a tool for building suspense in pinning down one’s judgement on any particular topic. So to avoid that (as you may not know who I am nor care about/for my taste in music), I’ve decided to post my lists chronologically. My hope is for you to have a listen to anything you’re not familiar with and ideally find something to enjoy. That’s why you’re here, right?

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

MP3: Let England Shake

Secret Cities – Strange Hearts

MP3 – Always Friends

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

MP3 – The Shrine / An Argument

Amor De Dias – Street of the Love of Days

MP3: Bunhill Fields

Let’s Wrestle – Nursing Home

Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver

MP3: Holocene

Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer

MP3: I Won’t Fall Apart On You Tonight

Beirut – The Rip Tide

MP3: Santa Fe

Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know

Boddie Recording Company: Cleveland, Ohio – Numero Group Compilation

MP3: Jackie Russell – If You Don’t Want Me Let Me Be

My Top 20 Tracks Of 2011

PJ Harvey – MP3: The Last Living Rose (Let England Shake)

Bill Callahan – MP3: America! (Apocalypse)

Metronomy – MP3: The Look (The English Riviera)

tUnEyArDs – MP3: Bizness (w h o k i l l)

Eleanor Friedberger – MP3: My Mistakes (Last Summer)

Wild Beasts – MP3: Deeper (Smother)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – MP3: How Can You Luv Me (Unknown Mortal Orchestra)

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – MP3: Senator (Mirror Traffic)

Bon Iver – MP3: Towers (Bon Iver, Bon Iver)

Little Dragon – MP3: Ritual Union (Ritual Union)

Laura Marling – MP3: Sophia (A Creature I Don’t Know)

Real Estate – MP3: It’s Real (Days)

The War On Drugs – MP3: Baby Missiles (Slave Ambient)

Race Horses – MP3: Benidorm

Girls – MP3: Honey Bunny (Father, Son, Holy Ghost)

Atlas Sound – MP3: Lightworks (Parallax)

Michael Kiwanuka – MP3: I’m Getting Ready (Tell Me A Tale)

The Black Keys – Video: Lonely Boy (El Camino)

DJ Shadow feat. Little Dragon – MP3: Scale it back (The Less You Know, The Better)

NZCA/Lines – NZCA/LINES – Okinawa Channels

I also never expected my favorite album to come from someone who held the spot previously, but the iTunes “most played” playlist doesn’t lie. It’s a divisive one, but people who like it really like it.

I picked 15 favorites and several honorable mentions, plus a Favorite Columbus Albums list below — separate but equal in enjoyment and quality. As usual, I limit my lists to albums, so some EPs and 7”s I liked (e.g. Envelope, Sundown, Malefactors of Great Wealth, Dolfish) aren’t listed.

That is all.

15. Wussy – Strawberry

MP3: Grand Champion Steer

As Chip said about Wussy’s Chuck Cleaver, “One wouldn’t expect the heavily tattooed Cincinnati songwriter to produce his best collection of songs this late in his already highly-prolific career, but that’s exactly what he’s done.”

14. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

TV On The Radio – “Will Do” by Interscope Records

13. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient

MP3: Come to the City

12. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

Tom Waits – Bad As Me by antirecords

I’ve never been a Tom Waits fanboy, but this record grabbed me and didn’t let go.

11. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

MP3: Helplessness Blues

10. Crooked Fingers – Breaks in the Armor

MP3: Typhoon

Best songs since Red Devil Dawn.

9. Southeast Engine – Canary

MP3: New Growth

8. Centro-matic – Candidate Waltz

MP3: Only in My Double Mind

7. David Bazan – Strange Negotiations

MP3: Wolves at the Door

6. A.A. Bondy – Believers

MP3: Surfer King

5. Youth Lagoon – The Year of Hibernation

MP3: Cannons

4. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo

MP3: Jesus Fever

3. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse

MP3: Baby’s Breath

2. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harvest

MP3: The Way It Goes

1. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

MP3: Holocene

By now, I know every moment on this album, but I’m still continually surprised by its beauty. Seeing Bon Iver in Philly would also make my Favorite Life Occurrences of 2011 list.

Honorable mention:
The Roots – Undun
The Black Keys – El Camino
Dawes – Nothing is Wrong
Joe Henry – Reverie
Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire
Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck
Richard Buckner – Our Blood
Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
J Mascis – Several Shades of Why
Tim Easton – Beat the Band/Since 1966 Vol. 1
Thao & Mirah – Thao & Mirah
Joseph Arthur – The Graduation Ceremony

Favorite 2011 Columbus albums:
1. The Black Swans – Don’t Blame the Stars
2. Lydia Loveless – Indestructible Machine
3. Times New Viking – Dancer Equired
4. Psandwich – Northren Psych
5. Saintseneca – Last
6. Blueprint – Adventures in Counter-Culture
7. Bicentennial Bear – Lost Summers
8. The Regionals – The Regionals
9. Psychedelic Horseshit – Laced
10. The Lindsay – Deep in the Queue

Honorable mention:
P. Blackk – Blackk Friday
Moon High – Six Suns
Shane Sweeney – The Finding Time
Tin Armor – Life of Abundance
Alyosha Het – The Purgatourist

Along with Times New Viking’s “No Room to Live” and “Ever Falling in Love” videos, this is one of my favorite music videos of the year. Stop-motion animation courtesy of Britta Johnson and Fleet Foxes singer Robin Pecknold’s brother Sean Pecknold, who also directed the video. It’s trippy, creepy, pretty and features an antelope-looking creature that you would not want to mess with. Unless you’re a large sea monster.

MP3: Two Headed Boy

Fleet Foxes’ singer Robin Pecknold is opening the short but sweet Joanna Newsom tour, which includes a stop in Columbus.

On tour:

03-28 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
03-29 Columbus, OH – Southern Theatre
03-30 Cincinnati, OH – MusicNow Festival
03-31 Bloomington, IN – Buskirk-Chumley Theatre
04-02 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
04-03 Chicago, IL – Vic Theatre

Above is a live cover of Robin covering Neutral Milk Hotel for your downloading pleasure. More details about where the cover comes from here.

(Photo by Sound on the Sound)