MP3: ICU2(RN4A187)
I’m much more enthused about the second half of Karate Coyote‘s new (and first full-length) album, Inner Animals, but the above track (#2 of 12) helps redeem Side A for me. It’s got all those things you love about Karate Coyote, if you love Karate Coyote: hoots and hollers, ohhs and ahhs, background shouts of “Hey!”, creative vocal lines courtesy of Sam Corlett, little bits of weird/throwback lead guitar that doesn’t seem like it should fit but does.
CD release show in Columbus this Friday (3/26) at Skully’s with Stretch Lefty (releasing an EP the same night), This is My Suitcase and DJ Self Help. Inner Animals tracklist after the jump. Continue reading
(Separate Columbus list further down. Though, if the lists were combined, some of the local releases would unseat a few here…)
1. Larry Jon Wilson – Larry Jon Wilson
I won’t lie. Talking to Larry Jon and producer Jerry DeCicca (Black Swans) about this album, learning about its origins, and visiting Wilson’s back catalog gave me a heightened appreciation for this masterpiece. So context helps, but even if you know nothing about the back story, this is a stark, beautiful album from start to finish from one of the forgotten country outlaws. Wilson’s Georgia baritone is the sweetest thing I heard this year. For Townes Van Zandt fans, this is required listening.
MP3: Feel Alright Again
2. The Love Language – The Love Language
It’s a rock n’ roll cliché and a PR flack’s dream: Guy breaks up with girl, drinks heavily, pisses off all his friends, eventually sobers up and retreats to his parents’ house to record an album on a four-track. But man does this cliché jangle with some of the best in-the-red pop songs I’ve heard in a while. Stuart McLamb’s Chapel Hill band signed to Merge in October and is slated to have a new release in August, and after seeing the full band (now a 7-piece) put on a terrific show at the Wexner Center in the fall, McLamb’s next outing could be even better with a little help from his friends.
3. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
Every aspect of Andrew Bird just keeps getting better—his voice; his gorgeous, multi-layered violin arrangements; his whistling. It makes for a backdrop so compelling that he can sing about proto-Sanskrit Minoans, porto-centric Lisboans, Greek Cypriots and Hobis-hots and have you nodding your head in agreement instead of scratching it in confusion.
MP3: Oh No
4. Kurt Vile – Constant Hitmaker; God is Saying This to You…; Childish Prodigy
I’m grouping these together so I can squeeze more in, but all three LPs probably deserve a separate spot for different reasons. God finds Vile filtering his psychedelia through John Fahey and Neil Young; Childish kicks the volume up a notch and tones the lo-fi down; and Hitmaker, the best of the three, plays both sides with casual brilliance. “Freeway” is one of my favorite songs of 2009.
MP3: Freeway
5. The Antlers – Hospice
Hospice is one of only a few albums this year that completely transports me whenever I give it my full attention. (Brian Harnetty’s Silent City is another.) A concept album about a hospice worker and a young patient, the songs swell like Sigur Ros then retreat into gingerly tapped piano, lightly strummed guitar or shimmery synth. It’s in those quiet portions that Silberman employs his alabaster falsetto — more hushed than Jeff Buckley but less wispy than Antony Hegarty. Back in March, the Antlers played a show at Cafe Bourbon St. in front of me and maybe three other people. I’m thinking there’ll be a few more in attendance next time.
MP3: Bear
#6 onward + Columbus list after the jump. Continue reading
Posted in 2009 Favorites, Columbus, MP3
Tagged andrew bird, animal collective, Atlas Sound, Bill Callahan, Bird and Flower, Brian Harnetty, David Bazan, Dirty Projectors, fun., Justin Townes Earle, Kurt Vile, Larry Jon Wilson, Monolithic Cloud Parade, RTFO Bandwagon, Sinkane, The Antlers, The Love Language, The Mountain Goats, The Receiver, the sun, this is my suitcase, Times New Viking, Volcano Choir, Wing & Tusk, Yo La Tengo
Flotation Walls (photo by Jen Duane)
MP3: Flotation Walls – Willis The Fireman
MP3: This is My Suitcase – Fish and Dishes
On Friday night, Circus will be hosting the fourth annual Mission:Kids benefit, and they’ve enlisted some great Columbus bands to help raise money for CD101’s children’s charity CD101 for the Kids. This means that in addition to a night of high-quality local music (see lineup below), you’ll also get that warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that your five dollars (21+, or $7 for 18+) is helping out kids in need. And in this season of giving, isn’t killing two birds with one stone what it’s all about?
The schedule, according to CD101:
Doors @ 9:00pm
9:30pm Stucco Jones
10:15pm Besieus
11:00pm Couch Forts
11:45pm This Is My Suitcase
12:30am Flotation Walls
Comments Off on Friday at Circus: CD101 For the Kids benefit with Flotation Walls, This Is My Suitcase, others
Tagged besieus, CD101, Couch Forts, Flotation Walls, stucco jones, this is my suitcase
