Top Ten Albums of 2007

As a wise man once said:
"Alas, 2007 has come and gone and hopefully we have more to show for it than this collection of albums. Oh, let us raise our arms and heads to the Gods, and offer this music in repentance for our many collective sins. We shall pray that our chosen selections are worthy to enter the pantheon of the greats that have come before and will surely come after. Our Gods are not very forgiving Gods but they love to Rock with their Cocks Out. "

Here they are, the Top Ten Albums of 2007:

Hendo's List

1. King Khan & The Shrines - What is!?
2. The Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil & Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo
3. Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire - Punk Rock
at the British Legion Hall LP & Christmas 1979 LP
4. Mark Sultan - The Sultanic Verses
5. Demon's Claws - Satan's Little Pet Pig
6. The Warlocks - Heavy Deavy Skull Lover

7. Grainbelt - Trouble Coming Down
8. Brian Glaze - Rainsplitter
9. Richard Bishop - Polytheistic Fragments

10. Mary Weiss (w/ Reigning Sound) - Dangerous Game

Honorable Mentions: Harlan T Bobo - I'm Your Man ; The Broken West - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On ; The King Khan & BBQ Show - Teabag Party 7" ; The Final Solutions - Songs By Solution ; The Chesterfield Kings - Psychedelic Sunrise ; Two Cow Garage - III ; Miss Alex White & The Red Orchestra - Space & Time ; CPC Gangbangs - Mutilation Nation ; Tinariwen - Aman Iman ; Six Organs of Admittance - Shelter From The Ash ; Wooden Shjips - Wooden Shjips ; The Sadies - New Seasons


Niedermayer's List
1. the national - boxer

2. spoon - ga ga ga ga ga

3. the clientele - god save the clientele

4. elliott smith - new moon

5. charlotte gainsbourg - 5:55

6. Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew Spirit If...

7. black lips - good bad not evil

8. the treasury - the treasury ep

9. the warlocks - heavy deavy skull lover

10. radiohead - in rainbows


Shamsky69's List

1. The Black Lips-Good Bad Not Evil

2. Bruce Springsteen-Magic

3. Detroit Cobras- Tied and True

4. Jason Isbell- Sirens Of The Ditch

5. Terry Adams- Rhythm Spell

6. Tommy Womack- There I Said It

7. Two Cow Garage-III

8. Black Lips- Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo


Shrimp Cracker's List
1. Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
3. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
4. Bruce - Magic
5. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
6. V/A - I'm Not There OST
7. Dr. Dog - We All Belong
8. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
9. Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis
10. Marah - Can't Take It With You EP

HM: 1990s, Black Lips, Robert Wyatt, Bright Eyes, Kings of Leon, John
Fogerty, White Stripes, Grinderman


No Name's List(s)
New Releases:
1. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - S/T
2. Bruce Springsteen - Magic
3. Rilo Kiley - Under The Black Light
4. The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters
5. Jarvis Cocker - S/T
6. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
7. Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge
8. Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
9. The Mendoza Line - 30 Year Low
10. Lucinda Williams - West
11. Devandra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

Reissues, Comps etc.
1. Miles Davis - The Complete On The Corner Sessions
2. Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Going On
3. Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall
4. Johnny Thunders & Patti Palladin - Copy Cats
5. V/A - The Sandinista Project: A Tribute To The Clash
6. Warren Zevon - Stand In The Fire & Excitable Boy
7. The Afghan Whigs - Unbreakable
8. VA - Music From The Motion Picture I'm Not There
9. The Beach Boys - The Warmth of the Sun
10. Carlton Patterson & King Tubby -Black & White In Dub

Honorable Mentions
1. Josh Rouse Bedroom Classics: She's Spanish, I'm American
2. Betty LaVette - The Scene of the Crime
3. Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
4. Oakley Hall - I'll Follow You
5. Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces
6. Robert Plant & Allison Krauss - Raising Sand
7. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
8. Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
9. Antibalas - Security
10 The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
11. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
12. Coco Rosie - The Adventures of...
13. Great lake Swimmers - Ongiara
14. Tegan & Sara - The Con

The Chesterfield Kings

I've always had a bit of a problem with a great deal of the music coming from the tail-end of the '70s, all the way through the '80s. For some reason, someone decided that over-producing a record was cool. Well, it aint. Due to my inability to look past the crappy production values, and appreciate the songs for themselves, I kind of missed the boat on a lot of the seminal 80s bands. For some reason, I had always kind of lumped The Chesterfield Kings in with a group of bands that had badly produced records, rendering them unenjoyable to me. Boy was I wrong, The Chesterfield Kings were one of only a handful of bands that really seemed to get it from this era. Forming in the late '70s in Rochester, NY, these guys were wearing much different influences on their sleeves from their pop contemporaries. Instead of looking to the future with bullshit synthesizers and awful dance music, the Kings looked back to the glory days of teenage garage bands - the mid '60s. Check out their website if you want a full history, basically, these guys have been the real deal for a long time.
Their new album, Psychedelic Sunrise, on Little Steven's Wicked Cool Records doesn't skip a beat. The album's opener, Sunrise (Turn On) is another one of my favorite songs of the past few months, but the whole album is pretty killer. The album is another entry into the ever expanding Thumbs Up '07 list.

Check it out:
Sunrise (Turn On)

The Warlocks

I just saw The Warlocks at the Knitting Factory last week. I picked up a copy of their album Phoenix when it came out several years ago. I dug it then, but for some reason, it never really sunk in with me at the time. This past summer, I kind of rediscovered them, and was listening to them a lot more, especially that album. The song "Shake The Dope Out" is in my top 5 songs of the past 6 months (for me that is, not new releases).
Live, they were mind blowing. With the stage lights turned off except for some low red and blue lights coming from behind them, Bobby Hecksher and co. were just oozing VU cool. They made a huge racket too, with 2 drummers, a bassist, and two guitars layering fuzz on top of fuzz.
The new album on Tee Pee Records, Heavy Deavy Skull Lover is another great notch on their belt. With their past few releases, they've slowly moved away from the more 3 minute psych/rock song format and into more extended fuzzed out jams if you will. The droney repetitiveness works really well for them. Except for one song around 3 minutes, most on this album are at least 5 minutes in length, and somewhat mid-tempo or slower.

Here's a tune:
So Paranoid

It's worth noting that the openers for The Warlocks that evening, Darker My Love, also completely blew me away. More on them later, but check out the video on the post below this, and you'll see what i mean

The Sadies

Fresh off the heels of last year's Double Live Album and Rat Fink Soundtrack, The Sadies have returned with their first new studio album in a few years, New Seasons. When it comes to cosmic americana music, The Sadies deliver the goods better than anyone else out there. They effortlessly pull off that Meat Puppets/Byrds style of country rock, and then can easily switch gears and lay into some Morricone-worthy spaghetti western. These boys from Canada can really do it all. I also just came across a live bootleg where they are the backing band for Andre Williams, which is also amazing. Pick up the album when you get a chance, thank you.

Here's a tune:
Never Again

Wooden Shjips

The Wooden Shjips new album has helped make my commute to work a little easier the last few weeks. I had always avoided bringing my iPod along for the ride, but I figured I'd give it a try recently, and I've listened to their album a handful of times on the commute. With headphones on, its been really easy to lose your train of thought, and let the mountains of fuzz wash over you. The guitars and organ are turned up to 10, and the delay and reverb-heavy vocals add to the psych feel. The songs are relatively simple and repetitive, and they've definitely listened to their fair share of Spacemen 3. I gotta say I've been digging the drone aspect of these guys along with a handful of other artists recently. Unfortunately, I missed their set during CMJ a few weeks ago, I'm sure they would be a cool band to see live. Add it to the thumbs up list for '07.
Here's a tune:
Losin' Time

Brian Glaze

Of all of the musicians/bands currently doing the psych/folk/fuzz thing, Brian Glaze may be one of my favorites. My cousin turned me on to one of his older albums, Let's Go To The Sea, and I've been really enjoying that for the past year. I was down at Other Music the other day with noname, and saw his new release on Birdman Records, Rainsplitter, I had to pick it up. I've got to say that this new release is another classic. The way he layers sounds/swirls is truly amazing. He also has a knack for writing really catchy tunes. Everything has a similar feel to the earlier Brian Jonestown Massacre stuff, who he was a member of at one point. I got to say, I'm not as wild about the drum-machine song 21-31 (the song itself is cool, but the drum machine is grating), but everything else is great. Appearantly, this whole thing was recorded in Greg Ashley's apartment during Thanksgiving of 2005. Thumbs up for sure.
Here's a tune:
Welcome To The Cinema



Also, check out this video of one of my favorite songs from Lets Go to The Sea, "Don't Believe In Love":

The Shake

The Shake. They're from Spain, and thier album Trippin The Whole Colorful World is out on Rainbow Quartz Records. They got a nice '60s pop/garage thing going on, and you should check 'em out.

Here's a tune: Untitled




Here's the video for Can't Fight Your Loving:

The Final Solutions

There must be something in the water down in Memphis...So much good music over the years (think about it, really). Another in a long line of Jay Reatard projects is The Final Solutions. For this band of merry men, Mr. Reatard bashes away behind the kit instead of up at the front of the stage. Handling vocal duties for The Final Solutions is a fela by the name of Zac Ives. Their new album, produced by Jay himself, is titled Songs By Solutions, and recently came out on Goner Records. These guys really rock, and some of the songs are insanely catchy. A lot of them straddle the line between arty punk, Pebbles garage, and more power-pop punk. All of this is done with a lot of distortion and snottiness. I could waste your time coming up with lots of comparisons, but lets allow the music to do the talking here:

Tammy
Brown Panther

Here's their myspace page

The Dilletantes

Joel Gion is back. The ex tambourine man for The Brian Jonestown Massacre has a new band, The Dilettantes. Musically, they don't stray too far from his former band. Perhaps there's a slight leaning towards the rockier side of the BJM stuff. Unfortunately, Gion doesn't have the prettiest voice, but it works for this kind of stuff. Gotta love the tambourine.
check it:
Like Crazy


Here's their myspace page

Miss Alex White And The Red Orchestra

This is some of the best rocknroll being made right now. Miss Alex White has a great Patti Smith-esque (yes.) voice, and it is the perfect accompaniment to the Red Orchestra's brand of Fuzz. Space and Time is the new album on In The Red Records, and it fuckin rocks.

Checkit:
She Wanna

Turbo Fruits

A few weeks ago, I saw The Black Lips play at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. Needless to say it was one of the better concerts I'd been to in quite some time. The show solidified their place near the top of my favorite current bands list. However, tonight, I wanna discuss the band that played right before them, Turbo Fruits. Turbo Fruits are a three piece from Nashville, TN who also blew me away. I rarely give a crap about stuff like this, but they even looked cool. They had a bluesy take on the typical 3 chord garage/rocknroll. I think what most impressed me though was how loud and explosive they sounded. (A drummer who loves to pound makes a huge difference). Singer/guitarist Jonas Stein has a great laid back drawl of a voice, and I was honestly dissapointed when their set was over. I think they won over a good chunk of the crowd that night. Unfortunately, I missed them a few days later when they were part of another equally cool bill at the Bowery Ballroom (along with Jay Reatard and The Ponys). Their self titled record is out on Ecstatic Peace Records, and here's a track:
Murder
You can stream the album on their website

These guys are also apperantly huge stoners, for whatever that's worth

Harlan T Bobo - I'm Your Man

A few weeks ago, Goner Records released I'm Your Man by Harlan T Bobo. Like a lot of the musicians on Goner, Bobo is from Memphis, and has an impressive resume including Viva l'American Death Ray Music, Jack Oblivian and the Tearjerkers, and a member of King Louie's band. Stylistically, Bobo is all over the map, similarl to the various musical projects of Howe Gelb. Some of the songs are superb hushed-voice Americana that wouldn't sound out of place on a Giant Sand record. Elsewhere, the honky tonk comes even more to the forefront, and on other songs he embraces the bar-rock sound somewhat like The Band in there more badass moments. Sometimes, these changes take place within the same song. Although there are moments where he digs in and unveils some crunchy fuzz-rock, from what I've previously heard on Goner, this overall sound is quite a departure from their usual garage/trash mainstays. This is a welcome addition the roster though, and a nice change of pace.
Check him out:
Pragmatic Woman
Last Step

King Khan & His Shrines - What Is?!

First off, sorry for being such a dingus and being lazy about posts the last few months. I have a whole bunch of current releases I want to write about, so hopefully we can kickstart this thing again. Post. (discount beverages)


What Is?! is the new album from Perrenial Hendo fave King Khan. He's back to his old tricks with his backing band The Shrines. Imagine the most badass soul/r&b group you can think of, and make the frontman a shriekeing, shouting lunatic with an affinity for punk rock, and you've got some fine rocknroll my friend. This new one may be my favorite of his records at this point. It's some killer r&b grooves and skronky Sun Ra freakouts coupled with some raunchy garage. I didn't realize this earlier, but apperantly, KK and some other cool bands like Black Lips, and The Spits did the soundtrack for some German film (??). Khan lives in Germany, so I guess it makes sense, but still, thats pretty cool.
Here's some stuff from the new record:
No Regrets
Le Fils de Jacques Dutronc

Radio Moscow

When I was flipping through the racks of a cd store, and saw a cd on the Bomp offshoot label Alive, it caught my eye. On closer inspection, I realized that the band is basically a two piece, and was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. This was more than enough information for me to pick it up, and I was not disappointed. Radio Moscow is not your typical two piece. Front man Parker Griggs apparently plays guitar, drums, percussion, and sings, and the other dude just plays bass. Griggs used to be the drummer/singer of the band Duck and Cover, and later the solo project Garbage Composal. The band's myspace page gives a good history of the band, and also describes Radio Moscow as "garage-y but now channeled through the blues with experimental breakdowns, unpredictable tempo changes, crazy rave-ups and fuzzed out psychedelic guitar work." That's about as good of a description as I could come up with, so we'll stick with it. To my ears, there are definite parts that are straight up like the Black Keys, but they seem to take the psych/boogie rock aspect farther. So even though they wear their influences on their sleeves, they never sound like they're ripping anyone off. There's a few songs on the myspace page, (including a cool version of I Just Wanna Make Love To You) and here's one of them: Frustrating Sound.
If you dig the fuzz, it's worth checking these guys out.

CPC Gangbangs

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The Black Lips

The Black Lips seem like an odd choice to become a hipster chic band, releasing their latest live album on hipper than thou label Vice records. With their insane sloppiness, rudimentary playing and loads of feedback, i wouldn't assume they'd be one of the more accesible or listener friendly rocknroll bands out there. But through it all, they have a great melodic sense, and I suppose thats what the kids are latching on to. Songs like "Boomerang" were meant for campfire singalongs. On Los Valientes Del Mondo Nuevo, the self proclaimed flower punks recorded themselves live in the city of sin itself, Tijauana. Just from listening to the crowd's reaction, you could tell that the show must have been a crazy party. The band is smokin also, in all of their sloppy, gritty glory. From the drunken introduction in Spanish to the psuedo spaghetti western outro, this album is a lot of fun. These guys are also touring this summer, they're playing at Maxwells next month, just before taking the stage as part of this summer's Siren Fest on Coney Island. Check it.

Los Straitjackets

Instrumental rock heavyweights Los Straitjackets released their first album of songs sung in Spanish a few months ago. They usually team up with a stellar list of guest musicians to handle the vocal duties for them. For Rock En Espanol Volume 1, they worked with Big Sandy, Little Willie G (from LA legends Thee Midniters) and Cesar Rosas (of Los Lobos). The album is filled with covers of rock/r&b covers sung in Spanish like: De Dia y de Noche (All Day and All of the Night), Loco Te Patina el Loco (Wild Thing), and Dame Una Seña (Gimme Little Sign). The band is as tight as ever, and each of the guest vocalists compliment the band nicely. The slower paced songs (which sometimes bore me, but not these ones) work just as well as their rave-ups. They're touring the country and Europe this summer, so make sure to check them out when they come by you. I've never seen them live, but I'm sure they are really fun.

Here's a tune for you: Calor
Here's their website

Mark Sultan - The Sultanic Verses

Mark Sultan has done it again. Over the last year and a half or so, Sultan (aka BBQ) has steadily risen up the charts of my favorite musicians. I had long been a fan of The Spaceshits/Les Sexareenos, but his work as BBQ, King Khan and BBQ Show , Mind Controls, etc. has also blown me away. This new record (officially his "solo" debut??), The Sultanic Verses on In The Red Records certainly does not break the mold that Sultan has created for himself. It has more of the simple, trashy three chord rocknroll that fans of his have found on his other releases. It seems effortless for his to come up with insanely catchy songs at an alarming rate. I honestly feel that he has one of the better voices in rocknroll right now. He can croon with the best when he wants to. No news of another east coast tour at the moment, but I'll be there wherever he plays around NY.
Here's a tune from the record : Two Left Feet
Here's his official website

The Broken West

A certain fella I used to work with is a big fan of KEXP out of Seattle. He used to listen to that station at work on the computer every day. Overall, the selection of music is pretty cool (although if i ever hear that f'in Peter Bjorn & John song again I'll kill, i promise), and for a while they used to play this really cool power pop/rock song a few times a day. Every time it came on, I would ask my colleague to turn up his speakers. That song was "Down In The Valley" by the LA band The Broken West, whose album "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On" came out (relatively) recently on Merge Records. The song rocks kicks so much ass that I find myself listening to it several times every day. It has one of the most infectious choruses I've heard in a while, and the harmonies are amazing.
Check it out: "Down In The Valley"
Here's their myspace page

Also, I just noticed right now that The Broken West is playing TONIGHT at the Bowery Ballroom, but they are also playing at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ on the 31st. I really want to see them live, who else is down??

Antibalas and Your Gut

Antibalas started out as an afrobeat band, albeit a very good afrobeat band. But by their fourth release, Security, they have begun to reinvent the wheel and turned themselves and the genre into something that can be both traditional, experimental and a fucking hoot.

If you've never heard Antibalas before let me paint you a picture. Imagine your at the circus and in front of you is that tiny car and clowns just keep exiting from the passenger door. After a few moments you begin to wonder just how many clowns can fit in one damn car. No, maybe there's a trap door underneath the vehicle. Now imagine each clown is carrying an instrument. Congas, organs, piano, clavinet, synths, trumpets, saxophones, guitars, trombones, basses, drums, dulcimers, and things I can't spell and you may not be able to pronouce. Once out the car, they all assemble on some stage that can barely contain them, let alone, instruments, and begin to make music as magical and wondrous as the clowns piling out of the car.

That is Antibalas.

Security is comprised of only a few tracks but clocks in at a normal length. It's filled with horns that both pucker and blurt, synths galore and a rhythmic madness that is always dedicated to the groove which is why Antibalas remains great. For all the new sounds and fresh ideas the band keeps everything revolving around that groove, never letting it get out of its site for even a moment. Like a cautious parent at Disneyland. Except Antibalas aren't particularly cautious, at least they don't come off as such, they just know what is best to serve the music.

As with the group's last album, Who Is This America?, Security is political fare with tracks titled Filibuster X and War Hero and artwork featuring a painting of lots of colorful people pact in a stadium and lots of different flags running through the space's center. This record came out on Anti.

Antibalas - Sanctuary