Very busy today, but not too busy to enjoy a new Swedish pop singer. You too. Enjoy.
Since it’s nearly the end of the year, and since I write for a weekly newspaper and an mp3 blog that is obsessed with new fave songs, I have naturally been revisiting the last 12 months and making various lists of what I liked/remember.
At least one proper year-end best of will be posted here after Christmas, but before I make my final judgments on that stuff, I am scouring the flood of lists already out there to see what favorite songs I might have missed.
Two from Said the Gramophone’s Favourite 50 Songs of 2007:
Parts & Labor - “Fractured Skies”
If this one from the Brooklyn trio’s Mapmaker (Jagjaguar/Brah) isn’t your new favorite song on first listen, you get your money back. These lines from a N.Y. Times review are nice: “Dan Friel and BJ Warshaw hoist sustained vocal lines that might almost be Celtic folk tunes if they weren’t taking place amid such a din. … songs roar through the mental landscape of a post-9/11 New York; the attack is compounded of fury, paranoia, confusion and portents of disaster.” Woah!
[ website ] [ Jagjaguwar Records ] [ Brah Records ] [ myspace ]
Unh! I said, “Unh! Give it to me!” I adore Amerie, and I am shocked that I didn’t come across this funky one-song party until now.
[ website ]
I am a little surprised that Pitchfork’s Top 100 Tracks of 2007 only had one song (that I didn’t already have on the Best of 2007 list) that I wanted to add as a new fave:
I’ve already visited Panda Bear this year and I let it pass without much consideration. But after seeing it on Pitchfork’s, and every other music blog’s list, I put on fresh ears and was lulled into submission by the fog, and jarred awake by visitors materializing and disappearing back into the shroud.
[ Paw Tracks Records ] [ myspace ]
And, to round out today’s catch-up post (total of SIX new faves, plus one Chico band of the week) here’s a few I’ve been holding onto…
Another little pebble I greedily picked up from STG. I put this one in my pocket months ago and passed it over somehow. I throw it out for you now to find, pick up, and fiddle with in your pocket as you follow along the lonely trail upon which NICO (Nicolas Jaar) has placed his crumbs.
[ website ]
Portland, Oregon’s Francofile bro/sis duo have followed up their nonpariel Hell is Eux Autres with another hand-clapping collection of dark pop songs disguised as sunny pop songs–Cold City. The last :27 seconds here will slay you! (Eux Autres played Chico last week and I did not go, which I really, really regret.)
[ website ] [ Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records ] [ myspace ]
Another treasure from Aurgasm. Australian model meets Parisian producer and makes clean electropop goodness (White T-Shirt, Tempest Recordings) … and one sweet and breezy ballad.
[ myspace ]
And, your belated Chico band of the week song…
Red Track Jacket - “ee does it comma write” [ listen here ]
RTJ is originally a Chico band, but is now officially a Chico/Merced, CA duo. [Full disclosure–RTJ contains two of YNFS’s bestest friends.]
This is pretty lo-fi demo, but I defy you not to be humming “doodoo doodoodoo / doodoo doodoo doo doo doo doo doo” for the rest of the week after listening to it.
Bonus, since RTJ is the first of the featured Chico bands of the week to still be an actual band, this song is also a proper New Fave Song. So, there’s that.
Posting of your new favorite songs will now resume. Give me one day to gather my goods (there are a lot of good goods to share). While waiting, send me your faves of the year. It’s list season.
“One new favorite song a day, five days a week.” Not this week, for sure!
How about this to make up for lost time: Five new favorite songs, one day a week–this week only? That’s five songs you can instantly count as favorites … all at the same time. Five!
It’s still a very busy week so I’ll keep things short:
I have to start with a Chico band, since ‘Chico Band Friday’ is where I left off. And this one really belongs somewhere else … on another blog called “Your Favorite Song Ever!” or “Your Favorite Four-and-a-half-minutes of All Time” or something.
For some first-hand stories about 28th Day, here’s a link to a story that I was privileged to have put together on the event of the band’s 20-year reunion.
[ Barbara Manning website ] [ Manning myspace ] [ Cole Marquis myspace ]
There’s only a 10″ EP available from the latest beautiful Swedish woman using a beautiful voice to melt the icy (and beautiful) Scandinavian night. (“Little Bit” is another new fave by Li, and its video [ here ] showcases her wicked dance skills.)
The Swedes–good genes them.
Henri Faberge and The Adorables - “Goddamn Light”
Ooh. A Theramin! They’re playing a saw! In this new fave, Henri Faberge’s Toronto, Ontario supergroup (feat. members of Born Ruffians, The Bicycles, and more…) plays a band of hobos who’ve found religion, dammit! And I am thankful to I (Heart) Music for spreading the gospel. “Lordy! Hallelujah!”
[ myspace ] [ Fuzzy Logic Recordings ]
Cotton Jones Basket Ride - “Had Not A Body”
Page France’s Michael Nau is busy with a new crew, and this last-call at an empty bar is a teaser from the upcoming Paranoid Cocoon (Quite Scientific Records).
[ myspace ] [ Quite Scientific Records ]
Forget what I’ve said before. This one by Victoria, B.C.’s Colourbook is my new favorite song.
[ myspace ] [ Old Life Records ]
Bonus: Since the very music-making that has kept me away from my Fave Song duties is continuing for the next few days, it is prudent for me to post Friday’s Chico Fave a day early. Full disclosure, I did play in Mid Fi, but only for the second half, and not on this glorious slice of wreckless fun.
Tim Ervin is one my all-time fave rock vocalists. Way to go, Corndog! (That’s what I call him, “Corndog.” It’s pretty great. If you know him, you should start calling him it as well.)
Enjoy your early Mid Fi weekend, Chico. The rest of you, get back to work.
My introduction to Edmonton, Alberta’s Gilbertson was at Chromewaves, and they’re right about his self-titled debut (Pop Echo Records) being a throwback to a ’90s guitar-pop sound. I, for one, will always be a sucker for a dreamy vocal melody bouncing off of a simple overdriven guitar progression as is happening on “Get Going.” Add a rubbery string melody at the bridge and I’ll stand in one spot with hands in pockets nodding along in blissful agreement. Yes. I’m saying, yes.
[ myspace ] [ Pop Echo Records ]
St. Neil and a full children’s choir drive this meloncholy rig up and over yet another new horizon.
From his latest, Chrome Dreams II, the throwback to the other throwback.
[ website ]
Chris Bathgate - “Every Wall You Own”
To be completely fair to the “favorite” part of this blog project, I have to include one more by Mr. Bathgate.
The way “walls” here aren’t utilized for their more common metaphorical purpose of division, but rather as billboards to “let the name of your love be known,” is just killer. And the way everything nearly stops and just rests in the middle, to give everyone a chance to draw a massive breath for the fight in the last verse, is also just killer.
[ website ] [ myspace ] [ Quite Scientific Records ]
Chris Bathgate - “Do What’s Easy”
I really wanted to start off this first new week after Thanksgiving with a kick! But, rather than emerging from the icy shore to greet a winter wonder-party, I feel like this tip-off has broken free from the rest of the extended holiday season and I’m drifting in a warming fog.
Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Chris Bathgate has one of those voices that if I were to own it, I would no longer speak words. I’d sing them. A Cork Tale Wake is easily on my short list for album of the year , and for today’s fave I just picked one song at random (”Serpentine” and “A Flash of Light Followed By” are both perfection and are already on the Best of 2007 list), and this slow burn really works for the day’s mood. All these songs work–moody orchestration and Bathgate’s expressive, masterfully arranged voice feel real easy in these last weeks of autumn.
[ website ] [ myspace ] [ Quite Scientific Records ]
Happy Thanksgiving…
Great Northern - “Home “ [ website ]
…and one to party on from Chico, CA.
The Silver Seas - “The Country Life”
Like fresh cranberries popping in a boiling pot, the fave songs are going to be coming at you fast and furious this busy Thanksgiving week.
Here’s something that feels kind of like a sequel to Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said” from Nashville’s The Silver Seas (formerly The Bees) to help keep you on your dancing toes while you snap the green beans and sweep down the cobwebs.
You can find “The Country Life” on the recently released High Society (Cheap Lullaby Records).
[ website ] [ myspace ] [ Cheap Lullaby Records ]