Tops of 09, Props to 0-10

Well, it's officially 2010. This past year has been pretty fantastic musically. I grew a lot personally in my own musicality while some really awesome were albums released. I also ate a lot of egg drop soup, discovered thai food, spent a summer in LA, found love, embraced twitter, and was up 33% on my investments. I saw some unbelievable live shows - White Rabbits, Monsters of Folk, The Avett Brothers, Dr. Dog, and The Antlers were especially fantastic. I fell in love with Jazz vinyl, especially with the late Art Tatum. And Dave Brubeck. I also ate a lot of bagels. And without further ado, a few lists of what I enjoyed from 2009.

Top 15 albums of 2009:

1. The Antlers - Hospice
2. Grizzly Bear - Vecktimest
3. The xx - The xx
4. Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers - Songs in the Night
5. Dark Was The Night Compilation
6. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us
7. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
8. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
9. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
10. White Rabbits - Its Frightening
11. Vetiver - Tight Knit
12. Pomegranates - Everybody Come Outside
13. Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
14. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
15. Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

Top 4 movies of 2009:

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Up
4. The Hangover

Favorite 6 Singles of 2009:

1. "Home" - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
2. "Two Weeks" - Grizzly Bear
3. "Percussion Gun" - White Rabbits
4. "The Train Song" - Feist and Ben Gibbard
5. "Kettering" - The Antlers
6. "The Blackest Purse" - Why?

Top TV Moment:

1. Dexter Season 4 Finale. OMG!

Philly, Best Of

After spending a few years in Philly while studying at Temple University, I've come up with my own random list of Best Ofs for Philadelphia in the form of 'Top 3's". Most likely, your favorite one that I missed was number 4. Sorry in advance.

Concert Venues
1. Trocadero - Awesome architecture. In China Town. Egg drop soup after!
2. TLA (Theatre of Living Arts) - Right on South Street. Feels small, but is a big venue.
3. The First Unitarian Church - Remember when your band played in a church basement? This is it. And I've seen some unbelievable shows while being 5 feet from them. And they sell used vinyl...

Restaurant in Chinatown
1. Pho Cali - Best Pho ever. Cheap, delicious, excellent service, great bubble tea smoothies!
2. Banana Leaf - delicious Malaysian cuisine!
3. Wong Wongs - Really not much better than the rest of the stuff. But Wong Wong's is a fantastic name.

Brunch Places
1. Sabrina's - The Italian Market location is bangin'. So good. Makes for an awesome date.
2. Fitzwater Cafe - Not an extensive menu, but the food is amazing and fresh.
3. Temple Rainbow - On Temple's campus. Best Sunday morning breakfast 5 minutes from my house. With a sign on the window for 'Waffle', you know it's good.

Places to People Watch
1. Rittenhouse Square - Especially when the weather's nice. Great people walk around, perform, look like their dogs, etc...
2. The Broad Street Line Subway - From Jesus preachers to people passed out, definitely interesting characters...
3. Liacorus walk - The main walk on Temple's campus is packed with benches up and down both sides. Makes for great anonymous staring.

Temple University Food Trucks
1. The Crepe Truck - $5.25 for an amazing crepe (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) and a drink. Open late.
2. Eddie's - Best hoagies. Great bread, friendly people, cheap cheap cheap.
3. The Green Truck - Great salads. Fresh ingredients, great menu. Long wait at times though...

Philly Foods
1. Soft Pretzels - Philly's soft pretzels are amazing. Great breakfast with a cup of coffee.
2. Rita's Water Ice - Good stuff. Not quite Graeter's ice cream in Cincinnati, but it's surprisingly incredibly refreshing.
3. Tasty Cake Butterscotch Krimpets - Mmmmmm

Cheesesteak Places
1. Jim's - On South Street. Chopped.
2. Geno's - The way the whiz seeps in. Oh man.
3. Tony Luke's - Just has some awesome bread. Great pork sandwich too...

Monsters of Folk @ The Academy of Music 11/9

It was fittingly titled, "An Evening with Monsters of Folk". Sitting on the balcony in antique red-velvet covered chairs looking down on My Morning Jacket's Jim James, M. Ward, and Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, I couldn't help but be blown away by a spectacular performance. Not only was the concert unique and a ridiculous show of musicianship, but the crowd itself was unlike any I've ever been a part of.

Being in Philadelphia's Academy of Music, when I first sat down, I had to check myself that it was okay for me to be wearing a ratty corduroy jacket and sandals. The chandelier and cupids on the ceiling seemed to dictate otherwise. But amass the slew of skinny jeans and berets, I was reminded that this wasn't the symphony. Yet as the show began, the crowd treated it like it was - a modern symphony of new music and new arrangements of familiar favorites.

But even cooler than the aura of formality between cheers and jeers was the reality of incredibly mixed fan bases. With My Morning Jacket being a sort of psychedelic folk, M. Ward being a rocky folk, and Bright Eyes an indie/emo folk, Monsters of Folk brought in three huge and intense fan bases. And since each artist played some of their own songs (solo and as collaborations), virtually no one knew every song that was played - making for an awesome feeling of solidarity in not knowing what was coming next.

As for the show itself, Monsters of Folk played for two hours with an ever-growing energy that transitioned expertly from simplicity to piercing peaks. "Slow Down Jo" and "Dear God" were amazing (except for Oberst's part on "Dear God". I'm a little bias, but that guys voice seems to detract from how great Jim James and M. Ward sound together.). And on top of Jim James's haunting falsetto oo's, an ever-present slide guitar, and an infusion of percussive guitar, the group's live sound was original, refined, and consuming.

To feel the three folk-influenced acts separately and together in the same show was absolutely amazing. I felt myself going 'wow' after almost every song. And accompanied by a light show that projected stunning shadows on the curtains, it was all I could do but sit and stare. In fact, the one girl who stood up to sway to one of her beloved Conor Oberst's solo songs was told to "Sit down. Sit the Fuck down!" The only acceptable standing was for the unanimous and instant standing ovations.

The Antlers w/ Holly Miranda @ UPenn Rotunda 10/2

Peak. Peak. Peak. Peak. End. The sense of longing. You can feel it in your chest. Right where the crashing cymbals and haunting vocals used to be. And it spreads. Down to your gut. Up to your shoulders. And extends to the tips of your body. The Antlers have invaded your soul.

Last night, I finished up my classes, grabbed my girlfriend, and hurried to see the band I've been obsessed with since the beginning of the summer. The Antlers delivered a passionate, intimate show unlike any I've seen recently. The show started with "Bear" - destroying all qualms I had about a 'lost in translation' transition from album to live show. And after an excellent opening act by Holly Miranda (think My Brightest Diamond meets Heartless Bastards vocals on top of Au Revoir Simone type ambient guitar riffs), I knew my date was going to be a great one.

As the show progressed, I could feel the mesmerized crowd experience every note, every crash, every moog-induced wave. "Kettering", "Two", and "Epilogue" (the set-ender) were absolutely unbelievable. The Antlers captured every awesome aspect of their album and added a brilliant projection of reality. I was in awe.

The Antlers have gained so much hype lately, I feel like I've watched them explode. But following their tours and twitpics was nothing compared to experiencing their live show. Go. See them live. And buy their album, Hospice. For an album review, check out my previous post. On Frenchkiss Records (along with some great up and coming bands: Passion Pit, The Dodos, The Hold Steady), The Antlers truly made for a fantastic night.


Check out their myspace, or follow them on twitter to listen for yourself.

Why? - Eskimo Snow

I grew up in a small suburb of Cincinnati. It was nicknamed 'The Bubble' because of how small it was. And how tight knit. And I hated it. So I went to Philadelphia for school. Yet at some point, I gained a huge amount of pride for my home town - The Nati. Reds, Bengals, Jerry Springer being our Mayor, Race Riots, Drive-Thru Beer, Birthplace of the Jewish Reform Movement, Skyline Chili, Graeters Ice Cream, and, maybe the most important of them all, Marx Hot Bagels.

So when I found out about R5 Productions my first semester in college and saw a description of a guy who started making music with a 4-track tape in a basement while being the son of a Rabbi in Cincinnati, I knew I had to go. And after an unbelievable live show of raw vocalized and drum beats with catchy melodies and awesome lyrics, I was hooked.

Last week, Why? released a new album, Eskimo Snow. And while it's not close to the greatness of Alopecia (2008) that wowed the shit out of me live (Or even Elephant Eyelash (2005), which had a lot of character and unrefined greatness), Eskimo Snow is still good. It just seems to be missing a lot of the Why?-ness that was so new and refreshing in earlier albums. It seems incredibly toned down and more vocal focused. That being said, "Blackest Purse" is beautiful. And "January Twenty Something" is a great song. But, overall, the album lacks a lot of what made me fall in love with Why?. The strong beats of songs like "The Fall of Mr. Fifths", "The Vowells Pt. 2", or "Song of the Sad Assassin" (all from Alopecia) made the album one I've listened to 50 times. Eskimo Snow's lacking that. And the middle of the album gets almost monotonous.

On Anticon Records, Why? is absolutely fantastic. If you ever get the chance to see them live, do it. They put on a great live show and sell some pretty cool T-shirts. Check out their myspace or follow them on twitter. I'm a little bummed about Eskimo Snow in comparison to past albums, but that in no way hampers how much I appreciate and love their creativity and their ability to present something new.

I hope everyone had a easy fast on Monday. Welcome to the new year!

10 Bands To Check Out If You Haven't

So you're looking for some new music. Here's a list of 10 bands from the near-present you should check out that I haven't reviewed (yet?):

1. Why? - defines Trip-Hop. Heavy beats, awesome lyrics. From Cincinnati/Berkeley/NYC.
2. Bon Iver - Lots of internet hype. Layered mellow indie-folk. Gorgeous. From a cabin in the woods.
3. Dr. Dog - Think 60's rock. Awesome vocals. Great bridges. From Philly.
4. Grizzly Bear - Delicious harmonies. Catchy dissonance. From Brooklyn.
5. TV on the Radio - Multi-influential band with a great new feel. Fun to dance to. From Brooklyn.
6. Lake Street Dive - A little known jazz/folk band from Boston. Awesome. "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."
7. Pomegranates - Catchy riffs, rough around the edges, falsetto vocals. From Cincinnati.
8. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Featuring Father Hummingbird and The Seven Fields of Aphelion. Cool guitar work. They use a Rhodes. From Pittsburgh
9. Passion Pit - A little over-hyped post-MGMT high vocals upbeat and fun. From Cambridge.
10. Rupa and the April Fishes - A multi-linguistic mellow and enjoyable feel-good music. From San Francisco.


Enjoy!

Bike For Three! - More Heart Than Brains

Life comes, life goes. In between, there's the search for love. Bike For Three!, a collaboration between the experimental rapper Buck 65 and Belgian electronic producer Joëlle Phuong Minh Lê, tells the tale of soul searching in a really new way. The duo collaborated from overseas and never met, effectively creating an odd, incredibly intriguing album about love. The music itself doesn't carry the album - but I don't think that's really the focus. The focus is the vast feeling of solidarity in every individual search for a soul mate - something carried out beautifully.

More Heart Than Brains certainly feels like the story of a life-long battle. Especially with the album being sandwiched between the tracks "Beginning" and "Ending". Featuring a birth, a growth, peak, decline, and death, Buck 65 and Minh Lê have birthed an album simple in its essence and gorgeous in its simplicity.

Buck 65's unique, cutting voice talks over expansive, magnifying electronic riffs. Lacking many sorts of comforting melodies or hooks, that craving gets replaced with an attachment to the story. The key songs mark important points in the search for love. Like the track, "Can't Feel The Love (Anymore)". Dwelling on how the loneliness forces you to miss out raising kids, Buck 65 says, "What happened to me that I'm so afraid to drown? Afraid of the dark. Afraid of letting people down. To take care of myself. My parents taught me how. But they probably never imagined me alone like I am now." Or the track "One More Time Forever", a kind of goodbye, that reads, "Keeping our guards up, wearing our masks. Making art the war being waged and taking part. Seeing the stars fall and the sound of a breaking heart like..."

Also be sure to listen to "Nightdriving", "Always I will Miss You. Always You." and "First Embrace". If you're searching for something to compare this to, think of a subversive type of MIA meets Figurine (of The Postal Service fame) with a less melodic Why? on top. But the sound, driven by how unique both Minh Lê and Buck 65 are, is something different that you need to listen to to grasp. A sort of avant garde hip-hop. No surprise it was released on Anticon. Focusing on experimental rap, Anticon also claims Buck 65 solo and Why?.

The album tells a great story that I think captures the loneliness of life beautifully. However, some of the tracks really aren't good. And some tracks, like "MC Space", seem out of place. But, then again, love's not always grand. Or rational.

Check their myspace out here.