From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V7 #298 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Thursday, January 3 2008 Volume 07 : Number 298 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Re: my favorites of 2007 [Krueger.Thomas@epamail.epa.gov] Re: [loud-fans] Re: my favorites of 2007 [Micah ] [loud-fans] RE: loud-fans-digest V7 #296 ["Douglas Stanley" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Re: my favorites of 2007 Broken West's record title seems to reference a Samual Beckett line. "Malloy?" "Murphy?" M. - ----- Original Message ---- From: "Krueger.Thomas@epamail.epa.gov" To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2008 9:24:26 AM Subject: [loud-fans] Re: my favorites of 2007 Sorry for the longwinded post to follow from this long-time lurker. I trust glenn can just ignore the blather and cull the names of the 14 CDs in this top "ten." Thanks for the music tips. I spent less time listening to albums from start to finish in 2007 than ever before. Portable digital songs may even threaten to make the very concept obsolete. Yet there were a large number of CDs released in 2007 that were a joy to listen to and rewarded the time spent with them. Here's a listing of some of my favorites: 1. Eleni Mandell - Miracle of Five. This Los Angeles singer-songwriter produces an immediately appealing set of dreamy, intimate songs full of lovely, well-rendered details. She brings a rich, relaxed voice and a slyly hopeful modern sensibility to beautifully arranged songs occupying the boundary lands of jazz, folk and old pop standards. 2. Broken West - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On. I don't know if the CD title refers back to a little early-80s pop gem "Go On" from the Waitresses, but it would be fitting. This Los Angeles pop band has some of the same lyrical bite and depth of that record, which sets them apart from run-of-the-mill power pop bands. Sonically, they add a little Southern California sunniness to the thick, punchy guitars and easy harmonies of Scottish pop masters Teenage Fanclub. 3. Emma Pollock - Watch the Fireworks. The Delgados were one of the great unheralded bands of the past decade, and Emma Pollock continues in the gorgeously lush indie-pop vein of her former band. While her first solo record abandons most of the Scottish band's orchestral flourishes, the songs still build and soar, filled almost to bursting with gorgeous phrases. Combine that with her striking voice and smart, tart, bittersweet lyrics and you have an album that that's a logical extension and a worthy successor. 4. Kelly Willis - Translated From Love. Her pure, expressive voice makes Texan Kelly Willis one of my very favorite singers. For her sixth CD she enlisted help from unsung songwriting ace Jules Shear and versatile singer/songwriter/producer Chuck Prophet and produced a spirited, eclectic and seamless mix of country, rock and folk. This roots music hybrid evokes those sterling early Carlene Carter records. 5. You Am I - Convicts. These Australian veterans show why they're rock stars in their home country. Triangulating the Replacements, the Rolling Stones and Cheap Trick, this is one of their best records in a distinguished career. 6. (tie) Bruce Springsteen - Magic. 6. (tie) Shins - Wincing The Night Away. These two albums have far and away the greatest number of hummable hooks of any new CDs I've heard this year, yet in some ways are ever-so-slightly disappointing (probably due to my unrealistically high expectations). Magic feels like it's the least thematically ambitious and the most musically and lyrically conventional record Springsteen has done in a long time, which somehow makes the whole seem less than the sum of its parts. On the other hand, how can you complain about song after song that is catchy, masterfully crafted, and showcases one of America's great, rollicking rock bands? Every one of these songs sounds like it could be a killer on stage. The new Shins record is pretty much like its predecessors; quietly and almost relentlessly tuneful. The couple of places where they try to push their boundaries a little are pretty but unexceptional. Ultimately both records show top-notch songwriters making a tremendously difficult task seem easy. 7. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead. Wordy and aggressive, Brooklyn rapper El-P creates a fascinatingly dense soundscape to express outrage, frustration and eminently justifiable paranoia about the state of his city and his world. This is one of the sharpest and most consistent CDs to come out of the rap underground. 8. (tie) Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold. 8. (tie) Joe Henry - Civilians. These CDs are haunting, atmospheric and dreamlike in distinctive ways. Britain's Bat for Lashes, led by Natasha Khan, features lush arrangements while Joe Henry's record is spacious and relaxed. What they share are intriguing, arresting lyrical images and powerful, dramatic singing styles (Khan's lovely and fluid; Henry's grainy and passionate) that draw you into the fascinating worlds they create. 9. (tie) Okkervil River - The Stage Names. 9. (tie) Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge Okkervil River's Will Scheff and British solo artist Richard Hawley are two of the most distinctive and interesting songwriters around. This is the fifth, and perhaps the best, CD for each. They both have intricate, cinematic approaches but use very different means. Okkervil River's complex but tuneful folk-inflected indie-rock complements Scheff's clever, literate lyrics delivered in a yearning and occasionally wobbly voice. Hawley, on the other hand uses his wondrously deep voice to grace keenly observed traditional balladry, sometimes flavored with rockabilly or pop textures. 10. (tie) Everybodyfields - Nothing Is Okay. This CD sounds almost uncannily like a lost Whiskeytown record from a decade ago, during that brief window before Ryan Adams lost his mind when it looked like they could be the next great roots-rock band. This Tennessee band has the same pervasive sense of tenderness and melancholy, and lovely harmonies from bandleaders Jill Andrews and Sam Quinn. 10. (tie) Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights. Amy Winehouse got tons of hype for her excellent retro-soul CD, for which the Dap Kings provided much of the backing too. Sharon Jones's take on her third album with the band strikes me as more consistent and heartfelt and shows a chemistry and interplay honed by several years together on the road. Honorable Mention (in very approximate order): BrakesBrakesBrakes - The Beatific Visions; LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver; Kanye West - Graduation; Band of Horses - Cease To Begin; Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; The National - Boxer; Earlimart - Mentor Tormentor; Rosie Thomas - These Friends Of Mine; Clientele - God Save The Clientele; M.I.A. - Kala; Dogs - Tall Stories From Under The Table; Dr. Dog - We All Belong; Fratellis - Costello Music; Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder; Future Clouds and Radar - Future Clouds and Radar; Amy Winehouse - Back To Black; Iron and Wine - The Shepherdbs Dog; Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare; Caribou - Andorra; Mitch Easter - Dynamico; Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand; Arcade Fire - Neon Bible; Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles - Diamonds In The Dark; Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living With The Living; Blake Shelton - Pure BS; Electric Soft Parade - No Need To Be Down-Hearted; Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter; Low - Drums and Guns; Robert Wyatt - Comicopera; Elliott Smith - New Moon; Rocky Votolato - The Brag and Cuss; Foo Fighters - Echoes Silence Patience And Grace; Son Volt - The Picture; Bright Eyes - Cassadaga; Tunng - Good Arrows; The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters; New Pornographers - Challengers; Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque; Radiohead - In Rainbows; Talib Kweli - Ear Drum; The Good, the Bad and the Queen - The Good, The Bad And The Queen; Kim Richey - Chinese Boxes; Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55; Sunny Sweeney - Heartbreakers Hall Of Fame; Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer; Sister Vanilla - Little Pop Rock; Mark Ronson - Version; Sinead O'Connor - Theology; Toby Keith - Big Dog Daddy; Oh Susanna - Short Stories; Brunettes - Structure and Cosmetics; Chuck Prophet - Soap and Water; Common - Finding Forever; Editors - An End Has A Start; Hunter Berry - Wow Baby; Angie Stone - The Art Of Love And War; Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love; White Rabbits - Fort Nightly; Feist - The Reminder; Love of Diagrams - Mosaic; Noisettes - What's The Time Mr. Wolf; Ponys - Turn The Lights Out; Scott Miller - Reconstruction; Simple Kid - 2. Might have made the list if I'd heard more of them: Mekons - Natural; Jeremy Fisher - Goodbye Blue Monday; Pharoahe Monch - Desire; Mic Harrison - Push Me On Home; Tripwires - Makes You Look Around; A Hawk and A Hacksaw - And The Hun Hungar Ensemble; Besnard Lakes - Are The Dark Horse; Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - Scotland Yard Gospel Choir; The Bird and the Bee - The Bird And The Bee; Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade; Brandi Carlile - The Story; Crowded House - Time On Earth; Electralane - No Shouts No Calls; Field Music - Tones Of Town; Glenn Mercer - Wheels In Motion; Hives - Black And White Album; Idlewild - Make A New World; KRS-One - Hip Hop Lives; Matt White - Best Days; Norah Jones - Not Too Late; PJ Harvey - White Chalk; Richard Lloyd - The Radiant Monkey; Shannon Wright - Let In The Light; Teddy Thompson - Up Front And Down Low; They Might Be Giants - The Else; Two Cow Garage - Three; Adrienne Young - Room To Grow; Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War; Public Enemy - How You Sell Your Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?; Martin Simpson - Prodigal Son; Gary Allan - Living Hard; Joan Armatrading - Into The Blues; Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass; Superdrag - Changin' Tires On The Road To Ruin; Dax Riggs - We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love; Amy LaVere - Anchors And Anvils; Dolly Varden - The Panic Bell; Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet; Laura Veirs - Saltbreakers; Frank Black - Bluefinger. Favorite songs (in no particular order): "The Sons of Cain" - Ted Leo/Pharmacists "Famous in an Small Town" - Miranda Lambert "Phantom Limb" - Shins "Girls" - Eleni Mandell "It Ain't Funny How We Don't Talk Any More" - You Am I "Make-Out King" - Eleni Mandell "Don't Know Why" - Kelly Willis "Down in the Valley" - Broken West "The Day We Met" - Sarah Borges "Girlfriend" - Avril Lavigne "Friends Like You" - You Am I "Brianstorm" - Arctic Monkeys "Ruby" - Kaiser Chiefs "The Pretender" - Foo Fighters "Hey There Delilah" - Plain White T's "Radio Nowhere" - Bruce Springsteen "Four Winds" - Bright Eyes "Misunderstanding" - Electric Soft Parade "Acid Test" - Emma Pollock "Flathead" - Fratellis "Is There A Ghost" - Band of Horses "No Such Thing" - Chris Cornell "If This City Never Sleeps" - Rosie Thomas "Methamphetamine" - Son Volt "Again & Again" - The Bird and the Bee "What's A Girl To Do" - Bat for Lashes "If I Were A Bell" - Amel Larrieux "Hold Me in the River" - BrakesBrakesBrakes "I Don't Know How to Love Him" - Sinead O'Connor "Energy" - Apples in Stereo "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" - Bruce Springsteen "Hands Up Baby" - Camera Obscura "Almost Ready" - Dinosaur Jr. "Teddy Boys" - Kelly Willis "You Know I'm No Good" - Amy Winehouse "Back to Black" - Amy Winehouse "Australia" - Shins "About You Now" - Sugababes "Right Moves" - Josh Ritter "Bodysnatchers" - Radiohead "Best Days" - Matt White "What Goes Around" - Sister Vanilla "Oh My God" - Mark Ronson (feat. Lily Allen) "My Rights Versus Yours" - New Pornographers "Tick Tick Boom" - Hives "Dashboard" - Modest Mouse "The Underdog" - Spoon "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" - Spoon "I Will Write My Book" - Joe Henry "Plus Ones" - Okkervil River "Run-Away" - Super Furry Animals "Pump Up The Volume" - Art Brut "Mama's Opry" - Sunny Sweeney "Can't Tell Me Nothing" - Kanye West "Aeroplane" - Everybodyfields "Mistaken For Strangers" - The National "Fans" - Kings of Leon "Lake Michigan" - Rogue Wave "Tell Me" - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings "Soldier On" - Dogs "Here Comes The Phantom" - Clientele "Everybody Knows Everybody" - Earlimart "North American Scum" - LCD Soundsystem "Tonight The Streets Are Ours" - Richard Hawley "Jimmy" - M.I.A. "Intervention" - Arcade Fire "Up All Night" - El-P "Body Baby" - Pharoahe Monch "It Had To Be You" - Motion City Soundtrack "The Story" - Brandi Carlile "Simple Twist Of Fate" - Jeff Tweedy Best concerts I saw in 2007: Ted Leo/Pharmacists at Metro, Chicago Emma Pollock at Metro, Chicago Long Blondes at Subterranean, Chicago Ron Sexsmith at Schuba's, Chicago Kelly Hogan at Davenport's, Chicago BrakesBrakesBrakes and Electric Soft Parade at Empty Bottle, Chicago Les Paul at Iridium, New York Rebirth Brass Band at Maple Leaf Lounge, New Orleans Bottle Rockets and Terry Anderson at Old Town School, Chicago Rhonda Vincent and the Rage at Lund Auditorium, River Forest IL The Start at Creepy Crawl, St. Louis thank you for your kind indulgence, Tom ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 10:16:07 -0800 From: "Douglas Stanley" Subject: [loud-fans] RE: loud-fans-digest V7 #296 [loud-fans] Brooke Ramel [scout82667@aol.com] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -------- Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:05:57 -0500 From: scout82667@aol.com Subject: [loud-fans] Brooke Ramel Bro surprised me by putting two albums by Brooke Ramel on my iPod.? At first, it seemed generic, but I'm liking her material more and more.? It kind of sounds like Suzanna Hoffs, Natalie Merchant, Lisa Loeb--maybe some Dar Williams in there as well, with just a hint of Josie Cotton's New Wave era LA pop flavor (on the song "La").? I think he saw her out here and bought her albums, TULIPS BLEED and MAKE TOMORROW UP at a show, so I'm not sure of her material's availability, but, it's pretty good as it steeps in your brain.? Not earth shattering, but certainly better than sitting through a performance of?"Wicked" (but, Carol Kane was good in her role, and the Art Deco Pantages Theatre is sublime).? The disturbingly old?looking emaciated pre-teen girl outside the Pantages Theatre fronting a band of teenage boys singing "Sweet Home Alabama" on Hollywood Blvd. was a better?value entertainment wise, though she looked as if she'd lived 40 years in 10. - - --Mark - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - --------- Brooke Ramel? Really? She's practically an Orange County institution. Time was, you couldn't go to an outdoor shopping mall around here without bumping into her playing in the corner. Unfortunately, she doesn't play many of her originals for the Food Court faithful. I've talked with her many times and she's really nice. Glad to hear you like her. Doug S. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 16:48:00 -0800 From: "Steve Holtebeck" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Unleash the Top Ten lists... On Dec 21, 2007 7:51 PM, glenn mcdonald wrote: > As I said when Aaron announced his polling resignation, I'm willing to > run a poll. Given my job, collating such a thing would almost > certainly be easier for me than for anybody else. But if I run it, I > will run it my way, and my way would be this: post (or email me) a > list of up to 10 albums in the format "artist: album". No point > values, no ranking, just a list. Here are 20 albums in the format "ALBUM - Artist". Delimited by a hyphen with the album title in all-caps. The albums are ranked in ascending order from 20 to 1. Anything to avoid being chastised for my "normalcy". 20. NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT - Sloan 19. DAD'S WEIRD DREAM - Silver Sun 18. THE AUTOMATIC DOOR - Anton Barbeau 17. I CAN'T GO ON, I'LL GO ON - The Broken West 16. DISTANT STAR - Foreign Films 15. SHAKE SOME ACTION! - Shakes Some Action! 14. UP WITH THE LARKS - The Pearlfishers 13. TIME ON EARTH - Crowded House 12. ASLEEP AT HEAVEN'S GATE - Rogue Wave 11. CHALLENGERS - The New Pornographers 10. TRAFFIC & WEATHER - Fountains of Wayne 9. DYNAMICO - Mitch Easter 8. WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY - The Shins 7. FUTURE CLOUDS & RADAR - Future Clouds & Radar 6. MAGIC - Bruce Springsteen 5. TONES OF TOWN - Field Music 4. IN RAINBOWS - Radiohead 3. LIVING WITH THE LIVING - Ted Leo/Pharmacists 2. GA GA GA GA GA - Spoon 1. BOXER - The National - -Steve ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V7 #298 *******************************