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December 25, 2007

Abbey’s Best Albums of 2007 – National Releases

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(Disclaimers): I don’t own the Panda Bear, M.I.A, or LCD Soundsystem records, so I guarantee you those are not my top three albums of 2007. Hopefully that means this list  will read a little different than most ”Best Albums of 2007″ currently on the inter-webs. Also, for the sake of new content and all the fabulous albums released this year, I decided not to include Elvis Perkins in Dearland’s Ash Wednesday in the Best Albums of 2007. While the album was officially released this year, I fell in love with it in 2006 and it topped last years annual lists. This list covers albums recorded and released outside of Seattle, my local list of Best Albums will be coming to you soon. I can never just decide on 10 albums, so this list, like the world’s loudest amp… goes all the way to eleven!

Abbey’s Best Albums of 2007 – National Releases

11. Fionn Regan – The End of History Amidst all the rock, I am a shameless sucker for a great folk album. Fionn Regan’s The End of History  suited me perfectly this year, as it is at once plucky and melancholy. I may have heard this album more than any other this year, because it was deemed day-job friendly. This album was my pleasant background noise for much of the year and my momentary lyrical escape from the daily grind. 

10. Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future Even the saddest of sad bastards needs a great dance album to keep them company, and this quirky album is mine. I feel like this should be a guilty pleasure, but it’s not… it’s just damn good. (Even if my favorite song somehow uses and rhymes “Lady Diana and Mother Theresa” in a chorus.) The Klaxons translates amazingly well live too, the boys are filling the bigger venues of the UK and Europe, while playing venues like Chop Suey and The Crocodile (r.i.p) stateside. If you have the chance to see them live, do. And when you see them, for gods sake Seattle, dance!

9. The White Stripes – Icky Thump Part of me just wants to say, it’s Jack White doing what he does best – writing White Stripes songs; and leave it at that. But that’s not giving Icky Thump the credit that it’s due. There are some great straight up old White Stripes songs on the album like “300 M.P.H. Outpour Blues,” but I also love the songs that seem to be taking the band in a new direction. “Conquest” is epic and theatrical, and I’m certain it will end up in some Quentin Tarantino film down the road. While “Little Cream Soda” has Jack White channeling a bluesy maniacal ee cummings.

8. The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible It’s not Funeral, but it is a damn fine album. Win Butler’s voice is sounding better than ever, he seems to have somehow packed even more pained emotion into his vocals on the album. While Funeral was an album of personal tragedy, Neon Bible focuses it’s lens on the greater tragedies we are all facing. The images painted in this album are as frightening as they are completely apt. (Antichrist Television Blues) is easily the best Bruce Springsteen tune that the Boss never wrote. When we saw The Arcade Fire this year, Win dedicated the song to Jerry Falwell, and it was bitter perfection.

7. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha  Andrew Bird astonishes me. So clever (“something apropos, i don’t know…”), singing songs about cell division as a metaphor for lust and love, composing upbeat songs and then slaying you with heartbreaking lyrics. As you’ve seen his song Heretics was hands down my favorite of the year, largely for doing the later so well. A hundred listens and I still discover some new layer I’d never noticed, he is the master of complex pop-songs. (which is not as oxymoronic as it might seem.) Add it all up, plus he is a freakishly talented whistler, and you have one of the most unique artists making music today.

6. Bowerbirds - Hymn for a Dark Horse When I first discovered Bowerbirds (thank you john darnielle), I listened to nothing else for weeks. This entailed streaming 6 songs from the bands website, continuously – as the album had yet to be released. I love an album that establishes it’s own sound and language and Hymn for a Dark Horse, does so richly. With lush three part harmonies and a lyrical ease, Bowerbirds released one of the most simply pleasing albums of 2007.

5. Figurines – When the Deer Wore Blue In a year where Brian Wilson-esque pop was lauded (Panda Bear, anyone?) it was Denmark’s Figurines who made my favorite psychedelic pop album of 2007.  When The Deer Wore Blue is filled with one catchy song after the next, with stand-outs including “Good Old Friends” and “The Air We Breathe” – a Beach Boys pop and Arcade Fire choir epic and my #2 song of 2007. The Figurines are also the only band who has made my back to back best of year lists  (their 2006 release Skeleton clocked in at #8 last year),  here’s to hoping 2008 brings a three-peat from my favorite Danes.

4. Menomena – Friend and Foe Menomena sounds like no one else making music today. Or for that matter, anyone else I’ve ever heard. It is the rarest of pleasures to find a band that defies easy explanation or comparison, but Menomena’s been happily stumping me all year. To me, Friend and Foe, listens like an off-kilter rock opera. Despite being a trio, Menomena’s songs are lavishly orchestrated with a symphonic cacophony of  unexpected sounds and plenty of melodrama in the lyrics.    

3. Radiohead – In Rainbows Very few things in life are worth a four year wait… In Rainbows is one of those rarest things. I am still having an internal debate as to whether In Rainbows is the best Radiohead album ever. Songs like “Reckoner” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” make a pretty compelling argument. I love that In Rainbows seems to take a little bit from each of the bands previous albums and expand upon what worked best, as well as exploring new sounds. I’m hoping Radiohead finds their way out West, if they do it’s certain you’ll see that show at the top of next years lists.

2. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup Very few albums have ever enchanted me the way that Beirut’s Flying Clup Cup does. I imagine I’ll be just as taken with this record twenty years from now as I am today. I have compared it to just about my favorite record of all time, Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over the Sea. (A pleasure which no other album has ever had.) Flying Club Cup  has a cohesive sound and mood that I love to get lost in, just as Aeroplane does. I can’t wait to hear what Zach Condon conjures up next.

1. The National – The Boxer Yes, my favorite national release is from The National. Funny how things work out this way. This is by far my most listened to album of the year and my most beloved. The National have crafted their own sound and language over the course of their career and it’s so wonderful to see them reach critical acclaim with an album that stays completely true to it. Matt Beringer’s voice sounds better to me than just about anyone else in music today.

December 2, 2007

Our Favorite Photos of 2007 – Day Two

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It may not be a complex photo, but I love the feel of it. It certainly doesn’t hurt that, Fionn Regan was one of my favorite discoveries of 2007. I believe his lovely lyrical album, The End of History will be a frequent companion long after 2007 is finished.

 Fionn Regan

Fionn Regan, Sonic Boom In Store

August 2, 2007

Fionn Regan, Death Vessel at the Sunset Tavern

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fionn regan - sunset tavern

“Ireland’s answer to Bright Eyes” is the choice quote from an NME review that Fionn Regan’s press people have pulled to tout the Mercury Prize nominee’s short trip in the States. To my mind it implies Regan is a over-emotional, self-important and depressed cry-baby of a singer-songwriter. Thankfully Seattle was included on his minimal itinerary so I got a chance to see for myself, and can tell you that statement is just plain wrong.  

Regan began his set at the Sunset by himself, standing on the edge of the stage with no microphone, just his guitar and his voice. Rarely have I experienced such an intimate moment at a show, a moment where the singer is reaching out directly to the audience simply by affording them the opportunity to experience the music unamplified and unadulterated. It was an amazing start to a night that only became more intimate as the night went on.

The crowd was small enough, and the circumstances seem to dictate that the right thing for the front row to do was sit down cross-legged and enjoy the show from the floor. Regan was joined on stage by a drummer and a backup singer who created a quiet and restrained accompaniment his clear and hopeful vocals. I can’t put my finger on why but whenever I listen to The End of History I’m catch myself daydreaming and thinking of old times. I’m not a nostalgic person, but somehow the album brings it out in me. The remembrance of what’s lost. Fondness and regret. Sadness for what’s missing but joy for what one has right now.

At times Regan seemed quite comfortable, asking the audience about the Mayor and cracking joke here and there. A few times I caught him hiding a smile behind his hand as though he didn’t want to let on just how much he was enjoying playing the show himself. Then again, I doubt he’s been to many bar shows with people sitting on the floor.

Regan finished his set as he started it, with an encore at the edge of the stage, acoustic and without amplification. The lead track from The End of History, “Be Good or Be Gone” was definitely the climax of the night, a release of the beautiful tension Regan had cultivated up to that point. It was the song everyone was waiting to hear and ended the show to much appreciation.

After seeing the live show it’s clear that Regan isn’t the next Bright Eyes, and he isn’t trying to be. He’s just not overwrought enough (or at all for that matter), and I’d probably go as far to say if your really familiar with Bright Eyes you would never make the comparison. A closer point of reference could be Ray Lamontagne or Nick Drake with more poetic license and less depression in the mix.

fionn regan - sunset tavern 

fionn regan - sunset tavern

Joel Thibodeau, a singer-songwriter from Rhode Island who goes by the ominous name Death Vessel opened the show. His singing voice isn’t what I was expecting after listening to the myspace page. I’ll be honest, I was expecting a female singer, maybe a sixteen year old, but he was the only one that walked up on stage. It kinda weirded me out for a moment. He was a good guitar player and had some lyrics that were interesting, but his singing voice had me completely confused.

death vessel - sunset tavern
July 30, 2007

Fionn Regan at the Sunset Tuesday, was at Sonic Boom Monday

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fionn regan - sonic boom seattle

Ballard got the first part of a double dose of Irish songwriter Fionn Regan‘s vist to Seattle at Sonic Boom Records Monday evening. The store’s aisles were largely filled with a college age and younger crowd for the five song set which stuck to his latest release and included the much lauded “Be Good Or Be Gone.” His album The End of History is up for a Mercury Prize (a big UK prize), and after getting familiar with the album it’s no wonder. 

Lucky you he stopped by KEXP at noon on July 30 for a live performance, so check the archive for that time if you want a taste. He’s playing the Sunset in Ballard Tuesday night along with Death Vessel. The Sunset seems like the perfect small, intimate setting to really appreciate Regan. Anyway you should be there. The detail’s once more.

Fionn Regan, Death Vessel Sunset Tavern in Ballard July 31, 2007

fionn regan - sonic boom seattle
July 24, 2007

Listen to this…

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Haven’t been talking about new stuff we’ve been listening to much lately but this post is an effort in beginning to remedy that.

The band that has been tickling my fancy the most lately is Portland’s Austin’s Zookeeper. Thanks to Chad over at Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands for tipping me off to this wonderful band and providing a few mp3′s. Couldn’t find too much written about them, which is a shame, so I’m intrigued to hear some more stuff. They’ll be at El Corazon on September 22.

Also getting an unusual amount of iPod time is British singer songwriter Fionn Regan. His mature songwriting belies his young age and I sure am a sucker for the singer-songwriter crowd. His album, released July 9 stateside, is up for Britain’s Nationwide Mercury Prize for album of the year, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys and Klaxons. He’s visiting Seattle this Monday, July 30 for a Sonic Boom In-Store at 6pm and a gig at the Sunset later that evening. He doesn’t have too many dates in the US, so it’s cool he’s stopping by Seattle for two performances.

A couple of the B-Sides from the National’s latest album Boxer, provided by what is in my opinion consistently one of the best mp3 blogs out there, I Guess I’m Floating. Also included in the B-Sides post are tracks from TV On The Radio, Spoon and Bright Eyes among others. For a couple you’ll wonder why they were B-Sides at all.