you knew it was coming...best albums of 2011

2011 is about to wrap itself up and while, personally, it was somewhat of a shitty year, musically it was fantastic.  I was originally going to try and narrow it down to just 10 albums but that seemed to be an injustice to a lot of good albums that did drop this year, so i'm doing 20 instead.

Also, I hate narrowing this down, there will be a lot of albums that will be left out that probably would have made my top ten in other years, but I've got to cut it off at some point.

Wanna know something else pretty cool? There are a ton of albums that I've heard great things about that I have still not have had the chance to listen to, so I'm sure sometime in early 2012 I'll have a post about albums that should have been somewhere on this list.

And since I never really get to use my minimal HTML skills, i decided to do that here too....no idea why.

20
Kevin Devine ~ Between the Concrete and Clouds
one of my favorite lyricist, great mood throughout the entire album

19
	Manchester Orchestra ~ Simple Math
great hooks, great lyrics, great album

18
La Dispute ~ Wildlife
the whole "talk music" thing is really hard to pull off but la dispute does it beautifully

17
	Into It. Over It ~ Proper
another great artist with a knack for great, introspective lyrics and hooks

16
Four Year Strong ~ In Some Way, Shape, or Form
i was pleasantly surprised at how great this album is when i first bought it. if you've liked any of their previous albums, you'll love it.

15
	Saves the Day ~ Daybreak
saves the day is back! the 11 minute, 4 part opener track, Daybreak, is worth the price of the album alone. also, got to hang with these dudes about a month ago and have to say they're some of the most down to earth guys i've ever met

14
Trash Talk ~ Awake EP
the best 5 songs that clock in under 9 minutes; thrash metal at its finest

13
	The Appleseed Cast ~ Middle States
it's appleseed, of course it's amazingly layered and beautiful and of course it's good.

12
I Am The Avalanche ~ Avalanche United
if you take 6 years between albums, it better be good.  and yea, this thing is beyond good. listen to "brooklyn dodgers", just an awesome song.

11
	Bayside ~ Killing Time
bayside's best album yet. it seems that every member stepped up their musicianship a few notches for this album. super proud of chris' and jack's work on this album and anthony never fails in the lyrics department.

10
The Dear Hunter ~ The Color Spectrum
spend the money and get the complete collection (all 9 EPs), worth every penny.  just the idea, to write an EP based on the feelings of each color in the spectrum, is pretty intriguing and the fact that it was pulled off so well, i find amazing. Favorite EPs? Red, Black, White and Yellow...in that order but for real, get the entire thing.

9
	The Wonder Years ~ Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing
i've gotten back into pop-punk this year, after quite a few years off (minus an album here and there), and i can owe it this album.  this album reminded me of what's good about pop-punk.

8
Former Thieves ~ The Language That We Speak
I really wish I would've heard about this band back in April when this was released but I didn't know about them until the chariot show back in november but i love this album. reminds me some of the later poison the well stuff. sounds especially amazing on vinyl.

7
	Thrice ~ Major/Minor
probably the final album from thrice, which is sad but if you've gotta go out, go out on top and this is their best effort, which says a lot because i loved the alchemy index and beggars. it's one of the most honest albums that i've heard on the sad state of our society and yet is still a very hopeful/uplifting album.

6
Bon Iver ~ Bon Iver
i can't say anything about bon iver that hasn't already been said a million times over.  i find this album more beautiful every time i listen to it. i can't think of a more deserving artist to be nominated for 4 grammys.

5
	David Bazan ~ Strange Negotiations
when you've spent a career as pedro the lion, you have high expectations for every album that you drop. Bazan ignores those expectations and releases his best work since Pedro's Control.

4
Hands ~ Give Me Rest
i don't typically listen to overtly christian bands (i hate being preached to) nor sludge metal but i can't get enough of this album.  i've been listening to this album since it came out. every time i listen to it, i want to steal all of the riffs and use them in Merchants' songs.

3
	Balance and Composure ~ Separation
this was my number one at the halfway mark, back in the spring. it hasn't lost any of its luster, still an amazing album that i find on play at least once a week. it's albums like this that make the entire post-hardcore recent uprising worth paying attention to, plus they're young so i have a feeling their best work is still yet to come.

2
The Story So Far... ~ Under Soil and Dirt
if the wonder year's album restored my faith in pop-punk, this is the album that restored my faith that new/young bands could write good pop-punk songs. if i'm not mistaken, this is their first LP release and to start off this strong is impressive.  i'll keep rockin' this until LP 2 comes out, yea it's that good.

1
	O' Brother ~ Garden Window
it's not very old, especially in comparison to 2 & 3 but i'll be damned if it's not great. it's at the point were i subconsciously just put the album on when i'm in the car (and i'm always in my damn car, it seems). each song flows into the next, everything sounds connected without sounding like a regurgitation. it's impressive on a whole different scale than the other albums i've listened to this year.  there's a reason they tour with bands like Thrice, Manchester Orchestra and The Dear Hunter on a regular basis. nicely done, gentlemen, nicely done.

originally, i wanted to write a lot more about the albums but 20 albums is a bit more taunting than i originally thought it would be and free time is sparse for me these days so that's all you get.  i'll be the first to admit that there will be a lot of albums that i've missed so feel free to let me know.

Also, two more categories....

Record Label of the Year: No Sleep Records  5 of the 20 albums on the list are No Sleep bands and if I would've done a top 25, there would have been 6 or 7 of their bands (Touche Amore & Such Gold) in the list.  they continually sign good bands and their bands continually release fantastic albums.  Whatever their formula is over there, it's working.

Best New Music Site: ElectricMariachi.com Stumbled across this site looking for an album stream of some sorts and i'll be damned if they didn't have that stream (trapped under ice's new one, i remember correctly) but they have a ton of other album streams, many albums that i forgot were released and all. so yea, cool site and their player works on a mobile too.

There ya go, enjoy.  if you like my taste in music and haven't heard some of these releases, go pick it up somewhere. If you don't like my taste in music...i have no idea why you've read this, it's the internet, there are better things to read.

much love

X

Read More

the art of atmosphere

first off, forgive the emo title but it'll make more sense further on down.  there have only been two albums that have been released in the past couple of weeks that i've felt like buying (yes, i buy all of the albums i talk about...it gets very expensive sometimes), and while they're both very different in their approach, both are phenomenal. 

first off, O'Brother released Garden Window digitally this week and within one listen it has become one of my favorite albums (if not favorite) album of 2011. now, let's bring this blog title back into play.  one of the best things about this album is the atmosphere they created throughout its entirety. expressing atmosphere within music is one of the hardest things to do (i think) and keeping that atmosphere throughout 60 minutes is impressive.  it's what allows an entire album to sound like one long, great song but still keep the listener intrigued from track to track. i'd imagine it's much like writing a novel, in where you have to keep the reader intrigued while continuing the story and offering new events along the way...granted, i've never written a novel so that's really just what i feel like it would be like.  my favorite tracks are Sputnik and Lay Down.  Sputnik features producer Andy Hull (vox/guitarist of Manchester Orchestra) providing some guest vocals, which add a nice element to the song. anyway, check out Sputnik and Lay Down below and i will re-iterate, this is an album that deserves to be listened to from front to back...it's impressive to say the least. 

last week, four year strong released In Some Way, Shape, or Form and while I had to some reservations about it, it's really good. like really, really good.  the couple of songs they released were definitely four year strong but a little more radio/ mass audience accessible than what i was use to from them. not to say that's automatically a bad thing, but it always makes me wonder what the rest of the album will sound like.  but have no fear, it has turned into my favorite album from them. it's accessible the way blink-182 and rise against are accessible which is more than ok with me.  the guitar work on this album is the best they've done (check out the riffs on stuck in the middle). nicely done guys, nicely done.

Also, if you are/were a Deep Elm records fan, you really should go like their facebook page.  they give away a free album (yep, the entire thing) every wednesday from their catalog.  last week was red animal war's "black phantom crusades" and this week is papermoon's "new tales". i never listened to papermoon before but they remind me a lot of old death cab, it's good, i'd recommend checking it out. 

if you have music suggestions or albums i may have missed, definitely let me know, i'm always down for new tunes.  

in other news, the band stuff is coming along nicely, have about a song and half to go before i think we'll be ready to start playing shows (it's been a year since i've played a show, i'm getting anxious to get back to it). we've got band photos saturday with a guy i met via craigslist who is trying to get into photographing bands (free pics!) so i get to stand there and try and look tough for a couple hours which is difficult when you resemble a hobbit more so than one of the american gladiators. hopefully the dude isn't weird though. could make for an interesting afternoon.  

hope everyone is doing well. much love.

X

Read More

man, oh man, the chariot jams

so the whole band took a mini road trip up to columbia see the chariot show at new brookland tavern. yea, it was awesome.  i haven't been that impressed by a band live in a long time. so much passion, so much energy that it becomes infectious. also makes me impatient to start playing shows again, but alas we still need to hammer out a couple more songs...hopefully we'll be able to play a show before christmas though.

here's a short clip (it's from a phone so judge accordingly) from the chariot's set...love that band.

also,  former thieves played second that night and they were impressive to say the least. reminded me of poison the well a bit. i bought their album, haven't stopped listening to it since. 

and last but not least, listener opened up the show.  while, i completely understand if you don't like his stuff, i find it great.  it's spoken word/poetry with music...that's really the only way i know how to describe it.  i'm convinced he's a genius. and he's also a super nice dude, got to chat with him for a few while buying merch.  take a listen.

i've got two more shows to go to this week, both I'm stoked about. tThe Saves The Day/Bayside/I Am the Avalanche tour comes through charleston on thursday.  Got to meet Chris (drummer for Bayside) at Jenn's wedding so hopefully they'll get into town in time for us to go grab some food and a beer. and then Oh, Sleeper is playing charleston saturday, so I'll probably be at that.  their newest album is really good. Not looking forward to all the kids that'll be at that show though...oh well. 

other than the new Four Year Strong "In Some Way, Shape or Form"  that drops tomorrow (stream it on their facebook), there aren't many albums coming out, at least that I'm aware of, that I'm excited about so go listen to some of your classics after you pick up the new FYS. 

other than that, i'm alive and breathing. if you care about a life update, you've probably got my number so get in touch with me that way...it's much easier than trying to blog about it. and if you care about a life update but don't have my number, i'm not hard to track down on the interwebz. 

much love, 

X

Read More