Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Muzak - '11



You know kids i was gonna jam all this shit together but i decided to be lazy or ambitious i don't know which and break it up, of course when i'm done we'll get back to things like Night of the Long Knives and Wilderness Years but really what is this shit for but to entertain my silly little heart while i waste away the hours in the snowy and shimmering moonlight?  So here it is kids, there's this band called Girls, you might remember them from last years Tis the Season, well this year they put out an album called Father, Son, Holy Ghost and it was hands down my favorite record of the year, don't get me wrong it had some competition but start to finish it was a fucking blinder, i off-handedly said one day it was like the best Jethro Tull album never made, it was kinda a joke but it kinda wasn't and Chris Owens, the singer and songwriter, freely admits that he rips people off constantly, it's as if you'd heard every song on this album but had never heard them, the boy is fucking good is all i can say and you can read his back story and be all wow or you can just listen to his fucking songs and be blown away, there are three songs in a row How Can You Say You Love Me, My Ma (which has some very personal shit for the Kono going on in it) and Vomit (see above) that are absolutely fucking blinding, so yes go out and buy or send me a blank disc and SASE and i'll burn it for you and send it back, either way listen to it, the shit is fucking good...

#2 record this year is Hurry Up, We're Dreaming by M83 aka Anthony Gonzalez, his last record was a tribute to John Hughes called Saturdays = Youth and had some great shit on it, the Kim and Jessie vid i posted awhile back, but this was a double album and though i can honestly admit he could have trimmed a few songs the record reminds me of the best of the music i grew up on, like he listened to a bunch of electronic alternative music circa 81-93 and took all the best parts, added some guitar and bass and drums and produced his masterpiece, and though there are many songs on this album that could be called my favorite there is one in particular with a French title that is nothing but a brilliant track with a little girl talking over it about how we could all turn into colored frogs and be friends and the world and hop around and man is it fucking good and no i wasn't on drugs the first time i heard it but i kinda wished i was...

#3 Kaputt by Destroyer, Dan Bejar is a fucking genius, every album is different but the man can fling words like a fucking master, he turns more slick phrases and observations on one song than most people do in a lifetime and unlike Jeff  "I'm a Poet" Tweedy he's not trying to be a poet, just a brilliant fucking mind doing his thing, his new record sounds like fucking Steely Dan and Bryan Ferry, like bad 80's FM and it still blows the fucking doors off, you never really know if he's taking the piss out of the hipsters or if it's serious treatise on the state of independent music, complete with mellow sax and cocaine references, you can practically hear it as Crockett and Tubbs walk into some neon lit Miami cesspool... and apparently he did much of the vocals for it while laying on his couch. 

As for the rest of the year's records, in no particular order:  My Morning Jacket - Circuital, Drums - Portamento, Beirut - The Rip Tide, Cults-s/t, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic, Los Campesinos - Hello Sadness, Yuck - s/t, Twilight Singers - Dynamite Steps and i'm sure there are a few others i failed to mention cuz i can't remember everything now can i and coming soon i'll do some re-issues and books and favorite posts and maybe just maybe favorite movie, there should be some bonus music up at Kono/Gulf music if i get around to it or i might just get lazy and put it here... alright enough already...

5 comments:

sybil law said...

As usual, I thank you for the music posts and recommendations. I totally need some book reccommendations, though. I got a Kindle for Christmas, and I can't tell if I like it or not. I love the pure feel of a book.
I babble when I'm high. Sometimes.

Gulfboot Johnson said...

I don't listen to anything new except the the stuff you send me. I like The Cults.

Toxic has been updated by the way. For all you faces.

Gulfboot Johnson said...

The new Mojo has a New Order cover version thing you'll like. They're streaming it on the web and all.

Gulfboot Johnson said...

Destroyer are on it. It's covers of the whole of Power, Curry and Flies ( or whatever it was called). The one after Blue Monday Oyster Cult.

daisyfae said...

found a Beirut CD in my daughters car this week. and am diggin' it. just the right thing for where i am at the moment.