Animal CollectiveWell the year is almost over again and everyone is making lists of albums of 2009 so I'm going to too. This year I'm going do a top ten of My Albums which are the ones which I've went out and bought the real thing that you can hold in your hands. No downloads here if I couldn't be bother to find the CD it's not really here in front of me now so call me old fashioned. Also I'm going to do My Wishlist of this year which is CD's I haven't got but if someone needs a Christmas present or ten. Plus a few other things which I think I'll start with now.
TRACK OF THE YEAR:
The Drones
Suicide is Painless
I've been waiting for this for a long time now. I don't know how many times I've watched the video for this song on JTV, it's a Triple J radio's Like A Version cover song. Volume five has just come out and I went out and got the CD just for this track, is that mad? It's got some of the most bleak and depressing lyrics ever written but The Drones members are laughing at them throughout the song which kind-off juxtaposed it. I've written a whole journal about this track earlier so have a look in my older posts if you want to know more.
EP OF THE YEAR:
Magic Dirt
White Boy EP
This EP was released after the passing away of Dean Turner which is the saddest news of the year because he was so young still, only 37. Dean was a founding member, bass player and their producer. Recording these last tracks which ended up being his last before he passed away Friday August 21st, 2009 and a statement from band said: "For nine years, Dean battled an extremely rare form of soft tissue cancer called dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP)... Being a very private man, Dean chose to fight the cancer in a quiet and dignified manner. He displayed great courage and incredible stoicism. And above all else he had an unshakeable positive attitude throughout his long ordeal. White Boy is from their last album. Two duets: Summer High (featuring Rowland S. Howard) and Love Is The Armour (featuring Gareth Liddiard), deep in a net of red, valley of the rose plus the epic ten minute last song Future Fuck.
REISSUE OF THE YEAR:
Beasts of Bourbon
Box Set with the first three albums: The Axemans Jazz, Sour Mash and Black Milk
Finally you can get these albums on CD, they were deleted forever and these three albums are their best by far. The original line-up of Kim Salmon and Spencer P. Jones on guitars, James Baker on drums, Boris Sujdovic on bass and Tex Perkins on vocals. The little booklet that comes with the box is very cool too with a lot old photos which I haven't seen before and liner notes by all the band members, not some music critics talking wank.
DVD OF THE YEAR:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Your Funeral... My Trial (2009 Digital Remaster) Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 4) by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
I really hate music documentary DVDs most of the time and just can't sit through them most of the time. But these talking heads and how it's filmed and edited together is really, really, really cool. Warren Ellis also says this is his favourite Bad Seeds album and I have to agree with him. To have a new copy of it is great is wicked too because my old one is totally falling apart so beaten up.
SOUNDTRACK OF THE YEAR:
Various Artists
Palermo Shooting
A new film by Wim Wenders which I haven't seen. It's got new Grinderman, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & Matt Sweeney, Sibylle Baier tracks. Original score by Irmin Schmidt plus tracks by Portishead, Iron & Wine, Calexico, Velvet Underground, Beirut, Beth Gibbons & Rustin' Man and more, well, 21 tracks in total. Wim Wender has written the liner notes as an A to Z thing with just over 30 pages.
LIVE ACT OF THE YEAR:
The Drones
Seeing them twice this year as a full band and then seeing Gareth Liddiard and Dan Luscombe playing acoustic too. These where unbelievable shows and I can't wait for the next time they come to town. Havilah winning my 2008 album of the year and now if you buy it you get a bonus disc of Live At The Hi-Fi which I downloaded because I wasn't going to buy the same CD twice but it a great live album so I do wish I had the real thing. The Drones are already starting to working on a new album.
MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR:
David McComb & The Triffids
Edited by Chris Coughran & Niall Lucy
A truly great book about one of the best Australian singer-songwriters and rock groups with all sorts of different writing styles, old color and black & white photos, drawings by Martyn P. Casey, and more all on beautiful gloss paper. This would have to be by far the best music book of the year. Nothing would be close to this and could be one of the best music books ever really. Check it out here: http://www.fremantlepress.com.au/books/currentaffairs_culture_social_history/1104
RE-RECORDING OF THE YEAR:
Warren Fahey
Australia Folk Songs and Bush Verse: Bushrangers, Bolters and Other Wild Colonials
Well I think I have to explain this one a bit. This is new recording of very, very old traditional Aussie tracks. There are more themed discs in this series, or you can get two box sets of all of them but this is the only one I got, if you want more info have a look here: http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=304626&SearchID=2382722&SearchRefineID=4902015 I think re-recording is the best thing to call this album plus he hasn't gone too far from the old arangements of how these songs would have been played two or one hundred years ago.
WISHLIST OF THE YEAR:
TEN
Warren Fahey
Australia Folk Songs and Bush Verse: Rare Convict Ballads and Broadsides
The other album I would like from the above series.
NINE
The Blackeyed Susans
Reveal Yourself
Three CDs and DVD box set from a great but mostly forgotten Aussie band.
EIGHT
Rihanna
Rated R
The best pop album of the year.
SEVEN
Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
The best album cover of the year and the music is pretty wicked too.
SIX
Kasabian
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
The best British rock group of the year.
FIVE
The Flaming Lips
Embryonic
The best American rock group of the year.
FOUR
Tinariwen
Imidiwan
The best African rock group or World music of the year.
THREE
Beak>
Beak>
The best side project band comes from Geoff Barrow of the legendary Portishead.
TWO
Fever Ray
Fever Ray
The best electronic artist of the year. The best Nick Cave cover with Stranger Than Kindness which is on the updated version of the album from early this year but I have yet to see it.
ONE
Rowland S. Howard
Pop Crimes
Rowland S. Howard first album in ten years so I really should have this already. Early this month, Howard admitted that he has had liver cancer for awhile and is now awaiting a transplant so wishing you to get well soon Rowland.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE YEAR:
Bob Dylan
Must Be Santa
It's the week of Christmas but this is so funny, Bob in silly hats and a wig, dancing a polka, standing next to Santa Claus at the end and he re-names the reindeers after Presidents of the United States if you listen carefully. This is the best track on the album, maybe The Christmas Blues is the other cool one or should I say the song I like best. It's directed by an Aussie guy called Nash Edgerton.
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
TEN
Bob Dylan
Together Through Life
Coming at the tail end of my top ten this is the other Dylan album and not his Christmas one. Really not as good as his three previous ones but those are some of his best ever albums so it would be hard follow them. Most of it was written with Robert Hunter. The best track is This Dream of You is Bob's only "solo" song on this album but the whole thing is not bad for a 68 year old.
NINE
Marianne Faithfull
Easy Come Easy Go
I love a good cover songs album. Who else but Marianne Faithfull could get Cat Power, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright and Keith Richards to sing backing vocals. She sings two real duets with Antony on
Ooh Baby Baby and Somewhere with Jarvis Cocker. My favourite track is the classic Neko Case song Hold On Hold On but this cover has Warren Ellis playing an epic electric violin solo at the end.
EIGHT
Various Artists
The Rockwiz Duets Volume 3
Another great cover album full of duets this time from the Aussie TV show. With tracks like Adalita & Gareth Liddiard doing The Saints' Messin' With The Kid, Amanda Brown & Glenn Richards doing Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood's Some Velvet Morning, Patience Hodgson & Broderick Smith doing MGMT's Time To Pretend, Eve Von Bibra & Jed Kurzel doing The Bee Gees' To Love Somebody, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson doing Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head, Sophie Koh & Steve Kilbey doing The Go-Betweens' Streets Of Your Town and so many more.
SEVEN
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
White Lunar
I love Nick Cave & Warren Ellis but one disc of new stuff, another disc of tracks I've already got. And now The Road soundtrack which is coming soon or you can download now. They are really pushing it at the moment and Cave publishing his very silly dirty jokes book this year too. Dirty Three are touring soon and still hoping for a new Dirty Three album but it sounds like it's going to be a new Grinderman one. All the bitching to one side the second disc is some of the best music they have both done and by far the best thing Cave has done this year.
SIX
Titus Andronicus
The Airing Of Grievances
The best newcomer of the year goes to these guys and this is the best debut album in a long time. This was recorded in 2008 but not released here in Australia until the beginning of year. With The Monitor, the band's follow-up to The Airing of Grievances, will be out on March 9 which I hope that is here too and I don't have wait a year or something. According to singer Patrick Stickles in a press release, the LP is "sort of" a concept album about the Civil War: "It doesn't take place in olden times, nor does it necessarily feature any characters that participated in that conflict. Really, it is a record about how the conflicts that led our nation into that great calamity remain unresolved, and the effect that this ongoing division has on our personal relationships and our behavior and how they're all out to get us (or maybe not?) and yadda yadda yadda."
FIVE
Laughing Clowns
Laughing Clowns Live
I love a great live album and this is the second one here, the first was the Rockwiz album. This is the seventh volume in the new prince melon bootleg series. If you didn't know Prince Melon is a nickname Ken West gave Laughing Clowns back in the late 70's and early 80's when they were around the first time, this is a reunion tour album. Ken West is now one of the men who runs something called The Big Day Out tour but his first job in the music business was manager, door man, lighting guy and all rounder for Laughing Clowns. It's a pity they're not on this years line-up and it's more of a pity that they're not coming over to Perth, but the best reunion band of the year is Laughing Clowns.
FOUR
The Mess Hall
For The Birds
This band has always been in the shadow of The White Stripes like the Aussie version but with this album and latter turning into a very pricey DVD side project and one of the many novelty for Jack White. After The Mess Hall winning a lot of award money from their last album Devils Elbow which payed for time and space to do this one which is even better and by far the best thing they have done and taking the two piece band format above and beyond anything that has been done before and others will now have to keep up with these guys, the best band of the year.
THREE
Bill Callahan
Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Bill Callahan was called Smog for years and years but went "solo" a couple of years ago and now has painted his masterpiece on his 13th album. From the beginning to the end this is one of the most beautiful and wonderful albums. Him adding the strings is a great addition, so my male artist of 2009 is Bill Callahan.
TWO
Sarah Blasko
As Day Follows Night
What can I possibly say about Sarah Blasko's As Day Follows Night album that has not been said before now. More perfect that her last and grows more and more with each listen. She has painted her masterpiece on this only her 3rd album. From the beginning to the end is totally breathless record, so my female artist of 2009 is Sarah Blasko.
ONE
Tom Waits
Glitter And Doom Live
I don't know if anyone else would name a live album as their album of the year but it's Tom Waits. Maybe he wins by default because this is the last album I bought. Anyway the reason is I would love to see him live and I have no hope of him coming here. This is brilliant and wicked so it would be unbelievable to see him live and this is most likely the closest I'll ever get. Better that his two other live albums 1988's Big Time and 1975's Nighthawks at the Diner and with Tom Tales a 1/2 an hour long track as a bonus disc which is classic in it's own right, he could be the best stand-up of the year. So my album of the year is Tom Waits' Glitter And Doom Live.
P.S. I don't know if you heard this but someone called Michael Jackson died this year too.
TRACK OF THE YEAR:
The Drones
Suicide is Painless
I've been waiting for this for a long time now. I don't know how many times I've watched the video for this song on JTV, it's a Triple J radio's Like A Version cover song. Volume five has just come out and I went out and got the CD just for this track, is that mad? It's got some of the most bleak and depressing lyrics ever written but The Drones members are laughing at them throughout the song which kind-off juxtaposed it. I've written a whole journal about this track earlier so have a look in my older posts if you want to know more.
EP OF THE YEAR:
Magic Dirt
White Boy EP
This EP was released after the passing away of Dean Turner which is the saddest news of the year because he was so young still, only 37. Dean was a founding member, bass player and their producer. Recording these last tracks which ended up being his last before he passed away Friday August 21st, 2009 and a statement from band said: "For nine years, Dean battled an extremely rare form of soft tissue cancer called dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP)... Being a very private man, Dean chose to fight the cancer in a quiet and dignified manner. He displayed great courage and incredible stoicism. And above all else he had an unshakeable positive attitude throughout his long ordeal. White Boy is from their last album. Two duets: Summer High (featuring Rowland S. Howard) and Love Is The Armour (featuring Gareth Liddiard), deep in a net of red, valley of the rose plus the epic ten minute last song Future Fuck.
REISSUE OF THE YEAR:
Beasts of Bourbon
Box Set with the first three albums: The Axemans Jazz, Sour Mash and Black Milk
Finally you can get these albums on CD, they were deleted forever and these three albums are their best by far. The original line-up of Kim Salmon and Spencer P. Jones on guitars, James Baker on drums, Boris Sujdovic on bass and Tex Perkins on vocals. The little booklet that comes with the box is very cool too with a lot old photos which I haven't seen before and liner notes by all the band members, not some music critics talking wank.
DVD OF THE YEAR:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Your Funeral... My Trial (2009 Digital Remaster) Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 4) by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
I really hate music documentary DVDs most of the time and just can't sit through them most of the time. But these talking heads and how it's filmed and edited together is really, really, really cool. Warren Ellis also says this is his favourite Bad Seeds album and I have to agree with him. To have a new copy of it is great is wicked too because my old one is totally falling apart so beaten up.
SOUNDTRACK OF THE YEAR:
Various Artists
Palermo Shooting
A new film by Wim Wenders which I haven't seen. It's got new Grinderman, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & Matt Sweeney, Sibylle Baier tracks. Original score by Irmin Schmidt plus tracks by Portishead, Iron & Wine, Calexico, Velvet Underground, Beirut, Beth Gibbons & Rustin' Man and more, well, 21 tracks in total. Wim Wender has written the liner notes as an A to Z thing with just over 30 pages.
LIVE ACT OF THE YEAR:
The Drones
Seeing them twice this year as a full band and then seeing Gareth Liddiard and Dan Luscombe playing acoustic too. These where unbelievable shows and I can't wait for the next time they come to town. Havilah winning my 2008 album of the year and now if you buy it you get a bonus disc of Live At The Hi-Fi which I downloaded because I wasn't going to buy the same CD twice but it a great live album so I do wish I had the real thing. The Drones are already starting to working on a new album.
MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR:
David McComb & The Triffids
Edited by Chris Coughran & Niall Lucy
A truly great book about one of the best Australian singer-songwriters and rock groups with all sorts of different writing styles, old color and black & white photos, drawings by Martyn P. Casey, and more all on beautiful gloss paper. This would have to be by far the best music book of the year. Nothing would be close to this and could be one of the best music books ever really. Check it out here: http://www.fremantlepress.com.au/books/currentaffairs_culture_social_history/1104
RE-RECORDING OF THE YEAR:
Warren Fahey
Australia Folk Songs and Bush Verse: Bushrangers, Bolters and Other Wild Colonials
Well I think I have to explain this one a bit. This is new recording of very, very old traditional Aussie tracks. There are more themed discs in this series, or you can get two box sets of all of them but this is the only one I got, if you want more info have a look here: http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=304626&SearchID=2382722&SearchRefineID=4902015 I think re-recording is the best thing to call this album plus he hasn't gone too far from the old arangements of how these songs would have been played two or one hundred years ago.
WISHLIST OF THE YEAR:
TEN
Warren Fahey
Australia Folk Songs and Bush Verse: Rare Convict Ballads and Broadsides
The other album I would like from the above series.
NINE
The Blackeyed Susans
Reveal Yourself
Three CDs and DVD box set from a great but mostly forgotten Aussie band.
EIGHT
Rihanna
Rated R
The best pop album of the year.
SEVEN
Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
The best album cover of the year and the music is pretty wicked too.
SIX
Kasabian
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
The best British rock group of the year.
FIVE
The Flaming Lips
Embryonic
The best American rock group of the year.
FOUR
Tinariwen
Imidiwan
The best African rock group or World music of the year.
THREE
Beak>
Beak>
The best side project band comes from Geoff Barrow of the legendary Portishead.
TWO
Fever Ray
Fever Ray
The best electronic artist of the year. The best Nick Cave cover with Stranger Than Kindness which is on the updated version of the album from early this year but I have yet to see it.
ONE
Rowland S. Howard
Pop Crimes
Rowland S. Howard first album in ten years so I really should have this already. Early this month, Howard admitted that he has had liver cancer for awhile and is now awaiting a transplant so wishing you to get well soon Rowland.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE YEAR:
Bob Dylan
Must Be Santa
It's the week of Christmas but this is so funny, Bob in silly hats and a wig, dancing a polka, standing next to Santa Claus at the end and he re-names the reindeers after Presidents of the United States if you listen carefully. This is the best track on the album, maybe The Christmas Blues is the other cool one or should I say the song I like best. It's directed by an Aussie guy called Nash Edgerton.
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
TEN
Bob Dylan
Together Through Life
Coming at the tail end of my top ten this is the other Dylan album and not his Christmas one. Really not as good as his three previous ones but those are some of his best ever albums so it would be hard follow them. Most of it was written with Robert Hunter. The best track is This Dream of You is Bob's only "solo" song on this album but the whole thing is not bad for a 68 year old.
NINE
Marianne Faithfull
Easy Come Easy Go
I love a good cover songs album. Who else but Marianne Faithfull could get Cat Power, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright and Keith Richards to sing backing vocals. She sings two real duets with Antony on
Ooh Baby Baby and Somewhere with Jarvis Cocker. My favourite track is the classic Neko Case song Hold On Hold On but this cover has Warren Ellis playing an epic electric violin solo at the end. EIGHT
Various Artists
The Rockwiz Duets Volume 3
Another great cover album full of duets this time from the Aussie TV show. With tracks like Adalita & Gareth Liddiard doing The Saints' Messin' With The Kid, Amanda Brown & Glenn Richards doing Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood's Some Velvet Morning, Patience Hodgson & Broderick Smith doing MGMT's Time To Pretend, Eve Von Bibra & Jed Kurzel doing The Bee Gees' To Love Somebody, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson doing Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head, Sophie Koh & Steve Kilbey doing The Go-Betweens' Streets Of Your Town and so many more.
SEVEN
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
White Lunar
I love Nick Cave & Warren Ellis but one disc of new stuff, another disc of tracks I've already got. And now The Road soundtrack which is coming soon or you can download now. They are really pushing it at the moment and Cave publishing his very silly dirty jokes book this year too. Dirty Three are touring soon and still hoping for a new Dirty Three album but it sounds like it's going to be a new Grinderman one. All the bitching to one side the second disc is some of the best music they have both done and by far the best thing Cave has done this year.
SIX
Titus Andronicus
The Airing Of Grievances
The best newcomer of the year goes to these guys and this is the best debut album in a long time. This was recorded in 2008 but not released here in Australia until the beginning of year. With The Monitor, the band's follow-up to The Airing of Grievances, will be out on March 9 which I hope that is here too and I don't have wait a year or something. According to singer Patrick Stickles in a press release, the LP is "sort of" a concept album about the Civil War: "It doesn't take place in olden times, nor does it necessarily feature any characters that participated in that conflict. Really, it is a record about how the conflicts that led our nation into that great calamity remain unresolved, and the effect that this ongoing division has on our personal relationships and our behavior and how they're all out to get us (or maybe not?) and yadda yadda yadda."
FIVE
Laughing Clowns
Laughing Clowns Live
I love a great live album and this is the second one here, the first was the Rockwiz album. This is the seventh volume in the new prince melon bootleg series. If you didn't know Prince Melon is a nickname Ken West gave Laughing Clowns back in the late 70's and early 80's when they were around the first time, this is a reunion tour album. Ken West is now one of the men who runs something called The Big Day Out tour but his first job in the music business was manager, door man, lighting guy and all rounder for Laughing Clowns. It's a pity they're not on this years line-up and it's more of a pity that they're not coming over to Perth, but the best reunion band of the year is Laughing Clowns.
FOUR
The Mess Hall
For The Birds
This band has always been in the shadow of The White Stripes like the Aussie version but with this album and latter turning into a very pricey DVD side project and one of the many novelty for Jack White. After The Mess Hall winning a lot of award money from their last album Devils Elbow which payed for time and space to do this one which is even better and by far the best thing they have done and taking the two piece band format above and beyond anything that has been done before and others will now have to keep up with these guys, the best band of the year.
THREE
Bill Callahan
Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Bill Callahan was called Smog for years and years but went "solo" a couple of years ago and now has painted his masterpiece on his 13th album. From the beginning to the end this is one of the most beautiful and wonderful albums. Him adding the strings is a great addition, so my male artist of 2009 is Bill Callahan.
TWO
Sarah Blasko
As Day Follows Night
What can I possibly say about Sarah Blasko's As Day Follows Night album that has not been said before now. More perfect that her last and grows more and more with each listen. She has painted her masterpiece on this only her 3rd album. From the beginning to the end is totally breathless record, so my female artist of 2009 is Sarah Blasko.
ONE
Tom Waits
Glitter And Doom Live
I don't know if anyone else would name a live album as their album of the year but it's Tom Waits. Maybe he wins by default because this is the last album I bought. Anyway the reason is I would love to see him live and I have no hope of him coming here. This is brilliant and wicked so it would be unbelievable to see him live and this is most likely the closest I'll ever get. Better that his two other live albums 1988's Big Time and 1975's Nighthawks at the Diner and with Tom Tales a 1/2 an hour long track as a bonus disc which is classic in it's own right, he could be the best stand-up of the year. So my album of the year is Tom Waits' Glitter And Doom Live.
P.S. I don't know if you heard this but someone called Michael Jackson died this year too.
