Flagpole: 25 of Our Favorite National Releases of 2009

I had the privilege of contributing to Flagpole's best-of list this year! Other fantastic writers (who also happen to be friends of mine) weighed in, so check it out!

One of my blurbs:

ATLAS SOUND
Logos

Deerhunter's Bradford Cox took a break from all his Internet micro-releases to record his second full-length for solo project Atlas Sound. Logos, according to Cox, was made up significantly of first-takes, a fact that only proves how fantastic he is at retro song structure; for him, it has become almost effortless. Joined by other indie luminaries like Animal Collective's Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Stereolab's Leititia Sadier, Cox explores all his facets as a songwriter and puts forward an almost stream-of-consciousness statement on his place in the musical world. [JR]

I also wrote short summaries about the awesomeness of albums by Here We Go Magic, Animal Collective, Bear In Heaven and Grizzly Bear. Read the whole thing here.

All of Flagpole's best-of coverage is definitely worth a read. They touch on content from just this year and the whole decade, and they do it on both a local and national scale.

Flagpole: The Five Local Bands of the Decade

Flagpole: Cream of the Local Crop (2009)

Flagpole: The Decade You Listened To Too Much Music: The Rise of Digital Distribution in the '00s

Flagpole: Decade Trends: Ups and Downs in the Local Music Scene

Oh, and that last one uses this picture of Lazer/Wulf at the Morton Theatre, which is awesome....

Urgh

Why am I a writer??!!!

This story might kill me.


Other people should be writers, however. Take, for instance, Bryan's shot at reviewing Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion for Flagpole. Recommended reading! So proud!

Also, R.I.P. Randy Bewley. You will be missed.

FOAVOD: Animal Collective - "My Girls"

Hooray!



I cannot get this song out of my head. What I find most interesting about the video, though, is not the psychedelia. I mean, sure, it's cool when their silhouettes start dripping, I guess...I'm just more fascinated by watching how they're making the music. I like seeing what buttons they have to press to produce those noises. There's been a lot of talk about how what's remarkable about AC is the way they use synthetic sounds to produce organic music. I don't know if that's a catch phrase someone made up once and was very proud of, but it seems to be true...

Linkage Wednesday

I like naming things as if they're part of an ongoing feature. Who knows, maybe I'll make "FOA Linkage Wednesday" a real thing.

Living up to the name:

Tiny Mix Tapes: Pitchfork Media lends its name, discriminating taste to video game soundtrack; TMT maybe gets Back to the Future pinball game for office
Really brutal. I get annoyed with TMT occasionally because they're pretty far over the top, but this one's spot on.

If you are ever bored, go here:
Dress Up Devendra Banhart
No seriously. The king of "freak folk" and weird clothes has provided his loyal fans with a virtual dress-up doll. It's bizarrely addictive. And as Nikki tried to point out, he goes so far as to be wearing white undies on one of his images. I'm speechless.

Recent Paste-ings:

Tapes 'n Tapes reveals 24-hour album stream, tour dates

Eisley kicks of North American tour April 1

The Onion Movie coming to DVD at last

Animal Collective preps Water Curses EP, tours

Patterson Hood schedules solo dates in between Truck stops

Beatles pirate prosecuted, still no sign of digi-releases


Also, Bon Iver posted his first video today (thanks, Jeff), which isn't so much a music video. Just pretty:




Stay tuned for reviews of Eux Autres's Cold City and Ball of Flame Shoot Fire's Grumpy Little Bird EP next week. I leave in the morning for Langerado, so I'll be out of touch for a few days (after one last post...). But please feel free to continue commenting, emailing, grumbling, gesticulating, and most importantly, reading (and thanks for doing it!)

Envy and exhaustion

Man, do I wish I was going to SXSW. Sigh.

I, sadly, am not one of the lucky ones.

Apparently, I'll be at Langerado instead, which will be great of course. No complaints here. Esp. excited about The Avetts, The National, Vampire Weekend, and many more.

Apologies this post isn't meatier. I'm tired.

Saw O'Brother, Bear Colony, and Look Mexico at The Earl last night. Was very impressed with Bear Colony. Much better than expected. Am reviewing for SEP, so look for it in...April, I think?


This is unrelated:

Do you like Animal Collective? What about Panda Bear? Why? Which is better? Consider this an official FOA survey.