It’s time. Most every year, I don my faux ‘music critic’-hat and offer my snooty, elitist opinions on what I thought were the top records I heard in the preceding annum.
This year I posted it over on my education blog, which has become my main outlet since I took a step back from performing and recording. Have at, and enjoy!
Click here for Seth’s Top Picks of 2013
So the word is out. We’ve started a “THING”.
…and proven that it’s a SERIOUS thing – that it CAN work… as long as the fans care.
I’ve received a lot of messages since “Animal Mouth” came out last week. So many kind and thoughtful words, and so many listeners rising to the challenge of taking in a new song and starting a dialogue about it. I half-jokingly closed a recent blog by saying I was making “esoteric pop music for classy people”, but that’s really what this is, and there are even more classy people listening than I originally thought. Thank you for the feedback.
Most common question:
“When will the next song come out?”
This sort of gives it away that the person asking never found out what this whole “Hostage Situation” project is about… but I know not everyone reads my posts on my schedule. Essentially the answer is, “The next song will come out once enough donations have been received as to meet the ransom.”
If you understand all that already, feel free to move on. But if you’re not clear on what’s happening; if you don’t know what I mean by “Hostage Situation”, or “ransom”, or you’re not sure what the “donation” thing is about, here’s the link to the project’s main page – check it out.
The first “hostage” is free by the grace of 128 individuals who raised all the money up to May 14th. Obviously, many of them spent far more than what it would have cost them to purchase a “normal” $9.99 download from iTunes. They were the early adopters; the hardcore fans; my “Horanimals”, who believe in me and trusted that this could work. I certainly don’t expect anything more from them, and you shouldn’t either. Now it’s your turn.
There are still over THREE THOUSAND of you out there. You’re my fans; you enjoy my songs, you like my lyrics or my bass playing, you tell your friends to listen to me, you write very nice emails telling me you can’t wait for me to come back to your town and perform — I tried to weed out a bunch of email addresses that I thought were no good, and I got over two hundred messages from people saying “Don’t delete me! I wish I could hear you perform again…” So there are a lot of you just waiting for a chance to show your support.
THIS IS THAT CHANCE. The future of the music I make and of the concerts I perform all depends on your support for this project. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll back out of the whole “artist” thing and just focus on teaching.
So download the song from the Bandcamp page, and please donate when you do it; maybe a dollar for “Animal Mouth”, and maybe a few dollars for however many more songs you’d like to see this project produce. If you do, and a thousand others of similar minds do it as well, everybody wins.
Also: only one person wrote to say this, but I thought it needed mentioning:
“I think this is a great idea, and I want to help, but I’m a student and I can *really* only give like five dollars. Please don’t be offended. I think you’re awesome.”
It hit me like a ton of bricks: This person thought that they needed to apologize for “only” donating five dollars.
When I get that email from Paypal that says “You have received a payment from So-and-So”, the first thing I think isn’t “ooh! How much?” The first thing I think is, “This person is a super hero.”
So it occurred to me that people might feel awkward knowing that I can see their name right next to however much they donate to the project. As odd as it seems, I suppose it’s possible that people don’t want to “look cheap”.
Let’s put that to rest right now. On iTunes and many other music download sites, the going rate for music is about a dollar-per-song. Donating five dollars is the same as telling me you believe in me enough that you want to pre-pay for the next five songs I release.
That is *not* “cheap”. That is the action of a fan I am grateful to have. Without fans like that, I’m not a professional artist. Without fans like that, I’m not a touring artist. Without fans like that, I’m not anything worth mentioning.
If you’re a fan like that, I’m thankful for you, and I hope you continue to be as idealistic and ethical as you are.
Thank you, everyone, for reading this. I hope to release another song for you soon!
be well…
-Seth
Look at THAT.
I mean, LOOK at that.
I am so excited, so motivated, so thankful. You know who you are, and to all of you who made this happen: THANK YOU.
The first song from the “Hostage Situation” project has been released:
Feel free to listen, to download, to share — I already got paid for releasing it. That’s the point of this whole thing.
That having been said — if you haven’t yet contributed to the project, anything you choose to pay for this track will count towards the ransom for the NEXT one.
If you have been remiss to pay anything until this point because there was no immediate exchange, I understand. But now, there IS — so you could, for instance, choose to pay $2 for this download, and call it a dollar for this song and a dollar for the next one. Now imagine if you and a THOUSAND other people did that. There would be another song released right away. And you’d barely miss the two bucks. Perspective.
There is a PDF with artwork and lyrics available directly from the Bandcamp page for the song (just click on the text in the player rather than hitting the play button and it should take you there). Have at.
And to the 116 of you who contributed so far: This is more than “cool”. This is making a big statement about art, value, and exchange, and I’m excited to see how far we can take it. Thank you!
This is yet another section from the page on my website describing “The Hostage Situation” project. If you haven’t heard about it yet, the over-simplified version is this: I’m releasing my new songs one-at-a-time, but not until a fundraising goal has been met for each song. Then, once the goal is met, no individual will have to pay to download that song ever again.
The webpage is long and detailed and has intimidated many, who have asked for shorter, more bite-sized pieces of information more suited to the modern attention span. I am happy to oblige, and so here are the newly updated answers to the Many Inevitable Questions that my supporters have had and will have about this groundbreaking/asinine (depending on who you ask) idea.
Enjoy!
So you’re asking us to donate our money… but there’s a chance we won’t get any music back in return?
Funny — that’s actually the inverse of the risk a musician takes — we release our music, though there’s an ever-increasing chance we won’t get any MONEY back in return. Think of this as standing in my shoes, if it helps. Really though, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you stop worrying about “what everyone else will do” and simply donate a few bucks… and I mean, if ALL of you do that… then it’s a non-issue. There are enough of you out there that there would be 8 songs released in no time at all. Heck… if everyone donated the equivalent of just one US Dollar, there’d be one song released and another on the verge. So this is very, very doable. It’s when you start trying to outsmart the system that it ends up biting you in the ass. “Oh, I’ll wait and see…” is the phrase that kills things like this. If everyone waits to see what everyone else does, nobody does anything. So what we’re looking for here are forward-thinkers; risk-takes; pioneers… and above all, FANS.How many songs will you release this way?
I have six songs ready to mix right now (which would require a total ransom of $12,000), and I have enough songs in the demo stage to ensure that the collection could ultimately contain as many as a dozen songs or more. So YES: if you crazy kids somehow raise twenty grand, I will deliver a 10-song collection.Wait… you really expect over 3000 of us to give you seven dollars each?
I don’t “expect” anything. But yes; I’m asking, and hoping, that you do something along those lines. Maybe a thousand of you donate one dollar and then some wealthy philanthropist picks up the rest of the tab; I won’t get involved in that. Feel free to come together as a community of like-minded fans and coordinate however you want to, but don’t try to negotiate with the bad guy — I mean, I’m holding HOSTAGES, remember?What if I just wait for others to pay the ransom and download it for free anyway?
You could well do that. But consider that a lot of other people might be thinking the same thing. And so maybe the ransom doesn’t get paid. And the lot of you would wait, smug and righteous, and… without any of my new music. Boy, would you be proving your point then. Or you could just pay the same amount of money you spend at Starbucks for a couple of lousy lattes, encourage others to do the same, and watch how fast the music comes into your life.What if you get $1,900 and then the money stops flowing in? How long would you wait before just releasing a song anyway?
Think of this as a way for you as a fan base to let me know you still think I’m valid. If I can’t make my living off of my work, I shouldn’t consider myself a professional artist, and I should just retire from it and teach full time. If you want me to do that, then allowing this scenario to happen would be just the thing I need to re-evaluate my life – you could really stick it to my sense of self-worth if you want to.How will we know when we free a hostage?
I’ll post updates on Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress, and if we get a particularly exciting boost all at once, I’ll definitely send out an email announcement. This whole thing could take awhile to get rolling… or the goal could be reached in 24 hours. It’s entirely up to you.I don’t have a Paypal account. How can I contribute?
There are a number of ways to contribute without using Paypal. I can take cash, checks, and credit/debit cards. If you’d rather do it that way, you should SEND ME AN EMAIL and we’ll sort you out.Will you ever press a CD version of this album?
This has crossed my mind, but it allows people to give “conditional support” (i.e. “I’ll only donate if you make a CD”) and that is not the point of this. So what I’ll do is this: as they are released, all the songs will be added to the same download page (on Bandcamp, most likely) – and the liner notes & lyrics for each song will be included as downloadable PDFs. Once we have released four (4) songs, I’ll update that to become an album booklet, complete with artwork, which I’ll keep updating as more songs are released. Anyone can burn a CD, and anyone can print a PDF file, so it’s no longer a question of whether I will create a physical version of the album… the question is, will YOU?How do we know we’ll even like your new songs?
That’s a fair point. Whoever demanded a ransom without allowing the hostage a few seconds on the phone to let the world know they were okay? It seems reasonable that you’d want to know what I’ll be setting free into the world, so here’s a sneak peek at rough mixes of a few tracks. (Muso fans have asked, and so it bears clarification: these are *rough* mixes, and sound quite muddy and squashed compared to the way they’ve evolved since I threw this together. The point isn’t to wow you with the sound quality – it’s to give you a taste of the SONGS.) Once we build a little momentum, perhaps I’ll cobble together another preview of some other songs, but this is the last you’ll hear of these particular tunes until the ransom is met. So that’s the situation. You know what to do.
(or EMAIL SETH DIRECTLY to pay by check, credit, or debit card)
Big development this week! First I’ll give you the update, then I’ll explain…
As I post this the morning of Monday, May 6th, the ransom money you’ve raised so far has hit $1,466.
This week’s funds were raised by only 32 PEOPLE. That, plus our 39 supporters from last week, means that 71 of you are now giving me the vote of confidence to get this thing done. Thank you to everyone who has gotten involved!!
So here’s the development:
I based the original ‘ransom demand’ on the size of my mailing list, which I completely overhauled and rebuilt so that I could have an accurate idea of who’s out there and paying attention.
Over the past week, I’ve been testing how reliable that list is. I did a “list cleaning” to weed out old and abandoned addresses, and sent out a “Should I delete you?”-message to people who hadn’t been active for awhile.
The result: my list is down from just over 4,000 people to just over 3,200. That’s about 20% less than I based the original ransom demand on.
So I’m lowering the ransom by 20% as well. It’s only fair. From here on out, the ransom for each song is only $2,000. (Who says you can’t negotiate with the bad guy?)
Seventy-one supporters is only 2% of the newly trimmed fan base, but now that the ransom has been renegotiated, their efforts have pushed us over 73% of the first goal.
I’ll say that again for the people who like to scan quickly and read the big words:
Now — don’t get any ideas about the ransom for each song decreasing again. I’m pretty sure most of the professional grown-ups reading this bring home at least two grand a month, which is about the amount of time and energy it takes to write, produce, record, mix, and release a professional-quality track (not to mention, there are costs related to all that). And don’t forget — once each song is out there at the mercy of the file-sharing community, I’m not going to fight it — it’ll be a free download from that point forward. So I need your support NOW; pre-release.
**IF THIS IS THE FIRST YOU’VE HEARD OF THIS**
…then you can read about this whole project (and listen to a sampler of some of the new songs) by visiting: http://bit.ly/Y0Ff7e
AND IF YOU’RE READY TO HELP RELEASE THE HOSTAGES WITH A DONATION, click this large, blue, candy-like button – please and thank you! :)
It’s an exciting time to be making esoteric pop music for classy people. Onward!
People are busy, and don’t always have time to read big webpages. My webpage describing “The Hostage Situation” is a pretty big webpage, with a lot of information on it.
So, by popular demand, I’ll be breaking down the whole thing in Q&A form — more easily digestible snippets that you can take in as you please.
Our first, most popular question by far is:
I’m so happy, proud, and thankful. This past weekend has been awesome to behold, and it has reiterated what I already knew: you guys are awesome.
As I post this, just before 10:30 AM, Monday, April 29th, I am thrilled to report that the ransom you’ve raised so far has hit $895.
That’s over 35% of the first ransom goal… in ONLY THREE DAYS.
But it gets better.
This amount was raised by only 39 PEOPLE.
That’s incredible, if you think about it. That means that 39 of you gave an average of about $23 each (though some gave much less and a select few gave much more).
So even though this song collection probably won’t be a dozen songs (feel free to prove me wrong on that), so far the average donation is about DOUBLE what you’d normally pay for a 12-song album.
I was thinking that logically, each person could throw in a few bucks and that “strength in numbers” would get quite a few songs released… and I thought it would take a few months. But this is already beyond what I hoped for at this point, and I am grateful!
I might even go so far as to feel cautiously optimistic. I mean, There are just over 4,000 of you on the email list, and we’re already over a third of the way to releasing Song #1 with LESS THAN ONE PERCENT OF YOU getting involved.
So here it is: if you read about this and have been on the fence about whether or not it’s something you want to “risk” contributing to, the votes are coming in (in dollar form), and it’s official: there is less risk than expected.
Remember, I’m not looking for ten or twenty wealthy people to foot the bill.
I’m looking for a couple thousand of you to chip in a few bucks each to get this music released.
IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT…
…then I’m pretty sure there’s an email in your inbox (or… le sigh… your spam folder) that you missed last Friday! If you can’t find it, you can read about this whole project by visiting this page
Here are a few samples of some rough mixes of my ‘hostages’. Rest assured they’ll be cleaned up, fed and watered, and in one piece when they’re released…
Heard enough?
Here’s how you can help release them.
Happy New Year, everyone. We’re still here. Mayans can suck it. And here are my top album picks for 2012. Each year somebody stumbles across this for the first time, so let me dispense with the disclaimers and caveats.
This is just me, spouting my opinions. There are no required “categories”. I didn’t listen to much prog, jazz, or hip hop this year, and I liked the stuff here better than the prog, jazz, and hip hop I DID listen to. So there’s no need to write me, irate that I didn’t include any prog, jazz, or hip hop. Et cetera.
I’m a music snob and a musician; the worst combination to find in someone wearing the hat of “music critic”, and you’re completely entitled to scoff at my choices. But this isn’t about competition; this is me, waving a flag for what I think are worthwhile albums that people should spend their money buying and their time listening to. I have no agenda here other than to keep the quality of the music in your life HIGH.
Also, the order of presentation is, as usual, somewhat elastic. There are days when any of these releases could slip up or down a few notches, depending on my mood.
One more thing: One of my picks from last year won a Grammy, and two of my picks from 2011 have been nominated for Grammys in 2013… it has to do with their cut-off date for eligibility and other assorted blah-blah. My point in mentioning it is that I find it a promising trend — I mean, I haven’t agreed with the Grammy Awards that much in over a DECADE. To boot, one of my picks from 2012 is nominated for a Grammy this year…. who knows if any will make the 2014 list.
It either means that the world is waking up to what’s good, or I’m slipping in my old age. I’m going with the former.
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”
Therefore, I recommend that you LISTEN ALONG as you read by opening up my iTunes Playlist with selections from these records,
or click on each album cover to listen more specifically.
Enjoy.
1. Punch Brothers – Who’s Feeling Young?
Each and every time these guys play, they raise the bar for what can be done with acoustic instruments. Specifically, the acoustic instruments used in the traditional makeup of a bluegrass band: guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, and double bass. Punch Brothers have been around (under different names) since shortly after the demise of legendary bluegrass/pop group Nickel Creek, when mandolin-master-of-not-unappealing-voice Chris Thile attempted to get together a bunch of guys who could play as maniacally and sing as prettily as he can and make everyone else in the world wish they were them. It worked. These guys are amazing, fun, and unstoppable, and this is their best work yet.
The band teamed up with producer Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Kings of Leon, Amber Rubarth, Norah Jones, Mutemath, etc) for this, and the difference from PB’s last album (“Antifogmatic”; see my 2010 list) is instantly audible. This whole record conveys the ambiance of a live performance in a small theater — there are no startling shifts in aural texture or instrument placement from song to song, and each track seems to have a similar amount of reverb/delay/ambiance. The brilliance of this “set it and forget it” production approach is that it lets all the interest and surprise come from the musicians themselves; from the dynamics and arrangements of the songs.
And damn, but there are some excellent songs on this record. Case in point: “This Girl” is absolutely one of the best songs of the year on a number of levels, and it’s rare that I’d give that honor to a song that’s not a heartstring-tugger. It’s the rollicking, fun, one-sided conversation between a man and the God he abandoned until he met a girl who hadn’t… hilarity ensues. Given Thile’s history of not-so-humorous stories of relationship trouble between believers and non-believers (check out “The Blind Leaving The Blind” on the group’s second offering, “Punch”), it’s great to see that time has steered that message more towards satire and away from plain old… ire.
There’s a burden on a supergroup: What does “the band who can play anything” choose to PLAY?? Do they constantly flex and go over the top to prove themselves by injecting odd time signatures and wild key changes into every song? They do, but nowhere near as much as they used to, and I won’t lie — that’s what got them to the top of this page; it’s welcome. They got the secret formula just right. These songs are a bit milder in their presentation than PB offerings of the past, as if King turned down the “Prog Knob” just enough to make them palatable without losing their essence.
That is not to say that they don’t cut loose; no way. The opening track is propelled along by rapidly pulsing, impossibly in-tune double stops from bassist Paul Kowert (who seems to have found the “overdrive” knob on his preamp — nice!!), and the award-winning Noam Pikelny’s banjo playing on the minor and moody “New York City” sounds like someone lit his hands on fire. Violinist and harmony vocalist Gabe Witcher shines in both roles in the haunting “No Concern Of Yours”, and in a PB studio-first, he takes the reins as the lead vocalist on the gritty, funky “Hundred Dollars” in a way that makes me want more more more. Guitarist Chris Eldridge only makes his presence known for brief but intense moments in each song, as if to remind us that if he wanted to, he could blow the roof off this place one-handed, but instead he chooses to add to the greatness of the ensemble.
One more thing — late in 2012 the group released an EP of tracks (mostly cover songs) that didn’t make it to the full-length release. It’s called “Ahoy!”, and I’d have included it in the “Honorable Mentions” section at the end, but since you’re already reading this, I’ll save you the scrolling. Buy them both. Hugely worthwhile music here. Fifty years from now, these guys will be the stuff of legend, and your grandkids will be asking you why you weren’t listening to them/catching their shows at every opportunity. Don’t let your grandkids down.
2. Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
When Apple first came on the scene, I was immediately struck by her voice… There was something about her smoky alto that was so DIFFERENT than anything else on the radio… When her second album dropped a few years later, it hit me immediately: she doesn’t use any auto-tune. Then as now, it is so refreshing to listen to a singer who can actually SING; who embraces the ever so occasional imperfection in a vocal performance and uses it to emphasize the sentiment they’re trying to get across instead of flatlining, tan-and-bland, all across the board. She’s got a wicked instrument in her throat, she knows how to use it, and she has never failed to impress.
The instrument located less than a foot ABOVE her throat, however, seems to encounter more than occasional discordance… and Apple has made a career out of letting us in on her internal monologue. And thank goodness for that. She makes the emotional turmoil inside her head into the jarring-yet-captivating poetry we’ve come to love from her. She’s always been a righteous drama queen; neurotic and sardonic, yet at the same time aware of the tragic circumstances she creates… it’s like she has bouts of rational clarity in which she writes these brutally honest songs of self-analysis… and then revisits the songs when she’s back down the rabbit hole, snarling and howling the self-critical lyrics as if she can’t believe that bitch had the nerve to call her out publicly. The album opens with “Every Single Night”, which is her, coming to terms with living inside her own head, and floats through various scenarios explaining how that head of hers has sabotaged her relationships with partners, from the process of picking them to the way she seems to keep messing them up…. but by the end, she seems to be reaching some kind of reconciliation with herself, and puts forth the idea that she might yet find solace.
Musically, the majority of these songs showcase Apple doing what she does best: exploring chord voicings at the low end of her very old-timey, saloon-sounding piano. No matter what else surfaces, it and her voice are the constants. She always plays it in a way that accentuates the most dissonant notes in any line, and it’s what gives her music that dark-and-quirky feel; the thing her many imitators can’t duplicate. It’s one of her stamps, and she uses it to great effect all over this collection.
Producer Charley Drayton, who serves as the percussionist on each track, is also a responsible party for this album’s fantastic sound. Most of the songs are backed by some kind of clacka-lacking, finger-drum-thumping, thigh-slapping, brushed-snare drum-rolling, bells-and-chimes-a-dinging, off-kilter rhythm. This doesn’t thwart Apple’s lyrical impact though — in fact, these upbeat arrangements help a few songs from sinking under their own morose weight, and add a playful spirit to her self-depricating sarcasm on others.
Of note: the big exception to everything I’ve just mentioned is the album’s closer, “Hot Knife”. It is, for lack of another explanation, a fun little sing-along. As far as I know it’s the first time she’s ever recorded a massive vocal overdub fest, and it’s sure to have female a cappella groups at universities all over America hard at work for the next year.
What a delightful surprise this album is. Folds posted sneak-peeks of all the songs well in advance of the album release date, but I only heard three of them. I thought he was messing with us; each of the tunes I got a look-see at were deeper cuts from this collection; not the instantly gratifying, ultimately catchy, raucous and irreverent awesomeness the band make its hallmark back in the late nineties. These songs were good, but they were… MATURE, and not unlike the more adult contemporary fare from Folds’ solo career. I was annoyed. What was the point of reuniting BF5 if they weren’t going to be jackasses again??
And yet, when I hit “play”, the opening fuzz-bass of “Erase Me” slammed out of the speakers, and all was again right with the universe. THIS is the album we hoped we were getting back in 1999 when they gave us “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner”; it’s got the advanced musical sensibilities and cool harmonies of that era in the band’s existence, but the delivery and spirit of play the band exudes on each cut calls to mind their heyday, when even the most serious and heartbreaking songs of “Whatever And Ever Amen” had a sharp sense of irony.
There are equal parts “jackass” BF5 and “storytelling” BF5 here, and it’s a good balance. For every introspection (“Sky High”, “Hold That Thought”, and the brutal-yet-uplifting “Away When You Were Here” are quite worthy), there’s an in-your-face rocker (the title cut, “Michael Praytor, Five Years Later”, and “Draw A Crowd”, whose hook you will never get out of your head… even if you really want to). When Ben is funny, he’s hysterical, and when he’s sad, you’ll be crying too. Drummer Darren Jessee contributed the song “Sky High” to the collection (and he’s no joke; he co-wrote the band’s biggest hit ever — remember “Brick”?), and in a move that made me grin, they set a piece of author Nick Hornby’s prose to music to create the album’s mighty title track. Folds and Hornby did a whole album this way back in 2010, and it was awesome. This cut is even more of that same awesomeness.
The decade-plus apart doesn’t seem to have been a problem for the trio musically… these guys can still play their asses off. From Fold’s face-melting piano solo in the opening track, to Sledge’s eternal mastery of lead-distorto-bass on “Draw A Crowd” and “Do It Anyway” (also note his tasteful double bass playing on “Sky High” and the brilliant and steady outro to “Hold That Thought”), to Jessee’s spot-on, zero-to-sixty drumming (the way he drives the bus on both the title track and “Draw A Crowd” are Keith Moon-worthy)… There may be those subdued, mature passages, but there is never a dull moment. The single, “Do It Anyway”, may be remembered more for the video than the song itself (because Fraggles are awesome), but it’s fun regardless, and it features the band jamming away relentlessly. You can hear it: they’re having an absolute blast. And it’s contagious.
4. Butterfly Boucher – (self-titled)
Boucher has released three records in the past decade, and all three have made this list. Particularly this year, when so many of my all-time favorite songwriters released albums that didn’t move me (Ani Difranco, Aimee Mann, Peter Mulvey, Andy Davis, Foy Vance… the list goes on), the fact that she’s three-for-three should tell you something; you’ve been missing out on this chick. If you love real pop music, get hip to Butterfly.
Boucher is equal parts 90’s smart pop, 60’s retro, and 70’s punk, with today’s dance floor sensibilities and a penchant for occasional and delightful 80’s schmaltz. She’s one of those self-producer-plays-every-instrument-and-has-a-killer-vocal-range types who can make an entire professional album in her bedroom with a few instruments, tubby toys, kitchen utensils, and a microphone… and near as I can tell, since leaving the major-label-nightmare a few years back (remember when her label put her on a “Shrek” soundtrack back in the day…?), she’s become the reigning queen of Nashville indie-pop-rock.
The opening cut, “5678!” (the quintessential choreographer’s cry, but possibly also a tongue-in-cheek response to Leslie Feist…?) got a low budget video and some decent promo, but it deserved much more; it stands up to (and in fact, crushes) every successful pop hit of the past year. You won’t just hear this hook, shrug, and move on; it will grab you and make you listen repeatedly. “The Weather” is as ballsy a rock tune as ever you’ll hear on a pop record, showing off Boucher’s killer pipes and chops on every instrument. It kicks serious ass, providing great contrast to more synth-heavy, danceable offerings like “Not Fooling Around” and “None The Wiser”. Undertones of 60’s baladeering abound most prominently in the gorgeous “The Warning Bell”, and syncopated, gritty-yet-synthy anthems like “I Wanted To Be The Sun” and “Take It Away” embody everything I love about her as an artist; engaging but not overused chord progressions, gorgeous harmonies belting out bittersweet lyrics, and all propelled by a slamming rhythm section.
If there’s anything you can count on in a Butterfly Boucher song, it’s that it will have at least one cool-ass modulation that you will not see coming, and that will totally capture you no matter how many times she throws it at you. She’s the goods, and I wish she would (finally) get her due. To boot, the album is only seven bucks on iTunes. Deal of the year right HERE.
5. Bob Mould – Silver Age
I don’t know why the last Grammy-winning Foo Fighters record didn’t grab me like this ass-kicker does. This thing is relentless. Mere moments after I was made aware of it’s existence, I typed the following statement:
“Each of my eardrums is now vying to be this album’s personal slam-hound.”
And I’m sorry to be so crass, but it’s as true now as it was then. 38 minutes of face-smashing non-stop straight-ahead rocking like I haven’t heard anyone do in a long while (and yes, I was effusive about Pearl Jam’s latest offering not too long ago, but this is definitely superior with regard to the face-smashing non-stop-rocking).
Bob’s music stands apart from all the younger acts that produce records in the same vein because of two characteristics: His anthemic writing style embraces tension rather than embracing release… and regardless of where he is in a musical phrase, he always EMBRACES NOISE. After digging on this album, anything produced after 2001 will sound… clean. Polite. Apologetic. Bob has never been ashamed of the messy sounds that drums and electric guitars make. He’s never tried to tame them; in fact his recordings have always sought to make the kick drum thump your chest, the guitars rattle your ribcage, and the bass punch you in the sternum. He’s gotten *really* good at that by now. The only problem with this was that he used to make it happen at the expense of his own voice in the mix, but that has largely been remedied here. At only one point do I find myself looking to tweak the EQ to bring out the lyrics a bit more.
This is the kind of album that gets me speeding tickets. People, if you remember Husker Du: this rocks harder. If you remember Sugar: this rocks harder. If you’ve been a fan of Bob’s solo stuff but have become convinced that he lost his edge: IT’S BACK, and it’s… hard.
And if you’re a youngin’, and would only have a frame of reference for Bob Mould if I told you that a snippet from one of his old tunes is currently used as the theme music for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”… Yes. This rocks much harder than that, and you should *really* give this old dude a shot.
6. John Mayer – Born and Raised
Mayer used to sneeze and get a Grammy nomination. It was usually for the smarmiest, pappiest tunes he would include on otherwise brilliant records. This year he produced what will no doubt be hailed as one of the best albums of his lifetime, and the Grammys are snubbing him so hard it’s audible.
This got hyped as a “country” album. And that’s both fair and unfair. Unfair because that label automatically tainted it for thousands of people before they ever heard a note, when in fact it is no more country than albums considered “classic rock” by Neil Young, The Eagles, James Taylor, or Crosby Stills & Nash (in fact, on the chorus of the title track, you’ll swear it’s actually Nash and Crosby singing harmony — and you’ll be correct). Fair though, because it is, in part, truer to the sound of actual country music than anything that say, Taylor Swift has ever made (…you see what I did there, right?). There’s even a great pub-music style tune that’s at least as good as that song Mumford and Sons keeps recording over and over again.
It’s not supposed to be a barn-burner, but this a mysteriously accessible album. There’s always a payoff to whatever degree you’re listening, but it varies greatly depending on how deep you want to go. You can let it wash over you without picking up a single thing from it, and if so, you won’t hate it but you may not love it either. However, if you turn it up when you want to get lost, you’ll find plenty to fascinate you. If “Heavier Things” was the soul-searching of his twenties, then “Born and Raised” is the reckoning of his thirties. Beautiful work, John. If your Grammys are the measure of how much you’ve pandered in the past, then you should be absolutely proud to have finally made a record that won’t get one.
7. The Novelists – Backstory
8. Soundgarden – King Animal
Soundgarden: Masters of that elusive “The record’s skipping… oh wait, no it’s not…”-badass rock groove; the grunge warriors who took those otherwise rehashed pentatonic licks to a new plane of existence. They were always that band everyone tried to emulate, but who nobody ever COULD emulate. Simply put, they are the world’s best avant-garde-blues-rock band, and as the opening track laments, they have indeed been away for too long.
And where the hell have they been? Kim Thayll and Ben Shepherd have been virtually invisible since the band’s last album sixteen years ago, while drummer Matt Cameron has played with Geddy Lee, The Smashing Pumpkins, and most notably in Pearl Jam since 1998. Chris Cornell, of course, was busy making his three solo records, that album he sang for Slash, and the whole overblown charade of Audioslave… all of which turned out to be underwhelming in comparison to what he once did and has done again with this band.
Those close to me know that I have always been fascinated by Cornell’s fantastic upper vocal register, and when he uses it to its potential, it hardly matters to me WHAT he’s singing — I still find it captivating. It’s like hearing the hunting cry of some rare mammal in the arctic tundra, and it’s worth listening to just because it’s so uncommon. As Cornell hasn’t treated us to this many high notes in a few years, it’s interesting to hear how their timbre has taken on a new character. It’s angrier; more primal, like it’s coming from a different place in his voice box… or perhaps it’s just a new hellfire demon being housed in his earthly vessel. Whatever the case, he sounds positively wicked.
….as does the whole ensemble. At their best, the songs seek to force you into submission, and most achieve this. They aren’t pulling out many new tricks here; with one startlingly cool exception (no spoilers, but you’ll either love it or loathe it, and I love it…), all the sounds you hear are sounds you’ve heard from them in times past; the components have simply been brought together better than ever before. Lopsided, slightly dissonant ostinato riffs meeting bombastic, surgically precise drumbeats… it’s like jackhammers locking in with sledgehammers, and it’s mighty. Add Cornell’s voice over the top, singing at least as many hooks as on 1994’s “Superunknown”, and you get the triumphant return of a cutting edge group who’s proven they still do this better than anyone else.
Oh, and there’s cowbell. And it’s brilliant.
Full disclosure: I played bass on four of the songs on this collection. Regardless, I feel not a bit awkward about endorsing it as one of the best of the year as far as modern folk albums are concerned. Justin has been Reno, Nevada’s best kept secret for at least half a decade now, and it’s gratifying to see him finally touring the country and promoting his music in earnest.
McMahon has a rare and irreconcilable combination of traits: he is a hopeless romantic, full of enthusiasm for the sweetest sensations life has to offer… but also possesses a disdain for the human condition that places him somewhere between a mild sociopath and a total misanthrope. Add to this that he is also a consummate linguist and poet, and you begin to see why he makes such an interesting songwriter. The beauty of his lyrics comes from the push and pull between the poles of his psyche — depending on the song, it’s anyone’s guess which will get the upper hand — will he throw his sense of self-worth down the well, or does hope spring eternal, and will he press on to get it right next time?
I’m not doing him justice with that, as his delivery is anything but comic. He articulates his stories in ways both blunt and satirical that will either wound you deeply or make you wish you’d thought of it first. Then suddenly he’ll be a life-loving optimist, giving you a much needed boost of serotonin, and bolstering you for the rest of the message: Yes, life is suffering. We are going to care about people who are going to make awful decisions. We’re all going to let down the people we love. We’re trying as hard as we can.
It’s not the easiest message to hear, but it might be the most important.
10. Beck – Song Reader
This is so retro it’s nouveau. Beck’s been a hipster since before being a hipster was disdained by hipsters, and this is arguably the biggest hipster move EVER.
This is not a sonic record. It exists only as ink on paper… like all music did prior to the discovery of electricity.
And I love it. It’s brilliant.
Because what does this record sound like?
WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO. That’s the point. Because it’s not a record yet. At least, not a record by Beck. He never recorded any of these pieces, so if you want to hear them, it’s up to you to perform them, or to find musicians capable of reading music and having them do it. You can perform the songs exactly as written, or interpret them any way you are moved to.
The album is the gift that keeps on giving, and it’s both the antithesis of the digital era (take that, piracy!) and the best thing that ever happened to it all at the same time. Nobody ever needs to hear these songs the way you do, but if you feel like contributing to the planet and want to demonstrate how you’ve honed your version of one of these tunes to perfection, you can upload a video of it to a website set up for that very purpose: http://songreader.net
Then you can listen to the versions others have posted, and expand your ideas about what can be done with a piece of music.
I think it’s one of the coolest ideas ever (and I’m not alone in that… I mean, it was also considered very forward-thinking about a century ago), and as soon as I decide which of these tunes will sound best on a solo bass guitar, I’m going to get involved myself.
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HONORABLE MENTION – Kimbra – Vows (2012 Version)
Last year I chose “Vows” as my full-throttle #1 pick. My only lament was that the release was Australia/New Zealand only, and that the rest of the world had to get creative to procure a copy. 2012 saw the record released to the rest of the planet. However, American record labels being what they are, they had to mess with it. “Vows 2012” is not the same album as “Vows 2011”. Four of the songs were cut and six were added.
Not that the new songs are “bad”… compared to most other artists, they range from passable to quite decent; it’s just that the placement (and REplacement) of these new songs totally destroys the sequence and vibe of the original record, and that was part of what made it so powerful. Never underestimate the power of song order; it’s what takes you on the listening journey. The original album is simply magical, and the impact of most of the songs is severely diminished on the new version. One of the most important transitions on an album; the first thing that determines how people will perceive the work — it’s the transition from Song One to Song Two. On the original album, this was brilliant, and set up the listener for the ride to come. On this version… total let down. Another big point is how you END a record, and the last song on the original, “The Build Up”, was an esoteric, bold statement that solidified in my mind that Kimbra is a legit artist with something to say. This version ends with an 80’s throwback collaboration with the dude from Foster The People. It’s like Kimbra joined The Human League. Not an awful tune, but ultimately disposable.
No, what puts her here for (sort of) the same album she got #1 with last year is a song that, had it appeared on the original version, would have put it on my Desert Island List. In fact, thanks to iTunes playlist creation, I now have my own customized version of “Vows” that does just that. The tune is called “Come Into My Head”, and it is my JAM. I can listen to this tune on repeat for an hour in the car and be just fine. That NEVER happens. It recalls the best seventies horn-section funk with a playful, spacey, P-Funk style twist, and I can’t get enough of it. If you dug the original record, download this tune (and to be fair, the live version of Nina Simone’s “Plain Gold Ring” has a pretty spectacular payoff if you listen long enough, so that one too), and cobble them into the first version for non-stop listening awesomeness.
I sent out the message to my email list that I’m booking my Fall 2012 Tour based on Bites.
The idea is that although folks all over are interested in having me perform a house concert for them, they can’t afford to spring for my gas or my plane ticket. But if they knew that someone else not too far away was ALSO interested, and that the costs would be split up, it would work better for everyone.
So I will update this map regularly (I hope)! If you see a pin, it means that someone in that general vicinity has expressed interest in booking me, and so the chances of booking something else within a 3 hour drive is VERY GOOD.
UPDATE (June 30): Many have mentioned that it’s not easy to figure out what “a 3 hour drive” means when looking at this map, so here it is in a nutshell:
Without zooming in, if you see two “bites” that overlap each other, those gigs are close enough to make happen. If a “bite” is sitting by itself with nothing touching it, it is NOT a definite thing, and could easily disappear if nobody else puts a “bite” up nearby.
(Again, this is all being planned for this fall and early winter – September through early December.)
HOW TO PUT A “BITE” UP THERE:
Just send me an email at sethhoran@yahoo.com — there’s no commitment, and if nobody else in your vicinity bites, I won’t expect you to follow through.
(As well as bites, I’m also getting a lot of “please come play my town” notes. While I always love enthusiasm, as the saying goes: “You can’t live on love”.
So I hope it’s not too harsh-sounding when I say that this is really just for folks who have a room to offer. Thanks for understanding!)
CURRENT BITES
(as of Saturday, June 16th)
BALTIMORE, MD
BOSTON, MA
DALLAS, TX
PHOENIX, AZ
(additional bites as of Monday, June 18th)
ST LOUIS, MO
(additional bites as of Wednesday, June 20th)
BUFFALO, NY
(additional bites as of Thursday, June 21st)
CHICAGO, IL
KALAMAZOO, MI
COLUMBIA, MO
(additional bites as of Saturday, June 23rd)
CASTLE ROCK, CO
CHARLOTTE, NC
(new bites as of Saturday, June 30th)
ROCHESTER, NY
NEWARK, DE
(new bites as of Tuesday, July 3rd)
NEWPORT BEACH, CA
(new bite as of Friday, July 20th)
BERLIN, MD
(new bite as of Thursday, August 16th)
REHOBOTH BEACH, DE
WE ALSO LOSE “BITES” OCCASIONALLY — TO DATE WE HAVE LOST (AND NOT REPLACED):
-ALBUQUERQUE, NM
-RENO, NV
-NEW YORK, NY
-TUCSON, AZ
-EASTON, MD
and, while probably not on the docket for fall, we now have bites overseas!
OXFORD, UK
BRIGHTON, UK
It was 10 years ago today, on March 2, 2002, that I played the first gig of a tour that would end up lasting approximately three and a half years and changing my life forever. I think it’s been long enough now that I can actually talk about it with a sense of humor.
The show was in Atlanta at a club called CJ’s Landing, and it was one of the most important gigs I’ve ever played. Not in a professional sense — it did absolutely nothing to advance my career — but because in the span of one evening, the Universe made sure I had every last remnant of naivety smacked out of me.
I was really excited about playing there, and I had the feeling they were excited about having me, too. The agent had told me I’d be the opener for one of the top drawing acts they booked. Back then I had no qualms about touting my resume, and didn’t see a problem with the club putting “formerly of Vertical Horizon” in all their promo — the agent thought it was a “hot-sounding ticket”, and was very enthusiastic about booking me.
I was pretty excited to play a solo show in a big club, and I showed up to find a staff of friendly people who seemed intent on making the night run smoothly. I was lulled into a dreamy sense of confidence about how my performance would go by the venue’s sound man, who gave me a thorough sound check and did everything I asked him to do… though the look on his face told me clearly that he had no idea how to mix a solo bass player who sings.
I was treated really well by everyone, and served a fantastic meal in the musician’s backstage area. It was here that I met the band I was opening for. They showed up a few at a time, and each of them seemed really nice. They looked like typical rocker-dudes, and nothing seemed unusual about them. All was serene. Until their lead singer arrived.
He stopped me in my tracks as he entered the room and shouted out a greeting to his bandmates. He had what appeared to be a tuxedo bag flung over one shoulder, and it was thick with clothes. He saw me, and came over to introduce himself. I was speechless.
He looked exactly like a young Neil Diamond. It was scary how close his physical appearance matched the erstwhile “Jazz Singer” of yore. He had all the hair; all the mannerisms; all the charisma. Sometimes you meet someone who resembles a celebrity without trying. Sometimes you meet someone who WANTS to look like a celebrity but doesn’t. This guy both resembled Neil and went the extra nine yards to look like a body-double. The realization of what was about to happen dawned on me like a moment from a horror movie.
“I know that look, man,” He smiled. “Didn’t they tell you? We’re [band name censored], man. We play Neil… but with an EDGE. Think like, Neil if he was backed by Van Halen.”
From here, the story deteriorates rapidly.
I stepped on stage as scheduled. The booking agent had been right about the headlining band’s draw; there were were a TON of people present — hundreds. It was a completely filled club.
But I was eaten alive. It’s tough to hit folks with “Something Pretty” when they’re jonesing for “Sweet Caroline” on steroids… There were blank stares, confused and betrayed expressions, occasional “boos”… but mostly indifference… just a bunch of folks smoking, drinking, and waiting, forever in blue jeans.
I don’t know what happened to the sound. It’s true that the acoustics of a large, empty room change dramatically when it is filled with hundreds of people, but it was as though the sound man had completely undone all the work he had so ably handled during my soundcheck. It was as though he was surprised all over again that I was a solo singer with a bass guitar. Every problem we had fixed was back again, and this time there were new issues. Apparently he had used a bad cord on stage somewhere, and had to stop my set to find it and replace it — he could NOT get rid of the feedback that kept ringing every time I approached the microphone, and most importantly, he kept trying to muffle my bass sound as though it would be too loud for ‘the rest of the band’. I sounded awful. The crowd may not have been there to hear me in the first place, but this guy made certain that there was no chance they’d ever want to hear me again. I kept an eye on the clock, and played not one minute longer than I’d been contracted for. Half the room barely noticed I’d finished, and the headlining band was preparing to perform what seemed like only ten minutes later.
As they took the stage, the room erupted with savage force. These people didn’t just cheer; they ROARED. I watched from the side of the room as the lead singer strode out to the microphone in a ridiculous rhinestone encrusted jumpsuit, greeted his emphatically enthusiastic audience and then shouted:
“Give it up one more time for Shawn Whorrin!”
I’ve grown accustomed to the music world butchering my name, but that was the first time it happened, and it made me hate him.
I don’t feel bad about hating him though, because he sucked. It was obvious from the first note that he got the gig because of his looks. He wasn’t tone-deaf, but his voice box just wasn’t built to sound like Diamond’s, tried as he did to imitate the man. He ended up coming off as over-strained and garbled; completely amateurish, much like so many untrained, post-pubescent white dudes who jumped onto the “yarling”-bandwagon in the late 90’s and early 00’s, trying desperately to sound like Scott-Stapp-imitating-Scott-Weiland-imitating-Eddie-Vedder… who, ironically, never actually sang like that in the first place.
But I digress… the room loved him. They hadn’t come for original music; they had come for a Vegas-style revue.
I couldn’t wait to leave, but forced myself to watch their first half hour, trying to make sense of it; to learn something useful. I struggled to maintain some objectivity and decided I’d be better off just splitting before I lost any more self-esteem. I gathered my things and made for the door. It was nearly eleven o’clock, I was sweaty and dejected, and it was POURING rain. Bass on my shoulder, untouched box of CDs under my arm, and $100 in my otherwise empty pocket, I walked the meandering streets of the Buckhead district out to where I’d parked my van.
And it was gone.
I’d been towed, despite the fact that when I’d parked at seven, the curb was packed with cars. It was a Saturday, and the sign at the corner said it was legal to park there on a weekend, but that didn’t change anything. I went back to the club, where the bouncer told me quite matter-of-factly, “Yeah; they’re assholes — that happens all the time.” He provided the name of the yard to look for my van, and got one of his guys to take me there to retrieve it. His guy’s name was Matt. The bouncer told Matt, twice, how to get to the yard. Matt said not to worry, as he’d been there before. Twice.
Matt, as it turned out, was about as sharp as a marble. He got lost… TWICE. After calling the yard, we finally arrived. I was permitted to get my paperwork out of the van, and told that I’d need to go to the police to get a release form before I could have it back. Despite the detailed written directions we were given to get to the police station, Matt managed to get lost again, though he made the return trip to the yard in one pass.
It was by this point 2:30 AM on March 3rd, and in the chaos of the preceding hours, I had completely forgotten to call my host, a local singer/songwriter who had been far too kind in offering to let me stay with her family. My ensuing arrival at their home at about 3 AM during a thunderstorm was awkwardly humiliating, and left me feeling lower than low.
The tow yard charged me $85 to release my vehicle, making my first night on the road look like this:
GIG PAY FOR OPENING FOR NEIL DIAMOND TRIBUTE BAND: $100
CDs SOLD AT GIG TO INAPPROPRIATE, NON-IMPRESSED AUDIENCE: 0
FEE TO RELEASE ILLEGALLY TOWED VEHICLE FROM IMPOUND: $ 85
===============================================================
MONEY LEFT OVER TO BUY GAS & FOOD: $ 15
HOW YOU FEEL SHOWING UP AT YOUR HOST’S HOUSE AT 3 AM Priceless
I don’t know how I managed to pull myself together after this, much less resolve to press on for over forty more months of nearly non-stop touring. But I think I convinced myself that no matter what else happened, things just couldn’t get any worse than that… that I had somehow managed to pack a tour’s worth of misfortune into my very first night.
Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure that must have been how I felt… so I have to amend one of my opening statements: I said that I had every last remnant of naivety smacked out of me. Obviously, there was a little bit left over.
For that, I’m grateful. If I’d decided that it was too hard and packed it in at that point, I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to play for you; the very people who are reading this, and you are all so very, very important to me.
…even if you also happen to be Neil Diamond fans. ;)
Thanks for listening,
-Seth
Seth Horan 