1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest :: Gets better with every listen.
2. Mos Def – The Estatic :: Really glad he’s back, the last two have been phoned in. This one is solid.
3. Phish – Joy :: My favorite band is back together, and that makes me happy. They could have had 4′33″ on here and I would have listened intently.
4. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Palivion :: I couldn’t stand this when I first listened. Saw them at Bonnaroo, thought they were still bad. After some encouragement from Lincoln, I listened again. It is actually really really good.
5. Passion Pit – Manners :: Fun.
6. The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You :: You can play this for every member of your family, and they’ll love it. Even Grandma.
7. Beirut – March of the Zapotec EP & Realpeople – Holland EP (the Holland EP is better) :: This kid makes me jealous of his talent. The ethnomusicologist in me loves the Oaxaca inspired EP. The ears like the Holland EP better.
8. Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears – Tell ‘Em What Your Name is! :: Saw them at Bumbershoot. Sweet jesus, I was sold. Reminds me a lot of Buddy Miles.
9. Built to Spill – There is no Enemy :: Don’t believe they can make a bad album.
10. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic :: Different. Saw them at Marymoor this summer. Wayne started the show by climbing out of a … nevermind, don’t want to ruin it.
11. Wilco – (the album) :: Looking forward to getting old with Wilco.
12. The XX (self titled) :: What’s a VCR?
13. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You :: She is genuinely funny, and can write a really good pop song. However, usually requires headphones.
14. Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years :: The Welsh version of the Flaming Lips are great. See them live if you can.
15. Jay – Z – The Blueprint 3 :: But really, only ‘Empire State of Mind’. The rest of the album is kind of dull.

My favorite list of the decade is coming.

Santigold:
I almost bought this a couple times when i saw it at the top of the best seller list on iTunes. Apparently the 30 sec samples didn’t sell me the way her live show . After seeing her recently, I immediately came home and bought the album. This is an album for the summer. It’s loud, obnoxious (sometimes), there are some cool dub sections, and it’s catchy. Sometimes you just need to listen to obnoxious catchy music. This is new territory for my ears, and they’re reporting back good things.

Mos Def
The Estatic
I didn’t listen to hip-hop until the summer of 2004. I feel bad about this. While I don’t regret any music I listened to before that (except that Right Said Fred single I purchased when I was 10), I think I could have dabbled a little bit while in music school. Two of the first albums I bought were Mos Def’s Black on Both Sides and his collaboration with Talib Kweli Black Star. I listened to these two albums a lot that summer. I’ve grabbed every Mos Def album that has come out since that summer, and I’ve been disappointed every time. I’m glad I didn’t give up, because this one is killer. Good rhymes, great production by Madlib and others, and nice guest appearances. I need some more time with it, but I can already tell that this one is a keeper.

still in the bin …Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III; Ray Charles Modern Sounds in Country and Western; Bright Eyes, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn

• R.E.M. :: Automatic for the People / Monster – my first favorite albums
• Phish :: a Live One / Billy Breathes – my first musical obsession
• Miles Davis :: Kind of Blue / Sketches of Spain – my 1982 datsun in hs had these two albums on a tape, listened every day for 3 months … two classics
• Miles Davis :: Live Evil – Michael Henderson’s bass is unreal on this … incredible playing by Miles
• Cannonball Adderley :: Somethin’ Else – perfection
• John Coltrane :: Blue Train – Lee Morgan’s solo on Blue Train is unreal
• John Coltrane :: a Love Supreme – the absolute best expression of spirituality I’ve ever heard/seen/felt
• MMW :: Combustication – didn’t know jazz was going to progress to modern times until I heard this
• Radiohead :: Amnesiac – late to the Radiohead train, this was my first. I’m obsessed now.
• Wilco :: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – a band I’m looking forward to getting old with
• Stravinsky :: The Rite of Spring – Listened to this obsessively in the spring of 03 … reminds me of the strange tension and lies that brought us to an ill conceived/illegal war.
• Mahler :: Das Lied Von Der Erde – Nobody ends a symphony like Mahler. The end of the final movement is breathtaking. I stop whatever I’m doing now and stare at the wall when I hear this.
• Bartok :: Symphony for Orchestra – intensity
• Black Star :: Black Star – my first introduction to hip hop …
• Joni Mitchell :: Blue – grew up with this album. This album defines beauty and the disappointments of youth.
• Van Morrison :: Moondance – the other album I grew up with. a classic
• the Beatles :: Rubber Soul – My first Beatles album. Any self respecting person ought to remember the first time they heard the Beatles.
• Clifford Brown :: with Strings – he recorded this at 24, just a year before he died. He played it with the maturity of a grown adult … a shame.
• Lee Morgan :: Sidewinder – Lee Morgan has the technique of a high flying gymnast.
• Flaming Lips :: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots – A modern classic
• The Roots :: Things Fall Apart – I had no idea hip hop could sound like this before I heard it.
• Elliot Smith :: xo – I remember walking around Fremont smoking after work to stay warm while I waited for the bus to get home in the cold. This was the soundtrack.

I grabbed a copy of this at work the other day and I listened to it for about two weeks straight. I listened to it with the kind of obsession reserved for only select bands. I listened to it in my car, while eating dinner, at work, on the iPod on the bus. It’s a simple piece of work, when it comes down to it. Female songwriter with a killer band playing interesting instruments, interesting progressions with great musicianship; you’ve heard that before, right? Not this band, you haven’t heard a band that sounds like this before, I guarantee. Thao Nguyen has the kind of voice that you remember. It’s not pitch perfect, nor is it sweet like so many singers on the radio. But it’s totally 100% honest. The lyrics are funny without being cheesy. I adore her voice.

“I am all in a ball,
In your front yard,
I have this bag of hammers,
and I won’t ask you to come in,
cause I have sold everything”

The band … gawd damn, these guys are good. There are some heavy hitters on the album, that’s for sure. Seattle organist Wayne Horvitz, indie rock queen Laura Veirs, Tucker Martine. The grooves are in the pocket, but not stiff. The band plays with confidence and intensity. There are great little guitar lines in the background that pop and fizzle, occasionally meeting up with the piano/organ. Cool horn lines come in to cover the chorus. Plus, the band knows when to say when and sometimes provides a little silence in the breaks. Clapping, snapping, tongue in cheek noises (literally, not figuratively), all give the album the sprinkles on the sundae.

“I will keep my station wagon stationary,
and I will learn to juggle all the things we carry,
Must be hard on your bodyguards,
when you charge at icicles”

As an avid reader of Tape-Op magazine, I was glad to see that they recorded a portion of the album at Jackpot! studios in Portland with Larry Crane. Portland is a lucky town.

“Let’s go home and eat sweet things,
throw our arms across our eyes
they are angry like motorcycles,
tuck your chin and ride”

Oh ya, the beginning of the song Geography reminds me of Norah Jones. Then Thao’s voice comes in and I breathe a sigh of relief. Thao’s an IPA (hoppy and interesting), while Norah is more of a Lager (simpler and domestic).

Don’t steal this record, buy it.

p.s. Please come back to Seattle soon.

Epic is hopefully wishing (through extensive marketing campaigns) that this summer is dominated by another “Float On”. Whether or not that’s true, is hard to tell. The album contains familiar Modest Mouse themes; the ocean, fuck-you, death, etc… Typical, I am holier-than-thou screaming indie bullshit, Isaac Brock.

Nonetheless, it’d be quite a accomplishment to top 2004’s Good News for People Who Like Bad News. This album might just have the recipe to do that. As a latecomer to the band, I was introduced to them on the last one. I heard it everywhere I went for a couple months. When I finally broke down and purchased it, it became the soundtrack to a memorable summer. By the fall, it had worn dangerously thin on many peoples ears. The new album, has a long name, some good hooks, and a familiar sound.

I bet its hard to feel tortured soul when you’re a on a major label and have a giant recording budget. Keep on keepin on…