Hi friends, Pete here. I may or may not have promised that I’d represent this year’s Albums of the Year post with dancing Carlton Banks GIFs. Oops…sorry about that. It was mostly intended as a joke, an indictment of the Buzzfeedification of the Internet. But yeah I do love Carlton Banks (fun fact, my brother can dance just like him) so next time? In the interim please accept words about albums & links to songs from those albums that I loved really bad in 2013.
Please enjoy & feel free to disregard the limitations of the volume knob for a few minutes.
Your Singapore Pal,
Pete
20. <The Dodos – Carrier>
I’ve been a Dodos fan since they were known as Dodo Bird & played little clubs around SF as a two piece. How two dudes could blow the roof off a place so thoroughly still impresses me – Meric Long & Logan Kroeber have amazing stage presence, to say the least. Their last few records have been pretty solid but in all honesty they didn’t stick with me. It seemed like they took a few calculated risks that panned out well but nothing that really grabbed my attention. I like the Dodos, so a new record is something I’ll pick up & listen to a handful of times then put on the shelf. Carrier, however, has regained some of the staying power that made 2007’s Visiter one of my favorite records of that year.
>>Recommended Tracks: “The Current” // “Confidence”
**********
19 <Bleeding Rainbow – Yeah Right>
I can’t quite explain why I like this record so much – on the surface it doesn’t feel particularly memorable, but there’s something that kept bringing me back. It’s best two songs probably had a lot to do with that. Just a really solid punk-influenced fuzz rock record with well-crafted atmospheric boy/girl harmonies.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Waking Dream” // “Drift Away”
**********
18. <White Fence – Cyclops Reap>
If you’ve ever wondered what it would’ve sounded like had Syd Barrett wound up squatting in the Haight-Ashbury district post-Pink Floyd, this record is your answer. I can’t even begin to convey just how much has changed in SF since 1971, but viewed through White Fence’s kaleidoscope the city seems like it hasn’t aged a day. This record is more a stumble through the Tenderloin with a guy off his meds than an afternoon trip up to Hippy Hill where the dudes around the drum circle are more interested than talking about their startups than dropping LSD.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Pink Gorilla” // “Chairs in the Dark” **********
17. <The Strokes – Comedown Machine>
In truth, I haven’t really liked a Strokes record this much since “Is This It.” No, this probably isn’t their best record since their now classic debut, but for me it may be the most interesting. From the opening hook of the record – which feels like Gloria Estefan covering “Bootylicious” – they keep it interesting. The Strokes really know now to stay in the sandbox (for better or worse), & it works well here. By the way, how does Julian Casablancas still look like a cherubic man child? Give that dude a skincare show where he shares his moisturizing tips (drink a bunch of whiskey, do a little heroin?).
>>Recommended Tracks: “Chances” // “One Way Trigger”
**********
16. <Deerhunter – Monomania>
Every red-blooded American at some point in their life – however brief – becomes fascinated with the ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ mythology. Live fast, die young, speak your peace & never hold your tongue. Brandon Cox is apparently into his motorcycles & black leather jackets & loud dirty guitars phase. Coming from a dude who has always been shy & awkward & a bit careful, Monomania is a big step & has him finally emerging from his shell to embrace his inner rock star.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Monomania” // “Pensacola”
**********
15. <Diarrhea Planet – I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams>
They may have arguably the most unfortunate band name in music, but that’s by design. Tastelessness is a staple of punk, & there’s definitely something about this record. It’s got some of the same qualities that made albums like Weezer’s blue album & Green Day’s “Dookie” so irresistible to me as a kid. This is a record my 14 year old self would’ve listened to on the way to school every single day for six months. It’s got all the aggro windmill guitars & amp jumping glory a kid could ever want. I can’t verify this scientifically but I’d estimate that Diarrhea Planet has no fewer than five guitarists. It’s not all aggro – these guys know when to pull back & shout an anthem. It’s just that they can’t resist one (or two) over-the-top solos every song. All the right punk influences are here, & you’re likely to run out of fingers counting.
>>Recommended Tracks: “The Sound of My Ceiling Fan” // “Separations”
**********
14. <Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Daze>
Move over, Rocky Balboa statue & Liberty Bell – Kurt Vile has ascended to the throne in Philly. Were it not for the untimely demise of Jay Reatard (who more encompasses the classic ‘double middle fingers’ Philly attitude in my book), Vile might never have become the godfather of such a vibrant music scene. But his aw shucks-yness is good for the city that loves you back. He seems like the kind of guy everyone wants to hang out with. Though Vile doesn’t, as they say, touch the stuff, he’s just like your big brother’s stoner friend in high school who managed to be arguably the most popular dude in school by cracking wise & generally playing it cool, getting along with jocks & nerds alike. Just by listening to Kurt Vile, you find yourself actively rooting for him somehow. I can’t think of another musician who makes you feel like that these days. We’d all love to hang out with the guy, & I like to think that, were we to all have the chance to meet him, he’d be down to chill for a few.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Wakin on a Pretty Day” // “KV Crimes”
**********
13. <Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin>
A friend of ours recently confessed to us that she used to have a huge crush on this scrappy tattooed dude who spent a good chunk of every day perched at the coffee shop around the corner from her place in the Lower Haight. This was back in the mid-00s, but the crux of the story is that she later came to find out that this dude was John Dwyer. Lower Haight has always made a lot of sense as Dwyer’s scene – it has traditionally had the right kind of grit & is away from the buzz of the Mission while being close enough to walk to it. But Floating Coffin is not Of the Haight. It sounds more like it oozed from the pipes in the creepy subterranean music cave beneath the Li Po Lounge, the amicable but terrified bar staff occasionally lowering sacrificial Mai Tais to the whooping monster living below the faint din of Chinatown, consistently drawing up an increasingly scratched & slashed dumbwaiter. This record is a gnashing, snarling beast born & bred in – & not yet priced out of – San Francisco.
>>Recommended Tracks: “I Come From the Mountain” // “Strawberries 1 + 2”
**********
12. <Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels>
When El-P & Killer Mike get together, you know you’re gonna get something amazing. In fact, my biggest complaint about this record is that it isn’t on Rdio (meaning anytime I want to listen to it, I head to youtube & stream the full record there). When you put these guys on a track together you’re going to wind up with something that sounds like hyperactive, irreverent 808 soul getting knifed in an alley. Then you can expect that bloody knife to wind up stuck through an anti-corporate screed – in Buzzfeed-style listicle form – on the police station door around the corner. Run the Jewels is the kind of record that can make a sample of a dolphin squeaking seem menacing, & yes, the good humor truck has been outfitted with 24” rims & instructed to just circle the block for an hour. I’ve never smiled through so many threats to bodily harm in my life. It’s a fun menace of a record.
>>Recommended Tracks: “36 Inch Chain” // “Job Well Done”
**********
11. <HAIM – Days Are Gone>
It’s gonna sound totally backhanded for me to say this, but HAIM has a very Wilson Phillips-meets-Shania Twain vibe going on here. This is a sleek, hooky record that you won’t be able to stop humming even if you tried. But why fight it? It’s an inevitably dorky thing to start a family band & tour the countryside, but they’re not sponsored by Disney (yet?) so don’t label this a guilty pleasure record. The Haim sisters have been playing music together since they were little kids (just like Hanson — OOOH BURN), so this is not the work of some big name record producer & a bunch of career session musicians. Show a little respect. Honestly, it’s a really, really good record.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Falling” // “The Wire”
**********
10. <Sonny & the Sunsets – Antenna to the Afterworld>
I’ve never really loved a Sonny & the Sunsets record before this one. What changed? I’m not sure but it may be (at least in part) some sort of a nostalgic trigger on account of our move to the clear other side of the world. The other ones were also really boring in comparison. Antenna to the Afterworld is a celebration of the weird Mission-y-ness of San Francisco circa about the mid-2000s. I distinctly remember walking down to the Mission the first time from my big, dirty victorian off Divisadero to meet a friend at Muddy Waters. The coffee was terrible & the place was full of flies, but there were a ton of weirdos everywhere. I mean that in the best way possible – that was why I moved to SF, & seeing a confluence of strange people dressed interestingly was glorious to behold. This is Sonny’s San Francisco – no gleam, just weird dirty daydreams. In a way he’s SF’s Jonathan Richman, & the Sunsets its Modern Lovers. This record is an irresistible sloppy mess of a portrait of life in the rent controlled flats & artist lofts of SF’s veteran musicians, poets, freaks & burners. It’s weird freak folk with bounce, ever trailed by a cloud of playa dust (but not at all in a “clown-funk band” kinda way). A super fun record.
>>Recommended Tracks: “mutilator” // “path of orbit”
**********
9. <No Joy – Wait to Pleasure>
This Montreal two-piece has managed to craft the perfect blend of postpunk & shoegaze (postgaze?) in music right now. Wait to Pleasure has got drive, drone, reverb & a pulse that constantly hovers between “impending wolf attack” & “the boat is slowly sinking & there’s no land in sight.” In fact, my biggest problem with No Joy is that they aren’t putting out at least one record per year.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Hare Tarot Lies” // “Lizard Kids”
**********
8. <Daft Punk – Random Access Memories>
From the first moment Daft Punk unleashed “Get Lucky” on the world, it was obvious that this was to be a boon to the wedding DJ industry. Let’s face it – the song is destined to be paired with “We Are Family” for years to come. And though you think its a side effect of Random Access Memories that your middle-aged aunt has taken to using it as the soundtrack to downing a few glasses of wine & dancing around the kitchen, that’s actually the intention. Everything that can be said about this record already has been, but the fact remains that it’s a brilliant future space disco opus. If Daft Punk’s ultimate goal was to become the house band on an interstellar cruise ship headed for the outer bands of the Milky Way, you best buy a ticket now before your aunt snags the last one.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Instant Crush (feat. Julian Casablancas)” // “Lose Yourself to Dance (feat. Pharrell Williams)”
**********
7. <Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City>
Vampire Weekend has inspired more than a few unconscious, dramatic eyerolls from me. And yes, that happened at times here (for example, at the end of “Finger Back”? Ughhhhhhhkfhkdshfkjds). But that caricature of band as running soundtrack to stylish urban hipsters sipping artisan cocktails over a plate of charcuterie is 2-dimensional & a bit unfair. Although they’ve been pigeonholed as the running soundtrack to Wes Andreson’s oeuvre, Vampire Weekend are far more dynamic than the precious, gleaming urban prepster image they tend to generate & with each successive album the grit shines through a bit more. Personally, I can’t wait for the cracks to become more pronounced – by about album #5 these guys will suddenly get REAL about life’s big problems, & that’s gonna be an exciting moment for music. As it stands, this record is an adventurous musical journey – there honestly isn’t one song that isn’t great on it, even though it’s got a bit more sheen than I’d like at times.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Ya Hey” // “Obvious Bicycle”
**********
6. <Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You>
Are people starting to feel weird about loving everything that Neko Case does? Because I kind of am. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve got a weird sense of nepotism about her. Am I a fanboy? What does it all mean? With Neko Case, sometimes you need to take a step back for a second & realize that you like like her so much because every record she makes somehow manages to get more strange, mystical, challenging & personal than the previous one. Though having seen her live a bunch of times, there’s one thing that confuses me. The crowd at Neko Case shows has slowly grown to a higher percentage of women over time. When I saw her just before Fox Confessor Brings The Flood came out (at Bimbo’s 365 in North Beach), the show was probably like 55% women to 45% men. Not 5 years later (Middle Cyclone tour at The Warfield) it was about 85% to 15%. What happened? Was there something about that record that tipped the scales? Genuinely confused. But in any event, this is a brilliant record as usual.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Night Still Comes” // “Where Did I Leave That Fire”
**********
5. <Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II>
Man, we’ve got the blown out lo-fi White Album thing going on here, big time. Maybe I’m a sucker for this stuff (yes, yes I am) but I’m really digging the nouveau psych rock revival that’s been happening these past few years, & Unknown Mortal Orchestra manages to fall on the noodly guitarwork side of that particular mountain. But there’s menace in some of these hooks, & moments that feel downright sinister, like hungry demons gnawing just below your kneecaps.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Swim & Sleep (Like a Shark)” // “Faded in the Morning”
**********
4. <Phosphorescent – Muchacho>
I’ve loved Phosphorescent for the better part of a decade & never missed a show of theirs the entire time I lived in the Bay Area, so it’s really amazing witnessing Mathew Houck’s evolution from a regular dude crafting overwrought southern backyard anguish pop to country rock drifter. But this isn’t Willie Nelson’s tour bus slowly-but-surely driving past rolling countryside stuff. Much of what is represented here is rooted in an extended stay in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, so it’s more like Dylan & The Band’s “Goin’ to Acapulco” (or easterly shades of that). Yes, his heart is still wrapped in kudzu (what is that? why, it’s the invasive Japanese vine currently choking the vast majority of the forgotten American southeast) but Houck isn’t fighting it or surrendering to it. He’s tamed it, groomed it, become one with it & used it to his advantage. Muchacho is a remarkably mature, fun record.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Ride On / Right On” // “Muchacho’s Tune”
**********
3. <Waxahatchee – Cerulean Salt>
It’s easy to blithely point at artists these days & slap some sort of 90s revivalist label on them, but just because something sounds plugged in & fuzzed out, yet occasionally muted, does not a grunge-influence make. This is a sort of DIY Philly punk/K Records Olympia riot grrrl hybrid – think Kathleen Hanna meets Mirah – but often flashing the kind of magnetism The Breeders flexed in their prime. This record is a lazy river that occasionally rushes through rapids, spinning off into wild whirlpools & veering into mucky swampy cul-de-sacs full of unknown bottom dwellers that brush up against your legs as you’re flung into them. It alternates between pleasant floating, dangerous rocks & an uneasy feeling that you could be dragged to the bottom at any moment. You brought a cooler full of beer, but it sank awhile back. You’re still a little drunk, but your senses are heightened because you may drown here today. Intense, yeah. It’s a bit of a slow build but once Cerulean Salt gets its hooks into you, you’re gonna sink with it. Time & again this record left me wanting to hear more (repeat back-to-back listens is tough to achieve), & yes, I’m stoked to see what she’ll do next.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Misery Over Dispute” // “Peace and Quiet”
**********
2. <Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold>
Like a mousetrap for the Slanted & Enchanted among us. Light Up Gold had some massive staying power for me throughout the year. Oddly enough, I was intensely drawn to it until we up & moved to Singapore. There’s something about this record that doesn’t mesh as well with life in Southeast Asia. Parquet Courts are basically a bunch of smart, stoned slackers with liberal arts degrees laying down hooks over clever wordplay & capturing it all with lo-fi recording methods. Ahh, I figured it out. Clever wordplay & sarcastic overtones. Those are both things that don’t really translate too well here. If you’re into classic college radio rock of the early/mid 90s you can’t really go wrong here.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Stoned and Starving” // “Borrowed Time”
**********
1. <Arcade Fire – Reflektor>
OK, here we go: No matter what you say in favor of Reflektor there will be passionate detractors speaking against it. Ditto vice versa. Everyone has a strong opinion here, & that’s really what we need to remember. In fact, even the ‘Meh’ crowd seem to somehow be *passionately meh* about this record. I guess you could say the same for Kanye’s effort this year (everybody’s talking about it…I’m not a fan, but then again I’ve never been big on him). As for Reflektor, why would anyone expect a band at the peak of its creative capacity do anything but make a left turn here? They won a Grammy for chrissakes. It makes perfect sense, & while it may not cater to the whims of Arcade Fire’s fan base one thing is for certain; they have never been more interesting as a band. AF’s embrace of more dancey grooves can feel at times like an awkward embrace. Like at the beginning of “Normal Person” when Win Butler mutters “do you like rock n’ roll music? Cuz I’m not sure if I do” (ugh, high shoulders). This is a record that should be rewarded for its adventurousness. After all, surely there must’ve been a cadre of music critics panning “London Calling” for being too scattershot back in 1979. “Punk & dance can’t mix!” they cried, “it’s like oil & water!” Nonsense, stop focusing on the more off-putting elements & in time they will draw you in.
>>Recommended Tracks: “Joan of Arc” // “It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)”
**********
tigerattacktwins 