Jeff Chang's
top 10 (in alphabetical order)
• Antibalas
Afrobeat Orchestra, Che Che Cole 12-inch (Daptone)
• Erykah
Badu, Worldwide Underground (Motown)
• Dead Prez,
RGB: Revolutionary but Gangster (unreleased)
• Egyptian:
Greensleeves Rhythm Album #40 (Greensleeves)
• Elephant
Man, Good 2 Go (VP/Atlantic)
• Missy
Elliott, Pass That Dutch 12-inch (Elektra)
• John Lennon,
Lennon Legend DVD (Capitol)
• Lifesavas,
Spirit in Stone (Quannum Projects)
• Lyrics
Born, Later That Day ... (Quannum Projects)
• Outkast,
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (LaFace/Arista)
Peter Nicholson's
even 10 replays
1. John
Arnold, Neighborhood Science (Ubiquity)
1. Luke
Vibert and his Roland TB-303 acid trip back to '91 at Mezzanine
1. Matthew
Dear, Leave Luck to Heaven (Spectral Sound)
1. Ayro's
live P.A. at Milk's Fresco
1. Ricardo
Villalobos, Alcachofa (Playhouse)
1. Richard
Devine, Asect: Dsect (Asphodel)
1. Lyrics
Born, Later That Day... (Quannum Projects)
1. Manitoba's
masked madness at Bottom of the Hill
1. Juana
Molina, Segundo (Domino)
1. Broker/Dealer,
Initial Public Offering (Asphodel)
Victor Krummenacher's
top 10
10. Miscellaneous
stuff in the CD player in no particular order: Pell Mell, Neu, the
Blue Orchids, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Wire, the Soft Machine,
Pink Floyd, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steve Hillage, Nino Rota,
Roland Kirk, the Red Krayola, Jaques Brel, the Kinks, David Bowie,
Scott Walker, Trojan Dub reissues, Cassandra Wilson
9. Jayhawks,
Rainy Day Music (American) Recorded almost too perfectly
by Ethan Johns. Some of it's pretty fucking sappy, but the good songs
are great and flawlessly delivered. Warning: includes a cameo by a
former Eagle on banjo.
8. Jimmy
Webb Pretty much anything. I spent some time in 2003 rediscovering
Jimmy Webb, a master of songwriting. From "MacArthur Park"
to "Do What You Gotta Do." Genius at work.
7. Bert
Jansch The Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar. I've been buying up
his reissues this year. Coming out of Britain as part of the mid-'60s
folk scene and known as a member of jazz-folk hybrid Pentangle, he's
still at it, hanging out with the likes of Johnny Marr and Bernard
Butler. He's a visionary who just celebrated his 60th birthday. Most
of his catalog has been reissued and is well worth checking out. Later
recordings Crimson Moon (Castle Music, 2000) and Edge of
a Dream (Sanctuary, 2002) are both excellent.
6. Nick
Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nocturama (Anti-) Not the best
Nick Cave record, but better than No More Shall We Part, and
better than most records I heard this year. "Dead Man in My Bed"
harks back to Birthday Party obnoxiousness in the best of ways.
5. Neil
Young, Greendale (Reprise) The anti-Pro Tools release of
the year, recorded live to a two-inch 16-track machine. Flawed (unlike
the Jayhawks; see above) and lovable conceptual weirdness about a
mythical coastal town called Greendale (he could have just called
the thing Pescadero), this album is far better than Young's
last couple of records and almost redeems him from the wretched
"Let's Roll." All mistakes are intentional ... would that
others had the guts to leave theirs in.
4. John
Fahey, Red Cross (Revenant) His final recording. If you
don't know the late John Fahey, you should. A man who could move emotional
mountains with an acoustic guitar. This final recording is haunting
in its depth and power. Beautiful and hard to listen to.
3. Richard
Thompson, The Old Kit Bag (Cooking Vinyl) The promotional
line "the best Richard Thompson release since Shoot out the
Lights" has kind of lost its punch, but this one truly
is. Stripped down to just the man himself with bass and drums, there
are no "big concepts" or major-label politics at work on
this release – just great songs, great playing, and transparent
(this is a good thing) production work by John Chelew.
2. Carla
Bozulich, Red Headed Stranger (DiCristina Stair Builders)
I've already raved in print about Carla's great interpretation of
Willie's classic outlaw record. It's an awesome piece of work. She
does an amazing version of Marianne Faithfull's "Times Square"
as well.
1. Willie
Nelson, Crazy: The Demo Sessions (Sugar Hill) Eighteen
demos cut from 1960 to '66. The man's gift for succinct communication
in two minutes or less is nothing less than astounding, and in these
stripped-down recordings you get the essence of his remarkable abilities
in direct, wrenching performances. And these were basically just writing
demos used to sell the songs to other artists. Potent, high-proof
stuff meant for sipping. (P.S. I saw Willie with Camper Van Beethoven-Cracker
drummer Frank Funaro at SXSW in February. He took the stage at midnight,
after an oddly rambling set by Lucinda Williams. At the age of 70,
the guy ran onstage, high-fiving the front row of the audience. After
two-plus hours, with the bar shut down, he was still going strong.
He put us relative youngsters to bed.)
Lynn Rapoport's
top 10 songs
• Julie
Doiron, "Snowfalls in November," from Julie Doiron/Okkervil
River (Acuarela)
• Iron and
Wine, "Jesus the Mexican Boy," from The Sea and the Rhythm
(Sub Pop)
• Alasdair
Roberts, "The Whole House Is Singing," from Farewell
Sorrow (Drag City)
• Shins,
"Mine's Not a High Horse," from Chutes too Narrow
(Sub Pop)
• Sophie
Drinker Music Project, "A Plum Heart," from Three Songs
(Inconvenient)
• Songs:
Ohia, "Farewell Transmission," from Magnolia Electric
Co. (Secretly Canadian)
• Anna Oxygen,
"Spectacle," from All Your Faded Things (Cold Crush)
• Cat Power,
"Good Woman," from You Are Free (Matador)
• James
William Hindle, "You Will Be Safe," from Prospect Park
(Badman)
• Quails,
"The War Will Be over When We Want It," from The Song
Is Love (Mr. Lady)
Lee Hildebrand's
top 10 (in alphabetical order)
• Avi Bortnick,
Clean Slate (axb)
• Danny
Caron, Good Hands (Danny Caron)
• Joey DeFrancesco
featuring Joe Doggs, Falling in Love Again (Concord
Jazz)
• Benny
Green and Russell Malone, Jazz at the Bistro (Telarc)
• Red Holloway,
Coast to Coast (Milestone)
• Rodney
Jones, Soul Manifesto Live! (Savant)
• Jenna
Mammina and André Bush, Art of the Duo (Mamma Grace)
• Branford
Marsalis Quartet, Romare Bearden Revealed (Marsalis Music/Rounder)
• Pat Martino,
Think Tank (Blue Note)
• Martial
Solal, NY-1: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note)
Josh Wilson's
top 10 music thangz
• Jolie
Holland, Catalpa (Anti-) It's a beautiful album, and Holland
is a uniquely soulful singer and evocative lyricist.
• Mission
Creek Music Festival Everything I want in a local music fest:
genre-straddling, affordable, unpretentious, and stellar bookings.
• Robert
Wyatt, Solar Flares Burn for You (Cuneiform) Genius ex-Soft
Machine drummer gone solo vocalist releases a collection of reissued
and hard-to-find material.
• Tina
Age 13 reunion, Eagle Tavern, November Tromping, stomping, bearded,
fuzzy Mission rawk old-timers bring the thrash, mosh, and punky stoner
jam.
• Television,
Fillmore, Sept. 21 Simply one of the greatest guitar bands of
all time.
• Pink
and Brown, Shame Fantasy II (Load) Spazzy, incomprehensible,
and riveting noise, bracing like a rusty girder through your skull.
• Dead
Meadow, Shivering King and Others (Matador) Mythic psychedelic
stoner metal, as perfect as it gets.
• Bardo
Pond, On the Ellipse (ATP) You are a lotus blossom adrift
on a sea of milk and prefer your guitars with about 110 floors of
reverb.
• Red
Bennies, Li Po Lounge, spring Pure garage rock 'n' soul explosion
from SLC, Utah. An in-the-red teenage cataclysm with dynamic guitar
chords and lots of gravelly crunch.
• Max
Roach and Abdullah Ibrahim, Streams of Consciousness (Piadrum)
Two giants of jazz dish out emotional, euphonious, and creatively
searching drum and piano duets. |
last month's noise.
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