elephantstone festive forty-five for 2012

e-stone · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:30 pm

a very good year that found me listening to less "new" music and enjoying my back catalog even more. i am turning 40 this year so i guess this shift was coming....

1. Father John Misty - Fear Fun
2. Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Jim James - New Multitudes - really surprised more here didn't dig this one
3. Grizzly Bear - Shields
4. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
5. Justin Townes Earle - Nothing's Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now
6. Damien Jurado - Maraqopa
7. Tame Impala - Lonerism
8. Richard Hawley - Standing At The Sky's Edge
9. Cat Power - Sun
10. Shearwater - Animal Joy

11. The Tallest Man On Earth - There's No Leaving Now
12. Calexico - Algiers
13. Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits
14. Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls

15. Orcas - S/T - i threw a rec out for this in another thread, but once again...a great atmospheric chill album featuring Benoît Pioulard. if you know who he is, you will want to hear this album

16. Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again - i feel a little silly having this one so high, but damn if i didn't return to this album time after time and enjoy the hell out of it. great Astral Weeks vibe to this one

17. Sigur Rós - Valtari

18. The Staves - Dead & Born & Grown - i tried with First Aid Kit, but ultimately i think i just enjoy the English folk vs. the country/americana (via sweden?) folk. pristine harmonies. plus they just seemed so genuinely honored and amazed to be playing Red Rocks when i saw them open for Bon Iver last spring.

19. Mark Lanegan - Blues Funeral
20. Will Johnson - Scorpion

21. Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light
22. Howlin Rain - The Russian Wilds
23. Diiv - Oshin

24. Lightships - Electric Cables - fans of Teenage Fanclub are doing themselves a great disservice if they are sleeping on this one

25. The Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound - Manzanita - fourth album of excellent, spacey, groove-laden psychedelic fuzz. this one has some more song-based tunes compared to their previous extendo-jam excursions...like this beauty of a song:

26. Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet On Sky
27. Tindersticks - The Something Rain

28. James Yorkston - I Was A Cat From A Book - i told you i liked my english folk. album after album, this guy continues to impress and remain criminally unknown

29. The Raveonettes - Observator

30. Daniel Martin Moore & Joan Shelley - Farthest Field - ok, i guess i like trad folk too. gorgeous album of duets. sunday morning music

31. Ebo Taylor - Appia Kwa Bridge - a couple really choice afrobeat re-issues this year, but this is the only *new* album i could really get into (not counting antibalas here). this cat still grooves at close to 80 years old

32. Alina Hardin - S/T - buds with Alela Diane (who?) and that crew of NorCal hippies that i love so much. basically, more folk of the cali/laurel canyon kind...move on

33. Horse Feathers - Cynic's New Year
34. Sun Kil Moon - Among the Leaves
35. Antibalas - S/T
36. The xx - Coexist
37. Ben Sollee - Half Made Man
38. M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion
39. Lord Huron - Lonesome Dreams

40. Young Magic - Melt - odd album that i keep going back to listen to one last time before i'm sure i will delete it, but i end up not deleting. i don't even know how i stumbled upon this record. like Yeasayer maybe except that i fucking hate Yeasayer

41. The Shins - Port Of Morrow
42. The Wedding Present - Valentina
43. Sleepy Sun - Spine Hits - dissapointment. this band misses Rachel Fannan in a BIG way
44. The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know
45. The Maldives - Muscle For The Wing

i'm going to try to post up an EP and Comps/Reissues later.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:17 pm

Cool. We have a decent amount of overlap this time around.

I kept almost taking the plunge with that Father John Misty album but ended up never really giving it a chance. Maybe because of the Fleet Foxes connection and some remnants of their sound which I'd gotten pretty bored with. I do still want to check it out though.

I like the sound of that Orcas track.

jsh · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:19 pm

Great list. Some things I agree and disagree with. Checking out that Orcas now on your Benoit rec.

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

e-stone Wrote:

2. Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Jim James - New Multitudes - really surprised more here didn't dig this one
24. Lightships - Electric Cables - fans of Teenage Fanclub are doing themselves a great disservice if they are sleeping on this one
31. Ebo Taylor - Appia Kwa Bridge - a couple really choice afrobeat re-issues this year, but this is the only *new* album i could really get into (not counting antibalas here). this cat still grooves at close to 80 years old

As much as I'm a Farrar fanboy, I haven't much cared for any of his colloborations of recent years including this one. It pretty much bores me. I've been meaning to revisit it though. I should give that Lightships more listens too but my initial reaction was that it was pretty mellow but without all the beautiful harmonizing of the more mellow TF stuff if I'm remembering it correctly.

Did you hear Toumani Diabate's colloboration with Arnaldo Antunes & Edgard Scandurra? That's the only Africa-related (awkward phrasing but it's a album that I heard and liked from 2012.

Arnaldo Antunes, Edgard Scandurra & Toumani Diabate - A Curva Da Cintura

Afropop.com Wrote:

A Curva Da Cintura is a delicate gem of an album resulting from the collaboration of Brazilian musicians Arnaldo Antunes and Edgard Scandurra with the Malian kora legend Toumani Diabate. Initially born out of a festival performance that paired the avant-pop inclinations of Antunes with Diabate’s searing virtuosity, Curva is a set of songs written by Antunes and Scandurra, brought to life at Diabate’s studio in Mali, and released on ground breaking Brazilian/English label Mais um Discos.

Recorded primarily on electric/acoustic guitars and koras, Curva offers a listening experience that is subtle and yet remarkably rich, full of complexly layered arrangements that reveal more of their details with every listen. Many of these songs only give up their sweetness with effort, as the intricate structures and complex chords tangle with Arnaldo’s dead-pan vocals to create a peculiar, yet ultimately thrilling flavor of pop music. Focusing on a handful of primarily acoustic instruments allows for an intimate style of recording, one in which the sonic field is small and uncluttered, the backbones of the songs emerge from the simple interplay of one or two acoustic guitars. This feeling is maintained even when the guitar parts that form these backbones are draped in overdubs- the percussive sound of fingers plucking strings makes up a crucial part of the album’s soundscape, effortlessly replacing the absent rhythm section.

The vocals share the same sonic space, generating a similar feel of proximity to the listener. While they aren’t quite a whisper, they hardly have the kind of projection necessary to cut through a full band. This is amplified by the unique vocal style employed by Arnaldo throughout the album, a sort of recitational, almost chant-like delivery that falls squarely in-between singing and speaking, barely (and yet clearly) tonal in its movement.

This isn’t to suggest that the album is entirely laid back, and its often quiet intimacy doesn’t preclude a driving, psychedelic intensity that surfaces from time to time. This versatility is primarily due to the fascinating way that the electric guitars used in the album were recorded. Instead of a full-bodied tone that would unduly take up space, these guitars are thin, able to dance with and through their acoustic backdrops, harmonize in a way that can recall the ornamented highlights of 70’s country-rock, or sliding like an electrified cousin of the country blues.

Around all of this, the koras of Toumani and Sidiki (his son, who also plays on the album) cut and bite, nipping around the spaces of a melody or rolling out a distinctively Malian line over the Brazilian’s guitars. Playing his kora through distortion and a wah-wah peddle, the young Sidiki calls forth a rare sense of threat and presence from the often placid instrument. In his hands, the kora snarls its way through the heart of the track, pulling towards the vital center of songs in which it might easily have skipped around the edges. Of course the Malian camp provides more than just extra tonal color- several tracks are built around a crucial violin or vocal part, and at least one (“Kaira”) is a slow, dreamy drone built entirely around Toumani’s mastery of the kora. Taken as a whole, it is a highly impressive and greatly rewarding listen.

I like all of this video but if you want to jump more to what the finished song sounds like, that starts around the 3:20 mark.

For anyone I turned on to Tribalistas, Arnaldo Antunes was in that band too.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:00 pm

Oh hey I want to here that. Toumani Diabate is awesome.

That sounds pretty cool.

seafoam · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 5:09 pm

I dunno, that Lightships is giving me a Clientele vibe, which is alright with me. I'm going to have to seek further into that one.

I will try Orcas again. Never quite reels me in though.

After a few tries Father John Misty came on to me. It will be in my end of year list. One of those albums where I just had random songs playing while cooking and it came up and perked my ears. So, since then I paid the album more attention.

e-stone · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:24 pm

Drinky Wrote:

I kept almost taking the plunge with that Father John Misty album but ended up never really giving it a chance. Maybe because of the Fleet Foxes connection and some remnants of their sound which I'd gotten pretty bored with. I do still want to check it out though.

don't let the FF connection keep you from this -- it's an entirely different beast. i know some people are turned off by his FJM "persona"...for me it's mostly funny, at times annoying, but easy to look past given that i know where he came from. i still think you may like his early J. Tillman work best (Cancer and Delirium being his darkest, most sparse Molina-esque album)

billy g Wrote:

As much as I'm a Farrar fanboy, I haven't much cared for any of his colloborations of recent years including this one. It pretty much bores me. I've been meaning to revisit it though. I should give that Lightships more listens too but my initial reaction was that it was pretty mellow but without all the beautiful harmonizing of the more mellow TF stuff if I'm remembering it correctly.

do you have the 2 disc version? just wondering because disc two is just farrar and parker and probably the closest we will get to another Gob Iron album (though admittedly not as good).
and you are pretty right on about the Lightships...definitely mellow, and seafoam nails it with a Clientele-vibe. i also get a bit of Joe Pernice. still i think it's much better than the past couple efforts from the Fannies

billy g Wrote:

Did you hear Toumani Diabate's colloboration with Arnaldo Antunes & Edgard Scandurra? That's the only Africa-related (awkward phrasing but it's a album that I heard and liked from 2012.

i had not, and agree with Drink...love Toumani. that video is great. i actually like that improv jam from the beginning a bit more than the proper song towards the end. i will definitely check this out...thanks for the tip!

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

e-stone Wrote:

do you have the 2 disc version? just wondering because disc two is just farrar and parker and probably the closest we will get to another Gob Iron album (though admittedly not as good).

I've only heard the single disc version, but I'm not a fan of the Gob Iron album either. It's probably the best of his side projects but it's so far below Son Volt/Farrar Solo/UT in quality that I never feel inclined at all to listen to it anymore. Strangely enough, I think the Anders Parker songs are much better than the Farrar songs (probably true on the Multitudes album too) which is not so much to say that I really like Anders Parker all that much. I think Farrar probably just saves his best work for his own albums.

e-stone · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 7:26 pm

BEST SHOWS OF 2012

because i actually went to more than a couple this year.

ok...6 out 10 were Wilco and My Morning Jacket, but still....

1. 08.04 - my morning jacket / band of horses / trombone shorty - red rocks amphitheatre - morrison, co
the second of a two night stand in which no repeat songs were played. red rocks, warm summer breeze, 3+ hours, trombone shorty & the gang sitting in on a couple songs, john oates comes out for a cover of "move on up"????
i'm not sure if MMJ has fallen out of favor with some of the fans on this board, but this is THE live show to catch today IMO. even better yet is they have launched a nice bootleg series on livedownloads.com with the two RR shows being the first released. they just released their 3-night no-repeat stand at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester too, and goddamn they are just smoking. this band is hitting their stride.
oh i almost forgot this day for me also included a fan club "mini show" hours before doors opened

2. 08.03 - my morning jacket / band of horses / trombone shorty - red rocks amphitheatre - morrison, co
i blew my load above. just slightly less epic than night #2

3. 12.13 - wilco - ford park - vail, co
probably the least inspiring set list of the 4 times i saw them in '12, but damn if this show wasn't just a kickass time. it was kinda just a novelty show, seeing them outside while it was snowing...but a great crowd, plus wilco always pouring their hearts into it = great show.
ok, now that i've got that out of the way, the one issue i have with wilco live these days (especially when compared to MMJ) is there is very little anticipation of surprise. you know exactly what you are going to get...and what that is is an incredibly professional show, amazing musicians, incredible musicianship (no one rips like Nels)...BUT i wish they would just let go every now and then. i mean i can tell you the exact moment in "Impossible Germany" when Tweedy will waltz over to Pat Sansone for their little guitar duel. maybe this is my fault for seeing them 4 times on one tour. i still can't help listening to those MMJ boots and yearn for a little more out of Wilco. i'd die for Nels to rework some of the tunes from AM and Being There into sprawling noise freakouts. they've kinda started with this tours acoustic "Spiders". anyways...i WILL say that Jeff Tweedy is 100 times the frontman that Jim James is.

4. 08.17 - justin townes earle / dawes / kathleen edwards / iron & wine - rocky mountain folks festival - lyons, co
this was just one of those days. usually i'm not that stoked for festvials. but this was and incredibly mellow and "kind" summer day. the perfect buzz. JTE up first, solo with an acoustic. by the time he got to "Can't Hardly Wait" i was sold...this was my favorite. performer. EVER. seriously though, i've been on a bit of a JTE binge since August and won't miss another show of his. Dawes was fun. Kathleen Edwards was good. Iron & Wine, while scaled back from the huge crew on the last tour, still had Jim Becker from Califone which makes me incredibly happy. A great set to end the night.

5. 05.31 - bon iver / feist / the staves - red rocks amphitheatre - morrison, co
again, it's hard to compete with a summer night at Red Rocks. i mentioned earlier, The Staves were charming. don't really care much for Feist. but Bon Iver surpassed every expectation live. i had seen him in a smaller club touring for Emma, and that was a great, intimate show. but this tour saw him touring with a fully fleshed out band, two drummers, horns. and who knew Justin could actually rip like Neil Young? as always, extra points for a band that can re-work older songs into something new and still interesting.

6. 03.13 - radiohead / other lives - 1stbank center - broomfield, co
i don't want to list them here. i don't want to like radiohead any more. i fucking HATE these kind of arenas. but goddamn if this show wasn't incredible. incredible light show. actual STAGE PRESENCE from thom yorke??? dare i say an eerie resemblance to an early 90's U2 show (not my pic)?

7. 06.23 - wilco / dr. dog - red rocks amphitheatre - morrison, co
again, the second night of a two night run trumps the first. they brought it this night (despite at least 1/2 dozen repeats from the night before). also upping things this night was the radio contest that my buddy won that allowed us in for soundcheck and a backstage tour of Red Rocks. too bad it was blazing hot out and wilco aborted 3 songs in. Pat Sansone was actually covered by one of those reflective blankets during the whole thing and actually got up and left first. i think the others were willing to ride it out for the fans...but now Pat shall know be know as Pat The Pussy.

the other two Wilco shows...the show White Denim opened at the Fillmore gets the nod over RR night 1 and largely due to White Denim...awesome live.

Wilco has also started a live download series - "Roadcase" - and while the mix and sound quality are flawless on these, thus far they've only included this tour and there is not enough variation show to show to justify buying them all. i'm hoping they dig into the archives while they are on hiatus.

e-stone · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 7:34 pm

billy g Wrote:

e-stone Wrote:

do you have the 2 disc version? just wondering because disc two is just farrar and parker and probably the closest we will get to another Gob Iron album (though admittedly not as good).

I've only heard the single disc version, but I'm not a fan of the Gob Iron album either. It's probably the best of his side projects but it's so far below Son Volt/Farrar Solo/UT in quality that I never feel inclined at all to listen to it anymore. Strangely enough, I think the Anders Parker songs are much better than the Farrar songs (probably true on the Multitudes album too) which is not so much to say that I really like Anders Parker all that much. I think Farrar probably just saves his best work for his own albums.

i'm really NOT trying to convince you that you have to listen to this...but the Anders Parker songs are the better ones on that disc two as well :lol:

and just because i'm not sure where else to put this, but i love this video so much. i really want to make it to Newport one of these summers

harry · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:14 am

I like your list a lot. You have a clear and "aligned" sensibility. And I love Obner's variety. Although not much on list will be on mine I get it and trust you (given what you like that you put Sun Kil Moon so far down... It disappointed. And I wasn't even aware Assemble [colo[/color]Head had a release this year; now I'll have to hear it too. They deserve as much attention as Tame Impala and have a truer psychedelic core.

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 10:18 am

I have the two disc version of New Multitudes and the whole thing is just too. much. I've managed to listen to it all several times but just as background music. Like, I've never once had the urge to play it in the car or on headphones and really dig in. It's just sorta there.

Good list though.

discostu · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:07 pm

e-stone Wrote:

25. The Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound - Manzanita - fourth album of excellent, spacey, groove-laden psychedelic fuzz. this one has some more song-based tunes compared to their previous extendo-jam excursions...like this beauty of a song:

reasons like this I wish you posted here more often. I dig this on first listen. Going to seek it out now.

elephantstone festive forty-five for 2012

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