shivs list is prob closest to mine

dalens is alrite too

this record is so beautiful. here's an interview i did with him:
http://tinyurl.com/wgtrx

but, dude, that razorlight album sux. bad.

cool interview katie. the man truly is a genius imo.

and easy now love, that Razorlight is freakin' underrated. there are some great pop tunes on that record, and i dig how they went in a different direction than many of the Libertines clones. has a motown vibe to it.

December's creeping up. Where's Radiohead/Portishead? Bad nough we only get one new Massive Attack song.

That's what I'm disappointed about.

I've been okay with my expectations. Deftones, Tool, Beck, TVotR, Ms John Soda, Snow Patrol, Taking Back Sunday, Blue October, Katatonia, and the Appleseed Cast have all seen pretty heavy rotation.

Cat Power was probably the biggest disappointment.

There were some great new bands

Mew
Silversun Pickups
Bullet for My Valentine (much more Coalesce than AFI)
Nathan Fake
The Stills
Juana Molina

mew's first album came out in 2003. i like its two singles more than anything i've heard from their latest album.

and the stills' first album was 2003, too. you may be the only person i know of that actually enjoyed without feathers, if that is what you are talking about.

as a longplayer, not so good, but hot damn if there aren't a handful of really ace tunes on that album.

Here's some (mostly the ones not mentioned enough above) of the releases I've enjoyed this year:

Comets On Fire "Avatar" - Easily my favourite of the year. Well-written and executed songs, for all their arguable flaws.

Six Organs of Admittance "The Sun Awakens" - Can't believe this hasn't been mentioned. Aside from hit-or-miss listens to the final track, side A is amazing.

Super Numeri "The Welcome Table" - Hopefully, one day you'll all hear this.

Loka "Fire Shepherds" - Likewise.

Charalambides "A Vintage Burden" - Their most songful record of late, and very enchanting.

Brightblack Morning Light "s/t" - This totally blindsided me, gently, on recommendation, like Espers first record did.

Om "Conference of the Birds" - Probably better than "Variations". Impossible not to vibe on this.

Bardo Pond "Ticket Crystals" - Pretty solid record that I need to be more acquainted with. Mostly included here because of the multitude of releases of theirs I fell for this year. And they're sick live.

Major Stars "Syntoptikon" - So shamelessly heavy.

Daedelus "Denies the Day's Demise" - Really gorgeous ethereal songs.

USAISAMONSTER "Sunset At the End of the Industrial Age" - Easily their best, most coherent record.

Growing "The Color Wheel" - More colour and movement to their sound.

Scott Walker "The Drift" - Because the world is so shit.

Spank Rock "YoYoYoYoYoYo" - Because the shit is off the chain.

Alan Sparhawk "Solo Guitar" - Not unlike last year's Earth album in a way.

Howlin' Rain "Howlin' Rain" - Because you can hear the cocaine residue on the master.

Silver Apples "The Garden" - Half the songs on this record are amazing, some of the brightest, strangest music I've heard.

The Arthur Russell records that came out this year are also pretty boss,

I think 2006 has been a really good year. I can't begin to imagine some of the amazing music that I've not heard, for whatever reason.

Drinky's picks:

Califone - Roots & Crowns. Yeah, I can't really hang with this band anymore. They put me off live. Is this really that good?

Man Man - Six Demon Bag. Didn't affect me nearly as much as their first but I do still like it.

Grizzly Bear - Yellow House. I was resistent to this at first, but it is growing on me.

Wolf Eyes - Human Animal. Need to give this a chance. If anything, I think we might be tired of this band because they work too hard. They've played in town 3 times this year and have so many non-releases to hear that it might devalue the proper release somehwat.

And I also dig some of Rivolevio's picks, and am curious about those I don't know.

Well, yeah, I think so. Definitely worth hearing. It's similar to their older stuff sonically, but it isn't just more of the same. I'm surer now than ever that it's their best work. It's totally song-oriented, and I would say at least half of the songs are great.



I didn't expect a whole lot from this so I put off buying it until a few months ago. It really grew on me in a huge way, though. I think the songs on this one have way more substance than the debut.



Please do.

So, Ish's picks:

Comets On Fire "Avatar" - I don't know why, but this just hasn't stuck with me. I like it, but I'm kinda cooling off on this band, I guess.

Six Organs of Admittance "The Sun Awakens" - This is a very good record which I probably take a little for granted to an extent. Still, I wish Chasny would put out a record without a 15+ min. time waster on it like the last track on this and the title track on School of the Flower.

Super Numeri "The Welcome Table" - I really like this. Haven't put it on a while, but that's only because I had too much other stuff to listen to. Don't know if most people here would be into it, but fans of any kind of post-rock and Krautrock should definitely check it out.

Charalambides "A Vintage Burden" - Need to listen to this more. I do enjoy it more than their last two.

Bardo Pond "Ticket Crystals" - I haven't heard this, but I picked up Amanita this year which I really dig. Their newer stuff hasn't done a lot for me, but I'd like to check this out.

Growing "The Color Wheel" - Yeah, I like this a lot. Maybe not as much as the His Return EP, but they're both really nice. You don't hear much in the way of drone that's this bright and sunny. They've got a cool little niche there.

Scott Walker "The Drift" - I've come close to picking this up a few times. Still not sure what I think of old Scotty. Samples of this have been pretty off-putting, but I'm still kind of intrigued. It's just so weird.

Spank Rock "YoYoYoYoYoYo" - I tried, man. I liked it for a while, but now I don't want to hear it anymore. It's been a while, though, so I'll give it another shot soon.

Silver Apples "The Garden" - So this is actually new? I just got their first two albums a little while ago, and I really dig it. Pretty sure I saw this on vinyl somewhere.

This is not actually new, not quite. The drums for a lot of the tracks were recorded in '68, but not unearthed until the band reunited 30 years later. The recordings - half noodly romps, half colourful Silver Apples originals and amazing covers (e.g. John Henry, Mustang Sally) - were completed in '98 and self-pressed to 1000 CDs which were promptly sold on tour. My boy Marco put it out on his Bully Records imprint, first time vinyl pressing. Every fan of Silver Apples needs to check it out. It's a newfangled relic.

I really wanted to like this album. If it wasn't for the beauty of the title track, cleverly placed as the first song, I would never put it on at all.

Her performance on Conan a few weeks ago didn't help anything. The way she sings out of the side of her mouth gives the whole thing a characteriture feel. That, and she replaced my favorite riff of the pedal steel (?) with a big black lady singing "the greatest!" Kind of sucky.