Barton Carroll - Those Days Are Gone and My Heart is Breaking

So Barton Carroll's a local guy, and his stuff makes it onto KEXP here and there. This is the first of his songs I'd heard; it's not as good as "Poor Boy Can't Dance," but it's nice.

James - White Boy

I'm not sure if these guys are considered on the right side of history or not -- until a couple days ago, I didn't know they existed, and that in spite of Lou.'s avatar from a while back (in the other place, for the outsiders). Anyway, I heard this track on the radio a few days back. It's from a post-reunion album released a couple years ago.

Comeback albums aren't supposed to be any good. (Though Dylan had a couple, and American IV gave Johnny Cash his first gold record in three decades. But I digress.) For all I know, this album isn't very good. But I dig this song. The "Yul Brynner" lyric is pretty great.

Bonny Billy & The Picket Line - Ohio River Boat Song

With my turn at the end-of-the-year post, I was going to post a 2009 favorite of mine -- the collaboration with Kentucky gentleman Will Oldham, alias Bonny Billy here (and better known by the moniker Bonnie Prince Billy) and bluegrass outfit The Picket Line. This one was unfortunately a bit overlooked because it was a vinyl and digital-only release. So I managed to scrounge up a digital copy and was all set to put it up on Youtube, but the mp3 has some sort of write protection that blocks it from working in Moviemaker.

So you get this, Bonny Billy and the Picket Line, live in Lexington!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Albert Goes West

Kazoos!

Aught Eight, Disc 2

A bit more local music this go-round. Download link

1. Kalise - El Guincho
From the album Alegranza

I think this one was technically first released in Spain in 2007, but didn't see a U.S. release until late this year.

2. Gayle - Guy Blackman
From the album Adult Baby

Well, the vocals sort of make or break it with this guy. Jens Lekman appears on another track.

3. Lay It Down - Al Green
From the album Lay It Down

Co-produced by ?uestlove

4. Will Get Fooled Again - Max Tundra
From the album Parallax Error Beheads You

Step aside, Dutchess and the Duke:



(The more I listen to this record, the more I love it. Honestly, this is one of my favorites of the year.)

5. Alsatian Dog - Simon Bookish
From the album Everything/Everything

If Max Tundra and Scott Walker had a lovechild, it would be called Simon Bookish.

6. Drips One - Handshakes
From the album All-American

Local electro-pop-dance duo, down to one member while the bassist studies philosophy in Michigan (What is the sound of one hand shaking?)

7. Rabbit Habits - Man Man
From the album Rabbit Habits

This guy is a bit of a Beefheart/Waits/Zappa devotee. The rest of the album really sounds nothing like this.

8. Kiss Me Again - Jessica Lea Mayfield
From the album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt

I don't know if she's a rising star in country music, but she put out a pretty solid album for a 19-year-old. Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys) produced this; she appears on their 2008 album Attack & Release.

9. Singing to the Earth (To Thank Her For You) - Apollo Sunshine
From the album Shall Noise Upon

I think this is better taken as an album -- it was tough to find a representative track for this mix.

10. Today's Lesson - Nick Cave
From the album Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

Mr. Sandman, the inseminator, indeed.

11. Night & Day - The Moondoggies
From the album Don't Be a Stranger

I was lukewarm on these guys when the album came out -- all of this roots music posturing is king of nauseating. Then I heard this song suite play during a drive in to work, and it just clicked.

12. Armageddon Song - The Dutchess and the Duke
From the album She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke

(Do you get the idea I like these two?)

Andrew Listens To Stuff In '08

Here you go.

1 - "Everything Is Borrowed" - The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed (0:00)

(This is the rap music that I like. I am so white.)

2 - "Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl)" - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (3:55)

It's Nick Cave, so what am I going to do aside from turn the volume up and just listen? Nothing, is what.

3 - "No" - Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls (8:45)

(I am sooo clever! I know.) I dig all twenty one minutes and sixteen seconds of their album. Lots of fun.

4 - "The Gardner" - The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Graves (10:05)

Oscar Gamble supports the gardener and all his actions.

5 - "Everything That Happens" - Brian Eno & David Byrne - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (13:50)

I mean, this album was never going to be anything aside from awesome.

6 - "Undeclared" - The Dodos - Visiter (17:30)

Grammatical oddities were in vogue this year, it seems. (Wiki explains this one.)

7 - "My Luck" - Dagha - The Divorce (19:20)

This is a silly one, but I likes.

8 - "Oh Honey" - Langhorne Slim - Diamonds and Gold (22:15)

A quick little number. I didn't hate the new Avetts as much as other people, but this gave me something to enjoy from that realm in any case.

9 - "The Nun's Litany" - The Magnetic Fields - Distortion (23:50)

Another silly one. I will back Merritt to the grave.

10 - "A Dream Goes On Forever" - Todd Rundgren - Modal Soul Classics by Nujabes (26:40)

Nujabes' work was actually my favorite discovery of the year, by far, but he had no new material this year, so I was forced to include this track instead, from a compilation that he mastered. (Oh yeah. It's good.)

11 - "Time Away" - Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me (29:00)

Head nods to Tyler (again) for this one. I liked loads of tracks on this, but I guess I just picked this one since I like his Lou Reed impersonation, I think.

12 - "Mykonos" - Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant (31:05)

Enough has been said about these guys on the internet already.

13 - "7 Pounds" - Genius/GZA - Pro Tools (35:20)

Trying to be less white.

14 - "Armageddon Song" - The Dutchess and the Duke - She's The Dutchess, He's The Duke (37:55)

This was my favorite album of the year.

15 - "Rock It Number Nine" - Metaform - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (40:35)

An instrumental track. Even if these are not your thing, it's short, and I think you might enjoy it a little anyway.

16 - "Tip Your Way" - The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers (41:50)

Aaron...Fuck you. Like, legitimately. But at the same time... Hugs! Hugs! and more Hugs!

The times in parentheses are the approximate start times for each song in my one-track mix, which I'd recommend listening to, just because it flows a little nicer.

But I also uploaded it in the standard manner.


Download. Listen. Love. Hate. Comment.

Aught Eight, Disc 1

I could probably make a third disc out of the cuts I made from the first two -- Andrew Bird, Avett Brothers, Beach House, Born Ruffians, David Byrne and Brian Eno, Deerhoof, The Dodos, The Drones, Holly Golightly, Hot Chip, Jolie Holland, TV on the Radio (just kidding, that album is an overrated piece of crap ... thanks, Pitchfork), Wolf Parade. But you deserve only the very best. Part 2 arrives next week.

Download link

1. Close My Eyes - Arthur Russell
From the album Love is Overtaking Me

The rumor is that when Arthur Russell died in 1992, he left behind as many as 1,000 tapes of unreleased songs. His other posthumous albums draw more from his disco -- he was a bit of a star of the NYC disco scene in the 1970s and 80s. And then there is this collection of pop songs, with this stunning folk song as its zenith.

2. Mary - The Dutchess and The Duke
From the album She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke

Local lo-fi folk duo earns bonus points for making the weirdest video of the year:



3. So Everyone - Bonnie Prince Billy
From the album Lie Down in the Light

Has an appeal for public oral sex ever sounded so beautiful?

4. No One Does It - Department of Eagles
From the album In Ear Park

I think I like this album better than any of the proper Grizzly Bear releases. (Can I say that?)

5. Circus of Horror - Quiet Village
From the album Silent Movie



Yes, they took their name from the Martin Denny album -- they really are that awesome.

6. The Gardener - The Tallest Man on Earth
From the album Shallow Graves

One of my favorite albums of the year. Obligatory: Dylanesque

7. Upon Viewing Brueghel's 'Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus' - Titus Andronicus
From the album The Airing of Grievances



Yes, every song title on the album is at least this pretentious.

8. Black Rice - Women
From the album Women

Jangly psych rock from the Lou School.

9. Mismanaged Skies - Beatbeat Whisper
From the album Wonder Continental

It's cute. I like cute.

10. Mykonos - Fleet Foxes
From the album Sun Giant (EP)

Back before the two Sub Pop Records, before the Pitchfork reviews and the overnight indie stardom, I didn't walk a block and a half up the street after having drinks with my sister and cousin to go see the Fleet Foxes play at the now-closed (and legendary) Crocodile Cafe, so that I might never have to say, "I was there when."



(You guys know everyone in Seattle looks like this, right?)

11. Psychotic Girl - The Black Keys
From the album Attack & Release

Your producer is Danger Mouse (!)

12. Possible Grenade - Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene)
From the album Something For All of Us

I preferred this one to last year's Kevin Drew.

13. In the New Year - The Walkmen
From the album You & Me

The album didn't really stay in my rotation very long, but this song is simply outstanding.

14. The Ballad of Redhook - Peter and the Wolf
From the album Mellow Owl

Red Hunter (alias Peter and the Wolf) is one of my favorite songwriters, and this is a picture of a man on a motorcycle.