My top albums of 2006
Everyone else did it, and I never write in this thing, so here is your chance to enter my head and see my favorite releases from last year. In no particular order, of course.
10. OOIOO - Taiga: Communication with nature is not a new theme for OOIOO. Visually, album art designs and band photos bare hidden repetitions of “o-o-i-o-o” and videos have visually featured woods of the forest above any member of the band. Much of the band’s past music has incorporated tribal rhythms and wild sounds, but an even more prominent focus on nature is clearly stated on the new album, TAIGA right from the title, which means “big river” in Japanese and “forest” in Russian. TAIGA shows OOIOO displaying a wide array of instrumental sounds and textures. Focused on accentuating the rhythm, the band adds layers as seemlessly as they take them away. Rythms patters ebb and flow naturally like the tide all the while a fragile melody interweaves them waves. To a similar effect, Yoshimi and her band-mates’ vocals range from tribal and meditative chants to bird calls and free-folk screaming. TAIGA sounds like the deep forest from the bank of a big river, the sounds of animals and trees, life and death. This is a call to nature as only Yoshimi could muster.
9. Lewis & Clarke - Live on WPRB: "Live on WPRB" is impressive in it's ability to capture many of the wonderful things about live performance with little of what can sometimes ruin recordings of those performances. It's recorded excellently, mastered beautifully, and there are no real musical mistakes other than the occasional buzzing of a guitar string. But considering the quality of this album, this only serves as a reminder that it is indeed a live recording. The music itself has s fairly somber tone, although not in any way dismal. It feels like the calm after a great storm that has torn down everyone's walls and united everybody in their loss.
8. Deer Tick - Greatest Hits: Fucking rad dude, and awesome music. The best singer/songwriter around right now, in my opinion. This is a collection of his favorite songs he's recorded over the past two years. Releasing a new album in '07, I'm sure that will be on this years list.
7. An Albatross - Blessphemy: While I think I still enjoy the older songs more (demo, eatlightning, shit thunder), the dudes really fucking did it with this record. With the added drum blasts from Ed Klinger, they really managed to tighten up and put out some intense shit in a short amount of time. Super tight. Probably the best and most listenable recording they've ever done. Oh, and the videos on the CD-ROM are fucking awesome. Just sayin'.
6. Adrian Orange - Bitches is Lord: Having not listened to Thanksgiving in a while, I wasn't really sure what to expect when he put out a record under his own name. It took a while to grow on me, but after having him come play in my basement in November, this record really caught on. One of the best records and live shows of the year.
5. Zoroaster - s/t: Crippling doom metal from Atlanta, GA! Like Sleep's "Jerusalem" with the amplification of SunnO))) with a unique twist of its own. Over 32 minutes of music for MCD price! The bands debut label release, and definitly one of USA's heaviest acts.
4. USA Is A Monster - Sunset At The End Of The Industrial Age: Whereas the last record was a concept driven epic of over 70+ minutes with frequent rural electricity free moments, this record pulls wheelies around Stonehenge in a little over 45 minutes,. The songs are a bit more direct this time out and feature use of Gitmo crowd busters syntho action as well as the patented guitar4 olympiadz the band is famed for on the undie rock railroad. Of course the USA is a Monster wants to turn the tide and prepare us for the time after the lights go dim on Western Civilization’s exhaust pipe party. For this, the words and sounds are of a war stomp. And the battle will rage, with the battle field location known as your mind! Not matter if you download this or buy this in a big box store, look up from your desktop unit and engage this record. It will show you the Shining Path and you know what to do...
3. Black Pus - BlakPus 3 Metamorpus: Imagine Mindflayer, but just the drummer doing everything, and a little more vocal oriented. Fucking awesome live or on record.
2. Jason Molina - Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go: I wanted badly to revisit the type of songs I did on my more experimental albums The Pyramid, The Ghost, and Protection Spells. I put this project together in the last days before I began what was a long and harrowing move back to Chicago. I wrote these songs as well as the half dozen or so that did not make it over the course of 3 mornings in Bloomington, Indiana and recorded them one after the other in the order they were written. Working method was to go into the garage (aka The Projects Studio) in the mornings and I would write one song at a time and record it. There are no windows at all in that studio and it is pitch black around the clock. There was a small lamp rigged inside a vintage kickdrum and that eerie thing burning above my head along with sparse candles was the extent of the lighting...with the occasional silent movie projected on the wall. The place screamed doom as far as atmosphere goes and I put myself to the task of writing about what is human about that particular feeling; the concrete and tactile nature of depression and actually writing or working yourself out of that. The payoff is not always worth listening, let alone committing to a release, but in this session I knew I was not going to present these songs to the Magnolia Electric Co. in the first place. It gave me the ability to explore some lyrical themes that simply don't need to be sung in competition with a full band. There are many moments of lyrical improvisation, where I was more or less trying to keep as much of my mind focused on things I'd never put into words before and didn't know if I ever would get those moments again. So in a way, these are meditations on depression, waiting, dislocation, separation, doubt, fear, loneliness...the usual from me...but here, if I did not see redemption or even a glimmer of hope, and thought I could put that into lyrics and a simple melody, I allowed that to be the driving force of the song. In the past I would edit these themes out or push them to the sides in favor of a better line technically, or a more anticipated rhyme. This session, in my mind, leads easily into my upcoming projects.
1. Cannabis Corpse - Blunted At Birth: The tunes were recorded in Andy's kitchen on a boss br 900 digital 8-track, while inhaling suicidal amounts of smoke of the finest weed in all of oregon hill. We did it in the hopes of creating a band that got you stoned with a sick oldschool death metal sound alone! We can promise you that every growl, every guitar riff, and every drum beat was done when we were completely obliterated on sweet sweet chiba. Enter into the chambers of bud.
And now for my best live bands of 2006:
10. Lightning Bolt - DUH.
9. BattleSnake - Drummer of DROPDEAD on guitar duties. Riff library.
8. DROPDEAD - Amazing set with new songs. Can't wait for a new record.
7. Kites - Awesome drone set in Brooklyn, just perfect.
6. Deer Tick - His songs cut through a room like a knife. Everyone was into it.
5. Adrian Orange - Most underattended shows of the year. Blew me away both times.
4. USA Is A Monster - The got cut off at the end of their set, but managed to play most of the new album straight through.
3. Dirt Vultures - Practice space show. Lots of people crammed in a small place, and the cops came.
2. Black Pus - The closest you'll come to seeing MindFlayer again. Incredible.
1. Boredoms - I wasn't too into it in Philly, but the sound at Webster Hall in NYC was just so fucking perfect. 3 drummers, all perfectly in time and everything sounding just the way it should. Like listening to a record.
10. OOIOO - Taiga: Communication with nature is not a new theme for OOIOO. Visually, album art designs and band photos bare hidden repetitions of “o-o-i-o-o” and videos have visually featured woods of the forest above any member of the band. Much of the band’s past music has incorporated tribal rhythms and wild sounds, but an even more prominent focus on nature is clearly stated on the new album, TAIGA right from the title, which means “big river” in Japanese and “forest” in Russian. TAIGA shows OOIOO displaying a wide array of instrumental sounds and textures. Focused on accentuating the rhythm, the band adds layers as seemlessly as they take them away. Rythms patters ebb and flow naturally like the tide all the while a fragile melody interweaves them waves. To a similar effect, Yoshimi and her band-mates’ vocals range from tribal and meditative chants to bird calls and free-folk screaming. TAIGA sounds like the deep forest from the bank of a big river, the sounds of animals and trees, life and death. This is a call to nature as only Yoshimi could muster.
9. Lewis & Clarke - Live on WPRB: "Live on WPRB" is impressive in it's ability to capture many of the wonderful things about live performance with little of what can sometimes ruin recordings of those performances. It's recorded excellently, mastered beautifully, and there are no real musical mistakes other than the occasional buzzing of a guitar string. But considering the quality of this album, this only serves as a reminder that it is indeed a live recording. The music itself has s fairly somber tone, although not in any way dismal. It feels like the calm after a great storm that has torn down everyone's walls and united everybody in their loss.
8. Deer Tick - Greatest Hits: Fucking rad dude, and awesome music. The best singer/songwriter around right now, in my opinion. This is a collection of his favorite songs he's recorded over the past two years. Releasing a new album in '07, I'm sure that will be on this years list.
7. An Albatross - Blessphemy: While I think I still enjoy the older songs more (demo, eatlightning, shit thunder), the dudes really fucking did it with this record. With the added drum blasts from Ed Klinger, they really managed to tighten up and put out some intense shit in a short amount of time. Super tight. Probably the best and most listenable recording they've ever done. Oh, and the videos on the CD-ROM are fucking awesome. Just sayin'.
6. Adrian Orange - Bitches is Lord: Having not listened to Thanksgiving in a while, I wasn't really sure what to expect when he put out a record under his own name. It took a while to grow on me, but after having him come play in my basement in November, this record really caught on. One of the best records and live shows of the year.
5. Zoroaster - s/t: Crippling doom metal from Atlanta, GA! Like Sleep's "Jerusalem" with the amplification of SunnO))) with a unique twist of its own. Over 32 minutes of music for MCD price! The bands debut label release, and definitly one of USA's heaviest acts.
4. USA Is A Monster - Sunset At The End Of The Industrial Age: Whereas the last record was a concept driven epic of over 70+ minutes with frequent rural electricity free moments, this record pulls wheelies around Stonehenge in a little over 45 minutes,. The songs are a bit more direct this time out and feature use of Gitmo crowd busters syntho action as well as the patented guitar4 olympiadz the band is famed for on the undie rock railroad. Of course the USA is a Monster wants to turn the tide and prepare us for the time after the lights go dim on Western Civilization’s exhaust pipe party. For this, the words and sounds are of a war stomp. And the battle will rage, with the battle field location known as your mind! Not matter if you download this or buy this in a big box store, look up from your desktop unit and engage this record. It will show you the Shining Path and you know what to do...
3. Black Pus - BlakPus 3 Metamorpus: Imagine Mindflayer, but just the drummer doing everything, and a little more vocal oriented. Fucking awesome live or on record.
2. Jason Molina - Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go: I wanted badly to revisit the type of songs I did on my more experimental albums The Pyramid, The Ghost, and Protection Spells. I put this project together in the last days before I began what was a long and harrowing move back to Chicago. I wrote these songs as well as the half dozen or so that did not make it over the course of 3 mornings in Bloomington, Indiana and recorded them one after the other in the order they were written. Working method was to go into the garage (aka The Projects Studio) in the mornings and I would write one song at a time and record it. There are no windows at all in that studio and it is pitch black around the clock. There was a small lamp rigged inside a vintage kickdrum and that eerie thing burning above my head along with sparse candles was the extent of the lighting...with the occasional silent movie projected on the wall. The place screamed doom as far as atmosphere goes and I put myself to the task of writing about what is human about that particular feeling; the concrete and tactile nature of depression and actually writing or working yourself out of that. The payoff is not always worth listening, let alone committing to a release, but in this session I knew I was not going to present these songs to the Magnolia Electric Co. in the first place. It gave me the ability to explore some lyrical themes that simply don't need to be sung in competition with a full band. There are many moments of lyrical improvisation, where I was more or less trying to keep as much of my mind focused on things I'd never put into words before and didn't know if I ever would get those moments again. So in a way, these are meditations on depression, waiting, dislocation, separation, doubt, fear, loneliness...the usual from me...but here, if I did not see redemption or even a glimmer of hope, and thought I could put that into lyrics and a simple melody, I allowed that to be the driving force of the song. In the past I would edit these themes out or push them to the sides in favor of a better line technically, or a more anticipated rhyme. This session, in my mind, leads easily into my upcoming projects.
1. Cannabis Corpse - Blunted At Birth: The tunes were recorded in Andy's kitchen on a boss br 900 digital 8-track, while inhaling suicidal amounts of smoke of the finest weed in all of oregon hill. We did it in the hopes of creating a band that got you stoned with a sick oldschool death metal sound alone! We can promise you that every growl, every guitar riff, and every drum beat was done when we were completely obliterated on sweet sweet chiba. Enter into the chambers of bud.
And now for my best live bands of 2006:
10. Lightning Bolt - DUH.
9. BattleSnake - Drummer of DROPDEAD on guitar duties. Riff library.
8. DROPDEAD - Amazing set with new songs. Can't wait for a new record.
7. Kites - Awesome drone set in Brooklyn, just perfect.
6. Deer Tick - His songs cut through a room like a knife. Everyone was into it.
5. Adrian Orange - Most underattended shows of the year. Blew me away both times.
4. USA Is A Monster - The got cut off at the end of their set, but managed to play most of the new album straight through.
3. Dirt Vultures - Practice space show. Lots of people crammed in a small place, and the cops came.
2. Black Pus - The closest you'll come to seeing MindFlayer again. Incredible.
1. Boredoms - I wasn't too into it in Philly, but the sound at Webster Hall in NYC was just so fucking perfect. 3 drummers, all perfectly in time and everything sounding just the way it should. Like listening to a record.