My Favorite Music of 2016

It’s that time of year again, oh friendy friends!  Time for my favorite music of the year blog!  For those who haven’t slogged through these before, allow me to get these perfunctories out of the way:

1. All music on this list is NEW music that was released in calendar year 2016.
2. A mix CD of songs from my list can be easily obtained by messaging me and asking.  Those on my “mailing list” will receive one without asking.
3. I am not saying this was the “best” music of 2016.  I used to say that but people got their undies in a bunch.  I’m just saying it’s my “favorite”.
4. If you’re interested in lists from years past, they can be found here:
   My Favorite Music of 2009My Favorite Music of 2010My Favorite Music of 2011

   My Favorite Music of 2012

   My Favorite Music of 2013

   My Favorite Music of 2014

My Favorite Music of 2015

And before I proceed with this year’s list, I’d like to address what was probably my biggest disappointment of my music listening life: this year’s Band of Horses release.  When I heard of the album, and learned it’s title, and saw the artwork and read the tracklist, I was perhaps the most excited I’d been for a new release since the height of my Pearl Jam fandom.  I fully anticipated making it the number one album on my list this year.  Instead, it does not even appear.  The reviews were very mixed–some were ecstatic whereas others reacted quite like I did, and many were very neutral.  So obviously it can be heard many ways.  I personally, after listening about ten time during it’s first month of release, may never listen to it again.

I’d also be remiss if I did not mention Prophets of Rage, a supergroup combination of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, and Cypress Hill.  Again, many detested it and many loved it; I loved it and thought it was beyond the bee’s knees.  However, for the most part, it was not new music, and it does not make the list, but it formed a very important part of 2016 for me.  In addition, Neil Young+Promise of the Real released a live album, Earth, that felt as fresh and vibrant as a new studio album and I listened to that thing like crazy, but again: not really new.  Now: my list!

15.  Explosions in the Sky, “The Wilderness”

14.  Ray LaMontagne, “Ouroboros”

13.  Public Enemy, “Man Plans God Laughs”

12.  Kiefer Sutherland, “Down in a Hole”

11.  DJ Shadow, “The Mountain Will Fall”

10.  A Tribe Called Quest, “We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service”

The Tribe’s triumphant return was well worth the wait, with lyrics poignantly reflecting the temper of the times and thankfully light on misogyny.  And the beats are dope.

9.  M83, “Junk”

M83’s new album is a kind of throwback space funk jam-off, like a ride in a technicolor elevator, with purple felt walls.  Impossible to dislike.

 

 

 

 

 

8.  Warpaint, “Heads Up”

Warpaint have now built upon the dark, groovy introspection they created in their first two albums with more intricate jams and a subtle pop sensibility; their musical landscape is now a universe all their own.

7.  Mexico City, “When the Day Goes Dark”

This powerful Australian band hadn’t released any new music for six years.  Their return was worth waiting for, as they morphed from terrific bar band into a piledriver of country and blues rock.  A potential classic.

 

 

 

 

 

6.  Jim James, “Eternally Even”

The mastermind behind My Morning Jacket didn’t connect with me on his first solo album a few years back, but this year’s “Eternally Even” tickles my Jacket bone.

5.  Paul Simon, “Stranger to Stranger”

Simon is never bad.  But as he ages, I seem to keep thinking he is getting better and better; his lyrics become more adventurous (from The Werewolf: “The fact is, most obits are mixed reviews./ Life is a lottery, a lotta people lose./ And the winners, the grinners, with money-colored eyes/ they eat all the nuggets, and they order extra fries./  But the werewolf is coming.”), his music more modern, playful, daring.  “Stranger to Stranger” is a delight from start to finish, but especially for those familiar with his full body of work; his evolution is a bewildering achievement.

 

 

4.  Emily Wells, “Promise”

Wells is an astonishing talent, and “Promise” proves she’s an artist worthy of canonization.  Eschewing her previous catchy violin hooks and hip hop undertones, here she digs deep–the level of introspection at times becomes hard to watch.  But ultimately, while not an album of happy, singalong songs, “Promise” proves instead to be a key addition to any music library concerned with–frankly–the meaning of life.

3.  Radiohead, “A Moon Shaped Pool”

What’s still to be said about Radiohead?  They are as good as everyone says, as is this album.  Including a studio version of “True Love Waits” (re-worked for piano) nearly broke me in half.

2.  Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Skeleton Tree”

Cave’s son died tragically while the band was recording the album, and it can be heard in every sound.  It’s a quiet, low-tempo, mostly spoken-word collection of songs, and it is not for the faint of heart.  It is brave, and it is terrifying, but it does not wallow.

1.  Bon Iver, “22, A Million”

I haven’t said much about this album online, as I grew into it slowly, and it came out shortly after a few albums I’d been talking about at length, so I figured I’d stop clogging up everybody’s feed with my music stuff.  But as I kept listening, and listening, and listening, it became clear this album was not going to go away. It is an album of absolutely confounding elements–it incorporates so many genres, styles, and influences, it’s amazing it is coherent.  And it sometimes approaches unlistenable, as vocalist Justin Vernon simply sings through a synthesizer without any music for long lengths of time.  But ultimately it’s not about being catchy, or easy, or even “artsy”.  The album is a true experience, and one that is deeply felt.

 

Mexico City video project: “Damn Shame”

Click here to read what this project is.  Click here to see all previous entries in the project.

 

 

 

 

Mexico City video project: “Trick of the Light”

Click here to read what this project is, or click here to see all previous entries in this series, or click here to read about the day I discovered this band.

“Trick of the Light” is the only song on the album I was never able to come up with a good concept for.  I like the song, but I just never found a visual theme to go with it, so I just started taping a few shots here, a few shots there whenever I had my camera out, just so I could put a video together and get the song out there, and be one step closer to having Brown Bird entirely available on the internet.  So this video is far from a work of art, but exists solely as a conduit for the song.  And I know it may seem there is a bit of a snow theme, but it seems I just tend to break out my camera more often when it’s snowing.

 

Mexico City Video Project: “Sometimes I Wonder”

This here is part of a long-term project I’m working on.  Read here to learn what the project is; or click here to read about the day I discovered this band; and more still, you can click here to see all three previous videos in the project.  Now, here is “Sometimes I Wonder”:

 

Mexico City video project, “Are You Spiritual?”

See what the project is here.  The first video is here and the second video is here.

 

 

Mexico City video project: “Baby, You’ve Changed”

What is this project?  Read this.

Well, I ran into a bit of a roadblock with the second video in my planned project.  Namely, the idea I had in mind just proved too difficult for me to pull off (it almost ended up in me getting thrown out of a mall) and I just couldn’t come up with a new approach, so in order to continue with the rest of the songs, which I still very much want to do, I just uploaded a video of the song over the classic picture of the kiss in Times Square (which for some reason half-disappears in the video, but whatever).  It’s a badass song, so at least it’s out there now, if the world comes looking for it.  So now I making my fun videos of the rest of the songs on this awesome album!

“I Raised an Empire” by Mexico City

Here is my video for “I Raised an Empire” by Mexico City.  Read this post here for an explanation of what the heck I’m doing.

Mexico City video project

You may remember just a few posts ago, I had become enamored with the band Mexico City and had made a video for their song, “The River Followed Me”.  Well, I had so much damn fun making that video, and was so happy to be able to get the song out there for the rest of the world who may be looking for some of their music online, I have decided to make a video for each song on the band’s most recent album, Brown Bird.  (there is one previous album, Black Comedy, which I haven’t even heard yet).  I will make the videos in the order of their tracklisting on the album, each in no particular or set time frame.  They will be posted to my blog but not other places like Facebook.

Allow me, as I always do, to state that this project is in no way indicative of me thinking I have any skill as a filmmaker or anything of that sort.  I am certain the quality of the videos will do plenty to prove I am no Spielberg.  These exist only because I have a ton of fun doing them and my desire to get Mexico City a web presence.  Certainly, most of the videos will have pretentious airs, but that’s just who I am.  I am hilarious in person but I rarely create light-hearted art (or art-related projects).  So be it.

Although I would like to posit one caveat: I would very much like these videos to be better than they are.  For three distinct reasons, my visual subject matter is limited. These reasons are:  1.  My camera is very basic.  2. I have no video editing software. and 3. My closest non-work friend or relative lives 2 hours away.  These three factors prevent me from doing things like pulling my own focus, speeding up or slowing down the film, and having another human being in the shot doing what I tell them.  And so, because of these limitations, most of the videos will be of essentially what I am able to point my camera at, but even though this limits the ideas that come into my brain, I accept it as a challenge to make interesting videos nonetheless.  And anyway, it’s more about all of you being able to hear these really great rock songs.

I shall now “tease” you with the tracklisting.  I already have the video for the opening track, “I Raised an Empire” completed and I will be posting it shortly after this post.  In addition, I will be making another video for “The River Followed Me”, as the first one I made was essentially just slapped together.

Track list of Brown Bird:

1.  I Raised an Empire
2.  Baby, You’ve Changed
3.  Are You Spiritual?
4.  Ghetto
5.  Sometimes I Wonder
6.  Trick of the Light
7.  Damn Shame
8.  Apparition
9.  The River Followed Me
10.  You Aint Free
11.  I Had a Dream Last Night

The River Followed Me

Today, something magical happened to me.  I stumbled upon a band that I fell immediately in love with, the old fashioned way.  I had forgotten how amazing an experience it could be.

See, I was in a music store.  An actual music store.  Not an instrument store, but a store with CDs, music posters, etc etc.  These still exist some places.  (It is a CD Warehouse, for those of you familiar with the sure-to-soon-be-extinct chain of stores).  This music store is of the “used” music store variety.  You can come in and sell your CDs, and hence, all the CDs for sale are used.  This creates a unique music store experience in two ways:  you rarely find anything newer than about 2 or 3 years ago, and you are able to open the CD packaging and look at the liner notes before you buy anything (the actual CDs are kept behind the counter).

It is when I shop at CD Warehouse that I am reminded how we found music back before the internet.  Aside from radio play, word of mouth, and eventually MTV, we would often go to music stores, look at CDs, and actually buy them, without hearing a note of it, based on:

1.  The band name
2.  The cover art
3.  The album title
4.  The song titles

Sure, this was a kind of crapshoot.  Plenty of people spent money on crappy music they never listened to.  But still, there were big plus sides.  We were invested in this process.  It was important we not waste this purchase.  Now, when you can buy one or two songs off an album for a buck each (after previewing them on YouTube), there is no personal investment.  No time spent poring over possibilities , weighing options, adding up prices in your head.

I have gotten off-topic.  If you want to read about the lost art of buying physical music, there are already tons of places to read about that.  Google it.  It will either make you wish you were young again, or hate crotchety old men like myself who whine about unimportant shit (and don’t get me started on how the current rise of digital music has discouraged most artists from the need to craft 12 actual good songs for an album; why do it, when 90% of their revenue comes from 2 songs off each album?  The result: less actual good music in the world).

So anyway, there I was, perusing the rack at CD Warehouse, not sure what I was looking for, just leisurely waiting for something to catch my eye.  And then, just like in the old days, a perfect confluence of band name, album art, album title, and song titles caught my eye, and I knew immediately what disc I was getting, even though I’d not even remotely heard of the band (nor had I heard of their record label).

The band is called Mexico City, and the album is “Brown Bird”. It has a copyright stamp of 2009.  Some of the song titles I found irresistable are “I Raised an Empire”, “Baby, You’ve Changed”, “Are You Spiritual?”, “The River Followed Me”, and “You Aint Free”.  This is the cover art:

So I get out to my car and put the disc in and WHAMMO!, I am immediately in love.  The first track, “I Raised and Empire”, mixes just about every element of music that I adore, down to lyrical content, singer’s voice, and even the bass tuning.  I continued to drive around for a lot of the morning and into the sunny afternoon, going to the Howard Eaton Reservoir as seen in the previous post and running some light errands, all in all hearing the whole album 2 or 3 times and being floored by every single song.

When I finally got home, I was quite anxious to get online and find out as much as I could about this band.  And I was even more floored to find a very close to zero internet presence by them.  No videos on YouTube (I say again…NONE!), no Wikipedia entry, and with a name like Mexico City, you can imagine standard Google results are difficult to sift through.  They have a MySpace page, and a presence on their label’s website (turns out, they’re an Australian band).  So of course this actually quite pleased the pretentious hipster in me, who LOVES being the only guest at the party.

What an unbelievable find, when you think about it!  In a completely empty, used music store in Erie, Pennsylvania, by pure chance I bought a practically unavailable CD from an Australian band that nobody has ever heard of, and it is perfect for me.  (for more proof that it is down my alley, I copied this from the band’s blurb on their label’s website: “Mexico City is epic garage rock for fans of The Band, Nick Cave,  Dylan, My Morning Jacket, Neil Young and Wilco.”)  I am just so happy that an experience like this can still be had in this day and age.

But of course, while I am happy to be alone at the party, I was still sad the band seemed to have a nil presence on YouTube. (I want people to pay for the music they own, but YouTube is a great jumping-off point for people to learn HOW to spend their music budget.  Plus, before anyone wants to argue it: healthy used music stores are good for musician’s pocketbooks.  Wanna talk about how that works? E-mail me.)  So I real quick made a video for the song that really stood out to me, “The River Followed Me”.  This one really made my hair stand on end the first time I heard it, so I figured this was the one I’d put out there first.  But I hate when people just upload songs with a static picture of some kind, and no visual stimulation, so I took that final step and have become one of these insufferable internet dweebs who make “unofficial” videos of songs as though they think they’re in the band, or they’re some sort of video-maker.  Well, I guess I am what I am, although there’s actually much less pretension here than you might think.  I took all this video in about 30 minutes, and assembled it all in about another 30 minutes.  It is all completely meaningless, disconnected imagery that I thought might just look cool with the song.  The indoor stuff is all in my apartment (completely unfettered shots of how my place actually looks, no staging…except the mirrorball, which I had to turn on for the shot, but which IS out of batteries, which is why it isn’t turning).  The majority of the outdoor stuff is within a 2 block radius of central downtown Erie. (the nearly unidentifiable shot at between 2:06-2:13 is the gazebo in downtown’s Perry Square where the Occupy Erie movement is camped out).  The baseball game is in a city park 3 blocks from my apartment.  Anyway, check it out, this song owns my nads: