So we're... blah blah blah... of the way through 2009; what records are worth listening to so far?

She does really interesting vocal stuff - her group is called Charming Hostess, and my fave album by her is Trilectic.

That all sounds familiar. I will have to check to see if I ever checked into it.

Hmmm, sounds interesting. I don't go too much for straight East European Jewish traditional music, klezmer, and the like, but with all these twists it is a little easier to get interested in.

when I read my writing style in threads like this I have to shudder, but still, this thread needs more posts, 1998-2002 Charming Hostess was my favorite bay area live band and I hope there's a well-recorded concert from that time burned to a CDR somewhere waiting to be taken off the shelf and released

Charming Hostess

They're really so great. I heard them play a show at Tonic a few years ago, and there were about 20 people in the whole club. I went with a bunch of friends and we actually shouted requests out at them. They seemed pretty shocked to be getting requests. (We really wanted to hear Fortress Moscow.)

Incidentlally, Mordy, just to be clear I don't necessarily want to suggest Shiina Ringo sounds much like Ayelet! For one thing, she's not nearly as solid and reliable technically as a vocalist. I just think she is someone you might like based on various things you've mentioned. (But there is some use of jazz on this new CD, even if its jazz in the service of pop aims rather than something like Mayim Rabim which is closer to what I think of as actual jazz (even if it is jazz + other things).

My halfway list, what a weird years its been. The stuff I like is all over the place.

1. Mastodon - Crack the Skye (Reprise)
2. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions (Southern Lord)
3. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
4. Dinosaur Jr - Farm (Jagjaguwar)
5. Wilco - Wilco (the album) (Nonesuch)
6. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (Domino)
7. Coalesce - Ox (Relapse)
8. Sonic Youth - The Eternal (Matador)
9. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Slumberland)
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz! (Interscope)
11. Kylesa - Static Tensions (Prosthetic)
12. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2)
13. Nomo - Invisible Cities (Ubiquity)
14. Handsome Furs - Face Control (Sub Pop)
15. Isis - Wavering Radiant (Ipecac)
16. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
17. Wooden Shjips - Dos (Holy Mountain)
18. Tombs - Winter Hours (Relapse)
19. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer (Jagjaguwar)
20. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (Warp)
21. Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand (Vice)
22. K'naan - Troubadour (A&M)
23. Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - II (Eskimo)
24. The-Dream - Love vs. Money (Radio Killa/Def Jam)
25. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns (Astralwerks)

Honorable Mentions:
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (Domino)
Cobalt - Gin (Profound Lore)
Glasvegas - Glasvegas (Columbia)
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South (Merge)
Obits - I Blame You (Sub Pop)
Morrissey - Years of Refusal (Attack/Lost Highway)
Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Rabid)
Mos Def - The Ecstatic (Downtown)
Silversun Pickups - Swoon (Dangerbird)
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (ANTI-)
Dan Deacon - Bromst (Carpark)

1 the-dream - love vs money
2 james blackshaw - the glass bead game
3 dj quik + kurupt - blaqkout
4 yeah yeah yeahs - it's blitz!
5 electrik red - how to be a lady, vol. 1
6 ugk - ugk 4 life
7 dirty projectors - bitte orca
8 ryan leslie - ryan leslie
9 neko case - middle cyclone
10 antony and the johnsons - the crying light
11 lily allen - it's not me, it's you
12 eleni mandell - tiny waist
13 ciara - fantasy ride
14 maxwell - BLACKsummer'snight
15 death - ...for the whole world to see
16 freeway - month of madness
17 animal collective - mpp
18 ppp - abundance
19 dj paul - scale-a-ton
20 DOOM - born like this

i read ilm, if u couldnt tell u_u

my top ten so far this year:

outrageous cherry - universal malcontents
section 25 - nature + degree
hatcham social - you dig the tunnel i'll hide the soil
coloma - love's recurring dream
thieves like us - play music
cut off your hands - you + i
seeland - tomorrow today
my sad captains - here & elsewhere
the bats - the guilty office
it hugs back - inside your guitar

1 the-dream - love vs money
2 phoenix - wolfgang amadeus phoenix
3 electrik red - how to be a lady vol. 1
4 yeah yeah yeahs - it's blitz!
5 green day - 21st century breakdown
6 jay reatard - watch me fall
7 the juan maclean - the future will come
8 pill - 4180: the prescription
9 dj quik & kurupt - blaqkout
10 discovery - lp
11 major lazer - guns don't kill people, lazer's do
12 ryan leslie - ryan leslie
13 ciara - fantasy ride
14 dirty projectors - bitte orca
15 ugk - ugk 4 life
16 junior boys - begone dull care
17 javelin - jamz n jemz
18 gucci mane - writing on the wall
19 rick ross - deeper than rap
20 lil boosie - thug passion

camera obscura would go in there too

came around to that ross, huh?

http://images.paraorkut.com/img/pics/images/s/summer_sun_shine-3070.jpg

12 eleni mandell - tiny waist artificial fire

'watch me fall', album of the year. also really enjoyed 'yesterday and today' by the field and the fever ray record. not much else

1. grizzly bear - veckatimest
1. dirty projectors - bitte orca
2. the-dream - love vs money
3. the bitters - wooden glove 12"
4. white denim - fits
5. discovery - lp
5. major lazer - guns don't kill people, lazers do
6. sunset rubdown - dragonslayer
7. rick ross - deeper than rap

fever ray still tops for me. here we go magic record is good too. bubbling under - super furry animals and major swellings. lots of stuff i havent given a proper listen too though like the yeah yeah yeah's, major lazer....

oh wait the phoenix record is good but not a patch on the last one

songs

here we go magic - tunnelvision
animal collective - brothersport
grizzly bear - all we ask
major lazer - keep it goin' loud ft nina sky & ricky blaze
dirty projectors - useful chamber
rick ross - all i really want ft. the-dream
best coast - the sun was high (so was i)
tyvek - frustration rock
atlas sound - walkabout ft panda bear
discovery - it's not my fault (it's my fault)

it's been a really good year so far, halfway and my list is looking alot better than last year's.

john scofield, piety street
bad plus, for all i care
ugk, ugk 4 life
dirty projectors, bitte orca
tbc brass band, modern times
maxwell, blacksummer's night

songz aka where the big singles at
1. Drake - "Best I Ever Had'
2. Goapele - "Milk and Honey"
3. House of House - "Rushing to Paradise (Walkin' These Streets)"
4. Jamie Foxx feat. T Pain - "Blame It"
5. Lily Allen - "The Fear"
6. Mariah Carey - "Obsessed"
7. Free Energy - "Dream City"
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Zero"
9. The Drums - "Let's Go Surfing"
10. Jeremih - "Birthday Sex"

i support this list

Bachelorette- My Electric Family
Jay Reatard- Watch me Fall
Fever Ray- Fever Ray
Phoenix- Wolfgang Amedeus
Sunn O)))- Monoliths and Dimensions

Nothing else comes to mind.

delirious should probably be on my list

there's a new major swellings album?!!?

My favorite songs list:

Thee Oh Sees - Tidal Wave
Ganglians - Cryin' smoke
Jacuzzi Boys - I fought a cocodrile
jj - Ecstasy
Mount Kimbie - Maybes
Jesse Somfay - Amo alucinor
Four Tet & Burial - Moth
Animal Collective - Bluish
Kurt Vile - Freeway
Fever Ray - When I grow up
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffitti - Can't hear my eyes
Grizzly Bear - About face
Crystal Stilts - Love is a wave
Kool Keith - Livin astro
basement jaxx - raindrops
Wooden Shjips - For so long

Missing from my song list: Woods, Yacht, YYYs, Here we go magic, The pains of being pure at heart, the horrors, the bony king of nowhere, telepathe, odawas, mos def, in flagranti... and a few more that i'm to lazy to type right now.

yeah, lots of good stuff on moka's list too. i love "can't hear my eyes" a whole lot

has anyone heard the zola jesus lp on sacred bones yet? went back to new amsterdam yesterday and was surprised at how nice it was. think i'd just reduced her to being rester + some soundalikes.

Have there been any good debut albums this year?

(And I don't mean like Fever Ray or Future of the Left which are clearly extensions of previous artists.)

electrik red

discovery

lee fields & the expressions

added:

strange boys
bloody mary
the legends

Also, it's Future of the Left's second album.

xposts

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
LSD March - Under Milk Wood
Giuseppe Lelasi - Aix
Gudrun Gut - Apples, Pears & Deer in Poland EP
The Intelligence - Fake Surfers
Micachu and The Shapes - Jewellry
Fabio Orsi/Valerio Cosi - Thoughts Melt In the Air
Moritz von Oswald Trio - Vertical Ascent
Sonic Youth - The Eternal

is it fair to say that if i found micachu to be unbearably awful live then i won't like the record? does she try to actually sing on record?

omar otm wrt strange boys what a wonderful album!

will have to hear this gudrun gut ep

add cass mccombs - 'catacombs' and michachu and the shapes - 'jewellry' to my list

xxxpost K3vin I think if you couldn't stomach her live it's probably not super different on the record...but the record is GREAT if you can clear that hurdle. Anyway for me at least her voice isn't in that dealbreaker category w/ like Joanna Newsom or the Of Montreal guy...just sounds like she's having fun w/ what she's got..,.

The Gudrun Gut EP has me v. juiced for another full-length...very much on the same vein as the last LP w/ the retarted, on-the-one, sort of polka thing going on. So hot, also has kind of a Fizheuer Zieheur vibe happening with vaguely Slavic, little horn or string stuff

"in" same vein

xxxpost K3vin I think if you couldn't stomach her live it's probably not super different on the record...but the record is GREAT if you can clear that hurdle. Anyway for me at least her voice isn't in that dealbreaker category w/ like Joanna Newsom or the Of Montreal guy...just sounds like she's having fun w/ what she's got..,.

― Hadrian VIII, Monday, July 27, 2009 10:29 AM (8 hours ago)

o____0

kevin barnes can sing!!! well! yeah i don't think i'm going to check them out, i don't have the patience for someone who's in a band of this profile but hasn't bothered learning how to sing and thinks blasting me with awful, pointless noise in the middle of her songs is a good idea. someone next to me at the siren fest said something about how "she makes her own intsruments herself!" as if that were a good thing, lol no

she brings my inner lex out where i wanna hate on her for neglecting to learn to dress herself, on top of everything else

blasting me with awful, pointless noise in the middle of her songs is a good idea

you have listened to skeletal lamping right?

"i'm learning to troll"

anyway i think micachu is alright but all that just seems underwritten to me. also the childish aesthetic really puts me off. if she can write a good song then she should write a real song not some 1:20 thing with a toy guitar and a xylophone