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

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

are you trying to tell me that there aren't blasts of pointless noise in skeletal lamping?

and i like twee stuff like architecture in helsinki and the boy least likely to but to see her being celebrated by people as some sort of like raw, outsider, underground pop musician (and she makes grime mixtapes!!) makes me roll my damn eyes

i'm saying you and i have talked about it before and also, no, imo there arent

xp

jordan pretty otm about micachu

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.

― the heart is a lonely hamster (schlump), Sunday, July 26, 2009 3:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The Spoils is the only thing i've heard by her, and I think she has actual songwriting talent. too bad the production makes it kind of unlistenable

Kool Keith - Livin astro

Brilliant song and video, but it's from 10 years ago unfortunately.

my 10 albums so far
Dinosaur Jr
Phoenix
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Animal Collective
DOOM
Future Of The Left
Handsome Furs
Silversun Pickups
Junior Boys
Rick Ross

replace silversun pickups with Black Dice

ok and replace handsome furs with SUNN 0)))

'vulture' from the micachu album is the most addictive track ive heard this year. i really like the album, its a fun record, dont know anything about her. so i guess i havent been turned off by the hype. is there hype? i just came across the music on a radio show.

Micachu is the worst fucking thing ever.

The only thing that came out this year that I've been listening to is the new Bob Dylan album. Not very au courant of me.

there seems to be a strong chance that i wont even have a top 10 by the end of 2009.
also, due to an ongoing loss of interest caused by real life gubbins, i've no desire to hear most of the stuff listed so far.
[i've come to realise my head gets into this type of groove once in a while - but these days it seems to happen more and more often!?]
in fact, the only albums on the horizon that i reckon are good for me are the forthcoming soulsavers album, and flykllr (if it gets the all clear).

The only thing that came out this year that I've been listening to is the new Bob Dylan album. Not very au courant of me.

― o. nate, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 2:36 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark

I'm amazed at how this album just seemed to disappear after it came out.

How is it, o. nate? I'm guessing it's really good if you keep listening to it. :-)

How is it, o. nate? I'm guessing it's really good if you keep listening to it. :-)

Yeah, it's pretty good. I find it easier to just throw on while cooking dinner or something than his previous couple of albums were - those seemed a bit heavier.

Have there been any good debut albums this year?
astra - the weirding

That Micachu record is outstanding and I've yet to hear a single criticism of it that isn't either _______ or ________ or both.

Just because people are making the same criticisms doesn't mean those points aren't valid.

clark - totems flare (crank it up)
john tilbury & polwechsel - field
dino jr. - farm

"The songs are too short", "the girl can't sing" and "random bursts of noise" are pretty shaky reasons for a record's dismissal. You could dismiss "Another Green World" on the same ground.

There are things to dislike about it... that at least four songs sound exactly like "Tequila". I played the record for Ben Jacobs when he was staying with me, and he said, "it's awesome, but I can't listen to it. Her Surrey accent horrifies me."

Anyway, I love it. And I'm sad the Telepathe record got slept on. When it came out I read a lot of "don't like Williamsburg, don't like Nylon, don't like Sitek", but the sound of that record is terrifying and amazing.

Cosign on the Micachu record; it's just so much fun, the criticisms seem very mealy-mouthed and off-base. I think she's got a great voice for what she's doing.

Got around to checking out that Hatcham Social record last night... and again this morning... and earlier this afternoon... and again here shortly. Lovin' it.

"The songs are too short", "the girl can't sing" and "random bursts of noise" are pretty shaky reasons for a record's dismissal. You could dismiss "Another Green World" on the same ground.

uhh, two of these complaints certainly wouldn't make any sense leveled at Another Green World...

well, call Eno a girl all you want, but I won't tolerate anyone accusing Another Green World of having "random bursts of noise."

anyway, carry on, i haven't heard Micachu.

Granted the only exposure I've had to Micachu was an NPR video podcast, but she struck me as someone that spent way more time developing her carefully crafted "aww shucks, I just woke up from bed and wrote this silly lil' song" image than she did in actually developing an engaging tune.

a few of these were already mentioned, but worth repeating:

Albums

Fever Ray
Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Vertical Ascent
John Daly - Sea and Sky
Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem
El Perro del Mar - Love is Not Pop
Lindstrom & Prins - II
Yagya - Rigning

EPs

Giorgio Gigli - Observation Document
Even Tuell - Workshop 07
Donnacha Costello - While in Exile EP and Tragedy of Commons EP
Baby Ford - Gravy Train
Andre Lodemann - Coming Home
Sally Shapiro - Miracle
Burial & Four Tet - Moth
Chaton - +91 Ahead Session 3

To add to my list above, stuff I've added since my arbitrary cut-off date.

Oneida - Rated O (this would probably rank in the top 5, easily)
Maxwell - BLACKsummer'snight
Bowerbirds - Upper Air

Got around to checking out that Hatcham Social record last night... and again this morning... and earlier this afternoon... and again here shortly. Lovin' it.

yay! i think this record has been sadly slept on thus far

Heh, and I'm listening to it again right now

Thanks to everyone who mentioned Hatcham Social (which was totally off my radar). Great little album.

Albums I'm Looking Forward to:
Mariah Carey
Rooney
Yo La Tengo
Julian Casablancas
Cassie
Drake
Kris Allen
Jay Reatard
The Avalanches
Os Mutantes
Scarlett Johansson/Pete Yorn
Imogen Heap
D'Angelo
Christina Milian
Mission of Burma

I really like that Hatcham Social record ! I think this is the only place I have seen it mentioned, so thanks to those who praised it.

I find it hard to understand why this is apparently ignored when so many mediocre indie bands seem to be everywhere.

Yeah, I am really surprised by the lack of Hatcham Social love. You'd think with all of these bands like Crystal Stilts and Pains of Being Pure at Heart getting tons of buzz for mining the C86 thing, these guys would get some love somehow. Still very glad I grabbed that album knowing pretty much nothing about them.

i also recommend the bricolage album, which also mines the postcard vibe, albeit to the point of heavily borrowing from orange juice much of the time

i like the new declining winter record, the first post-Hood thing i have liked possibly because it sounds most like a Hood record though it's probably going to sound better in the autumn overcast than it does now in the 90 degree sunshine.

Polvo - In Prism .
one of the most successful reunion recordes ever.

oh man that micachu is good. i am definitely a sucker for short catchy quirky pop albums (unicorns, discovery etc) but there is so much to love on the album. to people saying she sings badly, it's basically a punk album so that's sorta irrelevant. also there is not a single random burst of noise on the entire album. every burst of noise is perfectly logical and lovely and not really even that unexpected.

The thread is upsetting me with no mentions of the wonderful "(A)spera" by Mirah. So, problem rectified.

these are my favorite albums of the year so far:

Necro Deathmort - This Beat Is Necrotronic

Subarachnoid Space - Eight Bells

Rice Corpse - Mrs. Rice Corpse

William Fowler Collins - Perdition Hill Radio

Violet - Violet Ray Gas And The Playback Singers

Gnaw Their Tongues - All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity

Sperm Whales/Color Rabbit - Split CD

Starving Weirdos - Into An Energy

Ata Ebtekar & The Iranian Orchestra For New Music - Ornamentalism

Overmars - Born Again (American release/reissue)

Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bar - Asylum Lunaticum

Frank Vigroux & Matthew Bourne - Call Me Madame (Good News From Wonderland)

Vagusnerve - Lo Pan

Kreng - L'Autopsie Phenomenale De Dieu

Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - UTP_

An Anthology Of Chinese Experimental Music 1992-2008

Nurse With Wound - The Surveillance Lounge

Gog - Mist From The Random More

Tim Olive - The Specialist

Whoah! A new Subarachnoid Space? That one totally flew by my radar!

I just tried to order that Mama Bar CD and FE was out, oh well.

latest wye oak album is just gorgeous, way better than their first which was pretty decent too

it's not as shoegaze as some seem to be describing it but it's more gaze than, say, beach house or speck mountain

other 2009 albums i am loving the heck out of right now:

desolation wilderness
my sad captains
fanfarlo (is there any good reason ilm is ignoring this? tip: it doesn't actually sound like arcade fire, as some complete idiots seem to think)
paper moon (omg girly power pop does not get better than this)

oh and i nearly forgot, the dolly rocker movement's "purple journey..." album is total psych pop loveliness and doesn't sound australian at all

albums:
Ada - Adaptations
Desire - Desire (untitled CDR on Italians Do It Better)
The Juan Maclean - The Future Will Come

singles:
DJ Kaos - "Love the Night Away (Tiedye mix)"
Lindstrom and Solale - "Baby I Can't Stop (Aeroplane mix)"
Shit Robot - "Simple Things (Work It Out) (Serge Santiago mix)"
Altair Nouveau - "Space Fortress"

my top whatever so far fwiw in no order

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Communion
DJ Quik & Kurupt - BlaQKout
Spinal Tap - Back From the Dead
Dev.D soundtrack
The-Dream - Love Vs. Money
Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years
Company of Thieves - Ordinary Riches
Otis Taylor - Pentatonic Wars and Other Love Songs
Electrik Red - How to Be a Lady Vol. 1
Meg & Dia - Here, Here, and Here
Fru Fru - Az Prileti Tucnak
Invisible System - Punt: Made in Ethiopia
Otep - Smash the Control Machine
Slivovitz - Hubris
KEEK - Ritter
Radio Moscow - Brain Cycles
R.Kelly - DJ Drama & DJ Skee mixtape
Trey Songz - Anticipation mixtape
Polly Scattergood - Polly Scattergood
P.O.S. - Never Better
Oneida - Rated O
Various Artists - Revolution Rising
Cheap Trick - The Latest
Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi
Gomez - A New Tide
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Michael Olatuja - Speak
Paulina Rubio - Gran City Pop

some others too

Amazed that no one has mentioned this yet:
Jeniferever - Spring Tides
The first two tracks are amazing, the rest of the album very good.