Interlude: Best of 2019

25 Best Songs of 2019

1. Beirut - Landslide
2. Andrew Bird- Manifest
3. Weyes Blood - Everyday
4. Sharon Von Etten - Seventeen
5. Ex Hex - Tough Enough OR Cosmic Cave
6. Bleached - Hard to Kill
7. Emily Wolfe- Holly Roller
8. Tank and the Bangas - Nice Things
9. Kehlani - Nights like this (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)
10. DJ Shadow - Rocket Fuel (feat. De La Soul)
11. Princess Nokia - Sugar Honey Ice Tea
12. Lower Dens - I Drive
13. Operators - I Feel Emotion
14. Ashley Tisdale - Love Me & Let Me Go
15. Ashley O - On a Roll
16. Dilllon Francis - Catchy Song (feat. T-Pain & That Girl Lay Lay)
17. The Dandy Warhols - Motor City Steel
18. Seratones - Gotta Get to Know Ya
19. Sunflower Bean - Come for Me
20. King Gizard and the Lizard Wizard - Self-Immolate OR Mars for the Rich
21. Power Trip - Hornet's Nest
22. Le Butcherettes - spider/WAVES (feat. Jello Biafra)
23. His Many Colored Fruit - Staring at Facebook Til It Makes Me Vomit
24. Purple Mountains - Snow is Falling in Manhattan
25. The Comet is Coming - Summon the Fire OR Unity

Best Album

1. Andrew Bird - My Finest Work Yet
2. Sharon Von Etten - Remind me Tomorrow
3. Charli XCX - Charli

Best Show

1. Kitty - Rose Gold: The Musical w/ vvervvolf (Rock and Roll Hotel, 8/14)
This show was by far the best thing I saw live this year, perhaps all the more so because it was too-sparsely attended and I never saw a word of press about it. Tragic! It blew my freaking mind by impressively turning a consistently great album into a sensory-overloading experience. It was totally an actual musical because there were spoken interludes, other people on stage, and a narrative. The officially stated story is this: a hot girl has problems, gets drunk, and plays music AND THAT IS LITERALLY WHAT HAPPENED. It was a very meta theatrical multimedia experience, and yea SUPER hot, but as a reminder, I'm here for the impressively independent DIY aesthetic, not the sex appeal. OK, fine- both. Both!  After years of internet-based fandom bordering on obsession I finally got to see Kitty, and it was all I could have ever wanted and more: the incredible new album in its entirety, the very best songs from her band with her husband, The Poms-Poms, performed with gusto, and just one classic Kitty song was all that was needed to make everyone dance- even the old people. vvervvolf was a perfect opening act, and I expect great things from them in the future. It was not even a tour, so I felt so fortunate to be able to catch it in DC, as it was only every played there and in NYC and LA. It was the kind of event that makes one feel lucky to have gotten out of the house and witness something fantastic that has never happened before and will never happen again. And as a late entry at the tail end of 2019, the new stuff from The Pom-Poms is making me VERY happy! I feel like I've been trying to tell everyone about  the greatness of Kitty since 2014 and while few cared as much as I did, this whole experience proved, at least to myself, that I was right a long about her.   
2. Spiritualized (Lincoln Theater, 4/6)
I've seen Spiritualized every chance I've had since 1997, and this was easily the best. This version of the band has been together long enough, and it's not too big but not too small either. The addition of three gospel singers (neither just 2 nor a full choir) was perfect, and the soul-pop renditions of songs that melted into glorious chaos was something to experience live - from a padded seat for the first time. And that light show- Oh happy day!  

Best New Artist
Sigrid 
It is kinda stretching here for the best new artist, but that was a really good debut pop album (she had an EP out last year). I liked both "Don't Kill my Vibe" and "Strangers" (the bigger hit), but the whole album is eminently listenable. She's young, so it will be interesting to see how it goes from here. I also can tell you (and the GRAMMYs) that the best new artist is NOT: 
Tank and the Bangas, 
'cause they are super-great but they've been around for too long to reasonably be considered new. Then again 
Lindsay Lou 
has been around for nearly that long, but this was the year I was so pleasantly surprised to "discover" her at Del Fest; new-to-me discoveries like that keep me going back to music festivals even if the announced artists seem either redundant or unknown. Let's have an honorable mention for the uniquely impressive 
Seratones, 
another "new" band that I was exposed to thanks to WTMD's First Thursday concert; just like 
Emily Wolfe, 
I didn't even make it to the show but was still blown away from seeing stuff online and listening to their full albums. 

Artist of the Year
The Regrettes
Their newest wasn't even my favorite album of the year--even though it sounds like a pile of near-perfect singles--and the best songs from it ("Pumpkin," "I Dare You," and "Dress Up") didn't even make the short list, but this band was everywhere in my media feeds this year, and I am all for it. This might be the perfect band that everyone in America should be listening to right now- an absolutely ideal mix of timeless rock influences and modern punk-ish sensibilities. "Pumpkin" might be their song I liked best, but it's not exactly representative enough of their overall sound. "I Dare You" is the perfect run-away single. The thing that really blew my mind was this incredible cover of an underplayed Queen song; I'm comfortable declaring it superior to the original! (Not necessarily from this year, but they are killing these covers: previously "A Teenager in Love" and this impeccably spunky performance of another excellent, underplayed classic rock song, this one from Sweet.)  I can only assume that their sold-out show in Baltimore (that I missed) was excellent because they immediately booked a larger venue in DC for their next pass through the area: my loss. They are all insanely adorable people, but more importantly they are so smart- making excellent musical choices paired with incisive, emo-esque lyrics. The way the brilliant lead singer (and lead songwriter) adds just the right amount of snarl to her sweetness is a 10/10. She and the band also released a Christmas duet with her actual rock-star/actor boyfriend. The whole band rocks, and those backing vocals are well-played too. Tell the young people!   

Looking forward to new stuff NEXT Year from
Ruby Ibarra
Sierra Hull
Kesha

and Playing over the End Credits of 2019
Titus Andronicus "I Blame Society"
OR
The 1975 

And now for some good heavy music that defies simple classification. Is it metal? I guess. Heavy metal? (Am I the only one that calls it that anymore?) Punk? Nah- there are not really any theatrics. Hardcore?  Not exactly (thanks for your opinion though, Wikipedia), but I bet someone calls this a post-punk band. Maybe even a post-punk hardcore band. Anything is possible. 

Whatever it is, I am here for it. I was completely unfamiliar with this band at first. They leaked into my library via a bandmate's recommendation, and then just sat there waiting to be heard. However, after this listening I can say that it certainly passes the time ably, if not always impressively. Yes, I could definitely listen to this endlessly, even if it never turns out to be my favorite band, and no single song is really too distinguishable from any of the others.

The fact that they got signed to Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles, after opening for him and the Melvins, is a big hint that there's something a bit more going on 
Whatever it is that makes this band more than just a hardcore band is probably not found in the lyrics though. Despite frequently clever song titles being a hallmark of the group, I understood almost not one word of their screaming. That's a little odd, but the almost-Cookie Monster-type vocals actually fit in quite well with the slamming guitars and brutal drums. The bass has to be called out a bit - it just plays the guitar riff nearly all the time. I was several albums deep before I was ever able to discern a distinct bass line. We will cut the guy some slack though since that's the vocalist and founding member playing bass. So he's busy screaming his head off, and writing stuff...probably booking shows and selling t-shirts too. The cute story is he met the founding drummer in a high school gym class after they noticed each other's homemade punk rock t-shirts in 1998.  I saw that story repeated several times online and would love to  hear what bands were on the shirts; it was some DC hardcore, apparently, which makes a lot of sense. Rites of Spring? Other than those two founding members on rhythm, there have been ELEVEN different guys playing guitar in this ongoing trio. One of the key guitarists quits to be a financial analyst, and many of the rest are key players from the Pacific Northwest scene. Since it is essentially a power trio, there are a lot of heavy, heavy guitars upfront, so it was surprising to lean it's basically a different guy every time. The riffs are consistently crunchy and delicious, huge. If Seattle Grunge had a baby with D.C. Post-Punk, but then that baby grew up and had another baby with like some violent, inebriated Metal, that baby would be this band. 

Although they release a few things between 1999 and 2003 on other labels, for the streaming listener it begins with 2001's aptly-titled Harshing Your Mellow. There's little on the next five albums that isn't set out here already. Yet it is appreciably noisy and sounds great loud, and we all want that at one time or another in our listening lives. I don't know what he's howling about, but the song titles are all either harrowing or hilarious: from "Paul Reubens Theater" to "Steal Your First Born" or "Life in the Noose."

Next, City of Stars (2004), is an album I listened to a fair amount, and it grew on me eventually, yet it's still not a deep appreciation: even hearing the songs over and over, I liked them each time but never came to recognize them. The titles are again often silly, but the singing is not. "I Think I'm a Werewolf," "High and Fighting," and "Afraid of Mountains" all earn at least an appreciated slight pause, but the "Have A Good Time All The Time" gets a special nod from me; it's not just good advice, it's the last line from the Spinal Tap movie, as spoken by their keyboardist. Sure, they do slow down for the 8-minute closer, but it would be deeper into their existence before they really made the most of dynamics. The last song works well, even though it could be an entirely different band. One might recall the schizophrenia of Lard's repertoire, particularly given the Alternative Tentacles connection.

The production and drumming gets notably fancier on later albums. For better or worse? It's kinda a wash. I'm not going to complain about hearing things clearer; it's not like it turned into overproduced cock-rock. The guitarist is new again, but you'd be hard-pressed to notice. This is absolutely NOT punk/hardcore drumming, nor are the production values. The production is so bizarrely (deliberately?) muted, like listening to a really loud show with heavy ear plugs in, but it's a somewhat different sound and it works for this material. The next album, Forging Steel and Laying Stone (2006), has a notable reference to Conan, with "Tower of the Elephant" being one of Conan's first adventure stories--and a song that does a lot in five minutes. Otherwise it's more of the same decent heavy rock on this album and the next, Navigating the Bronze. My joke: it's NOT a concept album about trying to play a gig in the Sunnydale. But you know what is a concept album? Their next album.

After playing with Converge (fuck yea) and Neurosis (OK, I guess), they left Alternative Tentacles to be on the Neurot label, which is basically Neurosis.  That's when they released the fairly incredible concept album Jersey Shores in 2008. The vinyl-exclusive version of the cover art is pretty sick

Maybe I just have a soft spot for concepts albums, but this one really seems to kick it up a notch for these guys. It's a bit like heavy metal prog rock at times, and that's to say nothing of the story they are telling. I don't want to spoil it for everyone, but the scariest bit is how far inland the killer shark gets by swimming up little streams. Yes, it's a true story, from New Jersey. I enjoyed this album the most and am grateful for having discovered it. 

They announce their breakup and play a farewell show before releasing Live to Crush. They might have gone back to Alternative Tentacles. It does seem like they might be broken up for real this time. So when the most recent guitarist and writer mostly responsible for the Jersey Shore stuff leaves the other two decide not to continue. They formed a new band, called Sandrider. And people call it "grunge metal" - on purpose! In 2011- to present! I snuck a listen and I definitely dig it. Sounds like stoner-metal to me.

I hope I haven't damned this band with faint praise. While it's true that few if any individual tracks rise above the muck, I thoroughly and consistently enjoyed listening to the band. I find them refreshingly aggressive, and just abrasive enough. After an evening at home listening to the Avett Brothers with the fam, it was a nice palette cleanse to start the early morning commute with these bashers. It looks hella fun too. I wouldn't have to remember the name or tune of a single song to enjoy this show:

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BONUS INTERNET PLAGIARISM 

According to Merriam-Webster.....

(hey, at least I didn't start the essay that way)

akimbo

 adjective or adverb

akim·​bo | \ ə-ˈkim-(ˌ)bō  \

Definition of akimbo

1: having the hand on the hip and the elbow turned outward

2: set in a bent positiona tailor sitting with legs akimbo

Did You Know?

It's "akimbo" nowadays, but in Middle English, the spelling "in kenebowe" was used for the bent, hand-on-hip arm (or later, for any bent position). Originally, the term was fairly neutral, but now saying that a person is standing with "arms akimbo" implies a posture that communicates defiance, confidence, aggressiveness, or arrogance. In her novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott took the word one step further, extending it into the figurative realm when she explained that tomboyish Jo had not been invited to participate in an elegant event with the other young ladies of the neighborhood because "her elbows were decidedly akimbo at this period of her life."

First Known Use of akimbo

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

History and Etymology for akimbo

Middle English in kenebowe

Ak1200

We aren't going to make this a whole blog post about jungle/drum'n'bass. And we certainly aren't going to get into the differences between jungle and drum'n'bass here today. All I know is that when I play this stuff my stereo simply cannot get loud enough, regardless of who is mixing it. It was a big thing in the 90s and I wish there was more now. It really seems like a niche subgenre, but it's got to be one of my favorites. It's kinda like that heavy metal of electronica.

I would also say that AK1200 is one of the Big Three when it comes to the jungle subgenre. But he's definitely a distant third behind Dieselboy and DJ Dara, with whom he started the legendary and never-ending Planet of the Drums tour. Still - not bad. He collaborated with those artists and many other big names in the genre. He did a little something with a Tribe Called Quest too that turned out great, and that kinda matters.

Despite his importance to the genre, the difficulty of how to listen to a DJ's entire repertoire in chronology order was solved by Google Play, which only offered me 10 songs. And really there were only four songs, with multiple remixes of several.

The first of these is "Keep Hope Alive" from the Urbal Beats 2 collection, which is a pretty legit collection from URB magazine. It's strange that it's not the first song on the album because it does that quirky thing where it starts off as a sorta goofy house song that emerges into a darker drum-and-bass beat. It's great. (If we ever get to listen to Atmospheric Drum and Bass that album starts with a similar trick.) The song is a remix of a Crystal Method track. Enjoy it:

Other than a random but decent track called "Fake," the other major streaming tracks were the singles for "Emancipate" and "Real Justice." Both are hard, fast bangers with a dark tone but a socially conscious edge. Basically, this is exactly what I'm looking for - sometimes, like late at night. Someone made a video of it, and there's not much more to listen to or comment on but it sure rocks hard:

Air Supply

And now for the musical-equivalent of a daytime soap opera.

This music is incredibly boring and marred by over-singing, but at least it's a real band making original music. The two guys' different voices work well together; I hadn't realize that was their thing in this band, but OK. There are many lineup changes, but the founding duo remain consistent: Graham Russell is the Brit that sing, writes, and plays guitar while Russell Hitchcock is the Aussie lead vocalist. Later, they sometimes serve as substitute hosts on Solid Gold. They met while performing together in a 1975 Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar, so excuse me if I proceed with caution. (One of the sisters that would go on to form the band Cheetah was also in that production and briefly played with these guys; her replacement in this band would eventually leave to play with Divinyls, and then later recruit away another Air Supply player to join him.) It turns out that I did know some of these songs, and overall it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that great of an experience either. I appreciate moving on my with listening.

I'm not really complaining, but it is a little awkward that their first four albums are not available streaming (in America?), so I went hunting through the dreaded Greatest Hits collections for the singles from some of those albums. Some were there, but others were not. Some showed up on the later albums. Still, I didn't even get to hear the entirety of Love & Other Bruises, third overall and their 1978 debut in America, which got to #2 in their native Australia, but the title track, their first single, did make it onto a collection. The album failed to chart in America, even though they had gone and re-recorded some of their earlier tracks for the occasion. So some of these songs were on the old albums, and some of them show up on later albums; there's some international repackaging going on here. It recalls the debate over what constitutes AC/DC's "first" album. There might be a self-titled floating around first in some markets. In the early days they toured with the likes of Rod Stewart, Boz Scaggs, Chicago. I know those are beloved bands to some, but we are undeniably dealing with "Soft Rock" here. The Simpsons called it wuss rock. If you enjoy Adult Contemporary then you might view these guys as masters of it.

Apparently there is a prior 1979 concept album(!) that morbid curiosity makes me interested in, but not that much. Lost in Love is actually their 5th album, but it's sorta the first in the US and the first I was able to listen to. Again, they are re-mixing and re-recording songs from previous albums. The first song "Lost In Love" comes from the concept album. It's a stunningly bland song to debut with. Nonetheless, this is where they make their mark. There are three Top 5 singles here. We all know "All Out Of Love," right? It is only the third song I l heard out of over a 100, but it has got to be one of their best. Oddly, I didn't recognize the song at first, but when the chorus hit the memories came flooding back. Where do I know this song from? From elevators? Commercials? The radio in my mom's car? Rollerskating? I suffered through often-cringe worthy lyrics and singing, but no more so than on "American Hearts," a shit song that made me want to confront these sappy Australians. They go a bit country, for some reason, on "Old Habits Die Hard." The funky disco  of "Just Another Woman, however, is a near-gem that sounds like late-period ABBA and showed this band can pep up when they want to. They don't want to often. Their ratio is all off: the rock album should have a few ballads on it, not the other way around.

I'm not entirely sure if my parents actually owned the next album or I've just seen it in so many thrift store record bins that I've become familiar with it in that way. Again, I hear some of these songs and wonder where I know them from, so vaguely on the edge of my childhood memories. It does contain a couple good songs that some might remember: "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I was Over You)" and "The One That You Love." It is super-easy to get the two hits confused, not least of which because when the latter's title is sung in the song it is also preceded by the line "Here I am...." Nonetheless, this is peak Air Supply and their most successful album. Pop maestro Clive Davis produces here, and he gets his hits. There's no denying the sweetness of their harmonies. "Sweet Dreams" is less memorable than the first two but a third Top Five single from the album. A song of theirs also gets used in a Japanese TV show, and so they become the proverbial "big in Japan." If soft rock is a genre then this album is a masterpiece of the genre, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for. After "Sweet Dreams" the album ends with four catatonic songs in a row, which is really damning because this was supposed to be their best ever work. It almost made me fall asleep while driving, so there's a legitimate danger lurking there.

They follow up with Now and Forever (1982), which effectively capitalizes on their momentum and success through the release of "Even the Nights are Better".  OK, sure that's a good song. So now we've got three or four pretty good songs worth acknowledging. I mean it's not great, but as long as I don't have to next listen to endlessly watered-down iterations of the same stuff for several more albums....

Although still in the early stages of their seventeen-album discography, things deteriorate rapidly after those two decent albums. For some reason the album they release in 1985, smack-dab in the middle of their career and not representing a change of sound in any way, is self-titled; it might have something to do with revamping the band personnel. When I read that Hearts in Motion (1986) was "a serious step down in the band's popularity" I got scared. I had every reason to be afraid. It is consistently weak and forgettable, but remember - they are trying to rock softly, so maybe somebody wanted this music.  Only "Lonely Is the Night" can rise above the pack; it was a mildly successful single, but you've got to really want it to like it. It's post-peak Air Supply and awkward, but it's the best they've got at this point. They follow it up with the uncalled-for Christmas Album, that adds nothing to any of the classics. They don't even make them sounds like Air Supply songs. It is a shamefully pointless collection of songs reminiscent of those 99 cent CDs you can get at Cracker Barrel or the grocery store: music by nobodies for anybody.

After a long break, during which the one guy releases a solo album that has a single featured in the 1990 movie Arachnophobia, they return with The Earth Is..., which fails to chart but launches them on a successful tour of Asia. I got nothing from this album except a brief nod for lead track, "Stronger Than the Night," the second in their series of songs about the night. It could be a great 80s power ballad, but it didn't chart. The problem might be that it was released in 1991. So this tolerable 80s band forges on into the 90s with limited success. Despite the alarming title of 1993's The Vanishing Race it actually alludes to the plight of the indigenous Australian people in sympathetic terms, not that there's a coherent concept album about it or anything. Again, I wasn't really too interested in most of this stuff and it generally sort of just washed over me inoffensively. There are some fine melodies on occasion I suppose ("Faith" comes to mind), but I gave most of these songs multiple listens trying to care and they never sunk in. Still, there is a mild rock band hidden in there somewhere. It sounds most like Styx when the electric guitar and driving drum beats occasionally kick in predominantly because the vocal similarities can be stunning at times.

News from Nowhere is a an apt title for their 1995 album that is seemingly devoid of purpose or meaningful content. It contains an unforgivable cover of "Unchained Melody" that cops too much from the Righteous Brothers' version. The album's title track is so airy that it's almost not even there. This was the album I lost patience with Air Supply. They seem to be mailing it in but enjoyed continued success in other places. There's another album that charts only in Asia.

The vanishing act continues on Yours Truly, which is also barely there. The beats are largely replaced by palatial strings and light acoustic guitar. I kept waiting for each song to kick in, and I got through more than half the album before anything happened. The lyrics become truly horrific, as in: "you are the future from the past/ You are the spell that has been cast." It recalls "Body Glove" from a previous album with the ghastly line: "the world is just potato chips/ joined together at the female hips." The last thing I want to hear is anybody's explanation of what that line is supposed to mean.

After a 16th unsuccessful album, it finally kicks up a slight notch for Mumbo Jumbo, a notable release from 2010 and their most recent album to date. As the title suggests, there is a bit more sonic variety here. Most of the songs chug-along with a decent beat. There's more electric guitars and drums, even hints of weirdness. It's more of a pop rock album, although they may very well have considered themselves that prior to this album. The ballads are power ballads. It's not all great, but at least they are trying-- and no doubt succeeding at their self-appointed task. It sits well with their other albums, so I hope their actual fans were pleased. Still, there are real problems. "Me Like You" is as dumb as it sounds. "Can I Be Your Lover" (no question mark) is irrirtating.  "Lovesex" is not just annoying-- it's actually kinda repulsive. It gets to a core issue: this is supposed to be a romantic band but there's little eroticism to this music (anymore, if there ever was) and some genuine potential for irritation. I didn't want to hear about "Learning to Make Love To You" either.

They are still touring and recently released a new single: "I Adore You" is OK. The track reels it in a bit and concentrates on what they do well: keeping it classy and smooth. And yet, even as I can picture this as someone's wedding song, I still don't want to hear it. "Do you mind if I adore you?" Gross, leave me alone. This stuff doesn't appeal to me much, but either does Thunder from Down Under - and both can still fill a room, so to each their own. I will leave this to the target audience. I have no doubt that this type of safe music and over-singing appeals to folks that watch American Idol and such.

Even bands that I might find musically dull can perhaps tell interesting stories. Taking a closer look can reveal nuances worthy of attention, even as it sharpens the focus on flaws. This band may have been done a disservice by the parameters of my project: perhaps Air Supply is not meant to be listened to in album chunks (much less all of them in a row). For most people, there's a time and a place where some of these songs will do nicely, and I'm comfortable including myself among them. Good for these two guys for still doing their thing today with little-to-no compromise of their original vision, whatever that might have been.