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Monday, Dec. 21st 2009
By LB
As is custom, below is a handy-dandy list of those local (Pacific Northwest, actually) records that really reverberated in me this past year. And it’s all quite varied, which was a nice surprise: some garage, some psych-pop, some desert-rock, some hip-hop, some art-punk, some dance-punk, some black metal, and some glue-wave. Three Portland bands made the list (five counting the Honorable Mentions), and one from Anacortes, one who may not ever make another record and one big smart one who isn’t really local anymore. DO YOU HATE IT? OR HEART IT?
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10. The Curious Mystery – Rotting Slowly (K)
 “Rotting Slowly, their debut on K Records, is a crawling, creeping panoramic desert-rock vista that intently blazes your brain, parches your senses, and allows you to quench with sweaty vocals and twist-heavy garage psychedelia dirges. Gothic Americana layered thick with ramblin’ hippie blues…My favorite so far is “Nicaragua”, a cinematic soundscape that earnestly plods through the grass fields, palms outstretched, searching for that familiar country home. Gonzalez masters his strings like a snake charmer, and the final flourish from a hypnotized Hudson really delivers.” [Full Review]
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9. Talbot Tagora – Lessons in the Woods or a City (Hardly Art)
 “The trio’s ardent output is rife with haunting, atypical rhythms, oblique guitars shrouded in drone and reverb, and echoing vocals cloaked cryptically in both their content and audibility. There are few refrains, and lyrics are made up of nonsensical tales, abstract imagery, and convoluted, anti-culture rhetoric. It’s an arresting collection of angled, like-minded punk songs laced with a gaunt hypnosis, a deathly fluidity that demands repeat listening. If only to figure out what the hell is going on within all that chaos.” [Full Review & .mp3s]
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8. Champagne Champagne – Champagne Champagne (self)
 “The self-titled album plays like a graphic novel written by John Hughes. And like a superhero’s illustrious cape, it’s wide-spread, dashing, confident and passionate, emblazoned with a bleeding heart nostalgia that captures exactly what you’d expect it to. Executed against the vivid backdrop of Mark Gajadhar’s colorful, inventive, and electro-funk beats (not to mention a few choice samples, one of which fans of Mr. Rogers will enjoy), Pearl Dragon paints his heart on sleeve, coming across as neither hard nor soft but as a dynamic persona looking to right his wrongs.” [Full Review & .mp3s]
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7. Viva Voce – Rose City (Barsuk)
 “Kevin and Anita Robinson are the masterminds behind Viva Voce, and, as the more countrified psychedelia of previous records might suggest, hail originally from Alabama. They’ve called Portland, OR home for most of this millennium, and found it so fit that they decided to write a song about it. “Rose City” is a swaggerin’, struttin’ fast-paced homage with some incredibly nimble—and often nasty—guitar licks. Anita, whose alluring, comfortable coo often provides a nifty counterbalance to her brash and fiery axe-swingin’, sings “I wanna go back where it’s grey and green / and the protest songs have tambourines”. As a former Portland resident, I get giddy listening to this line.” [Full Review & .mp3s]
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6. The Purrs – Amused, Confused, and More Bad News (self)
 “The quartet, for the most part, stays true to its atmospheric psych-pop maxims: vocalist/bassist Jima’s lucid bellyaches about his heartbreaks and hangovers, eternally stuck in the doldrums, and Jason Milne’s high-fret wandering manifestos. Like any good songwriter, Jima is adept at turning his written prose into singing poetry, often laced with cynicism and snark. The guy’s probably had ten times as many breakups as you or I, yet he is nothing if not resolute, determined to shake off his funk, and preferably with a drink. There is a heaviness to this album that differs from their first two, as the band opts for less exploration and more immediacy in achieving their final compositions.” [Full Review & .mp3s]
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5. YACHT – See Mystery Lights (DFA)
 As far as dance records go, See Mystery Lights is likely going to be one of the quirkiest and most charming ones you’re going to hear. It’ll probably be one of the best, too. On YACHT’s 6th full length and first for DFA (the reigning domain of James Murphy and his LCD Soundsystem), Portlander Jona Bechtolt and his new cohort, Claire Evans, blissfully dabble in a sort of urban neo-evangelism while bouncing to wonky, bubbling beats and insistent mantras. With over-exuberant soapboxing on the ambiguity of “The Afterlife”, the dizzying decision of where to call home (”It’s Boring/You Can Live Anywhere You Want”), and the risk/reward tradeoff of our oh-so-grand Internet Age (”We Have All We Ever Wanted”), the message quickly stimulates the 25 billion neurons held in our cerebral cortex. And that’s before the album’s two best tracks: “Psychic City (Voodoo City)” and “Summer Song”. I’m definitely in love with this ripper.
4. Mount Eerie – Wind’s Poem (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
 “Taken by its elegiac, methodical march, the beautiful behemoth has me cradled in its giant palm. I’m compelled to kneel before some sort of Dark Lord and succumb to his intoxicating assurance of malevolent glory…The metal influence is apparent in this Wind’s Poem—frightening dirges here, unholy crescendos there—but a graceful sadness and a somber understanding of the world broaden and deepen Elverum’s ultimate story. Elongated processions of Twin Peaks-style organs (particularly in “Between Two Mysteries” in which a sample is used from David Lynch’s seminal series, and even makes mention of the fictitious town’s namesake) seek to calm the fury.” [Full Review & .mp3s]
3. Fresh Espresso – Glamour (Out For Stardom)
 “Those familiar with Mad Rad will find some similarities with that ghetto-tech spaz clan’s debut (P Smoov is the primary beatmaker behind both works), but Rik Rude’s Bay Area-via-Michigan voice adds a welcome temperance and savvy to the album’s vibe. When Rik’s feeling hot, Smoov cranks it up; when Rik’s feeling pensive, Smoov slows it down. As such, the producer’s influences are diverse and proudly on display: techno, disco, funk, soul, neo-jazz, hip hop from all three decades. The songs, melded shrewdly together, fly by without being hyperactive. They get one hand waving in the air while the other simultaneously strokes the nodding chin.” [Full Review & .mp3s]
2. Gossip – Music For Men (Columbia)
 “Music For Men undoubtedly focuses on (Beth Ditto’s) incredible voice, with glossy guitars and jagged punk/funk dance rhythms struttin’ along with her. Brace Paine sounds really solid and sinewy throughout. The album’s a bit overproduced (thanks, RICK [Note: this was a slight to über-producer Rick Rubin, but it doesn't bother me anymore. This record is dynamite.]) and might catapult them into mainstream-land, but it does succeed on other levels. Ditto and her bandmates aren’t shy and their tunes raunchily flaunt their collective persona. The one that says “fuck you, let’s rock”. Many of the songs are catchy as hell and probably will sound awesome in a live setting. “Four Letter Word” gives a head nod to the Knife and is one of a few tunes that slows down and really simmers. “Love Long Distance” utilizes a piano to get out the boogie and probably doesn’t even need a remix to be a dancefloor hit.” [Full Review & .mp3s]
1. The Intelligence – Fake Surfers (In the Red)
 “On the surface, this new record doesn’t stray too far from the zany and cataclysmically awesome Deuteronomy, and detractors might even suggest that the native Californian has once again “gone pop”. True, (Lars) Finberg’s two most recent efforts deviate aesthetically from his home-recorded debut Boredom and Terror, but as artistic evolution will tell you: you can’t really grow as an artist without expanding your palette. For a band, then, whose moniker is “The Intelligence”, it’s only natural that it progressed from a less sophisticated MO to one where studio time and fleshier songs define its current output. That’s not to say, however, that all the sonic layering, deadpan criticism, and miscellaneous weirdoisms are gone; they ain’t. Finberg has even described it as “a hi-fi version of our first record”. With some subtle changes here and some new elements there, Fake Surfers is exactly what it intends to be: the next great record in glue-wave.” [Full Review & .mp3s]
Honorable Mentions:
Loveland – The Beautiful Truth (Tigre Blanco)
The Cave Singers – Welcome Joy (Matador)
Grand Archives – Keep In Mind Frankenstein (Sub Pop)
Starfucker – Jupiter (Badman)
Nurses – Apple’s Acre (Dead Oceans)
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