The Authors pick their top albums of 2008

…posted this in a few places but didn’t even think to put it on this blog.  Anyway, the band I am in is called the Authors.  Justin and I put up our top releases of 2008 and for the interest of the music lover who might stumble across this blog, it’s listed below.  Most of these have already been featured here although I need to get on the ball and put up the “Very Best” Esau videos(thanks to gorilla vs bear for turning me on to them).

Justin’s:
1. Cut Copy “In Ghost Colours”
2. Friendly Fires “Friendly Fires”
3. Vampire Weekend “Vampire Weekend”
4. Fleet Foxes “Fleet Foxes” & “Sun Giant EP”
5. TV On The Radio “Dear Science”
6. Esau Mwamwaya + Radioclit “The Very Best Mixtape”
7. Hercules & Love Affair “Hercules & Love Affair”
8. Kanye West “808 & Heartbreak”
9. M83 “Saturdays = Youth”
10. Crystal Stilts “Alight of Night”
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Ben’s top 11 in no particular order
Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Vampire Weekend – S/T
Fleet Foxes – S/T
Hercules and Love Affair – S/T
M83 – Saturdays=Youth
Dr Dog – Fate
The Ruby Suns – Sea Lion
Chad Van Gaalen – Soft Airplane
Little Joy – S/T
Women – S/T
The Walkmen – You and Me

Honorably mentioned
Vivien Girls – S/T
Atlas Sound – S/T
Nigeria 70 (compilation)
Esau Mwamwaya + Radioclit – The Very Best Mixtape
Crystal Stilts – Alight of Night

the reluctant female folk musicians

For this post I want to focus on a couple of very talented musicians who choose to walk away from promising music careers and as a result their music sunk into obscurity up until the last few years.  

It Hurts Me Too by Karen Dalton – In 2004 Bob Dylan wrote that Karen was his favorite singer when he first came to Greenwhich Village – in fact they even performed together a few times in those early days of the folk movement along with underrated folky Fred Neil.  Karen recorded two albums in the late 60s/early 70s before dropping out of the music scene all together.   Most music historians argue about what exactly became of her after she dropped out.  It seems the popular belief now is she split time between a desolate cabin in Colorado and staying with old friends in upstate New York.  She died in 1993 from complications of AIDS after spending 8 years living with the disease while fighting drug and alcohol problems.  Fun Fact (in an otherwise dreary post) – Karen’s mother was full Cherokee Indian.   

Tonight by Sibyelle Baier – the story goes German born Sibyelle recorded a handful of tunes in the early 70s when she was both a musician and actress.  She decided not to pursue those early careers and instead moved to America and concentrated on raising a family.  30 years later her son Robby compiled a CD to give as gifts to family after finding the original recordings his Mom had made.  One of those CDs ended up in the hands of J Mascis who in turn passed it on to some of his record label friends at Orange Twin who turned the CD into an official release.  Sibyelle is said to be working on a new album now.  

Diamond Day by Vashti Bunyan – In the mid 60s Vashti was discovered by Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham and released her first single – a Jagger/Richards tune- to little fan fare.  She then started writing her first album while on a commune with folk singer Donovan.  She finally released that album in 1970 but the album never found it’s audience and a frustrated Vashti retreated to live a rural life raising her 3 children and tending to animals.  In that time, her album had become a bit of a collectors item completely outside of her knowing it.  In 2000 the album was re-released and Vashti became a bit of an influence on the newer indie folk movement with Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, and members of Mice Parade working with her.  She now tours and is recording new material again.  

Why do I feel awkward posting about Little Joy?

…look, Little Joy just put out a fantastic album but I can’t help but feel a little weird about talking about any Fab Morreti project. It’s not like he wasn’t talked about a zillion times for his instant rock star looks as a drummer of the Strokes(despite not being a very good drummer) or as Drew Barrymoore’s husband. I mean there comes a point where you go – do I really need to talk about a wealthy guy who so far has won the genetic, marital, and musical lotteries?

Here at SoV -we root for the underdog. The struggling artists, the unheard of geniuses – how can we feature a guy who has bloggers & mainstream media alike camped on his doorstep waiting for him to make his next move? Well the answer is, if you make an album as honest and unpretentious as he just did with Little Joy or as solid as the first Strokes album, you deserve the hype despite possessing a good amount of luck too. Besides, I can’t help but me more taken by Fab’s lesser known band mates when I listen to this.

In keeping with the theme of things I’m embarrassed to post, add to the list the abundance of intimate videos with artists playing acoustically – often times in unconventional spaces. Don’t get me wrong, seeing Arcade Fire play in an elevator or Spoon play in the back of a cab are cool videos but there are soooo many rip offs of this style of documentary format right now that’s it’s almost unbearable to watch. To make things worse, it’s become a bit of a fad and you hear artists featured who don’t translate well at all into the stripped down acoustic environment. The Ruby Suns need that everything & the kitchen sink in their arrangements – that’s their point of view. When you take that away, they just sound like hippies and the art is lost.

…so without further adieu, here is Little Joy playing a few songs off their amazing debut album to a small camera crew filming in a gritty style in an intimate space – and it’s wonderful! By the way, this is the second straight post featuring a Rough Trade artist. They must be doing something right over there at Rough Trade(well, they always are actually)….

Unattainable by Little Joy (DUMBO Sessions West) – I love this woman’s voice. Reminds me A LOT of Vashti Bunyan with a wee bit of Jolie Holland without the twang.

Next Time Around by Little Joy (DUMBO Sessions West) – this actually reminds me of a couple of songs from the fantastic first Band of Bees album(or just “The Bees” in the UK because of the 60s garage rock band called “The Bees” in the US).

Chad Van Gaalen or is it VanGaalen?

I was about to do a post on Devin Flynn and Chad Van Gaalen as musician animators and then I just decided to give Devin’s band Pixeltan(his animation series is called Ya’ll So Stupid) it’s own post(from a few weeks ago) and here is Chad’s.

Chad is an animator and musician who happens to do many(if not all) his own videos and also many of the bands he shares a record label with on Sub Pop. I’m actually shocked Chad isn’t a household name…in indie fans houses at least. Take Neil Young vocals(Chad is also a Canadian – Calgary to be exact) and add some amazing lo fi folk a la the Microphones and you have Chad…but then again, that’s almost too limiting as he seems to truly have a unique style that never quite fits into one specific category. See for yourself.

Molten Light by Chad Van Gaalen or maybe it’s VanGaalen – I have seen it spelled both ways multiple times and honestly I don’t know which is correct.

Flower Gardens by Chad VanGaalen – starts off curiously but you must hear him make stuttering really cool.

Mini TVs by Chad Van Gaalen – this is a pretty good live version but the recorded one is even nicer because it has all kinds of atonal guitar parts and weird sound effects.  The harmonica melody sounds a lot like something on a Neil Young album but I can’t remember which song it is now.

The Glow Pt 2 by The Microphones – this is just for bonus points since I mentioned them earlier.

Len Chandler – my newest Broadside discovery

…this guy really struck me as an interesting singer/writer.  I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of him until a few minutes ago.  Oddly enough, I was listening to stuff on sampler disc to the giant “Broadside” box set this past weekend where he was signed through his career but he wasn’t on the disc I had.  For those who don’t know, Broadside was a magazine started in the early 60s that focused on topical songs – mostly of the folk variety.  Basically it was a socially conscious publication that discussed and distributed songs about political & social issues at the time.  It’s widely regarded as an important publication in the development of the 60’s folk revival that launched the careers of Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, etc, etc.  In fact, some of Dylan’s earliest pieces were recorded by Broadside.  If your really into this type of music – mostly protest songs in folk arrangments – check out the entire Broadside box set by the Smithsonian.  I can’t say I like it enough to warrant a 5 disc set, but it’s interesting enough to listen to a sampler of the artists it featured.

Keep on Keepin On by Len Chandler