Part II (75 - 51)
Three posts in four days seems like a flurry of activity and it is for a guy on vacation … but this is really important shit and I wanted to make sure this year-end best-of list got to you in time to salvage your entire year. You're welcome!
First bit of business in this episode is a spoiler alert. No where on this list will you find anything by Jack White because Jack White is fucking incessant. In fact, Jack White hasn't made a worthwhile piece of music since people were still doing internet searches on Alta Vista. In short, fuck Jack White. You can't be on my list.
But on a more relevant tip, you know what other artist also sucks, but whom also seems to be on a shitload of worthy year-end lists? Sylvan Esso. I literally can't think of a single situation where I would prefer to listen to Hey Mami over any other piece of music, and that includes Jack White. I would actually prefer to listen to Jack White over Sylvan Esso, thats how bad it is.
And if you haven't heard either of these albums this year, feel free to take my word on both of em. It's like when your mothers warned you not to stare at the sun or drink poison. Sometimes at the behest of curiosity, its better to just take them at their word.
At least there wasn't an Avett Brothers release this year. There wasn't was there?
Anyway, now onto the meaty part of [AA]'s Top 101 of 2014
PART III of IV | #50 - #26
50 - Broods | Mother & Father from Evergreen: Kiwi pop that very fortunately wasn't buried by American satellite radio.
49 - Little Boots | Taste It from Business Pleasure EP: Female electroclash is our weakness.
48 - The New Pornographers | Champions Of Red Wine from Brill Bruisers: Great effort by the Canadian indie legends, in large part because most of this album sounds like it was recorded drunk, which is how the greatest artists should always do it.
47 - Future Islands | Back in the Tall Grass from Singles: Underrated band, underrated dance moves.
46 - Tennis | I'm Callin' from Ritual in Repeat: Saccharine sweet female indie pop is our weakness. An [AA] gig favorite from 2014.
45 - Strand of Oaks | Goshen '97 from HEAL: Our pal BeertownAustin would smash his computer into bits if we didn't give him credit for introducing us to Strands of Oak. Fine, dude, they're really good, mkay? Go brood about something else now.
44 - Fat White Family | Is It Raining in Your Mouth? from Champagne Holocaust: One of the white hot artists of SXSW 2014. These dudes appear to be certifiably nuts. Makes us miss Wu Lyf.
43 - We Were Promised Jetpacks | Bright Minds from Unravelling: The second selection from WWPJP on our list. In our top 3 favorite acts at SXSW 2014. These Scots do music very well.
42 - Kevin Drew | And That's All I Know from Darlings: Yep, this list is strewn with Canadians. Beautiful Canadians.
41 - St. Vincent | Birth In Reverse from St. Vincent: We could be the only folks in the indieverse who are not an unapologetic St. Vincent extremist, she's just okay -- however, this song is a totes jam and should be played liberally.
40 - The New Pornographers | War on the East Coast from Brill Bruisers: We didn't say this was gonna be a diverse list, but The Pornos just made a solid album and its our duty to let you know it.
39 - Chromeo | Old 45's from White Women: No srsly tho. We haven't seen this many Cunucks on a list since You Can't Do That On Television was sweeping the Kids Choice Awards in 1983. Chromeo's album was our hidden gem this year.
38 - PHOX | Slow Motion from PHOX: Well, no. Maybe this one was. This whole album deserved so much more attention.
37 - The War On Drugs | Red Eyes from Lost in the Dream: On a lot of lists for album of the year. We won't take it that far, but this was definitely a noteworthy song. They lose a bunch of cred points though, for being Mark Kozeleks bottom bitches in '14.
36 - Kishi Bashi | Manchester from 151a: A touring member of the band, of Montreal, his music has a ton of depth and lyrical embedding. Good stuff.
35 - Owl John | Stupid Boy from Owl John: Owl John is the side project of Frightened Rabbit's guitarist/vocalist Scott Hutchison, and its aces. The Scots typically win indie music, and when these are just the side projects, its easy to see why.
34 - Lo-Fang | When We're Fire from Blue Film: We felt like we were some of the first people out there in the blogosphere to blow up Lo-Fang in 2013 (he even made our top 101 last year). His debut album in 2014 was good, but didn't have as much lasting power as we first thought.
33 - The Antlers | Intruders from Familiars: Another candidate for Top 3 gigs in 2014, a list that spans 20 acts. Familiars is genuinely in our Top 3 albums of 2014, though.
32 - Young Ejecta | Welcome to Love from The Planet: Wowzers, we fell immediately in love with Leanne Macomber, one half of Young Ejecta, which is a side project of hers when not recording with Neon Indian.
31 - TV On The Radio | Careful You from Seeds: Our most anticipated album of 2014, which held expectations for us that couldn't be possibly lived up to. Nonetheless, the album is pocked with nifty little songs like this one.
30 - Tennis | Never Work for Free from Ritual in Repeat: Sweet, delicious, upper crust, female-lead, indie pop.
29 - Pixies | Greens and Blues from Indie Cindy: Shite album, which again, could never meet our anticipatory demands, but this is an amazing song reminiscent of the Bossanova era.
28 - Delta Spirit | Language Of The Dead from Into the Wide: Our drunkest show of 2014, we don't even remember if they played this song before we hailed an Uber, but we wanna say we did and it was killer.
27 - The Antlers | Parade from Familiars: Gospel music for the Church of Chillwave.
26 - Spoon | Inside Out
… to be continued.
1 comment:
Thanks for the HT, but I shoulda been credited for at least half of these picks. Yr welcome.
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