jj // KILLS (Chopped & Screwed)

One of my favorite parts about compiling my year-end list is to come up with the winner of the annual “Scott Walker Award.” Every year since I started doing these lists, the last entry has always been a quirky, off-the-wall addition that, somehow, still sounds pretty damn good. As my taste has become more and more skewed towards the weird over the years, it has been increasingly difficult to find an album so far-fetched for inclusion, however, the folks at Sincerely Yours made it easy on me this year by releasing a Chopped and Screwed version (produced by Joel Rampage) of last years #21 favorite album, jj’s KILLS mixtape. Now before you knock a remix album of a mixtape by a Swedish pop group heavily influenced by hip-hop (Kevin Bacon is at the eventual end to that descriptor chain), you might want to give a listen to the opening track, a reimagining of a reimagining of Dre/Snoop’s “Still” before passing judgement. If you don’t nod your head to that, well, you probably don’t have a head to nod.
jj // Still (Joel Rampage Chopped & Screwed)

Teams // Dxys Xff

Teams is one of those hard to describe artists that you can’t quite pigeonhole into a genre box. A listen to tracks like “Stunts” or the title track “Dxys Xff” might give you the impression that chillwave hasn’t quite gone by the over-hyped wayside, but then you hit the bass-heavy, synth-heavy explosion of “Comfort Slave” and you’re ready to hit some 22nd century discoteque to sweat your brains out. Follow that with the 80s retro, possibly Lil B inspired, “Based Love” and you’re ready to throw on some spandex and do some aerobics with Jane Fonda, but hold up, you got the smooth R&B sounds of “The Only One” that make you want to get freaky in the bedroom. Although synths and nostalgic sounds are reoccurring themes on Dxys Xff, the album is all over the place, which makes it an interesting listen every.single.time.
Teams // Comfort Slave

Minks // By the Hedge

Dave over at Rawkblog was the dude who helped up my love for these Captured Tracks all-stars. I’ve listened to some of Mink’s 7’’s over the years, but somehow their latest LP had slipped under the radar for me. If you know anything about Mike Sniper (founder of C/T – the label of Minks), you know that he loves 80s punk and 80s-inspired pop, and Minks are, loosely, a kind of fusion of the two. Shimmering guitars and synth melodies are there, but so are driving beats and sloppily sung vocals that stick within an octave range (re: “Funeral Song”). It just always amazes me how Mike finds these incredibly good unknown/unsigned bands that complement his label so well – and if you ask him, that’s what all labels should strive to do.
Minks // Kusmi

Elite Gymnastics // Ruin

Acephale Records was kind enough to give me a preview of Elite Gymnastics latest a couple of weeks before the release – and boy, have I spun the shit out of those mp3s this winter. It seemed that anytime snow was in the forecast, the whispered vocals of James Brooks and the mechanical drum beats of Elite Gymnastics always struck the right note. Their music is the audio equivalent of a wool blanket for me: warm, and so easy to cozy up with.
Elite Gymnastics // o m a m o r i

Acid House Kings // Music Sounds Better With You

Sugary sweet Swedish pop: uh, yes please! This trio of musical confectioners returned with little fanfare in 2011, but for those who did pay attention received quite the treat. Marked by sing-along lyrics and Disney melodies, The Acid House Kings would be the kings of feel-good music if it wasn’t for their pointedly sharp lyrics of lost love and messed-up relationships. After all, life isn’t always rainbows and lollipops, is it?
Acid House Kings // Would You Say Stop

Albino Father // Age

Now I’m not one to just casually throw a local band or artist onto any of my “Best Of” lists (in fact, only The Numerators have been on one – and that was for favorite 7’’/cassettes), so when you see Salt Lake City’s Albino Father on the list, you know they deserve it. The slogan “support local” can only take you so far. In order to land on the list, you have to have produced an album that I always find myself coming back to, and with Age, there were very few albums I played more the second half of 2011. If you want a full review, check out what I wrote about them here, but in a nutshell, Age, is a genre-spanning, easy-on-the-ears, jam-out of an album that just doesn’t get old!
Albino Father // Dirty Mirror

Destroyer // Kaputt

Not since Coltrain has the saxophone sounded so good! On paper, the sax-centric concept of Kaputt sounds absolutely terrible – in practice, however, it’s another story. The only disappointment with this album is that there isn’t a grainy, fan-shot youtube video of Dan Bejar tearing it up onstage with Kenny G. Otherwise, this album is an excellent update to the Genesis/Police schtick of the 80s: brilliant vocals with equally cheesy melodies. Only Bejar can pull something like that off.
Destroyer // Chinatown

White Fence // Is Growing Faith

Jesus Christ, this is an album. Sixteen solid psych/indie-folk/rock tracks that I can’t wait to get my vinyl grubbing hands on! Man, I can just envision the lo-fi production, with its series of small pops and static warbles, just adding, not taking away, from the quality of this album. Although the record only clocks in at 46 minutes, the ebbs-and-flows between up-tempo rock songs and jam-band ballads make it seem like you’ve been listening to the tunes of Tim Presley for hours and hours – without a care in the world the whole time. Now, let me just click “order” for the record, and I can continue with the list…
White Fence // Lillian (Won’t You Play Drums)

Cass McCombs // Wit’s End

For Cass McCombs, lyricism comes first. McCombs has a knack for making you sympathetic and emotionally attached to some of the most beautiful (although sometimes “out-there”) storylines in modern songwriting. With Wit’s End, Cass keeps some of the zaniest of Catacombs (re: “Don’t Vote,” “Prima Donna”) by touching on several songs with bits about astrolology, Tarot card reading, and general fortune telling, however, on other tracks, like “County Line,” which discusses a person returning home to a county that has changed so much that it becomes nearly unrecognizable, Cass is more focused on realism storytelling. Now all this emphasis on lyrics is not to imply that the music isn’t great, because the sweet sounding piano chords and easy-listening guitar work is nothing but beautiful, but it certainly plays second-fiddle to the words. And man, those words… pure gold!
Cass McCombs // County Line

Big Troubles // Romantic Comedy

Saw these chilled out New Jersey bros when they swung through Salt Lake City, opening for Real Estate. I hadn’t heard of them much beforehand, but their performance got me easily sucked into buying their debut at the show and I have loved it ever since! Pretty simple indie-pop tunes with vocals duties switching between Alex Craig and Ian Drennan (kind of like a less cerebral, more easy-going Wolf Parade) that are ripe for any beach road trip or lazy walks to nowhere.
Big Troubles // Misery

Puro Instinct // Headbangers in Ecstacy

I’ve been listening to Puro Instinct since about two iterations of their name ago (Pearl Harbour -> Pearl Harbor -> Puro Instinct), when they were self-releasing CD-Rs of their music with hand painted sleeves. It makes me nothing but happy to see how these two Cali girls are touring the world and releasing proper records on reputable labels. With Headbangers in Ecstacy, gone are the roughed up, noisy guitar melodies of the past (check out the difference between Calistonia Dreamin’s “Lost at Sea” and Headbangers “Lost at Sea” for an example), due to the increase in production quality taking everything into sharper focus. Thankfully, the angelic off-kilter vocals are still present, lingering above the haze of reverbed, shimmering guitars, making this album a bit more palatable than past ones while still keeping the vibe of the old.
Puro Instinct // Silky Eyes

Clams Casino // Instrumentals

Just want to say I liked Clams Casino’s throwaway album B-Sides and Instrumentals a lot too, but his more singularly titled Instrumentals absolutely killed. Sometimes it’s nice to edit-out the rap vocals and just jam out to some heavy beats – and that’s exactly what Clams Casino gives you: heavy beats. Supplying everybody from Lil B to A$AP Rocky to Soulja Boy (yes, Soulja Boy) with his thumping instrumentals, Clams is slowly making a name for himself in the production world. If 2011 was a breakout year for him, I’d imagine 2012 will be an explosion. Stay tuned.
Clams Casino // Motivation

John Maus // We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves

On first listen, you can’t help but think that John Maus’s music is a bit of a joke. I mean, the first time someone played “Cop Killer” for me – with lyrics “Cop Killer / let’s kill the cops tonight / Cop Killer / Kill every cop in sight” sung by the most whitest of white people – I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. But when the opening chimes of “…And The Rain” played, I became an instant fan of the quirkiness of John Maus and his baritone voice. Not only does We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves have one of the most original titles since Fiona Apple’s When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight And he’ll win the whole thing ‘fore he enters the ring There’s no body to batter when your mind is your might So when you go solo, you hold your own hand And remember that depth is the greatest of heights And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land And if you fall it won’t matter, cause you’ll know that you’re right, it has some of the most original music created this past year. Who could have thought that high-pitch synth flutters and deep sounding vocals paired so nicely.
John Maus // Hey Moon

RxRy// Alpha

As long time readers of the site are well aware, RxRy is one of my favorite electronic artists of the past five years, and it seems like I’m not the only one to recognize how good this dude is. Originally being released in autumn of 2010, Alpha got a vinyl release this past year, and man, it sounds wonderful on wax! RxRy produces some of the most luscious ambient tracks, and Alpha is chalk full of them (20 “songs” in total)! In January of 2012, RxRy released another album, entitled DLTRA (which you can check out here), that I’m sure you’ll be seeing on next year’s list.
RxRy // P.2_Smoke

Atlas Sound // Parallax

With an output rate that rivals Ryan Adams, it seems like Bradford Cox holds a perennial post on my year-end lists just because he makes so much damn good music. Taking the reins of Atlas Sound once again in 2011, Cox gives us another stellar, crisply executed indie-rock album that rivals even his own personal best. So, you know, just a typical year for Bradford & Company.
Atlas Sound // Te Amo

Braids // Native Speaker

2011 seemed to be the year of the opening track. Braids added their name to the list of stellar albums with stellar openers with the absolutely killer “Lemonade” off of the absolutely amazing Native Speaker. Now these might just sound like superlatives, but all it takes is one listen to the bubbly melody (re: Animal Collective’s “My Girls”) and effervescent vocals to nod your head in agreement. Probably one of the most overlooked album of 2011, Braids knocks their debut out of the park with track-after-track of energetic dream-pop (if there is such a thing) that simultaneously puts you to bed via Raphaelle Strandell-Preston’s sleepy singing only to jolt you awake with Red Bull alertness due to instrumental climaxes.
Braids // Lemonade

Grimes + d’Eon // Darkbloom

No doubt, Grimes is going to have a better 2012 than 2011 (if that’s possible) with the release of her stand-alone Visions LP, but it was tough to beat her collab album with fellow Canadian d’Eon from this past year. If you didn’t have the track “Vanessa” on your year-end favorites list, you are probably the only one of the planet to do so, and if you didn’t dance on your hardwood floor in your socks to “Crystal Ball,” well, I don’t think we can be friends. Not to play backup to Grimes, d’Eon also slayed it on Darkbloom with his electro-soul tracks “Transparency” and “Thousand Mile Trench.” Damn, March can’t come fast enough…
Grimes // Vanessa

Washed Out // Within and Without

Wasn’t chillwave suppose to be dead? Well if that was the case, then “Amor Fati” must have been the defibrillator paddles that brought it back to life. Unlike Ernest Greene’s Life of Leisure EP, Within and Without required a couple of listens to fully get over the chillwave burnout I endured back in 2010, but after a couple of spins I sensed I was becoming nostalgic for the nostalgic feeling the end of last decade – with all those bubbling synths and reverbed vocals – provided me with. Only Greene and his music could be this meta.
Washed Out // Amor Fati

Rangers // Pan Am Stories

Great noise album from a noise band that keeps getting better and better. This review from the Portland Mercury hits the nail on the head so spot-on, that I can’t possibly improve on it with my words.
Rangers // Sacred Cows

James Blake // S/T

Kind-of surprised how absent this album has been from people’s year-end lists (see: GvB). Yeah, it’s no CMYK, but it still is pretty fucking amazing – and it’s been one of my top listened to albums of the year (however, maybe the January release helped that out). Gorgeous Anthony Hedgegard-like vocals sung over some sparcely laid-out beats and melodies: what’s not to love?
James Blake // Wilhelms Scream

Colleen Green // Cujo

I’ve always been a fan of girl-driven garage rock and Colleen Green is its latest champion. Blazed lyrics and fuzzy guitars with some “don’t give a fuck” vocals, Colleen Green is everything that Best Coast should have been – and that’s just half of the music Green produces. On the flip-side, with tracks like “Mike” and “Cujo ” you have some rough-around-the-edges twee-pop, which are perfect song selections for your next angst driven karaoke party. All-in-all, this six track EP is a roller coaster ride of getting your ass kicked and kicking some ass that I’m sure glad to have ridden throughout 2012.
Colleen Green // Rabid Love

Weeknd // House of Balloons

In a genre that has remained virtually unchanged in this post-R Kelly world, House of Balloons is a reimagining of what R&B can be in the 21st century. I remember distinctly the first time I listened to the breakdown half-way through the title track – right when it switches to the “Glass Table Girls” part – when I said the words “damn, that was tiiiight” while driving alone in my car. The Weeknd seems to have found that sweet-spot between killer fresh beats and hyper-seductive lyrics and vocals. I mean, I’m pretty sure you could impregnate a girl just by playing “Wicked Games” on repeat. With three digital mixtapes to Weeknd’s credit (with a physical release of all three planned for 2012), House of Balloons is narrowly the best, so really, any of the three would have been worthy of inclusion in a year-end recap.
Weeknd // House of Balloons – Glass Table Girls

Laurel Halo // Hour Logic

A bit more accessible than Oneohtrix Point Never but similar in vibe, Laurel Halo has found herself a nice niche (and probably some nice venues) to fill. About as good as King Felix (which is saying something because I really loved that album), Hour Logic is 30+ minutes of rhythmic assaults and seemless synth morphings, creating something like a soundtrack of your imagination. Although it’s just an EP, it feels longer, more complete than what you get with six tracks (maybe the 9-minute epic title track has something to do with it). Listening to it strips you of your sense of time so that, before long, you wake up realizing that you’ve just played through the record six times non-stop and you’ve missed everything you had planned on a Saturday afternoon.
Laurel Halo // Aquifer

Widowspeak // S/T

So I wrote most of my list in December of 2011 only to have my finishing touches delayed due to work stuff all the way to February 2012. If I had the opportunity to rescore any album on the list, it would be this one – and I would have placed it waaaaaaay higher. The past three months, I have played Widowspeak pretty much everywhere I’ve gone – in the car, on an airplane, at parties – and have loved every single listen. There’s something about Molly Hamilton’s voice, that I just can’t quite put into words, that keeps me spellbound. From the first lyrics of “Puritan” (the drugged-out “farrrrrr outtttt draggggg”) to the closing line of the last bonus track “Burn Out” (the heartfelt “it can waaaaait”), I am entranced the whole time like I’ve been hypnotized. FYI: I somehow blew through the album twice while typing the paragraph – it has that much of a mesmerizing effect.
Widowspeak // Harsh Realm

Peaking Lights // 936

Super psyche and super trippy, Wisconsin’s Peaking Lights made the most sonically iridescent albums of the year. Other worldly elements come in and out of focus only to effortless dissolve in a sea of sound – Pitchfork’s Zach Kelly penned it right by describing 936 as “working like a kaleidoscope.” It’s heavy at times (“All the Sun that Shines”) airy at others (“Birds of Paradise Dub Version”), but the constant changes between tracks (and within them) keep you on your toes listening.
Peaking Lights // Birds of Paradise Dub Verison

Holy Other // With U

If the amount of mp3s of a song you have in your library tells you something, then the five (!) copies of “Touch,” acquired through five different sources, must mean that it’s the song of the year. Go ahead and add Holy Other’s With U to the growing list of EPs that have crept their way on this year lists and let the complaints start, but if your release is being anchored by something as original as “Touch” I can’t help to put whatever release that track came on onto the “Best Albums” list – even if it was just a 7’’! Fortunately, Holy Other made it easy on me and compiled an EP with four additional tracks that are just about as good. Even the haters of the Tri-Angle Records roster have to respect the creativity all of these artists seem to possess, and Holy Other is certainly at the head of the pack.
Holy Other // Touch

Grouper // A|A

For me, Liz Harris has been and will always be a favorite of mine just because of her choice of how to distribute her music. Sticking to ultra-limited releases on obscure labels, Grouper makes the experience of finding her music physically a sort of scavenger hunt (most of the time, 7’’s or EPs are long sold out before people even know that they are for sell). Add that to the random collabs Harris is known for, and you got quite the unique music listening/buying experience for the consumer. This kind of distribution model matches perfectly with the mysterious, ambient music that Harris seems to concoct effortlessly. Her latest double LP sub-titled Alien Observer | Dream Loss, is easy to get hooked on, but don’t expect to find it anywhere but on ebay at this point.
Grouper // Alien Observer

Korallreven // An Album by Korallreven

Looks like the Swedish dominance of the past half decade or so is here to stay. Following in the footsteps of fellow countrymen jj, Taken by Trees, Jens Lekman, and The Tough Alliance (where one member is the cornerstone of Korallreven), this Gotenburg based act released the sweetest electro-pop record of the year. Best known for producing killer mixtapes and one-off mp3s (all released via Acephale or Sincerely Yours), now they have mastered a complete LP. The bar is set pretty high for these guys, but they always find a way to pleasantly surprise you with their releases.
Korallreven // Loved-Up

Oneohtrix Point Never// Replica

It’s amazing what a year makes. After Returnal exploded on everyone’s year-end list last year (including yours truly), Daniel Lopatin has shifted from just another unknown DIY artist to a synth God, appearing everywhere from Altered Zones to The New Yorker. Trying to outdo himself, Lopatin’s latest, Replica¸ not only holds the title of best album cover of 2011 but also one of the best releases of the year. An ever-expanding, all encompassing album, Replica, shows off the limitlessness of Lopatin’s talent and imagination.
Oneohtrix Point Never // Sleep Dealer

Darkside // S/T

Normally I get my album mp3s from free handouts given by labels with vinyl purchases or through promo e-mails (and sometimes through, uh, alternative means), so I say it with near certainty that Darkside’s self-titled EP is the first album I have bought digitally in four years. Coming in at a whopping three tracks and a smidgeon over 15 minutes, it was tough to justify the inclusion of the EP on this list; that is, until you take a listen to it. Nicholas Jaar is some kind of savant when it comes to producing powerful, minimalist jams (although he would call it rock & roll) and Darkside is his best effort to date. A mix of funk and pop melodies, with a twist of Hot Chip-like vocals thrown in, the EP is pure sonic gold that is sure to get your head nodding.
Darkside // A1

Angel Olsen // Strange Cacti

It might seem unfair to include Strange Cacti on this year’s list (since the cassette of the same name and make-up made last year’s Best Cassettes/7’’s), but damnit (!) this album is just too good. With the upgrade to vinyl, you got a cleaner, more hi-fi sound that certainly makes Angel Olsen’s sharp vocals crisper and more poignant (although the heart of her act – the powerful songwriting – remains unchanged). Really looking forward to hearing a follow-up to this record in 2012.
Angel Olsen // Creator, Destroyer

Youth Lagoon // Year of Hibernation

It’s always nice to be at the front cusp of breaking trends. I was one of the first sites to hear and write about Trevor Powers’s strikingly intimate (yet at times, bombastic) bedroom pop tunes when he only had a bandcamp page with two tracks on it, and I have been a die-hard fan ever since. Although not as lo-fi a recording of some of John Darnielle’s albums, Year in Hibernation matches The Mountain Goats in effect: soaring crescendos, emphasis on lyrics, and an accomplishment of a grandiose vision.
Youth Lagoon // Cannons

Balam Acab // Wander|Wonder

Balam Acab’s ranking may have been influenced by my purchasing a better set of headphones. With a set of Sennheisers, the warm bass sounds and the sun-rise melodies that Balam Acab wraps you in, Wander|Wonder just seems that much warmer and sunnier. A marked transition from his earlier, darkly constructed See Birds EP, Balam’s latest is epitomized by his album cover: a beam of light shining through a crack in a cave. This youngster is so innovative and imaginative that even inventive-and-imaginative genre names (“witch house” being the surprising winner) don’t come close to sticking. In a year where electronic music expanded further than any other genre, this was one of the albums doing all the pushing.
Balam Acab // Oh, Why

Real Estate // Days

Not too surprising that the second best album contains the best song of the year (re: “It’s Real”). If Days is suppose to be Real Estate’s “sophomore slump,” then I can’t wait to see what this group of dudes have in store for us in the future. Unlike trying to reinvent themselves on their second album, Days is a nice add-on to their ever growing discography (with some tracks – like “Younger than Yesterday” – tying to older releases). After seeing them live on a couple of occasions, you can’t help but think that Real Estate is the modern day reincarnation of the 60s/70s jam band. I mean, all the basic jam band elements, like rambling guitar solos, drum lines with no end in sight, frequent opportunities for improv breakdowns, are still there, but Real Estate is a bit more user-friendly, so that both stoners and sobers can sit through a set with their eyes glazed in awe.
Real Estate // It’s Real

Tim Hecker // Ravedeath, 1972

Tim Hecker has been around a while, although I must admit that I’m a late addition to his fandom (both in general and with this record) – so I can’t quite tell you Hecker’s influences or how this record compares to some of his releases of yore. What I do know is that his darkly atmospheric Ravedeath, 1972 is like the birth-child between Fennesz and Pantha du Prince and is the best album that I’ve heard all year. To say that Ravedeath is complex is an understatement: there are textures and layers so dense that you’d need a jackhammer to excavate them. No doubt, listening takes a lot of effort that most people in the e-generation will forgo, but for those that sit through will find beautiful swells within the tidal waves of sound that Hecker produces. Like the Peaking Lights album, Ravedeath is a kaleidoscope of pulsating chords that not only leave you with the thought of “what am I listening to” but also with the question “how the hell did he make this.” Although the album title is a nod to a past event, the music is all future.
Tim Hecker // The Piano Drop

Top 35 Albums of 2011 [Recap]:

• [35] jj // KILLS (Chopped & Screwed)
• [34] Teams // Dxys Xff
• [33] Minks // By the Hedge
• [32] Elite Gymnastics // Ruin
• [31] Acid House Kings // Music Sounds Better With You
• [30] Albino Father // Age
• [29] Destroyer // Kaputt
• [28] White Fence // Is Growing Faith
• [27] Cass McCombs // Wit’s End
• [26] Big Troubles // Romantic Comedy
• [25] Puro Instinct // Headbangers in Ecstacy
• [24] Clams Casino // Instrumentals
• [23] John Maus // We Must Become…
• [22] RxRy // Alpha
• [21] Atlas Sound // Parallax
• [20] Braids // Native Speaker
• [19] Grimes + d’Eon // Darkbloom
• [18] Washed Out // Within and Without
• [17] Rangers // Pan Am Stories
• [16] James Blake // S/T
• [15] Colleen Green // Cujo
• [14] Weeknd // House of Balloons
• [13] Laurel Halo // Hour Logic
• [12] Widowspeak // S/T
• [11] Peaking Lights // 936
• [10] Holy Other // With U
• [09] Grouper // A|A
• [08] Korallreven // An Album by Korallreven
• [07] Oneohtrix Point Never // Replica
• [06] Darkside // S/T
• [05] Angel Olsen // Strange Cacti
• [04] Youth Lagoon // Year of Hibernation
• [03] Balam Acab // Wander|Wonder
• [02] Real Estate // Days
• [01] Tim Hecker // Ravedeath, 1972

As if I need another Swedish musician to follow, out pops Molly Nilsson. Her songs are equally simple and beautiful, creating some dreamy synth-pop tunes that are sure to put you into orbit. All of the tracks below are from her new LP, History, but you can check out some of her earlier stuff from her label Dark Skies Association (founded by Nilsson herself).

Molly Nilsson // You Always Hurt the One You Love [via]

The good folks over at Bathetic Records decided to usher in the new year in style by releasing a killer 14-track compilation. Here’s what co-creator Alex Zhang Hungtai had to say about it:

I’d like to take this opportunity to say that we are truly grateful and thank you all for your support this past year. Let this compilation be a signifier of more fucking bad ass music thats to come in 2012 from our crew and family. We hope you enjoy this FREE compilation as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Work hard, play hard, get paid, fund new project, write, record, repeat until you succeed. Cumulate and cumulate and cumulate.

Couldn’t say it any better… Below are two of my favorites from the comp, and you can download the whole thing for free from Bathetic’s site:

Speculator// Picking Flowers

Latern// Where Are We Now?

Apparently, there’s a ceo remix EP, appropriately entitled White Magic Epilogue, that has been teased on Sincerely Your’s website since November and is scheduled to drop any day now in the US (although I can’t find any info an a physical release anywhere; just digital it seems).

Second only to jj, ceo is one of my favorite Swedish neo-Balearic pop group (specific, I know) — in fact their debut charted on my Best Albums of 2010 list. Dan Lissvik, of Studio fame, takes one of the highlights of that album, the track Illuminata, and de-clutters it making a less frantic, more palatable version. Since I listened to the original about a billion times, I can’t help but feel that Lissvik’s version is bit neutered — slower tempo, no soaring strings, and an inexplicable throbbing bass line. I guess that’s tough criticism considering this is a remix (and I’ve undoubtedly praised similar reworkings in past posts), but when the original is as close to perfect as you can get, why mess with that? Check out both tracks below:

ceo // Illuminata (Dan Lissvik Remix)

ceo // Illuminata

Here is some local flavor for you from where I (still) call home: Lubbock, Texas. Growing up dead center of quite literally the middle of nowhere meant that we very seldom had any touring bands make a pit-stop in our college town. A plus to this otherwise negative isolation proved to be that local acts thrived. In fact, I would say that out of all of the places I’ve lived, Lubbock has had some of the most eclectic and better sounding local bands that I have heard. Not surprising, alt-country proved to house the best-of-the-best of bands, that being Thrift Store Cowboys. Although the group has toured extensively and recorded incredibly polished and delightful albums, they still have remained local at heart.

When I first started going to their shows about ten years ago, the core of the group consisted of singer/guitarist Daniel Fluitt and singer/fiddler Amanda Shires. Both are hyper-talented and incredibly hard-working and are deserving of higher acclaim. Below are two videos highlighting them individually (Amanda has since moved on and started recording solo albums, although her ties to Lubbock can still be seen in the video). Enjoy the best of West Texas!

Been super pumped for a Coasting follow-up every since the Brooklyn duo of Fiona Campbell and Madison Farmer dropped one of my favorite 7”s of last year. When Fiona blazed through Salt Lake City earlier this year, playing drums for Vivian Girls, she seemed just as excited as me about talking about the new stuff — and, after listening to the garage rock tunes of their LP Never Going Back, I kind of get why she couldn’t wait for the album to drop. “Portland” was the first “single” released from the record and earlier this week it got the video treatment, which you can check out below. You can cop the vinyl from M’Ladys here and be prepared to see it on a certain someone’s year-end list…

MLADYS 3 A4 – COASTING – PORTLAND by M’lady’s Records

A very poignant song by a very poignant songwriter. If you don’t know who Bradley Manning is, a simple google search will suffice.

Cass McCombs – Bradley Manning by DominoRecordCo

As priorly mentioned, I have a lot of random mp3s floating around my library. In an effort to highlight some of these often-forgotten, one-off tracks, I thought it would be best to put together an irregularly updated series entitled “Loose Tracks.”

The latest installment features the reworking of the stellar Smith Westerns song “End of the Night” by the Wisconsin (via San Fran) duo Peaking Lights. The remix centers around the periodic looping of the lyrics “everybody wants to be a star” with some guitar licks fading in-and-out of focus and percussive sounds bubbling up to the surface, creating a more droned-out version of the pop-rock original. I’ve only gotten a chance to listen to bits-and-peaces of Peaking Lights’ LP 936, but after re-discovering this remix, I’ll certainly be giving it more attention before composing my year-end lists. Check out the original and remix below.

By the way: Peaking Lights’ label Not Not Fun Records is doing a killer “Buy Three LPs get a Fourth Free” promo from now until the end of the year. Check out the details here.

Smith Westerns // End of the Night
Smith Westerns // End of the Night (Peaking Lights Remix)

One of Salt Lake City’s few record stores (and one of even fewer ones of merit), Slowtrain, is currently liquidating its inventory and are planning on closing for good by the end of this year. The husband/wife owner pair of Anna and Chris Brozek are expecting their first child and they have made the commendable decision to focus what little free time they presently have — both hold down “regular” jobs in addition to running the shop — to raising their soon-to-be daughter. If one sliver of good news can come out of this otherwise terribly sad event it’s that Slowtrain isn’t closing because of financial constraints like most of their record store contemporaries — in fact, the Brozek’s have noted that “business couldn’t be better.” So although we’re losing one of the places that have made Salt Lake City bearable for me, the success and economic viability of Slowtrain shows how strong the demand for quality music is here in Utah. Who knows, maybe the opening of a replacement shop is not so far-fetched of an idea after all.

“Let’s get vulnerable for a minute, pals,” – that’s how David Greenwald, oversee-er of the site Rawkblog, opened a mood-crushing post last week. Unlike 99.999999% of self-proclaimed bloggers out there (myself included), Dave actually does music journalism as a profession. If you know how bad it’s been lately for the music industry and also know how bad it’s been for the newspaper business, try multiplying the two in order to grasp how utterly shitty the past few years must have been for someone involved in both. The post pretty much dives head first in the troubles Dave has had with keeping his head above water lately and proposes one way, through a digital musical subscription run through Spotify, which might help keep him afloat.

Although I can’t completely relate with the difficulties and tough decisions that Dave must be going through, the one thing that I kept coming back to is how, if I would have chosen a different path, I might as well have found myself in a similar situation. You know when people pose hypothetical questions like “what would you do if you had millions of dollars,” you typically respond with something along the lines of pursuing your “dream job” (well, after the Ferrari purchase, of course). Well, mine would be a position somewhere that is integrally involved with music: whether it be running a label, designing Korg synths, or making a damn-good music site. Instead, though, what happens in most people’s lives is that the real world, with its rent or student debt or car payments, gets in the way and your dreams slowly give way to your practicality. Just how I got more involved professionally with engineering, thus relegating my love of music to “just a hobby,” Dave seems to be at a crossroads as well (in his case, law school). Maybe it’s a little bit of living vicariously through others, but you can’t help but hope that Dave (and all the people that choose to do what they truly love to do – especially when safer alternatives exist) find a way to succeed.

As Dave puts it best with an anecdote about another financially strapped website: “…you should support the things you love; if you don’t, then they go away. It may have happened to your favorite record store already. It may be about to happen right here.”

Indeed, this poignant message is very apropos.

Subscribe to Dave’s Mercury Music Digital Record Club here.