My Top Albums of the Decade (#26-#50)

My top albums of the decade list continues....
Numbers #26-#50 today.

I'll post #1-#25 next week after it's been published on the website that I wrote it for.

26. Sufjan Stevens -"Michigan" (2003)
27. The Thermals -"The Body, The Blood and The Machine" (2006)
28. A Perfect Circle -"Mer de Noms" (2000)
29. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! -"Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!" (2005)
30. The Shins -"Oh, Inverted World" (2001)
31. Bright Eyes -"Digital Ash In A Digital Urn" (2005)
32. Placebo - "Black Market Music" (2000)
33. mewithoutYOU -"Brother, Sister" (2006)
34. Limbeck -"Hi, Everything's Great" (2003)
35. Sonic Youth -"Murray Street" (2002)
36. Modest Mouse -"The Moon and Antarctica" (2000)
37. Muse -"Origin of Symmetry" (2001)
38. Dinosaur Jr. -"Farm" (2009)
39. Animal Collective -"Feels" (2003)
40. Great Lakes Myth Society -"Great Lakes Myth Society" (2005)
41. Sigur Rós -"Takk..." (2005)
42. Kevin Devine -"Put Your Ghost to Rest" (2006)
43. Fuck Buttons -"Street Horrsing" (2007)
44. City & Colour -"Sometimes" (2005)
45. Band of Horses -"Cease to Begin" (2007)
46. Dirty Projectors -"Bitte Orca" (2009)
47. Kanye West -"The College Dropout" (2004)
48. The Rural Alberta Advantage -"Hometowns" (2009)
49. Matt Pond PA -"Several Arrows Later" (2005)
50. Explosions in the Sky -"The Earth is Not A Cold Dead Place" (2003)

My Top Albums of the Decade (#51-#100)

So I was asked to compile a list of the top 25 albums of the decade for an online music review site ran by a friend of mine. I got around to making the list and realized I like way too many albums to list just the Top 25. So, I have a list of the top 100.

I will post 50 today, 25 tomorrow and the Top 25 sometime soon after.

So here it goes:
51. Cut Copy - "In Ghost Colours" (2008)
52. Bright Eyes - "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" (2005)
53. Autolux - "Future Perfect" (2004)
54. TV On the Radio - "Return to Cookie Mountain" (2006)
55. Sybris - "Into the Trees" (2008)
56. Spoon - "Gimme Fiction" (2005)
57. Rain Machine - "Rain Machine" (2009)
58. The National -"Boxer" (2007)
59. Minus the Bear - "Highly Refined Pirates" (2002)
60. Copeland - "Beneath Medicine Tree" (2003)
61. Animal Collective - "Merriweather Post Pavilion" (2009)
62. As Tall As Lions - "As Tall As Lions" (2006)
63. 13 & God - "13 & God" (2005)
64. Xiu Xiu - "The Air Force" (2006)
65. Junior Boys - "So This Is Goodbye" (2006)
66. Dredg - "Catch Without Arms" (2005)
67. The Dandy Warhols - "Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia" (2000)
68. The Format - "Dog Problems" (2006)
69. Sufjan Stevens - "Illinois" (2005)
70. The Faint - "Danse Macabre (2001)
71. M83 - "Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts" (2003)
72. Sigur Rós - "()" (2002)
73. Subtle - "Exiting ARM" (2008)
74. Mason Proper - "Olly Oxen Free" (2008)
75. Battles - "Mirrored" (2007)
76. Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible" (2007)
77. Gogol Bordello - "Super Taranta" (2007)
78. Grizzly Bear - "Yellow House" (2006)
79. Saturday Looks Good To Me - "Fill Up the Room" (2007)
80. The New Pornographers - "Twin Cinema" (2005)
81. The Frames - "Set List (Live Album)" (2003)
82. Edan - "Primitive Plus" (2002)
83. Death Cab For Cutie - "Transatlanticism" (2003)
84. Anathallo - "Floating World" (2006)
85. No Age - "Nouns" (2008)
86. Glassjaw - "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence" (2000)
87. Elliott Smith - "From A Basement On The Hill"(2004)
88. Death Cab For Cutie - "The Photo Album" (2001)
89. Daft Punk - "Discovery" (2001)
90. Caribou - "Andorra" (2007)
91. The Black Keys - "Attack & Release" (2008)
92. Yo La Tengo - "And Then Nothing Turned Inside Out" (2000)
93. Jay Z - "The Black Album" (2003)
94. Matt & Kim - "Matt & Kim" (2006)
95. Small Brown Bike - "Dead Reckoning" (2001)
96. John Vanderslice - "Cellar Door" (2004)
97. cLOUDDEAD - "Ten" (2004)
98. Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Dandelion Gum" (2007)
99. Black Dice - "Load Blown" (2007)
100. Wolf Parade -"At Mount Zoomer" (2008)

Top 25 Albums of 2009 (so far)

My Picks for the Top 25 albums of 2009 up to this point.
Some other albums may come out before the end of the year that deserve to be on this list, and I'll make those updates if that happens.

Each selection has one track streamable beneath it for your enjoyment.

1. "Embryonic" - The Flaming Lips
Track #18 - "Watching the Planets"




2. "Rain Machine" - Rain Machine
Track #2 - "Give Blood"




3. "Bromst" - Dan Deacon
Track #2 - "Red F"




4. "Hometowns" - The Rural Alberta Advantage
Track #4 - "Don't Haunt This Place"




5. "Bitte Orca" - The Dirty Projectors
Track #2 - "Temecula Sunrise"




6. "Get Color" - HEALTH
Track #4 - "Death +"





7. "Hospice" - The Antlers
Track #4 - "Atrophy"




8. "Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle" - Bill Callahan
Track #3 - "The Wind and the Dove"




9. "Farm" - Dinosaur Jr.
Track #6 - "Over It"



10. "Logos" - Atlas Sound
Track #3 - "Walkabout ft. Noah Lennox"




11. "Post-Nothing" - Japandroids
Track #8 - "I Quit Girls"



12. "Fever Ray" - Fever Ray
Track #3 - "Dry and Dusty"




13. "Face Control" - Handsome Furs
Track #12 - "Radio Kaliningrad"




14. "Goodnight Unknown" - Lou Barlow
Track #3 - "Too Much Freedom"




15. "Glass Fountain" - Wet Hair
Track #3 - "When the Right Time Comes"




16. "Beggars" - Thrice
Track #3 - "Circles"




17. "Actor" - St. Vincent
Track #9 - "The Party"




18. "Veckatimest" - Grizzly Bear
Track #2 - "Two Weeks"




19. "Merriweather Post Pavilion" - Animal Collective
Track #5 - "Daily Routine"




20. "East of Eden" - Taken By Trees
Track #8 - "Day by Day"




21. "The Pains of Being Pure At Heart" - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Track #4 - "This Love is Fucking Right!"




22. "Tarot Sport" - Fuck Buttons
Track #5 - "Phantom Limb"




23. "Satanic Satanist" - Portugal. the Man
Track #3 - "Lovers in Love"




24. "Mean Everything to Nothing" - Manchester Orchestra
Track #3 - "I've Got Friends"




25. "Begone Dull Care" - Junior Boys
Track #3 - "Bits and Pieces"




Honorable Mention:

"Dragonslayer" - Sunset Rubdown
"More" - Double Dagger
"Brother's Blood" - Kevin Devine
"Popular Songs" - Yo La Tengo
"A Bomb in a Birdcage" - A Fine Frenzy

Bad ass videos

Dan Deacon- Live with ensemble in Brooklyn

Playing May 8th at the Wesley in Mt. Pleasant. Tickets

Ponytail- playing in a laundromat

Playing at Rubble's in Mt. Pleasant on May 1. Tickets

Top 10 Albums of 2009 thus far (through March 29)

My picks for the top 10 albums of the first quarter of 2009:

#1 Fever Ray- Fever Ray

#2 Dan Deacon- Bromst

3. Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion

#4 Handsome Furs- Face Control

#5 Lotus Plaza- The Floodlight Collective

#6 Condo Fucks- Fuckbook

#7 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

#8 William Elliott Whitmore- Animals in the Dark

#9 Matt Jones- The Black Path

#10 Dan Aeurbach- Keep It Hid

Franz Nicolay-Major General (Fistolo-2009)

Franz Nicolay-Major General
Fistolo Records: 2009
Released 1/13/2009
SCORE: 7.5

Franz Nicolay must never sleep. Between playing keyboards in The Hold Steady, he's also in World/Inferno Friendship Society, doing collaborations with the likes of The Dresden Dolls and others, AND he plays some solo shows in there too. Not just a guy with a guitar....okay, a guy with a guitar, accordion, and a banjo. As he pointed out at a recent show "a survey was done by a college class that found that accordion and banjo are America's two least favorite instruments".

That may be true, but Franz' use of them is quite charming on this his first proper solo LP. The first song on the album might be the strong point, if only because it is the most rocking track. "Jeff Penalty" is a song about the new singer for the Dead Kennedy's after Jello Biafra left the band. The track is a rocking sing along type song, probably the only track of the like on the album.

The rest of the album goes between songs about being young with his father to drinking songs (of course...the Hold Steady know how to put them back) to songs about finding an apartment in Brooklyn with hardwood floors (it's harder than you might think, he says).

In all, for his first proper LP, Franz does not disappoint, though some might point out the obvious influence playing in the Hold Steady has had on his songs, I wouldn't go as far as to call it "watered down Hold Steady" as some critics have. I quite like Major General and I hope you will too.

TOUR DATES:
THE HOLD STEADY w/ War on Drugs

Mar 29 - Baltimore, MD @ Reecher Theatre
Mar 30 - NYC @ Irving Plaza
Mar 31 - Albany, NY @ Valentine's

APRIL 2009

Apr 1 - Buffalo, NY @ The Tralf Music Hall
Apr 2 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Calvin College Fine Arts Center
Apr 3 - Urbana, IL @ Illini Courtyard Cafe
Apr 4 - Bloomington, IN @ Jake's Nightclub
Apr 6 - St. Louis, MO @ The Gargoyle
Apr 7 - Iowa City, IA @ Picador
Apr 8 - Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
Apr 10 - Boulder, CO @ Fox Theater
Apr 11 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Apr 14 - Stateline, NV @ Harrah's Tahoe South Shore Room
Apr 15 - Sacramento, CA @ Harlow's Night Club
Apr 17 - Indio, CA - Coachella Festival

FRANZ NICOLAY WEST COAST
all shows w/ Moneybrother

Apr 20 - TBA
Apr 21 - Bottom Of The Hill, SF CA
Apr 23 - Ike Box, Salem, OR
Apr 24 - Sunset Tavern (late show), Seattle, WA
Apr 25 - East End, Portland, OR
Apr 27 - The Press Club, Sacramento, CA
Apr 28 - The Cellar Door, Visalia, CA
Apr 29 - Spaceland, LA CA

Handsome Furs-Face Control (Sub Pop-2009)

Handsome Furs
Face Control
Sub Pop: 2009
Released 3/10/2009
SCORE: 9

Dan Boeckner is a busy man. What with releasing the great At Mount Zoomer with his band Wolf Parade, touring the world with them AND touring the world with his beautiful wife in their band Handsome Furs. Oh yeah, they found time to record a real gem in there somehow too.

Face Control starts of with a real toe tapper "Legal Tender". They were playing many of these songs on their August tour and this is one song I definitely remember. Alexi's beats and synths are much more prevailant on this album than they were on Plague Park in my opinion, and that's a good thing.

Face Control is again chock full of great songs with catchy beats and interesting themes. Handsome Furs definitely are not afraid to be a little racy, and why not? They are hot as hell
on stage together. Definitely one of the coolest stage dynamics I've seen in a good long while. I guess that's what you get in a band where the two members are married.

At 11 tracks clocking in at just over 37 minutes, it's a rather short album just as Plague Park was. (2 tracks are short 90 second or so interludes). Short isn't always bad, in fact, sometimes having a 35-40 minute album allows the entire work to seem more free flowing and cohesive. Some albums seem to drag on forever, not the case with Face Control. This album will be on my playlist for quite some time.

Tour Dates:
03-12 Ottowa, Ontario - Mavericks
03-13 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
03-14 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig
03-15 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
03-16 St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway
03-17 Columbia, MO - Mojo's
03-20 Austin, TX - Club Deville (SXSW)
03-21 Dallas, TX - The Loft
03-23 Lawrence, KS - Jackpot Saloon
03-25 Fargo, ND - Aquarium (Dempsey's Upstairs)
03-26 Minneapolis, MN - 7th St. Entry
03-27 Ames, IA - Maintenance Shop
03-28 Iowa City, IA - The Mill
03-30 Newport, KY - Southgate House
04-01 Rochester, NY - Bug Jar
04-02 Syracuse, NY - Spark Art Space