Songs of the year

I'll be posting my list of the top albums of 2011 a bit later, but in the meantime here are 13 songs from other albums that really stood out for me this year.

Mates of State - Palomino


Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes


Those Darlins - Be Your Bro


Centro-Matic - Only In My Double Mind


Okkervil River - Wake and Be Fine


Wanda Jackson - Thunder on the Mountain


The Black Lips - New Direction


The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Heart In Your Heartbreak


Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers


Cults - Go Outside


Frank Turner - I Still Believe


Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Senator


Vetiver - Wonder Why

2009 Best Albums

This is the big one - the best/favorite albums of the year. This is the list that any music critic, blogger or big-time enthusiast hangs his or her hat on, the one that's subject to more internal debate than all others.

I joined the Usual Gang of Idiots over at the Tucson Weekly this year, so check out the four-barreled cannon of music writer awesomeness where this was originally printed.

And if you're really into lists, check out the amazingly thorough master list over at Large Hearted Boy... wow.

1. Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Elvis Perkins in Dearland (XL)

On his second album, this extraordinarily talented songwriter assembled a full-time band to perfect a ramshackle folk sound—full of horns, organ and unorthodox percussion—that updates The Band by way of Neutral Milk Hotel. "Doomsday" is the song of the year, with an exultant horn intro becoming a stomping celebration of life, defiant even against doomsday.

DOWNLOAD: Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Shampoo

2. Sunset Rubdown, Dragonslayer (Jagjaguwar)

Spencer Krug is at his best crafting intense and pummeling music, but by backing away slightly from his more experimental impulses, Krug has made his best album yet. Dragonslayer's greatest achievement is its taut focus that makes bombastic, lengthy and relentlessly twisting songs nonetheless accessible and catchy throughout.

DOWNLOAD: Sunset Rubdown - Idiot Heart

3. Neko Case, Middle Cyclone (ANTI-)

Taking inspiration from nature's tumultuous power, Neko Case has written her most-assured, least-enigmatic batch of songs yet. Anchored by her soaring, radiant voice, the record updates Case's usual dreamy atmospheric sound with catchier songs like "People Got a Lotta Nerve" and "I'm an Animal."

DOWNLOAD: Neko Case - People Got A Lotta Nerve

4. Magnolia Electric Co., Josephine (Secretly Canadian)

Jason Molina's reedy, wounded voice gives this record a piercing, lonesome sorrow, matched impeccably by lyrics drenched in images of the open sky, deep shadows, ghosts and the faraway horizon.

DOWNLOAD: Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine

5. The Avett Brothers, I and Love and You (American/Sony)

With major-label polish from Rick Rubin, the Avett Brothers reach toward both rowdier rock songs and tender ballads, leaving their rootsy bluegrass as background accents. But it is versatility, talent and honest songwriting that carry the day for the Avetts, who offer musical abundance like few others.

VIDEO: The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You

6. Fruit Bats, The Ruminant Band (Sub Pop)

The Fruit Bats turn out 11 songs of blissful, sunny rock music. This is the best Beatles-influenced album of the year, full of the quirky enthusiasm that sparked labels like "zoology rock," "bootgazer" and "rustic pop."

DOWNLOAD: Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band

7. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Slumberland)

This flawless debut cradles starry-eyed romance in fuzzy guitars, driving beats and boy-girl harmonies, a winning aesthetic for a band that wears both hearts and influences on its sleeve.

DOWNLOAD: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Come Saturday

8. The Lone Wolf, Sum and Belief Are the Lone Wolf (Worker B)

The beats weave in acoustic guitar, piano, banjo and harmonica, and the lyrics are imaginative, poetic storytelling. Sum and Belief's first collaborative album sounds like what hip-hop might have been in the 1960s, mixing with blues, R&B and soul.

LISTEN: Sum & Belief Are The Lone Wolf

9. Metric, Fantasies (Metric)

This electrifying dance record stacks high-wire guitar riffs, surging keyboards and heavy bass on driving beats, but it's Emily Haines' spellbinding vocals that provide the irresistible charm.

VIDEO: Metric - Sick Muse

10. Wilco, Wilco (The Album) (Nonesuch)

Hardly complacent with its most stable lineup in 15 years, Wilco's latest features mesmerizing guitar freak-outs, sweet ballads and jaunty piano rock. It's more proof that Wilco is the best band working today.

LISTEN: Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Vic Chesnutt - At The Cut
Clem Snide - Hungry Bird
Justin Townes Earle - Midnight At The Movies
Fourkiller Flats - Treasure & Trash
Generationals - Con Law
Girls - Album
Golden Boots - Winter of Our Discotheque
Joe Henry - Blood From Stars
Mason Jennings - Blood of Man
Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
Lucero - 1372 Overton Park
Megafaun - Gather, Form & Fly
Mos Def - The Ecstatic
Modest Mouse - No One's First And You're Next
Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Provocative Whites - Evolym
Chuck Prophet - ¡Let Freedom Ring!
Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of A Friend
Tom Russell - Blood & Candle Smoke
Gabriel Sullivan - By The Dirt
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs

Previous Years:

2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003

Catfish at the Clubs (and Theatres and Parks...): Best Shows of 2008

In my rundown of the best shows of 2007, I didn't even try to give any sort of ranking, instead just going chronologically. But this year had such clear standout shows that I'm going with a ranked list, and letting the chips fall where they may.

I made it to about 65 shows this year - depending on how you count things (I tend to put multi-day festivals down for a show per day, no matter how many bands, because it's sort of like a show with several bands on the same bill). And that's even with a four-months stretch in which I hardly left my house because of staggering job obligations.

Once again, the shows that involve travel or road trips come out on top. It's simple really: driving or flying solely to see live music is a tremendous commitment of both time and money, and there are few living musicians who are worth going great lengths to see.

And once again my year was filled with fantastic local bands - I saw The Swim 11 times, Fourkiller Flats 8 times, Chango Malo 7 times, Calexico 3 times.

I also have to say that my thoughts on live music in general crystalized a bit this year: seeing a band play is an energizing, life-affirming force for me. It's something I need, something that lifts my spirits, flips my thoughts around and just generally makes the days better. The opportunity to stand there enveloped in a surge of sound, particularly a sound I love dearly, is one of the better things about being alive. And the following is the best of those moments this year.

1. Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie, Carnegie Hall, Nov. 29

Pete Seeger is one of the most joyous people ever to walk this earth. He also fought harder than most anybody for what he believed in. It's that combination of unwavering optimism and commitment that fuels his music - has fueled his music for some 70 years.

Arlo's accomplishments - including writing my favorite song of all time, "Darkest Hour" - might seem to pale in comparison, but trust me when I say that they share an equal bill. I'd just seen Arlo twice already and Pete was really the reason I flew to New York.

Despite being in the farthest back corner of the Carnegie Hall audience, the show was among the best I've ever seen. I could hardly sing along to "This Land Is Your Land" because I was so choked up. I left thinking that Pete Seeger is clearly the greatest person alive.

I wrote that he's an "89-year-old giant, surely in decline, but still driven by that same love of peace and humanity and music that marked his entire life." Pete Seeger, I wrote just in advance of taking off for New York City, "has been a crucial and wildly influential part of the culture, the very life and soul, of this country, for three of my lifetimes."

And I shared a night with him and Arlo and several Guthrie and Seeger children and grandchildren and just marveled in the continuation of the folk tradition.

DOWNLOAD:
Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land (live)
Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie - Live 1975-07-25 (zip file)

2. Tom Waits, El Paso Plaza Theatre, June 20

My other highly, highly anticipated traveling concert of the year, this would be at the top of any other list.

Tom Waits operates so far outside the realm of the modern commercialized and materialistic United States that it's a treat just to hear his music.

And he performs with such an impressive infrequency that even the first mention of a tour, and one that started with two Phoenix shows no less, had me plotting for all I was worth, fully committed to the idea that I could just no pass up any opportunity to see a show. Then Phoenix sold out two nights while I was aboard an airplane and couldn't even try to get a ticket. But some friends had designs on El Paso and I was in.

A shimmying and stomping scarecrow-come-to-life, Waits was everything I could have hoped to see in person. His well of songs is so deep and his showmanship so sharp that it didn't matter I knew less than half of the songs. They were great, every one.

DOWNLOAD:
Tom Waits - House Where Nobody Lives (live 1999 Storytellers)
Tom Waits - Storytellers 1999 (zip file)
Tom Waits - NPR broadcast, Live Atlanta, 2007-07-05 (2 hours 21 minutes, 130 mb)

3. Fleet Foxes, Solar Culture, June 30

Standing second row from the stage in the beyond intimate Solar Culture felt like being right in the middle of a speaker, with the Fleet Foxes intricate, enrapturing harmonies flowing right through me.

From listening to the band's Sun Giant EP I knew they sounded good, but live the music was so perfect it seemed to flow over the edges of my sense of hearing into the other senses.

On nearly every song, three and four singers weave their voices together, perfectly, into probably the richest, warmest and most inspiring human sound I've ever heard up close and first hand.

And the songs themselves have a certain ancient power, woodsy and warm. Asked by a BBC deejay how they created their "incredible vocal blend," the band simply replied: "Witchcraft." And that's probably the straight-forward truth.

DOWNLOAD:
Fleet Foxes - Mykonos (live BBC)
Fleet Foxes - NPR Broadcast, 2008-07-08 (1 hour 15 minutes, 69 mb)
Fleet Foxes - BBC, 2008-06-18 (zip file)

4. Outside Lands Festival, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Seeing Radiohead, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Wilco on consecutive nights is one of the highlights of my life, not just this year.

Throw in the fact that I stood beside my best friend while he proposed to his girlfriend in front of tens of thousands of people while Wilco played "Jesus Etc." and it's a weekend that will carry a profound personal significance until the end of my days.

It was my first time seeing Radiohead play, and I was so blown away I immediately took back every snide thing I'd ever said about what I once called their "mid-career techno period." This was one of the strongest bands in the world playing a rock music that drew on incredible intricacies of rhythm, tone and atmosphere like none other I've ever seen.

Night two was Tom Petty, and I've never had more fun singing just about every word of a concert. For Petty, music is fun, a party that he's never stopped being happy about even being invited, and he's been the host for 30 plus years.

Then Wilco, my favorite band, on the same stage I saw Jeff Tweedy solo just 10 months earlier. The bird machine was once again in full effect. And the moment was absolutely perfect.

The rest of the festival was plenty awesome too: Broken Social Scene, Bon Iver, Cafe Tacvba, Beck, Felice Brothers, M. Ward, Cold War Kids, Drive-by Truckers and too many more to mention.

DOWNLOAD:
Radiohead - NPR Broadcast, Live Santa Barbara 2008-09-08 (2 hours 6 minutes, 115 mb)
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - 2008-08-23, San Francisco Outside Lands Festival (zip file 205 mb)
Wilco - NPR Broadcast, Live Washington D.C. (partial) 2008-02027 (17 minutes, 16 mb)
Bon Iver - NPR Broadcast, 2008-02-19 (30 minutes, 38 mb)

5. Chango Malo, acoustic Don Jennings Tribute, June 1

Musicians tend to thrive within a certain comfort zone when they perform. Breaking out of the standard set list is never an easy thing. Abandoning everything that's been at the core of your live set for years and years is an entirely different matter.

Some shows are events more than anything else, a single night of music that will never be repeated. And Chango Malo specializes in that sort of time-capsule show.

Wishing farewell to a great friend and music institution in town, the band stripped down to an acoustic combo, trying out an accordion and adding horns and extra percussion along the way. Throw in special guests and perfect cover songs and it was an early summer night that held magic for everyone who was there.

DOWNLOAD:
Chango Malo - A Change Is Gonna Come (live Sam Cooke cover)

6. The Hold Steady, Rialto Theatre, August 2 (live 2008 Minnesota Public Radio)
7. Silver Jews, Plush, September 22
8. James McMurtry, Club Congress, July 20
9. Wolf Parade, Rialto Theatre, July 21
10. Kathleen Edwards, Club Congress, May 13

Best Albums 2008

Dave Barry could convince anyone that any year was dominated by nonsensical happenings and twisty-turny, stranger-than-fiction events... but isn't 2008 really the world's best example yet of the Barry Paradigm (I am not making this up!)?

I was reading through the master humorist's 2008 Year In Review while listening to tunes to refine the all-important best-of list, and there's no doubt that this has been one hell of a strange 365.

I still have my newspaper clipping of Barry's 1992 Year In Review, certainly the last time that shit in the world got quite so strange - and it's a column I seek out every year, so trust me when I say that.

This year threw ol' Catfish Vegas quite a few curves... but that's enough about that.

As far as 2008 music goes, this year I heard far more new albums than any other, and with an embrace-anything-that-comes attitude, I dove in. And while my tastes aren't drastically changed (there's no doubt I lean toward the country/folk end of the rock spectrum), this list certainly reflects the broader listening.

There's no shortage of Best-of-2008 lists, and I don't proclaim anything particularly special about this one, but I've put in plenty of time and thought and whole-heartedly stand behind all of these picks. So, here goes, the Catfish Vegas Presents... Best Albums of 2008:


1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
I've never heard anything that sounds so lonely and yet drew me in so completely. Sometimes I think the secret is in the steel guitar, but For Emma isn't near that easy - this is clearly one of the most carefully and deliberately recorded acoustic records in quite some time. This is a startling record, from start to finish, and one that's a clear reminder that the basics of rock and popular music aren't remotely exhausted yet - all you need is a guitar, some time and some of the most compelling and heartbreaking songs ever written, all performed with a forlorn wail that stops people dead in their tracks.
Bon Iver - Skinny Love

2. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes/Sun Giant
I'm putting these two together, as if the EP and the full-length debut were one long record, because I can think of no other way to say how phenomenally this band impacted me this year. It's so often that you wish a band would've cut a song or two, but these Northwesterners have plenty more to say. More to come on the Fleet Foxes in tomorrow's Best Shows of 2008, but I just have to say that the battle between No. 1 and No. 2 on this list was razor thin. I can't say enough great things about the stunning harmonies that make the core of this record.
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

3. Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
It's hard to find a top-10 or -20 list of 2008 albums that doesn't inclue Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes, but the Helio Sequence are nowhere near as well represented. And I can't fathom why - they've recorded a mesmerizing and thoroughly rewarding album that's far ahead of anything the band has yet achieved. Keep Your Eyes Ahead is gripping a sonic drug as anything that I've tried all year. It's a dense and barbed sound that you'll have a hard time walking back out of. I'm severely bummed to have missed seeing the Helio Sequence in Tucson this year...
Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

4. The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave
My "Where the Hell did this guy come from?" album of the year. This Swedish dude has nailed down an early Dylan sound that's more woodsy (and more musically accomplished) than anything Dylan himself laid down in those days. Precise guitar finger-picking and even better banjo plucking are the hallmarks of this record, along with the tremendous vocals of Kristian Matsson, who seriously needs to make a trip to Tucson as soon as he can... this is not a dude I want to hear just on record for any longer than I have to.
The Tallest Man On Earth - Pistol Dreams

5. James McMurtry - Just Us Kids
Listening to Just Us Kids this year, and seeing McMurtry play live at Club Congress, it's clear that nobody alive today can stuff a novel into a five-minute song the way James McMurtry can. About four or five of the tracks from Just Us Kids are ready this minute to be optioned into Oscar-class films, complete with characters just dripping with the heartache of too many mistakes, plot lines as subtle and drawn out as any Richard Russo novel, and the sinking twists that'll break the backs of both the winners and the losers. And he's one hell of a lead guitar player, too.
James McMurtry - Ruby & Carlos (WKNU in-studio clip)

6. Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
It's a rare and uplifting thing to see a musician in the early days of what you're sure will be a long and renowned career, and this summer Kathleen Edwards took my breath away, both on stage and on record. She has a rootsy sound that blends country, soul, folk and rock in a way that recalls Lucinda Williams, and Edwards seems to be just now coming into her own as a songwriter, and it's a blessing to have caught her in this early phase of her rising career. Asking For Flowers has this assuredness that gives Edwards all the license in the world to sing songs that stretch from politics to intense, character-driven sketches that reach way beyond the typical female singer-songwriter fare.
Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers (acoustic)

7. Calexico - Carried To Dust
A local favorite that in my mind can really do no wrong, Calexico is one of the bands that I find most difficult to judge in any objective way. That said, Carried to Dust is right up there with Feast of Wire as the band's absolute best work, which means that it surely rates among the best albums recorded in the last five years. Joey Burns and John Convertino have proven time and time again to be the best collaborative duo working today: they've backed everyone from Willie Nelson to Neko Case to Richard Buckner to Howe Gelb. And what's most remarkable about their session work is how they emerge after each wave with a stronger Calexico record.
Calexico - Two Silver Trees

8. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
An early-2008 album that seems to have been mostly forgotten by now, Real Emotional Trash is the best Malkmus solo album, and I'll tell you why: Janet Weiss. The ex-Sleater Kinney drummer is the perfect fit for Malkmus' looser set of rockin' tunes, with a powerful crashing style on the drums and just the right backing vocals. This is a jam of an album, and I don't doubt it caught flatfoot the folks unfortunate enough to have missed seeing the band live. And even though it's a record that thrives best on stage, Real Emotional Trash is the best kind of rock 'n' roll: pure and vital, at just the right time.
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Baltimore

9. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
I'm going to stand against what seems to be the consensus and say that Wolf Parade's second record is defintely better than the band's first. It's a less jagged, if less focused, record, and the standout songs are catchier and poppier than those on Apologies to the Queen Mary. The dual songwriting core of Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner seem far more comfortable operating in eachother's spheres, and the somewhat tell-tale production fingerprints of Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock are nowhere to be found.
Wolf Parade - Language City

10. Crooked Fingers - Forfeit/Fortune
The latest Eric Bachman project does nothing to dispel my notion that he's the one of the most creative and vital songwriters alive today. Ever since I heard his To The Races solo record called "the Nebraska of our generation" and been unable to find a fault in that description, I've been thirsting for more Bachmann. What some are calling a slightly more polished record sounds to me like Backmann just bridging over to a new form, as he as from Archers of Loaf to his quiet solo recordings. The closing song, "Your Control" is one of the year's best, featuring the amazing Neko Case.
Crooked Fingers - Your Control

11. Giant Sand - proVISIONS
12. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
13. The Walkmen - You & Me
14. Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
15. Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins
16. Hold Steady - Stay Positive
17. Portishead - Third
18. James - Hey Ma
19. Old 97s - Blame It On Gravity
20. Shearwater - Rook

Apologies to: Alejandro Escovedo, Beach House, Blitzen Trapper, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Constantines, Dr. Dog, Drive-by Truckers, Frightened Rabbit, Gaslight Anthem, Lambchop, My Morning Jacket, Nada Surf, Port O'Brien and Sun Kil Moon... I heard fantastic things and still intend to burrow deep into your 2008 records, but haven't had the opportunity yet.

And I don't know where the hell to place Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Tell-Tale Signs, but damn if the master isn't releasing some of the best music out there. It doesn't seem right to put an outtakes collection that spans back to 1989 on the 2008 list, so I won't, but don't doubt that this is a top-5 release of this year. Go Bob, and I'll keep goin' along...
Since Dylan's people won't put embeddable clips up on youtube, you'll have to click through to check this one out (I promose it's worth it...)

So that's it for 2008... No doubt some of these opinions will change after just a bit, but I reckon some of these 2008 top records will last with me for a long while.

Check back tomorrow for the Best Shows of 2008, and in the meantime, get your picks in for the 2009 Celebrity Death Pool.