Top albums of 2010 - Jester Jay edition

Top Albums of 2010
I rarely choose to review something I don't like. So, now, at the end of the year, I'm realizing the downside of having listened to so much music. It's difficult to pick ten albums. I have to leave off great bands, like Kaiser Cartel, Deluka, Kraddy, Tumbledown, Gigi -- see, I could easily pick a top 20.

Buckle up and let me share my absolute favorites.

Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This
Manic energy infuses Fire Like This. Blood Red Shoes erase the lines between post punk, indie rock, and modern hard rock. Despite being a drum/guitar duo, they wallop with a full sound that doesn't disguise their musical complexity. while the songs tend to split into post punk choruses and indie rock verses, they avoid becoming formulaic by throwing in contrasting bridges that careen off in a new direction. At a surface level, their indie rock sound evokes the Arctic Monkeys, but Blood Red Shoes have a deeper bag of tools to draw upon. Standout track: Count It Out. (original review)

Alain Johannes - Spark
Alain Johannes presents us with a rich, multi course meal of an album. Spark is a loosely connected concept album that deals with his loss of life partner/collaborator Natasha Schneider. The songs shuttle from mood to mood, jumping from style to style. It's held together by the strange attractor of Johannes' loss. Layered with looped guitars, intricate parts, and polyrhythms, the album develops a flow as wild as grief, as fickle as memory. Standout track: Make Gods Jealous. (original review)

Red Sparowes - The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer
Post rock/post metal, Red Sparowes are creating a type of modern classical music. There's a strong element of psychedelia, reminiscent of Pink Floyd, but the band uses that genre as a tool for exploring and expressing some quite interesting musical themes. Movement by movement, the songs create elaborate sonic mindscapes. Introspectively moving. Standout track: In Illusions of Order. (original review)

El Boy Die - The Black Hawk Ladies & Tambourins
It was fate. I almost didn't get to this in time, but El Boy Die made it to my ears just in time. The moody experimental folk that permeates this album underlies a wild sonic journey. The songs are usually centered on a simple guitar line and straightforward vocal arrangement. But then other elements are layered in to take the songs into a deeper space: tribal chanting, musique concrète, tatters of psychedelia. Taken as a whole, and that's how the album deserves to be heard, The Black Hawk Ladies & Tambourins is a strange ritual waiting for us to witness. Standout track: Moona Luna Tears. (original review)

Glitch Mob - Drink the Sea
Drink the Sea, appropriately enough, has a tidal feel: the arrangements are full of hard hitting hooks and retreating breakdowns. The Glitch Mob's electronic sound is very visual and evocative. Unlike some of their contemporaries, they capture an organic energy that adds depth. Glitchy artifacts mesh with sensual bass and organ lines. Each song offers its own mini-story, subject to the listener's discretion. Standout track: Starve the Ego, Feed the Soul. (original review)

Earl Greyhound - Suspicious Package
Earl Greyhound offers a serious power trio line up. Like the classic trios of the past (Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience), they are all virtuoso musicians who drive their hard rocking songs with an elegant economy. That focus doesn't mean that any of these songs are simple, though. The band mixes together Latin beats, psychedelic jams, and retro rock grinds to create a heady mix. You can hear influences from Led Zeppelin and Motorhead to the Doobie Brothers. Standout tracks: Oye Vaya and Shotgun. (original review)

Daft Punk - film score from Tron: Legacy
Daft Punk deserve full credit for creating such a strong film score. Their work for TRON: Legacy stays true to their electronic/house musical roots, yet sets up the recurring motifs and themes to accompany the story. The integration of the orchestra with electronic sounds is the key to their success. These short pieces may not fully resonate with Daft Punk's fan base, but they do mesh well with the film, creating the kind of updated sound that director Joseph Kosinski was looking for. Standout tracks: Derezzed and Adagio for Tron. (original review)

Lazerbeak - Legend Recognize Legend
Looping and layering from a beatmaster: Lazerbeak from Minneapolis' Doomtree hip hop collective. Let go of any preconceptions, because Legend Recognize Legend is more of an alt rock album without direct connection to hip hop. There is a strong electronic influence, but it's tied to a full palette of other instruments. It's tightly engineered, with some Peter Gabriel style rhythm touches. Standout track: Foothills. (original review)

Pas Chic Chic - 12"
My biggest problem with 12" is that it's a mere two or three songs (depending on how you count it. Still, that's 26 minutes of driven trippiness from Montreal's Pas Chic Chic. The opener is a krautrock groove while the closer (Premier Souffle) is an electronic tinged psychedelic journey. This latter song slowly unfolds and builds in an early Pink Floyd mode. Beautifully introspective. (original review)

Shadow Shadow Shade - Shadow Shadow Shade
Shadow Shadow Shade offer a grab bag of sounds, from post rock to psychedelic to retro rock. It's hard to pin down, but the mix is consistently interesting. The thick vocal harmony mix and intriguing drum arrangements are stellar as these songs shift gears and expose yet another unexpected twist. Despite this, the album is not in the least chaotic. Stand out track: Line 'Em Up. (original review)

CD review - El Boy Die, The Black Hawk Ladies & Tambourins (2010)

This is the sound from the new traveling circus show
The Black Hawk Ladies and Tambourins
This is the sound of hope and dishonor
This is the sound of betrayal and bewilderment
This is ancient and new
Is anyone here? 'Cause the sound starts now

This is the Sound, the opening track of The Black Hawk Ladies & Tambourins, is a foreboding, but strong beginning. A young girl's voice stands firm against flickers of unresolved sound. It proves a harbinger of the sonic journey that follows. French experimental folk artist El Boy Die has crafted a heady experience, using a mix of mildly psychedelic soundscapes, tribal chanting, and bits of musique concrète.

The Black Hawk Ladies & Tambourins meanders through a series of stations, each part of some unknown rite. The music has a folky foundation, but the layers of subtle percussion, winding melodies, and odd washes of sound imbue each track with a different perspective and mood.

The flow of songs is hard to interrupt to pick favorite moments, but Moona Luna Tears stands out somewhat from the host of folk-based songs. It's jazzy and percussive. The melody wanders and doubles back. Along with the soft, compressed vocals, this creates a hypnotic groove that a lone string solo weaves through.

Under My Broken Tree takes a women's chorale sound and anchors it to a mournful melody. The music behind the chant continually builds until the vocals drop away allowing the music to slide into a tense repetition. The ending takes on background distorted wails of flute.

Finally, Take Me Away starts with a simple folky guitar phrase and haunted, ethereal vocals. Something about the changes and the flow evokes Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine. The context is completely different, but that adds depth to the track.

Still, The Black Hawk Ladies & Tambourins is better heard as a complete piece. It rewards each listen with fine background details, like a fine cognac.

CD review - DB and the Catastrophe, Don't Look Back (2010)

Green Day, Blink 182, and a host of other bands have updated punk rock to create a tightly produced, hard driving, pop friendly sound. Local Ft. Collins band DB and the Catastrophe stirs some ska horn into the pop punk mix to create their own sound. A fair chunk of Don't Look Back plays as an homage to Green Day, but the band's personality comes through. Listening to the longer list of tunes on their MySpace page, it's easier to hear the ska influence.

Don't Look Back is a four song EP recorded earlier this year. Leading off with a rallying guitar line, Assault evokes Green Day's American Idiot. The guitars crunch out the rhythm and the backing vocals fall perfectly in place. It's a good start for the EP. It creates energy and urgency right out of the gate.

Pointless continues the driving beat. This time, lead singer Dylan Busby sounds hoarser, giving the song a raw edge. That rawness continues into Broken. The bass work is particularly strong here. Ricky Brown channels John Entwistle's spirit: very melodic and meshing well with the guitar riffs. The flow from song to song builds a live show energy that's hard to capture in the studio.

The disc wraps up with Waiting, which finally features their horn based ska sound. Once again, Brown's bass playing is speedy and fundamental to the success of the song. The band is tight. This is clearly a band I need to catch live. When I do, I'll raise a fine glass Ft. Collins microbrew (Equinox, New Belgium, Odell's, etc).

CD review - Arthur, Watch the Years Crawl By (201

The many faces of Mike Herrera: pop punk band MxPx, the country tinged Tumbledown, and Arthur. Ten years ago, Arthur started as a side project to MxPx. They described their sound as "doo wop influenced" but, listening to their single EP, Loneliness is Bliss, they had added some early rock elements and more introspective lyrics to the MxPx pop punk formula. Arthur got back-burnered by MxPx's busy schedule and never delivered the full album they had started. Herrera has resurrected the band and recorded Watch the Years Crawl By.

The new Arthur is more polished, but the melodic lines and love focused lyrics follow the earlier mold. Where Loneliness is Bliss kept some rough punk edges, Watch the Years Crawl By is smoother. Much like Tumbledown and MxPx, Herrera delivers on the "snotty boys with guitars" sound I love. Songs like Cold Outside and America could be Bowling For Soup or any of a number of similar bands. They're well crafted, packed with hooks and attitude.

Arthur summons some of Robbie Fulks' early rock sound on Be Still and Out of the Blue. This latter could have easily fit on Fulks' Let's Kill Saturday Night. The arrangements are simple, but the chords avoid the blues style rock changes. Herrera's heartfelt vocal delivery sells the songs.

The simple guitar arrangement leading off To Have and To Hold sets the earnest mood for the theme of discovering love. The build into a tortured sound of separation for the bridge. There's a similar flowering build in Thought a Lot, the only song carried forward from the earlier EP.

The odd song out is Fortissimo, which is dark and moody. The descending, bass heavy sound remind me of Alice Cooper Goes to Hell. It transcends the other songs' simpler arrangements and sentiments. This contrast proves to be the perfect balance to the rest of the album, adding some gravitas.

Watch the Years Crawl By is a nice addition to Herrera's catalog. It's a different line up, but it's not so far out from Tumbledown's style. Satisfying like a perfectly brewed Munich Helles beer: simple, but with reasonable depth.

(Arthur is available from the MxPx store.)