My Favorite Albums of 2013 (21-30)

With 2013 coming to a close, I've compiled another favorite albums list. Last year I published my 50 favorite albums and made note that I kept making my list longer every year. This year I've consciously decided I need to show just a small amount of restraint, so I'm limiting myself to "only" 30 albums this year. I think there's a pretty good variety on here, so hopefully there's something everyone can enjoy. Without further ado, onto the list...

30) Charles Bradley - Victim Of Love

Charles Bradley's second album finds him belting out love songs with an energy few 60+ year olds possess. My knowledge of the soul genre is limited, but he's one of my favorites and his story is as good as any you'll find. A few weeks ago he released a really cool cover of a Black Sabbath tune too that I recommend checking out. You can find that one here.

29) Great Apes - Thread

Great Apes are a punk band from San Francisco fronted by Hanalei singer/songwriter Brian Moss. I've written before about my love of Hanalei. While the music of Great Apes is decidedly different from the folkier Hanalei, Moss' influence and voice are still present and "Thread" is a very solid punk record. It's well worth checking out if that's your kind of thing.

28) The National - Trouble Will Find Me

The National seem like a pretty divisive band. Some people love their music and other people think it's boring and that the people who love it are crazy. I side closer to the former. They aren't my favorite band in the world, but Matt Berninger's baritone voice can be intoxicating at times. If you've enjoyed one of the band's previous five albums, I imagine you'll enjoy "Trouble Will Find Me" as well.

27) Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II

"So Good At Being In Trouble" is one of my absolute favorite songs released this year. Throughout the year, the song's chorus has repeatedly just popped into my head out of nowhere. The album's lo-fi/psychedelic indie rock took me a bit longer to get into than some albums, but I've definitely come around on it. Plus any band that can write a song as good as "So Good At Being In Trouble" has my attention.

26) Lady Lamb The Beekeeper - Ripely Pine

I saw Maine native Aly Spaltro (aka Lady Lamb The Beekeeper) open for Kaki King a couple months before her album came out. At the time, I was intrigued by how well she could fill up a room with sound using just her voice and a guitar. The album does a really good job of showcasing her talents while adding a few more instruments to the mix. It is a fantastic debut, and I look forward to seeing what she can do with her career.

25) Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

Foxygen sounds a bit like a band out of place in 2013. Their music has a clear 1960's sound. The Velvet Underground is the biggest comparison I hear, but that's probably because I'm more familiar with them than other artists. I've seen some criticism from people claiming the band is just copying other bands before them. However, I feel like all bands do that to an extent, and Foxygen is at least really good at it. If you go into the album with an open mind, it's a pretty enjoyable 40 minutes of music.

24) Mikal Cronin - MCII

Following up his self titled debut with "MCII", Mikael Cronin is giving labelmates She & Him a run for their money for least creative album titles. Fortunately, Mikal Cronin is just another in a long line of really good artists releasing music on Merge Records, and everything else about the album is pretty good. I've actually listened to this album less than most of the other albums on here, but each time I have, I've found myself nodding along to his blend of pop/rock.

23) Hey Marseilles - Lines We Trace

Seattle-based Hey Marseilles first introduced the world to their orchestral folk/pop on their debut album in 2008. We've had to wait a long time, but 2013 finally brought the follow up to that album and it does not disappoint. Hopefully we won't have to wait another 5 years for the third album.

22) Kevin Devine - Bulldozer

A quick look at the blog archives indicates that I've somehow only written about Kevin Devine once on here. That's a real shame because he's one of my favorite lyric writers. One day I'll have to dedicate a post to him. This year, he ran a Kickstarter campaign that was funded in less than one day. The product of that campaign is this solo album as well as an album with his backing band. Both albums are really good, but I found myself coming back to the solo one a bit more.

21) Streetlight Manifesto - The Hands That Thieve

I don't listen to much ska music anymore, but I've got a real soft spot for it (dating back to my days of playing saxophone for a ska band in high school) that is likely never going to go away. Streetlight Manifesto was always one of my favorite bands, and "The Hands That Thieve" is a good indication of why that is. It's pretty close to physically impossible for me to listen to their horns without whistling along. Combine the catchy horns with Tomas Kalnocky's singing, and I'm hooked. If you want something with a lot of energy that's gonna get your foot tapping and your mouth whistling, then look no further.


I should be back tomorrow with albums 11-20. Until then, you can sample each of the albums from this portion of the list with a song below.

New Releases from January - March 2013

Well we're a quarter of the way through 2013, so I thought I'd compile a list of a bunch of my favorite releases so far this year.

My favorite albums released January - March 2013

1) Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside - Untamed Beast

I wrote about this album a few weeks ago and I still cannot get enough of it. I had the pleasure of seeing the band perform this week, and they didn't disappoint. The band is a bit of a throwback to good old fashioned rock and roll, with several of the songs having a surf-rock vibe. Regardless of what they're playing, Sallie Ford's commanding vocals and no-nonsense lyrics steal the show. This is almost certain to remain one of my favorite albums of the year.

2) Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse

After releasing maybe my favorite album ever in 2008 and releasing my second favorite album of 2010, my expectations were set extremely high for Pedestrian Verse. While that could have left me in danger of being let down by this record, Frightened Rabbit delivered yet again. I wrote more about the album when it came out, but the Scottish indie rockers have continued to impress. Scott Hutchison remains one of my favorite lyricists and that voice of his is just wonderful. I also got to see Frightened Rabbit perform a few weeks ago, and they were great. Hutchison prefaced the song "Oil Slick" by telling the crowd that it was written as sort of an apology for all of the things he had said about someone in previous songs. Lines like "How can I talk about life and warmth? I've got a voice like a gutter in a toxic storm" show that he can do self deprecation with the best of them. If you're unfamiliar with the band, Pedestrian Verse is probably a pretty good entry point, but make sure you go back and check out Midnight Organ Fight and The Winter of Mixed Drinks after.

3) Small Houses - Exactly Where You Wanted To Be

I've been meaning to write about this Small Houses (aka Jeremy Quentin) album for a while now and just haven't found the time to do it. Despite being a relative unknown (fewer than 1,000 likes on Facebook), he does alt-country / indie folk as well as anyone. I'm always a sucker for harmonica in songs, but everything works here. You can stream / download several songs including the incredible opening track "Oh, Hiding Out" here, but if you like it I highly recommend helping out an artist (hopefully) on the rise and buying the whole thing. If you listen to it even a fraction as much as I have/will you will more than get your money's worth.

4) Local Natives - Hummingbird

I wrote a bit about this album last month. The album marked a bit of a sonic change from Local Natives' last album, this time seeing the band eschew the more catchy tunes for something more atmospheric and dreamy. The vocal harmonies that helped carry the last album are still present, just now wrapped inside something new. While the last album was enjoyable, this album seems much better as an album to me and is a big step forward for the band. That's also not to say there aren't songs that stand out on Hummingbird. "Heavy Feet" is one of my favorite songs released so far this year. "Breakers" and "Ceilings" are other standout tracks.

5) Hey Marseilles - Lines We Trace

The Seattle based band picked up right where they left off with this album. Their Facebook page uses the wonderful term "folkestral" to describe their brand of folk music performed with a cello, viola, accordion, and mandolin along with the standard fare. I got to see Hey Marseilles perform at Sasquatch Music Festival last summer and they just seemed like a band that loved doing what they do. While that's probably true for most bands that warmth and enjoyment seems to come through in their music.

6) Wooden Wand - Blood Oaths of the New Blues

While everyone else was waiting until a few weeks into the year to release their music, Wooden Wand was nice enough to throw me a bone with his album in early January. I wrote about it when it came out at the beginning of the year, and it still remains an album I'm returning to. "Outsider Blues" might be my favorite track of the year. I love a good story song, and this is one, which chronicles a trip to the Outsider Blues music festival, is one of the better ones. He can paint such a vivid scene of what's going on that it feels like I'm watching everything unfold while listening to the song.

7) Pascal Pinon - Twosomeness

Pascal Pinon is a pair of Icelandic twins who craft some pretty great indie pop tunes. Some of the songs are in English while others are in Icelandic. Having no idea what the Icelandic songs are saying, doesn't stop me from enjoying them just as much as the English ones. The lead track "Ekki Vanmeta" (which Google tells me means "do not underestimate") might be my favorite of the bunch. I actually haven't listened to this as much as the albums above it, but listening to it right now while writing this is telling me that may be a mistake that needs to be rectified.

8) Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - Ripely Pine

I was first exposed to Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (aka Aly Spaltro) when she opened for Kaki King here in Iowa City several months back. You don't see many solo artists playing electric guitar, but what she was able to do by herself on stage was impressive as was the confidence on display in both her singing and playing (all the more impressive since she's only 23). After several years of self-releasing home recordings, her first studio album does an excellent job of capturing the energy and confidence on display that night. It's certainly an impressive "first" release that sees her effortlessly passing between all different types of songs and vocals. Check out the track "Bird Balloons" to get a taste of what she can do. It'll be exciting to see what the future holds for the young songwriter.

9) Jim James - Regions of Light and Sound of God

This is the first proper solo album by My Morning Jacket front-man Jim James, and it is very much a solo album as he played all of the instruments, did all of the vocals, and produced it on top of that. On the album, James continues to explore spirituality (as you may expect based on the album title) as he has been in recent releases such as the one with Monsters of Folk. Most of the time Jim James the instrumentalist gets out of the way and lets Jim James the vocalist shine with that haunting voice of his. This is best carried out on the excellent track "A New Life." While the album lacks the rock / punch of a My Morning Jacket release, the album does quite well forging its own path.

10) Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

Rounding out the top ten is Foxygen. The band seems to be a divisive one among music blogs, but putting away any pretensions of what bands should sound like or anything like that, they just flat out made an enjoyable record. The California artists where their influences on their sleeves with tracks that sound straight out of the 60's and 70's pop scene (albeit with modern day production). Listening to the album you'll hear shades of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, and plenty of others. The argument in the blog community seemed to be why you should listen to Foxygen's homage to those artists when you could listen to those artists do their own thing. If that's your mindset, you can probably pass on this release, but otherwise I'd say it's worth checking out.

Others I've enjoyed that I need to listen to more

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II ("So Good At Being In Trouble" is a great track)
Hollis Brown - Ride on the Train
Kingsley Flood - Battles
Night Beds - Country Sleep ("Ramona" is a great track)
Ivan & Alyosha - All The Times We Had


And I couldn't decide on where to put some of the EPs amidst the full-length albums, so here's a separate group for them.

My favorite EPs

1) I Build Collapsible Mountains - Carousel EP

Continuing the trend on this list of solo artists recording under band names, longtime blog favorite I Build Collapsible Mountains (aka Luke G Joyce) throws his hat in the ring. This EP follows up on last year's "Songs From That Never Scene" with the lead track coming from that album accompanied by five new tracks. It's just another solid release from I Build Collapsible Mountains doing his indie folk thing that he does so well. I can't exactly put my finger on what it is that separates Joyce from other artists, but there's something about the guitar and vocals in these songs that feels like home despite coming from all the way over in Scotland.

2) Wake Owl - Wild Country

Vancouver based singer/songwriter Colyn Cameron has put out a really catchy alt-country EP that keeps finding itself stuck in my head. It sounds like Cameron has been making music for a while, but this is the debut under the name "Wake Owl" and it is an excellent start. I can't wait to hear a full-length at some point in the future.

3) Miracles of Modern Science - MEEMS

Much like Hey Marseilles, Miracles of Modern Science (or MOMS) has a bit of a non-traditional lineup featuring cello, violin, mandolin, double bass, and drums. While Hey Marseilles writes what the call folkestral music, MOMS is more indie rock played with classical instruments. One of the highlights is the song "The Singularity," which sings of a skepticism that we will all have to die someday due to science reaching the singularity where we can fix things like neural decay. This decidedly nerdy subject shouldn't be surprising from a band that formed while the members were at Princeton. While this all may seem a bit gimicky, the music more than stands on its own, and the EP is a lot of fun. The EP is currently "pay what you want" here, so really there's no reason not to go check it out!

4) Indianna Dawn - Rookie

Indianna Dawn wrote one of my favorite albums of 2011. Unfortunately, I didn't discover the album until 2012, so I didn't get a chance to put it on my year end list. I wrote about the Danish indie folk/alt country group a bit here if you want to check that out and listen to a couple tracks from their full length. I haven't listened to the new EP much yet, but it seems pretty enjoyable and a good way to tide me over until their next full length is released. Maybe in the meantime I can learn Danish so I cant actually understand the updates on their Facebook page.


Some of my favorite songs from January - March 2013 releases

I can't very well tell you about this much new music without sharing some of it with you, so here are two playlists of some of my favorite songs released in the first quarter of 2013. The Spotify playlist is a bit bigger since it doesn't have to be songs I own, but the 8tracks playlist also has some things that aren't available on Spotify (like an awesome Alabama Shakes song that the band released for free online). You can probably just choose whichever service you're more comfortable with and get the gist of things though. If you don't use Spotify and don't want to create an account, anyone should be able to stream the 8tracks playlist below. Anyhow, enjoy and let me know if there are any albums or songs I seem to be overlooking!

My favorite tracks from January to March 2013 from rynestonecowboy on 8tracks Radio.

You Will Find True Love On Flag Day

The internet tells me that today is Flag Day, which means I can't help but think of The Simpsons. Although, to be fair, there are a lot of things in life that make me think of The Simpsons. In this particular case, it is because they had an episode ("A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" from season 13) in which Homer briefly worked as a fortune cookie writer. One of his fortunes that he wrote was the oddly specific "You will find true love on Flag Day." This fortune happens to find its way into Mr. Burns' hands on Flag Day of all days and leads to all sorts of hi-jinx and shenanigans.

I thought I'd include a couple songs with this short post, but I ran into a problem when I noticed I have 5 versions of Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You In The End" (the original and four covers). After careful listening, I decided to include the Hey Marseilles version. This was partly based on the decision that they allow you to download the track below and partly because I'm being nostalgic about seeing them at Sasquatch. You may want to check out the original and the Mates of State cover as well.

And from Deer Tick's Born On Flag Day album, here is "The Ghost"

Sasquatch Review: Day Three

If you missed my reviews of day one and day two, you can see them here and here.

We kicked off Sunday by checking out the Seattle indie folk/pop band Hey Marseilles. Hey Marseilles is probably my favorite band that I discovered prior to the festival by listening to performing artists I was unfamiliar with. Their album "To Travels & Trunks" from 2008 has some insanely catchy songs. If you're unfamiliar with the band, I recommend checking out "Rio" (below) and "Cannonballs."



After Hey Marseilles, we stuck around and saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. on the main stage. Then, I had one of the tougher decisions of the weekend with Hospitality and Trampled by Turtles performing at the same time. Since Hospitality has released one of my favorite albums so far this year, I headed over to another stage to catch the first 2/3's or so of their set. They put on a fun show that I was glad I was able to catch. I made sure to head back to the main stage to see at least a bit of Trampled by Turtles, and I was pleased to be reminded of home by the Minnesota bluegrass band.



The crowd and band both seemed to be loving the music and atmosphere. The band really seemed to be able to command the large crowd of the main stage better than almost any other early afternoon band all weekend. After Trampled By Turtles, Blind Pilot slowed things down on the main stage. Their album was a pleasant surprise to me last year, and while the energy was lower than that of Trampled by Turtles, the songs were great. Next, we headed over to another stage to see The War On Drugs on a side stage before returning to the main stage for the rest of the night. I didn't know any music by The War On Drugs, but I really enjoyed their set, and I plan on checking out more of their music now.

Anyone who has read this blog for a while or knows me well probably knows that M. Ward is my favorite artist (and it's not all that close). So I'm probably not coming at this in the most unbiased manner, but I thought M. Ward killed it in his set. It was the first set on the main stage that we decided to actually get close to the stage rather than remaining on the hill. As M. Ward tends to do at shows, the talking between songs was minimal and instead his set was just packed full of songs. Considering the shorter set times at a festival, I love this approach, and he was able to pack a ton of songs into his allotted time. He also seemed to cater to the festival atmosphere by focusing on more of his upbeat tunes and on those that allowed him to really rock out on guitar (which he is fantastic at doing). Another thing I love about M. Ward is how much he shows his appreciation for other artists, and during his set I counted 5 covers (including John Fahey's "Bean Vine Blues No. 2," Daniel Johnston's "To Go Home," and Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven"). This was my third time seeing M. Ward live (fourth if you count with Monsters of Folk), and each time he has really delivered.

After M. Ward, we stayed down by the stage for Seattle indie folk band The Head and the Heart. I really enjoyed their debut album, which was re-released on Sub Pop last year, so I was looking forward to seeing them. However, I had no idea how lucky I'd be to see them at Sasquatch as opposed to another venue. There was such an incredible mutual love and appreciation going back and forth between the band and the crowd the whole set. It was obvious that the band loved being able to play before such a huge and affectionate audience in their home state. They played a great set made all the better by enjoying it in that specific environment. Violinist / sometimes vocalist Charity Rose Thielen was actually moved to tears saying thank you for everyone's support at the end of the set.

After the excitement of M. Ward and The Head and the Heart sets was Beirut. I think Beirut could put on a really fun show, but unfortunately it just seemed like the wrong time and wrong place for me. Between being a bit tired and people talking over the sound of the music, the set just didn't work for me. However, it wouldn't deter me from going to see Beirut another time. One of the people behind me was actually saying that Beirut played one of his favorite shows ever at real small and intimate venue but that he wasn't too into the set going on at the time.

However, after Beirut's set was one of my most anticipated sets of the weekend, Bon Iver's. Extremely long time readers of the blog may remember that my very first post was inspired by Bon Iver. While the setting didn't seem to work to Beirut's advantage, it was perfect for Bon Iver. The sun had gone down, creating a perfect darkness to accentuate the lights on stage and draw all focus there. Where people had talked over Beirut, Bon Iver played louder and people talked less. I know there is a lot of backlash to Bon Iver's music and Justin Vernon's quick rise in popularity, but I love the way he has chosen to handle his new found fame and how humble he seems to remain about all of it. Justin Vernon many times mentioned how humbling it was to be playing in such a gorgeous place in front of such a large crowd. In terms of the actual music, I'm not a good enough writer to really do it justice, but if you think you might want to see Bon Iver perform live, all I can do is urge you to act on that. I had sky-high expectations for seeing Bon Iver, and every single one of them was met. It was an absolutely wonderful way to cap off the third night of the festival.



SUNDAY SUMMARY

Artists I saw: Hey Marseilles, Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, Hospitality, Trampled By Turtles, Blind Pilot, The War On Drugs, M. Ward, The Head & The Heart, Beirut, and Bon Iver

Favorite sets: M. Ward and Bon Iver

Below is "I Get Ideas", one of my favorite tracks from M. Ward's new album. It's a cover song that has been done by many people, but I was most familiar with Louis Armstrong's version. If you haven't heard the full album yet, it looks like you can stream the whole thing here.



Bon Iver released my second favorite album last year, and in that post, I included the beautiful video for "Holocene," which features a little boy walking through picturesque Iceland. Since I already posted that one, here's the track "Towers," which follows someone on the opposite end of the life spectrum doing... I have no idea.



I'll be back in a day or two with the final Sasquatch post from the weekend.