James C. Mckinley Jr., for the New York Times:
Let’s say you’re a Republican running for president.
You’re looking for a rousing pop anthem to pump up your troops and underscore your message. There’s plenty of music out there, but you have a problem: most of the pop stars, it seems, prefer Democrats.
Perhaps a market failure?
The Rural Alberta Advantage performing in a record store for the Paper Bag Sessions.
The Papercuts cover Don Henley.
Wilco, Nick Lowe, and Mavis Staples rehearse “The Weight” (via Beau Colburn).
Happy New Year.
My favorite songs from 2011 that weren’t on my favorite albums
And Even More Favorite Songs: Freak Out by Tapes ‘n Tapes, Someone Like You by Adele, Burn Me Alive by Apex Manor, Weapons For War by A Lull, Taiwanese Boots by Fujiya and Miyagi, After It Ends by John Vanderslice, Rte. 28/Believers by A.A. Bondy, Gold by Delay Trees, Northern Lights by St Vincent, Sweet 17 by Dirty Beaches, and Muscle Relaxants & Tornado both by The Rural Alberta Advantage.
Go and listen to them all.
Don’t think I forgot about EPs & singles
Friends have claimed that 2011 was a bum year. I’ve seen similar sentiments on the twitter. Old cranks, all of them.
Best = favorite. Your favorites might not be wrong, but they’re probably not the best. I’m happy to join the Bon Iver parade, but why is there so little love for the force of nature that is Wye Oak?
The National invited Trey Anastasio (as well as a few other musicians, more familiar to most indie rock fans) to join them for the finale of their five night New York City stand and presumably what was the end of the High Violet tour as well.
Too soon to tell if Pitchfork will ignore or post snark.
Wilco has a set on Daytrotter. Sean Moeller introducing the set:
We all fight our problems, the ones that gnaw at our ankles and get into our bloodstreams. They slow us down and they speed us up and all that we can do about them is to acknowledge that they’re ours. They belong to us and we can still get along happily if we try our hardest to make it through. Wilco has taught us that.
![3rd Street AKA Old World Third AKA Dr Martin Luther King Drive doesn’t touch Lake Drive.
This has been bothering me for a while. Not to take anything away from Justin Vernon when Bon Iver, Bon Iver has been named Pitchfork’s Album of the Year, but just to provide a service to out of town listeners.
Holocene might feature a “deliberately specific reference,” but to an imagined place (presumably located in Milwaukee). And of course, perhaps that’s the point.
Anyways, I love Bon Iver, Bon Iver. I loved seeing the songs performed live this summer and I love listening to the album again and again… and again. A great choice by Pitchfork for album of the year.
UPDATE: New Wave Polly Pocket reports that there is a “3rd and Lake” in Eu Claire, Wisconsin. Of course. Mystery solved.
UDATE 2: Foiled by Instapapering? Justin Vernon on myths, mystery, meaning, and his triumphant self-titled album:
Pitchfork: There are so many specific things from your life on this new album— like mentioning the house where Brad and Phil Cook lived in Wisconsin at Third and Lake on “Holocene”— what are they all communicating together?
JV: I’m not sure how any images on a record fit together, but they are coming from a specific place. “Holocene” is a good example. The whole second verse is about those years in Eau Claire but the first verse is this weird amalgamation of the darkness that came with those times. I set that verse in Milwaukee because it’s a dark, beer-drunk place. Even though I didn’t spend a lot of time there, it’s a good metaphor for those darker times. And guess what adults do on Halloween in Milwaukee? They get blind drunk and try to forget about their childhoods. We were going through ideas for a video for “Holocene”, and we thought it should be adults trick-or-treating where children are handing out their past dreams. Pretty dark. The last verse fast-forwards to two Christmases ago, spending time with [brother/co-manager] Nate during an ice storm, smoking weed. They aren’t as subjective as songs I used to write, but they work together in a conglomerate sense.
I feel like I need to slap a “myth busted” watermark on this image…](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwbb6jVMzj1qzv41zo1_500.png)
3rd Street AKA Old World Third AKA Dr Martin Luther King Drive doesn’t touch Lake Drive.
This has been bothering me for a while. Not to take anything away from Justin Vernon when Bon Iver, Bon Iver has been named Pitchfork’s Album of the Year, but just to provide a service to out of town listeners.
Holocene might feature a “deliberately specific reference,” but to an imagined place (presumably located in Milwaukee). And of course, perhaps that’s the point.
Anyways, I love Bon Iver, Bon Iver. I loved seeing the songs performed live this summer and I love listening to the album again and again… and again. A great choice by Pitchfork for album of the year.
UPDATE: New Wave Polly Pocket reports that there is a “3rd and Lake” in Eu Claire, Wisconsin. Of course. Mystery solved.
UDATE 2: Foiled by Instapapering? Justin Vernon on myths, mystery, meaning, and his triumphant self-titled album:
Pitchfork: There are so many specific things from your life on this new album— like mentioning the house where Brad and Phil Cook lived in Wisconsin at Third and Lake on “Holocene”— what are they all communicating together?
JV: I’m not sure how any images on a record fit together, but they are coming from a specific place. “Holocene” is a good example. The whole second verse is about those years in Eau Claire but the first verse is this weird amalgamation of the darkness that came with those times. I set that verse in Milwaukee because it’s a dark, beer-drunk place. Even though I didn’t spend a lot of time there, it’s a good metaphor for those darker times. And guess what adults do on Halloween in Milwaukee? They get blind drunk and try to forget about their childhoods. We were going through ideas for a video for “Holocene”, and we thought it should be adults trick-or-treating where children are handing out their past dreams. Pretty dark. The last verse fast-forwards to two Christmases ago, spending time with [brother/co-manager] Nate during an ice storm, smoking weed. They aren’t as subjective as songs I used to write, but they work together in a conglomerate sense.
I feel like I need to slap a “myth busted” watermark on this image…
