Sunset Rubdown Random Spirit Lover
(Jagjaguwar, 2007)
I didn't take the time to write up a blurb about this amazing album, but my iTunes library on our laptop says that I have played the songs from Random Spirit Lover more than any of the other 20,000+. That counts for something right? Oh, and "For The Pier (And Dead Shimmering)" is one of my favourite songs of all time. That's two things.
Sunset Rubdown Shut Up I Am Dreaming
(Absolutely Kosher, 2006)
Following up the amazing debut of by his other “wolf” band (and who doesn’t have an “other wolf band” nowadays?), Spencer Krug set out with this side project to confirm his wonder boy status. Shut Up I Am Dreaming is not lo-fi, but it’s definitely rougher around the edges than Apologies to the Queen Mary. Lyrically, Krug’s work here (and elsewhere) is second only to Ms. Newsom. Krug’s fantastical poetics are transportative and perfectly matched with Krug’s knack for powerfully theatrical rock n' roll hooks. I love more than most things, rocking out on the air guitar to this album.
By this time last year, I more-or-less knew that 2009 was going to be a gift. For me, personally, like, To: Braying Mantis, From: Music, XOXO. The sheer number of my alltime favorite artists who would be releasing new music guaranteed it. What's remarkable in hindsight, then, is how un-disappointed I have been - what a year, what a gift! And with suprises as strong and amazing as the expecteds! All I'd like to say is, Thanks. Thanks to Music, for the wondrous, challenging, joyful, and important year. Now, without further ado, my list of 2009's best records:
50. The Antlers - Hospice
49. Jon Hopkins - Insides
48. Mos Def - The Ecstatic
47. Dedaoorian - Mind Raft
46. The Field - Yesterday and Today
45. Swan Lake - Enemy Mine
44. Grooms - Rejoicer
43. Preslay LiterarySchool - Beautiful Was The Time
42. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
41. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
40. No Age - Losing Feeling
39. Madlib - Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute To...
38. Thee Oh Sees - Help
37. Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi
36. Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country
35. Alec Ounsworth - Mo Beauty
34. Candy Claws - In The Dream of the Sea Life
33. Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
32. Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy
31. Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective
30. Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
29. Deerhunter - Rainwater Casssette Exchange
28. William Basinski - 92982
27. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II
26. Antony and The Johnsons - The Crying Light
25. Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live
24. Black Dice - Repo
23. Here We Go Magic - Here We Go Magic
22. Clark - Totem Flare
21. Ras G - Brotha From Anotha Planet
20. Flying Lotus - L.A. EP 3 X 3
19. St. Vincent - Actor
18. Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem
17. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
16. HEALTH - Get Color
15. Burial & Four Tet - Moth/Wolf Cub
14. Prefuse 73 - Meditation Upon Meditations (The Japanese Diaries)
13. The See Through Boy - I Am Constellation
12. Andrew Douglas Rothbard - Exodusarabesque
11. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar
10. Atlas Sound -Logos
9. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
8. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
7. Dragging An Ox Through Water - The Tropics of Phenoenon
6. Dan Deacon - Bromst
5. Navigator - Bad Children(and a special mention for Braden J. McKenna - Gigantic Monster Cave)
4. DOOM - BORN LIKE THIS
3. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
2. The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion (and a special mention for Fall Be Kind)
Sunset Rubdown Dragonslayer (06.2009, Jagjaguwar) RIYL = Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake
In an age of album leaks, the idea of placing faith in a pre-ordered copy of an album requires a little bit less faith. However, for those strong few (or uninformed few), you can preorder the new Sunset Rubdown and receive a digital version of the album immediately. That being the case, there are scores of Sunset Rubdown fans who are already legally listening to Dragonslayer making now as good a time as any to present this album before people who haven’t (at least yet) purchased this album for consideration. For those who don’t know Sunset Rubdown, the band is the brainchild and former solo project of Wolf Parade/Swan Lake/Frog Eyes contributor, Spencer Krug. There is a common sentiment among Krugian acolytes that Mr. Krug can do no wrong. As a shameless Krug fanboy myself, I must admit that this thought has crossed my mind; however, after my first few listens to Dragonslayer, I found that I wanted to like it a whole lot more than I actually did. It’s not that I didn’t like the album after my first couple listens, it was great – classic Krug – but there was a certain imaginary standard of “beyond greatness” that was somehow left unmet. It is a little bit unfair, I realize, to place such expectations on mere mortals, but it remains true that Krug’s track record hints at his capability for perfection. One initially glaring strain on my out-and-out giving in to Dragonslayer as perfect was that Krug redid “Paper Lace,” a song that was originally recorded and released only a couple of months ago with his other other band, Swan Lake. For an album with only eight songs, the repetition of one already released song seems like a pretty big deal. Not only that, but the Swan Lake version rocks the Sunset Rubdown version. In other places, Krug’s signature lyricisms fell a little short with some phrases that I personally found a little lacking. I was being critical because Random Spirit Lover was my favourite album of 2007 and I loved Shut Up I’m Dreaming even more than that. It’s weird how a little head over heals adoration can make you feel like an artist has a certain obligation to you or that you have some type of quasi-ownership -like stock shares- in the continued success of the band. Well, if you’re a Krug lover and this talk has you worried – don’t. I haven’t abandoned Sunset Rubdown. Most importantly because Sunset Rubdown hasn’t abandoned me. I kept listening. Replaying the album over and over again, not because I felt my initial criticisms were wrong, but because Dragonslayer is…awesome. In fact (as is always the case with Mr. Krug), repeated listens has afforded me the special privilege of peeling away at the layers and layers within these eight tracks and in turn falling absolutely head over heals with this most recent incarnation of indie rock genius that is Sunset Rubdown. Sunset Rubdown does something for me that no other band on the landscape of contemporary music has done for me since I was in junior high. In my explicitly geeky music past, bands like At the Drive-In and Dismemberment Plan drove me to rock out air-guitar style to entire albums in front of the wide mirror in my room. It was pretty much the standard of my school nights: Simpsons, Seinfeld, homework and then rocking out. Sunset Rubdown is the only band left that can provoke such unabashed idolization and air-rock mimicry and it feels good. I listen to these tracks, their gorging drama, their pulsing climaxes, and can do nothing but nod repetitiously with the rhythm and mouth every lyric. That power is in Dragonslayer. And, true to the subliminal connotations of its name, Dragonslayer has some of the grittiest guitar shredding Krug has ever had put to tape. Sunset Rubdown is no longer just a solo project though. This is a full, sincerely talented group of musicians who are, in my opinion, the very best still using guitars, drums, bass the way they were meant to be used. It just doesn’t get better than this. So, do I still want to like this album more than I do? No. If I loved this album any more, my wife would probably ask me to marry it, and that would just be awkward. Scoot over Animal Collective, based on this hat trick of releases from Sunset Rubdown, this blog should’ve been named “Idiot Heart.”
This list is the result of a constantly updated Excel spreadsheet that I have kept all year, so hopefully nothing deserving gets left out. The sad part is that I wasn’t able to listen to a few albums which I sampled (Sightings, John Wiese, Stars of the Lid, The North Sea) of which I am sure would have made the list. It is inevitable to miss a few though. At some point you just have to give up and post your list, right? Anyways, we’ll get to all those records on FG eventually. Having thoroughly enjoyed this year’s musical fruits I have opted to further inundate you with the ten picks preceding my top 50 albums of 2007 (51-60). This is essentially for my own piece of mind. I already feel horrible for some of the enjoyable albums I have cut (such is the mindset of a music obsessed geek). Hopefully the addition won’t be viewed as too pompous or overwhelming (a general characteristic of ‘lists’ as a whole anyway – I love them though!). You may note that I have also updated my top ten from the time that it was graciously featured in Slowtrain’s year end music-zine. It’s just been that kind of year. In the end, this list represents what has endured and what was just hype. Seeing as how I have give out a virtual 8.5 to everything I have reviewed (I review what I like, so what), we are discussing the potential of removing scoring all together from Forest Gospel’s album features (give us your opinion on this!). The goodness of an album can fluctuate based on mood and time as this list prove. These are the albums that held strong through the thick and thin, hope you likey…(PS – please share your agreements, disagreements and your own list [I know you have one] in the comments; be a virtual friend)
1. Sunset Rubdown – Random Spirit Lover – The most multi faceted package of pure orchestrated incredibleness. It has been a long time since I have been so enamored with something so easily labeled ‘indie rock.’
2. Grouper – Cover the Windows and the Walls – In comparison, nothing else on this list deserves to be called haunting. One of the most beautiful records I have ever listened to.
3. Pumice – Pebbles – My first true love of 2007. While it has been slightly upstaged by the albums I’ve placed in front of it, Pebbles is the kind of music that I wish that I would’ve created. Spanning territory from pop to drone to everything else in-between, Pumice is a versatile genius. Also, this would be a suitable blurb without the writing lo-fi.
4. Shugo Tokumaru – Exit– Imaginative folk pop perfection of the Japanese variety. Better than just about anything else you could be forced to call ‘charming.’
5. Aa (BIG A Little A) – Gaame – In a year with some great drumming, Aa’s Gaame has the best. Varied, wonderful, frantic rock that is the progressive as it is primal.
6. Yellow Swans – At All Ends / Descension EP – Devistatingly loud and coarse yet beautiful.
7. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago – The second most beautiful album of the year would be the most beautiful in any year that Grouper’s Cover the Windows and the Walls. Melancholy songwriting at its best.
8. Tim Hecker – Norberg - A puffy, billowy cloud of electro-acoustic bliss in just over twenty minutes. One singularly perfect, transcendent excursion.
9. Raccoo-oo-oon – Behold Secret Kingdom – A production miracle, Raccoo-oo-oon has taken everything that has made them mysterious noise rock maestros and channeled it into a crisp, resilient beast of a record. Behold Secret Kingdom is their masterpiece.
10. Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam – poppy and weird, Animal Collective continue to knock the socks off every, regardless of when and where you heard them first. Perfect for old timey AC fans and nubes alike.
11. Wooden Wand – James & The Quiet – Pure, strong American songwriting of incredible quality. One of the most critically underrated albums of the year in my view.
12. No Age – Weirdo Rippers - Turning arty noise rock into accessible slabs of punk perfection. One of my favourite new bands of 2007.
13. Marnie Stern – In Advance of the Broken Arm - Incredible guitar work supplemented by incredible drumming from Hella. Marnie Stern’s debut was the first great CD I heard in 2007 and it is still as beautifully dangerous as ever.
14. Ben Frost – Theory of Machines – The pure combination of machine and humanity, Ben Frost’s Theory of Machines is an apocalyptic exercise in grinding cinematics.
15. Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity – The most accessible album from one of the best experimental indie rock bands of our generation. An early release date may have caused a lot of people to forget about this one. Amazingly amazing.
16. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup – Didn’t hit the heights of Elephant Gun for me, but was definitely a solid effort in music that can only be measured in terms of grandeur. Blissfully reaffirming music from the boy wonder.
17. Mark Templeton – Standing on a Hummingbird – organic, glitchy, kaleidoscopic, gorgeous.
18. Navigator – Throwing Toungues – An on honest, penetrating album of lo-fi bedroom songs that require repeat listens.
19. Gowns – Red State – gothic Americana with a twinge of no wave. Gowns created an enrapturing, claustrophobic document of Middle America with Red State.
20. Shuta Hasunuma – OK Bamboo – Low key piano experiments that practically spell ‘pleasant’ without loosing its engaging touch.
21. Rhys Chatham – A Crimson Grail – Wildly powerful live document of 400 guitars playing like 400 guitars should; loud and long.
22. Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan – Pullhair Rubeye – While the concept that managed to piss off more than its fair share, Pullhair Rubeye is much more than a gimmick and nothing less than what Animal Collective fans should have come to expect of an album with Avey Tare.
23. The Lionelle – Oh! The Company We Keep! – This album did for me what Portugal. The Man did last year, produced a sharp indie rock record with which to simply rock.
24. Stag Hare – Ahspen – A single track of gorgeousness from the enigmatic sound voyage.
25. Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals – I still hear Fleetwood Mac and Paul Simon here and I think Yeasayer is all the better for it.
26. The National – Boxer – A classic down tempo album of for any occasion.
27. Blonde Redhead – 23– I retried this album after initially discarding it and fell in love. Thank you Sassigrass!
28. Morgan Packard – Airships Fill The Sky – Check the review from last week.
29. Giant Skyflower Band – Blood of the Sunworm – Glenn Donaldson strikes again with more psych folk pleasantries that never dip below his standard of genius.
30. Health – Health– This self titled album sounds like filling a car with discordant guitars and pedals along with a full drums set and a thousand drum sticks and then driving the whole thing off a cliff. It’s that good.
31. WZT Hearts – Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones – Um, this album is kind of like watching the crash of the car in the previous blurb filmed and shown in reverse. Kinda.
32. Radiohead – In Rainbows – A solid release from the Radiohead camp will always find a way onto my year end list, whether revolutionary or not.
33. The Dirty Projectors – Rise Above – Dave has long been one of my favourite musicians and Rise Above seems to be his great achievement after numerous recordings with scattered results.
34. Machinefabriek – Weleer – Two discs of compiled beauty from the Dutch experimentalist. If you like avant garde music, this album has a little bit of everything for you.
35. Angels of Light – We Are Him – Michael Gira has had a lot of admirers this year with dedicatory songs from Ben Frost and Klimek and We Are Him is the reason why. No one does gothic Americana quite as heavily or good as him.
36. Deerhunter – Cryptograms– This album is everything that critics have said about it. It isn’t hard to find someone gushing over Deerhunter this year.
37. Shining – Grindstone – Spastic, orchestral Norwegian metal…how couldn’t you like it.
38. Julianna Barwick – Sanguine – This album sounds like the more innocent, younger sister to Grouper’s Cover the Windows and the Walls. With that said, it is no wonder that it is so enriching.
39. Kemialliset Ystavat – untitled– This album is possibly the most bizarre on this list and is all the better for it. It sounds like packing a bomb with as many musical ideas as possible and the lighting the wick and watching to see how everything is blown to pieces.
40. Adrian Orange & Her Band – S/T – I have never liked Thanksgiving (Adrian Orange’s moniker) too much but something about this release, with its dub influences and choral embellishments is just impossible not to fall for.
41. Luke Temple – Snowbeast – A subtle, melancholic romp through some of the most exciting pop made all year.
42. James Blackshaw – The Cloud of Unknowing – meditative 12 string guitar picking that are simply transporting in their dreamy composition.
43. Battles – Mirrored– Wildly talented instrumental rock. In fact, this is about the only thing that has been exciting about instrumental rock for quite a few year
44. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha – an understated album from one of the wittiest muscians on the independent landscape.
45. Mouthus – Saw a Halo – The record that was most likely to have been mixed and mastered in a trash compactor.
46. Fiery Furnaces – Widow City – Fiery Furnaces at their most rocking and consistent.
47. The Tenants of Balathazar’s Castle – A Capella – Hushed, looped vocal experiments that are as surprisingly rewarding as they are unique.
48. Blues Control – Blues Control – Scuzzy blues ragas washed with noisy effects pedals.
49. Clipd Beaks – Hoarse Lords – No wave album of the year.
50. A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Scribble Mural Comic Journal – If Fennesz was in a pop band, this is probably how it would end up.
51. Pantha du Prince – This Bliss
52. Seabear – The Ghost That Carried Us Away
53. MoHa! – Norwegianism
54. Besnard Lakes – Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
55. M.I.A. – Kala
56. Eric Copeland – Hermaphrodite
57. Vic Chesnutt – North Star Desert
58. Mike Wexler – Sun Wheel
59. Woelv – Tout Seui Dans la Foret en Plein Jour, Avez-Vous Peur?
Sunset Rubdown
Sunset Rubdown
Sunset Rubdown
1. Sunset Rubdown – Random Spirit Lover – The most multi faceted package of pure orchestrated incredibleness. It has been a long time since I have been so enamored with something so easily labeled ‘indie rock.’
3. Pumice – Pebbles – My first true love of 2007. While it has been slightly upstaged by the albums I’ve placed in front of it, Pebbles is the kind of music that I wish that I would’ve created. Spanning territory from pop to drone to everything else in-between, Pumice is a versatile genius. Also, this would be a suitable blurb without the writing lo-fi.
4. Shugo Tokumaru – Exit – Imaginative folk pop perfection of the Japanese variety. Better than just about anything else you could be forced to call ‘charming.’
5. Aa (BIG A Little A) – Gaame – In a year with some great drumming, Aa’s Gaame has the best. Varied, wonderful, frantic rock that is the progressive as it is primal.
6. Yellow Swans – At All Ends / Descension EP – Devistatingly loud and coarse yet beautiful.
7. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago – The second most beautiful album of the year would be the most beautiful in any year that Grouper’s Cover the Windows and the Walls. Melancholy songwriting at its best.
8. Tim Hecker – Norberg - A puffy, billowy cloud of electro-acoustic bliss in just over twenty minutes. One singularly perfect, transcendent excursion.
9. Raccoo-oo-oon – Behold Secret Kingdom – A production miracle, Raccoo-oo-oon has taken everything that has made them mysterious noise rock maestros and channeled it into a crisp, resilient beast of a record. Behold Secret Kingdom is their masterpiece.
10. Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam – poppy and weird, Animal Collective continue to knock the socks off every, regardless of when and where you heard them first. Perfect for old timey AC fans and nubes alike.
11. Wooden Wand – James & The Quiet – Pure, strong American songwriting of incredible quality. One of the most critically underrated albums of the year in my view.
12. No Age – Weirdo Rippers - Turning arty noise rock into accessible slabs of punk perfection. One of my favourite new bands of 2007.
13. Marnie Stern – In Advance of the Broken Arm - Incredible guitar work supplemented by incredible drumming from Hella. Marnie Stern’s debut was the first great CD I heard in 2007 and it is still as beautifully dangerous as ever.
14. Ben Frost – Theory of Machines – The pure combination of machine and humanity, Ben Frost’s Theory of Machines is an apocalyptic exercise in grinding cinematics.
15. Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity – The most accessible album from one of the best experimental indie rock bands of our generation. An early release date may have caused a lot of people to forget about this one. Amazingly amazing.
16. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup – Didn’t hit the heights of Elephant Gun for me, but was definitely a solid effort in music that can only be measured in terms of grandeur. Blissfully reaffirming music from the boy wonder.
17. Mark Templeton – Standing on a Hummingbird – organic, glitchy, kaleidoscopic, gorgeous.
18. Navigator – Throwing Toungues – An on honest, penetrating album of lo-fi bedroom songs that require repeat listens.
19. Gowns – Red State – gothic Americana with a twinge of no wave. Gowns created an enrapturing, claustrophobic document of Middle America with Red State.
20. Shuta Hasunuma – OK Bamboo – Low key piano experiments that practically spell ‘pleasant’ without loosing its engaging touch.
21. Rhys Chatham – A Crimson Grail – Wildly powerful live document of 400 guitars playing like 400 guitars should; loud and long.
22. Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan – Pullhair Rubeye – While the concept that managed to piss off more than its fair share, Pullhair Rubeye is much more than a gimmick and nothing less than what Animal Collective fans should have come to expect of an album with Avey Tare.
23. The Lionelle – Oh! The Company We Keep! – This album did for me what Portugal. The Man did last year, produced a sharp indie rock record with which to simply rock.
24. Stag Hare – Ahspen – A single track of gorgeousness from the enigmatic sound voyage.
25. Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals – I still hear Fleetwood Mac and Paul Simon here and I think Yeasayer is all the better for it.
26. The National – Boxer – A classic down tempo album of for any occasion.
27. Blonde Redhead – 23 – I retried this album after initially discarding it and fell in love. Thank you Sassigrass!
28. Morgan Packard – Airships Fill The Sky – Check the review from last week.
29. Giant Skyflower Band – Blood of the Sunworm – Glenn Donaldson strikes again with more psych folk pleasantries that never dip below his standard of genius.
30. Health – Health – This self titled album sounds like filling a car with discordant guitars and pedals along with a full drums set and a thousand drum sticks and then driving the whole thing off a cliff. It’s that good.
31. WZT Hearts – Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones – Um, this album is kind of like watching the crash of the car in the previous blurb filmed and shown in reverse. Kinda.
32. Radiohead – In Rainbows – A solid release from the Radiohead camp will always find a way onto my year end list, whether revolutionary or not.
33. The Dirty Projectors – Rise Above – Dave has long been one of my favourite musicians and Rise Above seems to be his great achievement after numerous recordings with scattered results.
34. Machinefabriek – Weleer – Two discs of compiled beauty from the Dutch experimentalist. If you like avant garde music, this album has a little bit of everything for you.
35. Angels of Light – We Are Him – Michael Gira has had a lot of admirers this year with dedicatory songs from Ben Frost and Klimek and We Are Him is the reason why. No one does gothic Americana quite as heavily or good as him.
36. Deerhunter – Cryptograms – This album is everything that critics have said about it. It isn’t hard to find someone gushing over Deerhunter this year.
37. Shining – Grindstone – Spastic, orchestral Norwegian metal…how couldn’t you like it.
38. Julianna Barwick – Sanguine – This album sounds like the more innocent, younger sister to Grouper’s Cover the Windows and the Walls. With that said, it is no wonder that it is so enriching.
39. Kemialliset Ystavat – untitled – This album is possibly the most bizarre on this list and is all the better for it. It sounds like packing a bomb with as many musical ideas as possible and the lighting the wick and watching to see how everything is blown to pieces.
40. Adrian Orange & Her Band – S/T – I have never liked Thanksgiving (Adrian Orange’s moniker) too much but something about this release, with its dub influences and choral embellishments is just impossible not to fall for.
41. Luke Temple – Snowbeast – A subtle, melancholic romp through some of the most exciting pop made all year.
42. James Blackshaw – The Cloud of Unknowing – meditative 12 string guitar picking that are simply transporting in their dreamy composition.
43. Battles – Mirrored – Wildly talented instrumental rock. In fact, this is about the only thing that has been exciting about instrumental rock for quite a few year
44. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha – an understated album from one of the wittiest muscians on the independent landscape.
45. Mouthus – Saw a Halo – The record that was most likely to have been mixed and mastered in a trash compactor.
46. Fiery Furnaces – Widow City – Fiery Furnaces at their most rocking and consistent.
47. The Tenants of Balathazar’s Castle – A Capella – Hushed, looped vocal experiments that are as surprisingly rewarding as they are unique.
48. Blues Control – Blues Control – Scuzzy blues ragas washed with noisy effects pedals.
49. Clipd Beaks – Hoarse Lords – No wave album of the year.
50. A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Scribble Mural Comic Journal – If Fennesz was in a pop band, this is probably how it would end up.
