Jesse Ainslie (Barghest, Virgin Forest, Phosphorescent)
Top Ten Albums of "2011":
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991) - reissue 2011
Radiohead - King Of Limbs
Tyler, The Creator - Goblin
Curren$y - Pilot Talk (2010)
Bobby Charles - Bobby Charles (1972) - reissue 2011
Destroyer - Kaputt
Grinderman - Grinderman II (2010)
Deertick - Divine Providence
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Ulver - Wars of The Roses (2011)
and two things I still just can't get over:
Charles Mingus - Mingus Plays Piano (1963)
and
Ulver - Lyckantropen Themes (2002)
In my opinion, these are, at least, contenders for the greatest instrumental records of all time - do yourselves the favor.
====================================
Martin Anderson (Trekky Records)
**sorry in advance that my list is so long...2011 has been a big one!**
TOP 30 ALBUMS OF 2011
1. Bon Iver- "Bon Iver, Bon Iver"
2. The War on Drugs- "Slave Ambient"
3. James Blake- "s/t"
4. Future Islands- "On the Water"
5. Akron/Family- "The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT"
6. High Places- "Original Colors"
7. Wye Oak- "Civilian"
8. The Dodos- "No Color"
9. Gillian Welch- "The Harrow & The Harvest
10. The Rosebuds- "Loud Planes Fly Low"
11. Wilco- "The Whole Love"
12. Mount Moriah- "s/t"
13. All Tiny Creatures- "Harbors"
14. James Blake- "Enough Thunder"
15. Grouper- "A/A : Alien Observer / Dream Loss"
16. Vetiver- "The Errant Charm"
17. Panda Bear- "Tomboy"
18. Beirut- "The Rip Tide"
19. Whatever Brains- "s/t"
20. Hammer No More The Fingers- "Black Shark"
21. Kurt Vile- "Smoke Ring for My Halo"
22. Des Ark- "Don't Rock The Boat, Sink the Fucker"
23. Gil-Scott Heron & Jamie xx- "We're New Here"
24. Colin Stetson- "New history Warfare, Vol 2: Judges"
25. Atlas Sound- "Parallax"
26. Collections of Colonies of Bees- "GIVING"
27. Tinariwen- "Tassili"
28. Drive-By Truckers- "Go-Go Boots"
29. Tom Waits- "Bad As Me"
30. Stephen Malkmus- "Mirror Traffic"
***I intentionally excluded the handful of AMAZING albums that I worked very closely on (Megafaun, Lost in the Trees, Phil Cook, Brice Randall Bickford, etc)***
Shows:
--TRKfest 2011 @ Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw, NC (highlights: Butterflies, Bowerbirds, Lonnie Walker, Vibrant Green)
--Megafaun + Doug Paisley @ Schuba's in Chicago, IL
--Future Islands @ The Echoplex in Los Angeles, CA
--Phil Cook & His Feat album release @ Motorco in Durham, NC
--Bon Iver & The Rosebuds @ Downtown Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC
--High Places @ The Smell in Los Angeles, CA
--Westfalia @ Johnny's in Carrboro, NC
--Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, NC (highlights: Superchunk, Brice Randall Bickford, Lost in the Trees, Mount Moriah, Wooden Wand, The Dodos)
--Sharon Van Etten & Megafaun @ Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY
--All Tiny Creatures @ Hometapes SXSW Friend Island in Austin, TX
--The Mountain Goats & Megafaun @ The Ottobar in Baltimore, MD
--The War on Drugs @ The Satellite in Los Angeles, CA
--Gayngs @ Stubb's in Austin, TX
--Menomena & Megafaun @ The Republic in New Orleans, LA
--Avi Buffalo @ The Winona house in Los Angeles, CA
Other rad highlights of 2011:
Trekky House...2011-2012 Tar Heels...Pie Pushers...Day off at an indoor water park with the Megafaun gang...hiking in the Redwoods...TRKfest...BJ "Crow" Burton...new Westfalia songs entering my life...bloody marys and ceviche in Mexico with Katie...welcoming Ellis Bradley Cook into this world...Greg Davis' Grateful Dead mixes...Adam Wills: hangmaster...Hi Ho Silver Oh Silverlake Lounge residency night 4 with Grandma Sparrow and Wil Donegan...The final days of Brome...Joan Didion...MusicNOW festival in Cinci w Fauns, FBB, Sharon, Vern, Doug, JagJag fam, National fam, et al...cabbage salad at Carousel in Los Angeles...Lee Waters...Punjab Deli in NYC...Adam & Sara Heathcott...re-reading the Merge book...Doug "Drugs" Paisley & Jordan Long...Boiling Crab & Beverly Soon Tofu in Ktown LA...Thomas and Amanda's dining room table...tamale birthday party...finally getting thorough with Yo La Tengo's catalog...Carolina Brewery Anniversary Lager..Dave Godowsky's apartment...Listening to Patterson Hood and James Toth speak at a Hopscotch panel
Knowing how hard the new Midtown Dickens, Lost in the Trees, Bowerbirds, Sharon Van Etten, Bear in Heaven, Dana Buoy and Matt White records are going to rule next year!!!
====================================
Phil Cook (Phil Cook & His Feat, Megafaun)
Doug Paisley - Constant Companion (i don't care that it's 2010. still listened to it the most!)
William Tyler - Behold the Spirit
The Alabama Shakes - S/T EP
Gillian Welch - The Harrow and The Harvest
Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong
Drive By Truckers - Go Go Boots
Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Mount Moriah - S/T
The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
The Dodos - No Color
====================================
Thomas Costello (Embarrassing Fruits)
Cass Mccombs "Wit's End"
Yuck "Yuck"
Colin Stetson "New History Of Warfare Vol.2"
Kurt Vile "Smoke Ring For My Halo"
Gillian Welch "The Harrow & The Harvest"
Trouble Books & Mark McGuire "Trouble Books & Mark McGuire"
Bill Orcutt "A New Way To Pay Old Debts"
Iceage "New Brigade"
The War On Drugs "Slave Ambient"
Whatever Brains "Whatever Brains"
Megafaun "Megafaun"
Glenn Jones "The Wanting"
Eddy Current Suppression Ring "So Many Things"
====================================
Wil Donegan (Auxiliary House)
Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
Destroyer - Kaputt
Mickey Newbury - An American Trilogy (reissue)
Josh T. Pearson - The Last of the Country Gentlemen
====================================
Catherine Edgerton (Midtown Dickens)
Best Record: Mount Moriah by Mount Moriah
Best Short Film: Mr. Percy's Run by DL Anderson
Most Epic Sunset: Baucum Road (Monroe Manor) November, 2011
New Favorite Bands: The Gift Machine, Cal Folger Day, Sonny and the Sunsets, The Water Bears
Best Date: 11/11/11
Best Taco: Taqueria Cancun, the Mission, SF
****(There is an important lesson in this one: Things that don't need qualifiers are always done well; the guest check just said: Taco. Kinda like how the new Megafaun record just says: Megafaun)
Best Hair: Will Hackney by FAR
Best Place to Sleep Alone: Strawberry Rock, Petrolia CA
Best Show: Wild Flag and Yellow Fever, Local 506, March 11, 2011
====================================
Will Hackney (Trekky Records, Midtown Dickens)
Favorite 10 Albums of 2011
1 Gillian Welch - The Harrow and The Harvest
2. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
3. Terius Nash - 1977
4. Beyonce - 4
5. Yardwork - Brotherer
6. Kate Bush - Director's Cut
7. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
8. Kanye West & Jay-Z - Watch The Throne
9. James Blake - s/t
10. Des Ark - Don't Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker
Favorite Reissues
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Fred McDowell - The Alan Lomax Recordings
Can't believe I still haven't listened to it, what's wrong with me?
Bjork - Biophilia
====================================
Daniel Hart (The Physics of Meaning)
Best Albums:
Tamer Animals -- Other Lives
King of Limbs -- Radiohead
Underneath the Pine -- Toro Y Moi
English Riviera -- Metronomy
Loud Planes Fly Low -- The Rosebuds
James Blake -- James Blake
Metals -- Feist
w h o k i l l -- tUnE-yArDs
New History Warfare Vol. 2 - Judges -- Colin Stetson
bon iver, bon iver -- Bon Iver
No Time For Dreaming -- Charles Bradley
Burst Apart -- Antlers
Unknown Mortal Orchestra -- Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Best Videos:
Metronomy - She Wants, dir. Jul & Mat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntVV3dTo-qw
+ every other Metronomy video (look it up and feel cleverer)
Battles - My Machines, dir. Daniels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkgQ88G8Hj8
Battles - Ice Cream, dir. Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CXtJA34QGQ&feature=related
Best Shows:
Feist @ the Majestic, Dallas, November
Toro Y Moi @ some shitty club, Austin, SXSW
Man Man/Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers @ Sons of Hermann Hall, Dallas, April
Bon Iver @ Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, July
Other Lives @ Spanish Moon, Baton Rouge, June
Broken Social Scene @ House of Fucking Blues, Dallas, March
Best Movies:
Midnight in Paris
HP8
Best things that happened to me this year:
1. Rachel and I celebrated four years together in August
2. Charlyne Yi made this amazing video for one of my songs, with no help from me, because she is truly amazing:
http://vimeo.com/24804326
3. Playing in Other Lives supporting Bon Iver's West Coast run, September
Best People:
Gerard Smith (1975 - 2011). Rest in peace
====================================
Seamus Kenney (Trepak, Auxiliary House, Lost in the Trees)
My top ten consists mostly of artists/songs I was listening to via Pandora in the past year. I have noted the year of release so as to not confuse or confound the reader.
Band/Album/Single/Year
1 - Peter, Bjorn and John/Gimme Some/Dig a Little Deeper/2011
2 - Fleet Foxes/Helplessness Blues/The Shrine - An Argument/2011
3 - Blitzen Trapper/The Destroyer of The Void/The Man Who Would Speak True/2010
4 - Dirty Projectors/Bitte Orca/Stillness Is The Move/2009
5 - Grizzly Bear/Veckatimest/Two Weeks/2009
6 - Band of Horses/Cease To Begin/No One's Gonna Love You/2007
7 - The Bird and The Bee/Please Clap Your Hands/Polite Dance Song/2007
8 - Phoenix/It's Never Been Like That/Sometime in The Fall/2006
9 - Ben Kweller/Out Come The Wolves/ Hospital Bed/2004
10- The Wedding Present/Watusi/Yeah,Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah/1994
====================================
Josh Kimbrough (Butterflies, Westfalia)
Faves in order:
1. Kurt Vile - "Smoke Ring For My Halo"
2. Deleted Scenes - "Young People's Church of the Air"
3. Mark Hollis - "Mark Hollis" (reissue)
4. Casual Curious - "Lungs"
5. Let's Wrestle - "Nursing Home"
6. All Tiny Creatures - "Harbors"
7. Phil Cook & His Feat - "Hungry Mother Blues"
8. Tyler, the Creator - "Goblin"
9. Toro Y Moi - "Freaking Out"
10. Bon Iver - "Bon Iver"
So confused about:
1. Lou Reed & Metallica - "Lulu"
2. Limp Bizkit - "Gold Cobra"
====================================
Jon Mackey (Hi Ho Silver Oh, Auxiliary House)
1. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
2. David Bazan - Strange Negotiations
3. Megafaun - Megafaun
4. Mount Moriah - Mount Moriah
5. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
5. (tie) Tim Hecker - Dropped Pianos
6. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
7. Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
8. Low - C'mon
9. Toro Y Moi - Underneath the Pine
10. Washed Out - Within and Without
====================================
Joe Norkus (Embarrassing Fruits, Westfalia)
National:
The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
Swearing At Motorists - Postcards From a Drinking Town
Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
Richard Buckner - Our Blood
John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
Atlas Sound - Parallax
Toro Y Moi - Underneath The Pine
Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Local:
Wesley Wolfe - Cynics Need Love Too
Secret Message Machine - Trashface
Gross Ghost - Wicked Game
Mount Moriah - s/t
Other Stuff:
Jim Beam Rye Whiskey w/ Blenheim's and Lime (thanks John)
Sriracha + Anything
The Taco Truck next to Cat's Cradle
Breaking Bad
My "new" Squire Strat
Seeing Archers of Loaf, Guided By Voices (twice), and Dinosaur Jr. all in the same year!
====================================
Ari Picker (Lost in the Trees)
I'm always asked the same question this time of year: "What are you top 10 favorite albums of the year"....and every year it seems like there are less and less albums that really change me as a music lover. Perhaps it is just an age thing (not being young and wide eyed to the word), or perhaps I'm too self absorbed. Or am I looking for other types of inspiration? But...when a record does fight its way into my head, it gives me the same thrill that it did 10 years ago. So for this year, here are my top 10 (or so) albums that changed my life. There are so many wonderful albums, but these are the ones that really changed me as a music listener (at least the ones that I can remember at the moment).
1. Kid A/OK Computer - Radiohead
2. Atom Heart Mother/Meddle - Pink Floyd
3. Airplane Over the Sea/Live at Jittery Joe's - Neutral Milk Hotel
4. Orchestral Music - Beethoven's late string quartets, Berlioz Symphony Fantastique, Saint-Sean's tone poems, Chopin's Nocturnes, Shostakovich's symphonies, Stravinsky's ballets, Bach fugues, Mozart's 40th-41st symphony, Sibelius' Violin Concerto, and On and On and On....
5. Ziggy Stardus/Aladin Sane - David Bowie
6. Edward Scissor Hands - Danny Elfman
7. Smily Smile/Smile - The Beach Boys
8. The Royal Tenembaums - Various Artists
9. Anti-Christ Super Star - Marilyn Manson
10. Pinkerton/Blue Album - Weezer
Honorable Mentions: The Misfits - Static Age, Queen - Sheer Heart Attack, Blonde Redhead - Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons/Fake Can be Just as Good, Outkast - Aquimini/Stankonia, Joni Mitchell - Blue, The Beatles, Funeral/Neon Bible - Arcade Fire, The 'Burbs Sound Track - Jerry Goldsmith, and on and on...
====================================
Kym Register (Midtown Dickens)
Records:
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Wild Flag - Wild Flag
Javelin - Canyon Candy
The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
Megafaun - Megafaun
Pink Flag - King of Scene
Harvey Sue - Harvey Sue Gets Down
Destroyer - Kaputt
Phil Cook and his Feat - Hungry Mother Blues
Future Islands - On the Water
Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
Frank Fairfield - Out on the Open West
Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest
Kendl Winter - At the Same Time
Clyde Peterson (Your Heart Breaks), Theo Hilton (Nana Grizol / Defiance Ohio), Toby Foster, Ryan Woods (Defiance Ohio) - THEO CLYDE TOBY RYAN "SELF TITLED SPLIT"
Des Ark - Don't Rock the Boat, Sink the Fucker
Shows:
Diamond Center - Hopscotch
The Mountain Goats - The Fillmore, yeow!!
Des Ark / Bellafea / Pygmy Lush - The Nightlight
The War on Drugs / Carter Tanton - Kings
Javelin - Pinhook 3 year anniversary
Shonen Knife / Ghost of Rock - Pinhook
A Hawk and a Hacksaw / Dark Dark Dark / Pillars & Tongues - Pinhook
MEN ft. JD Sampson / Tayisha Bussay - Pinhook
Kairaba / Afica Unplugged - Pinhook
Gillian Welch - NC Museum of Art
Vibrant Green - TRKfest - Haw River Ballroom
Paper Hand Puppet Intervention - Forest Theatre
The Moaners / Mount Moriah - Cat's Cradle
Des Ark - Hopscotch
Hurray for the Riff Raff - the Pinhook w. Sam Doores and the Tumbleweeds
O'Death / Why are we Building Such a Big Ship /Lonnie Walker - Pinhook
Best new find of 2011, hopefully to acquire in 2012:
*Moog Taurus*
====================================
Hunter Simpson (Daytona, Participation Award)
here's my favorite song from this year:
====================================
Rusty Sutton (Lost in the Trees live sound engineer)
TOP RECORDS
1. Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest
2. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
3. Generationals - Actor-Castor
4. Mount Moriah - s/t
5. Braids - Native Speaker
6. Brice Randall Bickford - s/t
7. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
8. War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
9. Battles - Gloss Drop
10. Foo Fighters - Wasting Life
Honorable mentions: Yuck - s/t, Jessica Leah Mayfield - Tell Me, Decemberists - The King is Dead
TOP SHOWS/TOURS/FESTIVALS (In chronological order)
Jan. 13-23 - Lost in the Trees/Butterflies South East Tour
Feb. 11 - Pipe @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
Mar. 18 - Versus and Lost in the Trees acoustic sets @ Homeslice Pizza, Austin, TX
Mar. 23 - OFF! @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
Apr. 11 - Joe Pug and Strand of Oaks @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
Apr. 12 - Wanda Jackson @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
May 14-15 - Flaming Lips, Yo La Tengo, Mucca Pazza, Lost in the Trees, and Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Nelsonville Music Festival, Nelsonville, OH
June 25 - David Bazan, Centro-Matic and Sarah Jaffe @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
July 23-24 - Hillside Music Festival, Guelph, ON
August 19-20 - Archers of Loaf @ Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC
Sept. 6 - Active Child @ Local 506, Chapel Hill NC
Sept. 8-11 - Hopscotch Music Festival
Sept. 17 Neon Indian @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
Sept. 18 The Low Anthem and William Elliott Whitmore @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
Sept. 27 - Fucked Up and Wavves @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
Oct. 31 - Zen Frisbee and Shit Horse @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
====================================
Stephen Tunnell (Vibrant Green)
Shoes: Clarks
Looking forward to: YanDrew releasing somethin recorded
Kinda old but newly discovered music: PJ Harvey's "Uh-Huh Her", Aloe Blacc's "Good things".
Food: Rediscovered Crab Cakes!
New music: St. Vincent's Strange Mercy
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