Top 20 of 2005 -- Rave Recs

[tentoze]

20) Elliot Murphy~ Murphy Gets Muddy
19) Graham Parker~ Songs of No Consequence
18) Vic Chesnutt~ Ghetto Bells
17) Bruce Springsteen~ Devils & Dust
16) The Frames~ Burn The Maps
15) Sun Kil Moon~ Tiny Cities
14) John Prine~ Fair & Square
13) Son Volt~ Okemah & The Melody of Riot
12) Mountain Goats~ The Sunset Tree
11) Marissa Nadler~ The Saga of Mayflower May
10) Okkervil River~ Black Sheep Boy
9) Ry Cooder~ Chavez Ravine
8) My Morning Jacket~ Z
7) Magnolia Electric Company~ Trials & Errors
6) Damon & Naomi~ The Earth Is Blue
5) Al Kooper~ Black Coffee
4) Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs
3) Decemberists~ Picaresque
2) Mary Gauthier~ Mercy Now
1) Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel of Progress

[Mr MidFi]

Interesting to see that no one has mentioned Deadwing yet.

[Stone]

Interesting to see that no one has mentioned Deadwing yet.

Is that similar to Deadman?

[ForeverAutumn]

Interesting to see that no one has mentioned Deadwing yet.

Deadwing didn't impress me.

[Stone]

Man, I still have a lot of listening to do over the next month or 6 weeks before I have a even a decent idea of a top ten, let alone a top 20. Here are a few that'll surely make the list, though:

Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
The Juan Maclean - Less than Human
Animal Collective - Feels
High On Fire - Blessed Black Wings

[audiobill]

Man, I still have a lot of listening to do over the next month or 6 weeks before I have a even a decent idea of a top ten, let alone a top 20. Here are a few that'll surely make the list, though:

Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
The Juan Maclean - Less than Human
Animal Collective - Feels
High On Fire - Blessed Black Wings

I believe that "Feels" is a better and more cohesive album than "Sung Tongs". Another one I'll have to revisit. Thanks for the prompt on Of Montreal's latest. Seems like this band got so much attention in the past several years that the press has forgotten about them lately.

[Slosh]

Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy

I would probably like this a whole lot better if it didn't sound like it was recorded with 64 kbps mp3 encoding. Sounds so horrid I'm not even willing to gamble on the LP.

Sucks when that happens

NP: SFA - "Tradewinds"

[Davey]

2) Mary Gauthier~ Mercy Now

Started playing that one more this weekend and it is growing on me a lot. Guess my initial reaction was that sometimes she sounds a bit too much like Lucinda, but I also realize now that's not really her fault either. Good songs and lots of emotion. Wish thay'd mastered it better to give her voice a little more room to breath. Shame it has to be so compressed and congested, but it is a nice one. Also gave that new Al Kooper a spin, and even though it seems to go on forever, still some very tasty music.

BTW, I've only heard 2 of the albums on audiobill's list! Guess there won't be much Rave Recs consensus this year. And none of the UK mags even have my favorite album in their top 50. Ya ever feel out of touch

[Troy]

Deadwing.

[Dusty Chalk]

My current working list, and no, I didn't go back and add Porcupine Tree, it was already on there (proof furnished upon request):

Black Mountain
Rob Dickinson, Fresh Wine for the Horses
Electrelane, Axes
Matt Elliott, Drinking Songs
Foetus, Love
Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, The Days of Mars
Jesu
LCD Soundsystem
Mars Volta, [i}Frances the Mute[/i]
New Model Army, Carnival
Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth
Porcupine Tree, DeadWing
Sigur Rós, Takk
Super/System, Always Never Again
John Vanderslice, Pixel Revolt

Addit'l to consider:

Antimatter
Venetian Snares
Jason Forrest -- Shamelessly something -- don't even have this one yet.
m83

[kexodusc]

I would just add the following to all the great submissions above:

Arena - Pepper's Ghost
Spock's Beard - Octane
Tori Amos - The Beekeeper

[audiobill]

I would just add the following to all the great submissions above:

Arena - Pepper's Ghost
Spock's Beard - Octane
Tori Amos - The Beekeeper

Hey, kexodusc.

Where in the canon of Tori Amos Albums would you place The Beekeeper. Does it resemble her earlier work or her later work. Have yet to hear it, too.

[Dusty Chalk]

Hey, kexodusc.

Where in the canon of Tori Amos Albums would you place The Beekeeper. Does it resemble her earlier work or her later work. Have yet to hear it, too.

Hey, I'm not Kexodusc, but I'd like to take a stab at answering this.

In recent years (esp. Beekeeper and Scarlet's Walk), Tori has really returned to her early songwriting form. "Sweet The Sting" could quite possibly be her best track yet, sounding instantly like a classic from the 70's. I was recently reminded by how good this album was by picking up the bootlegs box.

It made my top 20.

Me, personally, I would place it third, after Little Earthquakes and Scarlet's Walk, though I haven't heard anything else in a while. I should probably revisit some of her lesser known (to me) albums, as I really like pretty much everything she's done, except maybe the Strange Girls covers album, and I even liked that quite a bit, once I got over the fact that it wasn't up to the high standards I have for her.

[audiobill]

My current working list, and no, I didn't go back and add Porcupine Tree, it was already on there (proof furnished upon request):

Black Mountain
Rob Dickinson, Fresh Wine for the Horses
Electrelane, Axes
Matt Elliott, Drinking Songs
Foetus, Love
Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, The Days of Mars
Jesu
LCD Soundsystem
Mars Volta, [i}Frances the Mute[/i]
New Model Army, Carnival
Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth
Porcupine Tree, DeadWing
Sigur Rós, Takk
Super/System, Always Never Again
John Vanderslice, Pixel Revolt

Addit'l to consider:

Antimatter
Venetian Snares
Jason Forrest -- Shamelessly something -- don't even have this one yet.
m83

That Pixel Revolt seems to be one of the most underappreciated gems of 2005, imho.
Also, heard that the Electrelane is divine -- yet to listen to it. Maybe I'll get to it in 2006.

[audiobill]

Deadwing.

Would you say that Deadwing is as good as In Absentia?? Haven't heard it, yet.

[audiobill]

BTW, I've only heard 2 of the albums on audiobill's list! Guess there won't be much Rave Recs consensus this year. And none of the UK mags even have my favorite album in their top 50. Ya ever feel out of touch

Davey: You're such a tease. Now, what could your top album be?? hmmmmmmm.

[Davey]

Davey: You're such a tease. Now, what could your top album be?? hmmmmmmm.

No tease, just thought everyone probably knew about my love for Andrew Bird's latest by now

[audiobill]

No tease, just thought everyone probably knew about my love for Andrew Bird's latest by now

Lord knows, I've tried the Andrew Bird several times & I just don't get it. Obviously you and ForeverAutumn get it. I've given up on it.

[Davey]

Lord knows, I've tried the Andrew Bird several times & I just don't get it. Obviously you and ForeverAutumn get it. I've given up on it.

Yeah, funny about that. Bouncing around the net you can find quite a few of us that think this is a real landmark album, easily the best of the year and one of the best of the last few years. There's people pulling apart the lyrics and recasting them into their own images, just like we do on the classics of old. Bird is a very unassuming and underappreciated talent. You listen to the interviews like on NPR or read some of the transcripts and he just seems like another guy, someone you'd love to hang out with and drink a few beers and discuss life. Just a great guy. Even sounds a little shy and embarrassed at the attention he's getting. But a brilliant writer and performer. He did just about everything on that album. And he seems to soak up music styles like a sponge. I skipped the last album thinking that it was probably just more of the Swimming Hour, but now I know that it's completely different and I need to go back and pick it up. Some fans think it's better than this one. All depends on what you like most.

But there's a lot of people that just say "meh" too. It's not even listed in the top 100 Editor's picks at amazon for 2005. Or in the Uncut top 50. Or NME or Mojo. But did pretty well with many of the critics as evidenced by its high rating at metacritic. Top of my little pile of discs this year, but it took awhile before it really clicked fully with me too

[Davey]

Who?

ps- Could you guy go tease each other in private? I'm trying not to vomit all over my keyboard.

Wow, a Slosh post with no mention of Rogue Wave? I didn't think it was possible

BTW, we'd prefer that you vomit all over your keyboard in private as well.

[Slosh]

BTW, we'd prefer that you vomit all over your keyboard in private as well.

Ooops, did I just type that out loud?

Man, what a boring message board.

[Davey]

Ooops, did I just type that out loud?

Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Hey, I finally got a copy of that last Brainiac EP on the way. Got notified of some stuff that came available at Djangos so placed an order since they were having a sale. Some stuff for my Christmas stocking. Electro Shock for President from 1997 is their last recording before one of the main guys died, and John then went on to form Enon. Should be some fun Devo-type stuff. Here's a little review I swiped from Ultra ...

It seems that Brainiac is sailing a totally new course with this new EP Electro Shock for President. There are hardly any guitars left on this album. This is probably what you would call "expanding your horizons". This is a mixture between the usual Brainiac-lunacy, techno and early-80's new-wave (probably because Timmy Taylor uses the moog a lot). And odd as it may sound, it is truly a great record! Electro Shock for President comes closer to Brainiac's fellow townsmen Devo than any of their other records have done. You also hear touch of Kraftwerk once in a while. The switch in musical influences probably also accounts for the switch in producers. Eli Janney gave up his seat to make way for Gastr' del Sol's Jim O'Rourke. It's weird, to hear a song like Fashion 500 which hardly contains beats or rhythms. The most sad thing about this all, is that, just when the band is starting to go on untrodden paths, their singer Timmy Taylor died tragically in a car accident. So, very unexpectedly, this EP, which was probably going to be their last on the Touch & Go label, is also the testament of this talented band. (bt) http://www.dma.be/p/ultra/1997/b-clusfi.htm#brainiac

Man, what a boring message board.

Yeah, without me this board would really suck, huh?

[audiobill]

Ooops, did I just type that out loud?

Man, what a boring message board.

You guys are begining to scare me. Yeeeechhhhh.

[audiobill]

20) Elliot Murphy~ Murphy Gets Muddy
19) Graham Parker~ Songs of No Consequence
18) Vic Chesnutt~ Ghetto Bells
17) Bruce Springsteen~ Devils & Dust
16) The Frames~ Burn The Maps
15) Sun Kil Moon~ Tiny Cities
14) John Prine~ Fair & Square
13) Son Volt~ Okemah & The Melody of Riot
12) Mountain Goats~ The Sunset Tree
11) Marissa Nadler~ The Saga of Mayflower May
10) Okkervil River~ Black Sheep Boy
9) Ry Cooder~ Chavez Ravine
8) My Morning Jacket~ Z
7) Magnolia Electric Company~ Trials & Errors
6) Damon & Naomi~ The Earth Is Blue
5) Al Kooper~ Black Coffee
4) Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs
3) Decemberists~ Picaresque
2) Mary Gauthier~ Mercy Now
1) Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel of Progress

Thanks for posting a top twenty there 'toze.

Got to give that Micah P. another try.