first, another 15 great albums of 2011...

it's really hard to listen to all music that comes out. in fact, it's not possible to listen to much more than about 500 new cds in a year, and that's only if you have no other life and you only give most of those 500 a quick once over. but i would suppose that at least 3000 cds get released across the usa every year. this. as i get ready to unleash my best of 2012 list, here's a look back at some that would be on the list, only they were a year old by the time i got to hear them :( still great though, check em out!!! and if you want a flash back to the best of the best of 2011, here's that blog.

snake rattle rattle snake – sineater
an immediate fixture of the denver underground, this is the kind of thing that gets me going. i did not hear this until they played at treefort in march 2012, otherwise it would no doubt have been in the top 10 of 2011.



brother dan – the orb

brother dan is a side project of the guitarist for atomic mama, this is almost better. But then when atomic mama plays versions of these songs, then is when everyone in the world wishes they lived near boise. Lets not forget to mention that the atomic mama “bodies in the sun” ep wasn’t on the list either for some reason, presumably because i didn’t include eps last year.

radiation city – color of the industry
the first time I saw these guys. It was in 2011 & I was only a few blocks away in pendleton when I saw the fb update saying they would be playing. However, i saw the post as they were playing & saw only the last song. the next chance at the same venue in p-town was absolute magic.

tim blood & the gutpanthers – summer of our discontent

i wish i somehow knew what albums were released everywhere. how is anyone supposed to know about something in a tucked away corner of idaho? if only you could see these guys & then meet tim blood, they’d be your favorite band without any doubt. i mean, take it from dj panda, who has no interest at all in punk rock. she still wants to marry tim blood.

miwa gemini – fantastic lies of grizzly rose
dark mythmaker music that is somewhat like disney, if disney made music. thinking about that, it probably doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it really is. you’d think she’d be huge in japan, instead she is rather obscure. japanese music fans only turn obscure musicians into heroes when they’re from other countries. homegrown musicians have to pack 20k seat theatres to be legit. that’s ok, kid yoshida give big hugs to miwa. if panda gets to marry tim blood, kid yoshida better get to marry miwa gemini.

death songs ep
don’t know why they call it an ep with 8 songs on it, but phenomenal output by portland singer/songwriters formerly of shaky hands.





japanese popstars – controlling your allegiance

don’t let the name fool you, they’re from northern ireland. this album features appearances by members of the cure, jon spencer & m83. as such it won some awards, none better than being on the second mention list by kid yoshida.

lykke li – wounded rhymes
what else can I say about her, everyone already knows. she was the second most famous musician last year next to adele. but then i don’t listen to famous musicians all that much so it took me a while to get around.

kory quinn & the comrades – waitin for a train
not that this is a one-hit wonder album at all, but the song “only a hobo” is one of the few songs that can make me cry. especially when he played it live in union. then when the guy gets together with bitterroot to make up the low down whiskey rebels, there aren’t much better shows to see live.

helms alee – weatherhead
seattle hard rock is not dead. it lives on the shoulders of helms alee. all hail! the rest in jail.

bootsy collins – funk capital of the world
a return to the mothership! the funk god comes for real!

fool’s rush – turn all your bad feelings into good ones
this is like portland’s version of tim blood & the gutpanthers. when in p-landia, look see them at the bomb shelter. you won’t be safe anywhere else.

gringo star – count yer lucky stars
hotlanta rockers bring it with a raw passion. they will blow up into superstars, very soon.

sallie ford & the sound outside – dirty radio
her appearance on david letterman (the same week as typhoon) gave a lot more credibility to portland music scene. and she sure smoked it! it almost made me get a tv, but nothing will likely ever make that happen, not even the hippest hipster in all of hipsterville, usa.

stevie nicks – in your dreams
usually i prefer christine to stevie, but man this is as close to the old school fleetwood mac as you can get. of course it helps when dave stewart & lindsey buckingham are on the record, but still stevie in a return to old school form.