February 2012
13 posts
Unbest: What Music Meant in 2011
In early December 2011, as the great year-end listmaking bonanza began once again to sweep the Internet, we started wondering: What if there was an outlet for writers and fans to celebrate the music that meant the most to them over the course of the previous year, regardless of who made that music or when it was released, without having to worry about lists or rankings or points or quantification?...
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Austin L. Ray on Action Bronson’s Dr. Lecter (2011) (iTunes, ActionBronson.com)
“Hop in the whip and call for breakfast Fried eggs and prime steak that’s straight from out of Texas Damn, I’m living reckless Smoking all day just like the brisket My beard is golden brown just like a biscuit Every day I’m thinking, ‘Should I risk it?’ Add another number to...
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Lindsay Eanet on Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (from Armageddon - The Album, 1998) (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)
In the United Kingdom, where I spent most of 2011 mired in academia and damp weather, there are a lot of channels solely dedicated to playing music videos. Some solely do Top 40, others club music, others vintage garage rock. One of these channels,...
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Vicki Mayowski on The Avett Brothers (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)
I’ve been an Avett Brothers fan for years. A good friend clued me into their music a few summers ago, taking me to see them play a free concert at a local park. After that show, I was hooked and I saw them every time they came to town. Each year they’d play a bigger venue, but in early 2011 something big happened to the band that...
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Evan Minsker on The Gap Band’s Gap Band IV (1982) (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)
I had a sense of pride when my brother showed interest in owning records. I was collecting vinyl years before he started actively perusing record stores, and today, the man’s collection is awesomely baffling. He’s got some jazz and soul classics, but also, Mr. Mister, Slippery When Wet, and Whitesnake....
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Ian Mathers on Subrosa’s No Help For the Mighty Ones (2011) (Bandcamp)
I freely admit to not being a huge/devoted metal fan, although when I fall for something I fall hard. And my first listen to Salt Lake City doom rock quintet Subrosa’s newest album was the hardest I’ve fallen for anything in years. I heard “Whippoorwill” via The A.V. Club’s...
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Cristina Martin on Fleet Foxes’ “Helplessness Blues” (from Helplessness Blues, 2011) (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)
The first time I heard this song, I was on my way back from a very hard visit. Russell, an elderly friend I had made a few years back, was finally coming to the end of his days. It was his birthday, and so a group of us made the trek to visit him at his home tucked away in the woods,...
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Meagan Morrow on Wild Flag’s Wild Flag (2011) (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)
Sleater-Kinney has been my favorite band since I was 15 years old. I heard “Dig Me Out” my freshman year of high school and was instantly expelled from a Top 40 wasteland into a world of punk and post-punk, music that saved me as I stumbled through the next few years as an awkward teenager in the suburban Atlanta. I...
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Kasia Galazka on St. Vincent’s Strange Mercy (2011) (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)
I don’t know whether people are hesitant to accept contemporary musicians as McCartneys and other famouses, but I pretty much idolize Annie Clark in the “I want to pick up an instrument because I like the things you do to yours!” way that I assume teens did in the old days when releases were anticipated and artists...
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Daniella Joseph on LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” (2011) (iTunes, Rd—oh come on, you know this damn song)
My cousin Pame is a little wild. Her voice is toddler-loud. When I ride the subway with her, I can feel the eyes of other passengers on us, some of them are disapproving, some startled awake, their eyes focused on her wide red mouth, the glint of her gold fillings. Then...
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Meghan O’Dea on The Magnetic Fields’ “I Think I Need A New Heart” (from 69 Love Songs, 1999) (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)
One warm spring day around last Easter, my boyfriend invited me over for supper before we went out for the evening. I let myself in with the key he had given me only a week or two into our brief courtship and was met with the usual twang from the tinny...
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Erin M. Routson on “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj (from Pink Friday, 2010) (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify)
emrgency:
I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. When I was in high school, I was what you’d call “cool.” Or, rather, a uniquely specific brand of cool that only led to admiration from people who thought indie rock shows with less than 25 people in attendance or a...
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Ian Mathers on Jónsi’s Go (2010) (iTunes, Rdio, Spotify) Sometimes when you get into an album a year “late,” it’s because you just missed it at the time; in my case, not paying any attention to Go had more to do with Jónsi’s day job and my sobriety than anything chronological. It’d be misleading to say that I dislike Sigur Ros, but they’ve always...
