Albums of the Year, Music

The Best Albums of 2014: #15 The Antlers – Familiars

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Peter Silberman is one of my favorite songwriters. If you’ve never heard of the Brooklyn band, I highly recommend spending time with their discography. Silberman and Co. have a way of crafting an indie rock sonata of sorts from album to album. The Antlers’ 3rd LP, 2009’s Hospice, is a landmark indie record that tells the story of a dysfunctional relationship through the eyes of a terminally ill patient and a hospice-worker. Their 2012 EP Drift Dive, was a marvelous companion to 2011’s introspective and deconstructing Burst Apart and it was the last breath we’d heard from the band. It left me chomping at the bit for the release of Familiars. You know that feeling when you listen to a band non-stop and you acclimate yourself with the story of their music and then say to yourself “Then what happens?” This is Familiars.

This is a gift of a record. It’s when a band that moves you with every note, drops the next piece of the puzzle and it’s just as magnificent as the others. Familiars opens with the gripping piano and an atmospheric whirring trumpet on the single “Palace.” Silberman’s lyrics are nothing short of poetically perfect, with lines like “The day we wake inside a secret place that everyone can see” and then on “Revisited,” my favorite lyric on the record:

Can you see the secret exit? The false wall in obsession?
You’ll only fit through the doorway when you relinquish your possessions

It’s a line I’ve pondered more than once since I first heard it and shaped my outlook on material things. How such a simple line can affect a listener deeply. Lyrics seem to come so naturally for Silberman. He’s a master of cryptic story-telling. He can seemingly weave any idea into any group of gorgeous words he chooses. But the ultimate charm of Familiars is truly in it’s arrangements. It’s like a small jazz orchestra is leading the journey through all of the songs. The trumpet played by long-time collaborator Darby Cicci is king and it’s an integral part of the movements of the album. Much like yesterday’s entry lends itself to a good companion on a rainy day, Familiars is no different. With it’s lengthy guitar outros, soft snares and subtle synths, it’s both an ambient and orchestral essay in melancholy.

The Antlers are a fantastic band. One of the best from where I’m standing and Familiars is the next logical step in their upward trajectory and easily one of the best albums of 2014. Enjoy.

 

 

Albums of the Year, Music

The Best Albums of 2014: #16 Mac Demarco – Salad Days

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It took me a minute to figure this guy out. First time I saw him at SXSW, I was certainly short of impressed. He looked like just another slacker with a guitar, so I wrote him off for a year. Then Salad Days came out to nearly unanimous critical acclaim and I gave him a whirl. And again, it didn’t make sense at first…Why does everyone like Mac Demarco? Then, on a rainy day (like today is, fittingly), I spun the record and mindlessly let the playlist flow into his debut record as well and something hit me: I decided to think of Mac as a chill-wave artist for a moment (like Toro y Moi, Washed Out or Neon Indian) and my brain finally started to understand his music. There really isn’t much of a difference from the vibes that Mac puts out from what we hear in the chill-wave movement; especially when he uses synth. He rounds out the vibe with an inherent gazy-ness and for that, let’s go ahead and dub him, Chill-gaze.

Mac Demarco, the chill-gaze prince. There’s really nobody else like him. An eccentric to say the least (he calls himself the “Pepperoni Playboy”) and with these chilled out guitar vibes, he makes me feel like I’m stoned and riding in the cab of a 1968 Ford F-100. Salad Days is a complete work. You can listen to it start to finish and it’s gonna keep you in the same lovely spaced out mood through and through. Although there’s a couple stand-out tracks that are just super nice, smooth and generally agreeable. I know that doesn’t sound spectacular, but this an album for when you just want to listen to music and be in the moment without being totally floored. Mac does this on “Passing Out The Pieces” with his re-verby vocals and what sounds like a baritone or tuba in the background. He sings:”What Mama don’t know, has taken it’s toll…on me.” And I’m instantly transported to the porch of my old house in Santa Barbara, breeze blowing, leaves rustling. So chill.

“Chamber of Reflection” is a blissful moment that brings Salad Days to a head. It’s an introspective song that shows Demarco’s love of Eastern synths. He’s professed his affinity for Japanese composer Ryuchi Sakamoto and the melody of the song itself is an homage to 70’s Japanese synth artist Shigeo Sekito. And that’s pretty cool. Demarco, with his bright gap-toothed smile, puts me in my favorite kind of daze. Much like he is right now, with droplets of rain crashing to the ground outside of my window, I’m in the world of the Pepperoni playboy from British Columbia, who also doubles as the chill-gaze prince. Chill.

Albums of the Year, Music

Best Albums of 2014: #17 First Aid Kit – Stay Gold

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Who would’ve thought that a Swedish duo could make an album so mindful of classic folk and Americana? This album was hard to not get wrapped into upon hearing the first single and opening track,”My Silver Lining.” Stay Gold accomplished the feat of falling somewhere in the middle of a Venn diagram consisting of pop, indie, folk and country. This being their major label debut (Columbia), it was really marketed across all colors of the musical palette, thus exposing the sisters to a wide audience. And I guess I respect that it’s a good pop record more than anything. To take a sound like “Swedish-folk” (?!) and make it appeal across so many platforms is kinda mind-blowing, but they deserve the acclaim and success.

Their harmonies are tight and not tracked out. Essentially, the way you hear their voices on the record is how it was recorded. They didn’t take turns in the studio and then mix the vocals in separately, they’re just naturally this fluid when signing together. Being on Columbia this time around, allowed them to experiment and make their song arrangements more extravagant than they’ve been in the past. Like the flute in “The Bell,” it’s a gorgeous sound and a positive example of how latching onto a bigger label actually gave them freedom to experiment with more instruments.

First Aid Kit evoke shades of American greats like Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton all over Stay Gold. It’s a tasteful homage to the music they grew up listening to and even more impressive when you consider that Johanna Söderberg is 24 and Klara is only 21. I love the melancholy of “Cedar Lane.” It makes me feel like I missed on a period of American music in my younger years and respect it more now because of it’s effect on First Aid Kit and their eventual output.

“Fleeting One” has lovely guitar strums and a permeant deep cymbal gong. They sing in unison over a piano and punctuate the chorus with:

My life is a fleeting one
My work is just a web I’ve spun
Oh, my life is a setting sun

It’s the essence of Americana. The poetic description of your working life with uncanny country vibes. Ultimately, this isn’t the type of music I would normally listen to, but I couldn’t put it down this year and for that, I loved it.

Albums of the Year, Music

Best Albums of 2014: #18 Isaiah Rashad – Cilvia Demo

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It was a down year for hip-hop. Heavyweights like Kanye West, Drake and Pusha T dropped their most-recent efforts in 2013 and following up in 2014 would be understandably too soon, especially considering how much play those albums are still getting. Enter TDE Records, from Los Angeles, CA. The label that discovered and built a small empire around Kendrick Lamar’s good kid M.A.A.D. city, boasts only 6 artists (7 if you count supergroup Black Hippy). TDE had quite the year, dropping LP’s from stalwarts Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and new signee, female singer SZA. But their best release of the year, came from their other new signee, 23 year old Tennessee native Isaiah Rashad; in the form of the introspective, wonderfully produced and polished Cilvia Demo. 

My equation for hip-hop to hit is simple. Without using big words and shit, it needs to sound nice, have substantive lyrics and something that I can feel. I’m not really into MC’s who wanna act hard, or brag about how much money they have. Fuck that. Been there, done that, over it. Herein lies my affinity for Cilvia Demo. It doesn’t boast a big single, like Q’s Oxymoron does with “Collard Greens” and it doesn’t have the big name features that Ab-Soul’s These Days has with Rick Ross, Lupe Fiasco and Action Bronson. But it marries Rashad’s emotive rhymes with ambitious hip-hop production that comes across like a classic sound.

Rashad uses unconventional lyrical paths to get his points across. On “Tranquility,” he waxes on the fucked up state of the world with these quasi-controversial bars:

Well, thank God for the shooter,
And thank God for the leader,
And think hard for a message
Blink art on pedestrians, what are you, a believer?

It’s a take on how both good and evil play a part in our perception of the world. How we establish our value judgements once we look at the whole scope of all parties involved. He cites Caesar and Brutus and Jesus to illustrate his point. All the while, production by Farhot strews lush keys along with an ominous bass hit.

Farhot and those buttery keys also guide the way on “Soliloquy,” which is exactly that. A 2-minute aside from Rashad with no chorus. On it, Rashad shows his serious side (“I left my daddy round ’97, he was lazy”), his playfulness (“I been on the Jäger for a day-ger watch me slow dance”) and even a witty sports reference (“And I’m finessing like I’m Timmy Duncan, win you something.”) He totally nails it and settles into Farhot’s groove.

The album’s crowning moment comes on “Heavenly Father,” where Rashad questions the role of God in his life, namely pondering whether the life he’s led is part of the greater plan that’s been set for him. It’s another fine production on Cilvia Demo, this time from D. Sanders, who infuses a pipe organ sound reminiscent of a ballpark and a stand-up bass that makes me hope to see Isaiah Rashad perform a song like this at a jazz club someday. I feel it even more on the  beautiful music video for the song directed by Eric Swiz.

This was a humble-yet-next-level effort from the even-keeled Isaiah Rashad and one of my favorite hip-hop albums of the year. One love.

Albums of the Year, Music

Best Albums of 2014: #19 Cymbals Eat Guitars – LOSE

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This is about as punk rock as I get these days. Cymbals Eat Guitars falls somewhere between post-punk and something resembling emo. A friend of mine calls it “populist punk,” as in punk for the people and that couldn’t really sum up this band and this record any better. They’re fierce, yet melodic, conjuring up nostalgia for a band like At The Drive-In. There’s an alterna-rock vibe to it that makes a sound this heavy more accessible than you’d expect…

LOSE might as well describe what I do when I blast this record: Get lost…in Joseph D’Agostino’s nasty guitars and versatile vocals, or in Mat Miller’s power-drumming. The record opens with a track called “Jackson,” that puts the biggest fucking smile on my face. It’s balanced song-writing that sees chamber vocals layered over a gentle guitar strum and it builds into an explosion of energy. As the song goes on, D’Agostino’s voice seemingly gets gravelly and it pumps emotion into your ears. On “Laramie,” D’Agostino sings about his memories of a fallen friend and drops lyrical gems like “All alone with my strip mall memories/Chasing the chills I felt when I was eighteen.” It’s suburban poetry that manifests itself on an 8-minute track with three movements….like an opera made of concrete, that runs on 87 octane gasoline inside of a 92 red civic hatchback. The opera’s final act is a jam session into space, where the distortion hovers above everything.

These jam session segments are laden throughout LOSE and no moment is as memorable as on “Place Name,” where the Staten Island rockers just go OFF. It’s one of those showboat moments of rustic musical mastery like on Cloud Nothings’ “Wasted Days.” Pure shred and pounding on the drums with high pitched “oohs” and more distortion variations than I can keep up with, all culminating with a gaze-y guitar riff. This is kick-ass rock and roll and it’s highly advisable to take your speakers to eleven when you put it on.

Albums of the Year, Music

Best Albums of 2014 – #20 Bombay Bicycle Club – So Long, See You Tomorrow

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Bombay Bicycle Club sure know how to start an album off. On their 2009 debut LP (I Had The Blue But I Shook Them Loose), opening track “Emergency Contraception Blues” started with a lovely guitar that sputtered into a burst of energy that set the stage for their now long-standing career as power rockers. On 2011’s A Different Kind of Fix, they open with the beautifully organic atmosphere of “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep.” It grabbed you for the whole album and gave rise to the feeling that you were floating in bliss. But on 2014’s So Long, See You Tomorrow, they might’ve trumped all of the previous opening moments with the divine “Overdone,” one of the best songs of the year.

So Long See You Tomorrow sees Bombay Bicycle Club incorporate samples and electronic elements more-so than ever. The high pitched whirring effect you hear instantly on “Overdone,” is something that gets explored in other variations on So Long. The track also sees the inclusion of a female vocal from Lucy Rose Parton who appears throughout the record and apeared with the band on the entire tour. So you could say that this is a re-invention of sorts for the band. Or you can looks at it as I do, as an experimentation…something frontman Jack Steadman has led before. Like on 2010 LP Flaws, that saw the band scaling back their excitable approach into something more subdued…like a full-band playing a singer-songwriter’s library. Whether that worked or not is debateable.

But where Flaws might have missed the mark, So Long See You Tomorrow is a highly successful experiment. It peaked at #1 on the UK charts and marked a turning point for the band, to where they’re beginning to cement themselves as a major English pop rock act, following in the foot-steps of bands like Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs. This effort from Bombay Bikes is what a good pop rock release should sound like: A coherent confluence of traditional instruments with tasteful digital qualities. And rather than sapping a good band of good songwriting (like a lot of big time releases often do), this record has a distinct creative substance that makes it catchy, yet still cool enough to feel like Steadman and company aren’t holding anything back musically. Enjoy.

Albums of the Year, Music

The Best Albums of 2014 – First Batch (31-21)

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If there’s a staple to what Everything Ecstatic has done over the years, it’s undoubtedly the Best of the Year Albums List (since 2006!). For the last two years, it’s evolved into a daily featured album for 3 weeks, with the “Best of The Rest” post kicking it off. So here we are, with numbers 31 thru 21.

There are albums that didn’t make it on the final chopping block and there are hundreds of other ones that never even made the initial long list. But I can assure you, these are the 31 best records that marked the year in music across all genres. It’s scientifically proven (sorta.) There’ll be a spotify playlist of each album below the entry and after this post, all posts will focus squarely on ONE album per day until we arrive at the #1 Album of 2014.

Follow @EcstaticBlog on Twitter  and like the Facebook page as well for updates on when each new album is announced. Enough babble here’s the list:

31. Beck – Morning Phase

Man…Beck? Still got it. Morning Phase seemingly picks up where Sea Change left off. In fact, Beck himself calls it “a companion piece of sorts.” I turned to this record and it’s guitar-driven ballads and melancholy on slow moving afternoons.

30. Bear In Heaven – Time Is Over One Day Old

Bear in Heaven is a prolific rock band from Brooklyn that infuses tribal drums and electronics into their sound. This is their 4th LP and it’s the kind of album that wins you over twice. It finishes as strongly as it comes in and there’s more than a handful of memorable tracks on this one. Everything comes together on tracks like “Demon” and “If I Were To Lie”, led by singer Jon Philpot’s wonderful voice.

29. Souls Of Mischief – There Is Only Now

Oakland represent! 20 years after the release of the iconic 93 ’til Infinity, the East Bay kings of hip-hop put out their 6th studio album. There Is Only Now succeeds largely on the effort of producer Adrian Younge, who is flat out one of the best producers in the game. Part of me just wants to talk about how much I love Younge’s instrumentals of this record…Seriously, dude is like J-Dilla good and drops classic soul samples throughout. But A-Plus, Tajai, Opio and Phesto step to the mic with conscious rhymes, tackling relevant themes like police brutality and the justice system with multiple appearances from Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg. This is a money hip-hop release and on the real, def bump the deluxe version of the record with 2nd disc of instrumentals (linked below.)

28. Allah-Las – Worship The Sun

Continue reading The Best Albums of 2014 – First Batch (31-21) →

Albums of the Year, Music

The Top 5 Music Videos of 2014

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Ok…Did the two day wait effectively build enough anticipation for the Top 5?! If you missed numbers 6-10, you can see them here. One last word on why music videos are relevant and such an important part of an artist’s output: It allows for an additional opportunity to affect another one of your senses; the visual side as well as what you hear in a song. A music video allows us to relate and attach to the music even more. It’s like how I feel like I’m spinning every time I hear Hot Chip’s “Flutes” because of that video. As MTV shifted away from a music video platform to one that favors bubblegum programming instead, the internet has become the landing spot for artists’s videos and it’s totally worked. No commercials, no more “VJ’s” (I still love you Kennedy and Bill Bellamy), just the video. I encourage you to experience an artist’s music in this medium and allow yourself to connect even more with the music.

Ok, enough babble, here’s the Top 5 Music Videos of 2014:

5. SBTRKT ft. Ezra Koenig- “New Dorp, New York”

The thing that gets me with this video is how ties together the visual theme of one of my favorite albums of the year. We didn’t know much about this mammal on the cover of SBTRKT’s Wonder Where We Land, but this animated music video tells the story of it and other predatory creatures of the night. The shadows are dark & spooky and there’s sweet subtle details like a SBTRKT bobblehead on the dashboard of a car as the mammal runs through the night, Later the mammal approaches the camera for us to see how similarly his face resembles the mask. In the end, he makes his way through the dark cesspool (looks like Bushwick), that’s just one of the worlds created on the brilliant album, only to perch above the clouds with a birds eye view of it all.

4. Cathedrals – “Unbound”

Fuck, I love this video. Had an opportunity to meet and write about Cathedrals off a chance encounter soon after moving back to SF and this video was one of my first interactions with their music. Suffice it to say, I couldn’t get it out of my head. It’s an artistic achievement to say the least and getting to know all of the nuances that went into the production and the roles of it’s many collaborators opened it up for me.  It’s a passionate display of visual arts, dance and raw emotions, marvelously produced and set to music from an up and coming band that belongs on your radar. One love to Cathedrals.

Continue reading The Top 5 Music Videos of 2014 →

Albums of the Year, Music

The Top 10 Music Videos of 2014 – Pt 1

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You are now in tune to Everything Ecstatic’s annual “Best of The Year” project. The 8th year highlighting albums of the year and this is the inaugural EE Best Music Videos of the Year list. These videos are a combination of artistic production, artists that hit, engagement and cool concepts. Breaking this up into two editions and this post begins the countdown starting at number 10 through number 6. Enjoy!

10. King Tuff – “Black Moon Spell” 

The black and white component here really reminded me of one of my favorite videos from 2012, Cloud Nothings’ “Fall In,” with the Busby Berkeley theme. The “Black Moon Spell” vid sees Tuff spinning around on a Marshall stack, with the wind blowing his long hair behind his cap. The spinning motion seemingly moves with the epic guitar riff that plays throughout the song. It’s like a scene out of a fucked up road side biker bar. Love it:

9. FKA Twigs – “Two Weeks”

Everything about FKA Twigs is visually stunning. The “Two Weeks” vid feels like that old Michael Jackson video for “Remember The Time” with Magic Johnson, Eddie Murphy and Iman. It’s the kind of extravagance that we’ve come to expect from Twigs as she’s dressed like an Egyptian queen with dancers flanking her from all sides. The beautiful irony here, is that she herself was a prominent video girl before her solo stardom.

8. Sinkane – “How We Be”

A video about dance, in all it’s many global forms. Hip-hop, krump, African, pop-lock, break and ballet with Sinkane’s Ahmed Gallab, looking cool as fuck walkin’ through different parts of NYC. It’s a dope anthology of dance, much like Sinkane’s new record, Mean Love is an anthology of his many global musical influences.

7. Vic Mensa – “Down On My Luck”

Ok…let’s get one thing out there: I fucking LOVE Vic Mensa. Dude is part of the bright future of hip-hop and he works his ass off. He’s tireless, straight up…All day, all night, he’s working on his music. Now “Down On My Luck” is a bit of a depart from Vic’s usual style. It’s a club banger and that’s new ground for him, but the video is solid gold. It reminds me of Kylie Minogue’s classic “Come Into My World” video directed by Michel Gondry, where Kylie goes around town 4 times over and the video just builds visually and conceptually, much like Vic re-creates his potentially disastrous night on the town over and over until it comes out roses. It’s an incredibly clever video and shouts to Vic for experimenting with new styles and creative shit.

6. Ibeyi – “River”

I stumbled onto these French/Cuban twins randomly on a late night and I’ve been enamored ever since. They sing beautifully in their unique tribal style, taking turns holding their breath under water as they harmonize in and out of the track. The detail of the air bubbles when one of them is submerged and then quickly rises above water to sing the verse is mesmerizing. As far as debut singles and videos go, this one is as good as any and no surprise, they’re signed to XL Recordings, who’ve been masters of artistically marketing their artists with a perfect balance of releases.

Check in later this week for the Top 5! 

Bay Area, Music

Tennis Plays to Sold Out Crowd at Great American Music Hall

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Tennis descended upon San Francisco’s classic Great American Music Hall with an animated sold out crowd in tow. Singer Alaina Moore stood behind her keyboard on one side of the stage, donning a black deep V-neck top with laced edges, singing songs off of Tennis’ recently released 3rd LP, Ritual In Repeat. Her husband and guitarist Patrick Riley commanded the other side of the stage, flanked by a drummer and bass player, ripping through riffs reminiscent of Dick Dale and just generally wowing the crowd throughout the night.

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Even before opening track “Solar On The Rise” began, the crowd was in a frenzy. “Wow…we haven’t even played anything yet!” An elated Moore said as they settled onto the stage to massive applause. Moore’s vocals were dialed in from the get-go and she carefully chose a few instances to come out from behind the keys to own the center of the stage. You got the feeling that pretty much everything about their live set was dialed-in this time around, where at a past show at The Independent, when they were touring debut LP Cape Dory, this wasn’t the case. There was an excitement and exuberance from Moore that was present from starts to finish.

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“Petition” off of 2nd LP Origins was a crowd pleaser, as was the Ritual In Repeat’s “Never Work For Free.” The new material was the most well-received and the crowd was well versed on the new record. On “Night Vision,” Reilly wowed with his twangy guitar riffs, that while reflect their signature doo-wop/pop, also evolve into dexterous solos. He managed to find his moments to shine, even with Moore’s lovely vocals being the welcome center of attention.

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Moore talked with the crowd just before going into “I’m Calling,” with the proclamation that “I wrote this next song..I’m serious…I wrote in a dream…that’s why the lyrics mean absolutely nothing.” It was a refreshing playfulness from a band that I’ve come to know as a stoic and methodical one. But this time around there was an element of fun infused into Tennis’ set.

The encore opened with “Bad Girls” and Moore explained that “We’re gonna play this last one exactly the way we wrote it.” As it came to a close, the crowd erupted and a nearby bro yelled “That was your best sooong!” Bros and teenagers alike were floored at the all ages event and Tennis gave the crowd what they came for: A polished set from a group that’s starting to settle into early stardom.

Opening Act

Portland’s Pure Bathing Culture churned out a solid opening set with songs from 2012’s self-titled debut and 2013’s Moon Tides. I had spent the afternoon relaxing peacefully with their discography and will be looking forward to their 3rd release in 2015 on Partisan Records.

Pure Bathing Culture's Sarah Versprille leading the charge on stage.
Pure Bathing Culture’s Sarah Versprille and Daniel Hindman leading the charge on stage.

 

Ending awkward silences since 1983.