Best of 2007
It's time for me to come out of hiding and share with the uncaring world my ever so humble personal opinions on what I consider to be the best music recordings of 2007. I haven't updated this blog since February because my energy has been taken up with countless other things, including my main blog, my Flickr page, and family, work, finally buckling down and starting classes to get my teaching credentials, and, well, life... This post may mark the resumption of regular posts here, or it may be a sad little island of text in the middle of an ocean of procrastination. Only time will tell.
Anyway...
The best of the lot for 2007, including a few cds that may or may not have been released slightly earlier but for whatever reason didn't find there way into my hands until recently, and a reissue or two (in no particular order):
Angels of Light "We Are Him" This has been mentioned elsewhere, and I agree - this is the best Angels of Light album since the first one. Michael Gira is always worth listening to.
Mariee Sioux "Faces in the Rocks" I heard her for the first time this year, when she supported Marissa Nadler at the Hemlock Tavern in S.F. She plays Native American - tinged acoustic music, and does it well.
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum "In Glorious Times" Any time they release an album, it ends up on my "best of" list. Genius!
PC Translate "Collage Creation" Supposedly this came out in 2006, but in actuality didn't seem to surface until the latter half of 2007. This is a much lengthier release than last year's ep. It has a little bit of everything on it, including a track that brings to mind fellow countrymen Goblin.
Tenhi "Folk Aesthetic" 3cd. A three cd retrospective of Finland's finest purveyors of gloom folk, with an entire unreleased album, rare bonus tracks, early demo, etc. Who could ask for more?
Pantaleimon "Mercy Oceans" Just divine.
Dan "Thology" A 2cd release featuring Dan's entire discography. The music? - female fronted eighties melodic punk. Previously only available on vinyl.
The Fixtures "Forward" 10" Okay, this actually came out in 2000. I just wasn't aware of it until a month or two ago. Driving, intelligent punk from a band who has kept a rather low profile lately.
Mountain Home "s/t" This debut cd features the beautiful voice of Marissa Nadler. Quite haunting, really.
Marissa Nadler "Songs III: Bird on the Water" This cd also features the beautiful voice of Marissa Nadler. ha ha.
A Bad Diana "The Lights are on But No-one's Home" The first new Diana Rogerson cd in a couple of decades. Yay!
Bug Guts "Perfume" Another band that seemed to disappear - After two releases of damaged art punk as Bug Guts, they recorded an album using the awkward moniker of Salty the Pocketknife. Now, they're back with a country/folk sound, but with the same cool vocals and lyrics.
Candlemass "King of the Grey Islands" Their first release with Solitude Aeternus' Rob Lowe on vocals. He's an improvement over Messiah Marcolin. I can't wait to see them in May.
Finntroll "Ur Jordens Djup" Finnish polka-metal!
irr.app.(ext.) "Cosmic Superimposition" Yay Matt!
Neurosis "Given to the Rising" I'm amazed at how they can keep releasing such great albums even though they don't all live in the same state anymore.
Om "Pilgrimage" Their best yet.
V/A "John Barleycorn Reborn" 2cd + part 3 free download. I haven't added it all up, but if you include the download part, this is over 4 hours of music. It's mostly trad. folk sounding, but there are some surprises too. Great package! Great music!
Nurse With Wound "Insect and Individual Silenced" and "Homotopy to Marie" reissues. These are the two that I missed out on the first time around. It's great to have them. The packaging for "Insect..." is particularly impressive. They sound so fresh too.
There are a lot of other cds that probably would have made this list if I had unlimited funds.
As far as concerts go, I missed more of them than I saw, but there were some great ones this year. I traveled down to L.A. in April to catch Nurse With Wound at Amoeba for the "Insect..." release party. It was only a half hour set, but it marked the only real traveling I got to do this year, so it was great fun in many ways. I got a bonus Jolie Holland "concert" thrown in as well, because she was hanging out in the back room of Amoeba and borrowed Matt's guitar to she could play some songs. Let's see... Finntroll at Slim's was also great. I haven't felt this bouncy at a metal show in years. Tyva Kyzy, way back in Feb, put on a great show, as did Marissa Nadler, Mariee Sioux, and Mountain Home a few months ago at the Hemlock. Most fresh in my memory are the two shows I saw on November 3rd, hours after taking (and passing) the CSET - first, Czech violinist Iva Bittova at Noe Valley Ministry, and then long-running Czech punk (post punk? art punk?) band Uz Jsme Doma at the Hemlock (with openers Mute Socialite - Moe!'s new band). There may be more that I'm forgetting...
