Friday, December 25, 2009

the gift of folk

my gift to one of my parents this year was the monsters of folk album. for one thing, there is some great music there. people don't always know about stuff they would totally like if they had a chance to hear it. then there's the fact that i wanted to give some books as well, and my plan to include copies of post-war, conor oberst and possibly veckatimest or actor wouldn't have worked. of course the last two aren't connected to monsters of folk, but for a great album that's connected to a lot of other good stuff, that worked.

my wishes regarding music releases mostly came true. let's take a look at what the results were. keep in mind that i am bound by convention to stick to the improvised order of my original list.

air - new album seems decent; have not heard it; hoping i can figure a way into the concert (conflicts with a class i want to take)

kings of convenience - have heard 'boat behind' and loved it; working to acquire the album

rhett miller - (the only one i actually knew was coming out) shocked by the critical reception; bought the album and skipped the concert, which reverses the usual pattern. good stuff.

the shins - no album. shed members; unfortunately one of them was not eric johnson (but see below...)

voxtrot - no album. i refuse to recommend again the earnest but appealing single that no one should ever recommend to anyone.

calexico - no album, and my real gaffe as i had not realized one came out in '08.

neko case - own the album, hear it's awesome...in the queue

fionn regan - *electric* album out feb 2010; heard one single and hated hated hated it. not because of what it is but what it isn't. so yes, this is a super mini reduced tiny version of what dylan's fans felt like when he went electric. so the career path is still on track.

nedelle and thom - no album; that was wishful thinking.

the postmarks - hear the album is good; probable long term acquisition.

fruit bats - supposedly their best. eric johnson still has time for his own band, which is nice. missed the tour and was too cheap to buy this.

the elected - no album.

kruder & dorfmeister - no album; 2nd complete fantasy.

zero 7 - enjoyable, but a small disappointment. staying power unknown.

explosions in the sky - no album.

loch lomond - an ep. have not heard it. (is this a push?)

excluding rhett (insider info), loch lomond (not sure what to do about an ep), and the genie in a bottle selections, i was six for twelve. that's thrilling, considering this was a spontaneous thing. air and zero 7 were totally due, yes, but so were the elected. trying again for 2010 at some point. no research allowed, other than checking through my library. i seriously can't remember all of these people. five artists i can remember: jens lekman, st. vincent, beirut, wolf parade, (at this point i am thinking hard to remember anyone) john vanderslice.

in my longish thinking for #4, there were literally two artists who came to mind before vanderslice: broken social scene; feist. i couldn't count them because i own 1 album by those two combined. so preview-wise for '10: #1 on the list: jens lekman. i'll put wolf parade and feist on there too, though i suspect those are bad choices based on chronological discography. can i cross wolf parade off? krug and mercer have way too many other projects and i am fairly certain this one had an album in 08 or even 09. that seems like a mega-dumb choice. now i'm stuck predicting instead of just wishing, but the facts are that i feel a little bit excited about getting half of last year's picks.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Your posts get more random every time I come back to check on them. Well then, carry on :)

seth said...

this is a random execution of a conventional idea: summarizing what happened in 2009. it also contains a hyperlink. how minimally-random can i get?

mj said...

so you like rhett's album? i thought it was blech.

i just got chris the bowerbirds album for christmas and we like it a lot. not in love with the production but i like them!

john vanderslice is usually a good idea.

seth said...

i thought the album was above his usual standard for solo material and was listenable. that was a lot more than i'd expected. i don't listen to it regularly, and certainly some of the lyrics are annoying. it might just be the power of low expectations but i was sort of amazed at how good it was.