TigerAttackTwins: new music

Howdy! Pete here. Mid-December in Tiger Attack Twins HQ has so far felt like a frantic scramble to the finish line, with holiday Parties galore, a throng of gift shopping, & lots of time spent bringing the apartment up to code. But we couldn't possibly allow ourselves to forget one of the most important items on our year-end to-do list: Talking about our favorite music of 2009. Since there are so many important records, & neither of us can seem to figure out how to rank them, we're going in alphabetical order.

esme here. for the record, this is pete's baby. his brainchild. his wonderful, beautiful prose. he and i just happened bond over our love of music the first night we met. BUT he's been writing an annual "best of" list since college (2000), and i'm just fortunate enough to have enjoyed every single album he's writing about this year as much as he has. i love this, and i love him. enjoy!

Akron/Family - "Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free"

If you're unfamiliar with Akron/Family, I'll start by telling you that they are quite possibly the best live band on the planet right now. While that's very likely some sort of crazy exaggeration, they ARE responsible for probably the most incendiary performance I've ever seen -- a show in the fall of '07 at The Independent here in SF (at times during which I felt like I was witnessing a human sacrifice on the lip of a volcano, exiting a Dublin pub at 4am with a gang of drunken Irish musician friends, & marching in a New Orleans jazz funeral minus the actual literal jazz). Seriously, it's almost perferrable that you go see them live first, then listen to their records. I'd best describe their pretty indescribable sound as...tribal psych jam-folk? I know that sounds dangerously close to some hippie bullshit, but please, trust. "Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free" definitely meanders through a half dozen or so very different styles. It isn't necessarily their finest effort, but it has plenty of strong moments ("River", "Gravelly Mountains of the Moon", "They Will Appear"). Though honestly, if you're looking for a good introductory album, your best bet would be "Love is Simple".

Andrew Bird - "Noble Beast"

Speaking of meandering... If there were ever a phrase suited best for Andrew Bird, I think "strolling minstrel" would be it. This is a man born in the wrong era. He should be entertaining kings & suffering the indignity of having a half-eaten leg of lamb hucked at him every now & then. Okay, so maybe he doesn't deserve the lamb-throwing thing, but the king doesn't need to excuse himself in his own court. And people grow from these sorts of humiliating moments! They build character! Anyway, Bird steps out with yet another strong effort, though this one definitely strolls a bit further out into the pasture than his past efforts did. It's understandable, though, coming from a man who directly tells us that he's spent a little too much time alone ("Effigy"). Here's what Bird has going for him: 1. He's a fantastic whistler, 2. He can play a violin like a guitar -- like a guitar! -- often producing fantastic results, 3. He writes songs devoid of boundaries that are easy to get lost in. So get lost, go scram! Listen to him!

Animal Collective - "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

There is something that sweeps over you during the fade into "In the Flowers", the first track on Merriweather Post Pavilion. Close your eyes & listen, you'll see what I mean. For me, I am swimming in a tropical lagoon. It's nighttime. I go under & that's when it starts. Coming up, the woods suddenly seem alive. There is a gentle breeze, a humming...I'm floating now, eyes wide open. It's quiet, but the tiny hairs on the back of my neck are at attention...if I could just leave my body for awhile...& then a sudden explosion of fireworks seemingly coming from every direction & cascading towards that small patch of sky overhead...but I'm not afraid. Say what you will about Animal Collective, they certainly know how to evoke an emotional response. There's an undeniable organic quality to their music, a translucent yet vaguely visible connection to the natural world. They're able to see & convert to sound something simple like *Wind Blowing Through a Forest* onto an installation where a series of skinny puppet strings are attached to each tree individually & they are made to dance "Thriller" in unison. "Merriweather Post Pavilion" has the ability to be the Soundtrack to Whatever It Is You Are Doing Right Now, no matter what that is. The only other band I know who can pull that off in the '00s is Radiohead. But while Radiohead plays off an underlying sinister 'everything is not what it seems' vibe, Animal Collective makes you feel that everything is MORE than what you realize, even posing the question "Am I really all the things that are outside of me?". At their best, which is what 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' is, they sound about as close to holiness as I've heard in awhile. There's a unifying ELATION, a populism, an explosion of goodwill & subtle loving comfort that thematically ties 'Merriweather' together. Family, love, a bright but simple future for you & the ones close to you. It's the mood we're all searching to find in dark & uncertain times such as these. So it's comforting to hear them pose the question "Are you also frightened?", then reinforce what you've always thought you knew in your gut by responding quickly with "no one should call you a dreamer." The whole album is more or less a highlight, but all these months I have quietly considered "No More Runnin" to be the unspoken dialog to our relationship (from my perspective anyway, though let's be honest, "Bluish" pretty much nails it, too). From a "Damn, this song makes me want to explode with joy" perspective, I'm gonna have to point at "Brother Sport". Wow. Just wow.

Diplo X Santogold - "Top Ranking"

Technically, this is a mixtape by Diplo & not a sanctioned release. That said, I don't really care. I listened to this record an obscene amount of times this year. It was hands down THE go-to party record at my place(s) of residence, & I spent a good amount of time talking it up to people. Diplo had me at his 'Lights Out'/'Comfy in Nautica' (Santogold/Panda Bear) mashup, then rolled straight into an amazing combo, backing that up with a funked-up version of Aretha Franklin's "Save Me", Devo's "Be Stiff" & the B-52s' "Mesopotamia". But the right hook TKO-slash- exclamation point at the end of the sequence is -- Gerri & the Holograms singing their number one eponymous hit...? Truth be told, I spent some time scouring the internets to find out if Gerri & the Holograms are really really real (they aren't...I don't think). Overall, Diplo boasts some truly remarkable genre-bending moments, where he masterfully invites crunk, dub & new wave to the auditory-um, locks the doors behind them & performs a twisted Frankensteinian surgery minus the aural anesthesia. What you get is a four-storey tall multi-colored Santogold (it's almost like a box of Lucky Charms has been glued all over her body as glitter) wearing a giant pair of sparkly hip hop booty shorts, with the evil laughing head of Desmond Dekker sewn to one shoulder & the snickering head of Fred Schneider sewn to the other. Also, she's strapped with two glock-nines. Truly monstrous, in the best possible way.

Grizzly Bear - "Veckatimest"

I think we can say undisputedly that 2009 belonged to Grizzly Bear. "Veckatimest" was one of the most anticipated records of the year (for me especially, having been a huge fan of "Yellow House" & "Horn of Plenty" before it), & for those who were unfamiliar with the boys from Brooklyn, it was a perfect introduction. "Yellow House" definitely felt a bit more organic & not quite as polished -- I'd call it 'mind-blowing' first & foremost, actually -- but through its sheer ambition & countless sonic graces (many thanks to multi-instrumentalist & engineering magician Chris Taylor), the Bear's latest effort toppled just about everything else that stood in its path. Frequently leaning on a slow haunty wall of building gilded voices & guided by Chris Bear's (no relation, btw) precise, hesitant jazzy drumming, the finest moments on this record are in the careful, dramatic build up & teardown. It's like a bucket of legos constructed into a working city & then slowly & horribly annihilated by a previously unseen Godzilla (listen to "I Live With You"...you'll hear exactly what I mean). The harbor's just way too deep for swimming here, which lends a certain horrific quality to the tiny uninhabited island off the coast of Massachusetts from which "Veckatimest" takes its name. Like I said, I've been a huge fan for a few years now, but their latest effort has probably cemented them as my favorite band of the '00s. Just don't ask me to swim out to Veckatimest Island anytime soon.

jj - "jj n° 2"

Stretching only nine songs & less than half an hour in length, jj's debut has the uncanny ability to attach itself & carry with you for hours. Symbiotically speaking, it works just fine for this host. "jj n° 2" swims comfortably through a river of sweet, syrupy Swede-pop frequently overlapping with African rhythms & a haze of drugged up nonchalance. It comes off feeling endlessly dreamy, & oftentimes uplifting. Case in point; "From Africa to Malaga" is the most cheerful song about death you will probably ever hear, but it backs it up onto "Ecstasy", an apt-titled club bumper which is most definitely under the influence. Despite it's variation of themes from death to drugs to love to loss, you still feel like you're floating down that same old river that has been floated just like so for thousands of years. Strangely, not much is known about jj except that they are Swedish & closely associated with the Tough Alliance label. Also, there's more than one of them. That's it. They don't tour, & there are no group pictures of the band or bio information. I can't explain why, but it almost feels better that way. Here we have people making beautiful music for the sake of making beautiful music. Nevermind that the album features a pot leaf & spattered blood on the cover. Once again, drugs & death. How apt.

Japandroids - "Post-Nothing"

Japandroids are two dudes from Vancouver, & this is easily the most adrenaline-infused, break your furniture against the wall record of the year. It is best served with a heaping pile of very toxic, flammable angst & a desire to watch it burn. All you kids who got dumped & feel shitty about it, pick yourselves up a copy of 'Post-Nothing'. This is the kind of record you put on when you want a good excuse to play air guitar while jumping off your bed in a scissorkick, which is to say we're probably too old to be able to appreciate it as much as we do. Luckily, we've got our baby faces to lean on. Neither of us looks a day older than 23, which is coincidentally the ideal age of the person this record speaks to the heart of. "Young Heart Sparks Fire" is probably THE one track I'd pick from 2009 to include on my Destroy Your Livingroom mix (full of tracks that make you want to wreck shit for the sake of beautiful, sweet destruction). Matter of fact, when we saw these guys live this year at Hemlock Tavern here in San Francisco, I pretty much went completely bananas when it came on. But it's not your average run-of-the-mill anthem to angst. For being just two guys -- a guitarist (w/bass pickup) & a drummer -- they make a LOT of noise (think No Age). It pretty much goes like this. Verse 1: Lamenting stuff, getting drunk. Verse 2: No regard for the future, getting drunker. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!! We used to dream!!! Now we worry about dyin'". Repeat 4 times. "I don't wanna worry about...dyin'. I just wanna worry about sunshine girls". I almost wanna pull them aside & tell 'em You're probably not gonna die anytime soon. You SHOULD start worrying mostly about sunshine & girls. Dolores Park is a great place for both of those things; maybe you should move down to San Francisco already. But I wouldn't want to kill the moment. When these dudes get worked up they really get on a roll. Another standout track is "Heart Sweats", which is about a girl who's pretty evil, but the song somehow winds up being another thrasher almost on the level of 'YHSF'. In the live setting, I think this one actually made my heart sweat. Live or listening at home, this entire record will make your ears ring.

Neko Case - "Middle Cyclone"

The Voice. Raw & honest with regret, a warning siren that says "I know what I'm capable of & I am powerless to control it". Ominous but unfailingly sweet, it's no wonder so many of us are under her spell. The real gem here is the title track (which sounds as if it was recorded in a barn...probably because it was most likely actually recorded in a barn on her farm in Wisconsin), an elegant & haunted acoustic number featuring a music box. It's like watching the silhouette of a ghostly young woman dancing in the window of your attic from your front lawn. You would be scared that the house was haunted if it wasn't so beautiful. The title track dissolves into a march-turn-waltz ("Fever"), a jazzy summer lullaby ("Magpie to the Morning"), an quick exclamation ("I'm an Animal") & the hauntiest damn noir song of the year ("Prison Girls"), which features several increasingly menacing tone-shifts, each of them more beautiful & revealing than the last. As she sings "I love your long shadows & your gunpowder eyes", you can almost imagine the darkness under her own eyes slowly spreading down across her face. Wow. Okay, so "Prison Girls" is my other other favorite song. And my other other other favorite song? Yes, there's one more -- "The Pharaohs" -- which boasts (arguably) her most vocally stunning effort on the record. Honestly, I feel like this may very well be Neko Case's best record to date. That's a tough claim to reinforce, but I will not back down from it. I listened to "Middle Cyclone" more than just about any other record this year; it's nearly perfect. With strange themes ranging from tornadoes to killer whales to pharaohs, it leaves me hoping that somewhere, a prison girl out there is sporting relevant tattoos. BONUS: The last track on the record is literally 15 minutes of straight up country nighttime.

Neon Indian - "Psychic Chasms"

Wow, what's with the sudden Ariel Pink obsession known as "chillwave" (or "glo fi")? Neon Indian is basically a guy singing over a cassingle of Freeez's "I.O.U." that's been left baking in the sun on a hot sidewalk in August...combined with a tape made by Daft Punk's mentally challenged second cousin Ralph (yes, Ralph Punk...he's special). If that sounded a little bit backhanded, don't let it fool you. Sure, it certainly seems a little gimmicky at first, but that don't mean "Psychic Chasms" ain't catchy as hell. Nevertheless, I've trained myself to feel a bit suspect over the artificially induced nostalgia for an era someone was probably too young to remember (or even live through). Still, looking to the past for ideas for the future is not a new idea, so you can't fault a band for leaning on that concept. I've never seen them live, but I'd imagine it involves playing air keytar (let the laptop do the work) & performing coordinated dance moves on a Nintendo Power Pad while wearing hypercolor t-shirts & neon short shorts. So, something for the kids of today & the kids who were their age the day today's kids were born. And I can't help but feel just a little bit psyched at the idea of science-related blindings & time traveling Deloreans that run on garbage while rockin' out to Neon Indian. Sue me.

The xx - "XX"

The first track on "xx", aptly named "Intro", is about the closest thing to a film noir theme we've heard in years (perhaps something involving an emotionally-scarred hit man having a crisis of conscience in the midst of a cold grey London winter). The best way to describe The xx is this....you're 16 years old, miserable, & your parents have just purchased you a pile of bright striped sweaters for back to school. Suffice it to say, they no longer understand you. The only way you know how to translate this is by sulking & slamming your bedroom door. Then one day, the new kid in school with the weird haircut who wears only black & whose locker just so happens to be next to yours plays you Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead", which pretty much blows your mind. He then sends you a copy of Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures", which just so happens to be the most apt title for that particular record you could have ever possibly imagined. Everything is suddenly so beautifully clear & dark. The xx will be the gateway band for thousands upon thousands of kids who discover the joys of darkness for the first time. And that's HARD to pull off without seeming like you're trying. You need to be simple but NOT formulaic, while sounding more or less effortless. Oh, but you need a strong pop sensibility & a careless swagger all without the slightest bit of arrogance. Check, check, check, check, check, CHECK! The xx pull it off, in both style & substance.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Phosphorescent - "To Willie"

Discovery - "LP"

Dirty Projectors - "Bitte Orca"

Various Artists - "Dark Was The Night"

Friday, December 3

New Music!

Tuesday, August 31

We Used to Wait

Friday, August 20

Happy Friday + Listen to this!

Tuesday, June 8

New Music Tuesday

Wednesday, May 19

Call to Forgiveness

Friday, May 14

HAPPY Friday...PLEASE!

Friday, January 29

p.s. is it February 23rd yet?

Thursday, December 17

TIGER ATTACK TWINS: Albums of 2009

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