Best Songs of 2013

As for the best songs of 2013, far be it from me to try and pick them.  My favorites change day to day, mood to mood, and I'm psychologically and emotionally incapable of singling out the individual "best" songs of the year and saying, "Here, these songs are better than those songs."

So instead I'll leave it up to the KEXP Seattle DJs, who know a thing or two about music, to pick out the favorites.  Above is a podcast of DJ Kevin Cole's "Greatest F'ing Songs" of 2013. Cole's picks, and the tracklist to his podcast, are:

1. John Grant - GMF 
2. Phosphorescent - Song For Zula
3. Sin Fang - Look At The Light
4. Thee Oh Sees - I Come From The Mountain 
5. Mind Spiders - Inside You 
6. Parquet Courts - Borrowed Time 
7. Lucius - Turn It Around 
8. The Dirtbombs - Jump And Shout 
9. Cloud Cult - Good Friend 
10. Courtney Barnett - History Eraser 
11. Foxygen - No Destruction 
12. Volcano Choir - Byegone 
13. Laura Marling - Where Can I Go?
14. Julianna Barwick - One Half

I've got no quarrels with that list, but if your taste runs more to blues and traditional American roots rock, here's DJ Greg Vandy's "favorite things" from 2013, which includes some bona fide rockers, some blues, some folk, and even a few murder ballads:

1. Preservation Hall Jazz Band - That's It!
2. Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener
3. Case Studies - Driving East, and Through Her
4. Parquet Courts - Stoned and Starving
5. La Luz - Morning High
6. Foxygen - No Destruction
7. The Foghorns - Ain't I A Man
8. Banditos - Lone Gone, Anyway
9. The Crow Quill Night Owls - On The Road Again
10. Deer Tick - In Our Time
11. Los Colognes - My Doorway's Open
12. Andrew Combs - Emily
13. Cass McCombs - There Can Be Only One
14. Laura Marling - Master Hunter
15. Phosphorescent - Muchacho's Tune
16. Valerie June - Twisted & Twined
17. Luke Winslow King - Ella Speed
18. Kacy & Clayton - Henry Martin
19. The Deep Dark Woods - A Voice Is Calling
20. The Moondoggies - One More Chance

Best New Artists 2013

Look, it's not that I'm without any self awareness.  I know that nobody cares what an old man living in Atlanta, Georgia of all places thinks are the Best New Artists of 2013, but the closing days of the year are traditionally when everyone posts their "Best Of'" lists, and I don't want to miss out on the fun just because my opinion's irrelevant.  And as it turns out, all of my "Best New Artists" of 2013 are women, or at least female-fronted bands.  2013, it seems, was The Year of the Woman, at least in music.

I was temped to try and write something clever about each band, but then decided to just let the music speak for itself and let you, the reader, construct your own narrative.

So here they are, my picks for BNA13, presented in alphabetical order:

Chvrches (Scotland)

Courtney Barnett (Australia)

Lucius (New York)

My bubba (Iceland)

Pure Bathing Culture (Portland)

Savages (London)

Summer Cannibals (Portland)

Torres (New York)

Women's Work (Atlanta)

Wild Ones (Portland)

The Coathangers' Christmas Show, The Earl, 12-25-2013

It wouldn't be Christmas without a performance by Atlanta's The Coathangers, now, would it? The Earl provided not only that, but a showcase of four bands total, all for a low, low cover charge of $5.  Merry Christmas, indeed.

Douglas' Street Team, featuring members of The Black Lips, opened the evening with their first-ever performance, playing a fun set of stripped-down, retro garage rock.  

Del Venicci was up next, exploring the territory between dream-pop and shoegaze.

The third performance of the night was a loud set by Atlanta punkers GHB (formerly The Get High Boys).

The Coathangers headlined.

The set highlight for me was a near-perfect rendition of their song Adderall, with Julia Kugel's backing vocals clearly audible and right on note, but then, I'm partial to that song anyway. 

Just Like Christmas

Sa Sa Samoa

Lightning strikes twice:  KEXP, who first discovered Of Monsters and Men in Reykjavik, have now discovered Iceland's My bubba (formerly My bubba & Mi).

However, My bubba bring up the very pertinent question: are all Icelandic women crazy hot like them, or are they hot crazy like Bjork?

Anyway, along with London's Savages and Australia's Courtney Barnett, they're certainly another contender for Best New Artist of 2013 (apparently, the Year of The Woman).

RIP Yusef Lateef

The world just got a little less interesting with the passing today of jazzman extraordinaire Yusef Lateef.  I bought his 1972 album The Gentle Giant back around 1975 and played it frequently for several years, and listening to it again after all these years, I'm amazed to realize how much it's influenced my musical tastes to this day.

RIP Gentle Giant.  You've given us so much and asked for so little in return.  You will be missed.

Yusef Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston, October 9, 1920 - December 23, 2013) was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.  Although Lateef's main instruments were the tenor saxophone and flute, he also played oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, and also used a number of world music instruments, notably the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, Xun, arghul, sarewa, and koto. He is known for his innovative blending of jazz with "Eastern" music.

Little Tybee

Little Tybee's Josh Martin, having shown us the mechanisms of his new guitar technique, now provides us a solo performance of the technique's possibilities.