Alternative Top 5 List, October 25, 2020

Some refreshing breaths of fresh air this week - we have a new No. 1, and this time it doesn't suck. Julien Baker's Faith Healer debuts on the charts at the No. 1 spot and Arlo Parks, who debuted on this blog last week, lands on the chart at the No. 2 spot with Green Eyes.  

Lana Del Rey's pop song Let Me Love You Like A Woman falls from No. 1 to No. 3.  If you don't have anything nice to say . . . 

Gorillaz' The Pink Phantom, a collaboration with Elton John sounding exactly what you'd think Elton John singing with Gorillaz would sound like, is like a booger that you just can't shake off your finger.  It remains in the Top 5 for its fourth straight week, its second at the No. 4 spot. 

Sharon Van Etten manages to make it onto the Top 5 by singing with Local Natives on their No. 5 song, Lemon.  Her Let Go from the Pepe The Frog documentary is still on the chart as No. 22.  

Looking down the list, Fleet Foxes continue their improbable journey through the chart.  Can I Believe You was No. 19 two weeks ago, moved up to No. 4 and then dropped to No. 9, is still on the charts for a fifth straight week at a respectable No. 17.  Where it goes next is anyone's guess. 

Adrienne Lenker (Big Thief) now has two songs in the Top 40 - Zombie Girl debuts at No. 23, right behind Sharon Van Etten, and her Dragon Eyes is at No. 40.  

No more Julia Holter or The Antlers gracing these charts.  The rest you can hear for yourself on the radio.  

List compiled "from over 70 alt and new release sources" by alt.nwmsc.com   Enjoy!

Yesterday at Coachella

Featuring Sarah Barthel (Phantogram) filling in for Nina Persson (The Cardigans).

Local Natives

Local Natives at Shaky Knees, 2014

LA's Local Natives have a new album, Sunlit Youth, coming out in about a week, and Coins, a new song off the album, fortunately doesn't have any samples to hunt down. 

Local Natives

Local Natives at Shaky Knees, 2014

Local Natives will release a new album, Sunlit Youth, on September 9, which includes the single Past Lives (below).  They will band also tour to support the album, and surprisingly, they've included dates in the deep south, including an October 12 date at The Tabernacle.  Charlotte Day Wilson opens.

I spent way too much time today updating my iPod.  I haven't done a real overhaul of its contents in years, and was both a little nostalgic but also a little over a lot of the contents I'd been lugging around.  But the iTunes software had a really hard time dealing with a total replacement of 32 gigs of music and I found myself trying and re-trying to get the program to accept the new music.  It was frustrating and I finally had to "trick" the program into accepting one new LP at a time until I had finally replaced the entire contents.

Apple - for when you need Big Brother to let you know if you're ready for new music or not.  

Shaky Knees, Day Three

Okay, with Day Three over and done with, I have to start off by revising my references from "Friday > Sunday > Saturday" to "Sunday > Friday > Saturday."  The best day of Shaky Knees, yet, 2014 or 2013.

More details to follow, but here are the performers I caught:

Benjamin Booker 

A new discovery, BB played a tight, smoking set of blues rock to kick off the day.

San Fermin

Shaky Knees was San Fermin's first appearance in Atlanta, and they gave us an insanely good performance of orchestral indie rock, complete with horns, strings, a pair of singers, great songs, and a dynamic, lively stage presence.  How good were they?  Not only did they chase the weekend's clouds away, ushering in a sunny, summery afternoon and breaking the Shaky Knees curse stretching back to last year, but they were the only non-headliner I've ever seen at a festival that were allowed an encore.  I can't wait to see these folks again.  

Langhorne Slim & The Law

No stranger to Atlanta, but Langhorne gave a high-energy performance of country-rock and rockabilly.

Deer Tick

The always unpredictable John McCauley led his band Deer Tick through their set wearing a skirt, striped socks, and a red "LSD" t-shirt.  Then things got crazy.  A fun set on the sunny day, and he even brought his wife out on stage for a touching duet.

Jason Isbell  

Things slowed down a bit during ex-Drive-By Truckers Jason Isbell's set of country tunes and heartbreak ballads.  If I had paid more attention, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more, but standing in the sun in the packed audience made his set feel like a bit of a chore, and probably the longest 60 minutes of the weekend.  But dude, it was me, not you, and I did truly enjoy the duets with singer Candi Staton (pictured).

Iron & Wine

Sam Beam didn't pick the pace up much for his set, but due to the sheer melodicism of his performance and the quality of his song-writing, Iron & Wine's 60 minutes passed in the twinkling of an eye, and another hour of his set would have gone down smooth and easy.

Trampled By Turtles

We saw TBT last year at Bumbershoot and enjoyed their finger-picking bluegrass passages, but were turned off by their frequent ballads and slower-paced material.  Yesterday at Shaky Knees, it was all the faster stuff to the enjoyment of the exuberant crowd, and your humble narrator.

Local Natives 

Our fourth time now seeing LA's Local Natives, and their relentless, constant touring have honed their stage show to perfection.  They paced their set perfectly, ending as they always do with their exhilarating Sun Hands and Taylor Rice stage diving into the audience.  Before that, they announced this was the last date of their current tour, and they'll be heading into the studio to record their third album.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Our third time now seeing LA's Edward Sharpe and company, this time without co-singer Jade.  As always, frontamn Alex Ebert kept the goings informal and interactive, blurring the lines between band and audience until the set felt liked a shared celebration on and off the stage.  At one point, a couple came up on stage and the guy proposed to his girl in front of the Shaky Knees audience.  I believe she accepted.

Alabama Shakes

This was my first time seeing festival headliner Britney Howard and her band, Alabama Shakes.  Their selection as headliner generated a lot of on-line controversy, with people saying they didn't have the chops to headline or couldn't live up to the bands playing before them.  All those people are wrong.  Alabama Shakes killed it, putting on a gut-wrenching set of soulful rock songs and an electrifying vocal performance by Ms. Howard.  I didn't know what I was in for, and her set literally knocked me out.

As before, here's your video recap, with music by Langhorne Slim:

Johnny Cash

I know there hasn't been much Country & Western presented in this blog, but still, I can listen anytime to some of the old masters - Merle Haggard, Bob Wills, and Hank, Senior, and no one can possibly say anything bad about Johnny Cash. Try it - you literally can't say anything bad about him, even if you try. Here's a fitting tribute to The Man In Black, featuring Dawes, Father John Misty, and an out-of-this-world performance by Local Natives.

Local Natives

Top 10 Albums of 2013

I'm well aware that nobody cares what an old man thinks the best albums released in 2013 are - I'm not exactly any band's target audience or some sort of taste-maker - but 'tis the season for year-end lists and all that, so here I go anyway.  It may be self-indulgent, but it's certainly better than listing other people's favorite songs, n'est-ce pas?

All things taken into consideration, 2013 wasn't really all that great a year for album releases in my humble opinion, which isn't to say it was a bad year for music, it's just that so much amazing material was released the past couple of years and many bands spent much of this year still touring behind those previous releases. Some other bands put out some perfectly fine new albums this year that sounded perfectly in keeping with their prior output - no loss of quality at all, but didn't break any new ground or otherwise become the singular recording by which the bands will come to be identified by, which is fine - a band doesn't have to and shouldn't redefine itself with every new album, but those status quo releases, while still quite good, weren't satisfying enough to make a Top 10 list.  Or at least my Top 10 list.

It was a great year for concerts, so I'm not saying the year was without its merits, it's just that you might not know it from the recorded output.  Still, having said all that, there still were several great releases, both from new artists (Savages, Courtney Barnett) and established masters (Yo La Tengo, Joseph Arthur), and much in between.  

So here's my Top 10 list, presented in alphabetical order (it's really impossible for me to say any one of these is better or worse than any other).  It's a pretty predictable list and I don't think there's any surprises here, but here you go anyway:

C Is For Courtney Barnett - A Sea of Split Peas




F Is For Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors




J Is For Joseph Arthur - The Ballad of Boogie Christ




L Is For Local Natives - Hummingbird

M (or O) Is For of Montreal - Lousy with Sylvianbriar

P Is For Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold



P Is Also For Pickwick - Can't Talk Medicine




S Is For Savages - Silence Yourself

U Is For Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II

Y Is For Yo La Tengo - Fade

Hope you enjoy, and please don't be offended if I left out your favorite - it's not that I didn't like it, it's probably that I just forgot to include it! 

Local Natives & Wild Nothing at The Tabernacle, Atlanta, 9/30/2013

In what is probably the first official set of Rocktober 2013, Local Natives performed last night at The Tabernacle.  Wild Nothing opened.

Wild Nothing play a particular blissful hybrid of dream pop and indie shoegaze, characterized by catchy songs with spacey instrumental passages.  Here's a Wild Nothing song featuring a verse sung by Twin Sister's Andrea Estella.

Wild Nothing's set was a particularly enjoyable warm-up to the headliner, L.A.'s Local Natives.

We've seen Local Natives twice before, both times at the godforsaken Masquerade, once in Hell and later in Heaven (that's the upstairs and downstairs stages for those unfamiliar with the venue).  Since those performances, the band has released a new album, Hummingbird, early this year and their fan base has grown considerably, to the point where they're now packing the large Tabernacle.

Local Natives have been touring extensively since Hummingbird was released, but this is the first time they've come to Atlanta since The Masquerade appearances in 2011.  They kept raving about how much they liked the crazy, enthusiastic audiences at the Masquerade shows, begging the question what's kept them away for two years?

According to the indefatigable Wikipedia, their sound has been described as psych folk, new-fangled folk, and "afropop-influenced guitars with hyperactive drumming and hooky three-part harmonies."  

After a nearly 70-minute set, they ended the show with a three-song encore, culminating in their stand-out Sun Hands.  During the dramatic finale of the song, it looked like singer Taylor Rice was about to crowd-surf the audience, but security kept a hold of the back of his belt and wouldn't let him loose.  

I had a nice spot to watch the show, about three persons back from center stage, but when Rice jumped off the stage the crowd surged forward and I had to do my Charles Barkley move (bent slightly over with the butt stuck out as far as possible) to keep from getting trampled.  That was fun, and capped off an enjoyable evening of music.

For those interested, more pics from this show are posted over at the Flickr site.  

Local Natives

Live at Glastonbury, 2013.

Local Natives

Cell-phone shot of Local Natives at the godforsaken Masquerade, May 2010

Local Natives remix of their own Wooly Mammoth.

Local Natives

Okay, everybody bring their dog with them to the Local Natives show at The Tabernacle on September 30!

Shit I Missed

So it seems that not only am I not going to be able to catch Local Natives' Monday night gig at The Tabernacle in September, but last night, I missed the first Twin Sister show in Atlanta since 2010 (I saw them at The Earl in 2010, The 529 in 2011, and The Earl again in 2012).

The reason I missed them this time around was NOT because I was at The Breeders concert at Variety Playhouse.

Damn you National Brownfield Conference!!!

Pic Unrelated

So, Local Natives have expanded their already long-running tour plans to finally include some dates in the American South, including a performance September 30 at The Tabernacle in Atlanta.

Naturally, September 30 is a Monday, the one night of the week that I won't be able to see them.

Soirée de Poche

French music site La Blogotheque has finally gotten around to posting their Soirée de Poche by Local Natives, recorded last November 22.

It was worth the wait.

Local Natives

Local Natives play the Music Hall of Williamsburg this Friday, and the show will stream live on The Bowery Presents Live YouTube channel at 10 p.m. EST.

Above, they play a live version of Ceilings, off their about-to-be-released second album, Hummingbird.  Below, they perform Heavy Feet, also from the new album, at last year's Paris gig.

 

Local Natives

And here's Local Natives in a special January 11, 2013, KCRW concert at Apogee's Berkeley Street Studio in Santa Monica (with a long Jason Bentley interview after the song Colombia for some reason).

0:00   You and I

4:30   Breakers

8:39   Ceilings

11:32 Colombia

  (interview)

28:50 Black Spot
33:35 Heavy Feet
37:45 Three Months

42:25 Bowery
47:15 Wide Eyes
51:50 Who Knows Who Cares
55:55 Sun Hands 

Local Natives Update

First we got Breakers, and now we have another new song, Heavy Feet, from the forthcoming Local Natives album, Hummingbird.

Superhumanoids Breakers Remix

Local Natives

Last week, sometime between Paris and London, Local Natives found the time to shoot the first video for their forthcoming album, Hummingbirds, and, um, here it is.