Fast Forward Aug to Dec: 2012 Roundup

Not much to report for this 2nd half of the year - There's only a handful of notable albums to change the face of my mid year report... Frank Ocean, Menomena, Grizzly Bear and Thee Oh Sees.

So, if the world ends tomorrow, it'd end on a sadly unspectacular note.
Not that there weren't any highpoints; just not many that would go down as "classics".

Have been a glut concert-wise, and I'm glad to say most were around the 8/10 mark:
26/03 - elbow (Bombay Bicycle Club supporting)
03/04 - My Morning Jacket (Dawes Supporting)
26/07 - Jack White
27/07 - Father John Misty
15/09 - Jonathan Wilson
10/11 - Fat Freddy's Drop previewing their new album Blackbird  http://play.sydneyoperahouse.com/index.php/media/1705-Fat-Freddys-Drop-Blackbird.html
14/11 - Beck
16/11 - Grizzly Bear
02/12 - Spiritualized
14/12 - Tame Impala
(With a further 5 lined up if said Armageddon gets put on hold).

The below pics were taken by my new, yet unmastered Canon G12

(Purchased expressly for concerts)

Beck

Grizzly Bear

Spiritualized # 1

Spiritualized # 2

Tame Impala

Best 75 of 2012
001 Father John Misty – Fear Fun
002 The Flaming Lips – The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends (RSD Version)
003 Frank Ocean – channel ORANGE
004 Damien Jurado – Maraqopa
005 Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N 2 It
006 Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
007 Chromatics – Kill for Love
008 Menomena – Moms
009 Beach House – Bloom
010 Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
011 Grizzly Bear – Shields
012 Caetano Veloso and David Byrne – Live at Carnegie Hall
013 Thee Oh Sees – Putrifiers II
014 Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light
015 Django Django – Django Django
016 The Walkmen – Heaven
017 John Talabot – fIN
018 Tame Impala – Lonerism
019 Lambchop – Mr. M
020 Sweet Sweet Lies – The Hare, The Hound & The Tortoise
021 Trembling Bells & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – The Marble Downs
022 Donald Fagen – Sunken Condos
023 Islands – A Sleep and A Forgetting
024 Dr. John – Locked Down
025 Fiona Apple – Idler Wheel
026 Jack White – Blunderbuss
027 Dr. Dog – Be the Void
028 Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Mature Themes
029 Bob Dylan – Tempest
030 Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
031 Fanfarlo – Rooms Filled with Light
032 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Here
033 Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself
034 Jay Farrar, Yim Yames, Will Johnson and Anders Parker – New Multitudes
035 Tindersticks – The Something Rain
036 Giant Giant Sand – Tucson
037 Beachwood Sparks – The Tarnished Gold
038 The 2 Bears – Be Strong
039 Quantic & Alice Russell – Look Around the Corner
040 Twin Shadow – Confess
041 Tanlines – Mixed Emotions
042 David Byrne & St. Vincent – Love This Giant
043 Brendan Benson – What Kind of World
044 Dexys – One Day I’m Going to Soar
045 Wild Nothing – Nocturne
046 Monolake – Ghosts
047 Orbital – Wonky
048 Matthew Dear – Beams
049 Black Moth Super Rainbow – Cobra Juicy
050 The Temper Trap – The Temper Trap
051 Passion Pit – Gossamer
052 Hot Chip – In Our Heads
053 Delta Spirit – Delta Spirit
054 The Shins – Port of Morrow (Severely marked down for appalling song order)
055 VCMG – Ssss
056 Sinead O’Connor – How About I Be Me (And You Be You)
057 Animal Collective – Centipede Hz
058 Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky’s Edge
059 Woods – Bend Beyond
060 Calexico – Algiers
061 Band of Horses – Mirage Rock
062 Scissor Sisters – Magic Hour
063 M. Ward – A Wasteland Companion
064 Madonna – MDNA
065 Lana Del Rey – Born to Die (Remember her?)
066 Miike Snow – Happy to You
067 The Presets – Pacifica
068 Cat Power – Sun
069 Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man
070 The Vaccines – The Vaccines Come of Age
071 The Dandy Warhols – This Machine
072 Simian Mobile Disco – Unpatterns
073 Divine Fits – A Thing Called Divine Fits
074 The xx – Coexist
075 Yeasayer – Fragrant World


Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Here's to 2013!

Father John Misty - Oxford Art Factory (27/7/2012)

Let it be known that FJM (J. Tillman) loves to shake his tush.


Fact is, he cavorts and loosens up like a shaman possessed.





When I saw someone in the audience approach J. for an autograph during the night's first support act (Melodie Nelson), I knew it was a case of now or never - Dashed across the road, got myself a marker, headed back, purchased a vinyl copy of Fear Fun (When I already own the CD) and a T-shirt, all in time to catch the second support act, Mosman Alder. 
This is, after all, my favourite album of the year so far.  Count me a fanboy.

When the band opened with Fun Times in Babylon, we knew we were in for a special night. 
Jeff Frattiti (Sp?) dressed in polka dot pullover and spacey spandex, looking like a drag Cobain gone wrong, immediately challenged us visually and it was clear we weren't in Kansas anymore.
He was especially animated during Hollywood Forever Centery Sings and gestured his bass as a shovel to the lyrics' "someone's got to help me dig" .

The set consisted the entire album, only O I Long to Feel Your Arms Around Me was left out. Arrangements deviated little from that on the album; bar the extra howl and extended wig-out jam & feedback frenzy.  The band (Same lineup as that on the KEXP clip below) sounded great live. 
Highlights for me were Only Son of the Ladies' Man, Nancy from Now On and Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings

It was hilarious when Misty got foggy and forgot the beginning lyrics to Now I'm Learning to Love the War and ad-libbed on the spot.



Thank you, thank you, thank you for a night of blissful, joyous music.

The Story So Far... Mid Year Report

Jan to Jun 2012

How time seems to fly.  While the first half of the year (musically) doesn't seem too fruitful and offerings haven't exactly been earth-shattering; there is, thank heavens, music worth celebrating.

Doesn't seem all that long ago either, that I have made some RSD (Record Store Day April 21, 2012) purchases and have since been hatching two as yet unpublished posts - Reviews of The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends and Jack White's Blunderbuss...

And here we are, mid point already!

Drum roll please, my 25 favourite albums thus far -


1.  Father John Misty - Fear Fun
2.  The Flaming Lips - The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends
3.  Damien Jurado - Maraqopa
4.  The Walkmen - Heaven
5.  Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
6.  Beach House - Bloom
7.  Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It
8. Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light
9. Jack White - Blunderbuss
10. Chromatics - Kill for Love
11.  Caetano Veloso and David Byrne - Live at Carnegie Hall
12.  Jay Farrar, Yim Yames, Will Johnson and Anders Parker - New Multitudes
13.  Django Django - Django Django
14.  John Talabot - ƒIN
15.  Dr. John - Locked Down
16.  Dexys - One Day I'm Going to Soar
17.  Lambchop - Mr. M
18.  Giant Giant Sand - Tuscon
19.  Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
20.  M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion
21.  Brendan Benson - What Kind of World
22.  The 2 Bears - Be Strong
23.  Trembling Bells & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Marble Downs
24.  fun. - Some Nights
25.  Lana Del Rey - Born to Die


There you have it.

There's still a few which have yet to take root:  Fiona Apple's The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, Fanfarlo's Rooms Filled with Light, The Tallest Man On Earth's There's No Leaving Now, Liars' WIXIW.

The second half of the year shall see new releases by Animal Collective, The Antlers, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Bat for Lashes, Beak>,Bloc Party, Calexico, Matthew Dear, Dirty Projectors, Foals, Grizzly Bear, Mission of Burma, The Raveonettes, St. Vincent and David Byrne, Swans, The xx, Yeasayer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Father John Misty - Fear Fun (2012)

Little did I know that this year's Fleet Foxes concert @ Sydney Opera House (02/01/2012) was more momentous than I'd thought - It was to be my first and last Fleet Foxes concert.


Although performances were at times spine-tingling moving; there was something amiss, perhaps in part suggested by their momentum-breaking between songs tunings...


First off the ranks is Joshua Tillman (Better known as J. Tillman). Whilst no stranger to solo albums; this is his first under moniker Father John Misty. Fleet Foxes members Christian Wargo and Casey Wescott formed Poor Moon and are also signed to Sub Pop.  Wonder if Robin Pecknold is going to (or has the right to) continue Fleet Foxes with entirely new members like James Mercer did with The Shins...

Imagery used is steeped in psychedelic voodoo mysticism,
but J. Tillman at times sounds a dead ringer of John Grant.
Indeed, the song "Nancy From Now On" seems a page off Grant's songbook.

Whilst there's the inescapable Fleet Foxes moments; the album is, arguably, wider in scope.
More technicolour than his former band's sepia-tones.
 Jonathan Wilson who co-produces imbues the Laurel Canyon feel.

Thre's even a cod Michael McDonald moment on "Nancy.. ". 
Although filled with melancholy, the album isn't shy of it's tongue-in-cheek dark humour.

Videos are NSFW.
(Domiatrix, Purgatory Pizza, Gun Violence

His concert's on @ The Oxford Art Factory 27/05/2012.

Mostly Hypothetical Mountains Blog.


  8.6 / 10