I must have heard this song 'Desire' 20 times on KCRW. I thought it was... interesting... more theatre than song. I inherited a copy of her self-titled debut and stashed it away for a couple weeks. I noticed that she was nominated for the Mercury Prize, and I kinda shrugged. Finally I heard Anne Litt say it was her album of the year, and I figured, alright, I should give this Anna Calvi chick a shot. And all I needed was the intro, a noir-ish, echoing, suspense-filled guitar track to take me in its grip. Suddenly 'Desire' made perfect sense. And this album is all I've listened to for 2 days.

The sound, for one, is indulgent. I'm obsessed with the quality of the snare; the toms are big bullies; and her foreboding and fierce guitar play is excellent. But it's the unbridled force of her voice, awesome in the true sense of the word, that makes this album so compelling for me. To top it off, there's a feeling of sexual power, captured and controlled, that would make Madonna blush.

I'm not sure what it is, but I feel something of Patti Smith in her. Maybe it's the voice, although Calvi belts where Patti snarls. Maybe it's the touch of androgyny, although Calvi is more of the Annie Lennox variety. Probably it's just the commanding, I am woman, hear me roar spirit that has my utmost respect.

I got dealt a good hand this time 'round. Def my fave mix of the year...

Amy Winehouse - Valerie
Fruit Bats - So Long
Wilco - I Might
Eleanor Friedberger - My Mistakes
Okkervil River - Your Past Life as a Blast
WU LYF - Heavy Pop
Ikebe Shakedown - No Answer
Fool's Gold - The Dive
Blu - Since
Kanye West & JAY Z - Otis (feat. Otis Redding)
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Two Against One
Little Dragon - Please Turn
Cults - Oh My God
Mr. Little Jeans - The Suburbs (Arcade Fire Cover)
James Drake - Wilhelm's Fucking Best
Washed Out - Before
Austra - Lose It
Shabazz Palaces - Swerve... The Reeping of All That Is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)
The Cool Kids - Summer Jam (feat. Maxine Ashley)

As a little birthday treat to myself, my favorite song of the moment, maybe even the year. This new Horrors album is a straight-up statement. Darkly beautiful and refined. This one song hints at just about every stage of the Cure's career.

When those horns kick in, ooo-we! I am adrift... and then I reemerge to a timeless post-punk riff that whips me around a solitary, moonlit, ocean cliffside highway. Endless blue.



Download the track here.

I have a correction to make. So, I wrote this whole post about Stornoway and how New Zealand was on the up. Which would have been clever enough if Stornoway was actually from New Zealand. They are not. I learned this, months later, the hard way - losing an argument with a complete stranger, who showed me up with one click on Google. Oxford!? Who knew...

So, to make it up to you, I offer two (2!) New Zealand gems, which have been thoroughly vetted for geographic authenticity. [Okay, UMO is from Portland, but their centerpiece is a Kiwi, I swear!]

Cut Off Your Hands is one of those bands that makes me wonder how they don't have a bandwagon the size of their country. What is not to like!?

They can write hooks for days.

Cut Off Your Hands - Oh Girl from NZ Beats on Vimeo.

They'll break it down for the ladies.

And now they've settled into a lean, mean, full-on Smiths impersonation. I would file that under That's A Good Thing.


Cut Off Your Hands - You Should Do Better by inertiamusic

And then there's Unknown Mortal Orchestra, one of - no, THE weirdest debut of the year, with a baffling cover shot of an alien fortress-looking complex, unnecessarily misspelled song titles, and a fuzzed out collection of unclassifiable guitar funk ditties. DB and I saw these dudes open for Yuck last week, and they played with little to (more often) no lights, all three lowriding their hats. Their whole operation is a mystery. What was obvious, though, was that that their frontman is an absolute criminal on the guitar, one of the best I've seen in a long time.

This one, 'How Can You Luv Me,' could be a Midnite Vultures-era Beck track, but these dudes are way deeper down the psych rock rabbit hole.



[Unrelated footnote: I wrote that line about the rabbit hole before I found the video. WTF.]

Rounding out the first half of the year...

Volume 3

Big K.R.I.T. - Dreamin'
Egyptrixx featuring Trust - Bible Eyes
Sade (Feat. Jay-Z) - The Moon and the Sky (Remix)
Bibio - Wake Up!
Thao & Mirah - Rubies and Rocks
Adolfo Echeverria Y Su Conjunto - Sabroso Bacalao
Beastie Boys - Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win (ft. Santigold)
Cut Chemist - What's The Altitude
Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno - Cumbia Sobre El Mar
Diego García - Stay
Club des Belugas - My Hunger Hurts
Joan As Police Woman - Kiss The Specifics
Lykke Li - Silent My Song
The Weeknd - Coming Down

Volume 4

Nicolas Jaar - Colomb
Washed Out - New Theory (RAC Mix)
Elbow - Lippy Kids
James Blake - Measurements
Panda Bear - Scheherazade
Wild Beasts - Burning
Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - I’m New Here
Small Black - Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)
Radiohead - GiveUpTheGhost
Antony & The Johnsons - Swanlights
Mia Doi Todd - Under the Sun
Bonobo - Stay The Same (Feat. Andreya Triana)

Volume 5

Generationals - You Say It Too
The Kills - Baby Says
The Antlers - Parentheses
Future Islands - Swept Inside
Fleet Foxes - Grown Oceans
Julian Lynch - Terra
Kurt Vile - On Tour
Yuck - Get Away
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart in Your Heartbreak
Surf City - Zombies
OFF! - Jeffrey Lee Pierce
My Morning Jacket - Holdin On To Black Metal
The Strokes - Taken For A Fool
Timber Timbre - Black Water
Alexander - Awake My Body

Immediately my new obsession. DB said it right: "i like this dude's punky throat style cutting through all these beautiful guitars / crescendos / beats...."

Lotta cats recently been asking for recommendations, and being the civil servant that I am, I put together a quick rundown of some recent highlights for your listening pleasure...

Julian Lynch - Terra. Rich, mellow, medium-fi blend of strummy indie rock, atmospherics, and jazz goodness, with an Elliott Smith-esque quiet intimacy. The only thing out there that sounds like it is his excellent Mare from last year's top 10.

Wild Beasts - Smother. I have said enough about these guys that I decided not to review the album, but suffice it to say, I love it intensely. Not quite the tour de force performance of Two Dancers, but they are just as enrapturing and sexy with the new, stripped-down, electronic-heavy sound.

Future Islands - In Evening Air. So, I realized recently that I have a propensity towards unusual voices. Case in point, my two albums of the year so far - Destroyer and Wild Beasts - are fronted by two guys that would legitimately creep most people out. After that probably comes James Blake, who sounds like a heartbroken robot, and Radiohead, who, well, you know. No doubt that's the first thing you'll notice about FI, and you'll probably know right away whether you're hooked or a hater. I think he sounds like a sensitive wizard-villain exiled from the land of his glam rock warrior-people. Beyond that, though, a decent survey of the last 5 years in indie rock. I am the Tin Man!!

Diego Garcia - Laura. Argentina-via-NYC guitarist/singer-songwriter (I mean that in the literal, not the pejorative, sense - but that's another post for another day) with a golden voice and a flair for the cinematic.

Thao & Mirah - s/t. Brings out the best of both of these indie singer-songwriters (there it is again). Nice eclectic range of styles.

Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2. No explanation needed. Probably overrated at the moment, but certainly in line with Hello Nasty. I'm down.

Bibio - Mind Bokeh. How to describe Bibio? Downtempo dance music or upbeat driving music? Hell if I know. He's a beat maker at base, but never, ever do you feel like you're listening to a tired instrumental track. He's got a killer 70s/00s electro/funk/hip-hop dynamic going on and makes me feel like I never want to live anywhere but the heart of the city. Check out Ambivalence Avenue, too (maybe even first).

V/A - Sofrito: Tropical Discotheque. 'World Music' is just about the slipperiest music term out there, often invoked simply to signify 'the other,' without any attention to - or usually respect for - the particular cultural lineage. (I totally majored in Anthropology). But I can't help but call throw the world music label at this mix for its huge range of regional styles all cobbled together into a seamless, super fun dance party.

Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4Eva. A worthy heir to the Southernplayalisticcaddilacmusic throne of our favorite spaced out, storytelling ATLiens.

See the side bar for everything else, including some older material...