09 January 2012

What I Listened To In 2011: Brought To You By the Letter W

 

I listen to a lot of music (though not when I'm writing, funnily enough), and I think a comprehensive list is beyond me, so here's a look at my two favourite bands of the year.

Note: I chose not to embed videos in this post because it slows down loading time so much - but there are copious links to YouTube videos below.

Warpaint

At the top of the corresponding list of my 2010 listening, I put Warpaint. I'd only just started listening to them then, and I have listened to a lot more of their music in 2011, including their first release, the 2009 EP Exquisite Corpse. Here is a clip of them playing one of the songs from that EP, Krimson, in Auckland at the start of 2011 - a show I wish I'd seen live.

One of the many things I like about Warpaint is their willingness to reinvent their songs in live performance: here are links to extended live performances of the two songs they use as the basis for improvisation, Elephants and Beetles. (One of the things these live performances showcase is what a wonderful rhythm section they have in drummer Stella Mozgawa and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg - check out Elephants in particular to see this in action.)

Wild Flag and its forerunners

In September, a new band called Wild Flag released its self-titled debut album. The band was new, but the members came from such prominent '90s bands as Sleater-Kinney, Helium and the lesser-known (to me anyway) Minders. While Warpaint, at least in their recorded incarnation, is music for thinking and dreaming, Wild Flag makes me want to get up and jump around the room. Sometimes, imperilling the cat and the furniture, I do.

Here are Wild Flag's entertaining videos for Romance and Electric Band, plus a live-in-the-studio version of my favourite song of theirs, Black Tiles, and an extended live workout of Racehorse.

My enjoyment of Wild Flag led me to check out Sleater-Kinney and Helium. 2/3 of Sleater-Kinney, Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss, now form half of Wild Flag, while Mary Timony, the prime mover of Helium, is now co-frontwoman of Wild Flag with Carrie Brownstein. (The fourth member of Wild Flag is Rebecca Cole, whose keyboards keep the band sounding as harsh as Sleater-Kinney often do.)

I'm finding Sleater-Kinney to be an acquired taste that I haven't fully acquired yet, but I do like this live performance of the epic Zeppelinesque song from their final album The Woods, Let's Call It Love, which segues into Entertain.

But Helium are great! I now have their 1995 album The Dirt of Luck (I don't have any idea what that means, either), and here are a couple of my favourite tracks from it, Skeleton and Honeycomb.

What else?

Here are a few other songs and pieces of music, old and new, that have been particular favourites of mine this year.

Kylesa, Don't Look Back (album version - I can't find a live version with good enough sound) - and here is a live performance: Kylesa covering Pink Floyd's Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

Arcade Fire, Intervention

Motorhead, We Are The Roadcrew (studio version)

The Real Thing, You To Me Are Everything

Smokey Robinson, Cruisin'

Gustav Mahler, Symphony #5 In C Sharp Minor - 4. Adagietto (the "Death in Venice" theme)

Frederick Delius, Walk To The Paradise Garden

Dmitri Shostakovich, Festive Overture

8 comments:

Titus said...

Ah. It may only be Motorhead we share. I sat on Lemmy's knee once. But then, who didn't?

Tim Jones said...

Lemmy - he's like a hard rock Santa Claus!

These were only this year's highlights, Titus - digging a little deeper into my collection, you'd find Girlschool, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Mastodon among others, some of which may be of more interest to a Motorhead fan.

Harvey Molloy said...

So much music I need to check out! Last year I listened to Vampire Weekend, Fado music, the Naked and the Famous, M.I.A, The National, Scott Joplin (great!) and the soundtrack to Taxi Driver (Bernard Herrman). I will listen to what you have recommended.

Tim Jones said...

I've heard bits of Scott Joplin and M.I.A., and we have a Naked & Famous album at home I've never listened to. I have also heard good things about The National - so we have some overlaps, Harvey!

Penelope said...

I am definitely getting old Tim (or admitting that I'm getting middle aged!). I now only listen to classical and contemporary art music and jazz, in its widest sense. Of course Shostakovich is right up there, but Mahler is one of my pet hates. Kind of like Beethoven without the good bits...

Tim Jones said...

Beethoven is, I think, my favourite classical composers, but his continued refusal to release videos is damaging his reputation here. I did post one in the corresponding music post last year, which I find I have forgotten to link to - it's at http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-i-listened-to-in-2010.html

I sometimes find Mahler's music rather soggy and formless, but I do like specific passages and movements of this is one.

But I have worse news for you, Penelope: I also like Bruckner!

Penelope said...

Bruckner...Do you have a soul? He's like Wagner's idiot brother, just given a drum-set for Christmas.

Arvo Pärt is my homeboy.

Tim Jones said...

Again with the drummer jokes, Penelope!

It's funny you should mention Arvo Pärt, because his son Michael Pärt is (among other things) a record producer who contributed to the Arcade Fire album Neon Bible, from which the song Intervention, listed above, is taken.

And thus we see that the great circle of life, as brought to us by the Disney Corporation, continues to follow its stately gyre.