BEST OF 2011: Photos | Live Videos/Bootlegs | Discoveries/Heavy Rotation | EPs/Singles | Songs | Albums

The brightest spot of 2011′s music for me was that I could’ve happily watched handsomely crafted live videos and downloaded radio sessions and bootleg recordings all year and never reached for an actual record. It’s both a tribute to modern technology and a sign that we have a welcome surplus of quality videographers and engineers. Hopefully they keep it up. Here are six essentials. Read the rest of this entry »

If 2010 was the year of the EP, 2011 was the year of the… not EP. While 7″s and Bandcamp singles haven’t killed the album off just yet, there was no shortage of tasty bite-size release this year. Read the rest of this entry »

My favorite sweet-talking Swede (and his finger-snapping percussionist!) plays a handful of recent jams, including hopeful LP4 heart-breaker “I Want a Pair of Cowboy Boots,” for NPR’s video series. You can download the audio at NPR’s site.

Jens Lekman – “An Argument with Myself”: mp3

Previously: Live: Jens Lekman at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 9.28.11

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Jens Lekman

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Last Wednesday, a particularly strange quote appeared on Matthew Perpetua’s Tumblr blog, in reference to James Blake:

This is a microcosm of a lot of what I am finding increasingly infuriating in indie culture, i.e., a total rejection of overt masculinity, and this feeling that anyone who is at all macho is the enemy. Why does this culture have to be entirely the domain of skinny, sniveling beta males? Why is aggression, sexuality and physicality in music automatically conflated with a bad scene? We need to really think about this.

This perspective is off-putting for a handful of reasons, not least of which being Perpetua’s ostensible R.E.M. fandom — would he prefer that Michael Stipe be more butch? — and the long-standing existence of punk and metal and other musics designed to meet these needs, leaving recent indie rock, folk and twee to the domain of bookish romantics. But the growing, seemingly antithetical diversity of indie listeners’ tastes — epitomized perfectly by Kanye West and Justin Vernon’s collaborations — does need a middle ground. Something between Vernon’s forlorn strumming and West’s pictures-of-my-dick braggadocio.

Read the rest of this entry »

There were a lot of jams this month! Here are the ones you should pay for with money and what I wrote about them.

Twin Sister – In Heaven | REVIEW
Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know | CONCERT REVIEW)
St. Vincent – Strange Mercy (REVIEW | I still have mixed feelings here, but the first half is the best side of the year)
Wilco – The Whole Love (Drowned in Sound feature)
Jens Lekman – An Argument With Myself EP (ALL POSTS)

Also notable: Ariel Pink’s new single, Sleeping Bags’ debut LP, Geoffrey O’Connor’s solo debut. Didn’t get to the Stepkids, Apparat, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or the Rapture (that came out, right?). Let’s not talk about Girls.

Previous monthly essential lists: January + February/March + Halfway: Songs + Halfway: Albums + August

Hear songs from these albums and more on my Ongoing 2k11 Jams Spotify playlist. What did you listen to this month?

Photo by David Greenwald

Monday: Big Moves wrap up their residency at the Bootleg. I caught them last week; expect them to go out with a bang. Ben Folds plays a last-minute show at Bardot.

Tuesday: Country legend Emmylou Harris plays the Greek Theatre. Bring a hankie. More after the jump.  Read the rest of this entry »

Of note: He sorta changed the melody for “Waiting for Kirsten” from the live version; this is the first glimpse of the new, sample-free Jens; “A Promise” starts, like all the songs, a little cheesy, but quickly escalates into pure Swedish transcendence; “New Directions” is as good as it’s been live for the last couple years; his next album is going to be remarkable.

(Hear it at Vulture)

So obviously wonderful. Jens Lekman’s An Argument with Myself EP is due Sept. 20, with an album to (hopefully!) follow and an L.A. date at Hollywood Forever on Sept. 28.

Jens Lekman – “An Argument with Myself”: mp3