Mika flashbacks, and other midweek notes ...

[Emptying the notebook from a busy week of music ...]

Color me disappointed in having missed the Mika spectacular Monday at the Wiltern. Yes, I fall distinctly on the "hater" side of this Europop phenomenon -- his cringe-worthy exuberance reminds me of every girl in my high school who ran for class president. He seems to acknowledge and even play to his detractors too, as Mikael Wood's excellent review of the show pointed out.

But more than one faithful Buzz Bands correspondent who attended found it as entertaining for the audience dynamic as the wildly choreographed stage show. Here was the reaction of the pal who sent the above photos:

The crowd would have followed him off a cliff if he asked them to. There were three O.C.-type college girls with homemade "I" "Heart" and "Mika" on their T-shirts, and they always walked around in order, so they would read "I Heart Mika." I was floored by the number of straight guys in the audience -- guys who did not come with girls. Not hipster metro straight, but baggy jeans, sweater, baseball cap and glasses straight. The performance was totally solid, completely charming, with tons of energy -- even with the multiple extended intros to songs while the set changed. There was a puppet, snow, a giant inflatable doll, plush costumes, costume changes, characters, dancers -- if Peaches got a lobotomy, tons of money and was forced to watch children’s programming all day, this show would be the result.

So take that, haters.

◊ ◊ ◊

Also missed a moment at the Echoplex on Monday night: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony did a cameo with Rickie Lee Jones.  I simply need to be in three places at once.

◊ ◊ ◊

Local tidbits: The Front plays its final show tonight at the Prospector in Long Beach. There's a note about the band's breakup here.  That brings to three the number of band breakups I've heard about recently -- the nice fellows in the Prix and Simon Dawes, respectively, also have called it quits.

◊ ◊ ◊

Happy Valentine's Day: On Tuesday, the Greg Kurstin/Inara George force known as the Bird and the Bee released a digital-only, Feb. 14-themed EP called "One Too Many Hearts." I'm not one for V-Day mush, but the four-song effort is pretty sublime. Did you forget flowers, guys? Head to iTunes.

◊ ◊ ◊

Happy Mondays guitarist Kav has been around town DJing, and now he's assembled a full band (including some collaboration with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) to play his own music. The full-band version of Kav debuts Sunday night at the Whisky; he's playing stripped-down on Feb. 25 at the Troubadour.

◊ ◊ ◊

Things: Electrelane has remixed the Little One's single "Ordinary Song" and you can download it here. ... Styrofoam has remixed Cassettes Won't Listen's "Paper Float." ... Moby has a downloadable from his new album at RCRD LBL -- right this way. ... Taken by Trees, a.k.a. Victoria Bergsman from the Concretes and a Peter, Bjorn and John collaborator, plays the Roxy on Feb. 28, and here's her song "Lost and Found." ... Rock Insider, via GorillavsBear, has the scoop on Radiohead remixes here -- as well as an item on Wallpaper signing to local imprint Eenie Meenie (complete with download). ... And speaking of V-Day sounds, here's something from Daedelus (from the recent release "Live at Low End Theory" on the AlphaPup imprint): "Now's the Time."

◊ ◊ ◊

Spaceland celebrates its 13th year with a March 2 show featuring 13 bands for $13. All the performers will be alumni of the venue's Monday night residencies over the years -- that's a formidable cast. Confirmed so far: The Tyde, the Vacation, Oliver Future, the Blood Arm, Run Run Run, 400 Blows and the Movies. I have a hunch there might be a big-name surprise or two in store, but it's just a hunch ...

I think I found the cure for the common TV. Of course, it's right here on your very own Internet.

It's My Damn Channel, a portal that is home to offerings from musician extraordinaire Don Was, along with the likes of Harry Shearer, David Wain and others.

Was, a bassist, music supervisor, documentary director, Grammy-winning producer and a driving force behind the cutting-edge funk outfit Was (Not Was), has seldom been more sublimely entertaining than as the cool-cat host of the "Wasmopolitan Dance Party" -- a webisode filmed in the showroom of the Furniture Outlet, a budget joint in North Hollywood. [Pardon the ads, but the installment above is well worth their intrusion.]

There is singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, gamely playing her beautiful songs from behind a dining-room set as shoppers mill about looking at recliners.

"I can't compete with the setup on Letterman" Was says with a laugh. "But doing something like this, we asked, 'What could we offer that's different?' The answer is, the stripped-down and personal stuff."

Happy New Year.

And good riddance, 2007.

The year brought an avalanche of music, and the recent holiday week of rumination and CD-sorting etched in my mind the idea that a whole lot of it was ... well ... pretty good. Yeah, pretty good, uttered with my head slightly tilted, as if I never thought once of saying "great" or "really good." If I ever had the radical notion to rate albums on a 10 scale, I would swear that half the records I received this year logged somewhere between 6.5 and 6.7 -- a percentage that's skewed because all six copies of the Magic Numbers album that somehow found their way to my desk would get a 6.2.

Maybe this was the year that trying to keep up with new music, nationally and locally, finally overwhelmed me, what with every baby band in the universe engaging in viral marketing, hiring publicists, working with managers, leaving me polite entreaties on MySpace and generally undermining any belief that a band can merely grow organically. I attended about 185 shows in 2007 too, many to follow up on those advertising blitzes.

But after compiling my humble lists below, I fast-forwarded to December 2009, when all good geeks will be sweating over their seemingly inevitable Best-of-the-Aughts list. And guess what? Not a single album from 2007 has a chance of making mine. All of the bands I consider indie icons -- and I'm sure you can spank me for leaving out people you think are iconic -- released other albums this decade that are superior to their 2007 releases. For the record, that pantheon houses the National, Spoon, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes and Interpol, with other personal faves such as the Shins and Stars living in the backhouse. Those heavyweights each added to their estimable catalogs, yes; it's just that I'm not going to pull "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" off the shelf first when I want to hear some Modest Mouse a few years from now.

At least, I don't think.

The lists follow. Thanks to everybody who sends me music -- really -- and a special shout-out to the bands on the L.A. scene who've made my life so much richer over the past 5-plus years.



My Favorite 10 Albums of 2007

1. Blonde Redhead, "23"

2. The National, "Boxer"

3. LCD Soundsystem, "Sound of Silver"

4. Against Me!, "New Wave"

5. Spoon, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"

6. The Cribs, "Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever"

7. Arcade Fire, "Neon Bible"

8. Lupe Fiasco, "Cool"

9. The Shins, "Wincing the Night Away"

10. Softlightes, "Say No to Being Cool -- Say Yes to Being Happy" *

Comments: It's scares me how much this list largely parallels other blogs/music mags. Yes, Fiasco's album just came out, but on first, second and third blush it's a long-range keeper. And that's right, no Radiohead. So sue me. 6.8.

* See final list



Buzz Bands' Top 10 L.A. Albums of 2007

1. Foreign Born, "On the Wing Now"

2. John Doe, "A Year in the Wilderness"

3. Sea Wolf, "Leaves in the River"

4. CoCo B's, "CoCo B's"

5. Eleni Mandell, "Miracle of Five"

6. Earlimart, "Mentor Tormentor"

7. Culver City Dub Collective, "Dos"

8. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Baby 81"

9. Rilo Kiley, "Under the Blacklight"

10. Great Northern, "Trading Twilight for Daylight"

Comments: Foreign Born is just plain good. CoCo B's self-released disc is a great surprise. Culver City Dub Collective's genre-mashing is sublime. Eleni Mandell -- who needs Feist? And Rilo Kiley's album just kept growing on me.




Ten L.A. Bands Whose Debuts Made Me Anxious for the Sophomore Album

1. The Deadly Syndrome, "The Ortolan"

2. The Broken West, "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On"

3. Robert Francis, "One by One"

4. The Parson Red Heads, "King Giraffe"

5. Delta Spirit, "Delta Spirit"

6. Frankel, "Lullaby for the Passersby"

7. Year Long Disaster, "Year Long Disaster"

8. Sara Bareilles, "Little Voice"

9. The Minor Canon, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

10. No Age, "Weirdo Rippers"

Ten L.A. Bands Whose 2007 EPs Made Me Want More

Castledoor, the Airborne Toxic Event, the Weather Underground, the Black Kites, Voxhaul Broadcast, Sam Sparro, Manic, Radars to the Sky, Sara Lov, Aushua.



Three Albums From Bands Whom I Loved in the '90s and Still Do

1. Buffalo Tom, "Three Easy Pieces"

2. Dinosaur Jr., "Beyond"

3. Smashing Pumpkins, "Zeitgeist"

Five Hip-Hop Albums I Would Recommend If Anybody Believed I Recommended Hip-Hop Albums

1. Lupe Fiasco, "Cool"

2. Kanye West, "Graduation"

3. Brother Ali, "Undisputed Truth"

4. El-P, "I'll Sleep When You're Dead"

5. Aesop Rock, "None Shall Pass"



Under the Radar: Six Overlooked Albums

1. Softlightes, "Say No to Being Cool -- Say Yes to Being Happy": Cinematic electro-pop that recalls Grandaddy at its finest.

2. The High Strung, "Get the Guests": Catchy and clever, hold the irony, with peripatetic melody lines that do not quit.

3. Minipop, "A New Hope": Gorgeous and beautifully layered shoegaze-pop with rhythms that will drive you right into a dreamlike state.

4. The Blakes, "The Blakes": Soulful garage rock that's good for your summer sweat.

5. The Comas, "Spells": Distortion-heavy power pop arrives in bursts, may leave marks.

6. Young Galaxy, "Young Galaxy": Other Canadian exports (Kevin Drew, Sunset Rubdown, Feist, et. al.) earned more buzz, but this album feel like a warm waking dream.

Comments: Somehow I saw Softlightes play live 10 times in 2007. I left each show in a better mood than when I arrived.

 

The obituary this morning says Dan Fogelberg helped "define soft rock," but that sounds kind of flaccid compared to what the singer-songwriter, who died Sunday at age 56, meant to a bunch of kids in the working-class neighborhoods of Peoria, Ill., in the early 1970s.

Fogelberg graduated from Woodruff High School the year before I got there, leaving behind some stories of a rock band called the Coachmen (I actually owned the 45 at one point -- oh, where did it go?) and the occasional rumor he'd gone off to California, a place that seemed so distant from our Midwestern factory town as to be a mirage. Not many of us had California dreams then; we'd do well to graduate high school and get on at Caterpillar Tractor Co. (which accounted for something like 1 in 5 paychecks in our city in those days). If we were really lucky, we'd go to college.

In the fall of my junior year, "Home Free" arrived, and we were mesmerized. Fogelberg's debut album -- a beautifully orchestrated bouquet of ballads that veered toward what we now would call alt-country -- took his alma mater by storm. It christened the tape player in my first car; it was played endlessly at basement parties from Grand View Drive to the lower East Bluff. I'm pretty sure there isn't a song in my collection I've played over the years more than that second track, "Stars."

Fogelberg was our Jackson Browne, a romantic who shared our roots and who had the courage to strike out in service of his poetry. As I trudged through the snow delivering my Peoria Journal Stars every morning, that was a pretty important symbol.

I always blanched at, but ultimately forgave, the arch sentimentality that seemingly oppressive production brought to Fogelberg's later albums. He had earned the right to pursue whatever vision struck him. When my brother and I took in a Fogelberg show a few years ago in Anaheim, it wasn't so much for musical nostalgia as it was a thank-you.

In one subtle but important way, Dan Fogelberg was the leader of our band.

I missed it and, from reports, am regretting it. Bat for Lashes, the nom de tune of Brighton, England's Natasha Khan, wowed the room last night at Spaceland. The common sentiment I heard from a couple people: No wonder she is nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

You'll be hearing more about her.

For now, here is the enchanting video for "What's a Girl to Do."

Touts for Wednesday, Aug. 1

The Format starts a two-show stand (the Avalon tonight, House of Blues tomorrow); the band for two weeks offered its latest album, "Dog Problems," as a free download from its website and reported that 45,000 copies of the (very good) album were ripped. ... Great Glass Elevator (whose inventiveness kind of reminds me of the Format in a way) play Club NME at Spaceland tonight. ... The Automatic Music Explosion plays the Scene in Glendale. ... And the Stevenson Ranch Davidians start a run of Wednesday shows at the Echo.

Ozomatli looked to the visual for inspiration when writing its new album, “Don’t Mess With the Dragon” (due April 3 on Concord Records) — much of the initial songwriting came out of jam sessions at the Tropico de Nopal art gallery. Now the veteran L.A. nine-piece might have found a vision to suit its sound.

The new video for the single “Can’t Stop” is a dizzying collage of stop-animation and storytelling that seems equal to Ozomatli’s mashing of Latin flavors, rock, hip-hop and funk — a hybrid many have said is distinctly Los Angeles.

“We haven’t had a lot of luck with videos in the past,” acknowledges Ulises Bella, who plays saxophone and clarinet for the band.

Ozomatli turned to New York-based artist-illustrator Richard Borge for “Can’t Stop,” even though the 41-year-old, who had done album art for bands such as Meat Beat Manifesto, had never done a music video.

Don Was channels his music straight toward your browser

I think I found the cure for the common TV. Of course, it's right here on your very own Internet.

It's My Damn Channel, a portal that is home to offerings from musician extraordinaire Don Was, along with the likes of Harry Shearer, David Wain and others.

Was, a bassist, music supervisor, documentary director, Grammy-winning producer and a driving force behind the cutting-edge funk outfit Was (Not Was), has seldom been more sublimely entertaining than as the cool-cat host of the "Wasmopolitan Dance Party" -- a webisode filmed in the showroom of the Furniture Outlet, a budget joint in North Hollywood. [Pardon the ads, but the installment above is well worth their intrusion.]

There is singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, gamely playing her beautiful songs from behind a dining-room set as shoppers mill about looking at recliners.

"I can't compete with the setup on Letterman" Was says with a laugh. "But doing something like this, we asked, 'What could we offer that's different?' The answer is, the stripped-down and personal stuff."

Happy New Year.

And good riddance, 2007.

The year brought an avalanche of music, and the recent holiday week of rumination and CD-sorting etched in my mind the idea that a whole lot of it was ... well ... pretty good. Yeah, pretty good, uttered with my head slightly tilted, as if I never thought once of saying "great" or "really good." If I ever had the radical notion to rate albums on a 10 scale, I would swear that half the records I received this year logged somewhere between 6.5 and 6.7 -- a percentage that's skewed because all six copies of the Magic Numbers album that somehow found their way to my desk would get a 6.2.

Maybe this was the year that trying to keep up with new music, nationally and locally, finally overwhelmed me, what with every baby band in the universe engaging in viral marketing, hiring publicists, working with managers, leaving me polite entreaties on MySpace and generally undermining any belief that a band can merely grow organically. I attended about 185 shows in 2007 too, many to follow up on those advertising blitzes.

But after compiling my humble lists below, I fast-forwarded to December 2009, when all good geeks will be sweating over their seemingly inevitable Best-of-the-Aughts list. And guess what? Not a single album from 2007 has a chance of making mine. All of the bands I consider indie icons -- and I'm sure you can spank me for leaving out people you think are iconic -- released other albums this decade that are superior to their 2007 releases. For the record, that pantheon houses the National, Spoon, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes and Interpol, with other personal faves such as the Shins and Stars living in the backhouse. Those heavyweights each added to their estimable catalogs, yes; it's just that I'm not going to pull "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" off the shelf first when I want to hear some Modest Mouse a few years from now.

At least, I don't think.

The lists follow. Thanks to everybody who sends me music -- really -- and a special shout-out to the bands on the L.A. scene who've made my life so much richer over the past 5-plus years.



My Favorite 10 Albums of 2007

1. Blonde Redhead, "23"

2. The National, "Boxer"

3. LCD Soundsystem, "Sound of Silver"

4. Against Me!, "New Wave"

5. Spoon, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"

6. The Cribs, "Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever"

7. Arcade Fire, "Neon Bible"

8. Lupe Fiasco, "Cool"

9. The Shins, "Wincing the Night Away"

10. Softlightes, "Say No to Being Cool -- Say Yes to Being Happy" *

Comments: It's scares me how much this list largely parallels other blogs/music mags. Yes, Fiasco's album just came out, but on first, second and third blush it's a long-range keeper. And that's right, no Radiohead. So sue me. 6.8.

* See final list



Buzz Bands' Top 10 L.A. Albums of 2007

1. Foreign Born, "On the Wing Now"

2. John Doe, "A Year in the Wilderness"

3. Sea Wolf, "Leaves in the River"

4. CoCo B's, "CoCo B's"

5. Eleni Mandell, "Miracle of Five"

6. Earlimart, "Mentor Tormentor"

7. Culver City Dub Collective, "Dos"

8. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Baby 81"

9. Rilo Kiley, "Under the Blacklight"

10. Great Northern, "Trading Twilight for Daylight"

Comments: Foreign Born is just plain good. CoCo B's self-released disc is a great surprise. Culver City Dub Collective's genre-mashing is sublime. Eleni Mandell -- who needs Feist? And Rilo Kiley's album just kept growing on me.




Ten L.A. Bands Whose Debuts Made Me Anxious for the Sophomore Album

1. The Deadly Syndrome, "The Ortolan"

2. The Broken West, "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On"

3. Robert Francis, "One by One"

4. The Parson Red Heads, "King Giraffe"

5. Delta Spirit, "Delta Spirit"

6. Frankel, "Lullaby for the Passersby"

7. Year Long Disaster, "Year Long Disaster"

8. Sara Bareilles, "Little Voice"

9. The Minor Canon, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

10. No Age, "Weirdo Rippers"

Ten L.A. Bands Whose 2007 EPs Made Me Want More

Castledoor, the Airborne Toxic Event, the Weather Underground, the Black Kites, Voxhaul Broadcast, Sam Sparro, Manic, Radars to the Sky, Sara Lov, Aushua.



Three Albums From Bands Whom I Loved in the '90s and Still Do

1. Buffalo Tom, "Three Easy Pieces"

2. Dinosaur Jr., "Beyond"

3. Smashing Pumpkins, "Zeitgeist"

Five Hip-Hop Albums I Would Recommend If Anybody Believed I Recommended Hip-Hop Albums

1. Lupe Fiasco, "Cool"

2. Kanye West, "Graduation"

3. Brother Ali, "Undisputed Truth"

4. El-P, "I'll Sleep When You're Dead"

5. Aesop Rock, "None Shall Pass"



Under the Radar: Six Overlooked Albums

1. Softlightes, "Say No to Being Cool -- Say Yes to Being Happy": Cinematic electro-pop that recalls Grandaddy at its finest.

2. The High Strung, "Get the Guests": Catchy and clever, hold the irony, with peripatetic melody lines that do not quit.

3. Minipop, "A New Hope": Gorgeous and beautifully layered shoegaze-pop with rhythms that will drive you right into a dreamlike state.

4. The Blakes, "The Blakes": Soulful garage rock that's good for your summer sweat.

5. The Comas, "Spells": Distortion-heavy power pop arrives in bursts, may leave marks.

6. Young Galaxy, "Young Galaxy": Other Canadian exports (Kevin Drew, Sunset Rubdown, Feist, et. al.) earned more buzz, but this album feel like a warm waking dream.

Comments: Somehow I saw Softlightes play live 10 times in 2007. I left each show in a better mood than when I arrived.

 

The obituary this morning says Dan Fogelberg helped "define soft rock," but that sounds kind of flaccid compared to what the singer-songwriter, who died Sunday at age 56, meant to a bunch of kids in the working-class neighborhoods of Peoria, Ill., in the early 1970s.

Fogelberg graduated from Woodruff High School the year before I got there, leaving behind some stories of a rock band called the Coachmen (I actually owned the 45 at one point -- oh, where did it go?) and the occasional rumor he'd gone off to California, a place that seemed so distant from our Midwestern factory town as to be a mirage. Not many of us had California dreams then; we'd do well to graduate high school and get on at Caterpillar Tractor Co. (which accounted for something like 1 in 5 paychecks in our city in those days). If we were really lucky, we'd go to college.

In the fall of my junior year, "Home Free" arrived, and we were mesmerized. Fogelberg's debut album -- a beautifully orchestrated bouquet of ballads that veered toward what we now would call alt-country -- took his alma mater by storm. It christened the tape player in my first car; it was played endlessly at basement parties from Grand View Drive to the lower East Bluff. I'm pretty sure there isn't a song in my collection I've played over the years more than that second track, "Stars."

Fogelberg was our Jackson Browne, a romantic who shared our roots and who had the courage to strike out in service of his poetry. As I trudged through the snow delivering my Peoria Journal Stars every morning, that was a pretty important symbol.

I always blanched at, but ultimately forgave, the arch sentimentality that seemingly oppressive production brought to Fogelberg's later albums. He had earned the right to pursue whatever vision struck him. When my brother and I took in a Fogelberg show a few years ago in Anaheim, it wasn't so much for musical nostalgia as it was a thank-you.

In one subtle but important way, Dan Fogelberg was the leader of our band.

I missed it and, from reports, am regretting it. Bat for Lashes, the nom de tune of Brighton, England's Natasha Khan, wowed the room last night at Spaceland. The common sentiment I heard from a couple people: No wonder she is nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

You'll be hearing more about her.

For now, here is the enchanting video for "What's a Girl to Do."

Touts for Wednesday, Aug. 1

The Format starts a two-show stand (the Avalon tonight, House of Blues tomorrow); the band for two weeks offered its latest album, "Dog Problems," as a free download from its website and reported that 45,000 copies of the (very good) album were ripped. ... Great Glass Elevator (whose inventiveness kind of reminds me of the Format in a way) play Club NME at Spaceland tonight. ... The Automatic Music Explosion plays the Scene in Glendale. ... And the Stevenson Ranch Davidians start a run of Wednesday shows at the Echo.

Ozomatli looked to the visual for inspiration when writing its new album, “Don’t Mess With the Dragon” (due April 3 on Concord Records) — much of the initial songwriting came out of jam sessions at the Tropico de Nopal art gallery. Now the veteran L.A. nine-piece might have found a vision to suit its sound.

The new video for the single “Can’t Stop” is a dizzying collage of stop-animation and storytelling that seems equal to Ozomatli’s mashing of Latin flavors, rock, hip-hop and funk — a hybrid many have said is distinctly Los Angeles.

“We haven’t had a lot of luck with videos in the past,” acknowledges Ulises Bella, who plays saxophone and clarinet for the band.

Ozomatli turned to New York-based artist-illustrator Richard Borge for “Can’t Stop,” even though the 41-year-old, who had done album art for bands such as Meat Beat Manifesto, had never done a music video.

2007: Rear-View Mirror

Happy New Year.

And good riddance, 2007.

The year brought an avalanche of music, and the recent holiday week of rumination and CD-sorting etched in my mind the idea that a whole lot of it was ... well ... pretty good. Yeah, pretty good, uttered with my head slightly tilted, as if I never thought once of saying "great" or "really good." If I ever had the radical notion to rate albums on a 10 scale, I would swear that half the records I received this year logged somewhere between 6.5 and 6.7 -- a percentage that's skewed because all six copies of the Magic Numbers album that somehow found their way to my desk would get a 6.2.

Maybe this was the year that trying to keep up with new music, nationally and locally, finally overwhelmed me, what with every baby band in the universe engaging in viral marketing, hiring publicists, working with managers, leaving me polite entreaties on MySpace and generally undermining any belief that a band can merely grow organically. I attended about 185 shows in 2007 too, many to follow up on those advertising blitzes.

But after compiling my humble lists below, I fast-forwarded to December 2009, when all good geeks will be sweating over their seemingly inevitable Best-of-the-Aughts list. And guess what? Not a single album from 2007 has a chance of making mine. All of the bands I consider indie icons -- and I'm sure you can spank me for leaving out people you think are iconic -- released other albums this decade that are superior to their 2007 releases. For the record, that pantheon houses the National, Spoon, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes and Interpol, with other personal faves such as the Shins and Stars living in the backhouse. Those heavyweights each added to their estimable catalogs, yes; it's just that I'm not going to pull "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" off the shelf first when I want to hear some Modest Mouse a few years from now.

At least, I don't think.

The lists follow. Thanks to everybody who sends me music -- really -- and a special shout-out to the bands on the L.A. scene who've made my life so much richer over the past 5-plus years.



My Favorite 10 Albums of 2007

1. Blonde Redhead, "23"

2. The National, "Boxer"

3. LCD Soundsystem, "Sound of Silver"

4. Against Me!, "New Wave"

5. Spoon, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"

6. The Cribs, "Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever"

7. Arcade Fire, "Neon Bible"

8. Lupe Fiasco, "Cool"

9. The Shins, "Wincing the Night Away"

10. Softlightes, "Say No to Being Cool -- Say Yes to Being Happy" *

Comments: It's scares me how much this list largely parallels other blogs/music mags. Yes, Fiasco's album just came out, but on first, second and third blush it's a long-range keeper. And that's right, no Radiohead. So sue me. 6.8.

* See final list



Buzz Bands' Top 10 L.A. Albums of 2007

1. Foreign Born, "On the Wing Now"

2. John Doe, "A Year in the Wilderness"

3. Sea Wolf, "Leaves in the River"

4. CoCo B's, "CoCo B's"

5. Eleni Mandell, "Miracle of Five"

6. Earlimart, "Mentor Tormentor"

7. Culver City Dub Collective, "Dos"

8. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Baby 81"

9. Rilo Kiley, "Under the Blacklight"

10. Great Northern, "Trading Twilight for Daylight"

Comments: Foreign Born is just plain good. CoCo B's self-released disc is a great surprise. Culver City Dub Collective's genre-mashing is sublime. Eleni Mandell -- who needs Feist? And Rilo Kiley's album just kept growing on me.




Ten L.A. Bands Whose Debuts Made Me Anxious for the Sophomore Album

1. The Deadly Syndrome, "The Ortolan"

2. The Broken West, "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On"

3. Robert Francis, "One by One"

4. The Parson Red Heads, "King Giraffe"

5. Delta Spirit, "Delta Spirit"

6. Frankel, "Lullaby for the Passersby"

7. Year Long Disaster, "Year Long Disaster"

8. Sara Bareilles, "Little Voice"

9. The Minor Canon, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

10. No Age, "Weirdo Rippers"

Ten L.A. Bands Whose 2007 EPs Made Me Want More

Castledoor, the Airborne Toxic Event, the Weather Underground, the Black Kites, Voxhaul Broadcast, Sam Sparro, Manic, Radars to the Sky, Sara Lov, Aushua.



Three Albums From Bands Whom I Loved in the '90s and Still Do

1. Buffalo Tom, "Three Easy Pieces"

2. Dinosaur Jr., "Beyond"

3. Smashing Pumpkins, "Zeitgeist"

Five Hip-Hop Albums I Would Recommend If Anybody Believed I Recommended Hip-Hop Albums

1. Lupe Fiasco, "Cool"

2. Kanye West, "Graduation"

3. Brother Ali, "Undisputed Truth"

4. El-P, "I'll Sleep When You're Dead"

5. Aesop Rock, "None Shall Pass"



Under the Radar: Six Overlooked Albums

1. Softlightes, "Say No to Being Cool -- Say Yes to Being Happy": Cinematic electro-pop that recalls Grandaddy at its finest.

2. The High Strung, "Get the Guests": Catchy and clever, hold the irony, with peripatetic melody lines that do not quit.

3. Minipop, "A New Hope": Gorgeous and beautifully layered shoegaze-pop with rhythms that will drive you right into a dreamlike state.

4. The Blakes, "The Blakes": Soulful garage rock that's good for your summer sweat.

5. The Comas, "Spells": Distortion-heavy power pop arrives in bursts, may leave marks.

6. Young Galaxy, "Young Galaxy": Other Canadian exports (Kevin Drew, Sunset Rubdown, Feist, et. al.) earned more buzz, but this album feel like a warm waking dream.

Comments: Somehow I saw Softlightes play live 10 times in 2007. I left each show in a better mood than when I arrived.

 

The obituary this morning says Dan Fogelberg helped "define soft rock," but that sounds kind of flaccid compared to what the singer-songwriter, who died Sunday at age 56, meant to a bunch of kids in the working-class neighborhoods of Peoria, Ill., in the early 1970s.

Fogelberg graduated from Woodruff High School the year before I got there, leaving behind some stories of a rock band called the Coachmen (I actually owned the 45 at one point -- oh, where did it go?) and the occasional rumor he'd gone off to California, a place that seemed so distant from our Midwestern factory town as to be a mirage. Not many of us had California dreams then; we'd do well to graduate high school and get on at Caterpillar Tractor Co. (which accounted for something like 1 in 5 paychecks in our city in those days). If we were really lucky, we'd go to college.

In the fall of my junior year, "Home Free" arrived, and we were mesmerized. Fogelberg's debut album -- a beautifully orchestrated bouquet of ballads that veered toward what we now would call alt-country -- took his alma mater by storm. It christened the tape player in my first car; it was played endlessly at basement parties from Grand View Drive to the lower East Bluff. I'm pretty sure there isn't a song in my collection I've played over the years more than that second track, "Stars."

Fogelberg was our Jackson Browne, a romantic who shared our roots and who had the courage to strike out in service of his poetry. As I trudged through the snow delivering my Peoria Journal Stars every morning, that was a pretty important symbol.

I always blanched at, but ultimately forgave, the arch sentimentality that seemingly oppressive production brought to Fogelberg's later albums. He had earned the right to pursue whatever vision struck him. When my brother and I took in a Fogelberg show a few years ago in Anaheim, it wasn't so much for musical nostalgia as it was a thank-you.

In one subtle but important way, Dan Fogelberg was the leader of our band.

I missed it and, from reports, am regretting it. Bat for Lashes, the nom de tune of Brighton, England's Natasha Khan, wowed the room last night at Spaceland. The common sentiment I heard from a couple people: No wonder she is nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

You'll be hearing more about her.

For now, here is the enchanting video for "What's a Girl to Do."

Touts for Wednesday, Aug. 1

The Format starts a two-show stand (the Avalon tonight, House of Blues tomorrow); the band for two weeks offered its latest album, "Dog Problems," as a free download from its website and reported that 45,000 copies of the (very good) album were ripped. ... Great Glass Elevator (whose inventiveness kind of reminds me of the Format in a way) play Club NME at Spaceland tonight. ... The Automatic Music Explosion plays the Scene in Glendale. ... And the Stevenson Ranch Davidians start a run of Wednesday shows at the Echo.

Ozomatli looked to the visual for inspiration when writing its new album, “Don’t Mess With the Dragon” (due April 3 on Concord Records) — much of the initial songwriting came out of jam sessions at the Tropico de Nopal art gallery. Now the veteran L.A. nine-piece might have found a vision to suit its sound.

The new video for the single “Can’t Stop” is a dizzying collage of stop-animation and storytelling that seems equal to Ozomatli’s mashing of Latin flavors, rock, hip-hop and funk — a hybrid many have said is distinctly Los Angeles.

“We haven’t had a lot of luck with videos in the past,” acknowledges Ulises Bella, who plays saxophone and clarinet for the band.

Ozomatli turned to New York-based artist-illustrator Richard Borge for “Can’t Stop,” even though the 41-year-old, who had done album art for bands such as Meat Beat Manifesto, had never done a music video.

Dan Fogelberg, 1951-2007

The obituary this morning says Dan Fogelberg helped "define soft rock," but that sounds kind of flaccid compared to what the singer-songwriter, who died Sunday at age 56, meant to a bunch of kids in the working-class neighborhoods of Peoria, Ill., in the early 1970s.

Fogelberg graduated from Woodruff High School the year before I got there, leaving behind some stories of a rock band called the Coachmen (I actually owned the 45 at one point -- oh, where did it go?) and the occasional rumor he'd gone off to California, a place that seemed so distant from our Midwestern factory town as to be a mirage. Not many of us had California dreams then; we'd do well to graduate high school and get on at Caterpillar Tractor Co. (which accounted for something like 1 in 5 paychecks in our city in those days). If we were really lucky, we'd go to college.

In the fall of my junior year, "Home Free" arrived, and we were mesmerized. Fogelberg's debut album -- a beautifully orchestrated bouquet of ballads that veered toward what we now would call alt-country -- took his alma mater by storm. It christened the tape player in my first car; it was played endlessly at basement parties from Grand View Drive to the lower East Bluff. I'm pretty sure there isn't a song in my collection I've played over the years more than that second track, "Stars."

Fogelberg was our Jackson Browne, a romantic who shared our roots and who had the courage to strike out in service of his poetry. As I trudged through the snow delivering my Peoria Journal Stars every morning, that was a pretty important symbol.

I always blanched at, but ultimately forgave, the arch sentimentality that seemingly oppressive production brought to Fogelberg's later albums. He had earned the right to pursue whatever vision struck him. When my brother and I took in a Fogelberg show a few years ago in Anaheim, it wasn't so much for musical nostalgia as it was a thank-you.

In one subtle but important way, Dan Fogelberg was the leader of our band.

I missed it and, from reports, am regretting it. Bat for Lashes, the nom de tune of Brighton, England's Natasha Khan, wowed the room last night at Spaceland. The common sentiment I heard from a couple people: No wonder she is nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

You'll be hearing more about her.

For now, here is the enchanting video for "What's a Girl to Do."

Touts for Wednesday, Aug. 1

The Format starts a two-show stand (the Avalon tonight, House of Blues tomorrow); the band for two weeks offered its latest album, "Dog Problems," as a free download from its website and reported that 45,000 copies of the (very good) album were ripped. ... Great Glass Elevator (whose inventiveness kind of reminds me of the Format in a way) play Club NME at Spaceland tonight. ... The Automatic Music Explosion plays the Scene in Glendale. ... And the Stevenson Ranch Davidians start a run of Wednesday shows at the Echo.

Ozomatli looked to the visual for inspiration when writing its new album, “Don’t Mess With the Dragon” (due April 3 on Concord Records) — much of the initial songwriting came out of jam sessions at the Tropico de Nopal art gallery. Now the veteran L.A. nine-piece might have found a vision to suit its sound.

The new video for the single “Can’t Stop” is a dizzying collage of stop-animation and storytelling that seems equal to Ozomatli’s mashing of Latin flavors, rock, hip-hop and funk — a hybrid many have said is distinctly Los Angeles.

“We haven’t had a lot of luck with videos in the past,” acknowledges Ulises Bella, who plays saxophone and clarinet for the band.

Ozomatli turned to New York-based artist-illustrator Richard Borge for “Can’t Stop,” even though the 41-year-old, who had done album art for bands such as Meat Beat Manifesto, had never done a music video.

Bat for Lashes, now there's a prize

I missed it and, from reports, am regretting it. Bat for Lashes, the nom de tune of Brighton, England's Natasha Khan, wowed the room last night at Spaceland. The common sentiment I heard from a couple people: No wonder she is nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

You'll be hearing more about her.

For now, here is the enchanting video for "What's a Girl to Do."

Touts for Wednesday, Aug. 1

The Format starts a two-show stand (the Avalon tonight, House of Blues tomorrow); the band for two weeks offered its latest album, "Dog Problems," as a free download from its website and reported that 45,000 copies of the (very good) album were ripped. ... Great Glass Elevator (whose inventiveness kind of reminds me of the Format in a way) play Club NME at Spaceland tonight. ... The Automatic Music Explosion plays the Scene in Glendale. ... And the Stevenson Ranch Davidians start a run of Wednesday shows at the Echo.

Ozomatli looked to the visual for inspiration when writing its new album, “Don’t Mess With the Dragon” (due April 3 on Concord Records) — much of the initial songwriting came out of jam sessions at the Tropico de Nopal art gallery. Now the veteran L.A. nine-piece might have found a vision to suit its sound.

The new video for the single “Can’t Stop” is a dizzying collage of stop-animation and storytelling that seems equal to Ozomatli’s mashing of Latin flavors, rock, hip-hop and funk — a hybrid many have said is distinctly Los Angeles.

“We haven’t had a lot of luck with videos in the past,” acknowledges Ulises Bella, who plays saxophone and clarinet for the band.

Ozomatli turned to New York-based artist-illustrator Richard Borge for “Can’t Stop,” even though the 41-year-old, who had done album art for bands such as Meat Beat Manifesto, had never done a music video.

Visuals for Ozomatli's vision quest

Ozomatli looked to the visual for inspiration when writing its new album, “Don’t Mess With the Dragon” (due April 3 on Concord Records) — much of the initial songwriting came out of jam sessions at the Tropico de Nopal art gallery. Now the veteran L.A. nine-piece might have found a vision to suit its sound.

The new video for the single “Can’t Stop” is a dizzying collage of stop-animation and storytelling that seems equal to Ozomatli’s mashing of Latin flavors, rock, hip-hop and funk — a hybrid many have said is distinctly Los Angeles.

“We haven’t had a lot of luck with videos in the past,” acknowledges Ulises Bella, who plays saxophone and clarinet for the band.

Ozomatli turned to New York-based artist-illustrator Richard Borge for “Can’t Stop,” even though the 41-year-old, who had done album art for bands such as Meat Beat Manifesto, had never done a music video.