"The moment of descent, the mirror of grace, is the essence of all music"

"Art has no immediate future because all art is collective"

Simone Weil

Aural Velvet Twenty-Oh-Eleven Edition

I'm going to attempt to write more in the new year, and I've read all the year-end music lists and think most of them are missing my favorite artists.  Hence, I present the music that kept me sane amidst the last 12 months.


January: The Decemberists The King Is Dead
Origin Of Discovery: heard the 8-minute "Mariner's Revenge" epic on college radio, and have been in love with Colin and his mutton-chops ever since.
Is This A 10 Song, Pop Version Of Their Normal Stuff That Seems To Be The Theme This Year? Yes
Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? For the most part, although I didn't really start playing any of it until the summer.
Helpful Hints: "Rox in the box" is actually, like, "rocks" and about mining.
Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "Down By The Water", "Don't Carry It All"
Beard: Not currently


February: The Civil Wars Barton Hollow
Origin Of Discovery: this year, probably on a music blog or something
Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? not normally, as it's too much bluegrass for me to handle in one sitting, but they're great
Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "Barton Hollow", "I've Got This Friend"
Beard: Yes


also: The Submarines Love Notes/Letter Bombs
Origin Of Discovery: I've had random songs of theirs for a few years, but this is the first whole album I've heard
Is This A 10 Song, Pop Version Of Their Normal Stuff That Seems To Be The Theme This Year? Yes
Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? yes, it's very pop-oriented and probably the most "mainstream" band of the albums I heard this year
Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "Shoelaces"
Beard: No


March: New Numbers Vacationland
Origin Of Discovery: the drummer is in KD's band, the singer is formerly of The Jealous Girlfriends, who toured with KD
Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? yes, very great get-through-the-workday type of album
Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "Hinterlands"
Bonus Endearment: their genre is listed as Big Beat
Beard: No


also: River City Extension/Kevin Devine split EP
Origin Of Discovery: KD was on tour with them in March
Featuring: KD's acoustic version of "Between The Concrete & Clouds" and the best cover ever of Tom Petty's "Walls"; RCE's "Ballad Of Oregon" -I actually didn't like them live but their recorded stuff is nice
Beard: Yes, all


April: Cass McCombs Wit's End
Origin Of Discovery: KD covering his songs
Most Common Word Used To Describe Him Since He Doesn't Tweet His Every Move: enigmatic
Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? I listened to the album a lot whilst in-flight, as it's very calming and slow, but mostly I listen to "County Line" on repeat
Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "County Line"
Beard: No


May: Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues
Origin Of Discovery: probably on a music blog or something
Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? I listen occasionally, but mostly the title track on repeat.
Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "Helplessness Blues", "Grown Ocean"
Beard: Yes


also: Okkervil River I Am Very Far
Origin Of Discovery: probably on a music blog or something

Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? I listen occasionally, but mostly "Wake And Be Fine". I also saw them in concert for the first time this year and it was lovely.

Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "Wake And Be Fine"

Beard: Yes


also: Manchester Orchestra Simple Math
Origin Of Discovery: toured with KD

Is This A 10 Song, Pop Version Of Their Normal Stuff That Seems To Be The Theme This Year? Yes

Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.

Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "Simple Math", "Pensacola", "April Fool" "Virgin"

Bonus Endearment: every conversation I've had with Robert "Rob Blondie" Gobotron McDowell; these guys + KD are in a band called Bad Books also

Beard: Yes, are you jealous of Andy's beard?


also: David Bazan Strange Negotiations
Origin Of Discovery: as a teenager, I listened to Pedro The Lion every day (his former band)

Is This A 10 Song, Pop Version Of Their Normal Stuff That Seems To Be The Theme This Year? Yes

Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? I recommend the whole album but there's not much variation in his song style.  However, he has incredible lyrics, always, like "you can't be right about the future if you're wrong about the past"

Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "Virginia", "Future Past", "Wolves At The Door" "People"

Beard: Yes


September: Blind Pilot We Are The Tide
Origin Of Discovery: probably on a music blog or something

Is This A 10 Song, Pop Version Of Their Normal Stuff That Seems To Be The Theme This Year? Yes

Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? I listen to the first four songs which actually sound like them and then skip the end because it is very slow and quiet

Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "We Are The Tide" "Half Moon" "Keep You Right"

Beard: No


also: A.A. Bondy Believers
Origin Of Discovery: KD covering his songs, but then I realized I knew him in his former life in the grunge band Verbena

Most Common Word Used To Describe Him Since He Doesn't Tweet His Every Move: enigmatic

Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? I listened to the album a lot whilst in-flight, but I haven't really delved into specific songs yet

Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: "The Heart Is Willing"

Beard: No


also: Kevin Devine Between The Concrete & Clouds

Origin Of Discovery: Pandora, circa 2004

Is This A 10 Song, Pop Version Of Their Normal Stuff That Seems To Be The Theme This Year? Yes

Do I Listen To/Recommend The Whole Album? Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes

Standout Tracks To Endear You To Listen: the playlist ones are "11-17" and "I Used To Be Someone", otherwise don't make me choose

Beard: Yes
Thoughts That I Wrote Back In September:
The album seems to identify a shift in tone - less personal, and instead more society-at-large, a
more visceral reflection on the choices we make every day, the specific decisions we make amidst the background of the intrusive world around us. The themes remind me a bit of David Bazan's new album - trying to break out of the cycle of default thinking, of cynicism and obsession with the past, and moving on toward change and redemption. "Leave 10 years ago 10 years ago" and the refrain feel like a continuation of some of the Bad Books song themes, really making an effort to not get so set in our ways that no one can startle us out of them. I think the album is challenging us to not be afraid of the future, to somehow find a way to function amidst countless tragedies, and to discover how to keep the people we've lost at the forefront of our memories, but maybe not so prominent in our daily choices. His lyrics seem more straightforward this time around, and really motivational, like if everyone tried to do their best every day, and take responsibility for themselves, then maybe society and even religion would get better, and we would stop blaming those institutions for all our problems. The music style reminds me of Phantom Planet's first album ("is Missing") and also of some R.E.M. melodies, with a bit of The Pixies or The Ramones mixed in there, very jangly, folky. I'm really glad "Awake in the Dirt" made the cut, it's such a poetic reflection on such a lovely book (Roth's American Pastoral). The "Part of the Whole" and "Luxembourg" singles are gorgeous as well. 


Conclusion: Okay I just realized I also know about Okkervil River because KD covered "Black Sheep Boy" so yeah, I pretty much listen to all the bands he covers/recommends because they are all ridiculously talented. Let's all not get sued by Courtney Love in 2012.


I made a playlist of all the standout tracks (you may need a blip.fm account)
thanks, musicians.

I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me.

Albums of the year /making twenty-oh-nine palatable

Brother's Blood, by Kevin Devine

Poetic literary aural perfection. Looking for communion.

"A flaming ferris wheel spun where the sun used to be"

"All those foxhole prayers full of fear you shared with a bored and distant sun"

"You're burnt sky, the fever moon that makes the sun jealous at night"

"The hungover sun sneaks back in the sky"

"Stubborn sun spites the hallways, paint chips blink yellow, white"

"Every morning the sun comes - to shuttle you back to your man"

[those were just the sun lyrics, see: "the entire album"]

From Sumi to Japan, by Brian Bonz & The Dot Hongs

Ambient wonder. Makes me happy. Growing up.
"The pattern of dependence has got me down"
"And you're pushing three decades with that bottle now"

Mean Everything to Nothing, by Manchester Orchestra

Emotional. Spiritual. Whilst entirely rock and roll.
I may or may not have listened to The River my entire 13 hour trip back from Lollapalooza.
"I guess it's true you never knew the passive power of the truth so cut me loose"
"So I prayed for what I thought were angels, ended up being ambulances"
"I'm gonna leave you the first chance I get"

Curse Your Branches, by David Bazan

Just gorgeous. Questions, theology, faith.
"And it's hard to be, hard to be a decent human being"
"Causing the doubt to begin to spread like original sin"

The Hazards of Love, by The Decemberists

Mutton chops and suspenders.
I think the songs work on their own but it was nice to see the entire album performed as well.
"And the wanting comes in waves"
"And I'd wager all, for the hazards of love"
"Tell me now, tell me this, a forest's son, a river's daughter/So let's be married here today, these rushing waves to bear our witness/And these hazards of love, nevermore will trouble us"

The Life of the World to Come, by The Mountain Goats

Thematically sound. Retrospective. Love my nasal singers.
"I used to live here"
"In the burning fuselage of my days"

When The Devil's Loose, by A A Bondy

Haunting. Ocean. Harmonicas.
"This is the light that shines, and I can see the pines are dancing, this is the leaving of another love..."
"And when I come, I will come on like a dream, with the crimson moon shining down upon my devil's ring"


Just released, and/or just started listening:

Height, by John Nolan

"Well I'm a born disciple, but I'm inherently suspicious"
"I keep trying to think of clever ways to say: that I don't believe you. But nothing comes to mind so I'll just make it plain: I don't believe you."

Daisy, by Brand New

It's a trip so far.

Interesting how we compare: I've never heard #3 and #7 but otherwise similar (and wasn't sure what year Mini Ts came out and forgot about Koufax since I didn't see them live- but they are lovely and Czech!)

LQ music

And you know, there is one piece of music that I cannot listen to, it makes me cry so much my nose stops up, I cannot breathe, my eyes run like streams.

--wm. styron

It is majestic music; all the suffering of a millennium is in it, all the longing, and all the tenderness; it is unbearable. It ends. A telephone rings: a friend wishes to speak of this same mystic beauty that has swept down out of the skies to fill his distant home.

--wm. durant

Stephen Fry

From Moab is my Washpot, his autobiography.

Music is the deepest of the arts and deep beneath all arts. --E.M.Forster

Music was a kind of penetration. The penetration or absorption of everything into itself. Music in the precision of its form and the mathematical tyranny of its laws, escapes into an eternity of abstraction and an absurd sublime that is everywhere and nowhere at once. The nothingness of music can be moulded by the mood of the listener into the most precise shapes or allowed to float as free as thought; music can follow the academic and theoretical pattern of its own modality or adhere to some narrative or dialectical programme imposed by a friend, a scholar, or the composer himself. Music is everything and nothing. Music takes me to places of illimitable sensual and insensate joy, accessing points of ecstasy that no angelic lover could ever locate, or plunging me into gibbering weeping hells of pain that no torturer could ever devise. Nothing else comes close.