{"id":11030,"date":"2011-12-23T12:05:14","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T17:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=11030"},"modified":"2011-12-23T12:12:51","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T17:12:51","slug":"looking-back-and-looking-forward-favorite-2011-releases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/looking-back-and-looking-forward-favorite-2011-releases\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back and Looking Forward: Favorite 2011 Releases"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It’s that time of the year when everyone is reviewing their favorite musical releases of 2011, and we at Rock Town Hall should be proud to add to the fray. Although I’ve been thinking about my entries for the last few weeks, I’ve continued to be haunted by themes of Simon Reynolds<\/strong>‘ Retromania<\/em> and our discussions about Moving Forward<\/a> in our consideration of younger musicians and recent bands. We tend to not discuss a lot of new music on this site, and often it is in relation to previous bands or previous styles. However, I am the first admit that when I listen to new music, I’m always reminded of other records. While I hope we don’t only listen to bands because of their aural similarity to those that come before, I think that the experience can be a bridge to enjoying the music to a greater degree. With these hazily-drawn ideas on display, I give you my three favorites and additional honorable mentions from 2011.<\/p>\n

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  1. Moon Duo<\/strong> – Mazes<\/em>: A splinter group from San Francisco’s Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo play highly addicting, droney, psychedelic garage rock. While their sound is not particularly new (see Suicide, Spacemen 3), I like that they are a dueling long hair male\/female team. I’ve always been a fan of that Farfisa sound, but there’s something about watching a curtain of black hair swinging in time with the music that kicks it up a notch. And the guy’s deadpan voice is additionally mesmerizing.<\/li>\n
  2. Real Estate<\/strong> – Days<\/em>: This album got a lot of press which is odd given what an intimate record it is. The somewhat hushed vocals, the chiming guitar: the sound evokes the color green to me. Each song is melodic and a nice mixture of cheerful and wistful. The single, “It’s Real” will stick in your head (in a good way). For fans of Felt and The Go-Betweens.<\/li>\n
  3. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks<\/strong> – Mirror Traffic<\/em>: Malkmus’s first Jicks album that really sounds like a band. The songs cover a variety of styles, some Pavementesque, others a la Steely Dan, and a couple Sweetheart of the Rodeo<\/em>-era Byrds. But the very pleasant surprise here is Beck Hansen’s production: his understanding of their mutual stream-of-consciousness lyrics style takes this record to greater levels. (Honorable Mentions follow the jump!<\/strong><\/em>)\u00a0<\/li>\n
  4. Tom Waits<\/strong> – Bad As Me<\/em>: Waits at his graveled-throated best and with plenty of political content.<\/li>\n
  5. Atlas Sound<\/strong> – Parallax<\/em>: While I don’t like this album as much as Bradford Cox’s previous two, there are some very beautiful moments, including the song, “Te Amo.”<\/li>\n
  6. Dirty Beaches<\/strong> – Badlands<\/em>: I had previewed this album earlier this year and heard a lot of disgruntled, “Alan Vega did this before.” But this album reflects a strong personal vision by creator Alex Zhang Hungtai.<\/li>\n
  7. Tommy Guerrero<\/strong> – Lifeboats and Follies<\/em>: Guerrero plays jazz, funk and latin-tinged guitar that highlights his street-smart days as a professional skateboarder.<\/li>\n
  8. Oneohtrix Point Never<\/strong> – Replica<\/em>: Innovative electronica haunted by references to Bladerunner and Eno.<\/li>\n
  9. The Black Keys –<\/strong> El Camino<\/em>: Adding a dose of T. Rex boogie gave this duo a jolt in the pants. Mr. Royale adds, “Last men standing from the garage\/blues revival.”<\/li>\n
  10. Raphael Saadiq<\/strong> – Stone Rollin’<\/em>: Thanks, Mr. Moderator, for playing one of these tracks on a previous SNSI. Soul music is going strong in Oakland!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It’s that time of the year when everyone is reviewing their favorite musical releases of 2011, and we at Rock Town Hall should be proud to add to the fray. Although I’ve been thinking about my entries for the last few weeks, I’ve continued to be haunted by themes of Simon Reynolds‘ Retromania and our […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[206],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}