My 2012: The Second Annual Jaybee-bies

And what a mediocre year it’s been!  - Jaybee
No, that’s not really true.  I wrote that in November, just before everything came together.

That’s what I get for getting sucked into that very common, but very bad, habit of reviewing something - like a year - way too soon.

And, it has the paradoxical effect of stretching things out into the new year. My unofficial resolution to get this done much sooner than last time has fallen in the crapper. It’s almost February for God’s sake. I’ve already gotten new music. Time to get my ass in gear and put 2012 to bed.

How did I do on those other resolutions anyway?


2012 Resolutions:

1. Getting More Current Music: On this, I totally sucked, managing to get only one measly 2012 album (Fiona Apple) and that one only on December 31. Nutboy is laughing his ass off right now. On the one hand, it was due to there being so many possible candidates, none of whom I trusted enough to follow through on. There were dozens of records that somebody was enthusiastic about. I just couldn’t distinguish the momentary enthusiasms from the keepers. Every time a promising record appeared, there was old Christgau
snickering at it, or not liking it quite enough. I had to wait for the year end polls to enlighten me.  While I waited for it all to get sorted out, I got distracted by records that just happened to come out, oh, forty years ago.

My middle name is After the Fact. C

But the other thing was that most of the highest rated records fell into the soul and hip hop (Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Killer Mike, etc) genres - ones that I’m not too good with. Or not as good as I should be. So rather than waste a lot of time trying to make myself a better, more rounded person, I’m opting for happiness.

I feel bad that I’m shying away from these genres. I guess it’s selfish, and short sighted, but when I look ahead I’m not seeing all that much time. I can’t afford to experiment like I did when I was in my twenties, assuming what I didn’t like today, I might like years from now.  I don’t know how many of those I have. This wasn’t even a resolution but I’m giving myself a C on it anyway.

2. More Downloads, Fewer CDs: I did pretty good. By my rough count I ended up with 19 CDs and 16 MP3s. So it’s evening out. Still too many CDs, though.  B+

3. More Current Books: Well, I started off pretty good and read a handful of books from this century (Zazen (very powerful), The Hunger Games (brilliant) and Ready Player One (great fun) but then trailed off, and by the end of the year, I hadn’t read all that many from last century, either. C+


So the 2013 Resolutions are:

1. No CDs: Mrs. Jaybee is REALLY doubtful about it.  As long as I can stay away from downtown, where J&R and Other Music are located, I’ve got a shot.

2. At least 3 albums released in 2013: Nutboy’s probably managed more than 3 already.

3. Get Less Music: I did get more MP3s, but I didn’t get fewer CDs. I got way too much music, and need to focus. (I have to, before I toss out a family member.)  But Amazon is doing their yearly 50 million albums for $5, and I’ve already gotten three. None from this year, by the way.

4. More music books!  I had great fun doing this in 2012, and realized I’d been remiss for many years. I don’t know why. Probably some combination of the books not being available at my library and me being too cheap to buy them. I also have a fear of reading about music at the expense of listening to it, as well as a dread of the potential Deadening of Joy Via Theory Effect, which happens to me when the writer is thinking it, but JUST NOT FEELIN' IT.


So How Good a Year Was It?

Things were so good that I’m not going to just mention one or two Best Albums of the Year with a handful of runners up.  I’m actually going to supply a top 10 list, which goes something like this:
1. Ogden’s Nut Flake by the Small Faces (1968)  
2. Sea Change by Beck (2002)
3. On by Imperial Teen (2002)
4. The Wild Hunt by the Tallest Man on Earth (2010)
5. The Mysterious Production of Eggs by Andrew Bird (2005)
6. Give Up by Postal Service  (2003)
7. Music for Airports by Brian Eno (1978)
8. So Beautiful or So What by Paul Simon (2011)
9. Whitechocolatespaceegg by Liz Phair (1998)
10. Spinning Around the Sun by Jimmie Dale Gilmore (1993)


Biggest Disappointment:
Wild Flag - Just not feelin it.

Strangest:
Jens Lekman - Expecting pop, got a big lump of cheesey weirdness, which I didn’t think was possible.

Biggest Stretch (for me):
Wu Tang Clan - Strong music, stronger subject matter.

Artist of the Year:
The Small Faces - For blowing away my assumption that they were just another 60s band.


Onward:

So that’s it. I’m finally done with a very rewarding year and hoping I can keep it going without wasting a lot of time and money on misfires.

Well, are you going to help me out with that or what?

My 2012: Revenge(s) of the Record Store(s)

Somewhat disappointed in the results of my prior adventure in downloading, I found myself back in the record store.  

Maybe this is where I truly belong. Maybe I’ll never be convinced that a downloaded album actually exists. Maybe when I download, it costs more for the good songs.

Having logically argued myself out of downloading (for the time being), I manage to find myself in a record store on several occasions over the next few weeks.


Trip 1:

After a failed attempt at hard rock and trying singer songwriter sludge, I was longing for some tuneful pop.  You know, chiming guitars, snappy beats,  catchy melodies...

Jens Lekman: Night Falls on Kortedala
What I got instead was by far the weirdest album of the year.  Pop music, yes. But of the extra cheesy mid-sixties variety. You know, the kind your parents might have liked if they despised the Beatles, and loved watching European melodramas.

The orchestrations (yes, there are orchestrations) are totally over the top. And the singing is so mannered that I expected Engelbert Humperdinck to jump out at any moment. Luckily the subject matter was just weird enough (and to be fair, the tunes are just tuneful enough) to keep me paying attention. The best song has an actual guitar on it.  B+
"Your Arms Around Me:

It took me a few weeks to figure out that Jens Lekman wasn’t going to be my pop salvation and I 
resolved to get back up on the horse.


Trip 2:

This trip yielded an experiment in how my reactions to music change over a few listens.  So where did I finally end up with them?


Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the Wu-Tang:
I can hear the appeal of this music, up to a point, but from my comfortable, safe standpoint, I still struggle with the more brutal aspects of it.  I guess these guys will have to wait for me to catch up to them, as is usually the case for me with hip hop. B+


Beck: Sea Change:
Ah, so where did I leave off with Beck? A very consistent, catchy and at times beautiful record. It never quite took over my brain, like some classics do, but it’s a Contender nonetheless. A
"Sunday Sun"


Best of Blur:
In England, they’re gods who get to put out a complete boxed set of their music. In America, they’re the ones that you’re always saying “so they do that song”. Unfortunately, it’s very hit or miss whether you liked the song in the first place.  There are a few great ones ("She’s So High", "Parklife") here but no more than what I’d expect from a regular album, let alone a Greatest Hits. B+
"She's So High"



Bright Eyes: Lifted, or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
So young, so very ambitious. And when the artist in question has the right attitude, you really want it to go well.  But this doesn’t hit the mark often enough to be a masterpiece.  Some great moments, though (You will you will you will, and ????)  So I still prefer the simpler I’m Wide Awake, because it has no greater ambitions than to put together ten excellent tunes. B+
"You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will."



Trip 3:

Friend Sean had an art exhibit and he invited us along. Was it Fate that it occurred in a used record store? Sorry Sean, for spending almost on CDs as we did on your art.





Liz Phair: Whitechocolatespaceegg:
Another post-masterpiece record link, this time a couple of records down the line after the epochal Exile in Guyville. So while it’s no Exile, it’s also not a disappointment. Ms. Phair puts together over a dozen excellent tunes, and how many records have that many.  Life-changing no, but pretty good!   A-
"Shitloads of Money"


The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious:
Loud, fast fun, with a lead singer coming across as a more nerdy Iggy Pop.  So I’m not taking it as seriously as I should.  If I played it more often, I’d know if it had staying power. B+



Wire - Pink Flag:
After a twenty year go round with a greatest “hits” collection, I finally get the 1978 classic, and while it’s very good, the unknown legend in my head was a little better. A-
"Mr. Suit"



The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight:
After having bought this in 2010 only to immediately lose it, I found it again. I’d barely gotten to know it but now can confirm that, like Fegmania! a year ago, it’s slightly disappointing. I’ve come to the conclusion that  as talented as Robyn Hitchcock is, he’s more suited for a greatest hits record. B+
"Underwater Moonlight"

So my luck with the record stores was slightly better than my downloading. Maybe I need to slow down and not rush into the 21st century.  

Yeah, maybe it’s time to invest in an 8-track tape player...

Being and Nothingness, or Jaybee Sartre's Virtual Record Store Trip, or Something

One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to buy more digital music. My goal was to make 50% of my music purchases mp3s. I’d dipped my toe in the digital water the year before with tUnE-YarDs
W H O K I L L , which , coincidentally, was my top record of the year.

My only complaint so far is that, with no jewelry case cover to look at, the tiny picture of the cover, which looks like this:


reminds me of nothing so much as a Subway sandwich ad.  Just looking at it makes me hungry. (Someone please tell me what this is.)

But above and beyond my obsession with seeming cool to young people, there was the very practical possibility of literally running out of room in our house.

Most family members would like to be preferred over inanimate objects, so when a pile of one falls into a pile of the other, said family members prefer that I save them first. Daughter has stack of CDs fall on her, daughter prefers that father pull her out before checking if the CDs are scratched, etc. Quite reasonable if you’re normal.

Thus, another good reason to take advantage of the odd iTunes gift card and Amazon sales to get mp3s whenever possible.

I’d already resolved to get used instead of new CDs whenever possible. To be environmentally correct? Of course! The fact that they are cheaper never entered my mind...

So this would be another year of great music, just taking up less room and costing less. This is called Continuous Quality Improvement.

So how’m I doing?  Let’s see so far:


January:

First there was Radiohead’s Amnesiac and David Bowie’s Lodger. An of-the-moment record store link trip yielded these two kind-of-want-to-haves-and-at-$4.99-who-can-resists?

I thought that would be it for the month. Every year I have a standing Slow the F*ck Down With the Buying of the Music Resolution that rarely lasts the winter. And this year, not even January.

Thanks to Amazon’s monthly $5 mp3 sale.  And for January, instead of the usual 100 albums, they’ve got 1,000! Now, I’ve finally learned how to keep this kind of thing under control, and after writing up a list of 50 possible buys, I settle for two:  Essential Leonard Cohen and Wild Flag’s debut..

So, what was my score at the end of this first month of the year?

MP3: 2
Used: 0
Cheap: 2
Brand New: 0

So far, so good!


February:

So my son Michael mentions Television (a girl he knows brings them up - the Official Best Possible Reason to Talk About Music) which results in a major (at least 3 CDs worth) mp3 buy, and using a gift card no less! I’d call it a two-fer but it also resulted in a blog post.  

Another trip to the record store unearthed two jazz cheapies: Sidney Bechet Ken Burns’ Jazz and Coleman Hawkins Body and Soul

MP3: 5
Used: 0
Cheap: 7
Brand New: 0

Okay, not bad, but I can do better, right?


March:

Used record store Other Music strikes again.  This time with Jens Lekman's Night Falls Over Kortedala.

MP3: 5
Used: 1
Cheap: 7
Brand New: 0

Meh.


May:

Cabin Fever motivated me to plan a trip to both record stores once the weather got better. This resulted in cheapies Beck Sea Change and Wu Tang Clan Enter the Wu Tang, and used Bright Eyes Lifted and the Best of Bush. In a fit of remorse, I realized I could have gotten Bush as an MP3 for even cheaper.  So I’m penalizing myself by marking it as New. Ouch!

MP3: 5
Used: 3
Cheap: 8
Brand New: 1

I appear to be succeeding on the cheapness front (lots of practice) I’m paying the price on the environmental one. (Except that I’m not buying something brand new and thus taking up new resources, thus my carbon footprint blah, blah, blah...)


June:

A surprise while on a visit to a friend’s art show - it’s taking place in a used CD store! Quick! Retreat! Ah, too late! Thus Liz Phair’s Whitechocolatespaceegg, the Hives Veni Vidi Viscious, the Soft Boys Underwater Moonlight and Wire’s Pink Flag.

But I try to make up for it by going to my iTunes card. (The old more-is-somehow-less argument.) and get
Eno’s Music for Airports.  

But at this point, like global warming, I hit my 350 and there was no going back for room on the CD shelf. May our children’s children forgive us! ( Well, me anyway.)

MP3: 6
Used: 3
Cheap: 13
Brand New: 1


July

Amazon comes to the rescue twice with Bob Marley’s Legend and Postal Service’s Give Up each on sale for $2.99

MP3: 8
Used: 3
Cheap: 15
Brand New: 1

Which is how it stands right now. All things considered this doesn't suck exactly, but I've got work to do.


But Steinski Asks What Does it All Mean?:

But I miss the thing-ness of the CD (just like I missed the size of the LP, with the possibility that the cover could be a thing of beauty. Maybe even framed.  (Well, no, I never actually framed an album cover, but that was for convenience sake.  I was too lazy to do it, and besides what if I wanted to hear the record?)

And I miss the CD covers. I miss the liner notes, even though I can’t read them anymore.

The more serious and unexpected side effect of this foray into mp3s is that I am beginning to lose track of what I actually have and don’t have.  When I got Postal Service, I also got some free song along with it.  Do I remember what song it is? No. Did I Even Listen to It? No.  Do I Care? No.

So when you get down to it, does it even matter whether I “have” it or not?

When you have a physical CD, you put it on. (This isn’t even getting into the area of If You Have It, You Can Burn It Right Onto Your PC So That When You Want to Play It, You Just Look It Up On Your Computer discussion.)

But if you only have the mp3 you look it up.

Aand if you don’t even “have” it, just search for it on Spotify or Youtube.  

What used to be the very solid demarcation line of ownership - you either have it or wait for it to get played on the radio - has virtually disappeared.

And when my PC’s hard disk dies, do I “lose” these albums? (Please let me know. I’m too lazy to find out.) And is it then pathetic of me to burn the album onto a blank CD that I then lose in my basement? I would have treated the official CD better.

And will we end up looking back on all this with embarrassment, like we do when we see 8 track tapes (which I’m still replacing)?

Well I never said I wasn’t getting old...

Yours, Mine and Everyone Else's 2010

What's that, Jaybee? Still with the 2010? That’s so…last year!

Well, I’m sorry, but that’s how long it takes to get a grip on a year of music, as cramped and limited a grip as it is.

And I’m still catching up on the various year end Best of 2010 Music Polls.

Yes. I admit it. I’m a list nerd. And since I love music, you can imagine how much I love Top Whatever Albums of Whenever lists.

As silly as they may seem, these polls have the advantage of giving you some perspective on a record after the initial enthusiasm (and hype) surrounding it dies down.

And it’s that time of year for everybody’s “Top Albums of 2010” lists. Some people can’t even wait that long. For them it’s been that time since mid-November. I don't know where they get off doing this - it’s like saying screw December. Talk like that will get you on Santa’s naughty list.

So I say wait, not only until January 1 of the following year, but until everything from the year before has sunk in, which in my case could take decades. I do get around to a vague and non-committal statement by mid-January, though.


My Old Pazz and Jop:

At least some people understand this need to wait. Like the Village Voice with their Pazz and Jop Poll, which only came out, what? Last week? And that’s pretty good for them.

I always looked forward to Pazz and Jop. In the seventies, because it was great for seeing how familiar music measured up. It wasn’t that hard to keep up. Radio stations weren’t awful yet, and I liked to buy records.

Over time, though, it got harder and harder to keep up. I still liked music, but radio was getting steadily worse. By the early 80’s, I deemed commercial radio to be Officially Useless. I had no recourse but to wait months to hear about what a whole swath of music critics and fans were experiencing.

Eventually Pazz and Jop would be the first place I’d hear about something. I remember seeing a Pazz and Jop from the mid 90s and thinking who the hell is Liz Phair? She’d won that year, for “Exile in Guyville”, which is now one of my all time favorite albums.

This scenario would repeat itself over and over again. Occasionally I’d be disappointed, especially when a poll winner was in a music genre I didn’t yet - or never would - get. But the great discoveries would more than make up for this.


List of Lists, and Lists of Lists of Lists:
But Pazz and Jop isn’t as essential as it used to be.

For one thing, it’s a whole lot easier to find out about new music now than it was in the dark days of the 80s and the great but hard to follow 90s. Did someone just mention a band to you? Google them and you can find out about and maybe even hear their latest songs. Type in allmusic.com and you get a biography and discography. And if you want to know how an album is, and you don’t know if the critic you’re reading shares your taste, you can use a site like metacritic.com to see what dozens of critics and fans think of it. Totally reliable? Of course not. But on a week to week basis I know what’s coming out, and then, by the time the year end lists come out, the results are not a total surprise.

And for another, well, there are all of these other lists now.

So, without further ado, the following is a fairly arbitrary list of 2010 Album lists compiled by various individuals/magazines/cabals, which I’ve stumbled across over the last few weeks. It could be more comprehensive, but then that would have involved actual work.

NME: stands for New Musical Express, from England. Now the Brits, aside from giving us great bands like the Beatles and Stones, can be a bit odd, and they sometimes have some very lame music here. (It must be the language difference.) So take this list with a grain of salt.

One way of hedging your bets is to use NME’s Aggregated List, which pulls together critical reactions from all over, whatever that means.

And Stereogum is, well, Stereogum.  And a million more other ones, too.

Never heard of any of this? Stop worrying about that. Of course you haven’t heard of them. You’ve been raising a family and working for a living. But keep going. It’s too late to stop now.

And one of the items on my list of lists, is, well, a list of lists.  Jesus Freaking Christ, I thought I was bad. But, hey, knock yourself out.

And of course, the old no longer perfect, but still wonderful Pazz and Jop, which I will be going over with a fine tooth comb over the year.

You've already pored over the above lists? Well then, move onto someone's opinion of what the Underrated Albums are.  Honestly, where do these young folks find the time?

And when you’re done, you can move onto the Top Albums of All Time (including the Jurassic period)  which not only aggregates the lists of many, many people, but also allows you to add your own. I don’t know about you, but I've just found my major time suck for 2011!


Time to Get a Grip:

When you’ve finished looking over this stuff, you may think:

Fine, Jaybee, but
a). I never heard of any of this, so
b). I don’t care about it, or
c). It can’t possibly be as good as what I listened to when I was younger, so
d). it must suck.

To which I say:
a). Please see the note above about you having that life. Congratulations on that, but it doesn’t mean you’ve got your finger on the pulse of popular culture.
b). You should care, you old geezer you. Music added joy to your life once and it can again, not just as a means for feeling nostalgia, but as a source of inspiration. Stop acting so old. There’s plenty of time for that when you’re dead.
c). My experience is that the music I’m listening to now is at least as good as what I was listening to in the seventies. Are you going to just stand there and let me have more fun than you?
d). And if you end up not agreeing with me on c), I think you’ll still find that this newer music not only doesn’t suck, it’ll give your old Springsteen records a run for their money.

Now that I’ve utterly convinced you of the error of your ways, you’re probably thinking Jaybee, you’re right again! Where have I been? There’s a sh*tload of music out there I should be checking out. What have I been doing with my life?

To which I say, don’t feel bad. Just jump in. The water’s fine.

But where to start? Well, do you see titles appearing repeatedly? Like Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend Told you, didn't I? Who did you notice showing up a lot? Maybe you should check them out.

You’ll notice that the pop critics like…pop music. The Americana polls favor…Americana. Keep that in mind as you see something show up repeatedly in the Death Metal polls or Lame Country Music Roundups. So you may want to stick to genres you’re comfortable with. Not a problem. For me, though, what’s really striking is when a genre record is so good it breaks down this “taste wall” and makes an impression in a place where it normally wouldn’t. But know what you’re getting yourself into, and proceed with caution.

My list of Possibilities to Check Out, you ask? Ariel Pink, The National, Deerhunter, Sleigh Bells, Robyn, Beach House, and (gulp) Kanye West. Yes, that Kanye West.


A Final Confession:

After all my exhortations, I have to admit that this doesn’t always work for me.

These ears of mine have their limits, and as the age difference between me and the critics/fans gets greater, these lists just can’t be as reliable as I’d like them to be. They used to make me feel part of a larger community by showing me what I had in common with people I never met. Now sometimes they highlight our differences.

No matter. They got me this far.

And besides, after all this reading and comparing and thinking, my favorite albums end up being the ones that suggest themselves to me no matter how many (or few) times they’re mentioned on a list. They sit there hiding in this sea of information until they decide to make themselves known to me, at which point they plant themselves inside my brain until I just have to go out and get them.

But the lists provide the raw data that feeds this very subconscious subjective process. Without them I’d be limited to only what I happen to hear on my own, and I’d hate to be left to the mercies of radio.

And they’re there to show us that there’s a whole lot more out there for us to enjoy.

On to 2011!