the end of the year so far...

And another year is going by, and the best of the year lists arrive.
As habitual, I've prepared mine, both of them, Best singles of the year and Best albums of the year.
I have to announce new rules for the singles one, rules that I've auto imposed to myself. These are the following rules:
1- All the songs on the list must have been physical single during 2007. If it's not like this, download single or promotional song/video of the album is allowed.

2- Evident re-editions, in a year that they've been so common, are not taken into account. No covers too.

3- No more than one song per artist is included on the list.

4- Songs that appeared in last year's list are not included as well.

So the list is longer than ever, 100 songs that make the soundtrack of this year, most of them with its promotional video or live performance in the case there's no video. Here we go in countdown order:

100- BONDE DO ROLE - SOLTA O FRANGO


99- JOSE GONZALEZ – DOWN THE LINE


98- CRYSTAL CASTLES – AIR WAR


97- WILCO –WHAT LIGHT


96- SHIT DISCO – OK


95- LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION – GALAXY OF THE LOST


94- PJ HARVEY – THE PIANO


93- M. WARD – TO GO HOME


92- SHOCKING PINKS – VICTIMS

91- THOMAS TANTRUM – SHAKE IT SHAKE IT


90- LO-FI-FNK – THE CITY

89- NANCY ELIZABETH – I USED TO TRY

88- A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS – TO FIX THE GASH IN YOUR HEAD


87- SUBURBAN KIDS WITH BIBLICAL NAMES – MARRY ME

86- PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL – YOU ARE THE SPACE INVADER


85- CHROMEO – TENDERONI


84- NO AGE – EVERY ARTIST NEEDS A TRAGEDY

83- SCOUT NIBLETT – THE KISS


82- THE GO TEAM – DOING IT RIGHT


81- DINOSAUR JR – BEEN THERE ALL THE TIME


80- DEERHOOF - +81


79- DNTEL – THE DISTANCE


78- SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTOR – CATCH YOU


77- !!! – HEART OF HEARTS


76- SONS AND DAUGHTERS – GILT COMPLEX


75- SEVENTEEN EVERGREEN – HAVEN’T BEEN YOURSELF


74- PETER, BJORN AND JOHN – OBJECTS OF MY AFFECTION


73- RUFUS WAINWRIGHT – I’M GOING TO A TOWN


72- BISHI – NEVER SEEN YOUR FACE


71- ROISIN MURPHY – OVERPOWERED


70- BONNIE PRINCE BILLY – STRANGE FORM OF LIFE


69- MUM – THEY MADE FROGS SMOKE TILL THEY EXPLODED


68- HOT CHIP – MY PIANO

67- SHY CHILD – NOISE WON’T STOP


66- DANIEL JOHNSTON – DEATH OF SATAN

65- DIGITALISM – POGO


64- BANGERS AND CASH - B.O.O.T.A.Y.


63- CANDIE PAYNE – I WISH I COULD HAVE LOVED YOU MORE


62- THE NATIONAL – MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS


61- ELVIS PERKINS – WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING


60- LE VOLUME COURBE – FREIGHT TRAIN

59- JAMES YORKSTON – WOOZY WITH CIDER


58- DIZZY RASCAL – PUSSYHOLE


57- NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB – THE BOMB


56- LIZ GREEN – BAD MEDICINE


55- FANFARLO – FIRE ESCAPE


54- THE SHINS – AUSTRALIA


53- ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI – HEART IT RACES


52- IRON AND WINE – BOY WITH A COIN


51- JULIE DOIRON – NO MORE


50- BLACK LIPS – KATRINA


49- BENJY FERREE – IN THE COUNTRYSIDE


48- BLONDE REDHEAD – 23


47- I BLAME COCO- I BLAME COCO

46- BLOOD RED SHOES – IT’S GETTING BORING IN THE SEA


45- LONEY, DEAR – I AM JOHN


44- VON SUDENFED – FLEDERMAUS CAN’T GET IT


43- BEIRUT – ELEPHANT GUN


42- MATTHEW DEAR – DESERTER


41- EBONY BONES – WE KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU


40- ADELE – HOMETOWN GLORY


39- RIHANNA - UMBRELLA


38- MILK KHAN FEAT. DOLLY PARTON – HERE YOU COME AGAIN

37- OKKERVIL RIVER – OUR LIFE IS NOT A MOVIE OR MAYBE


36- YO MAJESTY – CLUB ACTION


35- BILL CALLAHAN – DIAMOND DANCER


34- STUDIO – WEST SIDE PART 1 & 2

33- CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH – SATAN SAID DANCE


32- FRYARS – THE IDES


31- NOAH AND THE WHALE – IN 5 YEARS TIME


30- AMY WINEHOUSE – BACK TO BLACK


29- TUNNG – BULLETS


28- BAT FOR LASHES – WHAT’S A GIRL TO DO


27- LITTLE DRAGON – TEST


26- JUSTICE – D.A.N.C.E


25- GRINDERMAN – NO PUSSY BLUES


24- GOSSIP – JEALOUS GIRLS


23- ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – PEACEBONE


22- FEIST – 1234


21- THE TEENAGERS – HOMECOMING


20- METRONOMY – RADIO LADIO

19- ALELA DIANE – PIECES OF STRING
.

18- THE TWILIGHT SAD – THAT SUMMER, AT HOME, I HAD BECOME THE INVISIBLE BOY


17- KATE NASH – FOUNDATIONS


16- LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – NORTH AMERICAN SCUM


15- LIARS – PLASTER CASTS OF EVERYTHING


14- SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO – IT’S THE BEAT


13 - KLAXONS – GOLDEN SKANS


12- BARR – THE SONG IS THE SINGLE


11- ARCADE FIRE – NO CARS GO


10- JENS LEKMAN – FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE DRIVE IN BINGO


09- DAN DEACON – THE CRYSTAL CAT


08- M.I.A.- JIMMY


07- FRIENDLY FIRES – ON BOARD


06- FOALS – HUMMER


05- BJORK – DECLARE INDEPENDENCE


04- BATTLES – ATLAS


03- PANDA BEAR – BROS


02-DAN LE SAC VERSUS SCROOBIUS PIP – THOU SHALT ALWAYS KILL


01- GRIZZLY BEAR – KNIFE

rear-view mirror: JOY DIVISION

It's the Joy Division year, no doubt. With Control on the cinemas, the deluxe re-edition of their albums, and many groups imitating their sound in the last years, everybody is talking about them again.
If you want some information about the band (is there anybody out there who still doesn't know their story?) you just have to watch the great Anton Cobijn biopic based on the book Mrs Curtis wrote some years ago. Here we are to celebrate that his music is more famous than ever before, and maybe more current and up-to-date are we seem we are leaving again a period of global depression.
Here we are some of their most relevant tunes:
ATMOSPHERE


TRANSMISSION


LOVE WILL TEAR US APART


SHE'S LOST CONTROL

album of the week: YO MAJESTY - YO EP / SPANK ROCK & BENNY BLANCO - BANGERS AND CASH EP

Yeah I know, two EPs don't make an album but these are the tunes for this week.
Yo Majesty is the feminine answer to electro hip hop masters Spank Rock or the new and wilder version of an up-to-date Salt 'n Pepa, and they even make a tribute to them in Kryptonite Pussy where they hum Push It . With only this EP in the market they've already signed to Domino Records for the next release. Their songs are fun and so are they, so they use to perform live topless, No Bra style. And they're going to be huge now that fat is cool (Beth Dito is their declared number one fan). Wait for Club Action to be a massive hit when somebody on TV discovers it and uses it in a commercial or as the tune for a TV series.
CLUB ACTION


Spank Rock's mc, also called Spank Rock, has teamed up with Benny Blanco to make this Bangers and Cash EP. Five songs, all of them including a sample of 2 Live Crew, with dirty lyrics and dirty tunes. But even more dirty are all the different covers and art work they are preparing to promote this release. here you have some of them:






It's difficult to decide which one is more disturbing...

We all know the Don't look back series of events that take place in some venues around the world and commemorate mythic albums of mythic bands bringing them live from the first song to the last in the same order they were published. We've been able to see Slint's Spiderland, Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, Low's Things we lost in the fire, and some more.
So they've proved that looking back is not always a retrograde and rancid activity done by some people who always think that, as Karina said, any past age is always better than the present, or "there's not good music nowadays". Sometimes is just a memory exercise to understand better the present or to remind memories and feelings we thought they were forgotten or impossible to revive again.
So this is what I'm going to do with a new section, named with the not-so-original title "REAR-VIEW MIRROR", with unknown periodicity, order or criteria (this is my blog so I do what I really really want).
And I'm going to focus more on bands than on records, bands that were important in one moment of my life and that they are still important nowadays, even if they don't exist anymore.
So here we are, with the first opportunity of reminding our pasts (thanks, Youtube) and the first lucky group is no other than Spacemen 3.
Spacemen 3 were a band formed in 1982 that split in 1990, basically run by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce who were meant to do something together as they were born the same day. We can define their sound as "hypnomonotony" or repetitive drones of two chord noise but it developed in many different ways until they published their last record that was recorded by the two of them separately, each one one side of the record, proving that the difference of styles they were into at that moment was obvious, which took them to split the band, and form Spektrum and Spiritualized respectively.
And now let's watch the music with some of their most famous songs:
REVOLUTION

WALKING WITH JESUS

HYPNOTISED

BIG CITY

K RECORDS TURN 25

And if the Sonic Youth revival was not enough to made me feel old, here we have K Records turning 25!!! Maybe not as talked about as Factory or Creation, but with a longer life and also a lot of influence in everybody who is interested in music. With a Do-it-yourself punk philosophy (originally the K is for punK), Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson, the founder and most important figure in the company, has presented us some of the most amazing bands during all these years, most of them in the 90s but still with many interesting things to offer. With the International Pop Underground series of events he presented unknown bands that later became so popular such as Nirvana, Bikini Kill or The Vaselines or influenced others like The Moldy Peaches.
And as they are not doing anything transcendental for the celebration, the people of Ashmatic Kitty thought they could do something about it and they recruited some of their bands to cover some of the label songs that influenced them during these 25 years. You can listen to them online here:
http://asthmatickitty.com/main.php
And visit the K Records website for further information:
http://www.krecs.com/
Let's remember some of the bands:
Beat happening is no doubt the most emblematic band of the label. With their naive punk pop and Calvin's low voice they took to the limit the simplicity of the three cord song
BEAT HAPPENING - HOT CHOCOLATE BOY


HEAVENLY - TROPHY GIRLFRIEND


BUILT TO SPILL - CAR


MIRAH - COLD COLD WATER


LITTLE WINGS


HALO BENDERS - DON'T TOUCH MY BIKINI


NATION OF ULYSSES - FIGHT SONG

Sonic Youth performs Daydream Nation

I probably was 17 when I first listened to Daydream Nation. I think it was my second Sonic Youth record after Evol. The influence Sonic Youth had in my late teenage years was definitive. It was the years I discovered bands like Dinosaur Jr, Yo la Tengo, Pavement, Beat Happening, Sebadoh and other American bands that marked my musical development and the general music development of the late 80s and first 90s. And now I had the opportunity to travel back in time and go to a concert to celebrate that I'm older and these times that I was in my parent's flat listening non-stop to these records will never come back. But the amazing thing of it all is that the sensation of Deja Vu was not as huge as I thought it would be. Maybe because the record got older so well, maybe because Sonic Youth did a pact with the Devil and they look younger than they are or maybe because most of the public in the concert was around my age. It was a nice experience.
Check the performance of Teenage Riot one of the three nights in London

albums of the last weeks

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
The first album from this New York band is a compendium of songs that can remind when JAMC matter, mixing the best of the Psychocandy era with the industrial sounds of Automatic and accelarating and doubling the volume. Maybe they don't have great songs but they have a great sound.
A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS - TO FIX THE GASH IN YOUR HEAD





APPARAT - WALLS
The last Apparat album is his most accurate collection of songs, talking about the classic concept of pop song, covered in an electronic environment. What a shame that he chose one of the weekest instrumental songs for the video
APPARAT - YOU DON'T KNOW ME





BEIRUT - THE FLYING CLUB CUP
The only problem of Beirut's second album is his first album, but not even that. When you have a so particular sound and voice you maybe can fall into repetition and what was a great idea for a first album can be the death of the second coming, but it looks like it didn't happened to Beirut. The second record is even better than the first one, and we can see that the sound is not exhausted and they are already trying to find new ways of expression without doing something completely different. And the songs are great, inspired and thay filter deaply inside your veins from the first listening. Watch this magnificent performance in one of the Take away shows for the French Website.
BEIRUT - NANTES





BLACK LIPS - GOOD BAD NOT EVIL
Garage is back. Remember The Cynics or even more far away on time, The 13th Floor Elevators? So here we have Black Lips resurrecting the label with succesful fortune and a fame for beeing banned from some venues because of their wild shows.

BLACK LIPS - KATRINA



DEVENDRA BANHART - SMOKEY ROLLS DOWN THUNDER CANYON
The new Devendra record is a consequence of his previous album, the Cripple Crow. Far from the acoustic bittersweet songs of his first three records he continues exploring electric passages and different styles. He discovered his own "The Band" and it didn't fit him so well. The album is too abstract, with the feeling you are listening to a compilation of jams and with hard to diggest moments too inspired but The Doors and other boring bands. But it also has some great songs like Bad Girl that makes you keep the faith not everything has been lost
DEVENDRA BANHART - SEAHORSE



LITTLE DRAGON
At the beggining of this year a great single appeared in a really small London label. This was Little Dragon's Test, and it has been spinning in my turntable since then. Now is time for the record and the waiting has been rewarded with a beautiful collection of soul pop electronic songs filtered with dub and jazz and one of the most personal voices since Tricky's muse Martina.
LITTLE DRAGON - TEST



OKKERVIL RIVER - THE STAGE NAMES
A lot of good things have already been said about this record, most of them in Pitchfork. This record is the logical progression in the ascending career of this band that everytime is less complexes about playing louder. Here you have the unstoppable hit that everybody is going to know by the end of the year.
OKKERVIL RIVER - OUR LIVE IS NOT A MOVIE OR MAYBE