Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #18 Coma Cinema - Blue Suicide

#18 Coma Cinema - Blue Suicide

Genre: Singer/Songwriter, Lo-Fi, Sadcore

Characteristics: Quiet, Woeful

Guys, here's Coma Cinema. The name and album title are ridiculously appropriate for the state of mind this record will put you in. The dog is a nice touch too. Not that the record will make you want to kill yourself, but you'll better understand why some people consider it. Musically, it's your average, quiet, self-produced singer/songwriter album. It's fairly simple in it's composition and delivery. If you put it on the overhead speakers at your local coffee house, all the little hipsters would subconsciously tap their feet, continue drinking coffee and smoking their Parliaments without giving it any more thought. ...But the lyrics, Damn! What a broken soul! The worst part is, the feelings portrayed feel genuine. He's obviously lost some great love, but he's losing his soul over it too. Take the song Hell, a cute little one minute song on the surface but within are lyrics like

"You are a mirror image of a god you'll never know, who created hell to show you how to be alone."

Or from Greater Vultures, (My favorite track)

"Rape my broken will, Are you hungry enough to kill...Are you willing to eat what the vultures will not."

It's enough to put a lump in your throat to hear a man on that level of heartbreak and derangement . To anyone willing to listen to this and take it all in: it's rough. It's still enjoyable on the surface if you're into what I call "Sad Bastard" music. You know, Ryan Adams, Elliot Smith, Smog, that sort of stuff (I hear a lot of Simon & Garfunkel in there too). But Coma Cinema takes the genre to a whole new level of low. Great Stuff!!! Rightfully deserves to make this list. Another free masterpiece! Available for free on his website. http://comacinema.org/sounds.html

Favorite Tracks: Greater Vultures, Hell,Wondering, Gentlewoman

Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #19 Cults - Cults

#19 Cults - Cults

Genre: Indie Pop

Characteristics: Sunny & Sugary

I don't have much to say about this one, it's just very enjoyable. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to listen to something short and sweet and easy to digest. It's enjoyable from front to back. Cults make perfect use of the early 60's girl group sound and then put an Indie Rock twist on it. I'm not getting much from the lyrics, but the sounds are enough to put a smile on my face and make my day a little brighter whenever I put the record on. You Know What I Mean has to be one of my favorite tracks of the year. Go listen to it.

Favorite Tracks: You Know What I Mean, Never Heal My Self, Bumper

Available on Spotify

Honorable Mention #1 - The Horrors - Skying

Honorable Mention #1 - The Horrors - Skying

This is a great album that came out 13 years too late for me. It would have blown my mind had it come out when I was a freshman in High School and was refusing to listen to any music that didn't come out of the UK. I would have had pictures of The Horrors on my algebra II and biology book covers. I would have been chasing down T-Shirts and posters on eBay. etc. Let me put it this way 2011 Gabe thinks this album is pretty good, but can respect anyone who does not feel the same. 1998 Gabe would have told fans of The Verve to go fuck themselves and demanded they listen to a real band, The Horrors.

Fav Tracks: Endless Blue, I Can See Through You

Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #20 Danny Brown - XXX (Thirty)

#20 Danny Brown - XXX (Thirty)

Genre: Hip-Hop

Characteristics: Irresponsible, Misogynistic, Sarcastic

*First off, the production on this record is sick, It would still make this list if it was just an instrumental hip-hop record.*

Wow, this album took me by surprise! I'm surprised I even gave it a try let alone was able to get all the way through it. I'm so glad I did. It was so highly recommended among the music reviewing community and they all would say the same thing. You gotta listen to it front to back for it to reveal its positive attributes. So I stuck with it. They were so right. It split perfectly in half, where the first half is all about typical rap stereotype content. Fucking, partying, drugs, violence, same garbage that usually keeps me avoiding the genre. But the joke is on the listener when you realize that Danny is being sarcastic and the album is actually about the pitfalls and consequences of this life style. He talks about his family and friends completely destroying themselves and how broken he is from this. He even changes his voice to play these two very different characters. At first Danny sounds like a complete douchebag tool rapping with a krunk, nasaly annoying inflection. As the album progresses he seems to keep getting wiser and his voice deepens and he has smarter things to say. It all gets tied together in the last song "30" where his two alter ego are basically battling it out, like his wiser 30 year old self is trying to suppress his XXX-minded younger self. It's a very climactic ending. Excellent Album. If you haven't heard this yet, stick with it. Don't be put off by his voice, you get used to it and it gets better. Relax through the first half and have a sense of humor at the absolutely hilarious one-liners like, "OH BABY I LIKE IT RAW AN' MY DICK SO BIG LEFT STRETCH MARKS ON HER JAW." Danny even gives us a very detailed, and hopefully useful to some, cunnilingus lesson on the track I Will.

It will all sum up to be a very rewarding listen, then you can go back and enjoy the stupid tracks with confidence knowing they are just part of a bigger picture. OH...BTW it's totally free!!! Get it here. http://www.foolsgoldrecs.com/xxx/

Favorite Tracks: Die Like a Rockstar, Monopoly, Blunt After Blunt, 30

The Thrills - So Much for the City (2003)

The Thrills - So Much for the City (2003)





Well, it’s been about 11 months since I’ve written a blog, shame on me. Anywho let me fire up iTunes and see what it has in store for us today…
The Thrills! Hooray. What can I say about the thrills? First off, I love this record. It’s an Americana, Alt-Country style of music even the band is from Dublin, Ireland. There are several great tracks on here to love, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Old Friends, New Lovers being some of my favorites. As far as memories go it takes me back to a very bittersweet time of my life, and I mean that in the most extreme sense of the word. I was first introduced to this band by my cousin Stephanie. Now, I have a confession to make. I hate admitting that anyone ever introduces me to a band. I live in a little fantasy world that I am an omniscient force of musical knowledge, and that I know all about the best music before it s even conceived by the musician who will produce it. I’ve probably told about 100 people about The Thrills claiming I discovered them, but it was you Steph, I love you, forgive me.
This band came along at the right time in my life, right when I was getting into a bunch of acoustic rock bands like The Shins, Bright Eyes, and Wilco to name a few. Plus I was a sucker for “The” bands; if your band was named “The (place plural noun here)” then I was sure to at least give you a chance. The early 2000’s was cranking ‘em out like a mofo, The Strokes, The Shins, The White Stripes, The Vines, The Hives. Then here come The Thrills, a powerhouse of Alt-Country Rock that fit into my record rotation like a glove. They offer some of the sweetest melodies and vocal harmonies I’ve ever heard. They take a real retro approach to the music production and even the cover art of “So Much for the City.” It looks like a record that could be hidden in a stack of worn out records at a goodwill that you’d pass up unless you already knew what a jewel it was. They sound like the Beach Boys meet Wilco with a sprinkle of Hank Williams thrown in there for good measure. Great Stuff!
Anyway, this album came around when my cousins Jeremy and Laura had moved from Albuquerque back to *home town* because their father was very, very ill and they needed to be closer to family. He was a very good uncle to me and all my family and a terrific father and husband to my aunt. I won’t go into detail but this was a painful experience for the whole family. Rest in Peace Uncle. But with the bad comes the good. I had my cousins back in my life that I’ve always been very close to and this experience brought us even closer. See, if my memory serves me correct, my cousin Steph was never really fond of me and probably thought I was a big dork (true by the way), or at least that was the way I felt perceived by her.*Steph, feel free to disagree in the comments* But she was always very close to Laura, and Laura was close to me and there came the bridge. For the first time it was me, Laura and Steph vs. The World…all the time. Now I had Steph in my life which closes the circle on why I love The Thrills. We were ripe at our coming-of-age time and now had each other. Now our new little clique, we would party every night, listen to great jams, drink coffee, drink beer, go to shows and concerts, get wasted and repeat. Every day was a new adventure and made of really great memories and I strong highlight period in my life. I have great memories of listing to The Thrills and taxi…ing these girls all over town looking for our next shenanigan and plotting how we were going to get beer for the night. Good Times.
Laura and I even had the good fortune of seeing The Thrills at Coachella 2004, which was also a life changing experience. But I can go on and on about Coachella so I’ll just stop here.
Conclusion: The Thrills = Thrills
Go Listen Here
www.mediafire.com/?z2yytmgzwho

Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine (2004)

This is a great album from a very short lived band. Death From Above 1979. Just look at the cover! You know it's gonna be far out. (Reminded of Pink Elephants on Parade from Dumbo) This album blew my mind when I first heard it in 2005. I believe I heard the band from listening to Bloc Party's shitty remix album. DFA'79 did a remix of Luno which was one of the better ones. So I checked them out. It was and continues to be a very inspiration milestone in my library. I was going through a phase of Dance-Punk lust. I could not get enough of it. LCD Soundsystem, Le Tigre, Liars, Moving Units, The Rapture, Beep Beep, were a short few of the bands in circulation at the time. This came out at just the right time in my life to fully appreciate it. Now that I think about it, it was solely this album that got me into making electronic music. If you've heard it, you might say that the electronics are minimal, and right you are. But on Romantic Rights there is a little synthesizer solo in the second verse that I fell in love with! I needed to be able to do that. As far back as 1998 I was dabbling with electronic music on a program called Fruity Loops. I had a demo version and spent a lot of time trying to emulate NIN and failing miserably. I didn't fully understand the concept of step sequencing and then gave it up. Fortunately my little bro took to it like a duck in water. His music is extremely impressive by the way and he continues to bloom exponentially. So he kept up with it but would only use the stock capabilities of the program. Well fast-forward to 2005 when I heard DFA'79 I decided to try my hand at Dance-Punk. I couldn't afford to buy a vintage 1970's synthesizer so I started researching techniques to perhaps do it on a computer.I found VSTs! VSTs are what are knows as virtual instruments. They are complete synthesizers in the form of a computer program. I was able to snag a demo of GForce's Oddity. So I began playing with it and discovered that VSTs could be integrated into a step sequencing programing such as FL Studio in the form of a plug in. Upon more research I discovered that virtual instruments could be controlled with MIDI keyboards and actually played like a real synthesizer. Well it just took off from there and I'm still making music with VSTs and MIDI keyboards. Daniel's music has greatly improved with VSTs as well. We always get excited over the next new virtual instrument. There are 1000's of them just calling me at all times. It kinda possesses me.

Anywho, back to the album. So You're a Woman, I'm a Machine is very "In Your Face" kinda album. No bullshit mellow love ballads or 15+ minute experimental tracks, just rough, raw dance-punk. It's just drums, and distorted bass guitar. That's it! I couldn't believe a band could be so minimal and kick so much ass. They set the songs up quickly, tear it up, scream it out and get out. I imagine it would be a great album to get down to although I've yet to try it, I'm sure many people have. It's a very sexual album. Allow the lyrics to demonstrate.

Come here baby I love your company
We could do it and start a family
She was living alone unhappily
We could do it, it's right romantically
----------------------------------------------------------------
I love my girl
I want to get her off
Turn the lights up
So I can see
Turn the lights up
1-2-3
Push in
1-2-3
Pull out
Let your spirit free girl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Sexy girl meet me in the bathroom
Sexy girl call me on the phone
Woman friend take me to your bedroom
Let me show how I'm full grown

Sexy woman call me to your office
Sexy woman meet me after work
I wanna show you how I handle business
I wanna show you how the mail-boy flirts

My man wants to buy you something
He wants to take you out for dinner and dancing
My friend wants to take you out then home
Then home alone
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a matter of fact one group named CSS made a song called "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above". Which is a really kick-ass track and would also be great to get down to.

Too bad DFA'79 broke up so quickly, they were high on my list of band I wanted to see live. I check their website from time to time in hopes of a reunion but no dice yet. Although a spin-off group emerged from the ashes and has become one of my favorites called MSTRKRFT, but thats a whole other blog.

I just realized I never figured out that little synth solo. I'm gonna go try it right now, now that I have my sea legs.

Her Space Holiday - The Young Machines (2003)

I heard this band from Chrissie Pie when we started our band "In Science and Love", circa 2007 and I must say that this album has made a real lasting influence on my personal music. I had written the music for "This Little Time" in Ableton Live but had failed to write a vocal melody that I was satisfied with. Chrissie and I were just starting to write together and this was the 4th song that we did. I passed the music on to her and she came up with a repeating chorus that I fell in love with. It's still my favorite song that we do. She told me that she had sort of lifted the melody from "Something To Do With My Hands" from this album. I really don't think they sound anything alike but I appreciate the influence it had on her. So I had to check it out. Now that I think about it, my music these days owes a great debt to Her Space Holiday: the simple electronic loops, the deeply personal lyrics, and passive-aggressive delivery. I didn't know that they were already doing what I had been trying to do before I ever heard them. It kinda pissed me off. But just because two things are extremely similar does mean that can't both be great in their own right. i.e. The Terminator and The Matrix, Daft Punk and Justice, Amber Bock and Shiner Bock, Windows and OSX. (Wow! those examples really demonstrate what is usually on my mind: Movies, Music, Beer and Computers)
...anyway, I still have not given up on my musical approach just because I've heard this album. Maybe I'm giving my music too much credit by even making the comparison. HSH's lyrics are way more beautiful than anything I could ever hope to write. I think I can hang in the composition aspect though. Maybe not.

To Her Space Holiday:
Please don't sue me. I really respect you.

Love Gabe