Staff Picks 2012

J4CK 0F H34RT5's:

1. Japandroids – Celebration Rock
   I liked everything I had heard from these guys before, but they really grabbed me with this one.  Normally, I’m not too enthralled when a band based in a good hardcore sound smoothes things out.  But--rest assured--in evolving as artists, Japandroids have sacrificed none of their great energy.  Also, they are phenomenal live.  Go see them.





2. Grizzly Bear – Shields
   At first, I really wasn’t too impressed with this one.  I like Grizzly Bear.  I liked the singles I had heard before its release.  But the first complete listen only resulted in a rating of “pretty good,” from me.  But the more I listened to the album in its entirety, the more it grew on me.  This is one of those albums that I could just sit back and listen to, doing nothing but bathing in its rich, mysterious complexity.




3. Dum Dum Girls – End of Daze
   If only this one were more than just an EP.  Dreary and beautiful, its only problem is that it ends too soon, leaving me wanting more.  And “Lord Knows” is one of my favorite tracks of the entire year, being the sad sap that I am.






4. Django Django – Django Django
   The best premiere album of the year, in my opinion.  These Scotsmen provide a unique sound and lots of versatility.  From beginning to end, whether listening to the funky, thumping rock on “Default,” or the worldly instrumental sounds on “Skies Over Cairo,” you definitely won’t get bored with this one.





5. Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory
   The first album I really dove into this year.  I really like the track-to-track progression.  Sometimes up-tempo and poppy, while at other times more chaotic, this album always maintains a negative atmosphere, but still manages to be a lot of fun.  What can I say?  Cynicism loves company, too.

Honorable Mentions:

Battleme, Tennis, Purity Ring, Ben Gibbard, 

Coheed & Cambria, Grimes, and Tame Impala 

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 RabbitRabbit's:

    I've known for a long while now that Japandroid's Celebration Rock would be my top pick of 2012.  I ignored the boys' first album, loathing most of it the first time I listened to it way back in 2009--in fact, the promo disc was relegated to the no-play bin.  It was noisy and punk-y just a little bit too much in all the wrong ways; I wanted to slap them and tell them to grow up.  But as I've mentioned before, Celebration Rock was...different.  It took the best parts of Post-Nothing and slapped it into shape much the way I'd wanted to, polishing the roughness off without losing any of the sharp edges or snark.  Music as a whole in 2012 trended towards electronica and siren-voiced women fronting glitch-y, synth-y, almost upbeat Darkwave projects--a reaction against 2011's Americana/folk-y/blues-revival/singer-songwriters who were a reaction against 2010's Lady Gagas and 2009's Animal Collectives and Fuck Buttons and Dirty Projectors.  Japandroids reemerged into this whirlpool of futuristic, danceable music with something completely different.  It shouldn't have worked.  It was a little bit angsty, a little bit celebratory, and a whole lot feedback and ego and straight-up urgency and the sound of young people on the edge of 25 staring into the face of an empty adult world they're afraid of and can't escape.  And watching singer Brian King sound-check to Seger's "Night Moves" (after vehemently telling the bar DJ to leave the jukebox on) only made their Minneapolis show all the more ridiculous and flat-out awesome.  A floor full of former hardcore kids with tattoo sleeves under their rolled-up button-downs sang back-up to King's thrash-worthy sound saturation guitar-check--and King nailed it.
    That said, I loved Grimes' Visions with a vengeance.  Hands down, out of everything released this past year, hers was the strangest.  Grimes is the sound of jail-bait robot pornography and a murderous Rachael Rosen on heroin dancing to the 1980's with a drum-machine.  It's ethereal and dark, and trips my creeper-alert, but remains enthralling and utterly danceable.   It's almost grotesque--like a Trent Reznor production--but beautiful and ethereal at the same time. (And inevitably is followed by Sisters of Mercy on my stereo).
    That also said, I loved Grizzly Bear's Shields, the Features' Wilderness, most of Jack White's Blunderbuss (though he really needs to stop trying so hard--he's this side of a parody of himself), Django Django's self-titled, and Beach House's Bloom.

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The Barbarian's:

1. Jack White – Blunderbuss 

    Over the years, I’ve learned not to make assumptions about what Jack White will do next. He inevitably makes a left turn and takes his fans down a path we didn’t expect, but are nonetheless, enthralled by. Blunderbuss was no exception. It’s a fantastic record that is equal parts Detroit and Nashville. This record is just further solidifies Jack’s position at the top of the rock ‘n roll heap in the new millennium.

2. Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

3. Ty Segall & White Fence - Hair

4. Tame Impala – Lonerism

5. King Tuff – King Tuff 

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Mark's:

 Grizzly Bear - Shields
    I'm not sure what they're singing about. I don't much care what they're singing about. Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen love to sing their scrawny little cleancut hearts out, and their band works up the sort of intricate arrangements, off-kilter time signatures, psychedelic studio mummenschantzery and sheer polysymphonic volume to let them do just that. The music on Shields is by turns anthemic and intimate, intricate and visceral, serene and chaotic. But it is always as affecting as the voices fading into and soaring out from its mix.

Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn't

     Lekman, proper Scandinavian that he is, can make sentimentality feel authentic and heartache sound like a good time better than most lyricists who were born into one or another strain of regional English. It also helps that he has a canny knack for stealing beats and riffs from a diverse set of pop music genres and that his second-language speaker's fascination with an adopted vocabulary keeps the lyrics of his silly love songs inventive, entertaining and accessible. Upbeat, affirmative melancholy with a sense of humor--and there's push-ups!

Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits
    Who could have called it that name checking Russian futurist poets and black 'n' white Roman Polanski films would be featured in the lyrics to the year's best collection of driving songs. More than just a Spoon album with synthwork, A Thing Called Divine Fits is testament to what a really fucking good drummer can do to anchor a band's sound while clearing space for geetars and keyboards and the wannabe panties targets flashin' they crotches at the front of the stage.

Damien Jurado - Maraqopa
    It evidently takes a lot of mixing board fuckery to make Jurado sound like he's not bangin' sizzurp @ the mike; still and all Maraqopa is one of those LPs that results when an artist and a producer (Richard Swift) mesh so thoroughly they become some third whatsit that can fill a disc with a set of real purty songs fit to sing along to. Maraqopa sounds at times suspiciously like My Morning Jacket covering Nick Drake's Bryter Later: cavernous wall-of-sound approaches to a set of occasionally jazzy singer-songwriter croonings about love and loss and being a dick.



The Green Pajamas - Death by Misadventure
    After 30 years and 30 albums worth of doing whatever brand of neopsychgothlunaticfringepowerpop they damn well please (even if that means recording concept albums like this one that would make better librettos or books than records), Seattle's Green Pajamas deserve some reco'nition and love, if only for having the balls to warble lines like “She strips off her girdle, slips off her swastika ring/While 17 boys dressed up as dolls and toys blow the king". Saperlipopette!!

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Clint's:

1. The Walkmen - Heaven

2. Lord Huron - Lonesome Dreams

    Lonesome Dreams was the warm soundtrack to moving westward to Salt Lake City, capturing the adventure and excitement of new beginnings in every soundscape.

3. Beach House - Bloom

4. Deerhoof -  Breakup Song 

5. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Cobra Juicy

Von's Top 20 for 2011

Von's Records' Top 20 for 2011 (Better late than never)

It's time again for the annual parade of our favorite albums of the year.
Not necessarily the best, mind you.  But things we liked.

20. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

WD: This was a good album. Noel was the talent in Oasis and this album just solidifies that position. Beady Eye was garbage, this is near classic. "If I Had a Gun" might be my favorite song this year. I expected a great album from Noel and he delivered. Spot on, sir. Spot on.

TF: Oasis - Angst = This? I'm digging this for the time being, but I'm not sure that it's one that will stay with me through the years.

19. The War on Drugs Slave Ambient
RR: I was more than a little nervous when I heard that Kurt Vile had left these guys, but this is just as good as "Wagonwheel Blues," if only a little bit less lonely. Slave Ambient is atmospheric and expansive, building up layers of sound into an almost Marfa-TX-like-sky--broad and infinite, filled with space and dust, and bleeding into the horizon.

WD: This is a pretty good listen. There is a mood that permeates throughout that I found to be quite pleasing.

18. PJ Harvey Let England Shake
RR: PJ never ever ceases to amaze me. Only Polly Jean could take a song-cycle this intense, sung purposefully out of her usual range to draw your attention to the horrors and giganticness of war, and not have it fall completely flat. You can feel her being consumed by this, screaming into an abyss that can only be conquered by something as equally as awful as it is itself.

WD: I could have loved this album if not for some of the seemingly misplaced noise. There is a bugle call throughout the third or fourth track that just drives me insane. It seems dumb, but that just ruined this album for me.

17. Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde

TF: Saw these guys at random during Bonnaroo, and they just got stuck in my head. Groovy, T. Rex style tunes.

RR: Vintage pop. Not as lo-fi as their first album, but pretty damn fabulous all the same.

WD: I agree with TF. There is a pretty heavy T Rex thing happening here, and I love it.

16. Wanda Jackson The Party Ain't Over

TF: Elvis's former au pair collaborated with Jack White on the comeback album to end all comeback albums. Rowdy, loud and rockabilly as hell. I hope I'm able to rock this much when I'm old.

RR: I love Wanda. She's still got electricity pouring off of her, and a certain sexiness you wouldn't normally think of with someone in her mid-70's. And I adore how mischievous-little-boy-grinning Jack White gets when he's around her.

WD: I just loved this one. It's hooky. It's fun. It's a party on a 12" slab of vinyl. Wanda and Jack really delivered the goods on this album. Lots of horns, great vocals, and just enough of Jack's guitar to make me grin.

15. Kurt Vile Smoke Ring for my Halo

RR: Kurt always sounds so alone, which has always struck me as a little bit strange because there's always this tiny flame of not-quite anger that isn't exactly passivity either burning in his music. I like it.

14. Wilco The Whole Love

RR: Jeff Tweedy has lost his edge with age, but Wilco still makes good music with lyrics that don't often follow a logical course of action--and I think Nels Cline gives them some of that lost edge back (Hello, track number 1: "Art of Almost"). There will never be another Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, sure, but what can one do?

WD: Wilco has a way of making albums that kind of alienate me on the first couple of listens, but later on I sort-of "get it". This one I "got" right away. It was very accessible. True, it's no Yankee Hotel Foxtrot but it's great. Wilco has settled into making consistently good records, and, while they may not be Earth shattering, that's more than can be said for some of the bands out there right now.

13. Cults Self-Titled
RR: This wears its 60's-Girl-Groups reverence on its sleeves, and I adore it.

12. Bright Eyes The People's Key
RR: Oh, Conor Oberst, you're all grown up now. This album is one of the best he's ever made, I think. The little-boy-lost is now a man adrift, no longer list innocence consumed with love that doesn't exist, but instead a world that seems just this side of burning down, everyone alone. It's almost as if he's finally seeing past himself, and it's all the more poignant because of it.

11. tUnE-yArDs W H O K I L L

TF: This is noisy, strange, and awesome. This bizarre cacophony is laced together with infectious hooks and thick beats. Weird and addictive. Like eating imported exotic animal organs.

RR: This is in my top 3 for the year. Merrill Garbus is insane, and I kinda want to make her breakfast. Loops upon tape-loops, and not all of it makes sense. Plus she looks like she just rolled out from under a Goodwill donation bin. I love it!

WD: I only listened to this album one time. From what I remember, it was pretty good.

10. Adele 21

RR: Music to weep to, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. She is astonishingly talented! And she's gorgeous.

TF: A song from this album is currently playing on at least three radio stations in every single listening area on earth. Usually, this is a bad thing, but every time I come across Adele, I've gotta listen. It's rare that someone with actual talent becomes a pop success, and I'm glad that Adele is getting the attention she deserves.

WD: It's so rare these days to hear a truly talented artist on pop radio. I'm really happy to see Adele on top of the charts. It fills me with hope that real music can still be popular. This was just a fantastic album. She deserves all the accolades she gets. Also, she is super-hot.

09. The Decemberists The King is Dead

WD: This was my pick for record of the year. The Decemberists made an amazing album. They left the epicness and grandiose ideas from Hazards Of Love behind to make a beautiful folk-rock masterpiece. This album was just perfect. I couldn't stop listening to it.
RR: This is a really good album, and a folk-rock masterpiece to be sure. But I miss the days of "July, July!" I just can't help it, damnit. They've left England and whaling ships and gone Oregonian (at last, I suppose. They ARE from Portland, after all) -all flannel and lumberjack beards and ugly shoes.
TF: There was nothing wrong with this album, but nothing that stuck with me either. I prefer The Crane Wife.

08. The Strokes Angles

TF: The Strokes went the way of The Yeah Yeah Yeah's with this album and pulled a more poppy, electronic record. (HIPSTER GLASSES, ENGAGE) Not as good as some of their older stuff, but catchy as hell.

RR: I still can't believe Julian recorded the vocal track for this album on the opposite side of the country from the rest of the band. As I've said before, this is no "Room on Fire," but I really like its pop-leanings.

WD: The Strokes have made better albums, but this was a strong comeback for them.

07. Radiohead The King of Limbs

RR: Creepy and full of doom n' gloom. It's fabulous, and haunts my dreams. But every time I play it, I'm astonished at how short this album really is.

WD: I love that Radiohead seems to be unable to disappoint. This album was as good as anything they have ever done (except maybe "Ok Computer"). I love that they aren't afraid to make albums the way that they want to. It's best to have no expectations when going into listening to a new Radiohead album. You'll be more free to follow them into the abyss.

06. Bon Iver Bon Iver

RR: This isn't as bad as I remembered it being. I loved For Emma, Forever Ago, and I hated Blood Bank, so I remember approaching this with trepidation, and then indifference. But this is actually really good--the utter sadsack-ness of FEFA is gone, but Justin Vernon isn't out of his doldrums quite yet.

05. Destroyer Kaputt

RR: I wasn't actually all that impressed with this, though several people have said they love it. I can see what he was trying to do with it, but I find myself indifferent and tuning-out. I've always hated Steely Dan.  That said, ten other people voted this on to this list, and it made it into the top 5 on several Best-Of lists, so what do I know?

04. Florence + the Machine Ceremonials

RR: Florence, I love you and everything about you. This is darker than Lungs, and all the more beautiful for it. She goes down the same paths Kate Bush treads, with no real salvation in sight.
TF: This hasn't made the same waves that Lungs did, not yet at least, but this album has a lot of potential. Dreamy and dramatic.

WD: I liked this enough to include it. I liked it better than "Lungs". It has a very grand sound. I like the bigness of this one.

03. Washed Out Within and Without

RR: My album of the year, hands down. But I'm a little biased--I have this thing for fuzz. Their live show is just a little bit boring, but I can live with that if they keep making music like this.

WD: This was pretty forgetable. I liked it when it first came out, but it just didn't stick with me for very long. It's one of those "if the mood strikes" albums, and the mood doesn't strike me very often.

02. The Black Keys El Camino

TF: Loved it. As good as, if not better than Brothers. I'm glad that "unofficial third member" Danger Mouse is back in the fold for this one, and El Camino far surpasses DM's contributions on Attack and Release. "Little Black Submarines" will lull you into a false sense of safety then kick you in the teeth. The Black Keys have worked hard to get to this level of recognition, and it couldn't have happened to a better pair of boys from Ohio.

RR: This is really, really good, but it's no number one. It's almost too calculated, if that makes any sense.  That said, I still like this a hell of a lot.

WD: The Black Keys are on one hell of a roll. They just keep getting better, and this album is the proof. It's a rocker with nary a dull moment. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've heard a more consistent album since Elephant by The White Stripes. It's just great .

01. Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues

TF: I'm gonna be 100% honest right now: I didn't even listen to this album. Or, if I did, I didn't realize it and it left no impact on me. Fleet Foxes, I'm sorry, but you just haven't impressed me. Stop being so damn forgettable.

RR: This album is gorgeous, like everything they've ever done. I think the only problem is, they've found the formula that works for them and they haven't deviated. I'm curious as to what else they'll do.

WD: RR is right. This was a beautiful journey. The Fleet Foxes have actually improved on the Portland folk of their debut. I fell for this after the first listen. They don't deviate from what makes them a great band. This was a well crafted album. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close.

Von's Top 20 (Or: Things we kinda dug)

The Annual Von's Records Top 20 Countdown:

20. The Walkmen: "Lisbon"

RabbitRabbit: We all know how I felt about this one--my marriage proposal is still out there.

19. Vampire Weekend: "Contra"
Tyler Figg: Good album, but I was really hoping for more. "White Sky" is my favorite track, even though Ezra Koenig's falsetto may border on irritating.
RR: I liked this one quite a bit, but I never sought it out. I still find myself reaching for their self-titled debut.

18. Sufjan Stevens: "The Age of Adz"

TF: Stevens is the closest thing we have to an indie-pop composer. Ornate and complex.

RR: Me and Sufjan, we're still getting to know each other. It's a tentative process, but I think we'll be friends.

17. Titus Andronicus: "The Monitor"
TF: Love this band, loved this album. I don't know why no one has written an alt-punk album about the Civil War until now. Get on your shit, blink 182!
RR: I....still haven't listened to this yet.
TF: You know you work in a record store, right? With music and stuff?
RR: David really liked it. Does that count?

16. Caribou: "Swim"

RR: Is it wrong that I didn't care for this album? I prefer the Chemical Brothers and El Guincho.

15. El Guincho: "Pop Negro"

RR: Speaking of...I'll just come right out and say it: I love this album. It's lovely and breezy tropical electro-pop you could shake it to with champagne in one hand and a palm fan in the other.

TF: ...and a shirtless Puerto Rican pool boy in your lap.

14. Ratatat: "LP4"

TF: Oh Ratatat, how I love thee. One of the few bands that can make this lanky white boy want to dance.

RR: Layered repetition at its finest. (If you like this, give Holy Fuck a spin.)

13. Kanye West: "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"

TF: THIS JUST IN: KANYE WEST IS NOT A BIG DEAL. WHEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES PERSONALLY CALLS YOU A JACKASS, MAYBE IT'S TIME TO GET OVER YOURSELF.

RR: I would like to add that while this is a good album, and technically very interesting, I just really can't see why everyone is so completely gaga over this. He may be a pop genius, but he still couldn't carry a tune in a bucket if his life depended on it.

12. Hot Chip: "One Life Stand"

RR: Deliciously dark (or sometimes, at the very least, sad) electro-pop . I kinda want to break out the knee boots and green lipstick again.

TF: Simultaneously sad and peppy. It's hard to say whether this is a home alone album or night out album. Either way, worth a listen.

11. Janelle Monae: "The Archandroid"

RR: Aw hell yes. Janelle is just so wide-eyed and fragile looking in her (incredibly attractive) suit jacket...and then she opens her lips and you know exactly why your first assumption just shattered into a thousand pieces. She just kicked your ass.

TF: Aggressive and surprising: bad for a bus ride, great for an album.

10. The Dead Weather: "Sea of Cowards"

TF: The Dead Weather is sexy, no matter how you look at it.

RR: Dirty, yes. Sexy, a bit. Overdone? Yes.

TF: ...which is why I didn't vote them higher. Great album, very rocking, but I hold Jack White projects to a very high standard, and compared to other albums, this didn't hold up quite as well. Still better than most things this year.

RR: I tolerated "Horehound," but I just can't get behind this one. I like Jack White, and I like the Kills...but this is so overwrought and stylistically forced that it--quite frankly--bores me.

9. Gorillaz: "Plastic Beach"

TF: Perhaps this is more my fault than the band's, but I expect better work from the Gorillaz. It's hip and fun at points, but it isn't consistent.

RR: Yawn. The second half picks up, though.

8. Deerhunter: "Halcyon Digest"

RR: I've never really liked their releases. But this is good--some of it is tedious--but overall I really like it.

TF: I just wish the text on the album's cover was more legible. It took me three code-breakers and four days to figure out the title of the damn thing. Other than that, it's pretty fun.

7. Beach House: "Teen Dream"

TF: Mournful and beautiful. Listen to this album alone in your room with a tear in your eye and an empty pack of cigarettes.

RR: This album sent me on a Galaxie 500/Feelies/Luna bender.

6. The Chemical Brothers: "Further"

RR: This is the first Chemical Brothers album I've just HAD to have since 1999's "Surrender". Feel it, love it, buy it. (P.S. Lauren: Neeeeigh!)

TF: And I dance, dance, dance, and I dance, dance, dance.

5. The National: "High Violet"
TF: This album was boring. This is the perfect music for a night spent tying and untying the same knot in a piece of string, over and over again.

RR: If The Great Gatsby somehow came to life, wrote an album and then drank himself to death, it may have sounded something like this.
. Is this TF's audition for 1 Girl and 5 Gays? Dance 'n' Dish! Dance 'n' Dish! Dance 'n' Dish!

4. LCD Soundsystem: "This is Happening"

RR: James Murphy is so intense sometimes I can feel my capillaries bursting under the strain. He's manic and brilliant--and startlingly sad and in-depth--and I do so adore him.

TF: Spacey and electronic, dancey and infectious.

3. Broken Bells: "Broken Bells"

TF: Danger Mouse doesn't know how to make a bad album, and this is no exception. Groovy and gorgeous.

RR: One of the weirdest collaborations I've yet seen, and so completely brilliant that adjectives fail me. It's broken in all the right places, buoyed along on deceptively upbeat indie-pop sensibilities.

2. The Black Keys: "Brothers"

TF: What did the hipster paleontologist say about the Cretaceous period? "Meh, the Triassic was better."

There is often the trend where a band tends to lose their signature sound with each successive album, but this is not the same for The Black Keys. They have not only held onto their original sound, they've managed to evolve and grow with each album.

It's groovy, rocking, and bluesy. My personal favorite for the year.

RR: I have a hard time really liking the Black Keys--you can blame my coworkers for rocking every album all the time I suppose--but this was brilliant. It's bruised and spitting teeth and smiling all the while. Cheeky bastards.

1. Arcade Fire: "The Suburbs"
TF: Suburban life hasn't seemed so equally depressing and iconic since "The Wonder Years." Arcade Fire don't make albums, they make melodramas in music. "The Suburbs" is emotional and vibrant. This album feels alive.
RR: What Figg said. <3

*****

Other Things We Liked: