Music is near to all of our hearts at TSD, and we are passionate about sharing our favorite recordings with our friends and colleagues. These are some of our favorite releases from this year.
Drive-By Truckers, Go Go Boots
“Go Go Boots” is their eleventh studio recording, the latest effort highlighting the songwriting talents of co-leads Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley… It is described in one review as: “…dirty, brooding and thoughtful Southern rock…a raw, wholesome and warm vintage sound. The guitars are imbibed with raunchy slides and heart-wrenching fire. The banjoes are plucked in a corner, behind the spoons. Each song on the album has the feeling of a live, one-take performance.” (Popstache.com)
This video is from their appearance on Austin City Limits a couple of years back: http://www.youtube.com/
Tedeschi Trucks Band, Revelator
As Rolling Stone said, “…the debut of an 11-piece troupe co-led by guitarist Derek Trucks and his wife, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi…. the best Dixie-funk family band since Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. Trucks’ serpentine curls slither alongside Tedeschi’s supple cries over crosscurrents of The Meters and The Band in “Bound for Glory” and “Midnight in Harlem.” And she glows with fighting desire in the swamp-Stax plea “Until You Remember,” like a female Otis Redding armed with the reincarnation of Duane Allman.”
This video is from their appearance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival:http://www.youtube.
David Murray Cuban Ensemble Plays Nat King Cole en Español
As The Guardian said, Jazz virtuoso David Murray “sets his broad-chested sax sound alongside the rasping Argentinian tango vocalist and arranger Daniel Melingo and Cuba’s Sinfonieta of Sines ensemble, to reprise Nat King Cole’s Latin America recordings, made in Spanish and Portuguese in 1958 and 1961. … These swaying songs glow with knowing life: the vivacious arrangements for strings and horns buoy up Murray’s rich tenor sound… It’s pretty smooth, of course, but Murray’s superb slow solo on No Me Platiques – easing from rich long notes to quietly squally double-time – delivers enough jazz surprises for the whole album inside eight minutes.
David Murray and the Royal Flemish Orchestra: http://www.youtube.
Nick Lowe, The Old Magic
As Paste Magazine says…“…it’s hard to imagine a soul so hard-hearted and melody-challenged who wouldn’t find a lot to love in The Old Magic, Lowe’s first collection of new songs in four years. If you didn’t know any better, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to hear songs like “Checkout Time” or “Stoplight Roses” and think you were listening to recently discovered treasures from the Sun Records vault or outtakes from a lost Johnny Cash recording from the ’50s. As hyperbolic as that may sound, the eight originals and three covers that Lowe has recorded this time out are as good as pop music gets.”
From a performance on Elvis Costello’s Spectacle: http://www.youtube.
Destroyer, Kaputt
According to Pitchfork: “Bejar’s essential complexity ultimately feels human. It seems absurd to look for genuine wisdom in music in 2011, when we’re constantly gorging ourselves on the all-you-can-eat buffet of post-modern web culture. But Kaputt feels wise. Like a mirror that actually points back at something better. Something you can jam and let wash over you, but also something you can use. It feels funny, tragic, artful, and ultimately true.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues
Pitchfork says: “Amidst the chaos, the record showcases the band’s expanded range and successful risk-taking, while retaining what so many people fell in love with about the group in the first place. And once again, a strong sense of empathy is at the heart of what makes Fleet Foxes special. Much has been made of American indie’s recent obsession with nostalgic escapism, but Robin Pecknold doesn’t retreat. He confronts uncertainty while feeling out his own place in the world, which is something a lot of us can relate to.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Low Anthem, Smart Flesh
The Los Angeles Times music blog writes: “Smart Flesh” is a gorgeous, inventively arranged set of reverb-rich roots ballads in which the music’s frayed edges add emotional weight… Give hushed, slow-rolling songs like “I’ll Take Out Your Ashes” and “Apothecary Love” time to properly unspool and you’ll find yourself swept up in the band’s old-fashioned tales of romance and mortality.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Girls, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Pitchfork nails it… “The first listen to Father, Son, Holy Ghost brings with it an almost eerie sense of familiarity, like these are songs you’ve been hearing your whole life even when you can’t place them…. this is one of the best-sounding rock records in years… the record comes alive with color and personality largely thanks to Girls’ singer and songwriter Christopher Owens. He has a preternatural gift for turning clichés into deeply affecting songs, and as they jump from one style to the next, from delicate acoustic balladry to noisy rave-ups, Owens’ voice and point of view ground the record and make it distinctive. He is the center.”
The surf rock start of the album is Honey Bunny…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Noam Pikelny, Beat The Devil and Carry A Rail
Friends trained in classical music have been recommending the Punch Brothers for years, an “Americana country-classical chamber music group.” This year, banjoist Noam Pikelny sets out this wonderful set of songs on his own. He’s won the $50,000 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, and it is easy to hear why on songs including “My Mother Thinks I’m a Lawyer.” He’s toured with Paul Simon, has the appeal of Bela Fleck, and has us enchanted.
See him and Steve on Dave Letterman
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