captains dead’s top ten records of 2009

gregor | December 17th, 2009 - 2:37 pm

for the past week or so, i have been digesting huge amounts of music from this year. there are quite a few excellent records that didnt make the list, mostly cause i didnt spend enough time with em and thusly felt kinda weird putting on said list. most notably, the avett brothers’ i and love and you, patterson hood’s murdering oscar, califone’s funeral singers and mumford & sons sigh no more. what did make the list though, i feel are some of the best records to come out in the past 5 years or so. the top 5 i obsessed over for most of the year, which sadly caused me to neglect the above mentioned records and im sure countless others. to their credit, though, the top 5 records could probably make it in to my top 30 records of the decade – the top 2 definitely, which are minor classics in my opinion.

and here they are….whats yours?

1. roadside graves.my sons home – buy it via autume tone
work itself out – favorite song of the year
ruby

2. magnolia electric co.josephine – buy it
josephine
little sad eyes

3. dawes.north hills – buy it
that western skyline via daytrotter
when my time comes

4. richmond fontaine.we used to think the freeway sounded like a river – buy it via their bandcamp
you can move back here

5. jason isbell and the 400 unit buy it
seven mile island

6. dinosaur jr.farm – buy it
i want you to know

7. bombadil.tarpits and canyonlands – buy it
honeymoon
so many ways to die

8. a.a bondy.when the devil’s loose – buy it
i can see the pines are dancing
when the devils loose

9. built to spill.there is no enemy – buy it
things fall apart

10. the evening rig.is doin stuff – buy it
the steve mcqueens
hilltop pines

captains dead top ten records of 08, #5.5

gregor | December 18th, 2008 - 2:45 pm

i think i done fucked up my top ten of 08 list. i knew, i just knew damn well i was missing something. that something was the mountain goats’ most excellent heretic pride. if i remember correctly, this isnt the first time i forgot to include them in my top 10 list. back in 06, i was a huge fan, and still am, of their get lonely and subsequently left them off that list too. i wasnt going to let it happen twice. so, i am going to just shove this in between carried to dust and saturnalia at number 5.5. if you have never dug john darnielle’s wares previously, this record may win you over. if you just cant stand his vocal/lyrical stylings, well, this aint gonna win you over. but me thinks this is probably his most solid and consistent work to date. check it..

sax rohmer #1

lovecraft in brooklyn (aesop rock remix)

the mountain goats site / buy stuff

Tags: captains dead top ten, heretic pride, john darnielle, the mountain goats

captains dead top ten records of ’08

gregor | December 14th, 2008 - 1:53 pm

honestly, me thinks 2008 was a ho-hum year in music. there were a lot of records that it initially got me all hot, but ended up just giving me musical blue balls. there was a lot of killer, but too much filler to carry me through and through. that being so, i think i could have compiled a pretty solid top 20, if i had the energy or time or patience to do so. each of my picks in my top ten serves a specific purpose for my ever challenged soul.

if you have been following me for long enough my list probably wont come as much of a surprise, at least most of it won’t. there were a few surprises though, most notably stay down, days of my escape and the widespread reign of the great northwest. to say my expectations for stay down were low is overstating it, but fuck me if aint like previous smoking popes records, simply pure pop/punk hook laden bliss. days of my escape is one of the records that i found myself listening to the most over that past year, or at least that’s what my last.fm charts would lead me to believe. to think that kyle and brian have only met a handful of times at best, makes days of my escape an even more compeling piece of work. the widespread reign of the great northwest is the real sleeper of the group. you cant just listen to it once, because i dont think it’ll make much sense. nor can you judge the record by only listening to a couple of tracks, its meant to be listen to as a whole, just because of the way it flows from one song to the next. pretty awesome stuff..

btw, i took the liberty of adding mr nichols’ the last pale light of the west to my list cause while it isnt officially out until 09 you can download immediately it when you purchase the cd.

without much further ado, here are my top ten picks for the ’08.