Listening Habits: Summer 2019

With vacations, festivals and other summer activities behind us, it is time for the summer edition of our "Listening Habits" lists, in which, every few months, we present the albums and tracks that stood out for us among the latest new releases and earned a place in our record collection.

At the top of the albums list for Summer 2019 you'll find one of the best debuts of the year, Black Midi's weird but certainly wonderful "Schlagenheim". The "weird" part, at least for me, is the unusual singing of main vocalist Geordie Greep which took a while to get used to, but the music skills displayed by the dynamic London quartet are undeniable and the end result is one of the most thrilling noise rock rides in recent history. Repeated listening at high volume is highly recommended!

From Black Midi's sublime noise experimentation, a sharp turn towards melody with Big Thief's "UFOF", the folk band's third full length effort and first for the historic 4AD label (which, by the way, is having a stellar 2019). We already knew that Adrianne Lenker is an amazingly talented songwriter but with "UFOF" her band is progressing to the next level, presenting us a confident set of emotionally powerful folk rock songs that flow into each other to create a wonderful whole. With "UFOF" already in the running for one of the albums of the year, the band has already recorded its next record, titled "Two Hands", which is expected in October and if new track "Not" is any indication, it looks very likely that the best is yet to come for Big Thief!

Among the best albums we've listened to this summer is also the self-titled record by Purple Mountains, a new project which was supposed to be David Berman's return to music, but unfortunately turned out to be his final farewell. The Silver Jews frontman was fighting his demons out of the public eye in the decade since he announced the end of his band which gave us excellent albums including "American Water", "Bright Flight" and "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea". With "Purple Mountains", a record he made with the collaboration of Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earl from the band Woods, Berman made his comeback to songwriting with another great set of songs bearing his unique style and wit. Sadly the darkness that lies at their core could not be exorcised and only weeks after the album's release came the bad news. Although in this case music could not overcome adversity for its creator, you should not miss the opportunity to listen to "Purple Mountains", the last great work of a truly unique poet and songwriter.

Among the rest of the fine albums you will find in our Top 20 below, a special mention is merited for Ty Segall's latest work, "First Taste", his 12th solo studio album. Being overly prolific has the danger of losing the ability to filter properly your work, but it seems that Ty has no such problems as we are now used to having every year at least one of his LPs among the year's best. A year and a half after the amazing "Freedom's Goblin" (and two or three pretty good releases in between), he is back with another rocking record, in which he is not using his guitar at all, but still finds ways to blow our minds and ears. Another year, another album of the year by Ty Segall - business as usual then!

Top 20 Albums

1.   Schlagenheim - BLACK MIDI
2.   U.F.O.F. - BIG THIEF
3.   Purple Mountains - PURPLE MOUNTAINS
4.   First Taste - TY SEGALL
5.   Father Of The Bride - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
6.   Humanworld - PETER PERRETT
7.   Amyl And The Sniffers - AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS
8.   Boat - PIP BLOM
9.   Destroyer - BLACK MOUNTAIN
10. Help Us Stranger - THE RACONTEURS
11. Patience - MANNEQUIN PUSSY
12. Act Surprised - SEBADOH
13. These Times - THE DREAM SYNDICATE
14. Let's Rock - THE BLACK KEYS
15. Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest - BILL CALLAHAN
16. Inside The Rose - THESE NEW PURITANS
17. About The Light - STEVE MASON
18. Proto - HOLLY HERNDON
19. Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery - THE COMET IS COMING  
20. The Magical Record Of Blue Orchids - BLUE ORCHIDS
 

Top 20 Tracks

1.   U.F.O.F. - BIG THIEF
2.   Margaritas At The Mall - PURPLE MOUNTAINS
3.   Ducter - BLACK MIDI
4.   Taste - TY SEGALL
5.   In The Capital - ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER
6.   Summon The Fire - THE COMET IS COMING   
7.   This Life - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
8.   Master Of Destruction - PETER PERRETT
9.   Daddy Issues - PIP BLOM
10. Got You - AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS
11. Drunk II - MANNEQUIN PUSSY
12. Future Shade - BLACK MOUNTAIN
13. Help Me Stranger - THE RACONTEURS
14. Lo/Hi - THE BLACK KEYS
15. Black Light - THE DREAM SYNDICATE
16. Celebrate The Void - SEBADOH
17. Addicted To The Day - BLUE ORCHIDS
18. Walking Away From Love - STEVE MASON
19. Into The Fire - THESE NEW PURITANS
20. Eternal - HOLLY HERNDON

Live: Ty Segall & The Freedom Band @ Gagarin 205 (Athens, June 16th, 2018)

The last stop of Ty Segall's latest European tour took place in Athens, four years since his last appearance here.

Four years is certainly a lot of time, even more so if you take into consideration Segall's unstoppable work rate, and it seems that the combination of the good word of mouth regarding his two previous gigs here in combination with his strong recording output all this time, has increased the number of his Greek fans who almost filled Gagarin 205, the largest venue he has played so far in Athens.

It was clear from the start that Ty Segall and his band, dubbed The Freedom Band, were determined to raise the noise levels to the red and drive their psych rock sound to the limit, playing each song with conviction and brutal force. The loudness of the band proved to be a challenge for the venue's overloaded speakers, but the passion of the performance helped us to overlook the sound problems and enjoy the band's powerful performance.

Ty Segall's latest album, the excellent "Freedom's Goblin", provided several of the gig's highlights, including the Hot Chocolate cover "Every 1's a Winner", the melodic "My Lady's on Fire" and, above all, the seismic rendition of "She" that led the encore to its climax. Of course, over the nearly 90 minutes of the performance we had the chance to enjoy several older favorites like "Candy Sam" or a sped up version of "Caesar" from the 2010 album "Melted" which you can check out below. 

Without a doubt Ty Segall & The Freedom Band provided a great opening of the summer 2018 live season in Athens despite the uncharacteristically rainy weather of this weekend.

The night opened with performances by two local acts, The Bonnie Nettles who we unfortunately missed, and Chickn who presented us songs from their new album "Wowsers!", proving to be a good warm up for the rock 'n' roll extravaganza that we were about to witness.

Chickn, live @ Gagarin 205 (June 16, 2018)

Ty Segall & The Freedom Band - My Lady's On Fire, live @ Gagarin 205 (June 16, 2018)

Ty Segall & The Freedom Band - Ceasar, live @ Gagarin 205 (June 16, 2018)

Listening Habits 03.2018

"In A Poem Unlimited", the second album by U.S. Girls for 4AD and sixth overall since Meghan Remy first introduced us to her solo recording project about a decade ago, is her most accomplished and impressive work so far. The album, recorded in collaboration with members of the Toronto-based funk and jazz instrumental collective The Cosmic Range, uses electropop and disco rhythms to create songs that constitute vivid character studies of women grappling with power and protest the lies and hypocrisy surrounding us. Personal politics and fluid pop music combine to create a perfect protest record that fits perfectly with the current turbulent times.

Among the best albums we’ve listened to in the first few months of 2018, we also have "All Nerve", the excellent fifth LP by The Breeders, who make a spectacular return to form after a 10 year absence, this time with the same lineup that gave us the classic "Last Splash" in the 90s. First single "Wait in the Car" is the perfect companion to "Cannonball" in The Breeders "best of" playlist, while tracks like "Nervous Mary", "All Nerve", "Blues at the Acropolis" or the Amon Duul II cover "Archangel's Thunderbird" can easily stand next to their past glories.

In the 10 years between the last two Breeders albums, Ty Segall has released more than ten records, steadily building up an impressive discography that spans the whole spectrum of rock ’n’ roll, from garage and punk, to hard rock and blues. His latest work, "Freedom’s Goblin", adds also soul and funk touches to the mix, while somehow still managing to include nods to every single rock genre that has ever influenced him without ever losing the plot (as, I’m afraid, is the case with Jack White’s latest offering). The end result can easily be counted among his best efforts so far, a new peak to an already impressive run.

Check out below the 12 albums we've listened to the most in the last month and a half, the first batch of LPs that stood out for us in the 2018 release calendar:

Top 12 Albums

1.   In A Poem Unlimited - U.S. GIRLS
2.   All Nerve - THE BREEDERS
3.   Freedom's Goblin - TY SEGALL
4.   Plunge - FEVER RAY
5.   Songs Of Praise - SHAME
6.   Twin Fantasy - CAR SEAT HEADREST
7.   There's A Riot Going On - YO LA TENGO
8.   Little Dark Age - MGMT
9.   Always Ascending - FRANZ FERDINAND
10. I'll Be Your Girl - THE DECEMBERISTS
11. Boarding House Reach - JACK WHITE
12. Rough Trade Shops Counter Culture 17 - VARIOUS ARTISTS

Top 12 Tracks

1.   Pearly Gates - U.S. GIRLS
2.   Blues At The Acropolis - THE BREEDERS
3.   She - TY SEGALL
4.   IDK About You - FEVER RAY
5.   Nervous Young Inhumans - CAR SEAT HEADREST
6.   For You Too - YO LA TENGO
7.   One Rizla - SHAME
8.   Over And Over And Over - JACK WHITE
9.   Little Dark Age - MGMT
10. Feel The Love Go - FRANZ FERDINAND
11. Severed - THE DECEMBERISTS
12. Shadow - CHROMATICS

U.S. Girls - Pearly Gates (ft. James Baley)

Listening Habits 01-02.2017

In recent weeks we took a trip 30 and 40 years back, remembering  just a few of the great albums and songs released in 1987 and 1977 respectively, two years full of exceptional, groundbreaking music.

As we reach the end of February, it's time to return to the present and take stock of what's going on in the first couple of months of 2017.

The first great album of the New Year came at the tail-end of 2016 and it's the third and most potent installment of the collaboration between El-P and Killer Mike as Run The Jewels. By now you know exactly what to expect when these two come together but there is no way to resists the sheer excitement and wild joy of their aggressive beats and witty raps. "Run The Jewels 3" is the ideal battle hymn of resistance against the current insane social and political situation of America and, of course, the rest of the world.

One might expect that a similar reaction would also be forthcoming in the rock world as well, that at least a resurgence of punk rock would be on the horizon by now. No such luck so far, no new Sex Pistols or anything radical like that, but at least we got some seriously heavy riffs and some great pop hooks in the new records by Ty Segall, Japandroids and Cloud Nothings.

Segall's ninth album is his second self-titled release, perhaps his way of reintroducing himself with a record that encompasses a little bit of everything he's been doing over the ten prolific years he's been recording music. Garage rock and psych pop gems come fast and furious over the record's 36-minutes, concisely presenting what makes Ty Segall one of the best rock 'n' rollers of the current generation.

We have certainly missed Japandroids in the five years since their last record, the excellent "Celebration Rock", and we are certainly glad that they are back with "Near To The Wild Heart Of Life", their third full-length effort. The new record doesn't present any sharp turns in their trajectory, but the power and simplicity of their music is still doing a fine job in generating anthemic, memorable songs that will work just as well in the sweaty surroundings of a rock club or as the soundtrack to a drive down a motorway.

Cloud Nothings' "Life Without Sound", their most melodic offering so far, but still full of buzzing, powerful guitar sounds, Austra's "Future Politics", a fine electropop effort combining catchy tunes and thoughtful lyrics and the return of The Flaming Lips with the idiosyncratic, psychedelic pop of "Oczy Mlody" complete the top half of our first Listening Habits album chart of 2017. In the rest of the Top 12 you will find a few more releases from last year that we think deserve a place in 2016's "Best of" and two great compilations that you should definitely lend an ear to, one with selections of some of 2016's best releases according to Rough Trade Shops and one with great cuts from the UK indie scene of 1987 (see more about C87 here):

Top 12 Albums

1.  Run The Jewels 3 - RUN THE JEWELS
2.  Ty Segall - TY SEGALL
3.  Near To The Wild Heart Of Life - JAPANDROIDS
4.  Life Without Sound - CLOUD NOTHINGS
5.  Future Politics - AUSTRA
6.  Oczy Mlody - THE FLAMING LIPS
7.  Mirage - JOSEFIN ÖHRN & THE LIBERATION
8.  Puberty 2 - MITSKI
9.  I Had A Dream That You Were Mine - HAMILTON LEITHAUSER + ROSTAM
10. Preoccupations - PREOCCUPATIONS   
11. Rough Trade Counter Culture 2016 - VARIOUS ARTISTS
12. C87 - VARIOUS ARTISTS

Top 12 Tracks

1.  Sister Green Eyes - JOSEFIN ÖHRN & THE LIBERATION
2.  Country Sleaze - GOAT GIRL
3.  Legend Has It - RUN THE JEWELS
4.  Thank You Mr K - TY SEGALL
5.  Near to the Wild Heart of Life - JAPANDROIDS
6.  Things Are Right with You - CLOUD NOTHINGS
7.  Degraded - PREOCCUPATIONS
8.  Future Politics - AUSTRA
9.  One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill - THE FLAMING LIPS
10. My Body's Made of Crushed Little Stars - MITSKI
11. A 1000 Times - HAMILTON LEITHAUSER + ROSTAM
12. New Ways - CC DUST

Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation - Sister Green Eyes

Ty Segall - Thank You Mr. K

Top 30 Albums of 2014

Happy New Year from Cool Music Central! 2015 is going to bring changes for this blog as we enter our eighth year on Blogger and I feel that a renewal is long overdue. More details on this subject coming soon...  

For our first post of the New Year though, we are focusing on the best music that 2014 had to offer: the 30 albums we've enjoyed the most over the past 12 months, a carefully selected shortlist of excellent works chosen from a plethora of fine propositions we have had last year, most of which you can check out by going through our 2014 New Releases posts.

The top of our 2014 album list rightfully belongs to Swans and the thirteenth chapter in a truly unique body of work that started three decades ago and continues to evolve, taking rock music to uncharted territories.

"To Be Kind" explores further the vast, creative universe of noise that Michael Gira’s crew entered with "The Seer" in 2012, but this time the balance between order and chaos, rhythm and noise, light and darkness is more effective than ever, creating an astonishing sonic experience that will richly reward those who dare to follow them on their journey.

The fourth, self-titled album by St. Vincent has undoubtedly taken Annie Clark’s music to the next level. Her sound is constantly progressing, absorbing new influences which she uses to shape her own unique style. Clarks's economic guitar playing never tries to steal the show, yet never seizes to offer subtle surprises and throw curve balls that catch you off-guard. The melodies are as strong as ever throughout the record while anxious synth-funk lines keep erupting here and there, keeping you on your toes. Best album cover of the year as well!

"Manipulator", the seventh solo effort in Ty Segall’s impressively prolific career, is his best one yet. Segall really took his time in making this one (14 months for an album is an unusually long period for someone with his work ethic) and the end result is truly exceptional: 17 tracks of non-stop garage rock brilliance, not encountered since the heyday of The White Stripes a decade ago. The timeless quality of "Manipulator" already gives to this record the aura of a 21st century rock classic, the crowning achievement so far in Ty Segall’s rapidly increasing body of work.

Here’s the complete list of our Top 30 Albums of the Year:

Top 30 Albums of 2014

1.   To be kind - SWANS

2.   St. Vincent - ST. VINCENT

3.   Manipulator - TY SEGALL

4.   Nikki nack - TUNE-YARDS

5.   Warpaint - WARPAINT

6.   Sun structures - TEMPLES

7.   They want my soul - SPOON

8.   Do to the beast - THE AFGHAN WHIGS

9.   Sunbathing animal - PARQUET COURTS

10.   Rips - EX HEX

11.   Too true - DUM DUM GIRLS
12.   The best day - THURSTON MOORE
13.   Benji - SUN KIL MOON
14.   Commune - GOAT
15.   Divide and exit - SLEAFORD MODS
16.   Mess - LIARS
17.   Dude incredible - SHELLAC
18.   With light and with love - WOODS
19.   Brill bruisers - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
20.   Lazaretto - JACK WHITE
21.   Are we there - SHARON VAN ETTEN
22.   Lost in the dream - THE WAR ON DRUGS
23.   Under color of official right - PROTOMARTYR
24.   Here and nowhere else - CLOUD NOTHINGS
25.   Elpintor - INTERPOL
26.   Phantom radio - MARK LANEGAN BAND
27.   Burn your fire for no witness - ANGEL OLSEN
28.   Atlas - REAL ESTATE
29.   Seeds - TV ON THE RADIO
30.   Run The Jewels 2 - RUN THE JEWELS

Click here for the second part of our Albums of the Year list, from number 31 to 60.

You can also check out our Top 50 Singles of 2014 here and stream all of them here.

Listen to our Albums of the Year playlist on Spotify:

Listening Habits 10-11.14

The end of November brings us to the start of the festive period for music lovers everywhere: the time to share your favorite music with the world by making "Best of" lists! CMC will, of course, honor this tradition as well, but (sticking to our own habits) we will wait until the actual end of the year before we finalize our ever evolving annual list.

In the meantime, we bring you a Top 15 of our favorite albums for October and November 2014 featuring some strong candidates for the annual Top 50:

At the top of this list we have the seventh and, in our opinion, best solo album by Ty Segall. The extremely prolific musician took his time in the making of "Manipulator" (14 months is quite a long period for his usual standards) and the results are truly outstanding: 17 tracks clocking close to an hour of non-stop garage rock brilliance, not encountered since the heyday of The White Stripes a decade ago. It’s just three months since the release of this album, but "Manipulator" already sounds like a classic to our ears: the crowning achievement so far in Ty Segall’s impressive, ever increasing body of work.

Mary Timony has been among my favorite musicians ever since I first noticed her work with Helium in the early '90s. I still remember being blown away by "The American Jean", an early single I discovered in the Rough Trade Shops compilation "Unnecessary Niceness" sometime in the summer of 1993. Twenty-one years and many excellent albums later, Timony is delivering the goods once again with her fearsomely rocking new outfit Ex Hex and their awesome debut LP with the self-explanatory title "Rips". Lock up your sons, Ex Hex are casting some pretty irresistible spells out there!

In our Top 5 you will also find Thurston Moore’s latest solo effort channeling his Sonic Youth self with the help of his old band mate Steve Shelley, My Bloody Valentine’s bass player Deb Googe and Nought / Chrome Hoof guitarist James Sedwards, Shellac’s return after seven years with "Dude Incredible", their best album since the early '00s, and Goat with "Commune", the Swedish collective’s imaginative second effort, going deeper into our collective, primitive subconscious.

Here are all the autumn 2014 additions to CMC’s record collection:

Top 15 Albums

1.   Manipulator - TY SEGALL
2.   Rips - EX HEX
3.   The Best Day - THURSTON MOORE
4.   Dude Incredible - SHELLAC
5.   Commune - GOAT
6.   Brill Bruisers - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
7.   The Hum - HOOKWORMS
8.   Plowing Into The Field Of Love - ICEAGE
9.   IX - ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
10. The Physical World - DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979
11. At Best Cuckold - AVI BUFFALO
12. …And Star Power - FOXYGEN
13. Barragán - BLONDE REDHEAD
14. Taiga - ZOLA JESUS
15. Strange Weather EP - ANNA CALVI

Top 15 Tracks

1.   Feel - TY SEGALL
2.   Waterfall - EX HEX
3.   Hide From The Sun - GOAT
4.   Dude Incredible - SHELLAC
5.   The Best Day - THURSTON MOORE
6.   War On The East Coast - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
7.   So What - AVI BUFFALO
8.   On Leaving - HOOKWORMS
9.   Trainwreck 1979 - DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979
10. The Lord's Favorite - ICEAGE
11. Ghost Rider - ANNA CALVI
12. How Can You Really - FOXYGEN
13. Hunger - ZOLA JESUS
14. Dripping - BLONDE REDHEAD
15. The Dragonfly Queen - ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD

Have a listen to our October - November Top 15 here:

Ty Segall, live @ An Club (Athens, June 4, 2014)

A year and a half after his Greek live debut, Ty Segall made his comeback to An Club along with his kick-ass band for another fine night of explosive fuzz rock! 70 minutes of future garage rock classics from Segall' past albums as well as by the upcoming "Manipulator" zipped by in a flash as guitars roared and the rhythm section pounded with fury. The Callas, in the support role, did a fine job of paving the way for Segall's band garage blitz.

Check out one of the highlights of Ty Segall's set, the new single "Feel":

Ty Segall - Feel (live @ An Club, Athens, June 4, 2014)

And here's what happens when rock'n'roll gets out of hand:

Ty Segall's Athens set-list: Wave Goodbye, You're the Doctor, I Bought My Eyes, Slaughterhouse, Thank God for Sinners, Oh Mary, Tall Man Skinny Lady, Feel, Finger, The Hill, Skin, Standing at the Station, Ceasar, Tell Me What's Inside Your Heart. Encore: Imaginary Person, Motörhead, Girlfriend.

Next up: we revisit Plisskën Festival 2014 for the second part of our review. Stat tuned...

The Callas, live @ An Club (Athens, June 4, 2014)

Ty Segall, live @ An Club (Athens, November 10, 2012)

Despite rumors to the contrary, rock music remains in fine health in 2012. It may be difficult in this day and age to find something truly new, something you’ve never heard before in the six decades since Bill Haley and His Comets rocked around the clock, but as long as there are musicians of Ty Segall’s caliber with the remarkable ability to effortlessly transmit their energy and passion to the fans, I see no reason for concern about the future of electric music.

Psychedelic garage punk has found fertile ground in San Francisco in recent years and the amazingly prolific Ty Segall has become a key player in this scene alongside Thee Oh Sees, who also paid us a visit recently. This sound always had a small but devoted fanbase in the local underground rock community, and it seems that the time is right for a new generation to embrace it as well, as Ty Segall’s tightly packed gig at An Club proved last Saturday.

With an already solid discography which was enriched this year with the aggressively noisy "Slaughterhouse" and the more melodic and accessible "Twins", Ty Segall has the right material at his disposal for a great live set. And, indeed, Segall and his band delivered the goods in spades, in a 65-minute storming performance with two encores that gave us exactly what we needed: heavy doses of delirious, incandescent garage rock.

It’s not easy to pick highlights in such a thrilling set but, if I had to choose, my vote would go to "You're The Doctor", "The Hill", "Oh Mary", as well as the brief cover of Black Sabbath’s "Paranoid". In fuzz we trust!

Ty Segall - Oh Mary, live @ An Club (Athens, Nov. 10, 2012)