Clicky Clicky's Top 10s of 2011: MP edition

[Photo of Shit Horse at Habana Bar, Austin, TX 3/16/2011 during SXSW. Photo by Michael Piantigini.]

Twenty aught-eleven was one of those star-aligning years that gifted me with tons of music I like - This year's list is admittedly pretty heavy on my wheelhouse veterans, but how lucky to still get such strong stuff from bands like Buffalo Tom, Five Eight, and the friggin' Feelies! Having taken to heart The Long Winters' John Roderick's admonitions on top 10 lists (and let's hope he gets that new album out in 2012), I offer these 10 for '11 in alphabetical order. Tune in to Clicky Clicky Radio next Thursday, 8-10 pm eastern, and I'll play lots of stuff from these and other great 2011 releases!

Buffalo Tom Skins (Scrawny)
With guitars big and autumn gentle, these beloved Boston mainstays returned with their strongest album in years, and one that could stand up to the reminiscing of their 25th anniversary celebrations later in the year (reviews: night 1/night 2/night 3). [review/buy]



Eleventh Dream Day Riot Now (Thrill Jockey)
Chicago's legends-in-certain-circles take their time and make records when they're ready. Riot Now turns up after a five year gap and Rick Rizzo's feedback and Janet Beveridge Bean's harmonies were worth every moment of the wait. [buy]



The Feelies Here Before (Bar/None)
This year's lottery of unlikely new albums was won by The Feelies who, speaking of gaps, waited 20 years to make their new one. And it sounds just like The Feelies - and I mean that as high praise. [review/buy]



Five Eight Your God Is Dead To Me Now (Iron Horse)
Long-running Athens, GA stalwarts Five Eight take a stand on their 2011 album. They may offer more grown-up perspectives, but never grew out of a youthful existential dilemma. If we're being honest, who does? They continue to strike a nerve. [buy]



Fucked Up David Comes To Life (Matador)
Huge. Just... HUGE. [buy]





The Rationales The Distance In Between
The debut full-length by these Boston Americana-rockers is a warm, guitar comfort food blanket with pop hooks that keep the songs in your head. [buy]




R.E.M. Collapse Into Now (Warner Brothers)
Admittedly, sentimental reasons might have been reason enough for me to put the final R.E.M. album on the list, but this is legit - Collapse Into Now is great on its own terms and is the best R.E.M. album since at least 1996 (put another way: their best in a generation!). A worthy swan song for a band that spent most of their last 15 years in the wilderness. [buy]



Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador)
Wherein which Kurt Vile continues to outdo himself with his best batch of songs yet. In the alt-rock (and what-have-you) world, producer John Agnello's credits are untouchable: from Dinosaur Jr to Drive-By Truckers and Sonic Youth to Son Volt (among MANY other greats), he has helped shape the sound of alt rock (and such) for more than a generation. Here, he translates Kurt Vile's stoner daydreams into a lush, earthy headphone cinemascape. [buy]

Wild Flag Wild Flag (Merge)
OK, I'll admit it - if I were numbering the list, this'd likely be number one with a bullet. Has anything so highly anticipated delivered so solidly? Don't see how it would be possible to see them live and not think they're huge rock stars. Now if we can only get people to stop yelling "put a bird on it" at their shows. [buy]


Wussy Strawberry (Shake It)
Wussy's been quietly churning gems out of Cincinatti for a decade (much like co-gutarist/vocalist Chuck Cleaver's band Ass Ponys did for the decade before that), and Strawberry just about snuck out in the last month or so. It's both barnstorming ("Pulverized," for one) and beautiful ("Magnolia," for another). Do your ears and soul a favor and go buy this now and then make your way through the rest of the catalog. [buy]

Bubbling under:
Office of Future Plans - S/T (Dischord)
Obits Moody, Standard and Poor(Sub Pop)
Megafaun - S/T (Hometapes)
And, let's face it - pretty much everything else Merge produced this year, especially Wye Oak's Civilian, Apex Manor's The Year of Magical Drinking, and Mountain Goats' All Eternals Deck [buy]

My 11 favorite shows of '11, in brief and chronological. A bit heavy on the SXSW, as you can see, but it was a fun one:
-Reigning Sound at the Magic Room Gallery - February 17, 2011 [review]
-Shit Horse at Habana Bar - March 16, 2011 (SXSW) [photos]
-Wild Flag at The Parish - March 18, 2011 (SXSW) [photos]
-Eleventh Dream Day at Yard Dog - March 19, 2011 (SXSW) [photos]
-Alejandro Escovedo at The Continental Club - March 20, 2011 (post-SXSW) [review/photos]
-Joe Pernice/Scud Mountain Boys at the Lizard Lounge - August 25, 2011 [review/photos]
-Jeff Mangum at Jordan Hall - September 10, 2011 [review]
-Tommy Keene with Doug Gillard at Church on September 11, 2011 [photos]
-The Low Anthem at Somerville Theatre (and outside) - October 20, 2011 [review]
-The Hush Now/Soccer Mom/Chandeliers at Precinct - October 22, 2011
-Buffalo Tom at Brighton Music Hall - November 25, 2011 (25th Anniversary shows, night 1) [review]

-Michael Piantigini

Rock Over Boston Austin: SXSW Night 7

But wait, there's more!

Every year for the last decade or so, hometown hero Alejandro Escovedo has curated a post-SXSW benefit show at Austin's legendary Continental Club. He hand-picks the acts, enlists guest-stars aplenty, and essentially takes back his mantle of being a kind of mayor of Austin music after beating back the invasion of the world's bands, bloggers, music businessmen, and fans. Though I doubt he thinks of it that way - he couldn't have been a more gracious host.

We joined the 6:30 pm - 2:00 am show already in progress (hey, I have to draw the line somewhere) and caught the last half of St. Louis rockers The Incurables' set of solid, catchy... well, rock and roll. There was palpable sense of excitement in the club about what came next. Candy Golde is an odd duck of a Chicagoland supergroup: Rick Rizzo of Eleventh Dream Day, John Stirratt of Wilco, Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick, and Chicago mainstay Nick Tremulis have put together a hell of a rockin' band that tore through covers of "Hey Joe" and an unlikely revamp of Paul Simon's "Boy In The Bubble," as well as a bunch of original material from their new EP. (Recommended!). Ivan Julien of Richard Hell and the Voidoids (who produced Candy Golde's EP), played guitar on a song too.

Richard Barone, formerly of 80's Hoboken pop outfit The Bongos, who opened for Escovedo's Rank and File back in the day, was next with a set of energetic pop songs with accompanying violinst Deni Bonet, who we last saw on tour with Robyn Hitchcock some years ago. Shifting gears again, New Yorkers Jesse Malin and The St. Mark's Social Club blasted through their set, ending with "Instant Karma." Sounds like a groaner, but Malin and company's energy was infectious and I was a believer.

Willie Nile might be the most legendary singer/songwriter/rocker you've never heard of (take a gander at his Wikipedia entry to get the gist). His was an old-school rock and roll show - a bit corny by today's hipster standards, maybe, but convincing nonetheless. He absolutely detonated a cover of Jim Carroll's "People Who Died."

Some friends of mine first recommended Hamell on Trial to me, oh, 'round about 15 years ago, and I finally got around to it this night. I do wish I had taken their advice sooner - Ed Hamell's a bitter and hilarious spoken wordsmith, delivered over his jittery acoustic guitar. Funny, but not novelty. A good way to clear the decks for our host's headlining set.

Alejandro Escovedo's recent tour was a stripped-down rock band affair, but at the Continental, we were treated to a set by the "Orchestra" lineup (or part of it anyway), that he sometimes uses. Strings, trumpet, organ - there were never less than 10 people on the tiny Continental stage, and often as many as 12 when the guests started joining in. Fellow local Charlie Sexton stuck around on guitar for a good chunk of the set, and everyone went (justifiably!) wild for Lucinda Williams' appearance, though her half of a duet with Escovedo was on pretty shaky ground from the get-go. This may have been, unfortunately, a bit too late in the night.

Modest and gracious throughout, Escovedo simply delivered a great night of his great songs. Hell, not known particularly for his guitar playing, he even unleashed a blistering solo during his "Chelsea Hotel '78" that was at least as good as anything I'd heard all night.

By closing time, he'd shed his guitar and was winding up a passionate take on "Beast of Burden" (they'd done "Miss You" earlier), and that was the real end of SXSW, as far as I was concerned.

---

So closed 7 straight days of music. It was a blast, as always, but there were a few wrinkles this year. There's already been a lot of hand-wringing going on about this year's SXSW due to a few unfortunate incidents. Indeed, it felt significantly larger than even the last one I attended two years ago. Still, it remains a great time for the music (and taco) obsessed. Considering the number of people in the city for the event (an amazing 200,000ish, according one of the linked articles), it seems remarkable how few problems there are. The talk of cracking down on day parties seems especially ominous since they've become such a huge part of the fun. Then again, I don't live there. Given the exponential growth, I suppose it is inevitable that there would be potential for a tipping point where it is just too taxing on the city's infrastructure (to say nothing of how it gets increasingly difficult to see what you want to see when you're on a wristband budget in a town full of badge-holders - which reminds me: who wants to sponsor badges for Clicky Clicky next year?). Let's hope they're not there yet. It would be a shame to damage the good cheer of SXSW.

Now, it's never too early to start thinking about lodging for next year!

-Michael Piantigini