Music in the year 2007

[roadrunnertwice]

2007 wasn't super eventful for me, music-wise, but some cool shit still went down.

• I got kind of psychotic about Bump of Chicken.
• Discovered the Weakerthans.
• My buddies in Over/Under put out an album.
• Discovered Wolf Parade.
• Beirut's "Elephant Gun." Best song I'll hear all year.
• Rediscovered Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," and KD Lang's cover of same.
• I get shot in the back with a paintball (black-light only variety) outside the Triple Rock at a Fort Wilson Riot show.
• Saw The Books live.
• Gay Witch Abortion pull up to the curb outside the Hexagon bar, open the van doors, and play a bitchin' show for all the smokers.
• spinooti introduces me to the wonder of Sondre Lerche.
• Art Brut turns out to be really good, although I can only handle about 4 of their songs in a row.
• shaneface and band roll through my hometown on tour.
• Amazon.com's MP3 store is pretty awesome.
• Months after nightswatch tips us off about Vienna Teng being the shit, everyone on my friendslist seems to discover her simultaneously. How's life in the cultural vanguard, Ryan?
• The new TMBG album is their best one in years, to great surprise. (I enjoy any given album of theirs, but they haven't been "growers" lately. The Else looks like a return to the parts of Flood and John Henry that have aged most gracefully.)
• Discovered the Tokyo Police Club.

That's right, I am going to change tense with impunity. I won't apologize.

Anyway, what went through your MP3 player this year? Anything the rest of us should know about?

Comments

[shaneface.livejournal.com]

mmmm . . . Art Brut . . .

[froborr.livejournal.com]

The soundtrack to ar Tonelico is some of the best music I've heard in years. I know, I know, video game soundtracks equal uberloser, but it's really, really good. This weekend I'll toss a couple of choice tracks up on my webspace and link 'em on my journal.

Oh, and I encountered one really good track by a group called I Muvrini. I have *no* idea what country they're from -- I borrowed it from a coworker who borrowed it from a friend. The rest of the album was meh.

[vaulted-eel.livejournal.com]

First of all, I love that there's a band called Gay Witch Abortion.

Let's see... Azam Ali and her various bands were one of my favorite discoveries this year. Also thought the Raveonettes' new album (Lust Lust Lust) was pretty swell -- as a friend of mine put it, a lot of it kinda sounds like a scrambled radio transmission from the 50s that starts playing just before the aliens abduct you.

P.S. - I Muvrini are from Corsica. I have to admit I've only heard one song by them (which I liked, though not so much I felt compelled to seek out more).

[roadrunnertwice]

Oh, so you're where that mp3 of "The Hunt" came from! (Incoming music tends to shed all its context by the time it ends up on my iPod.)

I think I lost a mouthful of beer when I first heard someone say Gay Witch Abortion's name.

[roadrunnertwice]

Breaking unrelated coincidence news! They, uh, ended up on The Onion's Worst Band Names list.

[roler.livejournal.com]

Yay Bump of Chicken! Emm and I are totally gonna try to go see them next time they come through Osaka. Glad you like 'em!!

I would go through my mp3 playlist right now to look for interesting tidbits to share, but this is impossible because my ipod is DEAD. This makes me sadder than you... wait, no, you can probably imagine.

[roadrunnertwice]

I can pretty much imagine it, yeah. Shitty!

[nightswatch.livejournal.com]

Sorry, this is the kind of thing I tend to skim, and I missed the shout out. I would answer your question, if only I hadn't been told by the people on my friends list that they'd been listening to her for years.