Ohmpark’s Top 20 Atlanta Albums Of 2009
Most of the time in this city, bands rise and fall based on who they know and how exciting they are live. But for this list, I’ve considered only what is contained on their recordings. Over the course of the year I’ve given roughly 75 records from inside the perimeter a spin, and these are the essential twenty that I recommend listening to most. There are actually many records that I really liked that just missed the cut, so this was very tough to piece together, especially the final spots.
Looking at this list and comparing it back to my favourite local stuff over the two years before, it’s apparent that music in this city just keeps getting better. Atlanta’s independent music scene is running deeper than ever both in terms of quality and quantity of music being produced. Outside of Brooklyn, you’d need quite a compelling argument to convince me anywhere else in America has a better scene right now. Promising young bands keep popping up out of nowhere, and the veterans keep delivering the goods. It sure makes my job here a lot easier to have so much great music to blog about.
On a technical note, anything that has been released over the holidays I’m grouping in with my 2010 lists, and so a couple of albums on this list were released over the holidays last year. Take a gander:
20. Noot d’ Noot: Cash For Gold
19. Harken The Hands Askew: Thou
18. Slushco: Sometime Tonight
17. Sound On Film: The Eloquent Reginald
16. Thy Mighty Contract: Thy Mighty Contract
15. Club Awesome: Dynamos
14. Jungol: Places
13. Lee Harvey Oswald: Lee Harvey Oswald
12. The Selmanaires: Tempo Temporal
11. Tealights: Take Us By Sea
10. Deerhunter: Rainwater Cassette Exchange
9. Slushco: The Silver Surface Demos
8. The Orphins: Wish You Well
7. Mastodon: Crack The Skye
6. Lotus Plaza: Floodlight Collective
5. From Exile: Monolith
4. Nomen Novum: Paradises
3. Untied States: Instant Everything, Constant Nothing
2. Atlas Sound: Logos
1. Nomen Novum: November
In the Atlanta music scene, 2009 was the year of Nomen Novum. While most musicians take a whole year to scrap together enough decent songs to fill a good EP, the prolific Nomen Novum were able to drop two virtually perfect full-lengths, plus a great live EP, and they’re already posting new stuff to their myspace.
Although, all five records at the top of my list were legitimate contenders for Atlanta album of the year, and I would have probably been content with any ordering between them. The other 3 records to round out my top 5 each happened to be crafted over about 2 years, and the extra time and care in putting them together just right payed off. A big mistake I notice younger bands make is trying to push out a record too quickly on some arbitrary time scale and in the end get stuck with something that is less than what they are capable of producing. Atlas Sound, Untied States, and From Exile all spent more time than they probably wanted to on their respective albums, but the extra effort was well worth it in the end.
Looking back over this list after I finished it, I noticed that it is almost entirely dominated by veterans of the scene, and mostly by artists I was already familiar with before starting this blog. There is only one true first recording from its respective musicians to make the list. If I were to make a “Best Atlanta Artists of the Decade” shortlist, most of those artists would have an album included on this list, so I feel like it is a good snapshot of not just where the scene is at today, but where it has been heading for the latter part of the ’00s. There is so much diversity in sound and so much talent in this city, and if you have any interest at all in Atlanta’s music scene, don’t let anything on this list slip by you, because all twenty are well worth giving a listen.
- Posted by Davy Minor on December 13, 2009 at 10:20 pm
- 3 Comments
Best New Atlanta Music: Atlas Sound – ‘Logos’ LP
From the very beginning of this blog, I’ve been evangelizing the music of Bradford Cox. The guy is a prolific, consistent, and an all around incredible artist. He’s from another planet. And so at this point, anyone who reads this blog is either on the bandwagon with me or not. If you’re smart, you’ll get a copy of Logos and find that it is awesome, just like everything from this dude. So I’ll spare you a long-winded lovefest. Instead, I decided I would put together a little mixtape of my favourite songs that have been given away on the Deerhunter blog over the years along with other Atlas Sound rarities and such. Whether you’ve been living in an alternate dimension and have not heard of this Mr. Cox, or you need something in between daily repeats of “Walkabout”, this is for you:
Ohmpark Mixtape #12: Atlas Sounds
Atlas Sound : Danse Infernale : Two Halloween Dances
Atlas Sound : Activation : Orange Ohms Glow EP
Atlas Sound : TIme Warp : Time Warp Virtual 7″
Atlas Sound : Airedales : Maybe Logic Virtual 7″
Atlas Sound : Coffin Trick : Deerhunter Blog Music
Atlas Sound : Atlas Shrugged : Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Sound : Recent Bedroom : Axis Tour CD-R
Atlas Sound : I Slept On The Bridge : How I Escaped The Prison Of Fractals
Deerhunter : Cum Horizon (Improvisation) : On Platts Eyott Island
Atlas Sound : Danse Macabre : Two Halloween Dances
- Posted by Davy Minor on October 20, 2009 at 12:46 am
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VIdeo: Bradford Cox vs Wayne Coyne @ ATP NY 2009
This is seriously hilarious. Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips) and Bradford Cox (Deerhunter, Atlas Sound) apparently had some beef with each other at the recent All Tomorrow’s Parties New York. This isn’t the first time Coyne has dissed fellow indie rockers. The Colbert Report has all the details:
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Exclusive – Backstage with The Flaming Lips and Deerhunter | ||||
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- Posted by Davy Minor on September 23, 2009 at 8:05 pm
- 5 Comments
Live Show: Lotus Plaza @ Eyedrum (9/22/09)
Last night’s Lotus Plaza show exceeded my expectations and was about as good as it gets for a one man live show. Lockett Pundt (Deerhunter) looped his guitar playing and singing into slow, meticulous build ups. He also played material from The Floodlight Collective with a sampler aiding in filling out all of the parts. Considering this was his first ever solo show, everything sounded extremely tight. The Tree Creature boys recorded the audio (and did an a great job, it sounds amazing) and Bradford Cox posted it on the Deerhunter blog mere hours after it taking place, so if you want to download it, go get it here. Give a listen to the whole 43 minute set:
Lotus Plaza @ Eyedrum (9/22/09)
- Posted by Davy Minor on September 23, 2009 at 4:34 am
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Video: Deerhunter “Green Jacket”
Here is a new video for Deerhunter’s “Green Jacket” from Microcastle. It was directed by Atlanta’s own Adam Bruneau (Kiwis, Spooks) and you can read about how it was made here:
- Posted by Davy Minor on May 27, 2009 at 8:09 pm
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Hottlanta Videos: Mastodon, Deerhunter, We Fun
Mastodon has been marching along triumphantly supporting their new incredible album, Crack The Skye. They recently did David Letterman and he gave them this introduction: “ I won’t lie to you, I’m frightened.” Here is the video:
They have been doing a ridiculous amount of interviews and such, so here is a three part interview with drummer Brann Dailor:
Part 1:
Also, Brann Dailor is guest starring on the new album from Atlanta’s avant-garde musician Killick. Here is a short video teaser for the album, titled Exsanguinette:
In case you haven’t heard it yet, Deerhunter’s upcoming EP Rainwater Cassette Exchange is yet another top-notch installment from Atlanta’s ever-amazing nu-gazers. They just did The Breeders‘ curated ATP festival and happened to team up with the Deal sisters for a little superjam. Here is a video of the performance:
Here is a nice fan made video for Deerhunter’s “Famous Last Words” from the forthcoming EP:
Finally, I had totally missed the fact that Pitchfork.tv is showing the Atlanta music scene documentary We Fun until Friday of this week, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you can right now (as long as it isn’t already Friday): Click here to read the entire post…
- Posted by Davy Minor on May 19, 2009 at 9:49 pm
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Film Review: We Fun
Last week I attended a screening of the Atlanta music scene documentary, We Fun, as part of the Atlanta Film Festival. Every good documentary I have ever seen either meticulously informs or tells a compelling story, and unfortunately We Fun does neither. The movie is a barrage of total randomness that ambles along playing show and tell for various ATL institutions. You see a badly shot band playing a song, you hear them say a couple of random things, then you see something else. For someone from Atlanta familiar with this scene, the kaleidoscope of sights and sounds will be nostalgic and enjoyable, but anyone being introduced to the Atlanta music scene for the first time will find very little in this movie to care about.
There had been some premature criticism of the documentary that it didn’t cover enough bands to represent the whole city, and if anything, I wish they had put less bands in this movie so they could have explored the central characters more in depth instead of wasting our time being democratic about giving enough bands screen time. For instance, the part with the Coathangers starts with a clip of them playing a song, then you see a short clip of one of the girls massaging one of the other girls, which is only entertaining for someone searching for bad softcore porn. Then you see a clip of one of the girls getting hit on and then complaining about it. Then we never see them in the movie again. Nothing about it feels connected to any other part of the film. Outside of the Black Lips, every band’s relevance is completely left to mystery outside of the fact they deserved a couple of minutes to be showcased. The Mastodon “cameo” is a complete tease. It reminded me of the movie Executive Decision where Steven Seagal got top billing and was killed off in the first 15 minutes. Putting the band’s name on the poster and then only showing 60 seconds of an interview is very disappointing, especially since their brief conversation outshines almost any other artist’s banter in the film. Click here to read the entire post…
- Posted by Davy Minor on April 27, 2009 at 11:42 am
- 9 Comments
An Atlanta Mp3 Trilogy: Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, Pistolero
Deerhunter
The new material Deerhunter has been playing live seems to be from a forthcoming EP called Rainwater Cassette Exchange. It will be available digitally May 18 and CD/Vinyl on June 8. Check out the Track List:
Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP:
01. Rainwater Cassette Exchange
02. Disappearing Ink
03. Famous Last Words
04. Game of Diamonds
05. Circulation
Here is the title track from it:
Deerhunter : Rainwater Cassette Exchange
Atlas Sound
The infinitely prolific Bradford Cox dropped another Virtual 7″ under Atlas Sound on his blog. On “Springtime Instrumental” he demonstrates yet again how well he can meld seasonal feelings into his own distinct sound. And I absolutely love “Time Warp”, definitely my favourite Cox tune right now:
Download Virtual 7″ No. 7: Atlas Sound – Time Warp for free
Pistolero
Atlanta’s Pistolero is dropping their newest album, Warface, this Saturday at their Star Bar show with North Elementary and Thee Crucials. In addition to that, you can also pick up a split 7″ between Pistolero and North Elementary where each band covers a song from the other. They are offering this free via the 200 limited edition vinyls available at the show, or digitally here. Have a taste:
Pistolero : Lovesday Dead Down (North Elementary cover)
Download Pistolero/North Elementary Spilt 7″ for free
Pistolero myspace
- Posted by Davy Minor on April 23, 2009 at 3:24 am
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