Ohmpark’s Top 25 Albums of 2011

Back in 2009, I listened to approximately 75 records that came out of Atlanta that year. This year, I blogged about roughly 75 records, and for every album I discussed, there were at least five I listened to and didn’t blog about. The quantity of music being made in this city is growing exponentially, and the Atlanta music scene runs extraordinarily deep. So needless to say, this was the most difficult year-end list to put together yet.

On a technical note, my 2011 year-end list eligibility extends through the 2010 holiday season because I like to be able to spend enough time with a record to properly evaluate it. So, any record that was not widely available before Thanksgiving this year will go into consideration for 2012.

Here are my twenty-five favourite albums from Atlanta this year:

25. Cassandras : Hari Pari Mandala Gosthi

24. Dark Room : Gothic Picnic

23. We The Lion : Boy Oh Boy

22. Easily Suede / Carey : Good Health Guide

21. Cassandras : Cassandras: 3 Songs

20. Book Club : Ghost

19. Warning Light : Wild Silver

18. Djarum : Don’t Let Me Down

17. Places : The Future

16. Nomen Novum / Magicicada / Tree Creature : Three Way Split

15. The Back Pockets : Fast Cloud Slow Cloud

14. Lid Emba : Terminal Muse: Blue

13. Vocabulary : Faded Days

12. Time Wharp : later.

11. Atlas Sound : Parallax

10. Mastodon : The Hunter

9. Places : Half-Dones

8. New Animal : Eleven Songs

7. Places : March

6. Spirits and the Melchizedek Children : We Are Here To Save YOU!

5. Lyonnais : Want For Wish For Nowhere

4. The Electric Nature : Mount Analogue

3. Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun : Wildfire

2. Little Tybee : Humorous To Bees

1. New Animal : New Animal

The story of Atlanta’s independent music scene in 2011 was the rise of a new wave of artists that came out of nowhere and upped the ante on everyone else. Only four acts on this list (veteran mainstays Mastodon, Atlas Sound, The Back Pockets, and Nomen Novum) have appeared on my best Atlanta album lists in either 2010 or 2009. That’s a symptom of the fact that there’s a new generation of local musicians dominating the scene. And at the head of this new class is New Animal.

New Animal‘s meteoric rise over the course of 2011 is unparalleled. Without a label backing them, with very little major publication support, and without even playing a single show ever, New Animal became one of the Internet’s buzziest bands early on in the year solely based on the strength of their 75-minute self-titled masterpiece. It’s hard for me to think of another record with fifteen songs where I love each and every single one. And what’s even more impressive is that they continued to output new material seemingly on a monthly basis, creating a catalog in one year vaster and more compelling than most artists do over a lifetime. There is simply no musical artist in the world that’s had a more impressive year.

My #2 and #3 spots went to outfits that have been on their own upward swing lately, each respectively creating an epic record that delivered on all the brilliance and potential they had displayed in recent years. My #4 is probably the most inaccessible record to come out of the city this year, but if you can find your way inside, it’s a monster. And my #5 goes to a band that I had previously written off, but there’s no denying what an amazing album they’ve put forth.

Of course, everything on this list is spectacular, and if you missed one, be sure to pick it up.

• Posted by Davy Minor on December 8, 2011 at 4:24 pm
• Tags: Atlas Sound, Best of 2011, Book Club, Carey, Cassandras, Dark Room, Djarum, Easily Suede, Electric Nature, Lid Emba, Little Tybee, Lyonnais, Magicicada, Mastodon, New Animal, Nomen Novum, Places, Spirits and the Melchizedek Children, The Back Pockets, Time Wharp, Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun, Tree Creature, Vocabulary, Warning Light, We The Lion
  
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Ohmpark’s Top 40 Songs of 2011

Now that this blog only covers local music, I decided that all of my year-end lists this year will be Atlanta music specific. There’s plenty of sites that do national/international lists anyway. So then, this is my 40 favourite songs of the year by artists affiliated with Atlanta. I spent a lot of time with each of these songs, and if you are unfamiliar with any of them, I strongly suggest you click on the song titles below to give them a listen.

40. “Black Leaves” by Slowriter

39. “A Letter To The FDA” by Where Are We?

38. “Nerve Pop” by Small Reactions

37. “Tomorrow’s Garden” by Imagination Head

36. “Barcelona” by Dark Room

35. “Islands” by Kinisi

34. “The Battle of East & West Virginia” by Mediocre Machine

33. “Santa Maria” by Beachtapes

32. “mandelbrotset” by Time Wharp

31. “Control” by Young Again

30. “Who’s In Bed” by Jungol

29. “Children” by Vocabulary

28. “Black Lion” by Places

27. “Movie Night” by Easily Suede

26. “Edita V” by Balkans

25. “Passion Seekers” by Little Tybee featuring Adron

24. “Q ‘n’ A” by Spirits and the Melchizedek Children

23. “Lights lights” by Beachtapes

22. “Breathe” by Exact Index featuring Casey Harper

21. “No Tomorrow” by Places

20. “Far From The Best” by Cassandras

19. “Things I Like” by Vocabulary

18. “I Think It’s Working” by New Animal

17. “Pacer” by BOSCO

16. “Rise Up” by Cassandras

15. “Creature Lives” by Mastodon

14. “They Don’t Know” by New Animal

13. “Sweet Melinda” by Places

12. “cuspcake” by Time Wharp

11. “Out There” by New Animal

10. “Ivan” by We the Lion

9. “History” by Little Tybee

8. “Old Monster” by Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun

7. “Wicca Chimes” by Nomen Novum

6. “Lift You Up” by New Animal

5. “Distinguished Critter” by Places

4. “Still In Mind” by New Animal

3. “Water Story” by Wowser Bowser

2. “Millennials” by Nomen Novum

1. “Two Faced” by Living Rooms

• Posted by Davy Minor on December 5, 2011 at 5:39 am
• Tags: Balkans, Beachtapes, Best of 2011, BOSCO, Cassandras, Dark Room, Easily Suede, Exact Index, Imagination Head, Jungol, Kinisi, Little Tybee, Living Rooms, Mastodon, Mediocre Machine, New Animal, Nomen Novum, Places, Slowriter, Small Reactions, Spirits and the Melchizedek Children, Time Wharp, Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun, Vocabulary, We The Lion, Where Are We?, Wowser Bowser, Young Again
  
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[Video] Elmyr Brent Hinds Commercial

• Posted by Davy Minor on June 2, 2011 at 1:34 am
• Tags: Elmyr, Mastodon
  
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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
• Tags: Atlas Sound, Best of 2009, Club Awesome, Deerhunter, From Exile, Harken The Hands Askew, Jungol, Lee Harvey Oswald, Lotus Plaza, Mastodon, Nomen Novum, Noot D' Noot, Slushco, Sound On Film, Tealights, The Orphins, The Selmanaires, Thy Mighty Contract, Untied States
  
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Ohmpark’s Top 10 Music Videos of 2009

Before I begin awarding the sounds of 2009, I wanted to give a little props to the best eye-candy I’ve seen. These ten videos clearly stood out to me above the rest of this year’s offerings. They are definitely all a million times better than that garbage from Beyonce and Taylor Swift. So, enjoy:

10. Of Montreal: “An Eluardian Instance”

This video has just got a really nice, fun vibe to it. The special effects are utilized just right and the whole thing matches up with the music beautifully.

9. Untied States: “Unsilvered Mirrors”

There are so many neat little video tricks in this one and the whole thing captures the mood of the song expertly. I love when it snaps into the end section with the band playing.

8. St. Vincent: “The Strangers” Lake Fever Session

This video wins solely on the rarity of capturing St. Vincent playing an acoustic, stripped down version of one of the year’s best songs. Totally gorgeous.

7. The Flaming Lips: “Watching the Planets”

Yeasayer tried their best to up the ante on nudity with their recent experimental video, but having a clothing-less mob feeding a naked Wayne Coyne to a vagina monster pretty much trumps anything. Warning, it’s very NSFW.

6. Mastodon: “Divinations”

I loved Mastodon‘s science fiction video for “Oblivion” too, but this one got the edge due to how brutal Brent Hinds is as a caveman.

5. Clues: “You Have My Eyes Now”

This one is just simply hilarious.

4. Grizzly Bear: “Ready, Able”

Grizzly Bear have a ton of amazing videos this year, both official and fan made. But this weird claymation vid is easily my favourite.

3. Here We Go Magic: “Fangela” Black Cab Session

Taking bands and having them perform stripped down versions of their songs in various settings is all the rage these days, and one of the best in the business right now are the Black Cab Sessions. This version of “Fangela” is just pure magic.

Here we go magic from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

2. Bibio: “Top Soil”

Bibio has such a distinct sound, and this video matches his audio style with the perfect visual enhancements.

1. Thy Mighty Contract: “Conjugal Freelance”

I laugh my ass off every time I watch this. I absolutely love everything about this video and it was an easy choice for my best of the year.