2009 Wrap #1: Mike Treffehn

(These aren’t in any sort of hierarchical ordering, but numbers comfort me.)

1  She’s not quite everything I want from a balls-out-weirdo-pop-star, but Lady Gaga comes terribly close.  ”I want to take a ride on your disco stick”?  Disco stick.

2 Dan Bodah’s Dronecast podcast has managed to fit into my neurosis rather nicely.  I imagine (well, I know) that there’s a whole ton of this stuff out there, a community of drone/field recording nerds, but I don’t think I can allow myself to really go down that path; this is a nice way for me to episodically constrain it, and constrain myself.

3 There were a lot of really great techno/house/dubstep albums this year, which is weird in and of itself given that the genre(s) is(are)n’t typically LP friendly.  Special shout-outs needed for 2562, whose Unbalance handsomely manages the cold/warm duality/contradiction inherent to so much dubstep and techno, and Miyaan Nidham’s Nightlong, which manages to suck all the good (which is, verily, little) out of the bullshit Latin-worldmusic-lounge stuff they play at the restaurant where I work, and make a great record.  (also, quickly, Luciano’s Tribute to the Sun, [esp. that first track, oh god], Ben Klock’s One, Shackleton’s 3 EPs LP, and Martyn’s Great Lengths.)

3.5 Fabric mixes.  Holy shit are these guys unstoppable or what?  I haven’t heard all of what Fabric put out this year (esp. not in the FabricLive series), but on sheer quantity they deserve a mention.  Magda (finally), Radioslave, Claude VonStroke, and whoo-boy, that Omar-S mix, all bright little drops in my year.

4 Is it almost annoying how consistently awesome John Darnielle is? I mean, seriously, how does this guy manage to put out some of the most thoughtful, engaging, catchy, and damn-near all around brilliant records, nearly every year, and on top of it, from all appearances seem to be a through-and-through stand-up guy that you could play Wii and drink beer with?

5 On that note, the consistency of the familiar but new has been reassuring this year.  Califone?  Yup.  Mount Eerie?  Count it.  Antony?  Most definitely.  And that doesn’t even get into…

6 Animal Collective.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  Merriwether Post Pavillion is unstoppable, the Fall Be Kind EP is great, but for me, the third leg to make this AC’s un-topple-able tripodic trophy year is the Crack Box box set, that manages to both showcase their strengths, their breadth, but also (and this is the best part about AC, in my opinion), show their Fails, too.  That’s why they’re an exciting group, precisely because not everything they do ends up being brilliant, but dammit they try.

intermission (2 extra, smallish things)

a)  I was lucky enough to see The Gonzalez Cantata in West Philly.  Funny, smart, and altogether well played.  (plus, bonus points for the Drudge-sendoff website)

b)  Soulja Boy’s a little bit terrible, and the song isn’t really even that great, but this video is one of the sweetest things I saw all year:

7 The xx. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten into an album, especially one with, you know, words and choruses and stuff, the way that I fell in love with this.  A quietude and stalwart fragility that still blows me away, and oh man that voice.  When people ask me to describe this to them, I have a really hard time doing so, and I think that’s a big part of why I like it so much.

8  I woke up far too early one morning this spring (note: lots of my music-related stories start this way) and literally had the thought, “Hey, I’ve never really listened to U2.  Maybe I should see what that’s all about.”  So I did.  And, like, woah.

9 This gets back somewhat to #2 above, but is a bit more to do with what could traditionally be considered “Music”.  Slow, drone-y, abstract soundscapeish things were a big part of my year, but standing out would have to be Tim Hecker’s An Imaginary Country, a record that gives me lots of space while building walls, too.  I also liked Kreng’s L’Autopsie Phenomenale de Dieu very much, and the new Sunn O))) doesn’t disappoint.  Also, what started last year as a secret crush on Grouper became a full-fledged Love Affair, and while she didn’t (to my knowledge) release more than a few excellent splits this year, basking in the back catalog was huge for me.

9.1 I went on a blind date the same night that Sunn O))) played at a church here in Philly, and wanted so badly to take her as a sort of extreme litmus test, but my friends convinced me that would be unfair and I didn’t.  I wish that I had, after seeing the pictures.  LAZER GLOVES.

10  Other records that just sort of kicked my ass in one way or another this year, in no particular order:  Bill Callahan Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Fever Ray, Nirvana Live at Reading, HyperDub 5, Slow Club Yeah So, plus a whole bunch of Lucky Dragons records.

10 1/8  While JJ no 2 wasn’t really a standout for me, it did plunge me deep into the whole Swedish Balearic thing finally, and I’m never looking back.  Air France, Boat Club, Tough Alliance, Studio….keep bringing it, I say.

Coda: This is so awesome.

Mike Treffehn is an artist and a bartender in Philadelphia, which affords him a disconcerting amount of unoccupied daylight hours, during which he bakes cookies far more often than is healthy.  His art practice is greatly influenced by lots of music-y things, especially minimal techno, James Brown, and Tom Waits’ dimples, and you can see his work at www.miketreffehn.com.

Filed under: 2009 Wrap  Animal Collective  Dan Bodah  dubstep  Fabric  Gonzales Contata  jj  John Darnielle  Lady Gaga  Mike Treffehn  Soulja Boy  Sunn O)))  the xx