2009 Wrap #3: Eric Deines

nite jewel good evening (human ear) a strangely divisive album– lurved by the likes of gorilla v. bear, but kinda shunned by the likes of pitchfork. for me, this album gave a warm, human heartbeat to the neu italo-disco jams i had mostly avoided for an overall off-putting coldness. i’ve heard complaints about ramona’s voice, though i think it’s universally likeable, lovely and totally cosmic (see: her new collaboration jam with dam funk). pitchfork poo-poo’ed its production while applauding works from washed out, neon indian and small black, all of which share a way similar production. i surmise that “good evening” came out a few months before the youngsters let p4k know they were ready to get behind such a sound. or maybe not.  but you know…unlike those artists, this is not music for a high-noon, highlife-smashing pool party. maybe these jams are for the 3 a.m. pool break-in, as you slink around in the murky blue light, your eyes half-open but glowing like the moon. and aside for some jams i’ve heard from this new san fran’ band, dominant legs, nothing for me in recent memory has captured the spirit of arthur russell’s bedroom disco better.  i’ve jammed good evening more than any other album this year. i’ve danced to it, drank to it, smoked to it, made love to it, turned friends on to it, geeked out to it, cooked dinner to it and done dishes to it. i suggest you do the same.

dirty projectors bitte orca (domino) you know an album is great when it makes you way jealous, right? in a year rife with prince-isms, no one takes flight with the experimental r&b side of the purple one quite like dave longstreth. he and his band are at the top of their games. hyper-ambitious, rediculously complex and endlessly inspiring without losing the humor and sensuality of a human touch. the “next david byrne” hyperbole myself and others had spit regarding this band was pretty well vindicated this year — by none other than byrne himself.

the xx xx (young turks/xl) to my knowledge, erlend øye was the first to note the chris isaac similarities in a recent interview. while i thought the album was dead sexy upon first listen, this one-liner let me hear the album with a new set of ears — or maybe hear with the proper set of ears. or maybe the year’s sexiest album got that much sexier. a wholly different approach to r&b than dirty projectors’s record. this is seduction through space, repetition and sweet nothings sung into a well. i am at the bottom of that well — naked.

cass mccombs catacombs (domino) the critical love for this album i see as a bit of a make-up call for the terribly underrated dropping the writ from a few years back. i actually see these two as sister albums, as some of the narratives and themes found here complete what was started on “dropping…” and sound-wise, i think you could almost swap out most tracks without so much as a raised eyebrow. so why so much love if cass just made the same album twice, huh? shit, i hope he does four more of these suckas. he is THE best contemporary songwriter of the hour (save for joanna newsom probably [newsom 2010!!]).

washed out life of leisure (mexican summer) i lived in charlotte, nc for four years, and wouldn’t you know it that six months after i move away, our south carolina sister city – columbia – becomes chillwave’s ground zero. of all glo-fi/chillwave artists, i find ernest’s production stylie to be my favorite, as well as find that it’s ernest’s songs i’m whistling to myself on the evening jog. we’re already on our second snowfall here, but i’ll be damned i don’t still feel the burning heart of summer inside me…maybe it’s because at this very moment, homeboy is doing his music thing out on his parents’ big peach orchard in georgia, probably wearing jorts. jah bless him.

wildbirds & peacedrums the snake (leaf) these two have the enviable looks of pop stars, but come on proper with minimal, jazz-blues kate bush…or maybe lykke li if she was really able to let go (and not like merely seem like someone who has let go). i’ve been jamming the steel-drum shredding album closer “my heart” since mid-2008. no matter, it’s maybe the most epic love song of 2009. sh’mon!

bibio ambivalence avenue (warp) this album contains what is easily my favorite jam of the year in “lover’s carvings.” it had me first with the simple “chelsea girls” duo guitar intro. it had me once again, when that intro quiets then blooms into a clap-along, bouncing pseudo-seweto guitar riff. it triply had me when we hear sung along with guitar line: “lovers’ names, carved in walls. overlap, start to merge. maybe they appear in graveyards…” And it owned my year when a lap steel line comes gliding down from heaven over it all and takes the song back with it to that spectral plane.

holiday shores columbus’d the whim (two syllable) at holiday shores’ live debut in bloomington, a friend said of the show (something like): “this is like watching the dudes are your high school cross country team totally nail it.” while positive, it’s also sort of a backhanded compliment, like “you totally rule…for being what you are.” i say long live small music made by people just like you and me, especially if it’s caked in lovely slapback and reverb, and wonderfully bridges the gap between vampire weekend and wavves.

dm stith heavy ghost (asthmatic kitty) call this little gem the bedroom veckatimist. his subtle vocal explorations bring to mind van morrison without sounding anything like van morrison. lyrical high-fives to walt whitman. jazz-tinged compositions swimming in careening choral waterfalls.

glasser apply 12″ (true panther) a total darkhorse in this race. up until two weeks ago, i’d never flipped the record over, as it “merely” contained remixes of side a, whose the three tunes were more than enough more to keep me happy….or so i thought!!! when paired with one another, side a and side b make for a lovely night of avant romance, spirit animal dancing and whiskey-gingers (aka ‘rales, if you’re from where i’m from, which you ain’t).

also really great:
jenny wilson hardships!
shuta hasunuma ooga pop
here we go magic s/t
grizzly bear veckatimest
hunx and his punx gay singles
acrylics s/t
desolation wilderness new universe
alex ounsworth mo beauty
jj jj no. 2

BEST OF THE DECADE
cass mccombs A
arthur russell calling out of context
bon iver for emma, forever ago
avalanches since i left you
dirty projectors the getty address
jason molina pyramid electric co.
joanna newsom ys
daft punk discovery
smog supper
ryan adams heartbreaker

Eric Deines is a publicist/project manager at Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar/Dead Oceans.  Fomerly, he was Co-President of Charlotte’s indie fable (fake label) Kinnikinnik.  He has tried to base his best-of list on his most jammed records (or a majority of the songs on said records).

Filed under: 2009 Wrap  Bibio  Cass McCombs  Dirty Projectors  DM Stith  Eric Deines  Glasser  Holiday Shores  Nite Jewel  the xx  Washed Out  Wildbirds & Peacedrums