Various "Jamaica to Toronto Soul Funk & Reggae 1967 - 1974" (2006)

There's something that I absolutely love when various sounds and areas collide.  This is a collection of Caribbean musicians playing soul. Absolutely brilliant stuff!

Ghostface Killah "Fishscale" (2006)

By the first decade of the new millennium, there had been enough history to speak of backwards looking hip hop.  That's what we have with Fishscale.  It's classicist, in that it sounds like it could have come from virtually any period of hip hop's history.  If you're looking for hiphop that is clearly indebted to the 70s pulp literature of Goines or Iceberg Slim, look no further.

The Coup "Pick a Bigger Weapon" (2006)

If I challenged you to put together a Bay Area hip hop group, what would they sound like?  PFunk beats?  Very political lyrics?  Hey, you just described the Coup!

And on Pick a Bigger Weapon, they do what they do.  Much like Public Enemy in earlier decades, you either dig that or you don't.

Destroyer "Destroyer's Rubies" (2006)

This may very well be one of my favorite indie records of the millenium.  It's dense complex music and words with multiple call backs to the music of the 70s. 

Christian Kiefer & Sharon Kraus "The Black Dove" (2006)

It seems like the phrases "indie folk" or "alternative folk" are thrown about quite often in the last few years.  "The Black Dove" is a great example of what (I think) those people are talking about.  It's a concept record.  At its core there are beds of ambient sound & deconstructed folk songs.  From this bed, traditional material emerges.  Kiefer seems to be responsible for the more modern sounds, while Kraus handles the traditional.  Despite its conceptual underpinings, it seems to be quite uneven to my ears.  Kraus' traditional material works, but I'm not so sure about the rest.

William Elliott Whitmore "Song of the Blackbird" (2006)

When I was a kid I wondered why the old folks talked so much about the weather.  I mean, what was there to say most of the time?  And why did they care so much?  Eventually I realized that it had to do with farming.  That even the ones who weren't farmers had grown up on farms, & they still had that (rightful) obsession with the weather.

WEW is just as concerned with farmers' themes as those old folks.  Water, whether too much or too little, death, rebirth, the cycle of life.  These themes show up again & again on his records.  It's not enough to be strong to survive.  You have to remember that you are strong. WEW is reminding us that we are indeed strong enough to get through these hard times.

Two Man Gentlemen Band "Great Calamities" (2006)

This may be the perkiest, happiest collection of songs about disaster & misfortune that I've ever had the pleasure to listen to.  Rather than focus on fiddle tunes, or sad songs about mother, TMGB are more interested in hokum & novelty songs.  The "Great Calamities" that the title refers to include the Hindenburg disaster, the Titanic, & the Civil War. 

Laura Gibson "If You Come to Greet Me" (2006)

A wonderful intimate collection of modern folk songs.  The focus is on Gibson's voice & gentle guitar playing.  As literate as you would expect from the Portland folk scene.

Bonnie Prince Billy "The Letting Go" (2006)

One of the hardest things any artist can do is to find his or her own voice.  It's comparatively easy to do work in the style of someone else.  Yet how many people can produce works that clearly couldn't have been produced by anyone else?  Will Oldham seems to be one of the few contemporary musicians who has found his voice, and is completely comfortable with it.

This isn't the best album under the Bonnie Prince Billy nom de rock, but when it works, it is sublime.  Simple songs about the quiet pleasures of domestic life.  A real gem.

Drakkar Sauna "Jabraham Lincoln" (2006)

This record exists on a spectrum between They Might Be Giants & the Avett Brothers.  Acoustic-based rock songs, played for yuks.  As you might gather, I don't really find them amusing, or illuminating, but I do enjoy the Louvin-derived harmonies.  I don't understand why these guys are not more popular, as the elements seem to be in place for more success.

The Hold Steady "Boys & Girls in America" (2006)

Springsteen is normally the comparison that you hear regarding The Hold Steady.  I suppose it's all about young people yearning for more than what they've got.  Thematically, that does seem to be a connection between the two.  But the R&B that is such a presence in Springsteen's music is not a factor in that of The Hold Steady.

I think that the better comparison is to Bruce's counterpart, Patti Smith.  Both Finn & Smith have a penchant for chanting/speaking their vocals. They are both somewhat obsessed with the Beat Generation.  And there's an edge to their songs that doesn't seem to exist for Springsteen.  In Springsteen's world it feels that the worst thing that can happen is that the characters in his songs are stuck in that same town.  But with Smith (and also THS) there's a sense that death is really the fate of some of these characters.  There's a real sense of stakes in play, even if the people in their songs don't seem to be aware of it at all times.

While I never felt a great deal of affinity to the people populating Springsteen's New Jersey, I can relate to the people in The Hold Steady's songs.  Twenty-somethings who don't seem to have direction other than drinking, drugs, and (hopefully) a bit of sex to spice things up.  Terrible girlfriends.  I wonder how much I would have loved this band had they been around 20 years ago.