My 2013 Listening Habits

At one point during the year, my car battery died. After the battery was replaced, the head unit in the car needed an access code to be unlocked. Unfortunately, I did not have the access code on hand. To get it working again I would need to get the serial number off the unit itself along with the car's VIN to get the security code. Interestingly, the manufacture only makes this website available during certain hours of the day. So, I have yet to get the radio and cd player working. And that sums up my year in some ways. With so much to do, if something required too much time and wasn't essential, it didn't get done. Not to say there were not many great listening experiences and otherwise during 2013, but I did little to no listening in my car. Instead, cds were ripped and mp3s cataloged but sometimes never listened to. So, I think in the coming year I will go back and listen to a lot of music I acquired in 2013 but just never got around to hearing. And in some ways that is the great thing about music. There will always be more to listen than you will have time in the day, and if something is that good, it can be heard years from it's initial release date and still make in impact.

Because of not listening much in the car, my list this year is light on older material which i usually seem to spin  more while traveling. One band I had overlooked that I did enjoy catching up with this year was  Low. I had the opportunity to see them perform at Solid Sound Festival this summer in the middle of a hot, sunny day. This did little to impact the somber mood with the stage and band members bathed in black.  Some dismiss Low as too depressing, but listening to 2001's Things We Lost in the Fire did a good job of introducing me to their sound. I look forward to hearing their other releases as they continue to examine how much emotional weight can be wrought from a slow song.

Another set of bands that I hadn't got around to was JEFF the Brotherhood and Screaming Females. Both have toured and released split together. Screaming Females reminds me of a younger Dinosaur Jr fronted by a female J Mascis with a larger vocal presence, and 2012's Ugly is a testament to their chops. JEFF the Brotherhood calls to mind what Weezer used to be, fun power-pop with a sense of humor. Hypnotic Nights was a great summer time record of fun tunes for the open road.

As for records of 2013, some of favorites came back with solid releases. The National continued to fine tune there unique sound with Trouble Will Find Me. If you weren't a fan of previous releases, it's hard to imagine jumping at this late date with a different opinion. If anything, The National continue to distill their sound. Not as epic as previous releases, I found Trouble a grower that I returned to throughout the year.

Sigur Rós came back from the land of ambient via 2012 Valtari with 2013's epic Kveikur. Fire and brimstone reign down from the sky as the boys from the land of ice get loud. If you thought the band lost their noise after ( ), Kveikur reminds us that was not the case.

The Strokes had fallen off my radar after Angles, which although enjoyable, didn't get much repeated listens. I found Countdown Machine to be different. The band continues to mine the 1982 sound, with synth flourishes beside their typical guitar work. I found it a return to form that held more than I expected.

Thom Yorke's side project band Atoms for Peace released the excellent Amok to well-deserved acclaim. Hypnotic in sound, with electronics pushed to the front, the record's basis in African bass and drum rhythms and further reliance on live instrumentation than The Eraser made it funkier then expected. It's no surprise that the record was born from late night Fela Kuti listening sessions. Traditionalists may not hear through the electronics, but the basis is deeply rooted in something real.

My favorite three records of the year were:

Foxygen / We are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
Certain records go over my head. The uber-fan will say "You had to be there, man" and it seems that, yes, you really did to understand the impact or how different this music was then everything else around it at the time. Once it's been spun 50 zillion times on the "classic rock" station, even the best songs lose their potency. Foxoygen came to remind us how it felt. Thoroughly mining the best of the 60s and 70s, We are... incorporates much of a vintage rock sound, at times in full on homages, and others with a wink and a nod. This is another band I was privileged to see at Solid Sound, and there live antics did not disappoint. You really had to be there.

Arcade Fire / Reflkector
So what else could Arcade Fire do that they already haven't? It seems that they are not content to rest, with each album seeing a further spin on their sound. It comes to us fully formed, guided by the loving hand of James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem fame (R.I.P.) Some have decried the ostentatiousness of a double record, but nothing here is a time waster. Does Arcade Fire sound suffer from going down the mutant dance rabbit hole? No, if anything, it enhancing my belief they these guys can do anything.

Daft Punk / Random Access Memories
How does a cult electronic dance duo from France become a household name? It doesn't happen overnight. Daft Punk have slowly been building their reputation over their career, but in many senses this is a very different record for them. Instead of relying on samplers, the robots used more live studio instrumentation and a variety of guest vocalist to augment their ambitious vision. After one of the largest album rollouts of all time (yes, even bigger than Arcade Fire), these guys move away from their own followers and brostep boys by releasing their most backwards looking record. Interesting, it stands as a cohesive document of musical memories of a time gone by.