Follow the link to Technorati’s article on Brendon Smalls new album with an apparently free download.  I never really covered techno so, here you go.  Yes, I’m just posting a link, but at least I’m doing something quasi-music-related besides just listening to music.

http://technorati.com/entertainment/article/brendon-smalls-galaktikon-exclusive-full-album/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+trarticles+%28All+articles+at+Technorati%29

I will get back to me ol’ self (eventually).

It is scary. It is life altering.  Never thought I would, but I am dealing with it now. I’d like to think I beat it but it is a long and winding, uncertain road.

So, as to the Jet City Redhead’s music & art blog, it is and I am, on indefinite hiatus because dealing with cancer and the treatment for it has fairly hijacked my life, time, resources and mostly my ability to think straight.

Yes, life is certainly more than music, art and/or experiences, however, these things are truly what makes us different from the flora and fauna on the planet.  It brought joy to my life for as long as I’ve written this blog so I won’t entirely give up on it but I must fight the good fight just to continue to be alive, gain strength and beat this bitch.

Thanks for being the most supportive group of Seattle art & music lovers ever.

Peace out.

JanKeira

The same with the world of music.  Some fairly bad, some slightly sufficient especially in the world of Pop,  some pretty good with only a few greats stumbling up the charts.  Well, except for Adele.  She totally zoomed.  Then we have our Rock Leaders & Legends (Wilco, Radiohead, etc.) who set the bar pretty high.

Locally, the music scene in 2011 hummed along in any event, though the media keeps persistently positing the theory that the Seattle music scene is still dead.  It isn’t.  Sometimes it’s just resting.  Let’s hope it kicks into high gear for this new year.   Since they made the list, Head & the Heart wins Local Heroes award.

The Jet City Redhead’s Top 10 Albums of 2011 are as follows:

1.  21 by Adele (Columbia)

2. Rise Ye Sunken Ships by We Are Augustines (Turnout/ Oxcart)

3. Build a Rocket Boys! by Elbow (Fiction/ Downtown)

4. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming by M83 (Mute)

5. Bad As Me by Tom Waits (Anti-)

6. The Black Keys by El Camino (Nonesuch)

7. The Head and the Heart by The Head and the Heart (Sub Pop)

8. The King of Limbs by Radiohead (tbd)

9. My Head Is An Animal by Of Monsters And Men (Record)

10.  The Big Roar by The Joy Formidable (Canvasback/ Atlantic)

That’s a wrap for 2011.  Now on to bigger & better things.  Amen.

Bumbershoot was the seriously Big Show at the end of this summer but the lineup, though it included Truly Big Names, it was simply not the best Bumbershoot I’ve ever been to.  This one was tame (leaning toward lame).  The crowds were small, the entertainment simmering but not totally hot and the headliners changed a couple of times.

Hall & Oates headlining Bumbershoot?  Seriously?  I mean, I like them, but for this event?  Weird. Not bad, just weird.  It was fun though - they did put on a good gig, but the whole event just seemed lacking and I can’t quite put my finger on what was missing other than 1000s of attendees.  That may have changed things somewhat, but people just didn’t come out like usual.  For an anniversary show like that, I would have thought it would have been the biggest ever. Not.

But summer came & went & now we’re breezing through Autumn and into winter.  More on what’s to come soon.

The Bells

Since I’ve been uber busy doing the many things I do, I’ve let the marketing division of Badman Recording Co. do the heavy lifting by totally lifting pretty much all they said about this band & their new record.  What I can and will say is that I get a sense of Oasis mashed up with The Cure when I gave some cuts a listen.  I liked it.  Very energetic but not over the top.  Nice lead vocals.  Interesting arrangements used by this melodic post-punk Sweden-based group.  The band may not like it but I will go so far as to say the record is “fun”.  So go ahead, read up, then go out & get the record - be the first in your neighborhood!  You won’t regret it.

Reviews/Interview from Alex Steininger with In Music We Trust PR and Badman Recording Co. (photos):

Portland and San Francisco-based independent recording label Badman Recording Co. will celebrate the release of The Bell’s “Great Heat,” the latest from a Sweden-based post-punk/melodic pop outfit on April 12, 2011.

“I Am History finds singer Mathias Stromberg waxing philosophic in a cold-wave deadpan that sounds like a less throaty version of House of Love’s Guy Chadwick.” - NPR ‘Song of the Day’

“No matter what comes next, I get the feeling a lot of people will be paying attention.” - KEXP ‘Song of the Day’

Hailing from Malmo and Stockholm Sweden, The Bell are a three-piece with a penchant for memorable melodies and drum machine-driven, classic, alternative songs. Vocals and instruments are shared by the trio of Nicklas Nilsson, Mathias Stromberg, and Jan Petterson. Though they live many miles apart, they co-wrote and recorded “Great Heat” together through e-mail, electronic file exchanges, and Skype.

“Great Heat” is the follow-up to their strikingly good 2007 release “Make Some Quiet.”

Being a band living in separate cities does have its challenges. All was going splendidly while recording the album until it came time to sequence it.

Nicklas says: “We were mainly working through mail and chat and I guess we should have had some more calls or a meeting to clear things more easy. A couple of days into the process everything went chaos. We rapidly cycled through stages of consensus to massive conflicts. Beasts from a biblical hell took turns in throwing series of harsh words at each other and I recalls some gloomy but now amusing quotes”:

“OK, I quit the band!”
“You can do whatever you want with that record. I’m not in it any more.”
“You can redo the vocals yourselves. I am not going to give in to just anything.”
“Fuck this! It’s really not worth it.”

“I am not sure how it happened,” he continues, “but we finally ended up with the first sequence that we had came up with and we are all very happy with it now. The group’s wiry and catchy post-punk pop has had some significant success with sync placements on television. Vampire Diaries, MTV:s Jersey Shore (we agree that one’s a bit weird) as well as the ABC shows Greek and Kyle X/Y have all featured tracks from the debut Make Some Quiet.”

Singer Mathias Stromberg cuts through like Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, The Editors’ Tom Smith or Julian Cope (The Teardrop Explodes).

Instrumentalists Nicklas Nilsson and Jan Petterson keep the music tense and propulsive. One is occasionally reminded of favorite, seminal band’s - such as Maps, Stars, Magnetic Fields and The Cure when spinning their music.

But, “Great Heat” comes with a more developed sound than their previous, wonderful offering, and leads like a trip through computerized sounds and a balanced choir of voices to support the nostalgic glam-rock style.

The riffs, the strings, the cold vocals - it’s all there. Colored with the brilliant splashes of history this is a new and fresh take on the breathy 80s daydream. “Great Heat” delivers an immediate impact of songs that stick in your head after just one listen.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Alex Steininger @ In Music We Trust PR — 503-557-9661 or alex@inmusicwetrust.com.

Bumbershoot is the Next Big Thing coming up.  The lineup is just about anywhere you care to look and there are Big Names in said lineup.  I will be there with my camera, my blanket and my ears wide open.

Here’s hoping the little bit of summer we’ve recently seen sticks around.   More to come…

Townes Van Zandt is playing The Tractor in Ballard (Seattle) Monday, March 7!  I’m not sure, but I think it’s already sold-out.

SXSW in Austin is gearing up for its 25th anniversary with media, music, film & interactive events, including for the music portion - 2,000 bands.  They will certainly be keeping it weird March 11-20.

Coachella, a full weekend festival in the hot desert of Southern California, has Kings of Leon kicking off the event April 15, with The Arcade Fire, The Strokes, The Black Keys and too many fabulous acts to list, natch.

Memorial Day Weekend at The Gorge (WA) has Sasquatch 2011 with an incredibly impressive lineup.  This being the 10th anniversary Sasquatch Festival, it is already officially sold-out!

So spring is beginning to fill the air with musical awesomeness.  Thank GOD.

Yes, it was most difficult to nail it down to 10, so I picked 12.  Even that was tough.  There was a ton of fabulous music put out this year, but here are my top picks:

1. Halcyon Digest by Deerhunter (4AD)

2. The Suburbs by Arcade Fire (Merge)

3. Phosphene Dream by Black Angels (Blue Horizon)

4. This is Happening by LCD Soundsystem (DFA/Virgin)

5. Heligoland by Massive Attack (Virgin)

6. Total Life Forever by Foals (Sub Pop)

7. Brothers by The Black Keys (Nonesuch)

8. Go by Jonsi (XL)

9. Here’s To Takin’ It Easy by Phosphorescent (Dead Oceans)

10. High Violet by The National (4AD)

11. Tidelands by The Moondoggies (Hardly Art)

12. Fences by Fences (Onto)

Now that Black Friday has passed we move right into the holiday season with light speed.  This year had gone by so fast.

Soon I will provide my Top Ten Albums of 2010~