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~

 Massy Ferguson - Photo Courtesy of Spark & Shine Records

The busiest and “hardest sweating band in showbiz,” Seattle’s Massy Ferguson (“MF”), just got back from Airwaves Music Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland and headlined Seattle City Arts Festival but before that, I interviewed MF’s front man, Ethan Anderson, about the band and their eagerly anticipated sophomore release, Hard Water, newly signed on label Spark & Shine Records, which dropped on October 19.   I listened carefully, as always, trying to bring you the real skinny on local music.

Hard Water shows the band’s growth in talent and their newfound strengths up from their debut.  It has an edgier essence (even with nearly half the cuts being ballads) than MF’s 2008 self-released indie debut, Cold Equations.  Favored debut tracks like “The Ride,” “Powder Blue” and “Breathing In,” are fun, nostalgic and innocent in their undertones but Hard Water is definitely more grown up, deeper and grittier, with more alt-country twang and blues, but, thankfully, still not country.  Note: Additional musician, Jason “J” Kardong, played pedal steel on this album.  Speaking of the twang – Anderson assured me they will use twang for good and not evil. 

These original songs and compositions were all written by MF except What You Decide and Freedom County, which were co-written with Johnny Sangster.

• Long Time, No See – authentic roots rock anthem, incredibly catchy tune with great hooks and guitar licks;
• Pretty Plain Jane – a bluesy ballad with enough twang in the pedal steel to get you by;
• What You Decide – a heartbreaking romantic ballad –crosses over to suit even rockers;
• Wenatchee Eyes – a slow dance love song that brings you close to home;
• Sparks & Shrapnel – cheeky, rocking little literary tune;
• Freedom County – stirring, edgy, political, in your face rock, with Jethro Tull flute impression – makes me want to pack heat!
• Idle Threats & Cigarettes –  Straight up, gritty rock ‘n’ roll even with a twang;
• Dreams of St. Petersburg –  a soft, pondering, soul-searching song;
• Good Enough – jamming, sweet bridge, awesome lyrics – the American experience;
• Aspartame – pedal steel calls out the fakes in this sing-songy ode to real rock

I suggest not only that you pick up this CD (and even their debut if you like) but that if you get a chance, get out to one of their shows.  The energy is amazing.  The audience truly connects with MF on a level I haven’t seen from too many groups lately.

MF can trace it’s incredible original sound to the very roots of rock and alt-county with influences of The Hold Steady, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and even The Jayhawks.  Other times I hear a pinch of Jackson Browne, a smidge of Counting Crows, a sprinkling of Son Volt, and a dusting of Drive-by Truckers.  With all these influences, one might think of Anderson’s fav quote – “Amateurs borrow, professionals steal” – (credited to both TS Elliot and Picasso – no one knows for sure who actually said/wrote it first) but make no mistake, with Anderson on lead vocals, MF definitely has its own distinct voice and the band puts it out there loud and proud. 

A little background on the band itself:  Anderson grew up in the small farming town, Marysville, Washington, about 35 miles north of Seattle.   While still in high school, Anderson began the band, Vast Capital, and played with friend and current bandmate, Adam Monda, on & off for about eight years.  When that band was finally laid to rest, Anderson realized his life totally lacked color and how beyond boring his life was without music. 

After a time, Monda confessed he was also bummed at the lack of music in his own life as well so he sat upside down in a chair – literally on his head – to gain a new perspective on things.  Apparently it worked.  Because of that Eureka moment in 2005, they knew they were each destined to continue to create music and started a two-piece playing itty-bitty gigs like the Mukilteo Farmers Market just so they could get back into their beloved music and play.   Their pay?  Tasty organic fruit.

Becoming an adjunct instructor (teaching English Comp among other classes) at the University of Washington was the perfect setup for Anderson’s true calling — being a “Muso.”  He explained that someone who is classically trained is a musician, but a Muso (an Aussie term) is someone whose entire life is irretrievably and inconsolably consumed by music – writing it, making it, eating, sleeping & breathing it.  A Muso’s music, as their life, is gritty and real but, most importantly, authentic.  Combine that with a Wild West mentality and guerilla tactics, they do whatever they can to advance their art.

MF came to be in late 2005/early 2006, when group rehearsals took place at a commercial building that was under construction in the Wallingford district of Seattle.  Anderson and Monda added Dave Goedde on drums and Tony Mann on keys to round out the group to four.   Then they needed an earthy, badass name to go with their badass sound.  Since Anderson came from a farming community and their sound had a bit of twang to it without actually being country, they decided on Massy Ferguson after a tractor company.  It is cool & cutting edge and at once intellectual and down-to-earth hearty and, let’s face it, waaaaay better than John Deere (definitely country).

In 2007, MF played an amazing array of shows beginning with ones for US troops in Germany. Then, they hit Holland, Australia, Costa Rica, Mexico and all over the US.

After all that touring, where they gained quite a following I might add, Massy Ferguson self-released its full-length debut album Cold Equations in 2008, which totally won over critics and fans.  MF was even WXPN (Philadelphia) DJ Bruce Warren’s Download of the Day, calling Cold Equations “an impressive record.”  The debut also made the grade by getting serious airplay in Seattle at commercial radio station KMTT “The Mountain” and worldwide on the non-profit radio station KEXP 90.3/KEXP.org.  And speaking of KEXP, in November 2009, MTV.com featured MF in a short documentary film about the station and Skope Magazine named MF a “2009 Artist to Watch.”

Little know fact:  The band is obsessed with the Cold War from the 60s, so if anyone knows anyone in charge of playlists on Russian radio, the band would like at least one of their songs played on Russian radio.  They think that would be so cool.

So as you can see, these fellas have been incredibly busy since the band had its seminal start playing to organic vegetables (well, to folks buying organic veggies anyway).  Now, they just need to hit Asia & Antarctica and then I think they’ve hit all the Continents on the planet. 

For more information on the band, upcoming dates, etc…see their website, Facebook or MySpace at the links below:

http://www.massyfergusonband.com/

http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=36562790411&ref=pb

http://www.myspace.com/massyferguson

Final Word:   Buy.  Definitely buy this album, yes, and see the band live if you can.

PS: This album is dedicated to Tony Mann’s son, Lev, who “left us much too soon”.