Top 50 Songs of 2011 :: 30-21 [The world will unfold all around us]

Welcome to our annual countdown of the 50 best songs of the calendar year. Songs must be from an EP, LP or demo released during 2011, no band may appear twice. Each post contains a lyric from one of the ten songs to follow, a hint and a hook that stuck out clearly in this group. Today, we count down 30-21.

30. The Jezabels - "Endless Summer"



This was the year and the album where the Jezabels washed over the American consumer like a rogue wave. Well, it didn't happen, but it wasn't for fault of "Endless Summer", an alternately austere and bold piece of pop music. Singer Hayley Mary cast herself in the sharpest form of relief, the single best voice of the year, a vocalist entirely unrestrained and simultaneously in total control.

29. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - "An Ugly Person On A Movie Screen"

 

The mix of electronics and silky vocals gave Detroit's Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. an easy entry point to the pop listener of 2011. Building on a successful 2010 EP, the band returned with a well received full length (just ask Paste Magazine) and a track five, "An Ugly Person On A Movie Screen" that blew the collective doors off. Or maybe it was the roof, a musical convertible with the power to pick up the breezy, send the clouds home early and sound sunnier than anything else you heard this year. The chorus was full of woozy "nahs" and lyrics like "You don't know how your caged bird sings". It was, of course, critical of a world too focused on aesthetics, even if the aesthetics here were fantastic.

28. Typhoon - "Summer Home"

Sometimes it is a lyric, even just one, that sticks out so squarely it makes the whole song ache with relevance. For Typhoon on "Summer Home" it was the soaring and fragile, "it's how we start over" set on repeat in the bridge. The band attempts to follow its own recommendation, stripping the arrangement down to nothing, before building it again, though never returning to the edicts of the bridge. It was a delicate brand of folk music that Typhoon pulled off in 2011, built at once for destruction and again for framing, its edges serrated but not ill suited to construction.

27. Friska Viljor - "Larionov"

Friska Viljor rarely makes any sense to the American audience. The name intimidates us, this before we even get to a song title we don't recognize. Can't you name yourselves after an animal like these American/Canadian bands do, we think? But, Friska Viljor don't care, and they're making the most fun music in the world right now. "Larionov" is an explosion of horns and kick out the windows drums. "You know the answers to the beating of my heart", they sing as their arrangement absolutely explodes around them, and maybe you reconsider how you felt about the consonants in their name and you go pick up their recent album.

 26. Youth Lagoon - "Afternoon"

Youth Lagoon, like Beirut before him, is a precocious, multi-instrumentalist from a part of the country that most Eastern Indie Music Elites label as good for American Indian Art to be used as a t-shirt design in Williamsburg. But the American West couldn't hold this bedroom collection, and "Afternoon" was so full of rich melodies and nostalgia that it didn't feel a bit indulgent or dishonest. Youth Lagoon is really just a kid, but then again, so was Condon.

25. Auditorium - "Sunday"

If you are planning on getting in a relationship in New York City in the next few months, listen to Auditorium's "Sunday". Hell, this song is so sweet, you might end up dating it. Realistically, it describes a rosy-hued picture of life on Prospect Park West, marching up toward Grand Army Plaza and the Great Lawn with a cup of excellent coffee in hand, all in perfect time and harmony. This is your shift at the Co-Op set to music; this is your life but better.

24. We Barbarians - "The Wait Is Over"



Having seen their live show twice now, it is undebatable fact that We Barbarians are the best rock band playing in New York City right now. On their most recent EP, "The Wait Is Over" slotted at track two, a combination of glossy pop hooks and big guitars. The band bears inexact comparisons to early We Are Scientists, but their energy is different, an explosion of resurgent vocals and thrashing breakdowns. If this is modern barbarism, we will throw open the gates of the city and let the invaders in. But then again, they're already here and they're already dominant.

23. Polarsets - "Leave Argentina"



In the year that closed LCD Soundsystem's official career, bands like Polarsets proved that: 1. the cowbell was still very much alive and 2. Dancing in rock music was not as dead as James Murphy's band. "Leave Argentina" was an absurd trip to South America, full of references to "debonaire" sensibilities, nudity and, predictably, cocaine. The final movement put the listener inside the machine as the band screams about feeling drunk and glamorous. It didn't bring indie rock back to the club - it was already there - but it moved it onto the dance floor and made it do the windmill.

22. The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Barnes' Yard"

 

One of those albums that is so firmly in our collective rear view mirror by December, it would be easy to forget that Rural Alberta Advantage released a record this year and even easier to forget that the best song on it wasn't the promotional single, "Stamp". "Barnes' Yard" surged unexpectedly from the speakers, a breathless and aerobic exercise in acoustic pop. As usual, the final denouement lay in Nils Edenloff turning his neck into turnpike of surging veins, screaming into your iTunes with no regard for your safety or his own.

21. Stricken City - "Some Say"

If there was one band that absolutely should have made more noise and sold more records before their demise, it was certainly Stricken City in 2011. "Some Say" was the band's last single before going on permanent hiatus and their last chance to convince you to buy one of their records. The song was divided into a few distinct movements, a soft open, a crackling first third, and an outright explosive final act. "Some Say" was post-punk with an updated ethos but, more likely, it was the song and the band that you missed.

On The List :: The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Bowery Ballroom [3.10.11]

This review runs live and in color on Bowery's House List blog.

The Rural Alberta Advantage came to the sold-out Bowery Ballroom last night already having made a career, albeit a short one, on weird, fetishized stories about provincial Canada. Supporting their second record, Departing, thematically connected to their first, Hometowns, it was hard to say if the band was coming or going, with their lyrics touching equally on the desire to return to the places we know best and the need to burn these rural geographies from our past and hit the road. Their charm was, perhaps, in their ability to table these questions of origin and escape velocity, as they stood as an homage to life on the road a million miles from your friends.

On The List :: Rural Alberta Advantage @ Bottom of the Hill [12.16.09]

The show at Bottom of the Hill plays like a celebration for The Rural Alberta Advantage. Every band has an "I think we made it" moment, and the Canadian trio seems positive its came here in July. Touring in support of Hometowns -- re-released by Saddle Creek -- RAA found itself far from home, a couple days into its first major U.S. tour, and enjoying the presence of genuine fans.

Five months later, the followers have multiplied. While staring into a packed house, Nils Edenloff acknowledges this much before he and the band launch into their first song, "The Ballad of The RAA." It is, appropriately, a song about leaving home.

After blowing through tight versions of "Rush Apart," "Don't Haunt This Place," and a new song, memories of the July show return. Edenloff asks the audience how many people were present. Maybe a tenth of the room's population slowly raises their dominant hand. To an outside observer, this seems like an honest response, one that's very much in line with the ethos of the band.

Calling The Rural Alberta Advantage "honest" or "genuine" or other adjectives commonly associated with Canada is stereotypical and unoriginal.

It's also true.

There is no pretense on stage. Even to an audience of one, Edenloff would risk throwing out his voice (which he does near the end of the set during a new tune), Paul Banwatt would kill his drum set -- fast forward to 1:06 of "Drain the Blood" -- and Amy Cole would brilliantly fill the gaps with her voice, her xylophone, her enthusiasm, and her tambourine. On this indie rock occasion, appearances don't matter (Peronis as two out of three beverages of choice?); the music does.

These songs were written in the vacuum of Alberta, Canada with no guarantee they'd ever leave home. Then they did. "None of us thought, when we were coming up with this song that we'd have 300 people singing along in San Francisco," Edenloff says after watching a sold-out venue do exactly that.

We all, invariably, leave the prairies.

Listen :: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Don't Haunt This Place"
Listen :: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Frank, AB"

On The List :: Rural Alberta Advantage @ Bowery Ballroom [10.7.09]

This review runs in full on Bowery's Houselist.

"... In all fairness, the band played the set they’ve been touring with for months. “Don’t Haunt This Place” and “Frank, AB” were lodged firmly in the middle. A cover of ABBA’s “S.O.S.” appeared unexpectedly and Cole explained, “Our first show was a cover show and no one came, so now, to be at The Bowery Ballroom….” She kind of trailed off but Edenloff added how lucky he felt to be there with us. Of course, we felt lucky to be there with them. The band closed with its best song, “In the Summertime,” and “Deathbridge in Lethbridge,” the most upbeat. The lyrics echoed out from “Summertime” as Edenloff said the things that make us sway. This was the moment where things went unexpectedly well. And we smiled because we couldn’t help it."

Listen :: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Don't Haunt This Place"
Listen :: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Frank, AB"

On The List :: Rural Alberta Advantage @ Music Hall of Williamsburg [8.4.09]

This review runs @ Bowery's The House List.

It is the (bad) habit of live music reviews (and reviewers) to reduce an evening down to a singular moment. It typically is the first or last song, or the loudest or quietest moment of the night, wherein we substitute dynamics for substance. This crutch is as reductionist as it is not useful. In the case of band like Rural Alberta Advantage, to reduce their live performance at Music Hall of Williamsburg to a single moment would be an indie rock Sophie's Choice. There are bands who have one moment and there are bands who have many. Rural Alberta Advantage is not a band of one moment.

In a peculiar rarity, the Tuesday night show was both loaded and free. Escaping the contradictions, Rural Alberta, now a comfortable headliner, took the stage after 11, unloading their catalogue on a waiting and studied audience. Running through album favorites "Frank AB," "Don't Haunt This Place," and "Four Night Rider" in rapid succession, the band moved itself along in typically self-deprecating fashion. Lead singer, Nils Edenloff, after an unsuccessful explanation of "Four Night Rider," reflected, "well, I guess I need to learn how to tell stories." He will later tell us that they, "can't wait to come play here again." It is exactly the type of magnanimity that Americans so secretly envy in their Canadian neighbors.

We won't shrink the set down to these moments. Edenloff already tells great stories. It is we who need context. And we, along with greater and greater numbers, will have no choice but to see them again.

Listen :: Rural Alberta Advantage - "Don't Haunt This Place"
Bonus :: Rural Alberta Advantage - "Frank, AB"

On The List :: Rural Alberta Advantage @ The Echo [7.10.09]

It's the little things that matter; like the tiny (maybe pink) twist-tie around keyboardist Amy Cole's right-pinkie finger. Set against a back-drop of old Smiths' videos at the Echo, The Rural Alberta Advantage bring their admittedly small group of songs to Los Angeles for the first time. The band is visibly impressed by the size and energy of the crowd. The crowd, if we can speak in the universal plural, is visibly impressed by the band. And this might be a small coincidence but it really counts.

For a first-record tour, the band has no choice but to play their album. There is an earnestness (though I suspect they will tire of this description in time) or a forthrightness about playing your catalogue in full that suits the band well. Breezing through album favorites "Four Night Rider," "Edmonton" and "Don't Haunt This Place" in an eire blue and pink light, lead singer Nils Edenloff is every bit the cathartic frontman. These songs are crushingly personal; about places and things that are or were deeply affecting. Before the rolling "Frank, AB," Edenloff explains the song's genesis in a town of the same name and the lethal rock-slide left unexcavated for thirty years. "It's creepy but I guess it's good for a dance song." Edenloff laughs a little and the Smiths' DVD loop begins to show a live performance of "Girlfriend In A Coma."

Headed undeniably for an encore the band leaves the stage. Edenhoff comes back alone armed only with a moving cover of "Eye of the Tiger." It is unironic, if this is possible, and not entirely devoid of the athletic overtones of the original; "I got claw-finger there for a minute," says Edenloff. Cole and drummer Paul Banwatt return to the stage. It would be easy to make the Neutral Milk Hotel comparison as the title screen for "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" flashes across the backdrop. But the crowd isn't stopping this band. For a second encore, Banwatt says, "really, we've only got one more song." The crowd keeps clapping. He means it and so do we. And that might be a small coincidence but it counts.

Listen :: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Don't Haunt This Place"
Bonus :: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Frank, AB"

The Rural Alberta Advantage :: "Frank, AB" and "Don't Haunt This Place"

I was supposed to catch the sublimely-titled Rural Alberta Advantage two Sundays ago. It was actually supposed to be a date. Various things got in the way and, I suspect, I will come to regret it. Not in the way you regret missing something critical or developmental like learning to read. This is a "missing" that you can explain less and speculate about more. After all, you weren't there. You can't possibly know if it was good or bad. So whatever happened at the Bell House eight days ago, all we have is our imagination.

And like a bored only child, we're going to use our minds for fun. In my mind, The Rural Alberta Advantage sound, in person, exactly like they sound on recording: some parts Okkervil River, some parts early Bright Eyes, and some parts Tullycraft. Their music is small and taut and heartbreaking where seems reasonable. The sonic quality put into an amazon.com genre smoothie would be "acoustic," "alt-country," "boy-girl pop," and "Canada." But what does that mean? Absolutely nothing. The imagination looks for significance and fabric and, in this case, The Rural Alberta Advantage aren't in the market for metaphor. They play something that would be like an upbeat Jump, Little Children. How many references can we pack in here? Enough to get a mental picture. Because we sure as hell didn't see anything.

Listen :: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Don't Haunt This Place"
Bonus :: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Frank, AB"