Alice's Restaurant

By now if you're an avid reader of this blog you've come accustom to this post around every Thanksgiving. It's one of the few traditions I keep, but every turkey day I dust off Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant and listen to the title track. Clocking in at over eighteen minutes it is a lighthearted yet very profound folk song full of spot on social commentaries. Thanksgiving is a family holiday, and I don't think anyone has the right to call their family normal. Every family has their eccentricities and bizarre facets, and the people that Guthrie introduces us to a whole host of crazy characters in this song. So, while you're putting together your tofurkey for tomorrow why not take a little trip to Alice's Restaurant.

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Alice's Restaurant Massacre

Gil Scott Heron & Jamie xx

One 2011 record that I am late to getting around to is Jamie xx's reworking of the late Gil Scott Heron's I'm New Here record and released it as We're New Here. This is one of the few times I've ever seen an artist get his work remixed and it actually sounds on par with the original. Jamie xx is not just slapping a new label on the same product, he's able to take Heron's music and re-engineer it into something completely original and fresh. This is a great late night album.

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I'll Take Care of You

Wire

I've been in a punk phase lately, maybe it's because of winter but I've been listening to a ton of Fugazi and spinning the crap out of this record from the highly influential English punk troupe Wire. Pink Flag is a must own for anyone who wants to be even considered the slightest punk fan. It's a bona fide classic.

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Ex Lion Tamer
12 X U

Lonesome Cowboy Lou

I was going to write one of my special "needs to stop" posts about Lou Reed, but to be honest, he's stopped trying since the 1980s. Yes it's true, Lulu his most recent project with Metallica is not only the worst album of the year by far, it may be the worst album since Reed's other craptastic record Metal Machine Music, a record entirely of unlistenable white noise. As one critic writes, "Listening to Lulu is like watching The Challenger take off." If you read interviews even Metallica seem to be unsure about this project's release but Lou Reed doesn't give a fuck. As far as he's concerned he lost all of his fans years ago. It makes me wonder has Lou sincerely given up putting effort into his work, or is he trying some weird art experiment by exposing the beauty, if any that can be found in the most unconscionable of sounds. Anyways let's revel in Lou's past rather than his present, here's a live Velvet Underground track that was recorded when they were playing a basement gymnasium somewhere.

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Guess I'm Falling In Love

Blitzen Trapper

A few years back Portland's Blitzen Trapper released Furr an album that should be a definite bookmark in the history of modern folk rock. Then they followed that record up with Destroyer of the Void, an album that was all over the place and actually hurt their career in my opinion. It was one of my least favorite albums of 2010. When I heard they had a new record out called American Goldwing I was almost hesitant to listen to it out of fear that a band I liked so much would go deeper into their grave. However American Goldwing is a pleasant surprise. On this album Blitzen Trapper re-create a very vintage American road rock feel. They seem to be into a very big guitar sound on this one, which isn't a bad thing at all. Where this record suffers is while there are some great moments on this album, Goldwing fails to have that magic of Furr or Wild Mountain Nation, thus making the songs not as memorable. This record could either grow on me, or see my shelf for a long time to come, we shall see.

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Your Crying Eyes

Atlas Sound

Alright, I'm convinced, Bradford Cox is a certifiable musical genius. Being leader of two bands (Atlas Sound and Deerhunter) that have consistently pumped out great record after great record is a real chore, but Cox makes it seem effortless. This time last year he released five albums of demos on the internet for free and called them Bedroom Databank. Atlas Sound has always been the more esoteric outlet for Cox's music yet with Parallax he seems to have molded the sound of Deerhunter into this project making his most accessible Atlas Sound record to date. I don't want to say this is album of the year cause I've only had this for about a day but it's certainly one of the strongest releases of the year. Bradford Cox, you are a musical savior.

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Te Amo