If It's Too Loud...

It appears Jeff and I finally agree on a release, and it makes sense. He was the one who introduced me to Laura Stevenson and her song "Masters of Art." "Masters of Art is quite possibly one of the most perfect indie pop songs ever recorded. While nothing on Wheel  quite captures that level, it's by far her most solid album yet. Even though she used to be in Bomb the Music Industry, there is virtually no sign of her pop punk/ska past in this collection of songs. They exist somewhere between folk and indie pop, with some leaning a bit more heavily towards one of the sides than another. She has always reminded me of Tanya Donelly's earlier solo work. On Wheel , "Runner" is the obvious single and by far the most poppy and catchiest song on the album. "Bells & Whistles" and "Eleanora" are my own personal favorites. Be warned, though. I went to see Laura Stevenson earlier this year, and as great as the show was, I was the oldest p...

Since Sonic Youth is my favorite all time band, I couldn't wait to hear what the various members are getting up to now that Sonic Youth is seemingly done. Even when I first heard The Eternal , something about it seemed final and I fully expected it to be their last. Of course, the way the band ended was the one way I couldn't accept, and it makes me want to hate Thurston Moore's new project, Chelsea Light Moving. Fortunately (Unfortunately?), I still love this album.  It sounds more like a more polished  Evol era Sonic Youth, but Thurston is allowed to explore his more punk and metal influences more than he ever did in Sonic Youth. "Sleeping Where I Fall" starts off like a typical Sonic Youth song, but devolves into European death metal sludge. The psychedelia of the last few Sonic Youth albums is almost completely gone (despite "Groovy & Linda" being a song title) and has been replaced with much more aggression and controlled chaos. The album i...

No idea how long this Google Music sale is going for , but two albums you should note as being free: Kanye West's Yeezus and CHVRCHES The Bones of What You Believe . Plenty of other great stuff, but those two freebies are worth your time to click.

If you miss 90s alternative (the fuzzed out guitars, the loud/quiet/loud verses, the noise of it all), then you need to check out Speedy Ortiz. There's a huge 90s revival going on right now musically, and Speedy Ortiz are hitting it much better than anyone else. Earlier this year I compared their sound to " Liz Phair [forming] a supergroup with members of Pavement and Dinosaur Jr," and I stand by that completely. It has all the noise and crunch of 80s Dino Jr with the quirk and fun of Pavement. Plus, it's fun. "Tiger Tank" was the single that pulled me in, but as time goes on I keep getting sucked more and more into the poppier tracks like "Hitch." "Hitch" drops a little of Dino Jr's noise, keeps the Pavement, but adds the more melodic elements of Belly. In a lesser year musically, this could have been #1. I might just be holding back a bit in case they have a horrific sophomore slump. We'll know how their second album turns ...

The most overhyped album of the year is also the most overlooked. Thirteen years after Deltron 3030 came out, Deltron 3030 released their long awaited follow up, Event II , this year. Deltron 3030  was set more than 1000 years in the future, and in 2000 it truly sounded like the future of hip hop. Once Del the Funky Homosapien, Kid Koala, and Dan the Automator were finally able to release a follow up, there was no way it could live up to thirteen years of anticipation.  Is Event II  as good as Deltron 3030 ? No. But that doesn't mean it's a bad album. As time goes on, Event II  will be considered much better than people are currently giving it credit for. Let's not forget In Utero  was once considered a disappointing follow up to Nevermind. If you dismissed it earlier this year, I urge you to listen again. Sure, the skits featuring David Cross and The Lonely Island could have been skipped, but they got Zack de la Rocha back in a recording studio. That alone ...

As we look back at the end of this calendar year, it's important to note a lot of the other things that came out musically that don't make the standard top 10. Among the albums I really loved this year that didn't quite make the top ten, in no particular order: * Valerie June - Pushing Against a Stone * Fitz and the Tantrums - More Than Just a Dream * !!! - Thr!!!er * CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe * St. Lucia - When the Night * Deltron 3030 - Event II * Matt Pond - The Lives Inside the Lines in Your Hand * Sarah Jarosz - Build Me Up From Bones * The Dismemberment Plan - Uncanney Valley * Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady * Ra Ra Riot - Beta Love * Pillowfight - Pillowfight * Volcano Choir - Repave * Tristen - Caves * Deap Vally - Sistronix * Jay-Z - Magna Carta... Holy Grail * How to Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion * Icona Pop - This Is... Icona Pop * Kanye West - Yeezus * Rhye - Woman * Caitlin Rose - The Stand-In * MS MR - Secondhand R...

Christmas music is pretty terrible. It tends to either be overly heartfelt songs by Mariah Carey or Josh Groban, or punked up novelty versions of Christmas standards. This year even saw Bad Religion release a Christmas album , which was... yeah. Anyway, out of Northampton, MA comes my favorite Christmas song of the year from Bunny's A Swine. "All I Want for Christmas is Lowered Expectations" features Bunny's A Swine adopting a slightly more folky sound while singing about how much better Christmas would be if their loved ones would be happy with burnt CDs, dollar bin DVDs, and text message greetings. Between verses the band members have an ongoing conversation about the song, with drummer Dustin not quite getting the idea, a la Joey in Anthrax's "I'm the Man."   "All I Want for Christmas is Lowered Expectations" is available for free on Bunny's A Swine's Bandcamp page . You can also head over to their website for even more info...

I'll admit it: I didn't really like Tristen's Caves  when it was first released. I discovered Tristen opening up for Justin Townes Earle last year and was completely blown away. I even wrote about her in a hysterical, blubbering way for my previous blog . Her previous album, Charlatans At the Garden Gate  was more of alt-pop country. It had all the hooks and catchy songs of pop country, but you'd never confuse her with Taylor Swift. Then Caves came out. Tristen dropped almost all of the twang and replaced it with synthesizers. Upbeat, synth laden pop just isn't my thing and I was quick to dismiss the entire album. A couple days later I went back just to listen to "No One's Gonna Know," the album's lead track. I kept surprising myself with how much I liked, and then loved that one song. And then I kept going back, listening to more and more of the album. I started to realize that the songs I dismissed as kiddie stuff on first listen were actuall...

If an artist releases two albums, and they're both your favorite albums of their respective release years, there's a chance that they might be your favorite recording artist, right? I don't know how I tripped up on Lissie back in 2010 when Catching a Tiger came out, but I know that my wife was really, really tired of hearing a number of the songs over and over again. She put out a covers EP a couple years ago, but it seemingly took forever for the newest album to come out, and it was worth the wait. The album leads off stronger than her first album and doesn't really stop. "Shameless" is a mid-tempo rocker about fame, "Mountaintop Removal" a solid-but-misguided protest song, "Further Away (Romance Police)" feels like a time warp into the 1980s. So many interesting sounds from start to finish create a really strong, cohesive album from start to finish. Long and short? Lissie really shouldn't be this good. Her cover versions a...

I've been a fan of Jason Isbell ever since he days with the Drive-By Truckers . As much as I enjoyed his solo work, there was always a little something missing from each album. I had assumed it was having the more rocking songs by Mike Cooley or Patterson Hood to break up the more laid back down tempo songs Isbell tends to write. Southeastern  proved me wrong. I wish I could put my finger on exactly what it was, but it doesn't really matter since Isbell found it himself. Southeastern had the potential to be a complete nightmare. It's his first album newly sober and the first after his marriage to Amanda Shires (who also performs on the album). It's kind of a running joke that artists lose their edge after sobriety, and it also tends to be true. Plus, being happy doesn't tend to lead to great art, either. Southeastern  breaks both those rules by being Isbell's greatest work ever. Not just as a solo artist: Ever. He's found inspiration in both sobriety (...

My #2 album of the year is Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside's Untamed Beast . Ken saw them live earlier this fall , and he's pretty much the reason why I'm a fan. With that said, a confession: the debut album, Dirty Radio ? Really uneven for me. "Danger" was off the charts awesome, but it didn't hold up so well for me. Part of it is because the whole jazzy/blues thing is not always my cup of tea, so my expectations for her new album were not terribly high. The album works really well for me in part because a lot of the blues parts are put in the backseat in favor of a more rockin' point of view. It results in a moodier album with a lot of attitude, and, frankly, a lot of sexuality oozing out of every pore. It means more mid-tempo songs like "She Told Me" have a significant purpose while sexy rockers like "Lip Boy" or "Do Me Right" are equal parts fun and frolicky. It's really well-crafted, and doesn't suffe...

Only one release of note: Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside - Summer EP : Man, Sallie Ford loves singing about sex. I'm not sure if these are new songs or outtakes from the excellent Untamed Beast , but this EP has three excellent songs sandwiched between a fun instrumental and another decent effort, something that is rare for an indie EP period. "Lips N Hips" in particular has been stuck in my head for two days running now.

I probably would have ranked this higher on the list, but it's supposed to be albums and this is a three song single, so #10 it is! Instead of following up 2011's unbelievably great The King in Yellow  with another album, the Dead Milkmen opted to release four 7" singles throughout 2012 and 2013. The most recent, "Welcome to Undertown," is my favorite of the batch. The beauty of the Dead Milkmen's return to recording is how well the songs hold up when compared to their previous work. A lot of punk/alternative bands' new material sticks out completely during a live show. Back in April when I saw the Dead Milkmen, I completely forgot that "William Bloat" wasn't on one of their classic albums. Their new material is just that good. The single "Welcome to Undertown" is written from the perspective of an angry gun owner and fits right in with their classic gun themed anthems ("Right Wing Pigeons," "If I Had a Gun,...

Allison Weiss's Say What You Mean is not the best album of 2013 in my view, but it's absolutely my favorite. This was another Spotify discovery recommendation, as I was fully engrossed in Jenny Owen Youngs at the time and the app recommended I try this album. I'm so glad I did. The album is wall-to-wall indie power pop, alt-rock chick at its finest. Much like the Lisa Loeb album discussed earlier, the album is just pitch-perfect from the start, with both slower songs and more upbeat tunes landing in the right spot. Spotify has been great for this album, as there's an entire alternate take of the album available as well as some EPs with early versions of the songs. If you want a good hint as to what you're getting into, "I Was An Island," "Making It Up," and "One Way Love" are all solid choices, but this album should really just be in your standard rotation regardless. You can stream the whole thing below:

There's not a lot I can say about my #4 album of the year, Boards of Canada's Tomorrow's Harvest , that I didn't already say a few weeks ago . It's not as if the type of music they do is conducive to individual songs, and the album (along with their sound in general) almost defies description. So I'm not even really going to try. This is the best electronic album I've heard in years, rivals some of the best music they've put out period, and although I know that this isn't everyone's cup of tea, it's quite the surprise that it's exactly the album I've been seeking out for quite some time. Oddly enough, this is the only album in my top 10 that isn't either a female singer-songwriter or a group with female lead singers. It's one of those years, I guess, and it's made my ears very happy, but it's an odd little statistic. As for Boards of Canada, you can stream Tomorrow's Harvest below:

I promise, I'm as surprised as you are. I know it's decidedly uncool for anyone to really be a Lisa Loeb fan, especially 20 years after "Stay" propelled her into the public consciousness. I've actually kept up with her music for the last decade, and none of it was especially special in terms of what it was doing. It was beautifully serviceable folk music, but that's it. Enter No Fairy Tale , which is a re-entry into the pop area for her, and is easily the best power pop album released in the last few years. There's literally not a bad song here - each one is just an immediate powerhouse from start to finish, and even the slower songs feel both stripped down and complete. There's really not a flaw to be found on the album, and especially for a veteran musician like Loeb, it's a very pleasant surprise. It's difficult to recommend just a handful of songs, but "Matches" and "The 90s" are both great representations of...

Speedy Ortiz has a new 4 song EP coming out in February, and they released the first single from it, "Everything's Bigger." It's much slower and more laid back that Major Arcana , and I can finally hear the Liz Phair comparisons that everyone else has been claiming. It's not a complete departure, it's just a lot more melody with their quirky noise rock than before. It's a great song to get us out of the December new release doldrums. New Real Hair is due out on February 11. You can listen to "Everything's Bigger" below. Also, head on over to Speedy Ortiz's Livejournal for details on their absurdly extensive tour which is most likely coming to your town, quite possibly multiple times.

My #6 album of this year was probably my most anticipated release of the year. Her song "Master of Art" might be an all-time favorite, so Laura Stevenson's Wheel was something I really looked forward to, and it pretty much lived up to my expectations. If I had an issue with Laura Stevenson's previous efforts, it was that her slower songs felt maybe a little too plodding and quiet. Wheel addresses that by offering a lot of straightforward indie-pop combined with a solid, experienced singer-songwriter mentality that provides a whole mess of memorable songs on this album. The continued rise of Stevenson as a songwriter is really evident across the board, from "Eleanora" to "Runner." Most importantly, the album is really a cohesive unit from start to finish, a feeling I never truly got from her previous albums. Overall, a truly great effort. Along with the songs above, "Triangle" and "Sink, Swim" are great, great songs t...

With a lot of real world responsibilities this year including a new kid, I didn't make it to a single concert this calendar year. This is the first time this has happened in quite some time, but there is one show I regret missing a lot, involving Jason Isbell and his wife, Amanda Shires, who was touring for her new album and my #7 of 2013, Down Fell the Doves . I fell hard for Amanda Shires's music last year when a music blogger posted her song "Sloe Gin." It was a fairly standard Americana piece all things considered, but Shires's voice is absolutely haunting, and many of her upbeat songs are among my favorites. With Down Fell the Doves , we absolutely have her most ambitious effort yet, a significant change from her earlier, violin-based songwriting work. From the highlights like "Devastate" and "Bulletproof" to more complicated songs like the title track and "Look Like a Bird," we're watching the evolution of a songwrite...

This just dropped overnight (do the kids still say dropped?), so I can't vouch for it being any good, but I can vouch for it being free. Free mixtapes tend to be the domain of new, rising hip hop acts and are rarely used by established legends like Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes. They could have easily saved a collaboration for an actual album, but instead they're offering it for free. There aren't even sketchy download codes and email entries that make you start to wonder if you're being phished. It even features A Tribe Called Quest, Redman, Raekwon, Big Daddy Kane, and more. It's 28 tracks including skits, so I'm sure it can't all be "Scenario," but really, what can be. Before you head off to work, download The Abstract & the Dragon   here . If you're not ready for that level of commitment, you can stream the entire thing below.

This might end up being the last week for true new releases for some time. The holidays tend to be pretty slow on a whole. If there's a new release to discuss, this post will be happening, but as it stands... Childish Gambino - because the internet : Let's get this out of the way - it's not Camp . Camp was a revelation in part because it felt a lot different from his earlier mixtapes and felt like a cohesive unit. because the internet is certainly cohesive, and reflects the clear struggles that Glover has publicly struggled with in terms of fame and such. In the Year of Yeezus and a new Jay-Z and the rise of the A$AP mob, this feels like it's struggling to fit in, and it's interesting enough to not be boring, but, honestly, kind of boring enough to not be great. I'm far from done with this album, but it's...different. If you're expecting Camp , you're not going to get it. Brendan Benson - You Were Right : I was probably a fan of Brendan...

As we continue with our looks back at the year, my #8 album of the year is Wildewoman by Lucius. Lucius is really a band I only know because of Spotify. Sometime earlier this year they launched their often-hilarious discovery tool, and I can't remember at this point what band it compared Lucius to, but it did offer up an EP of theirs for me that I thought was decent. It didn't blow my mind, but I really enjoyed it. It had a fun lo-fi quality to it, and felt like a fun musical project more than anything else. Eventually, I tripped up on their debut full-length, Wildewoman , and I was shocked at the advances they made musically. Where the EP felt like a basement recording with a bunch of Casio keyboards, faux effects, and drum machines, the album was a far more ambitious affair. Lucius is a five piece with two female lead singers, and so the album definitely has a "this is what a modern girl group would sound like" vibe to it. Very dependent on full-sounding ...

Well, you have to give Macauley Culkin credit: He really just does whatever he wants and doesn't worry about public perception. He's not showing up in straight to DVD movies or Dancing with the Stars  in order to stay in the public eye. The last thing I remember seeing him in was a Sonic Youth video , and that was in 2004. Even so, did anyone imagine him showing up as a member of The Pizza Underground, which is apparently a band that exclusively spoofs The Velvet Underground songs by making them about pizza, "Weird Al" style? Sample lyrics include "I'm beginning to eat a slice" and "I'm waiting for the delivery man." According to their Bandcamp page , Culkin has contributed "percussion/kazoo/vocals" to the recording. Just remember when you're watching Home Alone  this month, this is what he's using his residuals for. The Pizza Underground Demo by The Pizza Underground

My #9 album this year is a favorite here at If It's Too Loud, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's Ripely Pine . This album is so good, so interesting, so utterly different than anything else that's been released this year that it was in definite consideration for the top spot for me. That it's ranking #9 on my list is not a condemnation of Ripely Pine but more a reflection of how consistent a lot of the releases were this year. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper has been recording and releasing music for a few years now, and the Portland, Maine native actually won a Boston Music Award in 2010 for best folk artist. Ripely Pine is her first proper studio album following a number of home recording releases that were impressive in many ways. You only realize the true potential of what she's capable of with this album though, an album that trades off a more standard modern folk feel with some truly epic instrumentation and motifs. It's difficult to make songs over six minutes...

Photo by  Catherine Ceresole This level of amazingness pretty much never happens. Lee Ranaldo, Rolling Stone 's 33rd greatest guitarist of all time, ran a guitar clinic in NYC last month. At Other Music he gave a demonstration showing some of his more unusual techniques he has utilized for playing a guitar. Everyone who was able to attend got an up close look at how he uses pedals, drum sticks, a bow, hanging a guitar from the ceiling, etc. Video has surfaced of the event, which you can watch below. The highlights for me were the bored teenager who had to have been dragged by his dad, and Lee telling the crowd not to be precious with their instruments. Check out Lee Ranaldo's website here . Also, make sure to see Lee Ranaldo and The Dust supporting their fantastic new album when they come to your town. Dec 10 San Jose, CA — The Blank Club,   w Bill Orcutt/Jacob Felix Heule duo Dec 11 San Francisco, CA — The Chapel,   w Bill Orcutt/Jacob Felix Heule duo Dec 1...

Over the next few weeks, Ken and I will be offering up our best musical stuff of 2013. I'm getting the ball rolling with my #10 album of 2013, Bleached's Ride Your Heart . I actually came to this album extremely late. This album came out in April, but I don't recall seeing a ton of buzz about it until somewhat recently, when the video for " Love Spells " starting hitting the music blogs. Ken and I have texted back and forth about what this song, and, really, this album is reminiscent of, but I can't really place it. It's not really Dum Dum Girls, it might have some hints of Best Coast, but whatever it is, it's really caught my ear and became a favorite very quickly. They are going to be part of the Weezer cruise this coming February, however, so if that gives you any idea of the sort of enjoyable poppiness that this band is specializing in for their debut album, take that as you will. Highlights of the album include "Love Spells," ...

I have nothing against Pearl Jam, but I'm more than a little sick of them covering Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World." Covers are usually special and unexpected. This is done at virtually (if not literally) every show Pearl Jam plays. Also, of Neil Young's entire catalog they choose "Rockin' in the Free World?" Can't they throw out "Cortez the Killer" or "Like a Hurricane" once in a while? It's getting to be their "Freebird" and it's not even their song. So why am I writing about it you ask? Maybe because when they performed it in Portland recently they had all three members of Sleater-Kinney on stage to perform it. All three members of Sleater-Kinney. They haven't been on a stage together in seven years. I love Wild Flag and all, but Sleater-Kinney reunion please now thank you? Also, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey from The Minus Five were there, too. Did you ever think you'd see the day...

We're fully in the end-of-the-year doldrums right now, with a very lean new release schedule. Muse - Live at Rome Olympic Stadium : Muse is known for being a superlative live band, and they've released at least two live albums now to capitalize on it. This is not as good as H.A.A.R.P. , but this assumes live albums are anything but inessential. They never capture the true breadth of a live band's performance, and often end up sounding flat and hollow. Good for hardcore fans, but otherwise you should just skip this. Throwing Muses - Purgatory/Paradise : The first new Throwing Muses release in a long time, it sounds pretty much like what you'd think a Throwing Muses album would sound like today. It's very heavy on the Hersh tones, which isn't a bad thing, but this might be stronger in the multimedia sense, as the physical release comes with a companion book. As a purely audio appearance, though, it's a nice return for a band that's been gone a lit...

Every month, Amazon.com puts up 100 albums for $5 each. Ones that may be of interest to readers: * She & Him - A Very She & Him Christmas * St. Lucia - When the Night * Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid * The Velvet Underground - The Very Best of The Velvet Underground * Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album) * Mike Doughty - Circles * Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes * Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire * Tom Waits - Anthology of Tom Waits * Telekinesis - Dormarion * The Misfits - Walk Among Us * Old 97s - Too Far To Care