Jeremy's Best of 2004

I saw some good shows; I saw some bad shows. I listened to some good albums; I listened to some bad ones. So, here’s my “Best of” list. It’s not really exhaustive and everything is either in chronological or alphabetical order. I prefer not to get into what is “best” really, everyone knows that since Radiohead didn’t release an album or tour in ’04 that there is no best. So, here you go. Click on album covers to purchase from Amazon

BEST CDs


Artist: Arcade Fire

Album: Funeral

I really have no idea what to say about this one, and I think that’s why I like it so much. It’s really like nothing else I’ve ever heard. Maybe if Talking Heads had more instruments, more background choirs, more drama, joined forces with Roxy Music and moved to Canada. I don’t know.


Artist: Bjork

Album: Medulla

This is on here for no other reason then she’s just so damn cute. Seriously, sometimes experiments like this don’t work—think Bobby McFerrin—but this is great, weird, spooky, beautiful music.


Artist: Fiery Furnaces

Album: Blueberry Boat

If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to listen to more art rock, start here.


Artist: Franz Ferdinand

Album: Franz Ferdinand

I don’t care if it’s popular, it’s good. I’ll be anxious to see if they suffer the same fate as the also overly-hyped Strokes, that is, making a second album as good as the first but getting panned for making a second album as good as the first.


Artist: Loretta Lynn

Album: Van Lear Rose

It’s been written about to death, but this Jack White produced gem is the epitome of what I mean when I say I love country music.


Artist: Modest Mouse

Album: Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Two words: “Float On.”


Artist: Nick Cave, Bad Seeds, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Album: Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus

For years Shira has been trying to get me to listen to Nick Cave. I never got it. Now I do.


Artist: Ponys

Album: Laced With Romance

Fun pop rock. Shades of less angst ridden Robert Smith vocals mixed with a bunch of other early 80s musical nuggets.


Artist: Tom Waits

Album: Real Gone

Tom Waits + new album = instant best of the year.


Artist: Wilco

Album: A Ghost Is Born

Okay, so twelve minutes of feedback almost knocked it off the list. But what awaits those who persevere? Pop perfection in the song, “The Late Greats.”

BEST SHOWS

Rufus Wainwright: February 20, Riviera Theater and October 13, Vic Theater. I preferred the February show where Rufus played with a full band that allowed his flamboyance to shine through. At the Vic show I was busy keeping Shira from hurling herself on stage as he sang with just piano and guitar. Awesomely gay.

Stereolab: April 7, Vic Theater. This one surprised me. I didn’t expect to be blown away by forty people on stage playing hyper-electronic-go-go music to vocals that sound like Edith Piaf and Nico’s love child—I mean, if that sort of thing was possible. But they kicked ass.

My Morning Jacket: May 21, Metro. Hair! Hair! Hair! Absolutely the most rockin’ show I saw all year.

Wilco: June 12, Vic Theater. Luckily if you have “A Ghost is Born” you can hear this concert.

The Ponys and Fiery Furnaces: June 17, Metro. The Ponys are a Chicago act that you’ve got to run out and listen to if you haven’t heard them. The Fiery Furnaces play whacky rock-n-roll circus music set to tales of lost dogs, tropical icy lands, and asthma attacks. Brilliant.

Magnetic Fields: June 26, Old Town School of Folk. “Papa was a Rodeo” made me cry.

The Hives: July 26, Metro. Okay, I’m not a big fan of their albums, but their show is a spectacle. Nobody has more fun on stage than these guys and it’s infectious.

Curiosa Tour: August 12, Tweeter Center. Interpol and The Cure. It was a time warp back to the 80s except without the Polo cologne. There’s really nothing better than watching an old man wear makeup and sing about killing an Arab.

Pixies: November 13, Aragon Ballroom. Good show, although it was a little like watching an aging Pixies cover band play Pixies songs; we’re not seeing them in their prime. Almost got into a fight with a drunk guy. He ran into my woman and I had to defend her honor. Luckily, security escorted the guy from the place before he could kick my ass in front of Kim Deal. That would have been embarrassing.

And M. Ward gets a special nod for Best Opening Act. He played with My Morning Jacket and toured with Jim James and Conor Oberst back in February. Good stuff.

There you go. I’m sure I’ve left something off that I was absolutely in love with six months ago, oh well. Here’s to a musically enriched ’05!

01289

The kids in Austin are bobbing heads. Heads fully-clad with trucker caps, yesterday's style; it seems as if it stays in Austin and Athens, probably, where I used to live. An aging rock star of the minor variety sings a swan song. I am sitting in a house in a city and the lights are turned low and an artificial fire is burning across the way. Frozen precip is called for and already accumulating and we bought bread and beer - a Gen X modification on our parents' call. It's been a rough one. What was supposed to be movie night has turned into a movie itself. If I look up, I don't know what I am saying. Three big beers and I am out of it, when it used to take a full bottle of rye. Of course I am melancholy. I know she want sto leave; she's just trying to figure out the way to do it. Soon she will, and I will be talking to you all a little more. I guess that's the way this cookie crumbles.

Bright and shiny it looks good in all lights, even the one at the bar when your tab is due. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. It would light up the night as we walk home on this icy night. Is it VT, GA or TX. An odd triumvirate. Maybe a cactus house with three stray cats lounging in the yard. I drove purposefully past the old house tonight too see where I have come from... so as to attempt to determine where this all might go.

I will be writing songs for strangers soon. If I can make it through to tomorrow. I will write the love they couldn't put to words. Many will engage and marry to my words. Some will be put to rest. You can't hear it on the radio. The stories are much too complex. More like a Vegas act. More like me.

Small Mercies & Little Miracles

I spoke on the phone to my father today. The difference between the way he answers the phone now and how he did three weeks ago is marked: where there was fear, where there was pain, where was the acceptence of the worst, there now is joy. There's a smile in the voice that only a couple of weeks ago sounded leaden and careworn. You see, my mother walked today. This morning she shuffled along the burns unit corridor with the aid of a Zimmer frame, and then she did it again this afternoon.

Dad is buying a new bed for her return; he's dercorating the bedroom; he's shampooing carpets; he's shopping for new clothes; he's looking forward to what, at our family's lowest point, seemed to be the impossible: Mum's homecoming.

I raise my glass to the NHS. Thank you Mr Bevan! Thank you.

I know you have all been thinking of me. You cannot know how much that means to me. You should know that I have been thinking of you. And that always helps.