[quote name='helmet52' post='254321' date='Nov 28 2006, 09:22 PM']
Also glad to see someone showing some love for Under Byen. I thought I would be the only one with it on my list. I heard it again today and somewhat wished I had placed it higher than #14.
[/quote]
Oh, I didn't see your list. Right on!
[/quote]


I'm listening to this right now and it's not bad so far.

The entire album is on stream here for those interested:

http://paperbagrecords.com/player?c=under-byen

I'm aware of the subsequent dialogue about ambient tokenism, and I'll make no accusations, but I just had to chime in to say that I'm with Vivian. I tried in three different times/environments to try to take to Tim Hecker, and I just couldn't. I kept thinking, "Shouldn't I be at a gallery opening or something?" Because that's all it evoked really: background noise for other, better, more interesting art. Ehh. To each his own.

both on my to purchase list now.

I like 2006 a lot. Twenty-three is actually one of the ugliest numbers ever, though.

1. Joanna Newsom - Ys
2. M. Ward - Post-War
3. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
4. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
5. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
6. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
7. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
8. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
9. Destroyer - Rubies
10. Built To Spill - You In Reverse
11. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
12. Beck - The Information
13. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
14. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
15. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
16. Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
17. Islands - Return To The Sea
18. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
19. Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
20. The Blow - Paper Television
21. Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That
22. The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
23. Swan Lake - Beast Moans

i dig the Hecker album, but i only downloaded it because it was getting so much praise. i guess that ties into Paves' post. i'm a mainstream-y, conventional guy who wouldn't have found out about him otherwise.

i probably should pay more attention to ambient, since i was a huge Eno fan (On Land, Plateaux, etc....), but i don't know where to start.

are there any ambient albums that are clearly better than the Hecker?

I may as well put up the Helios disc. I think it's great and deserves more attention.
I should have it up in around an hour.

Shit, I'm gone for less than a week and all of a sudden there's a voting thread and most people have already posted their lists. How much time do I have? I'm never visiting my parents again.....Fuck.

Anyhow.....for what it's worth, here's an album I'd like you guys to hear. I'm not too sure if this is old news, because apparently it was recorded in '04, but I think it's great.

What Made Milwaukee Famous - Trying to Never Catch Up



here are a few tracks to get you started:

what made milwaukee famous - the jeopardy of contentment

what made milwaukee famous - selling yourself short

what made milwaukee famous - idecide

and here's the album, just because it deserves to be heard:

What Made Milwaukee Famous - Trying to Never Catch Up


so, yeah........has anyone heard this? I don't think I've heard too much chatter about it. They're signed to Barsuk. They're something like Weezer meets The Strokes. I don't know........what do you guys think?






Fuck. It's way too late to be pimping shit, isn't it? Listen to this anyway.

It's nevva' too late to be a pimp.

HELIOS ---- EINGYA



excerpt from boomkat:

A student at Berkley College of Music in Boston, Kenniff's(Helios) style may benefit from a firm understanding of what is required under-the-bonnet in terms of technical considerations, but never does he let the more austere elements of formal musical training encroach on the utterly sublime compositions that stretch as far as the eye can see. Helios provides a perfectly balanced bridge from previous album 'Unomia' - weaving pastoral charm and emotionally rich piano, delicate guitar and Eno-hatched synths, with the kind of eroded beats which seems poised perpetually on the cusp of majestic disintegration. Grandstanding without resorting to needless bombast, Helios understands that whilst reverence for your heroes is always expected, there's no need to produce a pale facsimile - with 'Eingya' giving the nod to Harold Budd, Eno, Basinski, Drake and Boards of Canada, whilst crafting a portmanteau of boxfresh aural treats.

hxxp://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=1ADA10A50F9BF246

i dig Hecker too, and had i taken the time to listen to the new one, might have made my list... but alas

i saw him in Barcelona last year right after Arcade Fire... man was that a total 180 of moods...

My list:
1. tender trap - six billion people
2. jim noir - tower of love
3. the pipettes - we are the pipettes
4. yo la tengo - i'm not afraid of you and i will beat your ass
5. the blow - paper television
6. camera obscura - let's get out of this country
7. asobi seksu - citrus
8. lily allen - alright, still
9. belle and sebastian - the life pursuit
10. art brut - bang bang rock and roll
11. math and physics club - s/t
12. the ballet - mattachine!
13. danielson - ships
14. essex green - the cannibal sea
15. mosquitos - mosquitos III
16. sonic youth - rather ripped
17. the mathletes - fort awesome
18. dyrdin - dyrdin
19. man man - six demon bag
20. the bicycles - the good, the bad, and the cuddly
21. the minders - it's a bright, guilty world
22. cansei de ser sexy - css
23. islands - return to the sea
24. adam green - jacket full of danger
25. lilys - everything wrong is imaginary
26. tapes 'n tapes - the loon

twee-est list i've ever seen. i don't know whether to be surprised that a band made an album called "the good, the bad, and the cuddly," or that no bands had before.

Alright, here it is:


1. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
2. Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
3. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
4. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
5. Liars – Drum’s Not Dead
6. Boris – Pink
7. Ghostface Killah – Fishscale
8. Destroyer – Destroyer’s Rubies
9. Be Your Own Pet – S/T
10. Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor


11. The Black Angels - Passover
12. Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere
13. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
14. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins – Rabbit Furcoat
15. Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury
16. Sunn O))) & Boris – Altar
17. Comets on Fire – Avatar
18. Brand New – The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
19. My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade
20. Cursive – Happy Hollow


21. J Dilla – The Shining
22. Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped
23. Pearl Jam – S/T
24. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
25. The Sword – Age of Winters
26. Lily Allen – Alright, Still
27. Oxford Collapse – Remember the Night Parties
28. Grizzly Bear – Yellow House
29. The Killers – Sam’s Town
30. Cat Power – The Greatest


31. The Long Winters – Putting the Days to Bed
32. 120 Days – S/T
33. Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther
34. T.I. - King
35. Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
36. Junior Boys – So This is Goodbye
37. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – Fear Is On Our Side
38. Heavens – Patent Pending
39. Hot Chip – The Warning
40. Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s – The Dust of Retreat


41. The Roots – Game Theory
42. Bound Stems – Appreciation Night
43. What Made Milwaukee Famous – Trying to Never Catch Up
44. Ratatat – Classics
45. Akron/Family – Meek Warrior
46. Lady Sovereign – Public Warning
47. Melvins – (A) Senile Animal
48. The Rapture – Pieces of the People We Love
49. The Strokes – First Impressions of Earth
50. Band of Horses – Everything All the Time


51. Justin Timberlake – FutureSex / LoveSounds
52. Pajo - 1968
53. Jason Molina – Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go
54. Robert Pollard – From A Compound Eye
55. Frightened Rabbit – Sing the Greys
56. Asobi Seksu – Citrus
57. Cold War Kids – Robbers & Cowards
58. The Pipettes – S/T
59. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Letting Go
60. The M’s – Future Women


61. Catfish Haven – Tell Me
62. Johnny Cash – American V
63. Espers – II
64. The Brother Kite – Waiting for the Time to be Right
65. The Format – Dog Problems
66. Mogwai – Mr. Beast
67. Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming
68. Sloan – Never Hear the End of It
69. Brightblack Morning Light – S/T
70. The Game – Doctor’s Advocate


71. The Forecast – In the Shadow of Two Gunmen
72. Annuals – Be He Me
73. Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche
74. Mission of Burma – The Obliterati
75. The Dears – Gang of Losers
76. Thom Yorke – The Eraser
77. Bob Dylan – Modern Times
78. Wolf Eyes – Human Animal
79. Trivium – The Crusade
80. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones


81. Xiu Xiu – The Air Force
82. Dirty Pretty Things – Waterloo to Anywhere
83. Birdmonster – No Midnight
84. Scissor Sisters – Ta-Dah
85. Submarine Races – S/T
86. The Knife – Silent Shout
87. Pink Spiders – Teenage Graffiti
88. Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit
89. Forward Russia – Give Us A Wall
90. Beck – The Information


91. Chin Up Chin Up – This Harness Can’t Ride Anything
92. Wolfmother – Wolfmother
93. The Sounds – Dying to Say This To You
94. Robert Pollard – Normal Happiness
95. The Kooks – Inside In Inside Out
96. Tapes N Tapes – The Loon
97. Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
98. Jay-Z – Kingdom Come
99. Rhymefest – Blue Collar
100. Angels & Airwaves – We Don’t Need To Whisper

bump

Islands = twee

lol.

haha, seriously. there are so many more things on that list you could have picked.

seriously.

i mean, not to the extent of something like dyrdin, but yeah, they're "twee" (as in precious, not necessarily as in sounding like the Sarah Records roster). i don't know some of the others, i don't doubt i could have picked them over islands.

but i mean, why leave belle and sebastian/pipettes/jim noir out and put islands in? i don't know. if islands are twee, everything i fucking listen to is probably twee, so whatever.

edit. ok, your last comment adds sense to it, i guess.

Alky's list is like some bizarro list where 50% of the records are 2006 releases that I loved and 50% of them are records I absolutely hated.

Also, I thought Bill said that our lists could only go up to 50 albums.

Not sure what to think of that. As far as numbers, my understanding was we could post as many as we wanted, but only the top 50 would be counted.

your avatar is pretty twee!

fucking hell, there are no tags on these tracks.

bush-league pimp job.

yeah, i haven't heard the pipettes or jim noir albums (or a couple of the ones i listed, but i've seen the titles/covers...) and the new belle & sebastian is, for them, not twee.

didn't mean it negatively - my avatar's philippe, the five year-old otter from achewood!

edit: yep, bluepencil already pointed that out - slow internet connection.

something about this doesn't sit right

Mastodon is the token Metal album.

I wish. It's not getting enough votes, darnit!

Oh, I think it's gonna do pretty well. Sask, Diesel and Alky all have it at number 1, it's probably gonna be my #1. Plus, in terms of 2006 EOY metal tokenism, there are at least a couple of other contenders for the crown (Boris Pink, The Sword Age of Winters).

01. Burial - Burial
02. Whitehouse - Asceticists
03. Wolf Eyes - Human Animal
04. Mogwai - Mr Beast
05. The Sleepy Jackson - Personality
06. Wolves In The Throne Room - Diadem of 12 Stars
07. Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
08. Booka Shade - Movements
09. Genghis Tron - Death Mountain Mouth
10. T.I. - King
11. Muslimgauze - Speaker of Turkish
12. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
13. Ricardo Villalobos - Achso (EP)
14. Napalm Death - Smear Campaign
15. Mission of Burma - The Obliterati
16. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
17. Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles
18. Boris - Pink
19. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
20. Mikkel Metal - Victimizer

i might be wrong, but i feel like what's happening with "harmony in ultraviolet" is the same thing that happened last year with "pink"- an artists releases an album that's much more appealing to rock music oriented people.



and that's actually how i see new hecker. that album totally rocks for me. it's so lound and you want to listen to it very loudly and you want to scream over it. as opposed to his other stuff that just sounded like fluffy white noise for me. a lot of modern laptop ambient stuff sounds the same to me actually. and when people add some acoustic guitar to it and try to make melodies a la "endless summer" that's even more borring. hecker avoided all those points with his new album.

On this basis, I think this would be called a single:

5 songs, 17 1/2 minutes. Plus, there is a lead/title track.

Another title I've seen on a few peoples lists that raises eligibility questions is Broadcast's A Future Crayon. It's a b-side/EP/rarities compilation of older (2003 and earlier) material. It will be my #1 on the compilation list.

I love Voxtrot and Broadcast, and I'd hate to see them disqualified and not get properly recognized for being in the wrong list.

Nice to see someone else digging this one, and the Regina Spektor...

Sadly, that alone doesn't mean very much.

wow... i've never considered an EP a single... i've always included (if good enough) EP's on my EOY list (Woman King, the Calexico + I&W EP, etc.)

now the latest 3 track "Your Biggest Fan" disc, that was for sure issued with the intent of being considered a "single" by their new label.

i had "Raised By Wolves" EP in my EOY last year as well...

1. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
2. Matmos - The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth of a Beast
3. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
4. M. Ward - Post-War
5. The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
6. Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
7. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
8. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
9. TV On The Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
10. Annuals - Be He Me
11. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
12. The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine
13. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
14. Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
15. Cursive - Happy Hollow
16. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
17. Hot Chip - The Warning
18. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
19. Joanna Newsom - Ys
20. Islands - Return to the Sea
21. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Knives Don't Have Your Back
22. Eric Bachman - To The Races
23. Oh No! Oh My! - Self-titled
24. The Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics
25. Shearwater - Palo Santo
26. Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
27. Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
28. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
29. Liars - Drum's Not Dead
30. Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars - Living Like a Refugee

There. My albums list, i'm pretty sure i didn't forget anything...

I've looked but I can't find a due date on this. When must these be submitted?

I keep wanting to make fun of these indier-than-indie lists but then I realize that mine contains just about every dance rock album this year, so I bite my tongue.

yeah, you forgot that you already posted your albums list like twelve pages back

Any chance someone can up Cookie Mountain? I guess I have to give this a fair(er) shake.

Somewhat surprised Ten Silver Drops isnt doing better so far.

yeah, you forgot that you already posted your albums list like twelve pages back

as much as i love that band, especially live, the new record did squat for me minus 2-3 tracks...

the first one had much higher highs too, even if it had that mid to end album lull

the more i look at this thead, the more i see albums that i really liked from this year that i didn't include on my preliminary list i jotted down the other night in class.

looks like i will have a top 50 sometime in the coming week or so.

Yeah, man, all those #40 votes are gonna knock it out.

it'll be a long day for me, but i ever do make it home from campus i'll up this for you. if not, remind me tomorrow

my quest begins for footage of yancy dancing.

much appreciated. i'd go buy it, but wolf like me is the only thing of theirs i've ever been able to tolerate, so i'm too skeptical

Also, not to make it a point of discussion, but after reading through most of the thread I want to put my EOY philosophy on record - it's the top 50 albums of 2006, and I take that sentence quite literally. If I heard exactly 50 releases from 2006, then those are, by definition, the 50 best albums I heard this year (by extension, I could also call them the worst 50 I heard). My list is not made of 50 albums I think are awesome or extra-worthy of recognition - it's simply the 50 best albums I heard this year.

Correct, independent of sarcasm.

you are aware it takes 6 votes at #40 to exceed 1 #1 vote. If I remember correctly, you're talking about an album with 4 #1's, so it'll take about 24 #40 votes to oust that metal record you were discussing. I'd say any record that gets that depth of support ought to beat a record that only 4 folks voted for (if in fact that's the result), at least I'd say that's a reasonable position to take, anyway.

I used to think the exact same thing. Until I realized that if everyone listed every album they heard in a given year, the composite list would simply be a slight rearrangement of album sales/downloads charts, which I can find at iTunes or Billboard if I'm that bored.

I think at least as long as you think the album is good as a whole, you should put it on your list. If it's mediocre, naw.

All I said is that four #1 votes is in no way a guarantee of high placement, or placement at all, on our final list.

Agree to disagree with regard to a whole bunch of people thinking something is mediocre being more significant than a few people thinking something is the best music on earth for an entire year. Hooray for run-on sentences.