Diner Review : Best of 2014

Soooo… 2014 is over and it is time for the much anticipated “best of” for music.  OK, so maybe no one anticipates it.  I don’t blame them.  My tastes are well known and fairly limited but… consistent.  There has been a ton of good music in 2014.  That is the problem. There is literally good music everywhere.  It has never been easier for a talented artist to put music out where everyone has access to it.  It should be awesome but instead it has produced a numbing glut of music because there is no “talent filter”.  Everyone can make music and put it on iTunes or Spottify or anywhere else.  Everyone has a “voice” or a “vision” and they just want you to listen to their “album”... 12-14 songs that they want you to sit through and “get it”.  Anyone can buy “Pro Tools” and share their “vision”.  But the world has passed them by.  I don't just mean my generation.  Most of my heroes are still insisting on cranking out albums (CD’s whatever) and our children for the most part are stuck in that mode.  Everyone is crying about how the Internet ruined music with no appreciation of the fact that they would not have “made it” under the old model either.  With so much music out there, no one has time or interest in anything but the brilliant.  You can access the great instantaneously.  No one has time to wade through your vision or listen over and over again to understand your muse.  

So we have two problems:

1. Two much music; and

2. Too many artists stuck in the old (moldy) model of making “albums”.

This year, I was going to  not list any CD’s or Albums of the year but instead just name a few with several great tracks and other than that I just wanted to give you a play list, give you some tunes, but… when i got into what I listened to this year I real;ized… I too am still stuck in the old model.

One more observation before we start though.  Streaming has won.  In five years they will not have a CD player in the car anymore.  It will go the way of the 8-Track and then the Cassette.  Additionally, iTunes is in the midst of dramatic decline.  My generation of Bushies (The Ownership Society) is on the way out.  The kids are not going to buy music for their hard drives or to burn into CD’s.  That is like… soooooo 2009.  Still, God Blessed us with a lot of good music this year and music...music makes life better and in 2015, you can get a few smiles by enjoying some of the greats of 2014.

Toward the end of the year, Lost on the River, an amalgamation of some of my favorite artists putting lyrics to and music to Bob Dylan.  Evidently when ensconced at “The Big Pink” with The Band he wrote and then performed a brilliant Album know as the basement tapes.  Also during those months and years in northern New York he wrote another 100 or so other songs, lyrics, snippets and these were given to a collection of musicians under the guidance of genius, muse, manager, parent, T-Bone Burnett.  The musicians:

Elvis Costello

Jim James

Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes

Marcus Mumford and

Rhiannon Giddens.

I was not familiar with Giddens.  Giddens was violinist, singer in The Carolina Chocolate Drops.  Anyway, if you get a chance watch the Showtime Special “The Lost Songs”.  It is awesome and will really give you some insight into the brilliance of what they did.  If you don't get a chance to watch that, do download or stream the following songs:

“Married To My Hack”

“Kansas City”

“Spanish Mary”

“Liberty Street”

They all are to nuanced to describe.  Just do it.  Seriously.  The whole CD is worth a listen.

***

In my normal pedigree, the Felice Brothers new CD “Favorite Waitress” is another winner.  Quality all the way through with the right quality of lightness and darkness and the always perfect time and heart ache and beauty that their lyrics and their years of playing together bring.  Recorded with the Omaha Genius Mike Mogis as producer it is a dance hall, and a party and carries on their brilliant discography.  Download or stream:

“Bird on a Broken Wing:

“Cherry Licorice”

***

Rosanne Cash surprised and delighted this year.  She has always had the pedigree with spots of brilliance always promising more but she never has put out anything even close to this years “River and a Thread”. If you like female singers and songwriters this is a great album and if you just like great music this is...a GREAT album.  The whole thing is good but download or stream:

“A Feathers Not  A Bird”

“Modern Blue”
"Will you still be there when I round the curve?
Will you hold my hand when I lose my nerve?
I went to Barcelona and my mind got changed
So I'm heading back to Memphis on the midnight train

I keep my head down, I keep my eyes on you
It's a big wide world"

***

My old Heroes The Old 97’s got together for another sing along.  The Band has always been a Rhett Miller vehicle but there is something special about the way the boys sing together.  20 years gone from Dallas they know their game and still seem to enjoy it.  I would argue that this is the best pure Old 97’s CD since “Too Far To Care”.  The Cd is is called “Most Messed Up” and the theme, politely is summed up by the song “Let’s Get Drunk and Get It On”.  It is a really good Old 97’s Cd and if you love them, you will really love this return to form.  The themes are somewhat distanced from Christian rock though i would still hold that it is, good for the soul.  Download or stream:

“Longer Than You’ve Been Alive”

“Let’s Get Drunk and Get It On”

“Wasted”

“This is the Ballad”

"I’m not crazy about songs that get self-referential

and most of this stuff should be kept confidential

but who even gives half a fuck anymore

well you should know the truth it’s both a blast and a bore

rock stars were once such mythical creatures

up there with presidents playmates and preachers"

***

Local and personal favorite Sleepy Kitty killed it with their sophomore release.  The band from Cherokee street runs a art printing shop that puts out some great stuff and the two of them,  Evan Sult and Paige Brubeck moved to the Lou from Chicago 4 or so years ago and are a brilliant example of a national artist who decided that we have a lot live ability and “scene” here and they are helping to make it so.  Evan Sult was formerly with indie rock demigods Harvey Danger who had a nice hit when radio was still something called “Flagpole Sitta”.  Anyway, their debut CD was awesome, this is more of the same.

“Dont You Start”

Hold Yr. Ground”

“Batman The Ride”

This is loud music for my taste which makes it even better.  Her voice aches and his drumming…”spot on”.

“To whoever stole the Dodge Caravan,

In December 2010

I hope you graduated High School

And your not doing 12th grade again.

What do you do

when your born in 63118?

Where do you run to,

when you get out of the starting gate?”

Ultimate questions memorializing one of what has become the epidemic of touring band van thefts in out beautiful little city.

***

OK, the Last CD is probably not going to be for most of you but… Su Kil Moon (Mark Kozelek) is likely an acquired taste for moth but if you love atonal, brilliant (heart wrenching) songs about life and...life, the CD “Benji” cannot be beat.  He played for years to critical acclaim with The Red House Painters but his solo stuff with Sun Kil Moon is just stripped down and painful.  The songs are like Springsteen Nebraska without… Springsteen.  Download or stream:

“Richard Ramierez Died Today”

“Pray For Newtown”

“Carissa”

“Richard Ramirez died today of natural causes

These things mark time and they cause pause

Think about we were kids scared of taps on the window

What’s under the bed and what’s under the pillow

And the jim jones massacre got in our heads

And the TV headlines elvis presley's dead

And the ayatollah who too many? committed(?) hostages

and ronald regan died of ---”

As Omar from “The Wire” would say…”Indeed.”

***

Laundry List of other artists and songs who did great stuff in 2014:

1. Kurt Vile:  He just rocks and rocks hard in a Lou Reed patois that I love.  His CD KV Crimes is good all the way through but download or stream “Walkin On A Pretty Daze”.

2. Lydia Loveless:  Sweet heart wrenching, rocking country.  Tanya Tucker on steroids and not over produced.  Download or stream “Hurt So Bad”.

3. Curtis mc Murtry:  Son of the brilliant and (by me) lionized James Mc Murtry debuted with a really solid freshman effort that continues to prove that good genes count for a lot.  the kid is a thoroughbred songwriter.  Dowload or stream “Ghost In My Bed”.

4. My fave Mike Doughty (Soul Coughing) came out with “Live at Kens House”.  Download or stream “St. Louise is Listening.”

5. Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) came out with a great CD showing he is still cat fucking Stevens.  Download or stream “You Are My Sunshine”.

There is more but folks… you gotta put in the work.  Let’s see what 2015 brings but follow my advice and buy the upgraded Spotify and cur commercials out of your life and stream whatever you want, whenever you want.  I will be posting a best of 2014 play list for streaming to all comers.