Diner Review Best CD's of 2013

Sooo… I did not listen to enough good music this year.  I listened to my favorites but did not find a lot for my friends and...what kind of friend is that?  I blame myself for watching TV and rotting my sensibilities.  I also blame the Obama administration and… and global warming.  Fortunately I stopped watching, listening to and reading the news and avoided practicing law for December and it allowed me to catch up on the important things in life...new music and gluten free cooking.  I did not put numbers by them but generally put them in order with the CD OF THE YEAR upfront.  Enjoy… or don't.

Jason Isbell: Southeastern:  Jason Isbell started his musical career or more appropriately “came of age” in the seminal, sometimes brilliant Drive By Truckers as one of the three lead guitarist/songwriters that made the band so interesting.  If you are of an age and miss the sublime raggedness of the Allman Brother… go by the Drive By Truckers  “Southern Rock Anthem”.  Unfortunately for Isbell the band and his… youthful exuberance” almost killed him.  Happily it did not. This new CD Southeastern is nothing but brilliant all the way through.  Isbell if he never does anything else gave us a perfect CD of loss and finding yourself in middle age and coming to peace with… at least a significant number of demons.  

“Cover Me Up”, “Stockholm”, “Elephant”, “Flying Over Water” and “Different Days” are songwriting tutorials and his voice carries a nice Ryan Adams accessibility that I really was not expecting.

This Is the CD/Album of the year for me… although it did not make Pitchfork's top 50 Album list.  WTF?  Why do they hate America?

Okkervil River:  Silver Gymnasium.  Sheff and his band are long time favorites of mine and I never miss their releases but I consider this CD a return to form.  Sheff is in the blessed position of doing whatever he wants and his side trips to work with Roky Erickson  and the somewhat slight CD that followed were a not so fun of a side trip.  The new CD has been covered adnauseum and it is Will Sheff’s ode to growing up in a small New England town and I have already reviewed it but it is pretty brilliant.  “On The Balcony”, “Pink Slips”, “It Was My Season”, and “Down The Deep River” are just tuneful pop romps.  Buy the whole CD.  It holds up as a narrative of growing up and the references to 80’s pop culture are intuitive and delightful.Live a little.  More important it did not make Pitchfork's top 50 albums either. It gets better each time I listen… still.
Neko Case:  “The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You”... trying to battle Fiona Apple for the long, imponderable CD title (“The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do”) but if we get by this contrivance we discover one of the best CD’s of the year and certainly her best work to date.  She has progressed from a Vancouver Punk to a faux country standards singer, and then by hooking up sequentially with The Sadies and then becoming the best vocal chops for The New Pornographers has...defied genres and it manifests itself in this great, broad piece of work.  Kelly Hogan, AC Newman and M. Ward help along the way.  My favorite song…”City Swans”.  This is also one that should not be missed.

Waxahatchee:  Cerulean Salt:  This is a totally different “Southern Thing” from Kacey Musgraves or Brandy Clarkson.  This is dark introspective stuff and more evocative of William Faulkner than “Hee Haw”.  This is excellent, I had never heard of her and Pitchfork put it on their best of list which caused me to listen.  It has no hits.  It is solid throughout.  I think she is in her early 20s and there's a lot of angst. Buy this one to be ahead of the curve.  Think of Chan Marshall and her band Cat Power accept that she has something to say and when you listen to her you don't want to shoot yourself in the head.  This is another CD that everytime I listen I grab something else.  “Hollow Bedroom”, “Dixie Cups and Jars” and “Your Damaged” are play listing in the Mazda mobile listening room.  Seriously, this is a band and an artist almost no one has heard and you should.  Impress your friends, or at least stump them.

Natalie Maines: “Mother”  I seem to be on a twangy female binge but that is only because they are producing so much great music. Natalie is of course daughter of Lloyd Maines the renowned pedal steel player and session man.  She of course was also the lead voice and songwriting chops of “The Dixie Chicks” but their demise for me was...unlamented.  This album is brilliant beginning with the title track which she got from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.  On “The Wall” I ignored this song.  Here it is...epic.  She brings in a host of talented admirers to play with her on this CD including Gary Louris of the Jayhawks, Jeff Buckley, Ben Harper and even Eddie Vedder on “Without You”.  The whole CD is flawless and a statement but “Mother”, “Without You”, “Silver Bell” and her cover of the Jayhawks “I’d Run Away” with Louris are worth the price of the download.

Parquet Courts:"Light Up The Gold".  OK… this is the funnest CD of the year.  This is the full length CD review of Brooklyn Punkers.  I dont know what these guys were doing before but you can take everything I love from early Built To Spill and here it here as these guys thrash around beautifully.  This is car music or club music but it great music and for those of you that know me and love me, there is no twang involved.  Buy this one.  Play it loud.  Smile.

Kurt Vile:  "Wakin On A Pretty Daze".  OK… this is another one that just grabbed me at the end of the year.  This guy is really an excellent find.  Think of Lou Reed/R.E.M. with a sense of humor. It made number 1 in the UK on the indie charts.  According to Vile (which is a great name) “It’s just about my life, without thinking too much about it. I feel comfortable with the lyrics.”  Cannot pick a good song.  The whole thing rocks.

*

The Lorde CD/EP.  16 or 17 from New Zealand.  Total pop chops. He 5 song EP does not have a bad tune on it but “Tennis Court” and the ubiquitous “Royals” are brilliant.  Normally I hate this type of music finding it contrived and over produced but what she has done here, is brilliant.  Whether it was her, or her handlers… brilliant.  Look, even a pretentious, twangy bastard like myself can appreciate something brilliant even in a genre I don’t wander into.  This is not Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus.  This is talent, sans “twerk”.

Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer Different Park:  This is her 4th studio album and i was at best unfamiliar with her.  Normally I would dismiss her as “Big hat” country and “Eagles Esque” this album will not be dismissed.  Her songs are almost Springsteen like in their ability to describe the desolation, the hopelessness and… the beauty of rural American life.  If you have not listened to the hit, “Merry Go Round”, do download it now. “If you ain’t got two kids by 21 you're probably going to die alone.”  Wow.  Who says that out loud, even as an indictment.

Inside Llewyn Davis:  If you can wait until the Showtime Movie “One Night Only, A Town Hall Tribute To The Music Of Llewyn Davis” comes out as a CD do it.  Nonesuch records will be releasing:

http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/nonesuch-releases-live-recording-one-night-only-town-hall-concert-inside-llewyn-davis-2013-12-12

T-Bone Burnett who produced this gem gathered a bunch of other musicians and it is brilliant set and I cannot wait.  Until then you feed on this a little.  It is really good.  “Hang Me Oh Hang Me” is such a great classic and it is performed more than adequately here and the Timberlake dominated “Please Mr. Kennedy” is a gem.  Don’t be confused though, this is no “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” but you do have to marvel at the consistency of Burnette in the genre and the performances he gets out of musicians.Brandy Clarkson: 12 Stories.  This CD is just what it says.  Clarkson is ALL Nashville and has been writing hits for Miranda Lambert and others over the last few years but this is a tour de force and is exactly what advertises.  Twelve Stories from the perspective of 12 different women, none of them particularly happy.  There is nothing about drinking, cars and “America” in this country songwriting tour de force.  This is more like Lucinda Williams than Miranda Lambert.

Pistol Annies: “Annie Up”  This is just a lighthearted romp but it is really well done.  This is the girls answer to all those stupid country boy CD’s.  “Being Pretty Ain’t Pretty” and “Unhappily Married” are great country tunes and these ladies can wail in harmony in a manner I find...tuneful.  I am embarrassed to list this CD here but what the hell, I liked it.This is a throw away but what the hell?

Okkervil River: Off Broadway November 4 2013

Soooo..... as discussed there is nothing like live music.  NOTHING!  With Fall mercilessly upon us and winter a bad shout out away one needs something to lift out of the gun in my mouth season... with trees turning brown and leaves....falling.  But there is even more nothing better (and I intended to say it like that) than seeing live music in a small venue... as God intended.  Follow the Diner Review Rule that if the guitarist us not close enough to spit on you, than don't bother to go.  Two weeks ago I went to see Neutral Milk Hotel down at the Blue Note in Columbia and it was an epic show... but nothing like this.

My son Jon of St. Louis Wing Review fame was finishing up a brutal Fall concert schedule and was wing man.  Jon had come fresh from a dinner with my in-laws which I ...missed.  It had been a long weekend of family with everyone in town for a wedding but they were gone now and this would be a finale to 3 nights of being slightly...over served. 

Off Broadway has morphed into one of the more pleasant places to see a show.  The new management (now several years in place) has...

*Opened a courtyard and made that the entrance which improved on the rat maze feel the old entrance had...like you were coming into a closet or something.
*Removed wagon wheel light fixture which though "classic" blocked the view from the shitty balcony and cluttered the room.
*Further uncluttered by removing all the crap off the walls replacing them with iconic (if boring) posters of musicians, many of whom are flipping the bird.
*Torn out the beautiful long bar and replaced it with a much smaller and more manageable  one.  It is not as pretty and you will wait in line but there is never any question of being ignored or when it is "your turn".
They have not fixed the bathrooms which remain abysmal though clean.  They do discriminate against the "bowel challenged" (I might adopt that as a description for my celiac) but I would suspect that is a 5 figure to 6 figure fix which is hard to justify,  A port-o-potty rental for the courtyard might be an idea though or even a bathroom out there... I don't know.  Bottom line is that they have made it into a much more friendly venue, and the shows run on time which is something former management could never seem to get done.

The other nice thing about it is that if you get there for the opener, you are likely to see the headliner, or headliners, walking around.  Like Richard Gere in "Officer and a Gentlemen", they got nowhere else to go!  Unless they want to hide in the attic like green room there are very few choices.  I was there early because I was excited about the show and needed to stake out standing space for Jon and myself and got to chat up Will Sheff in the drink line.  He is a pretty unassuming guy and has boyish looks.  I was able tot ell him how much I liked his music and he was polite and friendly.  I did not make him get in a pic with me... I was proud of myself for maintaining that tiny...TINY bit of dignity.  The last time I saw Sheff was at the Pageant where he did a standoffish set and was so drunk that he forgot a verse of "Westfall" but..... I am a fan.

Will Johnson opened.  Johnson is from Kennett Missouri (If It Makes You Happy) and now lives in Austin.  He interested me 15 years ago with his main band Centromatic but has a lot of solo stuff out as well as a tribute CD he did with Jay Farar.  Bottom line was he played solo and he was...great.  Kind of a Kenny Logins (Logins and Messina) voice but then he would get all dark and whispery and his guitar is just...haunting. He played about a 50 minute set and was impressive enough for me to buy his new CD. 

I had been off to the side of the stage but after Johnson left the weak willed or weak bladdered headed off and I moved in and camped front row (standing) slightly off center and was thrilled, once again by the tininess of people who go see live music.  Whether it is a genetic thing with music lovers or whether it is because they are more apt to abuse themselves with cigarettes and alcohol stunting growth... it is great to be over 6 foot at a live show.  Jon showed up and we had nothing but these sweet, elf size music lovers in front of us, so much so that I that I was able to move several more people in front of me (because you don't want to be a dick and block other people's view just because you can) and peer over their heads.  It is, by the way, considered poor form to place your drinks on their heads.

Okkervil came on at the crack of 9:30.  Late for a school night but it had been tweeted by venue that it was the schedule, and it was, so I could pace myself mentally and cocktail-wise. Sheff came on with a crack 5 piece band and simply killed it, tore it up, beat it up bloody, right from the start.  He lit into two tracks from the new album, "It Was My Season" and "Balcony" which really got everyone going but after that he tore into some his great, old, angry songs from Black Sheep Boy, "For Real" at which point he owned the audience and the show.

Their new album, "Down The Deep River" is a really mature work and it hearkens back to the earlier days of the band with a lot of accessible introspection.  Sheff has been all over the rock press and NPR promoting this and everyone seems to make it out as this loveable look back at growing up in a small New England town.  Can New England be pastoral?  I don't think so and I would argue that Sheff does not either.  There is joy, sadness and God bless him, teen angst.  The songs recall all types imagery from the 80s and they are sweet... with an edge.  I don't know what this was.

This show was a killer.  An artist who is re-peaking after a little thrashing around who really knows how to put on a live show.  This size venue is PERFECT for him, and for the audience.

Will Johnson Opened!