2006: a musical retrospective

so i never actually got around to putting out my annual 'best of' list for the year 2006. for awhile, i kind of regretted it.
part of the reason i never published it was because i was opting to wait a little bit to make sure i didn't miss out on including any late submissions. there's always a few stragglers that make their way into my ear just after the year has ended that warrant consideration. i've always hated how those releases get lost in time, so this year i decided not to let that happen.
the other part of the reason was because i was having such a hard time devoting any time to the compiling of my list. it's a careful process for me - not something i take lightly. time-wise, the months surrounding the transition from 2006 to 2007 were especially tough on me. as a result, i was never really able to sit down alone with all my data and music, to put my headphones on and truly focus on the songs and make some concrete choices.
when you combine those two deterrents, my plan to publish my list of favorites ended up getting put on the backburner for far too long. by the time march hit, i figured it was too late to bother with it. but now, i actually think there was a silver lining. i've now been able to see what releases from the past year were good enough to remain in my listening rotation into the next year and probably beyond that. to me, that is a true reflection of how much i liked a record. sure, there were more albums that i found myself enamored with last year. but really, aren't the ones that i'm still pulling out and listening to a year later truly the ones that i enjoy the most? i think so.
with that said - and a little late to the party - here's a list of the albums from 2006 that are still garnering a notable amount of attention from me to this day - the ones that have stood the test of time, my favorites from 2006, if you will:

1 grizzly bear yellow house
2 phoenix it's never been like that
3 junior boys so this is goodbye
4 lansing-dreiden the dividing island
5 cat power the greatest
6 adem love and other planets
7 justin timberlake futuresex/lovesounds
8 girl talk night ripper
9 peter björn and john writer's block
10 midlake the trials of van occupanther
11 sufjan stevens the avalanche
12 declasse remain still
13 benoit pioulard precis
14 beirut gulag orkestar
15 the radio dept. pet grief
16 fujiya & miyagi transparent things
17 the knife silent shout
18 bonnie 'prince' billy the letting go
19 hot chip the warning
20 m. ward post-war

feel free to comment and/or add your own. but let's not get too feisty.

FM3

i was so psyched to get fm3's buddha machine in the mail. i knew it was coming, and i could hardly wait. when it arrived, i just about jumped out of my pants (or as close to it as i come when i receive promotional material in the mail). you see, i'd read several user reviews after the buddha machine was unveiled to the public sometime last year, but i never got around to giving it a go. luckily for me, they just released a second edition and my boy at forced exposure decided to be very nice to me and send me one to try out (since i run this little site here). oooh, the perks!
upon opening it, i found mine was of the turquoise variety. muy bien! i turned it on and almost immediately felt the stress of my workday slowly slide off my shoulders and melt away as i became enveloped in it's soothing sounds.
developed in china by christiaan virant & zhang jian, the buddha machine is a small handheld "soundbox". on the surface, it's nothing but a plastic box about the size of a pack of cigarettes, with a speaker on the front that takes up about half of its face, a small dial on the top to turn the machine on & adjust the volume, and a led light and two-way switch on the side. but what bubbles up from underneath is a series of rich tones and rhythms that loop continuously, changing when you flip the switch from one rhythmic ebb & flow to another one just slightly different from the previous one in the way it ripples, crackles, and swells.
in my experience testing out this little gadget, i have discovered there are two perfect subjects for its entrancing reverberations: a sleepy baby and a stressed out, exhausted dad. sound sleep comes rather quickly after the buddha machine's power is unleashed.
below are short samples of each of the nine available loops. you can sample it that way, but it really does not compare to holding the buddha machine in your hand and letting it overtake you.
so new age. LOVE IT!
batteries ARE included (2 AA's).

MP3: "loop 1"
MP3: "loop 2"
MP3: "loop 3"
MP3: "loop 4"
MP3: "loop 5"
MP3: "loop 6"
MP3: "loop 7"
MP3: "loop 8"
MP3: "loop 9"

label: staalplaat
myspace: make like friends

friday progress report

so i finally decided to return and post some music this week. it's about time, right? well, i couldn't resist. those two releases (ratatat & golden bear) simply demanded to be talked about and shared.

anyway, i have updated the 'upcoming detroit shows' section in the right-hand column. there's a whole lot more concert listings now, including quite a few that i would love to go to (if i could): the clientele, ratatat, serena maneesh, cibelle, mark kozelek, yo la tengo, the long winters, okkervil river, jenny lewis, tv on the radio, the hold steady, broken social scene...and more, all in the next few months. i'm sure more will be added as we get closer and closer to the autumn concert season. get out there and see a few if you're in the area.

i finally got around to upgrading from my third-generation scroll-wheel iPod to one of those slick video iPods a few weeks ago. the thing is sweet. now i can listen to all my music AND watch episodes of the colbert report. who really needs anything more out of a handheld media player???

golden bear

it's not that often nowadays that i approach an album without any preconceptions or expectations of what i'm about to hear, either based upon the band's previous work or upon an avalanche of hype touting a band as the "next big thing" to come out of nowhere. perhaps that's what has made the debut record from austin's golden bear* such a pleasant surprise for me. after reading kaleb's rave review at sctas.com, i got the impression this was something special but was still sort of clueless about what i should expect to hear. once i popped it in the decks, there was no stopping the infection. each song made me love them more and more. it has quickly become one of my favorite records to be released in 2006. so i think the best way to leave it out there for you is to not give you any more to think about other than that. just take the next step and give it a shot. trust me. you will be rewarded.
you can download these songs below - which are available on the c-side records website - and listen to them, of course. but the best way to do it would be to drop the measly tenner and order the cd. when it shows up on your doorstep, you can listen to the whole album properly - in order, in its entirety, while lovingly gazing into the beautifully painted cover art.

MP3: "a reason to be proud"
MP3: "santa rosa"
from the album: golden bear
release date: 08/01/06
label: c-side
myspace: make like friends

*(not to be confused with the brooklyn-based grizzly bear, who are in and of themselves a whole 'nother fantastic species of musical ursidae)

ratatat

dirty, rubbery, laserbeam guitar riffs always equal fun, if you ask me.
but no matter how many different ways you slice and dice it, no matter which angle you take to go about solving the equation, the solution you always end up at is that ratatat are frickin' cool as all get-out. after a promising debut and this highly enjoyable sophomore outing, these boys now officially reside in the portion of my heart that daft punk once occupied and then vacated years ago.

a friend of mine recently commented that "anyone who can put a sample of a wildcat in one of their songs and make it work is amazing."

AGREED!

MP3: "montanita"
MP3: "wildcat"
from the album: classics
release date: 08/15/06
label: xl recordings
myspace: make like friends