Locals' Lists
Forget the bloggers and anons; DdFW musicians choose their faves of the year.
20.December.2006

We did this in '04 and '05 for the old publication, so we're taking the tradition onto the Web for this year's go-round (looks like we ain't the only ones, either). The question we posed to hometown musicians was as follows: Pick one album that you'd count as your personal fave of the year; this means the album doesn't literally have to be the "best," but rather the one that most reflects your tastes and sensibilities as a musician, and it didn't matter whether the disc was local/national/global as long as it satisfied the "personal fave" bit.
     Expectedly, a few folks broke the rule with multi-album lists and the like; thus, a few entries have been edited for length and grammar, not content, when appropriate. And if a musician's missing, they probably didn't write us back, so don't act like we're leaving your fave band out of the picture here. Enough with our babble: Here's what your cities loved this year.

Curtis Glenn Heath (The Theater Fire): Bosque Brown, Cerro Verde
"I don't know what Mara Lee [Miller]'s thinking. Success in the 'blog-era' means musicians have only one download's worth of time to showcase their baroquely adorned masterpieces of accessibility. Instead Bosque Brown released a deeply personal, subtle, and cryptic album...on vinyl! Therefore I consider it the best punk album of 2006."

Neu LeBlanc (Pegasus Now): El Perro Del Mar, El Perro Del Mar
"I looked through my MP3s and finally narrowed it down to two albums, and El Perro Del Mar wins. It's a really heavy record; I love how spooky and wonderful it is to listen to--it sounds like she's in an echo chamber or something? And her voice is aching to be heard, but not demanding. It gives me the shivers! Honorable mention was Rather Ripped, because who doesn't love Sonic Youth? It makes me want a coke. "

Annie Clark (St. Vincent, Polyphonic Spree): Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther
"My favorite record of the year, i.e. the record that got the most spins on long drives through the South, the most iPod plays on long flights across oceans, the most sung on crowded subway rides was...Midlake's The Trials of Van Occupanther. The harmony was not enough just to listen to. I wanted to transfigure it into a liquid and get drunk on it."

Sarah Jaffe (solo, Tomahawk Molly): Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
"If I ever find myself flying over a foreign country in a hot air balloon, well, this would be my soundtrack. Undoubtedly, this album has furthered my obsession with their wayward sound. Their music is indefinite…like music should be. It brings a mopey sense of humor to the world happening around us. And like my mentally anguished sister says about the record, 'It’s like riding a bicycle built for two!'"

Ryan Short (The Hourly Radio): Charlotte Gainsbourg, 5:55

"She's Serge Gainsbourg's daughter, so that would've been enough, but she's also got a beautiful voice and she's able to make songs feel really small and really huge at the same time."

Emil Rapstine (The Angelus): Woven Hand, Mosaic
"Woven Hand is David Eugene Edwards, who is maybe better known as the lead vocalist and main songwriter behind 'goth-folk' band 16 Horsepower. I never really got into 16 Horsepower, but Mosaic really captured my attention. It's full of dark, droning guitar, some plucked banjo, whirling organ and plaintive and sorrowful vocals. Sounds sad and gloomy, you might think, but it's no spooky Count Dracula crap. It's a very engaging record at points with thundering drums, and rousing and haunting choruses. It's a dark cloud that I joyfully let follow me around...my girlfriend hates it!"

Aaron White (Current Leaves, 400 other Denton bands): Cat Power, The Greatest
"Considering the people that played and recorded this album, it'd be hard to come out with something bad. Stuart Sikes recording Memphis LEGENDS playing Chan Marshall songs is a recipe for the soulful cream that it is. "

Glen Reynolds (solo, ex-Chomsky): Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther

"One of the unfortunate byproducts of local success is tunnelvision. After hearing Midlake's fine record a few months ago, I realized I had missed the bus on one of the most special bands ever assembled here in the DFW area. Midlake has grasped the essence of all the wonderful things about '70s pop and singer/songwriter music and spun them into a silken thread that is soft to the touch; delicate yet powerful. This band calmly watched other groups roll over and die Heaven's Gate-style in Dallas as they prepared for their own actual real-life rapture. Fortunately for the world, Simon Raymonde and the folks at Bella Union have more talent at spotting great artists. Now I look to great bands such as Midlake in hopes of someday supporting them. The teacher has become the student!"

Sean Kirkpatrick (the pAper chAse, solo): Andre Ethier, Secondathallam
"Last year he was touting his flesh-piercing boots and proclivity for breaking your heart on The Deadly Snakes' Porcella. This year he put out his second solo album, and his venom was largely replaced by an amorous devotion. Yet his ruminations on love prevail as they battle the crashing waves, cold winds and cocaine blues. His voice is still perfectly raw as his vowels stretch over barroom piano and blasting horns. I can't help but respect Andre's seeming lack of concern for popularity or responding to e-mails I send to his MySpace."

Brent Sluder (Prayer For Animals): Liars, Drum's Not Dead
"Thank the cosmos for Liars who have to inhabit Earth long enough to release Drum's Not Dead. I didn't really like Liars before this album, but their sound has opened up--the songs have more SPACE to them (that's SPACE as in physical space, not so much OUTER SPACE, although I'm sure that's where the Liars are from [Editor's note: Close...Australia.]). Creepy, unsettling, but with rich textures and killer song titles. Proof that you can make a concept album without a definite 'concept' and that it's probably better that way."

Johnny Lloyd Rollins (solo): Amy Winehouse, Back To Black

"If anyone this year has lost faith in hip-hop, R&B or soul music, then I recommend this album. Amy's Motown-modern flavor blows away everything that has come out this year. The production and arrangements are so refreshing, because there are no computer 'bleep! bloop!' beats going on...just old-school drumming with some sweet horns. Plus with her first single, 'Rehab,' she shows great wordplay, which I love: 'Didn’t get a lot in class / But I know it don’t come in a shot glass.'"

Jennifer and Michael Seman (Shiny Around The Edges): Stumptone, Gravity Suddenly Released
"Although not quite 'officially' released, since we’ve received a CD-R of this album in the early summer, we have listened to it quite a bit. At some points it explores the dusty corners of country music with pedal steel and aching vocals, while at other points the songs become majestic landscapes filled with trumpets, sonic walls of heavy guitars and a lyricism able to corral surrounding elements into a sweet, time-slowing molasses. Hopefully, 2007 will see the official release of this collection of songs. Until then, you can’t have our copy."

Jayson Bales (solo): Salim Nourallah, Beautiful Noise (German re-release)
"It counts as a 2006 record because it has an additional track, it's been remixed and remastered, the track order changed and it has all-new artwork. 'The World is Full of People' is everyone's favorite song and I find it moving as well. But the gems of this record are 'Never Say Never' and 'First Love.' The first time I heard 'First Love' I cried. It's such a lonely song, but a song about love and how generations before us impact us more than we realize. On 'Never Say Never,' I don't know what it's about, but I hear it speaking to those who come out of the darkness of depression and how uplifted and lightened they feel."

Chris Plavidal (Stumptone): Os Brazoes, Os Brazoes, and Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped
"The first one isn’t actually new, although it was reissued in 2006. It was new to my ears this year so I just had to include it. It has become one of my all-time favorites. The Brazilian band Os Brazoes functioned mainly as legendary singer Gal Costa’s backing band, but they recorded one self-titled album on their own in the late '60s that is just sizzlin’! Os Brazoes is a perfect blend of funky Brazilian Tropicalia and weird, whacked-out psychedelia complete with horn sections, multi-part harmonies, sound effect freak-outs, and one of the most fuzzed-out guitar sounds that I have ever heard. This music is a lot of fun, and if you like Os Mutantes or any of those other odd '60s Brazilian psychedelic bands, you will dig Os Brazoes.
   "As for a brand-spanking-new album, I love Sonic Youth. They could record total silence and I would love it. But Rather Ripped is their first album in about ten years that reminds me of some of their earlier masterpieces like “Daydream Nation” and Goo. It’s just awesome; the songs are so well-written and the production is perfect. Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo are guitar masters in such a unique way. Kim Gordon sounds great and I love hearing Steve Shelley freak out on the drums. It’s an amazing album–very inspiring. "

Dub Sue (The Boys Named Sue): The Boys Named Sue, The Hits Vol. 1
"I remember back in the spring of 2002 when the Sues had been going at it for about a year. We finally decided to leave Dallas and do a show in Coleman, TX at my cousin Tigre's bar, Bootscooters. We woke up around 10 a.m. and loaded the Sues into the Swervin' Suburban for our first road trip show. We brought about a 10-car caravan with us. Every car was filled to the brim with styrofoam happiness, Rudolph's beef jerkey, Miller Lite, and Marlboros.
     "We drove 80 mph the whole way, leaving Dallas behind as we barnstormed that small West Texas town with a Waylon Jennings soundtrack blaring. We piss-bombed a US Marshall, ate gas station burritos, chicken danced til the cows came home, destroyed the hotel, got thrown out of the hotel in the middle of the night, got a police escort (the friendly kind) to the next hotel, woke up and played horseshoes at the bar all day while having an enchilada eating contest with ourselves.
     "It's nearly a half-decade of this that brought about: Boys Named Sue, The Hits Vol. 1 , AKA The #1 Album in 2006. The Fist of Country prevails."
[Editor's note: The complete and utter disregard for the list's unspoken "don't vote for yourself" rule should've DQ'ed this entry, but, well, we didn't think the list was complete without printing this one.]

Jonathan Clark (Comrade): Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther
"Would it be too obvious to pick Midlake? Just wondering." [Ed.: Or this one.]