Here is a list of my favorite album covers of 2009. Most of these kinds of lists lack any kind of depth or explanation in relation to the covers inclusion. I’ve tried to give an explanation for each piece, but a lot of what is displayed here is subjective. In no particular order, here we go.

Feel free to disagree!

1. Atlas Sound — Logos

By far, one of the most conflicting images I’ve seen all year. I can only hope that I am not shallow enough to judge Bradford Cox by his physical appearance, but the courage to place yourself, nude, on an album cover is a huge statement in and of itself. Add to that the bright light of the face, and the way the lens flare interacts with the arc of the chair in the background, and you have my favorite album cover of the year.

Full Discosure: I have only heard one song.

2. Health — Die Slow

The simplicity of this cover is what really catches my eye at first. The Futura headline, the 2-color (black and magenta) approach. But what amazes me is the way the phrase “You Will Love Each Other” is placed in diagonal, overlapping columns. Perhaps it’s because this is a design approach I take myself, but I must say this has been expertly accomplished.

Full Disclosure: I love the track as well!

3. Girls — Album

You know, not a lot to say about this one. What I love about it, though, is the use of white-space on the edges. With only four photographs, the designer accomplished an information-packed layout using only two words! The cover fits the music as well, which is jangly guitar-pop.

Full Disclosure: I heard Lust for Life, and wasn’t into it

4. Polvo — In Prism

What to say about this cover! Half-toned brushstrokes, whether digital or physical, spelling out the bands name, then magnified, without centering on any one aspect. This is a cover that has been in my mind since I saw it this summer, but I still haven’t had a chance to search out a listen.

5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

With a name like the above, this band has got to be a designers worst nightmare. This cover is a perfect approach to the problem of a new band, with their first album, and that fits their sound. I have one word for this cover: Approacheable!

Full Disclosure: I’ve only heard Young Adult Fiction, and wanted very badly to like it. Kind of meh.

6. A Sunny Day in Glasgow — Ashes Grammar

You know, sometimes a cover is a roadmap to the music inside. An intricate, interlocking mesh of brightly-backlit color, producing vagely familiar images and objects. I’d love to know if this is an actual watercolor painting, or just a great photoshop technique!

Full Disclosure: I’ve heard a couple tracks, Failure in particular comes to mind.

7. Baroness — Blue Record

Rich, decadent, and bewitching, Baroness’ music is drawing me back into metal. This cover, similar to their previous Red cover, is a strange choice for a metal band, a genre steeped in violence, gore, aggression, and masculinity. Not to say the music isn’t masculine, it’s probably more masculine than you’d expect from the cover. It’s just that it displays a measure of poise, beauty, and neatness you’d expect from the fairer sex.

8. Noah and the Whale — The First Days of Spring

An excellent photograph, well executed typography, and a photoshop (assumed?) fade all blend together to make this a memorable cover. Not only that, but the periscope subtly ties the bands name with the cover. Love the use of ligatures, it just seems so literary and classic.

Full Disclosure: Haven’t heard it.

9. Talk Normal — Sugarland

A stencil style cutout for lettering, and what could be either spray-paint or a burn of somekind; this as an album that gets dirty. Not only that, the textural monocrome makes for a mature approach to what could easily be a heavy handed, over-complex interpretation of the music within. Great work.

Full Disclosure: This probably made the list because I’ve stenciled way too much this year.

10. Bob Dylan — Together Through Life

This cover says all-American, and has the feel of a flier advertising the county fair. That feel probably comes from the distressed type and the repeated text bleeding off the sides, which I can’t say is an approach I’ve seen on album covers before. The image is fantastically ambiguous, with a boy making out with what could be a boy or a girl, depending on your interpretation. Probably a girl, since the black-and-white photo is probably about as old as the cars in the frame.

Full Disclosure: Haven’t heard it. (but want to!)

10 More Coming Soon…

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Anybody out there remember when they couldn’t get enough music? I mean, not just listening to it, but getting news about your favorite or even new bands. I for one still get excited when I hear about my favorite bands (do people still have favorites?), but I really start to get bogged down when hearing about newer groups.

I mean, there are so many! For better or worse, the internet has made it all available to us, and in no time at all we can find ourselves drinking from the proverbial “Firehose”. I’m talking about a situation where we are inundated with so much more information than we find helpful, maybe even healthy.

I just started my Christmas list this year, and I’ve tried to keep the music portion constrained to under 20 albums. That’s a hard thing to do! I don’t buy music all that often (one album a month), and I refuse to download illegally (artistic solidarity!), but I’ll accept all the free downloads you’ll give me (thank you eMusic!). Despite my best efforts, and my quite selective taste (noise and unconventional guitarists), I still find myself falling behind; still getting knocked over by that same damn firehose! I mean, I can’t even keep up with things that are directly within my own taste, let alone dabble outside of it (i.e. jazz and twee).

What Should Be Done?

I’m going to propose something that many are not going to agree with, but I think regional/geographic constraints are better for an artistic community! In fact, I think it’s better for consumers as well. As music consumers we are so pressured to keep up with the latest musical trends, stay loyal to our past loves, and even gobble up the historical goodies (another Beatles Re-Master!). It’s more than I can hand, I’m only one man. I think the future of music, rather than it being made available for free, is actually to intentionally limit and constrain its boundaries. I don’t know how it will be done, maybe some kind of label turf-war will ensue, but I don’t think product placement and sponsorships are the future.

What do you think?

Signed,

The Jay

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If you consider yourself a cutting edge musician, but you don’t know anything about noise, ambience or what connects the two, you may want to save yourself from obsolescence and read the article below. Then familiarize yourself…

Pitchfork’s Decade in Review: Noise

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I’ve thought quite a bit about how tempo can be a deal-breaker for most people’s taste in music. Think of the above image as a bpm water-mark.

The Quick

The Locust is pictured at the top, and they (to me) represent the fastest extremes in music. Grindcore is some of the fastest music played within the ‘rock’ paradigm, probably around 200 bpm. What fascinates me is how alert you have to be to even get your bearings within a song. I’m literally slowed these songs to half-speed and heard great alternative-radio-ready licks, but it’s so fast that it takes ten or so listens to absorb this dense 50 seconds. That is one of the issues (I think) that most people have with this type of music, is that while the clock tells you that you have been cheated in quantity, you are actually being given the same amount (or more!) of information as your average 120 bpm pop/rock song! For the Locust in particular, their album Plaguescapes and Soundscapes is an exhausting listen after 21 songs, 23 minutes.

Interestingly, while punk is on the fast(er) end of the spectrum, it is more widely accepted. I would guess this is because it is only marginally faster than most popular music, and if the Ramones are any comparison, simple enough for an average person to follow. Am I wrong?

The Average

The Kings of Leon are pictured second, as the mid-range example. This could have been Coldplay, this could have been Lady GaGa, this could have been The Beatles. I think it’s pretty common knowledge at this point that the tempo of our heartbeat is effected by the tempo of the music we listen to. Is it possible that popular music is popular because it matches our average heart-rate?

Our resting heart-rate decreases as we age as well, so the older we are, the more ‘fast’ music is going to impose on our “current-state-of-being”. I use that term because that’s what may be causing our ‘taste’ in music, is how much it imposes itself into our lives. The Kings of Leon have some great riffs, lyrics about sexual encounters, and fall right around the 100 bpm mark, so that’s a great start toward superstardom!

The Slow

Finally, Sunn O))) is pictured at the bottom. They are probably not the best example due to them not having a drummer, but tempo is still involved, even within their heavy drones. They are also heavily influenced by Earth, whose songs last somewhere in the 6o bpm range. Their songs range from six to ten minutes long, which doesn’t necessarily have to do with tempo, but does affect the potential popularity of the group. I remember reading in an interview with Earth that their drummers biggest difficulty was keeping her heart-rate down during their shows.

Some Questions

It seems like all of the extremes within music have been covered, but where will the next run of innovation come from? Maybe it will happen as pop-music producers begin to implement the tempo-changes that progressive-rockers have been pumping out for years. Maybe the new punk will be so fast that it is relegated to underground status regardless of the message or content. 

So, with all of this in mind, what does it say about your  tastes in music? Do you find that you are drawn to music that relaxes you, slows your heart-rate? Do you listen to pop-radio in the car and, knowingly or unknowingly, dislike music that effects your mood or heart-rate? Do you listen to uptempo music in the gym, while running, or during physical activities? Why are you drawn to what you like?

Signed,

TheJay

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So, this is something new for me. I’ve started to layer drones, let me know what you think.

aChorusofJays – Dronescape

The longterm goal is for something quite a bit more spectacular, but that will have to wait for now.

Signed,

TheJay

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First of all, you should check out the new mp3 from Lighning Bolt’s upcoming album, titled Earthly Delights, which drops October 13th (giving you a full 2 weeks to aquire it before Halloween this year!).

Lightning Bolt – Colossus

Secondly, you should check out the photographer who took that fantastic shot above. Some great rock-and-roll photos to be enjoyed by clicking the photo.

 

Thoughts on Limitations

Now, if you don’t know anything about Lightning Bolt, you should definitely listen to the track above to give you a little more perspective on what I’m about to say. What you’ll hear are drums, bass, and effected-vocals that combine into a loose, melodic-rock format. This is the first I’ve heard them use a wah pedal, which is fresh addition to their sound…

One of the things that amazes me about Lightning Bolt in general is the fullness/density/volume of their sound. Despite the seeming limitations of a 2-man band, they’re like a shot-glass full of crude oil sitting next to gallon jugs of water. A bit of an aquired taste, but ounce for ounce more satisfying. And I would attribute this to their embracing the limitations of a 2-man band, and experimenting with pushing the limits.

But, maybe pushing the limits isn’t the right outlook. Perhaps it would better be described as a search for the edge. I mean, how many bands repeat the same tried-and-true methods of their peers and forebears, seemingly without trying to stake new ground? With bass, drums, and 1 microphone Lightning Bolt produce more engaging sonics than most rock ensembles.

Why is this experimentation seeming so new? I mean, Rock music has been around for roughly 60 years or so; long enough to establish its own traditions. Since the 60’s guitarists have been stomping on distortion pedals to alternate between clean and dirty sounds. Why are so many artists still stuck within this paradigm? Am I being too generous in refering to them as artists?

Let me hear some musicians perspectives on this, because I’m really curious why things are so ’staid’.

Signed,

TheJay

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Well, I recorded a little something while I was playing guitar today. Listen at your own risk, it’s very rough, but I really liked the tones I was getting and just wanted to put something up.

Have a nice weekend!
Shut in the House for Too Long

Signed
TheJay

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I’m going to come right out and say it. I think that music is worth something! I think that a recording of a song, regardless of quality, has worth. I’m talking about monetary worth here; I’m not trying be coy.

Music should not be free. What is happening to music right now is not good. It hasn’t been good for a while now, but it certainly has not gotten better.

Radiohead allowing fans to pay what they want for the album was brilliant. But I question whether or not it is the best all around model for everyone.

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor releasing his albums for free is a fantastic move on his part, but one that probably only works for him!

What we’ve run into is an overly saturated market in America. Not only has the mainstream music industry grown, but the underground/indie scene has grown with the availability of cheaper equipment, home-recording etc…

NOT ONLY that, but this is America! Immigrants pick the food in our fields because we disdain manual labor, factory work, and on mundane jobs. We want to be movie stars, rock stars etc… It’s like Moby’s song “We are All Made of Stars” was a pun on America, rather than a scientific reality.

So what happens when a market becomes over-saturated with content AND entrepreneurs? We’re living it right now. Nobody knows what to buy, nobody knows who to promote, and everyone is lost in the shuffle. We are living in the twitter age, where the only reason your little voice stands out at all is because of your popularity…

It’s an amazing time we’re living in; a time that will probably be remembered as The Decline. So while it takes practice, time, money, expertise, imagination, and networking skills to produce any music of worth, you can expect to give the recording away and earn your money elsewhere. After all, Scarlet Johanson just recorded an album of covers, Miley Cyrus is on the Disney channel, and unless you fall under the bourgeois banner, you will not have the marketing behind you to make it.

I sound cynical, but this is a rant.

Signed,
TheJay

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If you immediately hesitated to read this post because I mentioned the term ‘Battle of the Bands’, you would be excused. Like American Democracy, that term is one of the most bastardized, watered down terms in music. It’s kind of like a chili-cheese-fries-with-bacon. The idea sounds good, but the actual application and results (the slimy/greasy mouth, stomach-ache) leave much to be desired.

But I’ve come to imagine a new kind of ‘battle’ between bands. What would happen if both bands setup and faced each other on the same stage? What if Band-#1’s five-minute opening volley was followed by Band-#2’s response directly after? What if the battle wasn’t a matter of whose songs were better, or even who could bring out the most supporters, but was a matter of who could deliver the best response to the previous bands volley. What would happen if creative improvisation was a commodity?

I can see ‘battle of the bands’ nights at a club, both bands have setup on the stage simultaneously, and face each other as they play. This is a new paradigm that a majority of bands would be unable to compete in (at first), because so many musicians rehearse the same prepared material for so long, that preparation is just repetition.

Perhaps free-jazz would be an appropriate starting point, positioning the bands to start at the same point (key of A?) at the same time, and then each band alternating 3-5 minute jams.

I’d love to try this, especially with some bands with similar aesthetics (a couple of clean, tone oriented bands, or a couple of noisy electrically oriented bands…). This is probably too cool of an idea to catch on widely, but could it become some sort of local tradition?

Signed,
TheJay

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I’m currently reading a biography of Marcel Duchamp, and in the process am being reminded of the Dada movement. Dada was a post-war artistic criticism of reason. Reason (it was reasoned) was what had caused the first world war, and Dada was an exercise in the escape of reason via anarchy, chance, and surreal/bizarre expressions.

This was also a very public movement, which in many ways reminds me of the punk and no-wave movements of the 70’s. I’m 25, so I didn’t have the opportunity to observe or take part in those movements, but they have definitely shaped who I am as a person, and I find I have a certain affinity with and attraction to the Dada movement.

It’s interesting to look at what photography did to the painter, the artist. Finding their medium being made obsolete (in one sense), more specialised (in another), and freed from more mundane commodities like portraiture, they endeavored to stake new ground. In many ways, this very public movement that progressed from the ‘modern’ painters was the ‘punk rock’ movement of its day.

Artists are now relegated to a higher plane. This higher plane is (to me) a kind of ‘bohemian-untouchable’ status where if you don’t understand the work, you aren’t worthy of it. And don’t try to limit the freedom of expression to aesthetically pleasing objects, or realism. This has brought the artist out of the public eye (for the most part), and so the public is mostly presented with musicians and actors.

This is why I see music as an ideal form of expression for criticisms. Public performances are not only possible, but the creation of new ‘pieces’ of art is possible, limited only by the courage and skill of the artist. Why is jazz so boring today? Why is ‘noise’ so indulgent? Why are bands little more than corporations trying to make enough money to get to the next city … make enough money to make the next album … make enough money to…

Who wants to bring a jazz/noise expression to a public area?!? I do. Lets find some reason … some excuse … some cause to do it.

Signed,
TheJay

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