The Best of 2011: The Albums :: 40-1

Let me start by saying nothing in 2011 has come close to the affection I still have for my two favorite records of 2010: The Walkmen's masterful Lisbon and Blake Mills' so-good-why-the-fuck-haven't-you-listened-to-it-yet Break Mirrors. But that's not to say 2011 hasn't been a great year in music. In fact, I don't think I've ever discovered so many favorite new bands (Natural Child, Stone Darling, Breakfast In Fur, Marisa Anderson, Mikal Cronin, Bare Wires, Future Islands, Braids, etc.) in a single year. The internet has created so many minute niches catered by small communities, micro DIY labels, and blogs, that it's nearly impossible to keep track of every interesting new release. So while ranking and listmaking are inherently subjective and silly, it's the easiest way to filter through the overhwelming amount of great music that came out in 2011. The following 40 albums are the ones I don't want to forget anytime soon.

My Morning Jacket - "Friends Again"

Dear My Morning Jacket:

Let's be friends again. You're one of my favorite bands of all time. You're one of the—if not thee—best live bands in the world. Remember in 2003 when I saw you for the first time? Or in 2009 at Bonnaroo, when you put on the best (and longest) show I've ever seen? But I need to be honest, Circuital wasn't a perfect record. In fact, it was kind of boring. I've seen you play countless times, own your every release, and have a poster of Z on my apartment wall, but Circuital was the first time I was disappointed rather than inspired while listening to your music. You know what was missing? The two songs on your new "Friends Again" 7", available only in local record stores around the country. I've been playing "Friends Again" on a regular basis since that 2010 bootleg from the Municipal Auditorium leaked online, and it simply might be one of the best songs you've ever written. It's no "Golden" nor "One Big Holiday," but it continues that fun Allen Toussaint-inspired southern R&B sound you were going for on Evil Urges' tracks like "Sec Walkin" and  "Thank You" in the most fun and carefree of ways. "Friends Again" is the type of song crowds can't wait to hear, dance, and sing-along to—so why did you ever leave it off the record? And the B-side, you're haggard old-timey grandpa-sung version of "Outta My System"—dubbed the "Alternate Universe Take"—is an absolute blast. That could have been Circuital's "Highly Suspicious"—a brilliant goofball change of pace moment. I hear both songs were recorded for a Muppets and Electric Mayhem project, and I am sincerely sorry that didn't work out, because this 7" is a fantastic release: both in terms of its individual quality and its desire to stimulate interest in local record shops. So please, stay goofy and weird. Next time, just don't wait so long to remind us how odd, original, and fun you are—because really, there's no one else like you.

All the best,

Everybody Taste

My Morning Jacket - "Friends Again" (2010 Municipal Auditorium)

Best of 2011: The Songs

50. Yelle - "Safari Disco Club"
49. Body Language - "Social Studies"
48. Bleached - "Searching Through The Past"
47. Craft Spells - "After The Moment"
46. Future Islands - "Crish (Javelin Remixxx)"

45. Nurses - "Trying To Reach You"
44. Cheerleader - "Dreamer"
43. Radiation City - "The Color of Industry"
42. Lower Dens - "Deer Knives"

41. Ganglians - "Sleep"
40. Cut Copy - "Alisa"

39. Blouse - "Shadow"

38. FIDLAR - "Wake Bake Skate"
37. Eleanor Friedberger - "My Mistakes"
36. St. Vincent - "Cruel"

Best of 2011: Analog Edition Records

We couldn't really recap 2011 without mentioning Everybody Taste's venture into the world of vinyl pressing with our very own imprint, Analog Edition Records. Analog Edition started out of a desire to press what we still consider to be the best record of 2010 onto vinyl: Los Angeles guitarist Blake Mills' spectacular Break Mirrors. Thanks to the folks at Blake's label Record Collection, we ended up with a double A-side 7" featuring two of Break Mirrors' best tracks, the two-chord foot-stomper "Hey Lover" and the Fleetwood Mac-tinged "Winter Song." From there, Analog Edition teamed up with promising New Paltz, New York band Breakfast In Fur to release its warm and dreamy debut EP—a collection of songs colored with washes of psychedelia and a sense of child-like wonder—onto 10" vinyl. The third release of the year came again from Los Angeles, this time with Stone Darling's "I Stopped Missing You Today" 7": while the A-side pop-informed break-up single hammers away with deep fuzzy guitars and sledgehammer drums, the flip side "Angeline" is a wash of wide-open harmonies, tumbleweed rolling drums, and vintage heartache-riddled country storytelling. Analog Edition also released its first music zine with contributions from some of our favorite bloggers, labels, and artists, including Infinity Cat, Mississippi Records, Rollo Grady, Aquarium Drunkard, Sonny Smith, Lord Huron, and Levek.

Best of 2011: Vinyl Singles & EPs

Denney & The Jets :: "Killin' Machine" 7"
For some reason the good folks at Infinity Cat pressed the two sides of this 7" at two different speeds: 45 and 33 1/3 RPM. I'm guessing it was an issue of space and track time, but for the vinyl debut of Denney & The Jets' scuzzy country and blues songs, it's a rather appropriately fitting blemish.
Denney & The Jets - "Pain Pills" 

Bare Wires :: "Wanna Fight" 7"
Castleface Records' fun Group Flex compilation features an abundance of treasures—from the colored flexi disc pressings to the inspired artwork of William Keihn—but no track quites hits like the snappy glam-punk number "Wanna Fight" by Oakland's Bare Wires.
Bare Wire - "Wanna Fight"



Earth Girl Helen Brown :: Story of An Earth Girl EP
One of the more inspired and silly leftovers from Sonny Smith's 100 Recods project, Earth Girl Helen Brown features Smith and The Sandwitches' Heidi Alexander riffing on everything from dating martians, having hoses for noses, and giving birth to "50 space twerps." Forest Family pressed this EP onto 10" vinyl.
Earth Girl Helen Brown - "Hit After Hit"

Eternal Summers :: Prisoner 12" EP
Another gem from the folks at Forest Family, the 12" EP Prisoner showcases Roanoke, Virginia's Eternal Summers at their infectious best, laying down vigorously pounding rhythms with quick slices of guitar and vocal melodies you just can't shake. This EP has a little bit of everything, from the steaming pop-punk title-track to the slower Luna-recalling dream-pop standout "Pure Affection."
Eternal Summers - "Prisoner" 

Best of 2011: The MVPs

All weeklong Everybody Taste will be reflecting and ruminating on 2011 with a series of posts and lists dedicated to celebrating the best (read: our favorite) music of the year.

When you think of the particularly prolific artists of 2011, Cass McCombs and Thee Oh Sees—both of whom somehow released two stunning and critically-lauded full-lengths this year—might come to mind. Or maybe it's Taylor Goldsmith, the star of the Middle Brother supergroup's debut LP and whose own Dawes released their boldest record to date. Or the Orrall brothers, Jake and Jamin. Sure, they only released one album this year, but their label Infinity Cat, which, aside from getting picked up by Warner Brothers, released fistfuls of brilliantly scuzzy rock and punk this year by the likes of Natural Child, Diarrhea Planet, Denney and The Jets, and Peach Kelli Pop. But for me, when I think of the artists that have had the biggest impact on my year, I come up with two names: Shannon Shaw and Gerrit Welmers.

Shaw, who fronts the Oakland-based Shannon & The Clams, has a husky and deeply soulful voice that's a true wonder and easily one of my favorite discoveries of 2011. Shannon & The Clams 12-track LP Sleep Talk is a humour-filled ride through 50s-laced punk and rock gems that boasts two of the year's best tracks, the beach party foot-stomper of a title-track "Sleep Talk" and "The Cult Song"—quite possibly the funniest and most vivid track of 2011 (more on that later in our Best Songs post). Along with the Clams, Shaw was also one of Seth Bogart's Punx, co-writing several songs on Hunx and His Punx' Too You To Be In Love LP, as well as providing the much-welcome throaty thunder to Bogart's nasally pop-punk lightning. And that's not all. The multi-talented Shaw also painted the cover artwork for The Sandwitches' exquisite LP Mrs. Jones' Cookies, a dreamy portrait of the three band members with long flowing hair.

Shannon & The Clams - "Sleep Talk" (from Sleep Talk)
Shannon & The Clams - "The Cult Song" (from Sleep Talk)

As a member of Baltimore trio Future Islands and the sole creative force behind Moss of Aura, Gerrit Welmers had an equally impressive impact on 2011. While Samuel T. Herring's intensely bellowing melodramatic vocals may be the most distinctive and audible marker of Future Islands, it's Welmers' unique and creative synth-splattered atmospheric twists and turns that create the emotional foundation of each track, giving Herring's words the proper setting, tone, and context. While many folks will have Future Islands' superb On The Water LP in their top ten for the year, it's Welmers solo album Wading—released under his Moss of Aura moniker—that has me headed back to the turntable time and again. I'm not particularly drawn to instrumental music—especially not when its centralized around the synthesizer—but as Moss of Aura, Welmers has created his own truly stunning one-of-a-kind Carribean-soaked magnum opus. (Photo)

Moss of Aura - "Jaminal" (from Wading)
Moss of Aura - "Titan" (from Wading)

Nab Moss of Aura goodies from Friends Records and Shannon & The Clams LPs from 1-2-3-4 Go Records.

Nallo: Minneapolitan Ramshackle Fuzz

Minneapolis trio Nallo play with a wonderfully warm and ramshackle sound. I first stumbled onto the group via the two-minute garage-born barn-burner "Submarines" over on Rollo Grady. That track doesn't so much play as it does blast off rocket-ship like with ferociously beaten drums, swinging guitars, and loosely harmonized vocals. The band's most recent offering, "Wine," is a slower-paced gem that showcases a more intimate side of the group. Over a rattle of tambourine, a strummed acoustic, and a touch of organ, the band's throaty chorus of voices come across like a late-night offering of faded memories passed around a campfire. There's a simplistic charm to these songs that makes them both refreshing and quickly re-playable. Keep an eye out for the group's forthcoming full-length.

Nallo - "Wine" 
Nallo - "Submarines" 

La Sera - "You're Going To Cry" (Demo)

While I don't particularly care for the Vivian Girls, I've found myself becoming a rather dedicated fan of Katy Goodman's this year, particularly her work as La Sera. On the La Sera debut, Goodman's pristine vocals and hypnotic guitar work fondly recall everything from The Pixies ("Devils Hearts Grow Gold") to Spector-era Wall of Sound production  ("Never Come Around"). Recently, Goodman has been posting demos from the record to her Tumblr page and one of the more impressive to date has been the sparse acoustic guitar and vocal take of "You're Going To Cry." Her layers of polyphonic self-harmonizing vocals in the song's chorus are really rather stunning.

La Sera - "You're Going To Cry" (Demo)

La Sera - "Devils Hearts Grow Gold" (from La Sera)

Hunx - "Always Forever"

After two full-lengths as Hunx & His Punx, Seth Bogart is set to release a solo LP as Hunx on February 28th titled Hairdresser Blues. Bogart's troupe of backup singers will certainly be missed here, and none more so than the brilliantly soulful voice of Shannon Shaw of Shannon and The Clams, also a cowriter on several of 2011 standout Too Young To Be In Love's best tracks. But don't fret just yet, the toe-tapping first single from Hairdresser Blues, the jangly pop-punk number "Always Forever," suggests everything will be just fine in Bogart-land.

Hunx - "Always Forever" (from Hairdresser Blues)