The Perlich Post's Top 100 Albums of 2011

1. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
2. Nat Birchall - Sacred Dimension
3. Alela Diane & Wild Divine - Alela Diane & Wild Divine
4. The Greg Foat Group - Dark Is The Sun
5. The Walkabouts - Travels In The Dustland
6. Heidi Happy - Hiding With The Wolves
7. The Black Keys - El Camino
8. Tristen - Charlatans At The Garden Gate
9. Merle Haggard - Working In Tennessee
10. Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
11. Austin Peralta - Endless Planets
12. The Dirtbombs - Party Store
13. Boubacar Traore - Mali Denhou
14. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
15. The Bo-Keys - Got To Get Back!
16. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
17. Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
18. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
19. The Fleshtones - Brooklyn Sound Solution
20. Grimble Grumble - September Sun
21. John Paul Keith - The Man That Time Forgot
22. Ambrose Akinmusire - When the Heart Emerges Glistening
23. Buddy Miller - The Majestic Silver Strings

24. Diana Panton - To Brazil With Love
25. The Reigning Sound - Abdication... For Your Love
26. Tex Perkins - Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses

27. Bombino - Agadez
28. Dave Alvin - Eleven Eleven
29. The Bats - Free All The Monsters
30. OFF! - The First Four EPs

31. The Bevis Frond - The Leaving Of London
32. Tom T. Hall - A Gift From Tom T. Hall
33. Alex Pangman - 33
34. The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore - Heirloom Music
35. Nicola Conte - Love & Revolution
36. The Pining - The Pining
37. Phil Ranelin – Perseverance

38. Vieux Farka Toure – The Secret
39. Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming / The Instrumentals
40. Tom Russell - Mesabi

41. Austra - Feel It Break
42. White Denim - D
43. Bruce Peninsula - Open Flames
44. Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizon Ensemble – The Prairie Prophet
45. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 - From Africa With Fury: Rise
46. JD McPherson - Signs & Signifiers

47. Jack Oblivion - Rat City
48. Psychic Paramount - II
49. Matthew Shipp – Art of the Improviser
50. Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread
51. Dengue Fever - Cannibal Courtship
52. JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound - Want More
53. Connie Smith - Long Line Of Heartaches
54. Jennifer Castle - Castlemusic
55. My Darling Clementine - How Do You Plead?
56. Hanni El Khatib - Will The Guns Come Out?
57. Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis
58. Jeff The Brotherhood - We Are The Champions
59. Ken Vandermark's Predella Group - Strade d'Acqua
60. Limes - Tarantula
61. Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces
62. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
63. Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls
64. Seu Jorge – Músicas para Churrasco, Vol. 1
65. Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
66. Daniel Romano - Sleep Beneath The Willow
67. Meg Baird - Seasons On Earth
68. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
69. Bio Ritmo – La Verdad
70. Moon Duo - Mazes
71. Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream
72. Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
73. Laura Cantrell - Kitty Wells Dresses
74. Krallice - Diotima
75. The Ettes - Wicked Will
76. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
77. King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
78. Quintron - Sucre Du Sauvage
79. The Warped 45s - Matador Sunset
80. David Kilgour - Left By Soft
81. This One's For Him: A Tribute To Guy Clark
82. Slaid Cleaves - Sorrow & Smoke
83. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi — Rome
84. Purling Hiss - Dizzy Polizzy
85. Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO
86. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Cotonou Club
87. Royal Headache - Royal Headache
88. Wild Beasts - Smother
89. Shelby Earl - Burn The Boats
90. Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou
91. Yuck - Yuck
92. Iceage - New Brigade
93. Nick Lowe - The Old Magic
94. Apache Dropout - Apache Dropout
95. Dennis Coffey - Dennis Coffey
96. The Dirty Streets - Movements
97. The Mekons - Ancient and Modern
98. Sonny & The Sunsets - Hit After Hit
99. Glen Campbell - Ghost On A Canvas
100. Ikebe Shakedown — Ikebe Shakedown

Happy Birthday Patti Smith!

                                                                                                                          photo by Jean Baptiste Mondino

We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (1976)



Helpless (2010)



My Blakean Year (2010)

One For The Weekend: 8-bit Fela Kuti

Water Get No Enemy (8-bit version)

Remembering Pops Staples on his day

Nobody's Fault But Mine - Pops Staples



Deliver Me - Staple Singers



Wade In The Water - Staple Singers



I Had A Dream - Staple Singers

Happy Birthday Lenny Kaye!

I Wish You Would by The Fleshtones @ Mercury Lounge 



Crazy Like A Fox by Link Cromwell & The Zoo

Rare live footage of Bush Tetras uncovered

Too Many Creeps by Bush Tetras @ Peppermint Lounge 1980

RIP jazz icon Sam Rivers, 1923 - 2011

Remaster! Repackage! Reissue!

Pussy Galore Reunite @ Maxwells, NJ

Pussy Galore live @ Maxwells December 23, 2011

Happy Birthday Kevin Junior!

Telegram by The Chamber Strings

One For Boxing Day: Lost In The Crowd

Lost In The Crowd by Billy Byrd

RIP Sean Bonniwell, 1940-2011

And now, a Christmas card from Terry Gilliam

One For The Weekend: Shelby Earl

   This Christmas Is For Us by Shelby Earl

 

a few words about Shelby Earl's latest album from Ann Powers:

Dear music-loving pals,

I don't believe in journalistic objectivity. Still, I've always tried to maintain a space between my music writing and my private life. Over the years I've become friendly with a few musicians, and some of my old friends have turned toward music-making. In general, though, I've clung to that old idea that critical perspective and personal connection don't mix.

Until now. I'm writing this note to ask you to listen to an album by a friend. Shelby Earl is a singer-songwriter with a sharp pen and a sumptuous voice, who took a while to fully uncover her own talent. Before she made the brilliant music conveyed on her new release, "Burn the Boats," she worked in various positions within the Pacific Northwest arts community – including at Experience Music Project, where I got to know her as a part of the programming team in the early 2000s.

Shelby was part of one of the intimate circles that make up the necklace of strong women who stand behind – and at the forefront of – the Seattle music scene. We got to know each other as colleagues and as women finding our places in a frankly boyish scene. When I lived in Seattle in the early 2000s, Shelby was starting to explore her own creative possibilities as part of the duo the Hope. But she kept working regular jobs. She was a practical person. Music wasn't a lifestyle for her; it was a practice, a way into new internal spaces. Eventually, it became her vocation, and she changed everything in her life to pursue it.

Jump to 2011. I'm living far from Seattle, but still connected. Shelby sent me an email about her new solo album. Sure, I'll listen, I replied. No promises, though. In fact, I have to admit, I thought I'd send polite praise and move on.

Instead, I became enraptured. "Burn the Boats" is an album beyond trends, a classic work of singer-songwriterly craft and beautifully framed confession. It's a fully adult expression of lessons learned, loss absorbed, and hope rebuilt, plank by plank. The title comes from something her dad said about what she'd done: the expression means to risk everything, abandon all past assumptions and easy outs, in pursuit of something bigger. That urgency comes through in the album's ten gorgeous songs.

Shelby is still young – in her early thirties – but she's not a bubbly ingénue. She makes music for those of us who've been through a few things. Produced by John Roderick and engineered by Eric Corson, both of the beloved Barsuk Records band the Long Winters, and featuring a stellar line-up of Seattle mainstays, "Burn the Boats" realizes Shelby's compositions within arrangements that recall legendary genre-busters like Patsy Cline as well as more contemporary artists like Jenny Lewis and Brandi Carlile. Everybody wants to compare her to Neko Case, maybe because of the Northwest connection, but if Neko is bourbon, Shelby is honey wine. Sweeter at first taste, her music is subtly intoxicating.

I love "Burn the Boats" for its class, its open-heartedness and its wisdom. I'm addicted to the perfect balance of comfort and challenge in Shelby's voice. I don't want this record to get lost in the avalanche of releases that confronts every critic and music fan. It's not particularly hipsterish – one of its best songs, in fact, is "Under Evergreen," a call for Pacific Northwest music insiders to transcend their own assumptions of what's cool. But it's the kind of album that many people in your life will love. Including, I hope, you yourself.

Thanks for listening to my friend and my new favorite singer-songwriter, Shelby Earl. And yes, that's her real name. It's not her fault that it looks so right on an album cover.

Ann Powers

Happy Birthday Victoria Williams!

Century Plant and Crazy Mary by Victoria Williams



LINKS
Site http://www.victoriawilliams.net/
Neurology Now, July/August 2009  Sweet Relief

Pizza Verdi by Gary Nadeau

Pizza Verdi (2011) by Gary Nadeau

Merry Christmas from Ultimate Ovation

Happy Birthday Ed Kuepper!

Demolition Girl, Nights In Venice by The Saints @ Paddington Town Hall, 21/04/77

Drake thanks dictionary... totally snubs thesaurus

Drake wins Songwriter Of The Year at BMI Urban Music Awards

Remembering the late Cornell Dupree on his day

 
Memphis Soul Stew by King Curtis & The Kingpins (live)

Village Music: Last Of The Great Record Stores

Village Music has been a cultural institution in Mill Valley, California for over five decades, but on September 30th, 2007 it closed its well-worn Dutch door for good. Often referred to as “the greatest record store in the world”, Village has been a repository for local musicians and record collectors as well as some of the biggest names in pop, rock, jazz, rhythm & blues. Director George Lucas researched the soundtrack for "American Graffiti" at the store and B.B. King, Ry Cooder, Cab Calloway, Jerry Garcia, and Elvis Costello are among the many stars that have hung out and shopped there over the years. One could always discover something new in this enclave of vintage vinyl and vast memorabilia – enough to rival any respectable American cultural museum.

What made Village Music so unique was its proprietor, John Goddard, a one-of-a-kind music historian and collector who bought the shop in 1968, after working there as a teenager. For countless musicians, John has been a tremendous resource, mentor and friend as well as a nexus for the entire musical community – reviving the careers of forgotten artists and staging some of the most unforgettable concert parties at the legendary Sweetwater saloon. But like so many other independents, Village and John fell victim to the economic shifts of the town and the music industry, unable to compete in the iPod era, the rise of the CD and changes in taste among young music buyers.




Village Music: Last of The Great Record Stores is a compelling music documentary that celebrates the life of an American musical institution and the tremendous impact it had on the famous (and not-so-famous) patrons who were part of itʼs unique history. The film includes candid interviews, rare archival performances, exclusive in-store appearances and all-star tribute concerts. With over thirty artists featured, the film interweaves Village Musicʼs vibrant past and rich musical community with the final six months of its existence – marking the true end of an era. In doing so, it also tells the larger story of the many changes the music business has undergone and the direction itʼs heading - a world where listeners download invisible music and the album is considered a dying art. Even though Village Music is now closed and the last of Goddardʼs rare vinyl and memorabilia is to be sold off, the film has preserved this extraordinary, one-of-a-kind chapter in music history for generations to come.

If you'd care to make a donation to help filmmaker Gillian Grisman complete the project, follow this link to the Kickstarter page. With 138 backers having pledged a total of $10,987 to date, there's still a long way to go to reach Grisman's target of $50,000 before the January 1 deadline. This would be a good time for some deep pocketed celebrity musicians and filmmakers who've benefited from Village Music over the decades to jump in.

RIP Cesaria Evora, 1941-2011

Happy Birthday James Booker!

Nardwuar vs Ghostface Killah

One For The Weekend: Dr. Ross

Feel So Good by Dr. Ross

Banksy's Cardinal Sin

Wiley says Cheer Up, It's Christmas

   Wiley - Cheer Up, It's Christmas

The only Hamilton bar that matters

This Ain't Hollywood (345 James St. North)

Happy Birthday Barbara Manning!

Tramp Records funks up Christmas right

What? A cool Christmas album, completely free of the corny old standards we all know and loathe? Unlikely as it may seem, someone finally came up with a collection you can spin this holiday season at home or in your local club without embarrassment.
Yep, that's right, club DJ and record hound Jan Kohlmeyer pitched Tramp Records' supremo Tobias Kirmayer on the idea for precisely such a Christmas album last year. After auditioning over 50 rare funk, soul and jazz tracks, they knocked the pile down to the top 13 uncomped Xmas thrillers for the resulting Santa's Funk & Soul Christmas Party album – were talkin' primo groovers from classy belters such as Count Sidney, Lee Rogers, Rose Graham and Vernon Garrett.
For other labels, that would've been job done but not those Tramp hombres. In keeping with the spirit of the season, they decided to press up a special limited 500 copy vinyl edition and package it in a snazzy gatefold sleeve depicting scans of all the original 45s. Nice. For those without a turntable, there's also  digital download and CD versions available. Here's a sampling...
 
Santa's Funk & Soul Christmas Party
   Santa's Funk & Soul Christmas Party

A winter treat from Guided By Voices

The classic mid-’90s lineup of Guided By Voices has been back at work, and their new album Let’s Go Eat The Factory is planned for release by Fire Records early in 2012. I'll believe it when I see it but the promising bit is that a 4-song preview EP recently began to circulate with the obvious standout number being the title track Doughnut For A Snowman. Along with it, there's an intriguing 44-second musing called So High which cuts out just when it you'd expect to hear the chorus... naturally.


Doughnut For A Snowman by Guided By Voices
  


So High
  

Jon Rauhouse tops Tucson Tragedy benefit comp

The Tucson, Arizona-based label Fort Lowell Records (http://fortlowell.blogspot.com/) has joined forces with the Music Against Violence organization to release  Luz de Vida – a compilation of songs by Tucson artists to benefit the victims of The Tucson Tragedy in which six people were killed in an attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. 
Luz de Vida is available in two formats: a 12" vinyl LP with 12  exclusive tracks from 12 Tucson bands and a 36-track digital download available from iTunes eMusic and Amazon. Note: the limited yellow vinyl edition (1,500 copies) includes an exclusive track,  Chango Malo's live cover of Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come, along with a digital download card for all 37 tracks (see below).  
Neko Case's slide guitar ace Jon Rauhouse collaborated with Vizqueen's Rachel Flotard on one of the album's highlights, Hammered Light, as you can hear...



Hammered Light by Jon Rauhouse feat. Rachel Flotard
   Jon Rauhouse feat. Rachel Flotard - Hammered Light



VINYL TRACK LISTING

SIDE-A:
1: Dead Western Plains “People Beat”
2: Kiss & The Tells “Tell Me Now”
3: Rainer “The Oasis”
4: Mariachi Luz de Luna “Luz a la Vida”
5: Giant Sand “Recovery Mission (Radio Edit)”
6: Chango Malo “A Change Is Gonna Come (Live)”

SIDE-B:
7: Tracy Shedd “Encourage Me”
8: La Cerca “Swim An Ocean”
9: Calexico “Absent Afternoon”
10: Lenguas Largas “Such A Thing”
11: Holy Rolling Empire “Father’s Father”
12: Salvador Duran “Gabynda (Yolanda)”


DIGITAL TRACK LISTING
1: Taraf de Tucson “Vaya Con Dios”
2: Dead Western Plains “People Beat”
3: Sweet Secrets “Evidence”
4: John Vanderslice “Pale Horse”
5: Jon Rauhouse & Rachel Flotard “Hammered Light”
6: Kiss & The Tells “Tell Me Now”
7: El Depravos (feat. Chuck Prophet) “Vampire Requiem”
8: Rainer “The Oasis”
9: Reno del Mar “All For Love”
10: Robyn Hitchcock “Light Blue Afternoon”
11: Ozomatli “It’s Only Time”
12: Mariachi Luz de Luna “Luz a la Vida”
13: Sunday Afternoon “Mexico”
14: Giant Sand “Recovery Mission”
15: Al Perry & Calexico “Dreaming (Live)”
16: Brian Lopez “Molly (Live)”
17: Chango Malo “A Change Is Gonna Come (Live)” VINYL EXCLUSIVE
18: Meat Puppets “Love Our Children Forever (Live)”
19: Jimmy Eat World “Here It Goes (Live)”
20: HAIRSPRAYFIREANDGIRLS “The Only Child”
21: Tracy Shedd “Encourage Me”
22: La Cerca “Swim An Ocean”
23: Spoon “Vittorio E.”
24: Seashell Radio “Lewis y Clark”
25: Calexico “Absent Afternoon”
26: Neko Case “Middle Cyclone”
27: Mark Growden “Saguaro”
28: Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta “Las Calles de Tucson”
29: DeVotchKa “The Common Good”
30: Lenguas Largas “Such A Thing”
31: Golden Boots “Regional Whales”
32: Silverbell “Why”
33: Rich Hopkins “What Am I Supposed To Do?”
34: Holy Rolling Empire “Father’s Father”
35: Tom Walbank “Guitar In Dub”
36: Silver Thread Trio “Mockingbird”
37: Salvador Duran “Gabynda (Yolanda)”

One For The Weekend: The Pining

She's Gone by The Pining



LINK
site http://www.thepining.com/

R.I.P. deep soul great Howard Tate, 1939-2011

These Are The Things That Make Me Know You're Gone



Get It While You Can

The Black Keys rock the Report

Lonely Boy

Happy Birthday Tom Waits!

The Heart of Saturday Night (1975)



Tom Waits on the Mike Douglas Show (1976)



Tom Waits on Fernwood 2 Night (1977)



Tom Waits on CBC



On The Nickel (1979)



Tom Waits on the Don Lane Show (1981), Part 1



On the Don Lane Show, Part 2

Sunparlour Players rock the Great Hall Dec. 10

To coincide with the release of their ambitious new Us Little Devils album, those snappy dressing Sunparlour Players – at the Great Hall in Toronto on Saturday (December 10) – have just released a video for the track Runner directed by Jared Raab known for his stylish Diamond Rings and Born Ruffians clips. Here's his technical breakdown of the shoot for those who care about such things...

"On the surface, the video is intended to captures some of the raw energy of the Sunparlour Players live show but we also wanted to do something that was technically interesting to shoot but could be pulled off on a small budget.

Working as always with the talented team at Vulture Culture Films we devised a concept to shoot a video was that uses no actual film lighting. Instead, the entire thing was lit by multiple video projectors, projecting textures onto the band. I collected hundreds of video textures including tree branches, leaves and grasses, which were then edited and projected onto the band as they played. The other thing that makes the video somewhat unique is that every single shot, except the last two are reflections in one or more mirrors. Working closely with cinematographer Peter Dreimanis, I set up a series of wonky mirrors at various angles around the band, which allowed us to get shots that would have otherwise been impossible. Working with mirrors is always a bit of a challenge, and I'm sure if you look closely at the video, there is more than one shot of the crew in there.

We shot very quickly over the course of one smokey and sweaty evening at The Sixth Gallery (1642 Queen Street West, Toronto). The Sixth is an unbelievably cool space, filled with all sorts of wonderful sculptures and home-made instruments by gallery owner and artist Iner Souster. The gritty, mechanical sculptures and eccentric wooden decor seemed a perfect compliment to the Sunparlour Players sound.

In the end, what we managed to get was a video that appears quite organic, despite it's technologically complicated origins. Most importantly though, it gives me great pleasure to say we quite literally made it with smoke and mirrors."

Runner by Sunparlour Players



LINKS

site http://www.sunparlourplayers.com/ 
itunes http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/us-little-devils/id466691174

Spend Christmas with Muskox and friends

Just in time for the holiday season, the fine Northern Ontario music blog Sound Vat (soundvat.wordpress.com) is bringing attention to worthy under-the-radar Canuck acts by issuing a sweet 23-track collection of Christmas-themed tunes entitled If Jesus Had Been Canadian, He Would Have Needed More Than Swaddling Clothes. True enough.
For some reason – surely it couldn't be the lack of available material – two of the participating artists decided to do We Three Kings. In this instance, the jazzy version by Toronto's own Muskox takes the cake as you can hear below. If you'd care to check out the other 22 tunes, they're available for free download right here.

View: Cover Art

	1.	Philoceraptor - Naughty 03:38	info	download
	2.	Little City - We're Breaking Up This Christmas 02:35	info	download
	3.	Cai.ro - We Three Kings 03:09	info	download
	4.	Wintercoast - Travels (Leavenworth) 02:39	info	download
	5.	Jesse Northey - O Holy Night 05:59	info	download
	6.	Oui Party - Holly Jolly Christmas 02:06	info	download
	7.	Honheehonhee - You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch 02:02	info	download
	8.	Muskox - We Three Kings 03:13	info	download
	9.	F&M - Scoundrels' Christmas 04:19	info	download
	10.	Those Gulls - Come Alive 04:36	info	download
	11.	J Stevens - Christmas Song 02:57	info	download
	12.	The Fires Of - Wonderful Christmastime 02:38	info	download
	13.	Ivy Mairi - In the Bleak Midwinter 03:28	info	download
	14.	The Ruffled Feathers - The Highest Mountain 05:19	info	download
	15.	Rival Boys - Frosty the Snowman 02:20	info	download
	16.	Bodhi Jones - The Little Drummer Boy 02:35	info	download
	17.	Scott Nicks - I'll Be Home For Christmas 03:44	info	download
	18.	Quiet Parade - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) 03:09	info	download
	19.	Wintermitts - All I Want For Christmas Is You 04:21	info	download
	20.	Scott Currie - Angels We Have Heard On High 03:55	info	download
	21.	Zaac Pick - Silent Night 03:41	info	download
	22.	The Olympic Symphonium - A Lot To Wrap 03:39	info	download
	23.	Alex Andrew - Holiday Wishes 03:31	info

Happy Birthday Sonny Boy Williamson!

In My Younger Days (1964)

Sister Rosetta: Godmother of Rock 'n' Roll

Part I



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4

Clip Of The Week: Otis Rush

I Can't Quit You Baby live in Berlin, 1966

Nicole Atkins (solo) @ The Drake, Saturday

Nicole Atkins meets Mick Fleetwood

Xmas rapping with Ugly Duckling

   Last Minute Shopping by Ugly Duckling