Tracks and Streams: Teen Daze Releases New NYE Track

Electronic fun-guy Teen Daze has released a new track just in time for all of your New Years Eve parties. Enjoy some cheap champagne, and enjoy the horn blasts of "Lets Groove."

Download the free track here.

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OPINION: Dissecting the Velvet Underground Discography

By Austin Kirley

Hey internet, Austin here. As a close follower of this fine, fine weblog (or blog), you've probably noticed a bit of a lull in posting. Don't fret, however; we've just been taking a bit of a breather after our Best of 2011 lists. Come the Year of Our Lord 2012 we will we back in full force, better than ever. Thank you for your concern, as always.

The Velvet Underground is my favorite band of all time. Go ahead, name another band that broke more ground, influenced more artists, and fucked shit up as much as VU. See? You can't, can you? Think about what was happening in rock music in 1966: there were some cool garage bands, Frank Zappa, and the Beatles were starting to take drugs. Sure, that's all well and good, but is that it? Wasn't anyone trying something really and truly new; wasn't anyone making rock more aggressive and weird and noisy? As it turns out, yes, yes there was. And the Velvet Underground was their name.


The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

An iconic album cover if ever there was one, isn't it? It's an iconic album as well. Everything that makes VU good is on this album. With the beautiful balladry of "Sunday Morning", the protopunk grind of "I'm Waiting For the Man", and the all-out noise destruction of "European Son", this album is the perfect cross section of what makes the Velvet Underground the Velvet goddamn Underground. The dichotomy of the thing is astounding when you consider its era. Listen to the first track, "Sunday Morning". It's probably one of the prettiest songs ever written, and one of my favorite songs from the 60s. Now listen to the last track, "European Son". It's a mostly instrumental, 7 minute, noise-punk freakout that's probably the polar opposite of the opening track. It's tribal, hypnotic, and as brutal as any Sonic Youth track, and about 30 years earlier. "Heroin", which is probably the track that most casual fans would associate with the band, is the best example of the two-sided coin that is VU. It starts out as a nice little three-chord poppy tune about doing heroin (what else?). But about midway through the track, during an atmospheric guitar interlude, a metallic, scraping feedback takes over the track. The drums start getting louder and more intense, and the bass becomes slightly more arrhythmic and jittery, and the guitars are screaming and feeding back and droning like jet engines. And this was from '66 remember. It seems cliché to talk about how influential this was, because that's what most people seem to latch onto when talking about it, but it is worth noting. The Velvet Underground & Nico has probably invented more genres than any other album. It's just as much noise pop at one second as it is shoegaze or garage rock in another. What you know as "indie rock" today, was born from this album In short, it's a classic. Drop whatever you're holding and go listen, even if it's a baby...especially if it's a baby.


White Light/White Heat (1968)

I've mentioned before, in this very blog, that I'm all about taking things, music in particular, to their absolute extreme. That's why I'm such a big noise rock fan, and it's also why I'm such a big bubblegum pop fan. And taking it to the extreme is exactly what the Velvets do on this slice of vinyl. The thing is loud, fuzzy, atonal, and hideously ugly. And probably my favorite album of all time. Right off the bat, there's a huge plus for me: no Nico. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Nico had no place in the Velvet Underground, and she doesn't deserve to be remembered as the integral part of the band that most people seem to think she was. She was one of Warhol's beauty queens. She couldn't sing, she could barely speak English, and she ruined what would have been otherwise enjoyable VU songs. Thankfully, she was purged from the band on this particular musical outing. A lot of other things were purged as well. Namely, most of the beautiful melodies, the love songs, and the production values. This is true lo-fi. And save for a short (literally two minute) song called "Here She Comes Now", which is by no means a bad song at all (it was later covered by Nirvana and featured in the movie Adventureland), the entire record, all 6 tracks and 40 minutes of it is a gloriously distorted mess. The opening track, "White Light/White Heat", which is about doing speed (what else?), is a dirty, bluesy, punker that (as a lot of VU songs are wont to do) devolves into a blistering noisefest, thereby setting the tone for the rest of the album. It fades out into the second track of the album, "The Gift". A lot of people have split feelings about "The Gift", and I count myself among those people. Musically, it's one of my favorite tracks of the album. It's eight minutes of thick bass droning, bashed out drums, and improvised guitar noise. What more could one ask for? However, Mr. Lou Reed throws a wrench into things, as he likes to do. The fantasic music I described is relegated to one stereophonic channel (specifically, the right one). On the left, Lou reads a short story about a man named Waldo Jeffers in what I can only describe as a faux psuedo-British accent. And to be honest, personally,  it makes my skin crawl. I can't stand listening to it. Thankfully, if you happen to be listening with headphones, you can simply remove one and listen to the instrumental track. Equally thankfully, the next song more than makes up for it. "Lady Godiva's Operation" has become my favorite Velvet Underground track of all time. A droning, slow, lo-fi tune about a sex change operation, this is probably the most ahead of it's time VU song in their discography. It sounds like Guided by Voices sniffed a bunch of glue and let loose on a Tascam. If someone told me that this song was from 1993, I would honestly believe them. Track four is the aforementioned "Here She Comes Now". It was the song that originally got me listening to the Velvets, by way of a fantastic Nirvana cover. Not much can be said about it except that it's a great song, and the only surfacing of any sort of pop on the album. It's like a breather in the middle on the rest of the record. And the remnants of that song are completely obliterated just seconds later on "I Heard Her Call My Name". Full of detuned guitars and snarled vocals, this is about as close to noise rock as music would get for another 20 years. It certainly gets my vote for most badass track of the century. And then, on track six, "Sister Ray" happens. It's a Leviathan of a song, and a fitting ending to a Behemoth of an album. What can I say about it, except to throw that baby to the ground and grab a copy.


The Velvet Underground (1969)

With The Velvet Underground, the band got a whole lot less weird, but that doesn't mean they got worse. In fact, while they still maintained the original VU lineup (Reed, Morrison, Tucker, Yule, and, for the first two albums, John Cale), they didn't make a bad, or even average, album. The first four VU albums constitute what is maybe the greatest run in the history of rock music. Like I mentioned, this album marks a drastic change in the band's sound. It's not that they lost all their experimentalism. Most of the tracks on this are ballsier than whatever you would hear on the radio in 1969, or even today; and "The Murder Mystery" is just as insane as anything you would find on  a Residents album. But the focus shifted from wild experimentation to songwriting. And keeping in line with previous albums, whatever the Velvet Underground tries to do, they do well. Some of my favorite Velvets songs are on this album. It's rock music with no real point other than to be good rock music. While White Light/White Heat was built on making the listener uncomfortable and on the edge of their seat, The Velvet Underground is much more of a solid album. The songs are solid and dense, much more permanent. They're more accessible, there's no denying that, but there's more than meets the ear on first listen. I think the Sonic Youth comparison I made before is equally apt for this album. A lot of the songs are long and slow, and make use of droning organs or guitars. The drums and bass create a hypnotic, repetitive base for the songs to build on. Reed writes some of the best songs of his career on this album, such as "Pale Blue Eyes", "What Goes On" (a personal favorite from the album), and "Candy Says". The record closes with what is probably the best one-two punch in the Velvets catalog: the 9 minute musique-concrete epic "The Murder Mystery" which flows seamlessly into the 2 minute acoustic folk ditty "After Hours", sung (in a charmingly amateurish voice) by drummer Moe Tucker. This is a perfect album to slap on while studying, or trying to fall asleep, or if you're in need of some great music. While by no means the strangest VU album, it's still very much worth your time for the fantastic songwriting. Drop that baby.


Loaded (1970)

This is the last Velvet Underground album by the somewhat original lineup of the band, and while it is a tad depressing that they never returned to the experimental extremes of VU & Nico or White Light, Loaded is still a terrific album in much the same way The Velvet Underground was. The focus is still on songwriting as it was on the preceding album. However, on Loaded, the band was consciously trying to write what they hoped would become radio hits (hence the title, meaning it was "loaded with hits"). They didn't succeed, at least not as much as they had hoped, which lead to their breakup after this album. However the album did produce two songs which have become modestly successful: "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll". I'm probably not the best authority on this album, as it's my least favorite of the four VU albums, but what I said before about The Velvet Underground still applies here. It's all very catchy and accessible, so much so that even the least musically minded classic rock junkie could jam along to a lot of the songs. I will say that I don't think it makes for the most fitting epitaph for the Velvet's legacy; but, like everything else they did, it's infinitely likeable and listenable. [Note: I recommend grabbing the Deluxe Edition of this particular record. It's got some great demos and outtakes, as well as some VU versions of what would later become solo Reed material. Good Stuff.]


Squeeze (1973)

I debated putting this album on this list. While it is still technically a Velvet Underground, it's in name only. All the members (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker) had left the band except for the bassist Doug Yule, who proceeded to bastardize the VU name with this album. I have two words for this thing:

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OPINION: Mark's 2012 Wishlist

I believe I can safely say that 2011 was a great year in music. I discovered a ton of new bands, and ended up really pleased with the releases of some old favourites of mine. Now with 2011 coming to a close I’d just like to take this chance to talk about some of my expectations and wishes for music in 2012.

John K. Samson - Provincial

John K. Samson has been a major force in the Canadian independent music scene for well over a decade now as the front-man of The Weakerthans. Now he’s releasing his first solo album and I’m just as excited for this as I would be for a new record from The Weakerthans. John’s poetic lyrics are one of the characteristics that I feel makes The Weakerthans such a unique band, and I don’t think he’ll just magically lose his songwriting ability for this solo album. Also, based on the tracks to be released from Provincial already, like "When I Write My Masters Thesis", this album is going to rock just as hard as any Weakerthans album from the past.

Plants And Animals - The End Of That

I’ve really taken a shine to these Montreal/Halifax rockers over the past year. I saw them live way back in March and they actually played 6 or 7 new songs during that show, so I knew there would be a new album in the near future. Well, that new album is is called The End Of That and it’s going to be out in February of 2012. Their first album, Parc Avenue, was more of an orchestral rock album, while their sophomore album, La La Land, was more of a straightforward rock album. That makes it tough to know where this band will go with The End Of That but based on the first single, "Lightshow", they’ll be doing something really good.

Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting

Whenever Nick Thorburn releases a new piece of music I can say for sure that I’ll be listening to it. After all, in my opinion he created one of the best pop albums of the past 10 years with Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone as part of the Unicorns. Since The Unicorns disbanded, Nick’s main project has been Islands, a band which he has pulled in three very different directions for their three studio albums. Based on the first song "This Is Not A Song" from this latest album to be released on Valentine’s Day, he’s going to go in a new direction once again. At first I wasn't sure about this new song, but I’ve really warmed up to it as of late, so I’m really excited for this album to be released.

Bear In Heaven - I Love You, It’s Cool

This is a band that I first discovered a while ago, but I really only started to listen to them closely over the past few months, and I really like what I’ve been hearing. This Brooklyn-based band make some really cool experimental rock fused with some of the more spacious elements of electronic music, and even some hints of Krautrock. I don’t know a ton about this band at the moment, but I do think that they’re doing something very unique, so I’m excited to see what kind of music comes out of their new album.

So, those are four albums I’m looking forward to that have been confirmed as releases in 2012. Now I'm just going to quickly mention a few things that aren’t confirmed, but should happen in 2012.

PS I Love You - 2nd Studio Album

I know that Paul Saulnier has been writing some new songs, so the wheels for this album are in motion. I just hope it gets released as soon as possible.

Trust - Debut Album

This electronic duo from Toronto really struck me with their first single, "Candy Walls". They’re now signed to Arts & Crafts records with what I would expect is an awesome debut on the way in 2012.

Purity Ring - Debut Album

This is an eccentric electronic duo by way of Edmomnton and Halifax who released some great singles in 2011, like "Belispeak". I can’t wait to hear an album full of their work.

Now, here are some things that I would love to see happen, but I know that they have no chance in hell of ever happening.

- Tegan and Sara proclaim that Tyler, the Creator’s Wolf is the best hip hop album of all time.

- The Unicorns re-form and release an album called We’re Back Because We Needed A Haircut.

- Lana Del Rey becomes horribly disfigured after surgery to permanently apply flowers to her skull goes terribly wrong.

Those are just a few things I’m looking forward to in the coming year. I’m sure I missed quite a few, but I’m really looking forward to 2012 being another awesome year in music!

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Craig Finn discusses new song: "Jackson."

When I heard that Craig Finn, front man of The Hold Steady, was releasing a solo record, I grew worried. The group's most recent album was disappointing to a certain extent, and solo records usually have an empty feel when compared to their full-band counterparts. Consider my cynicism washed away with this great track, highlighted by The A.V. Club, which contains all the power of a great Hold Steady song.

Check it:


Craig Finn discusses and performs "Jackson"

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Breaking: Man loves new Drake album

Aziz Ansari has become one of America's most popular comedians, in part thanks to his work on the hit show (and great show) Parks and Recreation. Recently, he tweeted about his recent YouTube finds, and a lot of the videos focused on this man's--Big Quint--initial reactions to new hip hop and R&B releases. A possible highlight of his budding YouTube career, Big Quint took a particularly erotic tone in his reaction to Take Care, the latest from rapper Drake.

Check it, especially at the 2:00 minute mark when he gets to "Crew Love":

PS: Big Quint's video of The Weeknd's newly released Echoes of Silence is also fantastic.

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LIST: Favorite YouTube Channels

Hey, do you spend countless hours on YouTube? Me too! Do you need some help with awesome content providers? This is for you, unnecessarily inquisitive YPOIW reader that doesn't exist. 

How To: Batman / SharkBabyFilms

Essentially, How To: Batman is a series where a morbidly obese man dressed in a Batman costume does instructional videos. It's his oddball jokes that really make the series interesting for me. For instance, in the video below he's teaching his viewers how to do yoga, and his instructor shows us a "warrior" pose. Batman then proceeds to pretend that he's surfing. "I FEEL LIKE A SURF WARRIOR".

The Angry Video Game Nerd / Cinemassacre.com

One of the internet's most popular web series, James Rolfe's The Angry Video Game Nerd, started all the way back in 2004. It essentially involves James reviewing classic video games and becoming irate at their general terribleness. Eventually, "The Nerd" evolved into its own character and the episodes became longer and more complicated over time. The massive popularity of the series (most of his videos are over 500,000 views on YouTube) has given James the ability to make a full length feature film on the character. Currently in a financing and pre-production mode, he's already raised $190,000 dollars for Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie. Even as he's preparing to make a feature length film, he still churns out monthly AVGN videos and other (equally awesome) content over at Cinemassacre.

Dead End Hip-Hop

I love this channel; it's premise is to bring discussion to reviewing music on YouTube instead of one reviewer's opinion. The 4 stars of Dead End Hip-Hop have a passionate discussion on a wide range of topics, most notably album reviews. As there are 4 of them, very often they all have different takes and perceptions. It's almost more of a video podcast than a real video series, but it's just so damn entertaining. 

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STREAM: Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire - Merry eX​-​Mas & Suck My Dick

In true Christmas spirit, East Coast rapper Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire is following up his September release Lost in Translation with another mixtape entitled Merry eX​-​Mas & Suck My Dick. The tape features a track with Danny Brown, as well as beats from El-P, A$AP Ty Beats, and more. Listen below.

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VIDEO: The Flaming Lips cover "I Am the Walrus"

The Flaming Lips are a bunch of weirdos, that isn't even my opinion at this point.  Just go take a look at Wayne Coyne's crazy twitter feed where he tweets nothing but the strangest shit I've ever seen in my life. What have they done in the last year that didn't involve some sort of morbid gimmick?  Between gummy fetuses, skulls, and 24 hour songs in REAL human skulls they can be a hard band to follow in-between albums. Thankfully, here's a fairly Lips-ian take on the Beatles' classic "I am the Walrus". This is pure speculation, but it's likely in honor of the Lips playing a New Years Eve show with Yoko Ono this weekend. It's actually quite an interesting take, it's not surprising that a touchstone of psychedelic music is perfect fodder for a Flaming Lips song in 2011. It's more of a question of why haven't they already done this. 

via Consequence of Sound

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TRACKS: YPOIW's Top 25 Albums of 2011

Want to sample some of the music on our top 25 albums of 2011 list? Well, fret no longer because I've included songs (and full albums) from every song on our top 25. You don't need to be so whiny about it you know, all you had to do was ask. Have fun and I hope all of these embeds don't crash your computer.

25. Arctic Death - "Golden"
 Golden by ARCTIC DEATH

24. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Belong"
 The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Belong by Slumberland Records

23. Thundercat - The Golden Age of Apocalypse (full album stream)
 The Golden Age Of Apocalypse - Thundercat by kronika

22. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Ffunny Frends"
 FFunny Frends - Unknown Mortal Orchestra by Janesaysgrrrrr

21. Cant - "Believe"
 CANT - Believe (taken from Dreams Come True - Terrible Records / Warp Records) by Warp Records

20. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica (full album stream)
 Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica by Mexican Summer

19. Tim Hecker - "Hatred of Music I"
 tim hecker 'hatred of music I' by kranky

18. M83 - "Midnight City"
 Midnight City by M83

17. Kendrick Lamar - "HiiiPower"
 Kendrick Lamar - HiiiPoWeR Prod by J.Cole #Section80 by TopDawgENT

16. James Blake - "Limit To Your Love"
 James Blake - Limit To Your Love by TheDropFather

15. Radiohead - "Lotus Flower"
 Radiohead - Lotus Flower by okw4rd

14. Fucked Up - "Queen of Hearts"
 Fucked Up - Queen Of Hearts by stormyskiesahead

13. Bon Iver - "Holocene"
 Holocene by boniver

12. Colin Stetson - "Judges"
 Colin Stetson - Judges by CornFedCritic

11. Destroyer - "Kaputt"
 Destroyer - Kaputt by krojac

10. Fleet Foxes - "Helplessness Blues"
 Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues by MMMusic

9. A$AP Rocky - "Bass"
 ASAP Rocky - Bass by beatsbaby

8. Battles - "Ice Cream"
 Ice Cream (Featuring Matias Aguayo) by BATTLES

7. Gang Gang Dance - "Mindkilla"


6. Braids - "Lemonade"
 BRAIDS 'Lemonade' by kaninerecords

5. St. Vincent - "Cruel"
 St. Vincent - Cruel by Posh Magazine

4. Danny Brown - XXX (full album stream)
 Danny Brown "XXX" by foolsgoldrecs

3. Shabazz Palaces -  "Swerve... The Reeping of All That Is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)"
 Shabazz Palaces - Swerve... by subpop

2. Death Grips - Exmilitary (full album stream)
 Death Grips - Exmilitary by deathgrips

1. tUnE-yArDs - "Bizness"
 BIZNESS Tune Yards by CristinaBlack

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YPOIW TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2011: Honorable Mentions

Unfortunately, every album that we loved this year couldn't make the final cut of 25. What follows is a list of our favorite albums that didn't make the cut. We still love all of you and have a happy and safe Christmas. We'll return to our regular content soon, but for now... here's our Best of 2011: Honorable Mentions.

Clams Casino - Rainforest EP/Instrumentals

In some ways, Clams Casino's signature production style helped define the landscape of hip hop in 2011. Not only did many of the year's notable rappers employ his beats, including A$AP Rocky, Main Attrakionz, Lil B, and even Soulja Boy, but his bedroom approach to beat making also coincided with the rise of the DIY aesthetic in hip hop. But the argument could be made that many of the MCs with whom Clams Casino has collaborated don't do his beats justice. Debate aside, it's difficult to deny the power of Clams Casino's music in an instrumental context. Throughout the majority of these tracks, Clams manages to transform a number of unlikely samples (e.g. Adele's "Hometown Glory" on "Realist Alive") into an unrecognizable haze of highly atmospheric, somewhat shoegaze-y quality. Surprisingly, despite how much Clams detaches the samples from their original intentions, the results often make for an almost overwhelming level of emotion. The drums, however, are what keep these beats grounded in hip hop. Clams uses a line of drum sounds that aren't far off from what could be found in basically any club hip hop hit, yet even though this does add a danceable side to his music, it hardly ever feels tacky. Instrumentals finds Clams taking a few detours as well, like on the beat-less track "The World Needs Change", the minimal dance excursion "She's Hot", and two of the few examples in which samples aren't completely obscured, the Björk sampling "Illest Alive" and the Janelle Monae sampling "Cold War". To me, Rainforest is the more consistent of the two releases, but both showcase an unbelievable amount of strength. Clams Casino is providing not only instrumental hip hop a much needed push forward, but hip hop production in general; furthermore, he is establishing himself a position at the forefront of what I believe to be a new age of hip hop innovation. -Danny Spiteri


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Dog Day - Deformer

Once in a while you stumble upon a band that barely anyone knows, yet you fall madly in love with them. That happened to me this year with Dog Day. It was an interesting year for the band, they devolved from a four-piece to a two-piece so a valid question was whether or not they could continue turning out their brand of dark indie pop at the same level as before. In my opinion they turned out one of the best records of the year. I think musically Deformer has a little bit of something for everyone. There are some songs that just sounds like straight up indie pop and others that come off as fast punk rock tunes. The one constant throughout Deformer is the cloak of darkness that seems to cover every single song. This record is also a bit more grungy and Grimy than any of Dog Day’s previous efforts. This could be because they really went back to basics by was self-recording and self-releasing Deformer. To me, when a band puts that much effort into making an album it really shows that they care about what they’re doing, and I believe that how much this duo cares comes through in their music. So, does Deformer push any boundaries? No, not really. What it does do is give you some catchy as hell pop tunes that you can tell are played with passion, and played with care. -Mark Gillis

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La Dispute - Wildfire

La Dispute's Wildlife is one of my favorite albums of the year and I'm glad we decided to do honorable mentions so I could get a chance to talk about it. I'm just going to get this out of the way, La Dispute is a post-hardcore band from Michigan. Their sound is a unique one and there's more variation here than on the majority of records I've heard this year. La Dispute uses quiet sections with spoken word vocals to complement the chaos and they're often heartfelt and beautiful. I believe this to be a really tight record, but the thing that keeps me coming back are the absolutely amazing lyrics. The nature of the music allows the lyrics to be detailed at the level I've never seen before. On "St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church Blues" the narrator describes a window on a church, but goes as far to describe it as "That stained-glass window sits untouched amongst the brickwork worn". As for the content of this release, it's absolutely brutal. The themes on this album cover a wide range of horrible human conditions and circumstances. You'll hear about an accidental murder, a schizophrenic son stabbing his son, and a seven year old boy dying of cancer on 3 consecutive tracks. The 3rd person narrative throughout the album gives this band more in common with The Hold Steady than one would expect. Containing both a mix of autobiographical and fabricated stories, they do share one common trait: they're all completely captivating in every way. -Kyle Shoemaker


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Milo- I wish my brother Rob was here

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I gave a very favorable review to Milo's mixtape at the time of it's release. I'm glad to say that very few of my opinions about it have changed since I first reviewed it. It's a shame that it didn't make the list proper, but while it wasn't at an extremely high position on many personal lists (excepting mine of course, where it took number three), I did notice it on quite a few of them. I think that speaks well of the album: Milo's lyrics are infinitely interesting, his personality is infinitely accessible, and the references he makes are pretty much tailor-made for music geeks who write for blogs. It's almost impossible not to like. And that's not to say it's twee and not to be taken seriously. The music is also infinitely relatable. Milo gets you better than you get yourself. I hope he makes more music. -Austin Kirley

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My Morning Jacket - Circuital

I am floored at how little love this album got this year. Even among My Morning Jacket fans, this album got a consensus "meh." I really couldn't disagree with this sentiment more. Circuital is an eccentric album, propelling My Morning Jacket a little further away from their southern rock roots. This album just has so many elements I enjoy. Jim James' lyrics retain their tongue-in-cheek humour, the guitars soar, and the songs sprawl with splashes of space-funk. Opening track "Victory Dance" is a fine example of what I love about this album, it's a bit of a slow-burner, no question, but the rewards are worth the wait. I think the reason this album doesn't get its due diligence is its lack of one extra-strong track here as a starting place for the album. There is no "One Big Holiday" or "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part II" on this album, just a solid collection of great tracks. Tracks like "The Day is Coming" and "Outta my System" stand up there with My Morning Jackets best tracks. This is a powerhouse of a band, and they showcase it like pros on this album. Criminally overlooked. -Josh Custodio


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The Roots - undun

The Legendary Roots Crew did it again. For their entire careers post-Things Fall Apart, they released solid album after solid album, never topping their 90s masterpiece until 2010 when they made the criminally underrated How I Got Over. Led by Black Thought’s memorable and divisive political flow, solid guest spots, and ?uestlove’s drumming and production, the Roots had topped themselves. And now, a year and a half later, in December of 2011, the Roots topped that. I guess the free time working on Jimmy Fallon’s show as a fantastic house band has given them time to think about evolving their sound. With this concept record that mixes The Wire’s complicated morality in the inner-city with a Momento narrative device, The Who’s Tommy-esque complex rock opera inclinations with mid-2000s Sufjan Steven’s orchestration, undun is now the definitive Roots album. Captain Kirk Douglass’s guitar fills, ?uest’s live drumming, and the rest of the production create a soulful Marvin Gaye atmosphere with even more of a political bent. Guest features by the smoothly Southern Big K.R.I.T. and the eccentric Greg PORN are perfect accents to the hardworking Black Thought. In the end, that is the supreme weapon in the Roots’ arsenal: Black Thought. When Pitchfork and Rolling Stone are out there dissing Thought’s rhymes and flows, calling him tame, I guess I can see where they are coming from—to a certain extent. He is not a horror core rapper shocking the world like Tyler, the Creator. He doesn’t have speed of some of his peers. Instead, Black Thought is an emcee for adults with adult taste. . . no bullshit, no nonsense. The working man’s emcee, like the Who who were a working man’s band. It all comes around in the end. By time the album ends, with the orchestral and jazz suite that is built around a Sufjan Stevens piano interlude, it feels like a birth, and after that birth, you want to start the record over again. undun is an addiction, and unlike the world of its protagonist, it is a good addiction. -TJ Duane

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Serph - Heartstrings

I’m gonna do my thing and direct your attention towards an exemplary piece of music from Japan. Serph’s Heartstrings was my substitute World’s End Girlfriend album of the year—that is, my mind-numbingly complicated experiment in electronic excess. It is video game music, classical concertos, and IDM thrown into a carefully discerning blender. I love the breadth of sounds from which he draws, and the entire album is peppered with the interplay of “real” and synthesized instruments. That was one of my favorite things about The Age of Adz, but Heartstrings takes it to a level that nearly falls off the tip of excess and becomes indiscriminate noise. In fact, after my first listen, I thought this was a very sloppy album, but I kept returning to it and it gradually began making sense to me. The problem was that Serph is quite good at making the carefully constructed intricacies of his songs sound effortless, and Heartstrings is an album which needs time before the listener can even distinguish everything that is happening, much like a Max Tundra record. But once you unpack it, this album is one of the most fun and most maximalistic collections of music to be found in 2011. -Steve Jones

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Young Montana? – Limerence

For the past few years IDM has been a dead genre. Autechre and Squarepusher have fallen from grace, neither Boards of Canada nor AFX have released material in years and the whole Warp Records label seems to be moving into different areas. Enter Young Montana?, a young British beat maker, and his album Limerence to save the day. His debut record contains influences from so many places the end product sounds nothing like I’ve ever heard before. Genre boundaries are torn down throughout the record, IDM, hip hop, breakbeat, dance and anything else Young Montana? can get his hands on is twisted, chopped up and taken to the extreme It pulls from off kilter hip hop instrumentals similar to Flying Lotus, dense sonic assaults similar to Clark, and has a sly tongue in cheek approach which is entirely Young Montana? himself. The one big difference about Limerence to its peers is that it’s fun, it’s catchy, and yet it’s still layered and complex enough to sit down and listen to. While you’re in your big chair with headphones on, listening and stroking your beard, I dare you, DARE you, try not to smile, or bump your head. It’s impossible. -TTK

read more "YPOIW TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2011: Honorable Mentions"

YPOIW TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2011: 5-1

With 2011 coming to a close, YPOIW would like to take the week to showcase our favorite releases of the year. Monday through Friday will be a countdown of our top 25 favorite albums of 2011, starting with spots #25-21 on Monday and continuing until the final #5-1 on Friday. This weekend, we'll also be taking a look at some albums that we feel deserve an honorable mention but didn't quite make it on our list. Thanks for reading, and most importantly, enjoy!

5. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

Embracing electronics like this was the best choice Annie Clark has ever made. As her moniker, St. Vincent, Clark is making some of the most interesting experimental pop that's out there. Strange Mercy is a trip, an album that truly oozes character through every pore. When I first heard "Cruel", the second track to drop from the album, I wasn't sure what to make of it. It seems that Clark had heard the bleeps and bloops going on in other songs, and wanted to incorporate that into her St. Vincent work. Every decision on this album is conscious. It plays as a crafted album, and even the flaws she showcases are there for a reason. If there's one thing 2011's music has shown us, it's that the best albums push the genres within which they operate. Strange Mercy does this, and I can't wait to see what Clark cooks up next. -Josh Custodio

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4. Danny Brown - XXX

Danny Brown begins XXX with a voice and inflection that you may find annoying. It's a record that is meant to document Danny's life and struggles with addiction. On "Die Like a Rock Star" Danny considers the fact that he's experimented so much but is alive to tell the tale to be a miracle. Back to that inflection, I'm sure many gave up on this album before the end of the opening track. If you can deal with his bizarre and eccentric voice and style, even more will hate this album because of the content. This is not a clean record, it's a drug filled romp of misogyny, sex, and weird pop culture references. Danny Brown uses his bizarre yelping voice to say some truly awful and offensive things. The thing that is most impressive about this album is Danny's uncompromising personality and wit. The impressive production complements his weirdo style greatly. Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows how often I tweet lyrics from this tape, and I don't even feel like I've scratched the surface.

It's not all jokes, misogyny, and horror-core though; Danny also manages to have moments on this album that are deep and introspective. Most of these moments occur on the album's second half where Danny is less concerned about making you laugh and more concerned with making you think. On "DNA" he compares his addictions to those of his father and makes a case of it being hereditary, and by this point, his voice and inflection are approaching that of a traditional rap artist. This is the sound of Danny coming off the drugs for a spell and tearing his heart out and showing it to you. His only coping mechanism returns with the eccentric voice and inflection returning on album closer "30", signifying that although Danny is 30 and he considers himself to be the "greatest rapper ever" (his words, not mine), he still struggles with addiction even today. It's a sobering thought, one I haven't personally dealt with myself but I can sympathize with greatly. XXX is the kind of record that's easy to decipher on the surface, but much more interesting and painful than those that gave up on it give it credit for. Even Danny's biggest detractors would have to admit his talent, and it would be a shame for him to die like a rock star, so to speak. -Kyle Shoemaker

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3. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

Formerly of 90’s outfit Digable Planets, Ismael Butler now combines with instrumentalist Tendai Maraire to make up Shabazz Palaces. Following the release of 2 EPS in 2010, they delivered Black Up, a futuristic and other worldly take on Hip Hop. Sonically, nothing else of the genre has rivalled it this year, perhaps only Clams Casino providing the strongest competition. With an incredibly rich and diverse range of production techniques, moments like the piano sample switch up on “Are you...? Can you... Were you? (Felt)”, whilst relatively simple, feel fresh and unorthodox. Almost everything here is unconventional. No two tracks fit a particular structure but the consistent prominence of low end keeps Black Up from feeling non-cohesive. Lyrically, Butler is deceptively elegant and even culminates in some quasi-tribal chanting on the closer “Swerve... The Reeping Of All That Is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)”. I genuinely believe that this album will be looked back on as an alternative hip hop classic and a lesson that the shackles of hip hop conventions should be let loose once in a while. Not to say it never happens, but Shabazz Palaces does it in a way that captures attention and admiration whilst managing to surpass conceptions of "genre" altogether. -Jack Hayter

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2. Death Grips - Exmilitary

I once again got lucky in the album I got to write up, because Exmilitary was number two on my top albums of the year. And judging from its position on the YPOIW list, quite a few other people seemed to feel similarly. It's not often an album can feel so groundbreaking and experimental, yet so solid and...well definitely not accessible, but maybe "blue-collar" is a better term. Exmilitary is hardcore hip hop in the sense that it's hip hop for fans of Bad Brains and MDC. There's even a Black Flag sample on here. It takes a rap song and distorts the hell out of it, and then a scary man with a beard beats it into your skull relentlessly, shouting and yelling all the while. He has the flow of a steam roller. And while you would think shouted vocals and aggressive beats would get old quick, the sheer force of the thing will get your blood pumping each time without fail. TAK. -Austin Kirley

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1. tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l

I was worried about w h o k i l l. Merrill Garbus’ first tUnE-yArDs album BiRd-BrAiNs conveyed so much raw emotion through a simple voice recorder, that I feared excess production would dilute her style and her substance. The intricate cascading waterfall of sound that is the first single “Bizness” did a lot to dispel my worries, but it wasn’t until I heard w h o k i l l opener “My Country” that I realized this album could not only match BiRd-BrAiNs, but surpass it. On the surface, this is some of the catchiest pop music of the year, with all of the variety and weirdness that draws me like a moth to a flame. There are songs to dance to, songs to scream with, and songs that would sound right at home in an old Crash Bandicoot game. Garbus’ fusion of folk, hip hop, afro-beat, tropicalia, and her distinctively passionate voice makes w h o k i l l a treat for fans of irregular pop.

My moth and flame simile, while cliché, is nonetheless appropriate. This record is attractive and glistening thanks to the wonderful production and detailed arrangements, but at its core this is incendiary music. This is pop with fangs. And this is American music, right down to the multicultural and multi-genre soup of song styles and inspirations. The lyrics convey a sense of restlessness and frustration towards issues like economic and political inequality, police brutality, drug addiction, and the self-consciousness of the 21^st century young person in America. Garbus’ music is infectious and activist, yet not so overbearing that the message undermines the music. The record uses abstract storytelling and ironic turns to maintain that necessary sense of entertainment, and nowhere is this is more apparent than the opening lines of the first track, a subversion of nationalistic pride: “My country ‘tis of thee / Sweet land of liberty / How come I cannot see my future within your arms?” In fact, the entirety of w h o k i l l functions quite well as a prophetic soundtrack to the Occupy movement. It is music meant to be sung in the streets, meant to unite and ignite, and so I believe it to be not just the best album of 2011, but the best album for 2011. -Steve Jones

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YPOIW TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2011: 10-6

With 2011 coming to a close, YPOIW would like to take the week to showcase our favorite releases of the year. Monday through Friday will be a countdown of our top 25 favorite albums of 2011, starting with spots #25-21 on Monday and continuing until the final #5-1 on Friday. This weekend, we'll also be taking a look at some albums that we feel deserve an honorable mention but didn't quite make it on our list. Thanks for reading, and most importantly, enjoy!

10. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

When I first heard Fleet Foxes back in 2008, I was less than impressed; looking back I can see why, it's first impressions to me were just some floaty hippy jam that made me want to turn around and run straight back to listening to Reign In Blood. However, there was something about that album that kept me coming back, and it ended up being one of my favourite albums of that year. While Helplessness Blues was certainly not an album I disliked at first, it did have me coming back for days at a time throughout the year. The album pulls and sways like an emotionally charged ocean, tracks flowing together so cohesively that it almost feels wrong to skip tracks (not that you would want to). Even with that aspect, the majority of songs still stand comfortably on their own two legs, with the number of single-worthy songs encompassing most of the track list. Helplessness Blues builds around everything Robin Pecknold did with the first album, really showing off his chops as a songwriter and composer, with the almost orchestral arrangements and layering on nearly every track, or at least where necessary. After every listen you find a new detail or nuance to pick at and enjoy, a quality I feel too many albums lack. Aside from the quality of the songs, the sound of this album is something that moves Helplessness Blues from something good to something great. Robin wanted this to have a flawed, almost rushed feel, rather than doing take after take in order to get everything just right. In a way, this really shows the quality of the performers, as the album feels very natural without being highly polished. From a sonic perspective Helplessness Blues feels very warm and inviting, like the album is pining for the days when vinyl still reigned supreme. If this is what Fleet Foxes came up with to follow their self-titled LP, I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. -Simon May

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9. A$AP Rocky - LiveLoveA$AP

“You better recognize that shit ASAP! A-FUCKIN’SAP!” – Some angry person. With the release of weed smoking, cough syrup sipping anthem “Purple Swag” earlier this year it was pretty easy to “recognize” that Rocky was, yes, indeed a weed smoking, cough syrup sipping individual. In many ways, you can effortlessly box out A.S.A.P Rocky and simply tag him as another Wiz Khalifa, but in truth, this mixtape stood far apart from its peers in “weed rap”. Production-wise Live Love is stacked with young ambitious producers, sporting the likes of Clams Casino, Beautiful Lou, and Ty Beats. A$AP Rocky fully embraced the experimental hip hop production on this album, and walking on a thin line between being too assertive and being too tame,  Rocky did what many rappers wish they could do and created an equilibrium with his music. Live Love seems to have the ability to create a completely massive atmosphere at any moment, most apparent on opening track “Palace” where as soon as you hit play you’re immediately bombarded with a sea of voices. Stylistically speaking, Rocky is more of a contradiction to his own name, possessing a seamless flow while constantly dropping punch-lines that don’t actually punch, but serve more as padding to his own swagger. Live Love to me is one massive step for the rapidly expanding genre of hip hop and a true example of just how far the genre has come in the last few years. - Nelson Lopez

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8. Battles - Gloss Drop

How fun can an album be? Gloss Drop pushes the question the max.  This is an album of joy, a real pleasure to listen to when you're in a good mood.  Battles is the only band out there right now making tunes like these. I was among the people who thought the depature of vocalist Tyondai Braxton would be hugely detrimental to the band. How many bands can lose their singer, then come out with the best product they've ever produced? Gloss Drop outshines its predecessor in almost every way I can think of. From the bouncy "Ice Cream" to the moody and sprawling "White Electric" Battles manages to show that they're capable of making a varied album, while maintaining their distinct style. This album is a blast to listen to, and works great as a soundtrack to any day spend wandering your town. It's encouraging to see music like this breaking more into the general consciousness, and as a big part of that, Battles should be recognized as one of the best instrumental-based bands out there. -Josh Custodio

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7. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact

Throughout the years there have been many bands that have attempted to recreate pop through their own odd and experimental vision, one successful example being Gang Gang Dance. On the escalating opener "Glass Jar", Gang Gang Dance made it clear that their intentions were not still the same. Never has Lizzi Bougatsos sounded more ambitious and daring than on Eye Contact, where she showers each track with her stout voice. In 2011, Gang Gang Dance brought themselves to an approach rooted much more in alternative dance, creating lush, massive soundscapes with steady and smooth rhythms. Along with the departure of former drummer Tim Dewit, Gang Gang Dance also abandoned their more chaotic style of play, moving to a far more cohesive and dynamic style. Gang Gang Dance's attempts to mesh psychedelic synth pop into dance music culminated on "Mindkilla", where they use Dem Bow rhythm meshed in with a plethora of floating synth sounds to create a dance-able club hit. "Thru and Thru", another personal favorite, shows us stellar drum work from Jesse Lee intertwined with the rising synth melodies Gang Gang Dance creates. A relaxing, yet powerful track, it sums up all of the emotion of the album into its 6 minute length. In hindsight, Eye Contact takes the band's overall sound and spreads it to a wider audience. It makes me even more excited to what direction they're headed to. -Nelson Lopez

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6. Braids - Native Speaker

At a glance, Braids look like your typical indie outfit with a standard guitar, keys, bass and drums combo. However, the music that comes from this Montréal band (by way of Calgary) is anything but ordinary. Native Speaker is only 7 tracks long but still clocks in at a solid 43 minutes. So, what we’re getting on this album are a lot of stretched out tracks that twist and turn so subtly that sometimes you don’t even notice changes are occurring. It’s that ability to be unpredictable that has really kept me coming back to this album for multiple listens. Listening to this album is more like going on a long and winding journey than it is just simply listening to an album. The tracks fill up space in almost a post-rock way that allows you to get completely lost in how beautiful it is. The way a track like the 8 minute "Native Speaker" sparkles and glistens is almost more like an ambient soundscape than anything else, and the abundance of quirky electronics and loops thrown into the mix adds another level of depth to an already stunningly beautiful track. The album also has its dark moments like on "Lammicken", a track that constantly builds tension until it bursts apart at the seams. Throughout the build of "Lammicken" vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Preston sings in her eccentric voice “I can’t stop it”. It makes me believe that this is a band that can’t be stopped because of how amazingly pretty and quirky their music is. Keep an eye on Braids because chances are they’ll be making huge waves soon enough. -Mark Gillis


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YPOIW TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2011: 15-11

With 2011 coming to a close, YPOIW would like to take the week to showcase our favorite releases of the year. Monday through Friday will be a countdown of our top 25 favorite albums of 2011, starting with spots #25-21 on Monday and continuing until the final #5-1 on Friday. This weekend, we'll also be taking a look at some albums that we feel deserve an honorable mention but didn't quite make it on our list. Thanks for reading, and most importantly, enjoy!

15. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs 

The one definitive thing you can say about Radiohead is that they refuse to stand still. Since they began releasing albums in the 90’s, each album has had it’s own distinct feel, and The King Of Limbs is no different. While this album does feel rigid at times because of the heavy use of loops, there is enough going on sonically to keep my interest even after many repeated listens. It actually took me a lot of time with this album to explore all of the different nooks of every song; this album is a lot more of a grower than it is a shower. After a few of the more rigid songs on the first half of the album, the last half lends itself to some beautiful ballads. "Codex" is a song that devastates me emotionally just as much as any other Radiohead song has in the past, and "Give Up The Ghost" really showcases that Thom Yorke hasn’t lost his touch. Even though this album only clocks in at 38 minutes, it doesn’t feel at all incomplete to me. I think it’s actually impressive when a band can get all of their ideas out on an album and still keep it brief. So even though The King Of Limbs may not quite stack up to other Radiohead albums, this is still an impressive album from a band that never ceases to impress me with their constant evolution. I’m really excited to see what they’ll come up with next. -Mark Gillis

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14. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life

I went into 2011 as what I would call a casual fan of Fucked Up. I loved The Chemistry of Common Life  for the most part, but not enough to become a certified "hardcore" fan of the band. I went into David Comes to Life without extremely high expectations and came away not only impressed, but astounded. What I heard was impossible - A 78 minute post-hardcore concept album that didn't overstay its welcome. There's not a lot of variation here, and the narrative is convoluted and difficult to understand at first, but every minute I put into listening to this album made me love it even more. I found myself sympathizing with David and putting in the effort to comprehend every screamed lyric like I never have before. Musically, this album isn't anywhere near as vicious as most of their hardcore brethren, which is what gives it the appeal to make a list like this. Fucked Up are using choruses and chord progressions that wouldn't sound out of place on a Modest Mouse record. In fact, they made every effort to clean and refine their sound for a larger audience, except for one: Damian Abraham unleashes the vocal beast on this album. For my money, he's the best singer and frontman in hardcore today. This is an album that has that hardcore edge but still managed to bring it to a wider audience... me. -Kyle Shoemaker

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13. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Hype is a bitch. Justin Vernon had to have figured this out after the release of his debut album under his Bon Iver moniker, For Emma, Forever Ago. Everyone knew him as that mountain man, who stays in cabins pouting about ex-girlfriends. He had immense expectations put on his second album, and to many casual music-fans and indie-scenesters, Bon Iver’s second outing is 80s-revival trash. To many of his older fans, he has lost. Well, his emotive folk style gave him the fame and notoriety to develop a passionate cult following as well as the chance to work with hip hop mega-icon Kanye West. Also, he was able to make a record on his own terms, without the baggage of his own sadness, and while many people may hate Bon Iver’s latest direction, he has made the album he wants to make. If you ask me, and most of the rest of us here at YPOIW (obviously) Bon Iver’s second album is a testament to making music on your own terms. “Perth” starts off the record with one of the most impressive opening tracks of the year, with marching drums and a heavy-metal double bass pedal accenting Vernon’s falsetto and soft guitar playing and a Colin Stetson-featured horn section. “Holocene” is the emotive track that those who fell in love with Vernon’s voice and somberness still defend, regardless of how they feel about the rest of the album. “Calgary” is the forward-churning 80s-revival pop that this album will be known for, for better or for worse. The climax of this song hits subtly but powerfully. And then there is “Beth / Rest”, which has its place as 2011’s most divisive track. For the courage of releasing a song featuring Bruce Hornsby-esque keys, 80s hair band guitar solos, smooth saxophone (Stetson again), and slide guitar, this song is an important feature to an album full of them. Working like a trek through the world’s side streets, featuring forgotten music and forgotten towns that may or may not exist, the album has a form that fits its function. While not everyone has to be a Bon Iver fan, whether of the artist of his newest album, they have to respect that he truly did make the album he set out to make. That is something that many artists can only dream of accomplishing. -TJ Duane

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12. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Volume II: Judges

I'm glad to have the opportunity to write about this particular album because it's my number one for the year. A lot of people focused on the production of the album, which is understandable; the production is facsinating. Stetson is playing live (no loops or overdubs), with over a dozen mics on his monsterous bass sax at once. He mimics percussion by banging on the sax, and even sings while playing. The making of the album is notable, no doubt. But the content inside is truly solid music. It sticks in your head, and digs out a great midpoint between simple yet melodic semi-jazz, and all-out furious noise music. That midpoint works well, and I'm a complete sucker for it (as evidenced by it's place on my list). -Austin Kirley

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11. Destroyer - Kaputt

Dan Bejar, of The New Pornographers fame, has had an interesting solo career. Not only have his solo records developed as his career has worn on, his notoriety has as well. With Avant Garde articles in The New Yorker and a number two spot on Pitchfork’s year-end list, Bejar’s Destroyer project has reached new heights. The indie fame is not surprising considering the musicality and poetry on Kaputt, the 2011 addition to the Destroyer discography. On said record, Bejar reaches new heights by off-handedly delivering some of the best lines of his career (“Wasting your days / Chasing some girls / Alright. . . chasing cocaine through the back doors of the world all night” on the title track) alongside some of the most shockingly smooth 80s tones he’s ever thought to produce. There are questions of earnestness with Kaputt, but to question whether Bejar is serious and means what he says and does is exactly the point. The saxophone on “Suicide Demo for Kara Walker” is a moment where the listener goes, “What the. . .” but it works. It works because of the fantastic repetition of fun, danceable drums and bass lines and guitar chimes. However, when all is said and done, the musicality of the saxophone shouldn’t be called into question, though, because the solos that end “Suicide Demo. . .” contain no cheese and are all set to impress, a moment of relative exuberance for a record that so often comes off as ironically lax. The album’s mood, for the most part, works because Bejar’s intentions are hidden behind an atmosphere as hazy as the music they exist within, never showing themselves—not even once. “Bay of Pigs”, a track from 2009, is the album’s highlight, containing the album’s best melodies, the album’s greatest track-length, and the most stream-of-conscious Bejar has ever attempted, all to incredible success. This ultimate track is the crowning achievement of Bejar and Destroyer’s career arc. -TJ Duane


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read more "YPOIW TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2011: 15-11"