2008 - Top 12

Top 10 in 2006, top 11 in 2007, why not a top 12 for 2008? This year was full of good music better than the previous one and it was not so easy for me to select 10 records amongst all that I heard in 12 months… and I didn’t have the chance to listen to everything. So this is only the best of what I choose to purchase.
Number One? MGMT. I was right in May when I reviewed the show of MGMT in Cologne, as I said, Oracular Spectacular will be first on most of year-end music lists, why not in Leaky Sparrow’s list... Radiohead is not mentioned? It’s a mistake and should be #1 - I bought the album the 1st of January - but I didn’t know what to do, in or out?... Some records were released before 2008? Yes, but for me they were all new. So why not In Rainbows? I don’t know…

Please do enjoy the last days of 2008 and see you next year. In peace.

1 – Oracular Spectacular – MGMT (Columbia)
Web: whoismgmt.com
Music: MGMT - Destrokk .mp3
Show review: May 2008

2 – Third – Portishead (Island)
Web: portishead.co.uk
Show review: April 2008

3 – Against The Dying Of The Light – Avrocar (Make Mine Music)
MySpace: myspace.com/avrocar
Music: Avrocar - Our World Is Their Heaven .mp3
Album review: September 2008

4 – Ghost Repeater – Jeffrey Foucault (Signature Sounds)
Web: jeffreyfoucault.com
Music: Jeffrey Foucault - Americans In Corduroys .mp3
Show review: February 2008

5 – The Hawk Is Howling – Mogwai (Matador)
MySpace: myspace.com/mogwai
Show review: October 2008

6 – Rest – Gregor Samsa (Own)
Web: gregorsamsa.com
Music: Gregor Samsa - Jeroen Van Aken .mp3
Album review: May 2008

7 – Dark Undercoat – Emily Jane White (Double Negative)
Web: emilyjanewhite.com
Music: Emily Jane White - Hole In The Middle .mp3
Show review: October 2008

8 – Rook – Shearwater (Matador)
Web: shearwatermusic.com
Music: Shearwater - Rooks .mp3
Show review: September 2008

9 – Glasvegas – Glasvegas (Columbia)
Web: glasvegas.net
Album review: later in 2009!

10 – The Last Side Of The Mountain – Chris Eckman (Glitterhouse)
MySpace: myspace.com/chriseckmanmusic
Album review: December 2008

11 – Heavens Above – Joseph Parsons (Blue Rose)
MySpace: myspace.com/josephparsons
Music: Joseph Parsons - Falling.mp3
Album review: August 2008

12 – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
MySpace: myspace.com/fleetfoxes
Music: Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal .mp3

Album review: August 2008

Lee Clayton Rides Again

There is a nice thread here on Leaky Sparrow around a post that I wrote more than a year ago. So far, something like 17 comments around the life and music of Lee Clayton. I’m proud that you people took the opportunity of that short notice to exchange thoughts and information about that “unknown legend forgotten by most of Rock dictionaries”. Thanks very much to you all.
Here is the post: Lee Clayton Rides Alone (May 07, 2007)

Above is the ticket that I kept of the one and only occasion that I had to see Lee Clayton playing live. As you can see, it was in 1980, a stop in Paris during the European Tour promoting McGuinn-Clark-Hillman latest release. Lee Clayton was opening the evening. I have a quiet precise memory of his performance: his set was equal to the one that gave McGuinn and Hillman – Gene Clark refused to tour in Europe – in length and in quality, maybe more…

Thanks again for your interest and collaboration; it helps me trying to keep up the “good” work with freedom and without accepting money in return for any advertising space!

Web: Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark & Chris Hillman

Roger McGuinn - Go Tell It On The Mountain .mp3
Roger McGuinn - 500 Miles .mp3 via ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp
Gene Clark - Hot Burrito #1 .mp3
More Xmas song: McGuinn - Greensleeves .mp3

Coldplay – Viva la Musica

I was thinking about my top ten albums of 2008 and at the same time I had a look at some Web year-end lists. Coldplay’s fourth album, Viva La Vida, is in a good position most of the time, taking the top spot in few of them (Last.fm). The album has, to date, been the number-one-selling album in 36 countries around the world, debuting at number one in UK the first week. Also, Viva la Vida has become the most paid-for downloaded album of all time.
Even if I prefer to promote indie bands here in Leaky Sparrow, I’m not against records that sales thousand of copies, not at all - if they are pretty good and enjoyable, you can count me in. Also I’m always happy to see some of my friends wishing to share their music choices with me; consequently with Coldplay, I paid attention to what they say and got my own copy. I must admit that I do kind of like Coldplay last work where Brian Eno is in charge of “sonic landscapes”… Viva la Musica!
Coldplay released in November an EP, Prospekt's March, consisting of unreleased material from the Viva la Vida recording sessions. The album was re-released in a deluxe edition, titled Viva la Vida - Prospekt's March Edition. It contains tracks off the original album and Prospekt's March. If you even have a slight interest in Coldplay buy it. It’s Xmas time…

Web: coldplay.com
MySpace: myspace.com/coldplay

Chris Eckman - The Last Side of the Mountain

Slow starts. I love albums which have the confidence to start gently, letting you drift into the record. Slow is also one of Chris Eckman’s trademarks, remember his cover of Yellow Submarine for The Mojo magazine free cd called Revolver Reloaded (2006)…

Known as the frontman-composer, producer & songwriter of The Walkabouts, Eckman is leaving since few years now in Slovenia, consequently the culture of this European country started to influence his work and as a result you have The Last Side of the Mountain (November, 2008 - Glitterhouse). For that album Eckman translated and set into music eleven poems by the Slovene poet Dane Zajc and recorded them at Studio Zuma his personal studio in Ljubljana.
The Last Side of the Mountain is a very beautiful record and with no doubt this is Eckman’s finest work to date, with or without The Walkabouts. This is simply a breathtaking album. For the melancholy flowing from the dozen tracks of The Last Side of the Mountain, for the lyrics, for the enchanting melodies perfectly produced, you have reason enough to love it. Just two small negative remarks, the mournful voice of Chris Eckman – sorry, Chris – and one track that I feel like skipping, The Same, performed with Steve Wynn, that doesn’t really fit with the other songs on this album. Besides you have gems like Scorpions, With What Mouth and the moving Who Will Light Your Path?, a beautiful song ala Elysian Fields, wherein polish vocalist Anita Lipnicka adds sublime harmony vocals.

No songs yet available to listen for free, meanwhile, you can go to his MySpace and give a visit to his Website: thewalkabouts.com/discslast.htm
Label: glitterhouse.com

Nick Drake - Black Mountain Blues.mp3 via Stereogum
Shearwater - Mountain Laurel .mp3
Jonathan Coulton - Skullcrusher Mountain .mp3
Rogue Wave - Are You on My Side .mp3

Chairlift – White Session

Chairlift formed in Boulder, Colorado in early 2006 to make live music for haunted houses gave a White Session for Mister Bernard Lenoir, the French John Peel, on his radio program called C'est Lenoir (This is Lenoir). You can listen to that exclusive “live” recording (only during a small week) on the link below (wait 15 minutes). Like me I hope you will fall under the charm of the voice of Caroline Polachek – she even sing in French with a Belgium accent! - and discover the sound of the trio that lives now in Brooklyn where they joined people like MGTM...
Chairlift's debut album, Does You Inspire You, is in stores since Sept 30th!

MySpace: myspace.com/chairlift
Label: Kanine Records

White Session – December 8, 2008 on France Inter: here

Chairlift - Bruises .mp3 via The Yellow Stereo
Chairlift - Evident Utensil .mp3
Bonus: Shock Cinema - Oddfellow .mp3

Photo: Chairlift in Madison, WI from kaninerecords.com/pics

Sugar Mountain – Left track: The Voice

The first time I ever heard the voice of Neil Young was when I purchased in 1970 my 3 LPs copy of Woodstock - Neil was singing Sea Of Madness - remember: “All I need is your sweet sweet loving…” Soon after, I bought one after the other: Déjà Vu, a compilation of Buffalo Springfield, After the Gold Rush and then the first Neil Young album. What struck me first with the Canadian was his tenor singing voice more than his personal lyrics or his guitar work.
Sugar Mountain, Live At Canterbury House 1968 is a magnificent testimony of the early days when Neil Young started is solo career. This unearth live recording is another example of how his voice is so moving. Unfortunately, later, in October 1975, he had a throat operation and his voice changed a little bit. All I can say is that now he never sings like he used to during his early recordings, for me it’s obvious.
So to come back to Sugar Mountain, this recording allows us to listen to some amazing acoustic renditions of Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing, The Old Laughing Lady, Broken Arrow or If I Could Have Her Tonight… simply, the best of the best.
By the way, Young's Sea of Madness, heard on Woodstock soundtrack album, was actually recorded a month after the festival at the Fillmore East.

Web: neilyoung.com – MySpace: myspace.com/neilyoung

Neil Young - Sugar Mountain .mp3 Live In Bakersfield – March 11, 1973
Neil Young - Only Love Can Break Your Heart .mp3 Live In London – February 27, 1971
Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl .mp3

Two-Lane Blacktop – You Can Never Go Fast Enough

Some said it was an answer to the commercial success of Easy Rider. Released exactly two years after the “first ever” road-movie directed by Dennis Hopper (read here), Universal Pictures asked Rudolph Wurlitzer and Monte Hellman to build a story around a journey of two friends from West to East USA, the name: Two-Lane Blacktop.
In both movies you’ll find a lot of similarities: bikes/cars, two bikers/two drag racers, two main protagonists (Dennis Hopper + Peter Fonda / James Taylor + Dennis Wilson), who picked up a hitch-hiker during the trip (Luke Askew / Laurie Bird) and are joined by a third character (Jack Nicholson / Warren Oates), etc, etc…
The only difference is the soundtrack, unlike Easy Rider Two-Lane Blacktop music is not a major actor of the movie (except the original version of Me and Bobby McGee performed by the song's author Kris Kristofferson), and no soundtrack had ever been released which is a surprise when you know that, the two stars of the film, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, could contribute with some very good music.
So, we had to wait April 2003 to find a Tribute album to Two-Lane Blacktop this definitive road movie that I saw again on public television one night two weeks ago. It is call You Can Never Go Fast Enough; you’ll find the Tracklisting here. I was happy to purchase one copy, Yeap! A special mention to Roy Montgomery for his contribution.

More: Wikipedia and All Music or Two-Lane Blacktop Tribute Website

James Taylor - Fire And Rain .mp3
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James .mp3
James Taylor - You've Got A Friend .mp3
Roy Montgomery - Sterling Morrison Corner 10th And First 1966.mp3
Roy Montgomery - Zabriske Point (Part 1).mp3

Dennis Hopper & The New Hollywood

I remember… Billy going to the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans… Easy Rider…
I remember… Thomas Ripley playing pool humming Dylan's I Pity The Poor Immigrant and the Beatles' Drive My Car… Der Amerikanische Freund…
I remember… a pretty stoned photojournalist… Apocalypse Now…
I remember… a father working amongst the rubbish… Out Of The Blue…
I remember… someone called Cracker in Human Highway, a fantasy directed by someone called Neil Young…
I remember… sweating while I watched The Hot Spot…
I remember… a bomber terrorist who has nothing in common with “the” Billy from Easy Rider: Speed…
I remember… the Dennis Hopper exhibition that I saw last Saturday.

The Cinématheque Française in Paris – who hosts the largest archive of films, movie documents, and film-related objects in the world – offers until mid-January a wonderful retrospective of all the works and fantasies that Dennis Hopper produced since 40 years or more: movies, drawings, photos, sculpture, and so on. Be careful, it’s a unique exhibition only made for Paris with the “invaluable collaboration” of Dennis Hopper. You won’t see it elsewhere. So, take a plane, a train, a bike and then a Vélib’ and make an exciting journey through the past of Hollywood after Easy Rider.

Did I tell you that Easy Rider changed my life many years ago? And that I gave my old LP to some lucky fellow long time ago?… stupid me!

Web: cinematheque.fr Dennis Hopper & Le Nouvel Hollywood – October 15, 2008 to January 19, 2009

The Band - The Weight .mp3
Jimi Hendrix - If 6 Was 9 .mp3
Ice-T - Personal .mp3
Devo and Neil Young - My My Hey Hey .mp3