Panopticon Blog

In indie rock circles, 2008 was the year of sensitive guys with beards in flannel shirts singing glorious harmonies (Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, etc.), 2009 has moved in an even more psychedelic direction. The beards and the harmonies are still here, but things have gotten weirder, with more and more echoes of the drug-soaked music of the mid-70s. Of course, genres of all shapes and sounds should be considered when trying to sum up a year in music. Coming up with a list of 10 great songs will admittedly overlap a bit with my upcoming Top Ten Albums, but I have tried to make an effort to expand my reach a bit. Here’s ten great songs that would make a great 2009 retrospective playlist:

10. Bon Iver – Blood Bank

Justin Vernon went out of his way to confound expectations in his follow-ups (the band Volcano Choir and the EP Blood Bank) to the instant classic For Emma, Forever Ago. Unfortunately for him, “Blood Bank,” off the EP of the same name, sounds like a great undiscovered track from For Emma and is the strongest work Vernon has done in that album’s wake.

9. Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses

Franz Ferdinard kind of got a bad rep by being lumped in with the likes of The Killers and Interpol in the grand skinny-jean, post-punk wave early in the aughts. But of all those bands, it’s only Franz Ferdinand who could pull off this paranoid, disco-infused rant — catchy as hell and subversive in ways most major label bands wouldn’t dare.

8. Cursive – Mama, I’m Satan

On his best days, Tim Kasher of Curisve is one of our best songwriters, and “Mama, I’m Satan” off of Mama, I’m Swollen is one of those days. As on the whole album, Kasher is obsessed with sex and societal power structures – but on “Satan,” he backs these lyrics with a rollicking barnstormer of a song that shows more clarity of the Curisve voice than anything the band has done since “Art is Hard.”

7. Future of the Left – Arming Eritrea

Travels With Myself and Another is a series of gut-punches, none better than album opener “Arming Eritrea.” Starting with a string of defensive bleats against someone named Rick, the song hiccups between a craggy guitar riff and a naked, nasty drumbeat. Then suddenly the song soars into a cascading wall of sound, before dropping back into its syncopated groove with singer Andy Falkous upping the ante his glass-in-the-throat howl. All in three minutes.

6. Grizzly Bear – While you Wait for the Others

Veckatimest is a collection of great songs, first and foremost, so selecting just one from the album is a bit difficult. “While You Wait for the Others” turns out to be the best distillation of the band’s power – Daniel Rossen’s off-kilter guitar stabs, Ed Droste’s killer croon cameo during the song’s bridge, Chris Taylor’s bubbling bassline and Chris Bear’s off-kilter drumming, and, of course, the whole band joining in for their glorious harmonies.

5. Lightning Bolt – Transmissionary

In a somewhat left-handed compliment, most people say that a record simply cannot capture the live fury of a Lightning Bolt concert. “Transmissionary,” the 13 minute epic finale of Earthly Delights, certainly comes close. Behind Brian Chippendele’s relentless drumming and Brian Gibson’s detuned, repeating bassline, the song somehow feels like it’s going at hyper-speed and slow-motion at the same time.

4. Bat For Lashes – Siren Song

Two Suns is ostensibly a concept album about two sides of singer Natasha Khan’s personality – the loyal partner and the wild lover. “Siren Song” not only illustrates this lyrical concept the most coherently of any song on the album, but it also produces the record’s most haunting sonic journey. Khan’s echoey 50s girl-pop voice in the verses eventually gets swept away on a wave of galvanizing, rolling tympanis and double, triple and quadruple looped vocals.

3. The Flaming Lips – Watching the Planets

The climax of The Flaming Lips’ spectacular Embryonic is “Watching the Planets,” a thunderous barnstormer; the most propulsive song the Lips have recorded in ages. Embryonic boasts hypnotic musical and existential lyrical through-lines that are summed up in “Watching the Planets’” only quiet moment – the music subsides, Wayne Coyne whispers “oh oh oh, finding the answer/oh oh oh finding that there ain’t no answer to find,” and, with a breath, the music roars back in.

2. Isis – Threshold of Transformation

Isis albums always climax well (see “Hym” on Oceanic and “Grinning Mouths” on Panopticon) and “Threshold of Transformation,” which closes out Wavering Radiant, might be the best song the band has ever written. A maturation of their quiet-loud dynamics, “Transformation” sees the crunchy riffing of The Red Sea and the stately post-rock of In the Absence of Truth sitting comfortably together, before spiraling out into a shoegaze coda that builds layers upon riffs upon layers before ending two bars too soon. It’s a calculated move – it makes you want to replay the song immediately and take the 9-minute journey again.

1. Animal Collective – My Girls

“My Girls” was released when 2009 was but days old, but no other song this year has come along to knock it off its high perch. A thrilling introduction to the hallucinatory domestic bliss brilliance of Merriweather Post Pavillion, “My Girls” is more than a great, bouncy pop song – it was also the sound of Animal Collective finally letting down their guard, both in the accessibility of the music and the direct simplicity of the lyrics. In the past, Animal Collective had buried much of the emotion of their music within intentionally difficult layers of electronic noise. The new, 2009 model of Animal Collective combines electronic music, galvanizing percussion and soaring melodies as they always have, but now they’ve allowed room for unabashed joy. This is not only the year’s best song, but also a turning point for one of music’s most unique bands.

It was actually quite a great year for music videos: Of all the top ten lists that I have compiled this year, the music video list was hardest to narrow down to ten. Yes, budgets have gotten smaller and traditional avenues for music video viewing have narrowed. That being said, the low-budget, do it yourself aesthetic has brought videos back to the relative creative purity they enjoyed in the early days of MTV. Also, it seems like established artists have found some freedom in taking risks in the sink-or-swim ether of YouTube, Vimeo and the shiny new Vevo. These days, videos HAVE to be impressive to be seen — here’s the ten that impressed me the most in 2009:

10. Two Door Cinema Club – “I Can Talk”

Triumph of ingenuity over small budget. Beneath all the clothing swapping chaos is a surprisingly coherent, seamless (pun intended) piece of direction by Megaforce.

9. Depeche Mode – “Wrong”

Patrick Daughters is one of the few directors making large-scale videos for interesting bands blessed with big budgets. A simple, action flick concept writ large. Stunningly crafted and endlessly rewatchable.

Depeche Mode – “Wrong” (official music video)

Depeche Mode | MySpace Music Videos

8. Oren Lavie – “Her Morning Elegance”

OK, we’ve seen this technique dozens of times, but rarely as smoothly and creatively as “Her Morning Elegance.” An unbroken series of stop-motion puns worthy of Pixar send a sleeping protagonist through a cloth-hewn dream wonderland – all from the comfort of her own bed.

7. In Case of Fire – “Enemies”

Jesse Elwes is one of the best underground video directors working today, with his stop motion animation that tips its hat to the Brothers Quay while maintaining its own voice. The video for “Enemies” has a hand-crafted feel with the furious energy of an action film.

6. Home Video – “I Can Make You Feel It” AND Pheonix – “1901″

Two great performance videos from radically different bands. Home Video, local indie rockers they are, created this mesmerizing, hand-crafted clip that perfectly captures the dark throb of the song. French poppers Pheonix, on the other hand, create a similar effect with expensive, beautifully coordinated lighting.

5. Coldplay – “Life in Technicolor”

Dougal Wilson may be the best “concept” video guy since Michele Gondry, though his technique is much slicker. The idea of Coldplay puppets playing a show at a day care center is a funny skewering of their stadium ready image, and the video’s twists are increasingly bizarre and hilarious.

Coldplay – Life In Technicolor II from Rury Gonzalez on Vimeo.

4. Fever Ray – If I Had a Heart

OK, so it’s kind of aimless, but a more memorable collection of moments is harder to come by in music videos this year. There’s the guy in the mask on the shore of the river. There’s all the bodies in the empty swimming pool. And that scene with the wolf – goose-bump inducing. Director Andreas Nilsson made many Fever Ray videos this year, but “If I Had a Heart” is unquestionably the best.

If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

3. Land of Talk – “Its OK”

In a time where most music videos rely on eye-catching trickery to capture the YouTube generation’s short attention span, how refreshing is Land of Talk’s gorgeous “It’s OK.” The languorous pace set by the song is matched by director WeWereMonkey’s stunning black and white landscapes and hallucinatory images. Such rich attention to detail is certainly worth multiple spins.

2. Chairlift – Evident Utensil AND OK Go – WTF?

Under the guidance of lo-fi specialist Ray Tintori, Chairlift’s “Evident Utensil” was the first, and best, video to use “data moshing” technique – essentially controlling and dramatizing digital tear for aesthetic purposes. The technique is impressive – the creativity and fluidity of the video is even more so. The same can be said for OK Go’s goofier but no less impressive video “WTF?” The content may be silly, as per usual for OK Go, but the choreography of ever-overlapping color is mind-boggling.

OK Go – WTF? from OK Go on Vimeo.

1. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks

One of the (many) great things about Grizzly Bear is how weird they are if you dig just below their polite surface. No video to date has illustrated this as effectively as Patrick Daughters’ fittingly out-of-left-field vision for the pop gem “Two Weeks.” Daughters’ use of subtle special effects (compositing facial features from different takes, subtly enlarging the bands’ eyes and mouths) is the stuff of hallucinations, and the slow-burn (ha ha) to the video’s unsettling/hilarious climax begs repeat viewings.

I’m starting this year’s Best Of series with a new list: Best Live Performance. As we all know, CDs are going the way of the dodo, and the online purchase model is sketchy at best. Therefore, bands are making their money these days on the road, and bands with striking live shows are often more successful than their album-bound counterparts. Nothing can replace seeing a great band live, and here are the ten best shows that I saw in 2009:

10. The Twilight Sad at Bowery Ballroom, New York City

When The Twilight Sad opened for Mogwai, their sonic squalls were somewhat hampered by a smug-seeming stage manner. But when they headlined at Bowery Ballroom, the band was so thankful for their enthusiastic audience that the joy was infectious. Even though the songs are relentlessly downbeat, the mood couldn’t have been brighter.

9. Bon Iver at Bonnaroo, Manchester, Tennesse

It’s hard to pick one performance from Bonnaroo (in fact a couple of other bands who were great in Tennessee are listed below other venues) but Bon Iver’s set was a standout. Playing a mid-afternoon set to a packed tent, Justin Vernon’s haunting voice cut through the crowd like a knife, and the last few tracks where Vernon was joined by Elvis Perkins and Dearland, were spine-tingling.

8. Mogwai at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

Mogwai are so good that they were able to overcome an excruciatingly bad crowd (screaming during all the quiet moments, spilling beers, etc) and deliver a searing, ear-destroying performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Highlight: An encore of “My Father, My King,” the 21 minute epic that ends with 5 minutes of deafening feedback that was stuck in my ears for days.

7. The Jesus Lizard at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza, New York City

The year’s least likely rock-and-roll reunion yielded blistering results at a packed Irving Plaza. Singer David Yow may have less hair and a bigger gut than in the band’s heyday, but he threw himself into the show (and the crowd) with so much vigor that it felt like not a day had passed since the band released Goat in 1991.

6. Grizzly Bear at The Town Hall, New York City

A hometown victory lap for the almost universally loved Veckatimest, Brooklyn’s own Grizzly Bear played two nights at the Town Hall in midtown. Their set was heavy on new material – the warm echo of the sit-down venue doing particular justice to mellower tunes such as “Ready, Able” – but also included amped up versions of old favorites, such as the absolutely epic live version of Yellow House closer “Colorado.”

5. Nine Inch Nails at Webster Hall, New York City

An all time classic show, somewhat marred by circumstance. The downside was the Webster Hall, normally the best venue in New York, had severe air conditioning problems on one of the hottest days of the year. The upside, of course, was that Nine Inch Nails – on their last tour, sadly – played the classic Downward Spiral from beginning to end. A genuine thrill for fans, and if you download the Ipod ready torrent video of the show online – look, you’ll find it – you can watch one of Trent Reznor’s most special performances in the climate controlled pleasure of your apartment.

4. Future of the Left at Spike Hill, Brooklyn, New York

Officially billed as a Secret Show after the Fucked Up/Mission of Burma Williamsburg Waterfront show, Future of the Left played to a small, rowdy group of diehards at the relatively tiny Spike Hill. Turns out the confines of a small pub were very flattering to the snotty, booze-soaked punk rock of Future of the Left. Singer Andy Falkous added hilarious stage banter (at one point he called out a hipster for dancing during at a punk show) between a furious selection of barnstormers from the band’s great album, Travels With Myself and Another. (I couldn’t find video of the Spike Hill show, so check this out instead).

3. My Bloody Valentine at All Points West, Liberty State Park, New Jersey

At All Points West, My Bloody Valentine managed to be 10 times more rock and roll than headliner Tool by standing completely still. Unlike the trebly dreaminess of Loveless, My Bloody Valentine’s live sound features much more gut-shaking low-end than you’d think. Closing with the noise epic “You Made Me Realise” was a stroke of genius – many Tool fans extended middle fingers, while MBV lovers blissfully floated away for what seemed like hours on the pulsing waves of feedback.

2. OM at Club Europa, Brooklyn, New York

Ex-Sleep bassist Al Cisneros’ minimalist drone band OM is certainly an acquired taste and the addition of Grails’ drummer, Emil Amos, with his bombastic propensity, seemed an odd fit. Not so. Cisneros seemed energized by Amos’ titanic fills between the stately throb of OM’s mantras, and Robert Lowe from opener Lichens added guitar swells and haunting chants to fill out the ceremonial mood.

1. Wilco at Keyspan Park, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York

No other band brings together indie-kids, suburban Dads, stoners, preppies and head bangers together quite as fluidly as Wilco. This July, on a perfect summer night at Keyspan Park in Coney Island, for two-plus hours, Wilco blew the minds of all the demographics lucky enough to attend. Nels Cline is possibly the best rock guitarist on the scene today, and he and Jeff Tweedy’s simultaneous solos on “At Least That’s What You Said” and “Impossible Germany” seemed to stretch into eternity in the best way possible. Tweedy was funny and relaxed throughout, and the climax of “Kidsmoke” featuring openers Yo La Tengo was a truly spectacular occasion.