NOTE: Because of tech restrictions his post is credited to me, but was written by Rob Wetstone, our in-house jazz expert and head of content

Maynard Ferguson.

He was the iconic screamer; the bravado band leader who specialized in soaring high notes, shrieks and shakes; the guy, who, according to snickering high school legend, blew so hard towards the end of his career that he had to wear Depends during concerts. He set the standard for the modern lead trumpet player from his earliest days with Stan Kenton’s Orchestra in the ’50s, and went on to lead his own big band for more than four decades, always striving to stay current (he died in 2006). There were always questions about whether he could really swing or improvise, but ultimately, no one really cared — especially not the legions of student brass players whose knees got all trembly the moment Maynard put his horn to his lips. Holy crap, at his peak, he and his band were pure adrenalin.

M.F.Horn II was released in 1972, and it remains one Maynard more memorable recordings, capturing the thrill of Maynard at the top of his game. (M.F. Horn, I, III, IV & V have yet to make it here — but there is an MF Horn VI). OK, so much of this album is completely dated — the reverbed engineering, wonky mixing, the fun, but sometimes hokey, arrangements, the track selection (all but two are covers of the hits of the day — “Country Road,” “Spinning Wheel,” “Mother”, “Theme from Shaft,” “Hey Jude”).

But damn, this band is so much fun to listen to. It’s a tight, limber and powerful instrument — nowhere more evident than on the thrilling first track, “Give It One,” the band’s live show opener. Maynard was definitely not the first jazz musician to commandeer pop hits, but he did it more effectively then most, encapsulating them in very economic and often thrilling arrangements — the whirling “Spinning Wheel,” “Country Road,” and the hopelessly clichéd but satisfying “Hey Jude” (which saw Maynard’s one and only entry into chaotic free jazz). Highly recommended for those sad brass souls who’ve spent hours in a practice room rehearsing long tones, trills and pentatonic scales.

Though I am, at heart, an album guy, I don’t think I’ll ever lose my affection for the 7″ format. When I was cutting my teeth on ’90s indie rock, this was the perfect way to get introduced to a band, to get a feel for what they were and to decide if you wanted more.

That format still exists — more or less — in the form of the digital single, and some of my favorite digital singles have come from two places: Sacred Bones, which I’ve written about before, and Captured Tracks (special shout to Horizontal Action, in the hopes they’ll send us more soon).

Captured Tracks is right on the bead of one of my favorite aesthetics: junk-fi. Their recent spate of singles presents that sound in spades: Dignan Porch buries shout-along vocals underneath a snowbank of guitars; Hanoi Janes skews a bit more melodic — imagine music hour at a giddy kindergarten class — exuberant yelling, plinking xylophones and rudimentary guitar — and you’re getting close. Cosmetics skew darker — 8-bit synth wave with dead-eyed female vocals — while Veronica Falls applies that same fascination with the minor key to spindly indie-goth (that the A-Side is called “Found Love in a Graveyard” should give you a decent idea of what you’re in for). The label’s breakout act is Beach Fossils, who Alex talked about last week.

If you’re nearing the end of your month (and if you haven’t already grabbed our two new Selects bands), Captured Tracks is the stop for you.

Hey everyone! Hope you’re enjoying the Selects Bands…..just thought I’d drop by to do a skimming of the other new/interesting/cool things that we got at the site this week. Let’s start with the Marquee Titles, shall we? (A lot of these are UK-only, so apologies when and where not available):

THE BIG STUFF

The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, Tomorrow In A Year – The return of the Knife, yes — but there doesn’t appear to be anything at all even remotely resembling a “We Share Your Mother’s Health” here. This might end up being the most audacious and willfully “out” record a well-known act releases all year. It’s an experimental, avant-garde opera, period; if you’re desperate for a Silent Shout followup, you’ve probably already figured out that, well, this definitely isn’t that.

I haven’t listened to this in its entirety yet; it is the very definition of an “active listening” album, and if you try to let it seep in while you are traveling to work or cooking dinner or updating a spreadsheet it will drive you mad in about ten minutes. But what I have heard, beyond the epic and wonderful “The Colouring of Pigeons” has the modern-classical geek in me intrigued: shrouds of inexplicable static-y noise corroding the air; cancerous clouds of buzzing synths; electronically manipulated soprano voices looping and howling unnaturally. This might be your idea of a nightmare, but it seems like one worth experiencing.

Midlake, The Courage of Others – The guys behind the often-great The Trials of Van Occupanther return with one of the most unforgivably pallid and bloodless albums I have heard in a long time. Sorry, everyone — have I ever said anything that mean before about an album before on 17dots? Something about this one left me so cold that it made me oddly angry. Perk up, guys, at least enough to mumble something memorable. Makes British madrigals sound positively filthy by comparison.

The Soft Pack, s/t — The men who used to be the Muslims finally release their appealingly sloppy, lackadaisical first full-length. eMusic’s Alex Deller writes:

For a band primed for great things, the Soft Pack isn’t making things easy on themselves. The band changed their name, from The Muslims, just as tastemakers began to catch on and only reveal their finest attributes to those who’ll pay them more mind than just a cursory MySpace click. But beneath the lackadaisical exterior lies a band with bucketloads of heart and pure — if somewhat grudging — joy, one that transcends comparisons to stand-offish forebears Interpol or the Strokes. By tempering insistent bass lines and choppy post-punk shimmies with a wry dose of Warren Zevon-style gallows humor and a generous swirl of the sunshine surf, they’ve made something all their own.

THE RANDOM/COOL

Bob Blank, The Blank Generation – Blank Tapes NYC 1971 — 1985 – A compilation of some of the best work of a quintessentially New York producer, a guy who worked with Lydia Lunch and Arthur Russell but also Sun Ra and Gladys Knight and James Blood Ulmer. This is fantastic, swaggering stuff, strutting NYC summer disco and roller-rink funk jams (spiced with Portuguese lyrics!) and robotic electro-pop — in other words, pretty much all the most joyfully fertile art/punk crevices of New York City in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Highly recommended listening.

Ash Koley, The Red EP – Brassy, dark female vocals, kinda reminiscent of the woman in The Long Blondes, paired with sourly sweet bubblegum/punk melodies. Bouncy, sassy, catchy — I dig this.

Wakey! Wakey!, Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said The Last Time I Saw You… – Big-hearted, anthemic chamber-pop, reminiscent of Ra Ra Riot.

Dakota Suite, The Night Just Keeps Coming In – Bleak, frozen-tundra electronic ambient, fringed with strings. As one 17dots wag once termed it, “doombient.” For fans of Kreng’s L’Autopsie Phenomenal Del Dieu, in particular, and Miasmah Records, in general.

Reache, Kyle Gann’s “The Planets” – Kyle Gann is maybe known by most people as a critic — he worked at the Village Voice for years as their chronicler of all things Downtown and arty in NYC from the mid 1980s all the way to 2000. But he is also a noted post-minimalist composer, and this represents some of his latest work.

Fringe Magnetic, Empty Spaces – An odd, cinematic little jazz/chamber record, full of softly glowing clarinets and weeping violin. Occasionally, there are angular, Kurt Weill-meets-Berg vocal lines. A curious modern-jazz gem.

Various Artists, The Best of Fried Egg Records (Bristol 1979-1980) — Wow, you wanna talk narrowly focused compilations? Check out that date range in the title. ONE YEAR! That’s some next-frontier shit. The only place left to go from here is to break into month denominations. Behold, if you will, Various Artists: The Best of Moustache Beard, March 21-April 9, 2010. I can’t even call this an “overview” — I’d say it’s more like a keyhole-peep at a specific moment in time, and guess what? There are some jams here.

THE HEAD KNOCK

DJ Green Lantern and Styles P, The Green Ghost Project – Knuckleheaded rap shit from one-third of The LOX and part of D-Block. This is pure bodega-rap, which I suppose doesn’t mean anything if you aren’t from a major city, but it means you hear it issuing fiercely from corner stores from which questionably authentic wares are peddled, and it means that the ideal way to listen to it would be to drink brown liquor to it and smoke laced weed and then possibly shiv someone before spending the night in jail. Or, you know, you could just put it on your iPod for the treadmill. Styles P is a frighteningly intense presence as a rapper, a guy who embodies the term “mean mug,” and this, along with the fact that he is not the prettiest man and that the sex symbol and star in his crew is, uh, Jadakiss, has kept him from ever bubbling up into the mainstream. This is potent stuff, though; “Invasion” sounds straight evil.

Statik Selektah, 100 Proof (The Hangover) – Bun B, Wale, Freeway, Havoc, Lil Fame, Consequence, and many others acquit themselves nicely on this, a collection of soulful boom-bap beats.

Hobo Junction, The Cleaners – This also knocks! Very rugged indie-rap; not so much “you’re-a-shitty-commercial rapper-and-I-peer-down-from-the-moral-high-ground-on-you” as “you’re-a-shitty-commercial-rapper-so-I-will-bust-this-40-bottle-on-your head. More Sean Price than Elzhi, in other words.

THE EVIL

Iconocaust, Judas Complex – Terrifyingly awesome-sounding black Satanic metal. That band name alone is a win.

What did you find?

Man/Miracle, The Shape of Things: Oakland’s Man/Miracle specialize in spazzy unhinged indie pop that manages to somehow channel Talking Heads, The Cure and King Sunny Ade all at once. I have been playing this record non-stop for the last week — after a mood-settling opener, “Hot Sprawl” gets the party started and, from that moment on, it is a nonstop energetic floor-filler. Some of you may remember the song “Pushing and Shoving” from our Selected and Collected compilation — The Shape of Things delivers fully on the promise of that song — it’s a striking, thrilling rave-up that demands repeated listens. I know we put it out, but I have to say, this is going to end up one of this year’s strongest releases. You can take that to the bank! Free Track: “Hot Sprawl”

Read Jayson’s interview with Man/Miracle here

Hurray for the Riff Raff, Young Blood Blues: Words cannot express the level of awe and admiration I have for Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Lee. She has an ability like few others to pour herself into her songs, each one a reflection of her battered-but-still-beating heart. Her life story is the kind of thing that makes for liner notes in a Folkways collection: she ran away from her Bronx home at age 17 and rode boxcars across the United States, eventually ending up in New Orleans where she fell in with a group of travelling musicians called the Dead Man’s Street Orchestra. She more or less taught herself to play banjo, and began writing songs that fall squarely in line with the best of classic folk and blues. This record gets me to the core — the title track, “Young Blood Blues,” is easily one of my favorite songs of the year. Alynda writes like she can read my mind, and the songs and this magnificent collection are clear evidence of her talents. Free Track: “Slow Walk”

Read my interview with Alynda, where she talks about her fascinating life, here

Over the last few weeks there have been a number of remarkable artist-led benefits to aid the people of Haiti during this time of unspeakable tragedy. We wanted to call out one benefit in particular, not only because of its tangential connection to eMusic, but also because we think it’s an incredibly cool idea.

eMusic Selects artist Mingering Mike, via the SoulStrut website, is auctioning off a 100% original Mingering Mike “45″ — the outer sleeve and the cardboard record — designed to the specifications of the winning bidder. All proceeds from this auction go directly to Doctors Without Borders.

If you are the winning bidder, you supply Mike with the artist name of your choosing, and he’ll do the rest. Haiti will be the theme of the 45. So for example, if I were to win this auction the record might read something like this:

The Reverend J. E. K.
“Shaky Ground” b/w “Help Is On the Way 2010”
(Mustache Beard Records)

The Auction Ends Tomorrow, January 28, At Midnight. Sorry for the late notice — we just found out about this.

The bidding is pretty lo-fi – just go to this thread on the SoulStrut messageboards, register a screen name for yourself, and bid. As anyone familiar with Mike’s history can tell you, this is a fantastic prize, and a great way to help out.

UPDATE: Looks like there’s bidding going on here as well.

Man, Jayson wasn’t kidding about today being a big day. In amongst the marquee stuff that’s dropped in, I noticed a bunch (a slew even) of great and/or interesting records that I figured were worth running down here. Even still, I’m sure there’s stuff of note that I missed. Feel free to drop some science in the comments.

V/A, The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One: Is 2010 the year of coldwave? Between NYT Salem hype, Cold Cave, the Wierd Records party/scene and now this Stones Throw comp, it’s time to stop being CHILL and start getting COLD. Ugh. ANWYAYYYY, this is pretty great. RIYL: Linn drum-fueled, cheapo ’80s synth sounds. And dreary things.

Side note: Can someone explain to me the difference between coldwave and darkwave? Kthnx.

Hannu, Hintergarten: A great record from last spring. Here’s what I said in October:

Hannu’s Hintergarten is quickly becoming one of my favorite albums of the year. Like a more somber companion to Four Tet’s Rounds, it’s a kind of crackly downtempo electronic album with lots of vinyl pops and piano plinks and, well, space.

Really, really glad to see it on the site! Four Tet definitely on the mind today with this coming in and the new record being pretty legitimately awesome. Also tweeting first thoughts RE: There Is Love In You at 17 Dots Twitter.

Infinite Body, Carve Out The Face Of My God: Some lax Googling tells me that this is one guy (Kyle Parker) who used to record under the name Gator Surprise. Mmmk. This is an interesting take on ambient in that it sounds overdriven. It’s warm and enveloping, sure, but it has this harsh aura. An impressive collection in a (micro)genre where it’s very hard to define your own space.

V/A, The Real Sound Of Chicago: Holy cow are there a lot of regional obscuro comps. This one is from BBE/!K7 so you know it’s at least legit enough to give a whirl. Pretty expansive at 25 tracks, Real Sound focuses pretty much on maximalist disco. It’s a bit too… splashy for me? But definitely of note for disco dudes.

Beach Fossils, Daydream / Desert Sand: We’ve been loving this guy Dustin for awhile now; it’s exciting to finally get some material on the site. I know the whole beach-chill-glo-wave-fi thing has become a bit of a rubbernecking disaster, but this guy has tunes. Seriously. I really like the kind of minimal two guitar interplay. Very optimistic about the LP (also coming through Captured Tracks, sometime in ‘10 I hear).

Quail Lungs, Dumb Dadadum: Like Infinite Body, another artist on PPM, Dean from No Age’s label. Dumb is a pair of ramshackle, probably homemade songs. The A-side is completely falling apart — “Dumb Dadadum” sounds like it was recorded while stumbling home from a drunken night out. You know, slurred lead (and backing) vocals, occasional tamborine randomly showing up, yell-y pub-anthem chorus. The B is a more droning keyboard affair. It’s kind of a slight single, but it’s charmed me for some reason.

Ray Mang, Bullet Proof: NEW DFA, NEW DFA! [Insert Drudge siren] The B-side is probably the winner here — a slow-burning cosmic (overused I know, but it’s cosmic sounding!) disco number with some nice piano stabs.

Big, big day! My head is swimming. I had to come up for air just as Alex was unearthing reams of cool singles, so he may need to take the baton from here in the Comments section, but here are all the cool/interesting things I came up with on first pass. As always, tell us what you found in the Comments: UPDATED because of COURSE I forgot stuff:

Four Tet, There Is Love In You – New Kieran Hebden! The world hasn’t seen a new Four Tet album since 2005’s Everything Ecstatic, but Hebden is back now, and his new record is as swirling, sensuous, and downright pretty as anything he’s ever done. Big Old Pitchfork score yesterday from Mark Richardson, and we couldn’t agree more. Michaelangelo Matos, in his eMusic review, calls it “Four Tet at his most shamelessly gorgeous,” ; the “shameless” part might have something to do with the titles (”Angel Echoes,” “Love Cry” wassup House is A Feeling), but the music is undeniably gorgeous, and well, ecstatic. Check it out.

Los Campesinos!, Romance Is Boring – Man, no one deserves their exclamation mark more than these dudes. How many records a year can you put out? And have them all be great!? I haven’t had a chance to hear this one, but Dan Weiss’s review has me excited:

No description of Los Campesinos! could be as fitting as the New Pornographers’ song title “Testament to Youth in Verse.” The exuberance of this Welsh seven-piece is such that they’ve evolved from blog-hopping one-song-buzzers (”You! Me! Dancing!” off a sugar-rush EP that still remains the finest way to gulp their ADHD aesthetic), to the artisans behind three orchestral full-lengths in just three years. Most importantly, their exciting, multi-layered music (violin, glockenspiel, trombone, ba-bas) skirts twee with energy and counters the adolescent melodrama they pretend with wit and empathy. So it’s a testament to youth in verse that their third, slowest record is yet another great one.

Animal Collective, Campfire Songs – The reissue of the seminal 2003 freak-folk document. Campfire Songs catches the animals on the verge of becoming a collective; it’s a fuzzy, muzzy series of languid acoustic sketches that point (albeit vaguely at times) to all the things the boys would become.

Tindersticks, Falling Down A Mountain – Another Tindersticks full-length, hot on the heels of their 2008 comeback The Hungry Saw. Andrew Mueller did an interview with Tindersticks lead singer Stuart Staples that will be up in a few hours (***UPDATE***, here’s the link); in it, he talks about rediscovering his joy and passion for music. Not that you hear much joy in their music, but then, you wouldn’t want to; on their latest, they sound newly rededicated to their brand of whiskey-throated miserablism.

Fucked Up, Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009 – A righteous and furious singles comp from the Toronto hardcore pioneers whose Chemistry of Common Life won them a Polaris Prize, an unusual distinction for a dyed-in-the-wool hardcore band. Their early years were leaner, but no less ambitious.

Gigi, Maintenant – A compilation of girl-group style songs by indie rockers! For more, here’s Maris Kreizman, killing it:

When you’re a teenager in love, certain emotions feel like they were invented just for you. The rush of a first kiss. The loneliness of pining for a crush who doesn’t like you back. The tearstained-pillow melancholy of a freshly-broken heart. In the 1960s, no one articulated this hormone-fueled agony and ecstasy better than Phil Spector … It’s in this spirit that songwriter Nick Krgovich of Vancouver-based band No Kids and producer Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Destroyer) formed Gigi, a project that calls on a whole new generation of musicians to emulate the best of the ’60s pop sound … the result is as sweet as a chocolate malt, mostly because the musicians’ reverence for straightforward ’60s pop is evident in every song, every arrangement, every performance — there is nary an ironic wink or a pretentious flourish to be found.

Erland and the Carnival, Erland and the Carnival – A “supergroup” of sorts consisting of members of the Verve and the Good, The Bad, and the Queen, but more to the point, a bracing collection of warped folk-rock — and by “folk-rock” we don’t mean The Byrds. The British folk these guys draw from is much more of the grinning-macabre variety, and it makes for an ear-turning treat. Craig McLean sez:

Guitarist and frontman for this electrifying trio, Orkney-to-London transplant Erland Cooper is clearly a man with an understanding of the British pre-rock and roll musical tradition. But he’s no beard-munching, finger-in-the-ear Luddite. This debut album, made with drummer David Nock and former Verve guitarist Simon Tong, and recorded in Damon Albarn’s Studio 13, is a vivid, rich, century-spanning treat. No matter its musical lineage, Erland & the Carnival is a balls-out folk-rock triumph — bold, inventive, age-old and brand-new.

Basia Bulat, Heart Of My Own Heartfelt, bruised-tender folk songs. Our own Joe Keyes sez:

A significant musical step up from its predecessor, Heart of My Own finds Bulat gilding her songs with pinwheeling banjo, wheezing accordion and gliding piano; fortunately, she’s got such a knack for gracious melodies that it allows her to pull off any number of embellishments. Unsurprisingly, the songs draw mainly on folk music — but not Philly suburb, double-skim latte folk, more like 1880’s dirty-petticoat, daisy-in-the-hair folk, possibility-of-typhoid folk. Her voice is a wonder, a rich, wavering alto that swoops down low and mighty. Bulat’s trick is the fact that she is able to put all this over with a distinct air of vulnerability. Throughout the record she remains disconcertingly touchable, a tender presence at the center of her fragile dollhouse melodies. And it’s because you can get to her that Heart feels so nervy and disarming.

Fredrik, Trilogi – New Fredrik! These guys’ last record, 2008’s Na Na Ni, was an absolute eMusic fave, a warm, glowing, richly orchestrated triumph. This new one sounds darker and slightly grayer and duskier, but no less appealing.

Joe Pernice, It Feels So Good When I Stop (Novel Soundtrack) – That’s right, it’s a soundtrack. To a NOVEL. Joe Pernice’s own, in fact; the alt-country stalwart wrote “It Feels So Good When I Stop” and then recorded this album of covers, all songs mentioned in the book. I ask you: how fucking cool is that?

Matthew Shipp, 4D – Impressionist modern jazz intertwines with modern classical! Does that sound like a Cubist painting you don’t want to stand in front of? Au contraire — Shipp is a one-man force of nature in the modern jazz world curating avant-garde releases for the label Thirsty Ear and recording with all manner of artists. This new one sounds excellent (to untrained ears, yes, but don’t let that stop you .. much more knowledgeable folk than me, like, say, Rob, are also vigorous champions.)

Oddissee, Traveling Man – Speaking of one-man forces of nature! Oddissee is a D.C. rapper who works in the warm, nostalgic, boom-bap center of the post-Dilla rap underground, and he has been quietly locating himself at the center of this scene and steadily amassing a fanbase. This latest is a wordless collection of smeared-paint sketches of various cities — so Donuts it hurts, yes, but it sounds ably executed and evocative. And, uh, bumping.

Strong Arm Steady, In Search of Stoney Jackson – New release from the extended Stones Throw family — which, you know what that means: Guilty Simpson, Madlib, Phonte, Planet Asia, Talib Kweli, Evidence — Backpacker Central over here. Beats are predictably great; rapping predictably emphatic and sadly lackluster. Some sparklers here and there, but not much to induce more than the vaguest of head-nods.

Diehard, Oh So Premier – Like Superchunk? Like Braid? Like Archers of Loaf? These guys have that shit down. Seriously, those cotton-candy clouds of guitar, the male-female vocal tradeoffs, the chipper/winsome melodies — if you were into Pacific Northwest indie rock or Midwestern emo in the ’90s, this shit is a mainline to your lizard brain.

Xiu Xiu, Gray Death — And…a Xiu Xiu single. I do not have much enthusiasm for the musical works of Xiu Xiu.

And you? What did you find?

Wanted to take a few moments to point out an addition to the site we hope you’ll find helpful, something many of you have been asking about for a while now: RSS Feeds.

On Friday, we incorporated RSS feeds at several locations around the site – here’s what they do. You can add these simply by clicking the RSS Icon that should now be appearing in your address bar when you access eMusic:

BROWSE EDITORIAL: Adding the RSS feed on this page will give you updates every time we add a new piece of editorial to the site.

FRESHLY RIPPED: An updated feed of what’s new on eMusic

Clicking on the RSS icon from the eMusic Homepage will allow you to subscribe to:

eMusic Loves: Our hand-selected editorial picks of what’s hot.
Today’s Buzz: Our hand-selected editorial feature of the day
Most Downloaded: A feed of the eMusic Charts
Review of the Day: Our Review of the Day, delivered to your RSS reader.

Hope you enjoy these new ways of keeping up with what’s current on eMusic!

We know there’s been a spate of good releases vying for both your time and your downloads lately, but we wanted to point your attention to an album that’s not only full of great music, but also supports a worthy cause.

Excellent New Zealand musician Chris Knox, known mostly for his work with Alec Bathate in Tall Dwarfs suffered a debilitating stroke on June 11. In addition to the physical damage inflicted by the incident, the stroke also left Knox with towering medical bills. Knox was one of the founding fathers of the Kiwipop scene, a scene that also gave us the Chills, the Clean, the Bats, Look Blue Go Purple and the untouchable, outstanding Flying Nun label.

Which brings us to today’s Review of the Day, Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox. Simply put, the album is remarkable, and is a testament to Knox’s incredible influence. The album is a veritable who’s-who of indie rock, featuring performances by Stephin Merritt, Bill Callahan, AC Newman, the Chills, Yo La Tengo, The Mountain Goats, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Lou Barlow (among others). It also calls out of retirement one of indie rock’s most beloved figures, Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum, who turns in a searing cover of Knox’s “Sign the Dotted Line.” I will admit, hearing Mangum’s voice for the first time on new material since Aeroplane gave me goosebumps.

Beyond all that, all proceeds from Stroke go to Knox’s recovery fund. You can find out more about Chris Knox in Sam Adams’ excellent review of Stroke, or by visiting Knox’s website.

I realize I’m probably picking a bad time (entire Replacements discography and all) to trot out a laundry list of random-seeming records that you just Have to Download Now! but… let’s just call it Save For Later-bait? Ok, cool.

I’ve posted here before about leaning on lists to augment my all-consuming music nerd habits, but December and January (aka year-end up wrap-up time) turns list scouring time into list drowning time. And, well… I love it. The whole year-end list clusterfuck gets a bad rap — it’s overwhelming, it’s arbitrary, it caters to ugly hivemind sensibility, etc etc. But honestly, the sheer amount of artists and records and songs I discover and come to love makes me quickly shelve any inclination I have toward petty list-hate snark.

I thought it might be worthwhile to share a list of some of my recent discoveries (and obsessions) and to give props to the fine excavators who lit the way. The list is currently spiraling out of control, no thanks to today’s arrival of Village Voice’s (always fascinating) Pazz n’ Jop poll coverage, which, among the great essays and master rankings, allows me to see the individual ballots of many writers I admire. So basically, it never ends. And that’s great.

Bad Sports, Bad Sports
From: Raven Sings the Blues

This record deserves its own post, really. I’m just gonna quote myself from somewhere else:

Obviously, punk in 2010 is a bit of a formalist exercise. We’ve heard the 1-4-5 chord progression, the aggro sneers, the chunky distortion. But when a band nails sweet-punk, that kind of almost-bubblegum that sounds like it’s played in a trashcan, I get knock-kneed. Records like these shouldn’t be so hard to come by. With any genre that’s become a bit rote, songs are king. And man does Bad Sports have ‘em.

To make a (way too long) story short: If you like Jay Reatard, the Exploding Hearts, the Boys, melodic punk music, pretty much anything on In the Red… get Bad Sports. Trust me.

It also must be said that Raven Sings the Blues is a phenomenal blog. Full disclosure: Andy, who runs the site, is a personal friend and old colleague. He specializes in the intersection of garage rock, drone, avant folk and all matters of psych. He is extremely ahead of the curve. Running shit, even.

Connie Converse, How Sad, How Lovely
From: Other Music

Almost buried at the bottom of Other Music newsletter, this record has ruled me for the last month or so. It’s a neat story, sure (’50s home recordings of a woman who just up and left her home one day and… never came back), but the music itself is pretty revelatory. Complete with some flubs and some talking bits, the intimate Carter Family-esque folk ditties on How Sad feel extra confessional. Just a supremely nice recording. That may sound backhanded, but I mean it as honest praise. Every time I listen to this record I just think, “Wow. This is SO. NICE.”

Richard Skelton, Landings
From: eMusic -> New This Month -> Most Downloaded

Even after working at eMusic for two years, I still get lost on the site. And I love that. Yesterday, after browsing Freshly Ripped, I decided to see what some of the past month’s most downloaded albums were. I was sure I’d missed some gems. Charts are one thing, but by navigating using the Browse page, you can just scroll and scroll and scroll until you hit these pages of strangely somewhat-popular albums. Sometimes it’s a trance remix collection and sometimes it’s Richard Skelton’s Landings.

In ‘08, I had some real down-the-rabbit-hole moments with Skelton’s harrowing Marking Time and when I saw Landings appear amidst my maniacal scrolling, I was psyched. Skelton records are typically stark and kinda scary, using echo-laden strings, treated piano and buzzing atmospherics to acheive a pretty dire mood. It’s beautiful, though, trust me!

Instra:mental, “Watching You”
From: Darkstar’s XXJFG’s mix

As much as I routinely find dance music that really moves me (natch), I’m resigned to the fact that I’ll never know as much as my favorite electronic honchos. So, gladly, I seek help. 20 Jazz Funk Greats is a blog that writes a lot about dark electronic music — dubstep, italo, 2-step, UK funky, etc etc. I don’t wanna pigeonhole them too much, but usually there’s a synth or drum machine in the (usually great) song or mix they’re posting.

People kind of went bonkers for Darkstar’s “Aidy’s Girlfriend is a Computer”, and not without reason. It’s possibly the most accessible 12″ from Hyperdub yet — it’s glitchy and nuanced, but it’s also kind of as close to the Postal Service as the esteemed label will ever come. Clipped vocals, gently stuttering drum programming. 20JFG says “Aidy” is another in the line of Hyperdub’s “hypnotic phantom digi-diva bass hymnals,” and, well, I’m not gonna say it any better than that.

HOWEVER, I find that Instra:mental’s “Watching You” succeeds in ways that “Aidy” only hints at. They are of the same strain of digi-diva bass hymnal (ha), but somehow “Watching You” feels… weightier. It has more space. More bass. Less cuteness and more ominous-ness. I’ve listened more to this song in the last month than anything else. By far. It makes me sad that we don’t have it on eMusic, but I just had to share it.

Final note (swear): The best-of list posted at the top of the JFG post with the Darkstar mix is essential. It was put together by one of their writers who also has a leftfield modern R&B blog (So Bones) that is also essential. That is all.

Interbellum, Over All of Spain the Sky is Clear
From: Jayson, over the cubicle wall

Sometimes… occasionally… you can discover things by, like, talking to people. This is a wonderful, subtle, beautiful album of modern classical (?), ambient (?) or some such inadequate genre tag. Thanks Jayson! (He did not know I was putting together an overly-long post about “discovering stuff” when he called this out to me. Wassup serendipity.)

David Sylvian, Manafon
From: The Wire

Sadly, I don’t think you can get Sylvian’s stuff anywhere digitally. I’ve never listened much to Japan, but Sylvian’s late-period solo stuff is miles away from the pomp-rock of his former band. He put of some of my favorite records of the decade (the Derek Bailey and Fennesz-assisted Blemish and his criminally underrated collaboration with Burnt Friedman under the name Nine Horses) and Manafon is predictably, singularly unnerving and wonderful.

Side note: Did anyone see Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd? ‘Cause Johnny Depp’s singing voice is oddly similar to David Sylvian. Like, creepily so.

Lloyd Miller, A Lifetime in Oriental Jazz
From: FACT Magazine (Best Reissues)

God knows how I missed this. Chris Nickson reviewed it for us (glowingly) but even though I… freakin’… WORK HERE… sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. So in case you missed it too, here’s your chance. I’m just gonna quote some of Chris’ review here because it is HIGHLY persuasive:

When it comes to unknown geniuses, Dr. Lloyd Miller ranks high on the list. Born in California, he’s not only a virtuoso jazz pianist and clarinettist, but also a leading authority on Iranian music — he spent several years living there, even presenting a weekly TV programme in Tehran.

This eye-opening trawl through his little-known back catalogue shows just how he’s pioneered musical dialogues between cultures; not just Western and Iranian, but also Indian and Vietnamese.

So, yeah. Don’t walk… RUN!

Finally, here are some records that have grabbed me, but I haven’t had a chance to fully digest yet. It never ends, remember?!

Oneohtrix Point Never, Rifts
From: 14tracks.com

Redshape, The Dance Paradox
From: Little White Earbuds

Paul White, The Strange Dreams of Paul White
From: FACT Magazine (Best Albums)