Peter Bjorn and John

I just heard the new Peter Bjorn and John single posted on Pitchfork's Forkcast.  Almost immediately I recognized the beat from somewhere. Turns out this is a very similar tune to Lykke Li's 'Let It Fall'.  Is Peter Bjorn and John just recycling material that Bjorn worked on for Lykke Li? Seems like it.

New Elvis Perkins in Dearland

Over the weekend, Elvis Perkins and crew released 3 new tunes on their website from the upcoming album. These are the first full recordings I've heard with Dearland backing him and I've got to say that I'm excited to hear the full record.  The sound that Dearland adds is so rich, full and bursting with more energy than I've heard out of almost any band I've ever listened to.  There's such a large difference between Ash Wednesday and these recordings. 

I'm not sure where these guys came from or how they decided the beats that go behind these songs, but wow does it ever work.  They seem to connect on the same musical level that I found in the Dismemberment Plan.  Yet the one striking difference between the two bands is the vastly different style of music. Where the D Plan excelled on a rock, punk and often quirky sound, Elvis Perkins in Dearland is far from it. They play mostly folk rock with a very Roy Orbison tone to it. Very outside of what most people I know would listen to.  However, these guys have definitely got my ear and they've somehow managed to take what I often consider a country / panhandling sound and made it fun as hell to watch.

Check them out:

http://elvisperkinsindearland.com/

Top 50 Songs of 2008

Following up my Top 20 albums of the year, here are my top 50 songs:

1. M83 – Graveyard Girl
2. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
3. Beach House – Gila
4. Mates of State – My Only Offer
5. Fleet Foxes – Blue Ridge Mountains
6. The Ruby Suns – Tahne Mahuta
7. Elvis Perkins in Dearland – Weeping Pilgrim
8. Animal Collective – Water Curses
9. Fujiya and Miyagi - Knickerbocker
10. The Raveonettes – Hallucinations
11. The Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead
12. M83 - Couleurs
13. Delta Spirit – People C’mon
14. Beach House – You Came to Me
15. The Walkmen – In the New Year
16. The Ruby Suns – Oh, Mojave
17. The Silver Jews – Party Barge
18. The Mountain Goats – Sax Rhomer #1
19. Death Cab for Cutie – Cath
20. Vampire Weekend – M79
21. The Magnetic Fields – Too Drunk to Dream
22. Lykke Li – Little Bit
23. M83 – Kim & Jessie
24. The Silver Jews – Sufferin Jukebox
25. Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
26. Mates of State – The Rearranger
27. MGMT – Time to Pretend
28. The Spinto Band – Later On
29. Tilly and the Wall – Pot Kettle Black
30. Vampire Weekend – A-Punk
31. Fleet Foxes – English House
32. Delta Spirit – Trashcan
33. Blue Giant – Target Heart
34. The Magnetic Fields – Three Way
35. The Helio Sequence – Can’t Say No
36. The Magnetic Fields – California Girls
37. The Raveonettes – Aly Walk With Me
38. Beach House – Turtle Island
39. British Sea Power – Waving Flags
40. MGMT – Pieces of What
41. Lykke Li – Dance, Dance, Dance
42. School of Seven Bells – I Am Under No Disguise
43. The Spinto Band – Summer Grof
44. Jamie Lidell – Another Day
45. Fleet Foxes – Ragged Wood
46. CSS – Left Behind
47. Death Cab for Cutie – Bixby Canyon Bridge
48. Air France – No Excuses
49. Jenny Lewis – Fernando
50. Mates of State – You Are Free

Top 20 Albums of 2008

Top 20 Albums of 2008

It’s that time of year again.  Where everyone compiles the best music of the year. Continuing with what I started last year, here’s my list of my top 20 albums.  There were 55 total albums this year that I’ve listened to enough to consider for the list.  It was all in all a pretty good year.  There were a few stand out albums and a lot of good albums that made picking an order rather difficult. Many of these were in rotation for a good part of the year. There was one surprise late addition to the Top 10 in Blue Giant, a band just formed months ago.  Some early favorites fell several slots as time went on and some moved up. All in all a pretty solid list I think:

1. M83 – Saturdays = Youth
2. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
3. The Ruby Suns – Sea Lion
4. The Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead
5. Beach House – Devotion
6. Delta Spirit – Ode to Sunshine
7. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
8. Blue Giant – Target Heart EP
9. Mates of State – Rearrange Us
10. Air France – No Way Down EP
11. The Raveonettes – Lust, Lust, Lust
12. The Magnetic Fields – Distortion
13. Lykke Li – Youth Novels
14. The Silver Jews – Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
15. The Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride
16. The Notwist – The Devil, You + Me
17. Tilly and the Wall – O
18. Portishead – Third
19. The Walkmen – You and Me
20. Roomtone – Hits & Mrs.

Restarting the Blog

Decided to restart this blog back up (deleted all my old posts) since there doesn't seem to be a good way to blog on Facebook anymore and myspace seems dead.  I decided to use this as a music blog on what I've been listening to lately, similar to my posts from earlier this year.

Welcome

Welcome to Mike D's blog. Here you can read about everything going on with me. Mostly you'll get to read all the bad beat poker rants cause I get pissed off almost every night. Poker not your thing? Well I'll post some other shit too