I’ve found myself listening to a lot of music that came out 10-20 years ago during these first 2 months of 2012, but I have purchased/listened to 4 pretty rad albums from this year. I’ll hopefully get around to reviewing them in detail, but for now I just wanted to put down a bit of my thoughts on each of them. All are highly recommended.

Click on the album covers to hear a track from each record.

Cloud Nothings / Attack On Memory

For fans of: Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker

20 year old Dylan Baldi is the brains behind this band who’s new album is a trip back to the early 90’s Post-Harcore and Emo, where sceraming, shouting and dissonance rule. Produced by Steve Albini who apparently played scrabble on his iPhone during recording sessions.

The Jealous Sound / A Gentle Reminder

For Fans Of: Death Cab For Cutie, Foo Fighters, American Football

When an album is recorded in Dave Grohl’s garage and bass provided by Nate Mendel could anying go wrong? No. After a 9 year hiatus The Jealous Sound return with a great collection of chilled-out catchy tunes that occasionally leaning toward modern shoegaze.

Kathleen Edwards / Voyageur 

For Fans of: Lucinda Williams, Rilo Kiley, Bon Iver

Justin Vernon’s girlfriend Kathleen Edwards is as talented as he is in writing catchy tunes. Produced by Vernon, who guests on almost every track, Voyageur is an album telling the story of Edawards’ divorce from producer and long-time collaborator Colin Cripps. Brian Moen from Peter Wolf Crier and Norah Jones also appear on this soon to be Country-Rock classic.

Fun. / Some Nights

For Fans of: Cold War Kids, Vampire Weekend, Hellogoodbye

Fun. have changed up their sound a bit on their sophmore release Some Nights, which finds them stepping into a new territory that most rock bands tend to stay away from: drum machines and auto tune, a trick only a handful in recent memory have been able to pull off. Long time Kanye West collaborator Jeff Bhasker produces.

Excited to hear what the next 10 months of the year have to offer!

-Eliot Larson, February 16th, 2012

***PLEASE REBLOG***

Happy New Year! Owners Co. has a new song out today, “Sun Road” recorded back in November with Todd Larson at MCAD. The download package includes a remix by Robin Heil and our first Some Local Page ‘zine, including some reviews that have been posted on our blog in the past 12 months. We’ve also made lists of our favorite songs and album, Live show reviews and articles on some important bands. It’s free, so please download!

***PLEASE REBLOG***

I’ve always had mixed thoughts on the Grammy awards. As a huge fan and supporter of independent music, I’ve come to notice that many fantastic albums and artists are overlooked by the recording academy and aren’t nominated. I do love the whole “rating music” thing, I love Pitchfork and The Needle Drop to death and can’t wait till their lists of the best records of the year come out. But the Grammys feel bigger. Better. Do they matter? Not really, because half of the amazing artist in music today aren’t nominated. Are they fun? Yes. Here are my thoughts and predictions on the 2012 Grammy nominees:

 I’ll start off with the “Record Of The Year” and “Song Of The Year” nominees. I’m confused as to what the real difference is, and the nominees for both categories are almost identical. For Record Of The Year, Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” is nominated along with Bon Iver’s “Holocene,” Bruno Mars’ “Grenade,” “The Cave” by Mumford & Sons and “Firework” by Katy Perry.

Rolling In The Deep: While I do enjoy this song quite a bit, I feel like it’s been overplayed so many times this year that it’s kind of an unimportant song now. In 10 I’ll look back and fall in love with this song again but for now it’s been worn out.

Holocene: I’m a massive Bon Iver fan and this is just an all around beautiful song. I wish you best, Mr. Vernon.

Grenade: I think Bruno Mars is a really talented guy, I’ve never been a big fan of this song. “Just The Way You Are” is one of my favorite songs by him, I’m surprised that wasn’t nominated. I guess Grenade is more popular.

The Cave: Shouldn’t this have been nominated last year? This came out in early 2010! I feel the same about this tune as I do with Rolling In The Deep. Once Mum & Sons put out a new album it’ll sound real great.

Firework: I’m actually a mini Katy Perry fan, California Gurls and Teenage Dream are really great songs in my opinion and are a great example of catchy melodies. Firework has never caught my ear.

Who should to win: Bon Iver

Who will probably win: Bon Iver

Instead of “Firework” Kanye’s All Of The Lights is nominated for Song Of The Year, along with all the other nominees from “Record Of The Year.” I love All Of The LIghts. It’s one of the best songs on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which strangely wasn’t nominated. I hope Bon Iver takes home the award for award too, but it’s more likely that Adele will.

Album Of The Year nominees:

Adele, 21

Bruno Mars, Doo-Wops & Hooligans

Foo Fighters, Wasting Light

Lady Gaga, Born This Way

Rihanna, Loud

The only album out of these 5 I own is the new Foo. I’ve heard most of the rest and I think that Foo Fighters put out a fantastic record this year. They really went all out and put so much work into it, it would be a shame not to win. I’m not much of a Lady Gaga fan, however, “You & I” does catch my ear as a fun over the top country-rock mashup. Adele has put out her 2nd great album, however I really do prefer 19 to 21. Bruno Mars’ record seems decent, but I’m not sure it deserves to be ‘album of the year.’ I think the same thing could be said about Rihanna. I that Loud had some catchy songs, but I mean really? her music is revolutionary or anything. 

Who should win: Foo Fighters

Who will probably win: Adele

The “Best New Artist” award is pretty dumb. Nominated this year is The Band Perry, who I am not familiar with at all, as well as J. Cole, who I don’t care for, Skrillex, who I really, really, don’t find good at all, Nicki Minaj, who really has been making music for about 3 years now and Bon Iver, whose first album came out in 2007, 5 years ago. New? I think not. I’d like to see him with but really? It wouldn’t mean a thing. Maybe he’d get some more fans. 

Who should win: Bon Iver

 Who will win: Bon Iver

Adele’s “Someone Like You” is nominated Best Pop Solo Performance, and will inevitably win, because it has connected so deeply with so many people this year. None of the other nominees even come close. Sorry. 

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance has a wide variety of artists this year, Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse, The Black Keys covering Buddy Holly, Coldplay, Foster The People and Maroon 5. I think that Tony & Amy will win, probably because of her death, and They Black Keys cover of Buddy Holly’s “Dearest” is pretty weak.

Who should win: Foster The People

Who will probably win: Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse

Adele will probably win “Best Pop Vocal Album.”

Robyn is nominated for “Best Dance Recording,” and really deserves to win for “Call Your Girlfriend.” I love that song. I really hope Skrillex does not win this award, or Best Dance Album. Robyn’s Body Talk Pt. 3 is nominated for best Dance Album, while only containing 5 songs. I’m surprised just Body Talk wasn’t nominated. Funnily enough Cut Copy’s Zonoscope is nominated for this too, I’ve heard a couple of their songs and it’d be cool to see them win.

The Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song categories are identical and include “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” by Coldplay “Down By The Water” by The Decemberists, Foo Fighters “Walk,” “The Cave” by Mumford & Sons and Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower.”

Every Teardrop: I LOVE this tune. So catchy and melodic and bright. Just fantastic. One of my favorites of the year.

Down By The Water: I must say this is the weakest song on the new Decemberists record. 

Walk: One of Dave Grohl’s best in a long time. Great lyrics and meaning. So rockin’.

The Cave: See above^

Lotus Flower: I didn’t like TKOL too much. Not a big fan of this song. There are much better songs on that album

So if we think of best song as “the best song” and best performance as who “performed the best” in their song then:

Who should win “Rock Song”: Coldplay

Who probably will win “Rock Song”: Coldplay

Who should win “Rock Performance”: Foo 

Who will win “Rock Performance”: 

Foo Fighters is nominated for Best Rock Album, along with Jeff Beck, Kings Of Leon, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and (yay) Wilco. I’d like to hear the new one from Wilco, but I think that Foo will take this award home. 

Bon Iver will win Best Alternative Music Album, because it beats out Death Cab’s new one, Foster The People’s debut, Radiohead and My Morning Jacket’s new one. I think out of the 5, Foster’s comes close, but Mr. Vernon will win.

Quickly I’d like to talk about the Rap awards. In Rap Performance there’s Otis from Kanye and Jay, Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now,” Lupe’s Modest Mouse sampling “The Show Goes On,” Nicki Minaj’s collab with Drake and Wiz Khalifa’s Black & Yellow. Otis wins, and I don’t care for Chris Brown at all. Most of those songs are also nominated for Best Rap Song as well as “All Of The Lights.” All Of The Lights should win.

Kanye is nominated for both his collab with Jay-Z and his album from last year and is up against Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco and Nicki Minaj. Seeing that most people, including myself find My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to be one of the best albums to ever be released, in any genre, it will most likely win. GO KANYE. He deserves it.

OK Go’s collab video with dance company Pilobolus is awesome and I hope it wins in Best Short Form Music Video. Oddly enough a little indie band called Memory Tapes is also nominated, and it would be really cool if they won too.

The Foo Fighters Documentary is up for best “Long Form Music Video” as well as the videos for every song on the new Tv On The Radio album. I loved the Foo documentary, it was the most inspiring music documentary I have ever seen. Hopefully they’ll win. Not big of the TVOTR videos. 

Alexandre Desplat is nominated for Best Score For Visual Media for The King’s Speech as well as Daft Punk for Tron : Legacy. Desplat scored it BEAUTIFULLY, but I think that Daft Punk did a great job too.

Both Scenes From The Suburbs and Watch The Throne are up for best packaging, both of which I own. Watch The Throne’s packaging is wonderful. It’s pretty over the top but the gold is so cool. The Suburbs reissue is cool, but nothing special, packaging-wise. Radiohead’s The King Of Limbs is nominated for best special edition, and I wasted $48 dollars on it. The 600 and some tiny pieces of art weren’t as cool as I thought they were going to be. Loved the clear vinyl. The newspaper was kinda stupid.

Oh! and this conductor for the LA Philharmonic is nominated for best orchestral performance of a Brahms piece. I’m not familiar with the piece by name, but I did see the LA Phil this summer at the Hollywood Bowl, and it was hands down the best orchestral performance I’ve ever seen.

The Grammys air February 13th on CBS. I’ll be tweeting during the whole thing. @elarson25.

Can’t wait to see Bon Iver WINNNNNNNNN!

-Eliot Larson, December 3rd, 2011

This was a hard list to put together, but this is what I finally came up with:

1. Bon Iver, Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar, June)
2. Yuck, Yuck (Fat Possum, February)
3. Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Belong (Slumberland, March)
4. Cold War Kids, Mine Is Yours (DGC/Downtown, January)
5. Death Cab for Cutie, Codes & Keys (Barsuk/Atlantic, May)
6. Peter, Bjorn & John, Gimme Some (Startime/Almost Gold, March)
7. Explosions In The Sky, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Temporary Residence Limited, April)
8. Cults, Cults (In The Name Of/Columbia, June)
9. Beach Fossils, What A Pleasure (Caputed Tracks, March)
10. Smith Westerns, Dye It Blonde (Fat Possum, January)

My most anticipated releases for the second half of 2011 (!):

Coldplay-TBD (Capitol), Caroline Smith & The Good Night Sleeps-Little Wind (Self-Released, September), Washed Out-Within And Without (Sub Pop, July), Kanye West-TBD?(Def Jam), Theophilus London-Timez Are Weird These Days (Warner Brothers, July), Cymbals Eat Guitars-Lenses Alien (Barsuk, September), DOM-Family Of Love EP, (Astralwerks, August), Mister Heavenly-Out Of Love (Sub Pop, August), CSS-La Liberacion (Sub Pop, August) Male Bonding-Endless Now (Sub Pop, August), Mates Of State-Mountaintop (Barsuk, September),St. Vincent-Strange Mercy (4AD, Septmeber)

over and over and over again.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver

[Jagjaguwar, 2011]

9.4

Justin Vernon’s first album under the name “Bon Iver” came in 2007, as a low key self-released Midwest folk record. In 2008 it was re-released by Jagjaguwar records and the name Bon Iver was everywhere, often mispronounced and thought of as a name rather than it’s rough English translation, “good winter.” The name of Mr. Vernon’s project went so well with For Emma, Forever Ago, which was recorded in a rural Wisconsin cabin during a cold winter. The sounds on For Emma reflect that dark winter lull, few instruments were used and Vernon’s voices sounds as warm as a fire. Four years later Justin returns with Bon Iver, a more colorful album to say the least. Many more instruments make appearances and the songs aren’t quite as depressing. Time and time again Vernon claims that Bon Iver is an actual band and not just him but here he writes all the songs, produces, mixes and plays the bulk of the instruments. And although he is backed by 8 other people in concert, it somehow feels like it’s just him.

The narrator on Bon Iver isn’t so depressed this time around. He’s still sad and reflective of a past, perhaps better time, but he’s looking at the past to save himself rather than feeling about it. Vernon’s lyrics are as abstract as ever, but the music feels confident and colorful. Famed avant saxophonist and frequent indie rock collaborator Colin Stetson blows his horn on almost every track. Andrew Bird’s bassist and Happy Apple’s melody maker Micheal Lewis guests on equally a as many, making Stetson and Lewis an unstoppable Sax duo. Other well known guests include Sufjan buddy Rob Moose who contributes strings and arrangements on most of the album. The instruments blend together seamlessly, often it’s hard to distinguish a keyboard from a violin from a tenor sax.

A certain messiness surrounds the music, one that only enhances the sea of instruments in one’s ear. Percussion is treated as an after thought, and isnt the driving force of any song save for the stop start “Minnesota, WI” and march “Perth.” The melodies made by Vernon’s voice are the highlights and without  it this music wouldn’t sound so special. In the liner notes a instrument credit is given as “choirs” to Vernon or another player, which one can only assume is a collection of one’s voices. Vernon tries out his lower register voice on “Hinnom, Tx”  and Minnesota, WI sounding completely different but just as mysterious and intriguing.

Bon Iver works best as a full piece of music as oppossed single songs. Songs can be thought of as chapters or movements of something larger and cohesive. Outstanding section “Holocene” brims with lightly strummed acoustic guitars while the relflective line “I was not magnificent” and vivid “I could see for miles, miles miles” recur. Country-tinged “Towers” almost comes across as something too simple for Justin to be writing but the vocal melody stands out as one of his best yet. Near drum-less parts, “Wash.” and “Michicant” utilize sonic landscapes created by Stetson, Lewis and Moose. Influence and contemporaries and hard to spot but wonderfully named aforementioned “Minnesota, WI” sounds Broken Social Scene-esque with a driving low keyboard and floor tom thump.

Massive opener “Perth” comes across as soft and subdued as much as it does loud and huge, just as fitting for the end of an album or as it is presented, a triumphant beginning. The real life-stopper here is “Beth/Rest,” which maybe be the most 80’s song of the year so far. Jimmy Fallon famously compared it to that of Bruce Hornsby, and regardless of your opinion on 80’s popular music the song sound genuine and real while sounding like a soundtrack to a melodramatic 80’s love drama flick. if Kanye ever does another 80’s pop inspired pop record, he’ll know who to call.

Each song on Bon Iver is named after a place, fictional or real. Lyrically the pieces have nothing to do with the titles other then to set them in ones mind as a places attached with a series of unforgettable events. The colorful sadness Vernon’s instrumentation paints is one unreplicated by any other, creating another world specially made for this group of songs. While this will most likely be the last full length release from Vernon & Co. for a few years there is enough to visit time and time again and will stay as a landmark in not only independent but popular music for years to come.

-Eliot Larson, June 22nd, 2011