Top 20 Albums Released in 2009

20. Iron & Wine -Around the Well











19. P.O.S. - Never Better











18. MewithoutYou - It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright










17. The Dutchess & The Duke - Sunset / Sunrise










16. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South











15. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca











14. Portland Cello Project - The Thao & Justin Power Sessions









13. St. Vincent - Actor










12. M. Ward - Hold Time










11. Regina Spektor - Far












10. Why? - Eskimo Snow












9. Pearl Jam - Backspacer










8. Owl City - Ocean Eyes










7. Amy Millan - Masters of Burial










6. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk











5. Coconut Records - Davy











4. Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar - One Fast Move or I'm Gone











3. Muse - The Resistance











2. Wilco - Wilco










1. John Frusciante - The Empyrean

She & Him Announce Volume 2 Release Date

Time to get excited, She & Him announced that Volume 2 will be released on March, 23rd 2009. We have a few months until it lands in stores but it is very exciting that a date has been set. Volume 2 will be their follow up to the debut album, Volume 1. Volume 1 has become one of my all time favorite albums and I highly recommend checking them out if haven't already. The album includes eleven original tracks and two covers - "Ridin' In My Car" by NRBQ and Skeeter Davis' "Gonna Get Along Without You Now". It will be available via Merge Records.

She & Him: Volume Two Track list:

01 Thieves
02 In The Sun
03 Don't Look Back
04 Ridin' In My Car
05 Lingering Still
06 Me And You
07 Gonna Get Along With You Now
08 Home
09 I'm Gonna Make It Better
10 Sing
11 Over It Over Again
12 Brand New Shoes
13 If You Can't Sleep

Eat.Sleep.Folk Playlist - 9.29.09

1. Amy Millan - Day to Day
2. Stars - My Favorite Book
3. Denison Witmer - Beautiful Boys and Girls
4. The Hush Sound - That's Okay
5. David Bazan - How I Remember (Acoustic Version)
6. Coconut Records - Microphone
7. MeWithoutYou - The Fox, The Crow, and the Cookie
8. Monsters of Folk - Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.)
9. Modest Mouse - Guilty Cocker Spaniels
10. Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band
11. Michael Cera & Ellen Page - Anyone Else But You
12. City & Colour - The Girl
13. Menomena - Wet and Rusting
14. Dustin Kensrue - Please Come Home
15. John Mayer - Free Fallin'

Eat.Sleep.Folk Playlist - 9.22.09

Here is the playlist from my radio show on Chapman Radio yesterday.

1. Gomez - Mix
2. Minus the Bear - Guns & Ammo
3. Iron & Wine - Peng 33
4. John Frusciante - Enough of Me
5. Bon Iver - Flume
6. The Helio Sequence - Lately
7. Fun - All the Pretty Girls
8. Jack's Mannequin - The Resolution
9. Muse - Undisclosed Desires
10. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
11. Delta Spirit - Trashcan
12. Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band - Slowly (Oh So Slowly)
13. Feist - Gatekeeper
14. She & Him - Sweet Darlin'
15. Wilco - You Never Know

Postal City...

Its been a ridiculous week and I can't believe I have found time to actually add an entry on here. As I struggle to figure out my content for this blog I would like to at least share about what music I am listening to at the moment. If you are a fan of The Postal Service I highly recommend checking out Owl City. The singer sounds exactly like Ben Gibbard but unlike other wannabes this album is extremely catchy. The lyrics are pretty trippy and Adam Young, the man behind Owl City, has some ongoing themes of having some type of relation to obscurely named animals all while being an insomniac. Its not to late to say you knew Owl City before they got huge so act now while this album is still enjoyable and not over played as I am sure it will be in the near future.

Portgual. The Man Kicked Out of Green Room

According to Portgual. The Man's Twitter Brand New kicked them out of the green room at USC. I can understand their frustration but is complaining on twitter really the solution?

Limbeck Acoustic Tour

Limbeck will be doing a short acoustic tour this week. I am hoping to catch them at the Evocal date!

Dates:

12/05 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
12/06 Boulder, CO @ Club 156
12/07 Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot
12/09 Dayton, OH @ Aquarius
12/10 Cape Girardeau, MO @ Port Cape
12/11 Tulsa, OK @ The Blank Slate (Free Show)
12/12 Scottsdale, AZ @ Chyro Arts
12/14 Costa Mesa, CA @ Evocal

Sam Beam Set To Produce New Rosie Thomas Album

Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) has be enlisted to produce Rosie Thomas' new album. No release dates have been set yet but I have high expectations for this record. For more information about the record check out this article.

Also, Rosie has recently released a Christmas album entitled A Very Rosie Christmas. If you need some new Christmas music I highly recommend picking up this album on itunes.

An Adventure to the Echoplex

I got home yesterday and Back to the Future II has on TV so I flipped it on and got hooked. Some of the graphics were a little cheesy but for the most part its still a pretty sweet movie. My roommate, Chris, came home and got hooked to the movie too. As we were watching the movie Chris wanted me to go to LA with him to see his friends band Nico Stai.

At first I was thinking about just curling up in my bed and relaxing for the night. I couldn't decide what to do so we ate dinner (Del Taco of course) and went to Best Buy. Keeping with the theme of not being able to make decisions I spent awhile trying to decide if I wanted the three disc special edition Wall-e or the cheaper one disc Wall-e. 30 minutes later I finally came to the decision of getting the three disc version.

We got home and Chris was ready to take off to LA. Still not decided which direction I wanted to take my night I put on my shoes and decided to head out with Chris. I typically avoid LA at all costs mainly because it has to be the worst place to drive in the country. Lucky for me I didn't have to drive.

We headed for the Echoplex which was fun venue. The trendy black interior was a good setting for an indie show. Nico Stai started playing shortly after our arrival and put on a great show. On our way back home I knew I made the right decision.

Check out Nico Stai's music on their myspace.

Review - The Morning Of (The World As We Know It)

I wrote this review awhile ago but stopped blogging for awhile. But since I have started posting again I figured I would add this to the collection.


Band: The Morning of
Album: The World as We Know It
Label: Tragic Hero Records
Rating: 3/5



Lets get straight to the point shall we? Do you like poppy girl and boy dueling vocals? You do? Well the Morning Of’s new album The World as We Know It should be a nice addition to your collection. Although, at times it’s hard to tell which singer is the girl the harmonization between the two singers is the highlight of the album.

If you have been to Disneyland before and stayed for the fireworks show you have heard the very cheesy and overdramatic intro speeches. The opening track on this album, “Goodbye Gravity, Welcome Change”, was a little like of these firework intros. The only difference being The Morning Of have a more emo theme to their dialog rather that Disney. The opening track would have been pretty cool without the melodramatic dialog and was just instrumental with the back up vocals. The track could turn off some listeners right off the bat, but that would be doing the listener a huge disservice because the next track will cure your thirst for a poppy little diddy.

The album is pretty consistent throughout the record keeping with the formula that works for them. On the track “The World as We Know it” has a random sound clip in the middle of the song, which catches the listener by surprise. The should have done a better job calling attention to the sound clip by lower the volume of everything else because it almost sounds more like a subliminal message. You can however recognize the sound clip at the end of the song better.

One of the few bumps in the road was the track “There’s a Bully in the Park” which took misstep when they decided to sound more like a hard rocking Paramore than sticking with their own sound. Despite some cheesy lyrics this release is a good pop record that you will find yourself singing along and dancing to. As I discussed the beginning of this review if you like that catchy girl boy dueling vocals than this record is for you.

Wall-e In Stores Today

One of my favorite films of the year is being released on DVD today and for a 23 year old male you might be surprised that movie is Wall-e. The movie has hardly any dialog but it has the audiences attention for every second. Its a great movie that I highly recommend for everybody. Also, out on DVD today is Tropic Thunder. I didn't get a chance to catch this one in the theaters but I am intrigued to see it on DVD. Don't forget that DVDs are usually on sale the first week they are released.

John Frusciante Announces New Record

John Frusciante has officially announced his new record will be entitled The Empyrean which will be released on January 20th via The Record Collection. For more information read his blog at johnfrusciante.com

The Empyrean Track listing:
1. Before The Beginning
2. Song To The Siren
3. Unreachable
4. God
5. Dark/Light
6. Heaven
7. Enough Of Me
8. Central
9. One More Of Me
10. After The Ending

The Empyrean Cover Art:

Poor Friends "Secret Love Affair"

Check out this live performance from Poor Friends if you like what you hear add them on Myspace

Dear Jack

Review - Driving East (The Future of the Free World)

Band: Driving East
Album: The Future of the Free World
Label: The Militia Group
Rating: 2/5



After hearing Driving East’s EP I was pretty excited to hear what they could do with a full-length. Songs on the EP such as “Backseat” and “Come on, Come on” showed a lot of promise for Driving East and pop punk as a genre. Unfortunately Driving East’s full length, The Future of the Free World, fails to deliver.

The short 10 track album seems to be more of the same in a genre that is lacking creativity in recent days. Three out of the four tracks from the band’s EP made the full-length, leaving The Future of the Free World short on new material. “Backseat” and “Come on, Come on” are the strongest tracks on the album, but that’s already old news. Outside of those two, the songs lack originality and aren’t nearly catchy enough to warrant replaying the album.

The opening track “Away” is halfway decent and one of the few that I would have agreed to put on the record. The children’s choir call-and-answer with lead singer Barrett Mullins left me wondering “was that rad?” or “was that a little cliché?” The album also closes on an acceptable note with “Somebody Get Me Out of Here.”

Driving East has often been compared to Cartel, another Militia Group band of the past. Sadly, Driving East’s debut album doesn’t even come close to Cartel’s Chroma. I am a huge Militia Group fan and believe for the most part that the label can do no wrong. I’m sorry to say that this is one of the few albums Militia has put out that has failed to meet expectations.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US

I just realized that a year ago on this day I started Bang the Man. I have big plans for Bang the Man and I hope I get to spend more time working on the site this year. So Happy One Year to Us!

Panic! Honda

Panic! at the Disco has been announced as the headliner of the Honda Civic Tour which is scheduled to visit approximately 45 cities in North America this spring/summer. Some criticize Panic! for not having to pay their dues as a band since they got huge without really having to try. This tour will only echo those arguments even more so. Panic! was in attendance during the Ducks game this last Wednesday and interviewed with Billy Mac during the game. Billy Mac is a pretty good interviewer and Panic! gave him a horrible interview. They were just trying to joke around but it turns out that they aren't funny or at least not in this interview. I'm interested to see if their sophomore release will have the same response as their first effort.

Sony BMG Deals with Amazon

Sony BMG has come to terms with Amazon and has agreed to sell their catalog on Amazon's MP3 store. The reason this is a big deal is because Amazon sells their music in an unprotected format.

Interesting

I just finished reading the article on Jacks Mannequin over at Alternative Press. I always thought that the defining moment of weather Something Corporate would ever get back to together would be if Jacks did another album or not. It turns out that they are going to release a sophomore release. But at the end of the article both Andrew and SoCo drummer Brian Ireland said SoCo is not done rather "suspended animation." He went on to say that he is not creatively charged to record a SoCo record as of right now but he plans on working towards that one day. I am looking forward to hearing the new Jacks album but I am more intrigued to see Something Corporate get back together.

Review - Saves the Day

Band: Saves the Day
Album: Under The Boards
Label: Vagrant Records
Rating: 3.5/5

Saves the Day is one of the accomplished veterans of pop punk. The band has proven that, just like in a sports team, you need veteran presence in a genre to show people how things are done. On their sixth studio album, Under The Boards, Saves the Day shows all the rookies out there how to put together a pop punk record.

With the second installment of a three-album project, we find Saves the Day right in the middle of their journey of self-discovery. The trilogy gives Saves the Day that extra emo touch that will make fans fall in love with the group even more. As for the others…well the others probably won’t be listening to this album.

Under the Board has some moments that really hit. The track “Get Fucked Up” has lyrics and catchiness that can’t escape the listener. The piano and vocals on “Lonely Nights” gives the album a different sound and keeps it fresh. The opening track “Under the Board” is a great pick for any emo kid’s Myspace profile. As Chris Conley spills his emotions, you immediately feel attached. “Radio” is another standout track that has a classic upbeat Saves the Day feel to it.

On the other hand, the acoustic track “Stay” is on the repetitive side and leaves the listener waiting for the song’s tempo to pick up and go somewhere. It never happens. With this being maybe the only true hiccup in the album, these veteran rockers have put out a solid release.

Saves the Day fans should be more than satisfied with Under the Board. The album delivers some classic Saves the Day moments with some new ways of going about it.

Recommended Tracks: Radio, Under the Boards, Lonely Nights, Because You Are No Other