It’s that time of year: Time to cite the tunes that caught hold of my expert ear over the past 12 months — the ones I consider most worthy of purchase, hi-res download, and/or dropping the needle on at 45 rpm! Here, in reverse order, are my favorite 25 songs of 2013. Happy listening!
25. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts: “Any Weather.” Forecast calls for her continued reign. Co-meteorologized with Foomaster Dave Grohl.
24. U2: “Ordinary Love.” As in, “Extra-” and “This Is No.” And Mandela smiles from The Great Beyond.
23. Michael Monroe: “Ballad of the Lower East Side.” Punkin’-A NYC luv letter. Sneer perfection.
22. Baby Woodrose: “Bubblegum.” Flip your tongue like… super-chewy Euro-garage pop!
21. Palmyra Delran: “Some Day Soon.” Hopeful, wistful, wonderful: Yes, please. Stick it out — rewards ahead.
20. Radio Days: “Love and Fun.” Beach-blanket underground-pop rabble-rouser.
19. Charles ... Read More »]]>
Engineer Men: Roanoke, Virginia’s Young Sinclairs can toot their collective horn for chugging in at #3.
BY MIKE METTLER
It’s that time of year: Time to cite the tunes that caught hold of my expert ear over the past 12 months — the ones I consider most worthy of purchase, hi-res download, and/or dropping the needle on at 45 rpm! Here, in reverse order, are my favorite 25 songs of 2013. Happy listening!
Where Did All of the Workmen Go: Houndmouth put a twang-jammin’ bite on #17.
Vix Humana: Jenn & Reeves are absolutely, seductively transcendent at lucky #13.
Live and Yearn: Amy Gore & Her Valentines go for the jugular valve at #9.
Lightning in My Pocket: The Bayonets ensnare the real deal at #2.
25. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts: “Any Weather.” Forecast calls for her continued reign. Co-meteorologized with Foomaster Dave Grohl.
24. U2: “Ordinary Love.” As in, “Extra-” and “This Is No.” And Mandela smiles from The Great Beyond.
23. Michael Monroe: “Ballad of the Lower East Side.” Punkin’-A NYC luv letter. Sneer perfection.
22. Baby Woodrose: “Bubblegum.” Flip your tongue like… super-chewy Euro-garage pop!
21. Palmyra Delran: “Some Day Soon.” Hopeful, wistful, wonderful: Yes, please. Stick it out — rewards ahead.
20. Radio Days: “Love and Fun.” Beach-blanket underground-pop rabble-rouser.
19. Charles Bradley: “Hurricane.” New millennial soul brother, all aswirl.
18. Kurt Baker: “Weekend Girls.” Bouncy, jouncy, hello-ladies kinda singalong.
17. Houndmouth: “Ludlow.” Spot-on down-home jammin’ and jukin’. Tight futures.
16. Lorde: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Evocative Tears For Fears cover, and perhaps the one thing we have running in our blood common with those ruddy luxe “Royals.”
15. Mark Lindsay: “Show Me the Love.” Killer hook ’n riffs, to be Revered and Raided accordingly.
14. The Launderettes: “Cold Cold Hearts.” A solemnly cool ’n seductive blast of Norwegian love.
13. Jenn Vix & Reeves Gabrels: “Speed of Light.” Wholly auralgasmic electronic guitar mashup in 9/4 time.
12. Jake Clemons: “You Must Be Crazy.” The sax man’s bloodline runs strong ’n true, and grows anew.
11. Daft Punk Featuring Pharrell Williams: “Get Lucky.” More like Daft Funk, especially with main Chic-man Nile Rodgers on guitar.
10. John & Brittany: “Start Sinning.” How to bash out raw sentiment with abandon, drive, and verve.
9. Amy Gore & Her Valentines: “Send Me a Postcard.” Perfect post-garage-punk kiss-on/kiss-off. Mwah!
8. Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. and Pharrell: “Blurred Lines.” Ubiquitously catchy honeydripper. (You know you want it…) The late Robert Palmer woulda simply made it even more irresistible.
7. The Anderson Council: “Gardening Man.” Perfectly tilled garage-rock seeds. Listen how they grow.
6. Ryan Bingham: “Until I’m One With You.” Haunting theme to FX’s The Bridge resonates deep and wide.
5. Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic & Pat Smear: “Cut Me Some Slack.” They so heavy. (Dun-dun-dun!)
4. Tedeschi Trucks Band: “Calling Out to You.” Mournful, foot-tapping acoustic quiet prayer, the perfect end to a brilliant album.
3. The Young Sinclairs: “Engineer Man.” Infectious garage riff and spot-on harmonies mesh 1965 vibe with 2013 reality. “He does all of the work around here.”
2. The Bayonets: “Whatcha Got.” Slinky ’n sultry and slunky ’n funky in all the right places. “Casanova was a lightweight, Valentino was a clown … You wanna sweet talk? You can take a walk … So what so what, show me whatcha got.”
1. Steven Wilson: “Luminol.” 12 minutes of hard-charging transcendence, ranging from post-prog pummeling to layered harmonic elegance, fully realized in the mulitchannel king’s own envelope-pushing surround-sound mix. Officially my personal favorite benchmark 5.1 demo track.
]]>BY MIKE METTLER
“For me personally, I like the singer/songwriters who tell stories,” says Walton Goggins, and if anyone knows how to get into a character and tell a story and tell it damn well, it’s him. In Season 4 of Justified, out now on Blu-ray, Goggins’s character, the perpetually morally challenged Boyd Crowder, found redemption in the arms of love — specifically with the feisty and unbendingly loyal Eva Crowder (Joelle Carter). But Boyd also found that such deep love can come at a terrible price. Hmmm… that scenario sounds like a few lines pulled straight out of a U2 song or two, doesn’t it? And that’s quite fitting, since, according to Goggins, one of the iconic Irish band’s albums “changed my life.” Earlier this year, Goggins and I discussed things like shooting in high-def, long-term character development, and his ... Read More »]]>
BY MIKE METTLER
“For me personally, I like the singer/songwriters who tell stories,” says Walton Goggins, and if anyone knows how to get into a character and tell a story and tell it damn well, it’s him. In Season 4 of Justified, out now on Blu-ray, Goggins’s character, the perpetually morally challenged Boyd Crowder, found redemption in the arms of love — specifically with the feisty and unbendingly loyal Eva Crowder (Joelle Carter). But Boyd also found that such deep love can come at a terrible price. Hmmm… that scenario sounds like a few lines pulled straight out of a U2 song or two, doesn’t it? And that’s quite fitting, since, according to Goggins, one of the iconic Irish band’s albums “changed my life.” Earlier this year, Goggins and I discussed things like shooting in high-def, long-term character development, and his love of music on Sound & Vision’s website, but here we get to dive even deeper into his musical inclinations.
Mike Mettler: You know a lot about how to find the right rhythms for your character on Justified. And speaking of knowing what the right beats and tones are, I have to ask you about music, since I know it’s important to you.
Walton Goggins: I’m a big lover of music. My partner [Ray McKinnon] and I have made four films for our company [Ginny Mule Pictures], and music plays a very big part of that. We enjoy the process of taking people through the cinematic choices.
For me personally, I like the singer/songwriters who tell stories. There’s a guy whom I’ve been listening to a lot lately, Micah P. Hinson. The dude is fantastic. And another guy named Damian Jurado. They’re both incredible storytellers. And I also love Dave Alvin, who has both appeared on and had his music featured on Justified. [Executive Producer] Graham [Yost] is a fan of Dave’s. There’s just so much great music out there… so much great music.
Mettler: Then you must also love artists like John Prine and John Hiatt.
Goggins: It’s funny you say that. I’ve been a fan of John Prine’s for almost 20 years. I did a movie for Billy Bob [Thornton], one he did after Sling Blade [1996] called Daddy and Them [2001], back when people carried CDs around with a Discman. And Billy Bob said, “Walt, thanks for coming down. All your stuff is going to be with this songwriter that I doubt you’ve ever heard, but his name is John Prine, and we’re all gonna go out to dinner.” And I said, “Wait a second, dude. I brought three CDs with me, and they’re all John Prine.” So it was one of the biggest treats of my life to work with John on that film since I’m such a big fan of his music.
Mettler: Do you remember the first album or single you bought with your own money?
Goggins: Yeah, I could go back to [Queen’s] “Another One Bites the Dust,” this 45 I bought back in like the 3rd grade. But I think the album that changed my life and really brought me into music was U2’s The Joshua Tree [1987]. And only after exploring all of the new music did I turn my head around and start looking backwards, and I got into all of these people who have been around for so long like the Motown artists and Otis Redding, and I have to thank my mother for a lot of that.
Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Louis Armstrong and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band down in New Orleans. Oddly enough, my [infant] son is really attracted to things like bluegrass and Django Reinhart. He likes things that are modern as well as things that are old. It’s so curious for me to discover the same music through my son’s eyes. But that’s what parents do: We pass down music.
What else? Well, are you a fan of Tinariwen? Let me give you this one — it’s an African band that does amazing world music. I mean, wow. I first heard them on Tom Schnabel’s Rhythm Planet, which I love listening to on Sundays on KCRW [in Los Angeles]. And do you know Smog?
Mettler: Oh yeah, I sure do. Damn cool Drag City one-man band.
Goggins: Smog is fantastic. “Rock Bottom Riser” is one of the most saddest and most graceful songs ever written. I put that song on, and I’m weeping.
Mettler: Do you put certain songs on to get into character?
Goggins: I do, but I try to stay away from that on the day after I get to work [i.e., at a studio or on location]. Whenever I’m working on a project, I will go to Amoeba or download a bunch of albums from that era. And Amoeba is a very special place, isn’t it? You don’t have anything like it in New York City [both laugh], but you have so many other amazing things.
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