2006 artist favorites

Top releases for 2006:
Sibylle Baier – Colour Green (reissue)
Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out of This Country
Mojave 3 – Puzzles Like You
Best performances of 2006:
John Cale (Quasimodo Berlin)
The Lucksmiths (Hamburg)
Bauhaus (Columbiahalle Berlin)

Best record: The Arctic Monkeys, Whatever you say I am
Best show: Joan as Policewoman, Oxford Zodiac
Best new discovery: Monsieur Mo Rio: www.myspace.com/monsieurmorio

Top musical moments of 2006:
Another quiet year, with average albums from usual favourites Shack, Roddy Frame and Pernice Brothers. Not much really set my pulse racing other than ‘The Life Pursuit’ from Belle and Sebastian (and I’m not usually a big fan). Honourable mention for ‘White Bread, Black Beer’ by Scritti Politti. Top pop song – Robert Post – ‘Got None’. A year overshadowed by the untimely end of the Go Betweens. RIP Grant.

Top nine musical experiences of 2006:
1. Art Group
2. In Context – Field Music
3. When You Were Young – The Killers
4. We Jam Econo: The Story Of The Minutemen
5. Tom Verlaine at The 100 Club London
6. Orbit Around You – The Butterflies Of Love
7. Morrissey at Manchester Apollo
8. Only Forever – Art Group
9. British Sea Power at The Roadhouse Manchester

Albums: Dear Nora “There Is No Home”, The Blow “Paper Television” The Zebras “Worry a Lot”, Pipas “Sorry Love”, Mid-State Orange “Odds”, Pia Fraus “Nature Heart Software”, Red Pony Clock “Tunes From Terrace Towers”… plus these EPs: Popolice “Forceback”, Sambassadeur “Coastal Matters”, and Still Flyin’ “Time Wrinkle EJ”
Song: “Defeated and Lonely” by Dear Nora
Lyric: “Just because it’s real, doesn’t mean it’s going to work” – The Blow “True Affection”
Live shows: Deerhoof(!) at Northcote Social Club, Melb, Architecture in Helsinki all around the US (wowow!), Dear Nora all around Aus (blew my mind), Sharon Jones in Strasbourg (hooly dooly!), Morrissey in Oslo (still amazing), Silver Jews in London, Still Flyin’ at Emmabodafestivalen, Sweden (okay, so I was in the band, but you couldn’t really see me.. This show was totally insane in the rain!!).. oh, and Darren Hanlon playing to primary school kids in Meekatharra, WA outback!
Ridiculous personal live experiences: Rockin’ the cowbell to thousands of people in NY’s Central Park with Architecture in Helsinki! Playing in Dear Nora in Sydney with Lindy Morrison of the Go-Betweens on drums! And the entire Lucksmiths European tour which was truly unbelievable – thanks to anyone who helped us make it to the shows!!

Musical tops of 2006, in no particular order:
1. Jens Lekman live in St Andrews Church, Brighton
2. Finally getting a copy of Beaumont’s Music For Kate Spade
3. Belle and Sebastian album and live
4. Club 8 rediscovered
5. Harper Lee CDEP
6. Morrissey album
7. The Streets
8. Sex Pistols Spunk reissue
9. Groove Armada remixes
10. Camera Obscura album
11. Radio Dept. album
12. Gretsch Guitars
13. Vox Amps
14. Revolving Paint Dream reissue
15. Bent

Albums: Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out of This Country; Rose Melberg – Cast Away the Clouds
Songs: Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken – Camera Obscura; Each New Day – Rose Melberg; Yrrkdbk – Pipas; Goodbye – The Postmarks; Art Brut – Emily Kane
Shows: Rose Melberg; Keith John Adams; Snow Fairies
Records I meant to buy but still haven’t heard: Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit; Darren Hanlon – Fingertips and Mountaintops; Sambassadeur – Coastal Matters; The Pipettes – We are the Pipettes
Discoveries: Electric Pop Group; Pelle Carlberg; The Postmarks; Eux Autres

As a listener, my favourite album of 2006 — by some margin — was “Damaged” by Lambchop. Other records I enjoyed included Yo La Tengo’s “I am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass”; The Decemberists’ “The Crane Wife”; Mates of State’s “Bring It Back”; Neko Case’s “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood”; Mid-State Orange’s “Odds”; Holly Throsby’s “Under the Town”; Morrissey’s “Ringleader of the Tormentors” and The Zebras’ “Worry Too Much”.
As a musician, the best experience of the year was The Lucksmiths’ two-week European tour in September. This was more or less one highlight after another, but especially memorable were our shows in Stockholm (where we lived out something of a rock fantasy by playing an impromptu second set when the festival’s headline act was unable to perform), and Tallinn, Estonia, where we received the most amazing response we’ve ever had from an audience. I don’t employ the adjective “Beatlesesque” lightly, you know…. Earlier in the year, I also had a wonderful long weekend away at a house in the hills outside Melbourne with my fledgling side project, The Acheron Way, eating, drinking and working on songs.

Ten great songs not released on Matinée in 2006:
1. Clearlake – It’s Getting Light Outside (Domino)
2. Camera Obscura – Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken (Elefant)
3. The Radio Dept. – Pet Grief (Labrador)
4. Cats on Fire – The Smell Of An Artist (Fraction Discs)
5. The Shins – Phantom Limb (Sub Pop)
6. The Electric Pop Group – Popgirly (Electric Pop Group)
7. Voxtrot – Your Biggest Fan (Beggars Group)
8. Sambassadeur – Kate (Labrador)
9. Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars (Fiction)
10. The Postmarks – Goodbye (Unfiltered)

Favorite LPs of 2006:
1 – Faintest Ideas – What Goes Up Must Calm Down (Magic Marker)
2 – Sloan – Never Hear The End Of It (BMG)
3 – Dýrðin – s/t (Skipping Stones)
4 – Math And Physics Club – s/t (Matinee)
5 – Overlord – Ticker Symbols (Storm Tower)
6 – Pants Yell! – Recent Drama (Asaurus)
7 – Brother Kite – Waiting For The Time To Be Right (Clair)
8 – Specific Heats – Aboard A Spaceship Of The Imagination (Total Gaylord)
9 – Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out Of This Country (Merge)
10 – Charade – A Real Life Drama (Skipping Stones)
11 – Minders – It’s A Bright Guilty World (Future Farmer)
12 – Kite Flying Society – Where Is The Glow? (no label)
13 – Boyracer – A Punch Up The Bracket (555)
14 – Casper & The Cookies – The Optimist’s Club (Happy Happy Birthday To Me)
15 – Spraydog – Karate Summer Camp (Ferric Mordant)
16 – Darren Hanlon – Fingertips And Mountaintops (Candle)
17 – Love Letter Band – Fear Not My Brothers, Fear Not My Sisters… (Happy Happy Birthday To Me)
18 – David & The Citizens – Stop The Tape! Stop The Tape! (Bad Taste)
19 – Changes – Today Is Tonight (Drama Club)
20 – Bears – s/t (no label)
Favorite EPs of 2006:
1 – Racetrack – Go Ahead And Say It (no label)
2 – How – Happy Matt 7″ (Slumberland)
3 – Cats On Fire – Draw In The Reins (Fraction)
4 – Locas In Love – Wir Fangen Von Vorne An EP (Sitzer)
5 – Postal Blue – Road To Happiness (Humblebee)
6 – Ivy League – London Bridges EP (Twenty Seven)
7 – Airfields – Laneways (Humblebee)
8 – Crabapples – Crabapples For Change 7″ (Slumberland)
9 – Bright Ideas – Raincoats 7″ (Ilyaku)
10 – Voxtrot – Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives (Cult Hero)
11 – Glasses – Modern Day Ichabod Crane (no label)
12 – Tidy Ups – Dizzy Heights EP (Music Is My Girlfriend)
13 – Lake Holiday – The Curse Of Sunshine (Debris)
14 – Cyndee Lee Hulko / Don Agbai split 7″ (Vapen & Godis)
15 – Andy Werth – Back To The Sun EP (no label)
16 – Flower Machine – Orange Balloons 7″ (Microindie)
17 – Secret Shine – Elemental EP (Razorblade)
18 – Hermit Crabs – Feel Good Factor EP (Matinee)
19 – Electric Soft Parade – The Human Body EP (Better Looking)
20 – Harper Lee – He Holds A Flame (Matinee)
Disqualified since I released it: Patience Please – Parallel Plots (Jigsaw)