Justice
Justice put out their long-awaited album this year, and it tore up my iPod. After their eclectic remixes and D.A.N.C.E and Nazareth singles, I wasn’t sure what direction the full album would take, but it broke off and did something amazing. In a year when everyone wanted to sound like Justice, Justice wanted to sound like Super Justice, Italian film soundtracks and super-amplified synthesizers and face-melting rhythms and all. Dance music with no drums! Rock music with no guitar! On top of the album, Justice turned out (or Vice Records releases MP3s for) even more remixes this year, including a fantastic take on Daft Punk’s Human After All.
Youtube / Song link: Phantom Pt 1
Dan Deacon
Baltimore’s own seizure-inducing Dan Deacon blew our minds when he opened for Girl Talk in the Spring. Who is this man with the thick, red glasses, who insists on setting up his instruments in the crowd? What are these weird machines, relics from 80s TV production studios, sending his voice careening through the room at a dozen different pitches? Deacon makes hyperactive sugar-coated future-shock music, and he rocked the Ottobar (and a full album, brilliantly entitled “Spiderman Of The Rings”) way more than Girl Talk and Cex did when he appeared with them. One of his songs (the Mark Mothersbaugh-esque Pink Batman) even got some play at our wedding reception. We love Dan. Listen to him.
YouTube Video: Crystal Cat
Joanna Newsom
More like an “artist I forgot last year,” harpist/genius Joanna Newsom spent more time in my headphones in 2007 than almost anyone else. Ys only had five songs, but what songs they were: Joanna constructed five songs that should go down in history, five songs so deeply complex and engrossing that you can’t help but listen again after they end at the nine-minute mark.
YouTube Video: Emily (Live), which is nowhere near as amazing as the album version.
Chromeo
I sure did listen to Vice Records band Chromeo a lot this year. Part of it was due to remixes: Chromeo’s songs got fan-tas-tic remixes from the likes of Mstrkrft and Guns And Bombs this year, elevating simply silly pop songs to dance masterpieces. But part of it was due to Chromeo themselves, turning songs like Momma’s Boy into ridiculously great pop gems, full of weedy swagger and cheesy keyboards.
YouTube Video: Bonafide Lovin’
RIAA
And here I must plug RIAA’s brilliant and free album Dirt Bacharach, which rocked me like so little else this year. RIAA mixes the horror of late-90s-depress-o-rock with the horror of the mid-60s strings-and-flute pop cliches, and the result brings out the best of each.
A quick rundown:
Always Something Rollin’: A Limp Bizket song so bad that it was good, even upon initial release, mashed up with the orchestral overkill of Always Something There To Remind Me. Brilliant.
You Oughta Shut Up: Alanis Morrissette’s most irritating brilliantly leads into the Cranberries’ most irritating.
Falling Away From Bond Street: Korn’s absurdly over-the-top vocals vs. Bacharach’s ridiculous Bond Street. Fun ensues.
Magic Moments: One of the world’s sappiest songs, mixed up with inner-city kids talking about their lives. Beautiful.
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