What I listened to in 2010, Part One: New

I usually spend the first few weeks of the new year every year toying with the idea of doing a post about the music of the last year. And I usually end up giving it up because I start to realize some of my favorite albums that I listened to over the year were actually, technically, from the year before and that all these end of the year lists (on sites like emusic and Pitchfork) have a bunch of stuff on them that I haven't had a chance to listen to yet. But this year I'm thinking Why not? I'll just post about some of my favorites from my listening this year regardless of their actual release dates. Part One focuses on artists that were pretty much new to me this year, in no particular order. I tried to find links to online streams of the full album where I could, though I don't know how long those will be available, so listen soon! If I couldn't find that I have a link to the band's site instead where you should at least be able to find some samples of their music.

 

Breathe Owl Breathe - Magic Central  Stream Here

Last time I saw my aunt she was talking about enjoying Breathe Owl Breathe live, and mentioned their campaign over on kickstarter. We have their EP Ghost Glacier, so I wasn't entirely unfamiliar with them, but I really got into them with this album. It appeals to me for the same reasons I am a big fan of Bill Callahan/Smog.

Karaocake - Rows & Stitches Stream Here

I was convinced by an interview on e-music, the cover art and the title, seemingly very crafty-ish.  Also helpful was the suggestion that they were similar to Au Revoir Simone and the fact that they are from Paris, France.

  

Blue Giant - Blue Giant Stream Here
When I heard Portland locals Kevin Robinson and Anita Robinson of Viva Voce had a new project, right around the time we moved here, I looked into to it as soon as I could! We saw those two live at least twice when we lived in Seattle and just like their music, they are a lot of fun.

Lykke Li - Youth Novels Website (there is a pop out audio player on the upper right)
I take it this actually came out all the way back in 2008, but I only got around to listening to it last year. Well...I don't have all that long to wait then for the next album from her, which should be coming out this March.

 

The xx - xx Website (a player at the bottom of the page)
I'm actually not sure there was anything in particular that prompted me to make this one of my emusic downloads other than the fact that it was showing up high in their charts and I liked the previews. It's one of my favorites now though, though technically released in 2009. I guess they won the Mercury prize this year, which as I recall Antony & the Johnsons won right around when I was first hearing their music.

Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here Stream Here
The title comes from a cover of on of Bill Callahan/Smog's songs...and even though the original is also very close to spoken word, something about Heron's presentation makes me think about the meaning differently. But even excluding that track, this album from the Chicago poet/musician is definitely worth several listens.

 

The Mynabirds - What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood 

Website (the music section has a few tracks & videos)

Karen Elson - The Ghost Who Walks Stream Here

These two albums are a little similar in my mind, perhaps a slight vintage feel. On Karen Elson's Album you get the distinct Jack White sound since she's his wife. She does draw in some cabaret influences (she had a cabaret group in NYC) and was much better than I expected. 

 

Veviter - Tight Knit Stream Here
This is from 2009, but we listened to it a lot early this year. We saw Devandra Banhart for my birthday in 2009 and a few of the songs from this album were performed at that show. And again with the crafty title. I think it got a few extra listens just for that. No, it's a good album, and I like it more because that show was a particularly good one.

Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now Website (see LISTEN in the upper left)
I was looking forward to this because I really like Jenny Lewis, but I'm not quite as crazy about it as I hoped I would be. It's alright, but can't help but wishing for more Jenny and less Johnny every time we listen to it.

 

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid Stream Here
I've read about some shows she did in Chicago this year, and I heard she's great live, I would like to see here. As I recall there was a comparison of her performance to Grace Jones, David Bowie and a few other really great people. Every photo I see of Janeele Monáe, her style clothing, hair, etc. is just so cool. I'm still enamoured of everything about the video for Tightrope, love the dance moves. But I also really love the fact that her tuxedo pants and black and white shoes remind me of some clothing I had as a kid.

The Living Sisters - Love to Live Website on facebook (a few tracks, scroll down, see left)
3 musicians I already liked: Inara George of The Bird & The Bee, Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond and singer Eleni Mandell sing harmony on this album. I have to admit I haven't actually given the album itself a listen yet, but I was quite charmed by their performance on Morning Becomes Eclectic (a program from L.A.'s KCRW which I've been listening to online while I work since 2002.) and I've given it a few listens.

Tomorrow I was planning on posting about some the albums that came out in 2010 from artists I already knew and like quite a bit, but I don't think it will be quite as extensive as this post was! Whew!

Fun new graphics!

I liked my previous banner, but since I sold 3 out of the five necklaces featured there and had no immediate plans to make more in that style, I was thinking about making myself a new banner.  Then there's the fact that my shop now has knit and paper goods in addition to jewelry, and the old banner didn't reflect either of those types of items. I had been playing around for a little bit with making a knit graphic and finally spent some time playing with it again this weekend and came up with some images I liked. I did a lot of playing around and ended up with a few variations I like and I think will keep. 

For the Etsy shop a string of beads, loops of yarn on a needle and a clear listing of what's in this shop!:

For the Blog, just knits (I do focus on knitting projects here a lot), I thought I'd be a little playful and entwined my name into the pattern:

For my Facebook Fan Page, and perhaps something similar for business cards when I need them again:

For the Website:

I had thrown up a quick little website a few months ago that i'd been meaning to update with something more, well, update-able. I liked what I had going on with these graphics so much I decided to play with it again. There's not a ton there, it was just a fun little project to play with, and I may put up some announcements about the shop every so often in the News section. It's probably something I'll mess with every now and then.  

2010 in Review in Photos

I meant to post this closer to NYE but I didn't get around to. I got distracted having fun making some city flag themed banners for the post that I promptly lost my steam for writing up an actual post right after I finished them. So I got discouraged by that and the fact that I spent some time in Middletown, OH this year too, and as far as I can tell from Googling it's a city without a flag. ("Do you have a flag?") 

Anyway, a few years back I started doing "annual highlights" sets on flickr. It's a handy way for me to find some of my favorite photos I've taken. It also ends up being a nice way to reflect on the big events and small pleasantries of the year. And there's always plenty of fun pictures of knitting, and Chuck and Lucy.

2010 was split nearly in two by living in Chicago for the first half, then moving to Portland, OR in August. There was some overlap, a trip to Portland to find our apartment, then back to Chicago to see some of the sights we hadn't seen yet (though, that place is huge, there will still be tons more to see when I go back to visit with my parents.) Then in September I spent some time hanging out in Columbia, SC for Janie & Matt's Wedding (Janie & I went to Ohio State together.)

      

       

Some Highlights:  The Field Museum (twice), Botanic Garden (also twice, I think?), Chuck's IIT Graduation, Water Taxi, Field Museum & Navy Pier with Janie, Free She & Him Concert at the Pritzker, Planting the Robie House, watching the Eyeball scuplture go up, crazy weather, and exploring Oak Park!

      

       

Some Highlights: Lots of exploring! Roses, Swallows, Bridges, climbing into the hills, food carts, a live performance of an episode of Star Trek, the Oregon Symphony on the Waterfront, the Chinese garden (twice!), Showing my parents the city & visiting the Japanese Garden with them, checking out the Pop-up shops, and decorating our apartment (in general when we moved in and some paper crafting around Christmas!)

       

And then the highlight of the trip to Columbia was of course the wedding, but I also had a good time exploring the city, getting to know the Groom and the Cat, hanging out at the Lake, getting last minute supplies, and taking pictures of everyone playing croquet in their fancy dresses! Oh, and um...jumping in the lake in my dress was fun too.  And the dress recovered just fine!

If 2011 is filled with even half as much adventure and exploration it should be pretty good! Though hopefully there will be no more concerns with Lucy like we had this year right when we moved! It will probably be nice to be settled down and exploring Portland, mainly. If I made any resolutions this year, I think I've pretty much already broken them, as per my usual way of dealing with the new year...I sort of waffle on when I'm going to start my resolutions until it kind of seems pointless to even think of them as New Years resolutions anymore...but that's okay, I tend to do alright with making and accomplishing my goals throughout the year without focusing on just this one day. Well...that is unless they have something to do with (evil evil) laundry. One of these days I'll conquer that never-ending task!