Favorite Live Music of 2009

Rounding out my year-end listmaking is my live music recap. Enjoy.

Top FIVE Shows

1)Loud & Rich (Loudon Wainwright III & Richard Thompson) - the Vic - 29 October
2)The Hold Steady - House of Blues - 15 January
3)Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Empty Bottle - 30 October
4)Andrew Bird - Schubas - 6 August
5)Blind Pilot - Lincoln Hall - 25 November

Honorable Mentions to Neko Case, AC Newman, Heartless Bastards, John Vanderslice, Loney Dear, David Bazan, Beirut, Mountain Goats and Liam Finn

Most Pleasant Surprises
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park - 24 August
The Cave Singers - Schubas - 12 September
Nellie McKay - Schubas - 6 December

Most Disappointing
Blitzen Trapper - Empty Bottle - 19 Feb

My Decade in Music

It's the time of year when many a music lover sits down and tries to identify the "best" albums of the year. Although I find these lists interesting, I also recognize that as tuned in as we might like to think we are, we all have fairly narrow scopes when it comes to considering all of the genres. So I just make lists of my favorites. Over the last few weeks, I've been working on a year-by-year list of my most enjoyed albums. I'm sure I missed a few, but, well that really doesn't matter.

Then, I picked out 15 that I think represent what I've enjoyed most throughout the decade. That's what you'll see first, followed by the yearly shortlist. My apologies to anyone who cares if I got any of the years wrong.

Norah's Favorite Albums of the 2000s - TOP 15
John Hiatt - Crossing Muddy Waters
Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks - Beatin' the Heat
Joan Osborne - Righteous Love
Rufus Wainwright - Poses
Amy Ray - Stag
Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses
Le Tigre - Feminist Sweepstakes
Mason Jennings - Century Spring
Kathleen Edwards - Failer
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Robert Plant/Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride



Norah's Favorite Albums of the 2000s - Yearly Shortlist

2000
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
Cat Power - The Covers Record
Steve Earle - Transcendental Blues
Bebel Gilberto - Tanto Tempo
Rickie Lee Jones - It's LIke This
Southern Culture on the Skids - Liquored Up and Lacquered Down
Mason Jennings - Birds Flying Away
Erin McKeown - Distillation
John Hiatt - Crossing Muddy Waters
Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks - Beatin' the Heat
Richard Shindell - Somewhere near Paterson
Keb Mo - The Door
Joan Osborne - Righteous Love
Various Artists - O Brother, Where Art Though
Jeb Loy Nichols - Just What Time It Is
Teddy Thompson - Teddy Thompson
Ani Difranco - Revelling/Reckoning
PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Dusty Trails - Dusty Trails
Paul Simon - You're The One
Richard Buckner - Since
Kirsty MacColl - Tropical Brainstorm
Allison Moorer - The Hardest Part
Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl
Patty Larkin - Regrooving the Dream



2001
Amy Ray - Stag
Grant-Lee Phillips - Mobilize
David Byrne - Look into The Eyeball
Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
Rufus Wainwright - Poses
Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire - The Swimming Hour
The Be Good Tanyas - Blue Horse
Jay Farrar - Sebastopol
Le Tigre - Feminist Sweepstakes
Lucinda Williams - Essence
Paris Combo - Living Room
Edith Frost - Wonder Wonder
Jonatha Brooke - Steady Pull
Ryan Adams - Gold


2002
Mason Jennings - Century Spring
Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses
Steve Earle - Jerusalem
Various Artists - I Am Sam Soundtrack
Aimee Mann - Lost in Space
The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee


2003
Lucinda Williams - World Without Tears
Gillian Welch - Soul Journey
Kathleen Edwards - Failer
Erin McKeown - Grand
Deb Talan - A Bird Flies Out
Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress

2004
Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream
Lhasa - The Living Road
Various Artists - Garden State Soundtrack
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her


2005
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Animal Collective - Feels
Iron and Wine and Calexico - In the Reins
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
Page France - Hello Dear Wind
Richard Buckner - Meadow
Amy Ray - Prom
Andrew Bird - and The Mysterious Production of Eggs


2006
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Erin McKeown - Sing You Sinners
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me the Workhorse
The Blow - Paper Television
The Kooks - Inside In / Inside Out




2007
Laura Veirs - Saltbreakers
Various Artists - Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack
Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
The New Pornographers - Challengers
Robert Plant/Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Radiohead - In Rainbows
John Vanderslice - Emerald City
Voxtrot - Voxtrot
Liam Finn - I'll be Lightning


2008
Various Artists - Juno Sountrack
Kathleen Edwards - Asking for Flowers
Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Vampire Weekend -Vampire Weekend
Tift Merritt - Another Country
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
Blind Bilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound (But I didn't listen to this until 2009
Erran Baron Cohen Presents: Songs In The Key Of Hanukkah


2009
David Bazan - Curse Your Branches
Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
A.C. Newman - Get Guilty
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
Laura Veirs - July Flame (Not out until 2010 officially, but I've been listening to it nonstop since October.)
Various Artists - Dark Was the Night
Micachu - Jewellry

DECADE

I'm considering making one of those lists of my favorite movies and or music of the decade. CONSIDERING. Don't hold your breath.

10 by 11 - My adventures at the Chicago International Film Festival and Beyond (Part ONE)

Flash back to two/three years ago, and I was working my way through my Netflix queue at warp speed, watching obscure films from all over the world at a rate of three or four a week. Then Netflix added instant viewing, and suddenly, there were hundreds of movies available for me to watch with the simplicty of a single click, including many from my beloved Film Movement.

But, sadly, I haven't been watching. I'm not sure what has or hasn't happened in my life to change my habit, but now I'm lucky if I even watch one disc per month, and I almost never take advantage of the instant viewing. I have several theories about what might be causing this - but, I realized I really was missing a lot of great foreign and independent films.

So - this summer/fall I renewed my membership for the Siskel Center, and then decided to take things one step further and bought a pass (and a gala pass to boot) for the Chicago International Film Festival. After a few warm-ups at the Siskel, which I won't go into here, in the interest of keeping things current, I embarked on an 11-day, 10-film wild ride. Below is a day-by-day account of the undertaking.

Saturday 10 October
I started at the Siskel with Majid Majidi's The Song of Sparrows. It wasn't part of the festival, but provided a good starting point. I enjoyed watching the story of Karim and his family members, which the other Majidi films, centered on story of a very good person encountering one minor tragedy after another, (i.e. life). I like the complexity of the main character, and the simple beauty and use of color, water and nature, throughout the film.

Then on the the festival proper for my old favorite, Ken Loach's newist offering, Looking for Eric. Although some people will dismiss the story as too far-fetched, I really enjoyed seeing depressed postman Eric, conjure up his personal hero, footballer Eric Cantona, to act as his therapist to help him get his shit together. Not as predictable as one might expect.

Monday 12 October
I went to the Gala screening of Lars Von Trier's new monolith, Antichrist. I did my best not to read anything about the film in advance, and went almost solely based on my near-obsession with Charlotte Gainsbourg. It was a very difficult film. The opening sequence is beautiful and dreamlike, and a lot of that beauty carries through the rest of the film, but the hard parts were so difficult to watch, I came away with the idea that I would never recommend it to anyone.

This unnamed couple loses their child, and when conventional methods don't seem to be pulling the mother out of her grief, her husband decides to take matters into his own professional hands. I think that one can make this film as simple or as difficult as one would like in interpretation. I essentially took it as a story of a guy who thinks he can fix his wife, but in the middle of it all, realizes that her problems might be a lot more serious than he initially thought - however, I think her realizes this too late, and before he figures out how to abort his mission and take her back to civilzation, all hell breaks loose - and I really mean that.


The Q & A with Willem Dafoe afterward was really helpful in terms of giving some insight to Von Trier's motivations and process, and also in giving us permission to interpret the film in our own ways, like any artwork.

Coming Soon

Just in case anyone's reading this - I've got a very full plate for Rocktober 2009, which includes a handful of concerts and two handfuls of movies, thanks to buying a pass for the Chicago International Film Festival. So, if there aren't at least five new posts here by the end of the month, well, I don't know why you bother checking.

I spent several weeks in Europe this summer, and tried out Pitchfork when I got back. I don't think I'll feel like I need to go next year. The Flatstock portion aside (where I finally tracked down that Diana Sudyka mermaid poster from the Laura Veirs/Liam Finn Show last spring), it's not really my scene. I did get to catch a special Pre-Lollapalooza Andrew Bird show at Schubas in August and that was amazing. I saw The Rural Alberta Advantage in the park for free, and took unplanned trips to Schubas for The Cave Singers and to The Green Mill for Astral Project last month. I had an adventure chasing Sufjan Stevens tickets all over two states and one province and never did catch a one - though I was in Montreal at the same time as him AND the Dalai Lama.

What does The Wonderful World of Fall have in store for Nobo? We shall see. Stay tuned.

Magpies & Other Birds (Andrew Bird @ Civic Opera House 4.10 and Neko Case @ Chicago Theater 4.24)

Once again I've fallen too far behind to write meaningful reviews. Maybe now that I'm on twitter, I can just post my genius thoughts DURING the shows for you all to read. Because there are so many of you, dear readers.

So - the birdman: It was such a treat to be in the radiance of the opera house, and to sit and be civilized. Bird played a lot of pieces from the new album, as well as several from the last two - and nicely surprise us with a few pieces from The Swimming Hour and beyond. I think playing for the hometown crowd, he knew he'd please some folks with that, especially on night two. He brought Nora O'Conner out for the older bits, and I whispered to my friend my prediction that we'd see her onstage with Neko Case in a couple of weeks.

And I was right. Two weeks later, we sat in the similarly opulent Chicago Theater - the opened, Crooked Fingers, was enjoyable, but didn't play any of the tunes that I'm familiar with. It was nice to see Miranda Brown for the second time in a month, since she was such a treat playing with AC Newman at Logan Square earlier this spring.

The stage set for Neko was spectacular - An owl wrapping its wings around the screen, on which were project film and animation throughout the show. We heard mostly from Middle Cyclone, so there were not the knock-you-on-your backside vocals from some of her past shows, but there was a quiet beauty to behold. Especially on Middle Cyclone itself. As always, the banter between Neko and Kelly Hogan could not be topped, and there was a tiny bit of Nora O'Conner as well. Hogan cranks a mean custom music box too.

The highlight for me was "Red Tide." I love all of the marine and nature references on Middle Cyclone, and hadn't really dug any deeper on any of the lyrics of the songs. Neko said that this one was about breaking up with a town - and either she or Kelly mentioned that Seattle was the "bitchy town in question" for this case. Then they launched into it - and it made me want to be in rainy Seattle, even though I've never been to the Pacific NW.

I will one day sleep with all of you - Mountain Goats AND John Vanderslice @ the Portage Theater - 1 April 2009

Sometime, I would like to see both John Darnielle and John Vanderslice play with big giant bands including strings and keys. Their recordings keep getting more orchestral,and I want to see that onstage. But, I knew this "Gone Primitive" tour was to be solo acoustic, so I was prepared for bare boned Johns.

That said, I was very pleased with both sets at the Portage. Initially, this show was supposed to the at Epiphany, one of the Empty Bottle myriad venues, but then it was moved to the Portage. My new favorite venue. You can buy popcorn and wine. And you get to sit down.

Both of them worked great with the crowd. I got the feeling most people were not there to see JV though, but the theater seating lended to them generally behaving. He was great though. Even "Trance Manual," which I've always been sort of lukewarm about, moved me.

But John Darnielle - he needs the energy of the crowd, and by the end of the set, he had everyone on their feet and in the aisles. He spazzed out and barked into the darkness, sure to play a lot of favorites, including closing with No Children, sending us all home happy. (After telling us good night and promising that he would one day sleep with all of us. Nerd alert.)

Bloc Party @ the Aragon - 28 March 2009

...and I hadn't been to the ARAGON since November 15th, 2004. How do I remember the date? I'm pretty sure that was it, because it is my sister's birthday, and it was my first day of work at Rotary. I went with Andrea and Mari to see the Pixies. And to this day, I regret not really being in the moment. I think I was still just too overwhelmed with being back in Chicago to really take in the beauty that is the Aragon.

So, I think when I agreed to go to Bloc Party with Nicki and company I may have thought it was at the Riv. So when I heard it had been moved to the Aragon, I was pretty psyched.

Due to a certain Pitt/Villanova game, we were waylaid at T's, arriving at the Aragon after Longwave finished. That's good, since I don't know who the f*&k they are anyway.

And bloc party was fine. I still think all their songs sound the same. But the Aragon is beautiful, and we had a perfect vantage point up in the balcony, stage right. When a couple of people hauled out the umbrellas in the encore, spinning them over their heads, I almost cried. And then... and then... when the show was over, they played "I've Had the Time of My life" and I flashed back to my 7th/8th grade dances, all was well with the world.

A.C. Newman @ Logan Square Auditorium - 25 March 2009

I hadn't been to the LSA since a post-Thanksgiving Andrew Bird show in 2006. They've spruced up a bit. It even smelled like paint, and reminds me a bit of Turner Hall in Galena.

Hanging out at Dunlay's with my friends caused us to miss the Broken West, but that's okay. I've listened to them a bit, but nothing's every really stuck.

I was so happy with this show. I'd been looking forward to it for quite some time. I discovered Newman's first solo album a little over a year ago probably, and knew it was probably time for a new one soon. So when I hear about Get Guilty's impending release, and Neko Case's new album, I put two and two together and correctly predicted that they'd both be doing solo tours this spring.

When you have two albums of short-ish pop songs, it's pretty definite that you'll play almost all of your songs at a show, and they did. Since it was a solo tour, I was a little apprehensive, thinking they might be bare-bones, so I was pleasantly surprised by the huge band, including violin and and ultra-peppy guitarist. They delivered almost exactly what's on the albums.

The icing on the Carl Newman cake was the array of limited edition silkscreened posters for sale. They were only $10 each, but I held back... didn't buy the submarine one, or the gun, or any of the others leftover from the pevious stops on the tour. I just bought the Chicago bridge poster. And it's still rolled up on the dining room table, waiting for me to get my shit together and frame some stuff already.

Shiny Happy Swedes - Loney Dear w/ Anni Rossi @ Schubas - 1 March 2009

I love Schubas. And I love going to shows with my friend Joe. But even both of those combined didn't really put me in the mood for this Sunday night. What can I say? This has been a rough winter.

Anyway, when this Anni Rossi got on stage, I thought, oh great, who is this Andrew Bird wannabe with a damn viola? But, she was actually pretty intriguing. It's been 6 weeks now, so I don't remember exactly why, but I'd go see her again.

And Loney, Dear.... well they were just fun. I love the awkwardness of Swedish pop, and I really enjoyed the banter in between songs. It was nice to see them play these songs on actual instruments, when the recordings sound a little more digital. I did not get to hear "I am John" which is the song that drew me to them in the first place, but I heard all my other favorites.

It was a short set, but, as Emil Svanängen himself said before the encore, "after all, it is Saturday, and tomorrow you have to go to your works." So, maybe he gets his days mixed up, but he's adorable, and I had a big smile on my face when I left.

Getting too old for this...Blitzen Trapper with Alela Diane @ the Empty Bottle - 19 Feb 2009

Detours to Enoteca Roma and the California Clipper made us a little late for the opening act, Alela Diane. Reminiscent of Stevie Nicks and or young Emmylou, she was a nice little surprise when we did catch the last half of her set. On the other hand, the main thing I learned from that night is that I need to draw the line when it comes to bands I don't know well who are playing 10:00 shows on weeknights. I liked Blitzen Trapper based on two songs: The older Pink Padded Slippers and the newer Furr. However, the bulk of their southern frat rock was not my cup of tea. And they didn't play the former, anyway.

It was fun watching the frat-cult following, and the random dude in the bear hat really getting into the show, but it definitely sunk quickly to the bottom of my list of rock shows for the 2000's.

The evening's highlights included: California Clipper, Playboy Pinball machine at the Empty Bottle, and "Every Path" by Alela Diane.

Heartless Bastards @ Martyrs' - 31 Jan 2009

I think that the song "All This Time" was an eMusic Daily Download once, and it was one of those songs that had me hooked from the first couple of lines. I couldn't stop listening to it. It reminded me of all the good parts of female classic/psychedelic rock vocalists - a little Janis, and little Nico, a little Grace Slick. Not really in line with most of what I've been listening to these days, but intoxicating nonetheless.

So, based on that song only, I automatically got excited when I heard they were playing down the street at Martyrs'. I like that place. It's smallish - I never feel too crowded, and.... there's a pinball machine! That's where you can find me if the opening band sucks. Especially if I'm there alone. But neither if the two were true last Saturday. I was there with a couple of friends, and the opener was one of those flannel clad bands of young men from Brooklyn, The Subjects.

It was pretty late when little Erika Wennerstrom and her band took the stage - and the crowd was pretty liquored up. It was an interesting crowd too - a little like I might find in one of my hometown Galena bars... varying ages all sort of drinking and grooving in their own way. Wennerstrom definitely drives the band. We couldn't see her guitar playing from where we were, but her voice is huge. They played a lot of songs from the last two albums, "Stairs and Elevators" and "All this Time" as well as some from the new album "The Mountain," which, recorded with a new band,took a little bit of a jam-band turn (in the cover art as well) which I'm not sure if I like as much.

So many "indie" female vocalists these days are sort of annoying me with their soft pretty little voices. So it was nice to hear someone really belt it out - and all the more amazing since Wennerstrom is such a petite woman. I do worry that her days might be numbered though - I see vocal polyps in her future. There wasn't enough banter - I would have liked a little more chatter, especially in such a small space. And they never played "All this Time." All in all - I don't know that I would go out of my way to see them again, but it was definitely a good show, good music, and a good place to be a little warm whiskey haze in this coldest of winters.

Nobo vs. the Dudes - The Hold Steady w/ Tom Morello @ HOB - 15 Jan 2009

So, my first show of 2009, and I found myself one of about 100 women in the entire sold out House of Blues. Showing up fashionably late with a friend, I thought I might have missed a good chunk of The Nightwatchman's set. But, in true rock and roll style, it had started quite late, and by leading with our breasts we were able to push through the crowd of testosterone to secure a nice vantage point along the railing, stage right.

Not knowing much of Morello's music, I was a little lost, but it was still a great set, all of his self-comparisons to Barak Obama aside. He played acoustic and electric. He played guitar with his teeth. He covered AC/DC and he covered Woody Guthrie, and had everyone singing along to This Land is Your Land.

The Hold Steady. Now that was a wild ride. Akin to the mountain goats in the telling of tales of drug and alcohol soaked nights, their songs are never about people with whom I can really identify. On of the things that sets Craig Finn apart from, say, John Darnielle, is that somehow you believe that his characters might actually survive. There's a little more hope in his stories. That said though, a lot the Hold Steady's songs sound a lot like one another, and it's sometimes hard for me to tell one from the other. It was a top-notch live show though, and I enjoyed raising my fist and wailing along with their stadium-rock choruses as much as the next guy. And the next guy, and the next. And those few ladies, who were mostly leaning against dudes looking bored.

I have a theory about why The Hold Steady is a man's band. I think women tend to like men with beautiful voices. How many women do you see swooning over Tom Waits? Finn's vocals are very conversational - staying a short range with not a lot of variation in melody.

So, I'm back to blogging? Perhaps. Time to go to work now, but maybe this weekend, I can write chapter two of January, which ended with Heartless Bastards. I've got at least five more shows lined up in the next couple of months - so, the momentum should keep me going.