{"id":429,"date":"2014-01-01T10:26:39","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T16:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/?p=429"},"modified":"2014-01-01T10:26:39","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T16:26:39","slug":"not-just-a-bunch-of-boring-production-deadlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/not-just-a-bunch-of-boring-production-deadlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Not just a bunch of boring production deadlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, another year, another 52 CDs. After this ‘experiment’ in 2012, I didn’t think I’d repeat it again in 2013, but then there were so many great releases this year that I had to put some kind of a limit on myself again. And again, although I planned on balancing new purchases against back-catalog stuff on my ‘whenever’ list, there’s been so much good new<\/em> stuff that I’ve barely picked up any old stuff. Out of the 52 albums, 31 of them were released in 2013, and a further 11 are from 2012 (mainly bought during the beginning of 2013 when there weren’t a lot of new<\/i> releases. And 32 of the 52 were by bands that were new to me – that is, I didn’t have anything by them, previously.<\/p>\n

I’m still mocked for my insistence on buying physical CDs (where possible – a couple of this year’s selection were download only), but I still maintain that a physical CD is a solid (pun intended) backup, and are also easier to share. Being a chip off the old block, my youngest son (Gil, 8) has taken to falling asleep to music, and it’s convenient for me to pop a CD into his boombox after we’ve read (versus putting a SONOS Play 1<\/strong> in his room and streaming to that…). Recently he’s been soothed to sleep by Everest<\/strong>, Local Natives<\/strong>, and Okkervil River<\/strong>. I swear, one of them is going to grow up with decent taste in music…<\/p>\n

I’m also mocked for still buying whole CDs, and not just downloading the one track I’ve heard on the radio (typically the wonderful 3wk.com<\/a> or Sirius XMU satellite radio), but I still get more surprises than disappointments that way. Although the Daughter<\/strong> album If You Leave<\/em> was disappointing on the whole (when it turned up I couldn’t even pick out the one track I had heard and liked…), and Limits of Desire<\/em> by Small Black<\/strong> did indeed to turn out to have only one decent track (Free At Dawn<\/em>), there have been some other great finds. The Sun Dogs<\/em> by Rose Windows<\/strong> is outstanding, both Local Natives<\/strong>‘ Mockingbird<\/em> and The Temper Trap<\/strong>‘s eponymous albums are pretty solid throughout, and even Indigo Meadow<\/em> by The Black Angels<\/strong> has some great album cuts (Evil Things<\/em>, Holland<\/em>) hidden behind the disappointing lead ‘single’ Don’t Play With Guns<\/em>. <\/p>\n

I did note with interest that Australia produced more than its fair share of decent bands this year, with 6 of my purchases being from antipodean artists. This compares pretty favorably with that hot-pot of indie cool, Brooklyn, which produced 5 of them (although to be fair to Brooklyn, that’s quite a feat for one area of one city, versus an entire country…). The US and the UK dominated, as expected, although I managed to find decent music from Greece (Keep Shelly In Athens<\/strong>), Iceland (the wonderful Sigur Ros<\/strong> back on form), Denmark (The Raveonettes<\/strong>), and even Canada (John K Samson<\/strong>). <\/p>\n

Anyway, overall, despite the continued warnings of the death of the music industry, it’s been a very satisfying year for (indie) music. And 2014 promises to be another good year (I already have a couple of new releases penciled in – Broken Bells<\/strong>, Dum Dum Girls<\/strong> and the mighty Mogwai<\/strong> all have new albums coming out in January alone. So here’s to another 52 corkers…<\/p>\n

That list in full:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Jezabels – Prisoner<\/a> <\/li>\n
  2. The Temper Trap – The Temper Trap<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Dirty Ghosts – Metal Moon<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Local Natives – Mockingbird<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. My Bloody Valentine – m b v<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Foals – Holy Fire<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Fleetwood Mac – Rumors (Deluxe Edition)<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. The Joy Formidable – Wolf’s Law<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Built To Spill – Keep It Like A Secret<\/a><\/li>\n
  11. Porcelain Raft – Strange Weekend<\/a><\/li>\n
  12. Dan Deacon – America<\/a><\/li>\n
  13. Palma Violets – 180<\/a><\/li>\n
  14. Tame Impala – Lonerism<\/a><\/li>\n
  15. Glorie – Glorie<\/a><\/li>\n
  16. Pinback – Information Retrieved<\/a><\/li>\n
  17. Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze<\/a><\/li>\n
  18. The Black Angels – Indigo Meadow<\/a><\/li>\n
  19. Husky – Forever So<\/a><\/li>\n
  20. The Breeders – Last Splash 20th Anniversary Reissue<\/a><\/li>\n
  21. The National – Trouble Will Find Me<\/a><\/li>\n
  22. Norma – the Invisible Mother<\/a><\/li>\n
  23. The Raveonettes – Observator<\/a><\/li>\n
  24. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest<\/a><\/li>\n
  25. Sigur Ros – Kveikur<\/a><\/li>\n
  26. No Joy – Wait To Pleasure<\/a><\/li>\n
  27. Daughter – If You Leave<\/a><\/li>\n
  28. Rose Windows – The Sun Dogs<\/a><\/li>\n
  29. Heliotropes – A Constant Sea<\/a><\/li>\n
  30. Russian Circles – Geneva<\/a><\/li>\n
  31. Beach Fossils – Clash The Truth<\/a><\/li>\n
  32. True Widow – As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth<\/a><\/li>\n
  33. Ringo Deathstarr – Color Trip<\/a><\/li>\n
  34. Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol 10, Another Self portrait<\/a><\/li>\n
  35. Plants and Animals – The End Of That<\/a><\/li>\n
  36. Arctic Monkeys – AM<\/a><\/li>\n
  37. Small Black – Limits of Desire<\/a><\/li>\n
  38. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Specter At The Feast<\/a><\/li>\n
  39. Yuck – Glow and Behold<\/a><\/li>\n
  40. The Orwells – Who Needs You \/ Other Voices<\/a><\/li>\n
  41. John K Samson – Provincial<\/a><\/li>\n
  42. Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania<\/a><\/li>\n
  43. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver<\/a><\/li>\n
  44. Telekinesis – Dormarion<\/a><\/li>\n
  45. Deer Tick – Negativity<\/a><\/li>\n
  46. Dead Heart Bloom – We made It<\/a><\/li>\n
  47. Morrissey – Southpaw Grammar<\/a><\/li>\n
  48. Keep Shelly In Athens – At Home<\/a><\/li>\n
  49. Lee Ranaldo and the Dust – Last Night On Earth<\/a><\/li>\n
  50. Cocteau Twins – Treasure<\/a><\/li>\n
  51. Wolf & Cub – heavy Weight<\/a><\/li>\n
  52. Okta Logue – Tales Of Transit City<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    So, another year, another 52 CDs. After this ‘experiment’ in 2012, I didn’t think I’d repeat it again in 2013, but then there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}