Brian Wooldridge - 2011 picks

I know it's boring but I thought I would just present the music here, no images. Music is something you can enjoy with out looking at it...the original "hands free" experience. Happy New Year! Teddy Thompson (son of Richard Thompson) released Bella this year. It's an amazing pop album in the vein of Chris Isaak or Crowded House. Straight forward hurt-my-heart songs sang in Teddy's perfect tenor voice. The album was produced by David Kahne who's worked with Greg Garing, Translator, Regina Spector and The Strokes. The Silos Florizona hit my ears a lot this year. If you don't know The Silos or Walter Salas-Humara then you need to do some homework. This Florida/NYC band are among the founding fathers of alt-country (in a good way). Florizona is actually a great pop rock album with infectious singles like White Vinyl and Teenage Prayer. Walter comes to Milwaukee every summer to visit some family he has here. If you're lucky you'll find out what house party he's at get to witness his cook-out-rock-out solo set. Tahiti 80 - I'm not sure how I found out about this band. Maybe via Facebook, Paste or someone's suggestion, but I'm glad I did. Perfect indie-pop tunes (from France) somewhere on the ground between Postal Service and Squeeze. The Past, Present & The Possible is one of those albums that will make you look at your iTunes every time one of its songs pop up. The Decemberists deliver again with another sharp-pop-story-song album that jumps out at you when it hits the airwaves. Yes The King is Dead has Peter Buck all over it but it's all good in my book. Lizzy Grant or Lana Del Rey is this years tragically-beautiful-pop-mystery girl. Who is she and why is she so haunting? Okay so she only released some singles this year, but she put out an album in 2010 (Kill, Kill) that never saw the light of day. I figure we can bend the rules here a little and put her in. For her story and the David Kahne connection follow this link. update - Of course I've had my head in the sand during the Holidays, so just read the she was on SNL on Dec. 19th, missed it. I guess she's very well connected for being such a ghost. Adele 21 - I first heard this album when it came up in my NPR New Music email. Before it was released they streamed it on NPR.com for a couple of weeks. I found myself going back and listening while I was at work. I had never really listen to her before, but had a feeling 21 was going to be huge. Later I found out that Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic) had a hand with some of the songwriting. She should get Matt Wilson to help her write her next album. I think we're all sick of the hype but you gotta say it's a really great album start to finish. The Ettes new splash is named Wicked Will and it's worth checking out. This is another band that I stumbled across via Paste Magazine. This retro-garage-rock outfit pulls at my wanting another Neko Case album desires but this will do for now. Fun stuff. Other notables for 2001 are Iron & Wine Kiss Each Other Clean, Testa Rosa II & The Black Angel Another Nice Pair. Thanks for doing all this Matt! cheers, Brian W.