Porn!
No, no, not porn, or porn music, but surely the term adult music is chuckle-worthy, right?
I didn’t dive into too much new adult music this year, a fact that disturbs me greatly. I’m not going to dwell on it because it makes me feel old, cranky, and old still. Just this week I’ve read, and heard on Fresh Air, some 2012 top 10 pop/rock music lists and I barely know any of the names. Shit. Is this the end for me? Have I crossed that line where I only listen to dusty records from my younger days? In putting this kind of a list together, while acknowledging my musical shortcoming this year, I hope that maybe these 12 artists and their most recent releases, will help you if you too are stuck in a CD rut.
Here are the best dozen new CDs I DID hear in 2012, in no particular order:
Good Old War Come Back As Rain
David Wax Museum Knock Knock Get Up
Brandi Carlile Bear Creek
Dr. Dog Be The Void
Jukebox The Ghost Safe Travels
Holy Ghost Tent Revival Sweat Like The Old Days
Hospitality Hospitality
Josh Ritter Bringing In The Darlings
Langhorne Slim & The Law The Way We Move
The Avett Brothers The Carpenter
The Lumineers The Lumineers
Alabama Shakes Boys & Girls
What’s nice, at least for me and for us here, is that pretty much 100% of the music produced by the list of artists above is, or could be considered, all-ages/kid-friendly/what-have-you. We listen to a lot of these CDs with the kids in the car and around the house. In fact, the girls have seen Dr. Dog, Jukebox the Ghost, The Lumineers, Josh Ritter, Brandi Carlile (who she became instantly smitten with), and Langhorne Slim live this year. So, feel free to indulge and worry not (mostly) about what those little ears will be hearing.
Additionally, I’d me remiss if I didn’t mention a pair of all-male vocal choirs that charmed my pants off this year. In May, I saw The Conspiracy of Bears, a 30-piece man choir who sing exclusively the songs of Leonard Cohen, live in NYC. That blew my mind. I even ran home and backed their Kickstarter and, recently, got the DVD payoff of that donation.
Then, and twice, this week I had the great privilege of seeing and hearing The Silver Ages in NYC and Philly. The band, a 14 member collective of dudes from some sweet Philly bands (Dr. Dog, Spinto Band, War on Drugs, National Eye, Buried Beds, more), perform sometimes humorous and always soulful 1-minute ditties. The group backed up Ron Sexsmith on Harry Nilsson’s “Good Old Desk” at John Wesley Harding’s Cabinet of Wonders, and, um, wow, was that lovely.
Seeing those 44 guys in total sing together (separately) reminds me of just how much of a sense of community music can foster. To hear grown men singing together not for profit or for airplay or for any other reason other than for the love of the words and the melodies and of being together, well, that is pretty much what music is for me too. So thanks to David Tobocman and Wesley Stace individually for introducing me to these two glorious choirs.
Happy Listening, and Happy New Year!
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