This is the Place for Kilby Block Party 2023 reviews: Read on for almost two dozen reviews and about 100 photos of the bands that played SLC live!

Initially, I hoped to complete this each night but that was irrational ambition. In all, I saw some or all of 21 bands play. Twenty of the shows were good to truly outstanding… only one bad performance all weekend. Our friends at Kilby and S&S Presents killed it.

Kilby Block Party 2023 reviews: Friday shows

(Author’s note: I’m finishing my last reviews. Working my way now through Sunday!)

I managed to see everyone on my Friday priority list, and peaked in on a couple of extra bands I hadn’t planned to see. These performances are listed in chronological order, meaning Karen O and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs come at the end.

Kilby Block Party 2023: Friday headlines

• Jean Dawson, Deerhoof and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs made for a remarkable opening day!
• The premier Kilby Stage faces the sunset, which was tough for Michelle Zauner
• Sun glare aside, the weather was perfect. No jacket needed for the nighttime YYY show

Homephone

I arrived Friday just in time to hear Homephone finish their 12:55 set. Homephone have been writing and releasing songs for about two years. On closer “Dandelion Fields,” Joseph Sandholtz pulled out a trumpet which immediately brought the crowd to life.

Homephone released “Night Walk” about one month ago. Have a listen and download from Bandcamp!

Julie

World weary experimental/shoegaze band Julie might as well have been playing in a friend’s basement.

I was hoping for a lot more from Julie but between A/V problems and disinterest in their audience, I wasn’t as impressed as I hoped. It’s too bad because when Alex Brady’s voice finally floated over the top of a muddy audio mix, it turned some Yo La Tengo acolyte’s into a real band.

Jean Dawson

Wow, Jean Dawson owned the place.

There is some Beastie Boys energy from Dawson but also at times a more guitar-driven Living Color thing. Dawson played the crowd, goading the larger GA audience to shout and sing as loudly as the smaller VIP side.

He introduced another song, “Say my name!” and “Salt Lake mother f*kn’ city!” This was nearly as much fun as I had all day, and I’m buying Dawson’s latest Chaos Now.

More photos of Dawson below.

Lucius

Grabbed a couple of songs by Lucius and sent a photo to my cousin who is a big fan. They displayed the many harmonies and matching outfits. Hand motions were happening in the crowd, maybe from a music video? The demographics matched a Red Butte Garden Outdoor Concert Series show.

Deerhoof

I can’t imagine there are scores of deep, deep Deerhoof fans out there, completion-ists who have all 16 or 18 albums. I suspect there are a lot of people like me, who *appreciate* Deerhoof, in the way I appreciate Jazz. But I don’t come home on Friday night and put on a jazz album.

Kilby Block Party 2023: Deerhoof live act

Holy crap, though, I could have sat and watched the band play for hours Friday. Their spikey guitar solos are so technically precise. John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez play syncopated guitar lines in dissonant minor keys that sound like fighting tomcats. And when you think it’s a brief, eccentric bridge – NO – these guys are dueling for eight minutes. It can be a complex listen and at the same time absolutely hypnotic.

The guitars are so prominent it is easy to miss Greg Saunier’s manic percussion. He would crush the drum kit to match the difficult time signatures, then grab the high hat and silence everything for Satomi Matsuzaki’s high vocals. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a band so perfectly keyed into each other.

The whole experience is so Deerhoof-y, with Matsuzaki’s obscure hand gestures, Rodriguez throwing his beautiful hair behind his face and Saunier’s incredibly affable stage banter. I loved every moment.

Unexpectedly, Deerhoof was probably my favorite Kilby show all weekend.

Keep scrolling for more photos of the band.

Cuco

I fell in love with Cuco last year and I was excited to finally hear him play.

Fun open, two of the band mates for the Mexican-American Cuco entered the stage with Mexican flags. Omar Banos himself was game for the crowd, and noted the amazing views, like many other performers that weekend. From the east-facing Lake stage, those artists were looking right at the snow-capped Wasatch Mountains. Do you remember how that felt the first time you saw them? Now imagine that from stage.

Banos sang most of the time but also played organ as he performed “Foolish,” “Aura” and the sublime lullaby “Time Machine” from 2022’s Fantasy Gateway. He also previewed an unreleased, largely instrumental number. Maybe no surprise, his intimate bedroom pop didn’t translate perfectly to an outdoor stage, at times the booming base overwhelming the delicate arrangement.

Still rooting for big things in Cuco’s future.

More Cuco images in the photo section.

Japanese Breakfast

Some of my photos are not great but the above image of Japanese Breakfast actually displays the shadows from the sunset falling behind the stage lights. Japanese Breakfast was staring straight into that. It didn’t keep Michelle Zauner from having all the fun in the world, dancing and clanging her trademark gong anytime she didn’t have a guitar slung over her shoulder.

Kilby Block Party 2023: Japanese Breakfast set list

• “Paprika” (Jubilee)
• “Be Sweet” (Jubilee)
• “Kokomo, IN” (Jubilee)
• “Savage Good Boy” (Jubilee)
• “The Body is a Blade” (Soft Sounds From Another Planet)
• “Slide Tackle” (Jubilee)
• “Diving Woman” (Softs Sounds From Another Planet)

I managed to get my daughter to add Japanese Breakfast to her Spotify playlist after she heard “Tactics.” The band had a violinist so I hoped we would hear it, but alack and alas, no. Still, an outstanding show.

Zauner brought all the joy.

Frankie Cosmos

I caught Greta Kline singing a couple of songs from Frankie Cosmos’ 2022’s Inner World Peace on Kilby’s Desert side stage. I only stayed for a few minutes before skipping off to try and get a good spot for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

She started with the catchy “Aftershook.”

Frankie Cosmos also hit “One Year Stand,” “Empty Head,” and “Abigail,” which Kline introduced by telling the audience it was about a dog she found on Petfinder. She explains in this thoughtful interview that the dog lead to introspection about what she was going to prioritize in life.

Look for more Frankie Cosmos photos further down.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Karen O is a national treasure.

Orzolek belongs, almost equally, to multiple eras…some kind of mashup of 70’s Debbie Harry, 80’s Grace Jones and 90’s Cher. She vamps like a Las Vegas residency, spoofs herself with all the early aughts stagecraft like spitting water in the air and treats the microphone like a sex toy.

And still. Several times during Friday night’s show Karen seemed nearly brought to tears.

The Kilby Block Party 2023 was about one week into YYY’s tour supporting the acclaimed Cool it Down, the first YYY release in almost decade. In the interim Orzolek had a child and — perhaps — wondered if her touring days were over. She was clearly, fully moved performing in front of the masses again, gushing, “You guys are making me very happy!”

And the bodysuit — Karen credited the designer during the show but I missed her name. She used the neon colors, sequined KO midriff, tassels, gloves and cape to full dramatic effect throughout the show.

Kilby Block Party 2023: Yeah Yeah Yeahs set list

• “Spitting off the Edge of the World” (Cool It Down)
• “Shame and Fortune” (It’s Blitz!)
• “Burning” (Cool It Down)
• “Zero” (It’s Blitz!)
• “Soft Shock” (“It’s Blitz!)
• “Lovebomb” (Cool It Down)
• “Blacktop” (Cool It Down)
• “Sacrilege” (Mosquito)
• “Gold Lion” (Show Your Bones)
• “Maps” (Fever to Tell)
• “Heads Will Roll” (It’s Blitz!)
• “Y Control” (Fever to Tell)

My notes are a little unclear on the last song; it may have been “Different Today.” I use a quite imprecise way of tracking songs when I don’t have access to the set list.

Added to the showmanship were giant bouncing eyeballs and Orzolek singing from underneath some kind of small sheet like a sequined burka.

She also made show of repeatedly pretending to blow the microphone and ultimately shoved the mic down her bodysuit to stick out of her pants like some turned on teenage boy. It was completely juvenile, which only made it funnier.

And there were generous outbursts of affection like this before 2003’s “Maps.”

Dedicate this song to someone you loved and lost!
Dedicate this song to someone you loved more than life itself!
I dedicate this song to Japanese Breakfast
And Deerhoof!
And I dedicate this song to this beautiful crowd!

Karen O

Tons of YYY photos at end of this post!

Kilby Block Party 2023 reviews: Saturday shows

Saturday was a day for the beautiful people at the Kilby Block Party 2023.

From Tamino’s perfectly placed Mediterranean curls, Hannah Van Loon who could have jumped out of an LL Bean catalogue, Alex G’s tormented street urchin appeal and Natalie Mering’s dazzling cream dress and storybook smile that could be descended from European royalty. And most of them also smart as a whip.

Kilby Block Party 2023: Saturday headlines

• Weyes Blood multi-media triumph from the Mountain side stage
• Run the Jewels commands the weekend’s top performance in the rain
• The insufferable behavior of Julian Casablancas ruins The Strokes

Overall, Saturday was a bit of a mixed bag compared to Friday. Weather brought the first of two days of rain and lightning in the evening. And multiple exhilarating performances during the day were counterbalanced by Casablancas’ inexcusable performance at the end of the night.

Tamino

Tamino crossed my dashboard barely a week ago when I sampled his music for the first time.

As I said then and as has been observed in many reviews, his ethereal vocals are like a reincarnation of Jeff Buckley. You can’t listen to Tamino and not think of Buckley. But not in a way that is replicative. He is singing, his voice lilting and rising in a foreign tongue. The entire effect is of the Old World.

Now that I’ve established his bona fides, let’s just get it out of the way that Tamino is also ridiculously handsome. Like a square-jawed Disney prince who, in one scene, saves the maiden, then later pulls out a guitar and sings around the campfire in an operatic baritone. Note: His video marketing team is aware!

Speaking of pulling out a guitar, Tamino used a different instrument for each song. He may have repeated one of these guitars but it was fun seeing the select guitar for each performance.

Maybe I’m the last person to hear of Tamino, since he cuts the perfect figure and genre for a Tiny Desk Concert. But if you haven’t heard this voice, treat yourself for the next five minutes.

More Tamino photos below.

Grace Ives

Another artist I learned about only recently is Grace Ives – and I was interested to learn more. I only hung out for about ten minutes, however, because Ives was DJ’ing this set.

For the record let me state that Ives gave this DJ’d performance 110%! She was all over the stage, playing with the audience, clearly having a terrific time. Ives mentioned it was her first show in six months, so I’m sure the adrenalin was rushing.

Learn more about the New Yorker at Bandcamp.

Tanukichan

I was super impressed with the live range of Tanukichan, fronted by Hannah Van Loon. Some of the songs were gazey, some showed off shimmering guitars, a couple were grungier numbers.

I’m not sure that Loon’s vocals were supposed to be so low in the mix but I felt this was a nagging theme on the Mountain side stage all weekend. I need to go back and listen to GIZMO, which the Oakland band released just two months ago. I’d like to hear how the studio versions compare.

Tanukichan started off with “Escape” and “Don’t Give Up,” the first two cuts from GIZMO…as well as “Take Care” from the current album. They also played from their 2018 release Sundays. Speaking of song sequence, check out this delightful set list.

This show was an unexpected treat!

I took a bunch of snaps of Van Loon below.

Alex G

Keep scrolling for a few more photos of The Stokes.

Kilby Block Party 2023 reviews: Sunday shows

Should the Sunday shows of a 3-day festival be the climax of the weekend? Or are you trying to finish strong after Saturday night’s ultimate lineup? I suspect festival organizers plan for the latter: A strong finish with a working assumption that Saturday is your giant draw.

Either way, the Kilby Block Party 2023 crossed the finish line with some terrific shows. It doesn’t get much bigger than The Walkmen, The Pixies and Pavement.

Kilby Block Party 2023: Sunday headlines

• Sunday was the biggest day for local bands, with Tolchock Trio and The Backseat Lovers getting strong billing. The Backseat Lovers, especially, had great profile.
• It was impossible to watch The Pixies and not feel like Black Francis was basically cashing a paycheck. It was a paint-by-numbers performance, at best.
• Day 3 brought a new round of thunderstorms and a long interruption in music. It stopped The Pixies after 40 minutes and affected the final audience for Pavement.

Tolchock Trio

I mostly missed the heyday of Tolchock Trio, who played and recorded in Salt Lake from 2000 until 2009 or so. It was fun to hear them play from their discography and hope they might record again in the future. In fact, either Oliver Lewis or Ryan Fedor remarked, “We haven’t played in a long time. Who knows when we’ll do it again.”

Tolchock ran the gamut, opening with “Wolf Eyes” from the 2004 Ghosts Don’t Have Bones album leading into “Twenty Twenties.” That song was the lead for the “unfinished” Mono Culture EP, released in 2017 as Mono Culture Demos.

The second half of the Tolchock Trio set all came from from 2008’s highly-regarded Abalone Skeletone,. The band played (in order) “Two Rivers,” “Goldbugs,” “Factory,” “(I Wanna Ride on a) Super Panga,” “Sheepshead,” and “Divorce Papers.”

I had to scoot before they ended. I was starving and assumed there would be little time to eat after The Walkmen. Little did I know thunderstorms were rolling in…

The Walkmen

I’ve waited a long time to see Hamilton Leithauser and The Walkmen.

Fully 13 years ago — practically another lifetime — I ranked The Walkmen’s album Lisbon in my Top 10 records in 2010. I was already pretty late to The Walkmen party, and then didn’t dig into 2012’s Heaven. But I picked back up on my Leithauser mancrush in 2020 when he released the wonderful Loves of Your Life.

Leithauser released three singles from Loves of Your Life, which did not include the exquisite “Cross-Sound Ferry (Walk-On Ticket)”

I presumed the reunited Walkmen would only play Walkmen classics and not Hamilton Leithauser solo songs, but we were about to find out!

The Walkmen were just three weeks into their reunion tour, the first time the band had played together live in a decade. Adrenalin seemed to be high. Nerves were had, notes were hit and notes were valiantly attempted. I loved every bit of it.

Kilby Block Party 2023: The Walkmen performance

Sometimes I wonder why bands don’t transpose their hits from the original keys to slightly lower keys to help the frontman hit the banging solo notes. Maybe they do.

Leithauser threw every bit of his voice into Walkmen classics like “Angela Surf City.” He mostly killed but the climactic lyrics on “Angela” were just slightly a vocal bridge too far. This might also be the result of renewed touring, including five shows in five days at Brooklyn’s Webster Hall two weeks before.

He also seemed to repeat several times nervously or reflexively the band’s origins on the 132nd block of Broadway in New York. Like the YYY, The Walkmen seemed to drink in the experience as much as the audience, feeding off his fans’ energy. Leithauser said at one point, “When we decided to get back together we had no idea if anyone would remember who in the f*ck we were!”

Ooooh the crowd remembered. And, a man of the people, Leithauser finished the show by jumping off the stage and into the crowd. He whisked through a ton of handshakes and a ran through the audience to show off ten years of gratitude.

Kilby Block Party 2023: The Walkmen set list

• “In the New Year” (You & Me)
• “The Rat” (Bows + Arrows)
• “Juveniles” (Lisbon)
• “Dónde está la playa” (You & Me)
• “Angela Surf City” (Lisbon)
• “Another One Goes By” (A Hundred Miles Off)
• “Little House of Savages” (Bows + Arrows)
• “All Hands and the Cook” (A Hundred Miles Off)
• “Heaven” (Heaven)
• “We’ve Been Had” (Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone)

When I refer to “A Song for the Summer,” it should actually read “last summer,” since the Acid House Kings released this marvel in 2011.  But on a sunny 85 degree Saturday, “Would You Say Stop?” is about as carefree and blithe as pop music gets.

Acid House Kings – “Would You Say Stop?”

Yes, I have been absent for much too long and there is no way to excuse my sloth.

But I have largely kept up with my listening of new music in 2011 and Cornershop’s Double-O Groove has been one of just a couple of CD’s that has captured my fancy for more than just a few spins this year.  Cornershop, that lovely vehicle of  Tjinder Singh, was unfairly assigned one-hit wonder status after 1997’s “Brimful of Asha.” 

Certainly Tjinder is not prolific.  It took Cornershop another five years to release Handcream for a Generation and then in 2009 came Judy sucks a Lemon for Breakfast.  Both albums merited more attention than they received.  But scarcely two years since Judy we have an album recorded entirely in Punjabi with the charming Indian vocalist Bubbley Kaur. 

Nearly every track is gold but for your sampling pleasure I attach what may be the most infectious hook of 2011 in “The 911 Curry.”  If the groove does not immediately catch you, give it a scant 30 seconds for the impossibly catchy horn sample.  For whatever reason were you not then already in love, Cornershop layers a winsome blooping organ after about two minutes.  If that doesn’t do it, you are dead inside. 

“The 911 Curry” by Cornershop

“Brimful of Asha” by Cornershop

Hey kids guess who released their 4th record Tuesday?  BOAT, that’s who.  The band who made it cool to sing about your mom and seemingly invent lyrics on the fly have another fantastic outing with Dress Like Your Idols.  The first single, although BOAT is a band of nothing but singles, is “(I’ll Beat My Chest Like) King Kong.”  

Guess what else?  The owner of a certain Salt Lake record store whose name rhymes with banana told me one time that she knows a publicist at BOAT’s label, Magic Marker, and promised (or at least that’s the way I choose to remember it) to make the call and get a Utah show booked.  So stop by Slowtrain Records this weekend to buy a copy and badger the proprietors into pulling some strings!

“(I’ll Beat My Chest) Like King Kong”

 

Quite unintentionally, I’ve compiled a bit of a Dad Rock list here.  

A few noisier bands (cf: Weekend, Deerhunter) could just as easily have made the short list but it seems this is just the way it turned out this year, particularly at the top of the list.  And for that I make no apologies so stop interrogating me like a common criminal.

As always, my only criterion for what ended up on my list was, simply, “Did I Like It?”  This is distinct from “Was It Important or Influential?”  I listened to a lot of music that was way out there…and a little bit of AAA radio-ready stuff…and this is what stuck.  I liked it.  And because of my fondness for the complete album, these tend to represent whole statements, internally threaded and consistent.  And look, it’s January 31st.  I’ve posted a 2010 “Best of” list that is culturally irrelevant by any standard but 1-2 weeks earlier than the last two years.  I Have a Dream that my 2011 list will be posted by MLK Day. 

Because 10 (or as it turned out, 11) is a pretty small number for what was frankly an extraordinary year in music, I listed a few other great albums at the end which either arbitrarily did not make the cut or which I sampled extensively but didn’t yet have the money to buy.  For all my faults, I buy all my music…every last CD…and I hope you do too.  Listing the additional albums also helps create the false impression that I am more broad than I really am and cultivates my false sense of supriority.

Now the Top 10 Albums of 2010:

1. The National – High Violet

Of Alexander Payne’s movie “Sideways,” a friend remarked that he identified with the aimless 40-something characters.  Not me.  But I felt intimately attached to The National’s masterwork High Violet, filled with miniature epics about the muted anxieties of parenthood, career, and other banes of middle age.  As close to a perfect album since Elbow’s 2005 Leaders of the Free World.

“England” by The National

2. Foals – Total Life Forever 

Rhythmically exhilarating and dense…Foals adroitly cram more musical ideas into each song than most bands do in ten…Total Life Forever catapults the band far beyond dance-funk.  TLF Marries David Byrne’s international beats (and, at times, his yelp), impossibly angular, mathy hooks, and…on songs like “Spanish Sahara” and “After Glow”…the brutal melancholy of Catherine Wheel.

“Spanish Sahara” by Foals

 3. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

It is impossible to refer to Kristian Matsson as a modern day Bob Dylan without feeling cliched and really a bit lazy; the comparison is both apt and insufficient.  In The Wild Hunt, the Swedish Matsson continues to elevate the American folk tradition with stunners like “Burden of Tomorrow,” his mastery of the guitar on “Troubles Will be Gone,” and the inimitable TTMOE vocal stylings on “Love is All.”

“The Wild Hunt” by The Tallest Man on Earth

4. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
    Hot Chip – One Life Stand
Two bands who arguably reached their zenith in 2010, who toured together, and who I list together for many reasons.  Not the least of which is that it allows me to cheat and add an 11th album to my list.  In This is Happening, James Murphy has become a sort of Grand Old Man of indie rock with pithy observation about cool and perhaps the three best back-to-back-
to-back releases of the last 10 years.  Hot Chip, who share guitarist Al Doyle with LCD Soundsystem, just want to love you all over if that is not perfectly clear from the touchingly earnest “Brothers.”  “Take It In” is one of the most beautiful love songs I have ever heard.  Still makes me a little teary after all these months.

 “Home” by LCD Soundsystem

“Take It In” by Hot Chip

5.  Abe Vigoda – Crush

It’s tempting to compare Abe Vigoda to The Horrors, both wildly successful marrying shoegaze and goth.  Crush brings more of a darkwave beat to the party and the vocals are, by turns, more derivative of Robert Smith (“Dream of My Love”) and Peter Murphy (“Repeating Angel”).  The rich songcraft on Crush feels raw, uncontrolled, even live-to-tape at times, which it certainly is not.

“November” by Abe Vigoda

6. Phantogram – Eyelid Movies

Phantogram has several things going for it, not least among them Sarah Barthel’s captivating and sensual voice, the very best of 2010, which is saying a lot in a year that included Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino.  The Massive Attack atmospherics and songs are fab, highlighted by the trippy soul of “You Are the Ocean” and single “When I’m Small” which recently cropped up on MTV’s “Skins.”

“All Dried Up” by Phantogram

7. The Walkmen – Lisbon

An observation missing from much of the acclaim about Lisbon is the New Orleans and Old World influence, so much so that it seems like the Big Album Elvis Perkins could have written after Ash Wednesday.  Hamilton Leithauser’s vocals, if occasionally reminiscent of Rod Stewart, are brazen and earn every climactic, arena-sized chorus from “Angela Surf City” to “Victory.”

“Angela Surf City” by The Walkmen

8. Idle Times – Idle Times

I’ll buy about anything from a couple of labels, including Idle Times’ Hozac Records.  This lo-fi morsel has an amazing ear…not just for gauzy deconstruction…but fist-pumping choruses on songs like “Every Time I Talk” mingled with switchups like the rockabilly “Prison Mind.”  And riffs?  You can practically hear Paul Westerburg fronting “Hey Little Girl” for the Crocodiles.

“I Don’t Believe It/X-Tina” by Idle Times

 9. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor

No album was ever less in need of a concept than The Monitor, so I encourage you to enjoy it strictly for its Jersey RAWK! aesthetic and ignore the Civil War non sequitors.  At times Bruce Springsteen idolatry mockery, at times an out-of-control FUBAR performance reminiscent of The Pogues.  Stick with this one…The Monitor rocks your face off. 

“The Battle of Hampton Roads” by Titus Andronicus

10. Wounded Lion – Wounded Lion

Covered by The Intelligence but sounding more like BOAT, Wounded Lion feels like a nearly effortless pop expression.  Like the band picked up their instruments on an LA back porch and crafted these gems extemporaneously.  “Pony People” and “Hunan Province” are relentlessly catchy and stripped clean like a juiced up Marquee Moon.  They also make a lot of funny sounds with their mouths.

“Pony People” by Wounded Lion

 
Here are some of the other albums I was really digging in 2010 that I recommend you check out:

Blank Dogs – Land and Fixed
Deerhunter – Halycon Digest
Destroyer – Kaputt
El Guincho – Pop Negro
Grovesnor – Soft Return
Jaill – That’s How We Burn
Nice Face – Immer Etwas
Secret Cities – Pink Graffiti
The Soft Pack – The Soft Pack
The Tallest Man on Earth – Sometimes the Blues EP
Teenage Fanclub – Shadows
Ty Segall – Melted
The Vaselines – Sex with an “X”
Violens – Amoral
Weekend – Sports
Woods – At Echo Lake

Installment #2 of tunes from the past year that I really enjoyed.

Most, not all, are from CDs that are NOT on my list of top albums, or are culled from an EP, or simply represent the occasional one-off download.  Roughly in the chronological order in which I discovered them.  So supplement your listening of full-length releases with these nuggets.

“Double Knot” by Living Sisters – from Love to Live.  Don’t be fooled by the innocent 50’s poses and Frankie Lymon harmonies.  Several Love to Live songs are a bit filthy.  But it’s not all stagecraft…the Living Sisters included alot of great songwriting on their CD for anyone who pines for the Eisenhower era.

“I Can Try” by Sambassadeur – from European.  To start with, I am a sucker for this kind of string arrangement.  Add to that Anna Persson’s uncanny vocal resemblance to one of my all-time favorite singers Kirsty MacColl.

“Imagine Hearts” by Ringo Deathstarr – from Colour Trip.  Hate to wait until March for this one but there is a 5-song EP from 2008 if you really like your JATMC seasoned with sparkling guitar effects.

“The Turned on Truth” by Cornershop – from Judy Sucked a Lemon for Breakfast.  Technically a 2009 release but not available in these United States until last April, Tjinder Singh has lost none of the charm of his britpop and desi fusion.

“Madame Van Damme” by Lightspeed Champion – from Life is Sweet!  Nice to Meet You!  Devonte Hynes turns more towards art rock (shudder), but this song has one of the more traditional pop structures on Life is Sweet!  Hynes also sounds more like Murray Lightburn here, which I much prefer to his Freddy Mercury turns.

“Tell ‘Em” by Sleigh Bells – from Treats.  Galactic-sized hooks overcompressed to the point of self-caricature with white girl Go! Team urban styling.

“I Didn’t See It Coming” by Belle and Sebastian – from Write About Love.  OK so the album is a liiiiitle radio ready.  So sue them, this is still essentially the perfect pop song.  Really very nearly perfect.

“Intil” by Menomena – from Mines.  Love pretty much anything with this much reverb and sensitive Coldplay keyboard.  But.  But but but.  Check out the wild little backbeat that kicks in halfway through Mines‘ closer, evocatively layered and gorgeous.

“Selina” by Pete & the Pirates – from Precious Tones EP.  The climactic chorus (“Selina you don’t smile when you break my heaaaaart!”) is a little bit of everything I love about PATP.

“Pogo” by Eternal Summers – from Silver.  All Hail Roanoke!  They didn’t make bands like this during the 5 years I lived under the shadow of Mill Mountain Star but this two-piece writes snappy pop songs with plenty of open space.  Instant street cred for all the up-and-comers at Hidden Valley High.

“Groove Me” by Theophilus London – from Maximum Balloon.  I guess I wasn’t as smitten as the rest of planet Earth by this TV on the Radio side project, possibly because of the insufferable band name, but it’s hard to deny that “Groove Me” will groove you.

“The Great White Ocean” by Antony and the Johnsons – from Swanlights.  Antony Hegarty is an acquired taste, a bit avante garde and of course he loves him some vibrato.  I did though really enjoy 2005’s I am a Bird Now and this song shows nice texture as a lyricist and songwriter.

“Until the Nipple’s Gone” by Atmosphere – from To All My Friends, Blood Makes the Blade Holy.  Slug’s narrative and cutting diction knock you down with their venom.

“Like the Wheel” by The Tallest Man on Earth – from Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird EP.  iTunes bonus track from The Wild Hunt which I have gushed over enough.  I played “Like the Wheel” approximately one billion times in 2010.

As I assemble a Best Albums of 2010 list, here is the first installment of individual tunes from the past year that I really enjoyed.  Most, not all, are from CDs that are NOT on my list of top albums, or are culled from an EP, or simply represent the occasional one-off download.  So supplement your listening of full-length releases with these nuggets. 

And look, Ma…no links! 

Consider it a small service:  Just click the media player on most songs and rock out without the aggravating and impossible distraction of opening a new window.  Actually there’s still a couple of links but for the most part I’ve done the work on your behalf because I love you.

“Odessa” by Caribou – from Swim.  Whereas 2007’s Andorra was total psychedelia, “Odessa,” Caribou’s first release from the April LP Swim is a minimalist freakout more akin to Hot chip.

“The Hundredth Time” by Gigi – from Maintenant.  Canadians who oddly…and sweetly…interpret (pervert?) 60’s pop with a teary male chorus that just seems more appropriate for Mary Wells.

“Icarus” by White Hinterland – from Kairos.  Enchanting number that seems to belong more to Iceland more than Oregon.

“Girls FM” by Happy Birthday – from Happy Birthday.  Who’d have ever thought there would be a Sub Pop band from Vermont?

“Someone’s Missing” by MGMT – from Congratulations.  An otherwise unnotable sophomore album highlighted by a straight-up brilliant Jackson 5 payoff at 1:45 into the song.

“My Chariot” by The Depreciation Guild – from Spirit Youth.  Kind of digging The Depreciation Guild more than The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, if truth be told.

“Constellations” by Darwin Deez – from Darwin Deez.  Plays Kilby Court January 21 and you are mighty encouraged to attend!

“21@12” by Hot Hot Heat – from Future Breeds.  Don’t know that HHH will ever return to the fighting strength of 2002’s Makeup the Breakdown but this song has crazy noodling synths I love.

“Them That Do Nothing” by Field Music – from Measure.  I have Prog issues.  I don’t like most of it, gives me bad dreams of junior high school.  But “Them That Do Nothing” is a snappy little song that richochets between your ears.

“The Fight” by Sia – from We are Born.  Yes the annoying girl who insists on painting her face and formerly trafficked in unremarkable loungey R&B also writes pretty dancy bubblegum pop.

“Rocket” by Goldfrapp – from Head First.  Having already impugned my list of favorite songs with Sia, why not add this tasty number from Goldfrapp?   ELO spaceship atmospherics included at absolutely no charge.  #1 song of the year by far for my 6-year-old daughter Rose.

“On the Beat” by Jaill – from That’s How We Burn.  Milwaukee’s Jaill turns out an entire album of angular guitar pop.  Vinnie Kircher sounds a lot like the Hoodoo Guru’s Dave Faulkner here, which is fabulous.

It was tempting to presume yesterday’s EP-after-the-LP from The Tallest Man on Earth was simply a carrier for “Like the Wheel.”  But if pithy, Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird is equally as powerful and nuanced as both of Kristian Matsson’s tremendous full-lengths.

Following May’s The Wild Hunt, Passing Bird opens with archetypal Tallest Man ballad “Little River,” marked by intricate finger-picking and the now-signature vocal acrobatics of a man without much of a voice to tumble with.  “Tangle in This Trampled Wheat” likewise begins with a complex guitar line and the most pronounced undercurrent of woe on the EP.  It is hard to overstate Mattson’s mastery of the instrument, though it always supports rather than overwhelms the arrangemet.

Like, but also unlike, Highway 61 Revisited, TMOE marks this release with his first recorded use of electric guitar.  It is heady stuff.  “The Dreamer” is a considered, not grandstanding, escalation of Matsson’s sound, hearbroken but not effusive. 

“Like the Wheel,” the iTunes bonus track for The Wild Hunt,  is at the sequential and creative center of Passing Bird.  The song became a favorite encore for the Tallest Man on Earth, as memorably performed last May in absolute silence at Salt Lake City’s Kilby Court.  The lyrics, if born in Sweden, evoke American dystopia better than Paul Simon:

And on this Sunday someone’s sitting down to wonder
Where the hell among these mountains will I be?
There’s a cloud behind the cloud to which I’m yelling
I could hear you sneak around so easily

And I said oh my Lord why am I not strong
Like the branch that keeps hangman hanging on
Like the branch that will take me home

I am fully convinced that songs such as “Like the Wheel” are so perfectly conceived and rendered that they spring from some Jungian race memory.  The Tallest Man on Earth has not so much written Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird as he has memorialized a portion of the human condition passed to him through some indefinable chromosomal essence that now marks a high-water mark of the American folk tradition.

Listen to “Like the Wheel” at the Consequence of Sound.