Every year, for the past two or three [years], I've resolved to listen to every session daytrotter.com posts (which these days is 365+ a year). In 2010 I made in three months or so before falling a few weeks behind and went back to picking and choosing, mostly bands I already liked. Which isn't really a good way to find out about new things at all.
So I am trying something new! It is called "write a little blurb about each session this year". Mostly for my own reference down the road, but maybe having a place to put it will keep me on top of it a little more. Maybe something will sound nice, or I will make a comparison to a band someone really likes/hate and they will check it out and find new things along with me.
January 1 - Korean is Asian
The year started with what might be the hardest type of music for me to write about. Not because I don't like it, or really like it, or have trouble understand how anyone could like it; just, there are so many things that sounds like this. Even a few days later I can't really recall what this band really was about outside of 'acoustic folky music' even though I listened to the session three times. And it's nothing against them. I just don't know if I have the vocabulary for it anymore. Sorry, guys.
January 2 - Eagle Seagull
I liked this a little more. A lot of the songs they played had some neat things going on aesthetically once in a while. Between lots of sparse jangling guitar (think early Modest Mouse) and some really constant fiddling, it's a fun listen. I guess the vocal (and what is going on lyrically, really) isn't the most original sounding thing if you've heard Franz Ferdinand or the Killers any of the copy-catish bands that popped up around the same time in 2006, but it's nothing that bothered me too much.
Apparently this band released their second album last year and then broke up. That is kind of sad.
January 3 - MGMT
I am sort of weird about MGMT. I am pretty aware of them, and they have their place, I guess, but their place is sort of removed from anything I care about musically. But this was all a lot less irritating than I was expecting. Maybe it was that the set the played here was a lot less electronically-based/reliant (which is usually what I am all into, so I do not know what is up), but these tracks were nice. When they are using synths it's not overpowering. The drone-y pitches in 'I Found a Whistle' work really well. I don't know if they are going to win anyone over, totally, or anything, but it's inoffensive. I sort of would have liked to hear 'Kids' arranged like this.
Notable track(s): "I Found a Whistle"
January 4 - DJ Spooky
The most interesting part of the single track "Daytrotter Mix" is probably the short, found sound collage that serves as the mix's intro. Not that the rest is bad, or not well done, but I am probably not alone in finding it more and more difficult to be impressed by straightforward DJ stuff in a post-Girl Talk world. It ends a bit stronger though. Programmed drums over post-rock violins. Kind of neat, I guess.
January 5 - Twin Shadow
This is a band who put out one of my favorite albums of 2010 so it was exciting to see him here, but even more exciting were the live in studio arrangements. I missed out on seeing him live back in October or November and knowing this was what I missed--that it probably wasn't the low-key intimate performance I expected--makes it even harder.
Notable track(s): Slow
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