Tapes on the Floor's Favorite Tracks of 2014 (Pt. II)

Ready to read about 20 more songs? You can also listen to them, if you want to. It's entirely up to you. Here's part deux.

Tapes on the Floor's Favorite Tracks of 2013 (Pt. II)

One year, 50 tracks. If you read part one, you'll probably want to round things off with part two.

Monitoring: Fuzz - "Loose Sutures"

No longer held back by the time constraints of the seven-inch singles that have been their favored medium, Fuzz stretches out on the first single from their self-titled full length debut. One glance at the cover of said record and you get the feeling that Ty Segall, Charlie Moothart and Roland Cosio have been listening to a bit of '70s prog rock. The opening salvo of "Loose Sutures" reinforces that notion, settling into a crunchy, Sabbath-indebted groove that wraps itself around Segall's vocals. Shortly after breaking into an energetic guitar solo, the track takes a strange left turn, grinding to a halt and transitioning into a meandering drum and bass interlude (is that the "Take Five" cadence I hear?) before abruptly nailing the finale. Here's hoping that the LP comes in a blacklight poster format.

Fuzz will be released by In The Red on October 1. The group recently announced a fall tour.

Tapes on the Floor's Favorite Albums of 2012

I'm a bit late on the delivery of my list of favorite albums this year, but the list itself was one of the easiest I've ever made. That's not to say that 2012 was so devoid of quality music that only a select few records made themselves worthy of inclusion. Rather, it felt as if there were loads of great records released over the past year, but only a few of them truly amazed and inspired me. So, roll up your sleeves, pour yourself a beverage of your choosing and join me as I attempt to explain to you why I liked these albums more than all those other albums. For variety's sake, they're in reserve alphabetical order this time around.

Tapes on the Floor's Favorite Tracks of 2012 (Pt. II)

The year is almost over, so there's no point in wasting any more of your precious time. Here is the second half of my 40 favorite tracks of 2012:

Tapes on the Floor's Favorite Albums of 2011

In compiling my favorite albums this year, I tried to think back and include records that deserved to be heard in their entirety. It's been interesting to observe how the music business has slowly slipped back towards a single-driven mentality, precipitated by on-demand listening and fragmented purchasing options. Increasingly, there aren't a whole lot of reasons to put much thought into crafting a cohesive, long-playing listening experience. Which is why it's all the more impressive when a group is able to make their entire record mesh in the kind of way that almost forces you to take it all in at once. Assembled here are the albums of 2011 that pulled me in and didn't relinquish my attention until the conclusion of their running time.

Tapes on the Floor's Favorite Tracks of 2011 (Part II)

I hope you caught the first part of my favorite 40 tracks of 2011, because we're on to the second half of the list. If you'd like to listen along, check out my Spotify playlists which contain all but a few of the tracks from both the first and second parts of the list. Let's finish this off— here are the rest of the songs from the past year that caught my ear and didn't let go.

Live Review: Solid Sound Festival 2011

It's been wonderful watching Wilco break away from the music industry over the past few years, taking with them their seemingly ever-growing entourage of devoted followers. The group has come to a point in their career where the confines of record label are no longer a necessity, where the band no longer takes their music to people but rather brings their fans to them. Nowhere was this more evident than at the second iteration of the Solid Sound Festival--nestled in the somewhat remote town of North Adams, MA on the campus of the world class Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). The facilities were transformed in a Wilco-mecca of sorts, finding concert posters and homemade instruments nestled next to work from luminaries such as Sol LeWitt and Katharina Grosse. And then there was the music——handpicked by the folks in Wilco and encompassing everything from garage rock to brass bands. But why stop there? With a comedy cabaret curated by John Hodgman, a falconry demonstration, a pop up record store and a menagerie of local vendors, there was no excuse not to fill every moment of the weekend. Not to mention two headlining sets from everyone's favorite convention-defying rock band. The perfect weekend for this diehard Wilco fanatic? Yup.

Wrap-Up: SXSW 2011

Reading through the various SXSW wrap-ups that have been hitting the web over the past week or so, I feel as if my experience differed quite drastically from those of many of the journalists covering the festival. Sure, I managed to walk by an Odd Future show in progress, but I certainly didn't catch any sets from the Strokes, Kanye West or even the girls in Wild Flag. That's one of the things that makes city-spanning events like SXSW so great—one has the ability to tailor every waking moment to their current tastes and whims. For five days, Austin plays host to every musical genre under the sun, in both official and unofficial settings that stretch all the way across town. I may have not had the full experience, but in between finding my way around, getting slightly sloshed and running into friends, I managed to see some pretty great bands during my two-day taste of the SXSW festivities.

Meet Me in the City

This year's CMJ put me about three nights behind on sleep and equally as many days behind on things I needed to get done, which is why this post is a bit late. Don't interpret that as a complaint—quite the contrary—buying that last-minute plane ticket was one of the better choices I've made in recent memory. The festival may not be the king-making hub of the independent music scene that it once was, but it's still an amazing opportunity to see a bevy of bands-on-the-rise over a very short period of time. It's also a textbook case in networking opportunities—hence my stash of homemade business cards. Perhaps most importantly, it's a chance to meet up with old friends as well as make some new ones. Oh yeah, and there's plenty of free beer and swag.

I flew in to New York Thursday morning, and given my badge-less status, I decided to head over to AAM's free showcase at Arlene's Grocery on the Lower East Side. I grabbed some of the greasy pizza that was provided and caught a set from a group called Kitten that straddled the line somewhere between being a mediocre Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover band and a bunch of Metric impersonators. Wandering the streets seemed like the better choice, so I did just that, finding my way to the absolutely amazing Toy Tokyo. Before long, it was time to head over to the Medium Rotation mixer, which packed a boatload of college radio kids and promoters into a tiny bar in the East Village. While there, I finally got the chance to meet Graham of A Man A Plan A Canal in the flesh—the guy who helped me bring the Wilco tour documentary to town a few years back and has been an invaluable resource ever since. After a couple of beers, it was off to Brooklyn with Matt and the Terrorbird crew for the CMJ pub crawl—an event that I survived thanks to my choice to abstain from an absinthe cocktail. Making my way back to Manhattan, I ended the night at the Matador/Beggars Group party pounding beers alongside the affable Steve from Team Clermont.

The Subway is a Porno

Today I'm headed to New York City for the CMJ Music Marathon—the annual college radio-fueled orgy of concerts, swag and free booze. It was somewhat of a last minute decision, but I managed to find a friend of a friend (and fellow OU grad) to stay with, and the rest of my plans just fell into place from there. As a music director, it's a great opportunity to meet face-to-face with some of the folks I talk to on a weekly basis. As a fan of music, it's a chance to see a ton of bands in a very short span of time. I'm going without a badge because from what I understand the CMJ badge doesn't really mean very much anymore—everything I'm going to is either free or by invitation, no badge required. In fact, I think the majority of the shows happening this week are unaffiliated with CMJ—Pitchfork is even throwing their own mini-festival, essentially capitalizing off the fact that there are both a ton of bands and music fans in town.

I'm really looking forward to catching sets from the likes of Pomegranates, the Mynabirds, Ty Segall, Cotton Jones and Devotchka, as well as taking in some of the sights that I didn't quite get around to on my last trip to the city. I'll be doing my best to document as much of my week as I can and post some photos and impressions on here in a timely fashion. No promises, but I think it would be nice to share. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd actually like to get some sleep before Brooklyn.