Atoms For Peace @ Roseland Ballroom

We’ve been waiting four long years for Thom Yorke to take his electronic-heavy Radiohead side project and catalog stand-out on the road. That wait ended last night as Thom and company (including Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and bassist Flea) invaded New York’s Roseland Ballroom for the first of a two-night stint. The band called themselves Atoms For Peace, which is also the name of a track on Thom’s lone solo EP, 2006’s The Eraser. Written mostly on a laptop using samples, many from unreleased Radiohead tracks, we were curious to hear how the band would translate the electronic vibe of songs played from The Eraser for the live environment. With two percussionists, Godrich on electronics, Flea freaking out on bass, and Thom switching between piano and guitar, the live incarnation was stunningly similar.

The band started in grand fashion with a slow building version of The Eraser’s title track and continued to play the LP in its entirety! After the nine song set, the band walked off the stage, returning shortly for what turned out to be a seven song encore. Yorke started the encore alone on stage and played two new Radiohead songs and Kid A standout “Everything In Its Right Place.” The rest of the band joined Yorke for the last four songs, which included Radiohead b-side “Paperbag Writer” and more new, unreleased tracks. Yorke and company absolutely blew the doors of off Roseland last night. The only complaint I have was the atrocious sound, which was flat-out embarrassing during Flying Lotus’ cracking and popping opening set. The sound crew seemed to have things slightly more in order for Atoms For Peace, but audiophiles may have been wincing at times throughout the show.

Setlist:
01. The Eraser
02. Analyse
03. The Clock
04. Black Swan
05. Skip Divided
06. Atoms For Peace
07. And It Rained All Night
08. Harrowdown Hill
09. Cymbal Rush

Encore 1
(thom solo)
10. Chris Hodge/Let Me Take Control (NEW SONG)
11. The Daily Mail
12. Everything In Its Right Place

(full band)
13. Paperbag Writer
14. Judge, Jury & Executioner
15. Hollow Earth
16. Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses

Fishpork’s 50 Favorite Tracks of 2009

This year really didn’t end up being that “greatest of the decade” as January-March may have suggested. With that said, our favorite tracks list became very album-heavy as it evolved throughout the year. With seven tracks from Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear in the top 20, you kinda get the point. Here is our very biased list of favorite tracks from 2009:

1. HEALTH - “Die Slow”
2. Grizzly Bear - “While You Wait for the Others“
3. Animal Collective - “Summertime Clothes”
4. Fuck Buttons - “Olympians”
5. Built to Spill - “Things Fall Apart”
6. Animal Collective - “My Girls”
7. Fever Ray - “Concrete Walls”
8. Grizzly Bear - “Ready, Able“
9. White Lies - “Farewell to the Foreground”
10. Moderat - “New Error”
11. Atlas Sound - “Attic Lights”
12. Grizzly Bear - “Two Weeks“
13. Animal Collective - “Guy’s Eyes”
14. Fuck Buttons - “The Lisbon Maru”
15. Atlas Sound - “Walkabout”
16. Animal Collective - “What Would I Want? Sky”
17. Dredg - “Information”
18. White Lies - “Death”
19. Fever Ray - “Coconut”
20. Animal Collective - “Brothersport”
21. Built to Spill - “Good Ol’ Boredom”
22. MC Rut - “I Don’t Really Know”
23. The Mars Volta - “Since We’ve Been Wrong”
24. Modest Mouse - “The Whale Song”
25. Dirty Projectors - “Cannibal Resource”
26. Deerhunter - “Game of Diamonds”
27. Morrissey - “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore”
28. Animal Collective - “I Think I Can”
29. HEALTH - “We Are Water”
30. Dredg - “Mourning This Morning”
31. Sufjan Stevens - “You Are the Blood”
32. Fuck Buttons - “Surf Solar”
33. Phoenix - “Girlfriend”
34. The Flaming Lips - “Silver Trembling Hands”
35. White Rabbits - “Rudie Fails”
36. The Mars Volta - “With Twilight As Our Guide”
37. Radiohead - “These Are My Twisted Words”
38. Great Northern - “Fingers”
39. Royksopp - “Tricky, Tricky”
40. Dirty Projectors - “Useful Chamber”
41. St. Vincent - “The Party”
42. YACHT - “Ring The Bell”
43. Bat For Lashes - “Sleep Alone”
44. Atlas Sound - “Sheila”
45. Washed Out - “Feel It All Around”
46. Das Racist - “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”
47. Dirty Projectors - “Stillness Is The Move”
48. Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - “Skeletons”
49. Great Northern - “Driveway”
50. Morrissey - “I’m OK By Myself”

Fishpork’s 100 Favorite Tracks of the 2000s

This is an attempt at the impossible. Here are our 100 favorite songs of the past decade (featuring multiple tracks from Animal Collective, The Knife, Radiohead, and Elliott Smith). Our top two choices are more like 1a and 1b. Be patient, as the page needs to load the embedded songs.

1. Panda Bear - “Bros” (2007)

2. The Knife - “We Share Our Mother’s Health” (2006)

3. Animal Collective - “For Reverend Green” (2007)

4. Grizzly Bear - “While You Wait For The Others” (2009)

5. The Knife - “Heartbeats” (2003)

6. Grizzly Bear - “The Knife” (2005)

7. LCD Soundsystem - “Someone Great” (2007)

8. TV on the Radio - “Staring at the Sun” (2003)

9. Crystal Castles - “Crimewave” (2008)

10. Beirut - “Ciloqut” (2007)

11. Thom Yorke - “Harrowdown Hill

12. Animal Collective - “Derek” (2007)

13. Nine Inch Nails - “Me, I’m Not” (2007)

14. Beck - “Lonesome Tears” (2002)

15. At The Drive-in - “One Armed Scissor” (2004)

16. Animal Collective - “Grass” (2005)

17. Deerhunter - “Nothing Ever Happened” (2008)

18. Atlas Sound - “Recent Bedroom” (2008)

19. Panda Bear - “Comfy in Nautica” (2007)

20. System of a Down - “Chop Suey” (2001)

21. Animal Collective - “Peacebone” (2007)

22. Battles - “Atlas” (2007)

23. Error - “Jack the Ripper” (2004)

24. Enon - “Pleasure and the Privilege”

25. Elliott Smith - “Son of Sam” (2000)

26. Animal Collective - “Did You See the Words” (2005)

27. The Knife - “Marble House” (2006)

28. LCD Soundsystem - “All My Friends” (2007)

29. Thom Yorke - “Analyse” (2006)

30. The Flaming Lips - “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” (2002)

31. Girl Talk - “Smash Your Head” (2006)
<

32. A Perfect Circle - “Judith” (2000)

33. Radiohead - “Idioteque” (2000)

34. Tapes N’ Tapes - “Manitoba” (2006)

35. TV On The Radio - “I Was A Lover” (2006)

36. Radiohead - “Reckoner” (2007)

37. Fever Ray - “Coconut” (2009)

38. Animal Collective - “My Girls” (2009)

39. Built to Spill - “Things Fall Apart” (2009)

40. Wilco - “I’m Trying to Break Your Heart” (2002)

41. Modest Mouse - “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” (2000)

42. Animal Collective - “Leaf House” (2004)

43. Modeselektor - “Happy Birthday” (2007)

44. Arcade Fire - “Wake Up” (2004)

45. Autolux - “Blanket” (2004)

46. MGMT - “Time to Pretend” (2007)

47.  Built to Spill - “Conventional Wisdom” (2006)

48. Wilco - “Side With the Seeds” (2007)

49. Elliott Smith - “Happiness/The Gondola Man” (2000)

50. Avey Tare - “I’m Your Eagle Kisser” (2007)

51. Department of Eagles - “Waves of Rye” (2008)

52. Animal Collective - “Summertime Clothes” (2009)

53. Radiohead - “2+2 = 5″ (2003)

54. Dredg - “Sang Real” (2005)

55. While Lies - “Farewell to the Fairground” (2009)

56. Grizzly Bear - “Ready, Able” (2009)

57. Matisyahu - “King Without a Crown” (2005)

58. Modest Mouse - “Paper Thin Walls” (2000)

59. Dillinger Escape Plan - “When Good Dogs Do Bad Things” (2002)

60. Elliott Smith - “Twilight” (2004)

61. Deerhunter - “Flourescent Grey” (2007)

62. Holy Fuck - “Lovely Allen” (2007)

63. LCD Soundsystem - “Never As Tired As When I’m Waking Up” (2006)

64. The Notwist - “Boneless (Panda Bear Remix)” (2008)

65. Liars - “Nothing Is Ever Lost or Can Be Lost My Science Friend” (2004)

66. The Mars Volta - “Inertiatic E.S.P.” (2003)

67. The Notwist - “Solitaire” (2002)

68. Of Montreal - “The Past is a Grotesque Animal” (2007)

69. Queens of the Stone Age - “Tangled Up in Plaid” (2005)

70. Radiohead - “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” (2007)

71. Saul Williams - “Raised To Be Lowered” (2007)

72. Autolux - “Great Days for the Passenger Element” (2004)

73. Sigur Ros - “Untitled 8″ (2002)

74. Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - “Maps” (2003)

75. Portishead - “Threads” (2008)

76. Sufjan Stevens - “Chicago” (2005)

77. Ugly Casanova - “Things I Don’t Remember” (2002)

78. Animal Collective - “Brothersport” (2009)

79. Radiohead - “Pyramid Song” (2001)

80. Nine Inch Nails - “Only” (2005)

81. El-P - “Flyentology” (2007)

82. Queens of the Stone Age - “No One Knows” (2002)

83. Ghostface Killah - “Shakey Dog” (2006)

84. Modest Mouse - “Missed the Boat” (2007)

85. UNKLE - “Persons and Machinery” (2007)

86. Amon Tobin - “Verbal” (2002)

87. The White Stripes - “Denial Twist” (2005)
>

88. Tomahawk - “Captain Midnight” (2003)

89. Modest Mouse - “Bukowski” (2004)

90. Sigur Ros - “Hoppipolia” (2005)

92. Fuck Buttons - “Sweet Love For Planet Earth” (2008)

93. Bon Iver - “Skinny Love” (2008)

94. Built to Spill - “In Your Mind” (2001)

95. The White Stripes - “Icky Thump” (2007)

96. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - “We Are Rockstars” (2008)

97. Dub Trio - “Not Alone” (2006)

98. Modest Mouse - “The World At Large”

99. The Walkmen - “In the New Year” (2008)

100. Nine Inch Nails - “The Great Destroyer (Modwheelmood Remix)” (2007)

Fishpork’s Favorite Albums of the 2000s

Compiling a list of your favorite albums for an entire decade is quite the challenge, especially when that decade was as strong as the 2000s were. Six of our favorites come from two bands (Animal Collective and Radiohead), and two were from this past year (Veckatimest and Merriweather Post Pavilion). This list is by no means a definitive statement of the best music from last decade. Instead, these are our favorite albums that were on heavy rotation in our iPods and scrobbled endlessly on Last.FM.

1. Strawberry Jam (2007) - Animal Collective

2. Silent Shout (2006) - The Knife

3. The Moon and Antarctica (2000) -  Modest Mouse

4. Kid A (2000) - Radiohead

5. Figure 8 (2000) - Elliott Smith

6. Veckatimest (2009) - Grizzly Bear

7. De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003) - The Mars Volta

8. Future Perfect (2004) - Autolux

9. The Eraser (2006) - Thom Yorke

10. Person Pitch (2007) - Panda Bear

11. Return to Cookie Mountain (2006) - TV on the Radio

12. Sea Change (2002) - Beck

13. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) - Wilco

14. High Society (2002) - Enon

15. The Loon (2006) - Tapes N’ Tapes

16. Microcastle (2008) - Deerhunter

17. Feels (2005) - Animal Collective

18. Sound of Silver (2007) - LCD Soundsystem

19. In Rainbows (2007) - Radiohead

20. Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009) - Animal Collective

Album Review: Moderat

Moderat is not the first collaboration by electronic gurus Modeselektor and Apparat. They released the disappointing Auf Kosten der Gesundheit EP in 2002 under the same moniker. The second collaborative effort from the group has much to offer fans of each but does not quite live up to each individual band’s previous works, especially that of Modeselektor. Happy Birthday! and Hello Mom! are landmark electronic dance records that few in the genre have approached in production and sonic mindfucking.

Recording on vintage analog gear, Moderat offers up one of the best tracks of 2009 in “New Error,” a slow building tour de force with an affecting drum beat and synths that seem to purposely fall off the rhythm track every once in a while. Other album highlights include “Rusty Nails,” a somber but catchy drum and bass track featuring vocals by Sascha Ring (Apparat) and “Sea Monkey,” a track that slowly builds from a repetitive and eclectic dance floor beat and pays off in the second half with a batch of swirling synths. The album does lose some of it’s addictive nature after the first three tracks and contains some filler between additional standouts “Sick With It” and “Porc#2.”

Moderat is currently supporting Radiohead on their European tour.

MP3: “These Are My Twisted Words” by Radiohead

Yes, out of the blue, a new Radiohead song has leaked. It’s rumored that this may be the song the band (or Thom Yorke) wrote for the upcoming sequel to Twilight. If that’s the case, I’m looking more forward to hearing what Karen O and Bradford Cox came up with for the score to Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are. Nonetheless, this is Radiohead, and it’s absolutely brilliant as always. You can download “These Are My Twisted Words” here or stream it below:

Radiohead Release New Digital Single

Radiohead released a new track called “Harry Patch (In Memory Of) today via their deadairspace website . The song was inspired by an  interview with Harry Patch from a few years back that had a profound effect on Yorke.  Harry Patch died at the age of 111 and was the last remaining UK veteran of WWI. They recorded the song  just a few weeks before his death.  It is available for download for £1 (around $1.70), with all proceeds going to a UK veterans’ charity.  It can also be streamed via the BBC.

 

 

Here’s the full post from Thom:

Recently the last remaining UK veteran of the 1st world war Harry Patch died at the age of 111.
I had heard a very emotional interview with him a few years ago on the Today program on Radio4.
The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me.
It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death.
It was done live in an abbey. The strings were arranged by Jonny.
I very much hope the song does justice to his memory as the last survivor.

It would be very easy for our generation to forget the true horror of war, without the likes of Harry to remind us.
I hope we do not forget.

As Harry himself said
“Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims”.

To peace and understanding.

Thom

Dan Deacon/Deerhunter/No Age @ Flying W Airport and Pool

As the crowds at All Points West waited in endless lines for a subpar bill, a few hundred lucky fans were treated to the down home amenities of the Flying W Airport and Pool Resort in the ultra-suburban town of Medford, NJ. The weather was perfect, the pool was blue and the tiki bar served ‘em up cold. The stars were aligned, and everything was in place for this to be the show of 2009 . . . then the music started. As a concept, the idea of a round robin concert where bands take turns playing their own songs seemed exciting. Rumors were swirling, and many were under the impression that the bands would collaborate on each other’s songs. R5 Productions, the promoters of the show, even advertised it as such.

We called Deerhunter’s performance last year at the Music Hall in Williamsburg, as well as the astonishing Microcastle LP, as our favorites in 2008. As huge fans of Deerhunter, it was a no-brainer that Fishpork would attend the festivities in Medford, especially after last year’s debacle at All Points West. In all fairness, APW did feature a breathtaking performance by Radiohead. This year’s lineup featured the geriatric-fied Beastie Boys (later replaced by Jay-Z), Tool and Cold Play, and we weren’t ready to spend $100 on a 20-minute Crystal Castles set.

At the Flying W, the problems arose with the incompatibility of the bands’ setlists and discographies, as well as the inaudible and raucous noise by the overrated and overweighted Dan Deacon, who seemed lost without his backing band. Unfortunately, this will most likely go down as the worst show of 2009. A good show exhibits a sense of flow and chemistry. Developing an effective set list is a skill. Songs need to fit together and feed off one another. Three distinctively different bands taking turns playing tracks from three distinctively different music vaults felt forced and unnatural. Upon experiencing the mellow sound of Deerhunter’s title track from Microcastle, the head-pounding, cocaine-induced “Snookered” by Dan Deacon broke down that previous exaltation and had me feeling confused and uncomfortable.

The bands also lacked chemistry with their verbal communication throughout the show. In between a double shot of Deerhunter tracks, Bradford Cox began telling a background story but was interupted by both bands. “This is the part of the show that only the artists enjoy,” joked Dan Deacon. “This is where you play a song, Bradford” was shouted from the No Age stage. At that point, I felt lucky to have only paid $12 for my ticket. It wasn’t until Dan Deacon decided to command his drug-induced followers to march to the parking lot in a single file line that we decided the gimmick was overpowering the music. At that point, I wondered if APW was still serving Longhammer or if Tool would be playing anything new. We left early.

MP3: “New Error” by Moderat

Modeselektor (aka Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) and Apparat (aka Sascha Ring), two of Germany’s most acclaimed electronic acts, have joined up to release their upcoming collaborative record, Moderat (out May 12th on Bpitch Control). Modeselektor and Apparat first worked together as Moderat on an EP for BPitch Control in 2002. Amongst a slew of remixes for the likes of Thom Yorke and Björk, Modeselektor also went on to tour with Radiohead across Japan in 2008.

Download “New Error” here or stream it below:

MP3: “This Ain’t Livin’” by Dish

Dish has been described as “Jeff Buckley as an ADHD-riddled nine-year-old playing prodigious poly rhythms on pots ‘n pans” and been compared to Flaming Lips with snippets of Radiohead. Their new record, Ma Raison De Vivre Ton Amour, was released on March 24, 2009 on ROA Records. Download “This Ain’t Livin’” here or stream is below:

Next Page »