2009 : 11 "Poison Trees" by The Devil Makes Three

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A lovely toe tapping little ditty with apocalyptic overtones. —April Walker Listen: The Devil Makes Three >> "Poison Trees"

2009 : 04-05 Aught Music Roundtable: These Four Walls by We Were Promised Jetpacks

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"Conductor" When I came across We Were Promised Jetpacks' debut CD These Four Walls in my local record shop I bought it solely based on the name of the band and the cover design. And, as it turns out, that was absolutely the right decision. Their songs have shades of Explosions In The Sky but with lyrics (sung in a lovely Scottish accent). There's something about the songs that just clicked with me right away and I found myself listening to the album on repeat for two days straight. "Conductor" is my current favorite off the album. The use of the word conductor as both a conductor of an orchestra and a simple conductor of electricity really tickles me. —April Walker "It's Thunder and It's Lightning" It makes me happy that a band with the name "We Were Promised Jetpacks" is enjoyable. I like the post-Indie-Rock sound they have put together: a straight-ahead rock sound that is unassuming. I like the way I can choose to dig into the song or enjoy it just for what is on the surface. Yes, I bought this album for the band's name. Sometimes you get luck with something like that. —Rich Thomas Listen: We Were Promised Jetpacks >> "Conductor" | "It's Thunder and It's Lightning"

2007 : 08 "Outlaws" by Joe Purdy

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The first thing I love about this song is the story; a classic Bonnie and Clyde type tale with a happy ending. The second thing I love about it is that it references Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Cash. The third thing I love about it is the way those two things combined with minimal piano make for such a lovely ballad. —April Walker Listen: Joe Purdy >> "Outlaws"

2006 : 44 "Warmer Climate" by Snow Patrol

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A bonus track off the UK release of Eyes Open which, for me, outshines all of the other songs. The sentiment behind "Warmer Climate" is hardly new or revolutionary but the lyrics are just plain gorgeous, making it feel like something more, something bigger. Maybe it's the warmer climate Maybe I'm a smarter primate Maybe it's the beer I'm drinking Maybe I've stopped over-thinking Baby you're the words and chapters The sweetness in the morning after You are the cry that turns to laughter You're the hope that ends disaster The universe just vanished out of sight And all the stars collapsed behind the pitch black night And I can barely see your face in front of mine But it is knowing you are there that makes me fine —April Walker Listen: Snow Patrol >> "Warmer Climate"

2006 : 39 "Tall Green Grass" by Cory Branan

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One of the things I love most about "Tall Green Grass" is the story that Cory tells when he plays the song live. A friend passed the live recording on to me about the same time that I got the album, so to me the story is as much a part of the song as the lyrics. The song feels like summer, those kind of wasted summer days that aren't wasted at all because doing nothing and lying about in fields with your friends is the best way to spend a summer day. Warm molasses midnight on a Mississippi star Candy apple moon on the hood of my car Never could've told me you'd've gone this far I can't even tell you where the fuck we are. Must be off the radar, off the map Stretched out in the tall green grass It's only green, against the blue It's only me, against you —April Walker Listen: Cory Branan >> "Tall Green Grass" | "Tall Green Grass [Live]"

2006 : 28-29 Two tracks by Jeffrey Foucault

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"Ghost Repeater" "Ghost Repeater" was my introduction to Jeffrey Foucault and it was love at first listen. I subsequently fell in love with the entire album which, appropriately enough, the title track captures the feeling of quite nicely. It's a song I want to turn up all the way. I say that a lot about my favorite songs, but I guess that's an indication of just how much I love it, wanting to listen to it as loud as absolutely possible. It just makes me feel so free somehow, makes me want to drive around the west. "Mesa, Arizona" I love Jeffrey's imagery, his ability to turn the mundane and unnoticed into some of the most beautiful things. You're the sky all full of starlings And an ax blade shining in the sun You're the angel touched a coal Against my lips You're my only one Reel to reel The country rolls And the towns slide by Like ghost repeaters Of faded billboards & big-box stores Like a movie of an empty theater You look around and wonder When the seams are going to fail And how dear the cost of living Where everything's for sale Except you you're my one You're my only one —April Walker Listen: Jeffrey Foucault >> "Ghost Repeater" | "Mesa, Arizona"

2006 : 13 "Once More With Feeling" by Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

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"Once More With Feeling" makes me smile in a way that's kind of infectious and I can't really help. It fills me with joy like the start of a journey. And it's not a smile so much as a grin; the sort of grin that can carry from one person to the next. It feels peaceful and content, but not a classic sort of content. Content to know that even if things aren't good they'll get better, that your friends make everything better just because they're out there even if you haven't talked to them in a while. It's the sort of song that feels like it could change your life. Or at least following it's advice could help get you moving in the right direction. If you're a little off colour and Out for the count Don't let it get you down. Don't let the people make you think That just because you're young you're useless You know it's not naive to think that you can change the things around And that no man is an island. —April Walker Listen: Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. >> "Once More With Feeling"

2006 : 07-08 Aught Music Roundtable: The Animal Years by Josh Ritter

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"Girl In a War" Peter said to Paul you know all those words we wrote Are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go But now talking to God is Laurel begging Hardy for a gun I got a girl in the war man I wonder what it is we done When I think about the rest of the world in 2006, outside of my self centered personal pain, I think about Josh Ritter's The Animal Years. This album is what I saw when I looked at the world outside my window. The world as a whole seemed very lost and confused. We were trying to figure out what we got ourselves into and want it meant to get out of it. This album seems to convey the zeitgeist perfectly. —Rich Thomas "Idaho" A very sparse song. Just Josh Ritter's voice and barely audible acoustic guitar makes for a beautiful and haunting tune that brings to mind images of being out in the middle of the wilderness far from civilization. —April Walker Listen: Josh Ritter >> "Girl In A War" | "Idaho"

2005 : 47-48 Aught Music Roundtable: Tiny Cities by Sun Kil Moon

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Roundtable Part One: "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" When I first heard the album Tiny Cities I was totally floored. I already knew that Mark Kozelek was great at doing cover songs. A decade earlier I fell in love with the Red House Painters' version of Yes' "Long Distance Runaround." You would have thought Songs For A Blue Guitar was stuck in my CD player for how often I listed to it. What took my breath away with this album was how Kozelek went past what a really good cover song does. He totally makes me forget the original version. I listen to these songs and think that this is the way the songs where meant to be in the first place. He took all the noise and discord away and found the truth. That is what amazed me so much. I find myself listening to this album a lot, especially on road trips. —Rich Thomas Roundtable Part Two: "Trucker's Atlas" Mark Kozelek turns a song that was epic and wide like the open western road into something close and intimate like the inside of the car you're sharing with your best friend. Those moments of a road trip that you'll never really be able to explain to anyone else. —April Walker Listen: Sun Kil Moon >> "Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes" | "Trucker's Atlas"

2005 : 29-31 Three tracks by Pete Bernhard

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To me Pete Bernhard's Things I Left Behind is one of the most perfect albums in existence. Part of that, I'm sure, is due to the fact that the album was largely recorded live in the studio with the songs played all the way through. And part of it is that these songs tell the sort of stories that I think acoustic guitar was made for. As often happens to me with things I love as much as I love this album, I have a terrible time articulating how and why I love it so much. But, really, I think the music speaks for itself. These are my three favorite tracks in the order which they appear. —April Walker Listen: Pete Bernhard >> "Heaven" | "Straight Line" | "Left Behind"

2005 : 16-17 Aught Music Roundtable: The Sunset Tree by The Mountain Goats

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Roundtable Part One: "Dance Music" Wow, this song really hit me. The first time I heard it, I listed to it ten times in a row. It expresses this idea in a way that totally made me take notice. Yes, I have drowned out fighting with music in my life. I guess it is something most of us have done. —Rich Thomas Roundtable Part Two: "This Year" I find "This Year" to be inspirational in a self-deprecating, defeatist sort of way. It's like that point when the pile-up of stressful and potentially terrible things one must deal with becomes so overwhelming it's suddenly laughable. And that's exactly the point when things start to get better. —April Walker Listen: The Mountain Goats >> "Dance Music" | "This Year"

2005 : 05 "Daughters of the Soho Riots" by The National

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I fell instantly in love with Matt Berninger's voice the first time I heard this song (which was, incidentally, the first song by The National I'd ever heard). It's the sort of song that makes me long for places I've never been, people I've never met, and things that never happened. —April Walker Listen: The National >> "Daughters of the Soho Riots"

2004 : 27 "Agoraphobe" by Matthew Good (w/ Ryan Dalhe)

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Simple, catchy, rather repetitive and yet completely charming. Sometimes I feel exactly like this. We'll stay home Agorgaphobe Never want to go out there —April Walker Listen: Matthew Good (w/ Ryan Dalhe) >> "Agoraphobe"

2004 : 19-20 Aught Music Roundtable: "Hot Fuss" by The Killers

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Roundtable Part One: "Smile Like You Mean It" The Killers are a strange band to me. I know there are plenty of bands that have good first albums, and never get that good again. To me the Killers are one of those bands. Hot Fuss is an amazing album and every album after that has just disappointed me. It is not that the other albums are bad, it is just that they are not earthshaking. They do not grab me and force me to pay attention. Whenever I hear a song from Hot Fuss in the background, like on a TV show or in a store, I shift my focus from whatever I was doing to the song. If it is only a clip of the song, it gets stuck in my head like an earworm. "Smile Like You Mean It" really feels like 2004 to me. It is serous, straight ahead, a little sad, and it still has that little wink back at the audience. In the end it knows it is just a song. I love the ways that the Killers pull in sounds from the Cure and the Smiths. They are reminiscent of the past without being nostalgic. The odd thing to me about the Killers is that I know lots of people that act like their albums kept getting better and better. They act like Hot Fuss was just the kick off of something great. I know that I am not alone in my disappointment, but it seems that way sometimes. I wonder if they will make something as good as Hot Fuss again. —Rich Thomas Roundtable Part Two: "Mr. Brightside" Though I've had this album since not long after it came out, I didn't really listen to this song on regular rotation until after I spent eight days in Vienna in April of 2008. The Austrian version of MTV was very into this song at that time and, in searching for something that wasn't in German, I ended up watching this video may times during my stay there. Now I can't hear it without thinking of Vienna; it is a lovely association. Like many of my favorite songs, this is an upbeat song about being jerked around, and it's guaranteed to make me want to turn the radio up really loud and drive way too fast when it comes on in the car. I also find "Mr Brightside" to be wonderfully therapeutic when I'm in a terrible or angry mood. There's nothing like singing along at the top of your voice with someone else's anger and jealousy to ease your own frustrations. And then, beyond the song itself, I love the story the video tells with its ridiculous costumes and strange dance numbers. It's like some sort of dystopian period piece. The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsHz_rdWSvc —April Walker Listen: The Killers >> "Smile Like You Mean It" | "Mr. Brightside"

2004 : 06 "Campfire Song" by The Bunkbeds

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If I were asked to make a dictionary with songs to define words this song would be the entry for "dreamy." The extreme dreaminess of the song was really cemented for me on a trip to Scotland in 2005. My boyfriend and I were driving through the fog-soaked Scottish highlands and "Campfire Song" came on the iPod just as we rounded a corner and the fog parted to reveal craggy peaks and a rainbow directly in front of us. So, that's what this song feels like to me, something unexpected, perfectly timed and amazingly beautiful. The Bunkbeds aren't a band so much as a Scottish guy in his bedroom with some cheap n nasty (as he describes it) recording equipment. The results are mixed but when they are good they are, in my opinion, quite wonderful. I will be ever grateful for whatever internet rabbit hole I was following when I stumbled across this little gem. The Bunkbeds artist page on SoundClick: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=284905 —April Walker Listen: The Bunkbeds >> "Campfire Song"

2003 : 42 "We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Shins (covering The Postal Service)

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I sure do love a cheery-sounding little ditty about a nuclear apocalypse. I prefer this version to the original precisely because of the incongruous cheeriness. —April Walker Listen: The Shins >> "We Will Become Silhouettes"

2003 : 33 "Plea from a Cat Named Virtue" by The Weakerthans

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A song sung from the perspective of a cat who is worried about its owner's depression. Brilliant idea, brilliant lyrics, really engaging song. All you ever want to do is drink and watch TV And frankly that thing doesn't really interest me I swear I'm going to bite you hard And taste your tinny blood If you don't stop the self-defeating lies You've been repeating since the day you brought me home I know you're strong —April Walker Listen: The Weakerthans >> "Plea from a Cat Named Virtue"

2003 : 10 "You Are the Everything" by Jeffrey Foucault (covering R.E.M.)

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The first time I heard this version of this song I was sitting on a friend's couch in DC halfway through a road trip from New Hampshire to South Carolina and back. It took my breath away, brought tears to my eyes, and I fell in love instantly. I have loved "You Are the Everything" for years (it was on the first mix tape I made for my boyfriend, now of 12 years) and hearing Jeffrey Foucualt and his wife Kris Delmhorst sing it together fills me with dreamy teary happiness to the point where I think I actually prefer this version to the original. This is a song that I can say not only do I love but I am in love with. —April Walker Listen: Jeffrey Foucault >> "You Are The Everything"

2003 : 04 "Silver 2 Blue" by Peter Bernhard

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This song has the honor of being the most played song in my iTunes library. In fact, 12 of the top 20 most played songs are by Pete. Pete is one of the three lovely people that make up The Devil Makes Three; he's also a friend of mine. But I don't just listen to his music so much 'cause he's a friend (that's just how I'm lucky enough to have two early self distributed solo albums of his) I listen to his music 'cause he's amazing. Really. Amazing. This song is from one of those early solo albums. —April Walker Listen: Peter Bernhard >> "Silver 2 Blue"

2002 : 30-32 Aught Music Roundtable: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco

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Roundtable Part One: "Poor Places" (First Pass) It makes no difference to me How they cried all overseas When it's hot in the poor places tonight I'm not going outside I listened to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot everyday for a year. From the day I purchased it, in April of 2002, until April of 2003, I put this album on every day. Often I listened to it first thing in the morning or last thing before going to bed. For a year, it was part of my everyday life. I do not think any album ever had this effect on me. I could have picked five or six different songs from this album to write about. "Poor Places" is a great example of everything I love about this album. It is an expansive soundscape, it is personal, it is well produced, it is distorted, it is familiar, it is unexpected all at the same time. In the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, Jeff Tweedy is asked about his yet-to-be-released album. He says, "Yes, it will have a lot of tape loops and electronic music. No, it is not a techno album." I remember someone saying to me back in 2002 about this album, "Oh, Wilco, they're an Alt-Country band, right?" All I could do was tell them to listen to the album and tell me if they are still an Alt-Country band or not. The album was so good because I felt there was no sub-genre that covered it. If the question is "what did 2002 sound like?" this album has a huge part of that answer to me. —Rich Thomas Roundtable Part Two: "Heavy Metal Drummer" He played guitar, not drums, and it wasn't heavy metal really, but all the same I can't help but feel nostalgic listening to this. Along with my other two 2002 picks ("Golden Age of Radio" and "Jenny",) this song makes up the first three songs in my ultimate driving mix. It's always evolving and it never quite gets finished, but these three songs have been on it since I first heard them. To me upbeat tunes with a dose of melancholy or longing in the lyrics make the best driving music. —April Walker Roundtable Part Three: "Poor Places" (Second Pass) There's really no need to explain the importance of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, not to mention its almost immediate placement on any list of the best albums of the aughts. Every song on the disc is worth mention on this blog, and there are genres abound within the span of the running time: experimental, electronic, classic rock, et. al. "Poor Places," at first glance, is probably the simplest song on the album, yet is arguably the most beautiful. The music works as a full spectrum: it starts off lush, with barely noticeable hints of drum and guitar supporting Jeff Tweedy's voice, but as the song progresses, it increases in contribution and volume, reaching a crescendo of mechanical noise, with the haunting vocal of "Yankee... Hotel...F oxtrot..." closing it out. Tweedy's vocals are the closest they'll ever be to perfect here, and the lyrics alone would work as a poem: There's bourbon on the breath of a singer you love so much He takes all his words from the books that you don't read anyway Despite my earlier statement that the song is simple, the lyrics offer much for interpretation: family, depression, love, and creativity. In short: Wilco at its best. —Jamie Yates Listen: Wilco >> "Poor Places" | "Heavy Metal Drummer"