-TOAST’S FAVORITE ALBUMS of 2016-
16) TAUK – Sir Nebula
This ironically-named instrumental combo from Oyster Bay, NY,
continues to impress with their third studio album.
Since releasing their incredible double-live
set “Headroom,” their studio sound seems fuller and more in line with their
live sound:
buzzy and fuzzy, hippy and
trippy.
HIGH POINTS: Program Select, Where You Are, Sunshine Harry
15) CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD – Any Way You Love, We Know
How You Feel
Unwieldy album title aside, this is another fine entry into
CRB’s catalog.
Their studio output is
prolific, and nearly all of it worth a listen.
Hippie rock is their forte, and they seem content to reside near the top
of that heap.
Recent personnel changes
haven’t diminished their ability to play extremely well together.
HIGH POINTS: Ain’t It Hard but Fair, Leave My Guitar Alone,
Narcissus Soaking Wet
14) MARCUS KING BAND – The Marcus King Band
The way I heard it, Warren Haynes “discovered” this young
talent.
Marcus King could definitely
find less valuable mentorship in the jamband world, but he’s already so
fully-formed as a guitar wiz and bandleader at age twenty, I can only predict
that great things surely lie ahead for the Marcus King Band.
A sparse two-man horn section fills out the
sound nicely.
HIGH POINTS: Plant
Your Corn Early, Self-Hatred, the Man You Didn’t Know
13) SAM BUSH – Storyman
It’s been 7 years since the last release from Newgrass
legend Sam Bush.
Whether that was
deliberate on his part, or whether he’s too busy tearing it up on tour, or
whether nobody’s in a hurry to release full-length albums these days,
“Storyman” was worth the wait.
At age
64, his considerable songwriting and playing abilities do not seem to be waning
in the least.
HIGH POINTS: I Just
Wanna Feel Something, Everything Is Possible, Where’s My Love
12) YEASAYER – Amen & Goodbye
This Brooklyn outfit seems
intent on conjuring up bizarre soundscapes to back up their unusual
harmonies.
Rarely does a band so roundly
eschew traditional songwriting esthetics to such glorious result.
Whether their intention is to actually blow
minds or to proudly represent the “hipster-kook” contingent, I can’t say.
Neither can I argue with an album this
wonderfully strange.
HIGH POINTS:
Daughters of Cain, I Am Chemistry, Gerson’s Whistle
11) BOB WEIR – Blue
Mountain
My hat’s off to Bob Weir for recognizing that folkie Josh
Ritter and The National’s Josh Kaufman would be good songwriting partners for
an album of “cowboy songs.”
This
collection has a cohesive, old-timey vibe which suits Bobby’s aging voice.
Not even slightly “far out” in the way you
might expect from a member of the Grateful Dead, but does echo back to the
“earthy” Weir/Barlow collaborations.
HIGH POINTS: Lay My
Lily Down, Ki-Yi Bossie, Gonesville
10) AVETT BROTHERS – True Sadness
Take an ace family vocal duo, add an impressive band and an
incomparable producer, and you could argue you’re bound to succeed. Succeed the
Avett Brothers have, both live and in the studio, building a joyfully loyal
grassroots fan base, then pumping it up to enormous proportions.
More often than not, their brand of twisted
wit and melancholy comes off as more buoyant and bubbly than depressing, which
may be their Golden Goose.
HIGH POINTS: True
Sadness, Satan Pulls the Strings, Victims of Life, Smithsonian
09) MARCO BENEVENTO
– the Story of Fred Short
Somehow, Benevento
is able to make the plinky, toy piano sound majestic.
His skills as a composer and conductor have
metastasized into a giant, hairy beast whose chest heaves and unleashes fierce
fronts of tropical wind which threaten to capsize our brains and devastate our
ears.
With “The Story of Fred Short,”
he’s finally concocted an operatic narrative large enough to contain his
carnivalesque musings.
Fred Short is a
fitting avatar for Benevento,
coaxing frenzy from the mundane.
HIGH POINTS: Follow
the Arrow, Heavy Metal Floating Upstream, Live a Certain Life, Stay in Line
08) DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS – American Band
One might have worried the Drive-By Truckers would have
wobbled in the absence of Jason Isbell, but they certainly don’t seem to be
concerned.
In fact, they’ve stepped
their game up considerably.
They’ve
traded their grittily charming D-I-Y aesthetic for an ambitious, universal Americana sound which
manages to hit all the right notes, and loudly.
For better or worse, this is their “Joshua Tree.”
They had something to prove, and that
something was likely along the lines of, “Jason Isbell who?”
HIGH POINTS: Ramon
Casiano, Once They Banned Imagine, Surrender Under Protest, Ever South
07) BLACKBERRY SMOKE – Like an Arrow
Taking the southern rock thing and (to borrow a shopworn gag
from “This Is Spinal Tap”) turning it up to eleven, this band seems poised to
inherit the crown of the kingdom, by force if necessary.
Their songwriting has always been exemplary,
but their musical muscle is now flexing off the chart.
If a band could literally set the world on
fire by simply choosing the right incendiary sequence and layering of noises,
my money would be on Blackberry Smoke.
I
think “like an arrow” is an understatement; I’ll go with “like a cannon.”
HIGH POINTS: Like an
Arrow, Sunrise in Texas, Waiting for the Thunder, Running
Through Time
06) RECORD COMPANY – Give It Back to You
I caught their act at an after-hours festival gig a couple
of years ago, and the promise implied on that night has borne fruit with the
most impressive bare-bones blues-rock album I’ve heard in a while.
If you’re the sort of Rolling Stones fan who
believes “Exile” is their high-water mark, this is your kind of band.
Granted, the Record Company’s kind of gutter
trash has more of a neon sheen to it, being from Los
Angeles rather than London,
but they’ve got the swagger and the attitude right.
I’d pay good money to see them on a bill with
JJ Grey and Mofro sometime.
HIGH POINTS: Off the
Ground, On the Move, This Crooked City, Rita Mae Young
05) TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND – Let Me Get By
For my money, this is still one of the best live bands going.
A few personnel changes over the years
doesn’t seem to have slowed them down.
They lock in the groove and just keep hammering.
It can’t be easy keeping all twelve (!)
musicians on track, but like other “family-”and “extended-family-” bands before
them, the bandleader (in this case, Derek Trucks) manages to bring the train
safely to the station every time.
It may
seem like it’s going to barrel through the brick wall at the end of the line,
but that’s half the fun.
Susan Tedeschi
and Mike Mattison’s vocal turns are always smooth and sexy, but for me the
sonic circus is the star.
HIGH POINTS: Let Me
Get By, Laugh About It, Just as Strange, Anyhow, Crying Over You / Swamp Raga
04) PHISH – Big Boat
Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd’s “the Wall”) takes another turn at
producing a Phish album.
Though “Big
Boat” may seem less cohesive on first listen than its predecessor, “Fuego,” I
think its meandering nature may be its strength.
Just as showcasing each of the phoursome
individually in concert makes the overall structure more robust and varied, or
the addition of outside genetic material can curb birth defects in humans, this
album manages to avoid the trap of “same-y-ness” that can plague a band after
fifteen studio albums.
Of course, as
with all Phish albums, we must infer the jam sections these crafted, concise
gems are meant to initiate, but for those who can’t afford to attend every
Phish show, the implications are delightful enough.
HIGH POINTS: Blaze
On, Miss You, Petrichor, Waking Up Dead, Things People Do
03) DAVID BOWIE – Blackstar
I don’t think I can say anything about this album that a
hundred writers haven’t already said.
Even if Mr. Jones hadn’t died two days after this album’s release and
called for a permanent spotlight to shine on it all year, I remember how
impressive it was on that first, untainted listen.
And the second.
And then I heard the sad news.
It is certainly one of the best albums he
released in recent memory (though no less experimental), and I’ll argue it
stands with the best of all his masterpieces.
The fact that it explores themes of abandonment, life after death, and
an unsympathetic (or possibly nonexistent) supreme being wouldn’t have been
surprising on any other Bowie
album, but of course it’s in our nature to retroactively assign pre-sagacity to
these in this case.
Bon voyage, Mr.
Jones, and safe travels.
You will be
missed.
HIGH POINTS: I Can’t
Give Everything Away, Blackstar, Lazarus, ‘Tis a Pity She Was a Whore, Sue (Or
In a Season of Crime)
02) UMPHREY’S McGEE – Zonkey
The first time I heard Umphrey’s perform one of their
now-infamous “live mash-ups” was in 2010 at the El Rey Theater in Albuquerque.
It was a mash-up of Nine Inch Nails “Closer”
and The Beatles “Come Together.”
I
thought it was brilliant.
Over the
years, they’ve added enough of these to their arsenal to have committed them to
an album of their own.
Whether or not
the stunt gets them noticed by a more mainstream audience is practically
irrelevant, since most of that “more mainstream audience” is too obsessed with
checking their fucking phone to possibly matter in the grand scheme of
things.
Mash-ups are a fun and
interesting way to cover songs, and normally relegated to YouTube DJs with too
much equipment and time on their hands, but Umphrey’s has proven that, in the
right hands, mash-ups can be played, and quite impressively, by actual
musicians.
HIGH POINTS: Life
During Exodus, Electric Avenue
to Hell, National Loser Anthem, Strangletage, Can’t Rock My Dream Face
01) MARCHFOURTH – Magic Number
MarchFourth is now the band I most want to see in concert.
I spent the better part of 2016 telling
anyone who would listen that this was the best, most interesting album of the
year.
I’ve heard impressive “jam marching
bands” before, but this is a totally take-no-prisoners affair.
They are here to literally blow you away.
Ben Ellman (Galactic) has produced the
impossible, making something simultaneously goldbrick-solid and river-flowing,
like I always imagined the Mesoamerican diety Quetzalcoatl.
Guest musicians Stanton Moore and Trombone
Shorty add a New Orleans
flair to the proceedings, but are hardly necessary.
Having been a member of marching bands
myself, I simply cannot fathom how they are able to swing and thump this hard.
Heavy enough to stop you in your tracks, but
lilting enough to spur your feet to happy dancing, this is the kind of band I
could see forming a religion around.
HIGH POINTS: Science
(Free Your Mind), the Quarter, Inventing the Wheel, Magic Number, Push It Back,
Call to Action
-TOAST’S FAVORITE SINGLES of 2016-
I should preface this list by saying that some of the albums
of the year also produced what I considered singles of the year (e.g. “Off the
Ground” by The Record Company), but for this list, either one track was a total
standout from the album, or perhaps I simply haven’t had the opportunity to
hear the whole album. These are, for
want of a better term, “radio songs,” but would nevertheless make great
additions to many mixtapes.
16) WIL – A Whoo Hoo
A nice little retro ditty that got stuck in my head for
weeks.
15) FRUITION – Santa
Fe
New Yorkers love songs about New York,
I love songs about Santa Fe.
14) JIM JAMES – Here in Spirit
A good message draped in fantastic production. Operatic yet sparse.
13) STONE ROSES – All for One
This is one of the few bands from the 90s I’m glad got back
together.
12) JAH WORKS - Water
So much reggae is just plain claptrap, I applaud their
originality and sincerity.
11) ELLE KING – Good Girls
This one oozes a kind of Wanda Jackson-esque brassiness and
sex appeal.
10) MONDO KOZMO - Shine
A songwriter singalong which uses no whistle track? Thank you.
Just, thank you.
09) THE WIND + THE WAVE – Grand Canyon
Seems like it would be great music to ride to, really fast,
down a mountain biking trail.
08) RIVER WHYLESS – All Day All Night
They call themselves a folk band, but this sound is pretty
expansive. Maybe that’s allowed in the
Mumford age.
07) FANTASTIC NEGRITO – In the Pines
Like many takes on traditional standards, this one works by
playing up the minor key and the bassline, implying a certain menace.
06) SAINT MOTEL - Move
The song opens with a command I’m happy to oblige. This band is slinky and sleazy in all the
right ways.
05) BASTILLE – Good Grief
Bordering on being too clever and meticulous to be a pop
song, or maybe just clever and meticulous enough. Meta moment:
“It goes in one ear, out the other.”
04) DAWES – When the Tequila Runs Out
You’ve never heard Dawes try so hard to sound like an “indie”
band. This is as hooky and experimental
as these “whisper-folkies” are likely to get.
03) STRAY BIRDS – Sabrina
My favorite “out of left field” entry this year. Blissfully breakneck in its pacing and
refreshingly unadorned with fancy production.
Raw in the best way possible.
02) STRUMBELLAS – We Don’t Know
In my opinion, far superior to their international hit “Spirits.” Only time will tell if they’re just another flash-in-the-post-Mumford-folkie-pan,
but I’m hooked so far.
01) ALABAMA
SHAKES – Sound & Color
Yes, the album came out in 2015, and made my list of
favorite albums. As a single in 2016,
this masterpiece revealed its hidden glory slowly. It seemed like a new song every time I heard
it.
NEW MASTERSOUNDS – the Nashville
Session
PHISH – 12/31/16 Madison Square
Garden, New York, NY
WIDESPREAD PANIC – 5/5/16 Chicago
Theatre, Chicago, IL
-BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASES / REISSUES-
CROSSROADS REVISITED - Selections from the Crossroads Guitar Festivals
DEAR JERRY – Celebrating the Music of Jerry Garcia
GRATEFUL DEAD – Red Rocks 7/8/78
JIMI HENDRIX – Machine Gun - the Fillmore East 12/31/69 [first show]
30 DAYS of DEAD – November 2016 [web series @ dead/net]
-BEST BANDS I SAW LIVE – TOUR DIARY-
DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE – 1/11/16 National Hispanic Cultural
Center, Albuquerque, NM
GARY CLARK, JR. – 3/9/16 Sunshine Theater, Albuquerque, NM
MY MORNING JACKET / BARR BROTHERS – 5/29/16 Red Rocks
Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
KARL DENSON’S TINY UNIVERSE – 6/30/16 the Bridge, Santa Fe, NM
POLYRHYTHMICS – 7/19/16 Plaza Bandstand, Santa Fe, NM
GALACTIC – 8/5/16 Taos Mesa Brewing, El
Prado, NM
LAKE STREET
DIVE – 8/11/16 Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO
GOV’T MULE / moe. / BLACKBERRY SMOKE – 8/25/16 Red Rocks
Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
PHISH – 9/2-4, 2017 – Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce
City, CO
TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND / LOS LOBOS / NORTH MISSISSIPPI
ALLSTARS – 9/19/16 Sandia Casino Amphitheater, Albuquerque, NM
 |
| photo by Gerald Bivens |
-BEST LOCAL ALBUM-
MATT CHAMBERLAIN and BRIAN HAAS – Prometheus Risen
Not certain if this technically counts as a local release, though Brian Haas (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey) does spend a lot of his time in Santa Fe and apparently loves recording at Frogville Studios. This album is all the more amazing because, as he told me, it is 100% improvised in the studio.
HIGH POINTS: African Crowley, Orange Purple Sunshine, Cosmic Vision, Neuro Quantum Adept, Space Colonization
-LIKED THESE – MORE PLEASE!-
ARJUN
CORBU
DAWG YAWP
EXPLOSIONS in the SKY
HAUNTED WINDCHIMES
HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER
KING GIZZARD & the LIZARD WIZARD
MAGIC MUSIC
PAPER BIRD
TWEED
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