We Saw a Chicken …

Tag: sufjan

  • AlternativeBanjo – Banjo Tabs

    AlternativeBanjo has tabs for all your indie faves.

  • in the running

    Almost ‘Best of The Year’ time. In the running are:

    A Hawk and a Hacksaw – The Way the Wind Blows
    A.C. Newman – Souvenir of Canada – EP
    Beck – The Information
    Calexico – Garden Ruin
    Casper & the Cookies – The Optimist’s Club
    Colin Meloy – Colin Meloy Sings Shirley Collins
    Eels with Strings – Live At Town Hall
    Elf Power – Back To The Web
    Erynn Marshall – Calico
    Faun Fables – The Transit Rider
    Grandaddy – Just Like The Fambly Cat
    Grant-Lee Phillips – nineteeneighties
    Hidden Cameras – Awoo
    Joanna Newsom – Ys
    Jolie Holland – Springtime Can Kill You
    King Biscuit Time – Black Gold
    Mayor McCa – Cue Are Es Tea You
    Peter Stampfel – The Jig Is Up
    Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 РOl̩! Tarantula
    Sufjan Stevens – Songs For Christmas – Volume V: Peace
    Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche – Outtakes And Extras From The Illinois Album
    The Be Good Tanyas – Hello Love
    The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
    The Essex Green – Cannibal Sea
    The Flaming Lips – At War With The Mystics
    The Handsome Family – Last Days of Wonder
    The Instruments – Cast A Half Shadow
    The Sadies – In Concert Vol. 1
    The Wailin’ Jennys – Firecracker
    Thom Yorke – The Eraser
    Thomas Dolby – The Sole Inhabitant
    Wendy Arrowsmith – Crying Out
    Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

    Miraculously, all of them fit on my iPod Nano, so they’ll be in heavy rotation over the next week or so while I decide.

  • tunes I must learn (eventually)

    Not all of these could be classed as banjo tunes, but I’d want to try, anyway:

    • The Coo-Coo Bird (it’s not optional)
    • The Old Plank Road (Uncle Dave’s delivery, which was more demented than the Rounders)
    • Hot Corn, Cold Corn (like HMR; just how does one spell moo’m moo’m moo’m de boo’m boo’m de boo’m?)
    • I’m Going In A Field (Nic Jones style)
    • Bridges & Balloons (Joanna’s song’s just crying out to be covered with a broad Glasgow accent)
    • Needle of Death (too many banjo tunes are too happy)
    • Ghost (the Neutral Milk Hotel one)
    • something by Sufjan (even if Peter Stampfel says he plays banjo kind of boringly)
    • I Love How You Love Me (like Mangum, not Spector)

  • music of 2005

    It’s getting towards the end of the year, so I’m thinking about what albums I enjoyed most. These are the 2005 albums I have in my collection:

    • A Hawk And A Hacksaw — Darkness At Noon
    • Aimee Mann — The Forgotten Arm
    • Animal Collective — Feels
    • Beck — Guero
    • Bettye Lavette — I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise
    • Bright Eyes — Digital Ash In a Digital Urn
    • Bright Eyes — I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
    • Calexico / Iron & Wine — In the Reins
    • Caribou — Marino Audio
    • Dan Jones — Get Sounds Now
    • The Decemberists — Picaresque
    • Deerhoof — The Runners Four
    • Devendra Banhart — Cripple Crow
    • Dressy Bessy — Electrified
    • The Duhks — The Duhks
    • Eels — Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
    • Fiona Apple — Extraordinary Machine
    • Gorillaz — Demon Days
    • Grandaddy — Excerpts From The Diary Of Todd Zilla
    • Jennifer Gentle — Valende
    • John Parish — Once Upon a Little Time
    • Kate Bush — Aerial
    • Kate Rusby — The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly
    • Kimberley Rew — Essex Hideaway
    • Lazerlove5 — Flicker Mask
    • Lemon Jelly — ‘64–‘95
    • The Lollipop People — We Need a New F-Word
    • Malcolm Middleton — Into The Woods
    • Marbles — Expo
    • The Mountain Goats — The Sunset Tree
    • My Morning Jacket — Z
    • Of Montreal — The Sunlandic Twins
    • Sigur Rós — Takk …
    • Sleater-Kinney — The Woods
    • Sufjan Stevens — Illinois
    • The Vanity Project
    • Wolf Parade — Apologies to the Queen Mary

    I know there are some that won’t make my list (Aerial, for one) but the rest of them all have their moments.