Over the next couple of weeks, Backbeat will feature some Top Ten lists from around the Village Voice Media chain. Click here for previous year-in-review coverage from Backbeat and VVM.
Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic Furr smells
It's finds like this that make me glad I am a pathetic, house-bound loser who spends all his time surfing the Internet. The good folks at Amazon.com got into the MP3-selling business a while back. Not only are there formats better than the ridiculous iTunes formats (for example, no DRM, universally usable VBR MP3s instead of iPod-only AAC files, etc.), but they are giving away 570 songs for free, no obligation. If you are near as broke as I am, this is good news, indeed! Let me be clear, too: we
My Morning Jacket's Celebración De La Ciudad Natal, a live EP recorded in Louisville and released especially for Record Store Day, was the top seller at Wax Trax for the week ending April 19. Death's 1974 demo, For the Whole World to See, which Drag City released in February, grabbed the number-two slot while local acts Tauntaun and the Omens continue to sit in the top ten. See the full breakdown after the jump.
The brand new Silversun Pickups album, Swoon, grabbed the top spot at Twist & Shout for the week ending April 19. Since the store was pretty busy on Record Store Day (April 18), it's not surprising that special releases for that day by Iron & Wine, My Morning Jacket and Tift Merritt also made the top ten. See the full breakdown after the jump.
​Modest Mouse's No One's First and You're Next, released last week on Sony, grabbed the top spot at Twist & Shout while Yim Yames (aka Jim Jones of My Morning Jacket) nabbed the second slot for the week ending August 9. Wilco's Wilco (the album), Levon Helm's Electric Dirt and Dead Weather's Horehound rounded out the top five. See the full breakdown after the jump.
Crackerfarm​Arena rock is making a comeback. Thanks to bands like My Morning Jacket,
Wilco and North Carolina's the Avett Brothers, the spirit and tradition
of the '70s is swelling and helping to conjure up images of rock and
roll when it was at it's purest, most visceral and most likely bearded.
We recently spoke with Bob Crawford, bass player for the Avett
Brothers, and discussed how the band's humble beginnings transformed into music being produced by the legendary Rick Rubin. Read the full
