youknowthisaboutme

Monday, December 17, 2018

Best of 2018

2018 offered plenty - to put it mildly - in the way of headlines, and with the year coming to a close, the iron grip of unease and tumult feels tight as ever. A divided country, an administration with no compassion for climate change science (amongst just about everything else), no movement on gun control, the list goes on and on.

With that, it should be no surprise that artists are speaking up and getting loud about these things. There is no finer example than Childish Gambino's track "This Is America." In terms of artistic expression, I can't recall a more profound moment in popular culture (during my lifetime, anyhow). The second that video dropped - with its visceral imagery throughout - it sent shockwaves across the states (world?) and seemingly stopped time. Everyone tuned in to what he had to say - and good on him. What an accomplishment, utilizing extraordinary talent and his platform to convey such complicated matters; all the while doing so in such an entertaining and thought-provoking way.

About 10 or so weeks beyond Gambino's soapbox moment - July 20th to be exact - my wife and I lovingly welcomed our daughter, Leighton Byrne Hale, into the world. In the blink of an eye, my responsibility list grew, along with a fastidious desire to ensure the world around her is a better place. While my blessings are many and my close-knits are happy, healthy and well, my hope is that Leighton can grow into a peaceful, artistic, and beautiful world. One even better than the version I'm familiar with. Who knows, with a blank canvas in front of her, maybe Leighton will use her talents to inspire and pave the road to a brighter way forward. One day I'll show her an example of that very concept from the year she was born.

My favorite album of the year is appropriately titled Freedom by Amen Dunes. It's a psych-folk collection of effervescent, groove-filled musings on life (aspects good, dark, and everywhere in between). I could talk about all of the great tracks on the album, but for those unfamiliar, it cold opens with a quote from the film Miracle. You hear a child boast, "This is your time, their time is done, it's over..."

I hope the kid's right.

xo,

P.S. I did things a bit differently this year, aside from Amen Dunes being my clear cut favorite album, I didn't see a reason to rank up all of this fantastic art; it's all good.

Favorite Albums of 2018

Amen Dunes - Freedom

Damien Jurado - The Horizon Just Laughed

Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth

Father John Misty - God's Favorite Customer

Big Red Machine - Big Red Machine

Kurt Vile - Bottle It In

Wooden Shjips - V

Phosphorescent - C'est La Vie

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs

Julia Holter - Aviary

Bonus Picks

Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs

Beach House - 7

Bonny Doon - Longwave

Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo

Hiss Golden Messenger - Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children (rarities + remasters collection)

Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!

Sandro Perri - In Another Life

Neil Young - Roxy: Tonight's the Night Live

Favorite Tracks of 2018 (a playlist)

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Best of 2017

"Give me the deeper understanding of who I am..." is a quick snippet of lyric I've found myself returning to on a near-daily basis in 2017. This is taken from one of my favorite songs/albums of the year and gives way to the title of said album (The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding). Personally speaking, if this year has brought anything overtly positive, I would have to say: I'm healthy, I'm surrounded by family and friends, and I have the ability to create my own happiness (which is typically through music, surf, travel (van!), art, and food).

But, like many, I feel endlessly helpless and frustrated by an increasingly difficult American landscape. One that feels foreign, bitter, and unjust to me. The bottom seemingly continues to drop.

I certainly have no prescription to remedy the situation, and quite frankly, have wrestled with this damn end-of-year essay for some time now; but I think an upper hand lies in the desire and drive to control what you can. Because if we've learned ANYTHING at all this year, it's that life is full of uncontrollable factors. As I write, my beloved Southern California is reeling from devastating wildfires. Neighbors, firefighters (heroes), plants, animals, and property are at the mercy of a force greater than the sum of their parts. For me, that example emphasizes the fact that I don't know if everything will be ok or work out, but in the meantime, I'm going to at least try to set sail in a direction of my choosing.

English poet John Milton said, "He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king." Easier said than done, but I think it's well within reason to own your own reality. And, who knows, maybe if we all shine our personal light a little brighter, we'll begin to understand each other a little bit better. Especially if we take the first step and truly understand ourselves.

With the preamble out of the way, let me pontificate for a moment on the fantastic year that was music. We heard from artists we haven't seen in quite awhile (Slowdive, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, LCD Soundsystem, Broken Social Scene), we also embraced younger artists exploring rich new territory (King Krule, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Julie Byrne, Vince Staples). It was a banner year for tunes and my list was rather hard to whittle down, but I managed ;)

I hope you and yours find a slice of peace & joy this holiday season. Thank you for enriching my life over the years. As always, please send along your favorites of the year, I would love to see/hear what you've been up to. All the best in 2018.

Cheers,

T-Hale

Top 10 Songs of 2017
(counting down 10 to 1)

Best Albums of 2017

10) Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness

*This is a meditative, Sunday morning album, if there ever was one*

9) Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

*A study in past, present, and future hiphop. What a legend*

8) King Krule - The OOZ

*The OOZ is a world unto itself. I recommend getting lost in it after some late night revelry*

7) Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference

*An album born of an artist who is both worth admiring and embracing as a new generational voice progressing an age-old art*

6) Kevin Morby - City Music

*Morby pens an enjoyable ode to city life and its energetic power*

5) Father John Misty - Pure Comedy

*This is a prescient album that encapsulates the current American landscape through thoughtful songwriting and wry humor*

4) The National - Sleep Well Beast

*A lush and ornate album with relatable themes from the masters of sophisticated indierock*

3) Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up

*This album ran up my list as the months wore on. Unfurls like an epic and takes some studying to fully grasp*

2) The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding

*On this record, you’ll hear expansive, hook-laden ‘American rock & roll.’ It sounds of a timeless era and the plaudits you’ve probably heard are accurate. Any other year, I'd bet 20 bucks it would be my #1*

1) Slowdive - Slowdive

*A cascading, dreamscape of an album. All the more impressive given their 20+ year break. They created the mold for artists like Beach House, Deerhunter and others. This is how it's done to perfection*

Honorable mentions:

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - French Press EP

Run The Jewels - RTJ3

Real Estate - In Mind

Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Lotta Sea Lice

Broken Social Scene - Hug of Thunder

Hiss Golden Messenger - Hallelujah Anyhow

Sinkane - Life & Livin It

LCD Soundsystem - american dream

Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins

Thundercat - Drunk

Neil Young - Hitchhiker

David Rawlings - Poor David’s Almanack

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Falling Forward (an autumnal playlist)

Dusting off this old thing with some clean and crisp tunes for the beautiful season.

xo

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Best of 2016

Fresh off the warm holiday glow, 2016 started out like all years. That is to say, it was there for the taking; fresh, ripe and full of the optimism all new calendar years bring. Then David Bowie died, Earth shifted off its axis and we haven’t recovered since.

Hyperbolic much? Of course and I am grateful for many things this year, but if the loss of this iconic, beloved artist wasn't an omen for the unrest, confusion, terror and general out of control orbit-spin to come, then I don't know what could have prepared us for such a topsy-turvy 12 months.

While I won't dwell here on politics and musings about divides and frustrations. I will point out that many of the year’s best releases did the talking. General paranoia and climate change panic (see: Radiohead), black identity in America (see: Beyoncé, Blood Orange, Solange, Frank Ocean etc), the difficulties and joys of pursuing work as an independent artist (see: Hiss Golden Messenger, Chance The Rapper, Car Seat Headrest) and reactions to gun violence (see: Kevin Morby’s single Beautiful Strangers, A Tribe Called Quest reuniting in response to the Paris attacks).

Amongst the multitude of beloved artists we lost in 2016, one can deduce that the arts are alive and well; and I’m bullish on that trend in 2017. Unfortunately from my vantage point – I predict many of the problems we faced in 2016 to only grow deeper and more profound. If there’s any silver lining, history has taught us that those creators we revere the most will only work harder to push their worldviews on matters at hand.

I’m also bullish on the opportunity ahead to distribute equal worth of productivity and proactivity. If ever there was a time to feel, see and realize your effect on your community and surroundings, next year seems poised to be the one to do so.

In the waning days of 2016, I had the great pleasure of seeing Henry Rollins deliver a 2.5 hour ‘sermon’ to a small audience in Los Angeles. His talents are innumerable but one great takeaway was his penchant for motivation. Rollins didn’t talk down to us as a troubled society, but spoke of our great responsibility to uphold our ‘very generous’ freedoms... to share our opinions and knowledge if someone seeks it and to lend a helping hand in our communities. Just a couple examples of the basic rights, privileges and charges we’re afforded simply by living in America.

I came across a Ralph Waldo Emmerson quote that packed in all of these feelings far more eloquently than I could begin to do:

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

I take a bit of exception with this - as I believe it’s important to live as charmed a life as personally attainable and that happiness is essential, but I gravitated to his notion of being useful. In the current state of things - I truly think we’ll need to completely break, to become fixed again. Everyone will need to be at the ready to help with the rebuild.

In 2017 - I pledge to be useful, peaceful and a difference maker. Just like many of the artists that inspire us day-to-day.

Happy holidays to you and yours. Below you’ll find my favorite songs and albums of 2016.

T-Hale

Top 10 Songs of 2016

(counting down 10 to 1)

Best Albums of 2016

10) Frank Ocean - Blonde