Go News Go! – The Weekly News Recap

Da dadadada da. Da dadadada da. DaDAAAA! It’s the return of Go News Go! YAY!

General

• You had me at Zooey Deschanel
• Radiohead announce cities for US tour!!! No dates?!!?! F***!
• Asthmatic Kitty DVD? Yes, please.
• Bruised Shins.

Tour Dates

• Clinic (England and US)
• The National (Worldwide)
• HEALTH and Crystal Castles (N. America)
• The Breeders…really? (N. America/UK)
• British Sea Power (Europe/US)
• Islands (Europe/US)
• Xiu Xiu (US)
• Broken Social Scene (Worldwide)
• Spoon (Worldwide)
• Jens Lekman (Worldwide)
• Blitzen Trapper (N. America)
• Justice (Worldwide)

Ugh….

Winners of the 4th Annual Cale Awards.

Well folks, after a month of polling, campaigning, and annoying you with updates you don’t care about, the 4th Annual Cale Awards have finally finished. Below you’ll find the winners according to the general readership of Audio Overflow, as well as my own personal pick for each category. Thanks to all of you who participated! Have a Merry Christmas!

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Britney Spears: Blackout
2nd – Boddicker: Big Lionhearted and the Gallant Man
3rd – Interpol: Our Love to Admire

Cale’s Pick:
Boddicker: Big Lionhearted and the Gallant Man – Because I’ve been trying to think of worse albums for the last 10 months and I’m still coming up empty. It’s the single worst thing I’ve ever heard!

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Britney Spears – “Toy Soldier”
2nd – Boddicker – “Bon Vivant”
3rd – Maroon 5 – “Kiwi”

Cale’s Pick:
Boddicker – “Bon Vivant” – Because I’ve been trying to think of worse songs for the last 10 months and I’m still coming up empty. It’s the single worst thing I’ve ever heard!

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Readers’ Pick
1st – Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight
2nd – Feist: The Reminder
3rd – Air: Pocket Symphony

Cale’s Pick:
Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight – I waited 3 years for a new Rilo Kiley album and what I got was a mediocre attempt at trying to sound like Fleetwood Mac. Personally, I’d aim a little higher.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Caribou: Andorra
2nd – LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
3rd – ContraNova: Infinity in all Directions

Cale’s Pick:

ContraNova: Infinity in all Directions – I went in expecting the worst, and came out with one of the most memorable and lasting musical experiences of the year.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – The Decemberists: The Crane Wife
2nd – The Flaming Lips: At War With the Mystics
3rd – The Pipettes: We Are the Pipettes

Cale’s Pick:
The Decemberists: The Crane Wife – It wasn’t my album of the year in 2006, but I’ve been surprised to find that it is just as good today as it was way back then. Perhaps better.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – The Flaming Lips
2nd – Of Montreal
3rd – The New Pornographers

Cale’s Pick:
The Flaming Lips – What can I said that I haven’t already ranted about? The Lips are the best live act I’ve ever seen in my life, and when I saw them a few months back I was spinning for days. Pure 100% awesomeness.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Spoon – “The Underdog”
2nd – Bjork – “The Dull Flame of Desire”
3rd – Okkervil River – “A Girl in Port”

Cale’s Pick:
Architecture in Helsinki – “Hold Music” – The brass in this song is strong and biting. Playing at triple forte to enhance an already out of control song has never sounded so good!

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Explosions in the Sky: All of a Sudden I miss Everyone
2nd – Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
3rd – Radiohead: In Rainbows

Cale’s Pick:
Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam– It’s such a strangely satisfying album. One that makes absolutely no sense, and yet it makes even less sense to deny the genius of it. It is, quite simply, amazing.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Band of Horses: Cease to Begin
2nd – Dillinger Escape Plan: Ire Works
3rd – Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist

Cale’s Pick:
Dillinger Escape Plan: Ire Works– Band of Horses? Seriously? It’s a great album, but Dillinger Escape Plan would eat them alive, regurgitate them, and then sacrifice the regurgitation to Vulcanus! That’s what this category was really all about.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Kanye West: Graduation
2nd – El-P: I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead
3rd – K-Os: Atlantis: Hymns for Disco

Cale’s Pick:
Absaining – I didn’t really hear any hip hop this year that I enjoyed. K-Os was good at times, but not his best, so I can’t credit him for that.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Caribou: Andorra
2nd – Justice: †
3rd – LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver

Cale’s Pick:
Justice: † – While all of the top three are great albums, I have to say that I enjoyed Justice’s log-awaited debut the most. Big ups to Caribou too though, that album is stunning.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Okkervil River: The Stage Names
2nd – Iron & Wine: The Shepherd’s Dog
3rd – Loney, Dear: Loney, Noir

Cale’s Pick:
Loney, Dear: Loney, Noir – It’s folk from Sweden, poppy folk, singer-songwriter folk. Hell, it’s just good.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Stars: In Our Bedroom After the War
2nd – Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder
3rd – Beirut: The Flying Club Cup

Cale’s Pick:
Field Music: Tones of Town – It’s brilliantly composed and executed, and one of the most relentlessly enjoyable albums of 2007! Not bad for a pop album.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
2nd – Tegan and Sara: The Con
3rd – The New Pornographers: Challengers

Cale’s Pick:
Band of Horses: Cease to Begin – I missed out on their debut, but I was fortunate enough to hear this one. It is without a doubt one of the best albums of 2007, and sure to please most everybody.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Radiohead: In Rainbows
2nd – Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder
3rd – Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist

Cale’s Pick:
Radiohead: In Rainbows – Probably the only award that Radiohead actually deserves this year. The hipsters are out in full force, proclaiming In Rainbows to be the second coming of Christ, but it’s not. It is an awesome album though, and a long time coming for Radiohead.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
2nd – Bright Eyes: Cassadaga
3rd – Stars: In Our Bedroom, After the War

Cale’s Pick:
Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? – It may not have been Of Montreal’s most artistic cover to date, but everything from how the album is opened, to the insert, to the clear, glossy sleeve it comes packaged in is beautiful.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – St. Vincent
2nd – Feist
3rd – M.I.A.

Cale’s Pick:
St. Vincent – This really isn’t even a contest. Annie Clark not only put out the best female album of the year, but one of the best…period. She is 2007’s Shara Worden.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Iron & Wine
2nd – LCD Soundsystem
3rd – Loney, Dear

Cale’s Pick:
Loney, Dear – His debut album here in the states was absolutely breathtaking from start to finish and he’s got one of the most unique styles in music today. That’s why I love it!

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – St. Vincent
2nd – The Twilight Sad
3rd – Dan Deacon

Cale’s Pick:
St. Vincent – She put out an album that most established artists only dream about; a perfect album with clever lyrics and beautiful performances on both vocals and intruments. Annie Clark blew away the competition, and ended up winning this category with over 70% of the votes tallied: the most lopsided category of the year! That’s how good she is.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Feist – “1,2,3,4”

2nd – Band of Horses – “Is There A Ghost”
3rd – Architecture in Helsinki – “Heart it Races”

Cale’s Pick:
Feist – “1,2,3,4” – Feist should be writing a letter right now to whoever directed this video. It should read, “Dear director, thank you for making my career. I love you.”

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Radiohead

2nd – The Besnard Lakes
3rd – Of Montreal

Cale’s Pick:
Band of Horses – 2007 is the year that first heard and fell in love with Band of Horses. They may not have had the best album of the 2007, but their music will stick with me for years and years to come.

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – The New Pornographers – “Challengers”
2nd – Of Montreal – “Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse”
3rd – Feist – “1,2,3,4”

Cale’s Pick:
Find out on December 31, 2007 in the Top 31 of 2007 Countdown

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Readers’ Pick:
1st – Radiohead: In Rainbows
2nd – Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
3rd – Band of Horses: Cease to Begin

Cale’s Pick:
Find out on December 31, 2007 in the Top 31 of 2007 Countdown

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Again, thanks to all of you who voted! And thank you for reading Audio Overflow.

Last Day to Vote for the 4th Annual Cale Awards!!

It’s the home stretch. Today is the final day to vote for your favorite and least favorite music of 2007 in the 4th Annual Cale Awards. For this final day, I’ve decided to bring all the polls here to the main page. Voting will only takes a 1-2 minutes, and seriously, is there anything better for you to be doing right now? I didn’t think so.

Below are the categories in which you may vote. I’ve ordered the categories by vote count, so those that have less votes overall will come first. You know, just to get a larger sample of things. That means the larger categories like Album of the Year or Band of the Year, are towards the bottom. Please vote if you have not yet done so.

Winners will be announced Monday, December 24th.

The Polls are closed. Thanks for voting. Come back Monday, December 24th to see who wins!

The Top 31 of 2007 – #16

Cale’s Pick

Radiohead: In Rainbows

Released: October 10, 2007

I forgot to set my alarm. That’s the excuse I’ll use, here. You see I was really planning on waking up at midnight, just in time to make it to the station. But it wasn’t until 8am that I finally woke up. I hurriedly put on my clothes, foregoing the typical shower in an attempt to make up for lost time. I was 8 hours late! No time to eat or talk to anyone, I got into my 1994 Ford F-150 and rushed to the train station. Traffic was hell. Everything was stalled, I wasn’t moving at all. I decided to take a shortcut, and made it to the station in about 15 minutes. By that time, though, the train had left without me. I had missed the hype train.

You see, maybe it’s the experience of staying up late and downloading a greatly anticipated album the first moment it’s available. I was there for Kid A, Napster was friendly. But when In Rainbows released over the series of tubes a few months back, I decided that I’d wait until morning to check out the album. By the time I headed to inrainbows.com, the site was flooded with traffic. I ended up downloading it from BitTorrent and not paying a dime for it. I missed out on the experience of downloading In Rainbows that so many of you got to enjoy. Maybe that’s why I haven’t ranted and raved about it. I gave it a 7 out of 10 because it is a good album, there’s not a bad song on it really. But it’s Radiohead. And amongst all the talk of how Radiohead was revolutionizing the way consumers will receive music in the future, everybody forgot to notice that Radiohead wasn’t coming anywhere close to revolutionizing their own sound as they have done so many times in the past.

Kid A remains my favorite Radiohead album to date because it is challenging, and at the time, completely unexpected from the band that was supposed to singlehandedly save rock music. Hail to the Thief had the band falling back on their old tricks, but adding in enough cool things here and there to keep things interesting. The same can be said for In Rainbows. Despite it’s utter greatness on every song, there’s simply not enough here to get excited about. It sounds a lot like O.K. Computer, which is good, but it doesn’t differentiate itself enough from it. In doing so, it’s just a bit disappointing coming from Radiohead. But it is a good album. And you should listen to it. And I will buy it in January, because I really prefer CDs over than MP3s any day.

For finally giving us some new material to listen to and freak out over, Radiohead makes it to #16 on my list.

The Top 31 Songs of 2007 – #16

“Peacebone” by Animal Collective, from the album, Strawberry Jam.

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Jill’s Pick

PJ Harvey: White Chalk

Released: October 2, 2007

I know I sound like a broken record (no pun intended) by using this to describe different artists, but, PJ Harvey is like Bjork…sometimes you never know what you’ll get. Really, though, in PJ Harvey’s case, it’s not exactly a good thing. It’s nice, but it’s not always good. It’s nice to hear her in a different form, but it’s not good because well, this album comes off like a Tori Amos tribute album.

It’s exactly like a Tori Amos tribute album.

(What is it with the 30 minute range albums anymore? I’m starting to think that people are more concerned with getting an album done in the quickest way possible rather than really working on the things they’re putting on to said albums.)

I never thought I’d use the word haunting to describe PJ Harvey, but that’s what she is on this album. “Broken Harp” is so, so sad sometimes you get stuck there. There’s a very Old West feeling and (hey!) there’s no wailing.

Here’s what makes this album worthy of being on my list: White Chalk is like she’s preparing to die and the lyrics and music are the kinds of things you’d say in a letter to a loved one. I can relate to that.

The best track: “The Mountain” (which should be admired for it’s cinematic qualities.

Songs you should give a listen to:

–“The Devil”

–“When Under Ether”

–“Broken Harp”

–“The Piano”

–“The Mountain”

Go News Go! – The Weekly News Recap

Regurgitating the news you probably already know, it’s Go News Go! Not to be confused with Flee News Flee!

General

• Los Campesinos fool you (not really)
• Hey, check out the album packaging for In Rainbows.
  
• I couldn’t be more pumped…yay! <—See?

Tour Dates

• The Decemberists do some Northwest Dates
• Beach House and Papercuts tour the US (Texas Dates)
• Liars + No Age (US)
• Black Lips (Planet Earth)
• Yeasayer (US + Europe + Texas)
• Mars Volta (US + Europe)
• Radiohead (Europe)
• Jens Lekman (Europe)
• Built to Spill (YAY!) (US + Texas)
• Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (US + Texas Dates)

Photos

• Lots of folks (including Deerhunter and TNP)

I’m off to go buy some tickets. See you later.

The Top 31 of 2007 – #24

Cale’s Pick

Caribou: Andorra
Released: August 21, 2007

When I first saw that a new Caribou album was due out, I thought, “Oh….that might be nice.” And then I left it at that. You see, I am the proud owner of Caribou’s “first” album, as well as Up In Flames by Manitoba (Caribou before a lawsuit forced Don Snaith to change the name of the music project). However, after owning those for a few years, I learned that they lost their appeal pretty early on. So while Andorra was a nice thought to me, I never expected it to be as gorgeous or inventive as it is. Drenched in psychadelia and (gasp!) live instrumentation, Andorra is a milestone for Snaith; not only reinventing himself as a musician, but doing so and managing to make it sound better and more imaginative than anyone could have foreseen. The lyrics on Andorra are a nice addition, as most of his prior music was without it. His voice is fragile, not as strong as it should be, but it surprisingly works. It’s really a beautiful album…and the cover art is kind of pretty too. What more could you ask for?

For surprising me, Caribou makes it to #24.

The Top 31 Songs of 2007 – #24
“Bodysnatchers” by Radiohead, from the album, In Rainbows

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Jill’s Pick
Alison Krauss: A Hundred Miles or More

Released: April 3, 2007

Another one of those collection albums, only this time it’s a jumble of soundtrack songs, duets, and only one remotely upbeat, foot tapping song that would have served me better in the middle of the track list rather than at the beginning.

I like Alison Krauss, I always have, and while this album is really kind of weak on a whole, it’s still vintage her. She’s got such an interesting, different voice that I sometimes have to pause and pay attention. On this album, “Down to the River to Pray” is my pause moment. The only way I can describe it is truly breathtaking. I just wish the rest of the album held a candle to that measurement. I don’t understand her fascination with John Waite (I don’t understand anyone’s fascination with him) and no one should ever remake “Missing You.” But I will say, because this is my review where I contradict myself (it’s not so good, yes, it kind of is good, I don’t like John Waite but I like this song) (typical girl?), I do enjoy “Lay Down Beside Me.” (Which is really a Don Williams song.)

It’s an album you listen to when you want to plunge head first into every break-up, every time your heart has been broken, or you want to mourn every person you’ve ever lost.

The best track: “Down to the River to Pray”

Songs to give a listen to:
–“Down to the River to Pray”
–“You Will Be My Ain True Love”
–“Lay Down Beside Me

Go News Go! – The Weekly News Recap

General

• I read “Sufjan” so that’s all I care about.
• The Mars Volta distracts from the fact that their music is going downhill.
• Portishead album coming soon (I don’t care)
• Conor Oberst + M. Ward = Bandmates?

Tour Dates

• Stars tour more.
• Hooray to new St. Vincent!
• New Band of Horses tour dates for you to not attend.
• Radiohead dates?! Kinda….
• Arcade Fire

Photos

• Electrelane
• Los Campesinos! and Most Serene Republic

4th Annual Cale Awards Update!

Can I share a secret with you? I hate doing myspace music monday. It’s such a chore to weed out all the crappy bands on myspace to find the one or two decent ones. As a result of my hate towards the feature and a really hectic schedule for the rest of 2007, myspace music monday is gone until 2008! We had a good run, babe.

But hey, that’s not what this post is about! It’s to update you on the happenings of the 4th Annual Cale Awards (going on RIGHT NOW!). So far things are going kind of slow. None of my regular readers from the U.K. and only one Californian (my second-largest audience) have voted thus far. That’s quite alright though, because there are some heated battles going on!

Take the Album of the Year category, in which Of Montreal and Radiohead are tied in the polls at the moment of this writing. Even more heated is the epic battle for Best Male Solo Artist in which Jens Lekman, Patrick Wolf, and Loney, Dear are in a three-way tug of war for superiority! Sure, it may sound like I’m being overdramatic for the sole purpose of luring you readers over to the polls, but I assure you this is not my intention.

There are also some upsets brewing. St. Vincent is running away with both the Best Female Solo Artist award and the award for Best New Artist. I think she deserves both, personally. A huge surprise to me was The Besnard Lakes pulling ahead in the Band of the Year category. I’ve also discovered that I’m alone in my admiration for Architecture in Helsinki’s new material, at least so far.
It’s all pretty enlightening to me, and if you have 2 or 3 minutes to spare (it may even take less than that), please head over to the polls and cast your votes for the best and worst of 2007! As always, you can write in your own nominations for each category. This is not only a fun way to appreciate our favorite artists, but it helps me to know what kind of music you listen to and what type of music I should cover more of to cater to you. It’s kinda the most important thing ever, folks.

I don’t know what else to say….

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Go News Go! – The Weekly News Recap

Honestly, who doesn’t love last week’s news?

General

• Band of Horses resist the man!
• PLUG Award Nominations are in! Best Blog? Not me!
• New Sigur Ros in the works.
• Secret Machines working on new LP. Here’s hoping it’s better than the last.
• Everything you ever wanted to know about 2008 and Animal Collective.
• Neko Case’s poetry.
• Metric Live DVD and Ep coming soon!
• Awww snap! New Ladytron comin’ at cha!
• Los Campesinos name their new album Hold On Now, Youngster…
• Radiohead = Click
• Kevin Barnes: “Selling Out isn’t Possible”
• 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums? I beg to differ.

Tour Dates

• Spoon
• White Williams
• My Bloody Valentine (Europe)
• Smashing Pumpkins (Europe)
• The Fiery Furnaces
• Intersuck (Worldwide)
• Band of Horses (Europe)
• Air/ Au Revoir Simone (Europe)
• Dan Deacon (Worldwide)
• Los Campesinos! (Worldwide)

Photos

• Emily Haines, Kevin Drew and friends.
• Menomena

Sweet! See you tomorrow!

Go News Go! – The Weekly News Recap

This week, I’ve decided to group news by category. Maybe I’ll do it this way from now on. Who knows?

General

• New Jason Collett Drops February 5th.
• I will own that Sufjan song!
• Radiohead news for the UK readers.
• Lily Allen: Lingerie Model?
• Hello Blue Roses release LP info
• Oh. My. God. Sweet!
• Now I have something to review in December! Yay!
• An aesthetically pleasing but unnecessary Radiohead boxset.

Photos

• Battles and Caribou Live
• Fun Fun Fun Fest (Of Montreal, New Pornographers, Battles, etc.)

Tour Dates

• My Brightest Diamond tour dates (See it).
• Hot Chip dates (Skip it).
• Sufjan in Japan and Australia 😦
• Magnetic Fields to tour in ’08.

nerdXcore

• South Park meets Rock Band, pwns Trogdor.
• Rock Band DLC Announced.
• Guitar Hero DLC now available!
• New Zune 80 due out next week. Preorder now.
• Report: No Connection Between File-Sharing, CD Sales

Meh, I don’t like it.