(photo by WRIR's own DJ Carlito)

 

With 2011 coming to a close, it's time once again for your favorite WRIR personalities to post lists of their favorite records, songs, shows, etc., of the year.  I'll get it started with my favorite gigs of 2011:

 

1.  Harold Camping & The Rapture on May 21.  Wow, that was really something!  Even though the band was a no-show.

2.  Harold Camping & The Rapture on October 21.  Boy, twice in a year and two no-shows — what are the odds of that?

3.  Rick Perry at … um … uh … EPA … I can't … the third one ….  I forget.  Oops.

 

Click "Read More" for some actual lists.  And Happy Holidays to you and yours from everybody at Richmond Independent Radio.

11-20:
The Black Keys: El Camino
Kasey Chambers: Little Bird
Fountains Of Wayne: Sky Full Of Holes
Miranda Lambert: Four the Record
Gillian Welch: The Harrow and the Harvest
Bright Eyes: The People's Key
Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What
John Wesley Harding: The Sound of His Own Voice
Wooden Wand: Briarwood
Neil Young International Harvester: A Treasure

 

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Lightning's Girl – Cause & Effect – Thursdays from 7pm to 9pm

• Iceage – New Brigade – What's Your Rupture?
• Still Corners- Creatures of an Hour – Sub Pop
• Chelsea Wolfe – Apokalypsis  – Pendu Sound
• El Rego – S/T – Daptone 
• Tinariwen – Tassilli – Anti
• Dels – Gob – Big Dada
• The Men – Leave Home – Sacred Bones
• Bjork – Biophillia – Nonesuch
• We Were Promised Jetpacks – In the Pit of the Stomach – Fat Cat
• Les Maledictus Sound – Attention – Mucho Gusto

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Talia's Louisiana Dance Hall, Monday 9-11pm

Joe Hall & the Louisiana Cane Cutters – Thirty Dobb Special  –  Fruge Records

Jesse Lege, Joel Savoy & Cajun Country Revival  –  The Right Combination  –  Valcour Records

Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole  –  Le Soleil est Leve  –  Lache Pas Records

Johnnie Allan  –  Shine On and favorites rom the past  –  Jin

Dennis Stroughmatt  –  Things I Might Have Been  –  self

En Francais, Cjun 'n Creole Rock 'n Roll  –  Various artists  –  Bayou Teche Biere and Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commision

The Band Courtbouillon, featuring Wayne Toups, Steve Riley & Wilson Savoy  –  The Band Courtbouillon  –  Valcour Records

The Best of Festivals Acadiens et Creoles 2002 Live  –  Various artists  –  Valcour Records

 

SOME GREAT 2011 RELEASES FROM BEBOP & BEYOND WITH MR. JAZZ

 

Ron Westray & Thomas Heflin   Live fron Austin    Blue Canoe Records

Melvin Jones    Pivot  Turnaround Records

Mace Hibbard   Time Gone By     Mace Hibbard Records

Etienne Charles   Kaiso   Culture Shock Music

Kyle Eastwood  Songs From The Chateau     Candid/Mack Avenue

Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra     40 Acres and a Burro    Zoho

Miguel Zenon     Alma Adentro     Marsalis Music

Eric Alexander      Don't Follow The Crowd   High Note

Warren Wolf        Warren Wolf      Mack Avenue

Terri Lyne Carrington    Mosaic     Groove/Concord

James Carter Organ Trio   At The Crossroads       Emarcy/Decca

Kurt Elling    The Gate     Concord

Bobby Sanabria Manhattan School of Music Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra   Tito Puente Masterworks Live    Jazzheads

Captain Black Big Band    Captain Black   Big Band  PosiTone

Christian McBride Big Band    The Good Feeling   Mack Avenue

New Music Machine Best of 2011 (Thursdays 5-7pm)

 

 

10 is tough…but here are some faves from Sunrise Ocean Bender this past year…what a bounty…

The Lumerians :: Transmilinnia

The Red Plastic Buddha :: All Out Revolution

The Luck of Eden Hall :: The Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 1 & 2

Hills :: Master Sleeps

Cranium Pie :: Mechanisms (part 1)

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor :: Spectra Spirit

Electric Moon :: The Doomsday Machine

ERAAS :: ERAAS

three dimensional tanx :: three dimensional tanx

Eat Lights, Become Lights :: Autopia

~ mr. atavist

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Listening Locally in 2011 ~ mike rutz of Activate!

Noise ordinance be damned, local musicians inspired us with sheer volume doused in melodic attitude. A big nod to post-punk was exhibited by bands like Lost Tribe, Canary Oh Canary, and Dead Fame as well as the monthly “No Richmond” DJ nights at Balliceaux. Emphasizing the punk was Lost Tribe, whose self-titled LP and fog-shrouded shows were dark, dank delights. The jaw-dropping epics of Canary Oh Canary stretched into shoegaze territory on their debut "Last Night in Sunway Knolls," while Dead Fame updated new wave for the 21st century. The Snowy Owls swapped acoustic pop for electric fuzz and wrote some of the tastiest hooks this side of 90s alt-rock. Their live sets were accentuated by stunning visual backdrops from Dave Watkins, who by day was creating a spectacular audio collage of experimental folk, psych, and post-rock for his album "When No One Else is Here and Everyone is Asleep." Hip hop producer Ohbliv mish-mashed his own artistic influences into a head-bobbing brew of beats (and sometimes rhymes), including the "Yellow Gold" album with rapper Nickelus F and a stack of collaborations with the Just Plain Sounds collective. The glorious Double Rainbow successfully bridged hip-hop with folk on its first release "Fuck the Internet." Patrons of greatly missed venue Sprout were bathed in beer at its last show, an impromptu response to minimalist scuzz-punks Nervous Ticks. Don't say you never got the chance to catch pop-punk band The Haverchucks, since they played shows literally every month in 2011. Metal fans solemnly rejoiced when Forcefield Records released the self-titled debut of doom stalwarts Windhand and "Crimes of Faith" by the not-to-be-pigeonholed Balaclava. If any event embodied the DIY spirit of Richmond music, it was this Summer's all-acoustic Island Power Jam.  After practicing to live Led Zeppelin videos, Travis Tucker mastered the pipes, poses, and tight pants of Robert Plant as Zepp Replica brought down the house at the WRIR Under the Covers benefit. Finally, it's rad seeing local champions Chrome Daddy Disco and Kepone gigging again on the regular.

And…a list of my most awe-inspiring shows of 2011 ~ mike rutz of Activate!

WRIR Party for the Rest of Us w/ The Diamond Center, Marionette, Ultra Dolphins, Pennyshaker – 2/4 @ The Renaissance Ballroom
Baby Help Me Forget – 2/14 @ Cous Cous
Kid Congo Powers – 2/17 @ Bandito's
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – 3/20 @ 9:30 Club
House of Pain – 4/5 @ 9:30 Club
Screaming Females, Heavy Cream, Windhand, Chalk Talk, 1994! @ MacRock
The New Deal – 5/4 @ The National
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult – 5/12 @ Fallout
The Flaming Lips – 5/15 @ The National
Wildbirds & Peacedrums – 6/4 @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Woods of Ypres – 6/9 @ Strange Matter
Zepp Replica – 7/1 @ Gallery 5
Foo Fighters, Death from Above 1979, The Cars, Delta Spirit, Black Lips, The Vaccines, Friendly Fires, The Joy Formidable, La Butcherettes, A Perfect Circle, Julia Easterlin @ Lollapalooza
Lost Tribe, Ice Age, la Mere Vipere, Dead Fame – 8/12 @ Strange Matter
Fat Shadow, Fire Bison – Sprout, 8/16
Worn In Red, Off With their Heads, Screaming Females – 8/18 @ The Bike Lot
Black Box Revelation – 9/24 @ Strange Matter
Primus – 9/26 @ The National
Original P – Richmond Folk Fest, Oct. 16
Zola Jesus – 10/21 @ Black Cat
Danzig Legacy – 10/29 @ Hammerstein Ballroom
WRIR Monster Mashquerade w/ Canary Oh Canary, The 27 Club – 10/28 @ The Camel
Snowy Owls – 11/5 @ Strange Matter
Hank 3 – 11/13 @ The National
AA Bondy – 11/18 @ The Southern

 

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Top UK Releases (Gene) The British Breakfast

Top 10 (no particular order)

1.  Standard Fare "Out of Sight, Out of Town" Melodic (Sheffield)

2.  Race Horses "Goodbye Falkenburg" Fantastic Plastic (Aberystwyth, Wales)

3.  Broken Hands "Brother" (single) AED (cantebury, Kent)

4.  Help Stamp Out Lonliness "Cottonopolis + Promises" (single) Where It's At Is Where You Are (Manchester)

5.  We//Are//Animal "Idolise" (EP) Cargo Records (Wales)

6.  The See See "Late Morning Light" Dell'Orso (London)

7.  Kites "Your are Dead To Me" (Single) unsigned (London)

8.  The 286 "A Victory For Battalion 286" (EP) Mile High Music (London)

9.  Filtyhy Nights "Yes, Priestess" (single) unsigned (London)

10. Cat's Eyes self titled Polydor UK

 

salad days w / dirty dacoit dan – best of 2011

grab the best of 2011 show podcast here

10 lps (no pat order) artist – lp – label – from

joyce manor – s/t – 6131 – long beach, ca

deep sleep – turn me off – grave mistake – baltimore, md

spraynard – funtitled – asian man – west chester, pa

have nots – proud – paper + plastick – boston, ma

omegas – blasts of lunacy – parts unknown – montreal, quebec, canada

bomb the music industry! – vacation – baldwin, ny

houseboat – thorns of life – traffic street – elmhurst, ny

night birds – other side of darkness – grave mistake – new jersey

rational animals – bock rock parade – katoga works – rochester, ny

two hand fools – house parts – sr – cleveland, oh
 

5 eps (no pat order) artist – lp – label – from

broadcaster – joy ride – sr – long island, ny

riverboat gamblers – smash / grab – paper + plastick – denton, tx

shirks – cry cry cry – grave mistake – washington, dc

teenage bottlerocket – mutilate me – fat wreck chords – laramie, wy

luther – siblings and sevens – black numbers – philadelphia, pa

hold tight! – call the zoo – sr – richmond, va

5 splits (no pat order) artist – label

cheap girls / lemuria – no idea

sundials / spraynard – evil weevil

dopamines / dear landlord – paper + plastick

grey area / go rydell – black numbers

wild / run, forever – solidarity

happy new year!