Born out of the friendly and wooded confines of a Hornings Hideout gathering in 2005, comes a jamband supergroup of sorts called The Contribution.  The project fronted by Tim Carbone (fiddle/vocals) of Railroad Earth brings together seasoned veterans Jeff Miller (guitar/vocals) and Phil Ferlino (keys) of New Monsoon, as well as Keith Moseley (bass) and Jason Hann (drums) of The String Cheese Incident to form a collaborative effort of tot

With vintage sounding indie bands being a flavor of the year, many bands are relying too heavily on their influences and failing to create something new. In contrast, The Mynabirds create a lively musical synergy on their debut album, What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood. They do not bash the listener over the head with their influences. Instead, they subtly incorporate soul and R & B arrangements into their pop rock sound.

When I first heard the word remix I was a bit skeptical. Many of the remixes I have listed to over the years have been nothing more than a cheap and easy way for the record companies to make money. Throw down some new backgrounds and you have yourself a remix. My Brightest Diamond’s Shark Remixes are the furthest thing from sounding budget.

There have been a number of fantastic albums over the past decade. Take this list at face value. The title sums it up perfectly. Here are simply 10 of the many albums I have enjoyed over the past 10 years. I have not bothered to number them. That would be foolish. I hate sources that number their lists. They are too absolute and definitive. If you have not had a chance to listen to these, I cannot urge you enough to go to your local record store and check them out.

Enjoy,

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Ah yes it is that time of year again. It is the time of year when critics put out their best of lists. There will be more lists this year with the new decade thing going on (shameless plug for my next article).  Here is what I came up with for this year, enjoy.

Top 5 Albums that I listened to in 2009

1. Rural Alberta Advantage –  Hometowns

2. Modest Mouse – No One is First and You’re Next

3. Peter Bjorn and John – Living Things

4. Gomez – A New Tide

I will preface this review by saying; I grew up on The Blue Album and Pinkerton. They were classics and set a very high standard for Weezer albums to come. Raditude, like every other Weezer album following their first two, does not evoke the same magic feeling that The Blue Album and Pinkerton do. To Weezer’s credit the musical landscape has vastly changed since The Blue Album. Their garage rock sound has become more of the norm in the mainstream music scene.

I have listened to a lot of music. Over the past few years, I have come to accept that there is very little that musically surprises me anymore. I am not saying that there is nothing good out there, to the contrary there has been a lot of good music lately, it is simply that the music I have listened to recently lacks staying power. When I say staying power, I mean that I can play the album a week, month, year or years later and not be embarrassed. The Rural Alberta Advantage debut album Hometowns caught me off guard.

Colorado newgrass icons Drew Emmitt and Bill Nershi break away from their well-known respective groups, Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident, and return to their roots to form an exciting project that melds original bluegrass standards with progressive jamgrass flavors.  With an excellent supporting cast in tow, this album is a must-own for any fan of the string band genre.

Pete Yorn is back...well almost. The title back and forth is very appropriate for his latest offering. It feels as though Yorn has spent a good part of his music career trying to figure out his sound. His first two albums MusicfortheMorningAfter and Day I Forgot were very similar. Both played to Yorn's strong songwriting abilities. Yorn went a bit off course with his third album Night Crawler. Do not get me wrong, Night Crawler has its moments but it is incredibly overproduced to the point that it drowns out Yorn's vocals.