One last Sunday for 2009 means one last yearly retrospective look at the music of the year.  This week, for the song of the year, we turn our gaze to Phoenix [m] [w] and their big hit single, “1901.”  Even if “1901″ wasn’t the best song of the year, it’s certainly in the discussion.  Rolling Stone (#5), Pitchfork (#3) and Spin (#2) all ranked it among the year’s top five and the critical reception elsewhere was similarly overwhelmingly positive.

What’s more, “1901″ was everywhere in 2009, making appearances in Cadillac commercials, television shows (Gossip Girl, Melrose Place) and in the trailer to the film New York, I Love You.  With the song’s ubiquity came the omnipresence of Phoenix on late night talk shows.  In 2009, the band played Conan, Letterman, Fallon, Kimmel, Colin Ferguson and Saturday Night Live.  Along the way, they found enough crossover success to earn their first Grammy nomination (for best alternative album).

All in all, it was a big year for Phoenix and “1901″ was a big part of the reason why.  Did you miss it?  Well the year’s not over yet!  Go get “1901″ from Pringlewood and see why it’s the pick for song of the year.  Enjoy!

With Christmas coming up in just a few days, ’tis the season to take a break from our 2009 retrospective and appreciate a little bit of holiday tuneage.  Now I know that Christmas music is a little controversial… there are some people who, for whatever reason, really can’t stand it.  Other folks (myself included) appreciate it for what it is:  a traditional element of the season that helps set the holiday ambiance that is as essential to Christmas as the trees, lights, cookies and presents.

Picking just one track this week was pretty tough, after all, there are so many great Christmas songs to choose from.  Everyone from Metallica to Alvin and the Chipmunks to Kurtis Blow has produced a memorable Christmas classic.  In the end, I had to go with the only song to make a pair of appearances on a two disc compilation of excellent Christmas tunes that I made a few years ago.

“Sleigh Ride” is high up there in the hierarchy of Christmas songs, annually ranking in the top ten most performed songs by ASCAP members during the holiday season.  According to Leroy Anderson’s biographer, “‘Sleigh Ride’… has been performed and recorded by a wider array of musical artists than any other piece in the history of Western music.”

One of those artists is neo-swing standby, The Squirrel Nut Zippers [m] [w], who recorded the song for their 1998 album, Christmas Caravan. Although the rest of the music world had a 50 year head start recording “Sleigh Ride”, it’s the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ rollicking romp through the song that really sounds like a sleigh ride that has become definitive to me.

Now it’s your turn… get into the holiday spirit (whatever holiday you like, “Sleigh Ride” is entirely nondemoninational!”), go download Sleigh Ride from Popdose.  Enjoy!

When I discover a an enjoyable tune or two by a previously unknown artist, I’ll often look deeper into the artist’s catalog to see if they have a sound that keeps my attention.  Sometimes, there’s just the one single that works for me, but on other occasions, a little exploration goes a long way and I’ll uncover a treasure trove of excellent music.

This year, one of those artists that was added to my playlist after some further investigation was Andrew Bird [m] [w].  Back in January, he released Noble Beast, Bird’s fourth solo studio album.    Filled with some exquisite violin, intelligent lyrics, singsong whistling and a variety of complementary instrumentation, Noble Beast was well worth all the listens that I gave it this year.  What’s more, this success wasn’t a fluke… digging deeper, I found that Bird’s sound was pretty consistent across his catalog.  When you’re doing something right, that’s good news.

There are a bunch of excellent tracks in Andrew Bird’s catalog to recommend, but I’m going to go with one of the standout tracks from Noble Beast.  “Fitz And The Dizzyspells” is a catchy uptempo number that’ll have you dancing and clapping  halfway through and whistling along to the tune well after the song has ended.  Go get “Fitz And The Dizzyspells” from KEXP and you’ll see what I mean.  Then check out more of Andrew Bird’s catalog find even more great tunes.  Enjoy!

It’s December and the “2009 in review” season is in full swing.  I’m going to spend most of the month doing a bit of that here at Free Music Sunday, starting with a favorite music moment of the year.

It was late July and I was heading down to the family vacation on the Outer Banks.  The drive from DC was going well, save for the violent thunderstorms that snarled traffic and made me pull over for an hour or so in the Hampton Roads area.  By the time I was heading down Route 158 through northeastern North Carolina, the skies had cleared and I had the windows down, some good tunes on the stereo and plenty of open road ahead.

As I pulled into Grandy, NC, it was time to make a pit stop, so I turned off the road and pulled into a Food Lion store.  As I drove past, there were some Currituck County police outside the store who appeared to be arresting some folks they had pulled over.  The real surprise, however, was waiting for me inside the store.  At first, it sounded vaguely familiar but just a little off… then it hit me.  Here at a chain grocery store in rural northeastern North Carolina, the music being played on the in-store PA system was Polly Scattergood [m] [w]?!?!?  Why yes, it was… British indie-pop has made its way to Grandy… who knew?!?

At first, I didn’t recognize “Please Don’t Touch” simply because it was The Golden Filter [m] [w] remix that I had been listening to for a few months.  The Golden Filter have had quite a year for themselves as well, remixing everything out there up to and including your answering machine message.  But the job they did on “Please Don’t Touch” is particularly good, adding a haunting, ethereal quality to the original mix.

Go get “Please Don’t Touch” from Stereogum.  Pretend you’re buying some groceries while you listen for full effect… and enjoy!

Now that we’re past Thanksgiving and into the home stretch of 2009, ’tis the season for taking a look back at the year that was.  One band that you’ll see on so many “Best of 2009″ lists is the Dirty Projectors [m] [w], whose album Bitte Orca has been drawing raves ever since it was released.

Now if you’re like me, you’ll use these lists as a springboard to find new music, see what you’ve missed this year, etc.  And when you see critical acclaim pouring in from everywhere, that’s probably a good indication that the music is worth your time.  Well fear not my readers, I’ve already checked out the Dirty Projectors for you and I can confidently tell you… to find something else to listen to.  Simply put, their music sounds like it’s 90% flourish. If it were a cupcake, it would be all icing.  Now icing may be tasty and important, but you don’t want too much of it.

Having said that, it’s also true that sometimes even a band that doesn’t do much for me can make its formula work nicely for just one song.  In this case, I have to give the Dirty Projectors props for one track.  “Stillness Is The Move” is a jam.  It’s easy to listen to it and hear hints of what makes the rest of the group’s work so annoying, but they manage to keep it in check here enough to make you imagine that the band could put out an entire album worth of stuff that strikes the delicate balance.  Only they didn’t.

You won’t be missing anything special if you pass over the Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca, but do go get “Stillness Is The Move” from KEXP and appreciate it as a nice little nugget of indie rock goodness.  Enjoy!

With Thanksgiving upon us, much of America is gearing up to go home for a long weekend of turkey, football and family.  Yours truly won’t be traveling back to Pittsburgh, but that doesn’t mean that Free Music Sunday can’t take a week to reflect back upon the hometown and its music.

In the mid-to-late 90’s, Pittsburgh bands attained some local popularity, thanks in large part to airplay on local radio stations and a seemingly endless number of local music festivals.  One particular show featuring seven local acts, plus one nationally-known artist sticks out in my mind, however (and not just because I piled into a car with 8 or 9 strangers to get back home when the T stopped running before the show ended).  There was just some allure to seeing most of the bands that were on the bill that night… some were known favorites, with some I had heard good buzz and others, I was just curious.

The one band that looked kinda blah was set to play mid-set, providing a nice little break to a full afternoon and evening of live music.  But when the frontman came out on stilts wearing a red, white and blue sequined Uncle Sam outfit… well, I figured that I had to see what these guys had to offer.  Turns out, it was the best set of the night.

This was my introduction to the Vibro Kings [m], a band that quickly became my favorite local act in large part because of lead singer Doug Khorey’s irrepressible charisma and their high-energy shows.  While their song catalog was pretty good and well-suited to the band, what really set the Vibro Kings apart was their work on stage.  Because they put on such a fantastic live show (often including a great cover of Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish”), I would go to see these guys put on a show whenever I could, even if they were playing outside on a freezing cold New Year’s Eve.

Sadly, in September 1999 – right after I moved back to Pittsburgh after college – the band played a last show and called it quits (on my newly ex-girlfriend’s birthday, no less).  So it was much to my surprise when earlier this year, I discovered that the band had gotten back together, moved to Nashville and started putting out new material.  Listening to the new tracks over at the band’s Myspace page, however, I feel like the band has lost touch with what made it tick in the first place.  Where previously you had irreverent tracks like “Locomotive Man” or wistful nostalgic recollections like “Love Song,” now we’re getting stuff that sounds like “music with a message”… not exactly a strength of the band.

That said, if it helps ‘em sell some records, I’m not going to hold it against them.  After all, they’ve already given me plenty of great memories.  And if they come to play DC, I’m absolutely there.  Now go take-a-listen to this live version of “You Know It (Just Ain’t Right),” taken from the band’s debut EP, Live At Fat City.  Enjoy!

I try to pay attention to the music world, and for the most part, I’m at least somewhat aware of what’s going on out there.  Sure, sometimes I’ll hear about a band but not bother to actually listen to ‘em for a few years.  It’s significantly less often that a successful act flies completely under the radar.

So when I started seeing a bunch of references to Boards of Canada [m] [w]  a few months ago, I figured that they were some buzzworthy new act.  Then I took a closer look and found that they’ve been putting out music for over a decade.  Oops.  (To further the disorientation, they’re not Canadian either… they’re Scottish)

Getting past the whens and the wheres, I found that Boards of Canada was a nifty little electronic act that fits in nicely with my collection.  “Aquarius” is a favorite track from those I’ve heard so far.  It’s not what you might consider a “conventional” track in terms of the vocals, which will either convince you that the song is an ad for a telecom company or make you thirsty for some juice, but it has a great beat, some of the electronic bleeps and bloops that I love so much and the funkiest 30 count you’ll ever hear. Yeah, that’s right!

It may not quite be your cup of tea, but it’s a groove that’s worth trying out, especially if you’re just looking to wind down and relax a bit.  Go get “Aquarius” from Salad Days Music and see what we’ve all been missing.  Enjoy!

Twenty years after their heyday, Steely Dan [m] [w] remains relevant and part of the consciousness.  Now, maybe you don’t think you know any of their work, but without realizing it, you’re probably familiar with a few tracks.  Steely Dan has a way of seeping into the foundations of our modern world, showing up in places like the background music playing at your grocery store.  Because of their genre-defying sound, Steely Dan manages to pop up on playlists of radio stations with Classic Rock, Adult Contemporary, Easy Listening and 70’s-themed formats.

But this post isn’t really supposed to be about Steely Dan.  You see, last week, the Ultimate Players Association held its championship tournament.  The champions of the open (read: men’s) division was a team from Atlanta called Chain Lightning.  Now maybe the inspiration for the name was the DC Comics villain or the fighter plane or the World of Warcraft shaman spell (OK… that last one may be somewhat less likely), but I prefer to think that the team named itself after Steely Dan’s song from the 1975 classic album, Katy Lied.

In fact, I prefer to think a lot of things could plausibly get an extra dash of smooth and cool if they were named after Steely Dan songs.  The day after Thanksgiving has already taken the “Black Friday” moniker and Wilmer Valderrama’s character from That 70’s Show was the Fez… but we can do better!  Washington, DC as “Barrytown“, Bram from The Pittsburgh Comet as “Kid Charlemagne”, Pedro Martinez as “Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More” (er… maybe not!).  I might choose “King Of The World” for myself, if only I didn’t already pick my pseudonym from Stereolab’s catalog.  Any more ideas here?  Comment away!

Oh, and go check out Chain Lightning (the song) too.  Enjoy!

I’ve always been fascinated by views of apartment buildings at night.  All the windows lit up provide a tiny glimpse into the lives of the buildings occupants, stacked one atop another like a mass of real-life dioramas.  In one window, you might see someone cooking dinner… in another, a festive social gathering may be going on… and the flicker of television comes from a few more places, sometimes coordinated, as if the occupants are watching the same thing together… separately.

With last night’s departure of Daylight Savings Time for another season, sunset and these accompanying apartment building scenes will begin an hour earlier each night.  Here in DC, we have lots of apartments, condos and other multi-unit residences that all light up at night.

We also have Bob Mould [m] [w], formerly of Hüsker Dü and Sugar.  ”City Lights (Days Go By)” is a track from Life and Times, Mould’s latest album that was released back in April.  The song really has nothing to do with time changes or looking into people’s apartments.  It’s just my own word association that links the words “city lights” with nighttime images of the populace’s residences.  So when I hear this song, I can imagine driving down apartment-dense streets like 16th Street in Columbia Heights or Connecticut Avenue in Kalorama simply marveling at all the life being broadcast out every window.

That said, it’s a pretty rockin’ song too.  But don’t just take my word for it, go get “City Lights (Days Go By)” from Stereogum and see for yourself.  Enjoy!

Halloween is just around the corner, which makes it an excellent time of year to break out some tunes about ghosts, zombies, witches and other spooky stuff.  High on my list of top Halloween tracks (and I do have a pretty sweet holiday playlist), however, is “The Horror” from RJD2 [m] [w].

Making a name for himself in the world of primarily instrumental hip hop, it’s perhaps not too surprising that RJD2 remains somewhat anonymous in popular music circles.  Nevertheless, it’s possible… perhaps even likely that you’ve heard his work before as his music has been used in commercials for adidas, Wells Fargo and Saturn as well as promos for TNT’s “Inside the NBA.”

“The Horror” had a commercial appearance of its own, popping up in a UK spot for Levi’s jeans.  But ultimately, the reason that it’s featured this week is because it’s a Halloween song through and through.  It has the title, it has a sound that exemplifies the horror, and it’s just a sweet little track.

So if you’re ready to set an appropriately spooky mood for the season, go get “The Horror” from Salad Days Music.  Put it in with a few other appropriate tracks to play when the kids come trick or treating and everyone will win!  Enjoy!