As 2010 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.
Even James Jackson Toth’s most rabid fans probably can’t keep track of the prolific singer/songwriter’s output. The Lexington, Ky.-based Toth has issued numerous solo and group efforts (including cassettes, CD-Rs, limited-edition vinyl, etc.) under his own name as well as such monikers as WAND, Wooden Wand And The Vanishing Voice, H.P. Witchcraft, the Jescos and the Blood Group. His latest release is Wooden Wand‘s Death Seat (Young God), an impressive 12-track album produced by YG label head and Swans frontman Michael Gira and featuring musical contributions from members of bands such as Lambchop, Silver Jews, Mercury Rev, Glossary and Fire On Fire. Toth is heading out on European and North American tours in the new year, but in the meantime, he will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Toth: I’ve certainly enjoyed “hipper” records this year—the Body, Salem, Wold, Swans, Lindstrom & Christabelle, Wolfgang Voigt, etc., have all put out great ones in 2010—but the album I’ve listened to the most is the defiantly unfashionable Blood Under The Bridge by Bottomless Pit. I’m on record as stating that the only “genre” of music I can’t stomach is American indie rock, but I make exceptions, and Silkworm has always been a pretty big exception, simply because, to my ears, they so easily transcended the genre and sidestepped everything that made ’90s college rock so corny. This new band, featuring two-thirds of Silkworm, bests even that band’s best material. It’s a new album that somehow makes me feel nostalgic. Great songs, great playing, great recording. Can’t get enough.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWh4VE8omTI
