2011 was an amazing year for music. Some old favorites stayed the course or broke new trail, some new bands poked their heads into the scene and a few acts even kicked the door in. 2012 promises to be no different. Some of our favorite bands have either set release dates or tickled our senses with rumors of a potential release. There are some interesting questions that will be raised with this years releases though. Will this be fun.’s breakout year? Can James Mercer get old fans to forgive him for firing half his crew? Will Andrew Bird continue his whistling dominance?

First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar January 24th
The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know February 7th
of Montreal – Paralytic Stalks February 7th
Shearwater – Animal Joy February 14th
fun. – Some Nights February 21st
Fanfarlo – Rooms Filled With Light February 28th
Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself March 6th
Muse – TBD Fall 2012
Regina Spektor – What We Saw From The Cheap Seats May
Sigur Ros – Spring
The Shins – Port of Morrow Spring
Rufus Wainwright – Out of the Game Spring
Yeasayer – TBA
The Walkmen – TBA

This list may not be your list, and some of his picks are, indeed unbearable. (“Fidelity” by Regina Spektor takes the whole enchilada? No-o-o-o-o-o-o!!!) But these are his stories. All 200 of them. And he’s sticking to them..

Assignment: listen to The Cave by Mumford & Sons. Assessment: harmless strum-strum music with a raspy-voiced singer and a good producer.

Assignment: listen to Don’t Haunt This Place by The Rural Alberta Advantage. Assessment: Terrible band name. Nice drum beat. Casio? Cello? Alt-Indie Meets Medium-Fi 101 vocal harmonies. I can’t see myself loving or hating anything this ensemble puts out.

Assignment: listen to Violent by Loney, Dear. Assessment: any friend of Arvo Pärt is a Friend of Blog. Bonus points for the whole One Man Show thing. As far as “Violent” goes, it’s certainly the biggest song on this playlist, and the most likely one I’ll hear again. It sounds like music that European audiences probably hear while pumping gas at the self-serve.

Assignment: listen to Laughing With by Regina Spektor. Assessment: Tori Amos wannabe. Cute voice, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Saying this about the red-headed temptress on tMiM sort of feels like making derogatory remarks about the Virgin Mary while visiting the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but what can I say? My wife will never speak to me again.

What else you got!?

Have it be noted that I have decided to take this homework as a single track review and not a band review. Therefore I will be listening to the track assigned and nothing else from the same artist to compare against. So I hope you gave me each artists best track to review.

1. “Fervor and Frailty” – A Palace in Persia: Since this band was posted on yesterday, naturally I watch the video attached to the  post before I headed over to their Myspace page. This order of operation could easily have tainted the entire project for me as the video is of such poor quality I couldn’t turn it off fast enough. But alas, I have taken the challenge to give A Palace in Persia another chance to woo me and “Fervor and Frailty” has done that. I have listened to this track a few times through, at 10 minutes a piece that’s quite a commitment from me, and here’s what I have determined. The initial organ intro held me in it’s palm as I awaited the blast of chaotic guitar and drums that are so typical of an intro of that sort but it never came, instead going in the complete opposite direction. It was at this point that I thought the song was wrapping up and I looked to find that I still had 7 more minutes to go and started wondering what Fred has gotten me into. As the song progressed into “Screamo” (yes, I hate that phrase just as much as you do) I began to fade but was dragged back in by the lead vocalists ability and range. While this track could have had a few of the intermission segments removed, over all I can’t help but put a comparison on “Fervor and Frailty” to a decent Mars Volta song. It changes directions frequently and kept my interest for the entire 10 minutes.

“Teach Me Alchemy” – Darlings’ Cabinet of Sundry Horror: Sit back in your chair, close your eyes and imagine with me for a minute what a band would sound like if they claimed friendships with the following people: Charles Manson, Friedrich Nietzsche and Jim Jones. Stir all that up in a big black caldron, add a pinch of creepy carnival and abandonded warehouse. Now you have a glimpse of what Darling’s Cabinet of Sundry Horror sounds like. In short, not my bag.

“Banjo Bird” – guitarrorism: I am trying to keep an open mind about this one and look beyond the lo-fi, improvisational sound that’s being emitted from my speakers and find the root of this musician’s purpose/goal/inspiration. After listening to “Banjo Bird” a few times as well as reading his own explanation of his sound:

…member of a deconstructed artificial multiple personality, an omnifunctional gahlistic* superartist. Free to stop, whenever wants to.
…
The goal is the no goal. This is a challenge for all our me’s. And it’s not. This is now. This is gone, while reading it. While listening to it. This is not to stay. I am not to stay. We are not. I am them, we, all, change.

*gahlism is a new form of art and way of lifestyle initiated by mr. Klee.
It is about serious senseless trifle.

Apparently the goal is bad grammar.

I only have one thing to say. He’s trying way too hard to be edgy and is looking more foolish then genuine about his gahlistic lifestyle and music. We could go into an endless argument about the definition of music and the difference between music and noise but I won’t here. The point is that guitarrorism isn’t looking to make music at all, he’s looking for an output and audience for his philosophy – which opens a whole new can of worms all together.

“True Love Waits” (Radiohead cover) – Fire in The Sun: This is the easiest and at the same time the hardest review. Radiohead has to be up near the top of the most often covered bands and at the same time has a lead singer with some of the greatest ability. So covering a Radiohead song is risky business for sure. As a precurser I have to admit that I did go and listen to the original for a comparison, if that’s cheating so be it. That being said, Fire in The Sun puts out one of the best Radiohead covers I have heard, thankfully skipping the obvious and over done “Creep”, “Fake Plastic Trees” or “Karma Police” cover, and opting for a rarity. The other amazing part about this cover is the sound quality considering the webcam use. The balance between the vocals and the guitar are fantastic, with neither mistakenly taking the spotlight. Me likey.

Return assignment:

The Cave by Mumford & Sons

Don’t Haunt This Place by The Rural Alberta Advantage

Violent by Loney, Dear

This one had to be done

Laughing With by Regina Spektor

Despite the anticipation of this release from indie blogs the world over and a favorable review from Rolling Stone, the vacuum of silence from the mainstream media around this album has been deafening. Perhaps showing the lack of faith from the record label which sent in Mike Elizondo, David Kahne, Jeff Lynne and Garret Lee to produce it. That’s way too many chiefs and not enough indians. Unfortunately I’m not sure which producer worked on which tracks but there is definitely sound fluctuation through out the album with some distinguishable over production as well.

Each track on the album stays true to the personality that we have come to know over the past 8 years. Song topics range from the serious praise chorus to Karl Projektorinski as being the surprised “Human of The Year” but also stray to the questionable, improvisational sounding song “Wallet”. While the playfulness of Spektor was enjoyable at times during the last two albums, the lyrical and musical maturity that she has gained with Begin to Hope and now Far make the more playful and ridiculous tracks (such as “Wallet”, “Dance Anthem of the 80′s” or barking like a seal in “Folding Chair”) that much more of a nuisance and a distraction. While these tracks may be a crowd pleaser at shows, over the speakers they take away from and ruin the flow of the beautiful ballads that she has learned to write.

Regina Spektor has made and is still making her mark on piano driven indie-pop. My only hope is that with each subsequent release her style will continue to lean towards her more serious side. After all, no one really wants to see a 40 something redhead plinking the ivories, singing about computers made of macaroni and Blockbuster rental cards.

Far is out June 23rd on Sire Records.

Look here for previous post about this release.

6 down and 7 more to go.

1. The Calculation
2. Eet
3. Blue  Lips
4. Folding Chair
5. Machine
6. Laughing With
7. Human Of The Year
8. Two Birds
9. Dance Anthem of the 80s
10. Genius Next Door
11.Wallet
12. One More Time With Feeling
13. Man Of A Thousand Faces

First is a video of The Decemberists covering Heart’s “Crazy On You” in St. Louis last Sunday with Becky Stark and Shara Worden sharing vocal duties.

Pearl Jam was the musical guest on the inaugural showing of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. They performed the premier of “Get Some” off their forth coming release Backspacer.

And last is the new video for the Regina Spektor track “Laughing With”

Indie music has one, which is all fine and good, congratulations, thanks for asking. But we, the staff members of tMiM, think that indie music blogging should have one as well. Because — and let’s be frank, here — it’s about what blogs good, not what sounds good. So here they are, in no particular order, the proposed galleys to our Indie Music Bloggers Alphabet Book:

(This just in, one of our loyal readers just informed us that the order is “alphabetical.” Psh! If you’re going to get all jargony on us.)

A is for Animal Collective.
B is for Baltimore, their home town!
C is for Collective. Like we said, Animal Collective.
D is for Deakin, of Animal Collective. Don’t make us tell you twice!
E is for Elbow, who are Scottish!
F is for Franz Ferdinand, also Scottish!
G is for Grizzly Bear (not for “Gorilla vs. Bear,” mind you).
H is for Hair. Regina Spektor’s hair is quite red.
I is for Indie band snobbery.
J is for Jane, which totally has a bandmate in common with Animal Collective.
K is for Korg M3, the brand of keyboard Animal Collective uses.
L is for Leon, as in they have Kings.
M is for Men; the “Dead Weather” variety, to be specific.
N is for Nuptials, Trent Reznor, Meg White, Ben Gibbard & Ryan Adams all recited theirs in the last few months.
O is for Oasis, the brothers are getting along, now they’re not, now they are, now they’re not…
P is for Piano, Regina’s instrument.
Q is for Q and not U.
R is for Regina.
S is for Spektor, Regina.
T is for “Two Weeks”, Grizzly Bear’s latest creepy video.
U is for Uncle, as in me crying, “enough with Animal Collective!”
V is for Vampire Weekend.
W is for Weekend, Vampire.
X is for XL Records, Vampire Weekend’s label.
Y is for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who have had a track remixed by Animal Collective!
Z is for Zero, the track in question!