SWIKs I Missed in 2009

Podcast delayed due to technical difficulties.


As 2009 draws to a close and everyone compiles their best of lists, I’m taking the opportunity to cover a few new albums that I never got around to writing about this year. In the R&B category Mary J. Blidge and Alicia Keys released albums at the end of 2009. There were also some excellent greatest hits collections from Janet Jackson and Dolly Parton that I never reviewed. All of these women deserve their own SWIK posts. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there were so many great SWIK releases this year that there’s not enough time or space to cover everyone. In addition to some of my favorites mentioned in SWIK Music such as, Imelda May, The Raveonettes, Melody Gardot, Diane Birch, and Camera Obscura, following are a few new artists, at least new to me, that I discovered this year.

SWIK Holiday Classics

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Let’s face it, this time of year Christmas music is unavoidable. While a thousand different versions of “Silent Night” can be annoying, there is actually some good holiday music out there. I should know, as I seem to have made this an area of musical expertise. I created my first mix tape of holiday music in 1989 (ironic, considering last week’s post). I realized that many popular and alternative artists recorded holiday tunes. I began to compile them so I wouldn’t have to suffer through yet another year of Barry Manilow and Mannheim Steamroller. For example, one of my favorites is “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses, which manages to turn Christmas into a humorous dating saga.

SWIK Music from 1989

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A few weeks ago the Economist ran a story on 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The cover had one of the iconic images from that year, a punk sitting a top the crumbling wall. For those of us who grew up during the cold war, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall was probably one of the most significant political events of our lives, at least until September 11, 2001. Looking back, 1989 was quite a year. The event in Germany prompted Eastern European countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland to undergo peaceful transitions out from under Soviet control. Earlier that year student demonstrators took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing in what led to, while not the political opening of China then by all accounts its economic opening. In 1989 the Exxon Valdez spilled 10 million gallons of crude oil on Prince WIlliam Sound, Alaska in what remains the worst environmental disaster to happen at sea. In other news, the U.S. invaded Panama and bailed out the Savings & Loan industry. An earthquake in San Francisco held up the World Series. At Hillsborough stadium in England, 96 people died at a football (soccer) match.

For me, one of the most significant events of 1989 took place on December 6th at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. On that day, a 25 year old man killed 14 women and injured many others, before turning a gun on himself in what became known as the Montreal Massacre. He claimed that he was “fighting feminism.” His suicide note supposedly mentioned women who had succeeded in non-traditional female work such as firefighters, police officers, and journalists. On that date I was in college only an hour and a half from Montreal. Many of us spent a lot of time there, so the shock waves from the event rippled to the dorms of University of Vermont. This week, as I look back on 1989 and the female artists who were shaping the next decades of music, I dedicate this post to the women who died senselessly at the hands of a madman on December 6, 1989.

Waiting for Love and Gardot

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Comedienne and social commentator Sandra Bernhard once wrote, “love is the only shocking act left on the face of the earth.” In contrast to last week’s SWIK post and the sexually explicit music from Peaches and Amanda Blank, which in this day and age is really not all that shocking, Bernhard may have been onto something. Amid the eroticism, the commercialization of sex, and the horrors of the daily news (recession, war, terror, torture, starvation etc.) an act of love may, in fact, be truly shocking. This weekend, I was thinking about love. No, I haven’t met a new man. But autumn is the time that I most want to be in love. It’s my favorite season. I like the colors and the crisp, cool air that tells us winter is coming. I find the season romantic. Maybe it’s because many of my relationships began in the fall? Or it’s that When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite romantic comedies? Whatever. As fall comes to a close and the weather gets a little colder, the season evokes the kind of love that warms you inside. Comfortable, but still sexy. My sentiments about love and the season are captured in Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald version of “Autumn in New York.” I’ve been waiting to find more songs like this and have finally found a slew of them in Melody Gardot. She captures what sounds like love, or at least a wonderful love affair, on her latest album, My One and Only Thrill. Perhaps this is the beginning of something shocking?

X-Rated SWIKs

After my bout with the flu, I finally returned to dance class last week for a workout and discovered a new song by Amanda Blank, “Something Bigger, Something Better.” A few months ago one of my music-pushers, Robbie (see Summer Tours), mentioned her debut album, I love You, which came out in August. But I never got around to listening to it. I was immediately hooked on “Something Bigger, Something Better” which sounded like it could have been produced by rapper Missy Elliott. I finally got around checking out Blank’s album. Of course, through my research it turns out that I missed her recent show in NYC with electroclash diva Peaches. I’m, once again, a step or two behind here. But I keep trying anyway. Even though I missed the live show it seems like a good time to say a few words about these X-rated singer-songwriters. (Yes, their lyrics are explicit, so you’ve been warned.)

New Music from North of the Border

The weekend before last life got in the way of the blog. I was in Montreal, but the trip led me to some interesting new artists. Unfortunately, over the past week, work and illness got in the way and I never found the time or energy to capture the weekend or the new sounds. So back to the weekend in Montreal. My friend Sadie was in town from San Francisco. She is a talented realist painter (see her website) and was on the East Coast to see some art. We headed to Montreal last Saturday to see the J.W. Waterhouse exhibit at its only stop scheduled in North America. Waterhouse is known for being part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, which tended to combine nature with themes from Greek mythology and English literature. At the end of the exhibit there was a short film by Melissa Auf de Maur called Out Of Our Minds (OOOM). Auf de Maur is also a bassist and toured with alternative rock bands Hole and Smashing Pumpkins. These weren’t the only artists I discovered in Montreal. On Saturday night, we met up with Katheline, another member of the small group of hip co-workers at my day job, who lives in Montreal. She took us to some great bars and suggested some excellent music from north of the border.

Rave On with some more ‘ettes’

Yes, its another ‘ettes’ band. Even if they’re not using ‘ette’ in their name i.e. the Ting Tings, the 50’s and 60’s girl group sound seems to be everywhere. I’m not complaining, I love all the retro sounds permeating music these days. The Ting Tings combine their girl group sound with an 80’s pop sensibility, and the Noisettes with a soul inspired punk sound. The Raveonettes, on the other hand, have a late 80’s early 90’s alternative guitar band influence. It’s oddly dark and catchy. I had hoped to see them a few weeks ago when they were in town. But the show was during a completely hellish week at the day job and I didn’t even get to a SWIK post, let alone a concert. I hope to catch them the next time. Until then, I’m enjoying their latest album, In and Out of Control.