Here, in no particular order, are my favorite albums of 2011, so far:

Codes and Keys - Death Cab For Cutie

Death Cab certainly doesn’t need any publicity, so C&K is not present on the list for advertising. I have run deep tracks through this record (in a digital sense, of course), and I keep coming back again and again. Though my last.fm stream will probably say otherwise, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve restarted “You Are A Tourist” hundreds of times. I really appreciate the maturity that Ben’s showing off in the lyrics this time around; I definitely feel that he’s a married man writing from that perspective. I really love the arrangements and melodies in particular. To be fair, its one of the most recent albums I’ve picked up, so whether or not its has staying power still remains to be seen.

Favorite tracks: “You Are A Tourist”, “Doors Unlocked And Open”, “Some Boys”

Distances - Canopy Climbers

I heard about this record from the now defunct blog “The Album Project”. I really miss that place. I’ve developed pretty large softs spot in my heart and musical tastes for electronically flavored alternative (a la Paper Route or The Postal Service). Canopy Climbers fits right into that spot with their debut release. It never gets too busy or excited, always keeping the mood light and the tone easy. I love the grooves present on the record that, at least to me, seem to be freshly original. Great album for work and the chill hours of the evening.

Favorite tracks: “Far”, “Lazarus”, “Mute”

Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars

I don’t care if you don’t like country or bluegrass. I don’t care if you’re a die hard metal fan or a gangster rapper. If you do nothing else this year to support music, buy Barton Hollow, the debut album from The Civil Wars. Heck, buy it for a friend. Buy it for everyone you know. The instrumentation, melodies, and vocals are nothing short of gorgeous. You play this record and you’re placed instantly, yet gently, in a state of blissful relaxation. The amount of chemistry between the two singer/songwriters is dripping from each and every track; earnest emotion is never doubted throughout 45 minutes that make up this masterpiece. I haven’t ever heard such a fresh, yet classic take on a genre or two voices that complement each other so perfectly. BUY THIS ALBUM.

Favorite tracks: “20 Years”, “I’ve Got This Friend”, “Poison & Wine”, “Barton Hollow”

Honorable mentions:

• Wasting Light – Foo Fighters -loved it at first, but it kind of lost my attention, maybe I’ll give it another shot
• A Violent Flame – Courrier – I actually adored this album at first, but I think I wore myself out on it; again, its definitely worthy of another shot and they’re worth checking out for yourself

Still to come in 2011:

• New Paper Route album! YAY!
• A Dramatic Turn Of Events – Dream Theater

This isn’t a “Best Of…” list, as I can hardly claim to be a real critic; I simply want to do a quick flyby highlight of a few albums that came out this year that I found particularly enjoyable. So, without further ado, here are my favorite albums from 2010, in no particular order.

“The Medicine” – John Mark McMillan

While most people know John Mark McMillan as the author of the Christian worship megahit “How He Loves”, that song only shows the tip of the iceberg of what this singer/songwriter is capable of. On The Medicine, McMillan showcases an acute ability to write honest, authentic music for, as he puts it, “God and humans [to listen to].” While the songs themselves are excellent pieces of craftsmanship, what stands out to me the most is the guitar work. Featured on this album is the Charlotte guitarist James Duke, who is one of my favorite guys out there right now. His voicing, phrasing, and use of effects is simply amazing to me. I really enjoy his playing on this album.

You can also hear James play, among other places, on the 2009 self-title album by the semi-instrumental group ALL THE BRIGHT LIGHTS. I’d put that album on this list if it hadn’t come out in 2009, but I really recommend buying that album. It is the best album to have playing at work or while relaxing.

Favorite tracks: “Skeleton Bones”, “Death In His Grave”

“Kingdom Come” – Elevation Worship

In the day where almost every “Christian” artist puts out a “worship” album, Elevation Church’s worship team delivers what I think may be the most authentic collection of church songs I’ve ever heard. Each song feels deliberately crafted for their people. At first this makes the songs a bit less accessible, but after a few listens and sing-a-longs, the words simply pour out of my mouth. Anthems of praise, epic and inspiring calls to worship, and  some darn-good guitar work is found on this record. Lots to learn!

Favorite tracks: “The Church”, “You Are Enough”, “Sun Stand Still”, “Kingdom Come”

“Self-Preserved While the Bodies Float Up” – Oceansize

No album cover, but its basically a grainy image of a nude female mannequin. Not really explicit since its a mannequin, but I figured I’d avoid the controversy of posting “nudity” and not fan the flames for anyone dealing with that kind of issue.

I got introduced to Oceansize through a college roommate. They really pull off the whole new prog thing really well without sounding like they’re trying too hard to be different. Each song on Self-Preserved… has unexpected rhythmic twists and turns but the album never reverts to clichéd prog rock technicality for the sake of technicality. Definitely their heaviest in most moments on the album, but they still manage to throw in some simply gorgeous low interludes to provide dynamic release. Probably the most “out-there” album on this list, not for the faint of heart who get scared outside of mainstream rock.

“Feeding the Wolves” – 10 Years

I started to enjoy 10 Years when I saw them on tour with Flyleaf at the Norva. They immediately impressed me with their ability to play a nice post-nu-metal hard rock sound without putting themselves into a stereotype bucket. Keeping their lyrics relatively clean for a band in this genre always makes me happy, and Jesse Hasek is quickly becoming one of my of favorite voices in hard rock. This album didn’t really seem to differ too much from their earlier offerings, but as a new fan I still really enjoyed it.

Favorite tracks: “Fix Me”, “Chasing the Rapture”, “Dead In the Water”

“Heligoland” – Massive Attack

I’ve only recently become interested in electronic music, but one of my favorite artists in the genre is Massive Attack (some of you will recognize their song “Teardrop” as the song in the opening credits for House). The slow, jazz-influenced trip-hop that Massive Attack puts out rocks my socks and is some of my favorite coding music. Heligoland is features a bit less rapping than on their previous work, but also has an entirely different mood that seems also circus sideshow in character. Very unique stuff in this album.

Favorite tracks: “Psyche”, “Flat of the Blade”, “Paradise Circus”

“LOVE” – Angels & Airwaves

While A&A may have a formula they’re sticking to, I feel like their 2010 offering (which they initially released pro bono for the fans) had a much more epic feel to it. Each song seemed to have a “bigger” take on life – their first two albums almost seem like intimate coffee-shop confessions compared to LOVE. I love A&A’s blend of U2-infused pop punk; while the guitar work is plagiaristic-ally Edge-esque, they have probably secured a firm spot in my mind as the band on the radio from whose guitar work I take the most influence.

Favorite tracks: “Epic Holiday”, “Shove”

“OMNI” – Minus the Bear

This band is just plain fun. And what a name! I really regret not going to see them when they came to Norfolk in December.

Favorite tracks: “My Time”, “Hold Me Down”

“Travel III” (EP) – Future of Forestry

Future of Forestry is a relatively new addition to my list of all-time favorite bands. Their 2007 album Twilight is vying for a place in my all-time favorite albums. A part of them brings distant, yet distinct echoes of pre-Achtung Baby U2, but the places they take those echoes go above and beyond what most bands are capable of in this day and age. With complex and unique instrumentation, Future of Forestry provides a truly unique take on the alternative rock soundscape; the fact that they pull most of it off with only three people is truly amazing. Travel III is the latest (and, I believe, last) part in their series of Travel EPs, and this one is most definitely my favorite. The band favors the electronic side of things for this offering, and does the best job of incorporating those elements without sounding like a Postal Service ripoff. Buying their entire discography will be the best money you spend in 2011.

Favorite tracks: “Bold and Underlined”, “Did You Lose Yourself?”, “Protection”

The Future…

Albums I have not checked out from 2010 that I think will probably be worth mentioning once I get a chance to listen:

1. “Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place” – Anberlin
2. “AB III” – Alter Bridge
3. “Diamond Eyes” – Deftones

While some of my more musically inclined readers will probably vomit at the relatively large number of commercially successful albums, the note says not to think too hard about it.  So I didn’t – and mass media won out.  I still think, however, that I’ve got enough albums in the stuff-not-many-have-heard-of category to get at least some credit from my independent music pundit friends.  Generally, my criteria was albums I can really remember from certain seasons of my life, along with stuff that I think was pretty influential in how I learned guitar.

My wife will probably comment with about 15 additional I-can’t-believe-you-didn’t-put-up-so-and-so comments – she knows me too well.

So, without further ado, here are 15 albums that will always stick with me, in no particular order.

1. Supernatural – dc Talk
2. Glo – deleriou5?
3. The Joshua Tree - U2
4. Absolution – Muse
5. Mezzanine – Massive Attack
6. Lateralus – Tool
7. Silence – Blindside
8. Deadwing - Porcupine Tree
9. Hot Fuss – The Killers
10. We Don’t Need To Whisper - Angels & Airwaves
11. Love – The Juliana Theory
12. Never Take Friendship Personal – Anberlin
13. OK Computer – Radiohead
14. Can You Hear Us? – David Crowder Band
15. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence – Dream Theater

I’m now thinking of a few more, but the note said 15, so this is my story and I’m sticking to it.

Hopefully everything should import OK from my old blog; I’ll probably throw up a redirect to here on the old blog just to make sure the rest of the world knows about the move.

List 1: Mike’s Top 5 Favorite “Christian” Bands:
–> I know that the term “Christian Band” is kind of in flux, and sensitive to most people, so cut me some slack and lets not be controversial.
1. Disciple
2. Red
3. Anberlin
4. Kristian Stanfill
5. dc Talk (its old school, the new birds have knocked ‘em down on the list. . .)

similarly . . .

List 2: Mike’s Top 5 Favorite “Secular” Bands:
–> The devil’s music.
1. Muse
2. U2
3. Dream Theater
4. Opeth
5. Alter Bridge

List 3: Mike’s Top 5 Favorite Guitarists:
1. The Edge (U2)
2. John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
3. Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge)
4. Mark Lee (Third Day)
5. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)

I’m calling it Top 5 Tuesday, and I’m going to compile a few lists of regular things to share that you will all come to love and adore.

List 1: Mike’s Top 5 Favorite Bands of the Week According to His iPod:
–> Determined by bands with the greatest number of songs in the top 25 most played of the week.
1. & 2. Tie between Muse & U2
3. Dream Theater
4. Fee
5. A four way tie between 30 Seconds to Mars, Kristian Stanfill, Alter Bridge, and Aerosmith.

List 2: Mike’s Top 5 Favorite Songs of the Week According to His iPod:
–> Determined by top 5 most played songs of the week.
1. & 2. Tie between “Plug In Baby” and “Starlight” by Muse
3. “Magnificent” by U2
4. “These Walls” by Dream Theater
5. Tie between “Burn for You” by Fee and “Moment of Surrender” by U2

List 3: Mike’s Top 5 Reasons Money is Horrible:
–> (see Top 5 Reasons Why Mike Needs To Be Less Materialistic, soon to come)
1. There’s never enough of it.
2. It never comes in fast enough.
3. It’s not edible.
4. It doesn’t grow on trees. (Related to #2, I guess.)
5. Money . . . so they say, is the root of all evil today.

Finals. And a new job.

Hopefully, that’s about all the explanation you need (mostly because that’s all you’re gonna get).

Anyway, continuing on.

One of the things that frustrates me the most is that when I have a lot of spare cash lying around, I have no idea what to do with it. However, when I’m short on cash, or when I’m trying to save money (as is the case currently), I can easily find all manner of things upon which to blow inordinate amounts of dough. I’ll refer to both situations as ‘broke’ simply because I have no money to spend on smaller things.

I’m currently in the market for a Boss DD-20 Giga Delay twin pedal. It’s essentially the last part to complete the sound package I would ‘need’ to be exactly where I want to be in terms of effects.

Normally the DD-20 retails for around $220, but I’d like to find one on Ebay for around $100. So far, I’ve found quite a few of them, but they’ve all been going for around $120. I really don’t want to spend more than that.

It takes some patience. The good thing is that the DD-20 is not necessary to the way I play; the digital delay features on the Boss GT-3 I currently use fulfills that role within my sound adequately. The DD-20 would simply take me to the next level; modularizing the delay and packaging it in a more controllable unit.

I can wait; time is on my side.

Adding some echo-delay or modulation effects like phasers, flangers, or wah is usually a necessity to get really cool effects. My personal favorite is to tap on muted strings, creating small clicks that, when delay is added, sound like clockwork. Secondary favorite: doing long, slow pick scratches on the lower strings with wah and delay at the end. Sounds like a rocket going off.

It’s nice if I can put some kind of chord set to repeat endlessly on a computer or keyboard, and put the noises on top of that to add some interesting color to extended length chords that may have been a bit boring on their own.

What’s been really fun is playing with other people who’ll do the same thing. Then you can switch doing the noise and playing the “music”.

In the meantime, I thought I’d continue blogging. As you have probably noticed, I’m going to see U2 and Muse in October in Charlottesville with my girlfriend, driving with a couple from WEC, Jake and his wife, and meeting a slew of others when we get there.

YAY. <-- (imagine that multiplied by about a billion)

This show is going to be amazing, and with that in mind, I’ll share with you my top five favorite concerts that I’ve attended.
***
(5) The Devin Townsend Band, Dark Tranquillity, Opeth @ the Norva in Norfolk, VA
***
One of the first bigger shows I went to on my own. Hadn’t heard of DTB or Dark Tranquillity, I went to see Opeth. I was pleasantly surprised by both of the openers. Devin Townsend is one of the more interesting personalities in progressive rock to be certain, and his music speaks for itself. Dark Tranquillity started getting me more into the melodic death metal arena, and is still my favorite in that genre. Of course, Opeth was phenomenal. Their stage presence is not impressive, but if you’re going to see Opeth, you’re going for the music, not the stage antics. Very memorable show. Tim was there.
***
(4) Dream Theater, and the other bands that don’t matter @ Pier 6 Pavilion in Baltimore, MD
***
Seeing my all time favorite band for the first time ever in Baltimore was so awesome! Tim can attest that I was probably giggling with glee when they came out on stage. They could have played anything and I would have been more than satisfied with their setlist. I absolutely love it when they do their “play-a-cover-in-the-middle-of-one-of-our-songs” thing, hearing something from The Wall during “Surrounded” was my personal favorite. It was worth the drive, well worth the money, and well worth the wait.
***
(3) Tool, with some other crappy band @ the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, VA
***
My brother and I (notice a trend here?) hiked up to Richmond to see Tool. We’re both big fans of their music, and their performance certainly didn’t disappoint there, but both of us were utterly blown away by the visual elements of their show. They had 4 screens behind them and 3 screens above and towards the wings of the stage, all playing synchronized video to their music. Then, for the one of the last epic-length tracks from their latest albums, two of their circular light rigs above the stage began to move around, shining their lights: they were like UFOs! It was freaking amazing, and then when things couldn’t get any better, lasers came out from the stage. One interesting note is that while we had nosebleed-section-ish seats, they allowed us to see images that were projected onto the white stage floor that we wouldn’t have seen had we been in “better” seats.
***
(2) Blue Man Group @ Broadway in New York, NY
***
For band spring trip in high school one year, we went to New York City, and the best part of the trip was seeing Blue Man Group. Their show is beyond words; you have to see it for yourself. Their house band has one of the more interesting instrumentations: a drummer, a Chapman-stick player, and a pedal steel guitar player, all playing the craziest tribal rock that you’ll ever hear. Plus, their show is hilarious.
***
(1) Van Halen @ the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC
***
What can I say, my girlfriend loves me. She bought me tickets to see Van Halen for my birthday last year, and what an adventure! Taking a hot chick to see a rock legend, complete with Eddie Van Halen’s still explosive and innovative guitar playing and the original frontman, David Lee Roth, made for the most fun I’ve ever had at a concert.
***
(0) U2/Muse @ Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, VA
***
I’m putting this on the list preemptively, as I still get close to wetting my pants just thinking about this. It’s much too far away. I’m anticipating that it take the top spot.

There you have it. With this subject in mind, I am quite disappointed that I am missing Gov’t Mule twice this summer: they are going to be in Denver the week before Keren and I go on vacation to Colorado, and they are going to be in Richmond the day we arrive back from vacation. It is just not meant to be, I guess. Even more of a disappointment since I missed them at the Norva last fall.

Needless to say, things were a complete success, judging by the number of people standing up during the services signifying they had made a decision to follow Christ. That, of course, makes all the practice and waiting and practice and practice SO worth it.

To try to keep with the music theme of things, I’m gonna review things from a music point of view.

Awesome.

The Waters Edge band, I may say, has never sounded better. After seeing a couple vids of performances during practice, everyone looked awsome, and sounded better. The drummers for the beginning were one of the coolest openers for a Waters Edge service.

I was quite satisfied with my playing today. Of course, playing the U2 song, I was in my element completely. Even with the percussion additions, things still kept quite in the neighborhood of where I like to hang out in terms of technique and content. The two worship songs we did, “Happy Day,” and “From the Inside Out,” are two of my favorites that we do. Thusly, I know exactly what I want to play throughout the song, and feel confident enough to grab little ideas for improv everywhere.

I got exactly what I wanted out of my Tele for each and every moment of every song. Especially, the dual pickup control allowed me to do some awesome volume and tone control that I don’t necessarily do normally. I had my bridge pickup turned up all the way, and my neck pickup turned up to about 3. What this allowed me to do is to have a nice full lead tone during times that I was being loud, playing on the bridge pickup. If I wanted to drop the gain down a bit, I’d switch to the neck pickup, and the juice going to the preamp model goes down and the sound gets cleaner. In-between for both pickups. She sang beautifully for me.

I also used the wah pedal to get a further add some tone control since I don’t like to mess with my tone knobs. During the last part of the sermon where I’m in the background over the hymn and Stu’s speaking, I threw the wah down all the way to spread the tone along the EQ spectrum and make things muddy. I varied it a bit to get add a touch on dynamics here and there, but I rode the low end for the majority.

I had a video camera with me most of the day Saturday during practice and today. Got lots of candid moments with people, and I’ll try to get that edited and posted for your viewing pleasure within the next couple of days.