Elizabeth Hand's Music Picks

My major listening buzz for 2007 came from my October trip to Reykjavik for the Iceland Airwaves festival. 240 bands in four days, and I could only see a handful. I opted for the homegrown music, for the most part, rather than the more-heralded names (Bloc Party, Grizzly Bear, Of Montreal). This roster is adapted from an October post on my group blog, The Inferior 4. it's also based on live performances, though some of these bands have recent recordings available.

Icelandic Bands:

1. The solo artist Thorir, who here performed under the name My Summer as a Salvation Soldier; depressive, Paxil-tinged ballads that beautifully evoke that 3 AM desolation when the razor’s beckoning in a warm tub. An Icelandic Nick Drake, spare and lovely.

2. Leaves had a swelling, guitar-propelled Television vibe, though the longest shadow was cast by Radiohead. Some arena-rock echoes of U2 and Coldplay, and of course Sigur Ros.

3. Not everything was in English, of course, so a lot of the time I had no clue what anyone was singing about. One of my top two acts was Benni Hemm Hemm, who sings and plays acoustic guitar, backed by a full horn section.

North American:

Buck 65, a young guy from rural Nova Scotia who was the most mind-blowing live performer I’ve seen in years. I’m not a huge fan of hip hop, but this guy had me at Go. I gather he’s been getting attention for the last few years, and I can see why — one youtube pundit dubs him a cross between Snoop Dogg and Leonard Cohen, and that’s a fair take. He’s just amazing. It was amusing to watch several roadies set up an iBook alongside the turntable, but once Buck 65 took the stage my jaw dropped. This guy has an athlete’s beauty and confidence (he was a ballplayer) along with the dynamic, stagey moves of Bowie or Tom Waits. Like Waits or Bowie or Eminem, he has an incredible gift for narrative; his rhyming is self-consciously literary, noirish, pop-culture-saturated. He also turns on a dime, from rap to Iggy Pop to B movie outtakes. Great stuff.

On the home front, the albums I listened to most were the Shins' "Wincing the Night Away" and "Those the Brokes" by the Magic Numbers, whose first album was also in steady rotation in my car. I saw the Magic Numbers in Iceland and they were fabulous. I also liked Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" and Kings of Leon's "Because of the Times." I'm behind the curve and still need to get hold of new albums by Arcade Fire, Rilo Kiley, Ryan Adams, Iron & Wine — all stuff I'e heard on our excellent alternative radio stations but have yet to get for myself.

My big rediscovery was Tim Buckley. I love Jeff Buckley's work but for some reason never really listened to Tim Buckley. A few months ago I bought everything I could find by him and went on a jag — amazing stuff. What a voice! I even bought a pristine vinyl copy of Starsailor for seven bucks online, then discovered I already owned a CD of this rare album, bought used some years back but never listened to. Go figure.