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State of Mind's Best of 2009 - Gary Miller
Gary Miller
December 26, 2009
1. I See Hawks in L.A. - Shoulda Been Gold


2. Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine (see review)


3. Robbie Fulks - 50 Vc. Doberman (see interview with Robbie)


4. Felice Brothers - Yonder is the Clock


5. Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel - Willie and the Wheel


OK‚ so I lied. Technically‚ Shoulda Been Gold will be released on January 26‚ 2010‚ but it's a stunning work of Post-Parsons Americana‚ and I want you to know about it now. Who knows‚ maybe it will make my "Best of" for next year‚ too. Now for some bad news: Jason Molina of Magnolia Electric Company canceled his planned Molina-Johnson tour due to undisclosed illness. I'd like to wish Jason a quick return to health‚ and hope he's back making music soon. Live music highlights for me this year were Wilco powering through a fierce downpour to end their gig at Spinners Field in Lowell‚ MA and Andrew Bird assembling textural pop gems bit by byte at Higher Ground. Top show of the year goes to the Barbaricans at Lamb Abbey in Montpelier‚ VT for three reasons. 1) I was in the band. 2) I'd never played in a rock band before‚ and I might never again. 3) I don't know what we sounded like‚ but I know how I felt. Special thanks to Bo Muller-Moore (The Eat More Kale Guy) for making the rock lottery possible. I'd like to wish a fantastic‚ tune-filled 2010 to all SoM fans and friends. Happy listening‚ and I'll see you at the show. Remembering Joel Dorn
Mike McKinley
December 17, 2009
A friend reminded me earlier that we lost legendary producer Joel Dorn two years ago today (12/17/07). Here are a few videos of the "Masked Announcer."

On recording… (just block out the background music)


Great story about recording Roberta Flack and getting a call from Clint Eastwood
The Band of the Decade: Wilco
Mike McKinley
December 15, 2009
It should have been a hard decision to say what band really owned the 2000's‚ but it really wasn't. It took approximately thirty seconds to think about it:

2002 -- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot


2004 -- A Ghost is Born


2007 -- Sky Blue Sky


2009 -- Wilco (The Album)


Any one of these records could be your all-time favorite. Wilco made four records that people are going be listening to forever. It could be twenty‚ thirty or forty years from now and kids will be discovering these records for the first time while having life-affirming moments‚ or while they're getting high and partying and having the best time with friends‚ or at times when they think the world has got them beat. In any of these situations‚ they'll hear something on these records that will remind them they're not alone.

For us‚ who lived it as it happened‚ hearing these songs for the first time and having them seep forever into our souls‚ these records will always give us chills‚ stop us dead in our tracks‚ and trigger many‚ many memories. They'll always transport us back in time‚ but most importantly‚ we'll still learn new things about ourselves through these songs. They have that much depth and importance.

Wilco's influence on this decade‚ and the decades to come‚ couldn't be more positive for any music fan. They took the familiar magic of great rock music and learned how to put their own one-of-a-kind voice into it with undeniably great songwriting‚ lyrics delivered with poetic magic‚ and a lot of exploration in sound. They taught us that you can stretch out‚ be free‚ abstract and experimental‚ and people will still listen to you as long as everything is wrapped around a great song. It felt as if they made any band that heard them stop and reevaluate their approach to making music.

In addition to making records that will last forever‚ Wilco became a monster of a live band over the course of the decade (see the 2005 live record‚ Kicking Television). They leave a spark that makes you want more and more and leaves you continuously curious about what they're going to do next.

To make music as heavy as they did and to do it as consistently graceful as they did‚ makes this unquestionable to me. Their music moved me to tears three times this year alone. There was a ton of great music this decade and bands that made incredible records -- My Morning Jacket‚ Radiohead‚ the Flaming Lips‚ Bob Dylan and Bright Eyes come to mind -- but nobody did it this decade like Wilco. They loved you‚ baby. State of Mind Video This Weekend: What was your favorite album of 2009? Join us...
Mike McKinley
December 4, 2009
What:
The State of Mind Best of 2009 Video Shoot

This is where you get your ass in front of the camera and tell us what album revved your engines this year, what made you dance your pants dirty, what made you cry, what made you levitate, what made you sing at the top of your lungs, and what made you go back for more-again and again.

Lay it on us. Tell us about that album that gave you a musical boner.

Where:
State of Mind HQ
10 Lafayette Place #7
Burlington, VT 05401

When:
Saturday December 5th & Sunday December 6th
From 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

What to Wear: No solid black or white shirts. Please. But we do encourage flair. Lots of it. Flair it up, bitches.

Come Prepared! If possible, bring the physical copy of the LP or CD. PLEASE. This would be a big help.

"What happens when I get there?" Great question. Once your pretty self gets in front of the camera, we will ask you a few questions.

1. Your name and your favorite album of 2009.

(Dramatic pause)

2. Your name, your favorite album and a short, convincing statement why this is an undeniably great album. We all know music is the best, and it's all about sharing and spreading the good news, so here's your chance to tell people why they should have a copy of your favorite album of 2009.

(Awkward moment where you second-guess what you just said.)

3. Tell us about your "ah ha!" moment when this record hit you like a ton of bricks. When did you know? Where were you when it hit you? Do you have a great story about it? Lay it on us.


If you want to know what we did last year, check out the SoM Best of 2008 teaser:





Or, check out the full-length version.

There will be yummy alcoholic beverages available as well to get you loose and camera-ready.

Please consider joining us. We had a great time last year, and the best part of the video is each person's contribution. Really. We (literally) couldn't do it without you. Dose of Dylan - "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" and the dream
Mike McKinley
November 21, 2009
I had an unsettling dream last night. I fell asleep listening to Blonde on Blonde with headphones on. I remember drifting really deep with the gorgeous "4th Time Around" riding along each guitar note.

I think I was half asleep, yet my mind was very active as I hung on every word of the final track "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." It's epic Dylan riffing for 11-plus minutes about all the complexities of a woman he loves. "And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace," he sings - with my eyes closed, I chuckled to myself. I'm on every word, but fading fast. This got me:

"And your Spanish manners and your mother's drugs,
And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs,
Who among them do you think could resist you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands…"

I got stuck there. The words delivered with such profound insight. Next thing that happened was lucid dreaming. I was at the bar -- something that resembled the Three Needs in Burlington. The bar closed down and everyone poured out in the streets. Behind the bar was an open field and cliff where people danced and celebrated until the sun came up. It was like a carnival. I sat off in the distance, pensively watching it all. I wasn't apart of it -- I was removed, but still happy seeing different fractions of myself in the celebrations, fractions that no longer exist within me. They've dissipated with time, I guess. My friends Matt and Anna came skipping by playing leap frog with one another like they were children. They smiled at me and kept moving. There were horn players and people in costumes, and a ton of love in the air. The sun started to come up over the lake; it was the most beautiful thing. And then everyone vanished off with the daylight and I was alone.

I walked home, to my place where I've lived for years and years. All my neighbors were up and busy, they said good morning as I was saying goodnight. And then I walked up the stairs to my apartment and it wasn't there. I couldn't remember which number it was. I walked in circles for what felt like hours. I was on the floor below, and then the floor above, and then I was in somebody else's apartment, it was a person who had just moved in. I said, "Hi, welcome, my name is Mike." And he said, "You don't mean it. You'll probably never speak to me again." He put his head down and continued to unpack his things.

I walked away becoming more and more anxious. Embarrassingly, I finally confessed to one of my neighbors that I couldn't remember where I lived. He responded, "Maybe you don't live here anymore." I said, "You know that I live here." He looked away. It felt as if everyone knew something that I didn't. I started second guessing everything I thought was true and I thought, "Am I really that far gone that I can't remember my address? Why can I not find where I live? I always have it together - am I losing it?"

In a panic, I pulled out my license -- that would help me get helped if I showed them. I looked down at my license and it had my address from an apartment I had in Syracuse, NY in 1999 or so. "Wait, is that right?" I said to myself confused. I looked down again and the numbers and letters changed with familiar fragments of different times and places all jumbled up and messed with by the passing of time. I had enough of this, I thought to myself, I have to end this shit. The next thing I know I'm pulling headphone chords off from around my neck, the clock says 7:35 and music is blaring. "Why the fuck is my alarm going off, it's Saturday?" I felt completely lost and found for a minute. And then I thought… I went really far with "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" last night -- the unsettling, and amazing, end to Blonde on Blonde.

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