{Shabazz Palaces photo from the Three Imaginary Girls Flickr Pool by Jason Tang}

Through sheer quirk of fate and possibly my own fatally quirky tastes, the top spots for my four favorite records of the year were given to two separate EPs by two different bands. I'm going to start my Top 20 of 2011 list with a cheat; combining two albums for placement at #1 and #2. Just to obnoxiously make you utterly vigilant of it: the first two spots are taken up by two separate releases, but they're EPs that if combined with each other, tie with/become one release.

Oh, and I'm keeping all hype to 20 words to mirror the Top 20 list. And then I cheat again by having the first two releases described in 40 words, a combination of two 20 word reviews. (No, I haven't been studying Kabbalah with the Wu-Tang Clan.) Also: Mostly in order, but ask me again tomorrow. (The Damien Jurado could be anywhere on this list, for example.) And regional preference takes precedence (call that "fanzine love").

1. Shabazz Palaces, Shabazz Palaces & Of Light EPs
Cracked, uncanny hip-hop collages of unsettling mind-movies, Clockers meets Company Flow. "Juxtapositions of the digital and analog, hard drum-machine beats set against softer bongos or the resonant sweetness of an mbira." -- Jon Caramanica, The New York Times

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(Photo by human?)

I am in luck that both rip-roaring shows are in very close proximity to each other, so it's not the time-and-mind-squeeze it could have been. But this Saturday night, April 24, my favorite band-and-trivia driven contest/concert Grudge Rock is happening at the Crocodile about the same time as my new favorite Seattle band Wehrwolve is playing at the Rendezvous. I will make it through somehow, possibly killed by over-enjoyment imminent in Belltown that evening.

Here's the drill again on Grudge Rock: Two local bands go head to head on a Rock 'n' Roll family Feud, with all the questions being about MUSIC! A very Three Imaginary Girls kind of community spazz attack. One band will win all the prize money, and the other gets a set of steak knives, you bastards! (And coffee's for closers!) Just kidding, the LOSERS get consolation prizes. The important thing is that both bands play live, and that it's hosted by velvet voiced and sexy mutton-chopped Professor Jake Stratton, who unlike Richard Dawson doesn't try to kiss everyone but instead flies the flair like he does as BloodHag vocalist (RIP now, unfortunately), and Rat City Rollergirls announcer.

Which way are you headed this Saturday night? The imaginary calendar shows there are a bunch of options...

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If Cloud Cult radio pop or sweet sweet songwriting a la Damien Jurado (shame on you!) isn't your gig tonight and you need a little more noise in your life I've got the cure for your experimental bug!

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