I have come to really dislike putting together "Best Of" lists or year-ending spreadsheets of music that everyone has already heard. This time I'm gonna do it differently...Shrie -style! These are just a few albums/songs/artists that tickled my fancy and got some good stereo-play at our house. Some are indie critic darlings (and disliked by many), some are sure-fire ins and some won't be at the top ofanyone's lists this year. It's a mish-mash of sonic goodness, extrapolated on by your friendly local music writer (and sometimes critic).

In alphabetical, not ranking, order. The "Top Ten" theme is too restrictive for my wily mind to grasp.

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at Neumo's

Angel Deradoorian, Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle must be angels. There is no other way to describe their other-worldly harmonies. Their voices are Coco Rosie-esque at times, a moving and lilting choral pop display. Instead of traditional dueting harmonies, the three ladies voices are orchestrated into something resembling more of an instrument, and less three individual voices. David Longstreth made a very wise decision in adding them to the Dirty Projectors family. When I saw DP in '06 sometime at a super small club in Texas, it was just him and a guitar and a disturbingly enthralling video that was projected (heheh) onto a wall behind the stage. The performance bordered on the avant-garde, but I'm happy to say that seeing them in '09 was a completely different experience.

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I’ve been a fan of Brooklyn experimental rockers Dirty Projectors for years now, before they caught hold in the indie music community with their most recent (and definitely most accessible) album, Bitte Orca. I first saw them at a tiny club in Texas, and I think they scared the bejeesus out of everyone with their weirdness, but I was absolutely enthralled.

Bitte Orca took their strange angular approach to lo-fi and mixed it up with SUPER catchy melodic hooks and a disjointed dance-feel, which really propelled them into the indie spotlight. Dirty Projectors' brand of wiry rock punctuated with puzzling shifts in song structure is complete addictive, gorgeous and promises to pack a good punch.

This is a don't-miss show at Neumos, this Wednesday, November 4th. Little Wings opens.

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at Chop Suey

OK, the holiday weekend is over and I’m finally sober enough to write about The Dirty Projectors show at Chop Suey on Friday night. I’m forcing myself to make this quick. Otherwise you’ll all end up getting annoyed with the veritable geyser of praise that my poor friends put up with as I talked about how their performance was close to a religious experience.

I’ve never found God or any version of any concept of God. But when Angel Deradoorian, Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle were singing, it sounded like a choir. Seriously, I’ve been to Vienna and heard the boys choir there and, yeah, that was amazing, but you know what they lacked? Dave Longstreth’s mind-blowingly fast finger picking talking over and around the flighty sounds of the second guitar. Or maybe the Vienna boys choir could use some of the downright funky bass lines that Nat Baldwin laid down alongside the pristinely cymbolic (pun intended) drumming of Brian Mcomber.

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Call it the Red House Painters effect. Far too many artists are taking it upon themselves to “pay honor” to their forebears by rendering their versions virtually unidentifiable from the originals.

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