{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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(Say Goodbye is set to be released on December 7, 2010.)

It's kind of neat to alternate listening to Liz Janes' long-awaited third album Say Goodbye with Asthmatic Kitty label-mate (and producer of her 2002 debut Done Gone Fire) Sufjan Stevens' recent work. Janes creates adorable miniatures from very precise keys and guitars beneath patiently earnest and perfectly elegant soulful vocals. Her voice was useful to begin with, but has gotten superb since her previous solo album Poison & Snakes (2004) and her self-titled 2005 collaboration with free-form experimenters Create (!). The time she's spent touring with Stevens, and actually performing alongside outsider-folk-punk god Jandek (among other projects) has led her back to an extremely controlled, incredibly inspired, but mostly soft-sounding eleven track song cycle.

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(Fol Chen play live at the Sunset Tavern on July 9, 2010.)

I always laugh when people say, "That sounds so 80s." The 80s are bigger and stranger and even more stupid than you can possibly imagine. But I sort of get what "the kids" mean by use of the phrase "the 80s" when I listen to Fol Chen. They sound like many people remember the suburban-angst 80s sounding: a shiny dystopian vanilla rock-funk sundae of sound.

They're a gang of six from Highland Park, and there's quite a bit of SoCal sun best shown by the second track "In Ruins". "The Holograms" somehow blends Animotion pool party carnality with the anti-sex vibes of David Bowie riding on Klaus Nomi's icy German veneer. Singer Karin Tatoyan's vocals are about the strongest you'll find in this nuclear-silhouette of a neo-genre. Their second album has the acoustic-flecked Casio crunk of a keyboard-led post-punk band mixed with the MTV aspirations of kids growing up making out to Pink Floyd's "In The Flesh" and slam dancing drunk to Prince's "The Beautiful Ones" (both of which they have covered).

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The great Dave Allen of Gang of Four, Danny Seim (Menomena) and John Askew (Tracker) have a new project: Faux Hoax, crazily pronounced "Folks".

The Portland trio are creating a canvas of lyrics and music onto which all sorts of collaborators will make their stamp as well, birthing an experimental-style approach that challenges the conventional idea of a band. A rotating cast of members will basically perform or accompany songs written by the core trio.

Who could resist a lil listen to the song "Hippies Will Rule", of their first (and maybe only?) release on Polyvinyl Records this May, Your Friends Will Carry You Home.

Listen to "Foxworthy" and judge for yourself.

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It's a hard night of choice in Seattle, with Awesome! at ACT, Husbands Love Your Wives at Easy Street, and The Dirtbombs (!!) at Chop Suey...

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Sex Death Cassette is the closest thing you can get to a true musical garbage bag, and I mean that in a good way.

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So, without further ado, here are some mini-reviews of records that probably deserve better (or worse - much worse - in one case) but this is what they get. Enjoy!

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