Here’s one final series of reflections on the year’s past from Jambands.com and Relix contributors/staffers.
SAM DAVIS
What will you remember most about 2011?
Spending my first year living in New York (or the US for that matter). Meeting and interviewing Bert Jansch.
What album or albums received the most play?
War on Drugs – Slave Ambient, Woods – Sun & Shade, Pure X – Pleasure
What was your favorite show or tour in 2011?
Pat Metheny at The Blue Note
Phish at Bethel Woods
Woods at Bowery Ballroom
Prince at MSG
What emerging band(s) should readers watch out for in 2012?
Quilt, Jeffertitti’s Nile, Minerva Lions, Superhuman Happiness.
What’s your New Year’s resolution for 2012?
To stop playing blues licks.
*****
JOHN PATRICK GATTA
What will you remember most about 2011?
Personally, don’t look back, moving forward. Professionally, I recall feeling inspired during interviews with Mike Watt and Henry Rollins, and the wonderful atmospheres created by those who attended Bonnaroo, All Good and Pearl Jam Destination Weekend.
What albums appear most in your iTunes or iPod?
Still go old school for the most part by listening to cds — Bob Mould Workbook Deerhunter Halycon Digest Grateful Dead Europe ’72 Volume 2 The Jam Greatest Hits Swervedriver Mezcal Head
What was the best musical discovery you made in 2011?
Low Anthem. Black Dub. Joseph Arthur (live he blew my mind!)
What was your favorite show or tour of 2011?
Pearl Jam Destination Weekend due to community spirit of opening acts collaborating with the headliners.
Furthur, 11/16/11 Columbus
What musicians should readers look out for in 2012?
Hoping for new material from Tony Furtado, Holy Fuck, Deerhunter
Are there any musicians you would like to see collaborate in 2012?
Roger Daltrey with Pete Townshend.
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
Moving forward at a FASTER pace.
*****
AMY JACQUES
What will you remember most about 2011?
Hurricane Irene and the earthquake in NYC; watching Jackson Brown & Dawes and David Crosby and Graham Nash play #OWS at Zuccotti Park; experiencing the head trip of “Sleep No More” and the Alexander McQueen “Savage Beauty” exhibit; visiting Nantucket; learning to ski; touring the country for music festivals and weddings
What albums appear most in your iTunes or iPod?
White Denim – D; Wood Brothers – Smoke Ring Halo; MMJ – Circuital; Thievery Corporation – Culture of Fear; Brett Dennen – Loverboy; Radiohead – King of Limbs; Bahamas – Barchords; Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing; Wilco – The Whole Love; Stephen Malkmus – Mirror Traffic; M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming; Foster the People – Torches; Tune Yards – whokill
What was the best musical discovery of 2011? Who should readers look out for in 2012?
Tame Impala; Bahamas; Tennis; District Attorneys; Toro Y Moi; Greensky Bluegrass; Shannon Whitworth; Alabama Shakes, Gary Clarke Jr., Head & the Heart; Dawes; Superhuman Happiness;
What was your favorite show or tour of 2011?
LCD Soundsystem at MSG; Tedeschi Trucks Band at Highline; Wood Brothers at City Winery; Tom Tom Club at Irving Plaza; Phish at Bethel – Night 2; Punch Brothers at Belly Up; Marco Benevento/Bruce Hornsby at Beekman Beer Garden; Steely Dan at Jazz Aspen; SCI at United Palace – Night 2; John Fogerty at The Beacon; Cut Copy/Foster the People at Prospect Park
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
Attend at least 2 music festivals I’ve never been to before; see the Rolling Stones & Radiohead live; read more books and go to more museums
*****
TOM VOLK
What will you remember most about 2011?
Hurricane Irene, my kids demanding to listen to Akron/Family’s “Silly Bears” every time we got into the car, and bookending the year with Phish shows at MSG.
What albums appear most in your iTunes or iPod?
In no certain order:
Akron/Family ST II: The Cosmic Journey and Search for Shinju TNT
Umphrey’s McGee Podcast #105 UMBowl
The War on Drugs Slave Ambient
Ducktails Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics
J. Mascis Several Shades Of Why
Panda Bear Tomboy
Phish and Medeski, Martin and Wood are always present in one form or another.
Not necessarily music related, but the Comedy Bang Bang and Doug Loves Movies podcasts get a lot of play while I ping pong around the Hamptons in my car during the day.
What was the best musical discovery you made in 2011?
This was the year of discovering music through Twitter. I never would have listened to albums like Braids Native Speaker or Shabazz Palaces Black Up if it wasn’t for the incessant ravings they both garnered regularly in my twitter feed. Both were excellent and I’m happy that they made it onto my radar.
What was your favorite show or tour of 2011?
Umphrey’s McGee at the Great South Bay Music Festival. It’s an exceedingly rare treat for good music to cross the Nassau/Suffolk border going east so it was nice to see one of my favorite bands in my-sort-of backyard.
What musicians should readers look out for in 2012?
Illimanjaro, a three piece collective from Astoria that is sounds like what would happen if Devo and A Tribe Called Quest had a lovechild. They’ve got a new album coming out in the late spring that focuses more on their hip-hop side which brings out the best in them.
Are there any musicians you would like to see collaborate in 2012?
Marco Benevento and Joe Russo.
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
To be present, which sounds kind of new-agey but is harder than it seems. I live in my head too often.
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