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I was honored to be asked to contribute to the annual Village Voice critics’ poll- this is my 5th year participating.

Pazz & Jop 2011
39th Annual Village Voice Critics’ Poll

• the winners
• the critics
• my ballot

About Pazz + Jop:

The Pazz & Jop critics’ poll is a highly influential poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics (roughly 800 in the 2004 poll). Albums have been voted upon every year since 1974 (voting also took place in 1971), and votes for singles have been tabulated since 1979.

Since the poll’s inception, critics have been invited to award their ten albums a total of 100 points, with each album receiving a maximum of 30 points and a minimum of 5. Lists submitted without points are given 10 points per album by the poll’s editors. Singles lists have always been unweighted.

Music critic Robert Christgau was in charge of the poll for 33 years, and wrote an essay every year that accompanied and framed the list. Christgau was dismissed from the Village Voice in August 2006, but the paper intends to continue the feature. Christgau continues to submit his Top Ten list and to encourage other eligible critics to do so.

The poll was jokingly given the spoonerism name “Pazz & Jop” rather than the more obvious “Jazz & Pop” because, inevitably, some detractor will claim that a nominated work is ineligible or undeserving on the grounds that it isn’t “really” jazz or pop. Since there are no formal definitions for the made-up terms “pazz” and “jop”, voters will concentrate on the actual merits of a work rather than arguing over whether it fits into this or that genre.

link: Village Voice
link: Pazz & Jop

Humanoids | Self titled
by Jaime Lees

We in St. Louis have always known that our pop-punk Humanoids were a first-rate band. With two albums, a few 7″ and tons of touring under their belts, it was only a matter of time before our little treasure received national attention. Word-of-mouth recommendations reached Vinnie Fiorello of Less Than Jake and Fiorello now promotes the Humanoids on his label Paper and Plastick. The self-titled album came out this autumn and it was just in time– we fans have been waiting for far too long to get a copy of songs that we’ve learned and loved from the high-energy live shows. The new album is offered to stream or download for free at freemusicfirst.org, and it’s so good that you’ll feel guilty for not having to pay for it.

Key Track: “Future Perfect”– it’s a song that you hear once and then you know it forever. And the catchy chorus makes it an instant sing-along hit.

Place You’re Most Likely to Hear the Artist: The Silver Ballroom. At this South Side punk rock pinball bar the drinks are cheap, the owners/employees are amazing and the juke box is full of both punk classics and our favorite local bands.

Listen: You can stream (and download) the whole damn album for free here

• link: Riverfront Times

RFT Music Awards Nominees: St. Louis’ Best and Brightest
Published on May 28, 2008

Please follow this link to read about the nominees listed below.

Best Americana/Folk – Rum Drum Ramblers
Best Untraditional Americana/Folk – Rats & People
Best Funk/Soul/R&B – Kim Massie
Best Hard Rock/Metal – Head On Collision
Best Local Release (self-released) -
Rats & People’s The City of Passersby
Best New Artist – The Livers + Wooden Kites
Best Pop Band – Sex Robots
Best Punk/Hardcore – The Humanoids

• article – link
• Head On Collision – MySpace
• Humanoids – MySpace
• The Livers – MySpace
• Kim Massie – website
• Rats & People – MySpace
• Rum Drum Ramblers – MySpace
• Sex Robots – MySpace
• Wooden Kites – MySpace

2007: The Year in Movies and Music
By Jaime Lees
Published: December 19, 2007

LCD Soundsystem’s self-titled 2005 release stands as the album that made me finally, truly believe in new electronic music. But Sound of Silver was a huge step up — and my ultimate album of 2007. It had everything I wanted: fun, super-fresh style, beauty and plenty of beats. “All My Friends” is elegant and touching, “Someone Great” is bloop-bloop perfection and the hand claps and joyous shouts of “a-woohoo!” in “Watch The Tapes” are majorly addictive.

Still, my favorite part of the music year was when an android stork dropped down from outer space and delivered us Radiohead’s In Rainbows. The media hullabaloo surrounding the surprise release sucked me in whole (because I’m a dork and I love shit like that). And while I remain fascinated by the band’s alien marketing techniques, the album had the chops to back up the hype. It’s pretty, glitchy, bittersweet and epic — in short, everything you would expect from a Radiohead album. However, In Rainbows is instantly more accessible than Amnesiac, Kid A or even Hail to the Thief. Around the same time as the album’s release, the band started leaking performances on its Web site, including live versions of album tracks and my new favorite cover ever: Radiohead playing New Order’s “Ceremony.”

My heart swelled with pride when the Arcade Fire released Neon Bible, and then both fans and critics welcomed the album’s lush, bountiful orchestration. Arcade Fire fans have formed a near-cultish church surrounding the band, but their worship might be justified. “Intervention,” “Ocean of Noise,” “(Antichrist Television Blues)” and “My Body Is a Cage” are nothing short of magical and could easily be mistaken for the rapturous hymns of a new religion. Everyone was primed for a backlash against the indie darlings, but you can’t argue with songs this beautiful.

As far as independent releases, at the beginning of the year I was gifted with an advanced copy of AA Bondy’s recently released American Hearts, and it’s been in heavy rotation ever since. The solo singer-songwriter put aside his former life as the lead singer of scorching glam-grungers Verbena in favor of a more earthy, exposed adventure. Bondy composes lonely tales of complicated redemption, teetering between the delicate confusion of Dylan and the hopeful pride of Springsteen. His soulful voice is soothing and softly Southern, making American Hearts a perfect Sunday-morning album.

I also happened upon tons of great local releases this year. The Humanoids’ Are Born is my favorite; the songs are pure punk and the band straight-up shames most other locals with its energy and authenticity. Rats and People’s The City of Passersby is dense and enchanting, and quite a few songs on the Bureau’s We Make Plans In Secret deserve repeated spins. Finally, Riddle of Steel’s 1985 wasn’t released until the end of this year, but I can safely predict that it will rock me through 2008. (click to read all)
— Jaime Lees

• article link
• AA Bondy – MySpace
• Arcade Fire – website
• Bureau – website
• Humanoids – MySpace
• LCD Soundsystem – website
• Radiohead – website
• Rats and People – MySpace
• Riddle of Steel – MySpace

The Misfits/Humanoids/Holy Python
8 p.m. Tuesday, December 4. Roberts Orpheum Theater, 416 North Ninth Street.
By Jaime Lees
Published: November 28, 2007

In the 30 years since Jerry Only joined the Misfits, he’s become a particular favorite of the band’s fans — even if saying Only is your favorite Misfit is akin to saying Ringo Starr is your favorite Beatle. Each musician’s contribution to his respective band is underrated and both have their own strange qualities that attract audiences (Ringo’s playful sideburns, Jerry’s muscular authority). After the departure of bloated former lead dude Glenn Danzig, Only continues to bring the Misfits’ classic punk/horror-style music to the masses. With backing from original Misfits drummer Robo and former Black Flag guitarist Dez Cadena, the band soldiers on, still ready to induce furious fist-pumping at every stop along its tour. The St. Louis stop finds them in good company, with local punk gods the Humanoids and sludge-rockers Holy Python taking the opening slots.

• article link
• Misfits – website