135. The Band - ‘Music from Big Pink’ + The Revolver

The Band - ‘Music from Big Pink’ + The Revolver

Ingredients: 2 ounces bourbon whiskey (a rye-heavey bourbon like Bulleit or Buffalo Trace), 1/2 ounce coffee liqueur, 2 dashes orange bitters, orange peel for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Combine bourbon, coffee liqueur, and orange bitters in a mixing glass with ice.  Stir until well-chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Twist orange peel to release oils over drink, flame the orange peel and drop into drink as garnish.

Notes:    Music from Big Pink is the first album from a group of guys that got their start by performing as a back-up band, eventually becoming “The" back-up band for Bob Dylan in the Sixties.  It might explain why their music stylings are so polished for their first album… they figured themselves out as musicians by touring heavily before their own debut release. The value of Music from Big Pink is almost palpable; “Big Pink” refers to the house that members of The Band were occupying in upstate New York when they originally composed the tracks that would end up on this album and where The Basement Tapes would eventually be recorded by Bob Dylan and crew.  Whenever I think I have a pulse for the music, I imagine what it might have been like to be a fly on the wall in that house when this earliest music was being created in a place now so significant and I start it over from the beginning.  

purchase vinyl:  Amazon   //   Insound

Top 10 Albums of 2012

134. Daughter - ‘The Wild Youth’ EP + Pink Heart

Daughter - ‘The Wild Youth’ EP + Pink Heart

Ingredients: 1/2 ounce creme de cacao, 1/2 ounce Chambord raspberry liqueur, heavy cream.

Mixing Instructions: Pour creme de cacao and Chambord into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice.  Fill with cream or whole milk.

Notes: Singing about heartbreak is a tricky thing.  Its emotional nature lends itself to being expressed in lyric form, but artists risk coming across as insincere or dramatic as the “we’ve-all-been-there” phenomenon moves the listener to either empathy or annoyance.  The London-based trio led by Elena Tonra walks the line gracefully, doling out reverb-drenched laments that are gut-wrenching, but believable.  ”And if you’re still breathing you’re the lucky ones // ‘cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs” is doled out sincerely in the EP’s standout track, “Youth”.  Like fellow English songstress Laura Marling, Tonra’s music is propelled by a youthful lack of self-consciousness that chips away at even the most cynical heart.  Best played on a cold winter’s night with a bedtime cocktail, this is an EP you shouldn’t let slip away. 

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound 

133. The Beatles - ‘Revolver’ + Cola de Lagarto

The Beatles - ‘Revolver’ + Cola de Lagarto 

Ingredients: 6 ounces dry white wine, 2 1/2 ounces vodka, 1 tablespoon lime juice, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon green creme de menthe, 4 ice cubes.

Mixing Instructions: Shake mixture vigorously in a cocktail shaker and strain into a tall glass.

Notes: The seventh studio album from the Beatles and arguably their best, Revolver found many of the initial psychedelic threads in Rubber Soul and followed them to their glorious end…an end which happened to be 20 years ahead of their peers.  With a reported 300 hours in the studio, the Fab Four’s innovation touched not just their lyrics and instrumentation, but the recording process as well, to include reversed guitar, tape loops and various vocal effects never before used.  Featuring “Taxman”, with George Harrison on vocals, “Eleanor Rigby”, one of McCartney’s greatest songs, and “Tomorrow Never Knows”, a Dalai Lama-inspired Lennon masterpiece, this is an album you must pay homage to at least once in your life, simply out of respect for music as an art form and in this case, as a work of overwhelming genius.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

www.vinylandcocktails.com 

132. Kings of Leon - ‘Youth & Young Manhood’ + Devil In White

Kings of Leon - ‘Youth & Young Manhood’ + Devil In White

Ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces moonshine or white whiskey, 1 1/2 ounces Dolin Vermouth de Chambery Blanc, 5 dashes A.B. Smeby Black & White Bitters.

Mixing Instructions: Add all ingredients over ice in a shaker.  Stir to bring temperature down and maintain clarity.  Strain into a martini glass with two brandied cherries.

Notes: If the debut album from Kings of Leon was just about the music there would be enough meat to fill a hundred pages.  But, add to the mix their story - the sons of a small-town Pentecostal preacher leaving a life of Deep South tent revivals to hole up in a Nashville basement and produce some of the most pure and blistering rock music of the past decade…and you find yourself with much more than just a great album.  

Initially pushed by their label to form a duo, elder brothers Nathan and Caleb instead bought a bass for their 15-yr old brother, who had never played, and kidnapped their cousin from Mississippi who had played guitar once when he was 10.  A month later  ”Molly Chambers”, “Wicker Chair” and “Holy Roller Novacaine”, among others, were enough to convince RCA that four was indeed better than two.  An album meant to be played uncomfortably loud, forget everything you know about KoL’s latest work and hit refresh with a moonshine cocktail and a nod to youthful impatience.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

131. How to Dress Well - ‘Total Loss’ + Kir Royale

How to Dress Well - ‘Total Loss’ + Kir Royale

Ingredients: 6 ounces champagne or sparkling wine, 1/2 ounce creme de cassis, blackberries for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Combine and serve in a champagne flute.

Notes: The best art is often wrought from life’s most deeply emotional experiences - joy and grief both act like brillo pads on the artistic spirit.  Tom Krell’s second album proves the point, an ethereal free-fall coming on the heels of a turbulent life season that included the sudden deaths of both his best friend and Uncle.  The sound has a weightlessness to it that alternates between peaceful and overwhelmingly heavy.  It is a reverb-drenched, R&B journey that respectfully gives nods to artists like Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson.  An album for a quiet night when you desire artistry more than entertainment, it pairs well with a slightly dark, but delicate cocktail.    

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

130. Fleetwood Mac - ‘Rumours’ + Cafe Amore

Fleetwood Mac - ‘Rumours’ + Cafe Amore

Ingredients: 1 ounce Cognac, 1 ounce amaretto, black coffee, whipped cream, shaved almonds for garnish

Mixing Instructions: Pour the Cognac and amaretto into an Irish coffee glass.  Fill with hot coffee and top with whipped cream and shaved almonds.

Notes: When one starts collecting vinyl they become grossly aware of everyone else’s vinyl collection…or lack thereof.  Two things I picked up on after acquiring this newfound spidey-sense: 1) There is a gross under-representation of J Dilla among 22-40 yr old, college-educated listeners and 2) everyone has Fleetwood Mac Rumours.  Why this album?  My guess is nostalgia and high availability in the value bin of the record store (40mil album sales=large supply)…and yes, the music is on point, the band’s 1977 release is a classic in every sense with multiple tracks perched confidently among the era’s best.  If you want to understand the sonic magic of vinyl just turn up “Never Going Back Again” on an even semi-decent system…it’s glorious.  After a few hot coffee cocktails the spinning of the band’s eleventh studio album transports one into the heart of Don Draper’s Kodak carousel pitch,

Nostalgia - it’s delicate, but potent.  Teddy told me that in Greek, “nostalgia” literally means “the pain from an old wound.”  It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.  This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine.  It goes backwards and forwards…it takes us to a place where we ache to go again…It let’s us travel the way a child travels - around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

129. Joanna Newsom - ‘Ys' + Elderflower Martini

Joanna Newsom - ‘Ys' + Elderflower Martini

Ingredients: 1 ounce elderflower cordial, 1 ounce Bombay Sapphire gin, 1 ounce Cinzano dry vermouth, 1/2 ounce lime juice.

Mixing Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice.  Shake until chilled and strain into a chilled martini glass.

Notes:  If I have to sum up Joanna Newsom in a short note, I’d say you’re probably not likely to fully understand her at a glance.  She has the ability to unfold a beautiful story with thoughtful lyrics, an unmatched technical skill on the harp even among other performance harpists (she makes polyrhythm seem like something anyone could do.  *note—you probably can’t), and she has the ability to make a harp a primary instrument across an entire album and never get dull.  Don’t get me wrong, her voice can sound a bit quirky if something like that is likely to turn you away, and the harp IS a non-traditional instrument to hear through your stereo by itself… but sit down with an Elderflower Martini and listen to Joanna Newsom masterfully perform the tracks on Ys.  It is an exercise worth completing.

purchase vinyl:  Amazon  ||  Insound

128. Mac DeMarco - ‘2’ + Shoo-Fly Punch

Mac DeMarco - ‘2’ + Shoo-Fly Punch

Ingredients:  2 1/2 ounces bourbon, 1 ounce ginger liqueur, 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice, 1/2 ounce simple syrup, 3 dashes angostura bitters, ice, non-alcoholic ginger beer, orange slices and fresh mint sprigs for garnish.

Mixing Instructions:  Stir together first 5 ingredients with ice in highball glass.  Top with ginger beer, garnish with orange and mint and serve immediately.

Notes:  “Yacht Club Jangle that’s surprisingly good…and borderline addictive.”  That’s how I recently described the sound of Mac DeMarco’s second album to a friend.  Featuring a slinky guitar that accompanies DeMarco throughout the album like a well-oiled six shooter, the Montreal-based musician doles out honest and introspective lyrics in a way that have a way of going easily unnoticed, lost in the syrup of his sound.  This is an album best listened to on the patio with a smoke in one hand and a smooth, but potent cocktail in the other.  

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

127. Tycho - ‘Dive’ + Ruby Relaxer

Tycho - ‘Dive’ + Ruby Relaxer

Ingredients: 1 ounce peach schnapps, 1 ounce vodka, 1 ounce Malibu coconut rum, pineapple juice, cranberry juice.

Mixing Instructions: pour schnapps, vodka and rum into a chilled cocktail glass.  Almost fill with pineapple juice, add a splash of cranberry juice and serve.

Notes: There are times when you listen to an album because you need to go somewhere else.  Tycho’s sunset-surfing ambient album, Dive, is the perfect vehicle for such a journey, providing a cathartic escape to those in need of a late fall getaway.  The album is upbeat without being cheesy, light without being shallow.  One can’t escape the feeling of being oceanside throughout much of the album with synthesizers providing a constant wave-like feeling to the production.  This is an album to enjoy with a similarly-hued cocktail on a night when anything else seems like too much.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

126. Luke Temple - Don’t Act Like You Don’t Care + Mountain Breeze

Luke Temple - Don’t Act Like You Don’t Care + Mountain Breeze

Ingredients: 1/2 ounce vodka, 1/2 ounce gin, 1/2 ounce triple sec, 1 ounce cranberry juice, 1/2 ounce rum, 1/2 ounce tequila, 1 1/2 ounce sweet and sour mix, 1/2 ounce grapefruit juice, lime wedge for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Build ingredients over ice in a hurricane glass.  Shake and garnish with a lime wedge.

Notes:  Although I admittedly knew nothing of Luke Temple until the debut release of Here We Go Magic’s self-titled album in early 2009, I was instantly interested in who the driving force behind them was.  It’s no surprise that when I found out Luke Temple was releasing a solo album of music made concurrently with that same Here We Go Magic album last year that I was poised to love it.  The verdict is in—I do, in fact, love it.  Though it’s almost a completely different sound from HWGM, Luke Temple’s simpler song composition and instrumentation as a solo artist makes for a welcome change of pace that fits well on a record player with a Mountain Breeze in hand.  

purchase vinyl:  Amazon  ||  Insound

125. Van Morrison - ‘Moondance’ + Irish Coffee

Van Morrison - ‘Moondance’ + Irish Coffee

***Thanksgiving Pairing***

Ingredients: 4 ounces freshly brewed coffee, 1 1/2 ounces Irish whiskey, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, dollop of whipped cream.

Mixing Instructions: Combine coffee, whiskey and sugar in an Irish coffee mug then float whipped cream on top.

Notes: The sound of Van the Man drips with the good things in life: love, passion, joy, mystery, beauty and truth.  It’s the type of music one listens to while on a Sunday afternoon drive, during a backyard get together, or when the family comes over for the holidays.  The third studio album from the Northern Irish legend is widely recognized as not just one of his best, but one of the best albums of the era.  Written and recorded after moving to rural New York with his wife, many of the songs exhibit a mystical element that blend the natural with the spiritual — “We were born before the wind.”  The result is an album that feels timeless and often nostalgic without being too heavy.  Paired with an Irish Coffee, there are few better ways to soothe the soul after a Thanksgiving day feast with friends and loved ones.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

124. Metz - ‘Metz’ + Rogue Dead Guy Ale

Metz - ‘Metz’ + Rogue Dead Guy Ale

Ingredients: 1 bottle Rogue Dead Guy Ale.

Mixing Instructions: pour in chilled pint glass and serve.

Notes:  My first introduction to Canadian sludge-punk band, Metz, came via their creepily addictive music video for "Wet Blanket", which featured a glazed-eyed teenage blonde navigating a series of rust-belt life scenes in a heavy trance, every sound and site zoomed in and slowed.  The thousand-yard stare of the half-gone teenager is hypnotic.  Like Metz, you can’t escape the feeling that behind the heavily scarred walls of her psyche she’s playing us all like a fiddle.  The heaviness of Metz’s sound - thundering drums, overwhelming bass and guitar - envelops you just as if you were listening to their live show, stage-center…from a coffin.  Metz provides the perfect opportunity to make friends with Rogue’s delicious Dead Guy Ale as they methodically slay you with their sound. 

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

123. The Felice Brothers - ‘The Felice Brothers’ + Brown Fox

The Felice Brothers - ‘The Felice Brothers’ (self-titled) + Brown Fox

Ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces bourbon whiskey, 3/4 ounce benedictine herbal liqueur.

Mixing Instructions:  Stir ingredients over ice in an old-fashioned glass and serve. 

Notes:  If there was ever an album more unexpectedly fulfilling as a complete play-through of The Felice Brothers self-titled album, I’m taking recommendations.  This music was made to spin on vinyl, and to be enjoyed in thorough contemplation of life’s greatest stories.  Beautiful ballads, sing-a-longs, tracks on the threshold of parlor music… with diverse themes of death/murder, love, regret, hope, depression, and violence!  It’s American music at it’s best meant to be enjoyed for the storytelling and musical diversity.  Dust off the album if you haven’t played it lately, or buy it as soon as possible to see what you’ve been missing out on.  Double bonus:  you’ll feel like you’re part of the sing-a-longs if you start with the Brown Fox on the opening track.  Give it a shot!

purchase vinyl:  Amazon ||  Insound

122. M.I.A. - ‘Kala’ + The Paper Plane

M.I.A. - ‘Kala’ + The Paper Plane

Ingredients: 3/4 ounce bourbon, 3/4 ounce Aperol, 3/4 ounce Amaro Nonino, 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

Mixing Instructions:  Combine all ingredients in a shaker.  Fill with ice, shake until chilled and strain into couple glass, serve. *drink created by Sam Ross

Notes: Intense poverty and racial conflict have historically provided rich breeding grounds for some of the world’s most powerful art, the music of M.I.A. being no exception.  The daughter of a Tamil activist, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam spent a childhood caught in the fray of the Sri Lankan civil war before being moved to London by her mother Kala out of concern for their safety. Her second album transports one to a dizzying world where lyrics tackling everything from genocide to immigration are layered on top of exotic beats then dropped like hand grenades.  It’s music with balls and brains, full of head-shakingly hooky tracks like “Paper Planes”, “Bird Flu” and “Bamboo Banga”.  An album that goes well with 24k yellow gold, AK-47’s and a stiff drink, enjoy while paying homage to the revolutionaries.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

121. Dirty Projectors - ‘About to Die’ EP + Taylor’s 10 Year Old Tawny Port

Dirty Projectors - ‘About to Die’ EP + Taylor’s 10 Year Old Tawny Port

Ingredients: Taylor’s 10 Year Old Tawny Port.

Mixing Instructions: Pour in a port glass and serve.

Notes: During our honeymoon trip to Paris, my wife and I visited the famous modern art mecca, Le Centre Pompidou.  One of the exhibits was a series of staged rooms that were to be viewed through small portals with room only for eyes and nose.  The effect was that of being a fly on the wall taking in various musty life-scenes frozen in time: kitchens with overflowing dishes, 60’s mod living rooms with ash trays and lime green furniture, etc.  When listening to the About to Die EP, David Longstreth & Co. seem to be staging in the listener’s mind a series of life-scenes, filled with white hospital sheets, knotty pines, handcuffs, seat belts — all reminders of life’s contraints and the constant shadow of death; a somewhat sour air of inevitability.  Maybe…but, for now we are alive…so we drink tawny port and we rejoice in the hilarious beauty of it all.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

120. Death Cab For Cutie - ‘Transatlanticism’ + Trident

Death Cab For Cutie - ‘Transatlanticism’ + Trident

Ingredients: 1 ounce dry sherry, 1 ounce Cynar, 1 ounce aquavit, 2 dashes peach bitters, lemon twist for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice.  Stir until chilled and strain into a cocktail glass.

Notes: When Death Cab lead singer, Ben Gibbard, was asked in an interview about his group being classified as “emo” he said he preferred the words of a journalist who described them as an “emo affiliate”.  When one listens to the the fourth album by the Seattle-based band, there’s no doubt it contains a fair amount of relational heartache and introspection.  However, what stands out upon closer inspection is a craftmenship and attention to detail (transitions, song placement, flow) that moves the album beyond simple genre descriptors into a higher realm of classification — great album.  Ranked by Rolling Stone as the 57th best album of the decade, Transatlanticism is an example of the beauty that can ensue when bands set out to create an album rather than just a collection of songs. 

purchase vinyl:   Amazon 

119. Department of Eagles - ‘In Ear Park’ + Absent Friend

Department of Eagles - ‘In Ear Park’ + Absent Friend

Ingredients: 1 ounce gin, 1/3 ounce grenadine syrup, 1/3 ounce heavy whipping cream, 1/2 ounce egg white, ground nutmeg for garnish

Mixing Instructions: Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice.  Shake vigorously and strain into a cordial glass.  Sprinkle ground nutmeg on top.

Notes:  Four years before joining Grizzly Bear, Daniel Rossen began creating music in his dorm room with NYU roomate, Fred Nicolaus.  The two borrowed gear from their dorm neighbor, Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear) and initially just played for friends, but word spread fast.  Skipping ahead to 2007, Rossen was just coming off a successful release of Yellow House with Grizzly Bear when he joined Nicolaus in the studio for their second album together.  Dedicated to Rossen’s father, who passed the year they began recording, the album delicately portrays a carousel of childhood memories.  Backed with the intimate layered vocals and beautiful guitar strumming, this is an album that unfolds over many listens and is another example of why Daniel Rossen is quite possibly the most underrated musician of the past decade.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

118. Andy Stott - ‘Luxury Problems’ + Guion

Andy Stott - ‘Luxury Problems’ + Guion

Ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces gin, 1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth, dash of orange bitters, 1 bar spoon of Benedictine (float)

Mixing Instructions: Stir everything (except Benedictine) together with ice.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and float the Benedictine on top.

Notes:  Beautifully ambient, expertly-crafted, dub techno music at it’s finest.  If that sounds like a bunch of nonsense you wouldn’t be interested in, we challenge you to give it a chance with this pairing.  There is definitely room for this LP on your shelf and we think the average musically inclined reader will see the beauty in it.  If you’ve always wanted to dip your toe in this (or a similar) category, there are few other better places to do so.  Coupled with the echoed vocals of opera-trained singer Alison Skidmore, the mix of hushed vocals and bass-heavy music will be a welcome music experience.  Beware: no matter how proud of your stereo you may be, this album will likely test it’s limits.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon  ||   Insound

117. Allen Stone - ‘Allen Stone’ + Jeremiah

Allen Stone - ‘Allen Stone’ + Jeremiah

Ingredients: 1/3 ounce creme de cacao, 1/3 ounce white creme de menthe, 1/3 ounce Kahlua coffee liqueur, ice, milk

Mixing Instructions: Mix all ingredients together except milk in a cocktail shaker.  Add ice then fill shaker with milk.  Shake vigorously, pour into a hurricane glass and serve. 

Notes: Sometimes you find an album that you can’t wait to play for someone.  A sound so exceptional, so out-of-the-ordinary that you throw it boldly on the platter and simply sit back, watch and wait as the same feeling that flowed through you flows through your unsuspecting companion.  This has been my experience everytime I’ve played R&B artist Allen Stone’s self-titled LP for a friend.  The son of a small-town WA preacher, Stone grew up with gospel influences like Mary Mary and Kirk Franklin, but discovered Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Al Green as a sixteen year old…and so it began.  Backed by an insanely talented band, the young Stone delivers an instant classic tailor-made for the vinyl format.  Mix a smooth & sweet cocktail and drink it all in. 

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound