Lol what a team

2008 Bullypicks

Damn this was a difficult year for making this list. Tons of awesome shit to pick from. Every time I listen to each of them I want to move them up to the top of the list. Here's what I came up with, using my usual arcane analog amalgam of audio astrology and alchemy:



1. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Favorite Tracks: "Time To Pretend" "Weekend Wars" "Electric Feel"

Bam! Pow! Zing! Easily the winner for the top slot, I have been playing this over and over again since it came out. They/he/whatever were also one of my favorite live shows in 2008.



2. Fleet Foxes - s.t.
Favorite Tracks: "Winter Hymnal" "Ragged Wood" "Your Protector"

These guys have outfoxed My Morning Jacket with their spacey country and stirring harmonies. I can blame only my own laziness for missing their ACL spot this year. What a dumbshit!



3. Vampire Weekend - s.t.
Favorite Tracks: "M79" "Mansard Roof" "A-Punk"

It's impossible to pick favorite tracks from this one, as they're all so very good. Played an excellent set at ACL complete with strings and plenty of bouncing pop hookery.



4. Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Favorite Tracks: "Death By Fire" "Yuppy Fu" "It's Okay"

A superb follow-up to their first LP Applause Cheer Boo Hiss. I hope I get to see them again in '09. Check them out if you never heard them. Elizabeth Powell is is one of my favorite female vocalists, and she can really wail on the guitar, too.



5. Portishead - Third
Favorite Tracks: "Nylon Smile" "Machine Gun" "Plastic"

Long time coming, very much not a letdown. I do hope they don't wait as long for the next one.



6. The Black Keys - Attack and Release
Favorite Tracks: "Oceans and Streams" "Psychotic Girl" "Lies"

Another band I really wish I'd seen at ACL this year, unfortunately they conflicted with Iron & Wine. I'll definitely be digging into their back catalog in the near future.



7. Santogold - Santogold
Favorite Tracks: "Shove It" "Creator" "Starstruck"

An excellent and varied mix of hip-hop and pop. Also one of the strangest album covers of the year.



8. Black Mountain - In The Future
Favorite Tracks: "Wucan" "Queens Will Play" "Wild Wind"

A mix of Black Angels' Passover and Sword's Age of Winter, that is, kick ass psychedelic nostalgia rock. So so glad to catch them playing most of the album live at a Waterloo Park SXSW day show.



9. The Constantines - Kensington Heights
Favorite Tracks: "Trans Canada" "Time Can Be Overcome" "Our Age"

Bryan Webb's voice is the highlight of this one really, but the songs are all well done and remind me of everything I liked about American Steel's Jagged Thoughts.



10. Deerhunter - Microcastle
Favorite Tracks: "Never Stops" "Agoraphobia" "Microcastle"

This one is destined to be a classic indie spin. Missed them at Emo's earlier this month but I'll definitely try to make the next show.

Honorable Mentions:
Beck - Modern Guilt
Blitzen Trapper - Fur
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
CSS - Donkey
The Duke Spirit - Neptune
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
REM - Accelerate
Shearwater - Rook
Neil Young - Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968

Flotsam; Jetsam

Recent movies:

Iron Man - Three stars. It was a decent comic book flick made that much better by Robert Downey Jr. He's made for some spectacular characters over the years... Weird Science, Wonder Boys, Natural Born Killers, A Scanner Darkly, Tropic Thunder... Also Gwenny P is pretty good in this too. Still don't get why they aren't bringing back Terrence Howard for the sequel, but replacing him with Don Cheadle makes it hard to complain too much. I do have to warn you that there is some gratuitious CGI that normally I would have to bitch about, but it wasn't the worst I've seen by a long shot. I watched I Am Legend again on HBO the other day and I had forgotten how that one was so effectively ruined by the video toaster infected. Costumes and makeup ftw.

The Happening - Poop stars. Sweet baby jesus, what a mindfuck. I'm not talking about twists or suspense, rather the sheer hair-pulling insanity of how bad it is. How did this movie get made? I guess it's just a force of nature that we'll never understand. P.S. That's this movie's mantra, and I've never heard a more ignorant wussy copout on science, hopefully only made for the sake of propping up the gimpy and incongruous plot. The score is cool, I guess. It's just too bad this movie had to "happen" to Wahlberg, Leguizamo, and Deschanel. The last 30 minutes, starting when Wahlberg's little group, including the two teen boys, arrives at the shuttered up house, are especially wrenching. Damn M Night! Wha happen?

The Man in The Sand - Three stars. Entertaining doc on the forces behind Mermaid Avenue. I came away liking Bragg's solo stuff much more than I have in the past, and Wilco came away looking a mite prickish. Whatever. It's all great music.

A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake - Three stars. Amazing that there's absolutely no video footage of this guy. A depressing story but it was pretty revealing to see the tragic persona behind his great songs. His sister is such a ham though, I gotta say. Hameriffic. Hamerabi. Hamon Ayala.

Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny - Three stars. The beginning was slow but it picked up in the end. Eh? Picked up? Eh? I was laughing out loud during the final rock-off with the devil.

Rumsfeld Responsible for Torture, Report Says - I know it was you, McCain. And it breaks my heart.

I got caught up on the third (current) season of 30 Rock. They've all been pretty funny so far, especially the reunion episode. Also sad to see Amy Poehler is leaving SNL. I saw her in person in an Upright Citizens Brigade show at Bad Dog a long time ago! Holla!

Let's get together

Jason Molina (Magnolia Electric Co) live session

MAPS: http://www.radiomaps.it/?p=49

Note you can download MP3 versions of the songs separated out below the video player on the original page. My favorite way to hear this guy now is when he does these solo acoustic sessions for various indie radio stations and they put them up on the nets. I have a growing collection. Fucking amazing. I really liked the second song especially. "Remember back in tiiime..."

MEC's coming to A-Town on October 30. Good to see they'll be at Mohawk rather than Emo's, other than sheer nostalgia I'm pretty done with that place.

Stormy High

I read about Black Mountain's 2008 full-length In the Future in an early review of the Sword's second record Gods of the Earth. Can't wait for the new Sword (April 1) but Future is definitely going to keep me busy until then. Black Mountain reminds me of Black Angels, Kyuss, Heart, that kind of psychedelic rock stuff, but with their own uniquely pleasing flavor. They have standard sort of songs mixed in with what I can only describe as jammy rock epics. There are one or two slightly repetitive songs, namely "Bright Lights" and, to a lesser degree, "Stormy High," but the great tracks like "Wucan" (love that main riff), "Tyrants," "Queens Will Play," and "Stay Free" easily make up for them. They are playing at the free day show on Saturday at Waterloo Park with the Breeders. I'm probably going to try and make that one.

A really amazing movie came on Starz today, absolutely stupendous. Bon Cop, Bad Cop. A half-price Michael Bay-style cop flick featuring your standard "odd couple" formula, i.e., 2 smart-ass detectives partnered up against their wills so that one of them gets a little dirt on their shoes and the other can avoid suspension for his propensity to cause havoc. After an initial adjustment period, the two bond and work together, each in their own particular "idiom," to stop a psychotic madman from hatching a ridiculous scheme. The main twist: these cops are Canadian - one a hard-bitten Quebecky frog, the other an L7 Ontarian (played by Lord Marshal from Chronicles of Riddick). The square parleys fluent French, the bruiser speaks English only passably, and the movie goes back and forth between both languages so frequently and smoothly it starts to feel like you've got a babelfish in your ear. And that's just the premise. The actual execution of this movie is surpassingly ridiculous, and it just gets better and sillier as it goes along. Guffaw to death. I can imagine this might not appeal to everyone's sense of humor but if you're at all intrigued at least give it a netflix. And when you get to the scene of the mascot in the mirror, you'll call me and thank me. Or curse me.

I've Been Walking The Streets At Night...

I found this interesting article in the New Yorker, written by a recent guest on The Colbert Report, Malcolm Gladwell, about the Flynn Effect, which describes the way I.Q. scores have increased over the past years, and how it seems to say more about the limitations of the test itself rather than the mental retardation of our ancestors that backwards score projections might suggest. Ironically, while trying to emphasize how much smarter we aren't these days, he quoted this sentence from Flynn himself: "If the everyday world is your cognitive home, it is not natural to detach abstractions and logic and the hypothetical from their concrete referents." A painful brainful. And IQ tests apparently measure how "modern" we are, rather than how smart. My problem is, I just don't get the point of pointing this all out. It's very interesting research, but first off, I think he's being a little too apologistic, naive, and P.C. when he assumes that most people would agree with there being some vast difference between the descriptors "more likely to advance, technologically and scientifically" and "intelligent." That smart vs. dumb actually describes a different quality than civilized vs. primitive. Aren't those synonyms? Seems like he should be talking about "clever," or "crafty." And secondly, fuck an IQ test anyway! I live in an arrogant top-notch, so fresh, so clean, modern society, and I've never been required to take one; in my experience they're a fucking joke, some free quiz on the internet that doesn't mean shit anyway! As far as I'm concerned it's disproving astrology, big whoop. Do people actually use these tests for something scientific? It only seems to matter when you're wanting to classify someone as ward of the state or not, technically insane rather than criminally guilty, etc, and if it really comes down to it, I'll give anyone the benefit of the fucking doubt anyway if the result's them being confined to a mental hospital. Committed and jail seems about the same to me: pretty damn horrorshow. If anything, jail should be more like a mental hospital anyway, if the goal is anything more than retribution. Eh, I'm just blathering on at this point. In any case, I don't want to give the impression I didn't enjoy the piece. The Colbert interview started fun but it cut him a little short for a show with supposedly no writing. Last I heard Viacom wasn't making any deals just yet, maybe I'm out of date.

Portishead set a date, don't be late, it's probably going to be something great. Third, though? I mean, I guess they already burned their one self-titled album, but Dummy was such a perfect name to go with the depressed, numbed out sound back when it was fresh.

We finished the first season of Deadwood, very enjoyable. Superior dialogue. Endless sardonic knife fights. The curious, "ad-hoc" process of the town coming together. How suffering is in everyone's faces at all times and the different ways the various characters deal with it. The fates of Kristen Bell's character and her brother, shit! Everytime I'm expecting a cliché they manage to pull crazy ivans. These premium cable networks just pump this shit out, and it just seems like there's an awfully high ratio of quality - there should be more total stinkers per true gem.

Well, the Aussie Open was a little anticlimatic. Jokey put the hurt on Federer, guess I'll start calling him "Chokabitch." My favorite match was Baghdatis-Hewitt, just an awesome struggle to the end, and I was sad Layton didn't make it any further than he did. There was plenty of auxiliary drama. Freakin crazy eastern Europeans.

Bullypicks 2007

This year's list was pretty easy to make. The top ten just jumped right out at me. Recently I added links in the sidebar to other lists from years gone by.



1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Favorite Track: "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi"



2. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Favorite Track: "No Cars Go"



3. Blonde Redhead - 23
Favorite Track: "The Dress"



4. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
Favorite Track: "Pace is the Trick"



5. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Favorite Track: "The General Specific"



6. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Favorite Track: "Impossible Germany"



7. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Favorite Track: "Sea Legs"



8. Peter, Bjorn, and John - Writer's Block
Favorite Track: "Objects of My Affection"



9. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Favorite Track: "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case"



10. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Favorite Track: "Someone Great"

Head

Sweet. Just found out from T about the new Portishead tracks on Idolator, recorded live at All Tomorrow's Parties (never heard of it - I'm guessing it's some sort of whathaveyou). I'm betting that these will kick ass before I even listen to them. Blind nillo if you will. From what I've heard so far, the sound quality is not that great (live tracks) but the opening groove on the first song is very promising.

Bumming Around

I've been into some big time music lately, starting with the most recent Peter Bjorn and John record, Writer's Block. I had heard "Young Folks" once before on internet radio, and Cecil recommended the rest of the tracks so I checked it out. I like it a lot, very catchy indie pop kind of stuff. My favorites are probably "Let's Call it Off," "Amsterdam," and "Start to Melt." Ah what the hell, I love all these songs equally. Thanks Cecil!

I picked up the new Band of Horses, Cease to Begin, on the cheap the day it came out after listening to a few of the tracks on their myspace page. Another great laid back record from these guys. I read a lot of My Morning Jacket comparisons but I think BoH makes much more interesting music. "Detlef Schrempf," "Islands on the Coast," and "Cigarettes Wedding" are highlights.

You probably know by now how awesome In Rainbows is. Great music and a very interesting consumer experience. At first I was a little put off by the variety but it's still so effortlessly brilliant. Now it's starting to gel more as an album with repeated listens. "15 Step" starts the whole thing off perfectly. The "new radiohead album" wonderment sank in just as the guitar came in over the jerking beats and Yorke whine. It just takes off from there: the bridge in "Bodysnatchers" where Thom's voice lilts at the end of each phrase, the guitars grinding out the rhythm over the ticking snare. The echoing vocals and pulsating blips and bloops of "Nude," faintly reminiscent of OK Computer. The breezy, nautical feeling created by the combination of a rolling, tapping drumbeat and plaintive scales of "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi." The dark growling sadness of "All I Need." The sweeping strings in the beatles-esque "Faust Arp." The groovy, spooky shake of "The Reckoner." The intimacy of "House of Cards." The twanging guitar and insistent bass on "Jigsaw Falling Into Place." The creepy mournful roll of "Videotape." Another excellent record, in my opinion. Huzzah.

lolamin

Go Botz

Holy shit! Jake la Botz. I really dig this guy's fucking music. Apparently, so does Buscemi. I mentioned him as a standout on the Little Radio 2007 SXSW compilation (son of a bitch! that would have been a nice show) with his tune "For the Brothers." I checked out his myspace, which has some great videos on it. Come to find out, this was the guy that played the slide-guitar rapist slash lead singer of my favorite fake band from a film, Blueshammer from Ghost World. Fortunately his stuff sounds nothing like that mess - "I been ploooooooowing, picking cotton all day long." Heheh. I hope to pick up his latest record, Graveyard Jones, very soon. He's coming to inkfest on September 21 (what a month for music). I fuckin love it, you can pay him $400 to come play your tattoo parlor. It's gotta sound great with the buzz of the needles in the background.

Browsing the Hoard, Contd

Shapes and Sizes - Shapes and Sizes - Eh, not so much. Sort of a weak Of Montreal.

The Clientele - Strange Geometry - Now this I got into. Kinda like a really well updated Byrds. Good British pop. "Since K Got Over Me" and "Impossible" are probably my favo(u)rites.

Blonde Redhead - 23 - Yeah, they're good, I guess that's old news. I liked this one also.

Still on a strict Bitburger diet as beer goes.

Hey shit, how about that Wimbledon final? Almost too entertaining. Querido Roger, I'll be back next year wey, love, Nadal.

Browsing The Hoard

A friend shared various tunes with me this last week, here's my impressions of the hoard.

Medeski, Scofield, Martin, and Wood – Out Louder – Typical jammy background music from these guys. I have and like three other MMW records, particularly Combustication; Scofield apparently added his guitar to this one. Not bad but not immediately spectacular.

Black Before Red – Belgrave to King’s Circle – Austin band. OK indie rock, but I was pretty bored listening to it. Like a boring version of Shins or Band of Horses. Again, nothing put me off but nothing really caught on, either. Yawn.

Grupo Fantasma – Comes Alive – Hey, guess what, latin music. Whoopty. There’s probably a time and place where this might entertain me, but this morning at work just wasn’t it. It reminded me of all the superfluous Vallejo/Scabs/Grooveline Horns combinations I used to choke down back in the day. Yawn.

Now It’s Overhead – Dark Light Daybreak – Didn't really get into this one, either. Like a boring Oasis - Calexico - Gomez mix. Yawn.

Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures – Interesting indie rock. Sounds like a mix of My Morning Jacket, Pinback and Sun Kil Moon. I liked the “California” song, very gentle like the final tracks on early Pearl Jam albums, but sung by Paul Simon. “You” is decent as well.

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood – Smooth smoky surf country. The music (echo, heavy on the wammy-bar, brushed snare percussion) sounds like Chris Isaak, but Neko’s vocals are less sad than groovy. I had heard “Hold on, Hold on” once before on internet radio and I loved hearing it within the context of the rest of the record. “Dirty Knife” is also great. The lyrics are all fairly interesting.

Darin Murphy – Haunted Gardenias – A boring Rufus Wainwright. Generic and forgettable. Yawn.

Emily Haines – Knives Don’t Have Your Back – I’m back and forth about miss Emily’s solo and Metric material; her work for Broken Social Scene, however, is untouchably awesome. This album has nice piano and vocals but it was just too slow and quiet and nothing really stuck. Her lyrics have always been a dark mystery that I never really cared to try and decode. Track 6: “Bros before hoes, disagree on the sideline. Fight for a fee... the man needs a maid? The maid needs a maid.” Erm, ok. It all seems like mopey Lilith Fair opener material to me.

Little Radio Spring 2007 (SXSW) Sampler – Wasn’t familiar with the site before I heard this record. It seems pretty cool, though they really took a shit on the new Interpol and I take extreme exception with their review. They put together a pretty good little compilation, including these memorable numbers:
Welcome – “All Set” – twangy Who- and Kinks-like rock and roll
The Mooney Suzuki – “Alcohol” – a silly, clever, wordsmithy tribute to boozing
Jake la Botz – “For the Brothers” – deep dark delta guitar accompanied by a slow drawling voice, pouring out a lil’ liquor for those that have gone before.
Eleni Mandell – “Twin” – very enjoyable female vocalist and music.

New Set of Melons

I just happened to check the Blind Melon Wiki entry today, and what I discovered shocked me to the core. Well, maybe not all the way to the core, but it's still pretty cool that as of late last year, they've reformed with a new singer and are currently recording a new album. Their Myspace blog discusses the album and the new singer a little bit. Like I say, this is old news, but somehow I never heard about it. Also I found the webpage for the tribute album, which I'd heard about when it was still in development. There's samples on the page there. I'm still making my way through them but so far what I've heard sounds pretty awesome. It's nice to hear some different artists give their alternate takes on of some of their best songs. I don't know whether I'd ever purchase it though - some of them are pretty generic teen rock band-esque.

My favorite is probably the Jena Kraus take on "Tickled Pink." And you gotta love the David Aaron version of "Life Ain't So Shitty." Jesus. Kiss of the Melonferatu. It says on his artist page that he's gifted with "Jeff Buckley reminiscent vocals and innovative transitions." From just hearing this one song, I assume they're talking post-drowning Buckley. That was a whole different phase.

Blue Sky Special

I picked up a couple of cds the other day, the new Wilco Sky Blue Sky and Stephen Marley's Mind Control. I've been listening to the Wilco for a couple of months now, but it actually only came out this week so I went and made our union respectable in the eyes of the lord and law. So worth it. I found the super big bang package that comes with an awesome DVD with summat like 8 live performances of new tracks. Plus I got an email today letting me know I could use the CD to download a track from their website, "The Thanks I Get." It was one of my favorites from Tweedy's Sunken Treasure live solo album. It's nice to hear a full band but I'm still pretty attached to the acoustic version.

Like I say, the live performances on the DVD are really nice, especially Nels Cline hammering out some great solos, each a little different from the album cuts, or when the three guitars come together on songs like "Impossible Germany" and others. It was a little weird listening to Tweedy talk about where he was coming from with this record and blah blah blah, when I've read him saying all the same soundbites in several other interviews. It's a little like seeing a comedian repeat bits. I'm not doubting his sincerity, but still I wonder whether you think up all your stories and explanations before you go out for the first interview, or is it more of a process where you figure out your feelings about your latest work over time?

The Stephen Marley album is also great; I heard a little bit of it in Planet K in San Antonio while we were killing time before the Tool show. Very easy to listen to. There's one track that's a little too rough'n'reggaton, just grates a little, but most of it is very chill with good backing beats, interesting cameos, sometimes with a little funk mixed in.