Saturday, December 30, 2006
Lists Are A-Comin'
Hopefully, with the busy season at FedEx behind me, the dearth of emptiness that my blog has become will rise like the curtain at some fabulous high school production of Grease, exposing the bright, shining Greased Lightnin' of bizarritude locked away in my warped mind. The yearly music lists are, indeed, a-comin'; that was not merely an elaborate lie you read in bold typeface at the top of this paragraph.
I'll start with a couple preliminary awards for some outstanding albums/songs that, like my long-neglected member, deserve special attention:
Worst Album with the Best Song on it:
Snakes on a Plane: The Album
The soundtrack to one of the single most awesome movies in the history of cinema (is it a great film? Hell no. But is it "awesome"? FUCK YEAH!) was filled with bands that sound an awful lot like Fall Out Boy, bands that are friends of Fall Out Boy, and Fall Out Boy themselves. There is one song, however, that sticks out like a sore thumb (well, 2, but the reggae track from Michael Franti & Spearhead was a little sub-par, so I don't count it). The song that should have, in a good and just world, been the lead-off single instead of that "Bring It" horseshit. Cee-Lo Green's "Ophidiophobia". Now more well known as the voice of Gnarls Barkley than for anything he did with Goodie Mob (let alone his mesmerizing, yet all-but-ignored solo career), Cee-Lo laid down a hot, syrupy mass of bombastic gospel funk describing the horrors of *gasp* seeing SNAKES on a PLANE. All punctuated with a slowed down, groovy "I'm tired of these muthafuckin SNAKES on this muthafucking PLANE! I'm tired! I'm tired! I'm TIRED!!!" In the four months since the soundtrack was released, that song has shot up to the #6 spot on my most-played songs on iTunes, beating out songs by Beck, The Dead Kennedys, and my favorite band ever, The Smashing Pumpkins. One of the most joyously over-the-top funky songs I've ever listened to. Given the movie it's from, I find it quite apropos.
Best Greatest Hits Album of the Year:
REM - And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987
Yes, yes, we all like the early 90's, alternative radio staple, "Everybody Hurts"-era R.E.M. and, to a (far) lesser extent, the newer, slightly droning, "no-radio-airplay for-fans-only" R.E.M. But for my money, nothing will ever beat the "what -in-the-holy-hell-are-they-singing-about, college radio domineering pre-shaved-head" R.E.M. from the 80's; and this album has everything you'd want to hear from those years. From the very beginning with "Radio Free Europe" all the way to the mainstream-cracking "It's the End of the World...", this gives the perfect overview of what made R.E.M. the band that would eventually produce one of the best rock records of the 1990's (Automatic For The People, duh.). The deluxe edition has a bunch of rare demos, live versioins, etc. plus a booklet with the band members' commentary on the songs on the album (hint: not even Michael Stipe knows what the song "Pilgrimage" is about, and he wrote the fucking thing.) Highly recommended, especially to non-fans just getting into indie rock with Modest Mouse, The Decemberists etc.
The Actual Best Album of 2006, But It's a Live Album So It Doesn't Count:
Eels - With Strings: Live At Town Hall
Mark Oliver Everett. LIVE. With a STRING QUARTET. Covering Bob Dylan. FUCK YES.
Seriously though, it is one of the best live albums I've listened to, ever. Sure, his falsetto isn't very falsettoey anymore (though that's probably to be expected when the first thing you do when you walk onstage is light up a friggin cigar) and they couldn't include Mr. E's Beautiful Blues because the Dust Brothers refused to give consent, but regardless it's a masterpiece. If nothing else sells this album, keep this nugget in the back of your head: this album actually resulted in me not just enjoying, but LOVING the song "Flyswatter", which I always always ALWAYS skip when I throw on Daisies Of The Galaxy. And you will love it too, I promise.
Most Disappointing Album Of the Year:
A tie between Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium, Outkast - Idlewild, AFI - Decemberunderground, Pharrell - In My Mind...
I could keep going, but those 4 stick out in my mind the most. To sum it up into four questions:
* Are you telling me this couldn't have been whittled down to one awesome record, instead of two "OK" discs with about 8 tracks of filler?
* How can you have an entire Outkast album without even one serviceable, overplayed-but-still-funky, speaker-blasting, light-the-radio-on-fire single?
*When did AFI turn into a bland emo band? Oh wait...
(just kidding, OFB's sister. Don't hurt me.)
*How can the dude behind The Neptunes and N.E.R.D. put out the most boring, middle-of-the-road hip-hop album with the most conventional and ignorant "let me list the things I can afford!" lyrics since No Limit Records went out of business?
That's it for now, comrades. Look out for the best singles of the year, Top 20 (+2) albums of the year, and MORE! SOON! I PROMISE!
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Hopefully, with the busy season at FedEx behind me, the dearth of emptiness that my blog has become will rise like the curtain at some fabulous high school production of Grease, exposing the bright, shining Greased Lightnin' of bizarritude locked away in my warped mind. The yearly music lists are, indeed, a-comin'; that was not merely an elaborate lie you read in bold typeface at the top of this paragraph.
I'll start with a couple preliminary awards for some outstanding albums/songs that, like my long-neglected member, deserve special attention:
Worst Album with the Best Song on it:
Snakes on a Plane: The Album
The soundtrack to one of the single most awesome movies in the history of cinema (is it a great film? Hell no. But is it "awesome"? FUCK YEAH!) was filled with bands that sound an awful lot like Fall Out Boy, bands that are friends of Fall Out Boy, and Fall Out Boy themselves. There is one song, however, that sticks out like a sore thumb (well, 2, but the reggae track from Michael Franti & Spearhead was a little sub-par, so I don't count it). The song that should have, in a good and just world, been the lead-off single instead of that "Bring It" horseshit. Cee-Lo Green's "Ophidiophobia". Now more well known as the voice of Gnarls Barkley than for anything he did with Goodie Mob (let alone his mesmerizing, yet all-but-ignored solo career), Cee-Lo laid down a hot, syrupy mass of bombastic gospel funk describing the horrors of *gasp* seeing SNAKES on a PLANE. All punctuated with a slowed down, groovy "I'm tired of these muthafuckin SNAKES on this muthafucking PLANE! I'm tired! I'm tired! I'm TIRED!!!" In the four months since the soundtrack was released, that song has shot up to the #6 spot on my most-played songs on iTunes, beating out songs by Beck, The Dead Kennedys, and my favorite band ever, The Smashing Pumpkins. One of the most joyously over-the-top funky songs I've ever listened to. Given the movie it's from, I find it quite apropos.
Best Greatest Hits Album of the Year:
REM - And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987
Yes, yes, we all like the early 90's, alternative radio staple, "Everybody Hurts"-era R.E.M. and, to a (far) lesser extent, the newer, slightly droning, "no-radio-airplay for-fans-only" R.E.M. But for my money, nothing will ever beat the "what -in-the-holy-hell-are-they-singing-about, college radio domineering pre-shaved-head" R.E.M. from the 80's; and this album has everything you'd want to hear from those years. From the very beginning with "Radio Free Europe" all the way to the mainstream-cracking "It's the End of the World...", this gives the perfect overview of what made R.E.M. the band that would eventually produce one of the best rock records of the 1990's (Automatic For The People, duh.). The deluxe edition has a bunch of rare demos, live versioins, etc. plus a booklet with the band members' commentary on the songs on the album (hint: not even Michael Stipe knows what the song "Pilgrimage" is about, and he wrote the fucking thing.) Highly recommended, especially to non-fans just getting into indie rock with Modest Mouse, The Decemberists etc.
The Actual Best Album of 2006, But It's a Live Album So It Doesn't Count:
Eels - With Strings: Live At Town Hall
Mark Oliver Everett. LIVE. With a STRING QUARTET. Covering Bob Dylan. FUCK YES.
Seriously though, it is one of the best live albums I've listened to, ever. Sure, his falsetto isn't very falsettoey anymore (though that's probably to be expected when the first thing you do when you walk onstage is light up a friggin cigar) and they couldn't include Mr. E's Beautiful Blues because the Dust Brothers refused to give consent, but regardless it's a masterpiece. If nothing else sells this album, keep this nugget in the back of your head: this album actually resulted in me not just enjoying, but LOVING the song "Flyswatter", which I always always ALWAYS skip when I throw on Daisies Of The Galaxy. And you will love it too, I promise.
Most Disappointing Album Of the Year:
A tie between Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium, Outkast - Idlewild, AFI - Decemberunderground, Pharrell - In My Mind...
I could keep going, but those 4 stick out in my mind the most. To sum it up into four questions:
* Are you telling me this couldn't have been whittled down to one awesome record, instead of two "OK" discs with about 8 tracks of filler?
* How can you have an entire Outkast album without even one serviceable, overplayed-but-still-funky, speaker-blasting, light-the-radio-on-fire single?
*When did AFI turn into a bland emo band? Oh wait...
(just kidding, OFB's sister. Don't hurt me.)
*How can the dude behind The Neptunes and N.E.R.D. put out the most boring, middle-of-the-road hip-hop album with the most conventional and ignorant "let me list the things I can afford!" lyrics since No Limit Records went out of business?
That's it for now, comrades. Look out for the best singles of the year, Top 20 (+2) albums of the year, and MORE! SOON! I PROMISE!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Still Alive....Sort Of
More regular postings coming soon, until then, Merry F***ing Christmas:
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More regular postings coming soon, until then, Merry F***ing Christmas:
