Friday, January 19, 2007
MC Chris Speaks the Truth
For the record, I thought KH II was boring as hell too.
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For the record, I thought KH II was boring as hell too.
Fox News Asks the Hard-Hitting Questions and Challenges Its Audience
Would and will.
Obama/Gore 2008
(false hope? Yeah. But a man can dream...)
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Would and will.
Obama/Gore 2008
(false hope? Yeah. But a man can dream...)
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
So Happy I Could Cry
As a continuing (and, it would seem, eternal) student of all things mass communications, I try to keep taps on all the latest FCC changes, free speech news, etc. One of the most interesting and, yes, most missed pieces of free speech legislation that has always piqued my interest is the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters (both radio and television) to allow for equal airtime to be given to both sides of issues; for both Democratic and Republican points of view to be presented to the audience so they could make up thier own mind. Good idea? Goddamn right! In fact, most broadcasters nowadays still cite the Fairness Doctrine as reasons why they refuse to present any political content whatsoever, or why they refuse to endorse candidates for office. Imagine thier embarassment (and also, I should state, at least two of my college professors) to find out that we lost that in the REAGAN Administration. We have been without a doctrine allowing equal airtime for TWENTY YEARS. Fucking ridiculous. So, obviously, I was overjoyed when I read this article while skimming billboard.com:
The Return of the Fairness Doctrine?
I am all for the Fairness Doctrine, and not just because Rush Limbaugh is so vehemently against it (though that's usually a good reason to get behind almost anything). Why exactly SHOULDN'T people be allowed to be presented with two opposing viewpoints in order to form thier OWN OPINIONS? If you rant and rave against raising the minimum wage for 4 straight hours, shouldn't somebody be able to present 4 hours of counterpoints and arguments to your stated agenda? Wouldn't that be good for the free marketplace of ideas that is the idyllic goal to which all broadcasters are supposed to contribute to and be a part of? The Fairness Doctrine wouldn't put an end to Rush Limbaugh, but it would allow for someone to come on right after him and say "No, you're wrong Rushie-poo, and here's why" for 6 or so hours.
I say reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, and the sooner the better. I plan on writing Mr. Kucinich (along with my state Rep) with my total support. I urge you all to do the same!
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As a continuing (and, it would seem, eternal) student of all things mass communications, I try to keep taps on all the latest FCC changes, free speech news, etc. One of the most interesting and, yes, most missed pieces of free speech legislation that has always piqued my interest is the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters (both radio and television) to allow for equal airtime to be given to both sides of issues; for both Democratic and Republican points of view to be presented to the audience so they could make up thier own mind. Good idea? Goddamn right! In fact, most broadcasters nowadays still cite the Fairness Doctrine as reasons why they refuse to present any political content whatsoever, or why they refuse to endorse candidates for office. Imagine thier embarassment (and also, I should state, at least two of my college professors) to find out that we lost that in the REAGAN Administration. We have been without a doctrine allowing equal airtime for TWENTY YEARS. Fucking ridiculous. So, obviously, I was overjoyed when I read this article while skimming billboard.com:
The Return of the Fairness Doctrine?
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have indicated that they plan to introduce legislation this year that would require the FCC to restore the Fairness Doctrine, a rule that once compelled broadcasters to present all sides of controversial issues. Kucinich said that he will chair a new House subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee that will hold hearings on the role of the FCC and consider reinstating the Fairness Doctrine. Most analysts agreed that the rule would have little effect on broadcast television networks, which generally attempt to observe at least the spirit of the Fairness Doctrine, which was overturned in 1987 during the Reagan administration. But it would play havoc with talk radio stations, which currently are dominated by conservative hosts. Today's (Wednesday) New York Daily News quoted Rush Limbaugh as saying that the calls for reinstatement amount to a "hush Rush" campaign. Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers magazine, told the newspaper that the Fairness Doctrine "did nothing except chill free speech." He added, "Talk radio owes its explosive growth over the last 20 years to the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine." Other experts doubted that it could be reinstated, noting that President Bush would almost certainly veto any legislation to do so.
I am all for the Fairness Doctrine, and not just because Rush Limbaugh is so vehemently against it (though that's usually a good reason to get behind almost anything). Why exactly SHOULDN'T people be allowed to be presented with two opposing viewpoints in order to form thier OWN OPINIONS? If you rant and rave against raising the minimum wage for 4 straight hours, shouldn't somebody be able to present 4 hours of counterpoints and arguments to your stated agenda? Wouldn't that be good for the free marketplace of ideas that is the idyllic goal to which all broadcasters are supposed to contribute to and be a part of? The Fairness Doctrine wouldn't put an end to Rush Limbaugh, but it would allow for someone to come on right after him and say "No, you're wrong Rushie-poo, and here's why" for 6 or so hours.
I say reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, and the sooner the better. I plan on writing Mr. Kucinich (along with my state Rep) with my total support. I urge you all to do the same!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Top 20(+2) Albums of 2006
Honorable Mentions: In a year like 2006, where there were SO MANY awesome albums, a lot that I enjoyed thoroughly got left behind. I'll list the albums I had on my initial list, but didn't quite make it into the Top 20:
Between the Buried and Me - The Anatomy Of
Johnny Cash - American V/Personal File
Fear Before the March of Flames - The Always Open Mouth
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Isis - In the Absence of Truth
Lamb of God - Sacrament
Matisyahu - Youth
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
Peeping Tom - Peeping Tom
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Neil Young - Living With War
And now, without further ado;
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Honorable Mentions: In a year like 2006, where there were SO MANY awesome albums, a lot that I enjoyed thoroughly got left behind. I'll list the albums I had on my initial list, but didn't quite make it into the Top 20:
Between the Buried and Me - The Anatomy Of
Johnny Cash - American V/Personal File
Fear Before the March of Flames - The Always Open Mouth
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Isis - In the Absence of Truth
Lamb of God - Sacrament
Matisyahu - Youth
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
Peeping Tom - Peeping Tom
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Neil Young - Living With War
And now, without further ado;
THE TOP 20 (+2) ALBUMS OF 2006
(+2) Weird Al Yankovic - Straight Outta Lynwood: In any other year, this would be a normal number on the list. However, so MUCH good music came out this year, I wanted to list as much as possible. Thus, Weird Al's album gets relegated to the comedy album (+) numbers. Don't let that fool you, though. This is his best work since 1997's "Bad Hair Day". A good sign to a good Weird Al album: the original songs are as good as the parodies.
Recommended tracks: White & Nerdy, Close But No Cigar, Don't Download This Song, Trapped In The Drive-Thru
(+1) Lewis Black - The Carnegie Hall Performance: Is it just me, or does Lewis Black suffer from "Every Other" Syndrome? The White Album = great, End of the Universe=not as good, Rules Of Enragement= fantastic, Luther Burbank...=totally lame except one track, and now this; a double album of forehead-vein-popping goodness, some of his most biting social commentary and Black at his most bombastic and hilarious. Seriously, his best album yet. So, if you're keeping track, every other album tops all his previous albums. So, be sure to pick the album after his next album, it should be sublime.
Recommended Tracks: Information, Congressional Correspondent's Dinner, New Orleans
(20) Lady Sovereign - Public Warning: I have this thing for rappers that, when you get right down to it, seem like they really shouldn't be anywhere near a microphone, but somehow pull an amazing album's worth of material out of thin air. This would be that one: a reasonably cute, 5-foot-tall, white British chick with a VERY strong British accent rapping about materialistic women with fake tans, London slums, and working a miserable 9 to 5 job. And it WORKS. You can't help but love every rhyme that comes out of her mouth. Not only that, but the production is top-shelf too. This is the complete opposite of Fergie, on almost every level.
Recommended tracks: 9 to 5, Random, Love Me or Hate Me
(19) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife: The Decemberists completely switch over to the dark side of rock. They had a couple slight brushes with full-blown rockin' out on their last couple albums, but this one is the most rockin'est. They even included a 10+ minute prog mini-rock opera of sorts! Don't let all my blathering turn you away though, old-school-Decemberists-fans; there's still plenty of storytelling and balladry to go around. An all-around fantastic record to make the indie kids cream their jeans.
Recommended tracks: The Perfect Crime #2, When the War Came, O Valencia!
(18) The Prize Fighter Inferno - My Brother's Blood Machine: Okay, this one's just for me. The lead singer of Coheed & Cambria put out an electro-pop solo record that takes place in the fictional universe he created for his main band to put out a 5 album opus about, and is sung from the point of view of one of the 3rd tier characters in the overall mindfuck of a story. Convolutastic! Crazy falsetto and simple key progressions galore! It makes me a happy Evil Brian.
Recommended tracks: The Fight of Moses Early & Sir Arthur McCloud, The Margaretville Dance, Run, Gunner Recall, Run! The Town Wants You Dead!
(17) Liars - Drum's Not Dead: Like Radiohead before them, Liars went from making slightly electronic-leaning college rock to creating layered soundscapes with droning vocals and an elaborate theme that doesn't really make all that much sense. And, Like Kid A, I go against all rational thought and totally dig it. Besides, Liars actually keep their guitars and drums intact.
Recommended tracks: It Fit When I Was a Kid, Let's Not Wrestle, Mt. Heart Attack
(16) Strapping Young Lad - The New Black: Metal fans making metal for metal fans. FUCK YES!!! A Canadian crazyman, the fastest drummer in the world and their merry band of misfits put their weird-ass sense of humor into classic thrash/industrial metal songs that begs for some horn-throwin'.
Recommended tracks: You Suck, Far Beyond Metal, The New Black
(15) The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes: All that noise, noise, noise, noise! I LOVE IT. Blood Bros. put out their best, most mainstream-sounding album to date, thought they are WAY far from the mainstream. The Noise-punk/post-hardcore band from Washington state has been pumping out records since the mid-90's and just now have evolved into a sweet mixture of grating, screeching vocals, pop hooks, loud crashing guitars and scream-along choruses. Best described by this Amazon.com reviewer: "Unlistenable noise to 99.781921 percent of the record-buying public. Album of the year material for the rest." FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!
Recommended tracks: Set Fire To The Face On Fire, Camouflage Camouflage, Huge Gold AK-47
(14) Nada Surf - The Weight Is a Gift: I know, it came out in late 2005, but I couldn't find it anywhere until 2006, so I'm counting it. More people, I think, would be shocked that they're still making records. One of the better alternative-pop bands to come out of the mid-90's "WTF should we play?" era of radio, they had their one hit and were quickly thrown to obscurity like so many Spacehogs. Still making fantastic danceable rock, they transitioned to the indie tastemaker label Barsuk for the new album, and literally made the best album of their career. Shit, there's nothing else I can say to sell this, after reading "new Nada Surf album", you probably already know whether you want to hear it or not. Bask in it's radiant awesomeness.
Recommended tracks: Blankest Year, Concrete Bed, Always Love
(13) Wolfmother - Wolfmother: RAAAAAWWWWWWWK!! Probably the best Led Zeppelin impersonators I've ever heard (much better than "The Music"), it sounds like crazed, 70's fuzzed-out rock n' roll. Sometimes you want art, sometimes you just want something familiar to rock out to. This is definitely the latter; unabashedly wearing their roots like a badge of honor, Wolfmother isn't the future of rock, it's the past, man.
Recommended tracks: Dimension, White Unicorn, Joker & the Thief, Witchcraft
(12) Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain: The first new Sparklehorse album in 5 years isn't any grand step forward for Mark Linkous, but it's still a fantastic college rock record. Sounding much more happy and uptempo than usual, Linkous treats us to songs about ghosts, mountaintops and lost loves in his jangly, folksy space rock that I love oh-so-much. Ends with one of the finest, most moving rock instrumentals of the year.
Recommended tracks: Shade and Honey, Ghost In the Sky, Don't Take My Sunshine Away
(11) Slayer - Christ Illusion: Chaotic, antichristian, loud, hard, fast, ugly fucking speed metal; everything that Slayer is supposed to be. All it took was for Dave Lombardo to get back behind the drum kit for Slayer to get back to their mid-80's-early-90's heyday. Just pure fucking metal from beginning to end. Violent perfection.
Recommended tracks: Catalyst, Skeleton Christ, Cult, Supremist
(10) Beck - The Information: How can you have a 15 year career, and for at least 10 of those 15 years be the most original musical artist in the country? Beck FOUND a way. Still creating his own genre of music, Beck Hansen puts his folk/electro-funk/hip-hop psychedelia through the spin cycle to churn out another awesome eclectic album of mashups in his ongoing quest to be the love child of Prince and David Bowie. Plus, it comes with STICKERS. STICKERS!!!!
Recommended tracks: Nausea, Think I'm In Love, Dark Star, We Dance Alone
(9) Tool - 10,000 Days: With every subsequent album, Tool's songs get longer and longer, more grand and majestic. One of these days, they're just going to pull a Fantomas and release a song that's 71 minutes long. And it will still be mind-blowingly great. Nothing else to say, except that, like wine, they just keep getting better and better the older they get. Too bad they only put out one album every 5 years.
Recommended tracks: Vicarious, Right In Two, 10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)
(8) TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain: Any other year, this would have been a shoe-in for Album of the Year. I can't express enough that 2006 was one of the best years for music in a long long time. Finally, rock with some soul behind it, propelling the art/borderline prog rock into the stratosphere. Jazz, blues, ambient and indie rock gone through a blender gets close to what these guys sound like. The most innovative band to debut this year.
Recommended tracks: Wolf Like Me, Blues From Down Here, Playhouses
(7) Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death: Sometimes you want innovation, sometimes you don't break from a winning formula. And sometimes, you're Iron Maiden, and it doesn't matter WHAT the fuck you do as long as Bruce Dickinson is belting out the words. Classic metal, done to the absolute pinnacle of perfection, all about the horrors of war. It doesn't get any better than that. UP THE IRONS!
Recommended tracks: Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, Longest Day, Out Of The Shadows, The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
(6) The Mars Volta - Amputechture: I love me some whacked-out progressive freak-out hard rock, and it doesn't get more whacked-out than this. Amputechture is the perfect mixture of Mars Volta's first two full-length albums. More song-based than Frances the Mute, more freakishly out there than De-Loused in the Comatorium. This is also the lowest ranked a Mars Volta album has ever appeared on my year-end lists. That's not a comment on the quality of THIS album (or lack thereof), but speaks volumes for the high level of excellence in the albums released this year.
Recommended tracks: Vermicide, Tetragrammaton, Day of the Baphomets
(5) Arctic Monkeys - Whatever You Say I Am, That's What I'm Not: What is it about watered-down Gang Of Four songs that are so irresistible? Franz Ferdinand, Futureheads, etc. All catchy-as-fuck, all lo-fi production, all suitable for rocking out, all just slightly different than the last. Arctic Monkeys are the newest and, arguably, the best ones to come out of this bastard genre yet, injecting far more punk than any of its predecessors into their sound. Immediately catchy, snarky lyrics and cockney accents all make this absolutely gorgeous, even when comparing the media to vampires.
Recommended tracks: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secure, Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But...
(4) Trivium - The Crusade: You know that album you've been waiting for Metallica to release for years now? The one with the political lyrics, battle cries, chant-along choruses, blistering guitar solos, crazy double-kick bass drums and fuck-all attitude? The one that would bring metal back to the mainstream, that would make thrash metal really THRASH again? The one that would turn the music into a revolution, the one that sounded like THEY GAVE A SHIT??? This is it.
Recommended tracks: Ignition, Entrance Of the Conflagration, Contempt Breeds Contamination, And Sadness Will Sear
(3) Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor: He just might be the most intelligent rapper in the game today; certainly the most intelligent in the mainstream. Seriously, in an industry built upon bragging about rims, ice, and dealing coke, to be able to get away with lines like:
"Now i aint tryna be the greatest
I used to hate hip hop
Yep, because the women degraded
But Too Short made me laugh,
Like a hypocrite i played it
A hypocrite i state it
Though I only recited half..."
It gives me hope for the state of hip hop as an art form.
Recommended tracks: American Terrorist, Hurt Me Soul, The Emperor's Soundtrack, Kick Push, The Instrumental
(2) Mastodon - Blood Mountain: The most groundbreaking metal album since Killswitch Engage's "Alive or Just Breathing", Mastodon, instead of making their music more mainstream went farther and farther into outer space with their sound. Seamlessly mixing traditional progressive rock with their own original blend of classic 70's metal, sludgy 90's doom metal and today's thrashy Lamb-Of-God-style American metal, Mastodon have made an incredibly complex and challenging heavy metal classic. I've called these guys the Tool of extreme metal for a couple years now; I think this year they may start surpassing Tool themselves. A must-listen.
Recommended tracks: Colony of Birchmen, Crystal Skull, Circle Cysquatch, Hand of Stone
(1) Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere: Rock, Soul, R&B, Hip Hop, Pop and Gospel had a wild, liquor-fueled fuckfest; lube and tequila having been sprayed everywhere with James Brown, Gorillaz and Violent Femmes blasting out of the speakers 'til dawn and all the chocolates and fried chicken you can eat. When all of them groggily woke up in the morning, trapped in the kind of haze usually reserved for New Years Day, they gazed upon the resulting cacophany of thier wild rager, and it was Gnarls Barkley. Sporting the worst band name since Rock Star Supernova, Cee-Lo Green (international man of funk and the soul machine) and Danger Mouse (one of the most groundbreaking out-of-nowhere producers working today) decided to team up and completely warp pop music into some form of bastard child that is at once totally different from anything else and instantly accessible to anyone and everyone, everywhere, forever. The only complaint anyone could possibly lodge against this album is that it's way too short. The most completely bizarre release of 2006 and, without any semblance of doubt, the best album of the year.
Recommended tracks: Crazy, Go-Go Gadget Gospel, Gone Daddy Gone, Just A Thought, Transformer, The Boogie Monster
(+2) Weird Al Yankovic - Straight Outta Lynwood: In any other year, this would be a normal number on the list. However, so MUCH good music came out this year, I wanted to list as much as possible. Thus, Weird Al's album gets relegated to the comedy album (+) numbers. Don't let that fool you, though. This is his best work since 1997's "Bad Hair Day". A good sign to a good Weird Al album: the original songs are as good as the parodies.
Recommended tracks: White & Nerdy, Close But No Cigar, Don't Download This Song, Trapped In The Drive-Thru
(+1) Lewis Black - The Carnegie Hall Performance: Is it just me, or does Lewis Black suffer from "Every Other" Syndrome? The White Album = great, End of the Universe=not as good, Rules Of Enragement= fantastic, Luther Burbank...=totally lame except one track, and now this; a double album of forehead-vein-popping goodness, some of his most biting social commentary and Black at his most bombastic and hilarious. Seriously, his best album yet. So, if you're keeping track, every other album tops all his previous albums. So, be sure to pick the album after his next album, it should be sublime.
Recommended Tracks: Information, Congressional Correspondent's Dinner, New Orleans
(20) Lady Sovereign - Public Warning: I have this thing for rappers that, when you get right down to it, seem like they really shouldn't be anywhere near a microphone, but somehow pull an amazing album's worth of material out of thin air. This would be that one: a reasonably cute, 5-foot-tall, white British chick with a VERY strong British accent rapping about materialistic women with fake tans, London slums, and working a miserable 9 to 5 job. And it WORKS. You can't help but love every rhyme that comes out of her mouth. Not only that, but the production is top-shelf too. This is the complete opposite of Fergie, on almost every level.
Recommended tracks: 9 to 5, Random, Love Me or Hate Me
(19) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife: The Decemberists completely switch over to the dark side of rock. They had a couple slight brushes with full-blown rockin' out on their last couple albums, but this one is the most rockin'est. They even included a 10+ minute prog mini-rock opera of sorts! Don't let all my blathering turn you away though, old-school-Decemberists-fans; there's still plenty of storytelling and balladry to go around. An all-around fantastic record to make the indie kids cream their jeans.
Recommended tracks: The Perfect Crime #2, When the War Came, O Valencia!
(18) The Prize Fighter Inferno - My Brother's Blood Machine: Okay, this one's just for me. The lead singer of Coheed & Cambria put out an electro-pop solo record that takes place in the fictional universe he created for his main band to put out a 5 album opus about, and is sung from the point of view of one of the 3rd tier characters in the overall mindfuck of a story. Convolutastic! Crazy falsetto and simple key progressions galore! It makes me a happy Evil Brian.
Recommended tracks: The Fight of Moses Early & Sir Arthur McCloud, The Margaretville Dance, Run, Gunner Recall, Run! The Town Wants You Dead!
(17) Liars - Drum's Not Dead: Like Radiohead before them, Liars went from making slightly electronic-leaning college rock to creating layered soundscapes with droning vocals and an elaborate theme that doesn't really make all that much sense. And, Like Kid A, I go against all rational thought and totally dig it. Besides, Liars actually keep their guitars and drums intact.
Recommended tracks: It Fit When I Was a Kid, Let's Not Wrestle, Mt. Heart Attack
(16) Strapping Young Lad - The New Black: Metal fans making metal for metal fans. FUCK YES!!! A Canadian crazyman, the fastest drummer in the world and their merry band of misfits put their weird-ass sense of humor into classic thrash/industrial metal songs that begs for some horn-throwin'.
Recommended tracks: You Suck, Far Beyond Metal, The New Black
(15) The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes: All that noise, noise, noise, noise! I LOVE IT. Blood Bros. put out their best, most mainstream-sounding album to date, thought they are WAY far from the mainstream. The Noise-punk/post-hardcore band from Washington state has been pumping out records since the mid-90's and just now have evolved into a sweet mixture of grating, screeching vocals, pop hooks, loud crashing guitars and scream-along choruses. Best described by this Amazon.com reviewer: "Unlistenable noise to 99.781921 percent of the record-buying public. Album of the year material for the rest." FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!
Recommended tracks: Set Fire To The Face On Fire, Camouflage Camouflage, Huge Gold AK-47
(14) Nada Surf - The Weight Is a Gift: I know, it came out in late 2005, but I couldn't find it anywhere until 2006, so I'm counting it. More people, I think, would be shocked that they're still making records. One of the better alternative-pop bands to come out of the mid-90's "WTF should we play?" era of radio, they had their one hit and were quickly thrown to obscurity like so many Spacehogs. Still making fantastic danceable rock, they transitioned to the indie tastemaker label Barsuk for the new album, and literally made the best album of their career. Shit, there's nothing else I can say to sell this, after reading "new Nada Surf album", you probably already know whether you want to hear it or not. Bask in it's radiant awesomeness.
Recommended tracks: Blankest Year, Concrete Bed, Always Love
(13) Wolfmother - Wolfmother: RAAAAAWWWWWWWK!! Probably the best Led Zeppelin impersonators I've ever heard (much better than "The Music"), it sounds like crazed, 70's fuzzed-out rock n' roll. Sometimes you want art, sometimes you just want something familiar to rock out to. This is definitely the latter; unabashedly wearing their roots like a badge of honor, Wolfmother isn't the future of rock, it's the past, man.
Recommended tracks: Dimension, White Unicorn, Joker & the Thief, Witchcraft
(12) Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain: The first new Sparklehorse album in 5 years isn't any grand step forward for Mark Linkous, but it's still a fantastic college rock record. Sounding much more happy and uptempo than usual, Linkous treats us to songs about ghosts, mountaintops and lost loves in his jangly, folksy space rock that I love oh-so-much. Ends with one of the finest, most moving rock instrumentals of the year.
Recommended tracks: Shade and Honey, Ghost In the Sky, Don't Take My Sunshine Away
(11) Slayer - Christ Illusion: Chaotic, antichristian, loud, hard, fast, ugly fucking speed metal; everything that Slayer is supposed to be. All it took was for Dave Lombardo to get back behind the drum kit for Slayer to get back to their mid-80's-early-90's heyday. Just pure fucking metal from beginning to end. Violent perfection.
Recommended tracks: Catalyst, Skeleton Christ, Cult, Supremist
(10) Beck - The Information: How can you have a 15 year career, and for at least 10 of those 15 years be the most original musical artist in the country? Beck FOUND a way. Still creating his own genre of music, Beck Hansen puts his folk/electro-funk/hip-hop psychedelia through the spin cycle to churn out another awesome eclectic album of mashups in his ongoing quest to be the love child of Prince and David Bowie. Plus, it comes with STICKERS. STICKERS!!!!
Recommended tracks: Nausea, Think I'm In Love, Dark Star, We Dance Alone
(9) Tool - 10,000 Days: With every subsequent album, Tool's songs get longer and longer, more grand and majestic. One of these days, they're just going to pull a Fantomas and release a song that's 71 minutes long. And it will still be mind-blowingly great. Nothing else to say, except that, like wine, they just keep getting better and better the older they get. Too bad they only put out one album every 5 years.
Recommended tracks: Vicarious, Right In Two, 10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)
(8) TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain: Any other year, this would have been a shoe-in for Album of the Year. I can't express enough that 2006 was one of the best years for music in a long long time. Finally, rock with some soul behind it, propelling the art/borderline prog rock into the stratosphere. Jazz, blues, ambient and indie rock gone through a blender gets close to what these guys sound like. The most innovative band to debut this year.
Recommended tracks: Wolf Like Me, Blues From Down Here, Playhouses
(7) Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death: Sometimes you want innovation, sometimes you don't break from a winning formula. And sometimes, you're Iron Maiden, and it doesn't matter WHAT the fuck you do as long as Bruce Dickinson is belting out the words. Classic metal, done to the absolute pinnacle of perfection, all about the horrors of war. It doesn't get any better than that. UP THE IRONS!
Recommended tracks: Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, Longest Day, Out Of The Shadows, The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
(6) The Mars Volta - Amputechture: I love me some whacked-out progressive freak-out hard rock, and it doesn't get more whacked-out than this. Amputechture is the perfect mixture of Mars Volta's first two full-length albums. More song-based than Frances the Mute, more freakishly out there than De-Loused in the Comatorium. This is also the lowest ranked a Mars Volta album has ever appeared on my year-end lists. That's not a comment on the quality of THIS album (or lack thereof), but speaks volumes for the high level of excellence in the albums released this year.
Recommended tracks: Vermicide, Tetragrammaton, Day of the Baphomets
(5) Arctic Monkeys - Whatever You Say I Am, That's What I'm Not: What is it about watered-down Gang Of Four songs that are so irresistible? Franz Ferdinand, Futureheads, etc. All catchy-as-fuck, all lo-fi production, all suitable for rocking out, all just slightly different than the last. Arctic Monkeys are the newest and, arguably, the best ones to come out of this bastard genre yet, injecting far more punk than any of its predecessors into their sound. Immediately catchy, snarky lyrics and cockney accents all make this absolutely gorgeous, even when comparing the media to vampires.
Recommended tracks: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secure, Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But...
(4) Trivium - The Crusade: You know that album you've been waiting for Metallica to release for years now? The one with the political lyrics, battle cries, chant-along choruses, blistering guitar solos, crazy double-kick bass drums and fuck-all attitude? The one that would bring metal back to the mainstream, that would make thrash metal really THRASH again? The one that would turn the music into a revolution, the one that sounded like THEY GAVE A SHIT??? This is it.
Recommended tracks: Ignition, Entrance Of the Conflagration, Contempt Breeds Contamination, And Sadness Will Sear
(3) Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor: He just might be the most intelligent rapper in the game today; certainly the most intelligent in the mainstream. Seriously, in an industry built upon bragging about rims, ice, and dealing coke, to be able to get away with lines like:
"Now i aint tryna be the greatest
I used to hate hip hop
Yep, because the women degraded
But Too Short made me laugh,
Like a hypocrite i played it
A hypocrite i state it
Though I only recited half..."
It gives me hope for the state of hip hop as an art form.
Recommended tracks: American Terrorist, Hurt Me Soul, The Emperor's Soundtrack, Kick Push, The Instrumental
(2) Mastodon - Blood Mountain: The most groundbreaking metal album since Killswitch Engage's "Alive or Just Breathing", Mastodon, instead of making their music more mainstream went farther and farther into outer space with their sound. Seamlessly mixing traditional progressive rock with their own original blend of classic 70's metal, sludgy 90's doom metal and today's thrashy Lamb-Of-God-style American metal, Mastodon have made an incredibly complex and challenging heavy metal classic. I've called these guys the Tool of extreme metal for a couple years now; I think this year they may start surpassing Tool themselves. A must-listen.
Recommended tracks: Colony of Birchmen, Crystal Skull, Circle Cysquatch, Hand of Stone
(1) Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere: Rock, Soul, R&B, Hip Hop, Pop and Gospel had a wild, liquor-fueled fuckfest; lube and tequila having been sprayed everywhere with James Brown, Gorillaz and Violent Femmes blasting out of the speakers 'til dawn and all the chocolates and fried chicken you can eat. When all of them groggily woke up in the morning, trapped in the kind of haze usually reserved for New Years Day, they gazed upon the resulting cacophany of thier wild rager, and it was Gnarls Barkley. Sporting the worst band name since Rock Star Supernova, Cee-Lo Green (international man of funk and the soul machine) and Danger Mouse (one of the most groundbreaking out-of-nowhere producers working today) decided to team up and completely warp pop music into some form of bastard child that is at once totally different from anything else and instantly accessible to anyone and everyone, everywhere, forever. The only complaint anyone could possibly lodge against this album is that it's way too short. The most completely bizarre release of 2006 and, without any semblance of doubt, the best album of the year.
Recommended tracks: Crazy, Go-Go Gadget Gospel, Gone Daddy Gone, Just A Thought, Transformer, The Boogie Monster
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Top 25 Singles of 2006
I tried my best to get up to 25, but I'll admit, having avoided the radio for almost the entire year it was hard to scrape up 25 good singles. These are the best we gots:
The TOP 25 SINGLES OF 2006.
(25)Blood Brothers - Set Fire To The Face On Fire: This should be number one, but I figured nobody else reading this would ever have heard of these guys, other than from me singing their praises. If you don't listen to any other band I list, download this one track. You'll instantly know whether you'll dig the band or not. FIRE FIRE FIRE!!
(24)Deftones - Hole In the Earth: I'll always have a special place in my heart for the Deftones.
(23)Beck - Nausea: Not Beck's best single, but these days, you takes what you can gets from Beck.
(22)Strapping Young Lad - You Suck:
(21)Thursday - Counting 5-4-3-2-1: Just a cool goddamn song; not enough people listen to Thursday, I highly recommend them.
(20)Ok Go - Here It Goes Again: Suck it, bitches; I was listening to this album when it came out last year. That makes me SO much cooler than you. Seriously.
(19)The Streets - When You Wasn't Famous: A British white dude raps about how hard it is to pick up famous chicks when you are also famous. Not that he's at all famous in America, but in England, The Streets is the shit.
(18)Bleeding Through - Love In Slow Motion: Metalcore with keyboards makes me happy. That is all.
(17)Taking Back Sunday - MakeDamnSure: Another guilty pleasure. This band is the pinnacle of lameness, as is true of almost all emocore bands. However, I just really really dug this song this year. Doesn't stop the band from sucking donkey dong, though.
(16)Gnarls Barkley - Gone Daddy Gone: a crazed funk/soul version of a great Violent Femmes song. Gnarls Barkley is goddamn awesome.
(15)Matisyahu - Youth: Fuck everyone, I really dig this dude, and I like the song.
(14)Fear Before The March Of Flames - Taking Cassandra To The End Of The World Party: The strangest post-hardcore act getting even moderate airplay, this takes the guitar fuzz of Hum and mixes it up with a track off of Eighteen Visions' "Vanity" record for 2 and a half minutes of weirdness about the mythological story of Cassandra the prophet.
(13)Pearl Jam - World Wide Suicide: Who knew Pearl Jam had one more awesome single in them, let alone their best album since No Code (sue me, I love that record). Second biggest comeback all year (only because every Weird Al album is a comeback album).
(12)Lady Sovereign - Love Me or Hate Me: A fantastic beat, off-the-wall lyrics about being less-than-attractive (but still being the shit) and a relatively cute British chick rapping. She's the biggest midget in the game, after all. Make way for the S.O.V.
(11)Lupe Fiasco - Kick, Push: The best rapper to debut this year, the best rap single to hit mainstream radio this year, and just flat-out the coolest song about skateboarding ever made. Like Kanye West without the arrogant assholeishness.
(10)Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California: Say what you will about Stadium Arcadium (and there is quite a bit to say, not the least of which would be "Why 2 discs?"), but let's be honest, you heard the first single and thought it was pretty kickass too.
(9)People In Planes - If You Talk Too Much My Head Will Explode: These guys sound an awful lot like Pablo Honey-era Radiohead, not that there's anything wrong with that. Expect to hear more from these guys, and soon.
(8)Wolfmother - Dimension; FUCKIN' RAAAWWWWWKKK!
(7)Dragonforce - Through The Fire And Flame: Literally the fastest goddamn metal band I've ever heard, ever (taking the title previously held by Children Of Bodom). Power metal bombast vocals about...well...fire and flame with speed metal riffing and crazy fucking solos.
(6)The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes: The first couple times I listened to this song, it just didn't click. At all. To the point of me deleting it off my computer. Then, after awhile, I caught the bassline, and that's what hooked me. Besides the fact that Jack White can make almost any song rock the proverbial casbah, it's just a really good song in every respect.
(5)Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor: A rock song that you can dance to? Right the fuck on!
(4)She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart: Let's get this out of the way; She Wants Revenge is horrible. They copy their inspirations exactly (New Order and...uhhh...New Order), without adding anything of their own, and the lyrics are absolutely TERRIBLE, usually devolving into some ham-handed correlation to fucking (or masturbating). There is absolutely no reason why the band should exist, at all. That being said, this song is the balls, in a nasty, dirty, sweaty way. A guilty pleasure, maybe, but it's one catchy-as-fuck guilty pleasure.
(3)Tool - Vicarious: You can always count on Tool to release a fucking awesome first single whenever they release a new album. No exceptions here; Tool preaches about being disproportionately detached from real-life violence by the media that spotlights violence for ratings, and how we all follow in line and devour all the violence they show us because it's on TV. Violence. Sorry, just trying to meet my violence quota.
(2)Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy: Received more mainstream radio airplay than anything he's released since the early 90's. That says a lot about an accordion-playing comedian/parodist pushing 50. Still relevant, still hilarious, still a genius.
(1)Gnarls Barkley - Crazy: Like there was any other choice. Glorious perfection. Mashes about 5 different genres of music into 2:58 of audio cool. Overplayed and run into the ground, but it actually DESERVES to be overplayed.
|
I tried my best to get up to 25, but I'll admit, having avoided the radio for almost the entire year it was hard to scrape up 25 good singles. These are the best we gots:
The TOP 25 SINGLES OF 2006.
(25)Blood Brothers - Set Fire To The Face On Fire: This should be number one, but I figured nobody else reading this would ever have heard of these guys, other than from me singing their praises. If you don't listen to any other band I list, download this one track. You'll instantly know whether you'll dig the band or not. FIRE FIRE FIRE!!
(24)Deftones - Hole In the Earth: I'll always have a special place in my heart for the Deftones.
(23)Beck - Nausea: Not Beck's best single, but these days, you takes what you can gets from Beck.
(22)Strapping Young Lad - You Suck:
Tell us how much they fucking suck!
HELL YEAH THEY FUCKING SUCK!
You and your band you fucking suck!
HELL YEAH YOU FUCKING SUCK!
I don't give a fuck you fucking fuck!
HELL YEAH YOU FUCKING SUCK!
Come on tell me how much we fucking suck
HELL YEAH YOU FUCKING SUCK!
Hell yeah we fucking suck!
Hell yeah we fucking suck!
Oh fuck us all!
HELL YEAH THEY FUCKING SUCK!
You and your band you fucking suck!
HELL YEAH YOU FUCKING SUCK!
I don't give a fuck you fucking fuck!
HELL YEAH YOU FUCKING SUCK!
Come on tell me how much we fucking suck
HELL YEAH YOU FUCKING SUCK!
Hell yeah we fucking suck!
Hell yeah we fucking suck!
Oh fuck us all!
(21)Thursday - Counting 5-4-3-2-1: Just a cool goddamn song; not enough people listen to Thursday, I highly recommend them.
(20)Ok Go - Here It Goes Again: Suck it, bitches; I was listening to this album when it came out last year. That makes me SO much cooler than you. Seriously.
(19)The Streets - When You Wasn't Famous: A British white dude raps about how hard it is to pick up famous chicks when you are also famous. Not that he's at all famous in America, but in England, The Streets is the shit.
(18)Bleeding Through - Love In Slow Motion: Metalcore with keyboards makes me happy. That is all.
(17)Taking Back Sunday - MakeDamnSure: Another guilty pleasure. This band is the pinnacle of lameness, as is true of almost all emocore bands. However, I just really really dug this song this year. Doesn't stop the band from sucking donkey dong, though.
(16)Gnarls Barkley - Gone Daddy Gone: a crazed funk/soul version of a great Violent Femmes song. Gnarls Barkley is goddamn awesome.
(15)Matisyahu - Youth: Fuck everyone, I really dig this dude, and I like the song.
(14)Fear Before The March Of Flames - Taking Cassandra To The End Of The World Party: The strangest post-hardcore act getting even moderate airplay, this takes the guitar fuzz of Hum and mixes it up with a track off of Eighteen Visions' "Vanity" record for 2 and a half minutes of weirdness about the mythological story of Cassandra the prophet.
(13)Pearl Jam - World Wide Suicide: Who knew Pearl Jam had one more awesome single in them, let alone their best album since No Code (sue me, I love that record). Second biggest comeback all year (only because every Weird Al album is a comeback album).
(12)Lady Sovereign - Love Me or Hate Me: A fantastic beat, off-the-wall lyrics about being less-than-attractive (but still being the shit) and a relatively cute British chick rapping. She's the biggest midget in the game, after all. Make way for the S.O.V.
(11)Lupe Fiasco - Kick, Push: The best rapper to debut this year, the best rap single to hit mainstream radio this year, and just flat-out the coolest song about skateboarding ever made. Like Kanye West without the arrogant assholeishness.
(10)Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California: Say what you will about Stadium Arcadium (and there is quite a bit to say, not the least of which would be "Why 2 discs?"), but let's be honest, you heard the first single and thought it was pretty kickass too.
(9)People In Planes - If You Talk Too Much My Head Will Explode: These guys sound an awful lot like Pablo Honey-era Radiohead, not that there's anything wrong with that. Expect to hear more from these guys, and soon.
(8)Wolfmother - Dimension; FUCKIN' RAAAWWWWWKKK!
(7)Dragonforce - Through The Fire And Flame: Literally the fastest goddamn metal band I've ever heard, ever (taking the title previously held by Children Of Bodom). Power metal bombast vocals about...well...fire and flame with speed metal riffing and crazy fucking solos.
(6)The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes: The first couple times I listened to this song, it just didn't click. At all. To the point of me deleting it off my computer. Then, after awhile, I caught the bassline, and that's what hooked me. Besides the fact that Jack White can make almost any song rock the proverbial casbah, it's just a really good song in every respect.
(5)Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor: A rock song that you can dance to? Right the fuck on!
(4)She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart: Let's get this out of the way; She Wants Revenge is horrible. They copy their inspirations exactly (New Order and...uhhh...New Order), without adding anything of their own, and the lyrics are absolutely TERRIBLE, usually devolving into some ham-handed correlation to fucking (or masturbating). There is absolutely no reason why the band should exist, at all. That being said, this song is the balls, in a nasty, dirty, sweaty way. A guilty pleasure, maybe, but it's one catchy-as-fuck guilty pleasure.
(3)Tool - Vicarious: You can always count on Tool to release a fucking awesome first single whenever they release a new album. No exceptions here; Tool preaches about being disproportionately detached from real-life violence by the media that spotlights violence for ratings, and how we all follow in line and devour all the violence they show us because it's on TV. Violence. Sorry, just trying to meet my violence quota.
(2)Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy: Received more mainstream radio airplay than anything he's released since the early 90's. That says a lot about an accordion-playing comedian/parodist pushing 50. Still relevant, still hilarious, still a genius.
(1)Gnarls Barkley - Crazy: Like there was any other choice. Glorious perfection. Mashes about 5 different genres of music into 2:58 of audio cool. Overplayed and run into the ground, but it actually DESERVES to be overplayed.
