I wrote out my favorite records for this year, which has been quite a wild ride and interesting year, for sure! (laughs)
Albums/Full-Length
Death Cab For Cutie "Narrow Stairs" (Atlantic)
*People need to be honest about what they listen to, and if by play count alone decides which one`s number one, this would be close.
It`s the last full-length album I bought, if correct, at HMV in Shibuya, one of the rare occasions I buy something straight away. After their last album, "Plans", put me through the post-Postal Service route, it`s like they`re trying to be a bit more experimental or something...
The eight-minute lead single and the album artwork is what led me to believe they`d "Gone Radiohead", but not so. Too many pop songs, straight out of Neil Young`s classic years and a million away from their "Poor Man`s Built To Spill" days, when I first tabled for their show almost ten years ago to near-boredom. Were it not for the aforementioned Postal Service, I wouldn`t be writing this.
I saw Erica recently and we both straight-away mentioned "Cath" as our favorite track, and I have quite a knack for selecting radio-friendly singles...before you knew it, they made a proper video for it. Amazing song. "No Sunrise", "Grapevine Fires", "Your New Twin Size Bed"...gosh, it makes me forget about all their other songs quickly.
No, there`s no turning back for me. Even as a devoted Smiths fan, you couldn`t pay me to look back on the horrible renditions of their self-titled debut, much preferring to "Hatful Of Hollow" and moving on. Death Cab, same thing, I think "The Photo Album" is as far back as you have to reach, and not much else, if you weren`t there from the beginning...but trust me, it wasn`t that great (except for the cool hipster fans who were into them at the time) to...I just couldn`t see it. Bored the hell out of me.
The songs on "Narrow Stairs", man they`re just tight as hell, they throw the book right out and still craft perfect pop songs. Tickets for them cost a lot now, but step into the show and you`ll see why. Another important aspect is the ascension of Chris Walla into a more store-within-a-store role as a band that needs little production values. The period in the last five years saw him make quite a few records (including The Decembrists`great major label debut and the only record by Nada Surf I actually bought).
Sequencing on the tracks are fine, there are different brushes on how the songs were translated, so there`s quite a dynamic sound that makes the case for not always going "low-fi". "Bixby Canyon" is a great statement of intent, with a lot of noise made effortlessly, and each leadoff track off their albums remain the constant thematic indicator.
Ersi Arvizu "Friend For Life" (Anti-)
Who knew that Los Angeles has a wealth of undiscovered music?!?! That was a long time* ago, way before you rocked `Pac and Dre down the street in the middle of the night, making a run to The Hat or another run to Carrow`s.
Anti- is a record offshoot produced from the wonderful mind of Brett Guerwitz, even before he hit it huge with his other, more-famous imprint (Epitaph Records, with bands like The Offspring, Rancid, Bad Religion and NOFX circle-pitting into the national consciousness), he was producing Thelonius Monk records. Distributing Fat Possum Records and getting young teens into R.L. Burnside.
My moment with Ry Cooder came with not the Buena Vista Social Club, but after the dust settled off the Grammy nomination. His record, "Chavez Ravine", was a concept album about the loss of the popular district to pave way for a new baseball stadium. So-called Dodgers historians like me only remembered the days of when we`d bus down on game days, trying to get tickets to see Bonds and Bonilla. Anyways, a lot of tracks off that record made it onto mix tapes (CD`s) that were beamed from Tokyo, a long way from all the music on that album....there`s a lot of history on that album, so you should dig into it.
Ersi Arvizu is no different. People these days are a fucking joke, where they gotta go out every night or jetset everywhere to cook up these badly-made personalities to cultivate. Did a little reading? Froze your ass off on a trip to Europe?!?! Two weeks?!?!? Really?!?! No shit?!??! There are fewer and fewer genuine people, who actually lived this kinda Nine-Lives shit.
Ersi Arvizu?!?!?
I gotta do the best to just get you to buy the CD and let the rest take care of it. Everyone in East Los know who she is, she once sold a million songs.
Dillinger Four "C I V I L W A R" (Fat Wreck)
*As soon as the first single hit...it`s like a girl you have a crush on, whatever she does at this point can do absolutely no wrong. Her spilling Pepsi on you. Being an hour late meeting you at the station. You`re in an actual stupor in a mindset like this.
Hailing from St.Paul, Minnesota, I avoided them for the simple fact that they were on Hopeless Records, although I did buy their Mutant Pop seven-inch record, for the collectibility factor alone. The turning point came when I saw them open up for Fifteen at the Cocodrie Club in San Francisco, when bassist Patrick sang leads on a side project called Cleveland Bound Death Sentence. Most of the time he plays a really good, clangy Rickenbacker bass that sounds absoultely fantastic. In fact, a lot of the lead melodies are played so well into the mix that it really sets them apart from the "asshole guitarist"-solos that are de rigeur....in other words, not boring.
"The Art Of Whore" is fucking kick-ass, it`s so damned good. Paddy singing leads on "Fruity Pebbles" sounds so pop and I just don`t know whether to brush, or just keep eating. The production is really "bright" and "fresh"...you know what, people who like poor recordings and don`t understand how that "slick" recordings are different amps, mics and people who actually have a sound in mind. They don`t wanna repeat the same thing, that`s what artists do, true ones that fucking keep going. "AMERICASPREMIERFAITHBASED
INITIATIVE" is a good example of sounding natural, but oh so fucking refreshing.
It`s like having a full meal, your ass is full, but after an hour the food is so goddamned-good you just gotta pull out the Pepsi and finish the fucker. And make a whole`nutha pot of pasta the next day, again. You can say it`s a metaphor for life, but it`s just how I approach it when it comes to Dillinger Four.
"The Classical Arrangement" is so rock and metal, the drums are great, the "...the world turns into a desert, while you pray for rain", then the bridge--after one beautiful verse following, constantly. "Drugs In The Ocean", fucking`ell, it`s just awesome!!! "Minimum Wage Is A Gateway Drug" is gonna get me some nights and days, St.Patrick sings leads on it and it just gives me chills playing it, over and over again!!! It`s just got this great, patriotic, Midwestern song of America-feel to it. Great lyrics.
"Jingle For The Product" is just as poignant, although "Situationist Comedy" is still their finest hour you can say this album ends on a better note with all the tracks intact and still giving a nice kick. Less soundbites, but still fun.
My best memory of D4 would be riding in two cars, from the middle or Arcadia or around there, blasting their last album, "Situationist Comedy", back to the Westside after an Enemies show. Basically, they preceded to influence Green Day`s American Idiot (no small feat.) and stay on the cusp of everyone`s excitement as underground gods.
The songwriting is absolutely stunning, and they have such a give-a-fuck ethic that bridges old-skool punk rock to The Now. I`ve spent countless hours, in isolation, thinking about how those songs were crafted. Built to last rhythms, great soundbites, The Best Songtitles In The World, crushing breakdowns, melody and hooks to no end. If you don`t like Dillinger Four, you`re just as missing out for all these years, when I skipped out on them for about their first four years.
"Jingle For the Product", great track. Lots of heartfelt lyrics that are really cheapened by songs that kinda really exploit the concept. Maybe I`m just a simple guy, and not know much, but there`s so much music out there where there`s two or three tracks that are massive. Not just bands, whether it`s pop or chart band ("Contemplate On The...." is on at the moment now) where you...fuck, it`s just that nobody makes ALBUMS anymore. People are looking for more than just A Piece Of Shit. What a joke.
Love the riff on it right now, "No excuses for the mess that put us all...", or something like that! IT`s absolutely amazing, how this band just takes their sweet time (six years) and everybody is more than glad to have it back. I know I am.
Oasis "Dig Out Your Soul" (Big Brother)
Anybody who hasn`t been a fan are missing out, for sure. This third album is an amalgation of great songwriting and formation of a band in constant rebirth.
"Don`t Believe The Truth", honestly, I don`t really need "Definitely Maybe" or "What`s The Story?" in my collection if those songs are there for me. It sounds better, the musicianship is far superior (Gem Archer and Andy Bell have been mainstays in the rhythm section as guitarists, while Ringo Starr`s amazing drumming son Zak Starkey has played on this new one as well as "DBTT")...most people like to reflect in youth, it`s fleeting days, but things taste sweeter than it ever did. Oasis is one of those bands.
The only difference to the close observer is the marketing of the band, while in actuality it`s been a slow progression. As a true* band of rock`n`roll, they continue to make flagship singles and an album to visit. Read my reviews of their past albums and I`ll tell you they`ve always made seven or eight good tracks, always falling two or three short.
And this time, it`s about maybe one or two. But I digress...
Radiohead "In Rainbows" (W.A.S.T.E.)
I`m cycling like the Kraftwerk guys here in Berlin, and thinking too hard about how to review this record that fucking Radiohead put out...it`s great, another masterpiece to put on the shelf.
You know how in school people (like teachers, professors) told you, raved and ranted about certain tomes being "a classic"...for years I got tired of hearing that shit: he`s from Stratford-Upon-Avon, this is where he was born, and this theater, *everybody stood up* to watch his plays, blah blah blah.
For 90 percent of society, this is what this Oxford, England, band has come down to for most people. A really nice book on the shelf you have to own, but were you to really analyze it, none of us have a fucking clue.
So of course, with all the classics, we`ve come to rely on Cliff Notes, a digest, some guide to get us through and navigate the details. And somewhere along the way, to save a couple of bucks, the mainstream media would use cheap terms like "Travis: Yesterday`s Coldplay"....and as we all remember a few years ago, Radiohead had us under a spell.
I`m barely getting started on this, because Radiohead put out another record this year, of which you might have noticed and could read all about elsewhere. Let`s talk about the songs, sounds and how this record really is. Of course, like most people, we all downloaded it but basically listen to The Editors and the piles of CDs stacked up that are way more easier than listening to the musical version of William Shakespeare. Okay, okay, Bob Dylan`s Shakespeare and Radiohead is something old and long, like The Illiad or Portrait Of An Artist As A Young Man.
If there`s one song I`d play you from "In Rainbows", it`d be "Videotape" and the link would be to an NPR concert, plus two other things. One would be the band doing New Order and Smiths songs at their rehearsal studios, plus the very final offering in walking up to your music collection, pulling out a Radiohead album. Which one would it be? Well, have a seat.
Bob Dylan "Tell Tale Signs" (Columbia)
*If the truth be told, this is who really speaks to me, in my heart, right now. It`s a guy thing, maybe, a being-in-a-Dylan-phase thing more likely. This is not as rich as the diamonds unearthed in the last installment of the "Bootleg Series", but with Robert Zimmerman`s music he`s so far ahead of anything, musically, that you don`t even know how good it is.
So in good faith, I simply declare this a pure work of genius and don`t doubt it for a second it`ll remain so. Once you`ve become a fan, it`s pretty much going to put you under its spell.
The first disc kicks off with an alternate version of "Mississippi" (sorry for sounding like a Grateful Dead Bootleg Collector for the next paragraph)...but two tracks later a piano demo of "Dignity" (from the excellent LP "Modern Times") just makes you wonder how simple chords and minor-key can demonstrate open-heart surgery. Jonathan Rice or Damian Juardo may be able to mimic the music, the raspy young Dylan--but you basically have to be seventy-five, live near the Levees to do what Bob`s doing now.
Dead To Me "Cuban Ballerina" (Fat Wreck)
+Mike definitely nailed it on the head when he said this is taking that D4 sound and finessing it...so obviously there`s a certain sound that`s piqued my ears for some time. The first tracks I`d heard were "By The Throat" and "Don`t Lie", but actually saw one of their earliest gigs, opening for a solo Matt Skiba show...which means at the time it had to be with Pavla Mikula, since I had no interest in Alkaline Trio at the time.
Jack from One Man Army is in this band, plus people from Enemy You, the artwork is great and another great run from Fat Wreck Chords.
It`s songs about people who loathe themselves and others so much, they`d prefer to cut down, criticize and expected to lead...except for the fact they really don`t have the tools. They`re a sinking ship, nobody takes them seriously and wonder to themselves, "Why Am I Alone?". Anybody who doesn`t really take that big-step to help out, to make things easier and so on.
Wage-slave workers who do it The American Way: Instead of quitting, Going In Everyday, Doing It Half-Assed!!!
Against Me "New Wave" (Sire)
*I have no idea if I stuck this on last year`s list, but it`s definitely continued onto 2008. It`s not so outdated that it *doesn`t* belong on people`s year-ends.
All my friends who were once AM fan are (wrongly) prejudiced against this album, sort of like the same way racism, sexism and elitist people somehow grow "better" than "they were"...hey, maybe they`re in a different place, but that doesn`t mean one has to completely forget who they are, what they represent (then and now, musically, because this and is so important, meaningful and very much so still today)...putting this on, even the once, after the fact, would help move things forward. Yes. We. Can.
The cheese of the title track made me squirm upon initial listening, but hey, you can use it for an advert doing surf gear or something. The first eight tracks burn like "Dookie" or "Seize The Day" did for me, where a song kinda gets in there like a throwaway. Just like "Eminus Sleepus" or "Jocklip", you know?...there`s always gotta be a song that ends the glorious run of hand-in-the-air, fist-pumps and singing yourself hoarse.
The Murder`s Row comes in the form of "Thrash Unreal", "Stop", "White People For Peace" and "Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart", all bona-fide classics, with the latter featuring a duet with Tegan Quinn (of Vapor Records artist Tegan And Sara) which I think is all pretty awesome.
Spin Magazine in the US named it their favorite album last year, but that shouldn`t deter you. This album grows more and more in stature, it made me go through changes that were painful (no, I didn`t go through a break-up or suffer human tragedy while listening to this record), but for all the great songs on this, I can`t help ask for more compassion for this LP. Especially for those who used to love Against Me!
Cat Power "Jukebox" (Matador)
*Aretha, Sing One For Me is one of my favorite tracks this year! The record`s got a warm sound, bought the special double disc edition at disc union for almost san-sen.
I never hide the fact that she`s finally blossomed...if pop musicians can`t be lived through vicariously, what`s the point? It`s the fantasy. She used to fucking end shows in fifteen minutes, but now she`s confident, groovin`, and not afraid to show it off. Great sleeve art and packaging--and we all should consider that, these days, since most CD`s aren`t worth buying.
Vampire Weekend (XL)
Some idiot in Japan still has my copy, which isn`t even the worst part. I`ll tell you this story in a sec.
So all the students I tutored after school two, three or four years ago--are probably what you call teenagers now. One picked up a guitar, and of course, being accustomed to speaking in an older-brother type of way, I strongly advised they buy a guitar case instead of the nylon "gig bag"....which I think is pretty much worse than the Holocaust or the invention of AIDS.
He`s a Tokyo Giants fan, and so is another kid, who are now on the same club baseball team at school or something. Anyways, he`s a really smart kid, too, and remembered trying to get them to start their own zines about their beloved yakyu-cheemu. I think there were a couple contributions, artwork and articles written up. Like a Pandora`s Box or a virus, the idea`s already out there.
If both of them asked me, which record they should buy, I *wouldn`t* say, "Hey, check out this Brooklyn band, they`re a bunch of Columbia grad students that made Paul Simon`s Graceland if The Postal Service made it". See, when you communicate with a new generation, nevermind one`s not reared on Pitchfork Media and Western values, you have to be able to frame your conversation in a completely different way. These words wouldn`t exist, it`d be a lot less wordage and a lot more...
sJimmy Eat World "Chase This Light" (Universal)
*This record`s good enough, but I can`t justify it being one of the best this year; there`s two or three really good tracks, yet something bugs the hell outta me. Record sleeve looked like it was put together in three minutes--not in a cool way like "Check, Please" by The Influents or anything. Look up the first Bluetones album and you`ll see how crap this artwork is--and for a band this professional, great and invigorating live, it sucks.
Singles / EP
Lil Wayne "Lollipop"
*Fuck, this song doesn`t even compare to how good his mixtapes were in the interim of the last "official" full-length, but if you`re gonna be cruisin`Cali, shopping for kicks or whatevs.
The cult of personality for someone like this is only restricted (and unfairly marginalized) for those who listen to hip-hop. People don`t realize that boys-with-guitars aren`t the only ones who deserve heaps of praise as "innovators", but well all know better. Musicians know better, critics don`t. Radiohead themselves probably get their minds blown by "Tha Carter II", but their fans are plodding along with boring-ass White People Music. For the lack of better terminology.
Should I be jailed for not listing "Hello Brooklyn 2.0", or leave the gushing and worship of Lil`Wayne to The Kids?!?!
The music`s insane, really demented, wayyyy out there. Bumpin`track that I`d love to have blasted at my funeral. Great lyrics, hooks-galore.
"Cath" by DCFC
Last night I had the strangest dream...I tried to compare this song to other songs that featured weddings (Billy Idol`s "White Wedding", Screeching Weasel "Suzanne`s Getting Married"...even the Duran Duran album with "Ordinary World" on it that had a couple outside after a ceremony on the cover of the album), but none of them seemed quite right.
Let me write this down, right here, before I forget, that the first half of this year was going through a Led Zepplein phase--which has nothing to do with this band. Singer Ben Gibbard of course now sports the "Neil Young": Big Sideburns, Country-Rock Graham Parsons kinda gear and minus-the-cowboy-boots.
The chorus has the poignant lines that hit you, right between the lines. It just embedded itself in a way that it`s kind of frightening. The drums are astounding, taking a standard indie-rock 4-4, making it really *perfect* and possibly formulaic. But all of it puts you under a spell, like the one summer (last fall)...you know what I mean, from *that* era, when we all listened to The Promise Ring and perhaps bought those Emo compilations from that label from New Jersey, which one`s that, the one that put out Appleseed Cast, the comps. with all the cheesy titles.
Songs with good lyrics just run deeper and deeper everytime you hear it, and sometimes I wonder if my head is going to implode with how good it is. If you`re a songwriter, you listen to something like this and think, "Ah, I used to do this". A beautiful bridge, on top of an even *better* chrous. A slow burn of melodies that are hummable for days, that doesn`t simply end after its initial course, but peels off slowly to reveal so much more. This is one of those songs anybody could`ve picked out, but thanks to generous patronage and effort, will stand out as a track people will refer to, over and over again.
Only half of what I`m talking about is relevant, have you not ascended The Postal Service album to the upper echelons of Masterpieces. Check it out, it`s on the Sub Pop label, where perhaps only Nirvana`s debut album has sold more from it. That`s right, on my all time list it can be credited from taking a bland, boring band I saw in Death Cab For Cutie--to a side project that occupies favorites that I`d lived through. Just like "Strangeways, Here We Come" or "Buzz".
Great song.
Jenny Lewis "Acid Tongue"
"Talent Borrows, Genius Steals", and you must know I decided to include this after hearing it on KALX (online) FM, the best radio station in the world, in-between a cut from "Blue" and some local bluegrass band whose name escapes me.
Sometimes, eating an entire pie or a pizza--a pizza pie, whatever that`s round--at once doesn`t sit well. And it`s the same for Jenny Lewis solo record (Which means her debut, "Rabbit Fur Coat", sits moldy in the downstairs dumpster, couple years after the fact) and Rilo Kiley albums. Which leads me to believe that she`s just as restless and unfocused like the rest of us who are, and much more interesting. And the songwriting-partner bloke is the bland one that wants to make the same record, over and over.
Great slice, simple and not bad-retro...uses a choir and leaves a little dust on this gem for you to admire.
Pinhead Gunpowder EP (Recess)
A great seven-inch release (and download through Amazon!) that should keep Aaron Cometbus filled with the *good bread* while he writes up another great zine...Billie And Jason provide the good shouts, while Bill keeps the rhythm intact. When you release something only every five or ten years, then quality control should be good, right?
Their sound remains constant, yet still fresh and highly anticipated for people who`ve been enjoying them from their debut record, "Fahizah"....which was almost twenty years ago if you really think about it.
PG even did So.Cal shows for it, so does that mean World Domination is next??!??! Oh yeah. I still say "Shoot The Moon" is their best release, the seven-song 12 on Adeline Records.
Leftover Crack/Citizen Fish "Deadline" Split EP (Alternative Tentacles)
"Twenty One One Zero" Phoenix (Cartier Download)
"Shock Of The Lightning" by Oasis
"Hello Brooklyn 2.0" Jay-Z featuring Lil Wayne
"Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)" Jay-Z
*One of the greatest songs, ever. Samples a Dap-tones related horn (they backed most of Amy Winehouse`s breakthrough record) and Shawn Carter shows that he`s really back from Kingdom Come (Gone) and it`s inital shortcomings. I put this on more mix CDs to give to people, it really gets you going cos it`s got a great verses that paint a vivid image that only those who`ve lived it, can. I certainly relate to that, people who don`t bite other`s lives, do it *exactly how they want to--and somehow come out of it, doing the same. This one`s for all the hustlers, it`s always good to see one of us make it!
I mean, this guy embodies the American Dream: grows up in Brooklyn (before all the rich kids` and their children moved in) projects, hustles drugs. Samples Annie Hall for a breakthrough single ("Hard Knock Life")...even people who didn`t know who he was, had to listen when Beyonce Knowles is wearing your (gold) chain, a major label makes you their CEO and every other kid on the street is wearing a Yankees hat, just like the way you do it.
Okay, you must get this song, again, it looks like all the best ones are from Hip Hop.
Dave Chapelle`s Tupac Skit (Lyrics)
*Sorry, this is the only "Weird Al" moment, I swear, it`s a skit from one of my favorite comedians, making slight comment on the fact that there`s been more product from Tupac Shakur in the last decade *after* his death.
comedycentral.com/videos/i
ndex.jhtml?videoId=71416&t
itle=tupac-lyrics
Listen close, as life turns its pages
Makeveli here, kickin rhymes for the ages
see things is changin, wives, work, smokin by sages
from skytell to blackberry pagas!
yo crew dont phase us, well make you bustas pay us
run up in yo spot like CJ from San Andreas.
I wrote this song a long time
a real long time ago FEEL ME!
i wrote this song a long time ago
it was the dopest song i ever wrote in 94
now what can a nigga do..
when half the people voted for george W.
Listen close, George W. cant be true
im gunna choke him, cause hes a snitch
Im talkin bout george w smith
from city council, he ran in 93
out in oakland, you probably didnt hear about him.
I wrote this song a long time ago
a real long time ago
way before slim shady was in demand
way before we dropped bolony on afghanistan
i wrote this song in 94!
how am i doin this?!?!
look around the club
see everyone in the place
showin pac love
and a smile on my face
the girl in the mini skirt has bad taste
cause that shirt dont match
and theres a puddin stain on the back
what the fuck is that?!
it might be dooo doooo!
and you in the back you ain't the shit,
you bought a gin a tonic but u didnt even tip
and if u hit this table one more time
then the record might skip *record skips* might skip
i told you...stop hittin the table.
Tupac is ova. I wrote this crap in 1994.
IM NOT ALIVE!
THUG LIFE!
dave chappelle, that aint yo wife.
you better leave, you have 2 kids
GO HOOOOOMMMEE!!!
i wrote this song a long time ago
a real long time ago
way before beanie seigel had to do a bid
way before dave chappelle had 2 kids
you aint gettin no coochy.
DJ: rest in peace
OKAY I WILL!
Black Sabbath
The Smiths "Sound Of..."
*How fucking stupid do you think we are?!?! At least Morrissey And Marr were involved in the reissue, repackage, repackage.
Led Zeppelin "Mothership"
The Queers "Love Songs For The Retarded" (Recess)
*
***Is everybody else starting to get their list together?!?!?
Top Ten Places In Y2K8 Where I Heard Random Good Music is also coming soon.
