Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Not Me

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Tuesday, January 03, 2006

2005 Sunless Shortlist

Top 15 Albums of 2005


15. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

I fell into the hype surrounding this album. All the comparisons to Modest Mouse, or basically anything currently Seattle, are correct. Good stuff for just a debut. Can't wait to hear where it goes from here.


14. White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

Jack White's a sellout prick....whatever. Still can't go wrong with anything White Stripes. I didn't like this one as much as Elephant, but still great nonetheless.


13. Gorillaz - Demon Days

I love anything Damon Albarn. I can't help it.


12. John Vanderslice - Pixel Revolt

Vanderslice is easily one of the best talents in the industry right now. Be it in front or behind the microphone, he's brilliant. Pixel Revolt may not be quite as good as Cellar Door musically (too many bleeps and bloops), but it is an incredible step forward in his songwriting.


11. Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love

Great year for Drag City. Great stuff from Smog, Silver Jews, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. I didn't even get Joanna Newson's album, but I've heard it and love it. To me, and I know nobody else will agree, the new Smog is the best of the batch.


10. Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir

Fuck Pitchfork. They don't know what they're talking about. Get this album, it's great.


9. Stars - Set Yourself on Fire

This year is the birth of Arts & Crafts for me. So much great stuff released this year. Canada kicks ass!! Forget pop/punk. This band is straight pop music with a punk attitude. I love it.


8. Feist - Let it Die

Broken Social Scene sounds horny. Feist sounds sexy. I forced myself to like this album by pounding it into my head all through my vacation, and it worked.


7. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Conor did plenty to piss me off this year, but I can't deny his talents. Just lay off John Peel, you asshole.


6. Decemberists - Picaresque

Okay, so I've never been huge on the Decemberists. I liked them, but not too crazy about them. I picked this one up recently, however, and it's barely left my car since. It gets my blood flowing at 3:30am on the way to work to yell out pirate songs.


5. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema

More Canadians! A pop masterpiece.


4. Broken Social Scene - S/T

Okay, the last of the Canadians on this list. I don't know what's going on up there, but they are putting out some kick ass shit! Broken Social Scene's newest sounds like a jumbled mess at first, but the fun is in the challenge of figuring out the melodies buried in noise.


3. Spoon - Gimme Fiction

Britt Daniel is my hero. He can do no wrong...and only keeps getting better. It took a looong time for this one to grow on me compared to their earlier stuff, but I get it now and it's their best yet.


2. Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree

John Darnielle's first attempt at non-fiction is a masterpiece. This albums hits me on so many levels, it's scary.....even though I can't relate to anything on it. That's a hell of a writer.


1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

I just cannot burn myself out on this album. I've listened to it so much that I should be ambivalant to it, but that still hasn't happened yet. It's all things beautiful and bizzare. So much has been written about this album that I can't add anything. All the praise that Sufjan has received this year is well worthwhile.

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Most Disappointing Album of 2005


Death Cab for Cutie - Plans

No brainer here. I love Death Cab, but they really lost me on this one. Just because you are now signed to a major label doesn't mean you have to sound like any other major label band. Get over it. I could've put the new Weezer here, but I didn't expect it to be good at all.

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Looking ahead to 2006, I expect good things....and quickly. New Strokes, Belle & Sebastian, and Bob Pollard's double album are all here within a month. Plus I'm looking forward to some new Wilco, with some possible new Loose Fur and Golden Smog being teased. I keep hearing about some new Flaming Lips, but I've been a fan long enough to know to wait and see. Should be a great year!!
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Monday, January 02, 2006

Resolutions

Currently working on my best of 2005 list and taking a break to write a quickie....okay so there's a little Resident Evil 4 break in there too.

The New Year's party was great fun. Didn't get home until 7am. That's always a good sign of a good time.

So far, however, 2006 has sucked. Yesterday was a complete waste. Was sick as hell all morning and didn't get any good sleep until almost noon. Then woke up around 4:30pm, still sick. Had to go into work this morning to cover for somebody's vacation. Usually I'm off on Mondays, but I can't complain because I just had a week off. The problem with this morning is that my cold is only getting worse. I was death itself this morning. I was supposed to work a full shift, but could only muster about half. Plus Iowa was playing at 11am!!

Yeah, but that sucked. I'm usually not one to complain about sorry officiating, but that game today was a joke. The roughing the kicker just before halftime I can handle, I guess. But for Florida to not get called for too many men on the field when the extra guy was running in front of a ref is not cool. Then for them to end Iowa's comeback, and Chad Greenway's college career, by flagging him offside on a recovered onside kick (when he was actually onside by a yard and a half) is just so ridiculous it's unreal. I'm glad I don't care about Conference USA because if that's the officiating they have, I'd go insane.

Oh, by the way, my New Year's song of 2006 ended up being Feist's "Mushaboom." Berto and I had this thing where we each pick a song to listen to to ring in the New Year....something that you want to set the tone for the upcoming year....always with uncanny accuracy, I might add. "Mushaboom" seemed like a good choice.

I'll get my list up tomorrow. Also, don't forget, new Strokes tomorrow.
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