- Wade - STILL in SonicBids & CMJ 2007: Anatomy of a Scam? …Meh. I LOVE this…..as a past user (used by) Sonicpigs, I got really disgusted that I was allowing myself to fall into the...
- tape in New Single: Patrick Wolf’s “Accident and Emergency” anna nicole smith sex tape
- Borch in Noah and the Whale - Peaceful, The World Lays me Down I forgot about the syrup! Rice cakes then… nothing blander than rice cakes, unless, of course, they’re topped w/ meat.
geez, this year is half over already! anyway, since it’s music season in chicago, i got inspired - here are my favourite songs released so far in 2008, if you care. not as many brilliant new albums as last year but some good stuff for sure.
and yes, you can commence making fun of me for being a list-making geek now.
playlist:
why? - “the vowels pt.2″ (from the new alopecia album , one of the most interesting albums i’ve heard in awhile)
noah and the whale - “5 years time” (from s/t ep. every song on it is better than good.)
british sea power - “lights out for darker skies” (from do you like rock music? they are the poor man’s arcade fire, it’s a fair album with a few really, really good songs like this one)
hot chip - “ready for the floor” (on made in the dark. it’s fun, dance-y, makes you want to shake your proverbial tail feather)
devotchka - “the clockwise witness” (on a mad & faithful telling, one of the best of the year so far. it’s an amazing album of weird gypsy music)
the mountain goats - “autoclave” (from heretic pride, mildly disappointing but i still heart john darnielle)
cat empire - “no longer there” (just released album of the same name in the states, touring in the fall. huzzah!)
wolf parade - “california dreamer” (on at mount zoomer. pitchfork loves these guys)
islands - “creeper” (on arm’s way. i surprised myself by really digging this whole album)
the indelicates - “sixteen” (from american demo, one of my favourites of the year. this album is SO AWESOME)
nick cave and the bad seeds - “hold on to yourself” (on dig lazarus dig, which i’m warning you is depressing. hey, it’s nick cave, what did you expect?)
the magnetic fields - “too drunk to dream” (an awesome song from the much anticipated and slightly disappointing distortion album)
vampire weekend - “i stand corrected” (s/t album. and yes, yes, they are riding the hype train. no, they aren’t brilliant but it’s fun summery light music)
my morning jacket - “aluminum park” (the second half of evil urges kicks ass. the first part is meh.)
james - “of monsters & heroes & men” (from hey ma. um, it’s james. their first album in 8 years. i love everything about it. you should too.)
the raveonettes - “sad transmission” (from lust lust lust - more spaced out 50’s music. must be played loud)
we are scientists - “that’s what counts” (on brain thrust mastery. well done geek rock.)
martha wainwright - “love is a stranger” (on i know you’re married. rufus’ little sister covering the eurythmics)
so there you have it. questions? comments? criticisms? threats?
Here in Chicago, Mother Nature is being a cocktease by putting on her short skirt and low-cut shirt to give you a taste of the goods, but then turning into an ice-cold bitch when you stare a little too long.
This last week we had a few good days of weather and now it’s back to bitter cold for who knows how long? Still, that didn’t stop me from pumping up the warm weather jams at work to keep me in a good mood while the sunshine made its brief appearance. While everyone has their own style they like to listen to when the weather gets hot, I just picked out some good ones that always make me smile from tons of different styles throughout the years.
So here are some good T-shirt weather jams to rock to put a hitch in your step while walking down the street or to bob your head to while chillin on the porch.
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around The Bend
Steve Miller Band - The Joker
Phantom Planet - Hey Now Girl
Weezer - Surfwax America
The Clash - Rock The Casbah
Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff - Summertime
Arrested Development - People Everyday
LL Cool J - Around The Way Girl
Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up
Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop
Mariah Carey - Fantasy
Booker T & The MGs - Green Onions (aka The Sandlot song)
Ray Charles – What’d I Say
Mr. Big - To Be With You
Lionel Richie - All Night Long
Muscles - Chocolate, Raspberry, Lemon & Lime
Ratatat – 17 Years
Chromeo – Woman Friend
Annie – Chewing Gum
Len – Steal My Sunshine
What are some of your summer songs?
I had a unibrow in 9th grade. I also wore my brothers’ hand-me-downs and had metal-mouth coupled with a minor drooling problem (if you can have a minor drooling problem). The only thing that made me feel slightly sexy was when I put on my headphones and swaggered through the hallways listening to ‘Giving him something he can feel,’ by En Vogue. Strutting my imaginary catwalk, for those brief moments, I would catch a glimpse into what I imagined life was like for the beautiful people.
Fast forward to present day and I’ve discovered the blessings of hot wax, girl clothes, and straight teeth. Aside from those advancements, I still find solace in my music-induced moments of elevation from the mundane. Of course, the songs have changed – when I need to remember that life is bigger than a monitor, I play some of these songs to get that old high like in high school:
* Positive Tension – Bloc Party
* The Moneymaker – Rilo Kiley
* North American Scum and Someone Great – LCD Soundsystem
* And I Was a Boy from School – Hot Chip
* Golden Skans – Klaxons
* Whoo! Alright - Yeah… Uh Huh – The Rapture
* Yeah Yeah Remix – Flosstradamus
* Star Witness – Neko Case
* Roll On – Dntel
* No One’s Gonna Love You – Band of Horses
If you know me and you see me walking like I think I’m a badass, please don’t call me out. I understand I’m still a dork, but let me have my moment of cool even if it is only in my head. And yes, I realize I’ve got drool on my chin.
yes, i know the first month of 2008 is almost over, dear reader, but i really struggled with my top ten list for 2007. my four favourite albums of the year were pretty obvious to me, but there was so much awesome new music this year that the number five position fluctuated constantly in proportion to my levels of depression/euphoria at any given time. and then there were a couple albums i absolutely ADORE that had their releases in the usa in 2007 but actually came out in australia in 2006 - namely two shoes by the cat empire and the fanfuckingtastic moo you bloody choir by augie march (which topped my list in 2006, if you’ll recall) - and i didn’t know whether to include them or not. and my ocd list-making genes were atwitchin’, let me tell you.
so in the interest of not starting 2008 with an ulcer, i decided to make it easy on myself and do it like this:
9-10. the fragile army by the polyphonic spree
the scotland yard gospel choir by the scotland yard gospel choir
yeah, it might be a form of nepotism but still…special props to my dear friends in these bands for coming out with really, really good releases in 2007. it makes me proud.
5-8. armchair apocrypha by andrew bird
the stage names by okkervil river
all hour cymbals by yeasayer
in rainbows by radiohead
all phenomenal and quickly becoming reliable soundtracks for any situation, these albums are worth as much dramatic hyperbole as i can spout. so consider it spouted and let’s move on.
4. neon bible by arcade fire
yeah, it’s less personal and more existential/political than funeral, but the sonic head-rush of diverse instruments (accordian! harmonium! pipe organ!) and the greater sense of urgency to the tracks sold me right away. and, kinda like these amazing songs, it has only built and layered from there.
3. emotionalism by the avett brothers
some folks are calling the latest trend of incorporating banjos into rustic, folk-punk americana music “newgrass.” and while that is awesome, i don’t care what you call it as long as you give it a chance…and nobody is doing it better than these north carolina brothers.
2. boxer by the national
my review of this album says it all…voyeuristic little snippets of someone else’s runaway train of consciousness. literate graffiti on the dark walls of certain kinds of brains. or maybe like interpol for intelligent people (i will be awaiting your hate mail at joie@superstarcastic.com).
1. cotton teeth by the snake the cross the crown
my continuing level of obsession with this phenomenal album terrifies even me. it’s one of the very best things i have ever heard in my life, and that’s saying something for a music junkie like myself, you know? it’s like a mixture of wilco, radiohead and the highest grade heroin. in the best way. just listen to it and you’ll see what i mean (i will be awaiting your thank-you notes at joie@superstarcastic.com).
Coming to you live from the middle of absolutely nowhere (and if you don’t believe me, have a look at the picture, which was taken right here in my current hometown)…it’s tradition! It’s required! It’s got 50% fewer calories than the leading brand! It’s Sam’s Top 10 Albums of 2007!
1. Ceremony - Disappear
Release date: October 15, 2007
Label: Safranin Sound and Design
Seeing as how it was released to almost zero fanfare on such a shoestring budget that you can only buy it in one of those slimline CD cases, it’s doubtful that very many people heard Disappear this year. Which is a shame, because this slice of shattered electro and aching shoegaze is transcendent in its despair, the single best thing I heard all year.
2. Crowded House - Time On Earth
Release date: July 10, 2007
Label: EMI/Parlophone
Bringing back together the surviving members of the seminal Kiwi/Aussie band took more than a decade, but the results were well worth the wait. As perfect a pop record as you’re likely to hear.
3. The Knife - Silent Shout [Deluxe Edition]
Release date: July 17, 2007
Label: Rabid/Mute
Partly this is penance for leaving the original version of this off my 2006 list. But the deluxe edition adds a truly brilliant live DVD to what is already one of the best electronic albums of the last few years, which is enough for me to stick it here this time around.
4. Eisley - Combinations
Release date: Aug. 14, 2007
Label: Reprise
Darker, denser, and better than their debut, Eisley’s second album is a showcase of precision-tuned harmonies and handcrafted arrangements. I liked Room Noises an awful lot, but I wasn’t expecting the follow-up to be this much of a leap forward.
5. The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army
Release date: June 19, 2007
Label: TVT
It takes a village to make a rock album, apparently, but it’s worth it if the album in question sounds this good.
6. Björk - Volta
Release date: May 8, 2007
Label: Atlantic
It’s still pretty darn weird, but Volta does a marvelous job of balancing Björk’s art-school eccentricity with pop music structures and clever production, making this probably her best work since Homogenic. Which is plenty good enough for me.
7. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Release date: Mar. 6, 2007
Label: Merge
How do you follow up one of the most critically acclaimed debuts of the decade? How about by making a second album that’s better?
8. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Release date: Mar. 20, 2007
Label: DFA
Even sleeker, cleaner, and shinier than before, Sound of Silver is James Murphy triple dog daring you not to dance. And if you can do it, you’re tougher than me, that’s all I can say.
9. Elijah Ebenezer Wyman - Butterfly Needles
Release date: Dec. 4, 2007
Label: Grinding Tapes
Wyman nearly died of kidney failure during the year, and Butterfly Needles is his attempt to turn the experience into catharsis. A complete about-face from 2006’s sonically detailed Why We Never Go Swimming and Other Short Stories, Butterfly Needles is a stark collection of lo-fi death rattles, a man and his guitar staring into the darkness. It’s not an easy listen, but it’s more than worthwhile.
10. Belanova - Fantasia Pop
Release date: Sep. 11, 2007
Label: Universal Latino
Mexico’s finest synth-pop trio put together another set of sexy, stylish tunes. Worth a listen even if you don’t speak Spanish.
I remember once, maybe when I was in high school, noticing that most adults had a cut-off age at which they stopped listening to the radio, and by extension, stopped paying attention to new music in general. My father, for instance, was intelligent and knowledgeable about popular music up to about 1978 — after which point he knew essentially nothing. (To his credit, after missing all of the 1980s, he started listening to some new things again; it became sort of something for us to share.)
Of course, as your humble superstarcastic.com correspondent, I continue to listen to as much new music as possible. I can, however, tell you that I stopped listening to music radio in 2004; although I know a good deal about plenty of albums released during the past three years, including some released on some very, very small labels, as well as a few not released on any label at all, many if not most “radio hits” are lost on me. Unless possibly they were playing in the mall when I was there.
And so, as some kind of penance to the gods of pop, I’m going to listen to the current top 10 tracks on Billboard’s Hot 100, and give you my thoughts as I do so, in real-time (or some approximation thereof). (I was going to do the top 20, but I figured it’s best to start with baby steps after being away from this for so long.) For the record, I’ve never heard any of these songs before in my life.
10. “Shawty” — Plies feat. T-Pain
I don’t have any idea how this man pronounces his stage name, but I’m hoping its “plee-AYS,” just like in ballet class. But I have high hopes for this tune, given that it’s a duet with a fellow whose biggest hit was a song called “I’m in Luv Wit’ a Stripper.” Plus, the current top comment on its YouTube video reads “diz song iz gud,” which is a ringing endorsement if I’ve ever seen one.
Now that I’m listening to it, I think my favorite thing about this song is that all of the sung vocals are filtered through an effect box stolen from Eiffel 65. Well, that and that it’s got some of the most clumsy, misogynistic, and ugly claims to be giving one’s girlfriend (or “shawty,” in the common parlance) sexual pleasure that I’ve heard outside of a middle school anywhere. (I’m assuming the radio version is edited…which this is definitely not.) I’m thinking it’s mostly men buying this song, because it’s difficult for me to imagine a woman doing so. I feel like taking a chemical shower now.
9. “Who Knew” — P!nk
I actually remember liking P!nk a little, back when she was all mizzundastood. This one sounds so much like the beginning of “Since U Been Gone” — and P!nk sounds so much like Kelly Clarkson — that it’s hard to recognize as P!nk’s work. It’s pleasant enough, and certainly much more inoffensive than the last song, but it’s had all of the edges sanded off — especially when the strings kick in on the bridge — and at this point, this is derivative enough to make Aly & AJ look positively avant-garde.
8. “Rockstar” — Nickelback
Erm…the nice thing about Nickelback is that they don’t trust their audience to catch irony, so they’re more than willing take anything that might otherwise have been subtle or clever and smash you over the head with it until they’re quite certain you get the point.
At any rate, if they wanted to perform a song on this subject, a cover of Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good,” which is quite a bit funnier, would have been far superior. But that might have required overtaxing the drummer, who seems to be playing most of the song out of one of those “Play the Drums With Mel Bay, Level 1″ books.
7. “Let It Go” — Keyshia Cole Featuring Missy Elliott & Lil’ Kim
I once wanted to record a rap single by, say, Sam E. & SEE-NOTE with K-Taff and O.F.P., featuring R-Murray and introducing A-Dream, just to see how far you could stretch this trend of billing artists this way. But that’s neither here nor there.
The “ha-ha-ha-has,” just leave me wanting to turn on Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Cole herself actually has a pretty good voice, but her efforts are sabotaged by the fact that she’s stuck singing mediocre lyrics over the top of some very lazy production. Well, that and the fact that she has to fight with Missy and Kim, who appear to think that they’re in a very different song. Seriously, the switch between the sung sections and the rapped bits is awkward enough that I thought I was going to get whiplash. (I was going to compare it to the bit where Dorothy steps out of the house in The Wizard of Oz, but there isn’t any Technicolor in this song.)
Also, this song is over five minutes long. I hate to think what the extended-play dance remix sounds like.
6. “Bed” — J. Holiday
I really hoped that the backing track was going to go into full-on Peter Gabriel mode, since the drums showed some promise, but instead it sticks in first gear for the entire song. I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep, which is fitting I suppose given the song’s title, but I do have five more of these to go.
And the best thing you can say about J. Holiday’s come-ons is that they’re better than Plies’. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
5. “Ayo Technology” — 50 Cent featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
I think the single most disappointing music news story of the year involves Mr. Cent reneging on his promise to retire if Kanye West’s album outsold his own. On the basis of this particular tune, I’m going to posit that encouraging the world to party like it was their birthday — and sip Bacardi in the aforementioned manner — represented the zenith of 50’s lyrical ability. I’d quote a few lines as evidence, but my mother does occasionally read what I write here, and I don’t want to give her a heart attack.
Also, though he’s becoming really overrated, I do like Timbaland’s production, but this is one he could have tossed off in his sleep. The Bjork single was better.
4. “Big Girls Don’t Cry” — Fergie
I doubt it somehow, but if this is a Four Seasons cover, my estimation of Fergie will probably rise several notches. I might even temporarily stop making fun of the guy who works in the library with me for bringing his copy of The Dutchess to work with him.
And…it’s not a cover, but it vastly exceeds my expectations. That’s not exactly the highest praise, given that my expectations were entirely shaped by how much I hated “London Bridge” (a rare radio hit that I was not able to avoid, alas), but it’s a pleasant surprise after the last few songs. If anything, it shows that if Fergie gets tired of the whole hip-pop thing, she’s got a future making adult contemporary albums. Heck, I’m gonna make a prediction: sometime in 2011, Fergie will release a duets album, which will feature collaborations with Jim Brickman, Josh Groban, and that one girl who sang “I Hope You Dance.” Well, and Justin Timberlake too, but only because he’ll still be on everything, even then. (Did you know that he’s on the new Reba McEntire album? And no, that’s not a joke, much as I wish it was.)
3. “The Way I Are” — Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson
I’m happy to note that the official music video for this song is presented by the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese. (What, you were expecting The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar?)
This strangely canned robot-funk is actually pretty catchy. It’s got the elements I tend to like in Timbaland’s productions — big fat synth-hooks, beautifully simplistic drums that use silence well, and basslines the size of an American car of the late 1950s. That said, Timbaland isn’t much of a rapper, (”I ain’t got a motorboat, but I can float your boat” is a pretty typical line) and so I’m not completely sold on this one. It sure sounds good by comparison though.
2. “Crank That (Soulja Boy) — Soulja Boy Tell’em
In a field with some pretty impressive contenders (think Vanilla Ice, or possibly Chingy, whose name I always wanted to rhyme with “dingy”), I think Soulja Boy Tell’em is right in the running for worst hip-hop stage name.
This apparently is a song with a dance that goes with it. It looks pretty dumb, from what I can see in the video, but less dumb than “The Macarena,” which is encouraging. I kind of want to like this song, actually, just because it’s got a goofy steel drum sample, but I’ve been listening to The Knife’s “Pass This On” all week, and so my standards for songs that use steel drums in unorthodox ways are pretty high just now. Props to Soulja Boy Tell’em for the totally old-school sunglasses though. Next pair of sunglasses I get, I’m gonna write my name on the lenses too.
1. “Stronger” — Kanye West
Well, I can’t hate this completely, since I like the Daft Punk song that makes up three-quarters of this track. Or maybe I can hate it, in the same way that I hated “I’ll Be Missin’ You.”
I can at least understand why this is popular — it’s based heavily on a very catchy song. But it’s also everything I detest about pop music — an amazingly lazy piggybacking off the work of the more talented, the triumph of mediocrity over genius, the ultimate victory of creative bankruptcy.
Yeah. I think it might be a while before I do this again…
