10. Merry Christmas!
9. The Music Podcast.
For whatever reason (the snark, the tone, the long-windedness?), music blogs and music review sites generally rub me the wrong way. But music podcasts? Love 'em! Informative, aural, nimble, there's four in particular I'd recommend:
Sound Opinions - From the top NPR station in America (WBEZ Chicago), Jim & Greg give a nerdy, thoughtful take on the week in music. News, reviews, interviews, etc. My favorite of the lot.
KEXP Weekly. Just a weekly mix tape from KEXP out of Seattle.
All Songs Considered. Hit or miss, but worth the weekly listen.
New York Times Popcast. They're the smartest music writers in America, led by Jon Pareles and his crew. And while the podcast covers too much mainstream country, too much mainstream pop, and a bit too much emo, the reality is you're left well informed on what the hell is going on in music. And that Sia Michel, roar.
8. 88 Drummers, August 8, 2008, The Williamsburg Waterfront Park
Recycling the '07 idea, but with Gang Gang Dance at the helm instead of the Boredoms (who were in charge of the Los Angeles version of it). With 11 more drummers than last year, it was an occasional noise-mess, but more often than not, a spectacle.
7. Two hip hop tracks worth mentioning:
TI, Whatever You Like. What a great boast rap, and a nice return to form for T.I. Though he'll be behind bars for most of 2009, I'm predicting album of the year honors for 2010.
The Game Feat. Lil Wayne, My Life. Biting Ye's style, this is still pretty smooth with an incredible chorus from Weezy.
6. Notable songs of 2008
Vampire Weekend. A-Punk. Charm to spare.
Kanye West. Love Lockdown. Kanye can still do no wrong by me.
The Teenagers. Feeling Better. I'm fairly certain I hate this band, but still a great anthem of 08.
Fleet Foxes, White Winter Hymnal. My favorite song of the year, along with "A Milli."
Sigur Ros, Gobbledigook. Best thing I've heard from this band yet.
The Killers, Human. Are we human, or are we dancer? I ask you.
5. Three Museum performances.
Three notable shows at my workplace:
Sigur Ros, which has been mentioned a couple times.
The Screaming Men's Choir. Click to watch.
A night of Bowie music videos hosted by Thurston Moore. Got to meet the man in question, and set up this Nylon TV interview.
4. On Turning the Corner
Almost as important as the annual music discoveries are the breakups: artists you loved, but no more. And I've devised this break-up scale as a guide.
The living-in-different-cities-total-breakup: Bands that you are completely done with. In 2008, Oasis released the critically derided "Dig Out Your Soul," and can't say I was the least bit curious on this one. Same for Beck's "Modern Guilt."
The still-talking-and-occasionally-hooking-up-breakup: With these bands, the relationship is over, but you know, not totally over. Weezer's "Red Album" didn't warrant a listen from me, but Rivers' solo album sounded intriguing.
The signs-are-all-there-breakup-on-the-way: Definitely in a relationship with these bands, but might not be picking up the next album. I've enjoyed what I've heard of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida," but I don't see much of a future there.
3. LP's
Besides the obvious soul/Stax/Motown stuff all us 20-somethings are re-discovering (Marvin Gaye, Otis, Smokey, Sam Cooke, etc.), here's a smattering of LP records I discovered in 08:
The Best of Roy Orbison. He certainly had the great voice of Sun records (sorry Elvis, Johnny, etc.), but "Crying" is easily one of the best things I re-discovered in '08. If you have a second, watch the clip below, especially 1:50 to the end. This is seriously spiritual.
The construction of The White Album. Bob Boilen recently did a great anniversary program on the White Album, and one point couldn't be stressed enough - this album makes no sense on a CD. Designed with very exact, natural breaks as a 4-sided object, the breaks between "Happiness is a Warm Gun" & "Martha My Dear," and "Long, Long, "Long" & "Revolution 1" are necessary and valuable.
Louis Jordan - a more ribald Louis Armstrong, with such greats as "What's the Use of Gettin' Sober (When You're Gonna Get Drunk Again)" from 1942, mind you.
Abba, Greatest Hits, Volume 2. Goes without saying.
2. New Orleans horns, pianos, guitars.
Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Rebirth Brass Band, Professor Longhair, and Fats Domino are all personal favorites from this year. Seek them out at all costs.
1. New Orleans rap - Lil Wayne's "Tha Carther III" & The Knux's "Remind Me in 3 Days."
Earlier this year I read Nik Cohn's "Triksta," a first hand account of New Orleans rap by an old white journalist. Not great, but a useful primer on the New Orleans sound and the Triggaman beat. However, the two big New Orleans rap records of the year, including the year's top selling album, have little to do with that distinct sound. But the lyrics? That's a different story.
From Weezy:
"Hollygrove I throw it up like I'm tryna lose my gut" & "Straight off the corner of Apple and Eagle"
Apparently Lil Wayne and I grew up near each other, in fact here's an exact map of directions from his house to mine (less than 4 miles apart that whole time...):
&
"My whole city under water, some people still floatin/ Then they wonder why black people still voting, cause your presidents still chokin/ Take away the football team, the basketball team
/ Now all we got is me to represent New Orleans"
/ Now all we got is me to represent New Orleans"
And from the brother rap-duo, the Knux:
"Laissez les bon tomps roulez like a jaguar/ Cafe du Monde, beignets, ho's I bagged y'all"
And with references to Cheesecake Bistro, the New Orleans Saints, etc., great local lyrics. Here's the Knux's big song of '08:
----
* I'd recommend Rolling Stone's list of the top 100 singers of the pop-rock era.
* In movies, I'm giving it up to Wall-E for film of the year.
* In art, Prospect 1 was the event bar none.
All for now, but additions sure to come. -PGJ
7 comments:
good call on Wall-E. oscars for sound design at the very least, if that's even a category.
but holy cow you're way off on the killers song. notable? for being awful i hope. seriously, if you have a good defense of this song please send it along.
i'm going to back paul up on the killers song.
i mean, look at the bridge:
will your systems be alright
when you dream of home tonight?
there is no message we're receiving
let me know is your heart still beating?
now granted, it's not as wonderful as that new third eye blind song, but still incredible.
Wait, Beck gets a more decisive break-up than Coldplay? What did Beck ever do to you? (And this is coming from someone who liked X&Y for like, 3 months in 2005.)
Yeah, because we don't know Coldplay's potential. Can they become bigger than U2 - can they get airports named after them in continents around the world?
I know what Beck gives me. Blah. Blah.
Ok, I just listened to this song again, and your sort of right, the bridge on Human is a bright spot, but overall I don't think the song actually does anything incredible. My problems is that I saw these guys perform this song on SNL and it brought me right back to seeing the Bravery live in 2005, which is the concert that basically killed indie rock for me (well, if not killed, that show dealt a blow that indie never recovered from with me at least). This song sounds empty -- it sounds formulaic, and simple (in a bad way), with meaningless lyrics and trendy instrumental detail. I mean, when I'm in the mood for that kind of thing, MGMT is more bang for my buck I guess ;)
I really feel like they're trying to write an indie anthem with this, and that they're trying too hard. Maybe that's it -- it's the motivation behind this song that rubs me the wrong way... it just doesn't mean anything!
It's not what he gives you, it's how he gives it to you. Bow chica bow.
To be fair, the chorus is a Hunter S. Thompson reference - dancer being shorthand for vacuous American-ness. So TECHINICALLY it does mean something.
Otherwise, I mean, this isn't indie rock. This is pure new wave pop rock. And in that genre, I think its pretty awesome....
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