Alex's decade list

The 25 albums I most consistently reach for (click at, in these crazy modern times?) no matter how many times I've heard them. Everything on here I would happily play at any time regardless of mood. All album name links go to a good example via YouTube of why the album's worth listening to. All recaps kept to tweet length because I could go on and on about all of these. For the visually inclined, my favorites from the YouTube videos follow the entries.


25. Handsome Boy Modeling School: White People - An insane collection of talent used to great effect. Even makes me enjoy Jack Johnson and John Oates. The De La, Casual & Del tracks shine.

24. Ghostface Killah: Supreme Clientele - Ghost makes up for several years of Clan oversaturation with the Wu banger LP of the decade.

23. Soulive: Doin' Something - Snappy jazz funk elevated by hip-hop feels, like Tribe Called Quest tribute "Shaheed." Fred Wesley shows what horns should sound like.

22. Morphine: The Night - Sad and beautiful, a poignant posthumous note for the band to end on.

21. Zero 7: Simple Things - As lush and chill as albums come. Mellow late-night perfection.

20. Loveage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By - Innuendo at its max, A+ beats and fantastic vox. Shoves trip-hop somewhere sultry, sexy, sleazy, dirty, creepy. In a fun way.

19. Air: Virgin Suicides soundtrack - At times sinister, at times touchingly sweet. Air showing their versatility on an incredible soundtrack.

18. The Sword: Age of Winters - Riff after riff after riff... all sick.

17. Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet: Requiem for a Dream soundtrack - The story replicated musically. An amazing score. Harrowing yet enjoyable.

16. Quasimoto: The Further Adventures of Lord Quas - High-pitched raps and odd ball production from Madlib that somehow works. Has a blaxploitation movie soundtrack vibe.

15. Deltron 3030: Deltron 3030 - Tomorrow's raps today. Another brilliant Automator concept album and Del's finest showcase. The future is dope.

14. Madvillain: Madvillainy - Two geniuses at the top of their game. One of many hip-hop classics from Madlib, MF DOOM and Stones Throw in the aughts.

13. Ween: White Pepper - Their last great album with 12 slick, diverse songs, from the sludge of "The Grobe" to the lovey morning of "Stay Forever."

12. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Robots - Handily reversed my opinion of the Lips. A strong mixture of silliness and earnestness.

11. System of a Down: Toxicity - Responsible for more car rocking than any album ever. I put in much time mastering "Chop Suey!" harmonies in the pre-Beatles Rock Band era.

10. Gorillaz - Gorillaz: Trip-hop evolved. Top notch song writing and production. More Automator magic plus Albarn excellence.

9. MF DOOM: Mm..food - Elite wordplay focused on food and tremendous, innovative beats. Sample-based skits that impress.

8. Tortoise with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: The Bold and the Brave - Best cover album ever. Their "Thunder Road" is my track of the decade. Amazing reimaginings of songs by Elton John, R. Thompson, DEVO, etc.

7. Tool: Lateralus - Proving "math rock" needn't be a slur. Fibonacci FTW

6. Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein - A masterpiece. El-P in top production form and two great storytellers turning in the best indie hip-hop LP in a decade chock full of them.

5. Radiohead: Kid A - Obviously I'm not alone on loving this album.

4. Mastodon: Leviathan - Lives up to its Moby Dick whale of a theme, thrashing you sea beast style. Killer riffs and unhinged drumming in a cohesive package.

3. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins: Rabbit Fur Coat - Incredible. Soulful songs bolstered by beautiful harmonies. I still can't stop listening.

2. Mr. Lif: I Phantom - BLif's flow in top form. Great storytelling with a variety of producers turning in one dope track after another. An all time hip-hop fav.

1. Queens of the Stone Age: Rated R - Deceptively complex rock that surprises me after a decade of steady listening. Even the 9-min psychedelic closer is enthralling. The best.

Quick Rec, from PGJ

It's that time of year -- when I dive into the previous year's "Best Music Writing" anthology and turn up some classics, including David Ramsey's "I Will Forever Remain Faithful," originally printed in the Oxford American. In it, Ramsey recounts his year teaching in post-Katrina New Orleans, where Lil Wayne was the common language between the out-of-towner-college-boy-teacher and his Weezy-loving students:

"For some of my students, the questions Where are you from? and Do you listen to Lil Wayne? were close to interchangeable. Their shared currency—as much as neighborhoods or food or slang or trauma—was the stoned musings of Weezy F. Baby.

The answer was, sometimes, yes, I did listen to Lil Wayne. Despite his ubiquitous success, my students were shocked.

“Do you have the mix tapes?” asked Michael, a sixteen-year-old ninth grader. “It’s all about the mix tapes.”

The following day, he had a stack of CDs for me. Version this, volume that, or no label at all.

And that’s just about all I listened to for the rest of the year."

You can read it here.

And for a little memory of a 17-year old Lil Wayne, here's Weezy back in 1999 (at 3:28) rhymin "Drop It Like It's Hot" 5 years before Snoop:

My Decade (Abridged)

1. I think it's fascinating that we still talk in terms of albums... such '90s kids, all of us. Whether it's in exercises like this or just in my general thought process, I've spent the decade trying to figure out how iPods, file-sharing and MySpace impacted music and my love for it. Music is as good (or has the capacity to be) as it's ever been before, but I hate the way we get it. The delivery mechanism for receiving music has forever changed and the value of an "album" is entirely different than its was 15 years ago. There's no going back... and, really, I feel badly for the 13-year old who will never know the genuine pleasure of buying an album.

2. As I mentioned and Mark (Cummins) better articulated, my age has impacted me. I think I understand, better than ever before, why my parents (or anyone their age) could never have loved Radiohead as much as me. So much of the magic of pop music is wrapped up in youth and its emotions.

3. As I mentioned and Mark (Cichra) better articulated, Kings of Leon?? Really? That's where we landed???

25. The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place/Explosions in the Sky

24. The Meadowlands/The Wrens

23. Logos/Atlas Sound

22. White Blood Cells/The White Stripes

21. Late Registration/Kanye West

20. Sound of Silver/LCD Soundsystem

19. In Rainbows/Radiohead

18. You Forgot it in People/Broken Social Scene

17. The Moon & Antarctica/Modest Mouse

16. Up The Bracket/The Libertines

15. Thunder, Lightning, Strike/The Go! Team

14. Amnesiac/Radiohead

13. Grab That Gun/The Organ

12. Agaetis Byrjun/Sigur Ros

11. Funeral/The Arcade Fire

10. Stephen Malkmus/Stephen Malkmus

9. Microcastle/Deerhunter

8. Is This It? (UK Version)/The Strokes

7. The Black Album/Jay-Z

6. Apologies to the Queen Mary/Wolf Parade

5. Turn on the Bright Lights/Interpol

4. Takk/Sigur Ros

3. Silent Alarm/Bloc Party

2. The Grey Album/Danger Mouse + Jay-Z

1. Kid A/Radiohead

13 Songs I loved from the Albums Above...
Motion Picture Soundtrack/Kid A

Neighborhood #1/Funeral

Your Hand in Mind/The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
All My Friends/Sound of Silver
Someone Great/Sound of Silver
Hoppipolla/Takk

My 1st Song/The Black Album + The Grey Album

Public Service Announcement/The Black Album + The Grey Album

Walkabout/Logos

Church on White/Stephen Malkmus

House of Cards/In Rainbows

Pioneers/Silent Alarm

Time for Heroes/Up the Bracket

13 Songs I loved from other sources...

The Present/Bloc Party

Roc Boys/Jay-Z

Winters Love/Animal Collective

Paparazzi/Lady Gaga

Hate to Say I Told You So/The Hives

Oil in the Fields/Paul Duncan

C'mon, C'mon/The Von Bondies

What You Know/T.I.

Make It Rain (Remix)/Fat Joe featuring R Kelly & Lil' Wayne

Stadiums and Shrines II/Sunset Rubdown

Staring at the Sun/TV on the Radio

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)/Beyonce

Romeo/Basement Jaxx

Re-release of the Decade...
Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Reduxe/Pavement

Hip-hopera of the Decade...

Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-22)/R Kelly

Best Year of Music...

2001

Year I was Most Interested in Music...

2004

Best Year of Pop Music...

2008 (I am... Sasha Fierce/Beyonce, The Fame/Lady Gaga)

10 Films I loved this Decade...
Requiem for a Dream

The Barbarian Invasions

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I Heart Huckabees
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Inglourious Basterds

Mulholland Drive

Knocked Up

Book of the Decade...
Everything Is Illuminated/Jonathan Safran Foer

Best TV Drama...
The Wire

Best Character on The Wire...
Marlo Stanfield

Best TV Comedy...
Arrested Development

Best Character on Arrested Development...
Franklin

Best TV Reality Series...
Jersey Shore

Best Cameo on Entourage...
Matt Damon

Favorite Sports Moments...
1. Tiger's chip-in at 2005 Masters
2. Vince Carter's dunk on Frederic Weis (G.O.A.T.)
3. Tiger winning the 2008 US Open on a broken leg and torn ACL

Least Favorite Sports Moments...
1. John Terry's Missed Penalty in 2008 Champions League Final
2. Andres Iniesta's Injury-Time Goal in 2009 Champions League Semi-Final
3. The New York Mets (continuous)

Mark's 2009 Paulies List

Hi everyone. I'm Mark; buddy of PGJ since college, Paulies contributor
from the beginning.

First, my metal band Denial Machine released its self-titled debut
album this year. Search for it in the usual places (Amazon, iTunes,
LaLa) or check it out at our myspace
(http://www.myspace.com/denialmachine) or our website
(http://www.denialmachine.net).

Top 25 Albums of the Decade

****************************

First, numbers 25-11 in no particular order:

IDLEWILD - The Remote Part

JOANNA NEWSOM - Ys

RADIOHEAD - Kid A

I think of it as an album closing the last decade, not an album of
this decade, in that it features the culmination of several 90's
influences more than it influenced the next ten years of music. But
it's great and it came out this decade and it needs to be on the list.

BLOC PARTY - A Weekend in the City

GOD FORBID - The Constitution of Treason

The album that re-introduced me to the current state of American metal.

RILO KILEY - More Adventurous

INTERPOL - Turn on the Bright Lights

Remember how much we loved this album? Damn.

THE KILLERS - Hot Fuss

COHEED AND CAMBRIA - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

COLDPLAY - A Rush of Blood to the Head

ALL SHALL PERISH - The Price of Existence

I play this album for people to show them one kind of metal's
extremes. The technical brutality of this band is unbelievable.

YEAH YEAH YEAHS - Fever to Tell

MODEST MOUSE - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

SYSTEM OF A DOWN - Toxicity

Nu-metal's only worthwhile product.

ISIS - Panopticon

Along with fellow post-metallers Neurosis, Isis defined a genre. Er, subgenre.

10.) MUSE - Absolution

9.) UNEARTH - In the Eyes of Fire

8.) TRIVIUM - Ascendancy

Credibility issues aside, Trivium synthesized the best of metal's
history into a perfect album.

7.) AUGUST BURNS RED - Thrill Seeker

Mathcore's unpredictability made majestic and musical. Breathtaking.

6.) JOANNA NEWSOM - The Milk-Eyed Mender

Have to disagree with Niki on this one. Not since Neutral Milk Hotel
have we heard such a skilled blend of absurdity and earnestness. Only
if she were kidding would she be embarassing.

5.) JIMMY EAT WORLD - Bleed American

The pinnacle of emo, just after it hit the mainstream and just before
it became too much. A sweaty, satisfying, heartfelt album.

4.) THE STROKES - Room on Fire

For me, it was this album and not Is This It that showed the Strokes
in perfect indie-pop form.

3.) THE WRENS - Meadowlands

A statement of failure so true and deep it becomes beautiful and
hopeful in its effectiveness.

2.) COHEED AND CAMBRIA - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume I:
From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

"Welcome Home" left a small crater in the earth the first time I heard it.

1.) BLOC PARTY - Silent Alarm

The quintessential album of this decade. Indie guitar rock, dance
beats, hints of electronica. The honesty only a British accent can
deliver. Members of various ethnicities, including ethnicities besides
black and white (for a while, until Tiger Woods blew things recently,
multiethnicity was the new black). "Banquet" still sounds like an
pole-dancing steamroller on ecstasy.

A List of Bands I Loved that Blew It
********************************

Hot Hot Heat

Death Cab for Cutie

The Strokes (First impressions of my asshole)

Interpol

Rilo Kiley (indie sexy =/ sexy, Jenny Lewis)

Rapture

Daft Punk

Franz Ferdinand
Idlewild

Discoveries of This Year
*************************

For a few days this year, I thought that all the music I listen to for
the rest of my life should sound like Jesu's Opiate Sun EP. Lush,
full, melodic post-rock pop.

NORTH - What You Were: more post metal. The album I listened to most this year.

Listen to Howlin' Wolf's recording of "Smokestack Lightnin'" and hear
the 60 years of rock history which followed it put to shame.
Everything else becomes embarrassing after hearing the purity of this
proto-rock masterpiece.

General Observations
*********************

I like Paul's idea of having someone smarter than us document the
development of indie rock. But its development in this decade is far
more bizarre than we've considered since it culminated in KINGS OF
LEON. Really? KINGS OF FUCKING LEON? As I write this, they've just won
a GRAMMY for Record of the Year?!? Of all the early to mid 2000's
bands, could anyone have predicted that Kings of Leon would be the
grand outcome of the mainstreaming of indie rock?

BTW, ask Paul to tell his story about how he bitched out the son of
one of the members of Guided by Voices for praising Kings of Leon.

Music Consumption
**********************
In this decade, iTunes surpassed WalMart as the number one music
retailer. But have a look at this graph for a more sobering assessment
of the success of digital music:
http://musformation.com/assets_c/2009/08/musicforweb2-thumb-280x770-2482.gif
I'm not sure what this means. Are people just stealing a lot more
music? Or is it being consumed in more disposable, ephemeral ways
(LaLa streams, MySpace pages)? Again, someone smarter than me could
bring some perspective to this.

***********************
Happy to have been a part of the Paulies for the whole decade. Talking
about music helps us listen to it better; each year I look forward to
the insights shared by the people who participate in this list to help
me find new music and better enjoy the music I listen to already.

Combination Pizza Hut

...and Taco Bell. What an amazing artifact of 2009 -- put it in the time capsule straight away. This is what the naughties sounded like:

-PGJ

decade list! - kate miles

I know it's down to the wire, but after four drafts, I finally put down the pens and highlighters and felt at peace with who stayed and who went in my decade list. When it was all over, I realized that the decade was a great one for the ladies. Whether it be folk (Gillian Welch), shake-your-booty music (Beyonce), indie (Feist), rock n roll (Heartless Bastards), many dissimilar genres were, from 2000-2009, represented by multiple dominating females, something I don't think happened quite so forcefully in the 90s where you might say ladies were either Riot Grrl Bikini Kill/Sleater Kinney types or the gals who wore floral jumpers and had soft-focus music videos (Sophie B. Hawkins).

And speaking of Sleater Kinney, The Woods was the first no-brainer for my decade list, and like Niki Pop, I was also lucky enough to catch them on tour for it in 2005. I know fellas who love SK who don't like The Woods, and so I agree that gentlemen are afraid of how they [brilliantly] take rock n' roll and turn into, as Nicki said, a "creepy deep female thing." (I believe the aggressiveness of Janet's drumming make boys run for the hills.) Now that Sleater Kinney are done, I'm glad that bands like The Organ and The Gossip are doing a fabulous job of filling that "angry gal music" void that some of us crave though "angry gal" is a label that does a disservice to the quality of the music, it's more - as Christian from Project Runway would say - fierce.

And so here is my decade list, organized by year:

[2000]
'Kid A' - Radiohead
'Puzzle' - Tahiti 80
It's been ten years since I first heard Tahiti 80's "Heartbeat" and yet it still is the thing I go to in my iPod when I need something hopeful and lovey-dovey. 'Puzzle' is filled with happy gems that put you in a good mood without any corniness or sugary fakeitude. I think 'How to Disappear Completely' and 'The National Anthem' being on the same album made 'Kid A' the winner of the obligatory 'which Radiohead?!" battle.

[2001]
'Time (The Revelator)' - Gillian Welch
'When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up' - Snow Patrol
It has to be said that before Snow Patrol became the go-to band for crappy television dramas, they actually made three really good albums. "Olive Grove Facing the Sea" is not a song everyone will like, but I think it's the best arranged indie-ballad of the decade, more memorable than any of Death Cab's slower numbers, which is saying something!

[2002]
'Kill the Moonlight' - Spoon
'A Rush of Blood to the Head' - Coldplay
'Lost in Space' - Aimee Mann
'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' - Wilco

[2003]
'Elephant' - White Stripes
'Meadowlands' - The Wrens
'Chutes Too Narrow' - The Shins
'Give Up' - The Postal Service
'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' - Outkast
Unfortunately I think that when we're in our 50s the oldies radio station is going to be playing "New Slang" from 'Oh, Inverted World' even though the songs from 'Chutes Too Narrow' are more interesting.

[2004]
'7 Swans' - Sufjan Stevens
'Grey Album' - Jay-Z/Danger Mouse
'Antics' - Interpol
'Funeral' - Arcade Fire

[2005]
'Fisherman's Woman' - Emiliani Torrini
'Confessions on a Dance Floor' - Madonna
'The Woods' - Sleater Kinney
'Strange Geometry' - The Clientele
I don't think any of us can deny being freakin floored when "Hung Up" came out; 'Confessions' is certainly when Madonna is at her most godmother-to-Lady-Gaga best. 'Fisherman's Woman' came out before Regina Spektor was all over the radio and Torrini definitely just sounds 1000x better, more mature, etc (at least to me).

[2006]
'The Letting Go' - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
'The Life Pursuit' - Belle & Sebastian
Trying to decide which Will Oldham to highlight for the decade is kind of insane, but I went for it to highlight how gorgeous the whole pairing with Dawn McCarthy thing is.

[2007]
'The Reminder' - Feist
'Night Falls Over Kortedala' - Jens Lekman
Of all the awesomeness put forth by Jens in the 00's, this album is the one that can be listened to from start-to-finish with the most ease; his albums are all expensive booze and this one is the smoothest.

[2008]
's/t' - Fleet Foxes
'Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust' - Sigur Ros
Sigur Ros gets major high fives for making music that you can listen to at the gym, or when you have a swing in your step.

[2009]
'Vecktamist' - Grizzly Bear
Not sure how to approach including 2009 in the decade list, so I went with Grizzly Bear because perpetually annoying Paul with Grizzly Bear praise is fun, plus the album is freakin amazing.

I used the thingamabob at the top of the post to include some of the stuff from my list, and some of the stuff from the decade that I liked that isn't on my list.

A Decade of Regrets, by Niki Pop

Going through my listening history of the past 10 years is a useful exercise in more ways than one. Not only did the process yield a list of nineteen best albums. But I also discovered a whole trove of stuff that I loved very much once, and now, can no longer listen to. It's embarassing; it hurts my ears; it isn't very good; it's hokey and cute in a way that dates it; all of the above.

True, this isn't really part of the Paulies. But I wanted to share these gems with y'all. What did you used to love that now makes you cringe? How have your tastes evolved in the past 10 years?

In no particular order:

(1) Babyshambles, and anything else involving Pete Doherty. There was a point in my life when I imagined myself very obsessed with Pete Doherty. He was cute, kind of, in a vulnerable I'm-in-a-band sort of way. And the music sounded enough like rock to get me through the day. But five years later, I can confidently say: This guy is a schmuck! What's more, he can't sing, and his lyrics are just plain dumb, and the music overwrought and uninspired. Fail, Niki. Fail.

(2) CoCoRosie. The song "Ohio" is very good, but that's because someone else wrote it. Everything else is them playing with toys in their bathtub while high on ketamine. The concept is better than the execution. Ah, kitsch doesn't age well.

(3) Princess Superstar. I needed some electronic music, and loved the idea of a hard-rocking female MC, which is probably why I suffered her 2005 album, "My Machine" for at least a year before I gave up. Today she has the same cutesy/edgy quality that makes Vice magazine abhorrent.

An example from "The Classroom:"

My, um, um, ancient speaking report
Is on my great-to-the-50th-power grandmother whose name was Superstar
I am the descendant of a duplicant
A cycophant from a cloning plant*Pause* (no telepathing, Coke Is It!)
Right, uh, the year of her was 2080
Understandably illusive since we don't count time anymore maybe
It's a bit hazy, but Superstar was crazy
An entertainer back when there was entertainment, pleasure for payment
So that everybody would stop their complainin'
She was very very bad, and I don't mean bad meaning good
I'll explain how bad Superstar was if I could

(4) Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Sorry, Ted. This guy will disapper. I kept putting songs like "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" on mixes for people, but when they came onto the mix I'd skip them and feel guilty.

(5) Scout Niblett. Another one where I loved the idea of her so much I probably forgave the fact that she was kind of awful. A tiny British girl who plays the drums (only) and very cutely howls along about death in a reedy little girl voice. Everyone I knew tried to stop me, but I wouldn't listen. Internet research reveals that Jens Lekman covered "Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death," which I guess might give her some legitimacy to some, but artiness aside - aaaargh! Thoughts?





(6) Death Cab for Cutie/Transatlanticism (2003)
I've probably heard this album 1,000 times, if not more. Today it makes me want to kill myself. Not only is it maudlin and overwrought, but it’s bleak. That it’s so well-crafted musically makes it all the more dangerous. I can't keep it down for this:
The glove compartment is inaccurately named and everybody knows it, so I’m proposing a swift orderly change:
‘cuz behind its door there’s nothing to keep my fingers warm, and all I find are souvenirs from better times.

(7) Joanna Newsom. See my earlier post re: our generation will never be forgiven for Joanna Newsom. Quirk, novelty, and technical talent shouldn't be viable substitutes for listenability. Right? I mean, it is cool that she can play the harp and everything, but how long can you stay in the room when "The Milk-Eyed Mender" (2004) is playing? Don't lie.

Mike D's Best of the Decade

Sorry this is so late. Here are the albums I enjoyed most in 2009:

Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Mason Jennings - Blood of Man
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
Tegan & Sara - Sainthood
Metric - Fantasies
Passion Pit - Manners
Regina Spektor - Far
Micachu and the Shapes - Jewellery
Arctic Monkeys: Humbug
The Swell Season - Strict Joy

I also started listening to the Tiny Desk Concert series from NPR's
"All Songs Considered," and quite a few of those are worth a listen.

Best of the decade:

The Magnetic Fields - Distortion (2007)
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope (2006)
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - The Swell Season (2006)
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me (2004)
Stellastarr - Stellastarr (2003)
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below (2003)
Andrew Bird - Weather Systems (2003)
Tegan And Sara - If It Was You (2002)
The Postal Service - Give Up (2002)
Cory Branan - The Hell You Say (2002)
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums Soundtrack (2001)
The Strokes - Is This It? (2000)

Pazz and Jop, 2009

It's a special treat each year when the Village Voice releases its list of the best records and songs of the year, namely the annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. It's been around 26 years longer than the Paulies, and in many ways its our stylistic forebearer.

And according to America's pop music critics, here are the top ten records and songs from 2009:

1 Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
2 Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
3 Neko Case, Middle Cyclone
4 Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!
5 Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
6 Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
7 The xx, xx
8 Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Part II
9 The Flaming Lips, Embryonic
10 Girls, Album

Songs:
1 Jay-Z (ft. Alicia Keys), "Empire State of Mind"
2 Phoenix, "1901"
3 Animal Collective, "My Girls"
4 Grizzly Bear, "Two Weeks"
5 Dirty Projectors, "Stillness Is the Move"
6 Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Zero"
7 Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"
8 Girls, "Lust for Life"
9 Phoenix, "Lisztomania"
10 Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me"

But much more than these lists, it was one accompanying article in the Voice that really struck a chord with me, "The Year of Too Much Consensus":

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-01-19/music/the-year-of-too-much-consensus/

In it, the 50-year old music critic Chuck Eddy ruminates on the state of critical consensus, in particular, the Pitchfork-ification of America's music critics. I implore you to read the whole article, but his closing paragraph is pretty killer (and telling of these Pitchfork-ian times):

"For the record, no Springsteen voters also voted for the xx or Girls, and only one voted for Animal Collective. Theoretically mainstream old-guard pros like Bill Holdship of Detroit's Metro Times and Geoffrey Himes of the Nashville Scene both saw only two of their Top 10 albums place in the P&J Top 40; St. Louis stalwart Steve Pick, choosing esoterica like Dave Alvin and the Bottle Rockets and Ian Hunter, got shut out entirely. Back in 1980 in these pages, Robert Christgau divided the Pazz & Jop electorate into "the avant-gardists versus the traditionalists, the radicals versus the conservatives"—you know, Beefheart guys vs. Bruce guys. Me, I like strangeness and skronk, but I also like boogie and beer; still, my basic instincts have always been with the vanguard. But when it's mainly the old farts who seem to have minds of their own, I start to wonder."

-PGJ

Thomas' Best of Decade List

I think its notable that this decade was when albums that were listened to the whole CD through devolved into the track that you might listen to the whole way through without skipping ahead.  So an album that stood up in this decade was no small feat.  Very simply, these got skipped the least, played the most, and had something new and interesting or exemplary to offer.

The National-Boxer - quiet, solid, reassuring, homely. (2007)

Animal Collective-Merriweather... - I had a hard time committing to this choice but for newness and, er, joy? it's granted a spot. (2009)
 
Air-10000Hz Legend - for some refreshing and out there moods this is the unsung hero. (2001)

Sunset Rubdown-Shut up I am Dreaming - brilliant snippets, a lot of brilliant snippets. (2006)

LCD Soundsystem-Sound of Silver - another contender for future sound of the decade, but also fun. (2007)

!!!-Myth Takes - maybe an alternate for LCD, but damned if i didn't nearly burn through the part of the hard drive where this was stored. (2006)

Gorillaz-Demon Days - If you don't know why this is great then you're probably not reading this list. (2005)

The Shins-Chutes Too Narrow - currently in the deeply unlistenable zone, but the future retro "sound" of the decade, i think, maybe. (2003)

Burial-Untrue - say what you will, this was new and sent chills whoever you were. (2007)

Radiohead-Kid A - Yeah I liked it too. (2000)

Alex's favorite tracks of the decade

This list is my way over-the-top solution to a simple problem. I couldn't narrow down the final spots on my top 25 albums of the decade. So I came up with my favorite 25 tracks of the decade, excluding those from bands already on my top 25 albums list.

What we have here is basically a list of my top 26-50 albums, with a few standout tracks (i.e., Frontier Psychiatrist) thrown in.

Note: Every album cover image links to a version of the song, either: a.) the official music video; b.) a moderate quality live performance; or c.) an audio track.

These are hazily ranked from first to worst.

Coachella Alert

Attention Paulies readers -- as you've likely seen, the Coachella artists have been announced...and they're through-the-roof exciting:

Jay-Z, LCD Soundsystem, Passion Pit, Public Image Limited, Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, Devo, Gossip, Hot Chip, MGMT, Muse, The Dead Weather, The xx, Charlotte Gainsbourg, De La Soul, Deerhunter, Gorillaz, Julian Casablancas, Pavement, Phoenix, Sly and the Family Stone, Spoon, Thom Yorke, Yo La Tengo

http://www.coachella.com/event/lineup

Any Paulies readers attending? It's hard for me to resist.

-PGJ

The Best of the Decade (?), By Niki Pop

I have been fretting about my Paulies decade entry far more than the 2009 entry. 2009 is pretty straightforward; at any given January, there are always enough cultural highlights from the previous twelve months to make up what passes for a "best of" list. But the decade was different. The longer timespan means the music has the chance to settle, to age, to stand the test of changing tastes and lifestyles. A record you first heard in 2001 may have taken until 2003 to really make any sense. Bands that you're crazy about in 2005 can seem obscene, regrettable, unfathomable in 2010. It raises some interesting questions about how tastes are made, and how personal events can affect what you're listening to (or not.)

I've also been fretting because, as I described to Paul and Matty the other day, there are clearly three ways to do this.

(1) Critical Best. I'm not the greatest Radiohead fan out there and I'll certainly concede that Kid A might be the most artistically accomplished record of the 00s. But does that make the list? What about an album I like just fine, like the Streets' Original Pirate Material or Cat Power's You Are Free, but that in my heart of hearts I just wouldn't take with to a desert island?

(2) Personal Best. This is a tough category, too, because if there's one thing that I did most in the 2000s, it was listen to bands from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Seventies punk singles especially (is there anything sweeter than The Only Ones singing "Another Girl, Another Planet?" Modern Lovers singing "Road Runner?" or the Undertones "Teenage Kicks?") The Replacements, Pulp, and the Pixies are probably going to always be my top three. Those are the ones where I know all the words, and could even maybe possibly pick the artists out of a lineup. So it feels disingenuous to pick ten, twenty records that came out in the naughts, when in reality I spent an embarrassing chunk of that time pretending Paul Westerberg was my ne'er-do-well boyfriend singing angsty love songs to me after a hard day at work.

(3) Defining the Decade. Years from now, some aging hipster will seek to pay homage to his young adulthood. He'll produce a sweeping-yet-still-twee mockudock - think Forrest Gump meets Nine Songs - called "Bedford Ave" starring a Michael Cera-lookalike and Zoey Deschanel's daughter, let's call her Willis. Cera-boy lives in, oh, I don't know, Austin, or Portland, and Willis lives in Brooklyn. Their lives intersect in tragic and fragile ways. And the soundtrack will be more predictable than God. We'll buy "hits of the naughties" advertised on late night television, and try to explain to our kids what the deal was with the beards and banjos. We will never be forgiven for Joanna Newsom.

Clearly, the best solution is a mishmash of all three. So without further ado, here are twenty nineteen albums that defined the naughties for yours truly because I couldn’t stop listening to them.

1. Azure Ray/Azure Ray (2001) Sleepy dream-pop from two Southern gals. Like sitting on a porch in Georgia in sweltering August, sipping heavily spiked lemonade.

2. The Arcade Fire/ Funeral (2004) This is hands-down the most gorgeous, textured, evocative album I heard this decade. The summer of 2004 was the only time in my life I really drove long distances on a daily basis and this record was my companion. Still gives me chills when I see that “Where the Wild Things Are” trailer.

3. Bonde do Rolê /With Lasers (2007) Bratty Brazilian baile-funk, makes you want to quit your job and move to Rio. Portuguese is one of the most fascinating and listen-able languages out there, and when it’s dirty raps. Amazing live because then they can use the crazy illegal samples they love so much. “Solta o Frango” means “Release the chicken;” it’s Brazilianese for “Get crazy, bitches”



4. Desaparecidos/Read Music/Speak Spanish (2002) True: Bright Eyes is insufferable. Also true: this album is amazing, musically and lyrically. “The sort of howlingly tuneful Midwestern punk that disappeared with Hüsker Dü" (Entertainment Weekly) This is an album about becoming an adult in Bush’s America, feeling trapped by relationships and the suburbs and expectations. A real find, in other words, for my first few years out of college.

Favorite lyric: “I’m growing out my hair / like it was when I was single / it was longer than I’d known you / I had no money then, I had no worries then at all.”

Or how about: The man at the bank said ‘Let's not talk percentages. You work a fourteen hour day and still have two mortgages. You asked the state for aid and they gave you and ad campaign that didn't help.’ So you took your family and joined in the urban sprawl. Now you can't see that stars as well but you're near the mall.

5. Franz Ferdinand / Franz Ferdinand (2004) Of all the music in situation #3 (“Bedford Ave”) this is probably the cream of the crop.

6. Miss Kittin and the Hacker/First Album (2001) Listen to Miss Kittin and the Hacker’s new direction. Driving a car or three on three, Giving you a piece of life and Energy somewhere out in the universe.

7. Mountain Goats/The Sunset Tree (2005) From “No Children:” I hope that our few remaining friends/give up on trying to save us/I hope we come up with a failsafe plot to piss off the dumb few who forgave us.

8. Mum/Yesterday was dramatic, today was ok (2000) Best. Working. Music. Ever.

9. NOFX/War on Errorism (2003) Eerily prescient album about repressive government, financial meltdown, etc. When one makes twenty million, and ten thousand people lose, what keeps that one from swallowing a shotgun? Indeed.

10.Of Montreal/Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer (2007) Easily the best live show I’ve ever seen. They had some sort of papier mache lobster claw. I can’t explain it.

11. Postal Service/Give Up (2003) The only way I can still stomach Ben Gibbard is when his maudlin little voice is enveloped by sweet glitch techno. This was a good partnership.

12. Ratatat/Ratatat (2004) I think the most number of times I’ve listened to this album in a row is something like… 12.

13. The Shins/Chutes Too Narrow (2003) I’m not particularly attached to this one, but every time I hear it,

14. Sigur Rós/Ágætis byrjun (2001)

15. Sleater-Kinney/The Woods (2005) I had the extreme pleasure of seeing them on their tour for this record at the 9:30 Club in DC. It was obscenely great. They played Danzig’s “Mother” as an encore. No men like this album, because it takes rock and roll and makes it into this creepy deep female thing. Ladies, you know what I mean.



16. TV on the Radio/Young Liars EP (2003) This is one of those CDs where you pop it in, press play, and within three seconds are thinking “Holy shit. Are they really going to do this?” Yup, they are. It’s a holy shit moment all right.

17. The Thermals: The Body, The Blood (2006) Pop-punk decrying religion and politics? Hells yes, please! Especially when sung by a Tobey Maguire-lookalike.

18. The Strokes/Is this it? (2001) Need I say more?

19. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever To Tell (2003)



That's it for this round. On to the next...

Best of the Decade List: Paul Jackson

If I’ve ever been surly around the time of my listmaking--with the usual complaint, "It aint like it used to be"--now's the time to remember just how good it was. What a decade of music... Broken Social Scene and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Doves and Dillinger Escape Plan; Mclusky and Menomena; Pete Yorn and Peter Bjorn and John; The Shins and Spoon; TV on the Radio and Thom Yorke; the Wrens and Wolf Parade. None of those artists are even on my Top 25 list, but they each made the decade a memorable one. Bjork remained Bjork; the Beastie Boys remained the Beastie Boys; Jay-Z remained Jay-Z; Radiohead remained Radiohead -- what other decade had so many great artists continuing great work into a second decade. And with no further ado, my 25 favorite records of the last ten years:

No. 1-5
1. Jay-Z and DJ Danger Mouse, "The Grey Album" [2004; hip hop mash-up]
2. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, "Source Tags and Codes" [2002; alt rock]
3. The Streets, "A Grand Don't Come for Free" [2004; Brit hop]
4. Kanye West, "The College Dropout" [2004; nerd hop]
5. The Moldy Peaches, "The Moldy Peaches" [2001; anti folk]

Breakdown: Danger Mouse established the mash-up as a legitimate art form with the Grey Album, and it's still the greatest of them all--taking Jay-Z's best lyrical performance of the decade and pairing it with the White album, it's the record I listen to the most year in and year out. I consider "Source Tags and Codes" the finest alt-rock album ever made--taking all the lessons of those late 80s/early 90s bands and making one perfect mess out of it. The other three -- well, they succinctly sum up my taste this decade.

Nos. 6-10
6. The Strokes, "Is This It" [2001; NYC indie rock]
7. The Unicorns, "Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone" [2003; indie pop]
8. Dandy Warhols, "Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia" [2000; country drone]
9. Gorillaz, "Gorillaz" [2001; cartoon pop]
10. System of a Down, "Toxicity" [2001; Armenian metal]
Breakdown: I can't abide with placing "Is This It" in the top five -- an extraordinary album that we all needed, but not quite a top 5 record. Much like Moldy Peaches, The Unicorns seemed to be a fun, ephemeral gimmick -- but amazingly, those albums stuck with me. The Dandy Warhol's 2000 album was the last great work from that severely underrated band; Gorillaz was Damon Albarn's most complete project of the decade; Toxicity's the only metal album I've ever truly loved.

No. 11-15
11 Radiohead, "Amnesiac" [2001; electronic joy]
12. KaitO, "Montigola Underground" [2002; power pop]
13. Andrew WK, "I Get Wet" [2001; American rock]
14. Daft Punk, "Discovery" [2001; French synth pop]
15. The White Stripes, "White Blood Cells" [2001; garage blues]

Breakdown: Was all of the best music of this decade made between 2001 and 2004? I'd give it a resounding yes. Amnesiac I liked slightly more than Kid A and In Rainbows, but all could have been on this list. KaitO is the only "unkown" band on this list, but their 2002 EP was a classic; Andrew WK, Daft Punk, and the White Stripes nicely represent the diversity of music this decade -- none of them could have existed in the 1990s, which says something.

Nos. 16-20
16. Modest Mouse, "The Moon and Antarctica" [2000; indie rock]
17. Beastie Boys, "To the 5 Boroughs" [2004; old school hip hop]
18. MIA, "Kala" [2007; international dance pop]
19. The Rapture, "Echoes" [2003; indie dance rock]
20. Interpol, "Turn on the Bright Lights" [2002; indie rock]

Nos. 21-25
21. Blur, "Think Tank" [2003; post Brit pop]
22. The Good, The Bad, and The Queen, "S/T" [2007; Brit soul]
23. Clinic, "Walking With Thee" [2002; post Brit pop]
24. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Fever to Tell" [2003; indie rock]
25. The Blood Brothers, "Crimes" [2004; thrash]

Best of the Rest:
Idlewild, "100 Broken Windows" [2000]
Fugazi, "The Argument" [2001]

Pulp, "We Love Life" [2001]

The Shins, "Oh Inverted World" [2001]

Coldplay, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" [2002]

The Hives, "Veni Vidi Vicious" [2002]

Queens of the Stone Age, "Songs for the Deaf" [2002]

Polyphonic Spree, "Beginning Stages of" [2002]

Postal Service, "Give Up" [2003]

Tv on the Radio, "Desperate Youths, Bloodthirsty Babes" [2004]

Futureheads, "S/t" [2004]

Air, "Talkie Walkie" [2004]

Franz Ferdinand, "S/t" [2004]

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "S/t" [2005]

Wolf Parade, "Apologies to the Queen Mary" [2005]

Belle and Sebastian, "The Life Pursuit" [2006]

Lily Allen, "Alright, Still" [2006]

Spoon, "Ga ga ga ga ga" [2007]

Lil Wayne, "Tha Carter 3" [2008]

Jay-Z, "The Blueprint 3" [2009]

Locations of Top 25 Albums:

New York City / Brooklyn - 8

England - 8

Seattle, WA - 2

Portland, OR - 1

Austin, TX -1

Chicago - 1

Detroit - 1

Glendale, CA - 1

Montreal - 1

France - 1

Years of Top 25 Albums:

2000 - 2

2001- 8

2002 - 4

2003 - 4

2004 - 5

2007 - 2

Favorite tracks, in alphabetical order from other artists: Arctic Monkeys,"A Certain Romance,” Avalanches “Frontier Psychiatrist," Battles “Atlas," Beyonce "Single Ladies," Goldfrapp "Ooh La La," Groove Armada, "I See You Baby," Lady Gaga "Paparazzi," Killers "All These Things That I've Done," Missy Elliott "Work It," Of Montreal, "Bunny Aint No Kind of Rider," Thom Yorke "Black Swan," Ting Tings "Great DJ," The Vines "Get Free," Von Bondies "Cmon Cmon," Wilco “Handshake Drugs”

Best producer of decade – Kanye West

Best musician of the decade -- Damon Albarn (three appearances on my top 25!)

Best reunion of the decade - The Pixies

Worst reunion of the decade -- Weezer

Best technology of the decade - iPod

Best musical year of the decade - 2001

Best musical city of the decade - Brooklyn, NY (sorry Seattle)

I Get Wet

Paul very succinctly distilled the thesis of "How the Beatles Destroyed Rock n Roll." To that effect, I wish more of the last decade sounded like this...

-Matt Levine

top 10 albums of 2009 - kate miles

[10] S/T - PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART: This album has trickled down my list over the weeks as I've listened to it more. I got it last March and have enjoyed the hell out of it, but geez, "Gentle Sons" sounds a helluva lot like "Just Like Honey". Either way, I'm going to take a leap of faith that if your first album sounds a lot like Jesus & Mary Chain then maybe your second album will sound original, amazing, and just Jesus & Mary Chainish.

[9] 'EMBRYONIC' - THE FLAMING LIPS: When the Vatican reviewers described Avatar as "bland," Conan O'Brien remarked that perhaps the Vatican folks forgot to get stoned before the movie like they were supposed to. A similar train of thought could be used in discussing the Flaming Lips; is Embryonic more enjoyable if you're listening to it with My Little Pony on mute while 2/3rds through a tub of oriental cracker mix? Fortunately for government employees and non-dope dabblers, the Lips ignore the fact that they could easily make one-dimensional albums that appeal mainly to their more fragrant fans; instead, Embryonic is thoughtful, layered and "Convinced of the Hex" is the best 'track 1' of any album I heard in '09.

[8] 'MANNERS' - PASSION PIT:

Since "Sleepyhead" is now on an endlessly played Palm commercial and other tracks from Manners are constantly looped on the crappier FM stations, I now feel obligated to defend my choice of this once little-known Boston band. The reason why Manners appears on my list is pretty simple: I was one of those people who listened to the Postal Service's Give Up all summer long in 2003 and I hadn't heard an album at all like it till a friend in Somerville told me about Passion Pit. It's the perfect music for times of high sentimentality. Listening to "Live to the Tell the Tale" from the pre-Manners Chunk of Change EP was the perfect song for packing for my first x-country move; in the song, Michael Angelakos does *not* tell God to bless inanimate objects (thanks, 'anonymous'). Either way, I *still* highly recommend Passion Pit for weddings, moves, babies being born, funerals, or any other "crossroads" moment. So there.

[7] 'GET GUILTY' - A.C. NEWMAN: Why the hell is everyone now so jazzed about A.C. Newman? Does no one remember 2004's The Slow Wonder? Or did everyone I know just hate that album? (I'm including "Miracle Drug" in my music playing gizmo as a reminder of that album's awesomeness.) Anyway, Get Guilty was my favorite of the New Pornographer alum offerings this year; if you're working more hours at your job than you'd rather be, "All of My Days and All of My Days Off" is the perfect OT anthem.

[6] 'RESEVOIR' - FANFARLO: It kind of sounds like the lead singer of Arcade Fire playing with Jens Leckman's band, which makes for an album that doesn't exactly sound like something brand spanking new, but is still worthwhile through its neat lyrics and use of unexpected instruments.

[5] S/T - XX: I'm not sure what more I can add about this album since it's appearing on lots of lists. If you haven't hopped on the XX bandwagon yet, here is the video that introduced me to them and subsequently got me hooked:





[4] 'NEVERMINT' & 'LOUISE' EP - GRAND LAKE:

You know those asshats who, for no apparent reason what-so-ever, will just announce that they "saw Modest Mouse play an acoustic show at the Middle East downstairs in 1997"? I'm quite sure I will be one of those asshats in the coming years when discussing Grand Lake. Nevermint arrived on my doorstep as a gift when I was still living in Boston last summer and I have been listening to it constantly; it's fun, clever, new - it has many original qualities that have been lacking in a lot of other 2009 offerings. The Louise EP has a Silver Jews cover that is sung with the authority of someone not doing a cover; it causes the people in the metaphorical bleacher seats to perk up and see what's going on. Now that I live out in Oakland they're my new favorite local band, and I have no doubts singing their praises to snooty Brooklyners and picky Bostonians; it's solid stuff.

[3] 'POPULAR SONGS' - YO LA TENGO

Yo La Tengo's Popular Songs is to this year's music as George Clooney's performance in Up in the Air is to this year's movies. Clooney didn't do any press for Up in the Air because he decided it's a been there/done that thing, he's above it/over it, and he's fucking Clooney. But his absence from the press circuit coupled with having been hunktastic and charismatc since the '90s doesn't make his skilled performance any less exciting or pertinent. The members of Yo La Tengo - the fellas now speckled with Clooneyish salt and pepper hair - have also been hot shit since the 90s, and their consistency doesn't diminish that the under-hyped Popular Songs has some of the catchiest ("Periodically Double or Triple") and most moving ("More Stars Than There Are in Heaven") songs of the year.

[2] 'ASHES GRAMMAR' - A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW: I wasn't sure what to expect when I sat down for my first listen of Ashes Grammar. On one hand, 2008's Scribble Mural Comic Journal had the hypnotic "5:15 Train," which, incidentally, is a most appropriate song to accompany the wind-down of the evening rush hour. On the other hand, a start-to-finish listen of Journal makes you feel like you're shopping in a hot, overly lit boutique that sells $180 skinny jeans. I was pleasantly surprised - and very wow'ed - that I can listen to Ashes Grammar over and over again. If you like "Two Doves" from the Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca (which was the only song from that album I enjoyed), then Ashes Grammar will flat out floor you.

[1] 'VECKATIMEST' - GRIZZLY BEAR: This was easy! I had been lukewarm towards Grizzly Bear for a couple of years; as a regular listener of All Songs Considered I knew that Bob Boilen loved them. I thought their cover of "He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss)" was creepy and mesmerizing. They crept onto my iPod via collaborations with Feist, Dntel, etc. (Lots of this backstory is just to annoy a certain anti-Grizzly Bear creator of this blog, by the way.) But then the Treasure Island Festival in San Francisco happened in October. They opened the show with "Cheerleader," the clouds parted from the sky and the sun came out (literally) and everything changed:



Take *that*, Mr. Jackson. When I returned home from Treasure Island, I was a full fledged Grizzly Bear freak. I asked PGJ if he had ever seen his fellow Brooklyners perform (though Ed Voste is a Cambridge native, yay) and his reply was "ew no". Shit man, even Jay-Z loves Grizzly Bear:



Last thoughts:
I was underwhelmed by Dark was the Night, with the exception of Feist and Ben Gibbard's "Train Song". That duet, in combination with Grizzly Bear being on perpetual tour with Beach House, made for a great year for male/female duets; I haven't been this excited since Peter Cetera and Amy Grant sang "Next Time I Fall" in 1986. Grizzly Bear's "Slow Life" with Victoria Legrand for the New Moon soundtrack is a perfect example of the duet-y awesomeness out there, and the snobs at Pitchfork need to pipe down with their bitching about the New Moon soundtrack. The '00s were filled with horrible movies that had great, memorable soundtracks (I never saw Wicker Park but the soundtrack was all I listened to in the fall of '04), and we shouldn't hold grudges against artists who lend original songs to less-than-hip movies.

And that's all!

World Collide

Quick post from PGJ...today Slate posted an article, the ultimate in worlds colliding:

"Hova Goes MoMA"
http://www.slate.com/id/2241208/

A few days after making my case Jay's cultural import, Slate takes a slightly different angle but uses my workplace in the headline!

Anyway, I'm not a big fan of the article in general, and posted the following comment:
"Interesting points, but not sure I buy it. Koons, Hirst, Murakami, and all other descendants of Warhol have one set of concerns -- toying with meta-/ironic/playful ideas of celebrity qua celebrity, fashion as substance, ephemera as depth. But Jay-Z has little to do with that tradition. The substance of his art-making is his skill as an MC (poet?), selling his rags-to-riches life story through extraordinary narratives and rhymes, closer to a Bruce Springsteen than an irony-soaked Damien Hirst. Feels like a real stretch to make that connection."

What do y'all think?

Posted! [by John Broderick]

So. I've only taken the time to skim through all the great posts. Like most of my post-holiday catch-up work, I'm saving it for MLK weekend. I do have a few things to add, or contribute. I apologize if any of this has already been said. If so, just think of me as a complimentary echo.

There were tons of good singles that I had the opportunity to hear through Emerson College's outstanding radio station, WERS. I'd highly recommend streaming it on the web, except on weekends unless you're an a capella/showtunes type.

Albums I listened to this year:

The Avett Brothers, "I and Love..." Patrick had some nice words to say about this album early in the listings and I think that it deserves more mention. I lived in West Virginia for much of 2006-2007 and these guys toured the bluegrass circuit, playing in small clubs in "enlightened" towns throughout the state. I saw them twice, at the Purple Fiddle in Davis and at the Marlinton Opera House - a venue I highly recommend checking out, esp. if you've ever wanted to jump into a time machine. They were fun and ok; this album is really good. Heartfelt, as much pop as bluegrass, and really just pretty damn good. "My heart like a snare drum" is one of the more fun songs I've heard this year - apologies to Lady Gaga and all who flew over my radar - and damn, just give it a listen.

Blitzen Trapper. I think that Furr came out last year, but this is the newish album that I listened to most. Really good, and really fun band live.

The Dave Rawlins Machine: Actually, I havent heard this album, but I spoke with Itty about this band a bit last week. Dave Rawlins is Gillian Welch's musical (and life?) partner, and they play together in this band, and Mr. Rawlins also happens to produce many of the best young alt-country/bluegrass acts around. I saw them in concert with a lineup that would do credit to the old "grand old opry" shows, with bands like old crow and the felice brothers and this crazy skinny young old timer coming on and off the stage to joyfully jam or pluck out songs. I knew that Old Crow would be excellent, and I knew that Gillian would be Gillian, but Dave Rawlins stole the show. Really something else. People say that there are videos of the bands BBC performance online. Check them out. I particularly liked the song "sweet tooth." jesus they were good.

Dylan's Christmas Album: Maybe someone mentioned this, but the emcee of this whole show gave me this as a jokey housewarming gift this fall. It got terrible reviews, and I'm an admitted Dylanophile(word?), but I really liked it. Worth a listen if only to hear Dylan singing in Latin, anyhow. I'm an inveterate singer in kitchens and showers and any old place, and I found myself crooning snatches of "here comes santa claus" until at least January 7th. Usually I don't even really like Christmas songs.

Documentary, "It might get loud." This was interesting. I can't help but think that it could have been better done, but the premise is jimmy page, jack white, and the edge are gathered together to talk about electric guitars. white was interesting, page was charming and endearing, reminding me a bit of my uncle tom (celeste and paul, you know where this is at), while thanks to new television technology i was able to fast-forward through every section that I heard the edge beginning to speak. I feel like most people on this list would like this movie. Inveterate that I am (see above), I found myself singing "ramble on's" section about golem and the evil one in the shower this morning. i don't really know what that's worth to ya.

comment on jay-z. i haven't read all of paul's piece, but i'd like to add, and end with one of my favorite jay-z lines that has a bit to do with his historical reflecting:

...like the late bob marley, (pause)
pardon me, y'all, the great bob marley.

only jay can sing something so throwaway and make it gold.

happy january, all.

kate miles's etcetera 2009 list

2009 was a weird year. Look at sports: Brett Favre’s "I used to find his flip-flopping annoying but now I think his balls are humungous" 12-4 season to Tom Brady’s “does he even care?” 10-6; the NBA finals didn’t involve Kobe vs. King James but rather Kobe vs… Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu? And A-Rod managed to not smoke the pole in the post-season while the Red Sox got spanked? Yes, 2009 was odd.

Before I dive into my Top 10 for music, I'll start with the Etcetera topics of the year I think are worthy of Paulies inclusion. For instance, the coolest thing to happen in 2009? Beatles Rock Band, by a landslide. The fact that Harmonix was supported every step of the way by Paul, Ringo, the widows, the Martins, Dhani Harrison is extraordinary given that it is after all, just a video game. I'm not a video game person, so every sentence I've written about the game I've wound up erasing for sounding too fifth grade ("It's wicked cool when you play 'Revolution' for the sixth time and Ringo yells, 'take 6!' beforehand," and so on). So instead I've listed two videos that I think illustrate the Big Deal-ness of the game and its brilliant advertising campaign.





BOOKS: So with the economy still sucking and wars still going on and bad news still being the bulk of news, there exists a window of opportunity for escapism books to really thrive, or maybe to be more specific, really trashy and poorly written books that you can easily read in a day. And so we've had a great year for hilarious memoirs, whether they're intended to be hilarious or not. (The numbers for Brooke Shields and Carrie Fisher talking about postpartum depression and hitting the sauce are kind of astounding.) Bookshelves are filled with [mostly] true stories that'll make you feel better about your own life. (Artie Lange's Too Fat to Fish was a late 2008 release, but it's paperback came out in 2009 so I'm just going to let that slide for the sake of including it here.) But the best memoir of 2009 was definitely not Sarah Palin or Elizabeth Hawes writing about wanting to bone Camus, but rather, it's Jodie Sweetin of Full House's tell-all, UnSweetined. Here's a "taste" (to use terminology fashioned by those who put things up their nose that don't belong there): "Looking back, I think I liked the control. I was always the driver, the host; it was always my show. With people waiting to party, I went into the kitchen and returned with a bottle of Jack Daniels is one hand, a bottle of champagne under my arm, and a big plate of coke in my other hand for all my guests. The crowd went wild. Standing ovation. Just how I liked it."

TELEVISION: You know it's a weird year for TV when everyone you know has something to say about an MTV reality show and it's not 1994. And while I have nothing to add to the already on-going Paulies discussion on Jersey Shore, another 2009 TV oddity was this summer's late-night changeover. There was much head scratching and worry over Conan O'Brien taking over The Tonight Show and Jimmy Fallon inheriting Late Night. The worry came from fans fretting that Conan would dumb down his style and all his musical guests would be overweight pop-country acts. The head scratching was the result of choosing Jimmy Fallon for the 12:35 slot. I'm a religious watcher of both, a Conan superfan that showed up at Rockefeller Center around 12:30pm for a 5pm taping of Late Night in 2003. (Needless to say, NBC's recent wrongdoings and Leno's inability to retire like he said he would have created a level of anger and distress in me I could devote a whole new blog to.) Anyway, Conan at 11:35 has been fabulous; the Twitter skits, the return of Andy Richter to the couch, it's all brilliant. As for Jimmy Fallon, I believe in him. Yes, I believe in him despite his complete inability to interview people who he hasn't already partied with. (His interviews with Jason Schwartzmann, Artie Lange, and even the loathsome Kate Hudson are great, but give him Ringo or even Matthew Broderick and he tanks.) However, despite all this, I think he's talented enough to be on TV five nights a week. He has a solid head writer in the hilarious A.D. Miles and his natural talent is plentiful enough to balance out his awkwardness:




And sadly, it looks like this will be the last year that the Paulies will include discussion of Flight of the Conchords. So why not dance to "Sugar Lumps" one more time?