The Year in Music

Musically, 2013 was an interesting year. Some strong albums from older, more established artists (David Bowie, Daft Punk, Johnny Marr) coupled with a decided 80's influence in the sound of a lot of younger bands (Ducktails, High Highs, Savages) made me wonder if I was listening to new releases from 2013 or 1988. Not a bad thing.

A few things that went into consideration when I put together this list: Hip-hop makes up a very small percentage of what I listen to (Deltron 3030 being the only representative here), so while I'm sure Kanye/Drake/Danny Brown/M.I.A./Eminem/whoever made some amazing music, they won't be on my list. Neither will Robin Thicke, Miley Cyrus, or anybody not wearing robot helmets who played the VMA’s. There were also quite a few albums from names I would usually jump on, but for whatever reason, I just didn't spend enough time with their new stuff for them to be part of the list (you'll find them at the end of the post). Finally, outside of Tegan and Sara, Ducktails, and Kurt Vile, there were no obvious standouts for me this year, so rather than try to rank a lot of albums that were all equally interesting, I went with quantity: What follows are the 20 albums released in 2013 that I listened to the most. In these days of being able to listen to whatever I want whenever I want, if an album pulls me back for multiple listens, it makes my list for the year. Here's what I've had in heavy rotation for the past 11+ months:

Tegan and Sara, Heartthrob
My hands-down album of the year, as evidenced by more than double the listens of anything else on the list. Tegan and Sara albums have always been a little hit-or-miss for me, but the production makes Heartthrob their strongest one to date. It was a surprise to discover that the emotionally heavy lyrics one expects from Tegan and Sara benefit greatly from being wrapped in danceable, synth-heavy, new-wave hooks that veer well into sugary pop territory. Some of their fans are calling this their sellout record, but for me, it only added another dimension to their music, one that made it a lot more fun to listen to.

David Bowie, The Next Day

Superchunk, I Hate Music

Ducktails, The Flower Lane

Daft Punk, Random Access Memories

Kurt Vile, Wakin on a Pretty Daze

Deltron 3030, Event 2

High Highs, Open Season

Johnny Marr, The Messenger

Arctic Monkeys, AM

Volcano Choir, Repave

Har Mar Superstar, Bye Bye 17

Caitlin Rose, The Stand-in

The Thermals, Desperate Ground

The Mary Onettes, Hit the Waves

Savages, Silence Yourself

Arcade Fire, Reflektor

White Denim, Corsicana Lemonade

Dawes, Stories Don’t End

Mount Moriah, Miracle Temple

If you're on Spotify (and if not, do it), listen to all of these albums for yourself:


Also, here's 20 more albums from this year that I enjoyed:
Local Natives, Hummingbird; Kate Nash, Girl Talk; Chris Thile, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1; Camper Van Beethoven, La Costa Perdida; Mogwai, Les Revenants; Yo La Tengo, Fade; Dinosaur Jr., I Bet on Sky; Shearwater, Fellow Travelers; Night Beds, Country Sleep; The Men, New Moon; Jimi Hendrix, People, Hell and Angels; Marques Tolliver, Land of Canaan; King Khan & the Shrines, Idle No More; Toad the Wet Sprocket, New Constellation; Julianna Barwick, Nepenthe; The Joy Formidable, Wolf’s Law; Josh Rouse, The Happiness Waltz; Foxygen, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic; The Deep Dark Woods, Jubilee; Deerhunter, Monomania

And finally, the albums that for whatever reason, I haven't spent enough time with to have an opinion on them yet. If you know who I usually listen to, you'll recognize a lot of names here:
Andrew Bird, I Want to See Pulaski at Night; Jason Isbell, Southeastern; Kings of Leon, Mechanical Bull; Janelle Monae, The Electric Lady; Sigur Ros, Kveikur; Forest Swords, Engravings; Yuck, Glow and Behold; The National, Trouble Will Find Me; Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City; Steve Earle & The Dukes, The Low Highway

BAW II: Electric Boogaloo

Seriously, what would I be doing these days without Spotify? Sure, the ads in between every third song are annoying, but the ability to immediately pull up just about any music I want to listen to is worth the inconvenience. Last night, catching up on All Songs Considered podcasts while I was at the gym, I heard two bands I wanted to check out: Grouplove and We Were Promised Jetpacks. So when I got home, I opened Spotify, searched both groups, added their latest albums to my playlist (Never Trust A Happy Song and In The Pit of the Stomach, if you're interested), and I had a soundtrack for today. So easy.

As for the music, I'm digging both albums for different reasons. Grouplove plays a tighter version of 90's psychedelica, like a less trippy Flaming Lips, and despite their album title, there's a raucous joy in their music. If you can listen to "Tongue-Tied" and not tap your feet, there's something wrong with you.

WWPJ, on the other hand, play that angular British rock made popular by Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, and Bloc Party, but they have the ability to reach a more expansive layer in their songs. Listen to the instrumental opening of "Act on Impulse" for an example.


Grouplove, "Tongue-Tied"


 We Were Promised Jetpacks, "Act on Impulse"

Bored at Work, part 1

Lots of downtime at my new job (briefly interrupted by periods of OHMYGOD GETITALLDONENOWNOWNOW), so I'm going to start posting about what I'm doing in all this dead time, mainly because it's more interesting and uses more brain function than hitting refresh on my Google Reader every two minutes.

I've been using Spotify quite a bit, and the nice thing about it (aside from being free, of course) is that it's exposed me to a lot of music I might not normally hear. Right now, I'm listening to Childish Gambino's Camp. Childish Gambino is better known as comedian Donald Glover of that show Community everyone keeps saying I should watch but still haven't gotten around to yet. As rap albums by actors go, this one's much better than I expected.

I'm also reading Daniel Wilson's Robopocalypse (a novel set in the near future that chronicles sentient robots taking over the world and trying to wipe out humanity) on my iPad. Oh, delicious irony. Sadly, it's not as good as I'd like it to be — it's a pale imitation of Max Brooks' World War Z, by way of The Terminator. Swapping the walking dead for killer robots is already a downgrade, but if you're telling your story as an oral history, it works a lot better if your characters have distinct voices, which is where this book fails for me. Everybody (soldiers, senators, a 14-year-old girl from Chicago, a 45-year-old roughneck from Texas) sounds exactly the same: dry, unemotional, and way too quick with the exposition. Still, there's enough promise in the premise that I'll finish it and hope it gets better before the end.

Latrocious videe-i-e-i-e-i-o

Apparently, the music video isn’t completely dead. Here’s a couple good ones I’ve spotted lately.



Lots to love here from Company of Thieves. Jangly indie pop that takes me back to my college days, Genevieve Schatz belting out the chorus like Björk fronting R.E.M., and a video homage to the opening sequence of Rushmore put this one on my radar. Good stuff. Link from /Film.



Andrew Bird is a genius, plain and simple. I saw him for the third time last Thursday at the Ogden Theater. It’s amazing to watch one guy play guitar, violin, xylophone, whistle and sing all in the course of one song, and do it all incredibly well. You can’t quite get the full effect in this live video for “Fitz & Dizzyspells,” from his latest album, Noble Beast, but the addition of the marching band makes up for it. Link from Stereogum.



And in case you don’t get the reference in the title, Three Times One Minus One’s gonna make it a'ight...

Pop Tart

It seems a little strange, but my favorite new music at the moment is Lily Allen’s “It’s Not Me, It’s You”. Girly pop isn’t exactly my usual genre of choice, but Allen isn’t exactly Hannah Montana either. Instead of the usual overproduced fluff from the latest American Idol cast-off, Allen’s new album is full of frank discussions of sex and relationship drama, set to some pretty catchy beats—a little spicier than your average fare. Listen to the lyrics of “The Fear” (here performed live on Jay Leno), and you’ll discover she’s actually skewering the tabloids (who have been pretty brutal to her in Britain) and the whole crop of celebutants they worship/stalk. It’s nice to know somebody can still do pop music with a bite.

Kingdom of Rust

Doves just rolled out a video for the title track to their new one, out April 6. Me gusta.

The Year of Pleasant Surprises

Obama aside, 2008 was a difficult year all around, and pop culture seemed to reflect that. I started working on some top ten lists to close out the year, until I realized that in most categories, I couldn't come up with more than three things that really impressed me. In fact, so much of what was produced this year was uninspired, uninventive, or just generally disappointing that it was almost a surprise when something turned out to be good. So, in recognition of that, here are my 12 pleasant entertainment surprises of 2008.

Wall-E. A kids’ movie about cutesy, animated robots that chirp and beep more than R2D2. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi story about a trash-collecting robot and his pet cockroach left behind on a over-polluted planet. A cautionary tale about the environment and the evolutionary effects of technology and lack of exercise. A sweet romantic yarn about a Hello, Dolly-obsessed loner who finally meets the woman of his dreams and crosses the galaxy to win her heart. Wall-E is all of these and more. Add in the fact that the two main characters barely speak any dialogue in the first 45 minutes except to repeat each other’s names, and you would expect this would make for a deadly boring, convoluted mess. Enter Pixar. If ever you doubted the genius of this studio, here’s all the proof you need. Wall-E is an incredible piece of moviemaking. So much is communicated through the smallest gestures, toots, whistles, and slight changes of expression that the lack of dialogue is barely noticeable. Hands-down, one of my five favorite movies of all time.

The Rhumb Line, Ra Ra Riot. An amazing mix of strong songwriting, catchy melodies, and driving strings made this my favorite album of the year. There’s a surprising amount of world-weariness for such a young band, and it gives the songs a lived-in feeling, even if you're only hearing them for the first time.

“Spiralling,” Keane. This track is so undeniably catchy, I almost forgive them for the bad 80’s synthesizers. OK, who am I kidding? The synths make the song.

The Dark Knight. I knew it would be good. I just didn’t know it would be this good. Total game-changer for all comic book films to come.

“M79,” Vampire Weekend. Imagine Graceland-era Paul Simon scoring a Wes Anderson flick. This song encapsulates everything that is great about VW’s debut.

Feed the Animals, Girl Talk. The most incredible mashup mix I’ve ever heard. So dense and complex in its use of samples that Wired devoted a full-page chart to breaking down one track from the album.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Proof that even Joss Whedon’s free time doodlings are works of genius (he wrote this to keep his mind fresh during the writer’s strike). Joss Whedon + Neil Patrick Harris + a musical about a supervillain’s video blog = comedy gold.

“Viva La Vida,” Coldplay. Yes, this song is overplayed. Yes, it may have been plagiarized. Yes, the album as a whole is so-so. No, I don’t care. It’s still impossible to get out of your head.

Iron Man. Not as gritty as The Dark Knight, but still a hell of a lot of fun. Favreau took the source material seriously, and Robert Downey Jr. was born to play Tony Stark. I went in with high expectations, and they were all met.

Lyle Lovett at Red Rocks. I maintain the belief that all Red Rocks shows are automatically 10% better simply because of the venue, but Lovett didn’t need the help. Despite the fact that I hardly knew any of his music, I was enthralled. Lyle is a true entertainer, and his band is top-notch.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson. This book was recommended to me almost simultaneously by my mom and Stephen King, which is strange, but also a testament to its appeal. The variation on a locked-room murder mystery (in this case, it’s a locked island) kept me turning pages all the way to the end...which I really enjoyed, despite it’s non-Hollywoodness.

Alpinisms, School of Seven Bells. Former Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis teams up with twin sister vocalists to create a new genre: atmospheric New-Age indie rock. This album is a gorgeously dense creation, full of layers and textures. Yet when I heard the Bells play an acoustic set on KEXP recently that stripped away all the effects, the songs held up.

“The Greatest Man That Ever Lived,” Weezer. Rivers puts on his Freddie Mercury hat and writes a 21st-century “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Good luck not singing along with the chorus.


Biggest disappointments of the year:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Thanks for ruining yet another beloved franchise, George.

Chinese Democracy, Guns N’ Roses. We waited 11 years for this? It’s obvious Axl has a frustrated Stephen Sondheim hiding inside him. I just wish he wouldn’t put the G N’ R name on that stuff.

Less than 100 people showing up for Matthew Sweet’s October show at the Fox Theater. That’s just sad.

Yay

One of my favorite bands, Doves, is finally getting ready to release their fourth album, a mere four years after their last one. Hope it’s worth the wait.

Strange Bedfellows

Um, I don’t know who came up with the idea to put these two together, but that person is a genius. Best. Mashup. Ever.

Finally... MTV remembers what (part of) their initials stand for

Well, hidey-ho, everybody. MTV has gone back to the future by putting every single video from their entire archive up on their new website. Every free second I had over the next two months is now accounted for. See you in 2009!

Here’s one to start you off:

Guns N' Roses |MTV Music

The Roundup

Things I’ve been into lately:

The Apple Juice Kid, Miles Remixed. I like when DJ’s hook up classic jazz: the Verve Remixed series being the most high-profile example. This album sticks entirely to the works of Miles Davis, but still comes off as a diverse mix. Great stuff, and best of all, available as a free download.

Dead Confederate, Wrecking Ball. This Athens, GA-based band has created the perfect marriage of Southern classic rock, Neil Young-influenced grunge and Brit rock.

Matthew Sweet, Sunshine Lies. Definitely nowhere near as consistent as some of his great albums from the 90’s, but he can still turn the most innocuous song into a work of jangly, toe-tapping beauty. I bought the deluxe edition from iTunes (for an extra $3, you get 6 extra songs), and it was well worth it — the bonus tracks are some of my favorite songs.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Harmless and cute, but funny — good date movie. I think Michael Cera’s ability to play the awkward indie kid is still second-to-none, but he’s starting to seem a bit like a one-trick pony. One more movie like this, and the backlash will be in full effect.

The Venture Bros. Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim has accounted for quite a bit of my TV watching in recent years (Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show, Sealab 2021), but nothing comes close to The Venture Bros. What started out as a simple Johnny Quest spoof has become a smart, wickedly funny action-adventure story with as many pop culture references crammed into each episode as humanly possible. With the first two seasons on DVD and Season 3 currently in reruns on CN, I’ve been watching at least an episode a day for the past month or so, and I still want more. Bring on Season 4.

“Lost” anticipation. Is it 2009 yet?

Spiralling

Somehow, I missed Keane’s upcoming album in my fall music preview, but based on this, it sounds like the boys heart the 80’s big-time on this effort, and I heart the result.

I Predict A Riot

On a Saturday evening few months ago, I saw Ra Ra Riot at the Westword Music Showcase, and I don’t remember being all that impressed. Granted, it had been a long day of standing outside in the sun, and the crowds had been full of annoying douchebags who apparently only came to hold shouted conversations over the music, so my tolerance level was pretty low. I remember thinking RRR might have some promise, but I wasn’t really in much of a mood to give a new band a chance that day. Well, after listening to The Rhumb Line for the first time this weekend, I won’t make that mistake twice. This album has pretty much been on repeat since I downloaded it—at home, at work, on my iPod while I work out—and while I can’t exactly pin down what it is I enjoy about it so much, it really struck a chord with me. The closest I can come to describing their sound is like a darker Vampire Weekend without the Afro-Pop influence. The strings (in this case, violin and cello) are central to RRR’s sound, and I think that’s part of it for me. I’ve gotten into larger bands that use strings (like Arcade Fire and Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s) in recent years, and I’ve always loved Mark Mothersbaugh’s chamber-pop-ish scores to Wes Anderson’s films, so it makes sense that a large part of why I love Ra Ra Riot is that they seem to be influenced by all of that music, but have taken that influence to its next logical step.

I could go on, but I feel like I’m not coming close to doing the music justice with my description, so just have a listen for yourself.

“Dying Is Fine” (mp3)

“Ghost Under Rocks” (video)

Long Past Fashionably, Just Plain Late

OK, I’ve ignored this song for as long as I can, but every since Z-Trip brought down the house at Unconventional ’08 with MIA’s “Paper Planes,” I cannot get it out of my head. Who knew gunshots and cash register noises could make for such an unforgettably infectious chorus? Every time I hear it, I just want to dance around the room making pistols with my fingers (and except for rare occasions like VIP parties during Democratic National Conventions, I’m not much of a dancer). Also, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that I didn’t pick up on the biggest summer jam until fall arrived. Alanis might call that ironic.

And just for fun, here’s the extremely NSFW Pineapple Express trailer that made “Paper Planes” the hit it deserves to be.

Recently

Another mix of stuff I've been listening to lately:

1. That’s All Right (Mama)… The Beatles
2. If Time Permits… Matthew Sweet
3. Soda Jerk… Buffalo Tom
4. Life On Mars?… David Bowie
5. Something In You… The Orange Peels
6. Just Blue… The Weepies
7. No Sunlight… Death Cab for Cutie
8. Constructive Summer… The Hold Steady
9. The Beauty of Gray… Live
10. 4:35 A.M… Gemma Hayes
11. Sit and Wonder… The Verve
12. Starman… David Bowie
13. Spreadin’ Rhythm Around [Lady Bug vs. Lady Day RR Remix]… Billie Holiday
14. My Revenge… Julie Ocean
15. Sequestered In Memphis… The Hold Steady
16. Remnants… My Morning Jacket
17. Took My Lady To Dinner… King Khan And The Shrines
18. Spiral Staircase… Kings Of Leon

Fall Music Preview

Lots of potentially great new music coming out this fall. Here’s a list of what I’m looking forward to (I’ll continue to update as I find more info):

8.19
The Verve, Forth
The reunited Manchester outfit’s first album since 1997’s Urban Hymns. They’ve been playing new songs on tour this summer, and early buzz is good. Even if Forth is only half the record Hymns is, that would still make it a quality reunion album.

8.26
Matthew Sweet, Sunshine Lies
I’ve heard a couple tracks on his MySpace page, and I can’t tell if they're rough mixes, or if his production is that raw. His last few albums have been hit or miss for me, so I’m hoping this one will be more along the lines of In Reverse or Kimi Ga Suki, and not another Living Things.

9.12
[UPDATE] Metallica, Death Magnetic
I can’t decide about this one. It’s hard for me to get excited about a new Metallica album since their last few have sucked so hard, but the word is that they’ve returned to their roots for this one, tapping into some ...And Justice For All-type riffs. That sounds good... after all, Justice is the album that made me love these guys in the first place, but then again, it’s hard to forget how bad St. Anger was. I think I’ll give this one a listen before I drop any cash on it.

9.23
Kings of Leon, Only By the Night
Their last one, Because of the Times, was such an amazing leap forward, I’m interested to see if this is more of the same, or if these four Southern boys keep pushing their sound.
[UPDATE] If the first single (now playing on their MySpace page) is indicative of the whole album, I’d say they haven’t strayed too far from Because of the Times. I’m good with that.

Mogwai, The Hawk is Howling
Same here. I liked Mr. Beast a lot, and Mogwai’s the type of band that sticks with what works. Fine by me.

9.30
Ben Folds, Way to Normal
On the other hand, we have Ben Folds, coming off the underwhelming Songs For Silverman. I’m hoping he can get back to the fun of Rockin’ the Suburbs on this one.

10.07
Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos, Animal! & Not Animal! (2 separate releases)
No idea what to expect here, although I do know the excellent “Broad Ripple is Burning” will be on one of these.

Oasis, Dig Out Your Soul
It might suck, but I’ll still play the shit out of it. Easily worth it for the two or three Noel-sung songs that are sure to appear, like [UPDATE] the newly-released “Falling Down”. I'll buy it on the strength of that song alone.

11.18
U2, No Line on the Horizon
Early word is that U2 are “very, very pleased” with this one. Bono is happy, and just in time for the holidays. Looks like we’re in for 7 years of peace and prosperity the world over.

(Most of these dates come from Metacritic.com)

Summertime

This past week, Entertainment Weekly ran a small piece trying to predict what the “summer jams” of 2008 will be. A lot of mainstream music mags and websites generally do something along these lines around this time of year, and most lists are fairly predictable themselves. They will almost always include: 1 rap song with mail-order beats, tired references to how much money, cars and women the rapper has, and an incredibly annoying and repetitive hook; either a crappy Top 40 band masquerading as “punk” or “emo,” or some marginally “alternative” band slipped in by the editors in a desperate effort to hang on to whatever shreds of cred they might have once had; and inevitably, the list will be topped off by the current overproduced mess from the R&B or pop starlet of the moment, who 90% of the time can’t hit the high notes without the aid of pitch bending software. In recent summers, we’ve been treated to Rihanna, Beyonce, Avril, and Britney. This year, EW gives us three options: Mariah Carey (OK, she’s got a real voice), Fergie (absolutely hopeless without Pro Tools), and the coup de grace, Maroon 5 (kings of pitch shifting themselves) featuring Rihanna. Double the Pro Tools action, double the summer jam potential, apparently. Well, screw all that. If you can’t sing without a computer to help you, there’s no way you should be making money as a singer. But good luck trying to convince whoever is buying the iTunes Top 20 every week of that fact (I’m looking at you, High School Musical fans). Luckily for me, I haven’t crossed into that territory in many many years, and in that spirit, here’s my anti-summer jam mix. Perfect for rocking your Memorial Day picnic.

I Will Possess Your Heart… Death Cab for Cutie
Orange Crush… Editors
Grounds For Divorce… Elbow
Violet Hill… Coldplay*
Living Well Is The Best Revenge… R.E.M.
The Righteous Path… Drive-By Truckers
Rich Kid Blues… The Raconteurs
Just Like Heaven… The Watson Twins
Outfit [Live]… Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
I Like What You Say… Nada Surf
I Thought I Saw Your Face Today… She & Him
M79… Vampire Weekend
Lights Out For Darker Skies… British Sea Power
The Light… Sun Kil Moon
Shooting Star… Air Traffic
One Day Like This… Elbow

*Full disclosure: Coldplay is treading dangerously close to falling into one or two of the categories I listed above (for that matter, Death Cab’s not far behind), and I’m not 100% sold on the quality of this, their new single. But I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt until I hear the new album. Plus, c’mon, it’s Coldplay. They’ll be impossible to avoid in a few weeks anyway. Might as well start assimilating now.

Wrapping Up

As I’ve been sitting at my computer finishing up my Christmas shopping, I set up a playlist in iTunes for all the albums I own from this past year, and what I’ve discovered in retrospect is this: As musical years go, this one didn’t blow me away. I saw a lot of great live shows*, but as for album releases, meh. I’ve been looking over other folks’ year-end lists, which range from the tragically hip to the simply tragic, but barring one album, there’s nothing that screams “classic”. That said, I didn’t have much trouble coming up with a top ten for ’07. Here’s 2 through 10 in no particular order:

Wilco, Sky Blue Sky

Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

The Shins, Wincing The Night Away

Bloc Party, A Weekend in the City

Aesop Rock, None Shall Pass

Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha

Galactic, From the Corner To The Block

The National, Boxer

Kings of Leon, Because of the Times

And the easiest decision? The hands-down, no-contest, numero uno? I’m probably one of the few people who paid for it, and it’s been worth every penny.

Radiohead, In Rainbows

A few more Honorable Mentions:

Cabin, I Was Here EP
Ted Leo & Pharmacists, Living With The Living
Neil Young, Chrome Dreams II
Band of Horses, Cease to Begin
Dinosaur Jr., Beyond
Elliott Smith, New Moon

*Of all the shows I saw this year, Neil Young was my favorite, simply because I had waited so long to see him and it was still an amazing show. Bloc Party and Wilco were also highlights. What follows is an in-order list of every artist I saw live in 2007: Elvis Perkins > My Morning Jacket > Béla Fleck & the Flecktones > Adem > Badly Drawn Boy > The Noisettes > Bloc Party > Hot Hot Heat > Snow Patrol > Rush > Wilco > Everything Absent Or Distorted > The Broken West > Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band > Clap Your Hands Say Yeah > Das EFX > Kings of Leon > Editors > The Decemberists, > Black Rebel Motorcycle Club > Cake > Nina Storey > Little Ones > Meese > Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s > Ian Ball > Lords of the Underground > Art Brut > Spoon > The Flaming Lips > The Awkward Stage > Lavender Diamond > The New Pornographers > Crown City Rockers > Blackalicious, > Pegi Young > Neil Young > Jason Collett > Feist. Whew.

Misc.

It’s been a while since I last posted, and to be honest, I’ve been debating whether to give up on the blog entirely. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I think for now, I’ll just continue to post when the mood strikes, and not worry about how long it takes me to come back to it. After all, it’s not like the internet is going anywhere.

For now, here’s a few things I’ve been enjoying lately:

• Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon — An instant classic of an adventure novel, written in the vein of Sir Walter Scott or Robert E. Howard. I started and finished it on the plane ride home for Thanksgiving. Thoroughly enjoyable read.
• Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson — Eerily prescient cyberpunk novel that influenced everything from The Matrix to Heroes. Also a great read.
• The World Without Us, Alan Weisman — A well-researched and interesting look at what would happen to the Earth if humanity suddenly disappeared. Unfortunately, our legacy would mostly consist of all the plastic garbage we’d leave behind.
• the audio/video page on Andrew Bird’s bowloffire.com — All kinds of cool live stuff and remixes.
• Jerusalem, Steve Earle — The more Steve Earle I listen to, the more he becomes one of my favorite artists. I just recently downloaded this anti-war album he released in 2002, and sadly, the themes are still way too current.
• classic Christmas music — From Charlie Brown to the Chairman of the Board, they just don’t make ’em like they used to.
• Automatic For the People, R.E.M. — 15 years later, this is still an incredible album. “Sweetness Follows” has popped up in my playlists several times lately, and it especially crushed me with its greatness.
• The Jungle Book 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition — This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, so I Netflixed it this weekend. Disney did an incredible job with the remastering. The movie looks gorgeous, and I was happy to discover that I still knew the words to all the songs. My neighbors, on the other hand... probably not as happy.
• the performances of Scarlett Johannson — I never thought I was much of a fan, until I realized recently that she starred in six of the top ten movies in my Netflix queue. In the past few weeks, I’ve watched Scoop, Girl With A Pearl Earring, Match Point, and Lost in Translation, and I have to say, there’s something indefinably sexy about her that I find kind of mesmerizing. I’m having trouble deciding whether it’s her voice, her lips, or most likely, some combination of the two. Plus, she does voices on Robot Chicken, so she’s got serious nerd points. And hey, Woody Allen seems to love her. (Then again, he also loved his adopted daughter who was half his age, so maybe old Woody’s not exactly the best measuring stick.)
• the Iron Man preview — Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect choice for Tony Stark, and I love that Jon Favreau refuses to overuse CGI. If the movie is half as good as the preview, I’ll be happy.

Get Older

I can’t decide which bothers me more—the fact that I was in Bed Bath & Beyond for more than 5 minutes this morning, or the fact the in-store music system was playing Feist’s song “1,2,3,4” (recently made famous by an iPod Nano commercial). I doubt anyone would ever consider Feist edgy or controversial, but the realization that music I would pay for and download is now apparently acceptable for older ladies doing their Saturday morning shopping is a little sobering.

For a lot of years now, I’ve felt like I’ve been pretty plugged in to current pop culture trends, but as I prepare to enter my final year in the coveted (by advertisers, anyway) 18-34 age demographic, I’ve realized that my need to be on the cutting edge is starting to fade away. At this point, I’d usually rather listen to music by artists I know I enjoy than someone I feel like I should listen to because everybody’s buzzing about them. That’s certainly not to say that I’m giving up on new music—just that I’m a lot less concerned about being the first one to discover it. That’s why I let some of those music blogs in that list over on the right do the legwork for me. I mean, it’s totally possible that Animal Collective and The Besnard Lakes are the dopest shit to happen to music since LL Cool J’s momma told him to knock us out, and maybe by this time next year, I’ll even believe that. But in the meantime, I’ll be just fine with the latest Neil Young, thanks. Speaking of getting older...

I guess what it comes down to is that I’ve passed the point of needing to constantly search for new and better music. I finished shaping my tastes. I know what I like, and I’m OK sticking with it. Even if that means I end up humming along with a bunch of grandmothers to the Feist song in Bed Bath & Beyond.