There are few things more sacred in this world than a father and son at a baseball game. Great wars have been fought to preserve this right, and it stands as one of the great gifts, often unspoken, that a father can give to his son. Walking up to the ballpark gate, the men walk subtly more upright in an attempt to regain the glory of their high school playing days, a glory all but faded now after years of physical neglect. But their sons don't see that faded glory; they are proud simply to be known as the son of that Great Man who can unlock the key to America with a simple transaction on a street corner with a man who wears a placard, "I buy tickets." The ballpark noise --- vendors, chatty fans, static-filled announcements --- grows louder as the pair near the destination of their pilgrimage...
Dad puts the glove in his backpack because it's too heavy for me to carry and I keep dropping it anyway. It is his old one, an ancient Rawlings Gold Glove model, near-ivory now and cracked after years of exposure to rural Minnesota sun and dirt. A Lee Smith signature is scrawled in ballpoint on the thumb. Neither of us knew he was the all-time leader in saves when we got his autograph. He was wearing a uniform, which was the most important (and single) criterion for who got a glove or ball thrust into their hands.
As we walk towards the Metrodome, that eyesore of 1980's sports architecture, we are joined by more fathers and sons and daughters and aunts and uncles and friends, until we are just a sea of hot, sweaty Minnesotans adorned in the jerseys representing the magnificent history of the organization --- Puckett, Killebrew, Carew, Versalles, Kaat, Hrbek --- and the ruinous (1990's) present --- Hale, Coomer, Cordova, Knoblauch, Mahomes. The sights, sounds, and smells of the ballpark are overwhelming. Dad steers me in my dazed state to our gate and through the turnstiles. The daily promotion is a Bert Blyleven bobble head. Something is wrong with the spring in mine and Bert's head remains cocked like an inquisitive dog. It's fitting.
I ask for and receive a hot dog, chips, and a coke. I am now ready to find my seat, although I spill most of the pop on a middle aged woman as I shuffle past her in Section 221, Row 13, on my way to Seat 8. It's ok though, she's wearing a Frank Thomas jersey. I give her a sheepish smile and move on. My dad mutters apologies behind me (he's no fan of the White Sox or the Big Hurt either). We settle into our seats just in time to hear the PA announcer Bob Casey say, "There is no smoking in the Metrodome, nooooo smoking in the Metrodome." That's fine, we don't intend to.
The way the players take the field proves that these are men playing a boys game. During warmups, even the lowliest utility infielder --- who would not look out of place at a grocer's check-out counter --- takes on an exaggerated, lazy swagger in the casual way he fields the slowly rolling grounders, takes a jaunty crow-hop, and zips a dart over to first. Most of the relief pitchers are still in the dugout during these early innings, but when they do saunter towards the bullpen along the left field foul line, they joke like first graders on a field trip. I sit for a few minutes with my mouth agape, soaking it all in. Dad idly leafs through the program. Some ketchup falls from my hotdog and onto my lap. Instinctively I cringe, but Dad just smiles and hands me his handkerchief. Mom would've been so mad.
"See how all the players get into the ready position as the pitch is being thrown?" I nod as I notice the subtle ballet taking place on the field. Most players tap their gloves as the pitcher reaches the top of his windup. Some then just bend over, gloves extended. Others move catlike a few steps towards the batter, in anticipation. I take mental notes and soon adopt a pre-pitch ritual reminiscent of Kirby Puckett's. He was my favorite. Dad has probably read Puckett's memoir, "I Love This Game," to me at least a dozen times. I am sure now that it was not worth reading a dozen times, but he never complained.
I am quiet as the game progresses. This is not unusual; I am usually quiet with my dad, but a high-five after a homerun sure says a lot. It's part of a special ritual that countless fathers and sons (and daughters!) have shared in over the years. The slow cadence of baseball fits perfectly into the dynamic of the relationship. It's heartbreaking to see the ritual broken so tragically and unexpectedly. Fathers will do almost anything to provide for their children. Sometimes it's something as simple as a foul ball touched by a hero...
When I was very young, my dad and I went to see the Christmas lights at the zoo. I was standing outside of the bathroom waiting for my dad to come out. Dozens of people were bundled up and milling about around me, swirling with the snow. The bathroom door was illuminated by the yellowish glow of the sodium streetlight above when he came out, decked out in Sorels and a one-piece snowmobile suit. He slipped on a patch of ice and fell, hard. The people stopped swirling and looked on in surprise. I don't think I moved --- my eyes were stuck wide-open. My father finally moved and spent a few seconds inspecting the damage, which was luckily nothing more than a bruised tailbone and an ego. I can't imagine a future where dad didn't get up...
As we walk to the car in the hot, muggy August night, I stop and raise my arms. "You're getting too big for this," he says as he hoists me up. I have a hastily cleaned mini Twins helmet that held my sundae in one hand, the other is clasped around his neck. I fall asleep in the car and wake up the next morning in my bed with the baseball sheets. This is how a ball game should end.
09 July 2011
29 March 2011
Day 17: Want
Name three things you want, and don't you dare feel guilty while doing so.
1. The AVID "Diva II" Turntable, $1,800
2. Swag menswear
APC Jeans
Hamilton 1883 Oxford
UNIS Chinos
The Hill-Side Pocket Square
Barbour Jacket
Finally, a pair of Aldens
3. Oh, and a new bike (steel is real.)
Yep, I'm super greedy.
1. The AVID "Diva II" Turntable, $1,800
2. Swag menswear
APC Jeans
Hamilton 1883 Oxford
The Hill-Side Pocket Square
Barbour Jacket
Finally, a pair of Aldens
Yep, I'm super greedy.
25 March 2011
Day 14: Bandwagons
What bandwagon have you yet to jump on? Why?
Menswear edition.
Double Monk Straps. I just don't see why they're such a big deal. They look goooofy.
Also, cargo pants are back. But WHY??
Menswear edition.
Double Monk Straps. I just don't see why they're such a big deal. They look goooofy.
Also, cargo pants are back. But WHY??
The double breasted suit. It'd be kinda classic, but then again, I'd have to keep it buttoned up all day. I sweat too much for that noise.
Day 12, Day ((14-1) (I'm superstitious, not religious))
What are you admitting defeat about? Is it really too late to turn it around?
Starting center for the Minnesota Lynx. 10 years of tryout rejections signals that it's probably time to hang up the ole gym shorts and call it a day.
So, Lent!Blog! participants, what’s your guilty pleasure? Really now, make it embarrassing. Make it count.
I was going to write a post about how my guilty pleasure is reading Chuck Klosterman essays. Especially Chuck Klosterman essays about how it's wrong to label guilty pleasures as "guilty pleasures," but I thought that too meta for a Lent! Blog! Challenge, so I abstained. But Gina, take a gander at the Klosterman essay -- it seems as though you two share a love, be it guilty or not, of Ashlee Simpson...
I actually think Klosterman can be kind of annoying, so I decided to throw my latent hipster aside and embrace the fun definition of guilty pleasure, sans ironic detachment.
So I thought about name-dropping some early- to mid-80's movies that are cited as "MOVIES YOU HAVE TO WATCH BEFORE YOU DIE/GUILTY PLEASURES," in bars across the country among twenty-somethings in the know. But I was such a shut-in, cable-less turd growing up that my movie touchstones are the not-yet-cool blockbusters that still need to age a decade or two before I feel comfortable naming them as definitive cultural moments of my childhood. Sorry Independence Day, Armageddon, Cool Runnings, Little Giants, Rookie of the Year, Twister, Men in Black -- your time has not yet come.
Then I thought about what's most embarrassing but gives me the most pleasure in life. And then it struck me like a hard-hitting Andy Cohen (of Watch What Happens: Live!) Real Housewives of New York (Bethanny v. Kelly) Fight Reenactment (starts at 4:00) -- I love watching Bravo!. I used to explain it away as, "Just the channel Top Chef happens to be on, so I reluctantly watch it," when my roommate questioned my manhood upon finding the channel switched to the network that brings you the Rachel Zoe Project ("ah-mah-zing") when all he wanted was to get his Sports Center on. After a few months of this humiliation, I decided to bite the bullet for the other 5 straight guys who watch non-Top Chef fare on Bravo! and admitted that I do, from time to time, tune in to see Jackie's trainers go crazy on Workout, or Patti talk about how the "Picker Picks" (it's true) on Millionaire Matchmaker, or watch Jeff Lewis, well, flip out on Flipping Out. What can I say? Watching Bravo! lets me turn my brain off for a sec and live a life I'll (thankfully) never live. And isn't that what guilty pleasures are all about? 30Rock seems to think so...
Starting center for the Minnesota Lynx. 10 years of tryout rejections signals that it's probably time to hang up the ole gym shorts and call it a day.
So, Lent!Blog! participants, what’s your guilty pleasure? Really now, make it embarrassing. Make it count.
I was going to write a post about how my guilty pleasure is reading Chuck Klosterman essays. Especially Chuck Klosterman essays about how it's wrong to label guilty pleasures as "guilty pleasures," but I thought that too meta for a Lent! Blog! Challenge, so I abstained. But Gina, take a gander at the Klosterman essay -- it seems as though you two share a love, be it guilty or not, of Ashlee Simpson...
I actually think Klosterman can be kind of annoying, so I decided to throw my latent hipster aside and embrace the fun definition of guilty pleasure, sans ironic detachment.
So I thought about name-dropping some early- to mid-80's movies that are cited as "MOVIES YOU HAVE TO WATCH BEFORE YOU DIE/GUILTY PLEASURES," in bars across the country among twenty-somethings in the know. But I was such a shut-in, cable-less turd growing up that my movie touchstones are the not-yet-cool blockbusters that still need to age a decade or two before I feel comfortable naming them as definitive cultural moments of my childhood. Sorry Independence Day, Armageddon, Cool Runnings, Little Giants, Rookie of the Year, Twister, Men in Black -- your time has not yet come.
Then I thought about what's most embarrassing but gives me the most pleasure in life. And then it struck me like a hard-hitting Andy Cohen (of Watch What Happens: Live!) Real Housewives of New York (Bethanny v. Kelly) Fight Reenactment (starts at 4:00) -- I love watching Bravo!. I used to explain it away as, "Just the channel Top Chef happens to be on, so I reluctantly watch it," when my roommate questioned my manhood upon finding the channel switched to the network that brings you the Rachel Zoe Project ("ah-mah-zing") when all he wanted was to get his Sports Center on. After a few months of this humiliation, I decided to bite the bullet for the other 5 straight guys who watch non-Top Chef fare on Bravo! and admitted that I do, from time to time, tune in to see Jackie's trainers go crazy on Workout, or Patti talk about how the "Picker Picks" (it's true) on Millionaire Matchmaker, or watch Jeff Lewis, well, flip out on Flipping Out. What can I say? Watching Bravo! lets me turn my brain off for a sec and live a life I'll (thankfully) never live. And isn't that what guilty pleasures are all about? 30Rock seems to think so...
22 March 2011
Days 9/10/11
What is one change, big or small, that you've had to deal with lately? Was it hard? Why or why not?
I've been trying to wear pants that fit me better. It's hard (wait, was that a joke question, Gina?) because I have short legs. If my legs were an animal (living or dead) appendage, they would be T-Rex arms for sure. Except my legs can support my body weight (i.e. I can walk); T-Rex surely could not do arm-stands. That being said, I'd say that trying to find pants that fit me is one of the big changes in my life that I'm trying to deal with right now. I'd appreciate some distance right now, thanks.
What is one recent sign that you're really and truly an adult?
I'm also trying real hard to run a marathon. I've signed up for a race (Stillwater!), got myself a training plan, and found a group of occasional running buddies, and bought myself some new shoes. The last time I ran one was when I was 20 and so full of spit and gumption that I didn't run at all the month before the race. I just drove to Duluth, slept at a buddy's house, and ran the fucker. I definitely paid for it with some bloody nips and the inability to walk for a few days, but I did it. Now, persistent aches and pains (most recently, bouts with achilles tendonitis) that flare up when my training ramps up have made me realize that whatever youthful vigor I possessed is now long-gone. I feel as though I may be destined to bring up the rear of the race, with the nice older ladies and their cheerful balloons, chatting me up as I wave at the tiring crowd as the sag wagon bears down on me at a glacial pace, the bored teenage drivers inside the wagon throwing me eye-daggers as I stagger towards the finish line. My time: DNF.
I complain to my dad and he just laughs, "Just wait 'till you're 50."
Also, the girls I tend to date all seem to think that I act like an old man. So what if I like to go to dinner at Perkins at 4:30? The wait is shorter and the waitresses are older at 4:30. Plus, my dates get to hear war stories over decaf coffee -- what more could a girl ask for?
What is one recent sign you're not so grown up, after all?
Two words: poop jokes.
Three more words: lots of them.
I've been trying to wear pants that fit me better. It's hard (wait, was that a joke question, Gina?) because I have short legs. If my legs were an animal (living or dead) appendage, they would be T-Rex arms for sure. Except my legs can support my body weight (i.e. I can walk); T-Rex surely could not do arm-stands. That being said, I'd say that trying to find pants that fit me is one of the big changes in my life that I'm trying to deal with right now. I'd appreciate some distance right now, thanks.
What is one recent sign that you're really and truly an adult?
I'm also trying real hard to run a marathon. I've signed up for a race (Stillwater!), got myself a training plan, and found a group of occasional running buddies, and bought myself some new shoes. The last time I ran one was when I was 20 and so full of spit and gumption that I didn't run at all the month before the race. I just drove to Duluth, slept at a buddy's house, and ran the fucker. I definitely paid for it with some bloody nips and the inability to walk for a few days, but I did it. Now, persistent aches and pains (most recently, bouts with achilles tendonitis) that flare up when my training ramps up have made me realize that whatever youthful vigor I possessed is now long-gone. I feel as though I may be destined to bring up the rear of the race, with the nice older ladies and their cheerful balloons, chatting me up as I wave at the tiring crowd as the sag wagon bears down on me at a glacial pace, the bored teenage drivers inside the wagon throwing me eye-daggers as I stagger towards the finish line. My time: DNF.
I complain to my dad and he just laughs, "Just wait 'till you're 50."
Also, the girls I tend to date all seem to think that I act like an old man. So what if I like to go to dinner at Perkins at 4:30? The wait is shorter and the waitresses are older at 4:30. Plus, my dates get to hear war stories over decaf coffee -- what more could a girl ask for?
What is one recent sign you're not so grown up, after all?
Two words: poop jokes.
Three more words: lots of them.
20 March 2011
Day 9: Act Like Your 8th Grade Self
What song lyric have you been loving lately?
I recently realized that, had I been interested in getting a tattoo at 18, there would've been an 85% chance that it would've been a lyric of a Dave Matthews Band song. Needless to say, I'm glad that I had no desire to get a tattoo at 18, but it's a good indicator of my constantly shifting musical tastes. Hopefully it's not cyclical.
But there are a few song lyrics that withstand the test of time. Here are some of my favorites.
"There are ghosts of the eyes of all the boys you sent away, they haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets, they scream your name at night in the street, your graduation gown lies in rags at your feet, and in the lonely cool before the dawn, you hear their engines roaring on, when you get to the porch, they're gone, on the road, so Mary climb in, it's a town full of losers, I'm pulling outta here to win." "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen
"The deacon caught a draft, the priest just kinda laughed, she crashed into the Easter Mass with her hair done up in broken glass, she was limping left on broken heels and she said, "Father, can I tell your congregation how a resurrection really feels?" Holly was a hoodrat, now you finally know that." "How a Resurrection Really Feels" by the Hold Steady [so yeah, that's why my blog has the title it does...]
"The salty lips of the socialite sisters with their, Continental fingers that've never seen working blisters; oh, I know, they've got their problems, I wish I was one of them." "New Lace Sleeves" by Elvis Costello
I recently realized that, had I been interested in getting a tattoo at 18, there would've been an 85% chance that it would've been a lyric of a Dave Matthews Band song. Needless to say, I'm glad that I had no desire to get a tattoo at 18, but it's a good indicator of my constantly shifting musical tastes. Hopefully it's not cyclical.
But there are a few song lyrics that withstand the test of time. Here are some of my favorites.
"There are ghosts of the eyes of all the boys you sent away, they haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets, they scream your name at night in the street, your graduation gown lies in rags at your feet, and in the lonely cool before the dawn, you hear their engines roaring on, when you get to the porch, they're gone, on the road, so Mary climb in, it's a town full of losers, I'm pulling outta here to win." "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen
"The deacon caught a draft, the priest just kinda laughed, she crashed into the Easter Mass with her hair done up in broken glass, she was limping left on broken heels and she said, "Father, can I tell your congregation how a resurrection really feels?" Holly was a hoodrat, now you finally know that." "How a Resurrection Really Feels" by the Hold Steady [so yeah, that's why my blog has the title it does...]
"The salty lips of the socialite sisters with their, Continental fingers that've never seen working blisters; oh, I know, they've got their problems, I wish I was one of them." "New Lace Sleeves" by Elvis Costello
18 March 2011
Day 7/8
Yeah, I got more "/" than Kordell. That, and I'm a lazy poster.
What's one buzzword you hear at work that you're so over?
"Winning." With a close second being the troll/warlock distinction.
What is one sign of the apocalypse you've seen lately? When you see things like this, do you laugh, cry - or both?
What's one buzzword you hear at work that you're so over?
"Winning." With a close second being the troll/warlock distinction.
What is one sign of the apocalypse you've seen lately? When you see things like this, do you laugh, cry - or both?
I love vinyl records; specifically, listening to them on a dedicated turntable with a decent system (speakers and amplifier). I get a lot of crap for this interest of mine, but that's fine. Let the h8ers h8, as my grandmother always says. Part (most?) of the problem comes in the form of mass-produced (read: cheap) equipment that has undoubtedly made up most of my friends' listening experiences thus far. Hearing a scratched, dusty record on a cheap player, through cheap speakers and a boombox is not the ideal way to listen to records. Kind of like how Red Lobster, cheddar biscuits notwithstanding, is not the best place to form your final judgement on seafood.
So it kills me to see that Best Buy and other retail outlets are selling these cheap USB turntables that plug directly into your computer. Two things are especially irksome:
1. I have nothing against portable music -- I'm a pretty voracious consumer of music blogs and my itunes library dwarfs my record collection (about 750 to 450). However, I own only a few duplicates of albums in portable and vinyl form. For me, my records and my mp3 collection represent mostly non-intersecting bubbles in my Venn diagram of music. The intersecting albums are usually newer ones that I like a lot -- enough to get the physical copy (recently, Joanna Newsom and Destroyer made this esteemed list). My theory is that some music is best listened to in one format or the other (new stuff on mp3, old stuff on vinyl, generally). But even if you would like to have one of your records on your computer, USB turntables are NOT a good way to make your records portable. Here's why:
2. USB turntables are really shitty, with maybe one possible exception. If you have a pile of records sitting in your basement and you want to enjoy them, go onto ebay and find a nice, vintage Denon direct drive turntable, refit it with a quality cartridge, and hook it up to your receiver or amplifer. It's more legwork, but I guarantee that it'll be well worth it (and only a little more expensive). Doing it the "hard way" might also change your views towards vinyl. They won't be simply an antiquated piece of technology that's currently holding your favorite music captive. Record players will be a gateway into the magical world that is vinyl.
So the sign of the apocalypse is that the idea of making ridiculous things like USB record players available for cheap purchase, under the misguided rationale of, "Hey, records are cool -- young people love them! But they also have short attention spans and love computers. Hey, we sell computers, too! Let's sell record players that plug directly into your computer!"is crazy. It subverts the whole reason records are so enchanting and actually probably turns people off the medium, thus reinforcing the popular notion that records are popular simply because hipsters like (well, hipsters never "like" anything; maybe "permit the existence of" is a more accurate term) them. No, records are popular because they sound amazing.
Anyone interested in possibly acquiring a full set (record player, receiver, possibly speakers) should let me know... I really have no need for two systems in my tiny apartment.
16 March 2011
Day 5/6
Day 5: Name at least one good thing you've heard, seen, or done lately. Seriously, this isn't a trick question. Anything that doesn't have a downside. Go.
Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover aka Troy Barnes from "Community"). Seriously, no downside.
Here's the counterweight to CG's occasional rap-inspired misogyny ... Sweden's Lykki Li
Day 6: When you blog, what's off limits? Why?
I try not to post anything about anyone who isn't going to read my blog and who, if upon reading said post, might get offended by what I wrote. It's not fair to them.
I also try not to post too many things about my personal life. One, because it's really, really boring. Two, because this is a forum for ideas, even insignificant ones; it's not an online diary. Gina basically says what I'm trying to say here. She's great.
Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover aka Troy Barnes from "Community"). Seriously, no downside.
Here's the counterweight to CG's occasional rap-inspired misogyny ... Sweden's Lykki Li
Day 6: When you blog, what's off limits? Why?
I try not to post anything about anyone who isn't going to read my blog and who, if upon reading said post, might get offended by what I wrote. It's not fair to them.
I also try not to post too many things about my personal life. One, because it's really, really boring. Two, because this is a forum for ideas, even insignificant ones; it's not an online diary. Gina basically says what I'm trying to say here. She's great.
14 March 2011
Day Four: Dream Big
What was your big childhood dream? Are you still pursuing it? If yes, how? If no, how did you reconcile that within yourself?
When I was 8 or 9, it had become a parlor trick of sorts for the neighborhood kids to ask me what I was going to be when I grew up because my answer was so ridiculous.
My stock answer: "I want to be an engineer, paleontologist, meteorologist, naturalist, professional baseball player, and conductor."
God, what a geek. I guess some things never change.
Today, my answer would be something like: "I want to be an engineer, lawyer, environmental/energy policy analyst, climate activist, and professional baseball player."
The strands that bind my 9 year old self with my 24 year old self are, I think, mostly related to discovering things about the outside world. Paleontologists dig deep and piece together history. Policy analysts do the same with disparate pieces of information to weave together a narrative of what the best courses of action might be.
In 15 years, who knows what my answer will be -- whatever my future aspirations, it's a good bet that being a professional baseball player will still make the list.
When I was 8 or 9, it had become a parlor trick of sorts for the neighborhood kids to ask me what I was going to be when I grew up because my answer was so ridiculous.
My stock answer: "I want to be an engineer, paleontologist, meteorologist, naturalist, professional baseball player, and conductor."
God, what a geek. I guess some things never change.
Today, my answer would be something like: "I want to be an engineer, lawyer, environmental/energy policy analyst, climate activist, and professional baseball player."
The strands that bind my 9 year old self with my 24 year old self are, I think, mostly related to discovering things about the outside world. Paleontologists dig deep and piece together history. Policy analysts do the same with disparate pieces of information to weave together a narrative of what the best courses of action might be.
In 15 years, who knows what my answer will be -- whatever my future aspirations, it's a good bet that being a professional baseball player will still make the list.
13 March 2011
Lenten Blogging Challenge: Day 3 (Recommended Reading)
What's a great book you wish more people had read? (Sell it like you're the publisher, or you know we won't read it.)
Great question, Gina! I have two related great books that everyone should read. One is more political and makes my blood boil/teeth gnash/skin crawl, etc. and the other weaves in a historical narrative of the quest to find the invisible. Both, unsurprisingly, involve science.
Book 1: The Climate War - by Eric Pooley
Reading the NYT or watching MSNBC regularly is a good way to keep track of the biggest stories of the day, in bite-size forms. Political coverage can be quite extensive, but unless you read The Hill or obsessively follow Politico, you're not likely to get the full story of the political wheeling and dealing that goes on behind the scenes. To add another layer, think of the coverage of climate change legislation. Pretty awful, right? Now, imagine combining the best political coverage with the most pressing issue of our time (besides, of course, the creeping socialism of Barack H. Obama, blah blah blah). The result is The Climate War, by Eric Pooley. Pooley recounts the past 20 years of efforts by industry and environmental leaders to achieve progress in combating the effects of global warming. Spoiler alert: the electric power industry, particularly BIG COAL, is against action on climate change and has systematically weakened efforts to pass meaningful legislation and push bad science by throwing money and confusion into the mix. The bastards. Pooley's book takes the reader to the ground level dealings of the leaders of industry and environmental groups as they struggled to appease their bases while tackling solutions that might actually work. This is an especially interesting book for anyone with an interest in politics and/or science. Working in DC on climate and energy issues during the passage of the Waxman-Markey climate bill in the summer of 2009 was a special experience, but it seems like all of that hard work was for naught.
Book 2: The Four Percent Universe - by Richard Panek
This is a less-depressing read than the previous book and one I actually just read for fun. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to read about science history. If you don't know me well, then yes, I am a nerd. The title of the book comes from one of the most remarkable discoveries of science, ever.
Imagine the following exchange between you (reader of the book) and a random passerby.
YOU: How would you weigh the Universe?
PERSON ON STREET: Like, the ENTIRE universe -- planets, stars, black holes, comets -- everything?
YOU: Yes. The entire universe. All of creation.
PERSON ON STREET: Simple. You would weigh the universe by weighing each individual, tangible object that exists.
YOU: And after weighing each of these tangible objects, would you expect that you would've thus weighed the entire universe?
P ON STREET: Umm, yes -- weighing all of the stars and planets and dust particle in the universe would mean that you have weighed the ENTIRE universe.
YOU (taking appropriate care not to sound too pretentious. This is, after all, some random person on the street, not a Cal Tech professor...): Would it shock you if I told you that by weighing all of the tangible objects in the universe, the total would only add up to 4% of the universe?
FLAVA FLAV (turns out he was the person on the street all along! (the clock necklace should've been a dead giveaway but you were too wrapped up in the beauty of the science knowledge you were about to drop on this innocent bystander to notice): "Yeeeaaah booyyyy! I'm SHOCKED."
I was shocked too, to learn that we can't see 96% of our universe. We tend to think of celestial objects as incomprehensibly immense. It's awesome in the original sense of the word to think that the shining carpet of stars we see on a clear night only makes up a meager percentage of all "matter" in the universe.
What makes up the rest of the universe? Dark matter and dark energy. I'm not going to try to explain it here, because it's way over my head. But basically, the laws of physics, prior to the 1950's, said that the expansion of the universe was slowing down, losing energy after the Big Bang only to eventually come back together in a cycle after gravity overcame the initial force of expansion. The balloon of the universe was eventually going to lose its air and we'd be back to the beginning. The notion of a cyclical universe, of a series of Big Bangs, can be comforting. But it's wrong. What scientists found confounded these fundamental notions of science -- the universe is actually accelerating in its expansion. The balloon is infinite, and something much stronger than gravity is propelling it outward in all directions. The thing is, we can't see the dark matter and dark energy that scientists believe is causing this unbridled expansion.
For me, it's less about detecting neutrinos than examining the struggle of humanity to understand our past, present, and future. Religion is not capable of achieving this task (Lenten blog, whaddup!) and so science must forge ahead if we are ever to discover who the Creator really is. Science has made it possible to peer over 13 billion years into the past, to a time when the hot mess (the Charlie Sheen years, acc'd to NASA terminology) of gas began to form stars and universes, just 480 million years after the Big Bang (for context, it took much longer than 480 million years after Earth's creation for life to form; just 480 million years after our entire universe formed, galaxies were already taking shape (i.e. in just a blink of a cosmic eye)).
The quest for knowledge defines our species and this book captures the magic of discovery and makes me more optimistic that we can do the same for issues like climate change in the future.
Great question, Gina! I have two related great books that everyone should read. One is more political and makes my blood boil/teeth gnash/skin crawl, etc. and the other weaves in a historical narrative of the quest to find the invisible. Both, unsurprisingly, involve science.
Book 1: The Climate War - by Eric Pooley
Reading the NYT or watching MSNBC regularly is a good way to keep track of the biggest stories of the day, in bite-size forms. Political coverage can be quite extensive, but unless you read The Hill or obsessively follow Politico, you're not likely to get the full story of the political wheeling and dealing that goes on behind the scenes. To add another layer, think of the coverage of climate change legislation. Pretty awful, right? Now, imagine combining the best political coverage with the most pressing issue of our time (besides, of course, the creeping socialism of Barack H. Obama, blah blah blah). The result is The Climate War, by Eric Pooley. Pooley recounts the past 20 years of efforts by industry and environmental leaders to achieve progress in combating the effects of global warming. Spoiler alert: the electric power industry, particularly BIG COAL, is against action on climate change and has systematically weakened efforts to pass meaningful legislation and push bad science by throwing money and confusion into the mix. The bastards. Pooley's book takes the reader to the ground level dealings of the leaders of industry and environmental groups as they struggled to appease their bases while tackling solutions that might actually work. This is an especially interesting book for anyone with an interest in politics and/or science. Working in DC on climate and energy issues during the passage of the Waxman-Markey climate bill in the summer of 2009 was a special experience, but it seems like all of that hard work was for naught.
Book 2: The Four Percent Universe - by Richard Panek
This is a less-depressing read than the previous book and one I actually just read for fun. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to read about science history. If you don't know me well, then yes, I am a nerd. The title of the book comes from one of the most remarkable discoveries of science, ever.
Imagine the following exchange between you (reader of the book) and a random passerby.
YOU: How would you weigh the Universe?
PERSON ON STREET: Like, the ENTIRE universe -- planets, stars, black holes, comets -- everything?
YOU: Yes. The entire universe. All of creation.
PERSON ON STREET: Simple. You would weigh the universe by weighing each individual, tangible object that exists.
YOU: And after weighing each of these tangible objects, would you expect that you would've thus weighed the entire universe?
P ON STREET: Umm, yes -- weighing all of the stars and planets and dust particle in the universe would mean that you have weighed the ENTIRE universe.
YOU (taking appropriate care not to sound too pretentious. This is, after all, some random person on the street, not a Cal Tech professor...): Would it shock you if I told you that by weighing all of the tangible objects in the universe, the total would only add up to 4% of the universe?
FLAVA FLAV (turns out he was the person on the street all along! (the clock necklace should've been a dead giveaway but you were too wrapped up in the beauty of the science knowledge you were about to drop on this innocent bystander to notice): "Yeeeaaah booyyyy! I'm SHOCKED."
I was shocked too, to learn that we can't see 96% of our universe. We tend to think of celestial objects as incomprehensibly immense. It's awesome in the original sense of the word to think that the shining carpet of stars we see on a clear night only makes up a meager percentage of all "matter" in the universe.
What makes up the rest of the universe? Dark matter and dark energy. I'm not going to try to explain it here, because it's way over my head. But basically, the laws of physics, prior to the 1950's, said that the expansion of the universe was slowing down, losing energy after the Big Bang only to eventually come back together in a cycle after gravity overcame the initial force of expansion. The balloon of the universe was eventually going to lose its air and we'd be back to the beginning. The notion of a cyclical universe, of a series of Big Bangs, can be comforting. But it's wrong. What scientists found confounded these fundamental notions of science -- the universe is actually accelerating in its expansion. The balloon is infinite, and something much stronger than gravity is propelling it outward in all directions. The thing is, we can't see the dark matter and dark energy that scientists believe is causing this unbridled expansion.
For me, it's less about detecting neutrinos than examining the struggle of humanity to understand our past, present, and future. Religion is not capable of achieving this task (Lenten blog, whaddup!) and so science must forge ahead if we are ever to discover who the Creator really is. Science has made it possible to peer over 13 billion years into the past, to a time when the hot mess (the Charlie Sheen years, acc'd to NASA terminology) of gas began to form stars and universes, just 480 million years after the Big Bang (for context, it took much longer than 480 million years after Earth's creation for life to form; just 480 million years after our entire universe formed, galaxies were already taking shape (i.e. in just a blink of a cosmic eye)).
The quest for knowledge defines our species and this book captures the magic of discovery and makes me more optimistic that we can do the same for issues like climate change in the future.
12 March 2011
Day Two: Song
Preface: This is Day Two of the Lenten Blogging Challenge! A repository of ideas related to (or not) the time of the year that lapsed Catholics feel the most guilty about the state of our religious affairs. So what are we giving up for Lent, save for our dignity during the times we happily (?) surround ourselves with our Catholic friends? (1) Only our time and sanity to blog every day during the holiest of holies! In the spirit of my personal lapse, I have neglected to start this blogging challenge on day one, but I'm coming on strong on day 2.
From the guru herself, the prompt: Song: What have you been jamming out to lately? Why?
Shit. This is a toughie. Luckily, I have the perfect Lenten song. It's off of the new album from lo-fi guitar wiz Kurt Vile and it's called "Jesus Fever." You can download the song here. Some pretty, shambling guitar work and vocals that sound like the memory of loss Vile is singing about...
(1) (selected excerpts from guilt-ridden convos over the years:
Pious: "You're eating red meat! But it's Friday, Joe, aren't you supposed to be eating fish like everyone else who's going to heaven?"
More Pious: "I'm giving up sweets for Lent. What are you giving up? Oh, right, I forgot. You're not..."practicing" anymore."
Most Pious: "So Joe, what you're telling me is that Jesus died and then went through all the trouble of resurrecting, etc. so you can be sloppy drunk on a Sunday?" Me: "Yes, precisely.")
From the guru herself, the prompt: Song: What have you been jamming out to lately? Why?
Shit. This is a toughie. Luckily, I have the perfect Lenten song. It's off of the new album from lo-fi guitar wiz Kurt Vile and it's called "Jesus Fever." You can download the song here. Some pretty, shambling guitar work and vocals that sound like the memory of loss Vile is singing about...
(1) (selected excerpts from guilt-ridden convos over the years:
Pious: "You're eating red meat! But it's Friday, Joe, aren't you supposed to be eating fish like everyone else who's going to heaven?"
More Pious: "I'm giving up sweets for Lent. What are you giving up? Oh, right, I forgot. You're not..."practicing" anymore."
Most Pious: "So Joe, what you're telling me is that Jesus died and then went through all the trouble of resurrecting, etc. so you can be sloppy drunk on a Sunday?" Me: "Yes, precisely.")
10 January 2011
more than one way to go straight to hell
We live in an era of repurposing. The thrifting culture, the DIY movement, freecycling, slow food -- there is a cultural shift towards the use of the old as new. Granted, this is mostly a movement for people who knowingly read stuffwhitepeoplelike, shop at a farmers' market, and who likely have or know a friend with an ironic mustache. But it's a movement nonetheless. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in music, where repurposing has always an integral component of the creative process. I've said this before and I'll say it again: understanding and appreciating that music is not created in a vacuum, that it represents a progression of ideas from artist to artist, makes listening to it, for me, all the more enjoyable. Sometimes you can repurpose a theme or idea -- see John Lennon responding to Bob Dylan in "I Am The Walrus" or Paul McCartney repurposing Beach Boys' harmony in "Because." Other times, you can repurpose music through sampling -- see the entire Girl Talk discography or the album Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys. This is a post about repurposing an entire song. Sometimes this can alter the song's entire meaning; other times a cover represents simply an interpretation of the original.
The Clash's "Straight to Hell," off of their 1982 album Combat Rock, is a fine song in its own right. A vicious statement addressing the illegitimate children sired by American troops in Vietnam. It's interesting because 1) it's been covered and 2) it's also been repurposed in an even more popular song (and then repurposed again...).
The Original: "Straight to Hell" The Clash
As mentioned above, this is off of Combat Rock, not my favorite Clash album but it has its moments. This is one of them. And for the record, like everyone, my favorite Clash albums are London Calling (how could it not be? It's so good that its best song, "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)" wasn't even listed on the original pressing) and Give 'Em Enough Rope.
The Cover: "Straight to Hell" Lily Allen
I have to be in the right mood to listen to Lily Allen, but I love this song. She sings it so breezily, which is so not the overall theme of the song, but it's just great to listen to. Off of an all-covers album, War Child: Heroes, which I highly recommend if only for the Hold Steady's cover of Springsteen's classic "Atlantic City."
The Repurpose: "Paper Planes" MIA
Of course, if you've been alive in the past three years, you've heard this song. If you've seen the movies Pineapple Express or Slumdog Millionaire (the two movies capture a sufficiently large swath of movie-watchers), you've heard this song. And it's so ubiquitous that you might not recognize it to be a repurposing of a Clash song; like, how could this song possibly borrow from such a distinct song like "Straight to Hell" and still be so distinctive in its own right? Maybe that's the genius of MIA. And, despite the misstep of "/ \ / \ / \ Y / \" she looks to be back on form in her recently released mixtape, available here.
The Repurposing of the Repurpose: "KILL YOU" jj
Now, a song about soldiers in Vietnam, repurposed as a song about drugs/immigration, has been repurposed again by the mysterious Swedes jj as a breakup/getting high song. Druggy, but so good. In fact, the whole mixtape (free here) is good. Listen to it.
Goodnight. Hope you liked the journey. I was thinking about doing one on "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin repurposed by Puff Daddy as "Come With Me," but that would be too depressing...
The Clash's "Straight to Hell," off of their 1982 album Combat Rock, is a fine song in its own right. A vicious statement addressing the illegitimate children sired by American troops in Vietnam. It's interesting because 1) it's been covered and 2) it's also been repurposed in an even more popular song (and then repurposed again...).
The Original: "Straight to Hell" The Clash
As mentioned above, this is off of Combat Rock, not my favorite Clash album but it has its moments. This is one of them. And for the record, like everyone, my favorite Clash albums are London Calling (how could it not be? It's so good that its best song, "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)" wasn't even listed on the original pressing) and Give 'Em Enough Rope.
The Cover: "Straight to Hell" Lily Allen
I have to be in the right mood to listen to Lily Allen, but I love this song. She sings it so breezily, which is so not the overall theme of the song, but it's just great to listen to. Off of an all-covers album, War Child: Heroes, which I highly recommend if only for the Hold Steady's cover of Springsteen's classic "Atlantic City."
The Repurpose: "Paper Planes" MIA
Of course, if you've been alive in the past three years, you've heard this song. If you've seen the movies Pineapple Express or Slumdog Millionaire (the two movies capture a sufficiently large swath of movie-watchers), you've heard this song. And it's so ubiquitous that you might not recognize it to be a repurposing of a Clash song; like, how could this song possibly borrow from such a distinct song like "Straight to Hell" and still be so distinctive in its own right? Maybe that's the genius of MIA. And, despite the misstep of "/ \ / \ / \ Y / \" she looks to be back on form in her recently released mixtape, available here.
The Repurposing of the Repurpose: "KILL YOU" jj
Now, a song about soldiers in Vietnam, repurposed as a song about drugs/immigration, has been repurposed again by the mysterious Swedes jj as a breakup/getting high song. Druggy, but so good. In fact, the whole mixtape (free here) is good. Listen to it.
Goodnight. Hope you liked the journey. I was thinking about doing one on "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin repurposed by Puff Daddy as "Come With Me," but that would be too depressing...
23 December 2010
Best Albums of 2010, #1-10.
Here it goes.
10 Big Boi "Sir Lucious Left Foot..."
This man has incomparable flow and it's a shame that label wrangling delayed its release for so long: the world needs to hear this! Big Boi has a seasoned confidence but really, what rapper doesn't try to project swagger? The difference is that big Boi's confidence just oozes effortlessly out of the tracks (effortless oozing?) and the results make for a great party album showcasing the other (equal) half of Outkast at his finest.
Check out: "Shutterbugg," "Shine Blockas" (feat. a great Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes sample of their song, "Thank You" -- thanks to my friend Alicia for pointing that out...),
9 Trampled by Turtles "Palomino"
While I enjoy this entire album by a great Minnesota band, it's hard not to make the comparison with the 2010 Indianapolis Colts; without the Peyton Manning that is "Wait so Long" and the Reggie Wayne that is "Victory," I'm not sure if "Palomino" would make the Top-10. Another band I'm dying to see live, kind of hard to believe it has yet to happen. 2011, let's make it happen, Trampled by Turtles.
8 Wolf Parade "Expo 86"
So this is one band I did see live this year and it was a great show. And so it's sad that they are apparently on indefinite hiatus now. For me, seeing the concert helped to solidify the very distinct character of Wolf Parade's frontmen. Spencer Krug (also of Sunset Rubdown) is kind of 2010's Isaac Brock...yelpy, yes, but yelpy in a way that adds a sense of urgency to every one of his songs (see "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" off of 2005's "Apologies of the Queen Mary" for a great example of this). I prefer Dan Boeckner (of Handsome Furs), because he tries to recreate Springsteen's greatest hits on every one of his songs (even on Handsome Furs stuff, which is more blippy and bloopy, the Boss is never far away, see "All We Want, Baby, Is Everything" for an example embedded in the frickin' title!). But together, they make (made?) a great team, which leads me to wonder, is every Canadian band some sort of supergroup? (looking at you, Stars, Broken Social Scene, New Pornographers...)
Check out: "Yulia" (I love space history and have recently been engrossed in the documentary series "When We Left Earth" which is about the early U.S. manned space program, my pick for the greatest achievement of humankind in the 20th Century...) "Yulia" could be my generation's "Rocket Man," although I can't imagine ironically singing it 20 years from now at karaoke...
7 Robyn "Body Talk"
Coincidentally, this is what my body does after consuming too much Taco Bell. This is Robyn's third (!!) album of 2010. It's a collection of the best tracks off of the first two along with a handful of new songs. Any discussion of "Body Talk" begins with "Dancing On My Own," which to my ears blows anything in pop music out of the water with Robyn's combination of fierce independence with affecting vulnerability. The song is a perfect introduction to the entire album, which clicks off one song after another with this amazing combination of emotions. This is an album for going out but also an appropriate one for coming home after a rough night. Hopefully getting tickets soon for her upcoming show at First Ave!
Check out: "Dancing On My Own," "Call Your Girlfriend," "Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do"
6 Beach House "Teen Dream"
So this album has been appearing at the top of quite a few Best-of lists this year and for good reason, too. In comparison to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream," well, there's no comparison, but if there were Beach House would totally be the Gods of Love bringing the hammer down on Katy Perry's Daisy Dukes. Their sound is just so imposing. I found the first two Beach House albums a little slow, similar to how I felt about Grizzly Bear prior to "Veckatimist" last year. On "Teen Dream," Beach House doesn't necessarily speed things up -- most songs are dreamy strolls (sometimes literally, "Walk in the Park") through shimmery guitar and keyboard -- but the band has matured, there's less plodding and more hooks on this album. They had a show last spring at the Cedar and are highly recommended to see live. I also have a mini-crush on Victoria Legrand, although I think she would eat me for breakfast, she seems very intense.
Check out: "Zebra," "Norway," "Real Love," "Walk in the Park"
And watch Beach House play "Norway" on PitchforkTV, in an scarily accurate re-creation of my bedroom. I never get tired of watching Legrand usher in the chorus with a sweep of her hand in-time with the cymbal hit; I can't explain why, but it gives me the chills every time.
...the turn
5 Kanye West "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"
This top-10 list was hard to sort -- I can now feel some empathy for law professors grading on a forced curve. So really, if this were like the NBA lottery, "MBDTF" is like the Minnesota Timberwolves; no album had a better chance of being #1, but by luck (or unluck) of the draw, it came out at #5 instead. Whatever, Kanye will get over it. First of all, this is not a "rap" album, it's shifted into a new genre that is probably too grand and all-encompassing to accurately categorize. The best way to describe it comes in the relatively minor song "Gorgeous," when Kanye raps, "I ain't got it, I'm coming after whoever who has it -- I'M COMING AFTER WHOEVER, WHO HAS IT?" with such urgency you're left with no choice but to accept that he's out to conquer the world with this album. And he largely succeeds.
Check out: "Monster" (Nicki Minaj has a MONSTER verse here), "All of the Lights," oh, c'mon, you don't need me to tell you which ubiquitous Kanye songs to listen to...
4 Arcade Fire "The Suburbs"
Probably the best album out of the coterie of albums from established artists on this list (see Spoon, the Hold Steady, LCD Soundsytem), it's also one of the best albums out there, period. It earns a place in the Top-5 not on legacy, but on merit. And making such a potentially disastrous theme, suburban life (ahem, "Weeds" after Season 2...) Arcade Fire offer a sprawling narrative of adult longing, riffing on similar themes as their debut album, but in the context of aging and growing distant to childhood people and places, not the apocalypse...Also, probably the best concert I've attended this or any year was Arcade Fire at Roy Wilkins. I watched their live webcast from Madison Square Garden and the energy of their performance in the most famous arena in the world was the same as it was in St. Paul in September -- pretty incredible to do anything at such a high, sustained level of dedication.
Check out: "Ready to Start," "Modern Man," "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
3 Best Coast "Crazy For You"
Best Coast doesn't win any awards for artistic merit or ambition with their debut album, but that's the point. Beth Consentino sings about getting high, her cat, and boys. The music is also pretty elemental, basically just surf rock guitar with a nod towards vocals of 50s girl groups and hooks of alt bands from the 90s. But it's a great album, nonetheless, and one of the best go-to albums for driving down the coast on a muggy summer evening, with the windows open.
2 Joanna Newsom "Have One on Me"
It's difficult to put this album on the list, not because it's not good -- it's really, really good -- but rather because it almost seems inappropriate. Something like sticking a high-art photograph in with random pics taken off of Facebook. I also have to admit that it took me a while to warm to Joanna Newsom. I first heard her on her second full album, "Ys," and I couldn't see past the wordy, archaic lyrics, the somewhat amorphous song structure, and the most common complaint: her voice. But after giving "Ys" a second and third chance, I finally realized what all the fuss was about. I mean, semi-academic essays have been written on her genius and compiled into a book (seriously). And these essays are not written by some random, geeky indie music 'zine writers, but by heavy-hitters like Dave Eggers (who, to be fair, could be categorized as just an especially famous fanboy, projecting his ideal female though potentially sexist conception of the delicate, vulnerable artist on Newsom). Like it or not, these outside influences (including her place at the top of one of my friend's top-10 lists) changed how I view her work. The closest thing I can compare this album to is "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea," Neutral Milk Hotel's masterpiece. That particular album comes to mind not because of the musical similarities -- the lo-fi aesthete of NMH is the antithesis of Joanna Newsom's sound -- but because of how each album works as a piece of art, existing outside of most notions of what music can do and mean. NMH evoked loss and helplessness through an approximation of Anne Frank's story, while Joanna Newsom evokes similar emotions of loss, love, and regret through archaic imagery rooted both in present and in fictional historical times (yes, she does talk about dragons). It's hard to explain, as you can see, but "Have One on Me" is a really great album and work of art. Oh, god, I just became a fanboy...
Check out: "Good Intentions Paving Company," "It Will Suffice," "81," "In California," "On a Good Day"
1 Janelle Monae "The ArchAndroid"
Notwithstanding the fact that this album shares the same title as my nickname in high school, it's been hands-down my favorite album of the year. In relation to some of the artists on this list, Janelle Monae adopts the android-with-feelings character of Robyn, mixes it with the chops and ambition of Joanna Newsom, and weaves a sense of loss through her songs like the Arcade Fire. But most of all, she's just really, really good at what she does. I believe that while music is not linear, meaning the genres blend together at the borders, and are sometimes erased completely, listening to this album is kind of like listening to all of the great music in R&B (and funk, rock, soul, hip-hop, pop, etc. etc. etc.) from the past 60 years in one tidy package and all in a totally original way. The music sounds like it was made with one foot in 2010 and one foot in 1955, 1972 -- pick your year. Finally, this album is #1 because I've loved it since the first time I heard it and still find new elements in songs that suggests I'll love listening to it for years to come. And isn't that what listening to music is all about?
Well, I hope you've had fun reading my best-of list for 2010, it was fun recalling the past year through music. I'm also really interested in hearing what your top albums of the year were. If you're reading this, you probably know me, so send me your list!
10 Big Boi "Sir Lucious Left Foot..."
This man has incomparable flow and it's a shame that label wrangling delayed its release for so long: the world needs to hear this! Big Boi has a seasoned confidence but really, what rapper doesn't try to project swagger? The difference is that big Boi's confidence just oozes effortlessly out of the tracks (effortless oozing?) and the results make for a great party album showcasing the other (equal) half of Outkast at his finest.
Check out: "Shutterbugg," "Shine Blockas" (feat. a great Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes sample of their song, "Thank You" -- thanks to my friend Alicia for pointing that out...),
9 Trampled by Turtles "Palomino"
While I enjoy this entire album by a great Minnesota band, it's hard not to make the comparison with the 2010 Indianapolis Colts; without the Peyton Manning that is "Wait so Long" and the Reggie Wayne that is "Victory," I'm not sure if "Palomino" would make the Top-10. Another band I'm dying to see live, kind of hard to believe it has yet to happen. 2011, let's make it happen, Trampled by Turtles.
8 Wolf Parade "Expo 86"
So this is one band I did see live this year and it was a great show. And so it's sad that they are apparently on indefinite hiatus now. For me, seeing the concert helped to solidify the very distinct character of Wolf Parade's frontmen. Spencer Krug (also of Sunset Rubdown) is kind of 2010's Isaac Brock...yelpy, yes, but yelpy in a way that adds a sense of urgency to every one of his songs (see "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" off of 2005's "Apologies of the Queen Mary" for a great example of this). I prefer Dan Boeckner (of Handsome Furs), because he tries to recreate Springsteen's greatest hits on every one of his songs (even on Handsome Furs stuff, which is more blippy and bloopy, the Boss is never far away, see "All We Want, Baby, Is Everything" for an example embedded in the frickin' title!). But together, they make (made?) a great team, which leads me to wonder, is every Canadian band some sort of supergroup? (looking at you, Stars, Broken Social Scene, New Pornographers...)
Check out: "Yulia" (I love space history and have recently been engrossed in the documentary series "When We Left Earth" which is about the early U.S. manned space program, my pick for the greatest achievement of humankind in the 20th Century...) "Yulia" could be my generation's "Rocket Man," although I can't imagine ironically singing it 20 years from now at karaoke...
7 Robyn "Body Talk"
Coincidentally, this is what my body does after consuming too much Taco Bell. This is Robyn's third (!!) album of 2010. It's a collection of the best tracks off of the first two along with a handful of new songs. Any discussion of "Body Talk" begins with "Dancing On My Own," which to my ears blows anything in pop music out of the water with Robyn's combination of fierce independence with affecting vulnerability. The song is a perfect introduction to the entire album, which clicks off one song after another with this amazing combination of emotions. This is an album for going out but also an appropriate one for coming home after a rough night. Hopefully getting tickets soon for her upcoming show at First Ave!
Check out: "Dancing On My Own," "Call Your Girlfriend," "Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do"
6 Beach House "Teen Dream"
So this album has been appearing at the top of quite a few Best-of lists this year and for good reason, too. In comparison to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream," well, there's no comparison, but if there were Beach House would totally be the Gods of Love bringing the hammer down on Katy Perry's Daisy Dukes. Their sound is just so imposing. I found the first two Beach House albums a little slow, similar to how I felt about Grizzly Bear prior to "Veckatimist" last year. On "Teen Dream," Beach House doesn't necessarily speed things up -- most songs are dreamy strolls (sometimes literally, "Walk in the Park") through shimmery guitar and keyboard -- but the band has matured, there's less plodding and more hooks on this album. They had a show last spring at the Cedar and are highly recommended to see live. I also have a mini-crush on Victoria Legrand, although I think she would eat me for breakfast, she seems very intense.
Check out: "Zebra," "Norway," "Real Love," "Walk in the Park"
And watch Beach House play "Norway" on PitchforkTV, in an scarily accurate re-creation of my bedroom. I never get tired of watching Legrand usher in the chorus with a sweep of her hand in-time with the cymbal hit; I can't explain why, but it gives me the chills every time.
...the turn
5 Kanye West "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"
This top-10 list was hard to sort -- I can now feel some empathy for law professors grading on a forced curve. So really, if this were like the NBA lottery, "MBDTF" is like the Minnesota Timberwolves; no album had a better chance of being #1, but by luck (or unluck) of the draw, it came out at #5 instead. Whatever, Kanye will get over it. First of all, this is not a "rap" album, it's shifted into a new genre that is probably too grand and all-encompassing to accurately categorize. The best way to describe it comes in the relatively minor song "Gorgeous," when Kanye raps, "I ain't got it, I'm coming after whoever who has it -- I'M COMING AFTER WHOEVER, WHO HAS IT?" with such urgency you're left with no choice but to accept that he's out to conquer the world with this album. And he largely succeeds.
Check out: "Monster" (Nicki Minaj has a MONSTER verse here), "All of the Lights," oh, c'mon, you don't need me to tell you which ubiquitous Kanye songs to listen to...
4 Arcade Fire "The Suburbs"
Probably the best album out of the coterie of albums from established artists on this list (see Spoon, the Hold Steady, LCD Soundsytem), it's also one of the best albums out there, period. It earns a place in the Top-5 not on legacy, but on merit. And making such a potentially disastrous theme, suburban life (ahem, "Weeds" after Season 2...) Arcade Fire offer a sprawling narrative of adult longing, riffing on similar themes as their debut album, but in the context of aging and growing distant to childhood people and places, not the apocalypse...Also, probably the best concert I've attended this or any year was Arcade Fire at Roy Wilkins. I watched their live webcast from Madison Square Garden and the energy of their performance in the most famous arena in the world was the same as it was in St. Paul in September -- pretty incredible to do anything at such a high, sustained level of dedication.
Check out: "Ready to Start," "Modern Man," "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
3 Best Coast "Crazy For You"
Best Coast doesn't win any awards for artistic merit or ambition with their debut album, but that's the point. Beth Consentino sings about getting high, her cat, and boys. The music is also pretty elemental, basically just surf rock guitar with a nod towards vocals of 50s girl groups and hooks of alt bands from the 90s. But it's a great album, nonetheless, and one of the best go-to albums for driving down the coast on a muggy summer evening, with the windows open.
2 Joanna Newsom "Have One on Me"
It's difficult to put this album on the list, not because it's not good -- it's really, really good -- but rather because it almost seems inappropriate. Something like sticking a high-art photograph in with random pics taken off of Facebook. I also have to admit that it took me a while to warm to Joanna Newsom. I first heard her on her second full album, "Ys," and I couldn't see past the wordy, archaic lyrics, the somewhat amorphous song structure, and the most common complaint: her voice. But after giving "Ys" a second and third chance, I finally realized what all the fuss was about. I mean, semi-academic essays have been written on her genius and compiled into a book (seriously). And these essays are not written by some random, geeky indie music 'zine writers, but by heavy-hitters like Dave Eggers (who, to be fair, could be categorized as just an especially famous fanboy, projecting his ideal female though potentially sexist conception of the delicate, vulnerable artist on Newsom). Like it or not, these outside influences (including her place at the top of one of my friend's top-10 lists) changed how I view her work. The closest thing I can compare this album to is "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea," Neutral Milk Hotel's masterpiece. That particular album comes to mind not because of the musical similarities -- the lo-fi aesthete of NMH is the antithesis of Joanna Newsom's sound -- but because of how each album works as a piece of art, existing outside of most notions of what music can do and mean. NMH evoked loss and helplessness through an approximation of Anne Frank's story, while Joanna Newsom evokes similar emotions of loss, love, and regret through archaic imagery rooted both in present and in fictional historical times (yes, she does talk about dragons). It's hard to explain, as you can see, but "Have One on Me" is a really great album and work of art. Oh, god, I just became a fanboy...
Check out: "Good Intentions Paving Company," "It Will Suffice," "81," "In California," "On a Good Day"
1 Janelle Monae "The ArchAndroid"
Notwithstanding the fact that this album shares the same title as my nickname in high school, it's been hands-down my favorite album of the year. In relation to some of the artists on this list, Janelle Monae adopts the android-with-feelings character of Robyn, mixes it with the chops and ambition of Joanna Newsom, and weaves a sense of loss through her songs like the Arcade Fire. But most of all, she's just really, really good at what she does. I believe that while music is not linear, meaning the genres blend together at the borders, and are sometimes erased completely, listening to this album is kind of like listening to all of the great music in R&B (and funk, rock, soul, hip-hop, pop, etc. etc. etc.) from the past 60 years in one tidy package and all in a totally original way. The music sounds like it was made with one foot in 2010 and one foot in 1955, 1972 -- pick your year. Finally, this album is #1 because I've loved it since the first time I heard it and still find new elements in songs that suggests I'll love listening to it for years to come. And isn't that what listening to music is all about?
Well, I hope you've had fun reading my best-of list for 2010, it was fun recalling the past year through music. I'm also really interested in hearing what your top albums of the year were. If you're reading this, you probably know me, so send me your list!
22 December 2010
Best Albums of 2010...20-11
Because I've got to get these Post-it Notes off of my desk.
20 Vampire Weekend "Contra"
19 The Hold Steady "Heaven is Whenever"
There is a great backstory behind how I got a limited edition vinyl copy of this album and it involves: Record Store Day, Treehouse Records, my friend Sophie, and a random act of kindness. For that reason, (and these: "Hurricane J" & "The Weekenders") this album is included in the list.
18 Spoon "Transference"
17 Breathe Owl Breathe "Magic Central"
One of my favorite bands from college (but definitely not "college rock," whatever that is) this whimsical, folky band hails from Michigan and, along with being super nice people, make great music to boot. As an added bonus, check out "Drop and Roll" off of their previous album. One of my favorite songs of all time.
16 She & Him "Volume Two"
Is my love for this album due at least in part to the adorable Zooey Deschanel? Of course it is -- but M. Ward anchors this album with nostalgic 50's-sounding, golden, shimmering riffs (see "Thieves," and "Lingering Still").
15 Communist Daughter "Soundtrack to the End"
The video below (and another one here) are what turned me on to Communist Daughter (not to mention the NMH-referencing band name). Someone please tell me when they play around here next, I can't miss it.
14 LCD Soundsystem "This is Happening"
This is happening: I am listening to "Dance Yrself Clean" and "All I Want."
13 Sleigh Bells "Treats"
Another listen-to-this-loud album. Still trying to figure out if the combination of LOUD guitars with sing-song-y lyrics is a gimmick or genius, but pairing a Funkadelic sample in "Rill Rills" is convincing me of the latter....
12 Girl Talk "All Day"
And just when you put your finger on it...the sample changes and it's on to the next earworm. And while I think using the whole "so-in-demand-the-servers-crashed" device is overused, I'll use it again -- when the Girl Talk album was given away free a few weeks ago, you guessed it, the servers crashed. Luckily, I was eventually able to download the album. For those unfamiliar with Girl Talk, first of all, so proud of you for leaving the Amish. Really am. Girl Talk is a "mashup" artist who combines the pop music you love listening to with pop music you feel guilty about listening to...and makes magic. (Here is a cool site that streams the album and lists the samples as they play)
11 The Tallest Man on Earth "The Wild Hunt" & "Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird EP"
Another unfortunate music journalistic trope is the annual declaration of "The Next Bob Dylan" -- well, here we go again...
20 Vampire Weekend "Contra"
19 The Hold Steady "Heaven is Whenever"
There is a great backstory behind how I got a limited edition vinyl copy of this album and it involves: Record Store Day, Treehouse Records, my friend Sophie, and a random act of kindness. For that reason, (and these: "Hurricane J" & "The Weekenders") this album is included in the list.
18 Spoon "Transference"
17 Breathe Owl Breathe "Magic Central"
One of my favorite bands from college (but definitely not "college rock," whatever that is) this whimsical, folky band hails from Michigan and, along with being super nice people, make great music to boot. As an added bonus, check out "Drop and Roll" off of their previous album. One of my favorite songs of all time.
16 She & Him "Volume Two"
Is my love for this album due at least in part to the adorable Zooey Deschanel? Of course it is -- but M. Ward anchors this album with nostalgic 50's-sounding, golden, shimmering riffs (see "Thieves," and "Lingering Still").
15 Communist Daughter "Soundtrack to the End"
The video below (and another one here) are what turned me on to Communist Daughter (not to mention the NMH-referencing band name). Someone please tell me when they play around here next, I can't miss it.
14 LCD Soundsystem "This is Happening"
This is happening: I am listening to "Dance Yrself Clean" and "All I Want."
13 Sleigh Bells "Treats"
Another listen-to-this-loud album. Still trying to figure out if the combination of LOUD guitars with sing-song-y lyrics is a gimmick or genius, but pairing a Funkadelic sample in "Rill Rills" is convincing me of the latter....
12 Girl Talk "All Day"
And just when you put your finger on it...the sample changes and it's on to the next earworm. And while I think using the whole "so-in-demand-the-servers-crashed" device is overused, I'll use it again -- when the Girl Talk album was given away free a few weeks ago, you guessed it, the servers crashed. Luckily, I was eventually able to download the album. For those unfamiliar with Girl Talk, first of all, so proud of you for leaving the Amish. Really am. Girl Talk is a "mashup" artist who combines the pop music you love listening to with pop music you feel guilty about listening to...and makes magic. (Here is a cool site that streams the album and lists the samples as they play)
11 The Tallest Man on Earth "The Wild Hunt" & "Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird EP"
Another unfortunate music journalistic trope is the annual declaration of "The Next Bob Dylan" -- well, here we go again...
16 December 2010
Best Albums From a Particular Sub-Genre...of the year
Collecting my favorite albums of the year is always a fun, yet stressful process for me. Not real-world stress, but rather, the stress of figuring out what I really thought about the music that streamed through my headphones this year. Throughout this process, a small handful of albums sort of naturally coalesced into this small group that I really liked as a whole, but couldn't figure out where to place in my top 20+. And it's really hard, even with this tiny sample of albums, to pick my favorites, but whatever, here it goes.
Sub-Genre of the Year: Guitar-rock
Umm...okay, sure, this is not exactly a new genre. From Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley to Stephen Malkmus and Frank Black, guitar-based music has been the staple of pretty much the ENTIRE popular music scene of the past 75 years. But what captured my attention this year was that some new artists' began to stray away from the recent trends of electronic- dance-rock (think Franz Ferdinand or Hot Chip), towards a more unrestrained sound. And no Chillwave. Some bands in my completely made-up sub-genre tended towards 50s and 60s California pop (Best Coast, She & Him, Girls) while others were more garage-y, New York in the 70s (Harlem, Titus Andronicus, Japandroids). But it's all characterized by a less-produced sound and, of course, prominent guitar. So here we go. None of the following bands appear on my top 20+ list forthcoming, but it's more because I'm featuring them here and freeing up space in the other list than because I don't like them.
Harlem "Hippies"
Maybe the most extreme example of the garage sound in new music today. It's the sound of a group of friends jamming, only recently discovering how to add elements of sound together to make magic. Just guitar, drums, and vocal, but it's just the right combination of these elements that makes for a fun 40 minutes.
Check out: "Gay Human Bones," "Friendly Ghost"
Astro Coast "Surfer Blood"
Maybe a click or two more "produced" than Harlem, this band's debut album is hard to describe. Kind of a Brian Wilson meets Rivers Cuomo vocals with a sugary wave of guitar throughout. Start at "Swim" and keep going in "Harmonix" which reminds me a lot of Television, for some reason.
Fang Island (Self-titled)
So far, we've been amping up the guitar sounds -- from jangly garage-band to pop waves. Now comes the most powerful onslaught this side of metal. There is some serious thrashing going on here. Fang Island's album art typifies this wave of nostalgic album art I happen to love (see, also Spoon, Wolf Parade's, Dum Dum Girls, Vampire Weekend, etc. etc... Oh, and the entire Gorilla vs. Bear blog). Thing is, the music on these albums don't usually follow the theme of the album art. This is definitely not the case with Fang Island. You wouldn't expect nostalgia (except maybe for early 90's thrasher?) to be the first thing to come to mind from an album featuring heavy, heavy guitar but it totally fits Fang Island's approach. I think it's because the nostalgia is very specific. It's not some "Oh, I remember sitting on granddad's knee as a kid, he told scary war stories while I played with the buttons on his shirt" nostalgia -- it's the "I'M A KID, I RUN EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY TO THE BATHROOM. WHEN MY FRIENDS AND I GET TOGETHER, WE DON'T TALK, WE JUST PLAY. AAAH!" nostalgia we all secretly feel so often during the day. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to run the wrong way on an escalator or jump off tables or just dance crazy at the bus stop from time to time?? Well this album give you that excuse. Check out the video for "Daisy" for some tips on the proper way to have a nostalgic adult freak-out.
I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into this trend, maybe it's really that the music industry has gotten so fragmented that bands who don't quite fit into the current zeitgeist can still put their music out and I just happened to wander into some of this music this year. There's probably some truth to that, but who knows? There's so much music out there! This post is case-in-point. After making the top-20 cut for my year-end list, I realized that I had left a lot of bands off and I really wanted to highlight a few of them. And there are still albums out there that a. didn't make the top 20, b. didn't make my honorable mention list, and c. didn't make this list, that I still really loved listening to this year. So kudos to the following bands for making great music this year:
Mavis Staples "You Are Not Alone"
Gorillaz "Plastic Beach"
Caribou "Swim"
Lake Folk "Feel Like I'm Home"
Justin Townes Earle "Harlem River Blues"
Four Tet "There Is Love In You"
The National "High Violet"
Titus Andronicus "The Monitor"
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan "Hawk"
Albums 11-20 out this weekend!
Sub-Genre of the Year: Guitar-rock
Umm...okay, sure, this is not exactly a new genre. From Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley to Stephen Malkmus and Frank Black, guitar-based music has been the staple of pretty much the ENTIRE popular music scene of the past 75 years. But what captured my attention this year was that some new artists' began to stray away from the recent trends of electronic- dance-rock (think Franz Ferdinand or Hot Chip), towards a more unrestrained sound. And no Chillwave. Some bands in my completely made-up sub-genre tended towards 50s and 60s California pop (Best Coast, She & Him, Girls) while others were more garage-y, New York in the 70s (Harlem, Titus Andronicus, Japandroids). But it's all characterized by a less-produced sound and, of course, prominent guitar. So here we go. None of the following bands appear on my top 20+ list forthcoming, but it's more because I'm featuring them here and freeing up space in the other list than because I don't like them.
Maybe the most extreme example of the garage sound in new music today. It's the sound of a group of friends jamming, only recently discovering how to add elements of sound together to make magic. Just guitar, drums, and vocal, but it's just the right combination of these elements that makes for a fun 40 minutes.
Check out: "Gay Human Bones," "Friendly Ghost"
Astro Coast "Surfer Blood"
Maybe a click or two more "produced" than Harlem, this band's debut album is hard to describe. Kind of a Brian Wilson meets Rivers Cuomo vocals with a sugary wave of guitar throughout. Start at "Swim" and keep going in "Harmonix" which reminds me a lot of Television, for some reason.
So far, we've been amping up the guitar sounds -- from jangly garage-band to pop waves. Now comes the most powerful onslaught this side of metal. There is some serious thrashing going on here. Fang Island's album art typifies this wave of nostalgic album art I happen to love (see, also Spoon, Wolf Parade's, Dum Dum Girls, Vampire Weekend, etc. etc... Oh, and the entire Gorilla vs. Bear blog). Thing is, the music on these albums don't usually follow the theme of the album art. This is definitely not the case with Fang Island. You wouldn't expect nostalgia (except maybe for early 90's thrasher?) to be the first thing to come to mind from an album featuring heavy, heavy guitar but it totally fits Fang Island's approach. I think it's because the nostalgia is very specific. It's not some "Oh, I remember sitting on granddad's knee as a kid, he told scary war stories while I played with the buttons on his shirt" nostalgia -- it's the "I'M A KID, I RUN EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY TO THE BATHROOM. WHEN MY FRIENDS AND I GET TOGETHER, WE DON'T TALK, WE JUST PLAY. AAAH!" nostalgia we all secretly feel so often during the day. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to run the wrong way on an escalator or jump off tables or just dance crazy at the bus stop from time to time?? Well this album give you that excuse. Check out the video for "Daisy" for some tips on the proper way to have a nostalgic adult freak-out.
I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into this trend, maybe it's really that the music industry has gotten so fragmented that bands who don't quite fit into the current zeitgeist can still put their music out and I just happened to wander into some of this music this year. There's probably some truth to that, but who knows? There's so much music out there! This post is case-in-point. After making the top-20 cut for my year-end list, I realized that I had left a lot of bands off and I really wanted to highlight a few of them. And there are still albums out there that a. didn't make the top 20, b. didn't make my honorable mention list, and c. didn't make this list, that I still really loved listening to this year. So kudos to the following bands for making great music this year:
Mavis Staples "You Are Not Alone"
Gorillaz "Plastic Beach"
Caribou "Swim"
Lake Folk "Feel Like I'm Home"
Justin Townes Earle "Harlem River Blues"
Four Tet "There Is Love In You"
The National "High Violet"
Titus Andronicus "The Monitor"
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan "Hawk"
Albums 11-20 out this weekend!
12 December 2010
Albums of the Year, 2010 (Honorable Mention)
It's that time of year again, everybody. Time to procrastinate from studying by sifting through the new music I've been listening to and loving the past year. As this list rolls out in the next week or so, you can bet that you will get your fair dose of J-Biebs and JWoww. But you will lose a lot of money if that's the case. On to the formalities.
I'm just going to go ahead and say this: 2010 was the best year for music ever. Mozart might argue that 1788 was better -- after all, he did write three of the best symphonies ever (39, 40, & 41 ("Jupiter")). Or McCartney might argue that 1967 was a particularly good year. And in the annals of history, they're probably right. But whatever, enough good, even great music was released this year to more than fill this list.
Without any further ado, here are the albums, in no particular order, that received honorable mention from me, culled from a list of about 40 finalists. Congratulations artists, your check is in the mail.
Girls "Broken Dreams Club EP"
This EP would've been in the top-10 if it were a full album. Just sayin'. Girls is a band whose growth in the past year, since they released their first LP "Album" a year ago and I saw them at the Entry, has been staggering. They still have raggedy, wistful vocals with more than a hint of Elvis Costello, but they are more of a force as a band and in the studio. The production has a fuller presence, with cleaner production and more instruments (steel slide! horns!); but their music still retains its character. Great set of 6 songs, I can't wait for their next album.
Check out: "Oh So Protective One," "Carolina," "Heartbreaker"
Belle & Sebastian "Write About Love"
I don't know why this is only an honorable mention. I guess it speaks to the strength of the others higher up on the list. But I've been waiting since 2006 ("The Life Pursuit) for a new Belle & Sebastian album and this does not disappoint. It "sounds" like B&S, they have that unmistakeable sound, but it's a step in a slightly different direction than their last album in that it's less ambitious. Kind of similar to Spoon and the Hold Steady's new albums (spoiler alert! they're both in the top-20...) in that it's a "good" but not "classic" album in the bands' respective canons. But who cares? It's really good and here's hoping their next album comes out before 2014...
Check out: "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John (feat. Norah Jones)," "Come on Sister," "Sunday's Pretty Icons"
Crystal Castles "Crystal Castles (II)"
Now, to completely switch gears, Crystal Castles' new album was another where I'm sort of asking myself, "So how'd they end up here?" in a good way. I have only one comment about this album: PLAY IT LOUD! Oh, and dig around Pitchfork for an awesome clip of Big Boi (another spoiler alert! another top-20) doing "Shutterbugg" and free-styling over the beat of "Empathy" (he also professes his love for Kate Bush..."she's somewhere in the Lock Ness monster's forest over there in London." It's weirdly awesome.)
Check Out: "Empathy," "Celestica," "Baptism," below check out bonus non-album action of Crystal Castles and Robert Smith in "Not in Love" -- this song alone could've propelled them to the top-20
Das Racist "Sit Down, Man"
Perhaps best known for their odd stoner party rap, "Combination Pizza Hut or Taco Bell," a song which plumbed the depths of the human soul in a novel attempt to describe the human condition...okay, the song really was about being at one of those mutant Pizza Hut/Taco Bell restaurants. But, as my post from Halloween says, "It gets better." As in life, as in Das Racist albums. The duo hits the weirdo-sweet spot of a more self-aware, less-serious DOOM. A Jane Birkin-esque panting session turns into a dub rap before turning into a jubilant African-sounding chorus in "Julia."
Check out: "Fashion Show," "Julia," "All Tan Everything"
Rihanna "Loud"
2010 might've been the year I officially caught the pop bug. As such, I've found myself listening to Rihanna a lot recently. Note that I still draw the line at that girl Bieber, Katy Perry, and Ke$ha...but Gaga, Beyonce, and Rihanna are fair game. And "Loud" is a really good album, especially for someone who won't hear her songs ad nauseum on 101.3 or 96.3 (are they still around?).
Check Out: Honestly, if you're looking to my blog for Rihanna songs to check out, you probably live under a rock. But fine, check out: "Only Girl (In the World)," "What's My Name (feat. that quadriplegic from Degrassi (apparently he's able-bodied in real life and likes to drink Sprite before his head explodes)," "Raining Men (feat. the "MONSTER" Nicki Minaj)"
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists "The Brutalist Bricks"
Another album falling into the category of "great-artist-solid-if-unspectacular-album" Belle & Sebastian find themselves in. This album got me into older Ted Leo albums and is a great introduction to his punk-pop style. See, also albums "Hearts of Oak," and "Shake the Sheets" for a more complete primer.
Check out: "Even Heros Have to Die," "Bottled Up In Cork," "The Mighty Sparrow"
The Gaslight Anthem "American Slang"
Still the closest thing song-wise (I'd argue the Hold Steady are truer theme-wise) to Bruce Springsteen out there, and, they're from Jersey! Their second album finds them branching out to embrace Van Morrison (see the vid below) which is great. Two of my favorites, all paid homage-to under one album banner.
Time for bed. But stay tuned for 11-20 later this week!
I'm just going to go ahead and say this: 2010 was the best year for music ever. Mozart might argue that 1788 was better -- after all, he did write three of the best symphonies ever (39, 40, & 41 ("Jupiter")). Or McCartney might argue that 1967 was a particularly good year. And in the annals of history, they're probably right. But whatever, enough good, even great music was released this year to more than fill this list.
Without any further ado, here are the albums, in no particular order, that received honorable mention from me, culled from a list of about 40 finalists. Congratulations artists, your check is in the mail.
Girls "Broken Dreams Club EP"
This EP would've been in the top-10 if it were a full album. Just sayin'. Girls is a band whose growth in the past year, since they released their first LP "Album" a year ago and I saw them at the Entry, has been staggering. They still have raggedy, wistful vocals with more than a hint of Elvis Costello, but they are more of a force as a band and in the studio. The production has a fuller presence, with cleaner production and more instruments (steel slide! horns!); but their music still retains its character. Great set of 6 songs, I can't wait for their next album.
Check out: "Oh So Protective One," "Carolina," "Heartbreaker"
Belle & Sebastian "Write About Love"
I don't know why this is only an honorable mention. I guess it speaks to the strength of the others higher up on the list. But I've been waiting since 2006 ("The Life Pursuit) for a new Belle & Sebastian album and this does not disappoint. It "sounds" like B&S, they have that unmistakeable sound, but it's a step in a slightly different direction than their last album in that it's less ambitious. Kind of similar to Spoon and the Hold Steady's new albums (spoiler alert! they're both in the top-20...) in that it's a "good" but not "classic" album in the bands' respective canons. But who cares? It's really good and here's hoping their next album comes out before 2014...
Check out: "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John (feat. Norah Jones)," "Come on Sister," "Sunday's Pretty Icons"
Crystal Castles "Crystal Castles (II)"
Now, to completely switch gears, Crystal Castles' new album was another where I'm sort of asking myself, "So how'd they end up here?" in a good way. I have only one comment about this album: PLAY IT LOUD! Oh, and dig around Pitchfork for an awesome clip of Big Boi (another spoiler alert! another top-20) doing "Shutterbugg" and free-styling over the beat of "Empathy" (he also professes his love for Kate Bush..."she's somewhere in the Lock Ness monster's forest over there in London." It's weirdly awesome.)
Check Out: "Empathy," "Celestica," "Baptism," below check out bonus non-album action of Crystal Castles and Robert Smith in "Not in Love" -- this song alone could've propelled them to the top-20
Das Racist "Sit Down, Man"
Perhaps best known for their odd stoner party rap, "Combination Pizza Hut or Taco Bell," a song which plumbed the depths of the human soul in a novel attempt to describe the human condition...okay, the song really was about being at one of those mutant Pizza Hut/Taco Bell restaurants. But, as my post from Halloween says, "It gets better." As in life, as in Das Racist albums. The duo hits the weirdo-sweet spot of a more self-aware, less-serious DOOM. A Jane Birkin-esque panting session turns into a dub rap before turning into a jubilant African-sounding chorus in "Julia."
Check out: "Fashion Show," "Julia," "All Tan Everything"
Rihanna "Loud"
2010 might've been the year I officially caught the pop bug. As such, I've found myself listening to Rihanna a lot recently. Note that I still draw the line at that girl Bieber, Katy Perry, and Ke$ha...but Gaga, Beyonce, and Rihanna are fair game. And "Loud" is a really good album, especially for someone who won't hear her songs ad nauseum on 101.3 or 96.3 (are they still around?).
Check Out: Honestly, if you're looking to my blog for Rihanna songs to check out, you probably live under a rock. But fine, check out: "Only Girl (In the World)," "What's My Name (feat. that quadriplegic from Degrassi (apparently he's able-bodied in real life and likes to drink Sprite before his head explodes)," "Raining Men (feat. the "MONSTER" Nicki Minaj)"
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists "The Brutalist Bricks"
Another album falling into the category of "great-artist-solid-if-unspectacular-album" Belle & Sebastian find themselves in. This album got me into older Ted Leo albums and is a great introduction to his punk-pop style. See, also albums "Hearts of Oak," and "Shake the Sheets" for a more complete primer.
Check out: "Even Heros Have to Die," "Bottled Up In Cork," "The Mighty Sparrow"
The Gaslight Anthem "American Slang"
Still the closest thing song-wise (I'd argue the Hold Steady are truer theme-wise) to Bruce Springsteen out there, and, they're from Jersey! Their second album finds them branching out to embrace Van Morrison (see the vid below) which is great. Two of my favorites, all paid homage-to under one album banner.
Time for bed. But stay tuned for 11-20 later this week!
12 November 2010
31 October 2010
It gets better.
A few months back, I tried, in my own clumsy way, to write about the tragic spate of teen suicides brought on by bullying. The video below is a much better attempt at addressing this issue and it's one of the most affecting things I've seen in a while. So all I can do is echo the fact that it really does get better.
10 October 2010
Fall or Summer?
Gah! The leaves say fall, but the heat/humidity (yes, humidity in October) say summer. What is this world coming to?! Well, the one constant, I guess, is that the Twins got swept by the Yankees. I guess some things never change....
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