Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Playlist:
Das Racist – Swate
Cold Cave – The Great Pan is Dead
Dum Dum Girls – He Gets Me High
Lil Wayne – Green and Yellow
Today I continue a series of posts dedicated to the best albums of the last decade, posting analysis of one album at a time.
The summer of 2009 was fairly lazy and optimistic for me – Obama had just been elected, and music was particularly awesome. I had a part time job driving around a bingo parlor lot as a “security guard” listening to satellite radio. And that’s where I first heard “Deadbeat Summer,” the theme song to my life at that point. I then saw Neon Indian at Monolith, ACL, and Fun Fun Fun Fest, where the show morphed from a mere electronic experiment to a full-blown chillwave dance powerhouse on stage.
The chillwave movement of 2009 was extraordinary in its remarkable presence and almost similarly immediate dissolving – the subgenre is basically dead at this point, or at least in limbo, as prominent chillwavers are trying new sounds other than the spaced-out, 80’s influenced, electro dance music that captivated us a couple of years ago. Still, Psychic Chasms, my favorite album of that year, is a trippy, upbeat half hour of drug-induced Miami Vice fun.
Alan Palomo’s post-Ghosthustler project turned him into a blog-world superstar almost overnight, as leaked tracks were consistently lauded for their unique mix of sampling (some of which are familial – his father’s compositions, popular in the 1970’s in Mexico), muddy lo-fi production, and infectious melody, even more so than his dream-house effort Vega, which he all but abandoned once Neon Indian took off. Psychic Chasms is a perfect introduction; either you get it or you don’t, either you’re dancing or you’re scratching your head. Of course, with toe-tapping songs like “Terminally Chill” and “Should Have Taken Acid With You,” I don’t see how anyone could resist.
Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.
60. Andrew WK – Party Hard
I love how everyone initially detested this guy, as if I Get Wet wasn’t the most awesome thing they had ever heard ever. Pitchfork, in their infinite indie wisdom, called this frat boy rock, which it probably is, in all truth, and gave it a 4.0. Of course, years later, it made their best-of list for the decade. Most people reneged on Andrew because you just can’t deny badassery, especially when it’s delivered in a completely earnest (but slightly exaggerated), multi-instrumental fashion. “Party Hard” is the intro message WK seeks to deliver, and as history has shown, it’s anything but novelty.
Music, Movies, Television, etc. Pop culture reviews for the short-attention-span Internet age.
Blue Valentine (2010)
It truly is a crime Gosling was robbed of a Best Actor nomination this year, as he and Michelle Williams both deliver mesmerizing performances. Blue Valentine all by itself is a powerful film, a realistic portrayal of an unfortunately true-all-the-time tale of a couple filled with circumstance and rejection, a marriage falling apart, and a family just beginning to break. The romance scenes are particularly intense and shot well, and the getting-to-know-you dialogues between Williams and Gosling sell the movie for me.
Rating: 8
I am a huge Green Bay Packers fan, so if you’re looking for me on Sunday, I’ll be yelling at a TV in a friend’s apartment while they (hopefully) stomp the Pittsburgh Steelers for this year’s Super Bowl. I’m hoping the game is more boring (i.e. the Packers stomp ’em early) than these Super Bowls of the past, which were all quite riveting and historic.
Super Bowl XXV (No. 25, Jan, 27, 1991) NY Giants 20, Buffalo 19
The missed field goal at the last minute is forever associated with the word “choke” and the first Ace Ventura movie – notice that the laces were in when he kicked it.
Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Playlist:
Lil Wayne feat. Cory Gunz – Six Foot Seven Foot
Daniel Markham – Across the Water
The Go! Team – Apollo Throwdown (Star Slinger Remix)
Mind Spiders – Don’t Let Her Go
Sleigh Bells – Tell ‘Em (Diplo Remix)
This year my New Year’s resolutions (or at least one of them) was to read more books. I’m doing pretty good so far, and it doubles as content for Recommeded Reading posts, so there ya go. Two birds and one stone, y’all.
Let me say for the record I don’t consider reading novelty books written by a fictional character aimed at marketing for a television show as fulfilling my resolution. As you will see in future RR posts, I’m reading stuff of more substance. But The Playbook, an hour-long read (maybe), was the first book I’ve completed in 2011. And it’s funny too, especially if you’re a fan of Neil Patrick Harris’ womanizing character who always has a clever strategy or phrase to describe the attitudes and actions of the opposite sex. Stinson has narrowed the craft of “scoring chicks” down to a science, as you will soon discover, and you will laugh along the way.
Also recommended, because, hey, I’m a completist, is the famous Bro Code. It really is essential reading for both men and women; the latter will enjoy the defining of stereotypes, but they will have to stop reading in order to constantly roll their eyes. It’s a friendship book (straight up Dale Carnegie shit), plain and simple, and as Barney declares, even chicks can be bros. I live by the Bro Code….kinda. And Bro On the Go is basically the Bro Code condensed to a smaller, not-so-pocket-sized handbook for when you need to adhere to the rules right away.
So yeah, they are marketing gimmicks that always sell well, due to the popularity and hilarity of How I Met Your Mother, but they are also well-written and funny, so pick ’em up so you can start picking up something else…..you know…….girls. Duh, bro. You’re such a Ted right now.
It just seems right that one of the finest live duos out there would end up performing for a small, raucous crowd at the headquarters of the record label for Jack White, a pioneer of loud, rocking duos all on his own. Last year, Nashville’s Jeff the Brotherhood stopped at the White Striper’s Third Man compound and churned out an energetic set for those in attendance. 11 songs in 45 minutes, and it’s a nonstop fist-pumping affair. You can order the madness on wax here.
