This Is A Portal

Evaluating 2008...

2008-10-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

2007 was an excellent year for music. New National, Radiohead, and Animal Collective, etc. However, 2008 has been quite impressive, mostly w/ records I never would have anticipated and bands I'd never heard of. Thus far, the best:

White Denim - Workout Holiday/Exposion
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Dept. of Eagles - In Ear Park
TVOTR - Dear Science
No Age - Nouns
Times New Viking - Rip it Off
Kills - Midnight Boom
Beach House - Devotion
Walkmen - You & Me

All excellent records.

More musical goodness

2008-06-26T06:04:00.000-07:00

In addition to what's mentioned below, some more excellent records have surfaced:

Quiet Village's Silent Film

Grouper's Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

Vivian Girls' S/T

Girl Talk's Feed the Animals

Shearwater's Rook

and, of course, the newest Sigur Ros record.

2008's Best Music

2008-06-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

At the moment, the best records of the year would have to be:

Lil Wayne's "Carter III"

Times New Viking's "Rip it Off"

White Denim's "Workout Holiday"

No Age's "Nouns"

Deerhunter's "Microcastle"

The Kills' "Midnight Boom"

Wolf Parade's "Mt. Zoomer"

Stuff I'm Digging Thus Far This Year

2008-01-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

Well, in addition to getting heavily into Brazilian Tropicalia music this year, I've been exploring the usual indie fare and checking out some stuff from last year that I never caught.

For instance, MGMT's album "Oracular Spectacular" is definitely the latter. I cannot believe I didn't catch the hype around this album--if any existed--last year. One of the problems w/ Pitchfork is that they sometimes miss the mark and consequently cause me to miss out on a great record. They gave MGMT's debut a 6.8. It's easily an 8.0, probably higher. Cannot wait for their show w/ Yeasayer in Brooklyn this Valentine's Day...

Other albums that are sounding nice thus far:

The Evangelicals' new record; Beach House's "Devotion"; Atlas Sounds' latest; and Los Campesinos! really delivered on their debut LP, following up their terrific '07 EP w/ a stellar full-length, "Hold on Now, Youngster..."

Fallout

2007-12-21T08:46:00.000-08:00

(Hiroshima, post-bomb, 1945)

(Same)

(Aerial view of Nagasaki, days before the bomb, 1945)

(Same view, 3 days after the bomb)

Additionally, some images of Japanese radiation victims can be found here:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mctv.ne.jp/~bigapple/Skulls.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.mctv.ne.jp/~bigapple/&h=327&w=482&sz=141&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=YjsxwxQxabcvfM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhiroshima%2Bnagasaki%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

And a great collection of primary sources can be found here:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/index.htm

Firebombing, Hiroshima, the Holocaust, Rwanda...

2007-12-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

To my sensibilities, there's no difference between the above events--certainly in destruction and pain caused, but in terms of morality as well.

I'll never forget the scene in "Fog of War" where they survey the damage done to then-wooden Tokyo after the WWII firebombings there...and now, reading "American Prometheus"--an absolutely tremendous biography of J.R. Oppenheimer--it is hard to even fathom the events the preceded and then followed the dropping of our two atomic bombs on Japan.

At that time, not only was the European phase of the war over, but Japan was offering to surrender. Despite resistance from many of the Manhattan Project scientists to any use of the bomb on Japan--at least w/o giving the Japanese a chance to reject a surrender, and being given knowledge of what they were up to at Los Alamos--the Army and the American government went ahead with a plan of mass destruction. Not only that, but a civilian target was casually selected to more greatly influence the "psychology" of the Japanese.

It seems to me that killing 210,000 people--95% of whom were civilians--especially AFTER killing > 100,000 in the firebombing campaigns, and after all intelligence suggested that either (a) Japan was going to surrender on America's terms; or (b) Russia would enter the Pacific in mid-August and surely destroy any hope the Japanese had of continuing, is tantamount to genocide. Is it any wonder that we acquiesce to the slaughter of innocent people in Sudan and elsewhere? Of course not.

Somehow, we are at root an evil, horrific species. And events of half a century ago still haunt us...

What I Whiffed On...

2007-12-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well, at this rate it seems like this blog was created solely for year-end music analysis. It wasn't. It wasn't created for any particular purpose. However, since it's the end of the year, and this is when I started it, well....there you have it.

Anyway, two records stand out that I just completely missed the boat on.

Gui Boratto - "Chromophobia""Chromophobia" is as sensual and textured a any piece of music you're likely to hear....maybe ever. Take a look at the cover-art, above. The album actually sounds like that. I listen to this record, particularly "Acrostico," and I feel like I am out in the middle of the ocean, with the sun beating down on me, and I'm floating. And I'm not afraid. This album inspires hope without using a single word. Never has the beauty, depth, and warmth of color come across so clearly in "sound." The album isn't about a fear of colors, but the opposite. It is about embracing the joy that is borne of the visual experience.

Robert Wyatt - "Comicopera"

I guess Robert Wyatt has been around for a long time, and if he's been making music like he's done on this record, I'm sorry I've missed it. "Comicopera" is an eclectic collection of sounds and styles, ranging from salsa to rock to spacious instrumentals. This album is like a mature Ween record. Wyatt sings in a jaded, British accent, and at times evokes Meddle-era Pink Floyd. It's a beautiful album, and it's nice to see it getting some recognition on the year-end lists, unlike some other albums that have stayed firmly under the radar.

Best 45 Songs of 2007

2007-12-05T14:11:00.001-08:00

One qualifier: So as not to pack the list with the best songs from the top 10 albums of the year, there's 1 song/band, and not necessarily the bands from the best albums list (thought that is predominantly the case).

1. Besnard Lakes – “Devastation”

2. Animal Collective – “Fireworks”

3. Panda Bear – “Bros”

4. Bon Iver – “Skinny Love”

5. Radiohead – “Reckoner”

6. Yeasayer – “Red Cave”

7. Menomena – “Evil Bee”

8. World’s End Girlfriend – “100 Years of Choke”

9. Sunset Rubdown – “Winged/Wicked Things”

10. LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends”

11. The National – “Fake Empire”

12. Arcade Fire – “Keep the Car Running”

13. White Rabbits – “Kid On My Shoulders”

14. Pela – “Rooftops”

15. Dirty Projectors – “Rise Above”

16. Battles – “Atlas”

17. Dan Deacon – “Crystal Cat”

18. Okkervil River – “Unless It Kicks”'

19. Electrelane – “Cut & Run”

20. Iron & Wine – “House by the Sea”

21. Bodies of Water – “These Are the Eyes”

22. Prodigy – “Stuck On You”

23. Feist – “I Feel It All”

24. Burial – “Archangel”

25. ‘Lil Wayne – “Ride 4My Niggas”

26. Frog Eyes – “Bushels”

27. Papercuts – “Found Bird”

28. Jay-Z – “Party Life”

29. The Acorn – “Hold Your Breath”

30. Robert Wyatt – “Pastafari”

31. Andrew Bird – “Plasticities”

32. Kanye West – “Flashing Lights”

33. Grizzly Bear – “He Hit Me” (cover)

34. Deerhoof – “Matchbook Seeks Maniac”

35. UGK ft. Outkast – “Int’l Players Anthem”

36. Baby Elephants ft. David Byrne – “How Does the Brain Wave?”

37. Band of Horses – “Is There a Ghost?”

38. Devendra Banhart – “So Long Old Bean”

39. The Field – “Everyday”

40. Gui Boratto – “Acrostico”

41. Eddie Vedder – “Hard Sun”

42. White Stripes – “You Don’t Know What Love Is”

43. Wu-Tang Clan – “Rushing Elephants”

44. Blonde Redhead – “23”

45. Spoon - "The Underdog"

Pasadena, Not Just the Home of the Rose Bowl

2007-12-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

Why is nobody talking about the racially-motivated murder of two African-American men in Pasadena, CA, that almost prompted a race riot?

CNN covered it, strangely. Maybe riding their Jena-6 wave. Anyway, 2 AA dudes broke, or attempted to break into the home of a white man in Pasadena (most likely a Nazi, judging by his supporters). He shot them both, killing them.

This, of course, prompted outrage from the Black community within Pasadena, and the neighborhood, specifically. What resulted were opposing protests. The AA protest railed against what appeared to be a tolerated instance of racist violence, albeit committed under the guise of self-defense. The White community? They protested either (1) the AA protest; or (2) the attempted burglary. It wasn't clear.

However, the scene that followed was a paradigmatic example of what is wrong with this country of ours. Not only were the murderer's supporters bearing confederate flag tattoos and wildly brandishing the American flag, but they drowned out the AA protest with chants of "USA! USA!," and the revving of their Harley engines.

If this doesn't signal despair, I don't know what does, frankly. The victims weren't immigrants--they were American citizens that happened to be black! For the love of all that is sacred, I "pray" that patriotism is reaching a tipping point. The hideous mixture of church, state, and racism-fueled-by-patriotism in this country is sickening.

Could Obama make it through a general election without being assassinated, were he to defeat Hillary in the primary? It's honestly a fair question. Racism bubbles under the surface across this country, as it does in more sophisticated countries like Britain and France as well. Is the racial hurdle insurmountable? That, too, appears to be a fair question.

Criminally Underappreciated Albums of 2007

2007-12-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

I have gone on and on about the deficiencies in the best-of lists of the year, and I'm worried that the only list I might appreciate will be P4K's...ah well.

In any event, there were some excellent records released this year that received a range of attention, from some to none, and deserve more of it. A representative sample:

Yeasayer - "All Hour Cymbals"

Shit this band is gonna be fucking huge. They match in passion, intensity, and creativity bands like Animal Collective and the Arcade Fire. Check out their single, "2080," or "Red Cave," for instance. The chanting is infectious. They evoke TV on the Radio in vocals and production, and the echo-chamber ambiance brings Grizzly Bear to mind.

This record is infectious and addicting. I truly hope it is recognized for what it has accomplished. If not, well, more for us. Dying to see these guys live...hopefully they'll make some trips to the East Coast this winter.

Pela - "Anytown Graffiti"

Anytown Graffiti sounds like Alligator-era National. The urgency of the drums and vocals define the record. Great rock songs that tug at the appropriate heart-strings. Just feel good, powerful music. Can't believe not a soul has heard of these guys outside of NYC and San Fran...

Besnard Lakes - "The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse"

This album wants to be my favorite of the year so badly, but it's just a bit too inaccessible, even for me. Still a top-10 of the year, because it's, strangely, some of the most accessible psych-rock I've heard. Each song is so pleasurable and emotional and strangely epic. I can't get over this band. Still haven't heard their first record...

MY Best of 2007

2007-11-30T09:20:00.000-08:00

Below are the 45 albums I enjoyed most in 2007. Why 45? Well, the bottom 5 or so I really didn't feel comfortable not mentioning, and there were certainly 40 records this year I considered to be very good. So, without further ado, maybe some elaboration to follow re: the top 10-20...

1. Radiohead – “In Rainbows

2. Panda Bear – “Person Pitch

3. Animal Collective – “Strawberry Jam”

4. The Arcade Fire – “Neon Bible”

5. Lil Wayne – “Da Drought III”

6. Yeasayer – “All Hour Cymbals”

7. The Besnard Lakes – “The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse”

8. Dirty Projectors – “Rise Above”

9. The National – “Boxer”

10. Bon Iver – “For Emma, Forever Ago”

11. Pela – “Anytown Graffiti”
12. Prodigy – “Return of the Mac”
13. Sunset Rubdown – “Random Spirit Lover”
14. The Acorn – “Glory Hope Mountain”
15. Menomena – “Friend or Foe”
16. Jay-Z – “American Gangster”
17. Okkervil River – “Stage Names”
18. Iron & Wine – “Shepard’s Dog”
19. Deerhoof – “Friend Opportunity”
20. Bodies of Water – “Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink”
21. Feist – “The Reminder”
22. World’s End Girlfriend – “Hurtbreak Wonderland”
23. Radicalfashion – “Odori”
24. Burial – “Untrue”
25. Papercuts – “Can’t Go Back”
26. The Field – “From Here We Go Sublime”
27. Gui Boratto - "Chromophobia"
28. Chromatics – “Night Drive”
29. Eddie Vedder – “Into the Wild”
30. Les Savy Fav – “Let’s Stay Friends”
31. Electrelane – “No Shouts No Calls”
32. Manu Chao – “La Radiolina”
33. Kanye West – “Graduation”
34. Akron/Family – “Love is Simple”
35. Devendra Banhart – “Smokey Rolls…”
36. Andrew Bird – “Armchair Apocrypha”
37. Battles – “Mirrored”
38. Spoon – “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”
39. UGK – “Underground Kings”
40. Blonde Redhead – “23”
41. Frog Eyes – “Tears of the Valedictorian”
42. Louis Sclavis – “L’Imparfait des Langues”
43. White Rabbits – “Fort Nightly”
44. Black Lips – “Good Bad Not Evil”
45. Dan Deacon – “Spiderman of the Rings”

Taste

2007-11-30T08:54:00.001-08:00

I've been truly frustrated by these year-end lists that critics seem to so enjoy releasing (and who am I kidding, I love them, too), as all of them seem to have a strange combination of great music and absolute garbage. Yet, perhaps the old adage had it right--there's no accounting for taste.

How anyone can consider Band of Horses, Wilco, MoMo, and Bloc Party's new releases in the same league as those which the Arcade Fire, Radiohead and Animal Collective's produced this year is nothing short of mind-boggling. Again, I'm frustrated by the lack of context. Have these people heard Everything All the Time, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, any old MoMo, or Silent Alarm? It seems hard to believe that they have.

But it continues to happen. Visit http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/ to see just what it is that is frustrating me. They're compiling seemingly all the best-of lists over there, as they happen. Check out the Editors' picks from Paste, which is the paradigmatic example of the problem.

Maybe appreciation of music is more subjective than I thought. Yet, how is it that we can unanimously reject, say, anything produced by Fall Out Boy or Nickelback, and yet straight boring, unimpressive, extremely safe rock 'n roll from Band of Horses' "Cease to Begin" is allowed to penetrate this veil of objectivity that we've imposed in collectively making the former evaluation? It bends the abilities of comprehension that this humble guy possesses.

To be sure, I don't have to agree with 1-10 on a top 10 list for me to appreciate it. For instance, LCD Soundsystem. I really don't enjoy much of Sound of Silver. It's not in my top-40 for 2007. But I appreciate what it is that Murphy is doing there. The same goes for Caribou's latest, M.I.A., generally (can't stand her), and many others. Their music is innovative and challenging, and that deserves attention and respect. The same can be said for prior releases of all the aforementioned bands that produced flat, disappointing follow-ups to stellar former records. Why are we rewarding such devolution?

Maybe there really is no accounting for taste. Or maybe we've gotten comfortable and lazy.

I'll post my top-40 in the next post...for my own pleasure I guess.

La La

2007-11-29T21:58:00.000-08:00

And the rap/hip-hop album of the year is...

Lil Wayne - "Da Drought III"

"I'm so high I could eat a star..." wow.

Close:

Jay-Z, UGK, Prodigy.

Two-Hearted Joy

2007-11-29T19:14:00.000-08:00

Bells Two-Hearted Ale in my fridge might be the best thing I've got going at the present moment. This has to be the best "widely-available" beer, as befitting the nomenclature.

What else is great? Old-school Modest Mouse. I'm talking the MoMo of Lonesome Crowded West and Building Nothing Out of Something. I see critics' best-of, year-end lists, and the fact that some lists are adorned with MoMo's latest somewhere near the top--or anywhere for that matter--makes me realize how little music these people must have listened to in their lives.

Maybe if you evaluated Ship Sank in a vacuum, which you shouldn't, then maybe it's a good record. But even so, top-50 of the year? How can it be. I won't bother rattling off a list of the best records of the year, but there are countless albums that get no mainstream press that are infinitely better than the first Brock-Marr production.

But we don't evaluate records in a vacuum, do we? How can we with a band such as MoMo, that produced such classics as mentioned above? The loss of "grit," for lack of a better word, that one notices between LCW and Ship is somewhat similar to the decline from 36-Chambers to Iron Flag. Even 8 Diagrams doesn't recapture what was so appealing about early-90s Wu-Tang.
Oh well, maybe I'm living in the past. Or maybe not. When a band like Radiohead can so abruptly depart from one sound and create brilliance in an entirely new dimension, I have hope for other bands. So, Fuck You, critics!

glory

2007-11-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

The Acorn's "Glory Hope Mountain"

Along with Dirty Projectors, Besnard Lakes, and Pela, The Acorn is the (new) band I'm most excited about this year. With less than two months remaining in the year, the best of 2007 list has begun to solidify in my mind However, each week it seems like something else hits me and I'm constantly trying to figure out where it ranks among the year's best. (Why I'm doing this is unclear--my own obsession with arbitrary rankings, I suppose.)

In the last few weeks alone, the following records have completely owned me: Phosphorescent's "Pride," Radiohead's "In Rainbows," and Miles Davis' "Complete on the Corner Sessions." Each album is textured and unique, and the creativity inherent in each seems dangerous. Toeing the line b/t obscure and challenging is/was a specialty of all three.

All that said, somehow great albums keep cropping up this year, and they all seem to be of the folk-persuasion. Nothing can compare to the psych-folk of Grizzly Bear's 2006 gem, "Yellow House," but more traditional arrangements have made Irone & Wine, Bon Iver, and The Acorn stand out. Phosphorescent is more abstract than those three, and in that way "Pride" is more in the vein of a "Yellow House," or this year's "Love is Simple," by Akron/Family (another 2007 favorite). Akron/Family whetted the appetite, then came Iron & Wine, somehow topping the beautifully subtle "Our Endless Numbered Days" with something more closely resembling a folk romp. Bon Iver exploded with a positive Pitchfork review, and the album delivered. "For Emma..." is distant, more akin to the atmosphere Phosphorescent manages to create on "Pride," and Iver's "Skinny Love" might be the most emotionally crushing song of the year (if I understood Radiohead's "Reckoner," that might top the list).

The Acorn have offered something immediately accessible in "Glory." It's subtle and the songs flow together quietly. So quietly that it's easy to get lost in the sound and stop paying attention to anything beyond the record's ambiance. This is a good thing, especially in a crowded, noisy world. Nothing is wrong with being sparse if you can match it with melody. The Acorn do that, and though few critics will likely acknowledge this record on year end best-ofs, that isn't for any deficiency in the record itself.

Missing You

2007-11-05T17:06:00.000-08:00

it struck me recently, when reading an article in Slate about contemporary authors and the books that they were ashamed to have never read, that I haven't completed anything by Hemingway. I started "Farewell to Arms," but never got through it.

is it worth it to start now? in law school no less? probably.

crushed like a bug in the ground

2007-11-05T16:50:00.001-08:00

Sitting in front of a computer, hunched over, attempting to do some semblance of work. For apaper that's due in 2 weeks, for a professor's research project, for an absolutely mind-numbing corporate law class.

These words ring true at such a moment:

"You know where you are with/floor collapsing, falling/bouncing back and one day/I am going to grow wings/a chemical reaction/hysterical and useless/hysterical and..."