new wale mixtape

to me (and to many), the breakthrough artist of 2008 was wale who released mixtape about nothing. which was amazing and established him as the most exciting new voice in hip hop that i've heard in awhile.

and now we get his follow-up! it's called back to the feature, and it was produced by 9th wonder. and it features such artists as talib kweli, black thought, daniel merriweather, jean grae, includes samples of peter bjorn & john, duffy, etc etc etc. this seems to be awesome. i am only 8 tracks in but i love it!

get it here: walemusic.com

best of the year of your life...so far

lots of people seem to be doing this and i will do this too. because i like making lists and ranking and filing my music. it's the best music that i have listened to enough to judge of 2009 of my life so far:

let's make it...oh, i didn't plan this out, did i? let's make it 10. or whatever it turns out to be once i list the ones that i deem listable. 11 it is! also note that i don't feel any of them should be #1 at this point. i don't think i've heard my #1 of 2009 yet. at least i hope not. so it's top 12 without a #1. or maybe one of those from the list below (of tbd rankings) will be #1.

12. iran - dissolver. pretty awesome. but upon further inspection, only like 4-5 of the songs are super fantastic. if they had a higher success rate this could be way higher on the list.

11. nasa - the spirit of apollo. pitchfork hated this. but i really feel like this is the next in the line of the gorillaz/gnarls barkley/whatever for genre transcendence of rock and hip hop. and the best songs are really the combinations of the two (even though such combinations can be disastrous sometimes). like the song with ODB and karen o. and the song with kool keith and tom waits. it's just a party record that seems really hard to hate, and i don't know how people can. but whatever.

10. obits - i blame you. so when i looked back at 2008, i was kind of surprised by the lack of rock music i had been involved with. and so this year i really wanted some real rock and roll. and here it is. this may not be as good as the best hot snakes records, but it's got what i need. rock in its purest, meanest form.

9. phoenix - wolfgang amadeus phoenix. i've heard this band referred to as the french mgmt. which is funny, because i consider mgmt the poor man's of montreal. so phoenix is therefore the poor man's french of montreal. even though montreal is in canada and phoenix is in america. confusing. but this band has been at it for a long time apparently, but i hadn't heard them before this year. i can't really explain why i love this album. probably because it evokes a lot of the same stuff as of montreal, one of my very favorite bands.

8. andrew bird - noble beast. there's not really anything too special about this album except that it is just very high quality. it is just full of quality, enjoyable songs. nothing groundbreaking, just very well done.

7. aceyalone - the lonely ones. aceyalone shows his love for old timey music. somehow he makes music that sounds like it could come out in either 1960 or 2009. if they had rapping in 1960. this has basically all the elements i love about 60s soul music. it just sounds so natural; i'm not sure how this hasn't been done before (or has it???)

6. dark was the night. weird that a compilation could be on this list. usually when i get a compilation i listen to it a couple times and then forget about it (other than, maybe, a couple standout tracks). this one is a fully realized, great album. it just fits together unlike any other compilation i've ever heard. it's cohesive. the only complaint i have is that it's two full discs, so it's very long and overwhelming.

5. grizzly bear - veckatimest. it's a grower.

4. sonic youth - the eternal. how can a band be so good so far into their career? i feel like only sonic youth could pull this off, staying relevant for almost 30 years now. i guess that's how far ahead of their time they have always been.

3. mi ami - watersports. this is primal, uncompromising, and at times grating music. in other words, this is music that makes me feel ALIVE. it demands your attention. most people will hate it. it's just a combination of dub, hardcore, and really really annoying vocals. love it. NOTE TO EVERYBODY: anything featuring former members of the band black eyes is going to be amazing. divisive, sure, and maybe you won't like it. but i have loved everything these guys have done.

2. mos def - the ecstatic. this album makes me ecstatic.

1. ??????????

the problem here, see, is that lots of the great music just came out like, in the last couple weeks. so here is a list of stuff that just came out that may or may not make it on my year-end list once i can digest it:

dinosaur jr

dirty projectors

rock plaza central

tara jane oneil - i need to listen to this more even though it came out awhile ago. i blame the fact that the vinyl didn't come with a download, so i have only listened to it once. but it is fantastic.

and finally, my top anticipated albums of, presumably, if they actually get released this year, the rest of 2009

-big boi/outkast/andre 3000 - whatever they actually put out. apparently they are supposed to both have solo albums plus an outkast album. but it'll probably be a couple more years. but that big boi song that leaked last year (royal flush featuring andre 3000 and raekwon) was one of the best hip hop songs of the year for sure.

-jay-z - blueprint 3. you know.

-deltron 3030 - event 2 (or whatever its name will be). like outkast, this has been pushed back and pushed back again. although it's never had an official release date. but it seems everything's been done except del's part for like 2 years now. dude needs to get on that. also i haven't liked his last two solo albums THAT much. i hope the 'tron brings him back to what made him one of my favorite rappers back then.

-yo la tengo - popular songs. these guys are so good and so versatile. this is going to be something else.

-tyondai braxton - central market. i only first heard about his solo stuff a couple weeks ago when pitchfork reported that he had another one coming out this fall. i still need to track down his other solo stuff and enjoy it, but battles are one of my favorite bands of the past couple years, and it has to be fantastic.

-kyp mallone solo album - yeah!! maybe it will surpass iran.

-the roots - how i got over. did you hear the song on jimmy fallon last week? holy crap. FUNKY FUNKY.

-annie - i hope this sees the light of day soon.

-the flaming lips - embryonic

it has been awhile no

?

man, i don't know.  i have gotten lazy.  i guess.  i feel like i have had a lot to say, because the format of facebook is different than myspace.  because i could blog on myspace and share thoughts that took more than however many characters facebook gives you.  but instead of getting everything out here, i've been forgetting it all.

albums that are awesome from this year so far include:

-aceyalone

-mos def

-phoenix

-sonic youth

-mi ami

-dark was the night

-iran

-and more stuff.

what's coming out tomorrow? it is tuesday after all:

musically,

-rock plaza central! their last album was a pleasant surprise for me and ended up being one of my favorites.  now they are back and it's not about robot horses?

-tiny masters of today! kids! rocking out!

-there is not much of anything this week otherwise.  lame and weak.  yet rock plaza central was on page 17 of amazon's new releases for the week.  ?????  but next week is going to be huge.  gigantic.  a big big love.

some blu ray:

-dr strangelove! consistently in my top 5 movies of all time list!  brilliant in every single way.

-seventh seal! how about that!

-ghostbusters & spaceballs! don't know how necessary it is to have these on blu ray instead of dvd, but cool!

-lost season 1 & 2!

-john adams! i never saw it but i want to because paul giamatti and laura linney are two of the best.

no stores seem to ever carry une femme mariee, the latest dvd to come out of jean-luc godard's very fruitful mid 60s period.  i might have to use this internet to track it on down.  i will try stores again tomorrow though first.  speaking of jean-luc godard's very fruitful mid 60s period, criterion is about to put out made in usa! in july! i have been desperately wanting to see this movie for about 6 years now.  lord.  that is a lot of years.  i am old.

-hey that new jay-z song d.o.a. is pretty cool but kinda a rehash of the better song "no hook" from american gangster.  that's what i think at least.  and i hate auto tune as much as or more than the next guy, but it seems childish and below hova to go on rapping about that for a whole song.  del mentioned it in one line of one verse of one song on his latest album and that was enough.  it's lame.  make your statement by not using it.  like mos def.  mos def may have just put out the hip hop album of the year by the way.  if you didn't notice.

-grizzly bear and dirty projectors also (add them to that list way up top there) but everybody knows that already.

tidbits

does anybody read this?  i don't think i would.  i think i mostly post about stuff of interest to me, and it's very random and not very reliable and i don't post very often.  yeah, i probably wouldn't read it.  but if you do, that's awesome and i hope someone does.  or else why is this on the internet taking up precious bandwidth?

here is some news:

-according to darkhorizons, tom cruise and john travolta want to remake butch cassidy and the sundance kid with cruise as sundance and travolta as butch.  WHAT.  please stop it you guys.  the original movie is one in which i wouldn't change a frame, a work of great beauty and originality and something that shall not be fucked with.  when is someone like me going to make it to hollywood and get some original ideas flowing into town?  why so many remakes?  i know, i've made this argument before.  so this post is sorta a remake, with butch cassidy in place of last house on the left/rashomon/etc/etc/etc.

-tuesday is tomorrow and so is my birthday.  music comes out from: neil young, bat for lashes, the thermals, lady sovereign, and VERY EXCITING is the crystal antlers.  allegedly the last touch & go release in the foreseeable future?  they don't have anything else listed (although there is that jesus lizard box set for record store day) so i hope we get some announcements of new stuff from them soon.  from enon, how about.  or ted leo or the ex.  or another exciting new band.  someone.

-home video comes out tomorrow too: doubt, mirror noir (arcade fire concert film), and some other stuff.  i dunno. i just got lazy.

hey remember last year when i wasn't lazy?  i made this post about my birthday and those with whom i share a birthday.  but i missed a few.  here are some additions to the list:

-Spencer Dryden, drummer for Jefferson Airplane.  Not The Greatest Drummer, but great nonetheless.

-David Frost: the famous David Frost, subject of one of The Greatest Films of 2008, Frost/Nixon.  The Greatest Nixon Interviewer, that's for sure.

-Florian Schneider: founding member of The Greatest Pioneering Electronic Band, Kraftwerk.

more bests

del the funky homosapien is nice.  he must like me.  he's giving me a present on my birthday!

actually he's giving it to everybody.  a free album to download!  it is called Funk Man (The Stimulus Package).  

go to delthefunkyhomosapien.bandcamp.com and say what version you want (i went with vbr high myself) (hey! also there are two other "leak pack" eps worth of other free stuff!) and you have to put in your email address.  then you get sent a link back to the site but the download starts.  

and um...the download starts.  even though it says available april 7th 2009.  so ummmm...hmm, you get it now.  

so get it now!!

(still waiting on that new deltron album...but this is very much appreciated.)

via pitchfork (so i hope i can trust that they're not lying this time!)

OTHER NEWS:

*new danger mouse project coming this summer.  mysterious! (stereogum)

*booker t is teaming up with the drive by truckers for a new album.  on anti-.  it seems like it should be surprising but it sounds about perfect to me.  (billboard)

*that's all the recent music related newsworthy news.  ta.

best music news came in

best!  because elvis costello is my favorite artist and tied for my favorite albums of his is King of America, the one made with T-Bone Burnett.

best because it's got another song with the lovely Emmylou Harris

best! because my favorite elvis costello songs are the ballads and this one's "all acoustic."

full details and tons of errors are on billboard.  FULL OF ERRORS ERROR SENTENCE HERE:

"...two of the album's tracks -- 'Hidden Same' and 'Boom Chicka Boom -- were originally written by Costello for Johnny Cash."

Here are my corrections:

-the first song is called "Hidden Shame."

-the other song is called "Complicated Shadows."  the Johnny Cash ALBUM was called Boom Chicka Boom.

-there should be an end quote there after Boom Chicka Boom.

but anyway, this is exciting.  EC has re-recorded those two songs already on All This Useless Beauty (and its corresponding bonus tracks) and his versions are awesome.  Cash never recorded Complicated Shadows.  I wish he had, it is a dark song.

Yeah the album is called Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (if billboard is to be trusted!!) and it's supposedly his return to American roots music.  We haven't heard that from him since his last album!  Or maybe The Delivery Man.  

Also the vinyl has two bonus tracks because elvis costello is AWESOME THAT WAY.  One is a song you may have heard if you watched his show Spectacle with Lou Reed...a cover of "Femme Fatale."

album out june 2 on hear music (starbucks? what happened to lost highway?) and then some tour dates with The Sugarcanes (EC's band for this album featuring some bluegrass & traditional country musicians)

you might not understand but this album sounds like a DREAM to me.

oh, here's a better source.  an official source.  obviously the source billboard took from and copied and pasted from.  man, billboard sucks.  SOURCE.

more on virgin

seriously is this the plot to empire records?  i've been reading more about the whole thing with virgin megastores closing, and basically the stores are still profitable, but the real estate company that bought them just wanted the real estate and basically just bought them out for the locations so other stores can open up.  what??

damn the man! save the empire!!

we still have indie shops here in denver.  we still have places much, much better.  i just hope we always have them because virgin has always been my backup plan in case the fantastic indie shops go under.  i will not participate in the non-physical release of music.  f that.

here is a story that starts with "Interested in picking up a new CD during your lunch break downtowm?  Soon your options for where to do that will go from one to zero."  While this is technically true, just wait until after work and drive out to Colfax & University.  I do think it's sad that there won't be a store DOWNTOWN, but there are still stores in town, quite nearby.  0

i was also reading this story from the denver post (by the way, how horrible is it that the rocky mountain news went under?  somebody needs to fix this economy thing), and there were some quotes that baffled me.  just baffled me.  i hope this isn't a reflection of general denver.  i think it's mostly a reflection of the folks that do the majority of their music buying at virgin.  which is a weird concept to me, but...here are the quotes:

-23 year old said "I always buy CDs.  This is a one-stop shop.  I guess I'll go to Best Buy or an independent record shop."  At least the idea is in his head that independent record shops are an option.  But first, he mentioned BEST BUY first.  They have the selection of a best buy.  Second, he said "I guess."  As if it's such an inconvenience, or such a downer to walk into twist & shout, where everybody is super nice, where there is heart, where the selection is probably BETTER than virgin, where you're supporting the local DENVER ECONOMY, where there is plentiful free parking, where they have a fantastic vinyl selection, where you're not in downtown.  Oh man, i guess i will have to settle with the indies.  

-the other wasn't a quote, so my quote is of the article: (26-year-old) "said her music comes equally from a store in CD format and online via iTunes.  When Virgin closes, she'll just stick with online, she said."  DENVER.  PLEASE.  why is the closing of ONE store, one of your MANY options, the thing that kicks you off of cds?  I know itunes is easy but shoot.  The quality of those mp3s is horrible.  and DRM!  

I guess that's just what happens when you do a story about virgin megastore by interviewing people at virgin megastore.  And the responses I'd like to hear are the ones they'd get asking Wax Trax customers what they thought of Virgin closing.  Or if they asked me.

But the underlying PROBLEM here is that the mainstream isn't even these two people they interviewed for this story.  The mainstream actually probably gets the majority of their music from best buy or target or itunes.  The mainstream probably doesn't even go to Virgin.

I just hope the man bringing down the Empire helps out the indies.  I hope that 23-year-old wanders into Twist & Shout and is their newest loyal customer.  I hope if he goes to Best Buy he realizes they don't have what he needs.  I hope there are more people they didn't interview that would have shrugged and said "I'll just go to the local independent store."  I hope that's the case for all the cities that are losing their precious virgins.

more and more and more

here are some more things i've been meaning to blog about over the past couple days.  it's a shame i didn't have internet during the oscars, or when all those great movies were coming out.  now it would be pretty irrelevant to discuss them.  but i think i'll do a tuesday tomorrow thing also (another entry) just because so many of them are coming out on dvd/blu ray this week.

-ok, i read another review of watchmen and i forgot about one more complaint about the movie.  the needless violence.  it was basically more of that 2008-style-moviemaking point i was getting at, but man.  you don't have to show so much.  just sayin.

-i am a little sad about virgin megastore closing.  see, i have a strange relationship with that store.  i kinda consider it a corporate as hell media store...but it does have a fantastic selection for a corporate as hell store.  and they always had a different batch of cds and dvds for $10 (or sometimes $8 or even $5) each out of which i'd always find a handfull of stuff i wanted.  i was looking forward to, one day, blu rays being $10 there.  it was basically the relationship i had with tower records before they went out of business.  i always was kinda expecting virgin to go under, but i hoped it had a couple more years in it.  it's not nearly as bad as when my haven wax trax of boulder went out of business, and god forbid wax trax denver or twist & shout should go under (that would make me very very sad).  but still, i was hoping to continue to beef up my collection before they left.  and now i'll be getting tons of clearance items, as i always do when this happens (like how it just happened with circuit city!), but it just makes me a little sad.

-guys guys guys girls and guys and everybody.  very few, if any, readers will like this band but my god am i obsessed with mi ami.  go to their blog for a free mp3.  if you remember black eyes, that crazy dischord band with two drummers and a saxophone, mi ami includes former members of black eyes.  the last black eyes album is one of my favorites, even though very few of my friends appreciate its particular brand of free-jazz-core-deconstructionalism.  so this album basically takes up where that album (cough) left off.  that wasn't a cough, that's the title of the album.  it's shrill, it's obnoxious, it's loud, and it makes me feel alive to listen to it.  

-the strangest thing of all, though, is how off i was on my first impression of an older gentleman (probably in his late 50s) at wax trax when i was buying above album.  i saw him wandering around the new rock section, thinking, man, he should probably go to the used section because here most of the new rock is hardcore and punk and weird stuff.  just thinking stuff like that.  then he saw me with the mi ami album in my hand and he walked up to me, asked if that was the mi ami album, and said that it was, so far, his number one album of 2009.  seriously.  and he was describing it and why he loves it, and man, he is the coolest guy ever.  anyone that age that can appreciate such radically strange music of 2009 is ok in my book.  i hope i'm like that when i'm that age, if i'm that age.

-i am sad that the first season of spectacle, the elvis costello series on sundance channel, has ended.  i do hope a second season is made.  it was the best show for anyone that loves music.

-hey!@! i just found out the dana carvey show is coming out on dvd!!! in may, so not in time for my birthday!

-actually i'll just do a mini tuesday-tomorrow thing.  

music:

*cursive - mama, i'm swollen (note: vinyl doesn't come out until may 19.  however, if you pre-order the vinyl from the saddle creek webstore you get a download instantly! mine is downloading right now!) 

*bishop allen - grrr...

*propagandhi - supporting caste

*handsome furs - face control

movies:

*milk

*rachel getting married

*synechdoche, ny

*howard the duck

*let the right one in

*cadillac records

*battle in seattle

*another day in paradise (blu-ray)

and that's it for the first 10 pages of amazon.  seriously though, i am getting the cursive album legit RIGHT NOW.  i wonder when they started, because i just checked.  watch for a review soon, maybe.

watchmen

So everybody I've talked to seems to have hated this movie.  Which almost makes me want to defend it.  Which I don't really want to do.  I just don't think it was that bad.  But it was fundamentally flawed.  It was trying too hard to appease the graphic novel's fan base.  The filmmaking itself didn't seem original at all.  It seemed like a film made in 2008 using all of 2008's language (I'm talking about filmmaking language).  Including elements that made such failures as Southland Tales and The Fountain.  Learn from those mistakes, man!

The graphic novel, on the other hand was ahead of its time for 1985 and even though I just read it this month I found it very original.  Turning the whole idea of super heroes on its head.  Taking a common concept and looking at it from a different angle.  The movie took it head on.  Incredibly faithful adaptations that were almost too faithful.

However, the casting was brilliant and most of the actors were perfect.  Kudos to all of them.

But when a philosophical monolog/journal entry is good and captivating when you're READING it, it gets tedious and boring when you're listening to someone recite it, word for word.  Especially in an annoying voice.  No offense, Rorschach, but you sounded a lot better being read than being heard.

Listen, being a film fan first above other media of storytelling, it is my first instinct to defend film adaptations of stories.  Because much of the time, people's complaints are about how something wasn't faithful enough, how they changed this plot point, how they didn't include this scene, whatever.  Most of the time, I have to explain that film is a different medium, that when  a change is made to the story, it generally has a very good reason.  But in the case of Watchmen, I can't defend it using that line of thinking.  I think, for me, the perfect film adaptation of the story would piss off all the fans of the graphic novel.

So I guess that's it.  I have no need to see the movie again but I don't feel I wasted an evening or money.  It was fun enough to see the story played out, and I liked the acting.  Oh, but I hated the makeup work.  What the hell was that?  All the people made up to look old just looked...like they were made up to look old.  Anyway, I also liked the small but significant change that was made with the ending.  I just wish they had taken more liberties than that.

say it ain't so! tgrecccccccccccc

UPDATE: According to AVClub, the press release looks like they will just stop the distribution-of-other-labels side of things. read this article:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/touch-go-records-goes-kaboom,23984/
so hopefully pitchfork is just a bunch of liars that don't even like the DEFINITIVE ALBUM OF 2009, NASA

so here i am today on the internet. i've been updating my dish network plan, changing some stuff, and downloading some stuff, researching, getting lots of stuff done in a little time.

anyway, i went to the pitchfork website to see their review of NASA (holy crap they hate it! but i loooooooooooove it!) and other things and then i decided to go to the touch & go website because i heard something about a man or astroman reissue that i can't find in stores. i didn't find anything about it. i did find that the mi ami album is out and i should get it. that's the new band with some dudes from black eyes in it. that came out yesterday! pick it up! i haven't yet. anyway, i was looking and reading about that and decided to go back to pitchfork to see if they had a review of that album. then i saw this:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/149244-touch-and-go-records-to-stop-releasing-new-music-shut-down-distribution

i had to double check and make sure it wasn't april fools day! i mean wtf!!! i mean touch & go is what i consider the best label putting out music! touch & go is basically the bomb. was the bomb? i made a trip out to chicago a couple years ago to go to their 25th anniversary festival! and it was the best thing ever. i am not one for record labels, but besides asian man, touch & go is the only label i ever actually cared about. because they put out SO MANY amazing albums from so many amazing bands...arrrrrrrgh. who has been on touch & go? top of my head:
man or astroman
brainiac
enon
shellac
rapeman
big black
!!!
tv on the radio
blonde redhead
scratch acid
the jesus lizard
cocorosie
calexico
don caballero
nina nastasia
mekons
the ex
just about every band worth a damn. i'm sure i've left out tons.

guys, this is the worst news in music since john lennon died (hyperbole yes, but almost true!)

just like, 4 days ago i decided to listen to nothing but touch & go music on shuffle all day. now i will do so again. even though that NASA album is awesome and i just got that m ward album. i need to pick up that mi ami album asap too. i wonder if quarterstick will still be around...i'm kinda doubtful.

i implore you, go buy up all you can! just in case they stop production of their back catalog. i recommend...just about anything on that list up there. and much more. that touch & go logo on the sealing of the cd has always been a sign of quality to me.

sad day indeed.