Oscar Hopes & Predictions 2016

Hello, Dear Readers!

I'm going to act like I have a big fan base of readers. Whoever reads this, thanks for reading this!

I almost didn't do this but I was then tasked by a friend to do it, so I might as well get my thoughts out there. The thing with this year's Oscars, aside from all the other things with this year's Oscars, is that I just finally got through basically all of the major films two nights ago. So with the big thing happening tomorrow, there's not much time and if you wanted to read thinkpieces about them then you've already had plenty of chances elsewhere. No matter. If you're reading this you're probably my friend and you probably just want my specific perspective on them.

First, here is what I have NOT seen:
Trumbo, The Danish Girl, 45 Years, Joy, Creed, three of the animated features (Shaun the Sheep Movie, Boy & The World, When Marnie Was There), Cinderella, Winter on Fire, Cartel Land, ALL of the shorts (though I'm considering using my Google rewards monies to watch the live action and most of the animated shorts tonight and/or tomorrow...), any of the foreign language films aside from Mustang, The 100-Year-Old Man..., and any of the movies with just songs nominated (but I listened to the songs, just now!).

So I'll go from the bottom up, based on the order they appear on the official webpage. One of these years I'll update my spreadsheet to be in the order they are presented in for the actual show!

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Nominees: Bridge of Spies (Coen Brothers!), Spotlight, Ex Machina, Inside Out, Straight Outta Compton
Hopes: I would be quite happy if Ex Machina won. Just the whole story is so well told, so logical yet I didn't see the very logical ending coming. Just a great movie overall and I want it to win something. All of the nominees are very good movies though.
Predictions: I'm going Spotlight. And I won't be the least bit upset about it.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Nominees: The Martian, The Big Short, Room, Carol, Brooklyn
Hopes: I'm going Carol. Since it was snubbed in the best picture and director races, it should get something and the writing was beautiful. I can't speak to how well it was adapted from its source material, but the final product came out so wonderfully.
Predictions: The Big Short because I think everybody loved it. Plus it did a great job of simplifying a complicated subject matter that it was very important that everyone understood.

Visual Effects

Nominees: Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Ex Machina, The Martian, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Hopes: How can you not go with Mad Max? All the amazing practical effects, the whole look is a big part of what made the movie so special.
Predictions: Mad Max all the way.

Sound Mixing

Nominees: Bridge of Spies, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Hopes: Sticking with Mad Max for all of the technical awards.
Predictions: The Revenant. No real reason.

Sound Editing

Nominees: The Martian, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Sicario
Hopes: Mad Max
Predictions: Mad Max. I don't know. Maybe it should be my prediction for both sound ones. So the past several years since I started keeping track, EVERY TIME there is ONE difference between the two sound categories. As if they are just trying to prove that they are different.

Live Action/Animated/Documentary Shorts

I'm just sitting this one out for now. Unless I happen to see them. I did see there was a Don Hertzfeldt one for animated, so let's just go with that one.

Best Song

Nominees: "Simple Song #3," "Til It Happens to You," "Manta Ray," "Earned It," "Writing's On the Wall" 
Hopes: As a longtime Antony & The Johnsons fan who didn't keep up and didn't even know she was now ANOHNI, I'm going to hope for this longshot to pull through. "Manta Ray."
Predictions: Gotta go Gaga, "Til It Happens to You." I just listened to all the songs and that is a powerful one. The kind that wins these kinds of things.

Original Score

Nominees: Bridge of Spies, Sicario, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Hateful Eight, Carol
Hopes: As I think about it some more, I think Carol had the most striking score.
Predictions: One of the two veterans probably. I'm going to say Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight because he is legendary.

Makeup & Hairstyling

Nominees: The Revenant, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window, Mad Max: Fury Road
Hopes: As cool as Leo's beard was, Mad Max baby.
Predictions: Mad Max baby.

Foreign Language Film

Nominees: A War, Son of Saul, Embrace of the Serpent, Theeb, Mustang
Hopes: Since Mustang is the only one I saw, I'll go with that one. I saw it at the Denver Film Festival and it was a definite highlight. Just a great film. Of course, I'd have to see others to see if I am justified in this opinion!
Predictions: No idea. I think I heard Embrace of the Serpent was great, so I'll go with that one. Last minute edit: Son of Saul is that holocaust movie, it's totally going to win.

Film Editing

Nominees: The Reventant, Spotlight, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Big Short
Hopes: Sticking with Mad Max. I think I want it to just dominate! But the fact that it remained coherent for an entire feature-length car chase scene means it was edited super awesomely.
Predictions: The Big Short because editing had such a crucial role in this film. It was disjointed yet somehow coherent.

Documentary Feature

Nominees: Amy, The Look of Silence, Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, Cartel Land, What Happened, Miss Simone?
Hopes: The Look of Silence. Just the audacity of this film. Just the human face it put on genocide. Just the restraint shown by the protagonist and filmmaker when confronting these monsters. The sadness. The needing to forgive, not the need of the perpetrators, but the need of the victims to be able to forgive these people. It was so powerful and left me with a lot to think about. Possibly even greater than its companion piece the (similarly nominated, didn't win) The Act of Killing.
Predictions: Amy all the way. Those music documentaries always win. I'm picking this over the Nina Simone one because it was just so heartbreaking and also a great commercial success.

Directing

Nominees: George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road, Adam McKay for The Big Short, Lenny Abrahamson for Room, Alexandro G. Inarritu for The Revenant, Tom McCarthy for Spotlight
Hopes: Listen, all of these movies were great in their own ways. But if we're talking director as an auteur, as the uncompromising visionary, I can't vote for anyone but George Miller. Mad Max was a singular vision if I've ever seen one.
Predictions: It could be anyone. I'm going with Tom McCarthy for Spotlight just because directing is often associated with working with actors and the actors in Spotlight all did such a terrific job.

Costume Design

Nominees: Carol, Cinderella, The Danish Girl, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant
Hopes: I kind of loved the outfits in Carol. I think it's because I am so into 50s fashion. I don't know. But Rooney Mara's clothing was pretty great.
Predictions: The Danish Girl just because. I never know with this costume stuff!

Production Design

Nominees: The Revenant, The Danish Girl, The Martian, Bridge of Spies, Mad Max: Fury Road
Hopes: Are you kidding? Mad Max was just one big exercise in production design!
Predictions: The Martian because hey, Mars!

Cinematography

Nominees: The Hateful Eight, Carol, The Revenant, Sicario, Mad Max: Fury Road
Hopes: Pretty hopeless at this point until he works on another huge Oscar contender prestige production, but can Roger Deakins please please please win for Sicario? Every time I see one of his films, it is abundantly clear that he is far and away the best DP in the business. All the cool tricks he comes up with in silhouette, camera movement, smoke/fog, etc.
Predictions: Robert Richardson for The Hateful Eight. Because it was pretty damn cool looking in 70mm. Colorado is a beautiful state!

Animated Feature

Nominees: Shaun the Sheep Movie, Anomalisa, Inside Out, Boy & The World, When Marnie Was There
Hopes: I don't really have hope for Anomalisa but I want it to win. I'm a Kaufman lifer. I know it's not going to win. And as my friend said, it's "lesser Kaufman." But even lesser Kaufman leaves you with a lot to think about and this was a really cool minor story about a short lived anomaly. Pretty beautiful in its simplicity with just a few tricks thrown in there that you could only do effectively with animation.
Predictions: Inside Out. And that's perfectly fine. One of the best Pixar movies yet, and that is really saying something. Pretty much a lock though.

Supporting Actress

Nominees: Rachel McAdams for Spotlight, Rooney Mara for Carol, Jennifer Jason Leigh for The Hateful Eight, Kate Winslet for Steve Jobs, Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl
Hopes: Jennifer Jason Leigh! Big fan, and she was great. I'd also like to note however that Rooney Mara was so great in Carol and could have been considered the lead of that movie.
Predictions: I hear they are going crazy over Alicia Vikander, so let's say her. I didn't see The Danish Girl but she was great in Ex Machina this year!

Supporting Actor

Nominees: Sylvester Stallone for Creed, Tom Hardy for The Revenant, Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies, Mark Ruffalo for Spotlight, Christian Bale for The Big Short
Hopes: I liked Mark Rylance so much in Bridge of Spies. Such a great subtle performance that made such a likeable character, which was crucial (as my friend pointed out, the movie just wouldn't have worked if his character wasn't likeable).
Predictions: Hollywood loves a comeback story, so Sylvester Stallone it is! Creed is also the one nominee in this category that I didn't see.

Lead Actress

Nominees: Brie Larson for Room, Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years, Cate Blanchett for Carol, Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn, Jennifer Lawrence for Joy
Hopes: Man, this is one stacked field this year. I only saw three of them, but they were fantastic performances. But I think the most heartbreaking performance was by Brie Larson in Room. Even as kind of a support player to the child (that kid was amazing too!), she did such a beautiful job as someone just doing the best she can for her son under extremely horrendous circumstances.
Predictions: I was originally going to say Cate Blanchett (even though Rooney Mara probably had a stronger performance in that film), but I'm just going to put all my eggs in the Brie Larson room.

Lead Actor

Nominees: Bryan Cranston for Trumbo, Matt Damon for The Martian, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant, Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs, Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl
Hopes: This field seems pretty weak by comparison. Everyone did their usual good work (just assuming with Cranston & Redmayne), so Leonardo DiCaprio going above and beyond kind of makes sense to me. He did pretty well.
Predictions: Leonardo DiCaprio and his grunting and limping. Duh.

Best Picture

Nominees: The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room, Spotlight
Hopes: I'm going to just rank them because I want to say something about each of them.
1. Mad Max: Fury Road. As I said before, this is the one. The fact that a silly action movie with badass guitar flamethrowers is even my top pick speaks to the astonishing feat that this film was. Wow.
2. Room. Not only was the acting phenomenal, it managed the incredible feat of making a movie about being stuck in a shed somewhat uplifting, it showed the perspective of a child growing up in that shed (the whole world as far as he knew), and it just made me cry.
3. Spotlight. Because of all the great performances and the portrayal of journalism...I don't know, it was just intense.
4. The Big Short. There is no good guy. It is an important film for people to see and understand. It is infuriating but necessary. And just enough funny.
5. Brooklyn. A very pleasant film and I didn't mention her in the acting category but Saoirse Ronan just carried the whole film. A good portrayal of immigrants that we all can relate to, because almost all of us in this country are descendents of immigrants. Look like you know where you're going.
6. The Martian. A pretty astonishing tale of survival. Matt Damon was so charismatic and brought so much to what would have been a pretty bleak movie. Cool science too!
7. The Revenant. A pretty astonishing tale of survival. What keeps you alive? I feel like I kind of hate on this movie more than I should. I just think the director is overrated and after finally seeing this movie that it was also kind of overrated. I found myself bored at times, maybe I just wasn't in the right space for it. Still, lots of great performances, some very intense action sequences, some great cinematography, a good package.
8. Bridge of Spies. I don't like putting this on the bottom because I liked it quite a bit. But all eight of these were quite good. I just felt like this was Steven Spielberg doing his thing, which is very competent (even expert) directing, and everyone doing a very competent job (even expert, in the case of Mark Rylance), and putting together a quite good movie. Just not the best picture of the year.
Prediction: The Revenant. It seems pretty unstoppable at this point. I'd be pleasantly surprised if one of the others wins though.

So I guess I'll see how happy/psychic I am this year! I don't have the best record with these things.


And finally, my general comment about the Academy Awards: There are always going to be snubs, horror will rarely if ever get any recognition, and there is a huge problem with the lack of diversity. Kubrick never won except for visual effects. Hitchcock never won. The best films out there are often completely unrecognized by critics and the academy alike. See Dope, It Follows, and Liza the Fox Fairy for some of my personal favorites of 2015 that received no nominations. Watch Tangerine (I didn't see it but it seems essential). And if Carol had been nominated for best picture it'd probably be at #3 on my list up there. Anyway, I'm saying all that to make a point. The Academy Awards are important to me in spite of all that. For one, they tend to be quite good movies and I always make a point to try to see as many as I can. It's my excuse to see more movies. And the nominated movies play at strip malls and the like. Which means more people than usual are seeing these artistic movies by artistic people. Sure, they could see them and more at art houses, and they should. But they don't. So this is a fairly reliable support system for smart cinema. Yes, they all have studio support pushing for them to get nominations, rather than being an organic thing, but the end product is still generally a victory for quality cinema.

An Ear For An Era: 2007

I've been putting off writing this one for some time now. Maybe not on purpose. Mostly just because I was busy with Christmas and catching up on the ton of music I'd acquired in the previous couple months in an attempt to have some sort of grasp on the music of 2015. Not that I ever felt I even sort of caught up on that. But I've spent the past month listening to recent acquisitions released from 2013-2016. 2016 is Bowie. That's a whole other thing. I always make it a big deal to myself what my first album of a year is and I'm so glad it's Bowie this year.

Okay, where am I?

2007 was my favorite year for music. So much so that I was hoping to get this up by the end of the year so I could say something like "2007 was my favorite year of 2015!" but at least that's here, so that's something.

When I started this project I was looking forward to 2007. I was wondering if context would make a difference, if I'd change my opinion on 2007 music because it might have just been the sheer quantity I consumed that year that helped me find so many albums I loved (and in many cases, my introductions to many artists that I love). But that's not really how it works. Because these are albums I loved and they will always be albums I love. Regardless of context. Are there some lesser albums? Of course. Just like every year. But the top bunch are amongst my tip top bunch of all time.

I'll try to not make this too long but I feel like there will be a lot I will want to write a lot about. And things that deserve full paragraphs might end up in the notable things at the end just because there's so much great here.

I guess I can get started since I've already made the intro much too long.

It started this time with Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. I'd long respected them and lots of my friends liked them, but Living With The Living was where I finally really got it personally. The energy, the passion, the politics...they really captured my feelings during the Bush years and the aftermath of the war in Iraq. And then the slightly softer songs were just so damn catchy, it's just a great album from front to back. And it has one of my favorite lines that really exemplifies the whole reason I have this blog project, from "The Lost Brigade." Repeating and repeating, more and more earnest...

"Every little memory has a song."

2007 was a year I was so into music that it was the year I got to go to SXSW in Austin for work. We interviewed tons of bands, saw tons of shows, just absorbed the whole thing, and it was amazing.

We had to run to try to catch Les Savy Fav's set and only caught the last song. To this day that is the only time I witnessed LSF live, which is a big regret (but not as big as if I had missed it completely!). We interviewed Tim and he gave us some fun soundbytes because he is a very clever man. Anyway, the album. Let's Stay Friends is the album from this year and is a huge ball of energy, just like the band.

The other SXSW story I have to share is when we went to a "US vs Norway" showcase. We went through the line outside and asked people "US or Norway??" and got some great answers. Then we went inside and a band was playing called The Lionheart Brothers. I was supposed to get some footage of bands playing so I sat there taping them. And continued to. And was completely mesmerized by this band with its spacey guitars and lovely vocal harmonies, matched by a driving beat. They don't have very good distribution in the states but I got their album Dizzy Kiss on itunes, one of the few albums I've ever bought on itunes.

When we headed back home after an amazing few days with very little rest, I think it was an early morning flight. Everyone was so tired and I listened to my iPod in the airport. And this memory has this song. And the lyrics don't really fit it much other than being tired, but I was picturing the film of our journey, and it was the end credits, and I saw everybody sitting half-dead or napping at the airport, everyone with their own favorite adventures and memories, and this song played.

Sundowner, "This War Is Noise"

Yes, Chris, best known for The Lawrence Arms, one of my favorite songwriters in two of my favorite band, and the man who wrote my senior quote, put out his solo debut as Sundowner. Four One Five Two. Just a great set of songs, including a couple Lawrence Arms covers that he completely transforms. But "This War Is Noise" will always take me back to that airport in Austin and the recovery from one of the best weekends of my life.

Another memory has a song (or an entire album!). I had just gotten The Shepherd's Dog by Iron & Wine and I got sick. Sicker than usual. I never take sick days but I had to go home and take some drugs. And I put it on the turntable and listened to it. And about halfway through the album I realized that no, there wasn't a female guest vocalist on all of those songs. My record player had gotten all messed up and was playing everything at some rpm between 45 and 33. Oh, and the album itself: it's great!

Hey guys, Shellac only puts out an album every several years and it is always an event. Excellent Italian Greyhound was my first "new" Shellac album. The End of Radio kicked off my "it was 2007" mix CD and was a great statement on the state of music. The rest of the album is just pure Shellac. Rage, calculated rage, and aggression (calculated aggression).

Speaking of calculated aggression, I have a confession. I didn't really start listening to Nick Cave until Grinderman. Their self-titled debut as Grinderman is so great and it introduced me in a more official capacity to the genius that is Nick Cave.

Deerhoof came onto my radar with Friend Opportunity. Kind of. I had heard a few songs but it always seemed so weird and abrasive (both qualities I've loved for a while, but for some reason I couldn't get into them). Friend Opportunity was my opportunity to really understand them and spend more time listening to them (particularly because it came out early in the year!) and really find the catchiness aspect they excel at. Catchy and weird rather than abrasive and weird. With pieces of the right kinds of abrasive.

Another band known for being catchily abrasive and weird is Animal Collective. After reading some great reviews and loving the idea in theory I picked up Strawberry Jam and I tried. I really, really tried to get into it. But I couldn't. It just wasn't the right kind of catchy or abrasive. The right kind of weird maybe. But I gave it a bunch of spins and it didn't do much for me. Cut to a couple months later. Riding in a friend's car. He has it playing on the stereo. Suddenly I love it. It had snuck into the back of my brain!

Panda Bear (of said Animal Collective) had the highly lauded Person Pitch album that year as well. Less weird, more beautiful in general, and a similar burrowing quality.

I listened to 23 by Blonde Redhead a lot at work that year. It was one of just a few albums on my computer there but it always made me feel so good to put it on. I don't know if they've hit this balance of synthiness and catchiness in the years since.

Perennial favorite Enon had what ended up being their final album Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds. This one was a little more focused than usual, almost to its disadvantage. I always like the kitchen sink approach of their albums and this was more rock-centric. But that made the songs that stray from the straightforward beat (such as "Pigeneration") that much more interesting in this context. They are having a lot of fun on this album and you can tell.

Okkervil River really hooked me with The Stage Names. As good as Black Sheep Boy was (and I was too much of a latecomer for it to be "my" Okkervil River album), The Stage Names is just so catchy and smart, sad at the right times, and really reminds me of the French New Wave of cinema. Will Sheff is so learned about music and he has so many references that are placed at the perfect place while putting his own spin on everything, it's just fun to listen to and catch everything flying by. But especially when the last song goes into "Sloop John B" and gives me such a rush of joy.

Okkervil River, "John Allyn Smith Sails"

Spoon has always been on a hot streak. I remember we ambushed Britt Daniel at the Monolith Music Festival and talked about his new album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (even he had to count on his fingers to get the title right). This one might even be better than the average Spoon album. It seemed like they really expanded their sound here without losing their core. It's great fun.

The Shins hit a high point (and I got them the same day I got my first album of 2007) with Wincing The Night Away. Or I just accepted them into my world. Friends and loved ones already loved them, and they were hugely popular because of Garden State, but I didn't have much interest in them until I decided to have interest in EVERYTHING around this time. And I liked it, some catchiness reminiscent of The Beach Boys, and a great kickoff beat to start the whole thing.

Speaking of a great kickoff beat, how about that LCD Soundsystem? Sound of Silver could have been #1 and maybe if I take everything into account it is now. Just the one-two punch of "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" hit me on such a personal level and are some of my favorite 14 minutes of music.  Surround that with some great party jams and end it with an earnest ballad and you've got a classic on your hands. I don't know how necessary it is for me to write much about this since everyone seems to know about them (how about the hype around their reunion only 5 years after their hiatus?!), but this is really something special.

LCD Soundsystem, "All My Friends"

I feel like !!! started off their still-going streak of greatness with Myth Takes. I really dig their earlier material (and you may recall that their EP/single thing was basically at the top of my list in 2005) but they did what they kind of set out to do. They reached a certain kind of maturity here (keep in mind that they are still as gleefully juvenile as ever with lyrics and antics; I'm talking about the way they handle a groove) that has propelled them way beyond anyone's expectations.

Talib Kweli had a banner year in 2007. He started it off with a free collaborative EP with Madlib. This was kind of what kicked off my interest in Talib, and I ended up ranking the free EP very highly on my year-end list. It felt like nobody remembered it since it came out at the very very beginning of the year, but it sits close to my heart. I'm guessing a big part of that is because he is such a great artist and it was my window to a world of talent. But he also put out a very long, very acclaimed album called Ear Drum. Probably the most successful he has been at the pop thing. I was less interested in it at the time but upon revisiting it, it really works for him. He's tried a few times to be a popular rapper and shed the "conscious" label even though he's so good at that as well.

How are we already to the end of the great Guru? Guru's Jazzmatazz Vol. 4 was released in 2007 and was my real intro to his great voice. His delivery had a certain knowing swagger to it, an authority that makes me take notice. Gang Starr was before my time and just about all of the Jazzmatazz stuff was as well. He came into the studio once and talked about his new vegetarian diet and healthy lifestyle, which made his heart attack just that much more shocking. I don't feel like I'm doing justice to the album or the man, but just give him a listen.

Guru's Jazzmatazz featuring Kem, "Connection"

I finally "got" Kanye West when he put out Graduation. He has gone on to even greater heights, but I just really liked how vulnerable he allowed himself to be (briefly) on this album, it made him human. Plus he'd just dissed George W Bush on national television so he was getting good will from me.

I really really liked American Gangster by Jay-Z. It seemed like he really found some inspiration from that movie and had to put it out there. It's just full of great songs, from the catchy ones (Roc Boys) to the inspired (Pray).

Saul Williams and Trent Reznor released an optionally free album (around the same time as Radiohead)  so I really tried to help get the word out. The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is a very intense and confrontational album about race in America, with some great production by Trent Reznor. It was like nothing I had heard before, the mix of industrial and beat-poetry-hip-hop, and should have been more successful than it was.

Janelle Monae finally released her EP and the beginning of her Metropolis arc and it was just so great right out the gate. The two follow-up LPs are absolutely amazing, but the kickoff EP is more than just promising. It is a full chapter of greatness, an introduction to a very interesting career indeed.

I didn't really like M.I.A. at first but then we got the video for "Boyz" at the station. As obnoxious as it was, it really dug into my brain and I ended up getting the album. Kala. And I really really got the appeal. Such a fantastic album, including the never-going-out-of-style "Paper Planes."

I picked up a single by Jesca Hoop out of a free bin because it had a quote by Tom Waits. Turns out she worked as a Nanny for Mr. Waits, which is a pretty funny concept to me. But his endorsement was not unfounded. Her debut album Kismet is really something special. I'd call it my introduction to "quirky" female singer-songwriters. Because my ignorant brain always equated them to softer folky stuff. But Jesca Hoop jumps all over the place with her vocals and her production and her rhythms and lyrical content in a way that is so engaging and fun to follow.

Nicole Atkins will always be related in my mind to Jesca Hoop because she was the other great woman singer-songwriter I discovered around the same time. But her stuff is less bouncy and more brooding. I always wanted to edit together a dramatic dance sequence set to "The Way It Is."

Jens Lekman too?? When I first got Night Falls Over Kortedala I thought he was getting too soft. Particularly the front end of the album sounds almost new agey in its mix (despite the usual lyrical brilliance). But it works and you get used to it. Plus this has the very personal song "It Was a Strange Time in My Life," which also takes me back to walking my dog around Congress Park when I lived over there. For whatever reason. I know I listened to that song pretty obsessively and probably listened to the album a few times while doing that.

My #1 album at the time, after much internal debate, was Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? by of Montreal. I have written a lot about this album so I won't spend too much time here except to say that I still love it, and this time around I could really feel the transition from the front end (gleeful depression) and the back end (gleefully shoving that depression back so far you can almost pretend it's not there). Such nuance on an album that feels so much like a circus is quite an accomplishment. Making me feel like a sad clown at a psycho carnival but still wanting to dance and sing along, no wonder it was the best of the best.

And the other other album that could have been #1 with a different order of operations was Mirrored by Battles. When it came out I was producing a show where we talked about the new albums every Tuesday. I took on the research portion myself because I really didn't want to miss anything. I didn't know anything about this band except what I was reading about the pedigrees of the members (including someone from Don Caballero) but it turned out we had a video available! We played this video after I made the host talk about how cool this band was, and that day I went out and bought the album. And listened to it a lot.

(Note: I can't find the video on YouTube so this is just the song)

Battles, "Atlas"

Other Stuff of Note:

• I feel like I'm being a jerk putting Neon Bible by Arcade Fire way down here. It's probably lots of people's favorite album of the year. But to me this is where it felt like they started to believe their own hype. Self importance. Revisiting it 8 years later, my tune has changed a bit and it has a lot of great songs, I just wish it didn't feel like it thought it was as great as it is.
• My official first acquisition was Best Kept Secret by Ultramagnetic MCs. It still took me a long time to get any of their earlier material but I wasn't huge on this anyway. I like the other sides of Kool Keith.
• I didn't listen to Modest Mouse as much as I probably should have but We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank was a good one.
• Dinosaur Jr: same. Beyond is way beyond expectations for a reunion album, it's like they didn't miss a beat.
• Wilco kind of officially went "dad rock" with Sky Blue Sky, but that just means it's something my dad and I would probably both enjoy. I have a specific memory of going to a shoot for work and listening to this album for the first time in a couple weeks and deciding I quite liked the direction they were heading.
• There was an Amnesty International benefiting John Lennon tribute album, and when I was listening to it I was remembering how boring most of the contributors were and I was wondering why I'd bought it. Then I remembered it was a benefit. And also there are a couple gems on there, including a rare Postal Service cover of "Grow Old With Me." That stuff's way at the back though after lots of U2, Christina Aguilera, Aerosmith, etc etc.
• The I'm Not There soundtrack is much more successful. A great Bob Dylan tribute album with heavy Calexico involvement.
• I really dug the party mode White Stripes on Icky Thump after they started taking themselves seriously on the previous album.
• You know how KRS-One is the Teacha? I learned a lot about hip hop just listening to his album with Marley Marl called Hip Hop Lives.
• There's an Evil Dead musical and it came out in 2007. I just got the cast recording to play at our Evil Dead party when the show premiered. Pretty ridiculous but I enjoy much of it.
• I continued to be loyal to CocoRosie even though they just wouldn't quite be exactly what I hoped for.
• I really really wanted to like the Chrisette Michele album but couldn't get beyond the production and the lyrics. Great voice though.
• Simian Mobile Disco, they were pretty awesome.
• Kate Nash writes some pretty interesting songs. At the time she kind of felt like a Lily Allen ripoff but upon further investigation I can appreciate her style and her songwriting is on a much higher level.
• Dirty Projectors' experimental Rise Above is a cool way to do a tribute. But the best is yet to come with them...
• Boxer was my introduction to The National but at the time I just thought it was serviceable indie singer-songwriter stuff. It would take me a bit to really appreciate them.
• I also got back into They Might Be Giants! The Else is a lot of fun.
• The New Pornographers are too damn consistent. Everything feels new and great with them.
• Feist! The Reminder was a great reminder of her powers. "One Two Three Four" was inescapable but the whole album is fantastic. I really should have put this in a full paragraph form. But I love the sound of her voice and the songs and the words and all of it!
• I dug Joss Stone at the time.
• More Nina Nastasia please! 
• Also where I got into Aesop Rock. None Shall Pass was almost too much for me to handle.
• Qui had David Yow in them for a little bit. Love's Miracle is what they have to show for it. One of my more favorite abrasive albums of recent memory.
• Rumblings of some guy named Bon Iver.
• Radiohead too!?!? How much stuff is there to write about?! In Rainbows was that crazy industry changing album (or not) that allowed people to pay what they wanted to a band that was in a position to do something like that. The music itself is quite good.
• Do you like to D.A.N.C.E.? So does Justice!
• Old dudes Paul McCartney and Neil Young remained relevant with some quite good albums.
• Andorra is the end of a certain part of Caribou's trajectory. I dig it.
• I was still sleeping on some Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings at the time but 100 Days, 100 Nights is some classic throwback soul. Obviously.
• Sentai, including former member(s) of Black Eyes, are way too overlooked.
• The Weakerthans too man! Too much stuff.
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool.

Mix From The Time: 2007 Was It

1. Shellac - The End of Radio

2. Battles - Atlas

3. Blonde Redhead - Silently

4. The Lionheart Brothers - Hero Anthem

5. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

6. Kanye West - Can't Tell Me Nothing

7. Talib Kweli & Madlib - Time Is Right

8. Animal Collective - For Reverend Green

9. !!! - All My Heroes Are Weirdos

10. Enon - Dr. Freeze

11. Jesca Hoop - Intelligentactile 101

12. Jens Lekman - It Was a Strange Time in My Life

13. M.I.A. - XR2

14. KRS-One and Marley Marl - Nothing New

15. Jay-Z - No Hook

16. of Montreal - A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger

17. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - (Hidden track from the bonus EP)

18. Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails

Next Time:

2008! Great! Breeders! The return of Del! DeVotchKa! Gnarls Barkley! The Roots! She & Him! TV On The Radio! And More! This was the year I was unemployed and got a job and moved to the suburbs so...yay!

An Ear For An Era: 2006

Hello there! Long time!

These are going to be spread out quite a bit now. Because we are entering the world of me acquiring all of the music. Full on.

2006 was a rough year. I lost a good friend and my great grandmother.
2006 is also the last time I've been to Chicago (other than driving through). I went to the Touch & Go Records anniversary show and saw tons of bands I never thought I'd see like Shellac, The Ex, Scratch Acid, and lots more. That was awesome.
I also had plantar fasciitis. That sucked for going to a big music festival.
That's mostly it. There is too much music to talk about so I'm kind of pushing that off here. But okay, let's go.

I made a change here for 2006 because it's the first full year that I had this computer I'm using right now, so I was able to divide it up by when I added stuff to my library. So I shuffled everything I added in the first quarter of the year, then second, etc. And then all the stuff I added after the year had ended. Which was a ton in this case. It kind of made it weird because I knocked out all the stuff that dominated my year at the beginning. Because in 2006 I listened obsessively to that early 2006 stuff all year. And then the stuff I added afterward I barely listened to.

Anyway. This order may be random.

Early on in the year I felt like women were putting out a lot of great music. In fact, when I made my end of the year mix I dedicated a full CD to female fronted jams. In retrospect, that was kind of silly because they don't need to be segregated out. That seems a little insulting now. So I apologize! But I will still segregate them here to point out how many great female artists put out great music in 2006. And/or I discovered a lot of great women as my mind was quickly expanding in the music world at this time.

It started with Cat Power. The Greatest. I hadn't heard of her before this but such a strong album of melancholy. And then Beth Orton. Comfort of Strangers had me obsessed with her singing voice. I can't quite put my finger on it but it just sounds so amazing to me. It also helped that we saw her do a sound check at the Gothic Theater, which has amazing sound, and it just filled the place. I also quite enjoyed Katharine Whalen's solo album Dirty Little Secret. She was from Squirrel Nut Zippers. She's got a great voice and this album employs it in various interesting ways. El Perro Del Mar was interesting, a sad sad version of girl pop.  Jess Klein has an incredible voice reminiscent of Emmylou Harris. I already was a fan of Nina Nastasia but On Leaving might be my favorite album of hers. Just short, sweet, a bunch of slices of life. My favorite song is "Our Day Trip," which kind of says it all. It's not about moving away or changing your life, it's about a day trip. Just taking a day off.

Disclaimer: Several of these British artists' albums didn't come out in the states until 2007. I set the release date as 2006 anyway, even though my experience of this stuff was just various singles that came in out 2006 and then the full album in 2007. One such example: The Pipettes may have had their music written by a man, but I just loved them for their personalities and pizazz and singing as much as the music. Before it became kind of an overdone thing, they had that 60s throwback stuff DOWN. I saw them live and it was magical. Rosay was my favorite. Did you have a favorite?

The Pipettes "Pull Shapes"

Similarly, Lily Allen's debut Alright, Still didn't come out here until 2007 even though we were clamoring for it on the strength of her MySpace popularity! But I quite like "LDN." And "Smile" is nice now that it's been so long since it was overplayed. And her sassy songs about stupid boys are a lot of fun too.

Same with Amy Winehouse! Oh man, was she special. Back to Black is so much more than "Rehab." Do yourself a favor if you only know "Rehab," listen to this album.

I'm going to use Outkast as a segue here because the highlight of Idlewild was my introduction to one of my favorite female artists, Janelle Monae. On "Call The Law," there's a little bit of Big Boi on there but it's really just a showcase of Janelle Monae's vocal prowess. She completely steals the show. I didn't even know the half of it, of course. Her concept albums that would follow are so much more than a powerhouse voice. But this was my first exposure to her and just knocked me out.

Outkast featuring Janelle Monae "Call The Law"

Food and Liquor by Lupe Fiasco was a great intro to a great talent who kind of fell off. Or maybe I'm the one that fell off. Because as much as I love "Daydreamin'," some of it seems a little too on-the-nose (I am aware I used that same expression below for Neil Young). But I guess I've felt the same way about The Coup and when you want to get your message out to the masses you kind of have to.

J Dilla's last album from his lifetime was the amazing Donuts. Such a great collection of beats that I now recognize on stuff that came out later by great MCs. It was nice to run to. And then The Shining, his first posthumous album with great artists such as Pharoahe Monch (I love that song "Love") and Black Thought. It is no wonder he is so desperately missed in the music world. A rare talent.

My first non-alternative-or-whatever hip hop album was Fishscale by Ghostface Killah. I just wanted something different and this one got good reviews or whatever. So I dove right in. And I loved it for the most part! Especially the more soul songs, but especially "The Champ," which became my favorite song to pump be up for kickball.

Remember how inescapable Gnarls Barkley was? I revisited this inescapability by having tons of versions of "Crazy" on my computer so it came up lots of times. Besides that, St. Elsewhere was a fantastic crossover album that everybody loved.

Teddybears' Soft Machine is a classic party record as far as I'm concerned. Great Swedish dance music featuring the likes of Neneh Cherry and others, the definitive version of "Cobrastyle," and of course Iggy Pop on "Punkrocker," which is maybe my favorite song to run to.

The Lawrence Arms, one of my favorite bands of all time that I'm sure I've written about many times here, put out Oh! Calcutta! and it was just strange to me. It was their most straightforward punk rock album at a time when I was getting out of the business of punk rock (not that I ever did or will completely get out of that business!). It's a favorite of the band based on how much of the stuff they play in concert since it came out, but I didn't get into it nearly as much as everything else they put out. They even put out an album recently and I love it and immediately was drawn to it more than this one. But I really think I need to just give it some more spins. The same goes for Lawrence Arms side project The Falcon. Unicornography continues in that direction and I'm just not as much into it.

I had a similar reaction to Happy Hollow by Cursive. They'd put out these amazing personal albums where Tim Kasher would just stare into his own soul and bare it for all of us and poke and prod it with hot things, and this one was just an attack on the bible belt. Which isn't unwarranted, it just felt like a cheap and easy subject. But it's not like he can keep making albums about himself. In retrospect, it's still a very good album. It just will never hit that place in my heart reserved for Domestica and The Ugly Organ.


Calexico's first album since I officially became a fan was probably the least Calexico-sounding album they put out. Garden Ruin was closer to indie rock than the others, but they did it so effectively and with quite a big of grace that it turned out really strong. Particularly the closing track, which is a perfect fusion of the two genres for a truly epic, building track.

Calexico "All Systems Red"

Also great at epic songs was Yo La Tengo. And great at album titles: I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is one of the best album titles ever. This was when I really personally started getting into YLT and the way they have 10+ minute songs that you want to go for hours, along with nice shorter pop songs. But the best for me was this sad song. As discussed, I had some tough times this year and the best song for feeling sad was "Black Flowers."

Yo La Tengo "Black Flowers"

The Gothic Archies' Tragic Treasury was a great collection of Stephin Merritt songs based on the Lemony Snicket books. Those dudes are friends! And similarly fantastic with linguistics! Daniel Handler actually came into work and performed one of these songs ("Scream and Run Away") on air, and it was really really awesome.

The Crane Wife may be The Decemberists' crowning achievement. Or maybe that's just because it's the first one I got. But it is a very special album with epic folk songs and catchy angry songs and lovely other songs. Protest music of the 21st century!

I finally got into The Mountain Goats (I am now a devotee and get everything!) with Get Lonely, a lovely album. The only reason I really even got into them though was because they had a music video directed by Rian Johnson, who I admired for Brick. But the song the video was for turned out to be a great slice of life, and just a great way to get into a great band (and a great director who would go on to direct an upcoming Star Wars movie!).

The Mountain Goats "Woke Up New"

My number one album officially at the time was The Life Pursuit by Belle and Sebastian. I still love this one quite a bit. It dominated my year. Kind of more rock than they'd previously done, maybe a little more pop and a little less precious.

However, my real number one in retrospect is one that topped everyone else's lists that year. TV On The Radio just blew up with Return to Cookie Mountain and they were one of my favorite bands at the time. The only reason I put them at #2 at the time was because it came out later in the year and I'd spent all year getting obsessed with the pop sounds of Belle & Sebastian. Plus its positivity helped me through tough times. But Return to Cookie Mountain is a monolith of a record, it has so much happening, and is what got me started on all my hyperbolic talk about TV On The Radio being the most important band of the decade or whatever and all that. I particularly love the four song stretch of Wolf Like Me - A Method - Let The Devil In - Dirtywhirl. The way they build on each other and ebb and flow is just perfect. And particularly particularly "Let The Devil In" with its primal cleansing expression of pure emotion is still one of my favorite songs ever made.

TV On The Radio "Let The Devil In"

Observations. Lots of stuff will go here.

• Arctic Monkeys! They actually were the first I listened to here. I thought they were kind of overrated at the time but it was a blast to revisit them.
• Other British/European bands had a similar sound. I kind of got sick of that sound in 2006 but I enjoyed all of them quite a bit this time around. Dirty Pretty Things, Brakes, The Fratellis, Mando Diao, etc.
• Ray Davies solo! fun!
• They just announced a reissue of the first Jenny Lewis solo album. She has a lovely voice but I was a little underwhelmed by the lyrical content. Still enjoyable.
• Loose Fur. Jim O'Rourke and Jeff Tweedy! Having a lot of fun.
• Kris Kristofferson put out another album and it was solid. I saw him with my dad on the tour for this album!
• Sonic Youth was rather excellent on Rather Ripped.
• Remember Neil Young and his Living With War album about impeaching George W Bush? I dug it at the time but now it feels a little too on-the-nose.
• I kind of dug Peaches' dirty response to hating on W though. Impeach My Bush indeed.
• Raconteurs were pretty good I guess!
• Elvis Costello put out an album with Allen Toussaint about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It was quite lovely.
• Supersystem were awesome.
• Game Theory saw The Roots pissed off, and it made for some very compelling music. I really like this stage in their career. It was also around the time I finally got into them so...
• The Return of Dr. Octagon was a scam! Kind of! I guess it is officially legit but I remember getting so mad at that album. I got it because it was The Return of Dr. Octagon, but then found out it was more of a remix album of a few demos or something. I don't remember the whole story. But it's weak as far as Kool Keith albums go, doesn't even include that much of him, and is more electro than anything else. It's weird.
• ...Nogatco Rd. was much better. A more legitimate Kool Keith sci-fi release. And look at that title in reverse if you didn't figure it out. The REAL return of kind-of Dr. Octagon.
• Weird Al. Straight Outta Lynwood. Yet another classic! Particularly for "Trapped In The Drive Thru," which my wife couldn't stand but I think is brilliant.
• I'm going to put this here. I just realized that one of the bonus tracks on Return to Cookie Mountain was an El-P remix of "Hours." Was that the first time they worked together? Because TVOTR backed Run The Jewels on Colbert and it was so awesome and they need to work together more.
• I wasn't super into Pieces of the People We Love by The Rapture at the time, because I wanted it more rock like the amazing previous album...but upon revisit, I'm pretty impressed with it. It's quite fun.
• American V: A Hundred Highways by Johnny Cash was just heartbreaking. "Rose of My Heart" was amazing. Rest in peace.
• Ludacris being serious can be pretty damn good. Release Therapy has "Tell It Like It Is" which is a great raw expression from him.
• Modern Times by Bob Dylan was pretty good!
• Remember Lady Sovereign? I quite enjoyed her at the time but now I know more about hip hop and find her a bit bland and trying-too-hard.
• I only have one Cunninlynguists album, A Piece of Strange, but I like it a lot and need to get more. And I need to listen to this one more.
• Rhymefest. Blue Collar is a catchy record. He is a very enjoyable rapper. I remember we got mad at him for homophobia a couple years later. And I stand by that. But why do we hold some rappers to different standards than others? We just have high hopes for some I guess.
• ...I did like that P.O.S. album and he had a good statement about that on his.
• Rock Plaza Central is great too! A concept album about robot horses deserves more than just a bullet point but damn there is a lot of music to cover. If you are reading this, listen to "Anthem for the Already Defeated," one of my favorites!
• Islands! 
• Cut Chemist!
• Tom Waits put out that three disc compilation Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. Too much to even begin to write about it. It has an awesome Daniel Johnston cover though. Among many other things.
• I thought revisiting Yellow House by Grizzly Bear would make me love it but I still didn't think it was all that special. I don't know why, I think I'm supposed to like it but it sounds too fussed over for me. I think I like their next album more though.
• I didn't get Ta-Dah by Scissor Sisters until later in life even though I was a fan of their first album and got subsequent albums. Just the idea of them not doing dance music didn't seem appealing to me. But of course it is a great album. Like good Queen songs kind of?
• Hank III's best album is probably Straight to Hell. That hidden 42 minute track is something that just has to be heard.
• Hot Chip! So good!
• More amazing women! Bat For Lashes! Joanna Newsom! Neko Case! Gossip! Nicole Atkins (just an EP but a great EP)!
• Peter Bjorn & John! Come for the "Young Folks," stay for the rest! Stay forever!
• How about The Knife!
• Model/Actress was a project from a dude from Brainiac. It sounded great. All we got was an EP.
• I wanted to run to LCD Soundsystem's 45:33 Nike track thing but it didn't work out. Awesome set of music though.

2006 Mix From 2006:
It Was 2006
1. Gnarls Barkley "Go-Go Gadget Gospel"
2. Polysics "Toisu!"
3. Model/Actress "Wait, What?"
4. The Streets "Memento Mori"
5. Thom Yorke "The Clock"
6. Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"
7. Belle and Sebastian "Dress Up in You"
8. Yo La Tengo "Black Flowers"
9. Mr. Nogatco "Bionic Fuse"
10. Ludacris "Tell It Like It Is"
11. The Raconteurs "Intimate Secretary"
12. Loose Fur "The Ruling Class"
13. Kris Kristofferson "In The News"
14. Neil  Young "Let's Impeach the President"
15. The Gothic Archies "Shipwrecked"
16. Built to Spill "Liar"
17. TV On The Radio "Let The Devil In"
18. Sonic Youth "Incinerate"
19. The Lawrence Arms "Jumping the Shark"
20. Calexico "All Systems Red"
21. Johnny Cash "Rose of My Heart"

It Was 2006: The Women (I really do apologize for doing it this way!)
1. Cat Power "Empty Shell"
2. The Dresden Dolls "Sex Changes"
3. Peaches "Two Guys (For Every Girl)"
4. CSS "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above"
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Gold Lion"
6. Lady Sovereign "Public Warning"
7. The Pipettes "We Are The Pipettes"
8. Neko Case "John Saw That Number"
9. Nina Nastasia "Our Day Trip"
10. Lily Allen "LDN"
11. Katharine Whalen "Want You Back"
12. Outkast featuring Janelle Monae "Call The Law"
13. Beth Orton "Shopping Trolley"
14. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins "Rabbit Fur Coat"
15. El Perro Del Mar "Dog"
16. Joanna Newsom "Monkey & Bear"
17. Cat Power & Karen Elson "I Love You (Me Either)"

Next Time:
2007 has long been declared my favorite year of music. Was it just because I was at such a level of consumption that I discovered a lot of great albums then, or was it actually that good? Without even looking ahead...of Montreal, Battles, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Jesca Hoop, Shellac, LCD Soundsystem, Animal Collective, Talib Kweli, M.I.A., Okkervil River...

An Ear For An Era: 2005

I am very well aware that 2005 was a decade ago. That weighed on my mind as I went through this. 2005 was arguably the best year of my adult life personally. I went through a whirlwind and came out on the other side something resembling a grown up.

2005 was the year I...

• Completed my final film for school
• Graduated from said school
• Moved in with my sister
• Got this very computer I'm typing on right now (it's damned ancient)
• I was trying to log on to myspace to see if I posted my year-end list thing there at the time...and now...my computer is too out-of-date for myspace! 
• Using my phone, it appears that the blog entries might not even be available anymore on myspace, just old pictures and top 8s.
• I could now potentially just sort the music by "date added" and be even more granular in when stuff comes on and all that! Weird! I don't think I'm gonna do it, too many complications. But still weird!
• Joined the hipster scene with the kickball and the dancing and the dancing some more
• Met some of my best friends
• Got that full-time gig at the Internet TV station
• Moved into my first studio apartment in Denver
• Met my wife
• Went on our first date
• All that jazz.

I remember in college I kept thinking I was doing it all wrong. I did not party, I did not drink until I was 21, I just went to class and didn't have many friends. Spent a lot of evenings alone. Went to a lot of shows at least. Then senior year I finally started hanging out with the friends I should have been hanging out with the whole time. But really, when people refer to college as "the best  years of [their] life," I just thought I wasn't having the fun I was supposed to be having. But then the summer of 2005, when the freedom just hit me, that was when I had that experience. Out of school, paying very little rent to my sister, working for very little money but it was okay (and having a crazy schedule, 4am-noon), going out multiple times per week, it was a very good year.

Is it time to talk about music now? I am scared of doing this.  I started listening to 2005 a month and a half ago. It took awhile. There was a lot. So I apologize if I'm short-worded on some of this stuff. Some of it was so long ago.

It was a pretty significant year in music. If 2003 was the end of my punk/"emo" dominated days, 2004 was the big dance year, then 2005 was when I went full hipster with the indie rock. But still lots of dancing. Lots of indie dance rock, if you will. So let's start there.

Remember Datarock? They were goofy. But "Computer Camp Love" was fun and quoted Revenge of the Nerds. Witching Hour by Ladytron had the hit "Destroy Everything You Touch." They ended up having a lot of really great songs. I also closely associate Goldfrapp with them. Supernature was one of their bigger hits. Both of those groups had already established themselves over the years before and had mature albums, great craft, and just kind of owned the synthy indie dance stuff in 2005. Fischerspooner held up surprisingly well. Or it was just coasting on my nostalgia. But Odyssey was fully entertaining to listen to all the way through. The Juan Maclean's got a groove for sure. But of course there's the other half of the DFA coin...LCD Soundsystem just blew the whole thing up for me. Their debut self-titled full length was such a blast of fresh beats. I kind of got sick of the inescapable single "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" but upon revisiting it, it makes me want to jump all over the dance floor with all my friends. But the rest of the album is great. "Movement" is a great rock song, and the beat to "Thrills" will get stuck in your feet.


My second favorite album of the year was even less of an album than my #1 (to be seen later in this entry). It was a single! Kind of a double sided single. Two songs available only on this single. And both covers. Okay, enough teasing. !!! put out a cover of The Magnetic Fields' "Take Ecstasy With Me" backed by a cover of Nate Dogg's "Get Up." And it took everything I loved about !!! into two separate but equal directions. I've given both of the songs five stars. The most consistent the band has been (not that consistency over two songs is a great accomplishment). "Take Ecstasy With Me" takes the essence of the Magnetic Fields song and spaces it out and turns it into a real ecstatic experience. Then "Get Up" is a pure party track with a huge build to a huge ecstatic climax.

 

!!! "Get Up"

Metric was a favorite of my wife's. "Monster Hospital" is a pretty undeniably awesome track. I liked the new New Order album Waiting for the Sirens' Call..."Krafty" showed that they still could pack a dance floor.


And just like, indie indie. You know? Indie like indie rock or whatever. One song that persisted in my brain for weeks after hearing it here was this one:

The Decemberists "16 Military Wives"

It's just so damn catchy and beyond that, it demonstrated to me the power of a great protest song that didn't have to be punk rock. It can be catchy pop folk music. I remember we played this video a lot. But this time, listening to it again, it just reminded me of my rage over the Iraq war and it just fired me up. And made me mad about it all over again. That is one powerful song. The rest of the album is quite good but that song in particular wouldn't get out of my head. And now I'm listening to it again so that's sure to happen again. I forgot to put the band's name in here to bold it. The Decemberists. Great group.

When Sufjan Stevens released Illinois, I was concerned with one thing: how could I make money off this thing? See, right before the album came out there were news reports about a last minute change to the cover art, and how for copyright reasons they were trying to recall the cover art that included an image of Superman. There were stories of the version with Superman going for lots of money on eBay. And I went to my favorite local record store and there was the version with Superman! So I bought a few copies and left them unopened. Then I heard the album was good so I opened one copy for myself. Then I found out that the Superman version was really not that rare, just the first pressing. So I had a few extra copies. Luckily, I had a few friends to give them to. The moral of the story? Buy this album (with or without Superman on the cover). Because it is amazing, as many know. It's not some big secret. An album of folk songs accented by lush orchestral arrangements. Some of the saddest songs and some of the most joyous. All beautiful. And since Illinois, every major album he has put out has been nothing short of a masterpiece. This is where it started for me. I'm glad I hatched my hair-brained money making scheme because it ended with me having a copy of this album.

Sufjan Stevens "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead! Ahhh!"

In early 2005, since I was kind of keeping track of when music came out, I reluctantly let Bright Eyes be my first 2005 album. It's always such an honor in my mind, being the one that kicks off the music of that year for me. I'd always been pretty skeptical of Bright Eyes, but I liked Desaparecidos so I figured I'd check out his "electronic" type album Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. You know, anything to kind of mask the whiny voice because I can admit that he is a good lyricist and songwriter, I just couldn't stand that voice. But he has gotten better at that and later in the year I learned from my new girlfriend that his folky album (he put out the same day) I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning was actually a better album and showed a new level of maturity and has a bunch of really good songs on it. Fine, Bright Eyes. You win.

And Okkervil River. Black Sheep Boy was kind of the peak of their slower, folkier period. I would become a huge fan on the next one when it was a bit more rock, but going back to Black Sheep Boy is such a pleasure. Just absolutely brilliant.

A guy in my film class found out I liked The Pixies so he realized I had impeccable taste in music. Once when we were at the hipster bar he was telling me about Spoon, and how I HAD to check out Gimme Fiction because it is just amazingly amazing. I listened to him and got the album. And then couldn't get away from "I Turn My Camera On" at work. But still. I'm glad I got it because he turned me on to who may be the most consistently great band in indie rock.

Another consistently great band in indie rock is Sleater-Kinney. This year (2015) there was all that hype around their new album, their first since 2005. And the hype was justified because it is simply amazing and they didn't lose a beat over those 10 years off. But The Woods, that's...also simply amazing. I think they are one of the truly great guitar based bands of our time. By guitar based I mean really guitar based. They use it as more than just filler or a necessary sound...they really make the guitar mean something and it's just so much fun to hear. I probably could have written that better. But they couldn't have written The Woods better (see what I did there? Lazy, I know).

The album I ended up voting as my #1 of the year was an odd choice. An EP that wasn't particularly groundbreaking but just had two artists combine their visions into one in such a perfect way. I'm talking about Iron & Wine and Calexico and their collaborative EP In The Reins. I'd gone into it as an Iron & Wine fan. They also had the Woman King EP this year which had them incorporating a lot more sounds into the once minimalist folk music. I was familiar with Calexico, but on the strength of this EP I became a big fan, particularly in every album they put out going forward. But what was it about this EP that drew me in so strongly?  Just the perfect compliment of Iron & Wine's lyrics and vocals with the southwestern flavor of Calexico's instrumentation? It's even a subtle thing for the most part. A slide guitar here, some moody atmospheric percussion there. Calexico's not stepping on anyone's toes. Sam Beam has a delicate voice and they compliment it just perfectly.

Calexico and Iron & Wine "Sixteen, Maybe Less"

CocoRosie followed up their great debut with Noah's Ark. The album itself was a small disappointment for me personally. Like my idea of what the band should sound like, how they should evolve, was different from the direction they evolved into. In retrospect it is a solid album, but when I first heard the single "Noah's Ark" before the album came out, I loved it so much and the rest of the album couldn't live up to it. Here is my ideal version of CocoRosie:

CocoRosie "Noah's Ark"

The joy of The New Pornographers on Twin Cinema, it doesn't get much better than that. Every time I hear the coda to "The Bleeding Heart Show" I can't help but bang on my steering wheel/leg/whatever's available as hard as I can and sing at the top of my lungs. So damned catchy! The dictionary definition of power pop, if you ask me. Underline the word power. And the word pop. Twice. Put a few exclamation marks at the end of it too, why not.

The White Stripes. I finally got into them with Get Behind Me Satan. I listened to that album a lot. I think at the time I didn't acquire a ton of music so what I got I listened to a lot. In the car on my daily commute. And my nightly commute back into Denver to party. You know. Anyway, I remember this album was on in my car a lot. I really liked "My Doorbell" and the video with Conan. Was that for "The Denial Twist?" I think so. Catchy songs. And lots of more low tempo songs. I liked the kiss-off vibe of "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)."

Other stuff happened too! Like hip hop!

Blackalicious released their follow-up to the brilliant The Blazing Arrow and did everything one could hope for.  Full of bangers, full of catchiness, The Craft was kind of a victory lap but in a very acceptable way. Not the cohesive, singular statement but just an expression of...the craft. Good songs. Great songs even. Fun songs. Fun Fact: this was the first album I ever ripped to this computer.

Beauty & The Beat by Edan was quite brilliant, very good recommendation (but I do need to listen to it more). 

Is this where I put Gorillaz? When Demon Days came out I felt bad for Dan the Automator but I don't know what politics or personal relationships were involved when Damon Albarn went to Danger Mouse to produce this one. I think at this point Danger Mouse was just known for The Grey Album. So Demon Days, the 2005 Gorillaz album, started his hot streak of being on top of the crossover pop world. "Feel Good Inc" and "Dare" were such hot tracks and more or less defined the year in pop music. I ended up liking it more for the darker songs (the vast majority of the album).



I guess it makes sense to use this to transition to Danger Doom. The other big Danger Mouse production of the year. I was already a fan of the Adult Swim stuff so it was just a fun, silly album to listen to that had Brak rapping on it. And Meatwad, he was pretty good. But it was also really my introduction to MF DOOM and turned out to be more than just a novelty. And Talib Kweli was on that track which was just so great and maybe that was my introduction to Talib Kweli. And Ghostface. Really it introduced me to a whole other side of hip hop.


Hey, who's this Kanye West guy? Late Registration is such a great piece, even if I got oh so sick of "Gold Digger" and Jamie Foxx doing his Ray Charles impersonation (though he was great in the movie). We should keep an eye on this dude though, I think he's going to say and do some interesting things in the public eye and if we don't pay attention he might just disappear. Seriously though, Late Registration was the last Kanye album I was late to, so it's still one I need to pay more attention to, but all of the singles are so great and there's not really a weak track on the thing.


Also Notable...

• Sharon Jones! I didn't know who she was until '07 but Natually is a good collection of throwback soul goodness.
• Similarly, Bettye LaVette!
• Common! I'd heard about him because in some American music class some classmates did a project about him and praised him for being all progressive and whatnot. So then Be came out. And it's got stellar Kanye production and that "Testify" song. We played that one a lot at the ol' station.
• Coldplay sucks! So for some reason Amazon once thought it'd be fun to charge like a buck each for their albums so I went for it. Mostly so I could have the relics when I was doing this project, this is what 2005 sounded like to the mainstream or whatever. But all I could think while this played was, why did I pay money, as little as it was, for Coldplay music? Why is this taking up space on my hard drive(s) and why is it taking up my time when I could be listening to something else? I think I'm gonna get rid of it...
• When The Buzzcocks were at the studio a Wolfmother song played and the guys liked it and asked about it. So ManiaTV!, amongst our other accomplishments, introduced Wolfmother to The Buzzcocks! Umm anyway, Wolfmother is pretty neat sounding. A better mainstreamish rock band of 2005 than stupid Coldplay.
• Jens Lekman gave away free downloads of a bunch of tour EPs and let me tell you...they have some of his catchiest material. Check out "Run Away With Me."
• Beck too, Guero might be my favorite Beck album. Certainly among the most fun he's put out.
• I liked Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta, but it was a bit tough and too proggy and it turned out to be the last Mars Volta album I actually bought.
• TV On The Radio put out a free song called "Dry Drunk Emperor" and I loved it and made everyone at work listen to it a lot.
• Animal Collective, they were on to something with Feels.
• Antony & The Johnsons, how great were they??
• Yeah Yeah of Montreal, The Sunlandic Twins. Their last album before I found out about them! "The Party's Crashing Us" is great fun though.
• Old favorites Polysics moved from Asian Man Records to Myspace Records (???) and reached a strange level of popularity and it was weird. But it resulted in them playing a show in Denver so I got to see them live, so I am super appreciative that it worked out that way. Now Is The Time isn't quite as great as Neu, but it's still a lot of fun and resulted in opportunities to introduce them to more people.
• No more Black Eyes but Hand Fed Babies, one of many offshoots, were pretty great.
• Remember that "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" song? That was ridiculous.
• Bruce Lee Band EP! Acceptable ska. But I do like their next one (just came out recently!) better.
• Kaiser Chiefs were another good "Target" band that I checked out because they were cheap at Target. Lame I know. But like Franz Ferdinand, I ended up liking it way more than I'd ever have expected.
• Speaking of Franz Ferdinand, that second album was also quite good!
• Thunderbirds Are Now! Turned out to be Jess' friends but I discovered them when they opened up for Enon. That Justamustache album is audio crack.
• Junior Senior put out a second album too! It's entertaining too!
• Bang Bang Rock & Roll by Art Brut was one of the most fun releases of the fun year, and whenever "My Little Brother" came on at Lipgloss or other such dance nights I would go so crazy. I could see myself as the little brother who just discovered rock & roll.
• When M.I.A. came out with Arular (and the infectious "Galang") I didn't know what to think. I didn't particularly care for it. But after finally "getting it" with the follow-up album, I came back to Arular and realized it was quite amazing. 
• I was just looking through the stuff from a future year and discovered that Robyn's self-titled album was actually 2005. So I then listened that. "Konichiwa Bitches" is still a huge blast to listen to. Of course, she's more known for the great progressive-ish pop of her recent Body Talk series, but the level of sass hits some dangerous levels here in '05. Irresistible.
  

EDIT: I can do this now!
2005 Mix From 2005:
It Was 2005
1. LCD Soundsystem "Daft Punk is Playing at My House"
2. Thunderbirds Are Now! "Eat This City"
3. Franz Ferdinand "Do You Want To"
4. The New Pornographers "The Jessica Numbers"
5. The Kaiser Chiefs "What Did I Ever Give You"
6. Bright Eyes "Hit the Switch"
7. CocoRosie "Noah's Ark"
8. !!! "Take Ecstasy With Me"
9. Gorillaz "O Green World"
10. Danger Doom feat. Ghostface "The Mask"
11. Blackalicious feat. Lateef & Pigeon John "Side to Side"
12. Fischerspooner "Never Win"
13. Out Hud "The Song So Good They Named It Thrice"
14. New Order "Krafty"
15. The White Stripes "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)"
16. Sufjan Stevens "Casimir Pulaski Day"
17. Calexico and Iron & Wine "Dead Man's Will"

Next Time:
Amy Winehouse's big breakout, those Arctic Monkeys, remember Bat for Lashes? And one of my favorite Belle & Sebastian albums! Beth Orton's angelic voice made me swoon. Big Bob Dylan combeback. Cursive come on back, I finally get really into The Decemberists, the crazy Gnarls Barkley, Hank III's finest moment (perhaps), The Hold Steady, Islands, Dilla's Donuts, SexyBack, The Knife, the last Lawrence Arms album for awhile, remember Lily Allen? Food & Liquor was good! Nas was hip hop's coroner, Neko Case's brilliant Fox Confessor album, Pipettes, Game Theory (!), Teddybears, Yo La Tengo is not afraid of you, and MUCH more. These are getting really long you guys.

An Ear For An Era: 2004

Oh, 2004. The year of...turning 21. The year of going out dancing all the time. The year I stopped trying to be who I wasn't and embraced some budding friendships. Stuff. Things. Dancings.

The music, I don't even know where to begin here. 2003 was kind of the last hurrah for the emo/punk phase of my life. 2004 was mostly just dancing music at this point. A big shift. Myspace days. Hipster (not yet such a bad word, at least as far as I knew) stuff. And there was just a lot of music in my library from 2004. Bear with me.

Move My Hips To Move My Heart.

In 2004 we used to go to an 18+ or All Ages (don't remember) dance night at a place whose name escapes me right now. Downtown Denver. Kind of Five Points area. I started making dance mix CDs in these days. Once we turned 21 we started going to Lipgloss, the way-too-hip dance night every Friday night. $2 Gin & Tonics and $2 PBR. In 2004 I was overwhelmed by it, thinking I wasn't cool enough. By 2005 I was comfortable enough there to dance with strangers. That place changed my life. Or maybe it was the music. Isn't this a music blog? I'll talk more about 2005 in the 2005 entry. How about that? So anyway, 2004 I was discovering the dance music genres and picking up some confidence in it.

Le Tigre's big major album This Island was very near and dear to me. I saw them live and was blown away that feminist icon Kathleen Hanna was now playing awesome dance music with the same political spirit. And the show was just so much fun...it seemed we were all going through this same transformation together. And the total protest song "New Kicks" just reminds me of the Iraq war protests and how pissed off I was about that war. I could still care about things while shifting my music focus!

!!! was the ultimate band to see live if you wanted to dance. They played at the same venue in downtown Denver mentioned above and the whole room just turned into this organic dancing thing, like it wasn't even a concert but a party. Half the time I wasn't even looking at the stage. Their album of this time Louden Up Now was a bit repetitive for my tastes but when it had the jams it really had the jams. Particularly this now-staple" I always have to stomp-stomp-clap along to that song every time I hear it.

 !!! "Me and Giuliani Down By The School Yard (A True Story)

Black Black Ocean, that ol' favorite Denver band of mine, put out their final album Eaglemaniac. Did I talk about these guys? I saw them roughly 10234 times over the course of two years. Such a confrontational live show but so much fun. The singer would walk right up to your face and after I saw them a few times I started craving this. And they picked up on that. And I got so close to this band as a fan that they asked me to video tape their reunion show a year or two later. Eaglemaniac though, how about that album? It was the one that finally captured the kind of band they were. The energy, the insanity, it's all there.

And The Scissor Sisters! Their self-titled album is a dance classic that has remained awesome over time. "Take Your Mama" and "Filthy/Gorgeous" were always going to do well at Lipgloss.

Franz Ferdinand kind of changed something for me. My acceptance of "mainstream" indie rock came about because of these guys. I'd heard one or two of their songs and dug them and back then Target had some sort of BS "up and coming" endcap with cheap CDs by bands like Franz Ferdinand. I always paid it no mind because I was punk rock and knew better than Target what bands were good. I could take recommendations from local indie record shops instead, thank you very much. But anyway, I'd heard some Franz Ferdinand and their self-titled album was on said endcap and it was only $8 or so so I gave it a shot. It had everything a dance whore like myself could want. Fire! Homoeroticism! Angular guitars with a good dance beat! Sexiness! Just enough heart! I put "This Fire" on maybe my second dance mix CD.

Based on the success of me loving that Franz Ferdinand album, I also picked up Hot Fuss by The Killers under the same general circumstances. Those singles would set that dance floor on fire ("Mr. Brightside," "Somebody Told Me") but beyond that the album didn't really resonate with  me like I'd hoped. "Midnight Show" was another good song though, if you want a deep cut.


There was also this thing called electroclash. It was this thing where hipsters would listen to a version of electronic music that just had a way of getting us all going crazy. It was weird listening to electroclash 11 years later because my mind was enjoying it in an ironic way but it was always an ironic thing. This stuff wasn't made to be taken seriously, it was made for a laugh and a good time on the dance floor. And while it is now ridiculously dated, I don't think it was ever intended to be timeless. So listening to it now it was probably just as fun as it was back then.

Miss Kittin's solo album I Com was one of the better albums in my opinion, and her song "Requiem For A Hit" became "our song" when Jess & I started dating. All irony lyrically. But a hell of a beat. Dirty Sanchez and Avenue D captured the pervy jokiness of the movement. I also had a mix called Xavier J: Electro Wave that I listened to on a run and it certainly kept me going.

Move My Hipster to Be Hipper.

I also started exploring more non-dance, non-punk indie music. Pinback's Summer in Abaddon is a lovely thing, isn't it? Iron & Wine kind of reached their apex of achievement (before they started adding more instruments to the very minimalist acoustic guitar setup) with Our Endless Numbered Days. Denver's own DeVotchKa put out a bonafide classic with How It Ends (I saw them live at Red Rocks last year, I am guessing you already know how their set ends...). Battles pre-empted their amazing debut full length (coming out in 2007!) with THREE EPs put out within a month of each other. Blonde Redhead started moving comfortably into their more "comfortable" sound on Misery Is A Butterfly, which is a sound I quite like from them.

Black Eyes blew my mind. I got their second album Cough when I was in Chicago visiting some friends. Because at that time it was still somewhat difficult to find stuff I wanted, the record store in Chicago was a big deal because I found this album. I played it for those friends and they were...as supportive as they could be. But it takes a very special person to really enjoy this album. Willfully abrasive and a guy with a really annoying voice sings about half the words. But beautiful post post hardcore (I think that's the term I went with when I'd try to describe them). I don't remember what I officially called the album of the year for 2004 but this is a distinct possibility. It awoke in me my punk rock spirit while calling on the adventurous nature of my musical journey at the time. I have only known a couple people in my lifetime who actually listened to Black Eyes and they have both been very special to me. And after this album they were done. One-Two-Done. For one of the most innovative bands in post hardcore or whatever you would call them.

I started really getting into The Magnetic Fields around this time. They had a dance remix of "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" that was suggested to me when I was making a dance mix, and based off of that I picked up the album i. That album was full of analog instruments and had a very melancholy feel which I loved. It was my first Magnetic Fields album. Then I saw them live and picked up 69 Love Songs and I was off to the races. But i is a very strong album with Merritt's trademark wit and sadness combination. If I hadn't picked the song I had for my wedding first dance (discussed in the 1999 entry), I might have gone with "It's Only Time," a lovely underutilized song about devotion. "I Looked All Over Town" is probably my favorite song on this album, about a sad clown. A very sad song about not fitting in, I remember being annoyed when I saw them live because people were laughing at the song when I took it very seriously, but I understand now. It is both. And we need to be able to laugh at pain. And this song does this in a very beautiful way. Like a sad clown. (the tragically ludicrous/the ludicrously tragic?)

The Magnetic Fields "I Looked All Over Town"

Jens Lekman seems like he looks at the world though a similar lens as Stephin Merritt, just a little less cynical and with more innocence. They have similar baritone delivery and both hit the perfect balance of humor and melancholy though. It took me a while to finally find and pick up When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog, but it has the wonderful "You Are The Light (By Which I Travel Into This and That)."


Modest Mouse found some modest success with Good News For People Who Love Bad News. It still is, front-to-back, one of my favorite albums of theirs. Biting lyrics, painfulness, clever clever words. And as much as the song "Float On" was everywhere and inescapable to the point where I started disliking it a little, a few years later I took it as an empowering anthem after getting laid off at my job. And now when I hear it that's all I think of.


I didn't get Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens until recently even though the first song I ever heard by him was "To Be Alone With You." It was a highlight on a mix from my friend Christy. But I didn't really explore him until Illinois (story coming next entry!). My wife walked down the aisle to "The Dress Looks Nice On You" though. Because it was perfect. He is very good at the folk thing.

That same mix included a song called "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" by this new band called Arcade Fire. I heard it in December of 2004. The major standout to the mix, I had to ask more questions about this band. The song was just so full of passion that it kind of reminded me of The Broadways in a weird way. So it went from obsession with this song, to checking out the album Funeral (and finding out it was a big big deal in the indie world, probably the #1 album of the year by "indie consensus" if that's a thing), to being pretty obsessed with the whole album and inserting myself into that indie rock culture. I was kind of an outsider when I approached this stuff after knowing everything about everything punk rock. It was a fun adventure.

Arcade Fire "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"

Oh and 2004 was also the year I first got into a new Sonic Youth album. Speaking of an outsider learning about indie rock. Sonic Nurse was their latest at the time and I got it and loved it a lot. Kind of had the band heading in a similar direction to Blonde Redhead mentioned above. A little less abrasive but still passionate and energetic and experimental.

My previous investments in the awesomeness of Touch & Go Records continued to pay dividends. I got the track "Good Friday" by CocoRosie for free off their website and then eventually was able to find their debut album La Maison de mon Reve somewhere in Denver. Something I looked for everywhere but was hard to find back then. A really cool mix of art and hip hop beats and melody...CocoRosie would slowly evolve over time, but not quite in the direction I'd hoped. I still love them though. This album is very cool.

And then there was my real actual probably #1 album of the year. If not Cough, it had to have been Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes by a certain TV On The Radio. They felt like my band, like my discovery. My secret. I also discovered them via Touch & Go Records and they filled a void for me. Something completely unique and not really like anything else I listened to at the time. I always speak in hyperbole when I speak of this band because I really do think they are the best band of this century. And it really started here. Or that EP from 2003. Maybe there. But here is where they started for me. A combination of spacey minimalist instrumentals (with maximalist portions when appropriate) and soulful vocals. I know the fact that they were on the jukebox at the hipster bar we went to means I wasn't the first/only person to know them, but I still felt pretty cool when I played them on said jukebox on a crowded Thursday night (Thursday night was the big party night in Boulder) and confused the hell out of everyone. The song was "Ambulance," their a capella love song, which may have not been the best song for partying. But I just really wanted my friends to hear it and that was the best way to do that. But that's not the song I'm going to post here because another song has eclipsed it. They opened a show back then, I think maybe election day 2004? The line was so long I couldn't get in until their last song. But I caught the last song and at that moment it was the best thing I'd ever heard live. It is everything TV On The Radio does well at its best. A perfect song that gets stuck in my head for days. (note: I am really sorry about the image below. Thanks, whoever put this on Youtube, for finding it necessary to use such an image!)

TV On The Radio "Poppy"

Old Reliable.

Elvis Costello continued to deliver with The Delivery Man. I remember being a sucker because I went and bought this album on CD at the local independent record store for something like $17.00 and then seeing it at Target or Best Buy or whatever for less than $10. But I was supporting something important, man! This album was yet another left turn from his previous (When I Was Cruel), and while I didn't love it quite as much I still have a lot of affection for it. It introduced me to the voice of Emmylou Harris, who provided some beautiful guest vocals on a couple tracks. It told a story. It was heartbreaking in places. Like here.

Elvis Costello featuring Emmylou Harris "Heart Shaped Bruise"

The best album of the year was probably technically this 40-years-in-the-making one. Brian Wilson finally finished Smile! I feel like I kind of talked about it with Smiley Smile and all that stuff back then but I have to talk about it a little bit here. But everyone knows what he did. It just turned out so damn good! It felt great to listen to even when Colorado was experiencing a ridiculously rainy May. I could feel the sunshine and the harmonies were just Wonderful.

And On and on.

• Milk Man is a great Deerhoof album that I just recently acquired and have only listened to a couple times.
• A Ghost Is Born shows Wilco going full on experimental. It's pretty great from the right mood (country Wilco just puts you in the mood).
• I got Love Everybody by The Presidents of the United States of America because I have been a long-time fan but only a few of the songs have that element I love about them. But "Some Postman" and "Jennifer's Jacket" are quite good.
• Asian Man Records got into the "indie rock" stuff outside of the usual ska and punk with a very cool rhythmic album by Colossal called Welcome the Problems.
• The Roots and Mos Def kind of put out forgettable-ish albums (compared to everything else either artist has put out!).
• The Grey Album was pretty neat, I wish it sounded a little more Beatlesy though. Not that that was super possible when mixing them with hip hop.
• The Black & Blue Album was a Weezer-Jay-Z mashup, which was also pretty neat, though messy in places. It did have a bonus track "99 Luft Problems" which is pretty much my favorite mashup ever.
• I didn't discover Feist until The Reminder a couple years later, but her debut album Let It Die was pretty neat. I love her cover of "Inside And Out" by The Beegees. I had it played at my wedding.
• That Loretta Lynn album produced by Jack White was neat!
• Madvillainy was rad too. And MM...Food. That MF Doom guy is a reasonably talented dude!
• Super xx Man is great singer songwriter stuff. I particularly recommend 2004's Vol. IV: My Usual Way.
• The Descendents came back after another 8 years off! Cool To Be You was...interesting. I liked a couple of the tracks but I'd just as easily stick with their early stuff.
• The Good Life put out Album of the Year so that was neat.
• Some kid called Kanye West released his debut album. I did not care at the time. Pretty good listen though.
• The Streets. "Fit But You Know It." Another dance floor staple.
• The Go! Team! I got into them a year or two later when they opened for The Flaming Lips at Red Rocks! Rad band!
• Hanalei saw Brian Moss from The Wunder Years and The Ghost expanding into a more personal territory.
• Annie! Anniemal! Swedish pop is the best pop.

Next Time:

2005 was probably the best year of my life. I will try to fit in some music discussion with that.

Stanley Film Festival 2015 In Review

This year I was a very lucky man and my wife got us fancy passes to the 2015 Stanley Film Festival in Estes Park. It was this past weekend and it was one of the awesomest experiences of my life. Hanging out with genre film nerds and people that make such genre films, seeing tons of movies that haven't been available to the public as of yet, and just hanging around the historic Stanley Hotel all contributed to that. I'm going to spend the bulk of this entry talking about the movies to hopefully help spread the word about them and contribute in my own small way toward their success. And really, it's all about the movies.

But let me also quickly mention things like the great parties. Bands like Snake Rattle Rattle Snake played, which was super cool. And the awards brunch included such high concepts as our Saw table, requiring us to locate a key hidden in a dummy's mouth to get our silverware and our Re-Animator biscuits & gravy included an awesome green hot sauce in a syringe just because. And if they count as parties, all the other immersive/interactive things going on, it was more than a film festival. It was a full weekend of insanity.

And the people! Jess is quite good at striking up conversations with people at the festival, finding common ground in our obvious similar obsessions with horror movies. Just talking about movies with other people that developed toward the same obsessions over different time periods, talking about other interests, it seemed like everyone was generally easier to talk to there than in the real world. I miss that already.

Oh and being star struck because I don't get to meet a lot of heroes, but there were so many filmmakers in attendance. For every movie we saw but two, at least the writer or director was in attendance for a Q&A after the screening. The insight on the creative process was so inspiring that I am starting to think that I can maybe make at least a short myself someday soon. And submit it to various festivals. And use that to get funding for a real live, honest movie! And start a career and all that. Some directors seemed awesome (particularly Karyn Kusama and Todd Geoghegan) and some seemed somewhat douchey (not going to call them out here) but it was always interesting and inspiring to hear them talk about their craft.

What a great way to segue into the movies themselves! I'll just write a little bit about each one I saw and maybe be more obvious about recommending things that I feel should be recommended. Which is most of what I saw, but some more passionately than others.

Day One: April 30
The opening night film was Cooties, produced by Elijah Wood's SpectreVision. Goofy horror comedy. We saw a lot of goofy horror comedy, which is kind of our main subgenre of "horror" anyway. This had an all star comedy cast including Elijah Wood, Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson, and more (you can look at imdb for such details) and was about teachers surviving a crazy zombie-like outbreak amongst the students. Without giving too much away, there is a lot of kid killin' in the most tasteful way possible. I will highly recommend this when it comes out. I gave it 4 out of 5.

Day Two: May 1
We showed up over an hour early to see Director's Commentary: Terror of Frankenstein. We did not need to do this. We could have easily seen another movie before hand. But with the legendary Leon Vitali in attendance I figured it would be much more popular than it turned out to be. The concept was an odd one: a made up director's commentary track on a DVD for a real movie from the 70s revealing a very strange and tragic string of events (paralleling the story of Frankenstein in its own way) happening behind the scenes. A bit better in theory than in practice, it was still a very interesting concept and a bizarre experience.

Then we got to the main theater for The Invitation. Very anxious and stressful, very good at keeping you guessing, maybe more thriller/drama than horror film but very well executed. This is the new one from Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Jennifer's Body) so I'm sure you'll be seeing it somewhere soon enough. I gave this one a 4 as well.

We only saw three films on Friday due to needing to eat and not seeing one before Terror of Frankenstein. So after dinner and hanging out in the lounge, we made our way to the midnight(ish) movie of the night, Deathgasm. I'd watch it again because it was quite entertaining but I can't give it the greatest rating for a couple reasons. As funny and gory as it was (New Zealand horror comedy), a couple things seemed a little derivative (using a chainsaw...) and disingenuous (it's about a metal fan but it felt like the writer didn't really care about/fully understand metal music and this is coming from someone who doesn't fully understand metal music). But overall, it's a silly comedy and worked great as a midnight(ish) movie. It's not exactly asking to be judged on very high standards. I think I gave it 3.

Day Three: May 2
We started our day at the oldest movie theater in the country (that was originally built as a movie theater) with a world premiere (much of the cast in attendance!) of Some Kind of Hate. The first real horror movie in a way. Very violent, pretty serious, and the second movie in a row that included an instance of a metal head introducing a cool/popular girl to metal music and her life being changed. Is that a common fantasy amongst high school metal heads? Anyway. This reminded both of us of Carrie. The drama factor wasn't as strong as the film wanted it to be, but the horror aspect was great.

We stayed at the old theater for a 35mm print of the classic film Re-Animator. Neither of us had seen it, shamefully enough. But we can no longer say that. Director Stuart Gordon was in attendance to receive the Master of Horror award (an axe, of course) and he sat in the same row as us! And Barbara Crampton presented it to him! What an experience this film was, I don't know how we never made our way to seeing that one in our annual October tradition, but luckily that has been remedied. I don't think I need to say much about this other than the fact that the final act is one of the most amazing displays of ridiculous gore I've ever seen.

We made our way over to the closing night presentation of The Final Girls. Another horror comedy, this one is super meta, think Sherlock Jr. meets Friday the 13th. Or an elaborate episode of Community. Without saying too much, it was quite funny, not quite scary, and surprisingly quite touching. Almost everybody we talked to loved it, I gave it 5 out of 5 stars, and I highly recommend it when it comes out later this year. But it was also the best possible crowd for this type of film, I'm not sure how it would land without having such an enthusiastic crowd. The other concern I must bring up is that one person we talked to that didn't love it. He hated it. He felt like it was too cheeky, that it was making fun of old stupid horror movies and their tropes. I took it as a harmless tribute made with love of the genre, but apparently a small percentage of the audience may not see it the same way.

Day Four: May 3
On the last day we had to see as many movies as we could. Meaning two before we had to head back home to the real world. After the awesome brunch alluded to above, we made our way to see We Are Still Here. The other "real" horror movie we saw. Another one I really don't want to say much about for fear of ruining your experience, I'll just say that it is a haunted house movie, it stars the legendary Barbara Crampton, and it has some amazing amazing practical effects and gore. Maybe the scariest movie we saw all weekend as well. I wanted to give this one a 5 (and kind of regretted giving The Final Girls a 5 the night before) because it was just so great, so mature (particularly for a first time director!) so scary, so mysterious and intriguing enough that I want to re-visit it when it comes out to the public. Unfortunately for some reason we didn't get ballots to vote for this one. See this movie when you can. It was my favorite. Just love.

And finally we caught When Animals Dream. A movie about a werewolf in Denmark. That description made me want to see it in hopes that it would be somewhat similar to Let the Right One In. And I guess it was. Subtle, dramatic, and very Nordic. It really reminded me of the great films I watched in my Nordic Film & Lit class. Like The Match Factory Girl except she turns into a werewolf. I gave it a 4. Just a great depiction of sadness and repression and...well you can probably imagine but you should see it for yourself anyway. It's got the same distributor as Let the Right One In so it'll probably make its way to theaters soon enough.

That is a lot of high ratings. There were some fantastic films. And many we were not able to see. Such is the nature of such things. I want to go back next year. And I highly recommend genre lovers do so as well. It is getting more and more popular and it will probably be crazy. Maybe they'll eventually have to expand it to a full week!