Friday, December 21, 2007

Albums I Bought and Liked in 2007

Far from comprehensive, this list doesn't even represent all the new albums I wanted to hear in 2007. And there were plenty of things I didn't want to hear this year. Nevertheless:

Baroness: The Red Album (myspace) (eMusic) Metal album of the year!

Charles Walker and the Dynamites: Kaboom! (myspace) (eMusic) Funk album of the year!

Future of the Left: Curses (myspace) (eMusic) Album that finally brought back two thirds of McLusky... of the year!

Grand Atlantic: This Is (myspace) (eMusic) Power pop album of the year!

Kristen Hersh: Learn to Sing Like a Star (stream it here) (eMusic) Singer songwriter album of the year!

High Tension Wires: Midnight Cashier (myspace) (eMusic) Punk pop album of the year!

The Jai Alai Savant: Flight of the Bass Delegate (myspace) (stream it here) Album that everybody overlooked of the year!

Midnight Movies: Lion the Girl (myspace) (KCRW) (eMusic) Album that helped tide me over waiting for the next Duke Spirit record... of the year!

The National: Boxer (myspace) (eMusic) One of the only albums I liked this year that appears on everybody else's top album of the year list!

Nina Nastasia and Jim White: You Follow Me (myspace) (eMusic) Singer songwriter and drummer collaboration of the year!

Numbers: Now You Are This (myspace) (eMusic) Album that was better than Weirdo Rippers... of the year!

Plumerai: Without Number (Silber Records) (eMusic) (archive.org) Shoegaze meets East European album of the year!

FAVORITE SINGLES OF THE YEAR: "What You Need" by Galactic (with Lyrics Born). Download here.

"It's Getting Boring by the Sea" by the Blood Red Shoes (courtesy of Warped Reality). Download here.

"Adrenaline" by Emma Pollock. Download here.

FAVORITE REISSUES: Young Marble Giants Colossal Youth and Pylon Gyrate Plus

MANY HAPPY RETURNS: Bad Brains, Buffalo Tom, McRad, Meat Puppets

ALBUM I GOT, BUT I DIDN'T QUITE GET: No Age - Weirdo Rippers

PREDICTION FOR 2008: Burial's Untrue will be the equivalent of Moby's Play for this decade. (Don't believe me? Wait til you hear it in car commercials.)

12/21/2007 09:30:00 AM 4 Comments

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Giftmas

The lack of activity around here is pathetic, I know, and am duly sorry. Life has been busy. The wife just got home from a major tuneup of her mysterious lady parts. And it's the season for all of my favorite pagan holidays: first Halloween, then Turkeyween, and soon Giftmas will be here.

The wife's night in hospital was thankfully uneventful, and the children spent the night their grandparents, for which I am grateful, and which provided me with the rare occasion to Read a Good Book. It was A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon, which was recommended to me by Piehammer.

Among my family members I am infamous for burying my nose in books, although this is a matter in which Perception trumps Reality, because in truth I read far fewer books than my wife, my son, my parents or my brother. And every holiday season I am disdained by my family because all I want for Giftmas is music. Some of my own kin will go so far as to buy me anything but music. And then they ask me what I want, which essentially is to say, "Other than the only thing you want in the world, what else would you like?"

If you are reading this, and you are related to me by blood or marriage, hear me now: I have transcended the desire for all material things, except those which spin around and make pleasant noises. And books about the people who make things that spin around and make pleasant noises. Actually, I do like fruitcake. But that's it. So here is my Giftmas list for 2008:

Machine Gun Etiquette by the Damned (the 2004 release on Chiswick with bonus tracks)

Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth (the 2007 two disc deluxe edition)

The Pretenders by the Pretenders (the 2006 two disc reissue on Rhino)

Any Other City by Life Without Buildings ($12 postpaid via Paypal!)

The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting (the book by Jim Walsh)

Hot Snakes t-shirt, XXL please.

12/05/2007 10:58:00 AM 7 Comments