Best Music of 2012

Dec 192012
 

Apparently the only thing elbuzzard.com is going to be used for is to post a Best Music list once a year, so that Jimmy Valentine can find it 6 months later.  I’m ok with that.

Here’s my Best Albums of 2012:

1. Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself - This is Andrew Bird’s best album since The Mysterious Production of Eggs.  It’s also the only album that I really listened to consistently throughout the whole year.  The others’ popularity came and went of the course of the year.

2. Feufollet – En Couleurs - Yes, it’s a zydeco album.  Yes, it’s in Cajun French.  Yes, it did not come out in 2012, that’s just when I discovered it.  I listened to this repeatedly while I dug up my backyard and worked on my shed.  It’s great digging in the backyard music.

3. Christeene – Waste Up, Kneez Down - For some reason, I thought I had put this on last year’s best of list, but it did in fact come out in 2012.  Maybe it was on my mid-year best of list.  No matter.  I’m not just putting this on here for Paul’s sake, I do actually think it is my third favorite album of 2012.  I love the corny, in-your-face music, especially on Bustin’ Brown.

4. Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls - I was really into this album when it came out early in the year.  I had read an article in Garden & Gun about them, and then all of a sudden they were everywhere.  Now, at the end of the year, I haven’t listened to them in months, or heard about the band anywhere.  I did give the album a re-listen a little while ago, and it’s a good album.

5. First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar - Country music from Sweden or some other Norse country.  Emmylou is great song.

6. Theresa Andersson – Street Parade - I didn’t care for this at first, I thought it was slow and boring.  It crept up on me though, mostly as I listened to it as background music at work and I found myself liking parts of the album that I didn’t like before.

7. Dr. John – Locked Down – Koster claims that this is just a Dr. John album at it’s core.  He’s right, but Dr. John has been putting out a lot of uninspired albums for many years.  This is a Dr. John album in the vein of Desitively Bonnaroo and Gris-Gris.  In other words, good Dr. John the Night Tripper, not bad Dr. John and The Studio Musicians Sing All the NOLA Standards Again.

8. Menomena – Moms – It’s a Menomena album.  It’s not great, but if you like Menomena, then here’s their album, which sounds just like them.

9. Muse – The 2nd Law - I’m ready to be mocked for including this.  This is some seriously corny music.  The singer’s falsetto screams make me laugh every time.  I would love to hear Muse do a cover of Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime.  I grew up on Operation: Mindcrime.  I love this over-blown, self-serious crap.

 

This year’s music had a theme: Get Ready to Be Disappointed by Phoned-In Performances.

Here’s a list of the biggest disappointments:

The xx – Coexist – I have an idea: Let’s take all the dynamism that made the debut album great and cover it up with string sections!

Titus Andronicus – Local Business – I have an idea: Let’s copy Bruce Springsteen because we are from New Jersey and so is he!

How to Dress Well – Total Loss – I have an idea: The record company says we have to make another album, let’s just noodle around in the studio for a couple days.

Frank Ocean – Channel Orange – I have an idea: Let’s get every trendy music blog to rave about Frank Ocean because he signs R&B songs about being gay, and they won’t even notice that the album is actually really shitty, rambling, dull R&B songs about being gay.

Brent & Kent’s Best Songs of 2011

Jan 032012
 

The Annual Combo List of our favorite songs, ranked and averaged.

Top 20:

 

1. Sadness Is a Blessing – Lykke Li
2. Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out – The Antlers
3. Rolling In The Deep – Adele
4. Hanging From a Hit – Okkervil River
5. The Words That Maketh Murder – PJ Harvey
6. California – EMA
6. Two Cousins – Slow Club
8. Carrying the Torch – Generationals
9. Shangri-La – YACHT
10. Walking Far From Home – Iron & Wine
11. Go Outside – Cults
12. My Mistakes – Eleanor Friedberger
13. Runner Ups – Kurt Vile
14. Wicked Games – The Weeknd
14. Dust Bowl III – Other Lives
16. The Last Goodbye – The Kills
16. Hate Me Soon – Yellow Ostrich
18. Sleep – The Dodos
19. Lovers Lane – Hunx & His Punx
20. Serve the People – Handsome Furs
20. Meantime – Givers
22. Would You Say Stop? – Acid House Kings
22. Deep Oblivion – David Lowery
24. I Miss My Friend – Madeline
24. Civilian – Wye Oak
26. I Was There – The War on Drugs
27. Spitting Blood – Wu Lyf
28. Drover – Bill Callahan
29. Tina Said – Those Darlins
29. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea – Byé Lai Mar – This one isn’t in the playlist above, because it is cooler than you.
31. Mr. Know It All – Kelly Clarkson
31. The Hunt – Youth Lagoon

Best Music of 2011

Dec 092011
 

Kent’s Best of:

Legitimately Good Albums

  • Okkervil River – I Am Very Far – After two less-than-memorable releases, Okkervil River pulls it together.  They’ve finally got the “rock n roll” sound they were trying for on The Stage Names down, yet there is plenty of rambling woe is me Okkervil River songs as well.  Pity that the best song, Mermaid, was only released as a single.
  • Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo – Brent thought it was odd that I would like this album so much, due to its lyrics of woe, and I thought it was odd that he would like it so much, due to its guitar virtuosity.  Kurt Vile does both things really well.  I like that the guy has such a terrible voice (All my favorite singers couldn’t sing).  I like the too lazy to be punk aesthetic.  I like that just about every episode of my new favorite terrible TV show, Revenge, has a song off this album in it.
  • Tom Waits – Bad as Me – Like Okkervil River, Tom Waits has been putting out some crummy albums of late.  I suppose I shouldn’t say crummy, because Tom Waits and Okkervil River’s crap is way better than most other bands best efforts.  Anyway, this is Tom Waits’ best work since Mule Variations.  I like the way each song goes in it’s own direction, rather than the unified sound of Real Gone.

Good Albums That Aren’t As Good As The Legitimately Good Albums, But Are Still Pretty Good.

  • Generationals – Actor-Caster – Generationals make a strange kind of music.  It’s nostalgic pop, but with a synthesizer twinge.  It’s like they have taken samples of old music and stitched them together.  The guitar sounds like it is straight out of the 60s.  The production is great, and they have a great ear for adding odd instruments to the mix without overdoing it. I had 3 chances to go see them this year, and did not make a single one, and I regret that.  I think their biggest accomplishment is being a New Orleans band that doesn’t sound like a New Orleans band.
  • The Antlers – Burst Apart – Once you make a great concept album, I feel like you have to keep on making concept albums.  It just seems weird to not over-analyze an Antlers album as a whole.
  • Other Lives – Tamer Animals – Apparently they have another album that sounds just like this one.  I must have had it at some point, because Brent has it.  Apparently it didn’t survive the yearly purge of crappy music.  The three song stretch of Tamer Animals, Bust Bowl III, and Weather is just fantastic reverb-y goodness.
  • Yellow Ostrich – The Mistress – I love a lo-fi sound.  I love recorded loops.  I love harmonies.  Naturally, I really enjoy Yellow Ostrich’s weirdo album.  All the songs are pretty much the same, but the sound is fantastic.

Albums that have one or two really good songs on them, and a bunch of filler.

  • Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean
  • Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
  • EMA – Past Life of Martyred Saints
  • The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient

Albums with a great sound that don’t have any great songs on them

  • Wu Lyf – Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
  • The Dodos – No Color

Album that would have been on this list had Kurt Vile not come around
and said “This is how you do it”

  • Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
Brent’s best of:
10) Slow Club:Paradise- I had a bunch of albums tied for 10th, at the end, it was either this, or Those Darlin’s.  Slow Club won because the first song, Two Cousins, is so good.  It gets me excited for the whole album.  It never tops the opener.  But especially as a sophomore effort, I really think they did a bang-up job.9) Allo Darlin’: Allo Darlin’- This came out in 2010, and has the worst name I can think of for a band.  So that was two strikes right there.  But it’s sweet and clever in the way that Belle and Sebastian or Camera Obscura can be.  Horrible name.  It bears repeating.8) Adele:21- There are some lousy songs on this thing, but it also includes two songs that could be the song of the year for me.  And several others that might be in that category if they were in the shadow of the Rolling in the Deep and Someone Like You. And I love the concept of Adele being a popstar who outsold like everyone else this year.7)  The Weeknd:House of Balloons- I am the last person that should be liking this album, and I’m sure I don’t get all its references, but it won me over.  It sounds like 1990’s R&B to me, but I’m sure I have that wrong.  Much more than the sum of its parts.6) Hunx & His Punx:Too Young to Be in Love – Phil Spector girl-group songs sung by a gay!  Where do I sign up?  I loved this album.  Pure joy.  And then they whip out this raspy-voiced lady singer!  Even better.

5) The Anlers:Burst Apart – Their last album, Hospice, was great, but sounded lousy.  This album is good but it sounds great.  The Antlers make great songs.  Every Nigh My Teeth Are Falling Out.  Come on.

4) Lykki Li:Wounded Rhymes – Any of these next three could be my number one album.  Lykki Li is like 20 or something.  It’s crazy how good these songs are when you consider how young she is.  There seems to be a real trend of retreading Phil Spector.  But her Sadness is a Blessing is the only take on it that expanded on it in any way.  Love Out of Lust is going to be one of my favorite songs as long as I am in love.  Rich Kid Blues and Get Some should be on the radio.

3)  Cults:Cults – Okay, I take that back.  I think the Cults reference the Spector sound and they do some good stuff with it indirectly.  Go Outside is one of my favorite songs of the year, which is unfortunate because it was released last year.  The album is 2011 however, and songs like You Know What I Mean and Bumper grew on me all year.  Kent hit the head on the nail.  This is next what seems to be a constant line of noise guy/girl singer bands (Sleigh Bells, Crystal Castles).

2) Generationals:Actor-Castor/Trust – I’m lopping together the EP and the album because both were excellent.  I wanted like the dickens to put as my number one entry.  But the only problem with this band – it’s fundamental to them and I don’t think they should change it –  their lyrics don’t mean anything to me.  So you have these unbelievably songs and pretty good production, but the words don’t take me anywhere.  Which is a shame.  It was by far the best tunes of the year in my opinion.  Yes, I just said tunes.

1) Okkervil River:I Am Very Far/Mermaid –   I love this band, and this is their best work since Black Sheep Boy.  Also, as Kent pointed out to me last month, the Mermaid Single is a real piece of work too.  Will Scheff is kind of a jerk, as I learned this year.  But I will take his lyrics over almost anyone at this point.  And they take enough left turns musically to make it an interesting album in that regard as well.

Find this same information here, at Brent’s blog: http://iloveyou2themax.blogspot.com/2011/12/best-albums-of-2011.html

Still to come: The Best Songs of 2011 List

What happened?

Mar 032011
 

Something happened with elbuzzard.com’s theme.  I’ve been running this site for a long time, and while I do keep it upgraded, I think it had been upgraded one too many times, and finally required a clean install.

Of course, this comes right during Carnival, when all my free time is spent on other activities, so we’ll have to make do with the default WordPress theme for now.   Perhaps my Lenten resolution will be to devote more time to good ol’ elbuzzard.com, which had fallen into neglect recently.  Facebook killed the personal blogs.

K&B Best Music of 2010

Jan 112011
 

Time for the annual tradition. The best music you’ve never heard rated by Kent and Brent, who have deemed themselves some kind of critics worthy of being listened to.

Brent first:

11) Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People EP
Sufjan Stevens put out this EP, and then he put out an electronic LP. Everyone loves the electronic one. I don’t get it. This EP is the best thing Sufjan Stevens has ever done. Maybe I should now offer up that I don’t really care for Sufjan Stevens. But this is a collection of needlessly long songs that still somehow won me over. How did he do it? I don’t know. The title track is particularly good. Anyone who wonders what Simon and Grafunkel’s “Sound of Silence” would be like if it was spread out over a start-and-stop over-orchestrated eleven minute song. Wonder no more.

Best Song: All Delighted People (Original Version)


10) Phosphorescent – Here’s to Taking It Easy.

This is a band that I have always listened to once, and put down. I never really gave them a shot. But this album is a) perfectly named, and b) really beautiful. It’s just standard alt-country fare, and the lead singer sounds like a wiener. But they do what they do very well. And I like to listen to them while I do my dishes. And look out the window. And dream about what I’m going to do when Chelsey gets out of jail.

Best Song: The Mermaid Parade

9) Vampire Weekend – Contra

This should probably be higher, but it’s no longer summer, and I am only able to appreciate Vampire Weekend in the sun. This was my favorite car album. Driving around, listening to “Run”, or “I Think Ur a Contra” were some of the best moments of my summer. My one regret is that I never got to listen to them on a beach this year. Actually I have two regrets. I wish “Holiday” had not been co-opted by Tommy Hilfigger, or whoever the fuck that is with the car and the table and the driving dog. I hate the people in those ads. I hate the people in all ads that have to do with name bands that one could find in a department store. What fantasy are you selling? There’s a polo ad on right now that is just so dumb. There’s a recession, and it’s about this douchebag who plays polo, and yachts and all this rich shit. Fuck you, polo guy, there’s double digit unemployment. We would all like to burn your boat to the ground and eat you. Well, maybe not all of us.

Best Song: Taxi Cab

8 ) Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM

More remarkable than the fact that I like this album is the fact that Beck produced it, and I like this album. I haven’t like anything Beck has done in like 8 years. I just assumed he was lousy now. But this album is a) terrific, and b) sounds like Beck produced it. He’s all over it. And CG is very smouldery on it. This album is really sexy, and it sounds like it was carefully made. What more can you ask for?

Best Song: Heaven Can Wait (featuring Beck!!) Continue reading »

Sorry man

Nov 172010
 

It’s beautiful weather in New Orleans right now.  I was eating my lunch in Jackson Square today, and trying to finish the last Harry Potter book before the movie comes out.   As usual, there are a ton of people in the Square enjoying the day. I noticed a gutterpunk couple sleeping in the sun.  They looked comfortable.  Dirty, but comfortable.

After a chapter or two, I look up and notice that the woman, who looked to be around 20, is trying to wake her boyfriend(?) up.  She’s patting him on the head, poking him, kissing him, pushing him over.  There is no response.  He feebly rolled over at one point, and I figured he just wanted some more sleep.  She kept at him, and he remained motionless.  She stood up and tried to drag him, and he didn’t move.  I started to get concerned, but I know better than to get involved with gutterpunks, so I just kept watching, waiting for her to look like she wanted help.  She never did.

Eventually, she gave up trying to wake him, and walked off towards the front of the Cabildo, where I watched her talk to some of the street people there.  She didn’t seem too worried, although I did see her point in the direction of the Square once.

I was torn about what to do.  I surely didn’t want to go over to the passed out man in the Square, but I was also worried for him.  I didn’t want to read about how a young man overdosed in the middle of Jackson Square and no one noticed.  I contemplated calling 911, but didn’t.  Eventually, I saw an NOPD officer that I recognized pass by on a Segway on Chartres in front of the Cathedral.  I walked over to him and told him that there was a gutterpunk passed out in the Square, and that he didn’t look too good.  He said he would check it out.  I headed back towards work.

I was intending to go back to work, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I went back into the Square.  On my way, I passed the young woman.  She was talking to a tourist couple seated on bench and smoking a cigarette.  She still didn’t seem too concerned about her companion.

I got back to the center of the Square, and watched the cop approach the man.  He tapped him with his foot to wake him, but got no response.  He nudged him harder and spoke louder, and eventually the gutterpunk started coming too.  Then he lunged for the cops knees and tackled him.  They rolled on the grass for a bit, but the officer quickly subdued the man and called his partner over.  As he handcuffed him, the gutterpunk was wailing “No!” and “Please, baby!”  The cops were rough with him, I think deservedly so.  They never swung at him, but they did forcefully keep his head to the ground with their knees until he was handcuffed.  It was not pleasant to watch, knowing that I started it.  Eventually more cops showed up and he was taken in.  His girlfriend talked to the cops for a bit, but was told to go away.  She collected their things and walked off.

I really felt bad about the whole thing.  I knew he was going to get arrested if I told the cops about him.  I also knew that if I went over there myself, nothing was going to come of it.  I didn’t want him to get hurt, but I also didn’t want him to OD in the Square.  I’ve also been harassed enough by gutterpunks (you’re an easy target when you are young and wear a coat and tie in the French Quarter) to not really want to see them around.  I’m sure some are great people.  But my experience tells me that many are hostile, intimidating, and rude to everyone who doesn’t live by their philosophy of life.  I don’t wish them ill, I just wish they were nicer to strangers.

So, to the gutterpunk that I helped get arrested today in Jackson Square, I’m sorry.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Sep 172010
 

I’m not really sure how I never saw this movie until now.  I think it came out in that period between 2002-2007 where I didn’t really watch movies.

Such a shame, because it is really a great film.  I had previously only seen Adaptation, and I could never understand what the appeal of Charlie Kaufman was.   After ESOTSM, I totally get it.  It was like watching an Italo Calvino novel.

What a boring movie Adaptation was.  Now I see that it wasn’t Charlie Kaufman’s fault, it was Nicolas Cage’s fault.   Or maybe Spike Jonze’s.

After checking Wikipedia, I see that Spike Jonze has directed three movies:  Being John Malkovich (written by Kaufman, which I haven’t seen), Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are (which is terrible).  I think perhaps Spike Jonze’s reputation is a bit overblown.

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