Best of the Oughts: Albums 31-40

Now, this is a nice mix of new and old. I'm still not 100% about the Flaming Lips album, but this is where it stands today. I was late to the Strawberry Jam party as with Okkervil in general. Oh, and Deerhunter as well. However, I was on time, if not early, for TVOTR and The White Stripes.


40. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
After The Soft Bulletin, I didn't care much for any of the work put out by the Lips. That is, until this fall. I felt some urgency and excitement returned to the band. They feel punk again. It may be the newness or the hype, but I'm liking what they've done here.


39. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
I picked this up long after all the press lavishly proclaimed it great but a while before their next greatest album. It's bigger and fatter than Merriweather, so it sits in the top half of my list. With their string of critically acclaimed records (including this one), Animal Collective could soon be the new REM/Radiohead/Wilco/TVOTR hybrid monster of the future or something.


38. Okkervil River - Don't Fall In Love with Everyone You See
I fell in love with the first Okkervil album I ever owned. It may not be the epic concept album its successors have all been, but it hooked me into Will Sheff - The Most Dynamic Performer in Indie Rock Today.


37. Dearhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
I cut my indie teeth (or ears) on shoegaze and lo-fi. This dude has combined both aesthetics to create a sound that is unstoppable.


36. TV on the Radio - Desperate Youths, Blood Thirsty Babes
This was back when TVONR were the cool doo-wop punk band on Touch and Go. Thems were the days.


35. Elliott Smith - Figure 8
Before he released a plethora of posthumous material, Elliott Smith was a living, breathing pop master. And I mean pop in the Beatles sense, not the Black Eyed Peas.


34. The White Stripes - De Stijl
Awesome. Led Zeppelin. Back in the day. Before the Legos video. I have to go listen to this again. Right now.


33. Sonic Youth - NYC Ghost and Flowers
New York albums are always good. Free-form poetry over experimental noise should not normally be attempted, but somehow SY knows just how much is just right.


32. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Somebody's going to tear me apart for this one. It's a great record. Sure, some of the newness has not worn off and provides it a lofty spot on my list, but you will dance when I put this thing on. Oh yes, you will dance.


31. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Superwolf
Matt Sweeney played and wrote most of the songs with Will Oldham. It's a perfect pairing, apparently never to be tried again. It's dark and dirty and dingy...and somehow beautiful.

#11 of 2008: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Thirty-Two Words: Ignore the hype. Just trust that this is a great pop record. The songs are danceable and infectious. Vampire Weekend misappropriated the misappropriated better than all the upper-middle-class white kids before them.

The Moment of Truth: Upon the first listen I was air-drumming, nearly veering off the side of the road.

Killer to Filler Ratio: 11:0

Best Songs of 2008

Reading this post at the bathysphere made me want to post my own list of the year's best songs. Of course, my list is limited to my own collection as I spend very little time listening to the radio and MTV doesn't play videos anymore.

Regardless, here's my list for the year's best songs, MTV-style...

10.


9.


8.


7.


6.


5.


4.

#93.6 BON IVER - Skinny Love
by lablogotheque

3.


2.

PORT O'BRIEN #1 I Woke Up Today
by lablogotheque

1.

The walkmen - In the new year
by le-pere-de-colombe

The Future of Music

From time to time, I blog about music, primarily that of the indie variety. Currently, the music industry has gone through some significant shifts of which I have an opinion.

This guy got me to thinking about how music is and will be distributed. Bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have bypassed record labels and traditional distribution outlets by making their latest releases available online for little or no money. Of course, other musicians such as Prince have done this before, but none as current or recognizable as Radiohead have taken on the industry in such a way. It's akin to the Beatles handing out copies of Abbey Road at Piccadilly.

The free music doesn't stop there. Bands are utilizing tools on the internet to get their music to the masses by giving it away. A site like Daytrotter might make exclusive recordings available or Brooklyn Vegan provides MP3 samples of nearly every band it covers. Some bands simply give the music away in the form of free CDs in order to drum up some buzz for their tours where they make their real income.

Of course, the music industry might as well give it away as they continue to lose money. In fact, some have looked at giving it away in various ways to excite consumers enough to buy the records. What they used to call "getting a single played on the radio" is now just flat out giving it away. Will the 99 cent single go the way of the CD? Wait and see.

For me, it doesn't matter whether they give the music away or not. Most of it is crap. And that which is not crap has been done before. Whatever is left is what I buy and am happy to do so.

What has filled this void in music left by all that inferior product put out by an out-of-touch music industry? Indie rock. Band after band have made a living since the mid-nineties (in Sonic Youth's case, longer) by simply recording better music and hitting the road. They may not be selling millions of records, but they are not suffering from the same affliction as the majors have. Never before have independent labels and bands have been so successful. It gives me hope.

What isn't filled with a lot of hope is the state of music journalism, especially in indie circles. As people turn to Pitchfork or Brooklyn Vegan, they turn away from such indie publishing stalwarts like No Depression or Punk Planet. Does it mean that music magazines are dead? No. Does it mean that mediocre rock journalism leads to your magazine folding. No...look at Rolling Stone. What it does mean is that magazines are behind the times. They are not able to keep up with the next "it" band or latest genres. Online magazines and blogs are just better equipped to provide that up-to-the-second information indie fans crave. (As for RS readers...I can't explain it.)

Magazines are even turning to the blogosphere for their tips and news. Take the latest Spin. For the first time in the magazine's history, they featured a band on their cover (Vampire Weekend) that had yet to release its first album. All this was based on the buzz the band had created among the blogging elite. First Tapes 'n Tapes, then Vampire Weekend, now there's Black Kids. (Actually, there's probably someone else, but you get the point.)

The accessibility to new technologies has meant greater access to new music and at faster speeds. For a music junkie like myself, it's meant a nonstop flow of fresh tunes. For the majority, though, it has meant an over saturation of mediocre noise. This will most likely continue until record labels realize that, in the end, good music is actually profitable. And they better keep it coming, because we're reading and listening faster than ever.  The magazines aren't keeping up.  Will the record industry?

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Three Hundred Ninety-Seven Words: Everything that’s cool or interesting about rich, privileged, white kids can be found in Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut. Usually, I wouldn’t admit to liking anything about such a class of people, but when the music is this good, I have to give it proper recognition.

I’m not talking about the spoiled brats of today with their MTV Sweet Sixteen parties and IM obsessions. No. I’m talking about the jerks in John Hughes’ films with the nice cars and upturned collars. Even though you hated these guys, you still kind of wanted to be them…except for their penchant for backstabbing their friends and attempts to date rape Molly Ringwald.

Besides giving us someone to hate (or vote for), rich kids serve many other fine purposes culturally. Who else knows enough to write songs noticing French architectural features (“Mansard Roof”)? Or lament the boringness of Cape Cod with a Paul Simon Afro-beat (“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”)? Who else could have a crush on a girl named Bryn (“Bryn”)? Hell, who even knows a girl named Bryn? These are important or at least entertaining topics that let us see how the other half lives.

Although these Ivy League boys have lived privileged lives, they are still aware of class difference and the place of misappropriated art in their music. Those Columbia degrees are good for something, I guess. The elitism of language (“Oxford Comma”), bourgeois retreats (“Walcott”), and college romance (“Campus”) are addressed over Afro-beats and Caribbean rhythms; all the while you get the sense that they are really misappropriating the likes of Simon, Peter Gabriel, and The Police and not those guys who sang and danced backup on the Graceland tour.

Additionally, other, more current cultural references related to young, white, and privileged metropolitans can be easily traced to Vampire Weekend’s music. Images of Wes Anderson films run throughout the lyrics (“One”) and orchestration (“M79”). Musical connections are also there with other NYC bands like White Rabbits or The Walkmen (“I Stand Corrected”, “Walcott”). None of it as deplorable as the rich kids these films and music represent. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The music is refreshing and new, the last things I expected to come from the likes of Ezra, Rostam, Chris, and Christopher.

I am all for class war, but when a band records a record like Vampire Weekend, I can call a truce.

The one song that makes it worth $17.95: "Oxford Comma"

Pitchfork Says: 8.8

Plans Rearranged

I had planned on posting several previews of the upcoming True/False festival this weekend as well as some record reviews and probably some other worthless information, but that will have to wait.
R's grandmother died Monday morning and so to Detroit we will travel. Helen lived a long, fruitful life. It was one of those deaths you kind of expect and are generally at peace with by the time it happens, but it's still a death in the family, nonetheless.

So, my witty assessments of films, in-depth interpretations of all things indie rock, and laments about my ever-advancing age will have to wait a few days. In the meantime, here is a quick rundown of what I expected to blog.

This kid was screwed over by the T/F folks, as were these people.

Vampire Weekend has recorded a really great album. Animal Collective also recorded a great album, but I'm not going to dance to it any time soon. The anticipation for Stephen Malkmus' latest release is growing, despite the availability of a free stream of Real Emotional Trash.

We'll most likely miss the first two days of the film festival (which amounts to 8 docs), but hopefully we'll catch all of Sunday's list which includes Please Vote for Me and I Think We're Alone Now.

That is all.

Update: Our flight may have us back in town for some films on Saturday evening. Half a festival is better than no festival. Plus, we're going to see a screening of Mardis Gras: Made in China tonight on campus (the same filmmakers I said were screwed over). Also, I'm obsessed with the Vampire Weekend. Well, off to Detroit...