There comes a time in every man’s life when he must own up to the fact that he is 100% mailing it in. And I’m not going to lie about it. For weeks now I’ve been circling in my car around the e-block, passing my virtual domicile — this website — repeatedly, slowing down each time while I debate whether I can summon the strength to come in and act like things are normal with my e-family inside before speeding up and driving out of sight to the nearest Motel 8 to spend another night on a bumpy, crumbling mattress watching HBO on a fuzzy, boxy old tv. I can’t do it. It’s not the same. I’ve changed, you’ve changed, the internet’s changed.
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These Pandas Look at Home at the Show
From what I have discerned about the Show in my brief tenure here, we collectively and not-so-secretly love a catchy pop song. Clearly we are not too ostentatious to concede the undeniable charm of modern day classics like “Party in the U.S.A.” As our estimable leader, Edward of Roma, said in the best Songs of 2009 article (I had to link it because otherwise it may have been hard to find amidst all the new material since), “Party in the U.S.A. was that… guilty pleasure you didn’t have to hide. Everyone loved this song. Everyone loves this song.” read more…
Sweet God, is he watching me?
Last August, R. Kelly released a new single off his then-upcoming sure-to-be-great album Untitled, “Number One,” a song whose beat was so cringingly bad, Robert Sylvester Kelly provided his own dj drops as a half-assed gesture at a chorus. It would have just been bad, but its lyrics (and accompanying music video, though that’s a discussion for another day) salvaged the musical wreckage. The first time I heard it, I laughed out loud — and it turns out that’s the best barometer for judging R.’s songs. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but keep your ears perked up towards the end. Turns out he’s got a Latin lover. Aye papi! read more…
There’s a delicate balance struck in the best writing between excessively stark and overly florid. In cinematography, there’s a tension between too dramatic and too impersonal. Visual art ranges between too inexpressively vague and disinterestingly matter-of-fact. In music, however, comes one of the thinnest wires to tread. All popular songs exist on a spectrum: at one end, there are the catchiest melodies whose lyrics are essentially meaningless — the “ra ra ah ah ah, ro ma romama”s of the world — and, at the other, are the Leonard Cohens, whose words are the true meaning, and whose tunes exist only as subtle enhancement of the written word underneath. It is in the center of this spectrum that the very best of popular music falls. Every musician, whether consciously or not, seeks to make a song such that the lyrics are enhanced by the music and vice-versa. The ones who succeed are the names probably most familiar to you — precious few artists are capable of passing with one or the other, and only then by the overwhelming merit of their one strength. Henry Jamison’s compositions straddle this line perfectly, creating an album in his Milkman’s Union’s Roads In that is both deserving of listen upon listen and which asks for it of its own musical merit.
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This guy was both an asshole and a musical genius. I choose to celebrate both of these personality traits in the wake of his passing.
Well, I hope that new Vampire Weekend album is REALLY good, because rock just lost one of its catchiest figures. Rest in peace Jay Reatard, and by “peace” I mean a hovel with lots of heroin and coke readily available for consumption. Despite your jerk-like character flaws, you managed to produce some of the most awesome punk music in your early career with the Reatards, and some of the catchiest and most lyrically aggressive garage-inspired rock in your later solo career. You and The Black Lips guided me down the path to 60’s and 70’s garage rock salvation. And despite buying quite a few of your albums, I feel like the most appropriate way to commemorate your career is to post a poorly written blog post about you and post some of your songs.
Jay Reatard: 1980-2010… I hope you get to meet G.G Allen in heaven.
Songs after el Jumpo
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It’s no small feat following up an album as critically acclaimed and overwhelmingly backlashed as Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut. Even in a vaccuum, expectations for sophomore efforts run rampant, and the challenge is to stay consistent to the sound present or impression given by the first album while growing and making something decidedly new and different.
In many ways, Vampire Weekend is the truest blogosphere buzz band. Back in the summer of 2007, when a blue CD-R with “Vampire Weekend” scrawled lazily on it began to make the blog rounds, it was almost universally accepted that this was the ever-elusive “next big thing.” Long before Vampire Weekend ever came out, bloggers were predicting it would be the best album of 2008. Naturally, the backlash coming the requisite 90 days after the album’s release was as overwhelmingly negative as the prereviews had been positive. And, when news of the followup broke, you could already hear the whispers of “overrated” creeping up from the formerly faithful fans.
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It’s alright. You can lean back from the edge of your seat. Our year-end lists are coming to their long, drawn-out conclusion in the form of our favorite mashes of 2009. It was certainly the year of the long-form mashup, with not one but two fantastically different and perfectly executed albums dropping, both of which placed in our favorite albums.
The list sort of reads like it was intended to just be our favorite Hood Internet tracks, but I’m going to go ahead and blame that on the fact that there is no one out there executing as effectively or consistently as those guys, and I really do think they’ve earned all 3 of the spots on this list (and I should probably mention that my own list had “Comfortable Up In Here” filling out the #5 spot, so I’m certainly 100% behind anything and everything Hood releases). Anyway, enjoy, and then help me in looking forward to 2010’s exciting first quarter releases.
It’s time to refocus, kids. Yes, we’re all excited that it’s finally 2010 and Lost will be returning soon and that maybe the Apple tablet will be released and hovercrafts, etc. But the Show is not done looking back. No, in vintage .org form, we have returned to the task at hand much later than promised. I would make another promise to continue to post regularly, but I don’t make promises I can’t keep (New Year’s Resolution 20-10, y’all). Today we bring you our 10 favorite songs of 09, and tomorrow you’ll get our favorite mashups. It was one smash-banger of a year, and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say I miss the hell out of it. Oasis, you may be gone, but you will never be forgotten. You and I are gonna live forever, Noel. Team Noel forever. Liam can go straight to h-e-double-hell.
Oh, and here are the songs we liked:
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