Best Music of 2010

1. The Black Keys – Brothers
2. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
3. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
4. Neil Young – Le Noise
5. Robyn – Bodytalk (1, 2, & 3)
6. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
7. The New Pornographers – Together
8. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
9. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – I’ve Learned the Hard Way
10. Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM
11. Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer
12. Vampire Weekend – Contra
13. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
14. Jónsi – Go
15. Spoon – Transference
16. Yeasayer – Odd Blood
17. Grinderman – Grinderman 2
18. Elton John & Leon Russell – The Union
19. Eels – End Times & Tomorrow Morning (2 albums)
20. Josh Ritter – So Runs The World Away
21. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
22. Broken Bells – Broken Bells
23. Best Coast – Crazy For You
24. Surfer Blood – Astro Coast
25. Sleigh Bells – Treats

Honorable Mention:
No Age – Everything In Between
The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever
Atmosphere – To All My Friends, Blood Makes the Blade Holy: The Atmosphere EP's
Tracy Thorn – Love and Its Opposite
Jenny & Johnny – I’m Having Fun Now
Isobell Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Hawk

Best films of 2010

I totally forgot to post this but I just saw #1 two weeks ago.

1.              The Hurt Locker

2.              Ingolourius Basterds

3.              Up

4.              Avatar

5.              Fantastic Mr. Fox

6.              Waltz With Bashir

7.              Crazy Heart

8.              The Hangover

9.              Precious

10.          An Education

11.          Coraline

12.          (500) Days of Summer

13.          The Wrestler

14.          Where The Wild Things Are

15.          District 9

16.          Star Trek

17.          Me and Orson Wells

18.          Bright Star

19.          A Serious Man

20.     Capitalism: A Love Story

Oscar Picks part 1

I will pick the other categories soon but they are harder. Here are the majors categories.

The easy categories first:

BEST PICTURE

Should win: The Hurt Locker

Could Win: Avatar (it made a shit ton of money) or The Blind Side (for god knows what reason other than $$$)

BEST DIRECTOR

Should Win: Kathryn Bigelow - She made the best picture and it was excellent

Could Win: James Cameron - seriously look at all that money...

BEST ACTOR

Will/Should Win: Jeff Bridges, though Colin Firth was great, Bridges gives an another amazing performance that raises the film above a standard picture.

BEST ACTRESS

I hate this but safest bet is SANDRA fucking BULLOCK not because she's good or the film is good just cause it made money and to appease the fact she brought in a ton of money.

Want/Should win: Meryl Streep gives a great performance.

Dark hourse/Dream: Carry Mulligan or Gabby Siboude give fantastic performances and should be recognized.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

No question here: M'Onique

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Should Win: Christoph Waltz gives the best preformance

Could win: Christopher Plummer or Stanley Tucci for lifetimes of great work

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Should win: Hurt Locker

Could win: Inglorious Basterds

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Will: Up In The Air (doesn't deserve it)

I want: An Education

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Will: UP

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FEATURE

Toss up: White Ribbon or Un Prophete

more to come later

musical milestones

I love milestones as much as my friend Walt does. I love music and i love stats about what I listen to. So stealing from Walt's blog I have complied my listening milestones. I need to listen to more music and probably should go back to old albums i haven't heard in a very long time.

Enjoy.

Last.FM Milestones

10000th track: (20 Sep 2008)

Joni Mitchell - The Last Time I Saw Richard

12500th track: (16 Oct 2008)

Green Day - She

15000th track: (20 Nov 2008)

Deerhunter - Dot Gain

17500th track: (11 Jan 2009)

The Decemberists - The Infanta

20000th track: (14 Feb 2009)

Atmosphere - A Song About a Friend

22500th track: (15 Mar 2009)

Soul Coughing - St. Louise Is Listening

25000th track: (04 Apr 2009)

AC/DC - Hells Bells

27500th track: (26 Apr 2009)

Eels - From Which I Came / A Magic World

30000th track: (22 May 2009)

Heartless Bastards - So Quiet

32500th track: (21 Jun 2009)

Placebo - Kings of Medicine

35000th track: (24 Jul 2009)

Iron & Wine - Woman King

37500th track: (24 Aug 2009)

Neil Young - Silver & Gold

40000th track: (18 Oct 2009)

Jonathan Coulton - Shop Vac

41000th track: (14 Nov 2009)

Bear in Heaven - You do you

42000th track: (08 Dec 2009)

Peaches - Serpentine

42500th track: (20 Dec 2009)

The Glad Singers - Deck The Halls

43000th track: (04 Jan 2010)

Lady GaGa - Boys Boys Boys

44000th track: (28 Jan 2010)

Soul Coughing - True Dreams of Wichita

44977th track: (21 Feb 2010)

Grateful Dead - Black Peter

Generated on 21 Feb 2010 - Get yours here

Best Films of the 00 Decade

I find this list very hard. I want to make it based on artistic achievement but also on favorites. I find ranking them hard but here is an attempt, alphabetical clusters of 5.

#1-5

Children of Men

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Mulholland Drive

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

#5-10

A History of Violence

Brokeback Mountain

Memento

Pan's Labyrinth

Wall-E

#10-20

Best In Show

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Incredibles

Kill Bill 1&2

The Lives of Others

The Royal Tennenbaums

Spirited Away

Talk To Her

Y Tu Mama Tambien

Best of 2009: #15 - #1

15. Noisettes – Wild Young Hearts

14. K’Naan - Troubadour

13. The Bird and the Bee – Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future

12. Peaches – I Feel Cream

11. Gossip – Music For Men

10. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You

9. Metric - Fantasies

8. Sonic Youth - The Eternal

7. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)

6. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

5. Fever Ray – Fever Ray

4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz

3. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

2. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

1. St. Vincent - Actor

Best of 2009, Random & #25-16

BEST JAZZ ALBUM: Allen Toussaint – The Bright Mississippi

BEST METAL ALBUM: Mastodon – Crack The Skye

BEST PUNK ALBUM: Converge – Axe To Fall

Honorable Mention: The Decemberists – Hazards of Love


BEST ALBUMS PART ONE:

16. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
17. The Antlers - Hospice
18. Modest Mouse – No One’s First, And You’re Next EP
19. Blind Pilot – 3 Rounds and a Sound
20. The Swell Season – Strict Joy
21. Mike Doughty – Sad Man Happy Man
22. BLK JKS – After Robots
23. M. Ward – Hold Time
24. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse with David Lynch - Dark Night of the Soul
25. Thao and The Get Down Stay Down – Know Better Learn Faster

Worst of 2009: Music

MOST OVERRATED ALBUMS OF 2009
1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimist
3. Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years
4. The xx – xx
5. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
6. U2 – No Line On the Horizon
7. Cymbals Eat Guitar – Why There Are Mountains

WORST ALBUMS OF 2009
1. Bob Dylan – Christmas In the Heart
2. Chris Cornell - Scream
3. Wavves - Wavves
4. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
5. Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
6. Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown
7. Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Pains of Being Pure at Heart

best of 2009

I am having trouble with some narrowing down my top lists. how do i deal with bands just hearing now? or ones discovered just after 2008 ended but released then? I should have a short list this weekend and also my goats, overrated and busts for the year then too.

Check out the side for a list of what i have heard and bought.

Anyone have any thoughts on Ida maria or Florence + The Machine?

Best of the Decade

There are many lists coming out of the best of the last decade as we head into 2010. Many of the lists i enjoy and often agree with so here are my five best albums of the decade. I will give some comment as to why also.

I have discovered a few artists this decade i really enjoy including Ryan Adams, St.Vincent, Neko Case, The National, Amy Winehouse (yes i know but i love those albums), The Arcade Fire, Aesop Rock, Fleet Foxes, Spoon, Blitzen Trapper, and Iron & Wine. To name a few... (if it was longer Spoon would be on here too. I love them.)

#5 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

This is one of my top discoveries ever in the last 10 years. When i started hearing the band I fell in love with them. This album shows off the intense musicianship of this group. I enjoyed their other albums but this is the reason i went back to hear them. I have really grown into appreciating this band and while it has led to suggestions to hear Death Cab for Cutie and a few other, none of which i have really felt anything about, they remain a happy discovery into the weird wild world of strange pop.

#4 Outkast - Stankonia

This is the Rap/Hip-Hop album of the decade. None one else has had more an impact on the avantgarde aspects that can be in hip-hop. Not only do they push the limits of texture, style and methods for delivering the rhymes they also write awesome hooks (ms. jackson anyone?). What stands out to me is how edgy and fresh it still is after almost 10 years. While their double album went huge i don't find it as good as this. To me this ranks as one of the best Rap albums ever and probably right behind Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique as my favorite. Want a good example of how weird, fresh and exciting hip hop can be, see "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad).
- PS. second best rap album of the decade, Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP and i think it was Eminem's last good album.

#3 The White Stripes - White Blood Cells

I can't think of an album that has had a more unintentional impact on music. The current garage rock champs i think entered us back into the lo-fi era with such power and stamina that it is hard to ignore. While Elephant was the big hit I think this album is why I like TWS. Part Stooges and part Rolling Stones while still being all balls out rock is impressive. "Fell in Love With A Girl" is such a rocking track but also has the Video of the Decade. This album proved that you can be a power house duo and rock out hardcore without being taken as a side note. So many bands currently owe a bit of their sound to these two, which in turn take us back to The Stooges (the most underrated band ever).

#2 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

To put it simple: I had never heard Wilco till i heard this album. They are now my #2 favorite band EVER. This band turned its alt-country roots and mixed with crazy-ass soundscapes into an album that I can't live without. First their record label refused to put it out. Second they streamed it on the net. They get picked up but a smaller label, Nonesuch, and it get huge. The album mixes song craft with sound samples that produces a huge sonic variation that spreads from the melodic, "Heavy Metal Drummer," to the sad "I am Tryign To Break Your Heart," to just breaking apart to silence in "Reservations." Drugs, Beach Boys, obscure British sound recordings, love, pain, and life all make up something that is both beautiful and heartbreaking. I suggest listening to "Jesus, Etc." and "Radio Cure."

#1 Radiohead - Kid A

They are probably one of the biggest rock bands in the world. At the time this was released they had put out their break-through and most successful album OK Computer and helped define 90's alternative era. The start of the decade they decide to put out a difficult and non-radio friendly album. While OK Computer is probably one of the best albums of 1990s and high on some of the best of all time, this was leaps and bounds artistically and musically from everything else. They open with "Everything In Its Right Place" and proceed to scare the casual music fan away. Those of us who were open for the rush of electronic and sonic mixture into our ears couldn't have been happy. Classical music fans grasped onto this album as the blend of the avant-garde sound work of the 60s and 70s as well as the edgy jazz the poured into the album. The electronic sounds that came in the last decade started here. Not only did they say to their fans that they were going somewhere else but locked the true fans into where they would continue to go. No wonder they are one of the most important bands of the last 20 years and since Nirvana. Really who else would Coldplay try and ripoff...

That is the best albums of the last decade. Your thoughts?

Music of the year

A short random thought on music I listened to. If I previewed an album and didn't like it should I list it on the side of this blogs with other albums or just ignore it? I need some thoughts on this.

Uf Dem Anger: Chramer, Gip Die Varwe Mir

out of my lack of ability to write anything I stole this from a writer  

INSTRUCTIONS
-Put your music player on shuffle.
-skip to the next random song to get your answer for each question...
-Write it down, even if it sounds silly (no cheating!)

1. How would you describe your personality?
"Bend In The Road" Calexico

2. What is your best quality?
"Blue Ridge Mountains" Fleet Foxes

3. What do you look for in a lover?
"Shiny" The Decemberists

4. What is your life's motto?
"Tame" Pixies

5. What do you think about all the time?
"The Waitress" Atmosphere

6. What do other people think of you?
"The Island: Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel The Drowning" The Decemberists

7. What do you like to do when no one else is around?
"Joke About Jamica" The Hold Steady

8. What is your favorite hobby/interest?
"I'm So Free" Lou Reed

9. What is your biggest secret?
"Debaser" Pixies

10. What is your life story?
"From My Own True Love (Lost At Sea)" The Decemberists

11. How will you die?
"Levitate Me" Pixies

12. What will they play at your funeral?
"Beat (Health, Life, and Fired)" Thao and The Get Down Stay Downs

13. What is the one thing you regret?
"Hold On To Yourself" Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

14. If you could go back in time, what would you change?
"Whoop That Trick" DJay (From Hustle and Flor)

15. What makes you laugh?
"Caitlin's Theme" Angel Badalementi

16. What makes you cry?
"Feet Asleep" Thao and The Get Down Stay Downs

17. What scares you the most?
"Perfect Day" Lou Reed

18. What's the worst thing that could happen?
"Shores of California" The Dresden Dolls

19. What is the meaning of life?
"Atrocities" Antony & The Johnsons

20. What title will you give this post?
"Uf Dem Anger: Chramer, Gip Die Varwe Mir" Carl Orff from Carmina Burana

"All of which goes to prove two things:

* Your iTunes shuffle is at least as accurate as the average tarot deck.
* "Random shuffle" isn't as random as we'd like to think."