All posts by G. Gordon Gritty

Entertainment, Lists, Music

Glen’s Best LPs of 2000s

2 Comments

The Top 10 will be named on December 31, 2009. These LPs all are 9.7+ caliber, to give you a rough outline.

Animal Collective
– Strawberry Jam (2007)
– Merriweather Post Pavillion (2009)

Arcade Fire
– Funeral (2004)

Arctic Monkeys
– Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not (2006)
– Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007)
–  Humbug (2009)

Beirut
– Gulag Orkestar (2006)

Black Lips
– Good Bad Not Evil (2007)
– Los Valienteles Del Mundo Nuevo (2007)

Bright  Eyes
– I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
– Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (2005)

Death From Above 1979
– You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine (2004)

Grizzly Bear
– Yellow House (2006)

Jay Reatard
– Blood Visions (2006)

The King  Khan & BBQ Show
– The King Khan & BBQ Show LP (2004)
– What’s For Dinner? (2006)
– Invisible Girl (2009)

King Khan & The Shrines
– The Supreme Genius of King Khan & His Shrines (2008)

The Libertines
– Up the Bracket (2002)

The Lovely Feathers
– Hind Hind Legs (2006)

No Age
– Weirdo Rippers (2006)
– Nouns (2008)

Panda Bear
– Person Pitch (2007)

Peter Bjorn and John
– Writer’s  Block (2006)

Radiohead
– Kid A (2000)
– In Rainbows (2007)

The Raveonettes
– Lust Lust Lust (2007)

Rogue Wave
– Out of the Shadow (2003)

The Strokes
– Is This It? (2001)

Tapes ‘n Tapes
– The Loon (2005)

Uninhabitable Mansions
– Nature Is A Taker (2009)

Vampire Weekend
– Vampire Weekend (2008)

The Walkmen
– Bows and Arrows (2004)
– A Hundred Miles Off (2006)
– You and Me (2008)

Wolf Parade
– Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005)

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

EP Review: The Fame Monster

1 Comment


Band: Lady Gaga
Label: Interscope
Release: November 18, 2009

1. “Bad Romance” – 7.3 – This is okay. The “ra ra” makes it okay. The chorus is the worst part.
2. “Alejandro” – 4.6 – Basic dance song with Spanish inclinations.
3. “Monster” – 5.8 – Boring. There is a decent background beat, but the main one is redundant.
4. “Speechless” – 6.1 –  Dumb, Queen (the band) imitation.
5. “Dance in the Dark” – 5.3 – Watered down sort of like Monster.
6. “Telephone” – 6.3 – Silly concept.
7. “So Happy I Could Die” – 5.0 – There’s only so much Lady can do to change it up.
8. “Teeth” – 3.9 – Terrible. One of the worst songs of the year. Yup.

Final Grade: 5.5

Entertainment, Quotes

Quote of the Day

Leave a comment

Comes from Bloodshot Bill:

“”Most people who see me on the street see my pompadour and just call me Elvis. I don’t think I look anything like Elvis but that’s all they know. Most people don’t know anything about rockabilly, let alone psychobilly. When people see me play, they wonder how I invented this type of music – it’s crazy how little people know about music outside of Limp Bizkit or some shit. Psychobilly is just good-time music that uses traditonal rockabilly and can get really crazy. If it’s not fun and really crazy, then it just isn’t psychobilly.”

Entertainment, Music, News

Pixies Give New Meaning To Live Music

1 Comment

Boston Herald – Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – With their sold-out European Doolittle Tour complete and a similar standing-room-only U.S. leg under way (which features a complete performance of their 1989 classic, “Doolittle,” each night), the Pixies are giving fans a unique opportunity to take the night’s performance home with them.

Starting on the first night of the group’s four-performance stand in New York City (Nov. 23), fans can purchase a CD of that night’s show about 10 minutes after the Pixies walk offstage. And for those attending shows before the 23rd, no need to fret – you can purchase recordings of earlier 2009 U.S. tour stops via the Web site doolittlelive.com.

Fans attending the Boston-bred Pixies’ homecoming shows Nov. 27 and 28 at Citi Wang Theatre will have the same opportunity.

Sounds pretty cool, not going to lie.

Crime, Drugs, Entertainment, Music, News

Khan + Sultan Arrested!

Leave a comment

Updated: 7:51 PM

Mark Sultan advised a would-be concert goer yesterday at 1:34 PM to “bring some friends who aren’t wearing jack johnson shirts, please.” He was referring to the King Khan & BBQ Show gig that was supposed to be held in St. Louis at the Off Broadway. Well, Sultan and my boy Arish “King” Khan never played that gig. They missed an early evening sound check and frankly never made an appearance at the venue at all. They somehow got arrested on their way to St. Louis in Oak Grove, Kentucky (home of really cheap gas). Their booking agent inquired that perhaps they stopped to take a piss. For all we know, a trooper may have noticed them and they are now sex offenders. They are out on bail, but their tour manager, Kristin Klein (above right), apparently is still in jail. She’s been driving the boys around on a suspended license. Tonight’s show has  obviously been cancelled. As of 7:51 PM, Kristin is out of jail! The suspected drug found in the vehicle is mushrooms. That’s because Kristin foolishly posted a photo on her flickr of King Khan and Leo Chips with the caption “on mushrooms.”

Keep checking here for more information!

CD Review, Music

CD Review: What Will We Be

Leave a comment

Band: Devendra Banhart
Label: Reprise Records
Release: 2009

1. “Can’t Help But Smiling” – 8.8
2. “Angelika” – 7.3
3. “Baby” – 8.4
4. “Goin’ Back” – 8.7
5. “First Song For  B” – 7.5
6. “Last Song For B” – 7.0
7. “Chin Chin & Muck Muck” – 7.8
8. “16th & Valencia Roxy Music” – 5.9
9. “Rats” – 7.5
10. “Maria Lionza” – 6.8
11. “Brindo” – 7.2
12. “Meet Me At Lookout Point” – 7.8
13. “Walilamdzi” – 7.9
14. “Foolin'” – 7.3

Comments: Banhart is a sell-out; he ditched independent powerhouse XL Recordings for mega-corporation Warner Group. Banhart’s signing brings out a fairly new market for Warner, as he’s equipped with a history of playing softie freak-folk (as opposed to the louder, noisier brand that has made Animal Collective a dime or two in the past decade) that appeals to a weird, but not all too unfamiliar demographic: WERS Daytime cronies, stoned Sam Roberts junkies (same thing as WERS Daytime cronies?), and wanna-be urban college students who desire some kind of “hipster” cred. Essentially Banhart hasn’t really changed his deal too much on What Will We Be. This time around, he will surely get more “mainstream-underground” air time (Album of the Month), but he’ll stay on the margins for just as long because he’s too folky for popular music. Listen to the first few tracks…he’s loosened up on the “freak” part of freak-folk, for whatever reason. The beat and style of a song like “16th & Valencia Roxy Music” is almost a joke that mirrors top 40 electro-pop.  I’m not here to criticize Devendra for not being “indie” enough, but it’s moments like that in an album that make me sit back and go “where the fuck did this come from?” He tries his best Grizzly Bear impersonation on “Meet Me At Lookout Point” and he succeeds (though, in my opinion, it’s of a really non-exciting Grizzly Bear Veckatimest track). In fact, a good part of the album seems like a really wishy-washy Grizzly Bear set. I wouldn’t go so low to call this thing an utter disaster, but a lot of the songs seem to be formula based, whereas the minimalism on his classics (“The Body Breaks,” “Insect Eyes,” etc) is what makes them work.

Grade: 7.6