Category Archives: Music

Art, Entertainment, Lists, Music, pictures, rant

My Top Albums of the Decade

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Just flipping through the latest issue of Rolling Stone (I rarely read the mag) and taking a gander at their bests of the decade lists, I can’t get over the massive discrepancies in our’s and their’s. RS overwhelmingly favors mostly mainstream/major label acts and a few independent acts with some degree of commercials success. So of course, our homeboys (Black Lips, Jay, King Khan, No Age, etc.) are virtually nonexistent because they’re not big enough! Wow, what a terrifically horrendous way to evaluate music… Anyway, case in point, their top 50 albums of the decade barely included 1/5 of independent music, whereas our lists are the complete opposite. Anyway, here’s their list: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31248017/100_best_albums_of_the_decade/44 and here’s mine, the better one :)

1) Black Lips- Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo (2007, Vice)

2) Jay Reatard- Matador Singles ’08 (2008, Matador)

3) The King Khan & BBQ Show- What’s For Dinner? (2006, In the Red)

4) Jay Reatard- Blood Visions (2006, In The Red)

5) Jay Reatard- Singles ’06-’07 (2008, In the Red)

6) Bright Eyes- I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005, Saddle Creek)

7) The King Khan & BBQ Show- The King Khan & BBQ Show (2004, Goner)

8) Animal Collective- Strawberry Jam (2007, Domino)

9) No Age- Nouns (2008, Sub Pop)

10) King Khan & The Shrines- The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines (2008, Vice)

11) Arcade Fire- Neon Bible (2007, Merge)

12) Black Lips- 200 Million Thousand (2009, Vice)

13) Page France- Hello, Dear Wind (2005, Suicide Squeeze)

14) Box Elders- Alice and Friends (2009, Goner)

15) The Pains of Being Pure At Heart- The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (Slumberland Records, 2009)

16) Against Me!- Reinventing Axl Rose (2002, No Idea)

17) Girls- Album (2009, True Panther Sounds)

18) The Nightwatchman- One Man Revolution (2007, Epic)

19) Glassjaw- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence (Roadrunner, 2000)

20) Mark Sultan- The Sultanic Verses (2007, In the Red)

21) Arctic Monkeys- Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006, Domino)

22) Kimya Dawson- Remember That I love You (2006, K)

23) Black Lips- Good, Bad, Not Evil (2007, Vice)

24) The Almighty Defenders- The Almighty Defenders (2009, Vice)

25) The King Khan & BBQ Show- Invisible Girl (2009, In the Red)

26) System of A Down- Mesmerize/ Hypnotize ( 2005, American)

27) Deerhunter- Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP (2009, Kranky)

28) Head Automatica- Decadence (2004, Warner Brothers)

29) Deftones- White Pony (2000, Maverick)

30) System of A Down- Toxicity (2001, American)

31) Mabuses- Mabused (2007, Magpie)

32) Glassjaw- Worship and Tribute (2002, Warner Brothers)

33) Against Me!- As the Eternal Cowboy (2003, Fat Wreck Cords)

34) Black Lips- Black Lips (2003, Bomp!)

35) Black Lips- We Did Not Know the Spirit Made the Flowers Grow (2004, Bomp!)

36) Animal Collective- Feels (2005, Fat Cat)

37) Sonic Youth- The Eternal (2009, Matador)

38) Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009, Domino)

39) Fugazi- The Argument (2001, Dischord)

40) Those Darlins- Those Darlins (2009, Oh Wow Dang)

41) The Strange Boys and Girls Club (2009, In the Red)

42) The Used- The Used (2001, Reprise)

43) Arctic Monkeys- Humbug (2009, Domino, Warner Brothers, EMI)

44) Editors- The Back Room (2005, Kitchenware, Fader)

45) Shellac- 1000 Hurts (2000, Touch And Go)

I’m leaving 5 slots open for possible last minute acceptances.

Chris

Entertainment, Music

Song of the Day

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The Hives – Main Offender

Great song off one of my favorite albums of the 2000s Veni Vidi Vicious! A trained eye might draw some comparison to Jay Reatard. This is more “accessible” so to speak, but yeah.

Entertainment, humor, interviews, Music

KK BBQ Show Set + Interview

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This is a pretty new one that has in it Leo Chips (the SHOW in King Khan & BBQ Show). They play four songs and then do a little interview after. It’s all good!

BUT…you kind of have to skip some of it to get to the good stuff. Not to say that the first band/interview isn’t great, but come on now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgRENddUHi0

Art, Entertainment, Femmes, Lists, Music

MY Top Ten Concerts of 2009!

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For specific information like dates, go to Glen’s post, as I feel it is unnecessary to rewrite the same information. Also, in some of these shows I am not naming every performer for the evening, but rather those I found to be memorable. Note: I attended twenty solid concerts total this year, so this list is exactly half of them.

1) Black Lips w/ Mean Creek at the Middle East- A+: Best concert I’ve ever seen simply because they are my favorite band and I knew all of the songs. But, beyond that, the show was constantly exciting and I really appreciated the chat with Cole as Glen noted. Mean Creek were a chill band with a great anti-capitalist message.

2) King Khan & The Shrines w/ Mark Sultan at the Paradise Rock Club- A+: What else can you say about King and gang that hasn’t already been said?! The show is a spectacle from start to finish. Pure energy, excitement, and really happiness. If the Black Lips were not my favorite band, without a doubt, I would say the Shrines were the most entertaining performers I have ever seen. Like Glen, I’m positive I would appreciate Marky Sultan’s performance infinitely more, if I saw him now, but even without being familiar to his music, I still appreciated it; something extremely rare for me. Supreme Genius indeed!

3) Jay Reatard w/ Box Elders, Nobunny, and Hunx and His Punx at Harpers Fery- A+: Fun, Fun, Fun till Harpers Ferry security took Nobunny pyro techniques away! Then more fun with Jay! I second Glen, as I seem to do a lot in these lists (great minds think alike!) best opening experience ever! I heard one of my new favorites for the first time: Box Elders. Instantly I fell in love with their catchy, pop songs, another rare feature. Hunx was queer as fuck, but in a great way! They really got the crowd moving, perhaps moving away for some (and oddly moving closer for others haha); once again rare for an opening band. This continued with Nobunny, who also shared tremendous showmanship and over all joy in their craft. Of course Jay belted out his hits and it was great. The moshing and crowd interaction made it a memorable concert for sure.

4) King Khan & BBQ Show at the Middle East- A+: Supreme Genius continues! Well, I was waddlin around right into the snow with some zombies, which transformed into a fish fight. Soon I said I’ll never belong here and so I docked at number eight. Unfortunately, the hunnies treat me like dog because I’m too much in love with them, so I just sat and watched them shake real low. I’d much rather they hold me tight, but I guess not tonight. I guess I’ll be a lonely boy for one more night.

5) Pixies w/ Jay Reatard at Wang Theater- A+: One of my favorite bands playing one of my favorite albums and my second favorite artist opening for them with amazing seats, what else can I ask for?!

6) Sonic Youth w/ The Feelies at Wilbur Theatre- A+
7) No Age w/ Lemonade at Wellsley College- A+
8) Animal Collective at the House of Blues- A
9) Head Automatica at the Great Scott- A
10) Arctic Monkeys at the House of Blues- B+/A-

Chris