Tops of the Decade Part I

Yes, I know there is still three months left of the decade, but I do not feel like waiting said time to do this post. So, basically here are my favorite songs for each year of the 00s. I cannot believe the decade is coming to an end! It was ok…. but musically fantastic. Enjoy.

1) Fatlip- What’s Up Fatlip?- 2000
2) The Shins- New Slang- 2001
3) Against Me!- Baby, I’m An Anarchist!- 2002
4) Johnny Cash- Hurt- 2003
5) Head Automatica- Beating Heart Baby- 2004
6) Page France- Chariot- 2005
7) King Khan & BBQ Show- Too Much In Love- 2006
8) Black Lips- Bad Kids- 2007
9) Jay Reatard- See/Saw- 2008
10) Deerhunter- Disappearing Ink- 2009

Clearly independent record labels dominate. 7/10 songs were on independent labels. Fuck Yeah! Top Albums are coming next….

Chris

AOL Hires New Advertising VP Today

NEW YORK — AOL LLC said Tuesday it has hired Shashi Seth from software maker Cooliris Inc. for the position of senior vice president of global advertising.

AOL could certainly use a new advertising strategy. Does anyone actually USE AOL’s services anymore…besides AIM? Ten years ago sure but now my browser is Firefox, my service comes from Verizon, and I search with Google.

Great idea buying AOL, Time Warner. What’s that? Ten years later AOL is a worthless asset?

Obama Pushes Against Sudan Envoy Story

The White House is pushing back against a profile in the Washington Post of the Obama Administration’s Special Envoy for Sudan, Air Force Major General Scott Gration

Why would that be?

The story states that Gration wants the US to normalize relations with the Sudan, “the only country in the world led by a president indicted for war crimes,” a reference to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

“We would not take a step like that absent significant changes in conditions on the ground,” says a senior administration official.

No kidding. Did you hear that the violence in Darfur is going down but in south Sudan it’s going up? I imagine the mainstream media would rather tell you about Roman Polanski.

CD Review: In This Light and On This Evening

Band: Editors
Label: Kitchenware Records
Release: October 12, 2009

1. “In This Light and On This Evening” – 9.4
2. “Bricks and Mortar” – 9.5
3. “Papillon” – 10
4. “You Don’t Know Love” – 9.6
5. “The Big Exit” – 9.5
6. “The Boxer” – 9.8
7. “Like Treasure” – 9.7
8. “Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool” – 9.8
9. “Walk The Fleet Road” – 9.6

Comments: I’ve been anticipating this album in what seems like forever. Editors aren’t my 8th favorite band for shits and giggles! Their brand of post-punk/dark-wave has always struck a chord with me. Things get 20X darker on this album, though. Goodbye sweet melodies and accessible pop guitar riffs, and hello destructive drum patterns and rave-esque forces. Goodbye to the electric guitar (synthesizer/drum only). Immediately, I realize a lyrical theme: Tom seems to question the role of God. In the opening track and then on “Papillon,” Tom says “Darlin…if there really was a God here he would have raised a hand by now.” Is he talking about God being here on earth or God’s presence in general? I guess that’s up to us to decide. The first five tracks are purely robotic, almost dance numbers. “The Boxer” sounds more compatible with Editor’s past work, but fittingly there is a new raw layer of synths. Editors do the same thing that Animal Collective did with Merriweather Post Pavillion and that’s revolutionize a genre. Animal Collective changed the way we look at psychedelic pop. Editors have changed the way we should look at atmospheric modern day post-punk. Only top albums have this quality and that’s what this is…a top album. HOLD ON A SECOND GLEN. I must have been feeling good when I wrote this. It’s awesome, but not that awesome damnit.

Grade: 9.7

CD Review: The Sound, The Speed, The Light

Noise rock at a high level!
Noise rock at a high level!

Band: Mission of Burma
Label: Matador Records
Release: October 6, 2009

1. “1, 2, 3 Partyy!” – 9.4
2. “Possession” – 8.9
3. “Blunder” – 8.7
4. “Forget Yourself” – 8.8
5. “After the Rain” – 8.2
6. “SSL 83” – 8.4
7. “One Day We Will Live There” – 8.8
8. “So Fuck It” – 9.5
9. “Feed” – 9.0
10. “Good Cheer” – 9.2
11. “Comes Undone” – 9.4
12. “Slow Faucet” – 9.3

Comments: There isn’t much to say about this album. It’s a lot of what Mission of Burma fans love above Mission of Burma. If you don’t love Mission of Burma, you are going to probably write this album off as meh-verage old guy punk rock. There is some really really catchy, drill Sargent drumming and blistering noisy guitar especially in the last five songs.

Grade: 9.0

Thom Yorke Forms Band

Dead Air Space:

hi
in the past couple of weeks i’ve been getting a band together for fun to play the eraser stuff live and the new songs etc.. to see if it could work!
here’s a photo.. its me, joey waronker, mauro refosco, flea and nigel godrich.

at the beginning of october the 4th and 5th we are going to do a couple of shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.
we don’t really have a name and the set will not be very long cuz ..well …we haven’t got that much material yet!
but come and check it out if you are in the area. we’ve also got locals Lucky Dragons playing.
all the best

Cool.

Swilley vs. Williams

LA Weekly
The two don’t like each other, apparently so much that when both bands played last month’s FYF Fest in LA, intermediaries feared that fisticuffs might erupt at any moment. The two never crossed paths in LA, though. That changed Saturday night, when both were at Daddy’s Bar in Brooklyn. Someone apparently served someone else a knuckle sandwich.

Williams of Wavves, in a MySpace post, describes Swilley as “just looking for a fight at 4 in the morning talking shit to my face and his girlfriend is spitting in the face of all my friends.” Swilley begs to differ, and says a cowardly Williams relied not on his fists but his posse’s: “I’ve never ‘come after’ that kid, it wasn’t four a.m., that wasn’t my girlfriend, no one was spitting, and I didn’t attack him. .. The only thing I did was walk up to him and say ‘You’re that faggot from Wavves and I don’t like you.’ He smiled a bit but didn’t say anything.”

Later in the night Swilley stumbled into Wavves turf, where he “saw their tour manager hanging around with some guys. They started getting all chuckles with me and so I told them I wasn’t gonna have it. After that, Wavves tour manager hit me square in the face with a bottle. Blood started pouring out and six dudes fucking started kicking me until I blacked out.”

How about no violence! Both seem like cool dudes. But wait:

“We’re gonna set up a boxing match between the two kids. We’re getting sponsors now. Jared from The Black Lips told us he’s 100% down to do it and we’re waiting to hear back from Nathan but from what I’ve heard he’s down too. The event itself is gonna be held in Los Angeles, in an actual boxing ring, will be filmed and the winner will not only win a “Buddyhead Title Belt” but he’ll win a large cash prize.”

Keller describes the bill thusly: “Two skinny white dorks with boxing gloves on trying to punch each other.” He also wants them to do a split single on Buddyhead Records: “Diss tracks!”

Swilley has maybe a foot advantage on Williams, who is truly incredibly tiny…Then Swilley just had to be a complete immature asshole:

He’s coming to Atlanta October 3rd and we’re gonna get ugly on him. We’re gonna destroy their van, we’re gonna destroy their faces, we’re gonna get crazy on em’. Nasty style.”

Boston based shows/fests – DIY, punk, noise