As I mentioned previously, I am going to be in Chicago at the Pitchfork Music Festival from Thursday evening through Monday morning. I think I’ve lucked out with this year’s schedule, since not only are there few-to-no moments where I am stuck with having to choose between three bands I don’t care about, there are also few moments where I have to make a super-tough decision that will lead me to completely miss a band I like. (The biggest conundrums are the Hold Steady at 7pm vs. Jarvis Cocker at 8pm on Saturday, which should be solvable by the fact that the Hold Steady comes to the Twin Cities a lot more frequently than Jarvis Cocker, and Sunday’s Cut Copy vs. Spoon conflict. There’s also the potential downer of having to leave an hour into Boris’ set to catch King Khan & the Shrines.)
I thought I already did this “favorite album of each year of your life” exercise sometime, somewhere, some years ago. But in case I didn’t, here’s my current version. As a special bonus, I’m throwing in singles and obscure/underrated/overlooked favorites, ’cause I feel like it. Enjoy this perplexing juxtaposition of famous rap records, club/pop dance stuff and indie rock/new wave/Britpop/nu-psych.
1977: Steely Dan, Aja; Parliament, “Flash Light”; Mandre, s/t
1978: Van Halen, s/t; Giorgio Moroder, “Chase”; Parlet, Pleasure Principle
1979: The Clash, London Calling; Machine, “There But for the Grace of God”; Candido, Dancin’ & Prancin’
1980: The Clash, Sandinista!; Prince, “Dirty Mind”; Defunkt, s/t
1981: Kraftwerk, Computer World; Rick James, “Give It to Me Baby”; Scientist, Scientist Meets the Space Invaders
1982: Michael Jackson, Thriller; Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force, “Planet Rock”; Prince Jammy, Prince Jammy Destroys the Invaders*
1983: Madonna, s/t; Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel, “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It); ESG, Come Away With ESG
1984: Prince, Purple Rain; Van Halen, “Jump”; The Treacherous Three, s/t
1985: New Order, Low-Life; Doug E. Fresh, “The Show”; Mantronix, s/t
1986: Run-DMC, Raising Hell; Beastie Boys, “It’s the New Style”; Just-Ice, Back to the Old School
1987: Boogie Down Productions, Criminal Minded; Prince, “U Got the Look”; Just-Ice, Kool & Deadly (Justicisms)**
1988: Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back; Eric B. & Rakim, “Follow the Leader”; Stetsasonic, In Full Gear***
1989: The Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique; Public Enemy, “Fight the Power”; Low Profile, We’re in This Together
1990: Eric B. & Rakim, Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em; Brand Nubian, “All for One”; D-Nice, Call Me D-Nice
1991: Massive Attack, Blue Lines; A Tribe Called Quest ft. Leaders of the New School, “Scenario”; Ragga Twins, Reggae Owes Me Money
1992: Eric B. & Rakim, Don’t Sweat the Technique; Pete Rock & CL Smooth, “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.); Diamond & the Psychotic Neurotics, Stunts, Blunts & Hip-Hop
1993: The Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers); KRS-One, “Sound of Da Police”; Black Moon, Enta Da Stage
1994: Nas, Illmatic; OutKast, “Git Up, Git Out”; Bay B Kane, The Guardian of Ruff
1995: Genius/GZA, Liquid Swords; Pulp, “Common People”; Big L, Lifestyles Ov Da Poor and Dangerous
1996: OutKast, ATLiens; Beck, “The New Pollution”; The Juggaknots, s/t
1997: The Chemical Brothers, Dig Your Own Hole; The Notorious B.I.G., “Hypnotize”; Faze Action, Plans & Designs
1998: Massive Attack, Mezzanine; OutKast, “Rosa Parks”; Hieroglyphics, 3rd Eye Vision
1999: MF DOOM, Operation Doomsday; Basement Jaxx, “Red Alert”; Mike Ladd, Welcome to the Afterfuture
2000: Ghostface Killah, Supreme Clientele; Wu-Tang Clan, “I Can’t Go to Sleep”; Lifter Puller, Fiestas + Fiascos
2001: Daft Punk, Discovery; The Strokes, “Hard to Explain”; Res, How I Do
2002: The Roots, Phrenology; Clipse, “Grindin’”; Comets on Fire, Field Recordings from the Sun
2003: Basement Jaxx, Kish Kash; Dizzee Rascal, “I Luv U”; Burnt Sugar, Black Sex Y’all Liberation & Bloody Random Violets
2004: Sonic Youth, Sonic Nurse; Annie, “Heartbeat”; Soulwax, Any Minute Now
2005: M.I.A., Arular; Three 6 Mafia, “Stay Fly”; DJ Muggs vs. GZA, Grandmasters
2006: Ghostface Killah, Fishscale; T.I., “What You Know”; Ciara, The Evolution
2007: UGK, Underground Kingz; Justice, “D.A.N.C.E.”; Neil Landstrumm, Restaurant of Assassins
2008 (so far): The Bug, London Zoo; Justice, “DVNO (Radio Edit)”****; Kail, True Hollywood Squares*****
*man, the early ’80s were a great time for Space Invaders-themed dub records
**so yeah, Just-Ice was pretty damn good
***though I guess only in the ’80s’ best year for rap could this get overlooked
****I know this showed up on their album last year but this version’s more than different enough to count as an ‘08 track
*****maybe it’s kind of early to call this one obscure/underrated/overlooked but dude doesn’t even have his own page on discogs.com or rateyourmusic yet
Yeah, here’s a list of stuff I’ve liked so far this year, neatly rounded off to 100. (Oddly enough, I went through my list of artists who released something in 2008 that I liked, dragged-and-dropped one song from each artist into a playlist sight unseen, worried that I wouldn’t have enough to make a list of 100, then found that I had exactly that many.) Note that some of this hasn’t been officially released as of the pseudo-half-year mark of 7/1/08, but enh. This is maybe the indiest/geekiest aggregation of pop music I’ve put together in a while, but it’s all good in its own way whether it’s trashy electro or slick R&B or indie rap or mainstream rap or used-to-be-mainstream-but-is-now-indie rap. Or indie rock, yikes. Arranged alphabetically, so it also boasts the hilarious awkwardness of pitting Jason Forrest Donna Summer next to Real Actual Original Donna Summer.
THE HALFWAY HOME HOT 100
Alliteration!
1. Akrobatik - Rain (ft. Brenna Gethers) (3:11)
2. Arcade Lovers - Fantasy Lines (Original Mix) (6:27)
3. Atmosphere - Wild Wild Horses (4:15)
4. Awesome Color - Already Down (2:42)
5. Baby Charles - This Time (2:57)
6. Bad Dudes - Cabana Boyzz, B.C. (2:07)
7. Erykah Badu - Twinkle (6:56)
8. Beck - Chemtrails (4:40)
9. Big Boi - Royal Flush (ft. Raekwon & Andre 3000) (3:17)
10. The Black Angels - 18 Years (5:25)
11. Black Mountain - Evil Ways (3:25)
12. Booka Shade - Control Me (5:08)
13. Boris - Flower, Sun, Rain (5:35)
14. The Bug - Angry (ft. Tippa Irie) (3:37)
15. Bun-B - Underground Thang (ft. Pimp C & Chamillionaire) (4:28)
16. Chicha Libre - Gnosienne No. 1 (4:33)
17. Clinic - Coda (3:17)
18. The Cool Kids - Gold and a Pager (3:47)
19. Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (4:54)
20. Daedelus - Get Off Your HiHats (4:53)
21. Dengue Fever - Intergration (3:43)
22. The Dirtbombs - Ever Lovin Man (2:45)
23. Disfear - Get It Off (3:17)
24. Dizzee Rascal - Driving With Nowhere to Go (3:56)
25. DJ Donna Summer - Sweet Assed Child ‘O Mine (4:21)
26. Donna Summer - I’m a Fire (7:10)
27. Drive-By Truckers - Daddy Needs a Drink (3:48)
28. Dub Trio - Mortar Dub (4:19)
29. El-P - Krazy Kings 3 (4:19)
30. Elephant9 - Dodovoodoo (5:12)
31. eMC - Say Now (4:16)
32. Estelle - American Boy (ft. Kanye West) (4:44)
33. Factor - Time of the Year (ft. Sadat X) (2:03)
34. Fat Ray & Black Milk - Flawless (3:00)
35. Flying Lotus - GNG BNG (3:38)
36. Food For Animals & Faust - Planet Say (4:51)
37. Sascha Funke - We Are Facing the Sun (7:10)
38. Morgan Geist - Palace Life (4:46)
39. Gnarls Barkley - Who’s Gonna Save My Soul (3:16)
40. Al Green - I’m Wild About You (4:51)
41. HEALTH - Triceratops (CFCF Rmx) (3:34)
42. Karl Hector & the Malcouns - Sahara Swing (3:29)
43. The Herbaliser - Street Karma (A Cautionary Tale) (ft. Jean Grae) (3:39)
44. Hercules & Love Affair - Athene (4:00)
45. The Hold Steady - Navy Sheets (3:23)
46. Michael Hunter - Soviet Connection (Theme from GTA IV) (2:51)
47. Invisible Conga People - Cable Dazed (6:12)
48. J.Rawls & Middle Child - By Your Side (5:00)
49. James Pants - Theme from Paris (1:46)
50. Jay Reatard - See/Saw (2:57)
51. The Juan MacLean - Happy House (Original) (12:40)
52. Justice - DVNO (Radio Edit) (3:13)
53. Kail - Sweet Dick Willy (4:56)
54. Kleerup - 3AM (ft. Marit Bergman) (3:57)
55. Knife World - Sunbeam (3:18)
56. Seun Kuti & Fela’s Egypt 80 - Don’t Give That Shit to Me (9:22)
57. Ladytron - Runaway (4:50)
58. Lil Wayne - Shoot Me Down (4:29)
59. Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too (28:58)
60. Little Vic - Caked Up (ft. Kool G Rap) (4:41)
61. Lloyd - Girls Around the World (ft. Lil Wayne) (3:29)
62. The Long Blondes - Too Clever By Half (4:25)
63. Lyrics Born - I Like It, I Love It (3:42)
64. M83 - We Own the Sky (5:02)
65. Metaform - Lamenting Break (1:23)
66. Monade - Elle Topo (4:27)
67. Monotonix - No Metal (3:38)
68. Alex Moulton - Out of Phase (7:15)
69. Mudhoney - Tales of Terror (3:17)
70. Neon Neon - Luxury Pool (3:55)
71. NOMO - Ghost Rock (6:00)
72. Lee ”Scratch” Perry - Party Time (4:22)
73. Plantlife - Rollerskate Jam (3:37)
74. Kelley Polar - Entropy Reigns (Pearson and Usher’s Second Law Instrumental) (8:27)
75. Poni Hoax - The Paper Bride (6:32)
76. Portishead - Threads (5:47)
77. Presto - Part of Greatness (ft. CL Smooth) (3:54)
78. Connie Price & the Keystones - Thundersounds (ft. Percee P) (2:58)
79. Prodigy - New Yitty (2:38)
80. Quiet Village - Broken Promises (5:47)
81. The Raconteurs - You Don’t Understand Me (4:53)
82. Ratatat - Shempi (3:57)
83. Re-Up Gang - Cry Now (4:02)
84. Rigas - Born Not to Run (3:03)
85. The Roots - 75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction) (3:19)
86. RZA - Put Your Guns Down (ft. Star) (3:33)
87. Santogold - Creator (3:33)
88. Shaya - Impeccable Concepts (2:56)
89. Snoop Dogg - Sexual Eruption (4:00)
90. Sinkane - Autobahn (6:40)
91. Spoon - Don’t You Evah (Ted Leo’s I Want It Hotter Remix) (4:00)
92. Subtle - Unlikely Rock Shock (3:10)
93. Titus Andronicus - My Time Outside the Womb (2:54)
94. Trama - 9,10,11,12 (ft. Carnage & Ayentee) (3:18)
95. Vast Aire - Mecca and the Ox (ft. Vordul Mega) (3:29)
96. The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix) (8:28)
97. Wiley - Wearing My Rolex (Club Edit) (2:43)
98. Williams - Love on a Real Train (Version By Studio) (9:01)
99. Wire - Perspex Icon (3:16)
100. Zomby - Mu5h (4:12)
For addressing one of my primary linguistic concerns. As someone who has been needlessly referred to with this word on more than one occasion in electronic correspondence (usually coupled with its long-suffering running buddy, “hipster”), I hold out hope that this backlash against a worn-out term — the ninja/pirate/robot/zombie reference of calling people out on their shitheadedness — eventually causes usage of this word to subside, though there’s probably no stopping it becoming as indelibly fused to this decade as “gnarly” or “groovy” or “daddy-o” were to theirs.
Meanwhile, here’s some words you may want to use instead when the opportunity to namecheck feminine hygiene products arises:
-dickwrangler
-knucklefuck
-shitheel
-peckerhead
-smarmy-ass motherfucker
-popped-collar prick
-knob (efficient, succint and fun to say!)
-Weiland
What I was hoping for: “Wouldn’t it sound cool if…”
What I got: “Wouldn’t it sound hilarious if…”
“He shouldn’t act like he knows so much about music. He isn’t even a musician.“
SEE ALSO:
“Where’s he get off, bitching about how much he hated that restaurant? It’s not like he’s Mario Batali or something.”
“God, what a dick, all ‘bluh bluh what a stupid movie’. Has he ever gone behind the camera? No? Fuck him.”
“What do you mean, your car’s a broke-down piece of shit? Pfft, whatever. Maybe if you were Ferry Porsche I’d take your word for it.”
“Yeah, like you’ve ever been President. Shut up.”
Yeah, I have a muxtape now. I got this idea that every week I’m going to upload a new 12-song mix, starting with 1958 and going all the way through 2008, with no artists repeating. This does mean I’m going to have to keep overwriting my old mixes, which is going to be kind of a nuisance, but you do what you can with what you’ve got, I suppose. Here’s the playlist for 1958, in case you’re reading this a few weeks/months/etc. from now and it’s already been replaced:
1. Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns - Don’t You Just Know It (2:31)
2. Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues (2:00)
3. Macy Skipper - Quick Sand Love (2:35)
4. Magic Sam - 21 Days in Jail (2:41)
5. Ric Cartey - Scratching on My Screen (2:31)
6. Vince Taylor & the Playboys - Brand New Cadillac (2:35)
7. Dale Vaughn & the Starnotes - How Can You Be Mean to Me (2:20)
8. The Moonlighters - Broken Heart (2:20)
9. Chuck Berry - Blue Feeling (3:03)
10. Champion Jack Dupree - Can’t Kick the Habit (3:43)
11. Billie Holiday - You’ve Changed (3:20)
12. The Chantels - Maybe (2:55)
Does being a rock fan and loving the Ramones while being a rap fan and hating Soulja Boy Tell’em make you a hypocrite?
What have I done for writer stuff recently? Uh.
PITCHFORK: The new Black Angels album is kinda boring. James Pants’ Welcome, despite being technically “worse” than Directions to See a Ghost, is most assuredly not boring. Ladytron’s Velocifero ain’t too shabby. Steinski’s best-of is essential. The Electro Box is a little less so, which is good because it’s probably impossible to find now. And Quiet Village’s Silent Movie is really great, even after I found out where all the samples came from and how little they changed them. Also I’m going to the Pitchfork Music Festival this year, because I have never seen Public Enemy or Cut Copy or Boris or Spoon or King Khan & His Shrines live and I’d really like to. Also, if you want to track me down and harangue me for not liking an album you love, I will be easy to spot. Just look for the guy who looks exactly like Jim DeRogatis and also is wearing a nametag that says “Jim DeRogatis”.
CITY PAGES: I contribute a factually-shaky but photo-riddled writeup of George Clinton & P-Funk at First Ave (NOTE: someone else took the photos; the factual errors are mine alone). I also have a photo-deficient but presumably less erroneous geekout over El-P and Dizzee Rascal at the Triple Rock. Also, I say hurtful things about a mediocre auto-racing video game.
PAPER THIN WALLS: I like Men Without Pants — wait, that didn’t sound right, did it? Shit. In other news, I am not big on Chin Chin. And a Can Ox pseudo-reunion? Shit, sign me up. Plus extra bonus fawning over Quiet Village.
eMUSIC: Fat Ray & Black Milk. Rap!
FINALLY: I kind of, sort of, accidentally pseudo-wrote the hook to the hott new Best Show on WFMU-constructed Ted Leo & the Pharmacists superjam, “The World Is in the Turlet”. Long story short, this was a listener-aided effort to collectively write a song for TLRX, and not realizing the gravity of the situation I phoned in with some sub-Meltzer doggerel that Rob Zombie might have possibly fished out of his trashbasket in a desperate attempt to finish the title song to the soundtrack for his upcoming film Satan Bastard Murder Jerks. A bit later I called in to apologize, offered a more generic lyrical contribution that went unused, and noted the fact that the song seemed to be building around the idea of how “the world’s going down the toilet”. Tom picked up that ball and ran with it, so now I kind of feel like that Daily Mail reporter who wrote the news story about the pothole problem in Blackburn. Except that this song doesn’t end one of the most overrated albums ever.
Filed under: Music
Thanx to Leonard Pierce, I got roped into the seven songs occupying your mind meme-deal that’s been pinballing its way through music blog land. Anything to get me posting to this howling void, I s’pose.
Grover Washington, Jr., “Knucklehead”
Grand Theft Auto has not really altered my behavior in any way that would make me any more prone to violence or crime, but it has turned me on to and/or reminded me of a lot of fantastic music; GTA III in particular was really useful in that it alerted me to how great Scientist’s early ’80s stuff was and now he’s basically up there with King Tubby, Prince Jammy and Lee “Scratch” Perry in my list of favorite dub artists. This particular GTA IV soundtrack selection, which I recognized almost immediately as the source of the beat from K-Solo’s “Fugitive,” is one of those things that completely and totally justifies jazz’s dalliance with funk and soul fusion in the early-mid ’70s, all sharp, towering horns and slinky low-end that sounds perfect next to circa ‘75 stuff like, say, Parliament’s “Mothership Connection (Star Child)”. Great in any context; even better when you’re ditching a three-star wanted level in a faux-Cadillac.
Clarence Carter, “What Was I Supposed to Do”
A super-smoky, Mooged-all-to-hell downtempo ballad centering around a nightclub flirtation scenario gone wrong. Basically Clarence is upset at some other man flagrantly macking on his lady (asking the color of her lingerie, grabbing her behind, real classy shit) and spends most of the song attempting to justify whatever unspoken-of retaliation he enacted on this scuzzy Romeo. It’s kind of macho and possessive on some hot-tempered super-chivalry business, though he seems to justify his actions against the other man with the notion that he doesn’t want his woman to be “disrespected” — it’s kind of a gender-studies minefield, I suppose. It’s also really, really blunted, with all kinds of super-reverbed guitars and the aforementioned Moogs — there’s at least three different keyboard lines running through this thing, and they all sound like ’70s sci-fi dystopia.
The Go, “Secular Century Man”
These guys should be a whole lot dumber, but they’re not. I described them once, at least in the context of their Jack White-augmented ‘99 Sub-Pop debut Whatcha Doin’, as “KISS in MC5 camouflage,” but there really isn’t a whole hell of a lot wrong with really basic, really familiar rock tropes when they hit on so many cylinders just right, stonkingly obvious lyrics (”altered states of consciousness/have changed my brain in permanent ways”) notwithstanding. Nu-garage-psych is pretty hard to screw up, but it’s also pretty hard to make into an earworm, which this chorus does severely. And they don’t seem too prone to smirkiness, which always helps.
Melt-Banana, “We Will Rock You”
Japanese noise-rockers breathe life into Queen’s most tiredest-assed song by turning it into minimalist yet super-noisy subwoofer fodder — the stomp-stomp-clap is replaced with a whole lot of Miami/ghetto-bass low end, and instead of Freddie Mercury running around singing like he’s grabbing his junk you get these really, really chirpy lead vocals that deflate the whole goonish machismo yet still sound really enthusiastic and exciting.
The Whitest Boy Alive, “Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)”
When Michaelangelo Matos breathlessly asks me “OK, have you heard this” it usually means I’ll wind up with a candidate for single of the year (see also: LeLe’s “Breakfast”), and this fits that scenario. He already covered this song in his version of this meme with the mostly-appropriate phrase “Camaros. Keyboards. Riffs. Yes.” As someone who is far more interested in the place of automobiles in the pop-culture pantheon than anyone without actual ownership of a car should be, I figure this is more Lotus Esprit than Camaro: all straight folded-paper lines, built around maneuverability rather than raw horsepower, and drawing off a stylistic backbone that has aged surprisingly well since the base model’s mid ’70s-late ’80s heyday. Erlend Øye is one of those singers that has a traditionally melodic and rich, warm voice but sounds really, really good pitted against the super-synthetic (see also his appearance on Someone Else’s remix of Röyksopp’s “Remind Me”), and few house producers make the super-synthetic sound warm like Fred Falke, so it’s a win-win.
Joe Bataan, “What Good Is a Castle, Pt. 2″
An amped-up 1975 rework/rewrite of a ballad from his 1970 album Riot! — Pt. 1 is also ballady, but this portion of the song is all high-grade Latin funk with a fantastic electric piano and a vocal melody that somehow manages to sound mournful and lonely even as everything around it is a big uptempo party. The unofficial Pt. 3 instrumental coda after the fake ending is a nice bonus.
Eric B. & Rakim, “Juice (Know the Ledge)”
Always a classic, though after watching the movie from whence it came I was kind of disappointed that things started deviating from NYC-in-92 slice-of-life-gone-wrong drama got into credibility-straining super-melodrama territory. (Director Ernest R. Dickerson would later helm some of my all-time favorite episodes of The Wire, though, so it’s all good.) The line that sticks with me in Rakim’s lyrics: “Somebody’s got to suffer, I just might spare one/And give a brother a fair one”. Dude made sympathy sound badass.
