Who got the funk?

February 20, 2010


Impromptu soul/funk iTunes genius mix for a Saturday afternoon photo editing session.

“I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” – Stevie Wonder
“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” – Otis Redding
“Save the Children” – Marvin Gaye
“A Change is Gonna Come” – Sam Cooke
“Flash Light” – Parliament
“Sign ‘O’ the Times” – Prince
“That’s the Way of the World” – Earth Wind & Fire
“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” – Stevie Wonder
“I Want You (live)” – Marvin Gaye
“Night Time Is the Right Time” – Ray Charles
“Just A Thought” – Gnarls Barkley
“Jungle Boogie” – Kool & the Gang
“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” – The Supremes
“Mustang Sally” – Wilson Pickett
“Try a Little Tenderness” – Otis Redding
“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” – Marvin Gaye
“Spanish Harlem” – Ben E. King
“You Haven’t Done Nothin’” – Stevie Wonder
“Alphabet St.” - Prince

Conclusion: despite it’s inability to stray too far from convention, sometimes iTunes Genius is pretty great.

Tags: Music, Steinbeck on Random, The Top... |

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BMOWP’s 100 Favorite Songs of 2K

February 2, 2010


I’ve listened to music for a long time.

We all have.

In the long time I’ve been listening to music, one thing has stayed constant: my favorite songs sound different from your favorite songs. The notes land in our ears with different expectations. Tastes differ. Qualities change. And, much like we never know exactly how color looks in the eyes of another, music isn’t analogous between listeners.

Still, we insist on ranking them. The top this. The best that. The essential whatever.

Which is why I wanted to look at things differently. These aren’t the top 100 songs of the 2000s (a decade that ended a month ago, granted). But they are my favorite 100 songs of the 2000s. They display my taste, showing how those notes landed on MY ears and what my expectations were.

With that disclaimer, a few more ground rules. I did not allow for more than three songs per artist, hopefully saving you from 50+ Modest Mouse and Cursive songs. I did not allow covers to be counted, knocking Jose Gonzalez’s “Heartbeats” and Ben Folds’ “Bitches Ain’t Shit” off the list. And I present the list in three parts for brevity’s sake: 100-51 are simply listed; 50-21 come with a brief statement; 20-1 arrive with full reasoning and the track itself.

To hear all of the 100 songs (minus five that weren’t supported), check out the Black Marks on Wood Pulp 100 Favorite Songs of 2K playlist at Lala.com.

This is how I saw the decade in music. Enjoy.

First, the Really Good Songs
#100-51

100. “Who Could Win A Rabbit” - Animal Collective, Sung Tongs (2004)
99. “Oceanbound” - 764-HERO, Nobody Knows This Is Everywhere (2002)
98. “Until 6pm” - Office, Q & A (2005)
97. “It Was There That I Saw You” - …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead, Source Tags & Codes (2002)
96. “The Crystal Lake” - Grandaddy, The Sophtware Slump (2000)
95. “Don’t Panic” - Coldplay, Parachutes (2000)
94. “Skinny Love” - Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)
93. “Heavy Metal Drummer” - Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
92. “Last Night” - The Strokes, Is This It? (2000)
91. “Quality Control” - Jurassic 5, Quality Control (2000)
90. “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” - LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem (2005)
89. “California” - Phantom Planet, The Guest (2002)
88. “Album Of The Year” - The Good Life, Album Of The Year (2004)
87. “When The Sun Goes Down” - Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006)
86. “You Are A Runner And I Am My Father’s Son” - Wolf Parade, Apologies To The Queen Mary (2005)
85. “Choked And Separated” - Hot Water Music, A Flight And A Crash (2001)
84. “Mind The Gap” - The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Behind The Music (2001)
83. “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1″ - The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2002)
82. “What Else Would You Have Me Be” - Lucero, Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers (2006)
81. “Singer Songwriter” - Okkervil River, The Stand-Ins (2008)
80. “A Praise Chorus” - Jimmy Eat World, Bleed American (2001)
79. “(Drawing) Rings Around The World” - Super Furry Animals, Rings Around The World (2001)
78. “Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.)” - Monsters Of Folk, Monsters of Folk (2009)
77. “Take Your Mama” - Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters (2004)
76. “Black River Killer” - Blitzen Trapper, Furr (2008)
75. “I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow” - The Soggy Bottom Boys, O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2002)
74. “Oxford Comma” - Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend (2008)
73. “When The Night Turns Cold” - Tobias Fröberg , Somewhere In The City (2006)
72. “Section 12 (Hold Me Now)” - The Polyphonic Spree, Together We’re Heavy (2004)
71. “Lukewarm” - New End Original, Thriller (2001)
70. “I Will Possess Your Heart” - Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (2008)
69. “Even If You Don’t” - Ween, White Pepper (2000)
68. “Young Folks (w/ Victoria Bergsman)” - Peter, Bjorn and John, Writer’s Block (2006)
67. “Punkrocker (w/Iggy Pop)” - Teddybears, Soft Machine (2006)
66. “Avantcore” - Busdriver, Fear of a Black Tangent (2005)
65. “The D in Detroit” - The Anniversary, Designing a Nervous Breakdown (2000)
64. “Sixteen Military Wives” - The Decemberists, Picaresque (2005)
63. “Calm Americans” - Elliott, False Cathedrals (2000)
62. “Oxygen” - Willy Mason, Where The Humans Eat (2006)
61. “Black Swan” - Thom Yorke, The Eraser (2006)
60. “The Deeper In” - Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day (2003)
59. “Mothership, Mothership, Do You Read Me?” - Cursive, Burst and Bloom [EP] (2002)
58. “Paper Planes” - M.I.A, Kala (2007)
57. “Two Weeks” - Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest (2009)
56. “The Way We Get By” - Spoon, Kill The Moonlight (2002)
55. “So Soon” - Seven Storey Mountain, Based On A True Story (2000)
54. “Oh, Angelina” - The Impossibles, Return (2000)
53. “Fidelity” - Regina Spektor, Begin To Hope (2006)
52. “Long Distance Call” - Phoenix, It’s Never Been Like That (2006)
51. “Hey Ya!” - Outkast, Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (2003)

And Now: The Better Songs
#50-21

50. “From A Balance Beam” - Bright Eyes, Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground (2003)
My first Bright Eyes experience, in which I realized he wasn’t simply a Dashboard Confessional knockoff.

49. “Sea Legs” - The Shins, Wincing The Night Away (2007)
I didn’t care at all about The Shins until this song hit heavy rotation. Sorry, Garden State.

48. “Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix) (Feat. Jay-Z)” - Kanye West, Late Registration (2005)
An extended version that adds one of my favorite Jay-Z performances.

47. “Garden Of Simple” - Ani DiFranco, Reveling: Reckoning (Disc 1) (2001)
Most of my favorite Ani stuff is from before 2000. Then again, “Garden of Simple” could easily have been on Little Plastic Castle.

46. “Kids” - MGMT, Oracular Spectacular (2008)
You know, there are four songs from this album that I love equally. This one represents the lot.

45. “Since I Left You” - The Avalanches, Since I Left You (2000)
Not one to rock the “electronic” movement, I always loved The Avalanches as solid background music.

44. “Non Photo-Blue” - Pinback, Summer In Abaddon (2004)
“Hey, this sounds like a raw version of Modest Mouse,” I thought at the time. I was wrong, but the song stuck with me.

43. “Hotel Yorba” - The White Stripes, White Blood Cells (2001)
The whole album, really. For as much as I like them, The White Stripes are an album-based band to me, and therefore didn’t make much of a showing here.

42. “Oh My God” - Kaiser Chiefs, Employment (2005)
Lily Allen’s cover is also really good. But remember? No covers, dude.

41. “Come on! Feel the Illinoise!” - Sufjan Stevens, Illinois (2005)
For some, it’s “Casimir Pulaski Day,” while others choose “Chicago.” I always liked this song.

40. “Wake Up” - The Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004)
I grew to love this song not so much for the album version, but for this fantastic live “Neon Bible/Wake Up” video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-5XK-2Ufd4

39. “Idioteque” - Radiohead, Kid A (2000)
The best song off of Radiohead’s third-best album, but since it was the best album they released in the 2000s it automatically made everyone’s #1 spot.

38. “This Year” - The Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree (2005)
Childhood angst, booze, video games, learning to drive, and the world vs. John Darnielle.

37. “Rough Gem” - Islands, Return to the Sea (2006)
A constant Left of Center standard, “Rough Gem” was infectious enough to make it onto several “Springtime Mix” CDs.

36. “The Trench” - Chuck Ragan, Gold Country (2009)
Formerly of Hot Water Music, Chuck takes the energy of the punk arena and funnels it into his acoustic guitar.

35. “If You Could Save Yourself (You’d Save Us All)” - Ween, Quebec (2003)
Ween’s been down more than it’s been up since the turn of last decade, but sometimes they’d cook up brilliance.

34. “If The Brakeman Turns My Way” - Bright Eyes, Cassadaga (2007)
To those who would rather listen to “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning,” I have to respectfully disagree. That album doesn’t have this song.

33. “Fred Jones, Part 2″ - Ben Folds, Rockin’ The Suburbs (2001)
About Schmidt has nothing on Ben Folds’ tale of an old man whose industry has passed him by.

32. “The Funeral” - Band of Horses, Everything All The Time (2006)
Haunting? Yes. Awesome? You bet.

31. “Vaka” - Sigur Rós, ( ) (2002)
I still remember hearing this for the first time in the radio booth at KCFS, my mouth agape.

30. “Guns and Cigarettes” - Atmosphere, Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP’s (2000)
My official introduction to the idea of indie hip-hop. That he hails from Minneapolis was an added benefit.

29. “All Nightmare Long” - Metallica, Death Magnetic (2008)
Corey at 15 years old approves of the inclusion of this song on the list. And, oh man, it’s fun on Guitar Hero.

28. “There Goes The Fear” - Doves, The Last Broadcast (2002)
Brit pop, except without all of that stupid Oasis/Blur cheekiness. So, I guess, not Brit pop at all.

27. “10001110101″ - Clutch, Robot Hive: Exodus (2005)
I saw Clutch once at The Pomp Room in Sioux Falls. They opened for Marilyn Manson. I don’t know which is weirder – that Clutch opened for MM or that MM played at a dive bar.

26. “Girl” - Beck, Guero (2005)
Still stands as my favorite cell phone ring for Kerrie.

25. “Delicate” - Damien Rice, O (2003)
Great chorus, though it hasn’t aged well. It was in the top 20 of my favorite songs of all time just a few years ago.

24. “A Fond Farwell” - Elliott Smith, From A Basement On The Hill (2004)
A post-death release that hauntingly predicted his own suicide. Also: beautiful.

23. “Artificial Light” - Rainer Maria, A Better Version of Me (2000)
The jangly open. The fantastic opening beat. The iconic emo-when-emo-still-ruled voice of Caithlin De Marrais. I keep thinking I should have bumped this song higher.

22. “Always Coming Back Home To You” - Atmosphere, Seven’s Travels (2003)
He talks about MPLS as home, but the second “hidden” song mentions my life’s two home bases: Sioux Falls and St. Cloud.

21. “Barnacles” - Ugly Casanova, Sharpen Your Teeth (2002)
I feel fortunate that I can add this song. It’s like I got to cheat and add an extra Modest Mouse song.

Finally, the Absolute Best Songs, Hands Down
#20-1

20. “Stronger” - Kanye West, Graduation (2007)
I didn’t know shit about Daft Punk – still don’t, to tell you the truth – but I do know they make for a hell of a backing track for The Artist Now Reviled as Kanye West. That Kanye West landed two songs in this list isn’t a testament to his talent as much as his ability to adapt to different genres. He sounds bored, and the idea that anyone can be bored while rapping is so foreign to me that it’s endearing. I know. Weird, huh?

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19. “Spitting Venom” - Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (2007)
Modest Mouse had two “Best Albums Ever” in a row: The Lonesome Crowded West and my personal favorite The Moon and Antarctica. Then, they embraced popular radio and wrote good albums that disappointed only because two “Best Albums Ever” preceded them. Oh, but wait. Here’s something awesome: “Spitting Venom,” a callback to the long, rambling, stonerific Modest Mouse epics of old. And suddenly, just like that, I had something that reminded me of those “Best Albums Ever.”

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18. “Trouble” - Ray LaMontagne, Trouble (2003)
If only because of a sultry voice and a look that betrayed his Bonnaroo sensibilities, I spent a good few months wondering just how much more awesome a person’s image could get. Here’s Ray LaMontagne (a name I still can’t help but pronounce incorrectly), mountain man ruggedness mixed with a soulful sound you’d expect from the gravel washed backwoods of Tennessee, and he’s got this song about heartbreak and hard times and all of that. And even though I sometimes hear about it and think of that commercial with the dog who wants to hide his bone where no one can find it, it’s still a great song.

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17. “Two” - The Antlers, Hospice (2009)
I started compiling this list in November, which is to say I had narrowed the songs down to about 300 and had begun the process of sniping them off, one by one. Then I found Hospice, causing me to wonder aloud if it’s okay to catapult an album to greatness after only a month of listening. In this case, yes – The Antlers provide the soundtrack to an agonizing death that is both beautiful and introspective, and this song serves as a sing-along, head-nod, brilliantly worded highpoint. The most difficult part was ranking it, and I surprised even myself by landing it this high.

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16. “Rebellion (Lies)” - The Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004)
So, you remember back in 2004, when The Arcade Fire suddenly blew up all over the indie rock landscape and they were hailed as the greatest band ever and a lot of “Best Albums Of All Time Ever” lists had them a lot higher than they should have been (because, let’s be honest, Funeral is a fantastic album but it has a long way to go to beat out even The Beatles’ worst albums) and then you kinda got burned out on them – not because they were mainstream but because they had absolutely saturated the scene? That was me, too. Except, after a year or two of ignoring them, I listened to some of their songs in preparation for this list. And they’re good. REAL GOOD.

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15. “Crazy” - Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere (2006)
Dude, that guy was in the Goodie Mob? And the other guy did the Grey Album? So, let me get this straight – two underground-as-underground-gets guys get together and record the first song to ever hit #1 on the charts via mp3 download? Let’s say another thing about how unlikely – and awesome – it was that “Crazy” became as big as it did: my boss used to whistle it as he was getting ready for meetings. Fifty years old. Whistling Gnarls Barkley. Because not only was it accessible, it was catchy as all hell and doubly as inspired.

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14. “Trusty Chords” - Hot Water Music, Caution (2002)
Hot Water Music loves its music and its whiskey, and that love combines on this song: hangovers, hating where you are and a few great guitar chords. As a play-pretend Jameson fan (because, let’s be honest, I can’t drink whiskey without cringing and, really, that doesn’t seem like a productive way to enjoy alcohol) I love the constant references.

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13. “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” - The Postal Service, Give Up (2002) The bleeps and bloops of technology enveloping the scaled back tone of early Death Cab for Cutie. Well, naturally, I suppose – this IS the voice of Death Cab. And though other parts of this album were co-opted by long-haired hippies in UPS commercials, the album (quickly becoming dated, but in a good way) still has one of the best opening songs on record. At the time, it seemed so foreign. Now, it just seems awesome.

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12. “The Mountain” - Mason Jennings, Birds Flying Away (2000)
The scene: First Avenue in Minneapolis. The show: Modest Mouse, shortly after “Float On” became a major hit and the kids from Kidz Bop sang it and it ended up in a Ford commercial. The opening act: Mason Jennings, Minneapolis legend and acoustic triviality to a room filled with anxious Modest Mouse fans. The song: His first of the night, a seemingly mellow number with a groove that erupted into a frenzy by the end. “The Mountain.” I’ve been a fan ever since.

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11. “Late” - Ben Folds, Songs For Silverman (2005)
“This song is for a friend of mine, Elliot Smith.” It was an Augustana College-sponsored Ben Folds concert at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, and it was one of the most tender moments I’ve seen at a live show. Still, today, the song – and, naturally, Ben Folds’ treacly piano lines – make for a powerful and memorable song about a friend. A friend who just so happened to specialize in soul-bearing songs himself.

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10. “Sierra” - Cursive, The Ugly Organ (2003)
I learned of the name “Sierra” from this song. But, no, my daughter’s not named after the song. After all, the song – about Tim Kasher’s fictitious yet probably very auto-biographical protagonist’s realization that he’s ready to settle down if only his significant other hadn’t already gotten married and had a child with someone else – is a little dark for little Sierra’s disposition. That being said, it’s a song steeped in the Cursive brand of pain: anger, realization, and too-late repentance.

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9. “Daylight” - Aesop Rock, Labor Days (2001)
The top rated hip-hop track on this list isn’t so much a song as it’s a chronicle of amazing rhymes and fast-paced chaos. Case in point: even with the words in front of me, I quickly abandoned the idea of performing this song at Hip-Hop Karaoke. Not with those turns of phrase, the words fitting together perfectly but still so angled they cause instant confusion. An amazing track, and even more great when coupled with its bizarro version, “Night Light.”

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8. “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” - Against Me!, The Acoustic EP (2001)
An acoustic version of one of Against Me!’s most anthemic songs, “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” combines sing-along lyrics with an unrelenting acoustic lick. Pints of Guinness? Makes sense: there are few songs that make me want to head to the nearest pub, and this is one of them. One part sad story, one part drinking anthem, one part awesome, uncategorizable punk-hybrid, it’s proof that acoustic songs most likely outperform their electric counterparts.

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7. “Life Like Weeds” - Modest Mouse, The Moon And Antarctica (2000)
For a while, this was the #1 song on my list. It’s the most epic song from my favorite all time album, and it best sums up the album’s apparent theme: “The Meaning of Life According to Modest Mouse.” And then I played my list to Kerrie. And about halfway through the song, she looked at me and said, “Really? This is number one?” Despite my own doubts leading up to the song, I thought I had made the right choice. It took another voice to prove that, while it may be one of the better Modest Mouse songs, it’s not even the most defining song on the album, let along the entire decade. So it fell six spots. Rick Dees would be proud.

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6. “Crawl” - Alkaline Trio, From Here To Infirmary (2001)
They can’t write an album anymore that sounds anything like this. Alkaline Trio, that is – former emo-punk pioneers and drinking champions, currently slumming the big time with forgettable pop punk. “Crawl” is from the end of the “Alkaline Trio has an edge” era, before they slicked up the sound, started wearing suits and generally forgot the music that made them who they are. Regardless of what they are now, “Crawl” is a masterpiece in punk.

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5. “The Radiator Hums” - Cursive, Domestica (2000)
I honestly didn’t even realize this album was released in 2000. Like The Moon and Antarctica, Domestica rocked at the beginning of the century and has continued to shine. If I’d have ranked all of my favorite albums and not just ONE of them, it would have been #2. I think. That being said, “The Radiator Hums” is a bright spot on an otherwise dark album, though the lyrics continue the same brutalness that comes from Tim Kasher’s typical “marital strife” prose.

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4. “The Underdog” - Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)
It begins with a flurry of acoustic guitar and continues on as my favorite song of the second half of this decade – really, my favorite song of the Vilhauers’ Sirius Satellite Radio era. While Spoon always stood off to the side as a respected but not fully embraced band – I loved a lot of their stuff, but never chose to listen to them, if you know what I mean – “The Underdog” pushed them into “trusted to always be good” category.

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3. “The Frequency” - Jets To Brazil, Perfecting Loneliness (2002)
Oh, man. I don’t even know how to explain this song. It’s epic, it’s filled with fantastic lyrics, it’s Jets To Brazil’s greatest creation, and it’s generally unknown. Which is disappointing. Because it’s simply wonderful.

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2. “3rd Planet” - Modest Mouse, The Moon And Antarctica (2000)
We all have that one album that, even though we don’t listen to it every day, instantly brings back a flood of memories, the first notes rushing into our brains with nostalgia and wonderment and an appreciation for great music. And from the first notes of 3rd Planet, the first song on my favorite album of all time forever and ever amen, those memories flood in. So, yeah, it’s only #2 because it has the audacity of being released at the same time as #1. Too bad, Modest Mouse. You lose.

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1. “Cursing Concrete” - Rumbleseat, …Is Dead (2005)
Simple, raw and powerful. It’s the type of song that makes me want to learn guitar. To be in a band so I can cover it. It’s the song I want played at my funeral. Really. And that’s about as much of a recommendation as I can muster.

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Tags: Concerts, Music, The Top..., Vilhauer |

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Three Lists about Traveling to St. Cloud, Minnesota

January 28, 2010


Things that fly by on a four-hour trip to St. Cloud, Minnesota.

• Snow-packed hills
• Local Hardee’s franchises
• Universities I’ve attended
• Available bladder room
• Cities named after legendary Native Americans
• Trucks that don’t look like they should be running at all, let alone on a highway going 55 miles per hour
• Cenex stations

Things that fly by on a four-minute drive down Division Street in St. Cloud, Minnesota

• Patience
• Your life, before your eyes
• Red Lobster

Things that DO NOT fly by on a four-hour trip to St. Cloud, Minnesota

• Time

Tags: On..., The Top..., Travel |

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Five reasons McSweeney’s San Francisco Panorama is a thing of beauty

January 4, 2010


Five reasons McSweeney’s San Francisco Panorama is a thing of beauty:

1. Stephen King on the World Series
2. The comics page
3. The Panorama Magazine and the Panorama Book Review could stand on their own
4. In a time when more newspapers are trying to look more like CNN.com, McSweeney’s chose to design the Panorama like a classy magazine
5. A pull-out Stephan Curry poster

I’ll obviously post a full review of the “newspaper” when I’ve finished its 300+ pages. But until then, go read it - AND LOVE IT - for yourself.

Tags: Books, Journalism, Literature, The Top..., What I've Been Reading, Writing |

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BMOWP’s Favorite Album of the Decade

December 28, 2009


The Moon and AntarcticaOh, come on. Let’s be honest. You don’t want to read another list. You’re absolutely ecstatic that I chose only one album.

That’s good. I’ve skipped a lot of them this year, understanding that everyone’s “best of the year” or “best of the decade” collections are created through the ether of personal taste. One person’s Kid A is another person’s “How can you choose Kid A as the best album of the decade when it’s barely Radiohead’s third best record overall?”

I was about to enter the fray, actually. My ten favorite albums of the decade:

#1 – Modest Mouse, Moon and Antarctica
#2 – Er… Um…

Well, there was a problem.

Call it a shift in execution. This was the decade in which I started listening to songs instead of albums. My personal trends were driven by college radio and the Internet instead of touring punk bands and my friends’ CD players. My tastes expanded to the point that I could no longer devote enough attention to specifics, looking for the quick fix over the long play.

Which is not to say that I completely forgot the album format. Jets to Brazil, Arcade Fire, Wilco, The Strokes and The White Stripes all threw out great albums that I listened to as a whole. Some of my favorite bands released albums that I certainly paid attention to: bands like Built to Spill and Hot Water Music put forth a great effort, but nothing compared to the albums they released in the 90s. Even recently, MGMT and The Antlers alerted me to defining music that, given another ten years, could rival the albums I’ve already deified.

For me, there’s only one album that stood strong enough for the entire ten years. And it was all rooted in a time and a situation: the summer of 2000. It was a trip to England. It was a realization of whatever I thought my talents would become. It was my first year out of the dorms thanks to a year in limbo and a year as an RA.

And while Modest Mouse’s The Moon and Antarctica works well both as a collection of spacey, intense songs and as a concept album on the meaning of life, it never would have become quite the life-altering force without the situation in which it played a part: the soundtrack to a generational change, from grown-up child to aspiring adult.

The top 10 list wilted, a strong top album unsupported by the willing (though not necessarily able) albums below it. Paired up against #1, no album really stood a chance.

I guess I knew that from the beginning.

Tags: Music, The Top..., Vilhauer |

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5, 10, 15, 20…

August 13, 2009


I’ve love the new 5, 10, 15, 20 columns from Pitchfork, wherein some pseudo-famous indie rocker details the albums that made his or her life what it is at each five-year-increment.

So I’m stealing it.

A word to the wise – I’ve cheated. But for good reason. Often, you’ll see two – or even three – albums. Chalk it up to a wildly changing focus on genres. I’ve passed through several different phases, and these phases all seem to peak a few years AFTER the five-year-interval. In fact, ages 10, 15 and 20 served more as a crossroads between phases, where two genres mixed.

Let’s go.

Age 5
USA For Africa: “We Are The World”

Outside of The Monkees and various cartoon theme songs, I’m sure I was uninitiated in the ways of music back in 1984. Of course, I don’t remember. I was only five.

I do vividly remember my father requesting “Happy Birthday” by the Beatles on the radio for my sixth or seventh birthday, and I remember Phil Collins’ “Mama” and “That’s All” playing a lot, but “We Are the World” probably served as my initiation.

It was the first time I actually wanted to be part of a song – to be one of the singers. I used to imagine my stuffed animals and toys singing a benefit song together. Because I apparently didn’t have many friends.

Age 10
“Weird” Al Yankovic: UHF
Motley Crue: Dr. Feelgood

Speaking of no friends, I was utterly devoted to “Weird” Al Yankovic when I was 10. Naturally – he was the soundtrack to the lives of many future dorks, and I was no different.

However, this is also the age when I branched out a bit, so giving the entire year to “Weird” Al is a little deceiving. It’s funny to think that this was the year that produced Paul’s Boutique, Doolittle and Bleach, but my unpracticed ear was drawn to the blossoming hair metal scene, thanks in part to a cassette purchase of Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood.

Age 15
Metallica: Live Shit: Binge and Purge
Green Day: Dookie

Hair metal really took hold of my attention when Poison’s live album – Swallow This Live (1991) – came out, and I then focused primarily on safe, radio-friendly rock bands: Poison, Motley Crue, Warrant, Ugly Kid Joe, Van Halen. Boring. Predictable. Awful, now that I look back.

And then, ramping up to age 15 – and my first days in high school – something else happened: Metallica. Metal got serious, and the Metallica juggernaught culminated with their first live box set, Live Shit: Binge and Purge. I had never been so excited for a musical project in my entire life. Come to think of it, I probably never have been since, and may never again. It allowed my love for Metallica to coast on for several more years, even after they got all shitty and cut their hair.

Of course, this was the time I became more interested in both alternative music and a renewed era in pop punk. This is the year Kurt Cobain died, the year Ill Communication and The Downward Spiral and Weezer’s debut album were released. So R.E.M. and Nine Inch Nails and whatever else was considered “left of center” at the time became awesome in my mind. Green Day’s Dookie gets the nod for pointing me in the future direction of Bad Religion and NOFX.

Age 20
Braid: Frame and Canvas
The Get Up Kids: Red Letter Day EP
Hot Water Music: Forever and Counting

We skip Sunny Day Real Estate, Texas is the Reason, Sense Field and the rest of the Revelation Records/Post-punk emo-ness that led me to want to be in a band and sing warbled whining about tortured teenage angst, and we go right to the tail end of that movement – my sophomore year in college, spanned across two cities, when Hot Water Music and Braid and The Get Up Kids fueled a period of manic inter-state concert attendance.

This was the year I learned how to drink, and it was the year that led me to my final genre change – from that warbly emo kid to the sophisticated indie rock aficionado, or, at least, an aficionado-in-training.

Age 25
Modest Mouse: Moon and Antarctica

I had graduated college and moved back to Sioux Falls and gotten married and had a dog and two jobs I hated and was a very busy person in general.

And in the two years between moving from St. Cloud (November 2002) and signing up for Sirius Satellite Radio (December 2004) I nearly completely forgot about music. I didn’t listen to anything new. I didn’t pay attention to the scene, didn’t go to many shows, and hardly purchased CDs.

I was stuck, just like those aging rock fans who still cling to their Journey and Tesla albums. Except I was clinging to northwest indie – Modest Mouse, Built to Spill. Foremost was The Moon and Antarctica, an album I still love to this day.

(Sirius saved me, though – specifically Sirius 26: Left of Center.)

Age 30
Ween: Chocolate and Cheese

This is me right now. According to last.fm, Modest Mouse holds the top six spots in terms of most listened to albums (not counting those I use as “concentration music,” which often loop over and over again in the background: jazz, Thom Yorke, Sigur Ros). Ugly Cassanova – an Isaac Brock spin-off – sits at #7.

But to claim Modest Mouse again would be boring. And not fair to the rest of the stuff I listen to. Now, for better or worse, my tastes have branched and become so varied that I no longer have favorite bands or albums, and my reliance on Modest Mouse and Built to Spill as easy fallback choices is probably a remnant from my lost days of music. Age 25. See above.

Now, I could easily claim MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, or Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, or Okkervil River’s The Stand-Ins. Hell, even Girl Talk could stand a chance to land #1. (Ben Folds’ Songs for Silverman – an older one – should also be mentioned.)

But despite the wide array of choices, one album did take a higher stage: Ween’s Chocolate and Cheese, the album on which I wrote a book proposal to Continuum’s 33 1/3 series, and the album that allowed Ween to creep into the upper echelon of my listening habits.

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BMOWP’s Top 10 Albums of 2008, kind of

December 30, 2008


New music, to me, is a foreign concept. Being outside of the music release scene, I rarely grasp onto new music during the year it’s released. Instead, I discover and rediscover music only after I’m unable to forget it. After three singles have washed through the Sirius XMU cycle, or after a book reminds me of its relevance.

Which makes a “top 10 albums of 2008” list a little difficult.

What I’ve done in the past with my end of the year reading lists (coming tomorrow!) is review my year in listening. I dive into the entire catalog, bringing up new favorites, discovering forgotten gems, finally getting around to listening to something I picked up last years. My favorite books of 2008 weren’t actually published in 2008, for the most part, and my favorite music follows that same

Which is to say, in an off-handed way, that years do nothing for me. I understand the value of a top albums of 2008 list, but that’s not how I listen to music; year by year, with a conscious knowledge of when an album came out. Instead, I know of three types of music: music I just got, music I’ve had for a while, and music from a long time ago.

With that said, my top 10 albums of 2008 are all over the place, from all sorts of years, and they prove two things:

1. The nature of shuffling an iPod. It brings back old favorites, and, like my personal tastes, it knows no time frame. One song on shuffle might lead me to finding the entire album, listening to it several times and, without fail, wondering how I had ever forgotten about it.

2. My lag in discovering new music. Regardless of how religiously I read Largehearted Boy or Paste, I am desperately behind on discovering new music. Chances are, if a great album came out in 2007, I’m just finding out about it now. Or, more importantly, just caring about it. (Not always the case, but indeed common.)

Those albums:

Band of Horses – Cease to Begin (2007)
As is the case with a good majority of the albums on this list, Band of Horses forced me into submission after numerous plays on Sirius XMU. Something about the guy’s voice reminds me of Doug Martsch’s dreamy alto stylings, and the reverb sends me back to last year’s awesome Neon Bible. I had always loved “Is There A Ghost,” but it wasn’t until I heard the entire album (twice) at Michelle’s in downtown Sioux Falls that I made it my own.

Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique (1989)
Pixies – Doolittle (1989)
Through research for a book proposal for Continuum’s 33 1/3 book series, I picked up four of the series’s most interesting selections. Before reading each book, I went back and lightened to the album again and – lo and behold – found myself completely re-in-love with both Paul’s Boutique and Doolittle. They’re brilliant albums, and the insight gleaned from the books make both albums even better, creating a nagging longing for a re-do back in 1989: as I was listening to Def Leppard and Poison, this ridiculously great underground (and not so underground) music was being released. I missed out.

Ween – Chocolate and Cheese (1994)
And, in listing the two albums most affected by 33 1/3 research, I’d be remiss in leaving out the actual 33 1/3 research subject – Chocolate and Cheese, Ween’s most sprawling and brilliant album (though, for the record, not my favorite – The Mollusk, thanks.) To say that this research got me back into music would be an understatement. I’ve re-learned more about music writing – and about music itself – over the past two months to qualify for reintroduction into the scene.

(Just kidding. I went to a show the other night and felt more out of place than ever.)

Beck – Guero (2005)
I’ve gone back to Guero a few times, but this time it’s for keeps. Better than Odelay, more fun than Modern Guilt and more accessible than Sea Change. It’s the perfect Beck album because it’s totally awesome.

Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
Okervill River – The Stand-Ins (2008)
I guess I’m showing my indie rock love by putting these two albums on the list, and one might think I’m doing so in order to claim whatever small piece of relevancy is left in the Best of 2008 market. But I really like both of these albums for their killer songwriting – Bon Iver writes from the insides of an abandoned whale, and Okervill River is as meta as you can get – songwriting about songwriting, I guess.

Girl Talk – Feed the Animals (2008)
Me likey mashups * giggle *

Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)
“The Underdog” is song of the year for me – both because I love it and because iTunes refuses to make a Genius play list without it.

They Might Be Giants – Flood/Apollo 18 (1990/1992)
It’s not cheating if I give each album only ½ of a place on the list, right? I went through this nostalgic 1990s alternative kick this past summer, led by the geekitude that is They Might be Giants. They’re irrelevant and silly and not something an adult should listen to, but Sierra loves them and, I guess, so do I.

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