OOPS I'M ON FIRE

I forgot to mention this... so in the off-chance anyone is reading this before tonight... I am DJing First Ave's New Year's celebration tonight in the mainroom. Here's the corny ad from the Onion:



Doors at 8. Tickets are $5 advance/$15 door. 2 for 1's until 10 pm. I will be playing from 12:30/1 to 3am. It will be fun. See you there.

2006 YEAR-END LISTS

I am crazy obsessive about lists, so I'm just going to bite the bullet and post some. Adding Peter Bjorn & John is kind of cheating since I didn't like them until yesterday or the day before, because I read another year-end list. Plus all this will change once I make it through the metaphorical piles of records I have to go through. Blah blah blah anyways:

LPs (excluding compilations)

28. Awesome Color - Awesome Color
27. Tussle - Telescope Mind
26. The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
25. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
24. The Emperor Machine - Vertical Tones and Horizontal Noise
23. Liars - Drum's Not Dead
22. Cat Power - The Greatest
21. Kasabian - Empire
20. Booka Shade - Movements
19. Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
18. Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo
17. Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
16. Lo-Fi-FNK - Boylife
15. Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
14. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
13. Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That
12. Erase Errata - Nightlife
11. Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles
10. White Rose Movement - Kick
9. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
8. Be Your Own PET - Be Your Own PET
7. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
6. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
5. LCD Soundsystem - 45:33
4. The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love
3. Hot Chip - The Warning
2. Goldfrapp - Supernature
1. The Knife - Silent Shout

Singles (in a rather ridiculous, at least partly meaningless order)

68. CSS - Alala
67. Cassius - Toop Toop
66. The Sounds - Song With A Mission
65. White Rose Movement - London's Mine
64. Booka Shade - In White Rooms
63. Booka Shade - Night Falls
62. Uffie - Ready to Uff
61. Lupe Fiasco - Kick Push
60. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
59. The Knife - Marble House
58. The Bronx - Histrory's Stranglers
57. Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone
56. The Vines - Don't Listen to the Radio
55. The Strokes - Heart in a Cage
54. The Juan Maclean - Love is in the Air
53. The Knife - Like A Pen
52. Ellen Allien & Apparat - Turbo Dreams
51. Ellen Allien & Apparat - Way Out
50. Girls Aloud - Somethin Kind of Ooh
49. Be Your Own PET - Adventure
48. Muse - Starlight
47. The Futureheads - Skip to the End
46. Van She - Kelly
45. Tiga - (Far From) Home
44. Kasabian - Empire
43. Phoenix - Consolation Prizes
42. The Killers - When You Were Young (Jacques Lu Cont remix)
42. Mark Ronson - Just
41. Simian Mobile DIsco - Hustler
40. The Pipettes - Pull-Shapes
39. Kasabian - Shoot the Runner
38. The Strokes - You Only Live Once
37. The Horrors - Sheena is a Parasite
36. Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow
35. White Rose Movement - Girls in the Back
34. Shit Robot - Wrong Galaxy/Triumph
33. DJ Mehdi - I Am Somebody
32. Spektrum - Don't Be Shy
31. Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous
30. Hot Chip - Boy From School
29. Fall Out Boy - Dance, Dance
28. The All-American Rejects - Move Along
27. CSS - Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above
26. Rihanna - S.O.S.
25. Fox N' Wolf - In Yr Underwear
24. TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
23. The Knife - Silent Shout
22. Goldfrapp - Ride A White Horse
21. Goldfrapp - Fly Me Away
20. Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
19. Arctic Monkeys - The View From the Afternoon
18. Secret Machines - Lightning Blue Eyes
17. Digitalism - Jupiter Room (Martian Assault edit)
16. White Rose Movement - Alsatian
15. Phoenix - Long Distance Call
14. The Rapture - Get Myself Into It
13. Be Your Own Pet - Bicycle, Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle
12. Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen (Ruined by Justice)
11. Justin Timberlake - My Love
10. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
9. Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - Relevee
8. The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health
7. My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade
6. Hot Chip - Over and Over
5. The Knife - Neverland
4. Justice vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends
3. The Rapture - Whoo! Alright - Yeah... Uh Huh
2. Nelly Furtado - Maneater
1. Justice - Waters of Nazareth (part 2)


Hah wow. I guarantee you won't find lists like these anywhere else. It's like, "What if Pitchfork, Stylus, NME, Fluokids, ILM and TRL were all actually the same person?"

Re: Ghostface: I really like Mr. Killah, but everytime I hear him all I can think is, "Heyyyy man... chill out. Let's go smoke. Take a chill pill. It's gonna be ok."

YEAR IN RIFFS

[after Riff Market's 2006 Year in Riffs]

This year I lost all concept of "taste in music." There are different combinations of things that can do this to a person, like going out to see bands every week, and getting all your music for free legally and illegally, and getting paid to play recordings of other peoples' music. Anyways it happened. Like I got in a big fight with a friend of mine (girl) over an acoustic cover of "Toxic" because I thought it was insulting to the original, or it had no point, or something ridiculous like that. What does that even mean, or say about me as a person?

This year I wanted more than anything to trek to the desert and see Daft Punk in a giant pyramid, and then it was trek to my cousin's place in Miami to see Daft Punk in said pyramid. Instead I trekked on a bus to Chicago and saw Justice in a small box. It sufficed and I went crazy and felt like they were my friends. I never be alone again come on.

This year I got more sick of blogs than before, which happens every year and I can't belive it keeps getting worse. I now really want music blogs to die, whatever that may mean. Maybe everyone will stop writing, or everyone will stop reading, or maybe yousendits will become felonies. It just needs to stop. Oh wait but if it stops how will I get that Kitsune release of the Van She remix of Klaxons covering Simian Mobile Disco's remix of Digitalism's b-side to their collab with Justice on a track for a comp featuring Pony Club Teenagers whoever's remix of the MSTRKRFT remix of Boys Noize's cover of that one new band on Modular, or was it Ed Banger?

This year I plan on spending New Year's getting drunk on someone else's tab and then getting paid to try and play other peoples' music in a continuous mix while trashed. I feel like the way I should really be spending it is flying to Eastern Europe and meeting up with Fox N Wolf and going out with them to Russian night clubs. They'd be all, "HEY you blockin my way to the dance floor," and fight with the bouncer, and steal bottles from behind the bar, and wear giant fox/wolf masks with glowing eyes, and rap in their cute accents about getting down and getting off and all that, and hi-jacking the DJ booth and putting on a ghetto tech remix of "Maneater." And I'd be standing there at the bar watching with one hand (left) up in the air and one hand (right) down in my underwear, and it'd all seem like a very appropriate way to close out 2006.

SPMV06: TOP TEN MUSIC VIDEOS, PT. II

The conclusion of counting down the year's best music videos:



5. Kanye West - Touch The Sky

Reasons why this video is awesome can be found here.






4. The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health & Silent Shout

The Knife get to have a combined entry, otherwise they'd take over a ridiculous portion of this top ten list. They released the most brilliant album of the year, and accompanying that album is an ever growing set of brilliant videos.

"We Share" is everyone's favorite, I think, with stark red, white and black animations of birds and heads and surgery and S&M and blood. You know, happy thoughts. My personal favorite is the clip for "Silent Shout." Like the rest of the videos for this record, it works as a sort of demented, engaging and scary visualizer for the track, but I think the one for "Silent Shout" really takes it to another level. It seems to fit the track perfectly. And it freaks me out.

Other videos from the record include the chase-scene antics of Like A Pen and the wtf animals of Marble House.




3. The Horrors - Sheena is a Parasite


The entirety of this song and video combination is just so in-your-face ridiculous and terrifying that it makes both incredibly more memorable than one might first expect. My favorite parts include the bassist who just plays two notes and the drummer who looks like a chipmunk from Alvin and the Chipmunks.




2. Klaxons - Magick

Here's one of those perfect cases where the video and the song each make the other better. It fits perfectly, and a video this visceral just increases the listener's connection to the song. Definitely my favorite of all the Saam directed videos.



1. The Presets - Are You the One?

You might just want to watch this before you read anything I write about it.

I laugh at every single part of this video every time I see it. It is so dense and layered and hilarious and intricate and detailed, and I don't understand where almost all of the ideas came from. Why is there a mechanical spider with a mustache at the end? Every part of the video gets me every time. Anything else I say is just going to be redundant; this may be my favorite video ever. Maybe I'll do a shot by shot analysis in the future.

SPMV06: TOP TEN MUSIC VIDEOS, PT. I

Welcome to SPMV06, where we distribute awards for the best music videos of the year.

I personally have never given up on music videos. I used to watch them in the iTunes store when they were free. Then came YouTube, which I consider to be more of a hindrance than helper to the artform. Shit video and shit audio does not a quality audio-video make. Luckily we have devotees like Cliptip to helps us get our hands on hi-fi versions of videos. Makes me almost wish I had bought a full-fledged iPod instead of a Nano. Anyways, I have uploaded all of the clips on the list except one for your viewing pleasure. Let's begin.

10. Phoenix, Consolation Prizes (live on Conan)

This is the only video I do not have a copy of for download. I can't find it on YouTube either. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was very, very good. I think there is a such thing as a quality late-night performance, though it is a hard thing to pull off. Phoenix passed with flying colors. The whole band stopped on cue at one point so the singer could take off his jacket. The guitarist had a mask on... but for only half of the performance. Don't know why, don't care. It was cool. And it made me like this single about ten times more. Quality stuff, Frenchies.




9. Justice vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends

Along with its reissue this year, this single got a video to accompany it. My only issue here is that the edit of the song they use is rather hastily done and not long enough. But this video is hilarious. Setting up the pranks must have been hella fun. Yeah, hella fun. The best YouTube fodder out there. I feel like they really are my friends! Tee hee. I won't get sick of saying that.




8. The Rapture - W.A.Y.U.H (People Don't Dance No More)

Ah yes. Who would have thought that Mattie Safer's rapping would have gone from booze infested Sister Saviours, complete with drinking mantras tattooed on their foreheads, to School House Rock slash Sesame Street inspired super happy fun time BBQs, dissing parties with free drinks. Not me. This vid is the sh*t. Plus Luke Jenner wears a cape... a CAPE, people... for the whole video. Can't argue with that. Also, Safer wears a grill, flops around in a kiddie pool, rides in the back of a pick-up, and does a choreographed dance. Props.




7. Hot Chip - Over and Over

The thing I like about this video is that I really can't tell what it's about. I think it's sort of discussing originality and realism in the music business, and popping big balloons and the resulting winds, and making a music video, and optometry, and funny sunglasses, and being white and funky, and skeletons, and various types of hand percussion. And the pasted in backgrounds remind me of guitar hero. But I still don't know what it's really about. And I think it's about something. You win this round, Hot Chip.




6. Kasabian - Shoot the Runner

This is essentially the same video as Queen of the Stone Age's "Go with the Flow." But that might be the best music video ever, so this one is good by default. Paint never seemed so edgy! or something. Anyone I show this to likes it (as long as they don't know who Kasabian is).

To be continued...

AMERIWHA?

Information Leafblower just did his fourth annual Top 40 Bands in America panel/list. While I was glad to be a part of it again, I really think the list fell on it's face this year. It's harder to hate on than it is to be bored by it. I think the vague rule of voting for bands "you blogged most about" is what screwed it up. Since I don't post that much, my list ended up being the best U.S. bands who were active in 2006, meaning they toured and/or put out a record, but I really thought that's how everyone else would go about it. I don't know how they chose the bands they did. I actively dislike a number of bands on it, and haven't even listened to a greater number.

Also ILB says he didn't poll any "dance bloggers" or "hip-hop" bloggers. Don't know how I feel about that. For the record, my list is mostly dance-related. Don't make fun, this was impossible. How could a best of '06 list not have the Knife? Damn Americans! Here you are:

10. Secret Machines
A jam band that I don't feel bad about liking. And they tour A LOT.

9. Rub-N-Tug
Their remixes and DJ mixes are adding up to an extremely compelling, dubbed-out body of work that provides quite the mind-trip, especially compared to most other remixers tackling indie rock et al.

8.Erase Errata
The girls released their best album this year, a kinetic and thoughtful punk record, and they still have indie-dom's best rhythm section.

7. Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake makes being a mind-blowing pop star seem like nothing at all. I saw him do "SexyBack" on Leno and he basically stood there, bouncing a little, talking about how he's sexy. And it was amazing. I want that job.

6. Diplo
Brings excitement to anything he touches. Check the Mad Decent podcasts and his genre-bending, crowd-hyping DJ sets.

5. lcd soundsystem
My favorite band. The idea that 45:33 is just something to keep us busy while we wait for the next full-length is a bit ridiculous to think about, considering that it's better than pretty much any other band's records.

4. The Rapture
An obscenely fun record and the most insane live show I've seen this year.

3. My Chemical Romance
This record is so fucking awesome. Hilarious and totally rawks.

2. The DFA
Consistently the best. This year in particular featured a spacier, more psychedelic direction from the production team, the release of two excellent remix compilations, and more great work for lcd soundsystem, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom ("Relevee" single), and more.

1. Timbaland
If you can make room for Sufjan Stevens on this list, but not Timbaland, you are certifiably insane. He's been on top of his game for years, and it seems like 2006 might have been his best year yet with amazing singles from Nelly Furtado and an incredible record from Justin Timberlake. Definitely the best music coming out of the states, pop or hip-hop, is from Timbo. Too bad the Rapture couldn't afford to have him produce any of their record; that could have been fun.