Music: Best o' the Year

I figured since Uncut, Mojo, Paste, Blender, Q, and probably some obscure Balinesian monthly have already put up their top albums of the year, I should probably do it too, before someone accuses me of just copying Pitchfork or something like that.

Here.....dadadadadada.....itttttt....dadadadadada.....is!:

1) Vampire Weekend-S/T

Woah. It's like totally overhyped, but whatever. It still kicks a lot of ass; you can't go wrong with songs about idealized nostalgia and dormitory lawns. You just can't.

2) Starfucker- S/T

Yah Portland! You did it again, uh uh, you did it again. This CD will make you gaze at the stars and fall in love all over again, and maybe even make you want to eff them like the band.

3) Of Montreal- Skeletal Lamping

Who would have thought the follow up to pretty much the best album last year would be just as good and twice as sexual?

4) Sigur Rós- Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

I think this album didn't get due props because of its weirdo title that looks like the default script when we fill in unknown text at the magazine (quorum delorum et tu brute, etc.). It's good and fun and kinda makes you fall in love with Sigur Ros all over again (I really like falling in love, especially again, okay?)

5) No Age- Nouns

I was really really into this album for a solid 2 weeks. I played it all day and night, and even slept with it playing on my laptop under my covers. It's drunkish and scuzzy and passionate and about as lo-fi as I can tolerate, but still, it's music to my eardrums.

6) Fuck Buttons- Street Horrsing

Damn, this shit is good too. At first it's like tribal drum beats and shit, and then BLAAMMMMMMM, it's like a WWIII air-assault of thick-ass distortion and screaming into a playschool recorder and, well, it pretty much rules when you're driving to your job you hate and you want to beat heavily on your steering wheel.

7) Dodos- Visiter

Drums and acoustic guitar. Sounds boring, but these lads make the texture of their sound sad and sweet without going overboard into melancholy emo territory. Reminds me of the direction Death Cab for Cutie should have taken.

8) M83- Saturday's=Youth

You gotta love the French. The gave us Daft Punk, Justice, Baguettes, Parcour, and the Enlightenment. If you like that country or the band Air, you should probably listen to this.

9) Fleet Foxes- S/T

I honestly haven't fully gotten into this album, but I know its really good and probably belongs on everyone's top ten lists. And they're from Seattle! Go NW!

10) TV on the Radio- Dear Science

Same with this one. It's really great, but I haven't been excited to listen to it over and over again. Does that make me a bad person? Oh well, you should all listen to it, if anything to hear how far their production has come since Cookie Mountain.



Well. Regardless of what I say on this list, or how lackadaisical it seems to have been thrown together, you really should listen to everything on here.

Bush is Cool again

Ice Cold

Bush has unveiled his list of presidential pardons before he bows out of an historic 8-year clusterfuck of lies, smarminess, and horribleness, and it's particularly noteworthy for not only being rather brief, but including a rapper.

The rapper in question is John Forte, who has done some collaboration with the Fugees among others. He was busted for cocaine and received some rather harsh sentencing under the current mandatory minimums that are being hotly contested right now, and now, thanks to Cool Daddy Bush, he is free.

I have no reasonable idea what was behind the decision for Bush to release him, other than maybe it makes him look Cool. I'm guessing he asked one of his Presidential Pages if they knew any Cool black people in jail for something stupid and quickly signed off on it. But what's even more Cool? He's not pardoning Scooter Libby, that one dude that was part of his circle and had a funny name and did something that was bad. Right now, Bush is so Cool, Steven King should retroactively add him to his "What's Cool" list.

Oh, I just found out this guy is much cooler.

The Wrestler

Merriam Webster's definition of Lug

Mickey Rourke may just be the ugliest most loveable but also despicable leading man in all of Hollywood. When appearing in a movie, he mostly looks like a living version of Nick Nolte's DUI mug shot, and when appearing in real life, he pretty much looks the same but occasionally wearing a suit. On top of his battered, craggy looks, he has a pretty long list of eff ups, from teenage arrests to spousal abuse to DUIs--a quintessential ciriculum vitae for any ex-bodybuilder/boxer cum movieman.

He's kinda good in some stuff, but mostly stellar when playing someone close to himself; you know, washed-up, damaged, slightly hung-over and fucking ugly. He did this to a TEE in Bukowski's roman a clef Barfly as Henry Chinaski and is probably going to pull out the performance of his life in this thing that you probably should watch right here.

So this movie, The Wrestler, is directed by Daron Aronofsky, who seems to be taking a big departure from paranoid mathematicians and fractured existential parables with floating trees to settle down with a good ol' fashioned underdog story. I can see why he may have been attracted to the idea of making it, since The Fountain kinda made everyone's brain melt a bit too much and got half-boournsed at Cannes: he needed to win us, and everyone else in the industry, back over again. I also think this is all so he can get everyone on his side one more time before he unveils some even weirder shit, like an entire movie that takes place inside the vocoder-chip of Steven Hawking and is shot using an infrared lens that warps on contact with sound waves.

Here's the trailer

A heartwarming tale of the apocalypse

For your book club

Brothers

It always interests me when you find out two people are siblings when you don't initially make the connection. For example, it wasn't until the end of high school I realized Emilio Estevez was brothers with Charlie Sheen; he had decided to not align himself with his brother's Hollywood surname, thus keeping himself nicely protected from being associated with his success, fame, and collection of STDs.

In the news today, Rahm Emanuel was named Barack Obama's Chief of Staff. Turns out this guy is brother of noted Hollywood superagent and inspiration for Entourage's Ari Gold, Ari Emanuel. As much as I am looking forward to a change in the White House, I'm a little weary of the linkage. I mean, Ari Emanuel represents Mark Wahlberg! Imagine what the Lincoln bedroom would look like. Boogie Nights every day, I tells ya.

Anyway, this whole post was just an excuse to list a few other siblings you might not be aware of:

Kanye West's DJ A-trak and the Chubby dude from Chromeo

The dude who played Hyde on That 70s Show and the dude who plays Francis on Malcolm in the Middle

Joaquin Phoenix (who is quitting acting and launching his music career. Woo hoo!) and River Phoenix who is brother to Summer Phoenix who is married to Casey Affleck who is brother to Ben Affleck who is married Jennifer Garner who is daughter to James Garner (psyche!)

The Pre-election Buzz

It's getting pretty exciting right now. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it has a lot to do with a real hope that the fucking United States and, in turn, the fucking world will change. I think a lot of us have been waiting for this moment for a long time and its quite surreal that it has finally arrived. I really can't say for certain how well whomever makes it into office is going to do, but I think we can all agree that it is an extreme relief that there will be some sort of dramatic shift in the next few years.

In less urgent news, Mr. David Duchony, my eternal doppleganger and Halloween costume this year, has hinted at plans to reconcile with his wife, Tea Leoni.

I ask: If a sex addict can reform his evil Hollywood ways, what better portent is there for the impending change that is to come?