Best Albums of 2009

The year is done with so it's time for my best of list, here's the run down in no particular order.



The XX -"xx". This is a great collection of chilled out songs heavy on electronic instruments and couldn't be concerned vocals.

Stand out track - Has got to be "Basic Space". I had this song stuck in my head for weeks partly due to the fact that I listened to the song several times a day.


Eels - "Hombre Lobo". What an amazing album, beautiful light songs and gas soaked barn burners stand side by side. That voice seems to fit perfectly into a wide variety of styles on this loosly themed album. Major bonus points for the majestic beard.

Stand out track - "The look you give that guy" is as good as it gets.

Regina Spektor - "Far". Another great, quirky piano driven album by the lovely Regina Spektor. I wish the Ben Folds track she sang on "You Don't Know Me" was on here so I can talk about how much I love it.

Stand out track - "Laughing With". Sad, serious, funny what more does this song need? Ok maybe a keytar would be cool.

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I love me some French indie dance pop. This album is just fun.

Stand out track - "Lisztomania" no, "1901" it's a tough call.

The Flaming Lips - "Embryonic". This album is weirder and more challenging then any of the last four by one of my favorite bands in the world and that's saying something. I can't help but wonder how jammy they will get with these tracks in concert.

Stand out Track - I couldn't possibly pick a favorite.

The Maccabees - Wall of Arms. A great British indie band who to my ears made the best Arcade Fire album not made by the Arcade Fire.

Stand out track - "Kiss and Resolve" is by far my favorite, it's got that rousing feeling that got me into music in the first place.

Harlem Shakes - "Technicolor Health". It seems that i've gotten into easily accessible indie dance rock in my old age regardless this band does it right. Sadly they've broken up so enjoy this one.

Stand out track - "Nothing but Change Part II" but "Sunlight" is a close second.

Dinosaur Jr. - Farm. The boys are back and they sound great. J. Mascis is a criminaly overlooked guitarist.

Stand out track - "Over it". Mascis has such a distinctive guitar sound and it just jumps out at you on this track. I wish someone would apologize to me with a song this awesome, no wonder they got back together.

The Dead Weather - "Horehound". Somedays you just need a great straight forward rock record.

Stand out track - "I cut like a buffalo", "Treat me like your mother" i had to go with two for this album although "I cut like a Buffalo" might be my song of 2009.

Dan Auerbach - "Keep It Hid". Great blues songs that I assume didn't quite fit into the Black Keys groove. Dan has a great blues voice and his guitar chops are stellar but we knew that from the Black Keys, what we didn't know was that he could do nice and easy so well.

Stand out track - "Whispered Words", "When the night comes" again two songs that are too good to choose between.

The Cribs - "Ignore the Ignorant". Another great British indie rock group, this year the Cribs officially added Johnny Marr to the group and you can hear his fingerprints on this album. The Cribs come from the sharp guitar school of rockers and they've managed to keep that sound and their sense of humor intact.

Stand out track - "Cheat on Me" I like it when they scream.

Blakroc - "Blakroc". Damon Dash, The Black Keys and a bunch or rappers team up for this album. The Keys provide the music and some back up vocals, Damon Dash produces and the Rappers do their thing it sounds crazy but it really does work.

Stand out track - "Dollaz & Sense" love that guitar lick.

Built to Spill - "There is no Enemy". How many great albums is that in a row? Another band with a guitar sound you can pick out in a second. Overall this album is a little less driven then the last one but not in a bad way, the music stretches out and breaths a little more.

Stand out track - "Life's a Dream". I know, i usually go for the more driving BTS songs but this one flows so smoothly and Doug gets into his guitar thing a little at the end.

Beirut - "March of the Zapotec/Holland". This is technically an Ep but I'm going with it. The back story is well known, half of this is tracks Zac did with musicians from south of the border and the other half has a more electronic bend to it. I prefer the Holland side but it's all good.

Stand out track - "My night with a Prostitute from Marseille". This could be my song of 2009 based on the number of plays it got. I think it also made it onto every mix cd i've done since it came out.

Animal Collective - "Merriweather Post Pavillion". I'm at a loss as to how to describe Animal Collective's sound, you can dance to it, it's electronic and repetitive but still organic. I do know that this is the most accessiable album they've ever made as far as i'm concerned. Bonus points for allowing Alien Workshop to use two of their songs.

Stand out track - "My Girls" is uplifting and you can get down to it.

Honorable mentions:

There were several albums this year that I really liked and even more that I know i'd love if I had time to listen to them a little more.

Iron & Wine - "Around the Well". Excellent album but all old stuff, great old stuff.

Isis - "Wavering Radiant". Very hardcore.

Pearl Jam - "Backspacer". Yes! This album rocks.

The Mars Volta - "Octahedron". Songs short enough to put on a mix cd.

Fanfarlo - "Reservoir". The singer sounds just like David Byrne and I really like David Byrne.
Woodhands - "Heart Attack" This didn't come out in 2009 but i've listened to it a lot in 2009.
Hockey - "Mind Chaos" More British dance rock.

Lisa Hannigan - "Sea Sew". Maybe getting kicked out of Damian Rice's thing was for the best.
Weezer - "Raditude" I like it, I won't apologize.

Scot's Bird

Another amazing piece. Check out it and more at Loser Goes 1st.

Sexy cycles

Look at this, this bike shop is right up the street from me. She does not work there.

Phoenix

Phoenix - Lizstomania / One time too many - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

La Blogotheque is at it again, filming bands on the streets of Paris. This time around it's with a band I really like, Phoenix, and the filming took place around the Eiffel Tower. They filmed three of my favorite songs 1901, Lizstomania/ One time too many and Long Distance Call. If you have a few minutes check out the Blogotheque site for a ton of great music. One of the Beirut, videos was shot right up the road and the Herman Dune stuff was done half a block away from my Apartment, you can even see my bakery in the clip.

NIN Auction

I'm sure everyone has already heard that Nine Inch Nails is no more but did you know that they are selling off all of their touring equipment? Check out the auction here.

Vuk Vidor Paris show

The amount of art in Paris never ceases to amaze me.
Our neighborhood gallery, Magda Danysz, is putting on a solo show by Vuk Vidor. From the galleries web site in wacky translated English:
The Magda Danysz gallery presents for the first time Vuk Vidor’s recent works, the second stage of his americain Quartet. A work focused on the modern world, current events and precisely the ultra power of the United States. We find in his works the American comics’ drawing style but here the super-heroes are mostly pathetic or discouraged.

Zombie Pin Up

This might be the most awesome calendar ever. My Zombie Pin up.

Livestrong Tour Bike auction

The artist designed bikes that Lance Armstrong rode in this years Tour de France were auctioned off for his Livestrong foundation. One of my favorites the Kenny Scharf designed time trial bike brought the least amount by a lot. Not surprisingly the Damien Hirst Madone brought 500,000. Check out all of the bikes here.

Happy Birthday

My girl Winona Ryder is 38 today, Happy Birthday!!

Magda Danysz, tricky time

There is a cool write up of the current show at Magda Danysz, From Style Writing to Art here. The page is in French but the video has English subtitles. We went to the opening and once again had a great time. One of the artist, JonOne remembered me from his solos show a few months ago(probably the beard). We also met Tricky, who music fans will be familiar with. Tricky was hanging out at the opening enjoying the free mojitos. There was some great art on display, the top picture is by Space Invader and made completely of rubik's cubes. Invader is the artist that I most associate with Paris, his tile pieces are all over town, sometimes nice and large and sometimes small and tucked away in an obscure place. The opening also market th release of a book on graffiti styles and artists put out by the gallery, the book rocks.
One more time, the king of Trip-hop, Tricky. He was really nice and not creepy or minicing like you might expect from his albums. He was impressed that we live in the neighborhood.

In Studio KCRW

The radio station KCRW has a lot of their In Studio performances on line here. There are some performances here that are more awesome then Petit Breton's moustache. Prepare to spend some time on the site because there is a lot of good stuff. Allow me to suggest:
The Flaming Lips - Eclipse (this is what led me to the site)
Steve Earle - Pancho and Lefty
Hockey - Too Fake
Blitzen Trapper - Saturday night
Phoenix - Listomania
Eels - In my dreams

King Kog

King Kog has a sweet new t-shirt for sale.

Ryan Adams Art(visual)

Ryan Adams auctioned off around 50 pieces for charity(with Jesse Malin's help). The quality of the art is a little scattered but I liked the majority of what i could see. There are a couple of very Basquiat like pieces that really sang to me and as rough as it is I totally dig the video game painting. I'm sure RA will catch a ton of shit for daring to do something other then make music but I doubt he gives a shit(for Christ's sake he's married to Mandy Moore). While the paintings are priced a bit high they are for charity so more power to him. Check it out here.

Takashi vs. Versailles

G and I went to the opening of Takashi Murakami's portrait exhibit here in Paris it was a really interesting exhibit but it had a very artificial feel to it. Today I found out that Murakami is exhibiting at Versailles in 2010, this could be very cool. The artificiality of Murakami's work will really go well within the over the topness of Versailles. If i'm still in the country I'll be there.

A little news

Ryan Adams is movin and shakin.
News of his label getting a relaunch.
Have you watched the video of Adams at the record plant? Did he say Metal?

Peaches brilliance

Both of these video mashups are beyond awesome.



Monsters and Rockets pointed me to these.

Nick Hornby

This is a cool article by the great Nick Hornby.

Sweat Nuts

Ryan Adams has a crazy cool article up here. His writing style takes some getting used to but it has grown on me.

Eels Hombre Lobo

I've been listening to the new album by the Eels "Hombre Lobo" a lot lately. Somehow the Eels fell off of my radar for several years but this album has brought them back into sharp focus. I guess I'll now have to go back and pick up their last few albums to see what i've missed. This album has a lot of guts, you can find the story behind the album all over the internet but it does have to do with E's magnificent beard so it's worth a read. Here are a pair of great videos from the album. Make sure you check out the songs In My Dreams and All the Beautiful things, masterpieces.

Uncovered

I recently came across this wild picture of the lovely Kat Von D, it's a shocking look at her sans tattoos. If you watch her show you know that she has a makeup line and apparently one of the products in the line is a tattoo cover up and this is what it can do. Pretty amazing if you ask me, she looks like a completely different person. I'm not sure if it's the lack of her distinctive tattoos or the missing eye makeup but whatever it is that's a big difference.
A lot of people don't like the tattoo t.v. shows and what they are supposedly doing to the industry and the culture in general. I'm all for them, sure they might help people who were on the fence about getting tattooed take that step but that's a good thing right? More people wanting tattoos means better artists and better art and improved materials and more creativity. I know some people think too many people are jumping on the bandwagon and people with tattoos aren't as individualistic as they once were but that's why Jesus made neck and face tattoos. I also don't understand the backlash against the artists that appear on these shows but that's a part of the whole hatred of the "sell out" mentality that crops up everywhere, artists, musicians, businesses, athletes. For the most part the people who make it to the level where they can "sell out" deserve the money, fame, exposure etc... We should be wishing them well and be happy that they can support themselves with their passion.

Art Stuff

If you won't be able to visit us here in Paris don't fret, 35,000 of the Louvre's works are available as Hi res photos and it's in English.

Speaking of art Mike Giant and Mike Davis collaborated on a piece and are selling prints at the Skullz press.

Tom Neely is part of a group show in Portland, Oregon, he's done his take on several classic horror comic book covers and they are exceptional. Hopefully my brother will get out to the show and sent some pictures.

Yard Sale

The family and I spent a nice weekend in the country outside of Paris. Our visit coincided with the towns summer celebration. The weekend was chock full of swimming, a fair, a parade, fireworks, and a city wide yard sale. Paris has big flea markets but nothing like a good old yardsale. The items were a pretty crazy ix of modern junk and antique treasures, one thing that stood out to me was the fact that the French like to sale fancy antique plates and serving ware. I lucked out and found this amazing Carhartt jacket and a pair of pristine chuck taylors for 5 euros each.

My kinda research

You've peobably seen these new findings concerning Guinness. That's right, it is actually good for you which is great news. I mean it basically does the same thing taking a baby aspirin does for you but then again, great excuse to have at least one Guinness a day. Of coarse you could take the aspirin and skip out on all those calories but i digress.
The greatest part of this whole story is the research itself, they gave dogs Guinness!! I mean come on, we've all wondered how hilarious a drunk dog would be. If t.v. taught us anything it's that having a drunk dog around somehow insures lots of bouncy ladies will be all over the place.
I can't wait to see what comes out of the "Lets get this Chihuahua high" line of research.

Sign 'o the apocalypse: Crank 2

"I think someone is shooting a decent movie over there!"

I wasted one hour and thirty six minutes last night. Well maybe just one hour and thirty three minutes because there were titties and a mullet.
I waste time constantly so it isn't the time suck that irks me, it's the fact that for some reason I watched Crank 2 in its entirety. What does this say about me? Don't get me wrong, I don't demand deep meanings in my movies, I love a good one dimensional comedy or action film. I'm a fan of bad movies, not just bad movies that weren't meant to be bad but bad movies that are made with a full realizaion that they are painfully rediculous. I don't even mind suspending disbelief when I'm movie watching; Zombie, Sci Fi and horror flicks are some of my favorites. It's hard to put my finger on any one or three things that really put me off this movie but nevertheless...
I wonder how a movie like this gets made, what's the pitch to the studio like? How do you get fairly well known actors to appear in something like this? It seems like i'm always hearing about awesome sounding scripts that can't get made but something like this can and gets a big marketing push behind it? All right, I'll stop shaking my fist at those rowdy kids on my front lawn.
The above paragraphs have pretty much revealed my feelings on Crank 2 and in the interest of full disclosure I like Jason Statham and Amy Smart(notice I didn't mention Ling Bai) and feel like they did a good job acting the movie. I think the real problem is that this movie requires the viewer to be a little drunk or stoned and to have consumed at least a case of red bull to really appreciate the subtlties of the film. I'll just rundown the highlights and leave it at that.

• Surviving a 60 story fall from a helicopter (Umm Ok)

• Being awake during a heart transplant (sure)

• Shotgun up a fat guy's ass (Well he did lube it with crude oil but could you really get it that far in?)
• Constantly having to electricute yourself (alright but no burn marks until the very end?)
  
• Ron Jeremy (always a welcome addition to any film)
• Cutting off an elbow and later two man nipples (thanks for doing that so graphicly)
• A giant horse penis during a rediculous sex scene (Ok so he needed friction to stay alive but does the horse penis have to make an appearence and the look on Amy Smart's face when she sees it will haunt my dreams.)
• Dwight Yoakam saying "Is Doc Miles gonna have to choke a bitch? (Remember when I said the entire time wasn't wasted?)
• Titties (Sadly this movie proves that no amount of titties can save a bad movie.)
• Corey Haim with a magnificant mullet (the true highlight of the film)
• A living, speaking bodyless head (Sure, why not)
  

True Metal Fan

This is so metal it hurts.

Le Tour de France

My daughter and I caught the finish of the 2009 Tour de France, it was awesome.

Dinosaur Jr is back

Remember when Dinosaur Jr were awesome? After they started shedding members(Lou Barlow, Murph) and fighting they were still good but not quite where they had once been, but in all honesty I really liked Green Mind. Well all the boys are back and with the new album Farm they are back to form. I've been excited for this new album since seeing the video for Over It a couple of months ago but in the back of my mind I felt like the entire album couldn't be as good as this song, it is. I did like Beyond(the first new album with the original members) but this album is a tad heavier a little bit prettier and to my ear just better. I'm guessing J has loosened the reins a little and is letting everyone have a little input. The band as a whole sound good and they seem to be having fun in the music.

Dinosaur jr has stayed on my radar for the last few years with Nike putting out a great high top dunk in their honor and Alien workshop putting out a board with their graphic on it as well as including J and one of their songs in the most excellent Mind Field video released last year(which also included two Animal Collective songs, check it out if you get a chance). Hopefully I'll be able to catch them when they play Paris in a couple of months.



Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's Mike Watt sitting on the truck and at the party.

Wow

Look at this amazing work by Thomas Hooper it's rare that I see a tattoo and want to steal it as is but i'd get this done in a second, well i might change up the skull a little bit and maybe go for a more Mike Giant style rose but damn the raven and the moon are perfect. If I end up in New York i'll have to look this guy up. Go to his site and check out the close up shots of this incredible piece.

Skullz Press

Mike Giant has a new store and a blog in addition to what he posts on the Rebel 8 site. This should be pretty interesting since his partner does most of the posting on the Rebel 8 site. The new shop The Skullz Press will be open to the public and feature new are every month. It sounds like he is selling his work directly to the public, maybe as a result of his(supposed) problems in Paris a couple of months ago. It does sound like he has lots of stuff in the works, maybe having his own space has set the creative juices to boiling.

Timeline

This is a great visual. I think everyone is aware of how far off the movie 2001 was but it's hilarious to see some of these other movies in the continuum. I found this chart on this site.

true dat

This was too awesome to not post, taken from here.

Regina Spektor Far

Regina Spektor's new album Far is out and it is a great piece of work. The new album has everything we love Spektor for, from her kooky fun romps to her serious pieces it's all here. I've been listening to the album for the last few days and today my daughter announced that she "loved this girl", that's a ringing endorsement in my book.
What do you know, two of my favorite songs from the album have videos.

Random stuff and junk

Christies auction house has a pop culture auction coming up soon and the catalog is pretty cool, check it out here. They have a little bit of everything; punk posters, guitars from Cobain and Stevie Ray Vaughn as well as Star Trek stuff and William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic script.

This great article is about our neighborhood. I never knew these problems existed, I just think the signs are funny and try not to get run over by the Chinese dudes pushing their dollies.


Ouch

The Pixies Minotaur

The unbelievable band The Pixies have a mind blowing new "box set" coming out soon. It comes in a deluxe edition that retails for $175 and a limited edition that runs $495!! Check out the run down here, it sounds worth it to me. There is a really cool write up and interview with Black Francis at wired.

AC/DC

Just a taste of the insane AC/DC show, i'll do a proper post soon.

Built to Spill

Yesterday my Ipod reminded me that Built to Spill is an amazing band by playing "Big Dipper" and "Goin' against your mind" back to back.












Here is the most excellent video for "Conventional Wisdom".