Holiday

Taking a few days off for the holidays...

Very merry, very happy.

Cheers!

Mojito Weekend

Happy Holidays!

Track(s) of the Week: From the Top Ten

Five Track from my Top Ten:

High Places - From Stardust to Sentience: Dreamy and ethereal. This track is a perfect depiction of the entire album.

Man Man - Mister Jung Stuffed: From the first "Been locked down way too long" of this opening track through the final "Who are we to love at all" of the album's closing tune ("Whalebones"), Rabbit Habits is the funnest circus-ride of an album that I know.

The Dodos - Red and Purple: I'm amazed when two-man bands are able to produce a sound this full. I know, recording studio hocus pocus and all that... but, still, there's a richness to The Dodos that's unexplained by the effects of layering tracks.

Sleepingdog - The Sun Sinks in the Sea: Hypnotic. Mesmerizing. Polar Life is like forced meditation. The entire album manages to stay consistently entrancing without sounding repetitive.

Gang Gang Dance - First Communion: Saint Dympha made the top ten largely because it's been the backdrop for my writing for several weeks. It's a good album, but it's particularly good for passing the time spent in the excruciating work of wordsmithing.

Enjoy! If you like it, buy it (if possible, buy as directly from the artist as you can - by picking up something at a show, purchasing through their websites, or going through their record labels).

Track(s) of the Week: Honorable Mentions

Five tracks from my Best of '08 Honorable Mentions:

Cat Power - Song to Bobby: The one original tune (not counting Chan's cover of her own song) on Jukebox. Also, an unapologetic love letter to Bob Dylan.

Ratatat - Mi Viejo: These boys have some great remixes out there.

Juana Molina - Dar (Qué Dificil): Juana Molina is incapable of making songs that aren't completely infectious. Listen to this and don't like it. I dare you to even try.

Tobacco - Hairy Candy: All analog. From a limited vinyl release. And (perhaps too surprisingly) a Pittsburgh native.

Department of Eagles - Around the Bay: A solid tune from a solid album. If I'd had more time to spend with In Ear Park, it may very well have ranked higher.

What to get me for Christmas:

Palo Santo Marron:

An unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this beer comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. Palo Santo means "holy tree" and it's wood has been used in South American wine-making communities.

Also, if you haven't read Burkhard Bilger's New Yorker article on extreme beer, you should check it out. Bilger situates the history of Dogfish Head brewery and its founder and Brewmeister Extraordinaire Sam Calagione within the larger context of the fascinating history of American beer, pointing out that the post-Prohibition development of mild, light domestic beers is directly linked to the sweet tooth America developed during Prohibition by getting addicted to Coca-Cola.

Best of '08

Earlier this week, Pitchfork published the results of the aforementioned readers' poll, and although my original picks for best albums of the year didn't fare as well as I would have hoped, it's a good list.

They're going to begin announcing their official Best of '08 lists tomorrow, beginning with honorable mentions, and so I thought I should throw mine out there - less in hope that it will predict their picks (it won't) and more to validate my choices as unintentionally non-hipster (as opposed to decidedly counter-cool).

The problem with lists: In any top five list, the first four are solid and the fifth is a nearly impossible and perpetually shifting position. In top 10 lists, you get a solid four, followed by three or four that could have been number five, and a few more solid choices to round things out.

I'll admit that my picks have changed since I last posted them. But, so what? I can change my mind, can't I?

That said: My 10 Favorite Albums of 2008

1. High Places - S/T
2. Man Man - Rabbit Habits
3. Jay Reatard - Singles '08
4. The Dodos - Visiter
5. The Black Keys - Attack and Release
6. Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow, and Blue
7. Sleepingdog - Polar Life
8. The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
9. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
10. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dympha

My Top 10 Honorable Mentions (coincidentally, the list that will more likely resemble Pitchfork's top 10)

1. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
2. Cat Power - Jukebox
3. Fleet Foxes - S/T
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Ratatat - LP3
6. Juana Molina - Un Dia
7. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
8. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends
9. Abe Vigoda - Skeleton
10. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park

I'll save further commentary for later this week, but for now, feel free to post your lists here. And keep an eye out for tracks from some of these bands in this Friday's "Track of the Week" post.

A shoe at your head is worth two at the Bush?

Okay. Corny title. But this has been cracking me up all day: Yesterday, an Iraqi journalist threw both of his shoes at lame-duck Bush's head during his final presidential visit.

From The New York Times:

President Bush made a valedictory visit on Sunday to Iraq, the country that will largely define his legacy, but the trip will more likely be remembered for the unscripted moment when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at Mr. Bush’s head and denounced him on live television as a “dog” who had delivered death and sorrow here from nearly six years of war.

Read the full story here.

Or check it out below. Who knew Dubya had such quick reflexes?



So, how long before tossing a shoe at Bush's head turns into a banner advertisement for insurance quotes or debt consolidation?