December 2009
88 posts
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Tomorrow...
I’m going to post my list of my top 500 songs of the decade. However this will not be the final list. I will be welcoming comments and suggestions for changes through the month of January, because — let’s face it — it’s likely that I missed something important when combing through the entire decade.
When anyone sends a song suggestion, I will literally be comparing...
glassanimal: Excited x 10 for the Ke$ha moment!... →
glassanimal: If nothing else, this decade was... →
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glassanimal: Disappointed in the "Much More Music"... →
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Thurston Moore with Mike D Beck envoyé par vstevej. - Regardez la dernière sélection musicale.
BECK appears on 120 minutes back in 1994 with Thurston Moore guest hosting. Then Mike D from the Beastie Boys shows up for good measure. Pure Magic!
glassanimal: "I doubt that anyone will ever same... →
glassanimal: Grabbed up La Llama by Savath y... →
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Super Sunday Week Three: Crickets
I wanted to make a post today, seeing as I skipped out on last week’s Super Sunday. I have been spending so much time organizing other people’s music these past few weeks that I have not been able to get at my own. I guess that’s why we started this column - to keep that kind of thing in check.
It’s on my to-do list to send some midi files to my band of some piano ideas...
Ben Flash: Used my Booksmith/Musicsmith gift... →
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Christmas Music!
For most of the day yesterday, I had that Shakira song in my head with Lil Wayne on it, “Give It Up To Me.” I like that song, but it wasn’t doing anything for me by being on replay in my head, especially on Christmas.
I was doing some work on my list of my 500 songs of the decade, and I happened to review this wonderful song by Blur. It’s called “Sweet Song,”...
Ben Flash: Stealing a bunch of muisc from my dad!... →
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glassanimal: I'm 618 items into my... →
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The Big Opus
As of tomorrow I’m going to be in the land of sporadic Internet for a few days, as we are doing our heroic Montreal>Albany>Cape Cod>Boston>Montreal trek. Then Glass Animal (and his lovely wife) are going to be up in Montreal for New Years!
Anyway, for the next week or so things might be a little light from my end. I’ll try to get in a few of my patented tweet-like-links...
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Ben Flash: Here is a question. When the hell has... →
glassanimal: not into singers who decide they'll... →
Ben Flash: "the members of Creed reconvened for... →
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Ben Flash's Top Ten Records of 2009
In future years, when this blog is a massive, world-renowned success we will have much more year end content. This year we obviously had a decade-wide scope. But for the sake of long-term record keeping here are my 10 favorite albums of the year with some blurbage.
10. A.C. Newman- Get Guilty
The only record that meant anything to me for the first several months of the year. It contains a...
Ben Flash: Shuffle Says: Going to Your Funeral... →
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glassanimal: Self-aware lyric of the year: "I'm... →
Ben Flash: Watching "Barenaked for Holidays live... →
glassanimal: Reviewing songs for my massive... →
Ben Flash: Experiencing a mix of happiness that a... →
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OPUS100 The top 100 albums of the decade 10-1
10. …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
MIKE (In rhyme): HOLY SHIT this album slays! In 2002 I let myself become totally consumed with this record and its rich propulsive grace. Let your ears explore the sonic environment of the record, and you’ll find what seems like a thousand different pieces, each perfectly in place. At a moment that I might have...
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Predictions for Pitchforks top records of the year...
I’m going to go with:
5: Phoenix
4:Dirty Projectors
3:Girls
2:Grizzly Bear
1: Animal Collective
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From Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of '09
From their post this morning. That’s right, check out how relevant we are as a blog! My Comments in BOLD. (Note, I have not heard Zomby’s music. I’m not trying to be critical of the artist, but rather the writer.)
47. Zomby Where Were U in ‘92? [Werk Discs]
Considering how quickly the splinters of dubstep progress and mutate, it says something about the strength of...
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OPUS100 The top 100 albums of the decade 20-11
20. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
BEN: I’m not sure I’ll be able to explain why I care about this record any better than I did in this post. The only thing I will add is that while “Lisztomania” and “1901” are obvious monsters, the rest of the album really gets better with age. Initially you don’t notice them in the shadow of the two classics, but...
Ben Flash: Yeah Spencer Krug stocking stuffer! New... →
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OPUS 100 The top 100 albums of the decade 30-21
30. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
MIKE: Silent Alarm was absolutely jam packed with songs that all could have been singles (even “Price of Gas,” which everyone hated). When I was having a horrible time at life in January ‘05, the guy who sat behind me at Matador had a Sirius radio, and every song on it that I liked turned out to be Bloc Party (or Jeff Hanson, RIP). It was so refreshing and so...
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WatchAna Ng- They Might Be Giants
My second-favorite song of all time.
glassanimal: # of cds for sale in the newark nj... →
glassanimal: to the guy on nj transit with the... →
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OPUS100 The top 100 albums of the decade 40-31
40. Les Savy Fav - Let’s Stay Friends
MIKE: I don’t love every song on this album, but I think half of them constitute the band’s best work, largely because of their uncanny knack for delicious song endings. “The Equestrian” was my favorite track of ‘07 because of the raw force of such a polished band coming to such an incredible finish in the last 60...
glassanimal: nicole scherzinger is so horrible. →
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Super Sunday: Teeth on the Wheel ctd.
I thought I would follow up on Mike’s post with a perspective on the Kalpana record from someone who was not involved.
Mike wrote:
I think the songs are a big step forward from our earlier records, and we took a lot of extra steps to fill things out — extra vocal harmonies, guitar noise, programming — that give the tracks a new feel of multi-dimensionality that we never had before
This...
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OPUS100 The top 100 albums of the Decade: 50-41
50. Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone
BEN: This slipped in during a late in the game reshuffle at the expense of Hot Hot Heat’s Make Up the Breakdown. Hey Everyone takes a bunch of elements of other bands and melds them into a coherent and raucous statement. They take the quirky and occasionally gimmicky song-writing of The Lovely Feathers or The Unicorns and combine it with the raw energy...
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Super Sunday, Week Two: Teeth on the Wheel
Kalpana is the band that I started with my friends from school back in early 2003. I play drums and keyboards, and I sing sometimes. That image directly overhead is the cover of the album we put out back in late summer, called Teeth On the Wheel. You can download it for an optional donation HERE.
This album was the result of a very long time spent writing and recording and mixing almost...
Ben Flash: Sister Winter is the best... →
glassanimal: "Take me from this place I know, a... →
Ben Flash: The Onion A.V. Club does the year in... →
My favorite quote is in reference to the band Hard Nips which describe themselves as sounding like “sex, sushi & rocknroll shat out of your butt.”
mmmm, I can’t wait to hear THAT.
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OPUS100: The top 100 albums of the decade 100-51
Here it is guys, the first post of the long awaited Opus 100 - the top albums of the DECADE, as determined by Ben and Mike! Today, we celebrate the albums that we really loved, but might not have agreed upon as wholeheartedly, thereby situating them between 100 and 51. Special thanks to the bands, our readers, and YOU!
Stay tuned all throughout next week as we count down from 50 to the...
glassanimal: Surprisingly sensible Rolling Stone... →
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The Method 100
It seems like we’ve been talking about the Opus 100 forever, and in fact, almost since the inception of the blog, we have. Well, it is finally upon us. Starting tomorrow (Friday December 11th, 2009, a day you will never forget as long as you live) we will be posting our top 100 records of the decade beginning with the back fifty.
A couple of notes on methodology and intention.
Both of us...
Ben Flash: Shuffle Says: The Revolution will be... →
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The Heartbreaking Wisdom of John Darnielle
It turns out that my favorite Mountain Goats song is also one of John Darnielle’s favorite songs of his own. Here’s what he had to say on e-music about “Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton.”
“Obviously — or I’d think obviously — the work I used to do in psych hospitals and residential treatment homes is what informs this song. People ask me sometimes if...