The Best Music of 2008

By all accounts, 2008 was a great year for music.  Below you will find our respective lists of Top 30 Albums (with favorite songs of each) and Top 10 Mixtapes of 2008, as well as our Top 30 Songs of the Year (from non-Top albums).

TOP 30 ALBUMS OF 2008
(with our favorite songs of each):

GrindHustle:
1. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes.
White Winter Hymnal, Blue Ridge Mountains, Ragged Wood
2. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago.
The Wolves (Act I and II), Skinny Love, Lump Sum
3. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges.
Highly Suspicious, Evil Urges, Smokin’ From Shootin’
4. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III.
A Milli, Dr. Carter, Tie My Hands
5. TV On The Radio, Dear Science.
DLZ, Golden Age, Crying
6. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive.
Slapped Actress, Sequestered In Memphis, Constructive Summer
7. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend.
I Stand Corrected, The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance, A-Punk
8. Blitzen Trapper, Furr.
Furr, Gold For Bread, Balled of Bird Love
9. Atmosphere, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold.
You, The Waitress, Your Glass House
10. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular.
Electric Feel, Of Moons, Birds & Monsters, Time to Pretend
11. Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell.
In A Cave, Juno, Tessellate
12. Girl Talk, Feed The Animals.
Play Your Part (Pt. 1), Set It Off, Still Here
13. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours.
Feel The Love, Lights & Music, Hearts on Fire
14. Beck, Modern Guilt.
Chemtrails, Modern Guilt, Walls
15. Q-Tip, The Renaissance.
Getting Up, Dance on Glass, We Fight/We Love
16. War on Drugs, Wagonwheel Blues.
Arms Like Boulders, Taking The Farm, Show Me The Coast
17. The Cool Kids, The Bake Sale.
What Up Man, Black Mags, A Little Bit Cooler
18. Cloud Cult, Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes).
No One Said It Would Be Easy, When Water Comes To Life, Grandson of Jesus
19. Neon Neon, Stainless Style.
I Told Her on Alderaan, Dream Cars, Raquel
20. Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair.
Blind, Hercules’ Theme, Time Will
21. Nada Surf, Lucky.
Weightless, I Like What You Say, The Film Did Not Go Round
22. Wolf Parade, At Mt. Zoomer.
Language City, Soldier’s Grin, Fine Young Cannibals
23. N.E.R.D, Seeing Sounds.
Everyone Nose, Sooner or Later, Spaz
24. Big Ditch Road, The Jackson Whites.
All The Way to Idaho, The Jackson Whites, Northwoods Report/Chomsky ‘08
25. Elbow, The Seldom Seen Kid.
Grounds For Divorce, Mirrorball, One Day Like This
26. M83, Saturdays=Youth.
Kim & Jessie, Graveyard Girl, We Own The Sky
27. Sigur Ros, Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust.
Gobbledigook, Festival, Vid spilum endalaust
28. Murs, Murs for President.
Everything, The Science, Can It Be
29. T.I., Paper Trails.
Swagga Like Us (feat. Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye West), No Matter What, Live Your Life
30. The Heavy, Great Vengeance and Furious Fire.
That Kind of Man, Colleen, Brukpocket’s Lament

Honorable Mentions:
Department of Eagles, In Ear Park; Frightened Rabbit, Midnight Organ Fight; Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creations Dark; Santogold, Santogold; Foals, Antidotes; Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!; The Championship, Midnight Golden; Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War); The Roots, Rising Down; No Age, Nouns.

Top 10 Mixtapes of 2008:
1. Wale, The Mixtape About Nothing
2. Santogold/Diplo, Top Ranking
3. Clipse, Road to Till The Casket Drops
4. Charles Hamilton & DJ Green Lantern, Outside Looking
5. Jay-Z & Coldplay (Mick Boogie), Viva La Hova
6. The Cool Kids, That’s Stupid The Mixtape
7. Talib Kweli & Mick Boogie, The MCEO Mixtape
8. DJ Benzi, The New Deal (if only for Brother Ali’s verse – the best verse of the year by the way – on “2nd Time Around”)
9. Lil Wayne & DJ Drama, Dedication 3
10. Rhymefest & Mark Ronson, Man in the Mirror

heezwax:
1. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes.
White Winter Hymnal, Blue Ridge Mountains, Meadowlarks
2. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours.
Unforgettable Season, Far Away, Out There On The Ice
3. Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell.
Juno, Centennial, Tessellate
4. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago.
Creature Fear, Skinny Love, Re: Stacks
5 (tie). Atmosphere, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold.
You, Yesterday, Puppets
5 (tie). Q-Tip, The Renaissance.
We Fight/We Love, Gettin’ Up, Move
7. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges.
Evil Urges, Smokin From Shootin’, Touch Me I’m Going to Scream pt. 1
8. TV On The Radio, Dear Science.
Family Tree, Crying, Halfway Home
9. Beck, Modern Guilt.
Youthless, Gamma Ray, Chemtrails
10. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III.
Let The Beat Build, A Milli, 3-Peat
11. Foreign Exchange, Leave It All Behind.
All or Nothing, Daykeeper, Valediction
12. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend.
Walcott, The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance, A-Punk
13. Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair.
Blind, Hercules’ Theme, Iris
14. Delta Spirit, Ode to Sunshine.
People C’mon, Children, Strange Vine
15. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular.
Electric Feel, Youth, Time to Pretend
16. Grand Archives, The Grand Archives.
Torn Blue Foam Couch, George Kaminski, Sleepdriving
17. Girl Talk, Feed The Animals.
Play Your Part pt. 1 has all my favorite snippets, Still Here rules, and Set If Off has the Jay-Z/Radiohead mash-up
18. Murs, Murs for President.
The Science, Everything, I’m Innocent
19. The Championship, Midnight Golden.
Mightnight Gold, Gladstone, Ferris Wheel
20. Kings of Leon, Only By The Night.
Use Somebody, Crawl, Be Somebody
21. Nicolay & Kay, Time:Line.
As The Wheel Turns, Through the Wind, Gunshot
22. Neon Neon, Stainless Style.
I Told Her on Alderaan, Raquel, Belfast
23. M83, Saturdays=Youth.
Kim & Jessie, You Appearing, Up!
24. Nada Surf, Lucky.
Weightless, See These Bones, Beautiful Beat
25. The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing.
Great DJ, That’s Not My Name, Traffic Light
26. Nas, Ni**er (Untitled).
Hero, Queens Get the Money, Can’t Stop Us Now
27. Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak.
Paranoid, Love Lockdown, Street Lights
28. The Heavy, Great Vengeance and Furious Fire.
Colleen, That Kind of Man, Brukpocket’s Lament
29. Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It.
100 Yard Dash, Oh Girl, Big Easy
30. Wolf Parade, At Mount Zoomer.
The Grey Estates, Langauge City, Soldier’s Grin

DJ Bumbaclot:
1. TV On The Radio, Dear Science.
Golden Age, Halfway Home, DLZ, Family Tree, Love Dog
2. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago.
Skinny Love, Flume, Re: Stacks
3. Portishead, Third.
The Rip, Machine Gun, We Carry On
4. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours.
Out There On The Ice, Far Away, Hearts On Fire, Feel The Love
5. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes.
White Winter Hymnal, Ragged Wood, Your Protector
6. Q-Tip, The Renaissance.
We Fight/We Love, Dance on Glass, Life Is Better
7. Girl Talk, Feed The Animals.
8. Longwave, Secrets Are Sinister.
The Devil and The Liar, It’s True, Eyes Like Headlights, No Direction
9. Neon Neon, Stainless Style.
Raquel, I Told Her On Alderaan, Dream Cars
10. The Kills, Midnight Boom.
Black Balloon, U.R.A Fever, Getting Down
11. M83, Saturdays=Youth.
Graveyard Girl, Kim & Jessie, We Own The Sky
12. Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair.
Blind, You Belong, Hercules’ Theme, Iris
13. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III.
A Milli, Let The Beat Build, Dr. Carter
14. The Black Keys, Attack & Release.
Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be, All I Ever Wanted, Strange Times
15. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend.
I Stand Corrected, A-Punk, Walcott
16. Department of Eagles, In Ear Park.
No One Does It Like You, In Ear Park, Teenagers
17. Foreign Exchange, Leave It All Behind.
Take Off The Blues, All Or Nothing/Coming Home To You, Something To Behold
18. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular.
Kids, Time to Pretend, 4th Dimensional Transition
19. Flying Lotus, Los Angeles.
20. Atmosphere, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold.
Puppets, You, Me, Yesterday
21. War on Drugs, Wagonwheel Blues.
There Is No Urgency, A Needle In Your Eye #16, Barrel of Batteries
22. Spiritualized, Songs in A&E.
Sweet Talk, Death Take Your Fiddle, Baby I’m Just A Fool
23. Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs.
I Will Possess Your Heart, Long Division, The Ice Is Getting Thinner
24. Beck, Modern Guilt.
Gamma Ray, Chemtrails, Profanity Prayers
25. Delta Spirit, Ode to Sunshine.
People Turn Around, Trashcan, Ode to Sunshine
26. NIN, The Slip.
Echoplex, The Four of Us are Dying, Demon Seed
27. The Heavy, Great Vengeance and Furious Fire.
Dignity, Brukpocket’s Lament, Set Me Free
28. Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell.
In A Cave, Tessellate, Centennial
29. The Cool Kids, The Bake EP.
Mikey Rocks, What Up Man, Bassment Party
30. Fucked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life.
Son The Father, Golden Seal, The Chemistry of Common People

Honorable Mentions: Cat Power, Jukebox; Coldplay, Viva La Vida/ Prospekt’s March EP; Elbow, The Seldom Seen Kid; Elzhi, The Preface; Foals, Antidotes; Joan as Police Woman, To Survive; Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue; Kings of Leon, Only By The Night; Murs, Murs for President; Nas, Ni**er; The Roots, Rising Down; Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It; Ryan Adams, Cardinology; Santogold, Santogold; She & Him, Vol. 1.

Worst Album of the Year: The Walkmen, You & Me.

Top 10 Mix/tapes of 2008:
1. Wale, The Mixtape About Nothing
2. KiD CuDi, Plain Pat & Emile present A KiD Named CuDi
3. Clipse, Road To Till The Casket Drops
4. Nas & DJ Green Lantern, The Ni**er Mixtape
5. Squincy Jones, Nintendub
6. DJ Z-Trip, Obama Mix
7. Jay-Z & Coldplay (Mick Boogie), Viva La Hova
8. Justice, Fabric Rejected DJ Mix
9. Santogold/Diplo, Top Ranking
10. Cut Copy, So Cosmic Mix

TOP 30 SONGS OF 2008
(from non-Top Albums):

GrindHustle:
1. Fleet Foxes – Mykonos
2. These New Puritans – Elvis
3. Big Boi feat. Mary J. Blige – Sumthin’s Gotta Give
4. David Byrne & Brian Eno – Strange Overtones
5. Kid Dakota – Stars
6. King Khan and The Shrines – Land of the Freak
7. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!
8. Beyonce – Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
9. Department of Eagles – No One Does It Better
10. Alejandro Escoveda – Always A Friend
11. Hot Chip – Made In The Dark
12. The Roots – Rising Down
13. Grand Archives – Sleepdriving
14. Santogold – Lights Out
15. Portishead – Machine Gun
16. The Cool Kids – Delivery Man (9th Wonder Remix)
17. Of Montreal – Id Engager
18. The Championship – Ferris Wheel
19. Kate Nash – Foundations
20. Lykke Li – Little Bit
21. No Age – Sleeper Hold
22. Kings of Leon – Be Somebody
23. Okkervil River – Lost Coastlines
24. Drive-By Truckers – A Ghost to Most
25. Jenny Lewis & Elvis Costello – Carpetbaggers
26. Foals – Balloons
27. Solid Gold – Get Over It
28. Mike Doughty – Put It Down
29. Titus Andronicus – Upon Viewing Brueghel’s ‘Landscape With the Fall of Icarus’
30. Connor Oberst – Sausalito

heezwax:
1. Elbow – Mirrorball
2. Fleet Foxes – Mykonos
3. Santgold – Lights Out
4. Blitzen Trapper – Furr
5. Wild Beast – Devil Crayon
6. Beyonce – Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
7. Weezer – Pork n Beans
8. Ray Lamontagne – You Are The Best Thing
9. The Cool Kids – What Up Man
10. The Alarmists – You’re Right
11. The Hold Steady – Constructive Summer
12. Usher feat. Young Jeezy – Love in This Club
13. Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor
14. The Roots – Rising Down
15. Alejandro Escovedo – Always a Friend
16. Coldplay – Strawberry Swing
17. Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook
18. She & Him – This is Not a Test
19. Estelle feat. Kanye West – American Boy
20. Moby – I Love to Move in Here

DJ Bumbaclot:
1. Blitzen Trapper – Furr
2. Wale – The Kramer
3. Elbow – The Bones of You
4. Kings of Leon – Closer
5. Estelle feat. Kanye West – American Boy
6. The National – Blank Slate (off The Virginia EP)
7. Foals – Red Sox Fugie
8. Kanye West – Love Lockdown (also the MB/Rob Mix, the LMFAO Remix, and the DJ Earworm remix)
9. KiD CuDi – Day N Nite (also the Crookers Remix)
10. Cat Power – Song To Bobby
11. Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
12. Raphael Saadiq – Sure Hope You Mean It
13. The Raveonettes – Aly, Walk With Me
14. Nas – Sly Fox
15. Nicolay & Kay – As The World Turns
16. No Age – Eraser
17. The Brighton Port Authority feat. David Byrne & Dizzee Rascal – Toe Jam
18. Copeland – Good Morning Fire Eater
19. The Cool Kids – Unos
20. Gnarls Barkley – Who’s Gonna Save My Soul
21. She & Him – Sentimental Heart
22. Hercules and Love Affair – Classique #2
23. Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor
24. N*E*R*D – Spaz
25. Santogold – Unstoppable
26. Japanese Motors – Single Fins & Safety Pins
27. The Knux – Cappuccino
28. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
29. Brendan Canning – Churches Under The Stairs
30. Solid Gold – Who You Gonna Run To?

From the Bad Guy Hide Out: Best Movies of 2007

2007 has been one of the strongest years in recent memory for film. Even though there were significant snubs by our friendos at the Academy, it seems like they did a great job for once at selecting the Best Picture nominees. As you can see in our year in review, all five make in an appearance in our top ten.

(Note to the Academy: It was bogus to leave Brad Renfro out of the In Memoriam tribute montage. “It was really an editing decision because we can’t fit everyone in” doesn’t cut it when you have random agents popping up who no one has ever heard of.)

To compose our Best Of, we shared our top twenty movies with one another, and combined them into a collective list based on our individual rankings. This felt like the fairest way to do this, even though some were bumped forward, back and even out of our individual lists.

So get out the milkshakes, strum those Irish guitars, and read on through our expert opinions–do we look like we’re NEGOTIATING??

1. No Country for Old Men. I sat front row at The Grove on opening weekend in L.A. and can say I submitted to the undeniable power of No Country for Old Men. This film truly is a masterpiece in the way it grips you from the get-go and doesn’t relent; the tension it creates in so many ways; the unconventional yet awesome ending; and horror personified in Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem. His Oscar for Supporting Actor is rightfully deserved. Mr. Bardem plays a man menacing on par with Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter, and he will go down in history for this role of sheer, calculating evil. “What business is it of yours where I’m from, friendo?” and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The ensemble cast (Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Kelly Macdonald, and Woody Harrelson) was spot-on. 2007 belonged to No Country for Old Men, and in this regard, it belonged to the Coen brothers, rightfully claiming the creative “trifecta” with Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay Oscars. (AV)

2. There Will Be Blood. Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis have created the ultimate dichotomy: a film that both Brooklyn hipsters and Texas tycoons will love. (Anyone else find it ironic that Plainview’s son was named H.W.?) What There Will Be Blood lacks in Hollywood glamor, it makes up for in unrelenting ambition. DD-L gives one of the best performances this century as Daniel Plainview, an oil man full of greed, hate, and competition, an haunting portrait of the rise to power in America. From the opening sequence without a word spoken for nearly eighteen minutes, to the culminating finale, it is an epic masterpiece. Frequent PTA collaborater Robert Elswit’s photography is cinematic beauty, and Jonny Greenwood’s eerie and looming score perfectly captures the madness unfolding. With this film, Mr. Anderson emerges as a true auteur and cements himself as one of the best directors of his generation, following a career including Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love. I can’t wait to see what he does next. (AV)

3. Once. In a year of Anton Chigurhs and Daniel Plainviews and rejuvenated John McClaines (awesome!) along comes Once, a small indie musical out of Dublin. Simply put, Once is the sweetest movie I have ever seen. Penned and directed by newcomer John Carney, Once follows a street musician played by Glen Hansard of Irish band the Frames as he is coerced into giving the music thing a real shot by beautiful girl-next-door Marketa Iraglova. Their relationship starts by her approaching him on the street, and, deducing that he is a vacuum repairman, brings her broken unit to him the following morning. After walking the vacuum around like a disobedient collie, they make a stop in a local music instrument store–and the movie magic officially begins. Hansard starts strumming the guitar and humming, Iraglova sits at the piano, and they write “Falling Slowly”–piece by aching piece, harmony for harmony, a seamless puzzle. Gradually throughout the movie, Iraglova lets him into her life; her child from a separated marriage, her mother, her Czech buddies that come over to watch TV. But she’s guarded, and he’s screwed up from the woman who left him and moved to London (the hilarious song “Broken-Hearted Hoover Vacuum Sucker Fixer Guy” tells this story). As they write and record together, he gets confidence–but is it enough to make him leave for London to chase his career and his ex? This movie speaks the “Once” rhetoric to all of us–the “I’ll do this once I have more time, once I get done with this stage of my life,” mentality. Inspirational, simple, and a perfect length in the era of bloated movies–Once will make you want to drop everything and take that chance. (BM)

4. Juno. Ah, the indie movie that could… I’ve heard people criticize the hipster-speak of the script as if it is the new Ebonics, but get over it. Much of Juno’s charm is the off-beat and quirky dialogue, most of which spews from the mouth of Ellen Page, a star in the making. Following her dark turn in Hard Candy, she delivers Juno MacGuff with warmth and insecurity. Juno is full of career highlights: Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the adopting parents; J.K. Simmons as Juno’s father; Jason Reitman, 30, getting a Best Director nod, fresh off of his last picture, Thank You for Smoking; and Diablo Cody’s wonderful script, as she now reluctantly accepts her place as the ‘It Girl’. Enough has been said about her background, so get over that too. This film is touching, funny, instantly likeable, and the finale is magical. Honest to blog. (AV)

5. Eastern Promises. So, a guy walks into a sauna…If Snatch, The Sopranos and Rocky IV have taught us anything, it’s to never f with the Russians. Eastern Promises drives this point home as it takes us into an unfamiliar world of Russian organized crime in London. Viggo Mortensen’s Nikolai is a henchman for an extremely powerful and dangerous sect of the Russian mafia; he takes direct orders from drunk, hotheaded, son of the boss Kirill, played exceptionally well by Vincent Cassell. All is well in little Moscow until Naomi Watts, a midwife, wanders in with questions about a young teenage girl who dies during birth–and just so happens to have card from the restaurant that Nikolai’s boss owns. Nikolai does his damndest to stay out of it until he learns the truth about the situation and investigates further, leading to tensions between he and Kirill. As his desire to help the lovely Ms. Watts grows, his duties in the vory v zakove (‘thieves in law’) become increasingly more dangerous and violent. Director David Cronenberg has never been one to avoid full-on blood, and this movie is no exception, with lingering kills and of course, the now infamous bath house scene. It’s well-acted, well-structured and full of bloody surprises. (BM)

6. Gone Baby Gone. Those who have talked with me intimately about the novel/screenplay I have been working on will know that, even in the early development stages, I pictured Casey Affleck in the role of my lead detective. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out he would play a P.I. in his older brother’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s (Mystic River) gritty crime thriller. Ben and Casey have been our resident working-class Boston experts before, so it was no surprise that they nailed all of its nuances from the lingo to the accent to the dress code. Casey Affleck stars as Patrick Kenzie, who, with partner/girlfriend Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), take on the case of a missing neighborhood girl. The girl’s degenerate, aloof, coke-snorting mother has helped turn it into a citywide deal through public cries for help and dramatics (played by supporting actress shoo-in Amy Ryan, so convincing as a Boston local she was not let on set at one point). Their search takes them deep into the darkest parts of the city, where bar fights are an hourly occurrence and even the police (The Departed, anyone?), headed up by a fantastic Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, have questionable motives. Looking for the missing girl takes its toll on Kenzie and Gennaro as they make tough choices and deal with crises of conscience throughout leads, red herrings, twists, and a shockingly poignant ending. Congratulations, Casey–you nailed the audition. (BM)

7. Michael Clayton. Damn you Michael Clayton–you’re so COMPELLING! Clooney’s Clayton is dubbed a “fixer”, a “janitor” and a “miracle worker” for a high powered NYC firm, basically a man who puts out fires quickly and privately. When Arthur Eden, played by the always-skillful Tom Wilkinson, gets buck naked in a Milwaukee deposition and runs through a parking lot, it’s Clayton’s job to bail him out and talk enough sense in him to bring him home. Since this, of course does not go according to the plan, Clooney’s distinguished gentleman goes commando on all our asses. He starts doing things his own way and in the process, uncovers some buried information on the company Arthur Edens is prosecuting lawsuits for. Tilda Swinton plays the company president, bent on suppressing as much from getting out as possible. It’s a fantastic intellectual thriller and first directing effort for Tony Gilroy, writer of the Bourne trilogy screenplays. All the Clooney cynics who argue that he’s played the same character since Danny Ocean may have a little validity here, but his range of emotion and overall bad-assedness has never been stronger. (BM)

8. Knocked Up. The pee-your-pants funny movie of 2007. The wit of Knocked Up is so sharp that I missed jokes upon first viewing, because I was laughing so hard at previous jokes. The script digs into real-life shit (knocking-up a one-night stand, becoming a father, marriage) and makes you laugh even as you realize the emotional weight behind it. The ensemble of this cast is rather large, but many minor characters steal scenes, including Ryan Seacrest, Kristin Wiig, and the Apatow daughters. Mr. Apatow’s comedic troupe, some dating back to Freaks and Geeks–Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and Martin Starr–are hysterical, and Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann are both brilliant. By delivering Knocked Up and producing Superbad this year, Judd Apatow has positioned himself as a powerhouse in comedy. It’s about time. (AV)

9. The Darjeeling Ltd. Wes Anderson has become the very definition of a modern-day auteur. His broken family dramedies–with their shot symmetry, bright colors, Owen Wilson/Bill Murray/Angelica Huston use, ballad music and quirky dialogue–are instantly recognizable. This was the very reason I wasn’t quick to see it, that it was just another Wes Anderson film. Coming into the theater with those expectations, I left with a shit-eating grin. The Darjeeling Ltd. follows three separated brothers played convincingly by Wilson, Jason Schwartzmann, and Adrian Brody, as they travel in a train across India. Wilson’s character has a hidden agenda-to track down their estranged mother, played by Huston. Along the way, they fight, argue, remember their deceased father, take lots of cough syrup, negotiate countless pacts, deceive one another, screw attractive train attendants (Schwartzmann) talk women, and and smoke (a hilarious, vintage Anderson set-up shows a male train attendant enter their cabin and point to a “no smoking” sign as the camera pans to reveal all three lighting up). As Owen Wilson plans their itinerary with help of a laminator and a paid assistant, he works his way into Brody and Schwartzmann’s good graces after being out of their lives for the past year. They become brothers again, culminating in a strange reunion and moving scene in which they recount a past incident that left them all devastated and helped to shape them. (BM)

10. Atonement. This film is an epic tale of how different points-of-view of certain actions can spin out of control and change the course of many lives, including two lovers. Briony Tallis, a13 year-old aspiring writer, sees her older sister Cecelia (Keira Knightley) and her lover Robbie (James McAvoy) intimately and lies, accusing him of a crime he did not commit. Her lie snowballs, and the story follows her at ages 13, 18 (working as a nurse during the war) and in her late seventies, as the consequences of her lie unfold. There is a stunning five-and-a-half minute continuous shot of Robbie walking through Dunkirk as British troops await evacuation from France, helping give Seamus McGarvey an Oscar nod for Best Cinematography. (AV)

 

 

GrindHustle’s Top 20:
1. Eastern Promises
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Gone Baby Gone
4. Black Snake Moan
5. The Darjeeling Ltd.
6. Superbad
7. There Will Be Blood
8. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
9. Once
10. Juno
11. Into the Wild
12. Knocked Up
13. Breach
14. King of California
15. Persepolis
16. I Am Legend
17. Ratatouille
18. Hot Fuzz
19. The Wind That Shakes The Barley
20. The Namesake

Extra Props To: Atonement, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, I’m Not There, In The Valley of Elah, The King of Kong, Michael Clayton, Sweeney Todd

Thumbs Down For: Lars and The Real Girl, Waitress, Shoot ‘Em Up, 3:10 To Yuma

Heezwax’s Top 20:
1. Once
2. No Country for Old Men
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Gone Baby Gone
5. Into the Wild. Christopher McCandless, a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, embarks on a cross-country trip with no money, his only intention being to eventually make it to Alaska to survive in the wilderness. The movie jumps between his life in an abandoned Alaskan van and vignettes from his journeys and encounters that brought him there. Emile Hirsch’s McCandless is a little too hopeful about his chances, but this is what gives him most of his charm. Stops along the way include working on a farm with the incomparable Vince Vaughn, crashing at a hippie commune with Catherine Keener and boyfriend Brian Dierker, and living under the roof of the kind-hearted Hal Holbrook, who despite his small role, turns out a great enough performance to warrant a nod. The screenplay is based on the book that Jon Krakauer compiled through McCandless’s correspondence and interviews with the real-life versions of our story’s characters, and it is does an outstanding job of capturing McCandless for what he was: A true-to-life, albeit a bit naive, free American spirit.
6. Michael Clayton
7. Juno
8. Eastern Promises
9. Knocked Up / Superbad
10. American Gangster
11. The Darjeeling Ltd.
12. Atonement
13. Breach
14. Grindhouse
15. The King of Kong
16. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
17. Paris, Je’Taime
18. The Namesake
19. Reign Over Me
20. The Lookout

Honorable Mentions: Talk to Me, Zodiac, Driving Lessons

Peter McVeeder’s Top 20:
1. No Country for Old Men
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Once
4. In The Valley of Elah. In a year that brought out a lot of unrest about Iraq, it seems interesting that almost every film released in 2007 about the subject bombed at the box office. To its credit, In the Valley of Elah is one of the most underrated movies of the year. Tommy Lee Jones gives perhaps the best performance of his career as a former military policeman and father on a quest to find out who killed his son, recently back from a tour in Iraq. In Paul Haggis’ first film since Crash, he delivers a subtly powerful anti-war film that hooks you in and gets under your skin.
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. A visual, emotional journey based on the true story of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered a massive stroke, paralyzing his entire body except for his left eye. The realization that he is trapped inside his body is daunting and overwhelming, but with the help of therapists who devise a way to communicate through blinking and the love from his family, he learns to overcome the tragedy to appreciate his life — “I decided to stop pitying myself. Other than my eye, two things aren’t paralyzed: my imagination and my memory.” The photography is this film is striking with many of Jean-Do’s POVs incorporated, beautifully capturing his frozen state and dream-like memories. You won’t stop thinking about it.
6. Juno
7. Eastern Promises
8. Michael Clayton
9. Knocked Up
10. The Darjeeling Ltd.
11. Atonement
12. Gone Baby Gone
13. Superbad
14. The Bourne Ultimatum. The best of the three, in a trilogy that only got better. It is not only a bad-ass action flick, it’s a great movie, to boot.
15. Zodiac
16. No End in Sight / Sicko
17. Breach
18. Across the Universe
19. Sunshine
20. The TV Set. A dry and funny satire about writer Mike Klein (David Duchovny) fighting for his vision of a TV pilot, while the network tries to undermine him on casting, production, and everything else. Sigourny Weaver is great as the network president, as is Judy Greer playing Klein’s manager.

Honorable Mentions: 28 Weeks Later, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I Am Legend, King of California, Live Free or Die Hard, Starting Out in the Evening

Would Love To/Have Yet To See: Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, Charlie Wilson’s War, Control, I’m Not There, Into the Wild, La Vie en Rose, Persepolis, The Southland Tales, Sweeney Todd

ThatJacy’s Top 10:
1. There Will Be Blood. From the creepy ass opening shot to the last scene (one of the best scenes in the history of films, I’d say) I couldn’t take my eyes off this movie, mostly due to Daniel Day Lewis’ phenomenal acting. A breath of fresh air after watching a years worth of no-talent Hollywood hacktors. (See: casts of Epic Movie, Norbit, Fred Claus, Josh Hartnett…)
2. No Country for Old Men. Prediction: Top Halloween costume of 2008 will be Anton Chigurh.
3. A Mighty Heart. Most underrated movie of the year. I challenge you to watch Juno and A Mighty Heart back to back and tell me that Angelina did not get robbed of a best actress nomination. Do it. Now.
4. The Darjeeling Ltd. I’m white. Wes Anderson movies never get old.
5. Zodiac. The most entertaining thriller since what’s his name was trying to find out who murdered his wife.
6. Juno. If I would have gotten up to get popcorn, been stuck in traffic, in the bathroom and missed the first 20 minutes of the movie, it would probably be bumped up a couple of notches. But alas, I had to sit through the opening scenes of overwritten, forced dialogue and so it’s six. It’s also six because despite our first impression, it was an original-ish, heartfelt, well-written, well-cast film. And snaps for Diablo Cody for both becoming a name as a writer and for creating strong female characters. Hollywood needs more of them. (Yes, that was my wah to overlooked writers, girl power, feminist plug right there. Suck it.)
7. Eastern Promises. Naked man-fighting? Sold.
8. 3:10 to Yuma. So, okay. Maybe it wasn’t the best film ever, but Christian Bale’s performance was outstanding. Far be it for me to say anything more about this movie when I haven’t even seen the original.
9. Ratatatoullie. Cooking rats? Yes, please. It was funny, charming, and beat out that other shitty culinary movie of 2007…
10. Gone Baby Gone. The only thing I like more than Casey Affleck’s voice is people trying to do an impression of Casey Affleck’s voice. And the only thing I would have liked more about Gone Baby Gone is if I truly didn’t think the movie was over after 25 minutes, gotten up, screamed about how “this is a terrible movie!” and realized that I still had an hour and a half to go. It was embarrassing. Lucky for me I stuck around to get some obligatory words of wisdom from Morgan Freeman, noticed that even if you’re in a movie for <20 minutes you can still get a best supporting actress nomination, and saw a brilliant ending that lead to heated discourse about morality.

Honorable Mentions:
Superbad. The American Pie of 2007 if American Pie was actually funny, heartfelt, funny, well-written, well-cast, funny, unpredictable, funny…
DeathProof. See aforementioned ‘girl power rant’ and membership card.

Ostrich Didn’t See Shit!

Police questioned the only witness to a murder in front of a beachside Sno-cone stand that took place last night. Lenny, an 8 year old male Ostrich was present but apparently oblivious to what police have said must have been “blood curdling” screams. According to Detective Sergeant James O’Halarahan the witness claimed to have been unaware that anything took place at all. “We have no leads at present time,” O’Halarahan commented, “that ostrich didn’t see shit.” When approached for comment, Lenny flapped his wings and tried to snake his neck through a car window to eat some McDonald’s french fries left in a bag.

Puppies In The Arms of Angels

What has Sarah McLachlan been doing since Lilith Fair ended? I mean, besides raking in royalty checks from high schools pumping “I Will Remember You” through the intercom for graduation ceremonies? Not too much besides showing up in random deep house remix records, really. But here she is, inexplicably back in the public eye as the big name celeb supporting the ASPCA in its new sad puppies ad campaign promoting the adoption of abused animals. A typical reaction to this commercial: “How many times have I seen this ad and cried since Sunday? Seven times.” The ASPCA uses guilt and cuddliness to an excruciatingly precise effect in order to put across their message that love can trump allergens. Props. Unfortunately, the gravity of the downtrodden animal images is more or less ruined by the creepy Dr. Claw way in which Ms. McLachlan pets her dog…

 

Buffcoat That Hooooooo!

Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em has a multiplatinum hit record. “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” is unbelievably popular. Its lyrics are more or less indiscernible, its beat is more or less absent, and it repeats its chorus ad naseum without ever actually breaking into a verse.

Everyone loves this song. Why? The dance, fool! If you haven’t been doing this dance, you really need to catch up. The dance is simple (and you can learn it from the master or from University of Wisconsin head basketball coach Bo Ryan):

Step 1 – put your arms up, shake shoulders, jump cross legs (maybe throw in a heel slap)
Step 2 – stomp foot, cross arms
Step 3 – put arms out to one side and jump the other way, reverse, repeat
Step 4 – Superman that ho

Now Youuuu crank that soulja boy!
The best/worst part of the dance is, of course, when you Superman that ho. It seems innocent enough but… to Superman a ho is not just pointing your arms out. It involves sticky bed sheets. Indeed. As for the meaning of crank that… take a wild guess. Soulja Boy manages to stay one step ahead of the censors by using slang that they haven’t picked up yet. Tipper Gore isn’t street, she just don’t know! Kudos. This technique was utilized a few years back by Lil’ Jon with “Get Low” (everyone knows what skeet, skeet means by now right?), another dance hit with endless quotability. I can still hear hordes of club girls chanting “til’ the sweat drops off my balls!”

Creating a new dance craze is easy and apparently very lucrative. The moves don’t have to be complicated. Shit, even Fat Joe got in the action with “Lean Back,” a dance that involved… leaning back. That dude can barely move. That’s why it’s time to get in on the action.

So, in the tradition of simple dances with thinly veiled sexual innuendo becoming big hits we present the new track by Lil’ Rapper Boy: “B.U.F.F.C.O.A.T. That Ho”

Tha Dance:
Step 1 – put one hand in pocket, hold drink in the other hand, take hand out of pocket and waive above head
Step 2 – sip from your drink, stomp foot twice

Step 3 – nod head while looking longingly at girl across the bar

Step 4 – Buffcoat that Ho

Tha Lyrics:
We getting’ drunk in here
Oooh! Yeah boy!
We stayin’ blowed in here
Heeey! Awwww shit!
They be mad hoes in here
Hooooes!
Buffcoat them hoes in here
Whoa!
Who buffcoats them hoes?
You!
Who buffcoats them hoes?
Me!
You buffcoat them hoes!
Okay! Stay stanky!
We buffcoat them hoes!
Yeah!

What’s a buffcoat? Catch up HERE. Nasty.

You Are NOT Smarter Than A 5th Grader

Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader is number one on Thursdays, son. God, if you can hear me, please end the writers strike! If you ever want to watch a show that will make you feel really, really smart for a few minutes until you can’t calculate the hypotenuse of a right triangle, this show is for you. If you want to feel crushingly moronic because an 11 year old girl named Madison has just chirped out the answer with ease, this show is for you. If you think Jeff Foxworthy interacting with small children is charming, this show is for you. You probably think that even if the contestants on the show are idiots, at least you are smarter than a 5th grader. Doubtful. Every contestant legitimately thinks that he or she is smarter than a 5th grader until they don’t know the capital of North Dakota and need to spy on the kid’s answer. Bismark! Fuck! I knew that one! Sadly, no one, it seems, is smarter than a 5^th grader. Which begs the question: If no one out there can beat a fifth grader in a battle of wits, why are we wasting seven more years in the educational system? That’s seven years that could be better spent, say, in the army, selling newspapers or in a factory and contributing to society. Child labor laws be damned! “Are You Smarter” really proves the old adage that “everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten” (or at least before 6th grade). If this is so, we are wasting time and money with middle school and high school. Think how early kids could enter the NBA draft if a silly mandatory stint in high school wasn’t required. Think about how the awkwardness of middle school could be avoided if it simply wasn’t there. You aren’t smarter than a 5^th grader anyway.

Take the 5th Grader quiz on the FOX website HERE … if you dare

“Maybe Mike Huckabee can’t join the band”

(Overheard at Guitar Center)
Dave: Is Mike Huckabee cool? I can’t tell sometimes.
Spider: Well, I mean the guy has been on the Colbert Report like seven times and every time has promised to make Stephen Colbert his running mate if he wins the Republican nomination. That’s pretty fresh, right?
Dave: Yeah! I fully skimmed Colbert’s book. Remember when he totally ripped Bush at the White House Press Dinner a few years back. That was hilarious. Huck had a chance to back out and he didn’t so he must really be serious about the ticket, right?
Spider: Totally! It would be like that Robin Williams movie that no one saw. Plus he plays bass!
Dave: Dude, we should get him to play on our new album. He totally had a wicked sweet article in GQ where he posed in front of a wall of Gibsons shredding out a little air riffage. He had a leg in the air and everything!
Spider: Plus, dude! Did you know that Chuck Norris “and his fists” endorse him for president?
Dave: Walker Texas Ranger, man! Remember that Walker lever on Conan O’Brien? That was so sweet.
Spider: Huck even said that Chuck Norris would secure the border for him as his border patrol!
Dave: Seriously?
Spider: No joke. Dude, Huck was super fat before he lost like a million pounds. Have you seen “The Biggest Loser”?
Dave: (silence)
Spider: Well, I have and he lost more weight than those guys, I guarantee it.
Dave: Yeah, but I can’t tell if he is trying to be ironic or not. He seems like he’s putting on a show.
Spider: Well he’s kinda funny and I say a president must be funny at all times.
Dave: Whoa dude look at this…. He said we should quarantine everyone with AIDS.
Spider: What?!
Dave: Yeah, he really did.
Spider: Check this out, he said that women should always submit to their husbands’ will!
Dave: Really? He must have meant something else, let me see…nope. Huh. It’s in the Bible I guess?
Spider: He wrote a book that compared homosexuality to necrophilia…. What’s necrophilia?
Dave: Sex with dead bodies!
Spider: Gross! I don’t see the similarity, but….
Dave: He called homosexuality an aberration? Geez, this guy is kind of a dick.
Spider: He wrote that non-believers were a direct threat to the United States? Does that mean all of the US citizens that aren’t Christians are dangerous?
Dave: I don’t know, but he also said that women lost out by not sticking to their “god-given distinctions” in gender when they entered the workplace!
Spider: He wants to “win back” the country for Christ.
Dave: Well, he worked for a TV Evangelist and as a preacher for long time until he became Governor of Arkansas. I guess that’s to be expected.
Spider: Yeah, but hey! He pardoned Keith Richards’ speeding ticket when he was the Governor. The dude loves the Stones so much that he hooked up boozy old Keith! Awesome!
Dave: He then said he hoped he gets to “pardon” Keith for all of his sins when he gets to the gates of heaven?
Spider: Whoa St. Peter, Huck thinks a lot of himself.
Dave: Dude, Mike just made an allusion to sticking the Confederate flag up the ass of anyone who doesn’t like it.
Spider: Maybe Mike Huckabee can’t join the band.

A Conversation With The Ghost of Steve Perry

TAKE THE SURVEY AT THE END OF THIS ARTICLE and have your voice heard!

You know more Journey than you think you do. In the early 70’s Journey was a mediocre rock band formed by a guy who played guitar with Santana. But that all changed when Steve Perry joined up as lead vocalist and changed the direction of the band to, well, a vehicle for his bedroom poetry falsetto and Neal Schon’s accompanying power riffage. Pretty much everyone has heard their seminal 1981 hit “Don’t Stop Believin’” and has thought that they were the ones who sang “Sister Christian” (that one was actually by Night Ranger). But there are so many more Journey songs that we have all absorbed whether we knew it or not. The Perry era albums have titles like Infinity, Evolution, Departure, Captured, Escape, and Frontiers. Quite a journey indeed. These guys love their one word power-titles hardcore. They pioneered droppin’ the g from the ending of a present participle verb and replacin’ it with an apostrophe to make it cooler. They wrote the book on emotive classic rock melodrama and are the kings of the power ballad. They had TWO freakin’ video games made about them, an arcade game called, no not “Rockin’ my Joystick,” but Journey; and an Atari game called, you guessed it, Journey Escape.

Steve Perry is the girl in the striped shirt

No, Steve Perry is not actually dead yet. Yes, Steve Perry still looks like a girl. Yes, Neal Schon could probably still melt your face off if he wanted to. Yes, it was super awesome that the last scene of The Sopranos was basically an excuse for David Chase to play “Don’t Stop Believin’” while Tony reflected on his monumental weight gain. Yes, it is obvious that Don’t Stop is the number one Journey song of all time. Of course, this is barring some extremely unlikely breakthrough comeback album – named Eternity perhaps, or maybe Perpetuity? But still, these boys were no one hit wonders. No, they had hit after hit and filled stadiums around the world. You probably didn’t even know that Randy Jackson of American Idol judging fame had a brief stint as the bass player for Journey while Ross Valroy sat out for the Raised on Radio album. Check the liner notes, fool!

These are some of the other Journey songs that you think you don’t know, but do:

“Any Way You Want It” – starts with a blast of acapella wailin’ and then proceeds to rock us hard through 3 minutes and 22 seconds. But they want it to last all night, all night, oh every night. Any way you want it, that’s the way you need it. The girl Steve longs for loves to move, loves to groove, she loves a lot of things.

“Wheel In The Sky” – Still tryin’ to figure out what this wheel actually is. All we know is that it keeps on turnin’ and we don’t know where Steve will be tomorrow.

“Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” – With an intro perfect for a climactic scene at the end of Goonies or Little Monsters this song kicks back into Journey high gear with the classic line “someday love will find, break those chains that bind you” as Steve Perry evidently lost out on the girl of his dreams but will be waitin’ to get her back if her boyfriend ever beats her up. He will not, however, kick the douchebag’s ass. He would apparently also be up for a one time pity fuck, if she’s into it.

“Only The Young” – This track was the cornerstone of the soundtrack for Vision Quest which I guess was a movie and not just a glasses store. It starred Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino. According to Wikipedia the movie is now a cult classic among high school wrestlers “for its various wrestling scenes” (shudder).

“Faithfully” – Pioneerin’ use of piano ballad and hot fire guitar soul shreddin’! Plus that stadium tom fill brings in the beat like butter. “I’m forever yours, faithfully”

“Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’” – Journey gets the hat trick by droppin’ three g’s all in one title

“Lights” – this track comes from the first Journey album, Infinity, in 1978. This song is important because it marks the beginning of Steve Perry’s obsession with lights shinin’ or not shinin’ in cities (“when the lights go down in the cit-aay”). A theme that continues in Don’t Stop Believin’(“streetlights, people!”).

“Open Arms” – A really, really sappy power piano ballad that was actually Journey’s highest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 2 (Don’t Stop only hit number 8!).

Vote for the second best Journey song of all time! Do it HERE! Do it now!

The T-Pain Theory

Does anyone remember Cher’s big comeback song from like 10 years ago where she asked us if we believed in love after love through a Peter Frampton talk box? T-Pain does. This guy is everywhere, and, along with his vocal doppelganger Akon, has commandeered the vocoder and is not letting go any time soon. I can picture young Faheem Najm sitting in his bedroom circa 1997 listening to “Believe” while devising his plan to take over the pop charts.

Step 1: jack Cher’s electro voice thing; Step 2: come up with some lyrics like “rrrerr, rreerrr, rreerrrr,” “oooo weeeee” and “now I know she thinks I’m cool” & Step 3: get a guest spot on absolutely every single radio hip hop track possible. Ten years later T-Pain’s dream has become a reality. He is omnipresent. Concerning the omnipresence of a supreme being, Sir Thomas Aquinas wrote in Summa Theologica that “God is in all things by his power, inasmuch as all things are subject to his power; he is by his presence in all things, inasmuch as all things are bare and open to his eyes; he is in all things by his essence, inasmuch as he is present to all as the cause of their being.” Could T-Pain be the god of pop and hip hop today? Blasphemy? You tell me…

I have to admit that when I first heard T-Pain singing about his love for buying dranks at bars, standing at bars, bartenders, getting drunk with shawties and then watching shawty dance I felt a certain kinship. After all, who doesn’t love such things? What began to surprise me was the frequency with which I was being serenaded by this dredlocked, sunglasses at night, man in pain. Generally, I have the radio on in the car and do a little station flipping so my radio listening time is minimal at best. Yet every time the radio was on in the year 2007 there was T-Pain letting me know that shawty got low-low-low-low-low or that he was going to take shawty home with him. Then I would walk into a store and hear T-Pain again, this time telling me that he got some drinks to drink, drunk ‘um and got drunk.

This T-Pain immersion led me to conduct an experiment to answer this question: Is T-Pain the most prolific and prodigious pop artist of the new millennium? The test consisted of randomly tuning into three different popular music radio stations as well as MTV, BET and FUSE to see how much T-Pain I could get in one day. The test was to determine how often I could get a dose of T-Pain without having to turn any of his jams on myself. My method involved keeping constant track of these media throughout a morning and then extrapolating the results. An arduous task, but a worthwhile one. These are the results:

8:12 AM – T-Pain featuring Akon – “Bartender” – holy shit, a twofer to start the day! A double fix of nasal electro voice. The morning show loves T-Pain and so do we.

8:40 AM – Flo-rida featuring T-Pain “Low” – cutting it close but a switch to a new radio station yields another hit.

9:00 AM – Flo-rida featuring T-Pain “Low” – MTV Jams is playing the video for this track. T-Pain cannot dance for shit. Flo-rida looks like a combination of Al Jefferson and a gorilla.

9:24 AM – “Church” / “Buy you a drank (ooo weee)” – Yes! T-Pain is on two stations at once! Double bonus points.

9:28 AM – I was tricked into thinking that the radio was playing back to back T-Pain. Plies! Why are you biting my man’s style so hard? Shorty may be a ten but that is up to T-Pain to decide, not you. Still, the presence of T-Pain can be felt in this jam.

9:33 AM – Baby Bash featuring T-Pain “Cyclone” – how much weed must be smoked to come up with the lyric “reeerrr, reerrrrrr, rerrr”?

10:00 AM – Chris Brown featuring T-Pain “Kiss Kiss” – T-Pain in only on this track to echo things Chris Brown says … and to let people know that its okay to listen to Chris Brown.

10:12 AM – Baby Bash featuring T-Pain “Cyclone” – combine Baby Bash’s jerry curl with T-Pain’s killer dreds and you get excellence.

10:33 AM – Plies featuring T-Pain “Shawty” – okay, Plies redeems by letting the godfather bless this track. Before shawty can be a 10, as Billy Bob in Varsity Blues would say, you gotta feel it when T-Pain explains just what a shawty is.

10:55 AM – Kanye West featuring T-Pain “Good Life” – The number one player in the game still wanted some of that T-Pain magic.

11:01 AM – T-Pain does not sing a song but does come on to do a radio promotion. Except: “This ya boy T-Pain on my favorite station B! 96” … I’m counting it.

11:20 AM – Baby Bash featuring T-Pain “Cyclone” - shawty does is all night long.

11:45 AM – “Church” video on MTV Jams – Seriously, for a guy who sings about dancing as much as T-Pain does, he needs some new moves.

12:13 PM – R. Kelly featuring T-Pain “I’m a Flirt (remix)” – Even the king of guest spots wants T-Pain on the track.

At this point I ended the experiment. I was excited to find that T-Pain had as much force and presence as I had hoped and expected. The longest I went all morning without hearing or seeing T-Pain was a scant 28 minutes. He’s unavoidable so embrace him. Good luck to you T-Pain on your way to winning Grammys for all your nominated tracks this year:

Best R&B Performance – “Bartender”

Best Rap Song – “Good Life”

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration – “Kiss Kiss” AND “Good Life”

Shawty snappin’ indeed.

The “Best” Albums of Two-Thousand Seven – TWO LISTS!

ONE TAKE:

Peter McVeeder writes:

Each and every year, I find myself thinking how interesting it is when December rolls around. The year winds down to a culmination of holiday parties, folks who you’ve seen every day or not for a handful of years… more food sitting before you at a table than you have consumed in a fortnight, to which you always eat more than you should have… and the need to encapsulate the finest of the year’s mainstream arts in a barrage of ‘Best of’ lists. You hear questions like: “Ooh, which movie is going to win the Oscar?” “Who do you think is the Best Actor?” and “Do you think Rolling Stone is going to play it really safe with their Album of the Year choice, and that Pitchfork is going to proclaim an uber-cool indie band you’ve never heard of as their #1?” The thing I have come to realize is that there really isn’t a “best album of the year.” It’s subjective and completely opinionated — and I love it. Who did they pick? Do I agree? Have I ever heard of this band? You really picked them? As a music lover and admitted audiophile, I find myself drawn to these lists, looking forward to them, thinking about my own for weeks before I share it. The discourse is important, and it excites me to participate in it.

So without further ado, I present you with the “best” albums of two-thousand seven (Key Tracks from each album are indicated in concluding parentheses):

1. Radiohead, In Rainbows. In full disclosure, I believe that Radiohead is the best band to have emerged during my lifetime. That being said, when I heard they were releasing their long-awaited follow-up to Hail to the Thief on their own, sans label, and it would be out in ten days, available by download, for whatever you wanted to pay for it, I grinned like a school girl and thought, ‘But of course you are, and why wouldn’t you be? You’re Radiohead. You can do anything you want.’ And when I downloaded it at approximately 11:45pm on October 9th, I discovered just how beautiful and haunting and seducing and rock-n-rollin’ it was. And I find it amazing. (Bodysnatchers, Nude, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Reckoner, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Videotape. Also check out ‘Last Flowers To The Hospital’ and ‘Up On The Ladder’ from CD2, a bonus for those of us who shelled out forty pounds for the discbox. A pretty penny, yes, but the album on 2LP sounds so good that it’ll make your dick tingle, or perhaps your left nipple.) There have been three albums that have stood out in my head for the past month as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best albums of the year for a month now. The problem is that their order fluctuates at least every day, if not multiple times a day, so as of Jan 2nd 6:07pm PST, they are:
2. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I knew Spoon was good, but damn, they’re really this good. Front to back, it’s a solid, wonderfully textured album, and it is immediately likeable. (Don’t Make Me A Target, The Ghost Of You Lingers, Don’t You Evah)
3. The National, Boxer. My brother turned me onto these guys after he saw them in Milwaukee. The lead vocals remind me of Crash Test Dummies; it’s deep with a tinge of emotional truth. Along with Ga x5, it is full of piano-splashed, awesome rock songs which get under your skin. (Mistaken for Strangers, Brainy, Guest Room, Santa Clara)
4. Band of Horses, Cease to Begin (Is There a Ghost, No One’s Gonna Love You, The General Specific)
5. Consequence, Don’t Quit Your Day Job. Best hip-hop album of the year. Hip-hop gets a bum rap in the era of commercialized gangsta rap, with the “skeeting” of the dirty souf and the bling, bitches, and Benzes. Oh Consequence raps about that too, but with Kanye producing multiple tracks, flows about life’s dramas and dreams, and top lyrical creativity (my personal favorite is “Good morning America / And good morning to Erica / Who gave me good head while watching Good Morning America”), I haven’t stopped listening to this album since I got it in the spring. (Don’t Forget Em, Uptown, Callin’ Me, Uncle Rahiem)
6. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible. I got their first album Funeral in 2004 and listened to it religiously (and I guess I still do), so I had high hopes for this album. Although not as groundbreaking/seminal as its predecessor, it is an eclectically-full, epic and layered album. Keep it real, Win Butler, you’re a modern-day Springsteen. (Keep The Car Running, The Well And The Lighthouse, Antichrist Television Blues)
7. Little Brother, Getback. The Heez declared ‘Good Clothes’ to be the Halloween Weekend Song, and that was it. Poignant, political, storytellin’ and smooth. (Sirens, Good Clothes. Also check out their mixtape And Justus For All by Mick Boogie.)
8. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black. Sure, she’s a trainwreck, her break-out single ‘Rehab’ chronicling this fact, but somehow the soul of Aretha found its way into the pipes of this 23-year-old from the UK, and you couldn’t deny it. Mark Ronson gets snaps for the retro production and capturing an era of yesteryear. I can’t wait to see how long she remains relevant in the public eye and what she sings next. (You Know I’m No Good, Back to Black, Addicted. Also check out the song ‘Fuck Me Pumps’ from her reissued first album, Frank.)
9. Lupe Fiasco, The Cool. On the heels of last year’s Food & Liquor, Lupe delivers another solid, creative hip-hop album. (Superstar, Paris Tokyo, Hip-Hop Saved My Life)
10. Bruce Springsteen, Magic. The Boss rocks like we all know he could/can. This album has the timeless Bruce Springsteen sound, and some of its songs rank among the best in his catalog. (Radio Nowhere, Girls In Their Summer Clothes, Devil’s Arcade)
11. The Shins, Wincing the Night Away. I fucking love this album. It was so great to hear this band’s evolution in such songs as ‘Sleeping Lessons’ (one of my favorites of the year) and ‘Sea Legs’. (Sleeping Lessons, Australia, Sea Legs)
12. Kayne West, Graduation. An undeniably great hip-hop album, but his flows were stronger on Late Registration. My only beef with Graduation is that for as much shit as Kanye talks, I wish he could rap as well as he produces beats. (Stronger, I Wonder, Flashing Lights)
13. Okkervil River, The Stage Names (Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe, Unless It’s Kicks, Savannah Smiles)
*14. The Debut, This Record Is About Cars (Whisper, The Photograph Song, Calm Objective Opinion, Defense Wins Championships, Castawayz)
15. Feist, The Reminder (I Feel It All, My Moon My Man)
16. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky (Either Way, Impossible Germany, Walken)
17. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver (Someone Great, All My Friends, Us V Them)
18. Jay-Z, American Gangster (Pray, No Hook, Roc Boys)
19. Ryan Adams, Easy Tiger (Two, Halloweenhead, Pearls On A String, I Taught Myself How To Grow Old)
20. M.I.A., Kala (Boyz, XR2, Paper Planes)

The following are the next ten best albums (21-30). I ranked them, but it’s not important. Just know that they’re all pretty solid, too, in alphabetical order:
*The Alarmists, The Ghost and the Hired Gun (Light a Smoke, Walking Away)
Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare (Brainstorm, Old Yellow Bricks, 505)
Bloc Party, A Weekend in the City (Hunting for Witches, Uniform. Also check out their new single, ‘Flux.’)
**Daft Punk, Alive 2007
*Foreign Born, On the Wing Now (Into Your Dream, It Wasn’t Said To Ask)
Interpol, Our Love to Admire (The Heinrich Maneuver, Mammoth, Rest My Chemistry)
Mark Ronson, Version (Valerie, Apply Some Pressure)
NIN, Year Zero (The Beginning of the End, The Good Soldier, Capital G)
Peter Bjorn and John, Writer’s Block (Object Of My Affection, Young Folks, Up Against The Wall)
Simian Mobile Disco, Attack Decay Sustain Release (Sleep Deprivation, Hustler, I Believe)

Honorable Mentions:
Broken Social Scene, Kevin Drew’s Spirit If…
Silverchair, Young Modern
David Vandervelde, The Moonstation House Band
Low, Drums and Guns
Panda Bear, Person Pitch

Worst Album of the Year: Battles, Mirrored. A fucking horrible mess.

*Support your local indie music scene (The Debut and The Alarmists from Minneapolis, Foreign Born from LA). These guys all kick ass, buy their albums.

**I would have placed Daft Punk much higher on the list, as the album itself is amazing, but given the fact that it is basically a remixed and re-edited, greatest-hits live show, it was noted but not ranked. But go get it anyway, “Around the World / Harder Better Faster Stronger” is dope.

ANOTHER TAKE:

GrindHustle writes:

What a big year for music. So much great music came out that cutting down the list was incredibly tough, and a number of great records didn’t make the list. Oh well. These records did. Cheers!

1. The National – Boxer
2. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
3. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
4. Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals
5. Cloud Cult – The Meaning of 8
6. Blitzen Trapper – Wild Mountain Nation
7. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
8. M.I.A. – Kala
9. Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger
10. Lupe Fiasco – Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool
11. Okkervil River – The Stage Names
12. Dr. Dog – We All Belong
13. Little Brother – Get Back
14. Radiohead – In Rainbows
15. Explosions In The Sky – All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
16. Daft Punk – Alive 2007
17. Rilo Kiley – Under The Blacklight
18. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
19. Kanye West – Graduation
20. Handsome Furs – Plague Park
21. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Baby 81
22. A Band of Bees – Octopus
23. Thurston Moore – Trees Outside the Academy
24. Working For A Nuclear Free City – Businessmen & Ghosts
25. Rich Boy – Rich Boy / Lil Wayne – The Leak EP (tie)