One Blink for Yes, Two Blinks For No or Jullian Schnabel is a Talentless Hack

I was going to write something about the Grammy's before the big event, but laziness continues to rear its ugly head. Apathy probably describes it better than laziness. The only category I had strong opinions about was Long Form Music Video. Peter Bogdanovich's 4 hour Tom Petty documentary,Runnin' Down A Dream won, so I'm happy. Its both the 2nd Best Rock N Roll Film and the 2nd Best Documentary I have ever seen.

Instead, here are my top 10 albums of the year:

1) Los Campesinos!- Hold On Now, Youngster. They might be too young to have been part of the International Pop Underground, but they didn't get the memo. This album had an immediacy that I loved from the first listen. Usually, when one thinks of Glockenspiels, you expect some navel-gazing instrumental heavy band or twee pop that hipsters can stand around with their folded arms and bob their heads up and down to without breaking a sweat (although you can still do that if you want.) Their songs present a youthful exuberance missing from most indie pop that at times can sound like controlled chaos although with an endless supply of catchy melodies. Their witty lyrics have come in question by some as pretentious. Fuck the haters.



2. Kanye West- 808's & Heartbreaks

Rumours. Foolish. Dear You. Domestica. I have always been drawn to breakup records. When this came out, everybody was scratching their heads, they wanted to know is it a dance record? a hip hop record? a pop record? Of course the answers are who cares what you call it and yes and no to all of the above. Pushing the boundaries of what is expected from a pop or hip hop record. The main complaint back in November was catchiness. The funny thing is, as time passes and the more people listen to this album, the catchiness issue has mostly disappeared. Now if he could just figure our a way to perform these songs live on television and not sound awful and he needs to lose the mullet.




3. Noah and the Whale- Peaceful, The World Weighs Me Down

They were well on their way to being an "it band" until a car commercial came out using the song "Five Years Time" and ruined the whole thing. Then I was able to hear intelligent ramblings like "it sounds like it should be in a car commercial." No it sounds like it should be in a Wes Anderson film. They made the right choice. Always take money over coolness.




4. Cut Copy- In Ghost Colours

Mgmt may have put out the 2 best dance singles of the year, but Cut Copy put out the best dance/electronic/New Order influenced album of the year.





5. Los Campesinos!- We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

Even if some of it plays as leftovers from the first album, it's still more Los Campesinos!




6. Tall Tale- Pirate Ship

Throwback to the indie/emo crossover bands I was a sucker for in the late 90's, but also plays to my having the taste of a fifteen year old girl. I once played this band for someone and they told me they sound like Vanessa Carlton. I tried to argue a more rocking Vanessa Carlton. I don't know if I won the argument. They are what I wanted/expected Eisley to sound like.




7. Kate Nash- Made of Bricks

Takes the Lily Allen mold and fuses in more intelligence, and much more than just another girl and her piano. She would be huge if she were a train-wreck who found herself in the papers every day.




8. +/-- X's on Your Eyes

Started out as a side project of Versus. +/- finally lived up to the potential I always knew was there.




9. Thursday/envy split LP (mostly the Thursday side).

This is what every screamo band should turn into when they decide to branch out.




10. Black Mountain- In the Future

The only band I know of that is probably equally influenced by Black Sabbath and Fairport Convention. I'm sure if I did drugs this would be my #1.



runners up include Counting Crows (a band no one outside the band and WTTS listeners care about anymore), M83 (sounding like a soundtrack to a lost John Hughes film was expected in Anthony Gonzales making an 80's homage. it's the songs that sound like prince and kate bush that i wasn't expecting.), Mgmt, Mates of State (reproducing twice seems to have taken away some of the rough around the edges aesthetic that surrounded their infectious melodies, which has slightly hurt the last couple of albums, but still fairly solid) and The Teenagers (Eurotrash as a compliment).

Of course, this could all change a month from now.

best of 2008 (sort of)

My best films and albums of 2008 will come later as I don't think I'm done with all of the films I want to see that were released in the US during this calendar year and I'm going back through any albums that have a chance in hell of making it (sorry, Death Cab For Cutie you didn't make the cut seeing that you released a just above mediocre album.....so instead here are my top 10 films I have seen for the first time in 2008.

1. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson) Drainage.
2. Dance Party USA (Aaron Katz) One of the most honest and emotionally rewarding film about teenagers. I'm tired of having to defend this, but yes kids talk like this.
3. In the City of Sylvia (Jose Luis Guerin) The most cinematic film of the year.
4. Quiet City (Aaron Katz) The DIY Before Sunrise.
5. Made in USA (Jean-Luc Godard) Contains the two things Godard did not do enough of in his heyday 1. color 2. 2.35 Plus as a bonus has Jean-Pierre Leaud and Anna Karina in the leads.
6. Taking Off (Milos Forman)




I wish I would have gone seen this and Loves of a Blonde during the Forman retrospectives that played in Chicago and Columbus earlier this year.

7. Movie Movie - The Baxter's Beauties Segment (Stanley Donen)
8. Make Way For Tomorrow (Leo McCarey) Very similar to Tokyo Story- Older couple feel like a burden to their children. Came out 20 years before the Ozu film and the far superior one. I guess it pays to have the "Classic of World Cinema" reputation.
9. Sunflower (Zhang Yang)- The New York Times summed it up perfectly: "Douglas Sirk without the throw pillows"
10. Eureka (Shinji Aoyama) At 4 hours, I felt like I was on the trip with them.

Runners Up: Shadow of A Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock) and A Christmas Tale (Annaud Desplachin)

12/12-12/18

The top 5 films of the week will return periodically when there are a couple of different films to mention, instead of repeating the same 4 or 5 every week.

1. Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson) "What's the stick for?" "To hit you, in case you try something."
2. Role Models (David Wain)
3. Milk (Gus Van Sant)
4. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (Peter Sollet) 2nd run
5. Holiday Inn (Mark Sandrich) Artcraft 12/12-12-13.

Random notes on the new Kanye

Chuck Klosterman recently said about Chinese Democracy will be the last album conceived as an album opposed to just being a collection of songs. Now I respect Mr. Klosterman a lot, but he couldn't be more incorrect. Not only does Chinese Democracy sound like a bunch of songs hobbled together (and not an album), but the songs themselves sound like a bunch of ideas that have no flow or consistency within the same song. Which leads to what I'm really thinking about (it sure the hell isn't Guns N'Roses); 808's & Heartbreak. It was pointed out today that this record took about 14 weeks from conception to completion instead of the 14 years Axl wasted. This is an album that does flow from beginning to end and sounds like it was conceived as an album, meaning most of these songs would sound out of place on other Kanye West albums.

Public opinion seems to be mostly unfavorable, however critics seem to be a little kinder. Many have called it self-indulgent. That's redundant, what about Kanye West isn't self indulgent. There is way too much auto-tuner on the vocals. Now that all of the obvious comments have been stated, I can say that this is definitely the most ambitious album of his career. Yes, the auto tuner is in vogue in the hip hop world. My guess is that he wanted to sing more instead of rap and is self conscious about his vocals. It is however hard to believe that Kanye would be self conscious about anything. The lyrics seem to be less about bravado and more introspective, almost like his version of Here My Dear (the break-up part, not the contractual obligation part). Musically, he's taking his Daft Punk and Coldplay influences further and borrowing German prog rock, african tribal beats, and a Tears For Fears song along the way. Supposedly the idea for the album was conceived out of the Phil Collins albun, Face Value. This initially sounded ridiculous (who the hell tries to emulate Phil Collins), but after the idea was planted in my head, I hear In The Air Tonight's influence all over this record.

808's & Heartbreak is a brave move for one of the biggest artists in the world to make an album which does not fit the mold. Not that it is avant-garde or anything like that, it's still melodic and catchy, it just might not be as instantaniously evident. It will be interesting to see how the album fares commercially and if it really will end up being one of those failures picked up later down the road.

for the kids i work with

top 5 for 11/7-11/13

1. Role Models (David Wain)
2. Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme)
3. Appaloosa (Ed Harris)
4. Zach and Miri (Kevin Smith)
5. Wall E (Andrew Stanton)

Canada vs. U.S.

Heather always says that she would like to see Alejandro Gonzalez-Innaratu or Fernando Meirelles do a rom-com or just something different. I'm starting to feel that way about Guy Maddin. For awhile, I was just happy someone was out there making the type of films he makes. Yeah, I'm over it. I haven't disliked any of his movies, but I pretty much know what it's going to be: in black and white, dreamlike, very Canadian and either silent or have narcissistic narration. It's getting predictable. On the other hand, there's Kevin Smith. Who also pretty much makes the same film over and over and has shown zero growth. But I have no beef with Kevin Smith. I know his movies are going to lewd and entertaining and I have no problem with that. Since Chasing Amy, I have even liked all of his films about the same and for the last few I have even known that going in they will end up being 3 and a half stars out of five. Yes, haters- even Jersey Girl. Hell, everyone even knows his movies are going to make around $30 million, that's how predictable his game is. Why am I fine with Kevin Smith doing what I am complaining about with Guy Maddin? Partially, it's because I know Guy Maddin is talented enough to make whatever the hell he wants, so I would like to see him challenge himself. Kevin Smith can probably only make Kevin Smith films. It's challenging enough for him to move his camera. Here's an idea they should work together and make a hockey film. Wait, they both already do that on their own.

Go see I Served The King of England.