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best of 2008

'grats.

Happy New Year’s Eve internet.  Hope you all have fun and safe plans for this evening.

And, with a scant few hours to spare in the year – I’m finally ready to post my self-important “best of 2008” list (for music, y’know).  I’m not really prepared to do much exposition here, the text of the reviews themselves took up enough time and effort.

So, without further ado – here are my picks for the best records released this year.  Enjoy:

Stay Positive10. Hold Steady – Stay Positive

So here we are back at this grimy bar, drinking cold domestic beer and buying cigarettes from the machine in the hallway near the pisser. Some guy I wouldn’t normally even talk to pulled up the stool next to me and, by the virtue of sharing the same bar and brew, we’re talking like we’re best friends (when, in reality, neither of us would likely ever choose, of our own accord, to socialize). Before long, we engage in that classic of male bar histrionics: the “crazy stuff I did when I was young” game of one-upmanship. True, half-true, and completely fabricated slurred and exaggerated tales of sex, drugs, and rock and roll flow from our loosened tongues. Now, imagine that’s an album – done. [List to the Hold Steady @ last.fm]

Tea-Partying9. Could Cult – Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)

I guess as the year moved on, I kinda forgot how much I liked this Cloud Cult album.  To be fair, it’s your pretty standard “indie rock” stuff… and maybe that’s why I almost consider it a guilty pleasure.  I’ll not be surprised to not see it on any other toplists this year, I wouldn’t expect it to bow much of anywhere.  But, for me, this was an enjoyable piece of the earlier bits of 2008.  I dunno, check it out if you want… it’s fairly rad if you just take it a face-value. [Listen to Cloud Cult @ last.fm]

MicrocastleWeird Era Cont.8. Deerhunter – Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.

Another of the very few 2nd-half 2008 records to break into the list.  Almost every year I have one of these fuzzy, pysch-dripping 60s-nods on the list.  This one’s a bit different, as Deerhunter is most definitely doing new things… and not simply trying to make a 60s record in the 2000s.  But, the reference is still valid (says me).  The tracks here are plentiful and fit to sing or hum along to, and if you’re anything of a fan of music – modern or not – you owe it to yourself to at least check this record out. [Listen to Deerhunter @ last.fm]

At Mt. Zoomer7. Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer

OK, so this Wolf Parade album is one of those things that, when I heard it, I knew it was good… but something stopped me from fully appreciating it.  And, when I saw it shortlisted in my draft entry for the best of 2008, I actually had to go back and give it a few listens just to remember what spurred me to posit it for a spot.  Turns out, the appreciation must’ve been on the late bus… and showed up then.  Anyway, this is a fantastic record, and well worth your time (trying to make up for the lacklustre urging above). [Listen to Wolf Parade @ last.fm]

Vampire Weekend6. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Something about the Vampire Weekend record feels “special;” like the guys hit on a “new” sound.  Some mix of Ivy League rock for the be-turtlenecked brownstone dwellers and a deeper sense of African rhythm ala Paul Simon’s trip to Graceland.  No, really, I’m being serious – that’s what this record is all about.  A 2008 soundtrack for cigarette-smoking rich college bad-boys to listen to during games of euchre on weekends in the Hamptons… but a completely awesome one at that.  Get it; rock out; get it. [Listen to Vampire Weekend @ last.fm]

Dear Science5. TV On the Radio – Dear Science

OK, so I hated TV on the Radio for years… never heard what the critics heard; never “got” them.  Then they released this record and, lo and behold, it was good.  Really good, actually.  Like… #5 on my list good.  What will you hear here?  How about: Horns the punch and jump you along; rolling didgeridoo basslines to help you bounce; and thoughtful lyrics delivered with passion and plenty of maybe-misplaced (on such a “thick” sounding record) harmonies and singalong backing.  Honestly, this is one heck of an album. [Listen to TV On the Radio @ last.fm]

Arm's Way4. Islands – Arm’s Way

I just love Nick “Diamond’s” voice… it’s that classic “indie” thing that people who hate the “indie” think will always be able to point to as what sucks most about “indie” music.  Warbly, high-pitched, strong and clear and too-confident for the vocal ability of its owner, etc.  The songs are funny and the beats are just stupid enough to pass the “is this a joke?” test and fall squarely into the “is this awesome?” category.  The answer, of course, is “yes;” this is awesome.  So go get it. [Listen to the Islands @ last.fm]

Here's To Being Here3. Jason Collett – Here’s To Being Here

Rounding out the top three of my 2008 is a singer/songwriter effort which could’ve come out of the late 60s or early 70s if you adjust the production values to fit the era.  The music, modern production aside, is fairly timeless storytelling rock and roll, the kind that makes you want to swing your hammock back and forth to the Dylan-esque rhythms – just be careful not to spill your beer.  Yeah, this one’s great. [Listen to Jason Collett @ last.fm]

Skeletal Lamping2. Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping

Man, it took me a while to like this record.  I mean… it’s such a busy mess.  Fragments of song strung together without end, like a large mashup of concepts rather than the usual three minute chunked-out album thing.  And, although I’d fallen firmly in love with the whole ADD thing by the time this past November’s show rolled into town, seeing Kevin and crew do this material live really helped solidify how good the thing is. [Listen to Of Montreal @ last.fm]

Ghost in Colours1. Cut Copy – Ghost In Colours

I guess nothing in the latter half of this year could beat the Cut Copy album.  It’s just too feel-good.  My midyear review pegged why I like this record so much, so you might want to go there to read the reasoning – but, boiled down, it ends up at “fun.”  The beats and melodies all make you feel good, and it stands up to repeat listening quite well.  You could play this record at your next hipster dance party, or just by yourself in the car on the way to that new indian casino that opened up down the highway – it’s that versatile. [Listen to Cut Copy @ last.fm]

And that’s it.  We’ll returned to our regularly scheduled program here soon enough.  Goodnight, and Happy New Year!

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heralding the end

A merry Christmas for me!Christmas is winding down here at our house.

Heralding the end: My folks took off Sunday for home, and Sharaun and I are beginning to get the house back together.  The tree and various bits of house-decoration will go back in boxes tomorrow and be put up in the shelves of the garage for another year.  It’s always a little sad when the holidays end… the return to work and the loss of all the “feel good” stuff that comes along with the season.  But, all’s well that ends well, I suppose.

And as far as things going well, Chrismas in fact did just that.  Keaton, particularly, made out like a bandit, garnering a generous amount of gifts from Santa and family alike.  Her favorites, ranked in order of how much playtime recieved since finding or unwrapping them beneath the tree, would go something like this: 1) Pop-up play tent/barn thing; 2) Fully functional salon chair and styling implements for her many babydolls; 3) Play computer with real monitor, keyboard, and mouse; 4) Her new rollerboard suitcase/backpack; 5) Play cash register with fake money.  She got a lot more, mostly clothes and various toys – and we’re working to get it all into her “play room” now that Grammy & Grandpa have vacated it as the “guest room.”

In other news, it’s almost 2009 and that means I need to get busy posting my “best of 2008” music review list.  No worries, it’s nearly done, just putting the finishing touches on the formatting and doing a couple democratic listen-off contests to make my final decisions on what lands where.  Oh, and in between that I’ve been completely sonically preoccupied with the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, which leaked on Christmas day.  And, more about that album this week too… for sure.

For now though… I’m outta here.  Hope you all had a great Christmas, and I’ll try to resume a respectable posting schedule as I ease back into the routine here this week.

Goodnight.

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like a big girl

Working on being strong.I guess it feels like dinner is so late because I’ve been home from work since around 3 o’clock today.

Yeah, I managed to sneak out and dial-in from the couch for the last couple hours (the boss was out the door just in front of me, and no doubt those who work for me continued the domino).  So, even though it’s only 7 o’clock now, the smell of the roast Sharaun’s got in the crock pot is making me feel like I’ve not eaten in days.  (Trust me, that’s not true at all… just today at lunch I had a burrito that I’m still surprised fit entirely into my insides.)

I gave up on TV hours earlier, switching on the holiday music channel on the satellite instead (I don’t have XM anymore, as I downgraded my TV package to the most basic levels allowed in some strange media protest slash money-saving scheme).  I took the time as an oppotunity to read the new Newsweek that came today… but sometimes news just ain’t where it’s at.  So, bored with that, I instead had a tickle-fight with Keaton.  That can always make a guy smile.

Lately, Keaton’s been coming into our room partway through the night and trying to get into bed with us.  Most times she’s successful, as either Sharaun or I will hoist her up by her armpits and nestle her in between us.  Some times, however, she doesn’t manage to wake either of us.  In these instances, she doesn’t simply give up and return to the comfort of her own bed… she just makes her own little bed right there on the floor next to ours.  No blankets; no pillow; no nothing.

In the middle of the night last week I woke up to find one of Keaton’s baby dolls next to me in bed.  Thinking it odd, and not remembering a baby doll in bed with me at the beginning of the night, I decided to think about it a bit.  “How on earth did Phoenix get here in bed with me?,” I pondered.  I sat up to get my brain working a bit better, and happened to look down.  There, huddled in on herself in a fetal position, was Keaton.  Sleeping on the carpet about two feet below me.

I got out of bed and scooped her up, rousing her a bit.  “Keaton, how long have you been here?,” I asked her, sliding her cold little body under the comforter in our bed.  She mumbled something, but not an answer.  Then, as I took my place next to her, she lifted her head and asked me in her little sleepy voice, “But Dad, did you feel me touch your arm?”  “No baby, no I didn’t.”  Awwww man, I felt bad: Here she had tried to wake me, wanting to join us in our bed, and I hadn’t responded.  So, like a faithful dog, she simply curled up as close next to me as she could.  (Is it wrong to compare your daughter to a dog?)

Anyway, I felt bad.  But, I know that, in the long run, we have stop letting her into bed with us.  I have to admit it’s hard to do, I really like knowing she’s there next to me – sometimes she even puts her little hand on my arm or shoulder, or cuddles her head up to my face.   Alas, as much as I like her being there with us – I don’t want it to become an every night thing.  So, Sharaun and I agreed this morning to take a harder line next time she toddles in clutching Laka or Claudia or Emilia… time to go back to your own bed, like a big girl.

Wish us luck.  Goodnight.

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desert island iPod

Light me up.Tuesday night and the week creeps along on creaky wheels, just a rusted axle away from a breakdown and a gear above reverse… it’s a sorry sight to behold – a lame animal limping towards death.

Sorry for all the negativity lately… work really has me wound up.  I’m throwing silk darts at moving targets, waiting around to do some more waiting around, and trying to build a house on sand.  Hopefully things will solidify in the new year – because despite my normal tolerance for dawdling, this is absolutely draining my soul.  I have faith that the coming week with my folks in town will lift my spirits – so Mom and Dad I’m counting on you.

Sometimes I think my iPod is endowed with the divine.  Seriously, I love to sit back and marvel at the eclectic library I’ve built on this 160GB device.  I put so much stock in the thing, it’s literally become a piece of technology I’d hate to live without; akin to such commonplace conveniences as credit-card purchases and the telephone.  I’m so cloven to this device, that I often find myself thinking about absurd situations involving it.

For instance, you don’t know how many times I’ve imagined myself as the Tom Hanks character in Castaway, my aircraft crashing into the sea and later finding myself washed up on a deserted shoreline.  In my head, my iPod was in my pocket at the time and survives the saltwater bath… whereupon my mind turns to how I can now figure a way to use it on my new island home.

Believe it or not, I have actually done real-life research online in all of the following areas as related to the survival scenario described above:

  • Wave-powered DC generator (I only need 5V/~1A… now to find some natural magnets and wire…)
  • How to make a battery (save some of that power for later)
  • iPod connector pinout (to see what voltage I need to power the thing and where to apply it)
  • How to make speakers (would be nice to rock the island while I’m at work doing things like building huts and whatnot)

Yeah, I’m that serious about the absolute necessity of an iPod as a survival tool – it’s that essential.  Because, after keeping myself alive – first priority would be getting some tunes to motivate me in my raft-building.

I guess… I don’t have much more for tonight.  Think I’ll watch a few episodes of I Love Lucy and wait for Sharaun to get home.  Goodnight.

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tumbleweeds and me

Work is slow.Cold and rainy where we make our home this week; snow just a few hundred feet higher up the hill.

Saturday I forced Sharaun to be complicit in one of my cleaning/organizing jags, and we tore through dusty closet shelves, cluttered and overspilling bedside drawers, and under-bed catacombs.  And, after shifting storage locations for an innumerable amount of useless junk, we managed to actually rid ourselves of a good bit and better hide the rest.  Sunday night I made hot cocoa and we rented a movie.

Keaton awoke that day from her nap and was burning up, carried a fever throughout the night.  She was running hot off and on all Monday, but we keep it down by dosing her with Motrin.  Even when that girl’s got a high fever, she’s bright and bubbly – the day she ever gets really sacked by a cold is the day I’ll be worried.

You know… I’ve never had much need for country music, but if you read here with an regularity you likely remember me softening quite a bit on that position over the last half of this year.  Think of it as a “country awakening” or something; my personal realization that almost no genre or style of music is, in a wholesale sense, “bad.”  Well, I suppose there are exceptions – death metal being the one coming to mind.

Anyway… as the year turns colder and greyer, and the doldrums I’ve been navigating at work persist daily – I’ve decided that some good, solid country crying music suits my mood quite well.  Explains my recent wont for the earlier works of Waylon, Willie, Merle, and the like.  Some of these whiskey-soaked ballads just “click” during downtimes like these… guess country is good for something after all, eh?

The aisles at work are already showing early signs of Christmas evacuation, even ten days out.  It’ll only get worse (or better, depending) as this week works its way into the short one following.  I like it, actually, because it affords me an opportunity to get some work done without interruption.  And, being honest, it also makes for a great “sneaking out early” environment.

When it’s just the tumbleweeds and me holding down the sawmill, I don’t feel as guilty about heading for the homestead to finish the day remotely from the couch and spend some time with Sharaun and Keaton.  A wise manager once told me not to “waste” vacation time on Christmas, advising that most of our customers and we too effectively “shut down” around the holidays – making for some great “short days.”  Since we usually head south for Christmas, this’ll be the first year I’ll actually get to try that advice.  I so desperately need some “don’t care” time, I pray the advice is sound.

Until tomorrow then, wish me luck at shirking work, K?  Goodnight.

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just me, huh?

And, a week later...

Thursday night: Comes before Friday; comes before the weekend; comes after too much week beforehand more often than not.

Finally got our Christmas tree done tonight; no more boxes littering the living room, no more half-strung lights, no more furniture where it shouldn’t be.  I actually managed to put back in the garage most of the stuff I took down out of the garage last weekend, which leaves the place looking  semi put-together, as far as Christmas spirit goes.  Keaton helped with the ornaments, and actually did a great job… check the tree there to the right there.

I’m getting really excited now for a “family” Christmas and, with my folks coming into town next weekend, it’s not too far off now.  It’s hard for me to believe that another year has gone by… and we’re still here, happily hoeing our row.  Well, maybe when it comes to the row-hoeing, my mind drifts a bit more lately… but I suppose that’s something normal.  Right?  I mean… you guys sometimes think about dropping everything you know to go run a diner on 66 somewhere, right?  No?  Just me, huh?

Lastly, I upgraded to WordPress v2.7 today – and really like the new backend.  So far I haven’t noticed anything broken on the frontend, where you’d see it – but do let me know if you find something amiss with your sounds familiar experience.

Goodnight.