Owen Pallett

There are still two more days left in 2009 and I already have a Top 4 Albums in 2010 list:

01) Yeasayer - Odd Blood
02) Owen Pallett - Heartland
03) Beach House - Teen Dream
04) Broken Bells - Broken Bells

Anyway, this guy Owen Pallett used to make music under the name Final Fantasy, inspired by the epic Square Enix video game series.  His new album Heartland is the first to be released in numerous regions across the globe, including Japan, where Final Fantasy is bigger than Jesus, so he decided he was better off dropping the stage name so as to not incur the wrath of copyright law.

Owen's music is like mixing classical and pop music together.  Lots of string instruments and whatnot.  It kind of reminds me of a movie score, except some guy's singing over it, and it sounds good.  There are some catchy tunes on Heartland that are getting stuck in my head.

I'll have to check out Owen's previous album (under the name Final Fantasy), He Poos Clouds.  Wow that's a ridiculous title.

Jay-Z - Young Forever Video

Jay-Z has premiered his latest video.  It's for Blueprint 3 closer "Forever Young".

Mix 15 - Quick Forgiveness

01) Atlas Sound - Quick Canal (feat. Laetita Sadier)
02) Lupe Fiasco - The Coolest
03) Animal Collective - In the Flowers
04) Sunset Rubdown - They Took a Vote and Said No
05) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control
06) Phoenix - Big Sun
07) Wavves - Gun in the Sun
08) MGMT - Of Moons, Birds & Monsters
09) Jay-Z - Young Forever (feat. Mr. Hudson)
10) Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
11) Deerhunter - Microcastle
12) Jay Reatard - Oh It's Such a Shame
13) Dirty Projectors - Temecula Sunrise
14) jj - Ecstasy
15) Kid Cudi - Hyyerr (feat. Chip the Ripper)
16) Yeasayer - Forgiveness

Atlas Sound - Quick Canal (feat. Laetita Sadier)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control

Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

jj - Ecstasy

Yeasayer - Forgiveness

Mix 14 - Optimistic Intervention

01) Radiohead - Optimistic
02) Animal Collective - Kids on Holiday
03) No Age - Sleeper Hold
04) Lupe Fiasco - Go Go Gadget Flow
05) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock
06) Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
07) Raekwon - Kiss the Ring (feat. Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa)
08) Pixies - Broken Face
09) Dan Deacon - Surprise Stefani
10) Phoenix - Armistice
11) Them Crooked Vultures - Mind Eraser, No Chaser
12) Deerhunter - Strange Lights
13) Spoon - Don't Make Me a Target
14) Grizzly Bear - All We Ask
15) Arcade Fire - Intervention

Animal Collective - Kids on Holiday

Pixies - Broken Face

Dan Deacon - Surprise Stefani

Deerhunter - Strange Lights

Arcade Fire - Intervention

Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension Video

Phrazes for the Young, the solo debut from Julian Casablancas, lead singer of The Strokes, is surprisingly good.  It's got a very 80's sound to it.  I especially like the first single "11th Dimension".

Julian just released a video for the song, and it's cheesy awesome. Check it out.

2009 Albums I May Have Missed

Whether it's an album I already knew about but have started to appreciate more the more I listen to it, or someone I never even heard of until I saw their album on somebody else's "best of" list, there are a number of really good albums I may have missed when putting together my best albums of the year.

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II
There are two awesome Wu-Tang related albums released in 2009 that I'm only really starting to listen to now.  Here's one.

Ghostface Killah - Ghostdini the Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City
And here's another.

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
I've had this album by the French band Phoenix for a while and the singles "Lisztomania" and "1901" were frequently included on my playlists, but I didn't go much further than that.  Those two songs start off the album.  Now I've been listening to the whole album and it's stellar pop all the way through.

Alice in Wonderland

I caught the trailer for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland as well.  Visually, it's exactly what you would expect from Burton.  Johnny Depp stars as The Mad Hatter.

Interestingly, this isn't a remake of the original story, but is set up as a sequel of sorts, with Alice returning to Wonderland as a grown woman.  Alice is played by Mia Wasikowska.  I've never heard of her, but apparently she was in the HBO series In Treatment, which my friend Janelle and I watched a couple of eps of on DVD before deciding to watch something else.

Anyway, this looks pretty cool.  If nothing else, I'm sure I'll enjoy Depp's performance and will be impressed by the visuals.

Alice hits theaters March 5.  You can watch the trailer here.

Cop Out

Kevin Smith's new movie is a buddy cop comedy called Cop Out, starring Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis.  It was actually originally called A Couple of Dicks, but they determined they'd have difficulty marketing with that title.  The wouldn't be able to run TV commercials on certain channels during certain times of day and whatnot.

This looks amusing.  Tracy Morgan is consistently hilarious on 30 Rock.  I'll go see this.  You can watch the trailer here.

EPs of 2009

Some of the year's best music didn't come in albums, but in EPs.  I'm not sure what the strict definition for an EP is exactly, but it's shorter than an album.  The ones I've got here are 3-8 songs long.

An EP can be perfect when you want to listen to a singular body of music, but you don't have the time or the patience to listen to a full album.  Sometimes I'll get in the car and I'll figure that the time of my trip is just about right to listen to one of these.

I think the EP is a good compromise between the ADD nature of our society, where people more often than not just listen to their iPods on shuffle, and the desire for a band/artist to release a piece of music greater than just a single song.  We might see more music released in the form of EPs in the future.

Anyway, a list of my favorite music of the year would be incomplete without mentioning these awesome records.

Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind
Animal Collective had one helluva year.  They started it by releasing the fantastic LP Merriweather Post Pavilion and they ended it by releasing this EP, Fall Be Kind.  The name is a play on the daylight savings time phrase "fall behind", reminding you to set your clocks back one hour (rather than spring forward).  Merriweather Post Pavilion has a very spring/summery feel, and they recorded this as an autumn record.  It's a sweet companion piece to MPP, and the Grateful Dead sampling track "What Would I Want? Sky" is incredible. 

Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange
Bradford Cox's other band Atlas Sound released the full album Logos this year, but with Deerhunter he decided to go the EP route with Rainwater Cassette Exchange.  This honestly might be my favorite Deerhunter record.  The title track starts things off with kind of a surf rock vibe.  "Disappearing Ink" and "Famous Last Words" are bangin' rockin' tunes.  Then it gets mellow with the beautiful "Game of Diamonds".  "Circulation" closes the record with a wall of noise.  Five awesome tracks, no filler.

Metroid: Other M

Metroid gets my vote for best video game series ever.  It really doesn't get any better than Super Metroid.  The Metroid Prime games did a stellar job of bringing Samus Aran into 3D, but nonetheless, I'm excited for a fresh take on the series with Metroid: Other M.  Team Ninja, who made the new Ninja Gaiden games, partnered with Nintendo for this effort.

I love that Metroid: Other M appears to have a mix of 1st person and 3rd person perspectives.  It makes sense to have a 1st person perspective when you wanna aim at something and shoot it, but the platforming elements of Metroid always seemed kinda awkward in 1st person.

There also seems to be a greater focus on story here than in previous Metroid entries, which is definitely welcome.  This looks gorgeous, and is my most anticipated game in 2010.  Check out the trailer below.

Mix 13 - Eraser Corrected

01) No Age - Eraser
02) Jay-Z - Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
03) Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes
04) Lupe Fiasco - Real
05) of Montreal - A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger
06) Yeasayer - Mondegreen
07) Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
08) The Beatles - Come Together
09) Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange
10) Radiohead - Pyramid Song
11) Wolf Parade - Call It a Ritual
12) Micachu - Vulture
13) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Warrior
14) Phoenix - Rome
15) TV on the Radio - Dirtywhirl
16) Vampire Weekend - I Stand Corrected

of Montreal - A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger

Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Micachu - Vulture

Phoenix - Rome

TV on the Radio - Dirtywhirl

Mix 12 - Maps in Your Pocket

01) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
02) Broken Bells - The High Road
03) Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
04) The Beatles - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
05) Passion Pit - Seaweed Song
06) Jay-Z - Takeover
07) Grizzly Bear - On a Neck, on a Spit
08) Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset Part I
09) Kanye West - Spaceship (feat. GLC & Consequence)
10) Lupe Fiasco - Fire
11) Animal Collective - Chores
12) No Age - Boy Void
13) Yeasayer - No Need to Worry
14) DOOM - Angelz (feat. Tony Starks)
15) Destroyer - Painter in Your Pocket

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset Part I

Lupe Fiasco - Fire

DOOM - Angelz (feat. Tony Starks)

2010 Anticipated Albums

2009 has been a great year for music. It looks like 2010 is gonna pretty sweet too. There are a bunch of albums I'm looking forward to in the new year...

Spoon - Transference
The last LP we got from Spoon is 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, with fantastic songs like "Don't You Evah", "The Underdog", and "Don't Make Me a Target". This year we got an EP from Spoon called Got Nuffin. It turns out that EP was an appetizer for the new album, with the title track "Got Nuffin" showing up on Transference as well. I didn't think too much of that track at first, but it's definitely grown on me. And now we have the piano-based single "Written in Reverse", which I'm loving. It sounds vaguely menacing and has a cool groove to it. Spoon have been producing solid albums time-after-time for many years now. I don't expect this effort to be any different. One interesting tidbit that I heard is that the band produced this album themselves for the first time.

Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Yeasayer's Odd Blood is the album to beat for 2010, so far. How can I say that? Um, because I've listened to it 7 times already. It's a funny world we live in now where albums are leaked out onto the internet months before their official release. But you've gotta draw the line somewhere, and my Best of 2009 list is already written. This album has a little less folk and world music influence than Yeasayer's All Hour Cymbals, and a little more electro pop and funk. I love All Hour Cymbals, but I don't need another one. I'm happy with the direction Yeasayer have moved in. These are catchy, incredibly listenable tunes. "Ambling Alp", "Madder Red", and "ONE" are early standouts.

Mix 11 - Lasso a Rabbit

01) Phoenix - Lasso
02) Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire
03) Neon Indian - Terminally Chill
04) No Age - Cappo
05) Kanye West - Gold Digger (feat. Jamie Foxx)
06) Sunset Rubdown - Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!
07) Yeasayer - The Children
08) Rain Machine - Give Blood
09) Deerhunter - Backspace Century
10) The White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button
11) Mos Def - 24 Hour Karate School
12) Weezer - The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World
13) Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
14) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date With the Night
15) Passion Pit - I've Got Your Number
16) Jay-Z + DJ Danger Mouse - 99 Problems
17) Animal Collective - Who Could Win a Rabbit

Phoenix - Lasso 

Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire

No Age - Cappo

Mos Def - 24 Hour Karate School

Animal Collective - Who Could Win a Rabbit

Animal Collective @ The American Museum of Natural History

I got so excited when I heard that Animal Collective are performing at the American Museum of Natural History on January 8.  Turns out it's only a DJ set.  It should still be an awesome night though.  Much better than that Ben Stiller movie, I bet.

Here's the generic description from the museum's website:

Launch your weekend with drinks and dancing at the most explosive party this side of the Milky Way. See and be seen under the stars as live bands, DJs, and VJs present the hottest music and project dynamic visuals at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. Cocktails keep the party going. Presented by The Fader.

Tix are $25.  You can buy 'em here.

This is as good an excuse as any to post the videos I took of AnCo performing at Prospect Park in Brooklyn back in August.  After the jump...

District 9

I haven't gotten around to making a Top 10 Movies of 2009 list yet, but if I ever do, you can be sure that District 9, which comes out tomorrow on DVD and Blu-Ray, will be on it.

District 9 is the freshest take on an alien movie that I've seen in a long time.  The aliens, commonly known as prawns ('cause that's what they look like), have been on Earth for years, and are forced to live in a ghetto.

The film is shot in a pseudo documentary style.  The first half acts as social commentary, while the second half is balls-to-the-wall sci-fi action.

District 9

Kevin Barnes' Favorite Albums of 2009

The British music site Drowned In Sound has a feature with various artists listing their favorite albums of the year, including Kevin Barnes, frontman for the band of Montreal.

of Montreal are one of my favorite bands, so it's not surprising that Kevin and I have similar musical tastes.  Kevin lists two of the albums that made my Top 10 (Animal Collective and Passion Pit), as well as one album I've only started to get into but could definitely be a contender (Dan Deacon).  That leaves Fever Ray and Micachu and the Shapes.  I haven't heard either of these albums.  I need to check 'em out ASAP.

Kevin's comments:

Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
Like everyone else in the world, I love this album, perfect soundtrack for knife fishing, as well as symbolic theft, not that i do either of those things, just seems like it would work for both.

Dan Deacon Bromst
This is the sound you'd hear if you died of playstation, that is a cause of death, right?

Fever Ray Fever Ray
Vampires who like rainbows like this album and so do i

Passion Pit Manners
Barely asian semi-quad tone electronica, with a touch of old world harmonic maleficence, quite reminiscent of early Robert Horry, but with slightly less emphasis on the perimeter play. The three point shooting is almost identical however.

Micachu and the Shapes Jewellery
She/they top the list of artists i'd love to see live, seems like it would be a thunderdome

I eagerly await the next of Montreal album, which I fully expect to be on my Best of 2010 list this time next year.

The White Stripes - Under Great White Northern Lights

So who wants to get me this ridiculously extravagant and expensive White Stripes live box set for Christmas?  Anyone?

The set includes...

• DVD of the tour documentary Under Great White Northern Lights
• DVD of the 10th anniversary show Under Nova Scotian Lights (exclusive to the set)
• Double LP (CDs and Vinyl) of 16 live tracks
• Exclusive 7" on colored vinyl
• Exclusive silkscreened print
• Hardcover book of photography 

The set costs $179 now, but the price jumps up to $229 after New Year's...ouch.

The White Stripes

Broken Bells

James Mercer from The Shins + Danger Mouse = Broken Bells

They've got a full album coming out in March, but they're offering the first single The High Road for free on their website now.  Check it out here.

Christoph's Top 10 Albums of 2009

10) The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
I love the bass sound on this album.  Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was my last experience with the Lips - for some reason I never got around to listening to At War With the Mystics.  Anyway, where Yoshimi was sunny and poppy, Embryonic is dark and heavy and intense.  Both are awesome flip sides of the same coin.  Album closer "Watching the Planets" is the standout track for me.

"Oh, oh, oh, finding the answer.  Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.  Finding that there ain't no answer to find."

09) Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Sunset Rubdown is supposedly the side project of Spencer Krug from Wolf Parade, but this being Sunset Rubdown's 4th album compared to Wolf Parade's 2, you could be fooled into thinking this was Spencer's main gig.  Anyway, while previous albums Shut Up, I Am Dreaming and Random Spirit Lover are really good, I think Dragonslayer is their best set yet.  It's got more of a live sound than its predecessors, and the strong female backing vocals really compliment Spencer's yelp quite nicely.  Album opener "Silver Moons" grabs me from the start.

"I believe in growing old with grace.  I believe she only loved my face.  I believe I acted like a child, making faces at acquired tastes.  And now silver moons belong to you..."

08) Passion Pit - Manners
I love Passion Pit.  I first starting getting into this Massachusetts band a few months before this album came out.  Their first release was an EP called Chunk of Change.  It featured an incredible song called "Sleepyhead", with chipmunk vocals and an awesome beat.  That track is included here on their debut album Manners as well, for good reason, but there are new tracks that match that song's gloriousness.  "Make Light", "Little Secrets", "The Reeling", and "Moth's Wings" are all spectacular.  Passion Pit have a bubbly electro pop sound with strong falsetto vocals from singer Michael Angelakos.  This is happy music, it puts a smile on my face.  A very impressive debut, and I can't wait to hear what they come up with next.

"Let this be our little secret.  No one needs to know we're feeling...higher and higher and higher, higher and higher and higher."

Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation is a new comedy on NBC from the creators of The Office.  It's filmed in exactly the same pseudo documentary style, with characters looking and speaking into the camera.  It's also set in an office environment, just instead of a paper company, it's a government office, for (obviously) the department of Parks and Recreation.

This show premiered last season and I thought it was okay then, but it really seems to have hit its stride now in its second season.  I've upgraded it from "I'll catch it if I'm bored" to "must-see television" status, and I can consider it to be a suitable replacement for The Office.

The central character of the show is Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), an idealistic, feminist, and ambitious public official.  However, this is really an ensemble show with a strong cast all around.  Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) are great characters.  Tom is a loudmouth and kind of a perv, and he's a lot of fun.  Ron is Leslie's boss, he's very world-weary, and he loves brunettes and breakfast food.

Questlove, the drummer for The Roots, had this to say about the show: "Parks and Recreation is the Wu-Tang of comedy.  An ensemble cast of which all the cast shines."

Questlove goes as far as to match up each Parks & Rec character with a corresponding member of the Wu.

Leslie/Poehler = The Rza
Tom/Aziz = ODB
Ann/Rashida = Method Man
Ron/Nick Offerman = Ghostface Killah
Andy/Chris = Raekwon
Mark Brendanawicz/Paul = Inspectah Deck
April/Aubrey = Gza
Jerry/Jim = Masta Killa
Donna/Retta = U-God
Dave/Louis CK = Redman

Atlas Sound

Atlas Sound is the solo project of Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox.  The first Atlas Sound album, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, has primarily a bedroom electronics type of sound.  His second album Logos has more of a folk sound and includes guest vocals from Animal Collective's Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Stereolab's Laetita Sadier.  It's without a doubt of the best records to be released in 2009.

Atlas Sound feat. Noah Lennox - Walkabout

Atlas Sound - Logos

In addition to the albums, Bradford is constantly releasing free music on his blog.  With the combined output of his two groups, I don't know where the dude finds the time to make so much music.

I caught Atlas Sound play at Music Hall of Williamsburg back in October, as part of the CMJ Music Marathon.  It was a stellar show.  I took some videos with the iPhone.  Check 'em out.

Final Fantasy XIII

It's been a while since I've played a Final Fantasy game.  The series has long been the gold standard for RPGs, with their epic stories and beautifully drawn visuals.  The latest entry in the series, Final Fantasy XIII, was just released in Japan, and will be coming out here in the US in March.  Too bad I don't have a system that will be able to play it, since my Xbox 360 crapped out over a year ago.  That might change by March though, since I'm strongly considering picking up a PS3 so I can play Blu-Ray movies.

IGN has a big feature on Final Fantasy XIII that you can read here.

Neon Indian

Here's another album I may have wrongfully left off my Best Albums of 2009 list - Neon Indian's Psychic Chasms.  This is chill spacey electronic based music.  Standout tracks (so far) are "Should Have Taken Acid With You" and "Terminally Chill".

Should Have Taken Acid With You

Terminally Chill

Mix 10 - Strange Damage

01) Yeasayer - Strange Reunions
02) Animal Collective - Leaf House
03) MGMT - Electric Feel (Justice Remix)
04) Ghostface Killah - Kilo (feat. Raekwon)
05) Wavves - Summer Goth
06) The Shins - Australia
07) Modest Mouse - Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
08) No Age - Brain Burner
09) Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
10) Passion Pit - Make Light
11) Weezer - Kids/Poker Face
12) Talib Kweli - NY Weather Report
13) The Strokes - Take It or Leave It
14) Kid Cudi - Sky Might Fall
15) TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
16) Dirty Projectors - Depression
17) Thom Yorke - Hearing Damage

Avatar

Before I dive in, let me first address those who aren't really interested in Avatar and don't intend on seeing it.  You may not think you give a shit about a movie starring tall blue cat people, but I assure you, you will.  You don't have to be a big sci-fi/fantasy fan to enjoy this.  Avatar is for anyone who enjoys movies, period.  It's a ride, it's an event, it's cool, and it's fun.  You're gonna break down eventually anyway after everyone tells you to see it, so you might as well just save yourself the trouble.

Now then, two things to talk about are the technology/special effects of the movie and the story of the movie itself.

Much has been said about the hundreds of millions of dollars and years that went into making this movie, how director James Cameron wants to be an innovator, etc.  I've seen advertisements for the film that exclaim "Avatar will change the way you see movies FOREVER!"  Which is pretty much the most ridiculous statement you can make.  But you know what?  It's kind of true, in a way.  Avatar is gonna make 3-D a big deal at the movies.

3-D has already started to creep into modern movies.  The animated movie Beowulf, which I caught a few years back, was the first new 3-D movie of its kind that I've seen...that's actually a real movie, not like Under the Ocean 3-D or whatever.  Up until this point though, it's generally been limited to animated movies and cheesy horror flicks (My Bloody Valentine 3-D, The Final Destination).  This is gonna be the first modern 3-D movie that everyone and their mother will see.  And it's damn impressive.

Avatar takes place on a exotic alien moon called Pandora.  It's a jungle environment with all sorts of various beasties out to get you...and it's quite beautiful as well.  There are mountains that hover in the sky and flying glowing jellyfish and of course, the aforementioned blue cat people, known as the Navi. 

There are action sequences involving flying, falling, swinging, etc. that are made much more immersive with the use of 3-D and a sense of depth.  What it all boils down to is that they created this fantastical alien moon, and the fact that it's right in your face via the 3-D, and beautifully rendered as well, actually makes it plausible enough for you to feel like it's real.

None of this would amount to much, however, if the story was shit.  It's not.

Kid Cudi Rapping Over Vampire Weekend

Kid Cudi released a new song "Cudderisback", in which he raps over Vampire Weekend's "Ottoman".  It's pretty sweet.

Check it out at The L Magazine site here.

Kid Cudi - Cudderisback

Rolling Stone's 25 Best Albums of 2009

Oh boy.  Maybe I shouldn't even be commenting on this list.  Unlike Pitchfork's, I can hardly take this one seriously to begin with.

So obviously the contributors to Rolling Stone fucking love U2.  They made U2's latest No Line on the Horizon their #1 album of 2009.  Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream is #2.  Ugh. 

I haven't listened to either of these albums, nor do I intend on listening to them.  But I have to believe this is the result of residual love for the band/artist themselves, not reflective of the actual quality of these two albums.  There was so much interesting and awesome music this year...I'd like someone from Rolling Stone to look me in the eyes and say these were the year's two best.

Anyway, good to see Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 at #4.  I'm far from a hip hop authority, but this was my favorite rap album of the year.  I think it's Jigga's best since The Black Album, it's incredibly listenable from start to finish, and "Empire State of Mind" is a bona fide anthem.  It's the new "New York, New York".

Once again, in the genre of music that I do know pretty well, I don't understand all the love Girls and The xx are getting.  They're both decent debuts, but...I'll have to give these albums one more chance to impress me.

Franz Ferdinand's 3rd album made the list?  Curious.  I absolutely adored their debut when it came out, but they've really fallen off my radar since then.  I listened to the new album once.

A friend of mine told me to check out Monsters of Folk.  The title/concept is pretty amusing.  I'll have to listen to the album at some point.

The full list is here, or after the jump...

Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2009

My buddy Derek got married a few months back, and I met his wife Cathleen at the wedding for the first time.  So her knowledge of me was limited to anything that Derek had told her, and the info that's up on my Facebook.  She immediately engaged me with a discussion about music, and I liked her right away.  Commenting on my list of favorite bands on FB, she said something along the lines of "Read Pitchfork much?"

It's true.  She had me pegged.  The online music publication Pitchfork has done much to shape and influence my musical tastes these past few years.  If I see that an album has gotten "Best New Music" honors from Pitchfork, I can be pretty sure it's something I wanna check out.

That said, I've come a long way since I first started reading Pitchfork and various music blogs, and I believe that the musical opinions I have now are (mostly) my own.  I fashioned my Top 10 Albums of 2009 a little while back, and I put Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion up at the top because it's an amazing and gorgeous album that I've listened to over and over, not because it received raves from P-Fork.

Pitchfork has released their Top 50 Albums of 2009 list, and it just so happens that MPP takes their #1 spot as well.  Three other albums (Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca, The Flaming Lips' Embryonic, and Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest) share spots on our respective Top 10 lists too.

But I do take some major issues with their list.  The following 2 albums were robbed:

Wavves - Wavvves

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

These records are fantastic, and yet they don't even make the Top 50?  Instead, they have stuff like Girls' Album and The xx's The xx in their Top 10.  Gross.  I like both of those albums alright, but they're just not Top 10 material.  Not even.

Also, the Atlas Sound album Logos should definitely be higher than #18.  I have it at #2 on my list.

You can read the list here. Or right here, after the jump...

Mix 09 - Fell in Love With a Cheerleader

01) The White Stripes - Fell in Love With a Girl
02) No Age - Here Should Be My Home
03) Jay-Z + DJ Danger Mouse - Encore
04) Sunset Rubdown - Silver Moons
05) of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
06) Wavves - To the Dregs
07) Yeasayer - Germs
08) Lupe Fiasco - Yoga Flame
09) Passion Pit - Better Things
10) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Hysteric
11) Raekwon - House of Flying Daggers (feat. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, and Method Man)
12) Spoon - The Way We Get By
13) Pixies - Debaser
14) Animal Collective - Fireworks
15) Mos Def - Priority
16) Deerhunter - Never Stops
17) Beach House - Norway
18) Grizzly Bear - Cheerleader

The Flaming Lips Are Covering Dark Side of the Moon

The Flaming Lips are covering Pink Floyd's classic The Dark Side of the Moon, in its entirety.  They're gonna perform it, and they've already recorded it.  The cover album gets released on iTunes next week (December 22).

I'm not sure this is such a good idea.  The Flaming Lips are great, and I loved Embryonic, but covering Dark Side could go very, very wrong.  It's a lot to live up to.  How do you improve upon, or even match, such a legendary album?  It seems foolish for anyone to try.  But I'll be curious to give this is a listen when it comes out.

Stereogum

Rolling Stone

Pitchfork's interview with Wayne and Dennis Coyne

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

All I want for Christmas is...well, lots of stuff.  But this is the only thing I actually expect to get.

Continuing my "I love classic 2D gaming" theme, New Super Mario Bros. Wii essentially looks like a new version of the SNES classic Super Mario World, one of the best games ever.  It's not that I don't enjoy the 3D Mario entries that have come out in the past decade, because I really do.  Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy are awesome.  Super Mario Sunshine was a bit of a misstep, though it's still lots of fun.

So 3D Mario games are great and all, but they should never stop making games like this, just because they have newer technology.

What's "new" in New Super Mario Bros. Wii?  How about 4-player simultaneous play?  That's...about it.  But cool!  I would LOVE to get this game up on a big screen and play along with 3 players, like I used to do back in college with Mario Party or Halo.

You get to play as Mario, his brother Luigi, or...one of two generic Toad characters.  If there's one negative thing I can say about this game, it's that the character selection reeks of laziness.  Well they couldn't make Yoshi a playable character, because as you can see from that cover, they be riding Yoshis.  But Princess Peach would have been the obvious choice, mimicking the character selection from Super Mario Bros. 2.  But even if not the princess, c'mon, you could've let people play as Wario or something.  It's not that hard.

That complaint aside, I can't wait to play this.

You can read IGN's review of the game here.

*Update*
The game is really fun so far.  There ARE a few new things about the game that I neglected to mention.  There are new power-ups.  You've got your traditional fire flower, of course, but now there's an ice flower too, that allows you to freeze your enemies into blocks of ice that you can stand on, pick up, or crush.  There's a propeller cap that allows you to spin up into the air and hover.  And there's a Penguin Suit, which similar to the Frog Suit from Super Mario Bros. 3, allows for graceful swimming through water.