Popmatters has their Top 100 Albums of the Year list out. Kanye's #1, and it looks like he'll hold the top spot on a bunch of other year list and be the big winner at the Grammys too. I just picked up his album last week (after holding off forever), and it's worth the hype.

So now, is there really a need to list 100 top records of the year? I mean, when all is said and done, it's a pretty amazing if 10 years down the road you have a whopping 15 CDs that you thoroughly enjoy from a particular year. These kids today.

And my favorites of the year (since you're just dying to know) in no particular order:

Kanye West-The College Dropout
Interpol-Antics
De La Soul-The Grind Date
Air-Walkie Talkie
DJ Vibe-The Underground Sound of Lisbon (Mixed CD)
Danny Tenaglia presents Kult of Krameria-Esperanca/Voodoo Doll (12")
Victor Calderone-Resonate (DJ Vibe Mix) (12")
Notorious B.I.G.-Ready to Die (Reissue)
Nas-Illmatic (Reissue)
Blaze-Found Love (12")
Jill Scott-Beautifully Human
Alicia Keys-The Diary of Alicia Keys

That is all.

Somebody saw the Pixies last night.

I think it's finally setting in, too. The concert was fantastic (although the older I get the less patience I have for tall people and the idiots that push their way up front as soon as the concert starts). For some reason, it's easy to forget how just hard some of their songs are, and it's the thrashers that really came to life in concert.

For most of the time, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Joey Santiago (the best guitar player, by the way, this is an undisputed fact) providing a flawless performance, Kim Deal grinning from ear to ear (and sounding as angelic as ever), David Lovering hamming it up, and Frank Black howling like he's 17 again. And when they sang "La, La, Love You" during their encore, I knew they were singing only to me. :)

The Datsuns opened, and they suck, like, reeeeaaaaalll bad.

Is there a better way of saying "Happy Friday" a day early than supplying you with a link about disgusting food? Of course not! Ch-ch-ch check it out!

A short article on the website that singlehandedly ruined indie rock for me, basically because it epitomizes the insular, holier-than-thou, inablility to express enjoyment in a non-ironic manner wankfest that is, in effect, the present day hipster. They manage to stay in my daily rotation of web surfing because I haven't found a decent source of daily music news, but right next to their news column lurks the daily reviews. Each and everyday I click on the main review du jour, knowing that the pretentiousness and lack of rounded musical knowledge is going to grate on my nerves and make me subconsciously tighten the grip on my coffe cup. I skim through the review, go "C'mon, just get to the point! Who has time to read this garbage!," and then go over to the New York Times or BBC News and remind myself that, along with the staff of Pitchfork and much of the rest of the country, I spend too much time worrying about stuff that doesn't matter.

Here's a short Rolling Stone roundtable discussion on the election.

The Christian Right vs. The Environment. Certainly explains a lot.

woops!

Greenspan talks, and the IMF talks, but is Bush listening?

"I know there's payola, because I get billed for it" - Don Henley

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

The dollar's falling like a robot on rollerblades. Will Bush do anything besides give out more tax cuts?

For the time being, a larger portion of my 401K portfolio is going to international investments.

Also, a Times article here.

d'oh! i missed the chengwin homecoming in soho this weekend. it's nice to see the guy get so much support.

no, i really have no idea what the whole chengwin thing is about, i just heard about it five minutes ago, but it's absolutely absurd and nonsensical, hence it's right up my alley.

read up on chengwin here, then fill me in on your findings.

i think i'm getting old.

rest in peace, big baby jesus, we'll miss ya.

wu-tang is for the children.

Are we really that divided after all? This map shows a breakdown of blue versus red by county. While the midwest still has a whole lotta red, look at the blues in Texas and the Southeast. Maybe this place ain't so bad after all, eh?

Wow, what a bummer, huh?

After being a zombie for much of yesterday, I was encouraged (ever so slightly) by Bush's stated intentions to bring the country back together. The fact remains that I wouldn't trust him to watch my pet rock, but I guess we'll just have to see.

Like many people, I'm just now realizing the tremendous influence of evangelical politics.

Interesting reading:
Presidential politics and the evangelical movement
the evangelical outpost
Ruling Divides Evangelical Christians (regarding a ten commandments monument in an Alabama courthouse)
Christian Politics in the Third World
Evangelicals frustrated by Bush
Evangelical about politics
Evangelical surged to vote and 'shape public policy'
The Christian Right
Evangelical Christianity Has Been Hijacked

Welcome to the most influential cult in America, folks.

the dance music industry begins to adapt

as mighty labels such as hooj choons, strictly rhythm, and nervous shut down, and 12" record stores drop like flies (or become ghost towns compared to just a couple years ago), it's nice to see a site such as beatport give it a go. while it's just getting started, and the lack of selection is obvious after your first search, the big strong point (and one that apple should pay serious attention to) is that new releases are ripped at 320 kps. So, not only will the highs, mids, and lows not sound compressed as shit (i'm talkin' to you itunes), but the files will probably sound decent played at club volume through a final scratch set-up.

if this is successful, this should also prove to be beneficial to the artists and labels in the long run. i can think of no other genres besides house and techno where 99% of new releases are out of print after their first or second pressing. so, if you suddently want a record that was released, oh, three months ago, you have to basically cross your fingers and hope there's a stray beaten-up copy at satellite or head on over to ebay. neither the label nor the artist benefits from this.

of course, if sites such as beatport do catch on, the need for record labels dwindles substantially. but that's a whole other discussion.

uhhhh.... hi.

kind of haven't posted in a while.

it was the summer, you know.

i'm going through an odd internal conflict following the death of ronald reagan, which can be pretty much summed up as:

i'm really not as glad to see you go as i thought i'd be, but jeez, did you really have to screw everything up as much as you did?

...and the world becomes a better place. happy friday!

an open letter to the individuals who decide what videos are to be shown on the televisions at the gym:

-people go to the gym for a number of reasons, and many expect to be active when they go. while I enjoy artists such as sarah mclachlan and norah jones, something a bit more uptempo might be a bit more appropriate when we're benchpressing and jogging on the treadmill.
-none of the patrons at the gym are under 18 years of age. it may also be nice to not be forced to listen to music aimed at the "tween" demographic. also, many of these videos appear to be a few years old and from teeny bopper artists that never made it big during the big bubble-gum goldrush of a few years ago. i really don't think these artists are going to find a second wind with the gym crowd.
-r.e.m. is one of my all time favorite groups, but ten years ago the entire world, in a rare display of solidarity, got together and decided that "shiny happy people" should never ever ever be heard again.

that is all.

do you know the truth about cicadas? have you ensured that your children will not get eaten alive by these huge monstrous beasts? don't say i didn't warn you.

all kidding aside, i really don't remember anything special happening the last time the cicadas emerged. it's not like these things were piled up all over the grass, dancing in the streets, and eating my rocky road cereal. i don't think anybody even mentioned them. to top things off, even though i'd seen the word before, i've never heard anyone even say the word cicada before this year. i was convinced it was one of those crazy words that was pronounced completely differently from the way it was spelled.

i guess the media needs something inconsequential to latch onto, and it's not shark attack season yet, so there you have it.

i hate mondays.

so, i had kind of written them off a long time ago, but the yeah yeah yeahs have proven me wrong with "maps". its a fantastic jolt of post sonic youth noise-pop, kinda like lou reed and lou barlow's illegitimate love child. i can't believe it's on mtv. they don't love you like i love you.

so, the village voice's jazz and pop 2004 results came out a few weeks ago, and the top 40 lists are far less interesting than the comments made by the contributors to the poll of polls. i particularly enjoy how many finally admit to how racist the results tend to be, it kind of explains how mary j blige continually gets kicked to the curb while pj harvey is concurrently praised, or why, i don't know, teenage "where are they now?" fanclub beat out the likes of a tribe called quest and de la soul ten years ago.

outkast got a lot of top nods this year, most notably from the grammys (which are always at the cusp of the cultural zeitgeist, might i add), and, along with a percursory viewing of any week's billboard top singles charts, lead many to exhalt 2004 as the year that hip-hop finaly broke. to me, this couldn't be further from the truth. if anything, this was the year that hip hop completely shed itself of any ties it initally had to being the "cnn of black america" as it once was called and ultimately became a simple unit-shifting commodity. public enemy's fury is nothing but a dimming legacy in a world dominated by chingy, and even haters like myself began to say "whatever, it was good while it lasted, i'm going to download 'hot in herre'" keep in mind andre 3000's side to the outkast album, which is favored by most of those that voted for the love below, contains very little of what would be considered to be "hip hop" by today's kids.

my top nod for 2003 would be q-tip's "kamaal the abstact", which most people haven't heard because it's an album that was never released and resulted in said artist being dropped from his label. it's an album that could have been to hip-hop what wilco's "yankee hotel foxtrot" was to indie-rock/alt-country. if the same critics that praised wilco paid attention to the former tribe called quest frontman, they would have praised "kamall the abstract" for its multi-dimensionality, its simultaneous nods to miles davis circa bitches brew, prince before he was known as the artist, and the early years of house music. they would have called it post-rap or a new era of sorts. instead, q-tip was critcized as unfocused, no documentary about his troubles with his record label was released on dvd, and 50 cent ended up on magazine covers agross america.

there's still hope for music of course. this was the year that justin timberlake, beyonce, britney spears, and christina aguilera put out crafty, timeless songs while the new releases by radiohead, blur, and massive attack bored the shit out of us. and if you get sick of clear channel forcing the same ten songs down your throat, there's always entire catalogs by the likes of john coltrane, sonny rollins, and thelonious monk to discover again, or for the first time.

late breaking news: whale with large penis EXPLODES in taiwan. residents hold their nose in fear.

lately i've become completely fascinated by the era that is nyc in the '80s. mostly, i'm interested in the completely depressed state of the east village/lower east side (which are now completely gentrified and uber trendy respectively) and the subways. there's some great images of the tagged-to-death trains here from bruce davidson. i think i may have to pick his book up when it's reissued next month.

business trip to l.a.: on the company
dinner at chi chi japanese restaurant: on the company
walking around in 75 degree weather while everyone in new york is freezing: priceless