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Archives
top albums 2006
Posted on Sunday 31 December 2006
01. Band of Horses – Everything All The Time
02. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
03. French Kicks – Two Thousand
04. Cold War Kids – Robbers and Cowards
05. Wilderness – Vessel States
06. Beirut – Gulag Orkestar
07. Destroyer – Destroyer’s Rubies
08. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
09. Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming
10. Film School – Film School
favorite songs 2006
Posted on Saturday 30 December 2006
topomodesto: 01. Two Gallants – Waves of Grain 02. Band of Horses – Funeral 03. TV On The Radio – Wolf Like Me 04. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – Today / We Choose Faces 05. Zykos – Keep It Light 06. Cold War Kids – Hospital Beds 07. French Kicks – Keep [...]
favorite shows 2006
Posted on Friday 29 December 2006
topomodesto: (LA) 01. Jose Gonzalez : Hotel Cafe : 20 March 02. Jose Gonzalez/Death Vessel : Vista Theater : 5 October 03. Band of Horses/Earlimart/Josh Ritter : King King : 22 March 04. French Kicks/Matt & Kim : Troubadour : 21 August 05. Modest Mouse : Avalon : 5 Novemeber 06. Cold War Kids : [...]
favorite videos 2006: topomodesto
Posted on Thursday 28 December 2006
I wish I could sum up this year in a phrase as succinctly as, say, “Youtube killed the video star.” But the truth is MTV canned the video star long ago in favor of shows like Remote Control and Elimidate. Here are my favorites music videos from the year. I don’t especially seek these things out, so I’m sure I’m missing some good ones.
01. Bloc Party Girl – Banquet
I hope that this is either the beginning or the end of fan-syncing videos, because this girl is too cute, and life is too short to watch videos of people mouthing the lyrics to N-Sync songs.
02. Wolf Parade – I’ll Believe In Anything, You’ll Believe in Anything
From the moment that the gunshots go off in time with the drums, I was sold on this video. I’ve been adding my own gunfire to the song ever since.
03. Cold War Kids – Hang Me Up To Dry
The Kids playing to kids at a school. Next to Kool-Aid in the drinking fountains and no homework, this is pretty much every child’s dream come true.
04. The Boy Least Likely To – Be Gentle With Me
Proving the song to be adorable in more ways than 2, while also teaching an important lesson about not trusting cute stuffed animals around girlfriends.
05. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkenss – The Owl
Artsy-fartsy goodness.
06. Gnarls Barkley – Smiling Faces
Dennis Hopper has made Gnarls Barkley his life’s work. The least you could do would be to watch this video.
07. Matt and Kim – 5K
Matt and Kim are cute even when they are hacking each other to bits. I need to have a house party like that.
08. Beck – Clap Hands (live on SNL)
Call it a gimmick if you want, but it is a well choreographed gimmick. The fact that they played the song live sitting at a dinner table was cool enough. The puppets just put it over the top.
09. Peter, Bjorn & John – Young Folks
The animation reminds me of Royksopp’s “Remind Me.” Add in cartoon whistling, and you’ve got all the elements necessary for an awesome video.
10. The Hold Steady – Chips Ahoy
If The Hold Steady are destined to be a mainstream rock band, they are the kind of mainstream act that I like: Craig is straight out of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, the girls are hot, the pizza is cold. Make it count.
Cold War Kids on Letterman (video)
Posted on Tuesday 26 December 2006
I was out that night and I missed them, but a friend of mine went and found it odd to be pretty much the only one in the audience who got into it. I get the feeling that when Matt told Dave they were from Long Beach, he had no idea where that was.
favorite movies 2006: topomodesto
Posted on Monday 25 December 2006
01. Little Miss Sunshine (dir. Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)
02. Quinceañera (dir. Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland)
03. The Departed (dir. Martin Scorsese)
04. Fearless (dir. Ronny Yu)
05. Children of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
Frightened Rabbit
Posted on Wednesday 20 December 2006
Looking back through the new music I’ve listened to this year, I’ve probably taken a turn towards more obscure bands. This was by no means an intentional move, but rather, I think, a result of less exciting releases from the usual suspects (Sub Pop, Merge, etc.); coupled with checking through more of the blogs instead of Pitchfork. Google Reader probably affected my tastes more than any individual source.
pitchfork’s list
Posted on Monday 18 December 2006
If I had any involvement in Pitchfork, I would (again) be embarrassed by their tracks of the year list. In a way their lists carry the same expected disappointment for me that new Nas albums have; you know how they will end up but you hold out a glimmer of hope that something will happen. I know the difficulty of pulling together such a list, but if I were to go off of their recommendations, I’d end up listening to some straight up kaka-poo-poo. For the past few years I’ve noticed their leanings towards the mainstream, but the makeup of the individual staff lists pretty much highlights up the problem. I think their writing is top notch and the layout of the site strong enough that they will continue to be a fixture for many years, but if they were ever to be eclipsed by another site, it will be due to the lack of personality you get from the staff in general. I think at some point somebody is going to either put a site together made up of the blogging ‘all-stars,’ or emulate the way that you get to know their personalities.
don’t get uptight, you kept it light
Posted on Sunday 17 December 2006
This Zykos track, “Keep It Light” just keeps getting better. They posted a new recording of the track on myspace and… oh man! They changed up the feel of it quite a bit, but it is still pretty much ka-blamo(!). These guys make me want to move to Austin. One of the things I liked about the demo, back when I posted about it, was the way that it steadily built from drums and a voice into a smash-your-head-on-the-punk-rock treat of a song. The revised track seems more patient and reserved. It takes longer to kick in, and when it does it holds off on the drums and breaks down as lead singer, Mike Booher, does a Cyndi Lauper-styled vocal move straight out of “Good Enough” (the song from Goonies). Yeah, I know… but it works. And then the everything freaks out.
for the sake of the song
Posted on Friday 15 December 2006
I’ve been keen on Townes Van Zandt ever since a Texan friend of mine introduced him to me as a figure not to be missed if I was into folk and country. I picked up Anthology 1968-1979, and love it, with the exception of a song or two that have campy country feel… hell, maybe its western, but anyway, there’s a couple on there that stray from my interests. I was at a video store the other day and saw the documentary on him, Be Here To Love Me, that I had heard about and checked it out. Its a far better introduction to his music, and a better selection of songs than Anthology.