I'm a bit of a music junkee. Really. Anyway, I just spent so much time putting together the list below that I don't feel like writing a proper intro to this post. So let's just get into it: here are Diabolical H. Crazy's top 10 albums of 2009.
1. Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca" -- As in, please, I'd like another whale of an album like this. While it seems that the rest of the music press penciled in Animal Collective as the year's best album in January, "Bitte Orca" came out in June and picked up steam throughout the summer. "Stillness Is The Move" is definitely the highlight track (I think I must have Shazamed this song about a dozen times before buying the album, plus there's the Solange Knowles cover. Any song that is still amazing when covered in another genre must be an amazing song). The album starts with "Cannibal Resource," one of my all time favorite, "is this music? what the hell is this? wait, this IS music!" album openers ever. The vibe continues through "Temecula Sunrise" and "No Intention." At moments, it sounds like a cacophonic experimental middle school band, and it others it is simply pure genius.
2. Phoenix "Wolfgang Amedeus Phoenix" -- At first I had it really low on this list. Then not as low. And then I listened to it again. And again. It's a damn catchy album, and I can't believe I am putting something this poppy so high, but that's just the thing--who expected a (mostly obscure) French band to make one of the best pop albums of the year and then name it after one of the best composers ever? Everyone knows "1901" (thanks, Cadillac. By the way, I know someone who should do your marketing) and "Lisztomania," but this album is steady all the way through--so solid that I had trouble picking which song I wanted to link to (I went with "Lasso," but make sure you check out "Love Like a Sunset, Pt. II"). Oh yeah, and thanks to my wife for turning me on to this band and buying me tickets to the show.
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "It's Blitz" -- I liked "Show Your Bones." Having said that, it was definitely not the right album to follow their stellar debut "Fever to Tell." The YYYs could have retreated from "Show Your Bones," licked their wounds, and put out another indie-punk gem. Instead, they completely blew up their sound (seriously, Nick Zinner, keyboards? I had no clue.) and came out with one of the most backward-sounding, forward-reaching albums I have ever heard. It's hard to outshine Karen O, but in some cases on this album--like "Zero"--the music is at the forefront. Luckily Karen gives us "Heads Will Roll" and "Dull Life."
4. Girls "Album" -- "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine." This line, from "Lust for Life," is so many perfect moments wrapped up into 11 little words. It's the first song on the album, and I completely skipped over it for a month, listening to "Laura," "Big Bad Mean Motherfucker," and "Hellhole Ratrace." And then one day, while walking the dog, I listened to "Lust for Life," over and over and over again. And then the rest of the album. It's at once retro and lo-fi, yet somehow modern and vulnerable. "So come on, come on, come on and laugh with me." And listen to this album.
5. The Flaming Lips "Embryonic" -- Okay, Wayne and company, the album's called "Embryonic"; we really didn't need to see that birth scene in the video for "Watching the Planets." As you say so well on the album's first song, "that's the difference between us." But you did show us that and so much more. Starting with "Convinced of the Hex, this album feels like the birth and destruction of something, but what? The ego (as in "The Ego's Last Stand")? Yourself? Celebrity? What?
(bonus side note: Karen O offers some amazing animal vocals on "I Can Be A Frog." Some called this the year of Jack White. I call it the year of Karen O.)
6. Passion Pit "Manners" -- Of the year's electronic albums, I like this one the best. Maybe it's the way "Moth's Wings" builds up. Maybe its the way "Sleepyhead" reminds me of my wife. But most likely it's the singing, sometimes high pitched, sometimes a collection of voices, that adds depth to everything else. That, and it's fun. Whatever it is, I have the manners to say, "thank you, Passion Pit."
7. The Decemberists "The Hazards of Love" -- I really didn't want to like this album. I even took most of the songs off my iPod for a while to make room for some newer albums. But there's this one riff that's repeated in a number of songs that just makes me want more, and I started adding them back. In my opinion, the Decemberists have always engaged in a bit of puffery and fluffery in their songs, making them sound complex and grandiose. And some of their so-called period songs (like "Eli, the Barrow Boy") seem like a creative writing class gone wrong. But this album, "The Hazards of Love," though a concept album, never feels overblown. It might be that refrain that first appears in "A Bower Scene" or it might be the presence of My Brightest Diamond, but this compact (one hour!) musical is simply Ear Delicious.
8. Animal Collective "Merriweather Post Pavilion" -- So okay, here it is. I think it deserves the hype it got. The band finally makes sense to me. I have to mention, I was a little skeptical for the first few listens. But after a while, you peel through the layers (and occasionally something that sounds like a siren backwards) to listen to an amazing album. And my wife liked "My Girls," which counts for something. From the confusingly named "Lion in a Coma" with its didgeridoo, through the never-ending build-up of "My Girls," there's only one word that can describe this album: genius. Or swirling. Your pick. I'm going with swirling.
9. DJ Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse "Dark Night of the Soul" -- This is an eerie, alternate universe of an album, almost like what Edward Scissorhands would have on his iPod if he didn't keep cutting the cord on his earphones. No wonder it accompanies a series of David Lynch's photography. It starts out strong, with a slowly haunting collaboration with the Flaming Lip's Wayne Coyne (each song has a different vocal collaborist). This album really plays like an old double record, with four distinct sections. From a slowly psychedelic beginning, the album delves into punk, and then another psychedelic turn--this one working its way down to the haunting, final two songs, which feature church (death?) bells, the fuzz from an old record player, and some understated Vic Chesnutt vocals. Don't listen to this album alone in the dark.
Oh yeah, and this record was never released (officially). Start your search here.
10. The Drums "Summertime" -- Even though it didn't come out until almost Fall, this brief debut EP by the Drums perfectly encapsulates every summer from the last 60 years. Surf rock, hand claps, and the catchiest whistling this side of Peter, Bjorn and John almost make this album sound like a relic from the past--as do the album's repeating themes of schoolyard love, holding hands and old-fashioned dates. It's a simple, classic format, perfectly executed.
The next five albums just missed my Top Ten. They are the best of the rest. But I'm making some tough decisions by leaving Wilco, the Dead Weather, blakroc, Metric, Mos Def, Soulsavers, The Very Best, Bat for Lashes, and Beirut off this list.
11. The xx "xx"
12. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes "Up From Below"
13. Arctic Monkeys "Humbug"
14. Miike Snow "Miike Snow"
15. Neko Case "Middle Cyclone"
Notable Omissions:
The Antlers "Hospice" -- I'm sorry, but the slow-building church organ just didn't do it for me, especially after trying to make it through Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimest." Speaking of ...
Grizzly Bear "Veckatimist" -- I get it. Kind of. "The Knife" was great. As are moments of "Veckatimist," like "Two Weeks." The rest of it just feels empty. And not in the amazing Bon-Iver-there's-no-one-else-around empty, more like soulless empty.
"Dark Was the Night" -- great album, but it was a COMPILATION. Sorry, not valid in my book. Neither are soundtracks (unless all the music is original and new). Sorry, them's the rules.
And now, if you've made it this far: time to debate.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
A Post About Nothing
I watched the season (series?) finale of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" last night, and let me assure you, Jerry and Larry did not screw up a second finale--despite Larry being Larry. The "Seinfeld" show within "Curb Your Enthusiasm" would be the funniest show on television--far better than that unnamed crappy Charlie Sheen vehicle that somehow keeps going. Now that "Seinfeld" finale--as often as I watch those reruns, the finale is one of the few episodes that makes me immediately change the channel. Jerry and Larry definitely have a style, and if you watch enough of their shows, you can sometimes predict the last joke, unless the show is clever enough to make you forget the joke even though the spent the entire episode building it.
But this post isn't about Curb, or even about "30 Rock" (my current favorite show) or even "Community," which is quickly becoming my second favorite show. (An aside on "Community": I'm not sure if it was the STD Fair Episode or the 20-page Spanish Paper episode (or even if those are the same one), but a) Chevy Chase dating an escort was classic Chevy, b) Senor Chang is a comic gem, and c) this exchange had me laughing like a dyslexic reading "Confederacy of Dunces" in the mirror: "Abed." "El Tigre." Okay, so it doesn't translate to the written word well, but someone had to write it and that someone was genius.)
This post is instead about another great TV show, "Arrested Development." Actually, that's not true: I just wanted to remind people that "Arrested Development" was a great show (shameless plug and super-last-minute gift idea: buy me the "Arrested Development" series on Blu-Ray). This post is really about "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret," featuring David Cross, Will Arnet and (in his first major roll since "Three Kings") Spike Jonze--together, on the screen, sometimes at the same time. If this show doesn't make it to U.S. television, then I'm moving to England.*
*Okay, not really, I'll just drink some Bass and watch it online somehow. Mark, can you help me with that? There's a Bass in it for you. No, not that one. That one's mine--it's colder. Here, this one feels about right. No, I don't know where the damn opener is. Shut up. No, shut up. I'm trying to watch "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret."
But this post isn't about Curb, or even about "30 Rock" (my current favorite show) or even "Community," which is quickly becoming my second favorite show. (An aside on "Community": I'm not sure if it was the STD Fair Episode or the 20-page Spanish Paper episode (or even if those are the same one), but a) Chevy Chase dating an escort was classic Chevy, b) Senor Chang is a comic gem, and c) this exchange had me laughing like a dyslexic reading "Confederacy of Dunces" in the mirror: "Abed." "El Tigre." Okay, so it doesn't translate to the written word well, but someone had to write it and that someone was genius.)
This post is instead about another great TV show, "Arrested Development." Actually, that's not true: I just wanted to remind people that "Arrested Development" was a great show (shameless plug and super-last-minute gift idea: buy me the "Arrested Development" series on Blu-Ray). This post is really about "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret," featuring David Cross, Will Arnet and (in his first major roll since "Three Kings") Spike Jonze--together, on the screen, sometimes at the same time. If this show doesn't make it to U.S. television, then I'm moving to England.*
*Okay, not really, I'll just drink some Bass and watch it online somehow. Mark, can you help me with that? There's a Bass in it for you. No, not that one. That one's mine--it's colder. Here, this one feels about right. No, I don't know where the damn opener is. Shut up. No, shut up. I'm trying to watch "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret."
Wednesday, Winsday!
Ok, I swear this site isn't only for cars. This will be my last car post for a little while.
This will be a weekly feature on The Ringer from now on: Wednesday Winsday. Tune in every hump day and we'll post up something that's full of win.
Today we have a big ol' bucket of win for you in the form of an 11 minute long video of Group B Rally footage. Group B is considered by many car enthusiasts to be the glory days of the sport.
The 'Back in the day' nostalgia is fueled by the fact that in Group B, technology was pushing as hard as the drivers, and the cars had gotten to the point where human reactions couldn't quite keep up.
To make matters worse (and subsequently more kick ass), crowd control was non-existent, and as you'll see in the video, fans would crowd the road, only diving out of the way at the last second in order to get a better glimpse of the cars and drivers they adored.
Group B was eventually banned after a series of horrifying accidents and more than a hand full of fatalities, and cars have more or less been restricted ever since.
So grab a drink, turn up the sound and enjoy the record of when the cars were at their peak and the drivers were at their craziest. This is Group B.
Win:
CEO Sky Candy
I love Formula 1.
The racing series is the pinnacle of motorsport technology, and in my mind is the only true road racing world championship. But sometimes it's the off track stuff that happens at the F1 circus that really adds to the fun.
Virgin owner, and all around bad ass Richard Branson made a bet with Air Asia owner Tony Fernandes, a competitor of Virgin's airlines and boss of the Lotus F1 team. The bet is whoever does worse in the World Constructor's Championship in the 2010 season has to work as a flight attendant at the rival company's airline.
Last season, Branson's company sponsored the Brawn GP F1 team and got the marketing deal of a life time as the underdog team dominated half of the season and won both driver's and constructor's championships. This year, Virgin is getting a bigger piece of the pie and is backing a new team that is to run under the Virgin name.
The Lotus name has history in the sport too, but they left F1 in the 90's and now are also bringing in an all new team.
New teams generally don't fare too well off the bat, but this bet should make for an interesting rivalry between the two n00bs.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Your tax dollars at work
Intro: The links aren't ads. Click them if you want to know more.
The song itself plays like they just watched Juno and decided that they should spend about seven minutes attempting to recreate the sound, but with the charisma of a popup ad.
To make matters worse, they decided to hire some dancers to come on stage with their much hyped Volt and dance around. The end result is a video so embarrassing it makes Dunder Mifflin's Michael Scott look like MI6's 007. (BTW that will be the first of what I am sure will be many James Bond references on this site.)
OK, enough talk (typing?). Here is the atrocity. Personally, my favorite part: 2:02 where they decided that the video needs a comment bubble for more horrible commercial-ness.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Welcome
Welcome to The Ringer.
First of all, let me just say that this site is temporary. Pretty soon we will be moving to a new domain, this blogspot site was created for ball-rolling purposes only.
I am J. Mark Sternberg, one of The Ringer's two main contributers. I am a freelance journalist, photographer, gamer, car nut and lover of the interwebs. I'll be doing my best to post up entertaining, funny or maybe even insightful posts that won't require too much time to read.
The other guy will be along to introduce himself in due time.
The two of us will do our best to contribute daily content for the site, and hopefully we might be able to distract you for a couple of minutes.
Feel free to chime in with comments as you peruse, we like that.
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