The Best Music of 1993

November 18, 2008

I’ve been drafting my end-of-year post (or maybe posts) on the best of 2008, and I have to confess, I’m finding the experience rather depressing.  While some good stuff has been released this year, on the whole I don’t think 2008 has been a very good year for music.

This was driven home by reading All Music Guide’s retrospective on 1993.  The album covers at the top of the entry make quite a statement–I own five of the eight (three of which I love), there are two I’ve never heard, and only one I dislike (Björk).

Here are my picks from 1993.  These are in tiers, but in no particular order within the tiers.  (I can’t possibly remember everything about the year, so this post may go through several iterations.):

Classic or Near-classic:

Suede - Suede

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville

Nirvana - In Utero

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Pet Shop Boys - Very

Pearl Jam - Vs.

Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne

The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen

Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle

Counting Crows - August and Everything After

My goodness!  What a list!  Most of these acts would go quickly downhill, but boy did they have it that year.

Pretty Damned Great:

Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been

Teenage Fanclub - Thirteen

P.M. Dawn - The Bliss Album…?

Urge Overkill - Saturation

The Flaming Lips - Transmissions From the Satellite Heart

Morphine - Cure for Pain

Tom Waits - The Black Rider

Midnight Oil - Earth and Sun and Moon

U2 - Zooropa

Chris Isaak - San Francisco Days

I could have easily bumped a couple of these up to the top tier but felt like ten was enough.  The least of these is still better than most of what I’ll have on my Best of 2008 list.

Honorable Mention

Adam Schmitt - Illiterature

Paul Westerberg - 14 Songs

Frank Black - Frank Black

John Hiatt - Perfectly Good Guitar

The Pooh Sticks - Million Seller

Terence Trent D’arby - Symphony or Damn

I need to revisit all of these–a couple may need to be bumped up a tier.

Albums I Really Liked at the Time but Haven’t Listened to in Ages and Need to Revisit:

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

PJ Harvey - Rid of Me

The Breeders - Last Splash

A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders

Some Songs I Like That Do Not Appear on the Above Albums:

Gin Blossoms - “Hey Jealousy”

Dwight Yoakum - “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere”

Belly - “Slow Dog” and “Feed the Tree”

James - “Laid”

Cracker - “Low”

New Order - “Regret”

Jungle Brothers - “40 Below Trooper”

Radiohead - “Creep”

Snow - “Informer”

Janet Jackson - “If”

Catherine Wheel - “Crank”

Mick Jagger - “Sweet Thing” and “Don’t Tear Me Up”

Dick Dale - “Nitro”

Mazzy Star - “Fade Into You”

Lenny Kravitz - “Are You Gonna Go My Way”

Duran Duran - “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone”

Wendy James - “London’s Brilliant”

Dramarama - “Work for Food”

Bad Religion - “American Jesus”

I bet I add a whole bunch to this category over the next few weeks as I think of more.

There are probably some terrific albums from 1993 that I still haven’t heard.   I don’t think I recognized how much great music was coming out at the time.  Man, sometimes you just don’t know how good you have it.

I may have to break this one up into a series of posts.  There is too much great stuff here for just a list with nothing to listen to.

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Posted by Gordon Winslow

New Music: Chairlift - “Planet Health”

November 17, 2008

If you’re not familiar with the Brooklyn-based band Chairlift, not to worry.  Unless you’re one of those weirdos who doesn’t ever watch television, you have certainly heard their poppy tune “Bruises” on one of the latest iPod commercials.  I decided to check the band out based on a good review I read of their new album Does You Inspire You, completely ignorant of the fact that it was the same band from the aforementioned commericial.  Interestingly, the rest of their music is pretty far away from the fun, bass-and-drum-machine-driven pop of “Bruises” and instead mines the synth-heavy 80’s sound of Roxette or Berlin.

That doesn’t sound like a positive review, and if I were to read that myself, I would probably immediately dismiss the band, but it really does work for them without getting overly cheesy.  The sound of “Planet Health” is incredibly authentic.  So much so that I’m whipping out my parachute pants and DayGlo Oakley Razorblades™.

Rad!

“Planet Health”

“Bruises”

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Posted by Jason Austinite

“Beauty Way” by Eliza Gilkyson

November 17, 2008

Austin folksinger Eliza Gilkyson gets a fair amount of airplay locally.  The other songs I’ve heard by her haven’t done much for me (although they weren’t bad by any means), but I adore this song, which deserved much more than just regional success.

Ignore the fan-made honeymoon video and just enjoy the song.  It’s a gem.

Eliza’s brother Tony was a member of X for a time.

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Posted by Gordon Winslow

New Releases of Note: 11/18/08

November 17, 2008

Via AMG.

Slim pickings this week, folks, and that will probably be the case until after the holiday season.

Belle and Sebastian - The BBC Sessions

Beyoncé - I Am…Sasha Fierce

David Cook - David Cook

Various Artists - Boots, Buckles & Spurs: 50 Songs Celebrate 50 Years of Cowboy Tradition

Various Artists - The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 11A: 1971

Full list here.

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Posted by Gordon Winslow

New Star Trek Trailer

November 16, 2008

Trailer day!

I saw this last night before Quantum of Solace but it’s not legally available online for some reason.  Here’s a bootleg.

Star Trek!  Now with added sex and violence!

I still don’t know what to make of this.

Update: Skip the bootleg and see it in much higher quality at the official movie site.

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Posted by Gordon Winslow

Amazing New Watchmen Trailer

November 16, 2008

Here is Trailer #2 for Watchmen, featuring the politically charged and oh-so-appropriate “Take A Bow” by Muse.  This movie looks awesome.

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Posted by Jason Austinite

Okkervil River Sing an Interview

November 15, 2008

Okkervil River were recently interviewed on MTV 2’s “Subterranean,” with the interviewer singing questions and the the band responding in kind. (You may have to endure a brief ad.)

I found this at Stereogum.  Stereogum didn’t include all of the segments, and the MTV site is not user friendly, so I’ve put rest below the fold.

The best segment is “Secret Shame Crush,” which would be a tremendously funny parody of Okkervil River if Okkervil River were famous enough to warrant a parody.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Gordon Winslow

Album Review: Lucinda Williams - Little Honey

November 14, 2008

Lucinda Williams famously took six years to complete her masterpiece, 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, recording it three separate times before deeming it worthy of release.

Abandoning that level of perfectionism was probably necessary for her sanity, so good for her for saying goodbye to all that.  Since Car Wheels, she’s been downright prolific by Lucinda Williams standards, releasing four studio albums and a double-live.

However, the reduction in obsessiveness did not come without a price–none of her work since has matched the consistency of Car Wheels, or the two great albums that preceded it.  But no matter–despite a slight decline, she’s four-for-four since then, her new album, Little Honey, included, which makes her seven-for-seven since her self-titled 1988 album.  (I do not yet own the two folk albums she did very early in her career for Smithsonian Folkways.)

So let’s start on the new one by getting the problems out of the way.  The second half of Little Honey is considerably weaker than the first.  It opens with “Jailhouse Tears” a country-rock novelty that might have gotten over if it wasn’t a duet with Elvis Costello, woefully miscast as a heavy-drinking, drug-abusing, three-time loser–wasn’t Mike Ness available?  This is followed by three plodders in a row, the best of which, the nearly nine minute(!) “Rarity,” doesn’t have a prayer of waking up dozing listeners despite an emotional performance and touching lyrics.

But there is so much good here, having to hit skip a couple of times is a small price to pay.  The first half is terrific, hopping about effortlessly from the pop of opener “Real Love,” to the romantic “Circles and X’s,” to the word-to-the-wise “Little Rock Star” (who is likely also the subject of “Rarity”).  The first half concludes with “If Wishes Were Horses” (she’d have a ranch), which Rolling Stone called “sublime.”  I can’t think of a better word, so I’ll use that one–the song is sublime.

Listeners who make it through the tough patch on the second half are rewarded with “Plan to Marry,” where us-against-the-world, love-conquers-all lyrics are brutally undercut by a mournful, heart-in-tatters vocal.  It’s devastating, but still, somehow, leaves a tiny ember of hope glowing.

Little Honey ends with, of all things, a cover of AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top,” and Lucinda Williams has once again given me a reason to show up day-and-date at the record store for her next album.  Long may she run.

Three and a Half Stars

“Circles and X’s”:

“If Wishes Were Horses”:

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Posted by Gordon Winslow

Obama Commemorative Victory Plate

November 13, 2008

I’m Back. (In Black)
historicvictoryplate

Yep, it’s FINALLY here! The Barack Obama commemorative plate. Watch the whole commercial on the website. I laughed my ass off at the end when the dude and his family are like “I thought this day would never come.” Is he pissed? He sounds kind of pissed. Of course he isn’t pissed! He wasn’t talking about the election of an African-American president. He probably voted for McCain. He was talking about the firing of a ceramic plate commemorating the election of an African-American president. I want the commemorative plate commemorating the first commemorative plate commemorating the election of the first African-American president.

Now that’s a PLATE you can believe in!

I think my favorite part in the commercial is when the guy is at his desk writing a letter or something and he glances over at his Barack Obama Commemorative Plate and nods his head and smiles like he was all “Man I just CAN’T write this letter to the editor of Readers Digest. “YES YOU CAN” -Thanks Barack Obama!!”

Check out the image, they spelled certificate, cirtificate. Now that’s a Spell Checker you can’t believe in!

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Posted by Alex LaPointe

New to Blogroll: The Maven Exchange

November 13, 2008

New to the “Friends” portion of the blogroll (which is where I put sites that we have a relationship with but that don’t exactly fall within our purview) is my friend Patrick Bateman’s Maven Exchange.

The Maven Exchange is about business, economics, politics, history, technology, and the intersections between these topics.  The posts are thought-provoking and often lead to vigorous and intellectual discussion in the comments.  Because of the complexity of the subject matter, posts are somewhat infrequent, so if you like what you read, subscribe via RSS or e-mail notification so you don’t miss out on the topic du jour.

Check it out.

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Posted by Gordon Winslow

Live Fleet Foxes Video From Paris

November 13, 2008

Here’s a video of Fleet Foxes performing tunes culled from their Sun Giant EP and their self-titled full length on La Blogothèque’s “Take Away Show.”  They’re performing outside and inside of Le Grand Palais in Paris to replicate that cathedral sound of their two releases.  Such a great band…

Also, if you’ve never had the pleasure of viewing the “Take Away Show,” there are some awesome performances there.  My personal favorite is Beirut busking on the streets of Paris.

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Posted by Jason Austinite

Star Trek - 2009 (II)

November 13, 2008

Alex’s post containing lots of information and photos related to the upcoming Star Trek franchise relaunch with new actors playing the original cast has been one of our most popular.  It’s clear that there is a great thirst for information about the film.

I’m generally not the type to obsess about behind-the-scenes stuff.  I almost never watch the special features on DVDs, and I don’t read film gossip sites.  All I really care about is, “Is the movie any damn good?”

But with this one, I understand.  The original Star Trek series is something I have loved for as long as I can remember.  These characters are icons.  My childhood heroes.  I would take it personally if they screwed this up.  It would be blasphemy to screw this up.

I think they’re about to screw this up.

The excellent film blogger Dirty Harry continuously rails about the metrosexualization of leading men.  I couldn’t agree more.  Previous generations had Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne.  We have Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, both fine actors, but does anyone really think they can kick anyone’s ass?  OK, Damon was almost convincing in the Bourne series with the help of a lot of fancy camerawork, but he’s no Steve McQueen.  Sometimes it seems like Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson, and Bruce Willis are the only leading men left with both an X and Y chromosome, and the youngest of them, Crowe, is in his mid-forties.

Captain Kirk kicks ass.  He kicked Klingon ass.  He kicked Romulan ass.  He kicked Khan’s ass.  If he needs to, he’ll break the Prime Directive and kick your ass.

Spock uses logic and the Vulcan nerve pinch to kick ass.  Scotty uses engineering to kick ass.  Bones  can kick ass with a scalpel or a phaser, and then wash down his ass-kicking with a mint julep.  Sulu kicked ass with a sword once.  Chekov enjoys vodka when he’s done kicking ass.

They had to kick ass.  They were exploring the final freaking frontier.

Dirty Harry states what is unfortunately obvious.  This Star Trek crew looks very metrosexual. The only one of this bunch who looks like he’d be able to deliver a good solid ass-kicking is Uhura.

The real Uhura once helped commit Grand Theft Enterprise. Now _that_ kicks ass!

The extra-cantankerous Ace at Ace of Spades HQ, commenting on the picture below, remarks, “Somehow Nimoy and Shatner managed to take that same pose without looking like they’re about to make out.”

Judge for yourself:

Very, very worried.

God, I hope I’m wrong.

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Posted by Gordon Winslow

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