Most Upsetting Hyped Bands of the Year (Yes, I’m judging you)

2008 was the best of times and the worst of times for music, at times reaching new heights of creativity, and at others, wallowing in the pits of the worst kind of derivative trends.  I'm not sure if the critical threshold already broke or if it will in the future, but this year saw music stretched to its limits, and I can only guess where things will go in the upcoming year.  Here are some of the albums of 2008 that ended up on many "albums of the year" lists on the interwebs with which I take issue.  That is not to say that I dislike or hate any of these albums.  I have all of them on my iTunes and all of them have something redeeming to them.  This list is mostly meant to redress the undeserved attention given to these albums.  Negation and criticism is key to progression and development, so excuse me if you don't get why I find it necessary to focus my frustration with certain contributions to what has become "mainstream" (≠mnstrm) "indie" music:

 

MGMT – Oracular Spectacular: This album has three good songs.  The rest are mediocre at best.  Yeah, I said it.  Before I get too polemical, I’d like to acknowledge that my friend Daniel told me about this upstart band back in the summer of 2006.  He wins.  The hit tracks on this album have that anthem-like feel that “define a year.”  It seems that every song on the album is essentially about living a carefree, empty life of glamour amidst a nostalgic desire to return to better times.  You know, like that time we were doing heroin with models in Paris, or alternatively, that time we were playing with worms in the sandbox and everything just seemed “right”?  Well, as a product of thought (…errm…) in its time, yeah, this album probably comes pretty close to defining the year in “hip” music—the battlecry in the “hipster movement” (or, as others may prefer, the hipster regression).  It breaks the genre barrier between electronic and indie-rock, and at times, it does so with stirring success.  Kids is a very good song, built around a really catchy guitar-drum backbone, with a melodic and memorable vocal part, and Time to Pretend does really capture the decadent feel of the hipster bullshit that owned most of 2008.  Electric Feel was also worth its weight in American Apparel lamé. However, I’m not sure that MGMT’s fans or even the band itself is aware of their relation to music and “indie-culture.” MGMT didn’t even need an iPod commercial to become super indie douches.  Like 2008, MGMT’s remaining days in the spotlight are numbered, and I suspect that this act will struggle to recapture the appeal of Oracular Spectacular in future releases.

 

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend:  It makes perfect sense that this group blew up this year.  I can even see them releasing a second album with comparable success (note: in this cyber-age of one-download-wonders, that is a compliment).  The instrumentation is clean and multicultural, the melodies are catchy and sweet, and the lyrics are uncontroversial and cute.  But after a couple listens, I had enough.  This is a true indie-pop album-the Peter Bjorn & John of 2008, if you will-and that’s ok.  But please don’t try to tell me that this is anything more, and whatever you do, please don’t make me listen to Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa ever again.

 

The Ting Tings – We Started Nothing: This album is very, very mediocre.  There is nothing unique or exceptional about this album and save one or two catchy dance tracks, this band isn’t doing much anything at all.  How dare you give it the distinction of anything close to “album of the year.”  Far from it.  At least the album name is honest.  They didn't do anything, either.

 

Girl Talk – Feed the Animals: Oy, what to say about this album? 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUVAA1cGREo

 

This says nearly enough.  Seriously, Gregg? You make people sweat?  Please, figure out something else to do.  Feed the Animals is one of the better mash-up albums to hit the scene, but is there really anything creative going on beyond simply the well-produced synthesis of 300 pop singles into an hour long mix? Nope.

 

 

Fleet Foxes –  Fleet Foxes: The problem with this album played itself out, oddly, in a conversation I had with my friends Max and Sara, whose taste in music generally overlaps heavily with my own.  They loved Grizzly Bear last year, so I played them Fleet Foxes in June or so, expecting at least moderate approval for an album I thought was pretty damn good.  Nope.  They did not like it at all.  According to them, it’s last year’s thing under a new name (although “Fleet Foxes” sounds so much like a hundred other indie bands that the name is probably the least groundbreaking part of this album).  They’re right.  This album is pretty good, the harmonies are pretty fantastic and the acoustic guitars work pretty well accompanying them.  But that’s it.  I have seen a number of prominent year-end lists that place this album at number one.  Well, just, no.  Max and Sara are right: there is nothing that is new about this sound, and although it is well orchestrated and executed, that really doesn’t cut it for “album of the year,” not by a long shot.

 

Lil’ Wayne - Tha Carter III: I enjoyed listening to this album when it came out, and I still find several of the tracks really insightful and worth returning to past its moment in the sun.  Dr. Carter is an excellent prognosis of the current state of hip hop (on its deathbed but still beating) and Weezy’s role as the doctor with the skill and creativity to save the art form does strike me as a fun, if ridiculous and pompous, way of approaching the situation.  Mr Carte is a keeper, in my opinion. Many (no, pretty much every single) rap songs proclaim a new king of the game, following up the universally acknowledged forefathers, Biggie and Tupac.  Mr Carte is Lil Wayne’s latest proclamation that he belongs up there with the greats too.  I certainly appreciate the tacit endorsement of Jay-Z as a worth member of this kingly lineage, and I think his verse on this song is one of his better in years (not that that says all that much).  With that said, A Milli, Lollipop, and even the aforementioned songs I moderately enjoy have been blown out of proportion.  You have to be a fucking idiot to really think the Carter III is one of the greatest rap albums ever.  Fucking idiot.

 

Kanye West – 808 And Heartbreak: No, seriously, when did Kanye become T-Pain?  Why has the Chicago hip-hop producer-gone-rapper taken it upon himself to become his own cultural movement?  This album is really, really bad. You want to nitpick and tell me that Love Lockdown isn’t so bad?  That’s fine.  But on the whole, this new direction for Kanye is so, so wrong for him and for music itself that I find it necessary not only to not grace him with a spot on my top 25, but to additionally decry his new brand of bullshit shitty R&B-electro-shit.  It’s just so bad I can’t wrap my head around it.  I miss the College Dropout cause this newfound emotional Kanye should really hate himself for this album and everything he has become.  Keep your shudder shades, your mediocre Daft Punk knockoffs, and your cultural status as the king of "hip hop" (isn't it sad that this is probably true?).  I don't want any more.

 

No Age – Nouns: I really do like the post-punk noise-rock sound that has emerged in the progressive circles of indie-rock over the last few years.  And Eraser is a pretty fun track, I guess.  But beyond that, I do not understand why this album has garnered the critical acclaim and attention it has.  I just don’t get it.  I’ve listened to the recroding and I’ve even caught No Age live in concert twice, but still, I’m not hearing whatever the rest of you hear.   

Stay tuned for the BEST albums of the year some time tomorrow.

Nostalgia Part Two

I think the real list is "Albums of the Year," which I don't think I'm ready to write quite yet. To delay that post, I've listed my fifteen favorite tracks of 2008. A couple qualifiers:

-This is totally subjective and represents my taste not yours (which, by its very nature, implies that I think mine is better).  Thus, the obvious genre preferences.

-"Best" is overly abstract.  I could just use the top 15 most played tracks of '08 from iTunes or something, but I'm going to use my judgment to try to analyze my own taste historically over the past year.  

-Ordering the "best" songs numerically  is pretty ridiculous.  I can't believe I'm quantifying this shit.  I have no sufficient standards to explain my choices.  Sorry.  Neither do you, though.

 Here we go:

1. Neon Neon - Raquel - This is a seamless track that defines both the existent state of electro-indie music, while also beckoning the looming specters to come in 2009 (maybe).  The instrumentation is a perfect synthesis of New Order-esque synths and conga-shaker percussion.  The vocals are stirring and moving.  The story is gut-wrenching.  I couldn't want anything more.

 

2. Hercules and Love Affair - Blind - I am so, so happy that, due in large part to DFA Records, disco is back.  The song feels like there is a lot going on, and there is: multiple synthesizers, multiple singers, a really prominent percussion section, and an actual live brass section (!).  Oh, don't forget the dancers.  They must add something.  Antony's vocals complement the instrumentation pretty ideally (which is why, in his absence during live performances, the track doesn't pack quite the same punch).

 

3. Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire - Is that really a sample from Jock Jams?  I think it is.  Ah well, fuck it.  I couldn't decide which Cut Copy track deserved to be at the top of this year's list because so many of the tracks on their album In Ghost Colours are so good.  I picked this one because it's the one that, in concert, they think you should dance to the hardest.  Another perfect 80's revival track with a hook that is even stronger than the happy pills their crowds swallowed an hour before the show.

 

4. Dodos - Fools - "So he does listen to non-electronica!" Well, yeah, I do.  I think I mix it up pretty well, actually.  It's just that this year was dominated by this 80's revival dance-disco movement that blew the new developments in old school (circa 2004) "indie-rock" out of the water.  I stumbled into Soundfix Records in Williamsburg some time in January to find the Dodos playing a set in the back bar.  I walked out pretty baffled.  Taking a page from the Animal Collective acoustic guitar sound (that was lost a couple years back, too, I think...), Fools is a great track based on the very simple combination of strumming guitar, constant bass drum, and beautiful vocals.

 

5. High Places - Heads Spin - I love this band's sound. This track is off the "03.07-09.07" EP (rather than the recently released LP), but it is definitely the group's most cogent track.  The combination of eclectic percussion sounds and Mary Pearson's angelic voice synthesize perfectly in this track, and the tropical, ethereal vibe is irresistible.

 

6. Syclops - Naoka's F - I have waited for electronic music to turn "artsy" and with few exceptions (most notably The Books), it hasn't.  This Finnish act produced by Maurice Fulton is just what I was waiting for.  This track is based on synthesizer-electronica sounds but also features a prominent accompaniment from an upright fucking bass.  This track is jazzy and electronic in all the right places, and it displays the complexity of a group that goes beyond the bangers and mere dance-ability of most contemporary electronic music.

 

7. The Notwist - Boneless - This track is very honest.  It isn't groundbreaking or revolutionary, nor is it shocking or "out there."  A straight forward piano riff breaks into a straight forward rhythm section featuring a tambourine jingle and simple snare-and-bass drum beat.  As the beautifully sung German-accented vocals break in, the strings section enters with it, a melodious violin-guitar-synthesizer combination that is soothing and emotional.  But more than that, it is totally unpretentious.  This band has been around for a while and I joined late in the game, but I'm glad I did.

 

8. Crystal Castles - Air War - This is probably not the single from this album chosen for most lists (Crimewave is certainly the most popular track from the album), but I like this one better.  The backbone of the song is a little 8-bit ditty, with some strange, seemingly meaningless jibberish from a sprite-like voice.  Maybe it's just that, at this point in the year, I've had a little too much of Alice Glass' brooding shrieks, but I really like the song's playfulness.  Oh, and you can still dance to this track just as hard as you please.

 

9. Sébastien Tellier - Divine - This track is very pop-y and borderline cheesy, but completely earnest and lovable.  The melody is catchy and the accompanying vocals sound more barbershop quartet than they do French electro, but they come together with the synthesizer and drums perfectly, with the help of some...ahem...daft producing.  But really, Sébastien is the new Serge, and this track is irresistible. 

 

10. King Khan and the Shrines - Welfare Bread - If you've ever met or seen King Khan, this song will make total sense:  "You don't have to pay your bills anymore now / you just have to eat my welfare bread".  The brass and rhythm sections form the perfect platform for the absurd evil genius that is King Khan.  Throw away all your worldly toils and join him eating welfare bread.  You'll like it.  From what I am told, welfare bread is white bread with mayonnaise and water.  Delicious.

 

11. Vivian Girls - Where Do You Run To? - Garage rock is back! This track has the weighty sound of a deeply meaningful moment in the soundtrack-of-your-life, but it is a well-crafted rock song infused with that female-rocker swagger and the surf-rock vibe.  Short and sweet, this track delivers a catchy and substantive glimpse into rock history, past and present.  There are no frills and no gimmicks, just a simple chorus, effective harmonies, drum, bass, and guitar.  

 

12. MGMT - Kids - Look, I don't even want to put this song on the list.  Yeah, it's a pretty great track.  Yeah, I listened to it from January through March-ish pretty often.  But then, gawd. 

 

13. Starfucker - The Chemtrails - I'm really into Lo-Fi electro and this is probably the pick of the year for that subgenre.  This song floats on an airy synth line and never falters.

 

14. Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor - Disclaimer: the Soulwax remix is this song is better.  Somehow, though, that was released in '07, while the Hot Chip album came out in '08.  Also, the video makes me think this song is better than it is.  Nonetheless, it's a damn good track, and it deserves to be recognized.  

 

15. Megapuss - Crop Circle Jerk - Considering the title, it's hard to believe that this is an earnest love song, but from what I can tell, it is.  Then again, who knows with Devandra.  This is a swooning ballad, with an extremely well-executed progression from a woodwind introduction, into the guitar-drum-vocal verses, to the chorus.  Clean, pretty, and in some way that I can't quite pinpoint, ironic.

Nostalgia Part One

Well, 2K8 is quickly coming to a close, and I think it is time to reflect on what we have learned this year, at least musically.  I like making lists to pass the time.  I like remixes.  So, for tonight, I will reflect on the evolution of remixology in the past year.  And by that I mean I made a list of my favorites.  Here they are:

1. MGMT – Kids (Soulwax Remix) – Just when I thought I was so sick of this song and this band’s unbelievable over-hyped popularity, Soulwax stepped in and did what they do best : they took a pretty good song, more or less left the melody intact, and added a host of new cuts, distortions, and effects, leaving us with a brand-new, un-fucking-believable version of this song.  Consider this almost terrifying fact:  this past fall at the HARD Haunted Halloween Fest in Los Angeles, this remix was played no less than four times by Soulwax, 2ManyDJs, DJ AM, and SebastiAn.  Words truly cannot express how good this remix is.

2. Digitalism – Pogo (Shinichi Osawa Remix) – There are remixes that take mediocre original tracks with some appealing element and try to give them life, there are remixes that feed off of already good tracks, and then there are those select few remixes that take great songs and spin them in a new, equally delicious direction.  This remix of Pogo by Japanese DJ Shinichi Osawa, one of last year’s electro-hits, clearly falls into the latter category. You could call this a minimalist remix, in the sense that there is very little alternation of the original sound.  By adding a longer lead-in, looping the drum machine in new places, and a little reordering here and there, this remix brought back Pogo like it was 2007.

3. Feist – 1, 2, 3, 4 (Van She Remix) – Feist has one of those voices that, for whatever reason, just works in remixes.  Last year’s remix of the year (if not the decade) was Boys Noize’s version of My Moon My Man, in which the German dynamo transformed Feist’s feminine charm in robotic bliss.  This year’s choice Feist remix leaves the singer’s voice effects-free, but uses new vocal cuts and an out-of-this-world buildup of robot-rockin’ beats to allow this track to break free of its iTunes-entangled funk.

 4. The Hours – See the Light (Calvin Harris Remix) – This has been the track that I put on when I’m at a party, the dancing is dying down, and the crowd seeks a fresh injection of electro-bangin’ beats they haven’t heard and played out.  This remix is all about the ticklish synth melody that Calvin Harris has implanted into the original song by The Hours.  You will dance when the synth line kicks in, and you will whistle or hum the melody as you stumble back home after the party ends.

 5. Sébastien Tellier – La Ritournelle (Metronomy Remix) – Sébastien Tellier is another one of those artists whose songs are so often amenable to remixes: he routinely leaves a lot of space between his sexy, drawn-out vocal lines, and his instrumentation is layered in all of the right minimal ways.  Crank up the BPM, loop some of the vocals, and you’ve got a dance track with just as much swagger as the original—and based on the long list of Sébastien Tellier remixes out there, it certainly aint’ no secret.  Metronomy’s version of La Ritournelle is the pick of the litter.  From his previous album “Politics,” La Ritournelle is an enticing love song; with the help of Metronomy’s electro-pop expertise, the song has newfound spunk and pizzazz. 

6. Spank Rock – Put that Pussy on Me (Diplo Remix) – Generally, I don’t think you should fuck with Spank Rock tracks because XXXChange has done pretty much  exactly what is necessary to gel his beats with Spank Rock’s rap.  In this case, well, damn.  Diplo’s version adds a twangy guitar loop to the B-Mo drum-machine beat, and a few additional background vocal loops cut from the original.  This remix twinkles with that epic and classy feel that almost makes you forget the title.

7. The Klaxons – Golden Skans (SebastiAn Remix) – This remix is apparently by SebastiAn, the French DJ from the Ed Banger crew, but I could swear that Timbaland was actually at the controls.  It has an slow, mesmerizing beat that fades in and out with an indescribable magnetic intensity that adds a new level of mouth-watering to this great Klaxons song.

8. Rolling Stones - You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Soulwax Remix) – I guess we’re scared of touching tracks written more than two years ago in this, the world of remix.  Or so I thought until this fall, when Soulwax came out with a couple of genre-bending throwback numbers.  Who knew that You Can’t Always Get What You Want would make for such a good electro-hit?  I mean, it is Soulwax.  They can turn water into Sparks.  They don't dare to alter Mick’s vocals at all, but the boys from Ghent do a pretty excellent job cutting up the guitar line and choral background vocals with that typical Soulwax  buzz.

9. Justice – Phantom II (Boyz Noize Remix)  - Coming from his phenomenal “Bugged Out: Suck My Deck” live set, Boys Noize version of the Justice banger is everything I would imagine and a dirty little bit more.  Very dirty, in the best sense of the term.  This track is all about hard, pounding techno-beats and it effectively gives the track a facelift for those of us who are all D.A.N.C.E.d out.

10. Deerhunter – Octet (Simian Mobile Disco) – This is certainly the artsiest remix on the list.  It gives me a lot to think about.  I’m not sure if I can dance to it, but I’m sure I can listen to it a lot.  Brandford Cox’s original song is haunting and ambient, and surprisingly, so is the Simian Mobile Disco remix.  This is not the song to play to get the party started, but it is deft and ghostly, and makes me wonder if Simian Mobile Disco is on the verge of another cataclysmic change in style.  I think I'm OK with it, if it means that that we'll get to hear more remixes based on tracks by bands like Deerhunter.

Honorable Mention:

11. Mer Du Japon (Teenagers Remix)

12. Junior Boys - In the Morning (Hot Chip Remix)

13. Born Ruffians – I Need a Life (Four Tet Remix)

14. Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane Remix ft Au Revoir Simone)

15. The Notwist – Boneless (Panda Bear Remix)

16. PNAU – Baby (Breakbot Remix)

17. Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone (Fred Falke Remix)

18. Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire (Joakim Remix)

19. Jay-Z - 99 Problems (Tenderlions Remix)

20. The Ting Tings - Great DJ (Calvin Harris Remix)

Dishonorable Mention:

Every single Justice remix from this year.  They did no justice to MGMT, NERD, Soulwax, and others.  La honte!

To blog or not to blog

I've been meaning to start one of these for a long time.  That's a lie.  I have started a blog before.  Perhaps more than once.  But it has always gone the same way: I post once, reread what I wrote with disgust, and subsequently delete the page, or repress my memory of the URL.  Maybe it's end-of-the-year nostalgia, or maybe it's just about that time, but I think I'm in it for real now.  Thus far, I lack a defined agenda or thematic, but I think I need a non-academic, non-verbal mode of expressing myself  ("just tryin to be me, yall").  We'll have to see what shape this takes, that is, if it even survives my own self-effacing proclivity.

I find it almost impossible to blog without incessant reflection upon the absurdity of this new medium.  Am I writing for myself or for my readers?  Will I have readers?  If so, will they be my friends wasting hangin' ten (fingers) on the interweb, or fellow bloggers blog-hopping in search of inspiration?  Mom?  All writing is written with a certain audience in mind (err, probably (cf The Postcard)), but my audience is not only undefined, it is open to be read by the entire literate world.  Fuck.  I guess it's hardly worth trying to tailor what I write to anyone's taste, and it would probably be counter-productive to do so anyway.

The possibilities are, I guess, limitless, but the probable outcome is that five or ten of you who I could (but won't) name will glance at this now and then to see if I have any kyute pics or "cool ideas" to offer the world wide interweb.  

My direct inspiration for starting this page now was that I felt a need to post a sort of rebuttal to Max's list of the top albums of the year, but the idea has been on the backburner for months.  I'm also headed to Paristown for the first half of 2K9, so I 'd like to chronicle my thoughts in some tangible form that won't be lost forever the next time my computer peters out on me.

If you intend to read this because you think you "get" my humor or taste, well, just generally fuck you.  I don't want to hear about it at all.  You don't.  The shortcoming of irony as a rhetorical device is that, for many, the inversion of meaning is lost, and for the others who "get" it, well, they get it.  But of course, when irony is built upon itself, the inversions become impossible to follow and the point of it all is lost in an infinitely regressive string of self-reflexive jokes about joking, etc.  In the end, the problem is that everyone is satisfied (cf HRO).  I can only hope that there is a way of alienating the asshats that I do not want to impress and the others who think I am blogging for them.  This is a blog for everyone and no one.