Present Shock to the ISS.

-  I need to work on a lot of music today, so this is going to be quick… and likely a massive link dump.

-  Phantom Balance’s new record “Loser” is up on their Bandcamp now and FREE.

-  SpaceX Capsule Arrives At ISS.

“A privately-owned unmanned US space capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, bringing to the space outpost food, scientific materials and other crucial equipment.

The capsule named Dragon was captured—with the help of a robotic arm – by NASA Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn, 5:31 am EST (1031 GMT), when the ISS was over northern Ukraine, US space officials said. The craft, owned by SpaceX corporation, will now be inspected via cameras, brought to the Earth-facing port of the ISS’s Harmony module and bolted into place by commands from mission control.“

-  Really great take on the main characters from The Wizard of Oz by Gregory Manchess:

-  I have a shitload of comics to read.  I AM EXCITE.  I’ll have reviews up here this week.  Also I hate how nobody gave a fuck about Morrison’s Batman for the past year until a major character got whacked, and now advanced orders for the next issue are selling out.

-  The End of Time Is Not The End of the World.

“Present Shock is a big concept with profound implications for culture, politics and business. A simple visualization (borrowed from Adrian Bejan’s theories of flow systems) is to think of time as a river flowing at a certain pace. Below a certain threshold, the movements of things on the river are fairly linear and predictable. You launch a barge in the river here and three days later you have drifted to there. This is historical progress as we have come to know it over the millennia  But when the speed of the flow increases beyond that threshold, the river becomes turbulent, non-linear, unpredictable. Such is the state of time in 2012.

What does this mean? Rushkoff breaks up “presentism” into five symptoms or challenges and matches each with constructive solutions for pressing the pause button. The “aha-moment-per-page ratio in Present Shock is high. Once you identify these concepts for yourself, you will start to see them everywhere.”

-Sonny

Freudian Salaries.

-  I was baffled yesterday when chatting with an ex-classmate on Facebook.  Quick background: I went to school with this guy to get a particular type of license, a company who needs people with this particular license is moving it’s HQ to our neck of the woods.  They asked me if there was anyone else I graduated with who might be interested in the job.  So I contacted the guy about the job and dropped his name with HR.  “You ever find anything else about that job?” he asked, to which I replied giving information about when and where, benefits, perks, etc.  “Yeah but what’s the pay?” he asked, to which I told him what the pay was.  “Yeah my current job pays more.”  Well… I understand that.  But perhaps you should do what you enjoy doing?  This is a fascinating field, and you care that much about an extra 5 Grand (or however much more; cause it can’t be much based on the nature of each of these jobs) a year?  Enough to not start a career in something you’re passionate about?  This is the problem — one of far too many — with our society.

-  The new Black Lantern Music release is pretty brilliant.  Called “ill Papa Giraffe“.  It’s jazz sampled, classic boom-bap style BIG beats with clever, socially conscious wordplay delivered with precision and skill.  It’s free… but if you like it, throw the guys a few bucks.

-  The best argument for conservation of our environment?  For men…  Study: Shrinking Otter Penis Bones Could Be Due To Industrial Chemicals.

“The penis bones of otters living in English and Welsh waterways are getting lighter each year, in a worrying decline of the species’ overall reproductive health, according to a report.

Biologists could not conclusively connect the damage to the presence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in rivers — responsible for a drastic drop in otter populations in the 70s — and so are pointing the finger of blame at endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), also harmful to humans.”

-  Famous Weapons.  By Daneil Nyari.

-  Batman: The Freudian Super-Hero.

“To clarify that thought a little more, I will explain the three tenants of the sub-conscious mind as designed by Sigmund Freud. According to Dr. Freud the mind was broken up into three conceptual parts: the id, ego, and super-ego. The id is the part of the mind that is geared toward instinctual and chaotic thoughts and impulses. The ego is the organized, realistic part of your mind that is at the forefront of the conscious mind. The super-ego is your mind’s perception of what you and society perceive as right, acting as your conscience effectively.

Though how does Freud’s diagram for the human psyche relate to Batman particularly? Couldn’t those same concepts be applied to all heroes? In part, yes, but Batman personifies those concepts most strongly because he is not one man, but three.“

-  Sonny

From Beast to West.

-  To get personal shit out of the way (even though I know very few people who may be reading this care; and those who are probably have been linked here by google searching “george tooker”):  That job I interviewed for last week?  I got it!  I’m getting closer and closer to a final product with this album I’m working on.  It should be pretty neat.  My wife is pregnant, so soon I’ll be able to share all this art and music and information with a mini-me.  Also, my life will obviously get insane… so, I may have to shut this thing down.  Okay, enough of that.

-  Some of my buds from across the pond, specifically Daniel the curator, will be starting a music blog very soon that I’ll occasionally be writing on.  I’ll definitely be linking to it once it’s up and running, I think he’s shooting for a Tumblr-based site.

-  New Game of Thrones trailer:

-  Jonathan Hickman has been teasing a new creator owned project that comes out sometime in March with Image Comics.  This is the latest teaser:

-  I saw Beasts of Southern Wild last night and I really, really enjoyed it.  Surreal, haunting, powerful, peaceful, humanistic, with a very something-bigger-than-you vibe to boot.  The occasional glimpse at the extinct ancient beast “Aurochs“, who have risen from their frozen states, melted out of the ice caps, is perhaps the best visual metaphor in film this year.  The acting is top-notch with the occasional good.  The directing and cinematography are beautiful, from the fireworks celebration early on to the parting shot of the characters strolling carelessly as the power of the rising ocean bears down on them.  There needs to be more movies like this.

-  I don’t why  — considering I’m a Minnesotan — I just recently heard of the Sioux Falls group Phantom Balance.  Good Lord, they’ll tear your face off.  This is the kind of thing that can only be conjured up in the midst of frozen lakes, crops, and wind chills of negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit:

 

-Sonny

 

Flowers For Memories.

-  Holy shit, a week off?  A week??  Well I hope get that job I was interviewed for… hope it was worth it.  Let’s get at this.

-  It’s nice to read direct quotes from Mark Hamill this morning, rather than speculation derived from an article that’s mostly speculating.  In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, he has some really, really wonderful things to say in terms of the direction he hopes the movies take, including a more balanced approach between practical and CGI effects, not such a heavy-handed tone, and that he and all the old actors/characters would not be the focal point.  I’m still disappointed that neither of my picks got the directing job (Rian Johnson and Duncan Jones), but damn Ben Affleck I bet would make a really cool hanger shootout with laser guns… just imagine that last shootout scene at Fenway in The Town, but with smugglers and new government agents…

-  Sadistik’s new album is good.  Perhaps not his magnum opus, but it’s good.  And I mean that in a good way, I think eventually he can do something even better than this.  And with the rise of Macklemore, it’s nice to hear a Seattle rapper who actually reflects the city.  Not that “Flowers For My Father” is all depressing.  The song (and a handful of other tracks) that details the first-hand account of Sadistik and Kristoff Krane knocking on the late Eyedea’s door and no one answering is actually very positive.  In defense of the rest of the tones though, what do you expect from a guy who saw that amount of death firsthand since the release of his last proper album?  I actually find it hard to believe that the production on this was handled by multiple people, there’s a consistency to it throughout (both in quality and feel).

Also, hearing a new Cage verse make me want new Cage album.  And RIP Eyedea.

-  Yesterday marked the 3rd anniversary of someone very close to me.  Something I never thought I would say at the age I’m at now.  But when I think back to that day, and being in that room with those other people I shared that moment with, I remember it as being a really beautiful thing.  I couldn’t stop shaking after it happened, and I was probably in some form of shock, but that wasn’t fear or terror or horror doing that; it was the sheer power of what I — we — had seen before our very eyes.  Something rare and otherworldly and unexplainable.  Something breathtaking and beyond all of us.  I’ll never forget it, it feels like it was yesterday.

-  Chinese Google Arms Servers With Cellphone Chips.

“Chips based on the ARM architecture run a majority of the world’s smartphones, including the iPhone and most Google Android phones, and now, a wide range of hardware makers are building ARM chips for the computer servers that drive web services and the sweeping software applications used inside big businesses. The idea is to significantly reduce the power and money needed to operate a computer data center, and clearly some big-name buyers are interested.”

- Sonny

Lisa’s In Video Games.

-  NPR wrote a piece just in time for “Dilla Day”, about the legacy of the late James Yancey.

Why J Dilla May Be Jazz’s Latest Great Innovator.

“Dilla’s reach stretches way beyond hip-hop: For one, he’s recently cast a long shadow over contemporary jazz. He never belonged to jazz’s inner circle, but since his death in 2006 from a rare blood disease, his legacy has helped pull the genre back into kissing contact with modern popular music.

The jazz world today finds itself swamped with young talent eager for reinvestment in the discourse of contemporary culture. The shift has roots that run in a lot of directions. It’s a reaction to the neo-traditional revivalism that capped the last century, and to jazz’s withered commercial infrastructure in the wake of the 1990s CD bubble. Add to that the simple fact that millennial jazz musicians grew up listening mostly to hip-hop, R&B and rock.”

-  This is FREE:  Later Babes – LISA

Here’s an the embed:

-  Women In Video Games (Damsels In Distress…), put in similar situations over and over andoverandoveroverover.

-  Relatedly, The Hawkeye Initiative is pretty brilliant in calling out mainstream superhero shit for their years and years of blatant misogyny and sexism.

-Sonny

 

2 Cent Concepts.

-  This was a while ago but I forgot to share it and would like to now:

Papa John’s PR Firm Targets Bloggers.  So remember when Papa John’s founder John Schnatter said that because of the “Affordable Care Act” said pizzas would have to go up in price 10-15 cents and that stores would have to close down and that people’s job’s would be cut?  Well… a PR firm called Sitrick and Co. is now claiming Schnatter never said anything about the closures or lost jobs, and that the price thing was a mischaracterization of a quote from an investor call Schnatter made.  Here’s the Politico article.  I would never presume to tell anyone what to think about anything, especially this bill cause it is massively complicated.  That’s not what this is about.  This is about that ongoing struggle of power vs. freedom of information.  A struggle that has been happening for a long, long time, though the internet has certainly amplified it like never before.

Aaron Swartz believed in the freedom of information.

-  Guernica has put a piece up about Adam Lanza.  It is intelligent, heartfelt, thought-provoking, and moving:

“To call someone “deranged” or “mad” is to marginalize them, to declare that they are “not one of us.” Indeed, it is to say that he or she is not really human at all. As an adult with Asperger’s syndrome who has been marginalized all her life, I feel very uncomfortable when anyone, even someone unsavory, is summarily written out of the human race. I wonder if these sanctimonious pundits realize that the most devastating instances of mass carnage (a.k.a. “wars”) have been planned and executed by neurotypicals just like themselves who were perfectly sane—unless you consider “drunk with power” a cognizable mental disorder.

Recently it was reported that Adam Lanza, the shooter in the Connecticut elementary school massacre, may have had Asperger’s syndrome. Now it is the autism community’s turn to recoil in horror and declare that no, he could not have possibly been one of us; the Autism Society has issued a press release stating that “it is imperative to remove autism from this tragic story.”

-  The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is, shockingly, the number one book on Amazon right now.  It’s also number one on Barnes & Noble’s website, and something called Indigo.  Here’s the BleedingCool post about it.  I remember reading about this when it was announced, being that Dark Horse put it out and I’m pretty in-tune with what’s happening with the mainstream comic book publishers.  Here’s the book’s official website.

Found this at DeviantArt.  It’s a Metal Gear/Legend of Zelda mix:

-  The classic P.O.S. album “Audition” turned seven years old yesterday.  Just to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with here:

-Apparently Facebook, which as you know went public (in a much hyped disaster), made 2 cents per user last month.  There’s of course a lot going on there with all sorts of complexities to a social networking giant like FB… but it does not seem like a viable business model.

-Sonny

Jubilee Is Agent 15.

-  I’m super digging the idea of Brian Wood writing an all female X-Men team.  I haven’t been dedicated (“cared” is probably what I really mean) to an on-going X-Men book since Joss Whedon’s Astonishing, so perhaps Brian and amazing artist Olivier Coipel can bring mutants back into my life.  And let’s be real… the females of the X-Verse are in a lot of ways more interesting and rounded than the men.  At least when they’re written well and not drawn as pieces of meat for drooling, way too old fanboys.

-  Also from Wired:  Syria apparently used a powerful hallucinogenic chemical weapon against rebels on December 23rd.  The compound is called “Agent 15″, also known as 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate.  The world is a scary place.

-  Local (to me) rap group Atmosphere recently announced a new “Welcome to MN” tour.  But that’s not what I wanna share.  What I wanna share is the song they’ve created with each of the opening acts on the tour, it’s called “It Ain’t The Prettiest”:

-  ARTIST OF THE DAY:  Aaron Jasinski.

See ya tomorrow!

-SW

A Letter To Steve.

-  I got Mixed Blood Majority tickets this morning, along with Cecil Otter’s first solo show in some time.  MBM is a super group of sorts, at least when it comes to the Twin Cities music scene.  The group features vocalists from both No Bird Sing and Kill The Vultures, and production from Doomtree‘s Lazerbeak.  Pretty excited, as all three members are some of my favorite local musicians.  Here’s the latest thing they threw up on their Soundcloud page:

If you preorder their album right now you’ll get the album, a shirt, a poster, and a random CD from either of their other bands for just 12 bucks (without shipping).  Good deal.

-  Daniel Day Lewis originally turned down the chance to play Lincoln.  SlashFilm recently got their hands on the letter he wrote to decline the part.  Ah… screw it, here it is:

“Dear Steven,

It was a real pleasure just so sit and talk with you. I listened very carefully to what you had to say about this compelling history, and I’ve since read the script and found it in all the detail in which it describe these monumental events and in the compassionate portraits of all the principal characters, both powerful and moving. I can’t account for how at any given moment I feel the need to explore life as opposed to another, but I do know that I can only do this work if I feel almost as if there is no choice; that a subject coincides inexplicably with a very personal need and a very specific moment in time. In this case, as fascinated as I was by Abe, it was the fascination of a grateful spectator who longed to see a story told, rather than that of a participant. That’s how I feel now in spite of myself, and though I can’t be sure that this won’t change, I couldn’t dream of encouraging you to keep it open on a mere possibility. I do hope this makes sense Steven, I’m glad you’re making the film, I wish you the strength for it, and I send both my very best wishes and my sincere gratitude to you for having considered me.”

-  Wow… you gotta check out Filip Kulisev.  Holy shit unreal photography.

-  Sonny

 

 

Offensive Action Figures.

-  Chris and Matt over at WarRocketAjax have included some of my award categories in this year’s “Gordie Awards”.  WarRocketAjax is a pop cultural podcast wherein two really, down to the bone, unequivocally nerdy dudes talk about comics, video games, BBQ, music, movies, TV, net stuff, etc.  But mostly comics.  The categories they took from me were “Best High Concept”, “Best Rap Verse”, and “Best Last Page (of a comic)”.  To which I would have to answer (in order): the entirety of Hickman’s “Manhattan Projects”, Sadistik on “Wild West” (off Kristoff Krane’s “fanfaronade”), and I’ll have to come back to the last page thing.

Here’s that track (and verse):

And while I’m on the subject, Sadistik has a new record coming out soonish.  February 19th.  Here’s the announcement on his page, along with the track listing and album info/artwork/all that jazz.

-  The BAFTA nominations have been announced.  Not many surprises here.  One flick I was really excited for that didn’t get raving reviews was the crime/screenwriting/Shih Tzu kidnapping comedy “Seven Psychopaths“.  It was nominated for “Best British Film”.  Glad to see Michael Haneke’s new film getting some attention.  Somewhere.  I haven’t seen “Amour” but I’m sure it’s probably challenging as are all of his movies.  “Original Screenplay” is an interesting category, as I could see almost any one of the guys win.  But c’mon, “Zero Dark Thirty” isn’t really an “original” script.  I mean, it is in a sense that there wasn’t a fictional account of those events prior to it existing… but it’s a journalistic take on what happened.  It’s just telling a real story.  And if there’s evidence of that, it’s that the State Department is taking quite an interest in investigating where Boal and Bigelow got their information for the movie.

-  Good Lord.  More people having more issues over Django.  Along with an ultra-conservative co-worker (who’s mad because the movie’s “just about white people getting murdered”) here comes Al Sharpton who’s saying there shouldn’t be figures of the characters in the movies because he says these toys are for kids.  Which they clearly aren’t.  I mean, any kid would be bored out of his mind with an action figure that vaguely looks like Leo DiCaprio in a Hugh Hefner-esque robe with a cigarette holder dangling out of its mouth.  And I’m doubting action figures of characters from Tarentino movies sell all that well.  I think they’re probably geared towards hardcore fans who collect things of this nature, and they’re not widely available.  “”I don’t see any dolls representing Hitler that came from Tarantino’s (Holocaust movie ‘Inglourious Basterds’)…”, Sharpton says.  No, you don’t.  But who gives a shit if there was?

When I have kids I’m not going to let them have a fucking Hitler doll from a Tarentino movie, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t allow such a thing to exist.

-  Sonny

2012 Tunage.

[DISCLAIMER:  This is not a "Best Albums of 2012" list.  Rather a list of my favorite albums of the year.  And it was a lot longer but I've whittled it down substantially.  It was a good year for me.]

Baroness -  Yellow & Green

Baroness became one of my favorite Metal bands when they validated their debut with the beautiful “Blue Album”.  “Yellow & Green” takes the litany of influences to another level, stirring all sorts of ingredients together to make a pretty, if haunting, “metal” album.

Local H -  Hallelujah! I’m a Bum 

Lyrically, musically, and thematically, this is the record Scott Lucas has been itching to make for possibly the entirety of his career.  Hopeful, pessimistic, and very Chicagoan, “I’m A Bum” reaches down into its guts and heart to rip out an outburst of understated political criticism.

Brother Ali -  Mourning In America, Dreaming In Colour

Similar to Local H’s album in many, many ways, Ali returns to the full-length after the all too happy “Us” with a scathing critique of the American political process with one finger always on the button of hope.  Probably the most apt title of the year.

JJ DOOM – Keys To The Kuffs

MF Doom – or whatever he’s calling himself now – collabs with one Jnerio Jarel to present a sound that hearkens back to his Madvillain days with a slight tinge of Electronica to boot.  The bizarre and compelling backstory behind the making of this album, and the themes, is as interesting as the sound it inspired.

El-P – Cancer For Cure 

After yet another five year break between solo records, El-P’s newest album is definitely his most accessible: heavy, catchy, conceptual without being taking it too far.  His production and lyrics are both the stars, with the former tackling complex synth based beats and the latter walking further down the tracks of 21^st Century alienation and paranoia.

P.O.S. – We Don’t Even Live Here

This is the most non-political political album of the last five years.  Though you wouldn’t know it from the reviews, the message is simple: free yourself from a system that doesn’t work for you, doesn’t accept you, or both.  Production and appearances from German techno dudes to Justin Vernon to Ryan Olson keep things very, very interesting.

Aesop Rock – Skelethon 

It took Aesop Rock over a decade to finally trust his chops enough to make an album with all his own beats; the result is the most personalized and soulful record of his career.  His trademark high-concept lyricism is in full effect, but it feels like the imagery and metaphors are pulled straight from the last 5 years of his life.

Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes

Steven Ellison continues his acclaimed, multi-genre discography with a wonderful, mysterious 15 track album grounded in where it came from but still forging ahead without inhibitions of any kind.  The features are spot on with the likes of Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu lending vocals.

Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city

Mainstream Rap music takes a huge step forward this year with Kendrick’s proper debut LP, a concept album about growing up in Compton under the shadow of previous West Coast Hip-Hop and the underbelly that comes with it, both metaphorically and literally.  The final step in Rap music entering the 21^st Century, and growing up.

Swans – The Seer

There’s a reason why this punk/hardcore/??? band’s 2 hour-ish magnum opus has been making list after list of late… it is one bold, massive, go for the throat piece of work that rewards listeners for repeated listens and just simply getting to the end.  This is what happens when rules and limitations go out the window: the results are often stunning and powerful.

Death Grips – The Money Store/No Love Deep Web

A tie for the most anti-corporate band’s two albums of 2012 because, really, they work in conjunction.  Together, “The Money Store” and “No Love Deep Web” form an admirable and poignant story about the limits of control, capitalism, and the record business in the second decade of the 21^st Century.

Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music

I don’t know about everyone else, but for me there was a fear that El-P’s beats would overshadow the veteran Atlanta rapper’s rhymes on the Adult Swim sponsored “R.A.P. Music”.  That didn’t happen.  As it turns out Killer Mike keeps pace with the heavy, heavy production and maybe even surpasses it.  The best album of his career by far.

Grimes – Visions

Clair Boucher – better known as Grimes – is a one woman wrecking crew of ethereal, primal, yet futuristic witch house that will bite at your soul while making you want to dance.  “Visions” takes her looping and overlaying style to a whole new degree: at times there are 4 or 5 Clairs singing in conjunction to form 13 fresh and undistinguishable Electro tracks.

Dan Deacon – America

Nowhere else is it more clear that Dan Deacon studied electo-acoustic and computer music composition than on “America”, an album that encompasses everything Dan Deacon does to its absolute best form.  The hearty, thick analog sounds are here, as are the intricately laced runs of synth scales.  Awesome record.

Purity Ring – Shrines

Another Canadian outfit, this time from the East (Montreal), presents to the world a very, very good debut that sparkles and shimmers even amongst a whole lot of good 2012 Electro albums from seasoned veterans of the genre.  Really hope this 21 and 24 year old stay together and keep making music for years to come.

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Cobra Juicy 

I’ve introduced Black Moth Super Rainbow to as many people as I can.  And for good reason, there’s really nothing out there like them… even in a year so influenced by the sound they’ve pioneered.  “Cobra Juicy” sees the band getting a little less dreamy and trippy and a little more dancey.

The Bad Plus – Made Possible      

Why I still haven’t seen the Twin Cities best modern Jazz trio I do not know; but The Bad Plus are players to be reckoned with, each of these guys get a 10 on skill alone.  Which can often overshadow soul, but “Made Possible” serves up both.  And in spirit of democracy ([laughter]) each member gets a chance to write multiple tracks.

Gary Clark, Jr. – Blak and Blu 

This guy keeps getting anointed as some iteration of “best new artist”, which is a little deceptive: he’s been recording officially since 2004.  And there’s lots of bluesmen out there, few invigorate their brand of tunes with such energy and variety.  At least not lately.  But even calling this album “blues” paints it into a corner it doesn’t sit it for too long at a time.

Robert Glasper Experiement – Black Radio   

“Black Radio” is my biggest surprise of the year.  Previously to it I only had briefly heard Glasper’s name barely in passing.  The ringleader and his amazing band though make modern Jazz as cool as any other type of music the kids may or may not be listening to.  It doesn’t hurt that the album features one of the best (and strangest) Nirvana covers I’ve ever heard.

Polica – Give You The Ghost    

Hype can be a bit of a problem sometimes.  This Minneapolis band began garnering hype for their debut long before its release.  Deserved or not… it’s hard to deny the uniqueness of Polica’s sound.  Ryan Olson’s synths and Chaney’s processed vocals over one hell of a rhythm section is, if anything, just damn entertaining to listen to.

How To Destroy Angels -  An omen_EP

As hard as it is for me to include this album due to it feeling like a short and sweet prelude to some other great piece of work further down the line, it’s still the best thing Reznor and co. have done yet.  And I know this might be hard to read, it’s certainly hard to write… I think I like How To Destroy Angels’ sound better than NIN.  Gods forgive me.

A Place To Bury Strangers – Worship

A Place Bury Strangers suffers from that all too often affliction of lavish praise upon debut, only to have those heaping on the praise forget about you and move onto the next hot new band.  It’s a shame because “Worship” takes everything them made them so dangerous before and adds all kinds of new dynamics and layers.

Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself  

I’ve only gotten into Andrew Bird lately and boy is it overwhelming trying to catch up.  His discography, like his arrangements, is fairly daunting.  But with Andrew Bird – and the band he’s assembled for “Break It Yourself”, including a couple of my favorite MN instrumentalists – the amount of work you put in is far surpassed by what you get out of it.

Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel…    

Fiona Apple remains to this day a curious case of semi-successful independent musicianship.  Not many late 90’s chart toppers are willing to name their newest album using 23 words, or craft the types of songs that appear on “Idler Wheel”.  These are bizarre and quirky tracks, but would you expect or want anything less from her?

Guided By Voices – Let’s Go Eat The Factory

So Guided By Voices released a boatload of music this year: 3 LPs, all featuring 20-ish tracks.  It was a little difficult picking which one.  The other two are good, and GBV is one of those bands whose quality remains very, very consistent.  But “Let’s Go Eat the Factory” saw their return from an almost 10 year hiatus.  And Robert Pollard and co. came back with the hunger of a band in their 20’s.

Matthew Dear – Beams          

Matthew Dear has been making Electronic music for over 10 years, and a lot of it is really good.  But it feels like on “Beams” he finally found his creative sweet spot.  The music is comfortable in its own skin: confident but perhaps a bit shy at the same time.  And this album perhaps has some of the best lyrics of the year.

Blut Aus Nord – 777: Cosmosophy      

This French black metal band (with a German name) ends its “777” trilogy in stunning fashion with an almost ambient take on the genre.  While so many other metal bands, particularly this brand of metal, limit themselves within the confines of what “metal” is, Blut Aus Nord branches out beyond the borders and the results are awe-inspiring, majestic, and very beautiful.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill

It’s hard not to applaud the aspirations – or maybe balls – of a record that opens with a half-hour track of 70’s jam band psychedelica about those very days some 40 years ago.  Normally I’m weary of nostalgia in almost all its forms, but “Psychedelic Pill” brings it in droves and you will find yourself thinking, “Damn I wish it was 1972 right now”.

-SonnyW.