Top Ten Albums 2008

2009 Top Ten Albums
Hey all you children of the corn - it's that time of year again, where I actually make use of the ol' bloggeroo, for what is always my favorite post. These are the albums that were the soundtrack for my goings on in the past year, which was just about as rich as you can get. Full time engineering, a new Ultimate Club team, a very special new Minnesota resident, quitting my job, starting the financially conspicuous endeavor of Grad School - I certainly could not have gotten through it all without the laptop lulling me to sleep or the headphones keeping me up on the light rail ride home at 1AM with these new tunes ringing in my head taking the edge off.

In general, I found a relatiely fewer number of EPICALLY GREAT albums this year, but I thought there was a few really amazing new songs and artists that give me hope for the future of tuneage.

Blitzen Trapper - Furr
As I said last year, I felt these guys, along with Wolf Parade, were on the cusp of their defining moment. I was right about BT, and maybe a little off with WP. These Seattlites first emerged with their schizophrenic Wild Mountain Nation that, at times, refused to depart from intelligent dissonant noise that frustratingly interrupted some great alt-country moments. On Furr, they ain't scared to be pretty all the time, while still possessing enough ambient doodads to keep you interested beyond the first listen. What's so great is that every single song, while shooting from Dylan to CSN to Buffalo Springfield to some Beatles Helter Skelter moments, each song is not only enjoyable, but make themselves relevant within the tapestry of the whole album. The title track's lyrics has potential for the defining anthem of disillusioned 20-something year-old males coming to terms with the reality, surrender, and beauty of a committed relationship. NOT THAT I AM AT ALL PONDERING SUCH QUESTIONS IN MY OWN LIFE RIGHT NOW.


Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
It is almost required that you play this album only during the dark depths of a grey winter afternoon when the light is failing. To say this album is precious would be the gravest of understatements. but it's preciousness is different than, say, a Sufjan Stevens album. Complimenting the astonishing bare spaces of the album, Justin Vernon's voice grabs on to a heat in his most expressive moments that gives the album a hopeful twist, kind of like a hibernating animal who gets up to howl at the moon just to let you know it's still alive. His lyrics are pretty cryptic and fragmented, and to try to comprehend full meaning is a futile task. What I've taken from such lines as "someday my pain....." and "all at once, rushin from the subpump" are meant as images more than qualified stories - which, in the heat of things in life, sometimes are all we remember.

DJ Dangermouse - The Grey Album
This is my lame-ass way-too-late-to-be-relevant pick for this year. I remind you, that this list is simply the albums I discovered this year, which do include a few oldies....
I remember Jon Staron playing this for me way back in the Papa JonStaronMobile SpaceCruise days, and I really wasn't very down with it at the time. I was so offended by the chopping up and mutilation of my favorite Beatles album that I couldn't get to the enjoyable part. That's where my other mash-up pick for this year, Girl Talk, comes into play. Greg Gillis taught me that mash-ups are not meant to be just a "different version" of old albums - they're intended to be entirely new beasts, that catch your attention with familiar hooks, and usher you in the door for an experience that may have nothing to do with how you got interested in the first place. A swindling? Maybe. But since I have developed an appreciation for Jay-Z's lyrics with the help of my thug baby Rachel Marie, I'm a little more inclined to go along with the ride. "This ain't the show, I'm just EQ'in it..."


Fleet Foxes
I remember hearing Fleet Foxes' Mykonos on the Current and initially thought that My Morning Jacket had finally made the turn I was waiting for them to make - turns out it wasn't them- the Jackets ended up making Peanut Butter Pudding Surprise and the worst album cover ever. I saw the Foxes play at the Seventh Street Entry this summer and witnessed some kids obviously on X in front of us freak out in the most annoying way possible for the show's duration... fortunately, the band's incredible show transcended that distraction, and had everybody at attention the entire show. My second favorite show of the year - this music sounds old and new at the same time and really brings musicality back to the forefront of independent music. I expect great things from this band.


Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
Okay, I'm shortening things up from here since the delay on this post is really getting dumb. Girl Talk sounds like the dumbest thing you've ever heard of, and is conversely just about the coolest thing you'll ever hear. I missed their show in the TC as well as in Des Moines, and Greg Gillis currently enjoys a spot as the Holy Grail of yet-to-be seen live shows. Liz Cavert said there was nothing more beautiful than watching a First Avenue full of Indie kids screaming along to Kelly Clarkson's Since You've Been Gone, and I can't imagine disagreeing with her.



LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
I first really heard these guys opening for Arcade Fire in the tin can of Roy Wilkins Auditorium, and I still enjoyed the experience, which made me thing that I would really enjoy it if I could actually hear what was going on. A highly danceable and workoutable album that is not afraid to stretch out those jams to meditative grooves that are great for math-oriented home or office work. All My Friends is one of my favorite tracks all year, and is a great rallying cry for the displaced young professionals missing their friends thrown every direction about the country.



Charlie Parr - Jubilee
Are you ready? Are you ready? I am very ready to see Mr. Parr this weekend at the Turf Club, as this one has been rising quickly up my list -this Duluther makes all of his original tracks sound like someone's been singing them for 80 years. It's the sound of someone truly enjoying the music he's playing and words he's saying, and doesn't get too lost in traditional tomes of bluegrass that he can't emerge with fresh ideas on chord structure and lyrical content that elevate his music to a higher level of engagement. Twenty Nine is a somber standout track regarding the tales of premature departures that sound a little too vivid to be entirely fictional.

Punch Brothers - Punch
I was pretty skeptical about another Chris Thile project, as his solo projects after Nickel Creek had somewhat run their course as a defiant "I'm not that pudgy homeschooled mandolin dork I used to be because I swear and play electric guitars", so I was pleasantly surprised to find an entirely different sound with the Punch Brothers. Made of some amazing technical geniuses, the album is essentially a classical epic played on acoustic instruments and divided into movements, that have recurring fugues and emotive qualities to the rise and fall of each track. To anchor these lofty and potentially stuffy instrumentals, Thile lays down a limited amount of vocals that clearly narrate the images the listener can carry throughout the linked movements. It is bridges to traditional music like this album and that give me hope that the elements of musical genres like jazz and classical will still find relevance within popular culture. Okay, I was in band in high school.

The Dodos - Visiter
If I have learned one thing from this year, it is this: there is alwas at least one amazing song that you've never heard of on every BG Mix CD. I believe this one - Jodi is the song - was found on #40, and it led me straight into the arms of one of the most highly energized, astounding bands and live shows I've seen in years. The Dodos consist of just two dudes, Meric Long on a blistering deep fried acoustic guitar, and Logan Kroeber on the ever-polyrhythmic drums. Their songs carry in them such frenetic and playful energy that you cannot help but tap, sing, and yelp right along with them. It is appropriate that what is likely my favorite album of the bunch is the hardest to describe. Vocals at times shaking with nerves, or ringing with naive braggadocio, or shimmering with a warm afterglow....guitar that sounds like it was being played by Jimi Hendrix after four lines of cocaine while falling down the stairs...sonically shaped lyrics meant to act as a third instrument....hyper drumbeats that threaten to take off down the block if unchained.... just listen and don't waste time thinking about how these dudes are like 24 years old.


Vampire Weekend
Yes, it stood the test of an entire years worth of scrutiny, but not before a few moments of disappointment. I heard Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa on the Current, scrambled to find the artist and immediately heralded VW as the next Paul Simon.... it turns out that they are more like Paul Simons know-it-all nephews who fell into some old money on the East Coast. They play up the preppy New England vibe just as much or more than their worldly musical reach, and it took a period of reckoning to come to terms with this thought. But after letting Bryn and M79 creep into my subconscious, I didn't really care who they were, they just knew how to make me belt out the WOOOOOOAHs and gainless guitar riffs over and over again. It feels so unnatural.. Peter Gabriel too.

Whew, at long last, and only a month late!!!! Some other highly recommended discs from this year below. I'd love to hear your comments on the list - but then again it took me four months to post on my blog, so I don't know how many of you are still hanging on...

Love to all and go see a show this weekend.

Second Tier
Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum
Conor Oberst
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Q-Tip - The Renaissance
Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Sun Kil Moon - April
Weezer - The Red Album
Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us

Third Tier
Ben Folds - Way To Normal
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts
Crosby Stills & Nash
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Ray Lamontagne - Gossip In The Grain
Rivers Cuomo - Alone I
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
The Roots - Rising Down
Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild Soundtrack

Albums I need to hear more:
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down In The Light
Retribution Gospel Choir
Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

Mr. Walding Goes To Washington

A dream I had last night that deserves some wider distribution:

I somehow found myself on the campaign staff of John McCain, and he was speaking at the White House. Security was high, but I somehow had high clearance and could move about pretty easily around the various rooms. Problem was, I had to take a shit REALLY BAD. I went from bathroom to bathroom, looking for a suitable toilet, but all I found were urinals, sinks, and even those dental spittoons for some reason, but no decent toilet. Finally I had to dump so bad, that I found a more low-lying sink, and started to do my business in there, rather than shit myself. As I settled in for a stressful, but relieving bowel movement, I noticed two things - there was a mirror facing me that looked very suspicious, and I realized that there was a camera behind it, and this was all being monitored. Secondly, I saw a map or diagram of the white house on the wall as well, and saw that they had everyone's name who was at the event, and where they were supposed to be sitting. Suddenly, as I was examining it closer - although it was made of what looked like paper - the image suddenly changed to a generic map of the united states. I realized that I had found myself in some wash room of central security within the white house, and had stumbled upon some advanced surveillance technology, and had just been found out, so the map was changed, and i was surely about to be caught - literally with my pants down. As I heard a lot of commotion and guns being drawn from outside the room, I remember one thought before I emerged from the dream- "oh well, I didn't like working for McCain anyway."

Top Ten 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen – my apologies. Between a holiday season of criss-crossing the Midwest, weekend trips on mountain tops and in mall-bars in Sioux Falls, a computer episode that brought my machine toward the light before coming back, the sorrowful crash of the Zen mp3 player and a few decent bouts with good ol’ plain laziness, I have completed the list for you to bash, get bored with, and realize that this probably wasn’t worth the wait. Nevertheless, with all its warts:

The 2007 Top Ten ( in no particular order)

The Shins – Wincing The Night Away

This was another album whose expectations I had for it would be hard to meet going in – it came pretty close. Although they have slightly stretched out in terms of style (a little funky breakdown in Sea Legs, some jangly pop of Phantom Limb) they’ve mostly stayed true to what’s made them so endearing: bright, earnest vocals wrapped in the enigma of cryptic language, ringing guitars whose riffs echo in your head for days, and a warm softness you can cuddle up to. Australia got the honor of “most played” on my mp3 player this year.

Nostalgialia: Blasting this one in my house during the day at the depths of my unemployed stint in January, realizing that mine wasn’t a lost cause, and remembering to enjoy my life even if I was apprehensive as to what would come next.

The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

It took me a while to catch on to what it exactly was that made The Arcade Fire so good, but once I heard this album, it came together for me, and I appreciated their first album Funeral in a new light. The tension in Win Butler’s voice brings a sadness that’s far from hopeless – a mourning for past loss, but a determination for a better future. The nods to Bruce Springsteen are not unfounded, not only in tone but also in message. I get the same feeling listening to Keep The Car Running as I do when they play One Shining Moment after the NCAA Tournament.

Nostalgialia: Second best live show of the year at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, of all places. Although Win Butler’s presence is huge, it’s pretty obvious that the real ringleader whose energy keeps everyone in the band/family going is Renee Chassagne (sp?) – all 5 feet of her is like a rolling fireball with an accordion – do not deny yourself the responsibility of seeing these 8 or so spazzoids if they come close.

Girl Talk – Night Ripper

Gotta give the nod to JimiMac for tossing this CD my way with very little explanation – “did you listen to music in the 90’s? Just play it” I think may have been his words. This disc is an ADHD romp whose songs really have no beginning or end, but are an unflagging assault that trips both your groove meter as well as your adolescent/college memories of classic rock, 80’s top 40, hip hop, indie and alternative rock. No less than 100 different samples are layered over each other and are tied together with some nasty hip hop lyrics, the majority of which I was shocked to learn that my girlfriend could sing along with. I have definitely had some skepticism of this whole mash-up craze, but this fruitcake of music culture has some staying power that has lingered well beyond the novelty of its first listen.

Nostalgialia: Driving the great plains of interior Kansas with Rachel, complimenting each other quite conveniently as I knew most of the backbeat samples while she took care of the Jay Z, Notorious BIG, and references to “yurple.” Tried to be cool by driving past the McDonald’s after Rachel told me there was nothing else around, and in 15 minutes wanted nothing more than a BigMac in my mouth.

Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity

You have to give me at least this one “art rock” entry into the fray. I first saw Deerhoof open up for Wilco back in 2004, and while I definitely didn’t immediately “get it,” there was something so unapologetically strange about their sound that mixed this Japanese singer of mostly onomatopoeic “choo choo choos” and “bap buh bap bohs” with angular and dissonant (but calculated) guitar work and a super tight drummer that I couldn’t just ignore them. Previous albums left me intrigued, but before Friend Opportunity, their meandering melodies and empty space gave me too much to think about and too little to love. This album sharpens their focus, comes up with some killer hooks that add heart to their typical head trips. Look Away, the last rambling track, is an intimidating first listen, but has become my favorite song to play really loud when I’m feeling my oddest.

Nostalgialia: First time hearing a few tracks was on the 13 hour DJ Show best known as A Road Trip With Bryan Gates. On the way back from Kansas, we blow a tire just south of Des Moines. After an adventurous 3 hours in a West Des Moines Walmart Auto Shop, we emerge with a fixed tire, an unordered oil change, and a loose hood latch. Wha? A perfect story to match the strangeness of this album.

Jose Gonzalez – In Our Nature

One has to assume that there will be an album that Jose Gonzalez will put out someday that might not be stellar. Fortunately we have some time before we’re faced with this deflation. Although his style his not changed that much since Veneer, he emerges more frequently and confidently from his brilliant loops and fugues of finger picking to farther reaches of lyrical and vocal ideas. In the opening track How Low, he decries the villainry inherent in the power structure of our times: “Someday, you’ll be up to your knees in the sh*t you see.” I’ve often imagined Jose creating these songs, just moving his fingers in a rhythm across the strings, tweaking things here and there for hours, until the groove is solidified, and that groove extracting first sounds, then pieces of words, then finally strings of thought that all emerge organically. This process can essentially be heard happening within the epic Cycling Trivialities: as the song title echoes over and over and the end of the song, supplemented by a subtle but vital ambient organ drone, the groove that he’s established in both soft and hammering waves is suddenly released to wander and amble into oblivion, countering the steady march of the song’s beginning with a gentle freedom and airiness that makes me wonder if the song’s mantra - “it all comes down to Cycling Trivialities” - is less a pessimistic and helpless surrender, but a rejection and release from the confines of our own thoughts.

Nostalgialia: Becoming increasingly enraged at the state of our country and the spin and deception that the current administration has presented to us, creating an environment of fear and consumerism that is highly infectious and hard to avoid completely. Jose’s simple defiant messages helped me to clarify my thoughts and give me hope for better things to come.

Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog

This one for me should have a subtitle for me that reads: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Band. It’s Sam Beam’s first full (deep) plunge into a complete and complex ensemble sound, and fortunately, the mourning period was cut pleasantly short as what emerged was a multi-layered masterpiece that gathered influences from far-reaching places (shades of his stint with Calexico, a reverb heavy AfroBeat sound in Wolves, the Bayou accordion on Lovesong of the Buzzard) and still has me discovering more with every listen. However, the element that made this transition so easy to make is that his lyrics lose none of their bold imagery and potent relevant personal and social messages that he’s crafted in past albums, and are becoming refined into some of the most skillful wordplay I’ve ever heard. Innocent Bones has a couple of the best jewels: “every tongue that gets bit always has another word to say” and “there ain’t a penthouse Christian that likes the pain of the scab, but they all want the scar.” In Lovesong Of The Buzzard, Beam cuts to the core of innocent but profoundly intimate moments: “Lucy tells me jokingly to wipe her brow”….

Nostalgialia: My stubborn paradigm of “simpler (like Our Endless Numbered Days) is better” melting away as I hear the album being broken down and revered on MusicHeads. Even Mark Wheat liked it, and he is one of the more snobbish music critics I’ve ever heard.

Neil Young – Live at Massey Hall

I’ve been looking for an appropriate on-ramp to Neil Young for many years, as I feel like I’m missing a big piece of the Americana/Folk/Rock revolution of the 60’s and 70’s, and I’ve heard so much waxing poetic from both my dad (and much of his generation) as well as those among my friends (Lucido, Curran, Gates) who really find it hard to describe how strongly they do feel about his music. Problem is, his work has been spotty in recent times (High: Greendale, Low: Let’s Roll) and I had yet to come up with the right angle of attack to understand his vibe. I couldn’t have asked for a better gift than this album. Catching Young in the prime of his songwriting career, we see epic songs like Old Man, A Man Needs a Maid, and The Needle And The Damage Done fresh off the press, and they gleam in a stripped down one-man set that is stunning in its fidelity for a show recorded in 1971. I imagine folks in the audience hearing these songs and this singer for the first time, with their jaws wide open at seeing one of the foremost spokespersons for their generation and understand a little more why my parents get a far-off look in their eyes and a satisfied grin on their faces when they talk about music they heard during that time period. Sometimes I get jealous.

Nostalgialia: Waiting for my South High Squall Ultimate B Team to arrive at a far off western Minneapolis suburb league game, I called my dad and talked with him for a half hour about this new album, telling him that I heard the picking and guitar styles in Neil Young that became embedded in my bones over countless nights hearing my dad play us to sleep with his own guitar. Dad admitted that Neil Young was his biggest influence when he was learning to play – I understand a little bit more about both of them now.

Kanye West – Graduation

Gone are the funny-maybe-twice skits in between songs. Mostly gone are the guest rappers. Gone are my hesitations towards buying in to what Kanye is selling. This is probably the funnest (I don’t care if that’s not a word) album all year. The one where you forget about how every damn word on this album is dripping with ego. You forget about how auto-tuned T-Pain’s voice is in The Good Life. You forget about how he rhymes “morning” with “DeLorean”. You gloss over how “Barry Bonds” has nothing to do with Barry Bonds. Why? Because you don’t want to miss the party going on here. The backbeats that lean less on old soul and more on smoother vibes of Steely Dan, Daft Punk, and Euro-synth, and pump an energy into the rhymes that I haven’t felt in his previous albums. If you can get over that slightly squeamish feeling of turning up the wonderfully audacious lines like “I’m like a fly Malcolm X, buy any jeans necessary” and “with my ego, I can stand there in a speedo and be looked at like a f*ckin hero” then there is no limit to the enjoyment of this album. He can even make a collaboration with the guy from Coldplay sound not only appropriate, but a clever and meaningful shoutout to his hometown – it can even withstand a lyrical reference later in the album to Coldplay. Impressive. This one is definitely top five all time hip hop albums for me.

Nostalgialia: My 2007 Ultimate Pump Up album. The typical soundtrack as I’m poppin Advil & Prilosec, throwin on my dirty Phish headband, and chowin on a granola bar on Cedar Ave in my car before practice at Nokomis. This album increased my vertical by two inches.

The White Stripes – Icky Thump

I had an argument with a guy about the White Stripes recently. He said they were alright, but could not get over that he thought Meg White was a horrible drummer. While I agreed that technically she certainly isn’t a Stewart Copeland (Police) or John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), I felt like her role is that of a simple and loose counterpoint to Jack White’s high-energy, high-flying intricate vocals and guitar shredding – similar to Ringo Starr’s role in the Beatles. Sometimes you don’t need the most precision to rock the hardest. After some amount of quieter exploration in Get Behind Me Satan, their last album, Icky Thump comes back to the meat and potatoes of the White Stripes sound – an audio assault rich with the energy of road house blues that takes tangents producing a similar wall of sound originating from other areas of the world (the Mariachi horns of Conquest, the droning bagpipes of Prickly Thorn and St. Andrew). With Jack White using his Raconteurs to express his more precocious pop ideas, he can utilize the Stripes for their best suited cause: kicking ass in places we never knew ass could be kicked. They are the #1 act I would most like to see live right now.

Nostalgialia: Pumping the pedals up the hills near the Wabasha Caves of St Paul in my newfound delight of metro exploration via Heyward’s bike, when ultimate practices became scarce in the fall. My quads always start to twitch when I hear the title track. A highly recommended workout CD.

Bright Eyes – Cassadaga

I think people have a lot of issues with the songs of Conor Oberst, with the argument that his voice sounds so overly emotional that he can’t possibly be that sad or scared or angry. I don’t know that I would entirely disagree with that sentiment. Fortunately, his musical and lyrical ideas have sustained my interest even while his voice has given me pause to question his a) sentiment and b) vocal ability. I would invite everyone who has had the same trepidation about Bright Eyes to give this album a spin. Oberst’s focus on Cassadaga’s melody and aversion from the panicked yelps of past albums has Bright Eyes sounding like I’ve always dreamed they could sound. It is an epic album that starts with an appropriate wave of orchestral noise that gets boiled down to Conor, his guitar, and a simple song trying to make sense of the world around him through mazes of religion, culture and vices. The album weaves countrified love songs, middle eastern mantras and tender ballads swirling in complex string arrangements, and marks the bands best musical endeavor by a long shot. But as usual, the element that has me floored at every listen is the stark power of the lyrics that Oberst seems to wield over a vast spectrum between personal and political. At 28, he is looking for a greater peace, but not until he has some questions answered. In Coat Check Dream Song, someone is “Stuck on a ladder to heaven, on a trial way back in the Hague” – this may be about himself or some political figure, but they key word is “stuck”. In many instances, Oberst celebrates acceptance – he shrugs with “everything it must belong somewhere/ they locked the devil in the basement, threw God up into the air” but even at the end of the album, Conor’s search appears unfinished - “I took off my shoes and walked into the woods/ I felt lost and found with every step I took (Lime Tree)”. I felt a very personal connection with this album’s balance of wanting answers, and feeling comfortable living inside the questions.

Nostalgialia: In the balcony of the State Theatre, looking down on a crew of musicians all dressed in white, I saw the best show of 2007, with a long-haired Oberst looking a lot less like a tortured indie kid and a lot more like a ringleader of some crazy spiritual revival chorus. He started a beer bottle fight with the drummer (from Sleater-Kinney!).

There you have it kids – and with only 1/6^th of 2008 gone by! There may be a quick follow up with a few of the most disappointing albums as well – we’ll see how saucy the compy is feeling.

2007 Album Review - Tier Two

Here's the next batch of dank harmonic nugs that passed by my years in the past year, all just on the cusp of cracking that hallowed realm of the Top Ten. Mushy relationship stuff alert: a lot of memories with my girlfriend tied up with these albums.

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Sank
Quite a bit of fanfare surrounded this album before and after it came out, and it was very clear that indie kids were supposed to like this album, because you have the Isaac Brock and you have the Johnny Marr from the Smiths, so this automatically equals 2 times indie fun. The reality? Well, kinda. I like to think that I'm not one of those people that get disappointed when their favorite bands start to change their sound from what it was when you started listening; and although Modest Mouse's sound has indeed changed, that's not why I'm excluding this from the Top Ten. I really like the changes, and songs like Dashboard and We Know Everything just show how incredible and versatile a songwriter Brock is. But I think it's when they try to create songs that sound like "traditional" Modest Mouse is when they get in trouble - "Fly Trapped in a Jar" and "Education" are examples of how the band may have outgrown the dissonant idiosyncrasies that originally defined them. These are only slight growing pains in an otherwise beautiful evolution, though. "Parting Of The Sensory" might be the best example of what I think they're doing right. Nostalgialia: My soundtrack as the snow finally melted and I was breathing the fresh Minnesota spring air while on runs and bike rides preparing for the Ultimate season - hands down my favorite time of the year.

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
The album I was most excited for all year. That may have been the cause of the slight letdown- it could not have possibly met all of my expectations. That being said, this was the album that Wilco had to make after the stratospheric duo of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. You can't top them, so don't. Simplify. Do more with less. And in that charge, they succeeded beautifully. The serenity of the first track sets the tone of calm warmth that pervaded the entire album. Pitchfork almost ruined this album for me after labeling it "dad rock". Notstalgialia: That calm warmth aligned perfectly with a drive back to Minnesota after a weekend in Kansas hanging with Rachel and her friends, realizing that the more I discovered about the girl's life, the more it felt right and familiar. I had incredibly found a girl and her social group who not only accepted me, but welcomed me and were excited for someone new - a rarity in my experience.

Ray Lamontagne - Till The Sun Turns Black
This one came to me via our incredible public radio station up in the Twin Cities, The Current. When I heard a few tracks from this album, I was pretty convinced that this was an old black man - then I did some research and found out that he's a 30-something white dude with a beard and worked in a shoe factory up until about 3 years ago. His voice (think Joe Cocker) is absolutely incredible, and this somber album drips with his earnestness and frailty. His style has plenty of soul, but his lyrics are very heady, and drum up a complexity of emotions over understated acoustic guitar, string and horn arrangements. Nostalgialia: That hour after waking up when Rachel and I are visiting each other, not wanting to move or get up or even talk, but just soaking in each other's presence, and, yes, cuddling. Gross.


Radiohead - In Rainbows
Surprising, perhaps that this isn't in the top ten, but this one also suffers from its late release in the year, and Radiohead albums usually take the longest to grow on me. This one is coming along nicely. Forget all the release hoopla, hows the music? Although a little less ambient Sigur Ros -type background noise, the album still has what feels like so many different little sonic nooks and crannies that I'm still discovering with every repeat listen. Bodysnatchers, and Jigsaw Falling Into Place gives this album the kinetic energy that they hadn't displayed since OK Computer's Electioneering. Just a few songs short of another Radiohead masterpiece - House Of Cards and Nude are decent tunes, but not hitting me in the sweetspot right now. Nostalgialia - Ushering in the period of the year that I dread the most - no sunlight as I leave work. I also anticipate this album to be the soundtrack to a lot of slow-moving commutes back to St Paul from work in the snow. Perhaps this is not the best choice if I want to actually enjoy this album.

Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block
This one took a long while to grow on me - I kinda helf-heartedly picked it up (free from a pink, four legged friend) on the word of Gates and Pitchfork, just to give it a chance. On first listen, it sounded a bit flat, European-type minimal, and off key. I was about to delete it from the Zen, when I decided that I hadn't listened enough to warrant a delete, so put it back in rotation. The hooks revealed themselves to be infectious, and the low-fi emptyness of their arrangements actually helped to give it a genuine vulnerability that I appreciated. Nostalgialia: Hearing it pop up on the ever high-profile Gates shuffle while drinking shots poured from a miniature statue's private parts. Best second-hand pickup ever.

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destoyer?
I feel pretty lucky that I started digging Of Montreal just as they are hitting their stride in bridging the gap between their meandering psychdelia of their origins and the undeniable danceability and driving energy of their past couple albums. If you get the chance, do your damndest to get to an Of Montreal show, and force those around you to dance, for the rewards are great. Nostalgialia: Picked up in the dead of winter, this album provided me a lift through the Subsyndromal Seasonal Affective Disorder that many get up here. Finding a great tempo to measure my jogging strides with in the 12 minute epic The Past Is A Grotesque Animal. "Come on mood shift, shift back to good again..."

John Hartford - Aereo-Plain
One of the couple of throwback albums on the list this year, the Family Combs introduced me to this seminal album that essentially started the "Newgrass" movement - using bluegrass roots to put together alternative arrangements that broke a lot of traditional rules, but resulted in a high-spirited, light-hearted adventure of an album that never fails to make me think that I would have given a lot to meet and hang out with this oddball of a renaissance man in his heyday. Nostalgialia: Inextricably tied to two siblings that have become a huge part of my life, and reflects the unequaled joy, kindness, humor, and sense of loving family that I witness in Ben and Rachel Combs. If I ever am missing either of those two (which happens quite often), I put this album on and instantly feel like they're in the room with me. Now that's a great album.

Demitri Martin - These Are Jokes
Yes, one more comedy album on the list. You could say that this brand of comedy has been pretty well tread recently, Martin sharing a lot of similarities to both Steven Wright and Mitch Hedburg (dry, quick deliveries of simple absurdities, the use of music in performance) but he is the first performer that, from my perspective, appears to be almost directly in line with my generation's (and my social circle's) viewpoint of the world. I have had the exact same thought about rainbows that he has. Nostalgialia: Nabbing this CD just as the Ultimate season got into full swing, and being excited that I might be able to pass off a lot of his jokes as my own. "that Walding always has some zingers up his sleeve, doesn't he?"

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I'm just a tad late on this one, but sometimes I feel like I need to wait on some CDs for the hype to cool and listen to it without the feeling that "I should be liking this right now". The first time I listened, I was a little perturbed that the lead singer's voice sounded like Thom Yorke's on full annoyance overdrive; but once I kind of accepted it and got into the wonderful joyous grooves that these guys seem to be pretty natural at, it was a great listen. I definitely understand the comparisons to the Talking Heads. Maybe I'll dig into their second album next year.... Nostalgialia: Getting ready for a fancy-type date at the Loring Pasta Bar with Rachel with this getting us pumped to go, and imagining what it would like to get ready to hit the town at night all the time when we actually lived together. Sweet.

Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
Heard about this one on a program that was started on The Current called MusicHeads, where the DJs bring in new albums that they are excited about and talk about them in-depth. God bless that station. After hearing the excerpts from that show, I was interested in digging further into this band that had chunks of funky slide guitar country rock, Wolf Parade-like frenetic indie fugues, and a DIY sound that could have made them your next door neighbors whose basement is filled with dobros, keyboards and big drum sets, sounds loud, and smells herbal. The title track is a triumph of laid back country rock, but only hints at the complexities that are revealed if explored further. Nostalgialia: Hearing enough little tidbits on Musicheads as I'm pulling into my driveway to keep the car in park with the radio on for 15 more minutes to hear the discussion in full. Sometimes it's worth those fifteen minutes to be alone with music in the dark, and letting the rest of your life wait until the precious moment of musical discovery and connection has run its full course.

If I find a window this week, we'll tackle the Top Tier - one of the best Top Tens in recent memory! I'm also working on a small list of Year's biggest disappointments as well. #1 right now: University of Iowa athletics.

2007 Album Review: The Also-Rans

I've flirted with doing an in-depth end of year music review for many years now, and it took a few false starts, a bloated MP3 player, and some carmelized pear and pecan ice cream to get me movin. It's actually happening, B Combs. In three parts, no less.

This post will document the Third Tier Albums that I came across in the last year (not necessarily those that came out this year) that were featured most prominently in my year's journey. To add a little context, I'm adding a few memories that are always conjured up whenever I hear that album come up on the ol' Zen Vision. I'm gonna try to follow up with Second Tier (11-20) and Top Tier (1-10) Posts before the New Music Year is upon us.

In no particular order:
Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
Part of the "yelp rock" craze the kids are diggin' right now, This is a tough first listen, as you have to get past the lead vocals' quirkiness to find the good stuff, but boy, there's good stuff. I have a feeling like the best of these guys is yet to come. There are a couple of really good tracks on this disc that I find myself skipping to every time (damn that mp3 player makes it so easy), one an aucoustic Beck-ish track, and one that Abby threw on a mix I have that gets me every time with the polyrhythms and the crazy retro computerish-sounding keyboard.
Nostalgialia: I see spring road trips, finally taking my jacket off as I head down to Kansas for either Ultimate or a secluded cabin that contains some incredible new friends and a cute girl that appears to like me. I've just secured both a job and graduate school acceptance, and am feeling better than I have in 6 months.

Thom Yorke - The Eraser
On the very cusp of Tier Two, Thom's first foray into solo-dom highlights two truths: Yorke shows no sign of losing his paranoid, jaded, brilliant lyrics for a long time to come; and, Johnny Greenwood, the guitarist for Radiohead, is more important than I realized. The computer-programmed back beats work some of the time, but often seem used as a background piece for his soliloquy. Nostalgialia: Driving in the deepest cold of January to a temp job up on Lexington Parkway to search the internet for legal firm addresses. Not the ideal situation, but much better than the nothing of December '06, and hopes of a stint at Patagonia are on the horizon. Also, the employees of Merrill Legal Solutions are more enjoyable and talkative than almost any group of engineers I've been around.

Ween - La Cucaracha
A late-year entry, which is always shoved to the front by its newness (especially a novelty act to begin with), but perpetuates Seiler's claim that the collection of Ween's best songs might be one of your favorite albums, and a collection of their worst songs would almost definitely be the most torturous hour of your life. Amidst some of their blander stuff (blue balloon? why did they make this song?) there are some zingers that show why Dean, the guitarist, should sing more (My Own Bare Hands) and how deliciously (and realistically) creepy Gene can be (SpiritWalker, Your Party). Includes the epic line "Ocean and land: ocean is land covered in water". Nostalgialia: Driving home for a trip to finally see my sis play collegiate soccer; not too enthused about the trip until uncontrollable laughter by myself in the car with this album kicked my spirits into high gear. Turned out to be a great weekend with lots of folks from my clan - beautiful fall weather that gave half my face a sunburn.

Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
Had to fill my yearly quota of baroque pop (see: Belle and Sebastian, Decemberists, The Divine Comedy). Although the album sounded highly unpolished for a pop piece (issues with vocal tuning and irregular drum tempo), I got over that very quickly as the first track blows you out of the water with a great horn section to start off. I thought a lot about the Cardigans & the Microphones as I listened to this. "I will never kiss anyone/ who doesn't burn me like the sun" might be one of my favorite lines this year. Nostalgialia: Playing as I finally finish off the wall decor in my new room upstairs in The Lexington Palace, and getting my affairs settled and accepting my winter domesticity after the nomadic hurricane of an Ultimate season.

Minus The Bear - Planet Of Ice
Got to thank Matty Ells for this pickup. Heard it hungover in his new Jetta the morning after Kevin & Lana's wedding, and through the pain still knew it was something I could get into. Kind of falls into that prog rock revival that I throw The Mars Volta, Mew, even Broken Social Scene in with - I am probably a little off on this thought, but somehow I feel like this is stuff that young kids just a few years behind me (smells, my 17 year old cousin Ben) are listening to that gives me hope that rock music is not done finding new ways to sound fresh and interesting. Why do I think about Steely Dan when I hear this? Why am I okay with that? Nostalgialia: Great supper-making music; that along with the Steely Dan undertones made me visualize and wonder what my dad used to play while making supper when he was a single guy living on his own? Might have led to my futile quest for facial hair like my father's.



Okkervil River - The Stage Names
I think the only reason this one didn't make the upper cut is that I have not been able to spend good time with it. Another "yelper," Bryan Gates threw "Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe" onto his BG Mix #27 and got me yelping along 394 East many a summer evening. I like the undertones of dissonance that balance out the "Cure-esque" earnestness, kind of a Cure for a more complex time? That last sentence may have been a tad overwrought. Nostalgialia: A bike ride with Heyward back from stairs at Macalester Stadium talking about the album, and a thought of how much I've enjoyed sharing with Heyward our tastes and perspective on just about everything (music, food, beer, relationships, family, politics, etc), and how I think he's one of my favorite roommates I've ever had.

Patton Oswalt - Werewolves and Lollipops
Tough to put comedy albums on any kind of "top" lists, as their subject matter makes it less likely for repeat listens (but one did make it past this cut this year!) but I had to put a mention in on this one. His KFC's Bowls track was the single best bit I heard all year. "Happy Birthday, I'm 43." There are several more high quality tracks in here, but even beyond that, it's great listening to this CD, as his viewpoints on so many things line up with mine - I feel like it's kind of like listening to one of your friends go off on a tangent and you don't mind because it's hilarious shit coming out all over the place. Did someone say Joe Garvey? Nostalgialia: The ride back from Cooler with my good buddies Rouda and Gates - "everything in store four dollars." I need to take more road trips with these dudes.

Don't forget - Part Two coming soon - who do you think made the cut?

Engineering a Wardrobe

I saw this a few months ago in a widely distributed profession magazine called Structural Engineer that I get at work, and it has stuck in my craw since then for its ridiculousness. This article is entitled "Dressing For Engineering Success", and so succinctly illustrates why I just don't think I was cut out for the engineer's life, or at least not able to work for Richard G. Weingardt, P.E.:

Some of my favorite passages:

"...in case some attractive girl had transferred to my school since last term." "Just wanna go ahead and establish my heterosexual status early on so everybody knows where I'm comin from."

-the "cat's meow" in quotation marks, to clearly indicate that this is a figure of speech, and should not be taken literally. What is with these new slang phrases the kids are using today?

-"how informally (and carelessly) people dress who travel on airplanes and other forms of transportation. No suits and ties to be seen, or only rarely." -yeah, now that you mention it, the last time I rode on the MetroTransit Route 37, I didn't see ANYONE dressed up for this Significant Transportation Event. Pretty damn careless. And what if a board meeting suddenly occurs midflight to Denver? Are you going to be ready?

-"it's as if we've all become rock or movie stars, or part of the artsy set" - I mean, what can you say? It's a pretty safe bet that in college this guy was rockin' his slide rule to Lawrence Welk while everyone else was at the Jerry Lee Lewis concert. Also, "just want to go ahead and reiterate my earlier stance that I am, in fact, a heterosexual so nobody is mistaken on that issue."

"Without engineering, people would still be living in mud huts and hope for the future would be bleak." -right, and if there weren't doctors, we would all be sick, bleeding and dying.... engineering is an
inevitable product of an advanced society; society is not a byproduct of engineering, don't get the
two confused.

"...whether we're professional enough to deserve respect and high regard" - I offer up the counter examples of Donald Trump and Kurt Vonnegut.

Within an article about "dressing for success," the author's awkward tangent regarding nobility, history, and engineering legends that culminates in a self- recommendation of his own book. "There are many good books that can be of assistance in this area....The Tower and the Bridge (Billington), Engineering Legends (Weingardt), and The Great Bridge (McCullough)." Weingardt at the office water cooler: "So everybody's talking about this Weingardt fellow....."

"But dressing well - not flashy, but fashionably - for work, airline travel, meeting with your minister or your children's principal, and so on, is rarely a bad idea." I really think this guy is just against changing his clothes very often. Is your minister really going to treat you differently if you wear jeans and a t-shirt, and if so, shouldn't you think about changing churches? I'd also like to pick has brain about his idea of the difference between flashy and fashionable. If I wore the most "fashionable" clothes I had to work, I would not look professional. I would look PIMP.

"If you've never studied or been coached on how to dress well for success, do so the first chance you get." In fact, Rich Weingardt knows this guy that he might recommend, you might have heard of him - Weingardt is his name, I think?

Overall, this is just a horribly written and self-serving article, and the fact that it went through an editor who approved it for a profession-wide publication speaks even worse for my number-crunching counterparts. Old Rich's monthly installments, "The View From Here", is the last editorial piece in the magazine, the Rick Reilly or the Andy Rooney of the structural engineering world - the "everyman" piece that should go over well with the majority of the readership. Am I that far off from the mean? I thank my lucky stars every day that I am.

The Bucket Tips

As you will see from future blogs, the undulating cycles of life are what keep things interesting most of the time, no matter what mundane rut my bike tire is currently slogging through. It's been a deep rut recently, my job at a developmental standstill, a consequent unhealthy sleeping pattern, and far too little actual Ultimate to scamper around for.

But typically I welcome a change of season with a change for new outlooks and new attitudes and a reinvigorated sense of purpose and motivation, and the cold nights and changing leaves in Minnesota make for a picturesque setting for such revelations. Fortunately, through a confluence of many thoughts and events, I experienced that "tipped bucket" a couple nights ago.

As usual, I was having a hard time getting into bed, because, as we all know, once you hit that bed, you're on a direct schedule right to your office chair the next morning. My procrastinator this night happened to be looking for a new car. I have to admit that I've started getting obsessed with looking for the perfect deal, checking out websites for the right criteria, using my commutes to essentially scan the roadways for cars that I could see myself cruising in. I was getting so involved with this search online that I looked up and it was 1:30AM. 5 hours before my alarm would go off in the morning. This was unhealthy behavior. Reluctantly, I turned off the screen, lurched to the bathroom, removed contacts, brushed teeth, rolled into bed. As I turned out the lights, my thoughts were still dwelling on the car thing. Should I just take the next okay deal I see, should I be patient, should I be willing to spend more, can I afford any of this? The anxiety of overthought combined with the knowledge that I was keeping myself awake even longer was getting unsettling. Then, like a head dunked in cold water, a question appeared in my head. Why? Why are you worrying so much about a hunk of METAL? I have never in my life been too enamored of material goods - why would a car be any different?

The answer came quickly. I realized that it had nothing to do with the car. The car was an excuse. It was an excuse to invite something into my life that was different and new. It was a chance to spend my energy on possibilities of experience and ownership. But moreso, it was an escape from the dregs of my day-to-day existence, a place that I was unhappy with, and refused to deal with and truly examine for how I could make it better through means other than a "Significant Consumer Event". I realized that this was just one of several "band-aids" that I subconsciously implement to cover up issues that I'd rather turn away from. Then the floodgates opened up. How CAN I make my day-to-day better? What steps can I take to improve my situation without relying upon the beaten path of consumerism to make me feel better?

-talk to my supervisor about my lack of motivation, find tasks that keep me interested
-talk to a professor at the U about upcoming Urban Planning events and lectures
-read a good book
-talk to friends and family. Learn from their shared experiences.
-eat healthier
-take time out alone, quietly, to process my feelings and thoughts more often, to avoid these backlogs of anxiety and fear. Look into meditation techniques and theory.

It was a cathartic effect. It felt as if I had found a release valve, like I was free from a self-imposed confinement of the day-to-day, and realizing that a shake-up was necessary for me to remain focused, happy, and alive. I am sure that this will not be the last time I need to arrive at such a realization.

My lingering question is: what about people who don't ever get to that point - who let their feelings of restlessness, dissatisfaction and boredom sink in to their bones? Who may have, at one time, had ambitious goals of realizing and living out their passions, but are silenced and subdued by the spirit-suffocating structure of the Work-Shop-Consume lifestyle that is so encouraged and supported in this country? I think I know many people that lean towards this end of the spectrum. Should I tell them what's going on? Do they know, and are okay with it? Is it none of my business? I think I know what Rachel would say. And I bet she'd be right.

This is not to say that I'll stop looking for a car, sell all of my stuff and live in a tent - I mean, 256,000 miles is what it is, and I gotta get to Fool's Fest somehow - but I believe that the car buying process will be a much slower, more rational one, that will likely benefit both my purchase quality and my peace of mind. And that doesn't come standard on an '05 Civic EX.

Staying Classy

And you've waited over three months for....this:

Just saw Anchorman for the first time tonight. How this one slipped through unwatched for this long is beyond me. I can't wait until this weekend when I start quoting all of the lines and everyone looks over and says "yeah, that was a zinger back in '05.

But seriously -
"It's so hot!!! Milk was a bad decision..."
"Zeus's Beard!"
"I love lamp. I love lamp."

Okay. Shake it out.

Gotta start - again - somewhere.

Environment vs Attitude

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

Words from Theodore Roosevelt - a man whose picture always reminds me of my father - a stout man full of energy and heart, and had a mind for preserving the natural environment when the cause would be about the last thing you would win an Oscar for. But I'm not specifying THAT environment - at least not tonight. In fact, I believe Teddy was also decrying "situational environment" in his quote - while championing the people placed within those various environments, and the attitudes they carried with them.

I've recently found myself in a new, but altogether familar environment, at an engineering firm in the suburbs of Minneapolis. It had been nearly five months since my last engineering job was ended due to a lack of work, and likely wasn't helped by my general detatchment from everything associated with the place. American flags and eagles (ALOT of them) in the lobby, a painful 45 minute commute both ways, an awkward move into a corner office that was nice, but indicated that I would soon be packing my books again. So, environment, a definite detractor.

But as Teddy claimed, all was not lost. Had I picked myself by my own bootstraps after the patriotic explosion in the lobby, ignored those red flags popping up in my social, political, and intellectual framework, sat down at my desk, and realized that all the rest was periphery to the task at hand, I might have been able to engage myself.

Unfortunately (from only a professional perspective), there are a lot of things in my life - Ultimate, music, a girlfriend - that I see as positives almost purely BECAUSE of attitude, and DESPITE environment. My Ultimate team didn't practice, and lived collectively over a thousand miles away from one another. My girlfriend lives 7 1/2 hours away, without pee stops. How could I make them such an intricate and rich part of my every day life? Purely through the will to do so, and the positive response and support I got from the individuals involved.

So whether it was all of the big box Target and Best Buys I was designing, my own insecurities of my skills as an engineer, or a dull, non-interactive 8 hours of checking minute details on plans whose errors were insignificant as the projects had already been built, or a combination of everything -I had a bad attitude, AND a bad environment. It was only a matter of time before our ways were parted.

In my new position, the environment is similar: catacomb-like hallways, not only devoid of, but I think perhaps negating sound that tries to escape the cubicle walls, and a pervasive male dominance that allows my supervisor to comment on the "young, hot secretary" within 20 minutes of my first day. But what has been the difference that I think will make this adventure, however brief or long it may be, a successful one, is the realization that my environment can affect me only as much as my attitude allows. It is a realization that has grown and matured in every passing year of my life, and I think is one of the big perks of growing up (despite many drawbacks). Although I don't appear to currently flow in sync with the majority of my coworkers, it certainly doesn't mean that I can't find opportunities to accomplish goals and improve my problem-solving ability by my own rules. The benefits are already starting to pay off - I can tell the quality of my work is better, and today my supervisor changed a set of his own calcs because he thought a method I used in my own calcs were a better approach. And perhaps we will have more to talk about than the young hot secretary.

This, I think, is the same reason that I look more and more favorably towards growing into a weird old man. I will be the one who says inappropriate things because I've put less emphasis on the correct environment to say them, and more upon how strongly I feel about what I'm going to say. This also allows me to sympathize with my late grandfather, who, at a family reunion, with absolutely no prompting, asked my uncle "Now, David, does your scrotum hit the toilet water when you're on the pot? What? (noticing the shock and disbelief in the family members around him) I think it's a problem with the water level in our cabin!!" He just wanted to know! Didn't want to wait for the "right time" to ask. I am doomed to follow. Rach, get ready.

But these are my current thoughts. That treasured attitude diverter, Ultimate, is banging impatiently at the door. And that Combs girl just keeps getting cuter every time we hang out. Will I get lucky enough to find a balance of positive energy in the right places to allow attitude to overcome less-than desirable environments? 1-2-3-4 I declare a mental war.

Foolish apparel

Heading south this weekend - all too excited. I think there are some posts bubbling within, soon enough.

I'm wearing plaid pants today, and a plain shirt. Getting some smirks and a few "nice pants" comments - gratifying enough. But why do people so often go for the plaid TOP and plain bottom, rather than the otehr way around? Why not BOTH? Wait, I guess I know the answer to that.

I'd rather be :boar hunting.