Re: BEST of 2011

2011. It's weird - all the young bands that never knew the must-get-signed-to-a-major lifestyle; talented kids that have always known music as an online, level-playing-field presence. It's certainly made live music more important than ever and has raised the bar for the big new old thang: the gig. Even laptop-and-a-mic-sters are gigging. Conversely, aside from the Foo Fighters, is the stadium rock star dead? Certainly the clubs are thriving in American cities, though the cost of touring for bands (and tickets for fans) is putting challenging dents in the system.

Lots of masters/gods put out fantastic material this year; teach these up-n-comers about longevity.

Aside from continued Rap-genre hegemony, Country Pop had its biggest year in history and although mainstream Rock had its worst year since first becoming predominant over half a century ago (Foo Fighters being the only "normal" seller in trad rock! The only other albums that sold well in the rock genre were Coldplay and a Bon Jovi comp), there were several new classics from art rock quarters...funny stories...music got healthy attention...indie is blending into mainstream at media outlets... a good year for indie titles. Some of these = plain awesome. Coul Biens.

note: I continue to refute best-of-year lists that cover only Apr-Sep

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10 BEST ALBUMS/LONG PLAYERS
...and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Tao of the Dead
Atlas Sound - Parallax
Feelies - Here Before
Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
Girls - Father Son Holy Ghost
Gold-Bears - Are You Falling in Love?
Meat Puppets - Lollipop
Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
White Denim - D
Wire - Red Barked Tree


10 BEST THANK-THE-GODS
Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding
Decemberists - The King is Dead
Fall - Ersatz G.B.
Noel Gallagher - High Flying Birds
David Kilgour - Left by Soft
Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Rosebuds - Loud Planes Fly Low
Wilco - The Whole Love
Wild Flag - s/t


20 BEST OTHER TRACKS/SINGLES/ARTISTS
Black Lips - Modern Art
Caveman - Old Friend
Cloud Nothings - Understand at All
Danielson - This Day is a Loaf
Sallie Ford - I Swear
Go! Team - Buy Nothing Day (feat. Bethany Cosentino)
Gold Leaves - The Ornament
Howling Bells - Into the Sky
Joy Formidable - Whirring
Male Bonding - Mysteries Complete
Megafaun - Real Slow
Nodzzz - Time
Poison Control Center - Some Ordinary Vision
Raveonettes - Recharge Revolt
Sloan - Unkind
Smith Westerns - End of the Night
Tennis - Marathon
Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever
War on Drugs - Baby Missiles
Wye Oak - Civilian


5 BEST EPs
Besnard Lakes - You Lived in the City
Dum Dum Girls - He Gets Me High
Of Montreal - thecontrollersphere
Wavves (/Best Coast/Fucked Up) - Life Sux
Weekend - Red


10 BEST VIDEOS
Battles - My Machines
Cloud Nothings - Understand at All
Fucked Up - Queen of Hearts
Girls - Honey Bunny
Is Tropical - The Greeks
Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Heart in Your Heartbreak
Rammstein - Mein Land (A rare non-porno. Surfin-and-a-Swingin!)
St. Vincent - Cruel
Superchunk - Crossed Wires
White Denim - At the Ghost Room


BEST RETURN TO FORM
Social D - Hard Times, Nursery Rhymes
--runner up--
GBV - Let's Go Eat the Factory


HONORABLE MENTIONS
Gods: Buffalo Tom - Skins
Young Band: Real Estate - Days


SLOW BURN
Young Gods - Everybody Knows


BEST TO PISS OFF NEIGHBORS/UNINVITED GUESTS
Cerebral Ballzy - s/t


MOST WELCOME BACK
Live: B.A.D.
Album: Magazine - No Thyself


BEST HITS/SINGLES COMP
Radio Dept - Passive Agressive


BEST BOOT
Bowie - Toy


BEST REBOOT
Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding


BEST POTENTIAL
Black Lips


BEST NEW BAND
Male Bonding


BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE
Rolling Stones - Brussels Affair


BEST ALBUM PERFORMANCE, LIVE
Wedding Present - Bizarro in Tokyo


BEST RE-ISSUE
Rolling Stones - Some Girls (2 Disc)


BEST SOUNDTRACK
Upside Down: Creation


BEST V/A COMP
Before the Fall


BIGGEST WTF?
Art Brut - Brilliant! Tragic!
(guess which one)


SADDEST SHARK JUMP
Fountains of Wayne - Milque Full of Toast


SADDEST DROPPED BALL
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical


MOST OVERHYPED
Fleet Foxes - Soft More Slump


MOST FUN TO HYPE TO FRIENDS
Yuck - s/t


BEST OBSCURITY/OUTSIDER
Ty Segall - Singles


BEST NEW NAME
Elway


LEAST SHOCKING SHOCKER
Amy Winehouse


MOST SHOCKING NON-SHOCKER
After REM "announce" breakup (rather than just not recording or touring; thus priming the reunion) bereaved fans eulogize, sit shiva, create fan fiction.


BEST PACKAGING
...ToD - Tao of the Dead novelette
--runner up--
Grateful Dead - Europe '72 Complete: Steamer Trunk Edition


Biggest Insult to Fan Base/Common Sense
Jay-Z/Kanye - Watch the Throne


Largest Free-Pass-for-any-Output
Kate Bush


Post-Nirvana Award for Faux-Indie
Foster the People


Good-Sounding Idea, Crap Execution
Everyone Was In The French Resistance...Now!


Crap-Sounding Idea, Good Execution
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.


Still MIA, the New:
J & MC
--tie--
MBV


Best Mainstream Single
Alex Winston - Velvet Elvis


Best Mainstream Pop Album
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream


Most Overrated
Bon Iver


Al-Most Overrated
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy


Ubiquitous Annoyment
Adele


Still evil, still inexplicably popular
Coldplay (/Martin solo)
--runner up--
MMJ


Best Would-have-been-historical-proportions-disaster...if-there'd-actually-been-expectations
Metallica w/Lou


Best ReMastering
Johnny Marr/Frank Arkwright - Smiths Complete


Most Apparent Indie Genre MK II
Beard Rock


Best Mondegreen Heard
Old Mary Clark canon: Obi Wan
(St. Vincent - Year of the Tiger)


Most Second-Guessed Event
Kim-x-Thurston


Freshest TV
Workaholics


Freshest Podcast
Smodcast - Jay Mohr
--tie--
WTF? w/ Marc Maron


Book
Richards - Life


Best Meme
Tide goes in tide goes out


Quotes of the Year, OR, Where's Albini?

"Every time I've got a record coming out my left leg plays up"
- MES

"Silence is your canvas"
- Keef

"I picked up the NME and it said 'Who's the new Jarvis Cocker?' on the cover. I thought, 'fucking 'ell, some prick, I bet!'. I opened it up and it was me"
- Eddie Argos

Kiss succinctly explained:
"I tried to dress up like Kiss for Halloween but I have red curly hair so I ended up Ronald McDonald"
- Carl Newman

Which person do you most admire?
"Myself...As Napoleon"
- MES

"When you walk down the street and you say, 'Look at that girl's ass - it's so great!', you're ignoring the fact that she farts and shits out of that ass."
- Will Oldham

"Working the right chord, you can hear this other chord going on behind it, which actually you're not playing. It's there; it defies logic and it's just laying there saying, 'fuck me!'"
-Keef

"All the groups are coming out of the woodwork. They've all got to play now cause of downloading. I blame U2! Them fuckers! Going, 'Oh yeah, music's for everybody, for nothing.' Cheeky bastards!"
- MES

"Shrooms are only similar to penises in their appearance"
- Charlie Sheen

"If you got into an argument with someone, you’d want Axl in your corner. He’s a good guy to have on your side. You know, you don’t want Rivers Cuomo defending you..."
- Eddie Argos

"Thank god for recorded music. It's the best thing that's happened to us since writing."
- Keef



Post Edited (01-25-12 05:37)

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Biggest Insult to Fan Base/Common Sense
Jay-Z/Kanye - Watch the Throne

Hear, hear! Well played, sir.

Quote

Well played, sir.

Ha! 10Q 10Q.

I rather like Adele. I somehow avoided hearing her music until my girlfriend got the 21 CD in her stocking. We let it run for most of Christmas day and I quite enjoyed it. "Rolling In The Deep" sounds about as good as Gnarls Barkley. "Rumour Has It" has a harder, more infectious beat then anything Amy Winehouse ever did to these ears. It has some nice torch ballads, some decent quasi-rockers, and even a palatable Cure cover. Oh yeah, and real instruments are used. B+

I think that Adele disk is too ballad heavy, but she sure can sing, and I agree that those two songs are two of the best singles this year. In "Rolling"'s case, one of the best of the last 10 years. And I think the Cure cover is fucking great.

I don't think she's quite the major artist her record sales would indicate, but she's on her way to becoming one, if she can stay out of the clutches of the record companies' marketing departments (i.e. the folks who'll want her to record variations on "Someone Like You" over and over). And more power to her.

Paganizer, that was fucking awesome. Damned fine job.

jesus christ pagan (i always wanted to say that),
thats not a list its a fucking manifesto. but i can't seem to find either 'the newest/hottest chick singer' or the 'bands that should headline the spring '12 OWS takeover' categories...

just chill

thanx, again this year, blasmo

I noticed it got bigger and I'd say it was because this year lent to (musically analogous) badinage but truth is every year it grows by ten snarkegories.

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I wonder if there even is a "next level" anymore.

I'm guessing that if there is a "next level," it ain't what it used to be. Anybody else hear this story the other day?

[m.npr.org]

Adele's record involved a number of producers (including Rick Rubin, who doesn't come cheap), writers and musicians. I don't think Snoop guested on any of the tracks, but still...

> I don't think she's quite the major artist her record sales would indicate, but she's on her
> way to becoming one, if she can stay out of the clutches of the record companies' marketing
> departments (i.e. the folks who'll want her to record variations on "Someone Like You" over
> and over).

Those same creeps probably will pressure her to slim down, too. It's not enough for them that she's got the biggest-selling album of the year, or a potentially bright future ahead (not to mention the mere fact that she can sing so well). They'll be thinking, "Man, we could push Adele to the next level if only she was hotter."

I notice she's already noticeably slimmer in recent publicity pictures. Though may be photoshop. Which is still a symptom of the same stupidity.

I wonder if there even is a "next level" anymore. Adele had far and away the bestselling record of 2011 - at 2 million copies. Time was the year's bestselling album would be 10 million. If record execs think a return to the so-called glory days is imminent, methinks they're sadly mistaken.

That said, I think Adele's record is one that people will continue to buy over the course of years because it will hold up over time. I doubt there are very many other mainstream records that can say the same.

Belatedly diggin Distraction Piecces by Scroobius Pip.