(no subject)
MUSIC
A pretty mediocre year in music that was saved by a bunch of crucial jams dropping in the last couple months. Here we go…
1. Explosions In The Sky - Suddenly I Miss Everyone
Everyone and their mom knows Explosions In The Sky. They're like the poster boys for the whole instrumental/post-rock thing. And I don't fucking care. This album is too good for me to care about that. The first track is the most triumphant shit ever. When it hits that breakdown...it's just jaw-dropping. I’m really glad they added that second Seattle show and I was able to see them. Top spot…I could jam this for days.
2. The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
This band kinda came out of nowhere. Absolutely beautiful Scottish shoe-gaze/post-rock with extremely catchy melodies. Love it.
3. Crime In Stereo - Is Dead
It’s impossible to overstate how much this record rules. It’s the most legit pop-punk CD anyone’s made in years. They took some major risks musically and it paid off big time. These songs just invade your subconscious after one or two listenings and do not leave.
4. Pig Destroyer - Phantom Limb
Not as good as “Prowler In The Yard,” but perhaps better than “Terrifyer.” I’m not sure yet. Still scary, dark and nihilistic as all fuck. They seemed to have toned down the powerviolence/thrash just a bit and turned up the mosh riffs, which is okay by me. Some people bitched about this…whatever.
5. Ghostface Killah - Big Doe Rehab
After dropping both the instant-classic “Fishscale” and the comparable “More Fish” in 2006, I can’t even believe this guy had the energy to walk around the block, yet alone drop another great album. Best living rapper, hands down.
6. Life At These Speeds - To Your Health
I jammed this album a lot this year. They played a infamous Bellingham basement show with Dragline this past spring and I’ve loved ‘em ever since. Really solid DC-style screamo or whatever with a few mellow diversions here and there. Apparently they threw in the towel a few months ago, which is a damn shame.
7. Daniel Striped Tiger - Capital Cities
Really glad I heard about this band. They also do the DC-style thing I guess, but a bit more experimental. This record only has 7 tracks, but they space it out enough to make it feel like a full album. Good lyrics, too.
8. Heiress - Demo 2007
Best thing to come out of Washington this year. I can’t wait to hear more. Adam’s vocals are nothing short of soul-crushing and the music backs it up.
9. Jay-Z - American Gangster
Perhaps the weirdest thing to happen in music this year. Hova sees a super advanced screening of the Ridley Scott film “American Gangster” and gets so stoked on it that he makes a quasi-concept album about how his life mirrors the life of gangster/drug dealer Frank Lucas. And then the album actually rules! Great wordplay and imagery combined with hot soul beats and non-stop swagger.
10. Steve Moore - The Henge
This is the first solo album from one of the dudes from Zombi. Basically, it’s the soundtrack to the best horror/thriller/zombie movie you’ve never seen. Hopefully this doesn’t mean Zombi is done, though.
11. DJ Khaled - We The Best (just barely missed the top ten. so many bangers...WE THE BEST!!! WHO?!?! WE!!!!)
12. Besnard Lakes - Are The Dark Horse
13. Down - III: Over The Under
14. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light (embarrassing, i know. band still rules. fight me.)
15. Walls - s/t LP
16. Rich Boy - s/t (not just a one-hit-wonder, the whole album is pretty bangin'.)
17. Graf Orlock - Destination Time Tomorrow
18. Shipwreck A.D. - Abyss
19. Meltdown - Demolition
20. Baroness - The Red Album
And The Rest…
Shook Ones/Easel Split
Glos - Harmonium
Neurosis - Given To The Rising
Ruiner - Prepare To Be Let Down
Capital - Homefront
Modern Life Is War - Midnight In America
Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
R. Kelly - Double Up
Mistah FAB - The Baydestrian
Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams (haven't even heard it yet, but it deserves a mention. plus, i heard it was pretty decent)
Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls (i'll be god damned if this album didn't win me over after hearing it a million times at work)
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (same thing here)
The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
Battles - Mirrored
Bruce Springsteen - Magic
Cephalic Carnage - Xenosapian
Death Breath - Let It Stink
Earthless - Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky
Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today
Serpent Throne - Ride, Satan, Ride
Go It Alone - Histories
Iamthethorn - You Are The Lamb
Lifetime - s/t
Middian - Age Eternal
Mono - Gone (all previously released stuff, but still awesome)
Municipal Waste - The Art of Partying
Maritime - Heresy and the Hotel Choir
Pulling Teeth - Marytr Immortal
Rocky Votolato - The Brag and Cuss
T-Pain - Epiphany
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Zozobra - Harmonic Tremors
65DaysOfStatic - The Destruction of Small Ideas
Rivers Cuomo - Alone (haven't even heard it yet, but i know i'll at least dig some of it)
Biggest Disapointments
Modern Life Is War - Midnight In America
Going from a flawless 7" and 2 flawless LPs to this? An exceedingly mediocre record with like 3 good songs maybe? What a bummer. This band will either break up (i hope so) or get really big and embarrass us all.
Neurosis - Given To The Rising
I mean, yeah, it's pretty good, but maybe it's time to pack it in? They've been around 20 years...maybe chill for a while and come back in a few years to blow our minds all over again or something.
Capital - Homefront
Good riffs, embarrassing lyrics. I swear that's not the same guy who wrote "Polar Bear Club" and "Cross Crowded Rooms".
Want to hear from next year:
POLAR BEAR CLUB - so fucking bummed that the LP hasn't dropped yet. WHY GOD WHY. If the new tracks they posted are any indication, this record will destroy everything ever.
Algernon Cadwallader
Lucero!
something awesome from Maura Davis
Best sets I saw this year:
Damnation AD @ the legion hall (a literal mosh apocalypse, shit was unreal)
Down @ showbox sodo (most ignorant and awesome show I’ve ever been to)
Lucero @ the crocodile (2 hours! So very worth it)
Lifetime @ el Corazon (first time seeing them, really fun except the vocalist is a chud)
Mono @ the nightlight and the crocodile (both nearly ruined by fucktards in the crowd)
Explosions in the Sky @ neumos (breathtaking)
Shook Ones every time, but especially the most recent one at the legion hall
Isis @ neumos (the 10 year anniversary tour…pretty damn crushing)
MOVIES
Great year for movies. It was actually really hard to narrow it down to a top ten.
1. Superbad
Hands down, funniest and best movie of 2007. Being a male from the 'burbs, I connected with this movie big time. It's just pitch-perfect. All killer, no filler. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera kill it at every opprotunity. Can't wait to watch this over and over again on DVD.
2. Planet Terror
Best party of a movie i've ever seen. THIS is how you make a non-stop, raging zombie action movie. So much fun. Babes, awesome gore, great cast....what more do you need?
3. No Country For Old Men
Okay, serious time. This is a serious movie for serious people.....ok, but for real, i loved this film. Great dialogue, extremely bleak and depressing....maybe a bit pretentious, but whatever. Ending was weird, but very unsettling and fitting in hindsight.
4. Hot Fuzz
Perhaps the best-written film of 2007. So much cleverness and hilarity. The ending was perhaps my favorite part of any movie i saw this year.
5. 3:10 To Yuma
Christian Bale brought it over and over again. And Russell Crowe didn't suck! He was actually kind of good. But, Bale stole everything. This movie could have been called "Grizzled Badasses Destroying Everything In Sight."
6. American Gangster
Ridley Scott bringin' it yet again. It felt like an awesome, epic 2-hour long episode of The Wire that takes place over a couple decades. Super detailed, nuanced and entertaining. "My man!"
7. 30 Days of Night
This movie had the most dead-serious tone of any major horror movie this year. Reminded me a bit of "The Thing". The only thing that bothered me were the bree-vocals vampires. ugh.
8. Hostel 2
Once again, fuck the haters. Great sequel. Great gore and humor...could have used more nudity to really drive it home but apparantly Roth got a lot of flack for the amount of bewbz in the first one.
9. Knocked Up
Very, very funny. Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen are great together, yet again. But, there are so many things that instantly date this movie (mentioning spiderman 3 like three times, constantly referencing current celebrities, etc.) And it got completely blown away in the funny department by Superbad. Still, great comedy with a lot of touchy-feely shit, too.
10. The Mist
Incredibly dark and nihilistic...this movie really surprised me. Yes, the CG is terrible at times, but it delivers in every other area. The ending....fugg.
The Rest
Exiled
300
This Is England
Live Free or Die Hard (so glad this didn't suck, can't wait to peep the unrated cut)
Shoot ‘Em Up
Sunshine
Spiderman 3 (fuck the haters, this movie was fun)
Rescue Dawn
Still need to see:
I Am Legend
Juno
There Will Be Blood
Shit Movies of 2007
Death Proof - fuck this fucking terrible movie and the horse it rode in on. Kurt Russell does not turn into a sniveling bitch when a bunch of girls suddenly turn the tables on him. FUCK THAT. UGH.
Across The Universe - possibly the most embarrassing thing ever committed to celluloid.
Those are really the only ones that really bugged me….I try really hard to avoid movies I know are terrible.
T.V.
Lost - season 3 (nothing else really matters)
The Wire - season 4
Rome - season 2
Sopranos - season 6 part 2 (despite the underwhelming finale)
BONUS SECTION: MONSTER JAMS OF 2007!
So maybe it’s just because I was paying more attention to it, but mainstream/radio rap was incredibly entertaining this year. No idea why, but I love this shit.
1. Rich Boy - Throw Some D’s
2. R. Kelly feat. T.I., T-Pain - Ima Flirt
3. Mistah FAB - Ghost Ride It (it is a crime that this album never dropped this year due to legal complications with the Ghostbusters franchise and people seemingly blaming FAB for the whole ghost riding trend. Great, hilarious song and video)
4. DJ Khaled - basically everything he did. MVP for 2007….I’m So Hood (and the remix), We’re Takin’ Over, Brown Paper Bag…..the list goes on and on.
5. T-Pain - Buy U a Drank
6. USDA - White Girl
7. Birdman feat. Lil Wayne - Pop Bottles
8. Playaz Circle feat. Lil Wayne - Duffle Bag Boy
9. Gucci Mane - Freaky Gurl
10. Hurricane Chris - A Bay Bay
And so, so many more…
And that was 2007.
Sincerely,
Eric Sanford, unapologetic nerd with too much time on his hands at the moment