The J Train

YEMS postponed

Due to acute-on-chronic failure to get off my ass, the rest of the YEMS is being put off for a few days as we embark on a tour of the state to catch up with folks. Look for the rest late next week.

And have a bitchin' new year!

YEMS 2007, Part 2--Songs I Loved from Down the List

The second part of this year's YEMS is usually called Songs I Loved from Albums I Didn't, but there really isn't an album here I didn't like.  (There's one I haven't heard, but I can't imagine it's that bad.)  There were just a lot of good albums this year.

Busdriver - "Casting Agents and Cowgirls"
Busdriver has been around for a few albums, but he got some attention this year between the music blogs, an opening spot on RJD2's tour, and his excellent disc Roadkill Overcoat.  He's one of those musicians you can enjoy on different levels; you can enjoy the sound of the lyrics flying past you, and then when you catch a few of them you realize they're really damn clever.


Menomena - "Wet and Rusting"
This was one of the first tracks I really fell in love with this year.  It's the perfect song for a twisted mood that I happened to be in at the time.

M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
I didn't find myself coming back to M.I.A.'s new album very often, and I can't really say why, because it's a really good disc.  I did the same thing with her first one.  This single really jumped out at me, though.  It probably could have been a big hit if the musical powers that be weren't so antsy about the gunshots in the chorus, and if Maya hadn't been so relentless about keeping them in.

Okkervil River - "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe"
It had to have been a good year when this disc can't crack the top 10, but it had two definite standout tracks--this one and "John Allyn Smith Sails".  It also had a great video.  There's a little bit of piano not too far into it that kills me (just after "and falls into silence").  I can't explain why.

Kate Tucker and the Sons of Sweden - "Faster than Cars Drive"
This is the album I haven't heard, because it hasn't popped up anywhere and I can't remember to order it.  But I knew I'd love her when she was (very accurately) described as Neko Case meets Beth Orton.  I can't wait to hear more. (No video clip, but check out her MySpace.)

Coming tomorrow: the next five!

He-Man doth protest much

When Cracked suggested that He-Man/Prince Adam needed to come out of the closet, it was a lot like having someone point out the arrow in the FedEx logo--once you see it, you just can't not see it.

I realized this when I was downloading some Christmas specials for Tamara and came across the He-Man/She-Ra Christmas Special.  He-Man and Adam's attire is really just the beginning.  The dialogue contains one questionably inadvertent double entendre after another, they spent waaaay too much time and effort drawing in muscle definition, and really, have you seen Man-At-Arms?  Does that helmet remind you of anything?

Maybe the Christian Coalition-types were on to something back then.

YEMS 2007, Part 1--Not Exactly New

The first list in this year's Year-End Music Spectacular is the Not Exactly New category--live albums, reissues, compilations, and the like.  I save the top spots for new studio work, so this is where I put the albums that aren't.  In alphabetical order, and for the first time, with video clips!


After Dark (various artists)
After Dark is a top-notch collection of Eurotrash disco from the Italians Do It Better label.  The most striking bits, like Farah's "Law of Life" and Mirage's remix of Indeep's "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life", combine minimalist beats and 80s synth with a sense of darkness, almost creepiness.  A fantastic late-night headphone listen.
(Sorry, couldn't find a good video clip.)


Daft Punk, Alive 2007
I'm foregoing specific rankings in this year's lists, but I will state one absolute: this was the best album I heard all year.  (Regular readers won't be surprised by that.)  The buzz around their all-too-limited tour was about how two guys with robot helmets and laptops became the can't-miss live act of the year thanks to a stunning light and video show, so it was surprising when they announced a live CD but no DVD.  It turns out that when you strip away the Pink Floyd-esque stage excess (not that you should), what you have is DP's hit-and-miss career cut up and quilted into a perfect set.  With only three albums behind them they weren't quite due for a greatest hits set, but I guess they needed one.  Some tracks are left relatively unscathed, while others are pasted together into something completely new.  They could have easily released it as a mixtape without the audience noise, but it adds a lot; you have to love how the crowd sings along with "Da Funk" even though it's an instrumental (see the video below).

"Da Funk/Daftendirekt"



Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition)
This is where I shoot my music nerd cred straight to hell by admitting that I had never really listened to this album before this year. In fact, I've managed to avoid Sonic Youth almost entirely.  But the Deluxe Edition stirred up talk about it, and after a few listens I could see why.  If I had to predict a band I'll spend a lot more time with in 2008, this would be the one.

"Silver Rocket"



The Traveling Wilburys, Vol 1./Vol. 3
This makes the list not because the reissue extras are anything special, but because it was reissued at all.  Vol. 1 was one of the defining albums of my life.  A friend (who did a mean Roy Orbison) and I once performed this entire album at a party--from memory--just because someone said we couldn't do it.  I didn't even realize it had been out of print for ten years--why did I need to buy it again?  I know it.  It's already mine.  Still, I'm glad it's out there for everybody else.  Of course, they had to package the forgettable Vol. 3 with it (and no, there's no Vol 2), but it's a small price to pay.

"End of the Line"



Neil Young, Live at Massey Hall 1971
Neil Young has so many modes--noise rock mode, country-fried mode, etc.--but I'm partial to solo acoustic mode.  The one time I ever saw him perform was at Live Aid at Cardinal Stadium in 1995; he followed the Vegas revue bombast of John Cougar Rogers Nelson Mellencamp with a solo acoustic set that brought the house down.  This 1971 set in front of a hometown crowd was a perfect addition to his ongoing live archive series, and it shows what an unreal body of work he already had by that point.

"Ohio":


Coming soon: Songs I Loved on Albums I Didn't (Quite)

The 2007 Year-End Music Spectacular! Part Zero

Welcome to The J Train's 2007 Year-End Music Spectacular! During the last week of each year, I add my meager voice to the thousands of music nerds with blogs who dig through their musical aquisitions for the year and list their favorites.

As always, the list will come in four parts. First I'll list the best Not Exactly New albums--reissues, live albums, and the like. Next will be Songs I Liked from Albums I Didn't--or, more correctly, albums that didn't make the top 10 (though many easily could have). Then I'll do the Next Five Best of 2007, and finally the Five Best of 2007.

One change I'm making this year is that I'm not going to rank anything within the categories. Lists like this are arbitrary enough without trying to decide which album was seventh-best and which was eighth, so I'm just skipping it.

I don't hear everything that comes out in a year, and a lot of what I do hear I don't give the time it deserves. For instance, The Hold Steady's 2004 and 2005 albums (Almost Killed Me and Separation Sunday) are definitely among my favorite albums from those years, but I hadn't heard them in 2004 and I hadn't yet digested SS in 2005. Hell, all the way back in 2001 I pronounced Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot--a serious contender for the album of the decade--to be a disappointment because a few capricious listens to the free download weren't enough for it to sink in. A few discs that probably have something for me that I just haven't found yet:

• Person Pitch by Panda Bear


• Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem


• Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? by Of Montreal


• Spiderman of the Rings by Dan Deacon


• Andorra by Caribou

And then, there were a few albums that just didn't do much for me. You never know, though; I might come around on any of them.

• Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
. There were some good songs on it, to be sure, but I didn't want to quit my job and listen to it all day like I did with Funeral.

• Challengers by The New Pornographers. Same story. It wasn't even the dearth of Neko--I'd be happy with a Carl Newman solo joint. It just didn't hit me right.


• Graduation by Kanye West. You can't fault him--he couldn't keep up that streak forever.

Enjoy! And since the whole point of the list is to foster discussion, comment away!

Go Jesus, it's your birthday

Zwingo

The latest bit of flash-based crack rock.

You can thank me later.

Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums

The P-Fork lists their Top 50 albums for the year. I don't know if I should be proud or ashamed that you have to go to Lil' Wayne at #16 before you find something that isn't on my iPod. (Yes, I'm fixing that.)

Of course, I wouldn't be a proper music hipster if I agreed with their list. :) In fact, only one of my Top 5 is on their list at all. Their #1 choice--Panda Bear's Person Pitch--has been on my playlist since it came out, and I see why it's a good album--it would be in my Top 20 or 30, easily--but I don't really get all the slobbering over it. That's how I feel about Animal Collective in general.* I even like the whole Brian Wilson-influenced production style; I just like it better when it's applied to something I can sing along with.

But there's nothing in the Top Ten I'd really argue with, and nothing anywhere that made me go "Really? That's bullshit."

Speaking of lists, the annual J Train Year End Music Spectacular! is coming soon! I'll probably run it from December 26-29 in the usual four parts--the Top Five, the Next Five, Songs I Loved from Albums I Didn't, and Not Quite New. The one difference I'm making this year is that I'm not going to rank within the lists, since most of it is pretty arbitrary anyway. Don't miss it!

* Sung Tongs was the perfect soundtrack to my solo night float month toward the end of residency, especially those surreal hallucinatory hours around 4-5 AM. I'm not sure that's a point in its favor.

Law & Order: KFC

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

(Yes, I'm doing a rather overdue series of Media Roundup posts.)

I finally finished this Friday night, and more than anything I'm disappointed that it's over. Books like this make me not feel so bad about spending Friday nights at home reading.

When I was only about 1/3 of the way in, someone asked me what the book is about, and I said, "It's about two guys in the 30s and 40s who write comic books." Even at that point, I knew that was a totally inadequate description, but I don't have a better one.

Just like Joe and Sam's lives are reflected in their funnybooks, you can see a lot of comic book style in the novel--big characters, big actions, clear motivations, jumping from place to place with new enemies popping up all over. I loved the way Chabon dropped in little bits of foreshadowing, usually stated as fans and historians looking back on the duo, to help pull the story along; it isn't subtle, but it works.

This novel seems to be joining A Confederacy of Dunces in the ranks of novels that have a hard time getting filmed. I really can't imagine how you would do it without making it six hours long or cutting the hell out of it, and even then I don't think the novel's magic would come through. I did like some of the casting ideas I saw, including Adrian Brody as Joe Kavalier, Tobey Macguire as Sam Clay, and Natalie Portman as Rosa.