Some bloggers work very hard to compile a unique year end list that doesn’t match the hundreds of others out there.  They’ll scratch every musical surface and leave no stone unturned.  They’ll abandon the surefire indie hits for the pursuit of their own personalized favorites.  They’ll go to the World section of their local cd store and write down names of African tribal artists and then go home and download those albums off bittorent.

Luckily for me, I don’t really have to put much effort into this thing at all.  Naturally and easily, my list will always be pretty different from everything else out there in music blog internet land.  For starters, I don’t get nearly as many promos as other blogs, which means there are dozens of great albums I’ll never have to worry about avoiding due to ‘Best Of’ over-saturation (ignorance is bliss!).  I can just post the 5, 6 or 9 albums that I really enjoyed that year and move on.

The other reason why this list will be a little varied from what one might see on other blogs is that I am a unique, insightful, enlightened music listener.

So with that, let’s dive in! Continue Reading »

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnwmtsMkqI

A series of artistic images and blurry night scenes loosely based on New York band the National and the making of their breakthrough album Boxer, French director Vincent Moon’s music film A Skin, A Night is a bittersweet offering for fans of the band.

Shot using Moon’s trademark saturated cinematography and scored by odd layers and instrumental pieces taken from the album, A Skin, A Night is a great visual representation of the dark, dream-like quality present in the National’s music, however, and sadly, the film shows no interest in being a documentary. There are occasional glimpses of band members talking about anxiety and the group’s early days fighting up the ranks, and a very interesting studio moment where singer Matt Berninger shoots down a piano arrangement, insisting the band can come up with something better, but these are too few and far between. The film is much more interested in giving us a visual impression of the band than documenting the facts behind it. As an art piece, it works just fine; as a National dvd, it is pretty underwhelming.

I guess my biggest beef with the film is that it needed more actual National music to go along with all the abstract imagery. Most of the background music in the film is bits and pieces of studio sessions. These range from great- there is an awesome Slow Show/Blank Slate sequence and an extended live performance of About Today- to way too short, blips of Bryan Davendorf drumming on a metal fan cage or Padma Newsome playing the violin for 4 seconds. I would have loved to hear some of the demo recordings and live studio footage featured on Boxer’s teaser website. Those offered real, interesting looks at the ideas behind the songs and how they went on to form one of the most well-reviewed albums of 2007.

The small audience that will embrace this DVD are collector’s and die-hard fans of the band; and as you can tell by this review, even some of them will be a bit disappointed.

Purchase The National’s A Skin, A Night DVD on Amazon.com

As the July 24th release date approaches, John Vanderslice is revealing more and more of his Emerald City. Above is Time To Go, the first video from the record, along with a link to Mr. Vanderslice’s Myspace page where you can stream the ENTIRE album for a limited time. Eat it up, kids![stream] The entire Emerald City album @ http://www.myspace.com/johnvanderslice

I’m not sure I like what is going on in the new Interpol video for ‘the Heinrich Maneuver’- actually, I’m not sure what’s going on, period. There seems to be some cryptic, minimalist message hidden somewhere, perhaps even an allegory.

I really need to go back to school and take an art class.

As far as the song itself it is pretty much by-the-numbers Interpol. I listened to the first three songs off the band’s up coming Our Love to Admire on MTV’s the Leak and I wasn’t very impressed at all. Unless I get blindsided by a stellar second half, it looks like Turn on the Bright Lights will continue to hold the throne as Interpol’s best. Speaking of which, I haven’t been able to locate my copy of Bright Lights for the past few months and I don’t have the mp3 files on my computer. I do have the vinyl version but I am too lazy to hook up my record player right now. Sounds like I am in a pickle, doesn’t it.

That boring nugget was my attempt at getting more personal with all of you. How did it feel?

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