I was born in the land of plenty...now there ain't enough
Friday, June 26, 2009
I'm pretty sure all we did was re-elect Bill Clinton...
...which isn't to say that we shouldn't have, given our choices. But, as I've always said, the problems continue because of the choices we're given...which, in turn, is dictated by a very broken and corrupt system. But I digress.
Ain't that some shit? Guess that's to be expected, though, considering where I work and what I do. At any rate, I've finally found some time and motivation to attempt keeping up on the blog once again. Yay, cyberworld. I'll get more into my new life here...I don't know. Soon, hopefully.
Anyway, last year was kinda screwy for me in that I didn't know I'd be changing jobs, moving a couple states west, making a whole lot less money, etc. So while I'm usually pretty late in posting my favorite music released the previous year, I'd like to think I have a few decent excuses for how stupidly late this one is. And I know no one cares what I think in this regard. It's just that for some reason feel incomplete if I don't publish my music list every year somehow somewhere.
So here's what I bought last year - and this year, in an effort to catch up - ranked by how I humbly rate them. (And I'd better get on the stick for '09. There already albums released - or soon to be released - by some of my absolute favorites...Sepultura, Meat Puppets, Autolux, Dalek, Goblin Cock, Marmaduke Duke, Kylesa, 50 Foot Wave, St. Vincent, Steve Earle, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, These Arms Are Snakes, The Paper Chase, and one of my favorite Dallasites who I'm just tickled is finally releasing a full-length of her own, Laura Harrell. And I owe the gubment a shitload of money thanks to my move out here last year, so it won't be easy...)
Anyway, here they am...
2008 albums: Aimee Mann, @#%&! Smilers Torche, Meanderthal The Knux, Remind Me in 3 Days... High On Fire, Death is This Communion** Blood on the Wall, Liferz The Sword, Gods of the Earth Cafe Tacuba, Sino** Fucked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life Santogold (self-titled) Prong, Power of the Damager** I Love Math, Getting to the Point is Beside it Cavalera Conspiracy, Inflikted Public Enemy, How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???** Metallica, Death Magnetic Radiohead, In Rainbows The Mars Volta, The Bedlam in Goliath Motorhead, Motorizer Tomahawk, Anonymous** Bob Mould, District Line Fishbone, Still Stuck in Your Throat** The Breeders, Mountain Battles Scars On Broadway (self-titled) Doug Burr, The Shawl Smile Smile, Blue Roses
**Actually released in 2007, making this list all the more lame.
A while back on Jeff Liles' History of Dallas Music MySpace page, I took it upon myself to leave a brief dissertation on the true greatness of - and sad lack of appreciation for - Fishbone in a comment on one of the ticket stub pictures I gave him.
For those who don't know much about them, there's not much more I can say here that I didn't say in the aforementioned comment...although, I would recommend a quick read through the band's Wikipedia page. So instead, I'll just share this clip. Crank it up if you can. And pay attention to just how tight those guys really are in the midst of the absolute onstage chaos they created. Then imagine experiencing that intensity for, like, two solid hours. It left you exhausted, exhilarated and in awe. At their peak, they were the best band in the world. Past their peak, they were still the best live band in the world. Unbelievable shit.
(Oh, and in case you are wondering who the Kendall Jones both I and Wikipedia reference, he's the guitar player on the left who sings the bridge to "Party at Ground Zero." I hope he's better now because his life was a tragedy for a while...)
Turn the shit up, pogo and enjoy...!
And lest anyone think Fishbone were strictly a ska band, you can check out some of their heavier shit here and here and in this additional live clip below. There wasn't anything those guys couldn't do better than anyone else. The first of those links makes me particularly sad in a way because Kendall wrote and sang the song. However, he'd already fried and left the band by the time it was released and they'd joined the Lollapalooza festival in '93. So in the video, it's keyboard/trombone player Chris Dowd shown singing. But it's a particularly poignant song in hindsight given its religious theme and the "religious" reasons for Kendall leaving / freaking out.
Unexpectedly big music week for me this week. (Might as well take as much in while I'm here in The Big City while I can. Though, I do have a Meat Puppets show in Flagstaff in July to look forward to.) The agenda...
Tonight - The Breeders at the godforsaken, completely fucking awful venue known as the House of Blues. As you might guess, I hate that place. As someone more creative than me described the place, it's like going through airport security to go see an arena show at a Chili's. Dead on. I hate that place. In case I didn't mention that earlier.
Friday - The Sword, Torche at Lola's in Fort Worth. Haven't been to Lola's, but have heard great things about the place.
Saturday - Blood on the Wall, Record Hop at Lola's.
Should be a good week. Yay, me.
PS - I also intensely hate Ticketmaster. Who else could take a $19.50 ticket and bill you $34-something by the time it's all said and done? Fuckers. But I think I've mentioned that particular hatred before...
